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Scurra@scurra.com |
9 followers 39 following 78 posts
Cruciverbalist with a side-order of boardgame design
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Scurra
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On that second point - the Labour vote was also cannibalized by Reform, but that largely happened in 2019 so it wasn't so apparent. Farage will claim there's an unstoppable movement but it feels as though (like elsewhere in Europe) they are a regional party that's now close to their support ceiling.
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Scurra
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We say 2 + 2 = 4 They say 2 + 2 = 5 Leftish-centrists say "can't you just compromise on 2.5 + 2.5 = 4?"
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Scurra
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I sometimes joke that you should not be able to stand for election until you are 60 (which likely gives you 15 good years) but you can't vote once you are 60 (to stop the reps from just voting for massive pensions etc.) Yes, it's a terrible idea, but compared to many others?
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Scurra
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For me, the question is how many of the "three way" seats (that have been created due to boundary changes) the Tories will manage to sneak through and keep on the back of a 35% vote. I suspect it will be more than a few - but that still won't stop a catastrophic loss, mind.
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Scurra
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Of course, over here in Brexitland, we may be buying fireworks for July 4th for entirely different reasons.
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Scurra
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I also suspect that enough of your audience are following you *somewhere* (but not into your bedroom, honest, that was just a mistake) that posts like this are more than adequate explanation.
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Scurra
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Is that connected to the arrival of Helen Lewis as part of the core editorial team?
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Scurra
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Perhaps one explanation is that there are two contending identities - the writer and the showrunner. The showrunner is conscious of the need for the opener and closer of a season to be epic and/or explanatory, but any stuff inbetween can be done by the writer, who is able to let go more?
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Scurra
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Some years ago, I concluded that the most helpful axis for examining people's ideology isn't left/right, or authoritarian/libertarian or anything like that. It's just bigot/not bigot. Although I accept that it's clearly much more of a binary position than the others.
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Scurra
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Yeah, that sounds accurate to me. Caveat, I've only been on three charity boards and the charities have all been largely competent thanks to good staff appointments processes, but I've definitely been in the "defuse this crisis before it brings the edifice down" scenario.
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Scurra
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But then you get into the plausible deniability stage, where you can say "but we didn't promote Farage - look, we were basically promoting Labour!" Especially if you think that press regulation might be on the agenda for a new government that doesn't really have any money to spend anywhere.
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Scurra
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That depends. If Clacton ends up as a three-way marginal result, then the Tory could accidentally win instead of Farage, so they need to big up Labour as a viable alternative to divert votes away from the Tory?
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Scurra
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And the extra reminder that you need photo ID, but you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate (www.gov.uk/apply-for-ph...)
I did this for the local elections, and all they needed in order to issue one was my NI number and a photo.
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Scurra
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Let's face it - it's just that xenophobia is a much, much easier sell than, say, redistribution or environmental repair. Even though the xenophobes would hugely benefit from redistribution and/or environmental repair.
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Scurra
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And proroguing Parliament buggered up a whole lot of their reports that we might have had by the end of summer. That's one of the side-effects that often goes unnoticed.
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Scurra
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I'm still mildly surprised that there weren't more shows that came out of It's Your Round really, as several of them seemed at least as solid as It's Not What You Know (which was fab.) I imagine there were at least some pilots?
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Scurra
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Once one of the characters said the word "cosplay" I understood what the episode was trying to say; everyone in the story, whether aliens or not, were simply trying to fit in (except, of course, the Doctor who never needs to or tries to.) As someone who finds that very hard to do, it was insightful.
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Scurra
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It's just that the name on the picture on your post says "by Finn McRedmond", that's all, and I half-wondered if you had some secret alias or something!
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Scurra
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Who is Finn McRedmond?
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Scurra
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I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest.
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Scurra
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Classic Betteridge Law of Headlines there ("the answer is always 'no'.")
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Scurra
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It's sort of the C21 version of the CP Snow Two Cultures thing, isn't it? (Oh, and thanks; I enjoyed reading that.)
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Scurra
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Longtime US podcasters Bluegal & Driftglass (aka the Professional Left) have a weekly episode now called "No Fair Remembering Stuff" which is about exactly this - how it's the same old, same old because the media fails abysmally to face up to their endless failures on this front.
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Scurra
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I always say that if you didn't like Doctor Who this week, then watch it next week because it will be *completely* different. And that applies to "Doctors" and "eras" and showrunners/producers too. It's why the show has lasted so long.
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Scurra
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Oh yes. I had somehow managed to forget that. Yeah, Streeting might consider it a challenge rather than an embarrassment. Gah.
