briansmith950.bsky.social

Amazing how many Labour MPs do not understand this quite basic point.

Michael Atiyah 🇪🇬: Fields Medal 1966 (also Abel Prize 2004), for K-theory. Ahmed Zewail 🇪🇬: Nobel for Chemistry 1999, for his work on femtochemistry. Omar M. Yaghi 🇯🇴: Wolf Prize 2018, Nobel for Chemistry 2025, for his work on reticular chemistry Naguib Mahfouz 🇪🇬: Nobel for literature 1988

Factoid: Not the kind of exhibit you’d expect at a motor show, but this Volvo 142 was on their 1974 Paris stand. The driver survived this head-on crash with a 7-ton truck at 80kph & was a powerful ad for Volvo’s safety efforts… (📸: Autocar)

idk man, I'm Arab and I do a lot of posts, surely that's got to count for something

There's another way of putting this: "Markets prefer fascists" www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

Labour now briefing young people won't get the same minimum wage uplift. Even Starmer didn't break this pledge. Workers rights mean same rights, pay & conditions, same rate for the same job. What does this Labour government have against young people? inews.co.uk/news/politic...

It’s just the [checks notes] six swans, actually #NiceThings

Listening to a report about Google chopping down a quarter of a million trees in Finland to build a data centre while washing out yoghurt pots for the recycling

I do think that Wilhelm II's Only Good Joke was pretty good (about the royal rename). "I shall go to a performance of the Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".

When the British monarchy chose to drop the name "Battenberg" during WW1, they should have been required to pick a different type of cake to use.

Been at this an hour now. I wish it would just admit it has failed.

Just five years after mountain hares gained full legal protection, a new exemption allows them to be hunted and killed for falconry. These native animals now face being killed for falconers' entertainment, while captive birds of prey are exploited to hunt them. A shameful step backwards.

🧵 Wow - this article is bordering on unhinged! Apparently the BBC is akin to a “North Korean re-education camp” for teaching children about net-zero and covering both the pros AND cons of immigration Join me for a masterclass in cherry-picking and context stripping to brainwash your own readers👍🏻

Behold their mighty photography and weep.

A newspaper promising the first images of pedestrianised Oxford Street used a single screenshot from a traffic camera. Now, why didn't I think of that when I spent two cold hours on Oxford Street last night? www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/las...

Mein Schiff 3 Collision in Bremerhaven: What Happened? 🚢Incident Overview 🚢Damage Assessment 🚢Vessel Tracking & Route 🚢Tug Operations & Environmental Factors 🚢Maritime Regulations & Next Steps Video: youtu.be/hTuwMAwW7cQ

Still in shock that George Osborne, of all people, apparently appointed a communist to be Governor of the Bank of England.

Solar is booming.

I absolutely love the photos in this. www.londoncentric.media/p/oxford-str...

When it comes to arches, this is the OG. (It’s an ogee arch. That’s what that serpentine form is called).

Since his ennoblement in Boris Johnson’s 2023 resignation list, Tees Valley regional mayor Lord (Ben) Houchen has claimed more than £25,000 in tax-free daily “attendance” allowances from the House of Lords for 73 days when he hasn’t voted, spoken or performed any recorded parliamentary activity.

This is, of course, the point where I say that the Tax Policy Associates tax calculator is much better Everything is calculated locally on your device. No personal data goes over the internet. Always free. No advertising. All our code is open source and checkable.

That could just be sloppy coding - your income becomes encoded in a long url, and the advertising networks are sent the full url. But it means a bunch of advertising networks see your IP address, your income, and all the other personal information you entered.

On the other hand, check out listentotaxman - ranked by Google as the 5th most popular tax calculator. They send your income data to 31 different domains, mostly advertising networks. (also, its UI is a crime against nature)

I'd be very confident MoneySavingExpert is doing nothing sinister here. It's just convenient for them to calculate the tax on their server and means they can keep the code private. But it would be good if they could confirm that they don't log/retain the data.

After the Budget, millions will use online tax calculators. But there's a privacy catch: we tested the seven most popular, and every one sends your income to a server. Here's what MoneySavingExpert sends:

Healey to ensure state pension (SP) is not taxed for poorest pensioners, SP set to exceed personal allowance (PA). A person relying solely on SP will pay no income tax. Another with lower SP & other source for the same total income could pay tax. Unfair. Cliffe-edge issues. Increase PA for all.

How to inspire zero confidence in the integrity of academic publishing. Like going to your GP and, instead of giving you a blood test, they take out a pack of Tarot cards.

Argh, is *anyone* interested in what Jeremy Hunt has to say at this point?! inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...

Truth 👇

Police are looking for a Mr Ea-Nasir, of 1 Old Street, Ur, Kingdom of Babylon.

The Pineapple - famously rescued from conversion 2001 - has been sold again. Grade II listed gem, famous Bass mirrors, quiet residential street Kentish Town. Bought this week by Remarkable Pubs (highly regarded the Heritage, Boleyn Tavern etc) To keep long-serving manager, Thai food, focus on Cask.

Children without a manglewurzels find other beets or squashes to carve into spirit lanterns for Mad Punkle night. Those with newfangled pumpkins carry them along the lanes like glowing orbs in some coronation procession for ancient kings and queens. – Joanna Vickers, 1982 #VOH

“While each of us (voted Brexit) for different reasons, we all believed that the UK could do a better job of running its own affairs than *unelected officials* in Brussels could." Ben Houchen... November 2020 Six years later 👇👇👇