Mark Bould

I’ve been talking about this looming threat for years, but we now finally seem to be facing the possible collapse of cinemagoing as we know it.

A tweet stating Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is part of Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery. The image shows Kushner onstage with a headset microphone, smiling slightly.

Corruption out in the open. How can the White House have the power to approve a merger or block a competing one where Trump’s own son-in-law stands to make millions? This is why the FTC should remain independent—and why Trump wants to control it.

These Travel Influencers Don’t Want Freebies. They’re A.I.

Next they came for the influencers
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/t...

This is significant: Nigel_Farage’s campaign manager on camera admitting they spent 2x the legal limit.

#FarageFraud

x.com/i/status/199...

happy stylish but illegal monkey day to all who celebrate!!!!! by the way his name is darwin and he lives a farm now

Waste. Fraud. Abuse.

The battle for Sheringham bus shelter: protesters defiant as bailiffs sent in Norfolk county council wants to demolish a ‘beloved’ 1950s bus shelter in Sheringham, but campaigners are staging a 24/7 sit-in

Sheringham Bus Shelter siege enters ninth day. Town Council to meet today in secret. County Council bailiffs conducting night raids

‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library - Research Professional News Humanities researchers suffer amid “agonisingly slow” recovery from 2023 cyberattack, as strikes cause further delays

‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library

Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

AI Slop Is Spurring Record Requests for Imaginary Journals The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives

www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-s...

Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.

Springer Nature retracting papers based on bonkers dataset
www.thetransmitter.org/retraction/e... Good. #autism

Contents | Science Fiction Film & Television 18, 3 In her book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (2019), Ebony Elizabeth Thomas explains that privileging marginalized characters in her examination of the fantastic illustrates how “race and the imagination ...

New issue of Science Fiction Film and Television ⬇️⬇️⬇️

liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/sfftv/18/3

A golden retriever holding an octopus in its mouth, so it looks like tentacles

The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)

If only there were a cautionary tale about being too eager to accept the apparent time-saving capabilities of new technology.

"The group rallied amid frigid conditions at the Target store on East Lake Street, alleging it allowed agents to stage raids in the parking lot.

'You cannot celebrate our communities on your commercials while letting ICE stalk them in your parking lot'...”

www.startribune.com/twin-cities-...

Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli says she does not get any royalties from the ‘Spider-Verse’ films, Insomniac games, or merch

"I don’t get anything … that's the saddest part of my life"

(via SiteJamesons | TW)

I shouldn't be talking out of school, but if you ever find yourself in a similar case, you can still ask for a special character agreement post-hoc. Helps if your editor will back you.

Of course getting the agreement enforced is another kettle of fish but it's a start

A True Ensemble Cast Announcing a change in title and format

"Late Star Trek" boldly renames itself where noblog has renamed before: "Critical Star Trek Studies", now a group blog with posts by Adam Kotsko, Sabrina Mittermeier and myself. Subscribe, why don't you? It's free.
latestartrek.substack.com/p/a-true-ens...

Keir Starmer. Gloves off. The greens are nuts.

Starmer says he’s "taking the gloves off" and that the Greens are "nuts"

Big talk from the PM of vibes based cruelty and trickle down cowardice.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Me when I cite myself:

If this image doesn’t give you nightmares, I don’t know what will. 😱

When I arrived in the UK 25 years ago I had a job at a university that paid £21k. I could barely make ends meet but I worked hard and eventually I succeeded. I guess this Labour government considers young broke hardworking me a “taker”?

Fuck this.

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

The UK will no longer be a place that offers safety and shelter to those in need, just like in the 1930s.

#fascistUK

Letter to the Guardian. The protection of badgers has a long pedigree (Report, 29 August). Arthur Gore, known as "Boofy", the eighth Earl of Arran, was a fanatical defender of them. He was also a tireless campaigner for the rights of homosexuals. In 1967 he managed to push through a law in the Lords that decriminalised homosexuality but failed to pass a bill to outlaw the cruel hunting of badgers. When asked why he had not received enough support for his badger bill, he replied: "Not many badgers in the House of Lords." Tony Lywood Keswick, Cumbria

Found when sorting an old drive. I still, very occasionally, say 'not many badgers in the House of Lords' and this is why: