Xander Flatt

Baseball, Ray. Baseball...

Once, a long time ago, I was asked to restrain a man caught stealing a sandwich and a coke from Boots.

The shop had a policy of not prosecuting theft below a certain value so I took a packet of crisps, counted it as a meal deal and let him go.

If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.

Fun fact: "Boycott" was the name of an English land agent tasked with collecting increased rent in Ireland. The local population refused him every service until he gave up.
He was so thoroughly ostracised that his name became a verb.

"One Beatle After Another"

Douglas Barrowman and Michelle Mone's company, PPE Medpro, has just been ordered to refund the Government £122m from a PPE contract.

There are two very odd things about PPE Medpro that may affect the odds of the Government ever getting that £122m...

Thread:

Discworld: A disc-shaped world atop 4 elephants atop a giant turtle flying through space.

I enjoy a well-thought-out, rule-based magic system in fiction as much as anyone, BUT I also think that we should give more props to what Terry Pratchett did in the Discworld books, where it was less about rules and more about vibes and, more importantly, what fit a given story the best.

🧵

Announcing war crimes like Steve Jobs announcing a new iphone

SAG-AFTRA Statement on Synthetic Performer SAG-AFTRA has released the following statement on the announcement of “Tilly Norwood,” an A.I.-generated “actor” that is reportedly seeking representation:

Generative AI is, at its most basic, a way to give wealth access to talent without giving talent access to wealth.

www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-st...

The modern Great Pagliacci.

If a unified ID is necessary for all UK citizens, surely providing passports free of charge would be magnitudes cheaper than outsourcing a new digital ID system from scratch.

But it's not about what's actually necessary is it?

The picture on the right does appear to show one of the staff seizing the means of production in the background.

A magazine advert for a knitting machine designed to work with the Nintendo NES.

Bring back the knitting machine!

Reminds me of Joan Eardley.

Does anyone else remember that time that Donald Trump didn't commit an impeachable offence and/or violate the constitution for two days in a row so everyone naturally assumed he was dead?

So "Starmerism" has gone international then.

Good eye. Yes, it is. He did a run of Hamlet at the RSC in around 2008, 2009 ish. Not sure of the dates.

That, and the woman on the left is not called "Scott Adkins".

I know there are reasons for it, but the names not lining up with the actors on posters irks me.

Maybe downgrading 'Digital, Culture, Media and Sport' to "Twitter, Wetherspoons, Daily Mail and Millwall."

A mugshot of a man who participated in a riot targeting minorities who was hit in the groin with a brick. It was thoroughly deserved

Surely a plum job for Eunuch Powell over here

A common source of frustration while parenting is finding that a lot of cool stuff doesn't come in adult sizes.

Adding to the debate around recent film adaptations...

Snyder's Superman? No.

Gunn's Superman? Yes.

A friend of mine was a graphic designer and he once designed autographs for a boyband. They became pretty popular, so he was able to top up his income by autographing merch. The label would send him 1,000s of posters, etc and pay him to sign them.

To be honest, I've been in pubs where this would be a believable list of guest IPAs from small-batch, indie breweries.

A wee reminder that "Luddite" is a classist term. It refers to a worker's movement, protesting about wages and product quality, that was violently put down by the military and the law acting in the interests of factory owners.

Did he get to see Revenge of the Sith?

I know the prequels weren't great but you'd want to complete the set.

It's right there in the name... "they are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching".

It's a bit of a swing, naming your company after something that is, very famously, a sinister security risk.

Not to mention that Abe Froman was recently the victim of identity theft.

Not even the sausage king of Chicago is safe.