Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

Close to 75% of all police drone use in Minnesota is to survey accidents and officer training. That’s an expensive training toy–but also one that can very easily cross the line into surveillance. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/police-are-using-drones-more-and-spending-more-them

A very brave colleague of mine, historian and Jewish Israeli at Hebrew University of Jerusalem Lee Mordechai, has written an 80 page report on Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza.
It discusses why he believes Israel's response is gravely disproportionate and constitutes genocide, as well as providing various evidence and documentation concerning (not exhaustively) (a) the famine in Gaza and Israel's contribution to it, (b) the Israeli media's assistance in the continued dehumanization of Palestinians and support for massacres, (c) Human rights violations in the West Bank in part justified by the fighting in Gaza, (d) American involvement in the ongoing ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

It is an incredibly detailed and important document, though there is a helpful summary at the beginning.
Dr. Mordechai will (and probably already has) received death threats, alienation from some of his colleagues, and possibly even academic repercussions. He was not paid by anyone to write this document, but has done it solely from a deep commitment to human rights for all people and all Peoples. Given the great risk he has taken, and the difficult and extensive work he has put into it as a scholar, I think it is incumbent to share it as widely as possible so that his courage and work was not done in vain.
It's called "Bearing Witness to the Israel Gaza War"

You can download it here in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MVeJT9TDbEv_KXFjYQsDbW07nmjtQBse/view?usp=sharing

And here in Hebrew (the content is the same in both):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j9OhbOrsTFVeHwqZVl0MM0CG2P2mXTCr/view?usp=sharing

Mozilla's Original Sin.

Some will tell you that Mozilla's worst decision was to accept funding from Google, and that may have been the first domino, but I hold that implementing DRM is what doomed them, as it led to their culture of capitulation. It demonstrated that their decisions were the decisions of a *company shipping products*, not those of a non-profit devoted to preserving the open web.

Those are different things and are very much in conflict. [...]
https://jwz.org/b/ykVr

@jef reminds me of an ad for device that measured distance to a fiber break. The picture was of a backhoe in front of a sunrise and it read “Good morning. Your network is about to go down”

Governments, law enforcement agencies, and even private citizens use malware to circumvent encryption and to spy on users. Knowing how it works can help you protect yourself. https://ssd.eff.org/module/how-do-i-protect-myself-against-malware

If data from Minnesota is indicative of what’s happening in the rest of the country, then police are using drones more and more (and spending a lot more money on them too). https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/police-are-using-drones-more-and-spending-more-them

"Herding cats" sounds like a pretty good job, as long as it requires herding actual cats.

For data brokers dealing with our personal information, our data can either be useful for their profit-making or truly anonymous, but not both. Our privacy rights online must not be sacrificed so corporations can fill their pockets. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymous-data

In a move so douchey even his critics didn't expect it, twisted, hollowed-out GOP freak Ron DeSantis vetoes all arts grants previously approved by state legislators. Remember, IF YOU HATE THE ARTS, VOTE REPUBLICAN. [gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/arts/ron-desantis-veto-arts-funding-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1k0.YsxU.ytPMGyrnWTt5&smid=url-share

"Babies have accents" is right up there with "Languages have gesture-accents" as some of the absolutely bizarre phenomenology of human brains.

(Blind-from-birth people will gesture when speaking in ways that they _do_ share with sighted native speakers of their language but do _not_ share with blind-from-birth speakers of other languages, implying an unsuspected connection between grammar and physical expression. Humans are wild machines y'all.)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGegqwcMa/

https://sci-hub.scrongyao.com/10.1177/0956797616629931

Trump lied about his fake university.

Trump lied about his fake foundation.

Trump lied about the value of his properties, with fake financial statements.

So do you REALLY think Trump is telling the truth on how much his campaign is fundraising?

All his numbers are bullshit.

@XenoPhage @uastronomer What makes you think that there will ever be another actually elected president after Trump? You can be sure his VP will never certify the electoral college vote for anyone Trump didn't want. He's not going to make the same mistake he did with Pence again.

I wish that I could convey to everyone who needs convincing that the text “AI” could *reasonably* be replaced with “A magic 8-ball” in most tech-related sentences and it would be very close to a difference without a distinction.

KnockLA reporter Ben Camacho prevails in lawsuot filed against him by the LAPD after Stop LAPD Spying published pictures of cops that Camacho secured in a public records request. City of LA will pay his legal fees. https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-police-lawsuit-lapd-b784ea5809942fe169cdc35a54e6b0fc

I’m getting stronger with age. I can now lift $100 worth of groceries with one hand.

Tech companies, please stop making things smaller and thinner, it's not 1998. We want longer battery life and our things to be repairable, instead of replaceable. If you can't think of any actual innovations, stop wasting resources!

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently investigated how Philadelphia narcotics cops not only allegedly failed to disclose their use of video surveillance in arrest reports or to prosecutors, but also that the video footage at times proved officers were lying when they testified. We talked to the founder of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project about what these new video systems can do and the privacy and other issues they raise.
https://theconversation.com/what-philadelphians-need-to-know-about-the-citys-7-000-camera-surveillance-system-230073
#News #privacy #surveillance

CISA (CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) releases report detailing grave vulnerabilities in #Motorola Solutions automated license plate reader system (formerly known as #Vigilant). 1.6 billion scans a year in California are collected and stored in Motorola's system #ALPR .https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-24-165-19

CISA (CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) releases report detailing grave vulnerabilities in #Motorola Solutions automated license plate reader system (formerly known as #Vigilant). 1.6 billion scans a year in California are collected and stored in Motorola's system #ALPR .https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-24-165-19

@krnlg @pluralistic

The lesson I take from this is simple: In order to have a good economy and a well functioning society you need a good justice system. But when you do, along come Vikings who intend to unjustly tear away as much of societies riches as they can – and they ignore your justice system.

At which point you have two choices: Pay Danegeld or fight.

And I contend we have been paying Danegeld since the Reagan years. Which has only resulted in more Vikings.