Tom Shakespeare's avatar

Tom Shakespeare

@tomshakespeare.bsky.social

1091 followers 1548 following 254 posts

Talks, writes, cooks, mostly in London. "The Ha-ha" might make you laugh; "Disability Rights and Wrongs" might make you think.

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Helen Czerski's avatar Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social
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AND the Dept of Mechanical Engineering REPAIR SHOP will be at the Festival, to fix basic electrical items (eg toasters, hairdryers, kettles) and general mechanical repairs: stuff with broken parts. Bring along anything that needs a bit of mechanical TLC.

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Helen Czerski's avatar Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social
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Next week, University College London will be holding its Festival of Engineering and everyone is invited. There's an industry day (Thursday), lots of talks and an exhibition for the public (Friday & Saturday) and it's all free. Do join us & pls register online beforehand.

www.ucl.ac.uk/engine...

1 replies 9 reposts 10 likes

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sascha benjamin cohen 's avatar sascha benjamin cohen @3141pie.bsky.social
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NPR this morning covering (at last) the incredibly destructive impact of AI growth on climate, and how Google is essentially abandoning its net zero goals in favor of gAI (and profit). A 30% increase in emissions since 2020, and no signs of slowing. All so you can ask a chatbot for misinformation.

0 replies 2 reposts 2 likes

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Margot Finn's avatar Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social
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"South Cambridgeshire district council’s controversial experiment with a shorter working week resulted in improvements in performance in 11 out of 24 areas, little or no change in 11 areas and worsening of performance in two areas, according to analysis of productivity".

2 replies 15 reposts 43 likes

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Charlotte Ariel Finn's avatar 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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Mr Roger Quimbly's avatar Mr Roger Quimbly @rogerquimbly.bsky.social
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If the Daily Mail doesn't like this country it should fuck off back to where it came from.

14 replies 30 reposts 104 likes

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William Shakespeare's avatar William Shakespeare @shakespeare.bsky.social
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Away with her, And pen her up.

1 replies 26 reposts 122 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Politics badly needs an injection of hope & faith.

0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

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Jo Wolff's avatar Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social
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The goodish news - Reform has only 4 seats, the same as the Greens, so the exit polls were badly wrong. The really bad news - Reform has more than 4 million votes, more than Lib Dem on 3.5 and not far behind Tories on 6.7 million and Labour on 9.6.

18 replies 24 reposts 79 likes

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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I like the smell of a Tory bloodbsth in the morning.

1 replies 2 reposts 16 likes

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POLITICO Europe's avatar POLITICO Europe @politico.eu
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🚨 BREAKING: The chances of an outright victory for the far right in the French election fell today, as at least 200 candidates from both the left-wing alliance and the centrist coalition pulled out of the contest.

6 replies 19 reposts 43 likes

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George Monbiot's avatar George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
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In this talk for the Hay Festival, now free to view, I seek to define capitalism and neoliberalism, show how they have trashed our lives and propose some radical alternatives.
Do watch if you have a chance. Thanks.
www.hayfestival.com/p-21301-geor...

1 replies 17 reposts 58 likes

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Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Prof Christina Pagel's avatar Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social
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Calling families of children with complex health needs!

Can you spare 10 mins to share your thoughts to help UCL SPROCKET further improve our approach on partnering with families?

survey: shorturl.at/uu6ST
find out more at: sprocket.kids.

Please share!

0 replies 13 reposts 8 likes

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Adam Serwer's avatar Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social
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The Supreme Court’s ruling putting presidents above the law must be understood not simply as a grant of immunity for past crimes, but an enthusiastic endorsement of those he will commit if given the chance. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

25 replies 523 reposts 1428 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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The Supremely Stupid Court of the United States, which fought a war to get rid of one King only to see its President made into another one.

1 replies 2 reposts 3 likes

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Robert S's avatar Robert S @ro8ert.bsky.social
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I learnt a new word today - "tyromancy", which means 'divination by means of cheese'.

11 replies 29 reposts 83 likes

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Philippe Auclair's avatar Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social
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As Led By Donkeys haven't opened an account (yet) here, here is their last offering on "the other place". Beautiful.

5 replies 37 reposts 120 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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It is North Lambeth Parish Fête on Saturday afternoon at Lambeth Palace. Think of the cakes, books, bottles, teas and above all, the dogs at the NLP Dog Show, 3pm, with a special guest to award the Best in Show rosette.

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Margot Finn's avatar Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social
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Given that the FT has devoted rather a lot of column space today to James Cracknell, here for balance is an introduction to the Labour candidate battling him for Colchester, ace historian and sociology professor Pam Cox:

1 replies 6 reposts 9 likes

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Marisa Grizenko's avatar Marisa Grizenko @marisagrizenko.bsky.social
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From Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water and, uh, don’t I know it

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Marisa Grizenko's avatar Marisa Grizenko @marisagrizenko.bsky.social
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“There was something demoniacal and insuperable about typographical errors, as if they were part of the natural evil that permeated man’s existence, as if they had a life of their own and were determined to manifest themselves no matter what, as surely as weeds in the best-tended gardens.”

1 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

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Brian Bilston 's avatar Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social
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Here’s a short poem about the inadvisability of spoiling ballot papers.

2 replies 37 reposts 119 likes

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☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️'s avatar ☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ @schwarz.bsky.social
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Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978. Carter describes what happened next in "The Blood of Abraham": The US notified Israeli Prime Minister Begin we were going to cut off all military aid to Israel & present a resolution condemning it at the UN. Begin immediately said: "It's over."

9 replies 111 reposts 323 likes

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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I co-wrote a book called "The Sexual Politics of Disability: untold desires". I wanted to reverse title & sub-title but publisher preferred.

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Are you sure P.G.Wodehouse wrote a book called Spring Rain? He wrote one called Spring Fever (1948).

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

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David Higham's avatar David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social
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Seems it’s not just me that finds Cameron’s rehabilitation hard to take. This is David Allen Green in the latest edition of Prospect magazine

1 replies 9 reposts 19 likes

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Neil Gaiman 's avatar Neil Gaiman @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com
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Dead is the only age that's too late to start being an author.

77 replies 754 reposts 2842 likes

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Kingfisher & Wombat's avatar Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com
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Now this is interesting if true, though I’m not sure what the article means about names in dolphins and parrots, since we’ve known for years that dolphins effectively have call-signs. Huh.

9 replies 12 reposts 116 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez; The Haunts of the Black Masseur, Charles Sprawson; Weatherland, Alexandra Harris.

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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My professor during my Masters was asked how many books we should be reading. How many are you reading?, he asked. Three, came the response. A day?, he enquired. No, a week!, was the shocked reply.

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After Dinner Conversation's avatar After Dinner Conversation @afterdinner.bsky.social
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"You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it." - Octavia E. Butler

0 replies 6 reposts 16 likes

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Reposted by Tom Shakespeare

Mark Chadbourn's avatar Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social
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European election results: Germany still divided in the old way.

19 replies 81 reposts 249 likes

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Phil Dore 's avatar Phil Dore @philjdore.bsky.social
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So, why is Labour's election slogan Change and not Steer Calmer with Keir Starmer?

10 replies 19 reposts 52 likes

Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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That writer must like rain & staying inside. European cities like Geneva and Vienna much better weather.

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Tom Shakespeare's avatar Tom Shakespeare @tomshakespeare.bsky.social
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Excellent. A highlight of the Early Modern History syllabus.

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