@TimWardCam@c.im cover
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TimWardCam

@TimWardCam@c.im

Cambridge Liberal Democrat. Techie. One time pilot.

Profile picture: street furniture - I take pictures of interesting street furniture when travelling. In this context it is appropriate for the street lighting columns to be gold plated.

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georgetakei , to Random
@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

Every. Time.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@georgetakei Do what modern kids do. Buy, say, a set of twelve pairs of socks in rainbow colours. Wear non-matching ones from the set. Then if one gets lost, sure you're down to eleven pairs, but when a second, of any colour, gets lost you've still got eleven pairs, which sounds like a win to me.

bibliolater , to histodon group
@bibliolater@qoto.org avatar

How Cambridge bred eugenics

"The term “eugenics” (from the Greek for ‘well born’) was birthed here in Cambridge by Trinity’s own Francis Galton in 1883. Galton was inspired by his cousin Charles Darwin and adapted the idea of natural selection to presuppose that the survival of the fittest had been distorted by social welfare policies."

https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/27401

@histodon @histodons

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@bibliolater @histodon @histodons The idea that "the survival of the fittest had been distorted by social welfare policies" is a manifestation of the mind-boggling supreme arrogance which asserts that mankind is some how "above" or "beyond" or "outside" nature and not itself subject to the laws of nature.

If we develop "social welfare policies" that's just the laws of nature in operation. Like everything else we do.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@BradRubenstein @bibliolater @histodon @histodons I'm not sure that the laws of nature care much about anybody's notions.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@BradRubenstein @bibliolater @histodon @histodons Tricky, that one ... particularly when we get into observing that there is no basis in physics for any concept of "free will" ...

mondoweiss , to palestine group
@mondoweiss@social.mondoweiss.net avatar

Since October 7, Israeli politicians and far-right leaders have pressed for Israel to replace Palestinian laborers with foreign workers. Such a move would devastate the Palestinian economy and could bring the Palestinian Authority down with it.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/israels-plans-to-replace-its-palestinian-labor-force-could-spell-disaster-for-the-palestinian-economy/


@palestine @israel

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@mondoweiss @palestine @israel Hamas would have expected that to happen and taken it into account when planning their attack.

18+ theautisticcoach , to DisabilityJustice group
@theautisticcoach@neurodifferent.me avatar

2 years ago a major university asked me to come in to give a quick pitch on how I may be able to make their campus more neuroaffirming.

I said that I don’t do free meetings of this nature, but they assured me it was a pitch for 15-20 minutes to see if they’d be interested in a full meeting.

Like many autistic professionals in such situations, I reluctantly agreed.

The “15-20 minute chat” turned into an hour of asking and prodding me for information. It was implied that we would begin a professional relationship after some “checking with higher ups”.

After following up multiple times, with no reply, I was told that they were not interested in pursuing any of my ideas. It sucked, I was out 2 hours with travel without being paid, but thought that’s what it is and I moved on with life. Another “affirming” group taking advantage of autistic people’s labour and bodies.

Today I ran into a one of the people who sat in on said meeting. They attended a lecture I gave on building neuro-affirming university campuses. You can imagine my surprise when they told me with a big smile that they had implemented my ideas and built an entire team of “ND affirming” professionals. They used my ideas, my implementation plan, my program ideas, and then hired others to do it for them. Never bothered to pay me for that.

You can imagine my further surprise when this person said “oh that’s a great idea you just made in your talk. We should hire someone to do that!” and walked away, super proud of the “new idea” they came up with.

This person is, of course, NT.

Autistic people know the feeling of not being heard. Of people taking our art, our ideas, our lives, and making them their own, with no recognition. We know what it is to be paid nothing for our work, while NT people doing the same thing are paid in loads. And if you’re not a man or white, you know this on a number of levels.

So many of those claiming to care about affirming autistic lives are full of autisiphobis and ableism.

