Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
from Roscoe's Story
Prayers, etc.: * 04:30 – Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel * 06:40 – praying The Angelus * 07:00 – praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, followed by the Memorare. * 12:00 – praying The Angelus * 14:00 – prayerfully reading The Athanasian Creed, followed by today's Daily Meditation found in Benedictus Magazine. * 18:00 – praying The Angelus * 18:50 – praying the hour of Compline for tonight according to the Traditional Pre-Vatican II Divine Office, followed by Fr. Chad Ripperger's Prayer of Command to protect my family, my sons, my daughter and her family, my granddaughters and their families, my great grandchildren, and everyone for whom I have responsibility from any demonic activity. – And that followed by the Friday Prayers of the Association of the Auxilium Christianorum.
Health Metrics: * bw= 217.60 lbs. * bp= 144/79 (65)
Diet: * 06:00 – ½ pb&j sandwich * 06:50 – cheese * 08:10 – applesauce * 11:30 – biscuit and jam, sausage, hash browns, pan cakes, little cookies * 15:30 – pizza
Chores, etc.: * 06:00 – bank accounts activity monitored * 11:30 – watch old game shows and eat lunch at home with Sylvia * 15:30 – begin following live broadcast from President Trump's Rally in CO on RAV * 16:30 – watch Bannon's War Room * 17:00 – local news and weather * 18:50 – have tuned into Northwestern Wildcats Radio Network ahead of their game vs the Maryland Terrapins, opening kickoff is just minutes away.
Chess: * 08:00 – moved in all pending CC games
posted Friday, 2024-10-11 ~20:00 #DLOCT2024
from Roscoe's Quick Notes
A good Friday, this: less stressful than many (most?) recent days. I'm in the process of realigning my blogging / social networking. This involves setting up a new blog, Roscoe's Thoughts, reducing my activity on another, and becoming more comfortable using my Substack.
posted Friday, Oct 11, 2024 at ~4:50 PM #QNOCT2024
from ‡
If life is just two fleeting days, Is there time to fall in love? Can I create something good; Soften my fears, And integrate my lessons? Can I make you feel safe And feel safe with you? Can I love and yet remain free From attachment?
from thehypocrite
One Day, I'll forget all of this. Everything forgotten I want to remember. To hold on to those moments in life filled with awe.
Letting go of the pain Is no loss. No one minds.
Tears and broken hearts Are more easily recalled Than our laughter.
Like stumps In a felled forrest That linger Long after the woodsman.
I just sit here, Write it all down, Smile for a while.
Long from now, This book can reopen traveled through time These golden moments.
Fear lingers shadowy But is dashed and cowed When the sunshine of love transcends time and space.
Welcoming comments and critique since 1984
#poetry #sxs #confession
from Jake LaCaze
21st-century living is complicated. But must it be?
When you look around you, it's easy to feel as if complexity is a requirement of the modern world. Most workplaces run via series after series of overcomplicated processes. To 'exist' today requires an ever-growing number of online profiles. Life seems impressive only so long as it's being continually pumped with more, more, MORE.
How did things get this way?
One problem seems to be who benefits from increased complexity. And most often, it's the corporate overlords trying to satisfy the need for constant growth. How can you expect corporations to benefit from simplicity? The adage 'Less is more' may be true in regard to your quality of life, but when is less ever more in terms of corporate bottom lines? For the corporation to get more, you need more. And what better way to get more than from an entity that must grow, grow, GROW?
To hell with simplifying processes by reducing unneeded steps. The real answer is MORE: More software, more automation, more problems to one day be fixed.
The people who want to sell you more are quick to peddle their tech du jour: generative AI. Regardless of what the prophets of AI will tell you, generative AI doesn't save time; it instead shifts where you spend your time, if you care about accurate work. Large language models (LLMs) often hallucinate, so you must double-check all their work, which negates any efficiency gains you're hoping for. Sure, humans are fallible and capable of bullshit just like LLMs, but humans are not fallible and capable of bullshit at the same scale as LLMs and generative AI.
So many of the people pushing generative AI just want to get paid to play with tech for a living. And for them to do that, you need to complicate your life with this half-baked technology that doesn't fix real problems.
Why unplug and focus on relationships that matter and provide value? Instead, choose MORE 'friends', MORE 'connections'. The more complexity you can handle, the more capable a human being you are. The more PRODUCTIVE you are. But how capable, how productive, do you need to be? When is enough enough?
Simplicity makes life more manageable. Simplicity is sustainable. But simplicity is hard. It's hard to see how you can simplify when complexity is all you know. And it's hard when complexity is all your peers know. Are you sure you can do that? they might ask. What makes you think you know better?
But we all know this complexity is distracting and exhausting. And, it's bullshit.
We feel it in our aching bones, in our tired eyes, in our foggy brains. We're caught in a hamster wheel we can't find the courage to jump off.
This complexity isn't serving us. There's so much pressure to add more to our lives, but we often get nothing out of it, other than more problems, more headaches, more distractions.
from G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y
Finally, an explanation that makes sense.
More great videos from Johnny Harris:
The latter one speaks of a potential contribution to Trump's 2016 election campaign from Egypt. Clearly shady practice, but it makes it sound like this sort of thing isn't common practice in America when we all know Israel has had its meddling hands all over many facets of American politics in more ways than one, not least of which is AIPAC contributions. What this says is that it is only okay for foreign countries to legally influence American politics if they up some kind of NGO or think-tank within the United States through which to funnel their bribes.
#radar
from M.A.G. blog, signed by Lydia
Lydia's Weekly Lifestyle blog is for today's African girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things that may interest today's African girl.
Alphabetical Print Fabrics: A Trendy Twist on Textiles Fashion is ever-evolving, but every now and then, a trend emerges that combines whimsy with sophistication. One such trend that is making waves in the textile world is alphabetical print fabrics. These playful prints are not just for children’s clothing or novelty items; they’ve found a place in high fashion and everyday wear, adding a unique flair to wardrobes everywhere. Let's explore why alphabetical prints are becoming a staple and how to incorporate them into your style. The Allure of Alphabetical Prints. Alphabetical prints are refreshing and eye-catching. They can convey messages, evoke nostalgia, or simply add a fun element to an outfit. The charm lies in their versatility; whether it's a bold statement piece or subtle accents, alphabetical prints can fit various aesthetics. Playful Yet Elegant: The juxtaposition of letters on fabric can be both playful and sophisticated. Designers are now using these prints in chic blouses, tailored trousers, and elegant dresses, making them suitable for various occasions, from casual outings to formal events. Personalization: Alphabetical prints can be deeply personal. Wearing a piece that features your initials or a favorite quote can make an outfit feel uniquely yours. This trend invites wearers to express their individuality in a fun and stylish way. Through Fashion: Each letter can represent something personal, be it a loved one’s name, a cherished word, or even a hobby. This storytelling aspect makes alphabetical print fabrics not just clothes, but a form of wearable art. Check the next blog for styling tips. October Breast Month, but not too sure. It's a good thing that attention is drawn to breast cancer, statistically 1 in 12 will get it (and 1 in 120 men), so a bit of checking from time to time may be worth it. But stay cool. Many think at one time or another that they feel something and then they fear and panic and the stigma starts, often followed by a visit to a doctor, a bill of 300 GHC or more, an X-ray (about 120 GHC or more), and another visit to the doctor (300 again if you are unlucky), to be told there is nothing there but a stiff muscle. Breast cancer does not show from one day to another, neither do you die of it from one day to another. So if you feel something, see if you can get rid of it with some arm, neck and chest exercises, there are a lot of muscles in that area. Ok, the doctor says there is something there and suggests more tests. Do know that up to 10% of mammographies, (an X-ray examination of the breast), up to 15% of ultrasounds (high-frequency sound waves produce images of internal body structures), and up to 20 % of MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging produces three-dimensional detailed anatomical images) give wrong positive results. (Unfortunately, the other way is true as well, up to 15% of mammo's may not show cancer, up to 10% of ultra's, and up to 10 % of MRIs). To be very sure, next is to do a biopsy, removing a small part of that hard ball and checking if it is cancer indeed. And if indeed it is cancer, some cancers are not very aggressive and can be treated reasonably easily, but then of course cancers which have had ample time to develop will be more dangerous. So don’t immediately start panicking from day 1, but indeed, regular checking is worth the while, you have about 15 times more chance to get breast cancer than to be involved in a car accident. And there is cervical cancer as well, about 1 per 20. Talk with your doctor and agree on a regular checking program. And
feel relaxed because you were just checked and told everything was fine, and you know that if anything at all you'll know it at an early stage. By the way, cancer needs sugar to grow, so the fewer Cokes, Fantas and Maltas the better.
A Boiled Chicken Egg at 280 GHC? Most of us will boil an egg until we’ve almost forgotten it and then take it out. But some have taken this a bit further. There is the “perfect boiled egg”, boiled at exactly 64 ° C for 45 minutes to 1 hour (depending on the weight of the egg). This way the egg white does not fully coagulate and turns a custard texture, the yolk is coagulated with a creamy butter texture. Difficult to do, and only found in top notch restaurants at a cost of about 11-16 $ a piece. Crazy? Is a 2000 GHC bottle of Champagne in a Ghanaian nightclub crazy? “You have the moral obligation to take money from fools before they spend it otherwise”.
What are Nanoparticles and Forever Chemicals And why do we talk about them? About 30 years ago nanoparticles came into vogue. A nanoparticle is a very small piece of something, about 1/1000th the size of a piece of dust you see flying in a sunbeam into a dark room. Once we were able to create nanoparticles the options were many, from medicines to computer chips, and many more, nanoparticles often behave differently from their bigger brothers and this has opened the way to new chemical reactions and molecules. But now we talk of nanoparticles as pieces of plastic that seem to be everywhere and that enter our bodies through food and drinks and inhaling air, and which are small enough to enter our bloodstream through our lungs and intestines. And from there they go everywhere, including your heart, kidney, liver, even your buddy's testicles, and also your clitoris. And then there are the forever chemicals, a large chemical family of over 10,000 highly persistent chemicals that don't occur in nature. Forever chemicals have been linked to multiple health problems, including compromised immune systems, liver damage, thyroid diseases, increased cholesterol levels, hypertension, development delays in infants, and increases in certain cancers such as kidney and testicular. I am scared.
from StoryGator
Make a morning wish
What do you want?
A very mundane question. Often marking the beginning of negotiations before an exchange of some kind.
What do you want?
Or maybe not. No exchange. Not always. In other times it is more of a billboard question looming over you. The question only a message, not expecting an answer.
What do you want?
I can want, I probably should want... something. There's always something to want, or is there not?
I recently discovered that my daily commute has a certain routine inside my own mind. For clarification: I commute alone (except for, you saw it coming, George of course) and over the years, we seemed to have developed a dance of thoughts. I wonder who you think is leading.
First beat (a slight step to the side): leaving the house. I get settled into the morning and subtly start checking myself: am I tired, energised, at ease? After all, we have to know what to work with. Any curve can harbour a surprise but one can only stand on solid feet or dodge with ready muscles.
Second beat (three strong steps forward): envisioning the day. Surprises or not, there is a list of tasks in my mind. A meeting here, a mail there, tasks to do. Or more precisely: to get done. Are you looking forward to actually do them or are you looking forward to have them done? After all, that's not the same, is it? Enjoying the actual action or the end of it. Is the journey truly the destination all along or only the means to its end?
Third beat (a sudden pause): while weighing the personal significance of a – maybe – mundane task list before coffee #1 (!):
What do you want?
Not every day but any day. Not big, complicated, long words but four syllables. Not threatening but waiting.
What do you want?
