pseudomonas

yet/still vs not-yet/not-still vs still-not/yet-not.

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:58:40 GMT

Still (ha!) being confused by that thing where yet and still are roughly synonyms (massive difference in register notwithstanding) and "not yet" and "not still" are verging on antonyms. ("not begun" vs "already ended").

I always have a lot of trouble thinking through yet/still esp when trying to translate stuff.

I *think* it *might* be

still X = yet X → "X began at some point in the past and continued to happen until [now]" (where [now] is either deictic or anaphoric "on wednesday it was still raining")

and then:

not still X → "!(still X)" [*] "she is not still learning the guitar"
not yet X → "still !(X)"  [**] "she is not yet learning the guitar"
still not X → "still !(X)" "she is still not learning the guitar"
yet not X → "still !(X)" [***]  "she is yet not learning the guitar"

but my head hurts a bit now. Obv I'm not including non-temporal uses such as "yet" meaning "nevertheless".

I think this is probably same thing as that weird English quirk where "must not" ≈ "may not" but "must" != "may"; the "not" scopes oddly with "must (not X)" vs "(may not) X". But there it's kinda easy to bracket them as above. The "verb not" → !(verb) thing is archaic, but I see how it got there.

But with not-yet the "not" feels like it scopes to an argument it's not adjacent to. I know, idioms gonna idiom non-compositionally, but still. (ha again)

[*] with implication that X definitely has happened in the past but has now stopped, even if a very literal pedant could pretend that it could include the situation where X has never happened (and hence is continuing not to happen.)

[**] nuance difference ofc; "not yet X" implies very heavily that X is expected to happen at some point; "still not X" doesn't imply it nearly as strongly. But the directionality in time is the same — hasn't happened in the past, might happen in the future.

[***] and sounds dated verging on archaic. "yet not" I think is basically reserved for non-temporal uses ("it was damp yet not raining").

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lack of "Hide post" or "Mute for _n_ days" workround in dreamwidth

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 11:33:06 GMT

The officially suggested procedure if someone you follow has posted something triggery or anything else you don't want to see on your reading page is:

1. Go to Organize
2. Select Manage Filters
3. Select Default
4. Scroll down the "In Filter" list and select the user name
5. Select "<< Remove"
6. Make a note that you've done this, otherwise you'll never see anything from them again
7. Wait until you're _pretty sure_ that the post will have moved off the bit of your reading page that you're likely to read
8. Go to Organize
9. Select Manage Filters
10. Select Default
11. Scroll down the "Not In Filter" list and select the user name
12. Select "Add >>"

Obviously you'll repeat this for each custom subscription filter that you have, replacing "Default" with the filter name.

Alternatively you can hover over their username and one-click unsubscribe but NB then they'll get an email notification when you resubscribe. (to the person I tested this on, sorry about the spam, and you were just the first entry on my reading page that I happened to see; not in reaction to the content of your posts!).

If the person is nice enough to use tags consistently then you can filter by those but you have to do that on a per-user basis (so if you're following 100 people all who consistently use the tag "spiders" then you have to make er 400 clicks to hide it from all of them); also this obviously doesn't work at all for feeds.

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Zebrapad

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 19:46:11 GMT

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No longer twittering

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 22:45:40 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/16/elon-musk-antisemitic-tweet-adl

Elon Musk has basically gone into overt antisemitism mode; I am deleting my twitter accounts once I've downloaded the data, and if you still have twitter accounts, I encourage you to do likewise.

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How it works in French, part n of an occasional series

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 11:48:39 GMT

NB: "chiotte" is a distinctly vulgar term for a toilet (cf. "shitter"), and shouldn't be used in polite company. "toilette(s)" is just fine if you're asking for the loo generally.

…apparently "toilette" in the singular is Belgium-specific.. According to that article the Belgians reckon that the French use it in the plural because the state of French toilets is such that one must go to several toilets before one finds one clean enough to use.

