David Underdown

David Underdown

@davidunderdown.bsky.social

Data Engineer at The National Archives. Digital Preservation/Digital Archiving. Also cycling, bellringing, photography, choral singing, promming and much more

1.8K followers2K following1.7K posts

David Underdown reposted

Benjamin Welby
@bm.wel.by

I thought I'd finished writing about GOV.UK on the High Street. Then a couple of visits before the end of my time at DWP made me wonder whether I'd been asking too small a question. A rather long (and overdue) post about government, regeneration, belonging, and the places where things can begin.

bm.wel.byImagining a somewhere to be: for people to belong, and to begin - bmwelby's blogFrom GOV.UK to Glasgow and Grahame Park: an essay about the visible state, regeneration, civic space and places where people can belong and begin.

David Underdown reposted

Laura Laker
@lauralaker.bsky.social

Online marketplaces are enabling the purchase of dangerous and illegal products @marksuttonbike.bsky.social has done some characterisically excellent work this week highlighting the problem & offering advice www.cyclingelectric.com/in-depth/buy...

cyclingelectric.comDangerous recalled UPP ‘e-bike’ battery widely listed on Facebook MarketplaceFacebook marketplace is presently hosting for sale multiple examples of the dangerous and recalled UPP triangle-shaped 'e-bike' battery, intended as

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Charlie Warzel
@cwarzel.bsky.social

70 percent of the internet was vulnerable yesterday to very bad security flaws inside a coding language. Turns out, *one volunteer* is mostly responsible for maintaining that code & helping push updates. Yesterday Ondřej Surý saved the internet. So I called him up www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

theatlantic.comThe Man Who Saved the Internet YesterdayOndřej Surý was a relatively anonymous volunteer working on PHP security. Then the internet exploded.

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Laura Robson-Mainwaring
@laurarobmains.bsky.social

The National Archives AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Award projects are open for EOIs from potential UK HEI co-supervisors - deadline today, 17:00! For 2027, we will be funding a maximum of 5 PhD projects. One project is around mental health statistics post-NHS: rb.gy/f3po8i

nationalarchives.gov.ukA History of Government Mental Health Statistics since the Foundation of the NHSThis project will produce the first history of the creation, collection, interpretation and use of government mental health statistics.

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Ancestral Enquiries - Tony Smith 🌳
@ancestralenq.bsky.social

A man who cut a map out of a 1684 at last by Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit at the Caird Library, part of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London has been jailed for 3 years. 👇 BBC News - Map thief leads 'merry dance' with return promises www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukMap thief led court on 'merry dance' with return promisesThe 1684 world map, cut from an atlas at the National Maritime Museum’s library, has not been found.

David Underdown reposted

Thony Christie
@rmathematicus.bsky.social

The German chemist, Georg Ernst Stahl, who originated the Phlogiston Theory, was born 21 October 1660 #histsci #histchem thonyc.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/t...

thonyc.wordpress.comThe Phlogiston Theory – Wonderfully wrong but fantastically fruitfulThere is a type of supporter of gnu atheism and/or scientism who takes a very black and white attitude to the definition of science and also to the history of science. For these people, and there a…

David Underdown reposted

Dan P
@danieljphelan.bsky.social

Seven men of a bomb disposal unit, including two George Cross recipients, were killed on the outskirts of Coventry in this day in 1940. The men are all buried together and the spot where they were killed is marked with a memorial plaque. 📍Coventry (London Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧

David Underdown
@davidunderdown.bsky.social

My maternal grandfather came from a Nottingham lace manufacturing family. Records of dissolved companies suggest they held at least one patent for improvements to machine lace looms. Must order up some of the Registered Designs they had for lace products too

RebeccaaAAARRRGGGHHHhhhhh@rebeccawynter.bsky.social

'The Last Lace Mill' in Nottingham in photos. People still work traditional looms from 1913; its 20000 punchcard design patterns foreshadowing computing. Madras lace was shipped to the colonies, where, by blocking mosquitos, it saved lives from being extinguished by malaria. #DesignHist #HistSTM

theguardian.comThe last lace mill – in picturesA look inside the last mill in the world weaving patterned Nottingham lace on traditional looms

David Underdown reposted

RebeccaaAAARRRGGGHHHhhhhh
@rebeccawynter.bsky.social

'The Last Lace Mill' in Nottingham in photos. People still work traditional looms from 1913; its 20000 punchcard design patterns foreshadowing computing. Madras lace was shipped to the colonies, where, by blocking mosquitos, it saved lives from being extinguished by malaria. #DesignHist #HistSTM

theguardian.comThe last lace mill – in picturesA look inside the last mill in the world weaving patterned Nottingham lace on traditional looms

David Underdown reposted

Simon Jones
@simonjones.bsky.social

#OTD 18 October 1925, the unveiling of the War Memorial of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Hyde Park Corner, London. Attending the ceremony, a small boy with his mother looks up at a monumental bronze figure of a soldier. Sculpture by Charles Sargeant Jagger. Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

David Underdown reposted

Cycling UK Official
@cyclinguk.bsky.social

😅 60 miles on a 135-year-old bicycle. What could go wrong? On 1 November, our longest-serving staff member, Ross Adams, is riding from London to Brighton to give back to Cycling UK after 16 years of seeing how cycling changes lives. Solid tyres, one gear & one brake. Can he make it?

