Bonum Certa Men Certa

Wearing Masks Isn't a Political Statement

Nor a fashion statement



Summary: A gentle reminder that public health requires some form of collective responsibility

THERE are now just about over 2 million "active cases" of COVID-19 in the US (with tests to confirm these). Later today it'll be over 4 million cases overall. With about 4% of the world's population the US now has 1,966,953 "active cases" out of 5,331,706 worldwide, i.e. 36.87% of the total. Our next Daily Links will contain "American tourists barred from entering Bahamas due to COVID-19 cases; other countries still allowed" (so COVID-19 is like leprosy now, with carriers being treated like lepers).



"This is what happens when institutions are run by corrupt and unfit-for-service people."For one reason or another, mostly in the US, masks become a "political" thing in the eyes of so many. This is worrying. The systematic shaming and disdain for science is ruining the country's ability to defend itself from an invisible (albeit very real) enemy.

We typically focus on technology, but this issue is important and it is global. For crying out loud, wear a bloody mask. And don't listen to bigots and demagogues who months ago also told us that tens of thousands of dead Italians were just 'collateral damage' of "Impeachment Hoax" perpetrated by the US Democratic Party, seeding something in Wuhan as if American politicians also govern China.

As a side note, remember that management of the European Patent Office (EPO), led by this orange clown, failed to provide masks to staff like it was supposed to. This is what happens when institutions are run by corrupt and unfit-for-service people. Welcome to the future. Facts don't seem to matter anymore.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 150 Out of 200: Always Independently Verify What People Claim to Be (or Find Yourself in a Jason Arday-Type Moment/Dilemma)
I'm not a cardiologist and Garrett was never a security expert
Links 15/08/2026: "There Is No A.I." (Slop Plagiarism Isn't Intelligence) and Its "Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/08/2026: Gratitudes, "Microflier" Drones, and Literate Programming
Links for the day
IBM's PIPs and RAs (Layoffs) Going on, Interns as 'Scabs'
It seems like a consensus (also in Reddit, we took a quick look)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 14, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 14, 2026
Gemini Links 14/08/2026: Slower Internet, Logging Off Made Easy, and Human Code
Links for the day
Links 14/08/2026: "Mystery of Dark Oxygen", People Despise Slop, and Backlash Grows Against Fake Currencies (Energy-Wasting Scam Like Slop)
Links for the day
Free Publicity
They say there's no such thing as "bad press" or that every publicity is good publicity, sometimes free publicity
Farage's fears, media hijacked by-election, what really happened in Clacton
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
It's Friday. A Ton of People Departing From IBM and Red Hat.
A mere subset of people who announce this in public at Microsoft's LinkedIn
GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Beyond 11%
Combined with ChromeOS, it's already past and beyond 11%
Chatbots/LLMs Are the Next "Clown Computing", Pure Hype, a Serious Mistake
Programs that scan text and emit something similar (but full of errors)
Links 14/08/2026: Slop 'Music' Causing Problems, Slop Data Centre Contractor Unpaid (Massive Debt), and The Cyber Show Says We're "Colonised By Wankers"
Links for the day
Fake Growth of Social Control Media is Misleading
nowadays people look for alternatives - ones not controlled by MElon, CPC, and Kapo-Berg
statCounter: Windows Down to All-Time Low of 25%, Android Leads the Pack, GNU/Linux About to Leapfrog Apple, Overtaking MacOS
The situation was very different in past years
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs (Including 'Voluntary' Secret Layoffs) Take Their Toll on Seattle
How much longer can they hide their crises?
Planet Fedora ("Fedora People") is Just IBM Staff, Former IBM Staff, and LLM Slop
this is what Fedora boils down to now
Explanation of What Will Happen to Red Hat (and Other Acquired Companies) After August
In short, a lot will be scuttled; history shows it happens over and over again
SLAPP Censorship - Part 149 Out of 200: It Took a Long Time to Show What Jason Arday (at Cambridge) and Harvey Weinstein (in Hollywood) Really Were
Really bad when society endures abuse because the abusers silence their exposers
Gemini Links 14/08/2026: 32-bit RISC-V and BlackBerry
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 13, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, August 13, 2026
'Voluntary' Layoffs (a Form of Silent Layoffs): Microsoft Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA) in August 2026 and September 2026
Today and yesterday
Microsoft Sees Windows on Fire, Pours Gasoline Over It
The latest move from Microsoft defies logic
Racing Towards "Woman Zero"
They don't seem to value women
The Legacy of Gerstner (Rapid Destruction) Continues at IBM
They say IBM never recovered from Gerstner, who instead of saving the companies (IBM and others he claims credit for) set up a collision course of rapid shrinkage
Counters in Clacton Commence in 3 Hours at Clacton Leisure Centre
Even a few hundreds of votes for Pocock would be considered a great success
Swiss army to attack 2,900 domain name owners? Cult of ETH Zurich & Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM's Bluewashing of Confluent Carries on, More Layoffs Coming, Same Likely Applicable to Red Hat
September 30 is a day before this next phase of bluewashing at Red Hat
Headlines About Microsoft and Ransomware, But They're "SPONSORED FEATURES" at The Register MS
The Register MS habitually publishes LLM slop too
Links 13/08/2026: K-pop Suicide Due to Social Control Media, Legal Problems for Facebook Over Safety
Links for the day
'Cancel Culture' Isn't About Empathy, It's About Making Good People Homeless
Seeing what they did to RMS, remember that those "concern trolls" are about everything other than ethics and morals
Daniel Pocock in The Nerve
Lots of publicity owning to the enrollment
Why Support Daniel Pocock
Our readers who come from IBM and the EPO are certainly familiar with the tactics of censorship and what that sort of censorship leads to
SLAPP Censorship - Part 148 Out of 200: The Manosphere
Those people don't just threaten our national sovereignty, press, democracy etc. They also endanger women everywhere.
Gemini Links 13/08/2026: Health, Partial Eclipse Sketches, and Guilelessness
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Reaches 10% "Market Share" in statCounter
As of this morning
15% of IBM Marked for Potential Termination, PIPs are the "New Layoffs" (or RAs) at IBM
IBM is a dying company, but it does not want the press to say this or for people to understand that
Links 13/08/2026: "The Rise of the Measles-Industrial Complex" and Spotify Curbs Slop
Links for the day
Daniel Pocock on Australia's 9News (Nine Entertainment)
This gives visibility to software and technology issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 12, 2026