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Nile

@hairyears.bsky.social
130 followers 161 following 405 posts

Archetypal Geek, perpetrates puns and Limericks, did a bit of Aikido. My profile pic is a male Green-Eyed Flower Bee; the profile header is a female Orange-Tipped Mining Bee: both were photographed close to home on Wanstead Flats, in suburban East London

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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You can't always get what you want… So here I am, trundling up the East Coast Main Line. But if you try sometime… Headphones on, listening to the London Bach Choir and a beautifully simple Horn solo. You might just find… They are accompanying the Rolling Stones. …You get what you need!
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Someone who knows me very well indeed has sent the perfect birthday present:
A gift box containing seven superb cheeses, with tasting notes, crackers, and unusual pickles.
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Kathryn Rose @artsyhonker.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I would love this fundraiser for admin and maintenance support for my precious tiny beloved inclusive church to get to £1000 today. And if it does, there is another Highland Coo picture awaiting! www.justgiving.com/page/whatsacoo
justgiving.com
What's a Coo to Do? for St John the Evangelist, Brownswood Park
Help Kathryn Rose raise money to support St John the Evangelist, Brownswood Park
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Kathryn Rose @artsyhonker.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Good morning! £415 on this fundraiser for admin and maintenance support for my wonderful tiny inclusive weird church after I leave in a few weeks time. Thank you all so much! When we reach £500 I will post another silly picture of Dilemma, the Highland Coo. www.justgiving.com/page/whatsacoo
justgiving.com
What's a Coo to Do? for St John the Evangelist, Brownswood Park
Help Kathryn Rose raise money to support St John the Evangelist, Brownswood Park
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Anyone else deen this? www.reuters.com/legal/govern... An American bank, CapitalOne, closed its Trump and Trump-Affiliated bank accounts due to money-laundering concerns. Trump & co are sueing for "Politically-motivated debanking". Betcha CapitalOne documented those concerns *in detail*.
reuters.com
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe
The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to the president's family business.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Another Hairy-Footed Flower Bee, female this time, photographed in St.John the Evangelist's churchyard, Brownswood, North London
A female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes): very different to the male, a large fuzzy black bee with a distinctive orange pollen brush on her hind legs.

The villainous grin is her natural expression.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
My second #ABeeAday post: a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee, photographed in an East London alleyway:
A portrait of an improbably fluffy male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) on a small blue flower. The extravagant ostrich plumes on his legs explain the common name: I am told that they are used in mating displays and I can only conclude that whoever said so visits decidedly peculiar nightclubs.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Why is oil so damn' cheap today? What, you say *cheap* at $86 a barrel? Too damn cheap: something's badly wrong, despite the latest announcement of 'reopening' the Strait of Hormuz. Today's Gasoline prices look the way they would if Crude was well over $140 a barrel. 1/n
forbes.com
Refining Stocks Soar As Crack Spread Hits Record High In 2026
Crack spreads have hit record highs, keeping gas and diesel prices elevated. See why refiners like Marathon and Valero are surging.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I'm a bit behind on posting pictures of bees: lets see how long I can keep up posting a bee a day… First up, a Blue Mason Bee I snapped in Solly's Orchard, in Canterbury in April this year:
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Stevie Kilner @1steviekilner.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
If anyone would like to see a short video of a dog using their tail as a rotar blade, this is your lucky day.
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Hush Kit was a big influence on me when I first started writing stuff, at least in terms of something to aspire to.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Gosh, my work laptop gets another yearof security updates! www.microsoft.com/en-us/window...
microsoft.com
Windows 10 Extended Security Updates | Microsoft Windows
Use Windows 10 securely with the Extended Security Updates program. See how it helps protect your PC and find out how to get it.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Am I hallucinating this? It's the Financial Times. If any British politician said this out loud, the London Press would be publishing caricatures of them in fur hat with a Red Star in front of the Kremlin.
A headline from The Financial Times: "For failing water utilities, nationalisation is not a dirty word"

Below it, the leader: "It is easier to fund maintenance and infrastructure upgrades when freed from the temptation to pay big dividends"

