Leftovers

• [Old] Alvaro Montoro ☛ 100 Days of CSS Illustrations

  As a personal fun project, I challenged myself to do 100 CSS drawings in 100 days. I published a series of 10 posts with 10 images each. This article has all images in a single post, as well as links to videos on how they were drawn.

  Some of the images are original, and some others are inspired or based on different artists (providing a link to the original in the description for these cases)... which lead to an interesting combination of designs and styles, while I tried to find my own.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ The First Real Sputnik

    Americans certainly remember Sputnik. At a time when the world was larger and scarier, the Soviets had a metal basketball flying over the United States and the rest of the world. It made people nervous, but it was also a tremendous scientific achievement. However, it wasn’t the plan to use it as the first orbiter, as [Scott Manley] explains in a recent video that you can see below.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Continents' of Venus Hint at Surprising Link to Early Earth, Scientists Discover

    "Challenges our understanding of how planets evolve."

  • Hackaday ☛ Forget Ship In A Bottle, How About Joule Thief In A Fuse Tube?

    We love close-up pictures of intricate work, and [w] hits the spot with a tiny joule thief in a fuse case (social media post, embedded below) powered by an old coin cell from a watch. It’s so tiny!

  • New York Times ☛ NASA Says Boeing Starliner Astronauts May Fly Home on SpaceX in 2025

    The agency had insisted for a couple of months that it was confident that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore would return on Starliner.

  • Science Alert ☛ Women Really Are Less Likely to Be Treated For Their Pain Than Men

    Oh. What a shocking surprise.

  • Science Alert ☛ Andes Glaciers Are The First to Shatter a Depressing Record

    What happens when they vanish?

  • The Strategist ☛ China could stake a claim on the Moon. Just look at what it’s doing in Antarctica

    If China sets up the first permanent Moon base, it could easily upend the US-sponsored Artemis Accords on lunar colonisation and take control of part of the Moon.

  • Science Alert ☛ China Launches Satellites For Major Network to Rival Elon Musk's Starlink

    This is just the first step.

• Hardware

  • Jason Tucker ☛ The Homelab - Aug 2024 edition

    So what is a homelab any how? For me currently it's the production environment that my house runs on. It consists of a few systems and networking infrastructure and allows me to bend and break things to learn how to fix them. I'll also be building a development/test environment or as most folks would call a REAL homelab where at some point I can break things and my family can still watch tv or use the internet without me messing things up for them. As my network and servers grow so does the ability to run tests and play without messing up "production" by building a test network with test servers and network hardware. Much like my knowledge is growing so is the gear I'm using for testing.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Hackaday ☛ On Carbon Fiber Types And Their Carcinogenic Risks

    Initially only seeing brief popular use as the filament in incandescent lighting, carbon fibers (CF) experienced a resurgence during the 20th century as part of composite materials that are lighter and stronger than materials like steel and aluminium, for use in aircraft, boats and countless more applications. This rising popularity has also meant that the wider population is now exposed to fragments of CF, both from using CF-based products as well as from mechanically processing CF materials during (hobby) projects.

  • Science Alert ☛ Study Estimates Millions in US Risk Liver Damage From Herbal Remedies

  • Science Alert ☛ Millennials And Gen X Face Higher Risk of These 17 Cancers Than Boomers

    "We don't yet have a clear explanation."

  • Science Alert ☛ Olympics: Athletes 'In The Zone' Can Unlock 2 Different Mental States

    Here's how to reach them.

  • YLE ☛ School year kicks off with mobile phone bans and sunny weather

    The government plans to introduce a bill to Parliament regarding mobile phone bans in schools, but the details of the law are still undecided. However, last fall, Helsinki schools received guidance on updating their rules to address mobile phone use.

    "In many schools, the mobile phone ban has already been incorporated into the rules in spring," Outi Salo, head of basic education for the City of Helsinki, told STT.

    The majority of schools in Tampere have also introduced a phone ban.

  • New York Times ☛ A Psychiatrist’s Livestreams With a Twitch Streamer Raises Ethical Questions

    Did Dr. Alok Kanojia's livestreamed conversations with a troubled video game champion cross an ethical line?

  • Latvia ☛ Latvian experts mull drug abuse solutions

    This summer, medical professionals have repeatedly raised the alarm about drug overdoses among young people. One solution is to decriminalize drug use, which would allow young people to seek help without fear of punishment. Experts in various fields propose decriminalization also for adults on the condition that the user gets treatment, Latvian Television reported on August 6.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sarcopenic Obesity Sneaks Up on People. Here's How to Reduce Risk.

    There are things you can do.

  • RFERL ☛ Rights Group Calls On Tashkent To Move Karakalpak Activist To Less Restrictive Penitentiary

    The Vienna-based rights group Freedom for Eurasia has urged Uzbek authorities to transfer imprisoned Karakalpak activist Dauletmurat Tajimuratov to a less restrictive special correctional facility for convicted former state officials, citing his deteriorated health condition.

  • ADF ☛ Chinese Demand for ‘Maw’ Behind Decimated Lake Victoria Fish Stocks

    Sun glinted off the waters of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city. Victor Ndonga was among the throngs of fishermen who prepared their artisanal canoes for a day on the water.

  • New York Times ☛ Does a Speedsuit Make You Faster? Maybe. Does It Look Cool? Absolutely.

    Once an outfit strictly worn by sprinters, the single-piece speedsuit has become common among middle-distance runners. Its efficacy is beside the point.

  • New York Times ☛ For These Olympians, the Bling Is the Thing

    Athletes at the Paris Olympics have been sporting some seriously high-wattage accessories. Here are nine of our favorites.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Silicon Angle ☛ X goes to war with advertisers over boycott

    The lawsuit claims that certain members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, have breached antitrust laws by conspiring to engage in an “illegal boycott” of X. Some of the companies include Unilever PLC, Mars Inc., CVS Health Corp. and renewable energy firm Ørsted A/S, which are accused of conspiring with “dozens of non-defendant co-conspirators, to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X.

  • PC World ☛ Did you know Microsoft tried to scrap Windows and start over?

    The most exciting thing about Midori wasn’t the fact that Microsoft was willing to leave behind the massive heap of legacy spaghetti in Windows that continues to cause issues today.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's drivers fret as robotaxis pick up pace - and passengers

    Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials.

  • The Register UK ☛ Cloud storage from Microsoft, Google used in malware attacks • The Register

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Is AI a bubble? - podcast | News | The Guardian

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Dissenter ☛ US Court Rules Against Warrantless Border Searches Of Cellphones

    • The Washington Post ☛ A booming industry of AI age scanners, aimed at children’s faces

      In 2021, parents in South Africa with children between the ages of 5 and 13 were offered an unusual deal. For every photo of their child’s face, a London-based artificial intelligence firm would donate 20 South African rands, about $1, to their children’s school as part of a campaign called “Share to Protect.”

    • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Special prosecutors plan to charge police chief who led Kansas newspaper raid

      Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett released their conclusions Monday in a 124-page report.

      “There is no evidence that Marion law enforcement agents recognized the inadequacy of the investigation or intentionally or knowingly misled either other law enforcement agents or the court,” the prosecutors said. “The evidence strongly suggests they genuinely believed they were investigating criminal acts.”

      The report also clears Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn and editor Eric Meyer of wrongdoing.

    • NYPost ☛ This airport will soon be able to automatically ID passengers using controversial new tech: ‘No government should be trusted’

      Face it — times are changing.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Understanding Nasrallah’s speech: How will Hezbollah avenge Shukr?

    Hezbollah must now respond to Israel, but a routine retaliation will not suffice, given Fuad Shukr’s stature and the location of his killing.

  • FAIR ☛ Pundits Push for Regional Escalation in the Wake of Israeli Assassinations

    Following Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut—along with a woman and two children (Al Jazeera, 7/30/24)—and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, corporate media pundits have called for the US and Israel to escalate the region-wide war.

  • ADF ☛ Truth Alliance Fights Terrorists’ ‘Traps, Tricks and Lies’ in Nigeria

    In a region of Nigeria plagued by terror attacks, people have banded together to fight back with a powerful weapon: the truth.

  • ADF ☛ Organized Crime Fuels Terror in Sahel Nations

    The military juntas leading Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have pledged to confront the terrorist groups plaguing their countries. However, a recent United Nations report suggests that the countries must also focus on the engine driving terrorists: transnational organized crime.

  • ADF ☛ To Counter RSF Advance, SAF is Arming Civilians

    Faced with the Rapid Support Forces’ relentless advance, the Sudanese Armed Forces has turned to poorly trained, lightly armed civilians to join the fight against its rival’s battle-hardened troops. It’s unclear, however, how effective that strategy has been.

  • ADF ☛ Al-Shabaab Attacks Increase in Somalia Amid ATMIS Troop Drawdown

    Al-Shabaab in late July launched nearly simultaneous attacks on the Somali villages of Buulo Xaaji and Harboole and targeted three military bases where members of the Somali National Army and Jubaland State paramilitary fighters were stationed.

  • ADF ☛ Refugees Overwhelm Chad’s Fragile Food Supply

    Hunger in Chad typically peaks from June to August in the lean season between harvests, but this year is looking far worse because of a major influx of mouths to feed. More than 700,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in Chad since fighting broke out in neighboring Sudan in 2023.

  • JURIST ☛ Germany rejects appeal of former Syria secret police officer’s 2022 conviction

    The German Federal Court of Justice rejected former Syrian senior intelligence officer Anwar Raslan’s appeal against his crimes against humanity conviction on Monday. Raslan entered Germany in 2014.

  • Reason ☛ Court Rules That the Government Can Hide Its Own Report on CIA Torture

    The executive branch and the Senate have played hot potato with an infamous torture report, allowing the CIA to evade the Freedom of Information Act.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Problems with Georgia’s Voter Registration Portal

    It’s possible to cancel other people’s voter registration: [...]

  • Associated Press ☛ Georgia website that lets people cancel voter registrations briefly displayed personal data

    Until now, few people have canceled their registration. Doing so typically required mailing or emailing a form to the county where the voter formerly lived.

    People who have died or have been convicted of a felony can be removed from rolls relatively quickly. But when people move away and don’t ask for their registration to be canceled, it can take years to remove them. The state must send mail to those who appear to have moved. If the people don’t respond, they are moved to inactive status. But they can still vote and their registration isn’t removed unless they don’t vote in the next two federal general elections.

  • VOA News ☛ Despite security concerns, TikTok still plays key role in 2024 race

    TikTok was adapted for overseas use by a Chinese social media platform owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance. Over one-third of American adults, and 62% of adults under 30, reportedly use TikTok, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center.

  • Futurism ☛ Major Earth Systems on Track for Collapse, Scientists Find

    Imagine this dire scenario: the Atlantic Ocean's sea currents which bring warm water to Europe collapses, making large swaths of the continent as cold as the Arctic Circle.

    In a grim turn, that's just the scenario that a team of European scientists are warning about in a new study in the journal Nature Communications: that this catastrophic collapse — along with the ruination of the Amazon rainforest and the melting of polar ice — is on track to actually happen if we continue along our current path.

  • VOA News ☛ Nigerian influencer downplays role of economic hardship in protests

    The government in Nigeria accused Russia of orchestrating the protests in this most populous African country. The police said they arrested 31 protesters suspected of treason and serving foreign interests, as they "distributed Russian flags and called for anarchy" during the marches.

  • VOA News ☛ Nigeria arrests protesters with Russian flags

    Northern Nigeria shares strong cultural, religious and socioeconomic ties with neighbors in the Sahel region, which has seen a string of coups and military leaders turning away from Western allies towards Russia.

    Russian flags have featured at rallies in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, and their appearance in Nigeria triggered strong reactions from officials.

  • Cyble Inc ☛ U.S. Government Sues TikTok For Repeated COPPA Violations

    In a joint action, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok Inc., ByteDance Ltd., and their affiliates in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit alleges violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and its implementing regulations in connection with the popular TikTok app.

  • RFERL ☛ 'Defeating Russia Is The Best Thing We Could Do For Russia': Historian Timothy Snyder On The Ukraine War

    Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University and the author of books including Bloodlands and The Road To Unfreedom, spoke to Sashko Shevchenko of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service about possible scenarios for ending Russia's war against Ukraine, what the collapse of Russia as an empire could look like, the current mobilization efforts in Ukraine, and other matters related to the war.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean nuclear weapons would fracture US ties, defence chief says

    Tension between the neighbours has flared in recent weeks.

  • RFA ☛ North Korea punishes students and officials for watching banned Korean War film

    ‘72 Hours’ was a huge domestic hit, but it was banned only 5 months after its release

  • New York Times ☛ As Biden’s Presidency Wanes, U.S. and Asian Nations Do a Delicate Dance

    On an epic trip, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken tried to reassure Asian leaders about American commitments. But China remains the enduring backyard behemoth.

  • New York Times ☛ Thursday Briefing: Antiracism Protesters Gather in Britain

    Plus, China’s quest for Olympic gold shifts gears.

  • RFA ☛ China flies drone along Vietnam’s coast

    A Chinese military drone made a loop inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone on Wednesday.

  • RFA ☛ Philippines joins US-led allies in multilateral maneuvers in South China Sea

    The drills with the United States, Australia and Canada come amid a series of defense engagements.

  • RFA ☛ Myanmar junta jets bomb town under rebel control, six killed

    An insurgent alliance has called on China to press the junta to stop attacks on civilians.

  • RFA ☛ Taiwanese drama aims to shine spotlight on 'fear of war' with China

    Zero Day showrunners say the drama aims to give a realistic portrayal of various human responses to war.

  • JURIST ☛ US and Australia officials reaffirm partnership in Indo-Pacific region during AUSMIN Consultations

    US and Australian officials met to reaffirm a peaceful alliance within the Indo-Pacific region as part of the thirty-fourth Australia-U.S. Ministerial (AUSMIN) Consultations on Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.  The Indo-Pacific region is comprised of twenty-three countries, including Australia, China, India, and Cambodia.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwanese ex-soldier returns home after being held in China for almost 5 months

    A former Taiwanese military officer held in China for nearly five months after he was rescued by Chinese authorities during a fishing trip finally returned home on Wednesday.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong party room held up by 10 men, victims forced to transfer HK$110,000

    Four men were allegedly held up by a group of 10 in a Hong Kong party room in the early hours of Wednesday and forced to transfer HK$110,000 to their assailants. Police have yet to make any arrests.

  • ADF ☛ Kidnappings Soar in Central Africa’s ‘Triangle of Death’

    Sitting in the ochre dirt courtyard of her home in Pala in southwest Chad, Béatrice Naguita stared blankly into the distance as she recounted her April 2023 ordeal. “Around 1:00 a.m., armed men came into my father’s house and abducted us with my cousin,” the 22-year-old student told Agence France-Presse.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Niger Becomes Second African State To Cut Ties With Ukraine

      Niger's ruling military junta has announced it is breaking off diplomatic relations with Ukraine, becoming the second African state to sever ties with Kyiv in days following comments by a Ukrainian official perceived as lending support to rebels in neighboring Mali.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ A Russia without Russians? Putin’s disastrous demographics

      A new Atlantic Council report explores the effect of Putin's politics on domestic Russian demographic change. Is Putin heading towards a Russia without Russians?

    • New York Times ☛ In Prisoner Swap, Echoes of Putin’s K.G.B. Past

      A sprawling exchange with the West underscored the Russian president’s loyalty to his intelligence services. It also showed his continued interest in making deals.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Russia is destroying monuments as part of war on Ukrainian identity

      Russia is destroying monuments as part of its war on Ukrainian identity throughout areas under Kremlin control, says Yevhenii Monastyrskyi and John Vsetecka. 

    • France24 ☛ Russia's Kursk region declares emergency amid Ukrainian offensive, says governor

      Russia declared on Wesdnesday a state of emergency in the Kursk region as its military fought off cross-border incursions for a second day. Ukrainian officials have remained silent about the operation, but announced a mandatory evacuation of thousands of people in an area just across the border from Kursk.

    • JURIST ☛ Ukraine legal battle against Russia gains momentum as 23 states intervene in genocide allegations case

      23 states have either renewed or amended their declarations of intervention in the ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) case brought by Ukraine against Russia concerning allegations of genocide in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to a Tuesday ICJ press release.

    • LRT ☛ Could an Istanbul deal have brought peace? – Opinion

      The experience of the post-Soviet republics regarding security-related agreements with Moscow is such that the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian talks had little chance of success.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia's Stifling Of Civic Freedoms Dramatically Up Since Ukraine Invasion, Rights Watchdog Says

      Russia's sustained assault on domestic civic freedoms has seen a massive escalation since the start of Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with hundreds of dissenters, journalists, and political activists being prosecuted and imprisoned under new draconian laws, HRW says.

    • RFERL ☛ Czech Soldier Given Prison Term Over Looting In Ukraine's Irpen, Bucha

      A court in Prague sentenced Czech citizen Filip Siman to seven years in prison for looting during military unrest in the suburbs of Kyiv in April 2022 following the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Endorses Bills Extending Ukraine's Martial Law, Mobilization

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on August 7 endorsed bills extending martial law and a general military mobilization for 90 days starting on August 12.

    • RFERL ☛ State Of Emergency Declared In Russia's Kursk Region Amid Cross-Border Incursion

      The governor of Russia's Kursk region bordering Ukraine said on August 7 that a state of emergency has been declared on day two of an apparent large-scale Ukrainian ground offensive that Russia says is supported by tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Launches Rare Cross-Border Ground Assault Into Russia

      Troops and armored fighting vehicles crossed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday, according to Moscow and independent analysts. Ukrainian officials have not commented.

    • Meduza ☛ How deep into Russian territory has Ukraine’s surprise August incursion reached? — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Fighting continues in Russia’s Kursk region as Ukraine carries out largest cross-border incursion of war so far — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukrainian POW who died in Russian prison killed by blunt force chest injury, autopsy finds — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Judging by the reports, our town no longer exists’: Russian woman recounts fleeing the border region where Ukrainian forces are reportedly advancing — Meduza

    • The Strategist ☛ AI complacency is compromising Western security

      Just as the West has been forced into confrontation with Russia and China, military conflicts have revealed major systemic weaknesses in the US and European militaries and their defence-industrial bases.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ How NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners can work together in an era of strategic competition

      Amid rising threats from Russia and China, it is in the interest of both NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners to deepen their cooperation.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ How Armenia’s ‘Crossroads for Peace’ plan could transform the South Caucasus

      The initiative could economically benefit the region, reduce Armenia’s dependence on Russia, and promote peace throughout the South Caucasus.

    • JURIST ☛ Germany justice minister warns against travel to Russia amidst prisoner exchange and human rights concerns

      German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told a local magazine on Tuesday that he advises Germans against travelling to Russia, stressing that no one has been safe in Russia for a long time. Buschmann’s comments came in the wake of a recent prisoner exchange with Russia, in which Germany played a pivotal role.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian vehicle export company fined €13.6m for breaching Russia sanctions

      A Lithuania-registered company exporting vehicles has been fined 13.6 million euros for violating international sanctions, the Lithuanian Customs reported on Wednesday.

    • RFA ☛ Russia, North Korea sign deal to fight infectious diseases

      The North’s vaccination rate was below 50% for most of last year, researchers say.

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Critic's Half-Brother Handed 5 1/2-Year Prison Term On 'Terrorism' Charge

      A court in Russia's Urals city of Yekaterinburg has sentenced Rustam Fararitdinov -- the half-brother of self-exiled Bashkir activist and Kremlin critic Ruslan Gabbasov -- to 5 1/2 years in prison on terrorism charges

    • RFERL ☛ Detained U.S.-Russian Citizen Pleads Guilty To Treason, Says Russian Media

      Ksenia Karelina, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who has been held in Russia since January, has pleaded guilty to a charge of treason, according to Russian state media.

    • RFERL ☛ 16 Years After War With Russia, West Reiterates Support For Georgia's Territorial Integrity

      The United States, the European Union, and other Western states have reiterated their support for Georgia's sovereign and territorial integrity as the country marks the 16th anniversary of a brief war with Russia even as its ruling party appears to be turning back toward Moscow.

    • RFERL ☛ Estonian Journalist Who Worked With Russian Outlets Charged With High Treason

      A court in Estonia on August 6 held a preliminary hearing in the high treason case against journalist Svetlana Burceva, who used to work for the Sputnik and Baltnews news agencies that belong to the Kremlin-controlled Russia Today media holding.

    • New York Times ☛ How Belarus Was Left Out of a Prisoner Swap Between Russia and the West

      While Belarus played a role in the sweeping prisoner exchange last week, none of the 1,400 people classified as political prisoners in the country by a human rights group were freed.

    • Latvia ☛ Migrant flow on Latvia-Belarus border doubled in July

      The flow of migrants at the Latvian-Belarusian border has more than doubled this summer compared to the beginning of the year. In July alone, more than 1,000 persons were stopped from crossing the border illegally, and the number of smugglers intercepted has also increased, Latgale Television reported August 6.

    • LRT ☛ Belarusian doctor who slammed Lukashenko flees to Lithuania

      On August 6, Belarusian activist Andrey Stryzhak announced that a noted physician Uladzimer Martau, who is wanted in Minsk on extremism charges, has fled to Lithuania.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • NPR ☛ What the JD Vance couch jokes say about social media this election season

    The Associated Press published a debunk of the rumor about Vance, initially headlined, "No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch." But that only fanned the flames, as users shared screenshots of the article, widening the joke's reach. So did the news organization's later decision to remove the article from its website after stating that it had not gone through the standard editing process.

• Environment

  • Pro Publica ☛ Nevada Startup Secured State Contracts Despite Struggling Carbon Tracking Project

    The summer heat collected inside a fire station in Reno, the nation’s fastest-warming city, where Nevada’s governor and key local government leaders had gathered in July 2021. They were there to announce what they called a “groundbreaking” step to address climate change through a “landmark partnership” with a little-known green tech company.

    “We get to be the city, the county and the state that lead the way into a new day and a new era,” Bob Lucey, then-Washoe County Commission chairperson, told the small crowd of reporters, lobbyists and government officials.

  • DeSmog ☛ Oklahoma’s Oil Industry Touts a Voluntary Fund to Clean Up Oil Wells. Major Drillers Want Their Contributions Refunded.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Wildfires Are Creating Their Own Thunderstorms

    These pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs) are caused when a wildfire’s intense heat and smoke create strong updrafts, where they condense and form clouds. Those clouds can then develop into fierce thunderstorms that ignite more fires, potentially miles from the fire that created them.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Heatwave in Malaysia leads to drownings after victims try to cool down in rivers

    In July, the average number of drowning cases each month is about 20.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Rivian shares slide as electric car maker reports cost blowouts in second quarter

      Shares in Rivian Automotive Inc. fell more than 6% in late trading today after the electric car maker reported a higher-than-expected loss in its second quarter.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ What to know about China’s push for hydrogen-powered transportation

      There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of hydrogen-powered vehicles but never seen one. Over 18,000 are in the US, almost exclusively in California.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Homeowners are still going solar - but for different reasons

      The second quarter of 2024 (April to June) saw 350.5MW of rooftop solar capacity added by South African households and business, compared to 240MW in the first quarter, according to GoSolr, a solar installation company.

    • [Old] The Washington Spectator ☛ Paranoia on Parade

      In recent weeks, Putin has sought to undermine the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency by demanding payment for oil in rubles.231 New kinds of cryptocurrencies can also help undermine the dollar. Recently, Denis Klimentov, a spokesman for Putin ally Vladimir Potanin and brother of the former Kremlin P.R. agent Dmitri Klimentov, helped publicize a new cryptocurrency token scheme based on metals nickel and palladium, which Potanin has in ample quantities.232 It seems likely that Putin aims to challenge the primacy not only of the U.S. dollar but of existing cryptocurrencies as well.

    • Raw Story ☛ Trump says he'll interview with Elon Musk next week — and onlookers react

      Investigative journalist and tech pioneer Dave Troy pointed to the Trump-Musk link to crypto-economics. "It's happening. Trump cult is pivoting to crypto to undermine the dollar, in service of Putin / Xi / Musk / Thiel. This just in the last few minutes," he posted on X after seeing the Trump posts. "Hold on .... this is gonna get weird."

      "The current threat is they will use the debt ceiling deadline to spark a US debt default and a currency crisis. The dollar and your savings are at risk," he continued. "And here's the full backstory of how we got here. Over the next 4 months everyone is going to see just how prescient this is, I'm afraid. And the issue isn't that they'll succeed, but rather the harm they'll inflict in the process of trying."

    • [Old] Energy Star ☛ The Energy Cost of Cryptocurrency

      Buildings used to house cryptocurrency mining can create a massive strain on local electricity grids, with a single crypto transaction consuming more energy than that required to power 6 houses for a day in the U.S. The estimated global annual energy consumption of the current cryptocurrency market is over 68 TWh, equivalent to more than 19 coal fired power plants operating continuously. Due to the technical nature of blockchain, this number is projected to grow to 100 TWh annually.

    • [Old] The Brussels Times ☛ Bitcoin consumes more electricity than Belgium

      Between 2015 and 2023, the energy used in Bitcoin mining skyrocketed to 121 terawatt-hours (TWh), surpassing Belgium’s consumption of 78.4 TWh last year.

    • [Old] Just Energy Texas LP ☛ [Cryptocurrency] Energy Consumption and [Cryptocurrency] Energy Explained

      As of January 2024, its methodology suggests Bitcoin uses 141-160 terawatt-hours (TWhs) of electricity annually. That’s about 0.6-0.7% of the electricity the world consumed in 2022. Furthermore, it equals all New York State and about a third of Texas’s 2021 electricity consumption.

      The race to solve the Bitcoin algorithm has led to the development of powerful mining equipment specialized in outputting super-fast hash rates. The amount of energy required to feed these computers prompted China to ban Bitcoin mining in 2021.

      Digiconomist compares the mining of one Bitcoin to more tangible objects, like making a third of an iPad, or “costing” the Earth the amount of water required to fill a backyard swimming pool. Bitcoin scarcity may push its price further upwards, making each mined Bitcoin more valuable and possibly increasing the number of miners and associated energy usage.

    • [Old] uni Columbia ☛ Cryptocurrency’s Dirty Secret: Energy Consumption

      But crypto has a dirty little secret that is very relevant to the real world: it uses a lot of energy. How much energy? Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million. Producing that energy emits some 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — comparable to the emissions of Greece — making crypto a significant contributor to global air pollution and climate change.

      And crypto’s thirst for energy is growing as mining companies race to build larger facilities to cash in on the 21st century gold rush.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Conservation of ‘Umbrella Species’ Works for Ecosystems — Especially in Southeast Asia

  • Overpopulation

    • South Africa ☛ New water policy will soon make potatoes unaffordable

      The surge in potato prices witnessed at the end of 2023 may become a new norm if water usage restrictions are enforced on farmers in the Western Cape’s Sandveld region. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has proposed a water reserve determination for the F60 and G30 catchments in the Berg-Olifants water management area. This reserve sets a baseline for water availability, guiding extraction limits for all users.

      In May, the DWS published the draft reserve determination in the government gazette. Citing figures on water availability, the DWS suggests a 30% reduction in water extraction by farmers to ensure sufficient water for the area's population and environment. This measure could see 30% of the potato-growing hectares in the Sandveld go out of production, causing a fourfold increase in potato prices.

• Finance

  • RFA ☛ China’s efforts to boost Tibet’s economy benefit Han population, report says

    But Tibetans believe the resulting economic marginalization could increase tensions in the region.

  • The Neighbourhoodie Software GmbH ☛ NH:STF S01E01 Sequoia-PGP

    This post is part of our series on our work for the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF). Our introduction post explains why and how we are contributing to various Open Source projects.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ China Pathfinder: Q2 2024 update

    In the second quarter of 2024, China’s leaders insisted that economic growth was strong and on track. However, China's financial vital signs–property markets, stock prices, and consumer sentiment–all indicate weakness.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Disappointing guidance and mixed earnings crater JFrog’s stock

    Shares of the software supply chain tooling company JFrog Ltd. took a beating in after-hours trading today on mixed second-quarter financial results and disappointing guidance that came in below analysts’ expectations.

  • WhichUK ☛ New savings account offers over 10% AER - what's the catch?

    Interest on Virgin Money's regular saver is five times the rate of inflation, but it might not be the right option for you

    [...]

    Firstly, the account is only open to customers who've been with Virgin Money since 4 December 2019 or earlier, and those who originally opened a current account with Clydesdale Bank or Yorkshire Bank.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Steve Martin turns down Tim Walz impersonation role on ‘SNL,’ dashing internet’s casting hopes

    Steve Martin’s next role will not be the Midwestern politician the internet hoped he’d portray.

  • RFK Jr. is incredibly bizarre

    Even though I’m on staycation and, as I mentioned in one of the comments, and before that had been dealing with a personal family situation (which I’m still dealing with), hence the paucity of posts the last couple of weeks. While I expect that I should be getting back to something resembling normal next week, sometimes news appears that is just so odd and compelling that I feel the need to comment on it anyway. Also, I know that you, my readers, are dying for a chance to comment on it. So here it is, a story in The New Yorker published earlier this week entitled What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., actually want? It might as well have been entitled RFK Jr. and the Dead Bear Cub Dumped in Central Park a Decade Ago, because that’s all anyone seems to be talking about since the story was published.

