I don't usually write personal stuff, but a few words about my experience of being interviewed by Gary Stevenson. It started with a nice chat, comparing taste in hoodies... then the tone changed. He demanded to know why I'd deleted a tweet criticising him.

All services currently suspended due to a giant rabbit in the southern tunnel.

To me Private Eye's take on what this place is like is far more accurate

i like unions because i think that they are the best instrument within the bad system we live in to give workers a voice in a power struggle. i dont think they are always right, and i think they are more than perfectly capable to use their power and voice for causes i disagree with

Measuring PM tenures by Doctors is a much better approach. And because I know you’ll be desperate to know: Wilson and Thatcher head the list with four Doctors apiece (Wilson does have an additional Cushing asterisk) while Heath, Callaghan and Truss are rare solitary Doctor PMs.

How wierdly fitting for the UK to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the Brexit referendum with a now cherished Brexit tradition, political chaos.

It is interesting. One presumes that if a foreign head of state were doing what Musk is doing, MI6 would be all over it. I honestly wonder whether the problem is that these institutions are still run by people just old enough to think of stuff that happens on the internet as not real or serious.

Not to pick on Malone, but a weirdly large group on Bluesky both notices that Musk is attempting an active measures campaign against the UK but also thinks the solution is for His Majesty’s Department of Trains to quit X instead of doing what states usually do to people trying to regime change them.

## Visit to the Hoffnant Valley Last weekend I took the coal-fired Ragleth on its first “away” fixture, a visit to the Hoffnant Valley Railway. This picturesque line has two loops, both of which have relatively fierce gradients. This was the fourth (and fifth […] [Original post on moelrhos.uk]

W Identity (widentity.eu) asks people to hand over passport scans, a biometric selfie and their date of birth to prove who they are. The reflected XSS vulnerability let attacker-controlled JavaScript run on your site's own origin. For an identity provider, your response is way too relaxed.

The real W already happened in Europe:

## More coal firing… Since I got my coal-fired DJB Ragleth back in October I haven’t (for various boring reasons) had a chance to fire it again until last weekend. But I had two very satisfying and successful runs (one with the added pressure of some good […] [Original post on moelrhos.uk]

I think we need to set some ground rules for the UK teenagers who are about to show up. Rule #1 - We abide by the Jon Stewart Definition of "Recent", which is 'anything since Ghostbusters 2', and we don't mean Frozen Empire, we haven't got around to watching that one.

The government's official position is that 16-17 year olds should watch Question Time but not post about it

New from me: The cops who AI-enhance blurry photos to try to catch suspects are actually just tampering with evidence, lying to the public and raising the risk of wrongful arrests

## A Spot of Darjeeling on the Moel Rhos Visits from locomotives have been sadly rare in the past year, but this week we were privileged to have a (Roundhouse) Darjeeling and Himalayan Railway Class B on the line. DHR Class B emerging from the southern tunnel […] [Original post on moelrhos.uk]

If/when they boot Starmer, he should do an RTD style sign off.

Today I've written for Arguably on one big mystery in our public life: why does no-one care about the existential crisis of our universities? Read all about it... 👇 www.arguably.uk/p/the-quiet-...

@cardiffucu.bsky.social Hello! Would you mind following @ap.brid.gy please, so that members on Fediverse platforms (e.g. Mastodon, GoToSocial, Pleroma etc.) can follow your account here to get updates?

Well, to borrow a quote from the series: “One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs… and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”

Because it's Friday I've added a load more images to this, removed some incorrectly labelled ones and REALLY tried to stop it putting the same episode up against itself. If you spot any errors, please let me know. And… good luck beating THAT high score! tardle.lovable.app

i remember walking out of Force Awakens, annoyed with it. And there was a girl, maybe eight, with her mum. The girl was BOUNCING. "Mummy!! I can be an X-wing pilot!!" And THAT was the point i knew my opinion didn't matter for shit. i would die for the right of that girl to be an X-Wing pilot.

