Best Of

Funniest headline of the day:

Ozempic could save American airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

https://x.com/collinrugg/status/2012916988973334554

The story is that if Americans all lost 10% of their weight, airlines would use 1.5% less fuel as a result. They don’t (yes) charge humans by their own weight and the average American is 180lb. 1.5% of the fuel bill across the major American airlines is $580m.

I have long thought that airlines should charge by combined weight of passenger and baggage.

That might be the best way of my persuading a certain someone close to me, to pack her bag sensibly for a trip.

I used to do loads of work travel when younger, so have pretty much mastered taking a large laptop cabin bag with a week’s worth of clothes in it.

Yes, on our recent tour of India I was relieved that Railway station Porters were omnipresent!

When we backpacked across SE Asia we had packs of abot 40 litres and 10kg for 3 months, but that was 35 years ago.

Funniest headline of the day:

Ozempic could save American airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

https://x.com/collinrugg/status/2012916988973334554

The story is that if Americans all lost 10% of their weight, airlines would use 1.5% less fuel as a result. They don’t (yes) charge humans by their own weight and the average American is 180lb. 1.5% of the fuel bill across the major American airlines is $580m.

I have long thought that airlines should charge by combined weight of passenger and baggage.

That might be the best way of my persuading a certain someone close to me, to pack her bag sensibly for a trip!

I used to do loads of work travel when younger, so have pretty much mastered taking a large laptop cabin bag with a week’s worth of clothes in it.

Funniest headline of the day:

Ozempic could save American airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

https://x.com/collinrugg/status/2012916988973334554

The story is that if Americans all lost 10% of their weight, airlines would use 1.5% less fuel as a result. They don’t (yes) charge humans by their own weight and the average American is 180lb. 1.5% of the fuel bill across the major American airlines is $580m.

I have long thought that airlines should charge by combined weight of passenger and baggage.

If you added an onboard decibel measuring device so that noisy children were charged per slightest shriek then it'd be perfect. Oh and an extra 10% charged if you tip your seat back on short haul, with an equivalent discount to the seat-tipper victim.

Apparently Farage is under the weather and couldn’t make LK .

Yes right ! Obviously he didn’t want answer uncomfortable questions about his relationship with Trump .

It is his usual 'duck and cover' approach when Trump is being particularly egregious. Not that Trump is massively popular with Reform voters, but he is more popular than with other voters, and going silent (or sticking to careful written statements) about being pro-Trump in such moments usually allows things to blow over.

He won't be able to get away with ducking things like that on this or other issues forever, when he is in with a shot of being PM.

If he's lucky though it won't hurt him until after he's already in office. It took a long time for Corbyn's unchanging views on foreign affairs to have any impact at all.

One party stands out in this table. It seems a fair number of Reform voters are Trump bootlickers:

It is really interesting that Reform is so out of line on this. 39% "strongly oppose". If the bulk of Reform's support is from former Tories, then they must have had their minds melted in the journey across.

I think about half of the Reform vote is from weathy older Shire voters not unlike the Tories, but the other half is from those swapping various MAGA conspiracy theories on Social Media.

All parties are coalitions, but this doesn't seem a natural fit in the long term. Farage knows this and its one reason that he won't criticize Trump.

You seriously think about 14.5% of the country are swapping MAGA conspiracy stories online 🙄

Last night one of my Tweets about Greenland went viral, I'd say about 40% of the replies are MAGA bullshit by Brits.

https://x.com/TSEofPB/status/2012566644493627792

I get replies like these as well.

Go live in Pakistan then bro

https://x.com/Frank6awa/status/2012661929332920536

Get fucked. I'd rather not support the Fouth Reich, you fucking Nazi

https://x.com/HashMan10600431/status/2012629647645671488

Any brit who defends and supports immigrants is a traitor.

Any brit who defends and supports immigrants is a traitor.

I'd forgotten you still had a Twitter account. Can't be fun, given that it is chock full of nutters. Have you thought of migrating to Bluesky and going on Matt Wardman's Political Betting starter pack?

https://x.com/TSEofPB/
https://bsky.app/starter-pack/mattwardman.bsky.social/3lfk4fvp5yv26
https://bsky.app/profile/mattwardman.bsky.social

lol, bless

"chock full of nutters".

Whereas Bluesky is a silent desert with the odd shrieking group of pious lefty nutters, acidly bickering with each other and wondering why no one wants to join them

Think I prefer the unruly crowds and fun

There’s been an influx of Lib Dem MPs since the spat about image doctoring.

What a loss to Twitter they are.

Ed Davey still keep popping up in my Twitter timeline, mostly coming across as a student activist yelling into the void at the US President.

Agent Anderson is on Cousin Marriage at present, which is apparently an issue about Muslims.

It was made legal in the England in 1540 because Henry VIII wanted to marry the first cousin of a previous wife he had beheaded.

https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/2012252464217518095

His own cousin, surely, unless his previous wife was his sister?

Under English law at the time, if you were married to somebody you were legally considered that person for marital purposes.

When Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, he had to obtain a papal dispensation because she had been married to his brother.

He claimed, in the dispensation, that Catherine and Arthur had never consummated their marriage. When he wanted an annulment, he claimed she had misled him on this point.

Similarly, he annulled his marriage to Anne Boleyn before beheading her on the grounds he'd previously been shagging her sister Mary.

Yes, he was massively creepy.

Trump is rather like Henry VIII, I think.

I think that's very unfair.

To Henry VIII.

Yes. He probably treated his wives better.

Fuck these people

@jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social‬

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now making an explicit link between the US desire to annex Greenland and the continuation of US support for Ukraine.

"What would happen in Ukraine if the US pulled its support out? The whole thing would collapse," Bessent told Meet The Press.

