“He knows when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” I also know those things

It's an always-winter-but-never-Christmas miracle! Part 1 of the Eleanor & Alasdair Read That Xmas special is out now. Listen to me and @eleanormorton.bsky.social re-cap the story of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe with, frankly, too much enthusiasm. linktr.ee/readthat

We've re released the Rob Reiner RHLSTP in tribute to this great man. Worth a listen if you missed it first time shows.acast.com/rhlstp/episo...

Rivkah here doing what basically no other cis journalist did, and actually wrote about Beth Upton's POV, and when you lay it all out like that you can't help but admire Upton's astonishing level of calm and polite restraint in the face of quite vile harassment and abuse in both private and public.

I admit I know very little about the current gun laws, but on top of deep background checks, you should only be allowed one gun, of one type, proof of need and competency tests every year, log every use etc. It should be fucking *onerous* to have that gun

Could do with less of politicians and the media just saying stuff

The internet contains all world’s knowledge and we’re hellbent on not having a way to access it

Did you know: if you buy the Montgomery Bonbon books as a Christmas present, it's like a double present because I, Alasdair Beckett-King, also get some money? Wow, what a magical time of year!

Scuba guy on the telly just told us one of the main things to be aware of when diving is the water Ok, mate.

On Sunday 🕎

Avoid Whamageddon by simply listening to Last Christmas on repeat throughout the year

Fantastic lookback from Alan Sepinwall about Rob Reiner if interested. cc. @molk.bsky.social

Dunno if anyone from the BTN team is on here. But thank you for interrupting your hiatus to do an episode about Bondi

This is just an insane run of movies

The current reports are vague but the reported ages match for him and his wife. Fuck. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

What can you even say?

The UK has turned into a censorious nightmare state because of transphobia

Just horrific "Six people rushed to hospital after Bondi shooting" www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Came across this and was like “this feels familiar” they ai-ed an already existing meme, just straight up lifted it verbatim… There’s all the problem with ai but the laziness of people who use it is baffling, you could have found the original with a 5 sec google search

It took an extra few days but as of this morning, all Australian YouTube accounts with a date of birth aging them under 16 have now been closed, meaning no more parental controls and mandatory ad viewing even if parents pay for YouTube Premium Family. Insane decision.

Heh

Posting this just made me remember something and I’m angry with myself bc I should have said this sooner I have a lot used for testing that ends up not being used, and I have this Xbox adaptive controller and the full kit. Happy to ship it to any gamer who HAS THE NEED for the full controller

Icelandic folklore tells of the Yule Cat that terrorizes children if they don't have new socks for Christmas. folklore does not specify whether the Yule Cat is adorable or not, tho. ❤️🐈‍⬛

Update: What I’ve been up to recently www.michaelbuckleywriter.com/blog/2025-12...

Gonna use his style. Gonna use his sidestep.

Finding your tribe: Why Australia’s social media ban gets It wrong: https://benhr.xyz/2025/12/11/finding-your-tribe-why-australias.html

Sorry, this is bold claim to make without citing any evidence www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

Keep thinking of what social media would have meant to me as a teen growing up in isolation in the country. Sure, I read more books, but also fled home at 17 to live with my boyfriend... ended up married in my teens. Would have loved to be a part of an online group of friends for support.

Account has been restricted. Good-o

So the bridge *can* be used for politics

FWIW facial age verification sucks tremendous arse for anyone with facial difference

There are lots of myths about the Australian #SocialMediaBan for under16s. One is that it will stop cyberbullying. It won't. Here's a short, blunt piece from me in @theconversation.com explaining why: theconversation.com/australias-s...

Also today…

And force them to moderate it properly. And regulate genAI. They have no intention of standing up to anyone.

Standing up to the murderfactory by making you wait until you’re 16 to enter the murderfactory

BookTok is a hecking force, but ok

KWS is operated by a subsidiary company of Epic Games. While this is still *not great*, I lean towards it likely being more secure than some random company with a newly registered Delaware LLC.

If you want to contact me I’m over here

Are non-white kids gonna be saved too or…?

A fun game is to sing it and replace thunderball with “Peter Falk”

- And he strikes like thunderball! - Ok, Tom, but that doesn’t actually mean anything, does it?

If politicians are able to change their mind sufficiently to go to another party, their voters should be too

A whole lot of not thinking things through with this policy. Pretty much assumes everyone is a middle-upper class white, straight teenager with no issues living in a city www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yep www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

The laws were drafted with the intent of making every user have to identify themselves, not just under 16s. To use features of Bluesky, we now have to provide a Face Scan (HELL NO!!!), Credit Card (HELL NO!!!) or ID Scan (HELL NO!!!) to a third party provider.

As far as I can tell there’s been/will be no attempt to replace online communities destroyed by the social media ban with anything? No funding for disabled or queer youth. No exploratory committee. No nothing.

In this and other interviews Grant has talked about her worries of vulnerable kids being cut off. And yet there’s no provisions to support those kids?

When did the pivot to the ban being about screen time happen?