hicksy2

Technical writer based in Sheffield, UK. Interested in science, technology, engineering, progressive politics, environment, nature management

Public Key

npub1hask3s3z27yqtfe2a97msfnemdtzqqgp8r9kd5gggpukvaynsndqexej5z

NIP-05 Address

hicksy2_at_mastodon.green@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst7ctgcg390zq95u4wjldcyeuak43qqyqn3jmx6yyyq7txwjfcfkspr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet5qy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hspx6smq

Publishing to

nostr-pub.wellorder.net

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1hask3s3z27yqtfe2a97msfnemdtzqqgp8r9kd5gggpukvaynsndqexej5z

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Last Notes

2026-08-05 08:17:47 UTC

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that image looks like AI slop and low quality AI slop

2026-07-22 12:40:04 UTC

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qualitatively speaking, how dispatchable can nuclear be? Wartsila, for instance, reckon the only really dispatchable power in an intermittent renewables mix are big gas cylinder engines. But Wartsila make big cylinder engines so they would say that.

2026-07-22 12:37:30 UTC

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I imagine you are confronted with the cost accusation quite regularly. Given that, is there a reference website showing LCOE of Nuclear vs. wind vs. solar under multiple scenarios to which you could refer dullards such as myself? I have become more sceptical about new nuclear builds after being rather misled that SizewellC is a new power station. It's also new workers dormitories, workers car parks, access roads, site compounds, park and ride sites....... Affecting a 20km radius

2026-07-22 11:21:15 UTC

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LCOE? Impact on the ground of Sizewell C is much bigger over a much wider area than Sizewell B ever was. I'm not an economist and I can't judge relative value but I *can* see when something will be expensive in absolute terms and five more Hinckley Point C/Sizewell C's are VERY expensive, with a far greater impact on ecology on the ground than I had realised, regardless if we could "use" them or not.

2026-05-09 15:33:08 UTC

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gambling is bad but I wonder what sort of odds you can get on 5% attrition over the next 12 months? Easily achievable with the track record of expulsions, defections, convictions and resignations when they realise they have to go to meetings and stuff.

2026-03-02 12:47:43 UTC

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TLDR but do the figures include land use to mine raw materials and uranium for fuel, plus enrichment, reprocessing and waste storage facilities. I also loved the assertion that solar panels would 'probably' need replacing three times during the lifetime of Hinckley Point C.

2025-12-20 17:25:56 UTC

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take inspiration from Orbital on top of the pops 1990. 'No poll tax' T-shirts were banned. So one of them wore a 'No' t-shirt and the other wore a 'poll tax' T-shirt.

2025-11-12 20:18:30 UTC

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is 'Interesting' Engineering' proper. I keep getting sent a load of their stories and the headlines look like AI slop.

2025-10-28 12:01:52 UTC

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I've not forgotten an attempt 18 months ago to eat in a restaurant that was absolutely spoiled by the number of delivery riders coming in and out and brushing past the table. Good food, sit down restaurant prices but a worse atmosphere than a transport cafe in a shipping container.

2025-10-19 14:02:33 UTC

I grew grapes on my allotment. This is is Sheffield, UK. 53 degrees North. #allotment #grapes #sheffield
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/115/401/186/610/226/798/original/9d7836b12dfd354c.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/115/401/186/747/613/542/original/d2647f1d27515ebb.jpg

2025-10-09 14:38:32 UTC

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Had you heard of Copenhagen Atomics? Awarded EIC accelerator funding to commercialise this. #eicAccelerator

2025-10-09 11:09:48 UTC

Allotment jobs for winter:
1. Plant garlic
2. Take down climbing beans and clear bed ready for spuds or cucurbit next year
3. Take down tent greenhouse
4. Take hop layers home to sturdy tent greenhouse over winter
5. Plant broad beans
6. Clear tomato remains from inside polytunnel frame
7. Clear courgette and squash remains
8. Source replacement polytunnel cover
9. Clear brambles from large bed, rotavate where there's no couch grass. Cover couch grass and forget for next year.... #allotment

2025-10-03 18:09:54 UTC

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I know @npub177q…qef9 can't see this and won't respond but, as Michael Fish once said 'it's going to get very windy' (in the Bay of Biscay). I haven't been to the plot and not had a chance to take the tent greenhouse down, but I reckon it's a gonner. I might be shopping for a new polytunnel too.... This is Sheffield, where winds are heavier than forecast IMO. #allotment #sheffield #stormamy

2025-09-09 11:26:09 UTC

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could someone set up a 'Gardening UK' group please? That way we can splinter into Gardening, North UK and further into Gardening Sheffield.

2025-09-08 12:53:43 UTC

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I read somewhere on here that they were moving to something called Lemmy? I didn't know there were groups on Mastodon/Fediverse. #lemmy

2025-09-03 11:19:08 UTC

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I'm glad to see the alt text rightfully acknowledges room for improvement in that log stacking. Once the apples are harvested, my woodcutting begins.

2025-07-30 13:58:38 UTC

Autumn is coming and it's not even August. Here's a nice cluster of hazelnuts on a tree I planted in December 2020. Hoping the squirrels leave them alone. I'd quote Steve Albini but he's a misogynist or something. Further images to come (maybe) of other hazels I have planted over the last five years. Sheffield, UK, 29 July 2925. #corylusavellana #allotment #Hazelnut #sheffield
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/942/505/603/838/008/original/4e316a0cd18fd1b3.jpg

2025-07-11 14:16:18 UTC

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Well re-filling update. It isn't refilling very fast, if at all. This is now over 4m below ground level, Sheffield UK. #groundwater #sheffield
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/834/868/904/813/302/original/fe321220b3c6ba7e.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/835/014/578/708/509/original/8731bbffbbde287c.jpg

2025-07-11 13:35:21 UTC

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well done on Okra, I failed with this in Sheffield, South Yorks, UK a few years ago.

