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I wasn't familiar with the author before this article. You can see his wikipedia page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_M._K%C3%BChn

He is best known for his efforts in GPL enforcement,[7] as the creator of FSF's license list, and as original author of the Affero General Public License. He has long been a proponent for non-profit structures for FLOSS development, and leads efforts in this direction through the Software Freedom Conservancy. He is a recipient of the 2012 O'Reilly Open Source Award.

Excerpt from the first part of the piece:

In this philosophical essay, I explore the question: “When (if at all) is it ethically and morally acceptable to use proprietary software in the production and/or improvement of urgently needed copylefted FOSS?”

The question presents a complex conundrum. I attempt herein to rigoriously examine it through both a priori ethical analysis and a posteriori (and folksy) consideration of my personal experience and the shared experiences of the early software freedom movement.

I surprised myself at the outcome of my analysis. I conclude that under some circumstances (of which we have already witnessed in key historical examples), use of proprietary software by FOSS contributors to create/improve FOSS becomes a moral imperative. And, that imperitive often supersedes the moral imperative to avoid using that proprietary software.

Seventy-three per cent of participants were 'not at high risk of fractures or falls,' with calcium, vitamin D or combined supplements having 'little to no effect on fractures.'

The study: https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2025-088050

Results This review included 69 trials involving 153 902 participants. Participants in most of the trials were community dwelling (87%) and not at high risk of fractures or falls (73%). For the primary outcome of any fracture, little to no effect was found from use of calcium supplements (11 trials, 9067 participants; risk ratio 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.81 to 1.01; moderate certainty), vitamin D supplements (36 trials, 92 045 participants; 1.00, 0.95 to 1.06; high certainty), or combined supplementation (15 trials, 51 126 participants; 0.91, 0.84 to 0.99; high certainty). Calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation appeared to have little to no effect on other fracture and fall outcomes, based largely on moderate to high certainty of evidence. The findings remained robust after an extensive exploration of heterogeneity across multiple subgroup analyses. Evidence for high risk patients or those requiring residential care was limited for many outcomes for calcium monotherapy and for combined supplementation.

A calf at a ranch in Texas tested positive on Wednesday for the flesh-eating parasite, the first case confirmed in Texas since 1966.

If you have been following the Lemmyvision posts, then the sections in this article will be fairly familiar. We put this together to be a full summary/recap of our side of this year's event. Enjoy!

After buying and opening a box, Augustine allegedly replaced the plastic Lego bricks and figures with dried pasta. Investigators told FOX 11 LA that the dried pasta mimics the sound and weight of Lego bricks shifting around when the box is shaken.

Description:

Track NASA's Artemis II Orion spacecraft live as it travels to the Moon and back. Real-time 2D map with position, speed, distance from Earth and Moon, crew info, mission elapsed time, and trajectory replay for all Artemis missions. Free-return trajectory explained.

Have you ever thought about what makes GPS possible?

With the flip of the “Blue Switch,” or Selective Availability, GPS became dramatically more accurate, and a new kind of adventure known as geocaching became possible, turning the whole planet into a playground.

Before Selective Availability was discontinued, the U.S. government made GPS less accurate for everyone except the military, for national security reasons.

On May 2, 2000, the decision was made to discontinue Selective Availability, ending the intentional restriction on civilian GPS accuracy and significantly improving GPS technology for public use. This date is recognized by geocachers as “Blue Switch Day.”

The first geocache was hidden on May 3, 2000, marking the beginning of geocaching—a journey full of innovation and experimentation. Today, there are 3.4 million geocaches in 191 countries.

What better way to celebrate the evolution of geocaching than to represent the butterfly effect, which states that a small, seemingly insignificant action can lead to massive, unexpected consequences over time.

To celebrate this pivotal moment, there are two new souvenirs to earn for Blue Switch Day 2026!

Vote manipulation is getting more common. Some recent examples:

• https://piefed.ca/c/comicstrips/p/527462/new-anti-bot-rules
• https://lemmy.ca/post/57235699

While the accounts were banned, the malicious voting activity stuck around.

Should admins have the ability to discard votes, and if so, which admins? Should community mods have that ability? Can you think of any ways that tools like this could be abused?

Post has been scheduled for 01/03/2026, 01:00 AM on America/Vancouver

In data privacy, we often talk about the dangers of data collection and exposed data. It can get overwhelming to learn more about all the information that is collected on us, especially at the beginning. As a coping mechanism, some people react by downplaying concerns, disregarding dangers, and ignoring precautions altogether. Others react the opposite way: by isolating themselves, and no longer sharing anything with anyone. But neither is a viable solution.

Staying isolated to avoid all data exposure risks other dangers. Dangers that might not seem related to data privacy directly, but are nevertheless worth mentioning here: Suicide and depression are very real dangers that we cannot ignore.

Keeping our data safe shouldn't mean staying alone, and isolation is especially dangerous for LGBTQ+ people.

The better approach is to adopt a segmental perspective on data privacy.

While not ignoring nor minimizing the risks, it's important to develop an awareness of which exposed data represents the biggest danger to us, which we have no control over, and which we can actually protect better.

This is the balanced way out of this Orwellian nightmare.

There are ways to stay together, to support each other, and to stay connected while also protecting our data and becoming an informed advocate for privacy rights.

The article has more details, and includes the following:

How to stay connected while staying safe
Practices and tools that help in various contexts
Pseudonymity
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Browser fingerprinting
File metadata
Mobile applications
Photo sharing
What to improve in each context
Social media: Improving, deleting, replacing
Private messaging: One-on-one and group chats
Online dating: Balancing authenticity and caution
In person: Groups and events
Stay connected
Resources to help