Toby Atkin-Wright

1. 45% of microplastics come from tyres

(tags:plastic environment )

2. UK wealth tax: high risk and anti-growth

(tags:economics taxes uk )

3. Cuba becomes 22nd country to move to self-id for gender change

(tags:GoodNews LGBT transgender Cuba )

4. Starmer's response to far-right protests exposes Britain's moral decline

(tags:UK racism politics OhForFucksSake )

5. Shocking Video Captures Calm Police Officers Handling Situation Nonviolently

(tags:usa satire video violence police )

6. How does Britain's pension predicament compare with other countries

(tags:pensions comparison )

Nice day to walk in to work.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Just did the age verification (UK) thing for Bluesky. Using my face with laptop camera. Photo supposedly deleted afterwards. The website was estimating my age, and I'm saying "Tell me a number!" Or probably best don't! It didn't give me a guessed age, but it was sure I was old enough. So yup, done.

Bluesky is one of the first services asking for this verification from UK folks due to new legislation. It's likely more will do this soon too. Verification can be done by photo (if you look old enough) or ID. I was much happier with a brief photo check than doing anything with my official paper ID. I'd probably not have been willing to do the latter option.

Age verification is currently not essential to use Bluesky, even with the new UK legislation. Most of the site's features will work without it. Though not direct messaging, which is something I find useful sometimes.

Kindle books anyway. I also have library books on loan, plus other books ongoing in the house. I mainly read ebooks now because of huge problems reading print due to a progressive neurological disease. Gargantuan fonts on my Kindle keep me reading for extended periods.

Talked to Sophia about Wicked. Apparently she kinda enjoyed it, but isn't a fan of revisionism and prefers The Wizard of Oz.

"The good people should stay good and the bad people should stay bad."

1. Labour has brought back Section 28, here's how it will harm children

(tags:children education Labour OhForFucksSake bigotry transgender UK )

2. The Louder the Monkey, the Smaller Its Balls, Study Finds

(tags:monkeys genitals science )

3. Labour ministers lying about Scottish water quality to make it look like privatisation isn't the problem

(tags:Scotland UK England Labour lies water privatisation )

4. French Press Association journalists in Gaza are starving to death

(tags:Israel gaza Palestine OhForFucksSake journalism food )

5. metabolite produced by gut bacteria is a driver of atherosclerosis, the disease behind most heart attacks and strokes.

(tags:heart disease microbiome )

6. Why Facts Don't Change Minds in the Culture Wars—Structure Does

(tags:belief discussion communication )

7. The US is erasing women from the top ranks of the military

(tags:usa military misogyny OhForFucksSake )

8. Why you can't color calibrate (deep) space photos

(tags:space colour photography )

9. Countries across the world see food price shocks from climate extremes

(tags:food prices doom globalwarming )

10. If somebody is doing a good thing, and you try to force them to do a different, better thing, they usually end up doing neither

(tags:communication management organisation )

11. Whites-only communities are spreading in the USA

(tags:USA racism )

1. HS2 was doomed to be a mess before it began, say insiders

(tags:hs2 uk regulation trains planning epicfail )

2. Is it cake? M&S vs HMRC tax edition

(tags:uk tax food cake viaSwampers )

3. In a Major Reversal, the World Bank Is Backing Mega Dams

(tags:hydroelectric investment renewables )

4. UK's Biobank, the biggest human imaging study scans its 100,000th volunteer

(tags:uk mri health research )

5. ChatGPT advises women to ask for lower salaries

(tags:ai inequality women pay OhForFucksSake )

Just blogged about this, remembering playing part of the musical accompaniment for Hawick High School shows Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver! and Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. 1987-1989.

The play park we're waiting for a dentist appointment in has WiFi.

(It's got a building in it owned by the council leisure service to sell ice creams and manage the tennis courts next door.)

1. Lighthouse of Alexandria rises again as 22 massive blocks resurface from the seafloor after 2,000 years

(tags:history light sea architecture egypt archeology )

Recently rejoined the public library (Angus Libraries). I struggle with print due to progressive neurological illness - indeed have done for 25+ years - so borrowed a mass of illustrated/painting/photography books. Latest catalogue request from elsewhere in Angus is a new manga Sherlock Holmes. Fab!

It is encouraging I can still find physical books I want to borrow, even if I can't read print or even large print now. And it's marvellous how the online library catalogue lets me call books in from all over Angus. There's a particularly good Scottish cultural/history collection in store at Forfar.

