The rooftops of a building in the Clerkenwell area of London with a sunny background.
So good to see the amazing view from my office window, with a blue- sky background for the first time this year. Lucky to live in London.
Brilliant news. Now could it possibly be the turn of Wimbledon Broadway to be freed from vehicle traffic? Please!
Delighted to announce that following the consultation, I'm giving the green light to make Oxford Street traffic-free.
Something I worked on last year is now live: the Digital Museum of Learning (@dmolearning.bsky.social) story "What can I learn from sounds?" It's meant for children and part of the larger "Teaming up with Technology for Learning" virtual exhibition. #scicomm www.museumoflearning.org/stories/what...
Sharing this amazing poem with the kind permission of the author. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...
Black-and-white 1950s photograph of physicist Katharine Burr Blodgett in her General Electric laboratory. Seated at a desk, she wears glasses and a striped short-sleeved blouse, holding a ruler and examining papers with focused intensity. Shelves of bottles and equipment line the background — the workspace of the woman who invented non-reflective glass.
Side-by-side demonstration of Katharine Burr Blodgett's 1938 invention: non-reflective glass. Left: three colorful yarn balls (red, blue, yellow) are clearly visible through coated glass with no glare. Right: the same balls appear blurred and distorted by reflections through ordinary clear glass. A powerful visual proof of the invisible coating that revolutionized lenses, windows, and screens.
Who invented non-reflective glass?
American physicist & chemist Katharine Burr Blodgett in 1938.
It revolutionized optics--& led to the coatings used today in everything from eyeglasses to phone screens. She was the first woman to earn a PhD in #physics from Cambridge, 1926. #WomenInSTEM #inventor
Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, stands with arms crossed and a calm, confident smile, wearing a black blazer over a red top, shoulder-length silver-gray hair, and wire-rimmed glasses. Behind her is a blurred, vibrant red-and-orange abstract backdrop. A pioneering woman in STEM who reshaped our understanding of aging and DNA.
Biochemist Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn was born #OTD in 1948.
She shared the 2009 #Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the enzyme telomerase & how chromosomes are protected by telomeres. This has 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 implications for the fields of #aging and #cancer research. #WomenInSTEM
Concert poster announcing "From Arabian Nights to Hollywood Lights", by London Euphonia Orchestra on November 29th
If you're in London on November 29th, come to London Euphonia Orchestra's concert "From Arabian Nights to Hollywood Lights", in which we play both Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade and film music from E.T., Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Greatest Showman. www.londoneuphonia.com
2 tickets purchased - looking forward to it!
My three favourite reads of 2025 are up on Shepherd #booksky shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
A superb initiative. May I suggest that another place that would very much benefit from this is the Broadway in Wimbledon.
Many thanks to @londonfirebrigade.bsky.social for their proactive approach to fire prevention. They very helpfully installed new smoke alarms in my flat today. THANK YOU!
TWO WEEKS AWAY from publication of #TheCutThroatTrial and hardbacks have landed! They exist! This is happening!
As Counting Crows crooned in Shrek, I think I’m accidentally in love.
If grimly authentic crime fiction is your bag, you can pre-order in paper, e-book and audio here bio.to/7zNmPU
Carl Sagan explains how the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round and calculated its circumference over 2,000 years ago.
Gigantic wooden sculpture of a troll between four large trees. His hands wrapped around two of them. My lovely wife is standing next to the troll looking up at him and is dwarved by the sculpture. He is wearing a necklace of birdhouses to interact even more with nature.
This is Jakob Two Trees, a wooden troll living in the forest created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. It's huge. 14 ft tall. There are six of them in the #PNW (each different). Amazing - just there, out in the woods, for all to see!
#art #seattle #love #socool #photography #sculpture #hiking #walk
Farage should never be interviewed without being forced to answer for failures of Brexit. That the man whose lies fuelled Brexit vote which has cost UK Billions & who said Liz Truss budget was “best Tory budget since 1986” could be trusted on *anything* is mind-boggling #bbclaura
Same here - have luckily lived close enough to have had plenty of opportunities to read to my grandchildren. But now, love to see how well they are reading themselves - although they still enjoy me joining in with their reading from time to time.
A most intriguing stat from the latest “Births in England and Wales 2023” from ONS (UK): “Boxing Day (26 December) remained the least likely birth date for the 11th year in a row”.
Train Arrives at Oxford Circus London Underground station
Bullet Train
Looking back at one of my fave photos this year
A train shoots out of the tunnel, down the platform & towards a Hamilton theatre poster. It looks like the man is staring down the barrel of his shotgun at the approaching train at Oxford Circus Underground station
#photography #railway
Thanks @willhawkes.bsky.social for highlighting this pathetic attack on a historic pub by a sad little bunch of nimbys
It’s worth taking 2mins out of your day to email Islington council & defend The Sekforde -unless you want to find yourself sitting on a bus for an hour to drink in an All Bar One
“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record.
They run them bc people react to them the most.
If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change.
It’s not easy and takes constant practice!
Tha actual quote is even better (from quoteinvestigator.com)
You have inspired me to be brave ! Going to have a go at trying this on London’s public transport systems which is becoming a cacophony of phone related noise.
Have never understood the “working class” designation. Workers are Workers, regardless of their formal qualifications.
This ~ 💯%
I'm totally OK with being called woke. It just means that I'm showing off my green flags. Happy to follow others with green flags.
#woke
Yes, libraries are invaluable for their collections and public services they offer, but also social contact without the expectation to interact with anyone or spend any money is so important to so many people
My high school English teacher assured me that one day I would appreciate Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Because she was a great teacher, I have repeatedly tried reading it again. But 45 years on - I still think it is tedious.
