Jim Downie
@cenococcum.bsky.social
Reposted by Jim Downie
Like, I'm sorry the fascists are giving you difficult choices. But that's what fascists fucking do. The only legit answer is "fuck you make me". The only answer that shows you have actual fucking principles not preferences is "fuck you make me". And that sucks. But here we are.
December 3, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Like, I'm sorry the fascists are giving you difficult choices. But that's what fascists fucking do. The only legit answer is "fuck you make me". The only answer that shows you have actual fucking principles not preferences is "fuck you make me". And that sucks. But here we are.
Reposted by Jim Downie
Jenny Watson spilling it on X
November 28, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Jenny Watson spilling it on X
Reposted by Jim Downie
JK Rowling got a full *decade* of press as a martyr for being "cancelled" (declared passe by people online) and meanwhile nobody considers it very interesting that a prominent left wing author is basically banned from entering or publishing in the United Kingdom for her politics
so this is like, one of the biggest free speech infringements by a western democracy in our lifetimes right?
November 28, 2025 at 12:22 AM
JK Rowling got a full *decade* of press as a martyr for being "cancelled" (declared passe by people online) and meanwhile nobody considers it very interesting that a prominent left wing author is basically banned from entering or publishing in the United Kingdom for her politics
Reposted by Jim Downie
The diplomatic "achievement" of the ceasefire was to recalibrate the tempo of the genocide sufficiently to get it off the front pages and the news bulletins, thus alleviating the political pressure on Israel's western accomplices.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israel still committing genocide in Gaza, Amnesty International says
The NGO’s chief says last month’s ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal’
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:46 PM
The diplomatic "achievement" of the ceasefire was to recalibrate the tempo of the genocide sufficiently to get it off the front pages and the news bulletins, thus alleviating the political pressure on Israel's western accomplices.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Reposted by Jim Downie
🧵 1/ New preprint alert! From the FUTURE OAK project, led by the super talented @alejandra1909.bsky.social
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
Here's what we found... 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
Here's what we found... 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
The tree microbiome is essential for host health and pathogen suppression. Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) are emerging as important tools to understand microbiome dynamics and engineer micr...
www.biorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
🧵 1/ New preprint alert! From the FUTURE OAK project, led by the super talented @alejandra1909.bsky.social
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
Here's what we found... 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
Here's what we found... 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jim Downie
Like many others, I am disappointed and angry about the decision by @cyclinguk.bsky.social to change the eligibility criteria for Women in Cycling 2025 to exclude trans women.
Trans women are women 🏳️⚧️
I have requested for my name and face to be removed.
www.cyclingweekly.com/news/do-we-n...
Trans women are women 🏳️⚧️
I have requested for my name and face to be removed.
www.cyclingweekly.com/news/do-we-n...
'Do we need to exclude people even more?' – Cycling UK's 100 Women in Cycling criticised for not accepting nominations for trans women
Cycling charity say that only biological women can be on list
www.cyclingweekly.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Like many others, I am disappointed and angry about the decision by @cyclinguk.bsky.social to change the eligibility criteria for Women in Cycling 2025 to exclude trans women.
Trans women are women 🏳️⚧️
I have requested for my name and face to be removed.
www.cyclingweekly.com/news/do-we-n...
Trans women are women 🏳️⚧️
I have requested for my name and face to be removed.
www.cyclingweekly.com/news/do-we-n...
Reposted by Jim Downie
Every announcement like this reads as reaffirming that he will *not* be prosecuted for allegedly sexually abusing young women and girls, which for me is, and will remain, the actual story.
November 2, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Every announcement like this reads as reaffirming that he will *not* be prosecuted for allegedly sexually abusing young women and girls, which for me is, and will remain, the actual story.
Reposted by Jim Downie
Who are the people agreeing to fly these planes? Who are the people helping the passengers into the planes? Who are the air traffic controllers agreeing to do this work?
😲 SEATTLE: Shackled at his wrists and ankles, an elderly man struggles in the cold rain to mount the slippery stairs to this Avelo jet, which will fly him to another detention facility in Texas 👀
October 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Who are the people agreeing to fly these planes? Who are the people helping the passengers into the planes? Who are the air traffic controllers agreeing to do this work?
Reposted by Jim Downie
Notice how quickly we've moved from deporting "illegals" to the idea of deporting any migrant whose face doesn't fit, irrespective of legal status. Next stop: some form of ostracisation for any person whose face doesn't fit, whether they were born here or not?
We're deep in National Front territory
We're deep in National Front territory
October 19, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Notice how quickly we've moved from deporting "illegals" to the idea of deporting any migrant whose face doesn't fit, irrespective of legal status. Next stop: some form of ostracisation for any person whose face doesn't fit, whether they were born here or not?
We're deep in National Front territory
We're deep in National Front territory
Reposted by Jim Downie
We're not at war with Venezuela, these boats are many hundreds of lines from our waters, much less our shores, there is no threat, this is just murder.
