#douglas hurd

[ministerforpeas]

The Young Ones!

[tonyrossmcmahon]

Short Sharp Shock - nightmare prison regime

Short Sharp Shock was a military-style prison regime for young offenders that wrecked lives and didn't work as Tony McMahon discovers

One of the first measures introduced by the new Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 was the so-called ‘short, sharp, shock’ policy for young offenders. A regime of strict military-style discipline and strenuous physical activity designed to remove criminality from a youth’s character and wipe the smile off their face. It was also described as red meat for the blue rinses – a…

[ulrichgebert]

Statt Bibelspektakel zur Abwechslung mal ein Ritterspektakel mit Charlton Heston. Der prinzipientreue El Cid eint seinem zweifelhaften König zum Trotz die Spanier samt verständigen Mauren gegen Islamistische Welteroberungspläne. So ist recht! Nur die gute Sophia hat nicht so recht was von ihm. Am Ende ist er tot, aber legendär und reitet dem Sonnenuntergang entgegen, in Technicolor und ..hm.. Supertechnirama.

[paniniseller]

Royal Visit of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh: interior of the States Chamber, the Queen receiving the loyal address from the Bailiff Sir Peter Crill, Home Secretary Mr. Douglas Hurd on Queen's left, equerry Tim Laurence in background 25/05/1989

[forest-enchantress]

Hi,

I make period drama style gifs. If you use gif packs, please like and reblog them. Most of my projects are already ready, but every day I post no more than 190 gifs. Because that was the reason why my previous account was blocked.

I tried to make gif packs in a format more familiar to you with a link to a separate page. However, unfortunately, I did not succeed because of the large format of high-quality gifs.

I want to explain about color processing. Usually, I improve the contrast, brightness and saturation, but leave the naturalness of the film. I don't make the contours too sharp because I like the aesthetic of it looking like a natural image.

Actors in alphabetical order: part 1(A-D), part 2, part 3

Navigation

The arrangement of names may not be alphabetical

▶Page 1

Anne Hathaway Anya Taylor-Joy Asia Argento Astrid Berges-Frisbey Boran Kuzum Camille Rutherford

▶Page 2

Carla Juri César Domboy Callum Turner Cate Blanchett Charity Wakefield Charlie Rowe Chiara Mastroianni Christian Bale Christoph Waltz

▶Page 3

Dagmara Dominczyk Dan Stevens Ella Purnell Emily Blunt Ezra Miller Raffey Cassidy Rebecca Emilie Sattrup Rose Byrne Roxane Duran

▶Page 4

Frances O'Connor Gemma Arterton Hannah Taylor-Gordon Hattie Morahan Hugh Dancy Isabelle Adjani

▶Page 5

Izzy Meikle-Small James Norton Jane Birkin Joanne Whalley Lucy Boynton Jim Caviezel Monica Keena Nicolas Duvauchelle Sally Hawkins

▶Page 6

Adriana Tarábková Dakota Fanning Elle Fanning Gaia Weiss Gwyneth Paltrow Kirsten Dunst Léa Seydoux Pia Degermark Roxane Mesquida Rosamund Pike Samantha Gates Sophia Myles

▶Page 7

Annabelle Wallis Austin Butler Carey Mulligan Guy Pearce James Frain Katie Parker Kate Siegel Olivia Cooke Rachel Hurd-Wood Soko Sujaya Dasgupta Tom Cruise

▶Page 8

Adèle Exarchopoulos Anna Maxwell Martin Charles Dance Emma Williams Gillian Anderson Ian Somerhalder Imogen Poots Matthew Rhys Natalie Press Nina Dobrev Paul Wesley Tamzin Merchant

▶Page 9

Anna Friel Catherine Mouchet Déborah François Dominic West Frédéric Noaille Joséphine Japy Kevin Kline María Valverde Paz Vega

▶Page 10

Ben Whishaw Clémence Poésy Elliot Grihault Emilia Fox Joseph Morgan Lambert Wilson Michelle Dockery Phoebe Fox Sophie Okonedo Tom Hiddleston Tom Hughes Tom Sturridge

▶Page 11

Calista Flockhart Charlotte Gainsbourg Christina Giannelli David Strathairn Felicity Jones Fu'ad Aït Aattou Greta Scacchi Helena Bonham Carter Holliday Grainger Michelle Pfeiffer Rupert Friend Sophie Marceau

▶Page 12

Angela Bassett Brooke Carter Cillian Murphy Danylo Kolomiiets Katie McGrath Keeley Hawes Maria Bonnevie Marta Gastini Miriam Giovanelli Olivia Hussey Oscar Isaac Peter Plaugborg

