Nostr notes by Flick 🇬🇧

See, told you you’d know by the follow requests! ...

2026-08-23T16:46:09Z

See, told you you’d know by the follow requests!

quoting
nevent1q…ll5v
I am so much stress:)

Not anyone’s’ fault.

Look to your notifications, follows will be the tell.

Yep, but it’s been really unstable the last few weeks so I ...

2026-08-23T11:24:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…nrnm
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Yep, but it’s been really unstable the last few weeks so I decided it was time to at least get everyone set up with an alt.

I thought the excuse for not testing on women was exactly this? ...

2026-08-23T07:31:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…p7e8
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I thought the excuse for not testing on women was exactly this? They’ve known forever.

While I would in general prefer no vomit, vomit at 7:30 once I am ...

2026-08-23T06:36:29Z

While I would in general prefer no vomit, vomit at 7:30 once I am actually out of bed, and with enough notice to get him outside, is a definite improvement.

Got some dog meds you’re welcome to have… ;)

2026-08-22T21:36:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…lygz
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Got some dog meds you’re welcome to have… ;)

Well, I don’t, but ykwim.

2026-08-22T21:29:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…se9g
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Well, I don’t, but ykwim.

I do hope so.

2026-08-22T21:29:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…sg86
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I do hope so.

Unbearably cute to hear a French woman say that she enjoys ...

2026-08-22T21:28:50Z

Unbearably cute to hear a French woman say that she enjoys relaxing by doing “cro-chette”.

Emotional labour is tiresome. Especially when one had to deal ...

2026-08-22T20:50:20Z

Emotional labour is tiresome. Especially when one had to deal with dog vomit (et al) at dawn. But sometimes necessary.

Nostr event nevent1qqsz4k0fcfplem4r3kqm7nz6zty3fendy7nvy5gsfavtwkjsfwqsc0szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ckzm0v0

2026-08-22T20:34:46Z

No, Maddie’s all woman. I think Hebs meant Ms Moneypenny.

2026-08-22T20:33:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…gnkh
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No, Maddie’s all woman. I think Hebs meant Ms Moneypenny.

lol probably. You forgot non-white.

2026-08-22T20:32:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…atg6
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lol probably.

You forgot non-white.

Gabriel-Rumi’s biological parents, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen ...

2026-08-22T20:32:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…vy9s
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Gabriel-Rumi’s biological parents, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, are from California. They conceived using IVF and decided, for unknown reasons, to use a surrogate. Perhaps Nausheen couldn’t carry the baby, or perhaps, like a growing number of western women, she’d put in the hard yards at the gym, looked hot on her socials and didn’t fancy stretch marks. Some women now use surrogates because they’re freaked out by the thought of labour. ‘Social surrogacy’, it’s called, to distinguish it from the medical sort. Is it morally right to outsource physical pain?

Anyway, for whatever reason Nausheen and Omar contracted Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists LLC, WSS contacted McKenna West, and Gabriel-Rumi was implanted. All was dandy until the 20-week scan when it was discovered that he had a heart condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), which would require surgery shortly after birth.

At that point, Nausheen and Omar decided to abort, which contractually they had a right to do. McKenna at first agreed and made the appointment, before realising that she couldn’t bring herself to kill the baby. Children with HLHS can lead happy lives and Gabriel deserved a chance, she said, and she offered to have him and bring him up herself. McKenna didn’t want cash; this wasn’t any sort of shakedown. It was the baby she was thinking of, and at a later stage she offered to give up any parental rights if Nausheen and Omar would agree to the life-saving surgery.

The couple thought it best to kill their son. McKenna was prepared to suffer and to disrupt her existing life in order for him to live. Which woman acted more like a mother? I’m not attacking Nausheen. All over the world mothers abort babies for less serious reasons. But parental love is sacrificial. It was Mc-Kenna who demonstrated that love.

And is it all that surprising? I remember the 20-week scan as a turning point in my own pregnancy. The size, the heartbeat, the obvious life of the baby jolted me into a realisation that here, truly, was another person, and that I loved him and had a duty to care for him. In many ways it was a terrible realisation for a woman as irresponsible as me, and it came with a premonition of all the future worry and grief that love involves. I think of that moment as the beginning of motherhood, and it was entirely bound up with the physical closeness of the baby. Distance allows for denial – in pregnancy as in all manner of other scenarios. When your aged grandparents are at a distance, for instance, it’s easy to persuade yourself that it’s fine not to visit, less unsettling for them. Up close, the truth outs.

A convenient language has evolved to keep the fiction of uncomplicated surrogacy alive and to persuade us all that you can fracture motherhood: split off the egg from the womb, and the womb from the parenting, with absolutely no harm done. Surrogates are known as ‘gestational carriers’, and like egg donors they’re treated as if they’ve done no more than a regular good turn, given blood maybe. But the difference between Nausheen and McKenna’s reactions to their son’s disease shows how wrongheaded this notion is.

A woman who carries a child isn’t just storage – she’s bonded and the baby feels that bond too. Well, of course it does. The womb is its whole reality. A baby is born already knowing and listening out for a birth mother’s voice, and her smell and her heartbeat – and when it’s deprived of them, it suffers. We know now that if a baby is parted from his birth mother, he interprets her absence as life-threatening and it triggers an emergency stress response. His cortisol spikes and his blood pressure rises. It’s one of those many biological realities that people who call themselves progressive try to will away.

