Jules @afewbugs@librem.one

#SilentSunday

Heard of another excellent scientist leaving UK academia for a European company today.

The #Brexit brain drain is slow, but it is happening, people.

“The UK asylum policy approach is more akin to authoritarian nations that walk away from international human rights treaties, such as Russia or Belarus.

“We need an approach that replaces the chaos and cost, and focuses on compassion and competence, creating safe and orderly routes for refugees to reach the UK, such as refugee visas, and always give people a fair hearing so their rights are respected.”

Enver Solomon,
Refugee Council.

#RefugeesWelcome
#SafeRoutes

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/11/children-fleeing-danger-in-small-boats-should-be-deported-says-tory-thinktank

Vigils are being organised in pretty much every major city in the UK for #BriannaGhey

Glasgow - George Square, 16th Feb, 7pm

Liverpool - St George's Hall, 14th Feb, 7pm

Manchester - Sackville Gardens, 15th Feb, 7pm

I've seen there are plans for Bristol as well, and I suspect London will have one.

Vigil for Brianna Ghey
Department of Education London
Wednesday 15th 6PM
SW1P 3BT

An in-depth look at using a naturally occurring bacteria to affect dengue fever transmission by mosquitoes https://undark.org/2023/02/13/why-singapore-is-breeding-millions-of-bacteria-infected-mosquitoes/

Headline from the Guardian --

"Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly train derailments"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/11/ohio-train-derailment-wake-up-call

Some people are making comparisons of this Ohio train wreck to the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. But to me there's another historical event that seems far more similar and also provides an even more ominous warning for us: the chemical gas leak that occurred in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing tens of thousands.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Bhopal-disaster

I'm old enough to remember when this happened, and it was horrific. Could something just as bad take place today in the United States?

As oil companies eagerly produce ever greater amounts of petrochemicals for making plastics and as demand for those plastics keeps increasing year after year, and as capitalists continue lobbying for relaxed safety regulations and lowered environmental protection to increase their profits, along with reduced wages and shabbier working conditions for train personnel, it all seems to create the perfect recipe for another deadly disaster.

Let's hope I'm wrong.

#chemicals #disaster #AntiCapitalism #KeepItInTheGround

Absolutely tragic what happened to Brianna. Such a horrible thing to happen to a young girl 💔

A vigil is being held in Liverpool on Tuesday at St George's Hall, 7pm, for anyone local

#BriannaGhey #TransRightsAreHumanRights

Daytime TV normalising libraries as a place to keep warm. Not a place to educate and learn but a place to keep warm. Tory Britain in 2023! Oh, and the Tories are responsible for the closure of many of them too…..

Earth's human population recently reached 8 billion people.

Here's where they live.

Data visualization by Pietro Violo https://pietroviolo.com/

the framing of mastodon having attrition problems bafflingly misses what's interesting here

mastodon's new user retention rate being as high as it is, despite there being no UX team designing shady psychological tricks into the service/apps to keep you coming back, is a pretty big deal

like, let's be honest, there's very little about mastodon that's making us want to return here compulsively or addictively the way so many for-profit services implicitly aim for

it's pretty much just the people

I promise you, this is not a weird little rubber desert island toy for smurfs, complete with coconut trees.

It's a liverwort which I just found growing between some paving stones behind our house. It must be...2cm (3/4") high?

#Macro #MacroPhotography #Liverwort

Y'all need to read this thread.

And the replies.

"One of the cruelest things about Autistic/ADHD masking is that you learn to treat positive emotions as a warning sign that you're about to do something "wrong" and that it is therefore "safest for everyone" if you maintain a constant, low-key negative internal emotional state."

"I have received the message that my joy comes at a cost to everyone else. My happiness is something I do to others.
So I have learned to always keep my emotional barometer just slightly inside of the depressed range."

"Sometimes I say that I am happiest when I am by myself, but I wonder if maybe I am just only actually allowed to feel happy -- like truly happy without that lingering soupçon of impending indecorum and fuckuppery -- when I am by myself."

https://twitter.com/the_tweedy/status/1600287106072735744

#ActuallyAutistic

Can anyone recommend some good pro-transgender charities in the U.K., for donations?

Boosts appreciated.

A young trans girl was murdered over the weekend in the UK. She'd suffered transphobic bullying for years while school and police did nothing. She has been misgendered and deadnamed in at least one newspaper and other papers have removed "girl" from their byline.

I have a trans relative the same age as her, I can't even imagine the pain her parents and family are going through. The UK trans community is in mourning and we are angry at the media and political climate that allows people to view trans lives as nothing.

I'm hurt and tired and so fucking angry. How do I explain to my employer that my brain is taken up by the loss of one of our sisters and that whatever tasks I'm doing here feel pointless in comparison?

Being fuelled by rage isn't sustainable, I know this, but today there is little room for anything else.

Amongst a flurry of questionable bills being introduced in American states recently, a new piece of legislation in Montana would prevent scientific theories from being taught in schools.

I tried to warn you this would be next.

https://www.iflscience.com/new-montana-bill-would-prevent-schools-teaching-scientific-theories-67451

#BBCLauraK asks #AndrewMitchell if, in some way, the government or some its ministers may have been responsible for #Knowsley

"There are accusations though that the government has created an environment where feelings against asylum seekers have been stirred up," she says.

(ahem) 🔽

#WhoMakesTheNazis

I can not stress enough how valuable and important it is to learn how to maintain and repair the things you own.

Not just cars, but washing machines, dryers, air conditioning, boiler, phones, computers, clothing, etc.

Obviously with electrical, gas and plumbing, learn it properly if you can through a course.

Regardless of how you learn, you'll gain the skills to keep things going that bit longer before you need a replacement.

#solarpunk #repair #reduce #reuse #recycle

1/ Follow up to previous post about repairing.

We live in an amazing time of education. Not just academical, but skills.

I'm not just talking about things like Skillshare, that focus predominantly on digital skills, coding, editing, writing, etc. but traditional crafts as well.
Blacksmithing, welding, plumbing, electrical, construction, tailoring, weaving.

Need to repair an adobe wall? There's a youtube channel.

Need to rewire a socket?
There's a well written page.