UnderpantsWeevil

joined 2 years ago
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I don’t think that’s where a lot of donors (especially but not exclusively conservative donors) want their money going

You don't think people want to access Wikipedia safely and securely or guarantee an egalitarian sourcing of information?

I was certainly surprised when I saw the actual budget allocation.

"I didn't know how a public-facing non-profit catalogue of information spent its money. Now I do. And I hate it."

shrug

Why do people think their own personal ignorance is an indictment?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

He's a vulture capitalist. Very good at finding ways to cannibalize a nice public thing for the benefit of a handful of private malicious actors.

That's always going to make enemies. But so what? You're a vulture. You can always pick up and leave today, then find another wounded animal to prey on tomorrow.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

he’s not wrong about the concentration of power amongst editors

The classic problem of an open-edit document like Wikipedia is the manpower it takes to manage the project properly relative to the incentives to fuck with it by malicious actors. Elon's answer to this problem is to monetize the sinking ship to the hilt and then use the excess revenues to buy the next new thing. The Jimmy Wales approach is to build out a network of trusted administrators and semi-trusted volunteers to play wack-a-mole on this one single project forever.

Originally, the theory of Wikipedia was that you'd have far more good actors than bad. Therefore, the bulk of the encyclopedia would accumulate useful information that went largely unmolested and didn't need to be babysat by live humans. This... hasn't proven to be the case. So the costs of the website continue to expand as the content base does.

Automation of spammers, scammers, and malicious actors has made the problem even more difficult. And I have no doubt that Elon's own digital vandalism efforts have taken their toll as well. There's simply too much economic incentive to fuck with the public's understanding of the world for a project like Wikipedia to go ignored.

I'm afraid its days are ultimately numbered, precisely because too many people trust it.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

How the Keira Knightley arc of Love Actually should have ended.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 points 4 hours ago

She's the Jordan Peterson of the Left. Says half a dozen things that make sense and half a dozen things that are pure reactionary nonsense. You get drawn in by the sensible stuff, then taken for a ride.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I honestly don’t think people understand that getting Obama elected got us right up to the finish line for real actual change…

And at the last second he just didn’t follow thru.

Democratic Party in a nutshell, from 1948 to 2024.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

This is one of those things most people won’t pay attention to, but if this guy gets DNC chair…

We could actually cause lasting change and pull up from the nosedive

I remember feeling that way back in 2008 when Howard Dean took the chairmanship. Then the party donor class kneecapped him at every turn and booted him for a conga line of hacks the first chance they got.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

You can't just go rolling up on a girl calling her comfy cozy like that. What kind of build-a-bear workshop raised you?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

The best part about worms is you can grow a bunch of them on a fresh cadaver.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 13 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

It's the only conclusion that makes sense.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 64 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's Apartheid South Africa all over again. They've got an unlimited license to be pieces of shit because they've got a bunch of incredibly wealthy, racist friends willing to prop them up indefinitely.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 106 points 5 hours ago

Don't get me wrong. After all of this high drama, it would be extremely funny if Luigi Mangione can prove he was in Rochester on the day of the shooting.

 

Body camera footage shows the moment an LMPD officer hands a woman in labor a citation for unlawful camping as she waits for an ambulance.

 

In 2025, Mexico’s current challenges are likely to worsen, as the recently inaugurated Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo administration (2024–30) has shown an unwillingness to depart from the policy playbook of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration (2018–24) — a playbook that has already proven unable to resolve most of the country’s problems.Political and diplomatic relations are headed for a rocky year, as Mexico drifts further away from a strategic allyship position with the United States on several items.

 

Anyway, please stay safe and don't be afraid to defend yourself.

 

Yoon has been a lame duck president since the latest general election when the opposition won a landslide.

He was not able to pass the laws he wanted, instead, he was reduced to vetoing desperately any bills that the opposition had been passing.

Yoon is also mired in several scandals, mainly one around his wife, who is accused of corruption. She is also accused of influence peddling. The opposition has been trying to launch a special investigation against her.

This week, the opposition slashed budgets that the government and ruling party had put forward - and the budget bill cannot be vetoed.

In the same week, the opposition is moving to impeach cabinet members, mainly the head of the government audit agency, for failing to investigate the first lady.

Yoon has gone for the nuclear option - he claims it is to restore order when "anti-state" forces he says are trying to paralyse the country.

Edit: South Korea Parliament Votes to End Martial Law, Opposing President’s Decree. The Country’s Stocks Are Falling.

 

China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.

 
 

Over the summer months, UIUC police and Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz joined forces to send a clear and heavy-handed message about how they intend to handle pro-Palestinian student speech going forward. Rietz — who has been on the faculty of UIUC’s law school since 2009 — began issuing summonses starting in July 2024, to students who are alleged to have participated in the encampment. A great deal of effort and resources seemingly went into targeting these students: University police utilized surveillance technology, including the use of license plate readers, as well as students’ social media posts and body camera footage. And the resulting summonses were not for misdemeanors — they contained mandates to appear in court for Class Four felony mob action charges, which carry up to three years in prison. Several students were charged, including one Palestinian student.

On August 16, 2024, Rietz publicly stated during a local radio spot that these charges were pursued at the direct request of the university. However, the decision to prosecute these students for a felony under the mob action statute was ultimately a prosecutorial decision, despite Rietz’s public claims that free “speech is absolutely a protected right.” While Rietz was elected by the community to serve the best interests of Champaign County, her private affiliation with the university raises questions about the lens she is using to review the evidence of these cases. Some UIUC faculty fear that Rietz is advocating on behalf of the university first, instead of the county, and that the university is leveraging its connection with her to legitimize its mistreatment of students in the eyes of the public.

 
 

You can't do that, you can't kill children on purpose knowing that you're doing that in exchange for power, freedom or happiness whatever you think you're getting in return. You can't participate in human sacrifice without consequences

 

Elon Musk's pro-Trump group does not choose the winners of its $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered voters at random, but instead picks people who would be good spokespeople for its agenda, a lawyer for the billionaire said on Monday.

...

"There is no prize to be won, instead recipients must fulfill contractual obligations to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC," Gober said in the hearing before Judge Angelo Foglietta, referring to Musk's political action committee, known as America PAC.

 
 
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