A space for mostly short form stuff and responses to things I see elsewhere.
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“Salt is a powerful thing. It ensures well-being, it cures, it pleases guests, and it attracts males. And it was brought from a mystical garden. To teach girls how to manage this power must have been an ongoing challenge for the elders.”
Read (and subscribe) at https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-269-salted-butter/
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Food has become cheaper and more abundant over the past 70 years or so by ignoring external costs. As a result, our planet and our health have suffered untold damage. Is it even possible to turn the food system around? Listen at https://eatthispodcast.com/paradox
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New episode: Farming’s Overlords. The top four companies globally control more than 60% of the inputs modern farmers need: machines, seeds, chemicals. That concentration, plus their size, gives them unprecedented power.
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Unfortunately Google was a good one to resurface from this day in 2006, and of course the original inspiration is still up. I played again, and the results were not nearly as interesting or varied as they were all those years ago.
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* On foot
* 41.879539, 12.449281
* 14 January 2025
* 426.1 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
One of the things I really like about Rabbit Quest: gives me a target to walk to that is out of my customary loop. This is on the other side of the park, which I do not visit often.
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Not to be overshadowed by Rita Hayworth and Gilda, the latest Eat This Podcast also looks into The Swedish Conundrum.
What are Swedes getting when they open a tin of “ansjovis”? Not anchovies. Or at least, not Engraulis encrasicolus.
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* On bus
* 41.889492, 12.491804
* 26 December 2024
* 425.45 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
My first drive-by rabbit. And I only noticed it once I was on the bus and looking distractedly at my phone. Probably doesn't count in the greater scheme of things, but what the heck.
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* On foot
* 41.876189, 12.460472
* 19 December 2024
* 425.37 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
I wanted to bag this rabbit because the house in the photo was derelict for years and falling apart because, we were told, the siblings who inherited it couldn't agree what to do with it. No idea how that was resolved, but it looks great now.
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* On foot
* 41.882431, 12.455121
* 26 November 2024
* 424.57 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Just across the road from my barber, whom I had planned to visit in any case.
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Links are powerful — that's why Instagram and Twitter and Threads punish and limit them, and why Substack tries to take credit for them. And that's why "wherever you get your podcasts" is such a radical concept — like email, it's a medium that the tech tycoons don't, and can't, own. People can read your writing "wherever they get their email".
Anil Dash lays out the future of S*bst*ck https://www.anildash.com/2024/11/19/dont-call-it-a-substack/
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Needless to say, it was hard to glean any of these alleged meanings from the works themselves. Rather, they could be discovered only from the descriptions on the wall, which read like the everything-is-connected code-breaking ravings of an overeducated cabal convinced that a hidden semiotic language of resistance lies below everyday objects, camera angles, orientations, and gestures made so very many times before.
https://harpers.org/archive/2024/12/the-painted-protest-dean-kissick-contemporary-art/
Much to agree with, much more to be bemused by.
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* On bicycle
* 41.884605, 12.475028
* 10 November 2024
* 423.74 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
I went out for a long bicycle ride this morning, having vaguely noted that there was a Rabbit to be bagged not too far from the route. On the way back I dismounted, got as close as I could and took the picture. It was a great ride.
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#rabbit_quest #geohashing 20241004-W-AY6808
* On foot
* 41.886121, 12.444012
* 4 October 2024
* 420.9 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
After recent storms there were a few trees blocking my way, and I couldn't get that close anyway.
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* On foot
* 55.169166, -6.777712
* Tuesday 24 September 2024
* 420.25 ppm CO2
* [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=55.169166&mlon=-6.777712#map=14/55.16843/-6.78612)
I’ve been looking for baggable rabbits, but this graticulette is mostly sea, and even this one was out of reach except at low tide, which wasn’t for about another 6 hours.
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* On bicycle
* 41.861454, 12.464238
* Thursday 22 August, 2024
* 418.77 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Not exactly exploring. Just happened to notice this Rabbit right by my usual route for a long bicycle ride, so I had to bag it on the way home.
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* On foot
* 41.88934, 12.46280 approx
* Friday 16 August, 2024
* N/A ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Bagged this on Friday, and it had been so long since the previous Rabbit I clear forgot to take the screenshot that enables me to post a day later. Or three days later.
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Editing audio, you accumulate so much cruft it is amazing. Out-takes, duplicates, alternative mixes etc etc. You pretend you might come back to them. But you don't. Eventually you decide to save only the final mix and the sound files it needs, and you spend about 90 minutes doing every podcast from 2014, and you reduce the size of that archive from 21.3GB to 9.1GB and that is a good thing.
2015 can wait.
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From An alarmingly concise and very hinged summary of what it was like to build this site from scratch
“Yes, nearly everything about the platform felt worse than it did when I first started using it over a decade ago. ... Someone with even a modicum of clout should really coin a catchy term that everyone else can repeat ad infinitum until it loses all meaning. I’m not clever enough.”
Like, er, enshittification? Or was this an example of self-deprecating humour designed to flush out a reply guy?
I’m not clever enough to decide.
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#rabbit_quest #geohashing 20240529-W-BU4212
* On foot
* 53.360765, -6.253028
* Thursday 18 April, 2024
* 424.03 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
My first ever rabbit quest that involved an actual landmark.
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Latest episode, I talk to Eleanor Barnett's about her book Leftovers, which made me think that wasting food is the default human behaviour. Only shortage can stop us doing it. Her solution is to advocate for a new appreciation of the value of food. Is there time?
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* On foot
* 41.882223, 12.448771
* Thursday 18 April, 2024
* 424.12 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
In the park, and well off my normal paths.
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I have been looking for a way to syndicate from here to Mastodon, and landed on the KnownMastodon plugin. Unfortunately, that did not work for me. I did a bit of digging and discovered that the error was in a piece of Mastodon authorisation code and that cdn has implemented a fix, but that did not seem to have made it into the code I downloaded. Further digging revealed that the fix was actually by crscheid and that even though they had created a proper pull request, that had not been merged either. I did what any sane cargo culter would do, downloaded the fix, stuck it in my site, crossed my fingers and tried again. Lo!
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* On foot
* 41.885496, 12.441411
* Sunday 24 March, 2024
* 423.7 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Another walk in the park, but here's the thing -- the bicycle quest was actually marginally closer than the walking one.
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* On foot
* 41.886868, 12.440913
* Sunday 17 March, 2024
* 423.58 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
After two long days in front of the computer, happy to see the quest in the local park again. The photo is facing directly away from the location.
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That’s my take on the agricultural unrest happening across Europe.
Of course we would not be here if we still relied on peasant farmers and the meagre surplus that could be extracted from them without actually killing them. Nevertheless, today’s farmers are not their descendants.
Just one item in the latest Issue of Eat This Newsletter.
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* On foot
* 41.8765579, 12.46266
* Saturday 24 February, 2024
* 423.34 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
In the garden of a nunnery.
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* On foot
* 41.895401, 12.453739
* Friday 23 February, 2024
* 423.32 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
NB: The bicycle quest was a lot closer than the walking quest, but it was still a good long walk of 7.5km round trip.
Also, while the quest itself was visually boring, it was very close to the Russian Orthodox church, which is less so.
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* On foot
* 41.87050, 12.45489
* Monday 12 February, 2024
* 423.19 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Right in the middle of the tram tracks.
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rabbit_quest #geohashing 20240211-W-AY68O8
* On foot
* 41.88118, 12.44558
* Sunday 12 February, 2024
* 423.15 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
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rabbit_quest #geohashing 20240209-W-AY68O8
* On foot
* 41.88226, 12.43950
* Friday 9 February, 2024
* 423.09 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
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* On bicycle
* 41.863416, 12.457319
* Tuesday 6 February, 2024
* 422.96 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
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* On foot
* 41.885237, 12.457542
* Monday 5 February, 2024
* 422.92 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
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Too busy to post on the day
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* On foot
* 41.890238, 12.480799
* Tuesday 30 January, 2024
* 422.75 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Amazing that this quest was in the middle of the road right by one of our most-used bus stops.
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* On foot
* 41.894903, 12.463351
* Friday 26January, 2024
* 422.6 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Longer write-up on the mothership.
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Monocle would not allow me to login using this site, saying there was no microsub endpoint. This was because in upgrading Known, I had forgotten that I had added the link to microsub before. I had also forgotten which of the hundreds of template files I had to edit in order to do that. In the end I found it with a brute-force search for all files ending in `.tpl.php` The file in question lives at `./IdnoPlugins/IndiePub/templates/default/indiepub/shell/head.tpl.php`.
Having found the correct file to edit, the rest was straightforward thanks to [excellent instructions.
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* On bicycle
* 41.871087, 12.44482
* Thursday 25 January, 2024
* 422.58 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Had to go out for fresh coffee, so why not?
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rabbit_quest #geohashing 20240122-W-AYB80D
* On foot
* 41.930987, 12.469606
* Monday 22 January, 2024
* 422.53 ppm CO2
* [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=41.930987&mlon=12.469606#map=14/41.930987/12.469606)
A little detour before catching a bus home.
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* On foot
* 41.877312, 12.450351
* Sunday 21 January, 2024
* 422.51 ppm CO2
* [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=41.877312&mlon=12.450351#map=14/41.877312/12.450351)
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* On foot
* 41.884197, 12.466269
* Friday 19 January, 2024
* 422.49 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
Close to home, and still off my usual beaten track.
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* On bicycle
* 41.85935, 12.483711
* Thursday 18 January 2024
* 422.47 ppm CO2
* OpenStreetMap
I was out on the bicycle running errands, so it was an extra delight to bag a rabbit-quest.
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Eat This Newsletter 227: We have a winner!
A round-up of the Xmas Quiz. There was one question that stumped everybody, and two others that only one person answered correctly.
The quiz is still available, and if you enter, you will see the correct answers once you have finished.
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rabbit_quest geohashing 20231224-B-AYG8O8.
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rabbit_quest geohashing 20231219-W-AY68OD.
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Before
After
Final work on fixing up my 1979 steel bicycle.
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Always a thrill when I have to delay publication of Eat This Newsletter to respect an embargo. Sign up now to have it drop into your inbox at 17:00 CEST tomorrow and be the first to read about the truth of microbiome studies.
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I find it strange, and deeply ironic, that a year on, an otherwise fine article still boasts an obviously doctored photograph of NI Vavilov. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea? See Nikolai Vavilov as he never was: A true scientist does not deserve a fake photo.
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John Naughton's online diary contains a good piece on Wikipedia.
Me: “So you’ve found a glaring error on a subject you know about?”
Critic: “Yes. Elementary mistake”.
Me: “So why haven’t you corrected it?”
Critic: Flustered (sometimes), irritated (often), defensive (much too busy)
But there's another aspect to this, which is the wiki-zealots, who are all-too-ready to block the Critic who does have expertise on a topic precisely because they are not members of the Wikitribe.
Eventually, those people give up and keep their expertise to themselves, doing Wikipedia and the world a disservice.. Well, Wikipedia is doing itself a disservice, but let's not quibble.
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It's #InternationalCoffeeDay2021, the whole point of which is promotion, right? So here's a link to all previous episodes of Eat This Podcast on coffee https://www.eatthispodcast.com/coffee/