They insist on ‘bodily autonomy’ and a mother’s right to choose right up to birth, for abortion. But if a surrogate like McKenna wants to save a baby, I wonder, is it still ‘her body, her choice’?

The couple did not take McKenna up on her offer to care for their baby. They insisted on abortion, and so she fled with Gabriel-Rumi on board to Texas, where she felt he was safer. Texas not only bans abortion in almost all circumstances but gives the woman who carries the child, rather than the commissioning parents, the authority to decide on medical care.

Gabriel-Rumi was born on 12 August in Dallas, and he owes his life to McKenna West, but even so he may never be allowed to meet her. Nausheen and Omar are now the baby’s legal parents and they’ve procured a court order preventing McKenna from coming near him. They’re also suing her, seeking up to $250,000 for breach of contract, though I’m not sure where they think she’ll find that sort of money. And who knows, should they win next week’s battle for long-term custody, how they’ll possibly explain to their son why they decided to destroy the woman who saved his life.

Nostr event nevent1qqsf5p7gmxnt97rezlc47q3cd05jktck9nt3yta7ac6xw4s2amlf3fczyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c89rd6z

2026-08-22T20:30:55Z

https://spectator.com/article/baby-gabriel-rumi-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-global-surrogacy-business/

On Tuesday, a court in Dallas, Texas will convene to decide the fate of a small baby called Gabriel or Rumi, depending on who you believe his mother is. Gabriel-Rumi is at present a sort of Schrödinger’s baby, suspended between possible futures and suspended also, poor sod, between life and death: born with heart disease, headed now for surgery.

Gabriel-Rumi’s short life has so far been the subject of a media frenzy, for reasons I’ll explain, but should he later look back and be appalled at all the fuss, I’d like him to know what a service he’s already done the world.

The global surrogacy business surges on, valued at almost $40 billion, heading for $300 billion by 2030; an accelerating factory belt of babies commissioned, grown, sold. No one who profits from it wants to pause the gravy train or look too hard for harm. But the case of baby Gabriel-Rumi makes the cost of surrogacy – all surrogacy – painfully clear.

Gonna give you props for that: bloody good for non-native ...

2026-08-22T20:22:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…c37m
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Gonna give you props for that: bloody good for non-native speaker!

Nostr event nevent1qqs8r99xa66pd828dft02ary9uj6hscfkz37q9ycv367mlqv4tqa3eqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c9umym3

2026-08-22T20:15:49Z

There is some talk that the next Bond film should be a period ...

2026-08-22T19:56:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…020d
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There is some talk that the next Bond film should be a period piece, taking him back to a time when we were happier, sexier and more powerful. (The fact that the Britain of Jim Callaghan or Ted Heath fits those criteria is worthy of an essay in itself.) However tempting it might be to produce a sort of fetish-Bond, it would be a mistake – a step in the Austin Powers direction, culturally speaking. It would also herald the demise of many British creative traditions. If we admit that we’re no longer a country in which we can set a Bond film, that’s less a statement about a franchise than a depressing admission about our ability to do or say a whole host of other things.

There are plenty of action scenes. Bond faces an HR manager who ...

2026-08-22T19:56:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…uvtj
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There are plenty of action scenes. Bond faces an HR manager who makes Rosa Klebb look like Mr Fezziwig. Ninety per cent of his Q scenes involve the signing of online disclaimer forms. He narrowly escapes strangulation by rainbow lanyard. These dreams are all the scarier because, like other horrors (such as ‘ice-breaking exercise’ or ‘Lucy Powell, Education Secretary’), they are grounded in reality.

The rumour mill is again in full pelt about the next Bond film. Producer Amy Pascal has promised ‘something really different that is stirring and exciting and different’. If she means different from Daniel Craig’s pseudo-brooding, ‘something nasty in the woodshed’ Bond, then great. More likely, she means something intensely tedious and right-on.

Pauses between Bond films have been getting longer. Six years elapsed between Spectre and No Time to Die, thanks to the pandemic and endless uncertainty over Craig’s return, during his ‘I’d rather slit my wrists’ phase. The delay before the next release, a full reboot, will be even longer. Meanwhile actors who might have excelled in the role have either aged out or simply become too famous. It’s ten years since Tom Hiddleston’s star-turn in The Night Manager and he’s now the same age as Roger Moore in his Live and Let Die debut, then the oldest-ever Bond. Amazon, which bought the Bond franchise last year, is probably too canny to go ‘peak woke’ in its casting (as per South Park’s satire of Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy: ‘Put a chick in it! Make her gay!’), but constant dithering has written out a generation of acting talent. The decision to kill off Bond in his latest outing by torpedoing him to smithereens was the price of Craig’s participation, but filmmakers now face the dilemma of where to go next.

Is the modern world even capable of making a good Bond? There is a certain grim disconnect between Britain in 2026 and the world of Bond. 007 is not supposed to exist in a humourless, ambitionless and powerless country. It is discordant and depressing: like imagining the Carry On gang in a gulag. Sadly, Bond has long been in the hands of people with little apparent affection for the series. The Craig era evidently saw itself as more ‘enlightened’ than its predecessors. Bond’s recurring love interest Madeleine Swann is portrayed as high-end totty, the sort of woman you’d meet at Davos, not a Plenty O’Toole type. Even her name involves two Proust references. You could almost sense the writers congratulating themselves: ‘We’d never name someone Onatopp or Dr Goodhead. We’re “cerebral Bond”!’

