@djm_black@mastodon.scot
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

djm_black

@djm_black@mastodon.scot

European: Germano-Polish Scot. Christian. Bibliophile. Scientist. House-husband.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

For the first time since 1992 (when I was 12) I’m completely disinterested by the UK General Election.

Sunak and the Tories will lose, Labour in uninspiring, the Lib Dems weedy, Greens weak and SNP weakened, and Reform simply grim. And Brexit is the elephant none of them will touch.

As I’m still a UK citizen I will vote, but it’s with less determination than ever before.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon The UK doesn't need an election: it needs a revolution.

The entire Westminster establishment is rotten to the core and needs to be replaced.

IndyRichard, to random
@IndyRichard@mastodon.scot avatar

What is first thing you want to change after Scotland's Independence Day? I don't mean the change Labour go on about which seems to mean carrying on with the Tory project. No I mean real change relevant for the Scottish people which we can't do as a small part of Westminster.
#ScottishIndependence

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@IndyRichard The first thing would be to rejoin the EU (ie open negotiations to rejoin the EU, the single market and the customs union).

Everything else is secondary.

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
@thisismyglasgow@mastodon.scot avatar

Traditional red phone boxes at Glasgow University, and they still contain phones!

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@thisismyglasgow Surely it is time to get rid of all these intrusive monstrosities that serve no useful purpose. Isn't it?

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

New one for the Bahn Bingo: trains can’t run because of beavers! https://www.merkur.de/bayern/schwaben/augsburg/aerger-zugausfaelle-bis-ende-oktober-biberfamilie-sorgt-in-oberstdorf-fuer-92592515.html

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon My train from Cambridge was once delayed by a swan on the line near Ely. Took 40 minutes to persuade it to move.

kim_harding, to random
@kim_harding@mastodon.scot avatar

The $10,000-plus golden Apple Watch is now “obsolete,” according to Apple
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/the-10000-plus-golden-apple-watch-is-now-obsolete-according-to-apple/
The point of it was never how it worked. Now it will struggle to work at all.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@Wen @kim_harding Some books that are many centuries old are still perfectly useable.

How long will it take Kindles and their like to become obsolete/unuseable/crumble to dust?

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

HS2 is not (really) about speed but about capacity - and, yes, there is a need for more rail capacity between south/midlands/north.

But there is also an equal and opposite need to be environmentally mindful, and there is also an absolute need for competent project management and critical political overview.

From any view, HS2 is a horrible mess.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@davidallengreen The lack of high speed rail in the UK is very conspicuous...
https://bird.makeup/users/gerryhassan/statuses/1706437942443676084

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

After my rather hopeless earlier post about how Greenpeace's report about the shrinking European rail network shows us what's wrong, but not what can we do... a further post with 10 policy proposals

These are the things I would do to put right some of Europe's rail ills, with the focus on #CrossBorderRail

What do you think? Viable? Hopeless? Too ambitious? Not ambitious enough?
https://jonworth.eu/policy-proposals-to-fix-europes-railways/

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I remain very optimistic about the future for European rail: your proposals are clearly achievable and when implemented will give a real improvement in service.

Thank you for all your work on this and please keep on hammering away at it...

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Rory Stewart explaining how he was unqualified to do the political jobs he was doing is all very well (and it’s a good interview) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/16/rory-stewart-tory-mp-decade-incompetent

But turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. Why would political parties actually embrace people with different ways of thinking, rather than stick to compliant conventional people?

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I intended my recent post on Rory Stewart to be a reply to you... sorry.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Welcome to Autumn 2023 Day 09, 14 Sep, Nuits-sous-Ravières - Dijon - Nancy - Saarbrücken - Frankfurt(Main) – Berlin

Today I’m crossing these borders
Saarbrücken 🇩🇪 - Forbach 🇫🇷

Map of today’s route
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-political-tour-autumn-2023_933893#7/49.478/5.732

Today’s Live Blog
https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/live-blog-autumn-2023-day-09/

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon It looks like it has all been polished.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Welcome to Autumn 2023 Day 07, 6 Sep, Wexford - Rosslare - Fishguard - Cardiff – London

Today I’m crossing these borders
Rosslare Europort 🇮🇪 - Fishguard 🇬🇧

Map of today’s route
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-political-tour-autumn-2023_933893#7/51.880/-2.588

Today’s Live Blog
https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/live-blog-autumn-2023-day-07/

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I had to look this up on a map. The railways of south Wales are more complex than I realised.

How much of the UK rail network have you not yet travelled on?

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I keep an old rail atlas and highlight the lines I have travelled on.

I have done a fair part of i) Scotland ii) East Anglia iii) in and around London iii) the lines between London and the first two.

There is plenty I haven't done.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I use OpenStreetMap regularly, but annotating digital maps is not a skill I have yet developed.

I will take a look at umap, thanks.

helenczerski, to random

For many years, anyone associated with physics on tv or radio (including me) got regular e-mails/letters from people convinced they’d disproved Einstein’s theory of relativity, rewritten quantum mechanics, or invented a perpetual motion machine. They always involved crazy assumptions, (sometimes spectacularly) incorrect maths & an unwillingness to learn the basics.

Now there’s a whole new class of these e-mails from people claiming to have “solutions” to climate change, with all the same flaws.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@helenczerski Perpetual motion, circle squarers etc... each generation has its own form of arrogant ignorance.