And what do you want? Your answers were inconsistent at best. And rather humble, I admit Before coffee #1, I ask for peace. I hope to get to my list of tasks without interruptions or dramatic (!) surprising disruptions. Meetings and messages which are more gardening than firefighting, if you get what I mean!
And so I go. The statements above sound like Tuesday to Thursday and not like Monday or Friday. And why?
Since What do you want? is – in this dance – more reply than question, really.
As open a question as open can go, but based on what state I am in: On Mondays, coming from a weekend going towards a week of work; On Fridays, coming from a week of work going towards a weekend; then the questions sound bigger. And still you try to dodge them. I find this moment when we are alone, when we haven't had a coffee and the chance to erect our walls and deflections. Now this is the moment. And you dodge it. Again and again.
And here we see the ambush. What do you have me do? I am commuting, I just entered the treadmill. That's hardly the moment to stop and turn around, is it? Hardly the moment to plan? I give you a chance again and again.
And by doing so, your chance becomes part of the treadmill. Woven into the mundane as part of the dance. And we dance until the music stops. It was maybe Orwell's cruellest idea for the system to write the book of resistance. Any action is merely a stream ignoring pebbles.
But just because the question is wired into the system doesn't spoil its validity. It simply needs a better time on fertile soil. Not a worn-out commute in the evening, not a busy Saturday evening.
George, would you take a walk with me? What do you want?
Last post: “Impatient Padawan”
from thehypocrite
It is the proximity of death and failure That gives life its precious glow. The fears persist. But so do I.
There always exists a chance for happiness If the heart continues to cherish hope above all.
The Shadows persist. But so do I.
Others will see the gifts and desire those, Wondering in their want if they too could have the wealth.
The Torments persist. But so do I.
But they do not want to hear about the conflagration Or the sacrifice it took to acquire such riches.
The dread persist. But so do I.
They desire the view, and The breathtaking description.
The longing persist. But so do I
But happily pass when offered The opportunity to make the climb.
The Terrors persist. But so do I
This life must be born as it is celebrated. May the bridges I burn light the way.
The horrors persist. But so do I.
If you persist, So. Shall. I.
The dude abides, feel free to share your thoughts
#poetry #sxsw #confession
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i love you
from faithpeterson
Here's a transcript of the LinkedIn Live event streamed this past Tuesday. Ines Garcia kindly invited me to be her guest on this session of her weekly Agile Sustainability Manifesto Signatories sessions. We explored the broader implications of the the intersection between the original Agile Manifesto and the complementary Agile Sustainability Manifesto. Together they provide values and principles that profoundly shape, if we let them, our relationships with each other as workers, our work together as creators, and how we can tend toward sustainability in our society, economy, and environment.
LinkedIn Live Event Originally streamed Tue, Oct 8, 2024, 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM U.S. Central time. Host: Ines Garcia Guest: Faith Peterson (Transcript enriched with links, lightly edited, and based on Otter.ai transcription and LinkedIn Live generated English captions. Times approximate.)
Ines Garcia 0:00 [In this series] we uncover the hidden insights of the Agile Sustainability Manifesto signatories. We do this every week, same time, same place. So if you haven't checked this out yet, please head over to AgileAlliance.org/sustainability-manifesto. And we also have another domain, which is a agilesustainabilitymanifesto.org, and what are we trying to do with this? Essentially align our work as Agile practitioners...with the Sustainable Development Goals. There are 17 goals you can check it out, some of which have targets earlier than another. For example, how we have our emissions legally binding agreement having our emissions within 500 VPS, so we really don't have much time, not small task, and no time to waste. So with that in mind, you probably know me and heard me on this session before. Just quickly, my name is Ines Garcia, I'm an Agile and climate coach, circular economy professional, biomimicry practitioner, you want to talk to me about growing your own foods. You know I am here. But today I'm your host, and in today's conversations, we have Faith Peterson so let me bring her to the stage. Hello!
Faith Peterson 1:30 Hi Ines!
Ines Garcia 1:31
Hello, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for spending this time with us. So maybe to get us started, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, what do you do for a living?
Faith Peterson 1:42 Sure, I'm a software product manager. I work mostly on B2B SAS applications for a lot of the different domains, lot of different sizes of companies. And I guess I don't know that there's that much more to say about that. It's kind of the culmination of what's been a journey for me, for my entire career, and I got into doing this kind of work because I saw that people were struggling to use software applications, that they were internalizing that frustration. They were thinking that they were too, too old, too stupid, like literally using those words, and I had been working a little bit with computers and software, and I knew it didn't have to be that way, and I knew that we could work differently, so that people didn't feel that way. And so that's how I got onto this path, and that's been what I've been trying to do ever since
Ines Garcia 2:42
I love that, especially this social layer right so many of my projects. It's like if we need to train the user, it's not clear enough, we need to improve our UX like, every time i updates into these ]apps]. Nobody sits me down to give me a training, right? So you're thinking about who is consuming the circumstance makes, i think that's a difference. But getting into maybe Agile, what few sentence, how did you get into all this Agile.
Faith Peterson 3:20 Well, yeah, so I got into Agile in the early thousands. I had been working as a business analyst. I was doing a lot of discovery, functional analysis, developing requirements, you know, the really old fashioned way, and then use cases and, you know, different techniques, and I was good at it, and people recognized me from being good at it, and I was proud of that. But then Scrum started to, and Agile ideas generally started to kind of permeate out into the software world generally. People were saying that there wasn't going to be any need for any analysts anymore, because developers and testers were going to do all the discovery and analysis, and they were going to do it like on a just in time, bit by bit basis, and you analysts, you're going to have to become Scrum Masters or testers, because there's not going to be any place for you anymore. And so I knew I was going to be working for a lot more years, and I thought, well, I better understand what this means for me, and how I can work in this new world? Because clearly there was momentum building and it was going to be the way software was going to be done. So I took CSM—Certified Scrum Master—training with Lowell Lindstrom in 2007 and since then, I've just been continuing, trying to, you know, evolve in my understanding of software development and organizational dynamics and how to how to better create those outcomes that I was thinking about when I first got into this kind of work. So, yeah, so I guess that's how I first got into Agile.
