Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

EFF opposes an amendment to the cryptocurrency provision of the infrastructure bill by Sens. Warner & Portman. It fails to protect software developers & is not technologically neutral. We urge Congress to pass Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment instead: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/cryptocurrency-surveillance-provision-buried-infrastructure-bill-disaster-digital (1/8)

Citizen's "Protect" plan would enable users to contact a special service whenever they feel threatened. Actively inserting itself between emergency responders and users who think they are in a crisis situation is a terrible idea, says EFF's @JGKelley https://www.wired.com/story/citizen-protect-subscription/

Apple: Think Different.
Users: Great!
Apple: About encryption and privacy.
Users: Yeah!!
Apple: We’re scanning your private messages, and we’re gonna tell your parents.
Users:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/08/apple-plans-to-scan-us-iphones-for-child-abuse-imagery/

Are you and your friends tech experts? Sign up to participate in EFF's @defcon Tech Trivia today to play and win some prizes! #DEFCON29 https://eff.org/techtrivia

Apple's filtering of iMessage and iCloud is not a slippery slope to backdoors that suppress speech and make our communications less secure. We’re already there: this is a fully-built system just waiting for external pressure to make the slightest change. https://eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/apples-plan-think-different-about-encryption-opens-backdoor-your-private-life

#HollingsworthHound in #Space! | Boing Boing

https://boingboing.net/2021/08/04/hollingsworth-hound-in-space.html

#Humour #Cartoon

It occurs to me that dogs are strong evidence that it's possible to be noble without being dignified.

I was going to write something up about Apple's new child safety features, but the @EFF post on the subject covers what I would have wanted to say, better than I could say it. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/apples-plan-think-different-about-encryption-opens-backdoor-your-private-life

iPhone users don't live in a walled garden, they live in a digital nursing home. They are well taken care of, but Apple controls the property, activities and visitors. Apple plans to search residents regularly for contraband. #privacy https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

#ClimateCrisis: Scientists spot warning signs of #GulfStream collapse | #ClimateChange | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/05/climate-crisis-scientists-spot-warning-signs-of-gulf-stream-collapse

#Environment #GlobalWarming

The #GNotification / #GApplication side went smoother than expected https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/merge_requests/2207 (thanks Philip!) so chatty and calls will show different LED feedback in upcoming releases: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/chatty/-/merge_requests/767 once #glib 2.70 is out.

This is sensible to see. https://fossbytes.com/german-government-open-source-cloud-nextcloud/ Will other sovereign gov'ts also finally notice that they've effectively handed the deciding vote in their democracies to anti-democratic US tech megacorps? (https://davelane.nz/mshostage)

@freakazoid

Regarding the claim that there is no feedback process on EPA rules, it's interesting to note that one of the more harmful but less well-known things that the Trump administration did was to rewrite the NEPA rules on the EPA process for reviewing big projects: https://www.pillsburylaw.com/en/news-and-insights/trump-administration-finalizes-updates-nepa-regulations.html.

The process for rewriting NEPA included a public comment period, as is required, but functionally it occurred behind closed doors, and I think the lack of publicity reflects the fact that big industry knew that ordinary people wouldn't be happy with these changes. I don't think that the rollbacks would have been nearly as dramatic if there had been a more public and transparent (i.e. democratic) process for changing the rules.

Paradoxically, the fact that this rewrite occurred illustrates both that there *are* feedback processes in place, and also the process whereby democratically elected government can serve authoritarianism.

(More on the Trump administration and NEPA: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/507536-trump-finalizes-rollback-of-bedrock-environmental-law-nepa)

If I were still writing for Linux Journal (or had an equivalent outlet today), I'd write a long form piece on why years ago, after a successful career as a sysadmin, I pivoted my career over to security. https://s.usenix.org/acton/media/2452/lisa-community-announcement

@coopcloud maybe we can switch to running social.coop on servers.coop with co-op cloud... I don't think I saw a Mastodon recipe yet?

#UK #finance giants plan to #BuyOut #FossilFuel plants in order to shut them | #Coal | The Guardian

Whether this is partly cynical or not, I think this could be a significant domestic move. Of course some of the companies may be playing different games abroad.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/03/uk-finance-giants-plan-to-buy-out-fossil-fuel-plants-in-order-to-shut-them

#Environment #Pollution #Emissions #GreenhouseGases

This concerns the incarcerated New Afrikan organizer Kevin "Rashid" Johnson of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party: https://rashidmod.com/. He was originally incarcerated in Virginia, but has been transferred to Oregon, Texas, Florida, Indiana and now Ohio to stop his organizing. More info can also be found on his wikipedia page. (Part 1)