Tootfinder

Logistics in the technical sense (part of supply chain management) is a subset of logistics in the vernacular sense ("the handling of the details of an operation"). You can explore this second and more general sense, and thereby build an understanding of the first and more technical sense, by iteratively asking the question, "how does one make that happen" and follow questions from there.
A big part of organizing is figuring out the (vernacular) logistics (and helping others figure it out). You want to organize a seed swap? Ok. How does one make that happen? Well, you need seeds, people, a place, and perhaps a time. How does one make that happen? You can forage seeds or you can buy seeds for a garden and swap extras. How do you get people to come? Well, figure out where you want people to come from and choose an accessible place. What's the easiest thing to do? Get people from your neighborhood. How does one make that happen? Well, maybe put up flyers. How does one make that happen? Well, print them on your printer if you have one, or at a library, then go post them up. Etc.
Keep asking questions until you either find a roadblock that you can't find a way around, or you find things you can do yourself (one of those things you can do yourself is asking friends to help).
If you practice the exercise of thinking about how things happen, you can start to find things that you can do yourself. You can start to understand what exists now, and you can imagine what's possible. By thinking about logistics, you can figure out how to replace things when they collapse or are dismantled. You can also identify things that can't easily be replaced, and try to figure out alternatives.
This practice is good for figuring out how to build, but it can also be a valuable practice for figuring out how to resist. Concentration camps and ethnic cleansing also require logistics. Mass displacement means moving people. How does one do that? People are generally going to be moved in planes or buses. How does one do that? Well, people get loaded on to planes or buses in specific places. Planes and buses need fuel. Planes are fueled at their airports, which may well be the same places where people are loaded on to them. There is a fuel depo and a fuel truck that makes flying people out of a specific place possible. How does the fuel get to that fuel depo? Well, that fuel is probably also delivered by truck. Someone drives those trucks. Someone fuels those planes. Someone clears the planes for takeoff. Someone fuels those busses. Someone drives those busses. And so on.
Logistics networks can be highly complex. The more complex the operation, the more possible points of failure and more possible points where pressure can be applied, where operations can be disrupted. Ethnic cleansing is a complicated operation. The logistics of disrupting complicated things tend to be much less complicated than the logistics of the complicated things themselves.
The Right has exploited this fact for a long time. Centralized social services are logistically complex. Public infrastructure is logistically complex. By destroying these things, they can loot public resources by privatizing the infrastructure and functionality.
But the things that support the Right are even more logistically complex. Oil, cars, AI data centers, internal paramilitary, these are extremely complicated and fragile. There are numerous pressure points, all of which can respond to numerous strategies.
If we want to win, we should reduce the influence of politics over the things we care about. We should focus on building distributed mutual aid networks that don't rely on state funding and aren't subject to the whims of politicians. This is also known as "dual power." That is, creating counter-institutions outside of the dominant political system. The Right already does this in the form of churches and corporations.
As we reduce our complexity, we can then press our complexity advantage against the things for which the Right *needs* the state: the apparatus of violence needed to maintain capital and enforce the dominant order.

On the one hand, Trump spoke in the language of threats, sanctions, and displays of power;
On the other, he tried to avoid an all-out war, one that could endanger the energy market, the elections, and America’s focus on China.
The result of this contradiction was the transfer of risk to allies
--Arab states felt that Washington wanted to use their territory to pressure Iran, without offering a clear guarantee that it would bear the heavy costs of defending them.
Th…

Project Freedom and the end of the Arabs’ automatic “yes” to Washington
When Donald Trump spoke of “Project Freedom” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the plan was supposed to be a display of restored American deterrence: an operation meant to prove that Washington could…

"Conservation efforts by families displaced for national park sees success in DRC"
#DRC #Conservation #Environment

Conservation efforts by families displaced for national park sees success in DRC
Descendants of families forcibly displaced during the creation of Maiko National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1970s are now leading a new wave of community-led conservation. Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr., from one such displaced family, is the head of the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), […]

A computer model predicted which human brain implant channels would fail #invasive

I made Eric’s GAAD BINGO card into a table on my 2022 GAAD post:
https://adrianroselli.com/2022/05/the-performative-a11yship-of-gaad.html#Update03
_This_ time I actually checked it across dark and light modes. I think.

The Performative A11yship of #GAAD
For context on the title, working backward from the end, GAAD is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Its purpose, as explained at accessibility.day, is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different disabilities. A11yship is a play on the numeronym for accessibility (a11y) and the…

I’m getting really tired of AI magnifying all the worst aspects of humanity. It’s happening in every sector, and the examples are plentiful. This is why I’m becoming more anti-AI by the day. While I know there are people and organsations using the technology for amazing things, the net effect it has on us is negative as it enables far too many of us to display the worst parts of ourselves at an increasingly rapid rate.
Accentism for profit? What Telus is getting wrong about accents

Accentism for profit? What Telus is getting wrong about accents
An AI accent manipulation tool may be “cool” technology, but it is arguably also a form of discrimination against workers whose voices are being altered.

🎵"If it were within our power
Beyond the reach of slavish pride
To no longer harbour grievances
Behind the mask's opportunists facade
We could welcome the responsibilty
Like a long lost friend
And re-establish the kingdom of laughter
In the dolls house once again
For time has imprisoned us
In the order of our years
In the discipline of our ways
And in the passing of momentary stillness
We can view our chaos in motion
A…

A great explanation of 'Why workflows for the social sciences and humanities?' by Eamonn Bell @…
With bonus 'it's just like Yahoo Pipes!' nostalgia for people of a certain internet age

Developing actionable workflows for the social sciences and humanities with Galaxy: A report on a TNA visit to ACDH, Vienna
Facilitating access to digital research infrastructures and advancing frontier knowledge in the arts and humanities - across disciplines, languages and media.

Across the country, a few younger Democrats are beginning to paint a picture of a nation that stands for more than gratuitous displays of power and wealth, the bombs we drop on Iranian children or an oligarch purchasing the pageantry of the Met Gala:
Jon Ossoff is arguing persuasively that rooting out corruption is the key to making government serve the people.
James Talarico is describing how his faith compels a brand of politics in which we care for one another.
Alexan…

Opinion | This Is How a Party Ends Up Looking Like a Clown Car
We need leaders who tell us hard truths while insisting that the present state of our politics is not permanent.

I'm going to deviate a bit from my normal audience and focus in on #tech (especially #Security folks). I came across the practice from public health and emergency management and brought it into work. They seemed to have never heard of it. I'm curious how common my experience is. (Please boost for visibility)
Have you ever used table top exercises in your work (such as, to verify a runbook would work as expected)?
Yes, and I work in tech
No, and I work in tech
Yes, and I don't work in tech
No, and I don't work in tech