Dave5


  • There is no doubt that under John Riccitiello Unity shat the bed again and again and again and… It is going to be really interesting to see if Matt Bromberg can pull off this u-turn. If he can, it’ll be something that is taught at business school. I hope he does. Having used both Unreal…


  • Gotta love down and to the right…. Before August 2024, monthly generation from fossil fuels had never dipped below 4 TWh, even during the lockdowns of 2020 when demand for electricity and transport fuels plummeted. What’s more exciting is that this was the first time fossil fuels (98.5% gas and 1.5% coal) fell to third…


  • While there is discontent with the current political system, many New Zealanders are wary of the extreme positions Act is pushing. The rise of global indigenous rights movements, alongside a growing understanding of New Zealand’s colonial past, means the public is more aware of the nuances of te Tiriti than Act might have expected. By…


  • Has Communism Happened Yet?

    Arguing that communism hasn’t failed because those who claimed to be communist does smack a little of neoliberals and other ideologues screaming that their system has never really been implemented, so their ideas are still fine, but Marx was clear about the process of how Communism would occur and it didn’t include revolutions in agricultural…


  • The Ministry of Justice has warned the proposed Treaty Principles Bill isn’t “grounded in the Treaty” and relies on a “novel reading” of the founding document that isn’t supported by the “available evidence”. Advice provided to Cabinet on the proposed Treaty Principles Bill recommends the coalition continue the status quo – rather than redefining the principles. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/527682/treaty-principles-bill-officials-advise-government-against-redefining-principles…


  • The bill, alongside proposals to review the Waitangi Tribunal, have been described as “a profound violation” and akin to past colonial attempts to undermine Indigenous treaties in countries such as the United States and Canada, Indigenous Environmental Network executive director Tom BK Goldtooth said. https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2024/09/10/erasure-agenda-global-indigenous-leaders-slam-nz-governments-treatment-of-maori/


  • Agrivoltaics come of age

    “Far from reducing food production, agri-PV actually increases yields for some crops,” says Ember analyst Paweł Czyżak. “Agri-PV combines the best of both worlds — electricity and food production, preserving precious land for agriculture, yet still enabling the energy transition to move forward, benefitting societies and economies.” https://theprogressplaybook.com/2024/09/10/agrivoltaics-come-of-age/



  • There are a number of ex-Uber people I really respect. Still, that business model is getting more and more toxic and needs to die in fire.


  • “You better check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self” – Ice Cube Petite bourgeoisie (French pronunciation: [pətit(ə) buʁʒwazi], literally ‘small bourgeoisie‘; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a term that refers to a social class composed of semi-autonomous peasants and small-scale merchants. They are named as such because their politico-economic ideological stance in times of stability is reflective of the proper haute bourgeoisie (high bourgeoisie or upper class).…


  • Take Lowe’s: over the past five years, CEO Marvin Ellison spent $43 billion on stock buybacks, netting $18 million for himself in the process. Now, Lowe’s has 285,000 employees, half of whom earn less than $33,000/year. Divide Ellison’s $18m among those workers and each of them would net a paltry $126/year. But if you were to share…


  • Snake Oil, Baby

    src: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/denis-o-b61a379a_genai-activity-7237647652052488192-CwHF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop


  • With new headlines cropping up all the time showing how poorly a job Tesla Autopilot actually does at piloting cars, it’s not surprising that the people tasked with building that system’s knowledge out are underpaid and heavily surveilled — or that when they tried to fight back against what they felt was unfair treatment, they were summarily cast aside. https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-autopilot-workers-treatment


  • … the “patient” kids weren’t demonstrat­ing “self-control” – rather, their willingness to wait for a second marshmallow reflected a charmed life in which adults came through with the goodies they promised. That same charmed life saw those subjects enrolled in the best schools, backstopped by tutors and college application consultants, significant parental financial contributions to…


  • Surveillance billionaire Peter Thiel is an example of a rich guy who ruins everything. He’s not a good guy. https://srslywrong.com/podcast/318-peter-thiel-is-not-a-good-guy/ Such a great kiwi. Thanks Rod and Sam.


  • “Seen this way, pronatalism is a Ponzi scheme,” Merchant and Brown wrote. “It relies on new entrants to produce returns for earlier investors, with the burdens falling most heavily on women, who are responsible for the bulk of childbearing and child-rearing, often without adequate medical care or affordable child care.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-others-urging-people-175223302.html


  • Fuck me, that man is dumb… one commenter remarked, “I love how he’s so stupid that he believes saying ‘interesting observation’ gives him some sort of plausible deniability.”


  • The dude is the purest distillation of ‘mensch’


  • We’ve got a bonkers road side drug testing law going through Parliament at present. It’s the creation of Simeon. ‘Lil Bigot’ Brown. It is so punative and poor drafted that the Attorney General has provided this feedback: The Attorney-General has presented a Section 7 report to the House on this Bill. The Attorney-General’s report noted…


  • Lithium batteries appear to be undercutting the use of fossil fuels. Gas accounts for 40% of California’s grid. However, its use in April registered its lowest proportion in seven years. “The data clearly shows that batteries are displacing natural gas when solar generation is ramping up and down each day in CAISO,” notes an analysis by Grid…