Me: What? Why would you want that many beds?
11-yr-old: Dad! So I can defeat the Ender Dragon, duh!
Help me out here. I definitely understand photographers have a challenging job that requires both skill and talent, and deserve to be paid for their work.
However, if I pay someone to take a picture, is it really reasonable for me to have to pay separately for every copy, be denied a digital copy, and be woke-shamed for musing out loud about just scanning a print and being done with it?
The whole thing seems completely outrageous, but massive numbers of people seem to see no problem with it...
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Seriously, though, it's time to move back to the open web again. The writing was on the wall a decade or more ago. And yet, here we are, all still trapped in Meta's data-prison. Unless the AI banned us from the platform for no reason, of course, then we don't even have access to our friends to tell them we left!
Come on, try Friendica. Or Mastodon's fine too, but *I'm* on Friendica, so clearly that's where it's at...
newyorker.com/business/currenc…
Why Are We Still on Facebook?
What makes the social network thrive? Not our desire to connect with others but our desire to do so publicly.Maria Konnikova (The New Yorker)
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Per my last post, I give you, "the apples"...
LAPD shoot US woman with a rubber bullet for trying to get into her home, they were blocking her entrance and there was no protest in sight. “Holy fuck — They literally just shot her point blank… I live here…” ( www.tiktok.com/@labyrinthlore) #3E #StopICE
A Few Bad Apples...
... Spoil the bunch. - Why do police and police enthusiasts use the first half of this idiom to describe officers who act unethically/immorally/illegally, get caught, and then are protected by the police? Does it not occur to them that *they* are the "bunch"?
@plan-A " but not all " - This is the basis of the irony. If the "not all" ones accept and protect the behaviour of the corrupt ones, then *they* are the corrupt ones, too.
"*I* didn't shoot a peaceful, unarmed woman point-blank with a rubber bullet just because she wanted to go into her home" is only an acceptable defense if it's followed by, "but I recommended the officer who did for punitive action", or, "and I tried to stop the officer who did". Any other answer means our 'good' officer is as guilty as the trigger-happy officer...
@plan-A "if he so anonymous then why does he have a profile on tiktok??" - "Anonymous" isn't a description, it is the name of an organization that acts publicly, but hides the identity of its members to protect them from illegal reprisals from governments or corporations.
"rest does not hurt me" - I'm not sure what this means... Are you trying to say that since you personally are not being shot by a cop for trying to peacefully enter your own home, then it's OK for them to do to others?
I will always apply the heat-shrink first, *THEN* solder.
I will always apply the heat-shrink first, *THEN* solder.
I will always apply the heat-shrink first, *THEN* solder.
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I will always apply the heat-shrink first, THEN solder.
I will always apply the heat-shrink first, THEN solder.
I will always apply the heat-shrink first, THEN solder.
Well, I guess we know why ICE called for a full-on military invasion of Los Angeles...
" 'What they didn’t think was going to happen was that the people would resist.' Over eight hours on Saturday, he said, after a battle with Border Patrol—'and it was a battle, because there were people throwing back tear gas, people throwing anything that they could to defend themselves and to defend the workers that were being surrounded'—the Border Patrol retreated."
It's almost like the only way to prevent your entire life from being used against you is for someone to pass a law...
404media.co/airlines-dont-want…
Airlines Don't Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS
A contract obtained by 404 Media shows that an airline-owned data broker forbids the feds from revealing it sold them detailed passenger data.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
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The current regime is an embarrassment to this country. You might think that the Russians mocking our "leaders" is just a stunt, but this shit affects their attitude on the world stage!
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Are there really still people who don't believe that working for Donald Trump will end badly for them?
We always knew President Trump and Elon Musk would break up at some point, but we didn't expect it to be this messy. pcmag.com/news/musk-trump-brea…Musk, Trump Relationship Implodes Over Budget Bill, President Threatens EV Credits, SpaceX Contracts
Trump hits back at Musk's criticism of his Big Beautiful Bill, arguing that the Tesla CEO is mad about him canceling the 'EV mandate.' Musk denies it, and uses X to unload on the president.Emily Forlini (PCMag)
I love this Onion headline!
Wait a minute...
thedailybeast.com/donald-trump…
Trump Appoints 22-Year-Old Ex-Gardener and Grocery Store Assistant to Lead U.S. Terror Prevention
Counter-terror chief was pulling up weeds just five years ago.Tom Latchem (The Daily Beast)
Privacy advocates are worried about mobile driver’s licenses
Dozens of privacy advocates, along with top digital rights groups, have signed onto a campaign to remove the surveillance capabilities native to mobile driver’s license technology.Colin Wood (StateScoop)
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Rich guys get rich, and stay rich, by getting the public to pay for whatever they need...
thecity.nyc/2025/06/02/cuomo-l…
Inside Cuomo’s State-Funded Legal War Against the Women Who Accused Him of Sexual Harassment
A review by THE CITY of thousands of pages of court documents paints the most complete picture of how intensely he is battling the women who stepped forward.Rosalind Adams (THE CITY - NYC News)
Won't it be a surprise when it turns out that the party of bad losers, who've been trying to convince everyone that they could only have been beaten with election fraud for years, turns out to be the primary source of election fraud?
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Government, brought to you by the people who paid people to take their tests in college....
"Nobody has ever accused RFK Jr. of academic rigor,” said Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "The speed (of the MAHA report) suggests that it could not have been vetted carefully and must have been whisked through standard clearance procedures. The citation problem suggests a reliance on AI."
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Microsoft put their half-assed AI assistant into fucking Notepad?!?!?
On second thought, that's probably just it's speed...
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I do not use any server based AI at all. If the LLM does not run locally on my machine on ComfyUI, LLama.cpp or Ollama then I do not need it.
note: I do not use the term cloud as that is a marketing term not an IT term and I am a developer not a marketer.
Feds: Just change your State's whole way of doing things and make your ID's "Real ID". That way we can be sure they aren't fake.
Also Feds: This "Real ID" looks fake, we're deporting you!
Whatever is left of our constitutional rights and liberties exists mostly in the gaps between what the government knows about us. This is the beginning of the end. Soon, when conservatives are in charge, they'll make us follow their stupid, puritanical rules whether we like it or not, and when liberals are in charge, well, they'll make us follow their stupid, puritanical rules whether we like it or not.
Data brokerage should be seen as organized crime, and there should be a constitutional amendment specifically guaranteeing the right to privacy.
theintercept.com/2025/05/22/in…
U.S. Spy Agencies Are Getting a One-Stop Shop to Buy Your Most Sensitive Personal Data
The government wants to build a centralized platform where spy agencies can more easily buy private info about millions of people.Sam Biddle (The Intercept)
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I'm not advocating psychopathy, but hear me out. Aren't psychopaths happier than everyone else? They feel no empathy, so they don't feel guilty or remorseful for anything they've ever done. They feel superior to those around them. What they want, at this moment, is basically all they will ever care about.
Seems like a fairly placid internal life, to me...
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I have had similar thoughts. The underlying issue is that it is not a choice. It is how the brain is wired. I could no more choose to be a psychopath than a psychopath could choose not to be one. I have found my peace in a compromise that I no longer value that which is impermanent and I live now, not in my past or future. Of course this is the 100 mile view of my ideologies and it gets a bit more complicated the closer to ground zero that I get. 😀 😉
Blaise likes this.
Finally, all those pennies I collected as a child will be worth something!
cbsnews.com/news/treasury-penn…
Treasury Department set to phase out the penny
The Treasury Department said it placed its final order for penny blanks this month as the U.S. moves to end production of the 1-cent coin.Aimee Picchi (CBS News)
Just because someone was born into a rich family , that doesn't mean they aren't trash...
For 40 years, Democrats have used the bludgeon of 'gubmint money' to extort states into falling in line with any number of "federal mandates" that the federal government had no power to mandate.
Aren't you authoritarian assholes glad the MAGA idiots now have that power and precedent to work with?
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Trump’s Deportations to South Sudan Are More Twisted Than They Seem
So now, not only are we sending people to concentration camps, we're sending them to *SECRET* concentration camps...
newrepublic.com/post/195545/tr…
Trump’s Deportations to South Sudan Are More Twisted Than They Seem
Immigrants’ attorneys say they were told they were being deported to South Sudan. But Trump’s lawyers won’t say where the plane is—claiming everything is classified.The New Republic
Trump DOJ targets Andrew Cuomo
I can't believe it, but the Trump regime is actually using its abusive legal practices to do the right thing, for once!
irishstar.com/news/us-news/bre…
Trump DOJ launches criminal probe into Andrew Cuomo over 'COVID cover-up'
The Trump DOJ has launched a criminal probe into former New York governor and NYC mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo over allegations he lied to Congress about decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemicIrish Star
"We really do need to be honest"
" 'We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job,' Vance told reporters" - While lying freely about whether the *current* president is capable of doing the job, of course!
J.D. Vance asking for honesty is like a man with no arms asking for a backrub. It will surely benefit him, but it's guaranteed he'll never respond in kind, whether he wants to or not...
newsweek.com/jd-vance-joe-bide…
JD Vance Questions Joe Biden's Health as President
Former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.Shane Croucher (Newsweek)
Blaise
Unknown parent • •@Boris Karnikowski
I just don't get it. If a picture is worth "x", charge me "x" for the picture, and be done with it. I can certainly guarantee that people are *always* pissed off about it, which is bad for business, and it can't really be making the photographer *that* much money. I mean, how often do people make requests for a picture more than a month or two after they are first delivered? It just seems like bad thinking/bad business.
Besides, we're talking about a commissioned work. Does the guy who first drew Donald Duck retain control of the pictures he made? No, of course not, Disney did.
To be honest, it also concerns me a bit that raw photos of my children are perpetually housed in the "collections" of at least two-dozen photographers whose security procedures most likely range from "what's a virus?" to "Microsoft has that firewall, they say I'm safe"...
Unus Nemo
in reply to Blaise • •@Blaise
Laws are vague at best. Though as a rule of thumb the one that took the picture has rights to it, not the subject of the photograph. Though consult a lawyer, as I am not one, for better legal advice on the topic. The same as a painting. Unless a contract is specifically drawn up to give rights to the contractor. You can be sure that the photos taken by a media platforms photographer belong to the media platform and not the photographer (unless they are freelance and have no specific contract then if they sell them to the media they insist on full rights not copies in most cases). The next time you hire a photographer draw up a contract the clearly states that you own the negative (raw files) and all parts of the photographs taken and that you you are only contracting their services and nothing more and that they have no right to maintain a copy of the images for any purpose. This will cause the photographer to ask for more money for their services though it seems you would be okay with that?