floof.org
"EU to water down Brexit travel checks for British passengers as new border plan delayed again"
LOL..at this stage we just keep hitting the "fudge it" button. It is time to just admit the truth. End this...
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/border-checks-eu-uk-brexit-entry-b2581142.html
Exclusive: Entry-exit system will now start in November – with ‘relief valve’ to reduce congestionSimon Calder (The Independent)
Giant publishers are bleeding universities dry, with profit margins that rival Google’s. So we decided to start our own, says academic Arash AbizadehArash Abizadeh (The Guardian)
Labour members have opened a petition to Wes Streeting. Anyone can sign it.
"We, the undersigned, are calling on you to immediately withdraw your support for the ban on puberty blockers for trans young people."
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/open-letter-to-the-health-secretary
#transgender #LGBTQ #LGBT #Labour #trans
We're appalled that Wes Streeting plans to continue the Tories' ideological ban on puberty blockers. This move is not in the best interests of young trans people, and we will need the full unity of the labour movement to stop this.actionnetwork.org
Valve runs its massive PC gaming ecosystem with only about 350 employees
Ars' leak analysis shows a large "Games" department and a very well-paid "Admin" team.
Red pandas spend the whole day chilling, eating and sleeping. Unless it's snowing, when they go hog wild. Or unless they are cubs, when they spend a lot of the day pouncing. But mostly they just chillin'. Which is a lesson for us all to take life easier.
Be more panda.
#RedPanda 
'Global vaccine coverage has yet to return to 2019’s levels, before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted immunisation programmes. That year, 12.8 million children were classed as “zero-dose” and a further 5.5 million as under-vaccinated.
More than half of the world’s zero-dose children live in 10 countries, which officials said were “a mix of those with large birth cohorts, weak health systems or both”'
Vaccine misinformation has added to crisis of collapsed healthcare and poor nutrition, Unicef and WHO reportKat Lay (The Guardian)
"Anti-monarchy Labour MP has to retake oath after omitting part of it as protest"
Keep fighting, Clive!
Clive Lewis would have been at risk of a byelection if he did not pledge allegiance to ‘heirs and successors’ of the kingBen Quinn (The Guardian)
Ofwat opens cases against Severn Trent and three others, days after they faced criticism over huge bill risesJulia Kollewe (The Guardian)
More historical films to help with current issues:
"Propaganda Techniques" (1949) Coronet
Told in the context of a boy interviewing a campaign director, covers the various propaganda techniques. Same techniques are used in all advertising, so good to be aware of their use, no matter the context.
https://youtu.be/OaqlvgOk7JE?feature=shared
The video discusses the importance of studying propaganda techniques in understanding various forms of persuasion, such as glittering generalities, transfer,...YouTube
Trump: *almost gets assassinated*
Democrats: "Political violence is unacceptable!"
Republicans: "We're going to do that to anyone not like us soon lol"
Democrats: "Our hearts are with former president Trump!"
Republicans: "We'll purge all of you fucking degenerates."
Democrats: "We must respect diverging political opinions from the far right."
Republicans: "Remember Paul Pelosi? Wasn't that a fun night? hah."
So fucking predictable.
HOFSTADTER PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 1.0
Copyright <YEAR> <COPYRIGHT HOLDER>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, subject to the following conditions:
You agree to not follow the terms of this license.
I’m at a ~2000 capacity music venue, and can’t see anyone else wearing a mask.
COVID’s still about, still fucking over the lives of so many people who have had it. It’s not just a cold.
Please stay safe.
Can I play accordion while wearing my handpaws?
No❌
Can I play accordion while wearing latex gloves?
Kinda ✅ (it's hard without a sense of touch)
Should you?
idk 🤷, you be the judge of that xD
Brits: if you’re unhappy with something going through parliament, remember you can email your MP.
Their job is to represent you and others in your constituency. They have more tools to do that if you let them know how to represent you.
This can help if it’s an issue they don’t know much about or are indifferent to.
This website does all the hard work for you:
https://www.writetothem.com
Of course they’re not required to listen to you but it’s worth a go right?
WriteToThem is a website which provides an easy way to contact MPs, councillors and other elected representatives.www.writetothem.com
Musk says he'll spend about $180 million to elect Trump.
They are the nation's two most powerful enemies of democracy (though Musk has some competition for second place) and, by extension, freedom of expression.
Everyone who buys a Tesla is supporting them.
Everyone who uses the deadbird site -- notably the journalists, who all know what they're doing -- is supporting them.
Don't pretend otherwise.
The graying open source community needs fresh blood
An interesting opinion piece on The Register, about how major FOSS projects, and associated conferences, are struggling to attract younger developers.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/15/opinion_open_source_attract_devs/?td=rt-3a
Deep experience of the older tech crowd is nothing short of vital, yet projects need new devs to move forwardSteven J. Vaughan-Nichols (The Register)
I have an answer they all are going to hate.
Doing open-source require a lot of privilege and money.
Most young people are not in a situation to do so, far more than it used to be.
There are no easy solution here. This is the same as every experts group
brain cell: "it would be really nice if there was, like, a directory of fediverse people's online shops so I could buy all their stickers and music and stuff"
only other brain cell, bopping around inside of skull: "Mallstodon"
periodic reminder to me that Livejournal had CWs worked out in 1999.
On a Livejournal platform, you could use <lj-cut text="You click at your own risk"> or something like that to hide a portion of your post behind the cut "tag".
Mastodon's CW stuff does work well enough. I miss getting to provide a little context above the fold, though.
Deep in dark caverns, at the heart of forgotten barrows, atop empty mesas, the ancient spirits abide. They all guard the same treasure.
"I apologise for intruding," I say as I settle down in the cave, "but I just had to get away from everything."
/same/ the cave whispers.
It's always interesting when I come across a name for something I've seen or done many times but didn't even realise it was a thing needing a name.
In case you're using Firefox on mobile - so myself and like four others - disabling Firefox' new Facebook data collection feature is quite a bit harder than on desktop, but it can be done:
chrome://geckoview/content/config.xhtmlaboutConfig and enable itabout:configdom.private-attribution.submission.enabled and set it to falseDone. This only works on Android, because Firefox on iOS is just a Safari skin.
> For a vibrant consumer navigational ecosystem to emerge, society needs to invest in OpenStreetMap as a public good. … City planners should dedicate staffers to updating their roads and bridges on OpenStreetMap. Communities should submit updates with roads and hazards in their local areas
We quite agree! 😍
From @Julia's recent Op. Ed. in the #NewYorkTimes, “Your Driving App Is Leading You Astray”
📰 read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/google-maps-driving-apps-flaws.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6E0.yGok.7gErcSBb7E43&smid=url-share
#OpenStreetMap #OSM #gischat #FreeMaps
Programmed to find the fastest route without consideration of literally anything else, driving apps endanger and infuriate us on a remarkably regular basis.Julia Angwin (The New York Times)
"The privacy invading feature that was patched into your browser and silently turned on by default was announced on our browser's blog 2 years ago so why are you so mad?"
My dude I'm probably in the top 0.01% of humans alive advocating for your product and I have never read your fucking blog because even I think "keeping up on the blog of the browser I use" is a fucking weirdo move
