In 1969, Kurt Vonnegut offered this sharp and still remarkably timely critique of American attitudes toward poverty through the voice of Howard W. Campbell Jr. in Slaughterhouse-Five.
The belief that anyone can become wealthy encourages people experiencing poverty to blame themselves rather than question the economic and social structures that shape their circumstances. #books
Reuters: "Battery-electric vehicle registrations in Europe rose 70.3% in Sep, as high oil prices, subsidies &…more affordable models continued to lead the growth. Around 1/3 of cars sold…were BEVs…amid a FR/DE to soften proposed EU car emissions rules"
If we as a country acknowledged that there is a sick national (generally male) perversion around girl’s in school uniform, then is the solution to try and police every potential image or just say why are we holding onto this ridiculous relic that endangers girls who wear it?
For me this is a very powerful reason to again seriously consider getting rid of school uniform.
I don’t disagree with these young students from the Little Feminist Book Club - legal porn shouldn’t include the concept of having sex with someone perceived to be of school age because they are wearing school uniform.
However, as I have often said here, the issue is school uniform.
It’s a weird British construct that supposedly increases discipline and makes school life affordable…I don’t believe either to be true and most countries manage just fine without it.
About a week ago we had #Guardian columnist Zoe Williams claiming it was ok if the #GreenParty was stopped in its tracks, because other parties now took the issue of #ClimateChange seriously.
I thought that was rubbish then and I think it even more so now that’s it’s apparent that Tories can’t stand for election if they support the #ECHR or #NetZero.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/23/tory-party-kemi-badenoch-quit-andrew-boff
RE: https://mastodon.social/@TwraSun/117484270657855967
Dolly Parton's sister, Stella Parton, says that a voting machine in Tennessee repeatedly switched her selection to Republican Marsha Blackburn, so she had to correct her ballot paper three times before she could vote. She's not alone. Other voters in Tennessee have reported similar issues while trying to vote for Democrats.
Sure, we should, if we can (many cannot). But as I keep pointing out, the government itself is making no provision at all. No stockpiles, no back-up, no alternative sources. It's individuating the response to a collective problem, and that never ends well.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Every Briton should stockpile ...
I was shocked at the lack of coverage of the ITV #Reform undercover programme once it was broadcast…
Perhaps key figures in Reform were too - they wanted the chance to play the victim.
It does seem that Zia Yusef is creating the Streisand Effect - everyone took it for granted his party was racist, misogynistic and homophobic. Now he wants people to think it’s illegal for this to be pointed out.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/22/itv-undercover-journalists-reform-uk-zia-yusuf
Google illegally clears forests in Finland for their data centers. Yes, this is what remains of a forest. For a mere fucking data center.
"Only authorized protests" is...a beautiful phrase, in that it encapsulates neofascism's greatest innovation: the harnessing of unrest to corral everyone else into unhappy, frightened blocs who hand over more and more power to the very people they should be tar and feathering.
I think it's a contender for neofascism's tagline:
Neofascism: Only Authorized Protests
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/22/macron-ban-illegitimate-demonstrations-france-unrest
This feels fitting after the past few days~ :woozy_baa:
As the UK finalises a (late) deal to maintain gas supplies from Belgium, the reliance on gas imports is forecast to keep UK gas prices among the highest in Europe... adding, no doubt, further pressure on the cost-of-living, and therefore further depressing the already falling consumer sentiment in the run-up to the end of the year.
Its yet more indication that failure to make as earlier move towards the Green Transition in energy, has been costly!
#energy #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/23/europe-highest-energy-costs-great-britain-this-winter
Philomena: Some people have been writing PHP for over 20 years. Is that because it's particularly difficult to finish?
Expert: No, software is constantly evolving.
Philomena: So they've been writing the same website for 20 years?
Expert: No, different projects.
Philomena: Have they tried finishing one before starting another?
Expert: That's not how software development works.
Philomena: My mate Paul spent 20 years building a shed. Turned out he was just an alcoholic.
