Hugh Pumphrey

Very much with you on cats that say hello to you in the street. I like cats, but I am too allergic to them to have one in the house; meeting them on the street is as close as I get.

It isn't actually raining today, but I still think it is a little chilly on the Firth of Forth for that stuff.

He could gang up with the Rev. Thomas Bayes on this matter --- I have seen "Baye's theorem" in lecture slides before now.

When a plant that you have had for a decade suddenly decides to produce some flowers.

The book (This way up, by @jayforeman.bsky.social and @markcooperjones.bsky.social ) is definitely worth a read. Thanks again to child 2 for giving me a copy for Christmas.

Disappointingly not. (I have an excuse for knowing what it is; I lived in a clunch-y area of south-eastern England for six years.)

(Just for readers who have forgotten how to google, it is a soft limestone used for building.)

Srsly, is there a real origin for the phrase "Trouble at t' mill"? We all understand its use to conjure up a picture of industrial unrest in a Lancashire or Yorkshire town in the 19th century, but I have no idea if the phrase was coined by a known author.

I am visiting Asia in the fairly near future. The jabs man at NHS Lothian wagged his finger at us re Hep B/C and said "No mingling with the locals". Also, Child 2 (a doctor) says that the 3 scariest words in English are "treatment resistant gonorrhoea". Keeping it in my pants for the trip.

Now, if only @bencollins.bsky.social and @jamellebouie.net were to contact the BBC and explain this to them in words of one syllable. (Tagging @vicderbyshire.bsky.social and @rachelburden.bsky.social as they are at least here in a personal capacity.)

Pleasingly symmetric but also rather irritating.

Wordle 1,709 4/6

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I have not checked the stats, but it appears to me that #BBCAQ is a lot less of a RefUK platform than BBC TV's Question Time. Well done #BBCAQ, if my impression is correct.

This is fab: I have just spent 10 minutes scrolling around it.

Oh. My. Goodness.

The flat in Royal Park Terrace that I bought in about 1993 had a carpet in that general vein, but nothing like as bad.

My initial thought was "Cambridge doesn't have a bridge like that". I was glad that the alt-text explains that the bridge is a new feature.

Well done! (For other readers, Fraser has been my go-to guy for compost advice for a while.)

This seems to be the only reason that Farage is in the files: Bannon listing him as one of many nasty RW politicians that he (Bannon) has influence over. I would love to see Farage banged up, but the Epstein files will not be why it happens.

The arrest of Andrew M-W is the first "OMG" news event that I learned about from @bsky.app --- it is definitely taking the place of Tw!tt*r. The slew of jokes and interesting information is excellent and is definitely the content I am here for.

Thank goodness somebody did. Came here to moan that the quote was wrong.

We could ask the #BBC employees who have bothered to show up over here: @vicderbyshire.bsky.social , @rachelburden.bsky.social etc.

But the answer is probably something to do with @chrismasontv.bsky.social . . .

More or less the same, although "Paid for Stairway, stayed for Battle of Evermore" would be more accurate. Not surprising that I became a Roy Harper fan later on . . .

I am cheered to learn that it is not just the UK govt that makes no sense on occasion.

Vegetable oil works OK, and you need very little of it: a wipe with a bit of kitchen paper works well once the pan is going. Butter is wrong as it would burn; I was screaming at the radio only yesterday because some numpty was suggesting frying pancakes with butter.

I particularly need to try that on the waveband switch and the volume potentiometer, both of which are very intermittent in their operation. Any tips as to the best cleaning things to try?

Unfortunately, if he gets in he will 5h!+ on all of us, not just the ones who were conned into voting for him.

@harvard.edu : Not as clever as they make out.

Having fired it up, I discovered that #BBC Radio 4 ( #BBCR4 ) is still being broadcast on 198kHz long wave (or 1500m as the radio's tuning scale has it). I thought they had already stopped using that frequency, but it appears not. (2/2)

Vintage portable radio (model: ITT KB tiny 33). It is old enough that the LW/MW tuning scales are marked in m wavelength rather than kHz frequency.

Battery carrier out of a portable radio. The carrier has been repaired with a mess of epoxy resin and two pieces of plastic taken from the caps of cheap ballpoint pens.

Thing with being retired: you have more time to mend stuff that is broken so that it can continue in use. This radio was handed down to me by my Grandma; I have had it for about 50 years. Works again now that I have glued up the battery carrier. (1/2)

Colour me massively unsurprised. Thanks to @theferret.scot for the article and to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social for posting it here.

It must be, @quarkquent.bsky.social . I might have survived until I got cancer at the age of about 50. But, without hospital care, Mrs. P would have died in childbirth and taken child 1 with her. I try not to think about it as I would have nightmares and wake up screaming.

I see what you did there with pedalling/peddling. Top quality work; well played.