Arnold Platon

Plaid Cymru is on the cusp of power. So how would Rhun ap Iorwerth govern? www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Investors pour record sums into European stocks Inflows on track for all-time high in February as global fund managers seek alternatives to expensive US tech shares

Lots of chatter on diversification away from the US. Equity flows data seem to back it up. Important story from @emilydherbert.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/8017...

If left unchecked, we are racing towards a world where searching for "struggling to breastfeed" makes baby formula more expensive for you in your local supermarket (that's one dystopian example anyway)

Toured the Highlands (& Orkney) this summer and can honestly say I'm still enthralled by the beauty of it all, especially the Flow Country, and my wife still mentions every other week how she's yearning to return 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Great. Now where am I gonna get my dose of anxiety from?

Anyway long time no see folks 👋

Matejko’s “Stańczyk”. From Wikipedia: “Stańczyk is shown sitting alone in a dark room, while a ball, hosted by the royal family, is in full swing in the neighbouring hall. His appearance is unlike that one would expect in a jester – gloomy, deep in thought. His seriousness is reinforced by his accessories: his marotte lies discarded on the floor, whereas a holy medallion of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa can be seen on his torso. The wrinkled carpet at Stańczyk's feet could have been formed by his collapsing heavily into the chair upon reading the letter, or through a nervous shifting of the feet thereafter. On the table lies a letter likely announcing that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has lost Smolensk (now in Russia) to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, causing Stańczyk's sorrow and reflection on his fatherland's fate”

Thought I’d start posting from time to time some of the most famous Polish paintings, so that my non-Polish followers can learn a thing or two about our culture. This one by Jan Matejko is called “Jestermaxxing”, and it portrays a guy who, tragically, jestermaxxed

EU Commission President's anual "State of the European Union" speech means an update to my dataviz analysing the languages used.

To the chagrin of some, it was again a predominantly English address, even more so than 2 years ago.

German and French got <4 min. each.

#soteu2025 #SOTEU 🇪🇺

>Ötzi

Instant retweet!

People tell me nobody wants to look at climate curves anymore, yet here we are!!! Please enjoy our interactive journey through 485 million years of climate history and dive into the fascinating and important work of paleoclimate scientists.

🎁 www.zeit.de/wissen/umwel...

We Traced Pope Leo XIV’s Ancestry Back 500 Years. Here’s What We Found. Noblemen, enslaved people, freedom fighters, slaveowners: what the complex family tree of the first American pontiff reveals.

A complex family tree of noblemen, enslaved people, freedom fighters and slaveowners.

From the NYT Magazine:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Hungarian would be "Kosaras" (=Basketmaker) so it would have to lose the final -s somehow

But (South) Slavic, most likely Serbian seems veeeery plausible

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosara

Elavsky last name popularity, history, and meaning Data on the popularity and origin of the last name Elavsky in the United States based on the most recent Census data.

Have you seen this link?
(Have no idea how accurate the info is but it might offer some leads)

namecensus.com/last-names/e...

Wow, really little info online on this family name.

On the wider subject of Czech/Slovak history of family names, maybe @ljukic.bsky.social knows something about the process.

I know most of my followers will be familiar with the story of Giovanni Falcone but for those who did not follow me in the other place and don't know it, I have transferred my thread from there over here. Warning, it is a very long thread (200+ posts) but worth the effort to read.

San Giminiano 🇮🇹

Reminds me of "The Lost Literature of Rome" by the Isotype Institute for CICERO AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (1948)

It's why I fear they'll switch to antimagyarism. UDMR is a natural enemy and PSD has a nationalist wing (old PRM remnants). There is a lot of potential for this.

They'll also switch the anti-system into anti-liberals (PNL/Iohannis + UDMR) & BXL

(Migrants are still at least an electoral cycle away)

I think POT might return cause Gavrilă is weak but I wouldn't exclude other fragmentation. And losing the elex will see them lose MPs via erosion.

I mean I think we should remember that AUR already had two significant splits (the Șoșoacă/SOS/Ro one and the Gavrilă/POT one).

I'm of the opinion they'll do well within a coalition with PSD because they can latch onto the stronger organisational structure. They'll erode if not.

Of course this will affect Europe, though probably not in the same way as in 2008.

But for 40 years Europeans have been told by so many policymakers in the US and UK that they should emulate an American model that is now heading to self-destruction. A lesson there for future EU policy too.

With @arnoldplaton.bsky.social beautiful map!

Cartography ladies and gents, check out this watch I was gifted recently 😎

A fun stat from me in this week's Economist. Since the election, right-wing Britons have been turning to e-petitions: www.economist.com/britain/2025... When you're out of power, slacktivism is cathartic!

Yeah I suspected the speed of ruling out Polish troops is in part because it might be historically sensitive.

I suspect Romania and Poland will have other roles to play, maybe linked to infrastructure development?

Hey @arnoldplaton.bsky.social , a Romanian who writes in Spanish and Catalan has won an important literary prize. And her day job is teaching English in a small town school. Writers who choose a language not their own are interesting almost by definition

It's bad design. Something you'd see on @graphcrimes.bsky.social

Phantomgrenzen: Wo die alten deutschen Grenzen sichtbar werden Preußen und das deutsche Kaiserreich beeinflussen noch immer, wie Menschen heute in der EU wählen. Absurd, oder? Wir zeigen erstmals fünf Phantomgrenzen Europas.

Ich habe meinen ersten Text für das Datenressort @zeit.de geschrieben und es geht (unter anderem) um das Heilige Römische Reich. Alles daran finde ich fantastisch 👉👈 www.zeit.de/politik/2024...

Phantomgrenzen: Wo die alten deutschen Grenzen sichtbar werden Preußen und das deutsche Kaiserreich beeinflussen noch immer, wie Menschen heute in der EU wählen. Absurd, oder? Wir zeigen erstmals fünf Phantomgrenzen Europas.

Dass das Heilige Römische Reich uns politisch noch immer beeinflusst, hätte ich nicht gedacht – bis ich mich mit Phantomgrenzen beschäftigen durfte. Wir haben uns angeschaut, welche alten Grenzen bis heute sichtbar sind www.zeit.de/politik/2024...

Dataviz in my local paper. 🙃
Front page

He was a "I hate the traditional parties' candidates and this other guy that I've seen once on TV is well dressed, speaks intelligently and an outsider that seems to love his country" without looking too much into his history