I really do think everyone from the SecDef to the guy who pushed the button should be tried for murder on this.
I really do think everyone from the SecDef to the guy who pushed the button should be tried for murder on this.
Don’t believe anyone who tells you that intelligence shows anything “without a doubt,” but even if the intelligence was water-tight, this strike was still murder. No law permits the deliberate, premeditated killing of civilians.
October 3, 2025 at 5:38 PM
We're not at war with Venezuela, these boats are many hundreds of lines from our waters, much less our shores, there is no threat, this is just murder.
I really do think everyone from the SecDef to the guy who pushed the button should be tried for murder on this.
I really do think everyone from the SecDef to the guy who pushed the button should be tried for murder on this.
Reposted by Jim Downie
Fascism is thriving. Every politician, journalist, and influencer that talks about migrants as threats, Black folks as criminals, trans people as social contagions, etc is directly facilitating the social resentments that shape fascism. We need them to stop their destructive disinformation politics.
September 14, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Fascism is thriving. Every politician, journalist, and influencer that talks about migrants as threats, Black folks as criminals, trans people as social contagions, etc is directly facilitating the social resentments that shape fascism. We need them to stop their destructive disinformation politics.
Reposted by Jim Downie
I am sickened by the relentless demonisation of refugees.
No refugee underfunded a school.
No refugee closed a hospital.
No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled.
We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!
No refugee underfunded a school.
No refugee closed a hospital.
No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled.
We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!
August 27, 2025 at 9:11 AM
I am sickened by the relentless demonisation of refugees.
No refugee underfunded a school.
No refugee closed a hospital.
No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled.
We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!
No refugee underfunded a school.
No refugee closed a hospital.
No refugee took away support from the sick and disabled.
We need solutions not scapegoats. Stop blaming refugees and tax the rich instead!
Reposted by Jim Downie
Keir Starmer and David Lammy belong in The Hague.
August 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Keir Starmer and David Lammy belong in The Hague.
Reposted by Jim Downie
sure does seem like the british media is keen on censoring Irish artists speaking out about Palestine
So the BBC isn't going to broadcast Hozier's set because he's calling for exactly the same policy as the UK goverment – a Palestinian state and a meaningful peace protest.
Spineless, craven, contemptable.
Spineless, craven, contemptable.
August 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
sure does seem like the british media is keen on censoring Irish artists speaking out about Palestine
Reposted by Jim Downie
Go and check out the pre-print of the landscape-scale tree microbiome study from the Future Oak project. Huge amounts of efforts and talent went into this work, with a pinch of "this is crazy, but we can do it". Well done @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social @cenococcum.bsky.social et al. Thread below 👇
🧵 New preprint alert!
From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social
Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social
Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Environment and disease have tissue-specific effects on the tree microbiome
Trees are essential for ecosystem function, but due to their long lifespan, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disease. Tree-associated microbiota are critical for tree health and r...
www.biorxiv.org
August 16, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Go and check out the pre-print of the landscape-scale tree microbiome study from the Future Oak project. Huge amounts of efforts and talent went into this work, with a pinch of "this is crazy, but we can do it". Well done @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social @cenococcum.bsky.social et al. Thread below 👇
Such an exciting piece of work to be a part of! So glad to finally get it out, do have a read!
🧵 New preprint alert!
From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social
Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social
Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Environment and disease have tissue-specific effects on the tree microbiome
Trees are essential for ecosystem function, but due to their long lifespan, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disease. Tree-associated microbiota are critical for tree health and r...
www.biorxiv.org
August 16, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Such an exciting piece of work to be a part of! So glad to finally get it out, do have a read!
Reposted by Jim Downie
People complaining about this, so all I will say is: your Progressive Patriotism is always, at all times, just Keir Starmer reiterating the Rivers Of Blood speech live on TV and it will never be anything better than that. You have had endless chances to do better, and you *always* do this. The end.
August 3, 2025 at 12:20 PM
People complaining about this, so all I will say is: your Progressive Patriotism is always, at all times, just Keir Starmer reiterating the Rivers Of Blood speech live on TV and it will never be anything better than that. You have had endless chances to do better, and you *always* do this. The end.
Reposted by Jim Downie
Things are unimaginably bad. The Sameer Project's South Gaza campaign operation is under intense crisis. They're trying to find any food they can to help people in serious need. If you can, please donate! The situation is getting worse every day.
chuffed.org/project/1132...
chuffed.org/project/1132...
South Gaza: Tents, Food & Water
**With Famine on the rise, we will significantly lower tent purchases and focus on food (rice and bread) and water over the next couple of weeks**
chuffed.org
July 21, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Things are unimaginably bad. The Sameer Project's South Gaza campaign operation is under intense crisis. They're trying to find any food they can to help people in serious need. If you can, please donate! The situation is getting worse every day.
chuffed.org/project/1132...
chuffed.org/project/1132...