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

NEW POST

Sir Keir Starmer and the Litigation Turn of Mind

Closing down lines of attack as an end in and of itself

https://emptycity.substack.com/p/sir-keir-starmer-and-the-litigation

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@davidallengreen The net result from Starmer's approach is a reduction of hope.

The tories have no hope of catching him out.

The electorate has no hope of a better future offered to them.

Surely all politicians have to be in the hope business: what else are they offering?

To me, it looks like Starmer has sold his soul and got nothing in return.

helenczerski, to climate

Whenever I need cheering up about the climate, things like this really help:

"During the 2010s the levelised cost (that is the average lifetime cost of equipment, per megawatt hour of electricity generated) of solar, offshore wind and onshore wind fell by 87%, 62% and 56%, respectively"

And that dramatic fall in costs isn't stopping.

Even the most short-term thinkers must be convinced by that!

(Quote from this paywalled Economist article: https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2020/05/23/the-worlds-energy-system-must-be-transformed-completely )

#climate #energy #wind

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@helenczerski Are we going to have a huge excess of renewable energy at some point in the future?

If so, what are we going to do with it all?

timkmak, (edited ) to random
@timkmak@journa.host avatar

Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant/active?

I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.

We’re trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.

If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? http://Counteroffensive.substack.com

I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@ericfreyss @timkmak Same for me.

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

If you’re reading this toot there’s a pretty high chance you’ve asked yourself ethical questions about your social media use and that’s why you’re here

You’ve likewise probably got concerns about Meta and Threads

But the 90-odd % of your friends you left behind on Facebook, Insta etc. likely don’t have those concerns to the same extent as you

Mastodon has to win on user experience as well as on ethics. We can’t just berate the Meta users

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon For me there are two aspects of the Mastodon user experience:

i) the interface
ii) who posts/toots what

and both of these are already good enough and getting better.

I am here, as I used to be on twitter, mainly for all the lovely stuff that other people post and will chip in my small contributions from time to time.

Mastodon enhances my quality of life and I am not looking for any alternative.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Vide Maison today in Ravières. We’re trying to sell the kitschy stuff the previous owners left behind! There’s a lot to sell!

Vide Maison glasses
Vide Maison kitchen stuff
Vide Maison other stuff

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon That is the bric-a-brac stall for an entire village fete :-)

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Anyone who themselves has to leave somewhere: I get you. I’m damned content, at an individual level, that I live in Germany and not on Brexit island any more

But if we collectively abandon people in Sonneberg or Seifhennersdorf or Ebbw Vale or Sunderland, look what we get

We cannot politically give up on anyone, anywhere. However tough that is. Doing so increases the bitterness and the backlash

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I look at the ups and downs of Manchester: the end of the cotton industry a century ago produced endless square miles of decay and dereliction.

In recent decades those square miles have become an opportunity for rebuilding and there is decades more to come.

The whole cycle will take more than a century.

Definitely no easy solutions and in some cases no hope of any solution.

Maybe better to encourage (pay) people to move and demolish the decay and dereliction?

bullivant, to random

Sterling work by Led By Donkeys who have put 150 of these posters up in towns and cities across Britain.

#Brexit #NigelFarage #BBC #BrexitHasFailed

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@bullivant @Indyposterboy

#Brexit represents the complete failure of the UK - not least the failure to reform the constitution.

Reversing brexit is of the utmost importance and the only hope for that is through #ScottishIndependence.

For me, brexit was the last straw.

After 50+ years in England, I emigrated to Scotland and joined the SNP.

Convincing people, one by one, that Scottish independence offers the only hope for a better future is the way forward.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@OorAndy @bullivant @Indyposterboy @THESNP There are plenty of people in England who view Scotland as a life raft and are considering their options...

...come on up, I say!

helenczerski, to random

Today is the 93rd anniversary of the 1st test of the Bathysphere (May 27th 1930), the first capsule to take humans down into the ocean depths. It was William Beebe’s idea & Otis Barton did the engineering. They were the first people to see deep ocean creatures in their natural habitat, setting a record dive depth of 670 metres in 1932. Beebe described it as “dangling in a hollow pea on a swaying cobweb, a quarter of a mile below the deck of a ship rolling in mid-ocean”.
#Ocean #Exploration

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@helenczerski @sellathechemist I was once taught by a Mrs Beebe and she pronounced it 'Bee-bee'.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Welcome to #CrossBorderRail Day 08. I’m heading to Strasbourg via Wingen s/Moder, then it’s on to Wissembourg, Lauterbourg and Karlsruhe - and an event there this evening

Here’s the video to start the thread today https://urbanists.video/w/aWyc7WGCVTSGv6gF5AAe69

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon I always wondered what the collective noun for gnomes was ;-)

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

I wasn’t meant to be sharing any stories about UK politics this week. But damn this found via @slothrop is too good not to share! https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/shocked-locals-spot-30-foot-8411136

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@jon @slothrop That is a more ancient tradition than the monarchy...

djm_black, to random
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

I just want to be a citizen of a normal European country.

I don't want:

  • the monarchy.
  • the house of lords.
  • the FPTP electoral system.
  • the archaic practices of the house of commons.
  • the criminally corrupt tory party.
  • the timid and complacent labour party.

I especially don't want , which was inflicted on Scotland against its will.

djm_black,
@djm_black@mastodon.scot avatar

@accretionist Yes, you are exactly right.

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