@cdarwin@c.imAt midnight on 1 January, the flexible credit card-sized pass used by millions of New Yorkers to get through subway turnstiles is being terminated from sale just as a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, takes office.
The transit system will fully transition to #Omny, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap their credit card, phone or other smart device to pay fares, much as they do for other purch…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialCritical minerals dropped from final text at COP30
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/critical-minerals-dropped-from-final-text-at-cop30/
@brichapman@mastodon.socialNorthern Europe is getting a massive energy storage boost. EVE Energy and Vimab BESS just signed a deal to deploy 1.48 gigawatt-hours of battery storage across Sweden and neighboring countries.
Why it matters: As wind and solar capacity grows in the Nordics, large-scale storage is crucial for grid stability and reliable power supply.
@brichapman@mastodon.socialGermany just committed €3 billion to help lower-income families afford electric vehicles. This is a game-changer for EV accessibility—making clean transportation a reality for people who've been priced out of the electric transition. It's not just about climate goals anymore; it's about equity.
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzThis seems most auspicious: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/12/yes-new-york-will-soon-be-under-new-management-but-zohran-mamdani-is-just-the-start anti-trust specialist Khan on M…
@hex@kolektiva.socialAny sufficiently advanced disaster preparedness is indistinguishable from revolutionary dual power. This essay is a bit of a transition between the theory I've written earlier, and more concrete plans.
Even though I only touched on my life on the commune, it was hard not to write more. These are such weird spaces, with so much invisible opportunity. But they're also just so unique and special. For all the stress and uncertainty of making sure you stayed on Lorean's (the head priestess), there were also those long summer nights with the whole community (except the old lady) gathered around a fire, talking and drinking. There was almost a child-like play to the whole time.
There were so Fridays I'd come home with a couple of gallons of beer from the real world, folks would bring things from the garden, someone would grill a steak, everyone who didn't cook would clean up, and we'd just hang out and have fun. So many evenings I'd go over to Miles place with a guitar, or with his guitar, and we'd pass it around over a few beers, talking about philosophy, Star Wars, or some book or other. It's hard not to write about the strange magic of that space.
My partner and I bonded over similar experiences, mine on a weird little religious commune in California and theirs as a temporary worker at Omega Institute. Both had exploitation, people on weird power trips, frustrating dynamics, but also a strange magic and freedom. Both were sort of fantasy worlds, but places that let us see through this one, let us imagine something that something else is possible behind the veil.
There are many such veils.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is more meandering, as a good wander can help the transition between lots of hard thinking and lots of hard working.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/evaluating-options
Editing feedback (especially typos, spelling, grammar) is always welcome, as are questions and even wider structural advice. I've been adding the handles of folks who provide feedback to the intro in a "thank you" section. If you do help and wouldn't like to be added, please let me know.
@hikingdude@mastodon.social @cdarwin@c.imUruguay did what most nations still call impossible:
it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables
—at half the cost of fossil fuels.
The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere
—if governments have the courage to change the rules.
For Ramon Méndez Galain,
the energy transition isn’t just about climate
—it’s about economics.
Uruguay’s shift to renewables, he argues,
demonstrated that cl…
@pre@boing.worldThe conference is over now. I likely wouldn't have come for just a bitcoin thing, but I am very interested in redecentralizing the web, so it's attachment to the nostr day pulled me in.
Everyone I met was friendly and interesting and seems much more interested in making a better money system than in making money for themselves.
Our government and bank money systems are dysfunctional in all kinds of ways which are often less visible than they should be too people using them, especially to those in Europe and America who benefit from the way those systems exploit the global south.
I'm not convinced that fixing that would end wars and fix broken government as some seem to think, but I am sure our money is the source of many problems.
There are many bright, well meaning, and intelligent people building to improve bitcoin in fascinating ways with the hope of having a parallel system to transition to. With lots of work still to be done.
Can it work?
I'm sure I don't know, and I'm sure even if it's a better system it'll come with it's own unfairness and cruelty. Money will continue to be a source of suck and worry.
I'm told that the bigger conferences are often full of shitcoin scammers and suit wearing banksters who are in fact all in it too get rich and rip people off, but I found none of that here.
Here there is a real community of people trying to make the world a better place and improve the lives of their neighbours and governance of their countries.
And in the end building community is the most radical and effective way to change the world regardless of the problems of it's money system.
I had a great time. Thanks to those organising it.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@burger_jaap@mastodon.socialRE: https://mastodon.social/@burger_jaap/115507554790052374
“the idea of “sharing” energy or providing “free” electricity when it is abundant signals that the transition is a whole-of-community endeavour, not just a collection of individual decision-ma…
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzYes. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581692/how-to-support-a-low-emissions-farming-future We just need to halve the herd. That simple. Yeah, farmers will fail. That's how 'the market' deals with unsustainable businesses. But they&…
@cdarwin@c.im“For millions, adaptation is not an abstract goal,”
“It is the difference between rebuilding and being swept away,
between replanting and starving,
between staying on ancestral land or losing it forever."
UN Secretary General
Guterres also supported a just transition, to ensure those working in the fossil fuel industry are supported into new livelihoods.
@hex@kolektiva.socialThe implications are interesting enough when we apply this to systems like capitalism or national governments, but there are other very interesting implications when applied to systems like race or gender.
Like, as a cis man the only way I can be free to express and explore my own masculinity is if the masculinity I participate in is one which allows anyone the freedom to leave. Then I have an obligation to recognize the validity of nom-masculine trans identity as a necessary component of my own. If I fail to do this, then I trap myself in masculinity and allow the system to control me rather than me to be a free participant in the system.
But if it's OK to escape but not enter, that's it's own restriction that constrains the freedom to leave. It creates a barrier that keeps people in by the fear that they cannot return. So in order for me to be free in my cis masculine identity, I must accept non-masculine trans identities as they are and accept detransitioning as also valid.
But I also need to accept trans-masc identities because restricting entry to my masculinity means non-consensually constraining other identities. If every group imposes an exclusion against others coming in, that, by default, makes it impossible to leave every other group. This is just a description of how national borders work to trap people within systems, even if a nation itself allows people to "freely" leave.
So then, a free masculinity is one which recognizes all configurations of trans identities as valid and welcomes, if not celebrates, people who transition as affirmations of the freedom of their own identity (even for those who never feel a reason to exercise that same freedom).
The most irritating type of white person may look at this and say, "oh, so then why can't I be <not white>?" Except that the critique of transratial identities has never been "that's not allowed" and has always been "this person didn't do the work." If that person did the work, they would understand that the question doesn't make sense based on how race is constructed. That person might understand that race, especially whiteness, is more fluid than they at first understood. They might realize that whiteness is often chosen at the exclusion of other racialized identities. They would, perhaps, realize that to actually align with any racialized identity, they would first have to understand the boot of whiteness on their neck, have to recognize the need to destroy this oppressive identity for their own future liberation. The best, perhaps only, way to do this would be to use the privilege afforded by that identity to destroy it, and in doing so would either destroy their own privilege or destroy the system of privilege. The must either become themselves completely ratialized or destroy the system of race itself such being "transracial" wouldn't really make sense anymore.
But that most annoying of white person would, of course, not do any such work. Nevertheless, one hopes that they may recognize the paradox that they are trapped by their white identity, forced forever by it to do the work of maintaining it. And such is true for all privileged identities, where privilege is only maintained through restrictions where these restrictions ultimately become walls that imprison both the privileged and the marginalized in a mutually reinforcing hell that can only be escaped by destroying the system of privilege itself.
@brichapman@mastodon.socialBig milestone for Australia's energy transition: Hanwha Energy just got approval for a massive 100 MW battery in southeast Queensland.
This isn't just storage—it'll capture surplus solar, power 15,000 homes during peak demand, and provide critical grid stability services.
A major step toward a more resilient, renewable-powered grid.
@ncoca@social.coop
@primonatura@mstdn.social"'Win by time’: How Poland is preparing for the death of coal"
#Poland #Energy #FossilFuels #Climate
@brichapman@mastodon.socialAustralia's coal heartland is getting a clean energy makeover.
Flow Power just secured financing for a massive 100MW battery in Victoria's Latrobe Valley—right where the old Hazelwood coal plant once stood. The project pairs large-scale solar and wind with storage to deliver reliable renewable power by 2028.
It's a powerful symbol of the energy transition taking root in coal country.
@cdarwin@c.imTrump has claimed at the press conference now under way in Florida that the United States is going to run Venezuela for the time being -- although it’s unclear how that would be done.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said.
He has given no details.
He just called Maduro a dictator and a drug kingpin
Trump said his secretary of state,
@brichapman@mastodon.socialUruguay just proved the skeptics wrong. In only two years, the country shifted to 98% renewable electricity—and poverty rates dropped as a result.
This wasn't some slow, painful transition. It was rapid, economically beneficial, and shows that decarbonization doesn't have to hurt. The economic case for clean energy is real, and we need to stop being afraid to make it.
@brichapman@mastodon.socialSouth Australia is getting a major energy upgrade.
Engie and Sungrow just broke ground on the Pelican Point battery storage system—a massive 200MW/400MWh facility that'll power over 29,400 homes while stabilizing the renewable-rich grid.
Expected online in late 2027, it's a key piece of the region's clean energy transition.
@brichapman@mastodon.socialThe EU just opened the funding floodgates for clean energy innovation.
The European Commission launched €5.2bn in new funding opportunities targeting net-zero tech, low-carbon hydrogen, and industrial decarbonization. The goal: hit 2030 climate targets while keeping European industry competitive and resilient on the path to climate neutrality by 2050.
@brichapman@mastodon.socialYoung people aren't just worried about climate change—they're actively solving it.
Across communities worldwide, youth are designing innovative adaptation solutions focused on justice and inclusion. They're mobilizing action at scale, demanding accessible finance, and ensuring no one gets left behind in the climate transition.
The message to decision-makers is clear: partner with young leaders and invest in youth-led adaptation now.
@pre@boing.worldSo farewell then Microsoft Office.
I haven't used you really since the 90s.
From this distance: it seems like you just kept getting worse and more exploitative since then and trapped millions of people in abusive relationships with tech.
It made me laugh when you went monthly-payment subscription-only, and then laugh even more when suckers actually ponied up for that.
It's fun when people say they don't know how to use Libreoffice, even though Libre is more like the original MS Office (before it was shit) than Office 365 was.
I wish you fare well on your transition to your new identity as #microSlop #office #CoPiliot #ai #enshitification #poem
@brichapman@mastodon.socialOklahoma is crashing the green hydrogen party with some serious innovation.
Startup Tobe Energy just landed $1.8M for their membrane-free electrolysis system that could slash production costs by up to 75%. Their secret? LED technology that simplifies the process and cuts waste heat.
With strong renewables and business-friendly policies, Oklahoma is positioning itself as a major player in the energy transition.
