Posts by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
(DIR) Post #B0pm9CoccdychjAzxY by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-02T08:19:44Z
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A comment: I thought quite a while about whether to use the #Terrorism tag on that post.What both the state of #Israel, and 'unofficial' gangs of #Israeli thugs, are doing in both #Gaza and the rest of #Palestine is terrorism. But the narrative in Western media presenting the Israelis as the 'good guys' and Palestinians as terrorists is so persuasive that I was worried that some readers might think I was accusing the victims of these attacks of terrorism.
(DIR) Post #B0pm9IcR2rnGhfWLnU by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-02T08:22:02Z
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تعليق: فكرتُ مليًا في استخدام وسم الإرهاب في هذا المنشور.ما تفعله دولة إسرائيل، وعصابات بلطجية إسرائيل "غير الرسمية"، في غزة وباقي فلسطين هو إرهاب. لكن الرواية الإعلامية الغربية التي تُصوّر الإسرائيليين على أنهم "الأخيار" والفلسطينيين على أنهم إرهابيون، مقنعة جدًا لدرجة أنني خشيتُ أن يظن بعض القراء أنني أتهم ضحايا هذه الهجمات بالإرهاب.
(DIR) Post #B0wdLvdwEzBzjFtHl2 by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-05T17:07:10Z
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@Nonilex h'mmm. What was it that the carpenter from Nazareth said about motes and beams?
(DIR) Post #B1CVScsWiPNcSDkugK by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-13T08:34:25Z
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@VeroniqueB99 and once again, with #AltText4You.
(DIR) Post #B1HqVVqgNTgeLeuVYe by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-15T22:43:23Z
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@futurebird no. Well, yes, but by school, not by siblings. I mean, growing up with siblings not all sweetness and light all of the time, but I honestly don't think that any of my weird, obsessional or perverse behaviours are due to my siblings.
(DIR) Post #B1TVSEuLPMsuGXUl8q by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-21T10:15:12Z
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"the assets of British banks ‘mostly consist of claims on other banks. Their liabilities are mainly obligations to other financial institutions. Lending to firms and individuals engaged in the production of goods and services – which most people would imagine was the principal business of a bank – amounts to about 3 per cent of that total.’"It's not for nothing that the medieval church -- like modern Islam -- considered #Usury a sin. It is one.https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n17/john-lanchester/for-every-winner-a-loser
(DIR) Post #B1VPDDQ8Rcxtttjnea by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-22T11:39:34Z
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“They won’t imprison us all, they know if they fill the prisons with activists, we will overpower them from within. So flood the damn streets in your millions. Shut down these factories in your thousands! They can never arrest the resistance in our smiles. We will use the shards of our broken hearts to spear the system of injustice.” -- Qesser Zuhrah#SayHerNamee #PalestineAction #Gaza https://prisonersforpalestine.org/prisoner/qesser-zuhrah/
(DIR) Post #B1c2hHKrW1jHtIMC6C by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-25T14:08:20Z
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@clacke Ah! I have a samsung phone and have succeeded in turning autocorrect off, so it is possible. I'll try and see whether I can work out how I did it.
(DIR) Post #B1c2hPIfu2jWapOYng by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-25T14:18:56Z
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@clacke In 'Manage Keyboards', 'Samsung Keyboard' disabled, 'Samsung voice input' disabled, 'GBoard' enabled.in 'GBoard' -> 'Preferences', 'Suggestion Strip' disabled.'Samsung keyboard' still has spelling correction enabled, but since I've disabled the keyboard this doesn't matter.
(DIR) Post #B1fldj63R9poFAzUmG by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-27T10:15:27Z
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OK, this is genuinely scary. It's a picture of me, aged 5. It was taken in 1960. It was scanned and uploaded to Google Photos in 2002. No one has told Google where it was taken. But the map, bottom right, is correct.Obviously, in 1960, my father's pre-war Exakta camera did not have GPS. Could you identify, from that picture, exactly where it was taken?Google can.
(DIR) Post #B1fldpTfiGI82A5RQG by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-27T10:27:42Z
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If that isn't startling enough, try this one. This one shows a cat crossing a dirt track, with a dry-stone dike behind it. Above the dike, trees of a small spruce plantation can be seen.The picture was taken in about 1966. I think by me with a box brownie -- a very cheap, primitive camera.Again, the location shown is correct within 50 metres. HOW?
(DIR) Post #B1fldv3ext37LDxki8 by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-27T10:47:30Z
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Interestingly, this picture of my little sister and her cat -- taken only a few minutes before or after the other cat photo, with the same camera, on the same roll of film -- is not geolocated. There's nothing visible over the dike in this one.
(DIR) Post #B1lz7uQuJlgGRWE7iC by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-30T11:41:23Z
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@futurebird @mina @EricLawton @clarablackink @DoomsdaysCW @Dianora but isn't that true of all Disney films ever? The Sword in the Stone is another particularly egregious example.
(DIR) Post #B22VvyLp0cxjBlRG9Q by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-07T09:01:40Z
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@baraa1998/115849166721212305Friends, everyone in #Gaza needs support. But I am genuinely worried about Bara'a (@baraa1998) -- her health is obviously failing, but also her state of mind is deteriorating. I have sent her some money today, as I have several times over the past months. She is a young single parent with one surviving child (she's lost two, and their father). Please, if you can, give her some hope.
(DIR) Post #B2CfrELJ4DVSScAsXQ by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-12T08:42:39Z
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@futurebird @david_chisnall When I was at school, back in the 1960s, the careers advisors told us "don't learn programming, within four years computers will be intelligent enough to program themselves."I suspect school careers advisors will still be saying the same thing in the 2060s.
(DIR) Post #B2NJwopOmXw6oT4Juq by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-17T10:50:49Z
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"There is no serious question that if #Trump so ordered it, Microsoft could deliberately shut down all services to the Scottish Government and our public sector and the Government must now react as if this is just as much a risk to our democracy as if it was discovered that Putin could send the same order to the same effect" -- @thecommongreen #ScotPol #ScotGov#DigitalIndependence https://thecommongreen.scot/2026/01/17/scotland-could-lead-the-uk-by-upholding-international-law/
(DIR) Post #B2ROvakSdwwOzmNpdQ by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-19T11:13:06Z
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@aral We have politicians in the "United" Kingdom who will say in a single breath that the people of #Greenland should have self determination but that the people of #Scotland should not.#UKPol#LisaNandy #ScottishIndependence
(DIR) Post #B2TNohoGHPsjEMEXXE by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-20T10:10:06Z
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@aral Seriously, no.No one should fuck that guy. No one.#Trump
(DIR) Post #B2fioImzS4r9slLvO4 by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-26T08:50:35Z
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And once again, with #AltText4You "We can't have clean energy because it will destroy the oil industry. We can't have healthcare because it will destroy the health insurance industry. We can't have peace because it will destroy theweapon industry. Capitalism is a system which disables the option to do the right thing."
(DIR) Post #B2fioOsWoOqqlfzQqu by simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-01-26T08:55:24Z
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@solarpapst *Please* don't post text-as-graphics without #AltText. It's so unnecessary, and so hostile not only to people with visual impairments but also to people who can't read your language.All I had to do to generate the alt text was to select one link which is a standard part of the #Mastodon user interface.