david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini

🇨🇭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🕷spouse of 1, father of 3, gramps of 7. @drdjmath.bsky.social

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

Our newest little darling: Luna, born 22 March 2024. A little sister for Alba, a new daughter for Lucia and Ben, a new granddaughter for Catherine, Luz, Lorenzo and me. I can’t wait to meet her.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@giftty_k This sounds very like a sci-fi story from the 1960s or thereabouts.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

Surfers Against Sewage are about to meet with the government to discuss the sewage pollution scandal. Sign the petition to show just how many of us demand change. Over 270k have signed - now let's get this to a number Starmer can't ignore. https://t.co/N36WaWuLcv via @38degrees

[Benjamin Matheson @benjaminmatheso]

Check out this article that me and Alfred Archer wrote on political apologies! https://t.co/HXUXQ4JGsx

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@APCCC_Lugano @FEHW_Research STOPCAP presenting fabulous results at APCCC. I’m honoured to be part of this.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@AlisonH77 @WilsonC75HT @waitrose Every Waitrose I have even been in has had a health and beauty aisle and a public address system. The latter is often called „the Tannoy“ in the same way of the vacuum cleaner is often called „ the Hoover“.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@GregBaldwinIroh Warm the beans… and the microwave works just fine. Toast the bread any way you want. Butter the bread as much as you like. Either pour the beans onto the toast or shovel beans à fur et à mesure onto the buttered toast. Eat and savour the wonderful mélange.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@Rainmaker1973 @gildedcage66 Migros owns Denner which does sell alcohol and tobacco. The owners of Migros are anyone who pays a nominal sum to join. The « part social » is 1.5% of turnover that goes to social projects, especially in poorer areas.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Larry the Cat has been locked out of his Twitter account for 3 weeks, do you think Larry the Cat's Twitter account must be unlocked immediately?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@DitroniX @Amelia558rs Where is the paint going? Are you left breathing it in?

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@theiaincameron Don’t forget Ceuta.

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

Did you see this headline?

Did you feel the requisite anger and rage at asylum seekers that The Sun was asking of you?

Did you maybe blame Starmer because.... um... it was probably his fault🤷‍♀️

Would you like to know the reality behind the headline?

Course you would!😜

Let's take a look

🧵

1/25

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@sciencegirl @PeteLondonerUK Where in Northampton was this? I wasn’t aware we ever had a race track since the Race Course became a public park.

[Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 @JujuliaGrace]

Oh wow this has been shared over 1000 times! 😮

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@theiaincameron It’s an interesting place to visit but I since heard that it is a bit away from the actual four corners. 😊

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@theiaincameron @ron_mould Loch Maree also has the most midges I have ever witnessed in one place!

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

The BBC just released a new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, the classic novel by William Golding. It's beautifully made, but it's still telling the wrong story.

A few years ago, I went looking for the *real* Lord of the Flies. I wanted to know: has it ever actually happened? Have kids ever been shipwrecked on a deserted island?

It took me a year of research, but I found it. In 1965, six boys from a boarding school in Tonga stole a boat, got caught in a storm, and drifted for eight days without food or water. They washed up on 'Ata, a remote, uninhabited island in the Pacific. They stayed there for 15 months, and what happened on that island was the exact opposite of William Golding's novel.

These boys set up a small commune. They built a food garden, stored rainwater in hollowed-out tree trunks, created a gym with improvised weights, and built a badminton court. One of them, Stephen (who would later become an engineer) managed to start a fire using two sticks. They kept it burning the entire time.

Of course they fought too. But then they argued, they had a rule: go to opposite ends of the island, cool down, then come back and apologize. As one of them told me: ‘That's how we stayed friends.’

Back home, everyone assumed that the boys – Luke, Stephen, Sione, David, Kolo and Mano — were dead. When they were finally discovered by an Australian captain named Peter Warner, he radioed their names to Tonga. After twenty minutes, a tearful response came back: ‘You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it's them, this is a miracle!’

Peter commissioned a new ship, hired all six boys as his crew, and named the boat the Ata, after the island where he found them. They remained friends for the rest of their lives – Peter and Mano even became soulmates. I tracked them down, and it became one of the central chapters of my book Humankind.

Here's what struck me most: William Golding (the author of Lord of the Flies) was a troubled man, an alcoholic who once said ‘I have always understood the Nazis, because I am of that sort by nature.’ I think he was projecting his own darkness onto children. And we turned it into a lesson about human nature that we teach to millions of kids around the world.

I think the real lesson is the opposite. When real children found themselves alone on a real island, they didn't descend into savagery. They cooperated, they took care of each other, they survived.

I'm not saying that the Tongan castaways were representative of all kids everywhere. But I am saying that every kid who has to read or watch the fictional Lord of the Flies also deserves to know what actually happened when it played out in real life.

Stories are never just stories. We become the stories that we tell ourselves.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

Remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from royal succession - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/pi9DYh84Qz via @UKChange

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@Kdogthegreat @EagleEye9876 @Mylovanov Your passport is not geography.

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@sciencegirl Two

[david matheson #FBPE #mahsa_amini @drdjmath]

@is_glasgow In the old calendar, the university was founded in 1450 as the Scottish year started in March.