Mike Knell
@blat.at
Middle-aged 🇬🇧🇦🇹 SRE, he/him. Wiener. In a love-hate relationship with amateur radio since 1985. Drummer. Cat staff member. Big fan of diversity, inclusion, empathy and humanity in general. Not a fan of bigots.
🎶 your own personal licensed AI Jesus🎵
January 30, 2026 at 8:12 AM
🎶 your own personal licensed AI Jesus🎵
Sitting at the drum kit trying to obtain a similar sound to Hal Blaine's drums on Pet Sounds.
me: hmm, I think this needs some reverb
drum module: how much reverb, chief?
me: yes
me: hmm, I think this needs some reverb
drum module: how much reverb, chief?
me: yes
January 29, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Sitting at the drum kit trying to obtain a similar sound to Hal Blaine's drums on Pet Sounds.
me: hmm, I think this needs some reverb
drum module: how much reverb, chief?
me: yes
me: hmm, I think this needs some reverb
drum module: how much reverb, chief?
me: yes
I am asking you to please stop reposting utter twats into my timeline just because you agree with the context free pull quote they posted
January 29, 2026 at 11:19 AM
I am asking you to please stop reposting utter twats into my timeline just because you agree with the context free pull quote they posted
The only thing that makes sense to me when it comes to the events of the last 24 hours is that there's something going on in the White House that is, for want of a better term, "elder abuse". Trump is being left to make rambling speeches and collect plaster Nobels while people like Miller run amok.
January 27, 2026 at 5:28 PM
The only thing that makes sense to me when it comes to the events of the last 24 hours is that there's something going on in the White House that is, for want of a better term, "elder abuse". Trump is being left to make rambling speeches and collect plaster Nobels while people like Miller run amok.
It's fun to see social media suddenly talking about Baird's 30-line television system, something which I've been a bit of a nerd about ever since I was a kid. It didn't work out for Baird in the end because he was convinced mechanical scanning was all you'd ever need but he showed what was possible.
January 26, 2026 at 6:33 PM
It's fun to see social media suddenly talking about Baird's 30-line television system, something which I've been a bit of a nerd about ever since I was a kid. It didn't work out for Baird in the end because he was convinced mechanical scanning was all you'd ever need but he showed what was possible.
Re last post: it's quite hard to compare police use-of-firearms statistics across countries in Europe as in most cases the numbers vary wildly due their being so low. UK police shot at 2 people in 2023-24, 4 in 2024-2025. The anti-cop view is "a 100% increase!", the pro-cop view is "only 2 more". :)
January 26, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Re last post: it's quite hard to compare police use-of-firearms statistics across countries in Europe as in most cases the numbers vary wildly due their being so low. UK police shot at 2 people in 2023-24, 4 in 2024-2025. The anti-cop view is "a 100% increase!", the pro-cop view is "only 2 more". :)
Statistic of the day: Border Patrol mercenaries fired more bullets into Alex Pretti's body (10) than police across the United Kingdom fired at people in the whole year to March 2025 (4 shooting incidents, probably just a couple of rounds discharged in each case).
January 26, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Statistic of the day: Border Patrol mercenaries fired more bullets into Alex Pretti's body (10) than police across the United Kingdom fired at people in the whole year to March 2025 (4 shooting incidents, probably just a couple of rounds discharged in each case).
Reposted by Mike Knell
commiserations to non-Dutch speakers, who will never know what this is about
January 25, 2026 at 3:30 PM
commiserations to non-Dutch speakers, who will never know what this is about
Star Trek is 60 years old this year. Four more years and the Star Trek era will have lasted longer than the Victorian era (1837-1901).
January 25, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Star Trek is 60 years old this year. Four more years and the Star Trek era will have lasted longer than the Victorian era (1837-1901).
I know it's political necessity but watching US legislators line up to condemn ICE for killing and terrorising US citizens makes me sad because ICE should not be killing or terrorising ANYONE. Most countries do immigration enforcement yet still manage not to kill or brutalise those in their custody.
January 25, 2026 at 3:58 PM
I know it's political necessity but watching US legislators line up to condemn ICE for killing and terrorising US citizens makes me sad because ICE should not be killing or terrorising ANYONE. Most countries do immigration enforcement yet still manage not to kill or brutalise those in their custody.
I saw a comment from an apologist go by in my feed earlier stating that "surely all American citizens would know that they must obey orders from ICE agents" and I was so gobsmacked I forgot to make a note and now I can't find it. But it was definitely there. Feels like I'm taking crazy pills &c.
