Leftovers

• You Keep Using That Word [Ed: Meaningless buzzwords that are designed to confuse people, says Microsoft shill (disguised as "analyst")]

  The industry’s definition of edge seems simple enough. There are many versions, but the majority read similarly to this one from Accenture: Edge computing is an emerging computing paradigm which refers to a range of networks and devices at or near the user.

• Valhalla's Things: Piecepack and postcard boxes

  Thanks to All Saints’ Day, I’ve just had a 5 days weekend. One of those days I woke up and decided I absolutely needed a cartonnage box for the cardboard and linocut piecepack I’ve been working on for quite some time.

  I started drawing a plan with measures before breakfast, then decided to change some important details, restarted from scratch, did a quick dig through the bookbinding materials and settled on 2 mm cardboard for the structure, black fabric-like paper for the outside and a scrap of paper with a manuscript print for the inside.

• France24 ☛ Nepal scrambles to rescue survivors of quake that killed more than 100

  At least 143 people were killed in an overnight earthquake that struck a remote pocket of Nepal, officials said Saturday, as security forces rushed to assist with rescue efforts.

• Meduza ☛ Yekaterinburg authorities call for police help in city’s fight against phallic snow sculptures — Meduza

• Meduza ☛ Going for gold Miles from Kyrgyzstan’s largest mine, a retired gym teacher has mastered the art of small-time prospecting — Meduza

• Education

  • CS Monitor ☛ ‘Education is inseparable from caring’

    In China, the growth seen in urban centers isn't always reflected in its rural communities. But in one town, progress is persistent and nurtured by its tireless schoolteachers.

• Hardware

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Transsion (Itel, Tecno and Infinix) on course to be 4th biggest smartphone vendor this year

    It is still wild to consider that the big three, Itel, Tecno and Infinix, overtook Huawei a while ago. I know you remember the kind of hot streak Huwaei was on before it was hit by sanctions (export controls).

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China's Hey Hi (AI) Analog Chip Claimed To Be 3000X Faster Than Nvidia's A100 GPU

    A new research paper in Nature published by Tsinghua University describes a new analog computing chip that beats Nvidia's A100 at 3,000 times its performance and 4,000 million times higher energy efficiency at computer vision tasks. Considering the potential markets for devices such as these and the potential for further miniaturization within some aspects of ACCEL's architecture, scaling might want to find a place for its fabrication.

  • Hackaday ☛ Just How Dodgy Are Cheap USB Chargers Anyway?

    Aside from apparently having both the ability to reproduce on their own and simultaneously never being around when you need one, USB chargers seem innocuous enough. The specs are simple: convert mains voltage to 5 volts, and don’t kill anyone while doing it. Both specs are typically met by most designs, but judging by [DiodeGoneWild]’s latest USB charger teardown, the latter only just barely, and with a whole lot of luck.

  • Hackaday ☛ Mini DDR Cabinet Gets Maximum Upgrade

    Those shrunken-down arcade cabinets are a nifty idea, but they sure do suck in practice. At least, the Dance Dance Revolution game is full of empty promises. With the $25 cabinet, all you get are three songs that come out of a crappy little speaker, and a not-great display to match.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Sanctions Change Means Hobbled 'China-Only' Nvidia A800 GPUs Now Diverted to Western Markets

    Due to sterner sanctions on tech exports to China, the specially cut-down Nvidia A800 GPU is now being promoted in regions like North and Latin America, Europe, India, etc.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • “Adulteration”: The latest iteration of the antivax “toxins gambit” applied to COVID-19 vaccines

    Over the last two or three weeks, I have sensed a disturbance in the Dark Side of the Force on social media, specifically that branch of the Dark Side that consists mainly of the antivaccine movement, specifically that part of the antivaccine movement most focused on demonizing COVID-19 vaccines. Perhaps you, too, have sensed it. There is a new word being applied to COVID-19 vaccines, the better to portray them as horrifically compromised, and that word is “adulteration.” It’s a new spin on a very old antivax trope, namely the “toxins gambit,” in which antivaxxers going back to time immemorial have tried to portray vaccines as disgusting witches’ brews of nastiness full of horrible “toxins“, a variant being the claim that vaccines have “fetal cells” or “fetal DNA” in them and are thus horrifically contaminated. Heck, that last one has even been used by antivaxxers about COVID-19 vaccines! (Also, don’t forget that the lipid nanoparticles in COVID-19 vaccines, if you believe antivaxxers, are also horrifically toxic—and sterilize our womenfolk, too.)

