h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

Scary real-life stories with Tim Harford, in podcast form. This time: safety systems that go wrong. http://timharford.com/2019/11/cautionary-tales-ep-3-lala-land-galileos-warning/ #podcast

Leeks! The only winter vegetable that hasn't died on me. Sow in March or April, harvest all winter. Makes a nice leek and potato soup.

Stopping libreoffice, even all the processes it forked
http://www.enricozini.org/blog/2019/himblick/stopping-libreoffice

Interesting math facts, every day https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2019/12/16/366-days-of-math/

Lukhash, who normally plays great glitchy / grimey chiptune music, plays an old C64 computer game tune on a Pocket Operator PO-28 Robot https://youtu.be/t_XH4du6BvE

SHA-1, a secure hashing function, is now even more broken. The function, used by git and older pgp versions, is vulnerable to a prefix collision attack. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/pgp-keys-software-security-and-much-more-threatened-by-new-sha1-exploit/

RFC 8674 The "safe" HTTP Preference https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8674.html

Adapting an iPhone for Astrophotography
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2019/adapting-an-iphone-for-astrophotography.html

Who owns the Post Office and which minister is responsible? BEIS, Cabinet Office, UKGI and Treasury all involved. https://www.postofficetrial.com/2019/11/the-post-offices-journey-into-disaster.html

Lack of oversight led to millions of public money wasted and lives destroyed https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/post-office-high-court-case-it-horizon-postmaster-prison-latest-a9249431.html

Getting a .gov domain name
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/11/its-way-too-easy-to-get-a-gov-domain-name/

Every Christmas since 1825, the Royal Institution gives science lectures for kids and adults.

This Christmas, Dr Hannah Fry talks about maths: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000crbl

Previous lectures, including Kevin Fong talking about how to survive in space: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch

GiveWell's top charities
https://blog.givewell.org/2019/11/26/announcing-our-2019-top-charities/

Every Level Crossing In The UK
http://www.paulplowman.com/stuff/every-level-crossing-in-the-uk/

All coal is the same age, and we're not making any more of it. https://youtu.be/b34al8YmQSA

Home-made Christmas decoration. If Dulux are wondering where their paint colour cards are, don't tell them.

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds sounds strange and alien and disco. An amazing concept album, and worth listening to the whole thing. https://youtu.be/6fnPn9Xr7fI #music

London Reconnections annual Christmas quiz is out. It's about transport in London, and it's impossible as always. https://www.londonreconnections.com/2019/the-london-reconnections-2019-christmas-quiz/ #london

Neutron star particles go under the LHC microscope
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/neutron-star-particles-go-under-the-lhc-microscope