_Children of Mars: The Origins of Rome's Empire_ (Armstrong, @oxfordunipress.bsky.social ) dannyreviews.com/h/Children_M... (my review) - "The Roman Republic was a federation of elite families who worked together for mutual benefit, but in a highly competitive environment"

"The car is being pushed out of Dutch cities because doing so offers answers to several of the challenges these cities face today." bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/w... (Bicycle Dutch)

“Foreign exporters absorbed only 4% of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%. “Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.” www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...

🚨 BREAKING: A legal bid to halt Oxford’s congestion charge has been turned down. The High Court today refused an application for judicial review by Open Roads For Oxford Ltd, which had raised £60,000 “from private donations, transfers from aligned funds, and our GoFundMe campaign” to bring the case.

Richard Davis' _Religions of Early India: A Cultural History_ (@princetonupress.bsky.social) offers a nice combination of broad themes and illustrative details, in their social and political contexts. dannyreviews.com/h/Religions_... (my review)

_Great Fear on the Mountain_ - a novel of an Alpine village and the mountain above it dannyreviews.com/h/Great_Fear... (my review)

“In like 95% of situations where a disengagement or accident happens with autonomous vehicles, it’s a very regular, routine situation for humans … These are not challenging situations whatsoever.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

a cybernetic perspective on Anglosphere infrastructure planning www.niskanencenter.org/the-problem-...

But if the US takes Greenland and Canada, it gets five bonus armies every turn! (Trump having played Risk at some point seems as plausible an explanation of his obsession here as any.)

"I have eight copies of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' for sale, $30 each. But I have a standing 40% off discount for military cadets and teenagers in Texas/Florida/Oklahoma. For your own protection, they come wrapped in the book cover for Sean Hannity’s Live Free or Die." buff.ly/OlpTNPh

The Netherlands is not a pedestrian paradise, but I’m confused why anyone thinks Ireland is better Comment & Analysis: Ireland and the Netherlands differ in how pedestrians are treated, but claims that the Dutch pedestrian environment is overall worse than in Ireland just don't stack up. But as…

The challenges in defining "religion" aeon.co/essays/the-w... (Aeon) dannyreviews.com/h/Before_Rel... (my review of Nongbri's _Before Religion_)

Which US states should the EU be working with to help secede?

Oxford City Council's 1973 Balanced Transport Policy. wanderingdanny.com/oxford/docs/... This was hugely progressive, abandoning road building and looking to shift trips to public transport and cycling instead.

car dependency is crippling the UK theconversation.com/how-the-uks-... "for the UK to be more like Singapore, the government needs to make motorists pay much more for their car use. To be more like the Netherlands, it must take away their space"

🔴 BREAKING: Our fake Chinese AI investor bought access to 10+ Labour MPs and minister Brand new investigation by Democracy for Sale and Led By Donkeys. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-o...

An exhaustive and utterly damning assesment. "In sum, there is simply no plausible argument that the reported killing of two survivors clinging to the burning wreckage of their stricken vessel could be anything other than an extrajudicial killing." www.justsecurity.org/125948/illeg...

"But Charlie!" you may say, "why should *I* care about the Tanzania People's Defence Force!?" Well let me tell you a few cool things about them! 1. Following independence most African states just inherited whatever colonial troops existed as their militaries. This often led to coups and mutinies.

Also, pre-LTNs and pre-Covid (2017-2019) there were 66 reported injuries per year on and inside the Iffley-Plain-Cowley-BTR-CCR triangle. Post LTNs this has reduced to 46 reported injuries per year (a 30% reduction).

insights from Hammersmith Bridge nickmaini.substack.com/p/hammersmit... (Nick Maini) "closing a major bridge carrying 25,000 daily vehicles should lead to more traffic on other nearby crossings and less economic activity on either side. The evidence shows the exact opposite."

London's most dangerous junction for cycling has had thirty injuries in the last five years. Oxford's Plain roundabout has had forty injuries in that time.

