Barney Stringer

Is there accepted canon on which order to read them?

Now you don’t have to choose! Both of

@jonnelledge.bsky.social History of the World in 47 Borders, and

@lewisbaston.bsky.social
Borderlines: History of Europe in 29 Borders,

are 99p on Kindle at the moment. (Only 2.6p per border…)

Initial government response - September 2025

Govt response to New Towns Taskforce recommendations. The Taskforce’s 12 locations still being considered (“Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds South Bank looking particularly promising”). More by next Spring so watch this space or rather these various large spaces.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

New Towns Taskforce: Report to government The government has published the independent New Towns Taskforce report as well as its initial response to that report.

I’m immensely grateful to the New Towns Taskforce, under the expert leadership of its Chair, Sir Michael Lyons, and Deputy Chair, Dame Kate Barker, for producing such a considered and comprehensive set of final recommendations 👇🏻

www.gov.uk/government/p...

So impressive what Jim has achieved in the first year of London Centric. If you live here, you owe yourself a subscription

Tattered flags over London’s Oxford Street, half torn off. (These are actually official flags, rather than racist ones…)

London’s weather has had enough of flags it seems

Tried Amazon’s “Prime Vision” football with live data overlays. Pretty interesting, but you definitely wouldn’t want it on a game you really cared about

What about the 1552 division of the Debatable Lands? (Yes I got lost in Wikipedia)

Jonn, who was the first king (or queen) whose realm included every single bit of what is now England?

Given the history of borders I suspect may still be “depends”?

So annoying, happened to me recently too.

And infuriating that Bosch now have a system that can remotely brick all stolen batteries, but instead they limit it to those paying £40 a year for Flow+ subscription. Making it totally ineffective as a deterrent, *even for those who do pay*

Hopefully soon they’ll be drinking this instead:

“Anti Tram” earplugs

So THIS is what central government was using all these years whenever Leeds called asking for a metro system

Next in this series of economics riders and qualifiers:

Dan Ariely, and the wider replication crisis

Only just starting on this, but already distracted by the *incomprehensible* decision to build it at US exuburban densities

25,000 people in an area “the size of Toledo”. We’re talking less than 50 dwellings per sq km!

They got their brightest minds to design this. What were they thinking?

Doing an “economics book club” with son, as Uni prep, which has been fun

But find myself making a surprising number of “you do not gotta hand it to them” updates on people mentioned in older books

Reinhart-Rogoff, Carlos Ghosn, amongst others

It’s the vinyl countdown

Picture of a shiny new record player (sorry I mean a “vinyl turntable” or something) on a shelf

Son has no idea how expensive a hobby he’s just acquired…

A map of southern England showing live locations of lightning strikes - a big storm coming into Kent from the Channel

Here it comes…

www.lightningmaps.org

Something even fancier

No room for the comb, unfortunately. Would blow his disguise.

Something even tastier

A small conveyor belt passing through a hole in the wall. The hole is the exact size and shape of a wine bottle

Can anyone guess what this conveyor belt carries…

Battery increases how much the solar saves you (this month together they’ll have saved/made me €200)

And big savings from batteries in winter. Fill up at night to effectively shift your consumption to off peak, halving the pence per kWh you pay

So saving €1,000 a year certainly possible

They fill it at cheap times, empty it at peak rate, which only makes me about £16 a month (enough to cover the standing charge)

Real benefit is that in return they match solar export prices to import, turning the grid into a virtual battery

So I sell my solar output at a very high 23p/31p per kWh!

Graph showing home battery use yesterday, with multiple charging and discharging periods. Green line shows how full the battery is, on right hand scale. Blue shading shows the power going in or out, from or to the Grid

I’ve given @octopus.energy control of my home battery. They pay us to use it to balance the Grid

Fascinating to see it fluctuating on a windy/sunny day, when electricity prices sometimes went negative

Would love them to give us a running narrative of what it’s doing and why

This is true and I’d add:

a) Peak aircon energy use maps relatively neatly onto peak solar energy production, so easier than winter heating to make green

b) Aircon units are ultra efficient heaters too, so easier first step to wean people off gas central heating, compared to air-to-water heat pump

A Bluesky post saying “I voted early”, then listing the Bluesky handle for three candidates. Except one of them is me. Apologies to Scott Stringer I guess

Looks like I got a write-in vote in the New York primaries! Only second preference though, probably not enough…

Pretty glad now that I installed aircon at the same time as the heat pump!

UK needs to get over our prejudice that domestic AC is unnecessary or decadent. We now have a climate that needs it

Ours is now running carbon-free, direct from the solar panels. A neat circularity

Picture of an empty gas meter cupboard, with the meter removed

It’s finally all done. Gas meter removed (had to change the hob first), and solar export tariff set up.

House is now net-zero-ready. Car next maybe…

Gilbert Spencer RA – Catalogue Raisonné & Online Archive A comprehensive online resource on Gilbert Spencer RA (1892–1979), English landscape painter and teacher. This independent catalogue and archive features his paintings, drawings, exhibitions, and biog...

First comprehensive catalogue launched for Gilbert Spencer (Stanley’s under-appreciated younger brother)

Thanks to the work of Prof Paul Gough, and Dr Amy Lim