Rob Miller
@robm.wtf
• writer • https://roblog.co.uk
• strategist • https://orso.so
• umami lover • https://msgist.com/ & https://honestumami.com/
• documentary watcher • https://docked.blog/
• photographer • https://reldn.co.uk/
• Romanista • https://romer.world/
📍 London
• strategist • https://orso.so
• umami lover • https://msgist.com/ & https://honestumami.com/
• documentary watcher • https://docked.blog/
• photographer • https://reldn.co.uk/
• Romanista • https://romer.world/
📍 London
Pinned
Rob Miller
@robm.wtf
· Aug 29
My stance on AI
Staking out a position in an evolving world; trying to figure out whether ethical AI usage is possible; charting a course between the doomsters and the boosters.
roblog.co.uk
I wrote about my stance on AI. tl;dr: AI has "original sin" from its theft-based training that we shouldn't forget, and using AI for creative work is both immoral and shit; but it's a mistake to think LLMs are useless or to leave them to the techbros and the sociopaths: roblog.co.uk/2025/08/ai-s...
Reposted by Rob Miller
Ⓝ TIRO ISSUE 1_NAPOLI Ⓝ
ON SALE NOW: a zine celebrating Napoli: the football, culture, and everything else in this incredible city, and football club.
Orders to ship from 12/12, also available in digital format!
SHOP HERE: shop.tirofootball.com/
ON SALE NOW: a zine celebrating Napoli: the football, culture, and everything else in this incredible city, and football club.
Orders to ship from 12/12, also available in digital format!
SHOP HERE: shop.tirofootball.com/
December 8, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Ⓝ TIRO ISSUE 1_NAPOLI Ⓝ
ON SALE NOW: a zine celebrating Napoli: the football, culture, and everything else in this incredible city, and football club.
Orders to ship from 12/12, also available in digital format!
SHOP HERE: shop.tirofootball.com/
ON SALE NOW: a zine celebrating Napoli: the football, culture, and everything else in this incredible city, and football club.
Orders to ship from 12/12, also available in digital format!
SHOP HERE: shop.tirofootball.com/
Reposted by Rob Miller
my central hypothesis is that this is also true for humans
> Our central hypothesis is that poetic form operates as a general-purpose jailbreak operator.
Is such a good sentence
Is such a good sentence
November 22, 2025 at 8:33 PM
my central hypothesis is that this is also true for humans
Obviously to base it on soup is demented, but this way of displaying "choose your own" recipes is… kind of neat?
Nov 1956: Tomato Soup ad from Crosse & Blackwell
(+Cream of Mushroom Soup; Cream of Celery Soup; Cream of Green Pea; Vegetable Soup; and Consomme)
«CROSSE & BLACKWELL
Ten-o'clock Tested
SOUPS»
(+Cream of Mushroom Soup; Cream of Celery Soup; Cream of Green Pea; Vegetable Soup; and Consomme)
«CROSSE & BLACKWELL
Ten-o'clock Tested
SOUPS»
December 8, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Obviously to base it on soup is demented, but this way of displaying "choose your own" recipes is… kind of neat?
Reposted by Rob Miller
Every interview with a right-wing politician is like: "Mr. Hitler is adamant: If we sacrifice enough children, Santa Claus will come back and deliver 5% GDP growth. But I have to ask him: Do you ever worry that your relentless advocacy for working folks offends the rootless cosmopolitan parasites?"
I don’t get how Jenrick can actually believe that we should shrink the population and then start making more of our own things from pots and pans to what iPhones? How does he think that happens?
December 6, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Every interview with a right-wing politician is like: "Mr. Hitler is adamant: If we sacrifice enough children, Santa Claus will come back and deliver 5% GDP growth. But I have to ask him: Do you ever worry that your relentless advocacy for working folks offends the rootless cosmopolitan parasites?"
Reposted by Rob Miller
Heroes of Great Britain advent calendar - door 5
December 5, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Heroes of Great Britain advent calendar - door 5
Reposted by Rob Miller
New post just out:
Six lessons from the 2024 election.
