CRANKY OLD FART’S BROWSER HISTORY #387  [archive] NOV. 28, 2023

Living in between the cracks of mainstream society
by Ace Backwords
    Yeah, I could live like that — sleep sitting on a toilet overnight, and then out by morning… Journalist and Kansas cop-accountability activist sue after being banned from homeless encampment  
    Police state stuff. Without admitting it, Sports Illustrated published articles by fake, AI-generated writers
    Journalism without ethics.Research links climate change to vampire bat expansion and rabies virus spillover
    What a grand place America’s going to be, as the billionaire-backed climate catastrophe rolls on and on.

After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine
    Excerpt: … Layoffs have impacted journalists on the science beat particularly hard in recent weeks. National Geographic cut the remainder of the magazine’s editorial staff in June, followed by Gizmodo laying off its last climate reporter, and CNBC shuttering its climate desk last week.
    Me again: Anyone remember PopSci? I used to subscribe, and it was good readin’ every month. I assume it’s turned to utter shit, like most everything else, or it would still be profitable.

Rolling Stone spied on Trump’s ‘Southern White House’ from their couches
    Excerpt:  We managed to spy on a sitting president in his own home from the comfort of our couches just by messing around with the free version of a single data broker’s web app. Now imagine what a dedicated forensic team could do, working 24/7, with access to the full paid services of every commercial data broker, in addition to all of the other data sources out there, from high-tech hacking to old-fashioned surveillance. It’s one of those cases where reality is actually worse than the stories told in dystopian sci-fi and superhero movies.
    That’s why, if we’re ever going to get out of this mess, preserving individual privacy and the conditions for functional democracy, we all need to start thinking about technology the same way we think about supervillains. When Congress writes new laws, when big tech companies introduce new tools to the market, and when businesses and consumers invite new apps and gadgets into their homes and workplaces, it’s not enough just to take tech at face value. A data broker is never just a marketing service and a shitty poker app is never just a game. They’re cracks in the foundation of our society, and they can be exploited to tear it apart.  

Your local newspaper might not have a single reporter Antisemites supporting Israel is weird. Jewish support of them is even weirder. 

Spotify will end service in Uruguay due to bill requiring fair pay for artists
    Why is Uruguay the only country willing to do the right thing? Like the US itself, the SS United States is a scavenged, empty remnant of what it was 

The headline is about Tesla suing the Swedish government, blah blah blah, but the details — about how Swedish unions stand together — are awesome Mayor of Paris quits Twitter, calling it a ‘gigantic global sewer’
    Are you still on Twitter? Then you’re a schmuck.

Know your Scrabble™ slurs Year of the Tiger 

New Zealand scraps world-first smoking ‘generation ban’ to fund tax cuts
    Excerpt: … But public health experts have expressed shock at the policy reversal, saying it could cost up to 5,000 lives a year, and be particularly detrimental to Māori, who have higher smoking rates.
    Me again: Seriously, what are 5,000 dead people annually, compared to the joy of cutting taxes?

Conservatives are boycotting Froot Loops
    Prediction: Kellogg will back down, stop the ‘diversity’ book program. Hell, maybe they’ll mute the colors of the cereal to white and white.
    Always remember: Corporations have no concept of right or wrong, only profit and loss. They’ll greenwash and gaywash if it makes more money, but if it starts costing them money they’ll stop cold. 

“Drop your sword.” • Amusing, Interesting, Outrageous, or Profound
    AIOP is my Lemmy page, for anything that’s (in my opinion) amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound. It’s mostly a rough draft of this page, but you’re invited to stop by.

♫♬  MUSIC  ♫ Allentown — Billy Joel From God’s Perspective — Bo Burnham Listen to Reason — Bryan Steeksma Purple Zone  — Soft Cell with Pet Shop Boys Tower of Song — Leonard Cohen 

⚰️  OBITUARIES  ⚰️
Larry Fink
photographer Herbert Gold
author, Not Dead YetCatherine Christer Hennix
math musician, “The Electric Harpsichord” Geoffrey Holt
mobile home groundskeeperMarty Kroft
producer and puppeteer, H.R. Pufnstuf Sun Lin
human rights activistSolomon Littman
Nazi hunter Les Maguire
rocker, Gerry and the Pacemakers Weston Ochse
sci-fi author, May Blood Pave My Way Home Johnny Scott
civil rights activist Priit Vesilind
journalist, National Geographic John Warnock
co-inventor of the Portable Document Format (PDF)     And here’s one more name that popped up in my quest for the dead: Gordon Cohon, “founder of McDonald’s Canada.”
    What does that even mean? McDonald’s was founded by Dick & Maurice McDonald in 1937. Ray Krok bought the rights to the name, streamlined the factory-style service, and became a billionaire. Gordon Cohon didn’t do didlyshit — he was born rich, spotted a profitable business, bought into it, and drowned Canada in the same burgers and grease as America.
    Your dead cocker spaniel deserves an obituary more than Gordy Cohon does.

11/28/2023