Plans for "The Mindful City" in Bhutan
Bhutan, after prioritizing happiness, now faces an existential crisis
With an economy hit hard by COVID, many Bhutanese have left for jobs abroad. Bhutan's government, which for years has prioritized Gross National Happiness, is now working to lure people back.Lesley Stahl (CBS News)
Minutes from 7 November 2024 WG Meeting
The full minutes from the Forum and Threaded Discussions Task Force monthly meeting (held on 7 November) can be found at this Google Docs link
Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information.
Of note:
SWICG ForumWG GitHub repo used to keep track of high level discussion items
- Repo url: github.com/swicg/forums
- Issue tracker contains details regarding high-level items discussed at monthly meetings (and on the fediverse between meetings)
- Very early draft report of Conversational Contexts in ActivityPub accessible at swicg.github.io/forums/ — just headers and an intro so far
Mastodon and its treatment of non-note items
- Darius Kazemi (@darius@friend.camp) of Hometown put together a light fork of Mastodon that could be merged upstream. It utilises the "read more" functionality to display longer-form content and runs the content of non-note objects through the same parsing that regular notes get.
- Emphasizes that it is not an open PR yet, while discussions are ongoing with Renaud and the Mastodon team. "This is 118 lines of code, touches 4 files. Not huge."
- Some edge cases: How do we handle additional media beyond the cap of 4 currently in place by Mastodon?
- Emelia (@thisismissem@hachyderm.io) also brings up concerns re: text-field length and a sensible maximum across implementations.
- Evan (@evan@cosocial.ca) brings up the possibility of this PR making it into Mastodon 4.4, Claire (@claire@sitedethib.com) acknowleges the possibility
- Darius will write up a summarization and demo video for presentation to the Mastodon team
FEP 7888 and 76ea
- There are still outstanding conflicts between FEPs 7888 and 76ea
- Beyond the main difference (7888 uses
as:context
, 76ea usesthr:threads
under a new namespace), some philosphical differences persist. - e.g. whether the 76ea's definition of an explicit "reply tree" is adequate to describe the multitude of shapes that a conversation can take
- Beyond the main difference (7888 uses
- a (@trwnh@mastodon.social) and Evan informally pledge to work together to come to a resolution
Voting re: FEP convergence
- A motion was made by Julian to defer a subsequent motion regarding FEP convergence to a later to-be-determined date pending resolution of the 7888/76ea conflict
- Majority abstained, with two ayes. Resolved.
Context collection items: activities or objects?
- Julian: should a resolvable context collection contain activities (create, like, EmojiReact, etc.), or simple objects?
- Evan makes the case that simpler is better (needing to diff. activities may present a complication for implementors)
- a suggests a reframing as a two-way negotiation of what gets declared vs. approved
- This topic was cut short due to timing
2024-11 | ForumWG November Meeting
Julian update: re: CG report draft and repo usage Darius update re: Mastodon treatment of non-notes Hometown has a ‘good enough’ version of showing full articles Many edge cases, done 5 years ago.Google Docs
Reminder: Social Web Devroom Deadline is Dec 1
A reminder for Open Source developers working on the Fediverse: proposals for talks at the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025 are due by December 1.
If you get them in well before the deadline, you can get helpful feedback and give your proposal a better chance of being accepted.
More information on how to submit a proposal at FOSDEM 2025 Social Web Devroom Call for Participation.
FOSDEM 2025 – Social Web Devroom – Call For Participation
The Social Web Foundation is pleased to announce the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025, and invite participants to submit proposals for talks for the event.FOSDEM is an exciting free and open source software event in Brussels, Belgium that brings together thousands of enthusiasts from around the world. The event spans the weekend of February 1-2, 2025 and features discussion tracks (“devrooms”) for scores of different technology topics.
The Social Web Devroom will take place in the afternoon of Saturday, February 1.
Format
There will be two available talk formats:
- 25 minutes – for bigger projects, followed by 5 minutes of questions.
- 8 minutes – lightning talks on smaller or newer projects, in groups of 3, followed by 6 minutes of combined questions for the group.
Topics
The Social Web Devroom is open to talks all about the Social Web AKA the Fediverse, including:
- Implementations of the ActivityPub protocol or ActivityPub API
- Clients for ActivityPub-enabled software like Mastodon
- Supporting services for the Fediverse, like search or onboarding
- ActivityPub-related libraries, toolkits, and frameworks
- Tools, bots, platforms, and related topics
Important dates
- Submission open: 1 Nov 2024
- Submission deadline: 1 Dec 2024
- Acceptance notifications: 10 Dec 2024
- Final schedule announcement: 15 Dec 2024
- Devroom: 1 Feb 2025
Submissions
Submit talk proposals to pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2025… . Select “Social Web” from the “Track” dropdown, and include the length of your talk (8/25) in the submission notes.Code of Conduct
All attendees and speakers must be familiar with and agree to the FOSDEM Code of Conduct fosdem.org/2025/practical/cond….Contact
Questions about topics, formats, or the Social Web in general should go to contact@socialwebfoundation.org.
How to register just enough domains
I have a problem with registering domains. When I have an idea for a Web site, software project, organization, or sometimes just a pun or joke, I’ll go on a domain registrar site and see what related domains are available. I’ll brainstorm a bit in the search screen to try some different options for names or top-level domains, and if I find something in my price range, I’ll buy it, even if I’m not going to use the domain right away.
This leaves me with a portfolio of unused domains that are like reminders of unfulfilled dreams. Ah yes, the Web site for the Frito pie restaurant I never made. Oh, right, I was going to start a social network for people in the Plateau de Montreal. Each year, as the renewal deadlines come up, I have to decide if I’m going to give up this little dream, or give myself another year to get started.
The fact is, I just don’t have the time or the energy to make as many social networks or Web sites or joke URLs as I’d like. I have a full-time job, a family, and existing responsibilities at the Social Web Foundation, CoSocial.ca, and the Social Web Community Group. I can’t spend money on dreams I’m not fulfilling, just because I’m afraid to let them go.
So, I’m trying to change my habits and come up with a new strategy for using domains. It’s aspirational for now, but I hope I can use it to reduce some of my personal expenses on new domains and domain renewals. I’m sharing it here with you partially in hope that it can be useful, and partially to hold myself to the strategy.
Domain strategy
- Register a short, personal domain name. I know, this probably doesn’t seem like a great first step, but bear with me! This domain is going to be the basis for a long term presence. Also, it’s a chance to get it out of your system, and put those domain registration superskils to use one last time. Use something that represents yourself, as a person, not a company or your personal consulting firm or design agency or whatever. I use evanp.me/ , which I registered a while ago specifically for this purpose.
- Assign the root domain to a content-management system. For me, that’s this WordPress blog. Other people might want to use Drupal or Jekyll or a wiki or some other publishing system. You can even use plain old HTML, if that’s how you want to fly. The important thing is that you need to be able to create new pages on a path you like — preferably of arbitrary depth, but at least with user-defined pathnames.
- When you want to register a domain for a new static website, make a page on the root domain instead. OK, now we’re into the part where we’re actually saving money. When you get an idea for a Web site, and you start searching for domain names, stop doing that. Instead, create a page on your personal CMS. So, for example, when I wanted to register a new domain for the ActivityPub book I wrote, I instead created a page at evanp.me/activitypub-book/ . This has two benefits. First, it keeps me from registering a domain for a project I’m not even going to start. Second, it keeps me from burning up all my creative energy on domain-buying, and gets me to use whatever momentum I have to write a first draft of the page I need, and possibly either share it out on my blog or on my social network presence(s). Note that using a short domain puts more emphasis on the page’s path than on the domain.
- When you want to register a domain for a new Web service, use a subdomain of your personal domain name instead. There are a lot of Web applications and services that need specific server-side code and databases and can’t be run as a page on a WordPress site — like a Mastodon server, a MediaWiki site, or a NodeJS application I made up. A lot of people will never need to do this; as a software developer, this is something I do all the time. When I need to make a server that can’t run within WordPress, instead of registering a new domain, I create a domain name for my service that is a subdomain of my personal domain. So, if I want to set up a Mastodon server (I don’t, right now) I’d make a subdomain at social.evanp.me and use it for the server. The benefit here is that I have a domain name to start off with, and also I don’t worry about starting to use it until I actually have a server available. One particular trick that has worked well for me is to use a wildcard DNS record that points to a Kubernetes cluster ingress. I can use the ingress to route between services, without having to create or update the subdomains. It saves a couple of steps in this process.
- If a project needs to become independent, register a domain and move to it. This is the safety valve that lets me feel OK about not using the “right” domain for a project from the outset. Of course, “needs to become independent” is a hard to specify objectively, but some good rules of thumb are whether there are enough collaborators that I don’t feel comfortable giving them an account on my personal blog, or if the people who use the service or page ask why it’s still linked to my personal domain. At the point when a domain is actually needed, I can go register it, move the service or content to use it, and then use URL redirection to move traffic from my personal site or service to an independent one.
Having this as an option lets me worry a lot less when starting a new project. There are also so many top-level domains (TLDs) available today that I don’t feel like I have to grab a domain just so it doesn’t get squatted by others. It’s OK to use one of the less popular TLDs if the project is becoming its own thing.
So, that’s it. Have a personal domain, put a CMS behind it, use that for publishing static pages, use subdomains of it for standalone services, and register new domains only when you need to. I think this kind of strategy is inherent in the idea of having “your own domain”, and a lot of people follow it to a greater or lesser degree, but I wanted to spell it out fully to make it clear to myself how I would deal with different circumstances.
Let me know if you have other tips for reducing your domain registration spending by committing to a good personal domain.
The Viridian Design Movement, a 1998 precursor to Solarpunk?
I was digging up old layers of the Internet and found out about old (well, late 90s, early 2000s) texts by Bruce Sterling who mentioned his Viridian notes where he describes something very close to a solarpunk movement (sustainability focused tech and social changes). It is fun to read because some have very strong cyberpunkish vibes but with the twist that cyberpunk describes the world we are in right now and viridian is the world we want.
It led me to learn that there is a label that more or less matches solarpunk in political theory: Bright Green Environmentalism
This is a huge corpus of text and I obviously disagree with some things, and the 1999 vibes of promoting at the same time intense air travel (for multi-culturalism) and sustainability sounds a bit tone-deaf, but I find it interesting to dive in with a tolerant curiosity.
(Dig that 1999 GIF btw!)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
It led me to learn that there is a label that more or less matches solarpunk in political theory: Bright Green Environmentalism
Not really, as this concept doesn't say much about power-structures and is rather a description of Singapur like futuristic eco-authoritarianism.
Solarpunk without the punk (and anarchism) isn't Solarpunk.
bright greens emerged as a group of environmentalists who believe that radical changes are needed in the economic and political operation of society in order to make it sustainable, but that better designs, new technologies and more widely distributed social innovations are the means to make those changes
...
[B]right green environmentalism is less about the problems and limitations we need to overcome than the "tools, models, and ideas" that already exist for overcoming them. It forgoes the bleakness of protest and dissent for the energizing confidence of constructive solutions.
Emphasis mine.
Any political leader that decides to adopt it.
What I mean is that contrary to Solarpunk there are no built in protections against cooptation by an authoritarian but eco-concious government.
Nothing in the article about solarpunk describes such protections nor in the manifesto pinned here, mere declarations of intention. Don't get me wrong, it is obvious to me that a solarpunk future is deeply anti-authoritarian but it is not only that.
This label describes the solarpunk position on the environmentalist cluster: neither light green (let's just make ecology a consumerist trend) or dark green (We can't change anything unless we abolish capitalism first, we are likely doomed anyway).
You are right that it does not state its position on the authoritarian axis but I find it fairly obvious that "radical social changes towards sustainability" and "more widely distributed social innovations" do not include the promotion of "innovations" like authoritarian states.
The impression I've gotten of Solarpunk through lurking on this instance is of some sort of hybrid between bright and dark green environmentalism. These mix like oil and water. The bright green component, that solar panels and EVs are going whisk us away to a utopian future, is a turn off from participating.
I think this fundamentally comes from Solarpunk being an aesthetic movement where it is just so easy to draw a bunch of solar panels and batteries in some digital artwork. How are the quartz and those battery materials being mined? How are those raw ores being reduced both on a chemical and energetic standpoint? Is it even possible to have artisan/localized ways of producing these technologies vs the current status quo dependent on highly energy-intensive six continent supply chain and cheap hydrocarbon flows. Brushing aside these kinds of difficult questions with techno-optimism leads to bright green environmentalism.
The manifesto states that this movement is optimistic, but there is room for aesthetic optimism constrained by the laws of physics in the collapse of the current system. Having to re-localize and work together to survive after supply chains fail leading to re-establishment of community. Ingenious ways of salvaging unusable modern technology, like building a wind turbine from harvested car alternator. Maybe this isn't 'solarpunk' but I would like to know what movement it is.
I was trying to not jump to conclusions and legitimately asking that question.
Yes, generally I see EVs as part of bright green environmentalism and see the culture I am referring to on that community. There will be some place for EVs in the future...but IMO car-dependency is one of the sickest aspects of our modern society and I'm not enthusiastic about continuing that system. Not to mention the continued environmental catastrophe replacing all ICE cars with EVs: The mining issues outlined above, and the worse tire microplastic problem from heavier vehicles.
An alternative but still optimistic view of the future would have a dismantled car infrastructure with people able to get around on e-bikes requiring a 100th of the battery material and electricity generation. As part of an aesthetic vision, I see those batteries being salvaged from some abandoned F-150 lightning. Maybe even in this hypothetical future the dude that bought the truck had to psychologically heal when given no other option, and figured out how to carry their ego without a giant clown car (always clean and pristine with nothing ever in the bed, BTW).
Anyway, It's a great thing you've got going on here. Just trying to respectfully be a counter voice to the bright green side.
I agree that they mix super bad.
Personally, why am I a bright green environmentalist? That's because when I first came upon this criticism that we may not have enough raw material, enough energy, that there may be physical constraints in the natural world that prevents us to do large-scale transitions, I was still in engineering school in the hope of solving problems that the world has. So I took this criticism seriously. Deeply. I was there to help the world, not destroy it. So I did my homeworks. And also, you know, telling to an aspiring professional problem-solver that there are additional constraints to their problems is not a showstopper at all. Actually, that's pretty exciting.
Do we have a limited amount of energy to do the transition? Do we have to count on a limited number of tons of cobalt? Are we going to miss some crucial exotic rare earth? Hell, are we going to have to create computers out of wood? That's actually super exciting!
And turns out that no, when you do your homeworks, when you look about the quantities that are necessary, you see that the problems are mostly invented. There is a CO2 emission problem (and also several other GHG emission problem but CO2 is the main one). There is an oil depletion problem. There is a biodiversity destruction problem. There are tons of very real but pretty local pollution and ecosystem destruction problems.
That's a ton of problems to solve, and we need to address all of them. We need to address all of them simultaneously. People are not talking enough about the biodiversity destruction in the ocean, in my opinion. It's as important as the greenhouse effect. Because the greenhouse effect, if we are lucky, we may reverse it. Biodiversity destruction, we will never. But I don't make a hierarchy in these problems. We need to solve all of them and we need to solve them fast.
I do make a difference though between problems that are real and problems that are invented for reasons that are not totally clear to me. We are not going to lack any non fossil mineral resource (I guess you could make a case for helium and some radioactive isotopes but that's about it). Copper, Lithium, Sand, Cobalt, Nickel, any rare earth you can name We have no resources problem about it If you think we have a problem on these resources Go check what the USGS says about it. Mandatory reading: the definitions about reserves.
Is it even possible to have artisan/localized ways of producing these technologies vs the current status quo dependent on highly energy-intensive six continent supply chain and cheap hydrocarbon flows. Brushing aside these kinds of difficult questions with techno-optimism leads to bright green environmentalism.
The answer is yes. The thing is, we don't brush them away, we demonstrate them away. Energy can be produced in a sustainable way, it can be done at a huge scale and that energy can be used for the mining and transport (the biggest mining machines are electric, diesel engines can't provide enough power). It's all mostly about energy. Actually when you dig up a bit there's almost nothing that you can't replace if you have abundant and cheap energy.
A few decades ago, you had to do the math to demonstrate that it's possible to switch to sustainable energy at scale. Now you don't even have to do the math, you just have to look at the transition path of several countries.
How are those raw ores being reduced both on a chemical and energetic standpoint?
The chemical part is in my opinion the only problem that there is in the extraction industry right now. not because of a lack of chemical components, we have plenty of this, but because of the way the byproducts are usually just dumped into the environment. And the reason why is not because we don't have the technology to do differently, it's because of the economic incentives. See there is a global market for mineral commodities and as they are mostly fungible you can just compete on price. How do you get the price down? You get the price down by having slave workers and by having zero environmental concerns.
The problem here is unregulated free market. We can do responsible mining, we can do mining with workers rights, we can do mining with environmental procedures. Thing is, it just makes the mineral 10 times more expensive. And why would a company buy an expensive mineral if they can have exactly the same thing for much cheaper? This is the problem to solve. Cobalt has the same physical properties whether it was mined by a unionized worker that uses an environmental responsible way to chemically refine the minerals or if it was mined by a teenage slave in a third world country.
To me, bright green environmentalism is about recognition that we have tons of technologically workable solutions, but that we need also a lot of social innovation to get out of the externalities that capitalism produces.
So personally, I'm not shy of criticizing capitalism and proposing alternatives. But they need to be credible and workable. They need to be holistic in the actual meaning of the word: they need to consider the whole system, technological, sociological, economical, political. Degrowth could work on some of these aspects but not in all of it, for a simple reason: most of the people don't want it and dark greens have no solution to solve that crucial political problems than just pretending it doesn't exist.
I dislike reality denial. I think that's harmful to whichever problem you're trying to solve.
Commodity Statistics and Information | U.S. Geological Survey
Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of the environment.www.usgs.gov
Thanks for this thoughtful and in-depth reply. You are clearly someone who hasn't 'brushed aside' the questions like I mentioned.
We are not going to lack any non fossil mineral resource
What do you think of this report by GTK? See slide 23. I would be interested in what you are looking at more specifically from the USGS and how these views could be made consistent.
Energy can be produced in a sustainable way, it can be done at a huge scale and that energy can be used for the mining and transport (the biggest mining machines are electric, diesel engines can’t provide enough power). It’s all mostly about energy.
Yes, I agree it's mostly all about energy. I disagree that we have demonstrated energy production in a sustainable way. If you are referring to Wind/PV, the production of those energy harvesting devices is completely and utterly dependent on the current fossil-based system. It is not at all readily apparent to be that you could have a self-sustaining closed loop system producing then maintaining 'renewables', all while decarbonizing the massive energy consumption everywhere else. This is the crux of the question. I have an open mind, but don't see it.
'Renewable' energy harvesting machines are still a blip in the overall scale of energy system and have only added onto energy use instead of replacing it. Any handwaving at exponential growth and empirical reduction in costs is not confronting the material/energy bottleneck issue that will add new terms to that 'cost differential equation' when we try to go to global scale with those technologies.
Coincidentally, The Honest Sorcerer posted an article along these lines today: A Diesel Powered Civilization. I think the views outlined there are a good guess at what is going to happen and close to whatever I am calling 'dark green environmentalism'.
However, I am intrigued by your referring to 'the biggest mining machines are electric' and how that contradicts the Honest Sorcerer saying that we need diesel. My understanding is that Diesel is unique in it's ability for mining due to high compression ratio, but I don't understand that. I think you are referring to the crushers, but not the excavators.
The problem here is unregulated free market. We can do responsible mining, we can do mining with workers rights, we can do mining with environmental procedures. Thing is, it just makes the mineral 10 times more expensive.
This is also the point. With everything being 10x times as expensive, this will lead to economic collapse. Our system is dependent on cheap energy and materials.
for a simple reason: most of the people don’t want it and dark greens have no solution to solve that crucial political problems than just pretending it doesn’t exist.
You are right. I am proposing no solution because for me there is no solution. We've gotten ourselves into an inescapable predicament by developing such a large civilization so utterly dependent on fossil fuels, which are irreplaceable miracle substances. People will resist any reduction in standard of living that arises from switching to inferior energy sources (see a certain recent election and discussion of fracking), and our system will pull every last drop of said miracle substances out of the ground that it economically can. Eventually the energy return on investment will collapse, and the complex global supply chains currently leading to "low cost" "renewables" will become unworkable.
So the way forward to me is to anticipate the collapse and imagine creative ways how we are going to salvage survival in that environment and under those constraints. Right now our focus is on how to replace ICE cars with EVs when we really should be using our precious remaining diesel resources to dismantle our insane and unhealthy car-dependent infrastructure, allowing for people to get around without needing these stupid giant metal chariots. We should be scouting out appropriate technologies that don't need mining instead of doubling down all our efforts on energy-intensive 'renewable' methods.
Do we have a limited amount of energy to do the transition? Do we have to count on a limited number of tons of cobalt? Are we going to miss some crucial exotic rare earth? Hell, are we going to have to create computers out of wood? That’s actually super exciting!
Exactly.
I'm not sure I'll have the time to go through all of your claims but I'll try to address the most salient ones. Please tell me if there are things that I missed that you would like to see addressed. It may wait for a few days though, sorry.
What do you think of this report by GTK? See slide 23. I would be interested in what you are looking at more specifically from the USGS and how these views could be made consistent.
One of the crucial misunderstandings in this question is the nature of reserves and what it means. So let's first check what the report you mentioned (which by the way does not cite its sources or its methodology) is using in terms of reserves. It is not clear where their numbers come from. Here is the 2018 report on nickel. They probably used the "reserves" numbers, but the USGS is a bit more pessimistic than they are there: USGS estimated 74 million tonnes. They also considered total resources of 130 million tonnes.
Here is the 2024 report on nickel: 130 million of global reserves, 350 million tonnes of resources.
What magic is that? Well, there is a reason I mentioned the definition appendix as mandatory reading:
Reserve: That portion of an identified resource from which a usable mineral or energy commodity can be economically and legally extracted a t the time of determination. The term "ore" applies to reserves of some kinds of mineral commodities, generally metallic, but for want of another term it is sometimes applied to nonmetallic commoditiesIdentified resource: A resource whose location, grade, quality, and quantity are known or can be estimated from specific geologic evidence. Identified resources include economic, marginally economic, and subeconomic resources.
These resources, they grow just because we explore and prospect. On most minerals, we would have between 40 and 80 years of identified resources because prospecting at a higher rate is usually non-profitable. There was a scare on lithium, and at one point on copper, because the reserves were very low. And the prices went up, not because there was a fear of a lack of geological availability, but because the mines were not opening at an appropriate rate. Since I started being interested in that question, the world has "run out of copper" at least three times.
I've seen other articles on a trend that worries the professional of the field, but it's not about geological availability. It's about the trend in prospection that change. People are not trying to identify new deposits anymore. They are trying to extend the one that they already have secured the rights to. Economically understandable, strategically problematic. There's a chance that we cannot supply the demand for minerals, but it will come from market failing, not from lack of geo availability.
It is not at all readily apparent to be that you could have a self-sustaining closed loop system producing then maintaining ‘renewables’, all while decarbonizing the massive energy consumption everywhere else.
Here, there is a methodology question. Right now, we both agree that our current industrial ecosystem is not sustainable. It emits CO2, it uses fossil fuels. Therefore, nothing that you produce out of it will have a zero CO2 footprint. If that's your criterion, then sustainability is just impossible to produce.
To me that's not the criterion. The criterion is that at one point we reach a time where you don't need to emit CO2 to run your production. To get there we will emit CO2 and we will burn fossil fuels. Hopefully, as little as possible.
The consequence of that is that I disagree that you should integrate the indirect emissions of something into your calculation on whether it's a piece of a sustainable society. The typical example is electric vehicles, which we consider to have a terrible CO2 footprint on production, because we assume they are produced in China with mostly coal electricity mix. What I find problematic with that view is that if you were to move the factory, the exact same factory, into a country like Norway that produces its electricity mostly from hydroelectric means, then you decrease the CO2 footprint of a car by a lot, even though that's exactly the same car.
It makes sense in some contexts, like trying to lower your own individual footprint, to consider the indirect emissions. But in order to judge if a technology is sustainable and can be part of a sustainable zero-emission society, you should only consider the direct emissions.
And here, that's pretty clear. Let's focus on solar panels for simplicity. Solar panels don't require CO2 to be emitted during their production. They just require electricity and they require transport. These may emit CO2, but that's independent of the technology used for the production of the panels. And we know that we can transport goods using only electricity. And we know that we can produce electricity by emitting zero CO2. Similarly, mining minerals can be done without emitting CO2. It requires energy. And in the biggest mines, like I said, a lot of the big vehicles are actually electric.
I think that's your loop. Isn't it? You produce electricity, emit zero CO2. You use that electricity to mine minerals and to transport it without emitting CO2. And you use that electricity to run your factory without emitting CO2. And you produce solar panels that produce electricity. The loop is closed.
‘Renewable’ energy harvesting machines are still a blip in the overall scale of energy system and have only added onto energy use instead of replacing it
It is about 10% which is pretty decent but of course I want to see it grow faster. I find weird the argument that it's only added energy instead of replacing. Yes, that's because the world is using more and more energy as poor countries gets richer. But do you think that without renewables, the growth would be different? They would just build coal power plants. In percentage, it's definitely displacing fossil sources.
There are also examples of places where it did displace fossils pretty significantly in absolute terms. Germany is a good example: ourworldindata.org/grapher/ele… (though I find it questionnable to get our of nuclear before getting out of fossils but that's a different debate).
So the way forward to me is to anticipate the collapse and imagine creative ways how we are going to salvage survival in that environment and under those constraints.
I see many people arguing similar things, and I used to, because I used to be a post-apocalypse sci-fi enjoyer. But then I realized that I was starting from the conclusion, that on some level, I wanted that simpler world, that less stressful world that I imagined once that complicated industrial civilization collapsed. Re-establishing a link with nature, rebuilding simple machines out of things that I would have mined with my hand. For some time, that's kind of a pleasant dream. And actually so pleasant that many video games use that premise.
So i have no way of knowing if that's your case or not but really think whether you reach that conclusion through well-documented premises and careful reasoning or if that's somehow a belief that's actually your starting point.
The thing that I understood is that I do want a different lifestyle. I do want a less stressful lifestyle, I want to be closer to nature. And I also understand that hoping that the society would collapse is actually a comfortable way for me to avoid making life decisions, to go where I want to go. So I resigned from my job in Paris. I went back to the Alps, where my parents live, and I started exploring the freelance world and the remote working world 10 years before COVID hit, when no one was doing it. I now live in a nice house, surrounded by cows and trees. Actual nature is 20 minutes away. I see my mountains every morning and I didn't need society to collapse for that. I am helping the local hackerspace to produce lightweight electric vehicles and we are helping non-profits that recycle plastic. You don't need to wait for the world to collapse to help it get better. And to me that's the essence of Solarpunk.
EDIT: fixed a few typos and missing words
I think solarpunk is more dark than bright.
Taking electric vehicles as an example: Electric vehicles are great and should replace nearly all fossil powered vehicles. But at the same time, the amount of vehicles should be reduced significantly. This can happen trough better public transport, but also by reducing the need to go places, especially related to consumption and work. In my opinion, this can only work with a shift in the way our economy works.
Ah I mixed up light and bright haha
But I still think solarpunk may be a bit darker than even "bright", as technology is not only the tools to make the change, but technology is one aspect of it and direct change in the political and economical system is needed as well.
Recht(s) unpolitisch – Neonazis in der aktiven Fanszene der SG Weixdorf
Am Sonntag, den 13. Oktober 2024, trafen im Sachsenpokal der Männer die BSG Chemie Leipzig und die SG Weixdorf aus Dresden in Leipzig aufeinander. Im Vorfeld des Spiels kam es zu einer handfesten Auseinandersetzung, wobei acht Gästefans ärztlich behandelt werden mussten. Auslöser soll laut der BSG das Zeigen von „Devotionalien von nicht am Spiel beteiligten Vereinen sowie eindeutig dem rechtsradikalen Spektrum zuzuordnende Kleidungsstücke“ auf Seiten der Anhänger*innen der SG Weixdorf gewesen sein. Die SG Weixdorf kann dies weder bestätigen noch ausschließen. So weit, so unspektakulär.
Insgesamt fuhren drei Busse der SG Weixdorf nach Leipzig. Zwei davon vom Verein selbst gechartert und ein separater Bus, mit dem die Fangruppierung „Red-White-Fanatics“ (RWF) und Anhang anreiste. Dieser Bus war es auch, der letztendlich in die Auseinandersetzung mit den Chemiefans geriet. Im Nachgang veröffentlichte die Gruppe ein Statement mit ihrer Sicht der Dinge.Stellungnahme der „Red-White-Fanatics“ (Quelle: Instagram)
Das Statement schwankt zwischen Selbstverherrlichung und weinerlichem Gejammer. Fußball und Politik seien strikt zu trennen, heißt es, und man selbst sei ja unpolitisch. Es folgt der übliche Verweis auf „die Presse“, die „die Pest“ sei und alles falsch darstelle. Die LVZ griff das Statement prompt auf, dabei wären Zweifel an der Darstellung mehr als angebracht.
Unpolitisch beim Trauermarsch in Dresden?
Screenshot (Quelle: Instagram)
Das zeigt der Blick auf die Social-Media-Kanäle der kleinen, aber aktiven Fanszene der SG Weixdorf, die seit Mitte 2023 unter dem Label „Red-White-Fanatics“ auftritt. Auf dem Instagramprofil der Gruppe fällt gleich ein Post zur ersten Runde des Sachsenpokals gegen TSV Seifersdorf ins Auge: Auf dem Gruppenfoto der RWF sind unter anderem Richard Strauch (2. von links, am Transparent) und Pascal Hoffmann (3. von links, am Transparent) zu erkennen. Beide tauchten immer wieder im Umfeld der „Elblandrevolte“ auf. So zum Beispiel auf der „Friedensdemo“ der AfD am 1. Mai 2024 in Dresden und bei verschiedenen Mobilisierungen gegen CSD-Demonstrationen in Sachsen. Auch „knisterniete“ (1. von links), wie er sich auf Instagram nennt, und „Jenny“ (4. von links, am Transparent), sind in Dresden öfter auf Neonaziversammlungen anzutreffen.v.l.n.r.: „Knisterniete“, Madlen Storch, Pascal Hoffmann, Richard Strauch (Bild: SG Weixdorf, Bearbeitung: ART Dresden)
Dass die SG Weixdorf die Personen nicht kennt, wie es im offiziellen Vereinsstatement zu den Vorfällen heißt, ist mindestens fragwürdig. Denn auch auf der offiziellen Seite der SG Weixdorf finden sich Bilder führender Akteure der „Red-White-Fanatics“ . In einem Beitrag überreicht Madleen Storch einer Nachwuchsmannschaft der SG Weixdorf eine Spende in Höhe von 125 Euro. Auf einem weiteren Bild sind „knisterniete“, Madlen Storch, Pascal Hoffmann und Richard Strauch gemeinsam mit Nachwuchsmannschaft zu sehen. Die Tatsache, dass die Vier stellvertretend dort für die Fangruppe „Red-White-Fanatics“ auftreten, lässt darauf schließen, dass sie dort eine prominentere Rolle spielen.Teilnehmer beim Nazitrauermarsch am 11. Februar 2024 in Dresden. Links mit weißer Mütze und roten Haaren „Jenny“, davor mit schwarzer Mütze Madlen Storch, mittig mit Basecap und Brille Richard Strauch, mit Finger zeigend Pascal Hofmann (Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow)
Madleen Storch gehört ebenfalls zum Personenkreis um Pascal Hoffmann, „knisterniete“ und Richard Strauch. Gemeinsam reisten sie am 15. April 2024 nach Bautzen, um sich der neonazistischen Mobilisierung gegen die zivilgesellschaftliche Veranstaltung „Happy Monday – Wjesoła póndźela“ anzuschließen. Auf dem Rückweg von dieser Aktion attackierten Neonazis Bahnreisende. Am 11. Februar 2024 nahm Storch gemeinsam mit Richard Strauch, Pascal Hoffmann, „knisterniete“ und „Jenny“ am Neonaziaufmarsch in Dresden teil. Pascal Hoffmann nahm an einer Neonazikundgebung in Freiberg gegen den lokalen CSD mit einer Flagge teil, die mit „Störtrupp Deutschland“ beschriftet war. Auf den Instagramprofilen des Personenzusammenhangs werden fortlaufend rassistische Inhalte geteilt und mit neonazistischer Szenekleidung posiert.Neonazidemo gegen den CSD in Freiberg am 07.09.2024: Mittig mit roten Haaren „Knisterniete“, rechts daneben mit „Schwarze Sonne“ T-Shirt Pascal Hoffmann (Quelle: Versa Red)
Doch wer fuhr noch mit den „Red White Fanatics“ nach Leipzig Leutzsch?
Screenshots (Quelle: Instagram)
Auf dem linken Bild sind die Neonazis Dominic Kästner (links) und Marcus Petermann (rechts, mit Becher der BSG Chemie Leipzig) aus Dresden zu sehen, wie sie höchstwahrscheinlich nach ihrem Zutrittsverbot in den Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark posieren. Beide trieben sich bis Mitte des Jahres ebenfalls im Umfeld der „Elblandrevolte“ herum und sind regelmäßig auf einschlägigen Demonstrationen anzutreffen. Am 11. Februar 2024 trugen sie zusammen mit Mitgliedern der „Elblandrevolte“ das Fronttransparent des Neonaziaufmarschs. Auch sonst macht Kästner aus seiner Ideologie keinen Hehl, wie seine teils gut sichtbaren Tätowierungen zeigen: Hier sehen wir den Oberarm von Dominic Kästner.
Dominic Kästner pflegt zumindest ein Bekanntschaftsverhältnis zu der Personengruppe um Richard Strauch und Madlen Storch. Alle zusammen nahmen am Gemeinschaftsabend der „Elblandrevolte“ teil, der am 17. Februar 2024 in Charlys Pub&Bar auf der Kesselsdorfer Straße stattfand.
Marcus Petermann (Quelle: Instagram)
Begleitet wurde Kästner von Marcus Petermann. Ein Bild auf Instagram zeigt ihn im Bus auf dem Weg zum Pokalspiel nach Leipzig. Mit Blick auf seinen linken Unterarm und das darauf befindliche Hakenkreuz-Tattoo fällt es schwer zu glauben, dass niemand mitbekommen haben will, dass zumindest der ein oder andere Neonazi an Bord der Charterbusse nach Leipzig war. Die Vermutung liegt nahe, dass die „Red-White-Fanatics“ bewusst ein rechtes Publikum mobilisieren wollten – immerhin ging es gegen die BSG Chemie und deren sich als links und antifaschistisch positionierende Fanszene.
Auch wenn dies nur ein kurzer Einblick in die Weixdorfer Fangruppe „Red White Fanatics“ und deren Umfeld war, wird eines deutlich: Unpolitisch ist sie sicher nicht. Schwer zu glauben ist auch, dass die Offiziellen der SG Weixdorf nichts von der politischen Einstellung maßgeblicher Protagonist*innen der „Red White Fanatics“ mitbekommen haben. Mit Blick auf den „Polizisten der Polizei Leipzig“, der die Musik im Bus der Fanatics gelobt haben soll, bleibt am Schluss nur noch eine Frage offen: Lief im Weixdorfer Charterbus „So sind wir“ von den Onkelz oder von Kategorie C?
