Ben

@benfields.net

816 Followers 734 Following

🇺🇸immigrant in LDN recovering academic Trying to understand humanity with data, music, libations Might not be looking in the right places – currently: Head of Data @lakaHQ previously: @bbc @futurelearn @funandplausible cf https://assemblag.es/@alsothings

the Ha Ha! Business! meme: a white male is dressed in generic nineties business attire, on a mobile phone from that era, with a very satisfied demeanour/expression, perhaps from 'landing that deal' or 'closing that sale' or other such business things.
“As for those who peddle Marxist lies about our heritage, tell our children that we live on stolen land or that our heroes were oppressors, they’re doing something much worse than slandering our past,” said Trump. “They are slandering and attacking our future – not going to let that happen.” Yet he was speaking in the Black Hills, which the US government illegally seized from the Sioux Nation in 1877 after Congress forced the tribe to cede land it had been guaranteed under treaty.
a table: Actual Origin Rating ------------- ------ Human expert 2.5 Algorithm 2.7 Random 2.6
The wikipedia info box for the 2024 UK General Election available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election
Screen grab of a post from The Guardian's UK politics liveblog on 21 June 2026. It reads: "Trump predicts Starmer will resign as UK prime minister after failing 'badly' on immigration and energy In a post to Truth Social, the US president, Donald Trump, has just said that Keir Starmer “will resign” as the UK’s prime minister, in comments that will cause huge embarrassment to Downing Street. Trump wrote: “He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well!” Starmer, looking to stay on the right side of the erratic president for preferential trade terms for the UK, was accused of kowtowing to Trump after the Republican president took office last January. But the two leaders’ relationship broke down over Starmer’s refusal to be involved in the US-Israel war on Iran as much as Trump would have liked. The US president repeatedly lashed out at Starmer’s refusal to approve direct military involvement in the war, labelling him “no Winston Churchill” because of his cautious leadership style."
it's the always has been astronaut meme. First astronaut says "it's the enshittification of everything." second astronaut, point gun at first, says "Always has been."
Critical race theory, for example, is a dangerous doctrine that justifies a type of identity politics that is deeply divisive. It became pervasive in the US, especially after the Black Lives Matter protests, and the election of Donald Trump can be seen as a reaction to it.
A screenshot of a browser error page. It reads: "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below. ------------ <Error> <Code>NoSuchBucket</Code> <Message>The specified bucket does not exist.</Message> </Error>"
Black text on a white background that reads, "13. JESUS EFFING CHRIST (forgive me, Father) GET TOUCH SCREENS OUT OF CARS. Did you know that with physical buttons, it’s actually possible to turn the air conditioner up via muscle memory? You don’t have to take your eyes off the road for 20 seconds to navigate a multilayer options tree that cannot be operated unless you’re staring at it! No one under 30 will believe this!"
The new Ferrari Luce in orange
The cover of Captain America Return of the Asthma Monster It is apparently compliments of your physician and Allen& Hanbury™ (division of Glaxo Inc).
White background, black text, from linked guardian article. First sentence is highlight. The text reads: 'Heatwaves are expected to exceed 40C in all parts of the UK by 2050. Periods of hot weather will be longer, which could lead to an additional 10,000 heat-related deaths a year. About nine in 10 UK homes are likely to overheat.'
A hand drawn Hexagon that is 88% regular
Screenshot from the Guardian. The text reads, 'But at the same time, such is the dislike of Starmer among some of his MPs that in a straight contest with Streeting, even some leftwingers would back the health secretary. “I’d pick Andy if we go later, but if it’s now, it’s Wes,” one said. Some MPs and ministers say Streeting and his team have done the hard work on policy preparation, and would be ready to govern. [highlight starts] And even his detractors acknowledge that he is a significantly better media performer than Starmer. [highlight ends] None of this matters, however, if Streeting either never launches a bid, or – like David Miliband – he enters a race and loses. Even now, some allies of Starmer argue there is more hype than substance, not just with Streeting but also possible contenders on the left '
The classic screenshot of a DM from Dawn Foster. Her message reads "I knew Wes when I was a student and he was the NUS president - always been a right wing lickspittle cunt" timestamped Jan 3, 2021, 10:49am
The "Is This... Butterfly" meme with text that reads "is this" "butlerian jihad" The butlerian jihad is an event in the fictional dune universe when all 'thinking machines' were destroyed
meme format in which a character is shown telling his computer to say "I am alive," the computer says the line, and he responds, "Oh my god," as if shocked that the computer just admitted to being sentient.
a still from BBC Elections coverage showing the candidates for the Orkney Island Council, they look straight out of central casting.
the results from the Hackney mayoral election, showing the Green candidate Zoe Garbett winning with 47.2%, the Labour incumbent Caroline Woodley in second with 35.5% of the vote.
A photo of a bearded middle age white man in front of a sign indicating a polling station and the Laburnum Boat Club. It is left-right reversed because it's a selfie and he's lazy
An image that looks like the classic Burger King logo, except instead of 'Burger King' inside the bun the text reads, 'TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES' then below the bun is the text 'Heros in a half shell - turtle power!'
a screen grab of a post from Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) over on Xitter. It reads: "First they came for the refugees, but I did not speak out - as I was not a refugee. Then the [sic] came for the people of colour, but I did not speak out, as I was not a person of colour Then they came for the disabled, but I did not speak out, as I was not disabled Then they came for the Trans community, but I did not speak out - as I was not Trans Then they came for the rest of the JGBTQ+ community, but I did not speak out - as I was LGBTQ+ Then they came for the socialists, but I did not speak out - as I was not a socialist Then they came for the trade unionists, but I did not speak out - as I not a trade unionist Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me. This is a warning, take heed. Adapted from the original poem by Martin Niemoller in 1946 following the horrors of WW2
An screenshot of what looks like a menu for flagging an image from Facebook. Black text on a whit background. The prompt reads "What's going on?" with 4 options: - "It's annoying or not interesting" - "I'm in this photo and I don't like it" (selected) - "I think it shouldn't be on Facebook" - "It's spam"
A screenshot from a NY Times article. It reads: "Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said."
Screen grab from a Guardian opinion piece by George Monbiot. It reads: "[...]were it not for what happened in 1953, when Winston Churchill’s government persuaded the CIA to launch a coup against the popular democratic government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The UK did so because Mossadegh sought to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company: to stop a foreign power from stealing the nation’s wealth. The US, with UK support, tried twice to overthrow him, and succeeded on the second attempt, with the help of some opportunistic ayatollahs. It reinstated the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1954, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company became British Petroleum, later BP. Fury about the 1953 coup, combined with ever-more vicious repression under the shah’s dictatorship, triggered the revolution of 1979, which was captured by the ayatollahs, with horrible consequences for many Iranians. They would not be running the country were it not for our governments’ violent crushing of democracy for the sake of oil."
A fake screenshot of an Allister Heath headline in the Telegraph, it reads "The tragic consequence of gamergate will be paid for by our children.
A fake screenshot from The Telegraph showing a fictitious article by Allister Heath titled "The total failure of LTNs exposes the moral bankruptcy of the Left"
Rob Kayne is demoing a pendulum synth thing at a Music Hackday in a Berlin classroom/art space. Both his hair and shirt are bright orange.
The is this a butterfly meme, but it says is this a constitutional crisis
A picture of part of the front page of the Jan-Feb 2026 print edition of the Onion, showing an article titled "J. K. Rowling Escapes Insane Asylum" subhead is "public worries delusional author may use the social media", main body text reads "LONDON - Urging the public to remain calm as authorities worked to recapture the mentally disturbed individual, City officials confirmed Monday that the novelist J.K. Rowling had escaped from a London insane asylum. At 7:33 this morning, medical staff reportedly discovered the Harry Potter author and outspoken anti-trans activist had broken out of her padded cell at St. 3dmund's Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where she has been an inmate for the past 10 years. The news sent shockwaves through the United Kingdom, ______ see escape, page 19" There is a photo, just below the text the text that shows Rowling's face on a body in a white straight jacket, with the details suggesting an intentionally obvious photoshop job.
A Dawn Foster DM from twitter, dated 3 Jan 2021, which reads "I knew Wes when I was a student and he was the NUS president - always been a right wing lickspittle cunt
A picture of a page from Naomi Klein' Doppelganger. The text reads: "There is you, and there is Brand You. As much as we might like to believe that these selves can be kept separate, brands are hungry, demanding things, and one self necessarily impacts the other"
Black text on a white background that reads, 'Why did tear gas even exist? I wondered later, as I sat at my laptop to write my piece. As far as I could tell, all it did was make people angrier. If it neither killed nor neutralized, and merely hurt and enraged people, for what situation could it ever be appropriate? Why was it being used at all?'
