Links - 28th February 2026 (2)

Thread by @aldenejones on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Yes, college students have lost their ability to read. I have taught lit for 24 years; the threshold started to decline in the late aughts and nosedived during Covid. A thread with observations + how I get my students to read ALL (or at least most) of the reading I assign: 🧵
For lit classes, I require PAPER TEXTS. I email students ahead of the semester and explain this so they are not horrified on day 1. They can opt out and use e-texts if they come to me with a reason (disability etc)--but they have to provide a reason. (I never say no) For creative writing classes that require shorter readings, I stand at the Xerox machine and copy every. single. thing we will read & distribute a packet at the beginning of the semester. They appreciate this very much. They never have to chase down an assignment and it's free. I emphasize writing in texts. I teach/review how to annotate a text. Pens or pencils are also required. We start every text by reading aloud in class. The seal is broken, the book is easier to get back into next time. We discuss what the book is telling us about how to enter it.  Every time reading is due I give a reading check. 5-10 questions, no analysis - just to make sure they've read to the end. They swap quizzes with a classmate and we go over the quiz and they grade each other. Conscientious students love the easy A. Slackers can't hide. Being mad at students for not being more into reading helps no one. They have been trained by their devices to seek quick pleasure hits, not the slow pleasures of reading. I am a writer who grew up in the analog age, and I can't give a book the same attention I once did. 🥺 Colleges made it so much worse during Covid by lifting the consequences of not showing up/not doing the work. My institution has yet to bring back attendance policies and students are used to calling the shots now. Once students asked me for permission to miss a class;  now they tell me they are going to miss a class, or even an exam, and then sign their emails "Thanks for understanding." This is where we are now. I also give exams - with blue books! I provide them. (remember when students had to buy their own?!) Students need WAY more help preparing for exams than they used to, and they crave very exact "rubrics," so we do a whole practice exam the week before, slowly and together. When I first taught my Literature of Photography class in 2009 I taught 9 books. One of them was Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. They read this monster. No pushback. It is unfathomable to imagine teaching a book like that in a 100-level class today.  In that class I also taught Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. It is a weird but gratifying book that teaches so much about the early days of photography, and it's thematically pertinent to so many things this gen cares about. But they can't do it anymore. So I pick my texts with the objective of challenging them where they are. I still assign Barthes and Sontag, and they enjoy them - but they are short texts. I have reduced the # of pages, but still teach an array of texts, more stories/essays/poems, fewer novels/long books. For some reason some educators expect students will lose it if you ask them to read on paper. This is not true. My students thank me every semester. They know they've lost something in the digital age. They WANT reading to be easier, more pleasurable.  On a final note, if you are an academic who thinks written texts are racist, and therefore expecting students to read them is in the spirit of white supremacy, you are part of the problem. The suggestion that we should have lower expectations of the reading abilities of college students who are POC, poor, caregivers, etc. actually sounds pretty racist to me.
Wow this is wild! I wish I had something to hawk right now haha. But really, the response to this crisis in learning is heartening, and it is very meaningful to me that the one and only viral tweet of my Twitter life is on the subject of teaching methods. I love what I do.   I do want to clarify that I was speaking mainly about undergrads in a 100/200-level lit class who are not necessarily lit majors. I also teach upper level undergrads and MFA students, and while the specifics of their reading histories are all over, they read/love reading A LOT. If you have school-aged children and think paper texts are important or that cell phone and other devices should be kept out of classrooms, I urge you to send a quick email to let the school know. This is a book I wrote which articulates the methods I use to teach creative NF, as well as being a close reading of Cheryl Strayed's WILD, if of interest. Ironically my publisher recently folded and I'm not sure if you can still get it in print!"

Jonah Hill had incredibly awkward reaction when asked about his surname - "One thing we should all probably avoid doing is asking Jonah Hill about his real surname.  The Academy Award nominee, 38, has graced our screens in some of the most culturally defining comedies - and a few dramas - for almost two decades, but few people know his real name.  In case you didn't know already, ‘Jonah Hill’ is essentially a stage name and while his first name really is 'Jonah', his legal surname is not 'Hill'. This isn't unusual in Hollywood, but an interview with Hill for the Guardian in 2014 took an awkward turn when journalist Hadley Freeman asked the 22 Jump Street actor about an interesting detail regarding his name on his IMDb page.  On the internet movie database, Hill is listed by his full birth name - Jonah Hill Feldstein - and Freeman wanted to fact check, which led to a question about why he decided to drop his surname.  "This is when everything goes weird and his palpable self-control breaks down," Freeman said in her write-up.  "For a full 15 seconds Hill is silent aside from his breathing: it's so heavy, I think at first he's having an asthma attack."  The actor and producer eventually responded, but the situation only became more awkward. Freeman wrote: "'Can we just not?' he whispers.  "'Just … don't," he hisses'."  Unfortunately we don't find out why the Superbad star feels his real surname is such a sticky subject... Hill intends to officially remove 'Feldstein' as his surname... Interestingly, Hill's family work in showbiz and still use the Feldstein name including his dad, Richard Feldstein, who is a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses. He has a younger sister, actress Beanie (real name Elizabeth) Feldstein, who is best known for her acclaimed roles in the comedy-drama films Lady Bird (2017) and Booksmart (2019).  Last year she portrayed former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in Ryan Murphy's Impeachment: American Crime Story series.  She also starred in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl as Fanny Brice between April and July this year.  Hill's late older brother Jordan Feldstein was a music manager for Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke up until his sudden death at age 40 from a DVT/pulmonary embolism in 2017."

Uché Perkins 🇺🇸 on X - "In all honesty, ppl need to stop asking the question why the US was not able to nation build in Afghanistan or Iraq. You will probably not like the answer. Especially when you compare them to nations like Japan, Germany, South Korea or even Panama. American success stories."

Carl's Jr. brings back bikini model ads - ""A commercial with a hot girl talking about hangovers and burgers! It feels like the 90s again! The world is healing!!!" said one user... In 2017, Carl's Jr. announced that they would no longer feature scantily clad models in its advertisements, instead focusing on food quality and an all-American image"
From 2025

Jason Locasale on X - "The academic life sciences have normalized calling grown men and women well into their 30s and 40s “trainees.” That language infantilizes highly skilled professionals and sustains a hierarchy where those at the bottom are paid very little.  The solution isn’t simply to pay “trainees” more. The  problem is that training lasts far too long.  Living on a graduate stipend in your early to mid-20s is workable. You have roommates. You carpool. You don’t eat out much. When science is your passion, you don’t need much else.  If you’re still being called a trainee in your 40s, with children, a mortgage, and the need to save for retirement, the model collapses.   The fix is earlier career paths, earlier independence, and shorter training pipelines.  We shouldn’t keep people in permanent apprenticeship.  We should let them become professionals while they still have a chance to build a real life."
Jason Locasale on X - "The root issue is that the life sciences train far too many PhDs.   At many major medical schools and academic medical centers, the number of PhDs produced now rivals the number of MDs - despite vastly different societal needs and labor-market demand.  For many students, the PhD has become a substitute for medical school: a perceived trade-school pathway into biotech or pharma when grades or portfolios weren’t competitive for medicine.  The result is a surplus of credentialed labor.  Industry responds by continually raising the bar - now requiring PhDs plus multiple postdoctoral years - while academia absorbs the excess as cheap, grant-funded labor.  Meanwhile, we face a shortage of physicians. The PhD should remain a rare qualification for exceptional scientific talent, not a default holding pattern or a source of subsidized labor tied to NIH grants.  The necessary correction is uncomfortable but obvious: train far fewer PhDs, expand MD training, shorten research career pipelines, and give students much earlier, more honest feedback about fit.  I knew at 12 I wasn’t going to be a professional athlete - science needs the same realism.  Supporting real trades - including medicine and biotech - while restoring the PhD to its proper role would improve outcomes for students, science, and patients alike."

Museum volunteer accidentally destroys art after mistaking it for a dirty mirror - "A volunteer at a Taiwanese museum accidentally destroyed a contemporary art piece after mistaking it for a dirty mirror.  According to Taiwan News, the incident happened on November 3 at the Keelung Museum of Art during the “We Are Me” exhibition. While patrolling the gallery, a volunteer tried to clean what appeared to be a dusty mirror on display, but it turned out to be part of an installation by artist Chen Sung-chih titled Inverted Syntax 16.  Museum staff stepped in immediately, but the piece could not be fully restored. The Keelung City Culture and Tourism Bureau later issued an apology, confirming they had contacted Chen and the museum team to discuss next steps and were consulting with insurers about possible compensation...   Similar accidents have happened before. In 2016, cleaners at an Italian gallery threw away parts of a modern art installation they thought were rubbish, and in 2021, a Russian security guard drew eyes on a famous avant-garde painting during his first shift.   An attorney noted that insurance coverage might prove complicated, since wiping away dust does not necessarily qualify as physical property damage. While this incident was an honest mistake, the same can’t be said for the Australian teenager who allegedly damaged an $88,000 USD sculpture by gluing googly eyes to it."

Thieves steal ancient Pharaoh’s bracelet in Cairo museum heist, sell it for just $4K - "An ancient Egyptian bracelet once belonging to Pharaoh Amenemope has been stolen from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and melted down, authorities revealed.  The gold bracelet, dating back 3,000 years, was taken on September 9 from the museum’s restoration lab while officials prepared artifacts for an exhibition in Italy.  The piece, a simple gold band adorned with a lapis lazuli bead, was part of the collection of Amenemope, a pharaoh of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis in the Nile Delta.  Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy said the lab where it was stolen lacked security cameras, leaving the priceless item vulnerable"
Luckily it wasn't in the British Museum, for that would be truly intolerable

Colorado woman arrested after giving Tinder date oral sex, tying him up, and then ordering food - "A 22-year-old woman has been arrested in Colorado after allegedly giving a Tinder date oral sex, then tying him up with duct tape, stabbing him and throttling him.   Lauren Marie Dooley, 22, was arrested on September 28 after officers responded to an apartment in the 2500 block of East Cache La Poudre Street in Colorado Springs."

Dr. Leslyn Lewis on X - "The Budget Implementation Act gives ministers the power to exempt specific persons, companies, or projects from being bound by all Acts of Parliament, with the exception of the Criminal Code. This change would make them literally above the law.  What concerns me is that this is not new.  Since Carney became Prime Minister, this has been happening sector by sector.  I have flagged this before in all these bills:  Bill C-2 centralizes discretion in border control, information-sharing, and enforcement, reducing the role of courts through administrative decision-making.  Bill C-5 consolidates federal override authority in economic and infrastructure matters, limiting external adjudication once projects are designated.  Bill C-8 allows ministers to direct telecom providers to suspend services or disable equipment by order, without a clearly defined appeal process.  Bill C-9 redefines hate, exposing pastors and faith leaders to potential legal action for preaching traditional beliefs, with decisions driven by ministers.  Bill C-10 reorganizes modern treaty implementation by shifting oversight and administration away from courts and to the government’s ministers.  Each bill focuses power within a specific sector.  Bill C-15 does something even broader. It generalizes this model across government.  Now is the time for Canadians to start asking questions."

Meme - "My cat always wakes me at 4am. Today i woke him first."

Meme - Yearbook photo: "I haven't lost my virginity because I never lose."

