you are telling me french engineers figured out high speed rail 45 years ago? and made trains all electric after the 1970s oil crises? daaaammm. so when there is yet another oil crisis in 2026, they are all just.....fine??? bsky.app/profile/lucd...

Looks like it took ~46 minutes to travel from Japan to South Oxfordshire.

Prominently observable on our non-seismic experiment on the other side of the planet 😱

If you are a Councillor, please watch this. It happened nearly 50 years ago in the Netherlands. The arguments against restricting traffic were the same as those made today and were proven to be wrong. Many cities would greatly benefit from a circulation plan. youtu.be/bgKokpZMFnU?...

'In Cornershop’s 1997 tribute to her, which rose to top UK charts, they sang: “She’s the one that keeps the dream alive/From the morning, past the evening/Till the end of light.” ...For India’s growing diaspora, her voice over the radio brought solace.' Gift link giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

It’s absolutely incredible that one of the largest Japanese-run Go servers, which has been running since 1992, is still accessed entirely via Telnet. And while most players use GUI clients that use Telnet under the hood, you can still connect manually and get ASCII graphics streamed to you

Uninsured driving isn’t victimless. Offenders are 6–7x more likely to be in a fatal crash, and over half are linked to wider criminality—reflecting risk-taking, disregard for the law, or deception. It pushes up costs for honest drivers. Tackling it protects communities. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Oxford's cyclists turned out in the sunshine today in a ride across Oxford to remember cycle campaigner Jonny Ives, who died last year. 📷🧵 (Photos by Roger Close)

The 2 new LTN areas in #Oxford have measurably reduced road casualties, including those on boundary roads. By now, benefits are 100 fewer casualties and an economic benefit of over £7 million. cohsat.org.uk/east-oxford-...

Families and curious minds are invited to experience the Luminarium: A walk-through art installation at Harwell Campusfrom 29 May. An immersive inflatable sculpture will feature tunnels, soaring domes and radiant chambers in an " an ever-changing calming sensory experience".

This article captures a side of Greens that is indisputably prominent in East Anglia (low key NIMBYies). They say they argue for small solar. Sadly small scale does not have the margin of profit that they hope for. But there‘s more that the title doesnt capture: *foreignness* of the investor. 🪡

Pleased to see the OxfordDirectServices team have spared our guerilla planted verge from their first cut of the year.

I don't even live in the area where these are but they're easily the best change in Oxford I've seen in 23 yrs as a resident.

young pope leo looks like a ska scene regular who goes by Upbeat but no one knows his real name

Bravo BBC; Bravo

For the second day, the BBC are running a story that presents itself as providing evidence of endemic abuse of the asylum system based on seemingly a single encounter with someone who is neither a lawyer nor a registered immigration adviser. Words fail. This is reprehensibly irresponsible.

A community ride the 'Etape du Jonny' will celebrate the life of Jonny Ives, local journalist, cyclist and Cyclox member, who died last year. In celebration of the annual 'Quarry Roubaix' ride he used to run, the ride will be going along every cobbled street in Oxford city centre this Saturday.

Seriously, why do you need to occupy so much space to get around town?

We are meeting with the hire providers and county council tomorrow to discuss the contract renewal for e-scooter / e-bike hire schemes across the city. On-street storage is at the top of our action list….

Really wish more left leaning people understood that copyright/IP law is virtually always in favor of capital and NOT the laborers that produce it. Even if you retain copyright over your work product, the cost of defending it in court tends to wildly outstrip the financial ability of an individual.

Labour Lord George Robertson saying the UK needs to spend more on defence? The same Robertson who was Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2003? The Robertson who's on the board of the Cohen Group which "assists aerospace and defense firms on policy, business development and transactions"? LOL.

Oh, FGS - @politico.com is taking sponsorship money from Palantir - running their ads through news updates. That's absolutely the *last* thing we need in our politics, Palantir going straight for the political-media environment at a time when we need massive scrutiny of their contracts in the UK.

Your reminder that Herbie Hancock is the coolest man in music youtu.be/9RsZifvSVSI?...

In Oxford today I cycled past two lots of morris dancers to get to the drum & bass bike (no crossover party..) next to outdoor seating for pubs and cafes. 10 years ago this would be impossible: beautiful Broad Street was a thru road and used as a big car park. We don't always have to put cars first.

The deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, owns a property company - Quidnet REIT. From 2020 to 2022 it paid Tice and his trust £600k in dividends. Quidnet should have paid £120k of tax on those dividends. It didn't. A 🧵 with evidence from the company's own filings:

Really interesting and exciting proposals. Ambitious policy makers should certainly be taking this seriously.

Serious business. I’m throwing this in the direction of @oxfordclarion.bsky.social

LOL, trying to stay offline and do my work, and friends are sending me "LOOK AT THIS NEW PIC!" texts .... This one is worth it. First PoC and first woman to go around another world. Don't stop talking about this point. It's important. #ArtemisII

Imagine just waking up every day to new human achievements, adventures, discoveries and successes, instead of wars, and famine and desecration of our own making.

No Brainer imo

The route for Sunday’s ride has been published. It includes Divinity Road so we hope his DJ bike has some decent gears…..

So last month, there was actually some parking enforcement in East Oxford 😱. By my count this one and at least one other have now been unreleased for over 3 weeks... Clearly demonstrating how they are essential daily mobility tools and need to occupy this road (and pavement) space near amenities.

Bombing and deaths will continue until the ceasefire holds.

I like this because it articulates the conservative concept of freedom in a nutshell. You have the freedom to do x, except you don't, because I don't want you to. bsky.app/profile/atru...

See also UK Labour (and they technically have a lot more agency than US Dems right now)

This is a redux of the brilliant Aftershock series from LRB. Of course no one in Western power was listening... www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

And I'm not the only one to notice... road.cc/news/council...

Finance ministers of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria & Italy are calling on the EU to introduce a windfall profits tax on energy companies. This is a no brainer and should be implemented swiftly. Our democracies can’t take another redistribution shock. www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/h...

🚲 There’s a new crowdfunder to support Kidical Mass rides across the UK, and it’s one of those small things that quietly makes a big difference. 👇 www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/km-insurance Image credit: @jamiebellinger.com 1/8

Absolute cinema watching that jar of Nutella escape contain behind the backs of the astronauts after packing other things away

Ok, so I moan about inadequate cycle infrastructure and motornormativity in Oxford. But it's only when you go visit other UK cities that you realise how much worse off we could be. This is #Hereford

Why do some killer motorists get short prison sentences? UK road safety laws are letting them off the hook | Sally Kyd

Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way.

I'm always struck at how much less cash income is needed in many EU countries to enjoy a quality of life that seems elusive to many Americans earning much more. The more we provision publicly, the less income we need, and inflation/ecological management likely necessitates. That's a big hurdle.

This is very very big. Like a big deal and massive cuts. These can’t even be seen as budgetary since you don’t get much savings in the context of trillions budget. They want the US out of R&D out of science research.

Here you go. I think neoliberalism can be defined quite precisely, but, alas, is frequently used all too sloppily. open.substack.com/pub/sankaran...