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On Mastodon

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 09:57:22 GMT

I think Mastodon will wind up being far far far easier for the Troll Factory to astroturf, once it's big enough for them to bother with in earnest.

There's no-one with overview of the network (by design) so it'd be almost impossible to use network analysis methods to discover inauthentic accounts systematically promoting whatever narrative. It's basically an open door. Especially given that the troll factory can easily create their own nodes in as large numbers as they wish.

Also, I assume some nodes are going to be run by people who have skewed attitudes towards what (non-illegal-in-their-jurisdiction) hate speech etc they allow? I don't know what happens when Node A allows something, Node B blocks Node A, Node C doesn't, and I'm watching two-thirds of a conversation from Node B (between someone from Node B and someone from Node C which I can view, and someone from Node A which I can't)?

ISTM that there's a high chance nodes who want to avoid weirdness of that sort end up choosing between "We're going to block any node that hasn't blocked node A" vs "We'll block hatespeech on our own nodes but we're not going to cut off entire nodes just because they're run by two volunteers, one of whom is ill, and haven't got the resources to moderate adequately." At which point the network is basically bifurcated. Repeat for various values of Node A with varying levels of awfulness. Obviously morally a node which is actively cheerleading nazis is worse than a node that just run by someone without the resources to moderate away the nazis, but from the outside they look the same. For some nodes, that will be an important difference; for others it won't.

Is there even a way to find out if [prospective node] has a way of funding (or recruiting volunteers for) a moderation/abuse reports team that will scale with their userbase? I get the idea that a lot of mastodon nodes are one or two people who have access to a server and who (at least at the time they set the thing up) had a bit of spare time.

But even if they have the resources to deal with obvious abuse, detecting coordinated inauthentic activity is a different kind of problem. It's vast numbers of accounts who look like perfectly normal, reasonable people to get readers, and every so often, boost the visibility of a political argument that they want to become part of mainstream discourse in whatever their target society is.

Twitter's team to deal with coordinated (troll-factory scale!) inauthentic activity is pretty huge and also pretty well paid (their field overlaps with mine so I see their job ads from time to time; they're hiring pretty senior AI expertise). The fact that they're not doing anything like an adequate job isn't to say that things wouldn't be far far far worse if they weren't trying.

But Mastodon has no theoretical mechanism to detect that, no team whose job it is to stop that, and no money whatsoever going into it. And it's not just that I think most nodes aren't going to be good at it, I think most nodes are not even going to try. So all you need to do if you're the troll factory, is get your accounts onto nodes that aren't trying, but which other nodes are still federating. Next election, in the bag.

[ETA: I'm not saying that Mastodon doesn't have any points where it's better than Twitter or whatever comparator. I'm saying that its federated nature makes it peculiarly vulnerable to certain attacks, and I can't see how these vulnerabilities can easily be mitigated]

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An eletromechanical yule goat

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 20:42:10 GMT

Years and years ago now, in the comments to my Yuletide fanfic someone mentioned an electromechanical yule goat. So I drew one. And now finally I've done a bit of scripting and activated it so it shows the number of days until Christmas.

(feel free to embed the image anywhere you like; the numbers will stay up-to-date automatically)

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2021 picture.

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 17:37:58 GMT

I feel this encapsulates my aspirations for 2021.

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Data protection & Brexit

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 20:15:50 GMT

If the UK and EU stop respecting each other as being regimes that automatically have appropriate data protection measures, are there any special-cases that kick in for the NI/ROI case to ensure that companies on one side of the border can continue to process the data of their clients on the other side?

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I d̶r̶e̶w̶scraped a thing

Sun, 24 May 2020 17:59:29 GMT

It's from a friend's photo of a fledgling pigeon, and I'm quite proud of it!

Scraperboard is quite fun!

