Ben (@cr0nin) header
Ben (@cr0nin) profile picture

Boardgame and TTRPG enthusiast | Practitioner of HEMA | I know Kung Fu | 80's action films | 90's indie music | Father of 4

London
Joined February 2009
Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)Photo by Ben (@cr0nin)
Commando (1985) one-liners montage...
139
676
72
5,296
355,971
That towel move is a real physical therapy technique called a self SNAG, and the speed of the relief tells you something most people never learn about their own neck. Muscle tissue takes weeks of loading to actually lengthen. So when stiffness vanishes in a few seconds, the muscle was never what changed. What changed is the signal your brain was sending to it. The small facet joints stacked down the back of your neck sit at roughly a 45 degree angle. When one of them gets irritated or stops gliding smoothly, your brain protects it by clamping down the surrounding muscles. That clamp is the stiffness you feel. The tissue underneath is usually fine, it's just being held under orders. The towel edge hooks under one vertebra. When you pull forward and up along that 45 degree joint plane while turning your head, you glide the joint through the exact motion it was refusing, with support the whole way. Your brain gets live evidence the movement is safe and drops the clamp. Physical therapists do the same glide with their thumbs and call it a SNAG, short for sustained natural apophyseal glide. Brian Mulligan, the New Zealand physio who developed the method in the 1980s, designed the towel version specifically so patients could run it on themselves at home. Which is why years of stretching can lose to thirty seconds with a towel. A stretch tries to overpower the brain's grip. A glide convinces it to let go.
✅대박 이거 알려준 사람한테 평생 절해야 할 판임 목이랑 어깨 뻐근해서 죽을 맛이었는데 이거 하니까 진짜 몇 초 만에 싹 풀리더라 ㅋㅋ 여태 왜 이 간단한 걸 몰랐나 싶다 어깨 통증 달고 살던 사람들 지금 당장 멈추고 이거 꼭 해봐
96
2,794
49
25,561
2,448,734
UK train timetable visualised
12
70
4
855
70,158
Ben retweeted
Every French🇫🇷 passenger train, on an ordinary Tuesday, from first departure to last
210
2,592
327
20,485
3,787,535
Ron Cobb's semiotic standards for Alien (1979)
14
329
22
2,406
105,757
Battle Technology was the 80's version of the #Catalyst Shrapnel books. The magazine was set in August 3027 with stories, mechs (the Falcon), tech, and scenarios. Each issue well worth the price of $3.95 (I can't recall how much I had to pay in £'s #BattleTech #BattleTechnology
44
If you need a quick castle for you #TTRPG game a search for UK castles do all the work for you in 15 seconds.
23
Lots here I hadn’t previously been aware of. Well worth a read if you are interested in UK politics.
THE CAMPBELL DOSSIER The Spider's Web Meet Alastair Campbell. The man who sold a war on lies and bought a career in truth. The spin doctor who became the story. The "unguided missile" who destroyed a weapons inspector, a political party, and a country's faith in its institutions, then declared himself a mental health advocate and expected gratitude. Alastair John Campbell wants you to know about his breakdown. The "24-carat crack-up" at twenty-nine. The hospitalisation. The arrest. The depression. The alcoholism. It is a compelling narrative of redemption. It is also the perfect alibi for forty years of manipulation. Because the breakdown taught him something. Not humility. Not honesty. The power of performance. If you could convince doctors you were sane, you could convince anyone of anything. If you could turn mental illness into a career, you could turn war crimes into public service. The patient became the propagandist. The victim became the weapon. Let us begin with the education. Bradford Grammar. Leicester Grammar. Cambridge. Gonville and Caius College. Modern languages. Upper Second. The working-class boy from Keighley in the veterinary surgeon's family, suddenly fluent in French and German and the languages of power. But Cambridge was not kind to him. He was "angry." He was "prone to violence." He was "probably quite lucky to stay in." The state school boy felt "out of place" among the privileged. He would spend the next forty years proving he could out-privilege them all. By 1980 he was writing. Not journalism. Not yet. Something more revealing. For Forum magazine. Under the pseudonym "Riviera Gigolo." Erotic fiction. Adult content. "Anatomically implausible" series that he initially claimed was fiction but was widely believed to be based on real experiences. The "soft porn merchant" had found his voice. Sex and power. Performance and deception. The tools of the trade. The Daily Mirror came calling in 1982. Political Editor by the early nineties. In 1993 Campbell resigned alongside Paul Foot in protest at editorial direction under David Montgomery. One hundred and fifty Labour MPs tabled an Early Day Motion censuring Montgomery. The performance was perfect. The reality was preparation. Six years later, political editor Kevin Maguire left the same paper accusing Piers Morgan of allowing "undue influence from Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell on editorial decisions, particularly regarding support for the government's bombing of Serbia." By 1999, Campbell was already at Downing Street. The journalist who would prove central to Smeargate was documenting Campbell's interference years before the scandal broke. Because in 1994 he became Tony Blair's press secretary. The timing was not coincidence. The resignation was preparation. The EDM was cover. Campbell had been auditioning for the role for years, and Blair had been watching. The Today newspaper interlude came later. Years earlier, a "24-carat crack-up" in 1986 as news editor of the Sunday edition had hospitalised him. Arrested. Long periods of heavy drinking. His partner Fiona Millar would later describe his behaviour as "manipulative" and "erratic." "Emotional manipulation and mental cruelty." The man who would manage the nation's information could not manage his own mind. But by 1997 he was ready. Director of Communications and Strategy at Ten Downing Street. The spin doctor in chief. Campbell's diaries reveal a March 1998 meeting with Mirror editor Piers Morgan and political editor Kevin Maguire, the three men who would shape the narrative for the next decade. What the diaries do not reveal is that Maguire was already compromised. When the Smeargate scandal erupted in 2009, journalist Iain Dale would explicitly allege that Maguire was "involved in the McBride/Whelan/Draper conspiracy." Guido Fawkes revealed that smears were placed with journalists including Maguire, not just kept in private emails. Maguire wrote a defense article that garnered 300+ hostile comments, subsequently deleted by the Mirror. He was "very much in the know." The "unguided missile" with the ear of the Prime Minister and a journalist already proven willing to participate in smear operations. And what a kingdom it was. February 2003. The Dodgy Dossier. Campbell instructed intelligence officials to alter the dossier to fit American claims. The "45 minutes" claim inserted Iraq could deploy WMD within forty-five minutes. This claim was inserted specifically for media impact, as Dr David Kelly would later confirm. It was later proven completely false, but by then hundreds of thousands would die. The dossier published to justify invasion. Campbell would later admit to the Leveson Inquiry that the dossier was designed to "make a case for war" despite years of denials. Major-General Michael Laurie told the Chilcot Inquiry: "We found Alastair Campbell, I think, an enthusiastic individual, but also somewhat of an unguided missile... He also, I think, suffered from his propensity to have rushes of blood to the head and pass various stories and information to journalists without appropriate prior consultation." The missile had found its target. But the real atrocity came in July 2003. Dr David Kelly. Weapons inspector. BBC source for the "sexed up" dossier claims. The Guardian revealed Campbell wanted to leak details about Dr Kelly to a paper himself. Before Kelly was outed, Campbell had planned to weaponize the media against him. The whistleblower was destroyed by the spin doctor. Campbell led the campaign to expose Kelly as the source. Kelly was "outed." Kelly was named. Campbell's own deputy would testify that Campbell first suggested leaking Kelly's name to the press directly contradicting his Hutton Inquiry testimony. Kelly was found dead in the woods. Suicide. After being named by Campbell's operation. Campbell denied involvement to the Hutton Inquiry. The evidence contradicted his testimony. The Hutton Inquiry largely exonerated the government. It was widely regarded as a whitewash. Campbell walked free. The weapons inspector was dead. National Archives files released in December 2023 revealed what Campbell buried for twenty years: he proposed setting lawyers on the BBC during the Iraq War coverage row. While the BBC investigated his "sexed up" dossier, Campbell plotted legal threats to silence them. The same man who destroyed Dr Kelly for talking to the BBC was prepared to use the courts to destroy the BBC itself. And for twenty years, the public never knew. For twenty years, Campbell successfully suppressed a BBC drama called "The Project." The drama exposed New Labour "dirty tricks" employed upon the 1997 election victory. Director Peter Kosminsky confirmed Campbell's team "wrote a letter asking people not to co-operate" with production. The drama "has not been seen since 2002" completely suppressed for two decades. The spin doctor had become the censor. The BBC that challenged Campbell on Iraq in 2002 is unrecognisable from the BBC that now platforms him. The Hutton Inquiry was the establishment's revenge, Greg Dyke resigned, the BBC learned its lesson, and the transformation was complete. Where the BBC once challenged power, it now serves it. Where it once questioned the Dodgy Dossier, it now platforms the man who wrote it. This is where the BBC's downfall began. Campbell resigned in August 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry. The patient had become too visible. The performance required new costumes. But the operation never stopped. It just changed venues. Portland Communications. Senior consultant since May 2012. The firm founded by Tim Allan, former Downing Street colleague. The clients included the Qatari government. BAE Systems. Kazakhstan. Authoritarian regimes with human rights records that would make Saddam Hussein blush. Campbell was spotted "circling the carousels at Astana airport" by the Financial Times, physically present in Kazakhstan on Portland business, helping rebrand a dictatorship that shoots strikers and burns opposition offices. The firm was accused of commissioning favourable Wikipedia edits for clients including Qatar. The Qatari government failed to pay millions on time. Staff bonuses were delayed almost one year. The spin doctor had become the lobbied. The man who once manipulated the nation's information now manipulated the nation's information for foreign powers. And when the money ran dry from Qatar, there was always television. Good Morning Britain. Presenter. 2021 to present. Subject to multiple Ofcom complaints for bias. Sixty-six complaints for a "Boris rant." Eighty-five more for pro-Labour views. Described as "more wooden than Sherwood Forest" by critics. Branded the Prime Minister "coward" and "charlatan" live on air. "Deeply inappropriate" comments in earpiece during broadcast. Criticised for interviewing Tony Blair, his old boss, without disclosure of conflict. ITV took no action. The establishment protects its attack dogs. The spin doctor had become the presenter. The manipulator had become the personality. But the real operation was elsewhere. The Rest Is Politics. Podcast. With Rory Stewart. The "respectable" Tory. The cross-party discussion. The balanced debate. Funded by Goalhanger Podcasts, owned by Gary Lineker. With a major stake taken by The Chernin Group, a US media giant. Campbell and Stewart reportedly earn over £100,000 per month each under revenue-sharing. The platform is used to attack Farage and Reform UK while presenting as "balanced" cross-party discussion. US corporate money funding attacks on British political parties. The anti-Farage network was complete. The structure was elegant. Campbell provides strategic direction and media attack. Stewart provides "respectable" Tory cover. Kevin Maguire at the Mirror provides the weekly columns that Campbell cannot write himself continuing the smear operations he began in 2009. Tony Blair provides funding through the Tony Blair Institute, funded by Larry Ellison ($338+ million), Saudi Arabia, and other controversial sources. Portland Communications provides the PR contracts with Qatar and Kazakhstan. Goalhanger provides the podcast platform. Chernin provides the US media money. The operation targets Reform UK and Nigel Farage with coordinated attacks while presenting as independent commentators. The anti-Farage network was not theory. It was documented. Campbell's explicit strategy: "attacking Farage on Brexit" is the most effective line. Maguire's weekly columns: "Nasty Nigel," "Farage may be banging on Downing St door but Reform UK is slipping," "Nigel Farage proves he's Thatcher knock-off." The Rest Is Politics provides the "respectable" platform for the attacks. The Mirror provides the mainstream media amplification. The Tony Blair Institute provides the $338 million in funding. Portland provides the international connections. The spider was at the center of the web. But the family was unravelling. Son Rory Campbell. Born 1987/1988. A betting syndicate. £8 million. Collapsed in 2024. Approximately fifty investors lost between £10,000 and £500,000 each. Alastair Campbell personally invested £288,000-£300,000 in his son's failed fund. Lost it all. In October 2025, the Metropolitan Police arrested a 37-year-old man in North London on suspicion of fraud by false representation relating to Rory's betting syndicate. Investors compiled a dossier of documents and emails detailing Rory's stewardship of their cash. One creditor initiated legal action threatening to bankrupt Rory over £266,000. The spin doctor's son was under police investigation for fraud. The father had lost nearly three hundred thousand pounds. The family was imploding. Daughter Grace Campbell. Born April 1994. Comedian. Subject of sustained criticism as a "nepo baby." First Edinburgh show in 2019 entirely about being Alastair Campbell's daughter. She admitted: "I could've done what lots of other nepotism baby stand-ups do, which is not talk about it" knowing exactly what she was doing. The spin doctor's daughter built a career on his name, then complained about the criticism. The performance was genetic. And through it all, Campbell maintained the platform. The GMB appearances. The podcast. The columns. The mental health advocacy. The BBC documentary "Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me" in 2019. The rehabilitation. The redemption. The man who sold a war on lies and destroyed a whistleblower was now a mental