Six weeks of UK media headlines. The election is done. Now we can compare.

Reform UK received 2.23x more coverage in UK-wide outlets than Scottish outlets from the same publishers. Their vote share was 2.21x higher in England than Scotland.

The Scottish Greens finished third in Holyrood. Their co-leader received zero BBC Scotland mentions in the six weeks before polling day.

Some more findings, including how UK and Scottish editions frame the same stories differently:

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/media/after-the-votes-were-counted/

#Scotland #Holyrood2026 #media #linguistics #data #RaffsReflections

I have been harvesting UK media headlines for six weeks as part of a linguistics study. I ran a query this morning, election day, to count how often Scottish party leaders were mentioned across 25 outlets.

The Scottish Greens are polling second in Scotland tonight. Their two co-leaders got 40 mentions combined.

Malcolm Offord, whose party has never held a Holyrood seat, got 167.

Follow the link for more findings, including why this might matter.

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/media/the-loudest-voice-in-the-room/

#Scotland #Holyrood2026 #media #linguistics #UKPol #UKPolitics #ScotPol #Election #AI #RaffsReflections

@ScottishGreens @katenevens

You cross a finish line.

Someone enters your bib number into a publicly accessible gallery. Within two minutes they have 72 high-resolution photographs of your face and body, your full name, age category, finishing time (which suggests your health status), and running club affiliation.

No login. No identity verification. No data protection mechanism triggered. They have no relationship with you whatsoever.

This is not a hypothetical. I tested it.

———

I've been reviewing privacy policies of major UK sporting event organisers.

Medical data collected without legal basis, international transfers undisclosed, no separate consent for facial recognition, no documented data processing agreements with photography providers.

Nobody has looked at this properly yet. The full data chain — registration, results, photography, facial recognition — creates a biometric identification pipeline that any member of the public can access.

The ICO hasn't issued sector-specific guidance. I've written up the analysis and invited them to take a look.

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/privacy/beyond-the-finish-line/

@openrightsgroup @privacyint @eff @pluralistic

#privacy #photography #FacialRecognition #blog #RaffsReflections

A new post on Raff's Reflections:

Killing with Kindness: The Problem with Feeding Wildlife

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/wildlife/killing-with-kindness/

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I often see neighbours leaving food out for foxes and birds where I live. I decided to investigate what the science actually says, and what I found troubled me enough to write about it.

The research shows feeding wildlife spreads disease, benefits common aggressive species over the ones that actually need help, and introduces antibiotic-resistant bacteria into wild populations.

The post isn't about judging neighbours. It's about what the evidence says and what people who genuinely love wildlife should be doing instead.

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/wildlife/killing-with-kindness/

#RaffsReflections #Blog #Wildlife #RSPB #Science #WildlifeWednesday

RE: https://sunny.garden/@RaffKarva/116391971444212316

"What photography actually gave me — and I didn't know I needed it until I had it — is self-reflection and self-discovery. When I raise the camera, something shifts. My breathing slows. My heart rate steadies. The noise that runs constantly in the background goes quiet. I am present in the moment.

Most of us move through the world on a kind of autopilot. We see without looking. We're present without being attentive. Photography broke me of that habit early, and I've never recovered — and I mean that as gratitude.

I didn't set out to find mindfulness. I found it through a viewfinder. And I've been going back to it ever since."

Mindfulness Through Photography

New post on Raff's Reflections:

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/photography/mindfulness-through-photography/

#RaffsReflections #Photography #Writing #Blog

Mindfulness Through Photography.

New post on Raff's Reflections — my first camera, film discipline, patience, and what happens in my head when I raise a camera.

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/photography/mindfulness-through-photography/

#RaffsReflections #photography #blog #writing

RE: https://sunny.garden/@RaffKarva/116257867631848508

"A few years ago I wasn't thinking about any of this. I was working sixty-plus hours a week, raising kids, coaching volleyball, running a scouts group. Privacy wasn't on my radar — not because I didn't care, but because I simply didn't have the bandwidth to notice. I was too busy living my life to think about who was watching it.

Most people are in that position right now. Not indifferent — just busy. Overwhelmed. Trying to keep up with work and family and everything else, with no mental space left over to worry about whether their smart fridge is selling their grocery habits to advertisers."

#RaffsReflections

New post on Raff's Reflections: my privacy journey. From being a genuine Google fan to GrapheneOS and Linux Mint, and why it happened.

Practical tool recommendations included for those who want to start somewhere.

It's been sitting in my head for a while, I'm glad it's finally out.

https://raffkarva.com/blog/posts/privacy/from-googler-to-grapheneos/

#RaffsReflections

RE: https://sunny.garden/@RaffKarva/116227827043061115

Blog rebuilt. It turned out simpler than I expected.

I ended up using plain HTML and PHP. From now on, I will write posts offline in markdown, convert to HTML, upload. Such workflow is more aligned with how my brain works.

It's a shame I delayed learning HTML for so long. It's a lot of fun.

Link below in case you want to see what this post is about:

https://raffkarva.com/blog/

#RaffsReflections

#Announcement

After a few sleepless nights and what feels like eternity, last night I was finally able to launch a Print Store on my website. Self-contained** and built in HTML and PHP (I like to know how things work). No algorithms, no cookies, no tracking or tagging, no basket reminders, pop ups or ads. Just a print store that (hopefully) works. Small selection of my wildlife and landscape images from Edinburgh and Scotland. Check it out and let me know what you think.

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I also launched a blog powered by Ghost recently, but due to Ghost's architecture, I decided to migrate the blog to Hugo while I only have three public posts. I'm almost done; two or three more afternoons to move everything to markdown and HTML.

If you're looking for a publishing platform with minimal input, Ghost is great. But for me, its code is too bloated and too script heavy. I like simple things that are easy to customise and debug.

My blog, Raff's Reflections, is and will remain RSS accessible. Photography, music, running, wildlife, outdoors, van life, linguistics and more. One/two posts per month. I'm not after building following — I disabled Ghost's subscriptions, members monetisation and analytics on day one. I just need a place to write freely. If it's not for you, please add #RaffsReflections to your filters list (after publishing, I might share blog posts here).

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I'm off for a walk, wishing all a pleasant day!

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**payments processed by Stripe

https://raffkarva.com/prints/