Paul Sutton @zleap@qoto.org

You won't surprised that it now seems the water companies have been hiding the effects of under investment in waste water treatment - both in the sense of offering misleading data to OFWAT & in failing to maintain & upgrade water treatment infrastructure.

This emphasises that England's sewage crisis is not an accident of weather or technological issues, but rather has been engineered to maintain profits.

The case for (re)nationalisation get stronger by the day

#water
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/20/dirty-secret-insiders-say-uk-water-firms-knowingly-breaking-sewage-laws

Discover the best new music from Wales with the Nation Cymru Playlist
#Culture

https://nation.cymru/culture/discover-the-best-new-music-from-wales-with-the-nation-cymru-playlist/

"My friend, a writer, texted last night from his trench to say a gentle goodbye. His unit is expecting an attack anytime, but they do not have the heavy artillery they need to repel the assault." read Oleksandra Matviichuk, on why Ukrainians keep fighting

https://iwpr.net/global-voices/why-ukraines-fight-must-continue

@trevorflowers Just to say, I've been a hard-core Windows user since 3.0 but I switched my main machine to Linux Mint 2 months ago.
Apart from 1 old, unmaintained #3DPrinting program that I used, all other programs just work (or there are matching equivalents)

I am no longer a Windows user

Friends, if Microsoft tries to squeeze you to buy a new computer to run version 11 when every new version of Windows gets worse and adds ads then please consider that more than 100 million people use Linux on their desktop computer, including people who make all sorts of projects with videos, illustrations, digital photographs, laser cuttings, animations, paper media, CAD, CAM, 3D printed stuff, circuit boards, etc.
Will it be exactly the same as Windows? No.
Can it be awesome? Yes.

Botanists analyze the role of pollinators in the evolution of flowers with various sexual forms

Botanists explore Darwin's theory on precise pollination in flowering plants. Their study reveals correlations between heterostyly, floral traits, and pollinators, supporting Darwin's hypothesis. This macroevolutionary analysis sheds new light on the role of ecology in plant reproductive mechanisms.

https://globalplantcouncil.org/botanists-analyze-the-role-of-pollinators-in-the-evolution-of-flowers-with-various-sexual-forms/ #PlantScience #Botany #Flowers #Ecology #Environment #Science #Plants

Completely mind boggling to me that we threw away 5 billion phones in 2022.

Some of those could have been repurposed: smartphones are hardly innovating any more. The most eco-friendly phone is the one you already have.

We need to publicly support communities like @postmarketOS who work on making these phones repurposable, and @gnome that work on making a polished mobile experience that serves people, not creepy corporations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63245150

"Friday morning’s strike, whatever its scale, was an act of defiance of US influence by Netanyahu."

Yet Biden still sends them weapons and cash.

That's insane.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/israel-iran-airtstrikes-ifsahan-tabriz-drones-explosions

Israeli settlers have entirely uprooted seven communities and displaced many more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Settlers and soldiers have displaced entire Palestinian communities, destroying every home, with the apparent backing of higher Israeli authorities,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at HRW.

@palestine
#WestBank
#settlers

@malwaretech lmao that country is so fucked up

Cybersecurity agencies from the US and the Netherlands have published a joint malware analysis on the Akira ransomware.

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-109a

Scientists Discover How Tardigrades Survive Blasts of Radiation, And It's Weird
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-how-tardigrades-survive-blasts-of-radiation-and-its-weird?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into ScienceAlert @sciencealert-ScienceAlert

A company is paying gamers in Fortnite skins to donate their idle GPUs to generate AI porn. What could go wrong

https://www.404media.co/gamers-are-renting-their-idle-gpus-to-generate-ai-porn/

We meet on the Second and Forth Saturday of the month
10:30 to 15:00
At Paignton Library

The next Paignton Library STEM Group will take place on :-

Date: Saturday, April 27th 2024
Time: 10:30am to 15:00
Location: Paignton Library and Information Centre
Room: 13 & IT Learning Centre

The group has a blog where updates to the event, for example what we are doing or hoping to do, will be updated in due course.

https://personaljournal.ca/paigntonlibrarystemgroup/

We also use Matrix which is an open source, decentralized communication platform, so we can create an online community that can run along side the main physical event.