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Tom Newton

@tdnewton.bsky.social
517 followers 484 following 183 posts

VP at Smoothwall. Into edtech, Leeds United, conservation, photography. Try not to anger the cat. He/him. x.com/thomasnewton on "the other place"

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Sam Whyte @samwhyte.bsky.social · 20h
Pain Lethargy Abscesses Gland swelling Unconsciousness Expiration Mnemonic plague
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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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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026
Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
As I keep pointing out, does no one understand Ricardian comparative advantage anymore. FACT: China produces over 1 million engineering graduates per year FACT: To date, China has not produced a single internationally marketable game show format Where does it look like our advantage lies?
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Tom Newton @tdnewton.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This month I have taken up the challenge of doing 10 pull ups per day, for a total of 310. My baseline mid July was 2, I'm up to 6 consecutively! I'm doing this in aid of cancer research UK, if you are feeling generous, donate here fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/toms-gi...
fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org
Tom's Giving Page
Yes, again. In 2024, my awesome colleague Francois and I did the "3000 push up challenge" and raised a substantial amount for cancer research. This time, the numbers are lower, only(?) 310, but the ba...
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
"A decision that made sense in a British Rail spreadsheet does not in a regional economy." In praise of inefficiency.
jonn.substack.com
Drought conditions
This week: southern Britain has too little water; this map projection has far too much. But first: in praise of inefficiency.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 04/08/2026
10/10, no notes
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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Buses, famously for the richer classes and upper orders.
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Hughster @hughster.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
From Liz Kendall's cabinet departure letter, posted on… you guessed it… X
As DSIT Secretary *I have been proud to stand up to Elon Musk and Grok*, ban nudification apps and help make the online world world safer for women and girls. Throughout my career I have championed women's equality, which is why I established the Women in Tech taskforce and launched the Women in Research Charter: to give women a fair shot and make science and tech work for all.
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Sorrel @sorrelish.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Pro tip: If, despite your best efforts, you end up with a Harry Potter child you can take them to Glastonbury high st. instead of Wizarding World. There are multiple apothecaries, places to buy wands, crystal balls, spell books & other magical paraphernalia. Better a neopagan than a Potterhead!
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Dom Ervolina @dominicervolina.com · 19/07/2026
One thing I'm noticing from a lot of people here, and the media reports surrounding the arrest of the Tates, is how many are using the term "child pornography" Children cannot consent and therefore it is not pornography It is Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM and it's vital to call it that
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Tommy @tommy-lufc.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Looking forward to a new season for Leeds United so it can provide a timely distraction from German managers misjudging their tactical approach in the long awaited Semi-Final of a Cup competition oh wait hang on. #lufc
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Steve Horton 🚀 The Comic Book Story of Space Exploration @mst3k.fan · 12/07/2026
My grandmother had a saying: "And Magda Goebbels made a great strudel." For years I didn't understand it, until my mother explained that some glossy magazine once ran a puff piece on Magda Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda queen - complete with her strudel recipe. My grandmother, who despised the Nazis with every ounce of her soul, used it as shorthand for the way media will sanitize evil by focusing on something trivial, domestic, or charming while ignoring the atrocities staring us in the face.
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Jonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social · 12/07/2026
I never thought I’d feel protective of the England team but this visceral anti-England BSky discourse is pissing me off. Somehow England’s ethnically diverse team represents the arrogance of the Brexit right but France’s ethnically diverse team represents progressive values? Come on
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Dan Raven-Ellison @danravenellison.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
What if it was easier to find the best paths and routes? Good Ways is our new citizen project and app to make that happen for 🚶🏃🏾‍♀️👩🏻‍🦽🛶🏊🏽‍♀️🚴‍🏇🏾 Sound good? We are looking for people across 🇬🇧🇮🇪🇯🇪🇬🇬🇮🇲 to help and would love for you to join in. Please take a look and share goodways.org Happy to answer questions.
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Adam Spiers @adamspiers.org · 21/06/2026
I started wondering which soccer leagues feed the most players into #WorldCup squads, and ended up building this little app to answer it: boots.to
boots.to
Have Boots, Will Travel — World Cup 2026 leagues
All 1,248 World Cup 2026 players earn their living at a club somewhere — and for many, that somewhere isn't home.
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tara 🏳️‍⚧️ @tarabomp.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
British politics is so fucking stupid that we can be in the second extreme heatwave of the year, in the middle of the second major oil/gas crisis in 5 years, and one of the biggest union leaders will be briefing against ed milliband cause net zero bad and middle class
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This is just describing a pogrom.
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Same-sex marriage is an instructive analogy here, but not for the reasons Streeting thinks. “Trans women can still use toilets - just not women’s toilets” is just like “gay people can still get married - just not to other men”.
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Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 02/06/2026
Ernst Röhm, distracted by sight of a face-eating leopard approaching. 1933. Teachable moment to media fetishists of Ein Britisher Volk: 'One of us' is a goalpost on castors to them. If you don't know who the next 'foreigner' will be, then it's you. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_o...
en.wikipedia.org
Night of the Long Knives - Wikipedia
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 30/05/2026
"Third Way" liberal politics involves *saying* things that working people love, but *doing* things that sociopathic plutocrats love. It works ...right up until voters notice that you're not *doing* the things. That realisation breeds cynicism and fury and paves the way for fascist strongmen. 2/
A turn-of-the-century Main Street, USA. Over the horizon looms a giant Canadian flag, made out of circuitry. In the foreground is a pixelboard sign reading 'U.S. BORDER CLOSED.' In the foreground looms a giant lumberjack, about to swing his axe into the sign.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
And kicking overseas students kicks U.K. students even more. Still people don’t get this. Overseas students create places for U.K. young people.
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 28/05/2026
Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes
Because the truth is, tech doesn't have an image problem. It doesn't have a message problem. It has an intention problem. What's wrong with the axe murderer who broke into my house is not that he hasn't successfully persuaded me to buy into his narrative. What's wrong is that he's trying to kill me with an axe. Similarly, when you launch a product that's designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the barriers to every sort of atrocity, the problem isn't that you haven't told the public a good story about those things. The problem is that you are trying to do them. (
There are things in the world that are more important than money. The fact that you seem not to believe this, that you seem to think any motive beyond ruthless acquisitiveness is fake, dishonest, or childish, is the heart of your problem. Your attitude is not by any means unique to tech, but the
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This headline is fuel for the right-wing anti-migrant reaction machine, but the article reveals the employer knowingly brought her to the UK under a visitor visa to employ her, then denied her a work permit—and most importantly!—refused to pay her any wages. This looks approximate to modern slavery
Migrant with no right to work in Britain wins employment tribunal
Malaysian hotel manager succeeds in discrimination case despite immigration status ‘tainted by illegality’

Charles Hymas
Home Affairs Editor
Charles Hymas

Published 18 May 2026 2:26pm BST
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
The woke scolds are trying to make this about racism. But Musk is right. It's about historical and scientific integrity. When the God of Thunder disguises himself as a swan to seduce and fuck a queen and the resulting baby hatches from an egg, *of course* the baby will be white. It's just science.
independent.co.uk
Elon Musk claims Christopher Nolan has lost ‘integrity’ over The Odyssey casting
Lupita Nyong’o is reportedly set to play Helen of Troy in Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic poem
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Joe Beda @h.olysh.it · 15/05/2026
If a Croque Madame talked to another Croque Madame about anything other than a Croque Monsieur Would they have passed the Béchamel test?
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Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Hundreds of thousands of people attend anti-genocide protests every weekend. If there are incidents of antisemitism on those marches they should be seriously dealt with. "Anti-immigration" protests frequently feature Nazi salutes but Starmer has never suggested banning THOSE marches.
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
lol you’ve got an AI girlfriend?? ur putting techbros in charge of your relationship??? ok buddy lmfao ok champ
4 panel comic 

Panel 1: Blue Guy lying in bed with his phone on the opposite pillow.
Blue Guy: I love you so much. This has been the best year of my life.
Phone: I’m leaving you

Panel 2: Blue Guy grabs phone in a mad panic. He yells WHUU?