▶Page 13

Ben Barnes Ben Chaplin Bill Skarsgård Iben Akerlie Jakob Oftebro Jo Woodcock Lily-Rose Depp Reese Witherspoon Ruth Wilson Samantha Soule Tess Frazer Virginie Ledoyen

▶Page 14

Cary Elwes Colin Firth Daniel Day-Lewis Emilia Verginelli Hannah James Jonah Hauer-King Loli Bahia Lorenzo Balducci Rebecca Hall Robin Wright Rupert Everett Willa Fitzgerald

▶Page 15

Annes Elwy Claire Danes Eliza Scanlen Freddie Fox Hugh Jackman Kathryn Newton Louis Partridge Maya Hawke Romola Garai Samantha Mathis Trini Alvarado Winona Ryder

▶Page 16

Douglas Smith Eric Bana Gizem Karaca Jessica Brown Findlay Kenneth Branagh Kit Harington Millie Brady Natalie Dormer Poppy Delevingne Rachel Weisz Rosy McEwen Sam Claflin

▶Page 17

Aubri Ibrag Christina Hendricks Connie Jenkins-Greig Guy Remmers Henry Cavill Imogen Waterhouse Josie Totah Mia Threapleton Olivia Hallinan

▶Page 18

Essie Davis Fahriye Evcen Justine Waddell Natalia Sánchez Monica Bellucci Penelope Cruz Piper Perabo

▶Page 19

Alicia Vikander Alida Baldari Calabria Christopher Abbott Emma Stone Jasmine Blackborow Kim Rossi Stuart Lili Reinhart Louis Cunningham Margaret Qualley Marine Vacth Mark Ruffalo Mélanie Thierry Ramy Youssef Scarlett Johansson Sydney Sweeney

▶Page 20

Antonia Clarke Cameron Monaghan Heather Graham Isolda Dychauk Laoise Murray Madelaine Petsch Olivia Colman Sophie Turner Vanessa Redgrave

▶Page 21

Claire Holt Emily Mortimer Jennifer Beals Kelly Macdonald Lena Headey Perdita Weeks Ruta Gedmintas Sarah Bolger Sting

▶Page 22

Berrak Tuzunatac Burcu Ozberk Cansu Dere Deniz Cakir Melisa Sozen Merve Bolugur Saadet Aksoy Yasemin Allen

▶Page 23

Alina Kovalenko Anastasiya Ostreinova Anna Sagaydachnaya Dorota Delag Kseniya Mishina Oleksii Yarovenko Olena Lavrenyuk Taras Tsimbalyuk Veronika Shostak

▶Page 24

To do list:

Christopher Gorham under development (The Other Side of Heaven 2001) Harry Melling - The Pale Blue Eye 2022 Nora Arnezeder - Angélique 2013 Isabella Heathcote - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Eleanor Worthington-Cox in Gwen (2018) Julie Delpy - La passion Béatrice 1987,  Frankenstein 2004, Trois couleurs: Blanc 1994, The Three Musketeers 1993 Nastassja Kinski - Revolution (1985), Tess 1979 Julia Ormond - Young Catherine 1991, First Knight 1995, Legends of the Fall 1994 Laura Donnelly - Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Britannia, Outlander Morena Baccarin in Stargate Isabella Celani - A Room with a View 1985 Neve McIntosh - Gormenghast 2000 Kate Beckinsale - Much Ado About Nothing 1993 Sarah Felberbaum as Maddalena in Medici

✦Francesca Annis

Wives and Daughters 1999 — under development

Volker Bohnet — Ludwig 1973 Romy Schneider — Ludwig 1973, Sissi 1955 Helmut Berger — Ludwig 1973

✦Ethan Erickson

Dorian 2003— under development

All of these gifs were made from scratch by me for roleplaying purposes. Feel free to use them as sidebars and reaction gifs. PLEASE DON’T CLAIM THEM AS YOUR OWN.

[nessjo]

20th anniversary of Peter Pan (2003)

Peter Pan

International theatrical release poster

Directed by: P. J. Hogan

Screenplay by:

P. J. Hogan

Michael Goldenberg

Based on: Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie

Produced by:

Lucy Fisher

Douglas Wick

Patrick McCormick

Starring:

Jeremy Sumpter

Jason Isaacs

Rachel Hurd-Wood

Richard Briers

Olivia Williams

Lynn Redgrave

Ludivine Sagnier

Geoffrey Palmer

Cinematography: Donald McAlpine

Edited by:

Garth Craven

Michael Kahn

Music by: James Newton Howard

Production companies:

Universal Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Revolution Studios

Red Wagon Entertainment

Allied Stars Ltd

Distributed by:

Universal Pictures (English-speaking territories and South Africa)

Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (International)

Release dates:

18 December 2003 (Australia)

24 December 2003 (United Kingdom)

25 December 2003 (United States)

Running time: 113 minutes

Countries:

United Kingdom

United States

Australia

Language: English

Budget: $130 million

Box office: $122 million

[gravalicious]

“David Cameron’s chief policy adviser has apologised after he helped to ward off cabinet pleas for assistance for black unemployed youth following the 1985 inner-city riots with the argument that any help would only end up in the “disco and drug trade”. Oliver Letwin, then a young adviser in Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street policy unit, played a decisive role along with her inner cities adviser, Hartley Booth, in rejecting demands from three cabinet members that assistance schemes be introduced in the aftermath of the Tottenham and Handsworth riots in 1985. On Tuesday night he said he apologised “unreservedly” for any offence caused by his comments. Downing Street files released on Wednesday by the National Archives include a confidential joint paper by Letwin and Booth in which they told Thatcher that “lower-class unemployed white people had lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale”. In a later memo, Booth warned Thatcher that setting up a £10m communities programme to tackle inner-city problems would do little more than “subsidise Rastafarian arts and crafts workshops”. Their intervention followed a warning from the home secretary, Douglas Hurd, that alienated youth, predominantly black, in the inner cities represented “a grave threat to the social fabric” of the country.”

Alan Travis - Oliver Letwin blocked help for black youth after 1985 riots (2015) [The Guardian]

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Dorian Gray

Rating: R

Director: Oliver Parker

Cast: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Emilia Fox, Ben Chaplin, Fiona Shaw, Caroline Goodall, Maryam d'Abo, Douglas Henshall, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Max Irons, John Hollingworth, Pip Torrens, Michael Culkin, Nathan Rosen, Jeffrey Lipman Sr, Jo Woodcock

Release year: 2009

Genres: thriller, fantasy, drama

Blurb: Seduced into the decadent world of Lord Henry Wotton, handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with maintaining his youthful appearance, and commissions a special portrait that will weather the winds of time while he remains forever young. When his obsession spirals out of control, his desperate attempts to safeguard his secret turn his once-privileged life into a living hell.

[codingnator]

What is Linux?

 

Linux (/ˈliːnʊks/ LEE-nuuks or /ˈlɪnʊks/ LIN-uuks) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which includes the kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name "GNU/Linux" to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

History

The Unix operating system was conceived and implemented in 1969, at AT&T's Bell Labs, in the United States by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. First released in 1971, Unix was written entirely in assembly language, as was common practice at the time. In 1973, in a key pioneering approach, it was rewritten in the C programming language by Dennis Ritchie (with the exception of some hardware and I/O routines). The availability of a high-level language implementation of Unix made its porting to different computer platforms easier.

Due to an earlier antitrust case forbidding it from entering the computer business, AT&T licensed the operating system's source code as a trade secret to anyone who asked. As a result, Unix grew quickly and became widely adopted by academic institutions and businesses. In 1984, AT&T divested itself of its regional operating companies, and was released from its obligation not to enter the computer business; freed of that obligation, Bell Labs began selling Unix as a proprietary product, where users were not legally allowed to modify it.

Onyx Systems began selling early microcomputer-based Unix workstations in 1980. Later, Sun Microsystems, founded as a spin-off of a student project at Stanford University, also began selling Unix-based desktop workstations in 1982. While Sun workstations didn't utilize commodity PC hardware like Linux was later developed for, it represented the first successful commercial attempt at distributing a primarily single-user microcomputer that ran a Unix operating system.

With Unix increasingly "locked in" as a proprietary product, the GNU Project, started in 1983 by Richard Stallman, had the goal of creating a "complete Unix-compatible software system" composed entirely of free software. Work began in 1984. Later, in 1985, Stallman started the Free Software Foundation and wrote the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) in 1989. By the early 1990s, many of the programs required in an operating system (such as libraries, compilers, text editors, a command-line shell, and a windowing system) were completed, although low-level elements such as device drivers, daemons, and the kernel, called GNU Hurd, were stalled and incomplete.

MINIX was created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a computer science professor, and released in 1987 as a minimal Unix-like operating system targeted at students and others who wanted to learn operating system principles. Although the complete source code of MINIX was freely available, the licensing terms prevented it from being free software until the licensing changed in April 2000. Although not released until 1992, due to legal complications, development of 386BSD, from which NetBSD, OpenBSD and FreeBSD descended, predated that of Linux.

Linus Torvalds has stated on separate occasions that if the GNU kernel or 386BSD had been available at the time (1991), he probably would not have created Linux.

