Notices by Linda Woodrow (lindawoodrow@mastodon.social)

My #OptOut #SpendingStrike post today is about line drying clothes. A friend tells me that in US this was just not done, would draw complaints from neighbours when she lived in US 30 years ago. Is this still so? I love the smell of line dried sheets, and sun is such a good disinfectant, and driers are such energy sucking short lived appliances. It's a wet day here, but still, the clothes will at worst get another rinse in sweet smelling, soft rain water.

@curmudgeonaf Yes, this research is a bit more sophisticated version of that. With some nice modelling and numbers. Maybe skip right through to the conclusion first, then go back to see how the modelling shows it. " The question of how much production is necessary to end poverty cannot be answered by assessing PPP-based incomes or aggregate GDP. It is necessary to assess what is being produced, and whether people have access to necessary goods and services.

@futzle I have a Thinkpad, just a couple of years old, and the zxcv on the keyboard has stopped working. I've cleaned, software updated etc, and only next step is replace, but I'[d have to replace the entire top plate and it's expensive. Going with a plug in keyboard for now. Repair centre guy says it's unusual, Thinkpads are usually more reliable, but I'm annoyed about the lack of repairability.

@okohll @breadandcircuses @gerrymcgovern

This is an interesting study. I think we live very simply but we overshoot a couple of the DLS standards. But with the 40% they talk about on top of individual household resourcing added as public goods (libraries, parks, public transport, research institutes etc), I think I could live very well. (It's long but scroll down to the heading "3. How much growth is required to ensure good lives for all?" if you don't want read it all) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292924000493

Today's #SpendingStrike #OptOut post - Guerilla gardening. We have a wide stormwater easement & a side lane next to little suburban block. I pot up things that are easy & free to propagate - seeds (eg avocados, mangoes, tamarind, coffee), cuttings (mulberries, dragon fruit, guavas), pups (eg bananas, pineapples) & plant them. It's public land, & there's (welcomed) public harvesting, but almost no vandalism or outright theft. I get breakfast & a sense of food security.

@vwdasher The strawberry looks so much like it's trying to innocuously blend in. " Don't mind me"

Today's #SpendingStrike #OptOut post - I've been thinking about https://mastodon.social/@MelissaBenyon@climatejustice.social 's post about repair culture. The only "thing" I've seen for ages that I'd love to buy is the MNT Reform Next laptop. I can't justify it - the computer I'm writing this on still has a good bit of life left, but it's how I wish technology (and everything else) was built -future proof, modular, made to last, made to be repairable.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/mnt-reform-next

@FeralFood Commelina is also known as "scurvy weed", because the leaves are so rich in Vitamin C. So long as you are sure it's blue flowered commelina, and not white flowered Wandering Jew (or also blue flowered but different flower introduced Commelina benghalensis), it's safe to eat and not bad in a salad. (Yours is the edible native one. )

Front garden oath this summer morning.

@alyssa we use Loomio for Permaculture Australia board and volunteers. Works very well.

@FeralFood I would have a fair to reasonable bet that I could match you in a most feral/least socially presentable match :). I've been practicing for a while.

Today's #SpendingStrike #OptOut thought is about is about the irony of spending money to save the work of homemade, when the work is actually the fun and joy and point. I was thinking about knitting a dishcloth, and how foolish that would feel when disposible dishcloths cost next to nothing. Then I remembered this post from years ago, and how good those kind of repetitive craft activities are for creating thinking time. Making as its own reward, not something to avoid. https://witcheskitchen.com.au/things-born-of-mindfulness/

@cjpaloma @MelissaBenyon Yes, sounds like it's the same as general thrift shop. But only the ones run by a charity, and staffed by volunteers, are called op shops. The private for profit ones are generally called pre-loved or vintage or something like that. (Op stands for opportunity, and was probably once upon a time a reference to disability support, but it's long lost that connotation).

@JorgeStolfi @mcc @modulux (Charities usually set up to sell sausage sandwiches at polling booths). I appreciate our preferential voting system. And compulsory voting. I think (even though I've never had nor realistically hope to have a government of my choice) it works so much better. 5/5

@JorgeStolfi @mcc @modulux Counting is done by electoral office employees, by hand, and each candidate is allowed a scrutineer to watch the counting. It was a big shock to us when 45 called the election stolen - such a claim would not get any mileage here, even to full on conspiracy theorists. Elections are always Saturdays. Compulsory voting, (or at least turn up and get your name ticked off). Usually a very civil, even celebratory atmosphere. The famous "democracy sausage". 4/n

@JorgeStolfi @mcc @modulux my candidate is eliminated, my ballot paper is transferred to my second choice. And, when that one is eliminated, to my third, till all the votes end up in two piles and the bigger pile wins. (Called the two-party preferred). (While all this is happening, it's also happening for the far-right loopies, their candidate eliminated etc). It sounds slow but it's fast - the election usually called within hours though some seats might take days of recounts. 3/n

@JorgeStolfi @mcc @modulux But, the major parties examine those statistics, and if enough of us vote that way, it tells them, move left or else. And if they don't, it tells other voters, that left wing candidate is a serious contender. Other reason, there's federal government campaign funding of nearly $3 per first preference vote, goes to my far left candidate, and if one of the major parties wants it, they learn they need to move left. But when (sadly almost always inevitably) 2/n

@JorgeStolfi @mcc @modulux I'm Australian. Preferential voting. You get a ballot paper (yes paper), with a whole lot of names on it. For House of Reps, usually 5-8, for Senate we call it a tablecloth. You rank the candidates in order of preference, 1 down to whatever. (There's some nuances, like voting above the line for the senate where you rank groups rather than individuals, but let's ignore that for the moment). For me, being left of left, my first ranked candidate normally has no hope. 1/n

My #OptOut #SpendingStrike post today is, I bought a new (to me) black Tshirt this week. Kmart etc have such cheap Tshirts, $3. How do they make them for that? It's wrong! But, it does make you feel silly op shopping for Tshirts. Till you find a Dannii Minogue, beautifully soft, all cotton, lovely quality, perfect condition, also $3, and the $3 goes to Lifeline. Op shops here are so overwhelmed lots aren't even accepting donations. We don't need to make more clothes. Not for generations.

@broadwaybabyto I'm in Australia.I read somewhere that the vast majority of support in emergencies comes from people living in the same block. There's some really good stuff happening here for emergency planning to include, get to know everyone in your block, what their plan is (go or stay) and what they need to do it. And, one of the most effective people in the Lismore flood emergency was physically disabled, created a spreadsheet, who needed rescue and who was going to them, was invaluable.