iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Well deserved but a bit late — the HSTs were introduced in May 1976.

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It's difficult to gather statistics about "that sort of name" for a child without encountering your own stereotypes.

Who are the children entering care in England? - Office for National Statistics

Like I say, it's anecdotal: the assumption is that these names are a proxy for the parent's background, and that deprivation, "health, education, housing and family circumstances" are linked to the chances of children going into care. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

ons.gov.uk

Children entering care in England were more likely to live in deprivation, have a lone parent, or have experienced abuse or neglect. Why they enter care and where they are placed can vary widely by se...

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Of course, Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock provide precedents for both your posts.

Very tempting, isn't it? But please, for the good sense you showed in your original post: dehumanising anyone is a road you don't want to go down. It's a tool of racists and fascists: don't descend to their level. "If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less."

Turns out last year there were 221 baby girls called Piper and 81 baby boys called Ryder in the UK. The other names crop up very occasionally too. Anecdotal evidence suggests they are disproportionally likely to ended up in care.

So no, they aren't a court finding.

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This doesn't go through Croydon, though?

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No, because you need both the serious violence AND the political bit.

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The factual determinations of the commission panel aren't a court finding, surely? The BBC wouldn't be able to rely on them in court.

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That the money Manchester City received was "inflated" above what they should have received. You know, this whole thing that's been in the news recently and MC still deny?

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Um, libel claims? From Manchester City, or any other club that received "inflated money"? Or from any of the Abu Dhabi owners? We've *seen* in the last few days the way that Manchester City threatens lawsuits and refuses to co-operate in a bid to drive up legal bills and delay justice.

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Not necessarily terrorism, but it is in this case. On a moral basis, because it's political violence (and I think I'd be happy to call all sufficiently-serious political violence "terrorism"); on a legal basis, it's "designed to influence the government" and for "a political or ideological cause."

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An Act to make provision about terrorism; and to make temporary provision for Northern Ireland about the prosecution and punishment of certain offences, the preservation of peace and the maintenance o...

This pretty clearly comes under the definition of terrorism in www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/1... And he was convicted of "causing an explosion likely to endanger life". Should the courts not treat that seriously? Disclaimer: not a lawyer, just interested.

legislation.gov.uk

Terrorism Act 2000

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An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to sentencing.

For murdering a policeman, the starting point is a whole life order: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/1... subsections 1 and 2c. For manslaughter, it's life with a fixed tariff: sections 274A and 285A of the same act. 1/

legislation.gov.uk

Sentencing Act 2020

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What I experienced from living in the constituency was LibDem election material through the door every few days. I was rather impressed by the amount of people they seemed to have. I was even more impressed by the repeat performance in the 2024 election and the sheer amount of orange in the results

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And hasn't it been noticeable that the same nationalists and charlatans have decided asylum-seekers are the next group of "foreigners" that can be blamed for everything? It's worth going back into the EU just so their ire can be directed at Brussels rather than people who have lost everything.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There is, of course, the alternative solution of making the platforms higher (or part of them). That might or might not be practical depending on each station's buildings.

James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Since the nineteenth century: see, for example, London's first deep-level underground line, designed for electric traction (steam was banned by Act of Parliament), opened in 1890, still part of the Northern Line.

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One of the basic principles of the unwritten constitution is the supremacy of King in Parliament, and that any law Parliament makes, Parliament can unmake. So the referendum would be binding until the hypothetical new right-wing majority passed an act saying it wasn't.

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Reform / Restore voters, presumably, who think it's "taking back control of our data".

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Fonts - SIL Language Technology

Probably the SIL fonts: in order for the Bible to be translated and printed in as many languages as possible, they created suitable fonts and released them as Open Source to help those communities. (You never specified which ecclesial body approved...) software.sil.org/fonts/

software.sil.org

We have created subsets of our Latin and Cyrillic fonts for different regions of the world. See Font Subsets for further information.

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Tempted to say this is a theory that should be tested. Except good scientific procedure requires a control group.

