catileptic

catileptic, 1 month ago to random

The police in Georgia are reacting violently and abusively against protestors who took to the streets against the "foreign agent law", that would force NGOs, civil rights groups and media to register as “foreign agents” if more than 20% of their funding came from abroad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/may/01/georgia-protest-foreign-agents-bill-police-georgian-parliament

The chair of the leading party says the law is meant to prevent “non-transparent funding of NGOs", which is "the main instrument for the appointment of a Georgian government from abroad”.

1/2

catileptic, 1 month ago to OSINT

small #OSINT tidbit: add inurl:"Special:AllPages" to search through instances of MediaWiki (the framework behind Wikipedia) that have a public page listing all the pages on the wiki

cc @sector035 & @cyb_detective - maybe this is interesting to your audiences?

catileptic, 1 month ago to random

just read about the amendment to Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) essentially passing (am i missing anything, UK folks? is there any chance for it to be stopped?)

with the Online Safety Bill letting Ofcom force companies to break end-to-end encryption and this amendment letting the gov. force companies to not patch security vulnerabilities, the uk is building a pretty good backdoor factory

the IPB applies the "halt security fixes" to overseas companies, too. wondering how that will work.

catileptic, 1 month ago to random

Six Theses on Anxiety and Why It is Effectively Preventing Militancy, and One Possible Strategy for Overcoming It

https://www.weareplanc.org/blog/we-are-all-very-anxious/

catileptic, 1 month ago to random

Romanian far-right organizing, in the streets, in alternative media and in Telegram groups - documented by Adina Marincea, for Context.

https://context.ro/cum-s-a-mobilizat-extrema-dreapta-din-romania-pentru-reabilitarea-unui-criminal-de-razboi-cazul-mircea-vulcanescu/

A network of far-right groups has formed in Ro, usually with a neo-liberal profile, bringing together ultra-nationalist, orthodox, neo-fascist extremist groups and representatives of public institutions. They organize and promote hate messages, rehabilitating war criminals, even though the law expressly forbids this.

catileptic, 1 month ago to random

i've been wondering: does the "post" in post-modernism mean the same as the one in post-punk? how about the one in post-truth?

i've read a bit about this in Robin James' "Is the post- in post-identity the post- in post-genre?" - which opened up more questions, in my mind. i recommend the essay to anyone who wonders about this.

does anyone have written or video essays they'd recommend, on this subject?

(is post-rock / post-punk a type of #postgenre?)

(so many questions!)

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

I just found out that @berlinergazette is active on Mastodon! <3 If you haven't checked them out, it's a source of very good, thought-provoking essays.

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

Is there any list / webring / index of independent wikis that are not game-related?

Is there any google dork (or some other search technique) to find them?

I'm more curious to see what folx build on the wiki platform, but also to go on some nice rabbit holes.

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

"All of the world’s billionaires younger than 30 inherited their wealth, the first wave of “the great wealth transfer” in which more than 1,000 wealthy people are expected to pass on more than $5.2tn (£4.1tn) to their heirs over the next two decades.

There are already more billionaires than ever before (2,781), and the number is expected to soar in the coming years as an elderly generation of super-rich people prepare to give their fortunes to their children."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/03/all-billionaires-under-30-have-inherited-their-wealth-research-finds

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

I'm delivering two sessions, on March 28-29, in Romanian, on digital security for NGOs, as part of an event by TechSoup Romania.

Sign-ups are free and still open: https://activatorsecuritate.ong.techsoup.ro/

One session is on passwords (which is going to quickly dive into MFA and such), and one is on the steps an activist can take after they are hacked or part of a security incident.

My colleague, Bogdan Manolea, from @apti is delivering a session on GDPR and the safe & secure processing of personal data.

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

i have no nice words, nor smart conclusions, so here's the investigative reporting:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/andrew-huberman-podcast-stanford-joe-rogan.html

#patriarchy

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

folks who maintain a #bookwyrm instance: what resources does your server / VPS have, and what's the user count that is sustained by those resources?

trying to work out what hosting a Romanian Bookwyrm could cost :)

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

i'm curious about deliberately practicing thinking / reasoning about things in order to clarify the thoughts one has about various subjects.

some folx journal (in writing or digitally) and explore a subject in writing, which, in turn, clarifies their thinking. other folx do this in direct conversation. others try to explain a subject, which they are still exploring themselves.

is there literature about these processes and how they shape our thoughts?

how do you do this for your own mind?

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

came across this "green new deal" simulator card game. it's 10 minutes of a pretty nice experience, trying to min-max things inside the simplified universe of a game.

sometimes i need things like these. a little bit of fun, a little bit of what-if, some cute animations, a chance to disconnect.

https://www.molleindustria.org/GND/

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

One article on deepfakes, & one on the Meta "Pay or Okay" model & alternatives to social media. @apti has been quoted in both, and the results are quite informative (sadly, RO-only).

The deepfake article (https://www.scena9.ro/article/deepfake-tehnologie-dezinformare-inselatorie-alegeri-reclame-pericol) is good at expressing all the nuances of using AI - and making it clear that the training data is still labour theft.

The "personal data" article (https://mindcraftstories.ro/tehnologie/platformele-online-care-nu-iti-fura-datele-personale/) offers 3 perspectives on personal data governance. Happy to see the Fediverse mentioned.

catileptic, 2 months ago to random

I'm making a list of Mastodon and other Fediverse instances either hosted in Romania, registered on a .ro domain or with content that is mostly Romanian (regardless of where they are hosted).

The reason behind this: the Ro digital service coordinator added some extra hoops on top of what DSA requires. We're trying to figure out who will be affected.

If anyone knows such instances, please leave them in a public or private toot (or boost / tag folx who can help) <3

I already know of mstdn.ro

emilymbender, 2 months ago to random

Part of the plan with our new #MAIHT3k newsletter is to redirect the energy that we've been putting into twitter threads, etc over there (partly because posting threads across multiple social platforms is getting to be a lot). Here's the first of those:

https://buttondown.email/maiht3k/archive/ai-safety-is-ai-hype/

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