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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 5h

#2 there dressing like the seventh Doctor while looking like the Chief Caretaker.

Stephen Graves @stephengraves.co.uk · 6h

A surprisingly large number of them think the way to connect with Gen Z is "dress like Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who."

A screen grab of a Times article. The photograph depicts three men and a woman - according to the caption these are Charles Amos, Rhys Benjamin, Daniel Campbell and Glesni Reece.

Charles is in tweeds and a fedora, Rhys sports a combover and a question mark pullover as worn by the seventh Doctor Who. Daniel wears a blue "Make Britain Great Again" baseball cap. Glesni, unlike the others, is not wearing an outlandish costume, just a black tailored jacket over a white blouse.

Text reads:

Meet the young Tories dreaming of a bright blue future
The Conservatives know they have a problem with Gen Z voters. At the party conference, The Times met a new breed of activists who are embracing the challenge

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 5h

I haven't seen the last episode yet, but is it established that the Ocellus absorbs knowledge from its hosts, rather than just using them as a vehicle? If so, then knowing pi isn't surprising either -- either way, the comprehension seems more of a demonstration of intelligence.

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Kenny Smith @finishedzine.bsky.social · 15h

🎶NEW EPISODE!🎶

We're delighted to welcome back our pal @dalesmithonline.com to discuss his latest #DoctorWho Black Archive on The Devil's Chord.

@obversebooks.co.uk

on.soundcloud.com/CQGDuZFPm4o5...

440: The Black Archive - The Devil's Chord

We take a look at the latest release in the Black Archive series from Obverse Books in our latest episode. Their first book to feature the Fifteenth Doctor is The Devil's Chord, from season 1/series 1

soundcloud.com

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 14h

I mean, the scene makes sense if it just understands English, as well. But to even know what Kavalier's asking it has to recognise the first three digits as numbers and the number system they belong to. Isn't either of those a bit more remarkable, in an alien organism, than knowing about pi?

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 14h

In Alien: Earth, where everyone's excited because T Ocellus knows the digits of pi and it's treated as a clever feat of interspecies communication... aren't they missing the fact that to follow the request it must, at a minimum, also understand Arabic numerals and that humans use a base 10 system?

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 1d

I'm giving away this signed 1st edition h/b of my new novel (it has a tiny jacket rip which means I wouldn't sell it) to one person who reposts this.

You might like it if you like:
Folkloric creatures
Old records
Intricate psychedelic stories
The idea of circular time

All shares much-appreciated.

Joe McLaren's fabulous cover for Everything Will Swallow You

A close up of the small tear on this first edition of Everything Will Swallow You

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HTFB @htfb.bsky.social · 18h

A pair of pyjamas includes a pair of pyjama trousers, as well as one pyjama shirt, which actually makes three pyjamas.

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Russell Smith @rswings.bsky.social · 23h

Never take advice on an English degree from someone who won't spell check their own merch.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 1d

I read an SF novella once about how genitals are parasitic aliens that came to Earth and corrupted our perfect sexless selves. So no.

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 1d

Raven the cat is trying very hard to scrabble her way through a glass door to the garden. I think maybe she's seen a hell of a bird.

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Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 1d

There's something very "Ford Prefect" about a process that arrives at "Harper Collins" as a sensible name for a pornbot

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 1d

Ah but do you get pornbots like Jonn?

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Aieee-Iain Clark @iainjclarkart.com · 2d

Part of Russell T Davies' speech on being awarded Outstanding Contribution to Television at the Bafta Cymru awards. (via www.instagram.com/baftacymru)

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 2d

O brave new world that has such people, innit.

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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 6d

Really cool story - bird species from across the world make the same sound to warn against cuckoos, and they can even understand each other. Feeds into ideas Darwin had about the origin of language! www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

20 bird species can understand each other’s anti-cuckoo call

Several species of birds from different continents use and understand similar alarm calls when they see an invader that might lay an egg in their nest – this shared call hints at the origin of languag...

www.newscientist.com

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 2d

O brave new world that has such people, innit.

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DAVE! (like "Them!" but Dave) @daveexmachina.bsky.social · 3d

normal person: i just want a place to hang out with my friends
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

Seven, but a couple were lucky guesses.

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

Ah, they've amended it to "attempts to seduce" now. She's still "liberated" though.

Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

Silly @theguardian.com. The whole point of the scene, dramatically speaking, is that Howie isn't seduced. It's a test of his purity, and he passes. If he'd failed, he'd no longer be a suitable virgin sacrifice and the ending of the film would be rather different.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

A paragraph from the Guardian, reading:
"The 1973 film is about a puritan police officer, played by Woodward, who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter sinister local pagans who deny she ever existed. Britt Ekland was cast as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle, a pagan aristocrat."
(It's talking about The Wicker Man.)

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 3d

Thread on one of the worst and weirdest people ever to have become an MP. And, yes, there is a certain amount of competition for the title.

Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 3d

Well, if it’s 6 October, it’s the 82nd anniversary of the day the world was deprived of Ignatius Trebitsch-Lincoln, who was born a Hungarian Jew, got elected to the House of Commons, spied for Germany in both world wars, and eventually declared himself the 14th Dalai Lama...

Frontispiece from Lincoln’s 1916 book Revelations of an International Spy, showing a man in a suit and bow tie, holding papers, wearing a moustache, and looking at camera through small round glasses

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

Absolutely. Not dismissing the book, just the Guardian's sloppy research.

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Prof Caroline Mala Corbin @carolinemalacorbin.bsky.social · 5d

h/t jonathan zasloff

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

(It's also dubious how far Willow's sexuality can be reasonably described as "liberated", since she's doing it all on behalf of her feudal lord, but maybe that's less clearcut.)

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 3d

Silly @theguardian.com. The whole point of the scene, dramatically speaking, is that Howie isn't seduced. It's a test of his purity, and he passes. If he'd failed, he'd no longer be a suitable virgin sacrifice and the ending of the film would be rather different.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

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