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frankPodmore

@ frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

Posts
62
Comments
133
Joined
3 yr. ago

London-based writer. Often climbing.

  • Any RPGs that take into account when you reload a save? Or that break the 4th wall like this?

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  • Prince of Persia on the GameCube (I think? It was a long time ago!) had a mechanism very like this, where you manually rewound time after you died/failed. More Action/Adventure than an RPG, though.

  • 2025 is ‘year of the octopus’ as record numbers spotted off England’s south coast

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  • I, for one, welcome our new cephalopod overlords.

  • Firefox Will Ship with an “AI Kill Switch” to Completely Disable all AI Features

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  • I wish we knew how many people have just one deliberate interaction with AI - which is to switch it off.

  • Waterfox pushes back against Mozilla's AI vision and advocates for privacy-first browsing

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  • I feel like Mozilla going all-in on AI is going to have an identical outcome as when NaNoWriMo did the same. Just a wild misunderstanding of who supports them and why!

  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    2025 is ‘year of the octopus’ as record numbers spotted off England’s south coast

    www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/dec/22/2025-is-year-of-the-octopus-as-record-numbers-spotted-off-englands-south-coast
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    ‘The Employment Rights Bill is a massive step forward – but we’re not done delivering for working people’ – LabourList

    labourlist.org /2025/12/employment-rights-bull-passes-theres-more-to-come/
  • London @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    All the places where 30,000 new homes will be built with DLR extension

    www.newsshopper.co.uk /news/25702959.dlr-extension-deliver-30k-homes---will-go/
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Chief of the Defence Staff speech: 'A new era for defence means our whole nation stepping up'

    www.gov.uk /government/speeches/chief-of-the-defence-staff-speech-15-december-2025

  • Kemi Badenoch: Tories to scrap petrol ban if they win next election

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  • Can you imagine explaining this to people in a few decades?

    'People were opposed to electric cars back in the old days.'

    'Oh, that's weird. Were petrol cars cheaper?'

    'Nope'.

    'Were they... cleaner?'

    'No, no. They made the air poisonous, actually.'

    'Even for the people driving them?'

    'Especially for the people driving them!'

    'Oh, so petrol engines must've been more efficient.'

    'Ha ha, oh God, no.'

    '????'

  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    A vast oyster reef is about to transform the English coast

    www.positive.news /environment/a-vast-oyster-reef-is-about-to-transform-the-english-coast/
  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Rape victims in England and Wales to be protected from ‘serial liar’ trope in legal shake-up

    www.theguardian.com /society/2025/dec/02/rape-victims-england-wales-protected-serial-liar-trope-legal-shake-up
  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    The Reform-Backed Far-Right Street Patrols Coming to British School Gates

    bylinetimes.com /2025/12/02/the-reform-backed-far-right-street-patrols-coming-to-british-school-gates/

  • Nimby Watch: Nimbys hate your children

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  • Every small town/village has loads of kids hanging out in supermarket carparks. It is, as you say, bleak.

  • Nimby Watch: Nimbys hate your children

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  • That is really upsetting! Those old housing estates get a bad rap (sometimes justified), but it's noticeable that they're the only inner city neighbourhoods where kids still play outside regularly, precisely because they're designed with pedestrians rather than cars in mind.

  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Nimby Watch: Nimbys hate your children

    capx.co /nimby-watch-nimbys-hate-your-children

  • Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui

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  • I think if it's true that he's a racist - and it is - it's worth saying it. In addition there are two instrumental reasons we should say it.

    First, Farage's whole schtick has been to say: 'You can oppose immigration without being a racist' and the related argument 'You shouldn't be called a racist just because you want less immigration'. Proving that he is, himself, a racist makes both arguments deeply suspect.

    It also more broadly crystallises what's evil about him for those of us who already hate him (most people!) and shows exactly why he needs to be kept out of power at all costs. If I'm in a swing seat at the next election (currently safe Labour but will there be anywhere safe by 2029?) this is the kind of thing that will make me go 'I don't have to like it - and I don't - but I'm voting for Lib Dems/Greens/whoever is best placed to beat this guy'.

  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui

    www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2025/nov/25/dont-believe-nigel-farage-denials-targeted-me-for-being-jewish-and-it-hurt
  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    ‘It fully changed my life!’ How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movement

    www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/nov/25/it-fully-changed-my-life-how-young-rewilders-transformed-a-farm-and-began-a-movement

  • What's an album with a completely unique sound

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  • Ha, I came here to say Bitches Brew before seeing it was in the OP!

    I'd add Loveless by My Bloody Valentine: much-imitated, but there's nothing quite like it.

    Also, my early '90s bias is showing here, but In Utero by Nirvana is uniquely brilliant. No one's melded beauty and ugliness so successfully in any medium.

  • Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why?

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  • Yeah, that's it: you can get some of that stuff from some fruits, but you're looking at a lot of avocados!

    Bacteria synthesise B12 inside various animals. Even our gut flora synthesise it, but they do it too far down our digestive system to be useful!

  • Can we have a healthy life only with fruits or fruits and plants combined alone, and if not why?

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  • You can't live on fruit alone because you need vitamin B12, which you can only get from animal products or supplements. Fruit is generally also low in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, all of which you need to live!

  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    'Palestine Action activist struck officer with sledgehammer', court hears

    www.bbc.co.uk /news/articles/c79727zeqyvo

  • 'It's Time for a Debate About Who Owns Our Media' Says Leader of the UK's Trade Union Movement

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  • The TUC should start a newspaper (online, presumably, but that's not the point) again, like the Daily Herald used to be, and do podcasts etc., as well as having a joined up social media strategy. There needs to be a worker-backed alternative to the corporate news and just the odd little co-op here and there doesn't cut it (great though those are).

  • 'It's Time for a Debate About Who Owns Our Media' Says Leader of the UK's Trade Union Movement

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  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    'It's Time for a Debate About Who Owns Our Media' Says Leader of the UK's Trade Union Movement

    bylinetimes.com /2025/11/14/its-time-for-a-debate-about-who-owns-our-media-says-leader-of-the-uks-trade-union-movement/
  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Resident doctors strikes: Everything you need to know

    leftfootforward.org /2025/11/resident-doctors-strikes-everything-you-need-to-know/
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Abolish the monarchy: It’s more than Prince Andrew – the whole House of Windsor is rotten to the core

    www.newstatesman.com /politics/2025/10/abolish-the-monarchy
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    ‘Labour’s new deal for working people will restore dignity and justice to work – but the Tories and Liberal Democrats are trying to wreck it’ – LabourList

    labourlist.org /2025/10/tories-and-lib-dems-are-trying-to-wreck-the-workers-rights-bill/
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    UK unveils ‘carbon budget delivery plan’ to get back on track for net zero targets

    www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/oct/29/uk-unveils-carbon-budget-delivery-plan-to-get-back-on-track-for-net-zero-targets
  • UK Politics @feddit.uk
    frankPodmore @slrpnk.net

    Starmer needs to get serious about governing — and quick

    www.ft.com /content/94e0bde1-61dd-4115-88eb-30ed1519251b
  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • Aside from your odd definition of capitalism and its outcomes, which other people have addressed, the answer to the headline question is: yes.

    Karl Marx, for example, believed that you could not have capitalism without exploitation and that it was therefore an unethical system that should be defeated. He also held that capitalism was inherently contradictory and that it therefore not only should be destroyed, but that it must be destroyed.

    However: Marx also believed that capitalism was an enormous improvement on the previously existing social system of feudalism, because it produced far greater wealth through the development of new technology. This is a key difference between Marxism and the earlier 'utopian socialism' (which his theories largely replaced), which saw technology itself as an evil.

    Marx also welcomed the fact that capitalism destroyed (as he saw it) some earlier forms of oppression (albeit while introducing new ones). Marx's letter to Abraham Lincoln congratulating him on his re-election discusses the American Revolution and Civil War in precisely these terms.

    So, you can enjoy the greater (obviously not 'infinite'!) abundance of goods that capitalism has produced, you can acknowledge its positive impact on technological development and its material improvements of the lives of millions of people and be not only a leftist but a fully orthodox Marxist... just so long as you also acknowledge that capitalism is also an exploitative and self-destructive force that should, can and must be defeated.

  • £6 million repaid to workers as Government cracks down on employers underpaying their staff

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  • This is very good, although I do think they should also jail some of the thieves!

  • Trans adults waiting on average 25 years for NHS gender clinic appointments

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  • It's okay, I'm not super-fussed about it happening as a one-off, more intended as a 'for the future' reminder. The rule's mainly there to make sure people don't spam about their hobby horses, and this obviously isn't that!

    Obviously there's a grey area with 'UK' vs. 'UK politics'. I'd say this is more 'UK', whereas an article about a parliamentary or governmental response to the same would be 'UK politics', if that makes sense.

    Please do keep posting stuff!

  • Trans adults waiting on average 25 years for NHS gender clinic appointments

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  • What's an uplifting fact that might counter the doom of our current reality?

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  • True, but it was more restricted in its potential application (because you had to be near a reliable water source). Modern electricity generation, including renewables, doesn't have that limitation - as the application of coal to steam power demonstrates!

  • What's an uplifting fact that might counter the doom of our current reality?

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  • But the economics are clear: if renewables stay cheaper than fossil fuels (and there's no reason to think they won't), governments will make the switch anyway.