Alan Rew
@alanrew.bsky.social
UK-based retired software developer.
Art, Photography, Science, Music, Economics, Politics, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Architecture, Archaeology
I can't send/receive DMs here.
Signal: alan.285
Art, Photography, Science, Music, Economics, Politics, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Architecture, Archaeology
I can't send/receive DMs here.
Signal: alan.285
Reposted by Alan Rew
Except that he is a British, fucking, citizen.
Ridiculous that these posts weren't found earlier. Feels an FCDO screw up given recent Tory govts were similarly vocal about this guy's release. If nothing forthcoming from him that genuinely demonstrates he's changed his views then no basis for him to be in the UK
Since no-one appears to be talking about it on here, just letting you know that the the PM, Foreign Secretary and various other Government Ministers have expressed their “delight” in an Egyptian “pro-Democracy” activist being freed in Egypt and allowed to come to the UK. Here are some of his views.
December 29, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Except that he is a British, fucking, citizen.
Reposted by Alan Rew
Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.
December 29, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.
Reposted by Alan Rew
2025 brought us a new Pope ⛪ This was one of my most popular infographics this year, explaining how the Papal Conclave produces the black and white smoke used to signal the results of Pope selection votes: www.compoundchem.com/2025/05/08/p...
#ChemSky 🧪
#ChemSky 🧪
December 29, 2025 at 10:45 AM
2025 brought us a new Pope ⛪ This was one of my most popular infographics this year, explaining how the Papal Conclave produces the black and white smoke used to signal the results of Pope selection votes: www.compoundchem.com/2025/05/08/p...
#ChemSky 🧪
#ChemSky 🧪
Reposted by Alan Rew
“Imagine your political opponents had this power” is always a useful thought experiment, but this isn’t even a speculative thought experiment for anyone, from centre right through to progressive, worried by a Reform govt: a Farage majority is the most likely outcome based on current polls.
December 29, 2025 at 11:23 AM
“Imagine your political opponents had this power” is always a useful thought experiment, but this isn’t even a speculative thought experiment for anyone, from centre right through to progressive, worried by a Reform govt: a Farage majority is the most likely outcome based on current polls.
Reposted by Alan Rew
I already agree with this in principle - citizenship is an untouchable status or it is nothing - but also for reasons of prudence. “The Home Sec can revoke citizenship when he/she deems someone’s online output sufficiently offensive” is a v dangerous precedent to set with Reform leading all polls.
Hell, I'm not convinced we should revoke citizenship at all.
But certainly not for being a twat online.
But certainly not for being a twat online.
December 29, 2025 at 11:18 AM
I already agree with this in principle - citizenship is an untouchable status or it is nothing - but also for reasons of prudence. “The Home Sec can revoke citizenship when he/she deems someone’s online output sufficiently offensive” is a v dangerous precedent to set with Reform leading all polls.
Reposted by Alan Rew
Presumably, Farage is also disqualified by his own past, vile expressions of anti-semitism.
So the Hard Right position is that you should only have to suffer the consequences for tweets inciting racial hatred if you're name is...oh I don't know...Adbel Fattah? If your name is Lucy Connolly and you admit to doing it, you should get a parade actually.
December 29, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Presumably, Farage is also disqualified by his own past, vile expressions of anti-semitism.
Reposted by Alan Rew
Indeed!
Newton's "experimentum crucis" showed that once you isolate a single color like red (which isn't further decomposed by another prism), it stays pure.
In a red rainbow, the atmosphere has already 'filtered' out shorter wavelengths, so the raindrops are essentially working with mostly...⤵️
Newton's "experimentum crucis" showed that once you isolate a single color like red (which isn't further decomposed by another prism), it stays pure.
In a red rainbow, the atmosphere has already 'filtered' out shorter wavelengths, so the raindrops are essentially working with mostly...⤵️
December 29, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Indeed!
Newton's "experimentum crucis" showed that once you isolate a single color like red (which isn't further decomposed by another prism), it stays pure.
In a red rainbow, the atmosphere has already 'filtered' out shorter wavelengths, so the raindrops are essentially working with mostly...⤵️
Newton's "experimentum crucis" showed that once you isolate a single color like red (which isn't further decomposed by another prism), it stays pure.
