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Paul Rhodes

@parhodes.bsky.social
244 followers 224 following 2.2K posts

Not actually a Pussy-Owl.

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Reposted by Paul Rhodes
Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
not me, but growing up my best friend was the vicar’s daughter, and I vividly remember one day overhearing the vicar’s wife imploring him to NOT refer to their lunch guest as “the baby eating bishop of Bath and Wells” because “we have established that he does NOT find it funny”.
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Sam Weller @samwellerauthor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is the most remarkable story Ray Bradbury ever shared with me. He told it to me late one night, sitting in his den of antiquities and mementos. Take five minutes to read this. It’s pure magic. #Writing #Living #Creativity #RayBradbury #BookSky
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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
You could show more confidence as a country by putting AI nowhere near centre stage, and shouting that you won’t be taken in. That’s a confident move. Just like you would magic beans, or a perpetual motion machine, or Bagpuss’ Mouse Mill with the chocolate biscuits.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The precise layout of this junction was apparently so important that it generated numerous letters from 1903 on, articles in the Spectator, this booklet in 1906, a revised one in 1907, arguments only really fizzling out once Australia House was already built and not movable.
Sketch plan of the Further Strand Improvement Committee's proposal for amending the layout of the Eastern junction between Aldwych and the Strand.
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Might be overdoing the old architects stuff tbh.
The Case for Further Strand Improvement. 1906. Edited by Mark H. Judge.
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Ray Newman @raynewman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“The problem: Pajitnov did not design these puzzle pieces, known as tetrominoes, and despite TTC’s relentless public-relations campaign to the contrary, they are not unique to Tetris... ” thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-bizarre-...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
The Bizarre, Murky History of Soviet-Born Tetris
Behind the beloved game lies a struggle over mathematical ideas, erased collaborators, offshore millions, and copyright power.
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John J. Hoare @dirtyfeed.org · 20/09/2026
Hands up who wants some fun research into The Young Ones? Brand new on Dirty Feed: the truth about Colin Baker's appearance, or rather non-appearance, on the show. www.dirtyfeed.org/2026/09/evil...
Rick with his hands in the air, from The Young Ones, "Bambi"
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
I’ve worn a grubby RNLI cap for decades. I sound London, but I was born in Truro and I was a basically feral (Gen X) kid wandering the coast path with a dog until sunset for a lot of my early life. The lifeboats are in the fabric like trawlers and farms and pasties and fish and chips.
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Nathan Bulmer @natemorebikes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
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wrongtom @wrongtom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Oh go on then. The evolution of Take On Me... 'The Juicy Fruit Song' by Bridges (before Morten Harket joined them www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOhi...
youtube.com
Bridges - Miss Eerie (The Juicyfruit Song, earliest recording of Take On Me)
YouTube video by The A-ha Archive
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Rob Stradling @sourdust.bsky.social · 06/03/2024
There's a sucker born every minute. That's why I love working at the #Dalek Hatching Labs.
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A strikingly literal Wall Of Text - advertising by the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Co. Note the shadows! Planned in late 1912, and erected by Willing & Company in their patent opal faced letters, at an estimated cost of £28 10s. boroughphotos.org/lambeth/stre...
An advertisement posted on the flank wall of No. 109 Streatham Hill, made of bold uppercase letters projecting from and casting shadows on the brick wall. It reads LEIGHAM COURT ESTATE. HOUSES RENTS £30 TO £60. MAISONNETTES £20 TO £40. OFFICE 107 STREATHAM HILL, with a pointing hand icon pointing in the direction of the Office.
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VictorianLondon @victorianlondon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
coming in March 2027 ... COVENT GARDEN: A People's History Yale UK are taking pre-orders ... yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Lots of replies here about poppadum songs and no mention of RJ Wagsmith? Kids today, pfft. Still, turns out the Blue Peter broadcast has finally turned up online... youtu.be/owiMNWew7-M?...
youtu.be
THE PAPADUM SONG
YouTube video by BRITISH MUSIC VAULT
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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I just backed The Complete Goodies Recordings (and Other Oddieties) CD Set on @kickstarter.com
kickstarter.com
The Complete Goodies Recordings (and Other Oddieties) CD Set
The complete recordings by the comedy group The Goodies - Famous for their 1970's and 80's TV series and "The Funky Gibbon"
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 11/09/2026
Just trying a new marketing trick
a picture of a wind farm that says

