Scurra
@scurra.com
Cruciverbalist with a side-order of boardgame design. He/Him.
Or, worse, that the spin will work, like it did with the Mueller Report (which is, what, a thousand pages saying "he did it, he did it" but which is now largely memory-holed.)
Although this one feels more like JFK files - we already know everything and nobody will be persuaded either way.
Although this one feels more like JFK files - we already know everything and nobody will be persuaded either way.
November 18, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Or, worse, that the spin will work, like it did with the Mueller Report (which is, what, a thousand pages saying "he did it, he did it" but which is now largely memory-holed.)
Although this one feels more like JFK files - we already know everything and nobody will be persuaded either way.
Although this one feels more like JFK files - we already know everything and nobody will be persuaded either way.
Oh, but we did. I genuinely think one of the reasons the JKR fallout was so toxic was because there was a robust faux-academic fandom that was having a great time pulling all the threads deeply (I was a part of it) in a way that even other fandoms renowned for that (e.g. Who) never quite reached.
November 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Oh, but we did. I genuinely think one of the reasons the JKR fallout was so toxic was because there was a robust faux-academic fandom that was having a great time pulling all the threads deeply (I was a part of it) in a way that even other fandoms renowned for that (e.g. Who) never quite reached.
Please don't do that. It takes *ages* to get the tentacles out of the keyboard. 🙂
November 18, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Please don't do that. It takes *ages* to get the tentacles out of the keyboard. 🙂
And that's assuming that all the objections it generates are actually real? If a long document is submitted with, say, eight reasons for objecting but two of them don't apply here, somebody somewhere has to figure that out. Obviously that's not a new phenomenon, just hyperscaled.
November 18, 2025 at 10:53 AM
And that's assuming that all the objections it generates are actually real? If a long document is submitted with, say, eight reasons for objecting but two of them don't apply here, somebody somewhere has to figure that out. Obviously that's not a new phenomenon, just hyperscaled.
What, you write about comics?
November 18, 2025 at 12:06 AM
What, you write about comics?
I know. I know you know I know.
November 17, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I know. I know you know I know.
I would date this to the arrival of 24-hr tv news channels, especially in the US. The 90s slowly moved us from being a world of actual reportage to become wholly a world of speculative opinion. (I know there were many other things that assisted!) Then social media arrived and cemented that.
November 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I would date this to the arrival of 24-hr tv news channels, especially in the US. The 90s slowly moved us from being a world of actual reportage to become wholly a world of speculative opinion. (I know there were many other things that assisted!) Then social media arrived and cemented that.
I would say "at least it's a reading list", but these days I assume they just ask a chatbot to summarise it for them. The days of actually reading an argument seem long gone. 😞
November 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
I would say "at least it's a reading list", but these days I assume they just ask a chatbot to summarise it for them. The days of actually reading an argument seem long gone. 😞
A while ago, a Chinese Premier (I think it was Hu) said something like: Western Media Democracies were screwed because the politicians could no longer take medium term decisions, let alone long term ones. I'm not sure they can take short term decisions any more either.
November 16, 2025 at 10:34 AM
A while ago, a Chinese Premier (I think it was Hu) said something like: Western Media Democracies were screwed because the politicians could no longer take medium term decisions, let alone long term ones. I'm not sure they can take short term decisions any more either.
Every time the 'discourse' about British food happens online, I always think that I'd happily put up our cheese against everyone in the world and we'd always do well. Glad to hear that's holding up.
November 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Every time the 'discourse' about British food happens online, I always think that I'd happily put up our cheese against everyone in the world and we'd always do well. Glad to hear that's holding up.
Alas, I recall *The Better World of Reginald Perrin*. I know how it would be doomed to go. (I wish they'd put it on iPlayer.)
November 13, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Alas, I recall *The Better World of Reginald Perrin*. I know how it would be doomed to go. (I wish they'd put it on iPlayer.)
As William Goldman memorably put it (about the film industry) decades ago, "Nobody Knows Anything".
November 12, 2025 at 9:47 AM
As William Goldman memorably put it (about the film industry) decades ago, "Nobody Knows Anything".
Well, yes, there's that too. Bond is far more akin to Robin Hood, King Arthur or Sherlock Holmes in that he is reinvented *within his space* over and over; continuity be damned. (This differs from Doctor Who, I think, who is always *outside* the genre and struggles when confined within it.)
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Well, yes, there's that too. Bond is far more akin to Robin Hood, King Arthur or Sherlock Holmes in that he is reinvented *within his space* over and over; continuity be damned. (This differs from Doctor Who, I think, who is always *outside* the genre and struggles when confined within it.)
The actual solution is, of course, just to leave Bond dead.
Because that character, even in the mildly evolved form of Craig's version, should be dead in the modern world. You have to do something like e.g. Slow Horses instead.
Because that character, even in the mildly evolved form of Craig's version, should be dead in the modern world. You have to do something like e.g. Slow Horses instead.
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
The actual solution is, of course, just to leave Bond dead.
Because that character, even in the mildly evolved form of Craig's version, should be dead in the modern world. You have to do something like e.g. Slow Horses instead.
Because that character, even in the mildly evolved form of Craig's version, should be dead in the modern world. You have to do something like e.g. Slow Horses instead.
MITCH BENN - I'M PROUD OF THE BBC
YouTube video by yesthatmitch
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
I thought it had been established* that Bond was a Timelord, and thus just regenerated every so often?
*obvs. no it hasn't. 🙂
*obvs. no it hasn't. 🙂
November 11, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I thought it had been established* that Bond was a Timelord, and thus just regenerated every so often?
*obvs. no it hasn't. 🙂
*obvs. no it hasn't. 🙂
your just a gurly swot, chiz chiz.
November 9, 2025 at 1:53 AM
your just a gurly swot, chiz chiz.
Especially since at least a part of the anti-Mamdani campaign was predicated on how *London* is a sharia-law-dystopia and that a vote for Mamdani would plunge New York into an identical hell hole. A Labour government member knows that none of that is true, and should be easily rebutting it.
November 7, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Especially since at least a part of the anti-Mamdani campaign was predicated on how *London* is a sharia-law-dystopia and that a vote for Mamdani would plunge New York into an identical hell hole. A Labour government member knows that none of that is true, and should be easily rebutting it.
And also a world in which increasingly the only outlet for comment is via subs (written or video.) And if you don't deliver something 'good' every day, subscribers leave. (This is different to e.g. newspaper columnists who are rarely held to account in the same way, which is why that quote works.)
November 7, 2025 at 12:38 PM
And also a world in which increasingly the only outlet for comment is via subs (written or video.) And if you don't deliver something 'good' every day, subscribers leave. (This is different to e.g. newspaper columnists who are rarely held to account in the same way, which is why that quote works.)
Well the good news is that *if* they find some way for Trump to cheat and run again, then Obama will likely be the President when they do actually manage to release the game.
November 6, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Well the good news is that *if* they find some way for Trump to cheat and run again, then Obama will likely be the President when they do actually manage to release the game.
I don't disagree, but if it were like that, the editing would be done very, very differently; the cliff-hangers would be in different places and the story-telling focus would shift. You can see this by watching non-UK versions which are mostly just as tense, but in other ways.
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I don't disagree, but if it were like that, the editing would be done very, very differently; the cliff-hangers would be in different places and the story-telling focus would shift. You can see this by watching non-UK versions which are mostly just as tense, but in other ways.
I contend that it was Kissinger and Cheney that were holding the arc of history rigidly in place, and now it's finally started moving back towards justice again.
November 6, 2025 at 2:33 PM
I contend that it was Kissinger and Cheney that were holding the arc of history rigidly in place, and now it's finally started moving back towards justice again.
And on the BBC R4 6pm news, they just quoted Labour, Tory and LibDems, but had an actual recorded statement from, yes, Richard Tice. What a surprise.
November 5, 2025 at 8:56 PM
And on the BBC R4 6pm news, they just quoted Labour, Tory and LibDems, but had an actual recorded statement from, yes, Richard Tice. What a surprise.
Yeah, "I agree with Nick" definitely broke something somewhere.
November 1, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Yeah, "I agree with Nick" definitely broke something somewhere.
And honestly, if you want to have a nightmare thinking about "magic with unintended consequences", this one contains a doozy. Loved it.
November 1, 2025 at 1:18 AM
And honestly, if you want to have a nightmare thinking about "magic with unintended consequences", this one contains a doozy. Loved it.