Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

Yesterday I started receiving targeted ads based on ebook borrows from my library (San Francisco Public Library). The content of those ads suggested that the targeters were aware of which books I chose to read.

#Privacy #library
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PaulG demonstrates a trap laid for Nigerians:

* The UK colonized us, and forced us to speak your language

* If we do it worse than you, you use that as evidence of our lack of intelligence

* If we do it better than you, you say our speech is unnecessarily complex🙂🙃

Let's be clear. Arizona's Supreme Court knocking reproductive rights back to 1864 is a direct result of Donald Trump keeping his promise to appoint U.S. Supreme Court Justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

An appellate bond normally says that the underwriter will pay the judgment if the defendant loses the appeal and cannot or will not pay.

Trump's appellate bond says that the underwriter will not pay anything.

Trump's appellate bond is not a real appellate bond.

It's a sham.

So some colleges are now hitting $100,000 a year in tuition fees. Just for reference, when I was an undergrad at UCLA, for most of the time (it went up a small amount toward the end) the fee was $208.50/quarter (yes, this number is burned into my brain). So, in today's dollars that would be about $1550. Multiply by 3 for three quarters attendance per year and that was $4650. Let's call it $5000/yr in today's dollars. Somebody in the educational system is getting rich somewhere today.

Ever notice how forgiving loans is suddenly a big problem when students get much-needed relief, but nobody blinks an eye when billionaires get their PPP loans forgiven? Or when corporations are handed billions in subsidies?

“Note even utility boxes and machinery get yellow steel poles for protection. Cyclists get plastic”

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2024/04/09/eyes-on-the-street-san-francisco-joins-the-sidewalk-level-bike-lane-club

Here’s the hidden truth of education:

You don’t know what you’re preparing for.

Your teacher doesn’t know. Your school doesn’t know. Your future employer doesn’t know. Nobody knows. Not really.

Much of what you’re preparing for doesn’t even exist yet. We •hope• it doesn’t exist yet: don’t we educate students in the hope that they will make the world better by changing it? By creating realities that don’t even exist yet?
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So this is what Microsoft is up to now? Sad. It is a pathetic company. Maybe the EU and FTC need to look into this kind of stuff. Trust and Microsoft have no relationship. If you care about your privacy, never use anything built by MS. Use Firefox or other browsers. I don’t use edge or windows but it was posted https://twitter.com/ianzelbo/status/1777450065214271750?s=46 here. I am amused by how they are abusing their power. #privacy #security

The word atheism should always be in lower-case.

It means a disbelief in gods.

I am such an atheist: I disbelieve in gods generally (and not just in one in particular), like I disbelieve in gnomes and dragons and other supernatural and paranormal things.

And the word does not mean anything more than that.

My a-theism means no more to me than my a-gnomism.

The problem comes when one tries to convert lower-case atheism to upper-case Atheism, with the implications of its own belief system.

Jon Stewart Rips ‘Verbal Gymnastics’ Biden Admin for Failing To ‘Have the Courage’ To Stand Up to Israel: ‘What the F*** Are We Doing?!’ https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-rips-verbal-gymnastics-biden-admin-for-failing-to-have-the-courage-to-stand-up-to-israel-what-the-f-are-we-doing/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Jon Stewart Calls Out America’s Terrible Response to Gaza War https://www.thedailybeast.com/jon-stewart-calls-out-americas-terrible-response-to-gaza-war?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Donald Trump talks about "abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month."

Yes, America does indeed have abortion beyond the ninth month.

It's called a school shooting.

So are giant container ships losing propulsion/power near bridges a normal everyday thing we never knew we needed to be terrified about, like things falling off passenger planes?

The way a bank refuses to let you put a comma in a value, subverting an an attempt to cut-and-paste the correct amount, yet in the confirmation screen for the transfer formats the value with the comma reinstated.

Most software is just so shitty now. Was it ever better? I dunno, but I blame the vast open source packaging ecosystem for outsourcing quality.

If you're a psychologist and you work for insurance companies reviewing claims for "medical necessity," I'm going to ask you for two favors:

1. Re-think your life choices.
2. Make sure you're actually qualified to speak to the population you're assessing. If you deny autism testing as unnecessary, I'm going to google you, and if you have no training in autistic adults I am going to tell my client how they can contact your licensing board and report you for practicing outside your scope.

Colorado follows California's lead and becomes the 2nd state to ban the corrupt terminology #exciteddelirium as a cause of death. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-becomes-second-state-ban-excited-delirium/

10 years of Digital Rights Ireland decision and the invalidation of the #DataRetention directive, “the most privacy invasive instrument ever adopted by the EU” (EDPS)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62012CJ0293

"Three times since December, a white city-owned Toyota sedan affixed with a half-dozen small cameras has cruised through South San Jose to collect footage of parked cars and RVs. The images were then fed into different #AI systems developed by four private companies to determine whether people were living inside the vehicles". https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/07/san-jose-ai-homeless-camps-rvs/?

"The Energy and Policy Institute’s request for calendars “is sufficiently specific, focused, and limited, and the public interest in disclosure sufficiently compelling when measured against the minimal impact on government decisionmaking,” #PublicRecords https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/cpuc-calendar-meetings-19388316.php?