  • YLE ☛ Musti ja Mirri recalls dog food

    The recall affects batches of the SMAAK Adult GF fish dog food.

  • YLE ☛ Largest ethnic grocery store opens in Helsinki, rivalling big chains in size

    With two chains controlling over 80 percent of the Finnish grocery sector, the independent Alanya Market hopes to attract customers by offering products not available at the big chains.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s smog problem: Just how bad is it, and what is behind it?

    A thick haze has this week smothered Beijing and surrounding areas, with tens of millions of people in northern China under severe pollution warnings.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Bedbug reports cause jitters across South Korea

    Seoul city plans to conduct special inspections of 3,175 sites.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Shocking Number of Americans Face Death From Future Heat

    Fatalities expected to rise.

  • Science Alert ☛ Slashing One Ingredient Would Save Countless Lives, Scientists Say

    People wouldn't even notice.

  • Science Alert ☛ Severe Diarrhea Cases Surging Across UK, And Scientists Don't Know Why

    "This may just be the tip of the iceberg."

  • Science Alert ☛ Teen With Stomach Cramping Shocked to Find 21 Magnets in His Gut

    Keep out of reach of children.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-03 [Older] PFAS: how research is uncovering damaging effects of 'forever chemicals'

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Hackaday ☛ Most AI Content Is Trash, Just Like Everything Else

    [Max Woolf] has been working in the AI space since 2015, and among other work has created numerous useful open-source tools. He also recently wrote a thoughtful blog post that attempts to put into words his feelings on the state of things in the wake of experiencing a bit of an AI backlash-related burnout. Essentially, people effortlessly creating vast amounts of bad AI content has caused a bigger problem than we may realize.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Techdirt ☛ Online Safety Bill Is Official. Now We See What Enforcement Looks Like

      After being discussed for years and years, the Online Safety Act in the UK is now law, after receiving “royal assent” last week. Hilariously, the UK’s announcement declared that children and adults will now be safer online, as if that’s absolutely true. It’s not, though. The law includes many provisions that will make both children and adults less safe, including age verification (a privacy nightmare), potential limits on encryption, and tools that can lead to the suppression of important speech. What the law actually does is let the political class claim they made the internet safer, without actually doing so.

    • Science Alert ☛ Hundreds of Ancient Roman Forts Found in Old CIA Spy Surveillance

      This goes further than we ever realized.

    • Techdirt ☛ Chinese Tech Tied To Uighur Oppression Being Tapped By Taliban To Oppress Uighur Minority

      The Chinese government has spent years placing its hands around the collective neck of its Uighur minority. For some reason, the massive government fears a small minority of Muslims and has subjected it to constant surveillance and outright oppression.

  • Confidentiality

    • Democracy Now ☛ Boston Interfaith Rally Urges Senators Warren & Markey to Support Gaza Ceasefire

      At least 23 people were arrested in Boston on Thursday as faith leaders and clergy led a peace rally to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The interfaith protest targeted Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to pressure them to stand up for Palestinian lives. We share footage and voices from the rally.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-26 [Older] Israel-Hamas war: EU leaders call for pause in Gaza fighting

    • Green Party UK ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] “Silence is complicity”: Green Party urges UK government and opposition to call for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza conflict

    • Democracy Now ☛ Another Nakba? Israeli Intel Ministry Proposes Expelling Every Palestinian in Gaza to Egypt

