Dick Van Dyke is 100 years old tomorrow. I hope he's making the most of his finally night of Lego building.

I fucking love memes you can understand through the language barrier, holy shit

Website Task Flowchart xkcd.com/3175/

Alongside *cough* several different kinds of advent calendar, we also have an advent candle this year. But are really behind on burning it already and struggling to catch up 😅 it hasn’t even got to day 1 of candle yet - burn faster!

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

I love this so much b/c the original guy strikes the pose & okay yeah, he does indeed look hot & sharp-dressed (ZZ Top told us who's crazy 'bout that) but then melts w/ unabashed delight at a moment of connection & just lights up with this surprised happy smile & gets EVEN HOTTER b/c it's real joy.

libro.fm/audiobooks/9... With Stoppard's death it's worth mentioning that you can get the BBC radio versions of pretty much his entire body of work for a single audiobook credit (also available on Audible, but Libro.fm is far better)

Astonished ‘ troll’ the ancient Yuletide carol seems to be correct

No.447 is a bit of a DM special --> newsletter.digitalbydefault.jobs/internet-of-...

For the past 11 years I've been keeping an index of posts about #localGDS / #GDSLocal. I've just added the first for 2025, which is probably most significant. "People across UK to benefit from easier access to local services as councils get digital boost" github.com/LocalGovDigi... #localgov

First cold days in new house. Heating not cutting it. Cant work out without some professionals whether it’s a problem with our set up or the insulation - but the house is so cold! Despite the heating being on. Plumber next week :/

Had a v nice time in Paris - saw a friend I haven’t seen irl in 5+ years, went to Xmas market and enjoyed touristy boat ride. Plus lots and lots of butter and cheese 👌 Eurostar is such a pleasure if you already have a fast train to st Pancras from your neighbourhood

Arrived in Paris and… connected to gov WiFi 🤔

Forced to take car to garage - my least favourite most humbling experience. Today I have also managed to leave my house keys in the car itself - Apple tag alerted me, thank you Apple tag. But I am not feeling like an adult who should be allowed to drive a car

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of launching the ONS website in 2026 (the highlight of my career) I'm going to have one last swing at a Gov big data initiative (but not 'Big Data!') and will return to the Civil Service as Head of Products & Services for the National Data Library in January!

What does 7 Wonders plus Just one equal??? Answer 8! That's how old The Ludoquist is today! We have our wonderful owners to thank for making this place exist and be special for everyone! #theludoquistcroydon #Croydon #ThisIsCroydon #happybirthday❤️ #boardgames #boardgamesoftiktok

This is fantastic and we should do much more of it. However, the IT side of this should be the very easiest part. Yet, expecting not only every organisation but every *part* of every organisation to source their own systems makes cross-team working almost impossible. medium.com/@changebydes...

I’m on the lookout for a new contract (preferably inside). I’ve got over a decade of experience working in the public sector, mostly in agile delivery management. Two weeks notice. Not got DMs here but Signal is zuz.1337, or LinkedIn is good. Thx :)

Any questions from a developer can be answered with just 6 words.

I'm doing my best @d20plusmodifier.bsky.social impression thanks to the Root pumpkin template provided by @leder.games @patrickleder.bsky.social Happy Halloween! 🎃

Won't lie - it has been a bit of a lifelong dream to work on the release of Indice of Deprivations interactive offer... ...very proud of what the team has delivered today. Check it out - deprivation.communities.gov.uk

Tech corps succeeded in telling people art and media should be free. People happily shell out $$$ for electronics, but hate spending any $ on "content" for them. Even with books--where costs are low and there are libraries everywhere--people regularly claim it is horrible how much books cost.

Booking marking this case study of GOV.UK Notify by Hannah White & @eaves.ca to wheel out next time there’s a bit of reductive technical solutionism about common platforms: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/publications/2025/oct/scaling-digital-infrastructure-siloed-state

UKGovCamp 2026 ( #ukgc26 ) will be in #Birmingham on Saturday 17 January 2026. We need a venue: 1️⃣ for 250 people, 2️⃣ 8 breakout rooms, 3️⃣ wheelchair accessible. @imhuyorks.bsky.social is leading the search. Please share and reply with ideas 🙂

You may call it ‘Chatfishing’, but I shall only refer to it as ‘Cyrano de Berger-App’ www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

This YouTube comment probably deserves more than three favs www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzL8...

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet. After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

I'm reserving a state park cabin and this option on the form gives me an idea: a weekend spent hiking and cooking over a camp fire, just me and the boys (900 cats)

A real conversation from earlier in the evening: Me: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Troilus and Cressida My partner Erin: I think we have, check your emails for mentions A few moments later Me: you’re right, we watched a version in Māori on the globe player but I don’t remember it 😅

Now this is Content

Also: we found a one4all gift card during the move. Never used. Still in date by a month. Thought we’d done well and would use it but it charges you 90p processing fee after 18 months which I’d obviously never read before. So now I have a £1.10 gift card to spend before next month 👌

Glasses direct now won’t sell me the cheap glasses that kept me coming back to them. I’ve emailed them already. based on the answer I think it’s a combination of my eyes getting (a little) worse and them upgrading their system to stop me buying glasses without the thinning I didn’t want to pay for 🙁

Some thoughts on this wonderful news: 1. Science is unpredictable - most research goes nowhere. It’s worth doing because it can improve lives in unimaginable ways. You can’t only fund things that work 2. Gene therapies like this will be expensive, and we should absolutely pay for them (via tax)

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Important: there is a pub in Holborn where a cat wears a ruff. His name is The General

Very nice day had

Massive day for our team. Couldn’t be prouder 💛💙

More importantly- today we’re putting live our own resettlement platform- a triumph of pragmatic yet easy to use design and build, two weeks ahead of our contract ending. I’m sure blogs will follow 🥰 no change for citizens but big win for us

I love this crossing on Victoria Road - diagonal and normal road crossing. Desire path in action. Easy to get my expensive but delicious filter from formative

We have 5 cats at the moment - 3 are ours, 2 fosters kept in separate rooms. Last night was woken up by a cat that was none of these and had just broken in. We are full!

This is a beautiful way to think about it

Wired a new plug onto this lamp (that I bought without realising it had no plug) earlier in the week. Feeling like a competent adult.

I am thinking about trying to organise an in-person gathering of folks across Gov involved in CRMish projects to share experiences and insights - particularly on the topic of value and benefits realisation but anything really..

They had to change the shape of the sign in the end.

Buildings ancient and modern open their doors for Open House insidecroydon.com/2025/08/24/b... #Croydon #History #OpenHouse @christianwolmar.bsky.social

Great deal. V expensive usually and I love the Murderbot books (hopefully this will work in uk)

Should have bought the juicer at the start of apple season 🤔

Email addresses are very simple, and you will score highly in this quiz. e-mail.wtf

I really enjoyed the show. Would recommend