Ally (in Euroskyland)
@allybfraz.eurosky.social
I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then. I regret to report I still have a lot of opinions. Hobbies: writing, horror, cheese.
This is concerning for a zillion reasons but, a dispensary in Michigan went viral for blocking a Flock camera in its parking lot designed to create a record of every car that goes there. Easy to imagine this being used in abortion, gender affirming care cases
![It is not difficult to imagine police in one state using Flock to track a resident of their state cross state lines to, for example, obtain an abortion that is legal in one state but not in another. Last year, 404 Media reported on police in Texas who searched more than 80,000 cameras across Flock’s nationwide network for a woman who had a self-administered abortion.
The case is also particularly concerning considering that Flock cameras have popped up outside of weed dispensaries in Michigan. The JARS Cannabis dispensary in Madison Heights, Michigan, went viral this week for putting a “No Flock Zone” sign in front of a Flock camera in the dispensary’s parking lot. “We share our community’s concerns about increased surveillance, which is why we placed the No Flock Zone sign in front of the camera to block its ability to record,” the dispensary said in a public statement. “JARS does not control the camera or have access to any of the data it collects … after we installed our No Flock Zone sign, the city issued a demand letter warning of sanctions if we did not remove it within 48 hours.” But that Flock camera exists specifically to monitor the license plates of people who come and go to the dispensary. It was required by Madison Heights as one of the conditions for giving a dispensary license to JARS: “[The dispensary] must place a FLOCK license plate scanning camera system at the entrance of the customer parking lot prior to commencement of retail sales, and it will give the Madison Heights Police Department unhindered live access to the FLOCK camera, camera footage, and any and all data, which must remain operational at all times.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cjfcz3t36f6nrprarkhkycxo/bafkreid622omkygkpo7nucauweh23yk2gaffcgf7vztawfyyjb7n2qbhze)
The important thing to know about boots is that Dr. Martens was bought by a private equity firm a while back, the boots are now garbage in terms of construction quality, but Solovair set up to make similar boots on the old equipment in the old factory and their versions are much better quality.
Will Wilkinson@wlknsn.xyz · 17h agoMy take on boots discourse is that we face a lemons problem with many consumer goods, given the acquisition of many storied brands by companies aggressively milking accumulated brand equity for higher profits, such that price and reputation for durability does not reliably predict higher roi.
Former J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...
Former J6 Prosecutors Beg Senators To Stop Confirming Election Deniers To Court Seats
huffpost.com
Small town folklore deserves more attention. Every diner, courthouse, cemetery, and old storefront has at least one story (and everyone in town knows it).
Imagine what they could have done for Michigan with 80 million dollars. Or hell, with almost 100 million for that matter.
Sean T. Collins@seantcollins.com · 18h agoBREAKING: Abdul El-Sayed defeats Haley Stevens, with a final count of 7.3M - 63.9M
Brown University has a widget that tracks the cost of the Iran war to American consumers (as contrasted to whatever the Pentagon is spending). Per-household cost now exceeds $600. iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu
Only thing Nane is missing is the vodka
Nana's CookBooks@nanascookbooks.bsky.social · 18h agoA nice tomato juice cocktail is simple enough to make from scratch and Nana's recipes makes enough for sharing or to make it through the rest of the week. Can Nana interest you in a glass? 🍽️ 🍜 #FoodSky #Cooking #Recipes #RecipeOfTheDay
When even writers can’t comprehend what they’ve read I have to assume they’re either not very good writers, or are reacting to something in the most bad faith way possible. You’d be surprised how often it’s the latter.
it's not why *everything* sucks, but having all three branches of the federal government captured by thieves, abusers, bigots, and cowards is definitely why a lot of things suck
as a fashion person I have explained ad infinitum to people that footwear is truly one of the best measures of "you get what you pay for." you either buy nice footwear that will last, or buy cheap garbage that immediately wears out, it's practically law
katie@supermathskid.bsky.social · 2d agookay now he's gone too far
Whatshisface is right re: amt of $$ spent *no longer* guarantees quality but historically “you get what you pay for” was the expectation before the enshitification of everything. Very silly to say Terry Pratchett made this up, lol “I’ve never experienced it so it must be fiction” is soo funny.
I love how the new cyclosporiasis framing is the iceberg lettuce was “sourced from central Mexico” with 0 mention of Taylor Farms in headlines or social media copy even tho they’re using photos with Taylor Farms facilities in them lol. CEOs will do anything but take accountability, I guess.
Every time someone fixes their fingers to explain why they're still doing X thing on Y fascist-adjacent platform all I hear is "I'm too lazy to change, I don't care to change, I'm not willing to sacrifice the comfortability of my life for the rest of you" and like, that's fine, but just so you know.
I know I didn’t see a news article about what “kalishi traders” think about something. So the gambling addicts are influencing the “news”cycles now? Dystopian hellscape.
"Why can't you just appreciate how revolutionary the job-taking, environment-degrading, information-shredding, technology-hoarding, economy-swamping machine is?" My brother in Christ, there may indeed be a revolution in part because of "AI," but it might not be the one you wanted.
I keep beating this drum, but for a reason; most of the information in the world is not on the internet, but most people think it is. We have been told for over two generations that the internet does or will soon hold all human knowledge. This is not only false, it is far from the truth.
Equating scanning things into AI as digital archiving is 😵💫 y’all, we gotta do something or else humanity is doomed lol
NightmareWaffle@nightmarewaffle.bsky.social · 4d agoSomeone tried to argue with me that it's a good thing actually if a rare book is scanned and destroyed for AI, because now people will get to read it. No they won't. They'll read a shallow zombie made from emulating that book. The original text itself will not be recreated and is lost.
I’ve been doing phone research for the past year or so bc I want off iPhone and I want a physical qwerty keyboard and something I’ve noticed I think is very strange is how many “people” are talking about the Clicks Communicator which isn’t even out and isn’t really like these other phones at all.
Imagine that
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 4d agoNew: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo
Or, and here’s a wild idea, stop interviewing them. Platforming these people, especially in a manner where you’re letting fascists and their lies run amok, makes you complicit in spreading their agenda. Stop playing footsie with fascists.
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young@dannagal.bsky.social · 4d agoI do not envy her position. I don’t know if I could have done better but you MUST be prepared for these spectacles of aggression which these guys perform for their audience of ONE. It will always do a disservice to democracy & the public if you do not put boundaries on their deception fueled attacks
The very people who accuse others of "staying silent" are SILENT THEMSELVES ON 1000 issues a day which is NORMAL because you are ONE PERSON & simply cannot have takes on every single thing.
The Democratic establishment’s pursuit of status quo management has come into a generational conflict with its voters, who expect active representation, and whose current demands require status quo destruction.
A.R. Moxon@juliusgoat.bsky.social · 5d agoIt’s becoming an increasingly unavoidable conclusion that a portion of mostly establishment Democrat electeds/pundits/consultants don’t like Democratic voters much and would much prefer to have Republican voters instead, and view their voters’ insistence on being represented as an annoying betrayal.
Calling anyone "native born" when pretty much everyone was relatively fresh off the boat at this point is crazy work. Again, unless you're talking about indigenous people, none of us is from here. Get a fucking grip.
Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 5d agoAnother datapoint for the fascist radicalisation of institutional pillars of much of the American Right
Listen, these people will find a way to feed human beings, skin, bones and all, to the AI machine if we don't stop them.
Zach Bussey 🍁@zachbussey.tos.gg · 5d agoTwitch and Amazon are apparently planning to use streams to train Generative AI. Multiple sources tell me it will be announced in the coming months, despite some internal friction against it. Creators may be able to opt out of some training data.
