Matt Nicholas

This is the content I verified my age on BlueSky for

Online Safety Act: "a little inconvenience is a small price to protect our children"

Asking people to drive responsibly where there are children: *tumbleweeds*

Stumbled upon Samson's Jack, a 3.2m Bronze Age standing stone, while walking the Gower last week. A piece of history almost swallowed by a Llanrhidian hedge.

coflein.gov.uk/en/site/305538

#StandingStoneSunday

Nice reminder in here of value of public transport in helping people build physical activity into their daily routines:

“People using public transport clock up 19 minutes of walking daily just getting around.”

Investing in integrated public transport & active travel = better public health.

I maintained it by arriving only just in time to help with the pre-event setup 😂

There's another Nottingham Green Runners meet-up at Forest Rec parkrun, and this time I'm hoping not to arrive quite so last minute..

Number of city rail commuters in England and Wales passes pre-Covid levels Two million passengers took weekday trains into cities last autumn, the highest number since records began

Capacity issues ahead. We've returned to the passenger growth trend but the pipeline of improvements is a shadow of what it was in 2019. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Unfortunately the name has a disappointingly prosaic origin, coming from the area being the site of the medieval town's archery butts

www.storyofleicester.info/a-place-to-l...

A street sign affixed to a brick wall reading "BUTT CLOSE LANE"

A screenshot from Street View of the same sign, which Google found a little spicy and blurred out

Butt Close Lane in Leicester, so risqué that Google blurs the name in Street View

Jesus, that looks like it's been designed by someone who hates young children and wants to send them flying every 30 seconds.

Recently (and briefly) my employer's job adverts started stating 'free soft drinks' as a benefit. Surprised, and wondering if I'd missed out on a load of Tango, I asked what they meant. Tap water. Fucking tap water.🙄

What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.

The next phase of electrification of the Midland Main Line has been paused. Given the exisiting trains in use on this stretch of railway and the costs and time needed to electrify the route we are focusing our investment on other schemes over the SR period. We will continue to keep the potential for full electrification of the route under review as part of our plans to decarbonise our railways and as funding becomes available in future.

I see Nottingham Station is to remain the most polluted part of our city centre for the foreseeable then as electrification of the railway has been paused, again.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Obviously some of the people involved in designing these retail buildings recognised the opportunity they represented, as the responses to this reveal there’s clearly a secret world of stupendous views hidden inside unassuming department store cafés!

I really dislike those new cycle paths with the low kerbs Nottingham keeps on building, they're so frequently blocked by taxis using them as parking bays.

It's worth a revisit just to take in the renovated Crescent

A cameraman and a sound guy film someone talking about old shit in Wales

Google photos reminding me of that time 13 years ago that @aliceforward.bsky.social and I were local diggers on a Time Team in Pembrokeshire—spending hours standing around, wondering why the site was even chosen... and if they were 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦   about to machine through that very obvious service trench

obviously this is mental in and of itself but man alive it really does suck extra hard when you think about all the ACTUAL CRIMES the police just isn't investigating, because of "lack of resources"

In a related vein I always wondered why Debenhams never made more of their top floor & balcony: perfect view over Slab Square, and they stuck the mattress section up there and blocked the windows 🤷

They really ought to make more of it, could be a fantastic champagne bar (or at least a smarter cafe experience) with that view

Tony Robinson's version of the Odyssey is superb! When I was a kid we had the audio book on tape, and it helped while away many a long car journey.

Met police arrest activists holding signs referring to Palestine Action Officers arrest protesters day after direct action group banned as terrorist organisation

It’s almost as if arbitrarily designating a non-violent group as terrorists doesn’t automatically mean that everyone else agrees with you.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Nottingham city hall rises above the rooftops

Seven years living in Nottingham, and I'm only just discovering that the John Lewis café has some of the best views in the city

The front cover of Secret Garden, a 2021 album by µ-Ziq and Mrs Jynx

as Julie Andrews definitely sang, a spoonful of μ-Ziq helps the medicine go down

youtu.be/5GHTDMMsCYY?...

The cover of Yu Su's debut album from 2021 'Yellow River Blue'.

The baby started nursery and immediately picked up and generously shared a cold. Kicking off Saturday coughing and vibing to Yu Su in an attempt to (gently) find some energy

youtu.be/O5fxER3neks?...

On renationalization it's worth remembering that the state still owns all the properties and English Heritage is now just a charity with a contract to manage them. It owns nothing other than its brand and gift shop stock.

I'm not sure the NT would want most of the sites (bar obvious money spinners like Stonehenge). There is a reason most of them ended up in state care and not NT to begin with!

Another part of the state falls apart as a consequence of decisions made by the Coalition to try and save a few pennies

English Heritage were told to be more like the National Trust, but that's like comparing apples with some badly damaged apples in need of conservation work. English Heritage was always the curator of last resort, taking properties which other organisations wouldn't touch (1/2)

Bob Vylan update: apparently calling for the mass killing of young people is fine if it’s in the Spectator.