Bike City Amsterdam: How Amsterdam Became the Cycling Capital of the World dannyreviews.com/h/Bike_City_... (my review) - "the interaction of the city's geography, planning and politics with its cycling culture, people, and infrastructure"

what are 16-18 year olds thinking? demos.co.uk/research/ins... "workshops and conversations with over 700 students ... reveal a generation that is thoughtful, diverse and far more politically aware than many assume"

The Church of England is a choral tradition attached to a building maintenance fund.

I FOI'd English councils whether they use legal land purchase powers to create traffic-free paths. Just 1% said they have successfully. Why is something that's so common for roads almost never done for cycle routes? And what does it mean for cycling? lauralaker.substack.com/p/cycleways-...

Are Oxford‘s poorest areas sharing in its prosperity? As billionaires pour more money into the city’s AI and biotech industries, we take a deep dive into gentrification in Oxford and the city’s housing crisis. (With maps and data!) oxfordclarion.uk/gentrifying-...

Brexit reduced the UK’s GDP by between 6% and 8%. That is MASSIVE. #ProjectFear #wetoldyouso www.nber.org/papers/w3445...

This is why the redevelopment of the railway station has to provide a proper bus interchange.

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

www.gov.uk/government/p... Active Travel England’s route check tool identifies 16 critical safety issues for walking, wheeling and cycling - with illustrations. It provides links to relevant guidance and key evidence. There is also a route check tool to identify and remove these risks.

Hello bluesky! Are you thinking about heading home on your commute? Here are 12 easy hacks to beat the Congestion Charge. Don't forget to share! oxfordclarion.uk/twelve-easy-...

It's amazing how much of a difference the congestion charge in Oxford has made. The roads are much quieter, it's so easy driving around the city centre now and being able to keep to time. My job has become less stressful.

road injuries are massively underreported - their estimated cost to UK is over £55 billion a year actionvisionzero.org/2025/10/29/a...

the Ukrainian use of aerostats www.pravda.com.ua/eng/articles...

Both these schools need School Streets schemes. Being in a low traffic neighbourhood doesn't stop parents trying to drive right up to the school gates.

the two-child benefit cap: increasing child poverty while failing to achieve its goals largerfamilies.study/publications...

Success of Oxford congestion charge rests on interpretation of style manual, will be decided by panel of eminent editors.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A History of Wales in Twelve Poems - short historical essays accompanied by poems dannyreviews.com/h/History_Wa... (my review)

All Oxford’s news in the Clarion newsletter. Including: 🚉 Cowley Branch Line to reopen 🚌 Congestion charge means more buses 🐶 Dog-friendly restaurant 🪺 Save Oxfordshire’s curlews 📖 Our new books section ❄️ Silly gritter names And more! Read online or by email: oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-week...

Cycle lanes are so dangerous that the mere existence of the Netherlands is endangering bus passengers in East Anglia.

We're big on bus-cycle cooperation in Oxford.

A short list of classic locations for parking where it's actually not part of the adjacent property, so should get bollarded (or maybe tree'd!) by the council: 1. Outside the Prince Of Wales Publ on Horspath Rd/Brasenose Driftway. A bunch of trees would look nice here!

Weesperzijde, Amsterdam in 1974 and today. The road has been closed to motor vehicles and is now a bike only route, outside a primary school. The car parking to the right was removed within the last few years to create a small riverside park

Before (2012) / After (2025) Rue le Vau, Paris 20. The change here is so radical that perceiving the photos as aligned is difficult (see the orange building and the trees on the left). In 2024, this section was converted into a school street with a bike lane running through the greenery.

Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War dannyreviews.com/h/Europes_Tr... (my review) - "a long and involved, but rewarding, account of one of the most traumatic periods in European history"

advances in enumerative geometry www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-rev... (Quanta)

I began campaigning for this when my daughter started Reception. She’s now in Year 8… A big thanks to ex-councillor @damohaywood.bsky.social for getting this happening.

Stockholm's approach to getting cars out of the city www.politico.eu/article/stoc... (Politico)

I have today sent the attached open letter to Anneliese Dodds MP