John Rowan
@jrowanbxl.bsky.social
Artisanal bureaucrat. Faceless, unelected. Ex-Whitehall, now does apocalypse preparation for the European Commission.
Since this "nothing has got better" reactionary stuff is doing the rounds again, re-upping a thread plus the many answers to it wherein we identified lots of things that have, in fact, got better.
John Rowan@jrowanbxl.bsky.social · last yr.1 like = 1 thing that has got better since I were a lad
Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
Go on then, if anyone wants to play.
Mo 🌸📚@moplayspoke.bsky.social · 2d ago1 like = 1 book question 📚💙
If only there were some major literary character whose tenuous connection to reality took the form of antipathy towards windmills.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump: "Any country with windmills is a loser"
Since you're amusing yourselves with this, a small tangential thread on public health. bsky.app/profile/jrow...
John Rowan@jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 2d agoAt the moment I am mostly being on holiday and avoiding the news; why is everyone on here relitigating COVID lockdowns?
At the moment I am mostly being on holiday and avoiding the news; why is everyone on here relitigating COVID lockdowns?
This man is clearly not 29, you don't fool me.
World War I As It Happened (1914)@warhappened.bsky.social · 5d agoJean Jaurés dies almost immediately from a gunshot wound to his head. His assailant is the 29-year-old Raoul Villain (pictured); Villain, who wants France to reclaim its territories lost in the 1870 war against Germany, loathes the pacifism of socialists like Jaurés.
One of the most important issues of our time is that the future of humanity is presently being authored by people who have nothing but total contempt for humanity and seek the erasure of everything that gives being a human meaning. It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t just suck. It’s existential.
Hungary's new government is tested very early. Paks nuclear plant is about to go offline for the first time in 44 years because the Danube is drying up. That's nearly half the country's electricity. Collapsed supply & gas prices spiking throughout the region. Just brutal. apnews.com/article/hung...
Hungary braces for a full shutdown of the Paks nuclear plant as the Danube River hits record lows
Hungary's only nuclear power plant is shutting down for the first time due to record-low water levels on the Danube River.
apnews.com
Super interesting. www.ft.com/content/6a35... We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society
ft.com
Wincing at other people's sunburn is a pretty core holiday activity these days.
In 2012 I was working on EU health policy with people from all over the EU. They all loved the NHS bit in the Olympics ceremony but also found it mysterious: the health system is simply not reified like that in almost all other countries.
James Ball@jamesrball.com · last wk.I do worry the cult of the NHS has gone too far: covid messaging was "protect the NHS" not "protect your neighbour", now social care pitch rolling is "protect the NHS", not "you and your loved ones deserve peace of mind over the end of your lives".
Anyway, here is a slow- motion video of my daughter feeding a hummingbird.
This book is basically "how being right up against it in the Napoleonic Wars obliged Britain to develop efficient and non-corrupt administration" and it's bloody brilliant.
Maradona won a World Cup with a decent Argentina team in 1986, but couldn't quite get a much poorer team over the line in the final in 1990.
Me, a bellend: "this doesn't look sustainable" Tuchel, a tactical genius: "these Argentinan lads don't look like scoring, they keep missing by centimeters"
(As the cradle of industrial modernity, England is devoid of magical thinking. A post-superstitious nation that cannot see that "it's coming home" is obviously a jinx, an incantation summoning a 90'+2 defeat from the depths of an ancient well into which all previous generations knew not to shout.)
Did anyone watching apart from Tuchel think that playing without the ball for the last 30 minutes was going to work?
I'm watching the Argentinian coverage, and their half time analysis seems to consist of tutting over all the terrible fouls England committed in that half.
I'm at a lodge in the rainforest. No TV for miles around but they do academic conferences here, so they have a handy projector they've connected to a laptop so we can watch the game.
Imagine having as much unwarranted optimism as Paul, it must be like a superpower.
The Testament of Ann Lee is an extraordinary film, left me feeling dizzy. Not sure it manages to sustain the plot / drama for its entire length, but don't think it really matters. It very much does not think its 18th century characters are just like us but in funny clothing.
setting aside the issue of whether it was karmatically appropriate, the continuing aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death is one of the darkest storylines the author has come up with. it is a level of brutality that you would normally see reserved for Michael Haneke or Lars Von Trier mixed w/ Verhoeven
![An image of The Villeneuve Scale of Air Pollution (aka the Milleneuve)
Arrival
< 100 milleneuves
(normal particulate levels)
Prisoners
200 milleneuves
(chimney smoke and rage)
Sicario
300 milleneuves
(gunsmoke and drugs maybe?)
Enemy
600 milleneuves
(C'mon, Toronto, you used to be cool)
Dune
750 milleneuves
(stillsuits are a must!)
Blade Runner 2049
900 milleneuves
(omg why are you even outside, Ryan Gosling??)
[each entry has a still from the film showing the sky color, from clear to deep orange]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:e3adzvtg56lfn3wpdlfjwnoc/bafkreifderpx4gkosjxomcme5gtboehesquihk5usfuv75aq7naejsitie)
