Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

State of the world got you down? 😩 Here's a little dose of inspiration as an antidote for the despair: a truly revolutionary social/educational/economic project in Venezuela, with no bosses, no managers and no board of directors. By the people, for the people, and wildly different that anything else you're liable to hear about today. ✊ 😍

https://geo.coop/articles/building-here-and-now-world-we-yearn

The political press -- Washington Post most of all -- got faked out by Glenn Youngkin, who posed as a moderate Republican (yes, oxymoron) and parlayed that to the Virginia governor's chair. Since he took office he's been a standard-issue extremist.

Now, post-Roe, he's ensured that police will be able to search women's menstrual histories. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/16/virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-extreme-bill-police-menstrual-histories

All the talk about Google losing ground & cutting jobs made me nervous about what I'd do if Google Scholar got the chop...

So I dug into the options – and came away relieved. Even a little optimistic!

New PLOS post: Could there be some viable challengers to Google Scholar on the horizon?

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/02/16/could-there-be-some-viable-challengers-to-google-scholar-on-the-horizon/

#OpenScience #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter

India's Modi is a popular (for now) dictator who is stomping on freedom of speech, especially press freedom. It is shameful that Biden and other leaders of democracies are cozying up to this guy and giving him cover for his abuse of civil liberties. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/media/india-tax-raid-bbc-offices-intl-hnk/index.html?bt_ee=Ki%2F4xq20%2BrZAAqNSRJRMcKf1cKN4L1y%2FkjGaXk5BMM4%3D&bt_ts=1676427870384

Nonprofits that share the data of supporters, clients, and visitors with third parties may be putting people in danger. This guide offers concrete steps to implement better privacy practices for your websites and email platforms. https://www.eff.org/pages/online-privacy-nonprofits

10 days after the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, officials insist the air is OK to breathe, despite it continuing to make some people sick.

And don't drink the water, officials now say, changing their story from the initial claims there was no water pollution. 3500 dead fish beg to differ & a contaminant plume moving down the Ohio River beg to differ.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/14/ohio-train-derailment-toxic-chemicals/

#Risk #Pollution #EastPalestine #Ohio #train #derailment #AirQuality #WaterQuality

The new bill from Assemblymember Mia Bonta — cosponsored by EFF, ACLU California Action, and If/When/How — will put a stop to unconstitutional 'reverse warrants,' preserving digital privacy and protecting Californians' right to live life on our own terms. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/eff-backs-california-bill-protect-people-seeking-abortion-and-gender-affirming

Well I'll be darned, if it isn't @emi and @Matt_Noyes on Irish Tech News, of all places!

https://irishtechnews.ie/why-cooperatives-offer-a-real-alternative-in-tech/

@lwriemen I'm very aware privilege (my own and others), and lack thereof. Totally agree about 'where you start'. That said, I think it's pretty easy to see the difference between jobs taken out of need vs. jobs taken by choice. I'd say few people take a departmental manager or VP role at Microsoft out of desperation. Working in the canteen or acting as a janitor, yeah, maybe. I see culpability as proportional to decision-making power/influence.

Now out, a piece co-written with @Dahlialith, and given a terrific headline by Jeremy Stahl: “Let’s Stop Pretending Clarence Thomas Can Read the Framers’ Minds."

We explain that *nothing* about historical analogy requires the Supreme Court to allow domestic abusers, among others, to have guns.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/gun-laws-bruen-clarence-thomas-framers-domestic-abuse.html

#GunViolence #2A #Guns #Bruen #Heller #Rahimi #DomesticViolence #LawFedi

binance has produced a survey that found that buying crypto will totally help you get girls

This Guardian investigation is shocking, or should be. Massive online manipulation of elections by Israeli company. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/revealed-disinformation-team-jorge-claim-meddling-elections-tal-hanan?CMP=share_btn_tw

Why are government software systems so expensive?

Well, the agency publishes an RFI, and vendors respond saying how much they think the system should cost. Agencies take those responses, average them, and tell their legislature or a federal grant-maker “it’s gonna cost $50M.” So $50M is given to the agency—as a matter of public record—and the agency issues an RFP. The quotes are all going to be for real close to…$50M. And where did that price tag come from? The very vendors who are bidding.

😳

Google employees, many of them high profile, are showing up on the Fediverse.

@methode is a case in point.

His Mastodon bio describes him as "Chief of Sunshine and Happiness at Google".

Translation: webmaster trends analyst.

SEO folks are paying close attention.

I *know* that the Fediverse is on Google's corporate radar.

@fediversenews

Love it. Uber drivers in New Zealand are unionising.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2302/S00139/nz-uber-drivers-initiate-bargaining-for-first-ever-collective-agreement.htm

Yes, geckos and skinks (the other family of NZ-native lizards) sacrifice their tails when attacked, but they don't grow back the same (no bones & not the same nerves for starters, so they're far less useful), and it takes a huge toll on their future fitness, so it's pretty messed up when it happens.