Sir Almaviva
@ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social
Lover of trams, classical music, maths, tea and cats. Member of the cycling lobby. 🇮🇹 immigrant in 🇬🇧. Refugees are welcome, racists are not.
Lover of "Italian Effeminacy and Italian Nonsense" (i.e. opera, according to Jonathan Swift)
Lover of "Italian Effeminacy and Italian Nonsense" (i.e. opera, according to Jonathan Swift)
Pinned
Let's see if I can keep it up, but I am going to try to do a thread with all the books I read in 2025, starting from the following post.
Some people complain every time some cycle lanes are built in the UK because "The weather is miserable, no one wants to cycle here!": in two years now of cycling to work, I have caught the rain very few times, and if dressed appropriately bad weather is not an issue. The issue is lack of safe infra.
January 22, 2026 at 7:21 AM
Some people complain every time some cycle lanes are built in the UK because "The weather is miserable, no one wants to cycle here!": in two years now of cycling to work, I have caught the rain very few times, and if dressed appropriately bad weather is not an issue. The issue is lack of safe infra.
The last two cities where I lived (Hull and Manchester) both have memorials to the local people who went to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
January 21, 2026 at 6:34 PM
The last two cities where I lived (Hull and Manchester) both have memorials to the local people who went to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
❤️
Italian voice actor Carlo Bononi was the voice of all of the characters on Pingu. A trained clown by trade, he used a theater technique called grammelot, which consists of "speaking" in a mix of babbled gibberish noises. He improvised all the voices live and unscripted.
January 21, 2026 at 6:49 AM
❤️
Some beautiful Manchester architecture.
January 19, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Some beautiful Manchester architecture.
Reading these two books, I found it interesting that British critics/enemies of opera tend to accuse it of being foreign, elitist, and un-British, while Italian ones often accuse it of being too Italian (sentimental, coarse, popular), as opposed to (supposedly) more refined European cultures.
January 18, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reading these two books, I found it interesting that British critics/enemies of opera tend to accuse it of being foreign, elitist, and un-British, while Italian ones often accuse it of being too Italian (sentimental, coarse, popular), as opposed to (supposedly) more refined European cultures.
Some photos of some cool details around Manchester city centre.
January 17, 2026 at 1:03 PM
Some photos of some cool details around Manchester city centre.
Two things:
1) I have uninstalled Bluesky from my phone and it feels like a very good choice so far. No need to look at it during the day/in bed.
2) Oh God, Jenrick joined Reform: it was the most predictable of predictable things, wasn't it?
1) I have uninstalled Bluesky from my phone and it feels like a very good choice so far. No need to look at it during the day/in bed.
2) Oh God, Jenrick joined Reform: it was the most predictable of predictable things, wasn't it?
January 15, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Two things:
1) I have uninstalled Bluesky from my phone and it feels like a very good choice so far. No need to look at it during the day/in bed.
2) Oh God, Jenrick joined Reform: it was the most predictable of predictable things, wasn't it?
1) I have uninstalled Bluesky from my phone and it feels like a very good choice so far. No need to look at it during the day/in bed.
2) Oh God, Jenrick joined Reform: it was the most predictable of predictable things, wasn't it?
Happy 90th birthday to the great Renato Bruson!
NABUCCO - Chi Mi Toglie Il Regio Scettro? - Renato Bruson - Verona, 1981
YouTube video by Darya Kiryushko
www.youtube.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Happy 90th birthday to the great Renato Bruson!
It's on my list of books to buy and read this year.
January 11, 2026 at 6:08 PM
It's on my list of books to buy and read this year.
I think it's embarrassingly naive for a Nobel Prize winner (!) to draw such a stupid comparison between Newton and Musk.
I also think it was embarrassing for the Royal Society to make him a fellow in the first place, but it could at least revoke his memebership now.
I also think it was embarrassing for the Royal Society to make him a fellow in the first place, but it could at least revoke his memebership now.
"I think it is naive, frankly, to say that we should get rid of him because he’s a bad person," the new UK Royal Society president says of Elon Musk's membership.
The society would have expelled Isaac Newton if it made judgments on character & behaviour, Paul Nurse says.
www.ft.com/content/088b...
The society would have expelled Isaac Newton if it made judgments on character & behaviour, Paul Nurse says.
www.ft.com/content/088b...
Elon Musk should keep UK Royal Society membership, says president
Paul Nurse tells FT that national science academy should avoid ‘making judgments’ about ‘character’ of fellows
www.ft.com
January 11, 2026 at 9:20 AM
I think it's embarrassingly naive for a Nobel Prize winner (!) to draw such a stupid comparison between Newton and Musk.
