Tom Whipple
@whippletom
Science at The Times - http://whippletom.bsky.social My book: about boffins, derring do and the radio war https://amzn.eu/d/i9Sum4c
The interesting thing about Horrible Histories' Viking Song is it is simultaneously: the best 3 min history lesson about Viking raiding, the best parody of soft rock and the best soft rock song on the internet. youtube.com/watch?v=8qSkaA…
Odd how the men simping for Andrew Tate’s polygamy stuff are so confident they’d be in the 30% of men who reproduced with multiple women. Work on obtaining one woman first then we’ll talk
Conversation between Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell, while trying to sleep on the moon:
Why is Britain not growing? It's such a mystery!
The planning decision for Oxford United’s new stadium has been delayed again due to “a last-minute submission from a statutory consultee”. The application had been due to be heard on 31 July. OUFC says it is “disappointing” and “frustrating”. oufc.co.uk/news/oxford-un…
Hello @grok, if I was appointed all-powerful malevolent global overlord, without checks or balances, can you list ten policies I would likely enact within the first 100 days of my glorious lifetime rule based on my posts.
My god someone has solved the snitch problem. This is bang on, as a way to make quidditch make sense.
People have said this before but the “solution” is to make the Snitch worth 0 points. The true value of the Snitch is it ends the game and if that was the only reason to catch it the seeker now has actual strategy where they should only catch it when their team is in the lead.
Fabulous letter from the great Deborah Moggach in today’s Times.
This is fascinating. It seems that ChatGPT's default is to just make up quotes. I asked it for quotes from people talking about the post war cuts to the Royal Navy. It gives loads, with dates, including a Times editorial:
This is so embarrassing for you America, I’m so sorry
They came after the wrong man.
The system is broken, breaking further and in collapse. What happens if another global recession strikes? Or more wars? What then? We aren't ready. We aren't prepared.
We're spending £110bn on debt interest. If that were a government department it would be the 4th largest by spend. The last time it was this expensive to borrow (30yr gilts), I was 6 years old. Yet in June the govt borrowed more money than in any June ever, bar Covid. Insane.
TBF, I think it would be odd if infrastructure projects anchored their timelines wrt whether Andrew Neil is extant or not. But it would be good to get a full sense of the cost overrun, in real terms.
Points curiously omitted from the official government statement: *I will be pushing up the daisies long before Sizewell C is generating electricity for the national grid. *Mr E Miliband will be in his dotage. *The estimated cost of nearly £40billion is twice what it was only…
I wrote about why the words "science superpower" are ever so slightly cringe thetimes.com/article/42d578…
