Pathologically Polymathic (Blog)

Web pages I've been reading (and some web pages I've created)

IT: LWN | W - News: AA | ABC | Dutch News | Irish | BBC | CDT | Crikey | CSM | DW | Econ | FL | Guard | Indy | NYROB | RT | yle

blogs: Szirtes | 3% | EZ | EI | AK | Aetiology | ProRev | Far | GC | Stross | GRP | QNTM | Else | Cosma | CR | PC - full list

Last update: 5 November 2025 (RSS, twitter, Facebook)

road injuries are massively underreported, estimated cost to UK is over £55 billion a year AVZ

the Ukrainian use of aerostats Pravda UA

the two-child benefit cap: increasing child poverty while failing to achieve its goals UGlasgow+LSE

"Children should have a right to play in the streets, alleys, pavements and car parks of their neighbourhoods" Conversation

short historical essays accompanied by poems The History of Wales in Twelve Poems [my review]

designing cities for their youngest residents Gehl

how common are expander graphs? new results Quanta

A New History of the Thirty Years War Europe's Tragedy

"a long and involved, but rewarding, account of one of the most traumatic periods in European history"

advances in enumerative geometry Quanta

Stockholm's approach to getting cars out of the city Politico

the closure of a methodist chapel New Statesman

Leonard Barden's chess commentary was already an institution when I was a nine year old Guardian

only 8% of people who go to university in the UK regret it hepi

oral history integrated into a compelling narrative Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World [my review]

a journalist takes a hare on a romp through rural Finland The Year of the Hare [my review]

one space or two after full-stops? Atlantic

genocide in Gaza B'Tselem

"An examination of Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

the Smurfs' communist roots Guardian

Ireland is backing off on default urban speed limits, but going ahead with rural changes Irish Cycle

local authorities can _choose_ 30km/hr speedlimits, national secondary roads are going from 100 to 80km/hr (roughly 60 to 50mph) and local rural roads from 80 to 60km/hr (roughly from 50 to 37mph)

fortune cookies were originally Japanese Smithsonian

Spatial History of a Marvellous City A Millennium of Amsterdam

20% of Europeans are exposed to harmful levels of noise pollution EEA

people not vaccinated against Covid are significantly more likely to be involved in traffic crashes Am. J. Med.

"The increased traffic risks among unvaccinated individuals extended to diverse subgroups and was equal to a 48% increase after adjustment for age, sex, home location, socioeconomic status, and medical diagnoses."

Oxfordshire innovated in road signs in the 1950s Roads

a nine-armed octopus and the workings of the cephalapod nervous system ArsTechnica

Oxfordshire's A420 might get average speed cameras! BBC

how France saved its public transport in the 1970s S-Bahn

a study of responses to the East Oxford Low Traffic Neighbourhoods Brookes [PDF]

"people were adapting car journeys if they could, or using their cars less and walking and cycling more for short journeys. ... overall, moderate levels of support for the East Oxford LTN."

against "dual provision" cycling infrastructure Oxford Blog

Flanders is taking cycling seriously ECF

"Between 2014 and 2023, its cycling modal share increased from 12.5% to 19%... The Flemish government’s 2024 coalition agreement outlines a target of reaching a 30% cycling mode share by 2040."

When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be [my review]

why archers didn't volley fire Unmitigated Pedantry

"we have no evidence for archer volley fire because they didn’t do it and they didn’t do it because it doesn’t solve a problem that exists with bows (whose rate of shot is fast enough not to require volley tactics) but it does cause all sorts of new problems (exhausting your archers)"

Bergen's new bike tunnel is a fantastic public space, not just a route Not Just Bikes

a robust natural experiment suggests the shingles vaccine reduces dementia risk by 20% Stanford Medicine

Voices from Gaza B'Tselem

"For two months now, Israel has been blocking the entry of food and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, deliberately starving over two million people, including more than one million children."

a Birmingham bus trip The Bee

"Birmingham was cruel to my parents: it contained rich resources that they struggled daily to access, for the simple reason that the city was not built with their needs and means in mind."

the role of women in the 2025 Australian election ABC

are the 93 or 94 penises in the Bayeaux tapestry? History Extra

the learning behind Ukrainian deep drone strikes Ukrainska Pravda

background on Imamoglu's arrest and events in Turkey Kültürkampf

Notes

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The format of this blog is based on that of Robot Wisdom - why reinvent the wheel?

Pathologically Polymathic (Blog)

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