Meme - "CHICKS LIKE THESE HAVE THE BEST SMELLING WEED. VAGINAS, NOT SO MUCH *hippie girls*"

Meme - "And they say romance is dead...pfft
The look your wife gives you before she tongue loosens your girlfriends asshole for your pleasure: *Misty Anderson and Raven Riley*"

The push to have Canadians hear a 'slavery' acknowledgement at events - "These are the results of a recent Liaison Strategies poll which simply asked Canadians basic facts about the 2025 budget. One immediate takeaway is that the people most satisfied with the budget are also the ones who know the least about it. The budget’s $78.3 billion deficit is the highest ever posted outside the COVID-19 pandemic. And according to the above, 52 per cent of Liberal voters could not even say whether it was larger than last year’s deficit."

How often a man should masturbate a month to help prevent prostate cancer - "With 'No Nut November' fast approaching, here's how many times men should masturbate per month to help prevent prostate cancer, according to a 2016 study... Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men, behind only lung cancer, the American Cancer Society reports.  One study found that ejaculating once every day can reduce your risk, while a separate piece of research stated that having 21 orgasms a month reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer by a staggering 20 percent... While there has been discussion surrounding No Nut November doing more harm than good, one study found that one month of sexual abstinence doesn't have too much of an impact.  In a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine earlier this year, experts monitored the psychological and sexual well-being impacts of the annual challenge.  The findings stated: "This pioneering study provides the first scientific evidence evaluating the psychological and sexual well-being impacts of the 'No Nut November' phenomenon, finding that the month-long period of abstinence from ejaculation has no cost or benefit to participants’ sexual well-being.""

@sunderwight on Tumblr - "Stop volunteering to be the village sacrifice we all know you're not a virgin. The dragon probably wouldn't even be into you. Untie yourself from that altar right now. Look. I didn't want to say anything because it's kind of a touchy subject, but the dragon doesn't actually take these "brides" back to its lair full of riches and add them to a harem. Okay? It's a big fucking lizard with a brain the size of an orange, it just roasts and eats them. That's why we always pick the most useless airhead to sacrifice come harvest season. Now come on, get those chains off. Where did you even get these? Oh you made them? See that's the kind of craftsmanship the village needs you for. We'll have a big orgy after the ritual and if you want a bunch of us will dress up as dragons and take turns having a go at you. It'll be nice, you'll see."

My wife was left alone for 3 weeks and I wish she’d just cheated instead. Am I Under Reacting? : r/stories - "My wife was left alone for 3 weeks and I wish she’d just cheated instead.  Three weeks ago, I left for a work trip to Germany. My wife didn’t want to come. “I’ll hang back, water the plants, binge some Netflix,” she said. She’s 39. I thought, “Okay, she’s a grown adult. She’ll be fine.”  She was not fine.  Day 2, she tries to make sourdough from scratch using a YouTube video and what she thought was yeast but turned out to be Epsom salt. The result: a rock-hard bread grenade that cracked our marble counter. She named it “Crumbzilla” and displayed it like a trophy.  Then, she decided to go “all raw vegan” for some reason and ordered 19 pounds of produce from a sketchy organic site. Half of it arrived moldy. The other half, she juiced. Exclusively. For a week. Just juice. No solids. She got so dizzy she mistook the laundry hamper for the fridge and put all our frozen meals in it. They’ve since liquefied.  To survive, she pivoted to eating Pop-Tarts and spoonfuls of peanut butter. Her justification: “Balance.”  Meanwhile, she stopped wearing actual clothes. Just bathrobes. The same one, every day. By week two it was 70% robe, 30% soup stains. The dog refused to cuddle her.  Last night, I land, exhausted, and I’m greeted by a living room that smells like fermented ginger and regret. She runs to hug me—robe flapping open, holding a jar of pickles in one hand and a half-knitted scarf in the other. Apparently, she took up knitting to “relax her stomach.”  This morning, I wake up to her whispering “I think I’m a kombucha now” and burping in her sleep. The dog has moved his bed into the bathroom and won’t make eye contact with either of us.  I grabbed my keys and said I was going out for coffee. The dog followed. He needed air. I needed therapy.  So here I am at a café with a silent, traumatized schnauzer, drinking espresso like it’s holy water. The barista asked if I wanted oat milk. I said no, because my trauma already comes in liquid form.  Hope your morning’s less... fermented."

Emil Kirkegaard on X - "It's known that circa all mental issues correlate positively, and thus one can speak of a general index or factor of psychopathology (called p).  Fewer people know that the same is approimately true of physical diseases too. They too correlate positively, so one can get a general physical health factor.  And these two factors from the two domains are also a bit correlated. Many people have been talking about the links between mental issues and auto-immune disorders for decades, but is this just part of the general pattern and not special?  Curiously, two papers recently saw the light of day. Nearly identical titles. Only overlap is Samuele Cortese."

F. A. Hayek Quotes on X - "Hayek: “The man who has learned a little science lacks the humility the real scientist gladly acquires.” “The typical intellectual believes everything must be explainable, but a scientist knows that a great many things are not. A good scientist is essentially a humble person.”"
Colin Wright on X - "I can relate to this a lot. Studying science can give you an inflated sense that doing science will regularly yield clear-cut answers. But once you actually start doing science, you quickly realize that definitive answers are the exception, even with rigorous experimental design.  Nature’s vast complexity means that the questions you ask and test usually result in only partial answers, and more often in a proliferation of new questions you didn’t even know to ask until you ran the experiment.  In one sense, this is a good thing. It means you’ll never run out of questions to pursue or experiments to run as a scientist. But it also means that cathartic “eureka!” moments are rare, and not every scientist experiences them. Most scientists quickly learn to sit comfortably with never quite knowing the full answer.  Science journalists, on the other hand, have usually never done actual science, and so they lack the humility that real scientists acquire, as Hayek observed. I think this helps explain much of what we see on the left. Leftists often fancy themselves scientifically savvy, which can lead them to accept the simple narratives relayed by science journalists and activist scientists.  One such narrative that comes to mind is the idea that people have an innate “gender identity,” often framed as a kind of “brain sex.” The studies cited to support this belief do not demonstrate what is claimed, and their proponents lack the humility to appreciate the enormous evidentiary burden required to establish anything even remotely close to what they assert."
The people who "love science" (like the IFLScience/I Fucking Love Science crowd) don't understand it very well. Scientismists are usually not scientists

Bob Kostic on X - "My new girlfriend says that our first sexual experience should feel like a fairytale. I'm looking for 7 midgets to join us this Saturday. No weirdos please"

Meme - "people in 1999 using the Internet as an escape from reality
people in 2026 using reality as an escape from the Internet"

Meme - "Once you go black, so does your face.
*Woman with black boyfriend*
*Injured woman with bruised face*"

Seafood and meat at Toronto Asian grocery stores vs Typical grocery chains like No Frills, Loblaws etc : r/FoodToronto - "Speaking as someone whose family owns several Asian grocery stores, I can tell you the meat is only so cheap because they don't have a middle man and the wages are cheap. For example, they buy several entire cows and break it down every day as opposed to a lot of places like Loblaws where the processing usually doesn't take place on-site. The guy who gives you your meat at a Chinese grocer is likely the same guy who processed it. Costco and Independent butchers work the same way, but Asians work for lower wages--usually they're newer immigrants who are family or family friends. All my family's grocery stores are staffed by cousins and their friends from back home. This is not uncommon for any immigrant business owner honestly."

Seafood and meat at Toronto Asian grocery stores vs Typical grocery chains like No Frills, Loblaws etc : r/FoodToronto - "When I buy chicken from Asian stores, I find it has one less day before it goes bad when compared to my local No Frills/Food Basics. (Still plenty of time)  I also find broken bones, especially in drumsticks, at a much more frequent rate.  When I buy ground beef, it's not as lean as the chains. When I buy steaks, they are significantly better value, but if you're looking for a very specific cut, you may not get it "

Kangmin Lee | 이강민 on X - "This video of a heated argument between a Korean couple & a Muslim woman is going viral on IG. The woman with a hijab parked her car in the middle of the lot, blocking others from getting out. When confronted, she plays the victim & lashes out. Oh the joys of multiculturalism."

‘Stop sending butt plugs to Bahrain’: Toronto sex store receives letters from U.S. Department of War : r/offbeat - "Dear Tiny Dick Pete,  Fuck off.  Sincerely, Canada."
Hating the US means blaming them for Bahraini law

Majority of Torontonians think city is headed in the wrong direction - "Six in 10 Torontonians say the city is headed in the wrong direction, with a similar majority placing the blame squarely at the feet of Mayor Olivia Chow, according to results of a new poll.  A survey conducted by Canada Pulse Insights on behalf of CityNews finds 64 per cent of Torontonians asked believe the city is on the wrong track, with 68 per cent saying the mayor and city council are out of touch with what residents want.  Affordability and the cost of living are the most important issues facing the city, according to 49 per cent of respondents. Home ownership (34 per cent), gridlock (29 per cent), crime (29 per cent) and homelessness (21 per cent) round out the top five concerns.  Mayor Olivia Chow bears the brunt of the blame for the city’s woes, with 51 per cent saying she is doing a bad job and 65 per cent calling for new leadership at City Hall."

Dilbert on the Gender Pay Gap

Blonde: "I JUST READ THAT THE AVERAGE WOMAN IS PAID 75 CENTS FOR EVERY DOLLAR THAT MEN MAKE. IT'S AN OUTRAGE !"

Alice: "I'M THE HIGHEST PAID ENGINEER IN THE COMPANY."

Blonde: "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE. THE ARTICLE SAYS "AVERAGE WOMEN" EARN LESS."

Alice: "SUDDENLY, THE PROBLEM COMES INTO FOCUS."

Blonde: "THIS ARTICLE SAYS MEN ARE PAID 25% MORE THAN WOMEN. HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT?"

Wally reading Estro Magazine: "ACTUALLY, IT SAYS WOMEN MAKE 75¢ FOR EVERY DOLLAR THAT MEN MAKE. THAT'S 33% MORE FOR MEN. I SUPPOSE THERE'S ALMOST NO CHANCE YOU'LL PRAISE ME FOR MY MATH SKILLS RIGHT NOW."

Blonde: "ALICE, ONE DAY I HOPE WE CAN BE JUDGED BY OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND NOT OUR GENDER."

Alice: "I GOT MY FOURTEENTH PATENT TODAY. I'M ON MY WAY TO A LUNCH BANQUET IN MY HONOR."

Blonde: "AND YOU WORE THAT ?"