Expert: Right.
Philomena: Is PHP like that?
EDIT: Hey please read the post attached below <3 you're all wonderful and I'm glad this post made so many critters smile
Apparently, my daughter was given an assignment to use generative #AI to create a poster / cover for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in her English class. She took offense to this and asked if she could just do the assignment by hand or digitally using one of her #art apps. She was told no. So, my daughter decided to take a stand and not do the assignment. We support her decision completely. Asking someone who lives for creating her own art to use AI and refusing to accept anything else is inexcusable.
yes, I'd agree; a change in the law to constrain data centre build out would undoubtedly end up as a ISDS action... see my own survey of the issue below (from a while back)
#ISDS #politics
https://northwestbylines.co.uk/environment/investor-state-dispute-settlement-the-rule-of-law-or-instrument-of-corporate-power/
#Google a very long time ago had a moto ‘don’t be evil’…guess that hasn’t applied to their business practices in a long time now.
They have no respect for the law or nature:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/oct/22/finland-google-felling-trees-
Should we see Finnish politicians as spineless or as hostages to #Google ?
I deleted my Facebook account in 2017 because I saw what was coming and I didn't like it. I didn't "deactivate" it, I deleted it, according to all the "are you sure?" prompts I recall wading through to get the final message that if I don't log into it in the next 30 days, it's all gone forever.
This morning I woke up to a 2FA email request from Facebook, to the email address I last used with the service. It was a legitimate email from FB so I decided to see if my account was really just deactivated instead of fully deleted. Welp, guess what? I logged in with the password stored in my password manager, and it sent me a new 2FA code. I continued all the way in, and absolutely nothing was actually deleted. All of my friends from that era who still had Facebook accounts were in my friend list, my last post from the summer of 2017 was still there, and many more sent before that, along with photos that I recall individually deleting before closing the account just in case.
Facebook lied. Imagine that.
Of course I immediately went through the whole deletion process again, confirming I was sure at least seven times, and got the same "if you don't log in over the next 30 days all posts are deleted and unrecoverable". Gee, where have I heard that before?
I will try logging in around the first of December just to see what happens. As for that first 2FA request this morning, clearly someone has my FB login info. I know there was a breach a few years ago but I wasn't concerned back then since like a good tech person I only ever used that password on that site (which I confirmed with my password manager), and besides I had deleted my account right? ...Right. And I know that even if they really "delete" it this time and I can't get back in, they still have my data forever.
So the moral of the story (and we all know this already, don't we?) is that all corporations; all data holders and harvesters; all social media companies; all entities trusted with our personal and financial data, are lying to us. They are all defying the law, they are all disregarding their own data retention, privacy, and security policies, and they know they can get away with it so they do it with impunity. I'm in the US so there are virtually no laws protecting my rights. But even in the EU, the GDPR is not enough. Facebook/Meta was recently fined nearly a quarter of a billion Euros over "right to be deleted" legislation, and they brushed it off like the minor inconvenience it was.
I see the BigTech builders of UK data centres are sufficiently concerned about the prospect of widening (local) political resistance & protests that they are seeking Govt. intervention to deliver a 'compact' to ease the local environment for construction...
Of course, given our political class' disdain for protest and people's local interest(s), we're more likely to see proscription of protest groups & repression of campaigns against data centres.
#TheExperiment is a #Channel4 programme carefully crafted to find out how susceptible the British public really are to Nazi ideas of how to treat #disabled people.
If that seems an over the top concept, the results are chilling.
This is a vital and genuine piece of disabled activism from Mat Fraser and Sophie L Morgan who present it, but also all the actors who take part.
https://www.bigissue.com/culture/tv/why-we-made-controversial-channel-4-documentary-the-experiment/
I am reminded again how in 1935, the US Congress passed a tax law that created a new top tax bracket of nearly 80%.
That tax bracket contained exactly one person, John D. Rockefeller, and was designed to stop him from causing so much trouble.
In case anyone needs the precedent.