Bob Walker

Next level midgery on Achiltibui. I was actually choking on the bastards at one point!

@Jim_Leary They look to be from a Cromwell tank

In places, Second World War tank tracks overwrite the cart tracks. Lying in one is even the rusted remains of a tank fire extinguisher. And in places, actual tank tracks have been reused as bollards.

The cart tracks of the North York Moors. Last year’s devastating fire on Fylingdales Moor has revealed archaeology in graphic detail. Medieval holloways and seventeenth and eighteenth-century cart tracks are visible for the first time and look as fresh as the day they were made.

Just an everyday tale of infrastructure in the UK — how to spend £179m on not building a tunnel.

@Nusbacher Good book 👍. There was a TV series of SS-GB a few years ago, pretty decent IIRC.

When I was about 12, I bought a hardback copy of SS-GB by Len Deighton in a second-hand sale. It’s a novel set in a conquered Britain occupied by Nazis. It’s a well-researched bit of brilliance, and it made me think of history, war and loyalty so differently. Thanks, Len xx.

In December, the fly fishing world lost a legend with the passing of Steve Rhodes - a lifelong champion of wild fish, and a great ally of our charity. As an unwavering advocate for rivers, Steve's approach to fishing was informed by a deep knowledge of ecology.

@GroomB Welcome to Leeds….

Leeds, 1954, by Marc Riboud. Much to unpack here.

You've been here longer than you think. 🇬🇧 Not since the Romans. Not since Stonehenge. For over 11,000 years. 🦌 Star Carr. The edge of a lake in Yorkshire. They built a house. The oldest house in Britain. Posts in the ground. A hearth in the centre. They split timbers and laid a platform at the water's edge. The oldest carpentry in Europe. They carved deer skulls into headdresses. They engraved patterns into a pendant. The oldest art ever found in Britain. 🪨 6,500 years before the pyramids. 6,000 years before Stonehenge. Someone sat by a fire in Yorkshire. In a house they built. Wearing art they made. Surrounded by their people. This wasn't surviving. This was home. 🔥 That was 11,000 years ago. Same land. Same lineage. This is your land. You're still building. proudofus.co.uk 🇬🇧 Be part of us. Be Proud Of Us. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇮🇪🇬🇧

Love this photo from Elvington airshow circa 1999, Tonka coming in fast and low! I did not have a big zoom back then. Nor do I now really, because a 100 -400 is no longer sufficient at most airshows these days….

These guys are so bad. Not just poisoning our beaches and seas (a recent death has been linked to the same company) but even the water that comes out of the tap. Incredibly it seems a faulty valve let animal sewage into the system - begging the question, what on earth was or is animal sewage doing side by side with drinking water - separated by a valve. We need to take back control of our water companies - at the very least with super tough regulation.

>Just go to Dubai, she said, tax free haven in the sun, she said...

@Nusbacher Maybe pragmatism will force moderation!

@Mantog No, by definition. Pragmatic, perhaps; not moderate.

There are plenty of ayatollahs in Iran. One fewer is not an existential threat to the regime.

@BestMovieMom That’s fuck all mate. I’ve undertaken a gruelling 50 year training regime to look like an authentic burnt out, grey haired middle aged IT manager and dad.

Before filming Skyfall (2012) Daniel Craig underwent a brutal training regime for six months. He wanted Bond to look physically exhausted and aged to match the script's theme of a veteran agent who is past his prime in a modern world.

🇬🇧🇺🇦 UK denies asylum to Ukrainian family after child told to wear noise-canceling headphones to avoid panicking over bombs, - Sky News A Ukrainian family has been denied asylum by the UK Home Office, saying they can "safely move" to other parts of Ukraine. In an official letter seen by Sky News, officials specifically said their daughter, who suffers from panic attacks due to the war, should use noise-canceling headphones and soundproof her rooms to help cope with her fear. The family fled Kyiv in the early days of the full-scale invasion. The girl began to suffer severe panic attacks, which she was treated for by British doctors. The Home Office, which is responsible for immigration control, says western Ukraine and Kyiv can be considered "non-conflict zones" despite regular missile and drone strikes. The families were offered to move, in particular, to Ternopil - a city that was subjected to massive shelling in November, when 40 people died in one day in a destroyed high-rise building. According to the publication, this is not an isolated case - Ukrainian families are increasingly being denied asylum even if their children have serious war injuries.

Leeds City Council’s full council is today deciding its annual budget. It was preceded by an extraordinary council meeting remembering the late Cllr Mahalia France-Mir, who represented Moortown. Watch proceedings live here youtube.com/live/9S9f9jsAs…

In 1943, Paris - a woman sits in a Gestapo interrogation room, her feet bleeding, her body broken. The officers across from her know she's holding secrets. Names of British agents. Locations of resistance safe houses. Intelligence that could dismantle entire networks across France. They've already started the torture. Her toenails are being removed, one at a time. Soon they'll use heated irons on her back. They'll lock her in darkness for weeks. They'll promise her life in exchange for just one name. She's a 30-year-old mother of three. Not a soldier. Not a spy by training. Just a French-born housewife who was living quietly in England until Hitler's armies swallowed her homeland. That's when Odette Sansom made a choice that most of us will never have to make. She left her three daughters behind and volunteered for Britain's Special Operations Executive, the shadow organization built to sabotage Nazi operations from within. The SOE didn't want career military. They wanted people who could disappear into occupied territory. People who spoke native French. People willing to accept that capture likely meant torture and execution. Odette knew the odds. She volunteered anyway. By 1942, she was operating in occupied France under the codename "Lise," coordinating resistance cells, organizing sabotage, funneling intelligence back to London. She worked alongside Captain Peter Churchill, building networks that struck at German supply lines and communications. For months, they were ghosts. Then a collaborator sold them out. Now she's in this room. In this chair. Facing men who have perfected the art of breaking human beings. And here's what they don't understand: Odette Sansom has already decided she won't break. Not for pain. Not for promises. Not even to save her own life. Because she knows that every name she gives means another agent tortured. Another resistance fighter executed. Another family destroyed. So she gives them nothing. Through months of interrogation. Through agony most of us can't fathom. Through solitary confinement and death threats. Nothing. The Gestapo eventually realizes they can't break her. They send her to Ravensbrück concentration camp, condemned under "Night and Fog" protocol, prisoners meant to vanish without trace. She survives more than a year there by convincing the commandant she's related to Winston Churchill. It's a complete lie, but it keeps her alive. When Allied forces arrive in 1945, that same commandant tries using her as a bargaining chip. The moment they reach American lines, Odette identifies him as a war criminal. He's arrested on the spot. Britain awarded her the George Cross, the highest civilian honor for courage. The citation was clear: for refusing to betray her comrades despite torture that would break nearly anyone. Then in 1951, someone stole the medal from her home. Months later, it arrived in the mail with an anonymous note. The thief had researched what it represented and couldn't live with keeping it. Even criminals recognized what that medal meant. Odette Sansom Hallowes lived to 82, spending decades honoring fallen comrades and embodying quiet strength. She always insisted she'd simply done what anyone should do. But that's not true. What she did was extraordinary. She proved that the most powerful resistance to tyranny isn't violence. It's the absolute refusal to break, no matter the cost. 📷© Imperial War Museums (Restored & Colorized) © Daughters of Time #drthehistories

1977 physical models still look better than most CGI.

I don't think people realize how brave the Iranians are. Every single one of them who took to the streets and decided to rise up against the Islamic regime knows that if they fail to overthrow it, they will be arrested, tortured, and executed. The world must stand with them.