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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1m

Thieves on a scooter
They din't need no shooter
They've got the diamond stars

Graham Sleight @grahamsleight.bsky.social · 2h

I blame the Jagaroth. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...

Louvre museum in Paris closed after robbery, French minister says - live updates

France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati said the incident happened as the museum opened this morning.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 2h

Next time anyone suggests the US is simply outperforming the UK, remember these stats about pedestrian death.

The UK level is lower than its (very low) murder rate.

The US rate is almost four times higher.

"Deaths in darkness" help explain

www.construction-physics.com/p/more-on-us...

The US pedestrian death rate stood at 2.33 per 100,000 population.
The estimated UK (GB) pedestrian death rate was much lower, at approximately 0.60 per 100,000 population (based on official overall road fatality rates).

The US saw a 50% increase in its pedestrian death rate per 100,000 population between 2013 and 2022.
The UK (Great Britain) saw a 49% decrease in its pedestrian fatality rate per billion miles walked between 2004 and 2023.

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Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 6h

When you say only the “genuinely disabled” should receive support, you’re aiding fascism.

When you say people are scamming the system, you’re aiding fascism.

Many disabilities are invisible and it’s hard to get support.

People aren’t scamming. That’s “useless eater” rhetoric designed to divide.

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Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 2d

ULEZ means about 1,500 sq kilometres - the whole of Greater London - is covered by road emissions control.

Stop and think about that for a second. It's incredible. Its impact on public health has been huge.

Studies said it would take 200 YEARS to reach this emission level. Khan did it in five.

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 11h

Well, apart from all the places they named after what they did there, murder gulch, etc

I think locally they're calling it something else tho?

Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 11h

You're specifically looking for someone in Evo-Psych, not just any psychologist

Epstein funded a LOT of the research that says shit like "we evolved to live longer because older dudes were banging young women"

So much of the shitty evopsych that's annoyed me over the years explained by that

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 15h

Yeah, Jennie brought Something back from conference, tested negative but it's been three weeks since I started symptoms and I'm only just fully clear, first week was hell :-(

Could be a covid that doesn't test well, could be a horrible flu, but it's worth avoiding either

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 16h

Some of them, I don't know which, were setup in the small hours US time, all at roughly the same time

Stinks of a Russian op, can't prove a thing

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 17h

Yeah, this--working GW retail for over a decade definitely helped with this, but when I used to guest at stuff I was playing a character and Doing The Thing, sometimes decompresion afterwards would be a PITA but it was how I knew to get thru it

Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 18h

Oh, haven't been that way for AGES, cool he'll have liked that

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 18h

Whereabouts? Because he'll be VERY yanky in that area for ages now--he was obsessing over something last night on the walk back, kept jumping up to look over the wall into the pool car park, I couldn't see a thing even with the torch, obvs

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 22h

Not really, he's just 6th behind the other 5

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 22h

When student me wrote in an essay that the concentration on winnable marginals to the exclusion of all else would lead to the hollowing out of the body politic I didn't realise I was Cassandraing, I was just doing a bit

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Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

Anise K. Strong @anisekstrong.bsky.social · 23h

I can beat the medievalists! In 61 CE, revolting British natives attacked the Roman colony of Camulodunum (Colchester). In 2015, in a domestic space, archs found the remains of a whole box of coriander as well as fenugreek, poppy seeds, cumin, & other Indian spices. Homesick Roman women made curry.

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 1d

I'm pretty sure there were Indian spices in England before potatoes.

Hughster @hughster.bsky.social · 1d

The British Right are just in total freefall into savagery at this point

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 22h

The wierdness is because a chunk of the constitution came from the 17thC and acts of settlement, and the aristos of the time viewed their titles as a form of property

Thou Shalt Not Strip A Man Of His Property is kinda baked in to a chunk of stuff and changing it just isn't worth the fuss

Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 22h

Yeah, the whole 100 years is a long time/100 miles is a long way thing really is a truism even tho it sounds trite

I live in what for the area is a relatively newly built house, it's only 150 years old ;-)

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 23h

Sometimes, the sheer scale of America compared to Europe astounds me, we're so cramped over here. 50 years before the below, Jack Smeaton built the Calder And Hebble canals to—literally—put the town I live in on the map

Here's Spike (RIP) enjoying a stretch of it
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_...

Ginger lurcher on long lead by canal path going past a modern building (Sainsburys) towards a bridge with an old flour mill (Rokt climbing gym) in the background. There's a narrowboat moored ahead and the canal, at one of its wider points, isn't very wide

Close up view of ginger lurcher by canal path. There's a narrowboat moored ahead and the width of the canal, at one of its wider points, is visibly not wide. The boat cannot be more than 5 metres wide by regulation

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

Yeah, given our local population density that would mean you're the first stop, I'm almost certainly third today, and I'm fine with that it's just the wording implies soon not 'after we've crossed the mountains in the way'

Only checking cos it's clothes and I'm still in bed

Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

I think what Amazon mean here is the van just left the depot unless they've got a really weird route

Amazon update map showing '3 stops away' but the dot is the wrong side of the Pennines leaving Rochdale on the M62

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

Dear Australia

You've won this one, Timtams are now officially better

But only because the idiot owners of the brand they're based off have conceded defeat

Will Boris Johnson's legacy be we start eating Aussie chocolate bars? Fuxxake

iucounu @iucounu.bsky.social · 1d

Omg

"We made some changes to McVitie's Penguin and Club earlier this year, where we are using a chocolate flavour coating with cocoa mass, rather than a chocolate coating. Sensory testing with consumers shows the new coatings deliver the same great taste as the originals," the McVitie's owner, Pladis, said in a statement.
Club's classic advertising slogan citing its chocolate content is no longer in use, replaced by: "If you like a lot of biscuit in your break, join our Club."

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

So timtams are now provably better just because number must go up

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Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 1d

Variation on a meme:

God: In my book I invented the Golden Calf as a cautionary tale

Evangelicals: At long last, we have created the Golden Calf from classic novel, The Bible

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Reposted by Mat Bowles (He/Þei)

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 2d

We are awarding our President's Medal to 'In Our Time' as it has done so much to showcase humanities & social sciences. We'd decided this before the news of Melvyn Bragg stepping down, but glad we got our timing right & had a chance to celebrate with him!
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/renowne...

Renowned BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time receives prestigious British Academy President’s Medal for 2025

The British Academy has awarded its prestigious President’s Medal to the long-running and beloved BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time. Recognising its outstanding contribution to humanities and social s...

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

Because it goes over the head of kids so you don't get complaints

Same era as Are You Being Served and Dame Edna

Mat Bowles (He/Þei) @matgb.uk · 1d

That was my exact reaction too--most actual Italians I've taken to the BM (admittedly decades ago) loved the place and were a bit smug about the Roman stuff--look, here's where we kicked your arse, etc