livus

livus, 10 months ago

At the moment you just subscribe to any meme communities you like, across the federation, and you can see and comment in all of them. Sooner or later we're going to be able to group them like multireddits.

This is decentralised.

196 might be a good place for you to start, they are bringing the memes.

livus, 10 months ago

Now you've got me wondering what Linus Torvalds thinks. The only opinion of his I know is that https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linus-linux.ogg that used to do the rounds "Hello this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux".

livus, 10 months ago

From the article:

Social media platforms operating across borders have been instructed by Vietnam to implement artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms capable of automatically identifying and eliminating "toxic" content, according to reports from state media on Friday. This requirement adds to the already strict regulations imposed by Vietnam on social media companies.

Vietnam has made multiple requests to Meta's Facebook, Google's YouTube, and TikTok, urging them to collaborate with authorities in order to eradicate content that is considered "toxic." This includes offensive material, false information, and content that opposes the state.

During the mid-year review event hosted by the information ministry, which was only open to selected newspapers, Vietnam Television (VTV), a state-run broadcaster, reported that this is the first instance where Vietnam has publicly issued such an order...

In a statement, the information ministry revealed that during the first half of the year, Facebook removed 2,549 posts in response to government requests. Additionally, YouTube removed 6,101 videos, and TikTok took down 415 links, as stated by the information ministry.

According to a Reuters report, this announcement coincides with the efforts of Southeast Asian nations to develop governance and ethics guidelines for AI. These guidelines aim to establish regulations and boundaries for the rapidly advancing technology.

In recent years, Vietnam has introduced various regulations, including a cybersecurity law, specifically targeting foreign social media platforms.

livus, 10 months ago

Hunger has killed at least 700 people in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in recent weeks after the United States and the United Nations paused food aid, local officials and researchers say.

The U.N. and the U.S. first suspended food aid to Tigray in March after the discovery of a scheme to steal donated wheat intended for needy people. They extended the pause to the rest of Ethiopia in early June, affecting 20 million people in need, or about one-sixth of the country’s population.

Tigray’s Disaster Risk Management Commission has recorded 728 hunger-related deaths in three of the region’s seven zones since the food aid was suspended in March...

The figure includes 350 hunger deaths in the northwest zone of Tigray, which hosts thousands of people displaced by a two-year conflict in the region that ended in November. In mid-March, U.S. aid officials found enough food aid for 134,000 people for sale in a local market in Shire, the zone’s biggest town.

Separately, researchers at Mekele University in the regional capital have documented 165 hunger deaths in seven camps for internally displaced people in Tigray since the food aid suspension began. There are over 100 such camps across the region.

The deaths were reported by camp coordinators to the researchers, who are studying people displaced by the recent war. Most of the deaths are of children, old people and people with underlying health conditions, said one researcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He linked the deaths directly to the aid suspension.

A U.N. update published on June 14 said the number of children admitted to hospitals in Tigray for malnutrition rose by 196% between April 2022 and April 2023.

The recent war left 5.4 million out of 6 million people in Tigray reliant on food aid. During the conflict, both sides looted humanitarian supplies and the government restricted aid access, leading U.N. investigators to accuse it of “using starvation as a method of warfare.” A ceasefire signed in November had allowed aid deliveries to resume to the region.

Aid workers have told The Associated Press, which first reported the food aid theft, that senior Ethiopian government officials were deeply involved. The U.S. is refusing to reinstate food aid until they are removed from the aid distribution process and stronger checks are introduced.

livus, 10 months ago

Worth noting the US had other sanctions against Ethiopia in place but is easing some non-food restrictions.

livus, 10 months ago

It's been very hard in the Tigray situation because the national government isn't all that invested in aid to Tigray and at one point Ethiopian and Eritrean forces were actively stopping it.

livus, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

No, you're barking up the wrong tree here. Tigray normally grows diverse crops of sorghum, maize, teff, barley etc, fruits such as oranges.

The famine in Tigray is entirely man-made. It's caused by widespread crop destruction, blockades of farming necessities, deliberate destruction of water infrastructure, farm implements etc.

If you want to know more about agriculture in Tigray and the effects the war had on it, here's a really in-depth article.

livus, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

The answer to your question is in the second paragraph of the article:

The U.N. and the U.S. first suspended food aid to Tigray in March after the discovery of a scheme to steal donated wheat intended for needy people. They extended the pause to the rest of Ethiopia in early June, affecting 20 million people in need, or about one-sixth of the country’s population.

livus, 10 months ago

In this case it's a fairly intractable problem. The famine itself was caused by war between the Ethiopian Government and the province of Tigray. Deliberate crop destruction and aid blockades were features of that war.

It seems senior Government officials are involved in diverting and selling grain in peacetime. It doesn't seem the government is all that invested in seeing that aid go to Tigray.

But now the aid is being paused for the rest of Ethiopia as well, and we are seeing more deaths.

livus, 10 months ago

If you're talking about a boots on the ground peacekeeping intervention in the Ethiopian war and its aftermath, I agree with you but I don't think the UN would get much support for that even now.

The US has been sanctioning the Ethiopian government over its human rights abuses in Tigray.

Halting food aid to the rest of Ethiopia has been one of the measures taken in response to aid being diverted, and as we can see it seems to have increased deaths.

livus, 10 months ago

Interesting!

It doesn't really matter what you are growing if government armies from two nations are deliberately laying waste to your crops and destroying your water infrastructure.

livus, 10 months ago

The Matrix as well.

livus, 10 months ago

A few times I had people make a negative comment about my comment karma showing I was online too much.

Which was true but it did make me selfconscious and switch to an alt half the time.

livus, 10 months ago

It's to get around thresholds.

The bot accounts were mostly about to be sold on third party websites or used for scams.

livus, 10 months ago

Anyone who can convert to dairy already probably has at this point. I guess pine is the next best thing.

livus, 10 months ago

That makes sense. Is it because of terrain?

livus, 10 months ago

Well, it's on the frontpage for me now on both "hot" and "active".

Thanks for posting it by the way, we need more human interest stories from around the globe in m/worldnews

livus, 10 months ago

New unlocks are a side effect of being on the internet unfortunately!

livus, 10 months ago

Yeah and adjacent to that: anything where I know the top voted comments are going to be about forearms, yoga pants, or how men love compliments.

livus, 10 months ago

How could I forget. Sundresses, messy buns, being polite to wait staff.

livus, 10 months ago

Might have worked. They created one for my country, and also we could filter out politics on the main sub, but some people still just bring it up in other threads.