Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

😬

WSJ: Tech Startups Are Handing Out Free Nicotine Pouches to Boost Productivity (Dec 30, 2025)

"...Earlier this year, two nicotine startups—*** and ***—made branded vending machines filled with flavored products for analytics company Palantir Technologies. Both machines are in the company’s Washington, D.C., offices. The pouches are free for employees and guests over the age of 21, a spokeswoman for Palantir said. Palantir pays to stock the nicotine products...."

https://www.wsj.com/tech/tech-startups-are-handing-out-free-nicotine-pouches-to-boost-productivity-e42d3cbe?st=ZoF6oB&reflink=article_copyURL_share

#addiction #startups #palantir

One of the finest investigative journalists of our times, a veteran of CBS news foibles himself, has posted a definitive explainer -- with deep context -- of the "60 Minutes" takedown by "oligarch functionary" Bari Weiss.

https://www.forever-wars.com/watching-bari-weiss-murder-investigative-journalism-at-cbs/?ref=forever-wars-newsletter

RE: https://dair-community.social/@Meron/115790600643812539

Below is an excerpt from what I wrote before. Just think about where these monsters are sending these poor young people to.

"Eritrea boasts the longest detained journalist in the world, and with over 360 detention facilities (many underground) in a country of 45 kmi², the regime has disappeared all dissidents (even imprisoning them in shipping containers in temperatures that induce one’s skin to be stuck to the walls), with no due process or trial.

Exactly one year ago, on 30th December 2024, I laid the foundation of FediMeteo.

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

* OpenMeteo - @openmeteo - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

* @grunfink - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

* FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

* FediFollows - @FediFollows - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

*All of you*, who suggested, encouraged, corrected, and celebrated this project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

@rhelune @Gurre @mejs I made a board game 😀 https://crossborderrail.eu/boardgame/

User: Hi! I'd like a wake up call.

Hotel front desk: The entire modern web infrastructure you rely on is held together by a handful of volunteer run opensource projects, and if one lead maintainer decides to delete their repository today, the global economy would stall by noon.

It was depressing enough as a 45 year old to have to do an on-camera online exam with an AI proctor to prove I have basic arithmetic skills for a job. Made worse when the 'detected mobile phone use' alert triggered because I lifted my hands near my face to count on my fingers.

So this formally brings the 2025 TransAtlantic tour to an end. All in all, we did 21 events in 16 cities, across 6 countries. It's been an exhausting but very rewarding experience, and hopefully we are grateful to have met comrades both old and new.

We managed to get some interviews filmed for future InterRebelliums and see some amazing anarchist spaces along the way.

European comrades, please consider kicking into our FireStarter Fund generously set up for us by comrades in Amsterdam. https://www.firestarterfund.nl/campaigns/40/submedia%E2%80%99s-2025-trans(a)tlantic-tour

We can't wait to get back to the normal routine and dive into work on InterRebellium 02. Shut Down Canada

AI slop has taken over YT's "worker co-op" search results 🤮

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=worker+cooperatives+&sp=EgIIAw%253D%253D

Catch up on some news you might've missed before the year ends. https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2025/12/29

'South Park' writers create parody website for Trump Kennedy Center after snagging the domain names. Logo has redacted Epstein file snippets

"Welcome to TrumpKennedyCenter.org

A national cultural center dedicated to legacy, loyalty, and the careful presentation of history.

​Here, tradition is preserved, narratives are curated, and performances are elevated beyond mere art. What is remembered matters. What is omitted matters more.

We invite you to experience culture as authority, pageantry as truth, and excellence as defined by those in power." #USPol

https://www.trumpkennedycenter.org/

I was recently reminded of this.

A couple decades ago, I wrote a short paper that described how the basic approaches of cryptography and computer security lead to an efficient and practical privilege escalation attack against master-keyed mechanical lock, which I published in IEEE Security and Privacy (a nerdy computing technical journal).

https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/mk.pdf

TL;dr: Master-keyed locks have fundamental, exploitable weaknesses.

But I wasn't ready for what happened next.

1/

#ICE is so busy HELPING (to destroy and terrorize) communities and families this holiday season they asked this one request:

ICE is asking for people to quit calling its hotline to report an undocumented girl named "Anne Frank" hiding in the attics of Republican lawmakers.

Please don't call
1-866-DHS-2-ICE
(1-866-347-2423) for this reason, or to report pregnant foreigners seeking shelter in your local manger this holiday season.

- https://www.instagram.com/iamdaymadison/

Violations of antitrust laws don't get any more blatant than this. But when the criminal-in-chief only enforces antitrust laws against people he doesn't like, lawbreaking is legalized for the ones he does like.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buying-ai-chip-startup-groq-for-about-20-billion-biggest-deal.html

I think companies are overestimating how much AI can improve productivity of entire teams but underestimating at the individual level.

Separate studies from both Forrester and Orgvue found 55% of employers who laid off workers because of AI now regret that decision. A talent doom loop is a perfect way to describe the risk here.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/16/why-replacing-junior-staff-with-ai-will-backfire-.html

Capitalism doesn't give you nice things.

Capitalism lets you rent increasingly mediocre things.

As a worker-owned cooperative and independent bookstore, we often get approached about how we started, what our internal operations look like, and how we “do things.” Some questions are easier to answer than others (and we’re usually happy to share what we’ve learned throughout the years), but a big piece of context that isn’t always obvious is that trust is at the core of how we operate. Our collective is a small but mighty team, and everyone brings their own flavor and skillsets to the table. Since our hiring process is rigorous and infrequent, we’ve all worked together for years, and we’ve shared with each other our own introductions to anarchism and how we engaged with Firestorm before working here.

This past year, in an effort to carve out collective time outside of the store, we started monthly brunches. This means we take turns hosting, and brunch topics are pre-determined—we discuss timely articles, podcasts, and zines, and process current events together. We also talk about other media we’ve consumed and inevitably veer off-course, because these brunches are technically off the clock (unless they accidentally become a meeting). Brunches are a space for us to share dreams, anxieties, things we’re excited about, and how Firestorm can respond to certain political moments.

In July, our collective took a field trip to Chicago for Socialism Conference 2025 and we attended a session on anti-colonial resistance featuring geographer Linda Quiquivix (author of "Palestine 1492: A Report Back"), Mohamed Abdou (author of "Islam and Anarchism"), and Ashanti Alston (co-author of "Black Anarchist Futures" and keynote speaker at Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair 2024). The conversation was a highlight for us, and a few months ago we started reading "Palestine 1492" together, which is a beautiful and accessible title that we can’t recommend enough.

Read our full reflection at https://firestorm.coop/news/another-brunch-is-possible.html

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟯𝟬 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗿𝗮.

𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆.

https://drdavidwhitehouse.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-financial-inclusion