Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The strain on scientific publishing 📄:

The publishing sector has a problem. Scientists are overwhelmed, editors are overworked, special issue invitations are constant, research paper mills, article retractions, journal delistings… JUST WHAT IS GOING ON!?

Myself, pablo, @paolocrosetto and Dan have spent the last few months investigating just that.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.15884

A thread🧵1/n

#AcademicChatter #PublishOrPerish #Elsevier #Springer #MDPI #Wiley #Frontiers #PhDAdvice #PhDChat #SciComm

Looking for a list of online bookshops that sell DRM-free ebooks, digital comics, magazines, and RPGs?

Got you covered!

#DRMfree #ebooks #DigitalComics

https://libreture.com/bookshops/

I can't help but think that the general apathy and concerted lack of action (i.e. tacit acceptance) to counter of our future digital hell-scape mirrors our denial of the physical one that #ClimateChange is wreaking. So I'm desperately sad and frustrated on both real and virtual fronts these days. *big sigh*

Every day, when I interact with people who think that Microsoft+Google+Amazon+Facebook+Apple = computing, I'm reminded of How To Train Your Dragon: "everything we think we know about dragons... is wrong". Except, we substitute "digital existence" for dragons.

One of the things that drives me nuts about the modern Web is that you could write a plain text file, save it as "index.html", and it will display just fine. And everyone seems to have forgotten this.

A new report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board shedding light on abuses of Section 702 surveillance make the demands of civil liberties groups for reform even more pressing. The government simply shouldn't be able to access Americans' communications collected under 702 and other intelligence authorities without a warrant. https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/PCLOB%20Section%20702%20report%20coalition%20statement%20928%20final.pdf

We joined 90 organizations led by Defending Rights & Dissent to call for charges against Cop City protesters to be dropped. Prosecutors citing talking to reporters, recording cops and distributing zines to prove supposed RICO violations is especially worrisome when the govt is already weaponizing vague legislation from the Espionage Act to computer fraud laws against journalists and their sources. https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/90-organizations-tell-ag-carr-drop-cop-city-rico-charges/

Allowing governments to install spyware on journalists’ phones isn’t an issue that needs a “nuanced approach,” no matter what politicians say.

EU law should unconditionally ban governments from using spyware against journalists. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/27/mep-spying-journalists-press-freedom-spyware-european-parliament

A fed judge ruled a Chicago alderman violated the First Amendment by blocking critics from official social media sites. Ald. Jim Gardiner claimed he was immune from suit because he acted in good faith but the judge rightly found it was so obvious that his actions were unconstitutional that he isn’t entitled to the benefit of the doubt. It’s crucial that courts continue rejecting these antics so journalists and others can access officials’ comments on public business. https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/09/26/ald-jim-gardiner-violated-first-amendment-by-blocking-critics-on-social-media-federal-judge-rules/

US may pay 3x more than EU for Moderna’s US-funded COVID shot

Moderna developed its vaccine with the NIH and got $1.7 billion in federal grant money.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/us-may-pay-3x-more-than-eu-for-modernas-us-funded-covid-shot/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Who wants to convert Bandcamp to a co-op?

“Epic will also sell Bandcamp, a music distribution platform Epic acquired in March 2022, Sweeney wrote.”

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article279874624.html

#N8VoicesBack Sioux Falls Action This Saturday, Sept. 30
September 28, 2023

"Immediate action against ethnocide is needed this week on Saturday, September 30, in the Oceti Sakowin Oyate homelands!

This week at The Great Plains History Conference in Sioux Falls, SD, conference organizers knowingly centered ethnic fraud Dr. Kent Blansett as keynote speaker and headliner."

A panel of actual Native elders and scholars are slotted to follow Blansett. #Pretendianism

https://ocetisakowinwriterssociety.org/blog/2023/9/28/n8voicesback-sioux-falls-action-this-saturday-sept-30

I just finished @kashhill 's new book Your Face Belongs To Us. It's a very interesting journey not just through the history and capabilities of Clearview AI, but the overall history of facial recognition.

Highly recommended for people interested in privacy and civil liberties, and for anyone curious about the past, present and future of facial recognition.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/your-face-belongs-to-us-by-kashmir-hill/

#privacy #AI

CJEU advocate general puts #copyright ahead of privacy - https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-09/cp230151en.pdf #shame just a repeat of his earlier error - https://walledculture.org/copyright-is-more-important-than-privacy-says-top-eu-court-advisor/

Annals of corporate crime, part 647,803: Philips profited from medical breathing machines that maimed and killed patients -- and kept its malfeasance secret for a decade. https://www.propublica.org/article/philips-kept-warnings-about-dangerous-cpaps-secret-profits-soared?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

Journalists and the public are being shut out of the most important antitrust trial of the century.

The court needs to stand up for the public’s right of access, not defer to big tech companies. https://freedom.press/news/secrecy-undermines-trust-in-antitrust-trial/

Project manager: "What's technical debt? Explain it to me like I'm 6 years old"

Devs: