Engineer specializing in making things cold, but will warm your heart and delight you with pictures of cats. And birds. And capybaras. And tardigrades and every other wonder of life itself.
Off grid solar, native habitats, ecology, microbiology, protein molecular machines, *nix, retrocomputing, 8bit, ultra low power electronics, high power electronics, automation, 3D printing, physics, astrophysics, and civil rights.
I like cats, cat memes, and people who love cats
The upcoming UK Data Bill has a proposed amendment that would force the revision of all #Trans gender markers to AGAB (irrespective of whether or not we have a GRC).
Given the recent behaviour of Labour regarding the supreme court ruling, there is a good chance they'll support it.
Here is a letter template to send to your local MP to urge them to stop this before it starts: http://bit.ly/StopTheDataBill
Repost and pass it on.
“People think, oh, I’ve gotten COVID, so that should give me some immunity. That’s actually wrong. It turns out that having COVID once gives you a little bit of immunity to that variant, but it doesn’t really give you much immunity at all to the next variant. So with new variants emerging every month, you only have about four to six weeks of immunity, effectively, from catching COVID.”
Excellent piece! Please read
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/from-long-covid-odds-to-lost-iq-points-ongoing-threats-you-dont-know-about
A reminder: The reason so many firms on their websites constantly urge you to install and use their apps instead of their websites is that the apps typically give them access to VASTLY more data about you and your activities. Don't fall for it.
@lilithsaintcrow A heckler asked me what I thought of AI and "how it does so much better artwork than [I] do." That struck me as particularly obtuse & cruel--if people want plasticky-looking slick AI-generated stolen artwork, they'll go get that; if they want my decidedly imperfect, unique, handmade artwork, they'll look for me. I don't control what people want, & I am never going to envy an electronic system of thievery that sucks from the work of real artists. My work may suck, but it's real.
Here's a fun question. Astronomers have found that about once per century, sun-like stars are capable of blasting out immense superflares *thousands of times* more powerful than regular solar flares.
So, um... can the Sun do that as well?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-the-sun-unleash-dangerous-superflares/
Radio nerditry: every time I visit NYC and remember to turn on a radio, I marvel at the thriving and vibrant Brooklyn pirate radio broadcasting scene. My pal @pirateradiomap maintains an awesome archive of them at https://pirateradiomap.com .
Without Section 230 social media platforms we use to share information would likely deplatform journalists that speak truth to power for fear of being sued. This means links to articles + reporting discussions could be removed from Reddit, Bluesky, etc., where many rely on getting news information. Platforms would likely censor coverage critical of the Trump administration or state administrations, and of international news and much more.
In 1861 a guy named Semmelweis published the findings from a study he performed. He required medical students and doctors to wash their hands in chlorinated water before attending delivery of babies. The mortality rate of women cared for by these providers dropped from 18% to 2%.
His theory of transmissible disease carried on the hands of doctors was dismissed by colleagues. He was comitted to an asylum, beaten by the guards, and died of sepsis weeks later.
RFK is those fucking guys.
I hate it because it is going to come at the cost of people who are innocent being chewed up in the fascist machine. I hate it because children are suffering. I hate it because I have friends and family in fear, through no fault of their own, for no reason other than rank bigotry. I hate that people I thought were friends turned out to be perfectly fine with fascism.
4/6
You would expect the conspiracy theorists to be flipping out over a group of unelected billionaires secretly running the country and trafficking American citizens and permanent residents to various countries, but alas, they're silent about all of this, probably because Chatgpt told them that all of this is ok.
Sunny Bunny, Ukraine's LGBTQ Film Festival, Persists Amid Attack | Sonya Vseliubska for IndieWire (@indiewire)
https://www.indiewire.com/news/festivals/sunny-bunny-ukraine-lgbtq-film-festival-1235118652
Nobody wants to be Elon's son or daughter
This is a really thoughtful and personal piece on the challenges of practicing liberalism in an increasingly fascist society.
I went to the 50501 protest today at 71 & Memorial in Tulsa. We had a good turnout. Lots of honking and waving in support from drivers. I estimate we got at least 10 positive responses to every negative response. Not bad for Red Oklahoma!
Migrant woman who gave birth at Tucson hospital released by CBP Saturday https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/050325_migrant_mother_released/migrant-woman-who-gave-birth-tucson-hospital-released-by-cbp-saturday/
A 24-year-old Guatemalan woman and her newborn baby were released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Saturday afternoon after public outcry over her detention by federal officials at Tucson Medical Center.
#Tucson #Arizona
Tiny kitten snuggles :smolblobmiou:
There’s an awful article in The Washington Post today about how young men see the Tate Brothers as role models who have ‘easy answers’.
I’m not linking to it because I don’t want to give it any traffic.
The tone of the piece is about how hard men have it right now. How they get mixed messages and don’t know whether they should be ‘alpha’ or not.
Let me be perfectly clear, they don’t have it hard. This is accountability. That’s all. Men are finally being told they have to be responsible for their actions. That they can’t get away with misogyny, assault, rape and abuse. That we are fighting back.
If that’s ‘confusing’ for them, that’s their problem.
The Tate brothers don’t have the answers. They’re just propagating the same misogynistic and fascism adjacent narrative that many men have heard for years.
That Trump and Musk are only too happy to support.
That women are less than. That men can and should dominate us. That ‘being a man’ involves subjugating women.
It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. Call it out. Support women. Believe victims.
Say Gisele Pelicot’s name today. Let’s change the narrative.
#misogyny #mercigisele #patriarchy #fuckthepatriarchy #uspoli #fascism
