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Ben Taylor boosted

Japanese protected cruiser Unebi, which vanished during delivery from France in 1886 - a failure that might be related to the fact it was built with the usual happy-go-lucky attitude to stability that seems to have plagued French yards at the time.

Despite showing alarming rolling tendencies even in calm seas, Wikipedia suggests the metacentric height - loosely, how quickly it wants to come upright - was never measured. Perhaps on the basis everyone was too scared to ask...

#FailureFriday

I feel like a jedi. I opened a tall cupboard looking for something half way up it (so looking down). A very brief crackling sound announced two bags of rice falling from a shelf above head height. Without looking (no time!) I stuck a hand out and caught one of the two left-handed.

I am the Rice Jedi.

@drandrewv2 (Should say, I haven't looked at what's going on in there, only the group subject)

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@drandrewv2 Just to check, have you seen a.gup.pe/u/actuallyautistic ? You probably have, but I haven't seen you ping them, so just in case it's useful to you. 🙂

Ben Taylor boosted

There are lots of interesting group accounts you can follow on here, they work like this:

1. Follow the account to see discussion of the topic
2. @ the account if you want to post to the group
3. The account boosts anything @-ed to it, be careful when you @ them so that you don't spam the group (spammers tend to be reported and blocked)

More info (including how to create groups) at:

➡️ fedi.tips/how-to-use-groups-on

I've listed some active and friendly groups at:

➡️ fedi.directory/tag/fediverse-g

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Ben Taylor boosted

I don't want to know what I can do to reduce my estimated 0.00000005 percent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions. I want to know what Big Oil is going to do to phase out the 73 percent of GHC emissions that they empower — which was 37,190,000,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2021. Of course, the fossil fuel industry would rather send me nosing into the compost in my backyard, than sniffing under the closed doors of political dealmaking that props up the hegemony of the fossil fuel economy.

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Ben Taylor boosted

"Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think."

- Jacob Bronowski

#quotes #JacobBronowski #ImportantQuotes #LightInTheDarkness #science

Ben Taylor boosted
Ben Taylor boosted

We are fast approaching one of the simultaneously funny and frustrating times of the year.

I refer, of course, to "How many green tomatoes is my dog going to sneak into the house by hiding them in her mouth this time?"

We. find. them. everywhere. She doesn't want to eat them. No. They are her green egg babies.

#Dogs #Dogstodon #DogsofMastodon #Funny

Ben Taylor boosted

Jews, Christians and Satanists are taking legal action to protect reproductive freedom, claiming—rightly—that abortion bans are imposition of religious beliefs by the state.

@pluralistic: “Jewish religious texts clearly state that life begins at the first breath, and that the life of a pregnant person takes precedence over the life of the fetus in their uterus.”

pluralistic.net/2023/07/11/wil

Ben Taylor boosted
Ben Taylor boosted

The European Union has approved a new data-transfer deal with the United States, ending three years of legal limbo and rebooting the transatlantic free flow of digital information, after the EU's top court struck down two previous agreements over fears of US intelligence agencies' snooping.

The European Commission adopted a so-called adequacy decision, recognising the US as a country with sufficient protection for Europeans’ personal data sent there.

politico.eu/article/eu-signs-o

#EU #Data #Privacy

Ben Taylor boosted
Ben Taylor boosted
Ben Taylor boosted

The Spilhaus Projection. In 1942, Athelstan Spilhaus produced a world map with a unique perspective, presenting the world's oceans as one body of water.

Ben Taylor boosted

Q. is there evidence that changing the fundamental business model of the #NHS – e.g. introducing insurance-based funding or breaking the NHS up into smaller units which can be privatised – could be effective as ways of tackling the current issues?

The evidence, both domestic & international, is that the answer is a clear ‘no’: The rational strategy is to recommit to the fundamental model of the NHS, fund it properly & introduce operational improvements over time!

99-percent.org/wp-content/uplo

Ben Taylor boosted

Via @decolonialatlas "Each 8th of July, at 11:15 UTC, 99% of the world's population is experiencing daylight. This day should have a name, and it should be a holiday." Original source: timeanddate.com/news/astronomy

Ben Taylor boosted
Ben Taylor boosted

For customers of #SouthWestWater, this will come as no surprise, but in the two years to March 2022, SWW spent more on interest payments & #dividends than it did on maintaining (improving) its infrastructure....

You can decide for yourself whether this in any way contributed to their catastrophic failure of #water supply early this year.

That this included a 'special dividend' approved by #OfWat merely confirms that the regulator(s) have been asleep at the wheel.

Ben Taylor boosted

Perfectly Pringular Russian royal yacht Livadia, launched today in 1880 and laid up in 1881. Not a success then.

Apparently designed with a skirt to stop anyone getting overheated at the sight of its ankles, the overly oval vessel was reputedly very stable but the shallow draft caused terrible slamming in waves that opened up the seams. Dry docks as wide as they were long being in short supply, repair was difficult and the ship quickly retired.

#FailureFriday

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