Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
@tarquinhh.bsky.social
Oxford Law Research Admin, dabbler in history, philosophy & sociology of the life sciences & medicine.
Pinned
A Mouse in a Cage: Rethinking Humanitarianism and the Rights of Lab Animals
[Open Access] Questions the treatment of laboratory animals in biomedical researchLaboratory animals are often used to develop medical treatments: vaccines, antibiotics, and organ transplants have all...
opensquare.nyupress.org
My former PI Carrie Friese's book on lab animal welfare is out today and is open access:
opensquare.nyupress.org/books/978147...
#sts #sociology
opensquare.nyupress.org/books/978147...
#sts #sociology
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
When it became clear that net migration was on a downward trend, the UK far right and its media pivoted to asylum seekers being the alleged problem population. Labour and the BBC did not have to follow that cynical pivot, but they did anyway.
Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters
Down by 140k isn't thought to be.
Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.
November 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
When it became clear that net migration was on a downward trend, the UK far right and its media pivoted to asylum seekers being the alleged problem population. Labour and the BBC did not have to follow that cynical pivot, but they did anyway.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Dismal framing. Every aspect of most asylum seekers’ lives is controlled & paid for by the Home Office. They can’t work, are told where to live & have no autonomy or dignity. So they aren’t *choosing* to use taxis & don’t need to be “banned” from doing so. The HO just needs to get its act in order.
Government to ban asylum seekers from using taxis
The ban is set to come in February and any exemptions will have to be signed off by the Home Office.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Dismal framing. Every aspect of most asylum seekers’ lives is controlled & paid for by the Home Office. They can’t work, are told where to live & have no autonomy or dignity. So they aren’t *choosing* to use taxis & don’t need to be “banned” from doing so. The HO just needs to get its act in order.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
so months after the original proscription, has anyone revealed any actually good reasons to describe anything they did as 'terrorism'? i was assured by very smart people that intel to that effect will no doubt be made available, because of course i should just trust the government on this
"I myself have publicly advocated the use of direct action, including property sabotage, in the cause of climate justice. It stands to reason that I should support the same range of tactics in the effort to prevent genocide."
Sally Rooney books may be withdrawn from UK sale over Palestine Action ban, court told
Rooney has said she intended to use royalties from her work "to go on supporting Palestine Action."
www.bbc.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
so months after the original proscription, has anyone revealed any actually good reasons to describe anything they did as 'terrorism'? i was assured by very smart people that intel to that effect will no doubt be made available, because of course i should just trust the government on this
Introduce yourself with five (non-metal) concerts you've seen
- Swans
- Jimmy Cliff
- Bruce Springsteen
- Boris
- John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
- Swans
- Jimmy Cliff
- Bruce Springsteen
- Boris
- John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen
- Devo
- The Prodigy
- Bloc Party
- The Killers
- St. Vincent
- Devo
- The Prodigy
- Bloc Party
- The Killers
- St. Vincent
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen
Ray Charles
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Beastie Boys
Massive Attack
Faith No Nore
Ray Charles
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Beastie Boys
Massive Attack
Faith No Nore
November 27, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Introduce yourself with five (non-metal) concerts you've seen
- Swans
- Jimmy Cliff
- Bruce Springsteen
- Boris
- John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
- Swans
- Jimmy Cliff
- Bruce Springsteen
- Boris
- John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
The problem is always awful, immoral rich people who don‘t, in any meaningful sense of the word, *need* the money:
'Our £3.6m bill for flats too dangerous to live in'
'Our £3.6m bill for flats too dangerous to live in'
Two unsafe tower blocks in Kirkby, Merseyside, were closed down by the fire service in July.
www.bbc.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:25 AM
The problem is always awful, immoral rich people who don‘t, in any meaningful sense of the word, *need* the money:
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
I will be speaking tomorrow at this event at the LSE, with @aloner.bsky.social
all welcome
www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-...
all welcome
www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-...
Israeli Domestic Politics since October 7
6.00pm Thursday 27 November | Alona Ferber, Yossi Mekelberg, Yair Wallach | Free event at LSE
www.lse.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 12:17 AM
I will be speaking tomorrow at this event at the LSE, with @aloner.bsky.social
all welcome
www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-...
all welcome
www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
This is called “chain refoulment” and it’s illegal under both U.S. and international law. And the State Department and ICE know very well what Ghana is doing and simply don’t care.
ICE deported a woman who owned a home in the US for 30 years. A judge banned ICE from deporting her to Sierra Leone where she had been tortured, so it deported her to Ghana, which kidnapped her and sent her back Sierra Leone anyway. ICE is part of this illegal conspiracy.
November 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM
This is called “chain refoulment” and it’s illegal under both U.S. and international law. And the State Department and ICE know very well what Ghana is doing and simply don’t care.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Just utter imbeciles pulling out every cable that holds together the modern world in a desperate hunt for immigrants
November 24, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Just utter imbeciles pulling out every cable that holds together the modern world in a desperate hunt for immigrants
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Paleo folks: Please recommend researchers (incl yourselves) interested in phylogenetic reconstruction in deep time, molecular clocks (discord w/ fossil clocks), foundational/methodological issues in phylo/paleo-reconstruction & who'd be interested in hanging w/ historians & philosophers of science ⚒️
November 24, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Paleo folks: Please recommend researchers (incl yourselves) interested in phylogenetic reconstruction in deep time, molecular clocks (discord w/ fossil clocks), foundational/methodological issues in phylo/paleo-reconstruction & who'd be interested in hanging w/ historians & philosophers of science ⚒️
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Final chance to sign up to attend my talk "Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?"
Happening today at 3pm Central European Time:
univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Happening today at 3pm Central European Time:
univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: SCARCE Colloquium: Duncan Money . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Duncan Money (Independent scholar)
"Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?"
Mining is an unusual industry. It is site-specific and has a fixed nature, you cannot jus...
univienna.zoom.us
November 24, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Final chance to sign up to attend my talk "Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?"
Happening today at 3pm Central European Time:
univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Happening today at 3pm Central European Time:
univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
How is this not the top story on every news bulletin?
This has been happening for years and instead of doing anything to protect children successive governments have made the situation worse. This isn't just on councils. It is part of failings on a State level.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
This has been happening for years and instead of doing anything to protect children successive governments have made the situation worse. This isn't just on councils. It is part of failings on a State level.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
More then 2,000 trafficked children and lone child asylum seekers missing from UK councils’ care
Charities say vulnerable young people are being failed by local authorities, the police and central government
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:43 AM
How is this not the top story on every news bulletin?
This has been happening for years and instead of doing anything to protect children successive governments have made the situation worse. This isn't just on councils. It is part of failings on a State level.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
This has been happening for years and instead of doing anything to protect children successive governments have made the situation worse. This isn't just on councils. It is part of failings on a State level.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
i've been thinking about this and i think underpinning this are too things: our inability as a society to deal with anything that's uncomfortable but provably true and an electoral system that discourages any attempt to change that
The fact that in both 2019 and 2024, the winning party did so with a set of manifesto promises that could not be kept and dissolved upon contact with actual office is something that as an industry we should be much more bothered by than we are.
November 23, 2025 at 1:14 PM
i've been thinking about this and i think underpinning this are too things: our inability as a society to deal with anything that's uncomfortable but provably true and an electoral system that discourages any attempt to change that
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
The Home Secretary explaining that the rise in racist violence is, actually, the natural response to higher levels of immigration is a state of affairs that can't exist without the government having largely decided that racist violence is, if not legitimate, at least understandable.
November 22, 2025 at 9:55 AM
The Home Secretary explaining that the rise in racist violence is, actually, the natural response to higher levels of immigration is a state of affairs that can't exist without the government having largely decided that racist violence is, if not legitimate, at least understandable.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Some notable things in what's being called the "Trump peace plan" but which could not have been more clearly written in Moscow if it came with a 2 for 1 deal on tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet. 🧵
November 21, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Some notable things in what's being called the "Trump peace plan" but which could not have been more clearly written in Moscow if it came with a 2 for 1 deal on tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet. 🧵
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
“A society which reverences the attainment of riches as the supreme felicity will naturally be disposed to regard the poor as damned in the next world, if only to justify itself for making their life a hell in this.” R.H. Tawney
November 20, 2025 at 8:38 AM
“A society which reverences the attainment of riches as the supreme felicity will naturally be disposed to regard the poor as damned in the next world, if only to justify itself for making their life a hell in this.” R.H. Tawney
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Mainstream news covered the Jeffrey Epstein emails related to ppl like Trump. Today, I want to take a look at Epstein's correspondence with prominent atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss, who asked the pedophile's advice on responding to accusations of sexual assault skepchick.org/2025/11/so-i...
So I’m in the Epstein Files
Transcript: Look. I know that on this channel, I often criticize prominent people for actions that I find detestable: accepting dark money and failing to disclose it, producing propaganda for Big O…
skepchick.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Mainstream news covered the Jeffrey Epstein emails related to ppl like Trump. Today, I want to take a look at Epstein's correspondence with prominent atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss, who asked the pedophile's advice on responding to accusations of sexual assault skepchick.org/2025/11/so-i...
Separated at birth:
November 19, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Separated at birth:
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
One particularly depraved aspect of Labour’s proposed jewellery seizure policy is that, after months of stating their goal was to crack down on ‘smuggling gangs’, they’ve proudly settled on a policy tantamount to saying, “Whatever these smugglers don’t exploit from you, we’ll have instead.”
November 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
One particularly depraved aspect of Labour’s proposed jewellery seizure policy is that, after months of stating their goal was to crack down on ‘smuggling gangs’, they’ve proudly settled on a policy tantamount to saying, “Whatever these smugglers don’t exploit from you, we’ll have instead.”
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Someone tag the Labour party: ““This was a cynical strategic manoeuvre to avoid losing voters to the far right, but it seems, based on polling, that all they have done is prime their own voters to join the far right rather than stay with the Social Democrats.””
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Centre-left tipped to lose Copenhagen for first time in electoral history
Political rivals say PM’s divisive politics have encouraged voters to ditch the Social Democrats for the far right
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Someone tag the Labour party: ““This was a cynical strategic manoeuvre to avoid losing voters to the far right, but it seems, based on polling, that all they have done is prime their own voters to join the far right rather than stay with the Social Democrats.””
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
This is the natural outcome of Labour responding to right-wing xenophobia & cruelty with even more xenophobia & cruelty. Of course the right will escalate. All this strategy does is make things worse.
Farage and Zia Yusuf are going to announce tomorrow that a Reform government will strip millions of EU nationals of benefits, more than double the cost of the NHS surcharge and cut foreign aid spending by more than 70%, The Times reports.
More Trumpian blood and soil nonsense.
More Trumpian blood and soil nonsense.
November 17, 2025 at 8:19 PM
This is the natural outcome of Labour responding to right-wing xenophobia & cruelty with even more xenophobia & cruelty. Of course the right will escalate. All this strategy does is make things worse.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
that's £2,718 a year in surcharge fees, £13,590 in surcharges over a 5 year spouse visa. this is close to what we paid in total for the spouse visa + citizenship. you're looking at around 23k/25k in total for a 5 year spouse visa inc the proposed surcharge hike. that's completely unhinged
Farage and Zia Yusuf are going to announce tomorrow that a Reform government will strip millions of EU nationals of benefits, more than double the cost of the NHS surcharge and cut foreign aid spending by more than 70%, The Times reports.
More Trumpian blood and soil nonsense.
More Trumpian blood and soil nonsense.
November 17, 2025 at 8:40 PM
that's £2,718 a year in surcharge fees, £13,590 in surcharges over a 5 year spouse visa. this is close to what we paid in total for the spouse visa + citizenship. you're looking at around 23k/25k in total for a 5 year spouse visa inc the proposed surcharge hike. that's completely unhinged
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Mahmoud has listened to same clique of senior Home Office officials who have advised for 30+ years that loud announcements of punitive policies will deter refugees from coming to UK to seek asylum.
Labour did this extensively last time. It didn’t work.
A history thread. +
Labour did this extensively last time. It didn’t work.
A history thread. +
November 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Mahmoud has listened to same clique of senior Home Office officials who have advised for 30+ years that loud announcements of punitive policies will deter refugees from coming to UK to seek asylum.
Labour did this extensively last time. It didn’t work.
A history thread. +
Labour did this extensively last time. It didn’t work.
A history thread. +
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Since 7th Oct 2023, Israeli prisons have become torture camps of the worst kind.
www.972mag.com/98-palestini...
www.972mag.com/98-palestini...
New data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 7
Post-mortems of the deceased and testimonies from former detainees suggest many died from torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation. According to a leaked Israeli intelligence database, dozens we...
www.972mag.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Since 7th Oct 2023, Israeli prisons have become torture camps of the worst kind.
www.972mag.com/98-palestini...
www.972mag.com/98-palestini...