@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

DuncanMSussexPol

@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community

Former biochemist but escaped from the lab! Now an interdisciplinary social scientist.

Political account - on Birdsite this overtook things somewhat so I've separated it out. (So please don't take offence if I follow you on only one account! It's a judgement on content type, not quality.) (UK-based)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

I believe that only the U.S. and Australia permit pharmaceutical ads on television. I don't care what they do Down Under in this regard, but these endless repetitive disgusting med ads should be banned from U.S. television just as cigarette ads were many decades ago.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@lauren I think OTC is legal most places, we have adverts for things like ibuprofen or antacids here in the UK but not the prescription med ads you all have.

And, yeah, those should be banned!

RTR#29 Another boring update: Categories and bug fixes

Today, I wanted to introduce you to Categories - a new feature that is essentially a multi-mags view. A new tab will appear in the user panel where you can create categories (public or private) and then add magazines to them (local or remote). In the magazine listing, there will be another tab that will list public categories...

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@ernest nice! One of the biggest problems I found with KBin/Lemmy was the duplication of very similar communities across them. This goes a long way to fixing that!

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-european-officials-broach-topic-peace-negotiations-ukraine-sources-rcna123628

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports would be a massive mistake for the US and European countries to not back Ukraine to the hilt here.

The next conflict with Russia will be much more expensive in lives, materiel and money if they don't.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

Hi all. Due to a business trip I will be less available until Sunday. From then, you can expect me to post here again.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports no worries, hope the trip goes well. And if it's somewhere nice that you get to do something fun there while you're over.

DuncanMSussexPol, to bluesky
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

Had a invite land on my lap and have given it a whirl. Immediate thoughts:

  • different "missing" features - no edit, no trending, no hashtags (!). But quote posts, (optional) algorithms and text search is better vs .
  • more active accounts I remember from Birdsite than here.
  • unambiguously worse and uglier UI. It's bad.
  • vibes worse than here, closer to 2018 Birdsite (already bad) than 2012.
  • quiet vs here.
  • over serious & the funny accounts seem more forced than here.
DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

My takeaways from vs (or in general)

  • both are good, here is better, not sure BlueSky quite good enough to properly use in parallel.
  • features-wise both BlueSky and Masto should crib off each other.
  • BlueSky's weaknesses and Masto's weaknesses compensate each other well. So AT was a mistake.
  • ideally AP should incorporate some of the technical improvements of AT and both should natively bridge.
  • if this doesn't happen displacing Birdsite will take much longer.
noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

How many of you are on BlueSky or have the intention to go to BlueSky?

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports I'm not on it, my interest in it waned when Masto took off (to the extent it has) and I never did the follow up to get an early invite even though I'd been on the waiting list for ages.

I guess I thought Twitter had already got pretty bad long before Musk took over so something involving Dorsey wasn't that appealing.

Will probably give it a whirl if it has a decent public launch but I expect it'll look pretty bad vs here or how Twitter was.

BlackAzizAnansi, to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

The fediverse is def no pre-musk twitter because it's damn near impossible to find on the ground accounts regarding what's going on in Israel/Palestine.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@BlackAzizAnansi yeah. I think Masto has a potential beyond anything Twitter had but it's definitely not achieving what that site did at its peak.

The relative difficulty of finding breaking news and the individuals who know what they're on about when it happens is a big part of that.

Personally I'd argue Twitter went off the boil a long time before Musk though, that was "just" out of the frying pan and into the fire. Part of why I'm not mad on BlueSky.

kevinrothrock, to random

Russia's new high school geography textbooks have relabeled North and South America as "Anglo-Saxon America" and "Latin America." https://t.me/eschulmann/5917?single

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@kevinrothrock I've got my scepticism about where they've marked the burghs but I'm sure the Anglo-Saxons in North America are glad to have so much distance from the Danes.

Hopefully it'll be a long time before they need to raise the third and fight off the raiders, shieldwall to shieldwall. Praise Wodin.

kevinrothrock, to random

Top picks for Mastodon Android apps? Mine for some time has been Megalodon.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@kevinrothrock also Megalodon. Occasionally Fedilab.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

"Russia calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop the bloodshed and return to a diplomatic settlement," Zakharova said.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports yeah, that'll do it…

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

Is Orban deceiving his master?

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the Hungarian government plans to switch the Paks Nuclear Power Plant from Russian to French nuclear fuel in the future.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports perhaps he's seen there's not much mileage in being pro-Russia any more. I certainly hope so.

Tendar, to random
@Tendar@newsie.social avatar

10.000 followers in Mastodon!

Thank you very much for your interest. I try to make my best using Mastodon.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@Tendar cheers, I really appreciate your being here. One of the best accounts for this (on either platform).

73ms, (edited ) to Ukraine

Recommended follow list for Ukraine war on Mastodon

Here are my recommendations for coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Only accounts active recently and you can easily import them from a file. They are split into two different lists by type.

  1. Ukraine: OSINT & war updates

This list mostly has accounts posting quickly about daily events of the war and doing open source intelligence.

Accounts in this list:
@warnoir
@noelreports
@warmapper
@Tendar
@militarylandnet
@chrisschmitz
@militarnyi
@Landcombatmissiles
@Gettyregion

  1. Ukraine: Analysis & coverage

This list is accounts focused more on in-depth analysis, information about what is happening in the background, followup stories etc.

