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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo

@aaloo69.bsky.social
289 followers 1.3K following 116 posts

Casual observer, cautious thinker, professional procrastinator. Trial and error. Mostly error.

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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Just when you’re trying to get your orientation in a mad world to work out where you stand, your side goes and bombs a kids schools. Then it hits you. We’re the baddies. Again.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 29/01/2026
On almost everything – fraud, polarisation, radicalisation, misinformation – evidence suggests that over 60s are in much more urgent need of online protection and education than teenagers. But that issue gets zero political attention, and is a total non-starter. Nothing good will come of it.
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Lord JG @lordjongrant.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
100% of Labour‘s fawning and appeasing fascisti Faragism was a waste of time. Labour deserves what is coming to them. A complete let down.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
24% of people who voted Labour at the last general election now plan to vote Green or Lib Dem. 0% of those who voted Reform at the last election now plan to vote Labour.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
So it was Badenoch *personally* who stabbed Britain in the back during the Greenland crisis! Simply unbelievable. Ought to be a resignation matter. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
How Badenoch’s meeting with Mike Johnson led to Trump’s Chagos deal rant
A brief encounter set off a chain of events that culminated in a public rebuff to the US president from Keir Starmer
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Andrea Basso @a4xrbj1.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Tesla quietly cuts 1,700 jobs at Gigafactory Berlin despite denying it A new report from the German business newspaper Handelsblatt confirms that the automaker has been quietly downsizing the plant’s workforce significantly, based on figures reported by the workers’ council. /1
electrek.co
Tesla quietly cuts 1,700 jobs at Gigafactory Berlin despite denying it
A new report confirms that Tesla has reduced its workforce at Gigafactory Berlin by roughly 1,700 employees over the last...
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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I think the Daily Mail is actually verging into sedition and subversion and treason.
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
It feels like an all out assault on Europe. With Brexit, Ukraine war and weak unpopular governments across the Eurozone, I’m not sure there is an appetite or the capacity to hold firm let alone retaliate.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 19/01/2026
How to speak Davosian — for beginners ft.trib.al/ACcvvX5 | opinion
ft.trib.al
How to speak Davosian — for beginners
The phrases you might hear at this year’s World Economic Forum . . . and what they really mean
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Did anyone tell Malaria that English is supposed to be our official language? 🤔
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Daily Mail @dailymail.co.uk · 17/01/2026
Goodbye fresh country air: Britain's woodlands are ridden with airborne microplastics, experts warn - as they find nearly DOUBLE the amount compared to city centres trib.al/EVwJ6xm
dailymail.co.uk
Britain's woodlands are ridden with microplastics, experts say
Britain's woodlands are under threat from air-polluting microplastics, experts have warned.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
open.substack.com
Who funds the Free Speech Union?
Toby Young’s outfit went to court to hide its donors. Today we reveal that funders include US anti-abortion groups, Brexit politicians and Tufton Street insiders.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
If only there were some kind of useful lesson here about deploying more senior skills in triage outside of strike periods www.ft.com/content/c928...
One hospital boss who did not wish to be named noted that A&E "works so much better when there is a strike" because of more confident decision-making by the consultants.
Another health leader said that, while the strike had carried "significant risk... the impact of having senior decision makers at all points through the hospital means that actually hospitals went into this Christmas with a lower level of bed occupancy than we've seen for years".
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
The best thing about this is Jenrick's defection is now worth much less to Farage reducing his leverage. Very enjoyable.
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Alexander Brown @alexofbrown.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Welcome to Reform, Robert Jenrick
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Sums up how rubbish Badenoch is that she has been forced into a “You’re dumping me? I’m dumping you!” rather than just sacking and disbarring Jenrick over the many, many things that would have kept him out of any Tory Cabinet since 1968.
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Nice to see those happy, not in the least bit misanthropic sociopaths on Reddit taking the most optimistic reading from this.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Ageing populations will lead to lower living standards - EBRD report on.ft.com/49FdGeu
