Sasha Akhavi @sakhavi@social.cleverlibre.org

I think many see comparisons of this moment for trans Americans to genocide as a hyperbolic attempt to reach ppl emotionally, and what I want to describe in this thread is that yes, we're trying you reach you emotionally, but it's also as clear a description as we can give.

In TX, authorities are going after trans children's medical records. Based on that, families are trying to decide whether they should flee because they're worried the state might put them in jail.

***** When Google Doesn't Care *****

Why am I pushing a "Users' Bill of Account Rights" now? While this does not apply only to #Google, I frankly am deeply tired of people coming to me desperate, pleading, for help trying to restore access to locked out Google accounts. Google won't respond to them. They ask who they can talk to? Who can they PAY? Personal and business emails, precious photos, files. They trusted Google. They followed the rules. They did nothing illegal. And they've lost access to everything. To Google, they're just in the noise at Google scale.

It's been this way at Google since the firms' start, but over the years Google has encouraged ordinary, nontechnical people to trust them more and more. And that usually works great, until something goes wrong.

Up to now, I've sometimes been able to informally help in these situations, via contacts at Google. But even that has become much more difficult. This is getting worse, not better.

Google has the resources -- money and smart minds -- to solve these problems. This is not rocket science, or even computer science. There are straightforward ways to make this far better for Google users otherwise locked out and left to swing in the wind. The sad fact is that Google simply don't consider them to rise to the level worth helping.

This must change now. -L

The biggest tech innovations of the last 10 years. 😁

People in security and computing have been saying for years - there's no cloud. There's just someone else's computer.

Right now, there's no AI. There's just someone else's work.

Stop calling generative text and image programs AI. It's inaccurate and insulting. They are just the evolution of corporate creative theft that's been going on as long as media corporations have existed.

I post a fair amount of concerning news about #COVID19, so here's some potential good news. A vaccine developed at Rutgers is showing promise for long-lasting protection from COVID, and it's cheap to produce and distribute without special low-temperature handling. It needs more testing, but perhaps better population-wide protection is on the horizon?

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230508/Novel-Rutgers-vaccine-may-provide-more-durable-protection-against-SARS-CoV-2.aspx

Gotta hand it to the man, the guy delivers

I had to explain to someone today that the blue check is Twitter’s MAGA hat.

Every State Trying To Ban Racial Equity Efforts In Colleges And Universities https://www.essence.com/news/state-dei-ban/

#higherEd

Please Reblog to get this to those who can use it.... Teens and young adults ages 13 to 26 living anywhere in the U.S. can access the entire collection of e-books and audiobooks from the Seattle Public Library. "We believe in your right to read what you want, discover yourself and form your own opinions." Fill out the form to get a Books Unbanned card.
https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/teens/books-unbanned#GetaBooksUnbannedCard

Rutgers faculty union leaders approve landmark contract to take to their members: Longer contracts, raises, job security for part-time lecturers; raises and 5 years of funding for future grad workers; health benefits and higher salary eligibility for grad fellows; parental leave and terms that give med faculty enough time to be with students and research as opposed to driving patient numbers; and a common-good proposal with creation of "Beloved Community Fund" https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/education/2023/04/30/rutgers-faculty-union-leaders-approve-landmark-contract-membership-vote-next/70168223007/ #HigherEd

PC: You quit improperly.
ME: You froze.
PC: Next time quit properly.
ME: I didn’t quit.
PC: You lost your data.
ME: YOU lost my data.
PC: Would you like to send a report to Microsoft?
ME: That you fucked up?
PC: That’s not how it’ll read.
ME *reboots
PC: YOU SHUT DOWN IMPROPERLY.

Republicans are coming after a Nebraska state senator who stands against antri-trans legislation

The complaint against Sen. Megan Hunt states she could benefit financially from the failure of LB 574

A measure that bans gender-affirming care for those under 19

…Her child is trans. That’s the “financial benefit”

Maybe we should take a look at the stock purchases, kickbacks and rubles the republicans have?

GOP Glass houses.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=49961

The success of the ad boycott and Fox’s precarious position as it tries to renegotiate for an even higher fee per subscriber from cable providers, the real source of its massive profits, should be getting far more attention than castle gossip about why Tucker was fired.