James Annan

There you go @ottocr.at you know where to pop in for a cup of tea now!

What does it mean “to be political activists in their capacities as publicly-funded scientists”? I don’t imagine many are partaking in activism while actually at work. (Maybe some are, I dunno).

He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins The US president promotes classical architecture and loathes ‘ugly’ wind turbines. Keir Starmer would dismiss him as a nimby, but on this Trump has a point, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

I know I shouldn’t really publicise this sort of clickbait nonsense but Simon Jenkins is increasingly a parody of himself.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Here's an unpopular opinion: as a podcast host, I would rather eat fucking glass than read some cheeseball add for a mattress or Better Help or whatever. The people who do it are humiliating themselves and I can't believe we've just all mutually decided this is ok. It's gross.

Right then...

A quick review of the DOE's new 'critical review' of climate science. Whether it's worth a formal community response - I'm still not sure, but here's my first thoughts

/thread/

A shame it's on the techbro fascist hate-site but an interesting read nevertheless.

(by "AI" I mean the chatbot nonsense of course)

A particular problem with AI is that it isn't "opening up information", rather it is *destroying* it.

The counterpoint is that you may do different/more stuff, not necessarily less intellectually challenging. Eg, did electronic calculators make people worse at arithmetic, or did they open up arithmetic to people who weren't good at it? I generally agree with you about AI though.

LOL

Unprecedented continental drying, shrinking freshwater availability, and increasing land contributions to sea level rise Drying continents, extreme drought, and groundwater depletion are shrinking water availability and increasing sea level rise.

After a long absence from Twitter, I'm now on Bluesky. Looking forward to sharing thoughts, research, and rants about the lack of attention paid to water. Let's kick this off with a new paper alert. Please share widely. Title says it all. Please help me grow followers www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A photo of me holding a placard stating: Palestine Action Are Protesters Not Terrorists

If the police arrest me for this, it's a direct attack on the expression of opinion: ie on free speech. But the Terrorism Act is so madly oppressive and loosely framed that I have no idea which side of it I'm on. And I suspect it's the same for them.

How low has US journalism sunk that you can consider such a factual statement to be amazing.

Tomorrow's front page 📰

Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland

There’s a slightly strange perspective on that photo, in reality the kitten is tiny, just much closer to the camera!

Kitten on my arm.

Daily kitten

Picture of placard with text.

Is posting this picture a terrorist act?

⏳Final week to sign up to the Green Party.

🗳️ Vote for Bold Leadership on August 1st.

The UK did have one standout product that was considered globally valuable- universities- and unilaterally decided to stop providing the product because it was more important to be xenophobic than successful

Nicely written but I wonder if you could add a simple numerical example to show it working in practice, eg a binary left/right decision with the optimal strategy for a given contingency table.

How does the UK summer so far compare to the extreme hot, dry summer of 1976? By Dr Laura Baker   Senior NCAS Scientist in the Department of Meteorology As we come to the end of the third heatwave of 2025, and a third English water board has announced a hosepipe ban, more an…

As the hosepipe ban kicks in over parts of Reading we look at how this summer so far compares to the UK’s infamous hot, dry summer of 1976 in this week’s @unirdg-met.bsky.social blog:
blogs.reading.ac.uk/weather-and-...

This thread is a real trip down memory lane….an Augean stable of effluent.

I wore shorts to work all summer for a decade there. There may have been raised eyebrows at first….TBH maybe not the oddest thing I did.

A bit young to be outside. IMO. But I’m sure they are loved.

Buoy oh buoy you’ve opened a can of worms there :-)

I feel that British people complaining about hereditary privilege in other countries is a bit of a stones and glass houses situation.

It's also worth pondering that our brains palpably decline past about 50, but no-one talks about taking away the right to vote at any age.

"The" eval? Varies with engine, settings, and hardware.

I’ve long argued that the much-beloved stone barns around here are merely the corrugated sheds of their era. People convert them into terrible houses at huge cost rather than rebuilding something suitable for human habitation.

Oh thanks for reminding me I’d forgotten there was a test match on :-)