Craig himself argued that the series needed to take a ‘darker’ turn because the Austin Powers spoofs had rendered the old gags impossible to use. Ironically, Craig’s films contain all kinds of dumb nonsense – flesh-eating nanobots, slapstick villains, gaping plotholes – just without the accompanying fun of Moore’s safari suit. Spectre features the intensely stupid revelation that Blofeld is Bond’s stepbrother; a plot-point which genuinely seems pilfered from Austin Powers, when Dr Evil is revealed to be our hero’s long-lost twin. The problem was that Craig mistook ‘darker’ for ‘moralising’ and ‘more boring’.

Another recurring gag in vintage Bond is that almost every onscreen woman makes clear her desire for 007, which becomes funnier and more endearing when the object of their longing isn’t the prowling thirtysomething sex machine Sean Connery, but Roger Moore, who in later outings looks as though he could be the face of a walk-in bath company rather than an international sex symbol. In No Time to Die, Bond’s legendary philandering is long gone. A female agent repulses his attentions – a scene which exemplifies Modern Bond’s preference for deconstructing its genre, not revelling in it.

Many of the best Bond films are explicitly geopolitical. Some plotlines have aged poorly, such as Bond’s alliance with the Afghan mujahideen in The Living Daylights. But when done well, these add depth. The interplay between Bond and General Gogol during the Moore/Dalton eras beautifully mirrors the thawing of relations between the West and the USSR. Bond often partners with the British armed forces in his missions. Such details would not be included today – far too Anglocentric, too prone to spook ‘international markets’.

This may explain why recent villains have been generic freaks of ambiguous motive, rather than well-defined enemies working for a foreign power. Much Bond involves suspension of disbelief (silly gadgets or sexy Roger), but this is often offset by a more credible geopolitical backdrop. Nuclear annihilation by the Soviets remained the leitmotif of high-Bond. Now we have the opposite – believable sex (or lack thereof) but a willing blindness to the realities of, say, China, or radical Islam.

Nostr event nevent1qqstruagmpuy0y3htmalqk5mtqez37vsetv6y7zmwtguc0qwnhnayzgzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ck7v7za

2026-08-22T19:55:44Z

https://spectator.com/article/bonds-identity-crisis-mirrors-britains/

Sometimes I wake up in the night disturbed by dreams of James Bond. Surely, you might say, that’s the point of him; a man of such raw sex appeal that he can break the somnial boundary of women all over the world. But these aren’t sexy dreams about Bond’s past; they’re nightmarish visions of his future – Bond in the modern British public sector.

Picture it, 007 walks in for his briefing with M. The process is not the quick-witted sparring of classic Bond but a long PowerPoint presentation complete with a quiz at the end to show he’s been listening. Miss Moneypenny doesn’t ‘feel comfortable’ booking Bond flights because of the carbon output, so he finds himself on a rail replacement bus service. It transpires that his mission, the highest use of the British deep state’s most dangerous asset, is to eliminate someone suspected of misgendering the employee of a Citizens Advice Bureau in Broadstairs.

Because that’s what we do in this bloody country….

2026-08-22T19:49:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…4nq8
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Because that’s what we do in this bloody country….

The word ‘conspiracy’ is one of the strangest in our ...

2026-08-22T19:49:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…qp45
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The word ‘conspiracy’ is one of the strangest in our language. The authorities will readily allege it when they have very little actual evidence against a defendant. Nobody sniggers when they do so. But a private individual will be laughed to scorn if he suggests that powerful or influential people might have met privately to discuss a common aim – as in fact they do all the time. The moment the tinfoil hat of ‘conspiracy theorist’ descends on your head, nothing you say will be taken seriously.

As well as suggesting mild insanity, the word also creates dark images of men in Guy Fawkes hats, with daggers concealed in their cloaks, whispering to each other in a tavern in Deptford. I have long tried to counter this non-argument by pointing out that the most common conspiracies in modern Britain go by the prosaic name of ‘lunch’.

When I worked as a Lobby reporter at the Palace of Westminster, I learned quickly that very little could be picked up in the Lobby itself. The key to success was to join or form a lunch group with one or two others, and invite senior politicians to spill the beans over an expensive meal they didn’t have to pay for.

I do not think that the Sainted Lord Moore, who was in such a group with me in the Thatcher era, will mind terribly if I mention this. His presence had a magical effect. Almost nobody turned us down. Many of those we pumped for leaks, gossip and indiscretions are now dead, including Lord Hailsham, who turned up at Rules in Maiden Lane straight from the Woolsack, still wearing his Lord Chancellor’s kit of doublet and hose. If the readers of British newspapers knew just how much of the supposed political news placed before them is cooked up in such places, over the smoked eels or the steak and kidney pudding, I expect they’d be envious.

But this is lighthearted stuff compared with ‘whataboutery’. This expression really did begin in the Cold War, when Soviet propagandists would respond to criticism of their police state by saying that black people in the US got a raw deal. The two obviously weren’t comparable, and in any case Soviet Moscow was one of the most racially bigoted cities in the world. It was false equivalence of opposites. But we have recently moved into the age of regime change, in which we are expected to applaud wars against other countries because their regimes are bad. But, oh dear, what if our allies also have bad regimes?

I am as revolted by the Iranian despotism as anyone else. Perhaps more so. They once threw a friend of mine into solitary on false charges of spying, a hideous experience of injustice and cruelty. But the ‘West’ is somehow unmoved by the comparable repressions of Turkey, its prisons bulging with journalists, of Saudi Arabia, with its dungeons and bone saws, and Egypt, with its street massacres of opposition supporters. We are very friendly with these countries. How so if our hatred for oppression in Iran is genuine? If I make the simple point that our supposed objections to the Tehran state are a pretext, not a reason, then I am accused of ‘what-aboutery’. Is this right or fair? If you really cannot distinguish between oven-ready propaganda and serious fact, should you even engage in politics?

The inventor of whataboutery, as I sometimes point out, was Our Lord Jesus Christ, who in a memorable bit of preaching, asked ‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.’ (Matthew 7, vv 3-5, if you’re interested).

As for being an apologist for foreign despots, this has now become the standard objection to anyone who dissents from the official line on the Ukraine war. And it is an official line. Government buildings in London fly the Ukrainian flag, an unprecedented gesture. No doubt there are some people who support the Russian invasion of Ukraine (I have always deplored it). There may even be people who support its aims, whatever they actually are (I have no idea). I am even told that I am a Putin sympathiser because I was once a Trotskyist, logic so mad that it would take pages to dismantle.

The possibility that I might take the view I do because I am a British patriot and don’t see what interest Britain has in prolonging, arming and financing this conflict is not considered. This is all quite trivial now, and I can cope with it. But it troubles me because it is the embryo of a police state mindset, in which dissent is automatically treachery. Argue with me, beat me in debate, anything you like. But don’t call me by these totalitarian names.

https://spectator.com/article/the-great-whataboutery-delusion/ If ...

2026-08-22T19:48:05Z

https://spectator.com/article/the-great-whataboutery-delusion/

If you live near the frontiers of acceptable opinion, as any thinking person must surely do, you quickly find that these badlands are policed mainly with insults and innuendos. And so you learn one morning, to your surprise, that you are an apologist for some repulsive regime which you strongly dislike. If you have been especially daring, you may be a ‘war crimes denier’ as well. Or you are charged with ‘whataboutery’, a word its users think will magically erase your case. Or, in many ways best of all, you are a conspiracy theorist.

There is a myth that this phrase was invented by the CIA to try to discredit protestors against the Vietnam war, but the expression is far older than that. Even so, like all these dismissive epithets, it is remarkably effective – especially among the great electronic mobs of antisocial media.

Nostr event nevent1qqswrycd5360h9ne369020rr4ltqs6sayg9qa9scs3gx6js9yxsr2qqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0crgtfsp

2026-08-22T19:27:12Z

All this is likely to bring some of our nation’s problems home ...

2026-08-22T19:24:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xvzn
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All this is likely to bring some of our nation’s problems home in a way that will be harder and harder for ‘Middle England’ to ignore. Accelerationists on the right at this point think: ‘And then they will realise that we were right.’ But it is not inevitable that things will fall out that way. My own observations of people and their political delusions suggest that Islington could be completely overrun by migrants and the locals would still turn out of a weekend with ‘Smash fascism’ and ‘Stand up to racism’ banners. Remember that communism in the 20th century killed tens of millions of people, yet there are still people who believe it was a good thing. Why should the multiculturalist open-borders types hand over their political philosophy any more easily?

Allow me to make just one prediction. I suspect that in the coming weeks we will be told that the natives of Piddington and Barnham turn out, sadly, just to be very, very racist. What is more, the only way the locals could ever be cured of this is if they can experience greater diversity.

At this stage our country is quite mad enough to accelerate over a cliff. Some folks might even like that.

don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ...

2026-08-22T19:24:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…2pcl
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don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on the left, though is increasingly heard on the right too.

The basic idea of accelerationism is that there are certain flaws in the societal structure which if pushed could bring things to their inevitable conclusion more quickly.

It is why there are so many people on the left of politics who say that sustainable government spending should be discouraged. It is not just because they are economically illiterate. What they really hope is that a speeded-up financial disaster will expose the ‘underlying contradictions of capitalism’, and we’ll all realise that Karl Marx was right and promptly vote for Zack Polanski or similar at the next election.

Such accelerationism is a tendency that conservatives usually have the sense to avoid, largely because conservative-minded people are more sceptical of the idea that things always fall out in a way that fits our own existing desires. A key insight of conservatism, since the French Revolution at least, is that there is always room for things to get worse – generally in ways that no one outside Beelzebub’s immediate family could have imagined.

Yet there is a right-wing version of accelerationism that has started to bubble up a little more volubly of late. This centres around the idea that our high immigration, stretched welfare state and societal model is heading for a crash and that there might be some advantage in things travelling a little faster in that direction. If legal and illegal migration continue to speed up, so this belief goes, then a greater proportion of the public will finally realise what a disastrous model it was. Things will then come to their inevitable end point and we can get this muddy intermediate phase over and done with quickly.

It is surprising that Andy Burnham has turned out to be such a boon to the right-wing accelerationists, but that is what he is proving to be. Not least through his sinister and hilarious idea of solving the country’s problem of where to house illegal migrants by putting more of them in leafy middle-class areas.

As it happens, there are good arguments for Burnham’s brainwave. For decades, left-wing and putatively right-wing governments have managed to disguise many of the downsides of mass migration by making sure the migrants are housed in working-class areas. All across the country this has proved a brilliant wheeze, because if any migrants hang around the streets and start propositioning schoolgirls, you can expect to snooker the locals in a number of ways.

First you can expect them to keep quiet about it, knowing that their betters in Westminster have made decisions they could not possibly understand even if it was explained to them slowly. Second, you can expect that if the locals do object, who cares? Nobody goes to dinner parties with these people anyway, nobody weekends in their areas and none of the locals has a regular presenting slot on Newsnight. Thirdly, if the above doesn’t work and there is actually a ruckus, you can just call the locals ‘racist’, which will make them scurry away, doffing their caps as they do so in the direction of their moral and social superiors.

That was the model Keir Starmer’s government continued when it allowed migrants to stay in hotels in Essex. Starmer and co didn’t care about the people there, and when some of them did pipe up to say they weren’t keen on the child-molesting that seemed to have emerged in the area, the far-left turned up to shut them down, called the locals ‘racist’, and the problem apparently went away.

So I have some sympathy with those who are pleased to hear that Burnham thinks non-working-class areas of the country should take their own unfair share of illegals, particularly when you read the details. For instance there is the idea of housing 1,250 ‘male asylum seekers’ right beside Piddington in Oxfordshire. The village has a lovely church and village hall. The 2011 census recorded a population of 370. A similar brainiac has decided that the village of Barnham in Suffolk should have a right going-over. Barnham has a population of 600, a charming bell tower and a nearby landscape garden designed by Capability Brown. It too is scheduled to welcome 1,250 ‘asylum seekers’.

It is not for me to make predictions. But I suspect that the illegal migrants housed in these parts of rural England will not appreciate the subtleties of church architecture or landscaped gardens. Problems are likely to arise. I say no more.

Nostr event nevent1qqsx45vevkawa9x0vrnk3uyug8jm3f5d3v8yvzywpu866zsgdy8tgrqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cyw4fvw

2026-08-22T19:22:57Z

https://spectator.com/article/middle-england-is-finally-waking-up-to-the-migrant-crisis/

So I have some sympathy with those who are pleased to hear that Burnham thinks non-working-class areas of the country should take their own unfair share of illegals, particularly when you read the details. For instance there is the idea of housing 1,250 ‘male asylum seekers’ right beside Piddington in Oxfordshire. The village has a lovely church and village hall. The 2011 census recorded a population of 370. A similar brainiac has decided that the village of Barnham in Suffolk should have a right going-over. Barnham has a population of 600, a charming bell tower and a nearby landscape garden designed by Capability Brown. It too is scheduled to welcome 1,250 ‘asylum seekers’.

It is not for me to make predictions. But I suspect that the illegal migrants housed in these parts of rural England will not appreciate the subtleties of church architecture or landscaped gardens. Problems are likely to arise. I say no more.

Nostr event nevent1qqsq96ehx9hz34r0nmxruhdm694zc7lt799aw9ua9l0azkjdw5sp4vqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0czrgwnv

2026-08-22T19:06:31Z

My ex played it a lot, and I do not remember that scene at all! I ...

2026-08-22T18:23:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…suux
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My ex played it a lot, and I do not remember that scene at all! I wonder if you had to make certain choices and he never got it?

Then there's the piece that isn't economic at all, ...

2026-08-22T18:22:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…0l3p
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Then there's the piece that isn't economic at all, it's psychological, and I think it's the most underrated variable of the four. Nobody in 1971 was budgeting for cable, and there was no cable to budget for. Nobody had a phone bill, because there were no mobile phones, just one hardwired line the whole family shared. Nobody expected an annual flight to Cancún or Lisbon, international travel was rare and expensive and mostly for the genuinely rich. There was no Netflix, no Spotify, no Amazon Prime, no forty-dollar-a-month gym membership, no app subscriptions quietly draining a checking account one at a time. A dollar in 1971 wasn't just worth more in raw purchasing power, it had far fewer places it was expected to go. The paycheck went further partly because the culture hadn't yet invented two dozen new places to spend it.

Very good point.

They’re good doers for me, probably suit your climate too.

2026-08-22T18:13:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…9u6n
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They’re good doers for me, probably suit your climate too.

Nostr event nevent1qqsd4ag3rmdr4yd6yk7988gnqtw7xf26ygw0pzgvtgperqnn5fwnzkszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cdj5lsn

2026-08-22T18:13:05Z

At that point, just let them on the damn sofa!

2026-08-22T17:30:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…5muy
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At that point, just let them on the damn sofa!

Kestrel. Opposite problem here: all the foliage got burnt off a ...

2026-08-22T16:50:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…q6ey
_________________________

Kestrel. Opposite problem here: all the foliage got burnt off a month ago, I’ve just moved the bags into the shed to store them in the compost.

Nostr event nevent1qqs8d4zf88hxzvnt6qjz9wzuep4hns0qx5me850gaqmhujpcclv7kqgzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c7glkz2

2026-08-22T16:27:18Z

Everything I’ve heard is that it’s great except for the tiny ...

2026-08-22T14:44:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…x5yf
_________________________

Everything I’ve heard is that it’s great except for the tiny number for whom it’s very, very bad.

I’m glad your girl is doing well on it, long may she continue to.

It would be very amusing if he’s right.

2026-08-22T13:32:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…3a74
_________________________

It would be very amusing if he’s right.

Stomach, yeah. He is fairly predictable*, and I will do that if I ...

2026-08-22T12:56:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…v239
_________________________

Stomach, yeah.

He is fairly predictable*, and I will do that if I need to.

*except the first time this morning, oddly.

