Alasdair Fraser

Head of Research. Cell Therapy developer for Swarm Oncology. Working Cocker owner and personal chef and gardener to my family

[Wesley Yang @wesyang]

Despite the creepy tone of this piece, it's frankly good advice for Cunningham to use caution -- not in the stances she takes, which are reasonable and correct, but in protecting herself from a social cause without peer in its indulgence of murderous rhetoric

[HeCheated.org @hecheateddotorg]

It has happened at least 6,251 times.

Males have also stolen 69 world championship "women's" titles, 354 gold medals in international competition, 64 continental championship, 461 national championship, and 5 Olympic championship gold medals.

They've stolen 994 top three "women's" world and national championship medals.

They've finished top 3 in all "women's" events at least 11,505 times.

They've set and reset "women's" records over 689 times and currently hold 471 records, including 20 world records.

They've stolen over $2.4 million from female athletes.

Hope that helps.

[Fitness Endeavor @HustlerzTrench]

Most knee pain isn't a knee problem

[Sam @SamCKx]

The more I dig, the more I realise that Nigel Farage is literally done for. It's over for him. The £5 million bung is big enough to take the entire Reform movement down and possibly land Nigel in jail.

1) The fact the donation was made BEFORE Nigel was MP is absolutely irrelevant. Parliamentary Code of Conduct requires all receipts for the full 12 months before election. Nigel receiving his bung just a few days before he announced his candidacy makes it so much worse, not better.

2) "Category 5: Gifts and benefits from sources outside the UK - THRESHOLD FOR REGISTRATION Section 39. Members must register, subject to the paragraphs below, any gifts or benefits with a value of over £300 which they receive from a source outside the UK."

Nigel argues this was 'purely personal' but the Code refers to partners or families when it comes to personal gifts... this takes us to the next issue...

3) Christopher Harborne has a long track record of making SUBSTANTIAL political contributions to Nigel's parties, first to The Brexit Party, and later to Reform. He is a POLITICAL DONOR - any "gift" he made to Farage CANNOT be argued as personal or without political context due to this track record.

4) Using his platform as an MP, Nigel went on to promote 2 companies in which Christopher Harborne holds $ billions in stock - Nigel NEVER publicly endorsed or mentioned these companies prior to the "gift". Nigel also began actively pushing for policy that would directly interest Christopher Harborne and his business affairs. These were not interests that any could argue could possibly be of interest to his constituents - deregulation of crypto, and lowering of taxes on crypto gains. Nigel spent a substantial amount of time and effort pushing these policies.

It is beyond a doubt that this is the biggest breach of Parliamentary Code of Conduct rules in relation to donations in parliamentary history.

But even more concerning for Nigel will be that if it can be proven he was secretly incentivised to use his public office to push for policies to support a wealthy donor, then he should very likely face a criminal probe for corruption and bribery. I suspect Harborne might also be exposed to this. The United Kingdom and Thailand have a bilateral extradition treaty. Maximum prison sentences of up to 10 years for the offence.

This is not going to go away.

[Notasami @SylviaMingus]

Si te duele la parte baja de la espalda, prueba esto.

[𓂃̨室長さん @RlhEIv0lS_IYlqZ]

体育の先生が学生に指導してた体幹ラジオ体操。
デスクワークで悪化した猫背や巻き肩がリセットされて開放感やばい…
丸まった背筋がシャンと伸びて運動不足の社会人もリフレッシュできる↓

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Dartmoor's hill ponies have grazed those commons for longer than there has been a country called England. Fewer than a thousand are left, down from six thousand a generation ago. The United Nations listed them as endangered in 2023. So, naturally, the body charged with protecting nature has decided to get rid of nine in ten of the survivors.

There is a process, obviously.

Natural England's new grazing contracts now count the ponies in the same bucket as the cattle and sheep. A commoner with a fixed quota has a choice: keep a semi-wild pony worth nothing at market, or use the slot for a lamb he can sell. Guess which one survives the spreadsheet. The rest are gathered in the autumn drifts, and with nowhere to put thousands of unhandled moorland ponies, the next stop is the abattoir.

Natural England would like it noted that it has not ordered a cull. It has merely built a machine whose only output is a cull, switched it on, and handed the bolt gun to a farmer so the fingerprints land elsewhere. Very tidy.

And now the funny part. The pony is the best tool on the entire moor for eating Molinia, the coarse purple grass strangling Dartmoor into a brown monoculture. Cattle and sheep won't touch it. The ponies hoover it down and clear the ground for the orchids, the wildflowers and the insects behind them. Remove the ponies and the moor chokes into precisely the lifeless scrubland the contract was meant to prevent.

So the conservation strategy, in full: protect the habitat by deleting the animal that maintains the habitat. A masterclass.

Better still, Natural England's own Fursdon review looked at this exact question and told them, in plain English, not to lump ponies in with cattle and not to cut pony numbers. They read it, praised it, said they fully supported it, then did the precise opposite.

Four thousand years these animals have run Dartmoor with no committee and no contract. They could be gone within one, and the people who did it will write it up as a win for nature.

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

Everyone knows Dunkirk. 338,000 men rescued from the beaches, the "miracle" that saved Britain.

Almost nobody knows what happened 8 days later, 100 miles down the coast. This story was buried for years, and once you hear it you will understand why.

While Dunkirk was being evacuated, the 51st Highland Division was deliberately kept in France. Churchill wanted to prove to the French that Britain would not abandon them. So 10,000 Scotsmen kept fighting along the Somme while everyone else went home.

They fought well. Too well to retreat in time.

By June 10, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, moving so fast the Germans called it the Ghost Division, had cut them off from every port. The Highlanders fell back to a tiny fishing town called Saint-Valery-en-Caux, with cliffs at their backs and the Royal Navy on the way.

A second Dunkirk. That was the plan. Operation Cycle, ships waiting offshore.

Then the fog rolled in.

The ships could not reach the beaches in the dark and mist. And by morning, Rommel had artillery on the cliffs above the town, firing down on anything that floated. Men climbed down cliff faces on ropes made of rifle slings trying to reach boats. Some fell. The rescue never came.

On June 12, 1940, Major General Victor Fortune surrendered the 51st Highland Division to Rommel. There is a famous photo of the two men standing together, Rommel grinning, Fortune staring into the distance like he is somewhere else.

10,000 men marched east into 5 years of captivity. In parts of the Highlands, nearly every family knew someone in the bag. They called it the lost division, and for decades many Scots quietly believed they had been sacrificed.

Two details worth knowing.

Fortune was offered better treatment as a general. He refused privileges and stayed with his men for the entire war, organizing care for the sick and keeping discipline in the camps. He was knighted from a hospital bed after liberation.

And in September 1944, the rebuilt 51st Highland Division was given one specific assignment, at the request of its commander. They liberated Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The pipers played in the same square where their brothers had surrendered four years earlier.

Dunkirk got the movie. These men got the long war.

Worth remembering them today.

[Alasdair Fraser @Al_Fraser]

@SarahWoods66 Couldn't agree more. My wife and I went on Friday in 2022 as she had always wanted to go. We went early and it was mobbed - half an hour just to get through the barriers then six deep around every garden, nowhere to sit, eat or drink for crowds. Never again! Press day misleading

[Rosie P 🦇 🦎 🕷️ 🦭 🐌 🍃🌳🚲💧 @RosieP4]

Today contractors from National Grid turned up at this farm ready to clear all of this vegetation, including the four oaks, without the required dawn bird survey.

It is only because the land owner was on his toes and challenged them that they left.

Plus National Grid has not explained why it is ‘not practicable’ to uphold their DCO obligation to avoid nesting season.

They were not even able to explain why the oaks need to be felled for a bell mouth when they do not cause visibility issues.

This is a horrific disregard for nature.

(This is Bramford to Twinstead, ‘only’ 30km long. Imagine the destruction if Norwich to Tilbury at 180km goes ahead as proposed. We seek underground HVDC laid by cable ploughs for N2T)

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

1. Samsung — Turn off "Viewing Information Services"

Menu → Settings → All Settings → General & Privacy → Terms & Privacy

Uncheck "Viewing Information Services"

Samsung doesn't call it "tracking." They call it "Viewing Information Services."

That's intentional.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Orcas eat great white sharks. They hunt seals, dolphins, and baby whales. They have never killed a single human in the open ocean. Not once, in all of recorded history.

An orca's brain weighs up to 15 pounds. Yours weighs about 3. They have roughly double the brain cells we do in the regions that handle complex thought. A neuroscientist at Emory named Lori Marino put an orca brain in an MRI and found these animals can tell different species apart underwater. They do it by sending out clicks that bounce off everything around them and come back as a kind of 3D sound map (this is called echolocation). From 500 feet away, an orca knows you're a human and not a seal. It skips you on purpose.

The answer is culture. Orcas around the world are divided into at least 10 separate populations, each with its own food rules, its own language, and its own way of hunting. All of it learned from their mothers. One population eats only fish. Another eats only marine mammals like seals and sea lions. These two populations can live in the exact same water and never swap a single meal. A baby orca learns what food is from its mother, and that list stays the same for life.