And then I guess I could talk a little bit about the Sustainability Manifesto and why I signed it. I don't, I really don't remember, honestly, how I first heard about it. I had been thinking recently more and more about climate. Environment had always been a concern of mine, but obviously it's become much more urgent, and I've been becoming much more aware and wanting more to do more. And I think in that context, that searching around, I found the Manifesto, but I knew that I wanted to do more than just, like, recycle stuff and buy stainless steel straws. And I knew that I I didn't have a lot of confidence in, like, mass actions and letter writing and petitions, and I didn't want to just have a drop in the bucket impact on, you know, sending 100,000 letters that I wasn't confident really were going to sway legislators and policy makers. But I was thinking about how to mobilize workers, myself and others to take climate action within our own companies, because that's the biggest scope of influence that I have. And businesses are, have outsized impact compared to individuals, even organized individuals. So as a product manager, I thought we were uniquely positioned to put climate on the table inside our companies, as you know, part of the –ilities, like we say, so we could put those requirements on the table and talk about that with our with the delivery team to work with, and we could talk with our business stakeholders about that. And, you know, I thought as a product manager, we're just in a unique place to try to have that influence.
Ines Garcia 7:18 Wow. Let me unpack that a little bit, love it because you talked about how the masses the individual. What can you do at the individual level? Also you talk about policies and some of the influence that we can do also as a civic, hopefully as an active civic part of our life, and the fact that, yes, we have more than 8 billion humans in this world, and we have 249 country codes. The bank in the middle where we have is 350 million registered organizations. And so organizations is a group of organized individuals, right? So how can we tap into this 330, 3 million registered companies in a way that we are organized, and we embed into the fabrics, the ability familia, in everything that we do. So love that. What a way to wrap all the angles on this question. So tell us a little bit. So you found the Manifesto. You signed the Manifesto, and anything in particular of that maybe you want to talk to us about.
Faith Peterson 8:38 I guess the one of the things that resonated with me the most about the Manifesto is that as agilists we're familiar with the concept of sustainable pace. That's a much more narrow kind of sustainability, and it's sort of okay, how can we do our work without being, without people continually speeding up the assembly line, sort of. I think there's a kind of a kernel of an idea there, because a lot of people, when they first think sustainability, think about climate and the environment. I think as agilists a lot of folks think first about that sustainable pace idea. But I really love the idea that the Manifesto kind of calls us to take a bigger look at society and the economy and not just climate and not just our work with individual software teams. I think that broader field of view is probably what resonated with me the most.
Ines Garcia 9:44 And to put it maybe a little bit in context, in the product that you've been working on, anything in particular that you have applied or has helped on, that broadening the traditional scope or the status quo, I don't know how to call it.
Faith Peterson 9:58 So how I've been trying to enact the manifesto, I guess, is what I think you're asking, and because my focus is on world of work that's a little bit challenging. I'm not currently in a team that – I'm not currently working in the product manager role with a team. I'm working on a contract in a different role right now. So I've been trying to present and talk about sustainability and the Manifesto, every chance I get. A couple very concrete things that I could recommend, that anyone could do. The Green Software Foundation, in partnership with the Linux Foundation, has a course Fundamentals of Green Software. I think it's great. It gives a really good grounding in the concepts and certain practices that people might want to apply if they do want to green up their software, which being in the software world, that's a big focus for me. And then I've also recently done a course from the United Nations Environment Programme in conjunction with PEDRR and] edX on Nature-Based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience. So that's another one that was really good. I did a session of The Week For those who haven't heard of that, it's three sessions, and really calls us to reflect deeply on climate change and what it means for us and our families. So I'm looking for that opportunity to work directly with a team and try to take those incremental steps to gradually improve the carbon performance of the software that we create. I was inspired by Marjolein Pilon's [presentation at Agile2024](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marjoleinpilon_planet-as-stakeholder-agile2024-the-agile-activity-7231361769955291136-BHmW. She talked about her experience with her team and making that progress sprint over sprint, and how they approached it. That was really inspiring. And I hope to have a similar opportunity.
Ines Garcia 12:10
Yeah, certainly, if we apply our ideal way of looking at embedding sustainability start small and fast iterations with backlogs and get in there one step at a time, because tipping points are not linear. So every bit counts. So perhaps beside the Manifesto, assume you checked out the initiative. Is there anything in particular what we're doing at the Agile Alliance initiative in sustainability, maybe you want to talk to us about?
Faith Peterson 12:46 So I guess the there's a couple things that really, I guess, that I've been reflecting on that really interest me, in terms of a couple things that call my attention about the Agile Sustainability Initiative of the Agile Alliance, In particular, are that it's a member-driven initiative. So in the first place, it's an expression of a group of agilists to try to bring the sensibility into our work as agilists. And I think that's very powerful, and that the Agile Alliance chose to adopt the initiative as an official initiative of the organization, I think says something about both the Agile Alliance's commitment to supporting its members, and also to its support for the idea of sustainability. I would like to see the Alliance more actively and visibly support the initiative and enact sustainability measures. But I think it's good that the Alliance recognizes that it's an important sensibility for the Agile community to incorporate. I'm also attracted by again, that bigger scope, because one of the purposes, among the purposes, of the initiative is the role Agile can play in building a sustainable and resilient world, and how, by embracing our Agile values and principles, we can address challenges in all levels: society, economy and environment. All of that seemed consistent with some of the sort of new economy ideas that have been floating around, like post-growth and humane technology and responsible tech. So I feel like for me, this initiative and this Manifesto are sort of a step into a larger reflection, particularly when I look at the different values in the Manifesto, especially value two and value three, about adaptability over rigidity and abundance over scarcity. So it really challenged me to reflect on what do those concepts mean, like, what what does it really mean? And how would that change, as an Agilist, how I not only work personally, but how I work with the people that I'm collaborating with to create, in my case, the software that we're creating,
Ines Garcia 15:20 If I may as well, I just remember that we have the [online MiniCon] SoSA, the State of Sustainability in Agile, and that's happening 18th of October, and can be found in the Agile Alliance website. So for the ones tuning in we have an event on taking that State of Sustainability in Agile, which leads me to, how about that intersection? What do you see in this agile and sustainability worlds align, colliding and merging and synergies? I don't know.
