All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers’ libraries

via Sophia, NOT Loren!

unlimited-shitpost-works:

winneganfake:

greenycrimson:

mostlysignssomeportents:

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Microsoft has a DRM-locked ebook store that isn’t making enough money,
so they’re shutting it down and taking away every book that every one of
its customers acquired effective July 1.

Customers will receive refunds.

This puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media
into sharp contrast. I have bought a lot of MP3s over the years,
thousands of them, and many of the retailers I purchased from are long
gone, but I still have the MP3s. Likewise, I have bought many books from
long-defunct booksellers and even defunct publishers, but I still own
those books.

When I was a bookseller, nothing I could do would result in your losing
the book that I sold you. If I regretted selling you a book, I didn’t
get to break into your house and steal it, even if I left you a cash
refund for the price you paid.

People sometimes treat me like my decision not to sell my books through
Amazon’s Audible is irrational (Audible will not let writers or
publisher opt to sell their books without DRM), but if you think Amazon
is immune to this kind of shenanigans, you are sadly mistaken. My books
matter a lot to me. I just paid $8,000 to have a container full of books
shipped from a storage locker in the UK to our home in LA so I can be
closer to them. The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some
kind of fucking software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I
can imagine: if the publishing industry deliberately set out to destroy
any sense of intrinsic, civilization-supporting value in literary
works, they could not have done a better job.

https://boingboing.net/2019/04/02/burning-libraries.html

If you’ve got an ereader and want to actually own your books, I heartily recommend using cailbre to scrape the DRM off and so you can backup the files.

Cailbre d/l:

https://calibre-ebook.com/download

How to use cailbre to remove DRM:

http://www.geoffstratton.com/remove-drm-amazon-kindle-books

Seconding calibre as a brilliant tool for ebook management in general. 

calibre is good

and it’s free and open source software!

Julian Assange’s case makes it clear women’s rights are still secondary to political games | Jess Phillips

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It was shocking that neither main party pointed out he’d evaded facing sexual charges

Women’s issues are always the political side salad, never the main event. We are always told we have to wait until everything else is perfect and then we can focus on the fact that women are being sexually abused in their workplaces, beaten in their homes and sexually assaulted in their personal lives.

For example, in recent months I and others have been pushing the government to make it a legal duty on all employers to protect their staff from sexual abuse and harassment at work, just as they have to make sure their employees’ fingers don’t get chopped off or that staff aren’t doused in bleach.

Continue reading…

As Ebola kills in Africa, in the west lies over vaccines beguile the complacent | Mark Honigsbaum

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The epidemic in the DRC has been impossible to contain because of the spread of anti-vax myths

With the possible exception of quinine, for centuries the only treatment for malaria, and antibiotics, vaccines have saved more lives than any other intervention in medical history. Yet, from New York’s Brooklyn to Camden in north London to Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, vaccines are in retreat, shunned by populations who seemingly have little sense of the risks they are running with their own or other people’s lives.

Why this should be so is one of the conundrums of our age. Is it all the fault of social media and anti-vax propaganda that has taken root on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? Or has society grown complacent about the risks that infectious diseases posed to previous generations, when it was common for children to be paralysed by polio or rendered deaf or brain-damaged by measles?

Continue reading…

Appeasing Hitler by Tim Bouverie review – how Britain fell for a delusion

Substitute Putin for Hitler and Trump for Chamberlin – then…

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A gripping account of the nation’s greatest mistake is timely and relevant

In November 1937, Viscount Halifax, the British foreign secretary, had an audience with Adolf Hitler at the Berghof, the Nazi dictator’s lair in the Bavarian Alps. Halifax thought it a success. He wrote to his fellow appeaser and prime minister, Neville Chamberlain: “Unless I am wholly deceived… Hitler was sincere when he said he did not want war.” He was, of course, deceived. Wholly.

This was not really the fault of Hitler who barely concealed the murderous character of his regime and his monstrous ambitions. His spear carriers were called “Legions of Death” and their caps were decorated with skulls. The deception of Halifax, Chamberlain and their many fellow travellers was of the self-induced kind.

Continue reading…

Ilhan Omar has become the target of a dangerous hate campaign | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian

In fact, we should be paying all kinds of attention to Omar’s words and actions. She is principled and outspoken against all types of human rights abuses, having criticized Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen, spoken out against Chinese repression of the Uighur population, stood with the Sudanese people in their uprising, opposed American intervention in Venezuela, grilled Elliott Abrams about his atrocious human rights record, and more. She is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, and has already introduced the Protect Against Unlawful Lobbying Act of 2019, and the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2019. Most recently, she cosponsored a bi-cameral bill to end Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. And she only began her job in January. It’s no wonder that so many people, some from her own party, want to shut Ilhan Omar up. She has a lot to say and she says it. I for one will be listening closely.

Source: Ilhan Omar has become the target of a dangerous hate campaign | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian

WHO demands protection of health workers, facilities amid Gaza protests

Gaza/PNN/

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the protection of Palestinian paramedics and medical facilities in the Gaza Strip in the wake of mass protests along the fence separating the besieged coastal enclave and the Israeli-occupied territories.

WHO said on Saturday that it had recorded an unprecedented 446 attacks on health workers in the Gaza Strip ever since anti-occupation protests started in the sliver early last year, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

These attacks had resulted in the deaths of 3 health workers and injured 731 others, it said. A total of 104 ambulances and six other forms of health transport, in addition to five health facilities and one hospital, had been damaged as well, it added.

WHO further noted that health workers faced substantial obstacles to carry out their work as they might get struck or their access to injured protesters was hampered. Additionally, being witness to such events could significantly affect the mental health of health workers and their work, it said.

Palestinians have held weekly rallies along the Gaza border to protest the siege on the enclave and demand the right for refugees to return to their homes they fled during the 1948 creation of Israel.

More than 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30, 2018. Over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, 2018, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided with a US decision to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

On June 13, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution, sponsored by Turkey and Algeria, which condemned Israel for Palestinian civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.

The resolution, which had been put forward on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries, garnered a strong majority of 120 votes in the 193-member assembly, with 8 votes against and 45 abstentions.

The resolution called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to make proposals within 60 days “on ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection, and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation,” including “recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism.”

It also called for “immediate steps towards ending the closure and the restrictions imposed by Israel on movement and access into and out of the Gaza Strip.”

Google’s Sensorvault Is a Boon for Law Enforcement. This Is How It Works.

Gun rights folks worry about someone knowing if you have a gun or not – but who is worried about Google and police being able to map where you are and have been? ME! Investigators have been tapping into the tech giant’s enormous cache of location information in an effort to solve crimes. Here’s what this database is and what it does.

A COUPLE OF THINGS – Jane Fonda – Jane Fonda

We are facing a crisis, people. This isn’t a dress rehearsal or fake news. All hands on deck! Dark, selfish forces are working to bring us down. The 1% will go down as well but just a little later. So let’s us all wake up and burst out of our bubbles and start caring about each other no matter our race, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion. No kidding. The future is at stake. And that means caring with our hearts and our actions: making sure that state and federal policies support and protect EVERYONE including the planet.

Source: A COUPLE OF THINGS – Jane FondaJane Fonda