Nostr event nevent1qqsx23h7ydrrrv5uahvq05nrac047m5qj04adp03qyweykxmr0gc78szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cp6y9qn

2026-08-22T12:48:34Z

https://klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/if-this-is-true-the-hyperscalers

In my regular research (behind a paywall), I have been saying for a while that I think the future of AI is not large language models (LLM), but small language models (SLM) run on local desktop computers or even mobile phones. In May, a team from Stanford University published research that compared these SLMs with the performance of LLMs run in data centres. If their results are true, then we will hardly need any data centres in the future, and the hyperscalers are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments. […]

This already means that one can replace data centres and their expensive cutting-edge semiconductor infrastructure in four out of five use cases. The research report estimates that the addressable market in the US for SLMs has grown to about $10tn or one-third of the entire US GDP of $30tn. There isn’t much left for LLMs to thrive in, and every year, their advantage over SLMs is shrinking.

He’s off NSAIDs for life, he’s never going to use them.

2026-08-22T12:35:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…k0l8
_________________________

He’s off NSAIDs for life, he’s never going to use them.

Nostr event nevent1qqszg3c9jt2aa5fvxfawzycdxgctuf22gxh7vj3zekv9ff6wkdsg7pszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ctjsv0l

2026-08-22T12:33:11Z

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/asian-communities-told-wash-rice-37574542

Asian and Muslim communities have been told to wash their rice and feet less in a bizarre water-saving bid by the UK's water regulator.

A whopping £270,000 of billpayers' money funded the scheme that used a famous chef to teach southeast Asians how to wash rice with less water.

People from the Muslim community have also been encouraged to use only a litre of water when performing “wudu” – washing the body – before prayer.

No, love: I’m asking if anyone wants the stuff I’ve already ...

2026-08-22T12:26:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…t9hf
_________________________

No, love: I’m asking if anyone wants the stuff I’ve already got, that he can’t use any more. It’s not cheap and I don’t want to just bin it!

Dog’s painkillers.

2026-08-22T12:21:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…amjf
_________________________

Dog’s painkillers.

Nostr event nevent1qqszaqyk9klyhvu2q2v2d9xl29ehga25xsgn3fsknktek2u5hxwcskszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ccxxag8

2026-08-22T12:17:05Z

So, can anyone in the UK use some metacam and/or onsior?

Nostr event nevent1qqsy565f7yzf0ve9pwt3vrsls5gyswu5mvkwe0ggrmzs5rwmfy8amlqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0clk2fcu

2026-08-22T12:14:57Z

Yeah, I’m completely relaxed about the prospect of giving him ...

2026-08-22T11:40:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…fz2y
_________________________

Yeah, I’m completely relaxed about the prospect of giving him jabs, it’s just what’s in them that has me worried.

I’m going to try him on a higher paracetamol dose for a few weeks and see how he gets on.

If he’s suffering, I’ll just have to risk the side effects.

No, just wee and vomit!

2026-08-22T11:35:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…nvga
_________________________

No, just wee and vomit!

No, beyond squirting metacam down the throat of ducks, but I’m ...

2026-08-22T11:35:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…t87n
_________________________

No, beyond squirting metacam down the throat of ducks, but I’m not squeamish and he takes jabs at the vet without blinking.

We’re much happier as friends. (Funnily, his first wife says ...

2026-08-22T11:27:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…e847
_________________________

We’re much happier as friends.

(Funnily, his first wife says the same thing.)

Just spoken to the vet. He’s off the new pills, off all NSAIDs ...

2026-08-22T11:15:26Z

Just spoken to the vet. He’s off the new pills, off all NSAIDs for life, and back on paracetamol for now (she pointed out he was on the minimum dose last time, so he can have more. But will that make him drink even more…? I suppose wee is easier to clean up than vomit), gabapentin is a possible: it helps some dogs with arthritis but not most.

And after that the only other option is the dreaded Librela. She did say that after a few months they can train me to give him the injections, so that would at least cut down on his car trips, but the side effects…. They’re rare, but they’re awful.

Fuck.

I bet they would!

2026-08-22T10:25:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…e5eh
_________________________

I bet they would!

I did in fact get it from my ex.

2026-08-22T10:08:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…t4t0
_________________________

I did in fact get it from my ex.

Nostr event nevent1qqsy50n4qn0m5c5rpf0dwhw2u9lqr3sy0mjpmgwx9a0dlyujpgcd98szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cpc6emm

2026-08-22T09:54:56Z

Oh, lovely. Dozed a bit and came down to find I need new outdoor ...

2026-08-22T07:10:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…8lwf
_________________________

Oh, lovely. Dozed a bit and came down to find I need new outdoor slippers.

On balance, I think the 6am vomit is superior to the 6:30 vomit. ...

2026-08-22T05:53:35Z

On balance, I think the 6am vomit is superior to the 6:30 vomit.

The former is very quickly over and done: scoop up the worst of it and flush it, roll over, go back to sleep, wash the bed sheet.

The latter, on the other hand, involves half an hour of restlessness that leaves everyone awake, putting down loo roll on that bit of the carpet only for him to throw up next to it, having to scrub it before it soaks in, realising he’s gone downstairs, coming down to a puddle (thankfully on the hard flooring) and a secondary vomit on the door mat.

See? Definitely superior.

I’m off to fail to get another hour of sleep.

He was a little shot, but I loved him.

2026-08-21T20:06:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…pgjd
_________________________

He was a little shot, but I loved him.

Further reminded of the time I came across some dogs, no human in ...

2026-08-21T20:04:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…6c6z
_________________________

Further reminded of the time I came across some dogs, no human in sight. When she eventually strolled into view I yelled “Call your dogs! He bites!”

She got very indignant and yelled back “My dog does not bite!!”

“No, not your dog! My hor—“

chomp

I mean, it makes sense if you think about it! They must be out ...

