@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

KimSJ

@KimSJ@mastodon.social

Escapee from Twitter, and now from home.social too. 🫤 Tofu-loving woke ex EU citizen. Retired hi-tech entrepreneur, once focused on future cities/buildings, climate & UBI, now keen on saving the planet and democracy. I dream of the day when I can return my focus to my first loves.

If you don’t like #politics, you probably shouldn’t follow me. 😁 Though I do also have a #creative side, and I'm a #maker too.

he/him

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QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

BREAKING: House passes bill to criminalize criticism of Israel — a bill opposed by numerous Jewish groups, numerous Jewish members of Congress, and the ACLU.

My latest: https://qasimrashid.substack.com/p/breaking-house-passes-bill-to-criminalize

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@QasimRashid Unbelievable that 133 Democrats voted for this ridiculous nonsense. Congress is populated by morons, on both side of the political divide.

ChrisMayLA6, to climate
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

So while you & I might think its necessary to speed up the Green Transition & enhance/accelerate measures to reduce emissions, Shell's shareholders disagree.

The firm has just sought & obtained agreement from investors to slow down its measures to mitigate its environmental impact & reduce progress towards its own (already weak) climate targets.

More reason(s) the fossil fuels sector cannot really be central to climate response(s).

We don't have the time to slow down!

#fossilfuels #climate

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@Mary625 @IveyJanette @GhostOnTheHalfShell @Npars01 @ChrisMayLA6 And the really dumb thing is that instead of wars between countries we could if we chose to have a ‘war’ on climate change with the same boost to the economy.

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

This is truly terrifying. If the Gulf Stream fails, there will be massive and probably irreversible consequences.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/gulf-stream-weakening-now-99-certain-and-ramifications-will-be-global

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

Tomorrow morning I'm publishing my article on the epidemic of child marriage in the United States.

You can subscribe here to receive it at 8am CST: https://open.substack.com/pub/qasimrashid/p/america-has-a-child-marriage-epidemicand?r=fyvxf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Without googling—how many documented child marriages do you think have happened in the USA since 2000?

KimSJ, (edited )
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@QasimRashid Further evidence that it is a myth that America is a mature democracy. ’Land of the free’ my arse!

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Not only are we in late-stage capitalism, we seem to be in late-stage politics too.
Politicians have completely forgotten that they are elected to make good decisions, and are instead obsessed only with getting re-elected.
I have no idea how to fix this. 😢

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

I am definitely very very ready to go home and not be in a big city anymore. I know at least one person at the conference who has tested positive for covid, and I hope hope HOPE that my careful masking and eating outdoors has been enough to avoid catching it. Ugh I never want to go to a conference again.

I slept badly again. Time to venture out and find food and immune-boosting vitamins and coffee, then 3+ interviews and maybe I'll actually get to watch a few conference talks today...

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@sundogplanets @WTL Just bad luck then. 😢 I suppose it’s all the others one has to worry about. And apparently the new variant can be infectious and asymptomatic for up to ten days before symptoms emerge, which is terrifying.

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@sundogplanets Attending any event after testing positive (or even just having symptoms) is the height of irresponsibility. I would not have been able to stop myself making a scene.

axbom, to random
@axbom@axbom.me avatar

Does anyone know of an email service, add-on or tutorial that allows for mimicing the one feature that intrigues me about HEY e-mail: opt-in for receiving emails from someone.

i.e. the default would be that someone who is not yet an approved sender ends up in a separate inbox where I have to confirm if I want to keep receiving email from them or not. I think HEY calls this ’the screener’.

Or if you’ve tried this fature and don’t like it, that would be cool to hear about as well.

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@axbom I think you could set this up on most platforms, albeit with a little faffing about… regard your inbox as the pending tray. Create a folder for approved addresses, and set up a rule to move incoming mail from approved addresses to that folder. Then just add new approved addresses to that rule. Certainly possible to do that on thunderbird, for example.

ChrisMayLA6, to journalism
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Something to ponder on Saturday afternoon.

here's the ever interesting David Allen Green on why regulating the press/media may be easy to demand but is (now) much more difficult to achieve.

For this of us who see the control of the media & what its owners do with that control as a key problem for the UK's democracy, this is what one can call a 'sobering read'!

#media #regulation #democracy

@davidallengreen

https://emptycity.substack.com/p/on-how-regulating-the-media-is-hard

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@davidallengreen @ChrisMayLA6
Content is hard to regulate, but making media platforms responsible for content they promote may be a credible option, especially in conjunction with a law making it a crime to deliberately or recklessly mislead the public.
A lot of the problems with social media are related to the widespread dissemination of outright lies. A legal approach that made platforms cautious about what their algorithms promote would go a long way towards detoxifying social media.

ChrisMayLA6, to environment
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

So the Environmental Agency, is embarrassed to reveal the true state of our environment...

They find it difficult to answer prescient questions from NGOs with significant expertise (the implications being, better informed that the EA staff) & (it would seem) would like the NGO's Q.s to be more simply put to help EA staff offer better answers?

If you wanted a picture of a failing regulatory agency this would be it....

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/24/uks-environment-agency-chief-admits-regulator-buries-freedom-of-information-requests

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@Simon318ppm @zleap @ChrisMayLA6 Indeed. Regulators must be empowered to levy fines which make failing to meet obligations massively uneconomic. Without that power, regulation has no teeth.

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

Boeing's incompetence strikes again, with yet another delay in launching a crewed spaceship. (Boeing co-owns ULA, which makes the rocket.)

The other co-owner is Lockheed Martin.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/boeing-scrubs-starliner-crewed-launch-rcna150843

Note: Getting a lot of pushback, and the comments are reasonable.

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor To be fair, I regard detecting an issue and reacting correctly to it as competence, not incompetence.

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Oriental cultures wear masks whenever they have any symptoms, even just a sniffly nose. It’s high time the rest of the world adopted the same approach.

KimSJ, to rant
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

: I REALLY hate the ‘pull down to refresh’ feature of web browsers. I wish Firefox would let me turn it off. I have lost so many half-written comments because I accidentally dragged the page down. 😡

jmeosbn, to random
@jmeosbn@mas.to avatar

A great article on the GOP’s Phoney War on antisemitism, and its enlistment in a very real and wider campaign against democracy.

— ‘Foer and Bash are right that American democracy is imperiled. But as the draconian crackdown on non-violent student protests makes clear, accusations of antisemitism are not themselves evidence of liberal decline, but rather the tip of the spear in a frightening illiberal project serving the agenda of an emboldened, autocratic right wing.’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/11/us-university-protests-antisemitism-free-speech

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@jmeosbn It’s bullshit to equate every scintilla of criticism of Israel as ‘antisemitic’. To the extent that Israel is criticised more than other countries with similar human rights records, it is more to do with pro than anti. As many Jews and indeed many Israelis feel, we expect better of civilised people. And, rightly or wrongly, the morality of the Gaza conflict feels clearer than with other current conflicts.

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

UK universities continue to be best by crisis, with more rounds of redundancies, courses being closed & financial crisis gripping more & more universities.

Russel Group data suggests universities lose around £2500 for each UK student registered, a loss which until the recent drop off, was made good my a cross subsidy from international students.

We used to have (in some cases still have) world class universities, but like so many other things, the Tories have poisoned the well.

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 The knock-on effects of defunding universities are widespread and serious. Shortages of teachers, good researchers, administrators, medical staff and so on, damage to our foreign-currency earning entertainment industry, not to mention the erosion of our soft power as foreign students decide to go elsewhere — including Russia in some cases.

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

What has always puzzled me about Covid guidelines is that we have an analogue for airborne infection spread which is easily understood and easily verified by ordinary people: cigarette smoke.
If you can smell someone smoking near you, you are being exposed to their germs too. Simples! And cigarette smoke travels a lot further than 6ft/2m!

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

It feels like 2024 is going to be the make-or-break year for humanity. By next Christmas, we could be facing run-away global heating, Long Covid rampant, a Russian win in Ukraine and Trump heading for US presidency, or we could be seeing the first sign of a return to stability.
Never has activism been so important. Stay strong, my friends!

br00t4c, to ukteachers
@br00t4c@mastodon.social avatar

UK university courses on race and colonialism facing axe due to cuts

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/05/uk-university-courses-on-race-and-colonialism-facing-axe-due-to-cuts

KimSJ,
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

@br00t4c “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana
In this case, that’s probably what the defunders are hoping will happen.

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

I’m trying to persuade my brother to take Covid precautions more seriously. He asked the very sensible question “what proportion of long covid sufferers have symptoms that affect their ability to work?”
Can anyone offer links to studies which address this question?

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

A reminder: unemployment benefit is pay to do nothing. Unconditional Basic Income is pay to do anything.
Which do you think is of more benefit to society?

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Anyone who thinks we are going to solve the climate crisis by persuading oil companies to pivot to green solutions doesn’t understand the skill set and mind set of such companies’ boards.
These are people who have spent their lives maintaining the status quo of giant industrial juggernauts. They would simply be completely lost if asked to do anything entrepreneurial. I’ve seen such boards buy up and accidentally destroy many innovative start-ups, by managing them in the only way they know.

KimSJ, to FantasyWriters
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Hive mind, how would you hyphenate (or not) “ UK’s only aged sugar beet based spirit”?

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

I’ve just identified why I have been feeling down over the past few days. Instead of being excited at the prospect of an election that will end the Tory misrule, I find myself just staring down the barrel of five years of Tory lite.
This country could be so much better than it is, if only we had a Government worthy of the populace.

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Engineers spend a lot of time anticipating possible problems and patching round them before they actually happen. The best known example of this was the so-called Millennium Bug: hundreds of thousands of hours spent checking and fixing computer systems to make sure that the year 2000 arrived without any disasters.

Politicians are the complete opposite: they seem to wait for disasters to happen before they even begin to think about solutions. Why do we accept this dumb, irresponsible behaviour?

KimSJ, to random
@KimSJ@mastodon.social avatar

Time and again, I find myself asking whether politicians are deliberately trying to destroy everything that used to make me proud to be British, or whether they are just too dumb to see what they are doing.
More interestingly to explore, perhaps our political system is so desperately in need of reform that it is impossible for MPs to do the right thing, even if they want to?

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