@bencourtice@aus.social
@bencourtice@aus.social avatar

bencourtice

@bencourtice@aus.social

bush regeneration. botany. banjo. beer. books. bolshevik. Bacchus Marshian. boy (he/him/hey you).

Occasional blog:
https://astherivergoesby.wordpress.com

Sometimes I review books:
https://www.goodreads.com/bencc

In a previous life I wrote for Green Left Weekly:
https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/482/about

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

pierstoval, (edited ) to random French
@pierstoval@mastodon.social avatar

Project manager: "What's technical debt? Explain it to me like I'm 6 years old"

Devs:

(source: "Richard Scarry's Storybook Dictionary" : https://archive.org/details/1scarryRichardStorybookDictionary/page/n56/mode/1up )

bencourtice,
@bencourtice@aus.social avatar

@pierstoval attribution: the pic is from Richard Scarry's "Storybook Dictionary", one of my favourites from early childhood

johnshirley2024, (edited ) to random

Even Nader is shocked into supporting Biden, by the prospect of fascism if he doesn't:

Ralph Nader, wary of Trump, offers to help Joe Biden win

The political firebrand, long estranged from Democrats, fears fascism will be on the ballot in 2024 and it must be defeated.

--from today's WaPo

bencourtice,
@bencourtice@aus.social avatar

@johnshirley2024 I'm shocked to hear Nader is still alive! He must be ancient.

raymondpert, to France

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    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @raymondpert I used to have a French workmate. One day I was lamenting to him about how racist Australia is. He rebuked me and said it's really good compared to France! Case in point.

    raymondpert, to Bulgaria

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    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @Hawkmoon @raymondpert comparing cost of recycling to cost of landfill dumping isn't the full story. Also consider savings in non-renewable fossil fuel extraction, reduced emissions, cheaper electricity.

    Not to say there aren't challenges or that landfill is an acceptable outcome. But lots of things have problems. Disposable consumer electronics. Plastics. PFAS substances. I doubt that solar cells, which are basically inert materials and have a useful life of decades, are the big problem.

    DameHolly, to random
    @DameHolly@aus.social avatar

    It's 30 degrees in September, this is totally normal.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @DameHolly Enjoy the summer we are having now, because calendar summer is going to be an inferno methinks

    bencourtice, to random
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    Well, this explains why I have started seeing posts again from someone I blocked. And other problems. Mastodon appears to be a bit underdeveloped. Shame because it has so much potential.
    https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/08/mastodons-mastodonts/

    bencourtice, to Bulgaria
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    As death toll is expected to reach 20 000, a couple if salient points need to be made.

    1. Yes, it was that delivered the catastrophic storm
    2. We can be pretty sure that the US/ destruction of the legitimate, stable government of Libya in 2011 played a large role in the dams that burst having missed maintenance for 20 years

    Climate change and imperialism. Two things we have to stop.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @NatureMC yes.The uprising was genuine, and it was complex. Like in Syria. Pretty sure NATO made it worse in Libya, though.

    Adam_Cadmon1, to random
    @Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

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    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @raptor85 @Adam_Cadmon1 @ch0ccyra1n oh look a Malthusian with an ahistoric tale of population thatnever really happened, what a surprise

    eniko, to random
    @eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

    Proposal: stop saying stuff like "we're destroying the planet" and change it to "they're destroying the planet", to pivot away from self blame when most of us don't have the power to change things and definitely would if we could, and towards laying the blame squarely on the elites propping up the fossil fuel industry so we can focus our collective anger on those actually responsible

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @deflarerOfClouds @eniko you are a brilliant illustration of the problem. All the people who have been fooled to think that their failure to reach full veganhood and recycle every used tissue paper is the cause of the world's environmental disasters. Not the giant corporations who imprisoned us in a system where almost every choice we make it's easier, often inevitable, that we choose one of their products.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @deflarerOfClouds @eniko Theoretically, many could choose to live on a diet of organic rice and lentils in a rodent infested squat wearing dumpster dived apparel (and many actually have done about that). It wouldn't and didn't change anything. And humans are social animals, so that kind of self-ostracism takes a huge personal toll. And makes it almost impossible to have meaningful discussion with the rest of society about how we're going to deal with the real perpetrator, capital.

    davidho, (edited ) to random
    @davidho@mastodon.world avatar

    If you have a meeting scheduled at 8:00 and someone writes: "Can we shift the meeting forward 30 min?" Do they want to meet at 7:30 or 8:30?

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @davidho "forward" in this context usually means towards you, ie closer in time.

    It implies a view that the future is facing you, I guess. Some cultures, I have heard, consider the future to be behind us (unseen), while the past is in front of us because we can see it.

    cdamian, to BurningMan
    @cdamian@rls.social avatar

    How it started... how it is going

    Burning Man festival-goers trapped in desert as rain turns site to mud Tens of thousands of ‘burners’ urged to conserve food and water as rain and flash floods sweep Nevada Edward Helmore and agencies

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @cdamian Very biblical, huh?What happens when you ignore the prophets

    bohemianchic, (edited ) to random

    Just thought I should pin something as I engage with more people here.

    Before you follow me, I want you to know of my critical stance towards identity politics, at least in its current form. IP is a tool of the elite to further divide the working class, complicating our collective fight against capitalist exploitation. This division makes it increasingly challenging to reforge unity within the working class and redirect our focus towards the overarching structures of class oppression. This is not to say that we should look the other way when certain identities are being attacked. But if we get caught up in endless debates about what terminologies to use, we're only helping those who truly oppress us.

