Elizabeth Liddle

@pingu1.bsky.social

625 Followers 2458 Following

Part-time boat-dweller, cognitive psychologist / viol player, aging cat lady with ADHD. Trans Inclusive Cis Feminist. Pronouns she/her.

Lock screen with Socks, a tuxedo cat with black face, white whiskers and an upside down white heart over his chest, very up close and personal
The world’s largest amphipod, Alicella gigantea, feeding at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Alan Jamieson, CC BY-SA 4.0
House price graph showing that house bought in 1980 for £20,000 would sell for about £260,000 in 2023.
Edale from the train - blue skies,green fields, distant hill
The EHRC's action followed the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers (April 2025), which confirmed that the terms "man", "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. Trans people continue to be protected from discrimination under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
In the synthesis section in the review on HRT [13], the authors conclude that low, or even moderate, quality evidence indicates that there is insufficient evidence for recommending GAC practices. For example, the authors argue that no conclusions can be drawn regarding any relationships between HRT and psychological health. However, this minimises their own data where one study showed an improvement in gender dysphoria [47], one showed an improvement in body satisfaction [48], four studies showed a reduction in depression-related outcomes [47,48,49,50], three studies showed an improvement in anxiety-related outcomes [47, 48, 50], and three studies indicated a clear decrease in self-harm and suicide attempts [49,50,51]. So, five distinct studies on 415 trans youth show positive psychological outcomes, and no study demonstrated “consistent” evidence for harm. To avoid reliance on vote-counting of these studies, and the limitations of this as a basic method of evidence synthesis, we can look to a recent meta-analysis that found benefits of HRT for young people experiencing gender dysphoria for several psychological outcomes including gender dysphoria, depression, and global function, though there was low certainty regarding the evidence [52]. Therefore, it appears that the body of evidence, despite its limitations, is at least suggestive of a benefit of HRT for mental health among adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria. At a minimum, the lack of evidence for harm resulting from carefully prescribed HRT should have been clearly identified by these authors. Had this been done, the authors might still have concluded that more research is required to elucidate the impacts of GAC, but it would have been less likely that their conclusions would have implied that GAC is harmful. See Table 4 for a summary of the ROBIS decisions for this domain.
. . .even when we have explained the performance of all the cognitive and behavioral functions in the vicinity of experience—perceptual discrimination, categorization, internal access, verbal report—there may still remain a further unanswered question: Why is the performance of these functions accompanied by experience? M — David Chalmers, Facing up to the problem of consciousness
Bicycling commuters in the Netherlands. They have their own lane protected by a kerb and rumble strip. Only a couple of small children in a trailer are wearing helmets.
Drawing of the classical orders from the plain sturdy Doric through the taller more slender Ionic with restrained and elegant volutes to the tallest supermodel Corinthian with the its extravagant coiffure of acanthus leaves.
A fluffy tuxedo cat who knows he should not be on the kitchen counter and does not care.
A super soft longhaired tuxedo mini jaguar sleeping belly up on a chair with soft white paws nose and belly showing.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage
“This is OUR hemisphere,” the state department declared on X above a black and white picture of Trump looking grimly determined. The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, went on CNN to provide the rationale for Trump’s new approach to foreign policy. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he said.
Socks the tuxedo cat back in possession of the kitchen divider now that the varmint interloper Picciotto has gone back home after his Christmas visit.
A VERY soft grey tuxedo cat asleep on a blanket on a green velvet chair.
Picciotto, a fluffy shadow-coloured tuxedo cat, neatly curled on a round black cushion. He looks innocent but he is not.
Away, Melancholy Away, melancholy, Away with it, let it go. Are not the trees green, The earth as green? Does not the wind blow, Fire leap and the rivers flow? Away melancholy. The ant is busy He carrieth his meat, All things hurry To be eaten or eat. Away, melancholy. Man, too, hurries, Eats, couples, buries, He is an animal also With a hey ho melancholy, Away with it, let it go. Man of all creatures Is superlative (Away melancholy) He of all creatures alone Raiseth a stone (Away melancholy) Into the stone, the god Pours what he knows of good Calling, good, God. Away melancholy, let it go. Speak not to me of tears, Tyranny, pox, wars, Saying, Can God Stone of man's thoughts, be good? Say rather it is enough That the stuffed Stone of man's good, growing, By man's called God. Away, melancholy, let it go. Man aspires To good, To love Sighs; Beaten, corrupted, dying In his own blood lying Yet heaves up an eye above Cries, Love, love. It is his virtue needs explaining, Not his failing. Away, melancholy, Away with it, let it go - Stevie Smith
