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vivekgani.bsky.social
@vivekgani.bsky.social
470 followers 840 following 1.4K posts
Still wayfinding. Trying to understand paths during these times of planetary change. Open to feedback. Also on @[email protected]

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vivekgani.bsky.social
Are you familiar with Peter Berg's distinction of Globalists vs. Planetarians?
Excerpt of 'GLOBALISTS VERSUS PLANETARIANS - An interview of Peter Berg by Michael Helm' from 'THE BIOSPHERE AND THE BIOREGION': "“Globalism perceives our species as possessing the primary intelligence and consciousness in the biosphere. Wants and needs of human beings are important to the degree that they should actually control the entire biosphere. The planet is a warehouse of resources in which agricultural and industrial production proceed to deliver commodities. Although the diversity of regions and biospheric influences over the planet provide the essential elements of those commodities, differences in creating distinct cultural groups form obstacles to smooth global operations. Centralization and monoculture are necessary to keep the warehouse-factory at peak efficiency. Globalists are rushing to complete an edifice-habitat. “Planetarians, people who view themselves from within the biosphere rather than from the top of it, extend importance beyond the human species to include other life and the processes by which all life continues. The planet is organismic and expresses itself through diversity. People adapt to differences in the biosphere by developing _in situo_ cultures that express regional characteristics naturally. Variations on the means for fulfilling fundamental human wants and needs are seen as providing richness to our existence. Planetarians are anxious about maintaining distinct regions, cultures, and species, and look forward to experiencing full ranges of planetary diversity without destroying them"
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
In your article, you mention the Dr. Rachael Bedard interview 'The Case for Finding Common Ground With RFK' but something worth noting is in the interview itself she actually differs from Jared Polis and says "I don't think the Democrats should be doing anything different at the mandate level".
Highlighted excerpt from Interview of Dr. Rachael Bedard in 'The Case for Finding Common Ground With RFK' ( Dec. 31, 2024, The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/12/rfk-common-ground/681186/ ) "So I don’t think the Democrats should be doing anything different at the mandate level. And that’s a place where I really differ from, say, Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, who’s been tweeting in support of RFK with this kind of, like, bizarre zeal and who I think has sort of overstepped where he maybe wants to be. I think he wants to sort of express some understanding of where the folks of Colorado are, where there’s a really growing, pervasive anti-vax sentiment. That’s actually not—it’s bad public policy. It’s a recipe for disease outbreak."
November 30, 2025 at 5:39 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Every time I hear someone mention Fugazi it reminds of the weirdest webcomic reference: web.archive.org/web/20041029...
screenshot excerpt of webcomic Friendbear from Jan 2000 titled 'Waiting Room' - https://web.archive.org/web/20041029180912/http://friendbear.com/strip.html?s_num=147
November 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
This screenshot is literally the sixth thing in my camera roll...
Screenshot of the youtube app scrolled to a community text post by 'PBS Terra' account : "The goat said what it said... What if restoring the land didn't come at the expense of our health or the planet's? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhAi7. In Montana, Chia Thrane is demonstrating how a herd of goats can restore biodiversity, improve soil health, and rejuvenate damaged landscapes. Watch this story on the newest episode of Women of the Earth!" Followed by an image of the Steven Crowder 'change my mind' meme but with a large goat instead of a person at the table, and a sign below the table saying "goats are better land stewards than humans | CHANGE MY MIND"
November 27, 2025 at 3:31 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Pretty sure the deleted post was someone screenshotting this popsugar tweet:
Screenshot excerpt based on https://x.com/PopCrave/status/1990853560133702008 : "Waymo co-CEO warns fatal crashes in self-driving cars are coming, and the company is already planning for them: “We don’t say ‘whether.’ We say ‘when.’ And we plan for [fatal crashes].”" Followed by headshot image of Tekedra Mawakana & image of a Waymo autonomous vehicle (modified Jaguar i-pace)
November 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Theres also how LM Sacasas referencing Ivan Ilich's use of the term 'energy slaves' from a relational standpoint of things that work *for* you rather than what one works *with*:

From 'Ill with Want' (2021) open.substack.com/pub/theconvi...
Highlighted excerpt from essay 'Ill with Want' by LM Sacasas https://open.substack.com/pub/theconvivialsociety/p/ill-with-want (2021) "Instead, he [Ivan Ilich] believed that “people will rediscover the value of joyful sobriety and liberating austerity only if they relearn to depend on each other rather than on energy slaves.” Energy slaves was Illich’s unique term for technologies that were designed to work for us rather than for us to work with. Meaningful, self-directed work was, in Illich’s view, one of those nonmaterial needs that were essential to human well-being. "
November 20, 2025 at 2:41 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
There's some other ways to think about 'energy slaves'.

