Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Am always horrified to read about (school) teachers using AI to generate worksheets, the justification seeming to be that worksheet production is an end in itself. There are so many subjects where deciding on a smallish canon of good textbooks, and sticking to it, solves all the problems! 010
Reposted by SteveZach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2026Thought I'd share this post from a friend which is a more nuanced version of the frustration among mathematicians about how the "mathocalypse" was executed. karagila.org/2026/openai-... I think all nerds are currently processing it.karagila.orgOpenAI, the Partition Principle, and mathematicsBy the time I got out of bed yesterday, I had three people ask me if I'd seen the OpenAI announcement that the Partition Principle does not (...) 413141
Reposted by SteveLewis @lewiswbt.bsky.social · 12/10/2026Oh great, you've thought of a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. Too bad it perpetuates harmful stereotypes about dogs and foxes. I hope it was worth it 633168
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 11/10/2026Just read Louis Barfe’s Turned Out Nice Again (history of British light entertainment), which reminded me just how much TV was produced by William G Stewart. I remember watching the amazing maximum score achieved by Bill McKaig on Fifteen to One: one of my top telly moments. youtu.be/C9vIGc9uPIQ?...youtu.beUnique Maximum Score on 15-1YouTube video by Martin Penny 010
Reposted by SteveSte Gordon @sgordonthe87.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Did TVS get their pictures of famous people from the guy who does caricatures on Brighton Pier? 149430
Reposted by SteveDan Douglas @dandouglas.bsky.social · 10/10/2026yes, i’m sure you could type “make Duke Nukem 3D British” into a prompt box, click a button and accomplish what will probably take me a decade. but you’d be missing the vital step of making yourself very mentally ill in the process 755369
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Today’s Guardian Prize Crossword is by Philistine - gentler than I thought it would be, though with a few nice subtle parsings www.theguardian.com/crosswords/p...theguardian.comPrize crossword No 30,134Prize crossword No 30,134 000
Reposted by StevePatrick Andelic @pkandelic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026I don’t know what’s more implausible here: that Keir Starmer laid a devious political trap or that he did it to help Andy Burnham. 56313
Reposted by SteveDr Scarybear 🏳️🌈 @jamiebear.uk · 09/10/2026Just remembered I forgot to post my most favourite of the articles in the @transdiffusion.org #ATVShowBook (transdiffusion.org/atv-show-book/). 3,000 years of Crossroads is celebrated with this **truly insane** feature "written" by Meg Mortimer. 113
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 09/10/2026The adder of the Seventies, which also multiplies (by repeat addition). Some prices quoted in gentlemanly guineas! 001
Reposted by SteveSathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played 10752121146
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Thinking about this a lot with respect to OpenAI’s treating maths as essentially a programming problem, generating huge quantities of code in Lean to close the tickets of famous conjectures. Lean is a genuinely powerful proof assistant but it wasn’t meant to be used like this. 010
Reposted by SteveBrian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Workers at Burton Menswear, Leeds. The Hudson Road factory became the world's biggest clothing factory, employing 10,000 and producing more than 30,000 suits a week (West Yorkshire Archive). 1115246
Reposted by SteveEd Morrish @edmorrish.com · 19/07/2025another good way of thinking about what cracking value radio 4 is that it makes twenty hours of programming a day - news, drama, comedy, documentaries, a soap opera, arts - for about £90m/yr, while spotify pay joe rogan about £60m/year to listen gullibly to liars for about nine hours per week 426984
Reposted by SteveJohn J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 08/10/2026OK, I could honestly write about Mork & Mindy all day, but here's just one more tiny piece. A particularly dirty joke, cut from "Mork vs the Necrotons": www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/10/magi... 21610
Reposted by SteveGeorge Potter 🔶 @georgepotter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Shout out to Sir Ed Davey who, at the time, demonstrated his usual savvy instinct for the public mood by denouncing the Bank of England for wanting to remove Churchill (who wasn't even on banknotes until the 2010s). 363
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026This one was gnarly fun: took a while but all fairly-clued. 110
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Heh. Always great to spot someone future-famous in an old law report, it’s like when Patrick Stewart turns up as a fireman in 60s Coronation Street. 030
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Hang on, is that Michael Howard appearing on behalf of the Respondents? 120
Reposted by SteveJohn J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 07/10/2026Brand new on Dirty Feed: even more on Raquel Welch's appearance on Mork & Mindy. This time: unwanted erections, sexy entrances, and the cut material which tried to solve a plot issue, and ended up making it worse. It's your call as to which part is more exciting. www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/10/raqu... 43614
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Radio Paradise plays Rivers of Babylon by The Melodians, totally ruined for my generation by the Barron Knights. 000
Reposted by SteveColin Smith @colinsmith.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Long-distance runner Brendan Foster training for the then-upcoming 1978 Commonwealth Games on the streets of Tyneside, by Tony Duffy. A quite wonderful snapshot of Seventies Britain. 39427
