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Chris Stokes@nisaccom.bsky.social |
30 followers 99 following 620 posts
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Stephen Schwartz
@atomicanalyst.bsky.social
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This afternoon or evening, Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom’s newest prime minister, will be briefed on its nuclear war plans and then pen a new “Letter of Last Resort” to the commander of each of its four Vanguard-class SSBNs, to be opened and read only if a nuclear war destroys the country.
4 replies 25 reposts 57 likes
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New-Cleckit Dominie
@ncdominie.bsky.social
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I'd not come across that! I vaguely recall a rather horrifying story in RA Bagnold's memoirs about Nile steamboats using mummies as fuel, with cries of "throw another pharaoh on the flames!" but I'm sceptical given that a similar story seems to be a Mark Twain wind-up...
1 replies 1 reposts 1 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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I first came across it in Leicester Museum's egyptology section, I think.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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It put me in mind of that cargo of 180,000 mummified cats imported to Liverpool in 1890 for fertilizing the fields of England.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2009/11/wuth...
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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It'd be faster to row and get some sea watching in.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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As I was saying, what kind of model comes up with < 2.7% of the vote share for an incumbent ex-Tory expelled from the Conservatives who was the only MP Reform UK ever had before today (if only for a few golden months)? He got 3.2% for crying out loud. One hopes he borrowed the cash for his deposit.
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blogmywiki
@blogmywiki.bsky.social
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99 seats to declare. Still time for that SDP breakthrough.
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Joonas Linkola
@joonaslinkola.bsky.social
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There are some things that still unite people on social media. #UKElection
9 replies 122 reposts 397 likes
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Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com
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If you’ve never seen Dorothea Lange’s photographs of the World War II internment camps and the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned there, today is a good day to see them and to commit to making sure this never happens again.
anchoreditions.com/blog/dorothe...
26 replies 562 reposts 1453 likes
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Jay Blanc
@jayblanc.bsky.social
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Noticed Truss and Sunak's photos on portillogeddon.com
3 replies 10 reposts 10 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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From a now hilarious paper by Fred V. Theobald published in 1907 that passes verdicts on the value of a shed load of British birds.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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'Except that they are excellent eating, nothing good can be said for the Woodpigeon or the Stockdove. Moreover, the former are very much on the increase, & the yearly bands of robbers that come to us from the Continent of Europe in winter & stay into early spring cause endless damage to the farmer.'
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Dave Hutchinson
@hutchinsondave.bsky.social
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According to Sky, the LibDems have ‘one last stunt’ ready for the end of the campaign.
15 replies 54 reposts 195 likes
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Benjamin Dreyer
@bcdreyer.bsky.social
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Happy Leoš Janáček's birthday!
2 replies 5 reposts 20 likes
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Kristin Whittlesey
@kawhittlesey.bsky.social
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Lovely! I'm taking this as an excuse to play "Sinfonietta" on repeat all day.
2 replies 1 reposts 2 likes
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Vanishing Point
@marksonbot.bsky.social
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Rank vegetable growth, Rebecca West called the sentences of Henry James. One feels that if one took cuttings of them one could raise a library in the garden.
0 replies 2 reposts 2 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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At the same time as sparrows were widely demonized in the UK, and sparrow clubs proliferated, paying money in return for dead sparrows and nests.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Radio 5 Live coverage of Euro 2024 is massively improved by a bunch of swifts making themselves heard over the voice of one of their European pundits whenever they splice him in.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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From looking in the OED I see the 'r' and 'o' in 'wrought' ended up settling in that order after swapping places gradually beginning in Old English. In Beowulf, the preterite is worhte.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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I looked in the OED. It gives three senses (with four historical quotes in all) for wright-as-verb in the OED—1) to build, construct. 2) to repair (a ship); to renovate, mend. 3) to pursue the occupation of a wright (Scottish). It reckons 1 and 2 are obsolete.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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If he was going to build it out of Tories, I doubt there'd be enough young Tories for the footing.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Brian's your man.
youtu.be/Y9q9FDkvJDE
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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The kind of subtlety Starmer appreciates.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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A woollyback—Stuart Maconie (in Pies and Prejudice)—speaks: 'I think most Scousers secretly think of both the Milanese fashion designer and the Bantu tribesman as woollybacks, united in their tragic non-Scouseness.'
