GNU/Linux

• Linux Made Simple ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Linux Weekly Roundup #286

Leftovers

• CBC ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Popular YouTuber Ben Potter, better known as Comicstorian, dead at 40

• Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] YouTube Tests New Kind of Unskippable Ad

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] South Korea: YouTube videos spark outrage over 2004 rape

• Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] YouTuber Who Hugged Elon Musk in Stunt Video Elected to European Parliament

• Flamed Fury ☛ Blogging Inspiration

  One of my favourite sources of inspiration is by engaging with other bloggers’ posts, especially those related to the web or blogging, like this one.

• Standards/Consortia

  • [Repeat] Tedium ☛ JPEG History: Compressing It Down, Keeping The Essence

    But in many ways, the situation paints how Wilhite, who died in 2022, did not develop his format by committee. He could say it sounded like “JIF” because he literally built it himself. It was not the creation of a huge group of people from different parts of the corporate world. He was handed the project as a CompuServe employee in 1987. He produced the object, and that was that. The initial document describing how it works? Dead simple. 37 years later, we’re still using the GIF.

    The JPEG, which formally emerged about five years later, was very much not that situation. Far from it, in fact—it’s the difference between a de facto standard and an actual one.

    Built with input from dozens of stakeholders, the goal of the Joint Photographic Experts Group was ultimately to create a format that fit everyone’s needs. And when the format was finally unleashed on the world, it was the subject of a 600-plus-page book.

  • Terence Eden ☛ Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Weather

    For those new to the format, there is a popular meme about things which computer programmers erroneously believe. This isn't intended to shame anyone - just to point out things which may not be immediately obvious to the neophyte.

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ On Titan Submersible Anniversary, World Rethinks Deep Sea Exploration

    A year after the first deaths of divers who ventured into the ocean’s sunless depths, an industry wrestles with new challenges for piloted submersibles and robotic explorers.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Mystery of flight MH370 could be solved by underwater microphones, says Cardiff researchers

    “A similar exercise, using either explosions or airguns of energy levels equivalent to those believed to be associated with MH370, could be conducted along the seventh arc,” said Dr Kadri.

    “If the signals from such explosions showed pressure amplitudes similar to the signal of interest, it would support focusing future searches on that signal.

    “If the signals detected at both Cape Leeuwin and Diego Garcia are much stronger than the signal in question, it would require further analysis of the signals from both stations.

• Education

  • The Hill ☛ Cellphone ban OK’d by Los Angeles school board

    “Kids no longer have the opportunity to just be kids,” said board member Nick Melvoin, who introduced the measure. “I’m hoping this resolution will help students not only focus in class, but also give them a chance to interact and engage more with each other — and just be kids.”

    Further details on the ban, which will take effect in January, will be solidified at future meetings.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ L.A. school district approves strict student cellphone ban

    “Our students are glued to their cellphones, not unlike adults,” said board member Nick Melvoin, who spearheaded the resolution. “They’re surreptitiously scrolling in school, in class time, or have their head in their hands, walking down the hallways. They’re not talking to each other or playing at lunch or recess because they have their AirPods in.”

• Hardware

  • Dmitry Dolzhenko ☛ Relocated the site

    Instead of a dedicated server (droplet) on DigitalOcean, the site now runs on a smallest shared vCPU server available on Hetzner. Now it costs me only 4.59 EUR a month, instead 12 EUR a month. And I still have place to host my another website and my wife's website.

  • Rach Smith ☛ Field notes

    I’ve been trying out a new thing lately - carrying a pocket notebook around with me and using it to capture diary entries, thoughts and tasks instead of my phone.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Denmark recalls Korean instant noodles for being too spicy

  • Forget the antivax lie of “turbo cancer.” Does COVID-19 cause cancer?

    It’s long been a trope among the antivaccine movement that vaccines cause cancer, dating back to long before the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, this old trope mutated into a new, more aggressive form with claims arising in 2022 (as best as I can tell) that COVID-19 vaccines can cause what antivaxxers dubbed “turbo cancers,” cancers seen mainly in younger people that are unusually aggressive and more often fatal compared to “run-of-the-mill” cancers. Since then, the “turbo cancer” claim has, as cancers do, mutated and evolved to the point where there are some antivaxxers out there who, whenever they hear of a case of cancer in a celebrity, will blame the vaccine, regardless of the cancer type, how old the celebrity is, or whether the celebrity has even been vaccinated or not. In this, “turbo cancer” resembles “died suddenly,” in which it is always the COVID-19 vaccine to blame for the cancer or the sudden death, respectively, regardless of age or circumstances. COVID-19 vaccines seem to be magical that way, at least among conspiracy theorists. If you die and were ever vaccinated against COVID-19, it was the vaccines, regardless of how old you were or how bad your health might have been before death. If you develop cancer and were ever vaccinated against COVID-19, it was the vaccine.

  • Thomas Rigby ☛ Burnout

    I don't think I've experienced burnout from development as a whole but I've had burnout from jobs and projects before.

  • The Hill ☛ Surgeon general will keep his kids off social media until high school

    “I am planning to wait until at least after middle school, for my kids to use social media,” Murthy said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “And when they’re in high school, my wife and I will reassess then, based on their maturity, what the data says about safety and whether there are safety standards in place.”

  • The Hill ☛ California State Fair to be nation’s first to allow weed sales

    “Hosting cannabis sales and consumption is a groundbreaking milestone in destigmatization by facilitating a deeper connection between consumers and the farmers who cultivate their products with such care,” Lauren Carpenter, co-founder of Embarc, a local cannabis company that is “the fair’s partner in facilitating onsite sales and consumption,” said in the release.

  • ANF News ☛ Rojava: Drip irrigation against desertification

    Ismail told ANHA news agency that the drip irrigation system is more suitable than the old methods in terms of protecting groundwater, avoiding fuel waste and protecting the environment: "Those responsible in the region can implement new strategic plans for agriculture. They can also support the agricultural sector by lending the farmers money to introduce new irrigation methods."

  • HelpGuide.org Intl ☛ Social Media and Mental Health: Social Media Addiction

    Since it’s a relatively new technology, there’s little research to establish the long-term consequences, good or bad, of social media use. However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts.

    Social media may promote negative experiences such as: [...]

  • [Repeat] Silicon Angle ☛ US Surgeon General thinks social media should come with tobacco-style warning labels

    “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency – and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” he said. This isn’t the first time Murphy has sounded the alarm where mental health and social media use are concerned. In 2023, he published a 19-page report, which cited research on the fact the youth of America probably spends too much time in social media enclosures where anxiety and depression could emerge.

    In the op-ed, he referenced numerous studies, each that came to the conclusion that overuse of social media leads to less time spent among peer groups and less sleep time, while children are caught up in an environment where they are constantly comparing themselves with others. The latter, it’s believed, causes feelings of inadequacy and isolation.

  • VOA News ☛ US surgeon general says social media apps need warning labels 

    Murthy argued that social media applications are designed to be addictive, using push notifications, autoplay videos and the ability to scroll through a seemingly infinite stream of posts to keep user’s attention on the platform.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Spread of 'Iron Hands' in The 15th Century Forever Changed How We Do Medicine

    The forgotten revolution.

  • Science Alert ☛ Autism Linked With DNA Our Ancestors Inherited From Neanderthals

    Their legacy lives on.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Treatment For Malaria Could Have a Surprising Effect on PCOS

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Business Insider ☛ Fewer Microsoft employees think they're getting a 'good deal,' internal survey shows

    The annual "Employee Signals" survey showed a drop from 69% to 62% in positive responses.

  • Baldur Bjarnason ☛ Visual Studio Code extensions are much less secure than browser extensions or even npm packages

    The above issues mean that VS Code extensions are a bigger security issue than npm packages, for example. Unlike packages, extensions update and run in the background, usually throughout the developers entire work day.

  • US News And World Report ☛ The 911 System Across Massachusetts Is Restored After Going Down for Hours

    The Massachusetts State Police announced around 3:45 p.m. that the system had been restored and that people could resume calling emergency services. They didn't provide any details behind the cause of the outage.

  • The Register UK ☛ Tencent ponders banning AI vids hosted by ‘virtual humans’

    Which may be the reason why Chinese media report that WeChat recently floated new legalese for the service that would designate livestreams featuring AI-generated avatars as "low-quality" content and prohibit the sale of software capable of generating "virtual humans." Those who violate the policy would either see their content made harder to find, or have their accounts cancelled.

    China's government emphasizes the term "high-quality" in many of its policy pronouncements. For Tencent to suggest AI-generated vids are "low-quality" is likely no accident.

  • The Register UK ☛ AI-powered drive-thrus at McDonald’s to be removed this year

    The AI drive-thru experiment began in 2021, and was expanded in 2022. Although IBM will no longer be relied on for AI drive-thrus, the two companies still apparently have business ties for other parts of McDonald's operations.

  • The Register UK ☛ VMware by Broadcom warns of critical vCenter flaws

    Announced late on Monday night, Pacific Time, the critical-rated flaws are CVE-2024-37079 and CVE-2024-37080, both of which scored 9.8 on the ten-point Common Vulnerability Scoring System v3 scale.

  • Pete Brown ☛ Competent, confident companies—even if they’re evil—don’t put out nonsensical junk.

    That is not to say these product releases are good or safe; they are certainly neither. Everyone who is up in arms about this stuff is right to be, and I wish even more people were concerned about the dangerous, rickety, poorly thought-through junk these companies are foisting upon the general public.

    That said, none of this stuff reads to me like the moves of confident companies with clear and compelling strategies for the future.

• Privacy/Surveillance

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Microsoft Delays Release of Its Controversial Recall AI Feature

  • CBC ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Microsoft delays adding 'photographic memory' screenshot feature to Windows over privacy concerns

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Microsoft Recall AI Privacy Concerns Untapped by Simple Python Script

  • Semafor Inc ☛ FTC refers TikTok complaint to Department of Justice

    The US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday said it had referred a complaint against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to the US Justice Department over concerns the platform violated children’s privacy.

    The agency said that it had reason to believe the social media app may be “violating or ... about to violate the law” with regards to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

  • Futurism ☛ Edward Snowden Says OpenAI Just Performed a “Calculated Betrayal of the Rights of Every Person on Earth”

    But not everyone is thrilled about Nakasone's new role at the AI firm, which will also see the former general seated at OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee. The NSA has long been associated with surveillance of US citizens, and AI-embedded technologies are already renewing and escalating existing surveillance concerns. With that in mind, it might be unsurprising that former NSA employee and famed whistleblower Edward Snowden is among the OpenAI appointment's outspoken detractors.

    "They've gone full mask off: do not ever trust OpenAI or its products," Snowden — emphasis his — wrote in a Friday post to X-formerly-Twitter, adding that "there's only one reason for appointing" an NSA director "to your board."

    "This is a willful, calculated betrayal of the rights of every person on earth," he continued. "You've been warned."

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • The Record ☛ Government and military officials fair targets of Pegasus spyware Government and military officials fair targets of Pegasus spyware in all cases, NSO Group argues

      The statement is a revelatory admission from the typically tight-lipped Pegasus manufacturer, NSO Group, regarding who it believes can justifiably be targeted with its zero-click and all-seeing surveillance product.

      It surfaced in court documents related to a lawsuit WhatsApp has brought against NSO Group for allegedly infecting about 1,400 of its users’ devices with the technology. The hacks were discovered in 2019.

      NSO Group clients include or have included repressive regimes such as Hungary, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Pegasus technology was allegedly used to track journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the months before he was murdered by the Saudi government.

• Confidentiality

  • Bitdefender ☛ Data breach at Total Fitness exposed almost half a million people's photos - no password required

    "Nearly all social media accounts offer users the ability to have a private profile and have strict control over who can access their content. However, this doesn't seem to be the case for member-uploaded images on Total Fitness platforms," said Fowler. "It is hypothetically possible that the images stored in the backend database are potentially retained even after being deleted by the member. This would potentially explain why the database contained images of sensitive documents."

  • The Register UK ☛ Total Fitness database exposed 474K member and staff images

    Jeremiah Fowler told The Register more than 474,000 images of both members and staff – including men, women, and children – were stored in a database that was left unprotected and publicly accessible without the need for a password.

    According to the researcher, who also alerted vpnMentor, the database totaled 47.7GB in size. It also included a cache of images that revealed individuals' identity documents, bank and payment card information, as well as phone numbers and immigration records in some rare cases, Fowler claimed.

