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John Johnston

@johnjohnston.info
311 followers 225 following 417 posts

Retired primary school teacher, Scotland. Part time Product owner Glow Blogs johnjohnston.info Likes, blogs, rss & podcasts. Being outside. Posting to BlueSky mostly from my blog, POSSE.

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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 26/09/2026
Beautiful
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 26/09/2026
Park Pond, two young dabchicks with one or two parents. Never saw the parents at the same time. Fishing & feeding the wee ones. About 10 metres along another adult & young one. Was surprised as I’ve not seen many about over the summer. Nesting in the space between Islands out of sight I guess?
Adult dabchick with offspringAdult dabchick with offspring
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 24/09/2026
Lots of the ivy was alive with hoverflies wasps & bees on Tuesday. Lots of buzzing!
Hoverfly perched on a cluster of ivy flowers surrounded by green leaves.
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Reposted by John Johnston
Drew Burrett @drewburrett.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I haven't blogged in years, but prompted by an email @qualifications.gov.scot I've dusted off some old ideas... drewburrett.substack.com/p/revisiting... Please feel free to comment and share.
drewburrett.substack.com
Revisiting Assessment & Certification
(and tentatively returning to sharing my thoughts)
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 20/09/2026
Blustery afternoon on path to Greenside, mostly blue sky. Despite the wind a few butterflies, peacocks, painted lady, red admiral & a few speckled woods. Goldfinch in the meadowsweet. A raven circled high in the blue. The news reported less speckled woods this year, but I’ve seem more than ever.
Speckled Wood butterfly with brown, cream-spotted wings resting on a textured green leaf.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 20/09/2026
#silentsunday
Black raven flying against a clear blue sky.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 20/09/2026
I am experimenting with gathering links with rss.chat here. I am pulling a rough post together for some of the links gathered there. Education This looks like a very interesting book. "As important as her deep reporting on the tech indust... johnjohnston.info/blog/life-in-link…
Montage of webpages: Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools | Washington Independent Review of Books Todd's AI Playground Custom Post Types, Taxonomies, or Custom Fields: Which Should You Use? - Meta Box WordPress 7.0 Multisite: Did You Notice the New Connectors Screen in Subsites? – Lena’s Multisite & BuddyPress Mayhem Where The River (ft. Earl 16) | Soul Revivers ‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft OpenAI's rebel agent swarm died young, but its chilling logs live on An $18bn settlement – and Zuckerberg barely blinked. The tech titans must be stripped of their power, and soon | Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian PlotLines - the classics, mapped
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 16/09/2026
River of News: johnjohnston.info/blog/river-of-news
johnjohnston.info
River of News
I’ve a new page: River of News an rss reader for some of my favourite feeds. I’ve been testing Scott Hanson’s plugin that pulls in a River of News from Feedland River Embed for Fe…
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 16/09/2026
Just has an email telling me telex has been retired. Telex was built onto of WordPress playground and allowed you to crate with A.I. plugins and themes. I experimented and made a few. Kept a bit of a record of the prompts I used and the problems I cam... johnjohnston.info/blog/telex-retired
Screenshot of Website Testing Telex. WordPress Query Loop grid, posts illustrated with bitmap image.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 15/09/2026
Half the Finlas Water Loop: johnjohnston.info/blog/half-the-fin…
3x3 grid of images, photos round a map where they were taken. From Top Left: Road to Finlas water, singlet rack, grass on each side; Dor Better on Bracken, shiney black bettle; Buff tailed bumble bee on Devils Bit Scabious; Fence post with a loop of fence wire, grey background due to low clouds/mist; Map trac round Finlas water in red. A small tree in a misty landscape; An eagle, wings outstretched in silhouette; Grass-of-Parnassus flow; small whilre mushroom with slender stalk and veil. growing in moss
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 13/09/2026
Greenside morning, brighter than expected. Sunshine brought out the butterflies. Mostly Painted Ladies with a lot of Speckled Woods. One very battered Small Tortoiseshell. Near the reservoir a flock of about 50 or so mixed goldfinch & linnets, s... johnjohnston.info/blog/greenside-in…
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Reposted by John Johnston
Paul Ford @ftrain.com · 12/09/2026
I just want one killer app before we get a killer robot.
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Reposted by John Johnston
ScotEduBlogs @scotedublogs.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I don’t usually devote a full post to a single webinar, but this one genuinely merited it. The session offered one of the clearest, most practice‑grounded explorations of how AI is reshaping assessment and feedback across FE and HE.Teachermatic is an award-winning... wp.me/p3Wm7X-nVR
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 07/09/2026
3 photos of a raven, imagemagick B&W & montage. #corvid #raven
A montage of 3 photos of a raven in flight. Black and white, same raven.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 06/09/2026
#SilentSunday
Moss-covered tree stump with a small rowan growing from its top, set against an out of focus misty mountain landscape.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 03/09/2026
Victoria Park, drizzle them brightened, a couple of white butterflies over the flower beds. Went to investigate. Among the bright flowers were a few thistles. A couple of bees working over the thistles ignoring the other flowers. One butterfly came off a thistle too. Not sure which type of white.
Heron sitting in willow tree winds folded openHeron sitting on a curved branch, grooming
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Reposted by John Johnston
Wikimedia Foundation @wikimediafoundation.org · 01/09/2026
Wikipedia has a tip for nearly every part of the editing experience. Started in 2004, the "Tip of the day" project provides useful daily advice on how to use or develop Wikipedia more effectively. Bookmark it ➡️ w.wiki/HT5G
The painting of a girl reading a book by May Vale. Text reads: You probably don't know everything Wikipedia can do. Tip of the day gives you one daily quick trick to help you explore, edit, and get more out of the free encyclopedia.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 30/08/2026
#SilentSunday
A small tortoiseshell butterfly with orange and black wings resting among purple thistle flowers and green foliage.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 29/08/2026
Out to Greenside this morning, warm, close and sometimes sunny. Butterflies: Green-veined Whites, several spotted woods, peacocks, small tortoiseshells & painted ladies on thistles. I rather like this odd view of a painted lady. few more photos on f... johnjohnston.info/blog/painted-lady
Painted Lady Butterfly on a knapweed flower. tHe butterfly is at an odd angle, facing the camera, wings outstretched, we only see aa little of the top and underside,
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 23/08/2026
#bloomstrolling for #bloomscrolling in Glen Douglas yesterday. Lots of sparkles on the ground. #flora.
A 3x3 grig of images, 8 wildflowers round a maps showing where they were taken. From topleft: Eyebright, milkwort, devil's bit scabious, bog heather, map, round leafed sundew, ling, lousewort, hawkbit (or something like it)
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 22/08/2026
Could Markdown go to School?: johnjohnston.info/blog/could-markdo…
johnjohnston.info
Could Markdown go to School?
I prefer using Markdown over Word for document creation, it is simple and structured. Daring Fireball reported the integration of Markdown with OneDrive. I wonder if it could be used for teaching c…
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Reposted by John Johnston
Petra Michaela @petramichaela.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
A society that protects its trees and water is investing in generations it may never meet.
static.klipy.com
Nature Lake
ALT: Nature Lake
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 13/08/2026
Life in Links 68: johnjohnston.info/blog/life-in-link…
montages of screenshots of 8 webpages that are linked to in the article.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 12/08/2026
Insects, from a walk round Ardmore point yesterday.
Speckled Wood sunning on a broad leafA Speckled Wood butterfly resting on  yorkshire fog grass headCommon Darter on as old flower headCommon Darter on as old flower head
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 12/08/2026
An interesting post from Matt Mullenweg: "Builders are the site shapers, webmasters, the agencies, the companies, the content managers that think in a more page-first rather than post-first way. Tagging? Blogroll? Date-based permalinks? Who ne... johnjohnston.info/blog/who-uses-wor…
johnjohnston.info
Who uses WordPress?
Thinking about teachers and pupils using WordPress, sparked, in part by Our Core Division posted by Matt Mullenweg
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 09/08/2026
Post Link & Quote to RSS.chat: johnjohnston.info/blog/post-link-qu…
johnjohnston.info
Post Link & Quote to RSS.chat
I’ve managed to make a small AppleScript that gets the selection from Safari & a link and post it to RSS.chat. I already had a script that copied the selection and put it and a link on t…
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 02/08/2026
A lot of white butterflies (mostly green-veined, large & small) out & about on Friday. Some flightily red admirals too. Later, beside the track an excited green-veined white butterfly fluttering amount the leaves. Underneath a leaf a small white hanging upside down. Misplaced affection?
