Rowley @Rowley@social.cleverlibre.org

The evidence that cars don’t work as primary mass transport in cities is everywhere: traffic jams, air pollution, accident rates, the shocking fraction of city space taken up by parking spaces, safety barriers/bollards etc. This 100 year experiment should be declared over, and we should put proper effort into the systems that HAVE been shown to work and scale: walking, cycling, e-cargo bikes, cheap/accessible/reliable public transport. This “argument” about LTNs is just lazy delay. #LTN #cities

I felt this in my teeth.

I don't know which of my facts pushed them over the edge, but I sure hope it was this one.

The largest public school district in Texas is eliminating librarian positions and converting the libraries into 'discipline centers' at 28 schools this upcoming year https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/07/26/hisd-to-eliminate-librarians-turn-libraries-into-discipline-centers-at-28-campuses/

Quantum Computer Support Person: “Have you tried turning it on and off at the same time?”

#c

After reading @pluralistic's latest piece on planned obsolescence as technofeudalism, I stumbled across this Tumblr post about how a rusty old 100-year-old Singer sewing machine can be restored to FEARSOME, SUPERIOR working order compared to any newish machine, by swapping in standard-sized parts that attach with standard flat-head screws

Meanwhile the modern machine's plastic parts wear out quickly and very little is attached with standard screws. It also depends on software that's now glitching

https://www.tumblr.com/viridianriver/721034993348067328/sewing-machines-planned-obsolescence-ive-got

#PlannedObsolescence #RightToRepair #sewing #SewingMachine #Antique #Vintage #AntiCapitalism

@ellenor2000 @pluralistic ah non! Voici le texte:

Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence

I've got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.

I've always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.

I wasn't feeling hopeful at first that I'd actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.

How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn't just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.

Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.

Old Machine Guts

The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it's nothing. (it's actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I'll never sew drunk on that thing because I'm genuinely afraid it'd sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it's well balanced and doesn't shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That's OK, a knife works too.

New Machine Guts

The new machine's skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It's always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it's innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that's about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.

And it's infuriating. I'm an engineer - there's no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can't be reached to replace. There's no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it's reaching the point of failure before reaching it's own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it's corporate greed)

(continued)

@ellenor2000 @pluralistic

(continued)

100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.

Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I'd be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars... Used on craigslist. I don't even want to know what they'd cost new.

We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture "old" sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it's easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)

We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it's honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They're selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I'm over it.

Oh, you want some medicine for your #ADHD? Here, pee in this cup to prove you're not a drug addict, sign this legal document to promise you won't sell your prescription to some other addict under penalty of something or other, then wait an indefinite amount of time for your pharmacy to be able to obtain the pills since there's a huge shortage. Also, you have to work all this out as if you already have the meds and can function normally. 🫠

You wouldn’t have McDonald’s teaching your kids about nutrition or Philip Morris teaching them about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Why are you happy having a surveillance capitalist like Google or Facebook teaching them about technology?

#surveillanceCapitalism #technology #web #education #SiliconValley #BigTech

Was passiert gerade im Mittelmeerraum, mit Hitze, Dürre und Bränden?
Genau das, wovor Klimaforscher viele Jahre gewarnt haben.
Hier ein kurzer Ausschnitt aus einem Vortrag von mir in Malaga vor 14 Jahren.

I love bees.
https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts

Slave collars were thirty pound iron contraptions with spikes, rods, and bells locked around your neck for days to punish those who tried unsuccessfully to run away. Also available in child sizes. #developedskills #personalbenefit

Trump will benefit from incarceration in Florida because it will teach him useful skills.

These days you can't even tell people to google it themselves, because you can't find shit anymore with Google

One of my favourite things on Tiktok a few weeks ago was when Ben Shapiro did a video reacting to some queer teen’s tiktok videos, and the kid did a response video and had no idea who Ben Shapiro was and felt like they were “punching down” because “he only has 1/4 the followers I do”.

The kids are good, and we need to do what we can to support them.

10/10 no notes

Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant and active?

I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.

We are trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.

If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? Counteroffensive.substack.com

I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.