Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The need for meaningful inheritance taxes -- steep ones above some heirs-are-still-absurdly-rich threshold -- has never been more clear.

Banker-for-the-rich UBS data shows that family dynasties are becoming the primary system by which the ultra-rich come about their money.

It is completely unearned income but they pay minuscule relative taxes.

https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-20231130-the-great-wealth-transfer.html

When cities run gun buyback programs, they pay a vendor to run the program and destroy the guns. Despite their marketing to the contrary, those vendors turn out to have been reselling the guns, as a matter of course, minus the receiver. 98% are resold. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/us/guns-disposal-recycling.html?unlocked_article_code=1.E00.JnYH.TqkHjf6uP1oW&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Last week's comic on Kissinger

#politics #cartoon #humanrights #war

Long-lasting digital data storage with ceramic and glass based substrate.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/cerabyte-aims-to-revolutionize-data-storage-with-nanodots-ceramic/

If this is confirmed, it would be quite nice to finally have reliable data storage that would last thousands of year in archives.

My first bachelor internship, roughly a decade ago was on that topic (working with glass-based materials).

#storage #archival #dataStorage #ceramic #nanodots #laser

Tusky is looking for contributors!

The #Tusky team has lost a few contributors this year for various reasons, and we need your help building a kick-ass Mastodon app!

While we would also appreciate more technical contributors, we are specifically looking for:
- a person who can manage or help with our social account
- a project manager who can help us draft a Code of Conduct

Please help us spread the word 😊

Kolektiva.social is looking for new mods!

This instance is moderated by a small group of volunteers. A couple members of our team have recently stepped back from this role, and we're looking to replace them. We'd also like to grow our collective, and hopefully fill in some linguistic gaps. New moderators who speak Polish, Spanish, Greek, Arabic, Turkish and/or Japanese would be a bonus!

Another important thing to note: right now our mod team is almost entirely made up of people who identify as male. We would love to change this, and so we encourage female, non-binary and other genderqueer users to reach out about joining our team.

If you're interested in helping out, or you're curious about what joining the mod team would entail, reply to this thread, send a private message to one of our mods, or email us at kolektiva[at]riseup.net.

The great thing about federated social media networks like Mastodon is that we get to run them free of the influence of the Mark Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world. But this only works if some of us step up to help make sure things run smoothly.

COP28 is wrapping up and climate change continues unabated. https://brianmcfadden.org/2023/12/01/cop28-agenda-items/ #COP28 #climatechange

Reposted from @MostlyHarmless with alt-text.

"A Little Sleight of Hand"

Just a reminder of the shipping deadlines to get gifts by you know when & to get 50% off books, e-Books, DVDs & CDs at http://pmpress.org w/ coupon code GIFT until 1/1/24.

Domestic US
Standard 12/13
Priority 12/18
Priority Express 12/20

International
Priority Express 12/12

The only unusual thing about this case of official racism in Texas is that the agency felt obliged to lie about it. These days, racism is loud and proud in the state.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-historical-commission-book-removal/

14 years old, but still useful:

Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies

#attention #socialmedia #literacy #edutech

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies

@eff yes, except for the fact that, as with WhatsApp, Facebook/Meta control the client apps at both ends of the E2EE link... so that means they can truthfully say that the communication is E2EE, while still harvesting the message content (via a separate link between the clients) for advertising purposes.

"More than 750 journalists and business-side staffers at The #WashingtonPost walked off the job today...

"The newspaper's acting CEO, Patty Stonesifer, announced plans in October to cut 240 jobs, about 10% of the workforce

"Union members say specific areas have been disproportionately targeted for buyouts, including metro news, copy editors and the audio team.

"'What they're doing is really going to decimate the local news desk'"
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/07/1217690720/washington-post-workers-strike
—
#media #journalism #WaPo

📫 Subscribe to the GEO Weekly Newsletter for a regular dose of #Cooperative and #SolidarityEconomy goodness!

https://mailchi.mp/0c347ad90893/geo-newsletter-subscribe

"Doom"

Tomorrow I’m walking off the job with hundreds of my Washington Post colleagues because the company is breaking the law and bargaining in bad faith. Respect our picket line during our 24-hour strike by avoiding Washington Post journalism on Dec. 7, and send a letter to our bosses here: bit.ly/postguildsupport

(Reposted with alt text, thanks for the reminder @bodhipaksa!)

ORG warns "Clause 2 could allow for the commercial exploitation of personal data under the guise of scientific research. By overextending the definition of scientific research, the clause risks undermining public trust in legitimate research activities."

The #DataGrabBill will “reduce transparency... such as by exempting researchers from providing information to large numbers of individuals or when personal data have been collected a long time ago.”

#privacy #DPDIBill

https://www.verdict.co.uk/what-does-the-uks-data-protection-and-digital-info-bill-mean-for-companies-and-consumers/

Our Health Minister wants more smoking

Our Climate Minister wants more coal mines

Our Minister for Regulation wants fewer regulations

Our Finance minister wants higher unemployment

You have to start wondering who they are working for.

#nzpol #NewZealand