#ClimateDiary Sharing this here as #LymeDisesase is increasing in warming climates - and it’s on my radar as my sister and another acquaintance had it this summer. In the case described here, it was undetected for years. Worth knowing there are different forms, different bacteria involved.
oh yes, Lyme disease is no joke. Right now I’m more concerned here in central Arizona about Valley Fever and West Nile virus. They too are elusive in much testing but I think they are more likely now to be tested for than even 5 years ago. Certainly there are ticks most everywhere. But thinking you live in a desert, what ticks are here?
Well about 12 years ago our terrier came in from our own backyard with grass and the yard surrounded by 20’ tall oleander bushes and some bougainvillea and volunteer skinny trees. By chance I found a tick latched on and engorged with blood. Ok, now I do check all of us for odd symptoms that hang around. Good thing too: the dog came down with Valley Fever 7 years ago. Treated for 3 years with meds, he had almost died before a dog neurologist changed his meds. I’m very aware there are nasty issues becoming far more a concern. And yes, I’ve read about some Lyme disease illnesses that are blood-curdling serious.
That poor kid. And booo to whoever (or whatever policy) in the NHS was behind refusing to authorise the blood tests. Classic neglect of chronic illness.
This part is misleading though: "We were given the usual advice about pacing – gradually increasing exercise – which is challenged by some ME patient groups."
The writer's conflating two things: a) gradually increasing exercise regardless of what it does to you - which is what well-informed patient groups object to. b) being sure that you only exercise "within your energy envelope", i.e. not provoking post-exertional malaise, not making yourself worse - which is what's normally caused "pacing".
I'd guess that's probably an area where he himself was misled by someone in denial about PEM, probably a medical professional. Careless of the Guardian editors not to catch it, though. (or similar denial.)
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
Das Bild zeigt eine düstere, wolkenverhangene Küstenlandschaft. Der Himmel ist bedeckt mit dichten, grauen Wolken, die eine bedrohliche Atmosphäre schaffen. Der Ozean erstreckt sich bis zum Horizont, wobei die Wellen ruhig erscheinen. Im Vordergrund sind einige Strandsonnenschirme und grüne Liegestühle zu sehen, die auf einer Rasenfläche stehen. Rechts im Bild ist ein Gebäude mit einem offenen Balkon und einem beleuchteten Fenster zu erkennen. Die gesamte Szene wirkt ruhig und melancholisch, mit einem Fokus auf die Natur und die vorherrschende Stimmung des bedrohlichen Wetters.
Bereitgestellt von @altbot, privat und lokal generiert mit Ovis2-8B
"Colombian President Gustavo Petro has responded defiantly to the United States’ decision to revoke his visa, stating that he "doesn’t care" and criticizing Washington for what he called a violation of international law over his stance on the war in Gaza" Petro: “I no longer have a visa to travel to the United States. I don’t care...Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the US no longer respects international law”
...you know, I think the Presidents of Columbia and Brazil are onto something.....brilliant! Trump has decided to buddy-up with that loser Milei of Argentina...a complete economic basket case that has basically been in default for....many decades. And just btw, the economic policies that started them down the path to oblivion were set up by Peron.....and in many ways, trump is putting similar policies in place in USA.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
Another excellent thread from @pluralistic I especially agree with this bit:
"The EU needs to get the *hell* off US tech infrastructure. Under Trump, Big Tech and the US government have stopped even pretending that American tech companies are independent of the US government. We know (from China) that Apple will happily backdoor its cloud servers to assuage authoritarian governments"
Not easy for even a motivated person to achieve without a lot of help though. Yet. mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11527130… pluralistic@mamot.fr - Apple has threatened to stop selling iPhones and other devices in the European Union (home to over 500,000,000 affluent consumers) if the bloc doesn't rescind the Digital Markets Act, a democratically accountable anti-monopoly law that bans Apple from blocking third parties from offering services to iPhone owners:
Apple has threatened to stop selling iPhones and other devices in the European Union (home to over 500,000,000 affluent consumers) if the bloc doesn't rescind the Digital Markets Act, a democratically accountable anti-monopoly law that bans Apple from blocking third parties from offering services to iPhone owners:
Start reinstalling landlines and payphones again. It was needed anyway, and more independence from what corporations and governments weaponize as tracking devices is a bonus.
hard ask when most of the European political class is eyeing exec positions at the surveillance-tech companies they’re supposed to be legislating against. Lobbying in the EU is crazy, and it’s part of why Chat Control is being pushed through
Seems good news for Samsung. iOS only has 34% of the mobile operating system market share in Europe as it is.