In a red rainbow, the atmosphere has already 'filtered' out shorter wavelengths, so the raindrops are essentially working with mostly...⤵️
Reposted by Alan Rew
Hans Bethe, the scientist who worked in both the Manhattan Project & USA H-bomb programs, wrote in 1983 a 40 page history called "The Story of Los Alamos."
It seems not to be publicly available online except where I have made it so, free for all: osf.io/thjpk
#NukeSKY
1/n
It seems not to be publicly available online except where I have made it so, free for all: osf.io/thjpk
#NukeSKY
1/n
December 28, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Hans Bethe, the scientist who worked in both the Manhattan Project & USA H-bomb programs, wrote in 1983 a 40 page history called "The Story of Los Alamos."
It seems not to be publicly available online except where I have made it so, free for all: osf.io/thjpk
#NukeSKY
1/n
It seems not to be publicly available online except where I have made it so, free for all: osf.io/thjpk
#NukeSKY
1/n
Reposted by Alan Rew
A pair of happy hammerhead sharks
(ca. 1735 Edo period Japan)
(ca. 1735 Edo period Japan)
December 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
A pair of happy hammerhead sharks
(ca. 1735 Edo period Japan)
(ca. 1735 Edo period Japan)
Reposted by Alan Rew
Attempting to strip someone of citizenship is always a transparent and hopeless effort to avoid responsibility for the underlying problem you claim to object to. Their citizenship is *why* they can be held accountable for the actions you object to.
December 29, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Attempting to strip someone of citizenship is always a transparent and hopeless effort to avoid responsibility for the underlying problem you claim to object to. Their citizenship is *why* they can be held accountable for the actions you object to.
Reposted by Alan Rew
All those farm fields with pro-Brexit banners and the NFU's fucking cowardly neutrality on the Brexit referendum. Remember those things? If you're a farmer and voted remain, and you have social media posts showing that support, let us all know how to buy direct from you.
Farmers’ anger grows as Australian beef floods into Britain after trade deal.
Who saw that coming
bmmagazine.co.uk/news/austral...
Who saw that coming
bmmagazine.co.uk/news/austral...
Farmers’ anger grows as Australian beef floods into Britain after trade deal
British farmers warn they are being undercut as Australian beef and lamb imports surge following the UK-Australia free-trade deal, with volumes rising sharply since 2023.
bmmagazine.co.uk
December 28, 2025 at 10:37 PM
All those farm fields with pro-Brexit banners and the NFU's fucking cowardly neutrality on the Brexit referendum. Remember those things? If you're a farmer and voted remain, and you have social media posts showing that support, let us all know how to buy direct from you.
Reposted by Alan Rew
Sanctions can work — but only at the speed of evasion.
Russia adapts fast because enforcement lags. The 20th package has to hit enablers at scale and close internal EU gaps.
Russia adapts fast because enforcement lags. The 20th package has to hit enablers at scale and close internal EU gaps.
Europe keeps sanctioning Russia. Here’s the part it keeps missing.
Russia adapts faster than Brussels deliberates. The twentieth package is Europe’s last chance to prove otherwise.
euromaidanpress.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Sanctions can work — but only at the speed of evasion.
Russia adapts fast because enforcement lags. The 20th package has to hit enablers at scale and close internal EU gaps.
Russia adapts fast because enforcement lags. The 20th package has to hit enablers at scale and close internal EU gaps.
Reposted by Alan Rew
Adding “…apart from all the racism she did” to today’s gushing tributes.
December 28, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Adding “…apart from all the racism she did” to today’s gushing tributes.
Reposted by Alan Rew
🧵
Ever seen a #rainbow that's just shades of red?
It's about a monochrome or red rainbow—a rare variation of the more commonly seen multicolored one.
An optical & meteorological phenomenon really mesmerizing that happens mostly at sunrise or sunset.
Image by Astronautilus
🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #sciart
1/6
Ever seen a #rainbow that's just shades of red?
It's about a monochrome or red rainbow—a rare variation of the more commonly seen multicolored one.
An optical & meteorological phenomenon really mesmerizing that happens mostly at sunrise or sunset.
