Anand
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calmerfuture.bsky.social
Anand
@calmerfuture.bsky.social
calmerfuture.org
dreaming of practical better futures

@dosima_org on the other place
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I want to share something I've worked on effectively for most of my life, in different ways.

This vision of a calmer future, and analysis of how we get there, came after working in different sectors, on different continents – and seeing how obvious solutions are not working.

www.calmerfuture.org
Calmer Future
Let's create a better future
www.calmerfuture.org
Reposted by Anand
I agree. And it's so strange it wasn't something they announced at the beginning when they were playing around with winter fuel and benefit caps.
This will get massively overshadowed today and as ever the devil is in the detail, but is should be one of the best things Labour has done. It has the potential to improve the lives and finances of millions of people.
www.businessgreen.com/news/4524489...
'A national project to turn the tide': Government unveils £15bn Warm Homes Plan
Long-awaited plan aims to help millions of families to cut energy bills by installing solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and insulation
www.businessgreen.com
January 21, 2026 at 10:28 AM
a future mostly designed by and for the imaginations of a relatively small number of white people is partly why we are in this terrifying mess now
Carney's speech was eloquent but there are big holes in it. It feels entirely aimed at Europe ("middle powers"). That's not enough. If you want a non-aligned movement you need to talk to the Brazils, South Africas, Kenyas, and Vietnams of the world. And you better have something to offer.
January 21, 2026 at 11:09 AM
The penguins!

The penguins are coming!
January 21, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, and post the second sentence.

The first public railway in France, from collieries at Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux on the River Loire, made use of them, and the cast iron rails sent out to Newcastle Colliery in New South Wales in 1830, […]
Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, and post the second sentence.

In folklore the ground root was used by Russians, Siberians and Scandinavians as an energy boost, especially in harsh, cold environments.
Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, and post the second sentence.

"These last two are more striking than the rest and will therefore be described in greater detail."
January 21, 2026 at 10:14 AM
When you hear a billionaire waxing lyrical about space, they are telling you they are afraid of regulations and seek a world without obligations to governments, neighbours or fellow citizens.

They want to exit a world of connection and consequences for the freedom of infinite emptiness.
Data Center Watch, a research firm tracking community opposition to data centres in the US, reports that 20 projects were blocked in the second quarter of 2025, disrupting $98bn in potential investment.

Why tech billionaires dream of servers in the sky:

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
Why tech billionaires dream of servers in the sky
Behind the hopes for artificial general intelligence is the desire for a world without obligations to governments, workers or fellow citizens
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
January 21, 2026 at 10:03 AM
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A Long-eared Owl at Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in NJ. Sadly he succumbed to injuries from vehicle strike. Stories like his, though not having the desired outcome, are an important reality of wildlife rehabilitation work. To donate to Cedar Run visit cedarrun.org/get-involved... #owlsintowels 💛🦉
January 21, 2026 at 9:48 AM
and David Beckham too!
All eyes on Davos, then, where - due to his failure to bully a peace prize out of a steering committee - a needless war against a sovereign territory will be threatened by a spiteful senior citizen whose intellectual acuity can be graded only slightly above that of a cucumber.
January 21, 2026 at 9:41 AM
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The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
January 21, 2026 at 9:38 AM
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From 6-9 months ago
January 21, 2026 at 9:32 AM
January 21, 2026 at 9:37 AM
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January 21, 2026 at 9:30 AM
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I had someone write to tell me Brexit was a good thing because he remembered getting tinned fruit from Australia in the 1950s...
Facebook reminds me that on this day in 2017 a woman turned to me in the veg section of Sainsbury's and said "hopefully now we've left the EU we can have loose carrots that aren't wet"
January 21, 2026 at 9:11 AM
orca with bazookas
Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.
January 21, 2026 at 9:12 AM
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"it should read BORED of peace"
January 21, 2026 at 7:17 AM
To breach a parliamentary code of conduct once, Mr. Farage, may be regarded as a misfortune;

to breach twice, like carelessness;

and yet to breach seventeen times, after already being found a serial liar and offender, including in an entirely separate parliamentary institution, must surely…
January 21, 2026 at 9:06 AM
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Beavers are back in London 🦫

Here's how (and why) we did it ⬇️
January 21, 2026 at 7:18 AM
revisiting to revise this

I didn't expect strong coordinated push back from Europe and Canada

also Beckham is at Davos, so that's something

not a gambler normally, but I'm now willing to take any odds that we won't all die in a nuclear war by tomorrow (having thought that wager through logically)
I expect Trump to insist on taking Greenland as he declines, as his legacy

sycophantic factions around him will make it happen; Europe won't be able to do much; life will go on, slightly more lawless

we can't face the real history of European empires, so don't even recognise when we're part of one
Wrote this last January about Trump and Greenland. Feels like it’s where we are heading. Too many Europeans just haven’t been listening to them because it’s been too disturbing to confront the potential reality.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
January 21, 2026 at 8:33 AM
sound on 😻
January 21, 2026 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Anand
Another reminder that Trump is not in fact winning. bsky.app/profile/samf...
So far the "Board of Peace" is Trump, Orban, Lukaschenko and Netanyahu.

Which if you wrote in a satire would be considered too outlandish and sent back.
January 21, 2026 at 7:59 AM
"Never doubt that a small group of 4,000 thoughtful, committed citizens can count 5,600,000 birds" 😻
Valuable and interesting evening hosting, on behalf of @birdsinwales.bsky.social, the first online gathering of county bird recorders in Wales and those who verify records in multiple systems. It's a huge job undertaken by a relatively small group of committed and knowledgeable birders. Diolch!
January 21, 2026 at 7:52 AM
if you have pets, you might want to plan how to care for them during all the spontaneous shouting, with car horns blaring, people crying in public with joy

I expect all the birds to stop singing a few minutes before our phones start jingling with alerts

their senses are that sensitive
Let tonight be a lesson to all of us: Make sure you have established your own, and are aware of your loved ones', advance directives.

Do you want to be awakened from your slumber when It Happens? Or do you want to find out when you awake naturally and unlock your phone? Let your loved ones know.
January 21, 2026 at 7:47 AM
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Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.
January 20, 2026 at 6:44 PM
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If true, this would be worth a fortune.
January 21, 2026 at 3:05 AM
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January 21, 2026 at 6:51 AM
😿
[Walking with my three-year-old down 14th St in DC, which has been shut down by police. We hear protesters in distance.]

TODDLER: What are they mad about, daddy?

ME: I don't know, sweetie. It could be a lot of things.

TODDLER, THINKING: Maybe it's dinosaurs.
January 21, 2026 at 7:00 AM