RIP

Just re-read van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer” and realised a) Jameson’s argument about it hinges on him misreading a simple plot-point, and b) his argument would actually be stronger if he’d read it properly. No idea what to do with this insight, so I thought I’d just vaguepost.

Blatant fraud as a “business practice”. Five years’ prison and the confiscation of all their personal assets would stop people doing it. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It’s me (desperately in need of a shave at the end of a very hard week) banging on about Dr Strangelove - with Rodney F Hill and @everyscififilm.bsky.social

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 5/708 Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

This is Ollie. He found a perfectly placed carrot snack on his walk. Simply can't believe his luck. 13/10 best day ever (TT: maxime_aries)

Nicolás Maduro Charged With Felony Oil Possession

This is political discourse I can get behind.

We've got our tickets for this! Now on Headfirst: hdfst.uk/e144865

Four Scottish universities are facing the prospect of industrial action as strike ballots over job losses open #StopTheCuts #NoCompulsoryRedundancies www.scotsman.com/education/st...

Back at work after 2 weeks and am massively resenting having to do this pointless bollocks lol. This is a step on from "can't be arsed"

You will recall that we were supposed to be absolutely terrified of the Labour Party because it was purportedly in hock to aggressive foreign powers. How’s that looking now, folks

During Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress on Oct 14, 2019, she described how Trump and Putin discussed exchanging Ukraine for Venezuela. The quid pro quo was if Trump refuses to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion, Putin would not help Venezuela (a Russian ally) resist a US takeover.

How does he stay upright with no spine, fascinating

Generally speaking when British politicians start bringing God into it, we're in for a bad time.

Hegelly Blonde

Darren Jones saying repeatedly the Labour Government won't comment on a hypothetical. It's not hypothetical - Trump is saying very loudly repeatedly what he's done and boasting about it. And yet the UK Government won't even say it's a breach of international rules. Shameful.

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 5/704 Jules Verne, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1866)

MONUMENTAL MASON: how would you like your gravestone, Mr Beard? WILLIAM HOLBROOK BEARD: plain granite please: but, is there any chance you could add a giant bronze bear wiping its arse on the top of the headstone? MM: naturally

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

You couldn't publish this today. You'd have to cloak it under several layers of metaphor.

Nobody could have predicted this.

From Russia With Love is such a funny movie. The Training School for Evil Henchmen is something that bond parodies wished they could do, but they can't, because they already did it as part of a real bond film

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 4/720 Gregory Benford, Across the Sea of Suns (1984) and to a lesser extent the earlier In the Ocean of the Night (1976) but none at all of those dreary fucking sequels

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 3/720 2000 A.D. (from 1977 until around 1980) plus Starlord (1978) and Tornado (1979) both of which quicky merged with 2000 A.D. Especially ABC Warriors, Black Hawk, ...

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 2/720 Thomas M. Disch, 334 (1972)

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 1/720 Agatha Christie, 4.50 from Paddington (1957)

finally, we're living through precedented times

babe wake up, they're doing insider trading on war crimes

And there ya have it… Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”

Expect to see a lot of this classic Onion headline, from 23 years ago, over the coming weeks.

So it's a heist...

Three million people live in Caracas, five million in the metro area. It's one of the densest cities in South America. Remember this in the morning when they try to spin this as anything other than a cold-blooded attack on a major civilian center.

The “newly discovered” Epstein archive contains 5 million more pages than the GOP healthcare plan.

Had me at "Leonardo DiCaprio was, as always, adequate but miscast (and yes, I mean that he is always the wrong choice for every actual and possible film role)."

Online talk for the Smithsonian — coming up on 23rd Jan, lunchtime ET smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...

Mamdani arrives to his mayoral inauguration at City Hall in a motorcade of NYC taxi cabs—workers he went on hunger strike with in 2021.

@argibbons.bsky.social beginning 2026 like she means to go: gentrifying the ducks with a bowl of organic petit pois

Hong Kong Ad for "Star Godzilla" (1980) #godzilla

day one in mamdani’s new york

measles outbreak at the creationist theme park — that's how 2026 is going

I wrote an author's note on my book for the energy humanities website, do check it out: www.energyhumanities.ca/news/the-non...

Reform UK’s candidate in the 2026 Cotswold by-election is Matt Fincham founder of @FinchPRMatt. One of his PR highlights is trying to downplay the guilty verdict on the Heythrop Hunt who defied the ban and killed foxes with their dogs, when he was the Countryside Alliance’s PR man:

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

And that was when my end-of-year PDR took an unexpected turn...