      A leaked document from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry dated less than one week after the October 7 Hamas attack proposes the permanent transfer of Gaza’s residents to Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the document’s authenticity but dismissed it as a mere “concept paper,” while Egypt and much of the Arab world has publicly opposed the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians. But the exposed plans have confirmed many Palestinians’ fears that Israel’s ultimate goal during its current offensive is their ethnic cleansing from Gaza, a reenactment of the 1948 Nakba that saw about 700,000 Palestinians pushed out of their homes and turned into refugees during the creation of Israel. For more, we hear from Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, a writer for +972 Magazine and Local Call, who says that while the Intelligence Ministry is not particularly powerful, “this is an official state document essentially recommending the government to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Gaza.” Meanwhile, radical settlers in the West Bank are increasingly using the war on Gaza as cover to push Palestinians out of their homes and villages, often under threat of lethal violence. “Death is now everywhere, and things are deteriorating really, really quickly,” says Abraham.

• Defence/Aggression

  • RFERL ☛ Nine Attackers Killed In Raid On Pakistani Air Base

    Pakistani security forces say nine militants have been killed in a clearance operation after an attack on the Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) Mianwali Training Air Base was thwarted.

  • New Yorker ☛ In the Middle East, Despair Is Not an Option

    A source of inspiration is that era of history, not so distant, when leaders and movements, for all their flaws and failures, agreed to agree.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US airs concerns to China about 'dangerous and unlawful' South China Sea actions

    The US and China held 'candid' talks on maritime issues, including on the contested South China Sea.

  • New York Times ☛ Japan and Philippines, Wary of China, Look to Expand Military Ties

    An agreement, driven by the shared view that Beijing increasingly poses a threat to the region, would give Tokyo access to bases and make it easier to conduct joint drills.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Letter from Beijing: Behind China’s warm welcome of two US vets

    In Beijing, the honoring of two American veterans who fought for China during WWII – and their stories of courage and compassion – underscores the importance of people-to-people ties, especially as the United States and China aim to stabilize relations.

  • Pro Publica ☛ ProPublica’s First Animated Documentary Traces Reporting on Afghanistan’s Zero Units

    “The Night Doctrine,” ProPublica’s first animated documentary, traces the story of Lynzy Billing, a young British journalist of Afghan-Pakistani origins, who returns to Afghanistan to find out who killed her family 30 years earlier, only to stumble upon a secretive U.S.-backed program killing hundreds of civilians.

  • Pro Publica ☛ U.S. v. Rahimi: Guns Rights and Domestic Violence Converge in Latest Supreme Court Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a pivotal firearms case that could have profound implications for how police and courts deal with domestic violence.

    The question: Should people who are placed under domestic violence protection orders also lose access to their guns?

  • Pro Publica ☛ Louisiana Judges Systematically Ignored Prisoners’ Petitions Without Review

    Two years into his 25-year sentence for attempted aggravated rape, Nathan Brown could tell the man sitting across from him — a jailhouse lawyer improbably named Lawyer Winfield — was not going to help him get out of prison. It was astounding to Brown that he was pinning his hopes on a fellow inmate who had an eighth grade education and whose formal legal training amounted to a prison paralegal course. “But he knew more than I did,” Brown said.

  • AntiWar ☛ Guantanamo: A Constitutional Debacle

    When President George W. Bush formulated the concept of an American Devil’s Island in Cuba, he did so heedless of the damage to the Constitution his experiment in torture and confinement without end would bring about.

  • France24 ☛ Stripped naked, tortured: Deported Gazans accuse Israeli troops of abuses

    Palestinian workers from Gaza who were detained in Israel and the occupied West Bank after the October 7 Hamas attack and deported back to the besieged enclave on Friday say they were tortured and humiliated by Israeli soldiers in custody. FRANCE 24’s Observers records harrowing testimonies a day after their release. The Israeli military said the soldiers' conduct was “grave” and is investigating the incidents. WARNING: This report includes images some viewers may find disturbing.