Defence/Aggression

• The Hill ☛ Federal Trade Commission refers TikTok complaint to Department of Justice

  The complaint is based on a compliance review of TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, following a 2019 settlement over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

  “The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest, so the Commission has voted to refer a complaint to the DOJ,” the FTC said in a statement.

• Vox ☛ The world is running out of soldiers

  But while we may live in a world in which the number and severity of armed conflicts are increasing again after decades of decline and in which countries around the world are ramping up their military spending, there’s one resource nearly all major militaries seem to be short of: people to actually fight those wars.

• Netcraft ☛ Trumped Up Crypto Scams – Criminals Deploy Trump Donation Scams

  Criminals are opportunists, ready to exploit any perceived weakness, from humanitarian efforts to presidential campaigns.

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Preparations underway for G7 summit in Italy

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Italy’s Giorgia Meloni riding high as G7 begins in Puglia

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Kuwait fire kills 49 at building for foreign workers

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Germany outlines plans for 'new' model of military service

• Defence Web ☛ Houthis continue their assault on merchant shipping – two vessels abandoned

  The Houthi forces on the Yemen mainland have continued their violent actions against commercial and naval shipping passing along the Yemen coast of either the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, or the lower Red Sea.

• Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Holding Putin’s propagandists accountable for crimes in Ukraine

    Calls are mounting to hold Putin's propagandists accountable for their role in inciting Russian atrocities committed during the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, write Kristina Hook and Anna Vyshniakova.

  • France24 ☛ Russia's Putin arrives in North Korea on visit to deepen ties

    Shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un embraced Russian Vladimir Putin on his arrival at Pyongyang's airport on Wednesday, the two leaders shared their "pent-up inmost thoughts" and agreed to develop their nations' relations, North Korean state media said.

  • France24 ☛ Putin vows 'indivisible security in Eurasia' ahead of North Korea visit

    Vladimir Putin promised to build trade and security systems with North Korea that are not controlled by the West and pledged his unwavering support in a letter published by North Korean state media on Tuesday ahead of his planned visit to the country.

  • RFA ☛ Putin arrives in North Korea, vows to boost cooperation and fight sanctions

    Russian leader says he will work with Kim Jong Un to 'jointly oppose illegitimate unilateral restrictions.'

  • The Straits Times ☛ Putin and Kim embrace in North Korea, vow ‘building of a new multi-polar world’

    The Pyongyang trip is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first to the isolated nation in 24 years.

  • New York Times ☛ Putin Arrives in North Korea as Ukraine War Redefines Ties With Kim

    President Vladimir V. Putin’s military needs have prompted the Kremlin to strengthen ties with the authoritarian government of Kim Jong-un, which is well stocked in munitions.

  • Meduza ☛ Putin pens op-ed thanking Pyongyang for support in war against Ukraine ahead of first North Korea visit in 24 years — Meduza

  • ADF ☛ Russian Mercenaries Benefit From Insecurity They Help Create

    ADF STAFF In Africa, the Russian mercenary outfit formerly known as the Wagner Group left a trail of allegations of massacres, executions, torture, rape and theft.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia to take in more Ukrainian soldiers for treatment

    Following a request from Ukraine to provide medical rehabilitation to a larger number of wounded soldiers, the Latvian government on Tuesday, June 18, approved the admission of 50 additional soldiers to the rehabilitation center "Jaunķemeri", the Ministry of Health (VM) said.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine’s peace summit offers solidarity but no breakthroughs

    Ukraine's hotly anticipated peace summit in Switzerland produced plenty of solidarity but did not result in any major diplomatic breakthroughs, writes Mercedes Sapuppo.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Indirect China-Russia trade is bolstering Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine

    Trade between China and Russia has risen sharply since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, facilitating the Kremlin’s war effort.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine’s recovery cannot begin without enhanced air defenses

    The recent Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin underlined the importance of additional air defenses before the country can begin to rebuild, writes Edward Verona.

  • LRT ☛ Lithuanian parliament speaker visits Kyiv, dismisses Russian red lines

    Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for an unannounced visit.

  • RFERL ☛ Dissident Yashin Moved To Harsher Russian Prison Regime

    Outspoken Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin, serving 8 1/2 years in prison for openly condemning Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has been transferred to a punitive cell unit (PKT) in a prison in the western Smolensk region, his Telegram channel said.