Creation

While attending the University of Helsinki in the fall of 1990, Linus Torvalds enrolled in a Unix course. The course utilized a MicroVAX minicomputer running Ultrix, and one of the required texts was Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. This textbook included a copy of Tanenbaum's MINIX operating system. It was with this course that Torvalds first became exposed to Unix. In 1991, he became curious about operating systems. Frustrated by the licensing of MINIX, which at the time limited it to educational use only, he began to work on his own operating system kernel, which eventually became the Linux kernel.

Torvalds began the development of the Linux kernel on MINIX and applications written for MINIX were also used on Linux. Later, Linux matured and further Linux kernel development took place on Linux systems. GNU applications also replaced all MINIX components, because it was advantageous to use the freely available code from the GNU Project with the fledgling operating system; code licensed under the GNU GPL can be reused in other computer programs as long as they also are released under the same or a compatible license. Torvalds initiated a switch from his original license, which prohibited commercial redistribution, to the GNU GPL. Developers worked to integrate GNU components with the Linux kernel, creating a fully functional and free operating system.

Naming

Linus Torvalds had wanted to call his invention "Freax", a portmanteau of "free", "freak", and "x" (as an allusion to Unix). During the start of his work on the system, some of the project's makefiles included the name "Freax" for about half a year. Initially, Torvalds considered the name "Linux" but dismissed it as too egotistical.

To facilitate development, the files were uploaded to the FTP server (ftp.funet.fi) of FUNET in September 1991. Ari Lemmke, Torvalds' coworker at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that "Freax" was a good name, so he named the project "Linux" on the server without consulting Torvalds.[56] Later, however, Torvalds consented to "Linux".

According to a newsgroup post by Torvalds, the word "Linux" should be pronounced (/ˈlɪnʊks/ (listen) LIN-uuks) with a short 'i' as in 'print' and 'u' as in 'put'. To further demonstrate how the word "Linux" should be pronounced, he included an audio guide (listen (help·info)) with the kernel source code. However, in this recording, he pronounces 'Linux' (/ˈlinʊks/ (listen) LEEN-uuks) with a short but close front unrounded vowel.

Current Development

Greg Kroah-Hartman is the lead maintainer for the Linux kernel and guides its development. William John Sullivan is the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, which in turn supports the GNU components. Finally, individuals and corporations develop third-party non-GNU components. These third-party components comprise a vast body of work and may include both kernel modules and user applications and libraries.

Linux vendors and communities combine and distribute the kernel, GNU components, and non-GNU components, with additional package management software in the form of Linux distributions.

Popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora Linux, and Ubuntu, the latter of which itself consists of many different distributions and modifications, including Lubuntu and Xubuntu. Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Desktop Linux distributions include a windowing system such as X11 or Wayland, and a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma. Distributions intended for servers may omit graphics altogether, or include a solution stack such as LAMP. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any purpose.

Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system. Because of the dominance of the Linux-based Android on smartphones, Linux, including Android, has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems, as of May 2022. Although Linux is, as of November 2022, used by only around 2.6 percent of desktop computers, the Chromebook, which runs the Linux kernel-based ChromeOS, dominates the US K–12 education market and represents nearly 20 percent of sub-$300 notebook sales in the US. Linux is the leading operating system on servers (over 96.4% of the top 1 million web servers' operating systems are Linux), leads other big iron systems such as mainframe computers, and is used on all of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers (since November 2017, having gradually displaced all competitors).

Linux also runs on embedded systems, i.e. devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system. This includes routers, automation controls, smart home devices, video game consoles, televisions (Samsung and LG Smart TVs), automobiles (Tesla, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Toyota), and spacecraft (Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon crew capsule and the Perseverance rover).

Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open-source software collaboration. The source code may be used, modified and distributed commercially or non-commercially by anyone under the terms of its respective licenses, such as the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Linux kernel, for example, is licensed under the GPLv2.

Design

Many open source developers agree that the Linux kernel was not designed but rather evolved through natural selection. Torvalds considers that although the design of Unix served as a scaffolding, "Linux grew with a lot of mutations – and because the mutations were less than random, they were faster and more directed than alpha-particles in DNA." Eric S. Raymond considers Linux's revolutionary aspects to be social, not technical: before Linux, complex software was designed carefully by small groups, but "Linux evolved in a completely different way. From nearly the beginning, it was rather casually hacked on by huge numbers of volunteers coordinating only through the Internet. Quality was maintained not by rigid standards or autocracy but by the naively simple strategy of releasing every week and getting feedback from hundreds of users within days, creating a sort of rapid Darwinian selection on the mutations introduced by developers." Bryan Cantrill, an engineer of a competing OS, agrees that "Linux wasn't designed, it evolved", but considers this to be a limitation, proposing that some features, especially those related to security, cannot be evolved into, "this is not a biological system at the end of the day, it's a software system." A Linux-based system is a modular Unix-like operating system, deriving much of its basic design from principles established in Unix during the 1970s and 1980s. Such a system uses a monolithic kernel, the Linux kernel, which handles process control, networking, access to the peripherals, and file systems. Device drivers are either integrated directly with the kernel, or added as modules that are loaded while the system is running.

