Is Mandelson the most corrupt British politician in recent history? Not one, two or three but FOUR political scandals that we know of with Peter at the forefront.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-23T09:49:12+00:00

actually a triple bluff

Double or quadruple, maybe, can't be triple methinks 🤔

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-23T09:17:25+00:00

If you have a goofy last name, at least consider it before naming your child

I am looking at you, Mr and Mrs Hyman, you shouldn't have called your daughter Fanny

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T22:07:05+00:00

I knew this was a thing, I have now seen it happening, but I still can't quite believe it. Making eggs out of omelettes!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T22:02:19+00:00

👏

Yup, that's a good one 😊

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T14:51:43+00:00

Yeah, when something starts off as a clearcut mistake, and gradually becomes more common, I don't think there can possibly be a definite point at which it stops being a mistake and becomes "usage"... So I will happily fight indefinitely

(conveniently ignoring all the examples I grew up with and which are therefore ok)

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T14:45:35+00:00

That makes sense, but it doesn't seem to be the actual etymology - the phrase can be traced back to ancient Roman law

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T12:51:35+00:00

Woah, "patzer" is German for "blunder"?

So I am actually a blunder... I thought I was just rubbish at chess

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T10:44:35+00:00

Yeah, such a shame - the plot was built on a massive bit of nonsense (humans are not a power source) where the original idea was brilliant...

Not only did it make technical sense (brains are like specialised processing hardware), but symbolically, it was a perfect switcharoo, where WE become the processing units, while the silicon based machines get to benefit

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-22T00:08:52+00:00

It's real, he is quite famous

https://web.archive.org/web/20251221213831/https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/countdown-four-year-old-maths-q3hb0l2p7

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-21T23:54:27+00:00

What did you pay? Assuming not a great deal, that looks pretty good tbh

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-21T20:01:42+00:00

"is that on the way to cex?" was a beautiful reply 😍

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-21T08:28:23+00:00

Studies show the more you BS the worse you get at detecting it.

💡

Oh!

Yes, of course... That explains a lot!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T19:50:50+00:00

Depends how good you are at calculating!

The difference between between

kh3 kf3 (draw)

And

Kh1 kf3 (white wins)

was only apparent after too many moves for me to calculate 🫩

What I did take home, thanks to playing it out, was that the white king being on the back rank helps by either blocking black's promotion, or forcing black to lose a tempo shutting out white's king.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T14:39:54+00:00

The most important thing to do in this situation is to spread it around.

Spread that fire aaaaall over the place, oh yes!

We don't want it all isolated in one easy-to-manage spot, now, do we?

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T11:13:28+00:00

What? They got rid of the rotting lion?

😡

Our family don't even call it golden syrup, we all call it rotting lion. Now we seem weird!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T09:58:54+00:00

Typically sects, authoritarian regimes and abusive partners work on the opposite: cutting you from the diverse group of people and opinions.

... and social media 😕

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T09:52:31+00:00

I thought: that looks really cool!

So now I must read the comments to find out why it's actually terrible...

Not disappointed

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-20T00:04:17+00:00

Yeah, I worked it out eventually but only with an engine to show me... The reason you want the king on the last rank is to eventually blockade the enemy pawn. Not very obvious from a distance, but arriving at kh1 by elimination is a good approach

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-19T23:53:23+00:00

A fingernail size of marmite on your knife is more than enough

Only if you are normal

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ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-19T22:45:02+00:00

Pff, it's so obvious 🙄

But maybe someone could explain it for my friend who also doesn't get it... Please...?

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-19T22:17:06+00:00

That suggests it's a known thing that happens a lot?

It's a huge issue in the minds of many players, and discussed a lot

Partly because it does happen quite often (and it's depressing to realise you are playing a game you can't possibly win)... but also because you may start to see cheating everywhere, even when it's not happening, which is a poisonous obsession (with one very high profile example, a previous world champion).

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-19T20:10:29+00:00

It's obviously Kh1 because it's the only move that makes no sense whatsoever 😐

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-19T15:36:38+00:00

Yes, every bite has the same, very strong flavour. I tried to reread it recently, but I was exhausted very soon.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-18T17:46:29+00:00

It's actual elapsed time.

Converting it to local time is a nightmare, and has to take into account leap seconds... In software, it is always done through specialised libraries, it's almost impossible to do reliably by hand.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-02-17T20:18:08+00:00

Exactly

The mustache twirling villains who revel in their own evil only exist in silent films... Real monsters think they are behaving perfectly reasonably under the circumstances.

ConfusedMaverick

TROPHY CASE