Clarification: 'The Financial Times' is pronounced "Da Wall Street Journal" in simplified English.
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Ryan Shirlow @ryanshirlow.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Look at the photo used to illustrate this article, as opposed to say an elderly person, lying confused and dehydrated in a care home, a farmer staring at a field of wilting and dying crops, or an army marching across a desert. I think this image will end up in text books, if such things survive.
BBC article “UK's hottest May day record broken for second day in a row” illustrated with people playing in a swimming pool.
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Dee Lomas @deelomas.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I have two last wishes: 1: I want my remains scattered around Disneyland 2: I don’t want to be cremated THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
An evening walk along the Great Stour in Canterbury and... WE HAVE SEEN A BEAVER!
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
At this point in the Mandeldon scandal, the best strategy would be an honest admission: "We knew exactly who to send to Washington, with an ’in' via Epstein to the corrupt and depraved movers and shakers who make all the decisions."
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
"the good news is that we have found a relatively cheap and easy way to prevent the cast from going through puberty. the bad news is that not everybody in this room is going to like it".
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
mind blowing how cost of therapy has increased in recent years *me nodding seriously* “indeed. shrinkflation.”
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Another working year begins: off to the trading floor, fortified by a breakfast of Christmas duck crackling and panettoni. ...And coffee: lots of coffee. I've been far too quiet and introverted for the past year; 2026 needs to be a year of reconnecting.
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Uncle Duke @uncleduke1969.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
David Attenborough [whispering]: “Like a grain of sand in a vast desert, the predator blends seamlessly into its environment, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.”
The top half of a cat is concealed behind a gold curtain, its bottom half exposed.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
CW: UK politics, vituperation, and a Limerick. My, what a pleasure it isn't to receive a personally-addressed letter from C*ntinuity UKIP. They want me to tell them what I think of them, and they have supplied a prepaid envelope. *Clears throat* ...Are you sitting comfortably?
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Ms Chatelaine @theelaineg.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
UBI will need to be supported by infrastructure changes: nationalised utilities, public transport, repaired NHS; caps on prices for all necessities; eliminate education fees Otherwise the landlords, supermarkets and other monopolists will just extract it all and leave us where we started
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Nicholas Jackson @njj4.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. I hope this email finds you well.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
The season of denial is over: it's 'a bit chilly at night' and we've deployed… THE WINTER DUVET The duvet cover slid on, in a comical struggle that nearly trapped us in a 13.5 TOG nested Klein Bottle. But we won, and it's like sleeping under a warm and fluffy event horizon. No, really…
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
So Glinner's been nicked for hate speech, and his bail conditions insist that he must stay off **itter. He hardly needs to, for his friends in the media - venomous denizens of the leguminous aether - are trumpeting and burbling in support. I hope they all asphyxiate in their mephitic exhalations.
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Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Scientists believe we may be as much as four generations away from self-awareness in tech bros
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Andrew Ducker @andrewducker.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Canada is getting new Covid vaccines. Place your bets on whether they reach the UK...
cp24.com
Health Canada approves updated Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for fall
Health Canada has authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna for use this respiratory virus season.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Trundling up to Leicester today, on a route via Corby that I’ve never travelled in daylight. It's a fascinating landscape! Tall viaducts carry the railway over steep valleys that look like collapsed caves - chalk or limestone? - not at all what I'd expect in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Have a Friday afternoon picture of a bee... (Details in the alt descriptions>
Profile shot of a male green-eyed flower bee, all bristles and a huge green eye, resting on a dry blade of grassThe distinctive yellow face and vivid green eyes of a male green-eyed flower bee (Anthophora bimaculata), perched on a ragwort flower at Hollow Ponds,  last Friday
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Desultory rumbles of thunder, here in London: but a quick look at LightningMap.org shows an extraordinarily active electric storm over Kent: www.lightningmaps.org?lang=en#x=0....;
A screenshot from LightningMap.org, showing Eastern Kent plastered with little red circles, representing 20 to 30 lightning strikes per minute
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
There are devout and pious individuals at my place of work who, on hearing the exclamation "HOLY SHIT!!!", will solemnly intone "Bless the flush, the brush, the bogroll and the air-freshener, too".
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Time for me to post a snapshot of what I do in my spare time: I take photographs of wild bees. Not honeybees: *wild* bees. Today was my first sighting of a Wool Carder Bee, seen at the Roding Farm allotments in Wanstead, East London...
A male Wool Carder bee (Anthidium manicatum), perched on a small pink flower.

If you bashed your thumb with a hammer so that your thumbnail bruised a nasty shade of black, and painted little yellow portholes 'round the edges by dabbing-on yellow nail varnish, it would look a lot like this bee's arse.A male Wool Carder Bee, perched on a small purple petal, side-eying the cameraman: his face has yellow markings like a wasp, but the rest of him is far chunkier, mostly black and brown with a scattering of yellow markings, and fluffy-looking white hair.Side view of a Wool Carder Bee: long, thin blue-green eyes, back-and-yellow legs with combs of white bristles, and a shiny black abdomen with a line of yellow dots, tufts of more white bristles, and lethal-looking prongs on the end.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
An introduction: or, a reminder that I'm the same Hairyears you've encountered elsewhere. • I am A Bit Geeky. • I'm a bit quieter than you remember. • The Puns are now even worse. • The Limericks are even filthier. • I encode Old Enochian into Excel spreadsheets for a living. Any pronouns will do.
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Nile @hairyears.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
He's here. Seal off the building.
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