For the record, the historical Helen likely did not look like that, nor did Odysseus look like Matt Damon from Boston, which didn’t exist, if either of :them: existed, which they didn’t. Also and more importantly, none of them spoke English, which didn’t exist. Any questions. 😶

RE: https://fusionpatrol.com/2026/05/09/doctor-who-review-the-dalek-master-plan-fusion-patrol-ep-787/ Apart from it’s obviously a huge thrill to have rediscovered #DoctorWho to watch, I really enjoyed this discussion of The Daleks’ Master Plan with @LoneLocust

This, from @pkellner.bsky.social, is what a lot of centre-left voters should now consider.

lol the shooter has a BLUE SKY ACCOUNT, well here’s one excuse that won’t work:

As a child I was stumped on how they got the motion blur in this scene. It's claymation so it can't just be drawn in. Much later I found out that all the blur in the tracking and panning shots is actual *motion* blur. The sets were moved for a fraction of a second during each exposure!

The two provisos there being a) it will never be easier to move your business off Substack than it is today and b) you can build a very nice business on Substack, just like you can on Facebook or YouTube, if you remember you work for a faceless giant tech company, not yourself.

Imagine if, rather than making it illegal for shops to sell cigarettes to children, the government in 1908* had just introduced a law to say that all schools had to be No Smoking. * I looked it up.

The problem is that evil US social media fims target kids and cause them harm, and the government doesn't want to bring in a law to make that illegal because it will upset them, so instead they bring in a law against the schools to make it look like they're doing something.

There’s some good stuff in here, but the last recommendation of grading to a curve is bonkers. It is interference in academic judgement. We use criterion grading in the UK, and it might not be perfect, but where we have good teaching and good students they should all have the potential to do well.

So I've moved off Bluesky (I think?) and you probably won't notice. Partly because I haven't been posting here, but also because my handle and my account still look the same. So what has changed...?

I will stop picking holes in this I swear. But it changes direction half way down. And why does only half the design mirror? Any plans for odd number of carriages?

We're setting up a new arms length body to run the railway for us. But before we do that we sketched up a new livery for every train on the cheap.

What I would really like to see from any of the so-called radicals in UK politics is to move from their comfort zones and actually home in on real unaddressed issues like the overwhelming government bias towards the largest companies - which could make a real difference.

A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:

Getting some teas for the rest of the family and came across this monstrosity of 21st Century consumerism. On the one hand, what the hell, Twinings? On the other hand, I'm all in for it. #FiveDaysEarlGreysFiveWays

Not the point I know, but a question: if you're changing the gauge, do you add a new rail between the existing two or just undo one and move it in a bit? 1st option means you can carry on using the tracks while the job is done & gives you some interoperabiity, but is much more expensive, I guess?

Last one for now. That was harder. Bloody pleasant open face… Happy doctor who day…

Go on then. Because you asked no nicely… Happy doctor who day again!

Happy Doctor Who day!

I think what they could have done, here, I feel is just put a penny on income tax.

“Professor? Doctor? Who are you?” #silvernemesis Happy #doctorwhoday everyone. #doctorwho

This is bizarre. Like the editor of the guardian or mail or any other paper complaining repeatedly about the front page lead they decided to run with. Very good example of what's wrong with broadcast news - they've given up deciding for themselves what is or isn't news and what the priorities are

My philosophy has always been this: If you try to convince me something is shit, you’re wrong & will fail. If you try to convince me something is great, you’re right & winning at life. If we all agreed on everything life would be dull; it’s how we go about our differences that’s important.

Hi! Today is my first official day as the Executive Director of Mastodon, replacing @[email protected] as CEO. I joined the Mastodon team more than 5 years ago, mostly working for Mastodon in the evenings on top of a 120% day job. I was the driving force behind the incorporation of the […]

We’re also looking ahead to what comes next. In another blog post published today, we introduced Mastodon’s new leadership team. Our Executive Director is @mellifluousbox (formerly, CFO of Mastodon gGmbH), who has already represented Mastodon on international stages. We also shared an […]

Our Founder, @Gargron is stepping down from his position as CEO. He shared a reflection on his time building and growing Mastodon on our blog. We want to take a moment to express the Mastodon team’s deep gratitude and admiration for Eugen, and for the technology and community he has built here […]

Looking for a personal email provider, which lets you use your own domain. Will be used with Outlook client on PC and on Android mobile. For a friend who needs to get set up asap, so any recommendations welcome! Thanks.