This brilliant, if sobering, piece by @Mer__edith is well worth your time (it's in English). It is so good to hear one of the leading agents of resistance to Big-Tech, so clearly and eloquently stating the deep connection between so-called "AI" and the Advertising Industrial Complex and how the former so fundamentally relies upon the Big Compute infrastructure and Big Data of latter. https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/aktuelles/detail/die-rede-der-zukunftspreistraegerin
@atomless@Mer__edith ..." recognizing that something isn’t working – whether it’s a relationship, or a job, or a whole tech paradigm – is the point where a new world can begin being born. "
Does anyone remember rents ever coming down? I don't, but I've only been renting for about 20 years, and I know other countries have things like rent control.
@Rhube@jgkoomey@Nerdfest specifically not enough social housing being built. Rent control only works if homes are made available for social/affordable rents. Otherwise - rental properties just become second homes.
To actually accomplish a green transition we (the world) needs to spend around $9 trillion a year.... well that's just not affordable, say climate sceptics.
You might say that, but lets have a look at the money we were prepared to pony up to deal with the pandemic.
While a more focused threat & certainly causing some fiscal issues, when required the money can be found.
(Don't get me started on fossil fuels subsidies!)
So its not the money stopping the green transition!
@ChrisMayLA6 Money is a social construct used to direct how people spend their time and to allocate and share out resources. Banks create new money every time they issue a loan. We are talking about mobilising people (workers) and equipment to build adaptations (eg public transport, insulated homes, reconfiguring manufacturing to new products etc.) - and shifting consumption patterns so everyone has enough to eat. It's a choice. We can choose a #JustTransition $9 trillion?- it's political choice
@tomkindlon@mecfs@longcovid mmmm - interesting that the authors make claims for long covid: "This study showed that TRPM3 ion channel activity was restored in NK cells from post-COVID-19 condition patients after in vitro treatment with 200 μM NTX for 24 h.", but don't say the same for ME/CFS. Is there more going on in ME/CFS? However, it would be helpful to repeat the method in terms of developing a cllincal / physilogical /lab based test for ME/CFS
The people that vote for the Oscars, don't look like the people that watch the films. The Academy is much older, whiter, and dude-ier*. Oscar winners, are the inevitable outcome of Oscar voters.
The question isn't "Has the Academy changed enough to where filmmakers from marginalized backgrounds have the same chance to win an Oscar yet?"
The question is "Will the Oscars have the same relevance to society 10 years from now, that they do today?"
@mekkaokereke i don't want to lower the tone of this important discussion - the hypothesis looks good to me - but just wanted to remind folks of #whitesaviorbarbie as an eduucational tool (on instagram)
One third of local councils are cutting support to the #Arts, one third are cutting support for parks & leisure... and a wide range of other service reductions or halts are expected.
The progressive destruction of local #democracy, accountability & social provision is now accelerating...
The hollowing out of our local government & the ever increasing centralisation of power & responsibility is unlikely to be reversed by the next Govt.
The value of municipal governance has been completely lost
@patrickhadfield@ChrisMayLA6 this sounds like a move towards relying on a US/Victorian model of charity & philanthropy instead of collectively funding and investing for a shared future.
I don't like the term #neoliberalism (its imprecise use renders it a weak criticism), but the UK's malaise is clearly linked to the domination of a mindset dominated by the construction of #markets as a general social panacea, the instrumentalisation of public life, the privileging of #corporate interests & the domination of a thin understanding of the good life....
if this is neoliberalism, then that is the the problem.
Whatever; the UK needs a major rethink about its socio-economic model(s)
5 Feb 1547: Thomas Wriothesely Earl of #Southampton appointed #otd as chief commissioner of claims for the coronation of Edward VI. He bared the sword of state at the coronation on 20 Feb (Met Museum)
The #ICJ ruling followed so swiftly by 11 countries withdrawing funding from the #UNRWA (ie, cutting aid reaching Gaza) is despicable beyond words.
