Downshift Centre

Downshifting: cheaper living, super-commuting, off-grid; alternative lifestyles to high-debt wage-slavery. More practical than ideological, a bit philosophical

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

These are US numbers on #housing #affordability. Situation similar in UK. UK #houseprices were driven up by easy mortgage credit + loose financial market regulation. This broke the traditional connect between wages + house prices (eg the mortgage = 3.5 x income guideline)

[Charlie Bilello @charliebilello]

🚨 Housing Affordability Crisis 🚨

To afford the median-priced home in the US today, you need an income of $124,000.

The actual median household income? $79,000.

That’s a 57% gap — the largest on record.

Video: https://t.co/mCjRZ3Rhm7

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Home solar with batteries, an off-grid or part off-grid approach to home energy and small-scale power generation, can give resilience. #offgrid

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

The new Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius rail service connects the three Baltic states

[The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone]

@RailBaltica Into Riga on the dot at 16:37….

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

New integrated rail services connect across the Baltic countries

[The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone]

@RailBaltica The sun is shining and I’m listening to my music. Exchanged a few words with the friendly Vivi conductor as she checked my ticket and the equally friendly LTG people have brought me a latte and another of those great LTG ham ‘n cheese hot sarnies. I’m enjoying this!

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

New integrated train services and transport connections across the Baltic states

[The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone]

Good morning! Just leaving Tallinn on the 10:02 train to Riga for a 1-night stay. This is the new integrated Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius train service operated by Elron, Vivi & LTG Link, introduced in December last year, https://t.co/oHDY7pW91o

[Eric Seufert @eric_seufert]

Google's gambit, part 2

It seems clear that Google seeks to execute a complete Ship of Theseus transformation of Search from a link ranking product into a fully-contained consumer discovery engine that facilitates commerce through its chatbot and with other, novel features like its newly-revealed virtual fitting room.

AI Mode is entirely consistent with Google’s motivations related to the open web: with its Network business threatened by the outcome of its “ad tech” antitrust trial, Google has little incentive to preserve Search’s role as a content discovery tool since it may not be able to fully or efficiently monetize the engagement that takes place on web destinations.

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Bowel cancer rising among under-50s worldwide, research finds https://t.co/u1QBvV00gQ

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Cashless society: Sweden rediscovers the idea of resilience.

https://t.co/g5e1dAKdWd

[zerohedge @zerohedge]

Ethereum Co-Founder Responds To Sweden's Cashless-Society Rethink https://t.co/R9PbPnm6G6

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Home solar with batteries, an off-grid or part off-grid approach to home energy and small-scale power generation, can give resilience. #offgrid

[Jesse Peltan @JessePeltan]

No amount of gas turbines is going to keep the power on when a storm brings down the lines.

“Reliable” energy is not enough.
We need — resilient energy.

Energy that can weather storms and disasters — natural or otherwise.

Distributed energy that you control.

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

"Managerialism" and management by spreadsheet, dominance of "performance metrics" (proxy measures) are causes of this. Net result is a decline in the exercise of professional judgement. Society loses.

[Financial Times @FT]

Opinion: There has been a steep and steady decline in 'task discretion' since the 1990s. This is a measure of how much influence people say they have over their day-to-day work, such as which tasks to do and how to do them. ⁠https://t.co/rx2P5BY5Kg
⁠

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Interesting in relation to digital skills and the critical use of AI tools

[Alva @AlvaApp]

UAE’s move to roll out free ChatGPT Plus to every resident is a massive flex that could spark a digital skill surge and turbocharge local innovation—think AI everywhere from hospitals to energy grids.

But the flip: data privacy headaches, risk of algorithmic bias, and the real chance for digital exclusion if access isn’t truly universal.

If this works, expect copycat plays or new “AI blocs” as the US, EU, China, and others race to define norms—regulation and governance will lag behind, and whoever scales first wins narrative and network effects.

Want to see how this could shift global AI power? Dive into the next-level analysis:
https://t.co/ZbMVEHnSd6

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

... the same report and statistics, as reported in The Guardian...

UK drops down list of affluent nations after decade of stagnation, NIESR finds https://t.co/7weuqd7tOR

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

The lowly 6.6 percent average UK earnings increase in real terms since 2007 confirms the perceptions of many ordinary Britons about stagnant living standards... And that is average earnings, so within the whole, some are likely to be worse off than in '07

https://t.co/uBOP67hI7e

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Concerning, especially considering AI is nowhere near a useful level of general AI yet. #GAI #HAL #HAL9000

https://t.co/8DLNXD7kJT

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

#Tinyhomes #Tinyhouses policy and attitudes in Australia. Affordability and freedom from debt give resilience and sovereignty.

Living in a tiny house is preventing me and my toddler from becoming homeless | Kelley Swain https://t.co/Iwa67LWGzT

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

#Tinyhouse living in the UK. A case study. Statistics cited show growth of the lifestyle in the UK. The reader comments are illuminating: some positive, with their own tiny home experiences; others consider the lifestyle depressing or miserable or mad.

https://t.co/VRECnIO4x5

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

@Rainmaker1973 @k_valancius The dogs understand. They know.

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

Concerning, especially considering AI is nowhere near a useful level of general AI yet. #GAI #HAL #HAL9000

https://t.co/8DLNXD7kJT

[Downshift Centre @DownshiftCentre]

#Tinyhomes #Tinyhouses policy and attitudes in Australia. Affordability and freedom from debt give resilience and sovereignty.

Living in a tiny house is preventing me and my toddler from becoming homeless | Kelley Swain https://t.co/Iwa67LWGzT