Faith Peterson 16:03 Well, I'm going to get a little even more, I guess, philosophical, because that's a, I think seems like a simple question, but I think the more I unpacked it the more, for me, I found that there was in that intersection. So I mentioned about how we do know about sustainable pace, and we know about, you know, try something, inspect, adapt, change, and that adaptability is a really useful set of skills that we can bring in. But also one thing that it made me think about is when we really think about sustainability and Agile together, because we're so often working in business, it makes me think about how we're creating these sort of local pockets of sustainable pace, but we're not addressing the larger unsustainable business economy. And sometimes people talk about sustainable growth, but to me, that's not sustainability. We can't just grow slower. Everywhere I hear people expressing their exhaustion with the way our economy is and with the way that we work, and we can see how the planet itself is becoming exhausted. So I think we just need to move past this idea of growth, and I think Agile also stands in counterpoint with extractive and exploitative employment practices. I was once told it was my job and it was expected of me that I should try to get more work out of the software developers faster, because everyone knew they were sandbagging and they could do do more. That's pretty anti-Agile, and not a sustainable business practice, either. So for me, sustainability is about our way of being and our way of being human on this planet. And Agile is about nurturing human activity and human relationships, like for me, that's the core of Agile generally. So I think there's a natural synergy there, as we think about that question of how we want to be human. And how does each of us want to be a human being on this planet and in this society and in this setting where we are working with other people to get things done.
Ines Garcia 18:41 [I think of] Kate Raworth, and I assume some of you know her work on the doughnut economics. She talks about, to really start thinking like how the metaphors that we use the narrative definitely affects the way that we think. And she talks about, we are not on the planet, we are within the biosphere, so thinking of us as part of whole system, rather than the imposing way that we've been looking at resources, even to each other. So especially this concept of sustainability is a word that we use, like ability to sustain. We don't necessarily want to continue sustaining how we're doing things, if anything, we need to go beyond Mission Zero, right? We need to regenerate where systems are very light on us. So in this idea of becoming more regenerative, maybe that's something that folks, they want to talk to us about.
Faith Peterson 19:45 Regeneration is, like, in the in the broader sense, in the environmental sense, and in the climate-related sense is super necessary, and people are doing a lot of work in regenerative agriculture, regenerative forestry, some of that. I mean, it's good that we're trying to make up for practices where we're using planetary resources that we're trying to regenerate and make up for decades, if not centuries of just not trying to do that. In terms of Agile practice, when I think about regeneration, I think about, when we're regenerating, we're repairing something or restoring something that's been damaged or destroyed. And in the case of Agile, where we're working with the world of work and our coworkers, there has been something damaged in our trust with each other and with the companies that we work for, and in our relationship to work, our relationship to creation, to the artifacts we create, and our relationship with each other. So there's a lot of damage there. And when I think about regeneration, we go in as an as an Agile practitioner, particularly those of us who work as facilitators or Scrum Masters, like really, all of us who are bringing Agile principles and practices to bear. A lot of those practices are about, you know, the agency that people have as individuals and as individual workers to control a very low level, to have those choices about how they're going to work, how they're going to organize their work, how they're going to organize themselves, how we're going to work together as a team to accomplish something. We don't always get to choose the objective, but Agile says as individuals, we have value and we have expertise and we have knowledge and we have talent, and we should be able to express those in order to work with each other. And also, I think there's a sense in which Agile practices are, they're already sort of covertly, I guess, regenerative, and so if we think about this consciously, and we think about the things we do as facilitators and as co-workers, applying Agile practices is just inherently regenerative, and sometimes that's at odds with the organization that we're working in. Sometimes it's in concert, or it's complimentary, if we're fortunate, or if we can have that sort of influence on the organization we work for. But that's kind of how I think about Agile practice and regeneration, not just about activities that are out there that are about regenerating the environment, but there's regeneration that needs to be done in the world of work and the world of business. We see so many things in the [idea of] “work your wage”, the return to the office, I don't know, I guess I'm going to say controversy. There's, you know, there's a lot of just hiring, hiring right now is kind of broken, and there's just a lot of stuff out there. And I hear from a lot of different places where there's just something damaged in the way in the way that we work, in the way that our economy offers us to work. I think Agile practices can do something about that in very local ways. But, you know, yeast grows and leavens the whole bread, right? So that's, you know, I'm thinking about in within my circle influence, what can I do, and thinking more consciously about my work as healing and regenerative. I guess that might sound grandiose, but people who know me well know that I'm sort of sort of a philosopher at heart. So that's kind of where this whole topic takes me.
Ines Garcia 20:41 I love it. It's important. I think for me, I also have this tendency so also thinking about the meta-layer of what we're doing, not just about the specifics of certain things, but how we think, how we see the world. the words that we use some of that, and also our opportunities to shape or leave the place better than how we found it. I tend to think about the products, the people involved, you talk a lot about the social you know, there are many things that we can regenerate as we can explore opportunities and as we are kind of coming to an end. I always like to ask two two things. One is about opportunity, so maybe where is the gap in our craft, those other people, and the other one is what is not here, or what we can work to put things here, and the other one is about what it is here, what gives you hope, what keeps you going? Because on this subject, you get faced with resistance from many angles. So if we can learn from what keeps us going, I take every bit of hope I can.
Faith Peterson 25:47 I guess for me, the biggest, you know, I think the thing I see that is both an opportunity and a reason for hope is as a community, I think, as as a community of Agile, like big A Agile, that's still, it's not even really that relevant, I guess, but in a way, there's a current conversation happening about the future of Agile. And you know, what does it mean to be an agilist today, and is there any value in any of the, any of the practices or frameworks that we've been used to for the last, you know, 30, 40, years. And I think there's a growing sense—I heard this a lot at Agile2024, and since then—about people over frameworks and putting people first. And so I think that is an opportunity to transcend all of the different, just sort of sectarian conflict between, you know, Scrum or XP, or no Scrum, or, you know, SAFe or whatever it is. People have a lot of opinions, but there's an opportunity, maybe, here, to transcend that and get back to that core of people over, you know, processes and tools. And the sustainability manifesto says people and planet over profit, so we augment that original value. That gives me hope that as a community, that conversation is happening and starting to happen. And I'm hopeful that, you know, Agile, as agilists, we'll continue down that path and really put people more at the center of our thinking and less about the techniques that we use or the tools that we use, and get back to that core of you know, it's about how we relate to each other and how we work together. So I think that's really exciting. The other thing that gives me hope, or I guess, is maybe to just sort of wrap up the whole topic, for me, is small increments of change add up. And we know that from our practice in software. You do little things and eventually you have a thing. And also, so the Agile I don't want to say movement exactly, but these values and principles have been around since, you 1980 to 2000 and until now. And that's been like a seed that's taken root, and it's transformed how software development gets done. And that tells me that if we're driven by values and principles, we can change the world bit by bit. And so I hope that we can all, like, put the values and principles from the original Manifesto and the Sustainability Manifesto into action. In the sustainability initiative the Introduction to the Manifesto says, you know, transform society, the economy, and our relationship with the planet. I have a long way to go to enact this myself as an individual, but I think the pair of manifestos together call us to really think about our purpose and to contextualize our work in this sort of larger stream of human activity. So, again, grandiose, but you know, that's what's driving me forward these days.
Ines Garcia 29:36 Thank you, Faith. Much food for thought from the session today. I wish we had more time. So thank you so much for spending this time with us, for sharing the internal and also help us to see the things with perspective beyond those activities. And essentially we are at the wrap. So next week, we have Sebastian Sobeslavsky, and I put already a link on the session today so you can see it on the LinkedIn event and join us next week. And we also want you to get involved. So everybody, if you haven't yet, head over the Agile Alliance Sustainability Initiative, check out the Manifesto, take the pledge, put your name on it, and, most importantly, leverage these principles, these values, in our everyday decisions, and share, be an amplifier. There many ways to get involved in into this quest, right? We want to go far, so we better go together. And with that, thank you everyone. Thank you Faith for sharing with us.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
from essi
Translated from the original article published in French by The Conversation
Agriculture has a heavy responsibility to feed billions of people under difficult conditions: the demography is growing, the climate is becoming less and less favourable, water resources are drying up, and soils are deteriorating. Despite immense progress, it leaves too many empty bellies while overpressuring nature.
To reform this untenable situation, many are encouraging a shift towards local, organic and peasant agriculture. Similarly, since the beginning of the pandemic, policies have been deployed everywhere to increase food self-sufficiency.
These perspectives miss the point.
Let's stand it out. I am not shy away from a casseau of organic strawberries bought in a nice local market. I am amazed by the ingenuity of farmers around the world to improve their ecological impacts, both in conventional and organic farming. However, by insisting on the aesthetic aspects of agri-food (greenwashing, peasant romance and gastronomic chauvinism) and the underlying political gambits, we come to defend misguided policies, which are not based on scientific data.
I'm an ecologist and an expert in agro-environment. My research concerns agro-environmental data science and the construction of ecological habitats in rural areas.
As several others have done before, researchers at the University of Minnesota have published a meta-analysis comparing the ecological impacts of organically and conventional crops.
Their conclusions are consistent with what we have known for more than a decade: in general (therefore without considering individual cases), organic farming is worse for nature than conventional agriculture.
Why? Lower organic yields place the ecological burden of a farm on a smaller amount of food. Each certified organic food unit will require more territory, contribute more to water pollution and produce a little more greenhouse gases.
Producing more per hectare gives the advantage to conventional agriculture. However, this intensification of food production is insufficient without an ecological purpose. With this in mind, the ecological intensification of agriculture aims not only to minimize inputs (energy, soiling, fertilizers and pesticides), but also to concentrate food production on the smallest possible territory in order to free up surfaces for the conservation and regeneration of ecological areas and corridors.
Saving the territory from agricultural occupation has a much higher biodiversity potential than living with nature, whether through organic farming or permaculture. As long as it allocates agricultural land that necessarily disrupts their environment, it is better to concentrate food production.
Moreover, organic governance requires a great deal of resources for the production of fertilizers, which relies not only on large areas dedicated to producing plant fertilizers, but also on animal excreta, as well as residues from slaughterhouses and (over)fishing. Nutrient cycle analyses shows that organic crops are largely dependent on synthetic fertilizers that have previously been absorbed by plants and then passed through animal digestive systems. Organic farming is clearly a false trail.
A Swedish study on greenhouse gases emitted for the production and transport of tomatoes and carrots has shown that it is better for Sweden to import tomatoes from Spain than to produce them in Sweden. But for carrots, it was better to produce them locally.
Local farming is not an ecological panacea: it is also a constraint to produce food under ecological conditions that are not necessarily favourable, sometimes within fragile ecosystems. If food transport were a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, consuming locally could, of course, be worth it.
But the transport of food from their place of production to the grocery store is only 6% of agri-food emissions. The greenhouse gas emissions sources of the agri-food industry are rather dominated by ruminants, manure, fertilizers and deforestation.
Local agriculture could even slow down the reallocation of crops to land where they abound while sparing sensitive biodiversity areas, a strategy that could feed humans while restoring to nature almost half of the land currently in cultivation (excluding pastureland).
However, a global approach is also justified from the point of view of international solidarity. With the COVID pandemic, the number of hungry people in the world is likely to double. At the moment, many regions are not able to meet their food needs with local agriculture, as others depend on their agricultural exports. It would be better to make the interdependencies between countries more united than cut them out for food autonomy, lest the other cut them off first.
Since an affluent population has more means to improve their agricultural practices and diversify their supplies, the improvement in economic conditions is by far what promotes the sustainability of agriculture the most. And it remains intimately linked to its industrialization. A return to the peasantry would be deleterious for the environmental, social and economic sustainability of agriculture.
Even if every effort to improve agricultural practices will be able to address only a small proportion of its impacts: the most important levers are much more in the hands of consumers. Indeed, the efficiency gains of agriculture have made it possible to achieve an excessive appetite for meat and dairy products, with serious consequences for the environment and food safety.
A civilization that favors essentially plant diets would be able to return to nature an area of 3.1 billion hectares (equivalent to that of Africa), while halving the greenhouse gas emissions of the agri-food sector. Even if livestock (especially beef) were halved, we will greatly improve all our indicators. A meat diet based on best ecological practices will pollute much more than a vegetable diet, making ecological livestock the clean coal of agri-food.
But isn’t meat a necessity for food security? A scenario where agriculture was intensified on half of the world’s low-yielding land would, without a change of diet, just eliminate the hunger of the 820 million humans that are not now able to meet their food needs. The serious problem of food waste and loss, which was properly managed, would provide meals for 400 million people.
As for livestock, they globally subtract from the agri-food system the meals for 4,000 million people. Of course, even if multilateral agreements favoured better food-sharing, rapid migration to plant diets would be difficult in some situations, particularly in countries that are already suffering from hunger and malnutrition. In any case, special cases should not be used as pretexts to avoid changing an unsustainable global trend.
Thanks to the green revolution and the progress that has been made since then, we now have everything necessary to feed a little more than 12 billion people while significantly reducing our environmental impacts. A second revolution will have to draw on the first, by its successes and mistakes, to free the world from famine and malnutrition while ensuring the protection and expansion of the natural habitats necessary for the return of wildlife.
The democratization of precision agriculture and genetic engineering technologies, however beneficial they may be, will be in vain without the changes in food habits necessary to free up large territories from pastoral occupation and without major changes in the territory’s management and allocation policies.
Globalized, industrialized, intensive agriculture and providing modern plant-based diets: this is astonished with the prevailing discourse, which wrongly defends organic, local and peasant agriculture. On the contrary, it will be a progressive perspective, ecological awareness supported by science and global solidarity.
#en #agriculture
from culturavisual{.cc}
from thehypocrite
they persist
I have to admit some hard things about you. Matters that I do not wish to acknowledge because those same qualities that make you someone I should never see again, also happen to energize me.
Talk about a bifurcated soul.
But in any case, even as I open my soul for the required ritual blood-letting, your secrets die with me.
Well, most of them. Especially the stuff at the end. November 1st... well, that one was kind of the problem, wasn't it?
Love always,
Charlie
There's really nothing to say. Love isn't really about words, is it? #poetry #sxsw
Carta llegada a nuestras oficinas secretas, de la mano de un espontáneo admirador de nuestro trabajo, que incomprensiblemente, encontró la dirección de nuestras dependencias, a pesar de no existir ni estar en lugar alguno.
Estimada Dolores.
Me costó mucho encontrar un espacio y un lugar sobre el que detenerme a escribir esta carta. Ya nadie escribe cartas a mano, vivimos en el imperio de los correos electrónicos, o eso creía yo, hasta que descubrí que tampoco nadie escribe ya correos electrónicos. En cualquier caso, he conseguido reunir el valor suficiente y lanzarme a garabatear con un viejo boli BIC, de los naranjas, de los que escriben bien fino, estas palabras, que espero algún día lleguen a ti de una u otra forma.
Me dejaste solo frente a mí mismo, y eso, nunca lo olvidaré y nunca te perdonaré por ello. Recuerdo muy bien aquellas tardes, mientras nos divertíamos observando la belleza de la jauría furiosa de seres, de apariencia humana, pero deseosos de los restos y los desperdicios. Los vimos hurgando durante horas entre las miserias de sus congéneres, husmeando primero, para pasar a cercenar con esmero y dedicación todo lo que acababa sobre sus hocicos de omnívoros de la especie sapiens sapiens.
Estando contigo, teniéndote junto a mí, aquello resultaba divertido, no tenía nada que temer si sentía que estabas a mi lado. Nos autopercibíamos como superiores a aquella chusma de manglares bípedos que esperan con empeño su oportunidad para medrar en la vida a costa de las entrañas de los perdedores. Nosotros, simplemente aplicábamos la paciencia, a veces mucha paciencia, y nos limitábamos a observar y esperar a que las alimañas acabaran convertidas en su propia carroña. Sabíamos que era cuestión de tiempo, que nadie se libraba. Nos deleitábamos con la incisiva y lejana observación del mal ajeno, y las tardes se erguían ante nosotros como una incesante e intrépida aventura que nos permitía estar siempre al borde de una excitación límite. Éramos dioses, mirando sobre el mundo desde nuestra particular cúpula de marfil e incrustaciones doradas.
Durante meses, nuestro concienzudo cometido, nos ofreció escenas de una delectación maravillosa y profundamente miserable. Recuerdo incluso que bromeamos con construir un catálogo conciso y pulcro de las formas humanas de ser basura. En esto hay que dejar clara una diferencia fundamental entre ser basura y escarbar en la basura, actividad esta última, de un elevado rango ético y de carácter profundamente respetable. En nuestra científica observación, éramos conocedores de todas y cada una de las formas de putrefacción del alma humana, y eso nos provocaba una excitación que nos elevaba hasta la más luminosa y profunda oscuridad, aunque esas tinieblas eran pura luz para nuestros corazones henchidos de divinidad.
Nada escapaba a nuestra mirada, empezando por amigos traicionados, o amigos que se sentían traicionados porque su ego miserable no les permitía entender que el mundo no giraba sobre sus insignificantes cabezas. Trabajadores que esperaban con inusitada paciencia, la caída de sus antecesores, confabulando para acelerarla y ocupar ese lugar de privilegio en la que el resto ocupa tu lugar de acechador hasta que llegue tu hora; maridos henchidos de autoodio que proyectan su violencia, verbal, física, sexual… contra mujeres, las próximas y si se tercia, las desconocidas; millonarios deseosos de conquistar nuevos mundos, porque creen que todos los viejos ya les pertenecen; políticos de condición diversa que se camuflan a la perfección entre alcaldes de pueblo de buena voluntad a los que la política les cuesta dinero, y alcaldes de pueblo que aspiran a un reconocimiento social entre sus vecinos. La lista era interminable, pero eran casos muy bien conocidos por nosotros.
El mundo nos pertenecía y todo era dicha y regocijo para ambos, dioses entre los desechos humanos, henchidos de gloria eterna y… enfermos hasta la putrefacción, incapaces de detectar que nuestra degradación había alcanzado cotas de divinidad, que efectivamente, superaban con creces a la de aquellos a los que mirábamos desde nuestra atalaya de orgullo y estupidez. Si el mundo estaba putrefacto, nosotros, mi querida Dolores, habíamos sintetizado en un pequeño frasco, en lo más profundo de nuestras oscuras almas, el perfume más hediondo jamás concebido.
Tardamos en darnos cuenta, pero aquel día en que nos miramos y vimos nuestra profunda repugnancia mutua, todo cambió. Tú te marchaste, y yo abandoné aquella posición sobre la que nos erguíamos cada tarde, para no volver jamás. Ahora creo que podríamos haber hecho las cosas de modo diferente. Que huir, no nos aleja de nuestra miseria, que el reconocimiento solo es una primera parte, y que procede empezar a perdonarnos. Que es un proceso que debimos iniciar juntos, pero decidimos huir, alejarnos del otro, porque nos proyectaba nuestro propio espejo, y eso nos resultaba insoportable, dado que no estábamos dispuestos a ver la mugre de cada uno de nosotros en el otro.
Aquel tiempo ya pasó, pero nada ha cambiado, ya no somos jóvenes repletos de ansias de luz cegadora y superioridad moral, ya tan solo somos un despojo de lo que fuimos, y todavía no hemos conseguido liberarnos. Espero que algún día, antes de la que muerte nos alcance con justicia y paguemos por nuestros pecados divinos, podamos encontrar el perdón mutuo y la redención, pero para ellos debemos poder mirarnos de nuevo cara a cara. Yo no renuncio a encontrarte, y por eso te remito esta carta, como la última esperanza de que el destino te la haga llegar, y tengamos por fin que enfrentarnos a nosotros mismos y poder diluir el mal que nos ancla al maldito estercolero que nos vio nacer.
Siempre tu espejo, a pesar de la distancia, me despido de ti hasta el Día de la Liberación o de la muerte.
Anselmo Angustias, aquel que sigue reinando sobre las laderas del muladar, hasta encontrarte…, encontrarme.
Foto Flickr Commons: Dumping Garbage in Landfill Operation on Jamaica Bay Increased Water Pollution as Well as Serious Ecological Damage Is Feared 05/1973, Tress, Arthur, 1940. https://flic.kr/p/6WYU3U
from james holloway
Are.na is very nice, but not quite what I need from a scrapbook of the web.
So I’ve soft rebooted on Tumblr with a tumblelog now titled mclhuanism, described, tongue only half in cheek, as being about progressive and post-neoliberal art, media, design, communications and culture.
#notes #blogging
from 5amclub
On day 9, I was in bed by 10 to wake up at 5 easily.
On day 10 I woke, did my brief meditation and Chatterjee journal, then went for a run (yes, a run!) outside. I came back in, woke up my kids, and then something cool happened. I usually get irritated with my kids when I see them watching TV in the morning, at least when their chores aren’t done / they’re not completely ready for school. Today, instead of getting ticked, I sat down next to Emet, and talked to him about the show and watched it for 15 minutes with him, snuggling a bit. It felt really good to be something other than mean, nagging Mama for once.
Then I wrote two blog posts here including this, which took me until about 11 am, pausing for a couple of law-practic calls. Less than 24 hours later my self indulgence here strikes me as wildly overdramatic to the point of silliness. To be sure, when I’m not feeling the nonsensical emotional agony (the “alarm”) the concept that I am or was ever in that much pain does feel silly. I can almost always channel the energy to write something deep, but reading it is cringe; it doesn’t seem like me.
This has been my struggle in therapy over the years—I’m either quasi-suicidal and seemingly beyond any help that psychotherapy can provide, or I’m fine and therapy is me engaging in a fulfilling but academic conversation with my therapist. I can see this issue in my child too, now that we’ve put him in a therapy / coaching program… he’s always feeling good at the time of the appointment, so in observing him interacting with the coach / therapist my inner monologue is a bit like, hmm, are we overreacting? He seems like a very normal and well adjusted child.
Anyhow, the rest of day 10 felt good. But it occurs to me now, 5:30 AM on day 11, that if I spend an hour a day blogging, I’m sort of negating the “extra time” that the 5AM club touts as the secret to everything.
So today I’m going to make this brief, and maybe I’ll try to decrease frequency so I can better play observer, though I do note that part of the concept does involve taking exstra time for self-reflection so maybe it’s not so bad.
Last night I did not get home from synagogue until about 12:40, was in bed around 1, and maybe asleep by 1:20 or 1:30 … understandably, this morning it was painful to get up but not hard; I did it without much effort but now I am struggling at my computer and may even go back to bed. Next week I will be on California time for a couple days… which threatens to “reboot” my 5 am natural wakeup that I’ve only just established.
And the book itself… I still haven’t gotten past chapter 4, which inspired me to so painstakingly dissect a conversation from 1995. I full on hate the book now. I’ll be interested to see if it ever becomes practical. At present, it shows no signs of doing so.