Our minds and bodies aren’t worthless. It’s our minds and bodies that make the world go around.

@actuallyautistic #ActuallyAutistic @disabilityjustice

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic @disabilityjustice Got that with an interview for a contract software engineer job. The interview gave me the impression that they were basically after free consultancy, and no actual paid work materialized.

Some time later an agent said the same company wanted to interview me again for a different new position. "Sure," I said, "that's £500 up front for me to attend the interview, refundable against my first invoice."

mondoweiss , to palestine group
@mondoweiss@social.mondoweiss.net avatar

The false labeling of Palestinian liberation slogans like “from the river to the sea” as calls for the elimination of Jews reveals an Israeli anxiety over its dispossession of the Palestinians from their land.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/the-real-reason-from-the-river-to-the-sea-has-garnered-so-much-condemnation/


@palestine @israel

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@mondoweiss @palestine @israel I grew up knowing that the Arab war aim was to "push the last Jew into the sea". Although there are now some peace treaties with some of the neighbours I don't think this war aim has been universally withdrawn?

pluralistic , to Random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Earlier this month, Ed Pierson was supposed to fly from Seattle to New Jersey on Alaska Airlines. He boarded his flight, but then he had an urgent discussion with the flight attendant, explaining that as a former senior Boeing engineer, he'd specifically requested that flight because the aircraft wasn't a 737 Max:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/boeing-737-max-passenger-boycott/index.html

1/

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@AlisonW @pluralistic I think it's an "in charge" thing. If I'm flying the plane at least no other bugger is going to kill me, I'm in control - riding a motorbike on the public roads, not so much.

But yes, as the wheels leave the ground there is that "hey, the only way I'm going to be alive in an hour's time is if I don't fuck up" thought. The clever trick is not to say it out loud and worry the passengers.

georgetakei , to Random
@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

So much for 'America First' I guess 🙄 https://www.comicsands.com/maga-citizenship-test-kimmel-trump-2667551783.html?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@georgetakei Most British people couldn't pass the British citizenship test, which is widely regarded to be utter bollocks.

franciscawrites , to bookstodon group
@franciscawrites@mastodon.scot avatar

In 1963, in a bid to settle a conflict with his English teacher, a 16yo student from San Diego sent a 4-question survey to 150 well-known authors or commercial, literary and science fiction.

"Did they consciously plant symbols in their work?" he asked.

Here are many of their wonderful answers, very much worth the read

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/12/05/document-the-symbolism-survey/

@bookstodon

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@franciscawrites @bookstodon I'm not surprised that Asimov was one of those who replied. I've seen a hand-typed postcard he sent in response to a teenage fan letter, he must have spent quite a bit of time doing that sort of thing.

BBCRD , to News
@BBCRD@social.bbc avatar

From BBC Press Office:

New technology to show why images and video are genuine launches on BBC News.

‘Content credentials’ feature means visitors to the BBC News site will now see a ‘how we verified this’ button underneath images and videos on BBC Verify content.

http://bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/content-credentials-bbc-verify

| @BBC_News_Labs

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@BBCRD @BBC_News_Labs How about a flag to say whether or not a headline came straight from a Tory press release? Or a flag on non-existent BBC stories (that are all over the non-BBC media) to explain why the BBC has chosen not to cover them?

malwaretech , to Random
@malwaretech@infosec.exchange avatar

Someone sent me a bunch of documents to sign and return, but they sent them via regular mail and I don't actually know how to do that. I tried googling but it sounds like way too much effort, so I just ordered an Uber and tipped him $50 to just drive to the address and give them to the receptionist.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@FinchHaven @malwaretech Nah, you can download and print one. Oh, provided you have a "printer", that is.

ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

@fuck_cars

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars One thing you can get within a 15 minute walk of some US homes is arrested!

(My grandma went for a walk in a Miami suburb. The locals thought that someone walking (rather than driving) was obviously suspicious so they called the cops. Because my grandma was white and female and elderly, rather than black and male and young, they stopped to talk to her rather than just shooting her. They then spent several minutes trying to get her to admit that she was walking because her car had broken down - they just couldn't get it through their heads that she was walking because she wanted to walk.)

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@Zugumba @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars On my one trip to Texas my host said we were going out to dinner. So at the hotel we got into a car, were driven out of the hotel car park, up the ramp onto the motorway, along for one junction, down the ramp, and into the restaurant car park.

And when I looked around I could see that the hotel was in fact next door. Each was surrounded by a vast nearly empty car par. We could have walked from one to the other ... except of course there was an impenetrable fence between the two car parks. 'cos nobody would want to walk, would they, when they could drive, so why leave a gap in the fence?

And then ... there were all sorts of weird hoops to jump through before we were allowed to buy alcohol to go with our dinner. Of course if we'd been able to walk from the hotel we could have drunk as much as we liked without worrying about being sober enough to drive back.

TimWardCam ,
@TimWardCam@c.im avatar

@Zagorath @Brendanjones In the UK one of the magic numbers planners used for bus stops (or did a few years ago when I was in the loop) was 400m

georgetakei , to Random
@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

Ask and you shall receive.

Text that reads: Adam Daniel » Christians Against Science "The earth is 4000 years old. Change my mind." Nathan Parr "The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years. It decays into radium-226, which in turn decays into radon-222. Radon-222 becomes polonium-210, which finally decays into a stable nuclide, lead. The existence of lead as an element disproves the 4000 year old myth"
ALT
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    • TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @georgetakei Yeahbut that's what you and I would call "facts". Gammons don't do facts, they simply don't see them as relevant to their lives.

    petersuber , to AcademicChatter group
    @petersuber@fediscience.org avatar

    More from the party that wants to let teachers to carry in the classroom and criminalize them for allowing certain in the classroom.
    https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2024/01/31/utah-teachers-could-be-criminally/


    @academicchatter

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @petersuber @academicchatter What is this concept of a "banned book"? Doesn't the USA have a thing called a "first amendment" which outlaws any such concept?

    georgetakei , to Random
    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

    Moms are heroes from day one.

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @georgetakei The baby book that my mother used for me, and gave me to use for our children (or, probably, just for a laugh[#]) told us to avoid "wicked women" who tell those sorts of stories.

    So for us the NCT was referred to as "the wicked women".

    [#] My mother did warn me that all baby books were useless, in that the baby wasn't going to behave like the book says they should, on account of the baby hasn't read the book.

    georgetakei , to Random
    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

    She’s almost there… just a little more thinking…

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @georgetakei It's like fire safety.

    "When was the last time someone got killed in an office fire in the UK?"

    "It doesn't happen."

    "So why do we bother with all these fire precautions?"

    georgetakei , to Random
    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

    What are your thoughts on this, friends? https://www.comicsands.com/tiktoker-calls-college-scam-job-2666291064.html?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @georgetakei I have certainly come across dons who (a number of years ago now) were bemused at the then-new attitude of students who saw being at university as a commercial transaction from which they had particular (whether realistic or not) expectations.

    technewslit , to Random
    @technewslit@journa.host avatar

    A poll in the U.S. shows a large majority of Americans who heard of artificial intelligence have very little or no trust that companies will use the technology responsibly.

    https://sciencebusiness.technewslit.com/?p=45362

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @technewslit These people never make financial transactions then? Or they don't know that there are probably AI systems in the fraud scoring chain for each transaction? Or they think that trying to stop retail punters becoming victims of fraud is not responsible? Or what, I wonder?

    georgetakei , to Random
    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar

    To me he sounds scared.

    image/png

    TimWardCam ,
    @TimWardCam@c.im avatar

    @georgetakei Isn't he supposed to be keeping his mouth shut about things that witnesses are likely to say at trial?

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