6to24characters

Disappointed that no-one figured it was Quirke-y. "greasy, oily and smelling faintly of eggs"

One other 7/7 thread today. Because I think how the bus network got running again is a real testament to some serious heroes that day:

The bus drivers and staff who got that network running again and got London home that night.

And TfL/the Mayor disobeyed the Security Services to make it happen /1

Dege's weather unit had been dropped on Svalbard in August 1944 and managed, in temperatures that reached 40 degrees below, to establish a weather station in Rijpfjord on the island.

From there, they broadcast weather reports back to Germany via a station in Tromsø /2

As anyone who’s spent any time at all in even a smallish organisation can tell you, much institutional memory ends up vested in about three people (let’s call them Olwen, Christine, and Elaine). They tend not to be at the top, and often, this is highly gendered.

YouTube video by Pavel Jirásek Hlavní nadraží Praha - znělka 02 (Dlouhá verze)

STOP what you are doing, find some headphones or a secluded location, and watch this. I am crying with laughter and admiration at an idea seen through to its (nearly) bitter end. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD3Q... Sound--as they say--on.

YouTube video by CrystalRoseCreations Mitchell and Webb: "Are we the baddies?"

youtu.be/ToKcmnrE5oY?...

A light blue diagram depicting the sea, with the water's surface at the top, and just below it is an outline of the Mary Rose, with the depth (12m, 40ft or 6.7 fathoms). There is a line showing the seabed, which takes a rapid dive into the vertical...

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked,

"If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?"

Allow our scaled diagram to explain...

The Strange, Unsettling Story of British Steel Why the fate of a blast furnace in Scunthorpe might have much deeper implications for this country

✍️I visited British Steel last week - just as workers were discovering that the plant's Chinese owners were effectively planning to starve the blast furnaces to death.
It was a strange, unsettling experience. With deep ramifications. Some thoughts: edconway.substack.com/p/the-strang...

It turns out the Rule of Law needs lots of people of good faith to recognise/accept it, otherwise it doesn't work.

Venezuelan patrol vessel Naiguatá. It's your typical small warship, and I'd like to draw especial attention to the fact that in this image it's equally typical in being above the water. This is what professional authors call "foreshadowing"...

Five years ago today it seemed that the golden age of naval idiocy had disappeared forever.

That was before the Venezuelan patrol vessel Naiguatá managed to recapture some of this spirit by fighting - at least at that point - the dumbest action of the 21st century.

FADFO A lot of people have a 'need for chaos', as long as there's no chaos

🌭🐆📈NEW POST ON FADFO 📈🐆🌭

Wait, what's FADFO? A sneaky attempt to coin a neologism & a response to the memes you see in the emojis: hotdog suit guy, leopards eating faces party, and the FAFO graph. What happens when you F#$% Around but you Don't Find Out? 1/n

benansell.substack.com/p/fadfo

The pandering to Trump must end — it only encourages his tyranny

The pandering to Trump must end — it only encourages his tyranny | ✍️ Matthew Syed

I'm not sure about 'master of the art' or what would count as successful bullshitting. I suppose actually being right (without realising it at the time) might count as success so Johnson wouldn't necessarily be any good.

It would be interesting to see how this changes depending on the motivation. Is bullshit more likely if there's the prospect of a bigger reward?

Journal article called Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives?

"Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do
We Know about Their Lives?"

Just read this brilliant paper that used the PISA tests to look at who bullshits.

It asked 40,000 15yos to explain a fake maths term, eg Subjunctive scaling.

So guess what it found? 🧵

Obviously you need to build a new house of books

Image description: This poem is presented in the form an excel spreadsheet, with words in each cell. The line ‘Our cells shall merge themselves together’ is in a longer merged cell, and there are filter arrows on the line ‘Remove this filter from my heart’. Love Excels Let's spread ourselves on sheets of love, and turn our data into poetry. Our cells shall merge themselves together as you wrap your text around me. Our sum is greater than our parts, let's crunch our figures without compunction. Remove this filter from my heart, you give me form and function. We shall frolic among the formulae, pivot our tables now and often. I will total all your rows and you can add my column. Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘Love Excels’.

3-1 now

The League 1 stats are interesting for #wafc.

Canal at Haigh

If it was just Bonfire night that wouldn't be so bad. It's when fireworks are going off every night for two weeks before and a week after.

If we manage to connect #JUSTtheTalk to justthetalk.co.uk, it might be easier for everyone to find each other

"This army is very small. That army is very far away"

x.com/TheMERL/stat...

I wish the @themerl.bsky.social would post this sort of thing here

I first bought The Colour of Magic (in 1984?) after reading a review (by Dave Langford?) I White Dwarf

Must be based on his extensive experience of winning elections. How many is it now?