Paul McGhee
@pmcghee.bsky.social
Rug repairer. Haunter of car boot sales. Cambridge, UK.
Also stereography at @pmcghee2.bsky.social
Also stereography at @pmcghee2.bsky.social
So, Til:
Gastown isn"t a town, it's a factory.
with disposable workers.
Gastown has no location except a mountain on which they die.
Gastown burns fuel and money to make all you want, 24/7.
"Government" is a gangster fox run by an exhausted panda.
A sweet dark vision of American Intelligence.
Gastown isn"t a town, it's a factory.
with disposable workers.
Gastown has no location except a mountain on which they die.
Gastown burns fuel and money to make all you want, 24/7.
"Government" is a gangster fox run by an exhausted panda.
A sweet dark vision of American Intelligence.
January 18, 2026 at 3:30 AM
So, Til:
Gastown isn"t a town, it's a factory.
with disposable workers.
Gastown has no location except a mountain on which they die.
Gastown burns fuel and money to make all you want, 24/7.
"Government" is a gangster fox run by an exhausted panda.
A sweet dark vision of American Intelligence.
Gastown isn"t a town, it's a factory.
with disposable workers.
Gastown has no location except a mountain on which they die.
Gastown burns fuel and money to make all you want, 24/7.
"Government" is a gangster fox run by an exhausted panda.
A sweet dark vision of American Intelligence.
Reposted by Paul McGhee
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Who funds the Free Speech Union?
Toby Young’s outfit went to court to hide its donors. Today we reveal that funders include US anti-abortion groups, Brexit politicians and Tufton Street insiders.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:45 AM
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Belatedly catching up with this fabulous vision. Don't really understand the words, but the pics are brilliant. Lanson tubes and badgers!
steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-g...
steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-g...
Welcome to Gas Town
Happy New Year, and Welcome to Gas Town!
steve-yegge.medium.com
January 17, 2026 at 6:41 AM
Belatedly catching up with this fabulous vision. Don't really understand the words, but the pics are brilliant. Lanson tubes and badgers!
steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-g...
steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-g...
Great little one room exhibition of Nigerian leather work at the Fitzwilliam Museum, curated by Eva Namusoke, is worth going to see.
January 16, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Great little one room exhibition of Nigerian leather work at the Fitzwilliam Museum, curated by Eva Namusoke, is worth going to see.
Rug of the Day
Lotto carpet from Western Anatolia on the table in this picture by Rotterdam artist Joost (?) van Geel. It has a particularly elaborate border. The nearest thing I can find online is this Mid 17th century one from Jozan's excellent Lotto gallery.
Lotto carpet from Western Anatolia on the table in this picture by Rotterdam artist Joost (?) van Geel. It has a particularly elaborate border. The nearest thing I can find online is this Mid 17th century one from Jozan's excellent Lotto gallery.
January 15, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Rug of the Day
Lotto carpet from Western Anatolia on the table in this picture by Rotterdam artist Joost (?) van Geel. It has a particularly elaborate border. The nearest thing I can find online is this Mid 17th century one from Jozan's excellent Lotto gallery.
Lotto carpet from Western Anatolia on the table in this picture by Rotterdam artist Joost (?) van Geel. It has a particularly elaborate border. The nearest thing I can find online is this Mid 17th century one from Jozan's excellent Lotto gallery.
Reposted by Paul McGhee
The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...
January 14, 2026 at 7:09 AM
The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...
Delighted to have been characterised like this by an AI bot of may acquaintance as part of a questing game it invented. I always thought I was just a harmless drudge.
Character: Paul, Chronomancer Lexicographer
Class: Manipulates reality's syntax, treating time/language as code.
Race: Archive-Elf, bound to preserve knowledge.
Attributes: High Intellect & Order. Low Tolerance for Ambiguity.
Class: Manipulates reality's syntax, treating time/language as code.
Race: Archive-Elf, bound to preserve knowledge.
Attributes: High Intellect & Order. Low Tolerance for Ambiguity.
January 13, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Delighted to have been characterised like this by an AI bot of may acquaintance as part of a questing game it invented. I always thought I was just a harmless drudge.
Our side of Cambridge is just one large portal into the Deep Past. Every time we try to build a car park, something pops up to haunt it. Remember the ritual pits and giant dog in the Babraham Park and Ride?
