Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Setting fairness aside, biased AI models are just worse models: they make more mistakes, more often. Efforts to reduce bias-induced errors, even if you call the reduction “woke,” will ultimately make models more accurate, not less.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/president-trumps-war-woke-ai-civil-liberties-nightmare

which of these do you think is the least bad as a failsafe power source in a small minimal computing/"solarpunk" electronics project? (the project is entirely solar powered otherwise; I just need a backup power source for the real-time clock chip. i've ruled out rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors for this purpose)

This post by Rebecca Solnit illustrates why I am a paying subscriber to her newsletter. She doesn't use the expression "media literacy" here, but it's embedded in her writing -- and should be embedded in every person's media use.

https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/stick-with-the-facts-dont-be-like-them-some-notes-on-a-spate-of-recent-misreadings/

LA Times headline would be more accurate if it said, "Trump thugs try to disrupt Democrats' event backing fair elections."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-14/border-patrol-conducts-immigration-operation-outside-gov-newsom-event

Huh, cool to see that ProPublica is a Svelte app... https://www.propublica.org

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and its state counterparts are very broad, tempting police and prosecutors to throw infractions at “any kind of behavior that’s objectionable in some way using a computer,” EFF’s Andrew Crocker told @theintercept. https://theintercept.com/2025/08/13/dc-plane-crash-washington-cnn-leak/

This week's comic now up on Daily Kos
Hollingsworth Hound, in "The Devil Went Down to HoundCo."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/14/2338238/-Cartoon-Tom-the-Dancing-Bug-and-The-Devil-Went-Down-to-HoundCo

Congratulations to Maple on the promotion! Glad she finally got out of that crap job she had before.

Meet Maple: Former K-9 now beekeeper at MSU
https://www.wkar.org/wkar-news/2025-08-06/meet-maple-former-k-9-now-beekeeper-at-msu

An Open Source sustainability story in two slides. (for a coming talk of mine)

Slide 1: car brands using #curl
Slide 2: car brands sponsoring or paying for #curl support

We have a duty to resist authoritarianism and mass surveillance.

We owe it to the next generations.

#Privacy #BeTheResistance

We're happy to join the @fsfe 's #PublicMoneyPublicCode initiative as supporting organization: https://publiccode.eu/en/

Hand soaps are now being recalled because they can cause serious infection including sepsis and death.

In “healthy” individuals with minor cuts they will likely cause localized infection, but in immune compromised people it could be fatal.

Truly the worst timeline:

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/hand-soaps-recalled-nationwide-over-potential-for-life-threatening-infections/3808403/

You know what would actually reduce crime and homelessness?

Universal healthcare, free education, affordable housing and a basic living wage.

When people have their most basic needs met, they have happier and healthier lives.

Those hoarding the wealth don’t want to give us those things.

Honest reporting: "President Donald Trump has expanded his military campaign against the United States by deploying armed troops to yet another major metropolitan area, announcing on Monday that he is sending the National Guard into Washington, D.C., to “liberate” the city."

https://archive.ph/uN6HH

I do most of my banking with a company that is a part-owner of "Zelle" -- an electronic payment operation that banks eagerly flog to users. It seems designed to offload all risk -- including criminal theft from your account -- to the user.

No thanks.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/new-york-sues-zelle-says-security-lapses-led-1-billion-consumer-fraud-losses-2025-08-13/?taid=689d24af302b140001dfdf24

Sitting next to a group of 5 retirees at the public library's cafe (where I'm trying to work while my boy does a driving lesson), and they're having an animated conversation on how kids from 17-25 are suffering from a loneliness epidemic (and suffer from social inhibitions) due to their device dependence and the lack of practice in social situations They're not wrong. They're also remarking at how the 'F-word' can now be replaced by 'Far-out'! They've got their fingers on the pulse.

So, as of 1 August, I've finally managed to get my blog upgraded from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11 (leapfrogging 8-10)... It was... non-trivial. But anyway, it's done. And I've added a few blog posts that stacked up during the process, including "Why the mainstream media is do damn 'user friendly'"... https://davelane.nz/why-mainstream-media-so-damn-user-friendly

🔴 Brand new comic now up on Boing Boing
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Hollingsworth Hound, in "The Devil Went Down to HoundCo"
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https://boingboing.net/2025/08/13/tom-the-dancing-bug-the-devil-went-down-to-houndco.html

"Divine Feminine" Advice on TikTok Is Just Part of the Alt-Right Pipeline

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/divine-feminine-advice-on-tiktok