brinnbelyea

@brinnbelyea@fosstodon.org

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This "Allergy Guide" trend needs to DIE. Or it's going to make me die. Increasingly restaurants will NOT show an ingredients list, but instead a simplified chart made for babies that only list the "big five" allergens.

As someone with an anaphylactic reaction to sunflower oil and flax which are NOT big five this is useless to me. So I just can't know if your food will kill me or not. So I don't buy it.

The number of places where I can eat keeps shrinking.

(sesame isn't even on their guide)

brinnbelyea ,

@futurebird @fifilamoura It's an excuse to eat meat just like Atkins was an excuse to eat meat with butter sauce. Orthorexia is profitable and I am convinced that the media does whatever they can to foster it. An analyst could mess up and come up with a better way to eat than any fad. When did the American diet tank? In the early '80's they said fat was bad. This was paid for by the sugar industry who paid Harvard scientists to find that fat was bad.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

When I consider the billions that will be spent on presidential campaigns against the tens of thousands of votes that will ultimately decide it, the project seems absurd. Naively? it ought to be easy to simply find those people who would vote for your candidate but did not since they didn’t have a ride to the polls, or child care, or they simply forgot.

Of course were it simple we’d not all be so concerned. 1/

brinnbelyea ,

@futurebird Donuts and shoe leather are for regular people who care about the world. Advertising money goes to the Democratic party constituency, which is Professional Managerial Class high salary people.

luckytran , to random
@luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

When leaders talk about banning masks for safety, they ignore the safety of many diverse communities. People who are higher risk, and Asian people have been attacked for wearing masks. Black and Brown communities are disproportionately targeted by police. Safety means EVERYONE.

brinnbelyea ,

@luckytran We are told that gun bans cannot work because criminals will just obtain and use them anyway. Why do they think mask bans will work to deter crime?

wdlindsy , to random
@wdlindsy@toad.social avatar

As Albena Azmanova states, the recent EU elections show young voters turning right, to authoritarian solutions to problems. The puzzle is, why turn right when it seems to be the left that offers the solutions young people have claimed to want?

To me — Azmanova doesn't say this — the answer is clear and ominous: authoritarianism is luring young people who have not informed themselves about the horrors it has brought in the past.

/1

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/14/far-right-seduced-young-voters-europe-elections

brinnbelyea ,

@wdlindsy The Right uses short form video on social media, a format that The Left and Liberals shun. Young people will watch "influencer" videos of the "influence" standing in line at a store talking to the audience and making the audience feel like they know the "influencer". Right candidates have mimicked these videos and appeal to young voters. The mainstream and Left are not even in this game.

brinnbelyea ,

@wdlindsy It is not valuable to anyone with the power to change things. Short form video is not important to them so it is not important. The People In Charge know everything and know how to win elections. If you bring up Hillary vs Trump or Brexit they will say those do not count because of reasons.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

The International Energy Agency has warned that the world faces a 'staggering' surplus of oil equating to millions of barrels a day by the end of the decade - Financial Times

brinnbelyea ,

@GottaLaff Maybe they will use it as cheap fuel to power Carbon Capture and Storage. I am joking, of course, but you know some "startup" will seek venture capital to propose this.

rahmstorf , to random
@rahmstorf@fediscience.org avatar

One of the most ominous risks for Europe is that of a major change in Atlantic ocean currents. Recent science suggests it has been greatly underestimated in the past -including by me, having worked on it for over 30 years. Here my half-hour presentation in Vilnius last week!

https://youtu.be/ZHNNW8c_FaA?si=zegi6D3bk6Stf35U

brinnbelyea ,

@rahmstorf

I remember reading about this 20+ years ago.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/the-next-ice-age

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Thom Hartmann is disturbed by a field of wildflowers... but not an insect in sight...

https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-loss-of-insects-a-desperate-7fe/comments

It's hard to quantify the loss of insects since we have never kept great track of them to begin with.

brinnbelyea ,

@futurebird How often does a bug hit the windshield now? Almost never. it used to be a regular occurrence.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Don't tell me we “can’t afford” to fight the climate crisis.

A new study found the economic costs of the crisis are 6x larger than previously thought. It's estimated we'll lose 12% of world GDP per degree of warming.

