Substack Still Has A Nazi Problem (And Doesn't Care) For several years Substack has been accused of coddling white supremacy and fascist ideology for cash. And despite several major scandals and a mass defection of ethical authors, there's little seriou...

I still routinely see people I know have operational brains launching new newsletters on substack in 2026 and I really have to rein in my impulse to yell at them

I feel ‘serving kings’ is a rather charitable description of the activities of the best-known Thane of Cawdor.

Not totally convinced by the CGI Scafell mind - but yes, lovely stuff!

Binge watching it slightly greedily while dogsitting at my sister's 😊.

Thanks for the nudge - very much enjoying this!

Agree with that.
I just think that decent work and is a different order of effect to the view from someone's kitchen window being marginally different cause of a solar farm in the next field or some wind turbines a few miles off.

SUVs are making Britain’s potholes worse, say scientists Engineers link reduced lifespan of roads to shift to heavier cars, some bought to navigate damaged surfaces

Bikes don't do this.

I had been avoiding it cause of similar worries - but will give it a go now. Thanks!

Abolish the Home Office

Another warm congraulations to every person who has fought to delay, kill and weaken climate policies to gradually reduce fossil fuel reliance, over the past few decades.

Now you get to experience sudden, unplanned, unfair and painful fossil fuel restrictions instead.

www.iea.org/data-and-sta...

The only way to durably protect hauliers - and the economy - against fossil fuel shocks is to support them to electrify trucks.

Sales of electric trucks in China outsold diesel trucks last December.

So far this year, only one electric HVG was newly registered in Ireland.
#fuelprotests #speirgorm

Afrori books needs to sell 1000 books in April or they’ll have to close.

afroribooks.co.uk

The growing threat of domestic wood burning stoves—and industry’s legal attempts to shut down clean air campaigns BMJ Investigation

#BMJInvestigation finds UK councils face industry legal threats for campaigns warning against wood burning stoves.

As the government considers health warnings for new stoves, investigation reveals industry pressure to shut down clean air campaigns
https://bit.ly/4cZKtfE

Meme. The top reads '"Without a profit motive, no one would be productive!"', and below it are 4 pictures. Pic 1 is titled "Wikipedia editors:" and has a screenshot of a part of the wikipedia front page on it. Pic 2 is titled "Minecraft players:" and has a screenshot from some ginormous neoclassical-ish structure built in Wikipedia. Pic 3 is titled "Open source coders:" and has a generic code-y looking tilted photo of a computer screen. Pic 4 is titled "Volunteer firefighters:" and has a firefighter holding a hose, spewing water at some fiery inferno or another.

I really resent that they've appropriated the term 'traditional Catholic'.

My gran was a very traditional Catholic - and she linked arms round the G8 meeting in Birmingham to get them to drop the debt.

My grandad was a traditional Catholic and he was a devoted socialist and educator.

The Scottish Home Hydrogen Trial And The Ethics Of Delay - CleanTechnica Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. The Fife, Scotland, hydrogen trial is moving forward at Easter 2026, and that timing matters more than it might seem. Easter ...

Maddening

If you're in Oxford this organisation might be able to help: cosyhomesoxfordshire.org

Yeah, it's not helpful that in many cases you can't just have a conversation with someone.

It's a consequence of the general understaffing and underfunding of local authorities sadly.

Area-specific design guides and codes would help I think - but few resources for those too!

It can be easier, if you can time the works separately, to just do later under permitted development (which has limits, but covers many situations).

But as pointed out by Pete above, officers aren't always consistent in applying policy, so they can be challenged in some cases.

There is a slightly confusing situation sometimes with solar and heat pumps that are part of bigger applications for other works - despite complying with the rules on permitted development, some officers can ask for unreasonable levels of detail or other things that put barriers in the way.

My gran lost two brothers in the battle of the Atlantic. Both were in the Merchant Navy. One of them it was the third time he was torpedoed that he didn't make it.

She was a kid when it happened, but still clearly affected by it as an adult.

The people giving these orders are criminals.

Having recently supported a Grade II listed home in Greater Manchester to get new windows/heat pump/some insulation, and having worked on many similar projects in conservation areas, the main thing that would help is properly resourced planning departments.

Green Heritage Homes | Energy Efficiency Solutions for Listed & Historic Buildings — Bath & West Community Energy The Green Heritage Homes project helps listed and historic buildings become more energy efficient while preserving their heritage. In Bath & North East Somerset, we work with conservation and energy e...

They've been trying to address this in Bath with this programme: www.bwce.coop/home-energy/...

My latest column: Ireland’s data centre policy will drive significantly greater fossil fuel use, contradicting multiple statutory and policy targets which require rapid reductions instead.

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Still from Lord of the Rings film with Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam stood in a row in their cloaks with clasps from Lothlorien. In front of them is an excited looking black Labrador, in a similar cloak but with a bright pink clasp.

It was my aunt's dog's birthday yesterday. He'd been out in the wet and was wearing his towel wrap in the photo she sent of him. So my sister did this to it.

Maybe the hobbits are a bit serious in their expressions for a birthday?

The Simple Math of the Death of LNG Imagine you wanted to buy a new car.  Now imagine that you have a choice of two cars that are identical except one of the cars requires you to buy expensive fuel to run it and the other runs on free f...

Things are moving fast in the energy world thanks to the latest war. I cover a lot of the highlights of the past week in this piece.

Heat network technical standards We're seeking views on introducing technical standards regulations to the heat network sector.

There's a consultation open on this at the moment, which might be of interest to a few people here: www.gov.uk/government/c...

(I'm a bit consultationed-out at the moment - with EPCs and DNO and NPPF...).

From what I saw, some of that kerfuffle was terms from standard public procurement contracts for things like the supply of office equipment being applied to construction contracts.

With the hollowing out of capacity in the public sector, sadly fairly common.

Yup, that's my experience too.

My understanding is it lies in the difference between provision of a professional service and provision of a product. Architects usually just the former.

Though even for the latter would require the client to be clear about the purpose - which isn't always the case!

Fair enough. It's not for everyone.

I don't fly cause I dislike airports intensely, caught too many nasty bugs flying in the 2000s, usually daisy chain journeys, and want to limit my climate impacts.

My employer offers Climate Perks, which helps with time: www.wearepossible.org/latest-news/...