kravietz 🦇 @kravietz@social.privacytools.io

Anyone tried to use WhatsApp Business APIs to bridge #whatsapp to something less invasive, like #matrix ?

I've looked at the existing solutions utilising Android emulator (!) to run WhatsApp headless but that's an overkill IMHO...

It's not like Eastern Bloc started an well-meaning experiment with socialism that was suppressed by "evil West".

Quite the opposite: USSR forcefully captured Eastern Europe and enforced marxist-leninist economic policies, boasting about its superiority and threatening the West with imminent "overtake and overrun".

The Iron Curtain was built in 50's to prevent people from running *from* Soviet zone to the West on mass scale!

30 years has passed today since start of "#Balcerowicz reforms" in 1989 Poland, criticised by the left for being "hard on society".

Reality: Poland in 1989 was totally bankrupt. A bankrupt has no choice and the choice was taken away by communists.

In 70's they took billions of loans from the West (which they promised to "outrun") only to declare in 1980 (!) they won't be able to pay them back. Strikes (brutally suppressed) and shortages were daily routine since 70's!

COP25: EU officials say biomass burning policy to come under critical review

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-eu-officials-say-biomass-burning-policy-to-come-under-critical-review/

This is actually very good and should have happened long time ago. Millions of hectares of healthy forests are being cut down right now in Siberia and transported over 7000 km to be burned in EU power plants just to satisfy a formal requirement.

"Without nuclear, there will be 500m tonnes of extra #co2 emissions every year in Europe, which is more than the emissions of UK or France alone." - open letter by James E Hansen and others.

#nuclear is 50% of EU clean electricity. No need to make the transition more difficult on ideological grounds.

https://www.ft.com/content/0b9ea00a-2004-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b?shareType=nongift

It pisses me off each time when people - especially in the US - call "socialism" anything that is even lightly associated with public services.

Another such tribe are fans of #socialism who claim that Marx invented them.

Here's the last Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776), frequently quoted by the "defenders" of #liberalism as the "founding father of market economy".

Both tribes, please go and read.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm

Here's the SSB id but it's not visible on the web bridge because the author did not opt-in. If you want to see the original and discussion download a client from https://scuttlebutt.nz/

https://viewer.scuttlebot.io/%25hxfS6oVp11d%2FUKVmvJfJkJkW8tLS2O061JxX48u0874%3D.sha256

A nice piece of research posted on #ssb

"These days, extreme nationalism has paradoxical become one of the most internationalist of existing ideologies, along with Muslim jihadism." #nationalism https://en.rebaltica.lv/2019/12/why-did-we-write-this/

South Korea cuts down 2 millions of trees to make space for... solar panels.

If they start importing natural gas from Russia, the EU Greens will fully applaud their effort.

http://m.koreaherald.com/amp/view.php?ud=20190404000565

"In other words, this is a negative study. I also note that the effect sizes reported were not particularly impressive, very much consistent with placebo effects. “True” acupuncture is indistinguishable from sham acupuncture. Did that stop these intrepid researchers? Of course not. So what did they do next?" #acupuncture #science

https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/12/16/acupuncture-xerostomia-spin-negative-study/

"We have data on the mortality of the English aristocracy from 1550 onwards. Aristocrats died just as early as everyone else. Their life expectancy was below 40 years too. Before broader social development even the most privileged status within society would not give you the chance for a healthy life. You just cannot be healthy in an unhealthy place."

"You cannot get healthy and wealthy on your own – Societies make progress, not individuals"

https://ourworldindata.org/global-inequality-of-opportunity

#healthcare #progress