Brian Beach has moved @bwbeach@qoto.org

I was thinking about Blue Zones. If you don't know what they are, they are areas in the world where people traditionally live longer than average. People tend to focus on the diets of these people trying to suss out the secret of their longevity. Their diets are full of vegetables, beans, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats (you know, that crazy stuff our doctors are always talking about, when we mention some new fad diet), but it's only part of the picture. The Blue Zones are Okinawa, Ikaria, Sardinia, Nicoya Peninsula, and Loma Linda. What truly set them apart is they live in surroundings that nudge them toward good behaviors. The streets are built for people, not cars, they naturally move every hour, eating is more communal, slower, with conversation. They have fewer mechanical conveniences, this promotes more activities as a community. Being alone isn't the same option as it is in most modern lives. The Community is necessary to thrive. Health and longevity is about so much more than what you eat. But most of us don't live in communities like this, so how do we change this?

Glasgwegians are proud to welcome so many athletes to the city for the UCI Cycling World Championships, but Shell’s Greenwashing is certainly not welcome here.

XR Glasgow highlighted its disgust at the ongoing relationship between oil giant Shell and British Cycling, the UK’s main governing body of cycle sport.

Shell shouldn’t have anything to do with cycling, and we feel for any competitor having to bear the dirty shell on their shoulder.

"Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." When the reckoning finally reaches the wealthy, when the accounting eventually arrives for the plutocrats, when the people finally force the klept to pay up, they will say here is where that reckoning began.

@pluralistic details the Sackler's brazen bankruptcy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

I mean, forgive me if i'm not filled with confidence and trust by zoom putting *one* (1) "we promise we will not" line in a legally-non-binding blog post, while they leave unchanged the actually-legally-binding ToS language which says "…but we could tho."

Like, on this reading, "consent" still just seems to mean "clicking through the ToS and using Zoom." REAL consent implies the ability to say yes or no to Some Options.

Now, I will note that there is an "opt out" process specifically for zoom's "AI" assisted meeting summaries feature, but it has to be set at the "Customer" level, meaning the company, corporation, university, or medical office, NOT the "User" level, meaning you and me as individuals.

But also, again, zoom's non-binding PR crisis blog post saying some nice words about what they really promise super swear not to do doesn't ACTUALLY negate the fact that their ToS as still currently worded gives them the RIGHT to do whatever the actual fuck they want with our recordings and other data uploaded into their ecosystem

Add to all of that there's there's no discussion of what happens if *my* university or org opts out but there's another person who's credentialed into the call via their university or org which has opted *In*.

So. What about that, zoom?

Anyway. This is all still a hot nightmare mess.

Are Libraries the Future of Media?

Fantastically innovative and great work from Kate Harloe at Popula, building on the ideas of @victorpickard @libraryfutures and other visionaries

A Must Read

#journalism #libraries #albany #communities #cities #media

https://popula.com/2023/08/07/are-libraries-the-future-of-media/

My new project, https://AltTextHallOfFame.org, is a celebration of the effort, ingenuity, and creativity that goes into making the web a friendlier and more inclusive place, one captioned image at a time.

#AltText #AlternativeText #ImageCaptions #accessibility #a11y #WebAccessibility #AltTextHallOfFame

OK last announcement.

If you live in *Ohio* you should have voted "no" by now. But, if you haven't you still have till the end of Aug 8th! Time to search up your poll site and get going!

(But, don't feel bad if this referendum caught you off guard, Ohio Republicans are hoping no one will show up to vote.)

Vote NO on issue 1. It's a strange constitutional amendment that changes the threshold to make it possible for a small group to veto everything. It's the only thing on the ballot.

@BruceMirken @Mary625 @BlackAzizAnansi @LoganFive

One of the things we need is ranked choice voting. I want to be able to vote for a third party candidate without risking that be a vote that puts another Trump in office. Ohio is currently trying to ban it, if that tells you how much the republicans are intimidated by it.

The Picasso Moth is misnamed. This is clearly the work of Mondrian.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/244168-Baorisa-hieroglyphica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baorisa_hieroglyphica

#Nature
#MothWeek
#Bugstondon
#insect

The biggest problem we face right now is not climate change or AI or intrusive government or biodiversity loss.

Our biggest problem right now is polarization - our inability to have meaningful conversations across political/tribal divides.

We think the Aspen Proposal is distant enough and general enough to provide a useful starting point for those conversations.

Please feel free to use it for that purpose.

http://www.aspenproposal.org

#politics #sustainability #culture #Justice #Nature #biodiversity #ClimateChange

“The reason most public transportation is seen as ‘losing’ money is precisely because it charges for trips. If you don't charge fares, suddenly it can't ‘lose’ money. It just costs money, the same as the roads.”

This random comment has given me my new favourite argument for removing fares from public transit.

#science

Let's ponder for a moment that the computing resources on the Voyager spacecraft are from the 1960s, with clock speeds measured in KHz and RAM in kbytes, running hand-crafted software, crammed into 4 Kbytes of plated-wire memory.

The hardware and (upgraded) software are still functioning after 46 years in space.

history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html
https://www.wired.com/2013/09/vintage-voyager-probes/
#Voyager #Space #Science #Computers
4/n

I've been trying to find the right way to articulate this-- but the folks on the right have it backwards about who is driven by "white guilt" --

This impulse to cover up and distort the history of slavery reeks of shame. It's, frankly, weird. Nobody has perfect ancestors, what sort of crisis of identity leads one to lie about the past.

It's just the things that happened. You learn about them you learn from them. You do better. Don't make it so emotional and personal.

If this is the summer you've decided "climate change is here and it's bad", welcome to the movement(s). We need you. There's so much to do, and much that can be turned.

I hope that Mastodon folks who like to scold newcomers will realize how off-putting -- and damaging -- that behavior is.

Please be helpful, not scornful. Let's reduce the genuine risk of poisoning fediverse growth, and thereby giving social-media oligarchs indefinite control over online discourse.

Read this essential post from @kissane to understand more. https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

The pitch for your country shouldn't be "With the lowest taxes".

It should be "Worth paying for."

And that's a functional health care system.
An educated workforce.
A safe place to make a family in.
Decent infrastructure.

All stuff you pay with taxes.

OK, very interesting. I am a strong no. Here are my thoughts:

- Misattributing a quote denies the actual author the credit due.
- It keeps the reader from evaluating the quote in the real author's context.
- It put words in the mouth of someone who did not say them.
- It tricks the reader into evaluating the quote in the misattributed person's context. It lends false credence to the quote.
- It downplays the importance of ideas and authorship.
- It shows that you re-share posts uncritically.