#DominicKästner #Elblandrevolte #MadlenStorch #MarcusPetermann #PascalHoffmann #RichardStrauch #SGWeixdorf
Bundespolizei lässt Neonazis ungestört reisen und angreifen
Am Montag, den 15. April, reiste eine Gruppe von etwa 30 Neonazis von Dresden nach Bautzen. Ziel der Gruppe war ein Demokratiefest, das gestört werden sollte, und eine rechten Montagsdemonstration, so Ankündigungen auf SocialMedia-Kanälen.Redaktion (Alternative Dresden News)
Medialer Hype und Wirklichkeit: Analyse zum Dresdner JN-Ableger Elblandrevolte
Mitte des Jahres machte die Nazigruppe „Elblandrevolte“ bundesweit Schlagzeilen, nachdem mutmaßliche Mitglieder dieser Gruppe den SPD-Politiker Matthias Ecke in Dresden-Striesen angegriffen und verletzt hatten. Darüber hinaus zeigte sich die Gruppe verantwortlich für unterschiedliche rechte Mobilisierungen in Dresden und Umland. Besonders sehr junge Nazis konnten in diesem Jahr gegen den CSD in Dresden und Bautzen mobilisiert werden. Entgegen der häufigen Annahme, besteht die Gruppen nur aus einem kleinen und zum Teil wechselnden Personenkreis. Weitaus größer ist das Mobilisierungspotential. Wir wollen euch die führenden Akteur*innen vorstellen und einen Überblick über die Aktivitäten des Ablegers der „Jungen Nationalisten“ (JN) in Dresden und Umland geben.
Organisierungsversuche der letzten Jahre – eine kurze Rückschau
Rechte Einstellungen und neonazistische Ideologie haben in den vergangenen Jahren unter Jugendlichen an Attraktivität gewonnen. Das ist auch den rechten (Jugend-)Organisationen nicht entgangen, die von diesem Trend profitieren wollen. Im Jahr 2023 versuchte der „Dritte Weg“ sachsenweit Jugendgruppen zu gründen. In Dresden beteiligten sich im Herbst 2023 Jugendliche und junge Erwachsenen unter dem „Dritte Weg“ Banner wiederholt an Max Schreibers Demonstrationen gegen eine Asylunterbringung in Niedersedlitz. Die AfD-Kundgebung am 13. Februar 2024 auf dem Altmarkt war aber bereits die letzte Veranstaltung, bei der sich die Ortsgruppe des „Dritten Wegs“ zeigte. Mit anwesend war hier auch schon die „Elblandrevolte“. Wie fluide und schnelllebig die Naziszene in Dresden aktuell ist, zeigt sich auch im Wechseln der Akteure: Dominic Kästner taucht zuerst mit dem „Dritten Weg“ auf, kurze Zeit später mit der „Elblandrevolte“. Dominic Kästner mit anderen Teilnehmer*innen vom „Dritten Weg“ bei einer AfD Kundgebung am 22.10.2023 in Leipzig. Quelle: Pixelarchiv
Banner des Dritten Wegs zur Kranzniederlegung der AfD am 13.02.2024. Quelle: Versared
Dresden war lange Zeit Kernland der „Jungen Nationalisten“ (JN), der Jugendorganisation der Partei „Die Heimat“, ehemals NPD. Seit dem Zerschlagen der „Freien Kameradschaft Dresden“ (FKD) 2016 konnte sie hier jedoch keine nennenswerten Organisierungserfolge mehr erzielen. Als 2019 die zentrale 1. Mai-Demonstration der JN/NPD in Dresden stattfand, waren bis auf den Anmelder und langjährigen Stützpunktleiter Maik Müller keine Dresdner im Frontblock auszumachen. Als am 12. Dezember 2020 ein größerer Mob abseits der „Querdenker“-Demonstration unangemeldet aufmarschieren wollte, waren zwar Nazis aus Dresden dabei, die Aktion endete jedoch nach nur wenigen Metern in einem Polizeikessel und führte zu keinerlei weiterführender Organisation. So beteiligten sich auch 2023 keine Dresdner an einer Banneraktion der JN-Brandenburg um den ehemaligen Dresdner Nico Koal zum Tag der deutschen Einheit an der Brühlischen Terrasse. Nico Koal übernahm 2016 das Amt des Stützpunktleiters der JN in Dresden von Maik Müller. Inzwischen lebt er wieder in Südbrandenburg. Im Juni 2024 kandidierte er in Grünewald für „Die Heimat“ zur Europawahl.
JN Aktion am 03.10.203 in Dresden. Quelle: Instagram
Erste Reihe rechts: Maik Müller am 01.05.2019 in Dresden. Quelle: Pixelarchiv
Die derzeit günstigen Rekrutierungs- und Mobilisierungsmöglichkeiten sowie die Aktivitäten des „Dritten Wegs“ dürften Anlass für die JN gewesen sein, 2024 wieder aktiver in Erscheinung zu treten. Bundesweit sind verstärkte Vernetzungs- und Schulungsbemühungen innerhalb der JN Strukturen zu beobachten. Auch medial will die JN wieder präsenter sein und Jugendliche mit Videos auf Social-Media erreichen. Seit 2023 entstanden bundesweit neue Gruppen, die an die JN angebunden sind und zumeist irgend etwas mit „xxx verteidigen“ oder „Revolte xyz“ heißen.
Reorganisierung 2024 – Das Buhlen um neue Mistreiter
Banner der JN am 21.01.2024 in Dresden. v.l.n.r.: Marcus Petermann, Maik Zschech, Nico Koal, Marcel Opitz. Quelle: ART-Dresden
Finley Pügner beim Schulungstreffen der JN im Haus Montag (Pirna) am 03.02.2024. Quelle: Instagram
Nachdem am 21. Januar 2024 auf einer Dresdner Demonstration, angemeldet von Max Schreiber für die „Freien Sachsen“ auf dem Altmarkt, seit Langem wieder ein Banner der JN zu sehen war, fand die Gründung der „Elblandrevolte“ am 3. Februar 2024 im „Haus Montag“ in Pirna statt. Dorthin lud die JN zu einer Vernetzungs- und Schulungsveranstaltung, an der auch die führenden Köpfe der späteren Gruppe teilnahmen. Das „Haus Montag“ ist einer der zentralen neonazistischen Organisierungsorte für die Region und lokale Basis der NPD. Auf der Schulung im Februar wurden die JN und deren „weltanschauliche“ Bezugspunkte vorgestellt. Dass auf einer Folie zu lesen war: „Konkurrenz kam und verschwand wieder“, kann auch als Seitenhieb gegen die Organisierungsversuche des „Dritten Weg“ im Jahr zuvor gelesen werden. An der Veranstaltung nahmen u.a. der seitdem als Stützpunktleiter der JN Dresden firmierende Finley Pügner und Kurt Altrichter teil.Mobiaktion zum 13.02.2024 am Merianplatz in Dresden v.l.n.r.: Finley Pügner, Marcus Petermann, Alex Weigel. Quelle: Instagram
Gemeinschaftsabend der Elblandrevolte in Charly Pub&Bar am 23.03.2024, Dominic Kästner, Richard Strauch, Kniesterniete (Instagramname). Quelle: Instagram
Nur wenige Tage nach der Veranstaltung in Pirna traten Finley Pügner, Kurt Altrichter, Alex „Kixy“ Weigel und Marcus Petermann mit einer Mobiaktion zum 13. Februar erstmals unter dem Label „Elblandrevolte“ auf Instagram in Erscheinung. Die Bilder wurden ausschließlich im Dresdner Westen aufgenommen. Dort sind auch einige Mitglieder der Gruppe räumlich zu verorten. Die ersten Treffen der Gruppe, „Gemeinschaftsabend“ genannt, fanden in „Charly PUB&BAR“ auf der Kesselsdorfer Straße unweit des Stadtteils Gorbitz statt. Auf der Nazidemonstration am 11. Februar 2024 trat die Gruppe dann als Bannerträger des Blocks der JN auf. Deutlich wurde dabei, dass es sich bei der „Elblandrevolte“ nicht nur um eine Dresdner Gruppe handelt, sondern sich die Mitglieder auch aus dem Umland rekrutieren. So liefen direkt hinter dem Banner die beiden Heidenauer Nazis Chris Remo Hoppmann und Tommy Schneider, die schon seit längerem im JN-Umfeld unterwegs sind und ein freundschaftliches Verhältnis zu Dominic Kästner pflegen.Am Banner zum 11.02.2024 in Dresden (v.l.n.r.): Marcus Petermann, Kurt Altrichter, Tommy Schneider (Heidenau), Finley Pügner, Dominic Kästner. Links hinter Petermann ist Andreas Wild (Riesa) zu sehen, zwischen Petermann und Altrichter: Chris Remo Hoppmann (Heidenau), Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
An der Demonstration nahmen weitere Gruppen teil, die vor allem verschiedene jugendliche Sozialzusammenhänge abbilden und die die Nähe zur „Elblandrevolte“ suchten. So war eine größere Gruppe um Richard Strauch und Madleen Storch, beide aus Dresden-Klotzsche, anwesend. Es war der Startpunkt für eine engere Kooperation: Teile der Gruppe beteilgten sich gemeinsam mit der „Elblandrevolte“ mehrfach an den sogenannten Montagsprotesten rund um die „Freien Sachsen“ und Marcus Fuchs. Auch bei den bereits erwähnten „Gemeinschaftsabenden“ waren Teile des Zusammenhangs öfter zugegen. Am 1. Juni 2024 reiste Madleen Storch mit dem inneren Kreis der „Elblandrevolte“ an um gegen den Christopher Street Day (CSD) in Dresden zu protestieren. In der Folgezeit entfernten sich Storch & Co. zwar wieder, politische Ambitionen verfolgen sie jedoch weiterhin: Ein Teil um Pascal Hoffmann und Hans Frank wandte sich dem „Deutschen Störtrupp“ zu, während sich Madlen Storch und Richard Strauch wieder mehr auf den Versuch konzentrierten, die Ultra-Gruppe „Red-White-Fanatics“ bei der 1. Männermannschaft der SG Weixdorf zu etablieren. Nach den Vorkommmnissen rund um das Sachsenpokalspiel gegen die BSG Chemie Leipzig musste die Gruppe jedoch ihren Support einstellen.Am Banner (v.l.n.r.): Kurt Altrichter, Marcus Petermann, Alex Weigel. Im Hintergrund Finley Pügner, Richard Strauch, Franke44, Madleen Storch beim Montagsprotest in Dresden am 18.03.2024. Quelle: Telegram
Lokales Netzwerk – Nachwuchs trifft auf alte Bekannte
Die „Elblandrevolte“ setzt sich aktuell aus zumeist jüngeren und unerfahrenen Nazis zusammen, die sich erst in den letzten Jahren oder gar Monaten politisiert haben. Die schon etwas länger aktiven Nazis wie Marcus Petermann und Dominic Kästner zogen sich nach der Anfangszeit schnell wieder zurück. Trotzdem gab es von Anfang an Berührungspunkte zu älteren Nazis und gefestigten Strukturen. So erklärte die „Elblandrevolte“ in ihrem ersten Instagram-Post, dass man auf ein breites Spektrum langjähriger Aktivisten bauen könne, die ihnen auch Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung stellen.
Besonders ins Auge fällt hierbei Marcel Opitz, der bereits im Umfeld der Freien Kameradschaft Dresden aktiv war und 2017 mit anderen JN’lern aus Dresden und Umgebung die Demonstration zum Todestag von Rudolf Hess in Berlin besuchte. Besonders in der Gründungsphase der „Elblandrevolte“ dürfte Opitz eine wichtige Rolle gespielt haben. Er verfügt über vielfältige Kontakte in die rechten Kreise von Dresden, Pirna und Ostsachen. Auf der Demonstration der „Freien Sachsen“ am 21. Januar 2024 in Dresden trug er mit Marcus Petermann und Nico Koal das Banner der JN. Jahre zuvor war Marcel Opitz schon organisatorisch eingebunden: Zu einer Demonstration der NPD am 17. Juli 2017 holte er Fahnen und Transparente aus den Räumlichkeiten der JN-Dresden in der Reisstraße. Auch heute noch stehen diese Räume zur Verfügung: Am 2. September 2024 verbreiteten Mitglieder der „Elblandrevolte“ ein Video, in welchem sie ein geklautes Banner der Schwarz-Roten-Bergsteiger*innen in unmittelbarer Nähe zum Objekt Reisstraße verbrennen. Vermietet werden die Räume übrigens vom Dresdner Abfallentsorger Nestler.Marcel Opitz, Rudol-Hess-Marsch Berlin 18.08.2018. Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
Marcel Opitz beim Protest gegen den CSD in Bautzen am 10.08.2024. Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
Ebenfalls relevant für die Entstehung der „Elblandrevolte“ ist Maik Zschech. Der 1989 geborene Zschech taucht regelmäßig bei Demonstrationen und Skinhead-Konzerten auf und ist darüber hinaus gut vernetzt in der Dresdner Szene. 2015 stand Zschech gemeinsam mit Philip Stier und Hans Böhm wegen eines Angriffs einer 10 bis 15 Personen starken Gruppe Nazis auf nicht-rechte Jugendliche an der Kiesgrube Leuben vor Gericht. Aus Mangel an Beweisen endete der Prozess mit Freisprüchen. Stier und Böhm sind langjährig aktive Dresdner Nazis, die an dem Angriff auf Journalist*innen am 13. Februar 2022 in Laubegast beteiligt waren.Männertag mit Alex Weigel, Kurt Altrichter und Maik Zschech. Quelle: Instagram
Alex Weigel und Maik Zschech zum Männertag 2024. Quelle: Instagram
Am 13. Februar 2023 besuchte Maik Zschech den jährlichen Naziaufmarsch in Dresden mit einer Gruppe Jugendlicher: Darunter Quentin J., der im Frühjahr 2024 bundesweit für Schlagzeilen sorgte, weil er maßgeblich am Angriff auf den SPD-Europapolitiker Matthias Ecke beteiligt gewesen sein soll. In der Gruppe am 13. Februar 2023 waren neben Quentin auch Eric Götze und Max Zschech dabei, die sich beide am 15. April 2024 an einer Mobilisierung der „Elblandrevolte“ zum Montagsprotest nach Bautzen beteiligten. Mit der heutigen Führungsriege hat Maik Zschech besten Kontakt. So verbrachte er den „Männertag“ 2024 u.a. gemeinsam mit Finley Pügner, Alex Weigel und Kurt Altrichter. Er scheint eine Art Anleiterrolle für den Nazinachwuchs zu übernehmen und will dabei offenbar im Hintergrund bleiben.v.l.n.r.: Maik Zschech, Erik Götze, Quentin J. während des Naziaufmarsch in Dresden am 11.02.2023. Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
Demonstration der „Freien Sachsen“ am 01.05.2024 in Dresden. Quelle: Pixelarchiv
Vernetzung – regional und bundesweit
Vernetzung sucht die „Elblandrevolte“ in Sachsen und bundesweit. Regional fand die Gruppe schnell Kontakt zu dem Bautzner Nazi Benjamin Moses, der bereits am 11. März 2024 die Dresdner bei ihrem Montagsprotest besuchte. Etwa einen Monat später, am 15. April 2024, revanchierte man sich und organisierte eine Anreise mit 30 Personen aus Dresden zum Montagsprotest in Bautzen. Unterstützt wurde die „Elblandrevolte“ dabei von deutlich älteren Nazis wie Marcel Opitz, Jessica Franke, Matze Münnich und Philipp Ludwig.
Kontakt unterhält die „Elblandrevolte“ auch zur Brandenburger JN um den ehemaligen Dresdner JN-Stützpunktleiter Nico Koal. Im Februar 2024 besuchten die Dresdner die JN Brandenburg anlässlich einer Gedenkveranstaltung zur Bombardierung von Cottbus im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Wenige Monate später waren Mitglieder der „Elblandrevolte“ zu einer Sonnenwendfeier in Brandenburg anwesend. Der Dresdner Jungnazi Nino Rieber durfte dabei an der Trommel den Takt vorgeben. Zugegen war er schon bei anderen Aktionen z.B. am 15. April 2024 und 3. Juni 2024.Nino Rieber (rechts) mit Trommel bei einer Sonnenwendfeier der „Heimat“ in der Lausitz am 22.06.2024, Quelle: Instagram
Für die bundesweite Vernetzung ist vor allem das Quartett Finley Pügner, Alex Weigel, Kurt Altrichter und Emely verantwortlich. Alle vier waren bei vielen überregionalen Treffen der JN in diesem Jahr anwesend: z.B. beim Europakongress der JN in Eschede am 15. Mai 2024, sowie bei der zentralen Sonnenwendfeier der JN einen Monat später am selben Ort. Am JN-Gemeinschaftstag am 11. April 2024 in Eisleben nahmen mindestens Pügner und Altrichter teil.v.l.n.r.: Alex Weigel, Emely, Finley Pügner, Kurt Altrichter. Quelle: Spiegel TV (Screenshot)
Alex Weigel beim JN-Leistungsmarsch in Niedersachsen am 20.04.2024. Quelle: Recherche Nord
Kurt Altrichter und Finley Pügner mit Frank Rennicke zur Eröffnung der „Heimat“ Europazentrale in Berlin am 27.04.2024, Quelle: Instagram
Aktionsfelder der „Elblandrevolte“: Mobilisierung, soziales Umfeld, Social Media
Neben ihren Vernetzungsbemühungen verfolgt die „Elblandrevolte“ verschiedene weitere Ansätze. Das zentrale Feld ist die öffentliche Mobilisierung. Die Gruppe zeigt bei verschiedenen Demonstrationen des rechten Spektrums Präsenz: Die AfD am 1. Mai 2024 war ebenso Anlaufpunkt, wie die (Montags-)Demonstrationen der „Freien Sachsen“. Mit Transparenten versucht die Gruppe die eigene Sichtbarkeit zu erhöhen. Mobilisiert wird zudem gegen die politischen Gegner*innen: Neben vereinzelten Aktionen in politisch als „links“ verstandenen Stadtteilen, standen dabei vor allem die diversen Christopher Street Days in Sachsen im Mittelpunkt. So organisierte die „Elblandrevolte“ am 1. Juni 2024 eine eigene Demonstration gegen den CSD in Dresden, an der bis zu 100 Nazis teilnahmen. Am 10. August 2024 mobilisierte sie rund 200 Nazis zu einem Zugtreffpunkt gegen den CSD in Bautzen, der auch von überregional angereisten Nazis genutzt wurde. In Bautzen fungierte Finley Pügner dann gemeinsam mit dem Bautzner Jungnazi Dan-Odin Wölfer als Anmelder und Einheizer am Megafon. Andere Mitglieder der „Elblandrevolte“, wie Nick Handke, übernahmen Ordnerfunktionen.Finely Pügner, Alex Weigel und Jerry M., Anreise zum Protest gegen den CSD in Bautzen, 10.08.2024, Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
Nick Handke bei der CSD-Gegendemonstration in Bautzen am 10.08.2024, Quelle: Presseservice Rathenow
Beide Mobilisierungen wurden von antifaschistischen Protesten begleitet, die die organisatorischen Schwächen der „Elblandrevolte“ aufzeigten. In Dresden flüchteten viele der Jungnazis vor antifaschistischen Protesten in den „sicheren“ Kessel der Polizei. Und auch die Anreise nach Bautzen lief nicht reibungslos: Eine Antifa-Blockade am Hauptbahnhof in Dresden durchkreuzte die Pläne und entsprechend verspätet erreichten die Nazis Bautzen. Zudem zeigten sich im weiteren Jahresverlauf erste Ermüdungserscheinungen: Zur von der JN beworbenen Gegendemonstration zum CSD in Döbeln am 21. September fuhr Finley Pügner nur noch alleine. Seine „Rede“ dort fand kein Gehör, entnervt gab er auf und verließ die Versammlung frühzeitig.Daniel (zweiter von links) und Finley Pügner (rechts daneben) bei der CSD-Gegendemonstration in Döbeln 21.09.2024, Quelle: Versared
Ein weiterer Fokus der Gruppe liegt auf internen Events. Mit nicht-öffentlichen Aktionen wie Graffiti-Sprühereien, Wanderungen und Gruppenfotos soll das Gemeinschaftsgefühl gestärkt werden. Diese Veranstaltungen sind unterschiedlich erfolgreich und die Interessen des jungen Nazi-Klientels scheinen durchaus weit auseinander zu liegen: Eine für 25 Leuten geplante Wanderung in der Sächsischen Schweiz beispielsweise wurde nur von fünf Personen besucht – inklusive Finley Pügner. Neben eigenen Aktivitäten beteiligten sich einige Mitglieder der „Elblandrevolte“ auch anderweitig an Aktionen: Etwa an einer Pyroaktion anlässlich des Spiels des MSV Meißen gegen die SG Kreisnitz am 11. Mai. Rund 20 mit blau-weißen Sturmhauben vermummte Personen zündeten am Rande des Spieles Pyrotechnik. Daran beteiligt waren u.a. Alex Weigel, Dominic Kästner und Kurt Altrichter. Der Kontakt zu dem Sportverein dürfte dabei über die Meißner Alex Weigel, Tim Heil und Jonas Rothe laufen. Letzterer ist nicht nur bei Aktionen der „Elblandrevolte“ zugegen, sondern auch auf Bildern mit der Mannschaft des MSV Meißen zu sehen.
Gruppenbild am Rande des Spiels des MSV Meißen am 11.05.2024. Auf dem Zaun sitzend Alex Weigel, Quelle: Instagram
v.l.n.r.: Finley Pügner, Alex Weigel, Tim Heil (Meißen), Felix Ulemann (Meißen), Jonas Roth, Madleen Storch, Kundgebung der Elblandrevolte gegen den CSD in Dresden (01.06.2024). Quelle: ART Dresden
Der dritte Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Social-Media-Arbeit. Mit Videos, Livestreams und Fotos auf Instagram, Twitch und TikTok versucht die Gruppe ein zumeist sehr junges Publikum zu erreichen. Besonders Stützpunktleiter Finley Pügner tritt dabei mit seinem Gesicht öffentlich auf und posiert auf Demonstrationen gern mit seinen „Fans“. Auch in der Gruppen-Promotion erfährt die „Elblandrevolte“ Unterstützung durch ältere Neonazis: Im September 2024 entstand ein Musikvideo mit dem in Neustadt (Sächsische Schweiz) beheimateten Dominik Raupbach und dessen Label NDS Records.Musikvideo „Werde einer von uns“ von Dominik Raupbach zusammen mit der Elblandrevolte, 1. NN, 2. Finley Pügner, 3. Daniel, 4. Novak, 5. Jerry, 6. Alex Weigel, 7. Nick Handke, 8. Laura, 9. NN, 10. Jeremy, 11. NN, Quelle: Youtube Screenshot
Die wohl wichtigste Starthilfe bekam die „Elblandrevolte“ jedoch nicht von älteren Nazis, sondern von den klassischen Medien: Ausführliche Berichterstattung durch Spiegel TV oder Sachsen Fernsehen im Zuge der CSDs lieferten hochaufgelöstes Material zur eigenen Inszenierung und sorgte für den nötigen Aufmerksamkeitsschub, der zur (bundesweiten) Popularität beigetragen hat. Das Treiben der Gruppe wieder einzudämmen, darum müssen sich nun andere kümmern, das aber durchaus mit Erfolg: Pügner verschleißt Instagram-Profile bisweilen im Wochentakt. Seine Reichweite schränkt das effektiv ein. Politisch notwendig wäre aber endlich eine wirksame Verantwortungsübernahme seitens der „Plattformen“, die so lange von Nazipropaganda profitieren wollen, bis die Beschwerden überhand nehmen.
Wer gehört noch dazu?
v.l.n.r.: Novak, Felix, Franke44 (oben), Laura (unten), Emi
Die „Elblandrevolte“ ist eine überschaubare Gruppe mit personeller Fluktuation. Nach derzeitigem Stand gehört etwa ein Dutzend junger Nazis dazu. Pügner, Weigel, Altrichter und Emely bilden den organisatorischen Kern. Die folgenden Personen nehmen regelmäßig an – auch internen- Aktionen und Veranstaltungen teil: Laura, Novak F., Julian [Buder], Jerry M., Felix, Franke, Jeremy/Jerome, Daniel, Emi.
Nicht alle diese Personen sind bereits namentlich vollumfänglich bekannt. Über Informationen freuen wir uns.
Fazit
Mit der „Elblandrevolte“ gibt es nun seit neun Monaten wieder eine JN-Ortsgruppe in Dresden. Nach einiger Fluktuation zu Beginn, hat sich zuletzt ein stabiler Kreis herauskristallisiert, der öffentlich in Erscheinung tritt. Damit ist die Gruppe stärker besetzt, als dies noch vor ein paar Jahren unter Nico Koal der Fall war. Gleichzeitig ist zu beobachten, dass Anspruch und Wirklichkeit weit auseinanderliegen. Während sich die JN gern als elitäre und gebildete Truppe gibt, scheitert dies aktuell an der Realität. Anstatt weltanschaulicher Bildung und Wanderungen in heimatlichen Gefilden, sind es eher die an Fußball erinnernden Mobilisierungen gegen die CSDs und Aktivitäten auf Socialmedia-Plattformen, die die Zielgruppe der „Elblandrevolte“ ansprechen. Die JN-Ortsgruppe läuft dabei den Terminen des politischen Gegners hinterher. Darüberhinaus gehende inhaltliche Schwerpunktsetzungen sucht man bisher vergeblich. Ob die „Elblandrevolte“ es in der Zukunft schaffen wird, ihre Strukturen auszubauen, eigene inhaltliche Akzente und Aktionen zu setzen, wird sich in naher Zukunft zeigen. Wenn nicht, könnte die Gruppe nur eine weitere unter vielen Nazigruppen sein, die durch kurzzeitige Aktivitäten von sich reden macht, um anschließend wieder in den Annalen der Lokalgeschichte zu verschwinden. Dabei sollten antifaschistische Aktionen dazu beitragen, zukünftige eigene Aktionen der „Elblandrevolte“ zum Desaster werden zu lassen. Dafür braucht es aber statt Aufregung und medialer Hochspielerei mehr differenzierte Analysen, Selbstbewusstsein und Aktionen zum richtigen Zeitpunkt. Die antifaschistischen Aktionen zur CSD-Anreise nach Bautzen und der CSD in Dresden haben gezeigt, dass Antifas sich nicht vor der „Elblandrevolte“ verstecken müssen.
Antifa in die Offensive!
Titelbild: Finley Pügner alleine auf dem Weg nach Döbeln zu einer Nazidemonstration (21.09.2024). Quelle: Streetcredview, Anpassung ART Dresden
#AlexWeigel #BenjaminMoses #DanOdinWölfer #DominicKästner #Elblandrevolte #EricGötze #FinleyPügner #FreieSachsen #HansBöhm #JessicaFranke #JN #JonasRothe #Kixy #KurtAltrichter #MaikZschech #MarcelOpitz #MarcusPetermann #MatzeMünnich #NickHandke #NicoKoal #NinoRieber #NPD #PascalHoffmann #PhilipStier #PhilippLudwig #QuentinJ_ #RemoHoppmann #RichardStrauch #TimHeil #TommySchneider
Am vergangenen Freitag hat eine vierköpfige Gruppe junger Neonazis im Dresdner Stadtteil Striesen mehrere Plakatierteams angegriffen. Zuerst zwei Gruppen, die für die Grünen plakatierten, und anschließend eine Gruppe, die für die SPD Plakate hing. Bei den Angriffen wurden mindestens zwei Personen verletzt, darunter der SPD-Europapolitiker Matthias Ecke schwer. Der mutmaßliche Haupttäter Quentin J. stellte sich nach etwas mehr als 24 Stunden der Polizei. Nur zwei Tage zuvor, am 1. Mai 2024, beteiligte er sich noch an einer Demonstration der Freien Sachsen, einer Wahlkampfkundgebung der AfD und einer Aktion der neonazistischen Kameradschaft „Elblandrevolte“.Am 1. Mai 2024 fanden in Dresden mehrere Veranstaltungen aus dem rechtsnationalistischen Spektrum statt. Um 12 Uhr riefen die Freien Sachsen zu einer Demonstration zum „Tag des Widerstands 2.0“ auf. Etwa 300 Demonstrant*innen versammelten sich an der Lingnerallee in der Nähe des Dynamo-Stadions. Angeführt von Max Schreiber und Jens Lorek zog die Demonstration zur Staatskanzlei. Direkt hinter dem Fronttransparent mit der Losung „Scholz, Habeck, Lindner & Co das Handwerk legen: Stoppt den Raub. Steuern runter.“ versammelte sich eine Gruppe junger Neonazis unter einer Reichsflagge: die seit Februar aktive Kameradschaft „Elblandrevolte“ – und mit ihr der 17-jährige Quentin M. J.
Eingekreist: Quentin M. J. hinter dem Fronttransparent der Freien Sachsen am 1. Mai 2024 (Quelle: Matthias Schwarz)
Die Resonanz auf die Demonstration blieb weit hinter den Erwartungen der Organisator*innen zurück. Es gelang nicht, an die Demonstration am 8. Januar 2024 anzuknüpfen. Damals schlossen sich mehrere tausend Menschen dem Neonazi-Aufzug an. Entsprechend schnell war die Demo diesmal vorbei. Teile der Demonstration zogen weiter in die Innenstadt und steuerten als nächstes die Wahlkampfkundgebung der AfD an. Dort hatte bereits der wegen möglicher Geldzahlungen aus Russland und einer Spionage-Affäre unter Druck stehende Maximilian Krah gesprochen, später folgte Parteivorsitzender Tino Chrupalla. Die Gruppe von Elblandrevolte und um Quentin M. J. dürfte dessen Reden gehört haben. Fotos und Videos zeigen sie auf der AfD-Kundgebung unter anderem im Gespräch mit René Hauser, der bei AfD-Veranstaltungen regelmäßig als Ordner auftritt und für die AfD im Ortsbeirat Cotta sitzt. Obwohl teilweise vermummt und durch einschlägige Kleidung unübersehbar, wurde die Gruppe von der AfD geduldet.Eingekreist: Quentin M. J. auf der Wahlkampfkundgebung der AfD am 1. Mai 2024. Rechts davon in grünen T-Shirts: „Kixy“ und Kurt Altrichter , mit Kamera: Finley Prügner (Quelle: Matthias Schwarz)
Von der AfD-Kundgebung zog die Elblandrevolte dann zu einer eigenen Aktion weiter. Zwölf Neonazis, darunter wieder Quentin M. J., bewegten sich zum Bahnhof Neustadt und zogen von dort über die Großenhainer Straße auf die Petrikirchstraße. Dort posierten sie in der Nähe der „Chemiefabrik“, einem Club, in dem vor allem Punk-, Hardcore-, HipHop-Acts auftreten und in den Augen der Neonazis als „links“ gilt. Auf dem Transparent stand die Losung: „Das System ist am Ende! Wir sind die Wende! #systemexit“, sowie die URL der Jungen Nationalisten. Mittlerweile hat die Gruppe das Foto von ihren öffentlichen Kanälen entfernt. Wortführer waren der aus Görlitz stammenden Finley Prügner, sowie der Dresdner Kurt Altrichter und eine Person aus dem Raum Meißen mit dem Instagram-Nickname „Kixy“. Die Gruppe trat in den letzten Monaten wiederholt in Erscheinung und fokussiert dabei vor allem die politischen Gegner: Unter anderem mobilisierte Elblandrevolte am 15. April 2024 nach Bautzen. Auf den Zugfahrten von und nach Bautzen wurden Bahnreisende und linke Personen attackiert. Teil der etwa 30-köpfigen Gruppe auch hier: Quentin M. J. Außerdem dabei: Lucas S. aus Heidenau, ein mutmaßlicher Mittäter beim Überfall auf die PlakatierteamsScreenshot vom Instagram-Kanal: Die Kameradschaft Elblandrevolte posiert in der Nähe der Chemiefabrik mit einem Transparent.
Die Propaganda des rechts-nationalistischen Lagers von Freie Sachsen über AfD hat bei der Gruppe um Quentin M. J. offenbar verfangen und sie in ihrem Vorgehen bestärkt. Etwas mehr als 48 Stunden nach dem Besuch der Kundgebungen schlugen er und seine Begleiter im Stadtteil Striesen zu.naziwatchdd.noblogs.org/post/2…
#1Mai2024 #AfD #Dresden #Elblandrevolte #FreieSachsen #QuentinJ_ #systemexit #Wahlkampf
Bundespolizei lässt Neonazis ungestört reisen und angreifen
Am Montag, den 15. April, reiste eine Gruppe von etwa 30 Neonazis von Dresden nach Bautzen. Ziel der Gruppe war ein Demokratiefest, das gestört werden sollte, und eine rechten Montagsdemonstration, so Ankündigungen auf SocialMedia-Kanälen.Redaktion (Alternative Dresden News)
Collective Survival, Adaptation and Direct Action
Collective Survival, Adaptation and Direct Action
Defiance must be woven into the fabric of our daily lives, rather than simply proclaimed at marches or on social media.Kelly Hayes (Organizing My Thoughts)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
Fighting For Liberation
Fighting For Liberation in the Face of Fascism
They tried to bury us, but little did they know - we were seeds.HydroponicTrash (Sunshine and Seedlings: A Newsletter by HydroponicTrash)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
Inside Africa's Food Forest Mega-Project
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
How to Restore Community Economies: Reestablishing the Right to Associate
How to Restore Community Economies: Reestablishing the Right to Associate - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Growing US corporate economic control has impeded people’s capacity to self-organize. The time to rebuild community-scale economic institutions is now.Aine Creedon (Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
A fucking wonderful read, thank you very much for sharing. I'd encourage anyone who seeing this comment to stop for a minute and give it a read.
The article does an excellent job of dissecting how we can build towards a more mutualistic world from where we are today
UK Home Office speeds up visa and refugee processing with Copilot AI reject-a-bot
UK Home Office speeds up visa and refugee processing with Copilot AI reject-a-bot
Under years of pressure from the right-wing press, the previous and current UK governments have required the Home Office to reduce immigration numbers by any means possible — whether it makes sense…Pivot to AI
The Home Office scrapped a previous machine-learning visa review tool in 2020 after it was caught being insanely racist. That tool had been in place since 2015.
oh my god. just accidentally running the racism machine for 5 years during a rise in global fascism
no we won’t let you examine how the racism machine 2.0 now with LLMs works
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 17th November 2024
Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)
The ongoing trend of "flat UI" is largely not due to processing power though. Even inexpensive computers have CPUs and GPUs that could push very fancy graphics without problems, see what the same machines can do in game graphics (and I don't mean high-end gaming, I mean the kind of simple gaming that can run on a low-end laptop these days). Some of the early GUIs in the 1980s had "flat design" due to performance limitations, but that went away in the 1990s. Today it could still be a reason in some embedded system scenarios with simple microcontrollers, but not in a desktop or laptop computer, and also not in smartphones or tablets.
The reason we have the bland flat design is the same why we still have things like "all surfaces are ugly glossy black plastic" (luckily this one is on its way out) or "war on physical buttons" aka "touchscreens everywhere"... it's simply a design trend.
