Ian Kenway @iankenway@qoto.org

"Think not of the books you've bought as a 'to be read' pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood." - Luc van Donkersgoed

#reading #quote #qotd

#Brexit: thousands of Britons expelled from EU since end of transition period - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/06/brexit-thousands-britons-expelled-eu just feel that surging global respect for the UK and its new blue passports...

#UK average annual #temperature tops 10C for first time | #ClimateCrisis | The Guardian

The trend seems to be that each year is hotter than the last. Not good at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/05/uk-average-annual-temperature-tops-10c-for-first-time

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange

I got a bit irritated with my mother on the phone a few weeks ago when she said that she didn't believe global warming was necessarily all the fault of humans.
I think this is the new climate change deniers' line to soften the attack on fossil fuels, and it's sucking people in. The thing is, even if some other (as yet unidentified) element is contributing, it doesn't make any difference to the need to do something about our contribution to #climatechange.
https://nation.cymru/news/annual-uk-temperatures-tops-10c-for-first-time-since-records-began/

If anybody is interested - about 80% of people who sign up to Mastodon only use it once, they haven’t returned since. It looks like that initial onboarding period is very important.

90% of people sign up via the Mastodon iOS and Android apps. A majority of them follow nobody and toot nothing - they probably have a blank timeline.

Laptop Brands with GNU/Linux Preinstalled

Boost is very appreciated.

Lenovo https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/linux-laptops-desktops/

Dell https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/linux-systems

Purism https://puri.sm

Kubuntu Focus https://kfocus.org

System76 https://system76.com

Slimebook https://slimbook.es/en/store

ThinkPenguin https://www.thinkpenguin.com

Star Labs https://starlabs.systems

Tuxedo https://www.tuxedocomputers.com

Nitrokey https://shop.nitrokey.com

LWL https://laptopwithlinux.com/

MintBox https://linuxmint.com/store.php

#GNU #Linux #Laptop

¡Hola! New to this server. Love the outdoors and hiking (I've walked the Caminos del Norte, Primitivo, San Salvador, Aragonés and del Invierno de Santiago).

I’m Pablo. Trilingual English-Español-Català. I tweet about my life, pop cultural interests, life on the autism spectrum and coping with anxiety and depression, Mariah, Spain, travel. I also resist right wing fascism like the GOP and PPVOX. Live in Illinois. Unemployed translator/writer/teacher/Ph.D dropout. Happily taken by an amazing guy

Half of #glaciers will be gone by #2100 even under Paris 1.5C accord, study finds | Glaciers | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/05/half-planets-glaciers-gone-2100-even-under-paris-15c-accord-data-finds

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #ParisAgreement

I wish Friends of the Earth well. We must end dependence on fossil fuels for the sake of the young and of future generations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64165419 #climatecrisis #climatechange

By the end of today the average UK #corporate (FTSE 100) CEO will have earned more than the average #workers wages for 2023.

His (and mainly is his) colleagues below CEO level, but still directors will have to wait until 11th January to pass that milestone.

And median FTSE100 CEO salary is up by 39% year-on-year in 2022.

Puts calls for wage restraint into context & reveals them for the class war strategy such 'reasonableness' really is!

#inequality
data: High Pay Centre via @TheGuardian

#SaudiArabia jails two #Wikipedia staff in ‘bid to control content’ - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/05/saudi-arabia-jails-two-wikipedia-staff-in-bid-to-control-content "
Administrators jailed for 32 years, and eight years, as activists warn of ploy to infiltrate website" appalling

UK sets new record for wind power generation - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/03/uk-sets-new-record-for-turbine-power-generation-after-period-of-low-wind "New record of 87.2% also set for share of electricity on grid coming from renewables and nuclear" fab news, but it could have been so much better if the tories hadn't backpedalled on #renewables

#BritishMuseum in talks with #Greece over return of #ParthenonMarbles | #Parthenon #Marbles | The Guardian

Return them. Make replicas and display those here instead.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/04/british-museum-in-talks-with-greece-over-return-of-parthenon-marbles

#UK #Politics #Archaeology #History #Heritage #AncientGreece

Your regular reminder that 'Net Zero Watch' is not a grassroots campaign group concerned about ensuring govt climate policy is sustainable

It is another secretly funded Tufton St front organisation intended to delay & confound any action that will damage the fossil fuel industry

A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

– #JosephRoux

#Quote

Britain’s Finally Figuring Out Brexit (Really) Was the Biggest Mistake in Modern History https://eand.co/britains-finally-figuring-out-brexit-really-was-the-biggest-mistake-in-modern-history-8419a8b940c6

Do you create videos? Do you want to post them on the Fediverse so that people from Mastodon can watch, comment, like and subscribe?

If so, you might want to sign up for a PeerTube account. PeerTube accounts can be followed and interacted with from within Mastodon. PeerTube videos appear in Mastodon timelines alongside Mastodon posts.

For example, https://peertube.tv has signups open right now.

https://spectra.video has signups on request, contact the admin.

Ask me if you need help!

Also looks like someone at the UK's Royal Astronomical Society set up a Mastodon account and is crafting custom posts for it, but it only has ~300 followers compared with their >50K on Twitter:

@royalastrosoc

I see this all too often -- major public/nonprofit organizations set up shop here, but don't know how to best cross-link/promote it, so the accounts get kind of lost. If you care about #astronomy & like their work, give them a boost or follow :)

"The standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital."
- Noam Chomsky #NHS

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded its own research on the effects of sugar on health.

The results didn't look good - for them. Studies revealed a high-sugar diet may increase risks associated with heart attacks, strokes & certain cancers.

But... rather than share emerging findings, the study was curiously halted & the industry successfully shifted blame onto fats.

It took decades to widely link sugary diets to disease. It didn't have to. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/11/21/565766988/what-the-industry-knew-about-sugars-health-effects-but-didnt-tell-us #food #science