RIP Scott Adams

Links - 28th February 2026 (1 - Climate Change)

Peter Clack on X - "The science says 600–1000 ppm of CO₂ plus 1–2°C warming hits the sweet spot for all terrestrial and marine life, including human civilization. We should be managing adaptation and energy abundance not waging war on a trace gas that makes the planet green. Higher CO₂ gives a net benefit to life on Earth. This means the current 'carbon policy' is anti-life.
CO₂ is plant food and also the foundation for all life. That’s not poetry, it’s biochemistry. Every 100 ppm increase in CO₂ typically boosts plant growth 25–50% in all non-water, limited conditions. My analysis draws on 776 studies (1993–2019) showing an ideal average CO₂ level of 550 ppm delivers a 38% increase in global biomass. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32470231/
Satellite records from 1982–2023 show the Earth greening at a rate never seen before in all recorded history: There's been a more than 18% increase in the global leaf area in 40 years. The largest gains are in India and China (from CO₂ fertilisation) and warmer more balmy temperatures are lengthening the growing seasons. NASA 2016 & 2023 updates: https://nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasa-satellite-data-show-rapid-greening-of-earth/
There is a sound reason for commercial greenhouses to pump CO₂ to 1000–1500 ppm deliberately. It ensures that crop yields jump 20–70% depending on the crop. If 1000 ppm is good for tomatoes, why is 420 ppm an 'emergency' for the planet?
Coral reefs: Corals calcify faster at higher CO₂ (there is more dissolved bicarbonate). The best growth rates are seen in aquaria at 500–800 ppm. Field evidence reveals that reefs around CO₂ at 800–1200 ppm are more diverse and grow faster. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30274998/ https://nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48476-7
Agriculture: Global crop yields are up ~15–20% since 1960, almost entirely attributable to CO₂ fertilisation alone (Idso, 2013; IPCC AR6 WG1 Ch5 admits this). Famine deaths have plummeted while population has doubled and CO₂ deserves most of the credit.
Warmer biomes: The Boreal forest is advancing northwards at around 30km a decade; the tundra is greening by 1–3% each decade. The Sahel is regreening (a Great Green Wall is now unnecessary—nature did it all by herself). This is all driven by longer growing seasons plus the higher CO₂. The optimal level of CO₂ for the global biosphere under controlled environment agriculture is 800–1200 ppm.
Under previous paleoclimates, all C3 plants evolved when CO₂ was 1000–2000 ppm. They suffered CO₂ starvation below 250 ppm during glacial conditions. C3 plants are more common in temperate climates and very efficient in cool, moist conditions (rice, wheat, barley, oats, soybeans and potatoes). We're still in a CO₂ famine by geological standards.  Human health is far better today: Warmer winters alone save around 100,000 lives a year in Europe (cold kills at 10–20 times more than heat). Source: Lancet 2015 & 2021 studies.   What is the 'dangerous' level of CO₂?:  Even the alarmist IPCC AR6 says 3–4°C warming (which would require at least 1000 ppm) has mostly moderate risks for agriculture and ecosystems. At 600–800 ppm and at 1.5–2°C we will get longer growing seasons, fewer cold deaths, more arable land, higher crop yields and a greener planet That’s not a crisis. It's the best climate for life in 500,000 years.  Current radical 'net-zero' policy versus deliberate CO₂ starvation: Trillions have been spent to keep CO₂ to around 450 ppm. This actively reduces the primary nutrient for 99% of all food chains on earth. We are making energy vastly more expensive and unreliable in the West, while China and India keep building on coal. The result is self-inflicted economic damage in the west but with zero measurable climate effect."

Thread by @magattew on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "People in wealthy countries don’t think about electricity.  They wake up, flip a switch, make coffee, scroll on their phones, and everything just works.  But the day the power goes out, even for one hour, everyone panics.  It’s on the news. People tweet about it. Stores shut down. The whole city feels it. Now just pause and imagine living like that every single day.   That’s the reality for millions of Africans (about 600 million people, precisely).   In Africa, power cuts are not “breaking news.” They’re just… life.  Children study by candlelight. Businesses close early. Hospitals run on fumes.  And yet the same people who panic when their lights go out are the ones pushing “green policies” that make it harder for Africans to have reliable, affordable, abundant energy.  How can you talk about saving the planet while keeping millions of people in the dark?
Climate alarmists talk a lot about saving the planet, but their policies show little concern for the people who are struggling the most.  If you really want to help poor people, you start with one thing:  Energy that works, every day, at a price they can actually afford."

Sama Hoole on X - "Here's what cattle actually do for soil:  Their hooves break up compacted earth, allowing water infiltration and root penetration.  Their dung provides:
Organic matter
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Beneficial microbes
Food for dung beetles (which aerate soil further)
Their urine deposits nitrogen exactly where plants need it.  Their selective grazing creates habitat diversity.  Their trampling of grass stimulates root growth and carbon sequestration.  Managed grazing builds topsoil at 1-2 inches per decade. Industrial crop agriculture depletes it at the same rate.  We've lost 30% of global topsoil in the last 150 years. Primarily from annual ploughing for crops.  Permanent pasture with grazing cattle? No ploughing. Soil builds instead of erodes.  But sure, remove the cattle and plough the land for soy. See what happens to your soil in 20 years.  Hint: It becomes dust.
The American Dust Bowl was caused by removing bison and ploughing the prairies for wheat. Not by grazing.  We ran this experiment. Cattle won. Ploughs lost."

Chris Martz on X - "Climate “science” is political science and here's why. In the 1980s, global warming was an emerging “issue” of scientific interest. Politicians like then-Senator Al Gore saw this as an opportunity to use the scientific community to build a case to regulate energy companies,  industry, and give the government more control over the economy.  In 1988, long before there was an [alleged] “scientific consensus,” the Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere was assembled to urge governments to adopt policies that reduced our carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 20% by 2005 because of the supposed threat of catastrophic human-caused global warming. They stated,  🗨️ “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑏𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠... [𝒕]𝒐... [𝒓]𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝑪𝑶₂ 𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝟐𝟎% 𝒐𝒇 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟖 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑜𝑎𝑙.”  🔗https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/106359?ln=en&v=pdf (p. 296)  Yet, the IPCC's First Assessment Report (FAR) in 1990 found no evidence that catastrophic global warming is occurring, much less any warming beyond the bounds of natural variability, stating,  🗨️ “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚.”  🔗https://ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/05/ipcc_90_92_assessments_far_full_report.pdf (p. 53)  Despite the lack of evidence to support regulations on CO₂ emissions, in 1992, the United Nations went ahead with their UNFCCC Treaty to prevent dangerous emission-driven global warming, which 196 countries, including the U.S., signed onto.  🗨️ “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝒐𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒑𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆, 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚.”  🔗https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf (p. 4)  The first draft of the second IPCC report, which was published in 1995, concluded very similarly to the FAR (1990) report, but the report, along with the summary, was rewritten under significant pressure from policymakers to have a stronger finding of dangerous global warming.  This isn't science. It's fraud."

radioecological footprint of electricity production by wind turbines - "The worldwide transformation of electricity production goes hand in hand with increasing use of wind energy. The German ‘Energiewende’ project is no exception and relies heavily on the construction and use of an ever-increasing number of wind turbines. While the operation of wind turbines does not lead to the emission of pollutants (in contrast to, e.g. coal, oil or gas), the production processes of the construction materials do. Since the raw materials’ production primarily takes place outside Germany, radioactivity and doses related to these processes occur at remote places in the world. This effect might be called an ‘export of doses’. In the present paper, we perform a life cycle analysis of wind turbines, investigating the mining and production of the construction materials. We focus on rare-earth elements needed for the generator magnets and assess the associated releases of radioactive materials during mining and processing, primarily in China. Estimates of dose to the public in selected Chinese cities are calculated. Different electricity generation techniques are compared by the use of the quantity (collective) dose per GW per year."

The climate cult’s dissolution is inevitable - "The collapse of the Paris Agreement and the unmasking of the net zero illusion were never hard to predict — not for anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty. It didn’t take a fancy research title or an advanced degree. The writing was carved deep into the stone of energy reality, which no press release, no activist lobby and no billionaire-backed foundation could erase.   Most nations — particularly those early in the process of building their futures — offered only empty nods to their climate targets. Their participation was a transparent quest for political leverage. The climate crusade survived by hijacking the political class, manipulating data through compliant scientists, and converting media empires into megaphones of fear.   Bill Gates stepped away from the front lines of climate alarmism in a recent essay timed for the United Nations’ COP30, an annual gathering of jet-setting moralists. Gates admits — and the recent U.S. Department of Energy report on carbon dioxide supports his view — that the world will not collapse because of climate change.   Gates has called for a shift in focus to more immediate needs. He says that “we will still rely on fossil fuels for decades,” that “no single technology can decarbonize the global economy,” and that “the pace of change will be slow.” He is reacting to the wreckage of ideology from its collision with the laws of physics.   In recent New York election campaigns, some of the Green New Deal’s most famous apostles, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, saw their climate gospel sidelined, no longer commanding the stage. Voters heard more about housing, jobs, and public safety than decarbonization, offshore wind or carbon credits.  These are signals of a larger shift underway, both in the U.S. and abroad.  In the U.K.’s North Sea and off the U.S. East Coast, massive wind projects are being canceled. “Green steel” is struggling to compete with fossil fuel-based conventional steel. Oil companies, after spending years and billions of dollars on “green” branding and virtue signaling, are quietly backtracking on ambitious climate goals.   In 2025, Argentina shocked global institutions by saying it will reconsider its membership in the Paris Agreement. President Javier Milei declared that his nation would no longer “kneel before climate bureaucrats.” China continues its rapid construction of coal-fired power plants, adding more coal capacity than the rest of the world combined. India’s coal consumption is at an all-time high, and its government is aggressively auctioning new blocks of coal mines.  Developing economies in Asia and South America know that survival requires coal, oil and natural gas. African leaders are also seeking to tap their continent’s reserves of hydrocarbons to power economic development.   The fragile structure of global decarbonization depended on financing from its chief patron, the U.S. When that flow of dollars ceased with the incoming Trump administration, the fading of an already moribund climate narrative accelerated. What remains now is to utterly unmask the 21st century’s most malignant fraud and to educate a generation propagandized in public schools and woke universities. The truth has emerged bit by bit. We were once told that wildfires were unprecedented, yet historical data show fire frequency has declined globally. We were told the Arctic would be ice-free, yet it remains frozen. We were told of a “climate-driven” food crisis, but the mild warming and increased carbon dioxide — a vital plant food — have contributed to global greening and record crop harvests. The food supply is becoming more secure, not less.  The gap between alarmist predictions and observed reality is no longer possible to hide. Scientists deliberately misled the public with cherry-picked data, tortured computer models until they produced the “correct” scary result and misrepresented natural weather events as proof of climate change. What masqueraded as “consensus” was nothing more than a cartel of profiteers feeding on public guilt and taxpayer money. This was not good-faith scientific inquiry but rather a narrative designed to frighten, to control consumer choices and to justify a massive political and economic reorganization. Much of the public, sensing this dishonesty, no longer listens. The authority of the climate “experts” has been damaged, perhaps irrevocably. Their incessant cries of “wolf” failed to produce the climate beast.  The climate cult declared war on the very engines that lifted humanity from hunger and hardship. Its legacy is economic vandalism and moral decay.  But the spell is breaking, and what’s emerging from the rubble is not despair, but liberation — a long-awaited return of reason to a world held hostage by fear."

