tokensane

GottaLaff, 4 days ago to Canada

Ugh, totally wasted open house. Lookee-loo City. I'm so glad this was our last one before we leave. The rest will be after, and the house will be vacant.

Sigh.

So, with that, I'll perk myself up (and hopefully you) with another dopey #CountdownToCanada gif.

I can't believe it'll be a week from tomorrow!

Have a good evening, everyone!
#Canada 🇨🇦

video/mp4

tokensane, 1 month ago to random

#Trump is a #fascist

OK, not news. But I don't mean it just as an insult, or even "stuff I don't like". In 1995 Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism" (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism) laid out 14 points by which future fascists might be known. Trump ticks almost all of them. So in this series of posts I'm going to go through his points and check Trumpism on each one. Note that I say "Trumpism" rather than just Trump, because Trumpism is larger than just the one man.
/1

#UmbertoEco

tokensane, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

For #Pride Month, I'd like to mention #Babylon5. The show ran from 1993 to 1998, and made a point of not making a point of gay relationships. Susan Ivanova (serving military officer) had a lesbian affair with Talia Winters, and no other character even blinked.

Later on two straight men on a secret mission found themselves using "newlyweds" as a cover story, because two men on their honeymoon would fit right in.

The message was clear: in the future being gay is 100% unremarkable. In the 90s!

tokensane, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Should the government directly own and operate railways?

tokensane, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to random

1/11
This is going to be my first long-form post. I don't know if this will go anywhere, but I want to get this off my chest.

The UK has a problem with sewage in its seas and rivers. The Standard Model of this on the Left is that greedy privatised water companies have focused on paying shareholders rather than investing in infrastructure. Hence we are in a literal mess.

This narrative is seriously incomplete, verging on wrong.

tokensane, 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago) to random

I've got 3 takes on the #KristiNoem dog business, going from this story on the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68909801

1. The dog (fair enough).
2. The goat (not so fair).
3. The way she talks about it (horrible).

I'll tackle each in a separate post for space.

#noem #kristi_noem

Daojoan, 2 days ago to random

Social Darwinism twists the biological theory of natural selection into a blunt club to batter the less fortunate.

It ignores the complex environmental, social, and economic factors that shape outcomes in the modern world.

Most of all, it absolves us of any responsibility to help our fellow humans.

It’s the philosophy that drove the financial crisis. The same philosophy that drove the NSDAP.

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-brain-rot-of-social-darwinism

tokensane, 2 months ago to random

There is a line of argument I keep seeing which goes like this:

1. Capitalists are doing this bad thing which is hurting this group of poor people.

2 They are doing this in order to hurt the poor people because doing so maintains the capitalist power structure.

The jump from 1 to 2 bothers me. AFAICT (1) is happening because the individual capitalists are making a profit out of it, and the wider socio-legal system is letting them get away with it. (2) implies that these capitalists /1

tokensane, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Should the government directly own and operate the water distribution and sewage systems?

tokensane, 10 months ago to random

So, should the University Superannuation Scheme (pension fund for UK academics) pump even more of its members money into #thameswater to stop it collapsing? Or should it write off its investment and let the Govt pick up the pieces? @ChrisMayLA6

BBC News: Big Thames Water investor backs turnaround plans

BBC News - Big Thames Water investor backs turnaround plans
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66079676

tokensane, 9 months ago to random

I'm migrating away from a copper landline to VoIP. When I looked for an adapter I found lots of these boxes on Amazon, under a variety of brand names inc Tonysa and Dpofirs. They are obviously all the same product, and mostly sold for £20-30.

Does anyone know if they are any good?

tokensane, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to climate

Lets create a #climate meme-storm. Show people what #climatechange really means. Make it personal; it happens to people like us. You must protect your kids from it.

See following posts for more examples.

Create your own. Post to other #socialmedia. Keep pushing it.

Avoid licensed images, including stuff from news sites. They always use AP, Getty etc who have slick #copyright takedown ops.

Wikimedia and US Gov are good sources of free-to-use images. Check the details.

Please boost!

tokensane, 7 months ago to Portal

Security sentinels on a building site. Motion detection and cameras only, but still spookily reminiscent of those gunbots in #Portal.

AnthonyFStevens, 10 hours ago to random

#Tories #CONservatives #Tory #Sunak #GTTO #ToryCorruption #ToryScum #Brexit #Covid

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨

IT'S ON!

#GE2024 4th July - Lest we forget

Austerity, Brexit, Covid Lockdown Parties, PPE Scandal, Raw Sewage in UK Waterways & Coastal Areas, Economic Crash, Record Inflation, Record Interest Rates, Cost of Living Crisis, Pensions Decimated, Mortgage Rises, NHS in Crisis, Schools Crumbling, Housing Crisis, Scandals, Cover ups.

Enough is Enough! It's time for change.

Vote #Labour 🌹 ❎️ 🗳

tokensane, 1 year ago to random

Shrinkflation in action!

tokensane, 11 months ago to random

I'm beginning to think that the #war in #Ukraine will be ended by a #civilwar in Russia.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-forces-tried-blow-up-my-men-says-mercenary-boss-prigozhin-2023-06-02/

tokensane, 7 months ago to random

My personal approach is just use a word processor in outline mode. Then fill in the details.

Or if my ideas aren't that well-formed, I just start writing down everything I know and then try to shuffle stuff into some kind of order. The mere act of writing it down forces me to organise my thoughts and identifies weak points in my thinking.

TL;DR: use a word processor. Write first, organise second.

tokensane, 1 year ago to random

Inuit children invented their own system for writing numbers which makes arithmetic easier. Now its in Unicode.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-number-system-invented-by-inuit-schoolchildren-will-make-its-silicon-valley-debut/

tokensane, 3 months ago to random

Souls are indivisible, and only death separates soul from body, right?

So if an #embryo acquires a #soul at the instant of conception, what about identical twins, formed when an embryo splits in two? Do they share a soul, or is one of them a soulless monster? OTOH, what about chimeras, formed when two embryos fuse, so that the resulting baby is a patchwork of cells from both? Two souls in one individual? Or what happens to the other soul?

And then there are siamese twins...

tokensane, 4 months ago to random

In 1995 #UmbertoEco wrote an essay on what he called "Ur-Fascism": the basic nature of fascism rather than its trappings. He listed 14 points by which #fascist movements might be known. He also said that a movement with a few of these will acquire the others. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism

I've tried to draw a chart showing how this happens. Start with one, and all the others follow and reinforce each other. I've highlighted #FrustratedMiddleClass just because its the commonest starting point.

laprice, 3 days ago to scifi

#scifi #betterworld Job Requirement.
Journey level bioreactor cultivator.
Responsibilities include sewage, sanitation, water cycle, on call for contamination and containment incidents.

Prior experience with municipal scale infrastructure installations is helpful but not required for the right candidate. Familiarity with engineeered biological soil cultures and bioactive remediation to graduate level is a requirement.
Reports to Habitation Duty Officer.
#solarpunk

lbflyawayhome, 20 hours ago to random

Ladybird cover stories, 1962-3
The Junior Science series

Artist: Harry Wingfield

tokensane, 21 hours ago to random

Right-wing Tory MP discovers that the NHS can't afford his care.

> ... his hands were originally provided by the NHS, but he has since gone outside the NHS for new hands, likening the original prosthetic hands he was given to "something out of medieval times".

Perhaps if the NHS were properly funded he wouldn't have had to do that. And others, who can't afford spiffy new hands, might be able to get them too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-69037424

tokensane, 3 days ago to random