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John Rowan

@jrowanbxl.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.9K following 5.2K posts

Artisanal bureaucrat. Faceless, unelected. Ex-Whitehall, now does apocalypse preparation (Pestilence) for the European Commission.

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 19h
Lab-acquired infections happen. Only a small percent ever become public information, in part because they never need to. The plague thing is interesting and unfortunate, and also the pandemic risk of wild type Yersinia pestis in 2026 is indistinguishable from zero. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Map of lab acquired infections
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Jonathan Jones @sirjjkc.bsky.social · 4h
It turns out that much “red tape” is not imposed by bureaucrats or lawyers but the result of conscious political choices which can only be reversed at a political and practical cost
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 23h
I think there is such an interesting ideological block on the Cons analysing defeat in 2024 through a lens that says "Maybe people like public services".
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Notes from a hotel breakfast. Friend of mine works in aviation, was talking about how the US is going to be dependent on AI for air traffic control, because they don't have enough controllers and aren't doing anything to address this, so the problem will get worse.
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Qusay Noor @qusaynoor.net · 03/10/2026
Marqab Castle, one of the best-preserved Crusader fortresses in the Middle East, sitting above Baniyas. 🏰🇸🇾
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It's the annual Dads military history weekend away, so we had dinner in one of the few surviving Dunkirk small boats.
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Martin Degville of Sigue Sigue Sputnik having breakfast in a Newcastle B&B, 1986, photo by Homer Sykes.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is definitely true. People have ended up with some very strange ideas about what the EU is and does.
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Steven Seggie @stevenhseggie.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The death penalty is barbaric and has no place in civilized society.
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Bad Medical Takes @badmedicaltakes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Twitter user alexydude9:
Valid. Pro-choice should be the norm but many women confuse it with glorification of abortion. I've seen women in social media gloating about having their 6th abortion in a month.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
i think the much-discussed "what's wrong with the video game industry" issue falls along similar lines. weaponization of dark patterns to turn what should be a fun activity into a grim addictive grind that serves to benefit the game's publisher
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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 30/09/2026
The signage right now outside the 🇪🇺EU's foreign office. Implied: unlike 🇺🇸
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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Emily✨ @emilyoram.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Liquid Bluesky
National Trust• @nationaltrust.org.uk 
Nobody has ever regretted a scone after a long walk.

