Emma Bates

"Nigella has awarded this an 8 for its beautiful plating. Unfortunately Alfie has given it a 3 because the potatoes are touching the veg."

Not my idea, but I think something like 'Kids and Chefs' would be great: the meal is assessed each time by a famous chef *and* a picky five-year-old, and the score at the end comes from both of them.

Orkney might just be the most welcoming place I've ever visited as a tourist.

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

I once walked from Cambridge to Ely. Total distance: 18 miles. Elevation gain: 30 ft.

It's a lovely walk, though.

I find it delicious in a sausage roll but inedible on toast; I am the perfect balanced sample.

Vanderlyle in Cambridge is great. Bonus points for going above and beyond when I went there with my mum, who's coeliac.

we’re in the vet’s office waiting room and they just called for Agamemnon. we all looked at the Great Dane but it turns out Agamemnon is an orange kitten in a backpack that makes him look like an astronaut cheese puff

I once heard a woman in Sainsbury's in Oxford answer her phone with "hello, I'm just in Waitrose."

I didn't realise there were inter-Waitrose hierarchies as well.

Life on Mars (UK version) utterly nailed the ending.

A Tale Of One City And Two Henry Smiths These two London landlords are separated by four centuries — but joined by a common name and business interests.

Set out six months ago to investigative some dubious evictions. Ended up writing a sprawling story spread over 450 years about London property deals, the ethics of money lending, Tommy Robinson, Barbary pirates, Jacobean earls, and wealth in the capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/henry-smit...

A forlorn landscape of layered rocks in the foreground, with hills fading into the background haze. At upper top right, a small crescent moon, and a bright star.

Open up this picture fully.

Then look at the surface of Mars.

Then look up to the top right.

Spot Mars' moon Phobos high in the sky.

Then notice the bright spot beside Phobos.

That's Earth.

I'm similarly surprised there aren't a bunch of new Ukrainian restaurants in the UK.

Civ represents it decently well, in that frigates are wildly powerful for about 300 years of the game.

a flight track of a plane drawing a christmas tree

props to this christmas lad I’ve just spotted on @flightradar24.com

*gasps and clutches laptop screen*

GIVE IT ME

The sun rising over the London skyline this morning, only it’s a very cloudy sky and the sun is visible only as an orange streak of fire that coincidentally seems to be emanating from the spire on the top of St Paul’s dome

Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower

Just had a dentist's appointment at 2.30 and I didn't even think to make the joke. Devastating.

God: behold the horse, my finest creation. fast. strong. powerful. mankind shall ride them into battle for thousands of years.

angel: wow, they must be nearly indestructible

God: lol no if they lay down weird one time it's pretty much over

Also feels like there's a "lead a horse to water" element here - if you've got no interest in the subject, are you really going to get much benefit from it even if it *is* well taught and potentially relevant?

I think for me, part of the "premium experience" has to translate to "invest in ushers", because one of the things that puts me off going to the cinema is the possibility of the person next to me spending the whole film on their phone or having a loud conversation with their friend.

The similarity between the challenges for dentists and for anyone trying to book a driving tests makes me wonder just how many other things are broken in this specific way.

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

On the plus side it means you can now get "Dubai chocolate ice cream" (i.e. chocolate and pistachio) which is the tits.

Can you share the answer? I can't figure it out either!

We're watching the wholesale burning of every scrap of dignity afforded to trans people in the UK, their rights, their medical services, their employment, their place within society, their bodily functions.

It is a disgrace, and a disgusting stain on the government and media of this country.

If we're starting "what is a Christmas movie" discourse early this year, I will tap the sign

My friend went to art school where everyone smoked but her. She didn't want to feel left out so when they went out for a cigarette break, she joined them and very slowly nibbled her way through a Freddo.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera has this as an explicit part of its worldbuilding: magic appears and scientific progress stops.

Barbados is just a shade over 9 hours and should have gorgeous weather in February.