Mark Holtom (aka Kingbeard)

Let me tell you I was bitterly disappointed to learn that this book is, in fact, an instructional guide to the profitable husbandry of ducks. There is not one sliver of insight about holding ducks accountable for their crimes against humanity.

The United States stood completely isolated at the United Nations after becoming the sole nation to vote against a landmark document advancing women’s equality and access to justice.

Sir Jonathon Porritt, advisor to King Charles III for 30 years before he was crowned, was arrested under the UK Terrorism Act outside Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday 30th July. As police escorted him away he said “I am a supporter of Palestine Action. Trying to save lives is not terrorism. Exposing this Governments complicity in genocide is not terrorism.” The video has amassed millions of views on social media, with political and media figures outraged at the arrests of Sir Jonathon alongside 152 other peaceful protesters. They had been at the court because their names were listed for court hearings for 2025 “terrorism” arrests after holding pieces of paper in Parliament Square to oppose the proscription of direct action group Palestine Action. Saving lives is not terrorism. Join us in fighting for our civil liberties and to oppose UK complicity in Israel’s genocide: www.wedonotcomply.org Please share, as the UK government really, really doesn't want people to see this.

New research has found that oil giant Shell paid £0 in tax on their UK oil and gas production. Instead they were net beneficiaries, pocketing £100m in handouts from the UK government. The likes of Norway and the US gained £17bn in tax from the firm over the same period. In fact, since 2014, the UK has 'lost' a total of £1 Trillion in tax from oil and gas revenie.

Us, currently. Trying to save our way of life at the expense of actual life.

If the UK had implemented the same tax rules as Norway since 2016, there would be an additional £1tn (not a typo, one trillion) from oil and gas companies at our disposal. What...and I can't stress this next part enough...the fuck?

I have a horrible feeling that a lot of people look at forest fires, floods, record heatwaves, etc., and think, "This is how it's going to be from now on." It's not. We're still pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, where it's accumulating. The future is going to be much, much worse. Unless we take drastic action now.

I love "The hierarchy of disagreement". We collectively need to learn how to argue and disagree in a kinder, more efficient way. The whole article is worth reading. If you are pressed for time just read the pyramid and laugh at the lowest stage. Source: https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/how-to-disagree-well-7-of-the-best-and-worst-ways-to-argue/

I hope they haven't run out of porn flakes

View from the Window at Le Gras: the first known photograph. Joseph Niépce (1826). That is 200 years ago (and only 10 year after the battle of Waterloo)!

I had a chat/debate with a guy about this, and the info is:

• it costs 2.4 kWh per kg of CO2.
• there are 18 of these in the world, and the largest can sequester 8,000 tonnes pa.
• to operate at scale, it needs to be able to process billions of tonnes. So, it would have to scale to 12,760,000%
• for 1 Bn tonnes of CO2 the energy cost would be the same as for the whole energy usage of all of the EU combined.

On the other hand, simply planting trees won't fix this. Too little, too late.

The only realistic scenarios are to

• immediately halve our energy consumption.
• insulate so we don't need as much energy.
• produce as much energy as we can ourselves (solar, etc.)
• Then to use as many renewable as possible to the supply of the remainder.

The UK 'House of the People' parallel parliament - 50 people nominated by their communities and 50 people selected by democratic lottery - has agreed 5 top priorities for political action:

1. Tax wealth by removing tax loopholes and closing tax havens
2. Slash political corruption by banning lobbying, gifting, and second jobs in politics
3. Establish a Future Generations Act which priorities people and nature over GDP
4. Implement an immediate embargo on all arms, trade and support for Israel and other countries which violate international law
5. Grant councils power to repurchase disused homes and protect renters’ rights It's interesting, isn't it, that if you put 100 ordinary people together, get them to listen to experts, then discuss what should be done, they're more sensible than professional politicians. Personally, I believe it is the lack of lobbying (where interests with money can get preference over all of the above).

There is research on Carbon Capture Systems here https://web.stanford.edu/.../Articles/I/NatGasVsWWS&coal.pdf The results in Table 3.4 suggest that carbon capture does not come close to eliminating CO2e emissions from coal or gas power plants. Data from real world projects (Section 3.2.3) indicate even less reduction in CO2e emissions due to carbon capture than Table 3.4 suggests

It would be great if we all had electric or hydrogen cars, but we don't. So what to do? IMHO, the best way to forge mass political support around climate is to start by decarbonising the billionaires and to relentlessly focus on the carbon hypocrisy of the rich. They disproportionately produce CO2, with <0.5% of people producing hundreds of tons of CO2 each! Compared to the 6-10 tons that the West produce and the 1-2 that Africans produce. Increase the tax on private aviation fuel and private yacht diesel oil to $50 a gallon. They can afford it. But they should pay for the damage they are doing. (It turns out that 'private jet fuel' is tax deductable, and therefore actually costs $0!!!).