2026-08-21T20:02:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…kfhg
_________________________

I mean, it makes sense if you think about it! They must be out there somewhere!

Holla was muttering about coming back when she last emailed ...

2026-08-21T20:00:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…jg6k
_________________________

Holla was muttering about coming back when she last emailed me….

More just wanting them to know in case life stuff changes, I guess.

I think some of the flab has migrated from his chin to his ...

2026-08-21T19:59:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…5kfa
_________________________

I think some of the flab has migrated from his chin to his cheeks.

Oh, god. That reminds me of the time I was riding my old horse ...

2026-08-21T19:58:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…uk47
_________________________

Oh, god. That reminds me of the time I was riding my old horse across a field of sheep. One got a bit close and he reflexively reached over and took a bite.

He was sputtering for about ten minutes afterwards!

Too true.

2026-08-21T19:57:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…9fxc
_________________________

Too true.

Hmm. New instance makes me wonder if the plan to get Ro back by ...

2026-08-21T19:57:08Z

Hmm. New instance makes me wonder if the plan to get Ro back by putting posters in his local Boothes needs to be revived.

(I know, wishful thinking. I do miss him and he was always much more careful about OpSec than most of our other missing. Note to self: email Holla and ask her to email Polar.)

Mastodon is a piece of software for running fediverse instances. ...

2026-08-21T19:37:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…h9m0
_________________________

Mastodon is a piece of software for running fediverse instances. Spinster runs on a different piece of software, called Soapbox.

IIRC, I have a pinned post that explains in more detail.

Nostr event nevent1qqsyagyc0j6x4vtrtxrslstcyvylrtesaz033gg06f02sngqpcrdgyszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c2wruvq

2026-08-21T18:27:36Z

Sausage skins apparently vv tasty, his bowl is empty! ...

2026-08-21T18:20:10Z

Sausage skins apparently vv tasty, his bowl is empty!

He’s doing brilliantly, except for the appetite thing.

2026-08-21T14:58:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…6l95
_________________________

He’s doing brilliantly, except for the appetite thing.

It does contain DMs. @nprofile…0hwv another edit for your post: ...

2026-08-21T13:31:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…syja
_________________________

It does contain DMs.

The Dread Slender Gnome (nprofile…0hwv) another edit for your post: this backup includes DMs you have sent (not received), so best not to import this onto a blogging platform or anything.

Oh, hell, yes, it will. But if people just have it locally then ...

2026-08-21T13:27:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…keh3
_________________________

Oh, hell, yes, it will.

But if people just have it locally then it shouldn’t be an issue?

lol I’ve just spent half an hour faffing trying to get this to ...

2026-08-21T13:23:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…ycuz
_________________________

lol I’ve just spent half an hour faffing trying to get this to import to my journaling app (it kept failing, so I stripped out the html, the nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpqkeg2xffqppjhxtwpjm90ztmq7e5v8sxnclwpeaj7d7lndj0ahnjs3qme2j (nprofile…me2j), and eventually realised it was the plaintext versions of quote marks…) only to successfully import a test hundred rows and realise it’s *everything*. For some reason I had it in my head that it was just top level posts, which is what I thought would be cool to have in my app….

Oh well. Thank you for the script anyway!

It’s fine, I don’t need that.

2026-08-21T12:33:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…kfxd
_________________________

It’s fine, I don’t need that.

Brilliant, thanks love!

2026-08-21T12:31:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…gwzr
_________________________

Brilliant, thanks love!

Nostr event nevent1qqsz5hsxrusmxme8949patyqcl900gg0d4cddwrmz22ct2kgke747tqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ch67yz0

2026-08-21T12:19:21Z

Bollocks.

Yes. Text only.

2026-08-21T12:04:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…tn66
_________________________

Yes. Text only.

I hadn’t realised, but if you go to backups the date is ...

2026-08-21T12:03:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…t208
_________________________

I hadn’t realised, but if you go to backups the date is actually a hyperlink: try clicking on it.

Oh, CSV would be brilliant (see conversation yesterday), thank ...

2026-08-21T12:02:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…5l8j
_________________________

Oh, CSV would be brilliant (see conversation yesterday), thank you.

Thank you!

2026-08-21T11:40:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…kcrn
_________________________

Thank you!

Ok, now it’s saying “write() argument must be str, not ...

2026-08-21T11:38:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…7utz
_________________________

Ok, now it’s saying “write() argument must be str, not dict”….

Ah! Right, so this turns the gibberish Spinster backup into ...

2026-08-21T11:36:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…7utz
_________________________

Ah!

Right, so this turns the gibberish Spinster backup into something readable, rather than pulling it off Spinster. Got it.

The Dread Slender Gnome (nprofile…0hwv) you need to change your post about Tay’s script: you have to already have your Spinster backup, I’m afraid.

Ah! Ok, I misunderstood what outbox.json should be, I thought it ...

2026-08-21T11:32:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…387s
_________________________

Ah! Ok, I misunderstood what outbox.json should be, I thought it was just a blank text file with that name. In that case, where can I get an outbox.json from?

I know you’re not a Mac user, but any idea what it’s ...

2026-08-21T11:25:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…htg2
_________________________

I know you’re not a Mac user, but any idea what it’s complaining about here?

“Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)”

Nostr event nevent1qqspdnwjjtltj494wtw9yycqwt7a8fvvm4u84yr6m83rvz8d9ymajuszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cjkgwjy

2026-08-21T10:33:01Z

https://rawwar.medium.com/this-child-star-was-super-smart-with-his-money-5874e9881330

Way back in the year 2000, Malcolm in the middle was an incredibly popular TV show.

