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polnoon.bsky.social
Gav Roberts
@polnoon.bsky.social
110 followers 420 following 8 posts
Music, copyright, environment, humour
https://Linktr.ee/polnoon
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Gav Roberts
redscharlach.bsky.social
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
The sun rising over the London skyline this morning, only it’s a very cloudy sky and the sun is visible only as an orange streak of fire that coincidentally seems to be emanating from the spire on the top of St Paul’s dome
December 21, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
dieworkwear.bsky.social
Imagine posing for a photographer friend who sells your image to iStock and a year later, you see this is what The Washington Post has done with the image of you walking on a beautiful fall day
The Washington Post headline reads: "Try a ‘fart walk’ to ease the pressure after that big Thanksgiving meal Whatever you do, resist the urge to lie down. November 24, 2025" Accompanying the article if a black ad white photo of someone walking on what appears to be a cold fall day. The camera is capturing their back as they're walking in a park with leaves on the ground. They are wearing a black coat and black leggings. The Washington Post has added radiating yellow lines from their butt to suggest they're farting. The photo credit says the image is from iStock.
November 29, 2025 at 6:02 AM
polnoon.bsky.social
That was stressful and not usual. Long time since I’ve seen a pub go that wild . #scoden
November 18, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social
Love being reminded to do this every year. It's a win/win all round
Clear out toys now!
November 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
sandagnguide.bsky.social
Around a quarter of the world's population are affected by insomnia. Sleepless Planet is the result of Maureen Burdock's investigations into the causes. It's going to help a lot of folk. @psupress.bsky.social

theslingsandarrows.com/sleepless-pl...
November 12, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
brittanytrang.com
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
andywightman.scot
Folk often ask me what I would do by way of land reform legislation. Have a read of this blog to find out. It seems pointless to do much further detailed work since there is so little appetite for such measures andywightman.scot/2023/12/land...
Land for the People (Scotland) Bill - Land Matters
Introduction This blog introduces my proposals for a comprehensive Land Reform Bill - one that goes far further than existing proposals in reforming Scotland’s land governance. I plan to publish furth...
andywightman.scot
November 5, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
scriblit.bsky.social
Comic con today included trying to explain the concept of a rom com to a Dalek
October 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
frankconniff.bsky.social
One of these rich dudes invested in a food company with all proceeds going to kids in need. The other started Sundance Institute, boosting the lives of countless artists. Hey modern rich dudes, don't be a typical greedy AI crypto-prick, be like these two.
September 16, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Timeless humour!

A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to:

“I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂

Dated circa 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was recovered in London during excavations by MOLA.
📷 Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA

#Archaeology
The photo shows four images of the same Roman iron stylus pen, one below the other. The knib to the left. It has an inscription which runs along its length on four sides. The four images show the four lines of inscribed text which read: ‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro
acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’ ‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ The pen was used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. Found in London (Roman ‘Londinium’) by MOLA. Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA
September 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Artist’s painting of a hippo on a flake of limestone 🦛❤️

Perhaps a practice sketch, or just for the joy of painting 3,500 years ago!

From Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, Egypt, c. 1479–1425 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology
Photo of an Ancient Egyptian artists’s small, naturalistic painting of a standing hippopotamus on a flake of white limestone, dated c. 1479–1425. The hippo is painted in profile with head lowered and to the right. The body is outlined with black paint and painted brown. The belly, eyes, and ears are painted red. Although the ancient Egyptians were well aware of the danger and destructive power of hippos, this painted hippo has rather a friendly face! Dimensions: H. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in); W. 12 cm (4 3/4 in); Th. 1.7 cm (11/16 in) Egyptian artists made practice sketches on flakes of limestone, sometimes for use as templates when transferring an image to the wall of a tomb or a temple. Limestone flakes were readily available because of the constant construction of temples and rock-cut tombs. A number of such sketches were recovered at Deir el-Bahri during the 1922-23 MMA excavations. This painting was acquired by the museum in the division of finds.
August 27, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
freemovement.bsky.social
New from Free Movement: Briefing: the sorry state of the UK asylum system | Colin Yeo
freemovement.org.uk/briefing-the...
Briefing: the sorry state of the UK asylum system - Free Movement
In this briefing we will take a look at what is really going on with the main features of the contemporary asylum system: arrivals, the backlog, detention,
freemovement.org.uk
August 27, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
kevinhargaden.bsky.social
The shift away from Google and Microsoft will surely gain momentum in the next few years... I'd be strongly in favor of the EU subsidizing open source alternatives to all this enshittification
www.zdnet.com/article/the-...
August 23, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
bhgreeley.bsky.social
This is so good.
henrysnow.bsky.social Henry Snow @henrysnow.bsky.social · Aug 12
Historians are often tempted to tell you something is "worth about X in today's dollars." Here's why I think you should not do that, and what I think you should do instead

