LeithMotive
@leithmotive.bsky.social
Human flesh wrapped in human skin. Hopefully mine.
Lol. We've all sat through a comms person doing this shit and as a scientist it's always that final E that fucks any comms strategy.
At political cabinet today, Morgan McSweeney gave a presentation on “three Es” on how the government can connect with voters - emotion, empathy and evidence.
Am told he said the government currently has a “deficit in emotion”
Am told he said the government currently has a “deficit in emotion”
January 6, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Lol. We've all sat through a comms person doing this shit and as a scientist it's always that final E that fucks any comms strategy.
Paying my company's PAYE/NIC liability by manually entering a 17 character string into the reference section of a bank transfer seems to me to be something that would be trivial for HMRC to improve.
January 6, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Paying my company's PAYE/NIC liability by manually entering a 17 character string into the reference section of a bank transfer seems to me to be something that would be trivial for HMRC to improve.
So, this is where I think the trans stuff ended up. You had old school feminists who see the struggle as sex based oppression and they're basically shut out of online discourse and thus social regulation of the Internet via peer pressure because they got labelled as transphobes and thus monsters.
I'm angry at how badly feminism has failed, or more accurately at how weakly we all defended it. We knew the threat, knew how it would pan out, saw the red lines being crossed and collectively did fuck-all about it. And now we're here and you can't put the shit back in the donkey.
January 6, 2026 at 10:54 AM
So, this is where I think the trans stuff ended up. You had old school feminists who see the struggle as sex based oppression and they're basically shut out of online discourse and thus social regulation of the Internet via peer pressure because they got labelled as transphobes and thus monsters.
Well this is odd...
January 6, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Well this is odd...
What is most striking to me is the lack of any fight back at any level in America. Lots of quote tweets to this from Americans saying yes, our government is evil and stupid. But nobody is prepared to fight them over it. Complete surrender. A nation of cowards in all senses.
It’s genuinely wild that the United States spent decades building an elaborate rules-based international order which de facto cemented its permanent status as the dominant global hegemon, sustained by ideology rather than might, and now is just blowing it all up for literally no reason
January 6, 2026 at 7:31 AM
What is most striking to me is the lack of any fight back at any level in America. Lots of quote tweets to this from Americans saying yes, our government is evil and stupid. But nobody is prepared to fight them over it. Complete surrender. A nation of cowards in all senses.
Amazon have left my parcel 'near my front door'. That's not my door, no idea whose it is.
January 5, 2026 at 8:20 PM
Amazon have left my parcel 'near my front door'. That's not my door, no idea whose it is.
Genuinely surprised at how swiftly the US institutions rolled over to accommodate a combination of fascism and Lysenkoism. They had one job, they didn't even attempt to do it. All the way down from Directors to graduate students. They didn't fight. They surrendered. No principles or courage.
Extraordinarily bleak paragraph about US science by @philipcball.bsky.social
January 5, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Genuinely surprised at how swiftly the US institutions rolled over to accommodate a combination of fascism and Lysenkoism. They had one job, they didn't even attempt to do it. All the way down from Directors to graduate students. They didn't fight. They surrendered. No principles or courage.
This is why furries are absolute wrong 'uns. My daughter's tightly locked down tablet showed her this.
January 5, 2026 at 5:50 PM
This is why furries are absolute wrong 'uns. My daughter's tightly locked down tablet showed her this.
Right message, wrong messenger.
January 5, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Right message, wrong messenger.
The UK has an extradition treaty with the USA. There is no legal reason why Musk can't be prosecuted here in person.
January 5, 2026 at 2:58 PM
The UK has an extradition treaty with the USA. There is no legal reason why Musk can't be prosecuted here in person.
Worries me is that while laying down your (political) life for your (political) friends is noble and all that, it's a trade, you can expect to be remunerated well for such a sacrifice and in modern politics the remuneration is shit, so why would anybody who doesn't get off on being humiliated do it?
A fascinating thing that has changed is when George Osborne sent Chloe Smith out to get destroyed on his behalf on Newsnight it did him real damage temporarily, loads of Conservative MPs and Labour MPs going 'terrible form. He should have been getting whacked by Paxman'. Now it's normal!
