Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Fortune to readers:

You want privacy? Up yours.

Only one choice: Accept.

Well, no, I'll just keep using an ad/tracker blocker, thanks.

Who killed Britain?
This Danish article has the correct answer: Thatcher.

"Around two-thirds of Britons believe the country is in decline, and it's not hard to see why. Real wages are lower than 15 years ago. A third of British children grow up in poverty, many millions have to skip meals every single week. The UK is not just significantly poorer than France, let alone Germany or Denmark. The poorest 10% of Britons now also earn less than the poorest 10% in Slovenia...

"A particular story of decay still plagues the country... and it goes something like this: the 1960s and 70s were a dark time... Then Thatcher came and saved it all with economic common sense, tax cuts and a necessary showdown with unions... But that narrative is fundamentally wrong... Margaret Thatcher did not increase the growth of the British economy... The post-war period, including the 1970s, was the time of high growth and major transformations... an economic model reminiscent of the one found in the rest of Western Europe was established... In the 1980s many countries lowered taxes, removed regulation, encouraged deindustrialization and privatized public enterprises. But Britain took exceptionally radical action. Today, it is Europe's most financialized economy, with very high inequality - and a very low level of both public and private investment in the economy.

"Four criminal acts have destroyed the economy.... Monetarism in the 1980s, deregulation in the 80s, the austerity policy of the 2010s and Brexit. All motivated by the same economic thinking... free market fundamentalism."

https://www.information.dk/udland/2024/04/hvem-slog-storbritannien-ihjel?kupon=eyJpYXQiOjE3MTM1MjQ5MzUsInN1YiI6IjIyMjUyMDo4MTkwMzUifQ.9_7QOpyn65Fg3-8EP-Enfg

Taxpayers covered a lot of the cost of developing this wildly expensive drug, which has enriched UCLA and a Big Pharma company to the tune of billions of dollars.

And this publicly funded university is now bitterly opposing all efforts to price the drug reasonably.

Disgusting, but sadly routine.

From @thelever https://www.levernews.com/universities-are-making-billions-gatekeeping-your-meds/

@emaytch The thing that is interesting to me about it is that being "federated" means being recognized by a single central authority (the VC-backed company). That doesn't sound like decentralization and sort of doesn't sound like a federation for that matter

"I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi. These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.” - Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) on CNN today https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/04/21/sotu-gonzalez-during-panel.cnn

Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

“The Intersections of Press Freedom and the Environment,” a virtual discussion and Q&A on Thursday, May 2, 12 p.m. ET

https://www.sej.org/calendar/sej-webinar-intersections-press-freedom-and-environment

Moderated by FPF’s Adam Glenn with Caitlin Vogus, who will be joined by freelance journalist Carlos Berríos Polanco and Halle Parker, journalist and SEJ board member.

@freedomofpress @SEJ
#Journalism #Environment #Climate

“Prisons show us how businesses would treat us if they could get away with it.” - @pluralistic 🏴

A bill in Louisiana, HB 777, would make it a crime for librarians to use public funds to join the American Librarian Association or attend an ALA conference, punishable with prison time and hard labor for up to two years.

#libraries #education #books #librarians #theocracy

The fight for Palestinian freedom cannot be won through symbolic action. The actions taken on April 15th cost hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to an economy that profits off of colonialism and war. Escalation has just begun. Palestine must be free in our lifetime.

https://kolektiva.media/w/3Tt1dEM3zpWuBwiHCRKkqW

Wanting to breath new life (or extend the life) of an Android-powered phone? See https://www.sustaphones.com/ ! I've been running LineageOS (and CyanogenMod before it) on all my phones for the past decade or more... but it's a hassle to set it up... this new system promises to make it much more accessible to less technically confident folk: https://openandroidinstaller.org/ You can install your preferred OS ROM... I'm planning to use it when I upgrade my OnePlus 6T from Lineage 20 to 21 in the next few weeks.

“This machine kills AI.”

So, Microsoft is silently installing Copilot onto Windows Server 2022 system and this is a disaster.

How can you push a tool that siphons data to a third party onto a security-critical system?

What privileges does it have upon install? Who thought this is a good idea? And most importantly, who needs this?

#infosec #security #openai #microsoft #windowsserver #copilot

Hey, folks. I need some help.

One of my partners was in a car wreck a few days ago. They have a spinal fracture (T12 for certain, others unknown). They also have Ehlers-Dahlos syndrome.

So far the doctors are saying that a thoraco-lumbar fusion is going to be necessary. What they're not sure of is how well a spinal fusion is going to work while also being hypermobile.

Does anybody out there have experience with this? Any anecdotes? Data points? Papers to reference?

it might seem weird to toot this from carfree dot city, but go VW auto workers!

would i rather they were making buses and trains and e-bikes?—obviously, but as long as there are cars, the people who make them damn well deserve a union. labor is entitled to all it creates

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68861396

It’s a nice #SunnyDay outside and it really feels like spring. The #bees are busy making use of the #flowers, while the flowers are busy making use of the bees.

Seeing a lot more obvious trolling in my timeline these days. Fortunately, blocking is still simple and quick.

Purism Differentiator Series, Part 10: Convenience

Fully protecting your privacy, security, and having your digital rights retained should not require a person to be inconvenienced. While Purism works hard and invests millions to create ever more convenient products, the current product line-up from Purism has varying levels of convenience.

Read full article here: https://puri.sm/posts/purism-differentiator-series-part-10-convenience/

The world's billionaires now hold a combined $14.2 trillion in assets.

That exceeds the GDP of every country in the world except the US and China.

And we’re supposed to believe the ultra-wealthy can’t afford a wealth tax?

Gritty "Perfect Strangers" reboot where every western nation heaps indignity after indignity on Balki Bartokomous while cousin Larry just keeps sending him letters that tell him to "VOTE!"