High finance, low politics and rogue archaeology. British Gaullist. “This is a niche and disturbing take”
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Joined February 2012
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Mark retweeted
Interesting finding is that nuclear energy declined massively in both democratic and non-democratic countries post-chernobyl, no evidence that "dictators are able to overrule irrational public opinion"
Mark retweeted
Periodic reminder that Bessent had nothing - nothing whatsoever - do to with the vaunted Soros currency cross trade.
I was closer to that trade than Bessent & all that made me was a spectator proximate to the 🐐 making his greatest trade.
He’s been selling that lie for 3+ decades. Over same period he blew up a hedge fund twice & then became an under accomplished FoF marketing guy.
WELKER: Zelenskyy just said he believes the US government slowed Starlink. Can you definitely say no one in the Trump administration ordered restrictions?
BESSENT: President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that. President Zelenskyy should be very careful about making reckless statements like that
Mark retweeted
America: We need to kill the humanities so we don’t lose the AI race to China
China: Every child shall read Jane Eyre
ALT New York Times headline about how Jane Eyre is now mandatory reading for ninth graders in China
Mark retweeted
The perfect storm for a decline in data center construction is on the horizon if the GOP gets blown out in midterms
There’s an inverted pyramid of voter opposition that starts from the ground floor (municipal and county) level that doesn’t even make the news beyond local flyover state papers
I still expect the Trump Admin to try & nationalize some of the buildout (thru pentagon, tax $, etc) and Jensen always has tricks in his leather jacket to keep us on our toes about how long the music can continue to play
It’s basically another commodity cycle with these things, but unique in being (really) the only nominal growth driver
Mark retweeted
Appears to be absolutely MASSIVE protests all across the US yesterday and this platform is so skewed to the Trump/Putin side that this is the first I've seen or heard of it.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The montage uses recycled footage from larger 2025 and March 2026 No Kings protests, not Oct 17 2026 Vote Early events. Those were smaller localized gatherings (hundreds to thousands per city) focused on early voting, not the massive crowds shown.
nytimes.com/2026/10/17/us/…
abc7ny.com/post/no-kings-…
minnesotareformer.com/2026/10/17/hun…
npr.org/2026/10/17/nx-…
Mark retweeted
I don’t enjoy Match of the Day anymore. There, I’ve said it.
I grew up watching Desmond Lynam, and it was brilliant. Then came Gary Lineker, with Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. More recently, we had Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, but still with Lineker holding it all together.
I used to watch Match of the Day as much for the personalities as for the football. These were familiar faces who turned up week in, week out, and you actually looked forward to hearing what they had to say.
I disagree with Lineker’s politics on a number of issues, but he was a terrific presenter. Warm, funny, personable, and somebody who’d actually been there and done it.
And now? It’s just rubbish.
I barely even listen to the analysis anymore. The BBC has completely misunderstood what made the programme so enjoyable in the first place.
It’s a bit like Top Gear. People didn’t just watch it for the cars. They watched it for Clarkson, May and Hammond. It took the BBC ages to realise that it was the personalities that drove the programme. (Pun intended.)
And yet the penny still hasn’t dropped with Match of the Day.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with the people presenting it now. They’re perfectly competent. But there’s no charisma. No chemistry. No sense that you’re watching a group of people who genuinely enjoy one another’s company.
Nobody sits down on a Saturday evening thinking, “Oh, I can’t wait to hear Mark Chapman’s take on today’s big game.” (And the less said about Wayne Rooney, the better.)
Of the three current presenters, I think Gabby Logan is the only one with any real charisma. But even she can’t recreate what the programme used to have.
And that’s what the BBC seems incapable of understanding. You can replace presenters, refresh the format and modernise the production, but you can’t manufacture chemistry. You can’t simply swap out personalities and expect viewers to feel the same affection for the programme.
Match of the Day used to be an essential part of my Saturday night. Now it’s something I can take or leave.
The football hasn’t changed. Well, apart from the wretched VAR.
But the programme has lost its personality. And with it, much of its appeal.
Mark retweeted
A bulldozer burying retired Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) General Dynamics F-111 fuselages at the Swanbank landfill in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺
The General Dynamics F-111 was a fast, long-range strike jet first developed for the U.S. military in the 1960s. Its swing wings could sweep back for high-speed flight or spread out for takeoff and landing.
Australia ordered the jet in 1963, but delays meant it didn’t arrive until 1973. The Royal Australian Air Force went on to fly it for 37 years, and Australians nicknamed it the “Pig” for the way its nose seemed to root along the ground during low-level flight.
When the jets were retired, a handful were saved for museums. The rest were cut up and buried in 2011 at a landfill near Ipswich, Queensland.
The reason: the U.S. required sensitive military technology to be securely destroyed, and some parts contained hazardous materials like asbestos. Burying the jets turned out to be cheaper and simpler than other options.
The F-111 became famous at Australian air shows for its “dump and burn,” releasing fuel and igniting it with its afterburners to create a huge trail of flame. It even performed one at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
#drthehistories
Mark retweeted
Cool stunt. Great hype marketing.
Time for me to be that guy everyone hates - It's a scam and this will never ship.
