Mark and I became friends after I did his Arctic Ultra course a few years ago (he still runs it if you enjoy that sort of thing) and I agree with Chris; this is a great book!

Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Dear voter, sick of the other parties and tempted by Reform UK? Don’t be daft. Don’t do it. They’re not your friends. Unless you are already rich, this report proves that they will only make your life and your family’s lives worse talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/01/28/d...

"Kemi Badenoch tells us that the UK now has two Farageist parties – the Farageist party led by Farage, and the Farageist party not led by Farage." leftfootforward.org/2026/01/cent...

Video on recent overnight trip #hiking youtu.be/18O-AaQzdOc

This is an exciting adventure story! #hiking www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2026/01/book...

High Court throws out Moorland Association's legal challenge against new burning regulations raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/01/28/h...

Moorland Association at the High Court challenging Defra's new regs on peatland burning raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/01/27/m...

The officer who shot Alex worked for DHS for 8 years. The officer who shot Renee worked for DHS for over 10 years. Both are considered “highly trained.” The problem isn’t "training." DHS was built to violate our rights and has been empowered to act with impunity. We must MELT ICE and dismantle DHS.

ICE murdered Renée Good in broad daylight. Less than 3 weeks later, they killed Alex Pretti, shooting him 10 times. Every day, we watch as people are ripped from their cars, their homes, their lives. We can't allow ourselves to look away from this cruelty. Abolish ICE.

Seven sacks of dead Pheasants dumped by side of road in South Lanarkshire raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/01/26/s...

Lochan Deo in Rothiemurchus Forest last September and today. Drought to overflowing. #cairngorms

Camp this morning. First of the year. Wonderfully relaxing. #wildcamping #scottishhighlands

Looks like all the dregs from'The Nasty Party' are quite happy to migrate over to Russian-funded #Reform UK Ltd, evidently now making it 'The Nastier Party'.

🚨 Breaking from the US Senator for Connecticut. 👇 There you have it. ICE has never been about immigration enforcement. It's a weapon used to brutalize Americans and stoke enough fear so that Trump can rig the elections and usher in dictatorship.

#Epstein #EpsteinFiles

Thanks Simon for this important piece! www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/the-courag...

They built wind turbines to make power — but under the sea, they “produce” something no one expected www.ecoportal.net/en/turbines-...

Like the water companies?! 🤦🤦🤦 #Privatisation - built on slashing quality or services and the pay and conditions of workers, and pumping public money into private hands www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/reform-mp-...

Nigel Farage racks up £151,000 in donor-funded flights to support Donald Trump www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Dob's Linn: where Charles Lapworth used fossil graptolites to age a succession of strata. Dob's Linn forms the internationally recognised boundary between the Ordovician and Silurian. Dob's Linn is named after Halbert Dobson, 17th century Covenanter. geologyglasgow.org.uk/iconic-sites...

BBC News - 'We shouldn't take outdoor access for granted' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Terrorist Kyle Rittenhouse showed up to a protest with a rifle, killed people, and Republicans crowned him a hero. That’s not “law and order.” That’s fascist glorification of political violence.

AOC: "An ICE officer had violently pushed a woman to the ground and he had come over to help get her up and that is what precipitated this incident that very quickly led to an execution in the streets. What we are seeing here is a momentous pivotal moment for the United States."

Abolish ICE and prosecute everyone who stays in it from this day forward as members of a criminal conspiracy to commit murder.

Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

"Alex was murdered while he was helping."

Spent the morning with my mind in the Ordovician, 488 to 444 million years ago. The Iapetus Ocean was closing, and the Ballantrae Complex, an ophiolite, formed when seafloor lavas and deeper rocks were obducted on to the continent of Laurentia in what is now part of Scotland. #geology #EarthSciences

Get this, there’s another Trump Phone coming. The promised $400 Trump phone hasn't materialized, but that's not stopping the Washington's Mobster & Co. from trying to suck up more MAGA dollars. I guess MAGA isn't intelligent enough to know they are being scammed? www.theverge.com/news/866601/...

So I’m reading this and halfway through and I’m like, he’s gonna sue the polls. And welp a few more sentences down and there it is. FFS 🤦🏼‍♂️

URGENT 🚨 We have just one week to stop Sex Matters infiltrating a vote to ban conversion therapy. We must stop them. Use our tool and tell the MPs to stand up for what's right ✊ https://goodlaw.social/945cd5

BBC News - Energy park rejected over Flow Country impact concerns www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nigel Farage is already being paid £1m a year by his 'donors', 4x what he would earn as PM. Who do you think he is working for?

BBC News - Roads flooded and schools shut during heavy rain warning - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Palantir software is now the basis of the Government's fraud reporting service. So it now handles sensitive financial data for millions of UK citizens. Plus NHS data. Plus military analytics. Plus policing. And, of course, it's quite explicitly far right in its politics. What could ever go wrong?

This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.

"Bamboo has a fast growth rate... Everything you can do with timber you can do with bamboo." With the construction industry accounting for ~1⁄3 of global GHG emissions, we badly need to use more bio-based materials such as bamboo - as well as prioritise retrofitting existing buildings.

Camping stoves for winter #hiking www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2026/01/stov...

A little video on stoves for winter camping #hiking youtu.be/UQvySiL_ZJs

www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/... @pavementgeology.bsky.social #TravelAddicts #Geology @amyjanebeer.bsky.social @haggewoods.bsky.social @pastpreservers.bsky.social @christownsend.bsky.social @onloughrigg.bsky.social

Badenoch tried to use Trump's remarks criticising the Chagos deal, and it backfired spectacularly leftfootforward.org/2026/01/pmqs...

BBC News - Cow astonishes scientists with rare use of tools www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

BBC News - Rare seagrass 'fairy circles' discovered in the Hebrides www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We have made the decision to formally close our X social media account. Once a vibrant platform to promote the interests of authors, we feel X is no longer a trusted place for balance, community support, and reliable information.