William Neal
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williamneal.eurosky.social
William Neal
@williamneal.eurosky.social
870 followers 6K following 1.2K posts
A self-taught software engineer (my next job was in fact cyber 🩰) l relocated to Brussels 🇬🇧🇪🇺 and between changing nappies, not learning French, being woken up at strange hours, l spend time learning about heterodox economics. The usual caveats apply
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williamneal.eurosky.social
Lord, please give me the strength to stop shit posting about learning french, and instead passer du temps revising for my french exam. No, sprinkling my posts with random french phrases does not count.
October 8, 2026 at 1:06 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
En fais, no, le cours de français is not the best place for me to express my "dark humour". Surtout quand some of mes amis have une expérience the effects de la guerre. I will find some better verbs to conjugate.
October 8, 2026 at 1:03 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
Should l put le chat in the washing machine? My wife: bemused puzzled look…
October 8, 2026 at 12:46 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
Chez moi, we speak three languages. It is suddenly dawning on me that if I bother to learn all three, a whole new world of punnery, double entendre, jokes will open up to me. It also has the added benefit that I can communicate with my own children.
October 8, 2026 at 12:40 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
if you listen, verrrry carefully, when my wife says “Pour me a glass of water”, pour sounds almost like french word for chicken. So obviously l oblige and start clucking and flapping my wings.
October 8, 2026 at 12:10 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
Funny joke from mon ami from mon cours de français: The sun never sets on the British Empire because God wouldn't trust an Englishman in the dark
October 8, 2026 at 11:04 AM
williamneal.eurosky.social
Is it true that in gyms in the US in built childcare is standard?
October 8, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by William Neal
dollspace.gay
Software copyright is effectively dead and it has been for a while, people just started noticing the body was cooling.
October 7, 2026 at 12:27 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
My personal fav is to overengineer a hand crafted bespoke blog, write a one blog post about how l did it and then 🏜️🌵
October 7, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by William Neal
tobyn.bsky.social
🚨 I wrote a post about how US MBS are a (longstanding) part of the US Treasury doom loop machine. www.ft.com/content/a04e...
How US mortgage bonds can trigger a ‘vicious loop’ for Treasury yields
One little cog in the bond market’s feedback machine
www.ft.com
October 7, 2026 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by William Neal
sifu.tweety.fish
it's just impolite. if you must have your phone on speaker, place it all the way inside your mouth. you'll be able to hear via bone conduction and the sound of your voice will have a rich resonance from the phone being entirely enclosed.
raxkingisdead.bsky.social rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 1d
when i see someone barking into the bottom of their phone during a speakerphone conversation. that’s how i know. that i would have nothing whatsoever to say to that person
annamerlan.bsky.social Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 1d
As a society, we have forgotten that the phone still works when you hold it up to your ear
October 7, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by William Neal
dsquareddigest.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/snuf...
granitetide.bsky.social GT 🫪 @granitetide.bsky.social · 1d
the common belief that so-called "back office" roles in the public sector are unnecessary is predicated on an understanding of the world of work that's no deeper than "when mummy hides her face she isn't actually there anymore"
October 7, 2026 at 3:51 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
👀
October 7, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by William Neal
quantian.bsky.social
No, it is proving that a bunch of things we assumed were optimal because they “looked nice” in a certain sense were wrong because a far uglier solution was better. Example: the tightest way to pack 9 squares into a big one is with a 3x3 grid of side length 3. The best way to pack 11 is this:
October 7, 2026 at 1:13 AM
williamneal.eurosky.social
Talking of Montréal, l indulged in nostalgia and saw Simple Plan at the Forret National in Uccle, which l didn’t realise was a 20 minute cycle from my house! I anticipate embracing more live music from now on.
October 6, 2026 at 8:40 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
My French teacher taught me about tantôt as an same day alternative to bientôt that is très Belge. It is also vaguely familiar l wonder whether l may have heard it from my time in Montreal? Maybe one of my Quèbècois fan can confirm that l am not hallucinating?
October 6, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by William Neal
lispegistus.bsky.social
Le Chonk
October 6, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by William Neal
fbermingham.bsky.social
Vestas CEO:

“Five years ago, Chinese authorities barred Vestas from monitoring or running its own software on turbines. If European software isn’t welcome in China, why should Chinese software and turbines be welcome in Europe’s grid?”
'Europe needs to shed its naivety': Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen on Chinese competition and the energy issue that keeps him up at night | Fortune
The Danish company has pivoted through multiple crises to become the world’s biggest turbine manufacturer. Now, as new competitors emerge and costs rise, its CEO is changing strategy to stay ahead.
fortune.com
October 6, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by William Neal
de-grid.eurosky.social
So, bin jetzt auch bei eurosky.social 🇪🇺
Wirklich schneller und schmerzfreier Wechsel 👍
Eurosky Portal
Your Portal to the Atmosphere
eurosky.social
October 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
williamneal.eurosky.social
I think we are overdue a Derrida renaissance… l think it is a nice way to think of Openai, Z.ai, Anthropic etc… as emerging houses of the arkheion. I think llms make D’s lines of argument more tangible
columnist.bsky.social Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 5d
As one does, I am reading Derrida’s Mal d’Archive for a presentation I’m giving next week. Mal d’Archive is translated as ‘archive fever’ and it’s a lecture Derrida gave about Freud and his ‘archive’.
October 3, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by William Neal
tobyn.bsky.social
🚨It was only a matter of time before the good people of the BIS got around to looking at AI circular financing www.ft.com/content/8787...
Is circular financing in AI a problem?
Only if the wheel stops spinning
www.ft.com
October 1, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by William Neal
davidallengreen.bsky.social
NEW

The diabolical defending of Manchester City

Understanding an aggressive litigation strategy

By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

(Prospect paywall is down currently.)

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th... #MCFC
What can explain such an aggressive and counterproductive approach? To an extent the answer may be in the facts and the evidence. Perhaps the view was that the only chance of getting out of this was to be unhelpful as well as robust. In respect of an earlier dispute with Uefa, an internal communication at the club apparently said “Uefa doesn't respond to anything other than aggression”. Maybe the view was taken that this would work here too. Maybe the club still thinks it will work in the end, with the league being pushed into settlement on appeal or at the doors of the High Court. But this does not offer a total explanation. What may work with Uefa may not work with other adversaries. The structure of the league’s investigation and the disciplinary approach meant that aggression would not only be unhelpful, but would count heavily against the club. An appeal on the law or procedure at the High Court in this sort of case only has a remote chance of success. It can be assumed the club was warned of all this. There is a phrase in football punditry that “the defending is diabolical”. Here diabolical is, of course, a synonym for dreadful. But in its more literal sense, diabolical means bedevilled with wrongful purpose. And the strategy adopted by Manchester City in contesting this matter is also in this sense diabolical. The club will have known that it was unlikely to work, and that it would make things harder, but the club decided to do it anyway.
October 1, 2026 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by William Neal
jamesdart.bsky.social
Asked to respond to whether his team were 'not German enough' or 'not white enough', Klopp said there was no point in giving room to 'such people and their utterances', adding: 'I have little time in everyday life for idiocy'. Story: @kateconnolly.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Jürgen Klopp disgusted by claims his Germany team are ‘not white enough’
Jürgen Klopp has reacted with disgust to a social media debate questioning whether the Germany team he is in the process of forming are ‘white enough’
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2026 at 10:28 AM
williamneal.eurosky.social
I generated some British food discourse today in my French class when we had to present cuisine from our country of origin and l picked a Balti (l’m from Brum). Further mild controversy when a chap from Pakaistan also presented a dish containing similar ingredients
October 1, 2026 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by William Neal
tonytassell.bsky.social
Man City’s Emirati chair was granted diplomatic immunity 6 yrs ago in a move that could complicate any legal action resulting from findings that the club artificially inflated its finances by more than £900mn - scoop by Caroline Binham @journosooz.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/d717fb9e-2...
October 1, 2026 at 6:20 AM