Rebecca Gower

Birth rates were already in decline. It looks as though they might fall even further.

The long-nosed Pinocchio #chameleon is multiple species.
#Biologists have finally solved the century-old #reptilian mystery.

Link for more info and photos: www.popsci.com/environment/...

#StandWithUkraine
Ukrainians truly need this right now — even if as a sign of solidarity. And constant, stubborn solidarity goes a long way.

Cryptocurrency backed by Farage donor is used for Russian war effort, investigators say Tether tokens found to facilitate scheme that enables sanctions evasion and launders money for the Kremlin

Cryptocurrency backed by Farage donor is used for Russian war effort, investigators say

Tether tokens found to facilitate scheme that enables sanctions evasion and launders money for the Kremlin

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Boris Johnson's lack of leadership blamed for 23,000 Covid deaths A scathing report by inquiry chair Baroness Hallett also criticises the Department of Health, led by the current Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald and the then minister Matt Hancock

Boris Johnson’s lack of leadership over the seriousness of Covid led to the first lockdown being introduced too late, which contributed to the loss of 23,000 lives, the official inquiry into his handling of the pandemic has concluded

inews.co.uk/news/politic...

You'd be perfect for Oxford then. They have 8 week terms.

Major beneficiaries of the new Labour policy? Reform.

Secondary beneficiaries? Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru

Major losers? Labour, the U.K., humanity.

🚨📉 Major new paper by Stanford professor Nick Bloom and coauthors.

They find Brexit has:

⬇️ Reduced UK GDP by 6-8%

⬇️ Reduced investment by 12-18%

⬇️ Reduced employment by 3-4%

⬇️ Reduced productivity by 3-4%

Study Finds COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Treatment New research found that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 could enhance cancer treatments and help patients live longer.

mRNA vaccines help vs cancer
Our @scifri.bsky.social conversation, with transcript
www.sciencefriday.com/segments/cov...
Remarkable improved survival data and mechanism reviewed here erictopol.substack.com/p/how-mrna-v...

I grew up with that too and children being allowed to buy them! Then I spent 16 years living in Australia. Then I spent a couple of New Years Eves in Norway. One year the hostess was hit by a firework. Now fireworks seem like a ridiculous fire risk especially for thatched houses.

No, you're not the only one. I haven't watched either. 🙂

Might you share a picture later, when they've finished?

One of the plain documents that caught our attention was this extremely finely typed Georgian one. The typescript is beautiful, but I can't read it. However there was a panel to explain that it's a declaration of independence from 1907. I looked at it and thought of their on-going struggles.

Treasured Free exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. See some of the stand out objects from our collection and discover what makes a treasure

On Friday, I went to the Weston Library in Oxford to see "Treasured".
visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasured

It had some beautifully decorated books and scrolls. It also had some rather plain-looking documents that were valuable for other reasons.

Continued...

I think a gentler way to describe it is that voters aren't choosing from a menu of policy options, but selecting from among representatives they feel best align with their values, priorities and fears.

You can't policy-tinker your way to a brand.

If you are confident that a boat near Venezuela is carrying drugs, you stop it and board it. That way, you have evidence.

If you don't really care if a boat near Venezuela is carrying drugs, but you just want to kill people, you blow the boat up. That way, the irrelevant evidence is gone.

Thames Water wants to pollute illegally until 2040. Ofwat must say NO. Thames Water wants to make at deal with Ofwat, to pollute illegally for 15 years

Who will you vote for at the next election to get sewage out of rivers and seas? 💧💩

How will they do this if Thames Water is allowed to pollute ILLEGALLY until 2040 ⁉️

We're handing this petition to Ofwat on Tuesday 21st October, add your name 👇

weownit.org.uk/ofwat

I hereby declare war on premature Christmassing.

Any shop caught doing this before 1st December must be shut down and turned into affordable housing.

Choose sanity. Vote Binface.

(Photo dated 9th October 2025)

Norway and Sweden are on the list and they both have a king too.
Constitutional monarchies are a different kettle of fish.

*tall people (not "talk people") - why did autocorrect make that change!?

Prof Nick Trefethen wrote an article about why it's wrong.
It punishes talk people by asking them to be too thin, and fails short people by not warning when they are too heavy.
Also, it doesn't take into account frame, muscle, etc.
Actually measuring body fat would be more effective

Was it Facebook? They made me prove I was human earlier this week.

Yes! As someone diagnosed with a secondary tumour in June, I became acutely aware of that fear for about 3 months.
I'm happy to say that surgery plus immunotherapy has put me back to worrying about getting old. This is preferable.

One is under the control of the council, the other is 'organised' by Network Rail, so they are not guaranteed to turn out the same.
However, I would not be surprised if it drags on a long time with a lot of inconvenience as many infrastructure projects tend to do.

Botley road has been shocking!

This is not the Botley Road works. Or are you making a different point?

As a resident of the Thames Valley, and someone who values water standards, I thank you. 🙏

I think you could sign on principle, as Ofwat serves you too.
If they drop standards in one place it could happen elsewhere too.

Thames Water want to pollute illegally until 2040. Ofwat must say NO. Thames water want to make at deal with Ofwat, to pollute illegally for 15 years

Unbelievable - Thames Water wants to pollute ILLEGALLY for the next 15 years

If they get away with this, other water companies will copy

If you don't want sewage until 2040 (!) please sign our
petition to @ofwat.bsky.social

We'll be handing it in on 21st October

weownit.org.uk/act-now/peti...

SHOCK POLL: NIGEL FARAGE WILL BE PM TOMORROW IN an amazing poll conducted by The Pointless Polling Company, it was revealed that voters' intentions may well change over the next three and a half years and at present it's 100 percent impossible to guess what the next government might look like. However, 99 percent of journalists agree that it would be much more fun if we had an election tomorrow and everybody resigned and everything was chaos and Farage had a go at being PM, just for the hell of it, because it was so much fun when Brexit happened and then the government kept falling every five minutes and we could write endless pieces about (cont. p94)

Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.

Sometimes just paying attention to the spell-checker would help!