This will make perfect sense to anyone in the UK, and no sense to anyone anywhere else.

Angus Main@angusmain.bsky.social · 19h ago

Was able to get a reasonable view of the eclipse through the use of my trusty colander!

I've never seen Ro-sham-bo written like that before!

Luis Apiolaza@ojala.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Reviewing some old links before deleting my Twitter account I was reminded of "Civil disobedience in scientific authorship: Resistance and insubordination in science" (doi.org/10.1080/0898...) which contains a great table on deciding authorship order:

The comparison between these two is fascinating.

Angus Main@angusmain.bsky.social · last wk.

This is a sample of two stories used in the study to test people’s preferences between human and AI-written stories. Can you tell which is AI and which is written by a person?

Man, that was embarrassing. It was obvious from the moment Tuchel took Gordon off it was a mistake. Argentina looked at all the space down that side and just started raining crosses. It would be one thing if they did that with 10 minutes to go. But with 25? Ugh.

There's a running gag on British quiz show Only Connect in which the presenter explains that there's been a change to the schedule and what's coming next is a travel show featuring Michael Portillo. youtu.be/IBD6MF-UQD4?... They're always filthy and I can never guess the title.

Only Connect - Victoria Coren Mitchell's Love of Michael Portillo - Supercut

YouTube video by Wesley Mead

youtu.be

Sophia_Nyx 🐰@sophianyx.bsky.social · last mo.

Name your fav running gag in a film/tv show.

I feel like in every major football tournament I've watched in thr last 20 years, Switzerland have featured in the most boring game. Switzerland-Ukraine 2006 sets the standard for dullness in WC knockouts in my mind.

As someone who watches a lot of NBA games the next morning (too old to stay up for them anymore), I am intimately familiar with this issue. You try your hardest not to look at the length of the timeline at the bottom, but there comes a point where you know if it's going to overtime!

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · last mo.

Just finished watching the England match as-live, not knowing the result, with two small kids, the BBC played a blinder, no hints as to the score, nothing on the iPlayer homescreen… could go to extra time… and then you press play and the TV says it’s a 2hr14min video. This stuff is sooo hard!

Smooooooth.

Steve Jones@stevejones20.bsky.social · last mo.

oh

They tell me I’m uncultured, but I’ll always recognise a bit of Beethoven.

One of the sports I like to watch every summer is the Tour de France. Cycling is simultaneously a terrible and brilliant sport to watch: - You know who the fastest rider is and they're likely to win. - There are so many prizes to fight for there's lots of different ways for it to be interesting.

Even after all these years I still find the fact that something like *this* was on the official soundtrack of a version of "Sid Meier's Pirates!" incredibly amusing. Only in the early 90s. 🏴‍☠️💿🔊🎶

So...are they going to have a hydration break in the rain if this continues?

One of the best skills you can develop in the information age is the ability to say "enough". You're never going to be able to be perfect, you need to be able to know when to say that you're doing good enough because there are a lot of people with financial incentives to push you to perfect.

Isaiah Bishop@isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Not to keep Lorenz in the zeitgeist, but you gotta cut this kind of stuff out of your media so fast. If youre near a road, pretty much everything nearby is going to have crazy amounts of lead it in it. If youre in california the soil has been covered in smog forever

Of course, there is as always a relevant xkcd for this! xkcd.com/388/

Rob Dover@boredtrevor.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In my office at work we have some whiteboards in the room where we eat lunch. For the past few months I've put up brackets to determine people's favourite foodstuffs. It's a fun conversation starter. Anyway, today I unveiled my latest creation. Behold, the Fruit World Cup! Who've you got?

In my office at work we have some whiteboards in the room where we eat lunch. For the past few months I've put up brackets to determine people's favourite foodstuffs. It's a fun conversation starter. Anyway, today I unveiled my latest creation. Behold, the Fruit World Cup! Who've you got?

Never say never. Even when the lottery balls did fall the #Rockets way it still took 11 years & luck (thank you Nuggets) to win a ring. Gonna be harder for teams to retain their players going forward with the new salary rules. Free Agents will be there to be had & teams won't stay on top forever

Allan Johnson @apjfive.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Rockets' window slammed shut so hard... The lottery balls didn't fall our way as much as I love our guys

You've left out the best option - a disc! A frisbee is clearly the best catching option.

Gabriel Bell@czechtwice.bsky.social · 3mo ago

7: if somebody invites you to play catch, you grabbing a glove or a football?

Reffing an NBA game seems like an incredibly difficult, thankless job. Every time someone complains about refereeing decisions I respect them slightly less.

Britt Robson @brittrobson.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Will there ever be an NBA fan base that doesn't think the refs are screwing them over? People who go around proclaiming the depth of their bias and fidelity aren't exactly the best folks to judge the competence of officials doing one of the hardest jobs in sports.

I didn't see this thread when @brianphillips.lol was using it as a source of input, but I firmly believe that autoplaying video is the root of a lot of societal problems today. You don't get to start playing distracting moving pictures at me without my express consent, Mr. Website Man!

Brian Phillips@brianphillips.lol · 3mo ago

I'm working on a column about the tech annoyances that drive us crazy, and I want it to be as universal as possible, so tell me yours! E.g. scanning a QR code to read a menu, never receiving the one-time passcode they supposedly texted you, "verify you're human" by IDing tiny motorcycles, etc.

This is a really cool stat! Anyone want to go through all the franchises and work out if it's the longest streak?

Harrison Faigen@faignews.bsky.social · 3mo ago

One of the funniest streaks in sports continues... www.bulletsforever.com/washington-w...

This is particularly obvious when you read science fiction written a while ago. Every work is tinged with "how we think about things now", even when looking forward to the future. You can learn a lot about 1930s sexism by reading the Lensman series, or Cold War anxieties by reading LeGuin.

Elizabeth Lopatto@lopatto.bsky.social · 3mo ago

frankly I have come to believe techies are illiterate. science fiction isn't about the future, stupid. it's about the current political situation but set in space so no one gets mad. duh!

Ads with autoplaying video you couldn't turn off were the thing that pushed me over the edge. If anything plays me a video without me hitting the play button, it's getting closed immediately unless there's a setting to turn it off (and on Twitter there wasn't!)

Kail@vivotranquil0.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The incessant ads alone were reason enough to leave

Presumably this is an unintended consequence rather than something the NBA actively considered. But maybe they should have done? And if they haven't put out a product to let commercial properties get access to everything they're being derelict in their duties IMO.

shakeia@curlyfro.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Two sportswriters walk into a bar and can’t find the game. With the NBA adding streaming-only options, the games are a little harder to find in bars and restaurants. We tried to find out why. free to read: www.nytimes.com/athletic/726...

Agreed. Both will make a difference, but are not the solution in and of themselves. IMO what's missing is playmaking depth. Rather than a DFS type on the bench, ideally they'd have someone more like a Tim Hardaway Jr. in that roster slot. We've got enough defensive wings, need some shotmaking.

Mark C@markcsportsethos.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Completely agree on the core issues. With that important to note just getting back Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams does not solve this issues. Rockets can’t just be content to sit on their hands in the offseason

I extended my thread #Rockets post-mortem thread with some thoughts about KD.

Rob Dover@boredtrevor.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Right, let's talk about the elephant in the room: Kevin Durant. I disagree with a lot of people who think the #Rockets should move on from KD. The model they're running with is killer defense and just enough offense, and he gives you that "Just Enough Offense" all by himself.

Tough way to end the season for the #Rockets. They fought hard, but the adjustment from the #Lakers of not doubling Sengun was clearly the right one and they just couldn't find enough offense to compete in Game 6. I've got some general thoughts about the team heading into the off season. Thread 🧵:

The #Rockets' playoffs are still alive after another win against the #Lakers last night! It was an entertaining slugfest with some interesting strategic wrinkles. Some thoughts in a thread: 🧵 #NBASky

A thousand times this! Talk about the games! They're actually really cool! The best athletes in the world performing jaw dropping feats of athleticism in a competitive environment, all the while thinking three steps ahead of their competition. It's good stuff.

Velodus✨@velodus.bsky.social · 4mo ago

There is no league where more time is spent not actually talking about the games being played in it than the NBA.

While I do think that some change is needed, the diagnosis here is way off. I've seen this team play hard and together plenty over the course of the season. What is off are the tactics and strategy (and to some extent roster construction).

Michael Pina@michaelvpina.bsky.social · 4mo ago

i wrote about the houston rockets: www.theringer.com/2026/04/27/n...