• [[bengo@mastodon.social]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109542966857473990 pull

agora 2022§

• a [[roadmap]].
  • see [[stoa]].

• [[volt4ire@mastodon.social]] https://mastodon.social/@volt4ire/109372599012002218 pull

• [[venezuela]]
  • [[canasta básica]] https://twitter.com/observafinanzas/status/1492092579105718275 pull
• [[go]] https://thinkanova.org/2022/02/14/indice-mensual-de-remuneraciones-del-sector-comercio-del-area-metropolitana-de-caracas/

Esta nota técnica presenta el resultado de un estudio estadístico que capturó información sobre el nivel, composición y moneda de los salarios de los trabajadores en una muestra representativa de 354 establecimientos del sector comercio y servicios del área metropolitana de Caracas desde enero de 2021 hasta enero de 2022. Entre enero de 2021 y enero de 2022, las remuneraciones totales en bolívares reales, es decir, ajustando por inflación,  aumentaron 21,6%; mientras que las remuneraciones en dólares corrientes se aumentaron en 84,8% durante el mismo período. La diferencia en las tasas de crecimiento reflejan la tendencia a la apreciación del tipo de cambio real. Medida en dólares corrientes, un trabajador típico del sector comercio ganó, en promedio, $96,1 en enero de 2022. Esta remuneración era de $52,0 en enero de 2021. En enero de 2022, en promedio, la remuneración en USD de empleados con cargo gerencial o supervisorio se ubicó en $221,0 mensuales; mientras que la de profesionales y técnicos fue de $141,4 mensuales. Finalmente, la remuneración promedio de obreros y operadores se ubicó en $87,2 mensuales. En enero 2022, el ingreso laboral promedio de los trabajadores del sector comercio y servicios es apróximadamente 27,0% del ingreso de un trabajador similar en Colombia, y representa solo el 26,3% de la canasta básica medida por el Observatorio Venezolano de Finanzas.

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108412849173293843 pull
• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108449860804182396 pull
• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108457443295645408 pull
• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108495837640730455 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109321600225710099 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108903623039022500 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108903623163652146 pull

• [[infovestigacion]] https://twitter.com/infovestigacion/status/1523966619038355456 pull

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1490305653763715076 pull
• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1492232504111157253 pull

• [[bengo@mastodon.social]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109394634096558532 pull
• [[bengo@mastodon.social]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109394776334228241 pull

flancia 2022§

• [[push]] [[flancia 2020s]]
  • [[pull]] [[perhaps naive]]
  • [[pull]] [[agora 2022]]

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108532170258202693 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109354305080342301 pull

• [[sylvanarevalo]] https://twitter.com/sylvanarevalo/status/1523387687322849280 pull

• [[volt4ire]] https://mastodon.social/@volt4ire/108699516342720074 pull

Households across the UK will see rising prices and stalling wages in 2022§

It’s being called “[[the year of the squeeze]]”: thanks to stagnating wages, rising costs of consumer goods, and increases in energy tariffs, plus changes in government measures, the cost of living is set to increase sharply in 2022. 

Epistemic status§

Type : [[claim]]

Agreement level : [[Most likely]]

• [[2022-10-25 14:20:18+00:00]] @[[kausch]]: https://twitter.com/kausch/status/1584912739557949442 pull

• [[2022-10-25 14:20:18+00:00]] @[[kausch]]: https://twitter.com/kausch/status/1584912739557949442 pull

RT @iswc_conf: The PANEL: “IS THE DEEP LEARNING HYPE GOOD OR BAD FOR THE SEMANTIC WEB?” is getting ready! #iswc_conf #iswc2022 https://t.c…

january 2022§

• [[pull]] [[2021-01]]
  • [[meta]] must implement [[pull prefixes]]
• [[pull]] [[yoga january 2022]]
• [[pull]] [[plan january 2022]]

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1477024586688614403 pull

• I’m starting to do monthly planning in [[logseq]]

• un [[viaje]].

En [[Air Europa]] pasan clips de [[Mr. Bean]] y la [[Pantera Rosa]], y la fracción de comida vegetariana en el menú es mínima (pero no importa). Dormí la primera hora de vuelo (me levanté más temprano que de costumbre), hasta que el niñe que viajaba en el asiento de adelante me tocó las piernas de forma inesperada.

Una parte de mí extraña ya a [[Lady Burup]], y al fin de semana juntos y con el Ágora que no será este; pero estoy contento por viajar y ella está en buenas manos (L. se queda con ella).

