@opticalpilot.bsky.social
Optometrist (ret’d) and sim pilot. EV nerd. UK 🇬🇧
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How come there has been no enquiry into The Lizard King’s new house? If a Labour MP had juggled close on a million squids it would have been all over the press and the Yellow Dogs braying for blood would have been heard as far away as Greenland.
16.01.2026 21:06 — 👍 65 🔁 10 💬 6 📌 1Tonight is the second semi final of this year’s Only Connect! The final semifinal, if you will. Last chance to join that great historical pantheon of finalists/Third Placers! Or, for you, antepenultimate chance to angrily eat Minstrels while scoring 0.
Pitchers v. Worked Bees, 8pm on BBC Two
What more do you need to know about Reform UK?? Seriously, what more do you need to know before you realise they are a bunch of self serving grifters?
THIS man took money, he was NOT entitled to, from YOU to heat his horse stables!
Have you forgotten that? He is a complete cvnt.
This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter
In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. • I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.
I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters.
Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
13.12.2025 00:00 — 👍 10738 🔁 2846 💬 1026 📌 683
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/fo...
08.09.2025 10:06 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Ed Davey: "BBC’s Farage obsession is a joke. Reform has 4 MPs, Lib Dems have 72 - yet get sidelined. This isn’t journalism, it’s free PR. If the Beeb’s chasing shock value over vote count, just admit it and drop the "balanced" act."
31.07.2025 09:31 — 👍 361 🔁 142 💬 18 📌 8Nice analysis of how Farage works, from @andrewrawnsley.bsky.social. Farage turns up, fans some flames, chucks in a lit cigarette, then leaves blaming others for the fire.
27.07.2025 10:27 — 👍 227 🔁 61 💬 12 📌 3
It’s what he did in Scotland earlier in the year. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/nig...
27.07.2025 10:27 — 👍 95 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 1The right wing press shouting at bands to get arrested, bands not being shown/being taken down by the BBC. Meanwhile Rod Stewart will be shown and hailed as national treasure while vocally backing a racist intent on destroying the best things about the UK. We all know why.
29.06.2025 09:14 — 👍 39 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 1This is why I posted my comment this morning.
Look at this utterly disgraceful headline. The tatty reform scumbag liars, racist and homophobes came THIRD in this by election.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Just want to add my voice to the increasing wave of disquiet that any uninteresting change in one minority extremist party 'reform' gets headline coverage by BBC news who don't even have an account on here because they think it might be 'too left leaning.'
For pities sake. I'll post this on Threads
Nigel Farage was screaming to scrap furlough because it was a waste of money, while he had already claimed £120,000 for himself.
He is a fraud every word is a lie
03.06.2025 06:32 — 👍 249 🔁 120 💬 18 📌 2
Another way electric cars clean the air: study says brake dust reduced by 83%
27.05.2025 18:11 — 👍 49 🔁 10 💬 3 📌 2
GB News : "Brexit is a good thing?"
Brexit Fisherman : "It's been a disaster"
"But exports?"
"Red tape is 100 fold, our main market is the EU"
"But EU fisherman?"
"They didn't come here"
"But charge more?"
"They can buy in the EU"
"How would you vote?"
"I'd vote for Remain in a heart beat"
Having shot us in the foot in 2016 The Brexit Newspapers are today attempting to shoot a bullet through the same fucking hole.
Their hope is that the incurious and gullible haven’t noticed how hard it’s been to walk…
In operating theatres at UCLH this morning, with our wonderful theatre teams. Many people from many places, all of them helping us deliver the care. Couldn’t do it without them.
13.05.2025 07:27 — 👍 66 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 2
It’s important to push back boundaries & in many ways this week’s #BlueOrigin flight did that. But if you want to know about the first American women in space & the story of NASA’s remarkable 1978 astronaut class, have a listen to this episode of #16Sunsets podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/1...
19.04.2025 20:25 — 👍 51 🔁 13 💬 0 📌 4Please @bbcradio4.bsky.social don’t parrot Tory rhetoric about their plan to set the country on “a new path” to tackle #climate change. That’s not what they’re doing. Badenoch is trashing the science & setting the country on a course to be poorer and more prone to climate disaster
18.03.2025 07:56 — 👍 710 🔁 191 💬 23 📌 6
A tweet from Krystal Ball (@krystalball) discussing Mexico's initiative to provide free glasses, dental assistance, and metabolic management for elementary school children, contrasting it with U.S. government actions to cut funding for local school food programs and plans to eliminate the Department of Education. The tweet includes a post from Samuel (@resisres), featuring a photo of Mexican schoolchildren wearing glasses, with an inset image of Mexico's president announcing the initiative.
Why do we, the most powerful nation on Earth, act like the most weak and shortsighted?
14.03.2025 14:30 — 👍 11942 🔁 2752 💬 751 📌 200
📢ANALYSIS: UK emissions fell 3.6% in 2024 to lowest since 1872
🏭Coal lowest since 1666, when Great Fire ravaged London
🚗EVs pushed oil down despite more traffic, saving £1.7bn
🌇Gas down on "cleanest ever" power
📈📉Since 1990, CO2 -54% / GDP +84%
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/9
THIS WEEK ON OB5
- why the Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6L is the best car to drive to Newcastle
- what the Lotus Carlton is really like to drive
- what happened to all the MPVs
- the heady days of the Eastleigh Motor Show
Get it fed straight into your headphones here: linktr.ee/overborepod
I love MPVs!
Re-shares and spreading the word appreciated!
The news has been more than a bit grim of late, so hooray for @carbonbrief.org providing some genuine and really meaningful **good** news: the UK's carbon emissions in 2024 were the lowest since 1872, because demand for fossil fuels just keeps decreasing.
www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-...
No one seemed to object when Churchill turned up at the White House in the clothes he fought the war in.
01.03.2025 12:23 — 👍 629 🔁 143 💬 24 📌 3
Graph: the UK's net-zero costs are falling
The cost of reaching net zero in the UK by 2050 is now predicted to be just 0.2% of GDP (about £4 billion per year).
Spread this far and wide. It reveals Reform and the Conservatives' opposition to net zero for being 'too expensive' as just plain wrong.
Add your name
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
Shell and BP’s profits in 2024 are £26.2 billion.
In contrast, the UK has committed to spending £11.6 billion on international climate finance between April 2021 and April 2025.
Balance seems wrong
@greenjennyjones.bsky.social
ttps://theecologist.org/2025/feb/25/profits-any-cost
I've just signed "Marks & Spencer - stop advertising on GB News" - Will you support the campaign too? actionstorm.org/petitions/ma... @StopFundingHate
26.02.2025 10:49 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
