Month: December 2017

RELIGION MAY NOT BE LITERALLY TRUE BUT HAS IT CIVILISED US?

It’s popular to write about the self-evident importance of Judeo-Christian religion to the development of modern civilisation. But Agoston finds this unconvincing and in this piece tries to explain why.

BRASH SELF-ASSURANCE BEATS OPEN-MINDED PATIENCE

contrarianexternalnewslegion

Why is it that strident assholes who’re usually proven wrong in the end triumph time and time again in competition with intelligent nuanced decency? Merton Futon speculates about this strangely irrational truism.

DON’T CONFLATE ISLAMOPHOBIA WITH ANTI-ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

contrariannewslegionsociety

The response to cultural “offences” in the name of Islam is generally “on message” in a tribal way but this tribal reaction to the Muslim world and its anti-Islam rhetoric is a bad choice. It’s only going to make things worse.

OFF-GUARDIAN
BOTWORLDPRESS
REUTERS
INTERCEPT
REDDIT
A/B WORLD
SCIENCEWIRE

The Cult of WTF

1 August 2021

Lucy Davies If you’re finding yourself muttering WTF a lot more than usual; every story in the news, every advert on tele, every letter from your child’s school, every shop you go into, every phone call with that person you used to like &/ or be related to etc… Welcome to ‘the cult of WTF’. …

What’s REALLY behind the war on home ownership?

31 July 2021

Kit Knightly The incipient “Great Reset” is a multi-faceted beast. We talk a lot about vaccine passports and lockdowns and the Covid-realated aspects – and we should – but there’s more to it than that. Remember, they want you to “own nothing and be happy”. And right at the top of the list of things …

New Normal Newspeak #3: “Progressive”

30 July 2021

“New Normal Newspeak” is a series of short articles highlighting how our language has come under assault in the past eighteen months. * We have a backlog for these NNNS posts, but I saw this today on Twitter, and it made me laugh so it gets to jump the queue. A few days ago, Saudi …

Covid Vaccines: The “LEAKED” Pfizer Contract

29 July 2021

Kit Knightly An allegedly leaked vaccine supply contract between Pfizer and the government of Albania has sent some shockwaves through social media over the last few days. It doesn’t contain any really groundbreaking information but, if it’s genuine, it certainly confirms the worst suspicions many of us had about the terms of the vaccine supply …

Covid “vaccines” & pregnancy: Twitter blocks OffG for telling the truth

28 July 2021

Kit Knightly Yesterday, the Scottish government put out a tweet containing potentially dangerous medical misinformation. We at OffGuardian did our civic duty and corrected them, citing non-controversial proven facts available from official sources….and within eighteen hours our account was “limited”. We are now locked out of Twitter unless we remove the “misleading” tweet. In short, …

WATCH: Research Tools You Should Know About

28 July 2021

Urgent Plea by Doctors to India’s PM: “Halt Roll-Out of COVID-19 Vaccines Now”

27 July 2021

Colin Todhunter Indian Doctors for Truth (IDT) have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressing the importance of an urgent need to stop the overzealous universal vaccination drive against COVID-19. Twenty doctors have signed the letter and highlight numerous scientific data about immunity achieved by the Indian population among both adults and children in light …

Current Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

9 February 2021

This is a list of individuals currently serving in the United States House of Representatives as of the 117th Congress

QAnon vs. Hitler's Brownshirts

28 January 2021

The world has seen QAnon before. It was called Nazism.

World Headlines: Capitol Siege by MAGA Mob

10 January 2021

On January 6, 2021, white insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, proudly displayed the confederate flag, and set up gallows on the Capitol grounds.

U.S. Senate Seats up for Reelection in 2022

8 January 2021

It's 2022 vision time. The U.S. Senate elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2020. Thirty-four of the 100 Senators are up for reelection and will serve a six-year term from January 3, 2023, until January 3, 2029. The time to start organizing is now.

The Marijuana Industry's Dirty Little Secret

14 May 2019

The runaway-growth in the cannabis industry, fueled by rolling de-regulation and a high demand forecast, is bringing with it a growing carbon footprint.

A Personal Account of Hawaii's False Missile Alert

20 February 2018

Countries North Korea Can Currently Hit With Their Missiles

29 May 2017

Should North Korea ever have the capacity to launch a nuclear missile that could reach the U.S. mainland, Trump would have approximately ten minutes to react and make a decision to counterattack.

Olympics-Athletics-Ethiopian Barega wins men’s 10,000 metres

30 July 2021

The post Olympics-Athletics-Ethiopian Barega wins men’s 10,000 metres appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Olympics-Tennis-Djokovic’s Golden Slam dreams dashed, Zverev faces Khachanov in final

30 July 2021

The post Olympics-Tennis-Djokovic’s Golden Slam dreams dashed, Zverev faces Khachanov in final appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Selling out: America’s local landlords. Moving in: Big investors

30 July 2021

The post Selling out: America’s local landlords. Moving in: Big investors appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

From Facebook to Twitter, Big Tech sees social commerce driving sales growth

29 July 2021

The post From Facebook to Twitter, Big Tech sees social commerce driving sales growth appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Analysis: Biden’s COVID-19 strategy thwarted by anti-vaxxers, Delta variant

29 July 2021

The post Analysis: Biden’s COVID-19 strategy thwarted by anti-vaxxers, Delta variant appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters Highlights: End-July 2021

29 July 2021

The post Reuters Highlights: End-July 2021 appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Olympics-Swimming-China smash expectations, world record to win relay gold

29 July 2021

The post Olympics-Swimming-China smash expectations, world record to win relay gold appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

"A Government That Has Killed People for Less": Pro-Saudi Social Media Swarms Leave Critics in Fear

1 August 2021

Before he was murdered by Saudi Arabia, Jamal Khashoggi faced online harassment from influencers and bots. Their new targets are worried.

The post “A Government That Has Killed People for Less”: Pro-Saudi Social Media Swarms Leave Critics in Fear appeared first on The Intercept.

His Conviction Was Overturned Amid Evidence of Innocence. The Supreme Court Could Throw It All Out.

31 July 2021

Arizona hopes the court’s conservative majority will do what prosecutors are unable to: send Barry Jones back to death row.

The post His Conviction Was Overturned Amid Evidence of Innocence. The Supreme Court Could Throw It All Out. appeared first on The Intercept.

“Worst of Brazil”: Covid-19 Vaccine Corruption Implicates Top Bolsonaro Allies

31 July 2021

A steady trickle of new information from a Senate probe is showing how vaccine shortages are linked to corruption.

The post “Worst of Brazil”: Covid-19 Vaccine Corruption Implicates Top Bolsonaro Allies appeared first on The Intercept.

Guatemalan Communities Turn Out for Indigenous-Led Nationwide Shutdown

30 July 2021

Guatemala’s attorney general fired a top prosecutor of corruption last week. Now, Indigenous peoples and social movements are calling for both her and the president to resign.

The post Guatemalan Communities Turn Out for Indigenous-Led Nationwide Shutdown appeared first on The Intercept.

Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Is a Truth-Teller in a Time of Systemic Deceit and Lethal Secrecy

30 July 2021

Hale should be pardoned and released, and the government should pay him restitution.

The post Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Is a Truth-Teller in a Time of Systemic Deceit and Lethal Secrecy appeared first on The Intercept.

Biden Has Said Pot Prisoners Should Be Free. Now He’s Poised to Send Some Back to Prison.

30 July 2021

Reports that the Biden administration will end home confinement for people released during the pandemic have spurred a flurry of activism.

The post Biden Has Said Pot Prisoners Should Be Free. Now He’s Poised to Send Some Back to Prison. appeared first on The Intercept.

NYPD Reforms Are Failing, Say Plaintiffs Who Won Landmark Stop-and-Frisk Case

30 July 2021

In 2013, a federal judge mandated oversight after finding that the NYPD's racially disproportionate use of stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional.

The post NYPD Reforms Are Failing, Say Plaintiffs Who Won Landmark Stop-and-Frisk Case appeared first on The Intercept.

Closer to Paris or to London?

1 August 2021

submitted by /u/atlasova to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

[OC] Florida makes up 6.5% of the US population but has 20% of new Covid cases and hospitalizations.

1 August 2021

submitted by /u/JPAnalyst to r/dataisbeautiful [link] [comments]

Resident Biden ladies and gentlemen! 🥴

1 August 2021

submitted by /u/pikcoolski to r/conspiracy [link] [comments]

Non-UK born Londoners, what's the best restaurant of your native cousine that you know in London?

1 August 2021

It's been a while I last saw this question here - so here it goes again! Yes, with typo and all!

Please start your response with the place you're from

submitted by /u/Lanky_Pollution_3919 to r/london [link] [comments]

God just released a new update where a stat bar now hovers over every human, and gives you the honour to choose between these six options. Which will you pick?

1 August 2021

View Poll

submitted by /u/BensReddits to r/polls [link] [comments]

Preparing myself for the Omega variant

1 August 2021

submitted by /u/Plandemicc2022 to r/conspiracy_commons [link] [comments]

The United States didn't start screwing with the middle east for oil or power; they did it to excavate ancient/alien technology

1 August 2021

The CIA and Army Intelligence were infiltrated by repatriated Nazis via Operation Paperclip, some of whom were members of the Thule Society. This lead to the first US backed Iranian coup, overthrowing their democracy with a puppet and giving us the ability to further destabilize Pakistan. From then on, forces in the US government, driven in secret by the leadership of the Thule society and its progeny, have continued to fortify a presence in the middle east: indeed, every major military action the US has taken in the middle east was engineered over at least a decade prior. This activity coincided with major leaps in communication and computer technologies, with a near 1:1 correlation.

I have a personal source, who I trust implicitly, who has told me that they witnessed government contractors running black excavation sites in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Something significant spurred the people who first inhabited the region to take on culture nearly overnight, and the remnants of that something are still scattered beneath the desert sands.

There's a solid buffet of non-conspiracy sources to corroborate the vast majority of this, I'll put some stuff together if anyone is truly the unfortunate combination of being both bad at research and overly skeptical.

submitted by /u/Current87 to r/conspiracytheories [link] [comments]

Reader

30 July 2021

I’ve written before about how I don’t have notifications on my phone or computer. But that doesn’t stop computer programmes waving at me, trying to attract my attention.

If I have my email client open on my computer there’s a red circle with a number in it telling me how many unread emails I have. It’s the same with Slack. If Slack is running and somebody writes something to me, or @here, or @everyone, then a red circle blinks into existence.

There’s a category of programmes like this that want my attention—email, Slack, calendars. In each case, emptiness is the desired end goal. Seeing an inbox too full of emails or a calendar too full of appointments makes me feel queasy. In theory these programmes are acting on my behalf, working for me, making my life easier. And in many ways they do. They help me keep things organised. But they also need to me to take steps: read that email, go to that appointment, catch up with that Slack message. Sometimes it can feel like the tail is wagging the dog and I’m the one doing the bidding of these pieces of software.

My RSS reader should, in theory, fall into the same category. It shows me the number of unread items, just like email or Slack. But for some reason, it feels different. When I open my RSS reader to catch up on the feeds I’m subscribed to, it doesn’t feel like opening my email client. It feels more like opening a book. And, yes, books are also things to be completed—a bookmark not only marks my current page, it also acts as a progress bar—but books are for pleasure. The pleasure might come from escapism, or stimulation, or the pursuit of knowledge. That’s a very different category to email, calendars, and Slack.

I’ve managed to wire my neurological pathways to put RSS in the books category instead of the productivity category. I’m very glad about that. I would hate if catching up on RSS feeds felt like catching up on email. Maybe that’s why I’m never entirely comfortable with newsletters—if there’s an option to subscribe by RSS instead of email, I’ll always take it.

I have two folders in my RSS reader: blogs and magazines. Reading blog posts feels like catching up with what my friends are up to (even if I don’t actually know the person). Reading magazine articles feels like spending a lazy Sunday catching up with some long-form journalism.

I should update this list of my subscriptions. It’s a bit out of date.

Matt made a nice website explaining RSS. And Nicky Case recently wrote about reviving RSS.

Oh, and if you want to have my words in your RSS reader, I have plenty of options for you.

Hope

20 July 2021

My last long-distance trip before we were all grounded by The Situation was to San Francisco at the end of 2019. I attended Indie Web Camp while I was there, which gave me the opportunity to add a little something to my website: an “on this day” page.

I’m glad I did. While it’s probably of little interest to anyone else, I enjoy scrolling back to see how the same date unfolded over the years.

’Sfunny, when I look back at older journal entries they’re often written out of frustration, usually when something in the dev world is bugging me. But when I look back at all the links I’ve bookmarked the vibe is much more enthusiastic, like I’m excitedly pointing at something and saying “Check this out!” I feel like sentiment analyses of those two sections of my site would yield two different results.

But when I scroll down through my “on this day” page, it also feels like descending deeper into the dark waters of linkrot. For each year back in time, the probability of a link still working decreases until there’s nothing but decay.

Sadly this is nothing new. I’ve been lamenting the state of digital preservation for years now. More recently Jonathan Zittrain penned an article in The Atlantic on the topic:

Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone.

In one sense, linkrot is the price we pay for the web’s particular system of hypertext. We don’t have two-way linking, which means there’s no centralised repository of links which would be prohibitively complex to maintain. So when you want to link to something on the web, you just do it. An a element with an href attribute. That’s it. You don’t need to check with the owner of the resource you’re linking to. You don’t need to check with anyone. You have complete freedom to link to any URL you want to.

But it’s that same simple system that makes the act of linking a gamble. If the URL you’ve linked to goes away, you’ll have no way of knowing.

As I scroll down my “on this day” page, I come across more and more dead links that have been snapped off from the fabric of the web.

If I stop and think about it, it can get quite dispiriting. Why bother making hyperlinks at all? It’s only a matter of time until those links break.

And yet I still keep linking. I still keep pointing to things and saying “Check this out!” even though I know that over a long enough timescale, there’s little chance that the link will hold.

In a sense, every hyperlink on the World Wide Web is little act of hope. Even though I know that when I link to something, it probably won’t last, I still harbour that hope.

If hyperlinks are built on hope, and the web is made of hyperlinks, then in a way, the World Wide Web is quite literally made out of hope.

I like that.

Solarpunk

19 July 2021

My talk on sci-fi and me for Beyond Tellerrand’s Stay Curious event was deliberately designed to be broad and expansive. This was in contrast to Steph’s talk which was deliberately narrow and focused on one topic. Specifically, it was all about solarpunk.

I first heard of solarpunk from Justin Pickard back in 2014 at an event I was hosting. He described it as:

individuals and communities harnessing the power of the photovoltaic solar panel to achieve energy-independence.

The sci-fi subgenre of solarpunk, then, is about these communities. The subgenre sets up to be deliberately positive, even utopian, in contrast to most sci-fi.

Most genres ending with the -punk suffix are about aesthetics. You know the way that cyberpunk is laptops, leather and sunglasses, and steampunk is zeppelins and top hats with goggles. Solarpunk is supposedly free of any such “look.” That said, all the examples I’ve seen seem to converge on the motto of “put a tree on it.” If a depiction of the future looks lush, verdant, fecund and green, chances are it’s solarpunk.

At least, it might be solarpunk. It would have to pass the criteria laid down by the gatekeepers. Solarpunk is manifesto-driven sci-fi. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s one thing to apply a category to a piece of writing after it’s been written, but it’s another to start with an agenda-driven category and proceed from there. And as with any kind of classification system, the edges are bound to be fuzzy, leading to endless debates about what’s in and what’s out (see also: UX, UI, service design, content design, product design, front-end development, and most ironically of all, information architecture).

When I met up with Steph to discuss our talk topics and she described the various schools of thought that reside under the umbrella of solarpunk, it reminded me of my college days. You wouldn’t have just one Marxist student group, there’d be multiple Marxist student groups each with their own pillars of identity (Leninist, Trotskyist, anarcho-syndicalist, and so on). From the outside they all looked the same, but woe betide you if you mixed them up. It was exactly the kind of situation that was lampooned in Monty Python’s Life of Brian with its People’s Front of Judea and Judean People’s Front. Steph confirmed that those kind of rifts also exist in solarpunk. It’s just like that bit in Gulliver’s Travels where nations go to war over the correct way to crack an egg.

But there’s general agreement about what broadly constitutes solarpunk. It’s a form of cli-fi (climate fiction) but with an upbeat spin: positive but plausible stories of the future that might feature communities, rewilding, gardening, farming, energy independence, or decentralisation. Centralised authority—in the form of governments and corporations—is not to be trusted.

That’s all well and good but it reminds of another community. Libertarian preppers. Heck, even some of the solarpunk examples feature seasteading (but with more trees).

Politically, preppers and solarpunks couldn’t be further apart. Practically, they seem more similar than either of them would be comfortable with.

Both communities distrust centralisation. For the libertarians, this manifests in a hatred of taxation. For solarpunks, it’s all about getting off the electricity grid. But both want to start their own separate self-sustaining communities.

Independence. Decentralisation. Self-sufficiency.

There’s a fine line between Atlas Shrugged and The Whole Earth Catalog.

Hosting online events

1 July 2021

Back in 2014 Vitaly asked me if I’d be the host for Smashing Conference in Freiburg. I jumped at the chance. I thought it would be an easy gig. All of the advantages of speaking at a conference without the troublesome need to actually give a talk.

As it turned out, it was quite a bit of work:

It wasn’t just a matter of introducing each speaker—there was also a little chat with each speaker after their talk, so I had to make sure I was paying close attention to each and every talk, thinking of potential questions and conversation points. After two days of that, I was a bit knackered.

Last month, I hosted an other event, but this time it was online: UX Fest. Doing the post-talk interviews was definitely a little weirder online. It’s not quite the same as literally sitting down with someone. But the online nature of the event did provide one big advantage…

To minimise technical hitches on the day, and to ensure that the talks were properly captioned, all the speakers recorded their talks ahead of time. That meant I had an opportunity to get a sneak peek at the talks and prepare questions accordingly.

UX Fest had a day of talks every Thursday in June. There were four talks per Thursday. I started prepping on the Monday.

First of all, I just watched all the talks and let them wash me over. At this point, I’d often think “I’m not sure if I can come up with any questions for this one!” but I’d let the talks sit there in my subsconscious for a while. This was also a time to let connections between talks bubble up.

Then on the Tuesday and Wednesday, I went through the talks more methodically, pausing the video every time I thought of a possible question. After a few rounds of this, I inevitably ended up with plenty of questions, some better than others. So I then re-ordered them in descending levels of quality. That way if I didn’t get to the questions at the bottom of the list, it was no great loss.

In theory, I might not get to any of my questions. That’s because attendees could also ask questions on the day via a chat window. I prioritised those questions over my own. Because it’s not about me.

On some days there was a good mix of audience questions and my own pre-prepared questions. On other days it was mostly my own questions.

Either way, it was important that I didn’t treat the interview like a laundry list of questions to get through. It was meant to be a conversation. So the answer to one question might touch on something that I had made a note of further down the list, in which case I’d run with that. Or the conversation might go in a really interesting direction completely unrelated to the questions or indeed the talk.

Above all, these segments needed to be engaging and entertaining in a personable way, more like a chat show than a post-game press conference. So even though I had done lots of prep for interviewing each speaker, I didn’t want to show my homework. I wanted each interview to feel like a natural flow.

To quote the old saw, this kind of spontaneity takes years of practice.

There was an added complication when two speakers shared an interview slot for a joint Q&A. Not only did I have to think of questions for each speaker, I also had to think of questions that would work for both speakers. And I had to keep track of how much time each person was speaking so that the chat wasn’t dominated by one person more than the other. This was very much like moderating a panel, something that I enjoy very much.

In the end, all of the prep paid off. The conversations flowed smoothly and I was happy with some of the more thought-provoking questions that I had researched ahead of time. The speakers seemed happy too.

Y’know, there are not many things I’m really good at. I’m a mediocre developer, and an even worse designer. I’m okay at writing. But I’m really good at public speaking. And I think I’m pretty darn good at this hosting lark too.

Safari 15

29 June 2021

If you download Safari Technology Preview you can test drive features that are on their way in Safari 15. One of those features, announced at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, is coloured browser chrome via support for the meta value of “theme-color.” Chrome on Android has supported this for a while but I believe Safari is the first desktop browser to add support. They’ve also added support for the media attribute on that meta element to handle “prefers-color-scheme.”

This is all very welcome, although it does remind me a bit of when Internet Explorer came out with the ability to make coloured scrollbars. I mean, they’re nice features’n’all, but maybe not the most pressing? Safari is still refusing to acknowledge progressive web apps.

That’s not quite true. In her WWDC video Jen demonstrates how you can add a progressive web app like Resilient Web Design to your home screen. I’m chuffed that my little web book made an appearance, but when you see how you add a site to your home screen in iOS, it’s somewhat depressing.

The steps to add a website to your home screen are:

Tap the “share” icon. It’s not labelled “share.” It’s a square with an arrow coming out of the top of it. A drawer pops up. The option to “add to home screen” is nowhere to be seen. You have to pull the drawer up further to see the hidden options. Now you must find “add to home screen” in the list Copy Add to Reading List Add Bookmark Add to Favourites Find on Page Add to Home Screen Markup Print

It reminds of this exchange in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy:

“You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.”

“But the plans were on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a torch.”

“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look you found the notice didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of The Leopard.’”

Safari’s current “support” for adding progressive web apps to the home screen feels like the minimum possible …just enough to use it as a legal argument if you happen to be litigated against for having a monopoly on app distribution. “Hey, you can always make a web app!” It’s true in theory. In practice it’s …suboptimal, to put it mildly.

Still, those coloured tab bars are very nice.

It’s a little bit weird that this stylistic information is handled by HTML rather than CSS. It’s similar to the meta viewport value in that sense. I always that the plan was to migrate that to CSS at some point, but here we are a decade later and it’s still very much part of our boilerplate markup.

Some people have remarked that the coloured browser chrome can make the URL bar look like part of the site so people might expect it to operate like a site-specific search.

I also wonder if it might blur “the line of death”; that point in the UI where the browser chrome ends and the website begins. Does the unified colour make it easier to spoof browser UI?

Probably not. You can already kind of spoof browser UI by using the right shade of grey. Although the removal any kind of actual line in Safari does give me pause for thought.

I tend not to think of security implications like this by default. My first thought tends to be more about how I can use the feature. It’s only after a while that I think about how bad actors might abuse the same feature. I should probably try to narrow the gap between those thoughts.

ReCoil

28 June 2021

On the Coil developers site there’s a page proudly answering the question who is web monetized?

You’ll some familiar sites in there: CSS Tricks, A List Apart, and even this humble website, adactio.com.

But lest you think that this social proof is in any way an endorsement, I should probably clarify what my experience with Coil has been like.

Coil itself is grand. You get an identifier and you add it to your website in a meta element, much like you would do with indie web endpoints for webmentions or micropub.

The problem is with how you then actually get hold of any money that is owed to you from micropayments. Coil doesn’t handle this directly. You have to set up a “wallet” with a third-party service and therein lies the problem.

They are all terrible.

I’m not talking about the hoops you have to jump through to set up an account. I get it. This is scary financial stuff so of course I’ll need to scan my passport and hand over loads of information (more than is needed to open an actual bank account with, say, Monzo).

No, the problem is the stench of crypto.

I tried Stronghold for a while. They really, really don’t want you to use boring old-fashioned currencies like the euro or the pound. There’s also Gatehub. Same. And there’s Uphold. Also a shell game.

I’ve been using Coil and Uphold for a while now, and I’ve amassed a grand total of £6.06 — woo-hoo! So I log into my account and attempt to transfer that sweet, sweet monetisation and …I can’t.

The amount needs to be greater than or equal to £11.53 GBP

But I can still exchange that £6.06 for magic beans like Bitcoin, XRP, and Ether.

The whole thing smells of grift and it feels icky to be in any way associated with it. I understand why Coil needs to partner with existing payment providers, but it would be nice if just one of them weren’t propping up ponzi schemes. If anyone has found a way to get web monetisation to work without needing like you need to take a shower afterwards, I’d love to hear about it.

An email to The Guardian

27 June 2021

From: jeremy@adactio.com To: guardian.readers@theguardian.com

Hello,

My name is Jeremy and I’ve been a paid subscriber to The Guardian for a few years now. But I’m considering cancelling my account after reading this editorial.

On the face of it, the headline of the article sound reasonable and hard to disagree with. But the substance of the article downplays anti-trans views as simply being “gender critical.” This is akin to describing segregationist views as “integration critical.”

This line is particularly egregious:

As a society, we need to resolve the question of how to protect the privacy, dignity and rights of trans women while also respecting the privacy, dignity and rights of those born female.

Setting up these positions as though one in any way invalidates the other gives oxygen to those who wish to paint someone’s identity as a threat. I’m very disappointed to see this viewpoint expressed in an editorial on The Guardian website.

Yours,

Jeremy Keith

Drive to charge packagers for recycling, but industry fights

31 July 2021

States across the U.S. are looking to adopt new recycling regimes that require producers of packaging to pay for its inevitable disposal—but industry is digging in to try to halt the movement.

Heatwave causes massive melt of Greenland ice sheet

31 July 2021

Greenland's ice sheet has experienced a "massive melting event" during a heatwave that has seen temperatures more than 10 degrees above seasonal norms, according to Danish researchers.

Image: Hubble spots squabbling galactic siblings

31 July 2021

A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system—known as Arp 195—is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.

UN warns hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots

31 July 2021

Hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots in the next three months with the highest alerts for "catastrophic" situations in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria, two U.N. agencies warned Friday.

World's first commercial re-programmable satellite blasts into space

30 July 2021

The world's first commercial fully re-programmable satellite lifted off from French Guiana on Friday on board an Ariane 5 rocket, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications.

UK court overturns govt go-ahead for Stonehenge road tunnel

30 July 2021

A British court on Friday overturned government approval for the construction of a controversial road tunnel close to the Stonehenge stone circle, following opposition from historians, archaeologists and druids.

US watchdog upholds SpaceX's Moon lander contract

30 July 2021

NASA did not violate regulations when it decided to give SpaceX the sole contract to build a Moon lander, a watchdog said Friday, in a ruling that denied challenges by competitors Blue Origin and Dynetics.