Emperor

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22853681

A proposed law requiring all new homes to have solar panels suggested by Cheltenham's MP has been rejected.

The New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill, brought by Liberal Democrat Max Wilkinson, was debated in parliament on Friday during its second reading.

The so-called "Sunshine Bill" could help the country tackle the "twin crises" of the cost of living crisis and climate change, Mr Wilkinson said.

But while minister for housing and planning Matthew Pennycook said the government was "extremely sympathetic", it was rejected by officials.

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Similar changes have been signalled by the government which could become part of new building regulations to be amended later this year.

A proposed law requiring all new homes to have solar panels suggested by Cheltenham's MP has been rejected.

The New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill, brought by Liberal Democrat Max Wilkinson, was debated in parliament on Friday during its second reading.

The so-called "Sunshine Bill" could help the country tackle the "twin crises" of the cost of living crisis and climate change, Mr Wilkinson said.

But while minister for housing and planning Matthew Pennycook said the government was "extremely sympathetic", it was rejected by officials.

...

Similar changes have been signalled by the government which could become part of new building regulations to be amended later this year.

Iain M. Banks died more than 11 years ago, but remains a titan of modern science fiction. He wrote “literary” works under the name Iain Banks, but added the “M” for his 14 sci-fi offerings, which are known for an audacious, ground-breaking take on the space opera that transformed the genre.

If you have never read any of these books but love “hard” sci-fi, is it worth diving in now?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: Banks’s sci-fi, at its best, is staggeringly inventive, beautifully written, dramatic and often very funny. His stories are packed with ideas, warships with minds very much of their own, alien races, charismatic drones and intergalactic politics.

That said, time is a stern judge. I have read celebrated “classics” of sci-fi and found them startlingly misogynistic, homophobic and racist – even for their time. There is nothing so serious to worry about here, but Banks’s novels haven’t aged perfectly. I reread five for this column, and even as a dyed-in-the-wool fan, I couldn’t avoid the fact that, for books set in a future where men and women are meant to be equal, they don’t always read that way.

Archive

A people smuggler from Middlesbrough is among several facing jail time after being found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration, following an investigation that was launched following the discovery of a woman crammed inside a car glove box, the Home Office said.

In the coming days and weeks, much will be made about David Lynch’s gargantuan contribution to cinema. This will be undeniable and well deserved. However, there is the argument to be made that in actual fact David Lynch was able to master every medium in which he chose to work. His music, for instance, sounded like music that only he could make. And, sincerely, in both his daily weather report and his Today’s Number Is lottery draw, he deserves to be remembered as a pioneering YouTuber.

However, in terms of pure influence, it might end up being the case that Lynch’s most important realm was television. In his lifetime, Lynch only ever worked on four TV projects. Two of them were cancelled after just three episodes. But the other two were Twin Peaks. And the impact both Twin Peaks series had on TV as a medium is hard to overstate.

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To say Twin Peaks was a sensation would be to do it a huge disservice. The show seemed to have something for everyone. Those raised on the tropes of traditional TV found themselves invested in the murder of Laura Palmer, but a younger and hipper generation saw the game behind the story. This was Lynch stretching his legs, getting to explore the dark underbelly of America in more depth than ever before, and having fun with it. Twin Peaks riffed on tired old genre beats in an irresistible way. Some of it was affectionate, some of it scornful. And in Bob, played by the show’s malevolent-looking set dresser Frank Silva, he hit upon what might be the most genuinely terrifying character ever to reach network television.

The first two episodes, broadcast together as a pilot, qualified as the highest-rated movie on television that year. The next gave ABC its highest ratings for four years. It was nominated for 14 Emmy awards. It has a 91% Rotten Tomatoes ratings – which, for a show broadcast in an era where every show was reviewed by every publication, is huge.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22811410

A Welsh rewilding charity backed by Iolo Williams has successfully raised over £90,000 following a community appeal to help establish Wales’ largest ecosystem restoration project.

Tir Natur (‘Nature’s Land’) made headlines in November 2024 after launching a crowdfunder to help secure over 1000 acres of marginal upland farm to showcase rewilding and the importance of large grazing animals in restoring depleted ecosystems.

On 6 January 2025, Tir Natur’s appeal, which began with an initial target of £20,000, ended having raised £70,000 from 662 individual donations , including matchfunding from Aviva.

The crowdfunder also offered a reward of sponsoring a 3 x 3m square of land through What Three Words for donations of £50 or more which are still available to sponsor.

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Funds raised will contribute towards the deposit and associated costs, due in Spring 2025. The location of the land will be revealed after this point.

Besides rewilding with native broadleef trees and other native fauna, they hope to introduce ancient breeds of grazing animals to the land to roam and shape the landscape, allowing wildlife to flourish alongside thriving communities, while informing and inspiring further nature-led restoration.

