Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

HRW usually focuses on wars and atrocities. Now, they're investigating LA cops' violence against protesters and journalists.

It's not because it's a slow atrocity news week — it's because the situation in LA really is that bad.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/18/us-excessive-force-against-la-protesters

For only $5 a month you can ensure EFF's lawyers and activists are prepared to defend your right to speak freely online. https://eff.org/35rm

“All licensed attorneys — but especially top prosecutors entrusted to protect the public, not just their clients — should know better than to retaliate against newspapers for basic public-interest journalism," Seth Stern said.

https://freedom.press/issues/rights-groups-oppose-us-attorneys-retaliation-against-press/

"Earlier this year, MERL Tech Initiative (MTI) undertook a sprint for Shared Services Canada (SSC), a department in the Government of Canada (GoC), with the question: Can Generative AI help government evaluators identify what might be missing from reports to refine the next cycle of evaluations?"

Is it the government's job to try to find a use case for an automated BS generator? 🤔

https://merltech.org/hey-chatgpt-what-is-missing-from-our-reports-a-generative-ai-use-case-for-public-sector-merl/

⚖️ New Legal Corner Article ⚖️

Bringing SumUp to compliance: a case study of license enforcement

What happens when those who benefit from the four freedoms fail to comply with the terms of a #FreeSoftware license?We take a look at the experience of license enforcement by one of our FSFE volunteers against the fintech company SumUp, and examine the lessons that supporters of Free Software can take away from it

https://fsfe.org/news/2025/news-20250820-01.en.html

🔴 Brand new comic now up on Boing Boing
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The Smythe family of Chagrin Falls, USA, enter an "AMERICAN HORROR STORY"
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https://boingboing.net/2025/08/20/tom-the-dancing-bug-an-american-horror-story-in-chagrin-falls-usa.html

https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/clear-spot-a-span-of-autonomy-14th-august-2025/

School of Subversion. All punk and education books are 40% off through 9/1 with code THINK at checkout.
Shop Punk Titles: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=149
Shop Education Titles: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=137

@rolenthedeep amen. my one wish is for computer guys who understand how viscerally users loathe their working tools changing out from under them.

(i started on xfce in 2010 and continue to be pleased)

Just got contacted by a recruiter for a venture-backed startup looking to replace 911 operators with LLMs to triage emergency calls and boy I can’t express how much A) no I do not want to join your company, and B) how much I do not want to live in the world where 911 calls are handled by LLMs

Getting an Old Fashioned... but not in a nice way.

"Majority (55%) of Britons think under 18s should be banned from using #VPNs" - https://yougov.co.uk/topics/technology/survey-results/daily/2025/08/19/acbfe/2 most people are idiots, and don't understand why VPNs are vital #security #privacy

Privacy‑Preserving #AgeVerification Falls Apart On Contact With Reality - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/19/privacy%e2%80%91preserving-age-verification-falls-apart-on-contact-with-reality/ "It adds identity friction to lawful speech, supercharges data linkage, and hands governments and intermediaries a revocation switch. That’s not child protection; it’s infrastructure for control."

Exposure to "AI Assistance" lowers doctors' ability to diagnose cancer just after a few weeks.

"AI"s main effect on people is skill decay.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(25)00133-5/abstract

I read @oblomov's piece on the assault on the #OpenWeb by #BigTech and, yes, I got riled up just as @elena predicted.
So I curated some #RSS feeds in #Nextcloud News to calm myself and looked into replacing my dusty website with a home-built #XML / #XSLT #indieweb #blog now that development for #PicoCMS has stopped.
https://wok.oblomov.eu/tecnologia/google-killing-open-web/

Here are a couple of vine weeds to watch out for at the moment that are still uncommon but actively spreading around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, New Zealand.

What's commonly known as German Ivy (Delairea odorata) is a fast growing vine from, well, not anywhere close to Germany. It's a native to southern Africa. It's been establishing in parts of the Port Hills and I saw the first one in Halswell last week. Its leaves are thinner than English ivy and it has yellow flowers.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306208256

Chilean glory creeper (Eccremocarpus scaber) is an orange-flowered vine that's been popping up in and around the city. Every year I see a few more plants.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306208250

Weedbusters has fact sheets on these, including recommendations on how to get rid of them.
https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/what-are-weeds/weed-list/german-ivy/
https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/what-are-weeds/weed-list/chilean-glory-creeper/

Please report sightings on #iNaturalist if you find them.

#nz #weeds #InvasivePlants #InvasiveSpecies #iNaturalistNZ

Some days I really feel like everything I do trying to make the world better is a waste of time. Like my efforts are not only ineffective, but actively counterproductive. Like the world would be a better place if I spent my days smoking ganja and stacking supermarket shelves instead of trying to support community infrastructure projects.

But the only way to totally fail is not to try. Also this kind of ennui often results from relentless gaslighting by authoritarians. Fuck them.

The most overtly racist executive branch in at least a century says "Get used to it," and guess what?

Big Journalism systematically normalizes it.

Glad to see that NPR -- with federal money gone and thereby free to reflect reality, not bogus "both sides" -- still cares.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/18/nx-s1-5482921/memes-white-house-dhs-social-media-trump

Woodie Guthrie is doing more to fight fascism than most Dems and he’s been dead for 57 years. https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-protest-music-anti-fascist-folk-singer-woody-guthrie