Karen D
@kardray.bsky.social
Very tired Yorks/Strayan recluse living in South Devon. Pathological reader with enough books (I’m re-reading). Somewhat scattered in my interests with an overdeveloped sense of the ridiculous and an abiding interest in politics.
She/her
She/her
Reposted by Karen D
the White House is not the only one using the power of the press against those who prosecuted them:
December 20, 2025 at 9:07 PM
the White House is not the only one using the power of the press against those who prosecuted them:
Reposted by Karen D
What this article doesn't mention is that this was caused by Elon Musk's DOGE.
Because a half a dozen Very Smartest College Dropouts didn't understand why we were spending money stopping bugs in Guatemala.
Because a half a dozen Very Smartest College Dropouts didn't understand why we were spending money stopping bugs in Guatemala.
A flesh-eating fly once eradicated is moving back toward the U.S.
California researchers are preparing for the possible return of the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that feeds on living flesh and once devastated U.S. livestock. By monitoring traps and educatin...
www.sciencedaily.com
December 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
What this article doesn't mention is that this was caused by Elon Musk's DOGE.
Because a half a dozen Very Smartest College Dropouts didn't understand why we were spending money stopping bugs in Guatemala.
Because a half a dozen Very Smartest College Dropouts didn't understand why we were spending money stopping bugs in Guatemala.
Reposted by Karen D
A very important point in a highly pertinent thread.
I pay several hundred Euros per year in liability insurance, just in case something bad happens, because I made a translation mistake. A machine translation system has no liability insurance.
December 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
A very important point in a highly pertinent thread.
Reposted by Karen D
Absolutely incredible that the "migrants ate my geese/swans/etc" lie is still doing the rounds over 20 years after it first started doing the rounds
What if the geese actually migrated early to Svalbard and are now poaching seals 'to be cooked and eaten on Christmas Day' (according to locals.)
December 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Absolutely incredible that the "migrants ate my geese/swans/etc" lie is still doing the rounds over 20 years after it first started doing the rounds
Reposted by Karen D
I strongly suspect many people would be a lot less aggressively anti-AI at this point if they hadn’t just spent two years feeling constantly pressured, often by very unpleasant people and actors, to use it Or Else
As a lawyer I’m getting a daily machine gun of come-ons to use AI in legal research, have AI draft my documents, let AI suggest my arguments, AI can take a flying fuck at a rolling seven-fingered doughnut
December 21, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I strongly suspect many people would be a lot less aggressively anti-AI at this point if they hadn’t just spent two years feeling constantly pressured, often by very unpleasant people and actors, to use it Or Else
Reposted by Karen D
The polluter pays principle, big oil pays the politicians and the politicians oppose net zero.
'Fossil fuel lobbyists, polluting industries and climate deniers have donated £8.4 million ($10.6 million) to the Conservative Party since December 2019. Within the same period, they provided 92 per cent of the funds raised by the rightwing Reform UK' newint.org/democracy/20...
Big Oil is bankrolling the UK’s election
UN advisor Ibrahim Özdemir argues that urgent action is needed to protect Britain’s democracy.
newint.org
December 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
The polluter pays principle, big oil pays the politicians and the politicians oppose net zero.
Reposted by Karen D
13yo: Look at the cookie I decorated!
Me: What a pretty poinsettia!
13yo: What’s a poinsettia?
Me: That…flower?
13yo [scornfully]: That’s a demigorgan, Mom.
Me: What a pretty poinsettia!
13yo: What’s a poinsettia?
Me: That…flower?
13yo [scornfully]: That’s a demigorgan, Mom.
December 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
13yo: Look at the cookie I decorated!
Me: What a pretty poinsettia!
13yo: What’s a poinsettia?
Me: That…flower?
13yo [scornfully]: That’s a demigorgan, Mom.
Me: What a pretty poinsettia!
13yo: What’s a poinsettia?
Me: That…flower?
13yo [scornfully]: That’s a demigorgan, Mom.
Reposted by Karen D
A sturdy shelf I built for a windowsill herb garden. Larch with a little live edge action for the top. Cherry for the structure underneath. Water-based polyurethane and wax to protect from the inevitable watering spills. Knots filled and stabilized with malachite dust and CA glue.
December 21, 2025 at 5:13 PM
A sturdy shelf I built for a windowsill herb garden. Larch with a little live edge action for the top. Cherry for the structure underneath. Water-based polyurethane and wax to protect from the inevitable watering spills. Knots filled and stabilized with malachite dust and CA glue.
Reposted by Karen D
This is what I don’t understand: How could extensive attention to clean indoor air make anything *worse*? Particulates and pollen and so on cause issues for people with allergies and asthma even before we think about anything else. It’s cheap and easy and we should just be doing it everywhere!
Study in Helsinki indicating benefits of portable air cleaners on lowering infection risk in daycare centers, less absences & parent absences from work in intervention vs. reference (no air cleaner) groups. Cleaning indoor air is not difficult and it works.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The effect of room air cleaners on infection control in day care centres
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of air cleaning in reducing the risk of respiratory infection in two day care centres using a si…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 21, 2025 at 1:44 PM
This is what I don’t understand: How could extensive attention to clean indoor air make anything *worse*? Particulates and pollen and so on cause issues for people with allergies and asthma even before we think about anything else. It’s cheap and easy and we should just be doing it everywhere!
Reposted by Karen D
Reposted by Karen D
Reposted by Karen D
"Money" is a perfectly valid response to "why do you want this job?". Sick of interviewers expecting me to act like I've dreamt of working at Morrisons since I was a child.
