Mark Splane

Polymath | Renaissance Man | Humanitarian | Visionary | Man For All Seasons | Daydream Believer | Never A Homecoming Queen
"Failure is always an option"

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

I don't think DS is completely paywalled. I believe you only need a subscription to access certain premium content and post comments. It's hard for me to confirm this since I am a subscriber, but you should check it out.

( know what you mean about subscriptions: they may be small individually, but many a mickle makes a muckle)

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@heckin_fucker @russellwarfield @AtholBrose @hoffman_noa I assume you get I was joking. But only half joking. There's lots of stuff like this online:

https://t.co/V5Ck9mADwA

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@russellwarfield @AtholBrose @hoffman_noa Careful! Some might interpret that as implying you think trans women *can't* menstruate. Now I don't believe that would necessarily make you transphobic, but others may think differently.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@CigsMake Paddington Bear came to this country in 1958 and is still going strong 68 years later. Pretty sure he doesn't smoke. Bears normally live for 30 years max. It's got to be the marmalade.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@LeoKearse Just watched your video on Lara Bird. (It was great) Were you really named after your star sign? If so, you got off lucky: do you realise, had you been born a month earlier, you'd be Cancer Kearse? 🙁

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@jackburns449 @Telegraph I use Grok quite a lot. It's a valuable tool. Just never treat it as an oracle. It's always a pleasure to encounter someone on X open to engaging in meaningful debate rather than just trading insults.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@jackburns449 @Telegraph I have no issue with your response.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@SaraLockwood_x @cjsnowdon They were highly credentialed and highly paid. So they must have done a good job, right?

Criticism from within the legal profession has focused on precisely the point that Dame Sue Black makes.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@jackburns449 @Telegraph There's no contradiction here. It's perfectly possible to not be convinced of Letby's innocence and, at the same time, be convinced that her guilt was not proven beyond reasonable doubt.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@iPoof @TalkTV @TVKev @IsabelOakeshott Maybe you're happy for a left wing government to gain the power to control right wing media. Just remember this would hand any future right wing government the power to control left wing media.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

Amongst mammals all and only primates have full spectrum colour vision. Not all are social. All (apart from ourselves) have faces covered by fur, so are unlikely to perceive others blushing.

I think it's entirely credible that in humans full colour vision has come to serve other purposes (I believe the technical term is exaptation), but it's definitely not why we came to have it in the first place.

(I agree that being able to see traffic lights at red confers survival value. But I'm sceptical this is an evolutionary adaptation. 🫤)

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@TheBabylonBee As an Englishman, I find it depressing how often our American cousins seem to know their Python better than my own countrymen. 😢

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@Zortman33 @FirstDoctor True, but without alcohol the ugly wouldn't get laid and the ugly genes wouldn't be passed down to the next generation.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@hardwoodinsider @FirstDoctor I hope you mean future wife.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

As an Englishman (and Unionist), this is an aspect of Scottish nationalism I have long struggled to understand. Many Scots not wanting to be ruled from Westminster I get. Wanting Scotland to be a sovereign state I get. But this desire, were sovereignty to be gained, to immediately surrender it to Brussels? That I don't get.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

17.8% in the 2021 census said they could speak Welsh. (I suspect the true figure may be lower because of social desirability bias) But it's not broken down into native speakers and those who have learnt Welsh as a foreign language. The Welsh government estimates that only 10% of the population use it on a daily basis.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

Guterres has a lot of form when it comes to climate catastrophizing. He called for alarm over an 85% global increase in heat related deaths amongst the elderly. He forgot to mention that the number of elderly people had increased by 79% over the same period, accounting for 93% of the rise.

[Mark Splane @SplaneMark]

@CathyMo41926708 @antonioguterres I have to correct you on that one. There absolutely was a climate crisis in 1976. It was the oncoming Ice Age (caused by burning fossil fuels).