@ajsadauskas@aus.social
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ajsadauskas

@[email protected]

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

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ajsadauskas, to fuck_cars
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Spotted on Instagram. Your NSW tax dollars hard at work...

#urbanism @fuck_cars #nswpol #UrbanPlanning #cars #roads

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to technology
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Are agile scrums an outdated idea?

Here's a video on YouTube making the case for why agile was an innovative methodology when it was first introduced 20 years ago.

However, he argues these days, daily scrums are a waste of time, and many organisations would be better off automating their reporting processes, giving teams more autonomy, and letting people get on with their work:

https://youtu.be/KJ5u_Kui1sU?si=M_VLET7v0wCP4gHq

A few of my thoughts.

First, it's worth noting that many organisations that claim to be "agile" aren't, and many that claim to use agile processes don't.

Just as a refresher, here's the key values and principles from the agile manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/

  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
  3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  4. Responding to change over following a plan
  • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  • Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
  • Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
  • Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
  • Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
  • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  • Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
  • Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
  • The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  • At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Your workplace isn't agile if your team is micromanaged from above; if you have a kanban board filled with planning, documentation, and reporting tasks; if your organisation is driven by processes and procedures; if you don't have autonomous cross-functional teams.

Yet in many "agile" organisations, I've noticed that the basic principles of agile are ignored, and what you have is micromanagement through scrums and kanban boards.

And especially outside software development teams, agile tends to just be a hollow buzzword. (I once met a manager at a conference who talked up how agile his business was, and didn't believe me when I said agile was originally a software development methodology — one he revealed he wasn't following the principles of.)

@technology

ajsadauskas, (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@BarneyDellar @technology You're right, it should, in truly autonomous cross-functional teams that have a high degree of delegated decision-making.

But that's not what tends to happen in many larger, hierarchical organisations.

In those organisations, what can tend to happen is the daily scrum becomes where managers get to micromanage details and staff are expected to report back their progress.

(I'm thinking about one past job in particular, where it was explained to me that: "The scrum is important because it allows our manager to keep track of our progress and set priorities.")

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@airwhale @technology The issue is that often the core principles of agile fly in the face of how many big companies and organisations work.

Big orgs are often built around hierarchical command-and-control. They're built on monofunctional teams, processes, and procedures. They're built on KPIs and reports. They're built around getting stakeholder approvals ahead of waterfall projects.

So the bits of agile that tend to get picked up and implemented are the kanban boards and daily "scrum" meetings.

And the bits that tend to get left on the cutting room floor are the bits about products being the most important output, the autonomy, the cross-functional teams, the ongoing customer input, etc.

ajsadauskas,
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@bluGill @technology @jordanlund @pixxelkick @7u5k3n @Zaktor I guess the difference between your experiences and Zaktor's is the difference between an actual Agile standup, compared with faux-Agile.

ajsadauskas, to technology
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"Free speech absolutist" allegedly fires employee for raising security concerns.

Apparently Elon's version of free speech doesn't extend to employees who raise concerns about information security:

"Alan Rosa, who was Twitter’s global head of information security, filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday in New Jersey federal court, alleging breach of contract, wrongful termination and retaliation, among other claims. X Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Rosa claims that late last year, after Musk acquired the company, he was told to cut his department’s budget for physical security by 50%...

"Rosa says he objected because the cuts would put Twitter at risk of violating a $150m settlement it entered into earlier in 2022 with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which claimed Twitter had misused users’ personal information. The agreement required Twitter to implement privacy and information security controls to protect confidential data.

"He was fired days after raising those concerns, according to the lawsuit. Rosa is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/06/elon-musk-fires-twitter-executive-security-concerns

@technology #X

ajsadauskas, to urbanism
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Whoopsie! Sydney's road planners just discovered induced demand is a thing, after opening a new motorway.

For those outside Sydney, the New South Wales state government recently opened a new spaghetti intersection just west of Sydney's Central Business District.

It was supposed to solve traffic. Instead, it's turned into a giant car park:

"For the third straight day, motorists and bus passengers endured bumper-to-bumper traffic on the City West Link and Victoria Road. A trip from Haberfield to the Anzac Bridge on the City West Link averaged an agonising 44 minutes in the morning peak on Wednesday.

"Several months ago, Transport for NSW’s modelling had suggested traffic from the interchange would add only five to 10 minutes to trips on Victoria Road through Drummoyne and over the Iron Cove Bridge during morning peaks.

"Those travel delays have now blown out."

So what do motorists say when their shiny new road that was supposed to solve traffic instead turns into a massive traffic jam?

'Dude! Just one more lane!'

From the article:

"[Roads Minister John] Graham and his Transport boss Josh Murray appear reluctant to do what many motorists reckon is the obvious solution.

"That is, add lanes or make changes at the pinch-points that are causing the pain. A three-lane to one merge point from Victoria Road onto the Anzac Bridge, along with two lanes merging into one on the City West Link, are proving to be painful bottlenecks."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/how-planners-got-rozelle-traffic-modelling-horribly-wrong-20231129-p5ensa.html

#roads #traffic #cars @fuck_cars @sydneytrains @urbanism #urbanism #UrbanPlanning #motorways #fuckcars

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@WaxedWookie @AvonVilla I fundamentally disagree that induced demand isn't at play here.

That's because this spaghetti intersection isn't a standalone project. It's part of WestConnex.

For years before it opened, the state government promised that WestConnex would deliver faster travel times from Western Sydney to the CBD. They promised faster travel times from the southern suburbs to the city. This was going to end traffic congestion on Parramatta Road once and for all.

This is directly off the WestConnex website:

"The New M4, opened in July 2019. The WestConnex M4, including the 5.5km New M4 Tunnels, connects Haberfield to Parramatta and the M4. Motorists on this section of WestConnex are saving an average of 35 minutes on their westbound peak time journey compared to Parramatta Road.

"The M8, opened in July 2020. The 9km twin tunnels connects the M5 at Kingsgrove to a new interchange at St Peters, with 6ha of new open space, built on a remediated former landfill site. The tunnels cut up to 30 minutes off a trip between Liverpool and the southern CBD."

https://www.westconnex.com.au/explore-westconnex/about-westconnex/

Here's a direct quote from Gladys in 2018:

"If you're coming from Liverpool you'll save about half an hour, if you're coming from [Oatley area] you'll save about 15 minutes.

"When this project has finished, not only will you have less traffic on local roads, because traffic will be underground, but you're also going to be given open space you didn't have before."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/world-s-worst-park-westconnex-s-new-st-peters-spaghetti-junction-20180814-p4zxel.html

And people made decisions about where they would live and how they would travel based on WestConnex.

That instead of being stuck on Parramatta Road, they'd get a nice quick commute down the M4 to the city. Or that they'd be able to take the M5 through the new M8 motorway tunnel to the city.

And a lot of that traffic is now heading straight to the Anzac Bridge:

"Before the Rozelle interchange opened, seven lanes merged into four on the Anzac Bridge. Now, 10 lanes are merged into four with the extra lanes from the spaghetti junction."

"“It is a forever problem because the system is funnelling too many people into a road that is too small. They assumed the Anzac Bridge could support more cars than was physically possible," [Sydney transport expert Mathew Hounsell] said.

"“Trying to shovel a motorway into the middle of a city was never going to work. The previous government and the roads department stuffed it up. They didn’t want to listen to anyone who would tell them it was not going to work.

"The former Coalition government stated repeatedly that traffic flows on Victoria Road would be reduced by 50 per cent when the interchange opened, a “claim that is laughable now” [Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne] said."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-a-forever-problem-experts-say-rozelle-hell-is-here-to-stay-20231130-p5eo2o.html

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@WaxedWookie @AvonVilla When the prime minister, the state premier, and the transport Minister all hype up an infrastructure project by promising less traffic to the city, many people will make transport decisions accordingly.

That's the big picture here.

Here's an example of the hype the federal and state governments were building for years around WestConnex and the Rozelle Interchange:

"Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the $16.8 billion project was cutting travel times and supporting thousands of families with work as Sydney and Australia were reopening from COVID lockdowns.

"“This breakthrough isn’t just for a tunnel, but it’s a breakthrough for getting people home sooner and safer and helping workers to move around,” the Prime Minister said.

"“As well as the 9,000 jobs this project has been delivering, the tunnel is going to make it easier for people across Sydney to pick up work and jobs that just wouldn’t have been possible before with traffic.

"“As we reopen Sydney and Australia, projects like this bypass and our record $110 billion infrastructure investment are going to give our economy even more of a boost.”

"New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said the third stage of WestConnex is now another step closer to forming a western bypass of the Sydney CBD.

"“This project will change the lives of thousands of people, bypassing dozens of sets of traffic lights and allowing an uninterrupted drive from the Blue Mountains to Rozelle,” the Premier said.

"“As part of the New South Wales Government’s record $108.5 billion investment pipeline, WestConnex is already easing congestion, creating jobs and connecting communities, right across our city.

"“Our Government has its eye to the future and this breakthrough will complete a ‘missing link’ between the new M4 Tunnels at Haberfield and the M8 at St Peters.”

"Federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts Paul Fletcher said the Commonwealth Government had co-funded WestConnex from the outset with a grant of $1.5 billion and a concessional loan of $2 billion.

"“This is a major milestone in what is one of the most significant road infrastructure projects in the country, which is already delivering major benefits for Sydney commuters by reducing travel times, easing congestion and improving safety,” Minister Fletcher said.

"“When opened to traffic in 2023, the M4-M4 Link Tunnels and Rozelle Interchange will complete the WestConnex project, providing improved links between key employment hubs and local communities.”

"NSW Minister for Transport and Roads Rob Stokes said 22 of the 33 kilometres of WestConnex would be underground, including the 7.5 kilometres that make up the M4-M5 Link Tunnels.

...

"“The M4-M5 Link Tunnels will remove tens of thousands of vehicles from surrounding streets, including Parramatta Road, and will help slash up to 40 minutes from an average peak journey between Parramatta and the Sydney Airport.”"

https://www.acciona.com.au/updates/news/westconnex-m4-m5-link-tunnels-the-final-breakthrough/?_adin=02021864894

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@WaxedWookie @MrLee I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I think traffic is likely to remain awful during peak hours on the Anzac Bridge and Victoria Rd. (It's likely to ease up temporarily over the Christmas break, but will worsen again after Australia Day.)

