Zoë

I use X so I don't read out stuff & annoy my family

[Howard Anglin @howardanglin]

Disgraceful that @UniofOxford can't/won't ensure that one of its own faculty, whose work on this topic has been cited by the UK Supreme Court, is able to present his scholarship in peace. Allowing civil protest is one thing; permitting a heckler's veto is unacceptable.

[Zoë @zmkc]

V interesting

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

This map shows annual truck traffic on European main roads, colored by route distance. The map gives a sense of on which corridors the long distance traffic travels and how far the infrastructure interdependencies within the network road reach. Very helpful information when planning charging infrastructure. Source: https://t.co/UxbVIPHAeq HT Jakob Rogstadius

[Zoë @zmkc]

@tothcsabatibor "Once again, Hungarians will play a tragic role..." - you made me laugh.

[Zoë @zmkc]

Do not get outraged until you have read this entire tweet.

[🇨🇭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿InLucysHead🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇨🇭© @InsideLucysHead]

I am truly perplexed that so many people are against mosques being built...

I think it should be the goal of every Western Society to be tolerant regardless of their religious beliefs. Thus mosques should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.

That is why I also propose that two nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque, thereby promoting tolerance from within the mosque. We could call one of the clubs, which would be gay, "The Turban Cowboy ", and the other a topless bar called "You Mecca Me Hot."

Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork, and adjacent to that an open-pit barbecue pork restaurant, called "Iraq o' Ribs."

Across the street there could be a lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret ", with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.

Next door to the lingerie shop there would be room for an adult sex toy shop, "Koranal Knowledge ", its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side an off-licence called "Morehammered."

All of this would encourage Muslims to demonstrate the tolerance they demand of us, so their mosque issue would not be a problem for others.

[Zoë @zmkc]

@Lord_Steerforth Me too.

[Zoë @zmkc]

We have visited 2 Nat Trust properties where the Trust, unable to find any links between the owners’ wealth & slavery, have busied themselves with captioning each piece of mahogany in the place, pointing out that it was almost certainly produced by slaves. We asked if these would have been white slaves or black slaves, but the question didn’t go down well.

[Arbuthnotting @arbuthnotting]

@dolphinsands "England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies, and humours." Santayana, in a line that has become poorer as description, but still makes for an attractive manifesto.

[Nicholas Shakespeare @dolphinsands]

“England was like a magnet which had lost its power. There was nothing any longer to hold you to it. It shook you off.”
Graham Greene, The Other Side of the Border

[Fun Viral Vids @Fun_Viral_Vids2]

We were absolutely floored by the millions of you that watched us make silly water sillouettes on our driveway last summer. We are starting out the summer the only way we know how, and this time it’s all about movies! What else do you want to see? We have a whole summer ahead, a driveway and a hose. The possibilities are endless!!!

[James Hogg @JamesAHogg2]

I'm my third and final post in tribute to the great Stanley Unwin, I give you what is basically magic mushrooms for the ears! 

Professor Unwin meets the voice of Bill and Ben, Peter Hawkins, in a feature for the TV show, Points of View.

Greetings and welcode. Deep joy.

[Zoë @zmkc]

@bollobas @bkalnoky Some people we know argue the Hungarian government will comply with the pact by sending Hungarian police to assist Greece with illegal migrants & this will exempt Hungary from accepting anyone Brussels wants to foist on the nation. In which case, why is Tisza not announcing this?

[Zoë @zmkc]

The GMB union blames the closure of Denby Pottery on the Labour government's Net Zero policies, which have led to UK energy prices being far higher than elsewhere. The government excluded Denby from energy relief scheme British Industry Supercharger & waited until too late - May, after production had ceased - to offer any financial relief.

