Phil Grass 🇪🇺🕊️

I regret to announce that a state of war now exists between Britain and Germany

Sometimes, despite all the bad news in the world, there are stories that still can amaze you. The MEX had its first “ last ever extension” of service in 2007 and is still working. 👏💪

OOF 🇫🇷

Good grief, apparently you can now get payment plans to cover the exorbitant cost of buying your tickets for the #BonJovi gig next year in Hyde Park. 💰💰💰

So, according to this very scientific test of my knowledge of gilets, I could work for:

Kneejerk response to this is nuts. My relative is alive because this summer, out of desperation, we keyed his symptoms (that had baffled NHS consultants) into Claude. It diagnosed a rare but simple inter-disciplinary issue. NHS docs swiftly did lifesaving surgery. AI is good at pattern recognition!

The Rhine Ferry at Ingelheim, somehow an appropriate metaphor 😀

Kemi Badenoch’s inheritance tax proposals are myth-based policy making at its worst. That's the verdict from @jillongovt.bsky.social following the leader of the opposition’s conference speech this week. Read the full comment here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/kemi...

Scandal unfolding in Germany: Police has arrested the former head of the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, August Hanning, on suspicion of espionage. Hanning was the agency's chief from 1998 to 2005. www.spiegel.de/panorama/jus...

Can I throw my hat in the ring with #Breverse if it’s not been taken already.

Wonder how Suella Braverman is feeling about the England football team this morning? One of their best performances ever, by a team she could not identify as “English” 🤦‍♂️

Microsoft branding nightmare re AI risks to humanity

Just a Heads Up for the #Genealogists here. Tomorrow is the #TagderDeutschenEinheit (German Unification Day) and MyHeritage are celebrating with a weekend of free access to their German records: blog.myheritage.com/2026/09/cele...

I know very little about bats, however I’m truly impressed how much genomics can tell about the origin and evolution of a species.

Man City statement in full:

Hi #AncestryHour. I found this AI "map" on a genealogy website (no names !). What are your thoughts? I'm not a fan - getting the geography wrong distorts the long relationship between the people of Scotland and Ireland (and confuses the heck out of people who don't realise the error).

The fact that I’m checking the 🇺🇸Treasury 10 year bond yield, which up until recently I didn’t care about, is not a good sign.

Wait, What 🤷‍♂️. This is weird. Was this just a stag night gone wrong ?

From today’s Times newspaper. Angela Rayner condemns Labour’s migrant visa crackdown. I’ve no comment on the policy but I object to the phrase “changing the goalposts”. Goalposts are moved, not changed. 😤

I have this nagging feeling that Andy Burnham would prefer to expand Manchester Airport. 🤷‍♂️

Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano

I must admit I’m a bit torn. Part of me wants to reset my Duolingo so I don’t feel obliged to do it every day, but on the other hand, it’s a 3000 day streak 😀

My Dad grew up an "Only Child" of a Single Mum. Only later in life did he discover he had an older sister, Mary, born OTD 100 years ago. Sadly she died 5 hours after birth with what was recorded as "Infantile Convulsions".

German Isar successfully launches satellites into orbit - the first European commercial space company to do so. This is a highly significant (and long overdue!) milestone towards European space sovereignty.

Well this was “fun” (I use the term loosely). “I” was Radha, a girl born in 1095 AD on the Ganges plain. I died aged 10 months old of measles. Hope the CDC are aware of these dangers.

Hi #GenHour. Sorry I’m late. I’ve been battling with Microsoft’s Power Automate to use it to generate GRO references for Civil Births from FMP or FreeBMD. In the end discovered I was using the wrong version of PAD. 🤦‍♂️ The MSI installer is better than the MS store version 😤

Since it’s September, here is the obligatory snap of #Stollen at my local supermarket.

Reposting for #AncestryHour. Research on Thomas Jessop of Brandon. The father to five children with five different mother over five years. The good news is that I can support 3 of the lines via a DNA cluster. Also; folks not fols 😳

Just before the summer transfer window closes! Perhaps Sir Keir #Starmer is hoping to get signed up for a Premier League side. ⚽️ p.s. was going to do a joke about him joining the Saudi league for a big payday, but it’s transfer window closes later.

This extract from the BBC football website is a bit like saying that a player has joined 'Manchester'.

I’m surprised that the first word I thought of to describe Nigel Farage is not included in any of the red bubbles 🤣

So just to confirm: - Dissatisfied royal claimant to the UK throne returning from abroad. - A new king rises in Norway. - Heir to the Jacobite pretender consolidating power on the continent. cool cool. cool cool cool cool. cool cool. Hope everyone's been keeping up with their longbow practice.

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ This is one of the last coal powered sheep. The vast majority of UK sheep are now all electric ⚡️

Them: Want to come to a ritual ceremony at Huaca Pucllana? Me: What do you do ? Them: Smash huge pots ? Me: Cool ✅ Them: And eat Ritual meals. Me: Sounds good. ✅ Anything else ? Them: Ritual Human sacrifices. Me: 😬

A particularly colourful Wochenmarkt (Farmers Market) here in Germany. Flowering Artichokes on the left and Greengages on the right. The two stalls selling the greengages labelled them as Renekloden and ReneClaude, which appear to be German versions of the French, Reine Claude (Queen Claude).

For context, the CDC comment on SV40 is here: www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...