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afewbugs

@afewbugs@social.coop

Devon, UK, Europe

Born @ 341ppm

#Botany #Entomology #Ecology #Sustainability #Composting #Hiking #Cycling #RightToRoam #FlightFree #Bushcraft #WildFood #PlantBased #AncestralSkills #FibreCraft #OpenSource #OpenAccess #SolarPunk #coops #unions #RightToRepair

Profile: a white woman with blue hair & glasses, smiling in a woodland in winter. Header: a Hotbin composter I painted with flowers and insects & the words "Kiri's Compost Collective"

https://justmytoots.com/@afewbugs@social.coop

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

RolloTreadway , to random
@RolloTreadway@beige.party avatar

Morning all. Bit pissed off, because of something I read yesterday - that some stupid percentage of people apparently want fewer non-clinical staff in the NHS, in relation to the usual election bullshit about 'efficiency savings'.

I work for an ambulance service. Our ambulances see all kind of unpleasant things, so it's essential that they're kept clean.

But without non-clinical staff, we have nobody working in Cleaning, so infections spread.

And we can't have a plan to bring these infections under control, as we now have no Infection Control staff. What, you thought Infection Control was a clinical job? You probably thought everything was a clinical job, right? Guess what? Just because a role is in some way connected to medical things, doesn't mean it is classified as 'clinical'.

Also, we don't have anything with which to clean and stop infections, because no non-clinical staff means no Procurement staff out there buying what's needed.

Even if we could procure what we needed, how could we pay for it? We'll have nobody in Finance.

Perhaps, okay, we can have Finance staff, but who's going to do that job if we can't pay them? Because we can't pay anyone, if we have no Payroll staff.

And if we have someone doing Payroll, presumably they'll be using payroll software on the computer. Except, they can't do that, as we won't have any IT staff.

This is a bad idea, right? Let's bring back Cleaning, bring Infection Control, bring back Procurement, bring back Finance, bring back Payroll, bring back, IT. Except... actually we can't do that either, because no non-clinical staff means no Recruitment team.

Non-clinical support staff matter as much in the NHS as any other organisation. Without non-clinical support, there is no NHS.

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of Support Staff Who Are Already Overworked And Underpaid As It Is, And We're Really Fucking Tired.

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway I used to work as a database admin in the medical equipment department of a hospital. The medical equipment department was subcontracted out to a facilities management company, who presumably took a cut before covering staffing and expenses. I didn't actually work for the facilities management company directly, I was provided by an agency who presumably also took a cut. I often thought it would make some much more sense if all us not clinical staff were actually employed by the

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway NHS and paid directly, presumably I would have been paid the same but the money two different companies were taking for providing my labour would have been saved. Anyway the medical equipment department then went out to tender and was subcontracted to a different facilities management company, who decided I was surplus to requirements. By that point I was unofficially acting as first line IT support to the entire floor on the side of my "real" job because IT couldn't keep up

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway TL:DR the NHS needs more supporting staff not fewer

afewbugs , to random
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

Today I learned that hi vis workwear kilts exist, and I think it's very important that I inform the Fediverse of this fact.

https://www.blaklader.uk/en/product/19211831-hi-vis-kilt

afewbugs , to random
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

“The UK and Ireland face a wetter, damper and mouldier future due to Until the world reduces emissions to net zero, the climate will continue to warm, and rainfall in the UK and Ireland will continue to get heavier.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/22/never-ending-uk-rain-10-times-more-likely-climate-crisis-study

This is the message we need to get out to combat the populist nonsense like "well if climate change is real at least we'll have nice hot summers"

afewbugs , to random
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

"Just use Linux" is much like "just ride a bike" or "just shop at a refill store" - accessing the non default option can be time consuming, expensive or unavailable locally. We need to recognise you need a certain degree of privilege to have the capacity to complicate your life voluntarily. We need to be trying to make the better, harder thing more accessible, not blaming people for not using it.

RolloTreadway , to random
@RolloTreadway@beige.party avatar

Friends, is there any way you can recycle old and unwearable clothes?

I don't mean giving away to charity, because I wear my clothes until there's nothing left of them, and that's no use to charities.

I mean, well, the fibres they're made of still exist and might be useful? Or is this something where there's no commercial recycling because it's not cost-effective, like how 99% of plastic never actually gets recycled?

I hate throwing anything away! But I have an ever growing collection of useless fabrics.

(And please, nobody advise me to learn how to make them into new clothes myself. That is not going to happen. Not now, and not in the remotely foreseeable future.)

(And also, please no advice which involves driving anywhere or requires one to live in a major city.)

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway I'm afraid not. Pure plant fibres can be composted if you have a compost heap, but it's better to throw any unusable rags away in this country than it is to give them to rag collections because most of them just get shipped to Africa where anything wearable is sold, completely destroying the local textile business by undercutting prices and everything else is just dumped in a landfill. At least if it's thrown away in this country it can be

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway landfilled in reasonably controlled conditions or incinerated. Sorry, i know that's not the answer you're looking for but having worked in The Gambia and seen where these things end up I'd never donate anything unwearable to rags anymore

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway some do presumably end up reused for stuffing or whatever, but I wouldn't have a clue how to make sure yours specifically went there when the vast majority don't

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@RolloTreadway this is just an argument really for the way that individual actions won't help isn't it, it's great if you have access to a refill shop but on any kind of scale we need proper reuse infrastructure https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/13/reusable-packaging-the-battle-to-get-companies-to-ditch-single-use-plastics and interchangeable packaging https://tangledbankforaging.uk/2020/07/16/out-of-the-loop/

afewbugs , to random
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

No Pride in Genocide

#eurovision

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/may/11/eurovision-viewing-parties-in-england-cancelled-over-israels-participation?

