A rare bit of good news. Not unalloyed positive, as it doesn’t measure total coal production/usage (only the stuff being shipped around the world), but an indicator of movement in the right direction. www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

I was just thinking that owning six guns seems like a huge red flag (re: Bondi Beach) but then I realised I have two air guns somewhere in my house. A little .177 target pistol I bought in my teens and an ancient air rifle I inherited from a distant relative. It is very easy to make assumptions.

I think that the constant framing of protest against Israeli apartheid as antisemitism has really cemented into people’s minds that Jews are responsible for the genocide in Gaza. Breaking that link seems a far better thing than banning all pro-Palestinian protest.

I was so relieved to hear recently of another person in the world who just doesn’t get hangovers (Naomi Smith of @quietriotpod.bsky.social). i drank so much during my second year at university trying to figure out what people were on about.

Absolutely horrendous behaviour by the BBC. Auntie finishing its metamorphosis into Anti

I am finding the airbus ”recall” inter in all sorts of ways. The terrible explanation of the problem, and solution. The manufactured drama. The lack of risk analysis. Lots of press release based reporting rather than actual explanation or understanding.

🚨WOW! The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 47,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 50,000 tonight. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

I am enjoying The Folded Sky (White Space #3) by @matociquala.bsky.social at the moment. An interesting accepted future technology (keeps being mentioned but doesn’t really change the plot) is “tuning” which is AI hormone manipulation to control aberrant behaviours in humans.

Just watching #bbclaurak. I am stuck between wondering whether successive governments make non-white people home secretary just to avoid the most obvious attack line when they give succour to racists, and whether Chris Philp could be more. disingenuous if he tried.

Misusing “Flatlining” is my current pet hate. It implies dead (the ECG is a flat line). If GOP hasn’t grown it isn’t dead. Yes, the line is flat but that isn’t what the word implies. “Flirting with death” implies taking mad risks. It doesn’t actually mean looking winsomely at a skeleton in a cape.

This seems applicable to the US and UK this week.

Hi @philsturgeon.com what are your thoughts on bracken clearance? I cleared a few metres of my Devon hedgerow while planting tree saplings in it and got a rather lovely display of wildflowers coming through at head height (snowdrops and later bluebells). I was thinking about trying to clear the rest

A good, fact dense consideration of why carbon capture is basically a way of giving subsidies and tax deductions to the fossil fuel industry while doing sweet Fanny Adams to reduce climate change. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcNh...

The only positives I can draw from the Huntingdon train attack is that we have police who didn’t just storm in and kill two more people. As a result we might actually get to find out what the reason for the attack was rather than wildly speculating.

Always worth nudging an Express poll towards reality

They lost Wonder Woman. Captain America is clearly anti-Trump I think they just have Red Skull left. www.gazetadopovo.com.br/caderno-g/ve...

Well this is the dream outcome for the Greens. The people who don’t watch because of Laura Kuensberg and the people who might vote Green have a massive overlap. Victoria Derbyshire presenting might get them past 150,000 members.

Weird opinion : milkmen are the symptom and cause of a nice area. If you can trust your neighbours not to nick the milk from your doorstep it’s a good area. My parents milkman caught more burglars than the local police because he was around at 4am.

Would love an original source but kudos to this.

This won’t cause any problems at all with bias against uneducated UK applicants (!?). I presume equality legislation means that the same standard has to apply to native speakers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting result of overzealous policing. Compensation to be paid. I am possibly being too kind about the officer’s motivation by just saying overzealous. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I’m a cynical pessimist on Israel-Gaza. Coverage seems biased. 20 “hostages” is the headline and 1,700 “prisoners” and 154 “exiled” are barely being mentioned. I completely expect Israel to start bombing again tomorrow for some utterly confected reason. I wish I could muster some optimism or joy.

Interesting discussion on climate change and migration. Rather telling that the opinions expressed are classed as radical by radio 4 though. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Chicken and egg question. Did trump-like (trompeuse) get the meaning of deceptive/criminal before or after the family of the same name started in business.

There are too few musical parodies in the world today. www.youtube.com/shorts/4Iu3g...

Very nice in depth consideration of why hydrogen for home heating is a terrible idea. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyhw...

So much American TV is basically “Here’s some manly men risking their lives because our government is rubbish at infrastructure. ”. Flicking through the in-between channels - Ice Road Truckers, Big Timber, and now Mud Mountain Haulers. All about inadequate roads and badly maintained equipment.

I am sitting in front of about 100 cooking apples that I just picked, knowing that they can become an entire Winter’s worth of crumbles and pies in my freezer. Really not keen to start on peeling and prepping them though.

I stumbled across the new book on Douglas Adams through Cautionary Tales with @timharford.ft.com . It is rather inspiring. The original link for the audiobook is below but I also found it on Spotify. www.pushkin.fm/audiobooks/d...

While the nutcases in the US are trying to blame paracetamol for autism, has anyone investigated heroin, meth and ketamine use leading to far right beliefs? RFK jr - heroin Musk - ketamine Little Tommy two names - meth Hitler - meth apparently www.theguardian.com/books/2016/s...

A question for all the grammarians out there. I love the Google results for the Womens Rugby but I now only get them if I call it Women’s Rugby. I think of it as Rugby with women playing rather than the Rugby that belongs to Women. So apostrophe or not?

In touch with my feelings this morning. Unfortunately that means I am listening to Jethro Tull and have an overwhelming desire for Japanese food.

My most returned to conspiracy theory is that the racism in western governments is being fomented in order to make laws that prevent climate refugees getting in when things start to go really pear shaped.

If Trump has had a debilitating stroke, how long do you think they will keep him as a figurehead while continuing with Project 2025 in his name? I mean, that’s basically what they’ve being doing since the election anyway.

DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT #FARAGE ALWAYS BEING ON TV IF YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED THIS PETITION !!! DO IT!!!!! RT and thankyou for your attention to this matter! 😰 petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

Quality protesting. Donating again.

Early years education should teach teenagers to live with hormones. They’ll drive you mad with desire for the next 10 years and then try to turn you into a bigoted racist as you near retirement. Part of education is helping you ride out both of those extremes without doing anything really stupid.

@oldenoughtosay.bsky.social I heard this and thought lf you - interesting section on government research on potty training halfway through. Honest experience appreciated - I know nothing! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

#politicslive Ester McVey is awful. One of those people that experts hate talking to. She spouts prepared misinformation lines so fast that you get hung up on which lie to debunk first.

Morning run listening. Proper detective work. It slightly reduced the suffering of running in Devon rush hour. I was passed by a whole 6 cars, two lorries, and a tractor - insane traffic levels. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

A strange set of thoughts came together this morning. Right wing parties seem to thrive on overactive disgust/phobias (for sexuality, foreigners, disabilities). Ozempic helps weight loss by reducing cravings/increasing satiation. What if there was a drug to reduce phobias? Would it cure republicans?

This sounds like an interesting and familiar idea until I realise that I recognise it from The Andromeda Strain. Weird space bug kills all the people in a small town and then escapes from the government research facility because it eats the plastic seals in the lab. www.ksl.com/article/5133...

Why have we seen so little “why” for the PIP claimant increase. When I had a proper job we did things based on evidence. Just reducing PIP claimants because there are too many is useless.

The vote to proscribe Palestine Action covered three organisations. There was no way to pick and choose. The Greens voted 100% against. The LibDems that didn’t abstain voted both yes and no. Either seems like a sensible way to respond to a bad faith conflation of different groups.

Not an original observation but I think you can understand Trump just by assuming everything he does is for revenge or ratings. NOAA points out he was wrong about hurricane path prediction —> NOAA defunded. www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/w...

Worth five minutes of your time, especially if you are in one of the large areas of the UK where you would lose your rights.

I don’t like that parking is going up (it’s 50% of the cost of anything I do in Exeter). What really bothers me is “Parking fees are the council's largest source of income”. That must massively bias all of their decisions about cycle routes, public transport etc. www.devonlive.com/news/news-op...

I started Severance and enjoyed the exploration of the concept. It’s nice to have some modern sci-fi that isn’t just shooting futuristic guns. I am now at episode 4 and it is feeling like Waiting for Godot. Does it get better or is it just a short story someone dragged out into multiple seasons?