#Help with Utilities UK

[cheapenergyuk]

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[gifti3]

[reasonsforhope]

"Inspired by an innovative Chilean forest restoration effort, the English town of Lewes is enlisting the help of dog walkers to rewild a local nature reserve.

Heavily degraded by foot traffic, the project co-opts dogs’ tendency to run about in the woods to spread wildflower seed from saddlebags strapped to a harness around the dog’s abdomen.

The idea mimics the function that wolves once played in that part of England, roaming over vast distances getting grass and flower seeds stuck in their coat, only to fall off and germinate somewhere else.

This helter-skelter seed-spreading is actually how many plants evolved to reproduce, and it’s key to maintaining a biodiverse and native ecosystem.

“We’re really interested in rewilding processes, but they often involve reintroducing big herbivores like bison or wild horses,” said manager Dylan Walker from the Railway Land Wildlife Trust who organized the project back in 2019.

“In a smaller urban nature reserve it’s really hard to do those things. So, to replicate the effect that those animals have on the ecosystem we aimed to utilize the vast number of dog walkers that are visiting the nature reserve daily.”

The saddlebags are filled with a variety of perennial plant seeds mixed together with sand. This allows the seed to be spread for longer across larger distances, while also providing a helpful tracking sign to inform the Trust’s employees where dogs are walking.

THE REWILDING MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND…

Salmon Return to the Heart of UK for First Time in 100 Years After Dam Removal: ‘It’s very rewarding’

‘Give Nature Space and it Will Come Back’: Rewilding Returns Endangered Species to UK Coast

Farmer Combats Flooding by Returning Creeks to Nature: ‘Wildlife That Has Come is Phenomenal’

Finally Rid of Invasive Shrubs, Scientists Use Lichen to Regrow the Celtic Rainforest in Loch Lomond, Scotland

2 Beavers Named Hazel and Chompy Reintroduced to English County–the First Ones to Live Here in 400 Years

“I signed up because it sounded like such a good fit. I was asked to place a harness on my chocolate cocker spaniel called Bertie and he ran around spreading seeds like wolves used to do many years ago,” Cressida Murray, a dog walker who regularly uses the nature reserve, told The Guardian. 

Wolves were persecuted to extinction in England as early as the reign of Henry VII, who reigned during the latter third of the 15th century.

“A community-based project like this not only helps engage and teach people about the ecological impacts of wildlife but also allows us to make our wildlife and environments richer in the process,” said Walker."

-via Good News Network, July 30, 2024

[ana-bananya]

£1,335/£3,700

This campaign was shared by @/sudan.updates on instagram

The last donation to Mohammad's fundraiser was 14 days ago. If you cannot donate, please help by reblogging.

Mohammad Abdullah came to the UK from Darfur, Sudan when he was 15 and has been living there for the past 4 years. He has been trying to complete a family reunification application to bring his mother, sister, and two brothers to live with him. However to complete the application, they need to have their biometrics. Utilizing a biometric center in Sudan is impossible right now, as they have all been closed or destroyed due to the war and genocide.

Mohammad and his solicitor have determined that the best option is for his family to leave Sudan and travel to Uganda where the biometric centres are open. However, as a full time student, Mohammad cannot afford their travel fees on his own.

The funds raised will cover his family's travel costs, living expenses, rent in Kampala while they are waiting for the biometrics to process.

Mohammad has not seen his family since 2018. Being apart from his family from such a young age has been unimaginably difficult for him. Mohammad is constantly worried about their safety, which has started to effect his concentration at college and his ability to sleep at night. It would bring Mohammad much joy and relief to have his family by his side once more.

Please help share and donate if you are able so Mohammad can finally be reunited with his family.

[jarring]

israeli forensic linguistic software being utilized by the uk and us help help help

[gowerhardcastle]

What are your thoughts on ‘write what you know’ and how do you get over that fear of writing stuff that you don’t know too well about?

Oh, this is really easy.  Don’t do a lick of research.  That’s boring.  Just lie and cheat and make everything up with a completely straight face.

I have five tips for anyone who is concerned about “fear of writing stuff that you don’t know too much about.”

Here we go, in order of brazenness.

One.  Make things that you don’t know about actually about things you do know.  For example, if someone is trying to unlock a bank vault, the bank vault turns out to have been created by a specialty vault door maker with a fondness for classical Latin prosody, and the door can only be opened by someone who can correctly analyze the metrics of a poem.

Or describe things solely in epic simile. You fix the musicbox with precision, putting its scattered pieces together much like a shepherdess in a pastoral regathering her lost flock after a spring rainstorm, your hands the sheepdog; the needle-nose pliers like unto your shepherd's crook; your jeweler's loupe like the oaten pipe where with you tootle in merry and simple joy.

