Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Long read, short summary: AI is really bad for the planet.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/

Adam Levitin on the GENIUS Act: “[I]n regard to cash deposits, the stablecoin investors will have priority over the claims of ma-and-pa for their bank deposits (and thus over the FDIC's subrogation claim when it pays ma-and-pa). Yes, you read that correctly: Congress is about to put the claims of stablecoin investors ahead of ma and pa's bank deposits. That's just stunning. Now ma-and-pa's deposits are FDIC insured, so they'll be alright, but it means the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund is footing the bill. In other words, the GENIUS Act is subsidizing stablecoin issuance on the back of bank deposits. By subordinating the FDIC's subrogation claim in a bank insolvency to the claims of stablecoin investors, the GENIUS Act is effectively letting FDIC insurance leak out to cover uninsured stablecoins, without any insurance premiums paid.”

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/05/the-genius-acts-insolvency-provisions-crypto-investors-come-ahead-of-bank-depositors.html

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

@strlcat @martinl @StopTheSweepsPDX

1. there is an actual thing called quantum computing, where you program a problem into "qubits" and it reaches the solution.

2. this could be amazing! factor large numbers quickly! break public key encryption (that isn't quantum-resistant)! there's a pile of algorithms that can be implemented once this is a thing!

3. so far, at great effort, it can reliably factor numbers as high as 21. It can't manage 35 reliably.

4. this doesn't matter because the VCs, desperate for the next tech bullshit hype wave, are funding it anyway.

5. this means a lot of dumbass bullshit with the word "quantum" attached is being funded even when it's not "quantum computing" as such at all.

5a. I fully expect some bro to try to get funding for an ordinary computer cos transistors are "quantum".

👀 new book from @alex and @emilymbender just dropped 🎉

brb, bookworming
don't wait up
also buy this book, that is all

FBI Warning on Messaging Apps: Time to Rethink What "Secure" Really Means

The FBI recently urged Americans to switch from SMS to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal.

Read More at: https://puri.sm/posts/fbi-raises-alarm-on-encrypted-messaging-apps-a-new-front-in-the-battle-for-digital-privacy-and-national-security/

#Cybersecurity #Privacy #Surveillance #Signal #WhatsApp

For anyone who hasn't heard, the FDA is planning to limit annual COVID vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness:
https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/20/fda-vaccine-framework-new-covid-shot-recommendations-vinay-prasad-marty-makary/

You can provide public comment here:
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001

The comment period ends in 2 days.

Are you already collecting wireless information like wifi points and GSM antennas for #beaconDB?

Building a #bigtech independent database with such information is important for #DigitalSovereignty.

The #MobileLinux eco system already uses beaconDB for determining the position of devices when there is no #GPS.

Learn here how you can contribute to this #crowdsourced project:

https://beacondb.net/

#opensource #FOSS #Linux #digitalautonomy #WiFi #location #position

Rebecca Solnit tears Big Journalism a new one in her latest newsletter piece, and I think she may be understating the case.

https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/im-the-problem-its-me-on-the-confession-the-mainstream-media-wont-make/

(Note: Good to see another fine writer choosing NOT to use the vile Substack -- Ghost in this case -- as a platform.)

In what may be its last days before becoming Trump-controlled media, CBS News covers the regime's latest demonstration of contempt for law, human rights, and the judiciary. Deporting Asians to an African nation that is all violence, all the time.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-deported-asian-migrants-south-sudan-lawyers-say/

Coinbase was aware that support reps were suspiciously accessing customer data when its CEO tweeted that the CFPB should be "deleted". Among other things, the CFPB has pursued legal action against financial companies that failed to secure sensitive customer data.

#Coinbase #crypto #cryptocurrency

Strongly recommend Jason Sattler's (@lolgop) "The Farce" newsletter

Current post, on how Bruce Springsteen is showing the way to resist, is a good example:

https://www.thefarce.org/why-donald-trump-is-so-scared-of-bruce-springsteen/

If what you think you own has software in it and requires an Internet connection, you absolutely do not own it -- and you can expect the company that "sold" it to you to eventually screw you.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/12/garmin-ceo-hints-more-paywalls-and-enshittification-are-coming-falsely-claims-users-love-it/

Looks like some bot accounts established a year ago are coming to "life" in service of fascists...blocking...

Oh joy github is tightly integrating more AI features that encourage people browsing projects to do drive by vibe coding.

The new features have no optout and are not optin. GitHub is encouraging users to submit bug reports fully written by AI and to fix bug reports using fully AaI written PRs.

A lot of maintainers of open source projects big and small really do not want this turned on by default.

#AI #GitHub #VibeCoding

I'm starting to really like 'vibe coding'...

I've now had several clients come to me to take over projects that another agency was working on because the other agency started using generative AI. Apparently there was a real drop in product quality. I wonder why.

Basically vibe coding is making me money specifically because I'm not using it.

#GenerativeAI #VibeCoding

McAfee likes to use his barn cats of proof that his milk is fine! It definitely wasn't his milk that made cats sick.

I just think it's kinda funny how none of his barn cats seem to be very old

(Also cats are fine in barns where the cows live, but really shouldn't be in a milking barn)

Here, we've got 3 different employees tasked with "cleaning" the cows & equipment by spraying them down with water.

This is a big, classic rookie mistake in food & ag.

Spraying water on poop doesn't make it go away. IT LAUNCHES THE POOP EVERYWHERE

NOW YOUR RAW MILK DAIRY IS FULL OF WET POOP MIST

Like many people, the YouTuber here doesn't know much about farming.

That led him to say "Yes! Totally!" when the farmer was lying to his face, about things he could see right in front of him.

Gullibility is not good! That's why we're doing "ag media literacy" today!

If you can, get a look at their farm.

I looked up Mark McAfee's farm on Google Maps & was surprised to see that his "grass-fed dairy" is a bog standard, feedlot-style large commercial dairy.

With over 1,000 cows standing & lying around on what we call a "dry manure pack" in the biz.

Mark McAfee also got a $10M USDA-backed loan to build a brand new factory for raw milk dairy products in 2022.

https://thebusinessjournal.com/arson-destroyed-its-creamery-fresno-county-raw-milk-dairy-rebuilding-with-10m-usda-backed-loan/

We're gonna come back to this later, because it involves his old cheese facility burning down in an arson case some would describe as "suspicious."