More evidence about how disparate but influential groups - “self-described Classical Liberals, evangelists of free-market capitalism, ethnonationalists, atheists & conservative theologians” - are converging on far-right views & promoting a return to an “era that was colonial, Christian, patriarchal”

While reading about old ideas I came across this version of modernity, biological evolution, old-earth, old-universe are concept which must go to free the church from bondage, from an American author.

History without time. "It may be that, in Buffon’s context, a work or a science did not need to be temporal to be called “history.” In other words, history (at least in the eighteenth-century meaning of the term) did not require time, nor did time imply history."

Buffon, Natural History "the proper concern of history had to do with the “moral” aspects of the life of a species—namely, its habits" core.ac.uk/download/pdf...

A friend who worked on Salisbury Plain told me a location appeared to have been more heavily grazed in the past, he discovered two shepherds would meet there daily so as to eat their food in company, so sheep numbers doubled for a while each day. As ever other causation stories available.

For #StandingStoneSunday, I was going to post one of Clarissa Miles' photos from Stonehenge in 1901. She was the photographer during architect Detmar Blow's operation to straighten Stone 56, and William Gowland's excavations, but instead, here's a passing shepherd and his sheep on the (1/2)

I read something about Scottish Gaelic 1600s which described a special relationship between the children of a wetnurse and the gentleman she had nursed (fed with her milk). Now I get it, this was a blood connection between them. escholarship.org/content/qt7b...

A classic of wide-range-of-time scales biogeodynamics just dropped: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... "By integrating modern and deep-time engineering processes, we offer a framework to assess whether human EE activities (and consequences) have parallels in Earth history" 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Geology

Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a short (16,569 base pairs (bp)) circular DNA present in multiple copies in a single human cell, which makes it easier to detect even in samples with low concentration human DNA content.

"Ones own flesh and blood," related by blood. In an age of genetics, a time of DNA we perhaps often do not sense what that phrase meant. Blood the mystic transmission of virtue, of soul.

Wasp Buzzard makes sense, Willughby’s Buzzard makes me want to vomit.

Swan Pit, Norwich Great Hospital.

yeah we're into LLMs (Large Lamb-bridge Models)

Mute Swans, looking angry, and owned.

Coming soon: 'Wild Roses of Great Britain and Ireland'. This latest title, no.26 in the series of #BSBIHandbooks for tricky plant groups, has just gone to the printers! Available for #BSBImembers to pre-order now at the discount price of £16 (vs RRP £25). Sample pages here: bsbi.org/bsbi-handboo...

@pauldolman.bsky.social page numbers confusing

This thread is about telescopes and bird observation. My first telescope was a Nickel Supra Nickel it was draw-pull, had a zoom magnification between 15-60x, and came in a tube-shaped leather carrying case. Not so different to brass tube telescope which I saw some old birders using.

Austrian Pratincole found and then shot by William Bullock on Unst, Shetland, 16th August, 1812. We now call the species Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola (Linnaeus, 1766) William Bullock was a capable observer, both of birds in the field and of specimens he collected.

The glories of a pair of cauliflowers. Plus some bread and eggs. As painted by Carlo Magini, whose day is today.

Big trees are on the rise. 30 years of Amazon forest measurements by RAINFOR partners show that, so far, any impact of #climatechange on forests and large trees have been more than mitigated by the positive effects of increased resources. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Barred Warbler, Bluethroat, Great Grey Shrike, Snow Buntings, maybe an Icterine Warbler not sure. An enjoyable September day.

Fine company for the establishment left to be keeping: “Asked whether he was an advocate of ‘pseudo-science’ on racial differences in intelligence, Yarvin disputed that his writings were in any way more unscientific than the ‘blank slate’ theory that all “children were born interchangeable””

Lovely set of photographs of a place I would cycle to as a child, somewhere I have been thinking about recently, a conversation about childhood freedom to roam in the 1970s, also land access, when fields are ploughed on the slopes of this Jurassic outlier ammonites can be collected.

Conspiracies always exist, politics is about factions, control, take-over, it is often dirty. Arguably it is not serving us well, I'm not a Labour supporter, did not like Corbyn nor Starmer, a tension has always existed in Labour between left and right of party. unherd.com/newsroom/wil...

