Now feels like a good time to remember that Big Oil is the reason why we're still hooked on dirty, dangerous fossil fuels.
The industry's lies have essentially stolen a generation’s worth of time that we could have used to transition to cleaner, safer energy sources.
It’s time for accountability.
Increasingly of the opinion that the correct answer to the Trolley Problem is "fuck you, why are you so fixated on finding reasons to justify killing people?"
This is the second Kindertransport statue in London Liverpool Street station. It’s on the main floor, to the left of the main tube station entrance.
This one is “Fur Das Kind - Displaced”
Stop and have a read of the plaque next time you’re there.
"Watch Rakiura, a female kākāpō, live from her nest on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, a small, predator free island in southern New Zealand." The kākāpō is, according to The Guardian, "the world's fattest parrot". www.youtube.com/live/BfGL7A2...
So WW1 1 aggressor and a cascade of alliances
WW2 two separate wars with three aggressors combined that got joined up by an unforced error on the part of one of the aggressors and an alliance cascade.
WW3 - too early to tell...
In both WW1 and WW2 (not counting some of the global wars pre C20) there was a sort of cascade of alliances when a Serbian separatist shot an Austro-Hungarian Duke.
In WW2 the Nazis and Soviets both invaded Poland. The European war was separate from the Japanese invasion of China until 1941.
I tried to establish a community interest company late last year and gave up in the end. We'll just carry on as an unincorporated club until it's fixed.
a blurry photo of a smiling young woman, holding a pet dog on the dockside in happier times. The only known photo of Madeleine.
black and white photo of a single stack, ex-merchant RN vessel
To mark International Women's Day, meet Lt Cmdr. Madeleine Barclay. First Officer on HMS Fidelity.
To my knowledge, the first woman to officially serve as First Officer on a Royal Navy vessel deployed on combat duty. Achieving this involved a three-way war between Navy, SOE and the WRNS /1 🧵 #IWD
Here's a special International Women's Day newsletter:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/women-book...
If the rumours are true and the kids and social media consultation opens today, here are two things I think should be banned from
social media:
1) AI bots
2) recommendations algorithms that optimise for time on site
Firm regulation of both of these things is possible and auditable
Massively underestimated and underappreciated role there.
Difficult Women, huh?
Hmmm ...
🧢
Tue 24th 📆 Grow with Women in Tech Aberdeen with Women in Tech Aberdeen, Aberdeen
If it were true I think we'd all have implemented my somewhat facetious solution to too many emails!
If we are to have an offence of Misconduct in Public Office then it should apply to the senior officer class as well as the junior officer class, so to speak.
But since this ancient offence has been revived some 30 years ago, it has only been successfully used against the junior officer class.
Tell me something – a small thing – you really really love. Mine is this quote from an interview with Mackenzie Crook about his writing shed: “It’s not a ‘man cave’, there’s no calendar of saucy ladies or beer cooler (although I do have a fridge where my tortoises hibernate in the colder months).”
@derekalton.bsky.social 's post today on his #CivicPunks YouTube channel is great. It's only 3 mins - you should definitely watch it.
youtu.be/pRYKE0kJSKU?...
I had that too.
First reaction: why is this piece of shark so small?
Second thought: give me the Brennivin
Third:
You've got to admire people who get tourists to eat fermented shark and wash it down with jet fuel....
In parts of Scotland that could legitimately be a Puffin Sandwich....
here are two steps to keep your inbox managed.
1) set up a rule to automatically mark all incoming email as read, and then put them in a folder (bin/spam work best);
2) select an email in your current inbox, ctrl-a, delete.
If something is important they'll find another way to get in touch.
I tell people you want to think about the behaviours you want to encourage and then creatively use friction so that it's easy for folk to do the right thing.
I also did a lot of pipeline management when I was running operational services, and brought that to my service design work.
It's a good model. My Dad worked for war pensions in the late 70s/early 80s in Scotland and visited the pensioners to check everything was okay. He got stuck over on Barra once because there was a problem and the tide came in so the plane had to take off.
Waiting for the early morning bus to Dundee for a day in the office and thinking about how to fix things.
All the really intractable stuff seems to exist at the intersections of several organisational boundaries.
That's where we need to be moving so that we can fix things.
We (GDS) have today updated 4 points of the Service Standard around use of generative AI in services:
www.gov.uk/service-manu...
#govdesign 1/5
I recruited a guy that had been PS for the Home Office SPADs when he was there. He was delighted to be away from the role.
A few months later he was 'brought into' No.10 when Theresa May became PM to be PS/SPADs and he didn't want to go, but outright refusal wasn't apparently an option.
A person in a badger suit (dark grey fur with a whole head mask in a stylised badger head) stands on their own on a wet pavement behind metal crowd control barriers. On the barriers the lone protestor has affixed a banner that says "Badgers Betrayed By Labour" with the sub-title in slightly smaller font saying "Gov.UK Badger Killers". A row of shops below another office building is in the background across the street.
Am safely on the train back to Dundee, but had a meeting earlier today in a building that I used to work in.
Was reassured that we're returning to pre-pandemic normal six years later with the guy in the badger suit still stood outside protesting.
A quick reminder that I'm now doing posts and shares for most government related stuff over on @ukgovcomms.bsky.social .
Before we all get buried in preparations and cooking and baking and family time, I want to remind everyone of the /r/fantasy megasale set for the 26th and 27th--a portion of proceeds go to the Mary Cariola Center, so go find some great reads! Over 750 books available! megasale.yrliu.com
2025 Holiday Megasale - more than 300 authors! Over 650 books free or $ 0.99! To benefit the Mary Cariola Center
Just wanted to give everybody a heads up that tomorrow is the start of the annual /r/fantasy MegaSale.
More than 650 indie books by hundreds of authors, and The Living Sword is once again part of it.
megasale.yrliu.com
I have a book in the same sale, and I'll be donating all my author royalties to charity (as I always do).
megasale.yrliu.com