Even before WestConnex, the Anzac Bridge already wasn't exactly great during peak hour from all the traffic heading through Drummoyne along Victoria Road.

The new WestConnex motorways have made that worse.

If you're on the M4 extension, how do you get to the CBD? Either you take the Parramatta Rd turnoff at Ashfield, or you go through the spaghetti intersection to the Anzac Bridge.

If you're heading from the airport on the new M8, how do you get to the CBD? You go through the spaghetti intersection to the Anzac Bridge.

And if you're on the M5, how do you get to the CBD? Well, you can take Southern Cross Drive under the airport to the Eastern Distributor, or you take the M8 to the spaghetti intersection to the Anzac Bridge.

During the morning and evening peak, a lot of commuters want to travel to or from the city at the same time. And that traffic is being funnelled from the M4, M5 and M8 on to the Anzac Bridge, and then to the CBD offramps.

The claim was that these new WestConnex motorways were going to take traffic off other roads. So for example the M4 was going to take traffic off Parramatta Road.

What it's ended up doing is inducing more traffic demand, and that additional demand is being dumped on to the Anzac Bridge.

Parramatta Road is still terrible during peak hour, and there's now even more cars travelling along the M4.

People have also made housing and long-term travel decisions based on the claims that WestConnex would make car travel quicker to the CBD from western and southern Sydney.

Are there people driving slowly while they figure out which lane to take through the spaghetti intersection? Yes there are.

But. The bigger issue is that the new WestConnex motorways have induced additional traffic demand, and a lot of it is trying to cross the Anzac Bridge.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@WaxedWookie It was also deliberately opened at the end of the year because there's less traffic demand:

"But the government and motorway operator Transurban – who have a contract to run WestConnex until 2060 – say the traffic peak won’t come until February."

So the real test won't be how it performs on a Friday or weekend. It's how it will do once everyone's back at work in February.

Again, the underlying issue seems to be extra traffic that wouldn't be there if the M4/M5/M8 motorway extensions hadn't opened.

There's a lot of traffic being funnelled on to a bridge that was already at capacity.

"Since the project opened on 19 November, morning drivers have headed into the city and found three lanes on two of the main arterial roads abruptly merging into one. Feeder streets from nearby suburbs were jammed, with movement slowing to barely one block an hour at the worst of the crunch times."

The Inner West Council is claiming that department officials were concerned behind closed doors in the months before the interchange opened:

"Darcy Byrne, the mayor of Inner West Council, oversees a region that has endured a decade of dusty and noisy construction. He says Transport for New South Wales officials 'were very concerned' in briefings three months ago about how WestConnex was going to perform.

"'We have warned for a very long time [that] when you tried to funnel such a greatly expanded amount of traffic into the same number of lanes at the Anzac Bridge at Victoria Road, it was going to be a tsunami of traffic chaos,' he said."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/02/a-tsunami-of-traffic-chaos-the-new-sydney-motorway-prompting-calls-for-a-royal-commission

ajsadauskas, (edited )
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@janAkali @maxprime You certainly can follow Lemmy groups from Mastodon. And you can reply to Lemmy threads from Masto.

In fact, take a look at my account — I'm doing it right now...

How Commute Culture Made American Cities Lifeless -- Yet There's Hope (www.youtube.com)

This video outlines some of the relationships between US commuting culture and the perspectives that it’s engendered about the role of the city. The, when compared and contrasted to other nations’ approach to city design and perspectives shows that it’s possible to have a city core that’s more than just a workplace....

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@oo1 @azimir @P1r4nha @Dmian

Urban planning and public transport should absolutely go hand-in-hand.

But on to your other point.

The key factor for transport use isn't just population or density. It's also the proportion of the population that uses public transport. And places that have more frequent public transport will have a higher proportion of the population using it than places with low quality public transport.

It's a point the late Paul Mees made in his book "A very public solution": https://www.mup.com.au/books/a-very-public-solution-paperback-softback (it's highly recommended reading if you have the chance.)

Imagine a city with just 100,000 people. But the local bus service is exceptional, and half the population uses it. That's a base of 50,000 people.

Imagine a city of 500,000 people. The public transport network there is average, so just 10% of the population uses it. That's 50,000 people.

Now imagine a metropolitan area of 5,000,000 people. The public transport network there is poor and infrequent. Only 1% of the population uses it. That's 50,000 people.

Three cities, same absolute number of public transport users, different modal share.

If you run frequent services, every 10 minutes or better, and services connect so that it's a two- or three-seat journey to everywhere in your city, you will have a much higher ridership than if it's an hourly bus service. That's with the same population and density.

Frequent bus services (once every 10 minutes or more) can also act as a feeder into a higher rail, light rail, tram, or metro services. In suburban, rural, and seni-rural areas, that extends the reach of your rail network.

Yes, higher density around railway stations is the best option. But where there is a lot of low-density suburban sprawl, frequent feeder buses are a good option.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@WaterWaiver @AllNewTypeFace There's a perception that we could just reuse existing methane gas (i.e. "natural gas") infrastructure for hydrogen. But often that just isn't the case:

"The pipelines that transport hydrogen are made of the same basic material as most of those built for natural gas: steel. But hydrogen is a much smaller molecule than methane, the main component in natural gas. In fact, hydrogen is the smallest molecule on Earth. Its size means it can squeeze into tiny spaces in certain steel alloys in a way that natural gas cannot. That can cause “embrittlement,” making the metal more likely to crack or corrode. Hydrogen molecules are also much more likely to leak from valves, seals, and other connection points on pipelines (which risks undermining green hydrogen’s climate benefits). And hydrogen is transported in a more pressurized state than natural gas, which puts more stress on the pipeline carrying it.

"Rather than transporting 100 percent hydrogen, many companies are now testing whether they can blend hydrogen with natural gas for transport in existing pipelines. In a study released last summer, the California Public Utility Commission found that up to 5 percent hydrogen blended with natural gas appears safe, but higher percentages could lead to embrittlement or a greater chance of pipeline leaks. Internationally, France places the highest cap on hydrogen blending, at 6 percent, according to the International Energy Agency (Germany allows blending at 8 percent under certain conditions)."

Source: https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/can-we-use-pipelines-and-power-plants-we-have-now-transport-and-burn-hydrogen-or-do-we-need

If the aim is to reach net zero emissions by 2050, a 90% or 95% methane to 10% or 5% hydrogen gas blend just isn't that useful for reaching that goal.

(And that's assuming the hydrogen is green hydrogen as well.)

And if a lot of your infrastructure has to be retrofitted anyway, electrification plus renewables plus storage makes a lot more sense in many cases.

There are still use cases where green hydrogen will be useful — international long-haul flights, rockets, some industrial processes, etc. But it's not the best solution in most cases.

#ClimateChange #hydrogen #gas #NetZero #electrification #transport

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki @AllNewTypeFace wrote: "I’ve seen it claimed that hydrogen is the renewable energy option backed by fossil-fuel interests precisely because it’s impractical."

To which you replied: "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries."

But the fossil fuel industry's support for hydrogen and biomethane isn't just some myth cooked up by battery producers.

And you don't need to take my word on that. Here's ExxonMobil on hydrogen:

"Hydrogen produces zero greenhouse gas emissions at its point of use. It's also versatile - suitable for power generation, trucking, and heat-intensive industries like steel and chemicals. We are scaling up production of low-carbon hydrogen to reduce CO2 emissions in our own facilities, and helping others do the same... Natural gas is comprised largely of methane (CH4) and can be turned into hydrogen through a reforming process."

Source: https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/what-we-do/delivering-industrial-solutions/hydrogen

Here's what Australian Gas Networks has to say:

"Australian Gas Networks and the Australian gas sector has a clear vision for a low carbon future using renewable gases such as hydrogen and biomethane. We know we need to deliver on this vision to help Australia meet national and statebased emissions reductions targets, whilst also maintaining the reliability of supply at lowest cost to our customers.

"Hydrogen Park South Australia and Hydrogen Park Gladstone will demonstrate how we can use the existing gas network to deliver blended gas to customers - the Australian Hydrogen Centre (AHC) is the next step in our journey, delivering feasibility studies on blending 10% renewable hydrogen into towns and cities, and plans for a 100% renewable gas future."

Source: https://www.australiangasnetworks.com.au/australian-hydrogen-centre

Here's Gas Energy Australia, a lobby group that represents LNG gas producers:

"We strongly support the inclusion of hydrogen and biomethane in the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). Further expanding the way displacement is credited under the ERF to include the full array of emerging renewable gases to replace fossil fuels, would enable the Australian gas industry to make a profound contribution to reducing emissions."

Source: https://www.gasenergyaus.au/about/aims.html

I can give you more examples, including from submissions to government inquires, but this post is getting too long as it is.

No-one is disputing that green hydrogen has an important role to play in decarbonisation.

But.

When oil & gas firms, and their lobbyists, start touting hydrogen, then people will and should ask questions. And no, that's not just battery manufacturers.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki

"There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

The oil and gas industry routinely cites the potential of hydrogen and biomethane as substitutes for oil and methane gas, including in submissions to government inquires.

Take a look at any of the submissions to Victoria's inquiry from an oil or gas industry group.

Almost every single one, including the submission from Exxon-Mobil, cites hydrogen and biomethane as their preferred long-term options: https://engage.vic.gov.au/help-us-build-victorias-gas-substitution-roadmap

And going back to the original post, the grey hydrogen to be used in Victoria's bus trial is not exactly an emissions-free fuel source.

"It is pursued as enthusiastically as they pursue wind and solar. There is no reason they will strongly pursue anything that could replace fossil fuels."

Because the oil and gas industry knows the prospect of hydrogen is effective at delaying the replacement of gas appliances with electric ones.

"And if they did, then all the better, since it is in fact, green energy."

Hydrogen that's produced with methane gas or coal — what Exxon-Mobil is producing — is not green energy.