Can we trust projections of AMOC weakening based on climate models that cannot reproduce the past? - "The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a crucial element of the Earth's climate system, is projected to weaken over the course of the twenty-first century which could have far reaching consequences for the occurrence of extreme weather events, regional sea level rise, monsoon regions and the marine ecosystem. The latest IPCC report puts the likelihood of such a weakening as ‘very likely’. As our confidence in future climate projections depends largely on the ability to model the past climate, we take an in-depth look at the difference in the twentieth century evolution of the AMOC based on observational data (including direct observations and various proxy data) and model data from climate model ensembles. We show that both the magnitude of the trend in the AMOC over different time periods and often even the sign of the trend differs between observations and climate model ensemble mean, with the magnitude of the trend difference becoming even greater when looking at the CMIP6 ensemble compared to CMIP5. We discuss possible reasons for this observation-model discrepancy and question what it means to have higher confidence in future projections than historical reproductions."
Weird, we keep being told that climate change models are super accurate. Just like with covid. But gullible left wingers keep falling for it

Chris Martz on X - "This chart shows the annual average number of days reaching 95°F, 100°F and 105°F at all 657 United States NOAA GHCNd stations (weighted by area) with at least 100 years of daily temperature data (90% daily completeness) between 1895 and 2025. Despite the endless scare mongering all summer, in terms of U.S. heat extremes, it wasn't exceptional.  🌡️ Tmax ≥95°F (35°C): 12.1 days (98th most) 🌡️ Tmax ≥100°F (38°C): 2.5 days (103rd most) 🌡️ Tmax ≥105°F (40°C): 0.4 day (105th most)  𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐦𝐚𝐱 ≥𝟗𝟓°𝐅: 1⃣ 1936 2⃣ 1934 3⃣ 1954 4⃣ 1931 5⃣ 1933 6⃣ 1913 7⃣ 1925 8⃣ 1980 (most recent) 9⃣ 1930 🔟 1911  Interestingly, only one of top 15 has been recorded in the last 70 years, and only two in the 21st century made the top 20 (2011 and 2012, which sit at 17th and 19th place, respectively).  𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐦𝐚𝐱 ≥𝟏𝟎𝟎°𝐅: 1⃣ 1936 2⃣ 1934 3⃣ 1954 4⃣ 1930 5⃣ 1901 6⃣ 1913 7⃣ 1980 (most recent) 8⃣ 1931 9⃣ 1925 🔟 1918  𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐓𝐦𝐚𝐱 ≥𝟏𝟎𝟓°𝐅: 1⃣ 1936 2⃣ 1934 3⃣ 1954 4⃣ 1930 5⃣ 1901 6⃣ 1980 7⃣ 1913 8⃣ 2023 (most recent) 9⃣ 1918 🔟 1933  The searing heatwave in Texas and Oklahoma back in 2023 bumped it up to 8th place for national average annual number of days with a Tmax ≥105°F."
Chris Martz on X - "I have mastered my Python skills to now be able to build datasets like this from scratch without having to do it all by hand, which was time consuming and tedious.  Now that I have this skill, elected officials, journalists and activist scientists are going to have an increasingly difficult time getting away with making fraudulent claims about extreme weather in the U.S."

Kenneth Richard on X - "New study: A 2007 math proofs study (https://t.co/WhhiGDR05u) that affirmed a global mean temperature does not exist (because a temperature average can only be defined in equilibrium systems) has never been disproved. There are "infinite ways to average temperature," and the method chosen in modern "climate science" is arbitrary, non-physical, and yields fundamentally different results vs. other methods. https://jpands.org/vol30no4/cohler.pdf"

Meme - Man in lab coat: "WHY DOES THE PUBLIC NOT TRUST US?"
Blackboard: "Arctic ice free by 2000 2008 2013 2014 2027 "
*Angry man with "science denier" sign*

Russ Greene on X - "JP Morgan just released its 2024 "Sustainability Report." It is a useful indication of how companies are approaching ESG and DEI today. JPM reports using climate scenarios from the "Network for Greening the Financial System." Perhaps JPM is unaware that NGFS's modeling has come under fire from other academics, for using unrealistic climate scenarios, and faulty data from Uzbekistan.   More info on NGFS and the overall report in the🧵. https://jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jp"

Andrew Neil on X - "In Nature magazine April 2024 scientists at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research projected that climate change would cause $38 trillion in economic damage EVERY YEAR by 2049 — so an annual economic loss bigger than the US economy.  It also forecast rising CO2 emissions would cause a 62% reduction in global GDP by 2100. Economic damage over the next quarter of a century would exceed the costs of mitigating global warming by six times.  Naturally the global warming grifters and their media cheerleaders jumped on this without the slightest scepticism. The Network for Greening the Financial System, a group of central banks (inc the Fed) and financial regulators, even incorporated the study’s projections into its bank climate stress test scenarios.  But it turned out to be a load of old bollocks (to use a technical term). Nature was issuing corrections within months and in the end discovered so many errors that it has now retracted the whole caboodle. Funny and embarrassing.  So much for peer review, which clearly doesn’t work when the peers all share the same worldview as the authors."

Rethinking the “Levelized Cost of Energy”: A critical review and evaluation of the concept - "Unfortunately, misleading LCOE estimates have become the norm as shown later. In fact, Schernikau et al. interviewed 70 experts, and found that “the overarching theme was the lack of understanding of the true, full cost of electricity and continued misuse of the marginal cost measure LCOE to compare costs of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) with conventional sources of power”. The authors suggest stop using LCOE altogether."
This won't stop climate change hystericists from containing to claim that renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, because they blithely ignore system costs

Ditch net zero, shareholders urge BP - "Investors said the shock departure of chief executive Murray Auchincloss should prompt the BP to refocus on “what it does best”... Elliot Management, the activist investor with a near 5pc stake in BP, is understood to support the change and is pushing for Ms O’Neill to move quickly to sell-off underperforming assets, including those in green energy... The surprise leadership shake-up comes as BP attempts to improve performance and win back investor support after a misguided shift to green energy under former chief executive Bernard Looney.   Mr Looney pledged that the oil and gas business would reach net zero by 2050, out of step with the rest of the industry. Mr Auchincloss, who replaced Mr Looney in 2023, had been rowing back on the strategy but faced criticism he was moving too slowly.“In the past he has been a strong defender of capital allocation to low carbon areas of the business that have not yet delivered the expected returns, so it is perhaps easier for someone external to start with no baggage in refocusing the business and giving a credible message to the market,” one BP shareholder said.  Ms O’Neill has been publicly sceptical of net zero, criticising activists for ignoring the carbon footprints of online shopping and emphasising the importance of oil and gas to energy security."

Homeowners at risk of £15k fines under SNP net zero regime - "Scottish homeowners are at risk of being hit with a £15,000 fine for failing to meet net zero rules if the SNP wins next year’s Holyrood election.  The Scottish Government revealed last month that it aims to introduce a bill forcing the phase-out of gas boilers by 2045 and setting minimum energy performance rules for homes and other buildings.  Homeowners with direct-emission heating systems, such as gas boilers, who fail to meet the new rules will be required to improve the energy performance of the building.  They also risk being fined up to £15,000 under the sanctions regime set out in the draft legislation."

Adam Lowisz X Meetup 🇺🇸🇵🇱🇪🇺🇬🇧🇺🇦 on X - "We need to let Trump know that solar and batteries are the future of energy. Battery chemistry has improved tremendously in the last decade. Coal isn't the future of energy. We are going to fall behind China we don't transition now."
John Lee Pettimore on X - "The periodic table limits battery breakthroughs, with only 118 elements, most unsuitable:  - 39 are radioactive - 23 are too scarce or costly (e.g., rare earths, platinum group metals) - 6 are inert noble gases - 4+ are toxic (e.g., cadmium, cobalt, mercury, arsenic) - Some are too heavy, scarce, valuable (e.g., gold, platinum), hard to recycle, or have low reduction/oxidation potential  Energy density has peaked by using lighter elements—from lead to zinc to nickel to lithium. Be skeptical of battery improvement claims. A 100% renewable grid needs at least six weeks of energy storage. Storing one day of U.S. electricity with Li-ion batteries would cost $11.9 trillion, cover 345 square miles, and weigh 74 million tons, excluding grid upgrade costs. The mining required is immense and must be repeated every 15 years. Other battery types exist, but commercial focus remains on lithium. A 100% renewable grid with battery backup is a pipe dream."

Taxpayer-backed net zero project axed after five months - "A £14m taxpayer-funded scheme to deploy a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled delivery trucks across the South East has collapsed just five months after it was launched.  Under the HyHaul scheme set up by Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, three hydrogen refuelling stations were to be set up along the M4 – supplying a fleet of 30 lorries delivering to factories and stores.  However, millions of pounds of taxpayer cash now hangs in the balance after the project was scrapped owing to reluctance among trucking companies to commit to the vehicles.  The collapse of HyHaul is just the latest of several hydrogen schemes recently abandoned as hype around the net zero fuel fades... The HyHaul scheme is part of a wider government strategy to use hydrogen to store and carry energy produced by wind, solar or from natural gas. It dates back to 2021 when Boris Johnson’s government published its Hydrogen Strategy suggesting that wind and solar farms would eventually make so much of the gas that it would supply over a third of UK energy by 2050."

Bjorn Lomborg on X - "Climate sanity, finally EU has been gripped in a decade-long climate panic But now fading, leaving an opportunity to finally focus on sensible, affordable climate policies Data: Just published Autumn 2025 with 9%, down from 35% in Spring 2019. Eurobarometer since start 2010, percent naming climate/environment as one of two top issues for EU https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/assets/about/MainIssuesEU.xlsx, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3372, and https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/"

Hamburg referendum backs more ambitious climate action, 2040 net-zero target - "Voters in Germany's second largest city have approved a referendum requiring the city to reach climate neutrality by 2040 — five years earlier than planned. The result forces the local government to toughen its climate law despite warnings about costs and feasibility...   With the exception of the Left party, no group represented in the city parliament openly supported the referendum, including the Greens...   A study commissioned by Hamburg’s environment authorities found that the 2040 target is technically feasible, but would require steep efforts across nearly all sectors – including phasing out gas and oil heating, expanding electrified transport, introducing a city-wide 30 km/h speed limit, and ending industrial gas use.  Business associations warned that the referendum will weaken local companies. “We can no longer rule out production relocations and job cuts among our companies, which are competing on a global scale,” said Andreas Pfannenberg, head of the Hamburg Industrial Association.  Luisa Neubauer, the most prominent leader of the youth climate movement Fridays for Future (FfF), said that Hamburg is advancing on climate action, while the federal government is falling behind. “We have made history,” the Hamburg native said."
When they get what they want and make history by destroying their lives, they'll then blame Capitalism

Links - 27th February 2026 (2 - Star Wars)

Meme - "Finn to Rey: "How did you do that?"
Spmehow
Tracked through lightspeed
Somehow
Palpatine returns
Somehow
Maz has Luke's lightsaber
Somehow
A random dude knows how to disable the tracker
Somehow
Rey using force heal
Somehow
Rey does a jedi mind trick
Somehow
Snoke: Can't sense Kylo's intentions
Somehow
Rey Skywalker
Somehow"

Meme - George Lucas: "I put a scene in Star Wars that's a shot-for-shot remake of the Nazi rally in Triumph of the Will"
Padme: "Depicting the Empire, right"
George Lucas:
Padme: "Depicting the Empire, right"
*The Throne Room*

No, George did NOT sell Star Wars because angry fan reactions hurt his feelings : r/saltierthankrait - "I saw this getting thrown around today by some anti-fandom crusaders, and frankly, I'm tired of people saying this. Sure, George Lucas once said "why would I make more when everyone yells at you about what a terrible person you are?" but he also was in the process of making the sequels, and the man has a history of doing what he wants at the expense of everything else, he even admits the fans would have hated his sequels. During the Charlie Rose interview, he said he wanted to make sure his employees kept their jobs, he had an obligation to them, and sources close to him also suggest that because he was in the process of making his sequels, the deciding factor to sell was his mortality, he worried he might die before he could make all three of them.  And think about it, George never reversed course when making the prequels, he never stopped making them, despite the hated coming at him from all sides. So why would he sell if the fan reactions were the deciding factor when he was already making sequels he knew the fans would loathe? Hell, there's quotes he gave before Phantom Menace released saying he knew then the fans would hate it because it showed Darth Vader being a good little kid, and that was one of their complaints. He recently said at a public event that he doesn't care what people think about his movies. This tired anti-fandom talking point needs to die, it just fuels Lucasfilm's attempts to discredit legitimate criticisms by labeling it all as "toxic fandom." You're helping those corporate swindlers smother the life and the creativity and the artwork out of Star Wars."

We should discuss WHY the sequels won't became beloved as the prequels : r/saltierthankrait - "We always say that the sequels won't become popular, but never specify why. So my opinion is that we look at prequels and see :
1.    A cohesive vision and narattive
2.    That they've tried really hard
3.    Respecting the characters But looking at the sequels, we don't see any of it. But that's just me."

Krayt thinks the sequels will be beloved someday, lol : r/saltierthankrait - "Except, we're coming up on the tenth anniversary of Force Awakens, and it's the complete inverse to how it was a decade ago, where everyone loved it and wanted to give it a chance despite being a shallow reskin of A New Hope. Well, fandom sentiment has turned since then, and I see a lot more people who admit to that and agree that it's a derivative copy.  Also, the sequels getting a reevaluation is contingent on Disney Star Wars releasing something worse, and for my money, since most of it has been stale, focus-grouped corporate for the last thirteen years, I really see reaction to it being just more of the same, shifting in neither direction."

So i genuinely didn’t know these guys existed : r/StarWars - "I have always said that Solo is a great time AND a fantastic Star Wars film.  It's just not a good Han Solo film.  Swap out Han Solo with an original character, change the pacing so you don't have to put Han Solo's entire life in there, keep Lando and the Falcon, and you seriously have one of the best Star Wars movies to come out of the Disney era.  It was just a weird move to recast Han Solo and fit every little bit of lore about him in one movie. It doesn't work because no one else can ever be Han Solo. I think we found that out. Ewan McGregor became Obi-Wan in the eyes of the Fandom because Obi-Wan was a very understated but important character in the OT. Han Solo was life-blood in the OT. No one else could ever be him but Harrison Ford.  On the other hand, I don't disagree at all with recasting post ROTJ Luke or even maybe Leia, if it's done right. I think young Leia was done very well in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I think they should seriously consider recasting Luke, no matter how well the CG works.  The truth is, we do need to see more of these guys on screen again. I think fans want it, but it has to be done right. Disney tried and it wasn't received well, but that's because I don't think the execution was done well."

Meme - ""PeOpLe dOn'T LIKE ReY bEcAUse ShE wOmAn"
Meanwhile:
*Ahsoka Tano, The Armorer, Bastila Shan, Nomi Sunrider, Asajj Ventress, Juno Eclipse, Satele Shan, Darth Talon, Leia Organa, Padme Amidala, Kreia, Meetra Surik*"

Mark Hamill says he won't return again as Luke Skywalker “I had my time ... I really think they should focus on the future and all the new characters” : r/StarWars - "Its been 10 years since TFA and just don't see the reception for the sequels being near the positive levels the prequels were 10 years after TPM.  I feel the feelings towards the prequels softened over the first 10 years, mainly thanks to the trilogy ending on a relative high along with all the merchandise and extra content they received over those years. With RoS being a massive dud, the lack of good sequel merchandise and content and opinions of Disney's running of the franchise being rather low, the opinions of the sequels have declined massively over their first 10 years.  I doubt the sequel generation will have quite the same impact on their reception as the prequel generation has had...   Video games are really good examples. Even though people may not have liked the prequel films there were still aspects of them that they were really interested in playing in video games. Whether thats racing games with podracers, starfighter games with lots of new ships, playing as lots of new Jedi, or playing as interesting new factions like droids or clones, there was lots of fun potential with the prequel content.  Now what would people want from a sequel game? Well there are a couple of new characters and some interesting new locations but is there anything particularly new or creative? The factions are just reskins of the OT Rebels and Empire, ships are basically OT ships, the battles and conflicts aren't that original either. There just isn't a great deal to be interested in that isn't already done better before."

Meme - "Acolyte gets canceled: Kathleen Kennedy be like "It's because prequal fans are sexist and racist!"
Meanwhile, prequal fans favorite characters be like: *Mace Windu, Ahsoka Tano*"

Meme - Young Anakin: "...So, when I die, will I be set on fire like Master Qui-Gon?"
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "No, you'll be alive when it happens."

Anakin’s turn to the dark side (in the movies) wasn’t “sudden” : r/StarWars - "One of the most common complaints about the prequels is that Anakin turns to the dark side too quickly. But I don’t think that’s fair at all. His fall doesn’t even start in Revenge of the Sith, it begins way back in Attack of the Clones.  When Anakin slaughters the Tusken Raiders after his mother dies, it’s not just a moment of grief, it’s a full-on act of hatred and revenge. He even admits to Padmé, “I killed them all… I hate them.” That’s pure dark side energy, and it’s the first major sign of where he’s headed.  He also says some pretty alarming things to Padmé throughout Attack of the Clones, like talking about wanting to become “all-powerful” and forcing people to agree through dictatorship. He’s not acting on those ideas yet, but it shows how easily he could justify dangerous choices if he believed they were for the greater good.  You also see his pride and insecurity show up constantly, like when Obi-Wan tells him to “know his place,” or when Padmé brushes him off as “just a Padawan.” He gets defensive and frustrated, always needing to prove himself.  In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin’s choices become harder to ignore. He kills Count Dooku at Palpatine’s command, something he immediately regrets and admits isn’t the Jedi way. But he does it anyway.  The Jedi Council also doesn’t help. Despite how powerful he’s become, they still treat him like a kid, shutting him out and questioning his loyalty. At the same time, he’s having terrifying visions of Padmé dying in childbirth. He becomes obsessed with the idea of saving her no matter the cost.  So when Palpatine tells him the story of Darth Plagueis and hints at the power to cheat death, Anakin doesn’t reject it entirely, he holds onto it. Even when he finds out Palpatine is a Sith Lord, he doesn’t turn him in right away. He’s already convinced that the Jedi won’t help him save Padmé (which they won’t), and that Palpatine might.  When Mace Windu goes to arrest Palpatine, Anakin tries to stay out of it but ultimately makes a desperate choice. He intervenes, helps Palpatine kill Windu, and immediately regrets it. He knows it’s wrong. He’s not thinking like a Sith yet, he’s just afraid, and thinks he’s out of options.  Some people argue that Anakin pledging himself to Palpatine right after helping kill Mace Windu feels too sudden. But I think once he takes part in the death of one of the Jedi Order’s most respected Masters, he sees no way back. He already felt like the Jedi didn’t trust him, now he knows they won’t forgive him. From his point of view, he’s a traitor, and the only person offering him protection and a way to save Padmé is Palpatine. Switching sides wasn’t just a choice it felt like the only option left.  After pledging himself to Palpatine, he’s sent to the Jedi Temple. And yes, he kills the younglings. It’s horrific. But his face shows pain, not pleasure. His Sith eyes don’t appear during this scene, which tells us he’s still not fully gone. He’s following orders, but he’s not embracing the darkness yet.  Later, on Mustafar, he wipes out the Separatist leaders and that’s when his Sith eyes finally show up. He’s gone further than ever before. But even then, we see him cry while standing alone. He’s not proud. He’s not celebrating. He’s broken.  When Padmé arrives, his eyes are normal again. He tells her he’s done everything to save her, he even says they can overthrow the Emperor and live together in a desperate attempt for her approval. He’s spiraling, but his goal is still to save her.  When she refuses and Obi-Wan shows up, Anakin completely loses it. He feels betrayed. In his mind, she’s turned against him because of Obi-Wan. The duel starts not because he wants to kill Obi-Wan, but because he feels like Obi-Wan is the last thing standing in the way of his future with Padmé.  During their fight, it’s when he’s burning with rage, literally and emotionally, that his Sith eyes return. That’s the moment the last piece of Anakin starts to fade.  After he’s rebuilt in the Vader suit, the first thing he asks is: “Where is Padmé? Is she safe?” That line alone shows he STILL hasn’t fully turned yet despite being in the iconic suit. But then Palpatine lies and tells him he killed her and that’s it. That’s the moment “Anakin” dies, and “Vader” fully takes over, if you believe in that idea.  From that point on, his actions aren’t about saving anyone. They’re about power, pain, and control."

Anakin’s turn to the dark side (in the movies) wasn’t “sudden” : r/StarWars - "His mom being left as a slave lol the Jedi could’ve saved his mom."
"but that's in line with Jedi philosophy, severing all prior attachments. which underscores how flawed the order was."
"This was the point where the Jedi Order displayed its inflexibility. It chose not to do the morally correct thing because it went against doctrine. The Order could not bend to meet new circumstances (a nine-year old child with a strong maternal connection that was incredibly force-sensitive and had potential to rival the Grand Master), and thus it broke into pieces in but a fraction of its total lifetime, a mere fifteen years to destroy millennia of history and tradition."
"It's also why I hate Mandoverse Luke that is so rigid with the old order's dogma. It makes a lot of sense why old EU Luke did things differently with attachments and allowing Jedi to have families because the old ways are part of the reason the order failed."
"Regarding EU Luke, it made a lot of sense that he allowed Jedi to have families.  After all, it was father-son love who allowed Darth Vader to turn back into Anakin for his ultimate redemption.  Familar bond managed to turn back a Sith Lord to the Light side. That was a proof that family bonds WERE compatible with the Jedi ways."
"I feel like the sequels make it so Luke has to be set up to be a putz."
"Yeah pretty much, otherwise he wouldn’t have tried to kill “Kylo Ben” over a bad thought. OG Luke and Sequels Luke are two different personalities, so now you have to make it where you show of roots of how he becomes the guy you see 30 yrs later."

Anakin’s turn to the dark side (in the movies) wasn’t “sudden” : r/StarWars - "The scene with Mace, Palpatine and Anakin together mirrors the Dooku execution scene perfectly and IMO is the final straw.  Mace/Palpatine wants Anakin to kill Palpatine/Dooku, with both giving the same justification despite Anakins obvious hesitation in both scenes: 'he's too dangerous to be left alive'.  Suddenly, Anakin is faced with the hypocrisy and confusion of his biggest critic reenacting something he deeply regretted doing and was ashamed of. All respect is lost and any hope of elevating the survival of the jedi over Padme goes out the window (hehe). A decision that paves the way for Padme to die."

I just recently reached episode 1. What was the purpose for this huge location under the palace on Naboo? Is there a cannon explanation? : r/StarWars - "Obi Wan and and a Naboo engineer having a conversation at the celebration after the battle of Naboo:
O: So you’re the guy who designed that giant energy reactor room?
E: I can’t take all the credit, my team and I put in a lot of hours to build the perfect energy…
O: Sure sure. Listen, I wanted to ask you about those laser wall things?
E: The what?
O: like half a dozen red laser walls that turn on and off in an annoyingly asynchronous oscillation? What are those for?
E: uhhh… why?
O: well they kind of got my best friend killed. We were fighting this goth guy in there and your little laser walls really got in the way. So what’s the point of those things? Because if you ask me, they seem like pointless obstructions to the room with the big hole in it.
E: wait you guys went in there? That’s the primary radiation exhaust port. Those red laser walls filter out deadly radiation. Anyone who went in there will either be dead soon or look like they’re 80 when they’re in their fifties."

George Lucas Rejects ‘Star Wars’ Critics Who Think the Films Are ‘All White Men’: ‘Most of the People Are Aliens!’ - "George Lucas stated “Most of the people are aliens! The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever. The idea is all people are equal.”  Lucas went on to say that the only beings in the “Star Wars” universe who were discriminated against were the robots...   Lucas also responded to criticism about the depiction of women in the “Star Wars” films, saying: “Who do you think the heroes are in these stories? What do you think Princess Leia was? She’s the head of the Rebellion. She’s the one that’s taking this young kid who doesn’t know anything and this boisterous, I know-everything guy who can’t do anything and trying to save the rebellion with these clowns … And it’s the same thing with Queen Amidala even thought she has Jedi on her side.”  He continued, “You can’t just put a woman in pants and expect her to be a hero. They can wear dresses, they can wear whatever they want. It’s their brains and their ability to think and plan and be logistical. That’s what the hero is.”"

Meme - "Rey and Finn when a dude they just met died
Luke when he saw burnt bodies of people who raised him"

Meme - Buzz Lightyear toy: "I AM ONE OF THE WERY FEW JEDI WHO SURVIVED ORDER 66."
DISNEY STAR WARS: *Shelves of Buzz Lightyear toys*

Meme - "r/StarWars
“While Anakin kinda forgot about the sith fleet.”
"...A FLEET OF STAR DESTROYERS A THOUSAND TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN THE GALAXY HAS EVER SEEN."
"WHA..."
"IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE?"
"This is incredible absurd, they made this comic just to justify the absurdity of the sith fleet in Exegol.  Makes little to no sense they were building the second Death Star when they have this kind of power.  Making the Destroyers able to destroy planets is also absurd. It's all bad writing, infinite powerscale instead of something smart.""

Why do stock stormtroopers and “related environment” troopers seemingly get randomly grouped together? : r/StarWars - "Somone did a shoot/kill ratio and even based on what we see on screen the storm troopers are an elite fighting force.  Iirc they have 300/1 shots to kill while the US marines have a 100,000/1 shot to kill."
"That 100,000 to 1 shots to kills is somewhat misleading, as it includes training.  That said, the opening scene where we see the Stormtroopers board the Tantive IV is actually very impressive- they’re attacking down a funnel of death, but they break through it and only suffer equivalent casualties with the defenders."
"1. In real-life, gunfights usually happen over hundreds and thousands of meters. Usually it actually takes a while to know where you're actually getting shot from. In Star Wars, engagements are usually at a distance of tens of meters or point blank. That's a huge factor.
2. In real-life, suppressing and covering fire is used extensively. Squads literally have a guy with a machine whose job is to put as many bullets down range as possible to suppress the enemy. That's rarely ever used in Star Wars, and honestly, most blasters seemingly have no where near the RPM of our machine guns.
Those are the two most important factors. I think I read that the statistic included every bullet fired, meaning also those fired in training. If true, that would be another big factor. All in all, ECHenry's video really doesn't show much of all. Its pretty easy to hit your targets when they're just standing a few meters away from you. Plus, blaster bolts seem a lot larger than bullets, which makes hitting someone at such a range even easier."

Meme - "When you perfectly capture what an awkward teenage/ young adult boy is like but critics don't like it because it's awkward: *Hayden Christensen*"

‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Sets a Viewership Record—But Not the One Fans Hoped For - "Even though the show is good, it didn’t seem to stick with most Star Wars fans. According to Nielsen’s streaming data, its debut wasn’t very strong. In its first week, the show had the lowest viewership of any Star Wars series, with less than 382 million minutes watched for its first two episodes combined... The show’s performance was about 20% worse than The Acolyte. Because of this, Skeleton Crew didn’t make it into Disney+’s Top 10 Originals, which is the first time this has happened for a Star Wars series. The premiere also had much fewer viewers compared to other Star Wars shows on Disney+."

How did the First Order get enough resources to create Starkiller base? : r/StarWars - "Starkiller would have been a great final threat for RoS, that was being built during TFA and TLJ, but having it just show up and get destroyed in TFA felt weird and anti-climactic."
"It also annihilated the New Republic, killing trillions, but it wasn't even mentioned in the next 2 movies."
"This is why I was so mad at The Last Jedi. I had convinced myself that the next logical step would be outright war. Like ROTS style. But nope, casino heist"
"I mean the casino heist wouldn't have even been a bad thing had it not been a complete waste of fucking time. They go there to get a master code breaker, they see him, get captured because they illegally parked on a fucking beach and then SOMEHOW meet ANOTHER code breaker that is apparently just using the FO as a bed & breakfast since he easily gets out of the cell thanks to Rose's pendant.  It's so nonsensical in every single step, had it been revealed that they were master codebreakerS, as in plural and the red lapel fuck was bro in prison's partner or some shit, it could've been salvaged. I'll never not get mad at how ridiculous that entire part of the story is lol."
"I've learned it's easier to just laugh at the absurdity of the sequels than outright hate them. So many people treat them like a joke and just pretend they didn't happen, it may as well not be canon; which is even funnier to me"
"Should’ve been an obvious tip-off when no one came to help the Resistance at the end of TFA.  Best not to go into movies with expectations. Take them as-is, y’know."
"I mean you are right. I don’t think anyone expected episode 8 to pick up minutes (exaggerating) after episode 7.  My thought process was no way th new republic had ALL their ships in one system. Even if they’re demilitarized. Figured it would open with time skip and a battle somewhere else once they’ve regrouped.  But you’re right. Expectations are killers"
"Expectations for some sort of overarching story or even a tiny bit of plot cohesion isn't asking for much!"

John Boyega says if he were to produce Star Wars, it would've been different - • New characters wouldn’t be overpowered — “They won't just grab stuff and know what to do with it” : r/StarWars - ""First of all, we’re not getting rid of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, all these people. We're not doing that. The first thing we're going to do is fulfill their story, fulfill their legacy. We're going to make a good moment of handing on the baton.  "Our new characters," said Boyega, "will not be OP'd [overpowered] in these movies. They won't just grab stuff and know what to do with it. No. You've got to struggle like every other character in this franchise. I'd do that."  "I'd look to the Old Republic stories," the actor continued, "And see what we can add to the continuation of that. I would definitely want to see Force Unleashed stories in there. I would try to expand the Star Wars universe as much as possible while respecting the lore."
"He had me until force unleashed, I feel like that’s really contradicting what he said about not having OP characters"
"That's not what he's saying tho. Starkiller was personally trained by Vader. Starkiller didn't start off as OP in the same way that Rey did, for example.  No doubt that Starkiller is busted OP lol, but he struggled, suffered, and was likely abused on his path to get OP, and that aligns with how Dark Side force users operate and see their relationship with The Force .  Rey was a literal nobody who could force pull a lightsaber and win a fight against an opponent that was not only trained by Luke Skywalker, but was also trained by clone of Palpatine. How does that make any sense lol.  It's about earned OPness.  Saitama in One Punch Man is literally OP beyond all fucking sensibility, but it is entirely earned, and his OPness is actually a point of suffering for Saitama lol.  Rey's success and power doesn't feel earned at all."
Damn toxic misogynist racist! He's just still pissed off that Disney cast a black man as a lead character in Star Wars

John Boyega says if he were to produce Star Wars, it would've been different - • New characters wouldn’t be overpowered — “They won't just grab stuff and know what to do with it” : r/StarWars - "I knew he hated his character getting sidelined after TFA but I didn't imagine he had such disdain for Rey and what was done to Luke."
"Hard not to, especially because TFA, while having big problems, does also potentially set up interesting things, which makes what comes next even more disappointing.  If you don't take what's shown completely at face value, you walk away from TFA thinking there's no way that Rey is really just an abandoned child, there's more to her past, and there's no way Luke really just gave up and ran away, there's more to it. The following movie, however, just confirms the exact surface level statements from TFA.  It retroactively makes TFA completely shit, because if you watch it and TLJ as a duology, there's absolutely 0 hidden depth, no intrigue. Everything is exactly as it's stated. You see a desert girl living as a scrapper who has a mysterious vision about her family, but she really is just a scrapper who doesn't remember what her parents look like. Same with Luke.  I wasn't married to any specific theories walking out of TFA, but my take was that Rey was either Luke's kid or "merely" the kid of one of Luke's apprentices (or even just a random orphan) who had been doing early jedi training and had been smuggled away to survive the destruction of the temple. It would explain why Kylo had such a strong reaction to hearing about "the girl". It would also explain how she seemingly was able to just use the force the way she did.  With Luke, it could have been literally anything. He could have been looking for a solution, trapped, doing something else he considered important, hiding away with surviving pupils that he was protecting because he felt guilty about the deaths of the others, etc... There's a bunch of possibilities, more or less heroic, with a more or less damaged Luke. Any of those are better ideas than "He just gave up and walked away" as Han, who hasn't spoken to Luke, describes it.  Even Snoke, with his giant hologram that gave Wizard of Oz vibes, was intriguing. I was wondering who he was and whether he really looked like that. Well, he did look exactly like that, and who he was was not elaborated on even a single bit. Everything is exactly as you see it on the surface in TFA"
"I agree with what you said, but bro, you're putting more thought into the films than Disney did.  There's no point in analyzing something when Disney wrote the script on the back of a napkin."
"And all of that is because Rian Johnson "Didn't like what was set up in TFA."  Words cannot describe how happy I was when I heard that Disney cancelled Rian Johnson's SW trilogy. He has absolutely no business going anywhere near that property again"

John Boyega says if he were to produce Star Wars, it would've been different - • New characters wouldn’t be overpowered — “They won't just grab stuff and know what to do with it” : r/StarWars - "Rey being able to go toe to toe with Kilo Ren in TFA always felt unearned."
"I always assumed Kylo was at far less than 100% by that point having just murdered his father
Edit: and getting shot by Chewie
Edit2: Also it’s not like she dominated him in combat, she successfully fended him off and got away but it never seemed like she might actually kill him.
Edit3: I’m also pretty sure he didn’t actually want to kill her so much as subdue and get the chance to turn her"
"He was still trained by both Snoke and Luke Skywalker. She had essentially no training, except a little bow fighting. Even at 50% he should have made quick work of her... Someone who for years studied and was trained by both Jedi and the Sith, and had achieved a level of mastery over the force isn’t going to struggle against a bo fighter who up to that point hardly even knew what the force was. Blaster bolt wound or no blaster bolt wound. Even Finn was able to hold his own for a while and he’s not even force sensitive. What did Vader do when Han pointed a gun at him? He simply force pulled the gun out of Han’s hand and took it from him. Game over. That’s what trained force users do to non force users. Sorry, the ending of that movie doesn’t work for me. Maybe your standards are just lower."
"Yea kylo can freeze blaster bolts mid air. He shouldnt even need a saber to win"
"While Rey had just been slammed into a tree, to the point of being unconscious for a bit. Hence Finn trying to fight Kylo to save her."
"I'm glad to hear someone else mention this. She probably should have had a TBI and perhaps some neck and back damage. But she can still go toe to toe with Kylo."
"After that kind of concussion she should have been keeling over from bright lights, no doctor recommends light saber battles after a serious concussion."

Supposed Signs of Fascism

Left wingers love to go on about imaginary "fascism" because they lack meaning in life and need to manufacture it by envisioning themselves as members of the Resistance (this is also why they're obsessed with Star Wars, Marvel etc).

As part of this hobby, they like to come up with supposed signs of fascism (while ignoring the really important ones, like cancelling elections, massacring people and invading other countries).

One of the more recent lists I came across was, on further thought, ironic:

"The 10 signs of fascism I’m explaining here come from political philosopher Jason Stanley and his book How Fascism Works. These are widely used by historians and political scientists to identify authoritarian movements early.

