Donald R Noble
drnoble.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy
Donald R Noble
@drnoble.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy
Researcher in marine renewable energy at Edinburgh Uni.
Enjoy photography, cycling & updating OpenStreetMap/Wikipedia and more.
He/him/they/them […]

[bridged from https://mastodon.scot/@drnoble on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
January 1, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
So we're now precisely one-quarter through the 21st century. Wild concept. 2001 seems like yesterday.
December 31, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
This will be a short thread of home truths about capitalism. Contrary to popular belief, Western economic dominance wasn't built on "free markets". It was built on pipeline and tanker routes, energy consortiums and contracts, enforced by brutal colonialist wars and the might of armies. It was […]
Original post on mastodon.world
mastodon.world
December 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
It was also a day for utterly blissful serene minimalism in the landscape... and for admiring my favourite old road

#Assynt #minimalism #photography #lochassynt #blackandwhite #landscape #scotland #highlands #serene
December 30, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
It was a day for exploring dramatic rockery (mostly Stoer sandstone formation) in brilliant light.

#drone #Assynt #landscape #photography #scotland #highlands #geology #Clachtoll #splitrock
December 30, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Yes it’s Politico. No I don’t trust them generally. But I spoke to them for this piece about night trains, and they spoke to a bunch of other knowledgeable people too, inc Thibault from Nox

https://www.politico.eu/article/why-europe-night-train-renaissance-derailed/
Why Europe’s night-train renaissance derailed
Aging carriages, high costs and reluctant incumbents choked off the night-train revival — even as passengers clamor for more.
www.politico.eu
December 30, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Interesting article about the history behind the gender imbalance among flight attendants:

"When an all-male cabin crew worked a China Airlines flight from Taipei to New York last month, it was something of a coup. It didn’t happen by accident, nor was it planned by the airline. In fact, a […]
Original post on aus.social
aus.social
December 30, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
I dream of the day when Drax is shut down at last. The madness of shipping wood from 1/3 of the way round the globe to burn it with an efficiency of about 30%. The number of cooling towers (12) tells you just how much energy is wasted. It is an astonishing monument to the Second Law.
December 29, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Bid to scrap city traffic order sub-committee fails
https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/?p=626351
Green councillor Chas Booth tried to have the controversial Traffic Regulation Orders sub-committee scrapped at the last full council meeting of the year, but lost the vote.
December 29, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
I was recently reminded of this.

A couple decades ago, I wrote a short paper that described how the basic approaches of cryptography and computer security lead to an efficient and practical privilege escalation attack against master-keyed mechanical lock, which I published in IEEE Security and […]
Original post on federate.social
federate.social
December 29, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Being aesthetically impaired I rarely post photos or art, but this…

A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow, Poland | Marcin Ryczek
December 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
I loved this, but the person who posted it had crappy alt text, so I'm re-posting.
December 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
December 28, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
December 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
One of the most incredible shots I've ever gotten, in Yellowstone. This coyote walked over a ridge in the blowing snow and posed for me, with a small grin on its face, the snowfalkes like stars in the background.

The desolation and beauty of life and nature is grounding, and so good for the soul.
December 28, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
I also took a bunch of pics of the tops of concrete fence posts at the bottom of the dike for you #lichensubscribe freaks 😂

#mosstodon

#Fryslân #frisia #friesland
December 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
December 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Christmas dinner was successful, managed to get the timings right, nothing burnt but roasted veg crispy, and only had to do one minor last minute change to thicken the cranberry sauce a bit.
Now settled down by the stove with a wee dram.
December 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Black and white Christmas
#Newtonmore #monochrome #landscape
December 25, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified. Via @arstechnica #Politics 🇺🇸 🗳️ #RenewableEnergy ♻️⚡🌎 #ClimateChange 🌎♨️
US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified
Projects with hardware in the water stopped due to Department of Defense fears.
arstechnica.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Ooh, brilliant British dry sarcasm. The Beauty of Transport writes about Great British Railways.

Sample: It is unclear whether Johnson and his cabinet colleagues understood that “Great Britain” gained its “Great” simply as a marker of its size, to distinguish it from the smaller Brittany in […]
Original post on mementomori.social
mementomori.social
December 22, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Reform UK have repeatedly said that Kent is their "flagship" council and "the shop window" for how they intend to run things.

When they are exposed as planning to slash social care for old people, in order to hire their cronies as advisors at £150k a pop, I think people should believe them. ~AA
December 22, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Sint-Jansbasiliek

#texturetuesday #photography
December 23, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Trying to reverse image search (one of the great features of Google in recent years) on an image I know to be a mundane Edinburgh Corporation electrical transformer room, to try and find an original source for it, Google now instead confidently tells me this is an image of the control room in GCHQ 🤦‍♂️
December 22, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Donald R Noble
Nailed it. 🎯

#Edinburgh: “As car usage grows and the city expands, it magnifies a lot of the challenges we face and increases the number of times we have to invest just to stand still.”

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Bus journey times being 'killed by congestion' in cities
The industry warns that traffic jams are slowing average bus speeds and are calling for more priority measures for buses.
www.bbc.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM