Notices by VM (Vicky) Brasseur (vmbrasseur@social.vmbrasseur.com)

Another terrible blow struck to science.

https://www.404media.co/open-source-genetic-database-opensnp-shuts-down-to-protect-users-from-authoritarian-governments/

Dear conference organisers,

Please stop hosting your events in Texas (yes, even Austin).

It's become far too dangerous for a lot of people to attend the event, and many of the rest of us will avoid it to support our besieged LGBTQA+ colleagues.
https://masto.ai/@n0m0time/114150270163428794

At my yearly checkup yesterday, I asked my dr for a measles serology test & learned that I really need a refresher to that vax. Which I'm getting this afternoon. 💪💉🥰

This post is a public service announcement that if it's been a while since you got ‘em, you, too, can ask for serology tests for your vaccinations.

“Food waste starts at the very source: the farm. Up to 16 percent of a crop can be wasted due to factors completely out of a farmer’s control.”

https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/gleaning-the-ancient-practice-fighting-modern-food-waste/

@itgrrl 🥰 Thank you!

@kyle “We stick by our values, like keeping known toxic people on our board, so give us money."

No, thanks.

So…what happened that the #FSF founders/board felt the need to publish this rambling, back-patting, perplexing post?

It reads rather like a CYA.

https://www.fsf.org/news/anchoring-the-fsf-in-its-values

This is going to be life changing for sooooo many people. 🥰

“The vice-president, Kamala Harris, announced early on Tuesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was removing $49bn of existing unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans and will ban the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/07/biden-ban-medical-debt-credit

“The research reveals that ancient hunter-gatherers relied heavily on plant foods, particularly starchy plants, as a major energy source.”

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-archaeological-paleo-diet-narrative-ancient.html

Covid surges across US after holidays amid low booster uptake

Test positivity, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing as expert warns: ‘It’s still dangerous’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/03/covid-surges-us-low-booster-uptake

😷

“My latest research as a psychologist and educational researcher unveils a major roadblock to achieving a more representative workforce, however: tech stereotypes that emerge remarkably early in children’s development. In research published this month, my colleagues and I found that by age six, kids already see girls as worse than boys at computer science and engineering.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-stereotypes-discourage-girls-from-computing-and-engineering-as-early-as/

“Key findings from the GAO highlight the surge in textile waste over recent decades, fueled by fast fashion’s rapid production cycles and disposable culture. Nearly 17 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2018 alone, with only 15% recycled or reused. The remaining textiles are incinerated or sent to landfills, exacerbating greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and contamination from chemicals like PFAS.”

https://fibershed.org/2024/12/12/u-s-government-releases-landmark-report-on-textile-waste-and-fast-fashions-environmental-toll/

“Over the past two decades museums and archives have raised and spent billions of dollars to digitize their holdings, to say nothing of the countless individual citizen archivists painstakingly assembling digital collections on their own. Our hardware and software infrastructure is not built for this reality. It is tailored to the short term, without any concern for its long-term durability.”

https://lil.law.harvard.edu/century-scale-storage/

"The long-term use of these agroecosystems contributed to continuous, shallow groundwater availability, which is essential for agricultural production and local food security in arid regions. These systems, which include advanced soil-enrichment techniques and groundwater harvesting methods, show the resilience of traditional agricultural practices and their potential for modern adaptation in water-scarce regions.”

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-ancient-agricultural-modern-day-scarcity.html

Europol was in touch with The Reg overnight to ensure no one imagined the "Matrix" app had any connection to the open protocol for secure decentralized comms of the same name, saying: "The Matrix protocol ( @matrix ) is by no means connected to the Matrix secured communication service that was targeted in OTF Continental."

https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/04/eurocop_crack_matrix/

@tante @glynmoody Yeah, it would.

But! That stuff shouldn't go in the license anyway. It's operational and should go in a README/CONTRIBUTING (or both!).

There's absolutely no problem with being clear that just because the license says a group can use the software, you are under NO obligation to help them in any way, shape, form.

I encourage this practice for all I advise on such things.

“Despite the longstanding perception that more hours worked means higher productivity, data and research are finding otherwise.”

https://hbr.org/2024/11/lets-end-toxic-productivity

The nonprofit Trust for Public Land is set to return 31,000 acres purchased from a timber investor in Maine to Penobscot tribal management. It’s a piece of a bigger shift in conservation thinking; rather than putting a premium on pristine and untouched wilderness multiple environmental organizations are acknowledging that tribal stewardship benefits the land as well as Indigenous sovereignty, even when it chafes against traditional conservation models.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17112024/massive-land-return-to-maine-penobscot-indigenous-tribe/

Need an operating system for that orbiting secret space lair you have planned? 🛰️

#OpenSource to the rescue! Introducing Space Station OS: https://spacestationos.com

This is a valuable article for those who are involved in any way in online spaces (read: all of us). I'm looking forward to reading the research paper. Some of their findings:

1. Members Don’t Leave After Experiencing Toxicity
2. Online Toxic Behaviors Are Not Isolated Incidents
3. Toxicity Stems from Culture, Not a Few “Bad Apples”
4. Rivalries Don’t Boost Communities — They Tear Them Apart
5. Self-Moderation Is Not Enough to Keep Toxicity at Bay

#CommunityManagement

https://hbr.org/2024/11/why-moderators-cant-protect-online-communities-on-their-own