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Ann

@agvbergin.net

350 followers 400 following 4.4K posts

Both newts and housing, please. Social democracy, pluralism, and neurodiversity are important ideas. Personal account, views my own. Please alt text your images. #Pondwatch2025

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Ann @agvbergin.net · Mar 5

"What children need to learn most is empathy for others, the capacity for nurturance, cooperation, and the maintenance of social ties, which cannot be done without the strength, respect, self-discipline, and self-reliance that comes through being cared for and caring."

George Lakoff, Moral Politics

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Reposted by Ann

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 16h

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 9h

BTO has a nice map here showing locations of Robins ringed in Britain and Ireland.

www.bto.org/learn/about-...

Robin | BTO

The Robin's red breast and habit of living close to humankind makes it one of our most familiar birds.Robins are widely distributed in Britain & Ireland throughout the year, from Shetland to the Chann...

www.bto.org

Ann @agvbergin.net · 9h

Tho it seems a little early for food in Northern Europe and Russia to have been consumed by snow and ice.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 9h

So seems like they can be both sedentary and migratory.

> Our resident birds are often joined by migrants from Scandinavia, Europe and Russia looking to avoid the harsh winter in their own countries.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/05...

Ann @agvbergin.net · 9h

On the assumption that it's the same one.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 9h

Wondering to what degree Robins migrate, following the reappearance after several months of absence of the garden Robin.

Reposted by Ann

Fourth Crown War FPV Drone Operator 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 14h

If your entire argument for why Jews should be protected is not because they are human beings and deserve respect but that they have been "a model minority," then congratulations, you have actually implied that if they weren't, that would justify a mass expulsion.

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 12h

in which, I continue to plead for systems thinking in planning, reprising last night's bluesky rant, so people who read that can be excused. backofmind.substack.com/p/canaries-a...

canaries and islands

the indicator species in the system

backofmind.substack.com

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 12h

My biggest problem at the moment with the NHS is their inflexibility in all of this. Carers are often taking on huge admin and social care burdens to ensure patients can fit narrow and inflexible treatment pathways.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 15h

Finally, I think that all of us have done stupid things but that most people are not somehow inherently prone to doing these things, and we shouldn't assume it's inherent and call people stupid.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 15h

Another is that what is quite often called stupidity is better explained by systemic effects like groupthink or spread of misinformation and assigning these to individual stupidity obscures them.

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 15h

Part of the reason behind not calling people stupid is that lots of my fellow dyslexics (tho not me) were repeatedly called stupid (or thick, or ableist slurs) when they were at school by people in authority.

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 15h

I think there is a really big difference between telling someone that they are wrong and telling someone that they are stupid.

I will basically tell anyone who I think is wrong that they are wrong.

I try very hard to not call people stupid, even in my own head.

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Reposted by Ann

Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 16h

Without one I just couldn’t balance work/kids and would have given in and bought a car. The biggest challenge for mass take-up is everyone’s buying them through regressive Cycle to Work tax dodge. So a £5k bike costs 12 x £241 monthly payments if you’re high earner or 12 x £416 if you’re in poverty.

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 1d

Electric cargo bikes can replace many everyday car trips for the average family and “reshape suburban family mobility”, say Oxford University researchers. 49 British households were loaned e-cargo bikes for school runs, shopping trips, family outings and other day-to-day use.

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 17h

That the methods to improve the quality exist out there in the market but are apparently not even considered is profoundly depressing to me.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 17h

The hospital really needs to employ a content designer to actually improve the quality.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 17h

Volunteered to be on the hospital leaflet reading feedback group and very fed-up of giving the same feedback for every leaflet 😔

Reposted by Ann

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Reposted by Ann

Doug Clow @dougclow.bsky.social · 19h

We need better official statistics! FT describes this as “another setback for the beleaguered agency”, the ONS, but from the report it seems the mistake was in information given to them by HMRC. Not a small mistake and very far from an isolated one.

Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 19h

There goes my long held view that cash government receipts were accurate because you just had to add some columns in a bank account

on.ft.com/3J0Y6yE ONS revises down government borrowing estimates after data error

ONS revises down UK government borrowing by £2bn after VAT error

[FREE TO READ] Office for National Statistics reduces estimate for current fiscal year just weeks before Rachel Reeves’ Budget

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Ann

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 19h

In the early 2010s it was infuriating to see endless screeds on "legitimate concerns" against East Europeans from analysts and scholars who seemed oblivious to how the moment political leaders capitulated to this xenophobia it would just lead to escalating hatemongering against other diasporas

Captain Haddock @realcaptainhaddock.bsky.social · 19h

It was inevitable that “too many people speaking Polish” Brexitism would become outright “too many brown people”

And it’s what people like Gove, David Davis and Johnson enabled

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Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 19h

Morning: to any fans of ONS shenanigans, a new “Notice” informs us that an error in VAT data from HMRC means public sector net borrowing is £2bn lower so far this fiscal year than previously thought. This will not have gone down at all badly in HMT. www.ons.gov.uk/economy/gove...

Public sector finances, UK - Office for National Statistics

How the relationship between UK public sector monthly income and expenditure leads to changes in deficit and debt.

www.ons.gov.uk

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 1d

The #spacetober_challenge prompt is space agency, so I’m sharing this again, cause it uses NASA imagery.

Best part is that I quilted this using glow in the dark thread so there’s a glowing triangle grid on my bed.

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · Mar 12

The #MathArtMarch prompt is on an iso grid so I thought I’d share my Space-Sierpiński Triangle-Jellyfish quilt with my block printed #fractal Sierpiński triangles (arranged of course in a Sierpiński triangle), assorted jellyfish plus digitally printed NASA space images. 🧶 #printmaking 🧵1/2

$As described this is a detail shot of my Space-Sierpiński Triangle-Jellyfish quilt. This quilt is made with my block printed fabric with fractal Sierpiński triangles (arranged of course in a Sierpiński triangle) printed in red on turquoise fabric and assorted linocut jellyfish block printed in white on blue fabrics plus digitally printed NASA space images. Other triangles are in shades of green, bright raspberry and some patterned fabrics within the colour scheme. I quilted it (in the ditch) with glow-in-the-dark thread so there’s a glowing triangular net at night.⁠$

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 1d

I had hoped they were grandstanding about the newts, bats, and snails but they appear to be true believers 😔

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 1d

I think he said over 50% now, good good.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 1d

Paul Hudson reservoir analysis incoming.