Cars, Brewing, Music and Building a New Life in France
Morbihan, France
Joined May 2010
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Spotted this very rare Rover 416 SLi Tourer on the school run in Bath today. 12 left on the road apparently. What a perfect #fotu car that would be! @sniffpetrol
Today is my birthday. I have never been happier. The last 5 years, I've made choices to prioritize family and seek adventure. I am so blessed.
Have heard very little about the Peugeot e-208 GTI since I saw it at Le Mans 24h this year. I thought it was a fab looking little thing and great to sit in.
Never thought I'd want a modern Peugeot or even anything from Stelantis, but this...
How long till we coin the term "factwashing"?
If discernment on source quality is not applied as a weighting to the ingestion of data, how long before LLMs become no better than the uncle who believes everything he reads on Facebook?
Scoop: Israel has launched a new effort to sway public opinion in the US by influencing how LLMs paint it in response to chatbot queries. The foreign influence campaign includes a fake think tank set up to feed content to tools like ChatGPT. More below @politico 🧵
Ooohs and aaahs from the family as we study a head louse under a microscope. Look at the blood in its belly! Look at the hairs on its antenna!
Standard evening chez nous
And yet solar is ridiculously cheap now. The fact that the US has so much empty land, is so short of power and at the same time the administration is so opposed to renewables, is absolutely baffling to me.
You cannot buy a new gas turbine until 2030. Order books at GE, Siemens, and Mitsubishi stretch to 2029. Turbine prices have nearly tripled since 2019. Every AI data center needs power and every gas plant needs a turbine. And every turbine has one part that bottlenecks the entire industry: The blade. It has to survive in gas 500°C above the melting point of the metal it's made from and spin at up to 20,000 RPM under 10,000 g of centrifugal force. Each blade is grown as a single crystal of nickel superalloy, pulled through a vacuum furnace at 3 mm per minute. A set of blades costs $600,000 and takes 90 weeks to grow. The same metallurgy powers modern jet engines. Only 3 companies on Earth can build one. China spent $42 billion trying to catch up. They bought a Russian fighter engine, took it apart, and copied every part. Their copy ran 30 hours between overhauls versus 400 for the original. Modern Western engines run 4,000. You can reverse engineer the shape of a turbine blade. You cannot reverse engineer 60 years of metallurgy.
ALT Siemens SGT5-8000H gas turbine in assembly
A utopia in which we stand around arguing about who is going to fix the robots when compensation is no motivation and there's no point being educated in how to do it.
We just sit ankle deep in the garbage from the abundance that isn't worth the robot's time to collect.
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Turns out Clarkson’s lager is annoyingly good. The malt is the outstanding feature so hats off to the farmer and maltster.
Crawdad retweeted
I am a Web3 Ambassador at World Liberty Financial.
There are 12 of us on the team page. 4 are named Trump. 3 are named Witkoff. The page calls us "the passionate minds shaping the future of finance."
600,000 wallets bought our memecoin. They lost $3.87 billion. The family collected $350 million in trading fees. It launched 3 days before the inauguration. 80% of the supply went to CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC. I did not choose the names. I designed the allocation, the vesting, the timing, and the distance between the product and the President.
The distance is my best work.
I am the reason these events are unrelated.
World Liberty Financial sends 75 cents of every dollar to DT Marks DEFI LLC. That is the family entity. Zero capital contributed. Zero liability assumed. I wrote this into the Gold Paper. Page 14. The lawyers bound it in white leather. The binding cost more than the due diligence.
Justin Sun invested $75 million. He was facing SEC fraud charges. The SEC dropped the case. He is now our advisor. These events are unrelated.
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to federal money laundering violations. He received a presidential pardon. The SEC dropped its lawsuit against his exchange the same week we listed our stablecoin. Then the exchange settled a $2 billion deal entirely in that stablecoin. These events are unrelated.
Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed of BitMEX pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations. All 3 received presidential pardons. Then the company itself was pardoned. $100 million in fines. Gone. An American first. These events are unrelated.
Sheikh Tahnoun of Abu Dhabi paid $500 million for a 49% stake that was never publicly disclosed. Then the administration approved semiconductor exports to his companies over national security objections. These events are unrelated.
