Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

I always had this picture of a beautiful natural setting when I thought of #organic farming. That's how it is so often portrayed. The reality in the #EU is that #organic produce comes from food factories that have the same impact on the ecosystem as any other massive factory. The whole area is paved and roofed, the soil, insect, and bird life is wiped out, and the crops are grown in highly controlled, factory conditions. Watch the industry video to see the whole picture https://vimeo.com/183478317

#wood can be a #sustainable building material and #energy source, but only if managed correctly and #EU policy currently does not reflect that well. European old growth forests are rapidly disappearing and when replaced, are turn into tree farm monocultures https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2021/apr/16/forests-felling-swedens-ancient-trees-biodiversity-sami-environment

The real sustainable practices, which were used for centuries, are still known but barely practiced https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-make-biomass-energy-sustainable-again.html

In purely military terms, the attacks of 9/11 have proven to be one of the strongest examples of asymmetrical warfare: Al Qaeda spent some 10s of millions to do $2 trillion in damage, and triggered NATO to spend trillions on wars that ended up killing more of their own people than the original 9/11 attacks did. Or to put it bluntly: the people of NATO got played
http://www.iags.org/costof911.html

#Afghanistan once again proves to be the graveyard of empires. Fading empires have been fighting a totally counterproductive war there for 20 years. Even worse, the war cost 50% of Afghanistan's GDP. Money well spent? #NATO could've just made direct payments to Afghanis. Who would still support extremist militias if NATO had given the entire country a 50% raise for the 20 years. The stupidity of that war is unfathomable, it shows how broken the status quo politics are https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/16/20-years-western-intervention-afghanistan-terror

NYT "Europe's Vaccination Problem" did not represent the story well, some valuable discussion, but rushed to binary good/bad judgments, like it was bad that the #EU did not put export controls on domestic manufacturers. That's not bad, it's responsible and ethical! Sure US/UK got short term benefits even they will have contact with the rest of the world again, regardless of what Trumpists want. EU Deal probably sped vaccine delivery for most EU countries, e.g. small ones https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/podcasts/the-daily/covid-vaccines-europe.html

Does anyone know of any monuments to foreign armies that occupied the place where the monument is? I've always been fascinated by the giant #monument to the Soviet Army that is in central Vienna, and I'm curious whether anywhere else has something like that.

Then there is just another 85-ish other countries to go https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/map-shows-places-world-where-us-military-operates-180970997/

Go #Biden, I hope you really do follow through and pull all US troups of out #Afghanistan! https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/14/pentagon-biden-team-overrode-afghanistan-481556

Steve Jobs was from the Silicon Valley, born and raised and lived his whole life there. All these people are from somewhere else: Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Sergei Brin, Eric Schmidt, Larry Ellison, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone.

#Austin is now getting lots of press for being the recipient of people leaving the Silicon Valley. “They just keep coming. The fleece vests, the tech bros—that’s definitely imported from California.” What is key to note here is that this same flood hit the Silicon Valley in the 90s. These hoards are not "from California", they almost all came from somewhere else. Now they are leaving and ruining other places.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-08/austin-texas-ready-or-not-becomes-hot-spot-for-silicon-valley-transplants

Now its clear that cars are going #electric, it is time to stop subsidizing cars entirely. The climate impact of just building an electric car greatly exceeds the entire climate impact of the life of biking or public transit systems. Electric car subsidies are now supporting stupid projects like #ElonMusk's #BoringCompany tunnels, which is just a bad reinvention of the subway.
https://jalopnik.com/move-over-keno-elon-musks-dumb-tesla-tunnel-now-the-l-1846654974

Donors have influence, and big donors even more. #BillGates is now steering global health research in the things he decides himself to focus on. This is dangerous https://www.politico.eu/article/bill-gates-who-most-powerful-doctor/

#Palantir is making zero cost #data sharing contracts with EU companies. We know this story already: if you're not the customer, then you're the product. Now its happening on a country-wide level, with whole countries giving into #SurveillanceCapitalism

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/seeing-stones-pandemic-reveals-palantirs-troubling-reach-in-europe

#LightPollution is constantly expanding, cities are consistently adding 5-10% more light a year. This is a waste of energy, harms people's sleep, stops plants from breeding, and disturbs animal and insect life. On top of that, the night is also beautiful.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/lights-off-france-parkour-collectives-fight-pollution-one-store-sign-at-a-time

#Google should spend a lot more money on #Android. By 2016 they spent $9 billion on Android, and made $22 billion in profit. It is clear that Android users are not the customers here.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/google-s-android-generates-31-billion-revenue-oracle-says-ijor8hvt