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The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.

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7:35am on Wednesday, 12th February, 2025:

Withdrawing Funding

Comment

When US President Trump was asked if he would consider withholding aid from Egypt and Jordan if they continue to reject his plan to resettle the population of Gaza in their countries, he said that if they don't agree then he would conceivably withhold it.

Hmm.

Last year, the US gave 1,309,483,582 to Jordan. Of this, $1,306,468,039 came from the US Aid for International Development agency. This is the agency that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency wants to close down for wasting money.

Some of USAID's functions are likely to be merged into the State Department, but even so I don't think Jordan or Egypt should expect a great deal of money to come their way in 2026 even if they were to comply with Trump's bizarre proposal.



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8:59pm on Monday, 10th February, 2025:

Bullet Car

Weird

I don't know what the point is of the bulllet shape at the front of old Riley motor cars.



Obviously I could look it up, but where's the fun in that?

I'm leaning towards the idea that it's some kind of missile that can be launched at people who don't get out of the way.



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8:09am on Monday, 10th February, 2025:

Eurovision Decision Derision

Comment

I haven't heard yet who will be representing the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Maybe, instead of asking industry experts or (worse) the British public, we should run some songs past focus groups made up of representatives of those who actually vote — people from other countries in the competition.

Even if they collectively decided to choose the most hopeless song in the mix, it wouldn't lead to a worse result than what we would have chosen ourselves.



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10:09am on Sunday, 9th February, 2025:

Partners in Crime

Weird

Modern MMORPGs shy away from calling lockboxes "lockboxes" because of the low opinions that players have of the concept, but older ones such as Star Trek Online have no such qualms.



Mind you, it's still probably not a good idea to call one "Partners in Crime".



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9:07am on Saturday, 8th February, 2025:

Thick Skin

Anecdote

I went to get a jab against shingles earlier this week. I'll need a second one a year from now.

The nurse doing the injection couldn't get the needle into my arm until her fourth attempt. She was very excited by this, because it had never happened before — she couldn't wait to tell her colleague. My left-shoulder skin is apparently a lot tougher than anything she'd previously encountered. Her final effort drew blood, she had to put a plaster on me afterwards.

I suggested that she break out the Kryptonite next time.

As I was about to leave, she noticed that I was also entitled to a jab against some forms of pneumonia. That sounded good to me, so I had it. Rather than repeat the throw-it-like-a-dart exercise that the shingles jab had entailed, I had it in my right arm instead. This time, the needle went in just fine.

I don't know why I'm more thick-skinned on my left than on my right. The only explanation that immediately springs to mind if that I sleep on my left.

I also have trouble when I need to give a blood sample, but that's in both arms and it's because my body doesn't want to lose any.



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8:42am on Friday, 7th February, 2025:

Darjeeling Done

Anecdote

You may recall that in September I bought a kilogram of Afternoon Darjeeling tea. Somewhat horrified by how much a kilogram of tea actually is, I expected that I'd still be drinking it in 2025.

I was comfrotably right. I finished it yesterday.

I'm now wondering if I should buy another kilogram, given that it took me five months to finish the last one.



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7:26am on Thursday, 6th February, 2025:

Hasty

Comment

I can see where the humour is in most of the cartoons in Victorian editions of Punch (well, the ones that aren't incomprehensible), but that doesn't mean I find them funny. Very few of them have actually made me laugh.

I have to confess that this one actually managed it.





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7:14am on Wednesday, 5th February, 2025:

Elsewhere

Comment

If President Trump believes that resettling the people who live in Gaza is such a good idea, why not resettle them in the USA?

Could it be that resettling them is not, in fact, a good idea?



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8:01am on Tuesday, 4th February, 2025:

Unexpected Lecturer

Weird





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7:34am on Monday, 3rd February, 2025:

Nexus

Anecdote

A new interview with me has been published, this time in text so you can more easily skip the bits you don't want to read. It's available here.

It's one of a series of interviews. You can see the full set here. Mine is probably the least interesting.



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9:24am on Sunday, 2nd February, 2025:

Free From

Weird

I saw this sign yesterday in the window of the Poplar Food Hall.



There seems little point in calling it a food hall.



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9:44am on Saturday, 1st February, 2025:

Pineapple Cake

Weird

I'm not entirely sure how this cake got its name.





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11:17am on Friday, 31st January, 2025:

Emails

Anecdote





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7:42am on Thursday, 30th January, 2025:

VSS

Comment





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12:47pm on Wednesday, 29th January, 2025:

Too Open?

Comment





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Copyright © 2025 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).