The Indigenous People of the Amazon are under attack.
President of Brazil Bolsonaro wants to open up some of the most fragile rainforest to predatory mining companies.
Bolsonaro says it’s his ‘dream’ to open up the Amazon rainforest for mining but for the Indigenous People who call it their home, it’s a nightmare.
Ripping up the land to mine for gold and diamonds will devastate the precious ecosystems and the Indigenous communities who have protected these sacred lands for years.
Thirty years ago Brazil’s constitution put these Indigenous lands out of bounds.
But ever since Bolsonaro came to power, mining giants and small-time prospectors have been clamouring to get their hands on the Amazon’s treasures. Unless we stand-up and stop Bolsonaro’s plan, this could be their golden ticket.
This attack on these Indigenous Peoples’ lands is an attack on all of us. Our survival depends on the Amazon rainforest, and the Indigenous People that nurture it.
Now those fighting on the frontlines, like our allies at the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and the Pariri Indigenous Association need our help. Let’s stand with them in their hour of need.
Please sign the SumofUs petition calling on Members of the Chamber of Deputies to stop this destruction of the Amazon.
We call on you to vote against Bill 191/2020 and continue to uphold the ban on mining and water companies accessing constitutionally-protected Indigenous lands.
Contrast Brazil with Peru. In Peru, cooperation with indigenous communities, growing of coffee in the shade under the canopy of the trees is helping to protect the Amazon.
Putting one of the ideas in Another Now into action, last week Black Friday, one day of action against Amazon, buy nothing from Amazon, do not visit their website, Make Amazon Pay.
During the pandemic Jeff Bezos has increased his wealth by $85 billion. Wealth begets wealth. Jeff Bezos can afford to take risks, have a long range vison, fund loss making projects, within Amazon can leverage projects to benefit all aspects of the business, we see this with artificial intelligence, when Amazon recommends a book it will be possible worth reading.
Facebook abuses its position, as we saw with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook knows more about us than we know ourselves, we are commodities to be used and abused and sold, it can target and manipulate us.
On reading Another Now I thought when do we fight back, when do we start the guerrilla tech war against the tech giants, against the banks, against dirty industries?
We need financial engineers, software engineers, leading researchers in artificial intelligence, who know where to hit vulnerable fragile systems with coordinated attacks.
The fight has begun with Make Amazon Pay, one day of targeted action against Amazon, buy nothing on Black Friday do not even visit their website on that day.
One week on from Black Friday, over 400 parliamentarians from across the world including Yanis Varoufakis and Jeremy Corbyn join in the call to Make Amazon Pay.
1/ NewRiver Retail swallows 200 pubs to turn into convenience stores; Retail property group NewRiver Retail has bought 202 pubs from Marston’s for £90mln, which it plans to convert into convenience stores and restaurantshttps://t.co/HrVloi4ulN
A tweet by Mark Dodds suggests a target for the UK, pubcos, a day when we do not drink in any tied pub or corporate pub chains.
Pubcos are zombie companies mired in debt. When they tire of relieving fools of their money they sell off their pubs for redevelopment.
There is action we can all take.
Support local indy businesses, buy coffee from a speciality coffee shop where they care about coffee, you will quite literally taste the difference.
During the first lockdown, I visited little independent shops, the local butcher, baker, fishmonger, fruit and vegetable market stall, not once did I visit a supermarket. And it was safer to shop in these little shops, limited numbers, I was in and out within a couple of minutes.
We do not have to use WhatsApp or Instagram, there are alternatives, post pictures to twitter not Instagram, use Skype not WhatsApp.
Facebook must be broken up, stripped of WhatsApp and Instagram.
We should overwrite all personal information on Facebook with false information, allow a couple of days to propagate through the system then delete. Never ever quiz, game or survey on Facebook, these are scams to harvest your data, as Cambridge Analytica used very effectively. Never tag friends.
Hi Keith. If you search via my site then you get results from many alternatives to Amazon (including but not limited to Bookshop) so will see which ones have it in stock and from which one it is cheapest: https://t.co/4OXJETFr2B
Amazon provides a platform for third party vendors and these account for around half the sales through Amazon. A somewhat crappy website Bookshop.org does the same, except demands a larger discount from indie publishers than they give Amazon and for bookshops they make less on a book sale than if you walked through their door and bought a book and the sale is not fulfilled by the bookshop.
