I was subscribed to the Mozilla newsletter with two difference email addresses, and getting the exact same mailshot but with a difference subject line for each. Kind of interesting, I guess they must do A/B testing on which subject gets more opens.
I am organizing a #Scheme coding competition where you have to build a static blog generator with a mystery feature (that will be revealed little by little in the next few months).
We have already one sponsor and are actively looking for other sponsors to reward the participants π₯ π₯ π₯ (goodies, cloud credits, books...).
Some of the calls for individual action on climate crisis don't take into account daily life for a lot of people in working-class towns in the UK. e.g. guilt shaming about driving a car, when public transport systems have been neglected for years.
Green new deal and green jobs could be a good positive framing I think.
At the moment, my view is something along the lines of:
- Do what you can as an individual, to the best of your ability - Don't be overburdened by guilt if you can't do it all - Be very conscious that not everyone is in a position to do what you think is 'doing the right thing' (including yourself) - The system is pretty rigged against doing the right thing, so ultimately the system is the one that needs to change - Individual behaviour change is probably a part of bringing about system change
Jacobin article starting with 'yes, capitalism has achieved all of [list of things], but here's some things it hasn't done'. It's a bad premise though - labour did these things, capitalism just distributed the results badly. Also, assumption that only capitalism would have been able to organise labour to make these advancements is a bad one too.
Microsoft used to score zero on repairability on their devices at iFixit, but are now actually touting repairability on one of their new products, saying that it's something that matters to their customers.
'Repair culture[...] is not a mere side effect of the development of industrial societies.On the contrary, it is one of the very few distributed and consistent niches of resistance against the transformation of all human creativity into quantifiable commodity.'
Felipe Fonseca talks about gambiarra and the culture of repair and how maker culture got co-opted into wastefulness and prototyping lots of new things.
Good news as EU formally adopts Ecodesign measures:
- As of 2021, all TVs, monitors, fridges, freezers, washing machines, washer-dryers, dishwashers and lighting products on the EU market will have to meet minimum repairability requirements - Manufacturers will have to ensure easy disassembly with commonly available tools. - Spare parts and repair information will have to be made available to professional repairers for a minimum number of years.
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I wrote a blog post two years ago about trying to fix some digital kitchen scales, and now one random commenter is giving advice to another random commenter with a problem. Cool how that can happen.
I saw a chameleon up close today, never have before. They're wild! Eyes that move independently of each other and all over the place. And it moved around like it was stop-motion animated, and had these funny little pincer hands with little fingers. It kept on sticking its tongue out almost as a way of wayfinding. Quite a character.
I felt sorry for it being cooped up like that though.
@Gina No... I didn't know in advance that they were going to break my heart. Not sure if that's better or worse! Good luck, if nothing else, it's all good life experience...