Just saw a European wearing a NASA shirt so here's the link to the store of ESA, the European Space Agency.
They have some pretty cool and affordable stuff for both adults and children.

https://shop.esa.int

#ESA #EU #Europe #NASA

Sometimes I feel like I am only bashing on the EU, especially the @EUCommission and the European Council.

It's not completely untrue but it's because I want - need - the EU to do better. To live up to its own promise and act in accordance with its own values. To take pride in who we are, or have become (cuz the past...). To believe in our strength.

To recognise the miracle that the EU actually is. When you learn its history and the general history of Europe the EU seems impossible. And yet, here we are.
There's nothing like it in the world.

Europe has everything it needs except the determination, will and confidence. There is no sense of urgency but a staunch refusal to recognise the crisis we're in. If Europe does not change course, and does so decisively and with vigour, I fear for our future.

The people are ready, polling shows this again and again. Now it's on our leaders and every day they wait - and it's been years if not decades - they play into the hands of those who want to divide and destroy us, right here at home and abroad.

Visionary, compassionate leadership is what we need. Not a manager class pandering to cheap sentiment and corporate interests. Not leaders who fail to understand that the European interest is the national interest.

Leadership that appeals to new countries, welcomes them as equals and proudly presents a compelling future within the EU. Leadership that can bring back an old friend.

I love Europe, I really do, even if Europe isn't always kind to me and has in fact done me significant harm. Perhaps Stockholm should be my city, but as long as it isn't...

If you've never seen it, this is the preamble of the Treaty on European Union, better known as the Maastricht Treaty. It is the founding document of the EU and was signed in 1992. This is the Europe I believe in. I wish our leaders did as well.

Almost 35 years later quite a bit of this has actually been achieved. More than you might think.
What we miss is the 'unity by heart' also professed in the treaty, the sense that we are not just nationals of our respective countries but Europeans too. That we're in this together.

The next step - the spirit of the treaty is not one of stagnation - should be taken today because we didn't yesterday. Sadly, going by current sentiments, we're not even taking it tomorrow.

You can find the text of the treaty here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:11992M/TXT

#EU #EuropeanUnion #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanCouncil

@autistics

Some years ago I was hired for a project and came to work really close with one person. She and I got along and we would spend long days together focusing on our work but also connecting as people.

After a few months she asked me if I was autistic. I said no, which I thought was an honest answer.
I knew I am different but I am different in many ways. I knew I struggled in social situations but there was always another plausible reason (too). I knew I kept having to fight for things that no one else seemed bothered with.
For everything I could come up with an explanation that was not related to being neurodivergent. I had just never put the puzzle together and see the bigger picture.

I tried to let her question go but it wouldn’t let me. Why would she think this about me? Eventually I started looking things up online and it was eye opening. I recognised so much and pretty much self-diagnosed right there and then. She saw something I didn’t and whether or not others may have no one had ever voiced it.

Later I was formally diagnosed in two out of three countries (long story), but the one that didn’t is my home country where I lived at the time these questions arose. It was difficult to handle because they also couldn’t offer an alternative suggestion of what might be going on. It was all just my problem and for me to sort out on my own. That failure in support has caused some serious harm.

There’s a reason why I write about this today but I’m not sure I’m ready to share that yet, so instead here’s a question for anyone who wants to answer:

How did you discover you were autistic and how difficult has it been to find recognition and acknowledgement?

This question particularly applies to those of us who recognised their neurodivergence in adulthood but I welcome everyone’s thoughts.

#ActuallyAutistic

The other day I was talking to a fairly tech-savvy and generally well informed friend. He also has proper knowledge of the functioning of the EU and little trust for its current set of leaders.

He was incredibly fierce in his (rightful!) opposition to chat control.

So I was a bit surprised when he considered the EU Kids Act a good thing. Only after I informed him about its true content and provided some sources could he recognise how nefarious it actually is and how our leaders are trying to hoodwink us.

This is what we're up against. You need more than casual knowledge to understand that a) this law does none of the good it claims and does b) a whole lot of the bad it seeks to hide.

#EU #EUKidsAct

When you have a brilliant original thought, write it down, give it more thought, and come to the conclusion it has been written about to death by many others already.

How to feel mediocre in under 5 minutes.

Interrail has a massive sale going on.

50% for 'global' passes longer than a month, 15% for everything else. You have up to a year to activate the pass.

Available to anyone anywhere in the world.

h/t @seatsixtyone.bsky.social

https://www.interrail.com/en

#Interrail #Trains #Europe

If you're able to and they accept it, please make sure to throw some euros/krones/dollars/whathaveyou towards your instance.

