Kate Birrell
@kamabi.bsky.social
Born one of Scotland’s many creative engineers. R Feynman is a hero and an inspiration. Not always obvious.
created October 6, 2023
266 followers 538 following 782 posts
view profile on Bluesky Posts
Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) reposted
Trump threatening members of Congress not to sign the Epstein files discharge petition saying it would be a “hostile act” against him is definitely something an innocent person would do. And scheduling a military flyover in the middle of the survivor press conference is also totally normal behavior.
Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Social media algorithms prioritise engagement, not accuracy. That means the most aggravating and divisive content dominates public discourse. Politics is filtered through this distorted lens, not through truth.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Stitcher?
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
You’re absolutely right - it’s Anshu’s world, and we should just be grateful he graciously allows us to draw breath in it
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Put the kettle on (or the Teasmade, or whatever…)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
How about ‘Sparkle’? bsky.app/profile/josh...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Oh mate - I think you should just go and have a quiet cup of tea, or other hot beverage of your choice. Just let this one go, you’re not going to be able to top it bsky.app/profile/ansh...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
C’mon now - he could be an homage to Lewis Carroll ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Given that it has not been repealed, yes, there is a right. And you are incorrect to say there is not, as you seem to know. Just because you would LIKE to live in your version of reality, does not make it so bsky.app/profile/ansh...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
In the UK, there is a right for women to have single-sex spaces, where appropriate, as part of their protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. There is also a right, under the Workplace Regulations 1992, for employees to have separate facilities by sex. So, you’re wrong there, sunshine
Martin 🎶💻🤓🐱 (@martinldnuk1977.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Slight tangent here, but have you seen this YouTuber with this channel "Xing's World"? He has built a subway, cinema, mini home and a shopping parade for his cats. All fully functional. This is the subway and, like everything, it's extraordinary! 👀🙀🚝 youtu.be/KRtyMCeDw8o
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
And, it is surely just as legitimate for women to care about women’s rights as it is for trans people to care about about trans rights. Fine, let’s have a debate, But the LEFT’s position was ‘no debate’. Shut up, women. Remind me how that was progressive, again?
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
As I said earlier, I’m not right wing. And I find this assumed split curious. TRA arguments prioritise trans women (ie males) over women - this is patriarchy, revisited. Which is normally the position of the right. And one might assume (maybe) that the left would be pro women’s rights. But, no 🤯
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I get it that the only women you think matter are trans women. Fortunately, the Supreme Court judged that ALL the protected characteristics in the Equality Act were deserving of equal consideration; and that trans people’s rights did not (and never have, in law), trump the rights of women.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
There are women currently in Scottish prisons sharing shower blocks with biological males. That you don’t think this matters shows, very clearly, your priorities. Which is why the trans rights campaign can be described as a Men’s Rights Campaign. Name-calling is no argument - shows you lack one.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Irrelevant, ignored and dismissed
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
That women’s safety, women’s rights are irrelevant, ignored in pro-trans arguments is one of the things that distinguishes the trans rights campaign from previous gay rights, anti-racism campaigns
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Not at all. Once acceptable for any males to enter female single sex spaces, you reduce the ability to challenge. (Not to mention that quite a few men charged with rape, then decide they’re trans, get to serve their sentence in a women’s prison. Win/win for them, lose/lose for women) Gatekeeping???
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
No. When transwomen enter women’s single-sex spaces, whether prisons, shelters, sport, or changing-rooms, women lose their rights, also safeguarding. This is UNLIKE gay rights, etc. You’ve bought into this canard - it’s all part of ‘no debate’, aka ‘shut up women’.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
(It’s not particularly, necessarily a left/right debate - I have never been right-wing, but am a woman)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
The trouble with this argument, tho, is that when trans rights got to be a thing, nobody cared that they took rights away from women. (No debate, right?) So, nobody cared about women’s rights then, nobody cares now. ‘Ok, we got rid of women’s rights, but let’s not even mention that. Right on!’
Journal of Art in Society (@artinsociety.bsky.social) reposted
Just enjoying the dynamism of English modernist Cyril Power’s linocut ‘The Tube Station’ (1932)
George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted
Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) reposted
Who did this?
Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) reposted
If Obama or Biden had said this, it would be rightfully understood as them arrogating dictatorial authority to themselves, it would be the only thing anyone in the media or opposition would talk about for a year, and it would probably end their presidency. For Trump, it’s literally just Tuesday.
Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) reposted
Washington Post vs Democracy Docket. Support independent media. hubs.ly/Q03jcjqP0
emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) reposted
Four out of five sex traffickers surveyed recommend Donald Trump for President.
Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) reposted
If only John Bolton had had the Epstein Files, his house never would have been raided.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
A great selection of stationary WHAT? (Still waiting for the noun.) Pedantic? Moi? Perish the thought…
Matthew Cortland (they) (@matthewcort.land) reposted
Biomedical research isn't a YouTube video, you cannot hit pause for an indefinite period of time and then hit play whenever the regime wants. Samples are destroyed, labs dismantled, scientists leave...
Alison Fisk (@alisonfisk.bsky.social) reposted
Some 3,300 years ago, an ancient Egyptian artist painted this humorous illustration of a cat herding geese on a flake of limestone. From Deir el-Medina, Thebes, Egypt. 📷 Egyptian Museum, Cairo. #Archaeology
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I sort of got the feeling that lo, there had been sent forth an edict, that all houses shall be individually metered. And then the poor sods tasked with doing it have to deal with reality…
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
They did that to my ENTIRE ROAD one time - we all had scheduled times when they were going to come (it’s a long old road, terraced houses built one flat downstairs, one upstairs) and then they discovered at the first one that they couldn’t meter the flats separately…)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Also, lots and lots of v nice sandy beaches, so maybe in this instance you should be saying ‘English beaches’?
Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Jordan showed up for 10 minutes of my six hour interview and asked one question... about my research team's funding from the National Science Foundation. Two years later and this machine didn't just defund me and my team, they defunded our whole field and everyone peripherally related.
Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Echoing Renee here, me and my team were FOIA'ed by the MO AG office, sued by America First Legal, and then hauled in front of Jim Jordan's committee in DC, where, at the table interviewing me (for SIX HOURS) sat a lawyer who shifted from America First to Jordan's staff. This is MACHINE.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social)
Sound up!
Rachel Deering (@racheldeering.bsky.social) reposted
A crow, watching a mosquito, Jan Mankes.
Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) reposted
I find myself thinking about historian Robert Paxton’s 2004 definition of fascism far too often than I’d like these days. Note that these sentences were written back when Donald Trump was a NYC playboy libertine who donated to Democrats.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
One good one every six years is a bit rough 🙁
Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) reposted
14 August 1920 | A German Jewish woman, Ilse Scharff, was born in Karlsruhe. In August 1942 she was deported from Drancy to #Auschwitz. She did not survive.
Shatner's bassoon (@whosthedadaist.bsky.social) reposted
Da iawn chi
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I have fond memories of Stansted Airport when it had a Spar - since replaced by a WHSmith and and M&S, you will be unsurprised to hear
womblingweka.bsky.social (@womblingweka.bsky.social) reposted
"These deals are not about outcomes — improving the economy or saving Ukrainians’ (much less Palestinians’) lives. They’re about about Trump’s need to feel powerful, his need to coerce tribute. And he’s willing to destroy America in that pursuit."
Pete Fraser (@petefrasermusic.bsky.social) reposted
Feels almost too unbearably student politics to write down, but imagine a human race that could become as angry and proactive about this - a genuinely important and serious issue - as they could about hating people from other countries. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
So, they are never going to change the world, because what they do (by definition) is to reflect it. It is (still) up to us to change the world. And the error will be to give them too much weight, aka power, which will obviate change. Thought-provoking. (Non-expert here)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
bsky.app/profile/kama...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Whatever Liz Truss’s usp might be, it doesn’t appear to include consistency or indeed coherence of thought… Cosplaying Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand 👍🏻
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) reposted
RFK Jr. doesn’t like that a study of every child born in Denmark from 1997-2018 showed no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 adverse health outcomes. This study included more than a million kids. RFK Jr. wants the study retracted. The journal, which is a very prestigious one, refused.
