... surely, the odds against a team being in 14 semi-finals and ten finals over a 30 year period AND LOSING EVERY FINAL is pretty-well off the scale? So I asked ChatGPT to do the calculations for me (leaving aside all considerations of form and quality) - how improbable was it? The reply:

I'd quibble slightly with this. Banging my usual drum, the de-funding of the public-interest Public Sphere meant that the norms of the business elite engulfed politics. We always distrusted business - all that happened was an osmosis where that well of distrust absorbed civic institutions.

Just tuning in to this: I don't get his point? If Digital ID was unfunded, and Digital ID has been scrapped....?

Nothing says ‘broad church’ quite like a theological test that bars candidates from agreeing with the many Conservative voters who think climate change is a serious problem.

If it wasn’t already a ridiculous tournament, it is now.

Why thank you Mick. This is the current status of my ‘food for thought’ shelf:

This - from Geoff Dyer’s ‘But Beautiful’ about Lester Young’s brutalisation in the army …. some profound meditative writing there.

This thread was brought to you by most of the missing part of this bottle.

One huge low-cost, high political return opportunity Burnham could grasp would be to energise the consumer voice. medium.com/@pauliewauli...

The correct answer to the whole 'where is The North' question:

FAO @tomfreeman.bsky.social and @tomhamilton.bsky.social

ChatGPT has it's uses! I asked it what combination of results would mean Scotland finish 9th in the 3rd place table *because of results in England's group*. Here's what it told me:

And I wrote this a couple of weeks after the result was in.

Expressly, this bit:

Ireland is lost.

Shall we start a sweepstake on when he announces an increase then?

I’ve got arguments ready, and everything!

We don’t usually see each others header images. Here’s mine.

This changed hugely in the weeks between heavy pre-election canvassing, and early August 2024. Starmer's inability to detect it, wonder why it happened or do anything about it alone are the factors that will probably end his premiership.

So the good news is that the origin story behind The Playboy of the Western World is very likely to be based on one of my ancestors! The bad news is that he seems to have been… a bit of a psycho.

This is interesting (not just for football heads). It’s a poll of #nffc supporters picking Neco Williams as player of the season over MGW & Elliot Anderson. Elliot is technically hugely gifted players. MGW is a stunning talismanic figure. But Neco is visibly dedicated, hard working and consistent

I wrote something on this recently: medium.com/@pauliewauli...

This is long overdue. I hope it’s part of a wider policy that helps recast a lot of the labour market and migration questions.

Facebook’s AI doesn’t quite get how sports results are discussed in Ireland yet…

Just saw this on FB. Is it something that has been done as a classical experiment? My guess is that the wording of the question and the dominant cultural attitudes would make a big difference.

I’ve never been able to look at this book without mentally renaming it “Unsheathed”.

If last week’s Rochdale / York saga wasn’t bizarrely exciting, today’s ’York promoted due to a 103rd minute equaliser’ story tops it.

Wondering if there is a better way of signaling a negotiating weakness than this?

In fairness, I’ve never believed Farage was even slightly sincere about any of his ‘patriotic’ opinions.