January 24, 2026 at 10:29 PM
I saw a comment from an apologist go by in my feed earlier stating that "surely all American citizens would know that they must obey orders from ICE agents" and I was so gobsmacked I forgot to make a note and now I can't find it. But it was definitely there. Feels like I'm taking crazy pills &c.
In the last free pre-war elections in Germany in 1932 the Nazi party got nowhere near a majority - it got 37% of the vote. In 1933 thanks to "emergency powers" signed off by the senile Hindenberg they simply banned the opposition and seized absolute power. Don't think it can never happen, America.
January 24, 2026 at 7:55 PM
In the last free pre-war elections in Germany in 1932 the Nazi party got nowhere near a majority - it got 37% of the vote. In 1933 thanks to "emergency powers" signed off by the senile Hindenberg they simply banned the opposition and seized absolute power. Don't think it can never happen, America.
I'm not sure what sort of Nuremberg will be waiting for the ringleaders of the atrocities being committed in the US right now but I'm pretty sure Reichsführer-ICE Greg Bavino is going to be close to the top of the charge list. History tells us that it'll happen, sooner or later. Tick tock, Greg.
January 24, 2026 at 7:44 PM
I'm not sure what sort of Nuremberg will be waiting for the ringleaders of the atrocities being committed in the US right now but I'm pretty sure Reichsführer-ICE Greg Bavino is going to be close to the top of the charge list. History tells us that it'll happen, sooner or later. Tick tock, Greg.
If sickle cell disease was not virtually unknown among white people they would have been writing this news across the sky when it broke. As of a few years ago life expectancy for people born with SCD was 67 in the UK but 43 in the US. I doubt I need to spell out why.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
NHS to offer 'groundbreaking' sickle cell gene therapy
The gene therapy Casgevy, which will now be offered to some patients in England, could help people live disease-free, experts say.
www.bbc.com
January 24, 2026 at 11:16 AM
If sickle cell disease was not virtually unknown among white people they would have been writing this news across the sky when it broke. As of a few years ago life expectancy for people born with SCD was 67 in the UK but 43 in the US. I doubt I need to spell out why.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Strange how unlike the leaders of every other British political Party Nigel Farage, enthusiastic supporter of the British armed forces, hasn’t yet got around to publicly condemning Trump for his claims that non-US NATO troops never went near the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
a man in a crowd with the words well we 're waiting
ALT: a man in a crowd with the words well we 're waiting
media.tenor.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Strange how unlike the leaders of every other British political Party Nigel Farage, enthusiastic supporter of the British armed forces, hasn’t yet got around to publicly condemning Trump for his claims that non-US NATO troops never went near the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
You know when your kid is going to school in Vienna when this morning's outing for his primary school class was to go to a concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Staatsoper.
January 22, 2026 at 9:54 AM
You know when your kid is going to school in Vienna when this morning's outing for his primary school class was to go to a concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Staatsoper.
If the T-1000 had been French
January 21, 2026 at 11:15 AM
If the T-1000 had been French
I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person in 2002 who thought "Department of Homeland Security? Sounds a bit fascist."
January 21, 2026 at 7:46 AM
I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person in 2002 who thought "Department of Homeland Security? Sounds a bit fascist."
Guardian: Trump says he’s soon going to a “beautiful place in Switzerland”
… Dignitas?
… Dignitas?
January 20, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Guardian: Trump says he’s soon going to a “beautiful place in Switzerland”
… Dignitas?
… Dignitas?
The Financial Times is now calling Trump a crackpot. Given its usual highly diplomatic tone of voice this is quite an
achievement.
achievement.
January 19, 2026 at 2:41 PM
The Financial Times is now calling Trump a crackpot. Given its usual highly diplomatic tone of voice this is quite an
achievement.
achievement.
I heard a Greenlander described as "Trump's man in Nuuk" interviewed on the radio and he's so obviously looking to become Trump's quisling "ruler". He should remember that being a quisling didn't end up well for OG trope-namer Vidkun Quisling.
January 19, 2026 at 7:45 AM
I heard a Greenlander described as "Trump's man in Nuuk" interviewed on the radio and he's so obviously looking to become Trump's quisling "ruler". He should remember that being a quisling didn't end up well for OG trope-namer Vidkun Quisling.
Reposted by Mike Knell
January 18, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Mike Knell
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1875.
January 18, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1875.
Reposted by Mike Knell
The Brian Blessed Audiobook Collection
January 16, 2026 at 10:20 PM
The Brian Blessed Audiobook Collection