Panel 3: Close up on phone screen. Phone says Unless…

Panel 4: Phone screen goes black. A pop up appears saying: The No Break Up Expansion Pack. £59.99 per month. Buy Now
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REwadent Evil @ewacat.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
✨we do not need to hear from these people✨
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
"If only men wield weapons, then all tombs with weapons are male. If only men are ever found interred with weapons, then it’s unlikely women ever wielded them. We only imagine some version of what we’ve seen. It takes a lot of unlearning to learn history." Great guest post from @isabelleroughol.com
jonn.substack.com
We’ve been very wrong about Stone Age women
“Never assume” is a golden rule – especially when looking at 10,000-year-old human remains
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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
almost everything he says is the boldest of lies and nonsense, with almost no pushback whatsoever, and he should be in a prison barge orbiting the moon
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 25/04/2026
:(
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libby watson @libbycwatson.com · 25/04/2026
on their fucking minibikes again the neighborhood teens are. call the police i have.
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Brian Peter Gluckman @bgluckman.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
@glutelord.bsky.social is essentially giving a PhD dissertation in under two minutes on how modern incel culture is coopting a very narrow and weirdly specific gay sub-culture.
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Andrew Cogswell @joyboygenius.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
So I was just laid off from Vicariously. If you‘ve got an opening in PR/marketing and want to hire someone who does good work and has a family to support, I’m your guy. Any reposts super appreciated.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 08/04/2026
all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant
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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 07/04/2026
Anyway, we have ample research on how living under a state of sustained terror and stress causes life-long health problems as well as intergenerational epigenetic effects. This feels like it's making you sick because it actually is making you sick.
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David @crookedknight.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Tweet from @robdunnin

MY MAN: (comes home)
ME: (nervous) how was the store
MY MAN: fine
ME: oh thank g —
MY MAN: ran into jolene
ME: oh no
MY MAN: she mentioned you left kind of an intense voicemail
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/04/2026
GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans are birthright citizens under your test? SAUER: Ah, I think ... so. I have to think that through.
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Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
This morning’s electricity generation. Now imagine a nation with twice the clean energy capacity and most of its transport and heating also electrified. True energy independence. A vision 100% opposed by the Tories and Reform.
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Deth Veggie @dethveggie.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
My money's on it being a really big wooden horse.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Robert Jenrick calling Palm Sunday 'Psalm Sunday' reminds us once again that dim witted rage baiting populists never know the slightest thing about what they are purporting to defend.
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Gore Vidal Sassoon @jimmyjazz1968.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
9 out of 10 people will keep scrolling and not repost my plea to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. I know my Real Friends will like and share
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Officials are normally presented with ceremonial swords or paintings or whatever. But these guys are so fucking stupid that foreign intelligence agencies can literally give them an "Honorary Electronic Communications Device for a Very Special Boi" and they fall for it every time.
@DarriogMelanie on X: A top Trump official has been walking around with an electronic device gifted to him by senior foreign intelligence officials.
Mar 14, 2026

Where are all of the “but, her emails,” Republicans on this one?
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Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) @iwf.org.uk · 11/03/2026
“These disturbing findings shine a light on a problem which we must all, as a society, urgently confront. The internet has opened a door into every home in the world," says our CEO Kerry Smith. www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
standard.co.uk
Police arrest record number of paedophiles as 81k seek help in London
Forces say society’s misconceptions around offenders contributes to failure of some 1,200 safeguarded children each month
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Dear Shabana, Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.
Dear Shabana,
I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank.
You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to
make a perilous crossing on small boats.”
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton
and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government
who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division.
When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there
to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done
in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the
flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney.
As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking
points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I
filled water tanks and picked up litter.
What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop
the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country.
Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it.
It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping
migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and
croissants to refugees and food parcels.
When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She
said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for
refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers
whilst risking death on the seas.”
She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on
the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …
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francis @dilfkink.kindboys.online · 28/02/2026
Tumblr post that says "i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point. you get it. you get the themes. i dont have time to do it justice. just look at it its on the ceiling"
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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
you wake in the morning and think to yourself, does boydy still hate tech guys and their LLMs? and the answer will be yes. it's midday and you're doing a shopping run. does your banana hat pal still despise the lake evaporation fanclub? guess what, the answer is yes. you're putting the bins out,
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
How does he sleep at night?
Irish Independent: Man stole three coffee machines in a week from Monaghan department store.
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