Jason Piper

💔 Such awful news to have to share. You know our thoughts are with you all.

About twice as many people at Solihull Moors versus Forest Greeen Rovers (1568) as at all the anti-asylum protests at Saturday. It was one of a dozen non-league games in the 5th tier of English football.

Many more people at Charlton v Watford today (21,178) than at all asylum protests all summer

Are they not supposed to last longer than that? (Though I suppose that would be another factor in their declining popularity)

About half way through the summer holidays now and sharing this again for any parents / carers who’ve missed this - a thread of TOYS you can make with your children from scrap materials

How on earth do you find all this stuff out? Surely you’re on the other side of the big ditch to the primary sources, and I can’t believe it’s all been digitised already? (Secretly hoping you make repeated trips to the UK and I can buy you a pint* some time)

*Of eels, obviously.

No sympathy; you brought that one upon yourself.

80 yrs ago “computer” probably still meant “a woman who does calculations”; mainstream association with binary electronic machinery wouldn’t have kicked in until well after WWII. But the fallacy’s certainly been around long enough to do significant harm - since the 1970s at least; “living memory”.

Another stunning @nyogb.bsky.social concert. Even if I did spend the first 30 seconds visualising the floor pan of a red Ferrari; never saw Star Wars at the cinema, but saw Ferris Bueller (twice, and no idea how many times since on VHS and DVD).

Wasn’t Octopussy derived from short stories, and I can’t imagine they didn’t then do a book of the film?

A view across reed beds to trees on the skyline and a clear blue sky. Long evening shadows stretch across grass in the foreground and a small group of teenagers dressed all in black are walking along a path in the reeds.

Can think of worse places to be on a Friday evening.

Not quite.
They put a mug full of water with a teabag in it into a microwave; that’s not making “tea”, it’s perpetrating a Sirius Cybernetics Corp grade of beverage.

In fairness we did when they tried making tea with an entire harbour full of cold salt water. But tbh I think we’ve got them back with Colmans Mustard now anyway.

My kids’ school (which has way above average music provision) takes over a local venue twice a year for open mic night and the sound crew there are blown away by the number, standard and variety of bands and soloists. But it’s not the kids that are unusual, it’s the opportunity they get.

Any of you lovely piston-powered lot in with the 'Monster Truck" crowd?
I've learned that my colleague's son is obsessed with them and they camp at Santa Pod every year for the annual Monster Truck thing. Hoping I can find a way to set up a special intro/get a close up look at a truck or something

Is this the jumping off point for a “Keir Starmer has been cloned” conspiracy theory? Or has that already been done?

'When she's at the gig, she'll take her car,
and she'll drive us home, if there isn't a bar...'

Doors: 7:30pm
Selma French: 8:00pm
Teenage Fanclub: 9:00pm
Curfew: 11:00pm

See you all down the front...

I assume someone has done the line about how if they get into a fast enough rhythm of furl and unfurl it also has VTOL capability?

Prohibitions are not spells.

Law is not magic.

When you prohibit a thing, all that means is the thing may be attended by different legal consequences than before.

The thing is not extinguished by a mere prohibition: it can continue but in a different way with different (and unforeseen) effects.

The EU got caught between a rock and a hard place on this - preventing geolocation exploitation by MNEs combined with pan-EU consumer protection around eg warranty provision effectively drove some SMEs out of online sales as they couldn’t distinguish potentially ruinous warranty exposure.

Have had similar in another sphere - the ability to have frank discussions and develop reasoned positions based on exploring stuff which might be susceptible to misinterpretation (especially if quoted out of context) is beyond valuable.

Something something “evidence-based policy making vs policy-based evidence making”…

“…and in today’s special, umm, 30 second long edition…”

(I’d not have any issue using it in public presentations etc, but the instant you’re into anything under Chatham House Rule or confidential it’s an entirely different matter)

I’ve started getting meeting invitations which specifically preclude their use, and warnings from at least one organisation that they’re monitoring for them and will automatically kick anyone found using them. (Not sure how that technology works, but sounds useful)

ISTR someone did a size comparison to WWII tanks a couple of years ago and there’s stuff on the roads with a bigger footprint than a Sherman tank, which seems unnecessary. (Also more recently a “then vs now” which showed engine bays swelling while the load deck has atrophied)

Remembering John Cooper Fitch, born #OnThisDay in 1917, who raced 2 #F1 GPs, won the #MilleMiglia, took 3 class wins at Le Mans, won races all over the world, & whose #NewYorkTimes obit (written by Douglas Martin; see screengrab) starts with about the best intro I’ve ever read.

Getting my ideas across in 300 characters is an incredibly good discipline. But developing them in the first place involves thinking, talking, arguing, listening and explaining. None of which is written down.

I think I might have asked this before, but:
We're off to Bridlington for a week shortly. If you have any suggestions on what we might want to do, I'd really love them 😊
We're already planning on Bempton Cliffs, Sewerby Hall, a day in Whitby, plenty of time by the sea, Bridlington Spa.

Racing car taking a corner with trackside banners for Zoom all over the place

Good to see Formula 1 management employing subtitles at races 👍

Hot dog spill shuts down highway in Pennsylvania commuters' wurst nightmare By Associated Press UPDATED: August 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM ET SHREWSBURY, Pa. (AP) - A truckload of hot dogs spilled across a Pennsylvania interstate Friday after a crash that briefly clogged the heavily traveled artery in both directions.

A writer waits a lifetime for a moment like this.