Replying to
@snaptophobic@mastodon.me.uk
I really should get around to doing that. I haven't used gas in years but I still pay for it.
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LionelB
@lionelb@expressional.social
mastodon 4.7.2+glitchMy main themes here are gardening, nature and conservation, green energy and open source software but my frustration with the way billionaires are trashing our world will inevitably feature at times.
805 Followers
701 Following
50 Posts
Joined July 07, 2023
The Binface Election is on Thursday. The precise vote is not especially important. In all scenarios, an utter humiliation for Farage.
#countbinface
The caryopteris excelling itself this year. It laughed at the drought.
#gardening
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
And it is back. Much thanks to @jippi@expressional.social for the perpetual fight against AI bots.
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
"Jesus wants me for a sunbeam' is a very pretty song.
I think we are back to guilds. They were immensely powerful and the source of commissions. Elevating the role of workmens' tools and showing the workmen, builders, architects and funders is maybe the twist here.
Follow the money.
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
Usually, taking advantage in a manner insulting by its failure to show any subtlety or apology.
Ice cream at £5.50 from a monopoly provider inside an event where you already paid £28 to get in.
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
Esperanto has a similar system but only has good/bad, not cute/ugly.
I just got a message that BahnCard 25 is now available for only €29.99. It gives a year of discount at 25% on Save and Flex fares on DeutscheBahn.
A couple of visits would easily cover that.
#rail #deutschebahn #Germany
Replying to
@etp@indieweb.social
Oh, indeed. Seismic.
It needs to be understood that most of the population of Clacton are Londoners who made the move because they wanted to live in a white enclave. They are self-selected internal migrants.
Replying to
@snaptophobic@mastodon.me.uk
I take some comfort from the fact that they are especially stupid and epically incompetent.
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
The handful of hair is probably a reference to horse hair, which was used as reinforcement for plaster.
Still alarming, if the horse died of anthrax...
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@WWeeta@flipping.rocks @cibersheep@mastodont.cat @mdione@en.osm.town @Tarnport@mastodon.green
Hovel, pile, mansion, cottage, terrace, flat, studio, house, villa, grange, shack.
Wordy.
Replying to
@stevewfolds@mastodon.world @Tarnport@mastodon.green
Portuguese.
They drench it with sugar after.
Not a 'healthy option'.
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@stevewfolds@mastodon.world @Tarnport@mastodon.green
I suspect they kill you jointly, in a pincer movement.
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
Bread can be soaked in an egg and milk mixture, then deep fried.
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@Florapis@toot.wales
The independent camera shop or the independent stationers will do any that I need, on demand.
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Replying to on mastodon.scot
@Wen@mastodon.scot
I suspect that much of that framing is upon direct instruction from the US administration, which pressure the UK government is too spineless to even report.
Replying to on mastodon.scot
@Wen@mastodon.scot
An interesting side-note.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonifatius
"... its most unique hotels".
Well dear, if your hotels are anything like your grammar, I shan't be staying.
This is an illustration from 'Froggy's Little Brother', a Victorian melodrama on the evils of poverty. A story with a social reform purpose and with the religious edge typical of the time.
The family subsisted on the earnings from a Punch and Judy show.
#VictorianLondon #poverty #socialreform
Dinner: Leon Bakst, 1902.
The dress and the hat are surprisingly precise silhouettes but the expanses are filled with long, dry brush-strokes, overlayered.
The chairs and table setting show mastery of suggested form. Instead of carving out all of the detail photographically, he supplies subtle hints which enable us to visualise what he saw.
The face looks unfinished but faces absorb our attention. I suspect that the token sketch of features is a device to avoid that distraction.
He was a ballet designer. Virtuoso speed was his craft.
#art #painting
Replying to
@nuwagaba2@mastodon.social
No water on it during the dry period. It has two protections. The leaves look grey because they are covered in small hairs. The scent of the leaves comes from volatile compounds which form a haze at the leaf surface. Both give the leaves sun protection.
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
This alleged 'manifesto' of the Lone Ranger is pretty impressive.
"I believe that to have a friend,
a man must be one.
That all men are created equal
and that everyone has within himself
the power to make this a better world.
That God put the firewood there
but that every man
must gather and light it himself.
In being prepared
physically, mentally, and morally
to fight when necessary
for what is right.
That a man should make the most
of what equipment he has.
That 'this government,
of the people, by the people
and for the people'
shall live always.
That men should live by
the rule of what is best
for the greatest number.
That sooner or later...
somewhere...somehow...
we must settle with the world
and make payment for what we have taken.
That all things change but truth,
and that truth alone, lives on forever.
In my Creator, my country, my fellow man."
Replying to
@emsquared@social.coop
Indeed!
Human thinking has a strong focus on things, which are seen as real and concrete. The relations between things are seen as abstract and provisional.
If we turn that on its head, the 'relations between' bit becomes the real substance of existence and things are then in the realm of inference and convenience.
At the quantum level, the finding that an object is changed by the act of viewing stops being incomprehensible and is instead blindingly obvious.
The new Scotrail app has been updated today. Still crashes without Chrome.
#Scotrail
Quantum entanglement is mysterious. There is no communication, no collusion across vast distances. States are also not pre-programmed, like Christmas lights.
The paradox disappears though if you accept that rather than being separate things, mysteriously doing a co-ordinated dance, there is in fact just one thing, being itself. It may be a bit like a lighthouse seen in a mirror.
Seen in one way, it is here. Seen in another way, it is a thousand light years away. Its spin may appear flipped but there is no 'entanglement' and no need of a theory of entanglement.
Am I being daft and simplistic?
#quantumentanglement #quantumphysics #astrophysics
There are a lot of assumptions behind 'Human instructions or values'.
In the case of some humans those are fascist values. The predominance of fascist values is much higher among proponents of AI than in the general population.
Surely we would want artificial algorithms to fail to respond to or actively subvert their 'values and instructions'?
#ai
House-buying assistance in the UK could have been used to nudge towards high density urban housing, limiting development sprawl and facilitating high efficiency transport.
An opportunity missed.
#housing
"When did you last use the scanner?"
- "Erm, 15 years maybe."
"Why do still own a scanner?"
- "Erm."
"Do they even have the scanner drivers anymore?" [Ahem...]
- "Erm."
"I am thoroughly pleased with this item and it will be my first choice for our nights going forward."
This is so John Lewis 🫣
[This is a British department store chain, the darling of the middle classes.]
Replying to
@Tarnport@mastodon.green
The characterisation of Boone as a 'folk hero' says a lot about the American soul.
Replying to
@snaptophobic@mastodon.me.uk
I gave up on gas many years ago. The internal pollution and mould generation are reason enough.
I have a storage heater, which is viable because I have an electric car. Which in turn avoids the interminable mechanical problems with fossil fuel cars.
If I made a change, it would be to install a simple air conditioner. Probably to regulate the hall/landing.
The drought threw up many surprises. I gave this Rodgersia very occasional water to keep it in the game but certainly not enough to keep the area damp. This fresh green growth only unfurled when the rain arrived. It seems well able to go into stasis when not in marshy conditions.
#gardening #climateemergency
Replying to
@moonrabbit@sunny.garden
We were almost promised some. There has been nothing. Just heat.
Replying to
@snaptophobic@mastodon.me.uk
An easy win is an electric shower. Cheap, efficient and always has hot water. There are equivalents for sinks and washbasins but still so obscure that they work out very expensive.