Sign in

Dominic Elson

@73foundation.bsky.social
371 followers 297 following 278 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

PostsRepliesMedia
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In Indonesia they have always been called ‘hand phones’ (or ‘hp’ for short). Which I always felt was better description than ‘mobile’ or increasingly anachronistic ’smartphone’.
010
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
My first carphone was a System 4. Huge arial on my Company Astra, and I think the subscription based on how many zones you would be able to receive calls, so it was aimed squarely at sales reps. Got me out of trouble many times. And then the Racal Vodac guy turned up…
010
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Exmoor National Park @exmoornp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So proud of our Young Rangers! They teamed up with Plastic Free Exmoor for an extreme Beach Clean at Glenthorne Beach. Nathan, one of our Exmoor National Park Rangers helped clear the haul-Thank you to all the volunteers!
021
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A.I. and corporate lingo are dragging language ynto drugged realmes of vague, airy, plastic nothingnesse: glitz and hyperbole wythout meaning. Language must have fur and clawes, make the floorboardes creake and leave wet dirtye footprintes. Wordes are rayne and fyre and stone. Wielde them. Save us.
6544203
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Ian Birrell @ianbirrell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Big NYT investigation into how Russia uses shell companies and Tether, a crypto coin, to evade sanctions and buy arms www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/b... One of the key shareholders in Tether is Christopher Harborne - the Thai-based man who is Reform's biggest donor and bunged £5m into Farage's pocket
nytimes.com
The ‘Monster’ Behind Russia’s Global Effort to Evade Western Sanctions
A Moscow firm uses shell companies and cryptocurrency to launder money, and a custom app to forge trade records, to help Russia bypass sweeping financial restrictions.
22218
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
And if you ignore energy balance. And assume non-organic agriculture is 100% efficient in use of land, and if you ignore restoration of degraded land. And if returns to capital matter more than returns to labour. So in a very narrow sense, yes.
011
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Nigella Lawson @nigella.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Perfect Sunday ahead: on the sofa all day with @naomialderman.bsky.social’s utterly compelling, brilliant new novel, The Strangers. I love her writing, I love her mind. Feel I’m gushing rather inarticulately, but I’m in a hurry to get back to the book!
Photograph of The Strangers by Naomi Alderman
1025211
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Man who migrated to another country to avoid taxes says Britain's problem is migration and taxes that he doesn't pay. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Jim Ratcliffe: UK is ‘on the slide’ from days when it had world’s ‘greatest empire’
Co-owner of Manchester United says Britain is in decline because of high taxes and immigration
771093303
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is where the stuff really goes off the rails. If you want to make a charitable donation, trying to rigorously figure out where your money is likely to save the most lives over the next couple years is a tractable problem. Charting the future of humanity over centuries is not.
69110
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Thanks to BT for switching my 91 year old mother’s phone line to ‘digital voice’ without warning, thus cutting off her landline until I was able to work out what had happened. BT says her husband ordered it…three days after he died…
000
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New post: Racism and xenophobia are not 'legitimate concerns' mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/09/raci... When politicians/media describe groups like those in black wearing masks as protestors against asylum seekers in small boats, they presume the motive is 'legitimate concerns' rather than racism.
mainlymacro.blogspot.com
Racism and xenophobia are not 'legitimate concerns'.
During the 2010 election campaign, Prime Minister Gordon Brown was questioned by a member of the public about immigration. Shortly afterwa...
48843
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
And connect it to organised crime in the UK, for whom crypto is now the primary money laundering tool. Drawing the line between fly-tipping, vape shops and crypto may help the public understand what this is really about.
011
Reposted by Dominic Elson
The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
NEW Why holding a placard is a terrorist act, while causing disruption in a balaclava is not The mess caused by ministers and the police not taking terrorism law seriously By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Recent events in England now reveal the practical difference between terrorists and protesters. It would seem that terrorists peacefully hold placards and get immediately arrested, while protesters wear black uniforms and balaclavas and disrupt infrastructure and do not get arrested.

How did we get into this mess? How have we placed ourselves in the position where terrorism legislation is used to detain and prosecute peaceful protesters, while those adopting the terror tactics of private armies seem to be free to do as they wish?

The reason is that for some time British politicians have not taken terrorism legislation seriously, and that ministers have got into the habit of misusing terror laws for easy targets.
321420631
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
As I keep pointing out, does no one understand Ricardian comparative advantage anymore. FACT: China produces over 1 million engineering graduates per year FACT: To date, China has not produced a single internationally marketable game show format Where does it look like our advantage lies?
37661183
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Was I hallucinating or did Nick Robinson just interview Art Laffer as if he was a serious economist? Even Laffer can’t explain the Laffer curve, cos it’s either nonsensical or so superficial it’s meaningless.
120
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is painful to listen to!
110
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Good framing of how to interpret ‘legitimate concerns’ about immigration by @stephenkb.bsky.social The comments BTL do not (I hope) reflect the usual views of FT readers. But they provide many useful examples of ‘illegitimate concerns’…
010
Reposted by Dominic Elson
pharaoh house crash @phchq.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
1713217
Reposted by Dominic Elson
onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
just stop oil protesters got five years in jail for *planning* to do this to the M25.
3729781280
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Meanwhile in Cornwall I’m enjoying Gridserve’s 4kw surging into my EV. We’ll be back on the road in under 6 hours!
010
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
As an inhabitant of a listed building, I wholeheartedly agree. The LBC rules decree that our farmhouse should not resemble how it looked in 1750 (a ramshackle working farm), but must be a sentimental imaginary version of a rural idyll.
050
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Subfusc TieRack
010
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I think maybe we should have called this "why Iran could be America's Suez"
1621035
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We should put this sign on every politician's desk
What would Dolly do?
574352856
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
On the very day Sam published this, one of the most empathetic people of the last century died. And the response among every side of the political spectrum to her death suggests to me that empathy still has some miles left in it.
5630112
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Powerful and important letter about artificial so-called intelligence from Sheila Hayman from Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, in the FT today
Margaret McGirr’s letter (“AI can lend a hand, but it will struggle to replace one”, July 21) and Chine McDonald’s guest column (“This retro revival is more than a longing for the past”, Opinion, August 7) both touch (sic) on something that should be obvious, but is carefully ignored by almost everyone in the tech world. Namely that our intelligence is embodied, evolved and biological, and inseparable from our bodies.
The brain’s job is to control the body in the world; it is the last organ to develop.
Every square centimetre of our hands (and of the rest of our skin) contains about a 170 touch sensors or nerve endings, sensitive to different kinds of touch: a slap, a burn, a caress, a hug — each of which travels to different parts of the midbrain, prompting the appropriate response. Quickly to the autonomic nervous system for something dangerous; more slowly via a different channel for something carrying meaning.
In addition to the hand’s limitless versatility, it is self-repairing, regulates its own temperature, knows without being programmed how much pressure to exert on an egg, a tennis ball or a day-old chick, and can fuse neurologically to whatever it holds.
So when we put a glass down on the table or slide a knife through an apple, we feel the table, or the apple, not the glass or handle in our hand (try it!).
Finally, and most urgently, the entire human body — including the hands — does everything on 25 or so watts of completely renewable energy: a tiny fraction of what a humanoid robot, even one of the current primitive iteration of robots, needs.
The “retro revival” is thus not cultural nostalgia.
It’s millions of years of evolution crying out to be heard, before we suppress it totally in the service of an automated — and dead — planet.
Sheila Hayman
Member of the Advisory Board, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, London NW1, UK
14487264
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Exmoor National Park @exmoornp.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
1/2 High up on Exmoor’s dramatic sea cliffs sits Kipscombe, an 880-acre landscape with a rich history As it enters a new chapter, cared for by the @nationaltrust.org.uk our exhibition at our Lynmouth National Park Centre 4th September to 31st October looks at this special place...
Kipscombe, an 880-acre landscape with a rich history over thousands of years. 