Two barrows containing burials were discovered at Trumpington Meadows with excavation revealing that both monuments had been constructed in the Early Neolithic. More details in Riversides, available as a free Open Access download here: doi.org/10.17863/CAM...
January 13, 2026 at 8:15 AM
Our side of Cambridge is just one large portal into the Deep Past. Every time we try to build a car park, something pops up to haunt it. Remember the ritual pits and giant dog in the Babraham Park and Ride?
Her AI toy has stopped talking. How much for a week's worth?
'All the Fun of...' Wanstead Flats (2023) by Doreen Fletcher
doreenfletcherartist.com
doreenfletcherartist.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Her AI toy has stopped talking. How much for a week's worth?
Pete Hegseth is a capering monkey who wears too much makeup and perfume. I suspect this guy doesn't.
Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have tried to silence me for speaking out.
Today, I’m fighting back because this isn’t just about me. This is about the rights of all retired veterans and all Americans, and I’m not going to let this Administration take those away.
Today, I’m fighting back because this isn’t just about me. This is about the rights of all retired veterans and all Americans, and I’m not going to let this Administration take those away.
January 12, 2026 at 9:49 PM
Pete Hegseth is a capering monkey who wears too much makeup and perfume. I suspect this guy doesn't.
Making use of ice
Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870)
-
Winterlandschap met paarden op het ijs, 1844
Haarlem in de verte
Olieverf.
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
-
Winterlandschap met paarden op het ijs, 1844
Haarlem in de verte
Olieverf.
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
January 12, 2026 at 7:46 AM
Making use of ice
This is good. Just when you thought nothing new could be written about the Bloomsbury Group...
The ghost of the Cambridge classical scholar Jane Harrison haunts the pages of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One's Own (1929). Here's my post on the layers of connections, for over 30 years, these two writers shared.
The ghost of Jane Harrison
The woman who haunts Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own
akennedysmith.substack.com
January 11, 2026 at 4:43 PM
This is good. Just when you thought nothing new could be written about the Bloomsbury Group...
Rugs of the Day
Old favourites - a couple of fine Caucasian soumaks in the Fitzwillam Museum. Unlabelled and only there as colourful background to the more interesting and copiously documented vases.
Old favourites - a couple of fine Caucasian soumaks in the Fitzwillam Museum. Unlabelled and only there as colourful background to the more interesting and copiously documented vases.
January 11, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Rugs of the Day
Old favourites - a couple of fine Caucasian soumaks in the Fitzwillam Museum. Unlabelled and only there as colourful background to the more interesting and copiously documented vases.
Old favourites - a couple of fine Caucasian soumaks in the Fitzwillam Museum. Unlabelled and only there as colourful background to the more interesting and copiously documented vases.
It's possible some places may be cursed.
Before November 11th 1865
44.892675, -93.181604
Fort Snelling, St Paul Minneapolis
44.892675, -93.181604
Fort Snelling, St Paul Minneapolis
![Upton, Benjamin. F, attrib.
“Medicine Bottle,” Sioux Indian Executed at Fort Snelling. [pencil inscription on verso].
St. Paul: Martin’s Art Gallery, circa 1864. Stereoview, 3.25” x 6.75” including mount.
A stereoview picturing the Dakota brave “Medicine Bottle,” as photographed during his captivity at Fort Snelling following the Dakota Uprising of 1862.
The 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux removed the Dakota people from their traditional lands in Iowa and Minnesota, and settled them on land along the upper Minnesota River. Insufficient hunting grounds, cutworm destruction of corn crops, treaty violations, and Indian agent corruption, resulted in near-starvation conditions and provoked rebellion against the treaty. In August of 1862, the Dakota attacked white settlements in the Minnesota River valley, killing hundreds. The revolt was crushed on September 2nd by forces under General John Pope. On 26 December 1862, thirty-eight Dakota leaders were executed in the largest one day execution in U. S. history. Pejuhuta-tha (Medicine Bottle) and Chief Shak-pi (Little Six) fled to Canada following the uprising. They were captured there by Major Edwin Hatch in January of 1864, then imprisoned at Fort Snelling, where they were tried and convicted of war crimes. They were hung in 1865.