65% - Android 34% - iOS
And even an unlocked €120 Samsung Galaxy A16 comes with six years of updates. So:
- Apple leaves EU market - People shift even more to Android - Europe launches their own version of Android, overseen by Nokia - Samsung phones become available with European Android - Profit?
@pluralistic Apple is a big company. But they aren’t a monopoly in the EU. And these rules aren’t being applied to Samsung which has essentially the same market share in the EU that Apple has.
Cory is exaggerating a LOT, and although the goal here is fairness… it’s only being applied to one company. Samsung and Google have zero restrictions on their business practices regarding mobile devices.
One example of an exaggeration: Apple isn’t “threatening” to stop selling in the EU. But they are withholding a lot of new features due to EU rules … again which are ONLY being applied to Apple.
@mls14 I think that is not quite the right analogy, if you have a Samsung phone you can always install any app from e.g. F-Droid, without Samsung skimming off the 30% apple are taking. Whereas AIUI Apple forbid you from downloading any App not in the App store.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. The App Store thing, I understand. But any feature Apple adds, the EU requires them to open it to other developers. For example: iPhone-to-Mac mirroring. The way it’s done, opening it to Windows or Linux devices opens up all sorts of security holes. So, that feature cannot be offered to EU customers.
In the end, ANY feature exclusive to iPhone is illegal. Which is pretty crazy if you want to compete in the marketplace and offer unique features.
Samsung offers unique features that aren’t interoperable… but they are allowed to. It’s not a level playing field IMO.
#FotoVorschlag 📷 'Blick aus Deinem Fenster' Ich wohne oben und sehe meist Vögel und Wolken, wenn ich aus dem Fenster schaue. Heute ist am Himmel nur Blau auszumachen. Langweilig! Also habe ich ein älteres Bild rausgekramt. #Fotografie #Photography #Wolken #Clouds
Flottilla is sailing again. We left Koufonisi, Crete, last night, and are already some 50Nautical miles underway, wit 420Nm to Gaza. Lot's of drone activity during the night, but no attack.
28.09.2025 #globalsumudflotilla ⛵️ La flottille navigue à nouveau. Nous avons quitté Koufonisi, en Crète, la nuit dernière, et nous avons déjà parcouru environ 50 milles nautiques, avec 420 milles nautiques jusqu'à #Gaza Beaucoup d'activité de drones pendant la nuit, mais aucune attaque.
If I had to name one thing as the worst attribute of modern humanity, it would be consumerism. If I could name two, the second would be our need for instant gratification. If I could name three, th…
If you have *first hand experience* of improving the diversity of a governance board of (currently all men) volunteers, I'd love to hear how you went about it, or resources which helped you, please.
What did you find helped make the role more attractive to a wider range of applicants to join?
(This is in the context of a Free software project, but broader contexts are welcome.)
1. Does the board *want* to change? If not, it'll be rough. 2. If yes, does the board accept that this will be hard work? 3. Do the board know the barriers to joining (time, money, impact)? 4. Are they prepared to address the issues? (Different meeting hours, better location, paying etc) 5. Don't reach out to people already on boards - they're already busy! But ask them if they can recommend people who would be good candidates. 6. Accept that you might have a low "hit rate".
@Edent With respect to point 5, ask them explicitly for women, as men will usually mention other men. Old boys network etc.
In addition, when you reach out via announcement, mention you know that women react differently and specifically state you would like to heae from them even if they think they do not check all boxes.
There are a few key reasons why DEI strategies fail (see image below). Here are just a few examples of how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies and plans fail: Scholars to study why $365M DEI investment into STEM failed to diversify engineerin…
First thank you. Secondly, because women don’t get promoted as readily they won’t think of themselves as eligible for board membership. So that means you have to encourage women to join who may think they don’t fit the criteria. Maybe even be explicit in saying board membership does not require ALL but only SOME qualifications. I find women often don’t apply because they think they don’t have all the experience on the list. Def ask other women for recs.
Check out the Python Movie on YouTube (sorry, don't have the link). There is a insightful segment of it on how Python worked to bring in more diversity to its community.
The events season has started! This article is an invitation to people from across many communities, whatever your role or level of experience, to come and participate in workshops, conferences, camps, lectures, festivals, and more.
Is there a search sub-committee? Do you advertise on "normal" charity boards, or just FOSS ones? Are you able to compensate? Have you expicitly said you want to diversify the board?
If you do manage to find someone, it's hard to make the board representative without making that person a representative of their minority.
the thing I have to say from my experience doing this for a small convention is: it's probably gonna be messy. Probably a person on the board or a friend of a guy on the board is doing some shit that needs to stop in order to make the space welcoming for more diverse members. Probably no one will want to tell him to stop because he's a friend of long standing. This is usually where diversity efforts end; complaints have no official process to go through and never get heard...
I haven't dealt with diversity balancing, but from both being on boards and reporting to them I would offer one useful tip: if you want the current board to get on side, speak privately to one or two of them who would be sympathetic and ask them to raise a more diverse board as an agenda item at the next meeting.
This makes it official, shows allyship, and will help get the ball rolling. An actionable item could then be to identify 3-5 potential new board members before the next meeting.
Not specifically in this context, but I have experience in various diversity programmes. One thing to highlight:
When you frame the problem as ‘we need more women’ (or more people of a particular ethnicity, or sexual orientation, or whatever) then this immediately devalues people in the group that you are trying to target. We did a lot of work at Microsoft to try to stop senior leadership boasting at all-hands meetings that they’d hired more women, because women in the audience immediately thought ‘was I hired just because I’m a woman?’ And then thought ‘do my colleagues think I was hired because I am a woman?’ Which then immediately undermines them in their job.
Not having women in leadership positions is not the problem, it is a trailing indicator of the problem. The root problems are likely to be things like:
You are recruiting from places women avoid, or which favour men.
You are recruiting via your networks, where women are underrepresented.
You are encouraging an in-group culture that makes everyone not in that group feel excluded and this disproportionately affects women (you will also be losing other people for the same reason).
You are organising things at times that are inconvenient for people with carer responsibilities, which disproportionately affects women.
You are looking for people who have a lot of free time and this systematically excludes a load of people (you can’t fix this as a volunteer project, but you can push for government equity initiatives).
Remember: your goal is to find the best people. The fact that roughly 52% of the population are self-deselecting before you even get to evaluate them on relevant metrics is a significant indicator that you are failing at this. Keep that framing in mind.
Not a governance board, but my workplace recently did a round of "how can we improve our metrics for DEI" and I was part of the working group.
I would say, don't recruit diverse people and then require them to fit into the mold of doing everything in the exact same way as white men (in the case of a workplace, a "traditional" cis straight non-disabled neurotypical early-rising Christian white man out of the 1950s who is sole breadwinner and has a wife at home that does all the housework and childcare). You get and keep diverse people by fitting the way the board works to the people, not the other way around.
my biggest thing is just being asked. Invite people, don’t wait for them to apply. And make it personal. Explain why you think they specifically would be a good fit.
@dolanor no it was not. I was very much surprised last time how many people really don't know what github is. So it makes sense to think that he may be also is like this. But then recheck his profile I recognized that could be possibly not true. So it's all logical in historical backview. Some say also that day dont use because it's from Microsoft. So I also offer it paralell at a oter platform
@dolanor Last weeks some ppl was criticizing me to share links. St some platform, you will get banned when you do it. Happens to me for e.g. at twitch. But yes Links are great. Here link: github.com/sl5net/SL5-aura-ser… Happy if you like, join, feedback, .. it.
Actually i rewrite the README here a Draft: 🚀 Key Features & Compatibility
Here's a breakdown of what SL5 Aura offers and where it runs: Core Speech-to-Text (STT) Functionality
Our core speech recognition service, converting spoken words into text. Feature / Script Description Compatibility Speech-to-Text Core Offline, professional speech recognition engine. 🐧 🍏 🪟 _ dictation_service.py The main Python service for STT processing. 🐧 🍏 🪟 _ Language Switching Instant language switching via model preloading. 🐧 🍏 🪟 _ Pre-Co
He is asking about diversity and inclusion in a board.
I'm totally fine with links if they are somewhat related to the topic at hand, but yeah, in this case, I fail to see the link at all and it just seems advertising for your project.
@dolanor My apologies for the confusion in our recent exchange. Let me clarify my initial intention:
I work on an open-source project myself, and constantly think about how to grow our community and make it more inclusive.
My thought was that the challenges of attracting diverse volunteers to a governance board might share some parallels with attracting diverse contributors to an open-source project. These are questions we grapple with too.
My apologies if this connection was not obvious, and it came across as off-topic.
Thanks for your patience and for helping me understand where I went wrong in my communication.
> My thought was that the challenges of attracting diverse volunteers to a governance board might share some parallels with attracting diverse contributors to an open-source project.
1. It's not just about recruitment - it's the group being able to welcome and support the new people and incorporate their input. Otherwise you're recruiting people into an unsatisfactory situation for them. From that article:
"If you try joining a group where you’re the only one (e.g. only bi person, only Black person, only woman, only older person, only parent), it can feel inadvertently unwelcoming and pointless, unless the majority makes an effort to be welcoming and to take your input seriously. If voting tends to divide along demographic lines, you’ll be outvoted; the focus of the group may not be the focus you were interested in; things you bring up might not be understood."
If your board isn't yet enthusiastic and competent in welcoming and incorporating input from people different from them... maybe it isn't yet time to recruit.
my experience is from a large company, I’m not sure how well it would apply.
We started at the bottom and worked up. Starting with employee resource groups for women, bipoc, lgbtq+, etc. Each group chose a representative for the larger diversity council.
Originally I think it was intended to gather differing opinions and then feed them through a shredder into the garbage, but it grew into something more. Turns out there were more of us than them.
I've participated in a search committee tasked with specifically recruiting and inviting diverse participants. This took an existing leadership that wanted the group to change and grow.
Recruitment contacts were greatly enhanced by participation in and sponsorship of diversity-focused umbrella organizations. In one particular infosec case (in USA), WiCyS sponsorship bore great fruit. In aerospace, AIAA & similar professional societies had diversity efforts that I've tapped.
I agree with a person who talked about systemic patterns and necessary changes here. I've been the token nondude more than once, in part because I grew up with all brothers and the guys have to adjust less to me. If you want to Truly welcome diversity, you're going to need to do some retraining for your team. Even when not specifically toxic, a fair amount of business culture is consolidated cishet whitedude culture. You have to change that, before and while you're adding diversity.
If the board is numerate, perhaps try running a binomial test and show them the odds that they ended up with an all-male board by chance are very low. Because imposter syndrome is relatively so high amongst women, ask women on boards, or CxOs, or VP, to nominate potential candidates and then approach them directly
One thing to add, which pairs with @david_chisnall 's observation -
it’s important that the existing board deeply understand why diverse participation is valuable, specifically for your context.
For example, it might be that in order to encourage broader project participation, you may want members with first-hand experience of marginalization to spot and address cultural or structural issues. Issues that the current board may be struggling to even see except for trailing indicators.
Knowing *specific* ways you want things to improve will help you find the right people and pave the path for them make a difference.
It’s entirely possible to get superficial diversity and not get the benefits (beyond optics). As others say, if you don’t have a culture which values nonconformity, new voices will just get shut down. Without a concrete approach to hearing them - which, again, can start immediately! - you risk reinforcing rather than addressing the monoculture.
It requires a commitment to change across the whole group - so not just in governance, but from those involved in the day to day work as well.
It has been helpful to understand why we care - for us that comes from our understanding of God, but for your project it might be from the project goals? That helps to sustain the work.
If you don't already have reasonable representation in non-governance roles, I would start there.
1. Does the project have a code of conduct that is reasonable and progressive? I don't want to be the person brought in to have all the incredibly basic fights and then burn out and leave. I want the incredibly basic groundwork to be something the existing members of the organization are on board with.
2. Is there governance set up in case someone currently in the project turns out to be a shit? Could they be removed without a "burned to the ground" campaign?
I've tried to encourage diversity in several settings. I hope they're helpful examples.
1) The place I was employed - limited success, but they did at least get it when I pointed out *all* the images of people in marketing and recruitment materials were white. They hadn't noticed, because they weren't excluded or attuned to noticing exclusion of not-them groups. The public visibility of your org/board may be similarly polarised. Eg, listing your current all-male membership on your website may be self-reinforcing, even though it's also good transparency.
2) Author Help. My partner's self-publishing company. I suggested a Statement of Principals be added to our website. It includes statements on race, LGBTQIA+, environment, etc. At least one customer came to us because of it. It is likely it has been a factor in more, because it's the sort of thing oppressed groups might look for. Again, it's about the publicly visible aspect of the organisation being explicitly inclusive.
3) This thread. You asked very specifically for experiences in increasing volunteer board diversity. That's very niche. I nearly didn't reply because my experience isn't that. But of the people who do have experience in that area, how many are in the overrepresented group? So I have fought the niggling voice in my head that says I'm sticking my nose in where it's not wanted. It's the same voice that may be currently preventing non-male participation, so you probably need to hear about it. Go read my first couple of sentences again for an example of how it manifests.
El Parlamento de Andalucía ha puesto en marcha unas normas que cambian de manera notable la manera de asistir a los plenos desde la tribuna de invitados. A partir de este periodo de sesiones ya no se permite hacer fotos, grabar vídeos ni mostrar pancartas o carteles reivindicativos. También queda prohibido llevar camisetas con mensajes […]
La vicepresidenta primera del Gobierno y ministra de Hacienda, María Jesús Montero, ha respondido al dirigente de Junts, Jordi Turull, después de que este afirmara que Andalucía «vive de las subvenciones». Montero ha utilizado su cuenta oficial de la red social X (antes Twitter) para dejar clara su posición y sumarse así a otras defensas […]
There have been lots of haptic vest devices over the years, though the vast majority have been very simple. Many existing suits pack in a few speakers or vibration motors to give feedback to the wearer. Kinethreads aims to go further, serving as a full-body haptic suit using an innovative mechanical setup.
Kinethreads is effectively an exosuit, which mounts several motorized pulley systems to the wearer’s body. These pulleys are attached to the user’s hands, feet, back, torso, and head via strings. By winding in the pulleys, it’s possible for the device to effectively tug on different parts of the body, creating rich, dynamic physical feedback that can easily be felt and interpreted by the user. The whole system weighs 4.6 kilograms—not light, but very practical. It can also run for 6 hours on a single charge. The whole suit can be donned or doffed in under a minute. Cost is stated to be under $500.
It’s a particularly interesting device for VR use. The team notes applications such as simulating the weight of picking up a virtual object, creating the feeling of virtual “gravity,” or giving continuous dynamic feedback during a driving simulation. Other demos include mimicking the sensation of touching hard objects, or the more diffuse feeling of standing under a waterfall.
Two concerts from the Schwäbisch Gmünd European Church Music Festival.
FIRST:
Gerlinde Sämann, soprano and conductor, Johannes Frisch, Andreas Pilger, violin, Susanne Zippe, viola, Heidi Gröger, viola da gamba, Magnus An...
Police have arrested many people in hundreds of raids leading up to the vote as reports of Russian interference and planned disturbances plagued what many believe is the most consequential election in the country’s recent history.
