Doug Webb @douginamug@mastodon.xyz

Casting of a concrete support at Dunbar train station for platform expansion.

Concrete is amazing, kind of like 'cold' lava: liquid rock you can pour and then sets. It's 'traditional' too, with some formulations (Pozzolana) being used in ancient Rome.

It's also really badly recycled, takes up loads of space in landfill and emitting loads of Co2 net. We need to use less of it.

I'm finally gonna do it: read the W3C RDF 1.1 primer https://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-rdf11-primer-20140624/

Bit scared.

Listening to the Prodigy.

Wow! Did my first #SPARQL query today and feeling like a weeezard 🧙

Kind of like writing a formula in a spreadsheet, except that you can just use #wikidata (or another existing database)

Great instructions on the Wikidata page: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/A_gentle_introduction_to_the_Wikidata_Query_Service

Just came back from 5 days of 'MOVE Utopia', a do-it-together conference/festival for 'a society after needs and skills' in the Harz, Germany https://www.naumburger-tageblatt.de/mitteldeutschland/alternative-lebensart-oekos-veranstalten-move-utopia-festival-im-ostharz-32850320

A lot of inspiring connections between #commons, #permaculture, #opendata and #opensource 🌱

Some interesting culture clashes between hippie/rainbow ☮️ and punk/leftie 🏴

Can recommend!

What's up with Signal? Not only are they strongly recommending download via ggl play store, they are actively discouraging new people to use the apk. 🧐

Aha! I heard about 'Beesness' some weeks ago from @neil, it's a game about bees "that simulates a capitalist market economy." 🐝💲

It sounded pretty interesting, but I couldn't see any way to play it on the website 😢

But now that I look again, I see all versions, graphics and instructions are available on github! 🎉

Looking forward to trying it out.

#boardgame #tragedyofthecommons #capitalism

The Inventaire & OpenData week begins in just under 3 weeks! There is still space for a few more people...

Books, free software and #opendata are friends 📖 💻 🔓 Inventaire.io is the platform which brings them together.

This event will be for working on the platform, introducing opendata and reading/discussing books 😉

Since it's being hosted at Kanthaus, you'll also get a taste of zero-waste, communal living (in picture) 🏠 ♻️

More info & sign-up:
https://wiki.inventaire.io/wiki/Inventaire-OpenData-Week-2019?lang=en

Warning: free WiFi

Interesting graphic design choice at Bulgarian petrol station.

82 km/h, the best of speed limits. Seen only once while I've been hitching, Aksaray, Turkey.

Attention lovers of books 📚 developers of software 💻 and enthusiasts of #opendata! 🔓

You are invited to the first Inventaire & OpenData Week from the 18th to the 25th of July at Kanthaus (Germany) 🎉

Inventaire.io is the Free book platform made by and for book lovers. It uses and contributes to #Wikidata, building our data commons 🌐

No charge. You don't need to be a dev, just enthusiastic. See you there?

More info & sign-up: https://wiki.inventaire.io/wiki/Inventaire-OpenData-Week-2019?lang=en

Inventaire on fediverse: @inventaire

Wild-camped in what felt like a primeval jungle a couple days ago, SW Turkey.

Twisting vines, dragonflies, aromatic broadleafs, bats, slime mold, bog, land crabs, fireflies, 'horsetails', tortoises, mosquitoes...

An evening chorus of frogs, birds and, in the distance, the call to prayer. A morning wash in the river.

Very great to be close to wild things again. Take only photos, leave only footprints ofc ✌️

Mulberries! Species 'morus', very delicious. Flavour is something like blackberries, but sweeter. Impossible to pick ripe ones without staining your hands.

They are growing in hedge rows and hanging over gardens fences all over this rural stretch of Turkey between Izmir and Fethiye, a very welcome find when hitchhiking.

Note: one variety is white when ripe! So look carefully before dismissing a tree with only 'unripe' berries ;)

#Venezuela #provenOilReserves #FYI

Analog political technology from ancient Athens!

1) Ostraka--bits of broken pottery to scratch names on--were used to ban someone from the city for 10 years. 'Ostracism' comes from Ostraka. The idea was to kick out the power hungry before they tried anything.
2) a Kleroterion, a device for randomising juries. Name tokens were placed in the slots and then rows were chosen using black and white balls.

It wasn't perfect--it was sexist, ageist, nationalist and classist--but it was a start.

Astonishing mountains with monasteries at their peaks in Meteora, Greece. All sedimentary rock: kind of like natural concrete ;) Amazing flora & fauna too, saw 9 tortoises!

Also: #Wien (#Vienna) has some gorgeous examples of #jugendstijl (#artnouveau) architecture. Two pics of the Otto Wagner Hofpavilion Hietzing, two of the Palmhaus on the Schönbrunn Palace grounds. Excuse pic quality.

(p.s. Glasshouses are excellent, like permanent #solarpunk installations. I. Love. Them.)

We've stopped off at Wien (Vienna) for a couple days as we hitch to Turkey. I managed to pay tribute to a philosopher who has been influential to me, Karl #Popper, a major contributor to the modern scientific method, nuanced utilitarianism and anti-authoritarianism. I can recommend the summary of his works by Bryan Magee.

Note to self: firefox 'reader view' (little document icon in URL bar) makes wikipedia much nicer.

Berlin, blocked. Sorry for the inconvenience, but our house is on fire.

#extinctionRebellion

Room packed in Berlin for #extinctionRebellion actions tomorrow.

Tomorrow's gonna be big.