Writers can do their bit, stop directing to Amazon, support local bookshops, ask your publisher to offer Amazon discounts to local bookshops, at the very least as special offer when books are published.
Tech giants should be taxed on revenue where that revenue is generated. The same should also apply to tax dodging corporations for example Starbucks.
Is there anyone working on regulation protecting Ethical AI researchers, similar to whistleblower protection? Because with the amount of censorship & intimidation that goes on towards people in specific groups, how does anyone trust any real research in this area can take place?
Apparently my manager’s manager sent an email my direct reports saying she accepted my resignation. I hadn’t resigned—I had asked for simple conditions first and said I would respond when I’m back from vacation. But I guess she decided for me 🙂 that’s the lawyer speak.
Timnit Gebru’s work on AI bias is necessary and pathbreaking.
The prospect that she’d simply be instructed by her employer to withdraw her academic work-in-progress — with no discussion — implicates all the church/state issues of corporations hosting academic research units. pic.twitter.com/zpU2xQPpXW
For my followers who haven't seen this, it's a HUGE deal. @timnitGebru, one of the foremost scholars of AI ethics, was fired from Google after they tried to censor her research. Their former motto "don't be evil" gets more ironic every dayhttps://t.co/t7rUyXUa9S
📣JOIN ME IN SIGNING a statement of solidarity with Dr. Timnit Gebru.
Timnit, her colleagues, friends, and allies are demanding that Google provide transparency around their research censorship, and commit to meaningful research integrity in the future https://t.co/lXkfMH2YPg
Our lives are controlled by algorithms, Big Tech owns the algorithms. The world of We, a world controlled by numbers.
Amazons suggests what I may wish to read, YouTube what I may wish to watch.
Big Tech has monopolised research on AI. To whose benefit, who has oversight?
Those who speak out are fired.
The treatment of employees by Big Tech who dare challenge their lack of ethics is not restricted to Amazon, as we see with the treatment of Timnit Gebru by Google.
Google fired the technical co-lead of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team Timnit Gebru for raising issues of ethics.
A day of action against Google in support of Timnit Gebru. What form should it take? For example a coordinated walk out by Google staff on the same day of no use of Google Chrome or YouTube.
Support and use open source software.
Download and install Brave, a faster alternative to Chrome that cuts out the crap.
Brave is a free open-source web browser. It blocks ads and website trackers, and provides a way for users to send cryptocurrency contributions in the form of Basic Attention Tokens to websites and content creators.
Food rescued and stored in the garden, which at least kept viable for a couple of days.
To repair, quoted a price of £175, or £50 if no repair, therefore decided to buy a new fridge freezer.
Last Friday paid a visit to Curry’s, a large shed on an inner city bypass, a large superstore of household appliances.
Settled on a Grundig fridge freezer, in the Curry’s Sale, £200 down from £300.
Price of many ridiculously high, for what is little more than an insulated box with a coolant system.
Grundig fridge freezer displayed on the door available in white or brushed metal.
When asked for white, an extra £20 was demanded. This was illegal, something Trading Standards should investigate, as there was nothing displayed to say white was extra. The model on display was brushed metal, a dull gun metal grey.
A moot point white, as not in stock, earliest the following Friday, with delivery some time after that.
The performance of the fridge freezer not prominently displayed. Displayed at the bottom of the lower door. Ideal for a dog to read. What were customers expected to do, get down on their hands and knees to read?
Grundig Fridge Freezer ordered. Free delivery not available until Wednesday of the following week, could arrive any time during the day.
Paid an extra £20 for removal and disposal of the old fridge freezer.
Wednesday morning, ie yesterday, delivery arrived at eight in the morning. A call fifteen minutes earlier to warn of imminent arrival.
Delivery said they could not take the old fridge freezer, a service paid for, as no room on their van, but would return within the next hour to collect.
Old fridge freeze dumped on the back lawn. Why, when hard standing where it could have been placed?
This caused a problem, as lawn maintenance service arrived in the afternoon, and had to work around the dumped fridge freezer.
Day turned to evening, no collection of fridge freezer.
Curry’s not only failed to take away the old fridge freezer for which they were paid £20, they also dumped the packaging for the new fridge freezer in the garden.