More than anything, they say, “it would offer hope for nature – gobaith i natur”.

A Welsh rewilding charity backed by Iolo Williams has successfully raised over £90,000 following a community appeal to help establish Wales’ largest ecosystem restoration project.

Tir Natur (‘Nature’s Land’) made headlines in November 2024 after launching a crowdfunder to help secure over 1000 acres of marginal upland farm to showcase rewilding and the importance of large grazing animals in restoring depleted ecosystems.

On 6 January 2025, Tir Natur’s appeal, which began with an initial target of £20,000, ended having raised £70,000 from 662 individual donations , including matchfunding from Aviva.

The crowdfunder also offered a reward of sponsoring a 3 x 3m square of land through What Three Words for donations of £50 or more which are still available to sponsor.

...

Funds raised will contribute towards the deposit and associated costs, due in Spring 2025. The location of the land will be revealed after this point.

Besides rewilding with native broadleef trees and other native fauna, they hope to introduce ancient breeds of grazing animals to the land to roam and shape the landscape, allowing wildlife to flourish alongside thriving communities, while informing and inspiring further nature-led restoration.

More than anything, they say, “it would offer hope for nature – gobaith i natur”.

On Monday, January 13, officials at the Cantacuzino Hospital in Bucharest alerted police that a man stole three amputated legs from the storage area. While two were later found, the third is still missing.

The incident took place three days prior, on January 10, and was captured by surveillance cameras. Images published by Euronews Romania show a man whose face is hidden, wearing a jacket and sports pants, entering the storage area designated for medical waste and then exiting with a yellow bag, in addition to the black bag he was already carrying. The individual later abandoned one of the bags.

Investigators have opened a criminal case for qualified theft and are searching for the suspect. They are also trying to determine the whereabouts of the third leg. Two have already been found: one within the hospital premises near the medical waste area and another on a street near the medical facility.

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The hospital, which was fined RON 4,400 (EUR 885) by the authorities for mishandling the legs, has started its own investigation alongside that of the police.

One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one...only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they're forced to relive the nightmare again and again - only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left, and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.

IMDb

Tumblr always suited me better than micro-blogging as there is no word count restriction (I can find brevity a problem) and you could have any number of blogs/channels for whatever topic was tickling your fancy at the time.

So I've been keeping an eye out for Fediverse alternatives, jotting down notes and now I'd like throw this open to the Hivemind. ~~And yes, Tumblr is now on ActivityPub, but I am not putting my time into corporate platforms again.~~ edit: oh no it isn't, that was the plan (as if December 2023) but there's been no updates since Tumblr moved to WordPress.

Added bonuses: markdown (or something similar), adding links to posts, quoting other posts and perhaps being able to login from another Fediverse service.

Here's a few I found:

• Goblin - It's a FireFish fork from a former Tumblr employee. Allows multiple accounts but they have to have a different email address, some markdown but not links. I've heard it suggested that most *key forks could be set-up as a Tumblr alternative
• Loforo: "Another surprise is that Loforo is the second most active ActivityPub blog platform in the Fediverse, behind only WordPress." Easy multiple blog creation, formatting in HTML. Unfortunately you can't create your own instance, last time I checked.
• micro.blog - not free, not open source
• Wafrn

Not listed as Tumblr equivalents but some of the general services are flexible enough to do this:

• Hubzilla - has channels but seems more a CMS. Nomadic identities is a great feature.
• Friendica - the BlueSky integration seems increasingly important and, with Meta's enshittification, it feels like a general social media service is a good idea. The way you can have the equivalent of Google+'s circles seems a good feature (while I am no fan of Facebook, Google+ worked well for me while it lasted). The main issue I see is you can only replicate channels with different accounts.

Any suggestions? Have I missed any key features from the above?

The UK economy grew by 0.1% in November, reversing a 0.1% drop in the previous month, and easing some of the pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

The rise in activity was weaker than forecast, with Reeves acknowledging it would take time to revive the UK economy.

City economists had forecast that GDP would rise by 0.2% in November, with some warning that November’s growth was weak, making an interest rate cut by the Bank of England next month more likely.

UK government borrowing costs dipped after the data was released, which will increase the chances that Reeves does not breach her fiscal rules. On Wednesday, bond yields dropped at the fastest rate since 2023 after UK inflation eased, in another fillip for the chancellor.

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Simon Pittaway, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the GDP data was disappointing, raising fears of stagnation, despite a welcome return to growth. “In recent years the UK has been a growth rollercoaster, with a recession in late 2023 followed by a bounce back in early 2024. But its longer-term record is one of economic stagnation, and that is where Britain risks returning to.

“The paltry GDP growth late last year reinforces the need for the government’s economic plans to start bearing fruit.”

The ONS’s director of economic statistics, Liz McKeown, said: “The economy continues to be broadly flat, having grown slightly in November following two small falls in the previous months.”