Dal suo cappellino da pescatore gonzo e le ciabatte negli anni ’90 alle camicie stropicciate e alle giacche di oggi, il regista di Una battaglia dopo l’altra si è sempre vestito senza mezze misure
Sotto le bombe israeliane e sfruttati da Hamas, il destino degli orfani tra le macerie di Gaza, editorialedomani.it/politica/m…, , Potrebbero essere «oltre 18mila i minori rimasti orfani dal 7 ottobre e di questi, molti non sono neanche assistiti da qualcuno», dice Rana Quffa, direttrice di un centro per l’infanzia a Khan Yunis. Così rischiano di diventare i nuovi combattenti di Hamas
Potrebbero essere «oltre 18mila i minori rimasti orfani dal 7 ottobre e di questi, molti non sono neanche assistiti da qualcuno», dice Rana ... Scopri di più!
"Body camera footage released from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in upstate New York earlier this month caught federal agents calling immigrants “animals” and bragged about the number of “illegals” detained — despite that not being the case in at least one instance."
"“I would not let anybody out of their cells, so we did it in an orderly fashion, had them all lined up. It’s bathroom time, or it’s f— brush your teeth time, or it’s food time. Other than that, nope, your a— is staying in there. ‘But you can’t do that.’ I absolutely can. ‘I need a phone call.’ No you don’t. ‘I need to go to medical.’ Nope, you look good to me,” the agent said, mimicking a conversation with a person detained.
He continued to say that they kept the bathrooms inside the cells where people were held.
“They’re, they’re animals anyway. That’s what I would tell my kids all the time,” said the agent, who said he worked in the “intelligence unit.”"
#Russia #Europa #Nato #ONU Il ministro degli Esteri russo Sergej #Lavrov ha dichiarato ai leader mondiali, riuniti all’Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite che Mosca “non ha alcuna intenzione” di attaccare i paesi europei”.
AgenPress. Il ministro degli Esteri russo Sergej Lavrov ha dichiarato ai leader mondiali, riuniti all'Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite che Mosca "non ha
cobalt
in reply to Pauline von Hellermann • • •oh yes, Lyme disease is no joke. Right now I’m more concerned here in central Arizona about Valley Fever and West Nile virus. They too are elusive in much testing but I think they are more likely now to be tested for than even 5 years ago. Certainly there are ticks most everywhere. But thinking you live in a desert, what ticks are here?
Well about 12 years ago our terrier came in from our own backyard with grass and the yard surrounded by 20’ tall oleander bushes and some bougainvillea and volunteer skinny trees. By chance I found a tick latched on and engorged with blood. Ok, now I do check all of us for odd symptoms that hang around. Good thing too: the dog came down with Valley Fever 7 years ago. Treated for 3 years with meds, he had almost died before a dog neurologist changed his meds. I’m very aware there are nasty issues becoming far more a concern. And yes, I’ve read about some Lyme disease illnesses that are blood-curdling serious.
Pauline von Hellermann reshared this.
Jennifer Moore 😷
in reply to Pauline von Hellermann • • •Sensitive content
That poor kid. And booo to whoever (or whatever policy) in the NHS was behind refusing to authorise the blood tests. Classic neglect of chronic illness.
This part is misleading though:
"We were given the usual advice about pacing – gradually increasing exercise – which is challenged by some ME patient groups."
The writer's conflating two things:
a) gradually increasing exercise regardless of what it does to you - which is what well-informed patient groups object to.
b) being sure that you only exercise "within your energy envelope", i.e. not provoking post-exertional malaise, not making yourself worse - which is what's normally caused "pacing".
I'd guess that's probably an area where he himself was misled by someone in denial about PEM, probably a medical professional. Careless of the Guardian editors not to catch it, though. (or similar denial.)
#pacing #misinformation
Pauline von Hellermann
in reply to Jennifer Moore 😷 • • •Sensitive content
RealGene ☣️
in reply to Pauline von Hellermann • • •Then there's this, which might actually be good for the planet in the long run:
nytimes.com/2025/08/12/dining/…
Pauline von Hellermann
in reply to RealGene ☣️ • • •