George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted
dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
It is only sentimental American exceptionalism that makes what Trump is doing any different from "increasingly dictatorial president uses military to assert power in capital city".
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Why can’t they just say ‘anecdotally’? (Seeing as that’s what they mean…)
Anonymous (@youranonjd.bsky.social) reposted
At 26, Polish ballerina Franceska Mann, pulled into the Hotel Polski Affair and sent to Auschwitz, fought back. She disarmed a guard, killed Nazi officer Joseph Schillinger, wounded another, and incited fellow prisoners to riot. She died a hero that day - a fighter who met tyranny with defiance.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Today’s distraction. But it ain’t gonna go away… bsky.app/profile/mays...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Sure. (Apart from the time when doing my own research to understand the meaning of the terms in my diagnosis letter saved me from a botched operation and 18 months of grief, obvs)
Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) reposted
All we need is one reporter to ask the president about the rumors that the Cabinet is discussing invoking the 25th Amendment
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social) reposted
Calls for a "huge nationwide wave" of protests in last 48 hours saw about 300 people attend one locally-organised protest in Nuneaton (serious charges in local case) + 19 protests range from 6 peoole (Wolverhampton) with about four more reaching 100-200 people (Altrincham,Canary Wharf) Total < 2000
George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) reposted
Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones.bsky.social) reposted
In case you were wondering, here's a list of how much money each of these 16 congress members who wrote a letter to pressure Ireland to abandon its Occupied Territories Bill received from AIPAC. Data via TrackAIPAC #gazagenocide
Gretch (@gretch4all.bsky.social) reposted
Please, someone put this on donny’s site … and all social media, for that matter. It ain’t gonna go away!!!
dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted
Of all areas of law, patent law should be boring and not exciting.
Mark Zaid, Esq (@markzaidesq.bsky.social) reposted
My firm represents FBI Special Agent in Charge of Las Vegas Field Office Spencer Evans, a decorated 21 year veteran, who was just summarily fired by Dir #KashPatel. No due process. Fired because he followed COVID protocol instructions issued by Justice Dept back in 2021-22.
dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted
Planning law is perhaps the UK’s most formidable single weapon in geo-politics. More than Trident.
Steve Peers (@stevepeers.bsky.social) reposted
I am the very model of a modern coast guard general I've information migratory, nautical yet mythical I know the fash in England and I invent facts hysterical From migrant boats to climate too, in manner unforgivable
Auschwitz Memorial (@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social) reposted
6 August 1900 | An Italian Jewish woman, Anna Ventura, was born in Rome. She was deported to #Auschwitz. She did not survive.
Anil Kalhan (@akalhan.bsky.social) reposted
timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...
Best for Britain (@bestforbritain.org) reposted
On the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, it's worth reflecting on the past and on where we are now. The UN, EU, & ECHR were set up after WW2 to bring lasting peace, & to protect people. It's on all of us to remember that - and challenge those seeking to tear them down
dag (@davidallengreen.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Ongoing trade and commercial negotiations and deal-making should not be exciting, they should be dull.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
And this arises(!) from the male body’s reaction to young, fertile female bodies. Can we now accuse males who do not get a boner looking at trans women of transphobia? Seems just as valid…
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
The experience of the vast majority of the women on this planet is that as a teenager they got creeped on by (at least one) adult male stranger - just a great ‘welcome to the adult world’. To not know/care about this is one massive self-own. Being female involves much more than ‘feeling’ like one
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
This was the post that started this thread, about sexual offenders and protecting women. And I have work to do now, so feel free to find somebody else to have a go at… bsky.app/profile/barr...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I’m glad you’ve said that (even if you did initially accuse me of making it up). Unfortunately, changing name by saying they’re trans does give CSOs a free pass to escape the consequences of their past convictions - so they’ll keep doing it. What solution do you suggest?
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
You’ve created this world, where any long-time child molester who says he’s now trans gets a free pass to carry on abusing. You clearly think this to be unimportant/just fine. But most sentient people don’t, y’know.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for confirming that for you, harm to girls just doesn’t count, compared to the importance of trans women getting what they want. As to making stuff up, full chapter and verse here (his 20+yr history, inc how he now says online he’s 20F, when he’s actually 47) reduxx.info/exclusive-co...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I don’t believe you’re arguing in good faith. What you’re arguing for creates the circumstance where this 👇🏻can (and clearly does) happen. In what universe is this not a problem?
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
And, is this person really and truly trans, or just finding it convenient to say they are? How to tell? (But lets not do safeguarding any more, might cause offence)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
You are setting trans women up as ‘better’, less of a risk than other males. And that leads to problems, cf priests. If you can’t see that, then you are blind to anybody else’s issues other than the ones you care about. And that disqualifies you as a useful commentator, cos you just don’t care.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
bsky.app/profile/kama...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Just finished writing my follow-up post - you could try reading it…
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
(And I’m not saying all trans women are abusers, not at all - but the setting up of a caste WHO CANNOT BE CHALLENGED is an open invitation to men of ill-intent to clamber aboard. And who could possibly challenge them?)
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Anytime we create a caste who are above suspicion (and it’s clearly happened with priests, but others too), then we eventually discover it to be filled with unchallengeable abusers. You sound like you want to create a new above-suspicion caste of trans women. Why should it be different this time?
Jake Scott, MD (@jakescottmd.bsky.social) reposted
When the FDA Commissioner goes on TV to elevate an unverified anecdote about a "friend's parent" dying from a COVID vaccine—while ignoring safety data from 1M+ people published 48 hours earlier—we have an institutional problem. This misleading rhetoric is deeply irresponsible. 🧵
e.w. niedermeyer (@niedermeyer.online) reposted reply parent
I've started quizzing everyone I know who works in technology about this particular historical episode, and for the most part they've never even heard of it, let alone put any kind of thought into it. Seems problematic! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_e...
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Gouda way with you…
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah, you have to be the right sort of tolerant, it’s quite a narrow window, in my lived experience
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Well, that’s unlikely to happen here, n’est-ce pas?
Tim Bale (@timbale.bsky.social) reposted
Apparently, they've said that Trump's case for tariffs is full of holes.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Just clocked what you said there…
Eugene Lim (@tukohbin.bsky.social) reposted
1 in 4 of all UK Nobel Prize winners were born overseas.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Shortly before being blocked, earlier today…
Ben Ansell (@benansell.bsky.social) reposted
Others have noted that this means foreign-born people are LESS likely than UK-born people to be in prison. What I want to note is that The Times is now referring to foreign-born UK citizens as ‘foreigners’. This includes Boris Johnson, Sir Mo Farah, Emma Watson, Rory Stewart and little old me.
Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter.bsky.social) reposted
If the BBC was doing its job, it would note in its coverage of Reform that 92% of the party's donations come from the fossil fuel industry.
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Anyway, I’m off for a swim. Bye
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
I’m doing no such thing, I’m dissecting your argument. And putting words they never said in others mouths is VERY unimpressive
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
How has saying ‘you have the same rights as everyone else, just not more’ turned into ‘they want to erase us all cos we’re different’ in your brain?
Kate Birrell (@kamabi.bsky.social) reply parent
Ah, ‘erasing people who’re different’. Such a bad thing to do, right? Like by calling anyone who disagrees with you a ‘regressive piece of shit’, or a ‘regressive irrational bully’. Get a mirror, sunshine