It will forever be a mystery to me why decoupling was not done sooner. The pricing mechanism was very much a government construct and it was well within their power to change it.

2/ "We're price taker and not a price maker" "There is one lesson from this crisis, and only one lesson" "We need homegrown clean power that we can control" "We cannot keep being on this fossil fuel roller coaster" Thank you for the clear explanation @Ed_Miliband" x.com/implausibleb...

9/9 It is interesting that many of the things that economists learned in the 1920s and 1930s about the costs of trade imbalances and the unfettered flow of international capital, and began to forget after the 1970s and 1980s, are being learned again.

1/9 Reuters: "China said that Mexico's trade measures against it, including tariff increases, ​constitute trade and investment barriers and that it had ‌the right to take countermeasures." rld/china/china-says-it-has-right-retaliate-against-mexicos-tariff-hikes-2026-03-25/

Gas only sets Spain's electricity price 15% of the time. When gas costs spike it barely registers on the electricity bill. In countries like Italy and the UK gas sets the price 90% of the time. The difference is enormous. I spoke to @politico.com about this. www.politico.eu/article/spai...

Yup. I have no doubt the U.S. military keeps winning practically every engagement. (At least until the authoritarian rot spreads further.) But they have very little staying power. Everyone knows this. And Iran has been preparing for this war for 25 years.

Anastasia Trusova (Russian Artist, born 1989) "Gold of the Alps", 2025. Acrylic on Canvas, 40 × 50 cm. Private Collection. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Stray late evening thought about the oil crisis and public transport - Most European trains are electric, and in some places entirely powered from wind power. Food for thought, eh? Article from 2017: www.theguardian.com/world/2017/j...

🫧 Smoke trapped in a bubble on water: surface tension, soap film physics and fluid mechanics in action

This should come as no surprise.

I don't normally subscribe to the "German has a word for it" thing because all languages can invent and borrow new words! That said, I can't stop thinking about "hobbyless" as an insult since I saw it a few days ago, so here you go It promotes a growth mindset!! www.tumblr.com/abbiistabbii...

Holy shit we might have a cure for sickle cell anemia

1/4 Bloomberg: "Chinese Premier Li Qiang has responded to growing calls from trading partners to address a rising trade surplus, with China’s exports continuing to surge in the first two months of the year." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Europe spent years debating whether the energy transition was affordable. Spain quietly answered the question: gas now sets its electricity price in only 7% of hours. Strategic autonomy doesn’t arrive via summit communiqués. It’s built in advance — in wind farms, solar parks, and grid investment

Oh good! And y'all were worried.

This seems basically nonsensical to me. ‘People owning their own homes is capitalist exploitation exploitation’ seems like a nonsense to me.

must be nice

🚨Clearly there's loads of news today so there's a chance this gets ignored but... it is a BIG deal. Britain, the country that invented free trade as we know it, is raising steel tariffs to 50%. Biggest tariffs since Brexit. A massively symbolic moment. news.sky.com/story/waters...

Now that we’re realistically in a prolonged regional war I want to talk about how Iran converts US operational overmatch into a sustained, costly quagmire. But I also get that I’m a rando girl on the internet to anyone who will see it, so I have included cat tax.

The Scottish assisted suicide bill is defeated! 57 to 69. This is a great day for human dignity in Scotland but also everywhere in the world.

Obligatory, sigh:

Solar generates record 13% of EU electricity in 2025 www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/23/s... - in 2008 the European PV Industry Association projected 12% PV supply in Europe in 2020, at a time of minimal PV electricity in the mix. Now we are beyond & much more to come: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Agrivoltaics for tea plantations www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/23/a...

These are the things that have historically led to revolutions. Not sustainable.

This should be tried more widely, on rivers and in the ocean. With a little economic incentive, we'd soon see many of the worlds rivers and oceans cleaned up. The manufacturers of plastics and consumers can all pay a little on a 'polluter pays' principle.

