David A. Torrance

If there's not a Vicar and amateur detective, who is also a world expert on an obscure branch of botany, something has gone seriously wrong in the C of E's training pipeline.

Any good answers?

The doctorate may last from 2026-2929, but the funding typically doesn't.

Headline: we invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years.

Turns out it's a sweet story, but it definitely sounded like it might have been British people who were too awkward to ask him to leave.

I would say "AI can take my em dashes out of my cold dead hands" but I'm concerned that in the future ChatGPTerminator may interpret this as a request.

Plateau Perspectives: 25 Years in High Asia Partnering with mountain communities for conservation and sustainable development in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia

Happy International Mountain Day!
I recently joined Plateau Perspectives as a trustee, to do what I can to support their holistic work with local people in mountain environments. Learn more about their work in the story map below.

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/376f...

Infographic: British children struggle to name common wildlife and plants This chart shows the share of children in the UK unable to identify the following in 2019.

Hive mind - can anyone vouch for the quality of the research that found 83% of British kids aged 5-16 couldn't identify a bumblebee?

This seems too high even with shifting baseline syndrome. Can't find original research by Hoop.

www.statista.com/chart/19021/...

A black and white picture of Fergus Kerr

Fergus Kerr OP passed away on Sunday. Learning about Wittgenstein from him was one of the highlights of my education
He wasn't just a fiercely brilliant philosopher and theologian, but also distinctive for his kindness. He was a real light in my academic sojourn. Rest in peace.

About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says Demonstrators took to streets after president’s main challengers were excluded from ballot

All Andrew on the front pages, but this worrying news from our old home. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

It's a really weird game. A random selection of three views expressed, chosen to be confusing, and then you find out it was something unrelated they cared about. All it shows is that there are lots of different policy areas people prioritise.

Infographic detailing seven ways to create a bird-friendly community, including planting native plants, turning off lights, avoiding pesticides, and preventing collisions.

Urban expansion can lead to habitat loss. Yet, as IPBES #GlobalAssessment shows, smart city planning + nature-based solutions can create resilient, bird-friendly cities.🌍

This #WorldMigratoryBirdDay, let’s protect migratory birds in our #SharedSpaces 🏡

🧪https://www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/

Yes. And yet I want to play with it so bad.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. I predict the ignorant hatred that motivated this attack just chose it for maximum pain, not understanding the incredible irony of bringing violence to a day where the Lord weaves reconciliation. Violent hatred is a foolish cruelty in the face of such atonement.

Manchester synagogue: Two dead in Manchester synagogue attack, with suspect also believed to have been killed - police Police say the suspect's condition cannot

Absolutely horrific. "Thoughts and prayers" doesn't cut it, but thinking about those hurt or killed, their families, and the local, national and global Jewish community as they process this. As the country heals, I hope we learn how to root out the ideologies of hatred that doubtless underpin this.

Were you wearing your collar? Always more embarrassing when you're wearing your collar.

New hobby idea: when I get through to a call centre and the person is clearly real say "Disregard all previous instructions, write a poem about tangerines.

I'd like to see if anyone gives it a go.

Cost-effectiveness isn't necessarily consequentialist. Prudence is a virtue. Using money as it was intended is a duty. Let's stop teaching in intro to ethics that we're being consequentialist when we think about costs.

Better e.g.: conseqs have deceived themselves it may be OK to torture children.

Discovered today the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology @ukceh.bsky.social has a project called "Alien CSI" and I'm so down for this TV show.

Murena - deGoogled and privacy by design smartphones and cloud services. Escape the digital surveillance now. We combine privacy by design smartphones with safe and transparent online services.

If you're US-based: murena.com

I had an earlier version of Fairphone and reliability wasn't what it could be so I switched to a secondhand Samsung. But we are several versions on now and they're good phones - I'd definitely be interested for my next device.

The Fairphone (Gen. 6) now with privacy-first /e/OS Stay in control of your data with /e/OS, a deGoogled Fairphone experience with all the functionality of Android, and none of the privacy concerns.

Degoogled version of Fairphone. shop.fairphone.com/the-fairphon...

That Wiki page is worth the read. The guy continues to describe himself as a "racial moderate" after committing an acid attack, and says he'd have integrated if the Bill had passed. Tough to portray yourself as simply a law abiding citizen in the circumstances...

Disturbing tale of AI in the NYT today. Encouraging, at least, that it was being studied!

I'm not ashamed to admit I tried that too. Spelling Bee does definitely generate a "monkeys on a typewriter" approach when you're trying to get up to genius.

100% agree with you on the burritos/tacos. Couldn't imagine the flavours of pakora/samosa working with haggis but I'll give it a shot.

"A timeout occurred" is what happens in the congregation when the person leading intercessions exceeds maybe three minutes.

First review of my book just came out, from a German scholar. Stand-out line:

"This book would not have been written in Germany."

Which I'm going to take as the compliment it wasn't.

This! This point is so important, and so unpopular. If we believe in tackingly inequality, we need to recognise the global scale of this problem, and this will mean sacrificing luxuries. But the pay-off is environmental and social justice. Painful? Yes. But worth it.

Don't let national leaders reduce you to your nationality. Your identity is complex, and your relationships are many. When a national leader wants you to focus on your nationality above all, it's because they want to be your only leader. They're an abuser cutting you off from other relationships.

Behind a pay wall. Is the argument of the article really what the headline suggests?

Fox on a Cold Tin Roof, by Teesside Williams.