    We often get sidetracked by virtue signaling. While we're preoccupied with checking if a company has LGBTQ+ members or women on their board of directors or in C-suite positions, we often overlook the fact that these same companies might be contributing significantly to the severe climate crisis impacting millions in less affluent nations or their child labour practices or even underpaying workers (men, women and queer alike) in the developing world. That's why engaging in IP is a losing game for us, the working class.

    NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR.

    If this doesn't sit well in your politics, it's probably better to unfollow.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @bohemianchic in theory IDpol should be a useful tool to examine non class based oppression and I'm fine with that. Sometimes in practice it looks a bit like building heirarchies of oppression, oppression olympics etc. And equally, making an identity out of "being an ally" and a certain amount of self-aggrandisement that goes with that.

    remixtures, to ai Portuguese
    @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org avatar

    #AI #GenerativeAI #Hype #BigTech #SiliconValley: "For the moment, it is only the cloud computing providers and chip manufacturers that are really minting money in the generative AI boom. Doubtless, Marcus will also be proved right that much of the corporate money thrown at the technology will be wasted and most start-ups will fail. But who knows what new stuff will be invented and endure? That is why God invented bubbles."

    https://www.ft.com/content/ed323f48-fe86-4d22-8151-eed15581c337

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @remixtures I don't know anything about God, but capital invented bubbles because there are few growth areas of "productive" investment in a saturated world market. "Productive" as in, physical or tangible commodities. On this situation speculation is attractive or perhaps just the only option. I wonder about how much of so-called AI talk is hype.

    Often it appears to me that it's the invention that leads to the bubble and hype, not the other way as per the quote. Bundling sub-prime mortgages into securities gave us the GFC. Need for untraceable, online "cash" to buy drugs etc gave us the #blockchain/ #crypto bubble and ensuing hilarity like #NFT.

    #AI is possibly more transformative, but I don't know that rendering large tranches of the workforce redundant is really a good strategy for capital growth, even in the medium term. #AI might produce commodities but it doesn't go shopping.

    timcake, to auscovid19

    Lots of people I know in Melbourne sick with “not-covid” at the moment. Some testing Neg on rapid tests, some not testing, various symptoms, generally runny nose, some sore throats, some fatigue, some fogginess ..

    Doubt anyone knows what’s going on. Try to stay safe.

    @auscovid19

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @timcake @auscovid19 "I-can't-believe-it's-not-COVID"

    felicitymartin, to Scotland
    @felicitymartin@mastodon.scot avatar

    I find dandelion-like flowers difficult to identify. I think these are mouse-ear hawkweed, autumn hawkbit, smooth hawkweed? and ??

    Probably autumn hawk it, a small yellow dandelion-like growing out a rosette of slim deeply serrated leaves.
    Possibly smooth hawk it, a small yellow dandelion-like flower rising above slim, serrated leaves.
    Unknown hawkweed / hawksbit / hawksbeard - a small dandelion-like flower with inconspicuous leaves.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @felicitymartin thanks for that. I've been finding one particular dandeliony thing here impossible to ID for a couple of years. Your pic got me on a different tangent and I worked it out as one of the Hawksbits is named after it, Scorzonera laciniatum.

    decryption, to random
    @decryption@aus.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @decryption You should be able to calculate which is likely to save you the most, based on electricity prices and your daily hot water use estimate. Or an energy assessor could do it. Ask at My Efficient Electric Home group on FB.

    Our heat pump hot water is still going ok after 10 years. Virtually free hot water cos we run it during the day while solar is generating. Would need much more solar to cover what a resistive element HWS uses.

    emmadavidson, to random
    @emmadavidson@aus.social avatar

    I'm over this hot chai weather and ready for some iced tea weather

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @emmadavidson part of me is there with you. The other part of me is reading about things like people being cooked to death by footpaths in the US heatwave and wondering what summer will be like here.

    bencourtice, to random
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    I get CWs on traumatic topics, but WTF is with the "food" CWs on this site? like isn't food one of the integral elements of a culture of sharing and welcoming and exchange? What's to hide?

    gwagner, to climate

    I appreciate a catchy lede as much as the next columnist, but do we really think this is the problem that'll fry the planet? The year is 2050, and the entire world will have decarbonized everything, except international shipping and aviation will still live in the fossil-fueled 2020?

    Methinks the slightly bigger problem is that none of the other 95% of current emissions are on their path to zero as fast as they should and could be.

    The peculiarity exists because the current United Nations accounting system is focused on emissions generated within a country’s territorial boundaries. Ships and planes that emit CO2 outside the jurisdiction don’t usually get counted.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @gwagner I have long thought it would make more sense to allocate responsibility for emissions at the well head or bowser, which might fix this accounting loophole at least

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @tschenkel @gwagner for Australia the figures on raw fossil fuels have been done, I think exported fossil fuels are 2 or 3 times domestic FF use emissions

    NatureMC, to aliens
    @NatureMC@mastodon.online avatar

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    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @NatureMC reminds me of...
    https://youtu.be/GpWJv7alqQE

    mhmck, to random

    The Russian terrorist state has destroyed the dam at Nova Kakhovka.

    Massive flooding of the Dnipro River is underway, downstream to the city of Kherson.

    This is a monstrous war crime.

    bencourtice,
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    @mhmck I think the occupiers in 1941 were the Nazis, right? And the Soviets (not Russians) were fighting them.

    bencourtice, to random
    @bencourtice@aus.social avatar

    Good news! Logging native forests to end by Jan 2024. Well I'll be interested to hear what's in the fine print, but on the face of it this is a long overdue acknowledgement of reality by the Vic government.

    https://theaimn.com/conservationists-celebrate-reports-that-state-government-will-end-native-forest-logging-by-the-end-of-the-year/

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