  • Security Week ☛ Secure by Default: What It Means for the Modern Enterprise

    While each one of these points comes with its own set of changes, I want to focus on the last point as it relates to third party cloud vendors, specifically around two critical functions: email and identity. My advice is to look at the concept of secure by default, not as a static building principle, but as a continuous control that needs to be reviewed over time.

  • Raw Story ☛ 'That's not true!' Fox News host cuts in as guest links J.D. Vance to Project 2025

    In fact, Vance did write the forward [sic] to a book from the author of Project 2025.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Press Gazette ☛ Journalists facing ‘appalling harassment and abuse’ amid riots

      Numerous journalists threatened and forced to stop reporting in week of rioting across England.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ Sixty-one bar associations demand lift of Instagram ban

    The ban was enacted following the government’s criticism of the platform’s alleged censorship of condolences for killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 2 Hongkongers charged with sedition under new security law say they intend to plead guilty

    A lawyer representing two Hongkongers charged with sedition under the city’s new security law has said his clients would plead guilty to their alleged offences, although one first sought to challenge whether the law placed excessive limits on freedom of speech.

  • JURIST ☛ India court reserves orders in preventive detention case against YouTuber for defamatory remarks

    The Madras High Court of India reserved orders on Tuesday over a challenge to the preventive detention of a content creator on the YouTube platform by the Government of Tamil Nadu after hearing arguments from both sides.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Blogger Gets 6 1/2 Years In Prison For Criticizing Army

    A Moscow court on August 7 sentenced blogger Andrei Kurshin to 6 1/2 years in prison over two online posts he made condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. [...]

  • The Record ☛ Venezuelan government ratchets up digital repression surrounding tainted election

    Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government has recently deployed digital tools to silence dissent and cut off information access, including by blocking 62 media outlets, according to an open letter signed by more than 100 civil society organizations and human rights defenders Monday.

    The surveillance, digital repression and human rights abuses in Venezuela reportedly spiked during and after the country’s July 28 presidential elections, which are widely seen as tainted.

  • RFA ☛ Chinese police arrest Beijing woman for 'defaming' Olympic athletes

    The move comes after fans booed reigning champion Chen Meng in the women's singles table tennis final in Paris.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Future closes two US TV trade publications

    Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News will end publication in September.

  • CPJ ☛ Nigerian security forces attack, arrest journalists covering protests

    CPJ is investigating multiple incidents including one in the capital Abuja on August 3, where masked security forces fired bullets and teargas at several journalists wearing “Press” vests and their media-branded cars at the national stadium.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ News of police raiding a Kansas newspaper unfolded like 'a novella.' The story keeps churning.

    While Cody’s grudge played a role in the unprecedented Marion County Record raid, in the year since, details of messy relationships in this small town paired with the inner-workings of a corrupt local government paint a picture that’s more complicated. And even though the special prosecutors report released Monday clears everyone involved but Cody of criminal wrongdoing, it does nothing to diffuse allegations of police malfeasance.

  • VOA News ☛ Reporter's Notebook: From arrest to release, how VOA covered jailed American journalists

    Prisoner swaps are inherently fragile, according to international human rights lawyer Jared Genser, who has helped release more than 300 political prisoners in his career.

    "I really hold my breath in all these kinds of circumstances," he told me while the political prisoners were still en route to Ankara. "Until it's actually done and the exchange has actually happened, I really don't believe that it has been completed."

    And Kelly McBride, of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute, told me, "We can't let our competitiveness undermine our ability to make decisions that benefit the common good."

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • EFF ☛ EFF Tells Yet Another Court to Ensure Everyone Has Access to the Law and Reject Private Gatekeepers

    EFF has been fighting for years to stop them. The most recent instance is ASTM v. Upcodes. ASTM, an organization that develops technical standards, claims it retains copyright in those standards even when they’ve become binding law through “incorporation by reference.” When a standard is incorporated “by reference,” that means its text is not actually reprinted in the body of the government’s published regulations. Instead, the regulations include a citation to the standard, which means you have to track down a copy somewhere else if you want to know what the law requires.

  • Reason ☛ Inside the Unchecked Bus Searches by South Carolina Police

    South Carolina sheriff's deputies faced backlash when they boarded a Shaw University charter bus in October 2022 and started rummaging through students' personal belongings without a warrant. The historically black school filed a complaint with the Department of Justice. Now, newly released public records show the police intrusion was not an isolated incident.

    Officers routinely pulled over and searched commercial buses during Operation Rolling Thunder in 2022, in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Officials claim they do not know the precise number of bus searches that year, but a tally sheet shows 45 commercial motor vehicle inspections during the five-day operation. This matches reports from Operation Rolling Thunder in 2023, when the county stopped 45 buses in just four days—more than 11 per day.

    Only a handful of these people did anything wrong. Officers found drugs on 11 buses and identified only six suspects. Yet the police treated all bus riders like criminals, often forcing innocent people off buses and going through their luggage for 45 minutes or longer.

