Paul Sutton @zleap@social.cleverlibre.org

@Ruth_Mottram @gwagner

I think within success there are going to be negative things too, how to better engage girls in STEM is currently a huge problem for many. It is important to get problems out in to discussion so we can figure out solutions.

Hour of code (code.org) has lots of activities. The beginner activities are themed on Minecraft, frozen and star wars (may be more by now), which given that Minecraft is played by both girls and boys it is a great activity to get people engaged and started, plus there are videos to explain the activity.

I have started to ask what new attendees are interested in so if they like Minecraft etc they can be put on those, it starts them off with something they have an interest in.

@Ruth_Mottram @gwagner

I think social media has a huge influence on young people both in a positive and negative way. I know someone who said she has given up with some computing communities as she said there is a real hostility towards women on those forums.

It is almost as if people are still being pideonholed in to careers / subjects based on gender rather than their abilities / interests.

I run a code club which is at present attended by both boys and girls, but they are younger (still primary age) the problem is keeping them engaged and moving people forward gets harder the more advanced they get.

Maybe a lot of it is down to the school and school community and peer pressure as to how people move forward once they reach secondary school.

It is certainly a problem as we NEED more people in STEM, having a good gender balance is essential for many reasons.

@Ruth_Mottram @gwagner

Take a look at https://www.compoundchem.com/ there are a good few info graphics on Women in Science, which may provide an inspiration.

@ASocPsy
Welcome to fedi.

@JeremyMallin

If you follow other spellings and pronunciations then Stephan should be SteFan, this would follow the logic of Sulphur (SulFur) and Phone (Fone)

I have an idea for a modern twist to the old Xbill game, in which bill gates tries to replace various non windows OSs with Windows on a network.

In the fork, there is a map of the USA, with all the state borders marked, trump moves around each state turning it from blue to red, the idea of the game is to click on Trump to kill him, and then turn the state back to blue again.

@realTuckFrumper

That makes me think of the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds song, but the sequence in Yellow Submarine

@Indyposterboy

The problem is that migrants are mostly entering England, As England is part of the United Kingdom, as a result this plan to leave the ECHR does not seem to consider Scotland, Wales or NorthernIreland who have their own governments and people who may NOT want to leave.

This is purely about shipping migrants to Rwanda or anywhere. Which is far easier, for the Tories at least, than trying to actually deal with the problem of the actual trafficking, and actually to a point world wide inequality, wars, famine and climate change, which are also a cause of Migration.

The fact we could make Afghans who helped us during the war, homeless is another indication of the governments embarassing FAILURE to get things right. The home office is a total shambles.

As another post, here pointed out we could face a huge influx of people into or even migration within the EU because of climate change, because we have simply failed to get a grip on polluting the atmosphere, resulting in the current heatwaves for example. So sending people BACK to Rwanda, or back into massive killer heatwaves should also be a point of serious concern.

While the UK does have a duty to take in refugees, we need to stop the boats because that crossing is very dangerous, You only have to look at the Mediteranian to understand how dangerous boat crossings are, and it surprising the death toll crossing the channel is not MUCH HIGHER.

People who want to claim Asylum here, need to be able to do so, but outside the country, and have these claims assessed robustly, fairly, quickly and in an efficient way and at a fair cost, that also UNDERCUTS smugglers to help put them out of business.

Surely a more humane approach is not beyond a reasonable ask.