Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

So, as an update to the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, the U.S. Senate is currently working on *another* misguided bill to try to protect children from the imagined evils of the internet, this one called the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

You can read about it here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/kids-online-safety-act-heavy-handed-plan-force-platforms-spy-young-people

Among other things, the bill would require user age-verification by internet platforms.

Linux sound gurus:

Does anyone know a way to permanently disable pipewire in Ubuntu 22.04? It keeps respawning the process and for some reason if pipewire is running (along with PulseAudio) that blocks web-video playback. I kill the process to get the video to play but the next time I try to run a video pipewire shows up again as a running process. Frustrating...

In 2019, TWENTY-SIX percent of Black adults were barred from voting in Kentucky.

26%!

Then the new Dem governor's executive order cut that number dramatically, but it's still very high: 12%.

But even that order is under threat. https://boltsmag.org/kentucky-rights-restoration-governor-election-beshear-cameron/

Scientists develop game-changing vaccine against Lyme disease ticks https://www.newsweek.com/lyme-disease-tick-vaccine-developed-1815809

Read in our latest newsletter (and subscribe):

- Anti-drone bill threatens journalism (joint letter with @@CenDemTech)
- Lawmakers seek to limit recording of police
- Civil society speaks out against bad internet bills (ACLU, @fight)

https://mailchi.mp/freedom.press/anti-drone-bill-threatens-journalism?e=fe28d28019

Notably -- and justifiably -- furious piece today from @pluralistic about Elon Musk's constant lies and the latest Tesla epic scandal. https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/

While this goes on, governments not only fail to enforce the law. They actually protect this uber-sleazebag's bad acts (and those of lots of other companies).

the anarchist in my bloodstream wants to find a way to enact the many small overlapping affinity group model where we can disperse and re-engage fluidly as the situation demands and maybe it's just feeling stuck in the model where the structural model is to grow big and homogenous to be stable

@siderea If you are in the UK, btw, there is a UK bill that is seeking something similar in mandated censorship and surveillance, forced weakening of encryption and forced age verification where content deemed to be of a sufficiently adult nature (not just covering porn).

Wikipedia has said if this passes they will block the UK from Wikipedia if needed.

Signal has said they will cease to operate in the UK. Apple among others have raised concerns.

More details here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/uk-government-very-close-eroding-encryption-worldwide

As a blind Mastodonian who is made happy by alt text every day, I'd like to request anyone who feels inclined or able, to post and describe insects. I've really enjoyed the occasional alt text describing flying and crawling things.

“Once the battery fell below 50 percent, ‘the algorithm would show drivers more realistic projections for their remaining driving range.’ The order to exaggerate car range allegedly came from … Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, this person said.

‘Elon wanted to show good range numbers when fully charged,’ the person said, adding: ‘When you buy a car off the lot seeing 350-mile, 400-mile range, it makes you feel good.’”

2/N

#tesla #ElonMusk

Time for some pre-bunking: solar panels are more carbon intensive than nuclear power, but they're still way better than fossil gas, even gas "with carbon capture and storage" (which is a tech that does not exist), contrary to what you might read on Enrico Mariutti's Twitter account (sorry, X.com account).

There's a fresh Environmental Progress article about how solar panels are supposedly "three times more carbon-intensive than IPCC admits". It uses the IPCC AR5 median value of 40-50 gCO2eq/kWh as the value that is "misdirecting the world’s clean energy efforts", and completely ignores the fact that it is, in fact, a median value, with the max value being three times higher (for nuclear, it's even worse, because of some really bad studies that got into the review). It then goes to claim that solar panels made in China are much worse than the ones made in Europe, but studies don't reflect it, and this is a "dirty secret". The problem is that the carbon intensity of Chinese electricity is not enormously worse than Germany or Australia (and lower than Poland).

So, let's check the data. Table A.III.2 in IPCC AR5 WG3 Annex III specifies the following ranges of lifecycle emissions (incl. albedo effect) for:

Nuclear - 3.7/12/110 gCO2eq/kWh
Solar PV—rooftop - 26/41/60 gCO2eq/kWh
Solar PV—utility - 18/48/180 gCO2eq/kWh

And as the source, it does not use the IEA report referred to by Environmental Progress but a systematic review that includes the IEA report as one of its sources. Seriously, everything's linked, anyone can check out the systematic review used as the basis for c-Si photovoltaics in AR5, and it does mention that it does not reflect the manufacturing shift to China, which is coal intensive, but its range of outcomes does include studies for solar panels made in Australia, which has a comparable carbon intensity to China (some China provinces have definitively much lower carbon intensity of electricity than Australia): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00439.x

And the thin-film solar PV review notes that various energy mixes would have different results but the effects would be minor. Reading on, all the reviewed studies use carbon intensities that are equal or higher to current carbon intensity of Chinese electricity (531 gCO2eq/kWh in 2022, the studies use 510 for UCTE grid mix, 760 for the US grid and 660 for German mix, because those are quite old studies): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00423.x

Once again: China has been building out a lot of renewables and nuclear, and while Europe and the US decarbonised way faster than China, studies based on old electricity mixes in Germany and US have actually higher carbon intensity than the current Chinese energy mix.

The thing that irritates me the most is that the Environmental Progress article (https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2023/7/3/solar-panels-are-more-carbon-intensive-than-experts-will-admit) at the end states that natural gas has a carbon intensity of 400-500 gCO2eq/kWh and 50 gCO2eq with CCS (which does not exist). It conveniently omits the fact that this does not include the effect of leaks of methane from the drilling and transport infrastructure, which may actually bring up natural gas to be as bad as coal or even worse. And it ignores IPCC AR5 data. IPCC AR5 WG3 Annex III has, again, a min/max/median range both for natural gas, and here it is not "400-500" but 410/490/650 in combined cycle (which means that peaker plants are worse), and combined cycle gas with carbon capture and storage, and here it is not "50", but 94/170/340.

So, "Environmental Progress" is attacking solar while supporting fossil fuels. I wonder why.

PS. For me, the bigger issue is giving single carbon intensity value for a tech whose energy output varies widely depending on latitude and insolation, but stating that solar is comparable to natural gas and worse than nonexistent fossil "gas with CCS" is just bunk.

#climate #climatecrisis #solar #ipcc

God help us. I checked, and this is real.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/07/26/hisd-to-eliminate-librarians-turn-libraries-into-discipline-centers-at-28-campuses/

Say it with me: JSON is not a data storage format! It is a data transmission format, and a rather inefficient and awkward to use one at that.

I would really like to see the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and TOP really push this message of tax fairness. I think it would appeal to a large number of people. The major parties (and ACT of course) are focused on "caviar and wine" for the rich not bread and butter for the rest of us

A really strong statement on tax policy from Te Pāti Māori - Amen brother! https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2307/S00151/te-party-maori-propose-radical-tax-reforms.htm

New at Nature: Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06297-w
Our key findings:
-Median Facebook user gets 50.4% of content from like-minded sources
-But reducing exposure by 1/3 for 3 months had no measurable effect on attitudes

Reminder that the "Kids Online Safety Act" is all about censorship, not protecting kids.

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/kids-online-safety-act-lgbtq-youth

Deceit isn't just a routine part of Musk's public statements. It's a core practice in how he does business. But if this Reuters blockbuster about the car-range lies from Tesla, apparently at his direction, doesn't result in severe penalties, then we'll know how thoroughly our "regulators" are in the tank for this guy. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/