Ian Kenway @iankenway@social.cleverlibre.org

This Government clapped for our nurses & called them heroes. Now, after all the sacrifices they made to keep us safe, they are treated like this. It’s utterly shameless. Our nurses have always been there for us, now we must be there for them. I’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with them & I hope you will too

https://nursingnotes.co.uk/news/nurse-strike-dates-announced-after-government-refuses-to-negotiate-over-pay/

Just updated my #profile in case anyone wants to search for any visual media I've posted in the past.

Deactivate my account on the bird app today.
Appreciate the community on here @freemo and the @QOTO instance.

QOTTO has been ttaken off the malware list we were mistakenly added to... yay!

https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.qoto.org

#PhotoMonday

Ruins of gas chamber and crematorium II at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Fragments of the chimney.

We need to remember that those buildings did not fall from the sky. They were designed by educated people who accepted the Nazi ideology and used their knowledge and experience to design efficient infrastructure of murder.

#Auschwitz #Memorial #history #ruins #Birkenau

A word of warning to anyone considering rending a high rise apartment with a balcony... I hope you like bird poop, mountains and mountains of bird poop

In July QOTO will officially be 5 years old! Oh how time flys.

For anyone curious here is the very first toot I ever made on QOTO:

https://qoto.org/@freemo/100335839534486799

So I’m a science nerd. But now I’m not part of a university I've been completely cut off from the scientific community. Journals are behind paywalls and conferences are way too expensive for me to attend! Why is it so difficult to do independent science?

70 years ago the European Parliament first met.

It took a long time to make the EU a real parliamentary democracy… and on rule of law, budget, convention we still need to remind people and reinforce Parliament’s role.

A strong Europe = A democratic EU !

🇪🇺✊🏻

We lost a year through Putin’s war, now we lose a year through lack of political will… We can’t afford to lose more !

EU needs to lead on cutting fossil fuels: Energy Union is the way forward

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/20/cop27-agrees-to-historic-loss-and-damage-fund-to-compensate-developing-countries-for-climate-impacts

So this wonderful trade deal with Japan, the one which will kick start our recovery and form the basis of our global relationships, has resulted in a drop of 9% in volume of trade. Well done #Brexiters.

A new #introduction.
I’m a UK freelance book #indexer and editor – Society of #Indexers Fellow, #CIEP Advanced Professional Member, and Society of Authors Associate.
I work on arts/humanities books for authors and publishers – #biography #FilmStudies #history #LitStudies #music etc.
Beyond work, I like #comedy #CrypticCrosswords #dance #ducks #horror #pubs #Wales and learning #Welsh #DysguCymraeg.
See me also at #AmEditing #edibuddies #indexing #indexodon and https://baindex.org
Hello/helô!

If you're interested in your local history, one of my go-to websites is the National Library of Scotland maps archives.

They've got lots of old Ordnance Survey maps dating back to late 1800s available to view - and a really handy side-by-side tool so you can see current maps next to the old OS maps.

For an area like this (Merthyr) it's absolutely fascinating to see the changes - in the late 1800s it's just a mass of railway lines servicing the iron works

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.0&lat=51.73727&lon=-3.37173&layers=6&right=osm

Every now and again, I will throw a question into the void without expectation of an answer-back. It evens out my #introverted nature (not a flaw by any means). I also have a tendency to fade into lurker mode on social media. This may change that (or not).

What are others currently #reading?

What am I currently reading? Paul Neman: An Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, The Maid, and The Justice of Kings (finishing up the first, just started the second, and the third is waiting for me)

Chemist Rachel Fuller Brown was born #OTD in 1898. She discovered the antifungal antibiotic nystatin while doing research for the NY State Department of Health, hence the name.

Rather than keep the profits from the drug, Brown (standing in the photo) and co-discoverer Elizabeth Hazen assigned nystatin’s patent royalties to the nonprofit Research Corporation of New York, to help support other researchers.

Image: Smithsonian Institution

@Elephantidae @freemo I am an example of someone who recently found Qoto from the join site. I think that the issue seems to speak to a serious question as to whether or not Mastodon is a decentralized federation or if from a practical standpoint, it has access determined by one person. And of course, I joined this instance because I felt it best met my interests, but also so I could interact with others in different instances.

Succumbing to the strategy of an attack by nefarious agents doesn't make Mastodon a safe or a welcoming place. All instances ought to see that as a vulnerability that needs to be combated.

@Elephantidae @freemo But isn't this the way that the Nazi's dominated in Germany historically? It wasn't "really" that most petty government officials saw themselves as doing terrible things. But by collective small actions and inaction they did serve the Nazi's goals. So effectively they were part of the Nazi machine. The danger they posed to others was that of real live Nazis.

Now, the fascists see the demolition of Twitter as a forum as a step forward for them. Thwarting Mastodon would be a next step. Not actively standing up to that would be a huge mistake.

@freemo I am sorry you’ve had to deal with this situation, but thankful for your efforts. I first heard of QOTO via the official mastodon app, so if I were first joining mastodon today I wouldn’t see this wonderful instance. I hope that Eugen will come to his senses and relist QOTO soon.

Thank you very much for all that you do in helping to run this instance.

🙇🏻

In 1959, police were called to a segregated library when a Black 9-year-old boy trying to check out books refused to leave, after being told the library was not for Black people.

The boy, Ronald McNair, went on to became an astronaut. The library is also now named after him