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Louise Holden

@llamaperson.bsky.social

78 followers 100 following 250 posts

SFF reader, fanfic writer, currently studying astronomy and planetary science, keen on boardgames, linguistics. Keeper of dogs/cats/goats/tortoise and a grumpy python. Schizoaffective.🦖

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · Dec 31

In 2025 I am resolved to defend the use of 'less' with countables whenever it seems appropriate to do so, civilly, firmly and with citations where necessary.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 10h

In the UK the rate of infant circumcision is about 10% and falling, and yet the rate of autism diagnosis is increasing in a comparable fashion to the US.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 2d

My point is simply that the legislation is drawn obscenely wide and people should know just how wide before they write something on a placard in the belief they can't be arrested for it.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 3d

So the same politicians who throw a fit if schools don't teach Shakespeare are now throwing a fit because universities do teach it.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 4d

I might even think about travelling for it but not to the States.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 5d

"A person in a public place commits an offence if he... displays an article in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation." S13 TA2000.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 5d

Ah yes, the good old radicalisation pipeline, currently chock full of elderly vicars queuing up to be turned into bomb throwing terrorists (once they've finished writing things on pieces of cardboard).

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 5d

Because the precise wording isn't the issue, it's the support for PA that's illegal, however phrased. If you can tell that a sign's really supporting PA but with the words mixed up, so can the police and the courts.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 5d

There is no precise prohibited wording, it just has to be expressing support for PA and I imagine that would in practice come down to a 'reasonable person' test. So Palestine In Action might breach the law because a reasonable bystander could conclude that it does express support for PA.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 6d

Hemlock and Silver (Kingfisher) on audio, Brown Girl in the Ring (Hopkinson) in paperback. Got Regenesis (Cherryh) lined up next, with anticipation- a sequel to one of my absolute favourite books.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 9d

If you ask a human and they don't know the answer, most of the time they'll say so. If you discover that person routinely makes up stuff instead I'm sure that you'd pretty soon stop asking them about anything.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 12d

To be fair, Labour's never said it wouldn't cosy up to totalitarianism out of naked self interest. (Apart from Starmer's 2020 pledge to put human rights at the centre of foreign policy, but that was ages ago so doesn't count.)

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 12d

*My* dodgy list? It was Starmer who wrote it, the PLP who published it and the members who voted him leader substantially on the basis of the content. Clearly he thought he could make pledges, because he did, explicitly. Anyway that's what I've got against Starmer, whether you agree or not.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 12d

www.clpd.org.uk/wp-content/u...

www.clpd.org.uk

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 12d

I loathe Starmer but with my ex-tax inspector hat on there isn't any sort of red flag here (which is appropriate really).

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 13d

I expected to like it after Babel which I thought was remarkable, but if you're going to make your characters that petty and irritating you have to provide some reason to care about what happens to them anyway and it didn't.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 13d

Morning! I am reluctantly abandoning the Katabasis audio halfway through- the world building is genuinely clever but I have no more patience for the insufferable characters nor any interest in their success or failure. Another 9 hrs of whingeing is too much to bear.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 15d

List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep

1) Blake's 7 (with a side order of Robin of Sherwood and Sapphire and Steel)
2) the interaction of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
3) small mammals

Alastor Stuart @alasdairstuart.bsky.social · 16d

list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep

1. Single season ‘90s TV shows
2. Hamlet through the ages as an avatar for emotional repression and later the healing process of mental health.
3. The secret life of Jack Traven aka Johnny Utah aka John fucking Wick

wendell the expletive pronoun @wendellwrites.bsky.social · 16d

list 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep

1. the portrayal of women in renaissance poetry
2. the portrayal of women in big r romantic poetry
3. the trans spec fic renaissance we're currently in

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 15d

It won't be 'compulsory' to show them - you're not breaking any laws by refusing - but businesses and govt services will be allowed to refuse what they classify as single sex services to anyone who doesn't prove their gender by showing their ID.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 15d

10 years ago I wouldn't have worried about ID cards. But now Labour need a way to identify and exclude trans people from public spaces in order to implement their policies on 'biological sex' and ID cards with govt approved sex markers are the obvious solution.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 15d

Official ID is used not just to document but to define. I'm guessing this digital ID will only be allowed to show your 'biological sex' and that it will become the sole legal proof of gender for all govt and business services and anyone else who fancies being a toilet monitor.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 16d

So a few months ago the worst problem in the UK was people not working and now the worst problem in the UK is people working. Maybe the evil foreigners could do the jobs that Labour want lazy disabled people to do and everyone would be happy?

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 17d

I think it's possible to hold the view that any fanfic should be posted/read without censorship, and also to be concerned that the ones being picked up by mainstream publishers are predominantly the most misogynistic ones.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 19d

It's a rather negative list, and quite insular- lots of 'bad stuff happening to a white guy' and not much actual science or any sense of SF as involving the widening of horizons. I'm all for dystopias but not exclusively.

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Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 20d

I made a typo error on a Google search recently, using a question mark instead of a letter. The AI invented a meaning for the word I'd accidentally created along with a suggested etymology. That's a very different animal to a simple wrong answer.

Louise Holden @llamaperson.bsky.social · 20d

Good day! I bought a copy of Lucky Day (Tingle), went to put it on the book pile, glanced at the first couple of pages in mild curiosity and now I'm most of the way through. What I'm meant to be reading is Chanur's Legacy (Cherryh) which will be next.

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