mastodon 4.7.2I am a climber, runner (with a Collie), cyclist and swimmer. I was running a small (but perfectly formed) analytics company now employee owned to mark my retirement. Commute between the Highlands and The Borders, campaign for Scottish independence, bake bread and occasionally dabble in bad art.
I winge about a lot - the environment, bad governance and stupidity but do try to provide a wee bit of evidence and highlight good news.
Languages : English, German, Gaelic, Pashtu, Spanish, Italian
Researchers from Cornell University have developed what they call "the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale," a tool designed to measure how impressed people are by business school-style jargon that sounds strategic but says very little.
The findings, described in a recent study, suggest that employees who rate this sort of language as insightful are more likely to struggle with analytical thinking and workplace decision-making.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/15/corporate_jargon_research/
Linton Kirk, one of Scotland’s oldest churches still in use in the Scottish Borders is surplus to Church of Scotland requirements and a local group are attempting to raise the money to buy it foe the community.
Morning run
You can guess what the weather is like today - and I am no better
All your beds belong us
5thats why happens when you go out for a run and don’t lock the cat flap
Lunchtime run
An 18.5 combined road (10k) and tracks outing. Cold for the first k and then I warmed up - only to be soaked in brief downpour, dried out, soaked again and then dry for the last 3k. Very refreshing, if a little mucky on the tracks. Fun though and a good stretch.
Afternoon run.
Over in Cumbria for family dinner. Wet, but why would you leave The Borders for Cumbria and expect a bit of dry 😉 9k, road and ‘concrete’ road above Shap, but the rain did mix with a little sun for a proper rainbow.
Afternoon run/swim
Heavy rain was forecast, but other than a few drops none came, so dragging myself ever so reluctantly from cleaning the cottage we got out for 8.5k (road). Breezy but a good temperature and of course we came back via the Teviot. The dug had seen me putting a ball into the running sack and got very excited. Water levels are lower than they have been for 10 days and if you look at the photograph you get a sheep view of THE EYE.
Morning run
Something we haven’t done for more than a year, a trails run across to the ‘Baron’s folly’, built as an observatory and summer house (the Baron bit was added to the title c/o Catherine the Great of Russia). Clouded over on the way back but a lovely temperature for running. 11k, all tracks and flattish.
https://scotlandstartshere.com/point-of-interest/barons-folly/
Oh my aching heart…
I have been walking our dug and two of our neighbours at about 8 every morning most days for 6 months. As an experiment I have captured the same image mid way during the walk at the same time for the last couple of months
A work in progress - and a little crude at the moment
Morning run
Cumbria for the evening and we woke to the unexpected - it had been a dry night. But a quick stretch before heading back North. 8.5k on mixed roads and track. With a very excited dug. He loves the snow.
Now breakfast to reinforce him for the trip home.
So we are cracking down on refugees whilst at the same time ensuring that their numbers will increase. If it is not supporting (no matter what Starmer says, he is), wars and forced ‘migration’, we are supporting fossil fuel paddlers with tax breaks and relaxed environmental rules whilst as the same time cutting funding for climate mitigation (including the UK).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/02/uk-slashes-climate-aid-developing-countries
#UkPol #Labour #ShortSighted #Madness #Irresponsible #FuckLabour #Environment #ClimateChange
The Murdoch press surpasses itself.
Some people might remember the Sun, celebrating the sinking of the Belgrano with the title ‘Gotcha’. Now its mate is celebrating the deaths of sailors thousands of miles from Iran with video of the event. Survivors left to die. I will not post a link to a disgusting article that revels in other people’s deaths, so simply the headlines. At the same time US commanders are ‘preaching’ of a war in Gawds Name.
It’s all going so well.
One very little positive though is the ‘Guess what won’t get blocked in the Straits of Hormuz - Renewable power’ meme is getting a little traction. And something to ram down the throats of ‘Net Zero refuseniks’
People talk about the law of unforseen consequences - these were all predictable. As well as the delight of US and Israeli forces killing unarmed people they don't know.
The US needs to be shunned
#Economy #War #Iran #Renewables #FossilFuels #ForseenConsequences
Chan eil mi a’ creidsinn gur e seo duilgheadas ann an da-rìribh. Bidh sinn a’ ceartachadh agus uaireannan a’ gàireachdainn le ar clann mu mhearachdan, chan ann mu na mearachdan sin. Tha daoine ann a bhios a’ magadh air daoine airson nach eil an ‘cànan ceart’ aca ach tha iad tearc. Tha fàilte air a h-uile duine as aithne dhomh air daoine a dh’fheuchas ri an cànan a
Bidh sinn a’ magadh air an fheadhainn a bhios a’ gàireachdainn.
https://www.thenational.scot/comment/25945550.wont-save-scots-gaelic-learners-slated-mistakes/
Tha mi dìreach air crìoch a chur air sgrùdadh Sradagan san Larmailt.
‘S e cruinneachadh bàrdachd inntinneach a tha seo. Tha mi a’ coimhead air adhart ri bhith a’ tilleadh.
Socair do m'anam
Just finished my first exploration of Sparks in the Firmament. I look forward to returning.
Balm for my soul
Gaelic with translations.
Showing Trump how to do it
While Trump needs a war to distract, Charley has persuaded the English to ‘name’ a coastal path after him and bask in the glory - despite the fact that it has bugger all to do with the tax avoiding, law distorting parasite. But I suppose as a distraction form his families behaviour and tax affairs it beats a war.
I’m not surprised he didn't try it on in Scotland, a bit too obvious.
The clowns in the maladministration can not even get their story straight. And it looks as though his MAGA adherents are getting restless. Will Iran outlast him? Certainly more war, chaos and death in the Middle East will.
This is very positive. It is great that England can develop and project a sense of nationhood without having to drag the rest of the UK in and blur the differences. We all have them and some are positive and some negative no matter what nation you believe you belong to. Assimilation is not good for any of us if it means destroying identity.
Not blood and soil - just the things that matter. Even if this does not capture them all.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/07/campaign-seeks-50-objects-englishness-debate
I generally find #Coren an entitled boor, but in this piece, sarcasm included he gets it right. It can be summarised as a plea for the retention of already inadequate animal welfare standards.
#Boycott
- #Nandos
- #KFC
- #Wagamaya
- #PizzaHut
- #TacoBell
- #BellaItalia
- and others
if you have any decency
#Chicken #AnimalWelfare #UK #NameAndShame #Environment #Decency
There is a simple answer. Fossil Fuel companies are determined to maintain their profits and having worked hard to deny any impact on climate are finding this a little more difficult to avoid - although many governments are trying their best to ignore it.
Good luck with that.
European countries have observed that the US can not be a reliable ally. They have watched communications being switched off over Ukraine to suit Musk and Russia. They have seen the mad dog in the White House killing on personal whim. Why use US services and equipment in the future - it doesn’t make sense.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/trump_administration_spoiling_for_a/
#Telecoms #Satellites #US #Untrustworthy #DigitalIndependence #RogueState
Granite Noir is hosting a joint Gaelic/English crime fiction festival this week from lunchtime on February 19th
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25855430.granite-noir-makes-first-foray-gaelic-crime-fiction
#Gàidhlig #Gaelic #Aberdeen #Bookstadon #Festival #Crime #GraniteNoir
This is just one example of ‘think tanks being funded by people with vested interests. In this case it is ‘just' nuclear power. They have become a blight on society, represented by the media (and the BBC in particular) as disinterested experts. They are no such thing - and they are a canker on public debate. See the UK Lawyers for Israel for example = funded by Israel yet purporting to be independent.
https://www.theferret.scot/britain-remade-links-industry-lobbyists/
You really have to ask what these ‘chatbots’ are using for their training data - the minutes from a Trump cabinet meeting, or a closed session of the Knesset?
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/11/chatbot_violence_countering_digital_hate_study/
Not surprising, I bet that Starmer hopes (as Trump does) that the latest Middle East ‘intervention’ will distract people.
#Journalism #Starmer #UnderTheCarper #Distraction #Holden #LabourTogether #Complicity #Transparency UkPol
