This is - unfortunately - not surprising. Niantic has always been in the business of selling/using user data for profit, they were a spin-off from Google after all. Their first big game, Ingress, was used to train Google Maps.

I remember when Microsoft first attempted to prevent the standardisation of Open Document Format (used by LibreOffice and others) and then bullied its way into getting approval for own OOXML standard. Already back then, supporters of FOSS warned that Microsoft would use the overly complicated OOXML to maintain its stranglehold on users of Office-like software.:

Whenever applicable and possible, standards should build upon previous standardisation efforts and not depend on proprietary, vendor-specific technologies. Albeit, MS-OOXML neglects various standards and uses its own vendor-specific formats instead. This puts a substantial burden on all vendors to fully implement MS-OOXML. It seems questionable how any third party could ever implement them equally well, especially when a standard comes with 6000 pages of specifications without serving its minimalistic purpose.

It is very telling how much science backlash is rooted in the base desire of the rich and powerful to suppress any speech that contradicts them. It never was about (scientific) truth or facts, it was always about the power to impose their will on others and independent science challenges this totalitarian claim to power.

Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him.

Plutarch, ~ 100 A.D.

I was once a fan of Nina Paley, because of her activism against copyright and even bought some of her merch. Then I found out that she is a capital-letters TERF.

You can find a “TERFy Archive” with all her transphobic writing on her website, she hosts a transphobic podcast with the subtitle “A TERF and a t-slur walk into a podcast studio” which she uses to promote the “autogynephilia” conspiracy theory, among so, so much more transphobia.

Paley would consider this comment of mine to be “censorship”. As usual with her type she wants to dish out, but doesn’t want to be criticized for it.

Ah, well, better skip “Strange Days”, “12 Monkeys” and “Gattaca” then…

I think I experienced similar feelings which usually appear when I was comparatively “better” than during the times that counted as major depressive episodes, according to the professionals I dealt with.

But honestly the way our psyche deals with depression is highly individual and good, responsible therapists/psychiatrists/neurologists/… consider a variety of symptoms before making a final diagnosis. With the exception of a high risk of suicide which will immediately place the sufferer in the “major depressive disorder” category, because of the immediate danger to their lives.

What I want to say: Probably only an expert will be able to tell you exactly what kind of depression you have/had. And I cannot claim to be one. I am simply someone who suffers from it too and I read up about it.

I am sorry for being the bearer of sad news. Suicidal thoughts are the most easily recognizable of the symptoms. And even if they are less persistent between major depressive episodes, a lot of us are still stuck with depression in one form or another for the rest of our lives.

And that’s the difference between minor depressive disorder and major depressive disorder. Thank you for attending Depression 101.

Fun fact: The mouse was already invented in the 60s and was part of the famous “Mother of all Demos” which shaped modern computing like no other single event since then.

I can’t take articles such as this one seriously if they don’t mention right-wing terrorists recruiting through the same channels and means. That has been a known problem for more than a decade.

Treating online radicalisation solely as a problem of people with a migrant/non-European/Muslim/… background is very telling and borders on lying by omission.

Consider this headline from Bloomberg in this context:

About 90% of Migrants Deported to El Salvador Had No US Criminal Record

The links to the registration do not work for me.

It’s a very strange coincidence that these are the subreddits that are suddenly experiencing a “bug”.

Chanel No.5 suffers from the problem that it was originally made over 100 years ago. While the scent of No.5 did not change much, lots and lots and lots of products that came later imitated the scent of the (at the time) prestigious No.5. So it’s not necessarily a case of “No.5 smells like soap”, rather than “soaps smell like No.5”. And No.5 can’t escape the position it founds itself in without becoming something else entirely.

“I’ll kill you… after I eat all these donuts and get off the couch.”

Everyone knows why it’s different for him: He is white.

Because this confuzzled me, note that the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) are two separate things.

The Digital Markets Act is the one which is meant to remove economic barriers by “gatekeepers”. For example the DMA is used to force Google and Apple to open their app stores.

The Digital Services Act is the one that regulates (among other things) moderation, political neutrality and removal of extremist content on social media platforms. That’s the one Thierry Breton oversaw and threatened Elon with.

So while exTwitter’s lawyers may sigh in relief, because they got out of the DMA; the DSA is still looming large.

AI execs: Our AIs are going to be so powerful. More powerful than anything. Soon they could be able to destroy humanity!

Governments: Well, then we better regulate that shit and make sure that doesn’t happen…

AI execs: Nooooo! We did not mean it that way!

No, you see it’s not like education makes you see past your own prejudices and that makes you more liberal. If you are liberal you get awarded an education by the shadowy cabal that controls the education system with DEI measures! This guy only wants a tRuE mERiToCrACy where disenfranchised, downtrodden bigots get a chance to attend university where they are taught about the superiority of their white Aryan race.

/s if it isn’t apparent.