Simon Varwell
@simonvarwell.bsky.social
Loves trains, the outdoors, travel, Esperanto, ambient and post-rock music, dystofic, good food and scrontous beer. Hates car-centric societies, late stage capitalism and courgette. He/him. Inverness | 🏴 | 🇪🇺 Work: @hisasimon.bsky.social
But but but we were told in 2014 the oil was running out...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
North Sea exploration rules to be relaxed in new Labour plan
The chancellor will unveil the North Sea Strategy in her Budget speech, the BBC understands.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 9:41 AM
But but but we were told in 2014 the oil was running out...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars https://theonion.com/report-it-pretty-incredible-that-americans-entrusted-w-1819574734/
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars https://theonion.com/report-it-pretty-incredible-that-americans-entrusted-w-1819574734/
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Cairn Toul and the Lairig Ghru today. #Cairngorms #snow
November 25, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Cairn Toul and the Lairig Ghru today. #Cairngorms #snow
What an extraordinary story.
strangeco.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
strangeco.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The Buried Treasure of Baltimore
"Baltimore Sun," September 1, 1934, via Newspapers.com Two impoverished boys accidentally finding buried treasure sounds like something from...
strangeco.blogspot.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 PM
What an extraordinary story.
strangeco.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
strangeco.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
“To build the Interstate town, they had to pave paradise. This is the way of things, but it’s so strange that the surrounding world is one so few people know.” A fabulous meditation on American towns, landscapes and wandering. I do love Jill Homer’s writing.
jilloutside.substack.com/p/interstate...
jilloutside.substack.com/p/interstate...
Interstate towns
Spending a morning in the liminal spaces of life
jilloutside.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
“To build the Interstate town, they had to pave paradise. This is the way of things, but it’s so strange that the surrounding world is one so few people know.” A fabulous meditation on American towns, landscapes and wandering. I do love Jill Homer’s writing.
jilloutside.substack.com/p/interstate...
jilloutside.substack.com/p/interstate...
A rather fun read about East German railway posters. Of course, mostly domestic because international rail travel in the DDR was bahned…
retours.eu/en/63-GDR-po...
retours.eu/en/63-GDR-po...
GDR railway posters: Eisenbahnen in Volkes Hand
Even though there was no competition in the socialist system, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was not completely devoid of advertising. It was also used by the GDR's railways, called Deutsche Rei...
retours.eu
November 25, 2025 at 9:46 PM
A rather fun read about East German railway posters. Of course, mostly domestic because international rail travel in the DDR was bahned…
retours.eu/en/63-GDR-po...
retours.eu/en/63-GDR-po...
Enjoying learning how in Dutch there are other verbs for something being somewhere: sometimes it sits there or lies there rather than being there. Makes me think that “to be” is rather existential and might go beyond a basic sense of location. Am I “being” here right now or just sitting here? 🤔
November 25, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Enjoying learning how in Dutch there are other verbs for something being somewhere: sometimes it sits there or lies there rather than being there. Makes me think that “to be” is rather existential and might go beyond a basic sense of location. Am I “being” here right now or just sitting here? 🤔
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Few things I like better than when the Quakes and the Papes get it together over liberation theology! This is about Pope Leo’s “apostolic exhortation”, as appreciatively reported in the Quaker weekly. “It is not possible to separate the worship of God from concern for the poor.“
November 24, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Few things I like better than when the Quakes and the Papes get it together over liberation theology! This is about Pope Leo’s “apostolic exhortation”, as appreciatively reported in the Quaker weekly. “It is not possible to separate the worship of God from concern for the poor.“
This is powerful. Looking specifically at post-USSR, Russia has attempted to rebuild its influence and empire. Entirely likely that, if it emerges with a victory in Ukraine even as bruising an experience as it has had, it'll come back for more, in Ukraine or non-NATO places like Moldova.
November 24, 2025 at 1:35 PM
This is powerful. Looking specifically at post-USSR, Russia has attempted to rebuild its influence and empire. Entirely likely that, if it emerges with a victory in Ukraine even as bruising an experience as it has had, it'll come back for more, in Ukraine or non-NATO places like Moldova.
15% of newbuilds on Skye have become sort-term lets in recent years. Absolutely effing criminal.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Short-term lets control zone 'may be justified' on Skye
If introduced people would need planning permission if they wanted to turn a home into a short-term let.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 1:31 PM
15% of newbuilds on Skye have become sort-term lets in recent years. Absolutely effing criminal.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Pump up the Jam is definitely one of my top 5 songs about fruit preservation methods though admittedly, introducing pneumatics contravenes most health and safety protocols.
November 24, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Pump up the Jam is definitely one of my top 5 songs about fruit preservation methods though admittedly, introducing pneumatics contravenes most health and safety protocols.
Go me! I’ve finally learned the Dutch for tree. Boom!