"touchscreens everywhere" isn't an aesthetic choice, it's a cost-of-goods choice: which adds more to the cost of a physical product, a bunch of bespoke embossed buttons/keys for specific tasks, or a single mass-produced touchscreen?
It's the same reason modern electronics uses embedded microcontrollers rather than actual properly designed task-specific gate arrays.
Elon Musk, Ramaswamy land Trump admin roles
President-elect Trump has tapped tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead an advisory group focused on cutting federal spending and reducing the size of the government.Trump announced Tuesday that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), an initiative meant to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.
We live in the dumbest timeline
"Solarpunk USA" PeerTube videos
Solarpunk USA
A hopefully nationwide movement to organize ourselves into creating networks of communities to act as sort of a union for the planet in the age of climate fear and doomerism Current logo courtesy o...PeerTube
Hopefully, SolarPunk can distance themselves from their users’ shameful support of genocide and the military industrial complex this past election season. I was disappointed to see solarpunk users fighting the same bullshit Red vs. Blue culture war that lemmy.world mods and admins were fighting, trying to forcefeed Kamala apologia down our throats and censoring, flaming, and reporting anyone with enough integrity to call it out.
I’ve now lived through 3 straight presidential elections where the most corrupt Democrat I know of was utterly rammed down our throats under the threat of “at least they aren’t Trump!”
Stop scoring own goals on your people and HEAR THEM OUT during the primary when they say that the Dem candidate picked through election fraud cannot win.
Educate yourselves and be actual environmentalists: stop being the greenwashing wing of the Progressive Policy Institute.
Draft Guidance for Long-form Text
One of the Social Web Foundation’s programs for this year is to work on making long-form text more useful and available on the Social Web. By this, we mean multi-paragraph texts of “web page” length, like a blog post, a magazine article, a newsletter, a forum post, or a wiki page. This length of text can usually fit comfortably into a single ActivityPub object — let’s say tens or maybe low hundreds of kilobytes of content. Longer texts like books are probably too big for this use.
There are a lot of producers of long-form text on the Web, and many have enabled ActivityPub for their software. There is some discussion of longer texts in the Activity Vocabulary — the definition of most of the data types used in ActivityPub — but it’s not all in one place, and there’s not practical guidance on restrictions.
To help publishers and consumers of long-form text objects, I pulled together the relevant properties and types into a Fediverse Enhancement Proposal (FEP), which is a community-led standardization process. The document, FEP-b2b8: Long-form Text, is currently available as a draft for review.
If you’re a publisher of long-form text, or you are developing user interfaces that may encounter this kind of data, please take some time to review. This is still a draft-level document, but I’d love to see it shaped and improved by incorporating the experience and knowledge of many practitioners and implementers.
Long-form text on the Fediverse
The Fediverse’s core strength is short, paragraph-length status updates, observations and comments. But more and more newsletter, blogging, and publishing platforms are implementing ActivityP…Social Web Foundation
I think #WordPress is already pretty close to what you specified... I like the featured-image idea github.com/Automattic/wordpres…
Maybe we could/should be more specific how to deduplicate `images` and `attachments`!?!
Imrove "FEP-b2b8: Long-form Text" support by pfefferle · Pull Request #982 · Automattic/wordpress-activitypub
See: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/b2b8/fep-b2b8.md https://socialwebfoundation.org/2024/11/07/draft-guidance-for-long-form-text/GitHub
While this is true for boomers and genx as they saw this life style as a status symbol so they fed the beast... majority of modern housing stock has HoA attache to it, so unless you are looking for mass homlessness. HoA is the herpes we inherited. Now, since we at least can agree it is a cancer, these corruption rackets need to be either 1) reformed, where they are required; or 2) otherwise outright dismantled.
This is another generation fight though... and even some younger clowns will larp HoA because "it keep me property price hi, I am an owner all i care about is asset appreciation"
sure thing buddy, living in a house with rapidly increasing tax assessment surely makes you part of the owner class 🤡
Yes, there is a clown law known as Prop 13. Property taxes are extremely low and can't be raised except by a supermajority of voters.. We do have high income taxes but overall it's actually a middle-tax state.
Residential property values in CA are only reassessed when the property is sold. So if you're sitting there for decades in the same house you'll pay almost no taxes.
Almost every problem you've heard of about California can in some way be linked back to this law.
sunzu2 mag das.
Urban gardening in the news: wow so healthy so easy!
Urban gardening in reality: the squirrels ate all the fruits, the rats bit the buds off of everything, I just wasted so much water and money to increase the vermin population and have no food to show for it.
Sustainable Plastic Solutions becomes world leader in farm waste recycling
In just over two years, their small Hamilton-based business, Sustainable Plastic Solutions, has reclaimed 3,000 tonnes of plastic and has created a world-leading closed-loop circular economy for grain tarpaulins.
They've just received a federal grant for matched funding of $9 million that will expand their operations to 16,000 tonne capacity per year and should enable them to tackle the so-far-unsolvable problem of recycling silage wrap.
But in the beginning, it was all financed by local farmers.
Sustainable Plastic Solutions becomes world leader in farm waste recycling
Before food even gets to the grocer, tonnes of plastic have been used to produce it on the farm. Now, Victorian farmers have built a recycling plant to tackle the issue — and it all started in the local pub.ABC News
Solarpunk mystery novel released today
Didn’t plan on publishing my solarpunk novel this week. But it feels like the time for a story that’s radically hopeful.
We outlive capitalism. In a post-scarcity society, people do things not out of desperation but for joy. Xavi loves nothing more than putting on a silicon tail and swimming as a mermaid. She performs for children. Xavi encourages them and their parents to protect the clean water of the city’s canals. A community treasure, she is the first person who comes to mind when excited doctors develop a surgery to turn someone into a merperson. Xavi pioneers it, pushing the boundaries of transhumanism.
Then the mermaid goes missing.
A local citizen detective discovers Xavi had texted them “help” the night before, when their devices were silenced. The Citizen Detective Society mobilizes across the globe. They hope to crowdsolve the mermaid’s location and soon. Every passing hour reduces the probability they’ll discover her alive.
You can find the ebook on this indie site as well as the two more mainstream ones.
mögen das
originalucifer, Atelopus-zeteki und anachronology mögen das.
Awesome! This is an exciting surprise!
I read a preprint of this, and I really loved it. Everyone should check this book out!
Illustrator Bochica uses knowledge to make the world a better place, to help people express the utopia inside them. He is a social muralist, who supports war-victims communities in Colombia. Concerning the cover art, he wrote the following:
*The technique used was mixed, acrylic and ink on canvas. Painting this piece was a real challenge—synthesizing and imagining a culture made of many ancestral cultures. The arch was inspired by art nouveau but also by Hindu art, while the figures reference both southern and northern Native American cultures. The pillars are like “totems” of Native American origin, but the figures are inspired by Indigenous peoples of South America and the South Pacific, from Easter Island, the Maori, through the Incas to the Mayans and Aztecs. These columns also reference the legend of “Huitaca” from the muysca people, which speaks of a demon who ascended and became the owl—a symbol of wisdom and knowledge in many cultures. In this case, I wanted to refer to the novel’s great library. The circles are inspired by the sun but are also inspired by speakers, referencing the “voice of the people” and social organization within solarpunk.
At the top, there’s a kind of staircase inspired by the “chakana,” an Incan symbol representing the connection between the human world and higher realms.
The mermaid is inspired by “Yemaya,” who is an Orisha or goddess in the Yoruba culture from Haiti.*
Just wanted to drop a note and say I binged this and then Murder in the Tool Library in 2 days. What a nice little universe you've built! I had never even heard of smashwords before your mention, but I've made a couple of other purchases in the last few days and will certainly use it to try and build a big enough library to distract me for the next 4 or 5 years :)
Out of curiosity, do you have any recommendations for other solarpunk or similarly utopian indie fiction?
Lemmy v0.19.6 Release
What is Lemmy?
Lemmy is a self-hosted social link aggregation and discussion platform. It is completely free and open, and not controlled by any company. This means that there is no advertising, tracking, or secret algorithms. Content is organized into communities, so it is easy to subscribe to topics that you are interested in, and ignore others. Voting is used to bring the most interesting items to the top.
Changes
This release took a long time to complete due to a major performance problem which brought lemmy.ml to a crawl every time we tried to deploy the new version. It took a lot of testing (in production) to narrow it down to a single commit, and finally fix the problem.
The release itself contains numerous bug fixes and minor improvements:
Lemmy
Enhancements
- Parallel federation sending by @phiresky in #4623
- Reduce CPU usage for generating link previews by @phiresky in #4957
- Switch from OpenSSL to rustls by @kwaa in #4901
- Increase max post url length to 2000 characters by @dessalines in #4960
- Increase max length of user bio to 1000 charactes by @dessalines #5014
- Reduce maximum comment depth to 50 by @nutomic #5009
- Resize post thumbnails by @nutomic #5107/files
- Add category to RSS feeds by @nutomic #5030
- Allow users to view their own removed/deleted communities by @dessalines in #4912
- Add backend check to enforce hierarchy of admins and mods by @dessalines in #4860
- Do pictrs transformations for proxied image urls by @dessalines in #4895
- Enable more build optimizations by @nutomic in #5168
- Calculate "controversial" ranking with exponent instead of multiply (just like Reddit) by @dullbananas in #4872
- Automatically remove tracking parameters from URLs by @dessalines #5018
- Relax timeout for sending activities by @Nothing4You in #4864
Bug Fixes
- Fix admin notification for new user registration (fixes #4916) by @Nutomic in #4925
- Allow community settings changes by remote mods @flamingo-cant-draw in #4937
- Fix problem with connecting to Postgres with TLS @FenrirUnbound in #4910
- Fix bug when commenting in local-only community by @dessalines in #4854 and @abdel-m in #4920
- Fix scheduled task to delete users with denied applications by @Nothing4You in #4907
API
- Return image dimensions and content type in API responses by @dessalines in #4704
- Adding a show_read override to GetPosts. by @dessalines in #4846
- Add show_nsfw override filter to GetPosts. by @dessalines in #4889
- Require authentication for site metadata fetch endpoint by @dessalines in #4968
- Add the ability to fetch a registration application by person_id by @dessalines in #4913
- Order community posts by published data, not id by @dullbananas in #4859
- Throw error when non-mod posts to mod-only comm or when URL is blocked by @flamingo-cant-draw in #4966
- Add option to search exclusively by post title by Carlos-Cabello #5015
Database
- Approve applications in transaction by @Nothing4You in #4970
- Use trigger to generate apub URL in insert instead of update, and fix query planner options not being set when TLS is disabled by @dullbananas in #4797
Lemmy-UI
- Fix full-size post images. by @dessalines in #2797
- Fix modlog ID filtering. by @dessalines in #2795
- Allow Arabic and Cyrillic characters when signing up or creating community by @SleeplessOne1917
- UX - Swap "Select Language" and "Cancel/Preview/Reply" button locations around in commentsReverse order of buttons in Reply TextArea
- Fix jump to content by @SleeplessOne1917
- Fixing peertube and ordinary video embeds. by @dessalines in #2676
- Changing sameSite cookie from Strict to Lax. by @dessalines in #2677
- Remove show new post notifs setting. by @dessalines in #2675
- Fix memory leak around emojis on server render by @makotech222 in #2674
- Enable spellcheck for markdown text area by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2669
- Pre release dep bump by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2661
- Add ability to fill magnet link title on post creation. by @dessalines in #2654
- Registration application view by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2651
- Add torrent help by @dessalines in #2650
- More moderation history by @dessalines in #2649
- Fix tribute related bug by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2647
- Remove min and max length from password input when using login form by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2643
- Remove trending communities card from home. by @dessalines in #2639
- Set data-bs-theme based on the presence of "dark" in theme name by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2638
- Fixing modlog filtering to allow admins and mods to filter by mod. by @dessalines in #2629
- Fix issue from logo bugfix by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2620
- Make more post params cross-postable by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2621
- Fix wonky comment action icon button alignment by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2622
- Prevent broken logo from crashing site by @SleeplessOne1917 in #2619
- Add rate limit info message. by @dessalines in #2563
- Fix getQueryString by @matc-pub in #2558
New Contributors
- @abdel-m made their first contribution in #4920
- @johnspurlock made their first contribution in #4917
- @FenrirUnbound made their first contribution in #4910
- @kwaa made their first contribution in #4901
- @Daniel15 made their first contribution in #4892
Full Changelog
Upgrade instructions
This upgrade could take as long as ~30 minutes for larger servers, due to needing to recalculate controversy ranks for all historical posts.
There are no breaking changes with this release.
Follow the upgrade instructions for ansible or docker.
If you need help with the upgrade, you can ask in our support forum or on the Matrix Chat.
Thanks to everyone
We'd like to thank our many contributors and users of Lemmy for coding, translating, testing, and helping find and fix bugs. We're glad many people find it useful and enjoyable enough to contribute.
Special shout out to @SleeplessOne1917, @phiresky, @dullbananas, @mv-gh, @Nothing4u, @asonix, @sunaurus, @flamingo-cant-draw, and @Freakazoid182 for their many code contributions and helpful insights.
Support development
We (@dessalines and @nutomic) have been working full-time on Lemmy for over five years. This is largely thanks to support from NLnet foundation, as well as donations from individual users.
If you like using Lemmy, and want to make sure that we will always be available to work full time building it, consider donating to support its development. A recurring donation is the best way to ensure that open-source software like Lemmy can stay independent and alive, and helps us grow our little developer co-op to support more full-time developers.
- Liberapay (preferred option)
- Open Collective
- Patreon
- Cryptocurrency
Comparing 0.19.5...0.19.6 · LemmyNet/lemmy
🐀 A link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Contribute to LemmyNet/lemmy development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
notiz.pulli
@simon hat mir einen Pullover mit dem notiz.blog Logo gestrickt besticken lassen und jetzt werde ich wohl nie wieder etwas anderes anziehen! ❤️
Still Don't Panic: An Election Response
Still Don't Panic: An Election Response
It Could Happen Here · EpisodeStill Don't Panic: An Election Response (Spotify)
mögen das
Lasslinthar und ShaunaTheDead mögen das.
The Sky is Falling; We've Got This
The Sky is Falling; We've Got This
or: yes it's bad, no we need not despairMargaret Killjoy (Birds Before the Storm)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
“We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a while. For you must not forget that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute.”—Buenaventura Durruti, Van Paassen interview (1936)
Required reading for Solarpunks: “Tyranny of Convenience” essay by Tim Wu
This essay by Tim Wu exposes insightful concepts essential to the solarpunk movement. Six pages is only too inconvenient to read for those who are most trapped by convenience.
The importance of Solarpunks reading the ToC essay became starkly clear when someone said they ticked a box in a voting booth and essentially said: I’m done… I give up. They got ~75+ pats on the back for this hard work whilst condemning taking further action (activism).
Voting in an election is the bare minimum duty expected of everyone. It’s not even activism. In some countries that much effort is obligatory (Belgium). Tim Wu covers voting in his essay, speculating that younger generations stand in lines less than older generations had to, suggesting that this inconvenience might be attributed to lower voter turnout among the young (2018, so pre-mail-in ballots).
From the solarpunk manifesto:
4. The “punk” in Solarpunk is about rebellion, counterculture, post-capitalism, decolonialism and enthusiasm. It is about going in a different direction than the mainstream, which is increasingly going in a scary direction.
Convenience is the beaten path of the mainstream. Convenience zombies don’t even have to be cattle-herded because our corporate adversaries have designed the infrastructure to ensure the path of least resistence automatically leads the masses to feed them revenue. Solarpunks resist. We do not accept the path of least resistence. We bring resistence because we understand that convenience is the enemy of activism more often than not.
But not everyone is on the same page. More Solarpunks need to become familiar with Tim Wu’s essay for their own benefit and also for solidarity and empowerment of the movement. We need to get better at recognising tyranny of convenience when we see it.
The perceived inconvenience of boycotting puts many people off especially if they have not absorbed the concepts of the ToC essay. The slightest change to their lifestyle is likened to living in a cave and triggers people to think about a meme where a guy pops out of a well. Boycotting gets progressively easier. It can also start in baby steps so it’s less of a sacrifice. As someone who has been boycotting thousands of companies and brands for over ten years and consciously choosing the hard path for longer than the age of Wu’s essay, it feels less like a prison to me and looks more like those trapped in the cult of convenience are the ones in a prison of sorts. A useful task by the solarpunk movement would be to try to influence convenience zombies toward activism.
One quote from the essay:
Convenience is all destination and no journey.
It’s even worse than that in some cases. The destination can be wrong as a consequence of convenience. The convenience of neglecting the duty of an ethical consumer to boycott leads to a bad place -- financing and enabling adversaries of our values.
The NY Times article is inconveniently enshitified in a paywall. Since this essay is something folks would want to keep a local copy of anyway, I have linked a PDF instead of the original link. The text is also below for those who prefer to exand a spoiler over a PDF.
:::spoiler Tyranny of Convenience, by Tim Wu
“The Tyranny of Convenience”
by Tim Wu
Feb. 16, 2018
The New York Times (opinion)
Convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in
the world today. As a driver of human decisions, it may not offer the
illicit thrill of Freud’s unconscious sexual desires or the
mathematical elegance of the economist’s incentives. Convenience is
boring. But boring is not the same thing as trivial.
In the developed nations of the 21st century, convenience — that is,
more efficient and easier ways of doing personal tasks — has emerged as
perhaps the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our
economies. This is particularly true in America, where, despite all
the paeans to freedom and individuality, one sometimes wonders whether
convenience is in fact the supreme value.
As Evan Williams, a co‑founder of Twitter, recently put it,
“Convenience decides everything.” Convenience seems to make our
decisions for us, trumping what we like to imagine are our true
preferences. (I prefer to brew my coffee, but Starbucks instant is so
convenient I hardly ever do what I “prefer.”) Easy is better, easiest
is best.
