Leftovers

• 37signals LLC ☛ My favorite things these days

  I have a few things that I am throughly enjoying these days that I thought I'd share. I am a geek for gadgets, bags, and anything that is well made and lasts a long time.

• Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Markdown - the trade-offs of simplicity

  I love the simplicity of Markdown. I’m also very frustrated by the simplicity of Markdown. Let me explain.

  Fabrizio’s blog post The pros and cons of using Markdown found its way to my RSS reader the other day. In it, he writes about the good and bad of Markdown in technical documentation and I think it’s a good commentary.

• [Repeat] Kev Quirk ☛ The Small Web ♥️ Blogrolls

  Blogrolls are a fantastic way of discovering personal blogs. If you're on a blog that you enjoy, the likelihood is that the person writing the blog probably enjoys similar content as you. So if they have a blogroll, you're likely to enjoy at least some of their recommendations.

• Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Sharing podcast episodes is weird

  Sharing is caring, like they say. I’ve always been an advocate for sharing: whether it’s information through open platforms like blogging or speaking in events; code by releasing it with open source licenses; learning and building in public; through blogrolls; or just sending links to pieces that were interesting to me to other people who think similarly.

  There’s one thing I struggle to share: podcast episodes.

• Thomas Rigby ☛ Adieu, Friday Random Ten!

  Now it is time to retire the series. It's not a "never again" but it will no longer be a weekly thing.

• Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

  In March 2024, I ran an experiment in my Portuguese-written blog: I stopped distributing its content on social media (Mastodon, mostly) and messaging apps (Telegram and WhatsApp channels). It has a small following in a few places — ~2,9k on Telegram, ~450 on WhatsApp and three Mastodon profiles (two with autopost) that sums ~5k followers.

  The result was that… little has changed.

• Brandon ☛ Old Interests Die Hard

  For a while it felt cute that I had recognized this little intricacy about myself where I struggled to let go of things and move on, but I’ve finally hit a point where I'm truly ready to let go. I wish I could say I have a dozen new hobbies/interests lined up, but that’s not the case right this moment. However, the more time I waste following stuff I don’t care about, the less time I have to discover those new hobbies and interests.

• [Repeat] Computers Are Bad ☛ 2024-04-05 the life of one earth station

  Sometimes, when I am feeling down, I read about failed satellite TV (STV) services. Don't we all? As a result, I've periodically come across a company called AlphaStar Television Network. PrimeStar may have had a rough life, but AlphaStar barely had one at all: it launched in 1996 and went bankrupt in 1997. All told, AlphaStar's STV service only operated for 13 months and 6 days.

• Science

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Huge star explosion to appear in sky in once-in-a-lifetime event

    The binary star system in the constellation Corona Borealis—"northern crown"—is normally too dim to see with the naked eye.

    But every 80 years or so, exchanges between its two stars, which are locked in a deadly embrace, spark a runaway nuclear explosion.

    The light from the blast travels through the cosmos and makes it appear as if a new star—as bright as the North Star, according to NASA—has suddenly just popped up in our night sky for a few days.

  • Futurism ☛ Huge Pendulum in Skyscraper Protected It When Epic Earthquake Struck

    The ball is visible to the public on the skyscraper's 89th-floor observatory and has become a popular tourist attraction. While it's also a beautiful object in and of itself, it serves an important role as a "tuned mass damper," which is a pendulum that reduces "violent swinging" and "vigorous shaking" of the building in strong winds — and during earthquakes.

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ Getting to know Earth's ionosphere during total solar eclipse

    Our excellent friend Jay Langhurst got in touch to suggest that, ahead of next Monday’s total solar eclipse, you might all like to read about this Raspberry Pi-powered data collection device which measures changes in Earth’s ionosphere particles. The ionosphere is basically where Earth’s atmosphere meets space.

• Education

  • Phil Eaton ☛ A paper reading club at work; databases and distributed systems research

    I started a paper reading club this week at work, focused on databases and distributed systems research. I posted in a general channel about the premise and asked if anyone was interested. I clarified the intended topic and that discussions would be asynchronous over email, run fortnightly.

    Weekly seemed way too often. A month seemed way too infrequent. Fortnightly seemed decent.

  • The Record ☛ Thousands of staff, students have sensitive data stolen in University of Winnipeg hack

    The investigation is ongoing and “may take time, possibly months” according to the university, which currently believes the attackers were able to access a file server. The nature of the cyber incident hasn’t been confirmed, but the university stated “the theft most likely occurred in the week before March 24th.”

    On an additional webpage, the institution announced what data had been exposed and from which cohorts. It includes the “names, social insurance numbers, dates of birth, street addresses, phone numbers, and compensation information” of all current and former employees since 2003, with everyone employed since 2015 also having their bank account information seized.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HK's academic freedom in 'substantial' decline over past decade

    Academic freedom in Hong Kong experienced a “substantial” decline between 2013 and 2023, a study which reviewed research freedom, institutional autonomy and other indicators in more than 170 countries and regions has found.

    Hong Kong ranked in the bottom 10 to 20 per cent among 179 countries and regions in the latest Academic Freedom Index compiled by researchers from the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and V-Dem in Gothenburg, Sweden.

• Hardware

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Unlock AI transformation journeys with Dell

    Bils spoke with theCUBE’s chief analyst, Dave Vellante, at the Nvidia GTC event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the evolving AI ecosystem, how partnerships are contributing to Dell’s AI infrastructure and Dell’s partnership with Nvidia.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Big antivax sites amplify Paul Thacker’s hit piece on Dr. Allison Neitzel

    A little over a week ago, Dr. Allison Neitzel, a passionate young physician who had over the preceding three years become a leading voice combatting COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation posted Correction, Clarification, and Update to her website and Substack. If you go to her website now, this is what you will see on the splash page:

  • CNN ☛ Could decaf coffee cause cancer? Experts weigh in

    “In addition to being carcinogenic, methylene chloride can cause other health harms, such as liver toxicity and at higher exposures neurological effects, and in some cases death,” Doa added via email. These risks are in the context of external acute exposure to high levels of the chemical, or ingestion of the chemical on its own, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • Futurism ☛ Decaf Coffee Contains a Horrifying Poison, Experts Say

    The reason? Short-term exposure to the chemical, research shows, can harm your central nervous system. And being exposed to the chemical for a longer period can induce liver and lung cancers, as well as liver damage more generally.

    And yet the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the use of methylene chloride for food production in the making of decaffeinated coffee.

  • Steve Ledlow ☛ Everyday Zen

    I find myself doing these little activities around the house that just make me feel very calm. Unexpectedly calm. They may sound odd, because they’re not thought of as things which would give that feeling. One of them is only satisfying during the last step, and gross during the rest of the task. The other is enjoyable throughout. I got to thinking more and trying to figure out why they make me feel this way. I think I have.

    They are two tasks that fall into what I would consider everyday zen in my current existence. I have a huge family with so many tasks and routines. Some of those are tedious and just have to be done, but some have a real quality to them. Making coffee would fall into that second group, but there’s a whole post coming dedicated to that.

  • Michal Zelazny ☛ Essential

    Because my minimalism isn’t really about having less stuff or staying at home. It is about experiencing life as it is, for as long as it is. It is about enjoying what I have without worrying about what I want.

    But that’s only part of the story.

  • Quartz ☛ Don't buy eclipse glasses on Amazon, Temu, or eBay, say experts

    Additionally, the AAS has also found that one or more unidentified Chinese factories have been labeling their products as being made by the legitimate manufacturer Cangnan County Qiwei Craft Co. Some of these products even include printed logos of Qiwei’s primary North American distributor, Solar Eclipse International, Canada. The AAS has determined that some of these products are not only counterfeit, they are also unsafe for viewing an eclipse.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • New York Times ☛ Four Takeaways on the Race to Amass Data for A.I.

    Online data has long been a valuable commodity. For years, Meta and Google have used data to target their online advertising. Netflix and Spotify have used it to recommend more movies and music. Political candidates have turned to data to learn which groups of voters to train their sights on.

    Over the last 18 months, it has become increasingly clear that digital data is also crucial in the development of artificial intelligence. Here’s what to know.

  • Neil Selwyn ☛ Teachers’ secret uses of AI

    The main concern for business and management types such as Mollick is that employers might now be missing out on innovative uses of AI tools that could improve their oveall business. The concern here is that powerful forms of AI-led efficiencies that might be rolled-out across an organisation are likely flying under the radar. Who knows what potential significant productivity gains are going unnoticed?

  • New York Times ☛ How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.

    OpenAI, Surveillance Giant Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright monopoly law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.

  • Marty Day ☛ blast-o-rama.

    The key change presented seems to be that of allowing — in the EU — music apps to allow signups via their own web interface, versus through the App Store alone.

    In the mix further down, however, is the revelation that game emulation is now allowed.

  • The Register UK ☛ Hotel check-in terminal leaks rafts of guests' room codes

    A self-service check-in terminal used in a German Ibis budget hotel was found leaking hotel room keycodes, and the researcher behind the discovery claims the issue could potentially affect hotels around Europe.

    The terminal's security flaw could be abused by anyone, requiring no technical knowledge or specialized tooling. Realistically, an attacker could aggregate an array of room keycodes in just a few minutes – as long as it would take a regular customer to use the same machine to check in to their room.

  • VOA News ☛ US, Europe Issue Strictest Rules Yet on AI

    At the time, Brando Benifei, co-rapporteur on the Artificial Intelligence Act plenary vote, said, "I think today is again an historic day on our long path towards regulation of AI. … The first regulation in the world that is putting a clear path towards a safe and human-centric development of AI."

    The new rules aim to protect citizens from dangerous uses of AI, while exploring its boundless potential.

  • Futurism ☛ NYC Mayor Defends AI System That Tells Business Owners to Commit Wage Theft

    City officials announced the Microsoft-powered MyCity chatbot in October, touting the platform as a way for small businesses and landlords to ask "business-related questions." But explosively, reporters from The Markup found last week that the chatbot was giving answers that are against the law, such as telling business owners it's okay to take tips from workers and that landlords could discriminate against people who use rental assistance. Yikes!

    The chatbot now has warnings on its website that "it's a beta product" and "its responses may sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete." And the website also tells people to double check the city's official business information portal — leading us to ponder what good the broken chatbot is doing at all.

  • CTV News ☛ NYC defends AI chatbot that told people to break laws

    The chatbot, which relies on Microsoft's Azure AI service, appears to be led astray by problems common to so-called generative AI technology platforms such as ChatGPT, which are known to sometimes make things up or assert falsehoods with HAL-like confidence.

    Microsoft declined to say what might be causing the problems, but said in a statement it was working with the city to fix them. The city's Office of Technology and Innovation said in a statement that "as soon as next week, we expect to significantly mitigate inaccurate answers."

    Neither Microsoft nor City Hall responded to questions about what was causing the errors and how they might be fixed.

  • International Business Times ☛ AI Poses 99% Risk to Humanity, but Elon Musk Doesn't Care

    AI safety researcher Roman Yampolskiy, director of the Cyber Security Laboratory at the University of Louisville, recently spoke to Business Insider. He expressed concern that the probability of AI posing an existential threat is significantly higher than Elon Musk's estimate of 10 to 20 percent, calling Musk's view "too conservative."

    "In my view, the true probability of doom from AI is significantly higher," Yampolskiy said. He elaborated on "p(doom)" as the risk of AI causing an existential threat, such as taking control of humanity or triggering a catastrophe through novel weapons, cyberattacks, or nuclear war.

  • BSD

    • NetBSD ☛ pkgsrc packages for Mac OS X 10.4 (PowerPC)

      PowerPC Macs were produced in huge numbers, and a lot of this hardware is still viable for use today, with professional software such as Photoshop CS2 and Propellerheads Reason. They're still good workstations, with lots of productivity software, and no always-online tracking or distractions. Originally, I got mine for running NetBSD, but found the pull of 20 year old commercial software too tempting to resist.

      Regardless, how usable is Mac OS X 10.4 for Unix professionals, software developers, and command-line junkies? A surprising amount of free software can still run, often with some simple adjustments. The pkgsrc framework offers a platform-netural repository with powerful frameworks that allow wide porting of software.

      Pre-built PowerPC binaries for popular software are available, including PostgreSQL, ImageMagick, Python 3, Wget, cURL, FFmpeg, OpenSSH, OpenSSL, Apache Web Server, nginx, yt-dlp, SDL, Midnight Commander, and many more.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Register UK ☛ 404 Day celebrates the internet's most infamous no-show

      As the World Wide Web ages, 404 errors are becoming depressingly more commonplace, thanks to links pointing to pages that have long since been taken down or moved.

    • Hindustan Times ☛ Atlanta embraces tech and fun for 404 day, here's why and how it's being celebrated

      The date 4/04 mirrors the HTTP error code “404 Not Found,” indicating the requested web page cannot be found. And, of course, Atlanta’s area code is 404.

    • University of Toronto ☛ Why I think you shouldn't digitally sign things casually

      If people are asking you to sign something, they are attributing a different meaning to an unsigned thing from you than to a signed thing from you. Before you go along with this and sign, you want to understand what that difference in meaning is and whether you're prepared to actually deliver that difference in practice. Are people assuming that you have your signing key in a hardware token that you keep careful custody of? Are people assuming you take some sort of active responsibility for commits you digitally sign? What is going to happen (even just socially) if your signing key is compromised?

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Greece ☛ Court: Wiretapped citizens have right to know

      In a unanimous decision, the plenary of the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, ruled on Friday that the 2021 law, which imposed an absolute ban on informing citizens who would like to know if they are being monitored, is unconstitutional. The decision was issued after an appeal by PASOK President Nikos Androulakis, triggering a new cycle of political controversy.

    • Security Week ☛ House to Take up Bill to Reauthorize Crucial US Spy Program as Expiration Date Looms

      The action comes shortly before the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires on April 19. It was up for reauthorization last year but was instead granted a short-term extension as part of a massive defense policy bill that passed the House in December.

      Though the prospect for passage is uncertain because of scrambled political alliances and deep resistance from civil liberties advocates, senior administration officials said in a call with reporters on Friday that they believed the bill preserved the most critical aspects of the spy program while also including guardrails that don’t undermine its purpose and effectiveness.

      Section 702 permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence.

    • Reuters ☛ Inside Big Tech's underground race to buy AI training data

      At the same time, these tech companies are also quietly paying for content locked behind paywalls and login screens, giving rise to a hidden trade in everything from chat logs to long forgotten personal photos from faded social media apps. "There is a rush right now to go for copyright holders that have private collections of stuff that is not available to be scraped," said Edward Klaris from law firm Klaris Law, which says it's advising content owners on deals worth tens of millions of dollars apiece to license archives of photos, movies and books for AI training.

    • The Register UK ☛ Academics reckon Apple's default apps have privacy pitfalls

      A study has concluded that Apple's privacy practices aren't particularly effective, because default apps on the iPhone and Mac have limited privacy settings and confusing configuration options.

      The research was conducted by Amel Bourdoucen and Janne Lindqvist of Aalto University in Finland. The pair noted that while many studies had examined privacy issues with third-party apps for Apple devices, very little literature investigates the issue in first-party apps – like Safari and Siri.

