When I joined our friends group during lockdown, my recall is that the only filter on offer was an enhancement slider that smoothed out facial details. All the hats and moustaches and stuff came later.
That *is* the one, isn't it?
Loving the UK Eurovision entry
The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.
🧵 1/5
Oh, excuse my excitement as it’s soooo long since I last wrote a book and sometimes it all seems like I just dreamt it. But I have an actual author page on the Penguin website!
www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1756...
cartoon image, Nigel Molseworth
Brooding publicity shot for Stephen Gallagher's audio adaptation of Casting the Runes by M R James. Features Anna Maxwell Martin, Reece Shearsmith, and Tom Burke
And if you need something to keep you going, there's this: bafflegab.co.uk/productions/...
FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?
![[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.]
From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes:
NEWSREADER:
Extraordinary images here
of an expat in Dubai
[The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly]
…Having their first ever geopolitical thought.
[CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones].
CLIVE MYRIE:
To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent
DAVID JONES:
Clive, this is momentous
It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’.
[Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same]
You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self.
It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts.
CLIVE MYRIE:
Which are…?
DAVID JONES:
You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes,
I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa.
CLIVE MYRIE:
And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days?
DAVID JONES:
I think we can expect to see:
“I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To”
CLIVE MYRIE:
Mmm.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreibu6vuc7ofetq5hla3gfcknocotbfl3yk2ajczk6qfd2hnjxrav6q)
[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]
Guy on the left promoting those Temu veneers, I see
My BBC audio collection now has artwork and a release date of June 18th
I've pitched a few and been involved in two. Both times schedulers used them in slots to be pre-empted by live sport during their run, thinking (I assume) it would matter less to break up the series. Both started strong, then took a ratings hit that was later used as an argument not to recommission
2h ago 12.32 GMT UK government charter flight will take off from Oman 'in the coming days', says home secretary A government charter flight will take off from Muscat, Oman, “in the coming days”, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has told the Commons. Cooper said that Britain was working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat, Oman to prioritise the evacuation of vulnerable British nationals. Cooper said she was in close contact with her counterparts in the Gulf countries, where 130,000 British citizens have now registered their presence in the region. “We are also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, with priority for vulnerable nationals,” Cooper said. “A government charter fight will fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals, but British nationals in Oman must wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office regarding these options.“
Will Yvette Cooper confirm that wealthy Brits who decamped to Middle East tax havens to dodge their patriotic obligation to pay their taxes won't get free flights?
Just to be clear, we all know that in this context 'massages' means hand jobs, right?
An award winning performance from #KimStanley in the British classic....
📽️ SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964) 1:05pm co-starring #RichardAttenborough #NanetteNewman thriller #TPTVsubtitles Directed by #BryanForbes
There’s a UK trend for sticking old pianos in city railway stations for anyone to play. As if passengers don’t suffer enough
Or just about anyone on a railway station piano
(That’s Vic Armstrong, he was signing upstairs. AFAIK I Iook nothing like him)
That’s how I roll
Transformers cosplay
View of the hall, London Comic Con
Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared cosplay
A good day at the London comic con. Surprisingly large number of people wanting autographs. The bloke on the Cats’ Protection League stall just mistook me for Harrison Ford’s stunt double and I don’t know what to make of that
We'll never know what's in voters' hearts when they vote, but there was a very clear way for natural Labour supporters to punish Labour without rewarding Reform, and it happened.
"and I liked it"
The first woman in Parliament to appear in the Guardian's 'best-dressed at Glastonbury' feature.
You'll never sing that, etc...
(hand surgery was for a condition named after the doctor who treated Napoleon's piles)
Well done, Gorton and Denton. Nobody needs a Clacton of the North
I'll be at the @cutawaycomics.bsky.social table at London Film and Comic all weekend. Come buy my wares, I'll even significantly reduce the resale value by writing my name on it.
