Daniel Read

The article starts by referring to "late Chinese leader Mao Zedong". I found "late" quite jarring here but wonder if there is a reason for it.

It is worth getting the first chapter as a Kindle sample. I would not want to give the ex-PM any money, but that sample alone is wild stuff. Kind of sad perhaps that someone with actual potential went this way.

By 2031 the government had fallen. Most surviving villages had become fortresses against the bands of hungry and thirsty outlaws who spread terror across the countryside.

From Thomas Schelling's introduction to Herman Kahn's On Escalation. He would have loved AI.

This American headline is great. More accurate: There are a few cake sheds in the UK, some popular amongst a small clientele, but most people have not heard of them and the great majority do not give them even a moment's thought.

Naza, coming soon to a theater near(er) you

The Reform party seems very willing to expose itself to ridicule.

“When I look round the boardroom at the other board members Palantir has recently also recruited from the House of Lords – notably Lord Vader and Lord Voldemort – I don’t have any sense that these people are evil,” said Watson. From the new Private Eye, out now.

I think the BBC has forgotten that exposes are only meaningful when they reveal not that one person is offering to do something illegal (duh) but that a person or group with some power are doing it. This is like an expose of a single alleged shoplifter.

Jackdaw is climate vandalism. Labour are putting Shell's profits before people and planet.

Is it too late for them to claim that somebody hacked into Trump's account several years ago and they just noticed now?

Asked whether he thinks Israel has a right to exist, he says no country has a right to exist and that people have a right to exist, adding that he wants Israelis and Palestinians to live side-by-side with the same rights. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

The hill I will die on: Cinemas have been getting away with lies. Films should begin on time | Jeffrey Ingold

turns out literature is Ireland's secret weapon. Irish bookstore kennys.ie ships worldwide, including the UK, where the proscription of Palestine Action still persists. Someday soon everyone will claim they were against what's happening in Palestine and now Lebanon & Syria. Including the UK.

The person I conspired against is more difficult to deal with than the person I conspired with. Explain that to me.

Sally Rooney says she can no longer sell books in the UK because of Palestine Action support

The police won't even investigate bicycle thefts but car thefts ... that's a string of front page stories on the BBC and pleas for extra resources.

Kindle just alerted me to new book by an author I have read before. Jane Austen.

Almost the best case scenario with people who would otherwise be smoking vaping instead. A giant public health victory.

He shoplifted more than £100 of detergent. Throw away the key I say.

What is terrorism? I would not formerly have so labelled attacks on army bases by patriots of a country with whom we are at war. I think of all those WWII movies I saw with brave heroes blowing up some German positions (The Guns of Navarone, say) and did not previously think they were terrorists.

🚨 BREAKING: HOPE not hate has uncovered plans by neo-Nazis to disrupt an anti-racist demo in Birmingham this Sunday. On the 90th anniversary of Cable Street, they claim they will mobilise dozens of masked neo-Nazis. hopenothate.org.uk/2026/10/02/n...

The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.

Britain First is planning a "Rally for Remigration" in Coventry where I live. Very depressing that some (unknown) venue has rented them a space. More depressing that this is happening at all.

He is playing Thunderbirds or GI Joe or Action Man.

www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/o...

Oh no. But fortunately Ted Nugent and The Village People have space in their diaries.

Some day I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this a gift on your son's wedding day.

Nadine Thomas, living with terminal cancer, said: 'We're not worried about dying, we know we're going to die. It's how we die... We are expected to suffer to our very last dying breath which is unfair, it's cruel, it's inhumane.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is very unsettling to read. I have been thinking a lot lately about how Milgram's work and Zimbardo's work, often criticised, still describe the world we see all around us all the time.

Elisabeth Holmes could play Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None.

This is literally what is happening. The Onion is using mental accounting as a joke, but it's not!

Dismayed by defeat of the assisted dying bill. Nothing was won today – no new palliative care funding, no new disability support. And the suffering that brought this bill to parliament remains.

Demonstrating the cruelty of the house of lords. Parliament voted for assisted dying and they left people like Esther Rantzen to suffer.

I expect one reason for the different response to these protestors and (say) Palestine Action protestors is the risk to police of intervening.

Here's another young woman being attacked and beaten by old Reform men consumed by hate. #RefUKkers

Turns out Nigel was at Pizza Express in Woking when all this was going on.

This lengthy article lacks the most important number -- how many people appeal a decision compared to how many do not. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting example concerning the concept of profit.

We can do both

Frankly, unless I get an offer from AT LEAST The Rocky Planets Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities I am not even looking at you.

That letter will likely be discussed by hiring committees all over the world.

This article does not point out that this unseen and unavailable film is available on YouTube. Uploaded 8 years ago.

What an excellent business model: "The gang recruits teenagers to carry out the attacks for cash, but it almost never has to pay out as they often get caught." www.bbc.com/news/article...

✅ Touring Clacton ✅ Visiting local businesses ✅ Listening to constituents’ concerns ✅ Hi-vis vest Make your Vote Count! #VoteBinface #Clacton

It's a point I've been trying to make for a long time: there is no good way to meet even 10% of current demand for animal products. They trash the living world, whichever way you do it. If you want to reduce your impact, switch to a plant-based diet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The coin flip. If we were to use that to explain wealth inequality we would not go far wrong.