PhilS

[PhilS @PStanton]

Best thread ever...

[Swear Trek @swear_trek]

Happy #StarTrekDay — in honour of this occasion and with apologies to the Great Bird of the Galaxy for my transgressions, I have replaced every instance of the word “brain” in Spock’s Brain with the word “dick”.

I’m so very sorry.

#SpocksDick

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

Sad to hear Anthony Head has passed away.
The Gold Blend “will they, won’t they” ad campaign was a cultural phenomenon, an ongoing saga that lasted for 6 years, captivating audiences of 30 million. The inevitable kiss even made front page news. A landmark TV moment.
RIP Anthony

[RadiantFilm @RadiantFilm]

Alfred Hitchcock on creating suspense:

"All suspense, you see, or audience preoccupation is based on knowledge. The word "mystery" often creeps into [descriptions of my movies, but] they're not mysteries. The essential fact is, to get real suspense, you must let the audience have information. Now, let's take the old-fashioned bomb [plot]. You and I are sitting talking, we'll say, about baseball. We're talking for five minutes. Suddenly a bomb goes off and the audience have a ten-second terrible shock. Now. Let's take the same situation. Tell the audience at the beginning that under the table—and show it to them—there's a bomb and it's going to go off in five minutes. Now we talk baseball. What are the audience doing? They're saying, "Don't talk about baseball! There's a bomb under there! Get rid of it!" But they're helpless. They can't jump out of their seats up onto the screen and grab hold of the bomb and thrown it out. But one important factor: if you work the audience up to this degree, that bomb must never go off and kill anyone. Otherwise, they will be extremely angry with you.

I made a mistake in an early film by having a long bomb-suspense thing and I let the bomb go off and kill a little boy. I remember I was at the press show and a very sophisticated press woman came at me with raised fists and said, "How dare you do that? I've got a five-year-old boy at home." And she was furious with me. What must happen is that a foot must touch it and they say, "My God, it's a bomb! Pick it up and throw it out of the window." The moment it's out of the window, off it goes. But we inside are all safe and sound.

Sometimes the audience have no feeling for the victim, but they want [the thief] not to be caught. You see, it's the eleventh commandment—thou shalt not be found out. For example, supposing there's a burglar in a bedroom stealing jewelry from a woman. The woman has gone out, but suddenly she comes back and comes in the front door. What does the audience say? "Quick, burglar—get out, get out. You'll get caught."

Frenzy you have the man in the potato truck. You see, you build up all the suspense—will he get the tie pin out of the girl's hand in time before he's caught? So we show the truck stopped a couple of times, he hides, and eventually he achieves it. But we're rooting for him all the time to get that tie pin back."

— The Men Who Made the Movies: Interviews with Frank Capra, George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, and William Wellman by Richard Schickel (1975)

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him—will believe in anything. That’s Hitchens 3:16.”

— Christopher Hitchens

[God @TheTweetOfGod]

I know things are bad now but you just have to hang in there until the world ends.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Shocking 👇 the government's decision to say no to public ownership of water MUST be revisited

Mandelson co-founded Global Counsel which lobbied for privatised water

Both Environment Secretaries Steve Reed and Emma Reynolds were clearly close to him

https://t.co/ivPGBO9gSH

[Michael Warburton @For_Film_Fans]

“Penalty!”

KES (1969)

As a working class kid maybe I was just biased but I’m all grown up now and so truly understand why this is one of the most honest, heartbreaking, human & wonderful films ever made.

#DavidBradley #BrianGlover #KenLoach

[Luan Hanratty @LuanHanratty]

Earl Grey is famous for his tea and for being Prime Minister, but he was lauded in his lifetime for his role in bringing democracy to the nation. At least, he began that long process. The public rewarded him with this monument, and you can't get more pride of place than that.

[PhilS @PStanton]

@saxena_puru Any recommended Inverse ETF's instead of Puts? Thank you

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

You'll want to be sitting down for this bit.

Water companies are currently £82.7 billion in debt, have paid themselves £85 billion in dividends, leak over a trillion of litres of water per year, dump sewage for almost 4 million hours per year, have been convicted of over 1,200 criminal acts since 1989 and an average of 35% of your bill goes on nothing but paying more interest and yet more dividends.

And not a single company has ever lost their operating licence. 👇

[Hiroshi Suzuki @AmbJapanUK]

Congratulations to Mr Kazuyuki Ishihara 👏 on winning Silver Gilt at Chelsea Flower Show!
He has won 13 Gold Medals, and last year, Garden of the Year as well as People’s Choice.
Hope many people will enjoy his beautiful 🇯🇵garden!!😄

[PhilS @PStanton]

@Capt_Fishpaste Its just highlighted the biased decision making every football fan has seen year after year in favour of the few at the top table.

[PhilS @PStanton]

@secondtierpod Whoever ends var

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

Repost if you’d like me to represent the UK at #Eurovision 2027.

[Emanuel Derman @emanuelderman.bsky @EmanuelDerman]

“In mathematics, your steady state is you are stuck. Research mathematics is frustrating. If it is not frustrating you are probably tackling problems that are too easy. So if you’re the kind of person that needs a daily high, then it’s probably not the right subject.”

[PhilS @PStanton]

@mynameisged @SAFCsource @SensibleSAFC @FansMuseum @safcmuseum @SunderlandDepre @SunderlandEcho You done the Cloughie one yet?

[Stu’s Football Flashbacks @stusfootyflash]

35 years ago today, Sunderland suffered First Division relegation at Maine Road. But just before half-time they scored twice in 4 mins, giving their 15,000 travelling fans hope.

The noise is incredible. Limbs are everywhere.

This is football at its best.

[WikiVictorian @wikivictorian]

Annunciation, by English painter John William Waterhouse (1914). In private collection.

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

Meet the Bletchley Park genius who cracked one of Nazi Germany’s most secure codes.

Helene Aldwinckle’s breakthrough on the ultra-secret Pink Luftwaffenführungsschlüssel gave the Allies the power to read critical Luftwaffe messages in real time.

Let's explore:
(🧵)

[Second Tier podcast @secondtierpod]

A throwback to the greatest dissertation of all-time.

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

That would be chic!