buttondown.com/anotherway/a...
Please Stop Putting Very Old Things in "Today's Dollars"
Instead, do this
buttondown.com
August 12, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
alexsbradshaw.bsky.social
These are my favourite kinds of artefacts and art - things that are ridiculously old (at the top end this is closing in on 6000 years old) but it has so much soul and whimsy. Look at its little feet!

Almost 6,000 years and we're still the same. We have always made silly little things.
alisonfisk.bsky.social Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · Aug 20
An ancient handmade bowl with human feet to bring a smile to your face!

The bowl tips slightly forwards as if offering its contents!

Predynastic Egypt, Naqada period c. 3700-3450 BC.

At the Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
📷 by me

#Archaeology
My photo shows a hemispherical red pottery bowl with supports in the shape of a pair of human feet on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Handmade from red Nile clay, it is slipped and polished to give a light surface sheen. The front of the bowl tips slightly forward as if offering its contents. Dimensions: diameter 13.2 cm x width 13.7 cm x depth 9.8 cm.
August 20, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
sandagnguide.bsky.social
You may not have seen In. by New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail. Take a look. It's a charming look at someone navigating modern life handicapped by being all broadcast with no reception.
theslingsandarrows.com/in/
August 17, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
gizmotron.bsky.social
Good to see Formula 1 management employing subtitles at races 👍
Racing car taking a corner with trackside banners for Zoom all over the place
August 3, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
willalex.bsky.social
Huge and happy congrats to this brilliant ensemble of finalists!

@yarntheory.bsky.social
@edenrobins.bsky.social
@nghivo.bsky.social
@andreahairston.bsky.social
@margaret.bsky.social
@vajra.me
@vandroidhelsing.bsky.social
@nalohop.bsky.social
ursulakleguin.com Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · Jun 18
We're thrilled to present the shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction:
A white mug with the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction logo holds a spray of lavender next to a stack of the eight books shortlisted for this year's prize: North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins The City in Glass by Nghi Vo Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera The West Passage by Jared Pechaček Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
June 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
polnoon.bsky.social
Never been a huge fan of VR (probably just my age) - so I do like this description “cultural academic Keren Zaiontx coined a sharp term for our consumption of immersive entertainment: “narcissistic soectatorship” via New Scientist …
June 21, 2025 at 1:32 PM
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cortjstr.bsky.social
The Jaws image, you know the one, is and it turns out always has been public domain.

And when I see fascinating Jaws info I immediately think of @pftompkins.bsky.social

cc: @ferociousj.bsky.social

ironicsans.ghost.io/how-the-jaws...
It’s True: The JAWS Shark is Public Domain
A story with legal drama, a mystery, snow leopards, and, uh, naughty bits.
ironicsans.ghost.io
June 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
kientan74.bsky.social
⛽️ Petrol is the cheapest it’s been in real terms since 2001, but no govt has gotten credit for freezing fuel duties. 1. It’s an implicit carbon subsidy - so much for Net Zero - and 2. it penalises city-dwellers.
Excellent piece from @tomcalver.bsky.social here: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Graph of petrol prices over time in absolute and real terms
June 15, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
henrymance.ft.com
Oooh, you mean it's OK to leave, realise it's a mistake, then rejoin? 😉
June 7, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
joemuggs.bsky.social
the XCKD cartoon "My hobby: extrapolating". Man pointing to a graph and explaining to a bride, "AS YOU CAN SEE, BY LATE NEXT MONTH YOU'LL HAVE OVER FOUR DOZEN HUSBANDS. BETTER GET A BULK RATE ON WEDDING CAKE."
June 4, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Gav Roberts
sandagnguide.bsky.social
Love, Misha is an extraordinarily confident and accomplished first graphic novel from a creator with the world at their feet. A non-binary teen goes on a journey of discovery with their mother. @surmulefyr.bsky.social @01firstsecond.bsky.social
theslingsandarrows.com/love-misha/
May 27, 2025 at 1:13 PM