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[Politics] Help pseudomonas and Lisa-Maria win in Harrow

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 12:00:45 GMT

He… was a bioinformatician from the suburbs. She… was a Bavarian lass made good. Together… they fight ~~crime~~ ~~the forces of darkness~~ Brexit.

So. Lisa-Maria — my better half and co-campaigner (whom many of you have met and the rest of you should definitely meet) — and I are expecting a general election sooner rather than later.^*

She will be standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Harrow West. I'll be standing in Harrow East. We'll be campaigning to stop Brexit, for better treatment of immigrants^**, for a more humane benefits system^***, and for economic and constitutional reform.

In May the Lib Dems in Harrow came a close second in the European Parliamentary elections, a success we've not seen for a long time in national elections.

We have a short window in which we can consolidate that success. We need the funds to do that, and we need them before a general election is called. Even if we can't win outright this time, getting into second place could be a vital stepping-stone for winning next time.

Please click the button below to donate to the campaign and help us win!

Help Adam and Lisa-Maria fight the 2019 General Election in Harrow

You can get in touch (adam [at] harrowlibdems.org) if you want to know more about our plans.

^* My guess is that it'll happen shortly after PM Boris Johnson gets back from Brussels for the first time, having been told "non". There are plenty of other options, including that Johnson never even gets enough parliamentary support to be PM.

^**We are co-founders of Lib Dem Immigrants, and were influential in making the party's policy one of the most immigrant-friendly around.

^***I am working with others to move the party towards an unconditional benefit system. We have adopted the policy of abolishing benefit sanctions; further progress is expected… watch this space

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Happy Nwhoooo Year

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:31:11 GMT

I finally drew my new year picture. Happy 2019, everyone.

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Sore throat/cough/lurgi remedy

Mon, 26 Mar 2018 23:01:56 GMT

for i have a sore throat

(basically an adulterated rum sour)

Juice of half a lemon
Dark rum (same volume a the lemon juice)
sugar syrup (or icing sugar and hot water) to taste
a drop or two of clove oil
a splash of glycerine (a couple of ml)

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The Case for German as a Lingua Franca

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 19:23:17 GMT

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Happy 2018!

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 17:53:11 GMT

My new year card this year is based on this charming but hard-to-translate squirrel postcard found by a friend in Germany.

My translation attempt:

Here's hoping 2018 is a good year for all of us.

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Beetroots and how to pickle them.

Fri, 08 Dec 2017 16:04:59 GMT

1. Cut your beetroots into chunks. Do not peel them.
2. Put the chunks in a non-airtight jar.
3. Pour a salt solution (35g of salt in a litre of boiled-and-cooled water) over them
4. Wait for a week or two.

Yeah, that's it. Hardly worth bothering with, was it?

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A bit of a pickle.

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:45:15 GMT

I have been getting into pickling things. Mainly, but not only, cucumbers.

It turns out, it's really easy. Cucumbers are less easy than other veg cos they can go a bit over-soft if you get the proportions wrong, but I love properly fermented cucumbers so much I'll talk about them here.

So, you get a jar. I've been using 2-litre spring-top Mason jars. Needs to be properly clean but doesn't need to be sterile.

If you're doing cucumbers, then some source of tannins is needed to keep things crunchy. I use some vine leaves (the sort that you can get preserved in a jar); other people use blackcurrant leaves, oak leaves, black tea, or horseradish leaves. You also want to top & tail the cucumbers (AIUI this is to halt the ripening process). I can fit about eight small cucumbers into a two-litre jar; I think it's worth getting the straighter mini-cucumbers rather than the curly ones just for efficiency of packing. ETA: I've now tried making pickled cucumbers with tea instead of vine leaves as a tannin source (just add a teabag to the hot brine as it cools before adding to the jar and swish it around until it's the colour of very weak tea), and it seems to work. Plenty crunchy, no obvious tea flavour.

For seasoning (all of which is optional!) I use maybe half-a-bunch of dill weed, several cloves of garlic, peeled and halved, some dried chilis, bay leaves, whole black peppercorns, and mustard seed. I hear dill flowers are the thing to use, but they're something one has to grow oneself.

Salt solution "brine" is 3.5% w/v - this means 35g per litre of boiled-and-cooled water. 35g is about 25ml for standard table salt.

The fermentation relies on bacteria on the skins of your veg, which is why they need to be non-blanched, and why the brine can't be boiling hot. Pack all the veg and flavourings into a jar, and fill the jar with the brine. I sometimes use a slice of plastic bottle to stop stuff from floating above the surface of the brine.

Over the course of a week to ten days, you'll see the brine go cloudier, the cucumbers become a more yellowish green, and the smell and taste of the brine become more delicious. I tend to open the jar briefly daily to check the smell, taste a teaspoonful of the brine, and to vent any pressure build-up (though the jars I use seem not to explode, presumably the sprung lids let the gas out a bit. If you're worried you can use a less-sealed system).

When they're done to your liking, put the jar in the fridge; it'll slow the fermentation to a crawl and the pickles will keep for a good few weeks after that.

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Tue, 11 Apr 2017 13:00:37 GMT

More in due course about life &c., but an admin note: I'm no longer crossposting to Livejournal, for the same reasons as everyone else.

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Five suggestions for wannabe-activists

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 11:39:02 GMT

1) Pick a cause you care about, and focus on it, get knowledgeable, be prepared to become expert.

2) Approach things in ways that suit you, your temperament, your skills, your contacts, your knowledge. There are lots of strategies.

3) Don't do it alone — either find a group doing it already, or find a friend/partner/teammate so you can encourage each other.

4) Celebrate even small victories, and never beat yourself up when you can't save the world single-handed

5) Take time out if you need it; get enough food and sleep and socialising and alone-time^†. Self-care is a prerequisite to activism, not an optional add-on!

^†and tea!

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Facebook Sanity

Sun, 13 Nov 2016 14:59:16 GMT

To calm down your Facebook feed (if you use Facebook from a desktop browser): install FBPurity and then click "import settings", tell it you don't want to upload a file, and paste in the following:

{"filterappmessages":1,"becamefriends":1,"becamefan":1,"joinedgroup":1,"attendevent":1,"attendedevent":1,"createdevent":0,"commentlikeslink":0,"commentwall":1,"commentgroupwall":0,"commentpagewall":0,"commenteventwall":0,"updatedprofile":0,"changedprofilepic":0,"changedrelationship":0,"uploadedphoto":0,"sharedphoto":1,"uploadedvideo":0,"taggedinvideo":1,"postednote":0,"taggedinnote":1,"postedlink":1,"readarticle":1,"checkedin":0,"suggestionsbox":0,"connectbox":0,"sponsoredbox":1,"pokebox":0,"happeningnowbar":0,"betabox":0,"commentbutton":0,"offlinefriends":1,"requestsbox":0,"eventsbox":0,"questionsbox":1,"chatbox":0,"pagestory":1,"recentactivity":0,"fontsize":"11","fontfix":1,"fontcolour":"#000000","fontcolourfix":0,"fontbgcolour":"#000000","fontbgcolourfix":0,"fbpfont":"Palladium","fbpfontfix":0,"sortmostrecent":1,"fixarticleredirects":1,"timelineonecol":1,"lcadvertmgr":0,"lcconnect":0,"lcallpages":0,"lcpagesfeed":0,"lclikepages":0,"lcallapps":1,"lcappcenter":0,"lcevents":0,"lcgamesfeed":0,"lcpokes":0,"lcmusic":0,"lcplaceseditor":0,"lcallgroups":0,"lcallinterests":0,"lcfindfriends":1,"lccreatepage":0,"lccreategroup":0,"lcdeveloper":0,"lcfriends":0,"lcgifts":1,"rcrecommendedpages":0,"rcrelatedgroups":1,"rcpokes":0,"rcbirthdays":0,"rcfriendrequests":0,"rcgamerequests":1,"upcomingevents":0,"sharedevent":0,"sharedpage":1,"likedlink":1,"commentedlink":1,"hideallphotos":0,"taggedphoto":1,"likedphoto":1,"commentedphoto":1,"sharedvideo":1,"likedvideo":1,"commentedvideo":1,"youtubevideo":0,"sharedstatus":1,"likedstatus":1,"commentedstatus":1,"taggedstatus":1,"smileys":0,"notificationpopup":0,"hidealllinks":0,"hideallvideos":0,"fixedleftcolumn":1,"customtextfilter":"Friends Day Video,Links you may like,Trump,Clinton,Hillary,Syria","userappwhitelist":"","fbpcustomcss":"","deletedfriendalerts":1,"commentedonthis":1,"lconthisday":0,"lcbrowse":0,"likepagebutton":0,"trendingbox":1,"friendswhitelistArr":"{}","fbpnewsnotifier":1,"likedthis":1,"lcpagesandpublicfigures":0,"lcfbiphone":1,"lcfbandroid":1,"lcfbpnews":0,"lcwelcome":0,"lcnotes":0,"lclinks":0,"lcoffers":0,"rclistsuggestions":0,"offlinemobilefriends":1,"expandnewscolumn":0,"stopautoplayvideo":0,"animatedgifs":1,"bubblechat":0,"fullscreenchat":0,"newstickertextfilter":0,"fulltimestamps":1,"tlgamesapps":1,"tlinvitefriendslikepage":1,"tllikesbox":1,"pymk":0,"nonags":1,"listheaderimage":1,"listsuggestions":0,"lcfindnewgroups":0,"lcmanagegroups":0,"lcsaved":0,"topnavcolourfix":0,"backgroundimagefix":0,"topnavimagefix":0,"freezetopnav":0,"homelink":0,"homelinkcounter":0,"leftcolumncounters":0,"newsfeed":0,"backgroundimage":"","topnavimage":"","topnavcolour":"#1f5820","fbpwebfontfix":0,"fbpwebfont":"ABeeZee","lcphotos":0,"lccreateevent":0,"rcyourpages":0,"linkcolourfix":0,"topnavfontcolourfix":0,"condensedchat":0,"stretchbkgimg":0,"transnewsfeed":0,"hidesearchbox":0,"hidepadlock":0,"widescreenfeed":0,"tagsuggestions":1,"hidesearchpopup":0,"hidefriendreqtopnav":0,"watchinglistening":0,"topnavbarlogout":0,"hidetopnavstatusbutt":0,"linkcolour":"#000000","topnavfontcolour":"#caf7cf","newstoriesbutt":0,"lceditprofile":0,"groupconvos":0,"sendmoneybutt":0,"lcsuggested":0,"sharedmemory":1,"yourmemories":0,"lcsalegroups":1,"hidesearchtrending":0,"sortfriendfeed":0,"livevideo":0,"lcsuggestedits":0,"hovercards":0,"fullURL":1,"taggedthis":0,"lcpayments":0,"reactions":0,"reactionsimagepack":"","reactionsimagepackfix":0,"lclivemap":0,"lcdiscovergroups":0,"rclive":0,"lcyourposts":0,"reactionsboost":0,"lcfundraisers":0,"rctodaysgames":0,"wholeleftcolumn":0,"wholerightcolumn":0,"catphoto":0,"dogphoto":0,"babyphoto":0,"memephoto":1,"selfiephoto":0,"couplephoto":0,"foodphoto":0,"customphotoblocklistfix":0,"cookiespolicy":0,"customphotoblocklist":"","lcshops":0,"startcallbutt":0}

You may well wish to change the filter text and other preferences; it's easily editable after you've imported these settings.

As is, it will hide most types of posts apart from actual content written (or photographed) by your friends — including "shared a link" posts — and filter a few obvious politics keywords. You can easily make it more or less restrictive afterwards.