Large White ButterflyGreen-Veined Butterfly
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 31/07/2026
Talking a short walk along the Kelvin between Kelvin Bridge & The Botanics while my wife was in the dentist. These sunlit leaves above the path pulled in this speckled wood. Another flew over some sparkling water through light & shade. A happy moment.
A speckled wood butterfly resting on some sunlit leaves.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 31/07/2026
Read The Devils Footprints by John Burnside ★★★★☆ I am unsure how much to ‘believe’ of the main character’s narrative. He claims a childhood murder and the insanity of running away from his wife and life with a 14 year old girl who he thinks... johnjohnston.info/blog/the-devils-f…
johnjohnston.info
The Devils Footprints
Read The Devils Footprints by John Burnside ★★★★☆ I am unsure how much to ‘believe’ of the main character’s narrative. He claims a childhood murder and the insanity of running awa…
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 30/07/2026
♥ RSS – A directory of people who love RSS Put the badge on your homepage and submit your URL. Once we’ve checked the link back and found your feed, you’re on the list — and in an OPML subscription list any reader can subscribe to in one action ♥ RSS
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 22/07/2026
Read: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan ★★★★ 📚 Say, forever. What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regr... johnjohnston.info/blog/buckeye
johnjohnston.info
Buckeye
Read: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan ★★★★ 📚 Say, forever. What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having …
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 18/07/2026
rss chat: johnjohnston.info/blog/rss-chat rss.chat by Dave Winer, where each user gets an RSS feed to share their posts. It seems to be about small communities on individual servers. While it's still in demo mode and not guaranteed to stick around, it's a thought provoking way to think ...
johnjohnston.info
rss chat
rss.chat by Dave Winer, where each user gets an RSS feed to share their posts. It seems to be about small communities on individual servers. While it’s still in demo mode and not guaranteed t…
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 16/07/2026
Given the good weather there are quite a lot of butterflies around this week. This one looks like an old one that has been in the wars, black faded and very ragged. I wonder what tales it  could tell. My butterfly by month page is building nicely.
A faded Red Admiral nectering on ragwort.
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Reposted by John Johnston
dave.linkblog.org @dave.linkblog.org · 10/07/2026
Technography in the age of AI. rss.chat
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 09/07/2026
Short walk to Greenside reservoir this morning. Warm, mostly sunny. Lots of butterflies around. I’d guess I saw over 200 ringlets; a lot of painted ladies & meadow browns. A few common blues & red admirals ,one small tortoiseshell ... johnjohnston.info/blog/butterfly-mo…
3x3 grid of 8 images round a central map of where they were taken. From Top left: Painted Lady; peacock butterfly caterpillars; small skipper; Small tortoiseshell; map;2 Meadow Browns mating; small blue; ringlet; red admiral Butterfly, looks like a small skipper, on a gras head.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 08/07/2026
#Flora #BloomStrolling #BloomScrolling
A group of harebells (lavender bell-shaped flowers) and small white wildflowers in   green grass..
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 03/07/2026
Guided Tours in WordPress: johnjohnston.info/blog/guided-tours… A note about the guided tour facility in the Pootlepress Blueprint Generator for the WordPress playground.
Animated gif of screenshots of a 'tour' of the wordpress dashboard made with pootlepress playground.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 28/06/2026
Today’s daily create #tdc5280 #ds106 #dailycreate #ShowYourStripes point toward the #ShowYourStripes webpage that very neatly shows "visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country, region or city over... johnjohnston.info/blog/climate-biod…
An image showing the decline, 86%,  in British moths from 1970 to 2018  The highest level of biodiversity is coloured bright green. Lower levels move through yellow to grey, depending upon the level of decline. Darker greys appear with greater declines.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 25/06/2026
Life in Links 67: johnjohnston.info/blog/life-in-link… A varied collection of links some of which have been sitting in my notes for a while. Frank Cottrell-Boyce: ‘We’ve treated a generation of chil… They miss school? “School is where our kids feel secure. It’s where they’re fed. It’...