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Homo naledi is the most interesting new human like primate. They are from South Africa, little people. walked upright, but primates walking upright goes way back.

They had hands just like modern humans but longish arms and powerful shoulders ... so they could probably zip up a tree.

They have small brains half modern size. This has made people astonished that they may have had fire.

I'm glad I'll never meet one, a smart little firebug with powerful arms sounds terrifying. 1/

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@futurebird I'm also curious about why some of us love the taste of smoky food, which has to be a very weird adaption we developed with cooking

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

After the parasite, that feeds off brain activity, starved to death leaving only a black spot, RFK jr was asked for a comment:

“Sometimes duck with cheese can purple. Tartar baby staples. Vaccines bad.”

afewbugs ,
@afewbugs@social.coop avatar

@flexghost "Poor little guy starved to death"

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

It's time to get to work — on system change.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth

Comic illustration: Which of these is true about climate change? 1. It's too late to take action. 2. Everything will be fine. The answer? Neither is true. The climate has already changed in dangerous ways. (Drawing of fire burning a forest close to a house.) We're already taking action. (Drawing of windmills and people relaxing on a field.) But we need to speed it up. (Drawing of a sun and a phone with ”Severe heat today” alert.) Every bit of climate change costs lives. (Drawing of a city submerged in water.) But every bit of meaningful action saves lives. (Drawing of people biking, doing protests for climate action.) It's not too late. It's not fine. It's exactly the time to demand a better world.
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    • + breadandcircuses, Npars01
    afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @breadandcircuses @jkanttil she's on here! @rosemarymosco

    ElleGray , to random
    @ElleGray@mstdn.social avatar

    It was only a matter of time
    lol

    Reddit question: What "hidden" thing in a game really surprised you when you first found it? @ mr_stark 11h Not gonna lie, probably the inverted castle in Symphony of the Night. When that game was new and you only had access to physical game guides you were blind to what was actually going on, more so for kid-me who probably didn't care much for details. So discovering the inverted castle and how it wasn't just a small gimmick was jaw-dropping to me. Reply SecretlmaginaryMan 11h I played at least a couple hundred hours in that game, loving it all the way through, discovering the catacombs and all sorts of stuff that my grandparents never found on their way through it. | thought | figured everything out except that gear room in the clock tower. When | read about the inverted castle and all that online some years later, | shit my pants and immediately got to it. Mind blowing stuff. Reply watchman28 6h my grandparents? I'm sorry what
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    • afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @ElleGray Oh. Oh god

    afewbugs , to random
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @SaintlySin and I popped down to the pond for lunch and met some ducklings

    A rustling in a marshy bank of hemlock and nettles precedes the emergence of a female duck, who crosses the stone path and slides into the pond to join two male ducks. Another rustle heralds the emergence of six tiny fluffy ducklings, who race across the path and plop into the pond after her. In the background I try to remove my lunchbox from the shot, unaware that most of my body is already in the shot

    afewbugs , to random
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    I taught a private coil basketry session today.

    A coil basket with googly eyes and a coil basketry hat on it, made with pink raffia and ears of corn like jaunty feather sticking out of it

    afewbugs , to random
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    The is currently running a terrible promotion where you get an email from the bank directing you to a form where you enter your card details for a chance to win a cash prize (https://www.visa.co.uk/campaign/co-operativebank/win-little-help-a-lot/) And as far as I can tell this is all actually completely legit, but this really isn't the sort of behaviour the bank should be encouraging its customers to engage in!

    loren , to random
    @loren@flipping.rocks avatar

    i was just thinking about this the other day. the animals that have adapted to live alongside us deserve a lot more of our respect. we have not made it easy but some of them have done a great job anyway! like house sparrows and pigeons and squirrels might not be the flashiest and are considered pests sometimes but they really thrive in sometimes quite harsh environments that we have created. idk i just don't think there are any bad animals just some that are in places we don't want them, but that's not their fault, they're just trying to survive.

    afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @loren I do find it a bit perverse that we try to conserve the animals that struggle to survive in the world we've built, but condemn the ones that thrive, like rats and seagulls and pigeons, as pests and try to reduce their numbers

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I can see some advantages to knowing if someone has autism if they are in school. But, I don't see the benefit for adults. Provided they are generally happy and coping with life OK.

    It does seem to be something that people find valuable and helpful, so I'm missing something I think.

    afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @futurebird I think there's the personal validation of knowing I'm not just shit at life, my brain works slightly differently from the default most systems are designed

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Why is anti-vax content so popular. Looking at places like Fox news, Rogan, others who fed into that content (and made it more legitimate seeming to many people) the only reason I can detect to make such content is that it's popular with a segment of the population.

    So, that explains why people make it. To make money.

    But why is it "popular" ?

    afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @futurebird I think people like believing they know something others don't, that they're smarter than the "sheeple" who fall for the "mainstream narrative". Couple that with the fact that a large section of the population has been historically exploited or neglected by the medical establishment so how grounds to suspect the motives of people in authority.

    alexpsmith , to random
    @alexpsmith@beige.party avatar

    Tonight's Insomnia: Being Kept Awake by Trivial Enigmas edition

    afewbugs ,
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    @RolloTreadway @TheBreadmonkey @alexpsmith I feel the same about cheese and yoghurt. "Hey, we got milk out of the cows because the baby cows drink it and they're fine, so we tried that and it was great, but then we left it in the sun for a bit and now it's gone lumpy and smells funny. Reckon we should eat it?"

    afewbugs , to random
    @afewbugs@social.coop avatar

    Good news: Seedlings have sprouted from the rescued seeds and cuttings of the world-famous tree which was unlawfully felled last year.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/09/seedlings-from-felled-sycamore-gap-tree-have-sprouted-says-national-trust

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