@benhoyle.bsky.social
New read.
I saw Peter Macfadyen talk at a recent BRLSI event and wanted to learn more about the Independent Council in Frome (just next door to Bath). This is his book about it.
It’s also interesting to compare “democracy thoughts” in 2014 to 2025…
I saw Peter Macfadyen talk at a recent BRLSI event and wanted to learn more about the Independent Council in Frome (just next door to Bath). This is his book about it.
It’s also interesting to compare “democracy thoughts” in 2014 to 2025…
November 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM
New read.
I saw Peter Macfadyen talk at a recent BRLSI event and wanted to learn more about the Independent Council in Frome (just next door to Bath). This is his book about it.
It’s also interesting to compare “democracy thoughts” in 2014 to 2025…
I saw Peter Macfadyen talk at a recent BRLSI event and wanted to learn more about the Independent Council in Frome (just next door to Bath). This is his book about it.
It’s also interesting to compare “democracy thoughts” in 2014 to 2025…
“Irascible Eighteen” - abstract art’s avant-guard in 1950 - 17 middle-aged white men with similar haircuts in suits and ties.
November 3, 2025 at 8:42 AM
“Irascible Eighteen” - abstract art’s avant-guard in 1950 - 17 middle-aged white men with similar haircuts in suits and ties.
Bloody kurgans, coming over here with their “horses”, “wheels”, “metals”, sky fathers and proto-languages.
October 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Bloody kurgans, coming over here with their “horses”, “wheels”, “metals”, sky fathers and proto-languages.
One for social media.
October 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
One for social media.
I enjoyed the Emma Talbot exhibition at the Arnolfini.
October 26, 2025 at 12:46 PM
I enjoyed the Emma Talbot exhibition at the Arnolfini.
I very much enjoyed Dan Lie’s Sleeping Methodologies at Spike Island gallery.
This is me on a Sunday with an extra hour to play with.
This is me on a Sunday with an extra hour to play with.
October 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
I very much enjoyed Dan Lie’s Sleeping Methodologies at Spike Island gallery.
This is me on a Sunday with an extra hour to play with.
This is me on a Sunday with an extra hour to play with.
Grime’s Graves near Norfolk.
Not graves but a 5000 year old flint mining system. Each crater was a don’t mining pit ~9m deep. Kept going for ~800 years. Red deer antlers were the main mining tools. Amazing.
Not graves but a 5000 year old flint mining system. Each crater was a don’t mining pit ~9m deep. Kept going for ~800 years. Red deer antlers were the main mining tools. Amazing.
October 7, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Grime’s Graves near Norfolk.
Not graves but a 5000 year old flint mining system. Each crater was a don’t mining pit ~9m deep. Kept going for ~800 years. Red deer antlers were the main mining tools. Amazing.
Not graves but a 5000 year old flint mining system. Each crater was a don’t mining pit ~9m deep. Kept going for ~800 years. Red deer antlers were the main mining tools. Amazing.
Silbury Hill, the tallest and largest prehistoric mound in Europe, is right next to the A4. People drive past it on their commutes. 5000 years old.
October 5, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Silbury Hill, the tallest and largest prehistoric mound in Europe, is right next to the A4. People drive past it on their commutes. 5000 years old.
A friendly dinner party chat between an artist and a physicist.
September 28, 2025 at 11:46 AM
A friendly dinner party chat between an artist and a physicist.
The office as imagined by the Neolithic artists of Çatalhöyük.
September 27, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The office as imagined by the Neolithic artists of Çatalhöyük.
The modern world is cool! I can snap a picture of a book passage and AI will visualise what I can’t see by running MatPlotLib!
September 27, 2025 at 1:25 PM
The modern world is cool! I can snap a picture of a book passage and AI will visualise what I can’t see by running MatPlotLib!
The Bucrania in Ҫatalhöyük remind me of high-end steakhouses. 8000-9000 year old steakhouses.
One theory is that they were actually a homage to wild animals as the people living there started to domesticate oxen.
Always with the nostalgic lament, us humans.
One theory is that they were actually a homage to wild animals as the people living there started to domesticate oxen.
Always with the nostalgic lament, us humans.
September 27, 2025 at 1:02 PM
The Bucrania in Ҫatalhöyük remind me of high-end steakhouses. 8000-9000 year old steakhouses.
One theory is that they were actually a homage to wild animals as the people living there started to domesticate oxen.
Always with the nostalgic lament, us humans.
One theory is that they were actually a homage to wild animals as the people living there started to domesticate oxen.
Always with the nostalgic lament, us humans.
Very Instagramable, those ancient 9000 year old houses of Southern Turkey.
(Just don’t mention the bodies under the floors in the AirBnB reviews.)
(Just don’t mention the bodies under the floors in the AirBnB reviews.)
September 27, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Very Instagramable, those ancient 9000 year old houses of Southern Turkey.
(Just don’t mention the bodies under the floors in the AirBnB reviews.)
(Just don’t mention the bodies under the floors in the AirBnB reviews.)
Is this why multiparty UK politics is buggered?
(Declining to practically 0 engineers - builders and doers.)
(Graph from @tom_westgarth15 - see his excellent recent Substack article that matches my experience.)
(Declining to practically 0 engineers - builders and doers.)
(Graph from @tom_westgarth15 - see his excellent recent Substack article that matches my experience.)
September 22, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Is this why multiparty UK politics is buggered?
(Declining to practically 0 engineers - builders and doers.)
(Graph from @tom_westgarth15 - see his excellent recent Substack article that matches my experience.)
(Declining to practically 0 engineers - builders and doers.)
(Graph from @tom_westgarth15 - see his excellent recent Substack article that matches my experience.)
Me, in Victorian times.
September 8, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Me, in Victorian times.
If you want to understand the rise of the far right, these metrics might help.
September 8, 2025 at 7:42 AM
If you want to understand the rise of the far right, these metrics might help.
Maybe the most important problem for our species?
How do you manage a brain adapted & constrained for the illustrated social interactions with a world of global (& even city) scales?
100-150 people seems a hard limit.
How do you manage a brain adapted & constrained for the illustrated social interactions with a world of global (& even city) scales?
100-150 people seems a hard limit.
August 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Maybe the most important problem for our species?
How do you manage a brain adapted & constrained for the illustrated social interactions with a world of global (& even city) scales?
100-150 people seems a hard limit.
How do you manage a brain adapted & constrained for the illustrated social interactions with a world of global (& even city) scales?
100-150 people seems a hard limit.
This month’s challenge was learning how to solve one of these.
A good case of “faking it via guides and algorithms” until you get a feel for it.
I was a bit intimidated until I realised it can be done with just rote learning (but understanding of transformations is better).
A good case of “faking it via guides and algorithms” until you get a feel for it.
I was a bit intimidated until I realised it can be done with just rote learning (but understanding of transformations is better).
August 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
This month’s challenge was learning how to solve one of these.
A good case of “faking it via guides and algorithms” until you get a feel for it.
I was a bit intimidated until I realised it can be done with just rote learning (but understanding of transformations is better).
A good case of “faking it via guides and algorithms” until you get a feel for it.
I was a bit intimidated until I realised it can be done with just rote learning (but understanding of transformations is better).
Late capitalism classic.
August 2, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Late capitalism classic.
Are we angrier as a species?
Have we allowed anger to take us over?
But “anger” use dips in the period of “World War” hatred. Maybe that was beyond anger.
Have we allowed anger to take us over?
But “anger” use dips in the period of “World War” hatred. Maybe that was beyond anger.
August 1, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Are we angrier as a species?
Have we allowed anger to take us over?
But “anger” use dips in the period of “World War” hatred. Maybe that was beyond anger.
Have we allowed anger to take us over?
But “anger” use dips in the period of “World War” hatred. Maybe that was beyond anger.
It’s not as well known in public that artists and musicians are as overweighted in ASD groups as mathematicians and engineers.
Two expressions of a similar neural variation?
Two expressions of a similar neural variation?
July 22, 2025 at 11:46 AM
It’s not as well known in public that artists and musicians are as overweighted in ASD groups as mathematicians and engineers.
Two expressions of a similar neural variation?
Two expressions of a similar neural variation?