Al llegar al aeropuerto quizás espere a Berni ahí, pero quizás también (más probable?) me tome el metro y vaya a algún café en el centro de Madrid a hacer lo mismo.

Funcionan ya en el Ágora las divisiones de tipo regla? Me parece que no todavía.

De repente, tres días después, de nuevo en un vuelo de Air Europa, esta vez de regreso a casa. La misma película (corto?) de Mr. Bean, cerrando el viaje de forma simétrica.

Me parece que esto muestra que mi impulso de escritura no es lo suficientemente fuerte en situaciones en las que tengo una conexión a internet. Por supuesto que el viaje fue eventual (caminamos mucho con Berni y Martín, charlamos, y comimos muy bien), pero también pasamos tiempo de relajación en el departamento y elegí pasarlo en actividades online en vez de escribir en cierto detalle sobre las experiencias del viaje o sobre cualquier otra cosa. Pensándolo mejor, algunas de estas actividades son de naturaleza adictiva (en aplicaciones que explotan ciclos de dopamina, para ponerlo de forma simple aunque probablemente inexacta).

Mi jardín digital empezó, entre otras cosas, como una forma de hacer que escribir fuera más fácil y, quizás, adictivo. Pero en este caso fue menos atractivo que las alternativas.

Sigo leyendo [[Stand on Zanzibar]]. Es bueno; gran parte es deprimente ("bleak", diría en inglés) pero de forma admirable.

• [[jonny@neuromatch.social]] https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/109645893751142926 pull

• [[ChengduLittleA]] https://twitter.com/ChengduLittleA/status/1523597006912241664 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/108532170258202693 pull

• [[jonny@neuromatch.social]] https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/109865403742191468 pull

• [[jonny@neuromatch.social]] https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/109645893751142926 pull

• [[interstar]] https://twitter.com/interstar/status/1523953331890274305 pull

• [[tanepiper@tane.codes]] https://tane.codes/@tanepiper/109378615399731216 pull

• [[go]] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFJe5t37VLusXcYZCMAFDD3CArnZc4wYBLQgsEeimXo/edit?usp=drivesdk pull

• [[go]] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFJe5t37VLusXcYZCMAFDD3CArnZc4wYBLQgsEeimXo/edit?usp=drivesdk pull

• [[go]] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFJe5t37VLusXcYZCMAFDD3CArnZc4wYBLQgsEeimXo/edit?usp=drivesdk pull

• En muchas Flancias las comunidades rusas y ucranianas en el exilio eligen un gobierno ruso de la oposición a los oligarcas rusos.

Spring Statement 2022§

• [[tanepiper@tane.codes]] https://tane.codes/@tanepiper/109669624765746680 pull

• [[bengo]] https://mastodon.social/@bengo/109321600225710099 pull

• [[volt4ire]] https://mastodon.social/@volt4ire/109002988136496565 pull

Tribune Winter 2022§

Got some good stuff in there. Editorial on [[Cost of living crisis]]. Article about [[New Towns]]. Article about socialist science-fiction - some good recommendations in there. Article on successful [[trade unionism]], specifically in refuse workers sector - some organising to drive worker conditions back up. Also something about [[Partygate]] being hopefully the end for Boris Johnson. I think this article is a few months old, doesn’t seem to have happened yet though.

As the politically bankable public joy over the success of the Covid vaccine programme began to wane, the latest scandal was a reminder of who had been steering the country through this generational crisis: a prime minister who fundamentally did not believe he had any responsibility to the rules he set, and a man whose entire political career has been built on impunity

North. There’s no cast-iron cohort of loyal MPs because there’s no such thing as a Johnsonite — only fair-weather fans

Like many industries, the answer lies in the advent and development of neoliberalism throughout the 1980s. The dogma pushed by Margaret Thatcher and her successors in government (including New Labour) was one of ‘value for money’, with private sector ‘entrepreneurship’ being the main guarantor of efficiency in public services

Those that worked through a pandemic and were lauded as key workers are now acutely aware of their importance to society and have no intention of letting the politicians and bureaucrats who decanted them into the hands of private companies off the hook

UK avian flu 2022§

The Food Standards Agency says it poses a very low safety risk for people, but as a precaution farmers temporarily have to keep all free-range hens in barns. This is to protect their welfare and stop the spread by keeping farmed hens away from wild birds.

UK recession 2022§

The Bank now thinks that the UK will enter a [[recession]] in October that will last until the end of 2023, the longest since the [[2008 financial crisis]]. It expects inflation to peak above 13% later this year, the highest rate since 1980, and to stay high for much of next year. And it says unemployment is likely to climb to 6.3% by 2025, from 3.7% today.

