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Posts by Tim Small


Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex
59m
The Catholic University can form pioneers of a new humanism in the context of the digital revolution. This is a service to the truth and to all humanity.  Without this demanding educational effort, passive adaptation to dominant paradigms will be mistaken for competence, and the loss of freedom for progress. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon
Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex
59m
#ArtificialIntelligence systems increasingly shape and permeate our mentality and social environments.  Like every great historical transformation, this too calls not only for technical competence, but also for a humanistic formation capable of making visible the logic behind economics, embedded biases and forms of power that shape our perception of reality.
Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex
59m
Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses.  Dear friends, you, however, are real persons! Creation itself has a body, a breath, a life to be listened to and safeguarded.
Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex
59m
When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment.  As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality.  We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another.  Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue.  In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread.  What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex 59m The Catholic University can form pioneers of a new humanism in the context of the digital revolution. This is a service to the truth and to all humanity. Without this demanding educational effort, passive adaptation to dominant paradigms will be mistaken for competence, and the loss of freedom for progress. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex 59m #ArtificialIntelligence systems increasingly shape and permeate our mentality and social environments. Like every great historical transformation, this too calls not only for technical competence, but also for a humanistic formation capable of making visible the logic behind economics, embedded biases and forms of power that shape our perception of reality. Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex 59m Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses. Dear friends, you, however, are real persons! Creation itself has a body, a breath, a life to be listened to and safeguarded. Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex 59m When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

that's a good pope xcancel.com/Pontifex/sta...

6 hours ago 19 5 2 0
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A HUGE, narrative-breaking moment for the UK car market

New EVs are now cheaper than petrol cars on average, says Autotrader

Last yr CCC said price parity was due by 2028 – and it's already here

And EVs are already MUCH cheaper to run than petrol

16 hours ago 1031 373 27 41
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Death rates per unit of electricity production Death rates are measured based on deaths from accidents and air pollution per terawatt-hour of electricity.

Speaking as someone who has PV on their house (and investments in community PV)... Deaths due to Nuclear are similar to wind and solar on a per unit generated energy basis (source: Oxford University): ourworldindata.org/grapher/deat...

6 hours ago 0 0 1 0

Odd that the BBC does not think it's newsworthy that Farage misled/lied about this. Not a journalist, but if I found out a politician had misled the public I'd make it known.

7 hours ago 43 18 3 0
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The U.S. Is Manufacturing a Ton of Grid Batteries Demand for energy storage is surging on the U.S. grid — and the country now has more than enough battery-making factories to meet it.

Big batteries have begun reshaping the U.S. power grid. Now, the country has made surprising strides in making those energy storage systems itself, rather than depending on imports from China.

Good news! No pay wall.

7 hours ago 94 28 2 4
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The AI datacenter buildout is huge compared to past projects like the interstate highway system, the Apollo program, and the US railroad boom. But its still modest compared to global clean energy investment or oil and gas investment:

6 hours ago 159 29 5 2

I strongly suspect that at least 13,000 of those votes were not cast by daily mail readers.

7 hours ago 0 0 0 0

UK slowly repairing some of the damage it did to itself by voting for Brexit.

9 hours ago 11 3 1 0

The forecast strong El Nino is likely to result in increased rainfall across most of the Southern US in the coming months isn't it?

8 hours ago 0 0 0 0
OPEN LETTER | Jonathan Tracey

A petition to British energy retailers to breakdown the beneficiaries of domestic consumers' electricity standing charge payments (circa £200 every year) on their energy bills. Currently, these are mysterious unexplained opaque fixed charges that they must bear - www.jonathantracey.com/openletter

3 days ago 0 0 0 0
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They can do this because the Wikipedia content is under the Creative Commons License. The Russian government did the same thing with Wikipedia a few years ago, when they blocked Wikipedia (for "editorial" reasons).

3 weeks ago 1 0 0 0
Graph showing the past 24 hours or UK grid electricity mix - with Gas making up 1.37GW at 08:30 am, and always below 3.5GW. Wind dominates at 22.7 GW with greater than 20 GW of generation for the entire 24 hour period.  Source: https://grid.iamkate.com/

Graph showing the past 24 hours or UK grid electricity mix - with Gas making up 1.37GW at 08:30 am, and always below 3.5GW. Wind dominates at 22.7 GW with greater than 20 GW of generation for the entire 24 hour period. Source: https://grid.iamkate.com/

Gas providing <4% (1.37 GW) of GB electricity grid generation just now. I haven't been keeping track, but this might be a new record low? The remaining gas is only there for grid stability reasons, and grid-scale battery storage is gradually eating up this market for gas generators too.

