In the days before the invention of plastic, baleen - the feeding apparatus of whales - was used in manufacturing where a flexible material was required, such as chair seats, hooped skirts and corsets. Baleen was traded here in Whalebone Court.
Rebecca Brite
@rebeccab.bsky.social
Editor, singer, reader, filmgoer, opera lover, cat servant... Mostly reposts from a longtime American immigrant in Paris, now largely retired. Enby, she/they.
Looks like this guy has the same makeup artist as Vance.
Sarah Posner@sarahposner.bsky.social · 5d ago"for most of his life, the Fort Worth pastor has been intimately involved in a movement that asserts conservative Christians are in an existential war with satanic forces, including Democrats, for the soul of America." via @robertdownen.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
AI companies (preparing to start up the book-shredder 5000): why does everyone hate us
Paxton & Whitfield in Jermyn Street, St. James's is said to be Britain's oldest cheese shop. It's origins date back to a market stall in 1742, becoming the partnership of Harry Paxton and Charles Whitfield at the end of that century.
A wonderful, truly singular book by one of my favorite writers. It's sui generis, and I love seeing it recommended by another of my favorite storytellers. Here's to a Lafferty revival!
Phil Foglio@thephilfoglio.bsky.social · 2w ago#books Today's book is 'Okla Hannali' by R.A. Lafferty, who was possibly the most outré (yet enjoyably readable) prose stylist of the last century. He loved science-fiction, but this one is the fantastical recounting of the life of a native-American and I guarantee you've never read anything like it
The Ostler's Hut at Lincoln's Inn is the smallest individual historically-listed building in London. It dates from 1852 and was built to shelter the ostlers responsible for tending the horses of lawyers and visitors to Lincoln's Inn.
These two high profile Frenchmen both have one immigrant parent. Yet Jordan Bardella never has to deal with questions about whether he is 'really' French. I wonder what could possibly account for that difference?
10 years ago today I was in a bar in Barcelona being taunted by a bunch of French rugby fans from Toulon, who could not believe what a ridiculously stupid decision the UK had just made. Their team lost though, so there's that
How I found out Starmer had resigned: people on social media complaining about the loud music anti-Brexit activist Steve Bray was playing the whole time.
On this day in 1781, George Stephenson was born. We have him to thank for many things including the standard gauge of 4ft 8½in between the rails. Thats 1,435mm in new money. #history www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/o...
At the start of the 18thC Thomas Twining purchased Tom's Coffee House at No. 216 Strand and began selling dry tea leaves. Twinings, now owned by Associated British Foods, still sells tea from the original premises.
Lovely rainbow last night in Paris during the Bluesky meetup. Big thanks to @jonhenley.bsky.social @donnad.eurosky.social @columnist.bsky.social and @stevenhseggie.bsky.social for making it happen!
The arc of the moral universe only bends towards justice if we bend it. There's no karmic comeuppance for fascists. There's just us. Community and hard work and a willingness to to take risks and fail.
Do not, repeat not, start Alexis Hall's new London Calling novel at nearly midnight thinking it will help you get sleepy. All you will do is laugh till you're hopelessly wide awake.
There are officially over 400 artists on HireHumanArtists.com🎉 More human artists than you would ever conceivably want to even try to look at all at once! Hire one for your next human project, wouldja?
Directory of No Gen AI Artists
hirehumanartists.com
In 1852 the Crystal Palace moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill. To serve the many visitors a new railway was opened. Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire in 1936 and the railway closed. Some of its route can still be traced, including the entrance to the Crescent Wood Tunnel.
The New River, which flows through North London, is not actually a river. Created over 300 years ago, it is also hardly new. You can learn more about the New River here in my video youtu.be/8BKhbftRoZ8
why aren't other countries helping us with the strait of hormuz after we started an unjust war, cut off trade, and insulted them for a year?
When I was growing up in Omaha it was still a big beef city with stockyards. We had a field trip to a slaughterhouse! Don't recall at what age, prob. middle school? But a nicer one was to the lovely NE state capitol bldg in Lincoln and Morrill Hall at the university, with its mastodons.
The Grey Coat Hospital at Westminster was founded in 1698 by local parishoners as a school for poor children in what was then a very deprived area. It moved to the current building, a former poorhouse, in 1701. It has been a girls' school since the 1870s.
How does The Onion know what the Trump administration is going to do before it happens? Clearly there must be a lot of leeks inside the White House
I cannot vote for Democrats because their excessive regulations hamper free enterprise. Here’s why I’m revamping my company’s entire operations to appeal to Donald Trump’s ego.
The EU has just voted, by a VERY wide margin, for the full recognition of trans women as women…!
The best thing about philosophy is that all the great philosophers in history were basically wrong about almost everything, so there's really not that much pressure to be right.
This statue of St. Volodymyr, Grand Prince of Kyiv, was erected at the corner of Holland Park and Holland Park Avenue by London's Ukrainian community in 1988 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of his conversion to Christianity.
I love the noise Canada Geese make as they fly overhead and their instinctive communal sense of aesthetic organisation, plus the way that not one of them will ever barge in on social media with their opinion on a piece of writing without clicking on the link to find out what the piece actually says.