– Friday briefing: What the interest rate spike means for the country – and for…

UK water shortages 2022§

In 2022, the UK is experiencing [[drought]]s and [[water shortage]]s.

There has been low rainfall. [[Water privatisation]] in the 1980s has led to a lack of investment in the infrastructure of the [[water supply system]] (e.g. reservoirs and pipes), meaning that we don’t collect enough and we leak away a huge amount.

Why?§

Lack of rainfall§

“Whilst it is not unusual to have periods of low rainfall, we have seen an extended period of below average rainfall, particularly in the south-east of England where it was the third driest November to July on record (from 1836). Far from being relieved, the dry conditions intensified in July, with less than 10% of the usual July rainfall recorded across much of the south-east of England (Anglian, Thames and Southern regions each saw their driest July on record, from 1836). The situation has continued into August, with south-east England receiving no rainfall so far this month.”

– UK braced for drought conditions to last until October | UK weather | The Gua…

Lack of investment in infrastructure§

No substantial reservoir has been constructed in England since the Kielder Water dam was built in 1981. Thus, our capacity to store fresh water has remained static as demand for it has risen steadily with the growth of the population.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

Inability to collect water§

An early impact of climate change has meant that the period 2011-2020 was 9% wetter, in terms of rainfall, than the period 1961-1990. So there is no shortage of water we can collect. Unfortunately, it seems we just lack the urge to do so.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

Inability to store water§

3 billion litres lost daily

For the whole of England and Wales, the daily loss – from leaks and other losses – from all of the two nations’ main water companies is 3bn litres of water, a fifth of their total supply.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

Root cause§

[[Water privatisation]], essentially.

Even worse, analyses indicate that, while water bills in England have risen noticeably over the past three decades, spending on improved infrastructure by water companies has, at best, flatlined or declined, depending on how you break down the figures. Hence the intensity of our current drought, it is argued.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

At the same time, huge dividends have been paid out to water company shareholders while their chief executives have been generously rewarded for their work.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

These company chiefs have been the main beneficiaries of the privatisation of England’s water companies, which was imposed by the Conservative government in 1989.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

Side effects§

Affecting groundwater sources§

First, it has forced us to pump ever more water from groundwater sources. This has stressed aquifers, lowered the water table in many areas and threatened chalk streams. This last hazard is particularly vexing because chalk streams are some of the planet’s rarest habitats – and the vast majority are in England.

– [[The Observer view on the woeful state of England’s water industry]]

Hosepipe bans§

Water companies are asking citizens to reduce their water usage to alleviate the water shortages.

• a [[journal]].
  • [[2022-06]] to [[rdu]], [[sea]], [[pdx]].

I left home before 6am on Monday [[2022-06-13]]. It was a two hours flight to London to begin with, then 1.5 hours in Heathrow making my connection (there were three buses involved), then overseas to Raleigh-Durham.

Weeknotes W26 2022§

Sunday§

• Started skim reading (ironically?) [[How To Take Smart Notes]].

  • I’ve encountered most of the ideas before via the numerous articles and posts written about it.
  • I need to spend more time turning literature notes / quotes from books in to my own understanding.

• [[Social media is important because everything is social]].

• Joined the [[Bonfire]] playground but haven’t got time to do much on there at the mo. But I really love the mission they have around social media so following with great interest.

• Reading a bit on [[Antonio Gramsci]] apropos [[site of struggle]].

• [[Patrice Lumumba]]

  • Read: Patrice Lumumba: Why Belgium is returning a Congolese hero’s golden tooth

• [[There is no such thing as an ungoverned space]].

Monday§

• [[Calculating effort estimates and scheduled times in org-mode]]
• [[Emacs note taking systems]]

Tuesday§

• Watching: [[Don’t Look Up]]

• I like Iain M. Banks and I’m currently re-reading [[Look to Windward]] because in [[Red Plenty]] it was described it as an example of a 20th century [[Marxian idyll]]. It’s good and all but I’m reading the [[Culture]] now as kind of all premised on [[Prometheanism]] / [[fully automated luxury communism]]. I’m gonna reread [[A Wizard of Earthsea]] (last read as a young teen!) by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] next as in [[Half-Earth Socialism]] they describe that as [[Jennerite ecological scepticism]] and that is more my bag lately.

• I feel happy discovering more and more as I get older that sci-fi books I took off my Mum’s bookshelf as a kid are in fact often allegorical for some kind of radical politics that I had no idea of at the time.

• [[Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World]]

Friday§

• Listened: [[Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky, "Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power"]]

• Listened: [[Richard Seymour, "The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism"]]

• [[Adding more storage space to YunoHost / NextCloud on Hetzner]]

Saturday§

• Read: [[For a Red Zoopolis]]

  • Very good. On [[eco-socialism]]. I like the description of a what [[abundance]] could actually mean.
  • Also introduced me to the idea of a [[Zoopolis]]…

• I have oscillatory waves of activity on my garden.

  • Sometimes I have blocks of focus on the mechanics of how the garden works.
    • All the PKM, zettelkasten, smart notes, kind of stuff.
  • Then periods of time spent on the actual content.
    • Reading, taking notes, writing about politics, technology, the environment, etc.
  • Occasionally there is a moment of harmony between the waves where the two almost intersect.
    • e.g. critical theory of social media, how digital gardens, the Agora, fit in to that, etc.

• Chat with Flancian

  • FlanciaCam
  • Flancian tour of America
    • Portland
    • homelessness
    • ‘illegal’ encampment
      • 30,000 in San Francisco
    • Housing First
    • is homelessness a complicated or complex system
      • if there are X people without homes, can we just give X homes to solve the problem?
        • [[David Peter Stroh, "Systems Thinking For Social Change"]]
          • [[Adam Day, States of Disorder, Ecosystems of Governance]]
          • similar to [[Seeing Like a State]]
        • too top down?
      • c.f. [[universal basic income]]
        • perhaps a simplistic approach, yet in present society money gives agency
  • walking and meditation
    • otter.ai
      • what about libre alternatives?
  • [[counterantidisintermediation]]

• Listened: [[Matt Huber, "Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet"]]

  • More [[eco-socialism]].
  • I listened while doing household chores so have less notes. But it’s a good podcast.
  • Marxist approach - emphasis on class struggle, movement building, trade unionism.

Weeknotes W27 2022§

Seem to have mostly consumed things about socialism and ecology.

Plus Borish Johnson resigned - now wondering who will be least worse for the environment (as well as everything else) from the leadership contenders.

Sunday§

• [[Technics]]

• Listened: [[Turning the Earth into Money w/ John Bellamy Foster]]

• [[carbon footprint]] is bunk

• Environmentalism is presently primarily the preserve of the [[professional-managerial class]]. It needs to be inherently valuable to the [[working class]].

  • [[Matt Huber, "Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet"]]

• Decarbonise electricity, then electrify everything.

• [[Climate sadism]]

Monday§

• [[Free association of producers]] is a goal of socialism/communism.

• [[Net zero policies would reduce the cost of living]]. That’s an incredibly important line of enquiry to pursue. Talk of [[degrowth]] isn’t appealing if you’re already on the breadline.

• ‘The cost of living’ is a wretched phrase.

• Reading: [[Marx’s Vision of Sustainable Human Development]]

Tuesday§

• Watched: [[Armageddon]]. Pretty terrible. [[Don’t Look Up]] is better…

Wednesday§

• I need to renew my passport. This is massively over subscribed and delayed in the UK right now. So I’m following a Twitter bot some guy made that tweets whenever new appointments are available. World beating service from the UK gov once again!

Thursday§

• [[Boris Johnson]] is going. This is good. ([[Boris Johnson is a liar]] etc).

• [[Steve Baker]] is in the news. This is not good.

• Listened: [[Adrienne Buller, "The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism"]]

Friday§

• Looking at different [[options for publishing an org-roam-based digital garden]] because mine is currently horrendously slow. Nothing ticking all the boxes yet though.

Weeknotes W28 2022§

Just a summary. Click the links to find out more on each one.

tl;dr: more eco-socialism. Watching things and trying to get more out of them by thinking about them critically. Some emacs faffing. Much more happened of course, but I don’t tend to write much about work or my private life here in my digital garden.

Sunday§

• [[Open Referral]] has been adopted as a UK standard.

  • https://openreferral.org/uk-government-endorses-open-referral-uk/

• [[Open Green Map]]

• Watched: [[Cloud Atlas]].

  • I thought it was really good. Entertainingly done and plenty of thoughts about human nature to cogg on.

• Oh yeah, a couple of days back we watched [[Wonder Woman]].

• [[Political theory and film]].

• I did my first [[parkrun]] in about 2.5 years yesterday. I got a new personal worst, but still pleased to be doing it again…

• We visited [[Walney Island]].

Monday§

• I appear to be missing in action this day.

Tuesday§

• We’ve watched [[The Good Place]], WandaVision, [[Loki]], [[The Falcon and the Winter Soldier]], and [[Hawkeye]] over the last few months. Also watching [[Ms. Marvel]] as the episodes come out. All Marvel ones, apart from The Good Place. All pretty decent and worth a watch. Some of the Marvel ones even have a bit of social commentary in them.

• Reading: [[Technology of the Oppressed]]

  • [[the structural violence of the information age]]

Wednesday§

• So cool that [[KeePassXC]] comes with a CLI! Makes sense but I hadn’t realised. That is very handy for me.

• Listened: [[The Uber files: the unicorn]]

  • Generally been avoiding a lot of the [[Uber Files]] stuff so far. Not quite sure why… it’s just kind of depressing I guess. And kind of confirming what was already known or suspected - that a firm built on aggression, growth and toxic masculinity is corrupt and rotten on the inside as well as the outside.

• [[Growth]].

What the system has done, as a mechanism to continue with growth at all costs, is actually to burn the future. And the future is the least renewable resource. There is no way that we can reuse the time we had when we started this conversation. And by building up a system which is more debt-driven—where we keep consumption going, but by creating more and more debt—what we’re actually doing is burning or stealing the time of people in the future. Because their time will be devoted to repaying the debt

– The Infamous 1972 Report That Warned of Civilization's Collapse | WIRED (h/t Doug Belshaw)

Thursday§

• I need to find a way to share my spacemacs config in both my personal and my work logins, but have some customisations in both spaces.
  • [[spacemacs profile-specific configuration]]

Friday§

• Listened: [[Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism]]

Saturday§

• Reading: [[A Wizard of Earthsea]]

  • Can definitely see the climate change / don’t interfere with nature subtext.
  • As a piece of writing, not enjoying it quite so much as [[The Dispossessed]] or [[The Left Hand of Darkness]], but still good.

• The [[Half-Earth Socialism]] authors really don’t like [[geoengineering]], particularly [[solar radiation management]].

• Did the [[parkrun]] again. A bit faster than last week; stopped less times.

Weeknotes W29 2022§

tl;dr: A bit of action around [[systems thinking]], primarily as it relates to the [[environment]] and [[climate crisis]].

Sunday§

• Listening: [[Aaron Benanav on Associational Socialism and Democratic Planning]]

• The [[biosphere]] is just one part of the Earth’s [[climate system]].

• I’ve not had so much time for the stream of late. Most stuff is going in the garden. Of course, changes to the garden are a stream of themselves. I just mean I haven’t been posting much to the social media streams, where others can more easily discover and interact with it.

• Bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.

  • [[A Wizard of Earthsea]].

• Yesterday we watched:

  • [[Minions: The Rise of Gru]] at the cinema.
  • [[Minority Report]] on TV.

Monday§

• [[ProtonMail Android app takes a long time to load messages]]

• Started [[Nature matters: systems thinking and experts]]

Tuesday§

• Read: [[Humans need to value nature as well as profits to survive, UN report finds]]
  • [[Ipbes]]

Wednesday§

• Lots of good stuff in [[A Systems Literacy Manifesto]]
  • [[systems literacy]]

Thursday§

• What actually is a [[system]]?

  • [[Thinking in Systems]].

• [[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]. [[System change]]

If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves… . There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.

• via [[Thinking in Systems]]

• [[The Limits to Growth]]

Saturday§

• [[Sand battery]]
  • [[energy storage]]

Weeknotes W30 2022§

Sunday§

• [[Energy storage]] and [[grid balancing]].

• [[Associational socialism]]

• The [[Iceberg Model]]

• The [[water cycle]] is a complex system.

Monday§

• [[Stokes Croft Land Trust]]
• [[Community land trusts]]

Tuesday§

• [[An Essay on Liberation]]

Thursday§

• Read: [[What Does An Ecological Civilization Look Like?]]

Friday§

• Listened: [[Cuba’s Life Task]]

• [[Conversations with Gamechangers]] is pretty awesome lineup.

Saturday§

• Did the [[parkrun]].

• Read: [[David Bollier, P2P Models interview on digital commons]]

• Read: [[A Syrian democratic social economy in the making]]

  • [[Cooperatives in Rojava]]. [[Aborîya Jin]].

• [[tanepiper@tane.codes]] https://tane.codes/@tanepiper/109378615399731216 pull

yoga january 2022§

• [[pull]] [[yoga calendar]] [[yoga with adriene]] [[move]]