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Paul Martin

@jo95017

Grouchy exiled Hullensian, unrepentant Wadhamite.

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03.08.2023
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Latest posts by Paul Martin @jo95017

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

31.01.2026 21:02 👍 2940 🔁 1445 💬 75 📌 222

AI tools are immensely powerful. The use of AI as a general purpose chat bot that is used like an encyclopaedia is the worst possible use of AI. AI is now, given good instructions from a knowledgeable user, capable of doing absolutely vast amounts of work extremely fast.

29.01.2026 09:09 👍 256 🔁 46 💬 13 📌 19
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I grew up with Alex Pretti The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

27.01.2026 16:45 👍 17312 🔁 6910 💬 504 📌 329
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Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

17.01.2026 14:57 👍 40033 🔁 14693 💬 1321 📌 1047
Cooking Chef Stand Mixer KCL96.004DG KCL96.004DG stand mixer | Kenwood GB Discover Cooking Chef Stand Mixer KCL96.004DG KCL96.004DG kitchen machine and buy it on the official Kenwood website, at the best price.

For a mere £1250… www.kenwoodworld.com/en-gb/p/kenw... (not quite what you are asking for but it does the same thing)

13.01.2026 18:59 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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War Before Civilization - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Bef... I really enjoyed this book on the same sort of topic (but it came out 30 years ago so is it really a new argument?)

27.11.2025 13:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Check if your drink is liable for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy Find out which drinks are liable for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, and how much you may need to pay.

This is an intensely targeted tax, though, not a broad-based one - www.gov.uk/guidance/che...

25.11.2025 15:45 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

To what, though? I wonder if there just isn't a successor to pasta/garlic/sundried tomatoes/posh coffees/etc nowadays. Any new and exciting food has maybe six months in a niche market before it's available everywhere. The democratization of taste!

19.11.2025 13:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

or he also plans to build another hanger on the other side, perhaps

24.10.2025 09:45 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Warner Bros. has said The Hunt for Gollum is in fact the first of two new Lord of the Rings feature films from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, as the company aims to make more of the franchise. With The Hunt for Gollum, we’ll get to see what Gollum was up to in the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Warner Bros. has said The Hunt for Gollum is in fact the first of two new Lord of the Rings feature films from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, as the company aims to make more of the franchise. With The Hunt for Gollum, we’ll get to see what Gollum was up to in the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Studios are pathologically averse to new material. Disney is the same. It's like watching dogs gobble up their own sick.
The Return of Dog Food
Legends of Carrot Chunk
The Animated Adventures of Bile
Semi-Digested Biscuits 2049
Sick Tales 4: Back Into the Mouth
Vomit Days: A Sick Tales Prequel

08.08.2025 07:56 👍 66 🔁 11 💬 9 📌 0

It really is the best word for this. A nation that defeated fascism during WW2 and won the Cold War, only to be felled by a game show host and parking lot lawyer. Humiliating.

22.07.2025 22:36 👍 48 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 1

(walking into an academic's office) wow! have you skimmed all these books?

02.06.2025 23:34 👍 111 🔁 22 💬 1 📌 4

Tired: interpreting the actions of SCOTUS as emerging from precedent and theories of jurisprudence

Wired: interpreting the actions of SCOTUS as emerging from their status as competitive moves in a high-stakes game of Mornington Crescent

27.05.2025 00:39 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

I can at least understand why Trump's army of sporadic low-information voters were nostalgic for 2019, but for six figure pundits to be like "wow, could remember how stressful and chaotic a Trump presidency could be" I dunno

01.05.2025 22:04 👍 34 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
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Breathe Effortless people admin

We need EVERYONE to see this advert for a Head of Operations at the Palace (£40-45k). Otherwise we might get some kind of numpty in charge.

Please share. If we get 50 shares we'll post a video of #CuratorRob playing a hoover like a didgeridoo.

hr.breathehr.com/recruitment/...

01.05.2025 10:26 👍 145 🔁 136 💬 12 📌 19

I would very much like one of these if you can ship them overseas

17.04.2025 05:00 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

15.04.2025 02:56 👍 10494 🔁 3369 💬 104 📌 270

Oh sure, I think the motivation was not "I have a crush on this right wing thinker" and publishing those pieces was a public good, but still!

13.04.2025 12:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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A time for truth and reconciliation Trump’s return to the White House augurs the ‘apokálypsis’ of the ancien regime’s secrets

Au contraire www.ft.com/content/a46c... and www.ft.com/content/f313... etc etc

13.04.2025 09:08 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Dispatches from a country slipping into authoritarianism (if we don't come together to stop it)

11.04.2025 12:14 👍 1231 🔁 268 💬 51 📌 8

The fear among academics and lawyers now talking on the record on just about any topic that involves the federal government or the White House is really extraordinary and worrisome, and getting worse, it seems to me, every week. Dissent by an establishment figures becoming verboten in the US

10.04.2025 16:12 👍 5352 🔁 1311 💬 301 📌 191

Surely "rich" refers to wealth, which this doesn't report; the question for income is "well paid"?

11.04.2025 08:19 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Storm Publishing makes three-book deal with fan-fiction writer Dylan Morrison

Storm has acquired the book, film and television rights to Fall Into You and two other queer romantic comedy novels from fan fiction writer Dylan Morrison. 👇 #BookSky

09.04.2025 14:09 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 3
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The national conversation about masculinity sparked by Adolescence should include paternity leave.
UK one of the worst in Europe, denying families support at a critical time.
We spoke to some brave dads about effect on family finances & mental health.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

04.04.2025 13:20 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0
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Legal Industry Responses to Fascist Attacks Tracker (Public)

🚨Georgetown University Law Center students are detailing which law firms have caved and which have stood up to the Trump regime. They have created this spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Please share widely.

03.04.2025 04:41 👍 8800 🔁 4151 💬 221 📌 320

I think it's actually a problem with the rules for private members bills, because it would (as you say) be quite helpful to be able to use them for a debate on an issue like this where being able to sketch out implementation is really important.

23.03.2025 09:56 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Private Members' Bills - MPs' Guide to Procedure - UK Parliament Read guidance for MPs and their staff on 'Private Members' Bills' in the House of Commons.

Private members bills cannot be primarily about taxation or spending - see guidetoprocedure.parliament.uk/collections/...

23.03.2025 09:52 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Lost count of number of people who’ve told me a) they won’t travel outside of US for fear of not being allowed back in and b) foreigners canceling plans to visit US. Those in group a) are making plans to become b). In a few short weeks, America’s soft power has been flushed down the toilet.

21.03.2025 13:53 👍 1597 🔁 322 💬 77 📌 31

If that cannot be relied on and that if enough disruption and doubt can be injected into the electoral process then the seating of a possible Democratic majority after the mid terms cannot be guaranteed. (10/11)

20.03.2025 12:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

And of course many of those representatives and senators will in any case be Republicans. The election of a Democrat majority would be very dependent on the successful management of an election in states with divided rule and with Republican trifectas. (9/11)

20.03.2025 12:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0