  • RFA ☛ Philippines, Japan boost military ties amid tensions in South China Sea

    Countries agreed to start negotiations on a defense pact during a visit by Japanese prime minister

  • RFA ☛ 5,000 Myanmar nationals flee into China, face shortages

    Displaced by fighting in Shan state, they are in dire need of food and water.

  • New York Times ☛ Why China-Australia Relations Are Warming. Sort of.

    Both sides have been cautious in the run-up to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing, avoiding terms like “reset” in favor of “stabilization.”

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia PM Albanese says China visit 'very positive' for bilateral relations

    Mr Albanese is the first Australian leader to visit China since 2016.

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Antisemitic mob at Russian airport caught Kremlin by surprise — and it might not be the last

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Israeli Envoy to Russia Says Tel Aviv Passengers Hid From Weekend Airport Riot in Terminal

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] Dagestan airport riot: How widespread is antisemitism in Russia?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Russia blames Ukraine for anti-Israel riot in Dagestan

  • The Age AU ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Israel-Hamas conflict LIVE updates: Anti-Israel demonstrators at Russian airport; aid arrives in Gaza; death tolls continues to climb

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Russia: Mob storms Dagestan airport in search for Israelis

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Anti-Israeli Protesters Storm Russia's Dagestan Airport

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Israel Summons Russian Ambassador to Protest at Moscow's Hosting of Hamas

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Israel Urges Russia to Protect Israelis, Jews Amid Dagestan Unrest

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Russian Recruiter Headhunter Offers Shareholders Buyback After Nasdaq Delisting

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] What is Russia's stance on the Israel-Hamas war?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Russia Investigates Journalist at Online News Outlet for 'Justifying Terrorism'

  • CPJ ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] Mercenary leader’s death sparks hope for new leads in 3 Russian journalist murders

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] New York, Canadian Defendants Charged in US With Exporting Technology to Russia

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-03 [Older] Nine Killed in Ukraine Attack in Russian-Controlled Part of Kherson, Local Governor Says

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-02 [Older] Russia's war fuels need for Ukraine to join EU — Baerbock

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-02 [Older] Why aren't more Russians opposing the Ukraine war?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-02 [Older] Russian Drones Hit Civilian Targets in Ukraine's Kharkiv, No Word on Casualties

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Ukraine says more than 260 civilians killed by landmines, explosives since Russian invasion

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Israel-Hamas war: Is Russia benefiting from the conflict?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia hits scores of villages and cities

  • International Business Times ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Russian Solders Arrested For Allegedly Killing A Family Of Nine

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-01 [Older] Ukraine Says Russian Warplanes Drop Explosives on Black Sea Shipping Lanes

  • The Age AU ☛ 2023-11-03 [Older] Only a new technology will end our stalemate with Russia, says top Ukrainian commander

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-04 [Older] Russian Forces Want to Capture Big Coking Plant in Key Town, Mayor Says

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-03 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia launches 'massive' drone attack

  • The Age AU ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Wagner, without Prigozhin, returns to battlefield in Ukraine as Russia pushes to seize Avdiivka

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Russia's Shoigu Accuses West of Seeking to Expand Ukraine War to Asia-Pacific

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Russia's Shoigu Warns West of 'Direct Military Clash Between Nuclear Powers'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-28 [Older] Russia's erotic webcam streaming sites hit by Ukraine war

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] On a US Tour, Ukrainian Faith Leaders Plead for Continued Support Against the Russian Invasion

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] Russia Will Succeed in Ukraine Unless US Support Continues-Pentagon Chief

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia taking 'active actions' near Bakhmut

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Russia Arrests Man in Crimea for Passing Secrets to Ukraine

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Russia Beefs up Forces Near Bakhmut, Switches From Defensive Posture - Ukraine Commander

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] Two Civilians Dead as Russia Pounds Frontline Kherson Region - Ukraine

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia says 36 drones downed over Black Sea

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Ukraine: War with Russia enters new phase before the winter

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Anchorage's Oldest Building, a Russian Orthodox Church, Gets New Life in Restoration Project

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Belarus' Lukashenko Says Ukraine-Russia War at Stalemate, Urges Talks

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Fire at Refinery Near Major Port Novorossiisk Put Out, Russian Authorities Say

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Hundreds Storm Airport in Russia in Antisemitic Riot Over Arrival of Plane From Israel

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Moscow Will Confiscate EU Assets if Brussels 'Steals' Frozen Russian Funds - Putin Ally

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-29 [Older] Russia's Medvedev: Energy Cooperation With EU Is Pointless

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-28 [Older] Hamas Is Seeking Eight Gaza Hostages at Russia's Request - RIA

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-28 [Older] Russia Says Israel's Gaza Bombardment Is Against International Law

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-28 [Older] Ukraine Holds Peace Formula Talks in Malta, Russia Absent

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-28 [Older] Ukrainian Drone Struck Russian Nuclear Waste Facility Risking Disaster, Moscow Says

  • European Commission ☛ Statement by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy

    Thank you very much, President Zelenskyy, dear Volodymyr, for hosting me again. It is good to be back in Kyiv. We had a very good meeting.

  • European Commission ☛ EU delivers more than 370 buses as part of the “School buses for Ukraine” solidarity campaign

  • European Commission ☛ Speech by President von der Leyen at the handover event on the delivery of buses

  • AntiWar ☛ Volodymyr Zelensky Is in a Sea of Troubles

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing two troubles on the foreign front that have received a lot of media attention. The first is that his country is actually receiving much less media attention.

  • France24 ☛ Gaza conflict 'taking away focus' from Ukraine, Zelensky says

    President Volodymyr Zelensky denied on Saturday that Ukraine's war with Russia had reached a "stalemate", pushing back at suggestions Western leaders were lobbying for peace talks.

  • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Files Criminal Charges Against Head Of Russian Orthodox Church

    The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) announced on November 4 that it had filed criminal charges against Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia for "justifying" Russia's invasion.

  • RFERL ☛ U.S., EU Reported To Have Discussed With Ukraine Possible Peace Talks With Russia

    U.S. and European officials have begun talks with Ukraine about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the conflict, according to one current and one former high-ranking U.S. official, the U.S. network NBC reports.

  • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Rebuke of General Signals Rift in Ukrainian Leadership

    The presidential office said Gen. Valery Zaluzhny’s declaration that the war is at a stalemate was helpful to the Russians.

  • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Denies War Is At Stalemate, Says Western Allies Not Pressing For Peace Talks

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied that Ukraine's war with Russia has reached a stalemate, pushing back on comments earlier this week by the commander in chief of the Ukrainian forces.

  • Meduza ☛ Ponomarev’s monster: How a Telegram channel created to tell the truth about the war in Ukraine ended up fomenting anti-Semitic riots in Dagestan — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Police beat man from Russia’s North Ossetia and jail his pregnant wife after harassing them for ‘flocking’ to Moscow — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Russian activist reportedly kidnapped in Bishkek, flown to Moscow, and tortured in jail after Kyrgyzstan denies extradition request — Meduza

  • NYPost ☛ US working on nuclear bomb that could kill 300,000 in Moscow: report

    Biden administration developing powerful nuclear weapon

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Vaclav Smil Tells Shell Canada President Carbon Capture Is ‘the Stupidest Solution’

      A well-known Canadian professor who doesn’t believe in global cooperation to prevent climate change described carbon capture and storage (CCS) as “stupid” in a recent discussion hosted by Resource Works, a Canadian natural resource development lobby group.

      Vaclav Smil, professor emeritus in the Faculty of the Environment at the University of Manitoba, laughed when the discussion moved to carbon capture, saying, “This always comes up. This always comes up — nuclear fusion and carbon capture,” which he then described as “sheer desperation.”

