Agent of obscure enterprises

I’ve been asked to write an article for the BBC website:

Why People Should Listen To #TheArchers

How would you answer that question? What do you get out of listening?

Please email your thoughts to keridaviesresearch@gmail.com

Many thanks!

And yet…not all writing endures. In this painting from c1490, we see a man taking down notes on a wax tablet. You can see the metal stylus he uses has a “rake” at one end for erasing once he needs to re-use the wax.

One for the #ea-nasir fans there

This is U N B E L I E V A B L E. #Kilauea

In case you were any doubt about how brilliantly ridiculous this cat is from the thread below, I thought I would post this exclusive video clip as absolute confirmation.

I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.

political science

I fucking love memes you can understand through the language barrier, holy shit

This! And there are plenty of mediaeval historians on Instagram doing a great job of educating the rest of us - she’d be great at that #TheArchers

who decided to call it Secret Santa when Nondisclosure Claus was right there

Well that's my evening sorted.

Currently seasonal sorting parcels for Royal Mail and you would be amazed how many Evri parcels turn up in our piles (correct number should be 0). We send them on to the right area, no idea if local posties deliver them.

A black cat with its head in coat hanger, looking a little like Napoleon in a bicorn hat

TO AUSTERLITZ!

(because it’s the 220th anniversary)

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Cheapside in London, a wide street with high buildings, in a damp weather

Cheapside in rainy London today – originally, nothing to do with being inexpensive. The name derives instead from the older meaning of 'cheap', being a street for markets and trade (in Old English: ċēap).

This makes it related to various European words for buying, like Dutch kopen and Czech koupit.

But who wore it better ? 🤔

Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇

A red and white mug. It is a Half Man Half Biscuit mug with The Voltarol Years, Tess of the Dormobiles, and RM Qualtrough printed on it in the style of a Penguin paperback

My new mug! (a lovely present ❤️)
#HMHB

Drunk priest crashes car

14 words and not a single one wasted 👏👏👏

Ooh... "UK trade intensity has stagnated since 2008, and we expect it to fall in the coming years due to the recent resurgence in global protectionism on top of the enduring effects of Brexit"

So much for the independent trade policy.

Current #TheArchers Xmas Special odds

7/2 Brian dies
2/1 Amber bins George
4/1 George goes postal then scales St Stephen’s
6/1 Long awaited tree surgery accident
8/1 Kate’s accountant has a coronary
11/1 Ruth embraces her Sapphic tendencies
18/1 Leonard accidentally puts viagra in the Xmas pud

A fabulous pre-code gag from "Wonder Bar" (1934)

(By way of reference, this is AOC’s door)

Remarkably, these natty, well-preserved woven reed shoes from ancient Egypt are dated at being over 3,000 years old collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O351640...

Breaking character: I am open to the idea the media's coverage of Biden's age and mental acuity was fair or perhaps not even tough enough. But the fact that it was so much tougher than the coverage of Trump's (more severe) mental decline is damning and I can't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

So much winning...

"By 2025, the UK economy is 6%–8% smaller than it would have been had we stayed in the EU"

"Business investment is down 12%–18%"

"Fewer tax receipts mean less money for public services, less for investment"

Brexit impact study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

A man wrapped up against the cold, surveys a frozen plain

The secret German weather station on the Arctic island of Svalbard. Part of the 'Weather War'.

The team, led by Lieutenant Wilhelm Dege, were the last German troops to surrender in WW2, finally doing so FOUR MONTHS after Germany had officially surrendered.

It was not for want of trying. /1

A screenshot of a Facebook post where a person named Andy ask the Well now “What the hell is transgender?” The Royal Canadian Air Force account response with “That’s a pretty big question asked in a pretty small way, Andy. ‘Transgender’ putting describes someone whose gender – who they know themselves to be – doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth. It’s not new, and it’s certainly not a fad. People have lived this experience for as long as people have existed; we’re just finally talking about it openly. You don’t have to fully understand it right away, most learning takes time, but we can always start from a place of respect. That’s how decent folks handle things they’re still getting used to.”

Massive shoutout out to whoever handles the Royal Canadian Air Force’s social media account. They responded to every single comment on their already very solid Trans Day of Remembrance post and they responded like this…

College cats of Oxford Once upon a time, we featured an image of Magdalen's kitten, Ozymandias, in our newsletter. We figured it might be a gentle contrast to our regular diet of planning and local politics. The grey ball ...

Walter de Staplecat, Simpkin IV, Teabag, Balthasar and Benny D Cat take the stage as we meet the college cats of Oxford. And, of course, Magdalen’s Ozymandias. Read on for our photo special. (Includes a cat map.) oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...

Thousands of rare American recordings — some 100 years old — go online for all to enjoy The project, which will include some 50,000 songs from private record collections, is a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the Dust-to-Digital Foundation.

Thousands of rare American recordings — some 100 years old — go online for all to enjoy

A collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the nonprofit Dust-to-Digital Foundation

laist.com/news/arts-an...