It's been far too long, hasn't it? (Rest assured, i have been continuing my walk along the Blyth and Tyne railway — just at a rather glacial pace…)

• W. H. Smith bingo
• On Radio 4, Tynemouth Sea and Song: “Folk singer Jez Lowe uncovers the traditions of seafaring and song in Tynemouth and North Shields and hears why music is essential to this landscape, its people and its history.”
• The Diamond Geezer risk log: Makes me think about the risks to my own blog.
• Why are links blue?
• The origins of the dialectal words of the north — I was quite surprised to see how many are from Romani
• English counties explained, by Jay Foreman — good heavens, it’s a mess
  • See also Wikishire and their excellent map of the historic counties of Britain and Ireland.
• Three odd canal crossings
• How to see the republic of Ireland from England
• It is fascinating, fourteen years on, to watch the reveal of the original iPhone. How many things we take for granted now that were revolutionary back in 2007!
• Absement, the opposite of velocity
• Genes reveal how and when Polynesian sailors reached the remote isles of the Pacific