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Sunil

@sdvr.bsky.social

Erstwhile researcher in human computer interaction/tech, accessible environments, sociology, politics, transport/urbanism and rare diseases: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oSEzsOoAAAAJ&hl=en

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Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · last wk.

The plan is for a big volunteer nurdle effort tomorrow and Tuesday, after both high tides. So from 6 in the morning to start on Tynemouth Longsands. Details/info/context in the pic (attached twice with half of alt text in each). WhatsApp for organising here: chat.whatsapp.com/KXTZ6zO69si0...

There is a major volunteer effort kicking early in off from 6am Monday morning Longsands at the High Tide Line starting from Crusoe's to clear nurdle plastic pollution from our beaches and everyone in Tynemouth has a part of play. More teams being assembled and will branch off to other beaches so watch out for information including Monday Afternoon after the second High Tide. Based on expert advice the organisers have come to the conclusion that: • The insurers contractors are equipped and staffed only to handle the Fish Quay and nearly all of the equipment needed in the North East unlikely to be here for days. We can leave the Fish Quay to them but Tynemouth needs to step up, nobody else will. • The Tides this week, in particular Monday and Tuesday, are such that there is a golden opportunity to put a dent in this which otherwise we will regret. Residents here would never forgive ourselves if we let that happen. • With each High Tide this week more and more pellets will refloat and form the nice neat lines along the High Tide mark, easy for volunteers to sweep up. • It's been possible to locally manufacture enough filtering bags this weekend to support a big effort. Enough people who have already been volunteering have developed experience using them. • There's scope for others less experienced to sweep up material with just a couple of minutes training (without touching a single pellet). You brush/scrape it, they will filter out the pellets. So, if you have some time to spare before work, please come down. Don't expect perfection but do come and help. A few do's and don'ts: [Rest of alt-text attached to second identical pic]So, if you have some time to spare before work, please come down. Don't expect perfection but do come and help. A few do's and don'ts: 1. Don't step on the nurdles, this is the one thing which can make the situation worse. With the beaches in heavy use this has happened to much. 2. Do wear gloves (there will be plenty available or bring your own) it's not essential but helps the organisers minimise the work they need to do supervising less experienced folk. 3. Do wash your hands when finished. 4. Do leave the more experienced volunteers running the operation handle the filtering, this is more complicated 5. If possible bring a dustpan (and brush), you'll learn why..... This is not a small problem, the effects are long term and will be reduced by prompt action. The insurers have not bought enough resources to bear early enough and there's nothing we can do about that. Nurdles that embed into the beaches will break down into micro plastics over decades. We will likely experience a sustained period of this material coming ashore. There is still a substantial amount in the Tyne and sea which will come out in waves as the tides move. Even after the first stage of this ends, storms will bring it back several times over coming years. We are still in the short window where volunteers will make a difference, please consider helping.
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 2w ago

25 tonnes of nurdles, more than 1 billion nurdles, were spilled into the Tyne last week and are washing up on our beaches, north and south of the Tyne. Likely one of the largest ever plastic pollution events in the UK. There is remarkably little mention of this on here.

Guardian headline from Weds 22nd July reading: “One billion plastic pellets spilled into River Tyne after two ships collide Up to 25 tonnes of nurdles, the raw material for plastic manutacturing, have spread further than initially feared” With an image of a beach covered in nurdles.
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 2w ago

25 tonnes of nurdles, more than 1 billion nurdles, were spilled into the Tyne last week and are washing up on our beaches, north and south of the Tyne. Likely one of the largest ever plastic pollution events in the UK. There is remarkably little mention of this on here.

Guardian headline from Weds 22nd July reading: “One billion plastic pellets spilled into River Tyne after two ships collide Up to 25 tonnes of nurdles, the raw material for plastic manutacturing, have spread further than initially feared” With an image of a beach covered in nurdles.
Hannah Murphy@hsmurphy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Please share! A rare PhD studentship @kingshistory.bsky.social *fully* funded by @slaveryinwar.bsky.social to work with myself and Maeve Ryan, supported by a broader community of experts in Caribbean history, transatlantic slavery, and the history of war. www.kcl.ac.uk/study/fundin... 🗃️

AHRC Studentship: Slavery and the Seven Years’ War within and across the Caribbean Archipelago | King's College London

The Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War (CRSW) is pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded AHRC doctoral studentship, to be jointly supervised across History and War Studies

kcl.ac.uk

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · 2w ago

@stephenkb.bsky.social just read your piece on AB; one line jumped out at me, that the Bee network requires subsidy. Not inaccurate but without context seems misleading (most public transport does, eg TfL buses subsidised by ~£1.1bn if memory serves; private operators also subsidised on many routes)

