Broken clocks, etc.

https://archive.is/20260120115306/https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/5414544/west-wemyss-mass-eviction/

I don't need to self host a git server or anything like that. Just need a place I can link to in my CV with some code examples. Microsoft pushing their AI rubbish has been the final straw.

Truly he touched us all

Best hip-hop song about infidelity? It sounds like being gaslit by both Pusha T and Malice.

Honourable mention to How We Do - Freddie Gibbs

With the triple lock: this now means that pensioners will be making beyond the tax free bracket for income taxes with the state pension alone from next year.

As a Scottish person I ended up voting No last time because I wasn't really convinced by the economic argument. The oil price going over $50 a barrel was the nail in the coffin for the North Sea oil too, although that happened a year or two after the indieRef vote.

I do think there is a possibility to create the "economic miracle" that the SNP are describing in an independent Scotland if we chose to become a tax haven like Republic of Ireland. Scotland has a small, homogeneous population of comparitively highly educated people, centralised around two cities which are 45 mins apart. These factors make it an ideal candidate for becoming a tax haven, however I'm not convinced that is what people who support independence would want or be voting for in a hypothetical referendum. I suppose all of this is a hypothetical given that another vote is unlikely to happen for at least a decade or two.

Archive links -

• https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F9d5942e4-97e6-43e1-9e4b-3d5f292d567d

• https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F9d5942e4-97e6-43e1-9e4b-3d5f292d567d

• https://ghostarchive.org/search?term=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F9d5942e4-97e6-43e1-9e4b-3d5f292d567d

I've enjoyed Matthewmatosis on youtube for years and was a little bit skeptical when he announced he was going into gamedev a few years ago. Nevertheless this first game is reasonably priced and I've enjoyed the first 7 or 8 puzzles - they've taken me a couple hours.

Most interesting thing imo is seeing a critic put something of their own out for criticisms. Have noted a few junior matthewmatosis's in the making in the steam reviews lol.

I'm sure the other episodes have been good but I had to share this one because it has SCHOOE writing and reading out some of his poetry at 13 mins.

It's not half bad like. Obviously been practicing at Burns Night over the years.

I love the idea of there being some student union poetry meetup where Pierre finishes his spiel and the crowd respond, SCHOE!

::: spoiler Score 29-26 to Scotland :::

Woke up at 5:30AM to catch all of the 2nd half. Both teams obviously missing a lot of stars

Maybe put spoilers around score discussion because many fellow Scots will be watching catch-up this morning.

Capcom's flagship fighter is one of the very best games you can get for Switch 2 at its launch, helped along by a faithful 60fps rendition of the game that includes online cross-play with all other formats. There are tweaks and cutbacks of course next to Series S and PS5, and further optimisations for its portable play - but on balance it's a success in holding a stable frame-rate in its 1v1 fighting - as Tom covers in this full tech review.

iPlayer link here.

I found this documentary jaw dropping. Japanese tv producers have to be some of the most evil people on the planet. Did anyone else catch it?

We've had a few newspapers write stories about it too:

RAG WARNING - Daily Mail "BBC viewers left 'in tears and screaming at the TV' after documentary about 'absurdly cruel' reality show that saw contestant stripped naked, starved and locked up alone for a YEAR"

Manchester Evening News "BBC's The Contestant: What happened to Nasubi and how much money did he get for being on show?"

Mirror "BBC fans in shock over 'cruel' reality TV show where contestant starved and told to strip"

Been thinking about this today. People already pay CGT on 2nd homes but given that housing is being used as an investment vehicle by virtually everyone in the UK, does it make sense to apply it to single homeowners too?

Would have to ignore the current govt's pledge to not raise taxes but with national debt at over 100% of GDP and us spending over 100 billion pounds a year in interest alone... not sure that is sustainable.

Thinking it through, house prices would fall since they would immediately be a less desirable commodity. Although they wouldn't plummet because houses still have intrinsic value and the supply of houses being sold would begin to dry up as people are dissuaded from selling.

The rental housing supply would increase in terms of properties since it would be more profitable to let them out than sell them. An increase in supply would reduce the cost of rent. It would need to come in with an increase in renter protection laws. Focusing on long term rented properties as family homes works well for other countries like Germany.

At the moment we've got a situation where people buy the most expensive house they can possibly afford because it has the best return of any investment by being exempt from CTG. In theory, people might buy more modest homes if they are buying and potentially could put more money into stocks/indexes which would stimulate the wider economy.

Anyway, this was more of a showerthought than anything else. What do you think?

Song has also aged badly but I wouldn't say it was ever good