Links 17/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, More YouTube Censorship
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Tedium ☛ Everything Becomes Growth Hacking
Here’s a warning to platforms where people interact: If you don’t properly moderate, you are essentially building a slippery slope—hell, a slide—on the way to growth-hacking content.
Now, to be clear, growth-hacking content, in this context, is content that is intentionally built for purely commercial reasons, but more importantly, is about the act of making money. There’s a related phenomenon called content marketing, but the thing that separates content marketing from pure growth hacking is that content built for growth hacking is as close to the hard pitch as possible without actually doing any hard pitching.
They want you to spend money now, or later, but more importantly, they want you to see them as the go-to resource for making money yourself. And every single platform you use favors the growth hacker, whether you realize it or not.
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Ruben Schade ☛ An assertiveness tip: state the outcome
Being assertive doesn’t come naturally to me iRL. I’ve been getting better at recently, but I still let people walk over me more than they should in social settings.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Took a couple of days
I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve here thesedays! And the last couple of days were awful. Back now, coffee and RSS reader in hand though, so let’s get back to it.
Hope you’re going well! Is that a new hat?
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RIPE ☛ Refreshing the RIPE Meeting Websites
The RIPE NCC Web Services team is embarking on an exciting new project to transition future RIPE Meeting sites to a new platform. Here, we cover more details and ask for input from the community.
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Thomas Rigby ☛ My computing history
When I left home I didn't have a computer at all for a few years until I got some friends on a Computer Science course to build me one from parts. At the time I couldn't care less about spec or brands; it worked and it was free. It had a CD drive which let me use AOL free internet access to get on the web. I used to collect different ones from the people handing out freebies on Market Street and have a system in place to switch disks over at certain times to ensure I never paid.
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Leon Mika ☛ Friday Development Venting Session
Had a great venting session with someone at work about the practices of micro-services, the principals of component driven development, mocking in unit tests, and interfaces in Go. Maybe one day I’ll write all this up, but it was so cathartic to express how we can do better on all these fronts.
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Lewis Dale ☛ WeblogPoMo midway check-in
Okay so I’m just past the halfway mark on #WeblogPoMo2024, so thought I’d have a quick reflection on how it’s going so far.
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Jack Baty ☛ Photography as a record makes less sense as I grow old
I’ll be 60 years old in July. It occurred to me that I’ll be dead before the photographs I take today are interesting as a record of life. “Back then” isn’t going to be that far back, so what, then, are any new photographs for? This uncomfortable question has introduced a sort of nihilism into my attitude towards photography.
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Leon Mika ☛ Writing Good Data Migration Scripts
I’m waiting for a data migration to finish, so I’ve naturally got migration scripts on my mind.
There’s an art to writing a good migration script. It may seem that simply throwing together a small Python script would be enough; and for the simpler cases, it very well might be. But it’s been my experience that running the script in prod is likely to be very different than doing test runs in dev.
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Jack Baty ☛ Taking a break from complicated blogs - Jack Baty
After a short time, I lost energy for it. It’s not that it was terribly difficult, but I just didn’t feel like doing it. I didn’t feel like remembering how Kirby’s controllers and collections and templates and snippets and models worked. I originally set up my original Kirby site using their starter template and after a week or so of figuring things out, I stopped messing with it and just posted stuff. I lost interest in how it worked. I would type and hit the Post button.
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Björn Wärmedal ☛ I Live In A City. Or A Town.
There are many differences between towns and cities.
The distinction is fluid, however, and differs between countries and regions. And to top it off it's also a linguistic issue.
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Neil Selwyn ☛ Start where the pain is: notes on topic-selection in technology studies (Vinsel 2024) – Critical Studies of EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY
Lee Vinsel has written recently to lament the poor choice of topic selection by ‘critical’ tech researchers. In particular, he calls out the research choices of progressive academics who regularly make a point of publicly decrying technology-related harms, injustices, and similar social problems. Vinsel notes the tendency for such researchers to often fail to follow through on these concerns in their actual research – instead preferring to scrutinise and investigate the latest hyped ‘emerging’ technologies that are not yet in widespread use and certainly not the cause of actual harms at the present time (indeed, Vinsel wryly describes these at one point as ‘barely existing’ technologies).
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Science
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Buttondown ☛ What I look for in empirical software papers
Behind on the talk and still reading a lot of research papers on empirical software engineering (ESE). Evaluating a paper studying software engineers is a slightly different skill than evaluating other kinds of CS papers, which feel a little closer to hard sciences or mathematics. So even people used to grinding through type theory or AI papers can find ESE studies offputting.
So here are some of my thoughts on how I approach it. This is mostly unedited and unorganized, just getting my thoughts down.
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Harvard University ☛ Glimpse of next-generation [Internet]
The Harvard team established the practical makings of the first quantum [Internet] by entangling two quantum memory nodes separated by optical fiber link deployed over a roughly 22-mile loop through Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, and Boston. The two nodes were located a floor apart in Harvard’s Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering.
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Education
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Threat Source ☛ Rounding up some of the major headlines from RSA
While I one day wish to make it to the RSA Conference in person, I’ve never had the pleasure of making the trek to San Francisco for one of the largest security conferences in the U.S.
Instead, I had to watch from afar and catch up on the internet every day like the common folk. This at least gives me the advantage of not having my day totally slip away from me on the conference floor, so at least I felt like I didn’t miss much in the way of talks, announcements and buzz. So, I wanted to use this space to recap what I felt like the top stories and trends were coming out of RSA last week.
Here’s a rundown of some things you may have missed if you weren’t able to stay on top of the things coming out of the conference.
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Security Week ☛ Legacy of Wisdom: Security Lessons Inspired by My Father
We are all prone to getting lost and caught up in the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. At the end of the day, or perhaps more aptly, at the end of days, what is it that our friends and families are left with? In a word, it is our legacy. It seems to me that each of our legacies is mainly the impact we have had on others’ lives (hopefully for the good), along with what we have shared with others (moments, lessons, kindness, etc.). In other words, when we depart this world, it is others’ memories of us that remain. I wonder what a different world it would be if we all took a few moments each day to reflect on that.
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Steve Ledlow ☛ Creative Environments - Tangible Life
In the end, all I really need is a good idea and the creative environment will sort itself out. There’s always the dream of a perfect zen spot next to a rock pond or babbling stream, but if those were the only places I could write, you wouldn’t be reading this post.
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Anne Sturdivant ☛ My computer origin story.
I'm old. Well, I'm "older." I'm GenX but I'm within the Oregon Trail Generation that overlaps the tail end of GenX and beginning of Millennials. We're the ones that grew up in a mostly analog world, just as mainstream computing was taking shape. Most of us graduated high school without cell phones ruining our lives, and probably even finished college before social media really destroyed things. We "grew into" a digital adulthood and are probably the very micro-generation responsible for the mess we are in now.
My "computer origin story" is varied and long-ranging. My parents, a junior-high math and science teacher and a medical technologist, started a small business in the 1980s for data processing and desktop publishing. My dad had PCs (mostly Compaqs) which were used for the data processing side of things, and my mom used Apple and Macintosh computers for the desktop publishing side.
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Hardware
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ABP ☛ Toshiba Layoffs: Electronics Firm To Fire 4000 Employees; Here’s Why
Toshiba Layoffs: The company announced plans to transfer office operations from central Tokyo to Kawasaki, situated west of the capital
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New York Times ☛ The Itsy Bitsy Spider Inspired a Microphone
If spiders use their webs like a large external eardrum, researchers reasoned, perhaps spider silk could be the basis for a powerful listening device.
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New York Times ☛ Robert Dennard, I.C.B.M. Inventor Whose Chip Changed Computing, Dies at 91
He invented DRAM, the technology that allowed for the faster and higher-capacity memory storage that is the basis for modern computing.
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Linux Gizmos ☛ EPIC Mainboard with PCIe x4 Slot and Dual 2.5 GbE Ports
EPIC Mainboard with PCIe x4 Slot and Dual 2.5 GbE Ports
The NANO-EHL by ICP Germany is an EPIC single board computer designed for robust performance and flexibility in industrial applications. Equipped with the defective chip maker Intel Celeron J6412 processor, this board targets automation, control systems, panel PCs, vending machines, and other embedded systems.