Stanley’s 10 common features of fascism:
1. A mythic or fake golden past
2. Propaganda and manipulation of information
3. Anti-intellectualism and attacks on education
4. Unreality, where facts no longer matter
5. Hierarchy and belief in natural social order
6. Victimhood narratives used by those in power
7. Law and order rhetoric used selectively
8. Sexual anxiety and control of bodies
9. Appeals to a glorified rural or “real” nation
10. The idea that certain people do not truly belong

These patterns repeat across countries and eras. Knowing them helps us recognize what’s happening before it’s too late. #Fascism #Authoritarianism #USA @jason_stanley_anti_fascist"

And this was shared by a photography service of all sources (left wingers shove the left wing agenda into everything).

The reason I found this ironic... was that all of these described the left in the US (see also: Fascism in the USA):

1. A mythic or fake golden past
The left loves the myth of the Noble Savage - the myth that pre-European contact cultures were perfect. This also applies to Islamic Empires (e.g. the Myth of the Islamic Golden Age in Spain which if nothing else glosses over the non-toleration of non-Abrahamic Religions).

2. Propaganda and manipulation of information
Biden's senility was covered up.

3. Anti-intellectualism and attacks on education
DEI and wokeness take priority over dispassionate research and learning.

4. Unreality, where facts no longer matter
Post-modernism came from the left, after all. To quote the face of the Democratic Party: “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.”

5. Hierarchy and belief in natural social order
Intersectionality, for example as seen in the progressive stack, is a hierarchy, and how much the left fetishises (or hates) you is determined by your social category (which you can do very little to change).

6. Victimhood narratives used by those in power
The left literally runs on victimhood: Islamophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia etc.

7. Law and order rhetoric used selectively
This is the very essence of anarcho-tyranny; criminals are released onto the streets to terrorize the population while law-abiding citizens are relentlessly controlled. See Peanut the Squirrel.

8. Sexual anxiety and control of bodies
Rape panic and fainting couch feminism perfectly encapsulate this.

9. Appeals to a glorified rural or “real” nation
This is not rural but left wingers regularly dismiss those they disagree with as illegitimate, e.g. "deplorables".

10. The idea that certain people do not truly belong
See 9. Left wingers see MAGAs as Nazis, which means up to half of their countrymen do not truly belong.

This list can easily be adapted to the European context, of course, with their favourite bogeyman of the "far right".

Links - 27th February 2026 (1 - Trans Mania)

Hampstead Heath’s trans rules ‘treat women worse than men’ - "In written submissions for a hearing before the High Court on Wednesday, Tom Cross KC, for the charity, said: “In providing the service on terms or in circumstances which permit the opposite sex to enter the bathing ponds, the admission rules treat individual women less favourably than men because an individual woman is at greater risk of suffering the detriment of her privacy, dignity or safety being compromised than is an individual man.” He said the City of London had been allowing people who identify as transgender, which includes people who were “genderfluid, gender queer or non-binary”, to use the single-sex facilities since 2019."
Apparently they are not asking the bigger question: why is a swimming area being segregated by sex? They're not swimming naked

JK Rowling attacks Labour for blocking new trans guidance - "JK Rowling has condemned Labour for blocking new trans guidance protecting women’s rights to female-only safe spaces.  The Harry Potter author highlighted the front page of Friday’s Telegraph, which reported that Bridget Phillipson is stopping the publication of the guidance for public bodies and businesses.  The Women and Equalities Secretary has failed to sign off the proposed rules, which would protect female-only spaces, more than three months after receiving them... The author also criticised a Labour post on the social media website setting out how the party aimed to protect children from misogyny and abuse.  It said: “Every parent should be able to trust that their daughter is safe at school, online and in her relationships. With Labour, they will be.”  Rowling said: “As you’re fighting to remove our daughters’ rights to the privacy and safety of single-sex bathrooms and changing rooms, while poised to allow the unethical puberty blockers trial, perhaps children should be protected from @UKLabour.”"

Stand aside, Phillipson. The law is clear - "When is a Supreme Court judgment not a Supreme Court judgment? When it is treated as optional by those who once celebrated the authority of the courts as sacrosanct.  When Baroness Hale and her fellow justices ruled that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful, progressives across Britain hailed the decision as a triumph for truth, democracy and the rule of law. The judgment affirmed a fundamental constitutional principle: that Parliament’s ability to scrutinise and hold the executive to account must not be overridden for political convenience. The Supreme Court was lauded not merely as an arbiter of legal disputes, but as a guardian of democratic integrity.  Yet that reverence appears conspicuously absent in response to April’s Supreme Court ruling that, under the Equality Act, “sex” refers to biological sex... In a statement submitted to the High Court, Ms Phillipson argued that banning trans women from women’s lavatories would also imply that women could not take their infant sons into changing rooms at swimming pools. She further suggested that the guidance fails to accommodate “common sense” scenarios, such as pregnant women choosing to use men’s toilets to avoid queues in theatres. She even went so far as to ponder whether a peripatetic female massage therapist who only provides massages to women could make an exception for a man with whom she has a pre-existing professional relationship.  This is palpable nonsense. No reasonable interpretation of the guidance – or of the law – would prevent mothers from accompanying young children, nor would it criminalise pragmatic, informal decisions made in everyday life. These examples function less as genuine concerns and more as rhetorical devices designed to sow confusion about what the ruling actually entails. But there is a deeper contradiction at play. The government claims to be pursuing a serious crackdown on violence against women and girls, repeatedly asserting that it stands firmly on the side of females. And yet here we have a senior cabinet minister accused of “using every excuse in the book” to delay or dilute a Supreme Court ruling that explicitly affirms women’s sex-based rights. It’s as disingenuous as proposing to teach boys about respect for women in schools while continuing to provide room and board for migrant rapists entering the country illegally... Reports suggest the delay may be politically motivated. Ms Phillipson was, at the time, vying for the Labour deputy leadership and may have feared a backlash from LGBT activists and party members. If true, this would represent a deeply cynical calculation: subordinating legal clarity and women’s rights to internal party management. Ms Phillipson’s position has been set out in more detail in her intervention as an interested party in a High Court case brought by the Good Law Project, which is challenging an interim version of the EHRC guidance. The organisation, founded by Jolyon Maugham, the KC who once killed a fox while wearing a kimono (him, not poor Reynard), thinks the Supreme Court ruling violates the Human Rights Act, arguing that the right to a private life includes the right to access single-sex spaces reserved for the opposite sex. So much for women’s privacy! In court papers lodged in November, Ms Phillipson agrees the guidance is discriminatory, arguing that the Supreme Court ruling was primarily about maternity rights, and insists there are already “many entirely plausible exceptions” to single-sex provisions.  But that is not what is really happening here. What we are witnessing is a coordinated effort by Labour MPs, peers and pro-trans lobbying organisations to frustrate, weaken or overturn the practical consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision. It is the same constellation of activists who previously attempted to have Baroness Falkner removed as chair of the EHRC with a dodgy dossier of spurious complaints.  Although Baroness Falkner has since stepped down after a review by an independent legal expert cleared her of any wrongdoing, she has been forthright in her criticism of the government, arguing that it has “abandoned women and feminism.” She previously noted that while parliamentarians are entitled to raise constituents’ concerns, it is wholly unacceptable to undermine the integrity of the judiciary or the independence of the regulator charged with enforcing equality law."
The Law is only sacrosanct when it pushes the left wing agenda

We can’t fight terrorism if we’re scared of being called Islamophobic - "In case she’s actually dense enough to believe such drivel, I suppose we’d better explain it to her. Women don’t object to a mother bringing her infant son into the women’s changing room, for a very simple reason: there’s no risk of being sexually harassed by a toddler. Therefore, they don’t feel uncomfortable undressing in a toddler’s presence. Whereas they do feel uncomfortable about being made to undress in the presence of an unfamiliar adult male. Hence the demand to exclude all adult males, regardless of how they identify. Otherwise, any man with dubious intentions can gain access to a women’s changing room simply by claiming he’s trans. He cannot, however, gain access to it by claiming he’s only two years old. This would be a rather more difficult trick to pull off.  If Ms Phillipson still can’t grasp this point, perhaps I’ll try telling her that I’m only two years old, and see how she responds. “Aw, aren’t you a little cutie! Especially with that adorable stubble!”"

MrMenno 🇳🇱🏳️‍🌈🎶 on X - "Because we see the misogyny, the homophobia, the medical harms to children and adults, how rights are being eroded and erased, how policies / laws / institutions are being corrupted, how people are being harassed / discriminated / hounded for speaking out against it, how it's utterly bonkers and deranged.  And how the way you try to make mint out of this madness is simply evil"

Father’s anger at girl’s potentially fatal testosterone dose - "The child, who was 15 at the time, was given the prescription by the private GenderGP clinic after one online counselling session... Family court documents show that GenderGP prescribed a 15-year-old such a high dose of testosterone that she was at risk of sudden death. Asked about the case by Jo Coburn on Times Radio, GenderGP’s founder, Helen Webberley, said: “I don’t know this case and it’s not my patient.”... He describes how — in his view — his ex-wife weaponised gender medicine to cut him out of his daughter’s life, how his daughter went from being sectioned for anorexia to being affirmed in her trans identity by all the adults in her life except him, how she was given a prescription for testosterone after one online session with a counsellor, and how this was injected by her local NHS GP with no blood tests or clinical evaluation. An independent expert, the endocrinologist Dr Jacqueline Hewitt, told the court that the teenager — known as J in the documents — was “at risk of sudden death” because of the thickening of the blood caused by testosterone. She said that in 20 years she had never before seen such a massive dose of testosterone administered to a young person. John points out that the risks were exacerbated by a family history of heart disease... J was diagnosed with autism aged 13. At 14 she was sectioned because she had become severely malnourished. John suggested the patients on the anorexia ward should not be allowed phones but was told by a psychiatrist that it was their human right. “One of the main reasons they’re in there is because they picked up all this stuff on social media,” he says... They would also link up online with “ana-buddies” who would give them targets. If, for example, they failed to avoid eating for three days, they would be given a forfeit."
Luckily she was prescribed testosterone, or she would be dead, because it's literally life  saving (despite no evidence for that)

evan loves worf on X - "My point of view is that accepting trans people into society is more important than any sport"
Thread by @xwanyex on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "People will make fun of this, but it actually distills the argument down to its essence. I would not, for example, rework society to make life easier for trans people. I would just accept that trans people are probably going to have more difficult lives than average.   Note that we’re not talking about any kind of abuse here. I’m not suggesting that you should mistreat people or humiliate them. But if a trans person says, “I would really like to play on the girl’s softball team and it really hurts me that I can’t and this is going to be something that causes me pain for my entire life“ then I would look that person in the face and say, I’m sorry, but the answer is still no. I don’t actually care about making you comfortable to the exclusion of all other considerations. It’s good to frame it this way. It’s good to have this argument directly. At the end of the day, this is the actual argument.  “I believe we should do whatever it takes to make trans people feel accepted in society” vs. “I don’t.”"
Jeff Nelson on X - "It is an important life lesson for children that YOU adapt to society, you don’t expect society to adapt to every thought you have. That sometimes this is “unfair” because that’s the way life is. Usually they learn this when they try to declare ice cream is a healthy breakfast"
To put it another way, the "right" of MTFs to pretend that they're female and take part in female sports overrides the right of females to reasonably fair competition and safety, the reasons for which sports are sex-segregated in the first place (feminist delusions about better performance notwithstanding)

Rona Dinur on X - "Ethics, once considered a leading philosophy journal, now appears to be lining up a barrage of papers solely devoted to genderist nonsense, and sadly is heading down the same path that journals tend to take once they reach this point"
Brandon Warmke on X - "Our journals are now home to a debate between those who think gender should be abolished, those who say they/them should be used for everyone, and those who think public affirmation of one's chosen gender is very important. How progressives end up settling this is anyone's guess."