health ambassador. Global ambassador for Australians for Mental Health. Time to Change campaigner. The "unguided missile" who caused a suicide was now the advocate for the vulnerable. The performance was complete. But the files were buried. For twenty years. And the law was written to protect him. Six inquiries produced zero prosecutions because "crime of aggression" the supreme international crime identified at Nuremberg "is not incorporated into British law." The laws were written to protect men like him. This is not oversight. This is design. In May 2019, the Labour Party expelled him. For voting Liberal Democrat in the European elections. "Auto-excluded" under automatic process. Expelled faster than antisemitism cases, Holocaust deniers, and death threat makers. Jess Phillips MP noted he was expelled "quicker than a man who threatened to kill me." The party he had served for twenty years cast him out for voting for another party. The performance had become the pariah. But the operation continued. The Rest Is Politics. The GMB appearances. The Portland contracts. The anti-Farage network. The spider remained at the center of the web, spinning and spinning, collecting $338 million from Larry Ellison, funding from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, £100,000 per month from the podcast, and attacking Reform UK and Farage while presenting himself as a mental health advocate and cross-party commentator. And the protection is absolute. Despite Chilcot findings that he manipulated intelligence. Despite the Kelly affair. Despite the Portland contracts with authoritarian regimes. Despite the twenty-year suppression of the BBC drama. Despite the funded influence operation against Reform UK. Despite the son's police investigation. Six inquiries. Zero prosecutions. The system protects its own. The spider remains at the center of the web. This is not a career. This is a forty-year impunity operation. From the Forum magazine erotica to the Dodgy Dossier to the Dr Kelly suicide to the Portland contracts to the suppressed BBC drama to the son's fraud investigation to the daughter's nepotism to the $338 million US dark money funding the anti-Farage network, Alastair Campbell has been the constant. The performer who became the power. The patient who became the propagandist. The spin doctor who became the censor. The war criminal who became the mental health advocate. He has faced no legal consequences for the Iraq War deception. No consequences for the Kelly affair. No consequences for the Portland contracts with authoritarian regimes. No consequences for the twenty-year suppression of the BBC drama. No consequences for the funded influence operation against Reform UK. No consequences for the son's police investigation. The laws were written to protect him. The system protects its own. The spider remains at the center of the web. Alastair Campbell is not the disease. He is the vector. The man who transmitted the Blairite virus into every institution he touched. The Mirror. Downing Street. Portland. Goalhanger. The BBC. The Labour Party. The anti-Farage network. Everywhere he goes, the same pattern repeats. Manipulation. Deception. Performance. And when caught, rehabilitation. The breakdown becomes the alibi. The mental health advocacy becomes the shield. The "unguided missile" becomes the respected elder. But the file is complete. The pattern is proven. The web is mapped. From the Riviera Gigolo to the Dodgy Dossier to the Dr Kelly woods to the Kazakhstan dictator to the Portland contracts to the Goalhanger funding to The Chernin Group's US money to the £288,000 lost in the son's fraud to the anti-Farage operation, Alastair Campbell has been the spider at the center. The man who connects Blair. The man who connects Maguire. The man who connects the Iraq War lies to the current influence operation. The man who sold a war and bought a career and expects gratitude. The web is exposed. The spider is visible. The only question remaining is whether the fly will finally notice what has been caught.
52
I normally just like this sort of thing but this is a tour de force from X and should be recognised as such
31
Ben retweeted
Chess visualized
32
902
22
8,804
138,726
Good game. Would recommend. A well deserved BAFTA win for Rebellion. #atomfall #rebellion #BAFTA
35
Reverse psychology 🤣🤣
56
611
22
26,633
930,621
Can confirm 💯
23
This looks good. They have the Novac T-Rex make a cameo. Fallout – Season Two Teaser Trailer youtu.be/7TsP09cZA7o?si=LxG3…
208
You can ask Grok to print cards for boardgame prototypes. Saves lots of fiddly table work in Word / Excel. #boardgames #gamedesign #prototypes
1
99
In 1964, Theodor Benfey, a German chemist created "Spiral Periodic table" of the elements The elements in a two-dimensional spiral starts with hydrogen in the center and flows outwards as the atomic number increases.
59
620
34
2,965
115,413
A map of the world around 2000 BC
12
69
4
750
65,014
Not my home but I know my way around
Not my home, but I know my way around.
1
4
151