Margarine was mostly animal fat originally. Then the great depression led to the perfection of hydrogenation which made it possible to use whale oil. WW2 forced a shift to vegetable oil. The decimation of global whale populations meant there was no economic reason to shift back at that point.

Like, I'm not joking. Just three companies: Unilever, Henkel and Walter Rau are responsible for the near-extinction of Blue Whales and a whole bunch of other species. They directly harvested or bought 85% of all whale oil in the 1930s. Almost all of it to make margarine. The rest for soap.

Today’s poem is called ‘Billionaire in a Midlife Crisis’.

We did it! A missing piece of Upton Heath in Dorset has been saved from mineral extraction and secured as an important ecological corridor within the Upton Heath SSSI. Sand Lizards, Smooth Snakes, Dartford Warblers, invertebrates et al have a brighter future. Thanks to everyone who chipped in!

This might be helpful if you’ve never used the comment system before. utc.org/wp-content/u...

The FCC is looking to take control of the voluntary TV ratings system to banish transgender and non-binary subject matter, hijack the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, and go on a censorship spree in the name of “protecting children.” docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...

If I were a German airline, busy asking people to remember my long history in a special anniversary year, then there is probably one company I would very definitely avoid getting to design my new cabin uniforms. That would be Hugo Boss. I probably wouldn't go for black either.

Here’s something I wrote about how ICE flights are getting longer and the shackling crueler: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

If you’re like, “Wait, everyone is shackled on ICE flights?! Wait, there are 50 ICE flights a day?! Wait, they’re sending people to countries they’ve never been to?!” I am begging you to please read my ICE Air FAQ. 🙏 gillianbrockell.com/what-is-ice-...

Here is my third-country removal tracker. I was the first to report the DRC removal, seven minutes after it landed: gillianbrockell.com/tracking-all...

I wonder if young people today understand that the right used to look upon the U.S. as an unbreakable bastion of democracy when I was young? I realize the play book could be the same in Sweden: put official badges on gangs and let them act out their brutality with impunity.

What? @bbcnews.bsky.social gets an interview with the craziest nutjob on the planet & didn't ask him about insider trading, Epstein, being a bigger liar than Tom Pepper etc.. But instead listened to him tell you how Charlie can improve things by sucking up to him www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a FRAUDULENT paper, AI-generated. My name was used as an author and I had nothing to do with it, never saw it until today e-pubmed.co.uk/journals/dig... The "Editors" Angelo Rossi Mori, David Mensah, and Zarnie Khadjesari and this "Journal" should be reported.

If you're ever lost in a trackless forest, try saying out loud, "My laptop is too slow." Follow the voice calling out "Install Linux!"

Burchett is right: the most DC thing ever *is* a member of Congress blaming the city for something he and his colleagues did themselves.

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Behold the snake.

Major #EarthDay win 🎉: H.R. 1897, aka the Endangered Species Act Amendments Act was just pulled from house floor consideration following outcry from both Republicans and Democrats who oppose the bill.

#Black #children in England & Wales almost eight times more likely to be strip-searched than white peers. Demographic also overrepresented when #police officers use force such as handcuffs, firearms or Tasers, says new report by England's children’s commissioner | www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Reporter: What do you make of Republicans saying that Virginia— AOC: Wah wah wah. We have asked Republicans for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering. And for 10 years, Republicans have said no. What they’re just mad at is that they have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over.

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil was killed today in a targeted Israeli strike. The IDF fired live rounds and stun grenades at the Red Cross ambulances trying to reach her. She is the 4th journalist killed by Israel while in the field since 2 March. Photo via X @HindRFoundation.

Okay. Let's take a moment to talk about How To Be A Hugo Nominee And Come Out Of It Happy About the Honor. I realize this is relevant to like, twelve people. I don't care, those twelve people deserve my time. (You may have seen a version of this thread before. I do it every year.)

Use Claude Code they said. The most advanced model they said.

Politicians leaving office or ending their campaigns when hit with a scandal.

All three of my hometown newspapers back in North Carolina - the Charlotte and Raleigh News & Observers, and the Durham Herald Sun - are owned by the publisher in question, McClatchy. These are good papers, with long histories of excellent investigative journalism. This is an utter disgrace.

Last night, after an hours-long public hearing, Monterey Park became the first city in California to pass an ordinance permanently banning data centers. The city council voted unanimously to declare data centers a public nuisance, and to "prohibit all data centers within city limits." My story:

🧵Spotted While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand: In a library, a small human (4?) is trying to pick a book but she's not sure which one! (Oh no!) Does she want this one... This one? THESE ONES? THOSE ones?! With an exasperated roar, she beseeches the library gods: "WHY are there SO MANY?!" (1)

'Gebrauchsspuren' #FotoVorschlag Diese Tasche hat so einiges gesehen. Keine Ahnung wie’s um den Inhalt steht.

We should bring back these lost pronouns, partly because they are cool, and partly to annoy the TERFs (bonus point to the article for mentioning Chaucer’s use of the singular ‘they’). www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

I truly didn't think I could hate Reform more... (speaking as a major fan of the many incredible and wonderfully curated museums here in Wales!) OBVIOUSLY this is not my main objection to them. Just: they don't stop! They keep on getting even worse!

Canadian doctors obeying a U.S. executive order that doesn’t even apply to Canada is deeply offensive to both trans people and to Canadian legal sovereignty.

'Farbe: Grün (keine Pflanzen)' #FotoVorschlag Schwere Aufgabe! Ein dunkelgrüner Abfallbehälter der Erinnerungen an Star Wars hervorrief. Und Gras. Aber sonst hätte ich noch wesentlich weiter blättern müssen.

Those kids have been failed so hard by everybody. By the school that hired abusive coaches, continues to employ them, and still pretends they’re providing a safe environment for students. By all of the adults in the room that allowed this to happen in the moment. By society as a whole.

It’s really really hard to remain positive about the side that implements genocide. You have to turn yourself into a pretzel multiple times over to justify bombing hospitals and food deliveries. And yet some people manage it. Yes, the situation overall is complicated. Israel’s actions aren’t.

More to come, but I just did a data analysis for someone who left substack for beehiiv some time ago and WOW, if your only motivation is money? Forget nazis, terfs, and pedos, just care about cash? You should get tf off substack now!

The funniest part about this to me is the kind of people each was. Lots of people should have been throwing Crowley down the stairs in my opinion but he went and pissed off the poetiest poet to ever believe in fairies.

And yes, there are pigeons in this thread. And some very metal birds.

The human circulatory system, before and after proper cable management.

I have a whole collection of discarded fruit. I started with banana skins, but oranges are REALLY popular in my neighbourhood.

> The controversy associated with the statement “Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer” reveals more about modern attitudes towards women [than her] achievements. [Her 1843 algorithm] was so advanced, that it was still utilised in record-breaking computation of Bernoulli numbers in 2008.

"Ms. Ross-Mahé, age 86, was greeted at the airport by her three adult children. She was still dressed in her prison wear — orange shoes, sweatpants and a gray sweater — covered in stains and holes... "She was in a state of physical shock... www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...

When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”. Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform

Most of the time, poor people buy stuff for good reasons. One of those reasons is as a coping strategy. You need to feel that those 56h weeks in a soulless job are worth it, so you get a takeaway or a special chocolate bar: those are the only treats you can afford.

There's a lot of talk about leaving Substack & whether it will be the death-knell of your newsletter. I have been on Beehiiv for 7 months now & @tlpavlich.gay helped me run some numbers. So, was leaving Substack worth it? The answer, for me, has been a resounding "yes." Here are the hard numbers:

When the economy was going great, Nigerian princes offered me up to $83 million dollars, just for a little money laundering. It crept down to $16 million. These days, I get zero offers. Nobody loves me. Instead I have endless failed parcel deliveries, and my cloud content is deleted daily.

'Einsamkeit' #FotoVorschlag Dieser einsame Einkaufswagen hat die jährliche Migration nicht überlebt. Es gibt viele Gefahren, die diese scheuen Individuen auf ihrer langen Reise erwarten.

Opening the energy bill. Oil on canvas. 🎨: Ramon Casas, 1899.

Today is the 251st anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British troops. I want to take a moment to share an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence's grievances against King George III. Remind you of anyone?