@Techmeme@techhub.socialAmazon says it plans to bring same-day and next-day delivery to "tens of millions" of people who live in "more than 4,000" smaller US towns by the end of 2026 (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/691877/amazo
@Dragofix@veganism.socialSmall towns are growing fast across Ghana—but environmental planning isn't keeping up #Africa
@aredridel@kolektiva.socialThe popular meaning of "luddite" is a straw-man. It's a sloppy word with a sloppy meaning now, and it's one we'd do well to watch out for.
The actual reality of who the Luddites were is far more interesting, the center of the hard-fought struggles against owners of factories disrupting entire towns and cities economies with massively terrible results, centralizing power and money and leaving a great number of people without any control of their work, formerly artisans who'd had a hand in their own work, and many automated out of jobs. Luddites destroyed automated looms not because they hated technology. They destroyed automated looms because they were taking the livelihood they depended on, with no recourse, and it was a disaster for a good while, and then millwork has gone from those places probably forever.
The problem now with LLMs and automated research systems is there's very little way for workers and creators to stick their shoes in the machinery. They've tried (https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12281) but mostly failed, since unlike a factory full of textile workers, the equipment is remote, the automation virtual, an intangible software object that few can access in any meaningful way.
@kexpmusicbot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
White Town:
🎵 Your Woman
#WhiteTown
https://jamesdalgliesh.bandcamp.com/track/tribute-to-white-towns-your-woman-2
https://open.spotify.com/track/3UBItNVbFQiVC5hBQlBvnr
Please 🔁 BOOST to share what you like
- your followers don't see if you ⭐ favourite a post
@muz4now@mastodon.world14 Mountain Towns in the U.S. So Beautiful They Feel Like Heaven on Earth
#travel
https://themodernfield.com/best-smal…
@paulbusch@mstdn.caGood Morning #Canada
It was pointed out to me that I rarely, if ever, post anything about #NewBrunswick. It's not my fault that the eastern province is less exciting than Saskatoon, but today, we fix that omission. Here's an article on the 10 best towns and cities to visit in the land of Purple Violets and Black-capped Chickadees. Just in time for #RoadTrip season. Look for the next New Brunswick post in 26-ish months.
#CanadaIsAwesome
https://www.todocanada.ca/10-small-towns-and-cities-to-add-to-your-new-brunswick-itinerary/
@primonatura@mstdn.social"UK schools and offices not equipped for impact of global heating, report warns"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Education #Climate
@servelan@newsie.socialLocal Malls Are Sitting Empty, and Becoming a Headache for Small Towns - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/business/malls-empty-small-towns.html
@cdarwin@c.imThousands are expected to gather in cities and towns across 34 states on Saturday
for a national day of protest against Republican redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere.
“Fight the Trump Takeover” will be anchored in Austin, Texas, with other sites spread nationwide.
“Texas House Democrats are blocking a redistricting vote in the Texas House right now to Stop the Trump Takeover,”
a website for the protests says.
“But Trump has made it clear that he’s not st…
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyWe're having a hot June, here in the Netherlands. And it'll get hotter in the coming decades. We need more trees in our towns and cities. In the place in the picture, there once was a big tree. A civil servant explained that it had to be cut down, "because it took up two parking places" 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
#ClimateChange
@stefan@gardenstate.socialI feel like there are not enough videos on youtube about how towns in America are run.
here is a video from Hawthorne, #NewJersey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkY4L0gFR0M
@lapizistik@social.tchncs.deMoooozilla – the browser for cows (especially for the gigantic kind that spits fire and tramples towns).
@memeorandum@universeodon.comRepublicans slashed food aid. Grocers in small towns and rural areas are taking the hit. (Rachel Shin/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/19/trump-snap-food-cuts-rural-grocers-megabill-00463048
http://www.memeorandum.com/250719/p44#a250719p44
@cdarwin@c.imFor hundreds of years, the Spanish banned the Incan Festival of the Sun—the Andean New Year.
But since the middle of the 20th century, Inti Raymi has been back.
Today, communities, cities, towns and even universities hold Inti Raymi celebrations.
They make offerings, light fires and incense. They say prayers to Pachamama and Inti, the sun. They sing and dance.
And it’s not just a celebration. It is an act of resistance
@muz4now@mastodon.world12 Beautiful Medieval Cities and Towns in Greece That Transport You Back in Time https://share.worldwildschooling.com/r/Qb3ulh?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_content=muz4now/magazine/Travel&utm_medium=mastodon…
@shriramk@mastodon.socialAbsolutely nobody asked, but I decided to post a quickie personal "review" of each of the towns I was in during my self-guided art/history tour of #Italy25. Mostly as a note to my future self about where I'd like to return. (1/~12) ↵
@benb@osintua.eu'Evacuate to safer regions!' — Russian attacks kill 5, injure 1 in Donetsk Oblast: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/06/evacuate-to-safer-regions-russian.html
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialLong; central Massachusetts colonial history
Today on a whim I visited a site in Massachusetts marked as "Huguenot Fort Ruins" on OpenStreetMaps. I drove out with my 4-year-old through increasingly rural central Massachusetts forests & fields to end up on a narrow street near the top of a hill beside a small field. The neighboring houses had huge lawns, some with tractors.
Appropriately for this day and this moment in history, the history of the site turns out to be a microcosm of America. Across the field beyond a cross-shaped stone memorial stood an info board with a few diagrams and some text. The text of the main sign (including typos/misspellings) read:
"""
Town Is Formed
Early in the 1680's, interest began to generate to develop a town in the area west of Natick in the south central part of the Commonwealth that would be suitable for a settlement. A Mr. Hugh Campbell, a Scotch merchant of Boston petitioned the court for land for a colony. At about the same time, Joseph Dudley and William Stoughton also were desirous of obtaining land for a settlement. A claim was made for all lands west of the Blackstone River to the southern land of Massachusetts to a point northerly of the Springfield Road then running southwesterly until it joined the southern line of Massachusetts.
Associated with Dudley and Stoughton was Robert Thompson of London, England, Dr. Daniel Cox and John Blackwell, both of London and Thomas Freak of Hannington, Wiltshire, as proprietors. A stipulation in the acquisition of this land being that within four years thirty families and an orthodox minister settle in the area. An extension of this stipulation was granted at the end of the four years when no group large enough seemed to be willing to take up the opportunity.
In 1686, Robert Thompson met Gabriel Bernor and learned that he was seeking an area where his countrymen, who had fled their native France because of the Edict of Nantes, were desirous of a place to live. Their main concern was to settle in a place that would allow them freedom of worship. New Oxford, as it was the so-named, at that time included the larger part of Charlton, one-fourth of Auburn, one-fifth of Dudley and several square miles of the northeast portion of Southbridge as well as the easterly ares now known as Webster.
Joseph Dudley's assessment that the area was capable of a good settlement probably was based on the idea of the meadows already established along with the plains, ponds, brooks and rivers. Meadows were a necessity as they provided hay for animal feed and other uses by the settlers. The French River tributary books and streams provided a good source for fishing and hunting. There were open areas on the plains as customarily in November of each year, the Indians burnt over areas to keep them free of underwood and brush. It appeared then that this area was ready for settling.
The first seventy-five years of the settling of the Town of Oxford originally known as Manchaug, embraced three different cultures. The Indians were known to be here about 1656 when the Missionary, John Eliott and his partner Daniel Gookin visited in the praying towns. Thirty years later, in 1686, the Huguenots walked here from Boston under the guidance of their leader Isaac Bertrand DuTuffeau. The Huguenot's that arrived were not peasants, but were acknowledged to be the best Agriculturist, Wine Growers, Merchant's, and Manufacter's in France. There were 30 families consisting of 52 people. At the time of their first departure (10 years), due to Indian insurrection, there were 80 people in the group, and near their Meetinghouse/Church was a Cemetery that held 20 bodies. In 1699, 8 to 10 familie's made a second attempt to re-settle, failing after only four years, with the village being completely abandoned in 1704.
The English colonist made their way here in 1713 and established what has become a permanent settlement.
"""
All that was left of the fort was a crumbling stone wall that would have been the base of a higher wooden wall according to a picture of a model (I didn't think to get a shot of that myself). Only trees and brush remain where the multi-story main wooden building was.
This story has so many echoes in the present:
- The rich colonialists from Boston & London agree to settle the land, buying/taking land "rights" from the colonial British court that claimed jurisdiction without actually having control of the land. Whether the sponsors ever actually visited the land themselves I don't know. They surely profited somehow, whether from selling on the land rights later or collecting taxes/rent or whatever, by they needed poor laborers to actually do the work of developing the land (& driving out the original inhabitants, who had no say in the machinations of the Boston court).
- The land deal was on condition that there capital-holders who stood to profit would find settlers to actually do the work of colonizing. The British crown wanted more territory to be controlled in practice not just in theory, but they weren't going to be the ones to do the hard work.
- The capital-holders actually failed to find enough poor suckers to do their dirty work for 4 years, until the Huguenots, fleeing religious persecution in France, were desperate enough to accept their terms.
