Lots of mystery meat news this week! I did a livestream going through the stories here!
If you've wondered
"Where is this bonus tariff-free beef coming from??
"Is it HORSE?"
you’re a worker and deserve a union even if you (temporarily) make really good money
we uh actually need workers with a modicum of bargaining power in unions. fucking obviously
it was previously very popular for the capitalist class to pretend to be programmers, but it’s always been popular for the capitalists to pretend to be workers in general
I don’t know how you look at the current state of programming and don’t see labor exploitation, other than not looking at all
#Doonesbury by #GarryTrudeau for August 30, 2026 | GoComics
https://newrepublic.com/post/214832/texas-suspended-1-million-voters-ahead-senate-race This is how the Republicans will win in Texas: prevent Democrats from voting. Criminals at work.
Google escalates its quisling ways. Contemptible. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/gnis-lake-ontario-lake-america-name-change
if a vote passes under pretenses you know are false, and the vote was decided entirely by a group you aren’t a part of and aren’t likely to be allowed to be part of, that vote doesn’t represent you
especially if the options on the poll were fucked with
I have no idea if this article is incorrect or slop so grain of salt but: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/325094/20260820/debian-votes-eight-ai-proposals-ballot-math-makes-outright-ban-unlikely.htm this popped up while I was researching how debian votes
> Debian's 1,039 active Developers are ranking eight competing proposals on a single ballot right now, and the math of how Debian votes means the option they are most likely to argue about — an outright ban on AI-assisted contributions, written into the project's foundational Social Contract — is also the one least likely to win. The ban requires a 3:1 supermajority to pass because it amends a Foundation Document; every other option on the ballot needs only a simple majority per the Debian Constitution's supermajority rules.
this is uhhh shit
“responsible AI” from the same philosophy as “clean coal”
the philosophy where you do whatever you want as soon as you find a phrasing for it that disarms susceptible people into thinking it’s good that you’re fucking them over
I am gonna be honest, I have a really hard time seeing how the status quo of the mid 2000s and before of small time proprietary software shops was “worse” than what we have now. What has “open source” amounted to? Well…
1. Free labor for corporations. In web-based apps, you can simply use even GPL-based code for free without reciprocal releases.
2. Grist for the LLM training mill
3. Killing the ability of small time software developers to make money on their own
fail2ban doesn't work, anubis is about to stop working, and the companies doing this are more likely to be fly-by-night Chinese operations than OpenAI or Anthropic. (That's not to say that OpenAI or Anthropic are not doing scummy and criminal things in search of data, but they're not doing _this_.) Which means that the financial collapse of the US AI bubble is unlikely to make a dent, even if it happens soon.
A _lot_ of websites are about to go dark.
ya know i was specifically wondering what joey hess would make of this debian LLM bullshit, his response is what i expected
“Come Up to the Lab and See What's on the Slab”
https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/come-up-to-the-lab-and-see-whats-on-the-slab/
> We’re never going to support a human-centered education if we’re all so busy centering machines as the mission of our efforts.
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Rabies is 100% fatal if untreated.
Please help spread the word about the exposure at the Farm Adventures mobile petting zoo in North Carolina.
The vaccine is incredibly effective and will save your life.
Also…. Rabies at a petting zoo!?!?
@alpinefolk Yes. It’s also sad to think that the local councils had built a plan during the last government's term to connect up these towns with light rail connected to hubs with frequent bus services.
“The design phase was set to begin later in 2024, if it gets government approval”
Then NZ went backwards to cars, cars, cars again.
Bad news: Orbiting mirrors could wreak havoc on circadian rhythms, animal navigation and entire ecosystems.
Good news: Your company’s midnight retreat will be unforgettable.
Jen Sorenson illustrates the possibilities.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/selling-the-sun-comic-capitalism-subscription-jen-sorensen
Being aware of any potential privacy risks is an important part of the decision to use any software, and that includes AI tools. https://ssd.eff.org/module/privacy-considerations-with-ai-tools
This week's comic on the folly of triangulating with oligarchs
#comic #cartoon #voting #uspol #oligarchy #democrats #elections #authoritarianism #corruption
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa