John MacPherson

I like stories. I posted this one on The Other Place and many people liked it. So I thought I'd post it here for anyone who missed it. It's about travel, but mainly it's about trust, risk & reward and a reminder that we're all strangers to others at some point. But only temporarily... 1/12

A few pixels worth of digital violin, playing a sad tune.

Living With The Sea This is work I did (exactly 20 years ago) & may give you a brief glimpse into the lives of a couple of families who work on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. Visit this bay at high tide, it looks wild and empty, but as the tide falls... 1/11

Self-portrait on the bus home from Cambridge #aofoto #BlueSkyArtShow #Transportation

Alert!! Incoming!

UK to experience highest energy cost in Europe this winter 🤔 Scotland to experience highest energy costs in UK this winter 🤔🤬😡 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 YouYesYet??? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

🧵Now in the custody of Hull Museums the five Roos Carr Figures were discovered by labourers in 1836 near Withernsea. Carved out of Yew the figures were radiocarbon dated to between 606-508 BCE, making them 2,600 years old, and from the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. The eyes

A special moment last night. After over ten years of recording his comings and goings in our bat autumn swarming study site. Finally got up close with Y6147, a male Natterer’s bat 🦇 at least 24 years old. Ringed as an adult in 2003, still in mating condition in 2026. @johnaltringham.bsky.social

In September, the AI company Anthropic claimed its models were approaching “superhuman capabilities for geolocating outdoor photos”. Bellingcat put that claim to the test by benchmarking the performance of Anthropic and other LLMs. Here’s what we found: www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

An Australian television reporter and a bystander rescued a man from a car as it was engulfed by flood waters, footage of the incident showed. reut.rs/4i0s9VX

In wet plate photography, orange appears black because the silver-based chemicals on the plate suffer (like me) from colour blindness to long light wavelengths. Because the chemistry cannot register these wavelengths 🍊 elements do not expose the plate at all. Chemistry lesson over. Here's the magic

Riker's Beard

I've been saying this stuff for years (although not in the hilarious way this guy puts it). It's why I won't watch Jaws again. And it's why every time I have watched Jaws, ever since I was old enough to give it some proper consideration, I've been 100% on the shark's side.

Reform UK Oxford will host a talk in November criticising "DEI" by the Nathan Cofnas, who describes his belief in + commitment to biological racism as "race realism", writing "in a meritocracy, blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

Two brown bears rescued from unsuitable conditions in Dagestan, a republic of Russia, are settling into a forest home in Burnfoot, Co Donegal, following a five-year rescue effort.

A woman in Arkansas was seeking care for a life-threatening miscarriage. Under the state’s strict abortion ban, no doctor would treat her. “Our hands are tied behind our backs,” one doctor told her. “Tell your friends to vote differently.” (Published May)

Sunset (and a Chinook) over Portnaluchaig

Labour are going to make fools of themselves with this. The first "granny" case that comes to court will have this lack of prosecution of someone close to No.10, as part of their defense.

My hour-long documentary about wildfires in Europe and their links to organised crime, corruption, big business, fascism, and far right politics, and community as a big part of the solution is showing in Geneva! Q&A with me & @jksteinberger.bsky.social 31 Oct, 6pm www.cinelux.ch/2026/07/10/f...

The fact that this whole tragedy also incited by an actual neo nazi should have stopped it in its tracks immediately ages ago. But, you know, both sides and all that.

New from me on Political Sandbox: Fair Comment Jason Arday was cleared of plagiarism and got 229 articles in 22 days, 42 in the Telegraph. A white Cambridge academic had his plagiarism upheld and got one. This was never about plagiarism. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/fair-comment

I called Trump’s deal with Putin “a deepening betrayal” on Monday. Now it’s clear he’s a despicable traitor with blood on his hands as Ukraine’s civilian deaths mount—and who’s making all of us less safe. www.americaamerica.news/p/another-be...

I strongly believe schools should bring children together rather than try to impose one religious identity on them. If you agree - please add your name and call on the Education Secretary to introduce inclusive assemblies for all, and to keep dangerous Christian Nationalism OUT of our schools.

Spot the odd one out:

You arrive and set up in the dark. And then you wait for the window. Just a few moments where the light is golden (silver in my case) as it hits the rock. Light, always light. And preparation, preparation, preparation…

From the Archive. Isle of Rum NNR 2004 The Reserve staff feed the livestock, Rum ponies and Highlanders at Kinloch Castle and in Harris Glen.

Conspiracy myths are the genre that turns networked connections into stories. No wonder they proliferate on networks. Conversely, social media has amplified, and made more plausible, a premise central to conspiratorial thinking: everything is connected. A network has no natural end point

The sun put on quite a light show as it rose behind the Empire State Building in New York City Sunday morning, seen from the 14th Street viaduct in Hoboken NJ #nyc #newyork #newyorkcity #sunrise #EmpireStateBldg

This is an official from the Austrian People's Party talking to a young man of colour at the Oktoberfest in Munich. He tells the young man: "How about you just go home and wait there until we come there for vacation?" And then proceeds by saying: "You are not at home here".

The entire interaction is appalling and disturbing, but sadly, not even surprising. In a normal media environment, this should prompt a national debate about whether the "mainstream" People's Party has a racism problem, but alas. We'll keep discussing the future of the SPÖ leadership instead.

Conference Registration now open! #LSG2026 Resilient Landscapes - applying archaeological survey and understanding to holistic Nature Recovery. 6-7th November, in Pickering & the North York Moors, UK. Click poster image for details. Visit our website to book your place ➡️ landscapesurvey.org