Steph Boland
@stephanieboland.bsky.social
Writing, editing and tech | Formerly New Statesman, Prospect | One of those cycling types stephanieboland.co.uk
Thrilled to find “The Mirror Has Two Faces” on Netflix - a charming work of fiction which asks you to pretend Barbara Streisand is not an unobscurable smokeshow m.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAv...
Official Trailer THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996, Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges)
YouTube video by Trailer World
m.youtube.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Thrilled to find “The Mirror Has Two Faces” on Netflix - a charming work of fiction which asks you to pretend Barbara Streisand is not an unobscurable smokeshow m.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAv...
Is there any legal precedent where somebody has successfully sued their partner for leaving a ginormous spider in the sink?
December 3, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Is there any legal precedent where somebody has successfully sued their partner for leaving a ginormous spider in the sink?
Reposted by Steph Boland
Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.
December 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.
Reposted by Steph Boland
“--it's not gasps and blood and falling about---that isn't what makes it death. It's just a man failing to reappear, that's all ---now you see him, now you don't, that the only thing that's real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back...”
--Tom Stoppard
--Tom Stoppard
November 29, 2025 at 7:07 PM
“--it's not gasps and blood and falling about---that isn't what makes it death. It's just a man failing to reappear, that's all ---now you see him, now you don't, that the only thing that's real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back...”
--Tom Stoppard
--Tom Stoppard
Reposted by Steph Boland
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
November 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
Reposted by Steph Boland
Vincenzo Latronico has his own little death in Venice. @thetls.bsky.social
November 28, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Vincenzo Latronico has his own little death in Venice. @thetls.bsky.social
Reposted by Steph Boland
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years
Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found.
A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Reposted by Steph Boland
Nice dataviz from the ONS showing median wealth split by category at different points of the distribution: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
November 27, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Nice dataviz from the ONS showing median wealth split by category at different points of the distribution: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
Reposted by Steph Boland
I like this post but it stops short. It might be that building loads of flats in central London doesn't reduce rents much, but that means it's creating an enormous and growing stream of rents. It's a gdp factory as @ironeconomist.bsky.social and I have discussed previously. And we need that too.
open.substack.com/pub/backofmi...
"It can be noted that supply and demand don’t have an obvious role in this model, which appears to drive some people crazy...for the very best locations, pricing will be almost completely inelastic to supply"
"It can be noted that supply and demand don’t have an obvious role in this model, which appears to drive some people crazy...for the very best locations, pricing will be almost completely inelastic to supply"
david ricardo is not easily denied
the law of rent and its implications
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:34 AM
I like this post but it stops short. It might be that building loads of flats in central London doesn't reduce rents much, but that means it's creating an enormous and growing stream of rents. It's a gdp factory as @ironeconomist.bsky.social and I have discussed previously. And we need that too.
Reposted by Steph Boland
What is Reform-curious voters' biggest hesitation?
The party's lack of governing experience
That's according to new @thinksinsight.bsky.social research shared exclusively with PolHome this weekend
Reform as a "risk" to the country, and a single-issue party (immigration), are also concerns
The party's lack of governing experience
That's according to new @thinksinsight.bsky.social research shared exclusively with PolHome this weekend
Reform as a "risk" to the country, and a single-issue party (immigration), are also concerns
Reform Curious Voters Worry That The Party Lacks Experience
Voters who are thinking about backing Reform UK at the next general election are concerned that the party lacks experience of government.
www.politicshome.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:17 AM
What is Reform-curious voters' biggest hesitation?
The party's lack of governing experience
That's according to new @thinksinsight.bsky.social research shared exclusively with PolHome this weekend
Reform as a "risk" to the country, and a single-issue party (immigration), are also concerns
The party's lack of governing experience
That's according to new @thinksinsight.bsky.social research shared exclusively with PolHome this weekend
Reform as a "risk" to the country, and a single-issue party (immigration), are also concerns
Tickled by these photos for NA-KD where the shoot concept was “woman finds office air con too cold”
November 20, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Tickled by these photos for NA-KD where the shoot concept was “woman finds office air con too cold”
Reposted by Steph Boland
November 19, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Steph Boland
(And here's the Transatlantic Sessions performance I mention, which includes a young Rufus Wainwright, his mother and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Emmylou Harris.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Bo...
Wild Mountain Thyme - Dick Gaughan | Transatlantic Sessions | TG4
YouTube video by TradTG4
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:12 PM
(And here's the Transatlantic Sessions performance I mention, which includes a young Rufus Wainwright, his mother and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Emmylou Harris.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Bo...
Reposted by Steph Boland
There were 92,400 Lego cutlasses inside the shipping container that fell off the Tokio Express back in 1997. This one was found in August by Laura Dale on a beach near Newquay some 28 years after it plummeted into the ocean.
Photo: Laura Dale
Photo: Laura Dale
November 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
There were 92,400 Lego cutlasses inside the shipping container that fell off the Tokio Express back in 1997. This one was found in August by Laura Dale on a beach near Newquay some 28 years after it plummeted into the ocean.
Photo: Laura Dale
Photo: Laura Dale
Reposted by Steph Boland
Uh
this is
enormous
this is
enormous
British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium. This molecule kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. buff.ly/YlXaONo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Scientists find hidden antibiotic 100x stronger against deadly superbugs
A team of scientists discovered a hidden antibiotic 100 times stronger than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA. The molecule had been overlooked for decades in a familiar bacterium. It…
buff.ly
November 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Uh
this is
enormous
this is
enormous
Reposted by Steph Boland
Hadn't clocked until this tweet that this is true of every defeated Labour government other than New Labour: more votes in defeat in 1951 than in victory in 1945, more in 1970 than in 1964. And frankly, whether they win or lose next time, would bet large amounts will get more votes than 2024.
Labour got more votes in 1979 then they did in Oct 1974.
November 15, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Hadn't clocked until this tweet that this is true of every defeated Labour government other than New Labour: more votes in defeat in 1951 than in victory in 1945, more in 1970 than in 1964. And frankly, whether they win or lose next time, would bet large amounts will get more votes than 2024.
Reposted by Steph Boland
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
November 14, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
Reposted by Steph Boland
The birth of the author
November 12, 2025 at 11:31 AM
The birth of the author
Reposted by Steph Boland
Clever move by Camilla to stop the opposition Queens lipreading her tactics
November 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Clever move by Camilla to stop the opposition Queens lipreading her tactics
Reposted by Steph Boland
❄️🍣 All supermarket sushi salmon is frozen. Why?
A) food safety laws. Freezing kills pathogens
B) frozen fish is easier to cut.
Here’s the machine which ensures every salmon slice for nigiri is 7g 🧵2/5
A) food safety laws. Freezing kills pathogens
B) frozen fish is easier to cut.
Here’s the machine which ensures every salmon slice for nigiri is 7g 🧵2/5
November 8, 2025 at 7:52 AM
❄️🍣 All supermarket sushi salmon is frozen. Why?
A) food safety laws. Freezing kills pathogens
B) frozen fish is easier to cut.
Here’s the machine which ensures every salmon slice for nigiri is 7g 🧵2/5
A) food safety laws. Freezing kills pathogens
B) frozen fish is easier to cut.
Here’s the machine which ensures every salmon slice for nigiri is 7g 🧵2/5
John Cooper Clarke is living a fine old life
November 6, 2025 at 8:04 AM
John Cooper Clarke is living a fine old life
Reposted by Steph Boland
Reposted by Steph Boland
I’m so glad to announce that my campaign has been a success, and the £318 fee that survivors of domestic abuse needed to pay to keep their address private when seeking financial assistance has been SCRAPPED 🎉
Thank you @sarahsackman.bsky.social
Thank you @sarahsackman.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 4:52 PM
I’m so glad to announce that my campaign has been a success, and the £318 fee that survivors of domestic abuse needed to pay to keep their address private when seeking financial assistance has been SCRAPPED 🎉
Thank you @sarahsackman.bsky.social
Thank you @sarahsackman.bsky.social
Reposted by Steph Boland