    • Aalto University ☛ Privacy of Default Apps in Apple’s Mobile Ecosystem [PDF]

      We found that the seamless integration of smart devices with the cloud reduces users’ privacy. Our work shows that users may disable default apps, only to discover later that the settings do not match their initial preference. In this paper, we presented two studies. First, we evaluated the privacy configurations of default apps. Second, we conducted interviews to understand users’ perceptions of these privacy configurations. Our results demonstrate users are not correctly able to configure the desired privacy settings of default apps. In addition, we discovered that some default app configurations can even reduce trust in family relationships.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

      • The Verge ☛ Google is working on a ‘lookup’ button for unknown callers on Android

        Although the Google Phone app is the default for Pixel phones, other Android owners can download it. The new Lookup button lives with other options, like “Block” and “History,” that you see when you tap on a recent call in the Phone app. In an age where so much spam comes from spoofed phone numbers made to look like local calls, it almost feels like the feature is about five years too late.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Nation ☛ Niger Wants to Kick US Troops Out of the Country

    “We came, we saw, he died,” then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joked after a US-led NATO air campaign helped overthrow Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the longtime Libyan dictator, in 2011. President Barack Obama hailed the intervention as a success, even as Libya began to slip into near-failed-state status. Obama would later admit that “failing to plan for the day after” Qaddafi’s defeat was the “worst mistake” of his presidency.

  • RTL ☛ Strasbourg 2018: Christmas market attack plotter jailed for 30 years by French court

    A French court on Thursday sentenced Audrey Mondjehi to a 30-year jail term for helping an Islamist militant who killed five people in a 2018 attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

    The 42-year-old was the main defendant among four accused of helping Cherif Chekatt, who shot and stabbed shoppers at the market and was killed by police after a 48-hour manhunt.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ France: Strasbourg attack suspect jailed for 30 years

    The "Islamic State" had claimed responsibility for the violence, with Chekatt pledging allegiance to the group in video footage procured by French authorities.

  • France24 ☛ French court sentences Christmas market attack plotter to 30 years in jail

    A French court on Wednesday sentenced Audrey Mondjehi to a 30-year jail term for helping an Islamist militant who killed five people in a 2018 attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

  • Defence Web ☛ Niger has cut military ties with the US: why this is bad for the Sahel’s security - defenceWeb

    In addition, the deepening of ties between Niger and Russia has been a major source of concern to the US. In January 2024, Niger agreed to strengthen military ties with Russia. This has been worrying for the US and its allies. One reason Niger is shifting towards Russia, apart from the cut in funding, is the unwillingness of the US to provide Niger with the required weapons needed to fight insurgency.

  • Defence Web ☛ Jihadism in Mozambique: southern African forces are leaving with mixed results - defenceWeb

    The Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission in Mozambique (Samim), which was deployed on 15 July 2021 to fight the Islamic insurgents terrorising the northern Cabo Delgado province since 2017, is scheduled to end by June 2024. Mozambican security forces will then take full responsibility for security.

    We asked military science and defence expert Thomas Mandrup, who has published a paper on the situation after a recent ground visit, to evaluate the mission.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Says More Soldiers, Equipment Needed To Disrupt Russian Offensive

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukraine should prepare "significant personnel," including reserves, to disrupt Russia's latest offensive operations in the war.

    • RFERL ☛ At Least 7 Dead In Eastern Ukraine In Drone Attack

      Russian drones hit Kharkiv overnight, killing at least six people and wounding 10, officials said, in the latest in a series of increasingly frequent attacks on Ukraine's second-largest city.

    • RFERL ☛ Tajikistan Rejects Russian Official's Comment About Mercenary Recruitment

      The Tajik Foreign Ministry on April 6 rejected a statement by the director of Russia’s Security Council that Ukraine has recruited mercenaries in Tajikistan.

    • YLE ☛ President Stubb defends eastern border closure

      Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Saturday reinforced Finnish support for Ukraine and defended the indefinite closure of the eastern border.

    • New York Times ☛ Pardoned for Serving in Ukraine, They Return to Russia to Kill Again

      Recruiting convicts for its army has given Russia a manpower advantage. But it is backfiring in tragic ways when former inmates are pardoned and return home to commit new crimes.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Missiles Hit Kharkiv, Killing at Least 6

      The latest assault on the eastern city killed at least seven people, local authorities said. As Kyiv waits on American aid, Moscow has stepped up bombardments, including using modified “glide bombs.”

    • New York Times ☛ Help Ukraine Hold the Line

      House Speaker Mike Johnson should allow an aid package for Ukraine to come to a vote.

    • France24 ☛ US, Russian and Belarusian ISS crew members safely return to Earth

      A NASA astronaut, a Russian cosmonaut and Belarus’s first ever space traveller on Saturday returned to Earth safely after a fortnight aboard the International Space Station, Russia’s Roscosmos agency reported.

    • LRT ☛ ‘Rubbish province of Russia’: Vilnius residents slam new tourism promotion campaign

      “Expectations vs Reality”, the new tourism promotion campaign of Go Vilnius, breaks stereotypes about the Lithuanian capital, according to its organisers. However, the campaign has already come under fire.

    • RFERL ☛ New Rules For Music In Chechnya: Can't Be Too Slow, Can't Be Too Fast

      Chechen authorities have ordered that all musical, vocal, and choreographic works performed in the Russian region must have a playback at between 80 and 116 beats per minute.

    • RFERL ☛ Rescuers Evacuate Thousands In Southern Russia After Partial Dam Rupture

      Rescuers have evacuated thousands of people from a southern Russian region after a dam partially burst, and was on the verge of complete rupture.

    • RFERL ☛ Soyuz Capsule Lands In Kazakhstan With 3 Returning From Space Station

      A Russian Soyuz capsule touched down on Kazakhstan's steppes, returning an American, a Russian, and a Belarusian from the International Space Station to Earth.

    • RFERL ☛ Another Tajik Arrested Over Moscow Concert Hall Attack; 11 Detained In All

      A Moscow court ordered the arrest of a Tajik man in connection with last month's terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall, bringing the total number of people detained in the investigation to 11.

    • New York Times ☛ Slovakia 2024 Presidential Election: What to Know

      Ivan Korcok, a veteran diplomat hostile to the Kremlin, and Peter Pellegrini, a Russia-friendly politician allied with Slovakia’s populist prime minister, will face each other in a runoff.

    • Latvia ☛ Over 100 Belarus-Latvia border crossing attempts in April

      The relative calm on the Latvian-Belarusian border is over - with every warmer day, the number of illegal border crossers increases, Latvian Television reported on April 5.

    • RFERL ☛ Concern Grows For Jailed Belarusian Opposition Figure In Solitary

      Jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava has reportedly been held illegally in solitary confinement for more than a year and has had no contact with her family or friends, leaving them unsure of her state of health after she underwent surgery following an illness more than a year ago.

    • New York Times ☛ Peter Pellegrini Wins Slovakia’s Presidential Election

      The victory for Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Slovakia’s populist prime minister, strengthens Central Europe’s ties to Moscow.

    • France24 ☛ Slovakia holds second round of presidential vote amid deep divisions over Ukraine war

      Slovaks voted Saturday to choose a new president with the outcome determining whether the EU and NATO member shifts further towards Russia amid deep divisions over the war in Ukraine.

• Environment

  • France24 ☛ Climate activist Greta Thunberg detained and released twice at protest in The Hague

    Activists had been trying to block the nearby A12 highway. That road has been blocked for several hours dozens of times in recent months by activists demanding an end to all subsidies for the use of fossil fuels.

  • Wired ☛ Searching for 'Forever Chemicals' From an Endless Landfill Fire

    Water from discharge at the dump site tested for PFAS, per- and polyfluorinated substances, in the wake of the fire showed levels of the compounds well above advisory guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Cahaba Riverkeeper, the environmental nonprofit that conducted the testing.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Discover the Villains Destroying the Planet

    As the new report indicates, just 57 industrial and state entities have since the 2015 Paris agreement produced the lion's share of greenhouse gas emissions. About a third are investor-owned oil companies like the US-based ExxonMobil and Chevron, and England's BP. State-owned energy corporations like Saudi Aramco and Russia's Gazprom make up another 36 percent, and nation-state producers, such as those in China and Russia, comprise the final 31 percent.

    Overall, the top 57 main offenders account for a whopping 88 percent of global emissions, comprising a shocking 251 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

  • New Statesman ☛ Sh*tstorm: who's to blame for England's water crisis?

    England’s waterways are overflowing with sewage. In a recent report it has been found that a record amount of sewage is being discharged into rivers and seas around England. Data revealed that last year raw sewage was discharged, by private water companies, for more than 3.6 million hours, a 105% increase on the previous 12 months.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Berlin to Helsinki without using a plane

      So instead of having yet another hypothetical discussion about how we all ought to fly less, I walked the talk to see for myself how rail, long-distance buses and ferries stack up against a flight — in terms of time, price, convenience and, of course, carbon footprint.

      With a half dozen tickets in my pocket I embarked on an epic journey from Berlin to Helsinki, Finland, via Poland, the Baltics and Nordic waters.

    • Vox ☛ How the 2024 total solar eclipse affects the whole power grid

      For the most part, power grid operators aren’t too worried about outages or major problems during the eclipse. In fact, unlike disruptions like clouds, the moon passing between the Earth and the sun is easily predictable up to 1,000 years in advance. But behind the scenes, it will require a carefully choreographed series of energy transactions to precisely ramp up electricity from a handful of generators and route it across hundreds of miles of transmission lines to millions of customers to precisely match the needs of every monitor, air conditioner, and light bulb the instant they turn on.

    • CBC ☛ What Tesla's troubles tell us about the EV industry

      Tesla's disastrous earnings report this week has sparked a sell-off of the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer and widespread skepticism about the state of the EV industry as a whole.

    • NPR ☛ You asked, we answered: Your questions about electric vehicles

      And shoppers have lots of questions. In January, The Sunday Story, an NPR podcast, asked listeners for their EV questions. More than 60 listeners sent in queries, and The Sunday Story and Life Kit teamed up to answer them. The listener questions have been edited for length and clarity.

    • Futurism ☛ There Was Some Shady Stuff Going on With That Door Plug That Blew Out of the Boeing 737

      On one hand, this keeps things moving when, for example, parts are missing, letting work continue on in other areas. But the downside is clear: it increases the risk of problems getting overlooked.

