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markppp.bsky.social
Mark Papp
@markppp.bsky.social
350 followers 360 following 1.5K posts
I overuse semicolons; typos are a given.
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markppp.bsky.social
It might be a burger related problem.
Banner sign outside a Burger King restaurant. It reads “NOW HIRING A CAREER TO CRAVE FOR MANAGEMENT & TEAM MEMBER OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE ASK IN RESTAURANT”
November 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
markppp.bsky.social
I have a similar happy place. (Old photo, possibly from 2012.)

Sock to create darkground effect.
Me, wearing a green sun hat and a yellow and black dry suit, sitting at a lab bench looking down a stereo microscope while manipulating a staining block which hold the specimen I'm looking at. A shot of a stereo microscope with cold light goosenecks set up to illuminate a staining block that holds the specimen. A black sock is hanging out of the front of the microscope.
October 31, 2025 at 9:14 AM
markppp.bsky.social
Did you ever see the late comedienne Janey Godley's welcome messages to Trump?

The first was around 2016 but she didn't let up until she died.

She laughed loudest.
Screen shot that shows, in the foreground, a policeman looking at Janey Godley, who's holding a handwritten sign saying "TRUMP IS A CUNT". There's a bank behind them that's part of a golf course with a fancy building behind it. There's a helicopter in front of the building. Janey Godley, on left, and a policeman in a high viz tabard, are standing on a sandy beach with the sea in the background. Godley is holding a handwritten sign saying "TRUMP IS A CUNT". Her right hand is obscuring the sign's "C", making it look like a lower case "r". Godley and the policeman appear to be high fiving each other.
October 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
markppp.bsky.social
Your vehicle might come off worse.
Screen grab of pictures of sumo wrestlers on the Abbey Road crossing. The grab was lifted from Reddit r/interestingasfuck
October 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
markppp.bsky.social
I completely agree, but this old post sums up the experiences my partner and I have "enjoyed" when trying to adopt a dog.
Screenshot from @thundershot.bsky.social. It's a screen grab of a 2021 (Twitter?) post from @nialltg that says: dog shelters: don't buy puppies, consider adoption instead also dog shelters: this is pissfingers. she's 19 years old and can't live in a home with children, books or electricity. pissfingers is nervous around hair and need 400 acres of land and an orchard of extinct fruits.
October 14, 2025 at 6:37 PM
markppp.bsky.social
It's an amazing building, inspired by the basalt columns found around Iceland (and elsewhere, OK, Finn McCool.)

There's an organ inside that's as impressive as its outside.

As a bonus we caught a light festival in February.
Dark grey basalt columns fill most of the left of the almost monochrome picture. They lead down to the sea, where a wave is breaking over the lower columns at the centre of the image. There's cloud in the sky, a grey horizon and the foreground is a black sand and pebbly beach. A picture looking up at the organ at the Northwest end of the church. It is made of light wood an many vertical bright steel pipes of various sizes. Some smaller ones stick out horizontally. A wide shot of the front of the Hallgrimskirkja at night. It is illuminated by a light projection showing dark orange geometric patters. Mars (upper left) and Jupiter (top right) are both within the frame, and there's a bit of glow from the moon at the top centre.
October 5, 2025 at 11:40 AM
markppp.bsky.social
I recall Russia saying it had no plans to invade Ukraine back in February ‘22.

Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Screen grab from BBC News app saying “Russia says it had no plans to target Poland as Nato condemns 'reckless' drone incursions”
September 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
markppp.bsky.social
My Saturday afternoon has just been ruined, as my heart bleeds for these poor unfortunates.

Won't somebody think of the second home owners?
Screen grab of a Daily Telegraph Reddit advertisement. The banner headline, across a picture of lovely houses in beautiful countryside is ‘My perfect second home in Cornwall won’t sell’ The advertisement’s title is “Cornwall’s property market is reeling from tax hikes and oversupply. Find out why second home owners could be hit hardest.”
August 30, 2025 at 3:16 PM
markppp.bsky.social
A health line I never thought I’d see.
Screen grab from BBC app saying “Tour de France route changed because of diseased cows.
July 25, 2025 at 2:37 PM
markppp.bsky.social
This evening’s Wembley Lime bike.
Lime bone parked across pavement.
July 24, 2025 at 6:22 PM
markppp.bsky.social
This morning’s perfectly parked #LimeBike.

I love the concept, but wish there were a way to educate users.

At least it’s not blocking the pavement.
A street with a tree in the foreground. A couple of metres away, in the middle of the road, is a parked Lime bike.
July 23, 2025 at 8:55 AM
markppp.bsky.social
How close is inappropriately close?
An underwater shot with the head and neck of a juvenile sea lion suggesting from the left. To the right is the head, left arm and a bit of torso a diver (me), wearing a yellow dry suit and a black hood. My arms are in front of me and my gloves hands are in the sea lion’s mouth. You can see that the sea lion is looking straight at my eyes.
June 6, 2025 at 9:48 PM
markppp.bsky.social
Swifts are in decline.

