Paul Sutton @zleap@social.cleverlibre.org

@zleap @brewsterkahle I have worked with a great many people who suffer with debilitating, social anxiety - the library offers a form of connection without them feeling threatened /overwhelmed. Libraries offer a lifeline for those who have a appreciation of books, and so much more .

If the Tories and Republicans get re-elected at their next respective election, then humanity is doomed.

It’s game over, because this decade is absolutely critical to averting complete #ClimateMeltdown. If these countries won’t play ball, many others won’t either.

Assuming most folks here completely understand this…so how do we get the rest of the US and UK to comprehend what is at stake and the power they absolutely must use at the ballot box?

BBC is testing being on Mastodon, says fediverse better fit for public purposes than Twitter or Threads. As X (the former blue bird) stumbles, many media outlets consider leaving for good.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2023/08/01/bbc-mastodon-test/amp/

Tesla exaggerated EV range so much that drivers thought cars were broken

The directive to present the optimistic range estimates came from Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, this person said.

"Elon wanted to show good range numbers when fully charged," adding: "When you buy a car off the lot seeing 350-mile, 400-mile range, it makes you feel good."

#tesla #automotive #auto #cars #transportation #electricvehicles #EV #EVs #Elon #ElonMusk #elno #spacekaren

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/tesla-exaggerated-ev-range-so-much-that-drivers-thought-cars-were-broken/

#Introduction in English now.
I am Associate lecturer at the Université de Poitiers in Contemporary British Studies. I specialise in contemporary British politics, human rights and British political institutions.
I'm interested in #pedagogy
I love #music, especially all forms of rock (including but not limited to #metal #stonerrock) I play the bass guitar.
I toot way too much about my child, who is uniquely amazing.
Other interests include: #cycling #embroidery #knitting #ReadMoreWomen

Supporting Student Collaboration https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/supporting-student-collaboration

A real fascinating story of how an 81-year-old former Air Force chap had come forward to announce he saw pulsars well before they were discovered but could not talk about it for half a century until the military instruments he observed them with were decommissioned and de-classified.

In a nutshell, he was using radar for a Ballistic Missile early warning system and noticed a pulsating signal showing up in his data, which was rising 4 mins earlier each day. He asked astronomers after writing down the location, and it was the Crab Pulsar!

The woman who discovered pulsars, Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell - agreed with his discoveries.

https://www.nature.com/articles/448974a

Sent this to our team's slack channel overnight, and my supervisor told me he and another one of our team's astronomers were the folks that the Air Force chap got in touch with!

Small world, and a nice Aussie connection!

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/acp/article-abstract/983/1/642/620966/An-Independent-1967-Discovery-of-Pulsars?redirectedFrom=PDF

#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #Defence #Science

"Getting rid of physical books because we now have databases is like getting rid of sunshine because of the existence of vitamin-D pills and cod liver oil." --love that.

a cogent plea for keeping physical libraries available:

https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2023/07/28/death-of-the-physical-library/

Anyone remember the Graphic Adventure Creator?

Originally made for the #Amstrad #CPC, my experience of it was from a #YourSinclair covertape.

Anyway, it's been on my list to attempt porting it to #Psion #EPOC16 for ages. It's not top priority, but the machine is perfectly designed for playing #textadventure games (see @root42's escapades with #Infocom).

Be great if it could decompile and play old games, too.

#retrocomputing #Psion3 #adventure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_Adventure_Creator
https://gac.interface1.net/

Dissatisfaction is rising in Russia. For several days in a row, military enlistment offices around the country have been attacked with molotov cocktails.

Let me get this straight. Republicans are banning books, drag shows, and life-saving gender-affirming care, all to "protect children"

But they're also rolling back child labor laws, blocking gun reform, and passing laws to force adolescents to give birth.

Do I have that right?

Scientists develop breath test that rapidly detects COVID-19 virus

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-scientists-rapidly-covid-virus.html

@zleap @waitnwallflower @Knaughty @GregSargent
Luckily for us, I don't think that X is going to have nearly as much political influence in 2024 as it had in 2016 - 2022 🤞

The West African bloc has a history of successful military interventions to restore constitutional order in the region.
Timeline: A history of ECOWAS military interventions in three decades

Among LGBT youth, those raised Christian and Catholic were much more likely to have contemplated suicide than those raised agnostic/atheist or Unitarian/Universalist. Religious affiliation may protect heterosexual youth from suicidal ideation but not sexual minorities.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32744388

#NICHDImpact #LGBTQ #Religion #Suicide

Biden Administration Creates Office To Coordinate Long COVID Response https://www.huffpost.com/entry/long-covid-office-clinical-trials_n_64c8e237e4b03ad2b89aafb4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

@zleap @waitnwallflower @Knaughty
Did you see the polling results of Murdoch's outlets audience's beliefs about the orange chump's crimes that @GregSargent discussed yesterday.

Provides a prime example of how well some of our nefarious actors are able to take advantage of these media, social or otherwise, bubbles using propaganda for sure.

@waitnwallflower @Knaughty
Our media is and has been just too damn interested in that orange chump.

Social media shares the blame too. I wish we could just ignore him and his statements unless it's a new indictment or something tangible, but alas here I am.

I bang this drum occasionally because all the optimistic climate projections rely on some form of carbon capture and sequestration to paint the rosy picture they do.

But this technology is primitive and while it might, potentially, someday scale up to be useful, at the moment, it is primarily being used to justify continued carbon burning on the theory we'll deal with it later.

When this is later.