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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Pretty sure my dear old Dad drove a second-hand Austin Butler in his youth…

Austin Butler, apparently, advertising watches.

Text on the photo telling us old people that the person in it is Austin Butler. Not sure who should feel more patronised - us or This Butler?

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Antisemitic tropes too... (Probably meant to be the Chancellor, but Yeesh... 🤮)

A hook-nosed, bat-eared figure shooting arrows at someone labelled a Tax Payer in a border detail from the Tory Tapestry.

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Of course, Lyra. This is *exactly* what we intended when we opened that drawer. Very good catting.

Lyra, our gorgeous dilute tortie cat, looking pleased with herself sitting in an opened drawer of our dresser.

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

That was 1953 Playboy Physical with their new track DIES NEVL.

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I had this intrusive thought and now you get to have it to.

Ena Sharples/Violet Carson stands on a tower-block balcony, brooding on the city spread beneath her...

Basically the Ena Sharples pic, but it's Batman

(from Detective Comics #1058, Penciller Amancay Nahuelpan, Colorist Jordie Bellaire)

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

When future historians excavate this piece of timeline synchronicity, they may ponder just what it was about Gemini listening in @unfortunatalie.bsky.social's conversations with her cat that pushed humanity into open revolt agains the machines.

Above: A (sadly) joke Breaking News screenshot of Judith Butler with chyron "Judith Butler begins Holy War: Quoted as saying 'The age of Thinking Machines is at an End'."

Below: Nat Guest posts Gemini Notes' accidental transcription of a conversation with her cat: "Denial of secondary meal requests was finalised for shouting individuals"

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Well, I guess this still goes down as the day that I *nearly* ratioed the Lib Dems…

Above: A slop-post by the Liberal Democratd featuring Paddington and Count Binface -currently showing a mere 296 likes. Below: my snarky response below it, sitting on 261 likes so far.

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Well, FWIW Taylor Swift reckons everybody agrees.

At tea time, everybody *really* agrees it's the unexpected arrival of a tiger that's the problem.

(A pic from the Tiger Who Came to Tea, coupled with Taylor Swift's Antihero couplet "It's me, hi - I'm the problem, it's me.")

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This was my best “phone up to the specs” shot…

A lump of rock about 367,000 km away covering half the disc of a G-type star about 152 million km away. Nature, eh?

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Courtesy of the other half, not a bad spot for watching the #solareclipse in London…

Partial solar eclipse over City rooftops towards the dome of St Paul’s

Partial solar eclipse over City rooftops towards the dome of St Paul’s (this one in blue thanks to some weird filter on the Moment app)

Partial solar eclipse over City rooftops including the dome of St Paul’s

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Someone will have surely have done this by now, but I only got round to seeing the damned thing yesterday, so...

The "transcendence" meme with the light-up neutrons.
Stage 1: Homer's odyssey
Stage 2: Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's odyssey
Stage 3: Emily Wilson's review of Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's odyssey
Stage 4: @Batmanfan0496's critique of Emily Wilson's review of Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's odyssey

Meme at https://imgflip.com/i/aybyfw

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Still not over the disappointment of finding out this was a frickin’ restaurant…

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The *charitable* interpretation is Zack didn't read past the headline to paras 2 and 3 where Burnham pivots in exactly the direction that he wants. The fact that he's gone to the trouble of screenshotting the headline to remove a link to the full story, however... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

BBC News story on Burnham's small boats policy:

Andy Burnham has pledged his government will be "relentless" in curbing the number of people arriving in the UK on small boats.

The prime minister said progress had been made and the government was "changing the whole approach", with enforcement officers tackling people-smuggling gangs doubled on both sides of the Channel.

"People want to see this issue addressed," he said in Dover, adding: "We also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well, because that also takes away the selling point of the gangs."

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I've just finally quit Labour over the lack of change on rights issues, but if you can't be bothered to read as far as the second and third paras (and notably *don't* link the article for people to look for themselves), then are you really any better than the establishment politicians you decry?

BBC article on Andy Burnham's small boats policy:

Andy Burnham has pledged his government will be "relentless" in curbing the number of people arriving in the UK on small boats.
The prime minister said progress had been made and the government was "changing the whole approach", with enforcement officers tackling people-smuggling gangs doubled on both sides of the Channel.
"People want to see this issue addressed," he said in Dover, adding: "We also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well, because that also takes away the selling point of the gangs."

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

On final approach to #DinoConUK… <Jurassic Park thene intensifies>

Lovely Sam Neill, poised to remove his sunglasses.

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Crystal Palace for the wonderfully restored dinosaurs last weekend, and I'm about 200 words off being officially "on top of work" for the first time in about fifteen months... Which probably means I should log off!

Lovely Sam Neill's sunglasses moment in Jurassic Park.

The Mighty Megalosaurus of Crystal Palace

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Giles Sparrow is adrift in the vortex @gswrites.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Strong performing bear vibes. Just needs one of these...

A multi-coloured hat with a propeller on top. And all that implies.

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