Robert Williams

@MichaelVaughan play drinking games with the lot

@everyonebpup It would be ironic if they hired George Lucas to dowdy and write it now that would be fun.

> be Disney executive > pay $4B for Lucasfilm in 2012 > greenlight a new trilogy to print money > Force Awakens hits $2B. you are a god > Last Jedi splits the fanbase > Rise of Skywalker barely clears a billion > teens now call Star Wars "out of order" > Mandalorian and Grogu tracks franchise-low > can't admit trilogy failed. shareholders watching > tell Filoni the sequels need to be "branched off" > cast members at parks start citing a time portal > May the 4th merch quietly drops the sequels > rumor leaks: Ahsoka finale severs the timeline $4B of canon about to get filed under "alternate universe" because nobody can say the word "mistake"

As one who is often asked about RU domestic politics, I remained sceptical about the recent "intel report". There are several factual anomalies / obvious facts masqueraded as secrets that stand out. A short thread: 1/16 istories.media/en/stories/202…

DID YOU KNOW?? ​The Elizabeth line (or "the Liz," as Londoners have dubbed it) isn't just a new train line; as of 2026, it has officially become the backbone of the UK economy. In just a few years, it has transformed from a delayed construction project into the busiest and most profitable railway in the country. ​1. The "Million-Journey" Milestone: ​When the line first opened, people were skeptical. But by 2026, the volume of people it processes is staggering. The line now regularly handles over 750,000 journeys per day. It accounts for roughly one in six of all rail journeys made in the entire United Kingdom. And in 2025, it officially surpassed the Northern Line as the most-used line on the Transport for London (TfL) network. It moves more people in a single day than the entire population of some European capital cities. ​2. The "Super-Sized" Infrastructure: ​The reason it can process such high volumes isn't just speed, it’s sheer scale. A standard London Underground train is about 110–120 meters long. An Elizabeth line train is 200 meters long, nearly the length of two football pitches. Each train can carry 1,500 people. To put that in perspective, one single Elizabeth line train carries as many people as three Boeing 747 aircraft 😳. ​In the central section (between Paddington and Whitechapel), the system is designed to run up to 24 trains per hour. That means a massive "slug" of 1,500 people is arriving or departing every 150 seconds. ​3. The "Cathedral" Stations: ​If you’ve stood on an Elizabeth line platform, you’ll notice they feel like underground cathedrals. This was a deliberate "processing" strategy. Firstly, the platforms are double the width of traditional Tube platforms. This prevents the "clogging" that happens at older stations like Oxford Circus. ​Then the Platform Screen Doors. These aren't just for safety; they allow the trains to enter the station at higher speeds and stop with millimeter precision, which shave seconds off the "dwell time," allowing more trains to pass through per hour. 4. The Economic "Magnet": ​The volume of people hasn't just increased; it has shifted. Before the Elizabeth line, Canary Wharf felt isolated. Now, the line processes so many people so quickly that it has successfully "pulled" the center of London’s gravity further East. ​As of 2026, the Elizabeth line has taken nearly 25% of the passenger share away from the expensive Heathrow Express and private taxis, making it the primary way the world enters London. A superb fact! While most public transport systems lose money, the Elizabeth line became operationally profitable ahead of schedule. The sheer volume of passengers is so high that the fares are now helping to subsidize the repairs of older, leakier lines like the Bakerloo and Central. So atleast the government is getting somethings right I guess 😅. Hopefully you've learnt something new today Cheers 🥂 🙂 The Medic Who Writes™🌚

A car has been rammed into a crowd of people in Leipzig Germany.

Possibly the saddest listed building in Newcastle, sat in limbo until its eventual demise given there's nothing to repurpose it into. 😔 I've written up a piece on the Gibson Street Baths - free to read on Patreon as it's a bit too long for over here. Link below

Charles Asher Small says we’re 50 years into their plan?! 👀

Ukraine currently assesses that two Russian soldiers are being killed for every one wounded - a remarkable ratio considering that the figure last year was estimated at one killed for every two wounded. This is far outside the historical norm of 1:3-5 killed/wounded. 👇

“The dirtiest, toughest, meanest, nastiest, most brutal hero we’d ever seen.” Timothy Dalton on why #JamesBond should go back to Fleming…

I would have expected a crab museum to be the one place I was safe from being lectured to about British colonialism.

So proud of my Dad for his spontaneous valedictory Speech, following removal of Hereditary Peers from House of Lords. If they won't give you a slot...make one!

In Scotland, there’s a tower called the “Towser Tower,” dedicated to a cat named Towser who reportedly caught nearly 30,000 mice in her lifetime. She became a local legend for her hunting skills 😺

Ghent was one of the largest European cities in the 13th century, and it now has maybe the best preserved historic center in all of Europe 🙌🏼

Jeff Bezos reveals the moment an early Amazon executive told him he had enough ideas to destroy Amazon: "Early in Amazon's history, Jeff Wilke came to me one day and said, Jeff, you have enough ideas to destroy Amazon. You have enough ideas per minute, per day, per week to destroy Amazon." "I was like, what do you mean?" "He said, you have to release the work at the right rate that the organization can accept it." "Every time I released an idea, I was creating a backlog, a queue, work in process. It was just stacking up, it was adding no value. In fact, it was creating distraction." "So I started prioritizing the ideas better, keeping lists of them, keeping them to myself until the organization was ready for the ideas."

The biggest intrigue that exists today is whether #Ukraine will be able to reach the #Yamal cross in #Russia or not. If it can, the end of Russia will come! Work hard, Cossacks!

In Moscow, the internet will be shut off from May 5 to 9. 5 years of "3 day "SMO"

Russia continues to descend into nothing more than a massive prison as the aging and increasingly paranoic dictator brutally punishes even the most innocuous public gatherings. In Irkutsk, arrests were made as animal rights activists brought inflatable dogs to the outside of the local Legislative Assembly as the city considered legislation to mass euthanize dogs amid the current epidemic levels of strays. Even the inflatable dogs were carted off by police.

@HamasAtrocities @TheGreenParty @northumbriapol how is this not incident to racial hatred and violence? oh wait it is.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Tina Ion, a candidate for @TheGreenParty in Newcastle

According to satellite images, all reservoirs of 50,000 m³ were destroyed at Perm pumping station in Russia. Each of these reservoirs could store about 314,000 barrels of oil. The reservoirs themselves are very large (see second image for an idea on their size). A lot of technological pipes burned down, too. The station is out of order for some time. One 20,000 m³ reservoir (by estimates) has burned down partially, three more are undamaged as of now. That's a very successful operation: destroying about 70% of the station in two attacks.

What changed three months ago?