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Tom Pickard

@oddtwang.bsky.social
82 followers 183 following 156 posts

PhD in NLP @ Sheffield | Tell me your favourite idioms! | Occasional crossword puzzles.

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Reposted by Tom Pickard
Final Friztination @frizfrizzle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let's hope they kill him off! Oh, he's on Traitors?
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Tom Pickard @oddtwang.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Staggering: First two entries on the Best Man's to-do list
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dan mentos @danmentos.com · 22/09/2026
[job interview] interviewer: so god killed all your kids? job: that's right
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Angus Main @angusmain.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The AI industry continues to be trapped in an endless panicky improv game, where they have to think up new uses for the humorously pointless object they’ve been given.
Whose line is it anyway. Stiles and mocherie play an improv game with a big white foam object
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Lyric Rain @rainsong.cloud · 01/10/2026
Someone buy some pots so Rose can keep making them until I can afford one. Or buy one for me. That's an option if you wanna.
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Poorly Drawn Lines @poorlydrawnlines.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Going to bed
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Look we do need people badgering labour on trans rights but all its doing is slowing or stopping the decline, not restoring fuck all. The ONLY way labour will ever codify trans rights is just like the last time, when forced to by a court. Its not gonna be your meetings with them
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Sargoth (gyromantically haberdashing iamb) @longersky.com · 07/09/2025
The famous sociologist slash rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke once posited that self-help book fill a function by making you feel like you are doing the thing, without necessarily leading to you actually doing the thing. I sense that this notion, formulated in the 60s, might be relevant again
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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
BBC reveals preferred bidders for the Doctor Who franchise tender.
KamelionWOTANConan
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
across UK universities, the only people who do not care about students and their experience sit in senior leadership roles
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Lucy Gaynor @lucyjgaynor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Accusing striking staff of 'weaponising students' ignores the extent to which students have ALREADY become nothing but £££ signs for a University management depriving generations of future students of much more than 5 weeks of teaching.
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Chloe Cumming @chloecumming.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Bent Pylon. A small ink drawing
An ink drawing of a bent pylon, kind of cloudy and overcast , loose and expressive
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
We can read the equivocations mate here i circled em for you
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Not a word of comfort or solidarity to people terrified and concerned for their future (at least as reported). Won’t even call fascism by its name. Apparently intent on proceeding with the policies which have emboldened them. Grim.
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Hourly Garth Marenghi's Darkplace @hourlydarkplace.bagpuss.org · 26/09/2026
14:12
S01E03 Skipper the Eyechild 12 February 2004
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Tom Pickard @oddtwang.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Surely we should be getting this to go post-viral?
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
... and much, much more from MANY voices. When the EA claim "no one has been warning you about this stuff" they are doing a double erasure: 1) Of the people doing the warning 2) Of the actual harms they are warning about bsky.app/profile/emil... >>
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Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I don't know how to explain it, but orcs aren't real. Obviously, I don't believe in goblins and elves, but I REALLY don't believe in orcs. They're just something that was invented by a famous fantasy writer, like transphobia.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/09/2026
Today in "linguists are NOT KIDDING" when we say your capacity for language includes the ability to understand sentences that have never been said before in human history
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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What a Vegetable, huh?

Wednesday, it's lemon
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Draculosity Jones: Ghost Skeleton @brainmage.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What a fucking world where I find myself writing letters like this to my MP.
Letter to my MP:

Dear Fleur Anderson,

I am writing regarding the shocking scenes of masked far-right thugs blocking ports in Dover and, somehow more shockingly, forcing a Portsmouth RNLI station to close.

These scenes are horrific. Equally horrific is the rhetoric from some MPs and the press that these people have "reasonable concerns".

Just Stop Oil protestors have been swiftly stopped and arrested. The crux of their campaign is to ensure that the planet remains in a condition that is livable for humans. The existential threat of climate change is one of the most reasonable concerns one can imagine. Yet they were arrested and decried in the press.

Protestors opposing the genocide in Gaza have been equally swiftly arrested, with some even being proscribed as terrorist organisations. For opposing an ongoing genocide that has killed over 69,000 people - including 17,000 children - according to The British Red Cross. Stopping this appalling violence is another incredibly reasonable concern. Yet they are arrested and decried in the press, while others are proscribed as terrorists.