Meanwhile I continue to read masses on my Kindle. I have a huge pile of ebooks on my virtual to read pile. I often snap them up when they're on reduced sale price. I buy far more ebooks than I ever get read! But at least it lets me keep reading extended fiction and non fiction. With gargantuan font.

This has been on hold for nearly a year. With my recurring flares and heavy sedation we were struggling even to manage to fit in just one episode a week, after our Sunday night dinner.

But now restarted, aiming for that Sunday night slot. And we’re picking up where we’d got to, with season 2 episode 15* “There All The Honour Lies”. Luckily we have watched the whole run many times, so know the overarching plot well. Otherwise we might be a bit confused about the arc plot after such a long gap.

Watching this it does feel like revisiting old friends and a favourite place. I hope we can keep the momentum going. There are some stunning episodes coming soon. Seasons 2 and 3 are my favourites of the run.

* actually might be #14. But it’s far through the season anyway.

Had my first jam session with my new band friends on Friday night. I learned a couple of new songs, semi-learned a couple more. YES, I HAVE STARTED A SPREADSHEET.

Uh oh. These people are GOOD. And loud. And they like fast, energetic songs.

We're doing some Pat Benatar, Blink 182, Green Day (soon), No Doubt, maybe some Alice In Chains, that sort of thing. All new songs to me, which is fine. I don't actually remember any songs from my previous lives; and frankly, if I never play Van Morrison for drunk 40-something coworkers ever again, that's okay. Not that there's anything wrong with being 40 - I wish I was 40 again! - just saying this is a different vibe altogether.

Edit: Also, cue me trying to remember which online sheet music stores I bought stuff from 20 years ago to see if I can re-download any of it. ALAS. SheetMusicPlus admits it knows me, but says I've never bought anything.

Sophia, it seems, just likes hanging around.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. Online Piracy Almost Died. Now It's More Popular Than Ever.

(tags:video piracy TV football manga viaSwampers )

I have an under-counter integrated fridge/freezer. (Integrated in this case meaning that it's got a door on it, and is embedded in the cupboards).

I want to replace it with a free-standing one - i.e. one that will simply sit in the gap.

The various places I've looked at so far that do a delivery and also take away your old fridge only have options to replace an integrated fridge with an integrated fridge. Or a free-standing with a free-standing. Apparently they use different teams for each of these.

AO.com told me that I need to entirely remove the old one. John Lewis told me that they'd just send it out and hope that the free-standing fridge people happened to have the right tools with them, which doesn't sound ideal.

So, I could do with some advice on getting an integrated fridge/freezer removed and taken away. Preferably in the form of "Call these guys, they are vaguely* competent and cheap."

Anyone got any experience?


*I'm willing to settle for vague competence when it comes to removing things. Installing things is a different matter...

1. Taika Waititi to Direct 'Judge Dredd' Movie

(tags:2000AD JudgeDredd movies )

2. Have your say on the future of affordable housing in Edinburgh

(tags:edinburgh housing )

3. "I'm a journalist covering Palestine Action arrests. This is all absurd"

(tags:UK censorship Palestine law )

4. Canadian judge halts deportation of non-binary American in ruling after Trump's gender edicts

(tags:Canada USA LGBT bigotry )

I have completed the semester's marking and mark returns for both University of Tokyo and Tokyo University of Science.

I am up to date on all the marking from Meiji University, though there will be some more essays submitted next Friday and the Friday after, for marking while I'm on "holiday" and I can then submit the marks to Meiji (one module out of three has been done).

I've completed the advance bookings for the holiday $OFFSPRING and I are going on next week.

I've complete a thing for the 2020 Worldcon admin, though there is still a big job ongoing with that to be done. The urgent one is completed, though.

I still have to pack for the trip.

1. UK voting age to be lowered to 16 by next general election

(tags:voting UK )

2. Netflix uses AI effects for first time to cut costs

(tags:ai cgi netflix )

3. The world's most contagious falsehoods

(tags:myths beliefs misconceptions )

4. The fascinating world of avant-garde perfumes

(tags:smell art )

Book haul from Monifieth Library (4 books from elsewhere in Angus, found in the library catalogue and transferred over to Monifieth for me) plus a small book about the Greek Myths I'd ordered from our local bookshop in Broughty Ferry.