Barry Gardiner MP proposed an amendment which would force developers to incorporate swift bricks in most new buildings.

The developers pushed back & the government backed down.

Amendment text & link in image ALT.

Please sign the petition if you value swifts.

38d.gs/cdpr
Screen grab of Parliament UK website (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3946/stages/19795/amendments/10021387) showing part of the text of Barry Gardiner MP's swift box amendment. The text reads: Amendment text To move the following Clause— “Swift bricks and boxes (1) It must be a condition of any grant of planning permission that there must be a minimum of one swift brick or nest box per dwelling or unit greater than 5 metres in height. (2) Swift bricks integrated into walls are to be installed in preference to external swift nest boxes wherever practicable, following best practice. (3) A planning authority may grant planning permission with exceptions or modifications to the condition specified in subsection (1) in exceptional circumstances, where possible following best practice. (4) Where a planning authority grants exceptions or modifications, it must publish the exceptional circumstances in which the exceptions or modifications were granted. (5) For the purposes of this section— “swift brick” means an integral nest box integrated into the wall of a building suitable for the nesting of the Common Swift; “swift nest box” means an external nest box suitable for the nesting of the Common Swift and “best practice guidance” means the British Standard BS 42021:2022.” Member's explanatory statement This new clause would make planning permission for buildings greater than 5 metres high conditional on the provision of a minimum number of swift bricks. Swift bricks and boxes provide nesting habitat for small urban birds reliant on cavity nesting habitat in buildings to breed.
May 26, 2025 at 8:42 PM
markppp.bsky.social
The Telegraph says we do satire best.

Oklahoma: “Hold my beer.”
Screen grab off Telegraph article in its “Money” section. The headline and lede sway “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can't go on five holidays' Labour's VAT raid forces six-figure families to make lifestyle sacrifices” There is a picture of the downtrodden family of four below the text.
May 25, 2025 at 11:57 AM
markppp.bsky.social
#InverteFest

I've not taken anything recently, but I have a few oldies that might deserve an(other?) outing.

Here's a tunicate larva in its egg. Taken years ago but I like it.
A grey background with a a thin, near perfect circle in the centre, taking up most of the frame. Inside the circle is a tadpole-like organism with a single eye spot visible. The "tail" has sectional detail in which evidence of the notochord is visible. There are multiple small granules in the circular egg. To the left of the egg is a penate diatom. There's a brightness gradient from the bottom right of the image, which is darker in the top left. This is an artefact of the crude oblique lighting setup. The picture was taken through a 1960s Wild M20 microscope.
April 24, 2025 at 7:35 PM
markppp.bsky.social
@londongeology.bsky.social

The walls of 20 Old Bailey are fascinating.

There are some weird things I don’t recognise and I wonder if you can help. Photo 1 shows what seems to be a cross section of… something… with voids filled with a transparent mineral.

Photo 2 is contextual.
Grey stone with various inclusions. At its centre is the oddity in which I’m interested. I can’t describe it! Grey stone with various inclusions. There’s a small spiral near its centre and several other fossil sections.
March 28, 2025 at 7:04 PM
markppp.bsky.social
I can’t reply so have toto quote post.

1) That’s an excellent stipe-o.

2) Toiletries sometimes offer unsolicited advice.
A pump bottle of pale green hand wash which has “SEA KELP” written on it.
March 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM
markppp.bsky.social
@jolyonmaugham.bsky.social

You get *two* epithets in the latest ‘Eye: “thin-skinned” from the Eye itself and “politically motivated grifter” from none other than the saintly Michael Gove.
Snap of part of Private Eye article. There’s a caricature of Michael Gove about halfway down on the left side. The text reads: UNDERCOVER GOVE THE Spectator surpassed even its own ability to omit mentions of conflicting interests with its coverage of its editor's appearance before the Covid inquiry last week. Michael Gove (for it was he) was confronted over his role in ventilator procurement and allegations that he'd tried to circumvent regulations to favour fellow old Brexiteer James Dyson. His defence was given a good airing in the Spectator's online diary column, which also noted what it deemed to be "the best moment of the tête-a-tête", when the former cabinet minister attacked the Good Law Project and its thin-skinned founder Jolyon Maugham, who brought (successful) legal cases against the govemment's pandemic procurement practices. Gove, unbidden, told the inquiry the lawyer was a "politically motivated grifter".
March 19, 2025 at 11:05 PM
markppp.bsky.social
PSA: the genius that is / was Chris Turner (@cbturner@bsky.social) seems to have deleted his account, having contributed the post I screen grabbed to the thread.