He's also ultimately just some guy and I wouldn't be trying to set up the govts line on an absolutely catastrophic international state of affairs live on air
January 5, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Worries me is that while laying down your (political) life for your (political) friends is noble and all that, it's a trade, you can expect to be remunerated well for such a sacrifice and in modern politics the remuneration is shit, so why would anybody who doesn't get off on being humiliated do it?
So the question I have is can a nation state do random wars and colonisation abroad at scale without brutally suppressing large parts of its own population, let alone those it invades?
January 5, 2026 at 12:17 PM
So the question I have is can a nation state do random wars and colonisation abroad at scale without brutally suppressing large parts of its own population, let alone those it invades?
Saying the right things now.
BBC pol ed Chris Mason: the Danes are saying very clearly to President Trump hands off Greenland, will you say the same?
Starmer: Yes. Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.
Starmer: Yes. Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.
January 5, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Saying the right things now.
Talking of beet, doesn't it make you proud of East Anglia spinning mud into molasses. Came across this mountain of beet a few weeks back on a run.
January 5, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Talking of beet, doesn't it make you proud of East Anglia spinning mud into molasses. Came across this mountain of beet a few weeks back on a run.
Can recommend being rude about furries if you want to keep your feed here as nonce and pervert free as possible. They'll do you the favour of blocking you.
January 5, 2026 at 7:29 AM
Can recommend being rude about furries if you want to keep your feed here as nonce and pervert free as possible. They'll do you the favour of blocking you.
Anyway it's interesting that Trump is prepared to go to war because of drug trafficking and his eldest son is massive coke head.
January 5, 2026 at 7:09 AM
Anyway it's interesting that Trump is prepared to go to war because of drug trafficking and his eldest son is massive coke head.
Hoping today is the day the blood clot wins.
January 5, 2026 at 6:17 AM
Hoping today is the day the blood clot wins.
It explains a huge amount that the tech industry is full of people prepared to give themselves cancer and degenerative diseases because they don't understood that anecdotes are incredibly weak data let alone how scientific experiments and clinical trials work. Fucking software people.
January 4, 2026 at 6:33 PM
It explains a huge amount that the tech industry is full of people prepared to give themselves cancer and degenerative diseases because they don't understood that anecdotes are incredibly weak data let alone how scientific experiments and clinical trials work. Fucking software people.
Anyway ran 25k today and I've no idea why people would do anything longer than a half marathon. It just stops being fun after that distance.
January 4, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Anyway ran 25k today and I've no idea why people would do anything longer than a half marathon. It just stops being fun after that distance.
Americans really aren't going to like it when the FDA implodes this year or next and everything becomes unregulated.
The Peptide Craze in the US. It's reckless and unfounded.
erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
Today @nytimes.com @jasmine.bsky.social goes deep into the use in Silicon Valley, the supply from China, and the reasons this biohacking is popular
t.co/lQXUBHNEaG
erictopol.substack.com/p/the-peptid...
Today @nytimes.com @jasmine.bsky.social goes deep into the use in Silicon Valley, the supply from China, and the reasons this biohacking is popular
t.co/lQXUBHNEaG
January 4, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Americans really aren't going to like it when the FDA implodes this year or next and everything becomes unregulated.
Strong disagree on cowardly. Commits the UK government to democracy in Venezuela when Trump is committed to making it a colony under military rule. Foolish more like.
January 4, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Strong disagree on cowardly. Commits the UK government to democracy in Venezuela when Trump is committed to making it a colony under military rule. Foolish more like.
Heard Peter Hegseth on the news earlier. Man sounds terrified. A coward trying to bully to seem brave. What does he know?
January 4, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Heard Peter Hegseth on the news earlier. Man sounds terrified. A coward trying to bully to seem brave. What does he know?
2hrs 10mins. Was pleasant.
January 4, 2026 at 10:26 AM
2hrs 10mins. Was pleasant.
Got a long run in a bit
January 4, 2026 at 6:13 AM
Got a long run in a bit