Political Custard

One very important word missing from that headline. The BBC should be ashamed of its coverage as they do this again and again.

Corrected version: "World Central Kitchen halts operations in Gaza after ISRAELI strike kills staff"

People in India were watching people checkout?! Poorly paid workers watching Westerners consume... this is so grim.

Time to dust off those guillotines.

There's an interesting comment on this post about Graphene OS' plans in this area, it's quite a long comment so I'll link it. The first para reads:

GrapheneOS Foundation has been planning to host a network location service for GrapheneOS and projects collaborating with us for a while now. We've received significant funding we can put to use for this to make a high quality, modern implementation on both the client and server side. A new unified app (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth beacons) for gathering data to publish as fully open data could also be part of it. We also plan to make a SUPL implementation as part of the same service as an alternative to our Google SUPL proxy to replace it as the default in the long term.

People are still printing? I love it, proppa old skool that is. I thought the only person who printed stuff anymore was my mum who prints out her daily crossword.

Don't forget to boycott HP because, not only are they shit printers, they provide computer hardware for the IDF, Israel's police, and their Immigration and Population Authority. https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp

Here's some potentially good news about an alternative...

There's an interesting comment on this Mozilla Github post about Graphene OS' plans in this area, it's quite a long comment so I'll link it. The first para reads:

GrapheneOS Foundation has been planning to host a network location service for GrapheneOS and projects collaborating with us for a while now. We've received significant funding we can put to use for this to make a high quality, modern implementation on both the client and server side. A new unified app (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth beacons) for gathering data to publish as fully open data could also be part of it. We also plan to make a SUPL implementation as part of the same service as an alternative to our Google SUPL proxy to replace it as the default in the long term.

I'm on a private tracker (pejoratively known as a "piracy site") that specialises in obscure films and documentaries - no mainstream, big studio films are allowed. It is an archive that I am happy to be a part of... and I definitely consider it to be an "archive"; corporations are not going to be interested in maintaining anything that's not profitable. I regularly upload queer films that are difficult to get hold of and I'm happy that they are held on the computers of others in case someone, someday, would like to watch them.

The Ubuntu article is using this Mozilla announcement as its source (I am not saying they say different things, it's just best to see the source material sometimes). The article mentions litigation and this might be the important bit, Skyhook Holdings Inc. was acquired by Qualcomm in May 2022.

Skyhook's business is wifi location and I'm guessing that Mozilla's been costing them money and Qualcomm might be looking for a little return on investment from its purchase of Skyhook.

I hope there's an open source project that comes out of this that we can get behind and that this will turn out to be a good thing in the end. Mozilla did say their service was getting worse and it sounds like the litigation might be what's behind this. I wish Mozilla were better at communicating stuff... oh well, that ain't gonna change!

There have been a couple of recent (post-October) studies into BBC coverage, the issue I raise concerning the language used in the title is consistent with its use of language elsewhere. For example, Israelis are "killed" and Palestinians "die".

"About 700 people have been killed in Israel since Hamas launched its attack on Saturday, with a further 500 having died in Gaza in retaliatory air strikes."
"Some 1200 people have been killed in Israel, while more than 1000 have died in retaliatory air strikes on Gaza."
"More than 700 people have been killed in Israel since Saturday and over 500 people have died in Gaza."

[...] the openDemocracy analysis found that the phrases “murder”, “murderous”, “mass murder”, “brutal murder” and “merciless murder” were used a total of 52 times by [BBC] journalists to refer to Israeli deaths – but never in relation to Palestinian deaths.

When I read this sort of coverage on a daily basis, I see these patterns repeated again and again, it's a subtle reframing that many don't notice but editors (and headline writers) at the BBC will be very aware of how they are using language. Space is not an excuse to remove the perpetrator from the picture regardless of how obvious that perpetrator might be, it is disingenuous.

Study shows BBC 'bias' in reporting on Palestinian and Israeli deaths - The National

They did something similar with Chelsea Manning, announced they were "thinking about a pardon" to see if there would be pushback.

It's proving to be rather embarrassing for the UK, it's clear to many here how he's been treated and how much of a stitch up the trial has been. I imagine the US could do without the international attention on this - court cases, more Russia speculation in an election year.

And the "authorities" have made their point: don't try to take the piss out of us, we will ruin your life even if we don't get you to trial. Julian Assange's case will certainly be putting off quite a few people from becoming radical journalists.

@genocide.joe@beehaw.org?

I just got approved to join Beehaw, so things are going okay, I reckon!

Shit in... shit out, or to put it another way: racism in... racism out.

I propose we create another LLM... a Left Language Model.

Oh, this looks great. Honestly, I am very happy when closed-source apps become worse, these are all just opportunities for open source to move in and take over.

I'd imagine quite a bit of the stuttering and lag on Androids was/is a result of all the bloatware phone companies insist on putting on their phones. I've a 2018 OnePlus 6 that doesn't lag or stutter because the only apps on it are the ones I choose to have on it and allow to run - it's a degoogled phone running Lineage OS (Android 14) with zero bloat and zero ads and as a result a six-year-old phone is still buttery smooth. Phone companies have a lot to answer for... it's lucky they don't sell cars; they'd sell you a Ferrari and then weld a mobile home to the back of it to make it incredibly difficult to disconnect.

Espionage can result in a death penalty but it's currently the case that the UK (courts) would like a guarantee from the US (lol) that he won't be executed. Other than that I think it's over 100 years and they can add more charges when he arrives.

I will always recommend the classics...

• Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm

• The Authoritarian Personality, Theodor Adorno

I read Escape from Freedom 20 years ago when I was trying to understand the Holocaust and then again a few years ago when it was clear we were seeing another rise in fascism and authoritarianism. Thanks for the link, I will read it later, I've only just got up and on my first cup of tea... 😅

I can't wait to get a (regular) Kobo, my Kindle Paperwhite is still going strong and it's 10 years old, but I really want a Kobo because it's opensource. Amazon's OS is dreadful, mine's been in airplane mode for most of those 10 years and I just use a usb cable with it. I hope it dies soon so I will have a good excuse to replace it.

Nice news to read. I hope we will see many more court cases; it's clear we cannot rely on politicians to try to fix this problem.

I am against MTX because they have put parents in debt when their children have racked up huge MTX bills and it's very difficult/impossible to get refunds. Yes, parents can protect themselves against this but many parents are not particularly tech savvy and games companies will see these as potentially huge revenue streams and abuse the hell out of them... like EPIC did.

Also, gaming addicts should also be considered and potential routes to indebtedness avoided.

Knowing a game has MTX just makes me less likely to buy it. Price the game correctly in the first place, and offer DLCs if you want some extra revenue.

I have AtlasOS. I only use Windows for two games, Rust and Destiny 2, that absolutely do not play on Linux. You will absolutely get better performance because the number of background tasks running all the time is quite minimal - it's clean and there's no store, no crappy apps you don't want. I don't care about security on the machine because I literally only game on it and maybe a little bit of web research if I get stuck on a game somehow. Anyway, I think it's good, it's really how Windows should be - if Windows didn't get so bad perhaps I wouldn't have gone to Linux.

You could try dual-booting for a bit to see how you like it.

Sorry, you are correct. I researched plans to get a Kobo last year and I guess what I found out morphed from a rooted Kobo with Koreader into Kobo being open source. My apologies.

I recently watched a documentary called Palestinian Identity, made in 1984. I am in the UK and was a young boy at the time, smothered in Very British Propaganda so I was interested in watching it because it was made by the PLO Film Unit. It was excellent and, of course, many parallels to be drawn between then and today, especially because the film begins with a walk around a recently destroyed children's school. It included some fascinating interviews with some of the leading Palestinian cultural figures of the time including Mahmoud Darwish who's considered to be Palestine's national poet... which reminded me I needed to start reading poetry again! Anyway, I'll be quiet now, that went on longer than I was expecting! Thanks for the lovely question.

https://palestinecinema.com/movies/palestinian-identity

Games, for everything else I've found a foss alternative that I prefer. I will do a google search once every couple of days if I'm really struggling to find something but even as a last resort search engine it's been getting worse - I heard they put an ad person in charge of search... so that would probably explain that descent.

What a lovely story. Thanks for sharing.

All I would say to miserable progressives is: try being a proper leftist, then you'll know what real misery is like.

It might be that the bakers of the really dark stuff are using a caramel colouring, I have seen a couple of recipes that use it: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2008/10/26/pumpernickel-bread-how-to-make-your-own-caramel-coloring/

I could imagine it might be popular with commercial/artisnal breadmakers as people think darker breads are healthier breads.

Some of the responses here have me laughing at how uptight they are. What you did was perfectly normal, he was rude and you're best off not thinking about him ever again. Fuck that guy!

I put malt extract in my porridge, it adds a lovely colour and flavour, I'd never thought of using it in bread!

It's the dementia.

Yes, I agree. I said that rather tongue in cheek. 😅 It can be tough sometimes, but in the long run I know where I'd rather be. 😀

I am campaigning for LTU then... Uncoordinated Lunar Time, then people on the moon can do what they want whenever they damn well feel like it.

I thought I didn't like zombie games until I discovered Days Gone... it's been really engrossing and has a wonderful plot, great characters and I don't skip the dialogue, which is quite rare for me. It also looks stunning.

It's still clunky and repetitive. I didn't finish Zero Dawn and the more I play Forbidden West the more I feel it likely I won't finish this either. I think you're right to make a comparison to Ubisoft. Fine looking games with loads of potential but I suspect fear of bad sales result in bland, generic characters and storylines that are just not engaging.

Thanks for the edit and link to discussion, I am a FireDragon (Floorp fork) user and it seems like this issue is in hand and I'm not going to be concerned for the moment.

A friend of mine used to mark undergrad papers, to be honest this would be a kindness to teachers.

The service is really good but I stopped using it when they gave a donation to Bellingcat.

Proton Mail: Imperialist Stooge?

I really wish they had; I was playing again today and her character was just being so awful to people. It would be fine to have such a character if over the course of the story she realises she has attachment issues and gradually tries to deal with them throughout the game, but she doesn't, she just keeps being mean. I have no idea why you would have someone like this as the main character, I have no sympathy for her and the game is not even attempting to get me to empathise or sympathise with her. She's meeting some really lovely people and I'm getting embarrassed by her behaviour! 😅

Horizon Forbidden West, stunning graphics. I find the main character a bit off-putting as she can be a bit arrogant and rude and those are traits I don't have a lot of patience for, but it really does look good.

Are Western analyses going to be so limited in scope from now on that there is absolutely no need to ask (let alone answer)̉̉̉ the question: has Russia in any way been provoked?

Never let is be asked: is there an ever-so-slight possibility that this might be blowback from something the West did.

I am not saying that the West is solely responsibly for Russian violence but it certainly cannot be said that the West played no part. This continual inability to question "our own" behaviour is going to mean mistakes are never going to be acknowledged and learned from in order to help us to avoid making serious, hugely deadly mistakes in future.

Well, it's now Tuesday and the world hasn't ended. I guess things went okay then.