Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 11/08/2025Having been desperate for more Narnia films as a kid really makes me happy to see this properly taking shape. Memories of reading rumours of the horse and his boy being adapted (as a not very world-wise 11yo) have left me cynical! 020
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 18/06/2025Another recent example is the transformation of gov websites. Makes a massive difference in doing admin efficiently, but (unless e.g. like me you're a dual national) you don't ever have perspective on how crap it could be/was. The very improvement achieved in turn makes you *not* notice anything. 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 16/06/2025On the former, even hacking arguments really do just seem silly ... as if the issue w hackers is an inability to apply the theft act! Any idea of incentivisation through law around groups/ppl who often revel in their being rogue and criminal is laughable (especially when they're often in russia!) 100
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 09/06/2025I have similar feelings from a reader's perspective. More good stuff, no actual iron cross pp Nazis. The question I wonder is whether what I miss out on *matters*? When I log in, am I just seeing weird twitter-brain or am I seeing important stuff/trends in the UK? Feels hard to tell. 100
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 07/06/2025a profound irony when I went to add this to my reading list (for when finals are done and I have time to read again) and the following feature was the first thing to come up 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 07/06/2025After reading some other comments I wonder if the issue could also be that 'second hand' has an implicit bad quality grading. Refers to there being a prior owner AND the item being well worn. Vintage refers to 2h AND good quality (see, similarly, like new). (agree on the preloved hate though) 020
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 02/06/2025What slightly scares me is I don't see how we break the cycle. And insofar as these things tend to push people step-by-step to the more extreme, where will this take some politicians? Are we doomed to fascism for the sake of twitter blue engagement payments? What a way to go. 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Further evidence for your great piece's basic thesis is in the always internet popular 'gruel'-y quotes, like the ones on those annoying ig/pinterest accounts telling you to love yourself or something. Esp. telling that ai is massive in that kind of thing now—but people loved it even as human slop! 041
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Crazy that when I open X the first thing I see is a post by the leader of Britain First. I don't go on it often anymore, but I'm genuinely amazed that that's something I'm so easily and casually exposed to cf a few years ago. Anyway. Back to revision. 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Regretting the few years I underappreciated Steely Dan's Two Against Nature. Found it a bit too slick but this year it hits the spot — What a Shame About Me is impeccable. (restraining myself from a thread on the song. contract final tmrw is not looking in the 'write a thread on steely dan' state!) 020
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/05/2025We're seeing a pattern in local elections / by-elections where Tories will vote tactically for Reform (like Runcorn) but Reform voters won't vote tactically for the Tories (like here where they've just completely split the right vote). 814935
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 23/05/2025I’m amused at imagining this for older works. I’d love to walk into a living room dominated by a giant, detailed Canaletto in the middle of the floor — not quite sure how I’d react! 020
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 19/05/2025/2 Not to say that you can't choose that fishing is the more important thing to protect. But you can't just debate no eu fishing vs eu fishing. One side has more defence investment, potential export benefits, and youth mobility econ benefits. Irritating to see papers analyse *comparatively*. 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Lots of cases/thought experiments/literature on why we treat and react to acts/omissions differently. Brexit in some tabloids a good one rn! Doing nothing (damaging farmers+other exporters due to onerous checks) is ignored, whilst the active step of opening up fishing to the EU is unacceptable! 100
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 15/05/2025Amused to see that none of the (albeit relatively tiny) tax rises have been mentioned since the election. Highlights the extent to which this is all fairyland politics where no sacrifices need to be made and anything becomes possible! 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/04/2025@themountaingoats.bsky.social currently sat in a small restaurant in the Italian village my mum’s from. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton just came on — cue an explanation to my Italian family as to why they should be excited! 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 02/04/2025no. no. A white witch has to live up to Tilda Swinton as the WW and this just won’t. 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 22/03/2025An on today's episode of 'what were the instructions' — CUBC goes to silk and (conveniently) gets an opinion that agrees with the position they want to argue. Silly stuff as ever by the media. www.thetimes.com/uk/society/a...thetimes.comJames Cracknell says Boat Race is discriminatory — a KC agreesThe former Olympian, the oldest to compete in the race between Oxford and Cambridge universities, said the row was a result of ‘in-built pettiness’ 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/03/2025People making that equation, however, is one of the many ways in which discussions are prevented from being had in proper good faith. That's bad (I should get back to productive work rather than list reasons why). 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/03/2025And be contrarian if you want to! As much as I am not one — and contrarians can piss me off deeply — there is genuine value in them. But it doesn't mean that you're the only one in the room 'thinking for yourself'. That question is independent of the substance of your beliefs. 100
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/03/2025If we eliminated the intellectually lazy habit *some* have of equating 'thinking for oneself' to 'disagreeing with the majority' the world would be a far easier place to discuss things. 100
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 20/03/2025wow I just spent four hours catching up with people whose company I enjoy without looking at my phone at all and I feel a lot better than when I spend four hours staring at my phone instead? amazing finding, maybe you'll find it useful also 030511
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 12/03/2025Been listening to a lot of the Barbican live version of If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian. Honestly better than the og version, some songs just have a level more energy than they did in the studio and have come to love songs that I'd merely liked! (Mayfly, Me&Major, SeeingOtherPpl) 000
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeJohn Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 10/03/2025In a time of crisis, there is just one who can save America: 3523
