Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

I grew up in apartheid South Africa. My formative years were spent watching it collapse. Which made me deeply opposed to fascism and racism. It also drove me to study the system.

I am deeply familiar with how apartheid worked.

On a regular basis people try to tell me there is no apartheid system in Israel.

Invariably their explanation for why Israel isn't an apartheid state, describes a policy South Africa also had, and frequently did more humanely.

In his paper Observations of two persistent degrees on a thermometer, Celsius recounted his experiments showing that the melting point of ice is essentially unaffected by pressure. He also determined with remarkable precision how the boiling point of water varied as a function of atmospheric pressure. He proposed that the zero point of his temperature scale, being the boiling point, would be calibrated at the mean barometric pressure at mean sea level.

#books #science #physics #thermometry

The "spell" Hitler cast is what we often call a "reality distortion field"—an ability to bend perceptions, convincing followers to believe the impossible and disregard facts and reason.

We've glorified this trait, especially in charismatic business leaders.

And it's a terrible mistake.

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/the-reality-distortion-spell

In memory of Mum: my post about my forthcoming walk with my daughter Nadz to raise funds for Alzheimer's Society. (link now corrected!)

We've raised £2,803 so far, but the walk is still two weeks away and it would be wonderful to raise even more. So if you are able, please give generously!

https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/in-memory-of-mum

Sunak’s great plan for the UK is to turn it into a research and innovation powerhouse by deterring foreign students from coming to the universities whose ability to research and innovate depends on their fee income.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has hit back at Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne for criticising Warsaw’s decision to support Palestinian membership of the UN.

Livne warned that the decision would “harm Poland”. But Sikorski today responded by labelling the remarks “patronising” and saying that it is “the Polish government, not foreign ambassadors, which will decide what is good for Poland”.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/05/14/polish-foreign-minister-hits-back-at-israeli-ambassador-for-un-palestine-vote-criticism/

Not many people know about Inge Lehmann, let’s change that. She discovered the solid inner core of the Earth in 1936. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inge_Lehmann

Nearly all Gaza campus protests in the US have been peaceful, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/10/peaceful-pro-palestinian-campus-protests

In the most glorious "fuck you" I have seen in a while, you know the book that Cumberland City Council banned because they're homophobic bigots - Holly Duhig's "A focus on Same Sex Parents"? Well, the publisher, BookLife Publishing, have made a PDF version of the book available for free.

Sure be a shame if it was shared far and wide now, wouldn't it?

Every time you ban a book filled with hope and kindness, and care and love, we will resist.

https://www.booklifepublishing.co.uk/a-focus-on/same-sex-parents/

#CumberlandCityCouncil #SameSexParents #BookBans #Bookstodon

Huge protests in Tbilisi tonight against a law that would copy a Russian law against "foreign agents." But they are happening for a more serious reason: Georgians don't want to become part of the Russian world

Because it's a #genocide

“It does not have enough room for us to make tents because they are [already] full of displaced people"
"Many in Rafah cannot move elderly or very ill relatives who might not survive the harsh conditions in al-Mawasi, a sandy area that has few amenities and has been repeatedly bombed. Intermittent communications access in #Rafah, constant power outages, scarce fuel and a shortage of cash make organising any evacuation very difficult."
#Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/06/terrified-exhausted-thousands-flee-rafah-gaza

Trump asked Big Oil execs to give him $1 billion for his campaign.

He promised lower taxes and a rollback of Biden's climate regulations and clean energy programs in return.

Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet.

Be warned.

@bifouba @TransitBiker

If even at all, given that the US goons are threatening the ICC:

“Target Israel and we will target you,” the senators tell Khan, adding that they will “sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States.”

Rather ominously, the letter concludes: “You have been warned.”

https://zeteo.com/p/exclusive-you-have-been-warned-republican

Utterly ridiculous from the Pulitzer Prize committee today.

This Pulitzer citation supposedly honoring 🇵🇸 journos doesn't actually do so.

"Journalists & media workers covering the war in Gaza" includes everyone, Palestinian or otherwise.

The citation fails to mention the nationality of the journalists who "died" (euphemism which downplays the worst recorded journo slaughter), or the identity of their killers, the Israeli army.

Please compare with the 2022 citation for 🇺🇦 journalists.

Science needs #neurodiversity - an new editorial by H. Holden Thorp in #Science.

„All brains work differently. … In the world of science, these differences are what spark innovation. This is why the scientific community needs to better recognize the enormous potential of neurodiversity and bear in mind that certain behavioral and cognitive traits that may strike some as unusual can be catalytic to the scientific quest.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq0060

👉 An oil-funded think tank backed by Hungarian prime minister Orbán is involved in organising widespread farmer protests in the run-up to the EU elections.

Speakers at the meeting included the hardline Dutch Farmers’ Defence Force. Cas Mudde: "The far-right in general, and Orbán in particular, has a strategic reason for supporting the radical farmers in Brussels. They create the public image of chaos and dissatisfaction with the EU...” https://euobserver.com/green-economy/ar506ca561

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is designed to capture government subsidies and not carbon. 🙃

This by the chair of the Commons justice committee is important and persuasive on why IPP sentences are wrong in principle and bad in practice.

Once telling passage jumped out:

“IPP sentences were introduced in 2003 as a new form of custodial sentence. Designed to appear tough on crime…”

How many stupid law and policy things have been done for that reason.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/the-ipp-scandal

“'Have you no sense of decency?'

It’s a question as urgent today and one that should be asked of every person who cravenly, cynically, or ignorantly supports a far greater threat to the United States than even McCarthy ever was.

Make no mistake, decency is on the ballot in November. And the press should cover this race accordingly."

~ Elliot Kirschner

#Trump #decency #leadership #democracy

https://elliotkirschner.substack.com/p/decency-is-on-the-ballot