The GNU userland is a key part of most systems based on the Linux kernel, with Android being the notable exception. The Project's implementation of the C library works as a wrapper for the system calls of the Linux kernel necessary to the kernel-userspace interface, the toolchain is a broad collection of programming tools vital to Linux development (including the compilers used to build the Linux kernel itself), and the coreutils implement many basic Unix tools. The project also develops Bash, a popular CLI shell. The graphical user interface (or GUI) used by most Linux systems is built on top of an implementation of the X Window System. More recently, the Linux community seeks to advance to Wayland as the new display server protocol in place of X11. Many other open-source software projects contribute to Linux systems.

User Interface

The user interface, also known as the shell, is either a command-line interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or controls attached to the associated hardware, which is common for embedded systems. For desktop systems, the default user interface is usually graphical, although the CLI is commonly available through terminal emulator windows or on a separate virtual console.

CLI shells are text-based user interfaces, which use text for both input and output. The dominant shell used in Linux is the Bourne-Again Shell (bash), originally developed for the GNU project. Most low-level Linux components, including various parts of the userland, use the CLI exclusively. The CLI is particularly suited for automation of repetitive or delayed tasks and provides very simple inter-process communication.

On desktop systems, the most popular user interfaces are the GUI shells, packaged together with extensive desktop environments, such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, Pantheon and Xfce, though a variety of additional user interfaces exist. Most popular user interfaces are based on the X Window System, often simply called "X". It provides network transparency and permits a graphical application running on one system to be displayed on another where a user may interact with the application; however, certain extensions of the X Window System are not capable of working over the network. Several X display servers exist, with the reference implementation, X.Org Server, being the most popular.

Server distributions might provide a command-line interface for developers and administrators, but provide a custom interface towards end-users, designed for the use-case of the system. This custom interface is accessed through a client that resides on another system, not necessarily Linux based.

Several types of window managers exist for X11, including tiling, dynamic, stacking and compositing. Window managers provide means to control the placement and appearance of individual application windows, and interact with the X Window System. Simpler X window managers such as dwm, ratpoison, i3wm, or herbstluftwm provide a minimalist functionality, while more elaborate window managers such as FVWM, Enlightenment or Window Maker provide more features such as a built-in taskbar and themes, but are still lightweight when compared to desktop environments. Desktop environments include window managers as part of their standard installations, such as Mutter (GNOME), KWin (KDE) or Xfwm (xfce), although users may choose to use a different window manager if preferred.

Wayland is a display server protocol intended as a replacement for the X11 protocol; as of 2022, it has received relatively wide adoption. Unlike X11, Wayland does not need an external window manager and compositing manager. Therefore, a Wayland compositor takes the role of the display server, window manager and compositing manager. Weston is the reference implementation of Wayland, while GNOME's Mutter and KDE's KWin are being ported to Wayland as standalone display servers. Enlightenment has already been successfully ported since version 19.

Video input infrastructure

Linux currently has two modern kernel-userspace APIs for handling video input devices: V4L2 API for video streams and radio, and DVB API for digital TV reception.

Due to the complexity and diversity of different devices, and due to the large number of formats and standards handled by those APIs, this infrastructure needs to evolve to better fit other devices. Also, a good userspace device library is the key of the success for having userspace applications to be able to work with all formats supported by those devices.

Development

The primary difference between Linux and many other popular contemporary operating systems is that the Linux kernel and other components are free and open-source software. Linux is not the only such operating system, although it is by far the most widely used. Some free and open-source software licenses are based on the principle of copyleft, a kind of reciprocity: any work derived from a copyleft piece of software must also be copyleft itself. The most common free software license, the GNU General Public License (GPL), is a form of copyleft, and is used for the Linux kernel and many of the components from the GNU Project.

Linux-based distributions are intended by developers for interoperability with other operating systems and established computing standards. Linux systems adhere to POSIX,[87] SUS,[88] LSB, ISO, and ANSI standards where possible, although to date only one Linux distribution has been POSIX.1 certified, Linux-FT.