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 06/03/2025If you can connect it to a charger you can try standby mode? support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/...support.apple.comUse StandBy to view information at a distance while iPhone is chargingDisplay your favorite photos, clock, Live Activities, and more while your iPhone is charging. 000
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeMujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 03/03/2025🇪🇺🇬🇧 Through my first set of meetings in Brussels. The praise for Starmer is overwhelming: “What he has managed to do is not just good for him. It's good for all of us. Absolutely top notch. This is the UK at its best. The UK we have always admired. 1004605855
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 28/02/2025(on a personal note it's quite striking how quickly I've gone from "generally a bit of a pinko on defence issues" to "and could I just do a monthly direct debit to BAE Systems, would that help") 631485198
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 23/02/2025Most ironic thing in this is that this actually seems a really inefficient use of civil servants’ time 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/02/2025The bits of us constit law I know are quite basic + more along the lines of general principle. Tend to prefer private law too but god I’d love a us constit module rn. 000
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Always find really weird the whole 'co-worker's can't be friends' narrative. They don't have to be, most probably won't be, but just interact with people and see if you like them! Weird to limit ourselves like that 010
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 21/02/2025Incredible show. More of a rock/alternative/mainstream pop guy than a rap guy, but nevertheless a truly brilliant show in choreography, storytelling, and performance. Then again, I usually find Super Bowl shows v underwhelming. 000
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 21/02/2025This is a poor headline from the BBC. The US aren't offering a "deal" - they want the minerals in return for support already given. It's straight up extortion. 1062453586
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Genuinely confused about where one would get properly live news w/o Reuters, AP, Bloomberg (in the way I presume is pretty important if you’re running a country)? Guess that’s not the point though tbh 110
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 18/02/2025“I don't want any other foreign secretary of this country to be talked to or at by a secretary of state in the United States as I have just had in my discussions with Mr Byrnes. We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs. We've got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it." 46914
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeMark Hertling @markhertling.bsky.social · 19/02/2025It continues to amaze me that those who know & have suffered under Putin know who he is & what he does, while too many Americans still believe we can “strike a deal.”kyivpost.com‘No Point Negotiating’ With Putin, Says Navalny’s WidowOn Friday, Navalnaya spoke on a panel at the conference with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. 701654413
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Like if you haven't picked up I think it would be bad if Kemi Badenoch became PM, sorry, you just aren't thinking critically enough about any of the media you *choose* to consume! It's alarming! 5855
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 17/02/2025Or, bear with me here, a reason to increase defence spending *could be* that Russia has sought to remake the borders of Europe by force. 1646451
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 18/02/2025If you missed today's newsletter, in which I said 'look, come on, we really do need to be increasing spending back to 1966 to 1990 levels and it's mad to think you can get political consent for that without increasing spending elsewhere', don't worry: I will be saying it for most of the year I thinkft.comLabour will have to ditch tax pledges sooner or laterSpending cuts to fund increased defence spending will not impress UK voters and something will have to give 1624751
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeIan Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 16/02/2025There'll be no deal about Ukraine without Ukraine. America has no ability to enforce it, any more than it has the right to enforce it. If it attempts to insist on one, it will be one of the most shameful moments in its history. And one of the most humiliating. 691268319
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 16/02/2025“Plans have been submitted for a council’s radical multimillion-pound scheme to revamp a town centre bus station - despite fears it will encourage drug users and anti-social behaviour” … by replacing it with a park. Every day I’m more radicalised against nimbys www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/n...kentonline.co.uk‘It's going to be a nightmare - no one will know where to get their buses'Plans have been submitted for a new park to replace a town centre bus station, despite fears it will encourage drug users and anti-social behaviour. 000
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeKendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 15/02/2025It's not just fdr. One of the things the epa did not long after it was formed was document the nation's pollution via photography. That can seem frivolous, but generations of Americans have no idea why the EPA was necessary. This broke a million views when we published it in 2017popsci.comThis is what America looked like before the EPA cleaned it upA snapshot from America before the impact of the EPA and the effects of rules regulating clean water and air were felt. 8240641762
Reposted by Alexander Pitlargethe Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 16/02/2025Being from Southern California in the 70s it’s always funny to explain to people who grew up elsewhere what a smog alert was as a child I could tell when we were gonna have a smog alert (no playing on the playground) because my chest would hurt on the inhale 3172586
Alexander Pitlarge @pitlarge.bsky.social · 12/02/2025Have many issues w/ the Catholic Church. There's many reasons that I no longer engage with the institution despite being raised Catholic.. But a genuinely beautiful letter by Pope Francis. Worth anyone's time, and a welcome pause to the tone we often hear rn. www.vatican.va/content/fran...vatican.vaLetter of the Holy Father to the Bishops of the United States of America (10 February 2025) | FrancisLetter of the Holy Father to the Bishops of the United Sates of America, 10 February 2025 000
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeArchie Hall @archiehall.bsky.social · 12/02/2025Latest Substack post now up—which includes a walkthrough of all my poorest predictions on British economic policy in 2024, plus some reflections on Labour's recent growth announcements. ➡️ Take a look here: notes.archie-hall.com/p/all-the-wa... 263
Reposted by Alexander PitlargeSpinningHugo @spinninghugo.bsky.social · 09/02/2025Sumption's position is upside down. A wholly domestic "human rights" regime is unjustifiable. It falls foulf of all of the objections there are to having legislation reviewed according to an open textured set of values that Parliament should already be weighing when enacting laws. /1 14811
