www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-univ... yes, but ... if we were market stall holders.. you said we could only sell apples for 50p. and it didn't matter how much inflation was, 50p was the price. but you also said we could sell peaches for as much as we like, because the price of apples was.. 1.
Purple flower of liverwort or Hepatica nobilis in a Norwegian forest.
Hepatica nobilis blooms amidst the leaf litter of a Norwegian forest.
A bright yellow flower on a scaly stem, bursting forth from the leaf litter. A coltsfoot flower. The leaves won’t emerge for some time yet.
A bright yellow flower of Coltsfoot bursting forth from the leaf litter. The leaves won’t emerge for some time yet
Spring must finally have arrived up north if the blåveis (liverwort, Hepatica nobilis) is out.
Bold yellow coltsfoot also bursting from the ground, heralding winter loosening its grip.
#Wildflowerhour (Norway edition)
I guess I wouldn’t be a big fan of being fed ground-up bugs either!
(Human) kids have an enormous footprint, it’s true. Someone’s gotta produce the future tax payers though. 😉
“Would extracting more gas from the North Sea reduce oil and gas prices for the UK?”
-“No.”
A detailed, to-the-point, myth-busting article.
(One to share with that uncle in your life who just won’t shut up about the N. Sea / net zero/ woke mind virus etc).
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Exactly.
I think sometimes as a species we have to say to ourselves “I like this thing and want it, but it’s bad for the greater good… so I won’t have it”.
Easier said than done.
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, I also loath humans 😉
I’m a lot more tolerant of indoor cats, yes. If people keep their fluffy murderers inside then that’s good!
I do wonder if we can afford the environmental impact of all those pets eating all that meat though. It must be millions of tons p/yr in the UK alone just to feed all the cats and dogs 😬
I loath cats.
There, I’ve said it.
They are hateful little wildlife-guzzling monsters that crap all over your garden, even (especially?) if it’s not their garden.
(Also not fond of dogs).
I’ll see myself out…
We model the average. Reality delivers the extremes…
Low-probability, high-impact scenarios at 2C can rival typical impacts at 3–4C
Key risks: Crop failures, extreme rainfall and flooding, increased wildfires
Key lesson: plan for the extremes, not the mean
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A gorgeous Little Egret, which is a white bird with a sharp black beak, built like a slender heron, standing on the water with a muddy bank behind.
A cheeky great tit, which is a small yellow, blue, black and white bird, sitting in a tree, with bright blue sky behind.
Also clocked 32 species of bird on my wanderings by the Fowey yesterday.
Highlights include:
Statuesque Little Egrets hunting in the water, 4 buzzards circling over a field, a bright yellow Siskin, singing Chiffchaffs, a gorgeous Bullfinch, and a noisy rookery.
'The findings are uncomfortable. Students are submitting work they cannot fully explain, facing AI policies that do not function in practice, and responding strategically to assessment systems that reward production over understanding.' 1/3
Spring flowers giving it beans in the March sunshine. From top left: wild garlic, green alkanet, dog violets, gorse, red campion, stitchwort, celendine, primrose.
Spring. Is. Sprung.
#wildflowerhour #Cornwall
Trump does not think strategically, historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. Allied leaders know that if they help him in the Gulf, he won't be grateful, or even remember
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Enjoying* the geological aspect of this story - the US strategic oil reserve is stored in giant salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas, apparently.
*as much as any sane person can ‘enjoy’ this current geopolitical shit-show.
“Don’t put Lego in your brother’s ear!”
One of the great things about having young sons is you get to say things like:
“Oh don’t worry he’s fine, he just head-butted the fire extinguisher…”
Wow… university taglines are often lame, but that one is really incomprehensible.
Leave a future where exactly?
Do they mean ‘create a legacy’?
(Although tbf the Exeter one is now ‘Together we create the possible’, which always makes me wonder how we would go about creating the impossible 🤔)
There’s lots more work to do for sure, (see also decarbonising transport, home heating etc), but the growth of renewables has consistently exceeded predictions.
I think it’s important to take stock of the ‘wins’ and use it as positive starting point for more action.
Hope is a useful emotion!
Showed my students a version of this graph today in their final lecture in my paleoclimate module.
A somewhat depressing talk about recent /future impacts of climate change, but wanted to leave on a positive note.
The decarbonisation of the UK grid has been SPECTACULAR over the last 15 years 😮
Heard the first singing chiffchaff of the year today.
One of the true sounds of early spring!
🌷🐦😊
A carpet of wild daffodil flowers at the edge of the woods. Everything is soaking wet.
Delicate wood sorrel flowers and leaves. Everything is soaking wet.
A carpet of young bluebell leaves on the forest floor, full of promise for a great show next month.
Some spectacular lichen on an old oak tree. No idea what it is but it’s funky!
Saw some lovely blooms on a soggy Mother’s Day walk in the old woodland at Lanhydrock.
First wood sorrel of the year, a blaze of wild daffodils, and pretty celendines. Wild garlic and a carpet of bluebells are waiting to burst into flower next month.
#wildflowerhour
Yes this is very much still wood (just old dead wood), so not petrified wood as much older ‘fossil forests’ contain elsewhere.
That’s a good point. I suppose ‘ancient’ wood could work, but then there are ancient alive trees.
It’s often called the ‘submerged forest’ here, as it was drowned by the rising sea.
Trunk!
Sorry, post-lunch brain slump.
Wow these are beautiful!
This is a nice paper on the topic if you’re interested:
ussher.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Cornish Geology! It’s not all granite you know 😉
⚒️🌍🧪
A fossil tree trunk exposed on the beach at Portreath. Me for scale crouching on the sands. Whole trunk is several metres long.
Close up of the fossil tree trunk exposed on the beach at Portreath. Grain of the wood clearly visible. My finger is pointing to the underlying clayey paleosol, filled with organic matter, sticks, seeds etc.
Close up of the clayey paleosol containing sticks and seeds. Modern beach sand all around.
Close up of the fossil tree trunk exposed on the beach at Portreath. Wood grain visible. Modern beach sand and gravel all around.
Saw a fragment of the mid Holocene fossil forest at Portreath yesterday, revealed by winter storms and low tide.
Impressive piece of truck on organic-rich clay filled with sticks and seeds. Probably 4000-6000 years old. Drowned when sea level rose following the end of the last glaciation.
My local MP posted about efforts to cushion the blow for rural folks using heating oil (price has doubled in a week 😱), and her comments were flooded as usual with rabid replies:
“Why aren’t we drilling our oil from the North Sea??”
“Why didn’t Starmer defend Straight of Hormous??”
I despair 🤦♀️
Crude oil prices, showing a very sharp increase in the last day, from around 65 to 101 dollars per barrel..
Oil prices wouldn't be all over the news today if more of our economy was powered by local, secure renewable energy.
This isn't an "energy crisis". It's a fossil fuel crisis.
44% of UK electricity came from renewables in 2025. More of that plus an electrified economy => no more oil shocks.