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plantarum

@plantarum@ottawa.place

I'm a botanist and conservation biologist in Ottawa. My work focuses on crop wild relatives and wild-harvested species, particularly berries; and invasive plants. I am trained as a plant taxonomist and community ecologist.

All opinions expressed are my own, and do not reflect those any of my employer(s) past, present or future.

My interests include photography, woodworking, kayaking, swimming, hiking and natural history.

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

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

Doctorow's latest strikes a chord that resonates with this week's SCOTUS decision: we live in hope of finding the right dictators, because we cannot imagine a world without dictators.

"The idea that monopolies are benevolent dictators has pervaded our economic tale for decades. Even today, critics who deplore Facebook and Google do so on the basis that they do not wield their power wisely (say, to stamp out harassment or disinformation). When confronted with the possibility of breaking up these companies or replacing them with smaller platforms, those critics recoil, insisting that without Big Tech's scale, no one will ever have the power to accomplish their goals"

@pluralistic The reason you can't buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you (28 Jun 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

"After 40 years of expanded copyright, we have a creative industry that's larger and more profitable than ever, and yet the share of income going to creative workers has been in steady decline over that entire period. Every year, the share of creative income that creative workers can lay claim to declines, both proportionally and in real terms."

@pluralistic Neither the devil you know nor the devil you don't (21 Jun 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/21/off-the-menu/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@pluralistic The Pizzaburger Presidency (29 May 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/29/sub-bushel-comms-strategy/

The dems can't celebrate their few (but amazing) accomplishments because half of their party opposes them.

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

Pro-tip for fans of @pluralistic : if you find his long threads clog your timeline, subscribe to his feed instead:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

So much nicer to get the whole article in your feed reader of choice than interleaved among other posts on your timeline!

If you still want to see stuff he boosts on Mastodon, or other toots here, use a filter to screen out the long threads:

A screen shot showing a Mastodon filter named "Cory's threads", with a single keyword: "Long thread/"

plantarum OP ,
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@stealthisbook @pluralistic

he's pretty explicit about not tracking anything from his website, and invites readers to his domain to read his stuff. I think that puts him in the 'doesn't care about your data', or more accurately 'actively doesn't want your data' category

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

Just because won't fix the creative labor market [and save is from AI], it doesn't follow that nothing will. If we're worried about issues, we can look to labor law to improve our conditions.

@pluralistic: "art" and uncanniness (13 May 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@pluralistic: AI is a WMD (09 May 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

Every accusation is a confession:

@pluralistic: Precaratize bosses (19 Apr 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@pluralistic Too big to care (04 Apr 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@pluralistic Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections (20 Mar 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/

Echoing assertion that the far right has gained ground by picking up the progressive issues the Democrats have dropped (and given them a fascist spin of course). And showing us the Dem mainstream wants to protect neoliberal policy more than they want to win elections.

johnquiggin , to random
@johnquiggin@aus.social avatar

I hate being told to "shop around". What I want is for the default option to be a good one.

On this point, Cory Doctorow @pluralistic spells out why Google is so awful and why even DuckDuckGo isn't a real alternative.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/

plantarum ,
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

@johnquiggin @pluralistic

I wouldn't mind shopping around if there were any good options. That was the part of Cory's article that was most disheartening - we've dug ourselves into a hole where the only options available are abusive monopolists.

plantarum , to random
@plantarum@ottawa.place avatar

"if you read a book you love, tell other people about it"

@pluralistic How a billionaire's mediocre pump-and-dump "book" became a "bestseller" (15 Feb 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/15/your-new-first-name/

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