Thread by @wesyang on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Colorado just passed a law forcing every private insurer in the state to cover the cost of cheek implants, lip augmentation, nose jobs, and breast implants (among other elective cosmetic procedures) for one group of legally privileged people -- men who claim to be women and women who claim to be men.  It's literally against the law in Colorado not to force every insurance customer to bear the cost of the elective castration or nose job of any man who claims to be a woman... A man gets breast implants covered by insurance because for him it is lifesaving and medically necessary care. A woman getting breast implants would be merely cosmetic."
Of course, the TRAs who claim cosmetic surgery is "gender-affirming" won't call for it to be covered under this law too

WomenAreReal on X - "Coates says here we are not worth talking to. Then Klein keeps pushing him to acknowledge the millions of us who don’t think men can be women. Coates doesn’t seem to be able to really face the face that the majority of Americans are not on his side. He resorts to the politeness argument."
wanye on X - "Here you have two people at the absolute top of liberal intellectualism who think the debate about trans people comes down to whether they are, “human beings who deserve humanity.”  What are you supposed to do with this? How can you have a real debate with people who simply refuse to debate the actual questions?"
Brad Pearce on X - "this has always been such a bullshit bad faith argument, wtf does "right to exist" even mean in this context. They certainly have the same general legal rights as anyone else, bearing in mind half the shit they want don't constitute "rights" in any normal sense."
Errabundo on X - "It's the narcissistic argument. "Not actively doing things for me is attacking me". They have this base idea that everybody has a duty of care towards them, and if you are not fulfilling it you want them dead. The narcissistic argument explains so much of the woke left."
Andrey Vlasov on X - "I've always read it as them building the groundwork for claiming that anything less than universal basic HRT counts as genocide."
Myshkin on X - "Democrats always retreat to the magic phrase "just be kind." As if there were no tradeoffs, no difficult questions, no conflicting interests, no OTHER groups who are in increased danger as a result of their policies. And despite it all the spell keeps working on their base."
"Humanity" means being allowed to do whatever you want, trampling over female rights

Chief Nerd on X - "🚨 NEW: Jimmy Kimmel mocks RFK Jr for restricting gender-affirming care for minors, saying it “almost never happens” Literally thousands of children undergo these procedures every year"
Stephen L. Miller on X - "It almost never happens and we have to make sure this thing that almost never happens continues to almost never happen."
Time to go on about Charlottesville as if it happens every day.
About 22 unarmed black men shot by police annually is genocide, but 85 gender-affirming surgical procedures on minors in 2019 alone is almost never.

Canada’s Statistical Agency Wants More Details on “Nonbinary Children” - "The federal statistical agency published “gender-identity” data for people 15 and older in 2022. But many Canadians may not know that it has also collected this information for children aged 0 to 14... the authors claim that “children and youth are often assumed to be cisgender [identifying with their biological sex] . . . from birth until they ‘come out’ as a different gender on their own accord.” They cite a study that purportedly demonstrates that “children aged 18 to 24 months are developmentally capable of recognizing gender norms and expressing gendered behaviours in visible ways.” But the study and the broader developmental psychology literature do not say that toddlers “recogniz[e] gender norms.” What they actually show is that children begin developing the ability to distinguish males from females—based on perceptual cues like faces and voices—between one and two years of age. This has nothing to do with recognition of a subjective inner sense of self.  Later in that paragraph, the Guide claims that “Children may mimic gender norms and roles learned from people in their environment, assert their desire for certain clothing, hair styles or other accessories and choose to play with toys that match their gender identity.” Apparently, the authors believe that if toddlers play with a doll or a truck, they are expressing their “gender identity,” and that adults should interpret such behavior as a window into the child’s internal psychological state.  Things become even more speculative from there. The Guide’s authors claim that “transgender and non-binary children may recognize and express their gender to others from as early as 2 to 3 years old.” But the studies they’re gesturing at show nothing of the kind—in reality, they report the ages at which parents socially transitioned their children, not when children formed a stable internal sense of identity. A three-year-old boy who prefers his hair long is not announcing that he is a girl; rather, parents who “affirm” their boy as a girl for such reasons are revealing their ideology.   Next, the Guide turns to the concept of “gender.” The authors claim that it is “normal” for a child’s gender to change over time, and that “children do not experience undue harm from exploring their gender in ways that differ from their assumed gender or sex at birth.” But while most forms of imagination-based play are normal and harmless, like pretending to be a superhero or one’s favorite Disney character, in today’s clinical and educational environment, “gender exploration” is often paired with “social affirmation,” which in turn often begets puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.   One of the Guide’s most remarkable sections concerns data collection. Statistics Canada admits that “gender identity” data for children under 12 comes mostly from proxy reporting—parents or household members declaring a child’s “gender identity” on the child’s behalf.  Rather than viewing this as a limitation on its data’s reliability, the Guide treats it as a fixable flaw in parental judgment. It suggests that proxy data may be distorted because “the gender of a child is often assumed based on sex at birth.” At the same time, it notes that some parents now label their infants as “non-binary” by default until the child says otherwise. Instead of concluding that gender identity is unmeasurable in very young children, the Guide suggests that providing parents with “gender diversity information . . . from birth or an early age” will produce more reliable data.   Throughout the document, the authors suggest that public resistance to or skepticism about concepts like “gender fluidity, cisnormativity . . . and transnormativity” is a result of misunderstanding, and that this ignorance is fueling legislation concerning pronoun usage, access to “gender-affirming health care,” and sports participation. The Guide also asks respondents whether they anticipate a “negative reaction from certain groups” if gender-identity data for young children are published, again implying that such a reaction would be rooted in prejudice.  What the Guide never addresses is its central conceptual problem: the idea of a “transgender” or “non-binary” child, which depends on the false belief that everyone has an innate, internal gender identity separate from their sex, and that this identity is discernible even in babies and toddlers. Yet no compelling evidence supports this claim.  What activists interpret as signs of an internal gender identity—preferences, behaviors, personality traits—all reflect normal variations among boys and girls. Nevertheless, the Guide proceeds as though the innateness of transgenderism were a settled matter—as if labeling an infant “non-binary” were as scientifically valid as recording his or her birth weight.  When a national statistics agency adopts contested metaphysical beliefs as objective data points, it does more than mismeasure reality—it distorts people’s perception of reality. And these perceptions shape school policies, medical guidelines, and government programs.  Statistics Canada is not just proposing to publish data. It is proposing to institutionalize an ideology that pathologizes ordinary childhood behavior and funnels children toward social and medical transitions. The Consultation Guide reads less like a technical survey than an ideological document attempting to create the very phenomenon it claims only to want to measure."
Once again, trans mania is the true conversion therapy

EXCLUSIVE: Docs Knew Gender Science Was ‘Shoddy,’ But Pushed Chemical Sex Changes On Kids Anyway | The Daily Caller - "Private emails from leaders of an influential transgender medical organization expose how ideology and consensus, rather than science, has undergirded the explosive growth of the child sex-change industry. The emails were revealed under Freedom of Information laws.  As their gender clinic boomed with patients, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical directors Maddie Deutsch and Stephen Rosenthal acknowledged behind the scenes that research supporting child sex-changes was “shoddy” and fueling “predatory practices,” emails show...   As a result of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit, UCSF released 2,491 pages of emails. Among the revelations is that UCSF gave puberty blockers to children as young as nine. Puberty blockers are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of gender dysphoria.  “There is something rotten in the state of California,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a press release.   A May 2022 email obtained through the lawsuit accused Rosenthal and his gender clinic colleague, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, of peddling “shoddy research” in a March 2022 op-ed published in the San Francisco Chronicle. The op-ed argued against legislative bans on child sex-changes and cited a highly criticized February 2022 study, authored by Diana Tordoff, as evidence that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones significantly lowered depression and suicidality amongst gender-confused youth.  The flaws of the Tordoff study were brought to the attention of Rosenthal via email.  “You cite the Diana Tordoff study from Seattle Children’s Hospital as evidence of the ‘clear mental health benefits’ of gender-affirming care. Except that, apparently, that study says no such thing,” states the email. The name of the emails author was fully redacted.  “The same shoddy research is wheeled out again and again,” the message continued.  Rosenthal responded to the email by agreeing the study had “significant methodological concerns.”  “I completely agree with you about the Tordoff et al. paper, and wish that I had realized the significant methodological concerns,” wrote Rosenthal...   In September 2022, the Tordoff study was cited by WPATH in the SOC 8 as evidence supporting the benefits of child sex-changes.  Rosenthal was the co-investigator of a long-term National Institute of Health (NIH) study led by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy on the mental health impacts of using puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Olson-Kennedy controversially withheld the results of the study, which showed puberty blockers did not improve mental health of gender-confused children, out of fear the data would be “weaponized,” according to reporting in October 2024 by The New York Times...   Rosenthal explained to Deutsch in a November 2022 email that giving adolescents over age 14 puberty blockers as a monotherapy, meaning without additional sex hormones, put the bone health of teen patients at serious risk, emails show.  “[SOC 8] also states there are not data to support use of GnRHa (as monotherapy) in someone older than 14 without posing a risk to bone health,” wrote Rosenthal.  Rosenthal stated WPATH did not include a recommendation against the risky therapy in the SOC 8 because it “did not pass” the Delphi process, a method to establish scientific consensus used by WPATH to determine what was included in its clinical guidance. Under the Delphi process, WPATH members anonymously voted for proposed clinical recommendation statements, rating them on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). Statements were included in the SOC 8 if at least 75% of voters rated the recommendation 7 or higher, according to WPATH’s website. WPATH’s use of the Delphi method was “deeply flawed,” Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director of Do No Harm, told the DCNF.  “WPATH’s use of the Delphi process to justify its guidelines on gender-affirming care is deeply flawed — not because of the method itself, but because of who was allowed to define ‘expertise,'” Miceli told the DCNF.  “When a consensus is built among ideologically aligned individuals who ignore conflicting evidence, the result isn’t science—it’s dogma dressed up as clinical guidance,” Miceli added.  A draft copy of an SOC 8 chapter on cross-sex hormone therapy for children and adults showed 12 0f the 21 proposed statements that passed the Delphi process were rated by WPATH as having a “low certainty of evidence,” according to documents from Boe v. Marshall released by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.  Even Deutsch expressed doubts about the credibility of the Delphi process...   Deutsch was concerned the lack of protocols when assessing gender-confused patients would be “opening up the tap” to “surgery on demand.”  “Will a surgeon themself be able to do the assessment if they so deem themself as qualified to do so? I am absolutely certain that, should this content remain as-is, within weeks of SOC8 release, there will be scores of new grad primary care nurse practitioners and PAs, who have completed 2 years of masters level training, identifying themselves as qualified to make these assessments and opening up the tap to what is effectively surgery on demand,” wrote Deutsch.   Shortly after the SOC 8 guidance was published in September 2022, Deutsch announced in an email that the UCSF gender clinic would be immediately  implementing the lowered assessments standards."