Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The milkweeds that we grow for Monarch butterflies attach packets of pollen, or pollinia, to visiting #pollinators, but not all insects are strong enough to carry them. In effect, the milkweed is putting a thumb on the scale for large #bees like #bumblebees.

Sometimes, pollination is perilous!

https://mgnv.org/beneficial-insects/the-perils-of-pollinia-and-more-about-milkweed/

If you care about labour or infrastructure in the US, you probably know that the Biden administration refused to let freight rail workers strike for sick days, citing the economic impact.

You might (also) have missed the announcement that the administration then did exactly what they promised: helped to make sure the workers got them.

http://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid

Regarding the position of scicomm.xyz on #Meta and in the Fediverse, #FediPact etc.

After discussion between myself and the other mods and considering the views expressed by the people on our instance we have decided that pre-emptive blocking of Meta is warranted.

There is more detail on the background and explanation of this decision in a post on our companion site, here:
https://about.scicomm.xyz/doku.php?id=blog:2023:0625_meta_on_the_fediverse_to_block_or_not_to_block

Thanks to our people for their comments and suggestions to help us reach this decision.

This is important reading. What Google did to the open XMPP messaging protocol -- adopting and then poisoning it -- is an object lesson as the fediverse ponders Facebook/Meta entry.

I'm still leery of pre-emptively blocking Meta here, but we need to be absolutely clear on what's at risk -- and ready to instantly respond if they try to take over.

https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

Please boost ​​

As part of a wave of layoffs, I got laid off from my backend development job last month as the company's financials I was working with have been steadily decreasing. I applied for another job shortly after, and after a month of interviews and an honestly great response from their team, at the last minute, they told me that they were focusing their hiring efforts away from the US and towards Singapore. With Calckey donations, I don't have enough money to pay for rent or groceries. So I'm asking to #GetFediHired, I'm the lead developer on the Calckey project, and I'm a fullstack, multi-language developer. I have 3+ years of enterprise experience, and I work great on teams as well as solo. Resume and references available upon request.

Amazon has (obviously on purpose) made it much harder to sort out ad-free films/TV that are included with Prime from films/TV you have to rent or are "free with ads".

It's a perfect example of the @doctorow "enshittification" principle.

The American Library Association annual meeting is happening now, in Chicago. I am the Vermont Chapter Councilor and am attending virtually. ALA did a good pivot to virtual meetings during early COVID times but now people mostly attend in person. I save my state library association literally thousands of dollars by attending virtually. I am sponsoring my first-ever resolution, one that guarantees that governance meetings will always be accessible virtually. Please wish me luck.

HOW TO SPOT A RIP CURRENT:

IT'S WHERE THE WATER LOOKS EASIEST AND SAFEST, with no waves breaking or rolling in.

NEVER ENTER THE SEA HERE.

If you get caught in a rip, DON'T FIGHT IT. You can't swim back to shore against it; you will become exhausted and drown.

Instead, SWIM ACROSS IT, parallel to shore. You'll soon be out of the current and can then easily swim back.

Boost, please, and make sure your friends and family know this when they hit the beach.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who use AltText to add descriptions to your pics and media. As someone who used to be able to see but has been blind for over 30 years now, it allows me to see the pic in my mind and is greatly appreciated and allows me to enjoy them.

Another heartfelt thanks to those who use #CamelBack in their hashtags. This makes it so much easier to understand with a screen reader and for those who read print as well! ❤️

Dear Red Hat: Are you dumb? | Jeff Geerling

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/dear-red-hat-are-you-dumb #RHEL #Linux

And hey, remember that last train disaster? Well guess what? It looks like the EPA is covering up for the railroad company's blatant disregard for the law, according to this guy from the EPA who is obviously none too happy about the role his agency is playing in the coverup. I expect we'll get the same treatment from the Feds here. When the Silvertip pipeline leaked into the river in 2011 they lied like hell to us about how and why it happened & just paid a tiny fine.

https://statuscoup.substack.com/p/exclusive-epa-official-admits-theres?

@dynamic Naked Capitalism links page is always a good place to look: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/06/links-6-25-2023.html

Here's your media literacy pro-tip for the day: If you were caught off-guard by the quick collapse of the Prigozhin mutiny, you may want to reconsider your sources of information on this war. If you thought "Maybe this will spell the end for Putin," I can tell you conclusively that you are imbibing too much Western propaganda.

When you step outside of the US media bubble, it immediately becomes apparent that we are not being well informed about the state of the world. Just sayin'.

Earlier this year a former inmate came to me w/a USB drive of surveillance videos another inmate had picked out of the trash at Men's Central Jail & sold to him for $50 of dope

He hid it INSIDE himself for mths then smuggled it out

Here's what was on it: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-24/fights-beatings-and-a-birth-videos-smuggled-out-of-la-jails-reveal-violence-neglect

DOT officials rejected agency research on big trucks after meeting with lobbyists https://www.alternet.org/big-trucks-dot/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

I’ve been shouting with my whole chest about the danger of large instances for as long as I can remember.

Even if this rumour is not true today or even if the large instance admins decide to act intelligently and with backbone and refuse such an offer if it is true, the danger remains.

You don’t have to wait for the ship to sink before taking action. If you’re on a huge instance, move to a smaller one. Spread yourselves thin. Make each instance a smaller target. Make the fediverse stronger.

I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction about how the Meta / Facebook / Fediverse thing is going to play out.

Thoughts below in a followers-only thread. Feel free to boost this top post.

REQUEST: If you follow me in order to see the rest of this thread, please send me a DM to let me know you have done so.

#meta #Meta #Facebook #federation #defederation

Having donated even once to a Democratic candidate or progressive cause, you are punished with a lifetime of incessant spam.

My response: I've crafted email filters that block mail from companies that candidates and causes hire to do their email campaigns.

This means I probably block some worthy things I might actually want to see.

So everyone loses, because political spammers don't value the online community.

When people say things like "I believe in free speech but..." I wonder how much they actually believe in free speech.

Most of New England’s solar capacity is represented by the region’s ~240,00 behind-the-meter, residential-scale rooftop solar systems. *That* is the power of rooftop solar.

Now, just wait until domestic load and residential-scale battery storage are aggregated!

The future of energy is distributed.