Dec 172020
 

On September 29, 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump squared off in what would be universally agreed to be the worst presidential debate ever. They traded barbs with minimal refereeing in a “series of extended brawls.” The shameful display of eroding norms took center stage for a horrified international audience.  Meanwhile, a legal controversy that just might make things better in the future has been slowly working its way through the courts. The case, Level…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fairvote.org/fairvote_joins_open_debates_lawsuit_in_petition_to_the_supreme_court

 2020-12-17  Comments Off on FairVote Joins Open Debates Lawsuit in Petition to the Supreme Court What’s New – Fairvote
Dec 162020
 

Far from being an unforeseeable disaster, the loss of Arecibo directly flows from decades of impoverishment of all activities that do not most directly channel the riches of labor into the overflowing coffers of the ruling class.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/16/arec-d15.html

 2020-12-16  Comments Off on The collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope World Socialist Web Site (en)
Dec 162020
 

Every day that emergency action is not taken to stop the pandemic means thousands of more deaths.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/16/pers-d16.html

 2020-12-16  Comments Off on For emergency action to save lives! Close schools and shut down nonessential production! Full compensation for workers! World Socialist Web Site (en)
Dec 162020
 

There’s a new article out in Computer Weekly talking about CVE-2019-9193. The PostgreSQL project has issued a statement saying that this is not a security vulnerability, and PostgreSQL core team member Magnus Hagander also wrote a blog about it, saying the same thing. If you’re curious about this issue, I suggest reading not only what Magnus wrote but also the comments section of that blog post, where you can see some of the perspectives that…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/4ZM

 2020-12-16  Comments Off on Robert Haas: CVE-2019-9193 Planet PostgreSQL
Dec 162020
 

In a recent post, I wrote about how the attention economy in use at big social networks hurts you. In this post, I’m going to suggest what to do about it. Mastodon and the Fediverse When you use email, you can send a message from an account at Google to one at Yahoo, Microsoft, or any of millions of businesses and organizations running their own mail server. Unlike, say, Facebook, email isn’t a single service,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10124-how-to-join-the-fediverse-and-cast-off-the-attention-economy

 2020-12-16  Comments Off on John Goerzen: How To Join the Fediverse and Cast Off the Attention Economy Planet Debian
Dec 152020
 

On January 1st, 2021, many books, movies and other media from 1925 will enter the public domain in the United States. Some of them are quite famous — jump ahead to see lists of those well known books and movies that you can enjoy on the Internet Archive — or take the scenic route with me. What does this all mean? Essentially, many items created in 1925 in the US that are still under copyright…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2020/12/15/1925-public-domain-riches/

 2020-12-15  Comments Off on January 1st brings public domain riches from 1925 Internet Archive Blogs
Dec 152020
 

By Howie Hawkins Democratic principles demand that the president should be elected by the people on the basis of one-person, one-vote. But today the Electoral College will elect the president based on an anachronistic anti-democratic 18th century system where some people’s votes count a lot more than others. For example, Wyoming has a population of 579,759 and three electoral votes. California has a population of 39,512,223 and 55 electoral votes. Do the math and you…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://howiehawkins.us/replace-the-electoral-college-with-a-ranked-choice-national-popular-vote-for-president/

 2020-12-15  Comments Off on Replace the Electoral College with a Ranked-Choice National Popular Vote for President Howie Hawkins for President | Angela Walker for Vice President
Dec 152020
 

In 2012, photographer Regina Valkenborgh, then a student at the University of Hertfordshire in England, created a series of makeshift pinhole cameras by lining drink cans with photographic paper. She forgot about some of them and one remained in place for 8 years before someone found it. — Read the rest

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/14/longest-photo-exposure-of-all-time.html

 2020-12-15  Comments Off on Longest photo exposure of all time Boing Boing
Dec 142020
 

Over more than 50 years, Lillian Michelson built one of Hollywood’s most famous libraries for film research. Need to know what an Igloo really looks like? How about a Siberian hut? Or the inside of a 15th Century jail?  For 50 years in Hollywood, generations of filmmakers would beat a path to the Michelson Cinema Research Library, where renowned film researcher Lillian Michelson could hunt down the answer to just about any question. She was…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2020/12/15/after-searching-for-a-decade-legendary-hollywood-research-library-finds-a-new-home/

 2020-12-14  Comments Off on After searching for a decade, Legendary Hollywood Research Library Finds a New Home Internet Archive Blogs
Dec 142020
 

Massive planets at far out distances from their stars are possible after all The Hubble Space Telescope has spied a previously unknown exoplanet with similar properties as our Solar System’s hypothetical object Planet Nine. This newly spotted body is living on the outskirts of another solar system 336 light-years away.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/12/11/planet_nine_hubble/

 2020-12-14  Comments Off on Don’t give up on Planet Nine yet: Hubble ‘scope finds just such a world a mere 336 light-years away The Register
Dec 142020
 

The Austrian socialist architect Josef Frank resisted modernists who wanted to make homes look like workplaces — an idea with new resonance in an age when so many of us are working from home and feel like we can’t escape from our work. Josef Frank design, 1932. (Photograph by Martin Gerlach / courtesy of Wien Museum) In 2020, millions of people have unexpectedly been forced to turn their homes into their workplaces. Not only have…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/socialist-architect-josef-frank-modernism-freedom/

 2020-12-14  Comments Off on Socialist Architect Josef Frank’s Modernism Was All About Freedom Jacobin
Dec 142020
 

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning. I am not the only one who thinks Bookshop.org is a false savior. It’s not just book publishing – the pandemic is also accelerating the death of print news media. Amazon may finally sell their ebooks to libraries.  The bad sex in fiction award will not be given out this year. Apparently the judges decided that bad sex is better than no sex. Google Play…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://the-digital-reader.com/2020/12/14/morning-coffee-14-december-2020/

 2020-12-14  Comments Off on Morning Coffee – 14 December 2020 The Digital Reader
Dec 142020
 

The Congressional Budget Office studied the costs of Medicare for All and determined that it could cover everyone and cost $650 billion less annually than the existing US medical system.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#13_December_2020_%28Medicare_for_All_could_be_cheaper_than_the_existing_US_medical_system%29

 2020-12-14  Comments Off on Medicare for All could be cheaper than the existing US medical system Richard Stallman’s Political Notes
Dec 132020
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2020 For Further Information: Virginia Rodino, Press Secretary, virginia@howiehawkins.us Robert Smith, Deputy Press Secretary, robert@howiehawkins.us RELEASE: Abolish the Death Penalty Lame duck President Donald Trump is rushing through five federal death-penalty executions before he leaves office. Trump’s killing spree breaks a 130-year-old tradition of not executing prisoners during a presidential transition. In 2019, Trump began resuming executions in federal death penalty cases, which had not been carried out since 2003. With these…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://howiehawkins.us/abolish-the-death-penalty/

 2020-12-13  Comments Off on RELEASE: Abolish the Death Penalty Howie Hawkins for President | Angela Walker for Vice President
Dec 132020
 

A complaint filed by the San Francisco office of the NLRB has charged Google with violating the National Labor Relations Act by interfering with, disciplining and firing employees who were engaged in legally protected organizing activities.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/14/goog-d14.html

 2020-12-13  Comments Off on NLRB says Google illegally spied on and fired workers in 2019 World Socialist Web Site (en)
Dec 102020
 

San Francisco –YouTube is supposed to be a vibrant space for new creativity, but in practice creators are sharply hampered by the site’s “Content ID” system. A new whitepaper from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) takes a deep dive into the confusing process of getting a video past YouTube’s copyright filters, and what the system means for free speech and creativity on the Internet. “YouTube dominates the online video market, and Content ID dominates video…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/unfiltered-how-youtubes-content-id-helps-shape-what-we-see-online

 2020-12-10  Comments Off on Unfiltered: How YouTube’s ‘Content ID’ Helps Shape What We See Online Deeplinks
Dec 102020
 

Earlier today, we wrote about reports detailing the latest attempt to push through a bill to make streaming copyright-covered works online a possible felony, this time being pushed by Senator Thom Tillis, who wanted to attach it to the federal spending omnibus bill. As we noted, Tillis was pushing back on some of the criticism, saying that the bill is very narrowly tailored and wouldn’t be used to criminalize random people. Of course, the response…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201210/14275845866/tillis-release-details-his-felony-streaming-bill-it-would-have-limited-impact-there-are-still-problems.shtml

 2020-12-10  Comments Off on Tillis Release Details Of His Felony Streaming Bill; A Weird Gift To Hollywood At The Expense Of Taxpayers Techdirt.
Dec 102020
 

Caption: Based on FairVote research, this is a state-by-state breakdown of all campaign events by the major-party presidential and vice presidential nominees from the end of both party conventions through Election Day.  With a campaign season fought tooth and nail into the final day, Election Day has finally passed. More than 158 million Americans cast a ballot in the 2020 election, a record-breaking number that represents the highest turnout percentage of voting-age Americans in our…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fairvote.org/no_matter_the_candidate_who_wins_americans_lose_with_winner_take_all

 2020-12-10  Comments Off on No Matter The Candidate Who Wins, Americans Lose With Winner-Take-All What’s New – Fairvote