Ben Taylor @VoxDei@qoto.org
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
Ben Taylor
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Just wow. Our treatment of refugees is so inhumane that Medecins Sans Frontieres (better known for providing medical care in refugee camps near war zones) has felt compelled to spend resources to set up shop in Essex. What a shameful indictment of the UK's inhumanity towards people in need.
#refugees #migration #ukpolitics #uk #msf #MedecinsSansFrontieres
Ben Taylor
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The polish train hacking saga is truly the gift that keeps on giving, now with full receipts PLUS an actual incident of a train compressor failing on the exact date that security researchers found hardcoded into the train's software, as a condition for triggering a compressor failure.
https://www.404media.co/polish-hackers-explain-exactly-how-they-fixed-trains-that-the-manufacturer-bricked/
#trains
#infosec
Ben Taylor
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Ben Taylor
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I have enjoyed this last year of photographing Glastonbury Tor in all weathers. I think to sum it up for me, it is a passion and I truly feel a connection with this magical place like I know many others do. These are a few of my favourites. Have a fab New Years Eve.
Ben Taylor
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Snowy Owl fully prepared for her close up on this Montreal traffic cam ♥️🤗
Ben Taylor
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Ben Taylor
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Something I forgot to post at the time. In case you were wondering if this is a thing…
Ben Taylor
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New from 404 Media: you may have seen that a group of Polish hackers repaired trains the manufacturers had bricked (hackers were successful and helped). Now the train company is threatening to sue them. We spoke to the hackers.
With my Trade Union hat on I supported someone a little while back who was accused of something particularly unpleasant. He strenuously and emotionally denied everything. I chose to believe him, because it felt like someone had to and my job as his TU rep was to support him, which was much easier if I decided he was telling the truth. And he was at a similar or slightly earlier stage to me in life with similar problems to what I'd gone through (otherwise similar, anyway), I saw some of myself in him.
For different reasons both he and I left the company before his case came to trial, I didn't find out what the outcome was until just now. He wasn't telling the truth. That will be his victim re-traumatised, his wife betrayed, his family presumably broken, his child growing up with that stigma on his father, and that's leaving aside the toll on him, personally.
I feel incredibly sad. There are no winners here. There were never going to be as soon as he did what he did.
Ben Taylor
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Honestly. I know these people are getting rich, but I remember David Mitchell making the point once (his was about Heathrow 3rd runway): You can't take it with you. What good is being rich when the climate crisis kills you and your children? #climatecrisis #climatechange #COP28 #FossilFuels
Ben Taylor
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The thing about birds is that the dinosaurs we were left with were the sinful ones. The others all disappeared in the velocirapture.
Ben Taylor
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🎄 XMAS CREATOR BOOST TIME 🎄
Every year I try to boost awesome creators doing things that might make cool presents.
If you are a creator, reply with:
- a description
- a picture
- a link
And I will boost you.
If you are NOT a creator, buy the cool things and boost this thread!
Merry Xmas everyone.
Ben Taylor
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Fascinating image from a smartphone camera. Upshot: a photo is no longer a snapshot in time. It's the perils of computational photography - https://petapixel.com/2023/11/16/one-in-a-million-iphone-photo-shows-two-versions-of-the-same-woman/
Ben Taylor
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It was a cold and frosty magical morning here in Glastonbury. Taken from Glastonbury Tor at sunrise.
Ben Taylor
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Henry Kissinger, who famously sabotaged the 1967 Vietnam peace talks in order to become Nixon’s national security advisor, has died. It’s rare when you can pinpoint a number of deaths to a political appointee but the 1975 peace deal was exactly the same as the 67 guidelines, and more than a million people died because of his decision, including 60% of all US casualties.
My 9yo son has homework to find six "adverbial phrases" (I had to look this up) in one of his books. I had to look through three novels to find even one example, and in the end I made four of the six up.
You may say I shouldn't be doing my son's homework for him, and you'd be right. But if you're going to say that, please also explain to me how there is any expectation that any of these primary-age children are going to do this themselves, and what the benefit of doing so is, and what the benefit of knowing what an "adverbial phrase" is? Because the whole thing seems to me like a waste of time designed to teach children that they can't be expected to do their own homework.
#English #englishgrammar #grammar #primaryeducation #education
Ben Taylor
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We need to talk about the Clangers. The Clangers (copyright Coolabi Productions Ltd, Smallfilms Ltd and Peter Firmin, images used under review/satire...) live on "a small Moon"...and are tall enough that the Moon's curvature is comparable to their scale. This is the best pic I could find to illustrate this, the further Clanger seems to be pretty much ON the horizon from the camera's point of view.
So we can draw a circle to match that curvature...
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
