crazywithak

Ban cars in cities. Ban short-haul flights. Grow trees anywhere you can. I’m serious. Phone me to hear my serious voice.

@staticnz I'm getting this too. Android version 12, OnePlus 7.

@CamdenFPT @TfL Thanks we are trying to track this issue down. What version of Android are you using and what phone model?

@TfL Is there currently a problem with the "Buses Near You" facility on the app as it says I'm "Near London" and there are no Tfl buses in this location, despite it showing I'm clearly in Camden on the map ?

Power Station power.film

WATCH: Michael Sheen narrates our powerful new Climate Majority Project short film, You Told Us To Talk About The Weather. Have you seen it? youtube.com/watch?v=pozDsT…

I'm about to sign off for the year - actually, I was ready to do it yesterday, but then I happened upon a brief piece of writing that was so perfect that I decided I'd do one more edition of Pluralistic for 2025. 1/

the room next door - Exploring Africa

@Microids_off Bonjour. How do I select the PS4 version? Thanks.

Remember Operation Wolf? The arcade legend is back & deadlier than ever! 💥 VR-ready rail shooter with co-op campaign & survival mode. Grab your weapons & hunt down General Viper's empire in Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission VR. 🐺 Classic screen version also available.

"Very idea that humans might become so voracious as to empty the seas of fish seemed absurd only a few short years ago. Today scientific evidence points to a brutal reality from which there is no escape. In barely a generation, humans have exhausted most prolific creatures on the planet"

Aker BioMarine from Norway, is responsible for roughly 70% of krill catch Boycott this company and demand an end to Krill fishing that will starve whales and marine life and fuel global warming

FARMING UK: The UK must radically transform the way it produces and consumes food if it is to avoid a cycle of escalating crises, a major report has warned. The Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050 argues that urgent reform is essential to reboot the economy, reduce pressure on the NHS and prevent repeated shocks from rising food prices, supply chain disruption and climate disasters. #NetZero #EdMiliband

@atensnut This is perhaps the best thing produced by the internet in recent history.

Viking's Labeled Release experiment found signs of life in 1976. The scandal from denying those results drove astrobiologists out of NASA en masse Glad they're having their day and sad it took it so long

LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching #documentary #birdwatching #birding Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers-spending a year living in a used minivan, traveling the country to compete in a 'Big Year'. youtu.be/zl-wAqplQAo?si…

This is the #1 climatologist in the world: James Hansen. He’s spent 50 years studying what humans are doing to the climate. He's gone out on a limb time and time again - and been proven right. His message? It’s far worse than they’re telling you. 🧵

@caitoz I love this! So I hope you don't find this mashup with a karaoke version of Baz Luhrmann's 'Sunscreen' disrespectful :) youtubemultiplier.com/68a3507a0966e-…

Suggestions: Pay attention to the mainstream media, but only so you're aware what the bastards want you to think. The western press are plutocrat-controlled propaganda services for the US-centralized capitalist empire, and they frame their output accordingly. Don't trust them. Be aware of online echo chambers and confirmation bias, and be humble enough to understand that these things affect you. Make sure you're getting information from a variety of sources, including ones you disagree with ideologically. It's easy to spin off into erroneous perspectives if you don't have any other feedback keeping you in check. Ignore our society's ideas about what an ideal or successful life looks like. This is a sick civilization whose madness is driving us all into dystopia and disaster. Blaze your own path, and set your own standards for what a good and worthy life would look like. Make a practice of noticing beauty everywhere. Everything has beauty, even the ugliest things you can imagine. If you can't see the beauty in what you are perceiving in a given moment, the failure is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is just the experience of having truly seen something. Feel your feelings fully and courageously, all the way through. If you have forgotten how to cry, re-learn. Don't repress your feelings, but don't make them anyone else's problem either. Feelings are meant to be felt. That's all. Face your inner demons and heal them. Don't hurt anyone else with them. If you have children, make this a priority of the most urgent order, because you will pass your woundedness onto them if you don't. You can't heal all that's wrong in the world, but you can heal all that's wrong in you. Put love before everything in life. No one ever went to their grave wishing they had loved less, or had placed their career or ambition above their children or their partner. Love with everything in you; hold nothing back. Loss is inevitable in a mortal life, but love anyway, because it's the only thing that makes a mortal incarnation worth it in the first place. Learn to love yourself. This looks like bringing a passionate, unconditional "YES" to everything that shows up inside you — all your thoughts, feelings, sensations etc, even the ones you don't like very much right now. If you feel resistance to this, bring a "YES" to that resistance. Keep YESing all the resistances until you work your way in. You can only love others to the extent that you love yourself. Hold no loyalties to the collective delusions of your family, your social circle, or your culture. If you know they're wrong or ridiculous about something, there's no reason to protect it or act like it's legitimate. Be free from the psychological shackles of conformism. Life is too short for that shit. Open yourself up to new music, films and art, and increase your capacity for appreciating and enjoying culture outside your comfort zone. Learning how to appreciate more things will make life more enjoyable for you. Be discerning about what you put into your body. A system of food production and distribution which is guided entirely by the pursuit of profit will not have your health interests at heart in the options it presents you with. Be kind to people who struggle with neuroses, but try your best to free yourself from your own. Certain segments of our society have become far too glorifying of psychological dysfunction and far too encouraging of learned helplessness and irresponsibility. Be a mature adult and heal everything you are capable of healing, and for everything else try to find adaptations and strategies to get by. Cultivate a serene mind. If you feel called to, pursue spiritual enlightenment. It's entirely achievable and readily available. Do as much as you can to make the world a better place, and be content with your efforts regardless of whether or not they are successful. You'll never be able to save the world single-handedly no matter what you can do; all you can do is make one person's worth of effort. Make peace with that.

