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ThisNicola

@thisnicola.bsky.social
37 followers 32 following 373 posts

not just any Nicola. Aotearoa New Zealand. If you've seen this handle on Twitter, LJ, DW, Discord, you've probably seen me.

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Reposted by ThisNicola
George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🧵Spotted on a Rainy Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand: A small human (3?) is clutching a wheel of camembert cheese to her chest and wearing a big watery frown. Dad asks what's wrong and she bellows with utmost distress: "MY CHEESE IS SAD!" Dad trying to commiserate in between belly chuckles.
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Bo Thompson @gaudipern.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today I heard someone use the Human Centipede as a way to explain why large model AI is inevitably heading towards its own self destruction by tainting its future inputs, and honestly? It was a beautiful teaching metaphor.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Having spent many hours poking at my phone while my parents watch TV, I can confirm that this is accurate.
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If anyone would like to attend an online workshop about micro journaling to find positive moments in your day, I'm doing one. October 3rd 9am NZT. Pay-What-You-Can/Koha Available for 2 weeks for all ticket holders if you can't make it on the day.😊🪻🌸 www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/finding-ti...
eventbrite.co.nz
Finding Tiny Moments of Joy in Everyday Life
Do you need more joy and calmness in your life? Then this workshop about how to find small joys in the world might be for you!
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed
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Girl’s Own advice @girlsown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Exercise should be taken with a skipping-rope, battledore and shuttlecock, and indiarubber ball, this last being recommended by many doctors for people of middle-age.
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/
Image: A graph with lots of red dots clustered together in a curve. The are all looking upwards at a single red dot wearing sunglasses. 

Caption: Mike was an outlier and would probably be excluded from the study, but all the other data points secretly thought he was really cool.
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A border collie approaches some traffic lights with her human and looks at him expectently. Human nods and Border Collie jumps up and boops the traffic crossing button with her nose. Both waiting patiently until the little man turns green.
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A woman (80s?) with sequinned purple trousers, a tuxedo jacket and a black laquered walking stick is striding down the street. Posture immaculate. Expression imperious. Style personified. Later seen in a bar window, sipping a classic martini.
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 07/09/2026
The Horny Universe Theory - existentialcomics.com/comic/671
existentialcomics.com
The Horny Universe Theory
A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/books/pictur...
Title: Methods for Encouraging a Reluctant Young Reader 
 

Panel 1
Caption: Read Together 
Image: A small child sits on a sofa, face buried in a book, between two adults doing the same.

Panel 2
Caption: Bribery
Image: The small child sits on a treasure chest wearing a crown, face buried in a book, in a room full of coins, jewels and precious items.

Panel 3
Caption: Element of danger
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, precariously balanced on a thin branch in a tall tree.

Panel 4
Caption: Reverse Psychology
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, beside a huge bookshelf and a sign that reads “Adults Only”

Panel 5
Caption: Pulleys and Pistons
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, amidst a complicated mechanism that provides endless new books.

Panel 6
Caption: Rituals and Incantations
Image: The small child sits, face buried in a book, in a circle of candles amidst clouds of smoke and mysterious phrases.
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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Rough Draft vs Final Draft
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 01/09/2026
Highway Signs xkcd.com/3289/
Comic. [sign on road reads Next Exit: 1,390,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The number on the speed limit sign in front of it is 0.000000097] [caption] Our local highway department is switching to planck units.
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Jared Pechaček @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I just remembered how when I put this on Twitter back in the day, someone told me you’re not supposed to clean a snake with soap, as if this was meant as a guide to the care and feeding of your serpent
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Tonight Rebecca Solnit has posted several quotes by the great Wendell Berry, who has died. This quote in particular speaks to me, as someone who has to fight off cynicism every waking hour. 👇🏽
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Andrew Digby @digs.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
325 #kakapo! The chicks from this year's record breeding season are now juveniles and so have been added to the population. In 1995 there were just 51 kākāpō left. Recovery of critically endangered species _is_ possible with sustained effort. #kakapo2026 #conservation #parrots
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Will Quinn @willquinnart.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
a Mouse King. is there one under your desk??
drawing of a bunch of computer mice with their all cords tangled together
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Amethyst Smiths. So easy to pronounce after a couple of Stoli-Bollies, darling.
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 26/08/2026
It sucks that Viking explorers never made it all the way to South America, because I feel like they would have loved to dare each other to eat really hot chili peppers for a laugh.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger. R.E.M.N.O.P.Q
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Biochemist: The volume in the cup is academic, because you're still going to need 10% extra to get 20 50uL aliquots out of a mL of reagent.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A perennial favourite of mine 😁 Translation of Rita's speech in a reply to the original post.
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ceej @ceej.online · 20/08/2026
they put up a dada center just outside of town and life has been unbearable ever since. thing looks like a fucking fish
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 20/08/2026
I’ve acquired chickens from people I met on social media. It doesn’t get any more real than that.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I haven’t yet figured out who the MAIN main character* is in the book that I just started, but one of the candidates is literally Satan walking among us, which could be fun. *I have a sneaking suspicion it’s the one who is currently in utero
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Lauren Flans @laurenflans.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
It was the "This you?" of times; it was the "It me" of times.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
To be honest, I sometimes have a similar issue when I pick a book back up. But I solve it using a technique that I like to call "flipping back a few pages".
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
A long haired little white dog (Shih Tzu cross mop?) is jauntily trotting through a fern forest. Her humans don't notice the giant stretch of mud ahead and Little Dog trots right in and... ... Hmm... ... A long haired little muddy dog (Shih Tzu cross bog monster?) is jauntily trotting... (3)
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REwadent Evil @ewacat.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
JESUS CHRIST WHAT ARE WE DOING THERE'S A TINY SHINY BIRD IN PANTALOONS
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Micah @rincewind.run · 10/08/2026
I think being Extremely Online has been good for me in many ways - I have made a lot of friends through the internet, some of whom helped me get to where I am today, and I’ve managed to avoid a lot of the pitfalls I think being Extremely Online is not good for most people and I discourage it
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
A woman (30s?) is walking around a fruit and vegetable shop, playfully booping her partner on the backside with a large telegraph cucumber as he selects a cauliflower. Grinning angelically when he tells her to behave. (3)
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 08/08/2026
Does anyone else hate the Speed of Light? It's so lame. We can never zip around and visit a million planets just because of some stupid hardcoded limit that they arbitrarily put in because the devs refuse to optimize their engine to handle faster travel.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Stumbling on a wet Sunday morning through a maze of twisty internet passages, all alike, I came across Matthew Rhys in the Criterion Closet, being utterly delightful and having exactly correct opinions on all of the pictures that I also have opinions on. Please enjoy: youtu.be/r0-5G6-g7WI?...
youtu.be
Matthew Rhys’s Closet Picks
YouTube video by CRITERION
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
For a junk drawer to legally qualify as a real junk drawer, what is the ONE absolute mandatory item it must include? The unbroken bits of an otherwise broken kitchen tool, kept in hopes that they might Come In Useful when it's time to repair the next one.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I will always remember the moment when the NZ biosecurity dog* alerted on my backpack, which contained no contraband but the faint ghosts of many, many bananas. *an adorably competent beagle
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 04/08/2026
Until we overthrow the shackles of capitalism, mankind is doomed to continue to remake Spiderman movies until the sun at last envelops the earth and ends our suffering.
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jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
An aircraft passenger oxygen mask: a drop down passenger mask with air bag and yellow plastic mouth and nose cover, oxygen tube has been cut; Demonstration model used by flight attendant crew for passenger instruction. Has text on the side indicating that it's non-functional.
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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
A small human (4?) is frowning at the cheesy bagel in her hand. With great gravitas she announces to Dad: "There is SIGNIFICANT cheese on this toastie. SIGNIFICANT CHEESE." Dad does a double take and laughs. "Where'd ya get that word from?" She looks at him with beetling brows. "SIGNIFICANT." (5)
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Pride and Extreme Prejudice
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Ruin a book by adding a word: A Brief History of Lunchtime
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malakim2099 🔜 MagicCon Atlanta @malakim2099.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
What if we gave a sword the personality of Garak?
static.klipy.com
Star Trek Ds9
Alt: Garak from DS9 doing his jazz hands.
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com
Panel 1
Caption: With the windows open in the summer heat, a breeze blows through the punctuation factory, scattering newly-minted marks across the countryside.

Image: a small factory with windows open and punctuation marks coming out 

Panel 2
Caption: Confused locals find their conversations peppered with unexpected pauses and unwanted emphasis.

Image: Two people talking as punctuation marks float around them One says

This, is “very odd”

The other replies 

…(Indeed)*


Panel 3
Caption: Naturalists note that the effect is not limited to human communication. 

Image: A duck on a pond surrounded by punctuation marks says
Qu’ack?

Panel 4
Caption: Fortunately, a cloud of exclamation points drift into a district council meeting which proceeds with unusual efficiency 

Image: Councillors talk in a cloud of exclamation points
Something must be done!!  !
Close the windows! !!
Install air conditioning! !!
Immediately!!! !
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Daniel Fedor @dcfedor.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Blue Bottle Games, as a policy, does not use generative AI. It's something we've discussed as a team, weighing the pros and cons, and ultimately, we decided it was not for us. Recently, while chatting with a colleague, she mentioned it was useful hearing our reasoning. So: Sharing time! 1/12
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
You suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?
static.klipy.com
Wallace And Gromit уоллес и громит
Alt: Gromit looking thoughtful. He is an anthropomorphic claymation dog with a beige body and head, and long brown ears on the top of his head that curve over like wings. He is famously mute but very physically expressive.
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Alexander Glass @alexanderglass.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Slightly worried that if someone puts the right piece in, the whole street will disappear.
Pavement with a Tetris-piece shaped gap.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Loot that drops after defeating me: -slightly over-stretched plain black hair elastic -ancient muesli bar that is still perfectly edible tyvm -no keys because I left them in my other bag again -water bottle containing 10d20 mL water -mask -ancient iPhone -random chicken feather -ball point pen
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David Kaib @davidkaib.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The thing about someone ‘improperly receiving benefits’ is I don’t care. Oh no did someone get food or health care? Good!
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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 19/07/2026
If I had a time machine I would go back to England in the 1860s and tell the people first codifying the rules of soccer to make more room in the game for ad breaks.
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ThisNicola @thisnicola.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I try to tell my joke about Echo, but everyone's already heard it.
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Chef Kennedy🐸🏳️‍🌈 @kennedy.northsky.social · 17/07/2026
ass out flower ate this is how i like pollinate
a bee with its fuzzy little butt covered in pollen, hanging over a leaf all assed out, face not visible, just bee butt
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