And what they mean for the next one.
Covering: Labour's fatal misunderstanding about why they won; effects of a more fragmented system; changes in media/polling.
(£/free trial)
samf.substack.com/p/six-lesson...
Six lessons from the 2024 election.
And what they mean for the next one.
Covering: Labour's fatal misunderstanding about why they won; effects of a more fragmented system; changes in media/polling.
(£/free trial)
samf.substack.com/p/six-lesson...
Six lessons from the 2024 election
And what they mean for the next one
samf.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:40 AM
New post just out:
Six lessons from the 2024 election.
And what they mean for the next one.
Covering: Labour's fatal misunderstanding about why they won; effects of a more fragmented system; changes in media/polling.
(£/free trial)
samf.substack.com/p/six-lesson...
Six lessons from the 2024 election.
And what they mean for the next one.
Covering: Labour's fatal misunderstanding about why they won; effects of a more fragmented system; changes in media/polling.
(£/free trial)
samf.substack.com/p/six-lesson...
Reposted by Rob Miller
If I was head of the WI and an 80 year old trans woman told me it was the only place she'd ever felt respected as a woman, and the British State told me she wasn't allowed to bebin the WI any more, I'd be putting out a public statement declaring the WI to now be an armed guerilla organisation.
This part is *infuriating*. This cis woman heard an 80 year old trans woman say, 'This is the only place I've been respected as a woman IN MY LIFE.'
And did not immediately think, 'I will fight every inch like a dying badger to keep her in my organization.'
Absolutely pathetic.
And did not immediately think, 'I will fight every inch like a dying badger to keep her in my organization.'
Absolutely pathetic.
December 3, 2025 at 3:13 PM
If I was head of the WI and an 80 year old trans woman told me it was the only place she'd ever felt respected as a woman, and the British State told me she wasn't allowed to bebin the WI any more, I'd be putting out a public statement declaring the WI to now be an armed guerilla organisation.
Reposted by Rob Miller
🔔 Is it time for a new push on delinquent ownership? 🔔 We're hosting a conversation @kinship.works to share ideas...
cado.kinship.works. 1/n
cado.kinship.works. 1/n
Is it time for a new push on delinquent ownership?
Across Britain, there are countless examples of land and buildings in the heart of communities lying empty and deteriorating, often stuck in unclear or absent ownership. We can all think of examples: ...
cado.kinship.works
December 3, 2025 at 8:34 AM
🔔 Is it time for a new push on delinquent ownership? 🔔 We're hosting a conversation @kinship.works to share ideas...
cado.kinship.works. 1/n
cado.kinship.works. 1/n
Reposted by Rob Miller
"The current disinformation and slop phenomenon on the internet today makes the days of ‘Russian bot farms’ seem quaint; the problem is now fully decentralized and distributed across the world and is almost entirely funded by social media companies themselves."
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
America’s Polarization Has Become the World's Side Hustle
The 'psyops' revealed by X are entirely the fault of the perverse incentives created by social media monetization programs.
www.404media.co
November 28, 2025 at 11:20 AM
"The current disinformation and slop phenomenon on the internet today makes the days of ‘Russian bot farms’ seem quaint; the problem is now fully decentralized and distributed across the world and is almost entirely funded by social media companies themselves."
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
www.404media.co/americas-pol...
@genmon.fyi hello! Chrome is removing XSLT soon so I converted the Pretty Feed XSLT to JS a la Jake Archibald's technique[1]. You can see it in action here: roblog.co.uk/feed.xml Let me know if you want a pull request on About Feeds and I'll submit one.
[1]: jakearchibald.com/2025/making-...
[1]: jakearchibald.com/2025/making-...
roblog.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 5:33 PM
@genmon.fyi hello! Chrome is removing XSLT soon so I converted the Pretty Feed XSLT to JS a la Jake Archibald's technique[1]. You can see it in action here: roblog.co.uk/feed.xml Let me know if you want a pull request on About Feeds and I'll submit one.
[1]: jakearchibald.com/2025/making-...
[1]: jakearchibald.com/2025/making-...