I have never ever felt so profoundly alienated. From those in power in my countries (UK and Germany) from the majority consensus, from my family. We are not the good ones.
@cedric@pvonhellermannn Personally, I doubt that the Israeli government only just now stumbled on this information about (some/a small number of) UNWRA employees. I suspect the timing of the release of these allegations (and any accompanying information/evidence - which we've not been told about - may relate to a desire to divert attention from the ICJ judgement.
Oh, I so love it when one of my (often exercised prejudices) is offered some validation by research... this time its the boost in comprehension a reader gets from reading on paper rather than via a screen.
For years this is what I told my students (based on my own experience), to be often told it was an age thing... well looks like I was right. Hurrah!
[No doubt this will re-open the e-book vs. paper book debates in my timeline, but so be it]
@ChrisMayLA6@bookstodon mmmm - I read the gruaniad article (on paper) - but not the original metareview - and it seemed to me like the results were based on correlation between reading habits and test scores. Hopefully we all know correlation doesn't imply causality. Has anyone dug deeper or are we all too busy reading social media posts? 😉
So, Mr Beast made a YouTube video where he dug 100 wells in impoverished areas of Kenya and other African countries. CNN did a story on how he was being criticized for his good deeds. They quoted Saran Kaba Jones, a Black woman who has been building wells in Africa for 15 years, and a single Twitter commenter.
But... The Black woman praised Mr. Beast? She only asked that we consider maintenance, because many of the wells she digs are because existing wells weren't maintained.
This is a fantastic retrospective on 40 years of #OpenSource from Rebecca Ackermann for MIT Technology Review that traces its origins, schisms, and current challenges. A beautiful study in exploring the richness and diversity of a landscape.
@KathyReid A key question for the future of open source is whether you regard the surrounding socio-political context as fixed (late neoliberal capitalism) or maleable. For example, what would the open source world look like if we (or some countries) introduced #UBI (universal basic income)? There's also a question about the relationship between open source in North America, and the extensive Latin American networks? - but yes, an interesting read.
NYT and Vox are calling critics of Israel “pro-Hamas” or a “radical fringe.” They’re writing articles about how nobody is mourning Israeli lives correctly, unself-aware that they haven’t mentioned the unimaginable death toll and suffering Israel chooses. They don’t mention the power imbalance or how Israel has funded Hamas. They discuss Jewish discrimination – not people being denied citizenship in an open air prison.
I feel like I am breaking with reality in a way I haven’t since Trump.
Remember, when it comes to the actual likelihood that a vehicle crash will occur at all, AND whether the consequences of a crash are serious, or even deadly, or not, speed is ALWAYS a factor. Including when the legal speed limits are currently too high. #SpeedKills#VisionZero
@kentindell@BrentToderian@glynmoody I don't know about the risk figures. I was commenting on the value of local authorities applying lower speed limits. #20sPlenty That's a very live discussion in UK politics (& my own city) right now. Certainly higher speeds implies more deaths.
"#ClimateCrisis blamed for extreme heat in African country, which has recorded temperatures of 43C – nearly double seasonal average" on the Celsius scale.
‘Well below 2°C’ Paris Agreement goal will be met, says forecasting consortium
The consortium, whose approach is conceptually distinct from that of scenarios produced by the International Energy Agency (IEA) or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sees temperatures peaking at 1.7°-1.8°C by the 2040s, with net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2060 and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2080
"Approximately one-third of the Indian Act pertains to land resources and the #environment. The imposition of western resource management practices in place of traditional land stewardship practices over the last century and a half has effectively continued what the #Canadian government set out to do back in the 1870s, which was to remove #IndigenousPeople from their lands and assimilate them in order to pursue resource development." https://www.nationalobserver.com/node/39045
@miki_lou so how does this compare to the Scottish Highland clearances - weren't they also to some degree driven by a change from tribal / clan management to an (imported English) individualised model of land ownership?
@glynmoody But the planning system is stacked in favour of financially powerful developers. Local authorities are very reluctant to enforce their decisions because of the risk of huge legal bills. ;-( #UKPlanning
