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.
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.
I do wonder what, if anything, can still be salvaged from this utter wreckage.
To be clear Lizza’s story is that Nuzzi sat on important matters of national significance for personal benefit and he’s sat on these details until he could personally benefit.
All of DC media needs to be thrown into the sea. Anyone who defends these people is a goddamn clown.
All of DC media needs to be thrown into the sea. Anyone who defends these people is a goddamn clown.
November 27, 2025 at 7:30 AM
I do wonder what, if anything, can still be salvaged from this utter wreckage.
Reposted by John Rowan
Distribué dans plus de 60 pays, le vaccin contre le VRS de GSK – le premier à être approuvé dans le monde – a été développé en Belgique, où il est aussi fabriqué. Fruit de longues recherches, d’importants investissements et d’un écosystème performant, il confirme le statut de “Silicon Valley du ...
Première mondiale signée GSK: un vaccin contre le VRS produit en Belgique
www.lecho.be
November 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Distribué dans plus de 60 pays, le vaccin contre le VRS de GSK – le premier à être approuvé dans le monde – a été développé en Belgique, où il est aussi fabriqué. Fruit de longues recherches, d’importants investissements et d’un écosystème performant, il confirme le statut de “Silicon Valley du ...
Reposted by John Rowan
The Americans here are at it again with their Thanksgiving stuff, we need more cricket so we can get our own back.
To be fair, this is at least some measure of revenge for all the incomprehensible baseball talk we've recently been subjected to on this website.
November 26, 2025 at 7:57 AM
The Americans here are at it again with their Thanksgiving stuff, we need more cricket so we can get our own back.
I mean, he's not wrong. Can I never, ever, have to think about any of this again please?
People are calling my lede here "appalling," "nightmare fuel," "actively evil," and "a desecration of the human spirit"
The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined
Inside the most important, and also least important, story of our time
www.theringer.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:45 AM
I mean, he's not wrong. Can I never, ever, have to think about any of this again please?
Reposted by John Rowan
OK - pie discourse - best pie story:
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
November 26, 2025 at 5:02 AM
OK - pie discourse - best pie story:
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
A Christopher Nolan adaptation of 'The City And The City'.
Being a fully committed Dad, I'm also contractually obliged to demand more Master and Commander films.
Being a fully committed Dad, I'm also contractually obliged to demand more Master and Commander films.
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 9:02 PM
A Christopher Nolan adaptation of 'The City And The City'.
Being a fully committed Dad, I'm also contractually obliged to demand more Master and Commander films.
Being a fully committed Dad, I'm also contractually obliged to demand more Master and Commander films.
Reposted by John Rowan
‘Hello police? Can a headline commit murder?’
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates on.ft.com/4ij0yh8
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates
A burning platform
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
‘Hello police? Can a headline commit murder?’
Yeah, hang on, I've seen this movie.
November 25, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Yeah, hang on, I've seen this movie.