Ian Betteridge

local techbro discovers CK3 not a manual

He absolutely would. And thank you!

I am casting an eye at Birkenstocks frankly.

At the rate I would write it, 2047.

Zen fascists will control you... In 1979, a punk band from San Francisco recorded a song about the Governor of California. It was a joke, mostly. Jerry Brown was a Democrat, a Buddhist, a man who dated Linda Ronstadt and discussed li...

I think this post has been in my drafts folder for about three years, and finally – FINALLY – I've finished it. Joni Mitchell, Jello Biafra, and Peter Thiel all feature. Warning - it's REALLY LONG.

www.ianbetteridge.com/zen-fascist-...

Zen fascists will control you...

Zen fascists will control you: https://www.ianbetteridge.com/zen-fascist-wi/

In 1979, a punk band from San Francisco recorded a song about the Governor of California. It was a joke, mostly. Jerry Brown was a Democrat, a Buddhist, a man who dated Linda Ronstadt and discussed limits and simplicity...

What *is* it good for?

Ladies and gentlemen, the "leader of the free world".

WTH is he talking about?

His mind is going. He can’t gaslight his way out of this one.

Thanet District council on Instagram: "📢 OPERATION FLAG TIDYNESS – UPDATE Thanet District Council is pleased to introduce our new Flag Awareness Team, who will be patrolling across the Isle over the coming weeks removing offensive flag displays and providing education to private residents about the misery and distress their flag arrangements can cause to others in the community. Thanks to additional partnership funding provided by kkc and @reformuk, we are now able to scale up this important work and ensure all flags across Thanet are reviewed, assessed and where required removed. Residents may already have noticed the results of this work overnight, with teams successfully removing a number of disgusting, tatty and clearly unauthorised flags along Dane Park Road and Ramsgate Road, particularly on the route toward @westwood_cross. 🧪 These items have now been securely bagged and transported for forensic testing so that officers may gather evidence to identify and convict the vandels responsible for installing them. Our teams worked throughout the night to ensure Thanet’s streets remain safe, tidy and free of intimidating textile displays. 👀 If you spot any new flag sightings, please report the location to us immediately so our Flag Awareness Team can attend. Just let us know where they are and we will #dealwiththem Working Efficiently For You." 602 likes, 212 comments - thanetdistrictcouncil on March 4, 2026: "📢 OPERATION FLAG TIDYNESS – UPDATE Thanet District Council is pleased to introduce our new Flag Awareness Team, who will be patrolling across the Isle over the coming weeks removing offensive flag displays and providing education to private residents about the misery and distress their flag arrangements can cause to others in the community. Thanks to additional partnership funding provided by kkc and @reformuk, we are now able to scale up this important work and ensure all flags across Thanet are reviewed, assessed and where required removed. Residents may already have noticed the results of this work overnight, with teams successfully removing a number of disgusting, tatty and clearly unauthorised flags along Dane Park Road and Ramsgate Road, particularly on the route toward @westwood_cross. 🧪 These items have now been securely bagged and transported for forensic testing so that officers may gather evidence to identify and convict the vandels responsible for installing them. Our teams worked throughout the night to ensure Thanet’s streets remain safe, tidy and free of intimidating textile displays. 👀 If you spot any new flag sightings, please report the location to us immediately so our Flag Awareness Team can attend. Just let us know where they are and we will #dealwiththem Working Efficiently For You.".

Oh this is a magnificent bit of trolling (and not, as should be obvious, the real Thanet District Council). The flagshaggers are foaming at the mouth in the comments.

www.instagram.com/p/DVeMibtCIRD/

There is no funnier train station sign than "Cambridge home of Anglia Ruskin University". Everytime I see it I'm impressed all over again at the level of trolling.

Yeah, iA are puritans. I think there is a middle ground. Oh god I’m a software centrist!

You should sign up! It's a laugh! Except when everything is crap and it's quite depressing looking at the state of the world (I do try and avoid this)

The institutionalised contempt for trans people is breathtaking in its devastation. This is not about politicians’ “legitimate concerns” regarding medicine. It’s fundamentally about a desire to stop trans people existing. We must continue to challenge such transphobic politics unapologetically.

Interesting that NHS England have now made this official. In practice it's been the case for years now, they just haven't publicly admitted it.

Ten Blue Links, "cough cough cough" edition

Ten Blue Links, "cough cough cough" edition: https://www.ianbetteridge.com/ten-blue-links-cough-cough-cough-edition/

The world’s most unreliable encyclopaedia: Elon Musk’s AI Wikipedia alternative is distorting the truth about Northern Ireland, defaming, and perversely altering history From Bloody Sunday to RHI, Gerry Adams, Bobby Sands, and Michael Stone, Elon Musk’s Grokipedia is spreading dangerous lies about Northern Ireland

The world’s most unreliable encyclopaedia: Elon Musk’s AI Wikipedia alternative is dangerously distorting the truth about Northern Ireland, defaming & perversely altering history. It smears Troubles victims, lauds a paramilitary force & libels politicians.

Photocopy image of a paper collage. We see the words “oh darling! That tour of the slums was fascinating” in individual cutout and stuck on letters, ransom note style. The words are on top of an image of a room in a fancy stately home with big paintings, mirror and fancy old furniture. In the bottom right there is a cartoon illustration of a couple, facing away from us and wearing a formal dress and suit. Around the edge of the image, in a much smaller font are more cut out words reading “our hugely popular tour returns visiting a particularly nasty neighbourhood” and “there will be dangerous and risky environments” and “dark sins” and “the scenes and sights of criminal life and sins” and “face to face with the shadows of murderous crime”.

My latest collage art!
Still planning to compile my collages into a #zine at some point!

(paper collage, photocopied)
#art #collage #papercollage

we do chaos engineering, of course

every terraform apply is chaos engineering

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXPp...

And read-only access.

It is 7pm on a Friday night and I am on the sofa watching Crufts, occasionally shouting things like "LOOK AT HIS CHOPS!" at the TV. How's your weekend going?

Honestly, I am not particularly anti-AI, but you have to be absolutely off the planet to allow it the freedom to change anything in a production database.

This is pretty disgraceful.

Times front page with banner reading “Why men my age want wives to obey”

This headline is not actually telling the story of the article - which is the writer’s genuine concern at those new stats. But it was a headline that made my heart sink - it feels like any news coverage should be very clearly a condemnation of such backwards thinking

The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.

🧵 1/5

that Michael Young was responsible for the creation of the two unalloyed goods for British life of Which Magazine, the Open University *and* also Toby Young will never cease to astonish

Think this is right and it is a big part of the major dysfunctions of our politics the extent to which it attracts men who think shouting at things makes them heroic fixers and the job of women is to get out of the way.

British female track and field athletes are being asked to cover the cost of their own £185 sex tests if they want to compete internationally. Because curbing trans people's rights to participate in anything subjects everyone to intrusive scrutiny and here, hefty expense. This is not a 'them' issue.