Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

I love this. Engineer sets up free previously-payphones in his community to cover cellular dead zones:

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/04/nx-s1-5484013/engineer-restores-pay-phones-for-free-public-use

#Substack’s Algorithm Accidentally Reveals What We Already Knew: It’s The Nazi Bar Now - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/04/substacks-algorithm-accidentally-reveals-what-we-already-knew-its-the-nazi-bar-now/ "when you build your platform’s reputation around welcoming Nazis: your recommendation algorithms start treating Nazi content as more than worth tolerating, to content worth promoting."

The #Forgejo monthly report was published ✨

The Forgejo v12 release was on time. The runner saw significant progress, and the release tooling was improved. Discussions emerged regarding AI contributions, contributor attributions in the documentation, and the future of communication. An #NLnet grant ended, allowing time for a retrospective.

https://forgejo.org/2025-07-monthly-report

Congratulations to @john and the rest of the @index Ghost team for launching their 6.0 version!

"The social web turns your Ghost publication into a networked social profile that people can find, follow, like, reply, repost and interact with from anywhere —bringing network effects directly to decentralized publishing. Popular posts can be shared, re-posted, and discussed by millions of social web users."

https://ghost.org/changelog/6/

#ghost #fediverse #SocialWeb #OpenWeb #blogs #blogging

Rich shitheads should give me a $25 billion capital investment to add chatbots no one wants in my comics. https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2025/08/04

People are talking about leaving Spotify because the CEO is a douchebag, so let me remind you that you can stream radio stations from all over the world for free with Radio-Map. It's been my primary source of music the past few weeks. I'm a little biased because I built it, but I've never invested in a company that's building dystopian killing machines, so you can stream guilt-free.

@dangillmor ”There must be in-groups who the law protects but does not bind, and out-groups who the law binds but does not not protect.”
-Frank Wilhoit

This is the only true rule of conservatism.

And it was made in the context of pointing out that we have no other politics than #conservatism left.

All parties today protect the wealthy at the price of hurting the non-wealthy. Only different flavours of implementing #wilhoitslaw remain in power.

This needs to change.

I have to #diy handlebar grips.

What would you recommend that doesn't get slippery when sweaty?

Long story short: the grip shift rubber came off years ago. Tape doesn't fit very well.

#bicycle #biketooter #bike #cycling #AskFedi

Recent comic: Cutting out the Middleman

I suspect that some readers might interpret this cartoon as a call for Luddism, but mostly it's a reflection of thoughts I've been having lately about out-of-control data harvesting and a growing surveillance state.

#tech #technology #privacy #data #comic #cartoon #surveillance #consumers #corporations

Dude, why in the name of everything that is holy am I just now learning about Simone Weil's social and political thought? I've heard her name before, but never had anyone impress on me just how aligned with cooperative and solidarity economy thinking she is...WHY?!? I know more than one co-op focused academic, but it was my old house painting partner who turned me on to her 🤔 Definitely buying "The Need for Roots" at my earliest convenience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Weil#Spiritual_Nature_of_Work

#RightToBuy in #England ‘fuelled #HousingCrisis and cost taxpayers £200bn’ | #Housing | The Guardian

What’s this? So, #Thatcher's flagship social engineering policy was a disaster? Well thanks a lot, Maggie! [Sarc.]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/03/right-to-buy-england-fuelled-housing-crisis-cost-taxpayers-common-weath-report

#UK #Politics #Tories

Duckduckgo image search can now hide AI generated images:

https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures

Someone has produced these stickers and been putting them on Israeli produce (like hummus) in the UK. Depressingly needed genius.

@_elena @ahltorp fully agree. It's so upsetting to think that Aaron was driven to suicide for making science (mostly publicly funded) available to the public for free, while Sam Altman from the exact same Y Combinator cohort took the entirety of human endeavors to enrichen himself and the capital class while not only escaping accountability but receiving accolades.

Rep. Greenfield is asking exactly the right questions.

If the US is going to feed itself, there are farm jobs that have to be done. So how are we gonna do it?

No, really! How?

Who's going to do the work? What will their lives be like?

Will we build a farm sector that offers jobs that free people can build our lives with? Or will we keep building jobs that only seem worthwhile to desperate people with no other options?

If only immigrants take these jobs, how do they get here?

What are the circumstances they work under?

Now how's that link up to the ol' "Who will pick our crops" question?

These days I'm a small farmer. There's a saying in agriculture. "It doesn't matter what the laws are. Farmers will still get their workers one way or another."

So "Who will pick our crops?" is exactly what we should be asking.

And you know what Trump just did?

He just overturned all those updates. Back in June 2025.

Now, the system for *legal* farm immigration is back to the free-for-all that let people build a $200M slavery business in Georgia- with a license from the federal government.

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20250620

Widespread abuses are why Biden made updates to the H-2A guest worker program. Basic stuff: minimum wage enforcement. "If people are living on your property they need plumbing." "Don't take their passports."

To stop more slavery rings from happening!

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/biden-h2a-rule-expands-protections-oversight-migrant-workers/