Convenience has the ability to make other options unthinkable. Once
you have used a washing machine, laundering clothes by hand seems
irrational, even if it might be cheaper. After you have experienced
streaming television, waiting to see a show at a prescribed hour seems
silly, even a little undignified. To resist convenience — not to own a
cellphone, not to use Google — has come to require a special kind of
dedication that is often taken for eccentricity, if not fanaticism.
For all its influence as a shaper of individual decisions, the greater
power of convenience may arise from decisions made in aggregate, where
it is doing so much to structure the modern economy. Particularly in
tech‑related industries, the battle for convenience is the battle for
industry dominance. Americans say they prize competition, a
proliferation of choices, the little guy. Yet our taste for
convenience begets more convenience, through a combination of the
economics of scale and the power of habit. The easier it is to use
Amazon, the more powerful Amazon becomes — and thus the easier it
becomes to use Amazon. Convenience and monopoly seem to be natural
bedfellows.
Given the growth of convenience — as an ideal, as a value, as a way of
life — it is worth asking what our fixation with it is doing to us and
to our country. I don’t want to suggest that convenience is a force
for evil. Making things easier isn’t wicked. On the contrary, it often
opens up possibilities that once seemed too onerous to contemplate,
and it typically makes life less arduous, especially for those most
vulnerable to life’s drudgeries.
But we err in presuming convenience is always good, for it has a
complex relationship with other ideals that we hold dear. Though
understood and promoted as an instrument of liberation, convenience
has a dark side. With its promise of smooth, effortless efficiency, it
threatens to erase the sort of struggles and challenges that help give
meaning to life. Created to free us, it can become a constraint on
what we are willing to do, and thus in a subtle way it can enslave us.
It would be perverse to embrace inconvenience as a general rule. But
when we let convenience decide everything, we surrender too much.
Convenience as we now know it is a product of the late 19th and early
20th centuries, when labor‑saving devices for the home were invented
and marketed. Milestones include the invention of the first
“convenience foods,” such as canned pork and beans and Quaker Quick
Oats; the first electric clothes‑washing machines; cleaning products
like Old Dutch scouring powder; and other marvels including the
electric vacuum cleaner, instant cake mix and the microwave oven.
Convenience was the household version of another late‑19th‑century idea,
industrial efficiency, and its accompanying “scientific management.” It
represented the adaptation of the ethos of the factory to domestic life.
However mundane it seems now, convenience, the great liberator of
humankind from labor, was a utopian ideal. By saving time and
eliminating drudgery, it would create the possibility of leisure. And
with leisure would come the possibility of devoting time to learning,
hobbies or whatever else might really matter to us. Convenience would
make available to the general population the kind of freedom for
self‑cultivation once available only to the aristocracy. In this way
convenience would also be the great leveler.
This idea — convenience as liberation — could be intoxicating. Its
headiest depictions are in the science fiction and futurist imaginings
of the mid‑20th century. From serious magazines like Popular Mechanics
and from goofy entertainments like “The Jetsons” we learned that life
in the future would be perfectly convenient. Food would be prepared
with the push of a button.
Moving sidewalks would do away with the annoyance of walking. Clothes
would clean themselves or perhaps self‑destruct after a day’s
wearing. The end of the struggle for existence could at last be
contemplated.
The dream of convenience is premised on the nightmare of physical
work. But is physical work always a nightmare? Do we really want to be
emancipated from all of it? Perhaps our humanity is sometimes
expressed in inconvenient actions and time‑consuming pursuits. Perhaps
this is why, with every advance of convenience, there have always been
those who resist it. They resist out of stubbornness, yes (and because
they have the luxury to do so), but also because they see a threat to
their sense of who they are, to their feeling of control over things
that matter to them.
By the late 1960s, the first convenience revolution had begun to
sputter. The prospect of total convenience no longer seemed like
society’s greatest aspiration. Convenience meant conformity. The
counterculture was about people’s need to express themselves, to
fulfill their individual potential, to live in harmony with nature
rather than constantly seeking to overcome its nuisances. Playing the
guitar was not convenient. Neither was growing one’s own vegetables or
fixing one’s own motorcycle. But such things were seen to have value
nevertheless — or rather, as a result. People were looking for
individuality again.
Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that the second wave of convenience
technologies — the period we are living in — would co‑opt this
ideal. It would conveniencize individuality.
You might date the beginning of this period to the advent of the Sony
Walkman in 1979. With the Walkman we can see a subtle but fundamental
shift in the ideology of convenience. If the first convenience
revolution promised to make life and work easier for you, the second
promised to make it easier to be you. The new technologies were
catalysts of selfhood. They conferred efficiency on self‑expression.
Consider the man of the early 1980s, strolling down the street with
his Walkman and earphones. He is enclosed in an acoustic environment
of his choosing. He is enjoying, out in public, the kind of
self‑expression he once could experience only in his private den. A
new technology is making it easier for him to show who he is, if only
to himself. He struts around the world, the star of his own movie.
So alluring is this vision that it has come to dominate our
existence. Most of the powerful and important technologies created
over the past few decades deliver convenience in the service of
personalization and individuality. Think of the VCR, the playlist, the
Facebook page, the Instagram account. This kind of convenience is no
longer about saving physical labor — many of us don’t do much of that
anyway. It is about minimizing the mental resources, the mental
exertion, required to choose among the options that express ourselves.
Convenience is one‑click, one‑stop shopping, the seamless experience
of “plug and play.” The ideal is personal preference with no effort.
We are willing to pay a premium for convenience, of course — more than
we often realize we are willing to pay. During the late 1990s, for
example, technologies of music distribution like Napster made it
possible to get music online at no cost, and lots of people availed
themselves of the option. But though it remains easy to get music
free, no one really does it anymore. Why? Because the introduction of
the iTunes store in 2003 made buying music even more convenient than
illegally downloading it. Convenient beat out free.
As task after task becomes easier, the growing expectation of
convenience exerts a pressure on everything else to be easy or get
left behind. We are spoiled by immediacy and become annoyed by tasks
that remain at the old level of effort and time. When you can skip the
line and buy concert tickets on your phone, waiting in line to vote in
an election is irritating. This is especially true for those who have
never had to wait in lines (which may help explain the low rate at
which young people vote).
The paradoxical truth I’m driving at is that today’s technologies of
individualization are technologies of mass
individualization. Customization can be surprisingly
homogenizing. Everyone, or nearly everyone, is on Facebook: It is the
most convenient way to keep track of your friends and family, who in
theory should represent what is unique about you and your life. Yet
Facebook seems to make us all the same. Its format and conventions
strip us of all but the most superficial expressions of individuality,
such as which particular photo of a beach or mountain range we select
as our background image.
I do not want to deny that making things easier can serve us in
important ways, giving us many choices (of restaurants, taxi services,
open‑source encyclopedias) where we used to have only a few or
none. But being a person is only partly about having and exercising
choices. It is also about how we face up to situations that are thrust
upon us, about overcoming worthy challenges and finishing difficult
tasks — the struggles that help make us who we are. What happens to
human experience when so many obstacles and impediments and
requirements and preparations have been removed?
Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a
constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all
destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from
taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place. We
are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes. We are at
risk of making most of our life experiences a series of trolley rides.
Convenience has to serve something greater than itself, lest it lead
only to more convenience. In her 1963 classic, “The Feminine
Mystique,” Betty Friedan looked at what household technologies had
done for women and concluded that they had just created more
demands. “Even with all the new labor‑saving appliances,” she wrote,
“the modern American housewife probably spends more time on housework
than her grandmother.” When things become easier, we can seek to fill
our time with more “easy” tasks. At some point, life’s defining
struggle becomes the tyranny of tiny chores and petty decisions.
An unwelcome consequence of living in a world where everything is
“easy” is that the only skill that matters is the ability to
multitask. At the extreme, we don’t actually do anything; we only
arrange what will be done, which is a flimsy basis for a life.
We need to consciously embrace the inconvenient — not always, but more
of the time. Nowadays individuality has come to reside in making at
least some inconvenient choices. You need not churn your own butter or
hunt your own meat, but if you want to be someone, you cannot allow
convenience to be the value that transcends all others. Struggle is
not always a problem. Sometimes struggle is a solution. It can be the
solution to the question of who you are.
Embracing inconvenience may sound odd, but we already do it without
thinking of it as such. As if to mask the issue, we give other names
to our inconvenient choices: We call them hobbies, avocations,
callings, passions. These are the noninstrumental activities that
help to define us. They reward us with character because they involve
an encounter with meaningful resistance — with nature’s laws, with the
limits of our own bodies — as in carving wood, melding raw
ingredients, fixing a broken appliance, writing code, timing waves or
facing the point when the runner’s legs and lungs begin to rebel
against him.
Such activities take time, but they also give us time back. They
expose us to the risk of frustration and failure, but they also can
teach us something about the world and our place in it.
So let’s reflect on the tyranny of convenience, try more often to
resist its stupefying power, and see what happens. We must never
forget the joy of doing something slow and something difficult, the
satisfaction of not doing what is easiest. The constellation of
inconvenient choices may be all that stands between us and a life of
total, efficient conformity.
Tim Wu is a law professor at Columbia, the author of “The Attention
Merchants: The Epic Struggle to Get Inside Our Heads” and a
contributing opinion writer.
:::
mögen das
BerenstainsMonster mag das.
If you are talking about voting in elections (as opposed to voting with a wallet), I’m eligible to vote in two countries. In one country, I vote every opportunity because it’s a good system with no assault on privacy, no barriers, no exclusivity, no voter intimidation. You need not even be a citizen. In the other country it’s a shitshow in just about every aspect you can consider. It’s a moral duty to vote but the gov takes many steps to hinder you and block you. Luckily influence is not limited to elections. You can vote every day with your wallet.
I don’t simply neglect to vote in the shitshow of a broken election system. I write letters to civil liberties orgs and politicians to say why I am not voting. Because if I were to vote, it would send a misleading signal (that the voting system is working).
When I do vote, I also write letters to those I am voting against to state why they lost my vote.
if you don’t vote any other action becomes meaningless in the us.
US elections are a battle of huge war chests. What if Elon Musk and Peter Thiel did not vote? What if they continued to dump fortunes into the republican war chests (along with Russia) among their various other manipulations? Musk and Thiel’s influences does not lose effect if they neglect to cast their own drop-in-the-ocean votes. There is no dependency or association between the war chests and how a particular individual votes.
If that’s still unclear, consider that Musk and Thiel’s influence is not self-influence. It’s influence on other people. It’s important to realize this because all non-enfranchised people have an opportunity to indirectly influence US policy by boycotting republican feeding corps. People in Ukraine can boycott FedEx and UPS on the basis of their ALEC contributions (ALEC funds republicans). You cannot reason that such a boycott is “meaningless” on the basis that Ukrainians do not vote in the US. If that were crippling enough to UPS, UPS would dump their ALEC membership to keep Ukraine business. (FedEx is a bit different.. hard-assed; they would likely shrug off the boycott, keep ALEC, and cut their nose off to spite their face).
money is only effective as the voters who react to it.
Money is always effective because you always have voters.
It can’t literally make votes it can only advertise.
Of course. The job of the money is not to make votes, but to influence the pool of voters. Advertising works wonders on people. Voters and influence on voters are independent variables, both of which you will always have.
The most stark demonstration of money buying politicians seems to be with AIPAC. It happens often enough that a US politician who goes against Israel gets ousted that there’s even verb for it: AIPACed. AIPAC blows a fortune on the campaign of whoever runs against anyone who opposes Israel in any way -- and they apparently get their way every time.
Also interesting to note that most American Jews are liberal democrats who oppose AIPAC. But what can you do against a massive war chest like that?
Center Field: ‘AIPACing’ AIPAC: The new anti-Zionist, annihilationist dog-whistle
The ground is shifting. The peer pressure is growing. The elites are wavering.By GIL STERN STERN TROY (The Jerusalem Post)
Well to be more accurate, boycotting is the practice of fighting harmful use of money by witholding money. Of course that stands to reason. If your money spent in a certain way is doing harm, you can prevent the harm your money does by not putting it on the harmful path.
I’m not sure what specifically you mean by getting people to reason better (whether you are talking about voting w/money or voting on the ballot in that context). Of course ads work. Political campaigns have started leveraging the same manipulation by ads that works to get people to buy goods and services.
What we certainly know does /not/ work is people thinking they are immune to ads. Everyone thinks that, and marketers prove them wrong over and over again. Advertising is specifically designed to exploit vulnerabilities in the human mind. You have no hope of creating an advertizing-immune population. It would be an ocean-boiling type of endeavor.
Political ads are not designed for targetting unpersuadables. Over the very long term propaganda that over and over blames undocumented people for problems starts to take a toll which could pull someone out of the unpersuadable demographic. But to a great extent they influence pursuadable voters in swing regions.
You say you would not switch to voting for Trump, and yet the sole reason Trump took power in 2016 was precisely due to advertising. Read about Cambridge Analytica and Peter Thiel. If Peter Thiel had not introduced Cambridge Analytica to the Trump campaign and bought Facebook data, Trump would not have taken power in 2016. THAT is how important advertising is. C/A master-minded indentifying the most important pursuadables, did a deep analysis of exactly what issues would be of interest to those individuals, and targeted them surreptitiously.
I strongly recommend you watch the PBS series “Hacking your Mind”. This episode in particular:
pbs.org/video/weapons-of-influ…
Hacking Your Mind | Weapons of Influence | Episode 102 | PBS
Marketers and politicians hack into your autopilot system — learn how to fight back.PBS.org
Global Donut Days 2024 - Wednesday is online day
)
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
Writing contest
I'm part of a small team launching Tractor Beam, a new fiction publication dedicated to optimistic visions of the future loosely related to soil, farming, agriculture, etc. We're doing an open call for short stories for our first issue. Details here
More details / updates on judging etc, on instagram: [@tractorbeam.earth] (instagram.com/tractorbeam.eart…)
Tractor Beam | Bringing SciFi Down to Earth
Radical visions rooted in soil coming early 2025tractorbeam.earth
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
It's called Tractorbeam Earth because it's a quarterly publication run as a sweepstakes by Tractor Beverages, Inc.
Tractor Beverages is a corporation in Coeur d’Alene, ID that sells canned beverages through Amazon and Walmart, correct?
I'm writing a book on how environmentalist themes in The Lord of the Rings are relevant for the modern movement to confront the climate crisis
This summer I read The Lord of the Rings to my eight-year-old and was struck by how much the themes continue to be relevant for the modern environmentalist movement. Ents destroying Isengard (the industrial power) is the classic example, but there's so much more. Mordor as an imperial, extractive power. Hobbits regenerating the land after it has been degraded. Gimli trying to preserve the Glittering Caves of Aglerond. And of course, growing trees symbolizing renewal and prosperity. So, I decided to write all these themes down, and compare them to instances where similar things are happening today.
I just reached a milestone in the writing process and wanted to share a sample my work so far! Please take a look and let me know what you think.
mögen das
Atelopus-zeteki und ShaunaTheDead mögen das.
your Bayesian yacht is an outlier adn should not be counted
What Sank the Bayesian Superyacht in Italy?
A Times investigation has found that an unusually tall mast, and the design changes it required, made a superyacht owned by a British tech mogul vulnerable to capsizing.Jeffrey Gettleman (The New York Times)
How often have you heard or read the phrase „we can’t play $UNIT any more because of rule changes“? Too often for my liking.
There is no unit you can’t play in your game of tiny fighting men. It’s your game! You play what you want. The only limiting factor are your opponents.
Sure you might not be able to take some units to an official tournament but that is a different beast. That’s the […]
I wanna play the game. I wanna talk about units without having to constantly hear how bad they are.
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 3rd November 2024
Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)
New for him, I'd wager, but I think ESR is treading a well-worn path: i.e. a huge weirdo gets himself in trouble but then finds favor with terrible people, and ultimately suffers from audience capture.
Edit: I was wrong, it's not new (hat tip to @Soyweiser)
@techtakes Back in 2007 I was a guest of honour at Penguicon. ESR was there and we got talking. As of 2007 he was all-in on all the insane "Eurabia" conspiracy theories and islamophobia. If you'd taken his word salad and substituted "jews" for "muslims" Julius Streicher would have hired him as a columnist in a split second. (That's when I added ESR to my list of "people I will not share a platform with".)
He was somewhat less cray-cray in 2003.
FOSDEM 2025 – Social Web Devroom – Call For Participation
The Social Web Foundation is pleased to announce the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025, and invite participants to submit proposals for talks for the event.
FOSDEM is an exciting free and open source software event in Brussels, Belgium that brings together thousands of enthusiasts from around the world. The event spans the weekend of February 1-2, 2025 and features discussion tracks (“devrooms”) for scores of different technology topics.
The Social Web Devroom will take place in the afternoon of Saturday, February 1.
Format
There will be two available talk formats:
- 25 minutes – for bigger projects, followed by 5 minutes of questions.
- 8 minutes – lightning talks on smaller or newer projects, in groups of 3, followed by 6 minutes of combined questions for the group.
Topics
The Social Web Devroom is open to talks all about the Social Web AKA the Fediverse, including:
- Implementations of the ActivityPub protocol or ActivityPub API
- Clients for ActivityPub-enabled software like Mastodon
- Supporting services for the Fediverse, like search or onboarding
- ActivityPub-related libraries, toolkits, and frameworks
- Tools, bots, platforms, and related topics
Important dates
- Submission open: 1 Nov 2024
- Submission deadline: 1 Dec 2024
- Acceptance notifications: 10 Dec 2024
- Final schedule announcement: 15 Dec 2024
- Devroom: 1 Feb 2025
Submissions
Submit talk proposals to pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2025… . Select “Social Web” from the “Track” dropdown, and include the length of your talk (8/25) in the submission notes.
Code of Conduct
All attendees and speakers must be familiar with and agree to the FOSDEM Code of Conduct fosdem.org/2025/practical/cond….
Contact
Questions about topics, formats, or the Social Web in general should go to contact@socialwebfoundation.org.
Matthias Pfefferle hat dies geteilt.
Solarpunks do not use detergent pods
First of all, detergent pods are for dummies who cannot measure the right amount of detergent for a job and those who don’t know that water hardness is a factor. They are for convenience zombies who cannot be bothered to think. So from the very start, pods are not for solarpunks.
Someone told me they had a problem with their dishwasher because undisolved gelatin sacs were gumming up their drain. The linked article goes into clogs. This article (if you can get past the enshitification) says there is research on an environmental impact by pod sacks. So that’s also antithetical to solarpunkness.
So do it right. Fuck pods. They cost more anyway. Buy powdered detergent if you have soft water (or if your dishwasher has a built-in water softener) and use less (to avoid etching). If you have hard water, either use liquid detergent or just use a bigger dose of powder.
Do Dishwasher Detergent Pods Really Clog Drains? Here’s The Truth!
Dishwashers have become an indispensable part of modern households, making the task of cleaning dishes a breeze. However, the convenience of dishwasher detergent pods has raised concerns among consumeAnna (HomeScale)
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
In the past couple months Google has become quite hostile toward front-ends that previously made it possible for Tor users to reach their content. And I don’t have a good connection so I can’t do videos anyway.
But indeed, it’s hard to find proper detergent. I have to go to a big store of a big grocery chain to get it. But it’s worth it on the basis of price alone. Buying a couple kilos of powder gives the most loads for the money. IIRC the pods were twice the cost of powder when comparing a promotional sales price on pods.
(edit) Oh, but speaking of youtube, video rBO8neWw04
(which I have a saved a copy of) goes into pods. The guy makes an interesting point: pods discourage the use of detergent in the prewash. Though I think he over stresses that.
In the us, Aldi carries store brand liquid, and last I heard Walmart has powdered in the store brand but that requires giving money to Walmart and they may have stopped selling it since
Though in my experience the powder sometimes gets too much moisture in it and turns into a brick rendering it unusable anyway
If you use a convenience option, use the strips. If not that, use powder. They reduce container waste and shipping weight.
Also, better to lead your argument with your point, not shaming your audience. Maybe folks have mobility issues and pouring is hard.
Yeah, the neverending search for greater convenience is largely a net negative... Save for accessibility, which is almost always helped by more convenient options for things.
I have a smart home setup because it helps with my sleep disorder. Someday it'll be Home Assistant, but for now it's via the Google Home ecosystem.
How do strips compare cost-wise? I've not seen them in stores and have no experience with them in terms of how well they clean
Hmm at least in my home they're comparable that I didn't notice, but I'm fortunate that I wouldn't notice unless the price is extremely different. There in a box like dryer sheets, which I don't generally use.
They clean the same in my experience
Most powdered detergents contain high amounts of salts which aren't particularly good for anything downstream of your dishwasher.
I'm unsure of a salt-free dish detergent, but I can gleefully recommend Oasis Biocompatible Laundry Detergent for everyone, but especially anyone with a septic or greywater laundry system. It cleans great and breaks down naturally into plant food.
Oasis Biocompatible Cleaners « Bio Pac Cleaning Products
» Oasis Biocompatible Cleaners | A family run biodegradable cleaning products company since 1991Bio Pac Cleaning Products
I recall someone in #chemistry (on freenode) talking about measuring detergent. He could have been a nutter, but stressed the importance of measuring the right amount, saying get a scale and weigh it according to the manual.
The manual for one of my machines is shit.. says look at the program table for detergent amount - then it’s omitted from the table. But what was useful was the manual said what the numbers meant. The lines marked “15” and “25” are for 15cm³ and 25cm³. The brim is 40cm³ and the prewash cup is 5cm³. Those are volumes, not weight. So I calculated the weight I needed at one point and IIRC it turned out that 15g of powder came out to 15cm³ (lucky me!). I don’t recall how I figured out that I needed 15g.
Anyway, these are the variables that influence the amount of detergent to use:
* load size (some manuals make that a factor, but it’s unclear why because it’s always the same amount of water in the tub. The guy in #chemistry seemed to think it was important)
* water hardness
* program selected (I have ~6 or so programs plus a ½-load button, so effectively 12; some have a prewash cycle, some not)
* type of detergent
Some of the short programs imply that slow solving detergents (tablets) should be avoided.
I still have not figured out what the ½-load button really does. Manual just says press it if you have less than half a load to save on water and power. That’s it. WTF? So I asked the manufacturer and they repeated the same useless answer, but said fill only 1 rack. WTF.. which rack? I wanted to know what the ½-load button actually changed the program so I could use it wisely. How does the machine know which rack I chose? I think the “load only one rack” answer from the manufacturer is bullshit. I’ll probably sprawl out my partial loads. The manual should be telling people how much water is used with this setting. I have no idea how it saves on energy since the program choice dictates a fixed water temp. Maybe it just comes down to the fact that it has less water to heat. In any case, I should probably use less detergent on partial loads but the manual doesn’t give the calculation or even enough info to be able to calculate it.
Too much detergent → etching (and waste of detergent)
Too little detergent → repetition needed, which wastes water, energy, and detergent
If you don’t care about etching, then using too much is probably not a big deal.
As someone who uses standard detergent and not pods:
Fuck the language used here. Dear god. "Dummies" "convenience zombies". I guess nobody has mobility issues or accessibility needs. Or perhaps someone is so deep into their depressive spiral that the moderate convenience offered by pods is the difference between them doing their washing at all or not.
I agree with the message here but absolutely fuck this holier than thou gatekeeping bullshit.
GDI, pods seemed really good on the surface: liquid detergent with less water to reduce the amount of carbon used to transport it.
I'm no material scientist but I suspect they probably could have made pods out of materials which are actually biodegradable under normal conditions but chose to use this liquid plastic junk instead to save a buck.
I think liquids are heavier to transport than solids because solid detergent is more concentrated (no water). Liquid detergent (which comes in all viscocities) still has its place: for people with hard water. But apart from that I think solid detergent is the best for the environment.
There are those solid tablets which are like powder pressed together. Sometimes those are in a plastic wrapper that needs to be removed before use (yikes), and sometimes they are in a disolving gelatin like the liquid pods. But I guess the sacks of powder need not be as thick as the liquid ones.
The U.S. Southwest Offers Blueprints for the Future of Wastewater Reuse
The U.S. Southwest Offers Blueprints for the Future of Wastewater Reuse
No country is immune from water scarcity issues—not even wealthy countries like the United States. Population growth and climate change are stretchingFreddie Clayton (ZNetwork)
Challenge: Commandeer time itself as the maximum Solarpunk
This green housing trend is booming — but not for the middle class | Passive houses are designed to be as energy efficient as possible. But they come with a high price tag.
The article is of course about the US situation, where the small scale and one-off nature of passive houses may be increasing costs.
Access options:
* gift link - registration required
* archive.today
mögen das
ShaunaTheDead mag das.
For anyone with a work ethic but more time than money, an earthship is a stunningly efficient passive home designed in the 70s that uses rammed earth tires covered with adobe as walls, thermal mass to maintain heat, and giant windows to bring in light. The roof is designed to drain into water cisterns, and grey water (kitchen, bathroom sink) is used to water crops grown inside a beautiful inner garden. Its fully ready to be integrated with PV.
Here's an example if you want to see one of the many that people have built. Here is some more analysis of the viability.
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.m.youtube.com
Indeed, but a lot of earthship building is just rough manual labor useing cheap or free materials. It doesn't take specialized tools, although they will save you time.
Effort is something the poor have to supply much more of than the rich to reach a steady state, but with the above design its possible instead of out of reach.
GameCamp Munich (#gcmuc) 2024 — Nachlese
Stoppt mich, wenn ihr den schon kennt: „Kommt ein Arzt auf das GameCamp…“
Am Wochenende war also in München in den Räumen des SAE Institute das GameCamp München, #gcmuc. Der SAE Campus, das gleich mal vorneweg, ist ziemlich geil. Da würde sogar ich noch einmal studieren gehen, selbst Betten haben die. Weil das Studierendenleben halt, außerhalb der Medizin und dem Recht, auch Schlaf erlaubt.
Willkommensrunde am Sonntag
Vom „Gefühl“ her, war das #gcmuc ein echtes Camp im Geiste und Sinne der BarCamps. Das konnte man an vielen Stellen sehr stark fühlen, und dieses Gefühl hat das Camp so sehr viel besser gemacht, als es (leider) heute bei vielen dieser Veranstaltungen der Fall ist.
Da ist der Eintritt. BarCamps und die kleinen und großen Geschwister dieses Konzepts sollten immer zugänglich sein. Dazu gehört, klar, sich Venues zu suchen, die den Herausforderungen einer diversen Teilgeberschaft entgegenkommen. Dazu gehört auch, einen Code of Conduct zu haben, der es jeder Person ermöglicht, teilzunehmen. Und dazu gehört der Preis. BarCamp4Profit ist immer scheiße, wenn dann aber noch Preise um die 60€ auf die Teilgebenden zukommen, dann ist das halt auch schädlich für die Zugänglichkeit.Etwas Sport vor dem
Bei der Führung durch die Venue
Einer von vielen genialen Ausbildungsräumen im SAE Institute
Max und Matthias bei ihrer Lieblingsbeschäftigung.
BarCamp Urgestein Nils war auch da.
Mit 25€ war das #gcmuc super genial platziert. Sponsoren waren da (ein Teufelskreis: teures Camp, weniger Besucher, weniger Sponsoren, muss teurer werden), das Essen war endgeil (dazu gleich mehr), und ein T-Shirt gab es auch dazu. Ein 10€ Level für jene, die es sonst nicht stemmen könnten, gab es auch.
Die Willkommensrunde war verdammt gut gemacht. Keine blödsinnigen Hashtags (sorry, Regensburg), stattdessen gab es regen Austausch in allen Ecken, man lernte sich kennen, sprach miteinander. Und das trotz, wenn die Zahlen bei den Sessions zu „Introvert in…“ etwas aussagen, einem doch eher introvertierten Teilhabenden-Spektrums.
Die Sessions waren ebenfalls extrem geil. Was wieder zeigt, dass wenn man ein gutes Camp baut, gute Menschen gute Sessions machen. Es ging nicht nur um die „harten“ Teile des Computerspiels sondern auch um viele „soften“ Dinge, wie Sexismus in der Branche, wie man als Introvert:in in ihr weiterkommt, Finanzierungsideen, Planung, und halt, ganz außen am Rand, meine Session zum Thema „Games in Health, Health in Games“ welche sich als Diskussionsrunde an die Fragen der Gesundheit im Spiel und spielerischer Gesundheit wandte.
Bild von Ivi, yours truly bei der Session zu Spielerischer Gesundheit
Die Session war gut besucht und wurde auf Antrag einiger am Sonntag („Qualitätssonntag“ wie wir das nennen, weil weniger Besucher:innen, aber extrem hohe Qualität) nochmal wiederholt. Mit einigen Wiederholungstäter:innen, aber auch vielen neuen Gesichtern beim zweiten Mal.
Jetzt zum Essen.
Essen war genial. Genug für Veganer:innen und Vegetarier:innen, im Allgemeinen mehr als genug. Pizza und Salat zum Mittagessen am ersten Tag, Kaffee und Kuchen, Burger von der Hamburgerei (welche, wir erinnern uns, mich letztens per Anwalt der „Verleumdung“ bezichtigen ließ, weil ich ihnen auf Google Maps nur vier Sterne gegeben hatte. Aber das ist jetzt vergeben aber nicht vergessen) am Abend. Am zweiten Tag gab es zum Mittagessen Wraps, genau nach meinem massiven Rant wie Geflügel zur Antibiotika-Resistenz Krise und damit wahrscheinlich zum Ende der Menschheit beiträgt. No shade, fand’s nur lustig.Sogar Toffifee gab’s zum Kaffee
Früchte auch.
Die Wraps am zweiten Tag
Aber ein Camp wird, vor Allem, daran gemessen, was eine Woche später noch davon da ist.
Für mich sehr viel. Neue Freunde? Check. Mehr als nur ein paar. Ein neues Projekt, an dem so um die acht dieser Freunde teilnehmen? Check. Viele geniale Diskussionen und Konversationen auf, neben, und nach dem Camp, die auch meine Meinung zu Dingen fundamental verändert haben.
Herausheben muss und will ich auch die Präsenz der IG Metall. Ich habe mich mit dem genialen Metaller Falko Blumenthal (Link to Shitter, sorry, jemand mit X-Zugang, tretet den bitte mal in’s Fediverse zu kommen) draußen lange über Gewerkschaft, Arbeitskampf, und warum ich es nicht „Rechtsruck“ nennen will, unterhalten. Ungelogen, eine der besten Unterhaltungen zu diesen Themen in den letzten Jahren.
Kurz gesagt: das GameCamp München war ein „echtes Camp“ im Geiste und Sinne der Camp-Ideale. Großartige Menschen, beste Orga ever, geniale Location, super gutes Essen, ein Klima des Miteinander, sehr wenige Selbstdarsteller:innen und viel mehr Teilgebende. Sowas kommt nicht aus Zufall. Es ist das Produkt harter Orga Arbeit und guter Entscheidungen dieser.
In einer Zeit, in der mehr und mehr BarCamps schließen müssen, weil die Leute und die Sponsoren ausbleiben, und in der die Besuchenden immer älter werden, weil Profit und Profilierung sich in den Weg des Campgedanken gestellt haben, ist das GameCamp München ein strahlender Stern am Himmel dessen, was geht, gehen kann, und möglich ist.
Freue mich auf 2025. Und, hey GameCamp… warum nicht Fediverse? Eh? Macht mal!
SAE Institute Munich - study creative media in Munich
The world’s first non-English speaking SAE campus and the first SAE location in Germany opened in Munich in 1986. The newly relocated campus is situated in the south of Munich near the river Isar.SAE Germany
Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster
Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster
Supposedly technologies like AI and digital payments make our lives easier. In reality convenience is an illusion used to sell us automation-driven accelerationBrett Scott (Altered States of Monetary Consciousness)
mögen das
aramis87, und Lasslinthar mögen das.
I walk into a Walmart and buy a thingamabob. I get to at least inspect the package for damage first, then pay for it and walk out in ~30 minutes or so.
I order something from an online source, I don't get to inspect the product first, I gotta wait a day or three or whatever, and there's no guarantee I won't have to send it back because of damage, wrong size, wrong color, whatever...
Tell me, which one is faster again?
Edit: You also got porch pirates out there...
mögen das
TVA mag das.
That article's perspective sucks IMO. It is not the technology that is the problem in this case. The distance traveled to the meadow on foot versus the suburbs in the car had nothing to do with the technology or lack thereof. The person decided this was the normal they wanted and where they chose to live.
The fact is that this is cultural. You're willing to work a job that is an hour's drive away because you choose to take the job.
The one constant with technology is specialization. Things are going to increase in complexity unless civilization collapses. When noticeable shifts happen like with AI, many people groan at the additional burden of change. This has always and will always be the case, especially for people that are overworked and their livelihood put at risk from a technology they do not understand and struggle to learn. AI is especially troublesome because it is extremely complex and difficult to understand just under the surface of the near useless subscription services and basic publicly accessible tools.
Ultimately, the issue is cultural. You must stop working for free and stop treating corporate social media like a form of self promotion. I expect my job description to contractually state what my responsibilities are. If I answer phone calls for anything off the clock, I have a two hour minimum pay for my time. This culture of responsibility without compensation is a massive problem, as is acceptance of "it's just the way things are" mentality. Unplug from all corporate nonsense and think for yourself. Then push others to do the same. Only take a job that is close by, or move. Find a better job and don't accept abuse. It is a cultural problem.
Often it's a bit difficult to make an abstract point out of examples. You seem to be countering those examples with today's zeitgeist, the exact thing the article is looking to counter.
The person decided this was the normal they wanted and where they chose to live.
This would be true if all else were equal, but it isn't. Society built roads. It had to tear down housing to build the roads. The house prices went up because corporations bought up the housing stock and are using it to manipulate rents. None of that was the "choice" of the farmer. One cannot just opt out. "oh no thanks. I'll just take efficient public transport and we can just rip up the road network. Just give me one of the houses we build through more dense development."
Things are going to increase in complexity unless civilization collapses
Why? Many folks today are talking about making society resilient over efficient, with respect to COVID and supply chains. This is a direct ask for reducing complexity. The 15 minute city is an ask to reduce complexity. Complex societies fail.
Ultimately, the issue is cultural.
The issue is hegemony. Every company claiming to benefit you are building a fiefdom and you are the bricks. You can work around it but you have to beat the products and services you buy into submission. This is true of phones, computers, cars, TVs, subscriptions, AI, and increasingly how it asks more and more of us. People say "the things we own end up owning us" but no one says that about a fridge, or a washing machine.
The world without complexity was only able to feed around 2 billion humans. To suggest that the complexity supporting the modern world is unwanted or unneeded is to kill 6 billion people.
Are you an advocate for authoritarianism and the death of 6 billion humans to achieve the simplicity of the past? The vast majority of goods and trade are for food and the raw materials of life produced in the largest and only areas of the planet capable of sustaining this population.
The world without complexity was only able to feed around 2 billion humans
Bold claim. Why do you think complexity itself can improve efficiency? I can easily tank efficiency by adding complexity. Complexity also necessarily destroys resilience. Every time we've tried adding complexity, all of those societies disappear, from ancient Egypt to Rome to the Incans.
mögen das
TVA mag das.
::: spoiler Logistics is complexity in action.
Supporting infrastructure is equally complex. It was the consolidation of so many industries into a global supply chain that only has a few players that makes the present cost effective. The forces at play are far greater than you realize in scope and scale. Your pitching a post civilization dystopia of death and misery. It's bearings, chemistry, metallurgy, medicine, the list goes on and on.
