Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Today is announcement day 🔥

Bonfire is shifting its centre of gravity: from social features to community tools. Four things ship today, and the whole story is here: bonfirenetworks.org/posts/bo...

1. Bonfire for communities
Groups and topics, community rules, decision-making (from quick polls through structured consensus to weighted score voting, where an objection can count for more than an approval), events, shared organisation profiles, announcements.

A ready-to-use space you can then take apart: add what's missing, fork what almost fits, switch off what you don't need.

2. Our first Mosaic case study
Six months with Jacobin's German edition, building jacobin.social from the ground up: a home for 3,000+ readers, wired into their Ghost publication, in their language and their look and feel. Their readers crowdfunded the project, which included a reboot of the magazine and a new community space. Now every publisher can benefit. What one community funds, every community inherits. Details: bonfirenetworks.org/case-stu...

3. A deep Ghost integration
Keep publishing exactly as you do now, and Bonfire can become the home for everything that happens around the work: your archive imported, new articles followed, members and tiers synced, sign-in through Ghost, federated discussion under every piece. Details: bonfirenetworks.org/ghost/

4. The Telling
One script tag turns any web page into a federated conversation. Readers reply with an account they already have, on Bonfire, Mastodon, anywhere. The thread lives on your server, and you can take it with you. Details: bonfirenetworks.org/telling/

Being straight with you: this is a 1.0 beta. Groups work within a server and don't federate yet. We're designing that in the open with the W3C groups task force, because we'd rather it work across the whole fediverse than ship a dialect only Bonfire speaks.

Want to poke at it? Groups are live on the campground, our open test instance. Make an account and try it out: campground.bonfire.cafe

Finally, we've rebuilt the website to reflect the new direction: bonfirenetworks.org/

Now back to following up with crowdfunding backers to organise install parties, co-design workshops, and other rewards. Thank you for your patience 💛 #fediverse #ActivityPub

I can’t emphasize this enough though: if your company’s name is listed proudly alongside Palantir, you’re fine with being listed alongside a company whose money is in selling an awful fucking product that’s used to target people for death

and that’s because you’re also that type of company and would like to advertise that fact

RE: https://mastodon.social/@gamingonlinux/116992357509562695

Torvalds and Thiel
Sitting in a tree

#noAI #AI #LLM #LLMs #technofascism #vibeCoding #agenticAI #security

NYC is moving ahead with city-run grocery stores, with Mayor Mamdani announcing today that a core basket of staples will be priced 30% below typical retail prices.

Back in December, J. Patrick Patterson looked at the idea—and where it’s already been tried.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/municipal-owned-grocery-store-food-desert-rural-chicago-kansas-city-detroit-market-vendors-public-community-care

. . . The literary agent model has never been challenged in court, but I find it hard to believe that what the agent does (negotiate a contract, represent a third party, and explain contract terms to a third party) would not be considered illegal.

Finally, one more.

Publishers generally send the entire royalty check to the agent. The agent deposits the money, and then sends the author's share to the author.

Lawyers do the same but the industry is highly regulated.

8/

. . . because the only thing they have to offer new authors is access to the publisher.

Conclusion for this issue: The agent is an out-sourced slush reader, so there is a conflict of interest.

Here is the definition of conflict of interest in relation to laws governing lawyers: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_7_conflict_of_interest_current_clients/comment_on_rule_1_7/

(2) second issue. Agents negotiate contracts but they are not trained in contract law.

This is called unauthorized practice of law . . .

7

. . . the agent is torn and would probably have to step aside.

It is often the case that what the writer most needs isn't a larger advance but better contract terms.

You'll find editors saying, "We prefer to work with agented authors because if a dispute arises, we can talk to the agent instead of the author."

Why? Because all most all the time, the agent needs the publishing company more than it needs the author. . .

5/

would be hired to read through the slush pile and look for good books. Lots of good books were picked out of the slush pile.

Literary agents are essentially slush readers for the publishers. There is no more slush pile.

Here is the first problem: There are only a handful of major publishers, and the "power" an agent has is their access to editors.

You might say they work for the publishers but are paid by the writer.

They have a legal conflict of interest.

4/

Kim Kelly reports that though the Trump administration says it “digs coal,” it has delayed a silica dust rule, gutted a mine safety review agency, and left coal miners facing greater risk of injury, disease, and death. https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-coal-miners-doge-fmshrc

Not sure why I haven't posted yet, but here is a quick faircamp we whipped up for sugartown: Hattiesburg MS hardcore punk!!

https://sugartown.waxmyrtle.org/

Texas boarding homes can cost far less than nursing homes, but many operate with limited oversight while housing people with extensive medical needs.

Ottavia Spaggiari examines how residents are exposed to neglect, abuse and financial exploitation.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/texas-boarding-homes-elderly-disability-justice-healthcare-investigation-nursing-neglect-abuse

Tell the Senate to reject Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence.

Clayton subpoenaed several New York Times journalists over their reporting on the Air Force One plane Qatar gifted to President Trump.

Someone who targets reporters shouldn’t be DNI.

https://freedom.press/action/write-a-letter-opposing-jay-claytons-confirmation-as-director-of-national-intelligence/

The Pentagon wants to block FOIA access to all “controlled unclassified information.”

If successful, hundreds of millions of documents could be hidden from journalists and the public — potentially forever.

Read more in our secrecy newsletter, The Classifieds.

https://freedom.press/the-classifieds/pentagon-tries-to-hide-unclassified-records-from-foia/

How is the Bun rewrite in Rust going? https://lockwood.dev/ai/2026/07/27/how-is-the-bun-rewrite-in-rust-going.html

It seems like if the initial token costs are to believed, the cost is approaching $1m USD, but it's likely, as the article says, that there were a lot of non-reported costs being spent from Anthropic helping the project along and continuous CI/CD.

Man Accused of Horrific Crimes Caught Hiding as Pharma Executive
#NotTheOnion

https://futurism.com/future-society/pharmaceutical-executive-fugitive-criminal-yacht

What garbage is Silicon Valley selling? https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2026/07/27

“We are experiencing exactly what the climate models in the 1990s said we should experience now...

... more frequent, more severe #heatwaves, bigger temperature anomalies, more humidity, higher overnight temperatures... all part and parcel of the climate story" ~ #ClimateCentral org

The 3rd major #HeatDome in a month is set to hit southern & central U.S.. Temperatures of 95-105F (35-40C) are expected -- potentially reaching 120F (48C) in some areas.

#ClimateChange

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/25/scorching-us-heat-wave

But what seems to unite Icelandic labour movement and our oligarchs is a belief that their position would be weaker in the EU

The oligarchs are right. They are small fry compared the EU's oligarchs and would be eaten alive in direct competition. Same applies to our banks and retailers. The EEA was already a body blow (currently Boozt is eating our retailer's lunch)

The left's antipathy stems from seeing the EU as a fundamentally capitalist project. (Not wrong, but also not that simple)