I have to tell you that I know about as much about shepherding as I do about musicbox fixing.

Two.  Make the narrator not care or treat technical things as beneath the reader’s notice.

There was an assortment of whatnots and so forth within the surgical suite.  Imagine, if you will, what might be properly found in a well-appointed surgical suite, and that is what was in there.

Three.  Just fake it with a straight face.  Just straight up lie and pretend you know what you are talking about.  Done correctly, you will either deceive the reader, or amuse someone who knows.

She is attaching the wires to some sort of control panel, flicking switches, and thumbing through a magazine.  The girl has multiplexors, diodes, transistors, and some other technical looking doodads spread out on the table, as well as several wires stuck into her thick black hair, as well as behind her ears, which she seems to be using as an all-purpose utility belt.

"I'm trying to increase the gain," she says.  "I think this is the parabolic antenna that I'm going to use.  But I can't figure out how to get a really tight beamwidth.  I've got .28 degrees.  But I can't get good precision, and I'm losing a lot of volume.  I'm assuming ninety percent efficiency."

Four.  Make your characters know very little.  If your characters are not too sharp, you don’t really need to be precise.  They don’t know.  Perhaps the narrator is a bit fuzzy-headed or poetic as well.

"No, I suppose not," you say.  "I think something is wrong."  Indeed, it does seem that you have been rather reduced in speed.  Something or other about the pistons or the spark plugs, you'd imagine.  You know--car things.

Five.  Fix it in post.

In Tally Ho, I had Rory have a “class ring” which later, after publication, someone told me is not a thing in the UK.

Therefore, in Tea and Scones I have the following exchange:

"I am ruined," sighs Rory, as you and Mopsie head out of the racetrack.  "I shall have to sell my Eton class ring.  My valuable, priceless class ring!" "I've told you a thousand times that there is no such thing as a 'class ring' from Eton," I say.  "That is a strange American custom.  The fellow who sold it to you duped you."

"But he said it was an ancient tradition from the alma mater!" says Rory.  "That's why it was so expensive!"

"It was a worthless trinket.  I assure you." "I don't think you know what you're talking about," says Rory.  "It was twenty-five carat gold."

See, you just lie and cheat and affect confidence.  That’s the secret.  As for what you do when you are not writing highly mannered and genteel comedy, I haven’t the faintest idea, thank goodness.

May I entice you to visit the following wonderful place? It is filled with juicy gossip and helpful tips and a branchy-beyond measure game.

[literallymechanical]

Zap Energy says that they’ve solved Z-pinch by “shear stabilization”, where they have different sections of the plasma moving at different velocities (faster outside, slower inside). Doesn’t shear like that cause instability, not suppress it? Or are plasmas not subject to that law of fluid dynamics

You’re thinking of instabilities in flowing plasma like it’s turbulence in flowing fluid. This is partially correct, but like... okay. So, the field of physics that governs the movement of plasma is called magnetohydrodynamics, where you introduce Maxwell’s equations into Navier-Stokes. It is horrible. I am but a humble mechanical engineer, and I leave the physics to physicists.

The physicists tell me that Zap Energy's science is solid.

Bit of context: Zap Energy is taking an old fusion energy concept from the 1950's called a Z-pinch, and revamping it with modern plasma physics.

A Z-pinch works on the principle that passing an electric current through a conductor generates a magnetic field, which in turn crushes (or "pinches") the conductor. The first observations of the pinch effect were in hollow metal tubes that were used as lightning rods, like this one from a factory in 1905:

Image by Brian James, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Plasma is electrically conductive, and is subject to the same compressive pinch effect as metal. Lightning itself is a plasma pinch, actually.

When you pinch a plasma, it heats up. The fast-moving, charged plasma particles repel each other and push back against the magnetic field until the system reaches equilibrium. The stronger the plasma current, the harder the pinch, the more pressure, and the more heat. With sufficient plasma current and the right hydrogen isotopes, you can create a pinch strong enough to induce nuclear fusion.

The pinch effect was first utilized by a class of fusion machines called Z-pinches in the early 1950's. However, those Z-pinches were extremely unstable. The most common analogy is that compressing plasma with a Z-pinch is like trying to squeeze jello with rubber bands.

UK Atomic Energy Authority, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Both linear and toroidal Z-pinches have been built. The toroidal Z-pinch above shows some of the characteristic kink instabilities of a pinched plasma – it goes all squiggly. Researchers started adding external magnets to Z-pinches to help reduce instabilities (which eventually led to the development of the tokamak), but could never get a truly stable plasma. Z-pinch fusion research was largely abandoned in favor of the tokamak and stellarator.