As it enters a new chapter, cared for by the National Trust, our exhibition at our Lynmouth National Park Centre looks at this special place and the people who have helped bring it back to life for nature and community.
131
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Bizarre and unwittingly hilarious article in @financialtimes.com by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promising an ‘economic D-Day’ for Iran. Includes a weird use of Pascal’s wager, which seems to imply that Trump is God. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Scott Bessent: an economic D-Day is coming for Iran
Countries that calculate appeasement of the regime to be a safer choice should reconsider
000
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Given all the discussion of Cofnas et al these last few days, seems like a good time to remind people that I have a starter pack of people who work on (and against) scientific racism you can use to find more relevant people to follow
618592
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Worth reading the thread that led up to this.
3842560
Reposted by Dominic Elson
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 21/08/2026
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
theguardian.com
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
National Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding Aerial footage of an estate in Somerset has revealed the benefits of rewilding land in the face of extreme weather brought about by the climate crisis. The area of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate where rivers have been returned to their natural courses and wetlands have been restored have remained green and lush during the five heatwaves across the summer. In contrast, the surrounding countryside has become parched and brown. Continue reading...
18930349
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My FT annual subscription renewal email arrived today, and this metaphor almost made me cancel! Perhaps Thrombosis one of the lesser known Olympian Gods?
000
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Just received bluetongue test results from APHA that we submitted 3 weeks ago (they are positive). Just as well we didn’t wait and vaccinated anyway. That’s why most farmers aren’t bothering to report cases or get tests done. So UK will learn nothing from the outbreak. Genius.
010
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Rootless Cosmopolitan @brennick.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
In a world full of Trumps, Musks, Jenricks and “Tommy Robinson”, choose to be a Hannah Arendt.
8490139
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Our Mutual Friend Building Society
010
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It was a terrible interview by Webb. He seemed distracted.
020
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Brilliant use of FOI request here
03313
Reposted by Dominic Elson
Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Attacking net zero as a religious obsession "is gaslighting of the highest order. The truth is, it requires dedicated ideological belief to argue against the scientific evidence that net zero is needed to stop ever more expensive and destructive warming" giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
How to stop global warming
The answer is obvious to all except the real climate change zealots: the anti-net zero movement
715362
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
We were hoping the North Ronaldsays were immune, but we’ve got three in the shed needing treatment. They should be OK though as they’re tough little buggers. When they start headbutting me again I’ll know they’re better!
010
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Bluetongue virus update from the farm. So far 20% of the flock needing treatment. 18% of cases resulting in death. Half the patients now well enough to return to flock. Rest in the shed needing constant care. We understand we are more fortunate than most farms here in N.Devon…
130
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Great to see @theguardian.com reporting on the Bluetongue crisis. It’s causing a lot of stress in rural communities in Exmoor. @exmoornp.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Alarming surge in bluetongue disease reported among UK sheep
Farmers advised to vaccinate after recent hot weather provides ideal conditions for virus-carrying midges
163
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Thanks for the reply. Your account blocks DM. Try LinkedIn?
100
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Great news about the eagles returning to Exmoor. Can’t wait to see them flying over the farm!
041
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Any media folk interested in reporting on the Bluetongue pandemic in Devon (out of control among sheep, especially) then get in touch. The reporting and testing system is creaking and farmers are in despair. This is a rural crisis in the making. @dpcarrington.bsky.social
132
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
How did the Green Party lose its way so badly? Moderate environmentalists used to feel at home there, even if they disagreed with some of the radicalism. But now the party is repelling reasonable people, which will not go well for them.
130
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
For sure, the behaviour of visitors here in the Park is a constant irritant (especially inconsiderate dog owners). It creates the friction which then - sadly - bleeds into the rural v town culture war, exacerbated by social media.
120
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I think in the age of social media, these traditions don’t just die away (as some probably should), but instead become entrenched as causing upset to outsiders becomes more rewarding. This is the case with some country pursuits in England, which have cachet if they make vegans weep.
100
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Despite wildfire risk in National Parks, some campsites still promoting ‘open campfires’ & barbecues on social media. NPAs have no powers to ban open fires, even today. But if you want to dig a pond, you’ll need planning permission… @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
011
Dominic Elson @73foundation.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Which could be offset by protecting 50ha of tropical rainforest per year. How many hectares are being felled now to grow “efficient” soy or palm oil to supply intensive livestock feedlots in UK? It’s the system that matters.
000