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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 4h

Both people “shafted” in the game show waiting for Strictly, and an excuse to post the correct way to deal with this stupid endgame: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qj...

golden balls. the weirdest split or steal ever!

YouTube video by spinout3

www.youtube.com

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 7h

The most stressful film I have ever seen was, having no idea of the plot, “An Ideal Husband”, the 1999 film starring Rupert Everett and Julianne Moore

‘Verging on unwatchable’: Guardian writers on their most stressful movies

With the US release of Rose Byrne’s anxiety-inducing motherhood spiral If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, writers relive their most uncomfortable movie watches

www.theguardian.com

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 7h

I have never had it, but www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes... uses eight! Or www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes... has a kiwi hot sauce...

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 8h

Transport system confuses moron (AI learner) (8)

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 8h

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The “But It Might Work For Us” meme, changed to be as follows:

Panel 1: A man says, “There are many parts of AI that I think are kind of bubbly right now.”
Panel 2: A woman says, “Well did it work for those people?”
Panel 3: The man replies, “No, it never does, I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but...”
Panel 4: He continues, “...but there’s something real happening here.”

The words in the first and last panel are taken from the BBC News article.

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 11h

I have spent nine months feeling bad about a bug in something I’m responsible for that only kicks in if someone tries to amend a booking, *but* doesn’t amend the date, *and* if there are no more booking slots left for that same day, that has proved tricky to fix.

rodriguezcommaj.com/blog/why-doe...

Why doesn't anything work anymore? | Jason Rodriguez

Jason Rodriguez is a slightly jaded—but ultimately hopeful—tech worker. Working at GitHub.

rodriguezcommaj.com

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 13h

Asked her where they came from, www.stephenraw.com/content/brit... if you wanted to get some ;)

British Library buys Tolkien maps | Stephen Raw

The British Library in London and The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester have recently bought sets of Stephen's 'The Lord of the Rings' maps he drew to add to their world-renowned collecti...

www.stephenraw.com

Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 1d

Nice. My mum knew the official map drawer so has the Lord of the Rings triptych on the living room wall

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Reposted by Matthew Somerville

Louise Crow @itscrowbot.bsky.social · 1d

Twenty five years on, key parts of the compensation scheme for post office Horizon victims are just now being put in place.

In the new era of generative AI, how do we bring issues to light and address them before they create this kind of tragedy?

www.publictechnology.net/2025/10/07/s...

Our transparency rules need to adapt to the rise of AI

As automated technology becomes more widely used by public bodies, and for a broader range of purposes, Louise Crow of mySociety outlines why governance rules and processes must keep pace As th...

www.publictechnology.net

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 2d

A domain is for life, not just for Christmas.

This is why I mostly use subdomains for my things (apart from a couple of obvious ones), and keep memorial pages on our removed services.

If I were a publisher, I’d say all links had to go through my site. But then I know I’d be able to maintain that!

Spy Dog: Children's books pulled over explicit weblink

Schools have issued a warning to parents after a URL directed readers to inappropriate content.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 3d

Meh, it’s always been crowded and have problems, it’s bad but it’s not like it was ever a lot better.
(I’ve *never* had to buy a new ticket if a train is cancelled, you can just explain to the person on the next train; maybe I should run courses!)
Plenty of options to get to Dorchester :)

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 4d

I am the only one in my house who likes trifle, I hardly ever get to have it :(

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 4d

If you want a much more positive story, we took ours at 4 months to the Isle of Wight on holiday on the train and boat :)

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 4d

Alma played second violin with me in South Birmingham Sinfonia for 18 years, after taking up the violin in retirement; she was looking forward to our next programme. She was also in a wide array of other ensembles, from choir to folk. I went to her funeral today, and it was standing room only. RIP.

