Crops grown underneath solar panels produce more, require less water and are more resistant to extreme weather, even during a hot, dry summer. We need agrivoltaics to be rolled out asap, for both the electricity and the better growing conditions. microgridmedia.com/solar-panels...

Solar Panels Are Helping Crops Grow Better, Global Studies Show - Microgrid Media

For farmers worried about losing land to solar energy, new research brings surprising news: many crops actually produce more food when grown beneath solar

microgridmedia.com

Our hire car’s sat nav speaks in a middle aged British man voice. He says every (foreign) road and town name with the emPHAsis on the wrong syLAble. I’m delighted by how culturally accurate it is.

Picked this up on a whim and quietly loved it. It’s slim (an afternoon’s read for anyone doing couch to 5k), but w an emotional heft. What’s the point of art, Isherwood asks, when the world is on fire? And how do we keep creating that art when we see and feel the flames?

In my head, I know a week isn’t long enough to sample all the cheeses. But in my heart.

I’m in a hot place atm (ie, earth). I’m doing the right things: wearing loose linen, keeping to the shade, moving slowly. This is fine, I think. Then I stop walking and people look at me, concerned, as sweat erupts from every visible part of me and I realise I’m a meme.

When you realise his name means ‘Johnny Little Infant’ he feels less clever mob boss and more small little baby.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 6d ago

UEFA has just unanimously decided to boycott both men's and women's World Cups over FIFA's attempt to sell the global game to private equity. Damn.

I could be a former-typesetter-for-Mississippi-riverboats-transitioning-to-newspaper-linotype operator, a financial stenographer, or a woman who had many babies. I’d lean toward the wordy jobs, thanks.

Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d ago

Enough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?

My 17yo invited me to join his fantasy football league last year. I had a sweaty year of spreadsheets and learning curves. But the pay off has been this last half hour at breakfast, new signings and expected-goal potential bantered between us like a new language I’d somehow mastered. True joy.

A friend invited me to karaoke, declaring I was her Karaoke Queen. And like that, I knew which song I should start with.

I've confirmed that the UK's new Sovereign AI Fund does no due diligence on whether AI companies use copyrighted work without permission before investing in them. It took me 3 Freedom of Information requests to find this out: 🧵 1/10

Met office saying it's going to be 30 degrees at 8pm this evening. Stay safe people, try and get what you need doing done this morning, especially if it includes smashing the system and ending fossil fuel use.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that Uranus is a gas giant.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that Uranus is a gas giant.

If you’re near Eastbourne, go to Comrades in Arts, an exhibit on the Interntl Artists Assoc (30s-60s). Lots of new artists to me - Pearl Binder, Cliff Rowe, Betty Rea - but the politics shone as much as the work. My takeaway: if you’re not responding to the world around you, what even are you doing?

Walking home from the organic shop, a vegan cheese in each pocket (I forgot my bag), I spot a lizard on the pavement (boy London’s been hot). Seeing it needs safety, I scramble for how to help. Then I remember my cheese. I unsheath it from its (recyclable) cardboard and scoop the lizard up…

Laying in bed, staring up through the windows, willing this grey sky to share some of its rain with us.

Really enjoyed the Zurbaràn exhibition at The National Gallery. I wasn’t that familiar with him so it was all a joyous revelation. Including this painting of the Holy Family: the first (and only?) instance in the annals of art of Smoking Hot Joseph.

A Chilean salmon farm now draws about 57% of its power from panels laid over the water, cutting roughly 136,000 litres of diesel a year and silencing the generators. With the noise gone, thousands of salmon have gathered in the shade beneath the arrays. Ecoportal buff.ly/CwczkbP #ShareGoodNewsToo

An island in Chile covered its waters with floating solar panels. Soon, thousands of salmon had turned them into their home

An island in Chile covered its waters with floating solar panels. Soon, thousands of salmon had turned them into their home and were all thriving.

buff.ly

Spare a thought for those massive data centres, having to cool themselves down one watering can at a time.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

Thames Water joins hosepipe ban as England and Wales approach drought status

An electric ice-cream maker was listed at just $17.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. Then it became unavailable at Best Buy, and more than tripled in price to $59.99 at Amazon. Here’s how it happened… 🧵

Stumbled on this album. 'I remember my mother listening to him' I think and launch into it. And oh my god - THIS is the ground zero of the mysterious musical brainworms that have eaten me for decades. music.apple.com/gb/album/a-m...

A Man Without Love by Engelbert Humperdinck on Apple Music

Album · 1968 · 12 Songs

music.apple.com

I've been checking my weather app, confused by why the sky looked like drizzle but wasn't drizzling. This is about as anti-drizzle as it can be.

Met Office - weather and climate@metoffice.gov.uk · 2w ago

Have you noticed an opaqueness to the blue sky this morning? Wildfire smoke from North America is drifting south across the UK, meaning the clear skies may not be as blue as you might expect 🌤️

JAMON SPAIN!!

That’s better than a goal.

What is even happening.

Was it to...look after your daughter for the summer holiday?

Oh England.

Yes. Let’s park that Big Dan Burn bus across that goal.

this match is how Palpatine returned

A good prompt from the National Trust. I think I've kept my lamentation about fires, our creaking national grid, and data centres on the 'hinged' side of complaints. But my brain is mushy from the warmth so who really knows.

National Trust@nationaltrust.org.uk · 3w ago

If you haven't contacted your MP about your concerns for the state of nature yet, now is the moment! MPs will leave for summer recess tomorrow and we're asking everyone who cares about nature to take one simple action: email your MP.