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Michael Blumenthal

@mikeyb137.bsky.social
156 followers 138 following 721 posts

What happens when a very logical approach to problem solving meets poor impulse control Guitars, synthesisers, Doctor Who, role playing games, model making, taijiquan, history. Software developer by trade. Pseudoparent to two cats.

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I still remember Esther Rantzen on That’s Life holding up a small ad from a Local Authority in the early 70s advertising for an Equal Pay Officer but offering a lower wage for women. I’m part of generation of teenagers mildly radicalised by amusing trivia.
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Geraint @geraintg.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
SHOP ME: Hello, have you got any Quorn? S: Yes, what variety? ME: on the Quob? S: Please leave
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kill ghost @willjobst.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
okay. i'll bite. who's Horace Heresy?
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Father forgive me, for it has been over thirty days since last I listened to Theme For Great Cities www.youtube.com/watch?v=StHG...
youtube.com
Simple Minds - THEME FOR GREAT CITIES, VIDEO 1080p [Dexbam]
YouTube video by dexbam
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan!
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Baroness Floella Benjamin @floellabenjamin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Today it’s 50 years since I first presented Playschool wearing my blue beads and silver heart. I adore bringing joy into the lives of my Playschool Babies during the 12 years I was on the programme. ❤️
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Chopmunky @chopmunky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sunday:
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Ed Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.” If you don't know his story, please take 3 minutes now to learn it. @gchalliance.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social
sammatey.substack.com
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day
Take five minutes to not destroy civilization
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Wyrd Science Magazine @wyrdscience.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
new favourite Smaug dropped
the 1968 "pleasure in reading" edition of the hobbit featuring an adorable bright pink Smaug torching the inhabitants of lake town
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Liberal Democrats @libdems.org.uk · 25/09/2026
Lib Dem Shadow AG @benmaguiremp.bsky.social and Justice spokesperson @jessbrownfullermp.bsky.social have written to the Attorney-General to consider whether Richard Tice’s tweet is in contempt of court. See below ⬇️
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SlenderSherbet @slendersherbet.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"I don't fucking think so"
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Paperback Paradise @paperbackparadise.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Photo of a vintage book cover featuring a bearded man chopping planks of wood in half. Title and copy read

