Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

The endless enshittification of everything continues @pluralistic

A core principle of capitalism is capitalists never pay external costs. They are always left to society. For Conservatives that means only the rich should ever be compensated for external costs.

Wales fears another Aberfan as Westminster refuses to clean up tips
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/26/wales-fears-another-aberfan-as-westminster-refuses-to-clean-up-tips?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Sorry not sorry.

APOD from 2023-12-25

Cathedral, Mountain, #Moon

Capturing a triple alignment of the Basilica of Superga, Monviso mountain, and the crescent Moon took six years and five failed attempts due to bad weather. Success came recently in Piemonte, Italy, with clear skies allowing for a shot that also revealed the da Vinci glow on the Moon's surface.

HD image at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231225.html#space #astronomy

#MerryChristmas

My latest statement to the increasing chatter of "peace" regarding Ukraine.

#Ukraine #Russia

@JoshuaHolland
Seriously. Makes me want to scream.
Professor Thomas Zimmer sums it up well:

#humor #humour

Happy #Solstice! The Nebra Sky Disc is considered to be the oldest known material representation of cosmic phenomena in the world, dating around 1600 BC.
On display at Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle.

Further information: https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc.html

#archaeology

Latest comic: Tech billionaires just want to save humanity!

#tech #inequality #economy #philanthropy

Vampires celebrating their longest day of the year https://newsthump.com/2023/12/21/vampires-celebrating-their-longest-day-of-the-year-2/

The reality is that Trump has been found to have engaged in an insurrection and he still has the full support of the Republican Party.

He now has findings of fraud, rape, and inciting an insurrection, and the Republican Party still loves him.

It isn't that they are closing their eyes to lawbreaking. It's more than that.

They are glorifying lawbreaking, which is what people do when they believe the government is not legimitate.

4/

For those arguing that the Colorado decision is bad and shouldn't have happened because it'll cause more harm than good:

Denying accountability because of fear of retribution is called "appeasement". It didn't work in 1940, it won't work today.

Yes, it's possible that holding powerful people accountable might cause negative consequences. But not holding them accountable is *guaranteed* to cause negative consequences.

So the choice is clear, from both a moral and practical standpoint: Accountability matters.

@TonyStark

I think anyone supporting Trump now, even claiming to be a moderate Republican, knows EXACTLY who and what Trump is - and they support him anyway.

There is no great "realisation" where America wakes up and realises Trump is a madman. Everyone already knows it.

70% of the US population need to realise that the other 30% are quite happy to support fascism and they are open to all aspects of what that means. All of them

It needs to be crushed, not pleaded with to change

I think about this a lot.

The final words from the anarchist collective CRASS on the importance of caring for yourself as an act of defiant rebellion.

@vmbrasseur I found this article pretty interesting and not bad until I read:

Though Pythagoras did not come up with the theory,

at which point I realised the writer was either having a bad day, half asleep, or a bit of a dolt. I mean the very beauty of such fundamental truths is that many people can and did and will in fact come up with them, themselves. This comment reflects a lamentable human delusion that a discovery can only be made by one person.

I mean in future not many people will be discovering the Pythagorean theorem as it's so basic it's taught early in our education stream, so would require a smart kid in a country/region without education playing around with drawing and thinking to discover it anew. But in the past, many civilisations had no effective communications between them and would have discovered this basic geometric relation independently.