Dave in Essex 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

Good morning! This week's theme is Soho.
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'Frith Street, Rain' by Jonathan Stewardson
jonathanstewardson.com

👤 @jonathanstewardson.bsky.social

Wonderful!

Take a tour of the new cycle parking below Berlin's Potsdamer Platz.

Designed for utility, sport, electric and cargo bikes, it enables a smooth transition to public transport, while taking a disused and uncomfortable private retail corridor and reimagining it as a safe and inviting community space.

Photos of a futuristic-looking, brightly-lit, colourful bike parking facility and public passage beneath Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. The red and purple curvilinear space is lined with a variety of vertical and horizontal racks, each separated by a metal grill structure which incorporates LED lighting.

Photos of a futuristic-looking, brightly-lit, colourful bike parking facility and public passage beneath Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. The red and purple curvilinear space is lined with a variety of vertical and horizontal racks, each separated by a metal grill structure which incorporates LED lighting.

Photos of a futuristic-looking, brightly-lit, colourful bike parking facility and public passage beneath Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. The red and purple curvilinear space is lined with a variety of vertical and horizontal racks, each separated by a metal grill structure which incorporates LED lighting.

Photos of a futuristic-looking, brightly-lit, colourful bike parking facility and public passage beneath Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. The red and purple curvilinear space is lined with a variety of vertical and horizontal racks, each separated by a metal grill structure which incorporates LED lighting.

Beneath Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, an overlooked retail strip has been reborn as a bicycle parking facility and public passage connecting users to the S-Bahn station. Modest in scale but rich in possibilities, it integrates seamlessly into the revitalised entertainment, commercial and office centre.🧵

Fresh fears for South West's rail link in Dawlish after storms Taxpayer money has flowed into fixing the rail line connecting Cornwall with the rest of the UK - but the elements have other ideas.

Mentions of 'climate/ climate change'. Zero.

But 'costing taxpayers'/'Taxpayer money' in there? 🤔

And 'the elements have other ideas'. Right. It's them elements. Always them pesky elements.

You do know we can see exactly what you're doing here Auntie?

This is fine. 🙄

Fresh fears for South West's rail link in Dawlish after storms Taxpayer money has flowed into fixing the rail line connecting Cornwall with the rest of the UK - but the elements have other ideas.

Remarkable that climate change isn't mentioned anywhere in this article on the fragility of the Dawlish stretch of the SW main line

BBC News - The saga of a £165m rail line that keeps causing travel chaos
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You are not the first to have made that observation! Tip toe around the subject but not actually face up to it.

As banned by Mrs Thatcher because it was uncompetitive. 40 years to start putting right that travesty 🤬

Fabulous player. Saw him play for both West Indies and Middlesex.

"The press tends to create a negative discouraging atmosphere. Yet real progress is closely linked to the faith of a society who considers this progress possible."
Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)
quotesof.me/quote/d863ca...

This lot are off to have a whale of a time at this year's World Whale Day party 🎉

🐋 Take a moment to watch them go about their business in the knowledge that since commercial whaling was banned in 1986, populations have been bouncing back.

Images collected under scientific permit.
#WorldWhaleDay

Yes, but not quite on your scale!

Ha! Fair enough

The Caveman’s Lament   me think about her when sun rises me think about her when sun sets me say to her how much me love her she tell me love invent not yet   me make cave all warm and cosy me lie bearskin on cave floor me play song of love on bone flute she choose cave of Tim next door   me no more go out hunt mammoth me throw spear too short or long me sit in cave me paint her picture  she say me got perspective wrong   me cook meal to show me love her — diplodocus with fried beans — she say food anachronistic me not know what this means   stone age mighty hard for lovers yet rub two flints look what you get small sparks lead to big inferno but she say love invent not yet homo unrequitus

To mark Valentine’s Day, here is what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving love poem, written 1.5 million years ago by one of our earliest ancestors, homo unrequitus.

That’s a great picture of the gull with the Eel!

Actually exporting power today! BTW you might not want to advertise your address online

Beautiful day in Essex and Suffolk too (sorry Kevin)

Ethiopia? I thought they were right up there too?

This state’s power prices are plummeting as it nears 100% renewables South Australia is proving to the world that relying largely on wind and solar energy with battery back-up is incredibly cheap, with electricity prices tumbling by 30 per cent in a year and sometimes ...

You want lower electricity prices? Check our South Australia where these are down 30% in 1 year as the State nears 100% renewables - proving to the world that relying on wind and solar energy with battery back-up is incredibly cheap

www.newscientist.com/article/2514...

You’re very welcome and I enjoyed it, despite the mud!!

Snort-inducing from @alanbeattie.bsky.social, sunny and optimistic as ever on the proposals for a rare earths coalition.

www.ft.com/content/bd81...

FACTCHECK: Centrica's Chris O'Shea got blanket coverage for claiming electricity will cost more in 2030 than in energy crisis (Chris Stark: "he's wrong on this")

I asked Centrica for evidence – they didn’t reply

(Bills in crisis were >2x today, before huge govt subsidies)
1/4

Two weeks ago, Peter Mandelson told us he had no recollection of planning to buy a £2m apartment in Rio via a Panama holding company and a Brazilian company.

Yesterday we found notarised incorporation documents for the Brazilian company, with Mr Mandelson's signature.

Finally detailed, mixed media illustration of an overgrown kitchen garden in front of a Manor House set in wooded, rising ground

Other work by the Ladybird artists.
'The Old Farmyard, Findon Place'
Artist: SR Badmin

The High Seas Treaty is crucial for #rewilding the biodiversity of our oceans. It's encouraging to see the UK Government taking action for our seas globally, as we move one step closer to ratifying the treaty. We hope this continues a wave of change for UK seas and coasts too 🌊

Winter Bird Survey final visit completed this morning. Flock of Fieldfares, a single Redwing, pair of Kite and two Chiffchaff being the most remarkable. Huge number of deer tracks too. @bbs-birds.bsky.social #essexbirding

'London Visitors', Trafalgar Square (1874) by James Tissot

(Toledo Museum of Art)

Outstanding

Russia Lost 31,700 Troops in First Month of 2026—9,000 More Than It Recruited In January, Russian military losses surpassed reinforcements by 9,000. Ukrainian forces excelled in multiple missions, impacting Russia's energy sector.

Ukrainians are now saying that Russia lost 9000 more men in January that it was able to recruit. This is a key part of Ukrainian strategy.

united24media.com/latest-news/...

I met someone who grew up in the Azores. He told me of a farmer who had never seen the sea, didn’t see the point and had no desire to visit.