Notices by Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz), page 101

@HerraBRE guess who disproportionately pays normal taxes? Poor people, especially in countries like Aotearoa (NZ) that have #GST (Goods and Service Tax), and don't have fair taxes on wealth and business, capital gains, inheritance etc. What funding waste management from normal taxes *doesn't* do is allow customers to get their food cheaper by buying it from companies with more eco-friendly packaging, sending a cumulative market signal to the companies that don't.
@humanetech

@aral BTW I should add that getting that government to adopt #NZGOAL and CC licenses was still a big improvement on the kinds of privatization that might otherwise have happened. For example the #LINZ map data used in #OSM, could have been spun off into an #SOE (State-Owned Enterprise), and made available only to purchasers of proprietary, commercial licenses. Worst-case scenario, the copyright of public map data could have been sold into private ownership, to "open" it to the private sector.

@LWFlouisa aww shucks :-}

@clacke in Aotearoa (NZ), most cities collect glass separately from other recyclables, and ask citizens to seal paper inside plastic supermarket bags before putting them in the unsorted recycling (we've just banned single-use plastic shopping bags though, so ...). Some cities are starting to test having a green bin for food scraps and garden waste, which is sent to large-scale windrow composting areas.

@mlg of course that's the PR key message. How else would you make people join forces with the corporations who are trashing our habitat for short-term profit, against the environmental activists who are desperately trying to prevent that? Educating people that businesses are taxing the public, by making us pay for kerbside collection of rubbish they create for private profit, might help inoculate folks against that kind of PR.

@ckeen how long has the law been in place? Is it actually enforced? Are the penalties pathetically small fines that are cheaper than what it would cost them to comply, or reduce their waste production?

@piggo see:
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/101409459118556551

@z428
3) web hosting doesn't cost as much as people seem to think. In the early 2000s #Indymedia sites paid about $100 a year for hosting, and In 2013, you could get hosting for a year for less than US$100:
http://static.pinboard.in/prosperity_cloud.htm

That's twenty espresso coffees or beers at US$5 each. Businesses will those kinds of overheads have no excuse for #DataFarming their visitors. It happens to increase returns for #VultureCapitalists and corporate shareholders.
@pootz

@z428
2) web hosting doesn't cost as much as people seem to think. In the early 2000s #Indymedia sites paid about $100 a year for hosting, and In 2013, you could get hosting for a year for less than US$100:
http://static.pinboard.in/prosperity_cloud.htm

That's twenty espresso coffees or beers at US$5 each. Businesses will those kinds of overheads have no excuse for #DataFarming their visitors.
@pootz

@z428 I agree that we need more experiments in funding online services. Especially when FB is estimated to cost about US$1/per/year. But:
1) making the world's knowledge available gratis, to anyone who wants to learn from it, is one of the most incredible achievements of our civilization. Not a pathology to be cured.
2) Wikipedia continues to prove that its possible to provide free access to a *very* heavily used website without putting up a paywall or using ads ...
@pootz

@sophia sure, sorry :)

@charlag we don't know exactly, true. We know for certain that they didn't eat any industrially produced junk food, or that required refrigeration or preservatives (other than salting, drying, or smoking), or anything that came from a distance greater than they could walk (at least not regularly). A certain amount can be inferred from studying the diets of contemporary gatherer-hunter peoples, and archaeological evidence. See:
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/101408593414560559

@dch there are solutions. I remember seeing a #TEDTalk about biodegradable packaging made using wood waste and mushroom mycelium:
https://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic?language=en

But at long as implementing them costs more than not implementing them, only niche social enterprises will bother. The costs of creating persistent waste needs to be pushed back onto the balance sheet of the businesses doing it. Then change will happen.

@HerraBRE the regulation I'm proposing would include rules for making sure businesses identify themselves on the products they manufacture, along with the identity of every handler between them and the customer. But what's important here is that once they know they have take financial responsibility for the end-of-life disposal of the waste they profit from, business will go #ZeroFast so fast it will make your head spin.

@HerraBRE so your priorities are
1) convenience for businesses and customers
2) livable biosphere

This is precisely why the costs that businesses are busy externalizing onto everybody else (ecosystems, the public, governments etc) need to be internalized. Because the only way to make some business people care about the problems they create, is to make those problems cost *them* money. Then solutions come thick and fast.

Hat-tip to water fluoridation evangelist #KenPerrot, on whose blog I learned about Matthew's article:
https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/the-problem-with-scepticism/

"Intellectual humility is the psychological construct that can generally be defined as 'understanding the limits of one’s knowledge.' Those with higher intellectual humility are more likely to be open to opposing viewpoints".
- Matthew Facciani, 'Why Identifying As A Skeptic Can Be Problematic'
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/accordingtomatthew/2017/11/identifying-skeptic-can-problematic/#cjxxXhHxB9tBplvA.99
#Skeptics #CounterClaim

"Intellectual humility is the psychological construct that can generally be defined as 'understanding the limits of one’s knowledge.' Those with higher intellectual humility are more likely to be open to opposing viewpoints".
- Matthew Facciani, 'Why Identifying As A Skeptic Can Be Problematic'
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/accordingtomatthew/2017/11/identifying-skeptic-can-problematic/#cjxxXhHxB9tBplvA.99
#Skeptics #CounterClaim

Weyrich might be getting #Paleo diet theory confused with the #AtkinsDiet. Apparently this is pretty common:
https://paleoleap.com/paleo-can-learn-diets/

Being #vegan, I'm not totally down with Paleo theory, especially the idea that animal protein is necessary for human health. But I do think that eating more whole foods - local where available - and less refined junk food, is good for anyone's health.