• 2 Posts
  • 16 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: September 17th, 2023

help-circle
  • I think that’s a neat idea, but we could instead, collectively, just do better at following other cars at a safe distance. I know it’s impractical to expect all drivers on the road everywhere to change their behavior, but it’s also persistently frustrating as someone who has for years frequently been stuck in traffic to see 95% of drivers insist on following less than a car-length behind. Following too closely to enable decision-making or accommodate other drivers is the cause of like 98% of both traffic accidents and congestion, according to my completely anecdotal and made up research.




  • I’m new to this too, but the slide deck they have posted seems a good starting place.

    The NGI is an initiative of the European Commission to fund “researchers, developers, startups, and SMEs” who are aligned with the “aim to shape the development and evolution of the Internet” according to the principles of:

    • protecting personal data

    • ensuring privacy and security

    • combating disinformation

    • guaranteeing access and freedom of choice

    • respecting fundamental rights

    • enforcing ethics and sustainability by design.

    I’m a little less clear on what the 16 projects are (which are listed on slides 6 and 7), but I gather they might be specific objectives, defined by the NGI, within which their funding is categorized, e.g., if you’re doing research on democratizing search capabilities, that research would serve the NGI’s “Search” project and would qualify for funding.

    I’m making a lot of assumptions but I’m reasonably confident in them.



  • Many noted a striking similarity to the case of Savita Halappavanar, a 31-year-old woman who died of septic shock in 2012 after providers in Ireland refused to empty her uterus while she was miscarrying at 17 weeks. When she begged for care, a midwife told her, “This is a Catholic country.” The resulting investigation and public outcry galvanized the country to change its strict ban on abortion.

    But in the wake of deaths related to abortion access in the United States, leaders who support restricting the right have not called for any reforms.

    My country’s aptitude for remaining entirely unmoved by preventable tragedies that utterly upend political trajectories in other nations has become one of our most globally defining traits.












  • For too long have Americans been a victim of its political parties putting party loyalty over governance. Together let’s send the message to Washington and say, ‘You will represent or be replaced.’

    “I’m suspicious of any plan to fix unfairness that starts wtih ‘step one, dismantle the entire system and replace it with a better one,’ especially if you can’t do anything else until step one is done. Of all the ways that people kid themselves into doing nothing, that one is the most self-serving.” –Walkaway (by Cory Doctorow)

    I think I’ll be saying this a lot in the near future, but please don’t throw away your vote. As revolutions go, “not voting” is the 0 value on a scale of impotent to effective. If you care about change, do it at the local level. There are candidates in your city and county with radical ideas and plans for your communities. You can make a massive impact all on your own in those elections. You can change things. You have real power there.

    And that power grows when it joins with other communities across the country. That’s when your voice is loud enough to catch the ear of establishment power.

    It’s idealistic I know, but no less so than trying to catch the ear of power through abstainment. “Do nothing” does not stoke the fires of discontent to organize collective power. Please do something, and start with voting. Please.