Disabled people don't just "deserve" access to the world- we have a right to it.

Denying us the freedom to use a bathroom, enjoy a meal, or be a part of society is a denial of our human rights.

Until our rights are honoured, justice and equality remain empty promises.

#Disability #HumanRights #Poverty #Technology #Cinema #Accessibility #SDGs #Equity

HEADLINE: "Heat claims more than 175,000 lives annually in Europe, latest data shows"
__________________________

A staggering 175,000 people die from heat-related causes every year in Europe, and that figure is set to soar in line with our steadily warming planet. The UN World Health Organization says European countries are seeing temperatures rise at around twice the global average.
__________________________

Meanwhile, Business As Usual proceeds uninterrupted.

LEARN MORE -- https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152766

#Europe #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Scientists at #Oxford Uni have developed a revolutionary approach which could generate #solar electricity without the need for #solarpanels. 💡 😎

Instead, their innovation works by coating a new power-generating material onto the surfaces of everyday objects such as rucksacks, cars, and mobile phones. 🎒 🚗 📲

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-08-09-solar-energy-breakthrough-could-reduce-need-solar-farms

#renewables #ClimateChange

Solar energy breakthrough could reduce need for solar farms |

Scientists at Oxford University Physics Department have developed a revolutionary approach which could generate increasing amounts of solar electricity without the need for silicon-based solar

^www.ox.ac.uk

If you support folks on Patreon, make sure you start your subscription on the website rather than via the Patreon app, since in-app payments are subject to extra payment processing fees (it’s *especially* bad on iOS but Android does it too).

Better yet, don’t use dedicated apps for things that should be websites, and also consider using support platforms that care more about actually supporting folks, like ko-fi. Patreon ultimately only cares about how much money comes into Patreon.

This is literally fedi

#artspam source

A new rule for journalists.

End the interview on the first egregious lie.

Turn the lights out, switch off the recorder, get up and leave.

And your report should state clearly that this is why the interview was terminated.

It never should have been tolerated in the first place.

Here's a thought I'm working on. It's said that #ActuallyAutistic people are slow to recognise their emotions, and that's kind of true for me. It's certainly true about my base state. Am I a happy person? A cheerful person? Sad? No idea.

Jump sideways: It was said of the late Terry Pratchett that he was continually angry at the state of the world. It was said to be surprising, I think, but by a friend who knew him well. Now, I *met* pTerry, and a more gentle, sweet man you could not imagine.

SOFTWARE ESCROW IS FUTILE FOR SAAS COMPANIES

YOU HAVE NO HOPE OF RECREATING THESE TWISTED NIGHTMARE PLATFORMS

THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOUR

NOTHING VALUED IS HERE

WHAT IS COMMITTED WAS DANGEROUS AND REPULSIVE TO US

THESE REPOSITORIES ARE BEST SHUNNED

Heads up:

If you want to pledge to someone’s Patreon, don’t do it from the iOS app — because starting in November 2024, Apple is going to charge you a hefty extra for the privilege of doing so.

Humans are dying from the heat, forests are burning up from the heat, and coral reefs are dying from the heat.

➡️ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/08/great-barrier-reef-ocean-temperatures-hottest-record

Please note: This headline does NOT mean the ocean was warmer just 410 years ago… or 500 years ago, or a thousand, or two thousand, or ten thousand years ago.

It means 400 years is as far back as this study went (actually, 407). So the oceans around the Great Barrier Reef might now be warmer than they have been in, who knows, maybe 100,000 years? Or 200,000? Maybe more?

We are living in a world that humans have never experienced. It is an open question whether our species can adapt and survive, or not.

Meanwhile, Business As Usual proceeds uninterrupted.

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'
The answers they got were broader, deeper, and more profound than anyone could have ever imagined !

'When my grandmother got arthritis , she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time , even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume
and a boy puts on shaving cologne
and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him , to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and just listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.' Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still
friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital , I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.' Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.' Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him
alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody , your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image) Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross..' Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8

And the final one: The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his
wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard , climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.

I see there's been backup day, now I think there should be subscription day.

A day where you gather all subscription costs you pay for, sum them up per month and per year, realize that's a bunch of money for services you might be using rarely, and cancel services or downgrade plans or switch to cheaper providers.

Many subscription economy companies have been jacking up their prices in the last few years, way faster than inflation.

Saw someone elsewhere assert that Britain is “one of the least corrupt countries in the world”, and couldn’t let that go unchallenged, so here’s what I said:

Only because of this one weird loophole, which I will explain below:

For the last decade, the previous government has been awarding public contracts for infrastructure, etc, to what are essentially shell companies run by their mates. These companies then do the bare minimum for as long as possible, which if you drive round the UK, is why you see all those road “improvement” works which do nothing and take forever and never seem to have anyone working. It took two years to replace a roundabout with a set of traffic lights near my apartment, for example. Other examples: large amounts of “PPE equipment” during Covid which turned out to be useless junk.

Obviously they aren’t actually spending anything but a trivial amount going through the motions, so what happens to the rest of the money, which let’s remember, was raised by taxes.

Well, it gets donated back to the ruling party as “political donations”, and then if the pretend contractor does a good enough job of this, they get an knighthood, or even a seat in the House of Lords for “services rendered”.

Now you might think that this sounds corrupt, and you would be right. It sounds deeply corrupt, but apparently it’s not because a lot of the global agencies which work out corruption indices are based in, checks notes, London, and are probably in on the scam, and get to define what “corruption” means, and define it to mean, “not this”.

Et voila! You have a country with one of the biggest wealth gaps in Europe funnelling vast amounts of public money to populist spaffers in government, all legal, laundered and sanitised.

The whole of UK society is like this. It’s how it works, and once you see it you either join in, or walk away in disgust.

Donald Trump has:
- cancelled all public appearances for the next 3 weeks
- all but stopped all social media advertising except what is already ordered and in the pipeline
- completely stopped all TV advertising for his campaign

However, the campaign is still spending money. Every journalist working in America should currently be asking themselves how/where that money is being spent.

When a fascist stops spending time & money trying to achieve power legally, it's because they are now spending time & money working to seize it illegally.

Eeeh, it's hot outside.
The common Drolf is hiding away in cool spots, waiting for conditions to improve.

#fursuit
#fursuiteveryday
#furryfandom
#furry

📸&🪡 @Areksim (Vino Studios)

Reading old camping manuals from like 100+ years ago is wild.

You think you’re ultralight? These dudes didn’t carry water, or filters, because it was mostly all still safe to drink. They didn’t carry food because there were so many fish and edible plants everywhere.

The biosphere is so fucked up now that we save to carry all of this stuff with us. Can’t just be a human alive in the woods anymore.

• Don't watch it (21%, 22 votes)
• Watch the whole thing from start to finish (31%, 32 votes)
• Treat it as a podcast and listen to the audio only (15%, 16 votes)
• Watch it in chunks as I get around to it (32%, 33 votes)

"Our longevity tests found less than a 1% decrease in fit effectiveness in pollution masks worn every day for 30 days."

So you can leave out your mask to dry after each use and then use it again.

https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/do-n95-masks-expire/

Smart Air

Do masks expire? Scientists tested new and expired masks to see if N95 masks expire. Tested on real people, even 10-year-old N95s were as effective as new.

^{Tyler Vanzo (Smart Air)}

Have you ever considered setting up an IXP? In a new article series, Thomas Liske (@liske) and his colleagues from TU Dresden share their experiences in setting up DD-IX, an Internet exchange driven by a local grassroots community.

Read it on #ripelabs
🔗https://labs.ripe.net/author/liske/ixp-from-scratch-building-a-new-ix/

#ixp #routing #peering

I've just been playing creating a Gimp 2.10 plugin to let me make 8 page zines from a single sheet of paper. The plugin lets you choose the paper size. It then resizes the images automatically and places them in the right place.

The image below shows what the result looks like. When printed from a full size copy, you can print it, create a single cut and then fold it into an 8 page zine.

I can't add the full size zine as it's too big for Mastodon. If you like making these types of zines, you can grab the plugin from https://github.com/henspace/gimpPlugins

You can find the full size images on my other site at https://www.henspace.com/p/zine-maker.html

#zine #zines #comic #gimp #photogimp

👯

#Bats