Text from James E Arsenault & Co website.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bfox2o6uxzu7jeptfvvsxgea/bafkreibltwqtjelnu7k5fss3x3m3wpsv5f72ohwvt34me2iatgs4jg3rme@jpeg)
January 11, 2026 at 10:18 AM
It's possible some places may be cursed.
In this context, I've just been reading about how France sold about a third of the landmass of current USA in 1803 for 4 cents an acre and Russia sold Alaska to them for $7.2m in 1867, so there's no reason why Trump shouldn't think he can do this deal.
I can't believe I'm posting this video - but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland.
Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.
Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.
January 11, 2026 at 10:07 AM
In this context, I've just been reading about how France sold about a third of the landmass of current USA in 1803 for 4 cents an acre and Russia sold Alaska to them for $7.2m in 1867, so there's no reason why Trump shouldn't think he can do this deal.
A bit chilly at the car boot this morning so Rug n Duvet Guy has appropriate decor.
January 11, 2026 at 9:25 AM
A bit chilly at the car boot this morning so Rug n Duvet Guy has appropriate decor.
Reposted by Paul McGhee
A Reform council leader behind a “Doge”-style crackdown on public spending owns two firms now in administration owing £1.5 million, including over £500,000 in unpaid tax, Covid loans, and staff wages.
January 7, 2026 at 11:46 AM
A Reform council leader behind a “Doge”-style crackdown on public spending owns two firms now in administration owing £1.5 million, including over £500,000 in unpaid tax, Covid loans, and staff wages.
January 10, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Paul McGhee
Winter 1886/7
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
The Ice Palace
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
The Ice Palace
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
January 10, 2026 at 6:44 AM
Winter 1886/7
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
The Ice Palace
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
The Ice Palace
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
Reposted by Paul McGhee
Look at this beautiful loom, in a beautiful room, on a beautiful day, in a beautiful little town in Vermont.
#timelinecleanse #peaceful #linen #weaving
It's at greenmountainlinen.com
#timelinecleanse #peaceful #linen #weaving
It's at greenmountainlinen.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Look at this beautiful loom, in a beautiful room, on a beautiful day, in a beautiful little town in Vermont.
#timelinecleanse #peaceful #linen #weaving
It's at greenmountainlinen.com
#timelinecleanse #peaceful #linen #weaving
It's at greenmountainlinen.com
Reposted by Paul McGhee
A Bit of Fry & Laurie Concerning Language
YouTube video by Fun English Lessons
www.youtube.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Rug of the Day
Exciting John Lewis style gabbeh knock-off to replace the dreary old dark Kashan in our reading area.
(Madame liked it)
Exciting John Lewis style gabbeh knock-off to replace the dreary old dark Kashan in our reading area.
(Madame liked it)
January 9, 2026 at 11:35 AM
Rug of the Day
Exciting John Lewis style gabbeh knock-off to replace the dreary old dark Kashan in our reading area.
(Madame liked it)
Exciting John Lewis style gabbeh knock-off to replace the dreary old dark Kashan in our reading area.
(Madame liked it)
Good news for anyone interested in both colour and AI. Pantone's colour of the year is "Cloud Dancer." Perhaps a better term than Synth, Bot, Agent, etc.
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
Clouded judgment? Why Pantone’s colour of the year is causing controversy
Against a backdrop of rising white nationalism, the ‘global authority on colour’ has chosen white as the shade of 2026. Four experts wade in on the implications for everything from interior design cho...
www.theguardian.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Good news for anyone interested in both colour and AI. Pantone's colour of the year is "Cloud Dancer." Perhaps a better term than Synth, Bot, Agent, etc.
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
Reposted by Paul McGhee
January 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Paul McGhee
There’s nothing like walking through a souk (here in Sidon) to find things relevant to my research: here’s the colocynth recommended as an insect-repellent added to ink, and here’s the hollyhock that’s boiled to make a paper size. Still sold as pharmaceuticals as they were centuries ago.
January 7, 2026 at 1:51 PM
There’s nothing like walking through a souk (here in Sidon) to find things relevant to my research: here’s the colocynth recommended as an insect-repellent added to ink, and here’s the hollyhock that’s boiled to make a paper size. Still sold as pharmaceuticals as they were centuries ago.