"What you're doing is just gish gallop. It has no bearing to reality. You are arguing a conspiracy theory where if the fossil fuel industry pursues a green energy technology, it automatically means it is a scam. [Snip]"

Again, green hydrogen (produced using renewable power) has its place, especially in industrial processes, in agriculture, in aviation, etc.

But it has its limits. And there are use cases where renewables with local battery, grid scale battery, or other energy storage solutions (eg grid-scale pumped hydro) are a better option.

Especially if the hydrogen in question is grey or brown hydrogen, as per the Victorian bus trial.

Elsewhere in this thread, you claimed any criticism of hydrogen came from the battery industry or the fossil fuel industry. You have presented nothing to back up that assertion.

To the contrary, the Australian oil and gas industry regularly cites hydrogen as a reason to delay or avoid the transition from gas to electric renewable alternatives.

As yet another example, here's Energy Networks Australia's Gas Vision 2050 policy statement. Hydrogen is right there on the front page:

"Since Energy Networks Australia and our industry partners launched Gas Vision 2050 two years ago, the industry has invested in research and development, policy analysis and pilot projects to demonstrate these new technologies, with a focus on the role of hydrogen."

https://www.energynetworks.com.au/projects/gas-vision-2050/

I've cited multiple examples of where the oil and gas industry has cited hydrogen as a reason to delay or avoid a switch away from gas.

Do you have any concrete examples to back up your assertion that: "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam"?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki I'm seeing some big claims from you that "nearly all rhetoric against hydrogen is just some kind of corporate propaganda, if not from the battery industry then it is from the petroleum industry."

I'm seeing strawman arguments and deflections from you.

But nothing to back up your claims.

  1. You claimed: "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam."

Do you have anything you can link to back up your assertion?

A link to an article?

Anything?

  1. You claimed: "There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

I've provided you with multiple examples of where the Australian gas industry has cited hydrogen as a reason to delay or avoid a switch away from gas.

You don't have to take my word for it. I've provided links.

Do you have anything you can link to back up your assertion?

A link to a news article?

Some research?

An academic paper?

Anything at all?

  1. You claim: "You are arguing a conspiracy theory where if the fossil fuel industry pursues a green energy technology, it automatically means it is a scam."

That's clearly not what I, or anyone else in this thread, is arguing.

Once again, here's my position on hydrogen:

"Green hydrogen (produced using renewable power) has its place, especially in industrial processes, in agriculture, in aviation, etc.

"But it has its limits. And there are use cases where renewables with local battery, grid scale battery, or other energy storage solutions (eg grid-scale pumped hydro) are a better option.

"Especially if the hydrogen in question is grey or brown hydrogen, as per the Victorian bus trial."

It seems to me you're constructing strawman arguments and deflections, because you don't have a strong counter-argument.

Which brings us back to the point you're deflecting from...

  1. You claim "nearly all rhetoric against hydrogen is just some kind of corporate propaganda, if not from the battery industry then it is from the petroleum industry."

If you have some evidence of that, I'd love to see it.

A link to a news article?

Some research?

An academic paper?

Anything at all?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam."

Citation needed.

"There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

Citation needed.

And again.

Do you have anything to back up your core claims?

Link please.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki Still no link to back up your claim that: "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam."

Still no link to back up your claim that: "There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

More ad hominem attacks, no moreflections, still no links to any source to back up those two claims.

You do have some source to back up those two claims, right?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki And still no link to back up your claim that: "There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

Still no link to back up your claim that: "The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam."

I've cited multiple direct examples of why you claim that "there is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen" is false here: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/111475696158764155

And here: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/111476477510088172

All you have to do to move the conversation along is to provide a link to back up these two claims of yours.

I'm seeing lots of obfuscation, and no sources.

It should be simple to do.

So where's your link?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Hypx @Baku @AllNewTypeFace @zurohki And yet again.

Here are your claims:

"There is almost zero interest from the fossil fuel industry for hydrogen."

"The only people saying this are battery investors. They merely want to replace our dependency on fossil fuels with a dependency on their batteries. That is the real scam."

Seriously, even a link to where "battery investors" are saying this will do.

Do you have a link to an article that supports these two claims?

Anything at all?

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to urbanism
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Quick tip for anyone who wants more urbanism/urban planning/cycling/public transport posts in their Mastodon feed.

Thanks to the wonders of the Fediverse, you can follow and post to Lemmy groups from Mastodon.

Here are some transport/planning/cycling groups to get you started:

@urbanism

@fuck_cars

@trains

@ukpublictransport

@trains

@melbournetrains

@sydneytrains

@brisbanetrains

@bicycling

@bicycling

@utilitycycling

For those unfamiliar with it, Lemmy is basically a federated version of Reddit, distributed across multiple servers like Mastodon. (For anyone who wants to delve further, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, and aussie.zone are three popular Lemmy instances.)

From Mastodon, you can follow any Lemmy group by following its handle, exactly the same way that you would follow a Mastodon account. Any new posts to that group will then begin appearing in your Mastodon feed.

Even better, if you start a thread on Mastodon, you can also post it to a relevant Lemmy group just by including its handle in your post. (Please note this only seems to work with the first post of a thread.)

#urbanism #planning #UrbanPlanning #urbanist #cities #transport #PublicTransport #train #trains #tram #trams #cycling #bikes #cycle #walking #walkability #walkable #politics #LightRail #urbanists #FediTips #FediTip #FediHelp #MastoHelp @feditips @FediFollows

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@ClintonAnderson @urbanism @fuck_cars @trains @ukpublictransport @trains @melbournetrains @sydneytrains @brisbanetrains @bicycling @bicycling @utilitycycling @feditips @FediFollows

They do indeed have posts, as you can see here: https://lemmy.ml/c/fuck_cars https://slrpnk.net/c/urbanism

If you're the first person to follow them from your Mastodon server, then the feed will initially look empty from Mastodon because the posts haven't pulled across yet. (I'm sure @maegul can give a better explanation?)

Anyway, click follow and the new posts will begin appearing in your Mastodon feed.

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Adori @ray Even in many rural areas, this is not the best option.

First, in many towns, there often aren't any Uber drivers nearby, or the nearest driver is in another town and you're left to wait upwards of an hour for your ride to arrive.

Second, pairs of major cities and large metropolitan areas that are relatively close together should be connected by a railway line. Along with express services, these railways should have reasonably frequent all-stations services that serve the smaller towns along the way.

Third, there should be regular bus or coach services connecting multiple towns, and where available, feeding into these all-stations train services.

So if there's a train station in town A, there should be a feeder bus to nearby towns B, C, and D. This benefits rail passengers, who have more towns they can visit by public transport, and connects those towns to the rail network.

These inter-town bus services can make multiple stops in each town (for example at the local school, the local shops, and the local hospital),, providing both cross-town and inter-town services.

Fourth, with public transport, one service or route won't cover every pair of destinations—but a network can.

So say you have an east-west bus route connecting towns A, B, C, and D. You might have a second route that connects with that bus service at town C, and then runs north-south to connect it with towns E, F, G, and H.

The number of people travelling from town H to town D might be vanishingly small—zero on most days, no more than one or two on others. Certainly not enough to run a dedicated service from town D to town H.

Yet that trip can be provided for by the network, which draws its ridership from passengers who want to travel from any stop on either the north-south or east-west service, to any other stop on either service.

Fourth, with larger towns over 1000 people, an on-demand bus service that travels around town to designated stops is probably a better option. Again, this should feed into any railway stations of inter-town bus routes.

And finally, once your city reaches a population of around 10,000 or so, it should just have a regular bus service, and it should integrate with the broader bus and train network.

ajsadauskas, to urbanism
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

I'm in two minds about this one.

Yes, above shopfronts is generally a good place for housing, and densification is generally a good thing.

But.

Why are we putting more suburban subdivisions and density in towns like Gisborne, instead of having more density in the inner suburbs of Melbourne?

Wouldn't it be better to have more apartments in inner-suburbs like Camberwell, where there are multiple train and tram lines, than have more sprawl on the fringes?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/in-a-flap-over-shop-top-flats-how-population-pressure-is-rattling-one-country-town-20231115-p5ek90.html

#urbanism #UrbanPlanning #cities @urbanism #Melbourne #vicpol #auspol

ajsadauskas, to fediverse
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

With BlueSky moving towards finally opening up federation, I'm interested in how people feel about it?

Would you be open to the idea of Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and other Fediverse platforms adopting the AT protocol in order to federate with it?

If those technical hurdles could be overcome, would you support your instance federating with BlueSky?

Does the same go for other commercially-owned platforms, such as Threads and Tumblr?

@fediverse

ajsadauskas, to random
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Interesting explanation about what really went wrong with Optus last week.

The short version: it looks like Optus doesn't control its own core network. Its parent company Singapore Telecom does. Optus just resells it.

Which is why Optis' CEO was so vague about what the issue actually was: she was protecting her bosses in Singapore.

https://www.channelnews.com.au/excluseoptus-services-failure-was-on-a-netork-operated-by-singtel-claim-insiders/

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@phil_stevens @technology It's now official: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/identity-of-third-party-who-brought-down-optus-network-revealed-20231114-p5ejy1.html

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@zl2tod @danielbowen @technology And it's now confirmed by The Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/identity-of-third-party-who-brought-down-optus-network-revealed-20231114-p5ejy1.html

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Elon's "extremely hardcore" toxic work culture means people are forced to take Adderall without a prescription to meet their workload. Just ask SpaceX employees.

"Some SpaceX workers resorted to taking Adderall to keep up with the pace of work at the company's launch facility, and others found themselves falling asleep in the bathroom during long workweeks, a recent Reuters investigation found.

"Travis Carson, a former SpaceX worker at the company's facility in Brownsville, Texas, told Reuters some workers took Adderall — a stimulant designed to help people with ADHD improve their focus and concentration levels — without a prescription to keep up with the pace of work."

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-workers-took-adderall-slept-bathroom-iv-treatments-deadlines-report-2023-11

What a nightmare!

#X @technology

ajsadauskas, to fuck_cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

When Newcastle had Australia's longest tram route.

Here's a really interesting look at the very extensive tram network that used to exist in Newcastle, stretching as far west as West Wallsend and as far south as Lake Macquarie.

Sadly, the original tram network was ripped up in 1950.

https://youtu.be/9bH91LlJO_A?si=517R6YKXntDIf5LF

@fuck_cars @urbanism

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to urbanism
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

A tale of two Americas.

The untold story of mega-mansion maintenance crews. It turns out your typical US$20 million Los Angeles mega mansion costs around US$42,000 each month in upkeep costs: https://youtu.be/k-ImID3kpAg?si=fYZEEr8lLKaSInKi

Bel Air mansion on the market for US$250 million: https://youtu.be/o1d-hjuuXmI?si=1sDgXZpir8ptDgCV

Meanwhile...

Eviction notices piling up in Los Angeles: https://youtu.be/EYwpat1RDks?si=W7cJG2ipxggC9cqh

Hollywood residents outraged over growing homeless encampment: https://youtu.be/leeTGryOOfQ?si=T1rgfTsDS6NFlmJZ

@urbanism

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Another day, another product joining the Google graveyard. On the upside, this time it's not a messaging app.

From The Verge:

"You might remember Google had a $5,000 Jamboard whiteboarding meeting room display — well, that’s also discontinued. The Jamboard hardware will no longer receive software updates on September 30th, 2024, and its license subscriptions will expire the same day.

"Then users will have until December 31st, 2024, to back up Jam their files, and on that date, Google will cut off access and begin permanently deleting files."

Pity the schools, universities, and businesses that paid Google $5000 for a "smart" whiteboard, only to now be told their files will be deleted.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/28/23894509/google-jamboard-whiteboarding-app-graveyard

@technology

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to music
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The issue with Jann Wenner goes far deeper than a sexist, racist old fossil thinking women and black people aren't articulate enough to be considered masters of rock in his new book.

Long before this book, and this latest scandal, Wenner was a co-founder of both Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

For the Boomer generation, Wenner and critics like him — straight, white men — set the criteria for what constitutes good music, and whose music was worthy of being celebrated as the greatest in Western music.

And, almost inevitably, they chose the artists they related to most closely — straight white men.

What were the criteria they set for what makes music great? The things that their favourite straight white male rock stars were particularly good at.

Such as playing drums, bass, and guitar in a rock style.

The greatest lyrics were those depicting the thoughts and feelings of straight white men.

Lyrics dealing with topics of interest to women or black people — including police brutality — were deemed shallow and vacuous.

Elements that were typically outside the realm of the music their favourite straight white men performed — funky bass lines, sampling, keyboards, soulful ballads, rapping, dance — were deemed frivolous and unimportant.

They created whole hierarchies of the greatest musicians of all time, consisting entirely of straight white men, based on their criteria.

The music made by queer, female, and non-white artists was deemed by them, through their arbitrary criteria, to be frivolous and unimportant.

The music enjoyed by queer, female, and non-white communities was deemed by them, through their arbitrary criteria, to be frivolous and unimportant

Oh, and they seemed to have a bad habit of "accidentally" leaving out the black artists that their favourite straight white men copied from — Chuck Berry and Big Mama Thornton didn't make the cut for greatest rock stars, but Elvis did.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/23/1201121174/jann-wenner-rock-hall-crumbling

@popheads @music

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@raymccarthy @popheads @music Listen to Sweet Little 16 by Chuck Berry sometime: https://youtu.be/FSqbFqZIdTA?si=wWY5fNZCcpyTAKNL

And then play Surfin' USA by the Beach Boys immediately after: https://youtu.be/KcZn05qxVgg?si=Gnzn0kU-hR6mBwCX

It wasn't subtle...

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.

"They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that's why you should invest," Ryan Merkley at the Physicians Committee, told Wired. "And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies."

Really heartbreaking reading what happened to the monkeys.

People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?

https://futurism.com/neoscope/terrible-things-monkeys-neuralink-implants

@technology #Elon #Neuralink #ElonMusk

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Looks like there might be yet another mass-migration wave from Twitter to Mastodon on the way...

https://www.thefader.com/2023/09/18/elon-musk-pay-for-twitter

@technology #X

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Epsilon It's not, but it's the one many first-time Fediverse users coming across from Twitter end up on. (Much like how many users coming across from Reddit end up on Lemmy first.)

Then the jump from Mastodon to Calckey/Pleroma/Frienica/Pixelfed/etc in many cases comes later.

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

I wonder how Google's plans to develop a messaging and communications platform it consistently supports are coming along...

Oh wait...

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/18/23878449/google-nest-hub-max-end-support-meet-zoom

@technology

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@duncesplayed @Anticorp Or, as some people said at the time: "Windows '95 is Amiga '87."

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@frankPodmore @betwixthewires Here's a map of what the train network used to look like across rural Victoria (in Australia) in 1927: https://everythingismaps.github.io/img/historicvicrailmaps/1927%20Victorian%20rail%20map.PNG

And here's rural NSW in 1933: https://www.nswrail.net/maps/nsw-1933.php

And here's a video that @nerd4cities recently uploaded about the destruction of intercity train networks in the US: https://youtu.be/svao4PZ4bGs?si=K7zrMlZ4bvfmiRcC

So yes, many rural areas and small towns in the US, Australia, and Canada used to have access to frequent and reliable train services back in the first half of the 20th century.

Those train systems in many cases were privately run, so no direct taxpayer subsidies. At a time when overall populations were smaller.

So what changed? Car-centric government policies.

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Prominent "free-speech absolutist" threatens to sue Jewish anti-hate group because it engaged in free speech he didn't like.

"Elon Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after accusing the civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry of trying to “kill” his X social media platform.

"The owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, said the ADL was trying to shut down his company by 'falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic'."

If your list of enemies includes the ADL, then there's a more-than-reasonable chance that you're an anti-semite.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/05/elon-musk-sue-adl-x-twitter

@technology

ajsadauskas, to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Me: Will the Matildas win the World Cup in 2023?

Google Bard: "Ultimately, it is too early to say who will win the World Cup. The Matildas have a good chance, but they will need to play their best football if they want to lift the trophy."

Me: Which is heavier: a feather or a mountain?

Google Bard: "A feather and a mountain have the same mass. One kilogram of feathers has the same mass as one kilogram of rocks. However, the feathers will have a much larger volume than the rocks. This is because feathers are made of air pockets, while rocks are solid. So, if you were to pick up a feather and a rock of the same mass, the feather would feel lighter because it has more air in it."

Me: Is Sam Mitchell a good coach?

Google Bard: "Sam Mitchell is a relatively new coach in the AFL, having only taken over the Hawthorn Hawks in 2022. However, he has already made a positive impact on the club, leading them to a finals berth in his first season ... In his first season as coach, Mitchell led the Hawks to a 13-9 record, which was good enough for seventh place on the ladder. They then went on to beat the Brisbane Lions in the elimination final before losing to the Sydney Swans in the semi-final."

So there you have it. According to Google Bard, the Matildas are still a chance.

Also, apparently a mountain and a feather have the same mass.

Disappointed I missed that Hawthorn – Sydney Elimination Final that Sam Mitchell coached in his first season. Sounds like a cracker of a game.

Brisbane will be disappointed!

@technology

TomTheuns, to academicchatter
@TomTheuns@akademienl.social avatar

I'm looking for the origin of the phrase "Guardian of the Treaties", used to describe the European Commission. I've found a reference in a 1965 speech by Walter Hallstein. Does anyone know of an earlier reference?

@academicchatter @histodons

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@TomTheuns @academicchatter @histodons You might find this interesting.

Note the phrase used here to describe the League of Nations: "A guardian of treaties".

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ad1mAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%22guardian+of+treaties%22+%22league+of+nations%22&source=bl&ots=k0VZourEdE&sig=ACfU3U1jIQA81RpiPCWNJbC3GHWgP7tAbw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm5rTLhoKBAxUGslYBHUvtAC0Q6AF6BAgqEAI#v=onepage&q=%22guardian%20of%20treaties%22%20%22league%20of%20nations%22&f=false

It might be fruitful looking further into whether/ how the phrase was used to describe other intergovernmental bodies and treaty organisations?

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Meowoem @kd637_mi Better yet...

Many Lemmy instances have communities on the same topic. For example, there's @technology and @technology and @technology .

It's unnecessary duplication.

Having a Fediverse-wide !Technology community would avoid a lot of duplication.

Each Lemmy instance would then responsible for the posts of its users, and if an instance fails to moderate appropriately, it gets defederated.

ajsadauskas, to australia
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

So just imagine we let one man, and his company, buy most of the papers in our regional cities and small towns.

And that man was named Rupert Murdoch.

And that man decided to shut down the print editions, and instead put those papers behind the paywalls of his big right-wing metropolitan tabloids.

Want to read the local newspaper in Lismore? It's now behind the Daily Telegraph paywall.

And then that man gutted the editorial team for each online newspaper to just one person.

And then used generative AI to centrally churn out 3000 local news articles per week across all his local publications, overseen by four human journalists.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/01/news-corp-ai-chat-gpt-stories

@australia

ajsadauskas,
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

@Lats @australia According to the article, something like 55% of subscriptions to Murdoch's big metro tabloids come from people who want to read the local paper.

So Murdoch's running all these local paper country papers into the ground (just one reporter, with 3000 articles per week churned out by four nationwide reporters using AI) to prop up the likes of Andrew Bolt.

Those local papers used to be an important part of the community. What the mayor and the local shire council up to. Local issues the national media won't touch. How the local footy and netball teams win on the weekend. Who was at the local Magistrate's Court this week. The obituary for Anne, who was a pillar of the local community and ran the local CWA branch for 30 years. Praise for young Hannah who raised over $1000 for Make-A-Wish.

They were also an important training ground for young journalists.

And, rather than being returned to community ownership, they instead got bought out by Murdoch, who gutted them to line his pockets.

ajsadauskas, to fuck_cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Well, at least if you buy a Tesla, you're not supporting big oil companies like Exxon — oh wait...

"Oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) is in talks with Tesla (TSLA.O), Ford Motor (F.N), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and other automakers to supply lithium, Bloomberg Law reported on Monday citing people familiar with the matter."

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exxon-mobil-talks-with-tesla-ford-supply-lithium-bloomberg-law-2023-07-31/

@fuck_cars

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