Mastodawn

I won an astronomy communication and public education award from the Canadian Astronomical Society, for yelling about satellite pollution! I'm quite honoured, and now obligated to continue yelling.

Which I was going to do anyway, but it's extremely nice to know that my university (who gave me a public education award last year) and my professional society both think I am good at yelling about this and should keep doing it.

Nicovel0 🍉4h ago

This is just revolting. Israel must be stopped.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YqAe9KGmdu8&si=Eb1XraK5vSwtYgO_

Israel’s VILEST Crime Yet - The Evidence Is Overwhelming

YouTube

Nicovel0 🍉7h ago

Raphael Mimoun רפאל מימון 1d ago

Israeli police detained a Jewish man for wearing a kippa with the Israeli and Palestinian flags, then took the kippa and cut out the Palestinian flag.

Because Judaism is part of the Zionist story, but the main thing is hyper-nationalism and colonialism. Repressing and erasing Palestinian identity always takes precedence over the respect for Jewish rituals and religion.

#Israel #Palestine #Judaism

Nicovel0 🍉8h ago

Ronan 15h ago

Waymo, a Google-owned company, which officially launched its self-driving taxi fleet in London earlier this month, has told cycling campaigners that it is “normal practice” for their taxis to veer into and block cycle lanes
#cycling #roadSafety
https://road.cc/news/driverless-taxis-veering-into-cycle-lanes-normal-practice-says-waymo

Expecting driverless taxis to respect bike lanes “too high a bar” – because customers want to be dropped off in them, autonomous vehicle firm Waymo tells cyclists

Waymo, the autonomous driving tech firm whose so-called ‘robo-taxis’ are now roaming the streets of London, has told cycling campaigners that expecting their driverless cars to respect cycle lanes is “too high a bar” – because their customers want to be dropped off in them.According to the Highway Code, motorists “must not drive or park ... Read more

road.cc

Nicovel0 🍉8h ago

RE: https://mastodon.green/@ronanmcd/116459198153461110

Well I’m afraid it is normal practice for me to carry a hammer to smash the sensors of self driving cars that block cycle lanes

Nicovel0 🍉8h ago

Open Rights Group 13h ago

The UK isn’t a vassal state of America.

Yet Trump wants to punish us over a digital services tax.

This can be resolved by ditching US Big Tech from our digital infrastructure.

We should invest in open source to promote economic growth through greater innovation and a more competitive tech sector.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/24/trump-tariff-uk-digital-services-tax-warning

#digitalsovereignty #trump #digitalservices #tech #bigtech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol #tarrif

Trump says he will ‘probably put a big tariff on the UK’ if it doesn’t drop digital services tax

President accuses Britain of trying to ‘make an easy buck’ from American tech firms, weeks after warning UK–US trade deal can be changed

The Guardian

Nicovel0 🍉14h ago

Tony Yates 15h ago

This is poor advice, as experience has shown. Flattery gets you small returns that can be taken away at a moment's notice. And doing it misses a chance to explain to your own voters that a former ally is now an unpredictable adversary and that you need to do something about it which costs money.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bak7f4b3jsiqlpyo6o4ejaji/post/3mkaenzpwrn23

Nicovel0 🍉15h ago

Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖16h ago

The operators of Britain’s National Grid think two new low carbon records have been beaten this week. Yesterday Solar power hit a new record for solar at 15.158 Gigawatts. The day before they say the low zero carbon content of electricity reached a new high of 98.8%. That’s on top of the new record for wind generation that was set on 25th March: 23.880 GW. These records keep getting beaten. The records are often momentary highs of 30 minutes but past records soon become commonplace standards.

Nicovel0 🍉19h ago

RE: https://universeodon.com/@georgetakei/116456384815944783

Well that explains how Trump managed to bankrupt his casino in one year.

Nicovel0 🍉1d ago

Tinker ☀️1d ago

The difference between: fees, fines, bribes, and lobbying.

(From a Corporate standpoint. Not individual.)

Fee: An amount of money you pay the govt BEFORE doing something in order to follow legal requirements. If you don't pay a fee, you may be required to pay a fine.

Fine: An amount of money you pay the govt AFTER doing something in order to follow legal requirements. Fines only happen if you're caught and if a judge/jury finds you guilty of not paying a fee / following the law.

Bribe: An amount of money you pay illegally to the govt BEFORE doing something in order to bypass legal requirements. Ideally the bribe is less than a fee or fine. If caught, you may have to pay a fine.

Lobbying: A bribe you pay legally to the govt to change the laws to make activities legal (bypass fines) or cheaper (lower fees and fines).

Therefore a simple cost benefit analysis occurs to determine: If the fee is cheap, pay it. If the fine is cheap, don't pay the fee - instead break the law and pay the fine only if caught/found guilty (paying a fine is often cheaper than paying a fee, especially in aggregate). Don't pay a bribe when you can lobby. Lobby if you plan on breaking current laws so often that paying fines becomes cost prohibitive.

So the ideal is to break the law and pay the occasional fine. Or to legally bribe (lobby) to change the law so its no longer illegal (or cheaper to break the law).