Gareth Potter
@garethpotter.com
I mostly write code. Occasional photographer. GitHub: https://github.com/garethpotter/
This is why I think Kemi is extremely high-risk. There is every chance she will step on a rake during the election and then spend two scarce campaigning days insisting that being hit in the face by a rake handle is great actually and part of the plan. And then find another rake.
Will Reid-Tong@willthong.com · 11h agoSomehow Kemi on R4 has just backed herself into the utterly farcical line "come on now it's not a *national* platform - he's only gonna be a Tory councillor, not a Tory MP!"
Why are you commenting if you don’t know the specifics of the case!!!!!
Andy Burnham Accepter@jorisbinned.bsky.social · 6h agoHello I'm an idiot
UK brick deliveries are a useful proxy for new house building starts in the absence of monthly starts data. As expected, deliveries in June 2026 were flat compared with May but 11.4% lower than a year ago, according to the Department for Business & Trade. (1/n) #ukhousing #ukconstruction
I've seen enough Bond films to know that if the follically challenged head of a corrupt organisation invites you to a meeting in an exotic location, you do not go. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
Gianni Infantino latest: Fifa chief calls executive meeting as criticism mounts
Gianni Infantino summons senior leaders to a meeting on Wednesday, after facing more fierce criticism of his plan to sell off Fifa's commercial and event operations.
bbc.co.uk
Iranian cleric honestly a little let down to discover the United States is actually an Indecisive and Middling at Best Satan.
Legally, you can argue to avoid a driving ban if it would cause you exceptional hardship. Magistrates also tend not to like individuals who take the piss. Arguing that not being able to drive your car personally will stop you writing is taking the piss. /1
NG@ng1978.bsky.social · 2d agoHere’s the article in full. She seems to be saying that she can’t have a driver (which I’m sure she could afford) as she would be “distracted by questions”. I’m sure they can accommodate a person’s need for silence.
Not to dunk on this but it isn't really true that the Hormuz oil crisis is driving a solar boom. Here's this chart updated to June of China solar exports, showing that the March spike in exports has subsided and was therefore mostly just export tax rebate effects.
Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d agoAbsolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West
"I'm getting fed up with getting pulled by you guys, so this one will result in a complaint," says the driver with 59 points on his licence. 59 points, and still driving, and he didn't go to prison. The system is broken. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Lincolnshire driver with 59 points on his licence avoids jail
Iain Ashmore, of Witham St Hughs, was caught driving on three occasions despite being disqualified.
bbc.co.uk
If this is your flyer, I’m not going. I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me It might feel like you’re ‘saving time and money,’ but you’re actually slowly turning your brand into something generic like all the other brands out there using AI tools www.404media.co/we-are-livin...
We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’
"Hey if this is your flyer, I’m not going, I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me."
404media.co
Instead of the navy, have we thought about deploying in the Channel the resentful hostility that the Border Force normally show to legitimate visitors at British airports?
My initial view of German trains is they aren't just bad, but utterly catastrophic, sweeping cancellations far in excess of any reasonable system, and everyone just shrugging that this is normal. As a symbol of a fading economic giant it is perfect.
Price change in Tesco school uniforms after 46 years: Trousers: ⬇️ £1 Shirts: ⬇️ 49p Jumpers: ⬆️ 25p And that's *nominal*. Loss leaders and all that, but that's still incredible.
Old UK Print Ads@oldukprintads.bsky.social · 2d agoAug 1980: Schoolwear ad from Tesco (+Grey Polyester/Viscose Trousers; Polyester/Viscose Trousers; Sanforised cotton Denim Jeans; Acrylic Zippers; Acrylic V-neck Pullovers; Polyester/Cotton Shirts; Ribbed Polo Neck Jumpers; White lace-to-toe Sports Shoes; Black Plimsolls, and more)
(I get that Bluesky is very obviously the Wow We Loved Lockdowns website but I think it's absolutely fine, five years after the fact, to wonder if we got the balance right between "protecting older people" and "making sure younger people weren't getting entirely shafted", arguments are allowed)
The most brilliant piece of academic plagiarism I ever cam across was now many decades ago. A doctoral candidate lifted his thesis from two long articles in the Juridical Review from more than 50 years earler. Why is that clever? /1
I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:
How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran
The question is: what on earth is Google doing?
digitaldigging.org
Google appears to be in an active race to destroy all remaining goodwill the company once had. They've almost entirely destroyed search and now they're screwing with Google Maps.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 5d agoI used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:
Actually quite angry reading this. I know it’s a bit passé to talk about “why don’t politicians crack down on people not using headphones on the bus” but I think we do need to reckon with platforms that incentivise people to completely disregard the norms of civil society and get away with it.
TikToker faces police probe over secret filming using Meta 'smart glasses'
The "content maker" published videos of encounters with young women and a female Sikh shop worker where he talked of a plot to "breed out the white race".
bbc.co.uk
New campaign leaflet from Reform UK in Clacton. Weirdly, Farage's 'promises to Clacton' don't appear to contain any, umm, actual promises...
the non-pervert use cases for pervert glasses are just so *lame*. These things will literally never happen with pervert glasses, which are aimed pretty squarely, as we know, at perverts. www.meta.com/en-gb/blog/m...
It is very hard to see how anything other than a secession of all UEFA countries from Fifa (which other confederations would follow, as the WC is worth very little without European teams and markets) can put a stop to the assault Infantino and his US friends are leading on football.
The UP thing is more bonkers than people realise. Criteria for “ultra-processed food” include what kind of packaging the food is in and whether the maker is a transnational company. Yet we’re treating this as if it’s a nutritional indicator.
James Ball@jamesrball.com · 3mo agoHot take into the void: "ultra-processed food" is basically the antivaxx conspiracy theory for people who think they're far too well informed to get hooked into anything like antivaxx.
One of the things I find mad: We had this decades long consensus you shouldn’t advertise exploitatively to children (which still exists in statue, to an extent it cripples commercial operators doing kids stuff) but just decided to let it slide *specifically for youtube*
Yesterday I learned that during appeasement French journalists mockingly called Chamberlain Monseur J'aime Berlin, which is exceptional work. Well done France.
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
Anyway, PSA for the kids, social media managers, and fans of reindustrialisation, you can almost certainly automate manufacturing trains more safely and effectively than you can automate writing contracts, just in case you were wondering.
This is very exciting, and suggests that maybe AI token use could be reduced further by using a language with a very small vocabulary and a precise syntax. Maybe, soon, we could get rid of the unwieldy “Please display a short message conveying my greetings to the entire planet” Dare to dream!
This disingenuous commentary doesn’t help anyone. Frauds start unravelling pretty quickly. That you apparently cannot afford to put your oven or treat yourself is quickly undermined by the question “so why are you spending £50 per week on petrol?” Then, it turns out, she has an agent and /1
Ash@queerash.bsky.social · 2w agoElaine in this article "can't remember the last time she used her oven" but also spends £200 a month on petrol (so driving probably ~50 miles a day?) (she's also a professional old person; she was on Good Morning Britain last year, and then also at the Nov budget, and the year before lmao)
From Liz Kendall's cabinet departure letter, posted on… you guessed it… X
