John Rowan
@jrowanbxl.bsky.social
Artisanal bureaucrat. Faceless and unelected during office hours. Does health emergency stuff for the European Commission. Posts likely to be about EU and UK politics, movies, history, Brussels, rugby (Leicester Tigers fan), food.
A lot of food for thought here. The French/ German/ Brazilian nationalism, for instance. The broader defined preferences of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The shared Russo-Nordic cultural interests. And what's going on with the Mongolians?
December 10, 2025 at 5:53 PM
A lot of food for thought here. The French/ German/ Brazilian nationalism, for instance. The broader defined preferences of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The shared Russo-Nordic cultural interests. And what's going on with the Mongolians?
Since we're doing games posting, the Indiana Jones game is an absolute belter. It's also a really good Indiana Jones film, and frankly we were owed one of those.
I think Dishonored 2 was my favourite, which I still think was a great game. But in terms of time spent playing since, clearly Hearts of Iron 4.
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
Quote this with what you would have said your game of the year was at the end of 2016, and what you would say your favourite game of 2016 is now, if it differs
(If you need a more comprehensive refresher: backloggd.com/games/lib/po...)
(If you need a more comprehensive refresher: backloggd.com/games/lib/po...)
December 10, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Since we're doing games posting, the Indiana Jones game is an absolute belter. It's also a really good Indiana Jones film, and frankly we were owed one of those.
I think Dishonored 2 was my favourite, which I still think was a great game. But in terms of time spent playing since, clearly Hearts of Iron 4.
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
Quote this with what you would have said your game of the year was at the end of 2016, and what you would say your favourite game of 2016 is now, if it differs
(If you need a more comprehensive refresher: backloggd.com/games/lib/po...)
(If you need a more comprehensive refresher: backloggd.com/games/lib/po...)
December 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
I think Dishonored 2 was my favourite, which I still think was a great game. But in terms of time spent playing since, clearly Hearts of Iron 4.
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
(there's a separate debate about when any Paradox game can be considered to actually be released, given how many patches they tend to need to be workable)
Reposted by John Rowan
Roman bronze figurine of a little mouse nibbling on bread!
Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me
#Archaeology
Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me
#Archaeology
December 9, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Roman bronze figurine of a little mouse nibbling on bread!
Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me
#Archaeology
Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me
#Archaeology
Hot take: it's perfectly fine for parents of newborn babies to turn to online sources of advice to complement what they're getting from family, other parents etc. But it's deeply weird to not be able to *imagine* raising a kid without doing that.
Read more novels, Sam.
Read more novels, Sam.
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 10, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Hot take: it's perfectly fine for parents of newborn babies to turn to online sources of advice to complement what they're getting from family, other parents etc. But it's deeply weird to not be able to *imagine* raising a kid without doing that.
Read more novels, Sam.
Read more novels, Sam.
MAGA consider their primary enemies to be US liberals, and the NSS was clear that the US sees Europe (but nowhere else) as a battleground in this culture war, so this is not very surprising.
December 10, 2025 at 6:48 AM
MAGA consider their primary enemies to be US liberals, and the NSS was clear that the US sees Europe (but nowhere else) as a battleground in this culture war, so this is not very surprising.
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar
December 9, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar
I've seen more than one conservative think-tank or academic say that the reason Europe finds the NSS a difficult read is because it is informed by a libertarian philosophy rather than a liberal political approach, and this strikes me as absolute 18-carat copium.
December 9, 2025 at 7:11 AM
I've seen more than one conservative think-tank or academic say that the reason Europe finds the NSS a difficult read is because it is informed by a libertarian philosophy rather than a liberal political approach, and this strikes me as absolute 18-carat copium.
I know this is just Everyone I Don't Like Is A Nazi 101, but it will never not annoy me that none of these tech bros know the first thing about any Akshull History.
The EU was created in by people who lived through WWII and saw political and economic integration as a means to bringing peace and stability to the continent.
It is being opposed by Putin, Musk and the others who support Neo Nazis in Europe.
It is being opposed by Putin, Musk and the others who support Neo Nazis in Europe.