Accounts in this list:
@Odrachewych
@markhertling
@justinling
@WarInTheFuture
@joannekelly
@rikefranke
@EmmanuelleChaze
@aliide
@anneapplebaum
@giocomai
@PopovaProf
@OlyaOliker
@EugeneMcParland
@ChrisO_wiki
@AlexSpal
@markmackinnon
@timkmak
@jpaulgoode
@ScottLucas
@tonimichel_
@ManyRoads
@AndersGottlieb
@kevinrothrock
@MAKS23

Download the file here if you want to import: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmVkBo17Jko4sozHoMzQU6raR4D1KCKomEZJ6QZChVJeLA?filename=ukraine_lists.csv

The import file relies on the List import feature recently added to Mastodon. I have noticed the list import results in a few accounts sometimes ending up in their separate list by the same name so you may have to fix that manually afterwards if this happens on your instance. If many people are on an older Mastodon version and want it I can also post a follows file that will work for those.

Import instructions:

  1. Sign into your instance on the web
  2. go to settings (Gear icon)
  3. Choose Import and Export -> Import
  4. For import type choose "Lists" (could also be "Translation missing: en.imports.types.lists" if there is an issue with the localization).
  5. Select "merge" to only add to your current follows/lists so nothing you have gets deleted
  6. Browse for CSV file and start import

I would also suggest following the hashtags and

Crossposted to @ukraine on Lemmy which you can also follow through Mastodon

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@73ms cheers for this. Ukraine coverage (solely from accounts I know) and polling/election stuff are the two big topics where I still need to go to the other place for, via Nitter.

Having more Fedi options is very welcome! Especially accounts that post the same on both platforms or primarily here.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace has resigned. Sky news reports that probably today Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will introduce Wallace's successors.

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-cabinet-reshuffle-speculation-mounts-as-policing-reforms-unveiled-after-scandals-12593360

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports wow, Shapps is quite the downgrade.

I know Wallace made a really daft comment once, and he doesn't have a great rep outside defence, but he was genuinely good and well respected in that role.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

I am back from holiday 🙂

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@noelreports good to have you back!

warmapper, to random
@warmapper@mstdn.social avatar

I'm going away for a planned break with family until the end of the month.

I'll be back to posting again from September 2nd.

See you then 👋

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@warmapper have a nice time, and thanks for your work.

timkmak, to random
@timkmak@journa.host avatar

Hi folks — there’s no issue of The Counteroffensive today. Unfortunately I’ve been hospitalized in Kyiv due to a bad infection.

I’m on the mend. However, it’s unclear whether our insurance will cover this stay.

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@timkmak I hope you get better soon, infections in hospital can be frustrating but it's the best place to be.

ChrisO_wiki, to random
@ChrisO_wiki@mastodon.social avatar

1/ Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has been denounced again in another memo to the Kremlin, reportedly written by the political strategist and Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev. It calls Solovyov and his colleague Margarita Simonyan "information structures of Prigozhin". ⬇️

DuncanMSussexPol,
@DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

@ChrisO_wiki an interesting thread, there's a self-awareness there that's quite fascinating and seeing it expressed so openly at times seems remarkable.

Not that I doubt there many that think like that but it's rare to hear it so earnestly expressed from a Russian source. At least to me.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @noelreports if the Russians weren't regularly targeting civilians in Ukraine that'd be a good point.

    As is it's pathetic!

    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @Roundcat not too bad!

    noelreports, to random Dutch
    @noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

    Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion, reports that Russian forces lost Staromaiors'ke.

    "The loss of a settlement after a stubborn and no doubt heroic defense is a blow to our military pride."

    We are waiting for official and/or visual confirmation.

    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @noelreports getting close to the first major defensive line now!

    ChrisO_wiki, (edited ) to random
    @ChrisO_wiki@mastodon.social avatar

    1/ Russian teenagers who were once hailed as "future Elon Musks" are reported to have been put to work around the clock in conditions of "teenage slavery" to build Shahed kamikaze drones in Tatarstan. They are reportedly shot at close range with paintball guns to weed out "wimps and brats."

    The facility has also recruited teenagers from African countries, catfishing them via dating apps. It has focused on recruiting girls, as African boys are regarded as "too aggressive and dangerous". ⬇️

    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @ChrisO_wiki I don't know why, perhaps because it's just ordinary kids or because of the heavy racism heaped on top, but I find this thread particularly grim, even by the standards of what's going on within Russia in your other threads.

    Fantastic work, of course, but depressing.

    timkmak, (edited ) to random
    @timkmak@journa.host avatar

    Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant/active?

    I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.

    We’re trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.

    If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? http://Counteroffensive.substack.com

    I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.

    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @timkmak already subbed, but rest assured I really value your work here!

    noelreports, to random Dutch
    @noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

    The Government of Serbia allocated humanitarian aid to Ukraine to overcome the humanitarian disaster in the Kherson region after the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP. https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/news/2023/07/15/7165856/

    DuncanMSussexPol,
    @DuncanMSussexPol@toot.community avatar

    @noelreports that's some big news, not exactly one of the stalwart supporters of Ukraine.

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