Dialectographer (Mitch Miller)

Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry The official channel of the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry. The Inquiry is investigating the devolved strategic response to the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022....

Today our Trustee and Jnr Vice President of the Showman's Guild Alex James Colquhoun will give evidence to the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on the impact of lockdown on our community & the fairground industry. It starts in about 10 mins & you can follow it live here: www.youtube.com/@covidinquir...

There has been talk of a national memorial for Jane Haining for years now, but it doesn't seem to have come to much yet. There's a small plaque for her on a stone that's part of the cairn marking the Scottish Parliment in a lovely spot up on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, but I hope we do more.

Not wild about it, but you need to take into account it being a by-election (opportunity for extending the middle finger) and the fact Larkhall is in this constituency (Reform seems to have devoured the Tory Orangeman vote). I note that Lab, Cons and Reform all had Lodge members as candidates too.

There's A Way To Stop The Algorithmic Spread Of Hate It's well past time social media companies are forced to face the horrors they've created

Wrote about an effort to make social media companies pay for the hate that spreads on their platforms

badfaithtimes.com/theres-a-way...

Not reliable reference but Social Changes had a poll were they modelled turnout scenarios. Big assumptions

Am I right in thinking that a neuroscientist doesn’t know that all science is theoretical and thus, has the same understanding of what theory means as a flat-rather?

Mayor Brown making Blight the head of DOPE- the Department of Pure Evil

Blight saying “Come on, let’s make Beanotown much worse”

Blight saying he’ll sack all the police officers

Blight saying he can do whatever he wants

In the Beano this week Bananaman’s enemy General Blight becomes the head of DOPE - the Department of Pure Evil.

Lucca’s an amazing town. Need to go back there…

Artist Mitch Miller speaking in front of a wall of portraits of former RIAS presidents.

TV Screen showing the cover of Concrete Dreams book.

A room of audience members, Alison Irvine reading from a book, architect Malcolm Fraser, and many portraits on the wall.

I loved our talk at the @riasbookshop.bsky.social on #Cumbernauld. Chaired excellently by architect Malcolm Fraser and full of heated discussion from the audience, it was a great night. @nlheritage.bsky.social @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social @dialectographer.bsky.social Thanks for having us, RIAS!

Thanks so much @riasbookshop.bsky.social !

Giving this another wee punt in case anyone interested might have missed it yesterday. Fairs are a vital part of our heritage - it would be a great cultural loss if we were to allow them to fade away.

Survey of Endangered and LOST FAIRS in Scotland Help us identify ENDANGERED and LOST FAIRS in Scotland Fair Scotland is gathering a list of fairgrounds and local galas that are LOST or AT RISK of being cancelled due to nearby development, complaint...

Superb article Dani! For those unable to access, please consider filling out/sharing our survey aimed at improving our knowledge of lost and endangered fairs in Scotland. You can access it here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The show must go on: The fight to save the last of the Scottish fairs Fairs are more than a mish mash of rides and stalls plonked on any old spot that keeps them out of the way, writes Dani Garavelli, they are an…

“Fairs are an accretion of centuries’ of collective memory, their identities bound up - historically, aesthetically, emotionally - with the land on which they stand." I loved writing this @heraldscotland.bsky.social piece on fairs & the fight to save them. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2509695...

BookshopLATES... Concrete Dreams Join the award-winning artists of Recollective to discover Cumbernauld Town Centre through the eyes of its residents, past and present.

Come and see Recollective (myself, @alisonirvine.bsky.social and @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social) at @riasbookshop.bsky.social this Wednesday (23rd April) at 6.30pm talking about Concrete Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Cumbernauld Town Centre.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshopla...

BookshopLATES... Concrete Dreams Join the award-winning artists of Recollective to discover Cumbernauld Town Centre through the eyes of its residents, past and present.

If you're interested in Cumbernauld, architecture, social history, stories, photography and illustration, & if you can get to Edinburgh on 23rd April, this is the event for you! @dialectographer.bsky.social @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social @riasbookshop.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshopla...

The Le Pen ruling is good for liberal democracy, writes Tarik Abou-Chadi The Oxford professor says it shouldn’t matter whether the verdict emboldens the hard right or not

For the @economist.com, I wrote about the Le Pen verdict. In liberal democracies, the law needs to be applied even if that strengthens the far right. But here, we should not just assume that this will help the RN. On the contrary. It's a good moment for democracy.

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

Au Revoir Les Enfants Trigger warning: Nazis

I returned to my own substack this week with musings of fascism on film. Do you remember the first Nazi you saw on screen? How did films of the past bring us warnings for the future? I take a look at a film that shook me to my childhood core; Au Revoir Les Enfants.
open.substack.com/pub/emmalenn...

Post your favourite Doctor Who. Wrong answers only:

I note this was written by three policy interns, a tech-bro and an academic who should frankly be ashamed of himself.

We need immediate pushback on this garbage, although 'taxing the people so that billionaires don't have to pay a dime' has got to be a hard one to sell...

I suppose the real question then is- is politics *doing* its job here? The government has shown very little stomach for addressing these issues so far. Having said that, these kind of political film show events tend in practice, to be rather empty gestures.

This should really be all the evidence anyone needs to ensure that official accounts on X/Twitter for every level of government, every political party concerned for decency, and every pubic service should be closed down. It is no longer a social network, it is a Musk-Trump propaganda site.

I'm looking forward to this event on our latest Recollective project. Concrete Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Cumbernauld Town Centre.
23rd April @dialectographer.bsky.social Chris Leslie

Image of a Skydiver ride at Dumfries' March Fair, 2024. Courtesy of TS Beall.

Hello Bluesky! We are Fair Scotland, a Registered Charity that advocates for Scottish Showpeople & the rich Fairground culture they sustain. Follow us for updates on events, new research and resources on the Scottish Show Community & informed comment on all things Fairground!
@tsbeall.bsky.social

Lucille Pullar speaks on Showpeople culture and heritage at Dumfries' 2024 March Fair. Image courtesy of TS Beall

Archive Image of Dumfries Rood Fair, c1900.

Panorama of Dumfries Rood Fair. Courtesy of TS Beall.

We're delighted to announce our programme of special FREE events, screenings & walks that celebrate the history of the Dumfries Fairs and highlight their precarious future (22nd-29th March 2025)

Further details and booking information here: bit.ly/DumfriesFair_Events

We'll see you on the 'Sands!

Also good to see Alison Irvine, Chris Leslie and @dialectographer.bsky.social’s Cincrete Dreams. A very thoughtful representation of Cumbernauld.

"Yesterday I wrote a piece for the Guardian about my decision to step down as an Associate Editor at the Royal Society’s journal Open Science. The response has been overwhelming."

My latest substack.
open.substack.com/pu...

Elon Musk is a proven danger to good science, but the Royal Society won’t say so. That’s why I resigned | Kit Yates It is vital to act, and I urge colleagues to do so. How can we stand by and laud this man while he undermines scientific integrity? asks academic and author Kit Yates

🚨I promised I'd say more on the Royal Society and Elon Musk, so here it is. 🚨

I've resigned my position as Associate Editor at Royal Society's journal Open Science in protest at their lack of action over Elon Musk.

My op-ed in @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thoughts, Bluesky? If so, please add them below; or if of interest, please share. This is very important work, I think; if Germany’s domestic politics continues on its current course, the next four years are a worrying period. And the AfD will play a key role in that.

…I don’t get it.

@liverpoolecho.co.uk @exploreliverpool.bsky.social and everyone else in the area. You may enjoy some of the events we have put on for #WorldBookDay. Join us.