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Alastair McIntosh

@alastairmci.bsky.social
2.5K followers 716 following 1.6K posts

Human ecologist and Quaker, I share on social justice, environment, land reform, nonviolence and spirituality. Books include Soil and Soul, Poacher's Pilgrimage & Riders on the Storm. Honorary prof Glasgow Uni. Hebrides and Govan. www.AlastairMcIntosh.com

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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 23h
This connects with a conversation I had today on Iona with the chair of a local development trust. Rather than talking down local & Scottish-wide government, we need to be looking at ways in which grassroots empowerment of land & dev trusts can be ladders that raise up competent political leaders.
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Woodbrooke @woodbrooke.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This course introduces the radical and subversive vision of Jesus at the heart of Luke’s Gospel. What do we see when we look at Jesus through Luke? What might Luke’s Jesus have to say to us today? How can we learn from Luke’s message? Book your place: ow.ly/yuFR50ZQyfb
Jesus in Luke’s Gospel 26 November - 17 December £48 with Tim Ashworth
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Alison Phipps አሊሰን @alisonphipps.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Being a global university should not mean becoming less Scottish www.thenational.scot/culture/2658... Subscribe to National app here: www.thenational.scot/subscribe/
thenational.scot
Being a global university should not mean becoming less Scottish
A UNIVERSITY can tell you a great deal about the country around it, not only through what it teaches, but through what it decides is worth keeping,…
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Harvest Moon (Golden Hare) by Tamsin Abbott, English stained glass artist. #HarvestMoon is the #fullmoon closest to the autumn equinox #WomensArt
Stained glass artwork in gold and black featuring a hare lying down amonst grasses under a golden full moon
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Portsoy Harbourmaster's Grip - and what it has to do with mental health in young people today. Text below, or listen to the BBC Scotland Thought for the Day audio broadcast at: tinyurl.com/yc37j3vp
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Former MSP Kate Forbes on parenting: “It doesn’t need to be a mother or a grandmother… Childcare is really important, but … children develop in a different way when they’ve had that sense of love. It’s why we talk about the importance of skin-to-skin contact.” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/265...
heraldscotland.com
Kate Forbes: the moment everything flipped and I knew I had to go
Kate Forbes can pinpoint her moment of truth when she knew she had to quit politics. It had come in 2025 during a visit to India, a country that’s…
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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Cardinal McElroy: With Pope Leo leading, peace teaching is eclipsing just war tradition www.ncronline.org/opinion/card...
ncronline.org
Cardinal McElroy: With Pope Leo leading, peace teaching is eclipsing just war tradition
Tremendous progress has been made toward eclipsing the role of the just war tradition in Catholic teaching, and moving peace-building, multilateralism and nonviolence toward the center, says D.C. Card...
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Canadian folk musician Leeroy Stagger on his 13th album just released, "Pilgrimage", and how his "calling" was influenced by the Scottish Highlands, "Soil and Soul" and "Poacher's Pilgrimage". www.nexusnewspaper.com/newsite/2026...
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Portsoy Harbourmaster's Grip - and what it has to do with mental health in young people today. Text below, or listen to the BBC Scotland Thought for the Day audio broadcast at: tinyurl.com/yc37j3vp
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
On a government commissioned independent review of youth mental health and the importance of older generations reaching out with The Portsoy Harbourmaster’s Grip. My Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland, Wed 23rd at ~O720. Will post text after delivery. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio Scotland - Radio Scotland Breakfast - Available now
Available episodes of Radio Scotland Breakfast
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In my book “Poacher’s Pilgrimage” I explore the roots of this dangerously wacky theology that is deeply embedded in USA. US vice-President JD Vance ‘told Bryce that he is “doing as much of God’s work as possible” and that he is okay “if that leads to the end times,” which, he added, “are coming.”’
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
NASA picture of the day today is a real 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿beauty! This is a composite image of the ~5000yo Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis. The amazing Giuseppe Petricca has only gone and photographed the Sun at noon there, every few days, for a whole year. #Dedication 🔭🧪👌 ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/image-articl...
The imposing Callanish Stones stand talk with their shadows spanning out across the glass.  It's a super clear sky, but looks cold. Above the central stone is a strange figure-of-8 shape of dots.  This is the location of the Sun, at noon, on various different days across the year.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The embroidery work of May Morris (1862-1938) influential English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor #WomensArt
Embroidery featuring a plant with orange trumpet shaped blossoms and interlocking stems and leaves all against a gold background
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is a screenshot of the home page of BBC news - the UK's state broadcaster - as viewed today in France. It's full of crappy adverts. The Met Office app is much the same - an essential service cluttered with junk, unless you pay to go ad free. What kind of a state does this signal?