Toasted Pouf by Living in Design

Personally, my favorite allied-country expression of naval non-commitment is “intensively looking”. What’s yours?

Here we are again. In 2022–23 Europe spent €800bn subsidising fossil fuels to keep energy bills down. Imported fossil fuels mean volatile prices. The real solution is not new suppliers but a shift to clean energy.

Exactly like Hitler BTW. It should have been the military leadership’s JOB to refuse executing a half baked plan even if the morons in charge demand it. Trump wanted Hitler’s generals and it does seem he got them.

This is one of the inherent weaknesses of the EU. Too many voices all wanting to have their say guarantees a weak link. It's just a function of the group dynamic that someone has to take this role. I expect it from Orban and Fico, but this is a disappointment.

To me, Belgium PM sounds like Europe admitting weakness. It would sound like weakness to Putin too. And there’s almost nothing worse than admitting weakness to Russia, unless you have a very good plan how to use it Tho what else we can expect: just in December www.euractiv.com/news/belgium...

The Convergence Theory (US and Russian systems becoming more alike over time) is alive and well, 90s were just a hiccup.

Update! Two articles in today's @theobserveruk.bsky.social confirm that plug-in solar panels will be approved for home use in the UK very soon. Only one article online, it seems (the other entirely about those panels) observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Economic warfare, even of the most “kinetic” blowing up bits of your opponent’s economy sort, works slowly. It adds cumulative costs to the enemy’s ability to fight. It is not about knock-out blows. Seizing or destroying the facilities at Kharg does not instantly end Iran’s ability to fight.

A very good summary of why Britain has ended up where it is. A new approach is needed.

Christian Eurgal (French Artist, born 1948) "Oyster Huts", 2012. Oil on Canvas, Palette Knife, 20 × 20 cm. Private Collection. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

For more than a decade, there’s been a cross-party consensus behind increasing the UK govt’s R&D spending to drive economic growth - & there’s been a substantial real terms increase in the science budget. But the economic growth hasn’t arrived, yet. What happens if it doesn’t?

Offshore wind energy and reefs around the towers offer an unprecedented opportunity to reverse loss of native oysters and restore balance to the ocean. www.nature.org/en-us/what-w...

I agree with Ed Davey for once. An independent deterrent is something the next PM should address with some urgency. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Tony Blair, he essentially continued what thatcher started, continued with the low wage,low growth,low productivity economy, allowed the continued decline of our manufacturing, opened FOM from Eastern Europe which the UK wasn’t prepared for and underestimated its impact. #UKPolitics

Margaret Thatcher, she helped set the base for today’s low wage,low productivity economy, she also privatised the utilities and public services that are now creaking and failing after 3 decades of neglect. #UKPolitics

Putin is providing intelligence to Iran. Trump has eased sanctions against Russia. Russia is now profiting off the war at the expense of American lives and machinery. Trump is a complete fool or deliberately working against his own country.

"China has two significant advantages over its geopolitical rivals. Many of its new cars run on electricity. And that electricity is mostly powered by sources at home," write Alexandra Stevenson and Murphy Zhao: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b... 🔌💡

A single ship load of solar PV – which can ultimately deliver 170 terawatt hours of PV once installed, is now worth 120 coal carries, or 57 LNG tankers. reneweconomy.com.au/one-ship-loa...

Why do live with so many bland-looking buildings? It's NOT because ornamentation is expensive. It's because modernists convinced city builders that it was philosophically suspect. Samuel Hughes shows how ornamentation could be revived, by looking to the past. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-be...

I did some calculations for cost per KWh for fuel heating oil in the UK. Based on January prices, heat pumps are comparable, maybe slightly cheaper. Based on current prices, heat pumps are cheaper to run.

Good news! The global strategic oil reserve is being released. That’s 400 million barrels. How much oil does the world use? 100 million barrels. A day. So that’s…Sunday to Thursday covered.

This is a decorative outdoor garden faucet with a bird-shaped handle.