@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

jbenjamint

@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot

Abrach. Working in youth justice - #CashBackForCommunities at Inspiring Scotland. Used to sit at a Bloomberg terminal. Highland Councillor for a while. Quite keen on all things outdoors, #cycling , active travel, og det norske språket.
Avatar shows a sketch of a man "lank and thin, looking as though he'd outgrown his strength in boyhood, and never summoned up pluck enough to recover it again."
Posts auto delete.
#nobot

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

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Today's swim spot.

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Gratulerer med dagen alle sammen!

It's the 17th of May and that means it's the day Scotland celebrates the very greatest day of our shared history with our neighbours across the North Sea.

Make sure to watch the last two minutes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yuPWW3mpA9E

RichardJMurphy, to random
@RichardJMurphy@mas.to avatar

We have found the limits of the digital world. There is still a need for human beings. HMRC should acknowledge the fact https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/15/we-have-found-the-limits-of-the-digital-world-there-is-still-a-need-for-human-beings-hmrc-should-acknowledge-the-fact/ HMRC is failing the public. It’s doing so by choice. It’s refusing to talk to people who want help. It’s trying to make them use digital services instead, and they refuse to do that. Maybe, just maybe, what HMRC has actually discovered is that there is a role for human beings after all.

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@RichardJMurphy back in June last year I had a self-assessment issue dealing with my dad's estate that couldn't be sorted through their digital "tools". Tried phoning and automated message said self assessment helpline was closed until September (!). In desperation, since his estate was threatened with daily fines, phoned through to their IT support line, and the very helpful lady there gave me just the tax advice and support I needed!!

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Walking through from Glendessary to Sourlies last weekend - where it should be lush Atlantic oak wood or pine.

I think I managed to photograph every last tree that wasn't plantation spruce.

Here, one of the very few survivors that manage to avoid the predation of sheep and deer.

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

If you got upset at me for pointing out that more people died of Covid under Biden than Trump, in large part because Biden rolled back common sense restrictions that were in place under Trump...

Then you'll hate me pointing out that Trump introduced a 25% tariff on Chinese EVs, and Biden is upping that to 100% tariff.

https://insideevs.com/news/719283/chinese-ev-tariffs-biden-quadruple/

We can't allow the US to get off of fossil fuels... unless US billionaires win! 🤡

Fear the BYD Dolphin! (an EV car for $12K)
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/T3nfyO_UHjk

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@CelloMomOnCars Amen! Six friends, all in their 60s, never cyclists since they were not-yet-teens, are now doing multiple bike holidays each year as a group and even entering cycling events. Plus a lot of weekend cafe rides. All because of ebikes. Transformational!

davidaugust, to random
@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar

🧠🪱

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@davidaugust hahaha excellent!

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Aurora from the bedroom window.

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Having to sign up for another social / chat app (the yellow one) because oldest wants to use it. Refuse to give the app access to my contacts and it then asks repeatedly for access, and of course it recommends loads of people on my contact list to connect with, since they've already sold me out. What a time to be alive.

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Ok, fess time. Who does this?

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Interesting coming from someone who notoriously spent a chunk of the 90s in Russia, leading to whistleblower allegations and formal questions from Labour about his security clearance...👀

https://mastodon.social/@rvps2001/112411742365998808 @rvps2001

davidaugust, (edited ) to politics
@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar

RFK Jr. brain has a dead worm that ate part of his brain in it, and has been impacted by mercury poisoning.

Well…this seems at once shocking and like it makes absolutely perfect sense.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qU0.MjjY.L1k3c9ClwkDy&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@davidaugust have to hand it to you Americans, you do a different class of political story.

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Well worth the ten minutes. (The click baity headline doesn't do it justice).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/08/marc-conway-risked-his-life-to-stop-the-london-bridge-terror-attack-why-did-he-fear-being-sent-to-prison-for-it

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Signposts of the Cape Wrath Trail (or thereabouts).

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Why? Why??

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will "save our beef" from the "global elite" and its "authoritarian plans".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68947766.amp

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@davidho Excellent. Prohibition MK2, where the public gather in illicit steak-easy's.

Snoweider, to random
@Snoweider@mastodon.scot avatar

Patagonia have made an anti-consumer film called The Shitthropocene. Looking forward to watching it (it's 46 mins long). I find it fascinating that a company that needs profits is challenging the capitalist status quo. They have an impressive environmental record, but their model does rely on people buying new stuff sometimes.*

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4TsndZxysts

*Note we are all eco-hypocrites at one time or another. We just have to keep trying and not give up.

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@Snoweider I don't doubt P's bona fides but it's noticeable how popular is shiny new Patagonia kit, at least in Fort William. Clearly the marketing is working!

(while the old guard climbers keep knocking about in 30 year old mtn equipment & Rab gear)

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

As the electorate across Britain abandons the party, it seems a strange -- even perverse -- time for the to rebrand itself as the Scottish Conservative party.

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@otfrom @simon_brooke Alba, economically at least, are to the left of the SNP. Some would say far to their left i.e. they would seek the nationalisation of all transport services including bus, port and airports. It's a strange Tory that would vote for that!

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Possibly it's an urban myth that the most common public holiday worldwide is "Independence from Britain Day", but delighted there's a new account to help us find out.

https://mastodon.scot/@IndependenceDay/112342457818542151 @IndependenceDay

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

Eigg and Rum, on the horizon, looking like one distant island.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot avatar

Just stopped for a week off. Lots to do in the coming week (might even toot about it), but the holiday starts with a 12% imperial stout. https://untp.beer/edpGV

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@simonvarwell Did you wisely save that one for the very start of a week off?

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

REMINDER FOR AMERICANS:

The US Constitution and common law are rooted in pre-18th century English legal jurisprudence and traditions.

And the "presidential immunity" bullshit is an attempt to rewind the clock to before 1649, when Parliament got fed up with the King's bullshit, put him on trial, and beheaded him.

Y'all: Trump wants to revive the divine right of kings.

You know who pulled the German equivalent of that stunt? Hitler.

(I will summarily block anyone who raises Godwin's law.)

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@cstross doesn't the monarch retain legal immunities to this day? the Equalities Act was a fairly high profile example.

eddie1perez, to random
@eddie1perez@mastodon.social avatar

As a former director for civic integrity at Twitter, I’ve been disturbed for some time about what Elon Musk is doing with his private global platform.

Today, I took the step of leaving Twitter, completely.

Why?
Here’s my last tweet:
https://mem.ai/p/e83QTrTPntGEmmZYQUEc

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@eddie1perez Chapeau, sir. Expressed the thoughts of so many of us.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot avatar

This is extraordinary, and a damning indictment of land ownership in Scotland. How on earth can a private company be in a position to give a capital city’s main bus station notice of closure? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg302gkw779o

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@simonvarwell be amazed if this wasn't a prelude to compulsory purchase by the council.

We had a landowner in Fort William try to build a housing scheme in the way of a major flood protection scheme. My impression was that his building plan was just about increasing the market value of the land he'd have to be compensated for....

jbenjamint, to random
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

The game of the Gael, the language of our clans, (to quote a local poet).

Banavie getting drubbed unfortunately @MacNaBracha

matt, to Weather
@matt@oslo.town avatar

I actually really like that this report in my notifications is telling me what the weather is not.

"No wind, no snow"

It's spring, but both of those weather types have threatened to ruin the season in so far. Good to know they won't rear their ugly heads today. :face_unamused_fb:

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@matt am enjoying the dystopian "you have a free day today", as if the day was finally costless for once.

CultureDesk, to books
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

When Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn was a child growing up in an evangelical family in Lubbock, Texas, her father, a former air force pilot, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 38. Her family sought help from preachers, holy men and faith healers but unbeknownst to them, her father had been exposed to high levels of PFAS — as of this month, limited in drinking water by the FDA — on the military sites where he had worked. @TexasObserver has published this extract from Blackburn's memoir, "Loose of Earth," in which she talks about these forever chemicals, how they may have been linked to her father's illness, and a story her grandmother once shared.

https://flip.it/pFixG3

@bookstodon

jbenjamint,
@jbenjamint@mastodon.scot avatar

@CultureDesk That's some great writing, thanks for sharing.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • vwfavf
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • ngwrru68w68
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • tacticalgear
  • rosin
  • provamag3
  • everett
  • cubers
  • khanakhh
  • osvaldo12
  • mdbf
  • ethstaker
  • normalnudes
  • modclub
  • Leos
  • GTA5RPClips
  • tester
  • anitta
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •