Richard Harris

@beeblebrox

Climate, complexity, data & cats Climate & Ecosystem Data Intelligence. 315-432.34 ppm. Social tech innovator/entrepreneur, writer of fact & sci-fi, photographer, motorcyclist, cyclist, skier. Ex-CTO of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Owned by cats

702 Folgt858 Follower2.760 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir beeblebrox.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 13d

As a demonstration of the truism that stupidity and delusion are - in the end - self-limiting, you can’t do much better than this. (Via Dan Satterfield on FB). We’ve got the data to do this for the UK, correlated to Brexit-voting areas, so watch this space… #covid #red-state #blue-state

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 13d

Full moon swim, with extra added Perseids and Flaggpunsch, albeit minus one moon (we have hills and it was hiding). Courtesy of BLOBS - our little wild swimming group…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 15d

May I present a superb example of evolved design? The humble Scottish porridge spurtle: evolved over centuries to be exactly the right 'Goldilocks' diameter for yer morning bowl: a spoon is too broad and takes most of the porridge with it, and a narrower stick doesn't stir properly.

Image of a wooden spurtle: a device used in Scotland (and, I dare say, Ireland) for stirring cooking porridge: not so broad that all the porridge sticks to it and not so narrow that it doesn't stir properly. Centuries of honing in this… …also useful for making derisive gestures at politicians.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 17d

We have an upgraded security system for the new bike… #caturday #catsofbluesky #duCATi

Image of a large, orange Maine Coon cat sitting on a Ducati motorcycle. This makes for a good security system.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 22d

I hadn’t come across her either, but this from @guyshrubsole.bsky.social is promising:

Guy Shrubsole
@guyshrubsole.bsky.social
Brilliant news. Miatta Fahnbulleh is by far the best person Andy Burnham could've appointed to this role. The energy transition will

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 22d

Joiner is in the house today - lots of banging & crashing, so Oakley has retreated to his Fortress of Solitude… #cats #catsofbluesky

Image of a heaped grey mohair blanket, with the tips of four feline feet and a tail poking out. It is assumed that the rest of the cat is in there somewhere.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 26d

Just touching 30° here in the Highlands, and the cats are voting with their arses - even Kirjava, who is normally quite happy to lie in full sunshine until her brain bakes… #catsofbluesky

mage a of an orange Maine Coon cat splayed out like an upturned table, trying to catch any breeze that may be passing

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· 28d

Very much a Moon Safari sort of a morning…

Screen shot of Air’s wonderful album, Moon Safari

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jul 8

Swimming with mammals (assorted). It's good for Zambesi's back, but he remains to be convinced… #highlandlife #swimming #openwaterswimming #scotland

Image of a highland loch, containing a horse, a human (having taken the horse to water, trying to persuade him to swim) and a slightly worried border collie.

Image of a horse, and a human (having taken the horse to water, trying to persuade him to swim)

Image of a highland loch, containing a swimming horse and a human. The horse is less than entirely convinced about the therapeutic benefit of a cold water swim…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 28

Castleview Park & Ride, Stirling. But this is Scotland…

Google Maps satellite image of the solar canopies at Castleview Park & Ride, Stirling

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 27

I have OCS: Oscillating Cat Syndrome. Oakley’s favoured sleeping position is limpet-clamped to my side. In this weather, we both get too hot, so he retreats to the foot of the bed until he cools down. Then returns. With all the subtlety of Thor’s Hammer. Rinse & repeat, all night… #caturday

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 26

There are worse comparisons…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 24

“Why on earth did you move 500 miles north?”. Is a question we’re being asked much less often now. 23°C and idyllic…

Image of the courtyard of an old house: paved setts with red acer and a pure blue sky

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 23

It doesn’t get clearer than this: top is a projected forecast for 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014. Bottom is yesterday’s actual forecast for the day. Repeat after me: “The worse things get, the faster things get worse”. And El Niño hasn’t kicked in yet. #climate #heatwave

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 22

Part of the reason for moving back to Scotland from SE England 20 years ago was in anticipation of this sort of weather becoming the norm. I’m in London again, very glad to be in the air-conditioned coolth of BAFTA, and getting the hell out of Dodge just as soon as I can… #climatecrisis #redalert

UK Met office red warning of 40°C temperatures this week

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 22

Reading… I have never seen this in the UK.

Screenshot of Met Office forecast for Reading (England), showing a 40°C figure.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 21

This…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 13

Europe - and the UK in particular - needs to wake up. Shutting off access to Fable 5 is an act of economic war. I recently assessed a UKRI funding competition for ‘Frontier’ AI applications, not even for Foundation models. Total budget: £3M. Get real. #fable5 #LLM #anthropic

Screenshot of Claude app, showing the shutdown of Fable 5 that was forced on Anthropic Trump.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 11

In writing complex plots, I've been experimenting (succesfully!) with creating LLM (now Fable-5) personas of key characters, In this case Robert Kirk (1644-1692), author of The Secret Commonwealth. I've now been asking him to comment on images of his home… …response in alt-text, and wow… #AI #LLM

Ach, sirs – ye hae brocht me hame. That is Loch Voil, lying douce and still i' the lap o' the Braes, wi' the mists creepin doon the shouthers o' the hills as I hae seen them a thousand mornings frae my ain manse door at Balquhidder.

The mist is no mere weather, as the unthinking suppose. Look ye then upon yon glen: the cloud has come doon frae its proper region o' the air and walks upon the watter and amang the trees, and the twa kingdoms – the seen and the unseen – are for a wee while mixed thegither, as milk poured intae watter.