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Graham Moore
@mooregraham.bsky.social

This #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM2026 we’re highlighting a remarkable story from our Revolution 250 exhibition. Scipio Handley was a free-born Black Loyalist, fisherman, Revolutionary War veteran, and spy. His story took him from revolutionary America to London’s growing early-modern Black community.

nationalarchives.gov.ukThe Black Loyalist and spy who fled to 18th-century LondonScipio Handley, a Black fisherman from South Carolina, took a great personal risk when he sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War.

David Underdown reposted

Odd This Day
@oddthisday.bsky.social

It’s the 112th anniversary of Mr Rée’s birth today, so here’s a thread about his extraordinary life (which prompted several people last year to observe, regardless of his sandals/socks decision, that Harry was “smoking hot”)

Odd This Day@oddthisday.bsky.social

It’s the 111th anniversary today of the birth of Harry Rée, who was a teacher and conscientious objector when the Second World War broke out, and by the time it ended, when he was 31, had invented ‘blackmail sabotage’ and got a DSO, an OBE, a Croix de Guerre, and a Medaille de la Resistance

David Underdown reposted

Hetan Shah
@hetanshah.bsky.social

We've awarded the @britishacademy.bsky.social President's Medal to the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra which was founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said to bring musicians across borders together to share in the act of performing music www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/pioneer...

thebritishacademy.ac.ukPioneering orchestra promoting solidarity across borders receives 2026 British Academy President’s MedalThe West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has been awarded the British Academy’s most prestigious award, the President’s Medal for 2026, recognising the orchestra’s outstanding musical achievements and its vit...

David Underdown reposted

💾💜 Digital ⚓️ Vagabond 💜💾
@b33tk33p3r.bsky.social

Just one more thing... some points I forgot to labor on in our discussion of USB disk drives in the Myths, Risks and Realities of Floppy Disk Preservation paper we had the pleasure of presenting at iPRES2026. exponentialdecay.co.uk/blog/just-on... #digipres #GLAM #MLIS #Archives #DigitalPhilology

exponentialdecay.co.ukJust one more thing: Myths, Risks and Realities of Floppy Disk PreservationReflections on our paper Myths, Risks and Realities of Floppy Disk Preservation, winner of the 2026 Angela Dappert Memorial Award

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Hetan Shah
@hetanshah.bsky.social

Sewers are one of the most transformational interventions to human health in history, yet they are rarely understood or recognised for their impact. So we are holding an event about them next Tuesday. In person in London or watch online! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/searc...

thebritishacademy.ac.ukThe secret life of sewersFrom the Big Stink to the fatberg, London's history has always flowed through what (and how) we flush away. Sewers are one of the most transformational, yet least recognised interventions in the histo...

David Underdown reposted

The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales
@wtsww.bsky.social

The results are in... Today The Bank of England has announced which wildlife species will be stepping into the spotlight on our new notes. And the winners are: 🦉 Barn Owl 🦔 European Hedgehog 🐝 Buff-tailed Bumblebee 🐧 Atlantic Puffin Four important and iconic species.

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Bart⚓️
@bartgonnissen.bsky.social

1/x Two of the best-known coats on any high street began as working kit for sailors on cold decks. Both carry names from my little corner of the North Sea: Duffel, a small town near Antwerp, and the Dutch word "pij". The story of the duffel coat and the peacoat. #maritimehistory

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New Professionals
@aranewprofs.bsky.social

Tickets are going fast for our winter seminar on Friday 23 October. Join audio experts, records managers and other new archiving professionals for a great afternoon of networking and connecting across the #archives and #recordsmanagement community: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ara-sfnp-a...

eventbrite.co.ukARA SfNP Annual Seminar: Many Routes, One ProfessionThis seminar celebrates the wide range of careers, skills, and experiences that shape the profession.

David Underdown reposted

Melissa & Chris Bruntlett
@modacitylife.com

Cyclists in the Netherlands take 300 million day trips and 5.85 million overnight trips per year, generating €3.6 billion for the economy and supporting 39,000 full-time jobs. Across Europe, cycle tourism accounted for 28% of the bike industry’s total economic and employment impact. bit.ly/47Gy7VU