3 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
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😬UK gas prices just hit highest level since 2022😬

At current prices…

* New wind & solar from latest "AR7" auction would cut the bill for UK gas imports by £5.5bn/y
* A single (1) home heat pump would cut bill for gas imports by more than £600/y

www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why...

4 weeks ago 86 40 1 3

A ban may be introduced this summer, but it won't come into effect for around three years.

4 weeks ago 0 1 0 0

There is a "voluntary" ban on the use of lead shot. I believe it is now the largest cause of lead pollution in wetland areas.

4 weeks ago 1 0 1 0

They still use lead shot as well.

4 weeks ago 1 0 1 0

He'll probably glue himself to the magic money tree or something.

4 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
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From the gang that couldn't spell strait:

4 weeks ago 2008 389 189 51
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A recent position paper from the Passivhaus Trust, our UK affiliate, highlights the real risks of applying only some of the 8 #PassiveHouse principles of approach, from underperformance to costly remediation.

👇Read the summary and full paper here: https://ow.ly/RrPV50YvPSO

4 weeks ago 6 4 0 0
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Q&A: Why does gas set the price of electricity – and is there an alternative? - Carbon Brief A surge in gas prices triggered by the Iran war has caused a knock-on spike...

This @carbonbrief.org article is more focussed on the UK - and is also a good read (and a bit shorter! :o). www.carbonbrief.org/qa-why-does-...

4 weeks ago 0 0 0 0
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Decoupled: how Spain cut the link between gas and power prices using renewables | Ember Spain has some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, largely owing to the country’s strong solar and wind growth which reduced the influence of expensive coal and gas power on the elec...

Also relevant is this analysis from Ember about decoupling electricity prices from gas wholesale prices - it's lengthy but a very good read! ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

4 weeks ago 1 0 0 0
Batteries vs gas: who wins on price in Great Britain?
Batteries vs gas: who wins on price in Great Britain? YouTube video by Modo Energy

Sometimes the gas plants are only running to provide grid stability services now. Fortunately grid scale batteries are gradually eating that market. They are also undercutting the gas plants on peak price bids, giving hope prices will start to fall before too long: youtube.com/shorts/uNGcg...

4 weeks ago 2 0 2 0
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Front cover of this weeks' Private Eye magazine. Also check out their podcast if you haven't already!

4 weeks ago 0 0 0 0

About ten spaces left if anyone else would like to head along on the evening of this coming Wed (18th Mar), 6:30 at the Friends' Meeting House, Brighton, UK to learn about three locals' experiences eco-renovating their homes bsky.app/profile/butt... #passivhaus #retrofit

1 month ago 0 1 0 0

“Iran is a huge country with a huge population. If this goes wrong, we could see tens of millions of refugees on the move.”
- Rory Stewart
(The Rest is Politics)

1 month ago 42 24 5 0
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Moving Home with an Electric Van How my daughter and her boyfrind arrived in their new home

I've just written a review of the 100% electric Citroen e-Dispatch. It might be moving in more ways than one.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/moving-hom...

1 month ago 60 8 2 1

Hired my first electric van last week. A long wheelbase Ford Transit. A pleasure to drive and the hire firm (Choice Vehicle Rentals in Brighton) include the first 50 miles of electricity free of charge (they don't do that with their fossil Transits).

1 month ago 2 0 0 0
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Free to attend but spaces limited - please book via the link above.

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
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Thinking about retrofitting your home? We are sharing real experiences. Join us for a free, informal evening in Brighton where local householders share their real-life retrofit experiences.

Come and see three people talk about how they made their homes more comfortable and healthier to live in whilst dramatically reducing their energy bills in #Brighton on the evening of Wednesday 18th March 2026 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thinking-a... See you there! #passivhaus #greenbuilding #greensky

1 month ago 1 0 1 1
The world’s first Passive House, Darmstadt-Kranichstein, Germany [Passipedia EN]

...PHPP was developed to simplify the modelling process for designers, but was based on the earlier modelling. It was first released in 1998. Some details here: passipedia.org/examples/res...

1 month ago 0 0 0 0