Bethany

As usual, nothing from me on "world mental health day" - the annual tendency to remember we might need to "do something" (whatever that means) and "raise awareness" (whatever that means), might be why some spend 365 days a year wondering why little changes.

I am so done with this world. WTF is wrong with everyone?

Actual Conservative front bench politicians are calling for the government to overturn a not guilty verdict returned by an independent jury in respect of a political rival.

Trump levels of partisan, anti-rule of law authoritarianism.

Happy Birthday!!!

UK’s 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of population, analysis finds Equality Trust says billionaires getting ‘ludicrously’ richer, with top two now wealthier than whole of 1990 rich list

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...
Well. That's pretty disgusting.

TANK vs TESLA

"We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again"

- ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

Word of the day is ‘bugiard’ (17th century): one who distorts the truth beyond all recognition to fit their own agenda.

If you have to "self-censor" rather than spreading transphobic propaganda perhaps you should be self censoring.

Trans and non-binary individuals are not "fair game" for abuse, no matter how much some seem to think so right now. We all deserve to not face abuse.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...

(and I don't mean inspiring "because you're autistic", I mean in that it's good to see autism talked about in a positive way!)

As another later-diagnosed autistic person, this was so good to read. I'm still working on fully accepting my "quirks" and seeing others living life on their terms and succeeding is so inspiring. Also, you're super cool :)

I feel I should clarify - these changes being made do not actually affect me. But they could have done, and they will affect many I have known. This is not the way to get more people in to work. Let's be honest, this is just about saving some money.

Also, a role-play interview session and a shiny CV isn't going to help convince an employer to hire me—who can't sustain eye contact, string together a coherent sentence (anxiety) or work/think in a noisy environment—over any one else vaguely competent who won't require adjustments to do the job.

"We'll cut the benefits now to save money, and we'll make vague promises about thinking of ways to maybe help people at some unspecified point in the future"

I particularly enjoy the parts of the green paper where they acknowledge that these changes will badly affect some people who are still likely to need help, or that current processes are inadequate, but shrug it off saying "eh, we'll look at it later". See e.g. 141, 146, 147, 148, 152, 153, 156/7...

“Rise in people with mental illness being driven by real societal challenges and lack of available treatment” says RCPsych President RCPsych President Dr Lade Smith CBE responds to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care's comments about the overdiagnosis of mental health conditions.

In response to Wes Streeting's claim over "over-diagnosis", says @rcpsych.bsky.social President Dr Lade Smith CBE aid the "rise in people with mental illness is being driven by real societal challenges and lack of available treatment” -

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-fea...

FFS

Word of the day is ‘lickspittle’ (17th century): a person who fawns upon someone in power for personal gain.

I have 7% of my book left and I *really* want to go finish it... but I have papers to read :( I'm definitely not procrastinating on bluesky instead...

There is a special place in hell for developers who start their game with an unskippable/important cutscene before I've got the chance to adjust my volume and resolution settings 😤

Word of the Day is ‘ingordigiousness’ (18th century): extreme greed at the expense of principles.

I am now at the point where "does not have AI shoehorned into it" is a legitimate selling point.

I am heartbroken that we did not get to origami.

There are so many books in my TBR pile that I’m going to have to live forever so I can read them all.

I am so glad I can just hide in my safe little bubble of nice people, interesting lectures, books and video games. The world is a scary place right now and I'm quite happy not to have to venture out into it. That said, let me know when we start revolting, I'll be there.

not everything you love in your teenage years holds up but Green Day was cooking with American Idiot

I have a (virtual) stack of books I want to read, a pile of articles to dig into and a ton of quality, brain-using games I want to play, and what am I doing? Collecting chonky space cats and selling them repeatedly to collect more chonky space cats. Am adult, honest.

no, you drink coffee i drink a bean infused magical elixir that keeps me from becoming an axe murderer

Please don't quit, ECS would be a much worse place without you! I'd be a terrible lecturer or demonstrator but I'd 100% volunteer to do marking, that should totally be a thing.

Please, no.

On this 5th anniversary of Brexit the only benefit I’m willing to celebrate is its ultimate destruction of the political career of Boris Johnson.