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Michael

@mykl.sparkle.blue
1.5K followers 3.1K following 9K posts

Just a vibe, you know? From the UK, jetzt in Deutschland. Used to wrangle code, coders, and customers for a living. Now just for fun. Interested in complex systems and how they fail us. Oh, and jokes.

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Reposted by Michael
Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 6h
Deloitte paid its UK-based partners £1.125m. Firm has 784 equity partners. Due to self-employed status of partners, employer national insurance (ENI) is not paid on profits shared. 150,000 ENI avoided on every £1m of profits shared. Billions lost across the country. Must end this privilege.
cityam.com
Deloitte UK advisory arm rebounds to growth as new boss insists AI 'can’t replace lived experience'
Big Four giant Deloitte's new UK boss, Darren Graves, insisted AI “can’t replace lived experience” as the firm's advisory arms return to growth.
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Josh Self @josh.politics.co.uk · 1h
“Does he agree that the triple lock is simply not affordable?” - Tom Tugendhat, shadow foreign secretary, in the commons last year. H/T Tali Fraser on X The extent to which Burnham’s triple lock position will unsettle the Conservatives is underappreciated 1/...
Tom Tugendhat 
I am interested to hear the hon. Gentleman using the figure of £70 billion, and I agree with him. He knows that £30 billion of that results from the rise in the triple lock, so does he agree that the triple lock is simply not affordable?
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ali alkhatib @ali-alkhatib.com · 10h
shutting down frat houses won't end rape culture, but it will disorganize a lot of rapists, and i think that's probably worth doing if only to destabilize what is apparently an ecology of organizations that functionally exist to rape women per the whole "purpose of a system is what it does" insight.
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Paul Magrs @paulmagrs.bsky.social · 1h
This wonderful list of Corgi SF from the back of my copy of ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’
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Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 1h
With alt text. I know someone who actually did this
kbarton1001
On my first big overseas client conference, I was at a dinner seated next to a drunk client who kept trying to fondle me under the table. I was young, distressed, and had no idea what to do. I moved my legs as far away from him as I could, moving into the space of the man next to me, who then started patting my legs! The Regional Manager was a French woman who caught my eye, gestured for me to go to the bathroom and when I came back had switched chairs with me. What happed next was epic. A few minutes after I sat back down, she raised her hand with his hand captured in hers and announced loudly "Does anyone know whose hand this is? I found it in my lap." There was dead silence at the table. She threw his hand back at him and said calmly "next time I pick it up with my fork." Then she started a new conversational thread and things moved on. After the meeting she found me, gave me a hug, and said seriously "Never be afraid to make some noise. It is their shame, not yours."
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Mujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 55m
Don't believe the Europeans when they say the UK is no longer interesting, a priority etc etc Every senior EU official I've met today in Brussels has spent 20 mins talking about @andyburnham.bsky.social speech. The EU is paying attention and interested - even if it pretends otherwise
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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 42m
I'm kinda fully over that "the British conquered the world for spices and don't use any of them" joke because for one, you cannot recycle material for 5 straight generations and get a laugh worth a damn but also because in order to make it you have to agree with Tommy Robinson about who is British
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Stadt Frankfurt am Main @frankfurt.de · 29/09/2026
🐕 💦 Während die Freibadsaison für alle Zweibeiner austrudelt, geht's für alle Vierbeiner jetzt erst richtig los: Vom 1. bis 4. Oktober, täglich von 10 bis 18 Uhr, gehört das Silobad euren Hunden. Wer gönnt seinem Liebling den Badespaß? 📸 picture alliance / Frank Rumpenhorst
Impressionen vom Hundeschwimmen im Silobad: Zwei Vierbeiner stürzen ins Becken. Foto: picture alliance / Frank Rumpenhorst
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 1h
President Macron, "Brexit has cost the UK 8% of GDP.. Brexit is the biggest lie of the last 30 years" My view: Brexit was sold as a route to greater prosperity: less bureaucracy, more money, new trade opportunities Instead, Britain put new barriers between itself and its largest trading market.
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Jo Kibble (Political Animal) @politicanimal.bsky.social · 1h
Just walked past a primary school playground at breakdown to hear a teacher shouting across the yard ‘Maximillian, eat your fruit please!’ and just like that, I’m back in imperial Vienna.
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 1h
I accidentally spent £17,700 on 400 subscriptions to the LRB for Home Office staff and now the Life in the UK test is asking applicants to rank Derek Jarman films from most to least emotionally resonant?
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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 1h
A key difference between "scrap the Triple Lock so Social Care is cheaper/fairer" and "scrap the Winter Fuel Duty because rich pensioners don't need it" is that the implicit argument of the former, is that you're only taking something away to give the same people something better.
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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 2h
Not had chance to watch Burnham's speech yet, but the response it's receiving does show that Starmer's self-pity was nonsense. People are desperately willing Labour to succeed and will happily lavish praise on anything they do that's even a little bit good
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 1h
This is an outrageous use of taxpayers money, they should be subscribing to niche paywalled local newsletters instead.
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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 5h
1/19 Eleven years after a church picnic in New York killed a thousand people, a company picnic in Chicago killed 844 more. The ship never left the wharf. She rolled over while the band was playing, in twenty feet of water, six metres from the bank. The SS Eastland. A 🧵. #maritimehistory
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Alex @purplechrain.bsky.social · 4h
a few years ago, references to Simon of Trent or Leo Frank trutherism were a sign that someone was an intensely Christian and/or Neo-Nazi right-wing antisemite but now formerly-normal lefty politics influencers who stayed on Twitter casually reply to Mamdani with 15th century blood libel posts
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 4h
The US has withdrawn from GRECO, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption watchdog, which it has been a member of since 2000, ABC reports. Russia and Belarus are the only other countries to have left the group.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 1h
What number do they need to break for election chat to be formally approved?
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 2h
This is testament to No.10's frankly astonishing degree of political competence. A policy which was branded electoral suicide 48 hours ago now showing signs of robust popularity.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 3h
Macron: “Brexit is the biggest lie of the last 30 years. “Those who said, "We will be richer" - eight points of GDP less ten years later. "”We will solve the problem of immigration" - it is more complicated than before. "”We are going to crush it in international trade" - it is worse.”
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RDCK98 @comradekenobi.bsky.social · 3h
Something of note; with the reports that Burnham is apparently swaying towards free personal care model as done in Scotland, this combined with moves to enable water renationalisation, and electoral reform...is Andy Burnham just making England into Scotland under devolution?
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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 3h
This is why the overwhelming logic for Labour is to put rejoining the EU without a referendum in the manifesto. Cameron and Wilson were using promises of referendums to unite a voter coalition divided by Europe, Burnham would be using Europe to unite a voter coalition divided by other issues
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National Trust @nationaltrust.org.uk · 5h
Nobody has ever regretted a scone after a long walk.
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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 5h
BBC reveals preferred bidders for the Doctor Who franchise tender.
KamelionWOTANConan
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Dr Rebecca Tyson @tyguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
1. #MedievalSky, grab a lifejacket and a seasickness bag, we’re casting off on a thread about the Norman invasion fleet in 1066! 960 years ago, the Normans landed at Pevensey and established a base at the Roman shore fort which was already succumbing to erosion from the sea on its south side. 1/20
Photograph of Pevensey Castle with an information board in the foreground showing an artists impression of how the view may have looked in 1066 when the sea came almost up to the walls.
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Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 5h
Man City unveil their 2027-28 kit
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 3h
This is going to haunt me.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 11h
GOAT OR BIRD????
This is even better than the
"what color is this dress" dress.
Goat?
or Bird?
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 4h
Just passed a restaurant offering “Italian, Mexican and Chinese specialities” I’d say they’re generalities at that point.
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Dave Cobblers @cobbblers.bsky.social · 4h
I ordered 48 loo rolls off Amazon. "Delivered" w/ a picture of them leant against a desk. I complained and they sent another, which was "delivered" next to the first one. This kept happening until a flustered man who lived 800yds away turned up at my door with 192 toilet rolls. We went halves on em😎
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 9h
A truly heinous man has doxxed the Cornell victim on X and the comments are predictably vile. Based on countless interviews I’ve done with survivors, the trauma they are subjected to for coming forward is oftentimes even worse than the initial trauma they experienced. There is no real justice system
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 5h
I’d say the optimistic case now is: 1. There’s already some momentum. 2. UK rates start from a more restrictive position than US or Euro ones; less tightening ahead. 3. Maybe, just maybe?, it looks like European gas markets have gone a bit overboard and there’s some relief ahead.
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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 4h
In which @robertshrimsley.bsky.social puts into words that nagging feeling I’ve been having. www.ft.com/content/122a...
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Catio Miles @catiomiles.bsky.social · 4h
And in his previous UKIP version of Farage Party, they were staunch defenders of the £. But now they promote crypto instead.
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 4h
BREAKING: Tory talking sense on ULEZ etc. "If we campaign on a platform of taking out LTNs, be aware that we’re campaigning to send floods of traffic back down the now quiet streets where many of our voters, and many more of our potential voters, live."
conservativehome.com
Andrew Gilligan: Popular among activists, scrapping ULEZ doesn't add up - either politically or financially | Conservative Home
On the subject of motoring in London, there’s a long history of utter Tory refusal to look the electoral facts and numbers in the eye. You don’t have to agree with me on this. So please, let’s start t...
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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 4h
Best part: "'My wallet was stolen and my Italian ID was inside,' she said. With a looming holiday, she contacted the Italian embassy to ask what she needed to do, but to her frustration quickly realised that it would be faster to gain Belgian citizenship than to wait for a remade Italian ID."
brusselstimes.com
Why so many Italians are getting Belgian nationality
Belgium appears to be an easy place for Italians to come and be themselves. Many of those who do, love it and choose to formally become Belgian. But why?
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 5h
NEW: ‘It’s an implicit threat’. Lord Tom Watson of Palantir writes to one of its biggest critics -Labour MP @labourlewis.bsky.social - to tell him the surveillance firm is watching him. www.thenerve.news/p/clive-lewi...
thenerve.news
They’re saying: we’re watching you’: MP Clive Lewis reveals Tom Watson has warned him over criticising Palantir
In a letter to his former Labour colleague, the peer, who joined Peter Thiel’s AI company this month, writes: ‘You have made the case against the company more or less continuously’. By Carole Cadwalla...
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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 4h
The morning after. The fact is we are now in a national argument. Gone are the years of Labour just conceding contested ground; winning power but losing the argument; governing for party over country. If the centre-left loses it will now be after a proper fight.
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Richard Littler @richardlittler.bsky.social · 4h
The BBC's new director general's brain is smaller on the inside.
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Zoë Grünewald @zoegrunewald.bsky.social · 5h
As Lord Harris so eloquently told me earlier in the week.. it’s the scourge of NIMTOism… Not In My Term of Office
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 5h
We know the options for the UK-EU relationship, FTA plus (towards Switzerland) or minus (TCA), or membership. Accept that, choose one, make the case for it. bsky.app/profile/davi...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 5h
It’s possible this results in rejoining the EU. A more bearish scenario: Labour agrees to get rid of its red lines on customs union and single market; it fails to resolve whether that means it actually wants to join the CU & SM; it looks to the EU with big eyes to ask it resolve the contradiction
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James Alistair Henry @jamesbluecat.bsky.social · 5h
Also, if AI gets to the level that it can procedurally generate bad 50min episode of shows (it might!), viewers aren't going to go to the BBC/Netflix/Paramount, they'll type in 'Episode of Doctor Who where the baddies look like that person I hate at work lol (but sexy)'....
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Finn @thegoblinpoet.bsky.social · 5h
are LLMs just an attempt to recreate Americans from first principles
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 14h
Dear @erc.europa.eu , we DO already have common standards & frameworks. 'AI' likes to pose itself as 'special' but we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We already have established codes of conduct for research integrity. We just need to apply them. See below + more resources in thread🧵
Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
We must protect and cultivate the ecosystem of human knowledge. AI models can mimic
the appearance of scholarly work, but they are (by construction) unconcerned with truth
— the result is a torrential outpouring of unchecked but convincing-sounding “informa-
tion”. At best, such output is accidentally true, but generally citationless, divorced from
human reasoning and the web of scholarship that it steals from. At worst, it is confidently
wrong. Both outcomes are dangerous to the ecosystem.
Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij, Marcela Suarez, et al. (2025, n.p.)
Knowledge production is supposed to be safeguarded by (inter)national codes of conduct for research
integrity (ALLEA 2023; KNAW et al. 2018). Such codes forbid, for instance, fabrication of data,
falsification of results, plagiarism, and, generally, distortion of the scientific record. Many argue that
new rules are required to regulate academic AI use, but pre-existing guidelines fit the bill (cf. Tafani
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Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · 13h
The Conservative Party debated for a couple of hours and decided that no, they are not a serious party. Inevitably.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 16h
Meta's "Muse" launched with a nasty zero day flaw that gave hackers the ability to spy on Mac users, openly gives root access to people pretending to be Muse agents, and invited strangers over to another guy's house without telling him
karlbode.com
Meta's Latest AI Product Is A Terrifying And Hilarious Mess
Authoritarian-friendly mass surveillance has never been more adorable
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 15h
Was interviewed by a US journalist today who asked if we were all panicking about terrorists at Fairford, which ended with me trying to explain dogging.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 15h
"Hero farmer" may not actually have been the one who alerted the police to the men in balaclavas 🤯 www.ft.com/content/e9b1...
ft.com
Suspect in RAF Fairford incident called 999 shortly before arrest
Motive for the emergency call is unclear, as police continue to investigate incident at air base used by US bombers
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Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 18h
"No explosive devices were found in three vans searched near RAF Fairford as part of a terrorism investigation but a quantity of petrol was recovered, police have said" Can't believe Donald Trump and Marco Rubio might have been wrong. Shocked.
theguardian.com
No explosives found in three vans searched near RAF Fairford, say police
Head of counter-terrorism policing defends decision to bail five British men arrested in connection with the incident
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