A montage of screenshots of the eight webpages discussed.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 25/06/2026
Read: Solace House by Will Maclean ★★★★ 📚 After sudden scalding exposure to the late twentieth century, and the garish monomania of the supermarket, it was joyous to return to the hospital, to the house. I found that I wanted to immerse myself in Sol... johnjohnston.info/blog/solace-house
johnjohnston.info
Solace House
Read: Solace House by Will Maclean ★★★★ 📚 After sudden scalding exposure to the late twentieth century, and the garish monomania of the supermarket, it was joyous to return to the hospital,…
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 17/06/2026
Likes We Ran a Huge Social Experiment on a Whole Generation. It Turned Out to Be Terrible | Pootlepress by Jamie Marsland. Like: “Wait. You knew it was damaging mental healt... johnjohnston.info/blog/liked-we-ran…
johnjohnston.info
Liked: We Ran a Huge Social Experiment on a Whole Generation. It Turned Out to Be Terrible
Likes We Ran a Huge Social Experiment on a Whole Generation. It Turned Out to Be Terrible | Pootlepress by Jamie Marsland. Like: “Wait. You knew it was damaging mental health, sleep, attention and …
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 14/06/2026
Walk around Victoria park this afternoon. Warm and quite sunny. Lots of small damselflies out on the pond.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 14/06/2026
Belonging: johnjohnston.info/blog/belonging A wonderful book. Touches on so many things, some I know a bit about, trout flies, others new to me, the process of etching. Travels, walks, bird ringing & ecological surveys mix with family history. Lists of old Scot's words for weather, gpx ...
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Reposted by John Johnston
RSPB @rspb.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
It's World Swift Day! ❤️ Swifts raise their chicks high in eaves or nestboxes, returning to the same site year after year. When the young fledge, they launch into open air... & just keep going! They’ll remain airborne for the next two or three years, until it’s time to breed themselves.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 07/06/2026
#SilentSunday
Orange Tip Butterfly
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 05/06/2026
TIL copy all tabs in iOS safari. On mac, I have a nice wee AppleScript that copies to the clipboard links to all my open tabs in Safari’s top window. I’ve always been a bit frustrated that I couldn’t do the same on iOS. But I can. Tab view then the ellipsis at the top right, copy n tabs.
Screenshot of Tab menu in the all tabs view of Safari on iPhone. The Menu item "Copy 500 Links" is hilited in yellow and circled in red.
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Reposted by John Johnston
Danny Nicholson @dannynic.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Celebrate 20 years of teachmeet with our cross-border Anglo-Irish online meet. 3rd July 8 to 9.30. Sign up for the zoom here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... Sign up to speak here: forms.gle/fYNC5pL1X3pz... Please spread the word. #teachmeetukie #teachmeet20 #tmbett #teachmeet
Uk Ireland teachmeet - 3rd July 8.30pm
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 26/05/2026
Sunday Morning on the Braes: johnjohnston.info/blog/sunday-morni… Walked out to Dumcolm on Sunday morning. A quiet day, although it looked as if it was getting busy later. Lots of birds singing, lots of flowers showing. Warm, sunny until 9am or so, then light cloud.
%x3 grid, 14 photos round a map where they were taken. From Top Left: Water Avens, bare tree branches in silhouette, looking back to wards Glasgow; a cuckoo on a post; orange tip butterfly, male with wings outspread; Green-veined white on cuckoo flower. Post with a loch behind; MAP; violet flower; primroses; bog cotton; two stonechats; small copper butterfly; painted lady butterfly; speedwell flowers.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 24/05/2026
#SilentSunday
A grassy hill with a wooden post, a loch, and distant mountains under a cloudy sky.
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John Johnston @johnjohnston.info · 23/05/2026
Walk round Ardinning this afternoon. Cuckoos calling. Willow warblers & ravens heard. Corn bunting & stonechats seen & heard. Warm & breezy plenty of butterflies, mostly Orange Tips & Green-Veined whites, a Painted Lady. A few small red damselflies didn’t stay still although one landed on D’s hat.
3x3 grid of images. Photos with a map of where they were taken in the middle. From Top Left, painted lady butterfly, green-veined white butterfly, herb robert, path through bluebells, map, cuckoo flower, blaeberries, Tormentil, Ardinning Lock.
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