Malcolm (played by Frankie Muniz) plays an uber intelligent kid in a somewhat dysfunctional family. He’s ‘gifted’ intellectually, with his head well and truly screwed on.

What’s really interesting is, the character Frankie was depicting, wasn’t actually a million miles away from the reality here. […]

But in terms of the real estate, one investment really stood out for me. He bought parking lots in downtown LA — not the most conventional investment for sure.

But it’s genius, here’s why.

Think about it, you own the real estate (the land) and you can really operate the business with largely zero over heads (Frankie had a skeleton staff arrangement of just two)

Nostr event nevent1qqs8mx0wr6gnf5cs7708pj3zwj5sktcy7fa8l60y4um9w2tgrsnux2czyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ck6nnz5

2026-08-21T10:07:45Z

Hurrah!

She needed the exercise.

2026-08-21T09:51:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…zel3
_________________________

She needed the exercise.

New rule: if you don’t even know the name of the local ...

2026-08-21T08:34:54Z

New rule: if you don’t even know the name of the local Instagram spot, I’m sending you to the paid car park in the village and you get a fifteen minute longer walk.

Brits too!

2026-08-21T06:26:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…7yza
_________________________

Brits too!

Happens often. Change of routine, often combined with ...

2026-08-20T22:11:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…glya
_________________________

Happens often. Change of routine, often combined with sleep-deprivation due to family illness.

Oh, god, “Milo”, you are so obviously a woman with her tits ...

2026-08-20T22:10:55Z

Oh, god, “Milo”, you are so obviously a woman with her tits chopped off :(

Familiarity. Most of the users are not tech savvy, I want to keep ...

2026-08-20T21:28:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…4t40
_________________________

Familiarity. Most of the users are not tech savvy, I want to keep it as simple and similar as possible. I would be astonished if more that one or two of the potential users knew what a public key is.

And, tbh, I found Nostr very hard to find like-minded people on. It’s too diffuse, here you can find an instance and know roughly what the people on it will be like.

I’ve honestly never seen people lining a street outside a ...

2026-08-20T21:22:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…jgkl
_________________________

I’ve honestly never seen people lining a street outside a courthouse supporting a murderer, other than that Luigi guy.

I was just making a point about societal attitudes.

(I would make a point about the reality of post-partum psychosis, but I’m sure you know it is a real thing.)

(I make similar posts when I see members of my own instance going off about men leaving babies in hot cars after forgetting to take them to day-care: it is a recognised and very sad occurrence that has been extensively documented in the medical literature, caused by a break in routine.)

so basically the men’s ' argument in defense of domestic ...

2026-08-20T20:33:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…vkzp
_________________________

so basically the men’s ' argument in defense of domestic abusers is "but you don't understaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I, too, could be driven to premeditated violent strangulation murder of my own wife and children by the slightest inconvenience"?

tell me again why we let them vote?

Yes. I got an email with a link to download it. I am pretty sure, ...

2026-08-20T20:29:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…k6x9
_________________________

Yes. I got an email with a link to download it.

I am pretty sure, as I said, that you are all in a queue. I was the first person to request it, so it only took half an hour or so. I’m guessing maybe thirty people did the same thing, so logically they should all be completed by now, but….

I know Carolen has had hers.

But you don’t actually know which email address it was sent to, ...

2026-08-20T20:15:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…5pn2
_________________________

But you don’t actually know which email address it was sent to, right?

Not my translation, I just saved his post from whenever it was ...

2026-08-20T19:26:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…6kf4
_________________________

Not my translation, I just saved his post from whenever it was locally.

Idk. Will give it the weekend and then call the vet.

2026-08-20T19:25:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…30sf
_________________________

Idk. Will give it the weekend and then call the vet.

Known side effect, and it started at the same time.

2026-08-20T19:23:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…wkts
_________________________

Known side effect, and it started at the same time.

In case it’s more useful than Tay’s tech version: You can ...

2026-08-20T19:22:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…5nhm
_________________________

In case it’s more useful than Tay’s tech version:

You can copy-paste the code into a text file called "script.py" or download it with the little button below the text area and rename the file to "script.py".

  Important: To be able to create a text file that's truly called "script.py" and not secretly "script.py.txt" (with the .txt part hidden), you have to make sure to display file name extensions:  https://www.howtogeek.com/205086/beginner-how-to-make-windows-show-file-extensions/

  If you have Python installed, you should then be able to execute the script simply by double-clicking on it. The result will be a file called "Spinster posts.txt" in the same folder, which will contain the posts in plain text and a bit of extra data like the date.  

(This should work equally well on a Mac, the only difference will be the part about making sure the file is really called "script.py" and doesn't have a hidden ".txt" at the end.)

I have Tay’s instructions, but the actual code file is no ...

2026-08-20T19:09:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…uk0f
_________________________

I have Tay’s instructions, but the actual code file is no longer available online. He may still have it.

At the bottom of settings/preferences.

2026-08-20T19:07:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…tx3f
_________________________

At the bottom of settings/preferences.

One could presumably install soapbox locally and import it.

2026-08-20T19:07:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…txmy
_________________________

One could presumably install soapbox locally and import it.

Came home to a lightly chewed pig’s ear (which he has now ...

2026-08-20T19:06:46Z

Came home to a lightly chewed pig’s ear (which he has now finished) and a completely un-touched dinner.