Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

It's normal to sit up and take notice when someone you hardly know and who is in a position of authority baselessly accuses you of doing something dishonest or unethical, because it's hard to shake the notion that the bad thing you're being accused of is something they are already well acquainted with.

Early in my solo career, I spent a lot of time talking to businessmen in Russia, who invariably would at some point accuse me of taking bribes to write unflattering things about them or their businesses. I soon learned that those individuals were accustomed to paying journalists in their country to write unflattering stories about others.

This reminds me of behavior in various state and federal GOP efforts to "secure" the vote, which has led to a flood of state proposals that effectively make it harder for people to vote, register, or have their vote count. "We can't let them steal this election again" is the refrain, even though it was never stolen in the first place. But it might very well be this time.

Wow. Thanks to the stall in sales of EVs in AU, and cars sitting unpurchased in car yards, the price of the car we got (with clean tech rebate) for $40k last year (an MG4 BEV) is now selling for $30k there (new car). We knew the prices would come down. Those are great buying at that price! They have a 10 year warranty on everything.

Ars is seeking a seasoned senior reporter for all things Google

Got feelings about the future of AI and/or phone bezel width? Come apply!

https://arstechnica.com/staff/2024/09/ars-is-seeking-a-seasoned-senior-reporter-for-all-things-google/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

In a recent fundraising drive for the vitally important @ProPublica investigative journalism outlet, people donating via Mastodon contributed more than from all other social media platforms put together.

I just made a new donation and hope you will join me.

https://mastodon.social/@ProPublica@newsie.social/113171129559729781

I got to help launch a newspaper!

The Rivertowns Dispatch, covering towns on the Hudson River, sent out its first print edition earlier this month, thanks to the vision of Allison Schulte, a former data savant for Bloomberg who wanted to use the paper to build community.

My company/cooperative @Outpost got to help make it all work seamlessly on @ghost

https://outpost.pub/rivertowns-dispatch-newspaper/

Long live print!

The Toxic Avenger #1 and #2 will now be available polybagged with trading cards https://bleedingcool.com/comics/toxic-avenger-polybagged-trading-card/#google_vignette

In 2017, 150k people paid Cards Against Humanity to protect a pristine plot of border land from Trump’s racist wall. But then an even richer, more racist billionaire—@ElonMusk—stole their land and dumped his shit all over it.

Lawsuit time --

https://ElonOwesYou100Dollars.com

They should bring back literal penal treadmills to power A.I. and make its role in society explicit.

More goodness concerning Microsoft - just hearing on RNZ news that 3 Mile Island nuclear plant (near where my mum lives in Pennsylvania) will be re-ignited to generate power.. for a Microsoft computing facility. What an unworthy motivation for a rather bad idea... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

For _years_ now I've been trying to figure out if I can DIY this. And the answer is that I think I've gone as far as I can, and the result is now online, and I guess I'll find out. Eviscerati Theater Presents The Points Between, Episode One:

https://eviscerati.libsyn.com/the-points-between-episode-one-arrival

It's probably not audiobook quality. But for a podcast? It might do. 12/fin

So the thing about the old Punk DIY ethos is that the punks didn't start Doing It Themselves out of a sense of artistic purity . They did so because they were, for the most part, poor, and record labels weren't interested in publishing them... so they scraped together what they could, and did what they could with what they had.

Later it became a source of pride, and rightly so! But in the beginning it was simply a matter of deciding to Do The Thing the best way they could manage. 1/?

Turned on NPR the other day to hear them interviewing an economist who told listeners that inflation experienced during the (official) height of the pandemic was caused by supply shortages and fiscal stimulus (i.e. one of the only good things the Trump admin did) - completely unmentioned by the silken voices on every liberal's favorite radio station, however, was corporate greed. NPR wants you to think prices went up because we gave poor people money, not because the rich are greedy.

"The reason we don’t see exploding battery attacks more often is not because it’s technically hard, it’s because the erosion of public trust in everyday things isn’t worth it."

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/turning-everyday-gadgets-into-bombs-is-a-bad-idea/

@dangillmor the US' federal electoral system is fundamentally broken - any candidate without a plan to completely replace the current electoral college, overturn Citizens United, kill duopoly campaign co-funding, and replace the first-past-the-post model is just rearranging the deck chairs... and has probably benefited from the brokenness to get into office. How can we fix that?

Classic American story: A growing community of immigrants, legal and hard-working, revitalizes a city that was dying. They are welcomed by the local leaders as part of their program of economic redevelopment. They put down roots, create new businesses, and reverse a long, slow decline in population and property value.

THAT’S the story in Springfield, Ohio, and even now most of the press is getting it wrong. Here’s Josh Marshall (gift link):

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/actual-springfield-ohio-story-is-pretty-different-from-what-youve-heard/sharetoken/5bac728d-61b8-45fc-9c6a-45f81196f05e

Every time I think my impression of Microsoft has hit rock-bottom, I find myself having to dig a new sub-basement. If I already have neither respect nor admiration for a group of people (that's what a corporation is), where to from there?

Surprise? https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/0210233 Now Microsoft has received a patent for something people have been doing, routinely, for many years. It just goes to show how a) completely broken the patent process is, and b) how assholic Microsoft is. His involvement with Microsoft does nothing to enhance von Rossum's reputation. Hope the money's good. I guess.

What is the difference between what companies are calling "AI" today and the Bayesian filter we've used for spam detection since 1996?

It's not a joke, I'm genuinely asking.

This is quite the sentence from the AP:

"The second wave also deepens concern over the potentially indiscriminate casualties caused in the attacks, in which hundreds of blasts went off wherever the holder of the pager happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes, often with family or bystanders nearby."

That's some chutzpah, using the word "potentially" right before describing exactly why the attacks were indiscriminate by definition. That takes some real mental flexibility.