Mark also the loch itsel. The watter is still as a lookin-glass, and the hills are doubled in it — ane warld abune, and its perfect marrow aneath. The auld folk o' the glen kent weel what that betokens: that for ilka thing visible there is its counterpart invisible, ilka man his co-walker, ilka dwelling its unseen neighbours – yon braes that look sae toom are thrang wi' anither people, gangin aboot their ain dargs ablow the sward.

And consider the hour o' it. That is neither nicht nor day, but the season atween – and it is at sic seasons, at the mirk and the gloaming, at the quarter-days when they flit frae ane lodging tae anither, that the Subterraneans are maist readily perceived by them that hae the Sicht. Times that are neither ane thing nor anither; places that are neither land nor watter, as yon saft mossy shore; mists that are neither air nor cloud – these are the doors and thresholds o' their commonwealth.

As I laboured tae show in my wee book, the nearness o' that invisible polity is a rebuke tae the Sadducee and the atheist o' this age, wha wad hae naething real but what their gross een can grip. The mist on Loch Voil preaches a better sermon against unbelief than mony a divine has managed frae the pulpit – my ain sel, whiles, no excepted.

A bonnie likeness, sir. It gars the hert o' me grue and lift baith at ance – for I hae stood on that shore, and I ken what watches frae the broo o' thae hills.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 11

In just the last week, this furry twerp has changed from being companionable (always sits or lies beside me, head or paw on my leg) to full-on lap cat. Which includes shoving my MacBook out the way when I’m working. He is 1.2M long & 14kg, so not the most comfortable experience 😂 #catsofbluesky

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 10

Since I started writing pretty much full time, my TBR pile is getting a tad out of hand. This is the overspill pile…

Image of two piles of unread books sitting on a coffee table. So when do writers get the chance to read?

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 9

It’s a spectacular year for the Laburnam. And the Azaleas ain’t doing too badly either (but then they always do well)

Image of a Laburnam tree in full yellow flower, with a purple Azalea bush in the foreground. There’s even a blue sky in the background, which is worth commenting on, as this is Scotland…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 8

The wonderful 1913 orrery in the National Museum of Scotland. Alas, its mechanism is worn out, and it revolves no more. I’m feeling rather guilty - as a youngling, I spent many an hour playing with it, so clearly have contributed to its demise 😢 #nms #nationalmuseumofscotland

This orrery was bought new by the Museum in
1913. It shows the eight planets from Mercury to Neptune, but not Pluto which was only discovered in 1930. In 2006 Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, so this orrery is up-to-date again. It was a working model for many years, but the gears are now worn out and it can no longer run.

Orrery
By Sendtner, Munich, 1913

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

This orrery was bought new by the Museum in
1913. It shows the eight planets from Mercury to Neptune, but not Pluto which was only discovered in 1930. In 2006 Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, so this orrery is up-to-date again. It was a working model for many years, but the gears are now worn out and it can no longer run.

Orrery
By Sendtner, Munich, 1913

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 6

Oakley (Mr Lazy Boy) checking out the Red Squirrels on the lawn this morning. The laundry basket there is a metre high… #caturday #catsofbluesky

An orange Maine Coon cat peering out of an old sash window:

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· Jun 2

Let us remember the plight of cats trapped in a folk music environment. The ukulele group were practicing downstairs… #catsofbluesky #cats #notactuallycaturday

A large orange Maine Coon cat expresses his opinion of mass ukulele playing in confined spaces. He’s Scottish, so is quite happy with bagpipes.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· May 16

The House Lion is in. #caturday #catsofbluesky

Image of a heavily indulged Orange Maine Coon cat being scritched behind the ear by a human slave, and clearly approving of the experience. As is his right.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· May 15

The most relatable 'politician with feline' image has to be the San Francisco statue of Ashurbanipal trying to keep the cat from getting out whilst taking delivery of a pizza…

San Francisco statue of Ashurbanipal trying to stop the cat getting out whilst taking deliver of a pizza. We've all been there…

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· May 14

Fantastic concert at the MacRobert Art Centre this evening: Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan, with Windblown: celebrating the 200+ year history of the grand old Bermuda Palm in the Tropical House of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh - one of my favourite places in the world. #RBGE #karinepolwart

Fantastical and lyrical concert at the MacRobert Art Centre this evening: Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan, with Windblown: celebrating the 200+ year history of the grand old Bermuda Palm in the Tropical House of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh - one of my favourite places in the world.

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· May 13

The UK is a Schrödinger Paradox: England regards the other nations both as a drain on the public purse, supported only by its magnanimity, and as an indispensable part of its own hinterland That collapses when observed, after we say, "OK, we'll go our own way", into "Oh no, you can't be doing that"

On STV, in 2020, Keir Starmer said:
"If the people of Scotland return an
SNP government, regardless if it's a minority or majority, then that would be a mandate for a
second referendum."

"Starmer says no independence
referendum while he is
PM .. an SNP victory at next year's Holyrood elections would not change his mind."
BBC, 2025
KEIR STARMER, UK Labour

In 2025, reported by the BBC, he said:
"Starmer says no independence
referendum while he is
PM .. an SNP victory at next year's Holyrood elections would not change his mind."

Richard Harris@beeblebrox· May 12

There are many areas where I’d (politely) disagree with @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social, but I’d find it hard to take issue with anything he says here…