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William Neal

@williamneal.eurosky.social
876 followers 6K following 1.3K posts

A self-taught software engineer (my next job was in fact cyber 🩰) l relocated to Brussels 🇬🇧🇪🇺 and between changing nappies, not learning French, being woken up at strange hours, l spend time learning about heterodox economics. The usual caveats apply

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Rosa @rosa.codes · 21h
Flanders 🇧🇪❤️🚲🚲🚲 Reason #1 why I love it there
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 15h
The definitive piece on this “debate”. Major public service contribution to global GDP by @newlefteviews.bsky.social. tl;dr: As anyone who’s spent time in both places knows, Europe has not fallen behind in any way that matters for actual welfare.
phenomenalworld.org
Dominik Leusder | Eurosclerosis or US Decline?
The debate about US and European competitiveness illustrates how narratives of economic decline and triumphalism tend to outrun their evidence
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Andrew Locking @andrews-walks.bsky.social · 17h
Spotlight on Buttermere
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 17h
Peter is basically the French infinitive verb to fart
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It would seem the Home Office has now acquired the ability to impose, without visibility or accountability, shadow bans on students coming to British universities from particular countries. How? Because of the interaction between indiv visa decisions (made by HO alone) and visa rules for unis 1/?
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 20h
Low CGB interest rates AND a massive grid buildout! Now THAT’S a Transmission Protection Instrument!
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Morning
A man stands in front of a large desk, behind which is a woman in glasses, and behind her a large sign reading “Service for asking stupid questions”. He says “Excuse me, is this the Service for asking stupid questions?”
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Piccalilli @piccalil.li · 09/10/2026
So much good stuff has arrived in HTML that gives us rich functionality for free and Chris helpfully breaks that down for us. chrisburnell.com/html-can-do-...
chrisburnell.com
HTML Can Do That
HTML has been gobbling up swathes of what used to be JavaScript’s remit. This page lists a bunch of dynamic functionality that we can now achieve with just HTML.
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Hang on what is going on here? I can't believe that there is no accounting standard for a basic question like including third party resellers, so which of the two of them is following it?
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Eoghan Walsh @eoghanwalshbxl.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Quintessential Belgian experience
Queue of shoppers at the Colruyt
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Jovi 🐨 @jovidecroock.com · 10/10/2026
A very active thought lately while creating madeinbe.dev/en has been how I can help SMB's get visibility, get up to speed with AI, ... I find that a lot of AI is knowing what you're doing and seeing possibilities which is hard for less tech-savvy folks.
madeinbe.dev
Made in Belgium
Discover physical and digital products made, built, and designed in Belgium. Every listing includes a transparent origin verdict and evidence.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 22h
Crikey
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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Shots fired.
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That Photo Guy @thatphotoguy.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Morning all……
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Heroes
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Damian Shields @damianshields.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
'Passing through' Glen Coe from Beinn a' Chrùlaiste 2016 #Scotland #GlenCoe #Lochaber www.damianshields.com
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FT Alphaville @alphaville.ft.com · 09/10/2026
as.ft.com/r/df9de413-9...
as.ft.com
Is Warhammer still winning?
Games Workshop’s wall of worry keeps getting steeper
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Adam Chalmers @adamchalmers.com · 08/10/2026
this folding frame was worth every dollar I spent at the antique store to get the world's greatest video call backdrop
A folding frame, with four leather panels, painted with flowers and birds. I'm sitting in front of it.
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Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A Berlin-based search engine used by govt is dropping its French AI partner, Mistral, in favour of open-source models, including Chinese “We are disappointed with the quality of Mistral,” Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll said, stating its models are “a year behind” competition
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I have long believed that when the American right complains about Karl Marx, most of the time, it really means Max Weber, but I did not realize Marx also means Smith, Ricardo, and Schumpeter.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Yikes
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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: For the past month or so I've been deep diving the narratives behind the concept of "petrodollar recycling". This is the first of three pieces I'll be writing debunking this narrative. www.crisesnotes.com/debunking-th...
crisesnotes.com
Debunking the Petrodollar “Recycling” Myth: Part 1
This is a Premium piece of Notes on the Crises. Subscribe to Read I’m going to tell you a secret: for many years I’ve rolled my eyes when people talk about “recycling petrodollars”....
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max power 🌌 @sneptech.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/10/2026
oh bezos is *juicing* juicing
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Dominik Leusder with some timely draghi report revisionism with @tracyalloway.bsky.social @weisenthal.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com
What Everyone Gets Wrong About the Economic Problems in Europe
Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · 8 October · 53min
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Lord, please give me the strength to stop shit posting about learning french, and instead passer du temps revising for my french exam. No, sprinkling my posts with random french phrases does not count.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
En fais, no, le cours de français is not the best place for me to express my "dark humour". Surtout quand some of mes amis have une expérience the effects de la guerre. I will find some better verbs to conjugate.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Should l put le chat in the washing machine? My wife: bemused puzzled look…
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Chez moi, we speak three languages. It is suddenly dawning on me that if I bother to learn all three, a whole new world of punnery, double entendre, jokes will open up to me. It also has the added benefit that I can communicate with my own children.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
if you listen, verrrry carefully, when my wife says “Pour me a glass of water”, pour sounds almost like french word for chicken. So obviously l oblige and start clucking and flapping my wings.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Funny joke from mon ami from mon cours de français: The sun never sets on the British Empire because God wouldn't trust an Englishman in the dark
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Is it true that in gyms in the US in built childcare is standard?
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Doll @dollspace.gay · 07/10/2026
Software copyright is effectively dead and it has been for a while, people just started noticing the body was cooling.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
My personal fav is to overengineer a hand crafted bespoke blog, write a one blog post about how l did it and then 🏜️🌵
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
🚨 I wrote a post about how US MBS are a (longstanding) part of the US Treasury doom loop machine. www.ft.com/content/a04e...
ft.com
How US mortgage bonds can trigger a ‘vicious loop’ for Treasury yields
One little cog in the bond market’s feedback machine
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tweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky @sifu.tweety.fish · 07/10/2026
it's just impolite. if you must have your phone on speaker, place it all the way inside your mouth. you'll be able to hear via bone conduction and the sound of your voice will have a rich resonance from the phone being entirely enclosed.
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
bsky.app/profile/snuf...
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
👀
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Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
No, it is proving that a bunch of things we assumed were optimal because they “looked nice” in a certain sense were wrong because a far uglier solution was better. Example: the tightest way to pack 9 squares into a big one is with a 3x3 grid of side length 3. The best way to pack 11 is this:
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026
Talking of Montréal, l indulged in nostalgia and saw Simple Plan at the Forret National in Uccle, which l didn’t realise was a 20 minute cycle from my house! I anticipate embracing more live music from now on.
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026
My French teacher taught me about tantôt as an same day alternative to bientôt that is très Belge. It is also vaguely familiar l wonder whether l may have heard it from my time in Montreal? Maybe one of my Quèbècois fan can confirm that l am not hallucinating?
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Space Captain Lispegistus 🇪🇺🇧🇬🏴‍☠️ @lispegistus.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Le Chonk
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Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Vestas CEO: “Five years ago, Chinese authorities barred Vestas from monitoring or running its own software on turbines. If European software isn’t welcome in China, why should Chinese software and turbines be welcome in Europe’s grid?”
fortune.com
'Europe needs to shed its naivety': Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen on Chinese competition and the energy issue that keeps him up at night | Fortune
The Danish company has pivoted through multiple crises to become the world’s biggest turbine manufacturer. Now, as new competitors emerge and costs rise, its CEO is changing strategy to stay ahead.
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Germany | Electricity Grid @de-grid.eurosky.social · 03/10/2026
So, bin jetzt auch bei eurosky.social 🇪🇺 Wirklich schneller und schmerzfreier Wechsel 👍
eurosky.social
Eurosky Portal
Your Portal to the Atmosphere
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 03/10/2026
I think we are overdue a Derrida renaissance… l think it is a nice way to think of Openai, Z.ai, Anthropic etc… as emerging houses of the arkheion. I think llms make D’s lines of argument more tangible
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
🚨It was only a matter of time before the good people of the BIS got around to looking at AI circular financing www.ft.com/content/8787...
ft.com
Is circular financing in AI a problem?
Only if the wheel stops spinning
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NEW The diabolical defending of Manchester City Understanding an aggressive litigation strategy By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk (Prospect paywall is down currently.) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th... #MCFC
What can explain such an aggressive and counterproductive approach? To an extent the answer may be in the facts and the evidence. Perhaps the view was that the only chance of getting out of this was to be unhelpful as well as robust. In respect of an earlier dispute with Uefa, an internal communication at the club apparently said “Uefa doesn't respond to anything other than aggression”. Maybe the view was taken that this would work here too. Maybe the club still thinks it will work in the end, with the league being pushed into settlement on appeal or at the doors of the High Court.

