chema

chema, 4 months ago to SanFrancisco

How things are going in San Francisco: Garry Tan of #YCombinator fame and a local edgelord/centi-millionare/near-billionaire got drunk last night and wished for the "slow death" of a supermajority of our county's 11-person legislative body on Twitter by name.

It is a bad sign when anyone with the wealth equivalent to the GDP of small countries decides to get so emotionally involved in local politics. These folks can drop hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent campaigns like it's going out of style AND persuade their crew to do the same.

#SanFrancisco #sfpol

https://missionlocal.org/2024/01/garry-tan-death-wish-sf-supervisors/

chema, 11 months ago to random

If we sorted all San Francisco households by income, split them into five equal groups and calculated the average income for each group, we could look at inequality and income distribution patterns.

Conveniently, the US Census Bureau’s ACS estimates this almost every year. They call it the mean household income of quintiles.

Between 2019 and 2021, the average income of the poorest 20% of households in San Francisco dropped from $18,082 to $15,507. That’s a decrease of nearly $2,600 or -14%.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest 20% saw their income increase 10%, from $457,966 to $502,622. That’s $44,656 more, or almost what THREE of the poorest household make. The top 5% saw their income increase by 15%.

The poor got poorer and the richer for richer. #TrickleUp

chema, 1 year ago to random

The most frustrating thing about the mainstream environmental movement is how it effectively ignores the mitigating options with the greatest potential to reduce net global GHG emissions.

According to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report, reducing the conversion of natural ecosystems could exceed the contributions of wind energy and perhaps even solar energy. Carbon sequestration in agriculture and restoration, afforestation, reforestation aren’t too far behind.

Together, the mitigating options related to the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector could have the greatest impact in helping address climate change, but so few organizations are talking about it.

chema, 1 year ago to random

I’ve always considered the sweet potato in Polynesia to be the “smoking gun” when it came to Pre-Columbian contact between the Americas and the “Old World”.

Now, genetic evidence appears to back up this theory. The article below concludes:

“[We] find strong genetic evidence for pre-Columbian human trans-Pacific voyaging contact (at the turn of the twelfth century), contemporaneous with the Polynesian voyages of discovery in the remote eastern Pacific.“

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2

chema, 1 year ago to ai

When I was a kid, my dad had stacks of Fortran paper punch cards. Programming with punch cards on shared mainframes was a slow, deliberate process which required a lot of time, effort and coordination.

Things are really different today. You’ve got home computers and screens and graphic IDEs and all sorts of manuals and support you can lean on. You can solve problems in a fraction of the time.

Yet despite all these improvements, people are still working 40-50+ hours a week, but for even less money.

Better #technology has only improved the working lives of very few people.

Why would #AI be any different?

chema, 6 months ago to SanFrancisco

Protestors have blocked the 5th and Mission St intersection, preventing #APEC delegates from accessing the red zone here in #SanFrancisco.

chema, 1 year ago to random

I am conflicted by @mozilla content policies announcement. I appreciate that a lot of thought went into it, but I think they could be used to eliminate a lot of necessary social tension.

An example is their violent content policy: “Users may not share content that depicts abuse of humans or animals, or that includes excessively gory or violent imagery that…can disturb other users.“

I am a lifelong #vegetarian and I’ve been #vegan for 20 years. Photos of meat/dead animals disturb me. Am I to assume then that sharing this content will be banned in that instance? And if not, why not?

Also, nothing on who will be #moderating content. Is it volunteers, #Mozilla staff, external contractors??

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/social-content-policies/

chema, 3 months ago to random

San Francisco taxpayers are helping make a few nonprofit leaders very wealthy. Nearly $800k a year in compensation for the CEO of the "Low Income Investment Fund"? Seriously?

Now watch them overwork and underpay their front-line workers.

Nonprofit industrial complex indeed.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/nonprofit-ceo-contract-pay-18667516.php

chema, 10 months ago to random

Welp, found out I have low bone mineral density for my age. Speaking with a specialist to hopefully pin down causes, but biking and genetics are starting to seem like good candidates.

chema, 6 months ago to random

These next twelve months are going to be one long electoral season, aren't they?

And I am not only talking about the presidential election. Local candidates, local ballot measures, regional, state. It's going to come every which way.

chema, 10 months ago to Rilakkuma

I awoke this morning to find a hundred people camped on the sidewalk because some Japanese cartoon bear is on a "USA tour".

Many haggard-looking youths in folding chairs (and a couple of inflatable mattress).

I guess sit-and-lie is cool is you're looking to buy exclusive #Rilakkuma merch.

A bunch of people camped out on the sidewalk, looped around the corner.

chema, 1 year ago to random

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike effective tomorrow, Tuesday May 2 at 12:01AM.

Despite constant growth in the Entertainment Industry, the screen pay of WGA members has declined 14% over the past five years.

