23 years since the council asked what size new swimming pool we'd like; 22 yrs since the baths were closed; 19 yrs since they were demolished & 5 yrs since a group trying to reclaim the resulting wasteground for community use was violently evicted; ..work is underway on flats at the Barbican site.

If you're pump-curious here's the space for you. And Ivana will be on BBC Radio York talking about heat pumps around 11:10am on Tuesday.

Anyone know: is there a petrichor kind of effect that you get from your body when you shower after spending a lot of time outdoors? Or am I just filthier than I thought?

The sea of wild garlic in this woodland was intense - can you smell it coming off this photo?

eBay provide a helpful AI help agent before you can talk to a human. It told me this morning: "If a seller has not collected after 30 days you can cancel the order within 30 days" SUCH USEFUL.

Proposal: each time you end up on a train replacement bus service you get a stamp and when you have eight you get a free ticket for any train trip in the country, theme park or west end show.

We must stand in solidarity with Jews being attacked by antisemitic criminals and terrorists: no ifs or buts. We must stand in solidarity with Palestinians being murdered by the Israeli government: no ifs or buts. These are not contradictory positions. They are consistent ones. 🧵1/5

You can sign his 100th birthday card here if you like!

At their past three AGMs, protestors have interrupted the opening speeches. This year, it was announced the board of Drax would not attend in person by Abi Perrin

the facists have the outfits, said @tmbg.bsky.social gizmodo.com/palantir-deb...

Anyone need a single train ticket from Liverpool to London at 20:43 tomorrow (Sunday)? Boost so it can get used 😉

The film's a hot mess IMO but we had a great evening with Yorspace and Lowfield Green.

Trying to figure out how to self report my hatred of AI now.

This is a bad week to be doing an after-dinner talk about decarbonising the electricity system.

Another #Biomass thread. #Drax www.theguardian.com/environment/... Having the evidence really backs up what we have said for years: industrial burning of the #GreatNorthernForest is bad for #Climate, bad for #nature and #unsustainable. Time to #AxeDrax. 🧵🪡

The frustrating thing is that the same institutions that gravely intoned these things 10-20 years ago are still being listened to now. Pretty common to mistake the fact that they had grown immensely wealthy off fossil fuels for being immensely wise about energy.

Anyone know what this is? Some sort of tool for compressing something at different points? It has a measurement gauge at the top for something.

The Rochdale Pioneers, 1884:

Economists: the free market is a fundamental principle, as immutable as a law of nature. Nature: This frog does virgin births! This snail changes sex at will! This lizard walks on water! This jellyfish is immortal!

Just mistyped 'exiot' to close a Windows Powershell terminal and it thought for a worryingly long time before returning the prompt, no error message... What have I just triggered 😬 ?

The correct response!

We are putting on a film screening 🫵 In collaboration with Yor Space we are presenting a screening of ‘Power Station’ (2025) a film about power, solar, and community. Held on the 14th of April at The Angel on the Green, Bishopthorpe Road www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/powering-y...

Yeah, those pledges were always in serious doubt.

Significant news - not hugely surprising and IMHO for the best. BECCS was always a long shot at best, some (inc. me) would say more like a scam. But it had managed to seize the mantle of being a key "renewable" electricity contributor and get to the centre of regional 'carbon negative' policy.

Join me in demanding a halt on all over-the-counter paracetamol sales: people are being incentived to obtain it due to medicalisation of having a headache.

Naming the horrors you face can help you understand and therefore feel more control over them. To start with, this is called "Wednesday".

Beggars belief that any progressive government in the world can consider the Israeli gov as allies. This is the racist Minister for National Security, Ben-Gvir, in the Knesset wearing a pin to champion the hanging of Arabs (pic from the Jerusalem Post).

This is a great article, technical but not impenetrable, about the business of separating electricity costs from gas costs. Gives 6 options, none of which is Dale Vince's pay-as-bid proposal - a shame as I'd like to see some pro/cons for that.

There's a building you can see from the railway line near Sheffield which says "Laser water jet HD plasma" in big letters and I have no idea what they do in there but it sounds awesome.

Finally a date to stop the madness of building new gas-heated houses! Solar panel area should be 40%+ of the footprint - feels like that has implications; don't think mine do that, but better than ending up with a stupid token 2 or 3 panels on a big roof we see in new builds today.

Hey! My childhood hometown in the news!

These guys turned a webinar I co-presented into one of their nonsense podcasts. Hard to see the route to profit from this (article is paywalled/subscriptionwalled) but sure must burn through a lot of energy.

Watching a conference presentation & reflecting how hyphens in compound adjectives are not universally popular but when talking about "bottom-up" approaches I strongly recommend them.

I have come to the conclusion that my laptop has absolutely no ability to read fingerprints but just likes to be touched in its special place a few times before it's ready for my PIN.

Has anyone ever done any manual printing on both sides of the paper and ended up actually using less paper as a result? Don't think I've ever managed it.

Big fan of this, holding 'platforms' to account for what they claim is just innocently relayed user-generated content. More please!

Think for many of us the odd thing here would be seeing a bin in a train station.

Well, fair play to them. Seems harsh to arrest them if they just asked politely if they could come in and have a little shuftie around the place. Don't ask, don't get, right? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Very glad to be hearing Emma Bridge's final speech as CEO of @commenergyengland.bsky.social - saying the people in this room - the community energy movement - have kept her sane in amid all of, y'know, that (I paraphrase). Same, Emma. Thanks for everything.

Congratulations to my YCE co-director and friend Kirsten Ayris who got her PhD last week. I am so proud of the YCE team and so privileged to work with with them all. We celebrated with an edible-glitter-encrusted vegan selection from Gregg's (& we encrusted K with glitter also).

Did everyone already do the 'white power' joke? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

He's not the Messiah but he is the least naughty boy.

In case you were thinking there are no good developments in tech anymore, 2026 is the year we should finally get that trombone emoji!

Just unfollow anyone forwarding unverified nonsense. Basic information hygiene: you got to keep the shit out of what you consume.

Just heard my first blackcap song of the year! (It was coming from a hedge in Osbaldwick)

Cannot abide Abba or Queen. Came up with lots of rationalisation like oh it's the overproduced 70s aesthetic but in the end I think it was cos my parents played them on long car journeys and I got carsick. So it was like Clockwork Orange style aversion therapy.

Sad to report the passing of my friend (& one-time boss) Jonathan Tyler, former Sheriff of York, chair of the Ecology party (forerunner of the Green Party, which he helped create), lifelong railwayman & tireless campaigner on so many fronts. An inspirational man who contributed so much. Rest well.

I wonder if we'll suddenly see Labour getting around to looking at proportional representation now.

"Taken together, parties explicitly committed to tackling the climate crisis secured roughly twice as many votes as those positioning themselves around climate scepticism and rollback." @hollybt.bsky.social in our latest blog ⤵️