jaimiddleton.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Five years today, the statue of Edward Colston was pulled down in Bristol. Boris Johnson accused protestors of trying to "photoshop" the past and "lie about our history". I'm reposting below a thread I wrote at the time: on history, memory, and how we decide who to celebrate in our public spaces.🧵

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This week's Rare Earth was very lively and great fun, and all about a very important issue: the prospects for a clean(er) shipping industry in the future. Penguins got a mention and I went to visit the Green Pioneer (pictured below). Catch up on BBC Sounds or as a podcast: www.bbc.co.uk/progra...

submitted 70 days ago • 2 comments

Today's Rare Earth was on insects - how they're doing and how we really need to work with them. Here's my favourite example of how much we take insects for granted: Cattle make wet soft dung but wombat/kangaroo dung is dry/hard, so when cows came Australia the native beetles couldn't cope. [1/2]

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

When fragile infrastructure can shut down an international airport what does it reveal about the food system in the face of crisis? In this edition of BBC Radio 4’s Food programme I look at the dependence on a network of warehouses in the UK to prepping in Stockholm www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

submitted 76 days ago • 2 comments

michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/10-p...

submitted 6 days ago • 7 comments

Hi All, I released my weekend update a few hours ago, and the Ukrainians turned around and launched what is arguably the most successful operation of the war--so I updated it with all the information I could get. Russian strategic airpower received a mighty blow. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

submitted 6 days ago • 22 comments

Why whale urine is so important to life in the sea - new article in @uk.theconversation.com by @exeter.ac.uk researchers Kirsten Freja Young & Marion Rossi @exetermarine.bsky.social 🐳

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In January, the BBC wrote an article fear mongering about pylons "springing up" across the country It contained some wildly misleading figures which spread to other newspapers. I'm glad to say they've FINALLY been corrected. Here's what happened...🧵 bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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The dry land calls out for rain in today's @theguardian.com country diary by Sarah Laughton. #countrydiary #naturewriting

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An example of fauxtomation where the supposed benefits of AI instead mean work is passed on to the person who isn’t being paid for it (the customer/user). (Sadly not at all surprised to see academic publishing doing this -it’s a model already built on exploitation)

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The headline is misleading (not nationalization of LLMs). The suggestion is good: "It is time to build public, open-access LLMs for the humanities." Large language models that power AI should be publicly owned www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Worth noting that literally every other leader is preferred to Nigel Farage as PM. This could become quite important if/when a general election approaches with polling suggesting Farage has a real shot at being PM

submitted 11 days ago • 48 comments

Bird place-name of the day 37: OWSLEBURY (Hants). OE osle + burh. ‘Blackbird-visited fort’. You can see easily from the map that the fort was built on a hill (OE hill and fort are cognates). linktr.ee/cuckooslea #naturewriting #birdsandplace

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Men and women getting skin cancer in different parts of the body – study

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Two castles, a Passivhaus primary school, a prison, a distillery and a bridge among the winners of the annual Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland awards. The 11 now join the ”longlist” for the RIAS Andrew Doolan best building in Scotland award.

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Matthew Sweet and guests explore the benefits and dangers of salt, looking at how it affects our taste buds and life in our seas. With food writer Bee Wilson, materials scientist Mark Miodownik, writer Zoe Gilbert and artist David Soin Tappeser www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

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Tales from a wounded desert – Laurie Taylor hears about a remarkable campaign for environmental justice in the US; also, the British Army as custodian of a unique landscape

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"Electric drones take letters and parcels between islands, where staff then complete their usual delivery routes" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Skyports is building the infrastructure for electric flying taxis that could change the way we travel. The CEO of Skyports joins Hannah Ritchie and Rob Stewart to discuss how vertiports could change urban transport. But do their climate credentials stand up? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...

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On World Bee Day, why not: a) Put up a bee hotel & b) Join the Buzz Club's Big Bee Hotel Experiment!

submitted 18 days ago • 1 comment

As ever, I put some feelers out thinking I would meet a load of weirdos, and instead met some great, interesting, thoughtful, unusual, original people. When will I learn &c &c www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

submitted 18 days ago • 5 comments

Quite the piece on the Sycamore Gap case. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

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NEW – Factcheck: Why expensive gas – not net-zero – is keeping UK electricity prices so high | @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org‬ @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org‬ w/ comment from @dharavyas.bsky.social‬ Prof Robert Gross, Paul Drummond, Frank S. Aaskov Read here: buff.ly/DWsC3sZ

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With a fishing dispute casting a shadow on the new UK / EU trade agreement, revisit Unearthed's landmark analysis of who actually owns the rights to fish in British waters unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/11/f...

