Stefan Czerniawski
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Stefan Czerniawski
@pubstr.at
940 followers 330 following 1.7K posts
Blogging less than the olden days. Still working to make public services better, now in healthcare regulation.
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And if you persevere, you will be rewarded with a #FixTheForms special bonus - a double negative so convoluted that it gets its own explanation - agreeing means no and disagreeing means yes. Of course.
A question in a Home Office survey: To what extent do you agree or disagree that there should not be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement? The question is then glossed: Agreeing means supporting no traditional arrangements; disagreeing means supporting transitional arrangements
February 12, 2026 at 8:35 PM
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May have been a glitch - seems to be up now. Though there is something special about having a Home Office survey about integration in the UK guarded by a captcha featuring objects not to be found within thousands of miles
A screenshot of a survey page, with part of the Home Office logo just visible behind a popup captcha with an instruction to select all squares with fire hydrants. The picture is of a US hydrant.
February 12, 2026 at 8:19 PM
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The long now
The cover of a magazine called "Philosophy Now" promoting a lead article "Roman philosophy"
February 7, 2026 at 10:41 PM
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I want to give an organisation money. They presumably want to take my money. So well done for coding so obscure that my mobile device doesn't recognise the data entry fields - so no keyboard, no way forward. Well done, @financialtimes.com #FixTheForms
A web form with fields for first name and last name. The first name field has an angry red border and a firm red prompt "Please enter your first name"
February 4, 2026 at 6:07 PM
pubstr.at
The language has a rather longer history - to maximise efficiency, here's a poster he could use, from only 16 years ago.

Though 'rewiring' as a metaphor has some of the same problems as have levers, for the reasons which @pollymackenzie.bsky.social has been pointing out
A poster with a main heading "Code a better country" against a background of binary digits and "Rewired State: National Hack the Government Day, March 7th 2009" underneath
January 19, 2026 at 5:23 PM
pubstr.at
A tale of three emails. Another masterpiece of back end integration between systems
A screenshot showing the titles of the emails: at 6.50 giving information about the platform a train will leave from, at 7.11 announcing its cancellation - and at 9.39 asking for customer feedback on the experience of travelling
January 17, 2026 at 10:01 AM
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Though at Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross are both being suggested, but not Paddington, so all should be well
January 17, 2026 at 9:01 AM
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Meanwhile, a different part of the board shows next fastest trains to various destinations - all showing times which assume that all the trains on the main board have been cancelled.

(which itself implies two different and inconsistent back end data sources)
Part of the departure board at Euston showing a list of destinations and next departures. The earliest time shown is well over an hour in the future.
January 17, 2026 at 8:26 AM
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A small service design masterclass for #ukgc26 being delivered at Euston.

The announcer keeps saying that people are "strongly advised" to find alternative routes.

But the main departure board shows trains as delayed rather than cancelled, which encourages people to stay and hope.
The station departure board at Euston. Almost all trains are showing as "delayed" and "please wait"
January 17, 2026 at 8:26 AM
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I'd always understood it was done by interpreting the codes set by polar bears through their movement tracks

But that may just be another bluff
A map of Greenland with patterns of random looking red lines on the east and west coasts recording the movements of polar bears
January 15, 2026 at 2:48 PM
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In 1943, a Foreign Office report sets out the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that the Katyń massacre was a Soviet crime. And then reflects on why that truth was not to be told.