The external compressor and cooling system to charge the tank once, likely cost more than the car. A multi-stage compressor and heat echanger setup that would fit in a car, would take several days to the better part of a week of constant running for a single charge.
250kg of 10,000psi air in a composite tank, with all the potential failure points of complex plumbing and valves in a human occupied confined space... If your sphincter didn't just make a diamond reading that sentence, you're not comprehending it.
Go ask grok about the physics involved just in compressing, cooling, storing and controlling a compressed air system with these specs, and what's possible with typical industrial equipment. This is just a cool gimmick to pump fans and stock.
Id bet money, the car in the demo didn't have a full size battery in it. Wouldn't be surprised if someone isn't currently doing analysis on the video to calculate the vehicles weight.
Sorry.
Mark retweeted
Mikel Arteta, who in October, signed a new £25m-a-year deal. Over £66k. Every. Single. Day.
Mark retweeted
I think a billion people across the Western alliance are beginning to spot the tiny design flaw in buying American weapons under Trump: when the enemy arrives, your F-35 may be perfectly capable of fighting them, right up until Washington decides your login privileges are under review.
Then you can sit in your $100 million fighter jet, admire the warning screen, and wait while Trump makes a deal with the bloke attacking you.
Mark retweeted
It’s fuckin cold gas thrusters
Clearly people know nothing about flight
This particular religion is insufferable
Mark retweeted
To cover the national target set:
• 6 THAAD-class - wide-area BMD
• 10 Patriot PAC-3 MSE - medium tier
• 72 Sky Sabre / CAMM-ER - point defence
• ~200 SHORAD / C-UAS - the counter-drone bottom
Total cost = ~£27bn of hardware + £45–60bn In other words Britannia Shield = scale of the nuclear deterrent.
Mark retweeted
En 1984, una pareja celebraba su boda en Polonia cuando cinco hombres de pelo largo entraron sin invitación y terminaron tocando con los instrumentos de la orquesta.
Eran los integrantes de IRON MAIDEN.
Pero lo más increíble es que aquella noche no tocaron ni una de sus canciones.
La banda se encontraba de gira por Polonia, todavía bajo el régimen comunista, cuando sus integrantes terminaron en el club Adria, en la ciudad de Poznań, donde se estaba celebrando una boda.
Al principio solo querían tomar unas copas. Pero cuando vieron que había músicos tocando en directo, se les ocurrió una idea: pedirles prestados los instrumentos y subir al escenario.
Los músicos de la fiesta aceptaron, aunque el baterista estaba especialmente preocupado por lo que aquellos desconocidos pudieran hacerle a su equipo.
Y entonces ocurrió algo que parecía imposible.
Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris y sus compañeros comenzaron a tocar "Smoke on the Water", de Deep Purple, y "Tush", de ZZ Top.
Lo más divertido es que no interpretaron ninguna canción de Iron Maiden.
Bruce Dickinson recordaría años después que ni siquiera estaba seguro de que los invitados supieran quiénes eran aquellos músicos que habían aparecido de repente en su celebración.
Pero hay un detalle que hace esta historia todavía mejor: todo quedó grabado.
Parte de aquella actuación terminó apareciendo en el documental Behind the Iron Curtain, que registró la histórica gira de Iron Maiden por Europa del Este en 1984.
Y pensar que, mientras miles de seguidores pagaban por ver a Iron Maiden en concierto, unos novios polacos terminaron teniendo a la banda tocando gratis en su boda.
Hay parejas que contratan una orquesta para su boda. Y hay otras que, sin saberlo, terminan con Iron Maiden tocando canciones de Deep Purple.
Mark retweeted
“Mom, am I going to die?”
4-year-old Herman asked his mom this question during a russian attack.
On the evening of October 13, ballistic missiles exploded near his home before the air raid alert even sounded. Now Herman is afraid to sleep in his own bed in case something hits him. He turns 5 in early November, and his biggest birthday wish is for the war to end.
No child should ever have to ask this question. Help protect Ukraine’s sky and its innocent children from the cruelty of russia’s war.
u24.gov.ua/sky-defense?utm_s…
Mark retweeted
Received a moving message from an aspiring mid-20s professional that, I think, captures an increasingly widespread despair among younger cohorts:
"It really saddens me when I hear about the work [senior people in the field] are doing. Their work seems interesting, and I'll never get to do it.
The people in their fifties and sixties, they're lucky. I'm even lucky. I feel bad for the kids who are fourteen. I at least got a chance to use my brain for one or two minutes, and that's still priceless. I got to be human. I got to be more than just some puppet who presses Enter so something can think for me.
It's very depressing looking at people who are sixty, who I would love to be in twenty years. But to know that I won't get to do that because Dario said so, right? And, like, that's actually heartbreaking.
It's heartbreaking to know that no matter how hard you try and no matter what you do, you cannot add value as a human being in a year or two's time.
It's like hitting a brick wall. You feel no motivation to build the skill, to get better, to attain wisdom and knowledge. It seems worthless to you. And all the older people are telling you all your efforts might be worthless, and they don't need you anymore. And they can just sit there and, you know, make money and leave you to drown."
