h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

A reminder of our latest post, in which Dr Philip Salmon explains who had the right to vote between 1832 and 1867. https://victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2024/11/07/who-could-vote-from-potwallopers-to-ten-pounders-post-1832-franchises-explained/ #19thcentury

UK just approved 5 (!) new undersea HVDC interconnectors to be finished by 2032, including two which will connect directly to other countries' offshore wind farms.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/empowering-great-britain-clean-and-flexible-energy-future-next-generation-interconnectors

#energy

Remember when someone formed a company with an XSS attack in the name, back in 2020?

Turns out it made them so mad that company names "consisting of or including computer code" were made illegal in 2023 by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/56/section/10

RT by @CarolineLucas: the £3 billion annual cost of extending the 5p fuel duty cut is roughly equivalent to the annual fare take of every bus in England — £3.1 billion in 2023. so you could nearly make every bus free for the same cost https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus-statistics-data-tables#government-support-for-the-bus-industry-and-concessionary-travel-england-bus05

[2024-10-30 16:15 UTC]

At least she is a competent bureaucrat who doesn't make you think, "I preferred this in the original German"
– Helen Lewis on Harris vs Trump, Page 94 podcast

Tales of how regeneration didn't work in UK towns and cities back in the 50s and 60s (and sadly how we're not learning anything new)

Blog All Dog-eared Pages: Boom Cities by Otto Saumarez Smith

http://www.mcqn.net/mcfilter/archives/books/blog_all_dogeared_pages_boom_cities_by_otto_saumarez_smith.html

SFC's DMCA exemptions granted in triennial Library of Congress hearing! Continuing exemptions for jailbreaking routers + smart TVs, FOSS license investigation, and medical devices. We are so proud to stand up for digital rights. To read more about our advocacy for digital freedom, read here: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2024/oct/31/success-in-2024-dmca-exemptions/

Reminder: Repeated fuel-duty freezes since 2011 have cost the govt at least £80bn and raised UK CO2 emissions by as much as 7%

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-fuel-duty-freezes-have-increased-uk-co2-emissions-by-up-to-7/

A commenter at Citation Needed suggested I have not adequately explained why I support Kamala Harris, and why I believe it is absolutely critical that everyone who can vote comes out to vote for her. In case I have indeed not been clear, here is my response.

PLEASE vote.

#USpolitics #USpol

The Vanishing Culture report arrives today at a critical moment: While Internet Archive recovers from a cyberattack, it’s a reminder of how fragile our access to knowledge can be. Preserving culture & history requires resilience—and collective action.

🔗 https://blog.archive.org/2024/10/30/vanishing-culture-a-report-on-our-fragile-cultural-record/

Hey friends, it's hard to write this, but it's time to retire botsin.space. I wrote a post about it here: https://muffinlabs.com/posts/2024/10/29/10-29-rip-botsin-space/

TLDR the site will go read-only on or around December 15th.

I'm so thankful for all the support and good times here ❤️ thanks everyone

Sam Altman side by side with Aaron Swartz.

I can't stop thinking about it. One was prosecuted by the US for downloading copyrighted data from 1 source for noble purposes, and committed suicide to avoid prison. The other is widely celebrated for doing this on a much larger scale.