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  Here we go again… Today I tried to send a friend a recommendation for a Best Western hotel. Instead of a simple URL, I was offered a massive long reference including goodness knows what additional tracking and personal info. Worse, pasting it into Mail, iOS instantly hid all that detail behind a helpful snapshot of what the web address was pointing at. Being cantankerous, I pasted it via a text editor, allowing me to delete the crap, but how many others would have bothered? #Enshittification.

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  Vote for the can, not the cant. (For those not familiar with that somewhat obscure use of the word ‘cant’, this from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cant “1. insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.”)

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  @davidho@mastodon.world The exodus of US scientists is definitely having an effect on the academic job market in the UK (which was already dire). It’s crazy when people with a First from Oxbridge and a PhD can’t find a position. I know of someone who has sent off more than 500 applications. Sending hundreds is the norm.

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  @davidallengreen@mastodon.green Should the probable or actual outcome of such speech be part of the calculation? In Connolly’s case, there is a strong likelihood that her Tweet significantly inflamed or maybe even created a violent situation. El-Fattah was just one voice amongst many, in a situation where violence was already widespread. Should that be seen as a lesser crime?

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  Good to see that this petition is really taking off… “Hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership” Have you signed yet? https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640 #UKPolitics

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  I heard about another bad debt today, as a debtor goes into receivership. We are very close to triggering a domino effect where each bad debt cause further bankruptcies. The Government has no idea how close our economy is to total collapse. Commercial customers are just not spending: no capital equipment, no new R&D projects. So their suppliers are short of cash flow too. Only a Keynesian programme of public investment could turn this round. With Reeves in charge, that’s not going to...

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  I’ve just spent a happy few hours responding to the UK consultation on Digital IDs. You have until Tuesday lunchtime to share in the fun! https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity/making-public-services-work-for-you-with-your-digital-identity

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  AC Bruce comments on Richard Murphy’s blog this morning: “ Isn’t it strange that Musk has hired wee boy hackers, and not forensic accountants, to look for fraud in all of the Federal Departments he’s closing down. They’re not actually looking for fraud, are they? Perhaps Trump believes that myth but Musk certainly isn’t doing that.” #USPolitics

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  @gcluley But Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (degree in Politics from Exeter, and clearly an expert on cyber-security) assures us there is no possible problem with giving all the UK’s MoD data to Palantir…

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  RE: https://climatejustice.social/@ketan/116424235023822227 Don’t be evil… be _really_ fugging evil!

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  RE: https://tarte.nuage-libre.fr/c/technologie/p/290081/linternet-post-etasunien I love that the French have translated enshittification into “merdification”. 😁

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  RE: https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/116424582304779180 Apparently we are in the denial stage of a carbon copy of the Post Office Horizon scandal: “The Home Office said it had reviewed the case and been in touch with Tobay. ‘The issues raised have now been resolved and there are no wider issues around the system,’ it said.”

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  RE: https://turtleisland.social/@Yehuda/116399558881299408 So three quarters of the Fediverse regard alt-text as useful to them. A surprisingly high number.

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  let's stop UK being part of Trump's war... Please sign, and publicise. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762994 #UKPolitics

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@adamndsmith/116328215860941572 Tl;dr: Don’t trust the cloud as the only repository for your work or data!!! Edit: apparently this story is fake. But the lesson behind it remains. Trusting everything to the cloud is risky. There are many other reasons you could lose access to your data.

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  The leaking of Claude’s code feels like a “he’s not wearing any clothes” moment in the LLM story. But will the message reach top management who are all betting their careers on the new “miracle cloth” that only clever people can see? #AI

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  RE: https://mas.to/@therightarticle/116300144161152058 If ever there was proof of the damage done by neoliberalism, this is it! The second wave (which killed 87,000 people in UK) was driven almost entirely by Sunak’s “eat out to help out”, and Johnson’s defying the experts to ‘save Christmas’. It is extraordinary that you can kill tens of thousands of people with your obsession with the economy, and yet face absolutely no consequences. Mind you, that’s nothing compared to the death toll that...

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  @memo It always pisses me off when someone says “nobody expected this”. NO! I have been expecting for decades exactly this and many other bits of bad news about accelerating climate breakdown. And I am not alone. Anyone who understands exponential changes has had the same fears. #ClimateBreakdown Edit: I picked a bad example; apparently the sarcasm does not translate well. My general point stands, though.

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  RE: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116200110686604617 This is a hard problem of major importance to us all. In this heavily interconnected world your bad security choices compromise *my* security. If ever there was an issue needing governmental leadership, this is it. And handing the problem over to major commercial players to solve is definitely not the right answer!

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@CelloMomOnCars/116165430677115804 If you needed any more evidence that Labour has been captured by big oil, here it is!

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  RE: https://mas.to/@PhilipCJames/115903995979187838 The one thing the Trump regime is vulnerable to is continued mass action. Let him invoke the Insurrection Act if he dares, and see what happens… At that point Trump has no threats left.