iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 7h

I'd like to say, in relation to the second post here and another of my posts from the other day, I don't really hope Trump gets his stupid way on this... although I see now there's a ridiculous executive order about it. Also, 'SI' already means something in science. Why confuse things?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 9h

Haha. I grew up in a little town just north of London called Ware. The local ne'er-do-wells hung out in a gang calling itself 'Ware Herd', meaning our library's signage, which read 'Ware Library', was often graffitied to say 'Ware Herd'. The council got so fed up, they just renamed it 'Library'.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 9h

I don't really know how people make money from top-level domain names, but if they, or countries, do and Trump gets his way in getting everyone to switch to using 'super intelligence' rather than 'artificial intelligence', shortened to 'SI', then Slovenia, which is assigned .si, is in for a bonanza.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 10h

If I were Alex Ferguson and I were feeling self-deprecating, I’d call my autobiography, assuming that’s what this is… Grumpy AF

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Reposted by Alistair King

Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 21h

The rush to speculate that asylum seekers are responsible for every crime in the news is a sort of opportunistic informational terrorism. Until it’s disproved it stokes fear and hatred. When it is disproved there are no adverse consequences and they know that they only have to be lucky once.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 17h

I'm visiting my parents to help with a few things, one item on my to-do list being sweeping the chimney. On the phone to my wife earlier, I mentioned this but accidentally found myself saying 'chimley'. I don't want to be overly-dramatic but if you have ideas for a suitable punishment, let me know.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23h

I feel like a fraud, having got the purples by accident. I see how that row works now, of course, but I didn’t solve it. And I don’t think I’d have got the blues either on the basis of the second one - what’s that? Connections Puzzle #1206 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟪🟪 🟪🟦🟦🟪 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Told DUP man about midterms - Orangeman? (6,5)

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Why is a business being ‘family-fun’ supposed to imply trustworthiness, value for money and high quality? The Krays were a family. Or, worse, so are the Murdochs.

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Reposted by Alistair King

Graeme Swanson @swansonian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Trump bent more like. *80,0000 likes 14,000 reposts*

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hahahahaha. What a chump. Yes, name the last thing you’d want people to think about after yourself, you mad bastard. Trump Strait? Trump Straitjacket, more like. #MoreLike

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The ads on the public noticeboard by the village hall near where my parents live is usually full of handwritten notes about old wardrobes or day trips for pensioners. That sort of thing. What the hell is this demented conspiracy-fuelled nonsense, though? And it’s been there more than two months!

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Now is the winter of my discon-fucking-tent.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I visited Dunkable once. Lovely little Perthshire town.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm writing a crime drama with a twist: the lead character is really odd, goes about things in very strange ways and says inscrutably weird stuff. He invariably solves incredibly complex murders but his colleagues forget about this from one murder to the next and continually question his abilities.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

We have prefix and suffix. And we have Norfolk and Suffolk. This really won’t do. We need norfix and suffix (along with Norfolk and Suffolk). Or Prefolk and Suffolk (along with prefix and suffix). WHO’S WITH ME?! (I used to go out on Friday nights. Still, this sort of bullshit keeps me busy.)

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Giving myself a big pat on the back for the purples there. Connections Puzzle #1202 🟨🟨🟪🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’ve developed a mild addiction: beating my previous day’s step count. Today I did 21,097. This is only possible because my freelance work is pretty sporadic and I have plenty of time on my hands (and feet). But where will it end? Once I hit about 200,000, I’ll have nowhere to go and no free time.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Note to self: when parting company with the bloke at the fish and chip shop, decide before opening your mouth and starting to speak whether you’re going to aim for ‘cheerio’ or ‘see you later’ because ‘chee you later’ doesn’t mean anything and he’ll look at you like you’re a massive weirdo.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If you’re going to call your son Jaymey, what hope does he have in not growing up to be a prick like this? Still, at least east London is becoming a nicer place with the people he’s sticking up for leaving it.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Things annoying me today: - People dropping cigarette butts in the street as though they’re somehow not litter (if you’re a smoker and you don’t do this, you’re in a tiny minority) - Drivers using their horns for anything other than warnings, warnings representing c.1% of usage in my bit of London

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"My fat cat of a landlord also lets out properties in two French towns, Évry and Échirolles. Renting from him is better than being homeless, I suppose." "So he's the lessor of two 'E' villes?" "Yeah, he's a right bastard."

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is very clever and I shamefully took four letter hints, meaning my solving it was spotting + post-rationalisation. BUT! I don’t like how the first ‘4’ is orthographically expressed. "So, what anagram indicator can I ultimately use?" (1,4,4) 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏋 6 hints – 4 over the community par.

minutecryptic.com

Minute Cryptic

Minute Cryptic is a free daily cryptic crossword clue. Solve today's puzzle, learn how cryptic clues work with free guided courses, and build your solving streak.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Be fair to the government: we haven’t seen the results of the private poll they presumably commissioned that asked whether it’s good or bad when RNLI volunteers are physically attacked at sea and people end up being left to drown in the English Channel, and which 52% of those polled answered ‘good’.

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Reposted by Alistair King

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 23/09/2026

I think once black clad men are interfering with rescues at sea, we are past "legitimate concerns". Once they're attacking boats, and risking the lives of everyone on board, it's just thuggery. The Home Secretary's statement is on the side of criminals. There's no other way to read it.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This line of argument is so fucking ridiculous. You could nip it in the bud immediately by acknowledging there’s more than one definition of ‘English’. The narrowest is ‘of predominantly English ancestry’, whatever that means, as it’s circular. But another wholly valid and common definition is…

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

'Don't arrest lawbreakers because it encourages copycat crimes and makes the original perpetrators more likely to commit even worse crimes' is an interesting police tactic. Wonder if it'll catch on in areas beyond intimidation, piracy and attempted murder. Might test it with some shoplifting later.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I don’t mind Duolingo being quirky, this wasn’t difficult to translate, particularly given the option words to choose from, and maybe spiders read books in the Netherlands, but isn’t one of the essentials of language learning spotting context and plausibility? This is just nonsense on that score.

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Reposted by Alistair King

Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

who's up for robbing banks while shouting "stop the boats" so no-one arrests us?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If the Labour government thinks legitimate concerns are worth listening to, I'd say I have a few in relation to the deranged exploits of the knife-wielding, hate-filled maniac chronicled in this disturbing and quite extraordinary thread.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“Can’t talk, I’m overseeing a practice exam for some GCSE pupils.” “Running a mock?” “No, they’re being quite well behaved.”

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

He’s an insufferable prick, obviously, but if Trump got his way in changing artificial intelligence to super intelligence and therefore SI, I would, as someone often addressed as Al, be quite happy.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This headline needed more work, I think. The reason these EU rules could and probably would be detrimental to the UK is, as the article that people might not bother reading explains, because the UK isn’t in the EU. But you could be forgiven for thinking it meant ‘… if the UK were in the bloc’.

bbc.co.uk

New EU industry rules would damage UK, warns Andy Burnham

The prime minister says he will raise his concerns when he meets the European Commission President later.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just liked a LinkedIn post, which I barely read to the end of, let alone clicked through on. Such a shallow charlatan and I'm so sorry. Luckily no one ever does that with my posts on here.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In the context, this is a VERY clever joke.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This ‘more freedom’ than British citizens that, according to hysterical headlines screamed in the Daily Express, are ‘handed’ to ‘new arrivals’: how does it compare to freedoms such as welfare, free movement, education, health and basic public services? The paper supports all those for Brits, right?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Can the BBC use a bit of my licence fee to pay for a voice coach for Chris Mason and his set pieces? All “they’d”need “to” do “is” find “a” way “to” help “the” poor “man” stop “making” every “other” word “sound” like “it’s” in “heavy” quotation “marks”. #r4today

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

What? What does that *mean*? Behind closed doo… what? HOW? How, exactly, please?

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

And another thing on this... Doesn't it seem a little, I don't know, odd/questionable/fucking deranged to censor some sketches that, though they might not be made today, satirise racism and about which I've never seen any complaints but report largely uncritically on the dickheads in Piddington?

bbc.co.uk

BBC removes 11 Mitchell and Webb comedy sketches from iPlayer

The corporation said it had included "the ones that still work today and not the ones that don't."

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Reposted by Alistair King

Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Jim Ratcliffe and James Dyson - plenty of representation with bugger all taxation.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm white, so I appreciate I'm not the best person to ask, but has anyone who's not ever actually expressed concerns about the sketches referenced in this depressing story? Couldn't the iPlayer have just put it all up unexpurgated and wait for the complaints, which I imagine wouldn't have arisen?

bbc.co.uk

BBC removes 11 Mitchell and Webb comedy sketches from iPlayer

The corporation said it had included "the ones that still work today and not the ones that don't."

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

O, for the absence of these two little letters, which I briefly didn't see...

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I don’t usually share these because it annoys me that something I feel I should be good at I’m not, at least not in comparison to people who share their results on here (self-selecting, I know), but I’m very pleased with this. www.maptap.gg September 21 99🎯 98🎯 95🏅 100🎯 97🔥 Final score: 978

maptap.gg

🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game

Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I don’t know what ‘redud’ means exactly but I intuitively feel this Monday morning that I am redud to clear. Thanks for the truthbomb, Sainsbury’s.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Not sure about the sample clue from today's Guardian cryptic.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

More depressing German election results. Whenever hard- and far-right parties do well in the UK or other mature democracies, the BBC - as with Justin Webb and Katya Adler on #r4today this morning - and others will talk of voters abandoning the established parties because they think they’ve failed.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I hate the Sun but at least their subs know how to write good headlines… or DO they? What the fuck is this? You can’t make a pun out of a single word read in isolation if you don’t change it at all. This should have been ‘Kangarooney’, or - better - ‘Ko-Wayne-la bear’.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This one is very clever, even though it’s deemed relatively easy. Well done, Kaldar. Minute Cryptic - 20 September, 2026 "Early mode of transport from Revolutionary War found in drained canal?" (5) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (95,610 solvers so far).

minutecryptic.com

Minute Cryptic

Minute Cryptic is a free daily cryptic crossword clue. Solve today's puzzle, learn how cryptic clues work with free guided courses, and build your solving streak.

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Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Lol. Imagine living in a small English village that, until a few days ago, no one beyond a five-mile radius had heard of but which now has a locked Wikipedia page. What a den of pricks.

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