A wilding

Corrupt Eurosceptic Brexiteer ex MP, on the record for demanding that the UK scrap its adherence to European Human Rights legislation, is suing the UK government in the European Court of Human Rights for "damaging his good reputation", by not scrapping the Standards Commission when they caught him out in his corruption and recommended his suspension as an MP. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63714944 Epic trolling!

Just read Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy, Luna: New Moon, Luna Wolf Moon, and Luna: Moon Rising. As many have said, the strapline for this is "an SF ASoIaF set on the moon". Though there is something of The Godfather in there too. But there are also some interesting sidelights giving depth, for example Luna sports (mostly co-operative), Luna sexual mores, the technologies (never described in detail, but obviously carefully thought through by the author), and a form of lycanthropy driven by the phases of the Earth. And the books do a good job of hammering home just how hostile the Luna environment is, with a frequent refrain of it having "a thousand ways to kill you". Ultimately though I was not able to really believe in the society depicted, nor in some aspects of the plot, and the last book felt somewhat weaker, with the story rather petering out. But nonetheless these were page turners, and I enjoyed reading them.

In the IT industry people just move on to somewhere else. Once a company starts going downhill like Twitter obviously is then there is no point in trying to stay on and fix it. Except just possibly if Musk walks away (or is pushed) in the very near future.

Perhaps Musk is a genius after all, luring all these new "verified" accounts to sign up. /s

Though blaming her for them going too fast with their economic "policies" is a bit rich when his response at the time to widespread pushback was an in your face "there is more to come" - as even the BBC points out.

If I was a betting man then I would bet that the programmer was told by a corner cutting manager "of course we will have someone manually checking every promotion!" In fact there may well have been such a step in the process, only someone subsequently turned it off or removed it.

The first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2019 is due to happen in about 30 minutes time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY628jRd6gM

Though Braverman did lose her job immediately after the security breach came to light, which seems more than a coincidence! To me it feels more like she tried to spin being sacked for the security breach into a principled resignation over a policy disagreement. But I suppose if, since Johnson, breaching security is no longer a sacking offence, merely something that provides an way of sacking you if you are not wanted, that is still better then nothing. It provides at least some incentive for them to behave themselves. Though I personally think that the likes of Braverman genuinely seem to think that the rules do not apply to them and they can do whatever they want.

Me too. Cate Blanchett could have put it across perfectly well with some much subtler special effects. or possibly even none at all.

Yes, I agree with this. I was trying to make the point that she would genuinely be able to use the Ring, unlike, for example, Sam when he is tempted by it much later.

Personally I would not say that Galadriel is laughing at the very idea that the Ring would tempt her. And I think Frodo knows already it would be wrong for anyone to try to use it. I think that she is laughing because, while she had long thought that events would conspire to tempt her by bringing the ring within her grasp, she had not foreseen that last refinement - that Frodo would offer it to her freely. While at the same time she sees the fairness of his doing so, given she had herself earlier "tested Frodo's heart" as I think she puts it. But I do agree with @fionwe1987 that the test she faces is not so much to resist the corrupting power of the ring, in the way that various other characters need to. As with Gandalf, hers is a more rational test. She knows that she could master the Ring and then use it to save Lorien, which otherwise, as she explains to Frodo, is doomed, whatever the result of the War of the Ring.

That wouldn't be my take. Galadriel says that she had pondered for many years what she would do if the ring ever came within her grasp. I think that she had known for a long time that she was very likely to be exposed to the (enormous) temptation of taking and using it. So it was not really quick at all. The only thing that seemed to surprise her in any way was Frodo's offer to give it to her freely. Though she may have been taken aback at just how strong the temptation was when it came to the point. Certainly that seemed to be the take of the Peter Jackson films.

I think that technically, that was a quote from the Peter Jackson films, rather than by Tolkien himself. Though it does include phrases lifted from the books, used slightly out of context.

"Singapore on Thames" would be a quick summary. But with the brains to know it can only be done gradually and surreptitiously.