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Linux Gizmos ☛ QCS6490 Vision-AI Development Kit: Featuring 13 TOPs NPU and 8-Core Kryo 670 CPU
QCS6490 Vision-AI Development Kit: Featuring 13 TOPs NPU and 8-Core Kryo 670 CPU
Avnet has introduced the QCS6490 Vision-AI Development Kit, a sophisticated solution designed for vision-based Hey Hi (AI) applications. This kit includes an energy-efficient, multi-camera SMARC 2.1.1 compute module powered by the Qualcomm QCS6490 SoC.
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CNX Software ☛ Easily build a robot car with the Car Base Board for the STM32F411 “Black Pill” board
The Car Base Board from Applying Microcontroller Solutions is a modular platform for building robot car projects powered by the WeAct Studio Black Pill development board. The Black Pill board is an upgrade to the “Blue Pill 2” board and features the STM32F411CEU6 microcontroller running at 100MHz with 512 KB of flash memory, 128 KB SRAM, and a USB Type-C port for power and programming. The Care Base Board printed circuit board is a base controller that takes hardware expansions such as wireless modules, servos, and sensors to monitor and control a robot car.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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CBC ☛ Suicide is a leading cause of death for young people, but most universities don't track it
CBC News asked 52 of the country's largest universities whether or not they track both suicide attempts and deaths by suicides and requested the data for the last five years.
Fifteen schools said they internally track student suicides. Of those schools, only six provided CBC with actual figures.
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Futurism ☛ First Neuralink Patient Alarmed as Device Starts Losing Functionality
He's agreed to have the chip stay inside his head for a year as part of an experiment that's primarily designed to test whether the implant is safe and won't cause damage over prolonged periods of time.
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International Business Times ☛ Did Neuralink Ignore Early Trial Risk? Brain Implant Issues Plagued Lab Before Human Case
Neuralink's first human implant hit a snag last week, with reports suggesting tiny wires crucial for brain signal detection dislodged. Sources familiar with the matter revealed this issue has been known for years at Elon Musk's company.
Three sources familiar with the testing claim that animal trials conducted before last year's US approval indicated a potential for the implanted wires to retract. This retraction could also dislodge the delicate electrodes responsible for deciphering brain signals.
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The Center for Investigative Reporting ☛ Shot by a Civilian Wielding a Police Gun
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, in partnership with The Trace and CBS News, reviewed records from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States and found that many had routinely resold or traded in their used duty weapons – a practice that has sent thousands of guns into the hands of criminals.
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France24 ☛ EU probes Facebook, Instagram over fears of addictive behaviour in children
It is the second investigation into Meta. An earlier one was launched by the European Union last month over fears Facebook and Instagram are failing to counter disinformation.
"We are not convinced that it has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young Europeans," the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, said.
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RTL ☛ Investigating behavioural addiction: EU probes Facebook, Instagram over child protection
Another issue the commission raised is the so-called "rabbit hole" effect -- which occurs when users are fed related content based on an algorithm, in some cases leading to more dangerous content.
"We are not convinced that it has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young Europeans," the EU's internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, said of Meta.
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The Register UK ☛ EU probes Meta over its provisions for protecting children
Lastly, the Commission put Meta's compliance with DSA obligations under the microscope by looking at whether it has taken "appropriate and proportionate measures" to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for minors. In particular, it will examine whether default privacy settings for minors and recommendation systems comply with the law.
Each strand of the investigation relates to Articles 28, 34, and 35 of the DSA respectively. The Commission is set to continue the investigation by sending additional requests for information, and conducting interviews or inspections.
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The Hill ☛ EU investigating Meta over addictive effects of Facebook, Instagram on children
The bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, opened “formal proceedings” against the tech giant Thursday to investigate whether it violated the Digital Services Act’s (DSA) protections for minors.
The commission noted in a press release that the design of Facebook and Instagram “may exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behaviour.”
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Deutsche Welle ☛ EU probes Meta over child protection concerns
European Union regulators have opened a formal investigation into Facebook and Instagram over child protection concerns, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The Commission said in a statement that systems of both Facebook and Instagram, including the algorithms, may "exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behaviour."
It also noted concerns over so-called "rabbit-hole" effect which it said "draw you in to more and more disturbing content," according to the statement.
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New York Times ☛ EU Investigates Facebook and Instagram Over Addictive Effects on Children
European Union regulators on Thursday opened investigations into the American tech giant Meta for the potentially addictive effects Instagram and Facebook have on children, an action with far-reaching implications because it cuts to the core of how the company’s products are designed.
Meta’s products may “exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors” to create behavioral dependencies that threaten their mental well-being, the European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-member bloc, said in a statement. E.U. regulators could ultimately fine Meta up to 6 percent of its global revenue, which was $135 billion last year, as well as force other product changes.
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The Register UK ☛ Neuralink had prior issues with loose wires, report claims
The Neuralink N1 implant has 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair, through which is distributed a total of 1,024 electrodes. It's not clear how many slipped out of quadriplegic patient Nolad Arbaugh's brain, but Neuralink revealed earlier this month that it was able to work around the problem.
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Reuters ☛ Exclusive: Musk's Neuralink has faced issues with its tiny wires for years, sources say
The sources declined to be identified, citing confidentiality agreements they had signed with the company. Neuralink and its executives did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was aware of the potential issue with the wires because the company shared the animal testing results as part of its application to begin human trials, one of the people said.
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Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont ☛ EU probes Facebook, Instagram over child protection
The EU on Thursday opened a formal investigation into Facebook and Instagram on suspicion the platforms owned by Meta are causing addictive behaviour in children.
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Long COVID is more prevalent in these states, CDC data shows
Long COVID is the all-encompassing term for a wide range of symptoms that can last weeks, months and even years after a COVID-19 infection.
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Supreme Court denies California’s appeal for immunity for COVID-19 deaths at San Quentin prison
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from California corrections officials who sought immunity from lawsuits claiming they acted with deliberate indifference when they caused a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at one of the worldâs most famous prisons four years ago.
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BBC ☛ Facebook and Instagram suspected to be 'too addictive' - BBC News
The EU says its concerned the platforms algorithms "stimulate behavioural addictions in children."
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Register UK ☛ Crook brags about US Army, '$75B defense company' breaches
The crook also bragged about stealing data belonging to the Pentagon and other national security agencies last month.
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The Register UK ☛ Apple on track for 25% of iPhones to be made in India
That report claims Apple has already begun work on building supply chains, even as a majority of its production will be undertaken by Taiwan's Foxconn and Tata Electronics, both of which have a presence in India. Foxconn is considered Apple's largest contract manufacturer.
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The Register UK ☛ Baidu's robotaxi division to wheel into profit next year
The driverless aspect is thanks to a foundation model capable of supporting Level 4 autonomous driving, called Apollo ADFM.
Media reports have also indicated that the latest vehicles allow riders to sit in the front passenger seat for the first time and come with rear doors that slide open.
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404 Media ☛ AI Generated Hentai Is Viral All Over Facebook
Facebook’s recommendation algorithm is promoting fully nude, often AI-generated hentai images into people’s news feeds, the latest of many signs that Meta has stopped uniformly enforcing its own rules and does not even remotely have a handle on its AI-generated spam problem.
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Joel Chrono ☛ What games will I play anyway?
This is a summary of the games I am planning to tackle first on my Miyoo Mini Plus, some of them are new, others I have played, some I will continue, others I will start from scratch!
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Manuel Moreale ☛ Curation, search, and the future of the web
Unsurprisingly Google has revealed that AI is going to be integrated pretty much everywhere, and the goal is to let the AI do the googling for you. Which sounds great, in theory. After all, as the fine people at The Browser Company have eloquently explained to the world, the web is in such a terrible state that the only way out of this madness is to let an AI deal with all the garbage and spammy content that’s out there. I already expressed my doubts about this plan and I don’t think what Google is doing is any better.
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Lou Plummer ☛ The Phones of Normal People
Pete Brown said it well, "the vast majority of iPad owners are using the device to read Kindle books, play Candy Crush, and take bad photos.". There are millions of us nerds out there using the best calendar and note taking apps but there are tens of millions of people perfectly happy with what Apple or Google gave them. Maybe they have downloaded a few apps (and probably never deleted them) to try out. They might even be pretty good at Instagram, but they are not us. They do not know what version of the operating system they are running on anything. They do not care. They hate updates because they interrupt stuff they'd rather be doing. They don't care about the new features being announced at WWDC because they do not want to learn how to do new things with their already too complicated tech. They are the baseline. We are the outliers.
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Anne Sturdivant ☛ AI for dummies.
I tried my hardest to write three different posts yesterday on three different topics. But most of my day was consumed by a dread I just couldn't shake. Other than it being a tough week (for reasons I won't get into here) everywhere I turned I was faced with another staggering story about AI, and it just feels so dumb.
The pandemic seems to have shifted a bunch of Overton windows out of whack, seemingly simultaneously. We are seeing wild swings in directions that appear to be backsliding many advances in human rights, civil rights, women's rights, and more. Public health is taking a beating by their own doing, I'm sorry to say. This is particularly affecting disabled and chronically ill people, but this will catch up with the general public eventually.
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Air Force Times ☛ Lockheed running out of parking space amid F-35 delays, says watchdog
TR-3 involves a slate of improvements for the aircraft, such as improved cockpit displays, better computer memory and more processing power. TR-3 is needed before another group of more in-depth upgrades, known as Block 4, can be installed on the F-35. Block 4 will allow the jet to carry more weapons and provide upgrades to its electronic warfare capabilities.
But TR-3 is overdue due to problems with its software and delays in the production of key parts. Test officials told the government watchdog that TR-3′s software remains “unstable,” almost a year after deliveries were supposed to start.
Since July 2023, the Pentagon has refused to accept delivery of the newest F-35s that will be enabled with TR-3. Most F-35s are built at Lockheed’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas. When a new jet rolls off the company’s production lines, they are stored at that facility until the permanent hardware kits for TR-3 and its software is ready.
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404 Media ☛ Solar Storm Knocks Out Farmers' Tractor GPS Systems During Peak Planting Season
One chain of John Deere dealerships warned farmers that the accuracy of some of the systems used by tractors are “extremely compromised,” and that farmers who planted crops during periods of inaccuracy are going to face problems when they go to harvest, according to text messages obtained by 404 Media and an update posted by the dealership. The outages highlight how vulnerable modern tractors are to satellite disruptions, which experts have been warning about for years.
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Wired ☛ Prepare to Get Manipulated by Emotionally Expressive Chatbots
When I spoke with Demis Hassabis, the executive leading Google’s AI charge, ahead of Google’s event, he said the research paper was inspired by the possibilities raised by Project Astra. “We need to get ahead of all this given the tech that we're building," he said. After Monday’s news from OpenAI that rings truer than ever.
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Los Angeles Times ☛ Bay Area woman dragged by self-driving taxi gets millions from company
The woman, a pedestrian, was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle at 5th and Market streets and thrown into the path of Cruise’s self-driving car, which pinned her underneath, according to Cruise and authorities. The car dragged her about 20 feet as it tried to pull out of the roadway before coming to a stop.
She sustained “multiple traumatic injuries” and was treated at the scene before being hospitalized.
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Marty Day ☛ blast-o-rama.
I think I finally put a finger on what bothers me so much about the push for AI based searches.
It reduces the entire web to an answer. Yes, many times, we want to learn one detail, but by searching for it, we may learn additional data points, find the writing of a writer we admire, or end up down an entirely different rabbit hole, which leads to discoveries of its own.
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ Video Game Execs Are Ruining Video Games
The cycle of mass layoffs in game development isn’t a problem of the industry’s inherent “instability.” It’s a problem of exploitation.
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Fortune ☛ Amazon axed more than 100 customer service managers in CEO Andy Jassy’s latest job cuts
Amazon on Wednesday slashed layers of middle management in some of its customer service divisions as part of an organizational restructuring, Fortune has learned.
The cuts affected more than 100 customer service managers working in Level 5 and Level 6 middle management positions both in call centers and virtually. Impacted employees worked mainly in either the U.S. or India. Some of the managers first realized something was up when their computer systems suddenly shut down during their workday, according to one source.
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Cozy MMO Palia seemingly on the rocks after studio goes through a third round of layoffs, this time affecting 40% of staff
Singularity 6, the studio behind cozy MMO Palia, is laying off about 40% of its staff.
The Palia developer has let go of around 36 employees - 40% of its workforce - according to Polygon's Nicole Carpenter, potentially leaving the future of the online game on the rocks. This is Singularity 6's third round of cutbacks in only nine months after the studio laid off 49 employees in April and made a smaller round of cuts in September 2023. "Two sources said a bunch of people left after the April layoffs, leaving the staff much smaller," reads a follow-up tweet.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Cloud developer tools startup Replit lays off 20% of its workforce amid generative Hey Hi (AI) push
Developer tooling startup Replit Inc., which has emerged at the forefront of the push toward generative artificial intelligence coding, has announced it’s letting go of 30 of its staff, or just under 20% of its total workforce.
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Venture Beat ☛ Replit cuts staff by 30 amid aggressive AI push in software development
Replit, a startup that provides a cloud-based platform for software development, has laid off 30 employees, according to an email sent by CEO Amjad Masad to the company’s staff on Tuesday. The layoffs come as Replit aggressively pivots towards artificial intelligence to power its coding tools.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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John Goerzen ☛ Review of Reputable, Functional, and Secure Email Service
I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the time, I selected mailbox.org as my provider, and have been using them for these 5 years since. However, both their service and their support have gone significantly downhill since, so it is time for me to look at other options.
Here I am focusing strongly on email. Some of the providers mentioned here provide other services (IM, video calls, groupware, etc.), and to the extent they do, I am ignoring them.
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International Business Times ☛ iOS 17.5 Bug: New Update Brings Back Deleted 'NSFW' Photos, Users 'Feel Uncomfortable'
Apple's recent iOS 17.5 update, which the company encouraged users to download as soon as possible, has a bug causing users to see photos they deleted [sic] years ago reappear in their phone's photo library.
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The Record ☛ EU failure to rein in spyware reflects lack of political will, parliamentarian says
A leading member of the European Parliament on Wednesday condemned Europe’s governing bodies for not doing more to address rampant spyware abuses across the continent.
Parliamentarian Sophie in’t Veld, who led the European Parliament’s investigation into the use of spyware in Spain, Greece and Poland, said European governments haven’t curtailed it because they lack the political will to act.
“They know what they have to do,” in’t Veld said. “The problem is they don't want to do it.”
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[Repeat] Walled Culture ☛ Top EU court says there is no right to online anonymity, because copyright is more important
The key problem is that copyright infringement by a private individual is regarded by the court as something so serious that it negates the right to privacy. It’s a sign of the twisted values that copyright has succeeded on imposing on many legal systems. It equates the mere copying of a digital file with serious crimes that merit a prison sentence, an evident absurdity.
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CJEU ☛ Combating criminal offences and interference with fundamental rights: a national public authority responsible for combating online counterfeiting may access identification data on the basis of an IP address
In order to protect works covered by copyright or related rights against offences committed on the [Internet], a French decree introduced two personal data processing operations. The first operation consists of the collection, by rightholder organisations, of IP addresses which appear to have been used on peer-to-peer websites to commit such offences and the referral of those IP addresses to the Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur [Internet] (High Authority for the dissemination of works and the protection of rights on the Internet) (Hadopi) 1. The second operation, carried out by the [Internet] access providers at Hadopi’s request, consists, inter alia, of matching the IP address with the civil identity data of its holder. Those data processing operations enable Hadopi to initiate a procedure against the persons identified, combining educational and punitive measures, which may lead to a referral to the public prosecution service in the most serious cases.
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Defence/Aggression
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[Repeat] Site36 ☛ Refusal of entry for Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful: German Police must lift his Schengen ban immediately
Internet postings do not justify an entry ban to the Schengen area. The British-Palestinian doctor Abu-Sittah should be silenced, criticises his lawyer. The Potsdam Administrative Court has ruled in summary proceedings that an entry ban issued by the Federal Police for the British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful.
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[Repeat] Atlantic Council ☛ Georgia’s government uses Kremlin playbook to consolidate grip on power
Georgian Dream officials appear unmoved by these appeals. Indeed, critics say the passage of the foreign agents law is part of intentional efforts to derail the country’s Western integration and bring Georgia back into the Kremlin orbit. They claim the legislation is intended to suppress civil society in the lead-up to parliamentary elections in October, and note that Georgian authorities are now adopting tactics that closely mirror Russia’s own efforts to stamp out domestic dissent and silence opponents.
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VOA News ☛ Nigerian journalist misleads millions on X, accusing US of colonial behavior in Sahel
Some West Africa watchers, like Colin P. Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy, expressed worry that the growing Russian presence in the Sahel, invited in by the military juntas that have ousted several democratically-elected governments, will only worsen the violence that is surging throughout the region.
“My concern is that if the Russians come in … they continue to make the terrorism problem worse, not better, and then when they’re done extracting what they want to extract, they’re going to pack up and go home, and this place is going to look like a nightmare, ” Clark told Foreign Policy magazine.
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Truthdig ☛ The Gruesome Frontier of Thermobaric Weapons
Some have suggested novel forms of arms control are required for the unique characteristics of thermobarics. But these ideas haven’t originated from premier arms control institutions or human rights advocacy groups. It took two undergraduate students at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore to make the argument that thermobarics’ manipulation of the atmosphere comes under the purview of the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques .
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The Telegraph UK ☛ Europe's migrant crime wave is coming to Britain
But that lie is starting to unravel. The Danish government recently published data on the crime rates of people in Denmark broken down by country of origin. It shows a trend which can be seen in virtually every Western European country which collects such data: non-Western immigrants and their descendants are vastly overrepresented in violent crime. In Denmark, this group makes up 9 per cent of the population but, from 2010-2021, accounted for 25 per cent of the country’s violent crime convictions – a trend which mirrors the picture in Finland, Norway and Sweden.
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[Repeat] ADF ☛ Islamic State Group Uses ‘Da’wah’ to Gain Support in Mozambique
However, IS-linked groups are pushing to change their image in an effort to win public support and recruit new fighters, analysts say. Notably, they have increased “da’wah” activities in the provincial districts of Chiure, Macomia, Meluco, Mocímboa da Praia, Nangade and Quissanga, which 300 rebel fighters reportedly captured in March.
Da’wah is an Arabic term that roughly means proselytizing. As Caleb Weiss noted in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, it is terror groups often attempt to convert people to their version of Islam and build goodwill in communities — even those they seize.
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The Hill ☛ How Iran’s covert influence is threatening American democracy
Recent media investigations by Iran International and Semafor confirm a significant information operation by Iran’s regime on U.S. and Western soil spanning years. The reporting reveals that in 2014, Iran’s Foreign Ministry and veterans of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — the Iranian regime’s ideological paramilitary force — at least participated in a coordinated network made up of senior Western-based specialists and academics to influence policy in favor of the hostile clerical regime. This network came to be known as the so-called “Iran Experts Initiative.”
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Democracy Now ☛ “Rampage of Killings, Looting, Torture, Rape”: Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur Region
Human Rights Watch has documented ethnic cleansing in the West Darfur region of Sudan by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militias against the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities. “These allied militia and the RSF then, from April until June, conducted a rampage of killings, of lootings, of torture, of rape,” says Belkis Wille, associate director with the Crisis, Conflict, and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch. She says international actors must cut off the flow of arms to all warring parties, but adds there is little “political will” to enforce an arms embargo in Sudan.
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New York Times ☛ Attempted Assassination of Slovak Leader Puts Europe on Edge
Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, an ally of Vladimir V. Putin and Viktor Orban, was shot multiple times on Wednesday, stoking fears that Europe’s polarized politics were tipping into violence.
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RFA ☛ North Koreans worked remotely for American companies, US says
The US separately issued sanctions against 5 Russian entities for transferring weapons from Pyongyang.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Russia Declares U.K. Defense Attache Persona Non Grata
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on May 16 that it summoned a representative of the British Embassy in Moscow to inform them that the United Kingdom's defense attache, A. T. Coghil, had been declared persona non grata and must leave country within one week.
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New York Times ☛ Russia Expels British Diplomat After U.K. Booted His Counterpart
Russia also warned of further action, while the British foreign secretary called the expulsion a “desperate move.”
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RFERL ☛ SOTA Independent News Outlet Labeled 'Undesirable' In Russia
The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said on May 16 it labeled the independent news outlet Sota "undesirable organization" amid ongoing crackdown on free media.
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RFERL ☛ Police Take Siberian Activist To Psychiatric Clinic Against Her Will
A Russian rights movement said on May 16 that police detained activist Olga Suvorova in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk while she was attending a doctor after a surgery and took her to a psychiatric clinic against her will for unknown reasons.
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RFERL ☛ Close Associate Of Kadyrov Quits As Chechen Parliament's Speaker
Magomed Daudov, a close associate of the authoritarian ruler of Russia's Chechnya region in the North Caucasus, Ramzan Kadyrov, resigned as the speaker of the Chechen parliament on May 15 after serving in the post for nine years.
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RFERL ☛ Ex-Open Russia Activist's Sentence Reduced In A Case She Says Was Politically Motivated
A Russian court has replaced a 10 1/2 year prison term in the drugs-related conviction of a former leader of the banned Open Russia rights group, Lia Milushkina, with a more lenient sentence in a case widely considered to be politically motivated.
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The Straits Times ☛ Kim Jong Un’s sister denies arms exchange with Russia, report says
Ms Kim Yo Jong says it is a false rumour spread by hostile forces.
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BBC ☛ Russia gives British diplomat Adrian Coghill a week to leave Moscow
A British diplomat has been given a week to leave Russia in an escalation of a diplomatic spat over spying.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement the removal of Capt Adrian Coghill was in response to "unfriendly anti-Russian actions" from Britain.
On 8 May, external, the Russian defence attache was expelled from London for alleged espionage as an "undeclared military intelligence officer".
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teleSUR ☛ China and Russia Deepen Strategic Coordination Partnership
Xi and Putin charted the course to follow for comprehensive cooperation between their nations.
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RFERL ☛ Putin, Pooh-tin Talk War In Ukraine As They Boast Stronger China-Russia Ties
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his strengthening partnership with China during a state visit to Beijing where Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping pledged to play a constructive role in helping Europe return to “peace and stability.”
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RFERL ☛ Anti-Putin Shaman To Remain In Harsh Psychiatric Clinic
A court in Russia's Far East again refused to transfer to a less restrictive psychiatric clinic a Yakut shaman who became known across the country in 2019 for his attempts to march to Moscow to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin.
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RFA ☛ Xi, Putin discuss ‘sovereignty’ ahead of US officials’ Taipei visit
The US will send an unofficial delegation as Taiwan’s president is sworn in next week.
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RFA ☛ Sino-Russian alliance has ‘concrete, tangible’ goals, analysts say
Future Chinese support for Russia's war in Ukraine may be hampered by US financial sanctions.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Russia’s Vladimir Putin meets China’s Pooh-tin Jinping in Beijing to seek more support for war effort
By James Edgar Leaders Pooh-tin Jinping and Vladimir Putin framed their nations’ ties as a stabilising force in a chaotic world as they met Thursday in Beijing, where the Russian president is seeking greater Chinese support for his war effort in Ukraine.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ A pariah in the West, how Russia’s Vladimir Putin finds fans in Beijing
By Ludovic Ehret Beijingers praised Vladimir Putin’s “charisma” on Thursday and expressed hopes that China would deepen ties with Moscow as the Russian leader paid a two-day visit.
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The Straits Times ☛ Putin to push growing Moscow-Beijing trade in China's northeast
BEIJING - After sealing pledges of a "new era" of strategic partnership with China's Pooh-tin Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday is set to highlight the growing importance of trade near the Russian border in China's northeast.
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The Straits Times ☛ Behind Pooh-tin and Putin’s effusive rhetoric, issues remain for China-Russia ties
Left unsaid was the fact that bilateral trade since March has fallen more than 10 per cent from the year before.
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The Straits Times ☛ Top takeaways from Putin's trip to China
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin made a state visit to China on Thursday where he was greeted by China's Pooh-tin Jinping.
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France24 ☛ Putin and Pooh-tin sign declaration on reinforcing strategic partnership
China’s leader Pooh-tin Jinping welcomed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday as he began a two-day state visit while Moscow presses forward with a new offensive in Ukraine, underscoring the close relationship between the autocratic leaders.
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New York Times ☛ Putin and Pooh-tin Hail ‘New Model’ of Ties Between Powers in Show of Unity
At a summit with China’s leader, in Beijing, the Russian president called for stronger economic ties between the countries, as he intensifies his war effort.
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Latvia ☛ Ukrainians in Latvia mark Vyshyvanka Day
"Not just Vyshyvanka Day!" - this is the name given to the Ukrainian community march and charity event that took place in Riga on Thursday. Ukrainians from all over Latvia gathered for a united march on the occasion of World Vyshyvanka Day, Latvian Television reports.
