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Episode 223 – tracklist

Episode 223 of Fractal Meat on a Spongy Bone broadcasts on NTS.live on Monday night / Tuesday morning 18th March 2025, from 01:00 to 03:00. Alternatively, catch the archive on the show page. This month's show includes lots of strange electronic music of different flavours, plunderphonics, drone music, free jazz and bedroom tapes. Tracklist follows. TRACKLIST Kirk Barley - Descendent…

fractalmeat.wordpress.com/2025…



Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

The U.S. resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but trust in the U.S. has been lost.

Kyiv knows it must seek more reliable partners.

Maksym, a military officer, calls the pause a surprise, but not a disaster.

in reply to Tim Mak

UKRAINE OUT OF ATACMS MISSILES: Ukraine may have run out of all of its long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles, according to the Associated Press citing a U.S. official and a Ukrainian lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

apnews.com/article/russia-ukra…

in reply to Tim Mak

KELLOGG REMOVED FROM TALKS WITH UKRAINE: US special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg has been effectively removed from talks on the settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Politico reports, citing sources.

politico.com/newsletters/natio…



🚨 BREAKING 🚨

ORG, Big Brother Watch and Index on Censorship call for the secret Tribunal into the UK Home Office's encryption-breaching order against Apple to be held in PUBLIC πŸ§‘β€βš–οΈ

There's a significant public interest in knowing why the UK government believes it can compel a private company to undermine the privacy and security of its users.

Read our joint letter ⬇️

openrightsgroup.org/press-rele…

#encryption #e2ee #Apple #investigatorypowersact #privacy #security #cybersecurity #ukpolitics #ukpol

in reply to Open Rights Group

The β€œcase implicates the privacy rights of millions of British citizens who use Apple’s technology, as well as Apple’s international users.”

β€œEnd-to-end encryption cannot be broken in a targeted manner – once a β€˜backdoor’ into the system has been created, it can be exploited by anyone, putting the privacy and security of all users at risk.”

With such high stakes, we demand to know what could possibly justify it.

#e2ee #encryption #privacy #security #cybersecurity #ukpolitics #ukpol #apple

in reply to Open Rights Group

πŸ“£ Make your voice heard through the secrecy!

By ordering Apple to break encryption, the UK government has put millions at a higher risk of their personal data, documents and photos falling into the hands of criminals and predators.

The secret tribunal is taking place this Friday – we need to take a stand for encryption!

Sign and share our petition ⬇️

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions…

#e2ee #encryption #apple #privacy #security #cybersecurity #ukpolitics #ukpol #investigatorypowersact




Bone fragments unearthed at an ancient cave in Spain belong to the oldest known human face in western Europe, researchers say.

The fossilised remains make up the left cheek and upper jaw of an adult member of an extinct human species who lived and died on the Iberian peninsula between 1.1m and 1.4m years ago.

theguardian.com/science/2025/m…



Pressure works. Even on fascists. Especially on fascists.

Keep it up.

#uspol From @timkmak:
journa.host/@timkmak/114155340…

in reply to Paul Cantrell

"mulls" and "weighs" doing an awful lot of work there. Does anyone really think Russia will agree to just leave? Let alone stop shooting for 30 days?

@timkmak

in reply to xinit β˜•

No, nobody seriously believes Russia wants peace here – but the US resuming arms shipments and letting Russia be put in the spot is a complete 180 on the part of the Trump administration, who just a few days ago we’re trying to hand the entire war to Russia on a platter until they saw what kind of reaction that got.
This entry was edited (3 months ago)
in reply to Paul Cantrell

Fair enough. My money's still on Trump blaming Ukraine for the failure when Russia refuses to leave.

I might just be a cynic, though.

@timkmak

in reply to xinit β˜•

@xinit
Oh, this 100% will happen. Nobody’s saying the problems are all fixed now.

But my point stands.

in reply to Paul Cantrell

@xinit at some point I was relieved Trump hadn’t announced military aid for Russia. Maybe that’s less likely now?



*What fiercely committed Eliot Ness is gonna faithfully enforce Trump's New Prohibition here

Glyn Moody reshared this.

in reply to Bruce Sterling @bruces

He had to say "and other E.U. represented countries" because he doesn't know what other wine-making countries are part of the E.U.