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Newspapers, supermarkets, and having it both ways.

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 16:58:42 GMT

This was written in part before today's tabloid shitstorm.

The Co-op supermarket account on Twitter had said, in response to someone saying that tabloid headlines inciting hatred against immigrants made them feel unsafe:

@SLevelt I see, well we aren't considering removing these as we need to offer choice to all customers, regardless of political leanings. ^JM
— The Co-op (@coopuk) November 2, 2016

Now, I respect organizations that take the extreme-free-speech position "we will allow everything that does not break the law". In fact, I expect it of organizations like ISPs.

But the Co-op doesn't take that position - it refuses to stock pornography, and it made great play of requiring "lads' mags" to be presented in plain covers, and removing them when they refused. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't stock anything titled Neo-Nazi Monthly no matter how much demand there was.

The state of being an immigrant is not a protected characteristic in the way that race, religion, or sexual orientation is. But inciting hatred against immigrants is (in my eyes, anyway!) equally reprehensible to stirring up hatred against Jewish or Muslim or black or gay people.

The Co-op^* is welcome to decide that it's going to stock everything. It's welcome to decide that it's going to exclude some offensive things, but the Daily Express is not sufficiently offensive^⁂. What it doesn't get to do is to exclude some offensive things but then pretend that its reason for not excluding the Daily Express is that they "need to offer choice to all customers, regardless of political leanings".

Catering for customers who want to read diatribes against refugees but not customers who want to see sideboob is an arbitrary political position, it's not the high ground of hallowed neutrality, and if you're going to take that position, you should be prepared to defend it rather than pretend it doesn't exist.

^* or any other mainstream retailer, pretty much. The Co-op is no worse than any other AFAICT.
^⁂ TBH I'm unsure myself whether it's appropriate to stock these titles, to refuse to stock them, or to stock them but insist on plain covers. But I am sure that it's a reasonable question to ask and shouldn't be dismissed with "we have to cater to all political orientations".

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Brexit logic, redux

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 21:56:14 GMT

Brexiters must — I think — hold one of two positions^* for any given value C of "catastrophe"^†:

1) It's right to implement the referendum result even if it will lead to catastrophe C
OR
2) It would be wrong to implement the referendum result if it would lead to catastrophe C, but we believe that it will not lead to catastrophe C

If their position is (2), they have no right decrying as anti-democratic those of us who oppose implementing the referendum result because of a reasonable belief that it will lead to catastrophe C.

If their position is (1) they should have the [redacted] to come out and say so.

^* Whether consciously or otherwise.
^† Someone may consistently take position 1 for C = a small misfortune (a 50% chance of recession, say), and position 2 for C = a major cataclysm (say, nuclear war)

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On the amazing electoral physics of referendums.

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:43:48 GMT

We don't have referendums^* in the UK very much. Maybe we'd be more adept at dealing with them if we did. Who knows? So I'm talking on the basis of the representative sample of one referendum in recent times that actually passed.

There seems to be a view that a referendum passing on a matter makes it… real. One gets the idea that if we voted in a referendum to repeal the laws of gravity, the government would even now be reassuring people that weightlessness means weightlessness and of course it'll happen, it'd be undemocratic to suggest otherwise. We voted to leave the EU without losing jobs, so that's what we'll do! We voted to leave the EU without a brain drain, so that is what must happen!

The other view I see around is that this is a solemn overriding pressure; an irresistible force against which no objection is immovable. Brexit means Brexit! If it costs 5% of GDP, so be it! If it costs 15% of GDP, so be it! If it leads to a breakdown in foreign relations and influence, so be it! If it necessitates declaring war on France, so be it! If it calls up the Great Old Ones to devour the residents of all coastal local authorities, then, well, you get the idea.

The question "what price is worth paying or not paying" for Brexit is one that is never answered because the Government is still trying to kid us that there's not even a possibility that things^† might just not^‡ go the way they want.