Image by Astronautilus
🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #sciart
1/6
December 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Alan Rew
Ocean heating defies all earlier projections. We are on the worst possible track. Yet this has completely vanished as a topic of conversation in America.
December 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Ocean heating defies all earlier projections. We are on the worst possible track. Yet this has completely vanished as a topic of conversation in America.
Reposted by Alan Rew
When we say someone has a lovely voice, we might say it's "MELLIFLUOUS", from Late Latin: mel- (honey) + -fleure (to flow).
They have a voice /that flows like honey/.
Let's talk about the evaporated bee spit that makes breakfast sweeter & especially two enzymes that give it special properties. 🐝🍯🧪
They have a voice /that flows like honey/.
Let's talk about the evaporated bee spit that makes breakfast sweeter & especially two enzymes that give it special properties. 🐝🍯🧪
a close up of a honeycomb with a spoon in it and a bee on it .
Alt: a close up of a honeycomb with a spoon in it and a bee on it .
media.tenor.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM
When we say someone has a lovely voice, we might say it's "MELLIFLUOUS", from Late Latin: mel- (honey) + -fleure (to flow).
They have a voice /that flows like honey/.
Let's talk about the evaporated bee spit that makes breakfast sweeter & especially two enzymes that give it special properties. 🐝🍯🧪
They have a voice /that flows like honey/.
Let's talk about the evaporated bee spit that makes breakfast sweeter & especially two enzymes that give it special properties. 🐝🍯🧪
Reposted by Alan Rew
Pope Leo XIV: ‘There Couldn’t Be A Better Time To Get The Fuck Out Of America Forever’
December 28, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Pope Leo XIV: ‘There Couldn’t Be A Better Time To Get The Fuck Out Of America Forever’
Reposted by Alan Rew
With all this talk of how to end Russias war against Ukraine, and a cease fire, keep this in mind:
If Ukraine ceases firing, Ukraine will cease to exist.
If Russia ceases firing. the war will cease to exist.
Pretty clear
If Ukraine ceases firing, Ukraine will cease to exist.
If Russia ceases firing. the war will cease to exist.
Pretty clear
December 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
With all this talk of how to end Russias war against Ukraine, and a cease fire, keep this in mind:
If Ukraine ceases firing, Ukraine will cease to exist.
If Russia ceases firing. the war will cease to exist.
Pretty clear
If Ukraine ceases firing, Ukraine will cease to exist.
If Russia ceases firing. the war will cease to exist.
Pretty clear
Reposted by Alan Rew
A thought for today.
And for so many of our days. Sadly.
“Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
And for so many of our days. Sadly.
“Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
December 28, 2025 at 8:10 PM
A thought for today.
And for so many of our days. Sadly.
“Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
And for so many of our days. Sadly.
“Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
Reposted by Alan Rew
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: not to suggest Channel 4 had commissioner's remorse about Emma Thompson's self-penned sketch one-off Up For Grabs, but it went out at midnight. Music by Hans Zimmer!
Emma Thompson UP FOR GRABS
Sketch comedy written and produced by and starring Emma Thompson. With Daniel Massey, Phyllida Law, Stephen Moore, Mark Kingston. 1985.
www.youtube.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:00 PM
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: not to suggest Channel 4 had commissioner's remorse about Emma Thompson's self-penned sketch one-off Up For Grabs, but it went out at midnight. Music by Hans Zimmer!
Reposted by Alan Rew
December 28, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Alan Rew
In more cheerful news, the latest addition to the already wonderful Kew Gardens, the "Carbon Garden", is something of a triumph, in no small part thanks to the Mizzi Studios' rather marvellous giant mushroom.
December 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM
In more cheerful news, the latest addition to the already wonderful Kew Gardens, the "Carbon Garden", is something of a triumph, in no small part thanks to the Mizzi Studios' rather marvellous giant mushroom.
Reposted by Alan Rew
That’d be the animal spirits of entrepreneurship and innovation let loose to disrupt a staid, cosseted, complacent sector, right?
December 27, 2025 at 8:38 PM
That’d be the animal spirits of entrepreneurship and innovation let loose to disrupt a staid, cosseted, complacent sector, right?
Reposted by Alan Rew