In the Pacific Northwest, one population called the Southern Residents eats almost nothing but Chinook salmon. Scientists have documented them killing harbor porpoises 78 times over six decades, carrying the dead porpoises in their mouths, and never once eating them. Even when the group was starving. A 2023 study in Marine Mammal Science looked at all 78 cases and concluded it was play. These orcas would rather go hungry than eat something their culture says isn't food.

Researchers studying whale behavior in 2001 found that orca cultural traditions "appear to have no parallel outside humans." Each family group has its own dialect, its own version of the language. Calves spend about two years just learning how to make all the sounds their family uses. Mothers will slow down a hunt on purpose so their young can watch.

In 2005, a 12-year-old kid was swimming in Helm Bay, Alaska when an orca came at him full speed. At the very last second, the orca seemed to realize it was charging a human. It bent its entire body in half and turned back to open water. In captivity, it goes differently. SeaWorld's Tilikum killed three people during his life in a concrete tank. Research from 2016, published in the journal Animals, traced it to psychological collapse from being locked away from the family bonds orcas need to stay stable.

I think calling this a "mystery" undersells the science. Orcas decide what to eat based on culture, not instinct. No orca mother has ever taught her calf to hunt humans, so no orca hunts humans. Only about 75 of those salmon-eating Southern Residents are still alive. Their pregnancy failure rate is 69% because we've destroyed their salmon runs. They won't break their food culture to survive. Whether we care enough to protect theirs is the part that actually matters.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Too on point not to share, “Aussie reply to Trump rant about NATO not being there for us.

Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
"NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your fucking mouth. Credit (borrowed from) Jim Scroggins - original author 📷 unknown”

[audrey White @RedRosa91940184]

This is British values - Robert Fisk is a real reporter and he’s spot on here …..

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

For years, Canada sent 70 cents of every defence dollar straight to the United States. Mark Carney just told Parliament that stops now. The room gave him a standing ovation.

It is a striking thing to get a standing ovation for announcing that your country will stop subsidising someone else’s arms industry. But that is where Canada is in 2025.

Carney’s case is blunt: the United States is “beginning to monetize its hegemony, charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contributions to collective security.” 

And MAGA is celebrating. Winning. Always winning. USA, USA. Somewhere a man in a red hat is pumping his fist.

Let me explain what is actually happening, because clearly no one has bothered.

In ten months, the United States has torched eighty years of alliance architecture that its own soldiers, diplomats and taxpayers built from the rubble of the Second World War. Eighty years. Gone. Detonated, with a smile, by people who genuinely believe this is genius.

Canada is not drifting away. Canada is leaving. Europe is not hedging. Europe is building a defence industry specifically designed to cut Washington out. Allies are not quietly grumbling over dinner. They are signing contracts with other people.
And the MAGA faithful are cheering every single step of it, because someone told them this is what dominance looks like.

It is not dominance. It is a man burning down his own house and whooping at the flames. The saddest part is not that America is losing its allies. The saddest part is that half the country thinks that is the point.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Stay connected,
Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1

[The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare @mouw5284]

🇺🇸 Brits couldn't do a rescue like we just did in Iran,they stand back a little...
🇬🇧 .. hold our beer son...

Apache pilot Captain Tom O’Malley who flew his Apache gunship into a Taliban stronghold with two Royal Marines strapped to the side in an extraordinary bid to save a wounded comrade
The official citation for the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross remains on the MOD restricted list, however extracts and the excellent book “Apache” by Ed Macy a fellow Apache pilot who participated in the rescue operation, gives an unprecedented insight and detailed account of the mission.
Captain Darren “Tom” O’Malley was serving with 656 Squadron Army Air Corps, at that time with the rank of Warrant Officer 1st Class. In November 2006 he returned to Afghanistan for his second tour on the Apache Attack Helicopters, at the time although holding the rank of Warrant Officer he was the most senior Pilot on the unit with the most air hours on the type, he was also the Squadron’s Qualified Helicopter Instructor and one of the few men on the Squadron qualified to sit in both seats.
656 Squadrons deployment to Afghanistan coincided with that of the 45 Commando Royal Marines and on the 15th January 2007 the “Royals” were deployed on Operation Glacier 2 an attack on Jugroom Fort in Garmsir in Southern Helmand, this being a Taliban stronghold. The Marines “Zulu” Company” were to be covered by two of the Squadron Apache’s. Tom was serving back at the units base at Camp Bastion with the Stand By Flight. The late deployment of the Royals into the attack, ate into the fuel of the two covering Apaches, which greatly reduced their time over target. Despite a heavy bombardment, the Taliban put up stiff resistance, forcing the Marines to withdraw and with fuel and ammunition running low on the tasked Apaches, Tom’s flight (2 Apaches) was scrambled, to take over air support, while the original Apaches returned for refuelling and rearming. In the second Apache was Warrant Officer Ed Macey,
Tom was flying in the front seat of call sign Ugly 50 and was mission Commander. Macey’s Apache call sign Ugly 51. As the pair flew to Jugroom they received a situation report and it was then they got an idea how things had deteriorated with a group of five Marines missing in Action. As they neared Tom was updated that one One Marine was missing Lance Corporal Mathew Ford. When on target it was the mission priority to locate Ford, assess if he was alive and protect him. Ugly 51 spotted a body which was identified as Ford, he was giving off a heat signature and was therefore alive,An order came through the radio from the CO let no Taliban near Ford, a ground rescue operation is under preparation. So began the long task of protection against constant Taliban fire from both machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, with ammunition running out and fuel low, there was no evidence of a ground rescue. Tom then came up with the plan to strap two Marines to the side of each Apache fly towards the fort, land, rescue Ford by slinging him under an Apache, whilst the Marines resumed their position on the side. The daring plan was tentatively authorised by the Squadron CO but flatly refused by the Royals. It was only when their Colonel was patched in on the radio that the Helicopter crews realised the CO was unaware of their rescue plan and he gave the go ahead.
This was the first time that British or American Apaches had flown with men strapped to the side, it was a procedure only to be used in the event of rescuing fellow pilots from a crashed Apache behind enemy lines.
*Note US Apaches have Tampax machine & Tanning solarium where the Marines sat.
Following a bombardment, and with top cover provided by the original Apache Flight, Ugly 50 & 51 went in problems became apparent straight away, Tom in the front helicopter was blinded by dust, blown up by the rotor blades and the landing field was too small for both helicopters,

Cont...

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

An amazing poem.

• Paul Durcan •

[The Terry Pratchett Estate @PratchettOnline]

Remembering Terry – in our hearts and in our bookshelves. #TerryPratchett

[Alasdair Fraser @Al_Fraser]

@sturgios Could not agree more - Felicity Cloake's How to make the Perfect... series is an essential. As a scientist I really connect with the idea of doing parallel tasting and sequential tests to optimise the process. Her crepes recipe for Pancake Day is definitive and stored on my phone

[Stan Voice of Wales @StanVoWales]

AN OPEN LETTER TO LEWIS HAMILTON

Mr Hamilton,

You have recently spoken about Britain’s past and suggested that the country should consider returning land in Africa as some form of historical reckoning.

Before making such sweeping statements, it might be worth revisiting the full history — not just the fashionable fragments that circulate on social media.

Slavery was not invented by Britain. It existed for millennia across the ancient world — in empires from Rome to the Middle East and Africa. By the time Britain emerged as a maritime power, slave trading networks already stretched across continents.

The Atlantic trade itself involved multiple participants. African rulers and traders captured and sold prisoners to European merchants on the coast. It was an ugly system, but it was also an international one.

What is often omitted from modern lectures about history is that Britain became the first major power to turn against the trade. Parliament passed the 1807 Act abolishing the slave trade, and the Royal Navy then spent decades enforcing that decision.

The West Africa Squadron patrolled thousands of miles of coastline. Sailors died from disease and from gunfire while intercepting slave ships. In doing so they liberated tens of thousands of people who would otherwise have been carried into bondage.

Many of those liberated Africans were settled in Sierra Leone. The capital was named Freetown for a reason.

There are also chapters rarely mentioned today. When Napoleon restored slavery in French territories after it had been abolished, it was British power that ultimately helped end those systems again.

There is also the matter of the enormous compensation loan taken by the British state when slavery was abolished across the empire — a debt British taxpayers continued servicing for generations.

None of this erases the suffering of those enslaved. But it does mean the story is far more complex than the simple narrative often presented today.

So before condemning Britain wholesale, perhaps a moment might be taken to acknowledge the sailors who fought the slave traders and the role Britain played in shutting down the Atlantic system.

A fitting tribute would be support for a memorial to those men who served and died enforcing abolition.

History deserves honesty — not slogans.

Yours sincerely
Stan Robinson
Voice of Wales
@VoWalesWren @alanlester
#SouthAfricaSquadron #RoyalNavy #VoiceOfWales