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Michael

@mykl.sparkle.blue
1.6K followers 3.1K following 9.1K 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
German Embassy London @uk.diplo.de · 52m
The world’s tallest wind turbine has been built in Brandenburg, Germany. Standing at 365m, it is the second-tallest structure in 🇩🇪, after the Berlin TV Tower (368m). Thanks to strong & consistent winds at higher altitude, it is expected to achieve twice the output of conventional turbines.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1h
Mumsnet denies using AI for content after prompt appears on message board
theguardian.com
Mumsnet denies using AI for content after prompt appears on message board
Users reject site’s explanations after detailed instructions for writing response to post on popular forum was published Mumsnet has denied using AI to produce content after detailed instructions to help an AI model write one of its popular “am I being unreasonable” (AIBU) posts appeared on a Mumsnet message board. Users of the long-established forum, which is known for its frank discussions of family tensions, were vexed when the AI prompt appeared in response to a user seeking advice about a family dilemma involving a neurodivergent uncle and a sick child. Continue reading...
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 2h
I was thinking about the original post when I saw a woman holding her phone up in front of her to have a conversation. I was about to groan to myself, but then it became clear that she was Italian and her hand gestures were a vital part of the conversation she was having.
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BUCKERS @deathofbuckley.bsky.social · 3h
Andy Burnham when someone says the don't like The Smiths x
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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 14h
This money is absolutely meaningless to Elon Musk, but it has the potential to completely rewrite your future. He's spent over $36 million in about 4 weeks, and he's adding millions a day. All to corrupt our government to push his agenda. Let your friends know what's up.
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 18h
Every now and then, when people say stupid things about socialism, I have to roll out these lines from Arthur Lewis, on what socialists want.
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Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 4h
Your regular reminder that a couple can already pass down a £1m property to their kids/grandkids (pass your home to spouse tax free; they get your £325k tax-free allowance - so £650k; you each get £175k "main residence allowance" if you pass to a direct relative - so £350k - total £1m).
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 4h
NEW - Kemi Badeoch says there will be no inheritance tax to pay ever on a family home. Interested to know how this affects the housing market. Asset-rich pensioners just got a huge (extra) incentive not to downsize.
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ambrosen @ambrosen.eurosky.social · 5h
Goes to a genuinely delightful Anglo-Italian caffè, orders the blandest thing on the menu, dunks on it. caffetropea.co.uk/family/
caffetropea.co.uk
Family | Caffè Tropea
We opened our first London cafe in 1968! To this day we continue to provide a warm and welcoming atmosphere in the heart of Russell Square.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 5h
That’s two knocks against your reading comprehension in one reply. *plonk*
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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 7h
Lisa Stansfield cradles her automatic pistol as she waits impassively on the rooftop for her latest target to emerge from the building across the street.
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Fourfoot @fourfoot.bsky.social · 9h
He looks like if there was a character in Neighbours called Cuntfish.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 5h
Because the poster is clearly British and posted to a British novelty account followed and commented on mainly by British readers. Please stop being tedious.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 5h
Software agents are just more like nerve agents than travel agents.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 5h
There are literally dozens of them, I hear.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 5h
Maybe his house isn’t that portable?
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milk bottle champion @stepheniscowboy.bsky.social · 6h
Me: So how does this blood test work? Elizabeth Holmes: It just needs a finger prick Me: Alright just a question wasn't it knobhead
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 7h
Eric Claxton's guiding principle when designing Stevenage was that separating bikes and cars was fine, if: - Their routes ran parallel - For every metre the bikes gave up in gradient, the cars should give up two - If necessary, you make the cars go further not the bikes Because cars have ENGINES
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Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 7h
Andy Stone informing Lance Slater that a second hoard has been found
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 6h
“The ones who walk away from the Falkland Islands”
en.wikipedia.org
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Wikipedia
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 6h
It’s illegal to record conversations you’re not party to. Even private investigators won’t go there.
nationalprivateinvestigators.co.uk
Is It Legal to Use Listening Devices in the UK?
Thinking of using a listening device in the UK? Learn what's legal—and what's not—under UK law, plus the serious consequences of illegal recordings and safer alternatives.
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Mick Fealty @mickfealty.bsky.social · 8h
1/ In August 1969 a gang of loyalists, fresh from burning Catholic-owned pubs in Belfast, walked into my mum's bar and asked if the town had any. Her Protestant customers said no. Eight in ten were, ours included. They called the men a taxi. 🧵
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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 9h
Yes! Excellent post. Standards aren’t regulation or red tape. Europe’s success with the GSM standard (while the US allowed standards competition) helps explain success in mobile tech.
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Scott Innes @flyinginside.bsky.social · 8h
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Simon Frankel Pratt @simonpratt.bsky.social · 9h
Let me talk about 7 October 2023. Tbh I'm not comfortable doing so here. I don't trust you. On that day, and in the days following, my experience of social media was deeply, profoundly unpleasant. But a lot changed in my life as a result of the attack and the war. So I may as well share how.
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 18h
a little louder for the cheap seats in the back
One of the biggest myths is that men rape by mistake. Like, "Oh, they need consent training." But research is very clear: Sexual violence is not a mistake. It is an intentionally made decision by people who know they don't have consent. They just don't prioritize consent over things like status, power, domination, and sexual gratification.
For my research, I got a certificate of confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health, so my notes couldn't be subpoenaed. One of the reasons I call them perpetrators in my work is because every single person I interviewed confessed in that context. The first question I would ask them was, "When you received that email from Title IX that you were under investigation, did you know what it was about?" Every perpetrator I interviewed said "yes." If sexual assault were a miscommunication, you would be wondering, What have I possibly done wrong? That is not the way that any of them reacted because they knew.
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Museum of Twitter @museum-of-twitter.bsky.social · 16h
@CethanLeahy

Me: oh wow, this shop has everything my heart desires!

Spooky shopkeeper: yes, I will warn you... every item comes with a price.

Me: yes, I know how shops work

kittydesade

Spooky Shopkeeper: The price may be more than you expect to pay.

Me: Yes, I know how US taxes work, too.

del3141

Shopkeeper, increasingly exasperated: I'm trying to tell you that I'm evil and offering these wares with no regard for the harm they will do!

Me, also increasingly exasperated: I know what capitalism is too goddammit
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 7h
Just scrub the tannin stains off. Case closed.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 7h
Very odd. It looks like someone asked what rounding off a cybertruck would look like. Not my cup of tea, but it’s very distinctive and screams “I am rich”. Good third car to have in Gulf states.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 8h
Best three pies in London just landed.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 8h
If this was posted by anyone else, it would trigger more tedious food discourse. I know your followers will do better.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 8h
“It was always you … Camilla”
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Dan Waterfield @danwaterfield.bsky.social · 16h
The waters at bath: far away, expensive Drinking from the wash near Boston, Lincolnshire: close, affordable.
regimen.
I also visited Freestone, near Boston, in Lincoln-shire, to which place a number of tradesmen and farmers resorted with their wives, in hopes of receiving benefit from the use of the salt water, in a va-mety of complaints; which they had been advised to do by the faculty, for a month, with particular directions to bathe every other day, and on the intermediate days to drink half a pint of the water in the course of that day. But these wise people, on duly considering the matter, were fully convinced that this would detain them from their families and business longer than was altogether convenient; and also (which they supposed their medical friends never thought of that they could bathe the full number of imes, and drink the prescribed quantity of the wate n a week or a fortnight at farthest, and thus not onl expedite the cure, but likewise enable them to return to their families and business so much earlier, as well as sing the secessa yengin of attending heat continuing
These united considerations appeared to thein
so consistent
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 9h
FT exclusive: UK tax authorities probed Manchester City in 2018 over whether it used complex arrangements to underpay tax, nearly a decade before the club was found to have breached the Premier League’s financial rules. www.ft.com/content/796e...
ft.com
HMRC opened probe into Man City’s tax affairs in 2018
Investigation into whether English football club was underpaying tax began after its internal emails were leaked
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Nick McGeehan @ncgeehan.bsky.social · 10h
"Suggest you google this guy" Manchester City Council responded to my 2013 Freedom of Information request for details of their deal with Manchester City by flagging my background to City's chief communications officer. Deeply inappropriate (and that's being generous).
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Chris Ponting @chrisponting.bsky.social · 19h
Thursday 27th January 2022. Alan Titchmarsh tells Alan Bennett that Barry Cryer has died.
27 January. A call from Alan Titchmarsh to tell me Barry Cryer has died. Sheer sorrow - no mixed feelings, a light extinguished.
Not my sort of man at all and I was always amazed he liked me - ringing up out of the blue but almost on a weekly basis ("Cryer, I'm afraid') or embarking (without any introduction) on a joke and signing off, 'Well, I'll give you back your day? Dozens of people on his distinguished joke circuit - Judi Dench, Andrew Marr, Tony Harrison - quite apart from his radio and TV audiences.
As so often it's the landscape that alters.
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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 17h
the tech industry is about to invent books
Andrew Yeung 
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 8h
“His authority is solar-powered, activated only when the light of an enthusiastic crowd shines directly on him.”
theguardian.com
Zack Polanski had the chance to show real leadership. He blew it | Rafael Behr
A toxic debate over anti-Zionism leaves the Green leader looking like a passenger in the movement that carried him to the top, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 06/10/2026
Westminster Voting Intention: LAB: 27% (+3) RFM: 22% (-3) CON: 20% (+1) LDM: 11% (-1) GRN: 11% (=) RES: 3% (=) SNP: 3% (+1) Via @yougov.co.uk, 4-5 Oct. Changes w/ 27-28 Sep.
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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 20h
the tech bro who uses AI to play fantasy football for him is being dragged online. no one has ever been quite so mad frankly.
"but you've automated your hobby"
...
no, fantasy football is not my hobby. it's more of a social obligation.
my actual hobbies are gainful and awesome and mostly involve being outside. not fixating on team news and sportsball RNG. i have more time to do them because I use Al for all the boring stuff in my life.
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Steve Doherty @stevedoherty.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 21h
Lafayette Square isn't "a historic protest site." It's a fucking park. And it's packed on nice days. Calling it a protest site is White House framing. They're closing a popular public park to create a presidential palace Saddam Hussein would love.
nytimes.com
Inside Trump's Plan to Fence Off a Historic Protest Site (Gift Article)
The president’s proposal to enclose a park in Washington could alter how the space has been used for generations.
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 20h
What is the movie that came out before you were born that you’ve watched the most times? (I love how similar the angles are in these two shots despite Harry Palmer being spun as the “anti” James Bond.)
Michael Caine in the Ipcress File
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Michael @mykl.sparkle.blue · 20h
Americans, again.
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Ciaran @ciaranmcgurdy.bsky.social · 21h
Labour strategists will be having meetings from now until the election to figure out which way round Badenoch & Farage should go in this poster
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Kybosh @kybosh.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I like seeing the dev of the SNES core on the Pocket actually telling one of these dudes off. Holy shit.
8 Closed
Experimental MSU-1 streami. #123
nasonliu wants to merge 2 commits into a
agg23 commented yesterday
If it works, that's pretty cool; I didn't think
would ever see this implemented (I also didn't
expect LLMs to exist).
However, this is not something you can PR
here, or anywhere. You sent me a nearly 50k
line diff, unasked for, completely LLM built, and
you somehow expect me to review it. There is
SO MUCH unrelated garbage here. Never
minding all of the docs and Python, you've
somehow touched basically all of the upstream
HDL, which already had MSU1 support, so idk
what in the world you're doing.
This kind of behavior is not acceptable. You are
infringing on the time and brainpower of people
by pushing "your" content that little/no of your
brainpower went into; completely unrequested.
I hope for the sake of all responsible
maintainers that you do not do such a thing
again.
Again, I think it's cool that you and your LLM
supposedly got this to work. It has no place in
my world.
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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 23h
As a society, we have forgotten that the phone still works when you hold it up to your ear
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Mrs Quent @quarkquent.bsky.social · 22h
Excuse me, I have just been made aware (by Reddit) that some people butter both slices of bread in a sandwich. I need to know that this is a minority of perverts, and not the done thing.
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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 22h
The daily sea surface temperature is now so high, they had to add more chart because the previous version only went up to 30C
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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 22h
NO. DO NOT DO THIS. Do NOT think about The Event and under NO circumstances attempt to relive The Event. This may cause DISTRESS and CONFUSION. REMAIN INDOORS.
A double decker London bus with a poster on the side of it, saying “Relive the Event”. The poster is advertising Disney+ and the event in question is the Oasis reunion tour.
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