Julian Keeley

CENTRAL ASIA RECORD HEAT
Another insane hot night with
tropical nights at 2000m asl ! in Tajik and Kazakh highlands with several monthly records smashed
An absolute madness

MAX:39C in Kazakhstan again,33C in Siberia

In few days it will get MUCH hotter:
45C in the former USSR!

Very much enjoyed @edconway.bsky.social book Material World. A fascinating look at the raw materials essential to our lifestyle. Prescient about the importance of our interconnected world. An insightful discussion on net zero. Will now lend to a friend.

Kim Stanley Robinson's book is all too prescient. An awful telling of the impact of climate change.

Attended Woking Quaker Meeting this meeting in solidarity with Westminster Friends whose meeting house was violated this week with forced police. entry. Strong armed policing happens too often with meetings of women. Gaza and climate change are of concern to many of us.

#quakers

Fun to see the image of the partial eclipse through my binoculars and to see the dip in power from my solar panels.

Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

🚨 Outrage as 20 police officers break into Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrest six. 🚨
This shocking violation of a place of worship is a direct result of crackdowns on protest and dissent - freedom of speech, assembly and democracy are at risk.🕊️
👉 www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

A picture of Vladimir Putin holding his phone

“Wait guys, P. Hegseth is typing…”

BREAKING: People are being suspended on X in Turkey for posting videos of these protests against Erdoğan’s corrupt and repressive regime.

Keep sharing everywhere.

Never has Yeats' work been more prophetic:
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

I remember seeing as a young child a film about similar children in iron lungs. The awfulness has stayed with me for about 60 years. As a consequence I've never refused the offer of a vaccine.

Lee Phillips' book is excellent. Emmy Noether was an exceptional mathematician and deserves to be better known. I had not realised how much the Noether theorem underlies the Standard Model. @badphysicist.bsky.social

In Jan 24 I used 4,550 kWh of gas costing £343 plus 233 kWh of elec costing £87. A total of £431. Not quite less than half but the rest of the year is better.

In Jan this year I typically used 50 kWh/day of electricity. My average price is 14p/kWh giving £7/day in the coldest month or £220 in January. I have a battery to store off peak electricity.

I had a heat pump installed in May 2024 and a gas boiler removed. My electricity bill was less than half of the gas + elec for the previous 12 months. No changes to radiators or insulation. Very pleased.

@badphysicist.bsky.social Lee Phillips

From Lee Phillips' excellent biography of Emmy Noether. In 1933 Noether left Germany for the US. "She assumed that the famous German reverence for scholarship would reassert itself and wash away the tide of thuggery that had temporarily taken power." Resonances today but in the opposite direction.

Pessimists sound clever.

Optimists change the world.

I love this depiction of the energy transition by RMI.

In troubled times it's good to follow Voltaire's advice. Il faut cultivar notre jardins.

There I was thinking I was following my own path to find I'm part of a middle class trend. Oh well! BTW my heat pump is great.

I had a heat pump and battery installed last year. It has surpassed my expectations. The house is very cosy, plenty of hot water and annual bill less than half those of the previous two years.

I've cancelled today. A shocking rise in price.

I shall look forward to reading your forthcoming book.

There’s no such thing as “too many books”—only not enough shelves, not enough time, and not enough space for the dream library with a sliding ladder. But let’s be honest… we’ll keep buying books anyway.

When your wife studied English...

YouTube video by Sky News What's behind Europe's car industry crisis? | Ed Conway analysis

🚗What's happening to Europe's car industry is one of the biggest stories in the world right now, & prob the biggest story of next year too.
A slow motion implosion driven by multiple factors (esp Chinese competition).
Watch my primer on what's going on👇 youtu.be/oW_SXIVQT5I?...

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

Yes. Partial fibre would be fibre to the cabinet in the street and then a twisted wire pair to the house. It's not fibre all the way to the house.

One of my favourite places as I lived nearby as a child. Wittenham Clumps is a special place well depicted in this splendid painting.

I very much enjoyed the @julietriddell.bsky.social FT piece last weekend about her experience with a heat pump. Encouraging as we're just starting on the same journey.