November 23, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Go me! I’ve finally learned the Dutch for tree. Boom!
Reposted by Simon Varwell
The best time to start building a national high-speed rail network? Twenty years ago.
(And definitely not the week before #Thanksgiving. Just saying.)
edition.cnn.com/interactive/...
(And definitely not the week before #Thanksgiving. Just saying.)
edition.cnn.com/interactive/...
November 23, 2025 at 9:17 PM
The best time to start building a national high-speed rail network? Twenty years ago.
(And definitely not the week before #Thanksgiving. Just saying.)
edition.cnn.com/interactive/...
(And definitely not the week before #Thanksgiving. Just saying.)
edition.cnn.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
For centuries, cities have been planned by and for able-bodied, gainfully-employed men.
Feminist urban planning isn’t proposing the opposite, but a model that considers all stages of human life, from infancy to old age, without giving greater importance to the productive-work stage.
bit.ly/49uev9N
Feminist urban planning isn’t proposing the opposite, but a model that considers all stages of human life, from infancy to old age, without giving greater importance to the productive-work stage.
bit.ly/49uev9N
November 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM
For centuries, cities have been planned by and for able-bodied, gainfully-employed men.
Feminist urban planning isn’t proposing the opposite, but a model that considers all stages of human life, from infancy to old age, without giving greater importance to the productive-work stage.
bit.ly/49uev9N
Feminist urban planning isn’t proposing the opposite, but a model that considers all stages of human life, from infancy to old age, without giving greater importance to the productive-work stage.
bit.ly/49uev9N
Reposted by Simon Varwell
British endurance rider Evelyn Hamilton in 1935. Hamilton was a larger-than-life character who helped ferry French Resistance fighters across Paris on a tandem during World War II.
November 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM
British endurance rider Evelyn Hamilton in 1935. Hamilton was a larger-than-life character who helped ferry French Resistance fighters across Paris on a tandem during World War II.
Reposted by Simon Varwell
oh, that's... that's not... you can't call it that
November 21, 2025 at 7:48 PM
oh, that's... that's not... you can't call it that
Great thread.
Having down time and rest should be more of a badge of honour than being busy.
November 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Great thread.
Reposted by Simon Varwell
this is the peace plan we should be pushing
russia goes home and gets nothing. they learn from this that adventures in occupying neighbors has no benefit and only costs
russia goes home and gets nothing. they learn from this that adventures in occupying neighbors has no benefit and only costs
Former Finnish PM Sanna Marin put it bluntly: “To end the conflict, Russia must leave Ukrainian territory.”
Just one point. Nothing more to discuss.
Just one point. Nothing more to discuss.
November 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
this is the peace plan we should be pushing
russia goes home and gets nothing. they learn from this that adventures in occupying neighbors has no benefit and only costs
russia goes home and gets nothing. they learn from this that adventures in occupying neighbors has no benefit and only costs
Why's it called a plebiscite on the legal status of cannabis, and not a reeferendum?
November 21, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Why's it called a plebiscite on the legal status of cannabis, and not a reeferendum?
Reposted by Simon Varwell
I believe they prefer to be called Americans
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I believe they prefer to be called Americans
Loving the @6music.bsky.social breakfast show playing The Stone Roses debut album all the way through, as a lovely tribute. That and Yes Sir I Can Boogie yesterday morning. Thanks Nick!
BBC Radio 6 Music
Nick Grimshaw
Now Playing
The Stone Roses
I Wanna Be Adored
Nick Grimshaw
Now Playing
The Stone Roses
I Wanna Be Adored
November 21, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Loving the @6music.bsky.social breakfast show playing The Stone Roses debut album all the way through, as a lovely tribute. That and Yes Sir I Can Boogie yesterday morning. Thanks Nick!
Reposted by Simon Varwell
The sheer utter stupidity of many of those on the right cannot be better exemplified than by the reactions to this. Total ignorance. www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/20...
Arabic numerals joke sends the US right into a full-blown meltdown
A joke about Arabic numerals triggered a full-scale US right-wing meltdown, exposing deep ignorance, racism, and the fragility of fascists
www.thecanary.co
November 21, 2025 at 7:46 AM
The sheer utter stupidity of many of those on the right cannot be better exemplified than by the reactions to this. Total ignorance. www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/20...
What do you call a band who delegates all its gigging responsibilities to another band?
Proxy Music.
Proxy Music.
November 21, 2025 at 7:25 AM
What do you call a band who delegates all its gigging responsibilities to another band?
Proxy Music.
Proxy Music.
Could define a certain game…
I need "Stats are down but he played great" to make it into the lexicon.
November 19, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Could define a certain game…
And no I suspect we are all not going to shut up about that ridiculous, astonishing game.
November 19, 2025 at 10:55 PM
And no I suspect we are all not going to shut up about that ridiculous, astonishing game.