Richard Harris

@beeblebrox.com

840 Followers 702 Following

Climate, complexity, data & cats Climate & Ecosystem Data Intelligence. 315-432.34 ppm. Social tech innovator/entrepreneur, writer of fact & sci-fi, photographer, motorcyclist, cyclist, skier. Ex-CTO of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Owned by cats

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social Brilliant news. Miatta Fahnbulleh is by far the best person Andy Burnham could've appointed to this role. The energy transition will
Image of a heaped grey mohair blanket, with the tips of four feline feet and a tail poking out. It is assumed that the rest of the cat is in there somewhere.
mage a of an orange Maine Coon cat splayed out like an upturned table, trying to catch any breeze that may be passing
Screen shot of Air’s wonderful album, Moon Safari
Image of a highland loch, containing a horse, a human (having taken the horse to water, trying to persuade him to swim) and a slightly worried border collie.
Google Maps satellite image of the solar canopies at Castleview Park & Ride, Stirling
Image of the courtyard of an old house: paved setts with red acer and a pure blue sky
It doesn’t get clearer than this: top is a projected forecast for 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014. Bottom is yesterday’s actual forecast for the day. Repeat after me: “The worse things get, the faster things get worse”. And El Niño hasn’t kicked in yet.
UK Met office red warning of 40°C temperatures this week
Screenshot of Met Office forecast for Reading (England), showing a 40°C figure.
Screenshot of Claude app, showing the shutdown of Fable 5 that was forced on Anthropic Trump.
Ach, sirs – ye hae brocht me hame. That is Loch Voil, lying douce and still i' the lap o' the Braes, wi' the mists creepin doon the shouthers o' the hills as I hae seen them a thousand mornings frae my ain manse door at Balquhidder. The mist is no mere weather, as the unthinking suppose. Look ye then upon yon glen: the cloud has come doon frae its proper region o' the air and walks upon the watter and amang the trees, and the twa kingdoms – the seen and the unseen – are for a wee while mixed thegither, as milk poured intae watter. Mark also the loch itsel. The watter is still as a lookin-glass, and the hills are doubled in it — ane warld abune, and its perfect marrow aneath. The auld folk o' the glen kent weel what that betokens: that for ilka thing visible there is its counterpart invisible, ilka man his co-walker, ilka dwelling its unseen neighbours – yon braes that look sae toom are thrang wi' anither people, gangin aboot their ain dargs ablow the sward. And consider the hour o' it. That is neither nicht nor day, but the season atween – and it is at sic seasons, at the mirk and the gloaming, at the quarter-days when they flit frae ane lodging tae anither, that the Subterraneans are maist readily perceived by them that hae the Sicht. Times that are neither ane thing nor anither; places that are neither land nor watter, as yon saft mossy shore; mists that are neither air nor cloud – these are the doors and thresholds o' their commonwealth. As I laboured tae show in my wee book, the nearness o' that invisible polity is a rebuke tae the Sadducee and the atheist o' this age, wha wad hae naething real but what their gross een can grip. The mist on Loch Voil preaches a better sermon against unbelief than mony a divine has managed frae the pulpit – my ain sel, whiles, no excepted. A bonnie likeness, sir. It gars the hert o' me grue and lift baith at ance – for I hae stood on that shore, and I ken what watches frae the broo o' thae hills.
Image of two piles of unread books sitting on a coffee table. So when do writers get the chance to read?
Image of a Laburnam tree in full yellow flower, with a purple Azalea bush in the foreground. There’s even a blue sky in the background, which is worth commenting on, as this is Scotland…
This orrery was bought new by the Museum in 1913. It shows the eight planets from Mercury to Neptune, but not Pluto which was only discovered in 1930. In 2006 Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, so this orrery is up-to-date again. It was a working model for many years, but the gears are now worn out and it can no longer run. Orrery By Sendtner, Munich, 1913
An orange Maine Coon cat peering out of an old sash window:
A large orange Maine Coon cat expresses his opinion of mass ukulele playing in confined spaces. He’s Scottish, so is quite happy with bagpipes.