WIND POWER

Crossed out: It generates clean energy, lowers your power bills and gives back to your community


instead (in larger not crossed out) There’s a 10% chance it will kill off the entire human species in just a few years!!
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Washing machine is done but I'm struggling to come up with a premise for hanging up the washing.
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Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"AI could kill all humans!" "Gosh, that sounds bad! How will it do that? What should we do?" "Not going to tell you". Maybe we should stop paying these self-important man-babies the slightest bit of attention. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'
It is the latest in a series of increasing warnings about the safety threat posed by artificial intelligence.
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 09/09/2026
Sounds like a Future Me problem, not a Current Me problem
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Alice Bell @abeewords.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Anyone who has actually used a genAI chatbot and thinks it is capable of reasoning and is an actual intelligence must be really startled by mirrors.
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I simply do not understand what's going on in Labour that renders its leaders incapable of finding a TV camera and speaking out against street violence. Even if you assume they agree about immigration, violence is wrong, unpopular AND against the interests of any even vaguely left wing govt.
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Jeremy Noel-Tod @jntod.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
While Napoleon III lived in exile in England, he spent his time trying to design a more energy efficient stove — have we considered this as an alternative to the winter fuel allowance?
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Time was, you could go to an exhibition of medical and surgical equipment, drainage, toilets, electrical appliances for the spine, hospital furniture, ambulances and window blinds at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Hungarian Band would play at the grand opening ceremony.
INTERNATIONAL

Medical and Sanitary Exhibition,
From JULY 16th 1881 to AUGUST 13th.

OPENING CEREMONY, ROYAL ALBERT HALL, SATURDAY, JULY 16th.

PROGRAMME

AT HALF PAST FOUR O'CLOCK,
THE PRESIDENT, The Right Hon. EARL SPENCER, will take the Chair.
REPORT of the Executive Committee of the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, to be read by the Honorary Secretary, Dr. G. V. POORE.
STATEMENT of the Exhibition Committee, to be read by the Secretary, MARK H. JUDGE, ESQ.
ADDRESSES, by The Rt. Hon. EARL GRANVILLE, K.G.; the Rt. Hon. JOHN G. DODSON, M.P.; and SIR JAMES PAGET, Bart., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.

PRESIDENT TO DECLARE EXHIBITION OPEN.

VOTE OF THANKS to the Rt. Hon. EARL SPENCER, for Presiding, to be proposed by GEORGE GODWIN, Esq., F.R.S., F.R.I.B.A., seconded by JOHN ERIC ERICHSEN, Esq,, F.R.S.

THE HUNGARIAN BAND will play in the Arena, and the Picture Gallery, with Fine Arts Collection, will be open for Promenade.