The future you want will exist a long time from now, but not in the way you imagine it. Biology is the ultimate technology. It is where we are headed a millennia from now. Once the age of scientific discovery is long past and science is nothing more than an engineering corpus, a complete mastery of biology will mean we can create ecosystems with all life and technology existing within elemental cycles balance. At that point, human life will likely simplify in many ways and evolve in others.
Simplification is always regressive and backwards. When complexity seems insurmountable, the solution is to refine and reform. In science, eliminate all the ridiculous names associated. It's not Maxwell's equations; they are the magnetic equations. Reform stupid conventions like using the term light speed to mean the speed of causality. We need massive educational reform at all levels accounting for the wellbeing of career educators while also modernizing to account for video recording technology. We need to make housing a fundamental unalienable human right and the exploitation of survival needs like food and housing should have massive consequences.
But no, pushing against complexity is nonsense. It shows you're naive of the use cases. I recommend you start daily watching Anton Petrov on YT or Odyssey. He covers a white paper research summary daily. You'll learn many applications of technology and this complexity. Watch Frazier Cain for more depth on present astronomy, and watch Isaac Arthur for a view of what a distant future might look like. Read Asimov's books like The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun to see a glimpse of a realistic future.
The forces at play are far greater than you realize in scope and scale
I know it's a turn of phrase but you don't know me. I realise the scope and scale of how the world works, thanks.
Your pitchingThe future you want
You're assuming a lot given what I've said. It's not an "in effect" thing either. You talk about actual systems in a way which invokes Gandalf magic when they work like Penn and Teller magic. You assume the article and any defense of it is naive, but you're missing the simple reality that sometimes you can simply remove huge amounts of complexity and get a better result.
The internet, for example, is not magic. There were several competing communication protocols, from circuit switched systems to fax to pagers. The internet is able to do all of those jobs, and it is a simpler system than the ones which existed in the past. It moved some complexity around, and therefore removed a bunch of complexity which was unnecessary.
This increase in simplicity is also called the second industrial revolution.
Simplification is always regressive and backwards.
Perhaps you prefer the term decomplecting? Complexity is an overloaded term, but you literally follow up "simplification as a regressive thing" with a bunch of simplification which is effective. Since we are sharing reading lists, perhaps a bit of Dr Fatima and Think that Through on Youtube might help you. It's clear you do not understand the article nor my points.
Have you considered that culture is merely the collective reaction of a group of humans to a given set of environmental conditions? I don't disagree with you, but you're needlessly simplifying the problem.
You’re willing to work a job that is an hour’s drive away because you choose to take the job.
Why did I choose to take the job? One major reason is that I have an automobile. If I didn't have the automobile, I wouldn't have been able to take the job. Culture comes about as a result of a series of incentives and motivations that shape human decisions. Change the access to technology, and you would change the culture.
You seem to believe that a solution will come from people simply choosing not to do certain things. This is partially true, but its more accurate to recognize that you need to first create the material conditions that enable people to actually have a viable choice.
It is not the technology that is the problem in this case.
It's the combination of the technology and the social structures that continually reproduce the culture that you're complaining about. If you think the culture is going to magically change without altering the material conditions first, you're gonna have a bad time.
mögen das
TVA mag das.
Yeah sure, I can get on board with that. I just wrote a great 500 word response that I canceled accidentally. Fml I'm too tired, I'll try to give a quick summary.
Basically, by framing it as a cultural issue that hinges on the decisions of individuals to reject the dominant culture, you're putting the focus in the wrong direction. You're essentially trying to change human nature, instead of trying to change the specific conditions that cause humans to behave this way at this specific point in time. Fighting aggressively against the entrenched cultural realities is brave but futile.
Instead of focusing on dismantling the culture that is already firmly in place, you need to change the conditions for future generations so they can have the opportunity to develop less problematic cultures. In order to do that, you need to analyze the dominant culture and understand it, but you don't necessarily need to waste all your energy fighting its manifestations. Instead, you simply try to create spaces where people can construct subcultures which are protected from the dominant culture. Eventually, if the newer cultures prove to be elegant solutions to universal human problems, they will inevitably take over.
But again, I understand and agree with what you're saying. It just only applies to a handful of people who are inherently revolutionary in mindset. For the vast majority of humans, they don't have the ability to consciously and independently reject and disentangle from the dominant culture. Thus, the ultimate solution lies in altering the material conditions of society such that the dominant culture begins to change from the inside out.
::: spoiler I understand the frustration. Sorry it got lost. No hurry, and reply any time or not at all. It's all good.
I come from growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. (Atheist now). I'm intimately familiar with the blindness of belief systems and how futile they are to fight against. The best way to counter them is by example and drawing people into asking their own questions. Often we need to tell them the questions to ask in such a way that they feel as though they constructed the questions you lead them to ask. Any other form of opposition becomes a fruitless partisan opposition as a foreigner. I'm physically disabled now and my survival pivots on my understanding of this dynamic. This is not hyperbolic.
It is from this perspective that I say, you can't fix stupid in anyone else. You can only fix yourself and show others what life is like when you do not conform. Like, I rode a bike everywhere until I lost 160 pounds. Several friends and family started riding bikes as a result. I can do anything on Linux and it has caused others to question and try it. I never watch ads for anything and have no subscriptions of any kind, and yet I watch interesting edutainment. Few people understand or are willing to setup a network like mine but still find it interesting that it is possible to live without corporate influences or intrusion, especially when I have no desire to make frivolous purchases like nearly anyone on corporate social media. I think for myself because I am disconnected and that seems to be rare in the present world. I tend to be both a realist and a hopeful futurist.
The way I see it, you don't make change through authoritarianism or pocket isolationism. You'll never win the world through a partisan operation or mindset. At best you might win half, but even then, the game is already rigged by the last person that played this hand generations ago. You make real change by living it, talking about it, and making it cool. You've got to post and talk about upcycling, about the benefits of riding a bike, about reusing electronics and hacking around, you talk about how you make food without commercial recipes, your fermentation experiments without buying anything, your balcony or window seal gardening with seeds from you food refuse. If you post and talk about these things, you motivate yourself and others to change. When everyone whines at work about their commute, you tell them how great your 6 mile route down the beach was this morning and how there wasn't a person anywhere around, or you tell them about the mediative value of the hour and forty five minutes it took you to ride 33 miles like you've done for the last two years. You might be surprised at how often you find your coworkers joining you on those rides to work as you pass by their merging path from home, I certainly was for those two years before I got a better job closer to my home.
Fighting them only makes you the enemy or opposition, and oppose you they will. If you want to make change, you must show people what is possible, lead by example, travel the harder path but do it in style or just your style. This is my style. The only more direct and effective path is to get a law degree and get into political office... IMO
Ultimately, we are likely on the brink of major change in the next few decades. I think the big one will actually be from M-type asteroid mining. A single object is likely to hold more mineral wealth than everything humanity has accessed since the Holocene began. Dwarfing the wealth of the world will have massive consequences. Earth's resource scarcities are due to gravitational differentiation (all heavy elements sunk in the center of Earth when it was fully molten). Accessing the core of a differentiated body in near Earth orbit will drive humanity into space in an unprecedented shift of exponential growth and geopolitical upheaval. Wealth disparity will be massive, but the focused pressure and exploration will shift away from the general population. We will just be stuck with the aftermath of the climate change caused by space men. It is likely to be about how the 1920's were still an era of bicycles steam trains and horse carriages while the 1930's was the sudden era of the automobile for only slightly above average people. The 2030's will be the beginning of the space economy and mining colony. It is a much less hyped aspect of the current push into space, but it is the primary unspoken objective if you read between the lines, especially at what Japan has been doing to explore space mining and prospecting... but that is just my big picture hunch about where things are going and why billionaires are kinda acting like doomsday prepers in private and in business... It's probably a good time to build agrarian skills too tho
culture is the collective reaction
No it's not. Iceland has a 4-days work-week, average annual working hours in Germany are 1.3k, in France 1.5k, in the US 1.7k
This is like if France had a 4.5-days work-week and Germany a 4-days work-week. Are those countries lacking the level of technological advancement that US has?
Source: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o…
The set of environmental conditions is different in each country, and indeed for each individual human. The level of technological advancement only comprises a small piece of that picture.
Because of the recent rapid technological advances in the past century, essentially every society worldwide is struggling to adapt to the new technological landscape. But due to all of the other contributing factors, the struggle is slightly different for everyone.
Just looking at the average work hours is a miniscule people of the puzzle. How much money are people making in exchange for their time? Do they have to pay for Healthcare? What types of jobs are most common? What is the historical context of the population that has led them to this point? Were they working more or less 100 years ago? Did they have more wealth 100 years ago? What is the current rate of mental illness and disability? What is the historical and current prevalence of religion?
You could continue with questions in this vein more or less infinitely. And the answer to each question would vary substantially depending on the nation/community/individual that you chose to focus on. And each answer would potentially have an impact when trying to analyze how the current culture came about.
To answer your single hypothetical question, I think one of the primary contributing factors to the reduced working hours for many wealthy western European countries when compared to the US is the relative level of financial and social inequality along with the taxation rate. For France et all, the tax rate is significantly higher and the level of social support is correspondingly higher.
This reduces some of the necessity of working more hours, because the variability of income is reduced. If low-income people still make enough money and have enough benefits to make a decent life, they don't need to work so many hours just to survive. Also, high-income people will have a reduced incentive to work so many hours because the overall financial benefit is relatively smaller when compared to the US where you can avoid taxation to a much greater extent.
Well, the thing is, it could make it easier but not whilst under those who want to control with it.
Technology is not inherently bad or good, it is a tool and like all tools, those who design and make it can do so for more control or less control.
If technology was truly in the hands of the people, everything was open source, changeable and collaborative then it would make our lives better.
Currently it can't and won't in all ways.
mögen das
TVA mag das.
mögen das
TVA mag das.
It's just stressful, full of boring complexity and annoying. First world problems, I know.
it continues to baffle me how many people either view tech as inherently bad or inherently always good, like holy shit how hard is it to recognize that some things are good and some bad, and that how something is used matters?
i like having a phone, it's very nice to not have to worry about being able to talk to people and getting lost in the forest, i like being able to find answers to questions without spending 4 hours at the library.
I wouldn't like being constantly contacted by people from my workplace, but that's not somehow the fucking phone's fault, that's the fault of it being societally and legally acceptable to harass people like that.
mögen das
TVA mag das.
societally and legally acceptable
Only because you allow it to be. It's either illegal or unacceptable in a lot of places
A lot of good stuff is happening in the fediverses!
A lot of good stuff is happening in the fediverses!
A new post at privacy.thenexus.today/good-st…
Including:
- DAIR-tube, the PeerTube page of Dr. Timnit Gebru's's Distributed AI ResearchCenter
- The Website League, an island network that's taking a very different approach
- GoToSocial v 0.17, continuing their focus on safety and privacy with interaction controls.
- Piefed and the Threadiverse
- Bonfire's new Mosaic service along with their work on Open Science Network and prosocial design
- Letterbook
- Bluesky and the ATmosphere's continued momentum
And that's not all! The last section of the article talks about Erin Kissane's work on revealing the fediverse's gifts, Weird and the Leaf protocol, Newsmast Foundation;s Channel.org and the Patchwork fork, Flipboard bringing The19th and hundreds of other publishers to the Fediverse, Bandwagon, a proof of concept integration of Faircamp into Hubzilla, Mastodon 4.3 ...
There really is a lot going on!
Viel zu früh
#death #friends #mopped #schlossplatz
(Replies to this Toot will become comments on the blog - if approved.)
It’s October 2024 and I’m sitting here in my creative maker studio, wearing a bright t-shirt that excitedly bellows “MQTT 25”! To my left is a top-end Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer, that uses MQTT internally for communication. On my wall are a variety of connected gadgets that display data or that light up in response to MQTT notifications. Node-RED is sitting quietly on a Raspberry Pi in the corner, processing MQTT messages as they come and go.
Today is the 25th anniversary of the publication of what would become the initial MQTT specification.
The co-creator of MQTT is my good friend Andy Stanford-Clark, who announced the event on Mastodon:
Happy Birthday, #MQTT!
25 today 🙂 xxx— Andy S-C (@andysc) 2024-10-22T06:13:54.991Z
I’m not going to post a complete history of the past two (plus) decades of this technology, but for those just joining… what the heck is MQTT, and… how did I come to be involved?
Connecting things
Here’s the tl;dr – MQTT is a network protocol that was originally designed to enable small devices on lightweight or patchy networks (we’re going back to the late 1990s, remember!) to publish and collect / receive data. Say you’re an environmental monitoring device in a far-flung area where there’s occasional network coverage, and you have limited power available – it’s important that you use power and network bandwidth and availability efficiently, to send sensor information (in a minimal, but useful, format) to a larger system. MQTT is a great fit here. It turns out that a highly optimised and efficient protocol like this, also scales up extremely well. As networks got better (faster, more stable, and more widespread), and as we moved through a period of greater access to efficient computing devices for edge-of-network, home automation, and in-your-pocket use cases, MQTT remained highly valuable. The simplicity of the protocol is very powerful.
What’s my connection?
In 2001 I got my second full-time job after university, and joined IBM as an IT Specialist – a consultant working with IBM software, primarily on-site with their customers, implementing what we used to call business integration, message queueing, application connectivity, middleware etc.
Within a few years I was pretty experienced within the IBM middleware portfolio – I’d been helping to implement banking payment systems and other projects using “full size” IBM MQ. Around that time, IBM was starting a marketing push around something they would ultimately call Smarter Planet. I’d gravitated towards IBM’s fantastic Hursley Lab as an engineering hub in the UK, the home of MQ and also, the base of Andy Stanford-Clark, who was one of my mentors. A bunch of us from there started to hack with this MQTT thing, which was at that time externally published as a protocol, but little-known or implemented outside of IBM. I became something of an accidental advocate for MQTT, and looking back now, I count that as my first “developer relations / developer advocacy” role, even though it was informal and my day job was something different1.
Looking back in this blog, I was posting about MQTT regularly back through ~2009-2011, which was really the period where we started to make progress in socialising the protocol beyond smaller IBM implementations. We went from having a small number of message brokers – the enterprise and very expensive IBM WebSphere Message Broker, and the excellent but closed-source microbroker and, also closed-source but freely-available Really Small Message Broker from the labs – to Roger Light‘s creation of the Open Source Mosquitto, which remains one of the more widely-used free implementations out there2. I was one of the folks who had the keys to the MQTT Twitter account and community website, and one of my goals as developer advocate was sharing and promoting all of the cool ways that folks were using the protocol3.
In 2011 I was heavily involved in IBM’s donation of its MQTT implementations to the Eclipse community, as the Eclipse Paho project. After I left IBM in 2012, I continued to have a strong connection, and I played a role on the Paho project through my next job at Cloud Foundry; but, after I joined Twitter in 2014 I needed to step back from formal involvement. That was the time at which MQTT went through formal standardisation, at OASIS and ISO/IEC.
Success and growth
It is not my place or part in the story to talk in depth about the different companies that have thrived in the past 15 years, and helped to make MQTT as ubiquitous as it has become, but it is truly one of my most proud personal achievements, helping this technology grow to beyond the walls of IBM – into an open protocol success story. Today, 25 years on, it is in many things and places you may not realise – hobbyists and makers use it, it’s used in (for example) Dyson’s air filters and their associated apps, in 3D printer control systems, in home alerting, and across industry and manufactuing. It’s almost certain that more than one of the apps on your phone right now, is using MQTT somewhere in the stack.
Andy Stanford-Clark recently did a “fireside chat” with our friends at HiveMQ. This is worth a look, and a much better place to learn more. HiveMQ also have a podcast series called The Unstructured Message that you can subscribe to for more!
youtube.com/watch?v=JYYo7ycQLu…
A small (but timely) update
As a small 25th birthday present to the community from me, I thought it was beyond time to forget about the old project account over on X4, and move us to a similarly open protocol and standards-based platform – Mastodon!
You can now follow @[url=https://fosstodon.org/@mqtt]mqtt@fosstodon.org[/url]
!
It feels like a long time, but also only yesterday – to celebrate our 25th birthday, we've joined the open social web. This is our first message posted on the Fediverse via ActivityPub!— MQTT (@mqtt) 2024-10-22T09:51:12.460Z
Here’s to the next 25 years (or more) of MQTT 🎉
Thanks to everyone – developers, users, enthusiasts across the community – for your support!
- One year, this cost me a bad PBC rating – I’d spent too much time on the fun community stuff over my client focus; early career lesson learned. ↩︎
- Roger made mosquitto after hearing Andy Stanford-Clark talk about his connected smart home at the very first OggCamp, in 2009; 10 years from the date the specification was created. ↩︎
- Weirdly, one of my most popular YouTube videos remains a 2009 clip of using MQTT and PHP together. It’s 15 years old! ↩︎
- If you are not off X already, please get away from there. ↩︎
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andypiper.co.uk/2024/10/22/mqt…
#100DaysToOffload #1C1A25 #787588 #C9C4DA #eclipsePaho #FCF8FF #history #hivemq #IBM #internetOfThings #iot #messaging #mosquitto #MQTT #openSource #openStandards #protocols #Technology
MQTT: the Smarter Planet Protocol
I’m at the SHARE conference in Boston this week. Earlier today I gave a talk about one of IBM’s significant software announcements of this year: the forthcoming WebSphere MQ Telemetry f…The lost outpost
Happy Birthday, #MQTT!
25 today :) xxx
juli
Als Antwort auf jeffhykin • • •Not so sure about that. Their happiness index and "culture" are a marketing stunt to lure tourists.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_c…
expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bhutan
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)jeffhykin
Als Antwort auf juli • • •