I wonder what name he'll use when he sets up another edifying account.
Screen shot of now deleted account's post saying "Bigger picture, cunt"
March 15, 2025 at 6:31 PM
markppp.bsky.social
I defer to your superior wisdom and rhetoric.

You are truly the master of your craft. So much so, in fact, that I have screen grabbed your scintillating prose for posterity.

I truly appreciate your guidance and kind words.
Screen grab of @cbturner.bsky.social's post. Text reads "Bigger picture, cunt"
March 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
markppp.bsky.social
More detail of the extraordinary trompe-l'œil.

The artistry that went into the church, the passion and dedication, blows my tiny mind.

Orkney is a place of wonder, from the wrecks in Scapa Flow to Scara Brae. I've been lucky enough to have worked there *and* have time to visit these places.
A medium close up of the top of the front door and the ornate "tiling" and "stonework". The conventional wooden door has a modern closer on it. The door is flanked by two ornate columns, leading to Gothic vaulting, with an Gothic arch above the door. This arch has a "carved stone" four-lobe rose with the initials i h s in its centre. A close up of a black "wrought iron" lantern hanging from the faked vaulted ceiling. On closer inspection one can just about make out that the bulk of the lantern is made of thin tin. The top of the chancel screen is visible in the lower third of the picture.
February 21, 2025 at 8:59 AM
markppp.bsky.social
I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago. Here are some snaps showing a little context and detail.

Another couple of snaps to come in the next post.

The church, and its history, are extraordinary.
A wide shot of the front of the church, taken from that end of the car park. There is a grey car parked in the mid ground. The foreground is nothing but concrete. The picture us almost monochrome, with the church to the left of the background, standing out against the mainly grey sky. There are a couple of Nissen huts behind and to the right of the parked car. This shows the view down the centre of the church, with the interior shape of the two end-to-end Nissen huts made obvious. There is a broad purple carpet running from the foreground to the chancel at the rear. The chancel is delineated by a step up and low and high level ornate wrought iron screens. The ceiling appears vaulted, but this, along with the decorative "tiling", is a superbly created trompe-l'œil. There are dados running up the sides of the lower walls, with "tile panels"; more trompe-l'œil. Hanging from the centre of the ceiling are two black "wrought iron" lanterns. A closer view of the chancel, with the wrought iron screens and gates in the foreground. The ceiling has religious paintings; not quite the Sistine Chapel, but in that style! There's an altar in the sanctuary, delineated by two low carved stone screens. towards the rear of the shot. It is supported by columns. There are candlesticks on the altar and behind it is a reredos painting of the Madonna and child, which is flanked by two stained glass windows. There are large windows on either side which light the sanctuary, which has a floor made of red and white tiles. A shot towards the front of the church. The font, mentioned in the Bylines Scotland article, is to the left of the picture. The door is in the middle, flanked by two narrow Gothic arched windows. The walls and "vaulted" ceilings are a continuous Nissen hut shaped arc and have ornate "tiling", "columns" and dado panels, all trompe-l'œil. One would be hard-pressed to recognise the decoration as painted from any sort of distance.
February 21, 2025 at 8:50 AM
markppp.bsky.social
Despite the new recipe, these crisps were delicious.
A badly taken picture of an empty bag of Tyrell's mature cheddar & chive crisps. The bag is yellow, with a black and white photograph of three women wearing hats at its top. The women's hats have bands which have been colourised green. The woman in the middle is holding a large round cheeses which has been colourised yellow. There is a green banner overlaid at the bottom of the photograph saying "NOW MADE WITH 25% RECYCLED PLASTIC"
February 14, 2025 at 8:09 AM
markppp.bsky.social
Apparently Oakeshott, the apple of Tice’s eye, has moved to Dubai.

Tice was asked if Farage ever visited. Note how Clacton or the UK doesn’t even warrant a mention: “He has got various other international obligations.”

Full article: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Screen grab from Guardian article about saintly couple Oakeshott-Tice. It reads: Asked whether the couple had invited the leader of Reform, Nigel Farage, out to Dubai for a visit, Tice said: “No, he is quite busy. He has got various other international obligations.”
January 18, 2025 at 4:03 PM
markppp.bsky.social
#astronomy #Mars

Please can someone explain this to me? Given our relative orbits I don’t understand how this is possible.

Also, Mars is already spectacularly visible and red, in the Eastern sky a few hours after sunset, with Jupiter high and bright.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Screen grab of Guardian web page. “By mid-January, Mars may make an appearance when the planet moves directly between the Earth and the sun.” is highlighted.
January 4, 2025 at 2:58 PM