Sign in

Abelian

@abelian.bsky.social
125 followers 412 following 886 posts

Trying to commute less these days. DMs turned off because of the UK censors.

PostsRepliesMedia
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 8h
A word to HR people: if you are advertising a job located in the Canton of Zurich, double-check that the web site hasn't automatically relocated it to Canton.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Bright clothing and lights, bus passenger edition. No mention of mandatory bus helmets, but it is surely only a matter of time. www.lincolnshireworld.com/your-world/b...
lincolnshireworld.com
Be Seen – Lincolnshire bus passengers urged to shine phone screens at bus stop to attract drivers’ attention
Be Seen – Lincolnshire bus passengers urged to shine phone screens at bus stop to attract drivers’ attention
000
Reposted by Abelian
Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'm going to tell you a story and then, at the end, I'm going to ask you if anyone happens to have the niche knowledge I need to help... The story begins, as so many of my stories do, in an ancient church in the middle of a city. But it's not now. And it's not hundreds of years ago. It's the 1960's
718763
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Not now, That London.
021
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Time to say goodbye... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
'Cheeky' fees prompts choirs to pull out of Andrea Bocelli gig
Choirs say they're withdrawing from the Principality Stadium event because of the £42 per member charge.
000
Reposted by Abelian
Katja Diehl @katjadiehl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Why I don´t talk about helmets? I lost too many wearing them. On Car-Free Day, 22 September, Nicolò, a seven-year-old child, was killed by a motorist in Turin. He was riding in the bike lane, wearing his helmet, riding to school with his father. A car driver killed him anyway. Photo Fabio Ferrari
A tiny ghost bike painted white.
37927
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I *think* this is referring to two separate people with the same name:
Just a year later, the Thomas Tunnock lifeboat, named in honour of the businessman's late brother and grandfather, was launched to great acclaim.
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If you're heading to the coast this weekend, allow me to recommend RNLI jelly babies. A bit fruitier and less sugary than the usual. I usually buy a few bags when I'm passing.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Just put another crossing in, you absolute divots. www.expressandstar.com/news/coroner...
expressandstar.com
Coroner raises road safety concerns following fatal crash in Stone
A coroner has asked Staffordshire County Council to look at road safety improvements following a fatal accident in Stone.
110
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Poor headline from @theguardian.com on an otherwise decent article. The Mercator projection exaggerates areas near the poles (like Siberia) at the expense of equatorial regions (e.g. Central America). That is not "western bias". www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...
theguardian.com
‘A map is never neutral’: meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias
Equal Earth projection, adopted by the UN last week, provides an alternative to 16th-century Mercator display
100
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
(Boggle)
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
British villages will declare themselves independent rather than build a pavement along a rural road.
A parish councillor, Mike Nixon, said the proposed site had no pedestrian access areas, and that the nearest path was about a mile and a quarter away, down a busy unlit road.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I knew Sir Ed Davey was a wrong 'un. The moment I spotted him bungee jumping, I said to myself "there's a man with forerunners, and I bet they backed the slave trade." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
How enslavement became state-backed operation supported by Conservative and Lib Dem forerunners
Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave trade
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"AI Pioneers" are just like the original Pioneers, but with extra fingers, right?
Young Pioneers practising their Elon salutes
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Cyclist in critical condition after hit-and-run by car driver. Bus stop smashed up, but it was the safe kind, not a floating one. /s uk.news.yahoo.com/cyclist-crit... #BusStopCrash
Two police officers standing near the smashed remains of a bus stop that has been demolished by the driver of a grey hatchback car.
100
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
As Phillips says: "We are on a journey where this becomes completely standardised."
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
We don't know everything that is going on here, but this is *not* a normal reaction to differences in referral rates between England and Wales. Coronary bypasses are considerably more common in England, but we don't respond by immediately cancelling them all. cavuhb.nhs.wales/news/latest-...
cavuhb.nhs.wales
Welsh Gender Service update – 28 August 2026
100
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
But helmets...
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I feel strongly that one of the core skills that anyone working for the NHS should have is the ability to identify whether people are alive or dead: www.theguardian.com/money/2026/a...
theguardian.com
How can I convince NHS pensions that I am not dead?
It has not paid me for months and I am in severe financial distress, and apart from my husband while I try to sort it out
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Book titles your US publisher will tell you not to use:
Collections

Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid (2000) (US title: I Like Being Killed)
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
This wouldn't be acceptable behaviour from a town councillor, a civil servant or a police officer. It shouldn't be acceptable from an MP either. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
MPs ‘failing to learn lesson’ over freebies after accepting £400,000 of hospitality
MPs receive Harry Styles concert tickets worth £858, Chelsea flower show tickets worth £1,839, and £3,432 of hospitality at Brit awards
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
It's cute that Girlguiding ever thought that giving in to the litigious sex obsessives would make them go away. www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/girlgui...
civilsociety.co.uk
Girlguiding faces ‘continued’ legal challenge risks despite changing membership rules
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is a massive data centre, on a 108-hectare site. Its carbon emissions could reach a whopping 3-4% of those from aviation. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Proposed London datacentre will have annual carbon footprint of 27,000 flights to New York
Exclusive: Planning documents show datacentre in North Ockendon would be incompatible with UK net zero targets
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
If i had my druthers, cyclists would stop at red lights. However, doing so is often absurdly dangerous. That doesn't mean that cyclists should break the law, but every time a cyclist is killed after stopping at a red light, the Cabinet should be imprisoned for causing death by dangerous legislation.
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Prohibition working about as well as it always does. You can ban things, or you can regulate them to reduce harms, but it is often remarkably difficult to do both at the same time. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Children as young as nine hurt in growing number of e-scooter crashes
Three trauma centres - Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield - say they have treated nearly 500 casualties under the age of 16.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Interesting bit of window design they've got there...
Detail of fascist bookshop frontage.
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Sadiq Khan telling us how green London is, now the buses are electric. Barely mentioned: the derisory amount of solar farm capacity in London. The green generation is happening in someone else's back yard. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
This burning summer is the proof: the voices of climate denial aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly | Sadiq Khan
Look at our blazing forests and parched cities. Green policies aren’t a ‘luxury’, and we can’t burn more oil and gas. People need the truth, says London mayor Sadiq Khan
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I had rather hoped they were doing this already.
Newspaper headline:

Boeing 737 Max operators told to check fuselages for cracks
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Who did it best?
Tweet from someone I've never heard of, demanding that Andrew and Tristan Tate be freed. There is a picture, presumably of one or other of them, in a dark suit, sitting in a  chair while recovering from a traumatic encounter with a taxidermist.The Lincoln Memorial statue. Similar pose, but more animated.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
We should have done this anyway, for lots of sound reasons, but we probably shouldn't be assuming that the next pandemic will spare children like Covid did. We may be forced to close the schools anyway.
000
Reposted by Abelian
Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
If I can, let me explain today's Times story. This is less to do with renewables and much more to do with where generation is located and how it shows up at a system level. /1
511363
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Saying the quiet part out loud.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
This is why I have no sympathy with those mourning the scrapping of Digital ID today. Yes, joining up govt databases is cool. But you don't call in Mumsnet for that.
043
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
It is difficult to comprehend the level of sheer blithering incompetence required to impose a hosepipe ban in villages with over 1300mm of rainfall per year.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Having failed to raise enough money from the people who watch BBC programmes, the plan now is to charge people for not watching it. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...
theguardian.com
BBC faces ‘real jeopardy’ as licence fee payments fall faster than expected
Director general Matt Brittin says funding model ties corporation to the past as number of licences falls by 539,000
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
"Verify your age" I have a BlueSky account.
000
Reposted by Abelian
John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
With immeasurable sadness I must announce that Napoleon, our best boy, went missing a few nights back. if you see a small black kitty with two white toes around Boundary/Markhouse roads in #walthamstow do DM me. if i post no photos of him anymore, this will be why. he was my very best boy 💔
my beautiful black kitty, with white belly patches and two white toes, stretched out asleep in happier times.
11067285
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Warning: under no circumstances use this lotion in the areas of Africa with lions. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
Catnip lotion as effective as Deet at repelling mosquitoes, study finds
Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda found what cats knew all along – it worked as well as the artificial chemical used globally
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A reminder that Russian sources originally blamed Nordstream 2 on Liz Truss, in a wetsuit, with a bomb. novayagazeta.eu/en/articles/...
novayagazeta.eu
Russia’s security chief blames UK for Nord Stream sabotage based on ‘It’s done’ message found in Liz Truss’s hacked phone — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Russia’s security chief blames UK for Nord Stream sabotage based on ‘It’s done’ message found in Liz Truss’s hacked phone
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
This is not changing my prejudice that solar farms in Southern England should generally be built closer to where the demand is.
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The minutes of the advisory group will not be published, and the government is refusing to give answers to questions about the criteria for choosing its members, and the costs. (There are links to the parliamentary written questions in the article.) www.theregister.com/public-secto...
theregister.com
Digital ID brain trust will meet behind closed doors as minister ducks cost questions
Minutes will not be published, and MPs still have no answer on the group's budget or how its members were chosen
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Interesting article. There is a related story to be told about how Plaid hammered Welsh Labour by challenging them to defend the national party's policies. And a much less amusing one about how Reform got so many seats.
100
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The morning after the referendum. A dull technical conference for senior City IT managers (and me). In the coffee break, every one was on the phone to their board outlining their strategy after the surprise result. Ten years on and our political class still hasn't done what they did in 45 minutes.
100
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Hang on, doesn't *everyone* just blink back?
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
One to watch. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Derbyshire police officer investigated over AI-generated ‘evidential material’
Unidentified officer removed from frontline duties in the first known case of its kind in the UK
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who has been paying attention, the advisory group overseeing Digital ID will include the Executive Chair of Mumsnet. www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Business and civil society leaders brought together to help build digital ID system that works for the public
Senior leaders from business and civil society are being brought in to support the Government to deliver a digital ID system that works for the public.
7255122
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Absolute rabbit hole here. I think the chap with the cats is probably Gebre Menfes Kidus, but my knowledge of Ethiopian iconography is, um, not great. I'm feeling a lot less smug about the icon I saw in a Cairo museum once (halo, massive bunch of keys, "Peter" in greek, labelled "Christian saint").
010
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Even if this is only partially true, it gives us a handy proxy for governmental incompetence that is literally visible from space.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Simon Jenkins (b. 1943) lamenting that nobody at the start of his career contemplated reforming the national curriculum (introduced 1988). www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
When I started my career as an education correspondent, I attended school conferences galore. Yet I cannot recall one at which the reform of the national curriculum was ever discussed. It was taken as given, handed down from antiquity.
000
Abelian @abelian.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
When an MP, or a political party, tells you what they are, believe them.
010