First is mechanical engineer & permaculture educator Rhamis Kent reflecting on how America's first civil war could be seen as an energy war...

From 'Permaculture and Slavery: A System Analysis' web.archive.org/web/20130816... (2013)
Graph excerpt from https://web.archive.org/web/20130816023743/https://www.permaculturenews.org/2013/03/11/permaculture-and-slavery-a-system-analysis/ - Below the graph an explanation: "From afar, if you didn’t know that human “slave stock” was the asset being charted, you could easily mistake this graph, and its parabolic trajectory, for one of the many destructive asset bubbles this country has suffered right up through our own time. Up close, this graph drips greed, mass murder and shame — it strips away the historical revisionism that falsely ascribed the South’s “cause” to an almost selfless, tragically romantic attachment to “tradition” and “culture”; it gives lie to the myth that slave owners kept their slaves to the detriment of their own bottom line."
November 20, 2025 at 2:35 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
"It's someone watching over me from far away." www.thomasthwaites.com/teleoperation/
Excerpt of visual book from Thomas Thwaites 'Teleoperation' ( https://www.thomasthwaites.com/teleoperation/ ). First excerpted illustrated panel shows a young girl standing wearing a headband with a remote camera, with the camera headband saying 'WATCH OUT!' in a scene with a large adult hand trying to hand a large lollipop. text reads "Is my 'Watch Out' Alive?" "It keeps me safe!" Second excerpted illustrated panel shows the headband camera alone one one side, and on the other side an adult figure wearing electronic glasses illustrating they're watching through the headband camera device for the child in the first panel. Text reads "No! It's not alive!" "It's someone watching over me from far away." Third excerpted panel shows the same young child holding hands with parents. Text reads "I know Mummy and Daddy are alive!"
November 14, 2025 at 7:18 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
A few folks I know are joining this call on Permaculture education for urban High Schoolers later today at 6pm CST:
workspace.oregonstate.edu/maximizing-i...
Flyer image with text of: "Preparing youth to inherit the Earth through Permaculture" "Join OSU Permaculture faculty Monica Ibacache, Andrew Millison, Marisha Auerbach, and Charles Upton (Abundant Earth Foundation) as they discuss the transformative impact of permaculture education on youth and beyond." "Thursday, Nov. 13 4pm PST / 7pm EST" links to https://workspace.oregonstate.edu/maximizing-impact-preparing-youth-to-inherit-the-earth-through-permaculture-education
November 13, 2025 at 3:12 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Huh, never thought about polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in refrigerants...
Table excerpted from https://drawdown.org/explorer/deploy-alternative-refrigerants#overview - 'Figure 1. Examples of common refrigerants and their climate and environmental impacts High-GWP: red; Medium-GWP: yellow; Low-GWP: green' with highlighted rows of R12, R134a, R1234yf refrigerants.
November 9, 2025 at 4:36 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
"How do you build a wall across an arroyo?" - Paul Krafel, 2016 - roamingupward.net/home/the-bes...

(Previously mastodon.social/@vivekgani/1... , twitter.com/vivekgani/st... )
Highlighted excerpt and image from https://roamingupward.net/home/the-best-of-cairns/big-bend-and-trumps-wall/ (Paul Krafel, 2016): "As far as I can tell, Trump answers with images of precast concrete slabs lined up across the land. But in Big Bend, we found ourselves asking, “How do you build a wall across an arroyo?” The Rio Grande forms almost two-thirds of the U.S.-Mexican border. What this means is that every tributary has to flow through this wall. Or, put another way, the wall will have to cross every single drainage along more than 1200 miles of the river. We were counting drainage crossings as we drove along various stretches of Texas desert and estimated them at about three per mile. At that rate, there would be about 3500 drainage crossings. More than half of these would be small. A few would be full-size rivers. But a lot of them would look like the picture below." [Picture below is a man standing in west Texas on rocky desert land, with rocky bluff/dropoffs behind the person and in front a lower area where presumably water would flow during rain events]
November 6, 2025 at 4:44 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Do you see some hope in the 'Mississippi Miracle' theory of literacy improvement over coming years? (via bsky.app/profile/ebon... )
Highlighted excerpts from 'America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy' https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/education-decline-low-expectations/684526/ (Idress Kahloon, The Atlantic, Oct. 2025): "Their analysis of the 2024 NAEP results found that Mississippi was best at educating kids in fourth-grade math, fourth-grade reading, and eighth-grade math. (In 2013, Mississippi was at the bottom of the unadjusted league table.)" [...] "This is a recent phenomenon. Some have called it the “Mississippi miracle” or—if you include relative outperformance in states such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee—the “southern surge.” From 2013 to 2024, reading performance declined among fourth graders in 46 out of 50 states. In only two states, Mississippi and Louisiana, did they meaningfully improve." [...] "In 2013, Mississippi enacted a law requiring that third graders pass a literacy exam to be promoted to the next grade. It didn’t just issue a mandate, though; it began screening kids for reading deficiencies, training instructors in how to teach reading better (by, among other things, emphasizing phonics), and hiring literacy coaches to work in the lowest-performing schools" [...] "The “Mississippi miracle” should force a reckoning in less successful states and, ideally, a good deal of imitation." [...] "Not only are the southern states that are registering the greatest improvements in learning run by Republicans, but also their teachers are among the least unionized in the country. And these red states are leaning into phonics-based, “science of reading” approaches to teaching literacy, while Democratic-run states such as New York, New Jersey, and Illinois have been painfully slow to adopt them, in some cases hanging on to other pedagogical approaches with little evidentiary basis."
November 1, 2025 at 12:17 AM
vivekgani.bsky.social
I'd rather direct folks to non-partisan resources to start, let's start with the league of women voters guide: austinvotersguide.org/LWVAA-VG-EN.... (page 10)
Screenshot of page 10 of league of women voters guide on prop 10: https://austinvotersguide.org/LWVAA-VG-EN.pdf
October 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
The other mistake was in their marketing. They literally had a framing around 'orange man bad' on their website which they later removed seemingly after the Daryl Slusher critique (theaustinindependent.org/the-silence-...)
Comparison of screeenshots of the website https://www.loveaustinsomuch.com/ , left hand side is excerpted from https://theaustinindependent.org/the-silence-of-the-shams/ (Daryl Slusher, Oct. 8 2025) and the right hand side is from today (Oct. 24, 2025) and IIRC looked this way a week ago. The left hand side screenshot prominently shows artistic headshot images of Greg Abbott and Donald Trump, right hand side screenshot does not and instead has a larger 'love austin so much' cursive logo.
October 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Related on Michelle Haas & J. P. Bryan on Texas History : bsky.app/profile/texa...
Highlighted excerpt from https://www.texasobserver.org/scholars-lost-culture-war-texas-history/ (How Scholars Lost the Culture War over Texas History, Ty Cashion, 2025) : "The tone of Bryan’s machinations found a kindred pairing with the creation of the Texas History Trust (THT), which began producing provocative videos condemning progressive scholarship. Michelle Haas, a TSHA member and editor of Copano Bay Press, narrated for THT the brief series “unMakers of Texas History.” Her combative style vilified the work of progressive scholars, even singling out some leading Texas historians for mocking derision."
October 16, 2025 at 2:59 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
@jennbudd.bsky.social had a substack note on deleting her bluesky account: substack.com/@jennbudd/no...
excerpt from https://substack.com/@jennbudd/note/c-165321638 by Jenn Budd (Oct 11, 2025) : "I closed my Bluesky and TT accounts. The fact that so many joined in on the beat down, then re-followed after I apologized made me realize how fair-weathered people are. If affects my suicidal ideation when they accuse me of lying about my memoir, my sa. I used my own trauma to expose the agency, but I really don’t think even these libs care about what they are doing. I know the big million dollar orgs do not. They are part of the system. Truthfully though, yesterday seeing what AIC employees think of my work and now my own followers, the whole thing is disgusting, immoral, unethical. Just don’t give your money to the big orgs. Give it to local people in need. If you are subscribing to me, feel free to take your subscription to Arturo Dominguez or Migrant Insider. "
October 15, 2025 at 6:59 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Fair. I'll confess my perspective biases:

- I get frustrated with eco-spiritual folks shunning vaccines while traveling far to spicier places, feels like a colonizing rhyme.

- Interplanetary human ambitions have blind spots w.r.t. finite resources on Earth...
highlighted excerpt from Thomas W. Murphy Jr's 'Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet' (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9js5291m#page=20): "The author might even go so far as to label a focus on space colonization in the face of more pressing challenges as disgracefully irresponsible. Diverting attention in this probably-futile26 effort could lead to greater total suffering if it means not only mis-allocation of resources but perhaps more importantly lulling people into a sense that space represents a viable escape hatch. Let’s not get distracted!"
October 13, 2025 at 11:03 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Nope...
Highlighted excerpt from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange "Communicable diseases of Old World origin resulted in an 80 to 95 percent reduction in the Indigenous population of the Americas from the 15th century onwards, and their near extinction in the Caribbean. "
October 13, 2025 at 10:14 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Networking effects, scroll down a bit in this essay: bsky.app/profile/thom...
Excerpt from https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/ab02af47-9e87-4143-ba51-afa2d1804c1c (Sept 2025, Thomas Zimmer ) "I will say that if you have built a substantial audience via Substack, and your livelihood depends on it, leaving that behind comes with a risk. Substack is by far the biggest platform out there – the networking effects that it generates are real. For instance: A lot of people are used to paying for newsletters on Substack, they have their payment information already stored, if they stumble upon a new publication, a paid subscription is just one click away. That is just not the case anywhere else."
October 8, 2025 at 9:04 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Related:
southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

