Notices by Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖ (christineburns@mastodon.green), page 3

In any other walk of life a system with such poor data quality would not have been rolled out. In the incredibly expensive, long promised, mostly late, very basic NHS system it’s just a normal Thursday. A system designed by committee to do very basic things like just recording data and messaging, and it’s essentially junk.

Three weeks ago I had both a flu and Covid vaccination. Those facts are yet to appear on my NHS medical record. The Covid won’t ever be added because I paid for it privately. The Flu has I think disappeared down the back of the pharmacist’s desk because he was reduced to scribbling on forms because ‘the system was down’. I look at the rest of my NHS medical record and it’s a shambolic mess — immaterial records of texts sent out recorded three times. Material data not recorded at all.

UK told to brace for 2 deg climate heating within 25 years.

2 degrees doesn’t sound like a lot because we tend to think of a difference like that within our comfortable range. If it’s 15 degrees outside in the morning and 17 in the afternoon that’s not a biggie, right? But that’s false thinking. The average body temperature of a human is 37 degrees but at 39 degrees we would say that was a fever and think of it as a medical emergency.

https://youtu.be/Q4nvQ87Ep7E?si=gFmqS95LAKb3iDSh

The crisis we’re headed for is not measured in the 364 days of the year when conditions are tolerable but the one peak day when they’re not. At that point it’s too late. And whilst people with money to spare can adapt up to a point the rest of nature around us cannot. And that’s without considering drought, extreme wind and sea level rise, plus crop failures and global mass migration from places no longer habitable.

Today I learned that there are only three English cities with an electrical consumption greater than 200 megawatts: London, Manchester and Birmingham. By comparison, the people who want to build AI data centres here, which nobody asked for, want a supply of up to 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) for each one. That’s how skewed this whole nonsense is.

I’ve just been looking at a rather fun-looking long distance electric bus service covering (so far) the north half of Scotland. To use it you select the route you want on the web site and pay in advance. The bus only stops at the designated stops where people have said they want to get on or off. You need to book at least 10 minutes beforehand. The fares look very reasonable and the bus is QUIET! The service is at https://www.ember.to and the picture here is from a live tracker of all buses

I can’t help laughing when some commentators try to distract from the extremes of the right by claiming there’s an extreme left. Let’s unpack that… The right is characterised by a belief in individualism and ‘winning’ at life as though it’s a contest. It breeds selfishness and calculated cruelty. The extreme of that is zero empathy, more selfishness, more cruelty. The left starts from kindness and mutual support. It believes in sharing. The extreme of that is extreme kindness. Extreme empathy.

Aberystwyth seen from the top of the hill, courtesy of the funicular railway

For the second time in a few days I’ve had a scam text purporting to be from the DWP requiring me to sign up for the Winter Fuel Discount. Quite apart from the fact that DWP sends letter, not texts, the origin is a +63 phone number, which places it in the Philippines. Other than these giveaways it is otherwise quite a well worded text which will doubtless hook the unwary, given the uncertainties the government created over fuel subsidies for pensioners. Be careful!

Sometimes the people involved in legal actions over trans people turn out to be even worse once you scratch the surface. Peel a transphobe, find a racist and all that.

https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/sandie-peggie-even-worse-than-we-thought

As the winds howl over the UK the price of my electricity is about to hit zero. Much as I don’t really need to charge the car I find it hard to resist free mileage.

Just did the sums and worked out I can get 50 miles of motoring for minus 1 penny. That’ll do 😀

New study shows vast "over-representation of trans boys" turns out to be vast _under-representation of trans girls bec. they: a) come out ~10 years later; b) start puberty later; & c) delay transitioning longer because of deep social animus towards AMAB femininity.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lvgofxnakofmb4aoxxjgyayc/post/3lvirckka4c25

Direct link to the report bypassing BlueSky https://theconversation.com/critics-claim-gender-clinics-are-seeing-an-excess-of-trans-boys-but-new-data-suggest-otherwise-257817

An oil refinery at Immingham in NE England has closed for good after it went into receivership and the official receiver was unable to find a buyer for it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg50ye7pj6no

@goatsarah Historians and archaeologists have debated for decades how on Earth trans people from 4-5,000 years ago could possibly have obtained oestrogen and moved it to a point on Salisbury Plain. Modern attempts to reconstruct such a journey have had mixed results, mostly failing at the point of obtaining a so-called script. One expedition nearly succeeded but was unable to get into the car park having spent all their money at Internet Pharmacy.

Left in the dark: how the recent court ruling has affected trans people

https://northwestbylines.co.uk/news/equality/left-in-the-dark-court-ruling-trans-people/

“The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security would like to bring attention to and condemn recent judicial and governmental developments in the United Kingdom, which attempt to harm transgender and intersex people in the UK by stripping them of privacy and segregating them as ‘others.’ The Lemkin Institute believes these moves are part of a broader process of erasure.”

https://www.lemkininstitute.com/red-flag-alerts/red-flag-alert-on-anti-trans-and-intersex-rights-in-the-uk

Apparently Tesla is introducing a feature where your new car delivers itself to your home. I just hope the new owners realise that this means their new car can also at any time leave them and run away as well. Another addition to the list of things people never asked for or wanted.

Peter Dynes: Paris could see temperatures of 45°C next week, taking into account the heat island effect, with tropical nights also. Europe and the Mediterranean are experiencing the fastest warming in recorded human history. Hard not to ask: what will 2035 look like at this rate?