Everything is unrelated. I track the unrelatedness on a dashboard I built. The dashboard has 7 columns now. I am proud of the dashboard.
On May 22nd, 220 people paid a combined $148 million to eat dinner with the America First president. Over half were foreign nationals. Justin Sun paid $18.5 million for the first seat. He visited the Executive Office Building the day before. I designed the seating chart. I put it on the Investor Confidence page. That page is doing well.
The team page lists 3 Witkoffs. All 3 are Co-Founders.
Steven Witkoff is the President's Middle East envoy. He testified as a character witness at the President's fraud trial.
His son Zach runs the crypto operation. His son Alex is also a Co-Founder. I have not been told what Alex co-founded.
The father runs the diplomacy. The sons run the platform. The family runs both. That is organizational efficiency.
Barron is 19. His title is Web3 Ambassador. The same as mine. Donald Jr. called the conflicts of interest "complete nonsense." Eric launched a Bitcoin mining company called American Bitcoin. America First. The mining partner is Hut 8. Hut 8 was founded in Canada. America First means the name.
On March 6th, the President signed Executive Order 14233 creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order directs the government to hold Bitcoin. The President's family holds billions in Bitcoin. The executive order appreciates the President's assets by presidential decree. I did not write the executive order. I made sure it looked unrelated to the portfolio.
Trump Media put $2 billion of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. The ticker symbol is DJT. His initials. The press secretary said it is absurd to insinuate the President profits off the presidency. Forbes calculated his crypto holdings exceed the combined value of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower. I would call that absurd too. That is my job.
600,000 wallets bought in. 1 of them asked why she could not withdraw her funds. I told her the protocol was experiencing dynamic market conditions. She asked what that meant. I sent her the Gold Paper. She said she had read the Gold Paper. I muted her channel. Dynamic means the conditions change. The condition that changed was her access.
A congressman called us the world's most corrupt crypto startup operation. We put it on a coffee mug. Ironic merchandise. $45. The revenue split on the mug is also 75/25.
My own tokens vest on a different schedule. I wrote that schedule. That is not in the Gold Paper.
The memecoin funds the family. The family funds the platform. The platform funds the stablecoin. The stablecoin funds the deals. The deals require the pardons. The pardons free the partners. The partners fund the platform. The President signs the executive orders. The executive orders inflate the assets. The assets fund the family.
I am the reason these events are unrelated.
Crawdad retweeted
The last time Citroën were great.
Four superb cars, the AX was a little pocket rocket, the ZX handled superbly with passive rear wheel steering, and the BX and XM were among the last Hydropneumatic cars that Citroën built, the end of a great era.
If you told me a year ago I'd be looking to MTG for a voice of sanity in these mad times, I'd never have believed you
On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted.
Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.
I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.
I’m not defending Iran but let’s be honest about all of this.
The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades, that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon.
You know who has nuclear weapons?
Israel.
They are more than capable of defending themselves without the US having to fight their wars, kill innocent people and children, and pay for it.
Trump threatening to bomb power plants and bridges hurts the Iranian people, the very people Trump claimed he was freeing.
On Easter, of all days, we as Christians should be reminded that the son of God died and rose from the grave so that we can be forgiven once and for all of our sins. Jesus commanded us to love one another and forgive one another. Even our enemies.
Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.
Christians in the administration should be pursuing peace. Urging the President to make peace.
Not escalating war that is hurting people.
This NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024, I know, I was there more than most.
This is not making America great again, this is evil.
Just like during COVID, I suspect we will look back at this time with a hazy recollection of what the hell was going on. It's going to be important not to forget just who took us into this and what it was they stood for.
"Manageable" inflation = 3.x% apparently. Anecdotally my roofer tells me that the insulation we ordered last month is already 12% higher.
President of the British Chamber of Commerce and former Chief Economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, has told ITV News' @ITVJoel that the pick-up in inflation will be 'manageable'.
He said the energy price shock 'calls for lower interest rates, not higher ones'.