(Found via bsky.app/profile/flip... )
Excerpt from https://southsideweekly.com/federal-agents-storm-south-shore-building-detaining-families-and-children/ (Maira Khwaja, Invisible Institute and José Abonce; October 6, 2025) : "Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the building in mid-2024, bringing a $27 million lawsuit against Flood for missed loan payments. In late 2024, the City began closing its largest migrant shelters and, through state funding assistance distributed via Catholic Charities and moving support from New Life Church, relocated many families to buildings such as this one."
October 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
A bit surprised that article doesn't specifically mention Small Overlap Rigid Barrier crash testing which got introduced in 2012: www.iihs.org/media/ec54a7... & www.theautopian.com/a-new-crash-...
Figure 1 excerpt from https://www.iihs.org/media/ec54a7ea-1a1d-4fb2-8fc3-b2e018db2082/1A5oYw/Ratings/Protocols/current/small_overlap_test_protocol.pdf of Small Overlap Barrier overhead view crash st setup - a vehicle colliding with a barrier frontally with 25% of vehicle width.
October 6, 2025 at 11:23 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
The reason I bring this point up is back in 2022 there was a wave of US social media posts pointing at the Sri Lanka disaster as a 'failure of ESG' or green dogma, and there's likely more aspects we don't know...
screenshot excerpts from https://www.public.news/p/green-dogma-behind-fall-of-sri-lanka (Shellenberger, 2022) & https://twitter.com/MartyBent/status/1539583410489917441 (2022)
September 30, 2025 at 9:18 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
"When Sri Lanka abruptly banned agri-chemicals, the result was a crash in yields, food shortages and food riots."

The Sri Lanka disaster could be attributed to a ban of chemical FERTILIZER without a real transition plan, along with expense/debt issues. From the article you reference yourself:
Highlighted excerpt from https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/ (Ted Nordhaus & Saloni Shah of Breakthrough Institute, March 2022) on Sri Lanka: "By 2020, the total cost of fertilizer imports and subsidies was close to $500 million each year. With fertilizer prices rising, the tab was likely to increase further in 2021. Banning synthetic fertilizers seemingly allowed Rajapaksa to kill two birds with one stone: improving the nation’s foreign exchange situation while also cutting a massive expenditure on subsidies from the pandemic-hit public budget."
September 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
As someone also in a rather kharma-grinding situation it was relateful and remindful to read this 2015 interview from an 90's era tech power critic Paulina Borsook on her involvement with 'stop the spray' in the bay area bioregion in the mid 2000's, notably that the effective work was offline.
Highlighted excerpts from https://networkcultures.org/blog/2015/01/29/paulina-borsook-cyberselfish-15-years-after-part-ii/ (interview of Paulina Borsook by Geert Lovink, 2015) "Being on call 24/7 with a frail yet irredeemably nasty elder, there’s nothing else like it to grind your kharma exceedingly fine. And technology can’t change or fix it." [...] "I became somewhat involuntarily involved with a regional environmental issue. The Northern California bioregion where I live was going to be aerially sprayed with pesticides for years on end for reasons have to do with international trade kabuki theatre. I won’t get into the intricacies of trying to stop the Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program, but the reason this rare victory for the environment, populism, good science, and small farmers -happened- was because of activism in the non-cyber world. I felt a sense of mission and personal responsibility I have hardly ever felt before or after." [...] "While yes, there were websites and YouTube and an online petition—this successful activism was the opposite of clicktivism." [...] "Worth also pointing out that not only were no people majorly working in technology highly involved with these efforts — when I would talk with my friends still working in technology they had heard nothing about “Stop the Spray”. This, with major coverage in ALL MSM, bumper stickers and lawn signs galore, etc. I guess if it’s not on Reddit, it doesn’t exist."
September 26, 2025 at 3:13 PM
vivekgani.bsky.social
Did you actually read the article?

I think these titles are designed to attract a 'both sides' audience but then educate folks on well, how to think and attempt to teach some media literacy.
Highlighted excerpts from https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/23/nx-s1-5551228/acetaminophen-tylenol-autism-trump-explainer : ""I would say, what parents need to do is to step back and think about who they are hearing the messages from," Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University's Center for Autism Research Excellence, told NPR's Michel Martin. "Are they going to listen to people who are not physicians, who have no expertise in autism, or are they going to turn to their medical providers, their treatment providers and ask them what their view of the current science is? That's what they should be doing. [...] "These studies that have been out show correlation, but don't actually show causation," says Baldwin." "And I think that's an important thing for parents to realize — that the science is not known just yet, despite what has been said.""
September 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM