tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org

“In long-established – so resilient – democracies where far-right parties are in power, or influencing power, such as Italy and Sweden, Liberties said deterioration of the rule of law, while gradual, risked becoming systemic.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/18/rule-of-law-declining-across-eu-report-warns

In Italy and Sweden, whose governments are respectively led and propped up by far-right parties, Liberties’ partners reported rule-of-law regression in areas including the justice system, media freedom and pluralism, civic space and human rights.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/18/rule-of-law-declining-across-eu-report-warns

Det här blir ju ännu löjligare än jag trodde var möjligt. När drygt 30 procent av "rösterna" i det ryska "presidentvalet" är räknade uppges Putin ha fått 87,68% av rösterna. Peskov kanske hade rätt när han förra året förutspådde att Putin skulle få 90%.

Läs här om varför valet i Ryssland inte är något val.
https://www.glasnost.se/2024/varldens-basta-demokrati-valjer-en-helt-ny-putin/

#putin #ryssland

Hey, Mastodon! Indiana's attorney general has created an anti-teacher snitch portal for people to report school teachers for being too woke. It allows you to upload files and everything!

There appears to be no safeguard against entering any text you want in any of the boxes, and no location/residence checking.

Dare I ask you to do your thing?

https://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/education-liberty/

Boosts welcome!

#academicChatter #education #bts #taylorSwift

The main message is in the headline, but the details are absolutely fascinating #demographics #USpolitics #christianity 🌐
https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-coming-extinction-of-the-white

A lot of things I see proposed as 'solutions' to our polycrisis are solutions in the sense that 'stop being poor' is a solution to having no money.

For example, solving climate change by prosecuting fossil fuel companies is a potential *outcome* of politically ending the power of fossil fuel companies. It's not in itself a way to end that power.

Sanslöst dyr nota för ickefärdigställd kärnkraft i USA. Intressant läsning i dagens Aftonbladet.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/ab5rqd/fiasko-nar-usa-skulle-bygga-ny-karnkraft

My Deutsche Bahn train is now so delayed that the Swiss won’t let it in (the Swiss railways nowadays only let German trains in if they are on time. Yes that’s a thing. The passengers then get dumped at the Swiss border and take local (so on time) transport https://www.iamexpat.ch/expat-info/swiss-expat-news/10-most-delayed-trains-switzerland-2022-revealed

Some Lissajous animations for Pi Day. You can find the (not very good) code at https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2024/03/14/pi-day-circles/

A few months ago I made a network map showing the high speed rail connections in #France. Unfortunately, the official #SNCF #TGV map only shows the stops and whether there is a connection or not. However, I wanted to better understand which cities and regions are directly connected.
Voilà the 2024 update of my 🇫🇷 high speed rail map! Feel free to explore and boost!

https://larstransportmaps.com/2024/03/11/high-speed-rail-in-france-2024/

#ClimateDiary

“In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away”

#massachusetts #CoastalErosion

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dollar500k-dune-designed-to-protect-massachusetts-homes-last-just-3-days

Floristic homogenization of South Pacific islands commenced with human arrival.
Strandberg+
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02306-3

"using fossil pollen records from 15 sites on 13 islands within the biogeographical realm of Oceania ...
show that floristic homogenization has increased over the past 5,000 years ...when two islands were settled by people in a given time interval, their floristic similarity is greater than when one or neither of the islands were settled."

As I said yesterday there’s no relationship between being able to raise money and running a startup. A checkout button startup being valued at $11B when Shop Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc existed was always absurd.

However Breslow was able to raise money because he looked the part

UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark have failed to align #oil & #gas🛢️ policies with 1.5C #ParisAgreement climate pledge, finds Oil Change International https://buff.ly/43cL5HY

The myths of automation obscure the truth: AI relies on human labor, undervalued and precarious. Rather than replacing workers, tech shifts jobs to lower-income countries, deterring unionization. Time to rethink Silicon Valley ethics—and rhetoric. https://www.casilli.fr/2024/03/09/how-robot-drive-thrus-scare-and-exploit-fast-food-workers/

🚨🥳🇪🇺Great news: after over two years of negotiations, in a last-minute twist worthy of a movie, EU adopts platform work directive.

The milestone was achieved at the March 11, 2024 meeting of the labour ministers, where Estonia & Greece moved past their previous abstentions to vote in favor. Done in "a spirit of compromise", this showcases EU's commitment to progressive labor policies.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/gig-economy/news/at-long-last-eu-countries-adopt-the-platform-work-directive/

RNC purge reportedly underway. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/bloodbath-at-rnc-trump-team-slashes-staff-at-committee-00146368

#Biden's State of the Union address in context #unionaddress
https://www.duckofminerva.com/2024/03/driving-while-looking-in-the-rearview-mirror.html?utm_source=pocket_mylist