Reposted by Jim Downie
Announcing myloasm, a new long-read (ONT R10/PacBio) metagenome assembler that I've been working on during my postdoc in the Heng Li lab (@lh3lh3.bsky.social).
myloasm-docs.github.io
myloasm-docs.github.io
myloasm - metagenomic assembly with (noisy) long reads
myloasm-docs.github.io
May 28, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Announcing myloasm, a new long-read (ONT R10/PacBio) metagenome assembler that I've been working on during my postdoc in the Heng Li lab (@lh3lh3.bsky.social).
myloasm-docs.github.io
myloasm-docs.github.io
Reposted by Jim Downie
Toilets have historically always been used to restrict access to public spaces. c19th WOMEN cld not travel far from home. It was ideology manifested. For me this isn’t about being inconvenienced when you need the loo. It’s says who belongs where&when. The fact GC women are doing this is infuriating.
Trans people could be forced to present passports to access toilets, under proposed EHRC guidance
Trans people could be forced to present passports to use toilets under EHRC guidance
Trans people could be forced to bring passports and gender recognition certificates into public toilets under proposed EHRC guidance.
www.thepinknews.com
May 25, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Toilets have historically always been used to restrict access to public spaces. c19th WOMEN cld not travel far from home. It was ideology manifested. For me this isn’t about being inconvenienced when you need the loo. It’s says who belongs where&when. The fact GC women are doing this is infuriating.
Reposted by Jim Downie
realizing they won’t get this call tonight is rather heartbreaking
Every evening, without fail, Pope Francis speaks with priests and parishioners at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City. He tells them that they are not forgotten and that, as long as he has a voice to cry out for an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza, there is hope for peace and justice.
A Pope Who Prays for Palestine
Pope Francis, who is in daily contact with Gazans, has consistently called for an end to the Israeli assault and for Palestinians and Israelis to be able to live in peace.
www.thenation.com
April 21, 2025 at 11:53 AM
realizing they won’t get this call tonight is rather heartbreaking
Reposted by Jim Downie
1/ BREAKING: So - it turns out deeply-religious Lord Hodge, the Judge in yesterday’s UK Supreme Court Case that destroyed trans rights, headed a ‘Commission On Same-Sex Relationships’ for the Church of Scotland published in 2011.
April 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
1/ BREAKING: So - it turns out deeply-religious Lord Hodge, the Judge in yesterday’s UK Supreme Court Case that destroyed trans rights, headed a ‘Commission On Same-Sex Relationships’ for the Church of Scotland published in 2011.
Reposted by Jim Downie
This enshrines patriarchy as 'natural', sex as immutable, and misogynistic oppression as inevitable.
If I can be so bold as to go there, it's a reification of womanhood as an innate and *disabling* category, with misogyny flowing from "biology", not patriarchal oppression.
If I can be so bold as to go there, it's a reification of womanhood as an innate and *disabling* category, with misogyny flowing from "biology", not patriarchal oppression.
April 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM
This enshrines patriarchy as 'natural', sex as immutable, and misogynistic oppression as inevitable.
If I can be so bold as to go there, it's a reification of womanhood as an innate and *disabling* category, with misogyny flowing from "biology", not patriarchal oppression.
If I can be so bold as to go there, it's a reification of womanhood as an innate and *disabling* category, with misogyny flowing from "biology", not patriarchal oppression.
Reposted by Jim Downie
Okay. Not-a-lawyer-butt.
This to me is the tell. Women's oppression defined explicitly as a "shared disadvantage" resulting from "shared biology".
These are steps to formalize womanhood as a reproductive role, synonymizing it with certain features of anatomy that are "naturally" disadvantaged.
This to me is the tell. Women's oppression defined explicitly as a "shared disadvantage" resulting from "shared biology".
These are steps to formalize womanhood as a reproductive role, synonymizing it with certain features of anatomy that are "naturally" disadvantaged.
April 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Okay. Not-a-lawyer-butt.
This to me is the tell. Women's oppression defined explicitly as a "shared disadvantage" resulting from "shared biology".
These are steps to formalize womanhood as a reproductive role, synonymizing it with certain features of anatomy that are "naturally" disadvantaged.
This to me is the tell. Women's oppression defined explicitly as a "shared disadvantage" resulting from "shared biology".
These are steps to formalize womanhood as a reproductive role, synonymizing it with certain features of anatomy that are "naturally" disadvantaged.
Reposted by Jim Downie
I am mashing my temples in sheer frustration because a ruling that is obsessed with legalizing discrimination against trans women on the basis of our "birth sex" also explicitly carves in recognition of the sociality of sexing, almost surely to make "perceived sex" something to be challenged.
'Perceived to be' seems to rely on 'passing' to the cis observer in question, though. (para 251)
(Reposting with alt text because this seems like an important point)
April 16, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I am mashing my temples in sheer frustration because a ruling that is obsessed with legalizing discrimination against trans women on the basis of our "birth sex" also explicitly carves in recognition of the sociality of sexing, almost surely to make "perceived sex" something to be challenged.