Nearly got into an accident this morning on #Lboro campus. I had entered the site on my bike, having taken bike lanes where possible to get there, and was continuing straight in from the entrance when a massive SUV, having passed security to my right, decided to swerve across my front wheels to […]

I relished this piece by David Bentley Hart, called “How to write #English prose”: https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/how-to-write-english-prose There is an abundance of joy one can experience when playing with #language that is lost when one simply Follows The Rules laid down by renowned […]

Every time I play #cricket, I end up asking myself, while standing alone in a field (with 14 other people standing alone around me), why I love this damn sport – at which I suck – so very much. Such a stupid sport. I love it more than I should.

#TIL about @freesewing (by @joost and co.). What a brilliant project! https://freesewing.eu #FreeSewing #FiberArts #sewing

Free Bespoke Sewing Patterns | FreeSewing

FreeSewing is open source software to generate bespoke sewing patterns, loved by home sewers and fashion entrepreneurs alike.

freesewing.eu

After I read out ~125 words based on a writing prompt, the professional #SciFi writer running the session said I am a natural and should write fiction. Now, who wants to be a Patron of the Arts and fund my fiction-writing career, so I can quit my job?

RE: https://social.wikiworkersunited.org/@wwu/116999804756018498 «When the Foundation rejected our request for voluntary recognition this week, they immediately sent out to employees and the public statements couched in classic union-busting rhetoric, rhetoric undoubtedly provided by […]

Sometimes, upgrading to First Class is such a no-brainer. Was £6.50 more per person per leg – Loughborough⇹London – and they bring you food and drink, and the seats are more comfy. Just the food and drink alone would cost more. #UKtrains #trains #RailTravel

Become a Patreon supporter of "Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles", and you will get newly translated German folk tales every week! If you subscribe at the "Scholar" level, you will also get PDF and EBUB compilations of all 800+ translations of the folk tales I have translated so far. And if you […]

It was a great pleasure to write up this post about the #Codeberg's recent votes with respect to LLMs and the impact that LLM have on #FLOSS more broadly, together with @Gusted and @fnetX: Protecting our FLOSS commons from LLMs https://blog.codeberg.org/protecting-our-floss-commons-from-llms.html

My partner’s sibling has left a Commodore 128 in the garage for me to play with. What cool things can I do with it that won’t turn into an enormous time sink? (assuming it still turns on, that is - replacing capacitors isn’t something I have time for right now) #Commodore128 #Commodore64 […]

I have just received a spam e-mail from a purported journal editor, addressed to “Dear Dr. Higgs”. That’s a new one! #spam #Higgs #HiggsBoson #Physics #journal #AcademicChatter #Research

#Loughborough! Need anything fixed? The Transition Loughborough Repair Café is happening now! https://transitionloughborough.wordpress.com/news/ 🕧 Last items accepted until 12:30. #Leistershire #EastMidlands @leicestergazette

Repair Cafe on Saturday 18th July

Had something break in the last couple of months? Want to see if it can be repaired before you replace it? Then we’ve got the event for you on **Saturday 18th July at Fearon Hall between 9.30am and midday**. Yes, it’s our next Repair Cafe! We’ll have people who can mend holes in clothes, tinker with sewing machines, twiddle with electricals, check over your bike, sort out your laptop and sharpen your secateurs! As usual the process is simple: you bring a broken item, check it in at our reception/triage desk and then you’ll be assigned to a volunteer repairer who will assess the item, determine if it can be fixed and then hopefully either repair it or give advice (if parts are needed, etc). Repairs are free and made on a voluntary best effort basis. We gratefully accept donations to help cover the cost of running the event however. There is also a cafe in Fearon Hall where you can get a cuppa and sit down to chat if you have to wait for a repairer to become available.

transitionloughborough.wordpress.com

🧐 #AMA on #emojis for #WorldEmojiDay ❗ #linguistics

My mum-in-law has written a new children’s book – “Pear Tree #Pirates” – inspired by tales she told her kids when they were little. If you have children aged 5–8 in your life, please consider this book by an #IndieAuthor. Not available on Bookshop yet, so here is an Amazon link (sorry) […]

I just released version 0.6.0 of the comaps-map-distributor for serving CoMaps map files via your own servers. The main new feature: It now allows you to select whole countries for download, instead of having to manually select all map files for a country […]

Just got a close-up of dragonfly’s wings just as it was about to take off! We suspect it was a newly emerged creature and was drying its wings. It had been on the #buddleia for ages. How cool is this!!! #Nature #Dragonfly #Dragonflies #Bloomscrolling

Been a while since I left home before 06:30 on a Sunday to go do something fun. If I recall correctly, the last time was years ago when we restarted the #LHC after a long shutdown, on Easter Sunday, and I managed to get the hashtag #ResurrectLHC onto the #CERN website for the event. Today, I am […]

If #Pride is a protest, and protests are getting increasingly criminalised in the UK, and the smallest criminal conviction can rule out immigrants from attaining indefinite leave to remain in the UK, why would any immigrants be at Pride? https://youtu.be/S3InGcUC8ys #BristolPride #Bristol […]

My mum informed me of this #Marathi movie (with English subtitles) about a #transgender man in rural #India. She heard about it from another mother in a group for parents of #queer children in India (Rainbow Parents). https://youtube.com/watch?v=TfhiCFJO4C4

I remember as a science-journalism student in London following the live stream from #CERN when the #LHC had its first collisions in March 2010. I remember the glee during my first visit to the lab in June that year. I remember my first day working at CERN that September and my several visits […]

Has anyone had the following error when pulling from a git remote (that happens to be an Overleaf project in this case): % git pull -v failed to get: -25293 failed to store: -25293 … [continues as normal] #git #overleaf

So, a known narcissist retires. Cry me a fucking river. #cricket

If you're using https://myapi.gedanken.uber.space (or host it yourself): Thanks to @RaoOfPhysics to reporting an issue with data not updating any more. It was due to how the REST countries API had changed its format. I've fixed that and it should all be working again <3

Episode One: out now!

Achintya Rao@achintyarao.in · last mo.

What a treat to attend the premiere of @cosmicshambles.com’s “For The Record: An Incomplete History of #Music”! You can watch the first episode in around 20 hours on the Shambles YouTube channel: youtube.com/playlist?lis... Familiar faces include @astrokatie.com and @helenczerski.bsky.social!

[Cricket chat, opinions] I don’t care how good a cricketer Ben Stokes is, he shouldn’t be a role model for any young player. #cricket

What a treat to attend the premiere of @cosmicshambles.com’s “For The Record: An Incomplete History of #Music”! You can watch the first episode in around 20 hours on the Shambles YouTube channel: youtube.com/playlist?lis... Familiar faces include @astrokatie.com and @helenczerski.bsky.social!

For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music - YouTube

A nine part epic docuseries on the entire history of music, presented by Charlotte Ritchie

youtube.com

Meanwhile, Joe Root coming in at 13/2 in the second innings of a test match, with #England chasing a massive total, will never not be funny. #cricket #EngVNZ #NewZealand

Happy #Pride from #Edinburgh! This is the kind of public religious message I am ok with. #Scotland #Queer #EdinburghPride

A few days ago, I signed up for @thunderbird Pro and promptly bought three domains to use with it: - https://achintya.fyi - https://basslass.fyi - https://theatrical.fyi (All domains redirect to https://a-ch.in/ty-a of course.) Because life needs whimsy. #Thunderbird #Email

Since I use a #VPN to browse the net in this hellhole, I cannot use `curl -s wttr.in` to give me the #weather at my actual location. So, I am leveraging @gedankenstuecke’s #PersonalAPI to write a custom .bash_function: ```bash wttr () { while : do clear; curl -s wttr.in/$(curl -s […]