Ian Kenway @iankenway@qoto.org

A weather station in #Siberia just set the bar for lowest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth so far this year! -62.4C in #Tongulakh 🥶

Why it might be illegal, under the GDPR, for a European based company or organisation to mandate the use of Microsoft Office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3L7bLYz-mk

Exxon knew.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/business/exxon-climate-models-global-warming/index.html

#climate #ClimateChange

Revealed: #Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in #1970s and 80s | #ExxonMobil | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-climate-change-global-warming-research

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #Disinformation #Censorship #FossilFuels

#Oceans were the #hottest ever recorded in #2022, analysis shows | #ClimateCrisis | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/11/oceans-were-the-hottest-ever-recorded-in-2022-analysis-shows

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange

Hot take: The absolute scientism of the left (lacking all nuance on scientific issues) is just as harmful as the anti-science rhetorc of the right... science is nuanced, remove the nuance and all you have is dogma.

💞 This week's #MercherMindful is @Cat_LeFey discussion on image #CaptionTips from a transcriptionist: https://pagan.plus/@Cat_LeFey/109569597946233246

#AltText is incredibly helpful to a large number of our members for many reasons, including blindness and low vision, dyslexia, and simply processing context and meaning from your uploaded content.

If you'd like to be reminded when your uploads don't have a description, follow @PleaseCaption for a gentle reminder when you forget!

I keep seeing articles, about people trying to violently overturn election results, that use phrases like “motivated by election lies”.

They aren’t motivated by lies, they are motivated by not liking the result. Repeating the lies just makes them feel powerful because it makes them part of the grift. They think they’re fooling people.

Blaming the lies lulls us into thinking that this is an education/disinformation problem which, if addressed, will eliminate the violence.

These folks aren’t deluded. They’ve learned from their leaders that violence and lying are the route to power.

For most of my life I thought these problems could be solved by education. I no longer do. As far as I can tell, about 30% of the population believes that getting away with grifts and bullying people is proof of power and leadership that should be respected, worshiped, and emulated.

We can’t educate these folks. We can only build a society that ensures that they cannot gain control. Unfortunately, the entire human race has largely failed to do so, and we’re suffering the consequences on a planetary scale.

Every day we act as though they don’t *know* that the elections were valid, is a day we risk losing the fight for democracy, equality, and a stable environment.

#brazil #JAN6

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

Bore da people! #introduction time:

I am a 'Welsh Internationalist' living in Tunbridge Wells.

I run a training business helping media freelancers get organised.

I help charities prepare for media interviews. (I was 22 years at the BBC.)

I'll be tooting about:
- stuff of interest to creative #freelancers in Wales and elsewhere
- my interest in #film history and #travel especially by #rail
- my obsession with #Berlin and its history having worked there in 1978 at a very impressionable age.

A sane government would stop the out-of-control autocrats at the Bank of England. Ours just applauds them https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/01/10/a-sane-government-would-stop-the-out-of-control-autocrats-at-the-bank-of-england-ours-just-applauds-them/ We are living through an era of central bank created economic madness that no one seems willing to stop.

The Republicans are seeking to defund the US tax authority. How long will it be before the Tories copy them? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/01/10/the-republicans-are-seeking-to-defund-the-us-tax-authority-how-long-will-it-be-before-the-tories-copy-them/ Failing to collect tax is one of the easiest ways to undermine any government, and that’s exactly what right wing enemies of democracy are now trying to do

Argument for the day – the real cause of the NHS crisis https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/01/09/argument-for-the-day-the-real-cause-of-the-nhs-crisis/ Maybe the first of a new series - video arguments for the day

So to be clear on this, if you keep a loaded gun so that your 6 year old can go shoot their teacher (very much deadly), it’s a misdemeanour. If you have more than 20g of weed (very much not), that's a felony.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/10/virginia-shooting-no-fight-or-warning-before-six-year-old-boy-shot-teacher-say-police

America's justice system is broken.

#CriminalJustice #GunViolence #cannabis #marijuana #CriminalJustice #USA

Watch "Everyone Knows It: The Tories Screwed Britain" on YouTube https://youtu.be/XL5ixsGdUrE

The #Wellbeing of Future Generations Act - #WFGAct

Public bodies need to be independently accountable to it, & the public need to understand how it enables a positive future, to demand it!

Politicians - “all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.” - Jean Claude Juncker

https://www.climatica.lamarea.com/sophie-howe-generaciones-futuras-gales/

#ClimateAction #WellbeingEconomy @ktrebeck #FutureGenerations #politics #climatecrisis - #Wales