Thrilled to share my first first-author paper from my work with the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project! @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social We found that host density acts to increase parasitism through two mechanisms: increased exposure and increased susceptibility. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Anybody who challenges authority or current status quo or who has some weird take on a thing is accused of promoting a conspiracy theory. Bang out of order, surely it is a conspiracy hypothesis.

In the late 1980s the EU forced the "Dirty Man of Europe" the UK to clean up pollution, Cameron interfered with regulators without changing primary legislation, and engineered Brexit. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-does-br...

Free-to-read link @natgenet.nature.com: rdcu.be/eHzSP News & Views: "The dawn of bryophyte genomics is here" rdcu.be/eHzS2

Finding pseudoscopions. Our compost bin had Pselaphochernes scorpioides in it. To search: scoop out top layer of kitchen/garden waste & put in bucket. Sieve next layer down using garden riddle over a bowl. Then use finer potting sieve over tray. They are small, around 2mm. 1/2 @duleyp.bsky.social

In 1793, Robert Jameson was given the responsibility of looking after Edinburgh University's Natural History Collection. In 1804, Jameson succeeded Dr Walker as the third Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, a post which he held for fifty years.

Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) at St. John's Wood, Co. Roscommon yesterday. @bsbiireland.bsky.social

William Bullock refused involvement in exhibiting Baartman in his Egyptian Hall in London. He describes himself as anti-slavery during his American travelling.

1821, John Fleming, "I accompanied Mr Stevenson in the Regent Yacht, during his annual inspection of the Northern Light-houses." How young would the youngest sailor have been, it is feasible that in the

Sheep washing

Excited to share our recent paper @newphyt.bsky.social where we describe evidence of a Jurassic nurse log from Scotland! Great work led by @anajusagasti.bsky.social Sophie Burne and @jeremywyman.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social 🧵 👇 1/6 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Today's artists w/out known birthdays: Jacob Grimmer & his son Abel, of Antwerp. Here, Jacob's bountiful harvest, including some fine bird--dog action.

@botanicalmartin.bsky.social another arable field with parallel lines.

More AI slop... Googled the 2000 Honey-buzzard influx and guess who's interpretation of this dominates the AI summary

1813 a Great Auk killed at Papa Westray, Orkney, the penultimate Great Auk record for Britain. Which Miss Traill was kind enough to send Mr. Bullock the specimen for his London Museum? www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/wor...

Great Auk captured alive St Kilda in 1821, a continuation of linked thread which describes the actual capture. The bird was given to Murdo MacLellan of Scalpay who was the tacksman not factor which was how Skirving described him. bsky.app/profile/amie...

Robert Scot Skirving (1859–1956) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_... visited St Kilda on the 10th of June 1880 travelling on the Dunara Castle, Emily McLeod of Dunvegan (the sister of the island owner) and her nephew were on the same voyage.

I started to walk down towards where the bats were and I said no brett, you're staying the course. Several minutes later, I got this. Right behind me. Success! More videos and stills later once I get back to my laptop. 🪶

Most people don't get it -- but this study nature.com/articles/s43... is co cool! Usually we think about the sequence stratigraphy as uniformitarian discipline/process/structure. But what if the evolutionary events, such as dinosaur extinction changed how stata look!? 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology 1/2

David Vinckboons I, The Kermis of Saint George, before 1604

Hans Verhagen de Stomme, Indian Elephant, ca. 1563 An interesting article on deafness and employment for people from families 'of distinction'. jhna.org/articles/mut...

Satellite imagery revealed features with a playing card shape in the Jordanian desert. This is the classic shape taken by #Roman forts, so may indicate a previously unknown Roman military campaign into what is today Saudi Arabia #RomanFortThursday 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

Saving the bees does not include honeybees. Honeybees are effectively livestock and part of the problem.

Late Pleistocene to beginning of the Holocene, the extinction of the majority of the world's megafauna, this is a convenient point to consider what we mean by wild and nature. It is the point at which some claim humans have a major impact, they tell us humans were the cause of these extinctions.

Again some broad snouted, broad headed dogs with mastiff type influence and running dog / hound athletic frame.

Allowing for artistic licence this would seem likely to be an immature Purple Heron?