Read announcement here: https://www.wgacontract2023.org/announcements/wga-on-strike

#WGAStrong #InternationalWorkersDay #Union

chema, 11 months ago to SanFrancisco

I just saw the anti-union propaganda that the California Academy of Sciences is pushing on its workers. They're holding captive meetings and training management on anti-union talking points. So sad that yet another nonprofit decided to fight their own workers instead of being neutral.

The election is coming up and I really hope that workers win and vote in a union.

https://www.calacademyworkersunited.org/

#VoteUnionYES #CalAcademyWorkersnited #Union #sfpol #SanFrancisco

chema, 7 months ago to random

Thanks to uBlock Origin and @protonvpn's Netshield, this is YouTube for me half the time now. No regrets about blocking ads though. Just reset adblock filter and VPN connection and YouTube is none the wiser.

chema, 1 year ago to fediverse

Having full ownership of my posts, no matter how trite they may be, is part of the reason why I chose to run my own #fediverse instance. #Bluesky seems like an interesting experiment, but I am done for the time being with corporate social networks.

RT: https://mastodon.online/users/mastodonmigration/statuses/110273442030673147

chema, 29 days ago to random

“Based on survey and census data, our best estimation is that San Francisco metropolitan area residents would consider a household that makes about $700,000 per year to be rich.“

LOL. If I made a quarter of that I’d feel hella rich.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/how-much-money-to-be-considered-rich-bay-area-19420480.php

chema, 10 months ago to threads

I think there's a good chance #Threads will be really popular and that's is to be expected.

And it is also to be expected that #Meta will inevitably trip up and alienate its users, who will then flee en masse to Yet Another Corporate Social Network.

It has happened before and it will happen again.

For my part, I have no plans on going anywhere. Continuing to build the #fediverse is a worthwhile goal that also happens to be in my interest.

One silver lining: maybe Threads will the coup de grâce for #Twitter. Wouldn't mind if #Bluesky fizzled out too.

chema, 10 months ago to SanFrancisco

The fact that dozens of San Francisco police and firefighters live outside of California is making the news again. The count this time is 30 SFPD employees, including a commander, and 16 firefighters.

How folks that live in Alabama, Texas or Idaho can even pretend to have a meaningful relationship with San Franciscans is beyond me.

But hey, if you’re making up to $380,000 a year, I am sure you live like a king in those places. No worries about anything else.

Oh, and “only about 21.5 percent of sworn police live in San Francisco, according to the Department of Human Resources’ data — the lowest rate of any city department.”

#SanFrancisco #sfpol

https://missionlocal.org/2023/07/sf-police-firefighters-super-commute-out-of-state/

chema, 10 months ago to fediverse

The #fediverse does have a content #algorithm. It is the same algorithm you’d experience if you walked into a pub after a long day and started talking to whomever happened to be around or into a coffeehouse and made conversation with the person sitting next to you. It is a real-time, affinity-based algorithm.

chema, 1 year ago to random

The Bioregions 2020 world map might be one of the most amazing maps I’ve ever seen.

One Earth broke down the entire land area into 185 discrete bioregions organized within the world’s major biogeographical realms.

It’s a lot of fun and really educational to zoom in and see how they define different realms and biomes.

https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions-2020/

#Map #Bioregions #World #Nature

chema, 1 year ago to fediverse

Who are the moderators? How are they protected? How are they compensated?

These are some of the questions on the forefront of my mind when people clamor for better moderation in the #fediverse, particularly on the largest @mastodono instances.

#Moderation IS emotionally dangerous work and it should be treated as such. We shouldn’t protect people in the Global North only to endanger people in the Global South.

#Bluesky #Mastodon #Union

RT: https://todon.eu/users/jalcine/statuses/110299879520345295

chema, 3 months ago to SanFrancisco

This is the problem with the absurd wealth inequality that billionaires and centi-millionaires represent. Anyone is welcome to have political opinions; some will be good, some will be bad. But these folks can leverage their wealth to project their ideas across the voting population. They can effectively drown out other opinions and perspectives because money buys ad time and mailer after mailer and armies of canvassers and paid staff that others cannot match.

What is also crazy to me is how they’ve persuaded so many politically-naive individuals that they’re the ones that are challenging the status quo.

#SanFrancisco #sfpol

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/12/san-francisco-tech-billionaires-political-influence

chema, 2 months ago to random

Today's SF Chronicle article on the Mexican Museum really excoriates the institution. Maybe they can come back from it, but in the meantime, it looks like there will be more delays and uncertainty. Very regretful since we really do need a museum to highlight Mexican history and culture in San Francisco.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-mexican-museum-audit-19324002.php

chema, 29 days ago to SanFrancisco

Yet another Mission District political activist is being accused of sexual misconduct. Fucked up if true.

It isn't hard to treat people decently. But then again, it's about having power over people.

https://sfstandard.com/2024/04/26/sex-crime-allegations-san-francisco-democratic-party/

#SanFrancisco #sfpol

chema, 2 months ago to random

Many parts of the Bay Area are teeming with ticks so I am glad to see that there might be another way of reducing the risk of catching it.

https://www.wired.com/story/pill-kills-ticks-lyme-disease-babesiosis-anaplasmosis/