The damage these people are doing will take decades to heal. How can anyone trust the US again when it behaves like this to allies?

What if they don’t care?


That’s one disturbing rationale. What if they’ve decided that NATO can go fuck itself (ditto Ukraine), and the Europeans are a bunch of expensive effete losers determined to immigrate their nations to death - ergo they are doomed and useless allies now and forever

What if they’ve therefore decided that American isolationism is the answer - building an impregnable fortress in the wider Americas, which contains all the resources it needs and has all means to defend itself - especially if they can seize the vast mineral wealth and strategic location of Greenland

In that light the seizure of Greenland makes “sense”. They just don’t care. America must have what it needs for security and fuck Denmark (and Greenland)

If this is their thinking - rather than just a trumpian flight of lunacy - then it has an internal logic. It is also crazily risky and almost certainly a massive error - every nation, no matter how strong, must have allies and alliances

Just pointing out that it might not be pure insanity. Eg the death of NATO is possibly seen as a positive by product

Fuck these people

@jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social‬

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now making an explicit link between the US desire to annex Greenland and the continuation of US support for Ukraine.

"What would happen in Ukraine if the US pulled its support out? The whole thing would collapse," Bessent told Meet The Press.

The damage these people are doing will take decades to heal. How can anyone trust the US again when it behaves like this to allies?

What if they don’t care?


That’s one disturbing rationale. What if they’ve decided that NATO can go fuck itself (ditto Ukraine), and the Europeans are a bunch of expensive effete losers determined to immigrate their nations to death - ergo they are doomed and useless allies now and forever

What if they’ve therefore decided that American isolationism is the answer - building an impregnable fortress in the wider Americas, which contains all the resources it needs and has all means to defend itself - especially if they can seize the vast mineral wealth and strategic location of Greenland

In that light the seizure of Greenland makes “sense”. They just don’t care. America must have what it needs for security and fuck Denmark (and Greenland)

If this is their thinking - rather than just a trumpian flight of lunacy - then it has an internal logic. It is also crazily risky and almost certainly a massive error - every nation, no matter how strong, must have allies and alliances

Just pointing out that it might not be pure insanity. Eg the death of NATO is possibly seen as a positive by product

Then, that would be a failure of imagination.

America has less than 5% of humanity's population, and isn't anything like as invulnerable or omnipotent as it thinks it is.

They soon will care when they realise such actions leave Americans friendless, their markets smaller, access to products reduced, and - being no longer able or trusted to shape world events - a recipient of the chaos that causes, which it will.

I am deeply concerned that so many Reform voters don't see this for what it is.

They seem to think Trump can do no wrong, and if anyone opposes him then that's a sign that he himself must be supported.

I did vote Reform in 2024, but have never been all in on Trump, and probably won’t vote Reform next time anyway. I liked that he tore up the rule book and gave the centrists/lefty can’t do’s a kick up the arse, but his response to the film directors death recently woke me up to what a crass person he is. Now it seems like he is getting crazier every day.

Not that it would cross his mind, but he has put Farage in a bit of a muddle now. Laying Reform most seats at 2 seems even better than before, I think it’s been a bad week for them

EDIT It’s 2.1 now, predictable drift

There is more rejoicing in heaven etc etc

Apparently Farage is under the weather and couldn’t make LK .

Yes right ! Obviously he didn’t want answer uncomfortable questions about his relationship with Trump .

It is his usual 'duck and cover' approach when Trump is being particularly egregious. Not that Trump is massively popular with Reform voters, but he is more popular than with other voters, and going silent (or sticking to careful written statements) about being pro-Trump in such moments usually allows things to blow over.

He won't be able to get away with ducking things like that on this or other issues forever, when he is in with a shot of being PM.

If he's lucky though it won't hurt him until after he's already in office. It took a long time for Corbyn's unchanging views on foreign affairs to have any impact at all.

One party stands out in this table. It seems a fair number of Reform voters are Trump bootlickers:

It is really interesting that Reform is so out of line on this. 39% "strongly oppose". If the bulk of Reform's support is from former Tories, then they must have had their minds melted in the journey across.

I think about half of the Reform vote is from weathy older Shire voters not unlike the Tories, but the other half is from those swapping various MAGA conspiracy theories on Social Media.

All parties are coalitions, but this doesn't seem a natural fit in the long term. Farage knows this and its one reason that he won't criticize Trump.

You seriously think about 14.5% of the country are swapping MAGA conspiracy stories online 🙄

Last night one of my Tweets about Greenland went viral, I'd say about 40% of the replies are MAGA bullshit by Brits.

https://x.com/TSEofPB/status/2012566644493627792

I get replies like these as well.

Go live in Pakistan then bro

https://x.com/Frank6awa/status/2012661929332920536

Get fucked. I'd rather not support the Fouth Reich, you fucking Nazi

https://x.com/HashMan10600431/status/2012629647645671488

Any brit who defends and supports immigrants is a traitor.

Any brit who defends and supports immigrants is a traitor.

I'd forgotten you still had a Twitter account. Can't be fun, given that it is chock full of nutters. Have you thought of migrating to Bluesky and going on Matt Wardman's Political Betting starter pack?

https://x.com/TSEofPB/
https://bsky.app/starter-pack/mattwardman.bsky.social/3lfk4fvp5yv26
https://bsky.app/profile/mattwardman.bsky.social

lol, bless

"chock full of nutters".

Whereas Bluesky is a silent desert with the odd shrieking group of pious lefty nutters, acidly bickering with each other and wondering why no one wants to join them

Think I prefer the unruly crowds and fun

There’s been an influx of Lib Dem MPs since the spat about image doctoring.

What a loss to Twitter they are.