Mike Capern @mikecsees@qoto.org

Fintechs Made “Massive Profits” on PPP Loans and Sometimes Engaged in Fraud, House Committee Report Finds

https://www.propublica.org/article/ppp-loans-paycheck-protection-fraud-profits-report by @ken @ProPublica

Poorly worded or grammatically incorrect phishing scams are probably a thing of the past soon. Truly incredible possibilities here for good, though. Pretty much already know how I'm spending my weekend.

@pluralistic

I spent 5+ years as a billionaire's wordsmith, which meant knowing him intimately enough to write in his voice.

I think the thread running through most of them is not a belief in their own basic goodness but rather contempt for everyone else, including and especially their peers. Expressing that contempt with plausible deniability was part of my (usually) unspoken mandate.

Contempt and duper's delight. Those were the last thrills once $$ reached a point of diminishing returns.

https://youtu.be/HsdQrtUJFNw

Spoke with Natalie Kitroeff of NYT about the crisis unfolding 700 miles SE of Miami.

Yes I get that there are soccer matches on the teevee & swastikas on the musk-chan but we have to build our capacity to pay attention to more than one thing at once.

Given gangs control areas of the largest city & aid agencies cannot get in to help people be rehydrated from Cholera don’t be surprised if the tide brings in even more boats full of people trying to escape.

Follow @AbandonedAmerica for some fantastically haunted and historic #photography.

NEW from @Perla_Trevizo and me: An engineering report that the DOJ tried to hide from the public reveals that a controversial private border wall along the Rio Grande could indeed collapse during extreme floods.

We tried for more than a year to get the report through FOIA. Only when @ProPublica lawyers threatened to sue did the government release it.

https://www.propublica.org/article/border-wall-texas-doj-arcadis-webuildthewall

Improve the security of your Mastodon instance as a #MastoAdmin by renegotiating the contract. Take control, change the contract, because it is in your best interest to keep your instance safe from unknown threats.

Running an application in a least privilege manner, is confining the rights of the application to what is strictly needed. It protects the application doing harmful things against itself, protects against other neighbor applications in confinement and protects your host integrity.

Weak. https://presswatchers.org/2022/12/donald-trump-is-not-embracing-extremism-hes-way-beyond-that/
---
RT @AndreaBNYC
Smart, from @peterbakernyt.

Trump's embrace of extremism, he lays out, is a feature, not a bug.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/us/politics/trump-extremism-candidacy.html?smid=tw-share
https://twitter.com/AndreaBNYC/status/1598664356753014784

We are excited to announce the release of our report, “Securing Digital Rights for Libraries: Towards an Affirmative Policy Agenda for a Better Internet.” http://blog.archive.org/2022/12/01/internet-archive-releases-report-on-securing-digital-rights-for-libraries/

📚 The rights that libraries have always enjoyed offline must also be protected online.

As a random person from social media whom you do not know, I recommend that you take my advice.

This is very good from @tchambers: tracking the migration from the dustbowl that is Twitter: https://www.deweysquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/DSG-Snapshot-of-the-Twitter-Migration-December-12-2022.pdf

@stephstephking @wordswithnima I prefer reading paper too, but here's a neat thing I found out recently: most web pages can be saved to "Pocket" and then those can be opened on a Kobo reader. It's made it possible to read long web stories cuddled up with my cat on the couch. (Bonus: Kobo works with the Canadian library system and Overdrive.)

Обожаю ворон)

@zephoria

He gets right to something I've learned the very hard way...

Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) tweeted at 7:58 AM on Thu, Dec 01, 2022:

If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: What matters most in platform governance is how decisions get made. You can armchair quarterback specific choices and mistakes all day. But the real work is figuring out how to make principled decisions when all you have are bad options.

(https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/1598345895690784768?t=W27kQd2g0w_MI4m3nzzCMA&s=03)

A lot of Mastodon instance admins are either getting their first hosting bill or getting a very increased bill from extreme growth and usage. Some may be experiencing bill shock.

Please make sure your paying/supporting them!

Twitter was free because you were the product. Mastodon doesn't work this way.

Many instances list a patreon or donation links on their about page.

Seems most people have suggestions for #Mastodon #newbies. So here's one of mine, esp for those who want to grow engagement. Try to spend a little time to look--deliberately 👀LOOK👀 --for posts not getting much (if any) response. It's something that always bothered me "there," and certainly bothers me no less here, to see folks putting up heartfelt, sometimes heartWRENCHING posts that nobody answers. Sometimes just knowing you're seen and heard can make a big difference. End of TED talk...

Security Blue Team made their 6 introduction courses free!

They include:
-Digital Forensics
-OSINT
-Threat Hunting
-Network Analysis
-Darkweb Operations
-Vulnerability Management

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see them.

#DFIR #OSINT #Cybersecurity #infosec

https://securityblue.team/

Just in case you're wondering, the fight against authorizing the use of deadly force via robots by the SFPD isn't over yet. There is one vote left before the policy becomes effective. If you live in SF, you can use this Action Alert to tell your Supervisor to vote "no."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/let-them-know-san-francisco-shouldnt-arm-robots

@StevenBeschloss Thank you.
I have bipolar disorder and hate Nazis. I've also never shot up a movie theatre or a restaurant or a church.
I wish people would stop blaming mental illnesses for the wrongs of this country.

DEFEND REALITY - Even If It Feels Impolite
The 24/7 news cycle of pain is encouraging you to forget reality, and stay in a continual state of trauma and silence. There are cures, and they are called gratitude and truth.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heidicuda/p/defend-reality-even-if-it-feels-impolite?r=1tfo38&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email