Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Why do I do what I do on Mastodon? Why do I post so often about the climate emergency, our environmental crises, and the rapacious, murderous impact of greedy capitalists?

Is it because I believe I can help to stimulate large-scale change that will alter the direction we’re going? No, not really, although of course that would be nice. Except I know my reach here is minuscule compared to that of Twitter “influencers,” or the corporate media, or the Hollywood dream factory. I doubt I can do anything to change the course of history.

So, why do I do what I do? Is it because I like scaring people? Do I enjoy being seen as a doom-monger? Well, not exactly. It’s no fun being called an alarmist. However, I believe an alarm MUST be raised if people are to comprehend just how dangerous our situation truly is, and how vital their upcoming actions might be.

And that’s the real reason I do what I do. Not to scare you or make you depressed (though that’s an understandable and normal reaction), but to encourage everyone to take action.

Learn about and accept the reality of what’s ahead of us as the climate continues breaking down and society unravels. Think about what adequate preparation could mean for you and your loved ones. Reach out to others you can assist, or who can assist you.

Build a community. Make things better whenever and wherever you can. Because we *are* stronger together.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency #Anticapitalism

Public Cloud as a software abstraction to build more resilient and elastic infrastructure is great as a software engineering concept.

What's concerning is the concentration of power among 3 Big Tech companies all belonging to the same country which has unfavorable laws of surveillance such as the CLOUD Act.

The popular adage needs a little re-framing.

The Cloud is American corporations' computers with full access given to government agencies.

#Cloud #PublicCloud

Winnie The Pooh Escapes Copyright Hell, Grabs Some Weapons, And Immediately Gets Kicked Out Of Hong Kong - https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/29/winnie-the-pooh-escapes-copyright-hell-grabs-some-weapons-and-immediately-gets-kicked-out-of-hong-kong/ #china #XiJinping

How anyone puts any faith whatsoever in our judicial system (along with the rest of our government) is beyond me. All of the rhetoric about rule of law is obviously nothing more than that - rhetoric. If there were anything like an actual Left in this country, we would hear a lot more about Donziger, and Chevron's court-assisted thuggery. But everybody is too busy egging on WWIII to pay much attention, I guess.

https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/the-us-supreme-court-just-legalized

@costrike @timnitGebru

"AI doesn’t do any of this because what it does isn’t writing. It can’t write because it doesn’t think. It can’t think because that’s not what it’s designed to do. "

^ ^ ^

This. A million thousand times, *this*.

Britons have more confidence in EU than Westminster, poll finds - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/30/britons-more-confidence-in-eu-than-westminster-poll-brexit #brexit is going so well more people trust the EU than the UK parliament...

Folks who're fans/supporters of the Electronic Freedom Foundation - I just got a tentatively positive response to an email I sent yesterday asking if they could please add a Fediverse account to their website front page's "Follow us on Facebook or Twitter!" call to action. Please feel free to join me in encouraging them to join us here - I suspect they'll respond well to a broader grassroots movement requesting it!

Microsoft slips ads into Bing AI Chat

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/29/that-was-fast-microsoft-slips-ads-into-ai-powered-bing-chat/

Okay, so that AI letter signed by lots of AI researchers calling for a "Pause [on] Giant AI Experiments"? It's just dripping with AI hype. Here's a quick rundown.

First, for context, note that URL? The Future of Life Institute is a longtermist operation. You know, the people who are focused on maximizing the happiness of billions of future beings who live in computer simulations.

https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

#AIhype

>>

TikTok is, as security expert Bruce Schneier says, part of a "shady" company.

China is a vile dictatorship that censors and spies on its people, and is an international predator.

But Congress members are lying when they pretend that banning TikTok is a solution to the problems Congress itself has allowed to fester -- namely the tech and big data industries' relentless spying on all of us.

Solve that, with tough laws, and TikTok is much less of an issue. Hint: Congress prefers theatrics.

"Clearview is a private company that is making face prints of people based on their photos online without their consent," EFF’s Matthew Guariglia spoke with BBC News for a story about this "huge problem for civil liberties and civil rights" that absolutely needs to be banned." https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65057011

I'd love to see this succeed: https://antitrust.nextcloud.com/

#UK #supermarket #inflation hits record high, making shoppers hunt for bargains | Supermarkets | The Guardian

The biggest rise is in basic foods, you know, the ones which nobody can do without, least of all the poor.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/28/uk-supermarket-inflation-record-high-bargains-prices

Do not -- do not, do not -- click on a link in Google search when you're looking for software to download. The scammers are smarter than Google. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/until-further-notice-think-twice-before-using-google-to-download-software/

Watching this reminds me of how completely the US screwed the pooch by not electing this man. He continues to do good, inspire, and demonstrate total commitment to his (transparent) principles. https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=yShH6MNQuXQ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShH6MNQuXQ

Just in case you're wondering why we need regulation to control the data broker market ASAP, here's the FBI circumventing the courts by buying data from the commercial sector.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3z9a/fbi-bought-netflow-data-team-cymru-contract

EU ministers to approve vehicle emissions law after deal with Germany - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/eu-ministers-to-approve-vehicle-emissions-law-after-deal-with-germany foolish compromise... #ClimateCrisis

BREAKING: In an emergency alert, #Philadelphia residents (~1.5M people) have been warned to not drink the city water due to a new chemical spill upstream into the Delaware River.
All over the city people are rushing to stock up & stores are limiting purchases.