Tom Lean

Dame Stephanie Shirley obituary Pioneering computer scientist, founder of her own software company, philanthropist and determined autism campaigner

RIP Steve. One of the most extraordinary people I have ever spoken with. Her refugee to tech entrepreneur philanthropist life story is amazing, but it's her sense of decency that sticks most in my memory, deciding to live "a life that had been worth saving" www.theguardian.com/education/20...

**cough** www.jstor.org/stable/44993...

I cannot recall a game of Arkham when I have rolled this hilariously and consistently badly.

why in The Last of Us do they go on a first date to hunt zombies in the horrible supermarket, when they could instead hold hands at their local rural history museum?

A theatre sign for a knights tale the musical

In the queue for A Knight's Tale, one of our party has genuinely only just realised this isn't actually a faithful performance of Chaucer in the original Middle English

Captain Haddock looking very frazzled, saying, “What a week, huh?” Tintin leans into the frame and says, “Captain, it’s Wednesday.” Snowy is very excited about the drink he has found.

A view of a rainy day looking out across a lake

Not the best day for a walk

An Arkham Horror board game, covered in doom tokens, which is not going the players' way.

This is all going a bit wrong....

You can use a ZX Spectrum to "do everything from run a business to study your biorhythms you can brush up your history, even land a plane!" A more innocent time for IT perhaps.

A long line of silver mig fighters in the rain at a museum

A drizzle of MiGs

Historian from the future, readinge thrugh the March 2025 posts on thys site, Ich hope wyth all myne hearte that yower tyme ys bettir than these dayes we now endure.

A bloke standing in the cramped dark cockpit of a Vulcan bomber

Had a grand day out learning about the awesome work of the Avro Heritage Centre in sunny Stockport. Amazing to stand in the cockpit of a cold war era Vulcan bomber built to deter the USSR. Thank goodness those dark days of history are behind us.

I think you were more in touch Europe/UK than many Europeans

OMG are they funding a TSR2 reboot?

Mom: "We have a supercarrier at home." The supercarrier at home:

When was the last time when Britain wasn't in crisis?
I have a vague feeling there might have been a few months in the late 1990s, but that could just be nostalgia, otherwise it just seems like muddling through crisis (economic, social (real or imagined), the odd world war) seems to be the default?

1940s leaflet on cabbage growing

Good to see my weekend's reading materials arrived before the storm hit

This is both an incredibly niche thing but I think it should be more of a thing. Caffè Nero subscribes to the British Newspaper Archive so it’s all free on their wifi. There. I said it.

Trump claims Manchester atom split as US achievement - BBC News Trump speech hailed the US feat, but New Zealander Sir Ernest Rutherford oversaw the trial in Manchester.

Did not have "Former PhD supervisor in factual dispute with Trump, in national news" on my 2025 bingo card... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What's the correct etiquette for when you kick someone's water bottle into the swimming pool, because, A:you're very short sighted, and B: it was in a silly place anyway? Am I right in thinking it's pretend it didn't happen and walk away to the showers without making eye contact with anyone? Right?

Christmas tradition achievement unlocked. 🔓 🎄

Shadow puppets of a train, witch and dino.

My day so far.

Dim problem!

The delightful 'Fromage'

A board game about cheese. Small wooden wedges fill spaces in a quartered board

Finally! My loves of cheese and worker placement games are brought together in one place.

A boat made of tinfoil floating on a sea of the inside of a crisp packet, on a pub table

Guess who didn't read the book but went to bookgroup anyway...

A black cat asleep on a windowsill

Friday cat has had enough this week

This is the sort of cat poop naval history crossover I joined this platform for

Old chained library books

Gated old bookshelves

A dark, wooden, very old looking library corridor lined with bookcases with grills covering them

Have to love ̶M̶e̶d̶e̶a̶v̶a̶l̶ ̶M̶e̶d̶i̶a̶e̶v̶i̶l̶ Early Modern solutions for preventing book theft. Interesting morning at Chetham's delightfully atmospheric Library

black and white photo of a single stack, run down naval vessel.

This is HMS Fidelity. Built in Liverpool in 1920. Served as a Royal Navy commando and covert action ship during WW2.

I think Fidelity might be unique among WW2 Royal Navy combat vessels.

Her First Officer was a woman: the absolutely fascinating Lt Cdr (effective) Madeleine Barclay. /1