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John Herrman
@jwherrman.bsky.social
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Honestly impressed with the deranged persistence of Meta’s Science Experiment Sidekick bot
22 replies 153 reposts 535 likes
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Nicholas Jackson@njj4.bsky.social |
123 followers 174 following 87 posts
mathematician, depressive, agnostic, European, SF fan, ancestor. (he/him/his). Assistant Professor in Maths and Economics at the University of Warwick. @njj4@mathstodon.xyz
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John Herrman
@jwherrman.bsky.social
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Honestly impressed with the deranged persistence of Meta’s Science Experiment Sidekick bot
22 replies 153 reposts 535 likes
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Matthew Kilburn
@matthewkilburn.bsky.social
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On Swords and Pink Ribbon - MPs are spun tales of having somewhere to hang their swords, but they shouldn't believe them historyofparliamentblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/o...
0 replies 2 reposts 1 likes
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Micro SF/F by O. Westin
@microsff.com
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A squire rushed in to the great hall.
"Someone," he shouted, "has taken the sword from the stone!"
The assembled knights halted their dinner.
"At last, a king?"
"Who?"
"I don't know," the squire said. "The sword is gone!"
Elsewhere:
"This," Indy muttered, "belongs in a museum.
#MicroFiction
16 replies 139 reposts 554 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Interesting thread about procedural issues with electing a new Tory leader now that there aren't so many MPs left : (a) It now only takes 19 Tory MPs to trigger a leadership contest. (b) There aren't currently enough Tory MPs to nominate more than one leadership candidate.
3 replies 7 reposts 40 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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In my head the third Star Trek reboot film has an amazing saxophone accompaniment.
0 replies 1 reposts 1 likes
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Boots
@bootsmcgoot.bsky.social
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"average Starfleet captain commits 3 warcrimes a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average captain commits 0 warcrimes per year. Warcrimes Janeway, who lived in the delta quadrant & commits over 10,000 each episode, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
4 replies 27 reposts 80 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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To be honest, that's pretty much my reaction to having to edit a non-shared word document too.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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I don't know whether it's a typo or deliberate snark, but full marks to the lawyer quoted in that article who refers to them as "Spice DOA".
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Charlotte Ariel Finn
@bycharlottefinn.bsky.social
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Periodically, I like to reread my favorite Scottish poem: Batman's Aff His Nut by Robert Florence.
41 replies 1095 reposts 2515 likes
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Microplastics Sommelier
@leastactionhero.bsky.social
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einstein sent this to curie in 1911 when she was being harassed by tabloids. it contains everything you’d want in such a letter: (1) your haters are trash (2) you’re a baller, a true queen (3) i have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in planck’s radiation field 🧪⚛️
37 replies 1465 reposts 3943 likes
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Nanoraptor
@nanoraptor.danamania.com
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Pride is resistance.
4 replies 17 reposts 108 likes
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Jack Aidley
@jackaidley.bsky.social
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Can we all just please call it the #GambleShambles and get on with it?
0 replies 1 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Thirty years on, I still have a number of good friends I met through a local bulletin board called Jorvick, which ran on the University of York central VAX system in the early 1990s. (I still have the sourcecode, but I don't have a VAX to run it on.)
0 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Oh god, you're right. It's so creepy. Don't blink. Don't even blink.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Not just savoury dishes either - a friend once baked some cupcakes with bacon in them and they were surprisingly good.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Lance Parkin
@lanceparkin.bsky.social
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There's a lot of Star Trek nowadays, so I've made a comprehensive list of every single Star Trek story, past, present, and future. Don't worry, it's only 411 words long.
lanceparkin.org/2024/06/11/a...
2 replies 17 reposts 33 likes
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John Bull
@garius.bsky.social
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A reminder that the best way to establish that you are who you say you are when you join BlueSky is to post a unique picture of your cat. #proofOfCat is the most valid form of ID
266 replies 118 reposts 577 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Today's bargain (£1!) record shop find: pioneering electronic music composer Wendy Carlos' second album, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer (1969). Music by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti and Monteverdi, arranged for Moog synthesiser. A follow-up to her best-selling first album Switched-On Bach (1968).
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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If I remember correctly, the Doctor decides to have a go at fixing the chameleon circuit, and for some reason this requires the exact measurements of a real police box, for use in "block transfer computations". So they find one and materialise around it.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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"Get in, loser, we're going to do some block transfer computation."
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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My ride is here.
2 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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A former colleague, who was independently wealthy, once asked me how my research was going. I said I'd been too busy recently - I had three precarious part-time jobs at the time, teaching and journal editing. "I guess you decided to earn some money instead" he said.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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New-Cleckit Dominie
@ncdominie.bsky.social
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I reckon you could get a decent board game out of whatever Sunak's press team are up to. Players take turns to move Sunak round the board and play combinations of "action" cards to score humiliation points.
2 replies 3 reposts 9 likes
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Kieron Gillen
@kierongillen.bsky.social
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If I ever became hyper rich I would create a massive deathmatch arena full of murderous weapons, which I would name the Marketplace Of Ideas, and then have my staff watch social media for people demanding we fight in the marketplace of ideas, and then kidnap them.
11 replies 33 reposts 191 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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I'm sorry to hear this and I hope it's fixable with relatively little bother. I was also really sorry you had to take the Conan story down - I liked it a lot.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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My dad (who would have been 91 now) did national service. He had some fun stories and did a couple of parachute jumps, but said it was ultimately a waste of time. He'd just finished his apprenticeship and qualified as an electrical engineer, then had to put his career on hold for two years.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Eggs: omelettes Steak: rare Milk: semi-skimmed, soya or oat, but not very often Alcohol: teetotal - it tastes weird and I don't like it Warm drink: peppermint tea, or honey and ginger tea (with ginger cordial and a spoonful of honey)
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Ooh, this looks fascinating - thanks for doing this.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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kilgore trout
@kilgoretrout.bsky.social
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a thing I really enjoyed about the northern lights beyond seeing them for the first time was explaining to my kids how the earth is shrouded by an invisible field powered by an unfathomable moon sized engine made of liquid iron churning in the heart of the planet. I sound like a complete maniac
21 replies 294 reposts 1766 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Achtung Bono, by Half Man Half Biscuit, is also excellent, but in slightly different ways.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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With 102/107 councils declared, and counting still going on, the Tories have lost 453 local council seats so far. Together with 1063 last year, and 485 lost in 2022, this means that there are now 2001 fewer Tory councillors than there were three years ago.
0 replies 6 reposts 6 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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April the 21st (O.S.) be with you!
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Exam marking has begun. Pudding (honorary assistant module leader) is "helping".
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Years ago I visited Dun Aengus on the Aran Islands. I kept well away from the edge (and 100m sheer cliff into the Atlantic). Someone I met had asked why there weren't any safety railings, and was told that Irish people have too much sense to go near the edge, unlike tourists.
2 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Joel Morris
@gralefrit.bsky.social
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Voyager is alive again! Just one more middle aged dude wandering the universe aimlessly with a cool 70s vinyl collection.
5 replies 31 reposts 165 likes
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Moose Allain
@mooseallain.bsky.social
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Neighbourhood watch
11 replies 140 reposts 440 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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In 2004, Michael Gove got £40k from HarperCollins for a book about the 18thC Tory politician Viscount Bolingbroke, which he still hasn't written. There's speculation it was really a down payment from Rupert Murdoch for future services. I guess Liz isn't worth as much. www.politico.eu/blogs/on-med...
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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"Things had not worked out as I had hoped." Yes, well, I was hoping that my mortgage payments wouldn't suddenly go up by £300/month but here we are. Thanks for that, Liz.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Toby Earle
@tobyontv.bsky.social
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The final lines of Liz Truss’s book are like one of Gary Larson’s classics
6 replies 94 reposts 362 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Sing, Charlie Brown, of the wrath of Achilles.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Look upon my works, Charlie Brown, and despair.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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With regard to obscure ceremonial offices, the book "Keepers of the Kingdom" by Alastair Bruce is fascinating.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Soothsayers outside the Senate:
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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New-Cleckit Dominie
@ncdominie.bsky.social
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Just spent a few idle minutes down the oddly fascinating rabbit-hole of England's ancient judicial offices, and I can report with some sadness that no Earl of Sandwich has ever served as Master of the Rolls.
2 replies 1 reposts 13 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Something that occurred to me recently: Because of the weird succession rules for the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, when William becomes king, his LGC (who helps organise the coronation) will be the Marquess of Cholmondely. I understand William is a close friend of the family. So that's nice.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Just waiting for the first right-wing 26-year-old hereditary columnist to suggest raising the voting age to 25.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Gosh. Although the writer E Nesbit had a somewhat complicated personal life too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nesbit
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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Last year one of my students transferred to another university, not because he didn't like the course here, but because the new place was ranked slightly higher in one of the league tables, which would significantly affect his future postgrad/funding applications.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nicholas Jackson
@njj4.bsky.social
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I'm rather envious seeing all the photos people are posting. The nearest I've got to seeing a total eclipse was in August 1999, when I and a few friends stood in a field in Cornwall and watched some clouds go dark for a few minutes. I'd like to see one properly sometime.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Groinhammer
@groinhammer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
@neilhimself.neilgaiman.com
Lovely piece on Bryan.
Bryan Talbot: The comics legend lurking in a Sunderland basement www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...
0 replies 13 reposts 85 likes