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Richard Smith

@raves

He/Him. Travels a lot. Posts a lot. Occasionally complains a lot. @richardavsmith on Twitter and @richardavsmith@mas.to on M

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17.04.2023
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Latest posts by Richard Smith @raves

@standupmaths.bsky.social Fun question for you, inspired by a flight I'm booked on (Air India 314):

Using flight numbers, how many digits of pi can you tick off by taking back-to-back flights with no more than 24 hours layover between them?

07.03.2026 17:10 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

A fascinating bit of convergent evolution that the McSweeney-Starmer project has basically ended up leaving Labour in the same position as its Western European peers…as a result of deliberate, wholly avoidable choices.

27.02.2026 02:24 πŸ‘ 460 πŸ” 78 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 6

The thing that would be terrifying me, were I the Labour party, is that it is not clear which, if any, part of its coalition no longer has somewhere else to go.

27.02.2026 11:09 πŸ‘ 140 πŸ” 17 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 2

Legit funny that the current Labour leadership have managed to lose a by-election AND strengthen the leadership challenge of their big internal rival in one syper combo move.

Top strategery lads. AA+ would strategery again.

Still, i'm sure one more pivot to the right will do it. πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ™„πŸ˜†

27.02.2026 06:04 πŸ‘ 160 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm not sure there's anything behind the facade, it's the Non Playable College.

20.02.2026 17:38 πŸ‘ 28 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Starmer β€” a prosecutor with a huge majority, coming in after years of sleaze and mendacity β€” could have weaponised the corruption of his opponents to incredible advantage. Instead he will be ruined by the living avatar of corruption in his own party. To not see that coming is a serious skill issue.

04.02.2026 15:05 πŸ‘ 380 πŸ” 67 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 4
AI Skills Boost - AI Skills Hub

I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!

28.01.2026 12:07 πŸ‘ 1128 πŸ” 503 πŸ’¬ 43 πŸ“Œ 346
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This mendacious drivel should be a resigning issue, for both the author and anyone who thought it was right to publish it

25.01.2026 00:23 πŸ‘ 386 πŸ” 107 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 11

That's a great improvement! I was stunned by their absence before, it meant every bus route was just a bunch of unknown place names.

22.01.2026 21:24 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Did you find they had any bus maps? I found it a real headache when I visited to get my head around where the buses actually *went* on Orkney, online or locally.

22.01.2026 21:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I don't usually want to blame staff working in a bad system, but the training and attitude of the security scan staff, and the organisation of the lines, beggars belief.

It's like they've never even been to another security line before.

And, of course, everything is always the customer's fault.

12.01.2026 12:33 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Speeding discourse is one of the quickest ways to see that many, many folks on the left also have a bit of a libertarian in them

There is no coherent argument against aggressive and heavily enforced vehicular safety regulations that doesn’t boil down to β€œnuh-uh, you can’t tell me what to do”

01.01.2026 19:36 πŸ‘ 539 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 19 πŸ“Œ 6

Congratulations! (Is a very tiny turtle to be knitted (and then kept well away for a year or two)?)

20.12.2025 11:20 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

The one thing I think we can learn from Cass is we need to make this controversial AF before it is published, because once it is published and they give the author a peerage, it will be considered unbelievably rude to criticise him or the report.

04.12.2025 18:42 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

So this British review into whether too many people are getting ADHD and autism diagnoses will be led by a psychoanalyst who thinks everything is about attachment and trauma, and his deputy will be a guy who thinks ME/CFS is primarily a mental health problem.

04.12.2025 18:40 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

So much of our politics revolves around catering to the emotions of people who become furious when someone else isn't suffering as much as they think they should

26.11.2025 13:35 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

and again - literally just the hobby horse of some random anonymous Twitter accounts, enraging how quickly they managed to turn their horrid posting into actual government policy and rhetoric

26.11.2025 13:20 πŸ‘ 455 πŸ” 121 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 0

Honestly, just the one TGV to Lille seems insufficient! In the UK it would be 2tph or even 3tph.

25.11.2025 08:58 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

"Drivers say" what kind of attribution is that?!!

07.11.2025 07:57 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince.

30.10.2025 19:15 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Andrew, or to give him his full title, Andrew.

30.10.2025 19:10 πŸ‘ 830 πŸ” 98 πŸ’¬ 59 πŸ“Œ 14

Another thought on this brilliant story: police orthodoxy in this country is that, best use if straitened resources is to focus on β€œhigh impact” crime. Hard to square that with the fact that essentially every serious look into β€œpetty” crime finds it is scarily organised!

30.10.2025 16:18 πŸ‘ 178 πŸ” 28 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 0
Google Result from Alstom. "Avelia Horizon: The only double-deck high speed train in the world."

Google Result from Alstom. "Avelia Horizon: The only double-deck high speed train in the world."

That's... certainly a claim. @jon.gruene.social.ap.brid.gy

30.10.2025 17:43 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
108. Eurostar orders double-decker trains… but will we see them in the UK?

Interestingly, on Green Signals today (recorded before today's decision) Eurostar continues to say that these trains will be used first to replace Class 373s, though also have a bit of a twist in wording that all trains will be maintained in TMI (vs. only be maintained in).
pca.st/episode/7f2b...

30.10.2025 16:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The idea that the post-war order was created because they thought "everyone would want to be nice to each other" is not something you should be able to utter and still be taken seriously.

19.10.2025 10:17 πŸ‘ 63 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Though the original sin was BR not being able to go "lol, no, this is our operation first and foremost", but then with Thatcher and then Major in charge what did anyone expect?

18.10.2025 21:13 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Sunak had and blew such an opportunity to get a decent share back at a knock down rate.

18.10.2025 21:12 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

It was a hope, not an expectation!

(In an ideal world, you'd have a diverse set of shareholders who would see the threat of competition and revolt at the current management's complacency. Alas.)

18.10.2025 20:45 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Good riddance, hire someone from a UK TOC to manage it, give them the power to shake up the product significantly.

18.10.2025 20:33 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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So much for "when the time is right".

Given her bio, I'm not remotely shocked, considering her lack of experience outside SNCF and Finance. Explains so much about their direction.

Also, fine dining my ass, they've given up on Plus dessert lately in favour of a single square of chocolate.

18.10.2025 18:26 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0