ABrockwell @aebrockwell@qoto.org

It's taken me a while to figure out how to write an #Introduction. Here goes:

I’d appreciate a boost to help meet like-minded here.

I’m a professor of medicine at McMaster University #MacDeptMed, #McMasterU

Clinically, I work as a #KidneyDoctor (#Nephrology)

I’m an associate member of #HEI (#Epidemiology) at #McMasterU

I’m a member of the Centre of Excellence in Protective Equipment and Materials (#PPE, #N95, #CEPEM) at #McMasterU

My #ClinicalResearch is in #KidneyDisease #KidneyEpi (#CKD, #Potassium, #CKDProgression) and #Masks

I’m editor-in-chief of #CJKHD (@CanJKHD on the birdsite, not here yet) an #OpenAccess kidney journal with #PublishingPolicy:

#SupportiveReview (#Kindness, #KidneyKindness) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20543581221080327
https://theconversation.com/peer-review-can-this-critical-step-in-the-publication-of-science-research-be-kinder-182142

#PortableReview (was your hard work rejected by a journal with IF>=4? Submit clean, redline, point-by-point response-to-reviews, and tell us which journal and undertake that you responded to all reviews received)
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/canadian-journal-of-kidney-health-and-disease/journal202590#aims-and-scope

I’m editor-in-chief of https://maskevidence.org/ which curates evidence on #BetterMasks and #MasksWork

For the pandemic, we need #SystemsApproaches because #CovidIsAirborne and #CovidIsNotOver. #DoAllTheThings #ventilation #filtration #PaidSickDays #BringBackMasks #WearAMask #MasksSaveLives #MaskeAuf #MaskUp #MaskMandate #MaskMandateNow #CovidLong #LongCovid

I’d like to see #KidneyVerse as the tag to find others with interest in #KidneyHealth and #KidneyDisease. #AskKidney #AskRenal

Also trying to be #LGBTQ #LGBTQ2 ally, working on #EDI #equity #diversity #inclusion, interested in #SocialJustice #UrbanPlanning.

Treaty 3|Dish with One Spoon, Turtle Island; Hamilton ON Canada. She/her

"I build little people out of acorns and sticks, then photograph them in the wild with real animals.
Join me as I share my process of building and photographing.
Learn more and buy prints at www.davidmbird.com."

https://youtube.com/channel/UC6q7I1DD2Jv5Ur9UEIavIrA/

#birds #wildlife #critters

Sitting at a traffic light an hour ago, I saw a transfer-style sticker in the rear window of the SUV in front of me, that read

WHY ARE YOU WEARING A MASK IN YOUR CAR??

Two things came to mind:
1) Why are you so concerned about what other people do to protect themselves and others that you not only obsess over it but actually went to the trouble to obtain and apply this message to the back window of your car?
2. I often don't bother to pull my mask off right away when I get into the car. Sometimes I don't get around to taking it off at all between stops. Because unlike you, I don't like to imagine that my mask is hurting me, and I genuinely forget about it sometimes.

i put up a shelf above my bed. i thought i could put plänt there, and maybe store some things. it may end up remaining empty however, as i’ve discovered that waking up and seeing this first thing is good for my mental health

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

#mastoadmin

2 January 1924 | A Dutch Jewish woman, Marie de Vries was born in Amsterdam. A nurse.

She worked in a Jewish mental hospital in Apeldoorn.

She was deported together with the patients to Auschwitz on 22 January 1943. She did not survive.

#Auschwitz #Birkenau #Holocaust #Shoah #Jews #history #histodons #Nazis #Germany #NeverForget #ww2 #Memorial #Remember #memory #otd #facts #nurse #Amsterdam #Netherlands #woman #hospital

This will become a mega-thread. I will introduce one arctic-alpine plant species every day this year (or until my private photo archive runs out…).

These species are small and beautiful, fragile but hardy. Many are already endangered, and many will be losers in a warming world. Each one has earned our attention.

#ArcticAlpinePlants #Arctic #Alpine #Tundra #Wildflowers #Plants #biodiversity

You don’t become cooler with age, but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way of being cool. This is called the Geezer’s Paradox

"...Elon Musk issued an edict to the journalism community. Obey me ... or you will be banned from posting on Twitter."

"This should have been a pivotal moment in media history — an inflection point when journalists realized how dangerous it is to put their fates in the hands of people who claim to revere free speech but use their power to control it...thanks to a combination of journalistic cowardice, inertia and calculation, business as usual prevailed." --@dangillmor
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/01/04/journalists-and-others-should-leave-twitter-heres-how-they-can-get-started/

Many ask why I am so vocal about politics, so passionate about anti facism and the rise of right wing groups and propaganda.
Whether it be in western countries, or the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

This week is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of my hometown Nürnberg on the 2nd January 1945.

My family had to live in the ruins of this city, seeking shelter of what was left - for years.
This is what right wing ideology, facism, racism and hate did.

Later my - then to be - uncle and his unit liberated the city as part of the US army.

We need to stay vigilant. Our freedom and democracies are not for granted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Nuremberg_in_World_War_II

#Nuremberg #Germany #WWII #WW2 #RAF #Army #Military #Ukraine #Russia #GOP #RightWing #Facism #Racism #Democracy #Nürnberg #Hitler

@aebrockwell @adde Aside from leafleting or standing on a soapbox, they could only rely on a diluted retelling.
Now, bs peddlers can spread the same lies but they are no longer limited to a regional or national audience. They now have a global one and their bs now has a limitless 'shelf-life'. It can be repeated, reworded, rebranded and re-consumed indefinitely, by an audience, ill-equipped and unprepared to be able to discern lies from truths. 2/2

I meant to get this to a fellow Minecraft user. It is the basic layout of what we call "The Borehole" on our server. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the original discussion thread. I'll post it here and hopefully the person intended will see it. I welcome discussion on this particular concept.

I'm standing on a ladder looking down. The ladder is necessary because "stuff happens" and the vines could catastrophically break from a water incident, or lava burning them up.

Iron bars at the center and the two opposing corners hold in the water elevator on the side opposite the ladder. One may fall straight down into water at the -59 level. The water brings people back up "not quite as quickly, but still faster than climbing." Vines, not needing support like a ladder, allow one to easily break while descending to climb back up a missed stop. This is lit by torches at every stop. The walls are solid except at each stop, which has a gap 3 high making it easy to enter and leave The Borehole.

If the intent is to "strip-mine," I have found this way to get between stops really does the trick.

If there is interest, I am happy to share screen captures of the stops and how I have those laid out to make strip-mining a breeze. Note, "Strip mining" in Minecraft is different from "real world" strip mining. In Minecraft, it refers to making a single straight shaft, often 1 wide, 2 tall in a pattern to most efficiently encounter an ore cluster without having to waste time and effort to mine out each and every single block.

#Minecraft

This is a well made point! Need to first accept and acknowledged the problem before being able to fix it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshm8coyoOA

#brexit #england #news #politics #uk

While I’d like to wish a simple “happy new year, all my friends,” it doesn’t seem appropriate with the strikes occurring in Ukraine.

I can’t help hoping for an absolutely horrible 2023 for Putin and all those who execute these crimes against Ukraine & humanity.

Carl Sagan passed away #OTD in 1996. In his final interviews he left us with two messages that are even more relevant today: one emphasizing the importance of a science literate public, the other a warning about how hard it is to extract ourselves when we’ve been conned.

Do you agree if every university should establish each own Mastodon instance?

For example, #MIT in the US, #Cambridge in the UK, and #TUM in Germany has their own Mastodon instances and are federated to each other.

So students at MIT would have their own Mastodon account officially from MIT, they can communicate with students at Cambridge, TUM, and so on.

Please share your opinion. Boost is very appreciated.

#Education #School #Mastodon #Twitter

David Bowie on Creativity and His Advice to Artists

Every creator’s creations are their coping mechanism for life — for the loneliness of being, for the longing for connection, for the dazzling incomprehension of what it all means. What we call art is simply a gesture aimed at the elemental truths of being alive, animated by a craving for beauty, haunted by the need to find a way of bearing our mortality.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/11/24/david-bowie-creativity-advice

#creativity #art #Bowie #DavidBowie #artists #expression

I love atheists because they choose to be good not out of fear of hell but because it’s the right thing to do.