Adrian Bowyer
@adrianbowyer.bsky.social
1.4K followers 2.3K following 7.2K posts
No worthwhile human achievement has ever been instigated on the basis of demonstrable cost effectiveness. https://adrianbowyer.com 📍Europe
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adrianbowyer.bsky.social
Most areas of human thought are wrong because they assume they're right. Science is mostly right because it assumes it is wrong.

Most ways of achieving things fail because they assume they'll work. Engineering mostly works because it assumes things will go wrong.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
Jackson Lamb heading to the bog: "Methinks a Donald is in order."
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
ourworldindata.org
Does the news reflect what we die from?
The image presents a comparison of the leading causes of death in the United States for 2023 and the media coverage these causes receive from three news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News. 

In the footer, it notes the data sources, indicating that the information is based on media mentions from Media Cloud (2025) and death data from the US CDC (2025) and the Global Terrorism Index, with a clarification that values are normalized to sum to 100%.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
Now, whenever my 2 y.o. grandson gets any piece of cake on any day, he starts to sing

🎶Happy birthday to you...
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
See also: The UK and Brexit.
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
jonathancoe.bsky.social
This morning I turned on my phone only to find that it had changed my user name to Shirley, and when I tried to enter a simple Google query it came out as "Do you like gladiator movies?"

Then I realised it was in Airplane! mode.
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
darrigomelanie.bsky.social
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
If so, that's definitely negligent. But I don't think it changes the moral position.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
My personal opinion is so, yes. While the Palestinians have great and justified grievances, those do not justify an unprovoked attack on civilians that was an outrage. The Israelis had a proximal casus belli, but the scale of their response was also outrageous.
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
gralefrit.bsky.social
This is a good game.

I have an English degree and boosted a major publishing house’s share price, and saved a high street retail chain from closure.

If a Mickey Mouse degree lets you create actual Mickey fucking Mouse, it’s probably easily as good “for the economy” as business studies.
patricknessbooks.bsky.social
*deep sigh* Again, I have an English degree and have contributed rather extensively to the British economy, including writing a show that pumped £10 million into Wales. But the stupidity is the point here, of course.
ottoenglish.bsky.social
Badenoch and Co see education only as a means to a massive income in some soul destroying career.

Devoid of imagination and the power of knowledge they view life entirely through the prism of the CV.

My advice always is to study what interests you and the rest will follow
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
"God's unforgiving nature means his believers try to stay in his good books through a form of organised grovelling called worship." - Philomena Cunk
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
I would just like to say that I did once come up with the word "proctalgia" in the middle of a polite conversation when I wanted to say "pain in the arse".

I thought it was a neologism, but later discovered that it is a real (and, I suppose, fairly obvious) medical term.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
That's a really good simile.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
It's not just people's names, or even just proper nouns. I once had a similar experience with "buddlia".

I could have written a short essay about the plant off the cuff.

But I couldn't remember the bugger's name...

I call this the Christopher Walken effect.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
I think that in general human mental links between the multitude of characteristics that an object has and its noun are quite tenuous.
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
Some years ago I couldn't remember Christopher Walken's name.

I could list films he'd been in. Quote his lines, even.

But I couldn't recall his name.

I could have looked it up, but I decided to wait for it to come back to me.

It took three weeks.
iainjclarkart.com
Just spent 20 minutes trying to remember the names of actors who played the Hobbits in LOTR--information I know well--because my brain REFUSES to tell me things on demand and only releases them when I nonchalantly pretend not to care.
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
thea.codes
I really don't think Qualcomm buying Arduino is a good thing.
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer
mikeachim.bsky.social
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
adrianbowyer.bsky.social
When there's a storm 11 with 20 meter waves and a blizzard in the middle of the night, I always think of the crew of a fishing boat out in it, waiting for the forecast, listening to the gentle, calm waters implied by Sailing By...
Reposted by Adrian Bowyer