I use Bluesky passively, simply because of some of the people who are there (and not here) but it becomes increasingly difficult to justify.

Here's their head of trust and safety basically defending cis folk threatening transgender people and why that has to be allowed. Absolutely despicable and cowardly.

(Link has no offensive language but may be triggering for both transgender people and all of us who appreciate someone speaking with actual conviction.)

https://bsky.app/profile/aaron.bsky.team/post/3mvobdemx6v25

#Bluesky #LGBTQ #Transgender

You've seen Brexit. Here's Pexit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckz7zyn1lwypo

#Piddington

@_elena I believe you were looking for this?

https://c.im/@thisislieven/117280347392386467

First look at the EU Kids Act

(BOOOO)

https://bsky.app/profile/patrickgradyy.bsky.social/post/3mvmmyk7lwa2y

#EU #EUPol #EuropeanUnion #EUKidsAct

(I wrote this quickly and tiredly, forgive me any errors or typos)

Quite a few good things have been said. Some concrete, some sadly ambiguous and we have to see what may come from it. However, I focus more on form rather than content. I’m just not awake enough for anything else right now.

Ursula von der Leyen is not the most charismatic speaker, and that’s fine. She speaks clearly and, mostly, calmly and it’s not difficult to follow her. But she doesn’t rouse the crowd or the viewer and the words, rather than the tone, need to do the work. There’s a lot to improve and I would urge her team to look into this.

One sentence early on that stood out to me: “We have done a lot”. It doesn’t flow. Change it for example with “Look at what we have done!” makes it a moment.

Early on she also spoke about gold plating – how many people know what this is? (It’s when member states build upon EU legislation rather than adopting it as is, causing wildly different standards across the EU which makes it unnecessarily complicated to do things across borders). They have aggressively promoted the SOTEU, but if you want the people to be part of this you need to use language people understand.

There were announcements on quite a few plans, but in most cases ‘we will present it in some time’. Even if all the details aren’t there yet, give some content. A little more about where we’re heading would be a good thing. This is just vague and feels dead on (pre-)arrival.

Next came the blunt acceptance of what the tech bros have been saying about AI in recent days. While it bothered me it was just accepted as truth the larger issue here is that there will be plenty of people who do not know what she’s talking about.

She mentioned a few times that in Europe people come first and connected it directly to European values. The people aren’t feeling it. She needs to give examples to prove her point.

The speech was primarily in English but there was a sudden switch to German and later French as well. This is Europe, we speak many languages. I love that and love that she code-switches. However – people weren’t prepared and may not have had interpreter services switched on, ultimately causing them to miss a part of the speech. Had this been announced beforehand people could have anticipated (at least on online streams). The first interpreter gave an accurate translation, but it was as dry as could be. Perhaps find someone who can keep the flow going.

This, by the way, is one of the coolest things of the EU – the way we handle so many languages and the large incredible team of interpreters. This could be a way to highlight this but I fear it failed.

Personally I am not a fan of special guests. I feel it disrupts things too much but I also always feel highlighting a few people because they caught the spotlight also means ignoring all those equally worthy but who received less attention. It also feels very US American. I recognise not many share this point of view though and that people seek someone to rally around. It’s not an objection really, more a personal preference but I am probably the minority here.

Some other notes I actually wrote before the SOTEU:

This room, the Strasbourg hemisphere, just isn’t the right space for this. The way it’s laid out keeps people too far apart and even if the room is filled (considerably more so than last year) it does not feel alive. There’s no ‘we’re here together, as Europeans’, at least visually.

I would argue taking it to a different venue can do a world of good here. It could also offer more seats.

Get the national leaders to attend (perhaps move the whole affair to Brussels and do it the day before or after when the European Council meets – they’re already in town). This is our European moment and it needs to show unity, a signal that we are all in this together.
Some of the Commissioners were in the room but they should all be there.

Invite the leaders of candidate countries. Involve them.

Some more evocative language wouldn’t hurt. We need to rally around the Twelve Stars.

Here’s a big one: Change the bloody time.
09:00 CET is insanity. You want people to watch? Maybe not do it when everyone is just getting their day started and busy with a thousand other things ( or barely awake, like me).
19:00 CET seems a nice time, across the EU that’s between 18:00 and 20:00 – neither too early nor too late. With future expansion the latest will be 21:00.

And change the name. Call it whatever but not a copy of the US. Be European and proudly so.

Encourage traditional media across the continent to make mention of it, before and afterwards. Don’t tell them how to report about it, just ask them to help it become known. People don’t know it’s happening, no matter how much on socials.

@EUCommission

#SOTEU #EU #EuropeanUnion

Ridiculously excited The Avalanches are releasing a new album 16 October.

“Inspired by the simultaneously magical and insidious ways that advertising and name-brand technology wraps itself around our memories. An ambivalent ode to the nostalgic pull of commercial jingles, proprietary start-up sounds, and long-forgotten audio logos.”

https://musiccloud.io/-xW1-gKA

#TheAvalanches #Plunderphonics

When it comes to the shutdown of Autistici/Inventati we really should reserve most of our anger for our leaders right here in Europe. They allowed this to happen.

Sure, the US government is beyond evil and before that, optimistically, merely problematic. But they only hold this power over Europe and European companies, initiatives and whatnot because we've allowed for it. That's on us.

The shutdown of A/I saddens me but it is also the only reasonable choice they had and they should be commended not wanting to cause harm to their users.

Europe needs to do better. Today. There's absolutely no reason for us to be in this embarrassingly submissive position.

@cavallette

I think I'm in love with Cristina Caffara. She's the co-founder of @eurostack and not afraid to speak her mind. A whole lot of truth on European tech sovereignty here.

"The @EUCommission is the last we should be listening to over here."

This is a great interview and for some, perhaps, a wakeup call (there's also a proton dude, who's fine but more of a gentle drizzle against her thunderstorm).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV7Kebt1pMY

#EuropeanUnion #Europeancommission #EuroStack #CristinaCaffara #Technology #Europe

The Noun Project updated their terms of use. AI is explicitly banned.

If you're looking for icons for just about anything, the Noun Project and its many human creators have you covered.

Free to use under a CC license.

https://thenounproject.com

#TheNounProject #Icons #CreativeCommons #GraphicDesign

There's a good chance for EU citizens travelling to the US that they will have their biometric data handed over without their consent, courtesy of the @EUCommission and in gross violation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU law. And yet...

It's outrageous this is happening, and that it's done in secrecy even more so.

https://edri.org/our-work/the-eu-is-about-to-sell-our-most-sensitive-data-to-the-us-for-visa-free-travel

#EuropeanUnion #EUPol #EuropeanCommission

Dolly was a good one.

https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/dolly-parton-tennessee-anti-trans-laws-1235462074/

#DollyParton #TransgenderRights #LGBTQ

Everyone's an artist.

Located at the M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) this 1969 installation by Robert Filliou consists of three doors leading to three different toilet stalls. One is for men, one is for women and the last one is for artists.

More info:
https://www.ensembles.org/items/7403

Sadly, the museum is set to shut down in the next few years. Budget cuts.

#ContemporaryArt #Art #MHKA #Antwerp #Belgium #LGBTQ #Queer #RobertFilliou

AI is trained on human writing - writing from people all over the world who incorporate their own linguistic and narrative traditions and many for whom English is not their first language.
This has caused AI to write in a specific way; a way that we have now decided is non-human despite being trained on distinctly human writing.

These days whenever people find a text that seems even just slightly different from how they or their peers might write, or has a more traditional or classical style, the writer is confronted not just by the accusation but often the determination that it must be AI.

Often, it isn't. Humans still write. Millions of people put great care in their words.

What these accusations do is harming writers and everyone who creates written text (i.e. all of us). Anyone can be targeted but it especially applies to those belonging to minorities and those who write in another than their first language. It's yet another way to drill out diverse perspectives.

Keep in mind that when you post a comment the world can see it. Your accusation may make others think twice and harm the person who made the post and/or produced the writing.

It's a thorny issue because no one wants to see AI writing and when it's used it deserves to be called out; even more so on a platform like Mastodon where people hopefully have the grace to forgive a spelling or grammar error and where we recognise we are a global community with many backgrounds.

The situation has led many people to deliberately dumb down their writing or adding errors just to come across as human. It's utter madness this has become a necessity for some.

If you think you've encountered AI but cannot be 100% certain do not jump to conclusions. Make the effort to check other posts or writing of that person. Often that will tell you what's going on.

Either way, I'd advice to err on the side of caution.

As a writer I want to ask the entire community to be more vigilant. Treat it the way we treat accessibility on this platform, in many ways it is not dissimilar.
Be more mindful yourself if needed but also remind others who make these accusations even if there's no factual basis.

It's hard to tell just how disheartening it is to put great care in your words, apply your skillset (great or poor) to put your thoughts into words, share them and then have your humanity ripped away from you.
Especially when you write something personal and vulnerable, when it took you a beat to find the courage to make it public.
Especially when you're not a part of the majority and people have been doing this to you your entire life.

We are human. We need to preserve and defend our own humanity, and the humanity of those around us on- and offline.

#AI #NotAI #Writing #Mastodon #Fediverse #Humanity #PSA