Toby Atkin-Wright

It's that time of year when I change from my lighter wraparound robe (worn around my pyjamas) to my thicker long dressing gown. I have also this afternoon ordered me some new pairs of bed socks - machine washable, soft and fluffy, and the right length and size. I'm far too frozen in bed, despite an electric blanket and central heating. My nose is also currently cold which is just too much! To be fair I have a long-standing disease of the blood vessels, though it's usually more affecting the blood vessels in my brain, reducing the blood supply there. But peripheral chills can be a problem.

Today's second arrival (very good day!): new paperback copy of the Kickstarter-funded "Shakespeare vs Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come" interactive fiction gamebook from Jonathan Green. Looks fantastic! Very happy to have this in my hands at last, and very much looking forward to playing it.

Something wonderful just arrived from Felted Friends. A hand felted White Rabbit from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" film. A favourite literary character from one of my all-time favourite books. And so very well done.

1. Labour Deputy Lucy Powell says EHRC's single-sex spaces draft is 'not right'

(tags:LGBT transgender GoodNews bigotry UK labour )

2. Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows

(tags:games windows Linux )

3. A satellite runs Doom from orbit, using Ubuntu on Arm

(tags:space doom games )

1. Why Busy Beaver Hunters Fear the Antihydra

(tags:mathematics computers numbers )

2. Trump Defends Demolition Of Yggdrasil, Ancient Tree Of Life

(tags:satire politics USA )

3. No One Actually Knows What a Moon is

(tags:language space moon )

Very sad to hear that Prunella Scales has died. A wonderful actress, but most of all Martin and I enjoyed her charming canal trip programmes with husband Timothy West. I'm downloading (on demand in the UK) some of her past canal trips to rewatch, including the Leeds & Liverpool canal and Venice.

Took an earlier screenshot of this than planned as I was just checking my new USB-C to USB-C cable works with my Kindle + OpenMTP for data transfer. So much more convenient to have direct USB-C to USB-C than the provided USB-C to USB-A cable then needing a USB-A to USB-C dongle to plug it into my USB-C Mac laptop port ...

1. 4 Halloween Costumes That'll Make Him Say 'Oh Cool Yeah I Haven't Seen that Show'

(tags:Halloween costumes funny TV )

2. Time Immemorial turns 750: The Medieval law that froze history at 1189

(tags:history law UK viaPatrickHadfield )

3. Why Warm Countries Are Poorer

(tags:poverty economics geography temperature disease trade )

4. Chatbots Are Repeating Sanctioned Russian Propaganda

(tags:russia ai propaganda )

5. Megafauna was the meat of choice for South American hunters

(tags:prehistory SouthAmerica food animals )

Pleased managed more accordion practice despite my worsening neuro illness. Not too light headed just now, though my usually automatic bellows control was a bit challenged! Focused on 5 tunes (*), including Windmills of Your Mind. Which on my 72 bass box required jumping from the top of the bass side to the bottom and back! Though, amazingly, that wasn't as tricky as expected. Here is a recording of Windmills of Your Mind.

* The other tunes were Pirates of the Caribbean "He's a Pirate" music (so piratey!), Speechless from live-action Disney Aladdin, Thank You For The Music by ABBA and a My Fair Lady medley.

Oh and Martin had a teleconference going on in the next door study while I played in the lounge. I tried to play a bit quieter than I might have. He said afterwards it was fine 😜

There's research that if you leave people in a room with an electro-shock shock device long enough to get bored they will deliberately shock themselves.

In other news I took Sophia's phone away from the kids while they were in the bath and now they're repeatedly pouring cold water over themselves while shrieking like baboons.

One photo every year
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. Battery storage in California has grown more than 3,000% since 2020, entirely getting rid of blackouts

(tags:electricity batteries infrastructure USA )

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

One of these children won at Ticket To Ride: First Journey, the other...did not.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Advance reading something, and passed the words "high heid yin". One of my all time favourite Scots expressions, especially when used in the plural, that I still say regularly, including just a week ago when talking to Martin about something in our kitchen. I've also deployed it when asking an audience question 20+ years ago at a history research seminar at Dundee University, though I then felt the need to translate it for the visiting Welsh prof! For non-Scots friends it means someone in authority, a leader.

Checking back here I have mentioned this expression in a friends-locked post before, but it's well worth repeating!

1. The nerdiest music video of all time

(tags:wargames video music history uk france )

2. The Reform Backlash: Caerphilly By-Election Result Shows Nigel Farage's Party Is Much Weaker Than It Looks

(tags:politics uk wales )

3. 'Mind-boggling' poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players

(tags:poker fraud mafia )

4. Armed police surround teen after AI mistakes crisp packet for gun

(tags:ai guns epicfail )

5. Bad therapy is causing 'emotional Thatcherism'

(tags:therapy counselling society )

6. What the new Northern Cyprus election result means

(tags:Cyprus turkey )

7. ChatGPT's Atlas: The Browser That's Anti-Web

(tags:viaPatrickHadfield browser OhForFucksSake ai )

8. Bosses of Dungeons & Dragons club in £150k court fight sparked by alleged 'dungeonmaster cuddle'

(tags:roleplaying business law UK )

1. Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

(tags:funny photos wildlife )

2. Scotland to get 8% of UK's fishing funding, despite landing 60% of its fish

(tags:fish Scotland UK money wtf )

3. Aerial Photos Highlight Beauty of Kazakhstan's Mangystau Plateau

(tags:kazakhstan photos )

Just finished my 50th book of 2025, Liz Duffy Adams's Born With Teeth, the two-hander play featuring Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. I wish I'd seen the current RSC production with Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel. But reading the play script was great fun.

It does help enormously knowing both actors from past TV productions. So I can visualise them really well performing the roles. And as a two-hander it's also more approachable as a play script to read than a play with a much larger cast. Very readable anyway, and I enjoyed it immensely.

1. Settlers of Catan has been licensed by Netflix. I look forward to finding out the true lore behind "I've got wood for sheep".

(tags:netflix SettlersOfCatan EpicWTF games tv )

2. Tracking down the Romans who survived the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius

(tags:Rome history volcano viaPatrickHadfield )

3. Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time

(tags:ai news fraud )

4. Brainwave study sheds light on cause of 'hearing voices' in schizophrenic people

(tags:hearing schizophrenia )

5. Amazon unveils prototype AI smart glasses for its delivery drivers

(tags:cameras Amazon technology delivery )

6. How to get men to share their feelings, by an Army psychologist

(tags:psychology emotion men advice )

Ridiculously pleased with the return to Brookside Close tonight in Hollyoaks. I fast forwarded to just watch the Brookie bits. So many familiar faces. So many warm feels. Also a very heartwarming cameo. And socially aware script.

Decades ago I used to watch Hollyoaks occasionally. But nowhere near as much as Brookside, even if I didn't see all of that. But we did watch Brookie a lot.

I think there's more Brookside content on late tonight and in future Hollyoaks eps too.