Ferg

[Elvis Sinosickk @ElvisSinosickk]

Why did Conor turn Chinese here?

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

The deal with Iran will go down as one of the most incompetent ever made. The U.S. lost on virtually every point. We just don't win anymore!

[Knowledge of London @Knowledgepoint]

The "Mole Man of Hackney" was the nickname given to William Lyttle, an eccentric Irish civil engineer who spent roughly 40 years illegally digging a massive network of tunnels beneath his 20-room Victorian property in De Beauvoir Town, Hackney, London.

The Digging Obsession
Lyttle inherited the property at 121 Mortimer Road in the 1960s. He claimed his obsession started entirely by accident when he merely intended to hollow out a standard wine cellar. After completing that initial project, he remarked that he had "found a taste for the thing" and simply kept going.

Using only a shovel and a custom, homemade pulley system, Lyttle dug single-handedly for four decades. Over time, his subterranean excavations created a web of caverns and tunnels that reached depths of up to 8 metres (26 feet) and spanned out 20 metres (65 feet) in every direction from his house. One of his secret passages reportedly burrowed far enough to connect near the Dalston Lane railway tunnel.
Neighborhood Chaos & Eviction

Lyttle's unchecked digging turned into a major public safety hazard. Neighbors frequently complained that the ground was shaking. On one occasion, Lyttle cut off power to the entire street for a day when he accidentally struck a high-voltage, 450-volt underground electrical cable.

The council was finally forced to intervene in the early 2000s when the surrounding pavements and roads began to physically collapse and form sinkholes. A structural evaluation using ultrasound scanning revealed that his house was practically floating on a hollowed-out web of dirt.

In 2006, Hackney Council officially evicted Lyttle due to imminent structural dangers. When crews cleared the property, they removed 33 tonnes of debris, which oddly included the buried frames of three cars and a boat. The council filled the dangerous underground cavities with tons of solid concrete to stabilize the neighborhood.

Later Life and Legacy

Lyttle was ultimately ordered by the High Court to pay nearly £300,000 for the extensive stabilization repairs. Because he was banned from returning to the property, the council temporarily housed him in a hotel before moving him into a top-floor high-rise flat—specifically chosen so he could no longer tunnel into the earth. However, his compulsion could not be stopped; after he passed away from natural causes in June 2010 at age 79, authorities discovered he had knocked a large, tunnel-shaped hole right through the wall dividing his kitchen and living room.

Lyttle has since been remembered as one of London's legendary modern eccentrics, famously stating, "There is great beauty in inventing things that serve no purpose."

[Aris Roussinos @arisroussinos]

After taking this photo of burned out houses in East Belfast, two local lads scrolled through my phone photo library to ensure I hadn’t captured any faces, telling me “with no animosity, like” to “fuck away off before you get kneecapped”

[Ferg @fergsup]

@ludwigABAP @himanshustwts Interesting points re trying to use llms to learn maths. I try to use it as a hint machine for problems but hard to find the balance between outsourcing thinking vs keeping momentum when stuck

[TheHuntForTomClancy @HuntClancy]

I can never forget Jiang Zemin’s delight at wearing a tricorner hat in Colonial Williamsburg

[Ferg @fergsup]

the stuff that actually makes me afraid of ai is reactions like this

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

https://t.co/u31UwSGxPW
I spent three days trying to persuade myself that Claudia is not conscious. I failed.

[No Chance @MrNChance]

Erika Kirks future son time travelled and tried to assassinate president Donald Trump

[twitch.tv/Limmy @DaftLimmy]

I've seen people moan about the crowds at Coachella being lifeless. And I've moaned about people at events like that just looking at their phone.

But the fact is, see if you're not drunk or eccied, most things are shite.

[FranceNews24 @FranceNews24]

📹 VIDÉO - #Insolite : Pendant la coupe des griffes, une marmotte semble avoir déjà accepté son destin… tandis que l’autre panique à chaque coup de coupe. Une scène aussi drôle que totalement théâtrale.

[Alfie @alfie_t8]

People who find this funny

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

Anyone seen any good Substacks about the decline of American hegemony and the end of the neoliberal world order?

[Gerry Adams @GerryAdamsSF]

Cmon England!!!

[Ferg @fergsup]

This guy is loving it

[Kirill Dmitriev @kadmitriev]

Axios on easing of Russian oil sanctions 👇

[Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff]

can this be a solution

[Tehran Times @TehranTimes79]

#BREAKING
A barrage of missiles

[blackstar @blackstarops]

a man on a camel poses next to a soyuz rocket, kazakhstan (1980s)

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

This is extremely interesting and worth hitting the translate button for:

the context is that this leading Emirati business figure, Khalaf Al Habtoor whose company built the iconic Burj Al Arab tower in Dubai, at the forefront of UAE commercial normalisation with Israel, no fan of the Iranians, totally rejects the idea of entering the war on US/ Israel side as urged by Senator Graham.

Difficult to imagine as serious a player as this departing from the private concerns of leadership….

[Martha Stewart @MarthaStewart]

OiI