The Exhibition will be open till dusk, and at Six o'clock the Hungarian Band will play in the Conservatory.
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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Journalists need to stop describing these incidents in terms implying software has agency and intent. It does not. The people who created a faulty and dangerous product are the ones responsible for whatever happens, and must be held to account, with punitive financial penalties for damage done.
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Umber Harlequin
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Richard Littler @richardlittler.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"Cards for sorrow, cards for pain. Cause I've seen blue skies through the tears In my eyes And I realise... I'm going home" #TimCurry
LP on a shelf: Rock Horror Picture Show
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Wait... that was a WIG?
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Michael Eisen @mbeisen.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Not a joke. True story. When I was at Stanford in the 1990s a physicist won a Nobel Prize. Inspired by his own intellectual greatness, and feeling like he had accomplished everything there is in physics, he decides to study the most interesting thing in the world: the (well really his) brain.
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stickydrawer @stickydrawer.bsky.social · 03/09/2024
Optimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty Dad: Right, which one of you left the cup and all these dirty bowls and spoons by the sink? It’s literally three feet to the dishwasher! Good grief. Every time!
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Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
THE DOCTOR WHO - LABOUR LEADER CORRELATION. 1. WILLIAM HARTNELL - HAROLD WILSON's 1st term 1964-1966 Hugely popular as the public are dazzled by the white heat of technology.
HartnellWilson
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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
ChatGPT is behind the times on this for once; Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt have been hallucinating for personal benefit about the ability to accurately determine age online for years now
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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The terrible Jason Arday story comes on top of this, which affected me deeply this week. Human beings are very, very fragile.
theguardian.com
Treasury ‘materially contributed’ to suicide of personal assistant, coroner finds
Chloe Moffat, 26, killed herself after disciplinary proceedings that coroner in Surrey found be to be flawed
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
As a purely practical issue, the use case for these alerts is really badly thought through: 1 AWOOGA! AWOOOGA! 2 FFS What?! 3 Big block of text with OK button AWOOGA AWOOGA AWOOGA 4 How do I stop that racket? Shut up and let me read it! [click OK] 5 Oh, it's gone, I wonder what it said?
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
At least it wasn't an "Extreme".
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Russell Parker @pussellrarker.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
#thingsijustfoundonline
William Hartnell’s Doctor Who says, “Don't worry if your A-level results are disappointing. My granddaughter dropped out at sixteen with no qualifications, and then lived in a state of constant jeopardy before I dumped her in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a man she scarcely knew.”
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Sinister shadows appeared around the Moon part way through the eclipse - jets of gas, exhausting from Martian rockets, perhaps? Eventually realised the sun had started to edge behind a tree.
One of those eclipse images, but with extra bits of shadow.
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Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Yeah, like when you order something and they try to fob you off with a replacement you didn't ask for.
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James Alistair Henry @jamesbluecat.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Listening to Godley & Creme's 'Under Your Thumb' and had a sudden flashback to early years secondary school where some playground wit suggested it be retitled'Under Your Bum' and we all gasped that such a level of satire could be revealed to exist so casually.
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nonelvis @nonelvis.com · 07/08/2026
After 20 years of loving "Girl in the Fireplace," delighted to learn something new about it: Amanda Clegg, the artist behind the gorgeous portrait of Sophia Myles as Madame de Pompadour, describes how the painting came about www.amandaclegg.co.uk/madame-de-po... #DoctorWho
amandaclegg.co.uk
Madame de Pompadour 20 Years On
Madame de Pompadour 20 Years On. Behind the scenes of painting the iconic portrait for Doctor Who's The Girl in the Fireplace from 2006
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Yay! catfishing.net #773 - 9/10 🎉 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈 🐈🐈🐈🐟🐈
catfishing.net
catfishing - the Wikipedia guessing game
Guess the Wikipedia article from its categories. 10 interesting people, places, and things to guess every day.
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streathamsoc.bsky.social @streathamsoc.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A fascinating article on Hugh Sewell Kingdon by Tim Whitaker of the Streatham Society Much lauded as the man instrumental in creating the Streatham Hill Theatre has an infamous past remained hidden until now. www.streathamsociety.org.uk/news/hugh-ki... #streathamhistory
streathamsociety.org.uk
Hugh Kingdon: The infamous past of Streatham Hill Theatre's founder
Much lauded as the man instrumental in creating the Streatham Hill Theatre has an infamous past remained hidden until now. Born in 1882 in Nottin...
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Jason Hazeley @jasonhazeley.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
My daughter’s university scrutinizes each essay for evidence of AI. The goal is to get a 0% score. This AI-hunting is done by… AI. A recent essay scored 17%. She questioned what the AI thought was AI, since she hadn’t used it. The answer: the uni-issued cover page showing student ID, faculty etc. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Contact has been made.
Elton John in differently grandiose spectacles, or possibly he is infected by the Virus of the Nucleus of the Swarm like in that Dr Who story with the scary hairy eye make up.
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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Elton John in grandiose spectacles.
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Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
And Tom Chadbon gone, one of the best things about one of the best Doctor Who stories. "That's a spaceship!" Interviewed him way back when and was lucky enough to have him in one of my audios playing a dotty time scientist. Lovely fella and did good work.
Tom Chadbon as Duggan.
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Nicholas Pegg @nicholaspegg.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
What a sad day. Raising a glass to that very fine actor Tom Chadbon, who graced every franchise from James Bond to Blake’s 7 to Game of Thrones, and whose brilliant comic turn as Duggan, the out-of-his-depth private detective in the 1979 Doctor Who classic City of Death, is the stuff of TV legend.
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Andy Dawson @andydawson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I can't tell you how much my mind was blown when Geoffrey's son provided us with these exclusive pics from Zippy and George's retirement home a few years ago 😍
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