afterconnery

afterconnery , 2 days ago to random

From @pluralistic

The reason you can't buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/

ajsadauskas , 1 month ago to Fuck Cars

So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.

For those who wonder why Aussies think toll roads are a scam (https://aus.social/@LesserAbe@lemmy.world/112405373613706682), here's a great example of why.

"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.

...

"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.

"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.

"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/federal-funding-to-boost-victorian-road-link-by-3-25-billion-20240509-p5ii7b.html

@fuck_cars #Urbanism #Auspol #Vicpol #roads #UrbanPlanning #transport #cities #Melbourne #Naarm #Victoria #Australia

futurebird , 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

"The Why Files" is a youTube channel that regularly has videos with over a million views. They started as a kind of paranormal/fringe science channel that was mostly harmless, and that often debunked conspiracies.

But, they've moved beyond that in to material such as suppressed patents for cars that run on water. And treating climate change like it's a unresolved question. This has made their audience grow.

The things is they aren't just spitting lies. 1/

alice , 3 months ago to random

If, hypothetically, your kid sets an alarm on their iPad for 9999 minutes in the future, and it wakes you up at 4 AM, and then—after you have a talk with them about it—they do it again with their phone, but this time it wakes you up at 2 AM and you have to search the house to find it…it's not technically illegal if you sell them to the circus, right? That would be a completely normal reaction, right?

futurebird , 3 months ago to random

Here is how I “watch YouTube” first I check that my ad blockers are on, and the extension that hides thumbnails, and the extension that gives videos more neutral titles. I look at my subscriptions and add videos to a playlist. I search for topics I’m currently concerned about. When I have about 90min of video. I shuffle the list and check the order. Then (and only then) do I get to kick back and “watch TV”

YouTube isn’t easy to use this way.
Anyone else do something similar?

afterconnery , 3 months ago to random

Society is very complex. Steel is just one example of how difficult it will be to cut emissions in a meaningful way. No matter how one slices it #degrowth seems to be the only way to make it work.

I need to get back to reading Smil's How The World Really Works.

#ClimateChange

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/03/how-to-escape-from-the-iron-age/

jalefkowit , 3 months ago to random

America is full of towns that will pay tech workers thousands of dollars to move there, the only caveat being that they are among the most boring places on earth

https://www.makemymove.com/

breadandcircuses , 3 months ago to random

It's all around us, everywhere we go, everywhere we look. Many people might assume that it's always been like this. But it hasn't.

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Plastic is truly everywhere. In just a few decades, it’s become an inescapable part of modern life, permeating nearly every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat (usually wrapped and bagged in plastic and often containing it) to the clothes we wear (60% of which are made from plastic) to the microplastics hiding just about everywhere, from clouds to human placentas to the Earth’s most remote corners.

“Plastic packaging is definitely a major source of plastic pollution, and it can seem totally overwhelming to folks when they go out to get food, especially since the great majority of our food is wrapped in plastic,” says Erica Cirino of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. “It’s estimated that more than 40% of all plastic produced is single-use plastic packaging, which is an astounding amount.”

Before the advent of plastic packaging, food was packed in a variety of materials, from natural substances such as gourds and leaves to, most recently, glass bottles and jars, metal cans and paper products. Today, plastic encases a large and growing percentage of our food: A recent survey of Canadian grocery stores found that 71% of all produce was packaged in plastic, and that baby food had the highest share of plastic packaging at 76%.

There are a few reasons why so much of our food is packaged in plastic. Perhaps most importantly, it’s cheaper to manufacture and transport than alternatives. And as the world grapples with an urgent energy transition, fossil fuel companies jittery about the prospect of decreasing demand for oil are looking to plastics as their next major profit driver — and are on track to triple global plastic production by 2060.

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Read the rest of the article to get the whole story, including the huge amounts of plastic waste we're producing, and the myth of plastic recycling.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://modernfarmer.com/2024/03/foods-big-plastic-problem/

#Plastic #Pollution #Health #Science #CO2 #Emissions #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

afterconnery , 3 months ago to random

Another great write up from @pluralistic. Exxon has to keep burning "rotting corpses" to "generate above-average return for their shareholders".

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/06/exxonknew/

futurebird , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

GOP pollster Patrick Ruffini pretends AI generated photos show black Trump supporters registering to vote.

(ETA: no wonder he needed AI, the fictions compound. Black republicans? Republicans registering black people to vote? Black Trump supporters? It's all made up like the star on that "American" flag.)

(Look carefully)