Free software projects, although developed through collaboration, are often produced independently of each other. The fact that the software licenses explicitly permit redistribution, however, provides a basis for larger-scale projects that collect the software produced by stand-alone projects and make it available all at once in the form of a Linux distribution.

Many Linux distributions manage a remote collection of system software and application software packages available for download and installation through a network connection. This allows users to adapt the operating system to their specific needs. Distributions are maintained by individuals, loose-knit teams, volunteer organizations, and commercial entities. A distribution is responsible for the default configuration of the installed Linux kernel, general system security, and more generally integration of the different software packages into a coherent whole. Distributions typically use a package manager such as apt, yum, zypper, pacman or portage to install, remove, and update all of a system's software from one central location.

Community

A distribution is largely driven by its developer and user communities. Some vendors develop and fund their distributions on a volunteer basis, Debian being a well-known example. Others maintain a community version of their commercial distributions, as Red Hat does with Fedora, and SUSE does with openSUSE.

In many cities and regions, local associations known as Linux User Groups (LUGs) seek to promote their preferred distribution and by extension free software. They hold meetings and provide free demonstrations, training, technical support, and operating system installation to new users. Many Internet communities also provide support to Linux users and developers. Most distributions and free software / open-source projects have IRC chatrooms or newsgroups. Online forums are another means for support, with notable examples being LinuxQuestions.org and the various distribution specific support and community forums, such as ones for Ubuntu, Fedora, and Gentoo. Linux distributions host mailing lists; commonly there will be a specific topic such as usage or development for a given list.

There are several technology websites with a Linux focus. Print magazines on Linux often bundle cover disks that carry software or even complete Linux distributions.

Although Linux distributions are generally available without charge, several large corporations sell, support, and contribute to the development of the components of the system and of free software. An analysis of the Linux kernel in 2017 showed that well over 85% of the code developed by programmers who are being paid for their work, leaving about 8.2% to unpaid developers and 4.1% unclassified. Some of the major corporations that provide contributions include Intel, Samsung, Google, AMD, Oracle and Facebook. A number of corporations, notably Red Hat, Canonical and SUSE, have built a significant business around Linux distributions.

The free software licenses, on which the various software packages of a distribution built on the Linux kernel are based, explicitly accommodate and encourage commercialization; the relationship between a Linux distribution as a whole and individual vendors may be seen as symbiotic. One common business model of commercial suppliers is charging for support, especially for business users. A number of companies also offer a specialized business version of their distribution, which adds proprietary support packages and tools to administer higher numbers of installations or to simplify administrative tasks.

Another business model is to give away the software to sell hardware. This used to be the norm in the computer industry, with operating systems such as CP/M, Apple DOS and versions of Mac OS prior to 7.6 freely copyable (but not modifiable). As computer hardware standardized throughout the 1980s, it became more difficult for hardware manufacturers to profit from this tactic, as the OS would run on any manufacturer's computer that shared the same architecture. wikipedia

[xtruss]

A kelp forest off Anacapa Island, California. Researchers have found that underwater forests cover an area comparable to the Amazon basin. Photograph: Douglas Klug/Getty Images

Seascape: The State of Our Oceans! The Hidden Underwater Forests That Could Help Tackle The Climate Crisis

Kelp absorbs carbon dioxide and has high nutritional value, but it is under threat from rising temperatures, pollution and invasive species

— By Lucy Sherriff in Los Angeles

Bubbles stream furiously behind Frank Hurd as he gently parts the curtains of giant kelp. Green and gold ribbons reach upwards through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean towards the sun.

Hurd, a marine biologist with environmental organisation the Nature Conservancy, is diving in a kelp forest off Anacapa Island, one of the protected rocky volcanic islets that form the Channel Islands national park, an archipelago off the coast of southern California.

This thick, healthy kelp – a type of seaweed – forms a small part of underwater forests that blanket the coastline of nearly every continent. Some are relatively well-studied, including the Great African Sea Forest, a rich stretch of giant bamboo kelp spreading north from Cape Town to the Namibian coastline that was the setting for the film My Octopus Teacher; and the Great Southern Reef, a giant kelp forest hugging Australia’s southern coastline. But many more of these forests are unnamed and unknown – hidden underwater.

A harbour seal descends from the kelp canopy in the rich underwater forests off Santa Barbara, California. Photograph: Douglas Klug/Getty Images

Despite being one of the fastest growing plants on Earth, kelp has historically been difficult to map because of the difficulties of measuring ocean depths with satellites. However, research published in September found that seaweed forests are far more extensive than previously realised.

An international group of scientists from eight countries, led by Dr Albert Pessarrodona from the University of Western Australia, manually sifted through hundreds of studies – including local plant data records, online repositories and citizen science initiatives – to model the global distribution of ocean forests. They found that underwater forests cover between 6m and 7.2m sq km – an area comparable to the Amazon rainforest basin and twice the size of India.

Still from My Octopus Teacher, set in a rich stretch of giant bamboo kelp spreading north from Cape Town to the Namibian coastline. Photograph: Netflix

Seaweed forests can act as a vital buffer against the climate crisis, absorbing carbon dioxide from seawater and the atmosphere. Ocean forests may store as much carbon as the Amazon rainforest, according to one analysis.

Yet there is still a sizeable gap in understanding of seaweed’s long-term ability to sequester carbon, because it lacks a root system to lock the carbon into the ground, unlike other marine plants such as mangroves and seagrass. Whether carbon stays locked up also depends on what happens to the seaweed, and there is still scientific debate on how effective it is at storing the element.

Kelp provides food and shelter for fish, marine animals and birds. Photograph: Brandon Cole Images/Shutterstock

Marine ecologist Dr Karen Filbee-Dexter, one of the study’s 10 authors, said the research was a “major step forward” in understanding the potential role that seaweed can play in mitigating climate breakdown, “because it calculates the productivity – growth and carbon uptake – of the largest marine vegetated ecosystem”. It can also help estimate the carbon-sink potential of the world’s marine forests, she added.

Kelp, the largest seaweed species, able to grow tens of metres high, also plays a vital role in marine ecosystems, providing food and shelter for fish, other marine animals and birds.

In Australia, native kelp is home to the weedy seadragon – a purple-hued creature with leaf-like appendages that look like kelp fronds – which only lives along the country’s coastline. Kelp forests along North America’s Pacific coast provide vital habitats for southern sea otters. In addition, the mighty grey whale uses kelp forests as a haven from predatory killer whales and as vital feeding grounds for their young during their migration to Alaska waters from Baja California in Mexico.

A weedy sea dragon in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Photograph: By Wildestanimal/Getty Images

Underwater forests could also have a role in efforts to alleviate the world’s food security crisis, thanks to their rapid growth.

The scientists examined hundreds of individual studies from around the world where seaweed growth had been measured by scuba divers. “We found ocean forests are more productive than many intensely farmed crops such as wheat, rice and corn,” the study noted. It defined productivity in terms of how much biomass – the fronds, stipes and holdfasts of the seaweed – was produced by crops and seaweed.

On average, ocean forests in temperate regions, such as Australia’s southern coast, produced between two and 11 times more biomass by area than intensely farmed crops, a productivity that could be harnessed for the food system.

“If Harvested Properly, Seaweeds Have The Potential To Be A Very Sustainable And Nutrient-dense Food Source” — Amanda Swinimer

Seaweed ecologist Dr Sophie Steinhagen inspects the crop at the seafarm in the Koster archipelago in Sweden.

Seaweed has been mass-consumed in Asia for centuries, and now western markets are catching on, albeit on a small scale, with more European and North American companies manufacturing seaweed products for human consumption. The Cornish Seaweed Company has a seaweed salad range; Marks & Spencer has a “coconut seaweed crunch” snack, and there are numerous lines of kelp burgers.

“Although there is evidence of seaweed being consumed as food 14,500 years ago, it has not been a part of the diet for large swaths of the world’s population,” says marine biologist Amanda Swinimer, who has been wild harvesting seaweed for decades through her company, Dakini Tidal Wilds.

However, she adds, as food security becomes more of an issue, “people are looking for other sources of nutritious food. If harvested properly, seaweeds have the potential to be a very sustainable and nutrient-dense food source.” Seaweed is also being used as animal feed, in place of corn and soya beans, thanks to its high nutritional value.

Seaweed can be a nutritious source of food if harvested properly. Photograph: M&S

Yet these underwater forests face multiple threats, including rising sea temperatures, pollution and invasive species. Along the northern California coast, kelp has declined by more than 95% over the past several years, decimated by sea urchins – whose population has exploded as vast numbers of starfish, their main predators, have been killed by a wasting disease linked to warming waters.

The Great Southern Reef along Australia’s coastline, and forests in the north-west Atlantic, along the coasts of Maine, Canada and Greenland, are also showing concerning signs of decline.

Seaweed forests are often overlooked and less studied compared with coral reefs, making it difficult to understand how they are changing. “Most of the world’s seaweed forests are not even mapped, much less monitored,” says Filbee-Dexter. While corals are found in warm, calm and easily accessible areas, making them fairly easy to study, kelp is in cold waters on some of the choppiest, roughest coasts in the world.

