A neighbor friend passed on this picture of fireflies in a meadow down the way from us. I love this time of year.

The Titanic museum in #belfast is an amazing building - an an excellent #museum The front of the building - in the photo - is the same size as the front of the ship Titanic. The building is in the shape of a star, as in White Star Line. #boattripnorth

Boycott it https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/07/ioc-lifts-suspension-russia-compete-la-2028-olympics

Does that include the rapists, Donny boy? Frankly don’t let the door hit you on the way out. If Russia can’t defeat Ukraine, do you think we need a country lead by a spray tanned granddad to defend us? https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/ebaa8b13-ca16-4b69-909b-276b6ddb3bfd

[grumpy swear rant about academia and $] I just learned that to get reimbursed by Université de Montréal you have to not only submit your boarding passes, but SCREENSHOTS OF YOUR ACTUAL FUCKING BANK ACCOUNT TRANSACTIONS for EACH ITEM you need to get reimbursed for. The academic reimbursement […]

Tell the UK Government to Ban Bottom Trawling in Protected Waters A handy link to send a postcard to your MP. Act now to save our seas! banbottomtrawling.oceanauk.justpost.cards

Flow batteries that store energy in liquid could accelerate the green transition https://theconversation.com/flow-batteries-that-store-energy-in-liquid-could-accelerate-the-green-transition-282412

Why worms (and microbes) are catching on as a manure pollution solution https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/07/1140142/why-worms-and-microbes-are-catching-on-as-a-manure-pollution-solution/ At least in California, which has become a test bed for emerging means of cleaning up livestock […]

Never break the law for a good reason. If you break the law for gain or just because you felt like it, you might get off lightly. You'll at least only have the usual burden of raising reasonable doubt that what you did was what you're charged with. If you say you had a good reason to break the […]

I'm awaiting a phone call from the hospital to say they are sending the necessary paperwork to the Registrar's Office. I have no idea when they will call. This makes me anxious. The man who just cold called me about some crap or other was treated to my best furious tirade. And then had the […]

Oh goody. US tech stock valuations — driven by AI hype, of course — are now 40 times their earnings over the past decade, a degree of bubble indictor described here as "equivalent to the tide receding before a freak tsunami". Doesn't matter if you always saw the emperor's lack of clothes, the […]

It's summer holiday time and we're back on the train, this time in 5 changes from Copenhagen to Amsterdam via Hamburg - so far (🤞) mostly on time. I'm astonished too. So let's try not to curse it. I had planned board games, reading books, having a picnic and photo sorting for this trip. But […]

Why I can’t bring myself to read Neal Asher these days.

#WalesOnline don't take no shit. But AndyBurnham's team offered them an article by their boy, which was shit 💩. It was just a "Welshified version" of an article written for English regions. It was full of inaccuracy. So they didn't publish the shit 💩. Instead […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

Here’s a rolling analysis that I enjoy checking up on from time to time: MyGridGB takes real GB mainlandelectricity grid demand a compares how the power is generated now with how it will be generated if planned growth in wind turbines (3x) and solar (3x) are […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

And here’s a detailed comparison between how today’s grid operates and how the future will hopefully look. The right-hand pie shows a simulation of what the 2030 Blueprint electricity mix would have looked like over the last 28 days — using actual weather and […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

[food, grumpy rant] I just can't even bring myself to update and expand an old article I wrote less than 5 years ago about how terrible "only" tens of thousands of satellites would be in the night sky. Now there are 5 different companies in the US alone asking for close to 2 million satellites […]

Margie's Candies, Chicago, IL, 2015. All the pixels, but none of the calories count, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/21135096034 #photography

[Sexual assault referenced in link] What's wrong with the GNU project? How do the developers of GNU Parallel think "Hmm yeah that sounds like a good and proper release name"?? https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/parallel/2026-06/msg00000.html

I’m on a panel at WSIS in Geneva. Someone asked what the judiciary system around the world needs to know about AI I said that the judiciary anywhere should be aware of algorithmic injustice and who it can harm, especially victims of surveillance and bias (like with facial recognition), and to […]

UK scraps £45 million girls' education programme https://www.africanews.com/2026/07/06/uk-scraps-45-million-girls-education-programme/ Britain has scrapped a flagship £45 million programme aimed at helping one million girls across Africa, Asia and the Middle East gain access to higher education […]

Small Battery: Octopus Energy launches the ‘Nook’ range, home batteries to unlock lower bills for millions of households https://octopus.energy/small-battery-octopus-energy-launches-the-nook-range-home-batteries-to-unlock-lower-bills-for-millions-of-households/ Arriving next year...

Happy aphelion day from the grumpy-looking barn swallows who are about to fledge

An important response from @ingmar.wsocial.eu of @wedonthavetime.wsocial.eu on the EU defining, uh, oil as sustainable.

