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Questing Vole

@thequestingvole.bsky.social
277 followers 586 following 2.4K posts

Geek, rower, historian, stage manager, giver-away of charitable funds, bureaucrat whose dead hand is ruining academia, caretaker of a small loud fluffy dog and a small loud bald baby.

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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 3h
Similarly to Lola’s other employer the Pharos foundation - all that money, all that clout, why can’t they do anything meaningful with it? Like genuine conservative artists and scholars exist. And would being in hock to Paul Marshall really be *so* bad if they gave that money and power to me instead?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 5h
It also says Fidesz are less socially conservative than the CDU, so I call bullshit on that entire chart.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 5h
Surely the loadbearing part of that job is “creative comms assistant” ie someone to make her look good on social media.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 17h
So successfully meritocratic that in 1914 their most senior commanders included the sons of the Kaiser, the King of Bavaria and the guy who won the last war.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 18h
I bet RTD suggested it the first time round, more chance of them going for it then than now sadly.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
A powerful and convincing argument.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Stupid leftism is perfectly capable of coming to far-right conclusions to own the centrists, just as stupid centrists come to far-right conclusions to own the left. There are more centrists out there.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Really bad prequelitis, it was foreordained Thrawn had to win every time because otherwise his plot arc in Heir to the Empire and especially Hand of Thrawn doesn’t make any sense - the solution to this should have been IMO to use him very very sparingly!
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Pity about Zsinj because he makes so much sense in Disney canon.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I’d rather you didn’t because of the inevitable endless teasing about a relationship with Luke. The EU thing where every author gave Luke a new super-special love interest was boring and sad, even a ginger Inquisitor would be enough to kick it off again.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Hard agree. There’s no reason for Mara to exist now other than fanservice. Which is a shame because she’s a good character, but her niches are well and truly filled. If she turns up as anything like her EU self, we know she’s doomed to a tragic death and is only there cos the fandom asked for her.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
With Labour alone outnumbering the right bloc you don’t need more than a very thin C&S agreement and the Lib Dems would be mad to offer more.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Not long ago (like less than 20 years) the top Chinese universities had those kinds of rankings, they’re now into the top 20, overtaking Europe and rapidly coming for the top end of the US and UK.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
“Biological reality”? Fuck that for a game of soldiers. Horseshoe theory in action?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Wonder when she’ll find it in her heart to be equally forthright in condemning real offline lynch mobs in the UK? Her conference remarks were a start.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
You could but you’d be pulling in a shedload from the rest of the series and the pacing would be strictly for the adult fans. The kids would get bored.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
That's worked so so well in France for the last 150 years, hasn't it? Tempting, though.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
There are so many fair examples of this happening, and Galloway is so far from being one of them.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
It’s hardly a small organization any more. It‘s an entryist scheme to buy control of our oldest and most prestigious university‘s Humanities teaching, and it’s working.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I can imagine David Steel haunting a hotel bar but only because some noisy buggers at Conference we’re stopping him getting to sleep!
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Yep, no argument there, an American hour per episode would have been plenty.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
But the whole must run almost triple the length of Philosopher’s Stone.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I think you can defend that as necessary to adapting the trilogy as TSK has a fuck ton of plot and shifting some of it forward makes sense if you know (as Pullman did not when writing the books) you’ll definitely make all three.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The one-volume edition yes, you could get 10hrs out of that though preferably as 4 5x30 Sunday afternoon BBC series.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I was just trying to remember how long they did Northern Lights in and yeah, that was a) not really a kids show by the time they made it, it was for the 25yo who grew up with the books, and b) pushing it. And NL has vastly more going on than the first three Potters (if not all of them).
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
But even 6hrs of P&P you’re still deciding what to leave out as well as what to add in. Whereas 10hrs of Harry Potter you‘ve done basically every line of the novel and you still have to pad.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The people with Legitimate Concerns About Immigration Labour spent the last two years validating and writing the most anti-immigrant immigration policy of the last 60 years?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Unfortunately he drove one lot of racists out of Labour then won and depending on interpretation either invited another lot in, or just spent two years cowering in fear of them.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I think it probably is “or equivalent”, if nothing else the VC of Birmingham (whose hobbyhorse this is) may have forgotten Scotland exists but someone will eventually remind the DfE.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Yeah this. Even the Bullingdon has been banned on and off for a century, it’s not had any official recognition at Oxford since it was debagging Evelyn Waugh.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Hillbilly les deux églises? Or is that after he loses once and fucks off into obscurity from which he will totally be back, trust me bro.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Desperate scrambling for how any result tonight is Bad News For Labour. Confident opposition outriders don’t do this.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Oh good! NHS were crazy reluctant to take tonsils out for a bit, I think that’s starting to swing back now.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ironically the spirit of Khorne probably gets the 74 killed, the smart move for them is to hold the range open.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
You don’t want people failing courses unless they truly cannot do the thing the course is teaching at all, and then you need to figure out what else to do with them other than “same again and hope”. C and D are grades. Failing *assignments* should be normalized though.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yes I agree, but fail them by awarding more 60s on assignments with more range, not by moving the pass mark up and encouraging more compression and petty perfectionism.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Nah, black bloc is more “I want to righteously kick the shit out of someone, not fussed why”. Anarchy is dangerously philosophical.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
No, things should be hard and awarding 90+% should not be normalized and expected. If showing up and signing your name is worth 75 and a good faith effort to do the task is 85, how do you recognise the genuinely exceptional?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Historically empty thrones do not tend to go well, because someone gets the idea of filling them. Hard to see that happening soon in Canada but if you look to the South... you think if there was an American Crown he wouldn’t be talking about an American King to wear it again?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Hence “know what they‘re fighting“ and have some really compelling reason to fight it out. Not that they can run, or at least not far.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A well-handled trireme can sprint, which an Ottoman galley can’t, that‘s the only thing that gives them a prayer.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
It’s a dubious argument because the triremes need 30x as many crew and have no tactical range, that’s the real difference. Defending a sheltered harbour, with the advantage of surprise in light winds, or in a clock calm, the triremes can win if they‘re prepared to take the casualties. Otherwise not.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This is assuming the Athenians know what they’re fighting, are completely committed, and press the attack home after the first 20 are blown to splinters.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Even in a calm a ramming attack can’t hit and dance away, the liner is too solid and a good hit will smash the trireme too so the 74 won’t sink fast. But each trireme has 200 crew to the 74’s 650 and they can’t fight both sides and repel boarders at once, so once 1 trireme connects it gets tricky.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In a flat calm, triremes win but with very heavy casualties, assuming experienced rowers and an Athenian style relatively light manouevrable boat. If there’s enough wind that the 74 can get up to say 6kt, the triremes need to be positioned very well. More wind or worse positioning, slaughter.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
When you are accused of serious crimes, and the evidence suggests on the balance of probability you might have done some of them (which Cornell ADMIT), prosecution is the normal outcome yes. And "doxxed by lawyers" is an odd way of describing undergraduate journalists.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I remember Walkers bringing back Salt n' Shake with a massive nostalgia campaign, all kids in flat caps riding bikes made of girders down cobbled streets, in the early '00s.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Maybe she can do nothing with as much political effect as Burnham doing nothing?
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
On closer look it might be "Israeli Ties" which would be less bad. But unless you're Oxbridge the whole "divest" language is just terminally America-brained, no other UK institution has enough endowment for it to be remotely relevant.
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Questing Vole @thequestingvole.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
@mitchbenn.bsky.social did that one too, so did Yes Prime Minister. A classic for a reason.
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