on.ft.com
Ageing populations will lead to lower living standards, warns study
Growth in annual GDP per capita will fall by more than a full percentage point in some countries over the next 25 years
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Interesting suggestion from EBRD chief economist that countries will suffer policy lock in once the electorate ages, and so there is an urgency to acting early
"The time to act is now before demography closes off your options. Because there may be this spiral that's being created as voters get older, as leaders get older, they care more about issues of interest to the elderly,
in particular pensions, and therefore it becomes harder to do any pension reforms,"
said Javorcik.
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Britain Elects @britainelects.com · 15/01/2026
Robert Jenrick MP (Newark) has been suspended from the Conservative Party by party leader Kemi Badenoch x.com/KemiBadenoch...
x.com
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 15/01/2026
The muted response to the undressing of women and children by Elon Musk’s Grok is the latest symptom of a culture of impunity—and a chance to address that culture head-on, @cwarzel.bsky.social and @matteowong.bsky.social argue.
bit.ly
Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This
If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists.
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Rosenior is the weirdest managerial appointments of recent times and could be one of the shortest tenures ever
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Conor Sewell @ccsewell.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
This is a cracking chart from the FT. The two outliers are about 90% underground. However, one of them is because Justine Greening didn’t want to annoy voters in Oxfordshire whereas the other is because of (to use a technical term) massive fuck-off mountains! (Also it’s way higher tech/better)
FT chart on high speed rail cost
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 14/01/2026
I am terrible at football – but love playing. Can I change my game completely in my mid-30s?
theguardian.com
I am terrible at football – but love playing. Can I change my game completely in my mid-30s?
For fifteen years I have been devoted to the sport, but can still barely tackle or shoot. I decided to get a coach and give him the challenge of a lifetime
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Jason Rasgon @vectorgen.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Could have used this back when I was a PhD student. I had to extract graph data from papers that were >50 years old. Asked PI how, he said "I'll show you" & left the room. Thought he was getting software He came back with a ruler, a magnifying glass & a sheaf of graph paper & told me to have fun
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Techdirt @techdirt.com · 13/01/2026
Elon Musk Plays Disinfo Telephone: How Oregon’s Mundane Voter Roll Cleanup Is Turned Into False Claim Of ‘Fake Voters’ I made the mistake of opening up X yesterday to look something up, and the very first post that appeared in my feed was a perfect, almost pedagogical example of how the game of…
techdirt.com
Elon Musk Plays Disinfo Telephone: How Oregon’s Mundane Voter Roll Cleanup Is Turned Into False Claim Of ‘Fake Voters’
I made the mistake of opening up X yesterday to look something up, and the very first post that appeared in my feed was a perfect, almost pedagogical example of how the game of “disinformation telephone” gets played. Let's walk through it, because understanding how this works is important. The game works like this: Someone takes a factual but largely unremarkable story, gives it a slight spin, and passes it along.
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Esheru @esherukweku.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
These Tories deflected to Reform. A Trojan Horse. Lee Anderson Dann Kruger Zahawi Dorries Gullis Jake Berry Maria Caulfield Andrea Jenkyns Ben Bradley Anne Marie Morris Lia Nici Adam Holloway Marco Longhi Ross Thomson Aidan Burley Sarah Atherton Lucy Allan Mark Reckless Alan Amos Ann Widdecombe
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
There’s not even a need to ban it. All that’s needed is a moral compass and a conscience. If/when UK Gov, NHS, academic and commercial entities leave en masse for what is a totally appalling state of affairs, then it leaves only the very worst behind on that platform.
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bganeles @brockganeles.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Long overdue. How does anyone justify maintaining an X account?
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 12/01/2026
Why we won't be using X anymore ⬇️
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Dr Matthew Hardy @drmatthewhardy.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Show me how you don’t understand London. This is one of the world’s safest big cities but Reform are always - always - talking London down. It’s almost as if they are working for a foreign power 🤔
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Hughster @hughster.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Britfash "patriots" revealing who their masters are
Rupert Lowe MP
@RUpertLowe10

Iurge @elonmusk, @JDVance and the wider American administration to deploy whatever appropriate power they hold to prevent Keir Starmer from banning X in Britain.

Free speech must be protected, and such disgusting authoritarianism must be resisted.

We need help.
20:37- 09 Jan 26752K Views
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
"When I was a very small child, I had a sense, whereof I know not, that William the Conqueror was the first king of England and that history began in 1066. When I was a slightly less small child, I was delighted to learn that this wasn’t so..." Regarding a surprisingly complicated question
jonn.substack.com
Who was the first king of England?
A surprisingly complicated question.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 10/01/2026
Jan. 16, 2025: A SpaceX Starship rocket explodes over the Caribbean. Suddenly, dozens of planes in the area must scramble to get out of a newly designated FAA "debris zone." Their passengers are now unwitting participants in a test run gone wrong. (THREAD)
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
This is just what you like to see on here
Mina Kimes talking about a pig looking into frame followed by 

Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.b... • 1h
Jim Halpork over here.

...
Ryan Nanni @celebrityhottub.bsky.s... • 1h Josh, can you talk about the decision to go for Halpork and not Hampert here?

Josh Gondelman
@joshgondelman.bsky.social
Follow
Would love to. I thought Hampert is a better visual joke (just changing one letter) but Halpork sounds closer to Halpert than Hampert does, to me! (I did almost go with Ham Halpert though!)
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Stan Collymore @collymore.com · 09/01/2026
Delighted to have been verified by Bluesky, maybe that's the push I need to wean off the dopamine of watching my 20 year Twitter account burn under the flames of the unhinged, racist, fascist and genuinely evil. Hope all are well 🙌🏽❤️
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Arsenal were atrocious. I’ve never seen a team at the top of the table, 6 point clear play at home against a severely depleted mediocre Liverpool side and park the bus. Abysmal. It will be good for football for them to NOT win the league.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/01/2026
WATTERS: Taking out a dictator in Venezuela -- how does that help the average American? JD VANCE: First of all, what it means is we're gonna be able to control the incredible natural resources of Venezuela
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David Spurrett @doctorspurt.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
I have drafted a motivation for my university to leave X/Twitter, arguing that posting to it risks feeding our PR images into the porn and harassment machine (so leading to staff, students or others being harassed) and that being there violates our official stance against gender-based violence. /1
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Isn’t it weird how common it is now to get last minute equalisers or winners in matches these days? Back in the day it may happen once or twice in a season, now it’s almost every other game. Weird.
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Most politicians, political commentators, and journalists simply aren’t being smart enough to deal with Farage. The prevailing response to his politics lacks nuance and ends up reinforcing his supporters rather than challenging them. Exactly the same mistakes were made in the US with Trump.
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Telephone Friend @ironyhat.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Give me my deposit back! Tenants, Landlords
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Final thought before bed: In spite of advances in tech, particularly AI, humans remain the world’s most valuable resource But “Identity Famine” is the defining crisis of this era By the middle of this century, we’ll come to realise that young, populous nations with a secure identity will thrive.
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Jeremy Dunworth @jeremydunworth.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
FT made a list of the humans that did this. www.ft.com/content/ad94...
ft.com
Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter
A look inside Elon Musk’s big tent
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Garrie Coleman @garriecoleman.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Got the measure of exactly what a Starmer Govt would look like not long after he duped his way into the Labour leadership and then went on to wave through multiple war crimes in Gaza. Must admit though, I didn’t have ‘international piracy’ down on my bingo card.

⸻

UK Home Office calls oil tanker seizures ‘important activity with US allies’

Mike Tapp, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Home Office has spoken to the BBC describing the UK’s assistance in the US operation to seize two oil tankers as “important activity with our US allies”.

When asked if there were concerns of Russian retaliation for the UK’s role in helping seize the Russian-flagged Bella 1/Marinera ship, he said the UK’s concerns were focused on “taking on those who are trying to get around sanctions and we’ve been really clear we’ll continue to do that with the Russian shadow fleet, and today is a part of that”.
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Prof. Ras el-Aaloo @aaloo69.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Commuting in London rush hour is such an adventure - delay, cancellations, station overcrowding. You never know which mode you may end up using to get home. Today I’m canoeing to get to get to the closest TFL stables to catch a donkey ride. Fortunately I have my Oyster card.
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Sam Bright @writesbright.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
🔴 NEW - Farage accepted £10k in gifts from the Abu Dhabi government. The UAE is a petrostate and Farage is a climate science denier leading a pro-oil party...
desmog.com
Nigel Farage Accepted £10,000 Gifts from Petrostate
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received freebies worth £10,000 from the Abu Dhabi government, new records show. Farage’s latest register of interests shows that he accepted flights and accommodation to...
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Keir Starmer's spokesman tells me that X and Grok's creation of sexual deepfakes of children is "completely unacceptable" but again won't commit to taking direct action against them, or to stop posting there. Says "all options are on the table" but suggests it's a matter for Ofcom, not Government
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