  • RFERL ☛ China, Iran, North Korea 'Countries Of Concern' For Russia Support, Blinken Says

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described China, Iran, and North Korea as "countries of concern" for their involvement in Russia's war economy at a June 18 joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

  • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Prosecutor Says Russian Troops Beheaded Ukrainian Soldier

    Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said on June 18 that Russian troops beheaded a Ukrainian soldier in the eastern Donetsk region.

  • RFERL ☛ Kazakh Opposition Activist Shot In Kyiv

    Kazakh opposition activist and journalist Aidos Sadyqov was shot in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on June 18 by an unknown assailant.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Court Sentences Ukrainian Lawmaker Honcharenko In Absentia

    A military court in Moscow on June 18 sentenced Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko in absentia to 10 years in prison.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Safe learning for children in war zones

    Ukraine’s first permanent underground school shows yet another innovation in providing education – and places for kids to heal – in the world’s trouble spots.

  • New York Times ☛ In Ukraine, Narrowing Press Freedoms Cause Growing Concern

    Journalists say they are subject to increasing restrictions and pressure from the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that the measures go beyond wartime security needs.

  • Meduza ☛ Europe wants to keep Russian gas flowing through Ukraine. Meduza breaks down the options under discussion. — Meduza

  • JURIST ☛ ECtHR rules Russia ‘undesirable organization’ law breaches European Convention on Human Rights

    The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Tuesday ruled that the Russian “undesirable organization” law was incompatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Russia was a signatory to until 2022.

  • LRT ☛ How Baltics are joining the ammunitions race

    With a shortage of mortar shells in reserves across Europe, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are setting up their own ammunition factories to be ready in case of a potential attack from Russia.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Law On 'Undesirable Organizations' Violates Rights Convention, European Court Says

    The European Court of Human Rights on June 18 ruled unanimously that Russia violated the European Convention on Human Rights when it labeled several foreign organizations operating in Russia as "undesirable" and when it  prosecuted Russians for being involved with those organizations.

  • RFERL ☛ Scores Hospitalized With Botulism Symptoms In Russia; 3 Arrested

    Russian authorities detained three people on June 18 in connection with a suspected botulism outbreak, a move that comes as 169 people have been hospitalized thus far with the rare disease, most of whom are from Moscow.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Journalist Kevorkova's Detention On Terror Charge Extended

    A Moscow court on June 18 extended pretrial detention for noted Russian journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova until at least August 6. Kevorkova was arrested last month on a charge of "justifying terrorism."

  • RFERL ☛ Sweden Summons Russian Envoy Over Alleged Airspace Violation

    The Swedish Foreign Ministry said on June 18 that it had summoned Russia's ambassador after a Russian SU-24 bomber allegedly violated its airspace near the Baltic Sea island of Gotland.

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Buying Spies To Make Up For Expelled Diplomats, Germany Says

    Russia has turned increasingly to blackmail and financial incentives to hire Germans to spy for it after the blow dealt to its intelligence services by Europe's expulsion of some 600 Russian diplomats, Germany's domestic security service said.

  • RFERL ☛ Finnish Law To Halt Migrants At Russia Border Makes Progress In Parliament

    A Finnish government proposal to temporarily reject asylum seekers arriving across the country's border with Russia can be accepted by parliament if some amendments are made, an influential committee of legislators said on June 18.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Professor Convicted Of Espionage In Estonia

    An Estonian court has convicted a Russian citizen and former professor at the University of Tartu of carrying out activities against that Baltic state and sentenced him to six years and three months in prison.

  • RFERL ☛ Tatarstan's Supreme Court Rejects Appeal By Imprisoned RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

    The Supreme Court of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan has rejected an appeal by RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva against a decision to extend her pretrial detention.

  • RFERL ☛ France Hails Deal To Provide Armenia With Howitzers As 'New Important Milestone'

    French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said his country has signed a deal to provide CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Armenia, a move that's likely to further raise anger in Azerbaijan and Russia toward France.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Russia in talks with partners on deployment of long-range weapons, TASS reports

    Russia is discussing with its closest partners the issue of deploying long-range weapons, TASS state news agency reported on Wednesday, citing Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

  • Meduza ☛ ‘You gave your word that you’d help the FSB!’ How scammers are cashing in on Russians’ fear of prosecution — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ Estonia sentences Russian professor Viacheslav Morozov to six years in prison for espionage — Meduza

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• RTL ☛ Efforts to intimidate whistleblowers: Boeing CEO to face Capitol Hill grilling

  On Tuesday morning, the Senate committee detailed additional complaints from Boeing workers, including an official filing from a whistleblower who worried that Boeing's lax policies on the use of damaged or inadequate parts could "lead to a catastrophic event," according to a subcommittee memo.