I also think it was embarrassing for the Royal Society to make him a fellow in the first place, but it could at least revoke his memebership now.
I also think it was embarrassing for the Royal Society to make him a fellow in the first place, but it could at least revoke his memebership now.
Reform would definitely try to emulate what Trump is doing. Even the current Tories very likely would. I have very little doubt about that. If only we had a government that didn't engage in the demonisation of immigrants! Or a gov that didn't make immigrants more vulnerable to a future Reform gov!
January 9, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Reform would definitely try to emulate what Trump is doing. Even the current Tories very likely would. I have very little doubt about that. If only we had a government that didn't engage in the demonisation of immigrants! Or a gov that didn't make immigrants more vulnerable to a future Reform gov!
Manchester at night.
January 8, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Manchester at night.
I am #NowListening to this recording of "Il giuramento" by Saverio Mercadante (only the first act today). For some reason the cover says Giuseppe (!) instead of Saverio.
January 7, 2026 at 10:42 PM
I am #NowListening to this recording of "Il giuramento" by Saverio Mercadante (only the first act today). For some reason the cover says Giuseppe (!) instead of Saverio.
Imagine being a Labour MP and writing in the Telegraph (!) to say that Labour has to turn to Blue Labour reactionary ideology to survive.
January 7, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Imagine being a Labour MP and writing in the Telegraph (!) to say that Labour has to turn to Blue Labour reactionary ideology to survive.
Reposted by Sir Almaviva
Because industry isn't just making things, it's the IP that underpins those things, the code that makes them run, the R&D that went into their design.
Take pharmaceuticals as an example, we have world leading labs, universities etc researching new treatments, that is a huge industry!
Take pharmaceuticals as an example, we have world leading labs, universities etc researching new treatments, that is a huge industry!
January 7, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Because industry isn't just making things, it's the IP that underpins those things, the code that makes them run, the R&D that went into their design.
Take pharmaceuticals as an example, we have world leading labs, universities etc researching new treatments, that is a huge industry!
Take pharmaceuticals as an example, we have world leading labs, universities etc researching new treatments, that is a huge industry!
I feel that "you can't make the mines open again" captures well a lot of problems with a certain approach to the UK economy, which tries to bring back sectors that won't come back, and neglects vital sectors like the universities, which do exist and are massively important to many local economies.
But it also just isn't true to say this is unique to manufacturing. If Nottingham University collapsed tomorrow Beeston, Wollaton and Chilwell would go with it.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
January 7, 2026 at 2:24 PM
I feel that "you can't make the mines open again" captures well a lot of problems with a certain approach to the UK economy, which tries to bring back sectors that won't come back, and neglects vital sectors like the universities, which do exist and are massively important to many local economies.
Reposted by Sir Almaviva
But it also just isn't true to say this is unique to manufacturing. If Nottingham University collapsed tomorrow Beeston, Wollaton and Chilwell would go with it.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
January 7, 2026 at 1:18 PM
But it also just isn't true to say this is unique to manufacturing. If Nottingham University collapsed tomorrow Beeston, Wollaton and Chilwell would go with it.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
It's also just something we maybe need to reckon with as social policy, because you can't make the mines open again.
The UK government did not leave X when Musk was using it to incite anti-immigrant riots and promote insurrection.
They are not leaving it now that Grok it's producing horrific content.
But tell me again how if we just hold their baby hand gently they might be persuaded to abandon the platform.
They are not leaving it now that Grok it's producing horrific content.
But tell me again how if we just hold their baby hand gently they might be persuaded to abandon the platform.
January 7, 2026 at 9:02 AM
The UK government did not leave X when Musk was using it to incite anti-immigrant riots and promote insurrection.
They are not leaving it now that Grok it's producing horrific content.
But tell me again how if we just hold their baby hand gently they might be persuaded to abandon the platform.
They are not leaving it now that Grok it's producing horrific content.
But tell me again how if we just hold their baby hand gently they might be persuaded to abandon the platform.
"British food is bad" discourse has come back again, one of the laziest stereotypes that returns periodically on here
'British food is bad' has been untrue for like a generation and a half at this point but really sticks around in the U.S. U.S. supermarkets are inferior to their U.K. counterparts!
January 6, 2026 at 8:42 PM
"British food is bad" discourse has come back again, one of the laziest stereotypes that returns periodically on here