December 8, 2025 at 6:18 AM
I know this is just Everyone I Don't Like Is A Nazi 101, but it will never not annoy me that none of these tech bros know the first thing about any Akshull History.
Reposted by John Rowan
Anniversary of halifax explosion so obligatory
"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."
- Vincent Coleman
saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it
"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."
- Vincent Coleman
saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it
December 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Anniversary of halifax explosion so obligatory
"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."
- Vincent Coleman
saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it
"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."
- Vincent Coleman
saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it
Reposted by John Rowan
The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’ hits
As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture
My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin
As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture
My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin
The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’ hits
As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture.
www.scmp.com
December 7, 2025 at 8:06 AM
The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ‘China shock’ hits
As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture
My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin
As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture
My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin
It would be awful if more people did this
I live in Wales and today received my Join Us letter from Reform UK, complete with SAE which I posted back to them, immediately, empty. If every other person in Wales did this, Reform would spend over £1.5 million on postage. Not sorry. Join me Cymru.
December 6, 2025 at 7:40 PM
It would be awful if more people did this
God knows rugby has its governance issues. But it has not yet debased itself as utterly as football did yesterday.
December 6, 2025 at 8:22 AM
God knows rugby has its governance issues. But it has not yet debased itself as utterly as football did yesterday.
Reposted by John Rowan
The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow
December 6, 2025 at 4:29 AM
The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow
To be far, no-one knows what the burger it's meant to go on is made from, either.
As an aside, and slightly off piste, nobody really knows what this Belgian stuff is. Defied even a few analytical chemists I know.
December 4, 2025 at 1:07 PM
To be far, no-one knows what the burger it's meant to go on is made from, either.
As a politics nerd who left the UK 17 years ago but still follows it from a distance, the UK's politics are definitely getting weirder. What I can't tell from the limited amount of time I spend there is whether the rest of country in general is as well, or whether it's just the politicos
The UK is weird and getting weirder right? Thats not my imagination? I know that's rich coming from an American, but still, I'm right on this arent I?
December 4, 2025 at 9:41 AM
As a politics nerd who left the UK 17 years ago but still follows it from a distance, the UK's politics are definitely getting weirder. What I can't tell from the limited amount of time I spend there is whether the rest of country in general is as well, or whether it's just the politicos
Reposted by John Rowan
On the late, great, Steve Cropper who most people probably remember from the backing band in The Blues Brothers. The HBO documentary on Stax Records (currently on NOW TV) is well worth watching both to understand his contribution and why, to me at least, America is such a strange place.
December 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
On the late, great, Steve Cropper who most people probably remember from the backing band in The Blues Brothers. The HBO documentary on Stax Records (currently on NOW TV) is well worth watching both to understand his contribution and why, to me at least, America is such a strange place.
I personally would absolutely be here for a BBC series making a detailed comparison between the British Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and how I did on my last run through a game of Civilization.
2. That the BBC is being misleading by making a series on the British Empire that focuses on the British Empire.
December 3, 2025 at 9:18 AM
I personally would absolutely be here for a BBC series making a detailed comparison between the British Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and how I did on my last run through a game of Civilization.
Going off on a tangent from this, we recently realised something about our kids' viewing habits. I've always tended to be enthuse about the choice available to my kids in comparison with our youth, when we watched whatever was on, because that it was that or nothing.
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Going off on a tangent from this, we recently realised something about our kids' viewing habits. I've always tended to be enthuse about the choice available to my kids in comparison with our youth, when we watched whatever was on, because that it was that or nothing.
Reposted by John Rowan
"Surely a quick, violent, successful war of aggression is just what the ruler needs to shore up his legitimacy," said just about every failed monarch in history shortly before invading Serbia.
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
November 29, 2025 at 6:38 PM
"Surely a quick, violent, successful war of aggression is just what the ruler needs to shore up his legitimacy," said just about every failed monarch in history shortly before invading Serbia.
Yeah, he's a unit, but he really isn't 183kg
November 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Yeah, he's a unit, but he really isn't 183kg
Me in the dairy section of Delhaize right now as 'Atomic' comes on.
November 28, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Me in the dairy section of Delhaize right now as 'Atomic' comes on.
Reposted by John Rowan
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
November 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.