Saving the climate is both morally & financially right.

brinnbelyea ,

@rbreich Who makes the $ from fixing the problem? Causing the problem and fake fixes benefit the wealthy. Actually fixing it requires a system that benefits all. The wealthy do not care about GDP if they get a bigger proportion of a shrinking pie.

jeffjarvis , to random
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social avatar

American conservatives' (here AEI) creepy obsession with making babies gets space in the Washington Post instead of analysis of the roots in white eugenics.
The ideal number of kids in a family: Four (at a minimum) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/30/family-size-big-families/

brinnbelyea ,

@Npars01 @jeffjarvis I think it's also the enormous difference in the value placed on children when TFR is below 2 vs 3 or above. Below 2, policies viewed as "coddling" are necessary because each child MUST succeed in order for society to make it. Above 3 and there can be "losers" "bad seeds" and cannon fodder.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

In other "news" Tucker Carlson went on "The Rogan Experience" and denied that evolution by means of natural selection explained the diversity & history of living things on earth.

Said there was "no evidence" humans could have evolved "from a single cell organism"

It's impossible to know if he's just saying this for attention.

I've always said science would be next. Tucker is the vanguard of the far right. Give it five years and you'll have congress members wanting this in your schools.

brinnbelyea ,

@futurebird They are also going after the germ theory of disease. Of course, for the obvious public health reasons but also so they can support the grifters selling snake oil "cleansing" concoctions.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I remember getting called in for jury duty once and the lawyer was asking us what we did for work just going around the room:

"Bus Driver"
"Teacher"
"Real Estate"
"TV Camera man"

Then they get to this one guy who was in the back, half asleep. "What about you? What do you do?"

"Wa?"
"What do you do for work?"
"I don't know man, I'm like, kinda in to music"

To this day I don't know if he played music... or just like... listened to it.

I don't know if they picked him. They kicked me out.

brinnbelyea ,

@futurebird I didn't want to be on the jury because of the commute but when I heard so many other jurors trying to weasel out of it, I wanted to be on the case. I think they saw that and did not pick me.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This could have happened two years sooner but Trump appointed EPA people blocked it.

One of them was Nancy Beck of the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Before working at the EPA, she was an executive at the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobbying group for FIVE years!

Why can't we get those revolving door laws? So, you can't be at the EPA after OR before being a lobbyist?

The reporting on this in papers is terrible.

https://www.al.com/news/2024/04/epa-to-require-removal-of-cancer-linked-forever-chemicals-in-all-drinking-water.html

brinnbelyea ,

@amorphophalex @powersoffour @futurebird AM radio would rant about how it was propaganda brainwashing the youth. It must have been a good show.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

The end of the necktie? https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-necktie?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

brinnbelyea ,

@rbreich What would finish it off is James Bond going without one in a movie.

oligneisti , to random
@oligneisti@social.linux.pizza avatar

Turns out #AkiraKurosawa was quite good at making movies. I just watched High and Low. I began talking at the TV during the scene in the alleyway because I couldn't believe the command of light and shadow.

Of course it is unfair to credit the director for everything. His cinematographers must have been amazing as well

Seeing #ToshiroMifune looking like he was going to a meeting with Don Draper took a moment of adjustment.

brinnbelyea ,

@breadandcircuses @oligneisti Unpopular opinion: I like Kagemusha better than Ran.

carnage4life , to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Boeing is an example of the observation that by the time you realize you've made a strategic mistake, it's too late.

brinnbelyea ,

@harasurya @carnage4life When Douglas and McDonnell Douglas were still around, it was "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going." Boeing bought McD and the McD managerial culture took over Boeing, resulting in the slogan you posted.

brinnbelyea , to random

@pluralistic I am about to finish Red Team Blues but I can't wait to post this. It is a great novel. The best part is when Marty is taking the lives of people he does not know into his plans. He really cares about others. This is in stark contrast to other fiction where people are related as NPCs. When I first started watching TV I would see bystanders being affected and worry about them. I was told to ignore them because the show is about the main character.

brinnbelyea OP ,

@pluralistic Looking back, this was damaging to my development as a person. Everyone matters, not just some people.

I also like the dialog. The characters talk like real people who are very concerned for each other. This is also important because someone who is experiencing life through fiction because they are not able to experience enough real life due to circumstances needs to see how real people who are good would interact rather than fake fictional tough guys.

brinnbelyea OP ,

@pluralistic I am terrible at literary analysis but even I knew there was something about everyone telling Marty he cannot play on the Blue Team. I pondered it and eventually figured it has something to do with how we protect our rights and build a just or even just a livable world.

breadandcircuses , to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

The capitalist dream of endless “green growth” and a sustainable high-tech civilization will never come to pass. It is, according to the author of the article below, a literal impossibility — because the concept violates the laws of physics!

