Ian Kenway @iankenway@social.cleverlibre.org
Director of the Centre for Information Ethics and Public Policy
Personal website:
My interests include:
#cyberethics #privacy #censorship #encryption #steganography #decentralised_internet #AI #philosophy #ethics #politics #psychedelic_research #music #film #symi #mycology
Joined Oct 2018
#dyson #james_dyson #covid #work #home #office #employment #vacuum_cleaners #fans #economics #politics
In this world there are many ignorant, self-serving and self-promoting prats. Sir James Dyson is almost certainly in the top league of clueless people spouting utter nonsense.
Sir James Dyson: Britain will fall behind unless workers are told to go back to office
Ian Kenway
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Pharmacist faces 120 years in prison for selling vaccination cards on eBay https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pharmacist-faces-120-years-in-prison-for-selling-vaccination-cards-on-ebay/ #news #Security
Ian Kenway
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🇳🇱
#IT #surveillance #privacy #facial_recognition #politics #democracy #UK #global
UK government criticised for proposed facial-recognition guidance
Ian Kenway
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@freemo @swiley Well it was his peace talks that set up the problem, right?
> Washington under then-president Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that limited direct military action against the insurgents. That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to seize key areas when President Joe Biden announced his plans to withdraw all American forces by the end of this month.[[1]](https://cbc.ca/1.6141568)
> If the Taliban meet their commitments, all U.S. troops would leave in 14 months [from February 2020]. U.S. troops are to be withdrawn to 8,600 from about 13,000 in the weeks following Saturday's signing.[[2]](https://cbc.ca/1.5481070)
If the government agrees not to engage in direct action against you and to withdraw its military, you no longer need to take it on at all, with or without F-15s or nukes.
The Democrats criticised Trump for reneging on the nuclear deal with Iran that Obama entered into, so now that Biden was faced with a deal with the Taliban that Trump entered into, they had backed themselves into a corner politically. Had they not made such a big deal that Trump was setting a *bad* precedent, Biden could have followed the precedent without coming off as overtly hypocritical.
I think the broader point, that a force comprising solely small arms is almost certainly incapable of defeating the US military, still stands. If the Taliban had retaken the country while the US forces were still actively trying to hold it, you'd have a much better counterexample.
Ian Kenway
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A list of decentralised web services!
Ian Kenway
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Ian Kenway
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Mastodon now a non-profit organisation https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2021/08/mastodon-now-a-non-profit-organisation/ #mastodon #linux #socialnetwork #alternative #nonprofit
Ian Kenway
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From The Conversation
"Totalitarianism seeks to obliterate the limits of law through the uninhibited exercise of power."
Ian Kenway
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I just need to copy and paste this every time someone on the fediverse posts anything about COVID.
Ian Kenway
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Welsh scientists explain best ways to stop spread of coronavirus in cars - Wales Online https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-scientists-explain-best-ways-21315375
#loach #varoufakis #starmer #labour #purge #socialism #uk #global
Yanis Varoufakis:
“I just heard that Keir Starmer expelled Ken Loach from the Labour Party. I hope this is fake news.
“If not, all he managed is to expel Labour's soul, leaving behind an arid, soulless Labour Party - one that is even poorer than under Blair."
Me? Amen!
Toot Redux (first published 5th December 2020)
Time to cut up your membership cards and 'Go Green'?
Ian Kenway
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The Eisteddfod is the opposite of elitist - it's a festival made and remade by those who take part in it. https://nation.cymru/opinion/the-eisteddfod-is-the-opposite-of-elitist-its-a-festival-made-and-remade-by-those-who-take-part-in-it/
Ian Kenway
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Wool is warm, is not made from oil, and does not break down into microplastics. This news is appalling. How do we restart wool as the sensible material for warm clothing? I've tried to find woolen cycling kit - remarkably rare! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-58162610
Ian Kenway
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Yes, the Aeneid is most certainly a great poem! You can learn a lot from it!
Ian Kenway
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A thought occurred to me. Why don’t characters in American films like being called Virgil? Evidence: I know of three characters who appear in the following films: The Right Stuff (Virgil I. Grissom, “They call me Gus.”), The Great Escape (Captain Virigil Hilts, “Just make it Hilts.”) and The Abyss (Virgil Brigman, “`Virgil’?”). OK, only Grissom was a real person but why do writers do that? Is there some connotation in the name that I’m unaware of? I think The Aeneid is a great poem.
Ian Kenway
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Lambing is going really well this year on our farmlet. So far we have had ten sets of twin lambs and three singles with no losses. With six ewes left to lamb we could make it up to 35 lambs.
It is such a relief to be having a good lambing season after difficult times the previous two years.
The enjoyment of the new lambs is tempered by the knowledge that most of them will be killed and eaten before they are a year old.
Meanwhile it is time to enjoy these delightful little creatures.
Ian Kenway
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Another #poem from about 8 years ago...
http://jeffreyfreeman.me/brambled-velvet-bloody-thorns/
= Brambled velvet, bloody thorns. =
The sweetest warmth on my tongue.
A distant memory of a soft touch that never was.
The thorns are a poison, and the fruit its cure.
The sweet fruit that turns the ash in my mouth to wine,
the peaceful ignorance of my intoxication.
Numb to the destruction as I tear away the velvet fruit,
leaving a mutilated husk, its life blood dripping.
The desolate brambles now rotting in the sun.
Its life for mine, a life I never wished to take,
as if there was some other end, some perfect end.
But it was all a dream.
A haunting dream.
An eternal dream.
A dream more real than life.
A dream…
Director of the Centre for Information Ethics and Public Policy
Personal website:
My interests include:
#cyberethics #privacy #censorship #encryption #steganography #decentralised_internet #AI #philosophy #ethics #politics #psychedelic_research #music #film #symi #mycology
Joined Oct 2018
