About 50 years ago I had the extreme pleasure of hearing Buckminster Fuller give a lecture at my school. He said many amazing things, but one analogy he used has stuck with me all these years. He asked us to imagine that the Earth was a ball of cold steel one […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

RE: https://mitchellaneous.net/2026/04/03/143054.html Psst - nobody tell him about *1969*, when seven bucks was an expensive concert. And folk were buying albums (AKA "vinyl") for $3.50 at Sam the Record Man or A&As. Oh, and in his 1993 VHS video was in every home, so no one had to miss a TV […]

This evening I experienced an unpleasant pile-on during a brief visit to BlueSky. Someone was saying that people on Mastodon don't get jokes and you can't even quote-tweet. I replied saying that Masto has had quote tweets for about 6 mths whereas BSky still doesn't have an edit function. Then […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@apilsetas/116346487285614319 I never tire of this photograph.

RE: https://social.marxist.network/@yogthos/116343963829227272 Vietnam has more progressive transit strategies than any City in Canada. #transit #publicservice #traffic

African creators are being exploited in the AI boom https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/how-african-creators-are-currently-being-exploited-in-the-ai-boom/ To turn the tide and address AI threats, African copyright frameworks need to be revised.

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/116345305718754160 This is not democracy. It's money-ocracy.

UK government commits over £100m to boost active travel initiatives in England https://cyclingindustry.news/uk-government-commits-over-100m-to-boost-active-travel-initiatives/ To put this in perspective, this is less than the cost of building one roundabout on a road scheme...

NHS staff resist using Palantir software https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/03/nhs_staff_against_palantir/ Staff reportedly cite ethics concerns, privacy worries, and doubt the platform adds much

Maude-HCS helps model and validate covert network designs https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/maude_hcs_rtx_raytheon_hcn/ A software toolkit built for DARPA to test and validate covert communication networks is now open source, and it could help orgs who want to experiment with new kinds of […]

Forking frenzy ensues after launch of Euro-Office https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/eurooffice_forks_onlyoffice/ Meanwhile, Collabora splits from LibreOffice Online amid claims TDF ejected 'all Collabora staff and partners'

UK manufacturers under cyber fire with 80% reporting attacks https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/01/uk_manufacturer_cyberattacks/ Nearly 80 percent of British manufacturers say they've been hit by a cyber incident in the past year, as new research suggests disruption on the factory floor is no […]

300 years of medicine in Edinburgh https://medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/300-years-of-medicine The year 2026 marks 300 years of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Alongside a year-long programme of events and activities, to reflect on the past and chart a course towards a […]

RE: https://urbanists.social/@straphanger/116342380546727975 I can't recall ever seeing this type of container loading on trains in the UK

RE: https://toot.community/@openculture/116343060646302331 Sadly not true in the case of politics...

I will say this again: Science isn’t just something that nerds do, it’s the foundation of the modern world. It’s why this app exists. It’s why child mortality rate isn’t 50% anymore. It’s how we’re able to launch people to the moon. It’s how we’re able to grow food that feeds half the world’s […]

If Trump can't remember what he said last week, can't remember the Nato allies sacficices answering Article 5 in Afghanistan and instead ridicules them - why should they (or anyone for that matter) help the US in the Persian Gulf? Trump will forget in a week and piss on the helpers.

It's been 10 years since the Panama Papers leaks. There has been *some* accountability, but there is still a lot of work left to do. "The report released on Thursday highlights that a decade after the Panama Papers leak, the global elite continue to utilise a complex international financial […]

Just like many other social media corporations #reddit is planning to require biometric / ID verification* of some users. To get ahead of this, I have prepared an alternative for everyone :) 🎉 ...and just launched our rapidly growing #DeMeta Reddit community on a journey into the #fediverse! […]

Cycling tourism recognised as a strategic European sector in a Parliamentary report https://www.ecf.com/en/news/cycling-tourism-recognised-as-a-strategic-european-sector-in-a-parliamentary-report/ Advocates for cycling tourism scored a victory when the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) of […]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodoxy,_Autocracy,_and_Nationality I have been struggling since the attack here in 2017 to understand the current wave of nationalism crashing over the world and replacing the world of rules and democracy I took for granted, however delicate and insincere it may […]

Und die nächste Studie. Diesmal eine Metastudie. 👉 "Die Metastudie zeigt: Tempo-30-Zonen in Innenstädten steigerten in fast allen Fällen die Verkehrssicherheit deutlich. Die Fahrtzeiten verlängerten sich dagegen kaum." 👉 "In allen untersuchten Fällen gab es einen Rückgang der Leichtverletzten […]

