@mick@cosocial.ca
@mick@cosocial.ca avatar

mick

@mick@cosocial.ca

Average middle-aged guy from various places in Ontario.

Collector of various nerdly interests.

Into #running, #books, #chess, #videogames.

At least a little bit #buddhist. Trying to lead an examined life.

I believe that we have the right to safe digital spaces where we can build communities free from corrosive capitalist influence.

Working to build a sustainable, non-corporate web as a volunteer with #CoSocialCa

Posts auto-delete after 2 months.

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

HeavenlyPossum, (edited ) to random
@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social avatar

When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation. I soaked up the vibes of a high-tech, utopian future. I internalized the trajectory we were on was good, that we had reached the End of History. There might be a few bumps on the road, but the direction was inevitable and the destination was inexorable.

It turns out that the fastest a human being has ever traveled was 39,897 kilometers per hour. That was the crew of the Apollo 10 mission returning to earth. That happened on 26 May, 1969.

Fifty-four years ago. We peaked more than half a century ago.

1/of several

mick,
@mick@cosocial.ca avatar

@HeavenlyPossum thank-you for sharing this thread. It makes me feel less alone with these thoughts to see them articulated by others.

mick, to random
@mick@cosocial.ca avatar

I am not a good plant parent.

I like plants, but have a tendency to forget about them and make them unhappy with me.

In order to ensure our new Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree lives a long and happy life, my wife picked up a two-pack of soil moisture meters from Amazon.

FWIW, they seem totally adequate for measuring soil moisture. Nothing remarkable about them, though there are reasons to suspect their overall quality.

But the packaging is a treasure.

https://a.co/d/8x2xahH

1/7

mike, to random
@mike@thecanadian.social avatar

Serious question: Do carbon offsets actually work? I know Google is my friend but are there any good links that drill down into it? Having a package delivered today and Canada Post claims it's a carbon neutral delivery.

mick,
@mick@cosocial.ca avatar

@mike Better than nothing, I suppose, except that they can literally go up in smoke: https://carbonherald.com/forest-carbon-offset-project-in-canada-damaged-by-raging-wildfires/

I’ve seen some reporting that some offset projects are better than others in terms of measurable impact.

mick,
@mick@cosocial.ca avatar

@mike Saw this today and thought it was a good answer to your question: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/study-carbon-offsets-arent-doing-their-job-overstate-impact/

And I was revisiting this one, which seems directly relevant: https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368

So to answer the question "do carbon offsets work?” we have to understand the job they’re supposed to do.

Do they help us mitigate the ? Maybe not enough.

Do they help us maintain the fiction that we can continue with business-as-usual? This seems to be what they do best.

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @dansup your contributions to the growth of the Fediverse are greatly appreciated. Haters gonna hate.

    mick, to mastodon
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    A couple of questions for the Mastodon admins out there:

    • what techniques do you use to load-test an instance?

    • when you’ve made major changes to an instance (e.g. move to a new server) what sort of tests do you do before re-opening to the world?

    mick, to PostgreSQL
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    Anyone out there have success with a Managed PostgreSQL 15 live DB migration?

    I can not get the thing to work at all and oh boy have I tried.

    ben, to random
    @ben@werd.social avatar

    Again: Mastodon blocking referral information means that organizations do not have the data to make the argument to move themselves to the network. It's a surefire way to make sure publishers spend more time on Threads, etc, instead. Extraordinarily counterproductive.

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @ben What do you mean by “blocking referral information?”

    Teri_Kanefield, to random

    deleted_by_author

    •
    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @Teri_Kanefield so grateful you’re on Mastodon doing this. Thanks!

    mick, to random
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    I just backed the new book/audiobook from @pluralistic on Kickstarter - 6 days to go.

    Timely. Quite looking forward to this.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation?ref=thanks-copy

    rolle, to Finland
    @rolle@mementomori.social avatar

    This is my favourite view on my lake running path. https://www.strava.com/activities/9576125943

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @rolle I am so jealous.

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @rolle Many! None near where I am able to get in my daily runs, unfortunately.

    Where I’m at in Ontario is not without its wild spaces, but I’m in a suburb and they all look roughly the same - plenty of concrete.

    mick, to climate
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    “The time has come to voice our fears and be honest with wider society. Current net zero policies will not keep warming to within 1.5°C because they were never intended to. They were and still are driven by a need to protect business as usual, not the climate. If we want to keep people safe then large and sustained cuts to carbon emissions need to happen now.”

    https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368

    mick, to random
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=vwSRqaZGsPw

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    Holy crap there was a ton of incredible music released in 1971.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_in_music

    mick, to random
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    4.1.5 upgrade complete… we good?

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    Looks good!

    mick, to mastodon
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    A few months in and my verdict is that is pretty swell.

    On the other place, I found I was mostly tuning in to see what everyone was outraged about.

    There’s no shortage of that here, but the overall experience is more like: “let’s see what cool shit the people I keep in my pocket are getting up to today.”

    Thank-you, pocket people.

    stux, to Cat
    @stux@mstdn.social avatar

    Only pillows here

    A cat sitting casual between a load of cat-like pillows

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @stux Same vibe:

    chrismessina, to random
    @chrismessina@mastodon.xyz avatar

    Well shit... Meta just entered the W3C Social Web Incubator chat:

    "What can Meta do to support the fediverse? How can we ensure our entry to this ecosystem is a positive thing that helps grow the community? How can we support this standard? These are the questions in my mind, and I'm really keen to start discussing this with all of you."

    — Ben Savage, Meta

    https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-swicg/2023Jul/0032.html

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @chrismessina

    breadandcircuses, (edited ) to environment

    Too many people, even here on Mastodon, seem to be in denial about how bad things are likely to get on our current path. I suppose I can understand how they might wish the situation was different, and perhaps some of them aren't psychologically or emotionally ready to handle an honest look at the dire future we face, so they simply avoid it.

    But I worry that almost everyone will be unprepared for the collapse of our fragile modern society when it comes.

    See -- https://www.salon.com/2023/07/09/ecosystem-collapse-could-occur-surprisingly-quickly-study-finds/

    And also -- https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3m3k3/scientists-raise-alarm-over-risk-of-synchronized-global-crop-failures

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @jackofalltrades @YaRo @breadandcircuses 💯 And it’s hard to comprehend why this isn’t the only thing that anyone is ever talking about or working on.

    There is nothing more critical. If we could really treat the emergency with the attention that it demands we could at least produce some less-bad outcomes.

    We’re literally headed towards a mass-extinction event and calling it by its name is considered “alarmism.”

    mick, to random
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar
    mick, to random
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    There was a period a month or two at the start of the where it really seemed like we were all pulling together; looking out for one another.

    People banging pots and pans at night to honour doctors and nurses.

    Random acts of kindness for the retail workers keeping us fed.

    Messages like this started popping up on sidewalks, windows, and painted rocks planted in gardens.

    A too-brief glimpse of what “community” could mean.

    Things really took a turn, didn’t they?

    gemelliz, to random
    @gemelliz@mstdn.ca avatar

    Reminder:
    The "Freedom" Convoy donated $460,000 to Pierre Poilievre's leadership campaign.
    That's why he won't renounce them. They bought him. Imagine a so-called national leader aligning with a group of domestic terrorists."

    @pvralien
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/convoy-protest-conservatives-donations-1.6582507

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @ned @TSAguilar @gemelliz @pvralien Worked out for the last guy…

    mick,
    @mick@cosocial.ca avatar

    @gemelliz @ned @TSAguilar @pvralien Green shirt here really adds to the look. Man of the people.

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