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Atlantic Council ☛ A bold policy to protect the US by helping Ukraine stop Russian aggression
Ambassador John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, testifies before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe hearing on “Closing the skies, liberating Ukraine.” Video from the hearings and other testimonies can be found below. Below is the oral argument presented by Ambassador John Herbst.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Anger and defiance in Kharkiv as advancing Russian troops draw closer
The mood in Kharkiv is a mix of anger, anxiety, and defiance as Ukraine's second city prepares to defend itself against a new Russian offensive, writes Maria Avdeeva.
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France24 ☛ Zelensky says situation in Kharkiv 'extremely difficult' as Russia makes biggest gains in months
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Thursday to boost morale and reinforce troops in the region where Russian forces are trying to press their new offensive beyond border areas.
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France24 ☛ In Georgia, Russian émigrés see familiar Kremlin tactics
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, an estimated 100,000 Russians found refuge in the neighbouring Caucasus republic of Georgia. Many continue to work in the IT services sector for Russian firms. Others have opened their own businesses. Most express their solidarity with the thousands of Georgians demonstrating against the law on "foreign influence" which was approved by Georgia's parliament on Tuesday.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwan’s incoming leader Lai Ching-te to bolster ‘porcupine’ defence against China threat
By Dene-Hern Chen and Amber Wang The incoming Taiwanese president’s best strategy to stop China from seizing the self-ruled island will likely be to bolster an agile defensive “porcupine” approach by spending more on missiles and drones.
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JURIST ☛ Slovak officials say attempted assassination of PM Fico motivated by reduced Ukraine aid, other policy squabbles
The alleged gunman implicated in the recent attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been formally charged with attempted premeditated murder, high-ranking officials said during a press conference on Thursday, during which they also described the attack as politically motivated.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian entrepreneurs nominated for ‘national patron’ title for Ukraine support
The founders of Tesonet Global, Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, have been named as potential recipients of the title of “national patrons” for donating more than one million euros to an NGO supporting Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Announces New Sanctions Over North Korea-Russia Arms Transfers
The United States announced sanctions on May 16 on two Russian individuals and three Russian companies for facilitating arms transfers between Russia and North Korea, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Fugitive Moldovan Oligarch Gets Russian Citizenship
Fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor has obtained Russian citizenship and identity documents, Moldovan authorities confirmed on May 16, a move that runs counter to current legislation in the tiny country wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
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teleSUR ☛ Ukrainian Attack on Donestk Leaves 4 Civilians Dead
Also the agression left two injured, one of them a six-year-old girl, who suffered serious wounds.
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The Straits Times ☛ Russian oil refinery fire after drone attack contained
MOSCOW - Authorities have managed to contain a fire at Russia's Tuapse oil refinery that broke out after a Ukrainian drone attack, officials in the Krasnodar region said.
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New York Times ☛ As Russia Advances, NATO Considers Sending Trainers Into Ukraine
The move could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war. The Biden administration continues to say there will be no American troops on the ground.
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New York Times ☛ Zelensky Visits Embattled Kharkiv as Russia Presses Broad Assaults
Ukraine said it was slowing Russia’s push near Kharkiv, where the president met with top commanders, but still faced pitched battles in that area and farther south.
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New York Times ☛ Friday Briefing: NATO Considers Sending Trainers to Ukraine
Also, Michael Cohen kept his cool under cross-examination.
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France24 ☛ Russia intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow says
Russia intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones overnight in the south of the country and over annexed Crimea and the Black Sea, Moscow's defence ministry said on Friday.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says It Shoots Down All 20 Drones Launched By Russia
Ukrainian air defenses shot down all 20 drones that were launched by Russia at five of its regions overnight, the military said early on May 17.
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Latvia ☛ Two detained over espionage suspicions in Latvia
The State Security Service (VDD) has detained two persons on suspicion of collecting information and passing it on to the Russian special services, the service said. One of the persons has already been accused of spying for Russia - Sergejs Sidorovs, a taxi driver who passed information to the so-called "Baltic anti-fascists".
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Latvia ☛ Several parties refuse to participate in pre-election debates in Russian
Several political forces will not take part in pre-election debates and broadcasts in Russian, according to statements by the parties to the media on May 16.
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Atlantic Council ☛ The US is banning the import of Russian nuclear fuel. Here’s why that matters.
The US Congress has taken a crucial step in moving away from dependence on Russian nuclear fuel, but more action is needed.
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LRT ☛ Cuban asylum seekers resist deportation from Lithuania to Belarus
Lithuanian border guards are trying to send seven Cuban citizens, including two minors, to Belarus. They requested asylum and refuse to leave, according to the authorities.
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Extends Pretrial Detention For Suspects In Deadly Terrorist Attack
A Moscow court on May 16 extended the pretrial detentions of four Tajik nationals suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall concert venue in March that left more than 140 dead.
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Democracy Now ☛ “In Cold Blood”: Russian Forces Executing Surrendering Ukrainian Soldiers
Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from some areas in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as Russian forces continue a new offensive that has displaced thousands. This latest setback for Ukraine comes more than two years after Russia invaded the country. Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents of Russian soldiers summarily executing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers, with drone footage showing the killings “in clear detail,” says Belkis Wille, associate director with the Crisis, Conflict, and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch. “They take off their vests, they put down their helmets, they lie on the ground and put their hands up. And then we see them being executed by Russian soldiers in cold blood.”
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Meduza ☛ ‘A big mess is brewing’: Thousands of Russian fighters are flooding into Libya, raising concerns over what the Kremlin might be planning — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘Putin always chooses the best’: Here’s how the Kremlin wants its propagandists to cover Russia’s cabinet shakeup — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Zelensky: Ukrainian army has halted Russian advance near Kharkiv — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘Different possibilities exist’: Historian Hiroaki Kuromiya on the complex past and uncertain future of Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas — Meduza
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Environment
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The Hill ☛ ‘Forever chemicals’ entering Great Lakes through precipitation and air: Study
Levels of the compounds — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — remain uniform in precipitation across the lakes but vary in the air depending on the location, according to the study, published on Thursday in Environmental Science & Technology.
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Axios ☛ Canada's "zombie" wildfires threaten towns, send smoke into U.S.
Smoldering combustion beneath northwest Canada's boreal forests has emerged onto the dry surface, re-igniting into fast-moving flames amid unusually warm, dry and windy conditions.
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Energy/Transportation
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Visualizing potential solar PV generation vs smart meter electricity usage
For many years now, energy suppliers have been rolling out “smart meters” to home across the UK. It has largely been promoted as a way to let consumers reduce their consumption by watching their energy usage on an in home display (IHD) gadget. This is massively under selling the potential benefits of smart meters, and combined with various other reasons, leaves many unenthusiastic about the change. A few more adventurous suppliers, most prominently Octopus Energy, are taking advantage of smart meters to offer innovative dynamic tariffs, which particularly benefit those with electric vehicles.
I have been exploring the possibility of a solar PV installation at home and after talking to various suppliers have been left feeling quite underwhelmed with the reports they provide with their quotations. Typically a selection of crude 2-dimensional charts showing potential generation per month and some rough estimate of how much grid import will be reduced and grid export available based on your yearly kwh usage figure. They’ll only illustrate one or two scenarios, so it is hard to understand the impact of altering the number of panels requested, or sizing of any battery storage.
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David Rosenthal ☛ Fee-Only Bitcoin
Long before 2140 the block rewards will have shrunk to become insignificant compared to the fees. Below the fold I look at the significance of the change to a fee-only Bitcoin
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Greenpeace ☛ Countries Say No to Energy Guzzling Bitcoin Mines
Countries around the world are realizing that energy-intensive Bitcoin mining brings serious environmental and economic risks and are taking steps to limit, or even ban, the industry. The rapid growth of Bitcoin mining threatens the stability of national energy systems and drains electricity needed for other basic societal needs including electrification of buildings and transportation to cut carbon emissions. In response, new regulations on Bitcoin mining are being passed to protect electrical grids and climate goals.
Increasingly, national as well as regional and local governments are taking steps to stop, limit, and regulate Bitcoin mining as part of a growing effort to create more oversight and impose guardrails on the opaque and polluting industry. We identified at least eight countries with outright bans on cryptocurrency mining as of April 2024. These laws are essentially aimed at Bitcoin because it is the largest cryptocurrency and most others don’t use Proof of Work (PoW) – the mechanism that requires energy-intensive digital “mining” to verify and secure transactions. There are also other countries with severe limits or bans on using and trading cryptocurrencies that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to do crypto mining.
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Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Didn't Like What a Woman Told Him, So He Fired Her Entire Department
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is laying siege to the carmaker, seemingly doing anything he can to throw the company into chaos.
Late last month, news emerged that the mercurial billionaire had fired the entire company's 500-workers-strong Supercharger team, angering fans and leaving investors dumbfounded.
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Wired ☛ These Electric School Buses Are on Their Way to Save the Grid
V2G is a more distributed option for backup battery power. EVs need special hardware to discharge to the grid, but more of them with the feature have been trickling out, like Ford’s F-150 Lightning. (V2G requires a special charger, too.) The idea is for Zum’s buses to eventually join millions of other EVs—fleets of city vehicles, cars sitting in suburban garages—as an array of surplus energy. Last year, researchers calculated that we’d need less than a third of the world’s EV owners to opt into V2G programs to meet the demand for energy storage by the year 2030.
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University of Michigan ☛ Copper can’t be mined fast enough to electrify the US
The study examined 120 years of global data from copper mining companies, and calculated how much copper the U.S. electricity infrastructure and fleet of cars would need to upgrade to renewable energy. It found that renewable energy’s copper needs would outstrip what copper mines can produce at the current rate. The study, led by Simon and Cornell University researcher Lawrence Cathles, was published by the International Energy Forum and discussed in a webinar, “Copper mining and vehicle electrification.”
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DeSmog ☛ BP and Shell Funded Group Was Sunak Government’s Most Popular Think Tank in 2023
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Wildlife/Nature
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CBC ☛ What are whales saying to each other? Scientists are a step closer to finding out
Gero is co-author of the study, which was published last week in Nature Communications. The researchers used artificial intelligence to crunch thousands of calls from about 60 sperm whales, recorded over 15 years off the Caribbean island of Dominica. Those calls were recorded by devices mounted on the backs of the whales, gathering audio as well as contextual data like the location, time of day, and even ocean temperature.
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Finance
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Wired ☛ I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty
The existence of professional OnlyFans chatters wouldn’t have surprised me so much if I’d given just a few moments’ thought to the mathematical realities of the platform. OnlyFans has thrived by promising its reported 190 million users that they can have direct access to an estimated 2.1 million creators. It’s impossible for even a modestly popular creator to cope with the avalanche of messages they receive each day. The $5.6 billion industry has solved this logistical conundrum by entrusting its chat duties to a hidden proletariat, a mass of freelancers who sustain the illusion that OnlyFans’ creators are always eager to engage—sexually and otherwise—with paying customers.
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Logikal Solutions ☛ How Hackers Get In
During the days of Enron companies paid to get sky-high evaluations of non-functional custom software to “cook the books.” During the days of Agile companies use high internal chargebacks with “automated testing” to end-run SOX. This cooks the books generating sky-high values for non-functioning software. It’s one of the reasons a Sprint is only two weeks. Every two weeks you have a big jump in “book value.”
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Berggruen Insitute ☛ What If Money Expired?
More than a century ago, a wild-eyed, vegetarian, free love-promoting German entrepreneur and self-taught economist named Silvio Gesell proposed a radical reformation of the monetary system as we know it. He wanted to make money that decays over time. Our present money, he explained, is an insufficient means of exchange. A man with a pocketful of money does not possess equivalent wealth as a man with a sack of produce, even if the market agrees the produce is worth the money.
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Indeed layoffs: Austin employees who were laid off may have lawsuit, attorney says
An attorney said Indeed employees who were laid off this week may have a lawsuit. The CEO of Indeed announced they’re laying off 1,000 people, some in Austin.
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CNN ☛ The iconic Mirage in Las Vegas is closing after 34 years | CNN Business
The Mirage Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, and its instantly recognizable volcano, is soon shutting down after more than three decades in business.
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CNN ☛ The backbone of America’s economy was just dealt a serious blow | CNN Business
US consumers could be reaching their breaking point.
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CNN ☛ Nearly 900,000 popular ‘immune support’ tea bags recalled due to possible pesticide contamination | CNN
Nearly 900,000 tea bags by the organic tea brand Yogi...
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The Independent UK ☛ Under Armour is laying off workers as bloodbath of job cuts across US grows
Sportswear company Under Armour announced plans to layoff workers due to declining sales becoming the latest compnay to shed jobs in 2024.
Kevin Plank, the company’s president and CEO, announced the decision Thursday when detailing the brand’s fourth-quarter earnings and taking future sales.
“Due to a confluence of factors, including lower wholesale channel demand and inconsistent execution across our business, we are seizing this critical moment to make proactive decision to build a premium positioning for our brand, which will pressure our top and bottom line in the near term,” the CEO said.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Scoop News Group ☛ House bill calls on CISA to form AI task force
The CISA Securing AI Task Force Act, introduced Tuesday by Reps. Troy Carter, D-La., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., would require the agency’s director to assemble an AI-focused task force, made up of personnel across CISA’s offices and divisions, within one year of the bill’s enactment.
That task force would be charged with coordinating CISA directives called out in President Joe Biden’s AI executive order governing use of the technology. The EO has a specific note for CISA to coordinate with federal agencies on red-teaming for generative AI.
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Scoop News Group ☛ White House procurement office releases data circular as it celebrates 50th anniversary
The White House’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy marked its 50th anniversary Tuesday by issuing guidance that seeks to leverage acquisition data across the federal government to improve the contracting process.
Before the policy, agencies and their contracting officials were limited to only data from their respective agencies, hampering data-driven decisions, according to a White House fact sheet. But the finalized circular (A-137) establishes that acquisition data is an asset to be used across the government and instructs agencies to be prepared to collect and share that information.
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USA ☛ Fact Sheet: Circular A-137, Strategic Management of Acquisition Data and Information [PDF]
Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a circular entitled “Strategic Management of Acquisition Data and Information.” This circular will improve agency access to reliable Government-wide acquisition data and information throughout the contracting process and help eliminate duplicating data, tools, and effort.
The Federal Government generates tens of billions of acquisition data points in over 170 agency contract management systems and over 15 payment processing platforms. Historically, much of this data has been collected and managed at the agency level, which both limited the ability for agencies to make data-driven decisions in procurement and led to the duplication of effort and resources across the Government.
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DomainTools ☛ New Draft Rule on Ransomware Payments and Cyber Incident Reporting
In 2022, Congress passed the “Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA)“ see 6 USC 681 et. seq., Most provisions of that act have been on hold pending agency rulemaking. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), published a mammoth filing in the Federal Register on 4/4/2024.
The public has the opportunity to comment on that filing through June 3rd as many businesses will be impacted by this rule. You may want to carefully review the shared comments on the draft rule. The reporting required by the rule will commence on a date to be set in the Final Rule, likely in around 18 months.
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Vadim Kravcenko ☛ Stand Out and Dare to Disagree
As someone who’s been in the tech industry for more than 15 years, I’ve come to recognize a fundamental truth about being a software dev: the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Most of the engineers that I’ve met are risk-averse and tend to be agreeable rather than firm in their beliefs. This is good if your goal is to climb the ladder by being the yes-man to your managers.
But this is not really sustainable for long-term success and won’t make you a great developer, it will just make you a tool.
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Federal News Network ☛ Second senior cyber leader this week to exit federal service
CISA confirmed his last day will be in June, but didn’t say exactly when. A CISA spokesperson didn’t say who would be acting in his place after Goldstein leaves. Matt Hartman serves as Goldstein’s deputy.
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Scoop News Group ☛ Top CISA official Eric Goldstein to depart agency next month
A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Eric Goldstein, is stepping down from his role at the agency next month.
As executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Goldstein has had his hands in many of CISA’s major undertakings, from its goal of pressuring companies into making their products secure during the design process to issuing emergency directives for agencies to shoring up defenses against vulnerabilities.
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The Register UK ☛ OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever to depart ChatGPT biz
Marcus also noted that several other high-profile OpenAI employees had recently left the company, including Daniel Kokotajlo and Jan Leike. Another founder member of OpenAI, Andrej Karpathy, left earlier this year but insisted his move was not the result of any particular event.
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New York Times ☛ European Union 2024 Election: What to Know
Hundreds of millions of voters in all the 27 countries that make up the European Union are heading to polls between June 6 and 9 to choose their representatives in the European Parliament, the only directly elected institution of the alliance.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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The Strategist ☛ Digital literacy is a national security asset
Some of Australia’s foremost media and information experts, consulted in the AP4D report, say a huge piece of the policy puzzle is missing: people need help to protect themselves from online harms, including disinformation and other forms of manipulation, so they can really understand the powerful cognitive effects of disinformation coupled with the powerful delivery systems of social media.
So far, efforts to counter malicious information operations, disinformation and other threats in the information domain have been piecemeal and reactive, rather than comprehensive and strategic.
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Wired ☛ It’s the End of Google Search As We Know It
Google Search is about to fundamentally change—for better or worse. To align with Alphabet-owned Google’s grand vision of artificial intelligence, and prompted by competition from AI upstarts like ChatGPT, the company’s core product is getting reorganized, more personalized, and much more summarized by AI.
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The Hill ☛ McConnell opposes bill to ban use of deceptive AI to influence elections
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday he will oppose bipartisan legislation coming out of the Senate Rules Committee that would ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create deceptive content about federal candidates to influence elections.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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[Repeat] Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Glory to Hong Kong: Google's YouTube blocks protest song in HK
Glory to Hong Kong was released on YouTube by a local songwriter named “Thomas” and his team, on August 31, 2019 – during the height of the citywide pro-democracy demonstrations and unrest. It was swiftly popularised among protesters and democrats.
Its lyrics incorporate the now-illegal key protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” which has been declared by the government as “pro-independence” and capable of inciting secession.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Glory to Hong Kong: How and why HK banned a protest song
HKFP examines how the government enacted the ban, and how a city – once a bulwark of free expression in Asia – came to insist that a song was a threat to China, the world’s second-largest economy.
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Digital Music News ☛ YouTube Blocks 'Glory to Hong Kong' After Court Order
YouTube has blocked access to a popular Hong Kong protest anthem after a court order granted a government request to ban the song, “Glory to Hong Kong.”
YouTube confirmed that 32 web links to the song have been geo-blocked and are now unavailable in Hong Kong following the court order. Any attempts to access the video result in the message, “This content is not available on this country domain due to a court order.”
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RFERL ☛ Georgian President Calls 'Foreign Agent' Law 'Unacceptable'
“It’s unacceptable because it reflects a turn of the Georgian attitudes towards the civil society, towards the media and towards the recommendations of the European Commission that are not consistent with what is our declared policy of going towards a European integration,” President Salome Zurabishvili told the Associated Press in an interview on May 16.
Zurabishvili has pledged to veto the law in the coming days and has warned that Georgia's survival as a state was in danger because of the legilstion, which requires media outlets, NGOs, and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if more than 20 percent of their funding comes from abroad.
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Michael Geist ☛ Bill S-210 Study Without Witnesses?: Why a Conservative Filibuster May Lead to New Internet Age Verification Requirements and Website Blocking Legislation
I appeared before the Senate committee that studied the bill in February 2022, where I argued that “by bringing together website blocking, face recognition technologies, and stunning overbreadth that would capture numerous mainstream services, the bill isn’t just a slippery slope, it is an avalanche.” The basic framework of Bill S-210 is that it creates an offence for any organization making available sexually explicit material to anyone under the age of 18 for commercial purposes. The penalty for doing so is $250,000 for the first offence and up to $500,000 for any subsequent offences. The enforcement of the bill is left to the designated regulatory agency – which could become the CRTC – to issue notifications of violations to websites and services. Those notices can include the steps the agency wants followed to bring the site into compliance. This literally means the government via its regulatory agency will dictate to sites how they must interact with users to ensure no underage access.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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VOA News ☛ Guatemala court opens door to freeing jailed journalist
The younger Zamora, who now lives in Miami with his mother and brother, said his father saw prison "as part of his work" and that it "helped expose abuses of power in Guatemala."
Giammattei has been accused by rights groups of overseeing a crackdown on anti-graft prosecutors and journalists during his term, which ended in January.
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CPJ ☛ DRC soldiers threaten to kill journalist Parfait Katoto over broadcasts
The next day, on May 4, another armed soldier arrived at Katoto’s home and threatened the journalist’s family for not disclosing his whereabouts, according to the family member and a report by the Network of Investigative Journalists in the DRC (REJI-RDC). In the evening of May 12, the family member said another soldier arrived at Katoto’s home and warned that the journalist would be inevitably found and killed.
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Futurism ☛ Gannett Staff Furious Over Contract Allowing AI “to Generate News Content”
But later that month, when Chronicle writers received an updated draft, they discovered that this highly specific language had been whittled down to the bone. (Per Digiday, Chronicle journalists say they received no explicit notice from Gannett of the surprise change.)
AI "may be used to generate news content," read the new version.
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Digi Day ☛ Gannett’s new contract language around AI unsettles local union - Digiday
In recent contract negotiations with parent company Gannett, a local newsroom union is fighting over the extent to which generative AI will be used for news content generation.
As media organizations adopt more generative AI capabilities with the aim of improving the efficiency of content production and certain business functions like sales, unions see themselves on the frontlines of upholding journalistic integrity and retaining jobs threatened by the adoption of this new technology.
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The Verge ☛ Newspaper conglomerate Gannett is adding AI-generated summaries to the top of its articles
Gannett, the media company that owns hundreds of newspapers in the US, is launching a new program that adds AI-generated bullet points at the top of journalists’ stories, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge.
The AI feature, labeled “key points” on stories, uses automated technology to create summaries that appear below a headline. The bottom of articles includes a disclaimer, reading, “The Key Points at the top of this article were created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a journalist before publication. No other parts of the article were generated using AI.” The memo is dated May 14th and notes that participation is optional at this point.
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Futurism ☛ Publishers Horrified at New Google AI Feature That Could Kill What's Left of Journalism
Though links will be included as part of the answers, they appear below the AI-generated summary answer — which seems like it will obviously reduce the number of users who actually click through to read primary sources like newspapers and magazines.
In other words, this has the potential to be an extinction-level event akin to when an asteroid slammed into Mexico 66 million years ago, ending the reign of the journalism dinosaurs.
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CNN ☛ News publishers sound alarm on Google’s new AI-infused search, warn of ‘catastrophic’ impacts
Google on Tuesday announced that it will infuse its ubiquitous search engine with its powerful artificial intelligence model, Gemini, drawing on the rapidly advancing technology to directly answer user queries at the top of results pages. “Google will do the Googling for you,” the company explained. In other words, users will soon no longer have to click on the links displayed in search results to find the information they are seeking.
On its surface that might sound convenient, but for news publishers — many of whom are already struggling with steep traffic declines — the revamped search experience will likely cause an even further decrease in audience, potentially starving them of readers and revenue. Why spend time clicking on a link when Google has already scoured the [Internet] and harvested the relevant information with its A.I.?
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CPJ ☛ Ugandan journalist Juliet Kyarisiima beaten and robbed while covering land dispute
On the evening of May 12, in Uganda’s western Buhweju District, three men armed with sticks and machetes assaulted freelance reporter Kyarisiima while she was covering a public meeting on a land dispute pitting the local Catholic church and its parishioners against a businessman, according to media reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ via telephone.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Federal News Network ☛ FDIC chair is grilled on Capitol Hill after report outlines agency’s toxic workplace culture
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg is sitting for a second day of grilling on Capitol Hill [...]
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RFA ☛ Tibetans undergo political education for protesting land grab
Tibetans who protested the seizure of their pasture land by Chinese authorities in Markham county in April have been subjected to a series of political education sessions after they were accused of protesting for political reasons, two sources with knowledge of the situation said.
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ Graduate Workers at UPenn Just Won a Union
On May 3, graduate student workers at the University of Pennsylvania joined the growing ranks of unionized grad workers, with a landslide victory for the union in its National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. Of over eighteen hundred students who cast ballots that have been counted, 95 percent voted to join the union, GETUP-UAW (United Auto Workers). (Four hundred ballots are being challenged by the university and have not yet been tallied.)
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Reason ☛ How Free-Range Kids Became an Answer on 'Jeopardy!'
So, how does one become a Jeopardy! clue? It's easy: Just let your kid do something the [US] considers dangerous, then write a column about why the world is wrong. Then write some more columns about it, appear on every possible talk show in defense of yourself, and then graciously accept the nickname "America's Worst Mom."
Then, start a blog about the issue and give it a catchy name, manage to trademark said name (shout out to Dale Cendali, America's top intellectual property lawyer and my dear friend from college), and write a book with the same title. Next, you have to speak at about a million schools, as well as corporate behemoths like Microsoft and DreamWorks. Perhaps most importantly, write to Matt Welch at Reason, out of the blue, and propose yourself as a columnist.
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Sightline Media Group ☛ Former Army sergeant convicted of killing BLM protester pardoned
Abbott’s demand for a review of Perry’s case followed pressure from former Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who on national television had urged the governor to intervene after the sergeant was convicted at trial in April 2023. Perry was sentenced after prosecutors used his social media history and text messages to portray him as a racist who may commit violence again.
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TMZ ☛ Amazon Worker Tries to Shoot Supervisor & Misses, Gunned Down By Cops
Check out the clip ... Yusuf takes the gun out and tries to fire it right behind his boss -- but the gun jams. He inspects it, fixes the issue and fires again successfully.
Yet, somehow Ali misses his target, who jumps to the ground before running off. This seems to spook Ali and he runs in the opposite direction before making his way out of the store.
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The Scotsman ☛ JK Rowling writes essay on 'standing up for women' for new book on campaign to protect rights
A new essay by Harry Potter author JK Rowling explaining why she decided to "stand up for women" is to be published in a new collection charting a five-year campaign to protect the "sex-based rights" of women in Scotland.MP Joanna Cherry, MSP Ash Regan and former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss will also be writing in the new collection, which is being published later this month to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament.The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, which has been co-edited by The Scotsman columnist Susan Dalgety, will feature more than 30 essays.Its publisher says the book will explore how "a grassroots women’s movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, took on the political establishment – and changed the course of history."
The publishers said Ms Rowling's essay will explain “why she used her global reach to stand up for women.”
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The Hill ☛ How AI could make workers more productive – but paid less
Worker productivity gains enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) are concentrated at the lower end of the skill and income spectrum, a phenomenon that economists and labor unions warn could supercharge the practice of outsourcing jobs to lower paid regions of the globe.
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Federal News Network ☛ Senators delay federal telework bill to consider adding work-from-home supervision
On a list of bills HSGAC considered for advancement Wednesday morning, the Telework Transparency Act aims to paint a clearer picture of telework across agencies. But during the committee’s consideration of the legislation, more questions than answers came up among members.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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AccessNow ☛ Submission of comments on the Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024
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The Register UK ☛ AT-T formalizes deal for space-based cellular service • The Register
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The Record ☛ FCC might require telecoms to report on securing internet's BGP technology
The Federal Communications Commission is considering requiring internet service providers to file regular updates with the agency on the efforts to secure Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) — a key component of internet architecture that regulatory agencies have warned lacks sufficient safeguards.
The BGP behaves like an internet traffic controller, routing data as efficiently as possible. It can get “hijacked,” however, resulting in traffic being diverted to malicious sites.
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RIPE ☛ IPv6 Stockpiling: A Trojan Horse in Our Midst?
The current combination of RIPE policies and rules for RIPE NCC membership enable IPv6 stockpiling. And what might sound like an unlikely activity is not only happening, but is actually on the rise. Here we look at the trends and some of the potential consequences and ask where we go from here.
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Priceonomics ☛ The Rise and Fall of .Ly - Priceonomics
GPTC’s actions as the registry of .ly offer a good illustration of the possible power it affords. Even though a government cannot go in an and remove the content of a site, if they revoke its URL, nobody can find it anymore. In 2010, vb.ly — a domain owned by “sex-positive url-shortener” Violet Blue — was removed from the .ly registry, on the grounds that it had violated Libyan law and the terms of its registration. As their letter explained:
“Pornography and adult material aren’t allowed under Libyan law, therefore we removed the domain. […] The issue of offensive imagery is quite subjective, as what I may deem as offensive you might not, but I think you’ll agree that a picture of a scantily clad lady with some bottle in her hand isn’t exactly what most would consider decent or family friendly at the least.”
The image the letter refers to was a photo of writer and San Francisco-based sex columnist Violet Blue in a tank top, drinking a beer.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Faces Legal Threat from Publishers As Dispute Intensifies
Spotify is seriously pissing off music publishers – and not just with the mechanical-royalties decrease stemming from its newfound emphasis on bundling. But moments after the NMPA issued a cease-and-desist against the streaming platform over lyrics, podcasts, and music videos, Spotify called the move ‘a press stunt with false and misleading claims.’
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The Atlantic ☛ The Dream of Streaming Is Dead - The Atlantic
Bundles are back.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Utah’s getting some of America’s best broadband
In a sense, the people who say we can't pull wires anymore are right: these are relics of a lost civilization. Specifically, electrification and later, universal telephone service was accomplished through massive federal grants under the New Deal – grants that were typically made to either local governments or non-profit co-operatives who got everyone in town connected to these essential modern utilities.
Today – thanks to decades of neoliberalism and its dogmatic insistence that governments can't do anything and shouldn't try, lest they break the fragile equilibrium of the market – we have lost much of the public capacity that our grandparents took for granted. But in the isolated pockets where this capacity lives on, amazing things happen.
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The North Lines IN ☛ Major AI and security upgrades announced for Android mobile operating system
Android 15 will also better secure messaging with OTPs by hiding notifications and restricting [manually installed] apps' access. The latest version brings app archiving too, letting users save storage by idling unused apps while keeping data intact for future use.
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Patents
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Federal News Network ☛ How patent monopoly examination technology caught up to the 21st century [Ed: Well, it didn't, they just try to grant as much as possible]
Examiners at the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) typically have to look at thousands of documents to determine whether an application is valid.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Affirms Refusal to Register Muffler Configuration Due to Lack of Acquired Distinctiveness
Rarely does the Board find that a product configuration clears the hurdles of functionality and acquired distinctiveness to reach the registrability finish line. Here, the first hurdle was set aside because the Board declined to consider the functionality issue. Applicant Don Emler failed to clear the second hurdle. In re Don Emler, Serial No. 90688260 (May 13, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark A. Thurmon).
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Right of Publicity
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US News And World Report ☛ AI Voiceover Company Stole Voices of Actors, New York Lawsuit Claims
Two voice actors sued artificial-intelligence startup Lovo in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, accusing the company of illegally copying their voices and using them without permission in its AI voiceover technology.
Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage said in the proposed class-action lawsuit that San Francisco-based Lovo is selling AI versions of their voices without permission after tricking them into providing voice samples for the company. The actors, seeking damages of at least $5 million for the class, accused Lovo of fraud, false advertising and violating their publicity rights.
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New York Times ☛ Voice Actors Sue Company Whose AI Sounds Like Them
“He was interviewing my voice about the dangers of A.I. and the harms it might have on the entertainment industry,” Mr. Lehrman said. “We pulled the car over and sat there in absolute disbelief, trying to figure out what just happened and what we should do.”
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ Federal Judge Rejects Dismissal Motions in UMG v. Internet Archive ‘Great 78 Project’ Infringement Battle
Universal Music’s copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive is proceeding after the presiding judge rejected multiple dismissal motions. This latest development in the infringement dispute emerged in a new order from Judge Maxine Chesney. UMG Recordings (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME), and others initially submitted the $400 million action in August of 2023.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Internet Archive Fails to Dismiss Record Labels' Copyright Lawsuit
Several major music labels, including Capitol, Sony, and UMG, sued the Internet Archive last year over its 'Great 78' phonograph archiving project. With hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages at stake, IA filed a motion to dismiss, hoping to end the matter swiftly. The court, however, was not convinced.
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Digital Music News ☛ Google Showcases Deepmind Music AI Sandbox
While Google is hard at work on creating an AI music sandbox, lawsuits will hammer out the argument of how much ‘fair use’ there is behind using copyrighted data to train these models. ‘Fair use’ analysis is highly dependent on several factors, so it remains to be seen of these models can claim fair use under copyright law.
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India Times ☛ OpenAI strikes deal to bring Reddit content to ChatGPT
The deal underscores Reddit's attempt to diversify beyond its advertising business, and follows its recent partnership with Alphabet to make its content available for training Google's AI models.
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The Verge ☛ OpenAI strikes Reddit deal to train its AI on your posts
OpenAI has signed a deal for access to real-time content from Reddit’s data API, which means it can surface discussions from the site within ChatGPT and other new products. It’s an agreement similar to the one Reddit signed with Google earlier this year that was reportedly worth $60 million.
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Silicon Angle ☛ OpenAI agrees to deal with Reddit to scrape its content for AI training
The company said at the time it had made the decision because a number of large AI companies were scraping its data without paying anything for it. It consequently began a policy of making money from its trove of content, notably striking a deal with Google LLC first, and then OpenAI today.
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Reuters ☛ OpenAI strikes deal to bring Reddit content to ChatGPT
ChatGPT and other OpenAI products will use Reddit's application programming interface, the means by which Reddit distributes its content, following the new partnership. OpenAI will also become a Reddit advertising partner, the company said.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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