Progressology

Notes and Reposts. alexanderpf.com \\ Technology \\ Ecology \\ Aesthetics

[alexanderpf]

Been a while...

It's been years since I posted. Is anyone still out there?

[alexanderpf]

On March 28th, 2017 congress passed a law that makes it legal for your Internet Service Providers (ISP) to track and sell your personal activity online. This means that things you search for, buy, read, and say can be collected by corporations and used against you.

[prepaidafrica]

Mapping Africa’s transportation infrastructure against rural poverty density

[alexanderpf]

HyperNormalisation

HyperNormalisation wades through the culmination of forces that have driven this culture into mass uncertainty, confusion, spectacle and simulation. Where events keep happening that seem crazy, inexplicable and out of control—from Donald Trump to Brexit, to the War in Syria, mass immigration, extreme disparity in wealth, and increasing bomb attacks in the West—this film shows a basis to not only why these chaotic events are happening, but also why we, as well as those in power, may not understand them. We have retreated into a simplified, and often completely fake version of the world. And because it is reflected all around us, ubiquitous, we accept it as normal. This epic narrative of how we got here spans over 40 years, with an extraordinary cast of characters—the Assad dynasty, Donald Trump, Henry Kissinger, Patti Smith, early performance artists in New York, President Putin, Japanese gangsters, suicide bombers, Colonel Gaddafi and the Internet. HyperNormalisation weaves these historical narratives back together to show how today's fake and hollow world was created and is sustained. This shows that a new kind of resistance must be imagined and actioned, as well as an unprecedented reawakening in a time where it matters like never before.

[alexanderpf]

Random bits on the Economy

No one took our jobs. We gave them our jobs when we started pretending our salary was more worth than it actually was. If we want our jobs back, we must accept either a Chinese-level salary or to pay more just because production is local. In any way, we must give up the added value that our salary gained when we started buying cheaper without questioning where the rebate was coming from. It worked for some time: we could buy more goods with the same salary. Until the salary was no more.

-      “pif” on news.ycombinator.com

"In any way, we must give up the added value" … Often the added value is just not caring about people far away dying. Fundamentally a lot of low labor goods are offshored because the toxic waste dump is someone’s backyard, if employees die due to lack of safety gear that's simply not an issue, etc.

If we were honest with ourselves we'd use trade policy either to foist the EPA and OSHA on the entire planet, or remove them as a restraint against locals. People usually are not honest with themselves of course.

-      “VLM” on news.ycombinator.com

[exotericenvironmentalism]

The Stockholm Statement- Towards a consensus on the principles of policy-making for the contemporary world

Agreed in September 2016 by a group of leading economists from across the world, these 10 principles indicate that economic development must be set within, and is subject to, wider social and environmental objectives and boundaries. In essence, the global economy should serve the needs of people, and operate within the limits of the planet. Not, as is often the case at this point in time, the other way round.

Via United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)

Other linked blogs:

Without nature there is no economy

Stocks and the real things we share(s)

Circles of sustainability

[alexanderpf]

[alexanderpf]

[alexanderpf]

[alexanderpf]

Russia should introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics.

Alexander Dugin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics]

The whole text is worth another visit after this week’s declassified report on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.

[alexanderpf]

Look up this next year.

[azspot]

You people were vicious, violent, screaming, “Where’s the wall? We want the wall!” Screaming, “Prison! Lock her up!” I mean, you are going crazy. I mean, you were nasty and mean and vicious and you wanted to win, right? But now, you’re cool and you’re not nearly as vicious or violent, right? Because we won, right? You’re basking in the glory of victory.

Donald Trump (via azspot)

[alexanderpf]

Beijing wants to give every citizen a score based on behavior such as spending habits, turnstile violations and filial piety, which can blacklist citizens from loans, jobs, air travel

JOSH CHIN and GILLIAN WONG (China’s New Tool for Social Control: A Credit Rating for Everything)

[alexanderpf]

The State of the Professional Class?

A few weeks ago I was listening to public radio while driving and heard a guest say that “[t]he heroes of our economy are janitors and nursing aides.” While I understand the sentiments, I disagree. Stereotypically my mind jumped to billionaires like Musk and Carnegie, those with vision and drive not found in most of us. More recently my mind goes to those getting squeezed by the proposed Republican tax plan. Those in the 200~400k income bracket: engineers, doctors, lawyers and such. 

This election cycle it has often been repeated that many working-class conservatives admire the rich but despise professionals. They may be viewed as pesky know-it-alls, pushing for regulation and meritocracy. If that professional is a person of color you might even hear about entitlement; adjectives like ‘uppity’ come to mind.

At the same time middle-class liberals like teachers, nurses, paralegals and such may call their professional friends yuppies, accusing them with going along with whatever is best for the economy at the expense of social justice and an egalitarian democracy.

I believe that climate change and overpopulation is the single biggest challenge facing humanity in this century. I also believe that we need more professionals in government at all levels. No other group is better suited to design system level solutions to America’s problems. Solutions with balanced triple bottom line thinking.

[alexanderpf]

A Wikipedian Explains How Wikipedia Stays Reliable in the Fake News Era | VICE | United States

"If Wikipedia's rules were applied to Facebook? Oh my God! They'd lose 99 percent of their content."

“When you get started with Wikipedia, it's a crash course in library science and intellectual property law. Once you're past that bar, then your bullshit detector is at 100 percent. When you see stuff on Facebook, people are basically responding emotionally.” -- Victor Grigas (Video producer for the Wikimedia Foundation)

[alexanderpf]

Ditching the generator for a solar microgrid in American Samoa

[twitterlols]