Just to say I'm not a fan of stomach bugs.

We’ve got ourselves into such a mess haven’t we when we can’t even trust that videos and pictures are real these days.

Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence of Arabia

I understand that budgets are tight, but it's so sad that the things that make life worth living are always the first to be cut. Queen's Park Glasshouse to close in August. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An amazing find in Perthshire- an adult Robin repeatedly feeding a recently-fledged Dipper! Interspecific feeding is recorded from time-to-time, but it's rare and a phenomenal thing to witness first-hand. Huge thanks to James Clements for reporting it. #BirdingScotland

Mystery donor has contributed £625,000 to support two Charles Rennie Mackintosh projects: Hill House in Helensburgh, and the Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street. There will also be work to deepen public understanding of the work of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@bmcleish.bsky.social "Statistics suggest half of sports concussions go unreported and young people aged 10-19 are most affected." This is on a page about Rangers, but it's about awareness raising of concussions in sport more generally. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Planetary boundaries were a topic of discussion at last night's Hutton event in Edinburgh. It's interesting to see it come up again today in a new report talking addressing planetary habitability and inequality to make a fairer world. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Partway through Andrew Miller's novel Pure and it was great when the main character moved into his lodgings and placed a volume of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle on his desk. First I heard of him was when Charles Darwin mentioned him.

Me: oh that looks like an interesting part-time course. Notices it starts at 4.30 pm. Oh well, not to bother then, that's when I'm working. Honestly, why don't training providers realise that the times they run their courses at can be a barrier to entry?

Charles Darwin's walking stick, in 'The Coming of Age' exhibition at the Wellcome today

'We have a simple message for the Environmental Agency... come and do your job or we WILL do it for you' 😆 Peak EA that, having abandoned this river, it's prosecuting those taking action to recover it. Yet hasn't prosecuted any illegal sewage dumping 🤔 All the power; none of the responsibility.

"Unlike the ship’s crew, Forster was concerned by how the expedition’s presence in the Pacific islands would damage social relations and disrupt local economies." It's encouraging that historical figures didn't think as one during voyages of exploration. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

The organic growth of a city, in this case, Paris. "A patch of ground with little or nothing around it. But the city grew. The city embraced it. A church was built. Walls built around the burying ground. And around the walls, houses, shops, taverns. All of life." - Andrew Miller, Pure #BookSky

Where are you from? Glasgow. I actually live just outside Glasgow, but it's much easier just to say Glasgow as I grew up in Glasgow and still feel Glaswegian. Anyone else do this kind of thing?

@seismatters.bsky.social Hi, just wanted to say that I thought you made a great contribution to the panel discussion at the RSE tonight (I was watching online).

If presenters are doing a hybrid in-person and online talk, they should be given a lapel mic so that they can still be heard if they like to wander as they talk.

Video of the Glen Tilt outcrop: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-bP...

Grok: "I take responsibility." Except you can't hold an AI system accountable. Those that own the AI system are the ones that should be admitting responsibility and held to account. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

I’ve had these two new books on order since the start of the year and they’re now here! Looking forward to reading them. @andreawulf.bsky.social The Traveller. And coming slightly earlier than expected @stevebrusatte.bsky.social The Story of Birds. #BookSky

Is "brio" a word that's only ever used by book reviewers? Honestly, I've never seen it written in any other context.

I hope the low attendance figures won’t see this attraction closing. I’ve wanted to visit this for ages but the Borders always feel out of reach using public transport, especially for a day visit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Really predictable that people would come out and riot after being incited to do so by far right politicians and commentators.

Hey everyone, I'm looking for recommendations of novels set during the French Revolution. There's always a response like: I recommend X non-fiction book.

Found a tiny spider crawling on my t-shirt tonight and I put my finger out so it could crawl on to that. It made me laugh to then see it climb up a hair on the back of a finger - it was always looking for a way to climb upwards. Eventually I put it on a window sill and let it go its own way.