• Finance

  • Quartz ☛ Trump Media stock drops 10% to a new low on its worst day yet

    Trump Media disclosed in the SEC filing that it “lacks the financial resources it needs to sustain operations for a reasonable period of time,” which it defined as one year from Monday, raising “substantial doubt” as to its ability to continue operations. The company said it expects to continue incurring operating losses and negative cash flow “for the foreseeable future.”

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Kyle E Mitchell ☛ Not The Same Security Debate

    The open security issue is now fundamentally an incumbent’s dilemma, not an upstart’s challenge. It’s territory to be held, not to be taken.

    So it goes with cost. As for probability, we’re all aware that open source has vulns all the time. Openness, even with GPG reporting keys, makes sure of that. But there are also important institutional signs. Linux can issue its own CVEs now. That is not the press release to make in 2002, on defense against open software security FUD. Where once Linux ached for attention, feelings are more mixed of late. All press isn’t good press when you’ve had more than enough press already.

  • 404 Media ☛ Best Buy Geek Squad Agents ‘Going Sleeper’ After Mass Layoffs

    Best Buy is conducting mass layoffs of Geek Squad employees this week, according to former employees who lost their jobs. Workers told 404 Media they were told by the company to stay at home Tuesday and to wait for a call from their bosses about whether they had been let go.

  • Neritam ☛ Bill’s friendship with Epstein helped drive us to divorce, says Melinda Gates

    Bill Gates’s friendship with the “abhorrent” sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a factor in his marriage break-up, his ex-wife Melinda has confirmed. Speaking for the first time since her divorce from the Microsoft co-founder last year, Melinda French Gates, 57, said yesterday that the split after 27 years was down to “many things — but I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. I made that clear to him,” she told This Morning on CBS.

  • [Old] The Sunday Times UK ☛ Bill’s friendship with Epstein helped drive us to divorce, says Melinda Gates

    Speaking for the first time since her divorce from the Microsoft co-founder last year, Melinda French Gates, 57, said yesterday that the split after 27 years was down to “many things — but I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. I made that clear to him,” she told This Morning on CBS.

  • CBC ☛ Delete history: Pornhub changed the world, but its empire faces a reckoning

    Since Pornhub was founded by Montreal university students in 2007, it has completely transformed how people make and access porn online. Now, the landscape of the adult industry is changing again, and this time, Pornhub is the site facing pressure to adapt.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ I spent 24 hours on Trump's Truth Social. No wonder it's tanking

    Twenty-four hours of scrolling through posts from “Truthsayers” on the two-year-old platform explained why the site is tanking. In short, partisan echo chambers are stale, musty spaces that lack the sort of oppositional views needed to make social media tick. Truth Social feels like a MAGA town hall in a ventless conference room, where an endless line of folks step up to the mic to share how the world is out to get them.

  • India Times ☛ Alphabet: Google parent Alphabet weighs offer for HubSpot

    Alphabet considers bidding for HubSpot, $32B, with Morgan Stanley. Biden's scrutiny a concern. $110.9B cash pile at play. Talks on offer amount, $2.2B revenue, $176.3M loss, Cambridge HQ, lawsuit.

  • India Times ☛ Apple layoffs: Apple laid off 600 employees after car, smart screen projects shut shop: report

    Tech giant Apple has laid off 600 employees across its self-driving car and smartwatch screen projects, news agency Bloomberg reported on Friday. Both projects were scrapped earlier this year.

    According to the report, Apple filed eight separate reports to the state of California to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN program.

  • India Times ☛ elon musk xai funding: Investors in talks to help Elon Musk's xAI raise $3 billion: report

    Venture capital firm Gigafund, and Steve Jurvetson are among the backers considering investing in the round, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • El País ☛ Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information

      Stephen Richer, the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, refuted the claim in multiple X posts while Jane Nelson, the secretary of state in Texas, issued a statement calling it “totally inaccurate.”

      Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.

      The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.

    • RFERL ☛ 'Mushroom Websites' Spread A Deluge Of Disinformation In Bulgaria

      The mushroom tactics have been used before. EU DisinfoLab, an NGO monitoring disinformation efforts in Europe, exposed a Russian-based influence operation that had been operating in Europe since at least May 2022, just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

      Operation Doppelganger, the name given to this campaign, used multiple "clones" of authentic media (at least 17 media outlets, including Bild, The Guardian, and RBC Ukraine) and targeted users with fake articles, videos, and opinion polls. To achieve this, those responsible purchased numerous domain names that resembled real media brands and copied their designs.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • John Goerzen ☛ John Goerzen: Facebook (Farcebook) is Censoring Stories about Climate Change and Illegal Raid in Marion, Kansas

    It is, sadly, not entirely surprising that Facebook (Farcebook) is censoring articles critical of Meta.

    The Kansas Reflector published an artical about Meta censoring environmental articles about climate change — deeming them “too controversial”.

  • John Goerzen ☛ Facebook is Censoring Stories about Climate Change and Illegal Raid in Marion, Kansas

    This isn’t even the first time they’ve done this to me.

    On September 11, 2021, they removed my post about the social network Mastodon (click that link for screenshot). A post that, incidentally, had been made 10 months prior to being removed.

    While they ultimately reversed themselves, I subsequently wrote Facebook’s Blocking Decisions Are Deliberate — Including Their Censorship of Mastodon.