Make no mistake. As well as being competent, Sunak is a billionaire banker citizen of nowhere who is on the economic far right. He will spend the next 2 years not only carrying out as much of his agenda as possible, but also ensuring that it cannot be reversed later. I fear just how much permanent change he may impose on us before the next election.

Tory MPs are sheep who follow momentum in the hope of preferment. Mordaunt's only chance was if enough Johnson supporters turned to her in a "stop Sunak" campaign. She is not going to reach 100 MPs now*, and Sunak will walk into the job tomorrow. I imagine Mordaunt is probably already in negotiations with him for a cabinet position. * As Johnson (as I imagine we all realise) clearly only had about 50 MPs despite his team's claims from as early as Saturday night that he already had 100 - which are in themselves inconsistent with his lie just now that his final tally was 102.

The brief fake contrition thing is of course a no brainer, being something Johnson has done many times before. From the BBC: ... but anyone who still believes that sort of thing from Johnson by now, even for a moment, is a complete idiot (or perhaps just desperate).

Johnson would almost certainly try to end the Parliamentary Standards Committee investigation into his conduct in one way or another, knowing how fatal it would likely be for him - and possibly more to the point, how humiliating. Which will probably lead to a very interesting vote in parliament. Chaos indeed. But I am also starting think it might be best in the long term for the Tories to be as thoroughly discredited as possible.

Think big. Hope for a recall petition resulting in him being kicked out as an MP. Then with any luck someone in a safe Tory seat (Mad Nad?) will agree to step down so he can get back in to the HoC in another byelection ... and then he loses that one too.

Indeed, this is just embarrassing for the whole country. But I suppose that what we have seen tonight is the logical conclusion of the recent total collapse of the convention that the government and MPs behave like "gentlemen". The Tories made a manifesto commitment to do no fracking. Truss wants to reverse this, to widespread dismay in her own party, let alone the wider country. To stave off defeat in a Labour vote to ban fracking, she pulls out the nuclear option of declaring it a confidence vote, making her honour bound to resign if she loses it. (Except that everyone knew that she would never have the integrity to honour that.) But when it turns out that a lot of Tories are still defying her and are not going to support it anyway, she wavers, and a government minister declares at the last moment that it is no longer a confidence vote after all (probably). No wonder the whips were reputedly furious. Basically the government is transparently ignoring the unwritten rules whenever it can gain even a momentary advantage from doing so. "We are all Charles Walker" indeed - though I personally feel little sympathy for Tory MPs wondering how they are going to be paying their mortgages in a couple of years time.

From my perspective both Kwarteng and Truss are simpletons. We have a class of parasitic wealthy who extract vast amounts of wealth for themselves out of society while contributing little of substance to it. These people generally have a rag tag of libertarian style theories that they use to justify themselves. Kwarteng and Truss swallowed these theories whole, genuinely believed they were true, and acted on that basis, with the inevitable consequences. It appears to me that currently Kwarteng is in denial, while Truss is just shell shocked. At the time I thought that Truss would be less dangerous. She and Sunak are both on the economic libertarian right, but while Sunak is competent and pragmatic, she is neither, so I assumed that she would discredit and crash the Tories. (Though not as quickly as she actually has!) At this moment I am not sure that I was correct. But I would marginally choose Hunt over either of them.

Utterly pathetic. Truss hiding from parliament at such a crucial moment. I really hope that this is the death knell for any remaining shreds of credibility she still has. We really don't want the alternative - that a PM can simply choose not to have to answer to our elected MPs.

11 when I first read LotR (and before I read The Hobbit), But some of it went over my head at the time. I also was already reading widely at that age, including many adult books that I did not always really appreciate at the time. One of my friends who read it at the same age was terrified by the Eye of Sauron in Galadriel's mirror and abandoned the book at that point. (They did go on to read it all some years later I think.)

Truss' position is actually completely consistent, if barking. People are responsible for themselves, so it is on them to either make more money or have to use less energy. And the likely fact that the energy companies cannot provide enough energy is nothing for the state to get involved in - let things happen as they will and the free market will sort it out. This is literally how the economic far right think in the UK (and I assume in other countries too).

There seems to be a trend here. Mrs W's response to my proposal was far from romantic either. We have been married for over 30 years now ...