Chris James

Husband and father. I look after Highland cattle on the Isle of Mull. Reluctant but resolute defector. I’ll get that book written sometime

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@theiaincameron So they both knew that “Windsor” was out of order, that Abergeldie was within his rights to tell him to F*** off - and that “Windsor” had no option but to do so 2/2

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@theiaincameron Among traditional landowners such as Abergeldie and “Windsor”, it is understood that the public should be made welcome for quiet non disruptive recreation. Neighbouring landowners, on the other hand, have their own patches to play on, and are not welcome without invitation 1/2

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@tweet_array @Dr_TheHistories As does Britain

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@JohnG09076469 @WalkerMarcus Give him a break, guys, I don’t think he’s serious. Just trying his hand at British humour

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@Patakus2013 @RDPHistory My father, sunk and rescued by the Germans in the North Sea in March 1943, always acknowledged the comradeship of sailors, with the common enemy being the sea

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@d_foubert Frankly unforgivable failure to distinguish between the English and your old friends the Scots, to whom you gave the word Bonnie. But as Burns put it “Oh Lord the giftie give us, to see ourselves as others see us”

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@ThePoiluProject @billbush1230361 Wonderful collection, your family should be very proud of him

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@ThePoiluProject @billbush1230361 Okay. You’re the historian not me. But I still suspect the BEF, which was greatly reinforced from Britain after the Kaiserschlacht, fought more Germans and took more territory.
btw, I’m pleased and honoured that my grandfather was awarded the CdG

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@ThePoiluProject @billbush1230361 I thought you were making a point about July - November 1918, not March - June? I’m not denying that the French were very effective at that time, though possibly not as effective as the Canadians and the BEF.

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@ThePoiluProject @billbush1230361 Because the Germans would have concentrated their forces against their most threatening and powerful enemies

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@ThePoiluProject @billbush1230361 The question here should be, against whom were the German divisions lined up?

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@Redlemon850 @HannahIamthest1 Correct. My Dad’s cousin commanded G squadron back in the day. He always said his best troop commander was not one of the two who became generals, but the man who is now chief of Clan Maclean

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@RachelThieves @PamAyres @lisakeb007 Bread: “You break your backs just to pay your tax…..”

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Keith the Apocalypse Bringer is a three-year-old Anglo-Nubian goat in a field in Devon.

Keith should not be underestimated.

Keith has been systematically dismantling the ecosystem since approximately 7am, when he ate a bramble. This is significant because bramble is an invasive scrub species that outcompetes wildflowers, reduces biodiversity, and creates dense monoculture thicket that nothing else can use.

Keith ate it. Keith does this every day. Keith does not charge for this service.

8:15am - Keith ate a thistle. Thistles are also considered invasive scrub in managed pasture. Goldfinches eat thistle seeds, but Keith's grazing will ensure the pasture remains open enough for the ground-nesting birds that can't use dense scrub. Keith has not attended a conservation workshop. Keith arrived at this conclusion by being a goat.

9:00am - Keith dismantled a section of hedge. This was less helpful. Keith does not have a perfect record.

10:30am - Keith escaped the field. He was in the road for eleven minutes. He ate a neighbour's rose. This is not being counted in Keith's environmental impact assessment.

11:00am - Keith was returned to the field. Keith regarded the farmer with the specific expression of an animal that does not recognise the concept of property.

12:00pm - Keith ate more bramble. His digestive system: four stomachs, a rumen full of specialised microorganisms, the ability to extract nutrition from lignified plant matter that would defeat any other animal on this field, is converting scrub vegetation into milk with a fat content of approximately 4.5%. The milk will become cheese. The cheese will be sold at the farm shop. The farm shop is four miles away. The cheese food miles are: four.

3:00pm - Keith produced manure. The manure will grow the grass. The grass will grow the bramble. The bramble will be eaten by Keith.

This system has no inputs.

It has been running since goats were domesticated approximately ten thousand years ago.

Keith is not aware he is saving the planet.

Keith is thinking about whether the fence on the north side has a weak point.

It does. Keith found it at 4:45pm.

Keith got out again.

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@DrHelenFry Okay, I’m biased. But my father’s account of his escape to Sweden is a good read. Lt. I Bagerov and all

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@FennellJW The Allies had promulgated that Germany must surrender unconditionally, to prevent East or West doing a separate deal. My father, a POW in 43-44, took every opportunity to speak to his guards. He was convinced that this significantly stiffened German resistance

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

California's Central Valley produces 80% of the world's almonds. Each almond requires 3.2 gallons of actual irrigation water to grow. Not rainfall. Actual tap water pumped from aquifers.

One gallon of almond milk requires 162 gallons of irrigation water. Compare that to dairy milk at 8 gallons of tap water per gallon, with the rest being rainfall that falls on pasture anyway.

But here's where it gets properly grim. Almonds bloom for exactly three weeks in February. During those three weeks, California needs every pollinating bee in North America transported to the Central Valley or the crop fails entirely.

Commercial beekeepers truck in 31 billion honeybees. That's two-thirds of America's entire managed bee population, all concentrated in one valley for three weeks. The bees are packed into trucks, driven across the country, dumped into almond groves drenched in pesticides, worked to exhaustion, then packed up and shipped to the next crop.

The mortality rate is catastrophic. Beekeepers report losing 30 to 50% of their hives annually. That's billions of bees dead. Not from natural causes. From being used as disposable pollination machines for your almond milk.

The pesticides don't help. Almond groves are sprayed with neonicotinoids which scramble bee navigation systems, fungicides which weaken their immune systems, and herbicides which eliminate the wildflowers they'd normally forage on between almond blooms.

Meanwhile the aquifer depletion is permanent. The Central Valley has sunk 28 feet in some areas from groundwater extraction. That water took 10,000 years to accumulate. It's being drained in decades for almond milk.

Your vegan latte killed more bees and used more water than a year's worth of dairy milk. But it's got "plant-based" on the label so you're definitely saving the planet.

[Aceh 🇮🇩🇹🇷🇵🇸 @Aceh]

Tak hargai Hak Azasi Orang Hutan Sumatera sama saja Tak akan pernah hargai Hak Orang Sumatera. Bedanya cuma "Hutan" 🌳🌳 https://t.co/2GElYgM71e

[Chris James @ChrisCraignure]

@KieraDiss I once followed one of Obote’s most feared and cruel henchmen through passport control at Gatwick. Watching the plooky faced 19 year old on duty give him a hard time was unadulterated joy.

[Embun Pagi💧💧 @_riverheaven]

That's why he never wanted the disasters in Sumatra, Aceh, and Tapanuli to become national disasters. He was protecting interests by using his power and being assisted by people without morals and conscience.

😔😔