Re. the comment following my dad's diagnosis, the editor in question followed it up with "well MY dad got sick too, and it didn't bother me that much." Not a hint of introspection.

"No one cares about climate change, you need to stop writing about it" - a newsroom editor. "You are too weak to be a journalist" - the same editor, the day I learned about my dad's cancer diagnosis.

A morning in Tobermory in the rain! I suspect that when it's not crowded with cruise ship crowds it's a nice town. Sketch below started in the dry, and got rained on. Touched up back in the cabin and I'm quite pleased with it. #mustntgrumble […] [Original post on cupoftea.social]

It's a collective psychopathy, which treats disabled people, elderly people and people with long-term conditions as disposable. We see it in the Covid-19 pandemic. We see it in the heatwaves. Their deaths are inconvenient reminders that a favoured policy is disastrous. So they must be dismissed.

After I wrote last week's column, I learnt that a neighbour with severe disabilities, an extremely tough & resourceful woman who lived to the full, died in the heatwave. Everyone here is devastated. I can scarcely express my anger towards a mindset that treats people like her as collateral damage. 🧵

It's the first Sunday in July, so the #MetPol gathered in central #London to perform the traditional arrest of 84yo Rev #SueParfitt. Brave #MetropolitanPolice officers fearlessly risked their lives to atend a small peaceful gathering and remove the serial […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

Keeping #London safe! #MetropolitanPolice #Metropolitan arrest notorious #terrorist! On Sunday, 84-year-old Rev #SueParfitt was arrested again, under the UK #TerrorismAct. She was speaking outside #NewScotlandYard on the anniversary of the proscription of […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

On shady data centre deals: excellent work and a great thread from Guy, here.

The goal is to just be this relaxed and comfy at least once in my life.

RE: https://mastoart.social/@StevenLawsonPhotography/116866273529407618 Please sign this petition against a proposed AI data center in my home county. “One of the world’s largest AI data centres is being planned next to Auchtertool village in Fife, Scotland. The height of six double decker […]

Photo linked in last post is here - it's a bit of test to see if others can access them. Here I'm flying a UAV in Greenland, a current student has done a brilliant job with this data and will be writing it up as a paper. I'm pretty excited by the results too.

"The enigmas of reality,” he explains, “as in, say, quantum mechanics, aren’t the real mysteries any more. The real mysteries are what the fuck we’ve done to the world, why we did it, and what epistemology we used to perform this act of vandalism.” Conveying bafflement without sacrificing […]

World’s grumpiest cats to find love at Edinburgh Zoo https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/news/worlds-grumpiest-cats-find-love-edinburgh-zoo Pallas’s cats are known online as the world’s grumpiest cat, but keepers at Edinburgh Zoo are hoping to turn that frown upside down as they welcome a new female […]

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@Wen/116865724340008944 #starmer deserves a prize for the sheer persistence and intensity of his mendzcity. A lesser man would apologise for his initial support for the 2-child cap. But Kid Starver's mendacity is so monumental and shameless that he tries to make it […]

This July 4th reminds me that I only learned a few years ago that the Statue of Liberty is an anti-slavery monument created by a French abolitionist back in 1865 to celebrate emancipation, so I tell my little cousins about the broken chains at her feet any chance I get […]

Recently planted meadow

Peanut & Lulu 2: The secret of the curtain. Film by my daughter Elisabeth #caturday #catsofmastodon

Il y a trois jours, j’avais publié un message que j’ai finalement supprimé. Je le trouvais trop émotionnel, et pas assez solide face aux incertitudes sur l’intensité de cette troisième canicule. J’ai eu tort. 1/6

Celtic nations begin to plan for breakup of UK in event of Deform UK election win https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/04/uk-ireland-leaders-fear-union-future-nigel-farage-led-government Politicians brace for constitutional turmoil if Frog face Farage’s party end up in government – or […]

RE: https://oldbytes.space/@Kroc/116855628444343133 I distinctly remember that my edition of Encarta (they released a new one every year for a while) would play a recording of Martin Luther King Jr saying “I have a dream” at bootup. The ability to browse hundreds of such historically […]

Boffins peg narcissistic leadership as the real driver behind 'return to office' demands https://www.theregister.com/columnists/2026/07/01/boffins-peg-narcissistic-leadership-as-the-real-driver-behind-return-to-office-demands/5264222 It's not about productivity; it's about bosses missing their […]

Five megawatt ferry charger in Oslo. Hope you like my song choice

The UN Commission of Inquiry has released a devastating report alleging that Israeli forces carried out deliberate, systematic attacks on children in #Gaza and the #WestBank after 7 October 2023. Investigators cite more than 21,909 children killed and at least […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]

okay this one had me spitting blood