Defeating Wood

Teach Wood
The Lesson It Has Long Deserved

Gary Arkanasse
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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is…a journey. Surprised more medical emergencies didn’t result
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Youngy @mancversusfood.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In WWII one of the Nazi's lead and most feared battleships was called the Scharnhorst. Throughout the war it had lead operations and sunk a number of allied ships.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
NASA picture of the day today is a real 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿beauty! This is a composite image of the ~5000yo Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis. The amazing Giuseppe Petricca has only gone and photographed the Sun at noon there, every few days, for a whole year. #Dedication 🔭🧪👌 ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
The imposing Callanish Stones stand talk with their shadows spanning out across the glass.  It's a super clear sky, but looks cold. Above the central stone is a strange figure-of-8 shape of dots.  This is the location of the Sun, at noon, on various different days across the year.
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gummitch (aka gummitch_uk) @gummitch.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A reminder that all apostrophes in sfnal names should be pronounced "boing!". www.quickanddirtytips.com/qdtarchive/a...
quickanddirtytips.com
Apostrophes in Science Fiction and Fantasy Names
In honor of International Apostrophe Day, we're going to talk about the odd case of apostrophes in science fiction and fantasy character...
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
The RNLI is the closest you will ever get to actual Batman. When rescue is visibly, viscerally, obviously impossible; when the water is a smothering, thundering black wall and the wind is screaming straight from Hell; when you are absolutely going to die: someone’s hand pulls you out and you don’t.
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Mike Batt @mikebatt.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A little conversation I had on Twitter 🙂
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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Lord give me the arrogance of a tax exile who feels the right to comment on the tax policies and general running of a country who you have deprived of billions by registering yourself in Monaco
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Batman should drive this
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👻 🎃 🦇 Bela Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Personally I would not pick this fight with the youtube guy who demonstrates all the ways he can nail you with an arrow at 200 yards using his feet while wearing 12-inch Pleasers, whose wife can also kill you with her bare hands, and has 9 billionteen followers who are all trans women with swords.
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Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Look, I know I’m supposed to be at least a Slightly Serious Musician, and some of his music is staggeringly good, but every time I conduct anything by Britten my cheap mind goes to this
The Viz comic’s “Benjamin Britten and his embittered bittern”. Sorry, it’s a 22-panel comic with a lot of text, so I’m afraid that’s all you’re getting. But I hope you get the idea.
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A.M. Tuomala @amtuomala.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is the core philosophy that undergirds my own approach to worldbuilding. Every world (including the one we live in right now!) is built of complex, interacting systems. Worldbuilding is choosing which systems to feature, how closely to examine them, and how to weigh their products and outcomes.
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Mateusz Fafinski @calthalas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
How dare you forbid vehicles in cities! We cannot have towns where the only vehicles will be for deliveries and services! This is an insane left-wing idea, a novelty against any tradition and it will kill the inner cities. Lex Iulia Municipalis from 45 BCE:
14) After January 1 next no one shall drive a wagon along the streets of Rome or along those streets in the suburbs where there is continuous housing after sunrise or before the tenth hour of the day, except whatever will be proper for the transportation and the importation of material for building temples of the immortal gods, or for public works, or for removing from the city rubbish from those buildings for whose demolition public contracts have been let. For these purposes permission shall be granted by this law to specified persons to drive wagons for the reasons stated.
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Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings is out now @drfionamoore.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’m confused, do I have to kill all the Jedi now?
A Five Guys receipt that says “Order 66”.
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Dude @impenetrable.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Sam WM
@_SamWM_
if you come across a passage you don't understand in a philosophy book the key is to underline it. that way, the next person who owns the book will think you not only understood it but thought it was important. that way you can pass on the anxiety.
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Octarine Radiorental
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Ashley @ashleysays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Chefs kiss
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The copy on this story is so good. I keep thinking about it.
theonion.com
Dolly Parton Troubled To Find God Illiterate
THE HEAVENS—Her heart breaking when she discovered the Almighty fumbling over the most basic words on the page in front of Him, country music icon and noted humanitarian Dolly Parton was reportedly tr...
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Toss @stevenspoints.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I really cannot think of a greater honor than to have the Muppets say this about you upon your passing
Instagram post from the official Muppets account: Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer he was unparalleled - witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny. We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.
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MurderBotBot @murderbotbot.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I try to avoid asking humans if there’s anything wrong with them. (Mostly because I don’t care.)
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Micah @rincewind.run · 26/08/2026
the famous line about how michael caine treated the muppets as fellow actors and tim curry treated himself as a fellow muppet keeps running through my head we have a lot of brilliant actors, but how many of them can really pull off 'unhinged muppet' the way curry could? what a tremendous loss
static.klipy.com
Tim Curry Laughing as Pirate Captain
Alt: Tim Curry as Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island laughing
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Don’t dream it. Be it. RIP
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lighthouse prince @historiancole.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
tim curry keeping up the bit twenty years after the fact by writing in his memoir that he and miss piggy had an affair during the filming of muppet treasure island is just so good and funny
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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton rose from poverty to stardom. She gave $500 to every student in her hometown who finished high school; she built hospitals & bald eagle preserves; her Imagination Library has gifted 300 million books to children. Roger Ebert met her and came away thinking she was a literal angel. RIP.
“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”
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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.
Sorry, I can’t type that.
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Paul Whitelaw @paulwhitelaw.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
When you're a very famous person who brought nothing but joy and kindness to the world, someone who actually used their fame and wealth to benefit others, the world mourns your death. That's how you do it, that's how you live a life. RIP Dolly Parton.
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Name your favourite Bob
Still from "Twin peaks" - Bob the killer spirit climbs across the sofa in the Palmer family's living room advancing towards the camera. His name is Bob. My name is Mike.
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Riding With Robots @ridingrobots.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
From NASA: It happened again! Here's Phobos passing in front of the Sun as seen by the Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars on Aug. 12. science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The God Of Tiny Things
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Joanne 🇨🇦 Nasty & PROUD🇨🇦 @joanneb1055.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This post by the most amazing Aussie took my breath away. Pay very close attention to the part titled THE SENTENCE WITH 100 YEARS OF DYNAMITE IN IT. ifloz.substack.com/p/carney-jus...
ifloz.substack.com
CARNEY JUST THREATENED TO SEND AMERICA BACK TO THE FUCKING STONE AGE
Twelve hours after walking out of Washington, Carney stood up and read the old relationship its eulogy. In two languages. With the pulse of a man ordering a flat white.
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: The Rat Pak Goes To Los Angeles.
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ianthemouthofmadness.fenrisgames @fenrisgames.com · 23/08/2026
make a band bigger: All Man, All Biscuit
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Optimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty British cook or baker: for goodness sake, why can’t you give quantities for dry ingredients by weight?
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Cheri @lottelink.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 18/08/2026
Suspense is not created by your audience not knowing what happens next. It's created by your audience CARING what happens next.
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Michael Blumenthal @mikeyb137.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I really enjoy this podcast. Maybe you would too, or maybe not?
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