But this does not offer a total explanation. What may work with Uefa may not work with other adversaries. The structure of the league’s investigation and the disciplinary approach meant that aggression would not only be unhelpful, but would count heavily against the club. An appeal on the law or procedure at the High Court in this sort of case only has a remote chance of success. It can be assumed the club was warned of all this.

There is a phrase in football punditry that “the defending is diabolical”. Here diabolical is, of course, a synonym for dreadful. But in its more literal sense, diabolical means bedevilled with wrongful purpose. And the strategy adopted by Manchester City in contesting this matter is also in this sense diabolical. The club will have known that it was unlikely to work, and that it would make things harder, but the club decided to do it anyway.
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James Dart @jamesdart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Asked to respond to whether his team were 'not German enough' or 'not white enough', Klopp said there was no point in giving room to 'such people and their utterances', adding: 'I have little time in everyday life for idiocy'. Story: @kateconnolly.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Jürgen Klopp disgusted by claims his Germany team are ‘not white enough’
Jürgen Klopp has reacted with disgust to a social media debate questioning whether the Germany team he is in the process of forming are ‘white enough’
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William Neal @williamneal.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026
I generated some British food discourse today in my French class when we had to present cuisine from our country of origin and l picked a Balti (l’m from Brum). Further mild controversy when a chap from Pakaistan also presented a dish containing similar ingredients
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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Man City’s Emirati chair was granted diplomatic immunity 6 yrs ago in a move that could complicate any legal action resulting from findings that the club artificially inflated its finances by more than £900mn - scoop by Caroline Binham @journosooz.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/d717fb9e-2...
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