benhoyle.bsky.social
@benhoyle.bsky.social
How X's new location feature exposed big US politics accounts - BBC News

[“I’m a proud Scottish independence campaigner based in, err, an Iranian bot farm” 🤣]

Sow chaos and division 101 here.
How X's new location feature exposed big US politics accounts
Dozens of pro-Trump accounts are being accused of misleading followers after the social media site began showing user locations.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
“The depressed individual is unable to measure up; [they] are tired of having to become [themselves].”
November 24, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Has anyone twigged that decent AI transcription now means everyone can do minutes without a person taking minutes?

Or does the technology not stack up yet?
November 23, 2025 at 4:18 PM
We've got the most anxious generation in the developed world.

Know what anxiety is good for?

Sales.

Sometimes the majority of creative endeavours being in support of kings or religions don't seem so bad...
November 17, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Secret Somerset pro-tip: get the 174 bus from Wells to Bath - it’s a 112 minute guided tour of the Somerset wool routes, “collieries” & valleys (it would be 15 miles as crow flies).

Top deck front seat is special.
November 16, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Spotted in Shepton Mallet…
November 16, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Dichotomiser or non-dichotomiser?
November 14, 2025 at 10:14 AM
When you think about it, cake is a pretty efficient foodstuff...
November 12, 2025 at 12:46 PM
New read.

I saw Peter Macfadyen talk at a recent BRLSI event and wanted to learn more about the Independent Council in Frome (just next door to Bath). This is his book about it.

It’s also interesting to compare “democracy thoughts” in 2014 to 2025…
November 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Ah, do you remember how we once thought social media was the answer to democracy!

To be fair, there was potential. Around Arab Spring times. And the state of current social media is maybe partly a result of a decade of undermining a perceived threat for single party systems…
November 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
People often prefer a made-up abstracted set of reasons than someone saying… -
It's a Mystery
Toyah · Anthem · Song · 1981
open.spotify.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:30 AM
“We tear the heart out of everything in the name of efficiency then in our free time watch the bleed out.”
November 10, 2025 at 8:42 AM
One of my highlights yesterday at Simple Things was discovering DITZ - dark, heavy, playful, scuzzy, with brilliant riffs. Excellent live. The album from earlier in the year is 👌 - Never Exhale open.spotify.com/album/6FLTTZ....
Never Exhale - Album by DITZ | Spotify
DITZ · album · 2025 · 10 songs
open.spotify.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Simple Things festival returns as venues face 'challenging time' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... [Simple Things today! 🖤]
Simple Things festival returns as venues face 'challenging time'
The event brings bands to venues across Bristol and is seen as a lifeline for the local music scene.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 8:17 AM
“The editors of Scientific American were overwhelmed by the prospect of hearing the voices of the dead – an everyday miracle we now take for granted.”
November 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Stone tool discovery suggests very first humans were inventors - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

[I always liked the theories that brain size and language were followers, rather than enablers, of tool use & manual dexterity, which is what these findings suggest.]
Stone tool discovery suggests very first humans were inventors
The find shows that the technology was passed down through thousands of generations.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM
It’s pretty strange how average graduate starting salaries haven’t change much since I graduated 20-odd years ago (yet inflation has been non-zero & house prices are ~3x higher).
November 3, 2025 at 10:30 AM
“Irascible Eighteen” - abstract art’s avant-guard in 1950 - 17 middle-aged white men with similar haircuts in suits and ties.
November 3, 2025 at 8:42 AM
A good test for historical “great men” is how they treat their wives & partners, especially in ages of sexual inequality.

It’s why Dostoevsky trumps Tolstoy.
November 2, 2025 at 10:30 AM
“Unless ideas are massaged into reality they evaporate.”
October 31, 2025 at 12:46 PM
The rates of in-fighting, schisms, and lawsuits at nearly all “high IQ” societies likely tells us that we shouldn’t really be led in society by those with high IQs…
October 30, 2025 at 8:42 AM
“In many cases, a self-image as a “clever person” simply makes you more likely to hold your incorrect opinions extremely forcefully.”
October 29, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Cagot - WTF?
Cagot - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 29, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Bloody kurgans, coming over here with their “horses”, “wheels”, “metals”, sky fathers and proto-languages.
October 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM
The superpower of homo sapiens - seeing an imagined world, assuming it is real, and thus making the imagined, real.
October 28, 2025 at 8:42 AM