Christian Wilms @ChrisWilms23@qoto.org

Who was I recently speaking with about the sliminess of academic journals, JSTOR, and Elsevier? Well, today, @pluralistic dropped a real barn burner into my email inbox with this great piece. Enjoy, all of you who like the free flow of academic knowledge!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/16/the-public-sphere/

'Biologists in local offices contributed to decisions about things like how many deer could be hunted each year, or how to protect rare salamanders. “But few were looking at disease, really,” she said. “The thinking was that it was natural for a disease to run through wildlife and therefore it was not a concern.”
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-veterinarians-preventing-the-next-pandemic

Very important point being made on @parismarx latest #podcast by his guest Hussein Kesvani:

”As #adrevenue dwindled and a lot of independent traditional #journalism had to shut down, what’s left are increasingly the ones that don’t need to make money, because they get it from #rightwing billionaires.”

https://techwontsave.us/episode/234__is_social_media_fueling_far_right_riots_w_hussein_kesvani

A bunch of small-town white people who supported a coup d'etat to end American democracy in favor of being ruled with an iron first by rapey gameshow host who can't even remotely string together a coherent sentence and wants to fuck his daughter want you to stop calling them "weird," please.

In den letzten Jahren haben #Mastodon-Accounts aufgesetzt:
die TU Darmstadt, die Unis in Mainz, Regensburg und Paderborn, die HTW Berlin, die PHs in Ludwigsburg und Weingarten, die HCU Hamburg, FH Margdeburg-Stendal, HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen und die HfG Schwäbisch-Gmünd:
@TU, @unimainz, @uni_paderborn, @uni_regensburg, @HTW_Berlin, @phludwigsburg, @phweingarten, @HCUHamburg, @h2international, @hs_rheinmain, @HfWU, @hfg_gmuend

Das ist schon ein guter Schritt in die richtige Richtung. 👌 #UnisInsFediverse.
Doch viele #Fediverse-Bewohner vermissen die Posts von diesen Accounts. 🤔 So geben diese #Hochschulen zwar noch Meldungen über #X (ehemals #Twitter) heraus, aber kaum auf #Mastodon.

Dabei warten Tausende möglicher Follower im #Fediverse. Und mit guter Software ist das Bespielen beider Kanäle so einfach, wie z.B. mit buffer.com. Wir stellen deshalb heute zur Abstimmung:

One of Germany’s largest employers announces to boycott #Tesla because of Elon Musk’s behaviour:

"Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a hoax - this stance is in stark contrast to Tesla's mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars

For this reason, ROSSMANN will no longer purchase Tesla vehicles for its fleet in the future."

https://unternehmen.rossmann.de/presse/pressemeldung/rossmann-kauft-keinen-tesla-mehr.html?utm_source=social&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_campaign=%40tibor

“One of the reasons so many ­people are angry about things like hotels housing asylum seekers is because they’re seeing this really provocative content being pumped into their timelines on a daily basis.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/03/the-far-right-has-moved-online-where-its-voice-is-more-dangerous-than-ever

#tech #socialmedia #twitter #facebook

Yeah - endlich! @Freiheitsrechte geht zusammen mit @brembs gegen #sciencetracking vor. Da bin ich gespannt, wie das vorangeht.

https://freiheitsrechte.org/themen/demokratie/wissenschaftstracking

Zur Erinnerung
Anlässlich der Kampagne der #niemehrCDUCSU gegen das #Heizungsgesetz Robert #Habeck haben viele Leute Gasheizungen gekauft, sogar @derspiegel schloss sich an und titelte Kritik, jetzt rudert #Merz zurück und bedauert...
#Habeck4Kanzler💚

🚨 noyb has filed a complaint against Google for tricking Chrome users into ad tracking!

👉 Google's so-called Privacy Sandbox is presented as a privacy feature. But when users enable it, they are unknowingly consenting to online tracking.

More details:
https://noyb.eu/en/google-sandbox-online-tracking-instead-privacy

The 2nd edition of the Berlin Single Molecule Biophysics Course will be held this september. We will charge a fee for external participants but waivers and bursaries should be available if needed. Please retoot!

