-
๐๏ธ NEWS OF THE TIMES: LOCAL CRACKPOT TAKES TRUMP SERIOUSLY
-
boingboing.net/2025/03/19/tom-โฆ
News of the Times: Local Crackpot Takes Trump Seriously - Boing Boing
Support your friendly neighborhood independent comic strip: SIGN UP FORย THE INNERย HIVEย and you'll get each week's Tom the Dancing Bugย comic at leastย a day before publication. Plus other exclusive content like extraโฆRuben Bolling (Happy Mutants, LLC.)
For all those looking for messengers that are not controlled by organisations located in countries that are not or no longer democratic:
Check out the completely open source #DeltaChat that also is completely independent of any centralised infrastructure.
The project tries to be very transparent and the software is a marvelous and open-standards-based architecture (blog.feld.me/posts/2025/03/delโฆ).
Last not least, the project is security audited (delta.chat/en/2024-03-25-cryptโฆ)
Cc @delta
Everything You Think You Know About DeltaChat Is Wrong โ Makefile.feld
I am smitten with DeltaChat... DeltaChat has been making massive strides lately and I think you should consider using it as your full time secure messenger.blog.feld.me
Salt is starting to pollute the freshwater sources people rely on.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/0โฆ
Europeโs leaders react with skepticism to partial Ukraine ceasefire
German defense minister says Putin โis playing a game hereโ and calls Russian presidentโs demands โunacceptableโ
theguardian.com/world/2025/marโฆ
#Russia #Ukraine #news #war #Putin #Ukrainewar #UkraineRussiawar #SlavaUkraini #uspol
Europeโs leaders react with scepticism to partial Ukraine ceasefire
German defence minister says Putin โis playing a game hereโ and calls Russian presidentโs demands โunacceptableโSam Jones (The Guardian)
#UnplugTrump
#fediverse #nofacebook #friendica
#socialmedia
Autumn Wright's writing on Polygon really has been consistently excellent.
Anyone know where else they appear?
polygon.com/authors/autumn-wriโฆ
Autumn Wright Profile and Activity | Polygon
Your source for the latest in video games, sci-fi, fantasy, tabletop games, anime, horror, books, and comics.Autumn Wright (Polygon)
#MastodonStarterpack:
Hier gibt es nun einen ersten Aufschlag fรผr ein Starterpack mit Universitรคten, Hochschulen, Forschungseinrichtungen im deutschsprachigen Raum, die einen Mastodon-Account haben:
fedidevs.com/s/NDk0/
Weitere Hinweise natรผrlich willkommen!
#openscicomm #wisskomm #edufedi
Akademische Institutionen im deutschsprachigen Raum - Mastodon Starter Pack
Universitรคten, Hochschulen, Forschungseinrichtungen. Wird laufend erweitert, keine Garantie auf Vollstรคndigkeit. Angelegt von Melanie Bartos, Wissenschaftskommunikatorin an der Universitรคt Innsbruck und Moderatorin der dortigen Instanz social.fedidevs.com
So What is a Supercomputer Anyway?
hackaday.com/2025/03/19/so-whaโฆ
So What Is A Supercomputer Anyway?
Over the decades there have been many denominations coined to classify computer systems, usually when they got used in different fields or technological improvements caused significant shifts. WhilโฆHackaday
Google promises preorder details in the coming weeks.
arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0โฆ
Letโs Encrypt describing their ACME profiles in detail:
โclassicโ: 90 days, all as before
โtlsserverโ: 90 days, smaller certs, cut lean for its server role and modern clients
โshortlivedโ: ~6 days, otherwise like โtlsserverโ
If you have no idea what the mentioned TLS extensions are about, do *not* configure a profile. But if you do, use classic.
If you have a rough idea and serve modern clients, tlsserver cuts some bytes and the auth process is tighter.
letsencrypt.org/docs/profiles/
Profiles
A profile is a collection of characteristics that describe both the validation process required to get a certificate, and the final contents of that certificate.letsencrypt.org
@mcc It did not really solve the problem of cert revocations.
If the server supplied the OCSP stapling in the handshake, the client could be sure. But when not, browsers mostly gave up on retrieving the certicate status themselves.
Because it delayed page loads, was a point of failure and leaked privacy (not that browsers in general are very concerned with that).
What started off as trash in the street, then became disused trash in a friend's garden after they ran out of space for it, has become a shiny new 2D LED Matrix wall in Birkenhack after a good cleanup in the sink. There are five ingredients to this LED Matrix wall:
1. Plastic Bottles
2. Standard British Milk Crates
3. Tinfoil
4. LEDs
5. Esp32 running #WLED software
#weeknotes #ledmatrix #upcycling #hackspace #birkenhack #birkenheadisthenewberlin
Travel Guide for Japan - Japan Purple Travel Guide
Japan is a country of contrasts. It merges super modern high-tech with very traditional customs and buildings. Our 2-week Japan itinerary shows you both sides and, as always, we provide lots of photos so you can decide where you want to go.Backpack and Snorkel Travel Guides - The Home of the Purple Travel Guides
People say they prefer stories written by humans over AI-generated works, yet new study suggests thatโs not quite true
Participants in a study were willing to spend just as much time and money on an AI-generated story as one they were told was written by a human.The Conversation
I think it misunderstands how right wing propaganda works. Virtually ALL of DOGE's claims have been fraudulent. It's just like Twitter Files. The point is not to make truth claims, it's to create a false scandal right wingers will adhere to and to get cover to do entirely unrelated things to govt.
The Way Texans Elect School Board Members Plays a Key Role in What Students in Diverse Districts Learn
โ
In six Texas districts that used at-large voting systems, ideologically driven conservatives successfully helped elect school board members who have moved aggressively to ban or remove educational materials that teach children about diversity.
propublica.org/article/texas-sโฆ
#News #Texas #School #Education #Diversity #Race #Gender #DEI #Student
How At-Large Voting Creates Conservative Majorities on Texas School Boards
After a voting rights lawsuit, two rapidly diversifying school districts in Keller and Richardson took much different approaches to culture war battles over race.ProPublica
Happy 21st birthday to John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory:
penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03โฆ
Green Blackboards (And Other Anomalies) - Penny Arcade
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.www.penny-arcade.com
True: โa pocketful of mumbles such are promisesโ is the American health care plan now.
#vaccinesSaveLives #measles #RFKjr
statnews.com/2025/03/19/measleโฆ
The fleeting miracle of measles elimination | STAT
Twenty-five years ago the U.S. was declared measles-free. That increasingly looks like a fleeting victory.Jonathan Temte (STAT)
![At an emergency meeting Saturday, the USIP board decided to lock the building and tell employees not to come to work Monday. They also decided to suspend their building security contract with Inter-Con, a global company with a number of government contracts that USIP security chief Colin OโBrien said he suspected was working with DOGE.
On Sunday, FBI agent Doug Silk with the Washington field office and another agent โwent to the home of one of my staff membersโ to question them about โthe Inter-Con contractโ and access to the building, OโBrien said Tuesday.
Separately, OโBrien said, he received a call from Silk saying he was the โsubjectโ of a Justice Department investigation of the Friday events and asking him to โcome in for [FBI] questioning.โ
Reached by telephone, Silk referred all questions to the FBI press office, which declined to comment.](https://friendica.rogueproject.org/photo/preview/640/282511 "At an emergency meeting Saturday, the USIP board decided to lock the building and tell employees not to come to work Monday. They also decided to suspend their building security contract with Inter-Con, a global company with a number of government contracts that USIP security chief Colin OโBrien said he suspected was working with DOGE.
On Sunday, FBI agent Doug Silk with the Washington field office and another agent โwent to the home of one of my staff membersโ to question them about โthe Inter-Con contractโ and access to the building, OโBrien said Tuesday.
Separately, OโBrien said, he received a call from Silk saying he was the โsubjectโ of a Justice Department investigation of the Friday events and asking him to โcome in for [FBI] questioning.โ
Reached by telephone, Silk referred all questions to the FBI press office, which declined to comment.")
The image is a meme divided into two sections, with the text "Playing D&D with kids comes in two flavours:" at the top. On the left side, there is a cartoon illustration of a young character with elf-like ears, dressed in green, holding a bone and a small animal, possibly a mouse, in his left hand. He is facing a large wolf with a speech bubble that reads, "I try to befriend it and keep it as a pet!" The background is plain white. On the right side, there is a screenshot from a video game titled "War Crimes," showing a character in a military outfit standing in a war-torn environment with fires and destruction in the background. The character is facing away from the viewer, and the scene is rendered in a realistic, gritty style. The two sections humorously contrast the innocence of a Dungeons & Dragons scenario with the harsh reality of war.
Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B
๐ฑ Energy used: 0.196 Wh
The Oklahoma Board of Education has passed new curriculum standards that require educators to teach that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud or discrepancies
โ despite numerous judicial rulings and audits indicating that the election was legitimate.
The new standards were inserted into the curriculum by State Superintendent Ryan Walters,
a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, shortly before the board voted on them earlier this month.
At least one member of the board took issue with the fact that the changes to the curriculum were introduced well after the public comment period.
truthout.org/articles/new-oklaโฆ
New Oklahoma School Curriculum Requires Students to Learn โThe Big Lieโ
The new standards would require students to โidentify discrepancies in 2020 elections results.โโฆChris Walker (Truthout)
huffpost.com/entry/justin-eichโฆ
Minnesota State Senator Arrested In Sting On Same Day He Introduced 'TDS' Bill
Justin Eichorn, who allegedly sought sex with a detective posing as a teen, was trying to pass a bill to declare โTrump derangement syndromeโ a mental illness.David Moye (HuffPost)
MPs urge government to stop using "unsafe" US cloud services - DutchNews.nl
MPs have urged the government to stop migrating confidential information about tax returns, contracts, and medical records to US cloud services, saying they are a threat to Dutch cyber security.Robin Pascoe (DutchNews.nl)
Indigenous guides in the #Arctic are training #Canadaโs military: โWhen they talk, I listenโ
theguardian.com/world/2025/marโฆ
Indigenous guides in the Arctic are training Canadaโs military: โWhen they talk, I listenโ
With the country facing new threats to its sovereignty, the country is looking to reaffirm itself as โan Arctic nationโLeyland Cecco (The Guardian)
GOP representative: โI support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.โ
Town hall crowd: โBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!โ
Letโs keep making Republicans own their complicity in President Muskโs hostile takeover. Take action near you during this congressional recess: indivisible.org/muskorus
Report: Starlink Tries to Fix White House's Wi-Fi Woes
Satellite internet now reaches the presidential residence thanks to a donation from Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to a New York Times story. But will it actually help staffers get a better signal?Rob Pegoraro (PCMag)
*I wonder if people might buy sodium batteries because they're considered somehow "classier" than lithium batteries
theverge.com/news/631357/elecoโฆ
A sodium-ion portable power bank comes to market
Elecomโs Na Plus sodium-ion power bank is safe to use in extreme temperatures and can be recharged nearly 5,000 times.Andrew Liszewski (The Verge)
"Lithium...? That's so... 2024...!"
Or maybe "Lithium...? Please! This is 2025!"
(Or something...?)
โThe Online Safety Act [UK] places onerous duties on small websites and blogs that may lead them to close or geoblock UK users rather than risk penalties. The closure of small sites will not keep children safe but will benefit bigger sites, including Facebook and X, who are laying waste to content moderation on their platforms."
The UK government can exempt small, safe websites to protect #netplurality.
๐ฃ๏ธ ORG's @JamesBaker
telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/โฆ
#onlinesafetyact #fediverse #ukpolitics
Hamster forum and local residentsโ websites shut down by new internet laws
Scope and scale of Online Safety Act likened to Chinaโs โgreat firewallโ as small websites struggle to complyJames Titcomb (The Telegraph)
reshared this
"โWeโre not setting out to penalise small, low-risk services trying to comply in good faith, and will only take action where it is proportionate and appropriate,โ a spokesman said."
Nothing in the act specifically exempts "small" sites.
They could have easily put in a limit of sites with < X number of UK users, or < ยฃxxxx in yearly revenue, but they didn't.
Secondly, there seems to be no easy to follow guide to explain anything to "small" sites.
I downloaded the pdfs to read, and collectively they ran to 1000pages.
I gave up after a bit....
โThar she blows.โ #AI #whale detection system gives ship captains advance warning to avoid collisions nationalobserver.com/2025/03/1โฆ
Thar she blows. AI whale detection system gives captains advance warning
This is WhaleSpotter, an artificial intelligence-powered whale detection system that aims to transmit real-time alerts to ships to prevent them from colliding with whalesโa threat that leads to the injury or death of thousands of whales each year.Canada's National Observer
*Surely there's a better name for this stuff than "WaaFs," which doesn't make sense even as an acronym
nanotechnologyworld.org/post/rโฆ
Revolutionary van der Waals open frameworks: a new era in porous materials
Researchers from Kyoto University have achieved a groundbreaking advancement in materials science by developing the world's first three-d...Mateo Cardinal (nanotechnologyworld)
Trump calls for the impeachment of a judge, as lawsuits pile up
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5332086/trump-lawsuits?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Politics @politics-npr
West Virginia Senate adopts Coal Renaissance Act
CHARLESTON (WV News) โ The West Virginia Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 18 on Monday.WV News
New, by @lorenzofb: Researchers at Citizen Lab have named several countries as potential customers of Paragon's Graphite spyware, which Citizen Lab says was used in a widespread campaign targeting human rights defenders in Italy.
The report comes weeks after WhatsApp notified dozens of people that Paragon had exploited WhatsApp to deliver spyware to victims' phones.
techcrunch.com/2025/03/19/reseโฆ
Researchers name several countries as potential Paragon spyware customers | TechCrunch
The Citizen Lab said it believes several governments may be customers of spyware maker Paragon Solutions.Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (TechCrunch)
"US immigration - Iโm the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped" (The Guardian)
Horrific but compelling article. Recommend.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mโฆ
Iโm the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was luckyGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
MOVED to: @Linux@mastodon.au likes this.
reshared this
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Ars Technica • • •Salt water intrusions into drinking water sources:
scientificamerican.com/articleโฆ
New Orleans is at increasing risk of losing all its fresh water sources for drinking water.
axios.com/local/new-orleans/20โฆ
sierraclub.org/sierra/salt-watโฆ
Rising sea levels expose contaminated soils & contaminants leech into the water table.
wwno.org/coastal-desk/2024-10-โฆ
Ditto Florida.
apnews.com/article/everglades-โฆ
e360.yale.edu/features/as-sea-โฆ
In Florida, a race is on to save the Everglades and protect a key source of drinking water
Dorany Pineda (AP News)