Reposted by Rob Miller
The UK just has incredible attention to detail when it comes to making sure the people who pay all the taxes can’t have nice things. Child benefit? No. Free Child car? No. Cut price bike to cycle to work? No.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Rachel Reeves is setting the Cycle to Work scheme on fire as part of the war on salary sacrifice policies! on.ft.com/4oKXNrC
Rachel Reeves to curb bike purchases through salary sacrifice in Budget
Introduction of new cap comes after retailers warned some higher-rate taxpayers were exploiting the perk
on.ft.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:21 AM
The UK just has incredible attention to detail when it comes to making sure the people who pay all the taxes can’t have nice things. Child benefit? No. Free Child car? No. Cut price bike to cycle to work? No.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Reposted by Rob Miller
Author wrote best book he's ever written.
Publisher disintegrated/fucked off with author's earnings.
Book was finally published by new publisher.
Author has bought two hardbacks, for full price, to give away, signed.
Please repost/reply if you'd like a chance to win one..
bsky.app/profile/zygo...
Publisher disintegrated/fucked off with author's earnings.
Book was finally published by new publisher.
Author has bought two hardbacks, for full price, to give away, signed.
Please repost/reply if you'd like a chance to win one..
bsky.app/profile/zygo...
November 13, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Author wrote best book he's ever written.
Publisher disintegrated/fucked off with author's earnings.
Book was finally published by new publisher.
Author has bought two hardbacks, for full price, to give away, signed.
Please repost/reply if you'd like a chance to win one..
bsky.app/profile/zygo...
Publisher disintegrated/fucked off with author's earnings.
Book was finally published by new publisher.
Author has bought two hardbacks, for full price, to give away, signed.
Please repost/reply if you'd like a chance to win one..
bsky.app/profile/zygo...
Reposted by Rob Miller
The first rule of Crossword Club: tank told it's messed up to keep mum about (4,4) Crossword Club.
November 13, 2025 at 8:20 AM
The first rule of Crossword Club: tank told it's messed up to keep mum about (4,4) Crossword Club.
Why does snake oil and quack medicine succeed, despite not working? It turns out it succeeds *because* it doesn't work: roblog.co.uk/2021/10/snak...
Why snake oil succeeds
Few products in history have been as successful as the “snake oil” of the 1800s and early 1900s. But why did these products succeed, when they didn’t work? Answering that means digging into our capaci...
roblog.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Why does snake oil and quack medicine succeed, despite not working? It turns out it succeeds *because* it doesn't work: roblog.co.uk/2021/10/snak...
I haven't seen this point made enough, but it seems obviously true: if you make the route to settlement longer for immigrants, they're less likely to see themselves as permanent residents, and so less likely to do the work to integrate. Yet another moronic policy destined to backfire
A few things stood out: Fiscal gains the UK might make by charging fees for people to extend their visas or restricting access to benefits from those who don't contribute will essentially be wiped out by the country no longer attracting, and even losing, net-contributing Skilled Workers.
Part 2
Part 2
November 6, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I haven't seen this point made enough, but it seems obviously true: if you make the route to settlement longer for immigrants, they're less likely to see themselves as permanent residents, and so less likely to do the work to integrate. Yet another moronic policy destined to backfire
@simonwillison.net your François Chollet "to really understand something you have to 'invent' it" link was great, ty. It reminded me of Audrey Tang's distinction between "literacy" and "competence": roblog.co.uk/2021/08/comp...
Build competence, not literacy
There’s a big difference between literacy and competence, but we often conflate them by mistake – and create cultures and organisations that are fragile as a result.
roblog.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 9:21 PM
@simonwillison.net your François Chollet "to really understand something you have to 'invent' it" link was great, ty. It reminded me of Audrey Tang's distinction between "literacy" and "competence": roblog.co.uk/2021/08/comp...
Reposted by Rob Miller
Morgan McSweeney frantically googling "how proscribe Green party terrorist"
Latest Polling by @YouGov
🟣 Reform 27%
🔵 Tory 17%
🔴 Labour 17%
💚 Green 16%
🟠 Lib Dem 15%
This is the LOWEST Labour
has ever polled with YouGov.
