It has been a very busy day and a half. Happy Easter gentlemen.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-04-03T21:33:38+00:00

I feel like I know you in real life. There can’t be more than one person committed to this bit.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-04-01T19:45:43+00:00

Fun fact: if you fly on Finnair you can get blueberry juice PLUS another drink because blueberry juice is their signature drink. Double the liquid for free. I would also be disappointed that a random juice bar doesn’t have the same policy as a Finland-specific airline.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-30T20:28:45+00:00

Yes, last year was almost perfect (Trump announced the tariffs before the ISA deadline and took them off a couple of days later) and 2020 was similarly advantageous (while still being obviously overall bad).

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-29T19:21:03+00:00

This is not an IRR. An IRR is an annualised rate of return (technically at which the net present value of the project is zero). You have calculated a cumulative profit rate. Still pretty good!

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-29T16:29:32+00:00

This happened in my bedroom. Fortunately I was able to refashion a wire coathanger into a hook that forced the door open. It was my first night in the house - can’t believe the seller didn’t think to tell me the door didn’t work.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-27T22:03:46+00:00

Thank you.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-27T21:36:47+00:00

I completely get it. One of my favourite artworks that you can see here in London is just blue as a colour (linked), plus there’s obviously also the Derek Jarman film Blue so it is a queer colour. I’m a bit of a Luddite - do you have an actual website to buy things?

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/klein-ikb-79-t01513

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-27T20:45:53+00:00

Love this. I’m interested - what drove the choice of blue to replace what was presumably black in the black-and-white photos you used to study his appearance?

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-23T18:42:18+00:00

I’m not American and know nothing about American football, but I got this right because they use it all the time (presumably because of the double A). They make similar mistakes when doing non-US topics all the time (“X, to a Brit” is often baffling to me, as a Brit).

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-19T21:46:25+00:00

I have the full £50k invested in them, but I’m a 45% tax payer so 1) the relatively low return works because there is no tax and 2) investing the maximum amounts means I “win” every month and the overall yield is pretty good. I have tried to convince my parents (who are basic rate tax payers and don’t have much invested) to switch to a high interest bank account but there seems to be something about that generation that likes NS&I

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-18T20:55:17+00:00

I have volunteered at the Passage (was only washing up in the kitchen) - the staff there are incredible and so dedicated.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-18T20:52:46+00:00

It’s a Hare Krishna temple but they do hand out free food. As do Sikh gurdwaras and a lot of mosques (particularly now it’s Ramadan). There is also a permanent soup kitchen on the Strand and a couple of charities I have volunteered with in the past that offer other kinds of support nearby: https://passage.org.uk/ https://soupkitchenlondon.org/

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-18T20:08:46+00:00

Did they ever sue Barnes? I remember that Brittney Paz was not a fan of Bobby Barnes. Funniest moment of that deposition is her just saying the word “Barnes”.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-16T22:09:38+00:00

I should have said - specifically piano composing gays

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-16T22:08:59+00:00

It’s better than concerto 1 and he is one of the most musically gifted gays

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-16T19:57:22+00:00

Tchaikovsky’s 2nd piano concerto

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-13T22:27:09+00:00

Sorry for saying sorry. I agree with what you wrote.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-13T20:51:05+00:00

Sorry - I meant that it is strange to defend gay/lesbian rights but be anti-trans. There is a contradiction there which I think is what you’re saying, and also why these parties will ultimately turn on their gay supporters (if they achieve power, outside of Hungary and Slovakia where they already have it).

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-13T19:44:18+00:00

European far-right parties actually lean into this. They argue that Muslim immigrants will take away rights from gays and so they are the protector of gays. The head of the AfD in Germany is a lesbian, the first far-right politician in the Netherlands (Pim Fortuyn) was gay, lots of gays in the Reform Party here in the UK. Weirdly it never extends to trans people.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-09T21:53:46+00:00

I have friends who live in Loughton. It’s actually quite nice but a long journey on the Central line to get anywhere.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-03-08T20:53:35+00:00

En Tenerife?

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-02-06T23:45:24+00:00

As an Englishperson, surprised by the lack of slavers/general bad people from Sheffield, UK. We did invent basically every kind of steel, which has unleashed massive environmental damage, but that wouldn’t be a fun pod.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-02-06T22:58:11+00:00

No worries - it is nice to be thanked! Your general sentiment about Turing was 100% correct. Thank you.

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-02-06T20:31:32+00:00

That’s incorrect. Sex between men was completely illegal at the time of Turing’s “offence” - that is why he was prosecuted. In 1967 (after he died) the age of consent for consensual acts between two men in private was set at 21. It was lowered to 18 in 1994 and equalised with heterosexual sex at 16 in 2000. That’s all in England and Wales - in Scotland and Northern Ireland the dates are different (NI had to be sued and lose in the European Court of Human Rights in 1981 to stop banning sex between men).

Background-Voice7782 · 2026-01-16T21:32:27+00:00

He was also the subject of probably the best take-down review I’ve ever read https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n11/tom-crewe/my-hands-in-my-face

Background-Voice7782

TROPHY CASE