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here is my own statement about Joe's passing:
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
1/2 The welcome voice of weighty Scottish Jews. May they always be safe here. “A clear majority of all British Jews consider it acceptable to criticise Israel. When it comes to the actions of the present Netanyahu government, the opposition is overwhelming.” www.thenational.scot/news/2656285...
thenational.scot
Scottish Jews back comprehensive sanctions on Israel in letter to Ed Miliband
A diverse group of Jewish individuals and organisations in Scotland have backed comprehensive sanctions against Israel in an open letter to the…
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Chris Pilley @chrispilley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
‘If more people knew how to love…’ #Graffiti #StreetArt #FoundWords #Love #Suicide #LOL #MentalHealth #WritingOnTheWall #Juxtaposition #Concrete #Urban #Edinburgh www.blipfoto.com/entry/354650...
blipfoto.com
‘If more people knew how to love…’ | Chris_P
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Raywat Deonandan 🍁🇨🇦 @deonandan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Such AI hype as “there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future”replays End-of-the-World doomster psychology - the Freudian “death instinct”. It reflects the collapse into nihilism of a meaningless, materialistic worldview. Discuss. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
AI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBC
Jacob Coxon tells the BBC that there's a strong chance AI could end humanity if the rate of development is not reined in.
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The ongoing corruption of our democracy. Limit political donations to a small percentage of average national pay per person. The party machines won’t like it, but it’ll put them all on equal footing. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Ben Delo: Reform receives record £36m donation from cryptocurrency billionaire
Ben Delo's donation, the biggest single sum ever given to a political party in the UK, comes amid scrutiny of Reform's finances.
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Mairéad Nic Craith @maireadnc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Delighted with a BBC blog drawing on research by @ppmcdermott1.bsky.social and me. @insuhi.bsky.social @alastairmci.bsky.social @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social @frankrennie.bsky.social @carsoncenter.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @illinoispress.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
bbc.co.uk
Eagles and wolves: The long-lost animals that live on in Irish place names
Long-standing Irish place names hark back to a world alive with cranes, wolves and eagles. Now these old names are piquing the interest of nature-lovers and ecologists.
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Osbert Lancaster @osbert.org · 10/09/2026
This also speaks to the semi-mythical strong local community we increasingly need in the polycrisis: actually working on hard stuff together with other people because you’re in the same place, not because you necessarily like them!
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
1/3 This is the best paper I've read on the challenges & rewards of community land holding. Alfie Highland, researching Eigg, Evanton & Langholm, shows how webs of demanding common tasks build community - bottom-up politics that Scotland needs. Open access www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Beyond the buyout: the mundane labour of subject formation and environmentality in Scottish community land ownership
The ecological crisis is fundamentally a crisis of relationship: while societies are profoundly influenced by the physical landscapes that they inhabit, they also actively transform them. Historic ...
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Ben Wood @cosmichope.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I find Popper's interpretation of Plato as an archetypal totalitarian a serious misreading. Plato concludes the Republic with praise for the Eternal World & the relative imperfection of earthly politics. A conscientious disciple of Plato cannot be a social engineer. History will always undo itself.
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Bethan Anghorrid @bethanangharadl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Compare & contrast with police breaking into a Quaker meeting house to arrest non-violent activists on charges of “conspiracy to create a public nuisance” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
theguardian.com
Why did 30 Met officers kick the door down at a teenage tea and biscuits meeting in a Quaker house?
When six young women hired a room to discuss the war in Gaza, the gathering ended with 30 officers storming in to make arrests
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Out of 21,000 day release of prisoners near the end of their time with @ScottishPrisons last year, only 2 absconded. This is wonderful on Castle Huntley by Karyn McCluskey, CEO of Community Justice Scotland and formerly of Police Scotland, who co-set up the police Violence Reduction Unit in Glasgow.
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fravery.bsky.social @fravery.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
“Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.” ― Novalis Kevin Kia artwork
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The critical words here, often overlooked, are “after human instruction”. Likewise, a missile. “OpenAI called an incident in which its AI agents - AI systems which can operate alone after human instruction - hacked the tech platform Hugging Face "unprecedented".” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
OpenAI chief scientist warns no-one is prepared for consequences of AI
The post comes as the firm releases GPT-6 Astra, which it says is its most powerful product yet.
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
170 years ago a female scientist made an experiment that demonstrated the greenhouse gas effect that causes global warning. I call Eunice Newton Foote the Mother of Global Warming Science👇. She also campaigned for women’s rights. Read the Royal Society paper on her at: 5–18: bit.ly/32J2EjF
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Today I was a speaker at a book festival in Cumbernauld on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as a symptom of, and a key to, understanding poverty, malaise & disempowerment in Scotland. It was put on by the wonderful Suzanne Zeedyk & colleagues and ended with a weaving of the threads by Anam Alba.
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Francis Fukuyama has changed his mind and no longer considers himself a conservative. I found the closing comment in his (paywalled) interview especially interesting: on how ‘proceduralism’ is making it difficult for liberal democracies to get things done. www.reuters.com/lifestyle/cu...