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Reposted by Matthew Somerville

Julia Cushion @juliacushion.bsky.social · 4d

this short and sweet blog from @dracos.co.uk is worth two mins of your time, it's important to us to be able to support other good bits of the internet, and it's important to me that everyone is reminded of this classic @xkcd.com

A cartoon from XKCD which is a stack of different sized boxes, all labelled 'all modern digital infrastructure'. One of the bottom tiny boxes holding up the whole pile is labelled 'a project some random person in nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003'

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Reposted by Matthew Somerville

SocietyWorks @societyworks.org · 4d

Along with our parent charity @mysociety.bsky.social, we're pleased to now formally sponsor OpenStreetMap and MetaCPAN – two key external pieces of digital infrastructure that help us to run our services.

www.societyworks.org/2025/10/07/w...

We are now sponsoring OpenStreetMap and MetaCPAN

Along with our parent charity mySociety, SocietyWorks is now formally sponsoring OpenStreetMap and MetaCPAN – two key external pieces of digital infrastructure that help us to run our services.

www.societyworks.org

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 5d

Moon over Cadbury

The Cadbury factory from across the cricket ground, with the moon and some wispy clouds above

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 5d

The only issue I have with this, is that the spirit of gungeing is still very much with us every Saturday morning on Saturday Mash-up, where they now called it getting slimed: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2PS...

Umm, and get your dog poop flags from www.fixmystreet.com/about/posters ;-)

Sofie Jenkinson @sofiejenkinson.bsky.social · 5d

As I was speaking on panels at Labour conference last week I began to describe the Britain I know exists and love. In the end I gave it a name: Mr Blobby Patriotism

And I’ve written about it for @renewaljournal.bsky.social here bsky.app/profile/rene...

Renewal @renewaljournal.bsky.social · 5d

"Most of us basically love our country, even if begrudgingly – not the version we’re told to, or even presented with, but the one we really see and live in every day. Silly Sausage Britain is the Britain most of us reside in, and love."

@sofiejenkinson.bsky.social on "Mr Blobby patriotism"

Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 5d

The best thing about the Metrolink is being able to press the door buttons in advance of getting to the station

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 5d

I am reminded of the graphs I made some months ago:
bsky.app/profile/drac...

A graph showing Kent’s net outgoings (not including central grants) over the past 9 years, and the percentage that has been spent on adult social care, children, growth/environment/transport, strategic/corporate and financing. A majority of the budget is spent on adult social care and children, rising from 63% of £933m in 2017-18 to 72% of £1,531m in 2025-26.

A graph showing gross expenditure of Kent by directorate, 2018 to present day. Adult social care and children take up over three quarters of the expenditure now, as opposed to two thirds back in 2018-19

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 5d

Home (well, childhood home) from seeing @caimhmc.bsky.social and friends with mum at the launch of the fifth Stranger Times book – thestrangertimes.co.uk/ring-the-bel... – including a short play, Q&A, and fake news quiz, after a walking tour round Hulme (near where I went to school) earlier

Ring The Bells - The Stranger Times

Book 5 of the award-winning The Stranger Times series Ring The Bells is coming soon

thestrangertimes.co.uk

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 6d

I’m from Manchester :) I’ve had worse. Taking my mum to the launch party for the new Stranger Times novel

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 6d

Sitting in The Allotment, opposite Manchester Cathedral, listening to the change ringing, drinking a nojito, waiting for some tapas

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 6d

There are weekly, if not daily, criminal offences occurring at every pelican and zebra crossing I use around me, more dangerous (and indeed, occasionally terrifying) than holding a placard, and yet I never see a police presence at any of them

"Mahmood rejects suggestion police should just ignore people holding placards saying they support Palestine Action
Mahmood says she has “no truck” with the argument that people should not be arrested for holding up signs saying they support Palestine Action (a proscribed group – which means just holding a sign in public saying you support them is an offence). She says:
"I have no truck with this argument that suggests that merely holding up a placard somewhere in central London somehow shouldn’t have a police response.

If you’re supporting a proscribed organisation, you are breaking the law of our land.

That organisation has been prescribed. It is an offence to show support for that organisation.

People might not like that decision. They might have questions about the way that the anti-terror laws work in this country. But there is no excuse for holding up placards supporting a banned organisation. That will always be met with a police response.""

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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 7d

Thanks; yeah, I guess its location means that it covers a lot of family houses in Kings Heath/Moseley

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