h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

Ah, I was just feeling like I didn't have enough risk assessments in my life

https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/03/martyns-law-factsheet/

Happy SoPN day! Today at 4pm is the deadline for candidates to apply to stand in the English local elections on 1 May. Councils will begin publishing candidate lists this evening and throughout tomorrow.

We'll be collecting these lists and adding them to our candidate database - you can follow along or join in here: https://candidates.democracyclub.org.uk/

Matt Gray is Trying: Search and Rescue

I can’t believe the UK’s 5th emergency service is volunteer-only, and donation-funded!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1-xXD1W0dQ

Every year I take a photo of my gooseberry flowers, because every year I'm amazed by them. #florespondence

🆕 blog! “Gadget Review: Windfall Energy Saving Plug (Beta)”
★★★★☆

The good folks at Windfall Energy have sent me one of their interesting new plugs to beta test.

OK, an Internet connected smart plug. What's so interesting about that?

Our Windfall Plug turns on at the optimal times in the middle of the night to charge and power your…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/03/gadget-review-windfall-energy-saving-plug-beta/
⸻
#electricity #gadget #internetofthings #review

Currently enjoying: graphs of solar panel output from yesterday with a pronounced dip around the time of the eclipse

“The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel”

80s meaning: grey
90s meaning: blue
Today: full of ads from the smart tv vendor

I'm kind of surprised that the US government has not yet tried to unilaterally meddle in the DNS root and IANA IP numbering policy and am almost scared to speak of it in case it gives the wrong people ideas.

"A very theoretical scenario, DNS edition"

https://jpmens.net/2025/03/27/theoretical-scenario-dns-edition/

During research for a column I stumbled upon the eggs dashboard by the European Commission and it is...mindblowing.
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/document/download/9bdf9842-1eb6-41a2-8845-49738b812b2b_en
#OMGraphs #GraphPolice #GrafiekPolitie

Some news: I'm presenting and co-writing a new short Radio 4 series, Untaxing.

It's about how tax affects our lives: from the Laffer Curve, to the Beatles, to Jaffa Cakes, and modern day avoidance.

1.45pm on Radio 4, every day next week, and on BBC Sounds as each episode airs.https://buff.ly/G3hSxlQ

There is much excitement today. The mining bees that have been in my lawn for 34* years have expanded to a flowerbed around the back.
*They could have been here for a thousand years, I've only lived here 34. #MiningBees #SolitaryBees #GoodNews.

The Observer’s editorial is full-on straight-up transphobia this morning.

What really peeves me about stuff like that is that (left leaning guardian reading) folks are going to read it. And think it’s an acceptable point of view.

Cos it really really fucking isn’t.

Spider-Crane, Spider-Crane
It's a winch on a leggy frame
Spins a drum, makes things rise
Lifting girders into the skies
Look out!
Here comes the Spider-Crane

On the beach after the gold rush

I wrote this article for Mark Ellen at The Word Magazine fourteen years ago (I hope he won't mind my putting it up here). The events described - my awkward progress through the dotcom boom (and the crash that followed it) already felt like a long time ago then… You can download a PDF that preserves the magazine layout if you'd prefer.

https://bowblog.com/2025/03/16/on-the-beach-after-the-gold-rush/