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Olivia Allison and Tom Keatinge discuss research on how Russia is trying to turn Mariupol into a showcase city to legitimise its occupation of Ukrainian territory, and how massive reconstruction aims to place the city at the centre of a new transport network to resupply Russian forces

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Laurie Taylor talks to writer Dan Hancox about the part crowds play in our lives and how they made the modern world. Also, Lisa Mueller, Associate Professor of Political Science at Macalaster College, Minnesota, asks why protests succeed or fail

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What is regenerative agriculture? Dan Saladino speaks with agronomist Ken Giller and co-founder of the Organic Research Centre Lawrence Woodward, and visits the annual Groundswell festival where he meets farmer and podcaster John Kempf

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Today's @theguardian.com country diary by @calflyn.bsky.social is a fascinating exploration of bog iron and the creation of bacterial blooms. #countrydiary #naturewriting

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Today's @theguardian.com country diary by Michael White explores an ancient way of eating... #countrydiary #naturewriting

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if this is true I think the government needs to legislate to remove the legal 0.7% aid commitment. Am amazed that successive permanent secretaries at FCDO have not sought a direction. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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⚡️ Russian political, corporate interests seize thousands of Ukrainian businesses, assets in occupied Mariupol, research reveals.

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[email protected] debunks myths and injects humanity and joined up thinking into the mix. A much needed and intelligent discussion about immigration over on @bunkerpod.bsky.social this morning.

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🎧NEW EPISODE🎧 Reform UK is certainly acting like it has plenty of money, but it's not totally clear where Farage and his gang are getting it from. @seththevoz.bsky.social is joined by @petergeoghegan.bsky.social to discuss ➡️ linktr.ee/bunker_pod

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Podcast: AI Avatar of Killed Man Testifies in Court 🔗 www.404media.co/podcast-ai-a...

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🌏NEW EPISODE🌍 Trump’s announcement on lifting sanctions on Syria has sparked celebrations in the streets of Damascus. What are the consequences for the nation's recovery – and more broadly for the Middle East? @ejbeals.bsky.social discusses with Karam Shaar and Dareen Khalifa ➡️ linktr.ee/drillpod

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Khufu’s funerary complex was a tremendous display of wealth, so large and so expensive that it required the resources of all Egypt: copper from Sinai, limestone from Tura, basalt from the Faiyum, granite from Aswan.’ Robert Cioffi on the building of the pyramids: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Barbs. Grunts. Bone caves. Dogs who got too close. Romance that goes hard. We got PORCUPINES, folks. #Erethizonology expert Dr. Tim Bean of Cal Poly is as charming an ologist you can get. Also, one word: porcupette. www.alieward.com/ologies/eret...

submitted 106 days ago • 7 comments

Think people in Britain don't realise the scale of the underemployment problem for skilled people in poor countries nor the massive potential improvement in life chances from moving to the rich world.

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THE NEW STATESMAN: Labour's internal strife deepens as McTague outlines New Statesman's forward vision amid political turmoil and shifting alliances.

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Mark Twain was gullible, emotionally immature, and prone to shoveling money into scams, Graeme Wood writes. Ron Chernow’s new biography of the writer reveals a man whose life was far less funny than his work.

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@marklynas.bsky.social on what would happen in the first few hours of nuclear war (and perhaps more importantly, how to prevent nuclear war in the first place).

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How did the tomato go from a wild blueberry-sized plant to a food found in supermarkets worldwide? Thousands of years of plant breeding, spanning domestication, traditional breeding, and genetic engineering. I wrote about this history for @worksinprogress.bsky.social's Notes on Progress series:

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Why the Energy Secretary believes he can outlast the campaign against him. 📫 Today’s Morning Call, with @georgeeaton.bsky.social: Can Ed Miliband stand the heat?

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UK governments always look for a sweet spot in immigration policy- tough enough to win votes, not so tough as to hurt the economy - but always find the opposite- clumsy enough to damage business, not enough to impress Reformesque immigration-phobes. so depressing.

submitted 30 days ago • 15 comments

Show's up! - @brookegladstone.bsky.social on the public media EO. - @jasonkoebler.bsky.social on ICE surveillance. - @jasonleopold.bsky.social on the sorry state of FOIA. - @mckaycoppins.bsky.social on Murdoch family drama. www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

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A week before the national blackout in Spain, PM Pedro Sanchez announced a historic increase in defence spending. If the outage hinted at investment gaps in Spain's infrastructure, we discuss with @benwray1989.bsky.social how this coincided with the gov's pivot in investment priorities to rearmament

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment