Notices by Roy Brander (roybrander@urbanists.social)

@StillIRise1963

When I see those posts that say "Democracy has lasted 250 years and is now in danger", I think, that guy must be White.
Democracy is really new, and endlessly challenged and hard, for some people.

@fatsam

There's the famous story in Freakonomics of the wine snobs who, when subjected to double-blind testing, could not tell expensive from inexpensive.

The people with these devices should be subjected to double-blind testing on espresso from $32K equipment and $320 equipment.

@Sheril

By a freakish coincidence, this Doonesbury comic about Nixon, the first one dropped from the Post in many years (but not Doonesbury's last) came out on May 31, 1973 - fifty-one years ago today, less one day.

Actually, Garry Trudeau can run it tomorrow morning, the exact 51st anniversary.

Just an advisory to all American friends:

His new first name is "Convicted Felon", the full name must be used henceforth:

Convicted Felon Donald Trump.

@adaddinsane

SF writing great Joe Haldeman had novels that deviated from expected plots a lot after about 2000. I recall a fragment of an interview, roughly:

I started feeling sorry for my own characters; I was frog-marching the poor bastards through this sequence of setting, rising action, conflict, climax and denouement as I put them through hell.

I had to let them break out of the forced march and be free to not be an amusement.

@Blackfist

Probably the quickest, easy summary of "we don't have universal health care because of racism" story was in huffpost:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/when-racism-stands-in-the_b_264823

More generally, Heather McGee's celebrated "The Sum of Us" is about a longer list of things that everybody doesn't have as public services, because Black people might get them.

Most head-shakingly, towns filled in public swimming pools so nobody could swim, rather than integrate them.

@strypey @annaleen

Thank-you both. So, Wikimedia and a fistful of Linux-related projects all manage with charity, basically. There will be a cost-level where donated labour and mere charity are sufficient funding.

Much of the Fediverse may need only that - a little guilt-tripping with posts from your server admins that resemble Wale's pleas on the wikipedia main page.

Then there's the PBS model - corporate sponsorship for a modest acknowledgement, i.e. minimally-annoying ad.

@annaleen

Any mention of "money" as in "not sure this free thing will last, in the presence of Money"... all such comments should note the Wikipedia, and its amazing success.

@annaleen

Right, it is, it's a charity, so it has that thing that 'ensnared the early web: Money'. They have $155M a year coming in, though they are also, (I think) angry-billionaire proof. I just don't see a risk of Wikipedia becoming "enshittified" for money or politics, but - they can make payroll for 700 and keep running indefinitely.

@goatsarah

Sorry, but "the room" was ditching trains when they could save 6 hours with a 99 Euro flight.

I've had words with my Madrid relatives about it...

@mos_8502

It's not about the age of the technology, it's about whether it is an empowering technology, or a control technology.

I assure you that 1960s mainframes were used for control, wherever possible. 1970s computers one person could own were the *first* time IT was an empowering technology.

They raced to take control away from us. The Windows OS. Unrepairable Macs.

The "home page" (see brander.ca for a 1990s "home page") was replaced by Facebook, because it was easier than HTML.