||| FROM ROBERT AUSTIN |||
LAUNCHPAD current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of LAUNCHPAD data.
Photo by Robert Austin
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I wish he could see my middle finger up here on Diamond Hill. Alas.
I’m Colin Williams. I have been living between Orcas and the Seattle metro for thirty years.
I developed the alternative social platform li-nk here on Orcas Island over the past five years and actively over the past two.
li-nk is a social platform for planning and discovering activities and events, built on Orcas Island. Members create and propose activities organized by interest, then connect with others who want to join. It serves locals building community close to home, visitors looking for things to do, and anyone across the United States. Interests range widely, including outdoor adventures, arts, technology, sports, food, wellness, learning, games, and community causes.
li-nk grew out of a simple observation on Orcas Island and across the Salish Sea. People often live near one another and care about the same things, yet never cross paths. Rather than organizing around follower counts or feeds, li-nk starts with the activity itself, so community forms among the people who show up. The guiding idea is easy to remember: develop your interests, find your community.
Curious locals and visitors can try the demo at [demo.li-nk.social](http://demo.li-nk.social), no signup required, or learn more at [li-nk.social](http://li-nk.social).
Edit: Finally li-nk has a android app in test and we will publish an IOS app this week.
For questions or concerns you may reach out to me directly at colin@li-nk.org .
Too bad we couldn’t get a flotilla of kayaktivists together to ‘greet’ him. ;-)
A perfect example of billionairs using the infrastructure that us peons pay for to make their billions by selling our private information that by the way you gave him permission because you wanted to post a self portrait of yourself eating a donut at your favorite restaurant…and the billionairs who used our infrastructure registers the hundred million dollar boat in a tax loophole foreign country so as to escape taxes that would pay for our ferries. That boats flag is the Marshall Islands. It is time to start hitting these self serving corporations monitarily don’t buy their products.
It’s almost inevitable that the San Juans will become a fortress for these evil tech billionaires. They are already out here buying up property and paying whatever price is necessary. What’s amazing is how complicit our so-called “community” has become about this due to the prevailing social norm of “good vibes only.”
We’ve been sold a package of lies regarding the necessity of tourism to the local economy, and nobody wants to “rock the boat” when it comes to tourist-centered exploitation of the islands, whether it’s the newly renovated Airbnb down the street or the new place to get buzzed over by the saw shop. The realtors are laughing all the way to the bank as hordes of tech-doped millionaires spill from the ferries (or private jets) with stars in their eyes and money to burn in their pockets.
As usual, most people in the archipelago resemble a bunch of boiling frogs, who will soon be plated and served on an obnoxiously large yacht as it sails off into the sunset. Government at every level, from county to state to federal, is utterly failing to protect the public from these rapacious psychopaths. And that’s a direct result of an oblivious and ignorant electorate which has been drugged by the cognitively corrosive software that those very same psychopaths developed.
While that is wonderfully written, perhaps we could practice some glass-half-full thinking.
Billionaires are just people who (also) like looking at trees and ocean water. How does a community (rather than a government) garner some of their wealth and redistribute it among locals?