ferrous

@ferrous@neurodifferent.me

Monotropic science teacher in Scotland.
#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #monotropism #science #tea #WeirdPride #Green #ecosocialism
Profile image: me in a geometric tent. Cover image: Pentland Hills at dawn.
Signed up for #tootfinder but 14 days is nowhere near enough.

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

b9AcE, to random
@b9AcE@todon.eu avatar

"Israel rained bombs on Gaza in its war with Hamas on Tuesday, huge explosions ripped through a crowded Palestinian refugee camp [Jabalia], killing dozens and leaving two giant craters in the densely populated area.
[...]
AFP video footage showing at least 47 corpses being recovered."
AFP: https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20231031-israel-presses-gaza-incursion-vowing-no-surrender-to-hamas

ferrous,

@b9AcE and yet they still write "war with Hamas" even as they describe acts of war that are unambiguously aimed at the Palestinian population in general.

ferrous, to random

I like Mastodon. I have interesting chats here, and I quite appreciate the stuff I see in my feed - although quite a lot of it feeds my anger at the state of the world, it rarely makes me angry with the people posting, which is a huge and welcome difference from the .

What's weird, though, is that it doesn't really fill many of roles social media platforms have previously filled in my life. Of course, that's partly because Facebook and the Xitter have pushed us away from well informed, politically charged discussion so effectively.

Mastodon is not a way for me to keep up with my friends, because not very many of them are here, and it's pretty clear that the barriers to participation are too high for that to change any time soon.

It doesn't work terribly well for keeping up with the news.

It doesn't seem like a great way of engaging in mass political discourse, because the barriers to entry and the underlying philosophy tend to filter out so many people, and because the structure largely prevents 'virality'.

It's not really a great place to share photos - it feels like that's not what it's for, and while I get some appreciation for photos, that's about it.

It's not a source of much mindless entertainment.

So that mostly just leaves interesting conversations with mostly strangers, I think? Which is valuable, and I'd been missing it. I guess I'm just slightly dismayed that I still feel pulled to participate in other social media platforms alongside this.

Private
ferrous,

@neversosimple @cynaq @actuallyautistic
A lot of what you're discussing here about came up in my discussion with Suzan Issa on Monday.

If you're interested, and can access videos on Facebook, it's here:
https://fb.watch/nsxiaiBcBF/

joelanman, to disability
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

I thought The Economist was one of the more reasonable papers, seems not, this is utterly disgusting
https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1702982669888266531

ferrous,

@joelanman "one of the more reasonable papers" is an incredibly low bar to clear in the UK, unfortunately. :(

ferrous, to random

Ordered a USB-C mic for my phone, from Sennheiser. Turns out it doesn't work with the default Android Camera app.

The manufacturer just replied to me "need to use other app, some apps don't want to work with usb mic, allthough this is very rare but possible".

This seems like an absolutely ridiculous situation. Does anyone know how I'd contact the developers of the Camera app? I can't seem to do it through the Play store. :(

ferrous, to random

Incredible that modern tellies can decode high-definition streamed video at 60fps, but they can't respond to a simple button press in less than about half a second.

lydiaconwell, to random
@lydiaconwell@mas.to avatar

I'd like to say that I'm fond of the (mainly) US term 'garbage'.

In the UK it's 'rubbish' or 'refuse' or 'Toryism' or something.

But they don't have the same sound as garbage.

And it's nice to have a language that's so varied, don't you think?

ferrous,

@lydiaconwell I like 'rubbish' as well, though. Good sound to it, fits the meaning, works well as an adjective.

Let's also pause to appreciate 'trash', which is another mainly-American one, but used a bit more than 'garbage' in the UK (largely as a verb).

I think 'refuse' is used in this sense even less than 'garbage' here, btw.

ferrous,

@lydiaconwell ah, you're right, it does get used in that kind of context - and supermarkets sometimes sell 'refuse sacks' rather than bin bags, which always seemed weird to me. One of these words I never hear being used by actual humans, but presumably it must be sometimes!

'Trash' is a much more aggressive word.

ferrous, to random

Thinking about investing in a t-shirt that says "OPEN THE FUCKING WINDOWS."

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Meanwhile somewhere in India 😂

ferrous,

@yutyrannus @grb090423 @7leaguebootdisk @nixCraft they both descended from Pallava script, so the resemblance is not coincidental!

(Although they're probably only about as close as the Greek and Russian alphabets, right?)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallava_script

Radical_EgoCom, to random

Marx was wrong, Bakunin was right

ferrous,

@Radical_EgoCom @pdh it's that 'state withers away' bit that's the kicker.

  1. Establish dictatorship of the proletariat
  2. ?????
  3. State withers away
  4. True communism
ferrous, to Dog

I got a new camera, so here are some dog macros.

Kifl (my wauzer) looks at something just above and behind the viewer. The white of her eye is visible, which makes for a strangely emotive shot.
Extreme close-up of Kifl's nose. It has an almost scaly texture, reminiscent of parched ground. It is surrounded by her tawny moustache. Even at this scale, it is cute.

ferrous, to random

People make fun of the X Files for the way they hold their torches at head height, but the closer your light source is to your eyes, the more likely you are to be able to see retroreflective surfaces - like predators' eyes staring at you out of the darkness.

I couldn't figure out what my dog was suddenly excited about, but as soon as I held my torch up close to my head, I could see two glowing orbs in the black on the other side of the park...

breadandcircuses, (edited ) to environment

⬇️ This is a fact. ⬇️

It’s not a meme. It’s not an opinion. It’s a fact — a fact I wish everyone could accept, take to heart, and use to motivate action!!

ferrous,

@breadandcircuses okay but why is it so profitable for the corporations to defile the environment? Where do those profits come from?

Garwboy, to random
@Garwboy@ohai.social avatar

So many people lining up to see the new Margot Robbie movie. Which is fair enough. After all, summertime is...

[Lowers shades]

Barbie queue season

[Flees]

ferrous,

@Garwboy definitely!

I don't know if you'd have any reason to be aware of this, and I don't think there's been much research, but there seems to be a high prevalence of people who are really into puns among the autistic population.

I have only vague speculations about why this might be...

ferrous, to Autism

The team at Spectrum Gaming have put together this fantastic child-friendly web site to help people understand what is, and what it means for all of us.

I contributed a couple of bits to this myself, on and spiky profiles. I'm one of a large number of contributors, whose work had to pass by an editorial panel of young autistic people.

I really, really hope that before too long, this is the kind of thing that young people will come across first when they look up autism. There's so much work to be done to push aside the unhelpful narratives of autism that have dominated for so long.
https://autismunderstood.co.uk/

ferrous, to Autism

Mike Lesser died eight years ago today.

He played a major role in the development of as a theory of , and worked with my mother for many years, including founding and running Autism & Computing together, at a time when not that many people had recognised the value of computers for autistic people.

He was a friend and mentor, who taught me a huge amount about science, although we had our differences over the years. I put up this page about him today:
https://monotropism.org/mike-lesser/

Private
ferrous,

@hosford42
Really worth emphasizing that Judy Singer didn't start the neurodiversity movement.

@actuallyautistic @mcdutchie:
https://www.inlv.org/2023/06/29/neurodiversity.html

ferrous, to microsoft

Coming from , this feels a lot like a threat.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

History shows that patriarchy is not natural, nor does it begin with fathers in families. According to Angela Saini, author of the new book THE PATRIARCHS, patriarchy begins with state power, and slowly works its way into families. In addition, men did not gain power over women by being "stronger." They did it by setting up networks of political support -- and by systematically dismantling support for women. This recent LSE lecture from Saini is a fascinating listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/patriarchy-where-did-it-all-begin/id279428154?i=1000614580804

ferrous,

@annaleen
Oh, she's also hosting a new six-part series on books exploring the science of sex and gender, as part of the Science Magazine Podcast! I was listening today.

This one talks about "The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females."
https://podcastaddict.com/science-magazine-podcast/episode/158252602

Jyoti, to random
@Jyoti@mas.to avatar

Starmer is a model Democrat.

I do not say that as a compliment.

Call me pedantic if you like but I would prefer a socialist to be the leader of our socialist party.

ferrous,

@Jyoti it wouldn't be nearly so bad if he was also a literal democrat.

ahhtism, to actuallyautistic

Any folks have some clever uses for ChatGPT or AI in general? @actuallyautistic

ferrous,

@ahhtism @actuallyautistic have you seen https://goblin.tools ? It's pretty impressive!

ferrous, to random

Sudden bat inversion!

A bat doing aerobatics. An aero bat.

ferrous, to random

New account, so I suppose I should do another of these posts!

I'm Fergus, an autistic science teacher living in Edinburgh. I'm also lots of other things, which I might sometimes feel like an impostor to draw attention to, but I suppose I will anyway. Depending on how you define/gatekeep each of these, I'm some kind of writer, community organiser, photographer/videographer, programmer, web developer, sculptor, giant-puppet-maker, podcaster...

I'm bi, lazily genderqueer, white and Green. Capitalism and kyriarchy are destroying our environment and our humanity, and I resent feeling the need to spend so much of my time fighting the effects of that.

I'm also @ferrous but it was stressing me out that so many of my friends were on instances that are blocked wholesale over there, even though I get why they're blocked.

On Twitter I'm MxOolong (I haven't quite left yet) and my own site is https://oolong.co.uk - I've used variations on 'Oolong' online for about quarter of a century now, on account of my love for the tea, but I've started feeling a bit weird about it, and 'ferrous' pleases me. I do contain iron! It's true!

If you've read this far, say hi?

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