2025-07-09 11:08:56 UTC

Bought myself a pump as a birthday present. Pumped two weeks' worth of gardening water from my well. Now I will find out how quickly groundwater refills it. #allotment #well #groundwater #HosepipeBan
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/822/943/991/772/918/original/41ed50c05d38b7cb.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/822/950/202/407/209/original/14c817518f933bfc.jpg

2025-06-11 09:26:55 UTC

Now I've got bean poles up it looks like a proper allotment. #allotment #Phaseolus
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/664/004/355/692/622/original/e31a3cfae9863651.jpg

2025-04-13 18:51:00 UTC

With the better weather, I have been poking things in the garden with sticks again. Alicante Tomato plants for swaps/giveaway. Small, tasty red salad variety. Plus some well rooted Ajuga cuttings. #allotment #plantswapuk #sheffieldplantswap #ajugareptans #tomatoes
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/332/150/958/641/036/original/005718334d7dc25a.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/332/153/577/225/099/original/5e174ce58637d39d.jpg

2024-11-19 16:18:27 UTC

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have another from #sheffield #uk
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/510/512/948/615/316/original/d032537a0cb50ad4.jpg

2024-11-18 12:27:52 UTC

Some saved seeds, heirloom runner beans, originally from great-great-uncle Fred (I think) from somewhere in mid-Suffolk, UK. If I ever met him, it was before I was old enough to remember names and stuff. Will be planted in Sheffield next spring. #allotment #seedsaving
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/503/935/430/968/494/original/d3ae9c2548632ad4.jpg

2024-11-06 14:07:39 UTC

I took a lunchtime walk through other people's allotments. I have kiwi jealousy. Sorry for any invasion of privacy; I took this from a public path. #kiwi #allotment #rustlingsroad #allotmentjealousy
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/436/385/968/522/023/original/2d1dfba9be2cbc62.jpg

2024-10-31 09:58:41 UTC

Yesterday I received excellent service and courteous, professional replies to e-mail from a city council where I did not expect this. And dreadful customer service from a large retailer where this should have been baked in. And Google photos reminded me I cut a tree down four years ago. It has all recovered nicely now. I should have gone to the plot and built some supports for a vine rather than trying to buy anything. #sheffield #pollarding #allotment
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/401/424/503/246/321/original/42eca09f68f30277.jpg

2024-10-28 19:34:25 UTC

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it says something about me that I spotted there's something looks like Lampranthus in that dune before I got bothered about the dog.... #lampranthus

2024-10-28 09:28:37 UTC

There has been lots said about 2024 being a poor year for pumpkins and squash in the UK. It has also been notable for: squirrels ring barking sycamore trees, causing a lot of crown death; tiny walnuts; tiny chestnuts. Chestnuts are 25mm max; green walnuts 40mm. Unlikely to have formed a kernel. I have germinated walnuts three years of the last six and chestnuts last year. I doubt it will happen this year. #autumn #chestnuts #sheffield #walnut #juglansnigra #castanea
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/384/163/203/574/076/original/3a38eed65f136a31.jpg

2024-10-19 20:11:16 UTC

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in the olden days, people used to bring fresh manure into greenhouses and put their most tender plants on top of that for the heat to keep frost out

2024-10-19 17:24:44 UTC

Spent a day in the garden and the plot, once the rain had worked through. Planted multiple pots of bulb lasagna, no idea what the bulbs were.... Daffodils, tulips, crocuses all mixed up. Emptied out a compost tub that had worked well, put more tender plants into the greenhouse to overwinter. Barrowed more woodchip into the polytunnel to keep soil covered over winter. Felled a young ash tree that was casting shade. Got roof tiles out of a skip to make bed edges #bulblasagna #allotment #compost
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/335/229/547/554/521/original/8ab53382ab4c4138.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/335/237/625/187/487/original/d6479318fd79709e.jpg

2024-10-01 17:18:39 UTC

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basically leaving heritage railways and Fred Dibnah types with steam engines

2024-10-01 16:23:10 UTC

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Coal for domestic heating is illegal now, apparently.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-coal-for-domestic-use-in-england

2024-10-01 15:33:05 UTC

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what would the UK be burning coal for? Domestic heating? Cottage industry? Last blast furnace is due to close soon as well. Or are you talking about coal burnt overseas for products exported to the UK?

2024-09-23 12:55:52 UTC

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I have been in protracted conversation with Sheffield City Council with this delightful unlicensed dump next to my plot. They keep talking about 'Schedule 4' (whatever that is) and show zero inclination to force the landowner to clear it up and take steps to prevent flytipping, like putting up a fence.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/186/961/704/792/782/original/1ff4bab66684a6a8.jpg
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/186/961/944/611/229/original/344613fdd1f2442b.jpg

2024-09-23 11:11:50 UTC

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removed from my coppice bit in the last week. Plus a bin bag (contents returned to nature), lemonade bottle with abundant moss growth, PVC downpipe and domestos bottle dating from the time such products had metal screw on lids. Left for another day- multiple sheets of asbestos insulation board (largely buried), a refrigerator rusted beyond enough structural integrity to move, a satellite dish plus a PVC door. Private land, my problem.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/186/523/916/413/299/original/e3ae6a6300a9e976.jpg

2024-08-28 11:35:56 UTC

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'Nein Dougal, dies ist nah and klein, das ist gross und fern. Nah, fern, gross, klein.'
'Nein Ted, ich verstehe noch nicht'