Prow of my boat on this frosty morning, picking out the detail of the nonges of the gas locker.
They keep on doing the supposedly popular thing, or the easiest thing, and are then surprised to find that it does not lead to a popular outcome. But there is a reason for that: the decision has unpopular effects. They must choose between an unpopular decision and an unpopular effect. You see this across the policy landscape. Universities need more money. Will that be popular? No, so they don’t do it. What is the effect? Universities collapsing. Will that be popular? No, it’ll be even less popular than the policy which would have prevented it. Immigrants boost economic growth. Is immigration popular? No, so they try to reduce it. What is the effect? Reduced growth. Will that be popular? No, it’ll be even less popular than the policy which would have prevented it. This is the cowardice trap. And Labour is currently caught in it.
A ceramic White House, roofless. with Nelly the Elephant going “Trump trump Trump” as she demolishes it from within.
Houghton Hall, an eighteenth century Palladian mansion built for Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. It is flanked by two curving colonnades with smaller "pavilion" buildings at the ends.
Rendered view of the planned White House ballroom, clearly showing that it replaces the East Wing.
Socks the cat sitting in a patch of sunlight.
Fascism: I sometimes fear... I sometimes fear that people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress worn by grotesques and monsters as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you... It doesn't walk in saying, "Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."
Zack Polanski in leadership victory Q&A: "You don't need to agree with me on everything. There are red lines though. We are a broad church party, but broad churches have walls. And human rights are one of those walls. … The same people who hate the LGBT community are the same people who hate the Muslim community. It is not insignificant that the Green party now has a Jewish leader, and a Muslim deputy leader. We absolutely recognise that antisemitism and islamophobia are two sides of the same coin, and ultimately, when communities ask for solidarity, including the trans community, the only response, the only authentic response, is to give that solidarity"
Interior of the 6th century Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy.
Article II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Socks sitting under a sofa table as though he is in a box but it is an entirely conceptual box.
Grange-over-Sands station with cast iron canopy and view over Morecambe Bay.
By far the most common theme concerned a lack of, or decline in, professional staff providing administrative support to academic staff (n = 62), thus resulting in the shifting of burdens onto the latter group of staff. In this context, participants expressed particular concern about both the loss of local administrative staff who used to be embedded in departments or schools (n = 28) and of highly experienced and skilled professional staff (n = 13). Such developments were commonly linked to the transition towards a ‘shared services’ model consolidating administrative functions in one central hub within the university. As one senior academic staff summed it up: Fewer staff employed locally. Regular turnover of admin staff. Lack of clarity over who to contact for help. Lack of continuity of support. And a general sense that professional staff are overwhelmed with workload and unhappy in their roles. A common remark is that when we hire a competent person, they won’t stay here for long as the job is not enjoyable. (P23, T&R, Level E, male)
Socks the cat lying on the kitchen divider, limp front paws drooping over the edge.
Nonviolence is distinct from a passive acceptance of superior force. It implies: - a willingness to take action without giving in to or resorting to violence - a respect for everyone involved in a conflict - a refusal to do harm to people or living things, and - a willingness to take suffering on oneself without inflicting it on others.
Victorian transport infrastructure views from train outside Manchester Piccadilly. The steel railway bridge supports are styled to look like crusader battlements.
Victorian photo of "The No.70 steam locomotive, ‘Poplar’ ... built in 1872 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and in line with the railway’s policy, the engine was named after the area it served." It has a tall smokestack, and the driver is standing in the cab.
Picciotto, my daughter’s cat, a long haired tuxedo cat lying belly up in a basket.
Socks, a black cat with four white socks and a white tummy and white whiskers lying on his back on a Persian rug looking cute
Simulation of data for 27 "people" on two measures. The green triangle is the median person on the horizontal measure. the blue triangle is the median person on the vertical measure. The theoretical "median person" is the orange circle. They don't exist.
Photo of the eastern facade of Hampsfell Hospice near Grange-over-Sands with engraved Greek letters saying “Rosy-fingered dawn”.
Black and white cat adoring Christmas tree.
Old photo of Trent Building, University of Nottingham, from the lake, taken in 1958
View of Highfields Park Boating Lake in Nottingham from the Lakeside Arts car park
Our cat Socks sitting on a countertop. He is black with white whiskers and paws and an upside down white heart shape on his chest.
Another black car with white whiskers