A studio photo of Liam Ramos, of the sort you would get during school pictures. He smiling in the sort of forced way that a five year old tends to. He is wearing a black polo shirt. ICE abducted him on 21 January 2026 from in front of his house.
The famous "The Farside" comic "Cow Tools" by Gary Larson. A single pane comic, showing a horned cow standing on its hind legs in front of a table with four objects of sort-of tool-like shapes. The caption reads simply 'Cow tools'.
Black text on a white background that reads, "The computer inside is a custom ASIC that is smaller than a single Lego stud and is firmware updatable via a smartphone app."
Screenshot of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's statement. It reads, "The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people, is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule. However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows. Venezuelans deserve the promise of democracy and the rule of law, not a state of endless violence and spiraling disorder. My hope is it offers a passage to true democracy and liberation. This action offers beleaguered Venezuelans a chance to seat their true, democratically elected president, Edmundo González. I’ll demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort. The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime."
The three most recently posted videos from the LockPickingLawyer. All posted in the last two weeks and with 169k, 220k, and 236k views
Last month a version leaked to the Times suggested that service providers would be able to question transgender women over whether they should be using single-sex facilities “based on how they look, their behaviour or concerns raised by others”.
A screenshot of a portion of a wikipedia article. It reads, "Adolf Hitler wrote, "only Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence ... [from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a Detroit News reporter, Hitler said, "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," explaining his reason for keeping a life-size portrait of Ford behind his desk.[88][83] Steven Watts wrote that Hitler "revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany", and modeling the Volkswagen Beetle, the people's car, on the Model T,[89] which was designed by members of the Austrian-German Porsche family of sportscar makers. Max Wallace has stated, "History records that ... Adolf Hitler was an ardent Anti-Semite before he ever read Ford's The International Jew."[90] Ford also paid to print and distribute 500,000 copies of the antisemitic fabricated text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion[91][92] and is reported to have paid for the English translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf.[93] Historians say Hitler distributed Ford's books and articles throughout Germany, stoking the hatred that helped fuel the Holocaust.[92][94] On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Ludecke, a representative of Hitler, at home. Ludecke was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the composer Richard Wagner)"
A graphic from Spotify Wrapped, declaring that my listening age is 21
NHS vaccine info page text reads: "Why vaccination is important and the safest way to protect yourself Vaccines are the most effective way to prevent many infectious diseases. This page explains how vaccines work, what they contain and the most common side effects"
screenshot from https://www.cloudflarestatus.com title text: "Cloudflare System Status" red backgrounded subheadine in white text reads: "Cloudflare Global Network experiencing issues" This is then followed by the following series of chronological updates: "Update - We are continuing to work on a fix for this issue. Nov 18, 2025 - 14:22 UTC Update - We are continuing working on restoring service for application services customers. Nov 18, 2025 - 13:58 UTC Update - We are continuing working on restoring service for application services customers. Nov 18, 2025 - 13:35 UTC Update - We have made changes that have allowed Cloudflare Access and WARP to recover. Error levels for Access and WARP users have returned to pre-incident rates. We have re-enabled WARP access in London. We are continuing to work towards restoring other services. Nov 18, 2025 - 13:13 UTC Identified - The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented. Nov 18, 2025 - 13:09 UTC"
Screenshot of two paragraphs in a Guardian article. They read "Mahmood is to warn concerned Labour MPs that the changes are necessary to address public concern about the levels of migration as well as counterattacks from Reform UK. “Unless we act, we risk losing popular consent for having an asylum system at all. In a country that is seeing division stirred up on our streets, we will not bring unity unless we restore order to our borders,” she wrote in the Guardian"
A twitter DM from the late great Dawn Foster, the text from the message she sent reads "I knew Wes when I was a student and he was the NUS president – always been a right wing lickspittle cunt". The message is dated as Jan 3, 2021, 10:49 AM
grey background. white text reads: "Count of San Diego Registrar of Voters November 4, 2025, Special Election" on the left is the logo of the San Diego registrar of voters
Seth Abramson posting that same Gen ai created image that is I guess meant to be of the no kings match as Kara Swisher posted earlier. Text reads 'I have never seen such a perfect image'. Image has a great many imperfections.
Alex Hern falls from a horse apparently
A screenshot of a skeet posted by Kara Swisher, reskeeted by Indivisible. The text says 'No notes' the image is of four animal inflatables with an American flag in a pose sort of analogous to the famous Iwa Jima flag-raising photo, except many details are just a bit off so the 'photo' is almost certainly AI generated.It also has no alt text or crediting.
A screenshot from a McSweeney's article. Black text on a white background. The text reads, "In fact, as ICE expands its operations in cities like LA, Chicago, and Boston, a key part of ICE’s efforts will be setting up random traffic stops and checkpoints throughout the city and making educated guesses about who to detain and who not to detain. These “Guess Stops” will be staffed by special agents known as Guess Stop Officers, or “Guess-Stop-O” for short. The Guess-Stop-O will make crime disappear by making undesirable people disappear."
Screenshot from the linked article. The text reads: "Yet according to recent estimates, generative AI now accounts for roughly 40 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. In other words, if the AI spending boom falls apart, it could take down the entire economy with it."
Screenshot from the reset.news which reads: "the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee [highlight begins] will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair[highlight ends]. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best"
A screenshot from an article in The Guardian, the text reads: "mainstream parties “get tough” on immigration, and how this affects support for the radical right. We recently studied what happened to people’s assessment of Labour, and their likelihood of voting for the party or Reform, shortly after Starmer gave his island of strangers speech. The speech helpfully coincided with a period when people were answering a survey for the British Election Study, so we gathered responses from people who were interviewed immediately before the speech, and those interviewed immediately after. The results: the speech made Labour and Starmer less popular, especially among Labour’s own voters. It significantly boosted immigration as an issue in people’s minds. There is no evidence it helped to reduce support for Reform, or convince Reform voters that they should vote Labour. Recent research from Persuasion UK, a nonprofit, told much the same story. It found that Labour’s messaging around deportations strengthened the importance of the issue while potentially strengthening Reform. This is hardly unique to Labour. We studied more than 70 different elections that took place in 12 western European countries over several"
A table of network actions that on macOS may require the local network access permission
Screenshot from the groyper Wikipedia page. It reads: "Fuentes's followers began to be known as Groypers beginning in 2019. They are also sometimes called "Nickers".[4][29] In September 2019, Ashley St. Clair, a "brand ambassador" for the conservative student group Turning Point USA, was photographed at an event featuring several allegedly white nationalist and alt-right figures, including Fuentes, Jacob Wohl, and Anthime Gionet, better known as "Baked Alaska". After Right Wing Watch brought the photographs to Turning Point USA's attention, the organization issued a statement that it had severed ties with St. Clair and condemning white nationalism as "abhorrent and un-American".[30][31] At the 2019 Politicon convention, Fuentes tried to access several Turning Point events featuring its founder Charlie Kirk, including a line to take photos with Kirk and Kirk's debate with Kyle Kulinski of The Young Turks."
A 'thin blue line' US flag patch, commonly associated with fascist and neonazi groups within US police forces
a movie poster from 'Alien vs Predator' with a headshot of the Predator and the xenomorph alien, along with the text 'Whoever Wins... we lose.'
Screenshot of a portion of an article from The Atlantic, which reads "Inside the 50th-birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein—a man charged with sex trafficking—is a photo of a massive, novelty sized check, seeming to reference the sale of a human being from one powerful man to another. The man whose supposed signature is on the check is the current president of the United States."
A screenshot from an article on Prospect that reads: "This desire to meet the hard right halfway, to find a middle point, is hopelessly exploitable. In an age of radicalisation, you simply get pulled further and further to the right, while tacitly validating those values at every step. Nowhere is this more evident than in the UK press’s fixation on trans people. The Labour government, following the reactionary centrist logic of trying to diffuse an issue by giving policy ground, has allowed itself to be pulled radically to the right on this matter. First, by abandoning its commitment to changing ID laws to make it easier to transition, then by effectively banning puberty blockers following pressure from those opposed to them. Now the UK is on the verge of implementing a bathroom ban mandating that trans people must be excluded from toilets that match their gender identity."
Net migration graph from the Oxford migration institute