December 20, 2025 at 11:55 PM
"Money" is a perfectly valid response to "why do you want this job?". Sick of interviewers expecting me to act like I've dreamt of working at Morrisons since I was a child.
Reposted by Karen D
Yes, this is bog standard Trumper stuff: people who are just normal stroppy arseholes finding friends online and driving each other completely insane, alienating their own friends and family as they become increasingly wacky and difficult to be around.
December 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Yes, this is bog standard Trumper stuff: people who are just normal stroppy arseholes finding friends online and driving each other completely insane, alienating their own friends and family as they become increasingly wacky and difficult to be around.
Reposted by Karen D
For the past twenty years, each successive generation of students in my classroom has arrived less knowledgeable about the world, less able to think through complex ideas, and less willing to engage seriously with views that challenge their assumptions.
December 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
For the past twenty years, each successive generation of students in my classroom has arrived less knowledgeable about the world, less able to think through complex ideas, and less willing to engage seriously with views that challenge their assumptions.
Reposted by Karen D
I think it's massively unfair that only certain, selected, people get to punch him.
Not that I'm a fighter, but I could've rushed on and lamped him with a chair when he down.
When's Farage getting into the ring?
Not that I'm a fighter, but I could've rushed on and lamped him with a chair when he down.
When's Farage getting into the ring?
December 21, 2025 at 10:09 AM
I think it's massively unfair that only certain, selected, people get to punch him.
Not that I'm a fighter, but I could've rushed on and lamped him with a chair when he down.
When's Farage getting into the ring?
Not that I'm a fighter, but I could've rushed on and lamped him with a chair when he down.
When's Farage getting into the ring?
Reposted by Karen D
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
December 21, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
Reposted by Karen D
“i have to use AI because i’m bad at drawingggg 😭😭😭”
August 17, 2025 at 3:47 PM
“i have to use AI because i’m bad at drawingggg 😭😭😭”
Reposted by Karen D
Still time for the perfect present for anyone suffering from PTSD from the last two years. ‘The Bonfire of the Insanities’ by yours truly.
December 21, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Still time for the perfect present for anyone suffering from PTSD from the last two years. ‘The Bonfire of the Insanities’ by yours truly.
Reposted by Karen D
Reposted by Karen D
Summer solstice Australia.
December 21, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Summer solstice Australia.
Reposted by Karen D
Reposted by Karen D
Rupert Murdoch’s Times? A war on women? The guy who published Page 3 until 2015? Who employed Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly? And has funded Piers Morgan who regularly interviews Andrew Tate, Christiano “out of court settlement” Ronaldo, and backs anti-trans ideology etc?
I. Am. Shocked. 🤪
I. Am. Shocked. 🤪
December 21, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Rupert Murdoch’s Times? A war on women? The guy who published Page 3 until 2015? Who employed Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly? And has funded Piers Morgan who regularly interviews Andrew Tate, Christiano “out of court settlement” Ronaldo, and backs anti-trans ideology etc?
I. Am. Shocked. 🤪
I. Am. Shocked. 🤪
Reposted by Karen D
Attacks on feminism are similar to attacks on vaccines. We begin to take for granted a world where women have rights and most children live to see adulthood, and then, over time, we begin to forget, neglect, and (now) reject the movements and innovations that brought us here.
Until the mid-1970’s, a man could not be convicted of rape in New York State based solely on the testimony of the woman he raped. A second witness was required because the female rape victim was deemed unreliable.
Feminism has not failed women.
Feminism has not failed women.
December 19, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Attacks on feminism are similar to attacks on vaccines. We begin to take for granted a world where women have rights and most children live to see adulthood, and then, over time, we begin to forget, neglect, and (now) reject the movements and innovations that brought us here.
Reposted by Karen D
This is the second story in three days The Times has carried arguing against misogyny lessons in schools, which it describes as "some weird feminist attack on male children".
December 21, 2025 at 7:26 AM
This is the second story in three days The Times has carried arguing against misogyny lessons in schools, which it describes as "some weird feminist attack on male children".
Reposted by Karen D
🚨 This is now unavoidable
In Nov last year, Blue Labour founder Lord Glasman said Brexit was a great move and Labour should embrace Trump.
Now Trump aligns with Russia, attacks EU, undermines Ukraine.
Labour has to choose:
🇪🇺 Europe & democracy
or
🇺🇸 Brexit-Trump dependency.
You can’t do both.
In Nov last year, Blue Labour founder Lord Glasman said Brexit was a great move and Labour should embrace Trump.
Now Trump aligns with Russia, attacks EU, undermines Ukraine.
Labour has to choose:
🇪🇺 Europe & democracy
or
🇺🇸 Brexit-Trump dependency.
You can’t do both.
December 15, 2025 at 1:22 PM
🚨 This is now unavoidable
In Nov last year, Blue Labour founder Lord Glasman said Brexit was a great move and Labour should embrace Trump.
Now Trump aligns with Russia, attacks EU, undermines Ukraine.
Labour has to choose:
🇪🇺 Europe & democracy
or
🇺🇸 Brexit-Trump dependency.
You can’t do both.
In Nov last year, Blue Labour founder Lord Glasman said Brexit was a great move and Labour should embrace Trump.
Now Trump aligns with Russia, attacks EU, undermines Ukraine.
Labour has to choose:
🇪🇺 Europe & democracy
or
🇺🇸 Brexit-Trump dependency.
You can’t do both.