Fascinating article by Kevin T Baker in the Guardian about technology's role in "kill chains" - the history of targeting - and how we arrived at the girls school bombing a few weeks ago. theguardian.com/news/2026/ma…
Crawdad retweeted
xitter.cf/RoyRogers_HTMS/status/…
When Dr. John and Jools Holland sat down for an epic piano duel in 1988, the poor keys never knew what hit them! 🎹🔥 Two boogie-woogie masters going head-to-head, pounding out rhythms like they’re trying to knock the lid off the piano. Top hats, wild energy, and pure musical mayhem—vintage chaos at its finest. Who needs subtlety when you’ve got this much soul? 😂 #BoogieWoogie #PianoDuel #1988Vibes
"Sex and flirt throughout the day". Hmm I think I might be doing Euro-maxxing wrong ;)
I'm bullish on Swiss-based Euro-lifestyle, again.
Not the only Euro-maxxed life model available.
But one of them: yes.
In my case: 31 y.o., no kids, remote-working gf, it's a trifecta:
1. Zurich base
1.1. Airport
Best in Europe, 30m door to door from my fairly priced central apartment taken before rent market went nuts.(small, but ok for a trifecta without kids)
1.2. Taxes, admin and economy
Low taxes, solid admin, stable, good/great healthcare, efficient state and bureaucracy.
Low-debt, high-growth, high-productivity economy. (there's very few worlds in which CH will fail the 21th century)
1.3. Location
Euro-centric (optimal base node for Euro-trifecta).
1.4. Seasons
Big one.
I've come to realise that no place is good for all 4 seasons.
But Zurich comes close to it:
- summer lake-maxx + 1h flights to the Mediterranean
- autumn hikes + coloured forests/hills/mountains
- winter Alps (I'm not a huge ski-fan, but can make it work)
- spring ok: similar to autumn
When bored: quick flight/train to Milan/Paris/Warsaw/Barcelona etc.
1.5. City factor
Not a huge city, not a small village: it's a fairly decent compromise.
1.6. Safe
Almost forgot to mention it, but of course: that too.
1.7. Reliable plan A
WW3-hedged base/residence/citizenship.
If paired with a Southern Cone node and potentially another one in Asia/Africa, it's among the most volatility-resilient hubs (if not The Most).
1.8. Downsides are manageable
German-leaning overachieving corporate drones vibe is quite low in the overall vibe scale, probably a 3/10.
But it's not like I go out all that much anyway, plus there's a few fun degenerates in Zurich too, and I suspect it'll attract some X/online-biz crowd as well in coming years, as people leave Dubai/EU/Cyprus etc.
---
2. Big city base
A big city where you go and have some things set up: know where to sleep, eat, drink, play, have people to DM, etc.
For me, hands down: Warsaw.
Peak European civilization, at least this decade:
- Ukrainians are living in 2300,
- Belarusians girls are the hottest (have a gf but still good to have beaty around),
- Polish are Germans after you replace the bad parts with some US/hustle components
- Central Asians are among the best "manual labour" migrants I've come across
- Westerners in Warsaw are mostly based, otherwise they'd go to Berlin/Lisbon/Barcelona :P
City is modern and historical, bustling, affordable, optimistic, based, vibrant, full of parks, easy Wolt+Uber life.
---
3. Mediterranean base
Euro-summer is peak life enjoyment.
My Mediterranean base: San Benedetto del Tronto (my hometown).
On the central Adriatic coast:
- Some of the best food in Italy
- Great seaside facilities, cute hills
- Rent-free 'cause I sleep at Mamma's
- Abundant love from family and old friends
- Hang out with my The GOAT (my grandma)
Typical summer day:
- wake up and freshen up
- bike to cafe: croissant and cappuccino
- bike through palmed-up promenade to lido (chalet)
- sunbathe + play (rackets/football/read etc) + swim
- seafood lunch at home or at the lido (w/ wine)
- chillmax and then apero
- freshen up
- dinner out + ice cream
- passeggiata
Rinse and repeat (sex+flirt throughout the day).
---
I looked and didn't find better models than this for a maxxed-out life as a European in the 21st century.
There are variations:
- Can keep trifecta (feasible only without kids) but change cities/countries
- Can turn to bifecta (if you have kids)
Will abstract-up the above implementation to some generalised models that you can tune to your specific case, in following posts.