shannon_a

1. If you support trans exclusion then you support the torture of children

(tags:children LGBT transgender torture OhForFucksSake UK )

2. Stop Publishing Garbage Data, It's Embarrassing

(tags:data )

3. Comparison of $4,000 boutique audio cable to $7 Amazon Basics cable shows audiophiles waste a lot of money

(tags:music audio cable )

4. Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics

(tags:plastic research GoodNews )

5. "I helped legalise medicinal cannabis in the UK - I regret what came next"

(tags:marijuana legalisation UK healthcare OhForFucksSake )

6. Neuroanatomy of the clitoris has been mapped

(tags:clitoris bodies women )

7. An excellent analysis of where things stand with Iran, and what happened in the last year that led us here

(tags:Iran USA war doom )

8. "Every Movement Was Controlled": The Quiet Rise In Children Under Deprivation Of Liberty Orders

(tags:children mentalhealth uk OhForFucksSake )

9. A robot with wheels that can also walk and climb stairs

(tags:transport robots video )

Triptych (IKEA)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. What did Tolkien actually say about fantasy and escapism?

(tags:Tolkien fantasy UrsulaKLegGuin )

2. Greater Manchester school library censorship: who is accountable?

(tags:religion Christianity school Manchester UK censorship OhForFucksSake )

3. Mutually Assured Energy Destruction (and why it hasn't happened just yet)

(tags:middle_east Iran oil doom USA war )

4. 350 cameras in the US wilderness produce some amazing footage

(tags:nature animals video awesome )

1. Putin sends Ukraine's stolen children to military training at special camps associated with their largest oil companies

(tags:oil russia ukraine children OhForFucksSake )

2. Putin's 'shadow fleet' tankers veer away from Channel after UK vows to seize them

(tags:uk russia shipping )

3. American Medical Association reaffirms support for trans health care

(tags:transgender usa healthcare lgbt )

4. What does "the left doesn't provide a space for young boys." mean?

(tags:politics misogyny patriarchy )

I've seen occasional confusion from people over the last few weeks "Why is it so cold, isn't it Spring now?" - and I thought I should say a bit about one of the major causes that I almost never hear people talk about - the polar vortex.

This is a swirling wind around the Arctic that exists for basically the whole arctic night. One of the things it does is keep the freezing polar winds from coming further south in to Europe. But when it finally collapses in the Spring, it finally allows those winds out, and you get a sudden burst of cold air as all of that freezing weather escapes down to us.

Normally this happens some time in late February, but this year the collapse seems to have been a month later.

The other major factor is largely down to circulating high pressure areas (imagine slow large hurricane shaped wind "objects") that constantly move around the North Atlantic. Put one of these off of the west coast of Ireland, going clockwise, and it will pull air down from the North even further/faster. See this short video I took from the NullSchool site (my favourite wind visualisation site). In it you can see cold winds pouring down from the North Pole, funneled further by the circulation. And if you click on the link there you can see that currently the wind is instead being pulled off of the Altantic, where it's a few degrees colder.

British weather tends to be more chaotic than the weather north or south of us. This is because Spain (for instance) is fairly reliably in the warm weather caused by the heating tropics. And Norway is fairly reliably cold, due to proximity to the North Pole. But Britain can be part of either weather system, as the "barrier" between them is pulled North or South by a few hundred miles depending on the movement of the high pressure areas in the eastern part of the North Atlantic, either funnelling the warm air up to us or channeling the cool air down to us.

You can see that at the moment the warm weather is being slowly blown North-East, now that the cold weather isn't pushing its way down to us:


So, next time we get a period of warm weather at the end of Winter/start of Spring followed by a sudden burst of freezing weather for a few days, that's the polar vortex collapsing. And if we suddenly go from warm weather to cold (or vice versa)  it's because we've switched weather system.

If you'd like to read more, then this is quite good.

(And apologies to anyone who actually knows anything about the weather for any appalling mistakes I've made.)

1. UK 'runs out' of warships - leaving Germany to take over key Nato mission

(tags:uk germany nato navy )

2. UK confirms ban on cryptocurrency donations and limit on foreign donors in blow for Reform

(tags:UK politics money reform regulation )

3. Final analysis of 2025 Iberian blackout: Policies left Spain at risk

(tags:regulation electricity spain )

4. UK university students are being paid to support Chinese propaganda

(tags:china uk propaganda university )

5. Antimatter has been transported for the first time ever — in the back of CERN's truck

(tags:physics antimatter viaSwampers )

6. Democrat wins Florida state seat containing Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate (over 20% change)

(tags:hope elections USA politics )

7. UK car and steel firms fear being frozen out of 'Made in Europe' deals by EU

(tags:Europe UK trade manufacturing doom )

8. The Revolutionary Guards are taking over Iran (control has fragmented and there is nobody to negotiate with)

(tags:Iran military USA OhForFucksSake war )

1. Plug-in solar power could be in UK shops within months

(tags:solarpower uk GoodNews )

2. What is a polite way to say "I have to poop" as a woman? (the responses are hilarious)

(tags:funny women society poo )

3. Even Scotland's richest back higher taxes on the wealthy, poll finds

(tags:polls tax wealth Scotland )

The kids are watching an episode of SpongeBob where he's failing to write an essay. It is, frankly, stressing me the fuck out.

1. Trump has delighted apocalyptic Christians. They say the End Times are coming

(tags:apocalypse religion Christianity politics Israel middle_east Palestine )

2. VFX artists vs. The Golden Gate Bridge

(tags:cgi bridge sanfrancisco )

3. The seven new towns set to be built across the UK, mapped

(tags:UK housing )

4. Iran says coastal attack will lead to full Gulf closure and mine-laying

(tags:iran middle_east usa war doom )

1. Some Divorce Trends That Aren't Leaving Your Partner Mid-Hike

(tags:satire funny relationships murder )