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
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...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
“We’re drawn to magic bullet solutions that cannot solve complex social problems. It is all too easy for someone who makes a genuinely profound discovery to think they have found the secret of life, or the environment, or disease.”
Opinion | James Watson Saw the True Form of DNA. Then It Blinded Him.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:53 PM
“We’re drawn to magic bullet solutions that cannot solve complex social problems. It is all too easy for someone who makes a genuinely profound discovery to think they have found the secret of life, or the environment, or disease.”
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
So this Western Sahara stuff is actually really fucked up isnt it
November 16, 2025 at 5:44 PM
So this Western Sahara stuff is actually really fucked up isnt it
Essential reading on how the BBC is allowing itself to be destroyed thanks to its cowardly genuflection to the UK & global radical right.
I spoke to two dozen BBC journalists, from frontline reporters to senior staff, about how the BBC came to symbolise the West's failure to prevent genocide in Gaza - and how the row over its coverage fed directly into its current meltdown.
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco • EQUATOR
How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart
www.equator.org
November 16, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Essential reading on how the BBC is allowing itself to be destroyed thanks to its cowardly genuflection to the UK & global radical right.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
I spoke to two dozen BBC journalists, from frontline reporters to senior staff, about how the BBC came to symbolise the West's failure to prevent genocide in Gaza - and how the row over its coverage fed directly into its current meltdown.
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco • EQUATOR
How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart
www.equator.org
November 14, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I spoke to two dozen BBC journalists, from frontline reporters to senior staff, about how the BBC came to symbolise the West's failure to prevent genocide in Gaza - and how the row over its coverage fed directly into its current meltdown.
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
If Mahmood and Starmer think putting Labour in a position where migration policy hinges on conflict management and post-conflict stabilisation in the Sahel or Syria will save the UK government money then they are trapped in a borderline delusional echo chamber.
November 15, 2025 at 12:08 PM
If Mahmood and Starmer think putting Labour in a position where migration policy hinges on conflict management and post-conflict stabilisation in the Sahel or Syria will save the UK government money then they are trapped in a borderline delusional echo chamber.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:36 AM
To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
When Tommy Robinson is celebrating your policies it is time to take a long hard look in the mirror and then quit politics forever.
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 10:01 AM
When Tommy Robinson is celebrating your policies it is time to take a long hard look in the mirror and then quit politics forever.
Reposted by Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes
Our beloved Alice Wong has joined the ancestors. It was one of the great honors of my life to call Alice my friend, co-author & co-conspirator. She was a true genius, a force of nature the likes of which the world has never seen before. I love you, Alice, and am equal parts grateful and devastated
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Our beloved Alice Wong has joined the ancestors. It was one of the great honors of my life to call Alice my friend, co-author & co-conspirator. She was a true genius, a force of nature the likes of which the world has never seen before. I love you, Alice, and am equal parts grateful and devastated