Environment

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] India's heat wave hits marginalized Dalit caste

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Fact check: Sugarloaf images do not disprove sea level rise

• Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] How to phase out fossil fuels without leaving anyone behind

• The Atlantic ☛ Miami Is Entering a State of Unreality

  “Rain bombs” such as Invest 90L are products of our hotter world; warmer air has more room between its molecules for moisture. That water is coming for greater Miami and the 6 million people who live here. This glittering city was built on a drained swamp and sits atop porous limestone; as the sea keeps rising, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that South Florida could see almost 11 extra inches of ocean by 2040. Sunny-day flooding, when high tides gurgle up and soak low-lying ground, has increased 400 percent since 1998, with a significant increase after 2006; a major hurricane strike with a significant storm surge could displace up to 1 million people. And with every passing year, the region’s infrastructure seems more ill-equipped to deal with these dangers, despite billions of dollars spent on adaptation.

• Omicron Limited ☛ City sprawl is now large enough to sway global warming over land

  Once thought to cover too little of the Earth's surface to affect climate at larger scales, the new work suggests that urbanization does indeed have a detectable influence on global warming over land, with more to potentially follow as cities continue growing.

• Scheerpost ☛ Is Shell’s Exit From Nigeria a Front To Dodge Legal Responsibilities?

  Nigerian activists believe Shell’s apparent end to its 87-year operation in the country is an effort to avoid its legal responsibilities while holding onto the potentially profitable side of the business.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ Only 8% of California rivers and streams have gauges tracking flow

  New research by UC Berkeley scientists has found that only 8% of the state’s rivers and streams are equipped with gauges — devices that measure the level and rate of movement of water.

  The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, details the large portions of the state’s waterways that aren’t monitored and examines the consequences for humans and wildlife as climate change intensifies the water cycle, alters watersheds and threatens vulnerable fish and other species. The researchers also outlined methods for California to select new monitoring locations to expand its network of stream gauges.

• Energy/Transportation

  • [Old] The Telegraph UK ☛ Smart meter surge pricing risks punishing the poorest households

    More affluent consumers had worked out how to beat the system by ramping electricity use during the calibration period used to assess the baseline consumption against which demand reduction was measured and got paid much more.

    The reality is that demand-side flexibility is great when you have “flexible energy assets” in particular electric cars – items typically owned by the affluent.

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Government to Recall 100 Megawatts from Export Market Amidst Power Crisis

    Ndola Energy and Solar Initiatives: Ndola Energy will soon rejoin the grid, contributing 105 MW. Additionally, the government plans to install solar energy systems in public universities and colleges to free up energy for other uses.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Electric vehicle or diesel-powered car — which is better?

    Since both have an environmental footprint, is it really better to switch to an EV or hold onto a car that still works? Here's a point-by-point look at how e-cars compare to their conventional counterparts in terms of the environment.

  • The Nation ☛ Who Really Suffers When the Supply Chain Is in Crisis?

    As the normal patterns of supply and demand were upended by the reverberations of the pandemic, the global supply chain—the complex web of economic and logistical connections through which all the world’s products and services are delivered from where they are produced to where they are consumed—struggled, inevitably, to cope. Fuel for electricity production was far from the only commodity affected: Toilet paper, face masks, and cars were just some of the many products in which significant disturbances of delivery occurred.

Finance

• Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] “Banking-as-a-Service” Firms Can Evaporate Your Life Savings

• US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Coffee, Sculptures and Financial Advice. Banks Try to Make New Branches Less Intimidating

• CBC ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Canadian bank CEOs defend investments in oil and gas

• International Business Times ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] How To Boost Your Credit Score Fast: Four Secrets Banks Don't Want You To Know

• Omicron Limited ☛ Research offers advice to Etsy merchants: If you like what you do, charge more for it

  Researchers from Lehigh University, Tilburg University, and Northwestern University have identified a novel cue consumers interpret as a signal of quality in peer-to-peer marketplaces: "production enjoyment," or how much a seller enjoys making a product or providing a service.

• Collaborative Fund Management LLC ☛ Quiet Compounding · Collab Fund

  Money is similar. People become so nervous about what other people think of their lifestyle and investing decisions that they end up doing two things: Performing for others, and copying a strategy that might work for someone else but isn’t right for you.

  I try to keep in mind that there are two ways to use money. One is as a tool to live a better life. The other is as a yardstick of success to measure yourself against other people. The first is quiet and personal, the second is loud and performative. It’s so obvious which leads to a happier life.

  Quiet compounding means four things to me: [...]

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Patrick Breyer ☛ Lawmakers across the EU call on EU Council to reject the Chat Control proposal

  The following letter by Members of Parliament from across the EU has been sent today (and is still open for signatures): [...]

• Patrick Breyer ☛ Pirates: Wednesday’s vote on EU’s Chat Control bill could open the floodgates to unprecedented surveillance [Updated]

  Wednesday EU governments are to endorse proposed EU legislation (“child sexual abuse regulation” or “chat control”) which provides for automatically searching all private communications and chats for indications of potentially illegal images or videos (CSAM). The final wording that is being put to a vote has been leaked today by POLITICO.[1] At the request of France language has been added that when scanning services using end-to-end encryption (so-called client-side scanning), the surveillance code must “not lead to a weakening of the protection provided by the encryption” (Article 10). However it is uncertain whether a sufficient majority of governments will support this proposed text which would force users to accept automated searches or be blocked from sending and receiving images, videos or links via any app offering communications features. Yesterday German news outlet Der SPIEGEL reported that the German crime agency BKA classified more than half of the chats, photos and videos leaked voluntarily via US-based NCMEC as “not criminally relevant” in 2023 – as many as never before.[2] German pirate party Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer published a call to contact EU governments and organise protest on his homepage, naming some that are yet undecided.[3] Signal has announced to rather withdraw their services from the EU than succumb to implementing client-side scanning bugs in their app. Switzerland-based Threema also announced that they would be subject to the legislation and would “call on fellow communication services to join us in leaving the EU.”[4]

• Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

  • RTL ☛ Online rumours: France to try suspects over false Brigitte Macron transgender claim

    Two women are to be tried this week over false claims that France's first lady Brigitte Macron was transgender, which sparked online rumour-mongering by conspiracy theorists and the far-right.

  • The Record ☛ Fake anti-Ukraine celebrity quotes recently surged on social media

    This is not the first time Doppelgänger — one of the most prolific Russian disinformation networks — has used celebrity images to spread anti-Ukraine disinformation. Bot Blocker said that it’s the sixth operation of this kind discovered over the past six months.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Reason ☛ California Judge Orders Removal of Reddit Criticism of Scientist/Consultant Who Publicly Criticized English Lucy Letby Murder Trial

  The order: Sarrita Adams runs Science On Trial, Inc., which "provides forensic consultation services across the United States and the United Kingdom."

• RFERL ☛ Siberian Blogger Detained Hours Before Putin Visit

  [...] It is unclear why the blogger, who is known for raising social and economic issues faced by the remote region, was detained. [...]

• Hamilton Nolan ☛ A Note on Civil Disobedience - by Hamilton Nolan

  I do not want to sit here and crack jokes about this piece by Mr. Bobo on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, although I find that activity soothing and yearn to practice it often. Instead I want to make one simple but, I think, important point about the way that we speak about civil disobedience in this country. I’m saying this up front so that you know that there will theoretically be a “message” in this particular thing you are reading. Before that, though, I must briefly sum up the overall thesis of Mr. Bobo’s op-ed, which is: Faculty members should keep their fucking mouths shut if they want to maintain their employment at a nice place like Harvard. Specifically: [...]

Civil Rights/Policing

• JURIST ☛ Amnesty International says gender apartheid must be regarded as crime under international law

  Under the current international law, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, persecution on the basis of gender is impermissible and considered a crime against humanity. However, Amnesty International indicated that the scope of this provision does not precisely involve gender apartheid. Amnesty’s Secretary-General called on the UN and its member states to take advantage of the opportunity to include gender apartheid in the draft of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity.

  The notion of gender apartheid was first taken up by Afghan human rights defenders and feminist allies, following the emergence of the Taliban regime in the 1990s. They reported how the circumstances surrounding women’s rights changed after the Taliban came to power.

• Los Angeles Times ☛ Editorial: Juneteenth isn't a holiday just for Black people. Everyone should celebrate freedom

  Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of Union Army Major Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas, with General Order No. 3 telling the people of the westernmost Confederate state that “all slaves are free.” Although the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect in 1863, it couldn’t be implemented until the Civil War ended and Confederate states surrendered.

• US Navy Times ☛ First Black Navy SEAL, William Goines, dies at 88

  He took his friend’s advice and, after an 11-month tour in Malta, Goines was among the first group chosen to serve on the newly established SEAL teams. Of the 80 men selected upon the official 1962 inception of the teams, Goines was the only Black man.

• New Indian Express ☛ The great betrayal: Christians the worst victims of Pakistan's Islamization project

  Yet again, the bigotry-fangs of Pakistan are out. There was another violent mob attack against Christians in Pakistan, last month. Hundreds of Muslim extremists killed an elderly Christian shoemaker, Nazeer Masih Gill, after a cleric falsely accused him of desecrating the Quran. The mob filmed themselves kicking and beating him and then looting his shoe factory and posted the footage on social media. A mob of 400 took part in the attack on the Mujahid Christian colony in the city of Sargodha in Punjab province, vandalizing churches and burning Christian houses.

  Pakistan has become a bully state vis-a-vis its religious minorities. Mullahs, generals and politicians of Pakistan conspired for a step-by-step religious homogenization of the nation from its very birth. Ultimately this process threatens not only the religious minorities but the viability of the Pakistani nation itself. Pakistan’s Christian community is the worst victim of this Islamization project of the country's mullahs and generals.

• New York Times ☛ Amazon Union Workers Join Forces With the Teamsters

  The A.L.U. scored a surprise victory in an election at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022. But it has yet to begin bargaining with Amazon, which continues to contest the election outcome. Leaders of both unions said the affiliation agreement would put them in a better position to challenge Amazon and would provide the A.L.U. with more money and staff support.

• Futurism ☛ Fired Neuralink Employee Sues, Says She Was Attacked by Lab Monkey Carrying Herpes

  As Bloomberg reports, former Neuralink employee Lindsay Short also claims she was fired after informing her supervisors that she was pregnant.

  All told, Short is accusing the company of retaliation, wrongful termination, and gender discrimination — all allegations that have already been made against Musk's other companies, including SpaceX. It's yet another sign that the mercurial CEO likes to crack the whip at his ventures, with a notable disregard for employee safety, discrimination, sexism, and more.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• The Register UK ☛ Vietnam's [Internet] again in trouble as 3/5 sub cables cut

  Vietnam experienced similar issues in early 2023 when all five of the submarine cables connecting the nation went down. The country still had [Internet] access thanks to land connections.

  Vietnam is trying to improve the state of its maritime [Internet] connections with a plan that would add 60Tbit/sec of extra bandwidth through two to four more undersea cables, according to Developing Telecoms. Assuming all five of Vietnam's existing cables are operational by the plan's 2025 deadline, they will almost double the country's undersea bandwidth to 122Tbit/sec.

• The New Leaf Journal ☛ A Positive Experience With Spectrum

  My [Internet] service provider (“ISP”) is Spectrum. This is not a choice per se, Spectrum is the only available option. With that being said, I have few complaints about Spectrum. While I have the distinct impression that the overall popularity of ISPs in the United States is comparable to that of dental surgery, I have not had many issues with Spectrum. Outages have been rare. I have the cheapest 300 Mbps plan and get about 370 Mbps on ethernet and can get 330-ish on my wi-fi’s 5 Ghz band.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• [Repeat] Silicon Angle ☛ Justice Department sues Adobe over its subscription cancellation policies

  The Justice Department brought the lawsuit following a referral from the Federal Trade Commission. According to the complaint, the FTC found that Adobe had breached a 2010 piece of legislation called the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. The company is believed to have done so by making it too complicated and expensive for consumers to cancel subscriptions to its applications.