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
IN G-O-(L)-D WE TRUST
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Mairéad Nic Craith @maireadnc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Lecture to New Zealand branch of @cnagaeilge.bsky.social at 8.30 am Irish time next Wednesday. Fáilte roimh cách @alastairmci.bsky.social @daraobriain.bsky.social @carsoncenter.bsky.social @irishlittimes.bsky.social @kathleenjamie.bsky.social @qubstaff.bsky.social @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Unfortunately, often true. “The complaint, is never merely a complaint. It is an activating mechanism. It sets reputational systems in motion… It allows senior figures to begin managing a problem before they have even bothered to establish what the problem is.” rosiekay.substack.com/p/the-new-ma...
rosiekay.substack.com
The New Mafia
“Nice little business you’ve got there. Nice little career. Nice little board position. Nice little reputation. Shame if anything were to happen to it.”
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The great Wendell Berry has died, aged 92, author of The Unsettling of America which argued that agribusiness had estranged farming from its cultural and spiritual roots, damaging the connections between people, place and land. His Guardian obituary: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
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Barbra Streisand @barbrastreisand.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In 1986, I endowed a chair at the Environmental Defense Fund for Dr Michael Oppenheimer to focus on the dangers of climate change. He along with other climate scientists and Al Gore warned the world was short on time to address its worst impacts.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
'The birth if Pegasus' by contemporary Italian ceramics artist Clara Holt #WomensArt
Large ceramic vase with busy black and white decoration featuring an image of a winged horse
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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Pope Leo: "Hatred and violence bring nothing good, but only destruction and death, always, even when they are a response to injustices suffered," says the Pope. "For this reason, whatever the wound, whatever the offense, let us not allow evil to disfigure our humanity."
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The most awful thing is that climate change is spearheaded by the consumerism of the relatively rich countries, while the impacts take their toll disproportionately on the relatively poor countries. x.com/alastairmci/...
x.com
Alastair McIntosh (@alastairmci) on X
The most awful thing is that climate change is spearheaded by the consumerism of the relatively rich countries, while the impacts take their toll disproportionately on the relatively poor countries. ...
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
What’s this “Scotland’s got to” from Gordon Brown while the N Irish are allowed self-determination? “Scotland’s got to find a way of living in cooperation with other countries, and independence would not be the right way forward.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Ireland will be united, says Gordon Brown
Former PM believes Northern Ireland will leave UK in the long term – but remains opposed to Scottish independence
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Burn their brains," he screamed as his soldiers took aim at one enclave, telling them to follow his orders "as if given by God." It’s not that Christianity causes war. It’s that violence needs it as a mask to justify itself. Such is blasphemy & idolatry. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Ratko Mladić: The monstrous crimes of the 'Butcher of Bosnia'
The Bosnian Serb commander led a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian conflict.
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🕊 Sharon ~ NHDogLover ⚖️ 🗽 @nhdoglover.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Madonna of the Cotton Fields (1927) was painted by the British artist Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970). #Art
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Letter from 130 bioethicists condemns the “unwarranted, ill-advised, & frankly bizarre vendetta against a scientist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, rather than making a sincere effort to learn from the painful experiences of the pandemic to improve national preparedness” bioethicstoday.org/blog/an-open...
bioethicstoday.org
Blog - An Open Letter of Support for Anthony Fauci from the Bioethics Community - Bioethics Today
As individuals concerned with ethics in science, medicine, and public health, we wish to express our dismay at the approach taken by Senate leaders to
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Rev Peter W Nimmo @peternimmo.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I often wonder if our political class is really serious about democracy
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Richard Ferro, MD MSc @richferro.com · 25/08/2026
I’ll always remember Dolly Parton for the fact that she donated $1 million in 2020 to the research that led to Moderna’s COVID vaccine, as well as millions more for childhood vaccine and cancer research. She was an immensely talented, kind, and giving person.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 25/08/2026
The earth belongs unto the Lord and all that it contains except for the West Highland piers for they belong to MacBraynes —Anon. “The crossing between Stornoway and Ullapool is short on a map, but it stretches in the mind” – Kevin MacNeil on crossing the Minch bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/08/25/t...
bellacaledonia.org.uk
The Ferry: Moving Between Two Worlds
As children, we knew ferries before we knew geography. The Mainland was acknowledged to be a large and slightly nebulous place where everything happened. It existed first as something that was part…
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Mairéad Nic Craith @maireadnc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Delighted with the latest publication @alastairmci.bsky.social @alisonphipps.bsky.social @culturalstudies.bsky.social @hehe.excuseme.wtf @carsoncenter.bsky.social
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Running stag detail from Burano lace, a form of needle lace from the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon, a skill dating back to the 16th century #womensart (via swift_antique_lace instagram)
Close-up detai of white lace with running stag motif
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Ben Wood @cosmichope.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
'Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous' (Zhuangzi).
Zhuangzi (莊子) Zhuang Zhou (莊周)
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Alastair McIntosh @alastairmci.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The network of coastal communities and environemtal groups, @ourseas-scot.bsky.social, has written to its members announcing: "After more than a decade of waiting, the Scottish Government may finally be consulting on these long overdue measures to protect our seas". news.stv.tv/highlands-is...
news.stv.tv
Island fishing communities consulted over future protections for Scotland's seas
Ahead of a formal consultation exercise, Jim Fairlie is taking soundings from industry leaders in Shetland and the Western Isles.
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