#UnconfinedWalks sunset photo through rather grubby west window of the ringing chamber

Damn, didn’t look closely enough at the selection of their wares available at Bologna airport last week to discover if these were among them

#UnconfinedWalks riding home this evening and sunset from the balcony at home

It's nearly 200 years since the birth of a British aristocrat who became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

French man, 86, issues historic apology for family’s role in transatlantic slavery Pierre Guillon de Prince believed to be first in France to formally apologise for ancestors’ connections to slavery

'Guillon de Prince said on Saturday that other French families must confront their historical allegiances to slavery and the state should go beyond symbolic gestures to address the past, including through reparations.'

#UnconfinedWalks a late evening ride

A long read, but a fascinating exploration of why #History is complicated. It gets to the heart of the difficulties in establishing one of the most fundamental *facts* in #FamilyHistory, a date of birth. #Genealogy

Here's the link to the #1926Census of #Ireland which just went live, in case anyone is looking for it. Happy searching! nationalarchives.ie/collections/...

#IrishFamilyHistory #IrishGenealogy

"Over an 18 year period, someone who cycles to work has nearly 50% less chance of dying from *anything* than someone who drives"...

including being knocked off by a motorist (based on UK census data). Passive travel is bad for your life expectancy and pollution inside the car is worse than outside.

Looking down a grassy slope to lakes glinting in the sun. Blue sky above with a few white clouds and a low sun shining towards the camera

#UnconfinedWalks bright and breezy once again. Was OK in shorts and short-sleeved jersey though it was getting borderline as I headed home

A man of property Just outside the City of London, in the secluded streets once occupied by the monastic precinct of the Black Friars, is an unassuming warehouse building

As a supplement to the piece in The Times Literary Supplement (@thetls.bsky.social), www.the-tls.com/regular-feat..., here’s a (rather long!) thread on Shakespeare’s house in the Blackfriars, what we knew, and what we now know, with some links to key documents. (1/20)

In the wake of Lord Roberston’s report, a quick reminder that spending on #defence v. #welfare has never been a zero sum game: historyandpolicy.org/opinion-arti...

#UnconfinedWalks Monday back on home turf. Tuesday failed to take any photos while joining in laps. Today, bright but blustery (and feeling a bit sore after the fast laps yesterday)

#UnconfinedWalks day 7, last meandering in Ravenna before catching train back to Bologna

#UnconfinedWalks day 7, Ravenna, House of the Stone Carpets

#UnconfinedWalks day 7, Ravenna mop up, Mausoleum of Theodoric

#UnconfinedWalks day 6 Ferrara, the castle and around

#UnconfinedWalks day 6 Ferrara, Palazzao Schifanoia, where the d’Estes tried to stave off boredom

#UnconfinedWalks day 6, Ferrara, around the former ghetto. Being a Saturday the synagogue wasn’t open. Ferrara has one of Italy’s oldest Jewish communities with the d’Este’s inviting some of those expelled from Spain to settle. The ghetto was enclosed under later papal rule

#UnconfinedWalks day 6, train to Ferrara, walk in from the station and around the duomo (under renovation)

#UnconfinedWalks Day 5, Rimini, Bridge of Tiberius

#UnconfinedWalks Day 5, Rimini, around Piazza Cavour

#UnconfinedWalks Day 5, Rimini, outside of the Tempio Malatesta (still in its lunchtime closure period so didn’t go in) and around the Piazza tre Martiri (named for three locals executed by the Germans during the Second World War)

#UnconfinedWalks day 5, as by now we knew our flight had been cancelled and we wouldn’t be going home until Sunday we took the train down to Rimini. Lunch by the Adriatic and then many Judas trees as we walked back to the Centro storico

#UnconfinedWalks day 4 addendum, traditional photo of outside of local archives

Are Bike Lanes Actually Ruining Our Cities? YouTube video by Global Cycling Network

Inspired by this video youtu.be/etwt75kYYhk I thought I'd explore some of the statistics around car access and deprivation with some #datavis and analysis.

Usefully, the 2021 Census in the UK asked questions around car ownership as well as many aspects of 'deprivation'. So here is 📊 🧵... [1/8]

#UnconfinedWalks Day 4 continued, the Diocesan Museum in the former cloisters of San Vitale (each cloister in Ravenna seemed to have its own blackbird). Bit of a whistle stop tour as it was late in the day and we had a restaurant booking at a restaurant opened in 1909 and still in same family

#UnconfinedWalks Day 4 continued, the Arian baptistery (the Ostrogoths largely followed Arianism, but tolerated Nicean Christians, but when Justinian ordered the suppression of heretical sects it led to war with Byzantium)

#UnconfinedWalks Day 4 continued, back to Ravenna and starting with a look around St John the Evangelist. Built as a votive offering by Galla Placidia for avoiding shipwreck but badly bombed in the Second World War so almost completely rebuilt afterwards. Fragments of mosaic on the walls

#UnconfinedWalks day 4 continued with the museum including Classe. Useful overview of how the area developed and the timeline of when Ravenna became capital of the Western Empire, then seat of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy and then capital of Byzantine Exarchate