On checking today to ensure Curry’s had actually delivered the correct model as ordered, to my surprise, or maybe I should not be surprised, I discovered the delivery was actually intended for someone else.
Curry’s were called this morning. They refused to accept any responsibility. Said the earliest they could collect would be some time next week. They are in clear breach of contract. They were told, payment would be cancelled, and they could collect the delivered fridge freezer.
Curry’s then backed down said the earliest would be Friday, ie tomorrow, two days after the fridge freezer was delivered and old one should have been collected.
At minimum will expect refund of £20 paid for collection, as Curry’s in breach of contract.
Note: Curry’s turned up 9-30 Friday morning, 48 hours after old fridge freezer should have been collected. Two guys and a van. They had not a clue what it was they were to collect. Yet another example of Curry’s poor service.
Fridge freezer turned on after leaving to rest for five hours.
Had not reached temperature after one hour, had after two hours.
A slight adjustment of thermostat, and now with food returned from garden to fridge, has stabilised at correct temperature.
Freezer is still empty.
A bad design feature, no digital readout of fridge or freezer temperature. These days would expect as a standard feature.
Another bad design feature, bottom of fridge curves upwards towards the door. This makes very difficult pulling out the drawer for vegetables and salad and for gaining access to contents.
To compare with Amazon. A book ordered Saturday evening was delivered Sunday morning.
High Street chains are collapsing. Latest casualty HMV, which is no great loss.
High Street chains are failing because of their poor service. They compete with online by cutting service. Thus enter a death spiral.
Latest results show failing retailers M&S and Waitrose did not do well over Christmas. This comes as no surprise when their service is so bad. Premium prices, fresh produce wrapped in plastic, bananas rotting on the shelves, and yet cannot man the tills at checkouts.
I open my front door to find Amazon Logistics had dumped a parcel on my doorstep.
It is an educated guess left by Amazon Logistics, as no card left.
Last two deliveries were by Amazon Logistic, and both times they dumped the parcel, first time behind a wheelie bin, the second time in a wheelie bin.
Amazon has not denied parcel was dumped by Amazon Logistics
Royal Mail does not dump parcels. They may lose, but do not dump.
The location where the parcel was left, in full view of passers by in the street.
Whoever dumped the parcel blatantly lied, they claimed in tracking notes:
Parcel was handed to resident to K P
Not the first time they had lied. When the parcel was dumped behind the wheelie bin, it was claimed it had been handeed to myself. I was not even there.
Had it rained, the parcel dumped on my doorstep would have got soaked.
I was home at the time the parcel was dumped.
This is the third time a parcel from Amazon has been dumped. Complaints are made, complaints are ignored.
Note: Tracking notes show delivered by Amazon Logistics.
The last time cowboy Amazon Logistics delivered a parcel they dumped it behind the wheelie bin. A complaint was lodged but appears to have made no difference. This time cowboy Amazon Logistics dump in the wheelie bin.
Illegible scrawl on the calling card. No name, no date.
Amazon Logistics have never been told of a safe place to leave parcels. Dumping in a wheelie bin seems to be a strange definition of safe.
How long been there do not know. At a guess, at least a month. Only discovered when throwing junk mail in the rubbish bin.
Yesterday, an e-mail from Amazon to expect a delivery.
Postman was late. As leaving, I saw the postman, chased him down the street, to ask had he a parcel for me. He replied no.
I left, leaving a note on the door where the parcel should be left.
In the evening, no parcel had been left where I had advised, no card left, my note still on the door.
On reading my e-mail, I found parcel have been left, but not at all clear where. Delivery tracking
Parcel was handed to resident
I had not given consent for parcel to be left with anyone. And should a card not have been left telling me where it had been left? And my note removed? Who was the resident? The delivery tracking also said the parcel had been delivered to myself. It had not. Or if it had, where was it?
In a separate note, it is claimed parcel was handed to me at 1521.
It most certainly had not been handed to me, as I was not there, I was in Winchester.
That evening, message posted on twitter, e-mail sent, asking where was my parcel? No response.
The next day, ie today, I found a card. It was meaningless.
This evening I put out the bins for collection. I found my parcel dumped behind the rubbish bins. Had I not put out the bins, my parcel would have still been there, and could have been there for weeks. Had I put the bins out at night, I would not have seen the parcel.
As I write, a thunderstorm for the last couple of hours, now a very violent storm with very heavy rain. Heavy rain forecast all through the early hours of the morning until late morning.
Had I not by accident found my parcel, it would by now be a soggy mess.
Chevron will fight until hell freezes over, then skate it out on the ice. — Charles James, former Chevron Vice President and General Council
We can’t let little countries screw around with big companies like this … — Chevron lobbyist
For decades, Texaco (now owned by Chevron), dumped toxic waste in pristine Amazonian rainforest in Ecuador.
Chevron were sued in Ecuador, Chevron lost, but has refused to pay damages. Chevron has vowed to lock in litigation until hell freezes over, then to litigate on the ice.
This is how Big Business operates.
In a landmark judgement against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court in 2011, the company was ordered to pay more than $18 billion towards the clean up of widespread contamination, as well as compensatory and punitive damages. The case, holding Chevron accountable for toxic dumping by its predecessor company, Texaco, has been upheld by appellate courts in Ecuador.
The case now goes to the International Criminal Court.
Please sign the petition calling on Chevron to pay for their crimes.
Amazon is locked into a bitter dispute with French publisher Hachette, but this is not the first dispute, previously it was with Macmillan.
What Amazon is trying to do is drive down the price it pays, it demands ever larger discounts, whilst pretending it is acting for readers.
The techniques Amazon adopts are those of medieval siege warfare.
With MacMillan, the buy button for any of their titles no longer worked.
With Hachette, long delays on a book, advance orders not possible.
The Penguin Random House merger, was an attempt to produce an even bigger conglomerate to challenge Amazon, or at least put up a fight.
Amazon has now not only upset publishers, it has upset writers whose books are not available, it has upset readers who are seeing much loved indie bookshops close.
The figure of $9-99 came from if a song is a 99 cents, then let us make a book $9-99. It is also a holy grail $9-99.
There are other players in the market, though they are small fry.
Publish a book and apart from well known best-selling authors, you take a risk. The majority of books go from published to remainder, or published to recycled.
Crowd sourcing removes the risk, you do not publish until you have a guaranteed number of buyers. That is the route Unbound have followed, though their books are expensive, and they have published very few books.
Writers can cut out the middle men, publish a book direct on Amazon, they retain 70%, much better than traditional publisher, but not as good as leanpub.
Disadvantage of Amazon, it is a proprietary format for a Kindle.
Kindle is an inferior e-book reader to a Kobo Touch, and the Kobo Touch uses epub, an open source format.
Leanpub, download in various formats, and with a minimum price, the reader can set what they wish to pay, and they see what goes to the publisher, what goes to the writer. The writer retains the rights.
For an audio book, there is bandcamp. Leanpub is very much offering for the written word what bandcamp offers for music and the spoken word. As with leanpub, the author retains the rights.
Publishers and the book chains have very much themselves to blame for the dire straits everyone now finds themselves in.
Adultery is an international best-seller from an international best selling author. Now if you are in the business of selling books, do you not, if you have an international best seller on your hands, pile it up and sell it fast? Not if you are Waterstone’s or WHSmith.
With Waterstone’s, you may find it on display with new releases, you may find someone who knows what your are asking for.
With WHSmith, it is far far worse. You will not find a member of staff who knows what you are asking for, you will search high and low in the store and not find it, you will probably find it not even in stock. And yet, WHSmith has Adulteryon special offer at half price, and a further 20% off with a 20% off voucher. This is less than buying from Amazon. I repeat, cheaper than buying from Amazon.
Publishers are to blame. They offer the chains who cannot deliver, deep discounts, leaving indie bookshops to go bust. Offer the same discounts to indie bookshops, where they know about books, and you will sell more books.
An analogy would be indie coffee shops. An indie coffee shop, serving quality coffee, is more than able to see off the big chains with their disgusting coffee.
Amazon started with books. Books are cheap, easy to ship, fairly indestructible.
Amazon may have overstepped the mark. They are seen as a bully. They have poor working conditions, they dodge tax. They are now abusing their near monopoly position and stranglehold on the book market. Writers who are not published by Hachette may not be seeing their books blacklisted, for now. Their turn will come when the Amazon siege engines pitch up outside their publishers. And if this is what happens to the giant publishing conglomerates, what of the little publishers, where they care about books, where books have not been reduced to commodities, pile em high, sell em cheap?
Keithpp's Blog 