Richard Smith
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith
@raves.bsky.social
1.8K followers 420 following 1.2K posts
He/Him. Travels a lot. Posts a lot. Occasionally complains a lot. @richardavsmith on Twitter and @[email protected] on M
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Feb 13
I'm travelling #TheLongWayDown through South East Asia and Australia by train (and plane!).

🇹🇭🇲🇾🇸🇬🇮🇩🇦🇺🇧🇭

This is my thread of my daily threads. (Assuming I don't give up due to a Bluesky bug.)

PART 1 (London, Doha, Bangkok)
In which I fly a lot, get tired, and fall prey to a shop's theme song.
raves.bsky.social Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Feb 12
Time to go further than I've ever gone before...

#TheLongWayDown
🇹🇭🇲🇾🇸🇬🇮🇩🇦🇺🇶🇦
Me at Heathrow Airport, in front of a screen saying Qatar Airways QR16 / BA7014 to Doha.
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 4d
The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince.
jamesrball.com James Ball @jamesrball.com · 4d
Andrew, or to give him his full title, Andrew.
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jamesrball.com
James Ball @jamesrball.com · 4d
Andrew, or to give him his full title, Andrew.
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stephenkb.bsky.social
Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 4d
Another thought on this brilliant story: police orthodoxy in this country is that, best use if straitened resources is to focus on “high impact” crime. Hard to square that with the fact that essentially every serious look into “petty” crime finds it is scarily organised!
jim.londoncentric.media Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 5d
The fun thing about having a small team working with you is you can say "hey you're spending this week digging for stolen mobile phones in London flowerbeds, I promise you it's a thing". www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho...
London's thieves are burying phones in flowerbeds
The police don't take much interest in returning the stolen devices when they're dug up — so London Centric decided to do it.
www.londoncentric.media
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 4d
That's... certainly a claim. @jon.gruene.social.ap.brid.gy
Google Result from Alstom. "Avelia Horizon: The only double-deck high speed train in the world."
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 4d
Interestingly, on Green Signals today (recorded before today's decision) Eurostar continues to say that these trains will be used first to replace Class 373s, though also have a bit of a twist in wording that all trains will be maintained in TMI (vs. only be maintained in).
pca.st/episode/7f2b...
108. Eurostar orders double-decker trains… but will we see them in the UK?
pca.st
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nickbwalking.bsky.social
Nick Barlow @nickbwalking.bsky.social · 16d
The idea that the post-war order was created because they thought "everyone would want to be nice to each other" is not something you should be able to utter and still be taken seriously.
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16d
Katie Lam tries to explain to the Sunday Times how her grandparents experience under Nazism informs her view that the postwar institutions forged after the horrors of war, dictatorship & the holicaust won't now work in our times - because "they assume everyone would want to be nice to each other"
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 16d
Though the original sin was BR not being able to go "lol, no, this is our operation first and foremost", but then with Thatcher and then Major in charge what did anyone expect?
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 16d
Sunak had and blew such an opportunity to get a decent share back at a knock down rate.
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 16d
It was a hope, not an expectation!

(In an ideal world, you'd have a diverse set of shareholders who would see the threat of competition and revolt at the current management's complacency. Alas.)
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 16d
Good riddance, hire someone from a UK TOC to manage it, give them the power to shake up the product significantly.
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · 16d
So much for "when the time is right".

Given her bio, I'm not remotely shocked, considering her lack of experience outside SNCF and Finance. Explains so much about their direction.

Also, fine dining my ass, they've given up on Plus dessert lately in favour of a single square of chocolate.
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davwheat.dev
David Wheatley @davwheat.dev · 17d
I thought I'd take the opportunity to put together a website representation of these new Rail Clocks which launched yesterday.

railclock.davwheat.dev

Source code (MIT): github.com/davwheat/rai...

And, don't worry, it does have the special flourish every 12 hours!
Rail Clock
A reproduction of the Great British Railways clock
railclock.davwheat.dev
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Simon Parker @simonparker.bsky.social · 19d
The absolute bloody vandalism of austerity in one chart. Good analysis of the overall picture here.
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ianvisits.co.uk
ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · Sep 30
New DLR train!
New DLR train!
New DLR train!
New DLR train!
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Sep 11
"I'm half a mile away. I'm half a mile away!"
raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Aug 7
Seats on the new NextGen Acela look like alien robots giving a lower back rub and/or needy hug, I saw it and now you will too.

(Hitchhiker's vibes.)
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Aug 2
My review of The Greatest Gathering.
Me in front of a Class 50 locomotive with a temporary livery reading, in large white letters on a red background: "So. Many. Trains." Full stops are used for emphasis, which may confuse some screen readers.
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kefyor.bsky.social
Lorentz 🦖 @kefyor.bsky.social · Jul 11
Every UK petition is like this
Mockup drawing of a UK parliament petition where the petitioner has asked for "good thing please" with description "we think the UK needs this". Government responded: "No."
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cctl.me
Cable Contributes to Life @cctl.me · Jun 30
since it's the last day of pride month I figured I'd at least make one thing for it...

i now unveil to you my greatest invention:
color bars pride flag
An LGBTQ+ pride flag formatted in the layout of the SMPTE "color bars" test pattern used for broadcast television. The first set of columns use the colors of the gay pride flag, with the addition of the original SMPTE color on the final column. The second set of columns contains two pride flags - the pansexual flag horizontally, and the asexual flag flipped and horizontal. The final set of columns contains the three colors of the transgender flag and the two POC-inclusive colors, followed by the original bar gradient from the SMPTE ECR-1-1978 pattern.
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Jun 27
Hotel in Vietnam.

Stood up from the toilet and the edge of the lid of the metal loo roll holder sliced through my elbow. It hadn't seen sandpaper or a file in its life.

Hotel cleaner got worried I'd damaged a towel cleaning up the blood, but fortunately realised this probably wasn't worth pushing.
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llbroadwell.bsky.social
Lindsay 👩‍🔬🚲 @llbroadwell.bsky.social · Jun 18
Read the entire thread, but especially take note of this part.

The Netherlands closed this loophole and so you now essentially *never* see the kinds of dangerous and illegal "e-bikes" that are very common in the UK.
lauralaker.bsky.social Laura Laker @lauralaker.bsky.social · Jun 16
Our recommendations: close the substitution loophole and see delivery companies take responsibility; end sales of 'fake e-bikes'; and help police seize them. Create a safe kitemark for legitimate products to restore confidence and reverse bans; and a scrappage scheme. End the off-road-legal loophole
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mindtheflap.bsky.social
Georgia Harper @mindtheflap.bsky.social · Jun 15
I read the best-selling book on "overdiagnosis". I was not a fan. There are some really important ideas that don't quite stick the landing, but it gets very culture-war very quickly.

A first attempt at YouTube by @ftw.bsky.social and I:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDxV...
Is Autism Overdiagnosed? I Read "The Age Of Diagnosis"
YouTube video by Georgia Harper
www.youtube.com
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Jun 15
Good news @jon.gruene.social.ap.brid.gy
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raves.bsky.social
Richard Smith @raves.bsky.social · Jun 15
Curiously
Google Search: "Is Andorra or Spain closer to the UK?" AI result: Spain is closer to the UK than Andorra. While both countries share a border with France, Spain is geographically closer to the UK than Andorra, which is nestled between Spain and France in the Pyrenees mountains. Here's why: Spain's location: Spain is on the Iberian Peninsula, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, with a direct connection to France. Andorra's location: Andorra is a landlocked country situated high in the Pyrenees mountains, between Spain and France. Distance: The shortest distance between London and Spain is shorter than the distance between London and Andorra, according to distance calculators.
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