SEE -- https://archive.ph/b807W
ALTERNATE LINK -- https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/the-arrow-of-time-bfe2d3fa8f16

brinnbelyea ,

@breadandcircuses This is a good quote from that article:
A policy mandating manufacturers to design for repairability, durability and simplicity would thus go much further than platitudes about recycled material content and reduced CO2 footprints…

luckytran , to random
@luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

Last year, workers took 20 sick days as Germany's economy shrank by 0.3%. A study suggests with less sick leave, the economy would have grown by 0.5%.

This is why the US wants to weaken COVID guidance despite no change in science. They want to risk worker health for the economy.

Source:
https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Studie-Rekord-Krankenstand-fuehrte-zur-Rezession-article24690123.html

brinnbelyea ,

@luckytran "In the long run, we are all dead."
-John Maynard Keynes

He meant it in a different context but since the long run is now defined as anything anything beyond the next quarter, the quote works for COVID and the economy.

funcrunch , to random
@funcrunch@me.dm avatar

Great article (as usual) by @pluralistic on "bestselling" books, botshit, and bezzles:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-a-billionaires-mediocre-pump-and-dump-book-became-a-bestseller-2ed7a8c472d7

(Paywall-free link)

#books #crypto #ChrisDixon #ReadWriteOwn #NYTBestSeller

brinnbelyea ,

@JorgeStolfi @rvkennedy @immibis @pluralistic @funcrunch @kcoyle Why will it have a stable value?

luckytran , to random
@luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

The bare minimum we should have learned from a devastating pandemic that has killed and disabled millions is that we should stay home when we are sick. Yet, governments beholden to corporate interests are determined to make sure we don't even do that.

brinnbelyea ,

@luckytran For everyone in the thread wondering why, I suggest reading BS Jobs by David Graeber. It's the best explanation of the mania for work I have read.

tzimmer_history , to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

Weekend reading: I wrote about Republicans lusting for civil war or “national divorce.”

It’s a manifestation of the Right’s radical rejection of pluralism. They’ll have their “real America” - or none.

Short thread, based on the piece below:

🧵1/

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/domination-or-dissolution-rule-or

brinnbelyea ,

@tzimmer_history The environmental consequences would be Earth shattering. Alternative energy banned. Coal, oil, and gas subsidized. No limits on lead, mercury, etc. Once their society fails and they have persecuted every group that they can scapegoat domestically, they will need to turn outwards to find new people to blame. Any country that borders Secessia will face war within a few years of the split.

breadandcircuses , (edited ) to random
@breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

Here's Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) on the permanence of wealth disparity in the USA...

The factual: America is not a bootstrap-friendly land. If you have money in America, chances very good are you inherited it.

American wealth is now dynastic, perpetuating itself and growing thanks to a whole Versailles' worth of courtiers: money managers, lawyers, and overpaid babysitters who can keep even the most Habsburg-jawed nepobaby in turnip-sized million-dollar watches and performance automobiles and organ replacements for their whole, interminable lives.

But it's not just that the American rich stay rich – it's that the American poor stay poor. America is a world-trailing loser in the international social mobility league-table. If you change classes in America, chances are you're a middle class person becoming poor, thanks to medical costs or another of the American debt-traps; or you're a poor person who is becoming a homeless person thanks to America's world-beating eviction mills.

As a factual matter, America just isn't the land of bootstraps; it's a land of hereditary aristocrats. Sustaining the American narrative of meritocracy requires a whole culture industry, novels and later movies that constitute a kind of state religion for Americans – and like all religious tales, the American faith tradition is riddled with gaps and contradictions.

FULL ESSAY -- https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/10/declaration-of-interdependence/

brinnbelyea ,

@breadandcircuses @pluralistic

Non-profit groups are huge in this. It lets the rich avoid taxes. Most non-profits spend 90% or more of their funds on "overhead". Overhead is mostly salaries for rich kids who don't want to do a job in the private sector that enriched their parents (or grandparents or whoever made the money). The government does not tax non-profits.

pluralistic , to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Rooftop solar is the future, but it's also a scam. It didn't have to be, but the US decided the best way to roll out distributed, resilient, renewable energy was to let Wall Street run the show. They turned it into a scam, and now it's in terrible trouble. which means we're in terrible trouble.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/27/here-comes-the-sun-king/#sign-here

1/

brinnbelyea ,

@pluralistic Oh c'mon Cory, don't you like the guy who wears the ball cap and drives a Mad Max cosplay truck parking on your street and taking up half of the width walking around pounding on doors hawking solar? The spiel is "I want to give you money." or "All real manly men like me buy solar with financing." We had one guy like this in our development. Once he had sold to everyone who would buy, for some reason he moved out...

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