EssaysConcern
richarderskine.bsky.social
EssaysConcern
@richarderskine.bsky.social
Research fellow at The Schumacher Institute. Knowledge management specialist. Artist, Educator, Writer.
www.trustedknowledge.org
www.essaysconcerning.com
www.richarderskineart.com
Great to hear. That’s pragmatic backup. I don’t like backup solution that are overly complex and essentially doubling the costs or worse … my favourite exemplar …
November 19, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Bye gas network; had our gas meter removed today

4 years ago our aging (23 yr old) gas boiler was replaced with an air-source heat pump. 3 weeks ago our aging (26 yr old) cooker/ gas hob was replaced with new electric cooker/ induction hob. So we could finally disconnect from the gas grid. Yay!

1/
November 19, 2025 at 2:36 PM
This dictum applies to root canal surgery, insulating your house, laser eye surgery and … surprisingly (to some) … also heat pumps.

#Energysky
November 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Similar story with insulin pumps
October 23, 2025 at 7:45 PM
I asked OpenAI re. pacemakers, It seems to be a very low risk requiring quite extreme conditions, according to research it found
October 23, 2025 at 7:44 PM
We have a new cooker with induction hob so can finally completely disconnect from the gas network (having got a heat pump 4 years ago, replacing a creaking 25 year old gas boiler). Our creaking old 27 year old cooker (with a gas hob) was no longer serviceable. 1/2
October 23, 2025 at 4:12 PM
This is a brilliant initiative Adam. I had to add a slide to a talk I'm soon giving on 'Everything you wanted to know about heat pumps but was afraid to ask'. Maybe the best engineers always strived for zero disrupt or at least minimised disrupt.

#HeatPump 1/2
October 17, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Q. "In the UK we have two brilliant grassroot initiatives to promote best practice in heat pump installation: 'heat geek' and more recently 'The Guild of Master Heat Engineers'. Are these to be viewed as complementary or competing initiatives?"

Here's how OpenAI tabulated a response ...

#HeatPump
October 9, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Ooo, look what’s arrived!

#Energysky #Heatpumps
October 2, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Another slide that came to me, for an upcoming talk. Now I could show the refrigeration cycle or I could relate it everyday experiences!

We need to draw people in (mostly non geeks), not scare them off.

#Energysky
October 1, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Is the behaviour of the US crowd at the Ryder Cup and their team a metaphor for Trump’s America: loud, loutish, disrespectful … losers!
September 27, 2025 at 6:56 PM
My wife gave me good feedback - so here's an improved version …
September 26, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Near the end of my talk on heat pumps I want to step write back. Looking back in fact from, say, 2500 CE with this graphic I just made ...
#Energysky #Climatesky
September 26, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I am working on a talk ('Everything you wanted to know about heat pumps but was afraid to ask') for a local climate group. I though I'd step back early in talk to give a perspective on heating in England since its birth. What do you think?

1/2

#Energysky #Heatpumps
September 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Betrand Russell, in his 1928 essay 'On the value of scepticism' recognised the value of challenging received wisdom, but only when there was good reason to do so, not as a free ticket to speculate in a way divorced from evidence; which is what RFK Jr is doing. 1/

Para 4. of his essay attached
September 4, 2025 at 8:04 PM
I was asked the perennial question 'How can we predict the climate in 25 years when we can't even predict the weather reliably in 4 weeks time?', answered by climate scientists many times. Here is my attempt for a lay audience using loaded dice as an analogy essaysconcerning.com/2025/09/04/l...
September 4, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I love the double path on Rodborough Common that sweeps around the curved hill above The Street. A little piece after this morning’s walk.

#rodboroughcommon
August 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Well, it went so well last time it was tried
August 15, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Lovely walk around Uley Bury with Marilyn and Tilly this morning. Really struck by the view of the fields and Stinchcombe Hill towards Severn. Here’s a wee pencil sketch.
August 8, 2025 at 1:22 PM
So a friend has found the source on Substack (which the freebie version of OpenAI failed to find or was prevented from doing so). It doesn’t change my argument, but does give me relief!
August 7, 2025 at 7:56 AM
It ran on a PCW8256! I wrote a piece about it Computer Talk (June 1986). I just dug it up from the archives …

SANA provided the program, a manual, and support to local authorities who were interested.
C/
August 6, 2025 at 8:53 AM
The only time that MAGA cheered on a black female, but even then, they contrived to back a loser. Turns out Mother Sun is already a winner.
August 1, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Deranged dear leader calming things down. Oh this makes me feel so reassured. No parody is off limits in a Trumpian universe. No reality either.
August 1, 2025 at 6:23 PM
So Shell PR is at it again. Another advert suggesting they are investing in a green future while keeping the lights on today. The latest TV add I saw on 26th July was another masterclass in GASlighting. Wind turbines and text saying "11.37% included low-carbon energy solutions" 1/
July 31, 2025 at 4:51 PM
In most papers I see, credible scientists don't need to tag on the "Ph.D." to somehow earn credibility (just attached one for illustration), but through an impactful body of work. These jokers rather cozy up to ideological anti-climate action orgns. like Heartland and GWPF, and call it research.
July 30, 2025 at 7:21 PM