ha. oh.
Data nerd with a PhD in particle physics from before they discovered the Higgs. Loves Fantasy books and TV, drawing and painting, and sometimes I do running and cycling. Glasgow based. Tha mi ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig.
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ha. oh.
The tumblr post about RMS Carpathia reminded me of one of my favorite paintings ive ever done of an ocean liner
This is how blatantly the #BBC and other news favours Reform. This is appalling and unbalanced and needs addressing NOW. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...
I know it's cliche, but Hallelujah still sparks joy. Also Torn by Natalie Imbruglia because it took me ages to find a strum rhythm for it that I could do. The one I'm best at is Other Side of the World by KT Tunstall.
Just love this song. Take care of your ballooms, everyone! #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/7poGXFUx3pY?...
The marble machine #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/IvUU8joBb1Q?...
"The Monopoly 50p coin can be purchased on The Royal Mint website for £15." That's so on brand for monopoly. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Morecambe and Wise do breakfast. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/dqeL3oPiYjc?...
I don't know how far it reads like a celebration of Scottish music and how far it feels like thumbing the nose. Sometimes all you can do is laugh when content and context clash.
I'm watching the Last night of the Proms on iplayer. The London performance is singing the Skye Boat Song under two union flags. "Carry the lad that is born to be King"... Oh you mean Bonnie Prince Charlie? Who was defeated by an English army at Culloden? And was never in fact King?
I am working under a hypothesis that the right mostly use language as a power lever. Like "what combination of words will get me what I want", without regard to what they actually mean.
Animal Crossing mostly kept me sane during the pandemic, so it was nice to see the real musicians behind the theme song #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/lWKdsawDSvU?...
I adore this performance. So simple and so engaging!
There’s a real generational divide between Labour MPs leaking to the Guardian and Labour MPs leaking to the Huffington Post
Also sometimes I think we take music too seriously as a society and forget that it's also a tool humans developed because it's fun.
The aim with the #musicSparksJoy thread is to find videos where something about the context or the performance adds an additional layer of fun or joy beyond the song itself. We all have songs we love for the music, but music is more than that.
Today let's have some joy. I love flashmobs, honestly. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/kbJcQYVtZMo?...
They asked me that while I was in London and in fairness I didn't feel unsafe there. Probably because London didn't vote for Brexit, as much as because I didn't see any additional flags.
Someone asked me this week if I would feel unsafe in England just now. And, well, yes, I would. Sure I'm white and British - but the St George flag pretty explicitly excludes Scotland and I can't hide my accent. Besides, we all know they're looking for fights right?
Sounds nice! We have very erratic rain showers just now, so I may stay indoors...
I mean, if you want 😂 We all need our coping mechanisms these days!
It is a good day for whimsy.
Because it's nice: #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/vlxmTeWofBU?...
Although... I think there's a parents night this month.
I can't be sure because they have so little faith in the maths skills of their parent community they didn't provide any actual detail. Probably correctly, sad to say.
Conceptual ones, apparently. I don't know either.
So the question is, are they correct and calculator apps can be limited functionality? Or does someone need to show them what happens to a standard calculator app if you tilt your phone into landscape?
Just got a message from the kids' school saying not to let kids use the calculator on their phone because they have 'limited functionality' and could lead to misunderstandings.
The whole crowd sings along to Bohemian Rhapsody. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/cZnBNuqqz5g?...
The whole crowd sings along to Bohemian Rhapsody. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/cZnBNuqqz5g?...
Yeah, you could guess and it'd be the same pretty much every time.
Yeah. I had to Google too.
Endo friendos, this article is very interesting. Hope for some treatments that might actually work?
Skipped yesterday as I wasn't online much. So today - Biff Tannen on the guitar #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/AwKcPRCV6bI?...
THIS BOOKSHOP IS OPEN UNTIL MIDNIGHT AND SELLS COCKTAILS. EVERYONE CONVERGE ON PALERMO NOW. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Slightly diminish a book: A Tale of One City.
Do you notice, as I do, that the feeling actually gets worse when you're regularly hitting your limits? That sucks.
Es kann nur besser werden bsky.app/profile/jens...
This wasn't on my list, and then I woke up and it was in my head, so here it is. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/QTXyXuqfBLA?...
Today's music video is suitable for a Sunday perhaps #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/pRhjWdr-LAA?...
What they say: "We're keen to leave the ECHR." What I hear: "We don't care about your human rights, peasant."
Best glory I’ve ever seen from a plane! It’s an optical phenomenon that occurs when light interacts in and around tiny droplets of water in the clouds, in the direction opposite the sun. More complex than a rainbow. Here’s a link to some more info: www.zmescience.com/science/phys... #optics #physics
The narratives that they're pushing that we need to blame immigrants or trans people don't really jibe with people's experiences, which helps. I hope some of the more positive changes we're starting to see get some real traction, but it isn't going to be easy.
Rich and powerful people are working hard to remain rich and powerful. It's hard not to be discouraged, but remember it's slow because it's hard, but it's still worth doing.
The other narratives that Jennie talks about here are harder to communicate because they're working against vested interests. Same way we struggle to change FPTP because by definition it works for the people at the top.
Today's music video is suitable for a Sunday perhaps #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/pRhjWdr-LAA?...
My last few train journeys from Scotland have been relatively uneventful so fingers crossed you get the same!
I hear there are not a lot of options for travel other than cars, which isn't going to help. I'm going to London this week and the traffic might be rather worse than usual since there's a tube strike on - but other than that it's gotten better. For cycling especially.
I haven't been to LA so I'm not personally familiar with the traffic, but the opening to that film starts in an LA traffic jam and it ends up rather joyful.
Maybe I should do that traffic jam scene from LA-LA Land at some point 😂
That would work for me except maybe in winter as we get really short days here then.
He's so joyful about it and honestly I've never seen a cello played like that!
Yes, I'm never at my best in the early hours myself. One day I dream of building a world where I don't have to start at 9am.
Good news for people who are not early birds - just watched a bird catch a worm at 11:30am!
Second music video that sparks joy - I love tofu. #musicSparksJoy youtu.be/Klhfo6sB4N4?...
I mean if it's windy enough you probably don't even have to bother dropping it, the sand will come to you!
Bonus addition: youtu.be/CiWMTK7SAXQ?...
As it's friday let's start with this one. youtu.be/B2EI65ZEqYQ?...
I might do a thread of daily music videos that spark joy for a bit. You know, until I run out of ideas. Because we need more joy.
On the topic of “our” duty to persuade abusers, a tale: —— THE FINGER-TAKER’S SON Whenever the king became displeased with one of his subjects, he would send out his soldiers, and before long the offender would find themselves in the basement of the king’s finger-taker.
Timeline cleanse
So we know Farage had connections with Trump, so no surprises there. What did get me with this is how hard it is to imagine his public persona sitting down and learning something. A very carefully crafted university-of-common-sense character. Not a genuine atom in it.
Credit where credit is due, the Scottish Government have taken a clear and internationalist position on the genocide in Gaza
And far too often we still think physics is just quantum mechanics and cosmology - far away mysterious things that don't relate to our everyday life. That's nonsense. Why it is tiring to walk slowly, what limits the height of a tree, why do baby ducks swim in a tight line? Physics will tell you!
Honestly, having peak fares abolished /and then returned/ just absolutely highlighted how badly commuters, who are just trying to get to work, were bearing the cost of the whole system. Work doesn't pay /that/ well..!
Perhaps the greatest musical fuck you in the history of the industry
Discworld QOTD, from Men at Arms
... On a cold and frosty morning... 🎵🎵
Petition to change the English flag to something that's hard to draw...
I memorably tripped up with "bedraggled" as "bed-raggled".
This is how mad things are. She’s done nothing wrong, and if commentators are pressed they’ll admit it, but they’ll mutter, “It’s not a good look, though,” as if ‘it’s not a good look’ was a hanging offence.
Ever heard Rod Stewart do Mamma Mia?? 😂
Actually I think it might be the street's Rod Stewart impersonator. It's a bit high quality for karaoke.
It's raining but nonetheless someone nearby seems to be having a street karaoke party?
Migrants didn't cut council funding. Migrants didn't cut NHS funding. Migrants didn't close youth centres. Migrants didn't sell off council houses. Migrants aren't filling our rivers with sewage. Farage and co. will tell you to point the finger at migrants. Don't fall for it.
The racism would be less acceptable, but then so would the nudity. Challenging the church would barely raise an eyebrow. Times change I guess...
Don’t trust the experts”? That’s not democracy, that’s recklessness. On a plane, I want a pilot. In a hospital, I want doctors and scientists who understand the evidence. Expertise isn’t religion or authoritarianism — it’s training, accountability, and data. Ignore it and we all pay the price.
It's an interesting thought experiment in challenging power and how that changes though. In its time it was challenging the /church/, but it didn't challenge racism or sexism much, and the church is just less relevant as a power structure now.
I see and I hear and I speak no evil; I carry no malice within my breast; yet quite without wishing a man to the Devil one may be permitted to hope for the best. -“An Ethical Grook” by Piet Hein
By the excellent @jonesycartoons3.bsky.social
I think in the current world, cynical as it is to say, the twin goals of keeping workers down and saving money are taking precedent over potential profit.
Ooooo is it gonna be like how they’re trying to beat the rising threat of Reform i.e they’re going to BECOME the Greens? Coz that would be fucking great.
I love word games and playing with words, and I wonder: is there a word to describe another word that, when you remove one letter at a time what remains is an actual word at each step? Like PLANET PLANE PLAN PAN AN A
In good news though, I now have prescription reading glasses that will hopefully reduce eye strain from using the computer. Because they're prescription they were more expensive than I hoped after my recent eye surgery, but on the plus side my prescription should be pretty stable from here on...
Quite a lot of the people I work with and have worked with have been immigrants. From India, Pakistan, Greece, Poland, France, Spain, all over. It's hard to see them demonised like this. They're just people, Nigel.
I’d add: again, it is not the public who have decided they want mass deportation, or that this should be an acceptable idea within the mainstream. It is our horrifying political/media class, who have roasted each other’s brains on social media. It is *elite radicalisation*, not popular politics.
Here's how the real two-tier Britain works: 1. Whatever Nigel Farage says, however stupid, is looped and discussed by the media, while left-wing voices are treated as noises off. 2. Tiny far-right protests get massive airtime, while 10s of 000s gathering for Palestine or green causes are ignored.🧵
The milky bar kid is strong and tough, and only the best is good enough...
You know, I've never put much credence in slippery slope arguments, figuring that with most things there's a sensible place to stop. But I feel like we've just hit the start of the avalanche with Reform support and action on migration, and we definitely should have stopped before now...
Trees are dropping leaves to reduce water intake, but many are individuals not benefitting from safety in numbers In our woodland where there has been no significant rainfall for months, there is no leaf loss, & if you scrape your boot on the surface it is still damp beneath
Good news!
Not a fan of Scotrail's new announcing system. There's something really odd about the way it uses emphasis and pauses. 'The /next/ stop /is/.... /Pais/ley /Gil/mour /Street/?'
Going to get myself a t-shirt saying "I object to genocide. Yes, that one too."
Are they now just arresting anyone with the words Palestine or action on their shirt? Is it OK in different sentences or are these two words now banned within a five mile radius? And what about Plasticene? Or if you're protesting a hotel that might house foreigners?
I filled a random notebook with random song lyrics for much that reason. Mind you my brain is approximately 75% song lyrics.
The UK is on course for one of its worst harvests on record.
My suggestions- Anything by Becky Chambers I just finished Daughter of the Moon Goddess Have you done the Legends and Lattes books or the Tea series? Quite fun. I think the first one is "can't spell Treason without tea" Outcast Mage - loved reading that.
Didn't you also have one with a lovely green dress and maybe also a bonnet? I'm sure I'm not making that up... Well, mostly sure.
Airports, shopping malls, schools, sigh.