This is the HIGHEST @greenparty.org.uk has ever polled with YouGov.
4 parties within 2 points of each other for second place.
🟣 Reform 27%
🔵 Tory 17%
🔴 Labour 17%
💚 Green 16%
🟠 Lib Dem 15%
This is the LOWEST Labour
has ever polled with YouGov.
This is the HIGHEST @greenparty.org.uk has ever polled with YouGov.
4 parties within 2 points of each other for second place.
October 28, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Morgan McSweeney frantically googling "how proscribe Green party terrorist"
Reposted by Rob Miller
In other National Honey Day news, I quizzed Eddy Grant about this glam rock track he produced for reggae legends The Pioneers in '74 www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16e...
He simply smiled and said "we were always glam"
He simply smiled and said "we were always glam"
October 21, 2025 at 12:15 PM
In other National Honey Day news, I quizzed Eddy Grant about this glam rock track he produced for reggae legends The Pioneers in '74 www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16e...
He simply smiled and said "we were always glam"
He simply smiled and said "we were always glam"
Reposted by Rob Miller
My god, the sheer relief of reading a piece by someone who knows something about this football match and didn't just learn to spell Maccabi two days ago www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew
Tommy Robinson is said to be going to Villa Park as a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. Do the politicians jumping on this bandwagon care what they are doing, asks Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:47 AM
My god, the sheer relief of reading a piece by someone who knows something about this football match and didn't just learn to spell Maccabi two days ago www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Rob Miller
I've taken the paywall off this piece I wrote about the wonderful art my mum and dad have been making in their 60s and 70s, which is also about the general (underacknowledged) concept of late-blooming creativity. I hope a few of you might find a moment to read it: www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...
THE MAGIC ROOM
I'm reposting this piece I wrote a little while ago about my mum and dad's art, which some you might have seen, but many of you won't, since I also wanted to let you know about a few bits and bobs the...
www.tom-cox.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:27 PM
I've taken the paywall off this piece I wrote about the wonderful art my mum and dad have been making in their 60s and 70s, which is also about the general (underacknowledged) concept of late-blooming creativity. I hope a few of you might find a moment to read it: www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...
Reposted by Rob Miller
I made a short documentary! It's about Fee Warner, who for over 25 years has maintained the shrine at the site of Marc Bolan's death in south-west London. What makes someone dedicate so much time and effort to preserving the memory of a rockstar? youtu.be/mc7b27PQTd0
Chain Your Heart to a Star: Fee Warner and the Marc Bolan Rock Shrine
YouTube video by Rob Miller
youtu.be
September 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
I made a short documentary! It's about Fee Warner, who for over 25 years has maintained the shrine at the site of Marc Bolan's death in south-west London. What makes someone dedicate so much time and effort to preserving the memory of a rockstar? youtu.be/mc7b27PQTd0
Reposted by Rob Miller
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Reposted by Rob Miller
Vast amount of music here and doesn't even scratch the surface. As I say at the top it's the *opposite* of definitive - but at a time when the term has been hjiacked for a very washed-out, lowest-common-denominator version I thought I was time to dig into the vast history and variety of crossovers.
Afro-House
Read Joe Muggs on Afro-House
theshfl.com
October 18, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Vast amount of music here and doesn't even scratch the surface. As I say at the top it's the *opposite* of definitive - but at a time when the term has been hjiacked for a very washed-out, lowest-common-denominator version I thought I was time to dig into the vast history and variety of crossovers.
Reposted by Rob Miller
I think this is the weirdest story I've ever reported. www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...
The snail farmer of London, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman
Terry Ball runs elaborate mollusc-based tax avoidance schemes that are costing London councils millions of pounds. Yet when London Centric tracks him down, an even stranger story emerges.
www.londoncentric.media
October 18, 2025 at 6:00 AM
I think this is the weirdest story I've ever reported. www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...
Reposted by Rob Miller
We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org
October 12, 2025 at 11:48 AM
We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org