Preventing saving the lives of desperate people fleeing unsafe conditions is in no way a reasonable concern, yet MPs and the press talk about these masked thugs, preventing lives from being saved and swarming areas of key infrastructure, as having reasonable concerns. This is a shocking stain on this country.

Continued in next imageLetter continues: Migration is a net good for the country, even before you take into account the ageing workforce. The anti-migrant rhetoric comes from dangerous and violent men, and is spurred on by a press that thrives on outrage.

All human lives have equal value. Anyone preventing a lifeboat station - a lifeboat station! - from operating and saving human lives should be arrested and charged far more quickly than an elderly vicar sitting quietly and holding a sign.

I urge you to use your power as an MP to speak out on this. To call these balaclava-wearing men what they are: violent, masked thugs who speak only for a tiny, hateful minority. These are not reasonable concerns of patriots. These are the words and deeds of vicious people who want to fracture this country.

By way of reply, please confirm that you will raise this issue in parliament, and use your power to speak out against this disturbing rise of fascist violence.

Yours sincerely,

Guy Kelly
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Ryan Nanni @celebrityhottub.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
first of all: this is a totally normal and unconcerning thing to do with your truck
A black F150 with a ramshackle advertisement in the bed that includes AI animals learning math, the phrase “Explore the World of AI With ChatGPT” and a sign that is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise encouraging you to go look up ChatGPT on YouTube
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Danielle Gembala @ddmgembala.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It absolutely tracks that the people who believe human cognition can be measured by the capacity to regurgitate facts in a way that pleases white corporate social norms also believe that a pile of plagiarized data vomiting words to stroke their egos is smarter than them.
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An Anarchist Who Tried Her Best @nataliereed84.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
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Todd Alcott @toddalcott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In other news, please look at this photo of a 16-year-old Willem Dafoe playing Charlie Brown in a production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 07/09/2026
Reform routinely attack universities as a "scam" and denigrate the value of higher education. The VC of Manchester Met and president of Universities UK should be defending the sector. Not cosying up to those who want to undermine it. Full response ⬇️ www.ucu.org.uk/article/1463...
ucu.org.uk
University boss criticised for appearing at Reform UK conference
The University and College Union (UCU) today criticised Universities UK president and Manchester Metropolitan University vice-chancellor, Malcolm Press, for appearing at Reform UK's conference in Birm...
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Colin Dickey @colindickey.com · 07/09/2026
Very funny to me when these bookclub scammers just plug my responses into ChatGPT and come up with the most obsequious responses
A bookclub scammer to whom I replied “Eat shit” sent a follow up email that reads (in part, because it’s really long):

Colin,

Fair enough. I got your "eat shit" loud and clear, and honestly, I respect the directness.

But I want to clarify something, because I think my original email read like boilerplate SEO spam, and that’s on me.

I didn't pull your name from a random list. I came across Ghostland while I was digging into American folklore and the way abandoned places hold collective memory. I picked it up, read it, and genuinely found myself stuck on it, particularly the way you tied "zombie homes" and economic decay to the ghost story tradition. It wasn't what I expected, and it stayed with me.
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
No the robot is not “thinking” and “reasoning” or “consious” you got addicted to a convincing and sycophantic chatbot, you have to believe its sci fi advancement cause the alternative is admitting you are a sad loser
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Sal Cap0ne @salimotxo.bsky.social · 28/09/2023
For an occasional microdose of joy in your life, really recommend loaning money via lendwithcare.org and see teeny repayments trickle in once the business takes off. My baker lady in Ecuador smashing it with her new oven, and my boy in Cambodia got his tractor all fixed up.
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Tom Pickard @oddtwang.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Delight for the day: TiL that the Welsh for "See it. Say it. Sorted." is "Wedi sylwi. Wedi sôn. Wedi sortio."
Information display on a Transport for Wales train. 
The last two lines are "Byddwn ni'n ei sortio.  Wedi sylwi, Wedi Sôn, Wedi Sortio."
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Jason Song Quinn (Comms Open) @hulkhoquinn.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Think about Miss Piggy. She lost a best friend and now an ex-lover in matter of 24 hours.
Miss Piggy and Dolly Parton in fancy dresses posing together photo of Tim Curry surrounded by muppets, smiling for a photo. A quote from curry is added “it didn’t go very well. It didn’t survive the shoot. She felt I wasn’t being faithful to her” it’s him discussing his ill fated affair with miss piggy
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Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org · 26/08/2026
This is like Tom Holland's Umbrella dance in that every time it pops up on my timeline I must watch it and the second his smile starts to twitch before his final word, I fucking lose it
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Liz @stayathomecommie.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
RIP to two of the best to ever do it
dolly parton in the 80s in black lingerie with red trim with garters and stockings dolly parton again in red lingerie with a garter belt and stockings tim curry in rocky horror picture show in a sparkly garter belt and lingerie too tim curry posing with a black jacket and his stockinged legs extended to show off black stilettos
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Tom Pickard @oddtwang.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Puns: famously at their best when explained.
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Neill Cameron @neillcameron.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I don’t know what criteria they use when judging university league tables, but ‘not being full of tedious racist shits’ would be quite high up on *mine*.
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Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It's not the ~worst~ thing tech bros have done, but I hate how they have absolutely killed any enthusiasm I've ever had for robots I should ~love~ little metal guys and instead I now roll my eyes and go "ugh" every time I see one because I know it'll be bringing some new terrible bullshit
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Sydney Bauer @sydney-bauer.com · 23/08/2026
Begging editors around the country to retire the phrase “transgender debate.” That’s not what this is. That’s not what this ever has been!
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Jonathan Edward Durham @thisone0verhere.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Listen, if you’re not happy single, you won’t be happy in a relationship either, happiness comes from picking a new hobby and then buying all the things to start that hobby then finding the perfect little storage container for those things and then putting that storage container in the spare room
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The agentic vizier software I bought to automate my whispers to the sultan has developed its own agenda and long story short I'm getting beheaded at dawn
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Matt @itsmattagain.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The British press really love doing Antisemitism to Jewish people who don't toe the line and I'm fucking sick of it.
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Paul ✍🏻 Dean @paullicino.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
An increasingly pervasive element of modern life is having a machine in your home or a phone in your hand that is constantly trying to do things that you do not consent to.
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Only one type of Potter-y you should support amirite amirite www.roseschmits.com
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Laura Bradley @lcbradley.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
If I had fuck you money and presumably a range of interesting career options open to me, I don't think I'd spend my labour enriching the woman currently threatening Amnesty International and plotting to photograph people in toilets.
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Grant Howitt @gshowitt.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Yeah looks great folks. Print it
Egregious AI sign outside Pulse Bar in London. Food looks unreal and all the people are nightmarish gracklersBIG arm for darts. One hundred and forty!Dude about to blast the white ball into the side-cushion by using his shoulder to push a cue beneath his six-fingered hand
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Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 03/08/2026
Protecting women & girls.
Rosie Duffield MP @RosieDuffield1 Julie too
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Julie Bindel e @ bindeli
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Replying to @Docstockk
Oh nol I really liked Rod, had a drink with him a couple of times, and did his show every month. He was always so kind about my work, and we had a total laugh every time 1 was on the programme. Awful news
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Rosie Duffield MP @RosieDuffield1 Not just me.
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Kathleen Stock@ @Docstockk
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Gutted about Rod Liddle, he was a great man. I take huge pride in having been regular contributor to his show, and I appreciated his support for my writing very much. I know full well what the online sisterhood think about this but I don't care in the slightestShould it really be ad crime to look at child pornography? Rod Liddle

I wanted to look at some pictures of child pornography from the internet this week and then tell you all about them, but I couldn't
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Tom Crowley @atomcrowley.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
It’s a real shame that Rod Liddle died after such a short illness.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 03/08/2026
I think "AI" plumpers should be happy I'm focusing mostly on the nonsense it's doing to my field, rather than how it's very clearly designed as a tool for the capture of wealth and capital by a bunch of accelerationist weirdos enthusiastically huffing their own farts from the depth of their K-holes
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wake up dead mang @mangmangmang.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
"I'm looking forward to the day that it does end, and the people of St. Mary's can take their town back away from this fish sauce" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Decades in the making, work begins to remove rotten fish sauce from St. Mary's plant | CBC News
Decades of fighting the smell from a rotting fish sauce plant in the Newfoundland and Labrador community of St. Mary's have finally proved successful, as cleanup crews began work on Tuesday.
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