However, the external magnets of a tokamak or stellarator are massive, complex, and use incredible amounts of power. The University of Washington and Zap Energy went back to the old concept of a magnet-less linear Z-pinch, but with a more modern understanding of plasma physics. They discovered that by using a flowing plasma rather than a stationary one, with a faster flow rate on the outer layers (a "sheared-flow" Z-pinch), they were able to achieve great stability with no magnets.

Credit: Zap Energy

Rather than filling a chamber with stationary hydrogen and then pinching it, they blow a "smoke ring" of plasma around a cylinder into their chamber. An electrode at the tip of the cylinder then fires a pulse into the plasma, which creates a pinch with a complex velocity profile.

Credit: Zap Energy

Zap Energy’s physics basis is good. They’ve pretty convincingly demonstrated that sheared-flow does indeed stabilize a pinched plasma, and if they can pull off magnetic confinement fusion with no magnets, it will be massively cheaper than any other method. The uncertainty that Zap is facing comes from mechanical considerations (in particular, electrode erosion is a tricky problem to solve), and the relatively thin margins for efficiency that are inherent to any pulsed fusion technique.

[fannedandflawless]

Arthur Weasley’s Salary: Magical Living on a Non-Magical Budget

Let’s talk about the quiet financial absurdity hiding in plain sight in the Harry Potter universe: Arthur Weasley’s salary. Because when you actually run the numbers? It makes Severus Snape’s meagre income look like luxury. In a previous post, I explored Severus Snape’s likely annual income using real-world UK academic pay scales from the 1990s—if you’ve read Part III – The Rise of Severus Snape: Finances & Survival, you’ll know his life was far from luxurious, but it was stable, controlled, and financially self-sufficient.

Because when you actually map out how Arthur managed to raise seven children, maintain a multi-storey home, own a car, and send everyone to Hogwarts—all on a single income?

It stops being whimsical. It starts sounding impossible.

—

Arthur Weasley’s Canon Income – The 700 Galleon Problem

According to J.K. Rowling via early Pottermore content, Arthur Weasley earned ~700 Galleons per year working at the Ministry in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.

Rowling also suggested 1 Galleon ≈ £5. That means:

700 Galleons/year = £3,500/year

Even in wizarding terms, this is shockingly low. It explains why the Weasleys are constantly portrayed as financially struggling—but it raises even more questions when you actually compare this to what’s considered "meagre" elsewhere in the same world. (See The Great Galleon Plot Hole for the full breakdown of how absurd wand pricing is next to broomsticks and household budgets.) It’s this level of visible frugality that explains why, even at age eleven, Draco Malfoy sneered at the Weasleys' lifestyle—not merely out of cruelty, but because their second-hand robes, patched belongings, and obvious lack of status clashed so sharply with everything he’d been taught to admire.

—

🧪 Severus Snape’s Salary – The "Meagre" Benchmark

In The Half-Blood Prince, Slughorn refers to the Potions Master salary as "meagre."

However, based on real-world equivalents (1990s UK academic salaries at private boarding schools or junior lecturers), a realistic conversion puts Severus' Hogwarts salary at roughly:

£25,000–£35,000/year = 5,000–7,000 Galleons/year

Which means…

Arthur Weasley earned one-tenth of what Snape did.

So if Severus’ salary was “meagre,” then Arthur’s was barely magical subsistence.

—

How Did Arthur Weasley Survive on 700 Galleons?

Let’s break it down based on previously established lore:

🏡 The Burrow – But They Own Property

The Burrow is most likely inherited or acquired magically (via family or local wizarding means).

They pay no rent or mortgage, which massively reduces cost of living.

Magic allows them to extend or repair it without outside labour.

🚗 The Flying Car

Arthur likely salvaged or bought the car second-hand (Muggle world).

He enchanted it himself, which means no magical modification costs.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Raising 7 Children

Clothing, books, and wands are reused or second-hand.

Molly grows/cooks meals at home using magic.

Children attend Hogwarts, where tuition, housing, and food are included.

Brooms and pets (like Scabbers) are often hand-me-downs.

Their survival hinges on:

Inherited property

Magical self-sufficiency

Extreme frugality

Hand-me-down culture

And probably a bit of unspoken help from Dumbledore, McGonagall, or the community.

—

What Would Arthur Need to Earn to Survive Like He Does in the Books?

Let’s say:

Groceries for 9: ~700 Galleons

School supplies (4 children at once): ~240 Galleons

Clothes & basics: ~100 Galleons

Utilities, owl care, car upkeep: ~100 Galleons

Emergency/miscellaneous: ~60 Galleons

Total: ~1,200 Galleons/year (ultra-frugal estimate)

Arthur earns 700 Galleons… so they’re likely (as explored more fully in Spinner’s End Wasn’t Poverty—It Was Privacy, which breaks down how Severus could afford his life with strict control):

Living in deficit

Receiving help

Magicking needs into being

Or all three.