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 06/10/2026University friends were hugely into bridge; I read books on it and they tried to get me involved but if you’re a beginner you’re ruining it for three other people. 110
Reposted by Stevearchivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Doctor Who: City of Death - Part Two (6th October 1979). "I say, what a wonderful butler, he's so violent." 26816
Reposted by SteveNew-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 06/10/2026"In other words, the giant dark Godzilla of this film is the Unconscious given flesh, and the humanoid (Jesus) is the Superego given flesh." If this movie had ever made it to production, theology students could have had some fantastic watch parties. 142
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 06/10/2026It’s a charming but odd book: his faith has ebbed and flowed in various directions over the years and I think this particular book was written under the heavy influence of Géza Vermes, whom he no longer sides with. 020
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I like AN Wilson’s books but there’s amazingly odd stuff in there. In his biography of Jesus he says that Jesus could not have been a carpenter because you can’t actually get a whole beam ‘in thine own eye‘ - and a carpenter *would have known this*, QED. 2240
Reposted by SteveJustin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Anyway. RIP George Fenton. Others have shared Bergerac and Newsnight and Films but there’s this one also. m.youtube.com/watch?v=99BC...m.youtube.comShoestring Intro / Outro (1980)YouTube video by Jonathan Davies 03418
Reposted by SteveRob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026New Swingometer! Holborn & St Pancras By-election preview swingometer.substack.com/p/the-holbor...swingometer.substack.comThe Holborn & St. Pancras By-electionPolanski’s big gamble puts Burnham’s revival to the test 3229
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 05/10/2026There’s something very reassuring about how the old DC Thomson vehicles - Commando and The People’s Friend - immortally continue to publish. 000
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Loved so many US shows of that era but I appreciate that I’ve always missed a lot of cultural context. Growing up in the UK media environment I never really sussed how the complicated US mix of national networks and local affiliates actually *worked*. 000
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Off-topic, but I’m always struck by how great American life looks in some 70s sitcoms. The Carter era gets retrospectively written off as economically troubled and declinist, but it looks like heaven now. Mork’s antics never undermine the fundamental niceness and decency of the setting. 110
Reposted by SteveJohn J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 04/10/2026Brand new on Dirty Feed: how did some dirty jokes in a famous episode of Mork & Mindy change between the shooting script and the final show? www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/10/the-... 54317
Reposted by SteveGavadon @gavadon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I skipped high school to buy tickets for The Phantom Menace. The following day my Dad asked ," how was school?" I replied, " It was fine " He then threw this newspaper at me and asked , " how the fuck would you know?" He was so pleased with himself that I didn't actually get in trouble. 301523289
Reposted by SteveMike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 03/10/2026“You're not an Ai influencer”, the sickest of burns a pope has ever received 3348784
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Gridspotting: identifying crosswords that turn up as TV/movie props www.metafilter.com/214699/A-nic...metafilter.comA niche hobby within the already niche crossword communityWe can sit here and freeze-frame a show and nitpick it and point out various things, but it’s very interesting to see how crosswords as props are part of this whole world that they’re trying to... 000
Reposted by SteveOld UK Print Ads 70s/80s/90s @oldukprintads7890s.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Oct 1972: Jingler Jeans ad from C&A «jinglers, you either want them or have them» 111
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Paul’s Guardian Prize Crossword today was fairly tough but I’m glad I persevered. 17d is a gorgeous clue. www.theguardian.com/crosswords/p...theguardian.comPrize crossword No 30,128Prize crossword No 30,128 000
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The ‘bloodthirsty’ ep of Doctor Who is presumably ep 3 of The Smugglers (24 Sep 66). 000
Reposted by SteveOld UK Print Ads 70s/80s/90s @oldukprintads7890s.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Oct 1981: Shops Opening ad from Supa Shops «DON'T MISS DAVID HAMILTON» 132
Reposted by SteveDavid Brown @davidebrown.bsky.social · 01/10/2026To get you excited for Swap Shop's 50th anniversary tomorrow, here's an edition which ended with Noel covering the corpse of John Craven with a shroud. 33116
Reposted by SteveThe Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026If you're in my GP's office any time soon, prepare yourself for what many are calling the greatest mnemonic of all time. Come for E and P, but sit down and clap for I. 591753355
Steve @notadric.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This ‘Channel [number]’ branding feels weirdly unidiomatic for Britain; always surprising to see it in old ITV promos. 141
Reposted by SteveMichael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Most TV is just this now. 17572741996
Reposted by SteveDarach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I was reminded of a very Dublin insult this morning - “oh he’s such a martyr, Padre Pio has a picture of him on his windscreen”. 1135373
Reposted by Steve👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Crying at how the new intern at work was born in 2005 and knows about the Blair government because "we studied it in sociology". 3396295
Reposted by SteveSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026My immediate reaction is to wonder why the laughing cow is breaking up with me. 2117414