#biophysics #ionchannels #physiology #TIRF

https://www.biologie.hu-berlin.de/en/groupsites/cellbp/berlin-smb-course

Der vorläufige Wahlsieger der Europawahl heißt Putin.

🚨 noyb has filed 11 complaints against Meta to prevent the abuse of people's personal data for Artificial Intelligence!

👉 We urgently request the data protection authorities to launch an urgency procedure and immediately stop the company's move!

https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-urges-11-dpas-immediately-stop-metas-abuse-personal-data-ai

It just clicked in my brain. What I haven't been able to articulate about why I'm so anxious about #Windows Recall. I'm sure others have already gotten to where I am.

It's worse than "a system that tracks everything you do" and stores that info in a basic database that could be easily compromised.
It's worse than a nanny surveillance tool for companies to spy on their employees.

It's inescapable.

It doesn't matter if I make a dozen "how to disable recall" tutorials. The second YOUR data shows up on someone ELSE'S screen, it's in THEIR recall database.

It won't matter if you're a master #security expert specialist. You can't account for EVERY other computer you've ever interacted with. If a family member looks up an old email with your personal data in it, your data is now at risk.

If THEIR system is compromised YOUR data is at risk.

I just went from "vague feeling of unease" to "actively writing templates to canvas elected officials, regulators, and attorneys general."

👁 - 5 Dinge, die Beamte tun können, wenn die AfD an die Macht kommt - mit Arne Semsrott von @fragdenstaat:

Idee für ein Talkshow-Format:

Jede Woche wird ein Gast aus dem Ausland eingeladen, der uns in DE erklärt, wie in seinem Land das funktioniert, was bei uns angeblich unmöglich ist:

Zum Beispiel:

• Ein Gast aus NORWEGEN, der 90% E-Autos bei Neuwagen erklärt.
• Ein Gast aus HOLLAND, der sichere Radwege & Tempo 100 erklärt.
• Ein Gast aus SCHWEDEN, der 50%-Anteil bei Wärmepumpen erklärt.
• Ein Gast aus DÄNEMARK, der ein Öl- und Gasheizungsverbot erklärt.

Via @Perowinger94

Der Rohmilch-Trend: Wenn man Social-Media plötzlich eher glaubt als wissenschaftlichen Institutionen, dann endet das oft mit Bauchschmerzen. In mehrfacher Hinsicht.
Meine dieswöchige futurezone-Kolumne:
https://futurezone.at/meinung/florian-aigner-kolumne-wissenschaft-milch-rohmilch-trend-gefaehrlich-gesundheit-schaedlich/402904204

With #Microsoft doing stuff like #Recall, I see a lot of folks say, "that's it! I'm switching to #Linux!"

As someone who a) made the switch two decades ago and b) is not a computer scientist, I say: the switch is feasible!

I wrote up a little tip sheet for academics considering the switch, though it might be useful for others:

https://fossacademic.tech/2024/05/24/fald.html

[Replies to this post will appear as comments on my blog]

You may have heard that WordPress is now federated with Mastodon. What does this all mean?

Well, very simply, people with WordPress blogs can now automatically publish their new posts to a Fediverse address where they are available to Mastodon.

Here's an explainer: https://mastodonmigration.wordpress.com/2023/11/07/understanding-mastodon-federation-wordpress-fediblogs/

As an example, if you follow this address: @mastodonmigration.wordpress.com

...you will see all new posts from https://mastodonmigration.wordpress.com/ in your feed.

@elduvelle_neuro Not ephys, but similar problem with imaging data. Here's what I've seen working previously in an academic setting:

Solution 1: If mainly working with the data on a single workstation, you could consider buying a NAS (e.g. 8-bay like this: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/ts-832x) and attaching it to the WS via 10Gbit ethernet. With 8x 16TB drives you get ca 100 TB useable space and some redundancy (no backup though). Ca 3k€ retail price IIRC. Fast + reliable as you can hot-swap failing drives.