I readily admit that I'm one of those Remoaner types who thinks that a bad outcome is very likely. But I think that even an ardent Brexiter with their head screwed on right ought to be taking the position:

a) It is bad to go against a democratic referendum.
b) Even so, there are some things which are worse than going against a referendum result.^⁑
c) There are various outcomes to the process. Some are bad. (You might well think the bad ones are less likely than I do — but I think any honest observer admits they're not impossible)
d) However much you think that a referendum result is a good thing and ought to be honoured, there are some outcomes that make it on balance not worthwhile.

My position on (d) is "we need to have a grown up discussion on what price is worth paying for what kind of Brexit".

The government's position on (d) seems to be "it's literally impossible for this situation to arise because that would mean going against a referendum". And we're back, circuitously, to the reality-bending powers of referendums. Weightlessness means weightlessness.

But don't worry. Everything will be OK because we voted for it to be OK.

^* Or referenda. I don't mind.
^† Negotiations. Markets. Diplomacy. Whatever.
^‡ Who knows? Maybe it will all be OK.
^⁑ Thought experiment that is deliberately extreme: there is a consultative referendum to sacrifice every firstborn child to placate the gods. A democratic one. It passes. You are the PM. Is your first act on hearing the result to whip out your cleaver?

Comments policy: This is not the place to debate the merits of Brexit per se, there are approximately eleventy million other places to do that. It's to discuss how one should *respond* to a referendum in various circumstances. Also, be nice. Also also, do not be Steven Kitson.

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An open letter to Jeremy Corbyn on Europe.

Sat, 24 Sep 2016 14:07:03 GMT

Dear Mr Corbyn,

I realise we probably don't agree on Europe. That's fine. It's a big world and there's room for different opinions. What I can't stomach is the feeling that you think it doesn't much matter what happens.

It seems to me that this is the biggest challenge facing the UK in the short to medium term. Yet you seem resolutely tight-lipped about it — the fact that you haven't been bringing it up at Prime Minister's Questions is just the most obvious manifestation of this.

You seem, based on comments in the media, opposed both to a parliamentary vote on triggering Article 50, and to a referendum on the negotiated terms of an exit deal. The effect of this is that you're happy to let the Conservative government negotiate whatever terms suit them, with minimal scrutiny or restraint. Do you believe that they are the best people to conduct matters? Or do you just feel that it doesn't much matter what happens?

To your credit, you have mentioned your concern for workers' rights in a post-Brexit UK. But you haven't set out definitive positions on membership of^* the Single Market, freedom of movement, research collaboration^†, Common Agricultural Policy, financial passporting, and so on. These are all issues that affect hundreds of thousands of jobs and lives. Workers' rights don't mean much if the jobs have all evaporated.

I'm a member of the Liberal Democrats, who have set out a clear summary of their policy position in a format that Labour might usefully copy. It's fine if you don't agree (though I hope you'd set out your rationale!). It's not fine if you don't care.

Yours &c.

Adam (pseudomonas)

^* As distinct from "access to" which is not usefully informative.
^† Declaration of interest: I work in biomedical research, a field that is likely to suffer particularly heavily under a "hard" Brexit.

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Mushroom!

Sun, 11 Sep 2016 12:27:53 GMT

I had some of Morrison's "breakfast mushrooms" - they're just large (maybe 10cm diameter) field mushrooms, I think.

I sautéed one very slowly in a mixture of butter & olive oil with a small sprinkle of my all-purpose seasoning mix (equal parts garlic powder, chili powder, and smoked paprika) and towards the end seasoned with minced (well, grated) garlic, and fresh-horseradish-grated-into-vinegar (cos it was around and I thought it'd be nice.)

Served on top of a toasted pitta bread (because that's what I had), and with mushroomy pan juices (deglazed with a tiny amount of lemon juice) poured over it so the bread soaked it up, it was more delicious than I'd anticipated.

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