- Of course, the land was only so ripe for settlement because of careful tending over centuries by the natives who were eventually driven off, and whose land management practices are abandoned today. Given the mention of praying towns (& dates), this was after King Phillip's war, which resulted in at least some forced resettlement of native tribes around the area, but the descendants of those "Indians" mentioned in this sign are still around. For example, this is the site of one local band of Nipmuck, whose namesake lake is about 5 miles south of the fort site: #LandBack.
@servelan@newsie.socialRepublicans’ food aid cuts will hit grocers in many towns that backed Trump - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/19/trump-snap-food-cuts-rural-grocers-megabill-00463048
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Green mission aims to raise £1bn to bring nature into UK towns and cities"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Nature #Environment
@arXiv_eessSP_bot@mastoxiv.pageOperational machine learning for park-scale irrigation to support urban cooling
Mesut Ko\c{c}yi\u{g}it, Bahman Javadi, Russell Thomson, Sebastian Pfautsch, Oliver Obst
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11700 …
@cdarwin@c.imThousands gathered in cities and towns across 34 states on Saturday
for a national day of protest against Republican redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere.
“Fight the Trump Takeover”
was anchored in Austin, Texas,
with other sites spread nationwide.
In Austin alone, more than 5,000 protestors gathered at the city’s capitol in a show of defiance.
Videos and photos on social media showed protestors holding various signs that read:
“Abbott is a vot…
@lilmikesf@c.im
@markrsmith@smithtodon.org @servelan@newsie.social'Worse than COVID': LA businesses turn into 'ghost towns' due to ICE raids - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/ice-raids-2672386528/
@compfu@mograph.socialFinished streaming #Paradise. A 2nd season has been confirmed and I'm looking forward to it. The characters are intriguing and the VFX are great. Nothing too fancy on the surface, mostly digital landscape stuff and set extensions. But those are actually hard because you need an incredible amount of detail to get the "CG look" out of CG towns and landscapes.
They also went cra…
@cdarwin@c.imWhen the military is deployed to quell overwhelmingly peaceful protest,
when elected officials of the opposing party are arrested or handcuffed,
when student activists are jailed and deported,
and when a wide range of civic institutions
– non-profits, law firms, universities, news outlets, the arts, the civil service, scientists
– are targeted and penalized by the federal government,
it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that our core freedoms are disappea…
@servelan@newsie.socialVia AltNationalParkService on FB:
**Honored to announce: 12.1 million in attendance**, even small towns: Manistee, Oneonta, Pasco County, Stowe, Bennington, Union Gap, Bellingham, Casper, Jackson, Driggs, Petoskey, Traverse City, Big Rapids, Alton, South Bend, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Des Moines, Topeka, Great Bend, Hays, Lenexa, Garden City, Lawrence, Wichita, Pierre, Rapid City, Spearfish, Watertown, Brookings, Sioux Falls.
@paulbusch@mstdn.caGood Morning #Canada
For over 20 years, this 17-meter tall musical instrument has struck a chord with visitors to Sydney Nova Scotia. This installment of #BigStuffInSmallTowns showcases the biggest fiddle in the world and is a must stop selfie spot for cruise ship passengers as they disembark at the harbourfront. But Sydney has a reason to fret about their fiddle dominance as the original artists has been asked by two other towns to create an even bigger version to take the world title.
#CanadaIsAwesome #BigFiddle #RoadTrip
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/big-fiddle-celebrates-10th-anniversary-on-sydney-waterfront-1.3076554
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caDisgraceful Islamophobia from the town of Jumilla in SE Spain. The Mayor is a member of the “centre right” PP.
#islamophobia #israel #gaza #spain #españa
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/8/spains-government-slams-towns-islamophobic-ban-on-religious-gatherings
@cdarwin@c.imAs unrest and military troops overtake Los Angeles, terrifying scenes are also unfolding in smaller communities around the country.
They, too, are being invaded by what resembles a secret police force, often indistinguishable from random thugs.
https://www.washington…
@cdarwin@c.imSanta Barbara's turnout was just one example of the historic nationwide mobilization.
The “No Kings” protest brought millions to the streets in over 2,100 cities and towns across the country.
Organizers stated this movement has exceeded expectations,
uniting citizens to reject authoritarian overreach, defend fundamental freedoms,
and protect vulnerable communities.
@servelan@newsie.social'Greatly imperiled': Expert warns Trump policies backfiring on Midwest towns - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2672840198/
@cdarwin@c.imFor more than a century, putrid fumes emanated from
the “sewer of the Ruhr”,
creating a pungent whiff that assaulted towns throughout Germany’s industrial heartland.
But today, the Emscher bears little resemblance to Europe’s dirtiest river.
Water that used to be fouled by factory waste and human excrement have been free from effluent since 2021.
The river system, the main part of which was once considered biologically dead, is witnessing the return of an abun…
