Elia Kabanov
@kabanov.bsky.social
Science writer covering cities, nature and AI. Location: Deptford. 🔶
kabanov.org
kabanov.org
At 42, I made my first video game. One morning, I saw two mallards trailing a moorhen in a neat little row and realised it looked like a sliding-tile puzzle. A few hours later, the first version of a Brookmill Park bird game was online.
Play here: deptford.org/birds/
Play here: deptford.org/birds/
December 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
At 42, I made my first video game. One morning, I saw two mallards trailing a moorhen in a neat little row and realised it looked like a sliding-tile puzzle. A few hours later, the first version of a Brookmill Park bird game was online.
Play here: deptford.org/birds/
Play here: deptford.org/birds/
So glad Deptford High Street got a starring role in the new Netflix Christmas flick Jingle Bell Heist.
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
So glad Deptford High Street got a starring role in the new Netflix Christmas flick Jingle Bell Heist.
Ghost signs of Sheffield.
November 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Ghost signs of Sheffield.
Waiting for End at the National Theatre.
November 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Waiting for End at the National Theatre.
Love this 1987 poster for the Deptford High Street party by Gill Day.
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127593...
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127593...
November 25, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Love this 1987 poster for the Deptford High Street party by Gill Day.
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127593...
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127593...
Cherwell rubbish dump has made it to the front page of The New York Times.
November 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Cherwell rubbish dump has made it to the front page of The New York Times.
Yesterday, I found myself listening to John Major talk at the LSE. The former prime minister is now at the venerable-elder stage of his career, but he looks sharp, speaks clearly and still lands jokes.
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November 19, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Yesterday, I found myself listening to John Major talk at the LSE. The former prime minister is now at the venerable-elder stage of his career, but he looks sharp, speaks clearly and still lands jokes.
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Ghost cars of Brockley.
November 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Ghost cars of Brockley.
How did the Egyptians move an 83-tonne statue?
Workers once hauled Ramesses II’s 11-metre colossus 800 km down the Nile using sledges, wet sand, and sheer willpower. Three millennia later, archaeologists found it lying face down in the desert: mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
Workers once hauled Ramesses II’s 11-metre colossus 800 km down the Nile using sledges, wet sand, and sheer willpower. Three millennia later, archaeologists found it lying face down in the desert: mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
November 18, 2025 at 3:53 PM
How did the Egyptians move an 83-tonne statue?
Workers once hauled Ramesses II’s 11-metre colossus 800 km down the Nile using sledges, wet sand, and sheer willpower. Three millennia later, archaeologists found it lying face down in the desert: mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
Workers once hauled Ramesses II’s 11-metre colossus 800 km down the Nile using sledges, wet sand, and sheer willpower. Three millennia later, archaeologists found it lying face down in the desert: mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
My granddad would’ve turned 90 today. I still wonder what he’d be doing now if he hadn’t died in 2006. He’d definitely be shouting at whoever runs the country — that was his speciality. I seem to have inherited that, though I wish I’d got his talent for fixing anything.
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
My granddad would’ve turned 90 today. I still wonder what he’d be doing now if he hadn’t died in 2006. He’d definitely be shouting at whoever runs the country — that was his speciality. I seem to have inherited that, though I wish I’d got his talent for fixing anything.
November 15, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Billionaires and multimillionaires — the wealthiest 0.1% of the US population — burn carbon like there’s no tomorrow: 4,000 times more than the world’s poorest. Each releases 2.2 tonnes of CO₂ a day, about the weight of a rhinoceros.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/9-facts-ab...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/9-facts-ab...
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Billionaires and multimillionaires — the wealthiest 0.1% of the US population — burn carbon like there’s no tomorrow: 4,000 times more than the world’s poorest. Each releases 2.2 tonnes of CO₂ a day, about the weight of a rhinoceros.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/9-facts-ab...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/9-facts-ab...
Another river clean-up with Friends of Brookmill Park and @lawrencebc.bsky.social.
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Another river clean-up with Friends of Brookmill Park and @lawrencebc.bsky.social.
I love how Michael McFaul once overheard a bit of Russian in Barcelona and has spent the last three years treating it as a universal law of geopolitics.
November 7, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I love how Michael McFaul once overheard a bit of Russian in Barcelona and has spent the last three years treating it as a universal law of geopolitics.
Waiting for Hamlet at the National Theatre.
November 6, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Waiting for Hamlet at the National Theatre.
November 6, 2025 at 9:31 AM
If you live in a major city, chances are your local museum holds one of the artefacts, “borrowed” from Egypt. There are about 2 million Egyptian objects in public collections worldwide. We’ve mapped 50 museums that hold the largest number of artefacts: mrdn.world/artefacts-map/
November 5, 2025 at 4:44 PM
If you live in a major city, chances are your local museum holds one of the artefacts, “borrowed” from Egypt. There are about 2 million Egyptian objects in public collections worldwide. We’ve mapped 50 museums that hold the largest number of artefacts: mrdn.world/artefacts-map/
After months of work, here’s our inaugural feature on Ramesses II. Explore our maps, 3D models, and data visualisations to see how one pharaoh became Egypt’s timeless icon.
mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
November 4, 2025 at 12:20 PM
After months of work, here’s our inaugural feature on Ramesses II. Explore our maps, 3D models, and data visualisations to see how one pharaoh became Egypt’s timeless icon.
mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
mrdn.world/ramesses-the...
The world’s largest capitals now face 25% more extremely hot days than in the 1990s. In Rome and Beijing, the number of days with temperatures above 35°C has doubled; in Manila, it has tripled. Even in cooler cities like London, days above 30°C have doubled.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
October 31, 2025 at 7:23 AM
The world’s largest capitals now face 25% more extremely hot days than in the 1990s. In Rome and Beijing, the number of days with temperatures above 35°C has doubled; in Manila, it has tripled. Even in cooler cities like London, days above 30°C have doubled.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Ghost signs of Kent, Walmer edition.
October 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Ghost signs of Kent, Walmer edition.
I spent nearly four decades visiting 155 cities, towns, and villages across Russia. In Britain, it took just three years to outpace that: 156 and counting, with almost half reached in 2025 the old-fashioned way, walking from one place to another.
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October 21, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I spent nearly four decades visiting 155 cities, towns, and villages across Russia. In Britain, it took just three years to outpace that: 156 and counting, with almost half reached in 2025 the old-fashioned way, walking from one place to another.
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Neanderthals were morning people, and if you like waking up early, you might have them to thank. A study comparing modern human DNA with Neanderthal fossils found shared genetic variants linked to early rising.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/8-things-i...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/8-things-i...
October 20, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Neanderthals were morning people, and if you like waking up early, you might have them to thank. A study comparing modern human DNA with Neanderthal fossils found shared genetic variants linked to early rising.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/8-things-i...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/8-things-i...
NASA has confirmed 6,000 exoplanets, with over 8,000 more waiting for verification. Some orbit two suns, some none at all, and others circle dead stars. A few are covered in lava or have clouds made of gemstones.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/10-things-...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/10-things-...
October 15, 2025 at 11:30 AM
NASA has confirmed 6,000 exoplanets, with over 8,000 more waiting for verification. Some orbit two suns, some none at all, and others circle dead stars. A few are covered in lava or have clouds made of gemstones.
hypertextual.substack.com/p/10-things-...
hypertextual.substack.com/p/10-things-...
Signs of the Thames Path, dangerous bathing edition.
October 13, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Signs of the Thames Path, dangerous bathing edition.