Website designer and developer, co-founder of @fintrydt, data and design @topolytics. I am also now on mastodon @cowtan@mastodon.scot
Joined April 2007
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- Following275
- Followers241
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Gordon Cowtan retweeted
A place where people with an axe to grind gathered 4,500 years ago has been uncovered. The area of abrasive sandstone close to Balfron, near Stirling, has been found to have been used like a giant whetstone by Neolithic toolmakers to polish stone axes. bbc.com/news/articles/c2vqzv…
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
And you thought German was complicated ... 🤷♂️
ALT Flowchart illustrating the difference between "venomous" and "poisonous" with the help of multiple choice paths "you bite it" / "it bites you".
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
Good morning to you ☺️
We are suitcasetrains and we craft bespoke working Trainsets housed in vintage suitcases ❤️💼🚂
suitcasetrains.com – at Long Lawford, England
Great, sweeping article by @shattenstone about 1990 World Cup and the England team - theguardian.com/football/202…
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
Ok this WASN’T me but when I was a junior in college I made the catastrophic mistake of underestimating the athleticism of crabs and about 300 crabs got loose in the basement of the biology building and it was 100% my bad
Still not entirely convinced this isn't a parody though hilarious either way -
This quoted post is unavailable.
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
Q. How long should you keep your boiler?
A. Until you're ready to fit a renewable energy system
Boilers should last 22 yrs & most existing 20 year old boilers have good parts availability
It will be cheaper to repair & make more efficient than replace
theheatinghub.co.uk/articles…
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
10 arguments against climate change people sent me today* and 10 Global Weirding episodes I made years ago that debunk them: A fun thread
* yes, literally today.
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
NEW: a column in the Times argues that the only way to tackle obesity is through fat shaming (yes, you read that right).
It’s an astonishing argument to make, and unsurprisingly it falls to pieces under scrutiny.
Let’s take a look, and see if we can do better:
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
WORLD’s LONGEST TRAIN RECORD ATTEMPT TODAY: The Rhätishe Bahn is attempting a world record longest passenger train today at 14:00 (13:00 UK time): 100 cars, 1.9km long. Can they do it? Info & live stream rhb.ch/en/news-events/offici…
The responses to this are great and very human -
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Gordon Cowtan retweeted
Halloween is an excellent Scottish holiday, with plenty of weird fun customs.
BUT today we need to talk about an oft-shared "tradition" that is absolutely nonsense and has zero truth behind it:
A deep dive into Scotland, Witchcraft, and Sausage Rolls (🧵)
#OldWeirdScotland
ALT No Porkies here. Eating pork or pastries on Halloween was illegal, thanks to the Witchcraft Ac of 1735
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Amazing octopus stretching its tentacles to form a huge balloon filmed by EVNautilus at a depth of around 1,600 meters (5,250 feet).
#octopus #oceans #nature #diving via @wonderofscience
Hmm… interesting…
It's almost a year since I rode the inaugural @LumoTravel lo-cost train between London & Edinburgh with fares from £14.90. I said back then that 5 daily 400-seat trains had the potential to empty a lot of planes. One year on, have they? Or just abstracted revenue from LNER?
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
Four ways to look at global CO₂ emissions.
1. Which countries have contributed most historically?
Share of cumulative CO₂ since 1750:
🇺🇸 US: 25%
🇨🇳 China: 14%
🇷🇺 Russia: 7%
🇩🇪 Germany: 5.5%
🇬🇧 UK: 4.6%
🇯🇵 Japan: 4%
🇮🇳 India: 3%
🇫🇷 France: 2.3%
🇨🇦 Canada: 2%
🇺🇦 Ukraine: 1.8%
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
A nerdy request: is anyone publishing close to real time weather corrected consumption data for this year & previous years, in a form that allows users to easily analyse how consumers are responding to high prices; whether we are seeing demand destruction, etc?
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
1/6 Your biggest money saving measure this winter is not turning down the thermostat - saving £115 - or adjusting the flow temperature - saving £112.
It is NOT replacing your condensing gas boiler, at a cost of £2,500 - £5,000.
Why?
theheatinghub.co.uk/articles…
Gordon Cowtan retweeted
For #WorldOctopusDay I share a scene of the so-called 'Fish Mosaic' discovered in the 'House of the Faun' in Pompeii, Italy, which dates back to the 2nd century BC and depicts a combat between an octopus and a lobster in astonishing detail.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F…
