• Worked for their local team, and was quite happy to challenge/push back on unreasonable top-down asks.
• Quite happy to admit they didn’t know stuff and asked for advice and ideas - and, of course, credited the appropriate team members for things that worked, but took responsibility themselves if things didn’t go well.
• Displayed authentic emotions and enthusiasm for the work, rather that present a bland corporate mask.

A satsuma. The penultimate element of my lunch.

The ultimate will be a banana, in a few minutes.

I’m peripatetic - I move between 3 different offices in a typical week, plus occasionally WFH. So:

• Coastal heath, birch & oak woodland, the sea off to the side and a nuclear reactor in the background. In the autumn we’ll get a starling murmuration in the later afternoon.
• A small stretch of rough grass and a river wall, with the top of a couple of abandoned military buildings over the top of that. The occasional hare or barn owl will pass by.
• The lawn and occasional ornamental trees of a moderately-sized country house with a shallow valley and more woodland behind that.
• A tussocky lawn, a couple of larch and a spectacular old oak, then a mixed alder and ash covert with a small stream behind that. Hares, a great spotted woodpecker and the occasional stoat put in an appearance.

Beautifully shot and some fine performances all round. Very much a character-based one though. Don’t go into it looking for action or fast-moving plot.

• The Studio - First episode - seems fun, but too similar to The Franchise just at the moment, and without the subtle wit of that one.
• The Righteous Gemstones - part way through season 4. This season lacks the coherence of the previous ones and seems to be be relying on continuous gross-out humour to make up for that. There was a natural end point with season 3. I will give this another episode, but may abandon it there.
• Adolescence - I completely agree with those who say that it isn’t the kids who need to see Adolescence, but the parents. I found that there was some heavy-handed moralising in eps 2 & 4, but 1 and 3 were intense and excellent and all of them were technically impressive.
• The White Lotus - another compelling season of the wealthy and damned paraded for our judgement. Fine performances from Posey, Issacs and Goggins particularly.
• The Residence - I wasn’t sure about episode 1. It seemed to be trying too hard and not nearly as funny as the director seems to think, but episode 2 was much improved. I’ll continue.

Threads (1984). I was in shock for a week when I first saw that. No horror film has come close.

The 1983 UK general election.

However, since I lived in a Tory safe seat (taking boundary changes into account, the last time that location had been anything except tory was a Whig in the C19th) I spoiled my ballot - writing some pithy comment across it about how meaningless the process was. That showed them!

Checking now, I see that it has continued as a Tory safe seat up to the present day.

If these were lab conditions with known airflow and volumes and window sizes and air temperatures and solar gain and so on and so on maybe someone could give you a useful answer, but without any of that, I’ve no idea and I doubt that anyone else will be able to tell you either.

Cold air will enter the stairwell at the bottom. If it is cold outside, it will probably be at least a bit warmer in the stairwell, so the air will warm and rise to the top of the well. It’s probably still cooler than in anyone’s room, though so that will be what the 4th floor residents are noticing.

To air the well most effectively, I’d suggest opening a window at the bottom and at the top and maybe putting a heater at the bottom as well. That would cause the cold air entering at the bottom to rise more rapidly and then exit through the top window. This may not be particularly efficient from an energy use POV though.

With the top window open and the warmer air in the well the 4th floor may even get less of a draft doing this, as the air would be getting out that way instead - unless there was a wind blowing in through that top window.

Sounds interesting. However this quote raised my eyebrows:

We imagine highlighting how resilience and connection can offer hope even in the most challenging of times.

There was no hope in Threads. It was unremittingly, devastatingly bleak.

If this is going to be set around nuclear war, then there can be no hope. Alternatively, if this is not about nuclear war, then is it really going to be Threads?

Top of the list would be Das Boot, but otherwise, some more recent ones include Le Bureau De Legendes, Pui Pui Molcar, Parlement, Dark, Anxious People & Beforeignors.

Beach with other people? Nope. No interest at all.

Deserted beach, where you can roam, explore cliffs and rockpools and so on? Well, they have an atmosphere, so maybe sometime.

Forest? Yes, definitely. Hiking will take you away from anyone else, and there will be plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting one way or another.

Chumbawamba’s discography - or even just this one on repeat.

Cornwall. Same group of friends as the last 30 or so years, in about 6 weeks time.

I’m in the UK. I worked at a couple of places in the '90s - sysadmin and IT trainer - where this was considered perfectly acceptable at the time, but I definitely wouldn’t now. I’m no longer in IT at all, but I don’t think that it is seen as acceptable very widely anywhere now.