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Ian Betteridge

@ianbetteridge.com

8.5K followers 2.3K following 6.4K posts

Anecdontalist. He of the eponymous law. FRSA. Good at writing and sums. Degrowther, and not a fan of capitalism. Your pal. The Eye of Sauron, but for headlines. Made by socialism and immigration, which seems to annoy people.

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · Dec 15

Pinning this one to my profile for the hard for reading.

Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · Dec 15

People have a right to speak. They don’t have a right for anyone else to have to listen. That’s why block lists etc exist. I don’t give people the benefit of assuming good faith in the same way I wouldn’t if someone followed me down the street demanding I debate them. I’d call the cops, to be honest

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Soph Warnes @thatsoph.bsky.social · 2h

ICYMI, the most personal thing I've ever written, and it's on cnn dot com www.cnn.com/2025/09/28/h...

Can the party drug ketamine be a mental health breakthrough? It was for me | CNN

Known more for its use as party drug, ketamine can provide a lifeline for people experiencing distressing mental health symptoms.

www.cnn.com

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 1d

I think it was @hannahfearn.bsky.social who was asking what's up with the govt's ability to read the room ...
In what world is the response to high-profile and vocal groups of parents raising concerns about teens and smartphones to propose digital ID for teenagers?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Government to consult on digital IDs for 13-year-olds

There has been a backlash to the announcement a UK-wide digital ID scheme will be introduced by 2029.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jae H @considermycat.bsky.social · 1d

So… smartphones for teenagers are going to be *banned* in schools, but *mandatory* everywhere else. Got it. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Government to consult on digital IDs for 13-year-olds

There has been a backlash to the announcement a UK-wide digital ID scheme will be introduced by 2029.

www.bbc.com

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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 5d

“The current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.”

Prof Conor Gearty’s final essay in @lrb.co.uk is a painfully clear analysis of how the UK Supreme Court is depressing human rights norms.

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act

The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Jonathan Healey @jonathanhealey.bsky.social · 1d

It was two OUP books.

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 1d

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 1d

YouTube explains how banned creators can get a “second chance”

YouTube will evaluate each request individually, but copyright violators need not apply.

arstechnica.com

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ᚇᚐᚏᚉᚅᚓᚄᚄ ᚋᚐᚅᚔᚃᚓᚄᚈᚓᚇ @ciara2001.bsky.social · 1d

Ughhhh, why is this stuff coming in everywhere 🤬 (I'd filled it out online and it was just a male/female tick box)
Sorry, but it's 30 years since transition, I'm not outing myself like that

This year's HSE vaccine consent form showing a "sex at birth" question

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Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump Watches commercials are now running regularly on Newsmax

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 1d

They're no longer pretending it's anything except bigotry.

www.bigmouthstrikesagain.com/...

www.bigmouthstrikesagain.com

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 1d

They're cheesy as heck, but I have always loved Apple's "The Underdogs" ads.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4eU...

YouTube

www.youtube.com

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Jeremy Allen @jeres.bsky.social · 2d

I spoke to Ron Mael about the 13 albums that influenced Sparks, up on @thequietus.com today.

thequietus.com/interviews/b...

Set Everything On Fire: Ron Mael of Sparks' Favourite Albums | The Quietus

Ron Mael of Sparks talks us through his favourite albums of all time from foundational free jazz freak out to cutting edge J-pop via Bach

thequietus.com

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3d

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

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Raj LB @rajlb.bsky.social · 2d

When David Attenborough dies, the Earth's crust and mantle will be shorn from its core breaking into pieces and flying across the galaxy

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Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 2d

Reform UK Kent Councillor and Cabinet member Chris Hespe would rather save Adolf Hitler from a burning building than a trans person.

There’s more.

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 2d

A quick reminder that when David Bowie died, the world quickly went bananas. If the power that is Dolly Parton also leaves this world, Earth will be entirely unprotected from cosmic evil.

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING

In a new video, Dolly Parton, the Queen of America, says she’s going to be ok.

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Joel @polyparadigm.bsky.social · 2d

Radionuclides can be good medicine, but the early days of OTC radium water were uh, regrettable

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 2d

AI is an almost textbook case of a technology that’s being misapplied. There are areas where it’s super useful - but they are often not the ones which people are trying to shoehorn it into. This often happens with new tech, and it’s striking with AI.

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Ian Betteridge @ianbetteridge.com · 2d

One of the problems with AI search is that necessarily you’re searching for something you don’t know. AI works best in scenarios where you know what good looks like, so you have that human safeguard built in, but it speeds up your work by giving you a starting point.

Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 3d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

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Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 3d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

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Kate Watson @loreandordure.com · 2d

A plan with no downsides:

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 3d

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.