Some pictures of a big heavy lifting vessel that's been shuttling feet for new turbines out from Leith to a new windfarm in the North Sea for a little while, now. The scale of it is really quite something. A few more shots from me, here […] [Original post on mastodon.scot]

NYT reports Hegseth is firing generals because they won’t take Black/female officers off the promotions list.🤔 In the middle of a war. 🎪

Therapeutin: »Es sind Muffins. Muffins haben keine Angst und sie machen Ihnen auch keine Vorwürfe.« Die Muffins:

Good news! Data centers are being cancelled. https://futurism.com/science-energy/data-centers-construction-supply

Today we launched our campaign for the Scottish Parliament election! On May 7th let's demand free bus travel for everyone, the biggest expansion of funded childcare for a generation, investment in climate and nature, and that the rich pay their fair share. On May 7th let's demand better.

The engine burning on Orion right now to end it to the moon was previously flown on several shuttle flights. NASA obsessive Robert Pearlman has a detailed accounting of all the old shuttle parts flying on Artemis II. Artemis II crew to launch to the moon on 43 years of space shuttle parts | […]

Press release Better Connected: tap-and-go travel across trains, trams and buses announced in government's new transport strategy https://www.gov.uk/government/news/better-connected-tap-and-go-travel-across-trains-trams-and-buses-announced-in-governments-new-transport-strategy Strategy sets the […]

"Every time any of LinkedIn’s one billion users visits linkedin.com, hidden code searches their computer for installed software, collects the results, and transmits them to LinkedIn’s servers and to third-party companies including an American-Israeli cybersecurity firm. The user is never asked […]

Hegseth ousts Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/02/hegseth-ousts-army-general-randy-george/

Just what we don't need. Already, our rivers are overloaded with both human and livestock waste, leading in many cases to #rivercide. Now the government, responding as always to lobbyists, wants to make it worse. Then it wonders why it loses public support. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I predict a return of trans-oceanic passenger-only steam ships. Some will have sails to reduce fuel use when conditions allow.

*It's "not science fiction" because science fiction about radio electromagnetics hasn't been a major SF topic since the salad days of Hugo Gernsback https://www.arenaphysica.com/publications/rf-studio

Babies have very little vitamin K in their first months of life. Before doctors started routinely giving vitamin K shots to newborns in 1961, up to one in 60 babies developed serious bleeding (including the brain) due to a vitamin K deficiency. This is just a vitamin, not a vaccine.

RE: https://fnordon.de/@transitionalaspect/116330577218892367 Dog-sized cat!

Why take one psychedelic when you can take five at once? Tobacco plant engineered to produce five psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin. Crazy-ass botanists. #science #botany #drugs#botany#sciencehttps://www.newscientist.com/article/2521338-tobacco-plant-altered-to-produce-five-psychedelic-drugs/

I see tech men have rebranded part-time working as "fractional" to distinguish it from the kind of thing women do

Anyone else using those fancy CAT6 cables? 😼

I have been thinking a lot about the term "free and open web" lately and I think that if we want to build an Internet that can live up to some promise beyond "I can order garbage delivered to my house quickly" we need to go back to the drawing board. Hard.

Remember when a “legitimate argument” peddled against #evs was the power grid would fail? Too much strain? Oh WOE be to the power lines! Grandma will DIE in her home in August because YOU plugged in! Yet suddenly we are full steam ahead building #datacenters the size of Manhattan to make banana […]

I'm struck by how bone-tired people are right now. I'm seeing weird errors in deliveries, misunderstandings in messages, people I haven't seen since the summer suddenly looking 10 years older. It's more than just the usual winter tiredness. I think the constant shitshow in global politics and […]

*I can remember reading this as a youngster and being deeply impressed with what a dark, biting, science-fictional insight this was

This 'natural' golf course could help shape the future of the sport https://www.theferret.scot/natural-golf-course-could-help-shape-future-sport/ @theferret visited a Scottish golf course that's won plaudits for its eco-friendly management to learn about the relationship the industry can have […]

Claude Code source leak reveals how much info Anthropic can hoover up about you and your system https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/01/claude_code_source_leak_privacy_nightmare/ If you loved the data retention of Microsoft Recall, you'll be thrilled with Claude Code

I'm getting pushback from people here saying that illegal waste dumping (and the failure to stop it) is just an English problem. Sorry, but much as you might wish to believe it, it's not true. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scot...

that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events. Driscoll was shocked, responding, “The president is not a racist or sexist,” officials told The Times. Really? This behavior is exactly that: racist and sexist. This regime is shameful and disgusting.

and some senior military officials have questioned whether they are being singled out because of their race or gender. In a disagreement about a separate promotion, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, told Daniel Driscoll, the Army secretary,

Hegseth halts promotions of some Black and female officers @nytimes.com In a highly unusual move, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals. Two are Black and two are women,