Trump: The Presidential Precedents, Andrew Jackson

To the east coast establishment he was an uncouth demagogue, to his supporters [two term US president, Andrew Jackson] was the tribune of the people, the embodiment of white masculinity. – BBC Radio 4 – Trump: The Presidential Precedents, Andrew Jackson I know little about US history, but this short Radio 4 programme yesterday caught my …

Political Scrapbooking 

… the notion that large numbers of pro-Brexit voters are experiencing buyer’s remorse is both unproven and irrelevant. … And it is hard to avoid the feeling that much of the Remain camp disappointment comes from people who are simply not used to losing votes that might negatively affect their own lives. As Manchester Professor …

Political Scrapbooking – Monday 04 and Tuesday 05 July 2016

What concerns me the most, as a historian, are the reports of UKIP party members now defecting and rejoined the Conservatives. This is not a good thing. This means those whose beliefs were considered too far right for mainstream politics, now feel mainstream politics has caught up – that they can rejoin a main political …

Further Brexit scrapbooking

No one seems capable of stepping forward and offering reassurance. The Leavers, who disagreed on what Brexit should look like, do not think it is their responsibility to set out a path. They reckon that falls to Number 10 (where they have appeared in public, it has mostly been to discard the very pledges on …

More Brexit scrapbooking 

Beware any bullshit #EURef piece about "millennials are to blame because of low turnout" like this https://t.co/eWRImqV6SL (1/3) — Chris Applegate (@chrisapplegate) June 25, 2016 https://twitter.com/jamesrbuk/status/746704964525899777 Police investigating after hateful notes were posted through letterboxes of Polish residents in Cambridgeshire following the Brexit vote. — LBC News (@LBCNews) June 25, 2016 “Suddenly [Cameron] found himself …

Brexit scrapbooking

Some things I’ve found, which I want to refer back to… https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/746272418075807745 Lord Ashcroft’s survey on reasons for voting Leave or Remain Bim Adewunmi’s heartbreak over the result https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/746416907159363586 Woman on Radio 4 who voted Leave. "I'm pleased. Don't think it'll effect us cause we're elderly. For the young people I'm not sure." — Game …

Example composer.json for SVN repos with no structure and no composer.json

Today I needed to include some WordPress.com themes from the official SVN repository, using Composer. This repository uses SVN and has not got the usual trunk, branches, etc directories that Composer expects, which makes it tricky. It’s possible though, and thanks to colleague Tom Nowell, I eventually got there. Here’s that example code:

Podcast – How Google uses behavioral science to make work suck less

Podcast: How Google uses behavioral science to make work suck less This episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast came recommended by Donncha, a colleague at Automattic. It’s packed full of really interesting thoughts, including “the job of a manager is to serve their team”; a good reminder that everything we at WordPress.com VIP do in …