Brendanjones

Brendanjones, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to climate

Still can’t get over the fact that an editor of the Financial Times said that we need to do away with #capitalism in order to deal with the #climate. If that’s not a sign of mainstream economics/finance finally waking up to the reality of the situation we’re in, I don’t now what is.

edit to add link (thanks Boud): https://archive.ph/2023.06.29-113742/https://www.ft.com/content/86d71297-3f34-48f3-8f3f-28b7e8be03c6

Brendanjones, 7 months ago to Hydrogen

Emissions from computing are apparently higher than for air travel, and that’ll only go up in the coming decades.

“As a society we need to start treating computational resources as finite and precious, to be utilised only when necessary, and as effectively as possible. We need frugal computing: achieving our aims with less energy and material.”

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.06642

#ClimateChange

Brendanjones, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to instagramreality

I really love the #filters here on #Mastodon. Unlike on previous corporate-owned platforms I’ve used, Mastodon filters allow me to hide one major source of traffic: the US.

English is my primary language and America and its culture floods the anglosphere.

I’m Australian and Dutch. I wish the best for Americans but I have no need to be kept up to date on every detail of the latest horrible thing happening in that country.

See the pics for a sample of my US filters.

Brendanjones, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to mastodon

I’m doing some quick #Mastodon user research:

Before seeing this poll, how did you think posting or replying ‘Unlisted’ works?

Boosts appreciated!

Brendanjones, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to climate

Why are we still pretending we’re going to stay below 1.5C? This article feels criminally misleading.

“The prospects of the world staying within the 1.5C limit on global heating have brightened owing to the “staggering” growth of renewable energy and green investment in the past two years”

We’re already periodically hitting 1.5C this year, so how long do we actually have to reduce emissions in order to stay under 1.5C?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/26/staggering-green-growth-gives-hope-for-15c-says-global-energy-head

#ClimateChange #climate #climatecrisis

Brendanjones, 10 months ago to Futurology

Not only will #Threads not be launching in the EU (presumably because it'll be sucking up so much personal data that they can't make it GDPR compliant), but now the The European Court of Justice has agreed with Germany’s anti-cartel watchdog that Meta can't share harvested personal data between Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. That ruling will also apply to Threads.

A great day for consumer protections.

https://www.thelocal.com/20230704/eu-court-deals-blow-to-meta-in-german-data-case/ #Meta

Brendanjones, 10 months ago to random

Damnit, why is Matt Huber being given airtime on #degrowth again? He’s repeating the same mistakes and straw man arguments that he’s been corrected on repeatedly for years now. I respect his takes on capital and labour but he’s so obviously ignorant of ecology, and remains so despite some earnest efforts to educate him otherwise.

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/degrowth-climate-change-economic-planning-production-austerity

Alright, a thread taking apart Huber’s terrible article:
1/

Brendanjones, 9 months ago to climate

Fossil fuel companies need to be acquired so they can be phased out.

“Rather than cashing out flows of income as profits, a public energy company could – and would – reinvest cash flows in delivering a decarbonised grid and lowering bills. Lower capital costs for publicly-owned companies, including the lack of a need to pay out dividends, only bolster the fiscal and economic case for public ownership to deliver this urgent task.”

https://labourlist.org/2023/08/energy-profits-oil-gas-clean-energy-renewables-public-ownership-climate-crisis/

#ClimateChange #FossilFuels

Brendanjones, 7 months ago to Energy

“Renewables will be world’s top electricity source within three years, IEA data reveals”, from https://www.carbonbrief.org/renewables-will-be-worlds-top-electricity-source-within-three-years-iea-data-reveals/

Is anybody with #energy / #renewables / #energytransition knowledge able to explain the details here? How do we get to majority renewables in three years when our electricity production mix currently looks like this: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked

Very happy if that happens, just seems like a stretch.

Brendanjones, 3 months ago to fediverse

Help, I have an #Activitypub / #fediverse question: if you own your own domain, can you use that one domain for hosting accounts for multiple fediverse apps?

For example, if I owned bjones.com (alas, I do not), could I have mastodon@bjones.com, pixelfed@bjones.com, etc? #fedihelp

Brendanjones, 1 month ago to random

Now that quote posts are coming (confirmed by Renaud https://oisaur.com/@renchap/112299860209222424 ), I think it important that we have agreed upon acceptable usage.

Quote posts can be an amazing tool – there's a good reason they're so requested – but they also have the potential to add massive amounts of toxicity.

Gargron recognised this years ago: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/99662106175542726

So here's my proposal for the Do's and Dont's of quote posting on Mastodon. Please boost!

🧵 Thread time:

Brendanjones, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Bulgaria

Yes! Amazing news! The EU Parliament just voted through the EU Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore our badly degraded ecosystems. The law will set legally binding targets for nature restoration in member states.

Next stop, writing it into law at a country level.

Suck it European People's Party, suck it European Conservatives. Some of us actually want #biodiversity.

https://www.politico.eu/article/parliament-backs-new-nature-rules-in-blow-to-eu-conservatives/

#EU #Nature #NatureRestoration #GoodNews

Brendanjones, 10 months ago to random

Does anyone know how #Bookwyrm works? Am I understanding it right that each server has their own booklist, and reviews? If so, are there any upsides to this that I’m not seeing? Seems to me this is one piece of software where you don’t want the content decentralised. If I’m looking up a book I’d like to see as many reviews as possible.

I really want to get off of #Goodreads and I’d love to move to the fediverse, but #TheStoryGraph is looking like a better option…

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to Trains

In ‘news that should surprise nobody but it’s nice to have it quantified’: high speed rail is less carbon intensive than short-haul flights, even when you take into account the full life cycle (including construction).

In other words, we should be banning short-haul flights and investing in trains.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136192092300384X?via%3Dihub #trains #climateChange #rail #transport

Brendanjones, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to threads

#Threads won’t support Activitypub or the Fediverse at launch, but it’s apparently still coming.

“We’re committed to building support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, into this app. We weren’t able to finish it for launch given a number of complications that come along with a decentralized network, but it’s coming”

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-threads-app-wont-have-activitypub-support-at-launch/
#Meta

Brendanjones, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to climate

Do we get a prize if the line goes vertical?

#climatechange

Brendanjones, 7 months ago to climate

Great read (as always) from @hausfath on latest #climate temperature trends:

"Until recently, climate change was framed as an issue that would affect our children. Today it is nearly omnipresent, and it is impossible to ignore. And very soon, with the acceleration, we will experience even more of its effects: Ice sheets and glaciers will melt faster, extreme weather events will become more frequent, and even more plants and animals will be put at risk of extinction."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/opinion/climate-change-excessive-heat-2023.html?unlocked_article_code=MV7Te-BwrX01dDW9YN2x5i4liJ_txffN-7pATpfGL_WC8zVhXtr_JU-6g0GzGtHkwJeXVpDva6LsJulzgYNYhtdocm3bYx2f2XAZ0iWJjBCyuN4rCK-ilrHccUS9yD90VAfe156hv2dsKig2GNAQPOhRtemftQpsWoEH2Do5wbpAOsqFKLoslF2XMTbUm78egNN-0FWwIBPLwOENIXjyug_r5oR-nhVVtAf-8J0wx5YrL8AWd4rg7GXODDSQDCdU8evFlOL5djqlpOaS-AdjgmdK5m_CHhrblDdn1-GI1Rc4TKJhiSOLP-2Vmu-0YGPWZmyWiqnVV09PU3MubJzdXWI09rKmvYW5dvsL

Brendanjones, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to TeslaMotors

Y'know what'd be awesome to minimise the material footprint of cars? Standardised, modular battery systems.

Imagine: for your daily city usage you use a small battery with, say, 150-300km range. Then when you want to take your family on holiday you take your car to the local battery swap and install the 800km range battery.

Smaller battery means:

1. Lighter cars = less wear on roads & less danger in crashes
2. Cheaper
3. Lower material and environmental footprint

#EV #cars #Transport

Brendanjones, 7 months ago to Bulgaria

Yes, please. Wealth tax now.

I don’t know why we’d stop at 2%, though. Make it a marginal tax rate just like on income tax, and tax anything over €1 billion at 90%. What do we say, 10% on wealth over €100 mil, 20% over €200 mil, and so on upwards?

That would go a long ways to combating the current insane wealth #inequality.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/22/eu-funded-report-calls-for-wealth-of-super-rich-to-be-taxed-not-income #tax #eu

Brendanjones, 11 months ago to fediverse

Does anybody have info on how many followers each person on the fediverse has? I'm curious what the distribution of follows per person looks like here, and what that means for how information propagates here.

Especially in comparison to the other site. I suspect the follows-per-person distribution is far more egalitarian here. Which is a good thing.
#fediverse #mastodon

Brendanjones, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to mastodon

#Tips for the best ways to access #Mastodon:

Using Mastodon on mobile? I highly recommend using an app, and not the official one. My personal favourite is Woolly for iOS @woollyapp, many other great ones exist like Ivory or Ice Cubes.

Using Mastodon in your web browser? The native interface isn’t great, try elk.zone or phanpy.social on both mobile and desktop.

Using a computer and want an app? Woolly, Mona and Ivory are great options.

Brendanjones, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to mastodon

Filling your timeline on #mastodon as a new user is hard. I was just thinking about a hashtag discovery feature. What do people think about this? (Boosts welcome!)

Hashtags are a great way to get started without having to know specific people to follow. But even if you know what topics you like, it can be hard to know the exact hashtags used by the existing community here.

What about a feature where if you write in a hashtag, it gives you the tags most commonly used with that tag? Useful?
#UX

Brendanjones, 9 months ago to vegan

And we wonder why plant-based meat substitutes are sometimes more expensive than meat ...

"(from 2014 to 2020) livestock farmers in the EU received 1,200 times more public funding than plant-based meat or cultivated meat groups. In the US, the animal farmers got 800 times more public funding. The amount of public money spent on plant-based alternatives was just $42m (£33m) – 0.1% of the £35bn spent on meat and dairy."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/18/gigantic-power-of-meat-industry-blocking-green-alternatives-study-finds

#vegan #dairy #meat #agriculture #EU #plantbased

Brendanjones, 4 months ago to fediverse

I have a #Fediverse / #ActivityPub question: How suited is AP to sharing private content between people?

I was wondering this while reading (good read, I recommend): https://www.theverge.com/23990974/social-media-2023-fediverse-mastodon-threads-activitypub.

The idea is basically that we build Fediverse replacements for existing platforms. But so far, it seems that the successful Fediverse apps are copying open(ish) platforms like Twitter, or creating open versions of closed platforms (Pixelfed).

So what's possible, and what are the limits of AP?

#Question

Brendanjones, 2 months ago to climate

Blimey, we just hit 21.2°C global average sea surface temperature. First time that's happened in recorded history.

#climate