ML2 @mathlover@social.cleverlibre.org

9/ The biggest problem with the Internet nowadays is increasing centralization.

What do I mean by this?

That there's an alarming decrease in sites that people visit on the Internet.

There's a trend to do everything on one site -- or to even bypass the Internet entirely and do it on one app.

In fact, there's a VC-driven race right now to build an "everything app". That's the end goal.

Should we let that happen? No!

This is why we should continue to build websites -- and visit them!

10/ That said, we should never look at the web as the only tool for re-building the public square.

The Internet is bigger than the web.

To work for a more equitable, fair Internet, we need to build for:

1. The Web
2. Email
3. Chat (IRC, XMPP, The Matrix, etc.)
4. Social Media
5. File sharing

We can't let our foot off the gas pedal because certain powers-that-be are trying to do their damnedest to make us forget that the Internet was designed to be decentralized.

Let's give them hell!

/END

7/ What people forget is that the destruction of Meta and Twitter *doesn't* mean the destruction of the public square.

No, the *web* itself is the public square.

Anyone can set up a simple, basic website.

In fact, it's easier than ever to do this, and it costs very little money.

All you need is hardware.

And guess what? Almost all hardware made within the last 20 years is capable of being a webserver.

A basic website actually is the most accessible of social media tools.

8/ Now I'm not the biggest booster of the web. In fact, I've long since said that the Internet needs to decentralize away from it.

Nevertheless, the web is a tool -- an important tool -- and we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that basic HTML (with hyperlinking) can do a whole lot of things that can address inequality on the Internet.

If you're an activist and you worry about censorship from Meta and Facebook, building your own website and self-hosting it is an incredible tool.

"The Second Circuit refused #Friday to overturn the sex-trafficking #convictions that landed the leader of an upstate New York cult 120 years in prison. 

For years Keith Raniere was the face of a self-help business called NXIVM. But there was a pyramid within the pyramid called DOS or the Vow. It was billed as a #women’s empowerment group, but once women were brought in they were made to have sex with Raniere and then blackmailed with sexually explicit photographs."

https://www.courthousenews.com/nxivm-sex-cult-leader-loses-appeal-will-be-imprisoned-for-life/

5/ If you want to know what this older version of the web looked like, and how it was explicitly social, I recommend browsing through Neocities.

Sites like these were why people literally just surfed the web as a hobby -- because there was so much social creativity going on that it could entertain you for days, weeks, months -- even years.

https://neocities.org/browse

⚠️ Yet another reason why proprietary software, especially in healthcare, is immoral and dangerous.

🗨️ "When the makers of electronic implants abandon their projects, people who rely on the devices have everything to lose."

#OpenSource #FreeSoftware

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-03810-5/index.html

7 out of 10 Black voters are worried about voter suppression. 1 out of 5 Black voters have personally experienced voter suppression! Less than 25% of Black voters think the democratic party prioritizes the issues most important for their survival. Now that's disillusionment.

And yet, 50% of Black US voters didn't go full fascist or try to overthrow the government?

In normal folk, disillusionment leads to demands for a better democracy.👍🏿 There are better options than "Fascism or giving up."

Dennis Ritchie's lost 1968 PhD thesis is notable not just for its contribution to mathematics, but for its mysteriously and impossibly perfect typesetting. And the fact that it was never actually submitted, possibly due to a snit over library fees.

Fortunately, Bell Labs hired grad school dropouts.

See https://dmrthesis.net/ and https://computerhistory.org/blog/discovering-dennis-ritchies-lost-dissertation/ .

HT @joakinen

PLEASE SHARE
I’m seeing a lot of people in the UK copying a message telling others to call or text a new suicide hotline on 988 if they are feeling suicidal or in mental health distress - this number only works in the USA.

THIS IS SOME INFORMATION I HAVE PUT TOGETHER IF YOU ARE IN THE UK AND YOU NEED TO CALL OR TEXT SOMEONE BECAUSE YOU ARE FEELING SUICIDAL OR IN MENTAL HEALTH DISTRESS:

Samaritans:
Tel: 116 123
Lines open 24/7
Email: jo@samaritans.org
More info: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

With all of the horrible things happening in the world, it’s nice to find the wins. Especially in the area of our environment. A group called Coral Guardian is restoring coral reefs, and it’s quite magnificent. More wins like this, please.

https://www.coralguardian.org/en/

#Climate #Environment #CoralReef #Restoration

Never mind governments in Russia or China - here in the UK, politicians from both major parties further their threat to #encryption and even #VPNs via their ironically named #OnlineSafetyBill:
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/15101/

So in the past 12 weeks, there have been…
-multiple attacks via firearms on power substations in NC and SC (just this week).
-6 attacks via firearms, hand tools, arson, & metal chains at power substations in WA and OR.
-6 attacks via firearms on substations in FL in a single 12-day stretch in September.

This style of attack on power substations has been laid out in detail in multiple accelerationist documents, including an “accelerationist handbook” that circulated on Telegram this summer.

If you say "never again", think:

What is my own moral responsibility as a bystander of evil?

What has my reaction been to acts and expressions based on antisemitism & other ideologies hatred?

What can I do, to make our world a better & safer place."

And then, start doing it.

#GenocidePreventionDay #NeverForget #NeverAgain #dosomething #remember #act #memory #responsibility

Oleksandra Matviychuk told RFE/RL that as her group collects evidence of an "unprecedented number" of Russian war crimes committed since Moscow sent its troops across the border in late February, the true cost of the war is what is being discovered.https://trts.io/QMy8a

Topology is witchcraft

Fellow librarians -- please pass around word about @libraryland.social - a Mastodon instance set up for public library workers to share ideas, inspirations, questions, announcements and the like. If you're looking for a new home to move to after landing at mastodon.social -- that might be your new home.

After coming back from near-extinction, fur seals are wreaking havoc on Antarctica, reports @Sean_Mow for @hakaimagazine: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/12/fur-seals-tremendous-comeback-might-be-problem/672347/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=true-anthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Original tweet : https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1601445115897200640

Honda just secured enough battery capacity to put 1 million EVs on the road https://electrek.co/2022/12/08/catl-supplying-123-gwh-of-batteries-to-power-honda-evs/

How long before Twitter starts selling their actual offices?

Because I guarantee that's what will be gone next.