Chevron, the only major U.S. oil producer in Venezuela, has been a leading donor to the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit that supported the political opposition in the country. Former opposition leader Juan GuaidΓ³ pledged to protect oil giant's assets in 2019.
Free to read article:
readsludge.com/2019/08/13/guaiβ¦
GuaidΓ³ Defends Chevron, Funder of U.S. Regime Change Organization
Chevron has been a loyal donor to the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit with ties to the U.S. Republican party that has worked for decades to strengthen the political opposition in Venezuela.Donald Shaw (Sludge)
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Hi!
Jennifer Hamilton here, formerly of med-mastodon.com. That server shut down suddenly. If you followed me before for my toots about #vaccines, #PublicHealth, #FamilyMedicine, my gripes about #ElectronicMedicalRecords #EMR, or even just a few #caturday pictures and chats about bicycling, I'm on mstdn.science now.
The old #MedMastodon went down suddenly, so I don't have a list of my old followers. Please boost this so they can find me!
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This New Android Smartphone Is For Everyone Who Misses the Blackberry | Lifehacker
I gotta admit, I'm seriously considering ordering it, I wonder what the durability will be.
lifehacker.com/tech/this-new-aβ¦
This New Android Smartphone Is For Everyone Who Misses the Blackberry
A Blackberry style companion device for all your messaging needs.Pranay Parab (Lifehacker)
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I was asked by a family member why it was taking so long to paste something large into a new Microsoft Word document on their computer, I sarcastically replied it was because it takes a while to upload it all to the copilot AI nonense first. And then I realized accidentally I might be right...I disabled copilot in Word and it went back to being instant again
So that's cool that Microsoft seems uploading everything you paste into a new Word doc to their servers now.
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β² @dianea@diasporasocial.net:The invasions will rise until Epstein Files subside
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As a Linux user, I am OUTRAGED Fluxbox is not in the list of GUIs!!!!
(Oh wait... )
Stolen from: lemdro.id/post/34179286
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@Chris Ford reuters.com/sustainability/boaβ¦
If'n I'm reading this right, the meme is exaggerating, but the real number is still ridiculous
As a human rights lawyer, let me state Mayor Mamdani is right to reject the IHRA definition of antisemitism because it equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Jewish people have rightsβhatred of Jewish people is antisemitic.
States don't have rightsβcriticism of states is NOT antisemitic.
Ken Sternβwho drafted the IHRA definitionβdeveloped it to guide research and law enforcement data validation, NOT to use as, "a blunt instrument to label anyone an antisemite.β (his words)
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See this excellent piece by Human Rights Watch that details why the IHRA definition is deeply problematic and counter productive, how even the IHRA drafter himself rejects its use as the definition of antisemitism, and how such a definition fails to protect Jewish people because it conflates human rights with made up "states rights."
hrw.org/news/2023/04/04/human-β¦
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Human Rights and other Civil Society Groups Urge United Nations to Respect Human Rights in the Fight Against Antisemitism
Dear UN Secretary-General AntΓ³nio Guterres and Under Secretary-General Miguel Γngel Moratinos: Our coalition of 60 civil society organizations is writing to you to voice our strong support for the United Nationsβ commitment to combatting antisemitβ¦Human Rights Watch
Wow.. This is timely, i finished @pluralistic 's book #enshitification yesterday and today this pops up on my masto feed. Pretty shameful. I'm not sure if there's really a chance it'll get taken down. so i'll use my comically long character limit for good here.
Originally posted at reddit.com/r/confession/s/P3zGβ¦
"Iβm posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I donβt care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. Iβve been sitting on this for about eight months, just watching the code getting pushed to production, and I canβt sleep at night knowing I helped build this machine.
You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories. Iβm a backend engineer. I sit in the weekly sprint planning meetings where Product Managers (PMs) discuss how to squeeze another 0.4% margin out of "human assets" (thatβs literally what they call drivers in the database schemas). They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent.
First off, the "Priority Delivery" is a total scam. It was pitched to us as a "psychological value add." Like I said in the title, when you pay that extra $2.99, it changes a boolean flag in the order JSON, but the dispatch logic literally ignores it. It does nothing to speed you up.
We actually ran an A/B test last year where we didn't speed up the priority orders, we just purposefully delayed non-priority orders by 5 to 10 minutes to make the Priority ones "feel" faster by comparison. Management loved the results. We generated millions in pure profit just by making the standard service worse, not by making the premium service better.
But the thing that actually makes me sickβand the main reason Iβm quittingβis the "Desperation Score." We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.
If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as "High Desperation." Once they are tagged, the system then deliberately stops showing them high-paying orders. The logic is: "Why pay this guy $15 for a run when we know heβs desperate enough to do it for $6?" We save the good tips for the "casual" drivers to hook them in and gamify their experience, while the full-timers get grinded into dust.
Then there is the "Benefit Fee." Youβve probably seen that $1.50 "Regulatory Response Fee" or "Driver Benefits Fee" that appeared on your bill after the recent labor laws passed. The wording is designed to make you feel like you're helping the worker.
In reality, that money goes straight to a corporate slush fund used to lobby against driver unions. We have a specific internal cost center for "Policy Defense," and that fee feeds directly into it. You are literally paying for the high-end lawyers that are fighting to keep your delivery guy homeless.
And regarding tips, we're essentially doing Tip Theft 2.0. We don't "steal" them legally anymore because we got sued for that. Instead, we use predictive modeling to dynamically lower the base pay.
If the algo predicts you are a "high tipper" and youβll likely drop $10, it offers the driver a measly $2 base pay. If you tip $0, it offers them $8 base pay just to get the food moved. The result is that your generosity isn't rewarding the driver; itβs subsidizing us. Youβre paying their wage so we don't have to." social.lansky.name/@hn50/11582β¦
Hacker News 50 (@hn50@social.lansky.name)
A confession from a mainstream food delivery app engineer Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/s/gbrh2zxeou Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461578Hacker News 50 (Mastodon)
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This claim is extraordinary because it likely violates US fair labor laws. Therefore it requires more than mere plausibility.
BTW, I've got a machine here that generates plausibility if you're interested in investing.
@BenHM3
Independent contractors are not protected by state and federal fair labor laws.
dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheeβ¦
texaslawhelp.org/article/indepβ¦
Gig workers are classified as independent contractors in the United States.
makeroadssafe.org/are-uber-worβ¦
help.doordash.com/legal/documeβ¦
Are Uber Workers Independent Contractors? - Safe Roads USA
Uber workers are classified as independent contractors. Click here to learn how this classification impacts accident victims' ability to receive compensation for an Uber accident.Make Roads Safe (Safe Roads USA)
has someone mounted a relatively high fps camera on their fursuit and used that to show the user a relatively low latency view of what's in front of them via a vr headset? or maybe use a vr headset's camera to give them visual feedback
idk havent touched a vr headset before
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I think there are a few cases of this, I've thought about it too, but there are some issues; Heat for one (a screen inside your fursuit head will make it even hotter than it already is), and battery power secondly (you'll likely need a large backpack for all the hardware and battery you need). Usually just having covert/covered up holes that you can look through makes it much simpler (and way cheaper).
That said, so many interesting sensors and things you could integrate with it heh
#noai
"Microsoft and Google keep the energy consumption of their Dutch data centers secret, despite European reporting obligations. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO) received blank forms or no data at all. The Dutch newspaper NRC reports that the government has no legal means to request the actual figures."techzine.eu/news/infrastructurβ¦
How much energy do Microsoft and Google consume? The Dutch don't know - Techzine Global
Microsoft and Google are concealing the energy consumption of Dutch data centers despite EU obligations. RVO received blank forms or no data.Erik van Klinken (Techzine)
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"Our ancestors did not maintain a complex oral tradition for thousands of years for us to call audiobooks 'cheating'"
If anyone tries to shame you for not sitting down and actually "reading" tell them to get lost.
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RE: tribe.net/@AbsoluteMemery/1158β¦
I don't do new years resolutions because years ago I made a new years resolution not to make new years resolutions π
BUT if I did make new years resolutions I'd want to be more weird and quiet π
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I like to learn something new every day.
The fear of long words has 36 letters.
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βHow Tf Is This Legal?β: Trump PAC Threatens His Own Supporters with βPunishmentβ If They Donβt Send Money Fast Enough
atlantablackstar.com/2026/01/0β¦
EDIT
fixed link
βHow Tf Is This Legal?β: Trump PAC Threatens His Own Supporters with βPunishmentβ If They Donβt Send Money ...
President Donald Trump escalated his fundraising rhetoric this week by warning his own supporters that they would be punished if they failed to send himA.L. Lee (atlantablackstar)
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βHow Tf Is This Legal?β: Trump PAC Threatens His Own Supporters with βPunishmentβ If They Donβt Send Money ...
President Donald Trump escalated his fundraising rhetoric this week by warning his own supporters that they would be punished if they failed to send himA.L. Lee (atlantablackstar)
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I haven't thought about the historical origin/development of the practice before. Is it truly just "something sacred to the oath-taker"? Or might it have started as a religious thing and become (relatively) secularized under freedom of religion principles?
I'd probably pick a book for the context. For president, Library of America's Debates on the Constitution, as "sacred" to me in context. Though LoA's collection of James Baldwin essays might be even more sacred and better.
@enelsen000 In Canada, Oath Keepers are under the microscope and likely to be added to the list of TERRORIST ENTITIES under C41 as amended.
Also, I avoid making oath of any kind keeping with Matthew 5:33-37 β¦
TEACH HUMAN RIGHTS NOT TEN COMMANDMENTS
#QuebecSecularism
#barbaricculturalpractices
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Logging in to website.
me: fills in email address
site: check your email for a login link!
me: but I have a password
site: use the link to log in!
me: but Iβm already here. please just let me log in.
site: would you like to set up a passkey?
me: pleaseβ¦ Iβm begging you
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We have seen a recent wave of impersonation accounts which claim to be another fediverse user, often with a similar username and boosting some posts from the original account, before reaching out to followers over private mentions and claiming to have issues with their original account.
Please report them if you see them!
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Are there any older women that are gamers and are looking for new people to play with?
I'm 61 and have lost my gaming group for reasons that are not clear to me. I prefer playing with other women or queer folks.
I mostly play:
#Warframe
#Palia
#DeadByDaylight
#Terraria
#GTAOnline
But I'm open to other games. I just can't play anything in first person due to nausea. I prefer cooperative games to competitive ones.
I play on #PS5, so I can play with other playstation folks or on cross-platform titles.
Please boost for visibility.
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California residents now have a real tool against the data broker industry.
The state has launched DROP, a single portal to demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers in one request, for free.
To start: consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov/
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This enforces the Delete Act. Data brokers must comply, report what they collect, and face audits and penalties if they donβt.
This is the strongest data deletion mechanism in the U.S.
Use it.
Make this type of practice the new normal.
For more information: privacy.ca.gov/drop/about-dropβ¦
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About DROP and the Delete Act - privacy.ca.gov
Learn more about DROP. This includes the California Consumer Privacy Act and the Delete Act.privacy.ca.gov
"Can you open one of these?" the treasure hunter asked.
He showed the witch an egg shell, with an intricate pattern of silk thread knotted around it.
"Put that back!"
"There's something inside, it must be valuable. But when-"
"Someone locked their grief away. Break one, and it's yours."
"Oh..."
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I never say this, but you want to watch this commercial, and I suggest you be somewhere that you can cry a bit without anybody caring. (Damn ninjas cutting onions somewhere in the houseβ¦)at.tumblr.com/tkingfisher/i-baβ¦
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UpLateGeek
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •diana π³οΈββ§οΈπ¦π±
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •η₯η¬
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •Steph Γ vΓ©lo
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •NEW-Cloud-first creation: Starting today, new documents in Word desktop on Windows (Insiders) now save directly to OneDrive, with autosave enabled your work is protected and ready for real-time collaboration.
New files save directly to OneDrive
Autosave is enabled from the start
Your work is protected, instantly shareable, and ready for real-time collaboration
"
Microsoft transforme Word en passerelle vers OneDrive et Copilot : Word enregistra sur OneDrive par dΓ©faut - Microsoft Office
www.developpez.netMaria Langer | πππ΅π₯οΈ
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •@JSteven I don't think the applications that we use to create documents should require access to the Internet to work.
This was the ultimate reason why I ditched Microsoft office after more than 30 years.
Kim Crawley (she/her) π·π
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •π΄ Seph π πΎ likes this.
Mensch, Marina
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •lin11c
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •loebas
in reply to Tech Tangents • • •need to remember this when i visit my grandparents again.
And luckly i use LibreOffice.