[Cat @catdeans]

This is awful. The last ever Denby Pottery going to the kiln. Why is there not uproar? Where’s the government in this?? We all have Denby in our homes, in family heirlooms, as our history and now it’s closing through lack of support, such a sad sad day. #SaveDenby @denbypottery

[Zoë @zmkc]

I used to think the UK police needed guns - now I see what they are happy to inflict with their current equipment, I have changed my mind.
@MarkHiggie2

[Sebastian Locke 🇬🇧 @seb_locke_]

Don’t stop sharing this until the poor man is free and the police are made to face the consequences of their thuggery.

#fascists #criminalestablishment

@RestoreBritain

[Zoë @zmkc]

While this is reprehensible, I doubt unrepressed reporting about Fidesz's plans would have made a difference. My v strong sense is the regime had become complacent, lazy & run out of vision. Not something I celebrate but I'm fairly sure that's the truth.

[Owen Gregorian @OwenGregorian]

Hungary: News Aggregator Owner Admits To Have Suppressed Right-Wing Content for Years | TEC News, The European Conservative

Gábor Holló, the CEO of leading news aggregator Hírkereső (the name, ironically, means “Newsfinder”) has recently admitted in an interview with liberal media outlet HVG that he interfered in the Hungarian parliamentary elections by censoring pro-Fidesz and promoting a news outlet associated with the current prime minister.

Mandiner reports that in the interview, Holló said he used his control over news-ranking algorithms to influence the reach of Hungarian media outlets in line with his political preferences.

In his own words, he did not reduce the reach of “so-called propaganda materials to zero overnight. I reduced their weight by half a percent per week in small steps, while simultaneously boosting the news of independent media. I did this for roughly 200 weeks, since 2022.”

In Holló’s view, content producers that have contracts with his site cannot seek legal remedy because the contracts only require him to display their news, which he did.

“How I distribute the volume to whom is our responsibility. The overwhelming majority of news-reading traffic comes from the rankings, so regulating the algorithm that compiles those rankings is exclusively our right.”

As he candidly shared,

At the same time, I was very afraid that I would be exposed. There are traces of this in the code, and if a very smart person had been assigned to investigate it, they could have figured it out.

Holló also admitted to having supported the Tisza Party’s campaign with a total of just over 50 million HUF (approx. € 142,000), primarily by paying for opinion polls. He also felt it was necessary to share that from June 2024 he supported Tisza as a private individual, including providing news-reading traffic to news site https://t.co/K9xKrkI00e through his media outlets free of charge. https://t.co/K9xKrkI00e happens to be headed by the current Hungarian prime minister’s brother, Mandiner notes.

In light of the conduct of major tech companies such as Meta and TikTok, which blatantly worked against right-wing conservatives with the ‘help’ of their allegedly neutral algorithms, It is not surprising that minor actors resorted to the same. It is, however, unprecedented that a domestic site rused the same methods, raising serious legal and ethical questions. It also gives food for thought that the owner of a news aggregator ‘comes out’ in such an overt way–one cannot help but suspect in the hope of securing favours from those who rose to power in part thanks to his manipulation.

https://t.co/5HhHDc1aIs

[LittleKnownPoland @LittleKnownPL]

Today's #NoContextDoors

[Zoë @zmkc]

@bollobas @GayGoulashUnit You may have misunderstood me. I know she's a good egg.

[Zoë @zmkc]

@GayGoulashUnit @bollobas The new Prime Minister's recently appointed press officer Szondi Vanda also worked at Duna TV, so I guess she is a purveyor of "brainrot propaganda" too & ought to "get out of Hungary"? To be fair, she does sometimes look like she may be regretting taking on her new role.

[Zoë @zmkc]

However many were there, whoever organised them, whatever their issue was, all I find myself focussing on is the immature lack of dignity shown by Hungary's new Prime Minister. He should not have come out on the balcony at all; having done so, he ought to have shown respect to the citizens he has gained power over. Instead, he goaded them, like some over-excited teenager showing off to his mates. Horrible scene.

[Zoë @zmkc]

@willsolfiac I never imagined I'd catch myself thinking: "If only we'd listened to Engels."