#MangoMussolini #idiot #aliterate



All modern issues can be directly traced back to the government not investing in the Turbo Encabulator.

54 years wasted.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2A…

in reply to Extreme Electronics

I'm confused. I thought everyone is selling these. Maybe I'm not listening properly but it's what I'm hearing from every account manager.

What the hell have I been buying all this time?

in reply to g7kse

@g7kse Probably a modern cut down version, that doesn’t do much at all, but has AI, so that's fine.
in reply to Extreme Electronics

now you mention it I might have read AI but just assumed it was a typo.
in reply to g7kse

@g7kse Can't be a typo, it's impossible if no one was typing it, that's the advantage of AI.
in reply to Extreme Electronics

ahh yes the problem with buying the Rockwell Retro Encabulator.
This entry was edited (3 months ago)


Waste, fraud, and abuse courtesy of Trump

ICE Returns All Migrants From GuantΓ‘namo to Stateside Facilities - The New York Times nytimes.com/2025/03/12/us/poli…



β€œBecause federal law does not in fact prohibit DEI, Trump is presumably counting on his order having a chilling effect, hoping that institutions self-censor by abandoning the programs out of fear.” nybooks.com/online/2025/03/10/…


✊ LEADING. RESISTING. SURVIVING. THRIVING πŸ’œ

Women are on the frontlines of environmental and social justiceβ€”leading movements, defending land and water, and fighting for their communities. Yet, they are among the first to suffer the consequences of climate chaos, war, and economic injustice.

While we celebrate progress and call to accelerate action, we must recognise the struggle. Women’s leadership in the fight for a just and liveable world must be supported and protected.
#WomensHistoryMonth





I wrote up some notes on Gemma 3, Google's new openly licensed (not open source) vision LLM, released this morning. simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/12/…
in reply to Simon Willison

by structured data extraction are you referring to constrained decoding like using grammars? Or just asking it to respond in a specified json schema via the prompt?
in reply to Joaquin

@redscroll Ollama has grammar support baked in that works against any model, I'm using that


The EU and Canada are specifically targeting US products which will primarily hurt pro-Trump areas, and are products where there are ample options to replace those now more expensive items. They’re using a scalpel while Trump uses a child’s plastic hammer. minnesotareformer.com/2025/03/…


Contentious Republican town halls are going viral

Across the country, constituents are grilling their Republican members of Congress β€” and the heated exchanges are going viral online.

theverge.com/news/628284/repub…

#news #politics #uspol #uspolitics #GOPCult #trump #ethics #corruption




#CaboSanLucas white sand #beaches , its famous arch and almost guaranteed #sunshine make it a perfect #vacation #destination.
Check out my #travel blog for the best things to see and do in #loscabos .
What are your favorite places? backpackandsnorkel.com/Los-Cab…


Door number 414 (request URI too long) has been found in the garden. At least the important part of it. Upside down. Acting as critter barrier.

It held up better than the piece of crap plastic panel next to it.

#Http414 #Doors



Which OS Is Best: Windows, macOS, Linux, or ChromeOS? We take a close look, weighing the pros and cons of each: pcmag.com/picks/windows-vs-mac…


Washington Blues: A Government Town Faces a Gloomy Future
β€”

For years, Washington, D.C., was insulated from many of the economic forces that decimated many older U.S. cities. Now, as Elon Musk’s mass layoffs shake everything from employment to real estate, the region faces the prospect of decline.
propublica.org/article/washing…

#News #DOGE #WashingtonDC #Economy #Government #Labor




This entry was edited (2 months ago)

reshared this


pixelfed - Link to source

Another night, another SniffiVerseβ„’ walkies selfie 🐾 πŸ’œ

πŸ“Έ 13/03/2025

#Labrador #DogsOfMastodon #Dog #DogsOfPixelfed #Labradorable #Dogs #PixelfedDogs #Selfie #EyeContact




Waiting for Pixelfed to get up and running with their encrypted messaging.

Seems single source platforms can be too easily compromised.

therecord.media/signal-no-long…

in reply to eliseo

xmpp is pretty cool but I took up Matrix protocol as a replacement. All my ruby gems for xmpp are abandoned - but Matrix actively develops support for Ruby
in reply to G. Gibson

Matrix is a potential honeypot funded by the Israeli Mossad and multiple other western intel agencies, I'd rather keep a safe distance from anything that gets funded by a state intelligence agencies, specially a zionist one. That aside Matrix codebase is terrible, every single client is a clusterfuck mess and there's a total lack of a cohesive standard and agreement as to how a server and client should be implemented. XMPP is the antithesis of Matrix in that there's a standard first and then a reference implementation that developers can follow to make their own, XMPP also doesn't have influence of any government organization, unlike Matrix.
in reply to G. Gibson

As for why I avoid Signal. Other than the obvious things such as mandatory phone number requirements which is discriminatory against people that doesn't have phone number and also paradoxically very privacy unfriendly, the founder has a strong opinion in favor of centralization and has repeatedly showed an anti federation discourse over the years, given how Signal is designed it seems consistent with the kind of culture the project has as "convenient solution to a complex problem". I don't trust snake oil sellers, their clients being free software (which I doubt, requires investigation) means nothing if the server is in hands of a single company or organization.
in reply to eliseo

The mobile signal client is not free software - you cannot compile a working binary without authentication keys that the signal developers refuse to provide to f-droid for example.

It's only if you customize the server and client to no longer be signal, that you can actually compile it and it'll work, but you may as well use better chat software at that stage.

There is also a (somewhat broken) CLI library, but you can't use it without passing a "captcha" that requires a phone number and running proprietary JavaScript, so that's clearly not free either.

in reply to GNU/翠星石

So Signal is essentially a western Telegram on everything Telegram sucks.
in reply to eliseo

@eliseo01 @mistergibson

Thanks for the information. I suspected the fediverse is the best way to go. I anxiously await Pixilfed.

in reply to Truth Or Consequences βœ… πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦

If I ever recommend Pixelfed to someone then I'm being impersonated. Pixelfed is absolutely proprietary and the developer behind it has been framed multiple times as a saboteur.
in reply to eliseo

@eliseo01 @mistergibson

Good to know. I was under the assumption that Pixelfed was federated and operated on independent servers.



#ScribesAndMakers Mar 13: Shameless self-promotion day

Books! I've got lots of books. Kobo and Kindle should have all of my ebooks.

For paperback, pretty much any place that sells books should be able to get them for you.

There aren't a lot of people named Steve DeGroof in the world, so searching for my name at a book vendor should point you in the right direction.

Or, y'know, google "steve degroof books" if you want.




Kash Patel's appointment as #FBI director draws parallels to William J. Burns, a 1920s FBI head known for targeting his political enemies. An FBI historian examines the similarities and potential implications for the bureau's independence. theconversation.com/the-parall…
#politics


Putting an end to the debate regarding if it's ok to punch a Nazi or not.

From now on it's called "A Roman High Five"





"The sight of the dark presence caused the horrified gentleman to kick the seat in front of him as he screamed, trembled, and began to swallow his rosary beads."
#weirdnews #weird #offbeat #odd #news boingboing.net/2025/03/12/man-…
This entry was edited (3 months ago)


sweating the small stuff. Now that we have a custom LCD, I want to take advantage of it. 8erlin -> berlin, 0enver -> denver, +ehran -> tehran, plus some other cases. NYork -> NuYork isn't much, but I'll take it!
in reply to JosΓ© Albornoz

@eljojo ah that one would fit nicely! Alas, since Ottawa follows the same time zone rules as the east coast USA, so you'd be in NuYork as well.
in reply to joey castillo

while correct in practice, with all due respect, I’d feel more comfortable using Canadian time zones πŸ˜€


"With no CGI involved, there really were 250,000 bouncy balls running through SF.
(...) To prevent damage to windows or cars, the team erected nets to catch them. But ultimately, things got so chaotic that windows were broken and cars were dented." petapixel.com/2025/03/12/that-…


β–Ί FunHouseRadio.com
Name a song, and/or post a link to a song that mentions ELECTRICTY. Then tune in to FunHouse Radio for more nerdy goofball music!

⇧