solarpunks: solarpunks: REAL LIFE SOLARPUNK: SCUTTLEBUTT AN...

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solarpunks:

solarpunks:

REAL LIFE SOLARPUNK: SCUTTLEBUTT AN OFF-GRID SOCIAL NETWORK

Dominic and James are a few key figures in a community of eccentric open source hackers gathering in a social network independent from mainstream internet. The unique properties of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) make it possible for digital information to spread easily even in the absence of Internet Service Providers (ISP) and the internet’s backbone. What makes that possible is a decentralized protocol based on the mechanics of word of mouth.

Scuttlebutt is decentralized in a similar way that Bitcoin or BitTorrent are. Unlike centralized systems like PayPal or Dropbox, there is no single website or server to connect when using decentralized services. Which in turn means there is no single company with control over the network.

—

In Scuttlebutt, the “mesh” suffices. With simply two computers, a local router, and electricity, you can exchange messages between the computers with minimal effort and no technical skills. Each account in Scuttlebutt is a diary (or “log”) of what a person has publicly and digitally said. As those people move around between different WiFi / LAN networks, their log gets copy-pasted to different computers, and so digital information spreads.

What word of mouth is for humans, Scuttlebutt is for social news feeds.

(via André Staltz - An off-grid social network)

the future is rural, cooperative, and solar powered

Excerpt from a great thread over on Scuttlebutt in the solarpunk channel.

(links take you to the scuttlebutt network viewer)
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Something subtly unusual about this egg carton from...

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Something subtly unusual about this egg carton from Denmark… it holds only 10 eggs. We asked a handy Dane whether this were standard, and she answered yes: eggs are sold by tens in Denmark, and they have the linguistic concept of a dozen, but rarely use it anymore, because the metric system is all 10s so it seems more reasonable for everything to come in 10s. (This was her theory, anyway.)
… it makes perfect sense but it makes me wonder about other places. Do eggs come in dozens anywhere else???? (I don’t recall my time in the UK, I was so young and oblivious I have no memory of ever buying eggs there!)
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Two turkey processing sessions– one for the

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Rough-plucking table: feet and heads already off, they manually strip flight and tail feathers, cut off neck, then bird goes into mechanical plucker.
Guy in plaid shirt is usual mechanical plucker operator; he's just pulled that bird out of the plucker. Next it gets finish-plucked
Evisceration room during first session: I did some final finish plucking in here, and then the birds are finished and chilled.
Second session's volunteers getting oriented; man on the right is the farmer whose turkeys we were processing.
View from the kill cones in towards the pluckers. Note the man in the backwards apron, lol; he kept getting splashed from the plucker
View out the window of the evisceration room, looking at finish plucking table out towards rough pluckers
Kill/pluck room, note window on right into evisceration room. White object is mechanical plucker.
Evisceration room: see window out to kill room.Two turkey processing sessions– one for the farm’s own birds, and a separate one for another local producer. Stuck into one photo set, with a chaser of some nice scenery (the back of the granary, looking over the little creek that feeds into the Quackenkill). 

The first session was on a frigid morning, so the scald tank was letting off clouds of steam into the room, and gave it all kind of a dramatic cast. The second session, it was warmer. Both sessions we had a huge group of volunteers come help– separate groups each time– and with our core group of employees and long-term friends and such, got everything done very efficiently. The farm’s own turkeys were a pretty big batch, so it took forever, but the second session was over so fast we just went right on and packaged them at the same time. 

Both sessions passed in great jovial spirits, without any real logistical problems and with much good humor. We know great people, it turns out. 

Don’t click on the photos if you’re squeamish, but I have made sure not to get any shots of anything too terribly gross. You might be able to see some details in the background if you really want to know how it all works, but I figured these aren’t too horrifying if you’d rather not contemplate it. 
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"Never-poor people see a long list of community resour

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“

Never-poor people see a long list of community resource contact numbers and think ‘Wow, so much help available to those in need!’

Poor people see that list and think ‘How many wrong numbers and ‘no we don’t take Medicaid’ calls am I gonna have to make to confirm my suspicion that there is no help available, just agencies that look like help?’

”
- Angie Jackson  (via thatdiabolicalfeminist)
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