Cubix for #zxspectrum A masterpiece from @ssmirnov_dev There is also some other great games at: yrgb.ru Don't foget to vote!

There’s a persistent myth that our government is somehow at the mercy of the financial markets and that it has to dance to their tune. This is most definitely doing the rounds this week, mainly as a result of Labour's mismanagement of its own party, and Rachel Reeves' subsequent very public tears. It’s a myth I have been challenging for years, so let me summarise why. 1. The government creates the money The UK government is the monopoly issuer of the pound. It spends all of that money into existence. Every pound of government spending creates a matching financial asset for someone else. It is only afterwards that the government issues bonds, not because it needs the money, but to provide a safe place for savers to deposit their funds when banks cannot provide this service. This point is critical. The government does not need the markets to ‘fund’ its spending. It is simply swapping one form of money (reserves) for another (gilts). Bizarrely, it pays interest to those to whom it provides this service. 2. Gilts are a choice, not a necessity The sale of government bonds, gilts in the UK, is presented as if the government is dependent on the markets to keep spending. This is nonsense. The government issues gilts largely because: It wants to drain reserves from the banking system to help the Bank of England hit its (currently too high) interest rate target. It wants to give pension funds and insurance companies a safe deposit facility to underpin their promises to those who use their services. It believes it must maintain an outdated and now unnecessary City-based financial architecture. None of this means it needs the markets to spend. If no one bought gilts, the government could continue to spend. In fact, as quantitative easing and now quantitative tightening prove, there is no relationship between bond issues and Bank of England market interventions and the capacity of the government to spend: the evidence is all there for anyone to see. 3. The central bank is always the buyer of last resort When financial markets are in turmoil, as happened in the mini-budget fiasco under Liz Truss,  the Bank of England steps in. Its role is to stabilise prices and yields. This is not optional. It is a fundamental part of having a sovereign currency and a central bank that acts as the lender of last resort. This means the financial markets are, in fact, dependent on the government and its central bank. Not the other way around. 4. Interest rates are a policy choice People say, “but the markets set interest rates, and so they can discipline the government.” Again, this misunderstands monetary operations. The Bank of England sets the base rate. It can cap or control longer-term rates by buying or selling bonds as it chooses. The so-called market rates are policy-contingent. When push comes to shove, the central bank can always enforce the interest rate it wants. 5. What markets really influence is ideology So why the obsession with ‘market confidence’? The reality is, politicians and economists often invoke markets to justify austerity. It is easier to say “the markets demand it” than to admit their own ideological choice, which would otherwise be unpalatable to the electorate. Financial markets do, in that case, play a political role, but they do not hold the government hostage. They operate within the monetary framework that the government and its central bank set. We could just as easily choose to run the economy with other priorities, but it does not suit neoliberal politicians to do so. That is because they view politics as the City does, at cost to us all. Summary I keep returning to this issue because it is so fundamental: the UK government is a currency creator, not a currency user. It is not like a household. It does not need to beg or borrow from the markets to spend. Financial markets are accommodated by the government, not the other way around. Understanding this changes everything. It means that economic policy decisions — on public services, investment, climate action, and inequality — are political choices, not technical constraints imposed by bond traders. That is why misinformation on this issue matters so much, and the fact that it is so widespread shows just how strong are the forces that wish to deny that democratic choices can still be made in the UK.

Our survival depends on #biodiversity. Yet, human activity is driving nature loss at unprecedented rates. Urgent action is needed—across food systems, finance, and ecosystem restoration—to reverse this trend and secure a healthy, thriving planet for all. @UNEP

Alrighty. A fairly furious piece, (link below) with spankings for many. Necessarily cathartic, but a full-stop to this week. On 'The Fretting Middlings' wing of the genderist project. Phew. As ever, puppies & lollipops for paid subscribers; eternal gratitude for all free ones! x

@robertflorence A few years ago @app_stereo was just the thing! Not tried it for a while.

Since I was a wee guy I’ve wanted to do a late night radio call-in show. You know the deal - just listeners ringing in, talking about anything and everything. What would be the best way, technically, to do that on my own? Like, to take calls and stuff? Any great tech people with great ideas?

Directly or indirectly, we all depend on forests phys.org/news/2025-03-i…