—

The Bigger Picture – A Broken Economic Logic

A wand costs 7 Galleons. A broom costs 1,000 Galleons. Arthur Weasley earns 700 Galleons a year.

Somewhere, the economic logic is being levitated off a cliff.

—

This entire post builds on the ideas explored in:

📎 The Great Galleon Plot Hole – How the wand-to-broom pricing gap makes no sense 📎 Part III – The Rise of Severus Snape: Finances & Survival – How Severus navigated post-Hogwarts life with control, not comfort 📎 Spinner’s End Wasn’t Poverty—It Was Privacy – A full economic breakdown of Snape’s home, Hogwarts salary, and lifestyle control

Let the Ministry explain that.

[joyejoyu]

Some sensitive stuff but if you care about current going ons in Palestine I encourage you to read:

I am genuinely devastated by the cognitive dissonance world leaders and celebrities are exhibiting re: Gaza. As a Levantine Arab whose parent’s homes were destroyed in war ignited by Israeli occupation, I am vehemently Pro-Palestine and sincerely encourage people to be critical of Pro-Israeli propaganda. Israel has been recognized time and time again by the United Nations and several human rights organizations as a colonial-settler state that has and continues to commit apartheid. Israel has always been a white supremacist and Zionist project financially backed by America and Europe solely for the benefits of keeping Palestinians oppressed while utilizing the land as a makeshift military base in the Levant. World leaders are lying through their teeth in order to retain all the benefits that come with subjugation. It is not a ‘conflict’ nor is it ‘complicated’. If you don’t support what Russia is doing to Ukraine, you should not support what Israel is doing to Palestine. There is never an excuse for massacre at this scale for this long.

I will be adding many resources below while also reblogging many informational posts. I know this is just my art Tumblr but I am incredibly passionate about this situation and it effects my family directly.

Links:

How ‘Israel’ came to be and how it was on the blood of indigenous Palestinians and a white supremicist project funded by the UK and America:

What has been happening in Gaza for almost 80 years:

The sheer amount of carnage that Israeli officials hide from the general public and claim is ‘less’ than Israeli casualties:

How Americans are brainwashed into helping with and advocating apartheid and ethnic cleansing:

How Israelites and zionists hide behind anti-semitism when confronted with the reality of Palestinian genocide and any critique on Israeli apartheid. As well as how utilizing this term as a shield dismisses the actual meaning of anti-semitism and diminishes it’s value during genuine critique:

Human rights resources

There are many more but this is enough to start. Please don’t stay silent and don’t blindly believe the overwhelming (and very calculated and intentional) wave of pro-Israeli sentiment.

[teal-blue-genesis]

I know it's been going around for a while that Bumblebee is an over utilized character. However this isn't true, in fact, I would say Bumblebee is miss utilized. Here's why...

Way back when transformers was first starting out with the Sunbow G1 comics, Bumblebee wasn't the sunshine child character who was part of the main cast. In the character profiles Bumblebee function was put as Espionage, meaning Bumblebee was a part of either the Spec Ops or as an spy(agent), or both. However, when the T.V. series of transformers was created and aired Bumblebee was put in the main cast by him having a friendship with Spike, making him popular with kids.

And since, Hasbro focuses on toy sales, Bumblebee who was the more friendly and sunshine character in the G1 T.V. series led to them having that role be the basis for Bumblebee's character.

I admit, since the Sunbow comics came out a long time ago, I don't have the full on stories. However, forums discussing and going over the comic issues have helped. In fact, while yes Bumblebee does have some issues regarding whether the team needs him, he is actually really cunning, and as one forum put it manipulative.

There were several moments in which Bumblebee and then as Goldbug showed this. Using the "Cute little autobot" act to his advantage. Such as when he exploited Blaster who wanted to get even with Grimlock. Or that time in UK "Victory" when he had shamed a broken Ultra magnus to the point that Ultra was pushed to fight Galvatron again.

Really, Bumblebee character should be one that is always wearing a mask, putting on an act, and in the background. Still having that curiosity, Courage, and need to prove himself to his fellows. However, Bumblebee character acted like they were in their 30's which suits them, not a late teenager, or type of Hot Rod/Shot character.

Bumblebee character isn't a kid. Nor is he Optimus prime's child. The characters that fit that role would be Hot Rod or Hot Shot.

Also, Bumblebee is supposed to be one of the shortest and weakest characters. Seeing a lot of the more recent continuities give the character a bigger size and alt mode, seeing tfp Bumblebee be taller than Acree had me going "wait what!?" It makes more sense for Bumblebee to be the motorcycle and Acree as the car.

