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Dominic Elson

@73foundation.bsky.social
372 followers 297 following 280 posts

Development economist; part-time Exmoor sheep farmer; & founder of Seventythree Foundation - a non-profit collaborating with marginalized rural communities in SE Asia. seventythree.ghost.io

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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
In my quest to meet @naomialderman.bsky.social challenge to read more, I dive into ‘Careless People’, because oligarchs don’t want me to read it. And seeing who wrote the Foreword is an unexpected coincidence…😉
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
I love @rspb.bsky.social and it is good to know they have experts who can help us muggles spot the difference between a dachshund and a mallard.
Prof Richard Gregory, of the RSPB, said: “It is super-positive that it is increasing in popularity and use, and especially to a new, wider and different group of people. Everywhere I go, I see people are using Merlin, connecting with nature and learning their birds, becoming more curious to know more. Fantastic – a revolution.”

Gregory warned, however, that the app still made mistakes in identification and had identified his dachshund as a mallard. “If you aren’t an expert, you wouldn’t necessarily know there was an error,” he said. “It is interesting to hear that Cornell is making changes which mean that recordings from Merlin will go to eBird more easily, so that’s great if the species recognition is correct [but] a problem for conservation when it is not.”
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
A rare North Ronaldsay breed of sheep, currently living in Exmoor, looks quizzical towards the camera.
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
It seems that the downside risk of AI fuelled abundance is, er, extinction. Which apparently will be bad for GDP.
Chart from Financial Times showing three scenarios for AI. Optimistic scenario shows GDP per capita rise to extraordinary levels. Pessimistic scenario sees the Tech Singularity lead to human extinction. The middle path is very modest rise in GDP growth trend for 10 years.
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 01/11/2024
In today’s Farmers Guardian newspaper, the message is that the IHT increase is not as bad as it looks for most farms. Add this to other tax breaks (red diesel etc) and subsidies (which helped boost the land values), and I can’t see the hand of Stalin here.
Accountant Rob Hitch, of Dodd and Co, discusses the impact of the Chancellor's Budget on farmers.

The headlines make grim reading, Inheritance Tax (IHT) at 20% on farms and farming businesses once they exceed the £1,000,000 of IHT relief that will be available from April 2026.

But considering this might amount to up to £3 million of relief with nil rate bands and residential nil rate bands for married couples or civil partners then it does not look quite as drastic, potentially a £4m farm business might face a £200,000 IHT liability, assuming no other assets (and that they had spent all of their pension)...
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 21/09/2024
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,742,416!
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,742,416, Dominic Elson ‪@73foundation.bsky.social‬, joined on Oct 28, 2023"
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 08/08/2024
Good time to share this pic of street cats outside our house in Jakarta when we lived there. We were feeding about 20 cats each day. In general, cats get a decent living in Jakarta.
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 19/11/2023
Mangroves are labyrinths (with snakes) and best approached by boat. Or wait until low tide and wander around the roots, listening to the birds.
View from a small boat in a green estuary, as it approaches a mangrove swamp.
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 19/11/2023
Here is the cat tax: Bintang is from Timor-Leste, has lived in 3 countries and disdained all of them. (Bintang = star in Indonesian). He is not a fan of winter in Devon. Or any other season, really.
Tabby cat curled up on cushion in front of Aga. Prominent white star on his thigh.
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Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 18/11/2023
Forests are also a home for many Indigenous People, a place of spiritual significance, as well as a larder, a pharmacy and a shelter. Sadly, some projects aimed at protecting forests have ignored the rights of these people, to the detriment of both the forests and society.
A boy in the highland forest of Papua holds freshly picked passion fruit in his hand
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