    That this same pattern has played out a second time — again with something that is a very slight challenege to Facebook — seems to validate my conclusion. Facebook lets all sort of hateful garbage infest their site, but anything about climate change — or their own censorship — gets removed, and this pattern persists for years.

  • CNN ☛ Meta is accused of censoring a non-profit newspaper and an independent journalist who criticized the company

    Meta blocked a newspaper’s critical report about it on Facebook and its other social sites for hours, sparking a backlash that intensified after the company appeared to subsequently block links to the website of an independent journalist who republished the report.

    The controversy began Thursday morning when users noticed that all links to the non-profit newspaper the Kansas Reflector had been flagged as a cybersecurity threat and their posts were removed. About seven hours later, the paper said, most of its links had been restored, save for one — a column that had criticized Facebook and accused it of suppressing posts related to climate change.

  • RFERL ☛ New Rules For Music In Chechnya: Can't Be Too Slow, Can't Be Too Fast

    [...] Regional Culture Minister Musa Dadayev announced the restrictions on April 4, according to the official Grozny-Info news agency. [...]

  • VOA News ☛ 'Show must go on' for Iranian journalist stabbed in London

    Zeraati said he had returned to work Friday, adding: "Whatever the motive was, the show must go on."

    London's Metropolitan Police say the two suspects went straight from the scene in southwest London to Heathrow Airport and left the U.K. "within a few hours."

  • VOA News ☛ Chinese authorities still persecute dissidents’ families years after their release

    Several human rights organizations say China has intensified persecution against human rights lawyers and their family members in recent months, as the ailing wife of a lawyer is denied access to her pension and medical insurance, while the children of two lawyers are repeatedly forced by local authorities to drop out of schools.

  • Dawn Media ☛ Iraqi man behind desecration faces extradition

    According to a ruling by the Oslo District Court, Momika was arrested on March 28 — a day after he arrived. After a hearing on March 30, the court decided to detain Momika for four weeks, awaiting a likely request from the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration to Sweden that he is returned.

  • France24 ☛ Spike in executions shows Iran’s prisons are ‘killing fields’, says Amnesty International

    The surge in executions came after Iran was convulsed by protests that erupted in September 2022. Nine people have been put to death in cases related to the protests.

    Rights groups including Amnesty have warned that the authorities are using executions to instill fear throughout society and prevent any more demonstrations.

  • RFERL ☛ Navalny To Be Posthumously Awarded Dresden Peace Prize

    The Staatsschauspiel theater in Dresden said on April 4 that the 2024 Dresden Peace Prize will be posthumously awarded to Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died in prison in the Russian Arctic in February while serving a 19-year prison term on charges his supporters and many governments consider to have been politically motivated. [...]

  • RFERL ☛ Wife Says Prison Transfer Of Iranian Activist Aimed At Isolating Him

    The isolation of Madani, known for his civil activism and social research, has been condemned by fellow political prisoners who view the judiciary's action as a deliberate attempt by the Islamic republic to assert a facade of authority.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ Kansas newspaper publisher files lawsuit over police raid

    The publisher of a small Kansas newspaper that police raided in August is suing officials involved in the act, accusing them of violating the newspaper's First Amendment rights.

    When police in Marion, Kansas, raided the newsroom of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher, Eric Meyer, the move was met with widespread condemnation from press freedom groups.

  • VOA News ☛ Exiled Afghan journalist shot, injured in Pakistan

    “It is imperative for Pakistan to safeguard the hundreds of Afghan journalists who have sought refuge within its borders, out of fear for their lives, because of the Taliban’s crackdown on media freedom,” he added in the statement.

    The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders estimated in 2023 that more than 200 Afghan journalists have fled to neighboring Pakistan.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Quartz ☛ Tesla lawsuit says it violated California labor laws

    A new proposed class action lawsuit against Tesla accuses the electric vehicle maker of committing a series of wage law violations against workers at its flagship factory in Fremont, California.

  • Quartz ☛ Mercedes-Benz joins Volkswagen in facing union elections

    A supermajority of workers at Mercedes-Benz’s assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Friday filed a petition with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election to join the UAW. The more than 5,000 workers at the facility make the GLE, GLE Coupé, GLS Maybach, and the all-electric EQS SUV and EQE SUV.

    “We are voting for safer jobs at Mercedes,” Moesha Chandler, an assembly team member at the factory, said in a statement. “I’m still young, but I’m already having serious problems with my shoulders and hands. When you’re still in your twenties and your body is breaking down, that’s not right.”

  • Vadim Kravcenko ☛ I have a very poor work-life balance. How can I escape the grind?

    Here's the situation: from the moment my alarm clock interrupts my sleep, until I finally come home late at night, my life is essentially a never-ending cycle of sitting in front of the PC and stressing with a workload that feels like it's set to max. I feel like I'm playing Dark Souls around the clock. I'm doing solid 60+ hours EVERY week, running on a treadmill that's just a bit too fast — no matter how hard I hustle, I can't get to the finish line.

  • India Times ☛ companies employment ai: Companies to employ fewer people in next five years due to AI: study

    Artificial intelligence will lead to many companies employing fewer people in the next five years, staffing provider Adecco Group said on Friday, in a new survey highlighting the upheaval AI will bring to the workplace.

    Some 41% of senior executives expect to have smaller workforces because of AI technology, Adecco said in a report based on a survey of executives at 2,000 large companies worldwide.

  • El País ☛ Author Brian Merchant: Luddites are ‘more dangerous to the elites and to the rich than Robin Hood’

    The anti-machine movement arose in 19th-century England in a similar context to today. A new book reframes the revolt and reminds us that the conditions in which it occurred resemble our own day

  • The Register UK ☛ AI will reduce workforce, say 41% of execs in a survey

    A survey of senior biz executives reveals that 41 percent expect to have a smaller workforce in five years due to the implementation of AI technologies.

    Not concerning themselves with the hallucinations of generative AI and the refusal of vendors to take responsibility for the output of AI in the workplace, the study involving execs at 2,000 large companies worldwide has already discovered an appetite for job cuts via investment in the somewhat unproven technology.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Vox ☛ Why the era of cheap streaming is over

    Less than 20 years down the line, it feels like that promise has been broken. Streaming is more expensive than ever, and prices just keep going up. Password sharing has been cracked down on, forcing more of us to pay to stream. The content we love is more-often-than-not fragmented across many different streaming services. And in the backdrop of all that, advertising is back with a vengeance, thanks to the rise of the cheaper ad-supported subscription tiers.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ apple music streaming apps link websites: Apple to let music streaming apps in Europe link to own websites for purchases

  Following a 2019 complaint by Swedish streaming service Spotify, the Commission charged Apple last year with preventing the Swedish company and others from informing users of payment options outside its App Store.

  Apple on Friday said it would permit music streaming app developers to invite users to provide their email address for sending them a link to the developer's website to purchase digital music content or services, and to inform them about where and how to purchase items as well as the price.

• The Register UK ☛ Customers going Teamsless need to consider the costs

  Forrester VP and principal analyst J P Gownder commented: "Pricing is going to be the next battleground. Microsoft will argue that offering products à la carte and unbundled should command a higher price for each component of the former bundle, because the costs to them are higher.

  "This contention is true, at least to some extent: it's more expensive for them to manage, develop, and sell a set of unbundled products. It will also necessitate higher marketing budgets to clarify their offerings in the unbundled world.

• Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Microsoft to face competition probe in South Africa

  The Competition Commission will accuse Microsoft of charging too much for businesses to switch their cloud licences to other vendors, according to people familiar with the filing, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

  The move, likely in the coming days, could set the stage for a legal battle that may end up with a fine of up to 10% of the firm’s revenue in South Africa.

• India Times ☛ microsoft south africa: South Africa to investigate Microsoft over cloud computing licensing practices

  A South African antitrust agency is set to investigate Microsoft over its cloud computing licensing practices, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

• Jacobin Magazine ☛ Can a Major Antitrust Case Rein in Apple?

  The specific charges range from the iPhone’s preferences for Apple’s own accessories like headphones and smartwatches to its requirement that finance companies use the phone’s digital wallet and the long-running fight over its exorbitant commissions on sales from its App Store. It’s rare today for the government to challenge a company on so many different grounds, which — along with a rising tide of parallel enforcement actions taken by other major economies around the world — looks like a late-in-the-day realization that real policy teeth are needed to rein in Big Tech.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Futurism ☛ Amid Lawsuit, Creators of AI-Powered “George Carlin Comedy Special” Agree to Delete It

      The podcast dudes that used AI to make a fake George Carlin special have deleted the hour-long video months after being sued by the late comedian's estate.

    • Deadline ☛ George Carlin AI Special Lawsuit Settled

      A little more than two months since the estate of the comedy genius took the creators of an AI generated special that uses Carlin’s style and voice to court, the parties have settled.

• Copyrights

  • India Times ☛ Exclusive | New AI law to secure rights of news publishers: Ashwini Vaishnaw

    It can be an independent legislation or part of the Digital India Bill, which is set to replace the 24-year-old Information Technology Act, 2000.

  • Creative Commons ☛ CC's take on the European Media Freedom Act

    Starting with our Statement on the Introduction of the EU Media Freedom Act, we have provided context and input into the EU policy making process regarding the costs and risks of disinformation, through parliamentary hearings and engagement on the EMFA text itself. We have outlined how our licenses and our community-based work can support free and fair access to pluralist media content as well as defend independence of information for citizens, whether they access their information through more traditional channels (TV, radio, newsprint) or more modern, digital channels.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Dune: Part Two Leaks Early on Pirate Sites 'In Memory of EVO'

    High-quality pirated copies of 'Dune: Part Two' have leaked on pirate sites over the past few hours, beating the movie's official digital debut. The release is labeled 'WEB-DL' which indicates that the file was downloaded from an online source, but which one is currently unknown. Early copies include a tribute to the busted release group EVO, which leaked the first Dune film back in 2021.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Shield: AGCOM Fines ISP Assoc. For 'Obstructing Supervisory Activities'

    ASSOProvider is an association representing the interests of more than 200 small to medium-sized companies in the Italian internet and telecoms sector. It is also a vocal opponent of the 'Piracy Shield' blocking system and the law that supports it. Following the well-publicized blocking of Cloudflare, ASSOProvider filed an official information request to obtain data relating to the program thus far. In lieu of a suitable response, AGCOM has now fined ASSOProvider for failing to provide information that just recently it informed a court it already holds.