Honestly, bayverse could of had the spy role for Bumblebee work a whole lot more. Especially, in how Bumblebee was the one to keep all the other autobots hidden. Or the one to infiltrate KSI to find out what was happening to the Autobots corpses.

[havinganormalone]

Independent Sex Toy Creators

Since Etsy is being a little bitch and banning sex toys, I wanted to make a reference list of independent sex toy creators. This is by no means exhaustive- literally thousands of sellers are getting screwed by this nonsensical puritanical bullshit- this is merely creators that caught my eye as people I might want to spend money on at a future date. I will be avoiding Etsy for even sfw purchases in the future, since this policy is out of hand and is going to disproportionately impact queer, trans creators. Because that is the way these things always work. Anyways, here's a list of artisans I don't want to lose.

Fantasticocks: Makes monster dildos, ftm strokers, eggs, and other goodies. I have bought from here, and am always in love with the pours- offers UV reactive stuff. Ohio based.

Odyssey Toys: They make some THICK boys. Firm grinders you can strap to things, inflatable knots, plugs. A lot of tentacles and a more old school swords and sorcery feel. UK based.

Chillow Fantasy: Makers of the Penis Fly Trap. Silly, memey sex toys. Michigan based.

Kreature Toys: They sale dildos that have a suction hole for fuck machines. Monster dildos. Michigan based.

Kinky Kreatures: Monster dildos. Sells knot sheaths and grinder gloves, as well as more standard toys. Australia based.

Frisk Toys: Ejaculating dildos. UK based.

Love Smiths: Monster toys, from dildos to butt plugs, with a wide variety of creative strokers. France based.

Okova: Sells tail plugs, including things like devil tails, horse tails, fox tails, etc. A very white variety, from whimsical to realistic, with good quality fur. Ukraine based.

Where is Willy: Specialist shop for FTM packers/strokers. Has strap on harnesses. Also has a line of binders in the works. Poland based.

TranZWear: Packers and stand to pee devices, medial grade materials, an emphasis more on utility than sex. Also sells binders, boxers for packing, and pumps. California based.

Xenocat Artifacts: Alien inspired toys, like double knotted dildos or tentacles. Also has furry explicit body pillows. Bought from them at a furry convention and the person in the pup hood working the booth was helpful and actually bothered to ask my pronouns, something that almost never happens to me (people assume I am she/her).

Primal Hardwere: Has sheaths, inflating dildos, and molds for gelatin eggs. More old school leather culture feel. US based. They made my favorite toy, a glow in the dark knotted sheath.

Tails of Fantasy: Tail plugs on a branch that is designed to have a more realistic placement than your typical tail plug. Also sells collars and ears. New York based.

Naughty Indulgence: Cheaper end sex toys and glass toys. Veteran owned.

BonBDSM: Silicone tail plugs, hoods, furred harnesses, medical fetish play. Thailand based.

FetFashions: Sells clothing that says things like Breed Me, Daddy, Slut, etc. The sort of thing etsy is trying to ban, so it's good to know a place that will do this.

These might be safe under the new TOS, as they are non-insertable BDSM gear, but at this point avoid shopping on Etsy whenever possible.

LeatherBond: Floggers, whips, restraints, all boasting made from real leather.

The Latex Store: Sells latex penis sheaths as well as some inflatable gags and other latex clothing.

Wruff Stuff: Animal hoods- of the puphood variety, but with a much wider selection, including pig, dragon, fox. Made of a neoprene material. I own one, it is more breathable than leather, and the design draws the eye. UK based.

Creative Kink: Paddles, canes, knives- both dull and sharpened. Pennsylvanian based.

Once again, this list is by no means exhaustive, and is mostly meant for my own personal reference. However, if you have a sex toy creator and you want to promote their stuff, feel free to drop a reference in the reblogs.

[cheapenergyuk]

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[thebibutterflyao3]

Day 3 - Prompt: Full @wolfstarmicrofic

January Daily Series - 729 words

<<<Previous Part OR Start Here

“Were you wearing a hideous puce jumper at the ice rink?” he checked. Sirius tugged on Padfoot’s collar half-heartedly. “I think I was trying to avoid looking at it.”

“Puke? It’s not puke!” Remus protested, pushing up onto his elbows. “I love that jumper, my mum made it.”

“I said, ‘puce,’” Sirius corrected. “You might call it…erm, rose?”

Remus eyed him narrowly. “It was brown.”

“You must be colour-blind.”

“You must be French.”

Sirius smirked over Padfoot’s shoulder as he leaned down and hugged the dog’s chest. Then, he inhaled deeply and pulled back with all of his strength. Padfoot didn’t budge.