My daughter just walked into the living room and said "Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out of the window, take my TV, and stereo, and iPhone, and iPod, and my laptop. Please take all of my jewellery to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then sell my new car, take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then disown me and never talk to me again. And don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to my brother.” Well, she didn't put it quite like that... she actually said... “Dad, this is my new boyfriend, he supports Liverpool”

Charts like these – showing the immense carbon footprints of billionaires – should make us seriously question any exhortation on what "we" must do to address #ClimateChange (I'm guilty of using this phrasing too). Always ask: who is the "we"?

still remains one of the best typos ever.

5 August 1944. The 7-day Wola Massacre began in Warsaw. Between 40,000-60,000 Polish people and resistance fighters were murdered by the German Wehrmacht, including the 29th Waffen SS Grenadier Division led by the Russian collaborator Bronislav Kaminski. For those that don't know. The Russian army was just outside Warsaw. The Poles thought that they were coming to help relieve them and rose up against the Germans. The Russians sat and waited for the Germans to kill all of the Poles, then they moved in. Now you may understand why the Poles HATE Russians with a passion. The pictures are of the Polish resistance fighters, both then and now.

I am still looking for a writing style for my memoirs. What about this?

1/2 “A Sting in the Tale” by Dave Goulson In flight a bumblebee flaps its wings 200 times per second (which equals 12,000 rpm), roughly equivalent to the speed of a high-revving motorbike engine. This generates a lot of heat, but of course comes at a cost: bumblebee flight is enormously expensive in terms of the energy that it uses. A running man uses up the calories in a Mars bar in about one hour. A man-sized bumblebee would exhaust the same calories in less than thirty seconds.

Found a bottle on the beach with a message inside: "Please dispose of this bottle responsibly. I'm shipwrecked on desert island with no bins."

London zoo not pissing around

This was 5 years ago. Its lucky that we took the advice and made the changes necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaTgTiUhEJg https://www.adaptation-undp.org/node/2593

Its all your fault. A brilliant monologue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-UP_w2p6Bc

from the New Yorker

The Antarctic ice extent is now 6.4 standard deviations below the mean. That is, I'm reliably told, a one in 13 billion year event. We're about to see a lot of shit hit a lot of fans. And we are far from ready. Business as usual is over. Politics as usual is over. We need to be putting our effort into building systems that can help us survive what greed and power and wilful blindness have caused. This was from 3 years ago. Hopefully, we have come to our senses and started to do something about this. Doh!

@the_wub@mastodon.social @tbegush@mastodon.social er., from memory. Volvo's figures where for a complete lifecycle, ie. build, use and recycle. You can't compare that to jusr clocking up miles in a Trabant. You need to include build and recycling. Incidentally Volvo's numbers also covered the figures for an equivalent ICE Volvo, annd it was much lower.

Artificial intelligence detects breast cancer 5 years before it develops. This is what I want AI to be used for. Not some deep fake of the Tangerine Tyrant. 🎯Source: Toward robust mammography-based models for breast cancer risk. https://lnkd.in/eHXNX23i

Nothing to see here.

I am NOT vegan, nor do I propose it.

However, a lot of people get that eating less meat is good for the climate. but many don't realise how good

For 50g of protein (recommended daily amount), here are average greenhouse gas emissions

• beef: 25 kg
• cheese: 4 kg
• chicken: 2 kg
• peas: 0.2 kg

the difference is huge!

For comparison, using a gallon of petrol also releases about 25kg of CO2

Niel Innes - Protest Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUwqNPukigw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUwqNPukigw

The London Underground puts up some public information announcements on their boards.

The US (and the rest of the world) is Trump's ATM.

I read recently of a foreign visitor to Auckland airport who kept hearing bizarre announcements for a passenger to make their way to the 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯. It took them some time to realise the kiwi announcer was asking the passenger to go to Domestic Check-in.

Happy Earth Overshoot Day 🥳 Actually, in 2026, it is July 30th. Ok, it’s not actually something to celebrate. It’s the day in which we have used all of the resources the planet can regenerate in one year. For the remainder of the year we are taking from future generations.