Every now and then the address bar in Firefox on my phone disappears and I need to restart the phone to get it to show again. Quite annoying.

People are so talented. Young guy volunteered to step in when a keyboardist fell ill during a live performance of La La Land. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

A years-long, obsessive side project in a French biochemistry lab offers new clues as to how life on Earth could have gotten started. www.quantamagazine.org/the-dirt-tha...

Review (free to read at time of writing) of Andrea Wulf's new book The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity. literaryreview.co.uk/out-of-the-a...

I visited the small Audubon exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow this afternoon. They have a copy of Birds of America on permanent display. In the photo conservator Rebecca Goldie is repairing a volume of the book and you get a sense of the scale of the book.

Bernard Cornwell mentions the possibility of a Sharpe reboot on TV. He's not confident that it'll happen, but I really hope it does, especially if they have more money for it. creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

There aren't too many artworks in galleries, you're trying to see too many of them. Be more selective and focus on no more than a handful of them. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Boards of Canada: Into The Magic Land. Mogwai meets David Whittaker (Shadow of the Beast). www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTd4...

I always think that when players stop in their run up to a penalty kick it signifies a player unsure of themselves and usually ends up with them missing it. Agree with Gerrard, you should just put your foot through the ball, don't overthink it. #ChampionsLeague

I've always preferred Panasonic as a brand as their products are high quality. I was looking for a new TV but it looks like they're hard to get in the UK now since they outsourced their TV business to a Chinese company. Looks like I might be switching to Sony...

This takes me back to watching Art Attack. Presenter Neil Buchanan would make large-scale artworks that were only revealed with the camera looking down at them from above.

This year's Springwatch has been excellent so far. The new base for the programme is the National Trust's Crom estate in Northern Ireland and it looks like a brilliant place. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

264 pairs of Dartford Warbler recorded in southern England in 2025. This is a 44% increase in the last five years. This is one of the birds I’ve wanted to see for a long time and by the sounds of it’ll be easier than it has been for a long time. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’m still waiting on two birthday cards that were sent to me in January through Royal Mail. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A great turnout this afternoon for the opening of the Deep Time trail and viewpoint at Siccar Point in SE Scotland to mark James Hutton's Tercentenary. This world-famous geological site now has world-class interpretation and signage by @geowalks.scot @scottishgeology.bsky.social & Edinburgh Geol Soc

I've never had the fortune to find myself in the Bon Accord pub, but I'm glad it has new owners and is open again. We don't have enough of these older pubs that look this classy anymore. www.glasgowlive.co.uk/whats-on/bel...

A beautiful day! My life has been dominated for the last year by building the Deep Time Trail at Siccar Point to celebrate James Hutton's 300th birthday. Formal launch of the trail is today, it is looking great, and I'm mightily proud of what has been achieved. james-hutton.org/deep-time-tr...

New @geologybites.bsky.social episode featuring @stevebrusatte.bsky.social on the Dinosaurs That Survived the Asteroid, just in time for the publication of his new book The Story of Birds. www.geologybites.com/steve-brusatte

Currently reading: Steve Jones - Almost Like a Whale. Is Charles Darwin mentioned? Yes. It’s a modern update of Darwin’s Origin of Species. #BookSky

It’s good to see there are investigations into prices at the upcoming World Cup. It’s quite clear that fans are being fleeced, whether that’s with ticket prices or to use public transport. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Bumblebees and windows really don't mix. Often I hear them bouncing off the window once and then flying off, but one yesterday made more than 10 attempts to fly through the glass.

New Boards of Canada album is in the post to me. Hopefully I'll get it by Friday, the official release date.

The moment we started our descent into Glasgow , this is the sentence I hit in Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature #glasgow #art #diary

Nine Sharpe novels under my belt. At least 17 novels and short stories to go. But Bernard Cornwell keeps writing more... I think they're great fun. Nothing complicated in the stories, just action-packed from the first page to the last.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a bank holiday for my work today, but if it was I’d love to be back on Cumbrae.