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Bet they made you grimace.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Be fair. It's GLOBAL Birdfair. And behold their conscience:
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Tim Allwood🇵🇸
@timallwood.bsky.social
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Only two weeks until the annual ultra-high carbon travel festival of backslapping called Birdfair.
Another year on, climate is much worse yet it’s still supported by RSPB, Birdlife, British Birds & Birdguides etc.
Profit before planet. Every time.
#lowcarbonbirding
1 replies 2 reposts 6 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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But don't try to replicate his findings without a proper ethics review, will you?
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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'Experimental demonstration of the tomatotopic organization in the Soprano (Cantatrix sopranica L.)'—a publication every aspiring academic should read before starting their next paper. And not just neurophysiologists!
xavierleroy.org/stuff/tomato...
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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A number of people will vote Labour out of goodwill. Call it g. A number will vote Labour while holding their noses. Call it n. What's the ratio n:g?
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Cambridge OTOH is a peculiar university that awards its degrees in a foreign language better known for its use in spells at Hogwarts.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Not as well known as his one-armed pianist bro Paul!
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Has Cambridge changed its rules since it awarded a PhD to Ludwig Wittgenstein? It was a prior registration as an undergraduate that opened the door for him to submit his thesis—a book that had been published 7 years earlier.
2 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Mark Chadbourn
@chadbourn.bsky.social
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Coal is dead in the UK. GB Railfreight made the final planned coal delivery by rail in the UK.The shipment was delivered to Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, as it prepares for closure on 30 September.
7 replies 31 reposts 125 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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GB Railfreight have named a locomotive of theirs—made in Valencia!—'Ratcliffe Power Station'. (No Soar!) It ought to be a slow train.
youtu.be/U6OHD2uCpfU
2 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Conrad J. Barrington
@conradbarrington.bsky.social
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Basil Rathbone, with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, in a publicity photo for Son of Frankenstein (1939)
3 replies 25 reposts 102 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Infants? So the Midwich Cuckoos is just a folk tale?
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Cmdr. Overbite
@cmdroverbite.bsky.social
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Imagine surviving a whole plague only to get killed by Teeth
1 replies 1 reposts 2 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Don't. We don't have the dentists any more.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Dunno but the earliest quote in the OED is enough to make you shudder: 'Dothe the parsone falle in ptisym and to outdryeng of the naturally moystnes.'
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Can I go with phthisis then?
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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'Moms for Liberty' seems a curious name for an organisation connected with the banning of books.
1 replies 1 reposts 9 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Not sure. Take your pick.
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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And Tramalfadore, don't forget. It was BookLooks that caught my eye—this setter of a de facto standard for... what?... objectionability? Hadn't heard of BookLooks. Wondered how it might assess a book I remember reading when I was possibly still at school. Struck by the profanity-count table.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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David Edgerton: 'The third, and as things stand least plausible option, is that Starmer’s Labour becomes that party of change, rather than the party that has changed.'
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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I didn't used to have an opinion on him. Then I tried to read a book with his name on the cover (The Celts—A Sceptical History). It was so badly researched and written that I was forced to have an opinion.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Why does the juxtaposition of political donations to a party about to form a government and manifesto commitments on public health bring Bernie Ecclestone to mind?
www.theguardian.com/society/arti...
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Slaughterhouse-Five in a BookLooks nutshell (It gets a review rating of 4/5 overall, BTW, and so is 'Not For Minors'):
2 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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I messed up then!
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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Even Trained Piping Bullfinches that sing complete tunes?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes