Hamish Harvey

C'mon, that's surely an AI error - the churchy equivalent of messed up fingers.

Car Size

xkcd nails car bloat

xkcd: Car Size xkcd.com/3167/

Tories scrapped half of HS2, which without the other half would actually make many train times worse.

People said “why don’t you focus on electrification of existing lines then” so now Labour, eager to proven they’re different from Tories, have scrapped all of that too.

On the first point - does make sense. On the second - it's delivering the other jobs you have already lined up I was thinking about. I can certainly imagine the client wanting the demolition finished asap though.

Many possible reasons for that - eg the contractor has two excavators and operators, and they need them somewhere else soon.

I'm sorry, I didn't notice the two types! I was wondering whether one quarry had made a market. Guess it's just a thing people expect to find. Interesting speculation why Italy has that and we don't.

A wonderfully complex piece of masonry, lost in Reading.

A shoebox sized block of stone (tuff) cut to be used as a brick

A disorganised pile of stone 'bricks'.

Several pallets of stone bricks.

There seems to be a big deal about 'eco-bricks' made from stone in the UK..., meanwhile in Italy, almost every building supplies outlet sells these.

Are they all from the same source, or same principle different suppliers?

A multi function printer manufactured and sold in 2025, sporting a number keypad to allow sending of faxes by manually dialing a number.

It's 2025. I could buy a multifunction printer without wifi. Or one with wifi and a fax machine.

And the flip-side to the lintel that wants to pass as an arch is the hidden key. Where the limitations of the stone call for an arch, but the appearance of an arch is unwanted, we get an arch in denial, with flat soffit and apparently vertical—not radial—joints.

For thousands of years we’ve been building with trabeated stone. For thousands of years it’s been chewed at, chased to abstraction. Repeatedly exhumed and revived, even after Roman concrete, even after Gothic vaults, after Rundbogenstil and Candela’s shells. Keeps coming back from the dead.

a 🧵:

The artful ruse isn't fooling gravity at the top centre there!

And yes, getting past the random giant picture of three happy students laughing at a salad at the top of the course page counts as one of those swipes.

164. Fatherford Viaduct — Bill Harvey Associates Limited We found Fatherford Viaduct on a walk around Okehampton, after following the East Oakment river down through a beautiful wooded valley. The heavy crusting of calcium carbonate tells some interesting s...

Bridge of the Month 164: We found Fatherford Viaduct on a walk around Okehampton, after following the East Oakment river down through a beautiful wooded valley. The heavy crusting of calcium carbonate tells some interesting stories.

www.billharveyassociates.com/bom/164-fath...

Penarth pier pavilion at dusk, from mid way along the pier looking back. The photo is taken at the middle of the pier, so everything is nearly symmetrical.

Lovely evening.

I’ve mulled over posting this for months now. But yesterday it came to a head. And I’m aware that the people who need to see it will either not be here, or will suggest that I’m lying.

I live near an asylum hotel. The reason I didn’t post earlier is that I didn’t want to raise undue attention

This is a thought provoking, bite sized little piece that boils down to, "don't give feedback on EVERYTHING, because not everything matters! give feedback on things that have impact."

I think it's a *great* exercise for the feedback-giver to think through the impact they want their advice to have.

Only 0.5% of 90,000 oil slicks reported over five-year period, analysis finds | Shipping industry | The Guardian Pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019 were compared against scientific study that used satellite imagery to count slicks

Imagine thinking wind turbines are ecocide where over five years fossil fuel tankers create 90,411 oil spills *and only bother to report 474 of them* - satellite analysis exposes high density "slick belts" coinciding with shipping lanes.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Mockup drawing of a UK parliament petition where the petitioner has asked for "good thing please" with description "we think the UK needs this". Government responded: "No."

Every UK petition is like this

Two in five arrested for last summer’s UK riots had been reported for domestic abuse Police data indicates overlaps between public violent disorder and domestic violence and abuse

In "Legitimate Concerns" news.

41% of the 899 arrested for taking part in Farage Riots last year had been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence.

For those arrested by one police force, this figure was 68%.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

screenshot of a recipe for Beef Fizz — 2 cans condensed beef broth, 1 cup chilled ginger ale, 2 tablespoons lemon juice — Combine ingredients and pour over ice in glasses. 6 to 8 servings.

when i have 6 to 8 enemies coming by the house

Side on view of a packhorse bridge. Plenty of water flows under it. A clean arch of the bridge is centre shot. Trees and bushes give us the the edging of this picture.

From Riverside looking north towards the bridge. We see the very thin arch of the bridge scanning the water. A large tree comes into the foreground from left of shot.

Most days, when im out filming, I come across a little joy or two.

Todays was this gorgeous Packhorse looking bridge along the fosse way.

Unusually wide construction joint, with whole stone sitting in there.

A bridge widened. Underneath Laverock Bridge, Mealbank, Cumbria. The left side once good for pack horses but then cars were invented.
#BridgesThursday

Govt axes development safeguards on eastern leg of HS2 - Place Yorkshire In news that may disappoint but not surprise Yorkshire's rail-users and property industry, the secretary of state for transport, Heidi Alexander, has lifted development restrictions along what would h...

Heidi Alexander's decision to remove the safeguarding of HS2's route from Birmingham to Leeds is short-sighted in the extreme. This is the most beneficial part of the whole HS2 scheme - as we said at the time that the construction of the leg was cancelled. www.placeyorkshire.co.uk/govt-axes-de...

construction drawing of a 2-light cusped Gothic-revival lancet with central mullion

🧵Learning to build by taking things apart:

Some 19th c theorists like Viollet-le-Duc were fond of banging on about the structural and constructional logic of the Gothic style, terms that feel inappropriate when applied to elements that seem purely aesthetic, like the cusps & featherings of tracery.

A medieval illustration showing two people pointing at a figure in the lower right corner who looks like he's trying to take off his chainmail but has gotten it stuck while it's over his head. The caption reads: "When I'm drunk AF and try to take off a turtleneck."

Same, medieval dudes. Same.

Earl's Croome, S door, with frontal chevron. the E jamb is covered in bees. They appear to be nesting between the timber door and the brick blocking

close-up of bees.

BEES

wide view of nave S showing pinned hazard tape (to protect bees)

i like my mid-to-late 12thc Anglo-Norman Romanesque S doors like I like my coffee.

Well actually I prefer them freely accessible primarily, but covered in bees is fun too

Breakfast Under The Bridge On finding awe in deeply uncomfortable things.

I think of Bill Harvey working on its build whenever I see anything of the Humber Bridge, @hamishharvey.bsky.social, including the comments in this case!
everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/breakfast-...
Thanks @mikeachim.bsky.social