Caroline Ritchie

"Countries that relied only on the normal tools (voting, suing, legislating) climbed back to democracy seven percent of the time... But! Countries that added a civil resistance movement on top of that... climbed back fifty-one percent of the time."

Two clear & colossal threats: 1) Palantir (especially under the US CLOUD Act 2018) and 2) the UK-US pharmaceutical deal of Dec 2025 where UK govt, without scrutiny, changed NHS pricing rules at Trump’s behest. Both must go. #NHS #Burnham #Palantir #Trump

Hanging out at the Royal Concert Hall with Weegies of a certain age again. #lastchancetosee(probably)

Vanta black is made from carbon nanotubes, and absorbs something like 99.965% of all the light falling on it. It creates a sense of total absence, with no hint of the topography of the surface it's on. Is it suspended in space? Painted on the wall? Flat or concave?

Green and Black Cross are offering trans-specific know your rights protest training this Friday. The link to sign up is here, and I’d appreciate it if you could share this widely.

New research from Yale and Johns Hopkins identifies microvascular endotheliopathy (inflammation and damage to small blood vessels) as a primary driver of long COVID brain fog. The study indicates that vascular damage from the initial infection leads to long-term neuroinflammation.

One of the most enraging aspects of [waves hands] all this is that the assholes dismantling America's government *do not understand it*. They are stupid, incurious people who've spent their lives marinating in RW agitprop. They have no idea what they are destroying.

A bit like the Russians, if there's a war, you're one of the ones who started and fed it. So you can end your "special military operation" against trans people any time you like.

Fred: Hey Shaggy have you seen Velma? Shaggy: It wasn't me! Fred: What?? Shaggy: It wasn't me! Fred: Guys, I think we picked up the wrong Shaggy again. Shaggy: Mr Lover Lover Mmmm

I can’t decide whether the current US administration knows exactly what it is doing in this respect or not.

Many people think that a scientific consensus is a large group of scientists who all agree that something is true. In reality, it’s a large body of scientific studies that all agree with and support each other. The agreement is a by-product of the consistent evidence.

I was beginning to think that the people writing about this thread to the Trump administration’s agenda were fantasists. Silly me.

Science-based humour.

Just going to leave this here

You know Alex Pretti & Renee Good—the 2 white people ICE killed. ICE has also killed Keith Porter, a Black man, Parady La, a Cambodian man, & 5 Latinos—Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos. 9 TOTAL. ABOLISH ICE.

WHO removing Us Flag

A law passed in the USA means that all new cars will have 'killswitches' built into them. Technically they are only supposed to be used by law enforcement if you are 'impaired'. But what do you think ICE will do with this power?

RFK Jr. appointee Kirk Milhoan has just clearly stated, out loud, that he wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread.

Undiagnosed girls with ADHD face higher risks of bad outcomes than boys do, ranging from relationship issues to eating disorders and self-harm go.nature.com/3NWUIH2

😲

Disneyland Handcrafted, a new documentary from Leslie Iwerks, begins streaming Jan. 22 on Disney+ and Disney's YouTube channel. The documentary uses rare archival footage to give viewers an inside look at the creation of Disneyland.

Nicolás Maduro Charged With Felony Oil Possession

Sit with discomfort

Yet another incident that does nothing to reduce antisemitism.

Clinical folks, what's your best recommendation for someone trying to get better at Socratic questioning/dialogue? I went looking and found that even when authors said it was super important, they talked about it quite abstractly. Where's the how to? Please repost!

The world is a dangerous place for intersex people, and new research shows that many feel it’s getting worse | Jennie Kermode

Well, well, well.

Richer than Croesus plus poisonous ideology gets you this. The terrifying thing is that these people are now able to buy anything or anyone.

Picturesque, family friendly Millport with its delightful Victorian promenade inundated with washed-up sex toys. Get ‘em before they’re gone (many dishwasher safe)! www.thenational.scot/news/2552366...

Be like Jane.

This is really sad. Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall dies aged 91 www.bbc.com/news/article...

And I’m certain that he’ll still expect to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for all the wars that he has brought to an end (I’ll be amazed if Hamas accept the terms of his Gaza “deal”).

Interesting piece. This paragraph in particular contains information of which I was not previously aware. www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/30/t...

“He cherry-picked and misrepresented study results…” How very Andrew Wakefield of him! www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Deazaguanylation - snappy. Does what it says on the tin but.

www.instagram.com/stories/opti...

Immigration and potholes - two surefire ways to con the Great British public into surrendering their civil liberties. #whatfreshhellisthis www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

So this is coming up and it would be great if people could get behind it! comedy.army

Researchers have discovered a new biological process they've called 'interstasis', which keeps groups of proteins in check, preventing excessive build up and protecting the cell from potential harm. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

Interesting.

In a world sorely in need of illumination, a light has gone out. Goodbye my friend. We will not see your like again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore. So I wrote a blog about ten things you can do *right now* to help defeat Farage, Musk, and rightwing populism. From scrutinising Reform councillors to demanding the UK Govt leave X - get involved: guyshrubsole.substack.com/p/ten-things...