Being reluctant to call out notional allies is not a new phenomenon.
This dislocation between our public attitude and our private feelings we may know to be deliberate and inevitable; but at the same time we may perhaps wonder whether, by representing to others something less than the whole truth so far as we know it, and something less than the probabilities so far as they seem to us probable, we are not incurring a risk of what—not to put a fine point on it might darken our vision and take the edge off our moral sensibility. If so, how is this risk to be avoided?
January 4, 2026 at 2:51 PM
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The theme of the walk was the rising sun
The sun is large and golden just about the horizon with an orange sky and a line of trees dark in shadow The sun is low behind a bare tree. The sky is turning blue with a a band of orange across the horizon. The arc of a bare tree silhoutted against the sky. The sun glows through the centre of the tree, colouring the sky around it a pale orange. Three young stags stand on frosty grass, their heads raise in alert as they scan the landscape - unnerved by being chased by a dog moments before.
January 3, 2026 at 12:38 PM
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In rural Buckinghamshire, a footpath goes under a railway line, with unexpected decorations
A mural painted on the brick of a railway bridge showing a stylised puffin and "Off we go again" A mural with a shouting figure and a speech bubble "And I resumed the struggle" A bridge abutment painted with "Too few the poets" A footpath leads through a narrow bridge under a railway with painted murals on both sides
December 31, 2025 at 4:37 PM
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The theme of the walk was mostly grey
The tracery of a bare tree is silhoutted against a grey sky. A red kite is motionless on one of the branches. A dense row of trees in the very last of their autumn colour at the edge of a field with grey clouds behind. A red kit in flight, wings on the downbeat, staring ahead A distant view from a green hill top looking past a church and mausoleum to the valley beyond.
December 31, 2025 at 4:31 PM
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London December 2025
A postcard of a David Hockney painting on top of the orange paper bag it was packed in
December 19, 2025 at 9:40 AM
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How to Think About AI: a guide for the perplexed.

Not yet read, so can't directly endorse, but Susskind is generally good value. And he is a lawyer with a strong interest in new tech going back years, which gives him a distinctive perspective.
Book cover "How to think about AI"
December 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
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Signs with portents
Three signs on a post: "Caution! Pedestrians Max Speed 5 mph" "Ramps" "Nature Conservation Area No Motor Bikes or Shooting" A brick pillar at the end of a high wall. A sign attached to the pillar reads "Please do not park opposite this pillar"
December 13, 2025 at 5:09 PM
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The theme of the walk was winter orchards
Two red apples hang on an otherwise bare tree in front of a berry-covered hawthorn A single red apple on one of a line of trees. In the background a tiny spot of red indicates another apple further along the row. An arc of branches catching low winter light against a cloudless deep blue sky Skeletal trees glistening in winter sunlight with a clear blue sky behind
December 13, 2025 at 5:05 PM
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Alnmouth demonstrating the standard I expect Edinburgh to meet
A small town on a point between a river estuary and the sea with a clear blue sky
December 8, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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This is just one reason why RSS feeds are wonderful things - a blog lies dormant for eight years, but the moment of its reawakening is instantly recognised.

www.wordyard.com/2025/12/01/w...
A screenshot of the opening of a blog post: Well, hello. It's been a while. Last post… eight years ago. OK! Sorry about that. Much has gone down since then, to borrow a phrase I learned from a veteran writer/editor at the San Francisco Examiner who left us a while ago.
December 2, 2025 at 11:15 PM
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Cover of a book: Why you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise
December 2, 2025 at 8:35 PM
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Three Men in a Boat got to the same conclusion back in 1889. But it'll cost you more than half a crown these days.
Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high- level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kkingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 am. express for the isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, anc begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston "Nobody will ever know, on this line, we said, "what you are, or where you're going, You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston, "Well, I don't know, gents," replied the noble fellow, "but I suppose some train's got to go to Kingston; and Ill do it. Gimme the half- crown.
December 1, 2025 at 6:32 PM
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The theme of the walk was cloudless sunshine
The last wall standing of a mediaeval castle is silhouetted against a deep blue sky A tree covered in golden leaves stands on green grass under a deep blue sky Autumnal trees and reeds at the edge of a lake are reflected in the still water, which echoes the deep blue of the sky above. A path leads through bare trees towards the bright sun - close to noon, but low in the sky
November 30, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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This is nominative determinism of the very highest order
The cover of a book 'The first referendum: Reassessing Britain's entry to Europe, 1973-75'. The author is Lindsay Aqui
November 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
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It's sometimes hard to remember that public services can be delivered with pride and self confidence
A stone plaque above a doorway inscribed "The health of the people is the highest law" The facade of a brick building in confident municipal style.
November 1, 2025 at 11:27 AM