Seaweed farming in Sweden could be a vital component of the shift away from eating meat for protein.

Filbee-Dexter believes that the more scientists understand about these vital but fragile marine ecosystems, the easier it will be to help them survive. “I hope that more awareness about these forests will lead to more protection and restoration.”

In California, Hurd continues to dive among the kelp forests, monitoring their progress and hoping their decline can be stemmed. “The loss of these incredibly productive ecosystems is devastating for both nature and people,” he says. However, as science continues to develop smarter technologies to track kelp, such as drones, satellites and AI, he remains hopeful that research can shed light on the role of kelp in fighting climate breakdown.

“The one thing that kelp in particular should never be underestimated for is the productivity and biodiversity it supports around the world. It should be protected and restored with a great sense of urgency.”

Seaweed growth was measured by scuba divers for the research. Photograph: vernonwiley/Getty Images

[ministerforpeas]

COMMONS OF HOUSE!

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

The only reason people in the fandom think Eleanor is a Tory is because she was close friends with Max Hurd whose father Nick and grandfather Douglas were both Conservative party ministers. That doesn't mean that Max is a Tory though, let alone that Eleanor is. My own dad votes Conservative and I've always voted Labour.

I think there's a lot more going on than that anon.

First of all Eleanor's stepfather is a Tory councillor. For me it was telling that these two children of Tories spent time together and studied politics together. I have lived in the capital city of a small country for most of my life - I have known an absurd number of children and nieces and nephews of right-wing politicians. And I've only voluntarily spent time with those who disagreed with their relatives' views. When Eleanor and Max spent time together, I never saw them participating in any of the distancing behaviours that I'm used to and instead saw the opposite. In addition, Max Hurd has been clear about his own views - he celebrated the 2010 Tory party victory. While Eleanor and Max were working together on a project, I thought that this combination of factors was suggestive.

Since, Eleanor and Louis started dating again, I have wondered if either I was wrong about her earlier politics, or she's changed her position (it wouldn't be surprising - given the wider political, social and economic changes of the last decade). Particularly when she attended the Black Lives Matter protest - which is not a very Tory thing to do.

But in the end we can make educated guesses about things, but it's important to acknowledge that we don't actually know what's going on.

[hongkongcrisisupdate]

Press Release #16

" MI5 is the best counterintelligence agency in the world. Nothing goes in or out of Britain without us knowing. Rest assured that the safety of Her Majesty's most sensitive secrets and your secrets are also safe with us.

"Rest assured people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the MI5 is a shield that can never be pierced! all traitors to the country will be caught and face justice!"

- Douglas Hurd

[wholesomeobsessive]

Books of 2022

Classroom Management by Dawson Schultz

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

George VI by Philip Ziegler

Elizabeth II by Douglas Hurd

Fly In The Ointment by Anne Fine

Elizabeth I by Helen Castor

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

Millennium by Tom Holland

An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry

Woke Racism by John McWhorter

Let That Be A Lesson by Ryan Wilson

Teaching With Poverty In Mind by Eric Jensen

Boys Don't Try by Mark Roberts and Matt Pintell

How To Manage Your Slaves by Jerry Jones

Reread tons of Discworld in December

[newsingit]

Israel-Palestine war: Has David Cameron revived the Tory Arabist tradition? Imran Mulla, Peter Oborne 29/11/23

On 6 November 1956, after Britain and France launched a military action in collusion with Israel to occupy the Suez Canal, the Spectator published an editorial denouncing it as an ill-considered “act of aggression”. It was a bold move from Britain’s iconic Tory magazine, one that would age well, on the part of then-editor and proprietor Lord Ian Gilmour.

Gilmour went on to serve briefly as defence secretary under Edward Heath’s Conservative government, and then for two years as Margaret Thatcher’s lord privy seal - until she sacked him in 1981. During that time, and throughout his life, Gilmour belonged to the almost extinct tradition of Tory Arabism and was a staunch and consistent supporter of the Palestinians.

Britain’s new foreign secretary, former prime minister David Cameron, is an important case study in the demise of Tory Arabism. As a young politician, he was influenced by Tory supporters of Palestine, especially Douglas Hurd, whose Witney constituency he inherited, and former party chairman Chris Patten.

As leader of the opposition, Cameron allowed his shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, to strongly criticise Israel’s war in Lebanon in 2006. "I think we can say that elements of the Israeli response are disproportionate,” Hague told MPs in the House of Commons, going on to cite "attacks on Lebanese army units, the loss of civilian life and essential infrastructure, and such enormous damage to the capacity of the Lebanese government".

[scavengedluxury]

Handsworth Riots 1985 - Pogus Caesar.