Hester Keijser
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hkeijser.bsky.social
Hester Keijser
@hkeijser.bsky.social
Recovering photography curator, green fingered dog person, can’t help thinking along and probing where the ice gets thin. Because we are all just skating on the surface.

If I don’t follow you, you might be on one of my lists, where I still 🔭 you.
Pinned
I’ve set up Realest Rooms (www.flashes.blue/profile/real...) to look at the housing crisis in 🇳🇱 for low income households and starters. What is available for up to €200K with a floor space of 50m2 that would allow for a couple or a young family.
‎Flashes for Bluesky
‎Flashes is a native Bluesky photo/video app. Amongst other features the app offers: • Discover and Share photos & videos on Bluesky – a vibrant community of over 30 million users. • Enhance Your Cr...
www.flashes.blue
Reposted by Hester Keijser
The diagram for what Palantir does is like if Richard Scarry got super paranoid and did an Apocalypse picture book
November 7, 2025 at 8:14 PM
“We worry what will happen if we don’t have concrete action now. We as indigenous people in the Amazon are tired of being sacrificed by a group of powerful people who want to rule the planet. If we don’t do something together we will be complicit with ecocide and the assassination of humanity.”
🦸🇵🇪🌿
Cop30 live: ‘We will exterminate ourselves’ if we keep extracting fossil fuels, activists say
Climate Action Tracker report finds pledges made in past year have not cut the forecast for global heating
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Worked hard today turning an eyesore street garden covered in litter into a future paradise for bees and plants. Besides the 50+ plants, we planted dozens of bulbs and sowed locally sourced wild seeds. Can’t wait til spring arrives! All plants donated by the city 😍 & seeds by me.
November 13, 2025 at 5:35 PM
A grim read. It was hard to find the most disturbing passage. Make no mistake: women’s rights are under threat. “In 2024, a report from the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) showed that seven in 10 women in European politics had suffered abuse and harassment.”
In Sweden, online hate and anti-immigrant extremism are driving women out of public life | Martin Gelin
A leading liberal politician has quit in fear of her physical safety. It is a crushing setback for democracy in one of the world’s most open societies, says journalist Martin Gelin
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:53 AM
I’m so tired of the Islamophobia in this country. More than anything, it indicates an inability to consider the limitedness and relativity of one’s worldview. Such lack of imagination never served anyone, and can be quite dangerous as it leaves one blind to the realities of the lives of others.
November 6, 2025 at 10:10 PM
“…Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal.

Normal. That’s the word,” Verbeek wrote in his newsletter, The Planet. “Here, taking care of one another through public programs isn’t radical socialism. It’s Tuesday.”

Second that, but there’s an abyss between US & EU
Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’
Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:42 PM
It’s stunning how many people casually tell me they voted for fascist parties in the election. Some for reasons no other than: I’m for democracy and this party’s name claims to be for democracy, so I voted for them. Also, my car broke down that day and I had no time to really consider my options. 1/
November 5, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Awww. 🥹

“One AquaWomb prototype includes access ports that let parents touch their infants. Another features a “uterus phone”, which pipes voices, music or heartbeats into the fluid at the same muffled pitch a fetus would hear in the womb.”

(❤️ swells with 🇳🇱 pride for such thoughtful care options)
This machine could keep a baby alive outside the womb. How will the world decide to use it?
For parents who have buried infants born too soon, a device like the AquaWomb is a miracle in waiting – and an impossible choice
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Love of my life sunbathing on the couch right after she threw up her breakfast and ate it up again. Ahh the joys of dogs! 😬
November 5, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Everyone here today: Ich bin ein New Yorker.

Wishing Mamdani all the luck in the world to make America love socialism again.
November 5, 2025 at 11:10 AM
“The key take-home points are that if you take action for biodiversity in cities (through tree planting, or enhancing habitat in parks, or creating greenways), these actions will also likely yield benefits to human health”

More studies like these please 🙏🏻
The nature extinction crisis is mirrored by one in our own bodies. Both have huge implications for health
Modern life is waging a war against ecosystems around us and inside us. Keeping our own microbes healthy is another reason to demand action to preserve the natural world
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:54 PM
My latest fix up job: restoring the blade on these large pruning shears. Taking them apart took some persuading, putting them back together took some puzzling, but they work smooth and very silently again. Ready for the next horror movie!
October 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Are you making your own lemonade yet? Such fun to try new flavors and work with what falls in my hands. Today it was mint (too good to go) with oranges and ginger (both found outside), bay leaves (foraged) and lemon. Now the whole house smells like peppermint. 🤤😋
October 28, 2025 at 4:24 PM
OK, here is some good news:

“Enjoying original works of art in a gallery can relieve stress, reduce the risk of heart disease and boost your immune system, according to the first study of its kind.”
Picture of health: going to art galleries can improve wellbeing, study reveals
Viewing original works of art can relieve stress, cut heart disease risk and boost immune system, first study of its kind finds
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Brilliantly pointed as always.
Farage: epic grifter
October 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I can confirm this from talking to random people I meet on the street:

What’s happening now goes beyond ‘negative talk’. It’s open hostility that has become normalised. The way Muslims and Islam are spoken about today would have caused outrage a few years ago. Now it barely raises an eyebrow.”
‘Open hostility has become normalised’: Dutch Muslims fear rise of far right as general election looms
The poll is seen as a litmus test for the Netherlands and its democratic ideals, as activists decry a hardening of political discourse driven by Geert Wilders
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:55 PM
When you have a terrier, people say you can make their food more interesting by wrapping it in layers of stuff. This will mean it takes them a whopping …. 2 minutes extra to destroy a treat. Oh well, I guess it was fun.
October 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM
This afternoon I spent several hours in monumental houses hearing about the lives of old master painters and looking at what The Hague looked like 400 years ago. But this 📷 shows the reality of the cityscape today. We need new stories for that, but too many people are still so wound up in our past.
October 25, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Better call Saul: “… when some people can buy their own criminal cases or cancer treatments, they have fewer reasons to invest in the idea of improving these things for everyone else.”

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
‘The police weren’t interested’: what’s driving the rise in private prosecutions?
The long read: As the police and courts continue to struggle with the legacy of austerity, many people are seeking alternative routes to justice – but it could be making matters worse
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:23 AM
I know everyone is all worked up about the demolition of the East Wing, but let’s remember that much of US screen entertainment is basically a continuous attack on real estate. I’m sure someone versed in visual culture and architecture could trace the line from the present back to Buster Keaton.
October 23, 2025 at 7:14 PM
“Let us not, in the name of sound management of public finance, allow society to run amok and dissolve itself into a set of groups that are competing for scarce resources.”

There is nothing more important right now than cultivating solidarity and strengthen social fabric. What will it take?
Welfare cuts have fuelled rise of far right and populism, top UN expert says
Exclusive: Poverty rapporteur says governments must rethink welfare state as essential to fabric of society
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This is a great question to occasionally revisit, even beyond the context of Cobb’s argument:

Who has ever managed personal growth while constantly screaming to the world about how special and amazing they are?”

www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...
‘Indecency has become a new hallmark’: writer and historian Jelani Cobb on race in Donald Trump’s America
In a new essay collection, the dean of Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism makes a compelling argument that everything is connected and nothing is inevitable about racial justice or de...
www.theguardian.com
October 18, 2025 at 11:03 PM
If this study is on the ball, I say it’s time for some far-left agenda setting.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
German far right setting agenda as opponents amplify its ideas, study finds
Normalisation of far-right stances likely to affect success of such parties at ballot boxes across Europe, say researchers
www.theguardian.com
October 18, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I was glad to receive a copy of The Museum is Not Enough, which not only features a text I wrote on a Henry Payne photograph, but which also showcases some of the results of the critical cataloging group I led while working at the CCA. Not wholly surprised was the erasure of people who contributed
October 17, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reading about this incredible POS and the lack of support from professional services and police makes my anxiety go through the roof. I literally clench my teeth and brace myself, as it reawakens trauma’s from abuse from previous long term relationships. We need to do better in keeping women safe.
Georgia’s story: how a domestic abuse victim’s suicide was ruled an unlawful killing by her partner
A London coroner found Georgia Barter’s death was caused by years of violence and coercive control by Thomas Bignell. Her family want justice, but the CPS won’t charge him and the police can’t find hi...
www.theguardian.com
October 12, 2025 at 8:41 AM