Reposted by Neil
Story from Joolz Denby over on Facebook. A bad day at TotP in 1985 with New Model Army, and Chris Rea suddenly appearing and being compassionate and gernerally decent.
December 23, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Story from Joolz Denby over on Facebook. A bad day at TotP in 1985 with New Model Army, and Chris Rea suddenly appearing and being compassionate and gernerally decent.
Reposted by Neil
The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees
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December 22, 2025 at 11:48 PM
The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees
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🧵
Reposted by Neil
Sanudon the udon noodle fairy, whose eyebrows are based on a mountain, promotes Sanuki udon from Kagawa, Japan.
December 22, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Sanudon the udon noodle fairy, whose eyebrows are based on a mountain, promotes Sanuki udon from Kagawa, Japan.
Reposted by Neil
Just the worst way to start a day
December 17, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Just the worst way to start a day
Reposted by Neil
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
December 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
Reposted by Neil
This is a wonderful, even spectacular, thread.
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
December 1, 2025 at 7:09 AM
This is a wonderful, even spectacular, thread.
Reposted by Neil
the lesson is ALWAYS play the long game :)
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 5:18 PM
the lesson is ALWAYS play the long game :)
Reposted by Neil
Reposted by Neil
My new favorite kind of meme is "here are detailed instructions on how to turn off AI". 🔨
November 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
My new favorite kind of meme is "here are detailed instructions on how to turn off AI". 🔨
Reposted by Neil
Thread:
Bsky hasn’t heard the story about the time that I was giving a virtual colloquium to the Aspen Center for Physics in September 2020 and Lawrence Krauss, Geoff Marcy, Christian Ott all attended as a group
ACP now has a policy that would prevent this from happening, because of that incident 🔭
ACP now has a policy that would prevent this from happening, because of that incident 🔭
November 16, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Thread:
Reposted by Neil
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
December 31, 2024 at 2:41 PM
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
Reposted by Neil
Reposted by Neil
See, that’s the good shit right there
I left the biggest voluntary donation ever at Bristol Cathedral a) because it was voluntary and b) they had the most gorgeous welcome message by the door. I loved my visit there and their whole approach to their slavery connections was just perfect
November 14, 2025 at 12:53 PM
See, that’s the good shit right there
Reposted by Neil
As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.
TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄
TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄
February 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.
TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄
TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄
Reposted by Neil
i fully agree with this theory and in my actual field, british architectural history, The Problem is that Salisbury Cathedral is built on top of a lake and no i am not exaggerating
between this and the FSO Safer (another ship at serious risk of exploding) I’m convinced every field has its “yeah, this is the problem that keeps me up at night” and I’m on a quest to learn about all of them
yes yes we all know about the Edmund Fitzgerald, rest her soul, but did you know about the ship laden with explosives that sank in the mouth of the Thames in 1944 and could explode at any minute and which attempts to disarm keep failing
November 12, 2025 at 12:53 PM
i fully agree with this theory and in my actual field, british architectural history, The Problem is that Salisbury Cathedral is built on top of a lake and no i am not exaggerating
Reposted by Neil
yes yes we all know about the Edmund Fitzgerald, rest her soul, but did you know about the ship laden with explosives that sank in the mouth of the Thames in 1944 and could explode at any minute and which attempts to disarm keep failing
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
yes yes we all know about the Edmund Fitzgerald, rest her soul, but did you know about the ship laden with explosives that sank in the mouth of the Thames in 1944 and could explode at any minute and which attempts to disarm keep failing
Reposted by Neil
The Shirley Bassey Show (10th November 1979). Les Dawson gives some of his favourite jokes another airing whilst Shirley attempts (and fails) to keep a straight face.
November 10, 2025 at 5:02 PM
The Shirley Bassey Show (10th November 1979). Les Dawson gives some of his favourite jokes another airing whilst Shirley attempts (and fails) to keep a straight face.
Reposted by Neil
Alrighty, ready to see something really cool? (and maybe a little nauseating)
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
October 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Alrighty, ready to see something really cool? (and maybe a little nauseating)
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
The evolution of Hurricane Melissa's mesovortices at peak strength.
Reposted by Neil
This is such a lovely thread.
Halloween is almost upon us so I'm going to post some MONSTERS! Here's one of my contributions to the themonsterproject.org, a project where kids create hundreds of monsters & artists from all over the world put their spin on them.
This was 2017 & the original artist is Reagan!
#monster #3d #art
This was 2017 & the original artist is Reagan!
#monster #3d #art
October 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
This is such a lovely thread.
Reposted by Neil
the publication of posthumous work without the expressed & explicit consent of the author is wrong, and many great works of literature are none of our business; the "well, we don't really know what they wanted" gymnastics people do in order to publish work authors sought to destroy is also wrong.
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
October 20, 2025 at 12:01 AM
the publication of posthumous work without the expressed & explicit consent of the author is wrong, and many great works of literature are none of our business; the "well, we don't really know what they wanted" gymnastics people do in order to publish work authors sought to destroy is also wrong.
Reposted by Neil
Hindsight is 20-20, but I really think they should have taken Maxwell's silver hammer away before the trial.
October 16, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Hindsight is 20-20, but I really think they should have taken Maxwell's silver hammer away before the trial.
Reposted by Neil
I thought this was lovely.
October 13, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I thought this was lovely.
Reposted by Neil
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.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
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
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
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.
Reposted by Neil
Reposted by Neil
I snickered much too hard at this.
It's fun that each finger has a little symbolic job: cool/not cool, that thing there, your driving is poor, I'm not available for dates, and (while drinking tea) I'm so fancy.
October 3, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I snickered much too hard at this.