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BBC NEWS | UK | Nail-bomber given life sentence

There was a genuine terrorist bombing in Exeter in 2008: the only one who was hurt was the bomber himself, who had learning difficulties. Exeter dealt with it by joking "of course he came from Plymouth" (the two cities have a long-standing rivalry). news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7859...

news.bbc.co.uk

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hello Linux, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again. Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains...

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Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal": the protagonist comes to realise that although he might have seen himself as a lovable rogue and a craftsman, he caused real suffering and the equivalent of several deaths. Yet he retains his humanity and possibility of redemption.

James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And considered that by giving all these orphans jobs and a start in life he was being charitable.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It was pretty much the ideal main line for it: very short for a main line, with as many as six trains an hour. I seem to remember that in the first full year of operation (1933) the return on investment was 34%.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

British police have been worrying about portable anti-aircraft missiles (manpads) for ages. The threat was terrorists hiding, maybe in a van, near an airport and popping out to take a shot at a taking-off or landing aeroplane. Not surprising that they'd have plans for "terrorist + airport".

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I have a strong suspicion they're original characters, and the world they're in has a roadrunner going "meep-meep", and a coyote.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

AGP is closer to PCI than PCIe is to either of them: some chips could be PCI or AGP depending on how they were wired up. PCIe is inherently different, being based on serial links using differential signalling. ... I think that illustrates the original point? 🤷

James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Start certain JRPGs. Make it through the initial cut scenes, the wander-around-initial-area, and the next set of cut scenes. Wonder when I'm actually going to see some XP. Wonder if the main character is actually bearable. Stop playing for a bit. Try and remember what the gameplay was like.

James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Good point. Let's give Croydon some love by building the new hub right where Croydon currently is. Massive improvement.

James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I would say "change at Clapham Junction" from parts of the South West, but given the state of the Waterloo-Exeter line, that's only really an option for those parts that aren't really South West at all.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The last YouGov poll they sent me had a question about which social media I use. There were all the big names, but the only other option was "I don't use social media". So I claim this is inaccurate because they've filtered out BlueSky users.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There are such things as electric tractors, from leading brands, too. But (AFAIK) they can't yet, on one charge, do a full day's heavy work such as ploughing. The battery technology isn't quite there *yet*.

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Interesting. My bit of Devon was heaving with them at the 2024 election. We elected them, too.

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It's not like Trump's memory stretches back that far.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_2p...

You may consider all AI to be immoral due to power consumption / copyright infringement, and I respect that position. But this seemed to be an otherwise-reasonable use of AI.

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Then they read the OT reading, illustrated with simple cartoons, and pausing three times to get the congregation to guess "what happens next". The point, of course, was how God's plans are better than what we'd expect. I strongly suspect those cartoons were AI. 2/

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I heard a very good all-age sermon last year with illustrations I suspect had been created by AI. The theme was "what happens next". It started by playing some (real) videos, pausing half-way, and getting the congregation to choose from three options. 1/

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Dave Walker @davewalker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Do you have Salisbury's "Road to Nowhere" on your to-do list?

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Reposted by James

New cartoon: The RNLI

Cartoon titled “The RNLI: Some of the people they help,” showing six scenarios involving people rescued by the RNLI. Including a man caught by the tide, a YouTuber swimming without preparation, a middle-lane driver, a neighbour with different political opinions, a superyacht owner who forgot to refuel, and people crossing the Channel in a small boat. The final caption reads, “All human beings – all deserve saving.”

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

And parts of the Anglo-Catholic wing who like authorised liturgy, just disagree on who should authorise it. And people from all over who look at other people's liturgy and say "We like that, let's use it" (see also, how the English language got a lot of its words). And in all this, the Spirit moves.

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James @jamesindevon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

At some point, we as a society are likely to face a trolley problem: do we allow autonomous cars that are safer than human drivers even though they aren't perfectly safe? What I should have expected is that the first companies to ask us to make that bargain are complete charlatans.