dazinism @dazinism@social.coop

October is Blindness Awareness Month, AMA! Fun facts to start:

93% of people with sight loss have some level of sight, even if it's just telling the difference between light and dark.

Braille users are pretty rare (I've heard different percentages but all in single digits) so don't think slapping Braille on everything means you're done with accessibility.

We tend to be very poor. 75% of working-age blind people in the UK don't have jobs. People think being blind means we can't do most things.

But wait, it gets worse! Even the economists trying to push back on GDP as a useful measure, repeat the same mistake of thinking that you can capture anything of value about "The Economy" with a single metric. So while they see the obvious problem, they are still living in denial of the fact that the entire idea of this kind of metric is flawed...which should be obvious, right? But not to economists, no...

And I spent 10s of 1000s of dollars on an econ degree, so I have a right to bitch.

Like this: GDP is simply a measure of transactions involving the exchange of money that happened during a certain period of time. This is a measure that tells us nothing of any real interest, and it's obvious that it doesn't, but everyone acts like GDP⬆️ is good and GDP⬇️ is bad, even "expert" economists.

If you get cancer and spend all your money treating it, GDP goes up. If you're 2 days late on your credit card payment and they charge you a fee, GDP goes up. Do we see why GDP⬆️ =/= good?

I think most of a mainstream economics education is really just about training you not to think about obvious things.

ISSUE 03

☁️💦💧Water Bodies💧💦☁️

our call for pitches now open through 12 OCT 2022
https://link.hypha.coop/compost-cfp

I would like to take this opportunity to shout-out @edumerco for creating this "co-occurance matrix" of comments in a discussion thread on Loomio about increasing the character limit of our beloved Social.coop. You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. 👏 👏 👏

GPS Jammers are being used to hijack trucks and down drones

https://www.zdnet.com/article/criminals-are-using-gps-jammers-to-hijack-trucks-and-down-drones/

Registrations are now open at exercise.cafe!

https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2022/09/13/exercise-cafe-registrations/

#exercise #fitness #fediverse

Many people from Commonwealth nations don’t view the monarchy or a particular monarch the way I do. I think we were encouraged to think of her as a benign ruler with little real power. But she acted powerfully behind the scenes, e.g. in the removal of a democratically elected prime minister here in the ‘70s. Even if we assume she was a benign ruler, the system (not this one individual) highlights the lack of democracy and the extreme inequality inherent in a hereditary, unelected head of state.

After having a frustrating conversation with a friend about how the Internet has turned from an exciting new technology to something saddening that's endlessly abused capitalism, I decided to contribute my tiny share to make alternative digital spaces possible.

This is how datenkommune.org came to be. It's a public access computer system, powered by OpenBSD and with a focus on a positive computing experience and driven by a desire to learn, cooperate and enjoy technology without any commercial motives or the dystopian intrusion of surveillance capitalism.

I eventually plan on writing down more what the philosophy behind it is, and what differentiates the project from (e.g.) the Tildeverse (which it is partially inspired by), but for now you can read about it at https://datenkommune.org/philosophy.html.

If you're interested in more details and in gaining access, look no further: https://datenkommune.org/service.html

Everything is still in its infancy, but it should be ready for a first couple of users. So if you're interested .. I'd be happy to see you around. Feel free to spread the word. :)

(For some tag-based reach: #openbsd, #privacy, #shell, #community, #fediverse)

This is called winning at LinkedIn 🤣

Cooperation Jackson this Saturday - https://www.solidarityeconomy.coop/projects/conversations-with-gamechangers

A pretty stellar line up in these Conversations with Gamechangers

Cooperation Jackson, Aborîya Jin in Rojava, Grassroots Liberation in Nairobi, Zameen Prapti Sangharsh in the Punjab region, and @guerrillamediacollective

"A series of conversations with radical grass-roots solidarity economy organisations across the world who are breaking new ground in their own contexts while building power in their communities."

https://www.solidarityeconomy.coop/projects/conversations-with-gamechangers