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · 2w ago

Feeling thoroughly fed up and frustrated at the moment due to factors outside my control (not for want of trying). A change of scenery would be good but that requires capacity to enact…

Steve Senior@stevensenior.bsky.social · 4w ago

This article is everything that’s wrong with the way we talk about health in the UK. Healthy life expectancy is framed almost entirely as a problem of healthcare rather than the conditions we live in. Despite valiant interventions from @sebrees1.bsky.social and @martinmckee.bsky.social

Shai@shaiuk.bsky.social · 4w ago

Why the NHS is under huge strain is more complex than a public-private system argument. Between 200-2012, the NHS was one of the best healthcare systems in the world. The interplay between austerity, consumer behaviour & culture change in medicine is core. Privatisation won’t address this.

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · 4w ago

Other than being great news in itself that Napoleon is home, @garius.bsky.social has taken the time to write an informative thread on what to do if your cat goes missing, to maximise the chances of it finding its way back. Hope that it helps someone else in the future!

John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 4w ago

HE'S HOME!!!! 40 posters around the area. Probs 100 or so doors knocked on yesterday. A young girl had come to the door with her dad at one, when we'd knocked. She spotted him while coming home from a park. She and her friends alerted an adult who got the number off a nearby poster and rang us /1

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · 4w ago

Something a bit different for dinner tonight: grilled halloumi and red peppers, with a strawberry, rocket and baby leaf salad in a raspberry vinaigrette with pumpkin and sunflower seeds sprinkled on top, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. Paired with pitta bread and a glass of rose wine 💯

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John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 4w ago

With immeasurable sadness I must announce that Napoleon, our best boy, went missing a few nights back. if you see a small black kitty with two white toes around Boundary/Markhouse roads in #walthamstow do DM me. if i post no photos of him anymore, this will be why. he was my very best boy 💔

my beautiful black kitty, with white belly patches and two white toes, stretched out asleep in happier times.
Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · 4w ago

I found out tonight that my parents have had a racist slogan chalked on the pavement outside their house. Somewhere between utterly furious and depressed at the state of the country. This is where the slippery slope of pandering to bigotry dressed up as 'legitimate concerns' gets us.

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

Is there a 2021 census data version of the 2016 Datashine website for commuting patterns? ONS 'origin-destination data explorer' www.ons.gov.uk/visualisatio... uses a different methodology and is less useful - doesn't let you view by mode/location cc @owlernook.bsky.social blog.datashine.org.uk

DataShine Blog – DataShine is an output of the ESRC BODMAS project which ran from 2013-2015 at UCL. To cite the project or websites, please use: Oliver O’Brien & James Cheshire (2016) Interactive mapp...

blog.datashine.org.uk

Carlos Noreña@carlosfnorena.bsky.social · last mo.

The reason why it is essential to read IN BULK when studying history is not simply to amass empirical knowledge—though that is important, too, of course—but because *interpretation* requires thick contextual awareness, and there is NO SHORTCUT for building that up that awareness.

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

This is the kind of thing that is so frustrating - an ongoing consultation on changes to bus routes around Cambridge - including some that go right past the newly opened Cambridge South. But no joined up plan for how these routes serve the new station (let alone any other routes like the 7).

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

There is currently a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority consultation on the bus network, which proposes a whole raft of changes in and around Cambridge (see PDF: cpca-yourvoice.co.uk/wp-content/u...) Cambridge South station doesn't even feature! cpca-yourvoice.co.uk/bus-network-...

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

As someone who knows this area very well (and uses the 7 bus regularly when I'm around) this is an excellent example of poorly joined-up land-use and transport planning. The kind of thing bus franchising could fix, perhaps... cc @philrodgers.co.uk @acarpen.bsky.social @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social

Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

If you actually want to catch the only local bus from Cambridge South which serves villages outside Cambridge (the 7), you've got to walk approximately 800 metres to Dame Mary Archer Way - passing Royal Papworth and a skirting around the southern part of Addenbrookes itself. This is ludicrous.

Screenshot of a map showing the new Cambridge South station in relation to Addenbrookes and Royal Papworth Hospitals, and the nearest bus stop that serves local villages via the route 7 bus. This is approximately 800 metres from the station. The map shows the bus stop with a purple star, and the walking route from the station with purple arrows.
Sunil@sdvr.bsky.social · last mo.

Really pleased to see #CambridgeSouth station finally open - seems significantly better thought-through than Brookgate development around Cambridge station! But I can't help think that there are (yet again) missed opportunities, some of which are very easy to rectify - especially bus integration