Good question! Wish I knew. Trying to make sense of which matters are devolved and which aren't is maddening. Hopefully not a holdover from the RHI scandal.
Given unusual reliance on heating oil, should be easy to make the argument for a more generous local grant scheme, not none at all!
Ouch. And at a time where there's mounting evidence over the harms burning solid fuel causes. Damned if you do, etc.
Almost two thirds of Northern Irish homes use oil fired central heating. Highest in UK.
Octopus's heat pumps are built in Belfast.
The UK government grant to install heat pumps isn't available in Northern Ireland.
How many times does this have to happen before we get serious about renewables.
Centrists will look you dead in the eye and say 'we should abolish the Gestapo' is a bad electoral position.
Handmaidens of fascism, every time.
No rare earth elements. Huge energy density. Stable. The fact this appears to be an in production reality rather than lab prototype is amazing, not just for transport.
Shocked - shocked! - that Marina Hyde, daughter of honest to God aristocracy, would take issue with the popular figurehead of the wealth tax movement. Can't wait to listen to the podcast with the multimillionaire co-host on why Green policies are bad for the country, actually.
Was recently hanging out with some friends who are all very well educated and informed. I mentioned that studies were finding that Covid damages the immune system with each bout, and they looked at me with disbelief. Surely it'd be in the news, etc. We're all parents, so imagine the N infections...
The cowardice is actually on the spending side, not the tax side. They are deciding not to make the case for fixing things properly and, in doing so, they can’t properly rationalise the tax changes required to do it. It’s a failure to set out the project. And it’s costing all of us.
It worries me so much that we will never recover as a society from the antiscience misinformation spread on social media and in some of the right wing press. This has unpicked health preventions, turned some MPs against vaccines. This antiscience is pushing us back in time to the dark ages.
Apple continuing to absolutely kill it with Pluribius. The sound design alone in the first episode sent absolute chills. So good to have a home for smart, creative sci fi.
Young Muslim self-described democratic socialist heads a campaign that not only wins, but turns a local election into one that's internationally inspiring. If you call yourself a Democrat and manage to perceive that as a threat, that says more about you, sorry.
Watching 'centrists' crash out over a democratic socialist win will never not be funny.
Turns out people at work do not appreciate if you question the use of so-called AI. Particularly if you can cite examples of how it deskills people, relies on stolen data, and is based on the promise of AGI working in the future but not today. Just total corporate capture based on marketing.
Everywhere it's been studied, a four day workweek mitigates if not solves multiple problems allegedly plaguing the country. Staff retention, productivity, barriers to larger families. If a pill offered as many benefits, it'd be rushed to market. 'Labour' gov FFS
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Embarrassing watching people embrace Newsom these last few months when what they really enjoyed was the content from his new Millennial social media manager. The candidate didn't get any better. Stark contrast to people like Mamdani who can do it intuitively and genuinely.
Just read through the wiki page of film adaptations to refresh my memory and it's unremittingly grim. A list that begins with Super Mario Bros and manages to go downhill from there. Warcraft is the only watchable mention. Games are much better served by TV adaptations with room to breathe.
One of the best shows around and each renewal feels like an insanely improbale gift, especially in this landscape. If you haven't seen it, well worth finding an Apple trial code somewhere.
Earlier this week a paper dramatically reduced the realistic potential for forest carbon storage. Now another downgrades the capacity of geological storage. Emissions reductions are the only effective climate action.
I'm just a guy standing in front of the @criterion.bsky.social Closet, begging them to put the film title on screen while the guest is holding up the case. If they don't say it aloud, which is more often than you think, we don't know what it is. Please and thank you.
Funniest scenario is Trump isn't dead yet, but he gets to see how ecstatic the world will be when he does kick it. Like the (myth of?) Alfred Nobel reading his own obituary, but with a zero percent chance Trump learns anything.
Solar and wind are the chocolate and peanut butter of energy. Batteries are like a dash of sea salt that pulls it all together.
Allegedly, Alex Kurtzman was preoccupied during S1 of Strange New Worlds working on a film. He returned, feeling the medieval fantasy episode was the best one. Rest of the show was directed to be more like it.
Am not a hater and I'm glad there's new Trek taking risks. But this absolutely tracks.
Cheap Chinese solar panels are fueling a bottom-up energy revolution in Africa.
"fancy autocomplete" really summed up the whole technology right at the beginning arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/r...
Watching "Tin Man" and it is incredibly clear how much the writing has slipped in Star Trek
Politicians too often think that crime problems can be solved by passing a new law, because that’s what they know how to do.
Sometimes a new law is needed, but much more often the solution lies in better implementation of existing laws, or in doing things that have nothing to do with criminal law.
Huge Parliamentary majority and the only idea Labour can find is asset-stripping. When community is frayed and we're living ever more isolated lives, absolutely let's flog one of the few public commons to keep the lights on for 3 more minutes. Dire, the whole lot
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...
If we threw the same amount of money at climate catastrophe that this unhinged iteration of Silicon Valley is at “AI” to force us all to use it, we could actually mitigate some of the damage and protect our ecosystems, but then how will 6 guys make all the money.
Galaxy Quest is perfect because it's also a love letter to the thing it's parodying. From the sets to the tropes to the fans themselves. Everyone is having a great time, while also being remarkably tender. Alan Rickman, you are sorely missed.
