I wish BBC World Service, BBC Earth, and BBC Music (especially Proms) could be separated from the stain of BBC politics.

Le sigh.

I have yet to take a photo showing the glorious colours of Pepper Cat. Even the camera on the new phone doesn't cope.

His registration document says "gris tigré": from above, that's true. The colours of his underside are apricot, honey, and white.

#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon

Curses on all the banks that insist on smartphones.

An update has broken the Revolut app.

Has any kind and helpful person put together a localised set of data on sources for the parts for a Corsi-Rosenthal box filter? With prices?
Without scams and sites that tag for attention but don't have the information?

I'm so tired of broken websearch.

#AirFilter

Seems I'm not alone in finding "one of the only" confusing.

If
"one of" = a single member of a group
and
"the only" = no others exist
then
the combination makes no sense.

There's a dispute over a passage which contains this phrase: some understood it as a false claim that the subject is unique, others that it's rare. The first group says the writer is Wrong, the second disagrees. Neither group noticed that they've understood the same four words in completely opposite ways.

#Language

My leased car is a snitch: consequently I've refused it access to my mobile phone (which I wouldn't use while driving anyway). I'm reviewing that, to be able to have a working phone during a power cut. There's little mobile coverage here, and the house phone is internet.

The olds, the disableds, the ill, and minders of children, all need protection from the possible disastrous consequences of decisions to remove copper telephone lines.

For at least two years I've been considering building a solar cooker.
Three things have held up the project.

1. It's too hot to eat cooked meals in the daytime so the main reason is weakened.

2. I don't have enough aluminium foil stashed, in spite of saving all possible scraps (haven't bought aluminium foil for more than 20 years).

3. Laziness.

#solarpunk #SolarCooker

https://solarcooker.org/diy-solar-cooker/

As it happens, I've never used #Shopify. It's now on my Banned and Boycotted list.

Any suggestions for a list of good CEOs - good in the ethical and moral sense, not merely good with corporate scams oops I mean business finance?

Sadly, it seems that the better ones have died off, or their businesses have been taken over, and usually destroyed (e.g. The Body Shop).

#EthicalBusiness #EthicalCEOs

I need protection from this epidemic of bouncing and jiggling profile pics. No, really, it's a medical problem.

How can I block the jigglings without having to whackamole mute the accounts?

#accessibility #icons #UserInterfaceHelp

Example:
Down's Syndrome. Why (and how) the typical facial characteristics?
Led on to a memory.

Our school head of biology spent the summers temping with a genetics research team, which enriched lessons. On genetic problems in humans, he said that televisions could be partly to blame for Down's Syndrome.

We thought he'd cracked. Then he explained the theory of cumulative exposure to radiation (not just from old tvs), and why it's a problem for ova more than spermatozoa.

Matutinal Musings.
I think of many things over the morning muesli, and it's not all task and shopping lists. Sometimes the thoughts seem worth noting, but by the time I've finished the first tranche of housework and fired up Fedilab, the thoughts have evaporated with the dew.

What life-changing revelations have been lost in the washing of dishes and floors?
Probably none, judging by what I've retained today.

Noise intolerance. There's one good thing about power cuts: the sound of electrical gubbins doing their thing disappears. Immediate relaxation of neck and shoulder muscles.

A neighbour installed something which vibrated through the hamlet. The bloke doing some work in my garden commented on the loud hum. I cried through a few nights, then slept in my car out in the woods.

Thermoacoustic heat pumps are coming?

Seems like a good idea, but as someone who suffers from noise intolerance, my first thought was Argh, no! Second thought: perhaps they produce less acoustic pollution than air/air heat pumps.
I'd like to get the opinions of the small garden birds.

#noise #HeatPump #retrofit

Thunderstorm arrived, with a welcome though brief downpour. Lightning struck nearby. Power cut. Unplugged everything in case of surges* when it comes back.

Power back now.

The rain showed that the guttering needs repair, so I put containers under it and collected water for the plants.

* Please don't say that a surge can't happen, modern systems an' all that. In recent years a washing machine, a dishwasher, an oven, and two kettles have gone bang. I dream of replacing all the house system.

The sky is a murky greyish-yellow. The air smells bad. After watering the tomato and courgette plants, my eyes sting.
Closed all windows.
No fires reported nearby, but there are eight wildfires around Bordeaux.
Car is charged, emergency bag ready by the door, just in case.
But what about the cats?? I don't think I can get both into the car.

Catflap locked. Noodles is making an appalling noise about it.

Deux énormes incendies pas loin de Bordeaux :-(

#feux_de_foret #Wildfires

https://feuxdeforet.fr/gironde-33/saumos-22-07-2026-4367/

Estate agent visited, with another client.

The painter/sculptor is still interested (he would turn music-room and SFKnAT into studios). He can't afford the asking price plus €50k for work needed. Estate agent insisted that I should accept his offer of 160k, saying that house prices have dropped again (not true).

I refused. Agent demanded reasons, and finally I said it wouldn't cover the mortgage and the two loans for repairs. I'd be broke as well as homeless; better to stay here.

Balcony solar plus batteries.
Much detail, including how to avoid problems with feeding into the grid.
Lovely.
I'm waiting for the advent of sodium-ion batteries (mentioned in the article).

#BalconySolarPower

https://infrageeks.com/post/2026-07-09.tangents/

Sometimes I see a strange new misuse of a word, and within days it seems to appear all over the place.

Some of the manglings seem to be a fleeting fashion; some persist. Examples of the latter:
"That" instead of "than" (auto-miscorrection?);
"Descendant" instead of "ancestor".

Some of them aren't important (for example, the colour primrose being assumed to be pink), but I'm tired of stubbing my mind on them and especially of having to read a passage several times before it makes sense.

What happened to having laser displays instead of big firework displays?

With the current heatwave, drought, and wildfire situation it seems crazy to allow fireworks. People can get very upset if denied their circuses, but surely they'll be even more upset if there's no bread.
Or, indeed, if their houses burn down.

\me mourns the woods and wildlife

#wildfires #fireworks #14juillet