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Scurra
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I guess the only minor upside here (and it's very minor) is that it might make it more difficult for Labour to follow suit. (Given that policies announced during election campaigns are usually intended to be ones that the 'other' parties aren't likely to adopt.) Not that I would put it past them. :(
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Scurra
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Really delighted that RTD is clearly not letting the Disney money get in the way of anything except providing better sets and effects (and even then, it's mostly background stuff.) Because he's really not pulling any punches this year, is he?
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Scurra
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This. As a puzzle writer, the best advice I ever got was from someone who said that a puzzle is a war between the setter and solver in which the setter must *always* lose, but not so easily that the solver feels cheated.
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Scurra
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There was also the related explosion in "Eurogames" in the late 90s, that offered a similar space for this - hyperdefined but accessible rules systems where it was your ability to recognise and exploit the edge cases that was often key to victory. (And, of course, "winning" is a part of it too.)
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Scurra
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Douglas Adams' Rules of Tech: - Anything already in the world when you are born is natural. - Anything invented between the ages of 15 and 35 is cool and you can probably make a career out of it. - Anything invented after you are 45 is against the natural order of things.
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Scurra
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I've read stuff about "the tragedy of the commons", mostly noting that it was largely a confidence trick to enable rentiers to justify themselves. On the other hand, this does seem like a spectacular demonstration of the original contention.
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Scurra
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That conspiracy theory that there's a mole in Tory HQ is obviously blown now, because it's clear that it's the entire operation. I'm half-expecting "bring back the death penalty" to be in the manifesto now.
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Scurra
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One reason I liked this so much was the terrific execution of the idea of realising that one had worked one's whole life solely to prevent someone accidentally stepping on a butterfly. (As opposed to the Doctor who has a switch for that. Apparently.) And Gibson sells this brilliantly all the way.
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Scurra
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Oh, I imagine that my feelings are as nothing to yours!
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Scurra
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It really didn't help to get a 'confirmation email' this morning which just had the entry pass stuff and didn't say "oh, by the way, the event you were going to has been cancelled."
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Scurra
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I am so desperate to know what they found in Bromley now. Curse you!
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Scurra
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And "Baron Houchen of High Leven" clearly didn't mention his title much in that campaign either. (Mind you, four more years of articles about the deals around the freeport definitely won't help his chances next time out, regardless of that!)
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Scurra
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I'm part of that anecdotal cohort - I voted for Khan this time but he was definitely only my second preference in 2021. (I actually voted for three different parties this time, owing to the slightly weird member + proportional party list system, but don't regret it.)
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Scurra
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That feels unduly pessimistic. There are far too many different factors at play in local elections, not to mention that people who bothered to take the effort to turn out to vote against the Tories in a local election are *definitely* going to do the same at a general.
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Scurra
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I was surprised the Circle line wasn't lower - I agree entirely with you that the nonsense at Paddington is, well, nonsense, and the non-Circle aspect doesn't help. (But yeah, the core problem is that most of the lines need a structural rethink, and 'tradition' isn't going to let that happen.)
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Scurra
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Whereas I still think this was a stunt - it got everyone talking about it, and it will be covered lots during the results shows, and "Boris" needs to restore his 'I'm just a lovable idiot' persona. He went back to vote perfectly normally later, after all.
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Scurra
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OK, that's fair. I am less willing to ascribe deliberate malignancy to the designers; it seems more likely to me that the main driver was "profit" rather than wilful intent to create something that would deliver falsehoods. But "profit" is not any sort of an excuse; LLMs are still a very bad idea!
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Scurra
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It feels like using the term "lie" is unhelpful, because that assumes a value-status of what is being produced? As it has no value, calling it "lies" may be granting it a status way beyond what it deserves? (Although I accept that it's much quicker and easier to explain as "plausible-sounding lies")
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Scurra
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Prolific poster Bluegal (who has done a podcast for years called "The Professional Left") repeatedly mocks US voters who proclaim "I'm an *Independent*" when they actually mean "I'm to embarrassed to say that I vote Republican."
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Scurra
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We were slightly more upmarket, because we had the wobbly 16k ram pack as well (walk past the table too briskly and lose hours of work.)
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Scurra
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I design boardgames and yes, this is definitely the mix of testers that you need for that too. It's certainly a key reason modern boardgames got so much better once we figured that out (and also had a community that comprised that range of willing players, of course!)
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Scurra
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Oh yeah. I was getting confused with the various broadcast/non-broadcast/audio versions (and other uses.) The novel is indeed probably the most canonical of all of them!
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Scurra
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What does that do to Shada? (Other than screw everything up completely, which seems only appropriate.)
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Scurra
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It's the visibility to you that is perhaps underrated by "us" (meaning subscribers.) If I choose not to buy the next book by a particular author (for whatever reason), said author does not get a pop-up saying "Scurra has chosen to stop buying your books". But people using Patreon effectively do.
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Scurra
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Yes, but to be fair, we also get an hour less to eat all the chocolate eggs.
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