1/. #WondersOfNature

Ystdy, I came across this ball of walnut caterpillars

They cluster like this to increase body temperature & as a defence against predators (although a bird could scoff the lot!?)

They turn into beautiful, tan & cinnamon brown moths

Today, they were gone.
2/. #WondersOfNature (PART II)

A few months ago, I came across this oak apple or oak gall

The gall wasp lays its eggs in leaf of a particular type of oak tree

The gall protects the larvae until it metamorphoses into adulthood & the gall tissue nourishes the growing gall wasp. ImageImage
3/. Like the ring-necked parakeets
you see in London’s skies, another non-native species lives in our waterways: the red swamp crayfish or mudbug

Whilst Jimi Hendrix was responsible for releasing a pair of parakeets in 1968, the crayfish were introduced in the 70s by the govt.
4/. #WondersOfNature (PART IV)

This beautiful, mind-bending tree in St Pancreas Old Church (also home to ‘the Hardy Tree’👇) is a huge, very old corkscrew hazel

What purpose could growing in way this serve?

Maybe there’s no logic to it

It is just a joyful expression of being. ImageImageImageImage
5/. #WondersOfNature

Last weekend, I was in Wytham Woods - the most studied ancient woodland in the world

It is home to:

900+ species of beetle
800+ species of butterfly & moth
700+ species of bee, wasp & ant
580 species of fly
200+ species of spider.

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More from @StefSimanowitz

10 Jul
1/. Charlottesville's Jackson Monument was erected 100 years ago in 1921

The erection of the statue coincided with a growth of the KKK

Lynchings were commonplace

In 2017, protests against removing the statue sparked a deadly far-right rally

Today it’s finally being taken down ImageImageImageImage
2/. “The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly & quietly & invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams” (Maya Angelou)

Last month, marked the centenary of the Tulsa massacre in Greenwood
3/. In 1921, membership of the Ku Klux Klan exploded following a three-week front-page exposé of the Klan in the New York World

There is a mutually beneficial relationship between the far right & the news media

100 years on we are witnessing this again. theguardian.com/world/2018/mar…
Read 4 tweets
10 Jul
1/. More than a year ago, I flagged this Dutch modelling for how the #COVID19 pandemic might impact with its final peak in early 2022

The Dutch were also following a #HerdImmunuity ‘strategy’

Today, the @DailyMailUK is talking about a 4th wave even before the 3rd wave as peaked Image
2/. All epidemiologists & virologists will tell you, #HereImmunity is an ‘outcome’ NEVER a ‘strategy’

The Dutch #COVID19 strategy mirrored that being used in the UK & was described as “a masterclass in framing & gaslighting”

So why did they go down this non-scientific path?👇
3/. We know the govt did NOT “stick to the science like glue”

#HerdImmunity - wasn’t science

#BehaviouralFatigue wasn’t science

They knew about asymptomatic spread in Jan

These were not “mistakes”

So why DID they do it?

Why are they STILL doing it?

Some answers below👇 Image
Read 6 tweets
8 Jul
Fair play to the big fella

He keeps celebrating even when he’s on his back! (Video via @uchenelia) #ENG  #EURO2020 #Euros2021 #Euros2020 #footballscominghome
British Muslim students celebrate Harry Kane’s extra time goal at an Islamic seminary. (Via @Hasanpatel) #ENG #englandvdenmark #EURO2020 #Euros2021 @HKane
Read 4 tweets
5 Jul
1/. DAN WALKER: The guidance says you should choose what to do. What would you do

HELEN WHATELY: I’d choose to follow the guidance

Yet another car crash interview by govt minister, @Helen_Whately unable to say whether she will continue wearing face.
2/. Last year, @Helen_Whately attempted to blame scientists for the govt’s policy of transferring #COVID19 patients from hospitals into care homes without testing

@KayBurley wasn’t impressed

BURLEY: You can't stick this on the scientists

WHATLEY: I can
3/. On 28/5/20, @Helen_Whately, was asked four times by Fiona Bruce on #BBCQT where we are with the app which is essential for tracking & tracing

She didn’t answer

#HelenWhately: The app will support the...the...the...the...as we go further down the path
Read 11 tweets
2 Jul
Wow!

The sea ablaze for 8 hours in the Gulf of Mexico after a pipeline ruptured.
n 1944, Winston Churchill described Nazi atrocities as "a crime without a name"

Soon after, the term 'genocide' was coined

Is it time to recognise ‘ecocide’ as an int’l crime?

And time for all of us to start getting active to protect our fragile planet?
“Lost somewhere between immensity & eternity is our tiny planetary home

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world

This pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
(Carl Sagan)
Read 6 tweets
30 Jun
1/. “How is it that all scientists are not mystics?
Cosmologists not poets?
Biologists not shamans?
How is it that those to whom the Universe reveals such wonders, are not enraptured each day?
And each night, how do they close their eyes on this?”
2/. This👆clip shows the journey of the Hubble telescope ending at the Pillars of Creation - part of the in the Eagle Nebula - 6,500 light years away from earth

It’s so named because the pillars of hydrogen & dust are in the process of creating new stars
(Photo @NASAHubble 1995) Image
3/. The Sun is the star at the centre of our solar system

The solar system orbits the Milky Way, the spiral galaxy we call home

The Sun is just one of around 200 billion stars in the Milky Way

And the Milky Way is one of trillions of galaxies in the Universe

Let that sink in. ImageImageImageImage
Read 13 tweets

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