Image of a heavily indulged Orange Maine Coon cat being scritched behind the ear by a human slave, and clearly approving of the experience. As is his right.
San Francisco statue of Ashurbanipal trying to stop the cat getting out whilst taking deliver of a pizza. We've all been there…
Fantastical and lyrical concert at the MacRobert Art Centre this evening: Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan, with Windblown: celebrating the 200+ year history of the grand old Bermuda Palm in the Tropical House of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh - one of my favourite places in the world.
On STV, in 2020, Keir Starmer said: "If the people of Scotland return an SNP government, regardless if it's a minority or majority, then that would be a mandate for a second referendum." "Starmer says no independence referendum while he is PM .. an SNP victory at next year's Holyrood elections would not change his mind." BBC, 2025 KEIR STARMER, UK Labour In 2025, reported by the BBC, he said: "Starmer says no independence referendum while he is PM .. an SNP victory at next year's Holyrood elections would not change his mind."
Yanis Varoufakis • @yanisvaroufakis • 11h © ••• My reaction to Keir Starmer's last ditch press conference - an unsurprising reaction but possibly a helpful one (at least to those who, like me, consider him an abysmal PM. Like many, I approached Keir Starmer's prime ministership with deep-seated pessimism, my expectations already set at rock bottom. Yet, I confess: I failed to foresee the clinical precision with which he and his inner cabal would sabotage their own administration and scar Britain. The crux of their debacle lay, first, in a distinctly dictatorial, authoritarian reflex. And second-crucially—in a seething contempt for those who lent them their votes, while simultaneously performing a grotesque pantomime of flattery toward those who never would, and never will, support them. Having exorcised from the Labour Party its most authentic voices-people of unimpeachable integrity, such as Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, a purge that eluded even Tony Blair's repertoire-Starmer embarked on a rampage: He slashed disability benefits; armed and fed intelligence to the Israeli government as it executed genocide in Gaza; channeled his own inner Farage, perhaps his inner Enoch Powell, to vilify migrants and treat refugees as vermin; gutted international aid to masquerade as a defender of defence spending; bulldozed wildlife and their habitats; unveiled a new lexicon of draconian anti-protest laws; left trans people suspended in legal limbo; clung with religious fervour to absurd, socially ruinous fiscal rules; allowed Rachel Reeves to squander £100 billion covering the Bank of England's outrageous and wholly unnecessary Quantitative Tightening losses—a gift that keeps giving to the City's banks -while imposing yet another round of austerity on government departments and public services. Once the great hope of the downtrodden, Starmer's Labour has become the villain - the genuinely nasty party. Once a human rights lawyer, he has single-handedly plunged Britain into a shoddy…
Prompt: Please parse this politician’s statement following an election defeat for actual content. In doing so consider literal statements, semantics and semiotics. Be as sarcastic as you like: “At the general election, we earned the mandate to deliver change, but we have not sustained the public’s trust that we are doing enough. And we have made unnecessary mistakes. While it was important to level with people about the legacy we inherited and the scale of the challenges this country faces, we did not do enough to convince them that their lives can improve, that their future can get better - to give them hope.” Claude’s response, verbatim: Literal content: Approximately zero. Parsing by clause: “we earned the mandate to deliver change” We won an election. Note the passive construction of “change” — unspecified, unquantified, uncommitted. The mandate was to deliver change, not to define it. Convenient.
Pie chart of the distribution of Council seats across the UK following the English Local Council election on 7 May. Despite the lurid headlines, Reform has 3.8% of seats, well behind the Greens, who have 4.7%.
Guhonda, Silverback Mountain Gorilla of the Sabyinyo group.
Image of two orange Maine Coon cats importuning a hapless recumbent human
Image of a Beltane bonfire overlooking Loch Voil
UK figures include Scotland and are for 2025 full year. Spanish figures are 2025. Scotland figures, thanks to Scotland’s abysmal data infrastructure, are for 2024.
Kirjava (female Maine Coon) relaxes in the unfamiliar sunshine of a Scottish Spring…
The famous xkcd cartoon - Mythos (or rather equivalent class exploits) are about to make this structure very wobbly indeed.
Saved someone’s image of US gas prices at $5.39/US gallon
Image of a dozing Maine Coon cat, not having the grace to look remotely sheepish after getting his paw stuck down the bathroom basin waste at 3am…
Multi-image overlay of a grey Maine Coon cat, Moriarty, in a full leap from the top of a car to the adjacent boat trailer. Processed into monochrome, with vintage noise and effects, intended as a conceit to invoke the spirit of that pioneer of motion capture photography, Eadward Muybridge.
Screenshot of first cut of an interactive interstellar journey planner, based on real data. Seems plausible so far - the big blank areas are redacted to avoid giving away IPR that's fundamental to the book.
Image of a grey Maine Coon kitten. This was our fabled Moriarty (Count Jim "Thighs" Moriarty) as a kitten. Glorious companion, Head of the household (human and feline both) and the happiest creature I've ever had the privilege of knowing.
An image familiar to any cat owner: being unable to move from the sofa to do productive things because a giant (and in this case orange) object has taken up residence on your leg
Scientific study (with statistical analysis) of the optimum way to slice onions. Personally, I’m happy if I still have all fingers at the end of the process.
Nighttime image of Balquhidder village over Loch Voil, with sky glow from the next glen showing.
Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs Eurasian Treecreeper Certhia familiaris European Robin Erithacus rubecula Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea Goldcrest Regulus regulus Coal Tit Periparus ater Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus Eurasian Siskin Spinus spinus Eurasian Blackcap • Sylvia atricapilla
Screenshot of current weather forecast for Denver, Co. showing temperatures 14°C above the average daily high for this time of year. These are mid-summer figures.
Culled online: Sam Altman quote & a response Open Al CEO, Sam Altman: "We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter." @barkmeta Let me get this straight.... OpenAl was founded as a nonprofit. Open source. For everyone. "To benefit humanity." Then he raised billions of dollars. Then he closed the source code. Then he converted to for-profit. Then he scraped the entire internet without asking anyone. Then he used YOUR writing YOUR art YOUR code to train his models. Now he's on stage saying you'll pay HIM to access intelligence. Just like a water meter. He stole all of your data. He built the product with your work. And now he's going to bill
A view westwards over Loch Voil, with midground trees on a promontory, and the hills of the Braes of Balquhidder in the background, the whole draped in mist and cloud, reflected in the waters of the loch
A later version of J M W Turner’s 1844 painting, Rain, Steam and Speed. This is believed to to have been painted following the artist’s reported brief but traumatic encounter with a strange blue box and its inhabitants
Image of Oakley, an orange Maine Coon cat, glaring over the screen of my laptop and passing judgement on the fact that I Was five minutes late with his breakfast. If he had a black cap, he’d be wearing it: “Guilty. You shall be taken from This place…”
Short video of a Maine Coon cat in full tap-wrangling mode. I just wish the buggers would turn them off afterwards…
Two orange Maine Coon cats, demonstrating their ownership of all they survey. Or at least the window cill
The UK's ability to effect political change in improbably named places (Tolpuddle, anyone?) continues. In the Gorton and Denton by-election, billed as a tight 3-way battle, between the Labour party (which has forgotten what the Labour Party is), Reform (a bunch of gibbering racist fascists and failed Tories) and The Greens, presented by much of the media as a far left, pro-Muslim, anti-British party (ironically led by a gay Jew with the nasty habit of giving straight answers to fatuous interviewers), I'm very pleased to say that the 'close fight' was a complete rout, with the Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, landing over 40% of votes cast. Much egg on Red and Blue faces this morning, and a bit of a Mamdani moment.
GORTON & DENTON Hannah Spencer Green 14,980 Matt Goodwin Reform 10,578 Angeliki Stogia Lab 9,364 Charlotte Cadden Con 706 Jackie Pearcey Lib Dem 653 Sir Oink A-Lot Loony 159
Faerie light from the crescent moon over Balquhidder glen…
Moriarty, Lord of the Universe, a blue Maine Coon cat, standing against a backdrop of amber winter Bracken
Large hairy photographer in the winter sunshine, channeling the spirit of Papa Smurf…
Snow-covered Stob Binnein & Creag nan Speireag, photographed from Kingshouse