    • DeSmog ☛ Climate Science Denial Rife at Launch of Jordan Peterson’s ARC Project

      Canadian climate science denier Jordan Peterson’s new right-wing project launched this week with claims that carbon emissions have “declined” and that the climate crisis is a “secular religion”. 

      The three-day Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London featured speeches from UK Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch, and culminated with a high-profile event at the 20,000-seat O2 arena headlined by Peterson.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New Yorker ☛ How to Save the Bees

      You could plant bee-friendly flowers, eliminate productivity quotas, or hire a teeny-tiny therapist.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New Yorker ☛ Clarence Thomas’s R.V. Loan and Supreme Court Scrutiny

    The Court’s system of self-policing is in question as revelations about Thomas’s gifts lead the Senate to escalate its investigation into Supreme Court ethics.

  • New York Times ☛ Lauren Boebert, Facing Primary, Is Haunted by ‘Beetlejuice’ Episode

    The “Beetlejuice” incident continues to haunt the once-unrepentant congresswoman from Colorado. The state’s old guard is lining up behind a primary challenger.

  • Techdirt ☛ HBO CEO Used Fake Twitter Accounts To Troll Critics, Didn’t Realize There Are Professionals Who Can Do That For You

    We’ve well established that the AT&T–>Time Warner–> Warner Brothers Discovery mergers were some of the dumbest, most pointless “business” exercises ever conceived, resulting in more than 50,000 layoffs, the death of popular properties like Mad Magazine, and an overall erosion of brands like HBO and CNN.

  • New York Times ☛ Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism

    A coalition of catastrophists is trying to make the next generation of Republicans believe that the country is on the verge of collapse.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expected in China as relations thaw

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was due to arrive in China on Saturday for a landmark state visit, a sign that icy relations between the two countries are finally thawing. Beijing is Canberra’s biggest trading partner, but ties plummeted in 2020 after Australia’s then-conservative government barred Chinese tech giant Huawei from 5G contracts...

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Engadget ☛ 2023-11-02 [Older] TikTok says it's removed millions of fake accounts since start of Israel-Hamas war

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-11-02 [Older] No, TikTok (Probably) Isn't Anti-Israel

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-30 [Older] TikTok, Snapchat and Others Sign Pledge to Tackle AI-Generated Child Sex Abuse Images

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New York Times ☛ Putting Pressure on Palestinian Activists Isn’t Making Jewish Students Any Safer

    Why both sides feel victimized by the campus debate over the war in Gaza.

  • RFA ☛ Hui Muslim poet beaten by unknown attacker near his Shandong home

    Outspoken writer Cui Haoxin, known by pen name An Ran, had been lying low to avoid prison.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] Russian-American Journalist Denied Release Into House Arrest

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-03 [Older] BBC's emergency Gaza radio broadcasts show why World Service mustn't rely on digital technology

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Meduza ☛ St. Petersburg court holds off-site session at strip club — Meduza

  • Techdirt ☛ Court: You Can’t Add A Lie To An Already-Executed Warrant And Expect Everything To Be Constitutional

    This is not a fun case. It’s instructional, but it involves some pretty noxious criminal behavior. And that’s how these things work, usually. People who aren’t facing criminal charges rarely need to challenge warrants. They never need to challenge the evidence used against them because, well, no one’s using any evidence against them. (h/t FourthAmendment.com)

  • RFA ☛ Road rage: North Koreans forced to pitch in and patch potholes

    People complain that they must sacrifice to fix roads that only benefit wealthy people with cars.

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2023-10-31 [Older] Ticket office win 'A huge victory for people power'

  • The Straits Times ☛ Man in South Korea gets jail term for killing bedridden wife after years of caring for her

    November 04, 2023 8:25 AM
    
    

    According to the Seoul Central District Court, the man was accused of killing her in April 2022.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘I am...’ meme latest to go viral in South Korea’s bizarre saga surrounding fencing star

    November 04, 2023 8:00 AM
    
    

    Jeon’s non-sensical mixture of English and Korean blossomed into a meme that went viral.