“Genetically, not by choice,” he said, grunting as he attempted to haul the dog off of Remus.

Remus pushed from the opposite side and between the two of them he was redirected onto the grass, albeit with a lot of high-pitched whining and annoyed sneezing. Sirius offered Remus a hand, which was engulfed in his colder, much larger one. As he folded his legs underneath him and lifted up, Remus’s solid weight nearly pulled Sirius to the ground.

Remus straightened to his full height. The bloke was taller than James, but not by much. He just looked absurdly tall because his arms were so long. They hung around his body at awkward angles.

His ugly olive utility jacket didn’t help. It was too long, had large, bulky pockets, and a grey tint that gave his skin a sickly tinge. Sirius was fascinated by Remus’s ability to glow with sun-kissed health and appear on the edge of death.

“Alright. You’ve studied every centimetre of me, what’s your assessment?” Remus teased, poking his tongue into his cheek.

Sirius arched an eyebrow as his gaze dragged leisurely over Remus’s lanky figure. “It’s a cursory evaluation at best. A ‘study’ would require a thorough examination, extensive experimentation, and detailed research.”

Remus’s lips twitched with amusement before pursing into an exaggerated “thoughtful” expression. The furrowed brows were a bit much, Sirius mused. He did have nice, full eyebrows though. Perhaps they were the reason that his eyes were captivating.

No, it’s the laugh lines.

Only someone who smiled often had deep creases around their eyes. James had laugh lines too. He’d sketched them while his best friend was telling an amusing story. They were a reflection of the pure joy trapped inside him.

Was Remus filled with pure joy too?

“Do you want to study me?” Remus asked. He tilted his head and a loose curl swayed against his temple.

“Perhaps.”

Remus fidgeted, toying with the hem of his beanie. “What’s your initial assessment then?”

Sirius folded his arms over his chest and considered the bloke in front of him. Remus wasn’t quite as confident now that he was on his feet. He seemed more at ease when he was flat on his back.

Interesting.

“You’re Welsh-”

“Obviously.”

“-spend quite a bit of time outside-”

“Correct.”

“-are not a dog person-”

“Sorry, Padfoot.”

“-and have terrible taste in clothes.”

Remus snorted a laugh, but he tugged at the jacket self-consciously. “Agree to disagree.”

“Your turn,” Sirius prompted.

“Well, your accent isn’t as pronounced as your brother’s,” Remus began. He idly stroked Padfoot’s head and avoided Sirius’s gaze. “So, I suppose you’ve lived in the UK a bit longer.”

Sirius nodded curtly, but didn’t interrupt.

“You’re decent on the ice, so you must have had lessons.” Remus glanced up for confirmation, then faltered at Sirius’s neutral expression. “Or skated as a child?”

When Sirius didn’t respond, Remus scratched his arm and looked away. “You dress like a skiver, but clearly put a lot of effort into it. I reckon you don’t like being perceived as posh.”

“Do you always create fanciful life stories for people you’ve just met?” Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head, intently focused on petting Padfoot’s head. “Only the ones I find interesting.”

“I’m not interesting, I’m attractive.”

“And humble too?”

Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. “I prefer honesty to humility.”

“That’s fair,” Remus agreed. He chewed his bottom lip with his teeth before meeting Sirius’s eyes again. “For the sake of honesty, I know quite a bit about you. Lily’s talked you up and so has James. Regulus less so, but still.”

“Hmm, it sounds like you’re studying me.” Sirius smirked and relaxed his stance. “Go on, I don’t mind.”

A startled huff preceded Remus’s incredulous grin. “I guess I am.”

[reasonsforhope]

"The amount of electricity generated by the UK’s gas and coal power plants fell by 20% last year, with consumption of fossil fuels at its lowest level since 1957.

Not since Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time has the UK used less coal and gas.

The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours (TWh), according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh.

Fossil fuels were squeezed out of the electricity system by a surge in renewable energy generation combined with higher electricity imports from France and Norway and a long-term trend of falling demand.

Higher power imports last year were driven by an increase in nuclear power from France and hydropower from Norway in 2023. This marked a reversal from 2022 when a string of nuclear outages in France helped make the UK a net exporter of electricity for the first time.

Carbon Brief found that gas and coal power plants made up just over a third of the UK’s electricity supplies in 2023, while renewable energy provided the single largest source of power to the grid at a record 42%.

It was the third year this decade that renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass power, outperformed fossil fuels [in the UK], according to the analysis. Renewables and Britain’s nuclear reactors, which generated 13% of electricity supplies last year, helped low-carbon electricity make up 55% of the UK’s electricity in 2023.

[Note: "Third year this decade" refers to the UK specifically, not global; there are several countries that already run on 100% renewable energy, and more above 90% renewable. Also, though, there have only been four years this decade so far! So three out of four is pretty good!]

Dan McGrail, the chief executive of RenewableUK, said the data shows “the central role that wind, solar and other clean power sources are consistently playing in Britain’s energy transition”.

“We’re working closely with the government to accelerate the pace at which we build new projects and new supply chains in the face of intense global competition, as everyone is trying to replicate our success,” McGrail said.

Electricity from fossil fuels was two-thirds lower in 2023 compared with its peak in 2008, according to Carbon Brief. It found that coal has dropped by 97% and gas by 43% in the last 15 years.

Coal power is expected to fall further in 2024 after the planned shutdown of Britain’s last remaining coal plant in September. The Ratcliffe on Soar coal plant, owned by the German utility Uniper, is scheduled to shut before next winter after generating power for over 55 years.

Renewable energy has increased sixfold since 2008 as the UK has constructed more wind and solar farms, and the large Drax coal plant has converted some of its generating units to burn biomass pellets.

Electricity demand has tumbled by 22% since its peak in 2005, according to the data, as part of a long-term trend driven by more energy efficient homes and appliances as well as a decline in the UK’s manufacturing sector.

Demand for electricity is expected to double as the UK aims to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 because the plan relies heavily on replacing fossil fuel transport and heating with electric alternatives.

In recent weeks [aka at the end of 2023], offshore wind developers have given the green light to another four large windfarms in UK waters, including the world’s largest offshore windfarm at Hornsea 3, which will be built off the North Yorkshire coast by Denmark’s Ørsted."

-via The Guardian, January 2, 2024

[hyunsvngs]

Hii you can ignore if this makes u uncomfy, im just wondering bc im a drop out and unemployed rn but what is ur degree in? Did u get a job outta college? why cant u get one rn, like is it a competitive thing or just jobs arent in demand? Ive just always been curious abt the other side of things bc my friends who graduated also arent getting jobs. Im kinda considering going back to school but idk, bc im getting jobs even w.o a degree but just not full time :/ wishing u all the best 🧡

hi, i absolutely can answer this but it might be a very long and convoluted answer because it has more to do with my location lol

in the uk, degrees work a little differently to america. we don’t do majors & minors, it’s one strict subject you do your degree in, and i did mine in history & english literature.

the sad truth is that i’d always intended to become a teacher. in the uk, you have to complete your bachelors degree (which i did! i graduated in july 2024) and then you have to do another year postgrad degree with a certificate of education, meaning you can then legally teach. unfortunately, i spent about two months doing my pgce (post grad certificate of education) and then realised it absolutely was NOT for me and dropped out.

obviously, after spending my whole life wanting to be a teacher and then changing my mind, i had to take some time out to think about what to do. i’ve only really been doing Nothing since november, so only 2 months now, and i have a few job interviews lined up for january. that’s my story!

but to answer your questions: it’s not really a competitive thing. the horrible part about the uk right now is that absolutely everything in our lives is structured horribly. no one can buy a home (because it’s too expensive, and banks are refusing mortgages if you don’t have enough saved up. unfortunately, ‘enough’ is a LOT and nobody has that due to our economy situation rn). this then leads into the majority of people being unemployed/just plain poor because most (if not all lol) jobs require work experience, which many new graduates don’t have, and i’ve also encountered a few problems due to being ‘overqualified’.

having a job doesn’t even help all that much - the cost of living also makes transport to work more expensive, makes rent more expensive, makes food/utilities more expensive, and job wages don’t increase while they do. no one can afford anything.

it’s tough out here but it’s unfortunately just the way things are set up. if you’re more interested in the current economic state of the uk and why everything is fucked right now, it all has to do with our cost of living - very interesting topic if you wanted to search it up.

hope this helps :)

[gamingavickreyauction]

It's often said, as a truism, that while climate change is caused by systems, your individual choices can still make a difference, but might not actually be true- not just that you are small, but that the difference your consumption makes is actually zero.

Standard economic analysis

The standard economic analysis is that if you buy more carbon-intensive goods, that has two effects: it increases the total quantity of carbon-intensive goods sold, and it increases the price of carbon-intensive goods (only marginally, because you are small).

This means that while you buying one unit of carbon-intensive goods doesn't increase the amount of carbon-intensive goods as sold by one, it still increases them, and the amount it increases it by depends on the price elasticities of demand and supply (i.e. the slopes of the curves). If supply is very inelastic, we expect it to make close to 0 difference, and if demand is very inelastic we expect it to make an almost one-for-one difference. Suppose PED = PES and you emitted one extra tonne of CO2, the net effect of that is only an extra half tonne of CO2.

Aside: do these diagrams actually work? Yes. This result seems counterintuitive: the price of electricity isn't going to be put up just because you used more electricity this year, so it isn't going to result in others using less - there will be no offset. And this is correct, the world comes in discrete changes. But if enough people use more electricity, prices will go up, and you have no way of knowing whether you're the one who'll push it over the edge or raise the price of electricity from 29p to 30p. So we just look at averages, and on average you will raise prices by the amount shown on this diagram (i.e. very small, because you are very small, but enough to offset an amount of consumption that matters for our purposes).

Accounting for the government

But this standard economic analysis takes place in a policy vacuum. I mean, the same welfare effect would also hold if the government's climate policy was optimal because something something envelope theorem, but the government's policy is ummmm not optimal. In any country. Governments are not trying to set a socially optimal rate of carbon tax (which would be crippling to many industries) they are trying to do something more like reduce emissions enough to satisfy an electorate that doesn't care much, and no further, because they don't want to shrink the economy.

In an idealised version of this strategy, individual actions actually have 0 effect, regardless of PED or PES, because of the policy feedback mechanism: a British person emits one less tonne of CO2 so the UK government go 'oh look an extra tonne of CO2 we can emit without exceeding our internal targets' and spend less on mitigation to cancel it out.

Whilst your individual effect is small and unlikely to be noticed by policymakers, many people's changes will be noticed, and your emissions might be the straw that broke the camel's back, so we can treat the government as if their targets are responding to your individual emissions, just like in the aside. Note it isn't the official targets that matter, but how much governments privately feel they can get away with.

If the government are decided to emit 500MTe, then 500MTe are going to be emitted by someone, regardless of if you're the one doing it. You didn't help the Bangladesh farmer who's losing their livelihood because of harsher monsoon seasons, you just helped Clyde who wants to pay less tax on his SUV.

This argument hinges on this policy feedback mechanism actually being one-for-one, which we don't know, and which is fundamentally an empirical question. Specifically in the long-run. I'm sure it's not actually one-for-one- and if we model the government as maximising some utility function of economy and environment, it can't be.

We would also need to multiply this 'do your actions have purpose (because government is a fuck)' coefficient by the 'do your actions have purpose (because markets is a fuck)' coefficient to find out the actual effect of your actions. The crux of my argument is that the government's fuck coefficient is likely to be very small.

What is the government's fuck coefficient?

The long-run government fuck coefficient is built up over years of repeatedly adjusting policy to look more like what the government wanted to do anyway: if the government undershoots their carbon budget one year, the government will want to take that as license to emit more the next year, and whilst this won't be one for one- it might be quite small- over many years it will add up to mean emissions were basically what they would have been anyway.

Policy and emissions are slow to adjust- maybe a year after you reduced emissions by a tonne, policy change adjustments have only offset it by 10%, leaving a government fuck coefficient of 0.9 which seems pretty good (it means you had 90% as much effect as you thought your were having). Then the next year the government has 0.9 extra tonnes in their budget, and again their policy only offsets 10% of that, leaving a government fuck coefficient of 0.81 after 2 years. This continues year after year, so that in 30 years time, the government fuck coefficient is 0.042- i.e. you think you've saved a tonne of CO2, but because of the policy feedback mechanism, your net effect is only 42kg. Lets call this 10% figure the government fuck decay rate (GFDR).

Maybe the GFDR is lower than that, which would mean your individual consumption has more impact for longer. But as long as this GFDR is constant over time, your impact exponentially decays over time. The government fuck coefficient goes to zero. Remember, this isn't your effect on annual emissions decaying over time, it's your effect on cumulative emissions - this means your individual actions really are being undone. Not that annual emissions adjust back to the status quo but cumulative emissions do.

The government fuck coefficient after t years is (1-GFDR)^t

Self criticism like some kind of Maoist

The one weak point in this analysis I can see is it assumes governments' emission preferences care about cumulative emissions, not just annual emissions - i.e. that governments will think they can get away with doing less this year because they did more last year, or ten years ago. This is what gives a GFDR that isn't 0. If they largely don't think like this, the GFDR could be way less than 0.1 per year, leading to a government fuck coefficient that isn't near 0 even decades in the future (and what really matters is what the effect is decades in the future when hopefully governments will doing the right amount of mitigation, at which point there is no more decay).

The GFDR might also decrease over time, as after a certain amount of time historical emissions may basically be considered water under the bridge.

But if the GFDR is anything close to 0.1, we have to accept that, bizarre as it seems, saving energy today doesn't actually result in there being less carbon in the air in 50 years.

This doesn't mean we should do nothing, but it means our actions should be entirely focused on shifting government preferences, rather than on changing consumption habits. Assuming my analysis is correct.