Except someone with ceoliac disease
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is an excellent thing, not least since the planes will be much safer in an actual war zone than on a Belgian air base.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hard to overstate how jaw-droppingly bonkers and ill-advised the Allied intervention in the Russian civil war was, as per this book. www.theguardian.com/books/2023/n...
theguardian.com
A Nasty Little War review – the west’s chaotic campaign to undo the Russian Revolution
Journalist Anna Reid’s thrilling history throws much-needed light on the dark, bloody and sometimes absurd attempt to overthrow the Bolsheviks by the US, Britain and others
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
[cough, cough] bsky.app/profile/jrow...
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Increasing amounts of Brezhnev vibes
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
There are special punishments set aside in the afterlife for people who are late to pick their children up from other kids' parties.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
All too often the heroes of such fantasies behave exactly as the villains do, acting with mindless violence, but the hero is on the “right” side and therefore will win. Right makes might.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
'Ludwig' is great fun so long as it sticks to the correct ratio of 'this week's baffling but entertaining murder' vs 'the meta mystery, the ongoing investigation of which provokes tension between the main characters'. It's about 3:1, I reckon.
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Hello, it's Dan McDaid @danmcdaid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You know what's weird, I've never heard the surname "Wogan" in any other context. Not among all the people I've met or heard of, not in all the TV shows I've watched. Not a single Wogan. How can this be?
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's a sunny late summer evening, so it's a pre-dinner drink and this absolute banger of an album youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
Blackheart Man - YouTube
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Got to take your joy where you can find it in these dark days, and watching this - entirely predictably - come crashing down around the greedy bastards' ears is most satisfying. www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-...
bbc.com
R360: Rebel series given ultimatum on overdue accounts
The company behind R360, the controversial all-star rugby start-up, has been ordered to publish overdue accounts or face being dissolved.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Developing on this from yesterday, since I see we're arguing about whether the UK would need to adopt the euro and join Schengen. Basically, during accession negotiations, joining countries get to ask for some special favours.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
[hooded Assassin severs Templar's spinal column with a savage sword blow, slashes his throat with a dagger and rams a hidden blade deep into his right eye] Templar: well, this is unfortunate. Nevertheless, there are a few surprisingly articulate sentences I would like to utter before I die.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
- Honestly my dear grandchildren, you’ll never believe how low rates were in the 2010s. - at least you built a load of infrastructure when borrowing costs were so low grandad? Right? Right?
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'm six foot six, does that make me a large family parent?
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Bluntly, accession negotiations involve the country joining jumping through hoops, and occasionally asking for a bit of a favour in return for having jumped through some hoops particularly smartly. This goes on until the EU says stop. The idea you 'leverage' these negotiations is radio rental.
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Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Fucking FINALLY.
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elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 23/09/2026
this was a great piece. what is happening among thought leader-type elites — what has been happening among them for years — is a willing abdication of their most fundamental intellectual responsibilities.
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Jason @nickmotown.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
That moment when you’re absolutely hammered at a wedding reception, and you hear the opening guitar chord off Dizzy by Vic Reeves.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Posted this two weeks ago about that lifeboat-attacking fascist. As ever, I am not some Ultimate Politics Knower, this is just bloody obvious.
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Neil Goodrich @ngoodrichhsg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is more or less the correct response. These idiots have moron-holed themselves into stupidity. Fuck them. Fuck their petty little lives. I'm not interested in hearing both sides when the other is made of those who only see grievance and hate.
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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 22/09/2026
Great charts from an ace "Stop calling Europeans welfare-loving slackers" piece from @chrisgiles.ft.com www.ft.com/content/362b...
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Even if I don't understand it, I've come to accept that not everyone is as obsessed with the opening bars of 'Gimme Shelter' as I am.
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
The RNLI is the closest you will ever get to actual Batman. When rescue is visibly, viscerally, obviously impossible; when the water is a smothering, thundering black wall and the wind is screaming straight from Hell; when you are absolutely going to die: someone’s hand pulls you out and you don’t.
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Disappointed Optimist @disappoptimism.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Imho a law needs passing indicating whenever someone talks about AI publicly they must disclose their investment into it. Because pretty much every figure who says “this is scary” is also heavily invested & I’m so very tired of this game now.
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Morgan Golf-French @zenothankyou.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Tempura and the style of battered, fried fish used for fish and chips were brought to Japan/Britain by 16thC Iberians (in the former case Christian, in the latter Jewish). They have the same origin and are nearly the same dish, but one has immense cultural cachet and the other is routinely mocked.
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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Lmao, AfD fumbling their one shot at forming a state government in Saxony-Anhalt in the most predictable way possible
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I got this out of nostalgia (the shanties!) but it's reminded me that the AC games are... bad games? Badly written, bad controls, think that being an RPG equals 'endless minor gear upgrades', repetitive and unfun gameplay.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
As soon as I saw that interview, I thought it was likely to end up with her being driven from the village. It's all very dark.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Imagine being so wealthy you can essentially do anything you want, but the persuading yourself that you are constrained to live in a different country for tax reasons.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Black Flag Resynced sticking with the grand Assassin's Creed tradition of having a control system so janky it makes proper stealth functionally impossible to achieve.
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Could everything, rugby included, stop being so weird for no good reason, please? www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Northampton Saints cancel memorial wall project for fans' ashes
The club says there has not been enough demand for the project.
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Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I cannot comprehend anyone targeting RNLI volunteers with hate and threats. I cannot understand how anyone can have anything but respect and awe for people willing to set to sea in hurricanes, with waves as high as houses, to try to save lives.
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Elizabeth Zelle @kohizeri.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"the assessment did not consider the crocodiles" is my new metaphor for people choosing to just ignore the data point that doesn't agree with them
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Drivers are potentially more dangerous than cyclists, who are in turn potentially more dangerous than pedestrians, but all of them should move around safely, not least by following basic rules of the road and being aware of others around them. There, how difficult was that?
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Is there any evidence *at all* that Pollock has attracted new fans to rugby? Or is it just one of those things that some commentators have decided must be true? www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-...
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John Rowan @jrowanbxl.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is well worth a read. I find point 2 particularly compelling this morning - witness the willingness of politicians to endlessly indulge the Piddingtons of this world - would be interested to know how we've reached this point.
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