  • The Kent Stater ☛ Students talk mental-health challenges of balancing college, work

    About 74% of undergraduate part-time students and 40% of full-time students were employed in 2020, according to the most recent data found by the National Center for Education Statistics.  While employment can be essential for covering living expenses and basic needs, some students like senior visual communication and design major Aiden Hartong find themselves overwhelmed...

• Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Techdirt ☛ Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Copyright Office There’s No Place For Copyright Law In AI Training

      These days everyone seems to be talking about AI, and the Copyright Office is no exception, although it may make sense for it to speak here because people keep trying to invoke copyright as a concept implicated by various aspects of AI, including, and perhaps especially, with regard to “training” AI systems. So the Copyright Office recently launched a study to get feedback on the role copyright has, or should be changed to have, in shaping any law that bears on AI, and earlier this week the Copia Institute filed an initial comment in that study.

    • Techdirt ☛ Twenty Five Years Of The DMCA: Some Good, But Mostly Bad

      Somehow I missed this (and I’m surprised it didn’t get much attention) but last month was the 25th anniversary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) being signed into law. I only spotted it because The Register just had an article looking back at 25 years of the DMCA.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • travel gear

    I carry a lot of stuff with me on the road. A 55 pound Briggs and Riley 36 inch suitcase, a 65 pound pelican case I use as a toolbox, a Solo brand laptop bag, and a Samarai Tactical backback. I am a fan of Topo Designs zipper pouches for organization of most things, Hide and Drink leather pouches for things such as Zyn pouches, handmade cloth book covers with a button flap that covers the page side of a book to protect it in my backpack (currently carrying a hardback copy of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations in a cover like this), a zip-up tablet case to hold other books such as the Perl Pocket Reference, and the Emacs Pocket Guide.

  • Up Early on a Saturday

    My wife and I both woke up at 6:30, which is unusual. Since our first dog died, we've been sleeping in a little later. He was wonderful, but he'd bark to get up and have his breakfast just after 6, every day of the week. I used it to my advantage for years, working on my software project for a couple hours each weekend morning before my wife got up. And since he died, we've been sleeping in more, at least on weekends. But not this morning: we were both up at 6:30, and I was wide awake. She's currently upstairs, trying to fall back asleep. I let our older dog up to be with her. He likes to curl up on a corner of the comforter. The room's dark from our heavy drapes, and she has her small orange reading light on, trying her usual approach of reading to fall asleep.

• Technology and Free Software

  • tech for everyone and no one

    I've recently thought about the tech I used to own, the tech I own now, and what I would look for to replace it. I noticed that in the past, I have usually been content with the things I had; they did what they were bought for perfectly, because they had fitting key features. These key features were a focus in development and the main reasons consumers bought it. Now, the following is highly subjective and just ideas, not facts; but my hypothesis is that dedicated devices for specific activities and uses was in some ways superior in its design than what we tend to have with consumer tech nowadays.

  • pledge(2)-ing and unveil(2)-ing the Drogon web application framework

    I'm drunk on a Friday night again. This time I decide to investigate how to use OpenBSD's pledge(2) and unveil(2) to enhance the security of the Drogon web application framework. Drogon in written in the C++ programming language, not known to be safe. But in truth, as a maintainer of Drogon, non of our CVEs are related to memory at all. Most either they are are directory traversal and/or abusing the HTTP spec. Anyway, in case we messed up, I still want to make sure that Drogon is as secure as possible. And OpenBSD's pledge is a really good way to do that.

  • Programming

    • base conversion script for BASH

      I got tired of starting a calculator or wasting energy by doing an internet query to convert numerical bases so I wrote a script.

      Shell scripts are powerful. Each shell command — and there are many of them — does one thing and does it well. It is the combination of these building blocks that multiply their potential.