Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

@mcfadden I'm all in favor of voting, but carrying a small knife to slash the tire valve stems of immigration vehicles also is good.

Has anyone ever run or participated in a conference facilitated by Indico? https://getindico.io/ (source code: https://github.com/indico/indico ) It's #libre, and looks interesting to me. I'd love to hear about people's experiences if they have any! #LibreConferenceSoftware

Support Anarchist and Indigenous media makers @AvispaMidia who are celebrating their 10th anniversary

https://gofund.me/229d26d0

Business Lobby Reaches Record High at #UN Biodiversity Talks

https://www.desmog.com/2024/11/12/business-lobby-reaches-record-levels-at-biodiversity-talks/

DeSmog’s analysis shows that business attendees at this year’s biodiversity COP reached record levels, more than doubling compared to the previous summit two years ago, to reach a total of 1,261 delegates.

The rise in industry delegates was proportionally higher than the increase in overall attendees, which rose by 46 percent. Banks were the best-represented sector with 124 delegates, which included more than half of the 30 banks named as the biggest financiers of deforestation in an October report. They were followed by fossil fuel companies, which brought 40 representatives.

The talks also saw a significant increase in big food and agriculture firms – such as Nestle, Pepsico and Cargill – which brought 33 delegates, nearly double the number from COP15.  

The presence of agrochemical and seed companies was up, too. Their delegates increased by 40 percent and 24 percent respectively since COP15. Representatives also came to #COP16 from the pharmaceutical sector – which openly opposed a tax on accessing nature’s genetic code.  

Agro-chemical and biotechnology groups – such as Syngenta, BASF and their lobby group Croplife – enjoyed privileged access to negotiations in #Colombia, coming in as part of country delegations with Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland and Canada. 

DeSmog’s data also revealed growing interest in biodiversity protection from big tech companies – such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft – which see an opportunity in the vast volumes of data which may be required to measure and protect nature set aside for preservation.

The delegates brought by some companies dwarfed country delegations from the Global South, which is home to the majority of the best-preserved natural world. For example, German multinational Bayer brought 12 delegates, triple that of the highly biodiverse East African country of Ethiopia, which brought only four.

"The Biden Administration first tried the obvious ruse of saying Israel had to let more aid in, intended as a sop to Muslim and anti-war voters, but with the deadline after November 5, so Israel could fall short with no effect on the election."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/global-fury-after-state-dept-claims-israel-not-violating-us-law-by-blocking-gaza-aid.html

I don't think lawn signs and voting every two years is going to work this time. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/11/08/2025-lawn-signs/

Speaking Freely is back! In our latest interview we spoke with Tanka Aryal, President of Digital Rights Nepal, to learn about the state of freedom of expression in the country. Read what he had to say here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/11/speaking-freely-tanka-aryal

The West's attempts to transition from fossil fuels to electricity is going to be/is already being carried out on the backs of the people in the "developing" world. And, of course, we'll do that while claiming that we're actually being charitable towards them.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/bad-samaritans-in-foreign-aid.html

In the last 125 years, bobcats have recovered significantly from extremely low numbers, with several million individuals found throughout North America today.

Bobcats help reduce the spread of diseases from animals to humans partly because they and other large mammals are poor disease vectors. Bobcats also prey on the small rodents that easily transmit pathogens.

By Christine Woodside
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Wildlife #smallcats #Animals

Don't tell me Google AI is an aggregator of information that digests it and then generates content

It literally is stealing and copyright infringement. At best it simply just rewrites what it has stolen

An accident happened in my region a few hours ago, a small publisher writes about it in their online newspaper and Google AI spews it out almost word for word

Readers no longer get a search result and have to visit the site where the site may earn from its trade as first choice.

Google Search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Seth+I.+Jones%2C+age+42

Victimized publication: https://www.peoplesdefender.com/2024/11/12/ripley-man-killed-in-two-vehicle-crash/

Threatened With A Ban In #India, #Wikimedia Agrees To Hand Over Personal Information About Wikipedians To Delhi High Court - https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/12/threatened-with-a-ban-in-india-wikimedia-agrees-to-hand-over-personal-information-about-wikipedians-to-delhi-high-court/ not good; by me, fwiw... #privacy

Record labels unhappy with court win, say ISP should pay more for user piracy - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/record-labels-unhappy-with-court-win-say-isp-should-pay-more-for-user-piracy/ remember: for #copyright companies, enough is never enough...

#NHS league tables could 'demoralise' staff and make recruitment harder, says leading A&E doctor - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/nov/13/wes-streeting-nhs-hospital-league-tables-starmer-badenoch-pmqs-uk-politics-live?page=with:block-67346e668f082c1a66381eec#block-67346e668f082c1a66381eec league tables are what you do when you don't know what to do...

Killer @forgejo feature: project's #cargo registry.

(also applies to @gitea and @Codeberg )

If you don't want to support #Microsoft gatekeeping of #crates_io through #github

https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io/issues/326

then just set up your independent source!

https://forgejo.org/docs/latest/user/packages/cargo/

Kudos for implementing this.

#forgejo #gitea #codeberg #git #opensource #freesoftware #rustlang #rust

Lies, Panic, And Politics: The Targeted Takedown Of #Backpage - https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/12/lies-panic-and-politics-the-targeted-takedown-of-backpage/ "The case against Backpage was built on lies, innuendo, and a willful misunderstanding of how the internet works. But that didn’t stop the government from destroying the company and its founders’ lives."

"Your body,
My choice"
Posts Are Spreading Post-Election.
Anyone Who Says This Should Be Fired—Immediately

I fully support firing whoever said it, texted it, or scrawled it on a Post-it note and stuck it to someone’s chair.
I asked a couple of employment attorneys if they disagree,
if there is any reason in the world you shouldn’t fire someone who did this.
Kate Bischoff, an employment attorney and HR consultant in Minnesota, responded:
"No reason. It should be done. It’s expressing a predatory nature which is often the first step to harassment. I’d delight in firing them"

Jon Hyman, an employment attorney in Ohio, said:
"I’d fire. Clear harassment and has no place at work.
In this kind of case, you don’t need to go through progressive discipline. You don’t need to send someone to counseling. Terminate."

https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/your-body-my-choice-posts-are-spreading-post-election-anyone-who-says-this-should-be-fired-immediately/91016921

A lot of people are suddenly realizing that their orgs or communities need digital security and privacy training. If you are a person with a technical or teaching background and you think you might be the right person to give such a training, you should check out the Security Education Companion for teaching materials and tips: https://www.securityeducationcompanion.org/

Just so a Microsoft guy breathlessly spruiking 'Microsoft Ignite' conference on Mastodon, and I can't imagine anything more tone deaf here. He should be embarrassed to be working for them.

The Murdoch family's Fox "News" is now the zero-training ground for running the most powerful military in the history of the world.

We are genuinely screwed.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/politics/pete-hegseth-secretary-of-defense/index.html

Question for people who use crowdfunding: do crowdfunding services typically submit income tax documentation to governments?  I'm in the U.S., so I'm personally most interested in the IRS, and I actually don't know to what degree this or isn't a thing in other countries.

Relatedly, if I were to take crowdfunding for a project, I'm wondering if I would need to set myself up as a "sole proprietor" or something.  How does this work?