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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 4h

Irony squared

Reposted by Pete Miles

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 2d

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 2d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 5h

We hope 🤞

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 2d

Sinister...

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Also featured in the latest batch of Russian disinformation videos are comedian @geoffnorcott.bsky.social and children's author @philipardagh.bsky.social, again with their voices being deepfaked to attack Armenia.

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

I don't buy all the specifics in this 4-part video thread, but I think the principles are close enough to deserve some attention. Beware messing around with complex systems!

(Trump is engineering his own downfall, the question is how much of the US and the rest of the world is he taking with him.)

Jeff @justifiedmeh.mehcorp.net · 3d

Complex system cascading failure analysis.
The video is 10 mins long, so I had to break it up into pieces.

Part 1.

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 16h

Manchester's Portico Library developments...

www.placenorthwest.co.uk/manchesters-...

Manchester’s Portico Library could become £11m cultural hub - Place North West

The Grade two star-listed building off Mosley Street could be returned to its originally intended use, with an expanded library, exhibition hall, and events space all proposed for the 219-year-old ven...

www.placenorthwest.co.uk

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 16h

Manchester's Portico Library developments...

www.placenorthwest.co.uk/manchesters-...

Manchester’s Portico Library could become £11m cultural hub - Place North West

The Grade two star-listed building off Mosley Street could be returned to its originally intended use, with an expanded library, exhibition hall, and events space all proposed for the 219-year-old ven...

www.placenorthwest.co.uk

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 16h

Not now, please!

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Morten Morland @mortenmorland.bsky.social · 16h

Friday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 16h

You're right I could use Bluetooth but assume that would limit the sound quality, so as you say not optimum.

(Think I'm getting the blues here...)

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 16h

Except the BBC Sounds app is not supported on BluOS.

(I realised I hadn't checked whether Sounds itself offers a choice of devices to play on, apart from the device it's running on. The choices are Alexa, Google and Sonos.)

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 22h

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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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

It could be wrong on all the specifics but still right on the overall pattern. Nothing is definite, but the risk must have risen significantly.

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

The video suggests that the first sign of regime collapse will be the flight of the elites.

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

I don't buy all the specifics in this 4-part video thread, but I think the principles are close enough to deserve some attention. Beware messing around with complex systems!

(Trump is engineering his own downfall, the question is how much of the US and the rest of the world is he taking with him.)

Jeff @justifiedmeh.mehcorp.net · 3d

Complex system cascading failure analysis.
The video is 10 mins long, so I had to break it up into pieces.

Part 1.

1 1 5

Reposted by Pete Miles

Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 7d

The kind of thing that forecasters and economists are blind to is the fact that the decision to set a five-year forecast window as the basis of the whole framework is itself a democratic deficit; it introduces a bias against a whole space of possible politics.

Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 10d

New post: Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/09/misu...
The government delegating some highly technical tasks to independent experts doesn't create a democratic deficit, but it does avoid wishful thinking.

Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market

I often see pieces from those on the left criticising the OBR. Here is Louise Haigh , for example, talking about the “rigid orthodoxy of t...

mainlymacro.blogspot.com

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

On a podcast in the last 6 months I heard a very experienced tech business guy say that for the AI future the best recruits were likely to be arts majors.

(Hoping to remember who it was, I listen to a lot of podcasts!)

Reposted by Pete Miles

The Partial Historians 🏺 @partialhistorians.bsky.social · 3d

‘The Magic Circle’ 1886 by John William Waterhouse is our pick for φαρμακίς ‘witch, sorceress’ #ClassicsTober25

This painting captures the power and potential of harnessing a knowledge of nature to achieve certain ends. Could this be Medea, Circe or yet another powerful ancient figure? #Witch

Description from the Tate: “The woman in this picture appears to be a witch or priestess, endowed with magic powers, possibly the power of prophecy. Her dress and general appearance is highly eclectic, and is derived from several sources – her hairstyle is like that of an early Anglo-Saxon; and her dress is decorated with Persian or Greek warriors. In her left hand she holds a crescent-shaped sickle, linking her with the moon and Hecate. With the wand in her right hand she draws a protective magic circle round her. Outside the circle the landscape is bare and barren; a group of rooks or ravens and a frog - all symbols of evil and associated with witchcraft - are excluded. But within its confines are flowers and the woman herself, objects of beauty.”

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Reposted by Pete Miles

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

This afternoon I wandered around Paris’s 16th arrondissement in search of cool architecture, so here’s a thread!

First, the rue Mallet-Stevens, where all five buildings were designed by modernist master Robert Mallet-Stevens and finished in 1927. Sadly people live in them, so you can’t go in.

Modernist architecture on the rue Mallet-Stevens, Paris

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

I got this response to my BBC complaint. Looks like there has been another streaming issue which they have fixed (although not the BluOS issue).

BBC iPlayer Website
to Peter v

Dear Audience Member

Thanks for contacting BBC Sounds Support about not being able to get BBC stations on your internet radio device.

This was a fault with our streams on internet radio and the issue is now fixed. The streams should be working as
expected now.

We're sorry for the inconvenince caused but we appreciate you taking the time to let us know.

Kind Regards

BBC iPlayer & BBC Sounds Support Team
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help

<bbc_iplayer_website@contact.bbc.co.uk>

11:20 (7 hours ago)

:

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 1d

She's very creative

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 1d

Crashes come when the gap between the real economy & predatory speculative, fantastical & madly futuristic markets widens unsustainably. But when the inflated market valuations are of assets & products that are themselves predatory, speculative, fantastical & madly futuristic the hazard is magnified

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Possibility of ‘sharp market correction has increased’, says Bank’s financial policy committee

www.theguardian.com

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 2d

Sinister...

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Also featured in the latest batch of Russian disinformation videos are comedian @geoffnorcott.bsky.social and children's author @philipardagh.bsky.social, again with their voices being deepfaked to attack Armenia.

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Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 2d

He's not going to want to come back, is he

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Reposted by Pete Miles

Pete Miles @petermiles.bsky.social · 3d

Curiosity killed the cats.

Gary Larson, FarSide

Black and white cartoon.

A room with several dead cats. A microscope and whiteboard with equations.

A detective speaking to a policeman in the doorway.

"Notice all the computations, theoretical scribblings, and lab equipment, Norm. ... Yes, curiosity killed these cats."

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