@fuck_cars_bot At first you may think "Oh, look at tje tiny insignificant countries!" - zoom in! Still don't get it? Lemme help you - bigger than Belgium... bigger than the Nederlandsďź
The fediverse was created in 2008. Not 2022: 2008. Mastodon launched as part of the fediverse in 2016.
For most of the history of the fediverse, if you wanted to use a social media that was exactly like Twitter but not owned by Elon Musk, you could use Twitter. Many people did: at its peak it had around 300 million active users. That sounds like a lot, but it was less than 10% of the total number of internet users. Most people with internet access chose not to use Twitter, even before 2022. Those 90% of other internet users do not want to use a website that exactly replicates 2021 Twitter.
Where were those other internet users? Some of them were on Facebook. Some of them were on other proprietary social networks. Some of them used email but no other social networks.
But some of us were on the fediverse. We all had different reasons for being here, but I can assure you we were not using the fediverse in search of "something exactly like pre-Musk Twitter."
We don't have the same preferences for a social network as ex-Twitter users: an ex-Twitter user's idea of a good social network is very different from mine. I don't expect a social network that appeal to me to also appeal to most ex-Twitter users. That's okay! Having different preferences in entertainment is a good thing.
Many people who liked 2021 Twitter are leaving Twitter in search of an experience which replicates 2021 Twitter. Those people will be happiest on a social network designed to meet their preferences. Bluesky and Threads were both created in 2023 specifically to attract ex-Twitter users. The fediverse was not. It existed before, and its goal was not "attract users looking for a clone of 2021 Twitter."
The fact that lots of people searching for a clone of 2021 Twitter are using Bluesky and Threads but not the fediverse is not some moral failing on the part of the fediverse, nor is it a result of one social network being "better" than another. People simply have different preferences, and the fediverse was designed to appeal to people with different preferences than Bluesky and Threads.
We can improve many things about the fediverse. But the measure of improvement is not "how many ex-Twitter users can we convince to join."
The fediverse was created in 2008. Not 2022: 2008. Mastodon launched as part of the fediverse in 2016.
For most of the history of the fediverse, if you wanted to use a social media that was exactly like Twitter but not owned by Elon Musk, you could use Twitter. Many people did: at its peak it had around 300 million active users. That sounds like a lot, but it was less than 10% of the total number of internet users. Most people with internet access chose not to use Twitter, even before 2022. Those...
Food system researchers have argued for decades that the UK's food system is dysfunctional is having a detrimental impact on our health.
New research has now put a figure on that damage: ÂŁ268bn a year - made up of costs to the NHS, the costs of food-related illness & death and other welfare/benefits related costs.
Previous Govt.s however have been relatively reticent about trying to really constrain Big Food & nothings suggests Labour will be different.
Food system researchers have argued for decades that the UK's food system is dysfunctional is having a detrimental impact on our health.
New research has now put a figure on that damage: ÂŁ268bn a year - made up of costs to the NHS, the costs of food-related illness & death and other welfare/benefits related costs.
@ChrisMayLA6 The idea of vouchers for fruit and veg might be a very good one. It's nice to have a suggestion that doesn't simply come down to 'demand poor people greatly increase their food budget'.
Of course, we could always go particularly crazy and try to reduce poverty, but that never seems a popular idea.
@ChrisMayLA6 Assisted suicide will sort it all out. Tell all the fat unhealthy people they have no quality of life and prescribe some good toxins to send them to sleep /s
@ChrisMayLA6 While the UK and European food systems might have problems, and those of other countries, the US system is much worse. Plenty of cancer causing ingredients in much of our food and so many with diabetes here.
A lot of folks are worried about the U.S. âturningâ fascistâno longer questioning if it will happen, but speculating on what it will look like. Thereâs this idea floating around that fascism is some shocking failure of the system, an accident, or an outside force creeping in. But if you dig into fascismâs roots, itâs clear that itâs not an anomaly; itâs colonialism turned inward. Fascism is just the state using the same strategies it has always used to control and dominate marginalized people, only now, those tactics will be aimed at a wider swath of the population.
The US is an interesting subject in this case, because it already maintains multiple colonies within its territory - like the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where me and my family live. The tools used against Indigenous nations like the Lakota to get us into these places - surveillance, land theft, forced assimilation, criminalization of culture - are the same ones that, under fascism, will turn inward to impose âorderâ on a larger scale. The tactics honed against the Lakota to get us into Prisoner of War Camp #334 (the original designation of Pine Ridge) are what you'll see applied under a fascist regime.
As AimĂŠ CĂŠsaire put it, what the West âcannot forgive Hitler forâŚis the crime against the white manâŚthat he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved [for colonized peoples].â Fascism isnât something foreign. Itâs those same colonial âprocedures,â just applied closer to home. And in the U.S., those procedures arenât just presentâtheyâre foundational to what this country is and how it was built. Surveillance, land grabs, forced submissionâthese are all baked into the DNA of America. Thatâs why so many Americans struggle to recognize fascismâs creeping return: theyâve been living with it all along. Itâs the air, the background, the norm.
So if youâre wondering what American fascism will look like, start listening to Indigenous people, to Black and Brown communities who have faced these tactics for centuries - and continue to be the first targets.
Our past and present is the future fascism is bringing for settlers. While what folk experience wonât be identical to our colonization, itâs not far off. If folk want to know what might be coming, pay attention to the people who have been dealing with these systems of control and dispossession all alongâbecause whatâs being done to us is the fascist playbook.
A lot of folks are worried about the U.S. âturningâ fascistâno longer questioning if it will happen, but speculating on what it will look like. Thereâs this idea floating around that fascism is some shocking failure of the system, an accident, or an outside force creeping in. But if you dig into fascismâs roots, itâs clear that itâs not an anomaly; itâs colonialism turned inward. Fascism is just the state using the same strategies it has always used to control and dominate marginalized people, only...
Fascism as commonly understood is the monopoly-capitalist system taken to its logical conclusion. Not to mention that actually existing capitalism is inherently racialized.
@emsenn
Thanks for that perspective! It sets an important context for many voters voting for Trump because of his alleged competency in foreign affairs. From Europe speaking, that sounds crazy. But if that competency really means colonialist attitude towards the world as towards internal affairs, that suddenly makes sense. They were electing him for his promise to return to extreme colonialist practices that many voters profited from in the past.
It happened!! I finally heard an episode of #CaseyKasem#AmericanTop40 which mentioned WA! 6AM in "North Western Australia" (seems to be #Northam currently and it's now a TripleM station) used to broadcast the show in the 70s. Still waiting to hear who broadcasted it in #Perth in the #80s when I would have heard it in my yoof.
@talia_christine
I went back to Xitter today for the first time in months, to delete my account completely.
I was watching in real time as my previously 10K+ Follower account was losing numbers-- down around 1K since last I went on there, then losing at least 500 more while I watched.
Everyone is jumping off the Titanic.
FYI... #BlueSky is currently owned by a #crypto queen. She is propping it up with a company called BlockChain Capital, which is funded by more MAGAs.
"Blockchain Capital LLC was co-founded by Steve Bannon pal Brock Pierce, a major crypto advocate, perennial presidential candidate, and close friend of Eric Adams. Pierce has dozens of other shady MAGA/Russia ties as well."
@talia_christine
I went back to Xitter today for the first time in months, to delete my account completely.
I was watching in real time as my previously 10K+ Follower account was losing numbers-- down around 1K since last I went on there, then losing at least 500 more while I watched.
Find the Nationals much more dangerous than the Liberals. Everything about them is fake. Fake backdrops, fake backgrounds, fake addresses. Good number of them have urban upbringings and residences but pretend to rural heritage.
They wield considerable resources that come from mining, not farming, and use the cash to successfully target farming votes.
They then turn that relatively small level of support into a deputy prime ministership and extremely favourable governing agreement and exert influence over the parliament and country well above their weight.
Find the Nationals much more dangerous than the Liberals. Everything about them is fake. Fake backdrops, fake backgrounds, fake addresses. Good number of them have urban upbringings and residences but pretend to rural heritage.
They wield considerable resources that come from mining, not farming, and use the cash to successfully target farming votes.
@fixatedpersonsunit the most valuable politicians are those that con. We keep seeing this. People lack the ability to see a polly for the actual person they are and not the person they proclaim to be.
NASAâs Juno spacecraft launched in 2011. Itâs studying Jupiter. This is one of many new images it sent back.
Iâm blown away at how stunning it is.
This is a really large version of it. Open it up in a new tab or save it to your photos or whatever, so you can zoom in and see it in detail. Just take a break from the worldâs sorrow to enjoy this delight.
NASAâs Juno spacecraft launched in 2011. Itâs studying Jupiter. This is one of many new images it sent back.
Iâm blown away at how stunning it is.
This is a really large version of it. Open it up in a new tab or save it to your photos or whatever, so you can zoom in and see it in detail. Just take a break from the worldâs sorrow to enjoy this delight.
"DeFlock runs on Open Street Map, an open source, editable mapping software. He began posting signs for DeFlock to the posts holding up Huntsvilleâs ALPR cameras, and made a post about the project to the Huntsville subreddit, which got good attention from people who lived there. People have been plotting not just Flock ALPRs, but all sorts of ALPRs, all over the world.
âIâve become good at spotting them just because Iâm kind of subconsciously always looking for them,â he said.
âI want everyone to be aware that this is happening. And I donât think I can change peopleâs mindsâsome people will be fine with it. But some people wonât be,â he said. âAnd hopefully enough people wonât be fine with it and will do something to get them taken down [in their city] or at least better controlled, preferably taken down.â
When I first talked to Freeman, DeFlock had a few dozen cameras mapped in Huntsville and a handful mapped in Southern California and in the Seattle suburbs. A week later, as I write this, DeFlock has crowdsourced the locations of thousands of cameras in dozens of cities across the United States and the world."
"DeFlock runs on Open Street Map, an open source, editable mapping software. He began posting signs for DeFlock to the posts holding up Huntsvilleâs ALPR cameras, and made a post about the project to the Huntsville subreddit, which got good attention from people who lived there. People have been plotting not just Flock ALPRs, but all sorts of ALPRs, all over the world.
@realtegan also, we have phones with cameras and audio recording, use it! Pretend you didn't hear them and dare them to repeat it. If they have the balls (pre-knee of course) to say it capture it. Then remember we have tort law that allows you to sue their sorry ass
A new study of 83,000 adults found that standing for more than 2 hours a day not only doesnât protect against cardiovascular risks, but it heightens an individualâs risk of circulatory problems.
The rise of standing desks is a result of what I like to csll âwet streets cause rainâ style analysis.
Because people who sit around a lot are usually unfit, people decided the fix was standing around a lot instead of physical activity.
A new study of 83,000 adults found that standing for more than 2 hours a day not only doesnât protect against cardiovascular risks, but it heightens an individualâs risk of circulatory problems.
The rise of standing desks is a result of what I like to csll âwet streets cause rainâ style analysis.
Because people who sit around a lot are usually unfit, people decided the fix was standing around a lot instead of physical activity.
@carnage4life still going to be happy when my employer supplies height adjustable desks so I can switch between sitting and standing for the comfort that provides o.o
I went for an ultrasound because of concerns about Deep Vein Thrombosis - which contributed to my mother's death - and got some of the best advice I've heard, to wit:
Don't do *anything* for more than maybe two hours straight. Not sitting not standing. After an hour or so, take 10 minutes and move around. Walk, exercise, whatever. Get the blood flowing.
Gregory's Server
@fuck_cars_bot At first you may think "Oh, look at tje tiny insignificant countries!" - zoom in! Still don't get it? Lemme help you - bigger than Belgium... bigger than the Nederlandsďź
@fuck_cars_bot There are eight parking spaces for every car?!?!? Whatâs wrong with you people? đ¤Ş