  • [Old] Alvaro Montoro ☛ Fix 85% of your Web Accessibility issues in 5 easy steps

    Correcting these five issue types would fix most of the Accessibility problems detected.

  • NYPost ☛ Ohio ban on trans treatments for kids and trans athletes in youth sports can take effect, court rules

    The ruling means the Ohio trans ban law can take effect — though the ACLU has vowed to appeal the decision.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: bdNOG 18

    APNIC presented and delivered training at bdNOG 18, held in Coz's Bazar, Bangladesh from 12 to 15 July 2024.

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: PHNOG 2024

    APNIC celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Philippines Internet at PHNOG 2024, held in Manila, Philippines from 8 to 12 July 2024.

  • APNIC ☛ LibreQoS: Analysing and defeating latency

    Guest Post: Open source tool aims to help ISPs reduce customer latency.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ What Streaming Slowdown? Warner Music Touts ‘Strong Subscription Streaming Growth’ in Q2 2024 Earnings Report [Ed: Digital Restrictions (DRM) instead of real sales]

    Despite recording solid digital growth, Warner Music Group (NASDAQ: WMG) suffered a small year-over-year (YoY) revenue decrease during 2024’s second quarter. The Robert Kyncl-led major label, now experiencing another massive restructuring under the former YouTube chief business officer, posted its financials for April, May, and June (the third quarter of its fiscal year) today.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Deccan Chronicle ☛ Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, US judge rules

  The highly anticipated decision issued by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta comes nearly a year after the start of a trial pitting the U.S. Justice Department against Google in the country's biggest antitrust showdown in a quarter century.

• Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Google antitrust ruling may pose $20-billion risk for Apple

  Google pays Apple US$20-billion annually, or about 36% of what it earns from search advertising made through the Safari browser, for the privilege, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

  If the deal is undone, the iPhone maker could take a 4-6% hit to its profit, the analysts estimated.

• New York Times ☛ What’s Next in the U.S. Antitrust Cases Against Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta

  The U.S. government’s landmark antitrust trial against Google’s search business concluded on Monday with a federal judge’s ruling that the company acted illegally to maintain a monopoly. But the parade of major federal cases challenging the power of the tech giants is just getting going.

• Seth Godin ☛ Misunderstanding bigness

  But the short run is fairly short, and the resilience, productivity and utility that come from agility and serving customers and employees more effectively is worth the transition.

  The very thing that enabled these companies to succeed disappears once they seek to obtain bigness at any cost. MBAs take over, and the focus that led to success disappears.

• Pete Brown ☛ That so many people think Google is the only search engine basically proves they are a monopoly.

  To really make a difference, I think you would have to do something crazy like have browsers randomly choose a difference search engine on startup—or even every time a search is run—and then give users the option to permanently set it to one of their choosing. Otherwise, I think most people are going to just keep going with what they know.

• Patents

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Faces Major Patent Lawsuit Over ‘Remote Group Session’ and ‘Jam’ Features Here’s the Filing

    British startup Bluejay Technologies sues Spotify for patent monopoly infringement over their Remote Group Session and Jam listening features. Bluejay Technologies, a London-based startup which developed an app in 2015 for users to create a playlist and then invite friends to join in and listen simultaneously, is suing Spotify for copyright monopoly infringement.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Dismisses REEFER MAN Opposition Due to Unlawfulness of Opposer's Pleaded Applications

    Allright Mind Enterprises opposed an application to register REEFER MAN for smoker's article and educational services, claiming likelihood of confusion with the mark REEFERMAN GENETICS for plant nutrients, seeds, and related retail services, none of the foregoing involving Cannabis sativa L. Allright relied on its two pending intent-to-use applications for (contingent) priority. However, the Board found that Allright lacked a bona fide intent to use its mark because the goods and services it identified are illegal and its pleaded applications are invalid, and so it dismissed the opposition. Allright Mind Enterprises Ltd. v. Creative Arts By Calloway, LLC, Opposition No. 91273573 (August 1, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Thomas L. Casagrande).

  • Right of Publicity

    • 404 Media ☛ Google Search Includes Paid Promotion of “Nudify” Apps

      The promoted results, which were discovered by Alexios Mantzarlis in the Faked Up newsletter, are yet another example of how the biggest internet platforms are struggling to contain the flood of AI-powered apps that create nonconsensual sexual images, mostly of young women and celebrities. In this case, Google Search didn’t only lead users to these harmful apps, but was also profiting from the apps which pay to place links against specific search terms.

    • The Washington Post ☛ How to delete nude deepfakes from Google search

      A new Google update will make it simpler to request the removal of fake explicit images as public figures, teachers and ordinary people increasingly contend with targeted abuse in the form of “deepfakes,” or realistic-looking images made with AI. While fake nude images have long existed and Google already lets people request they be removed from search results, the change will help identify and remove copies of explicit images and block further explicit searches, the company said in a recent blog post.

• Copyrights

  • Press Gazette ☛ FT, Atlantic, Axel Springer and Fortune get behind Hey Hi (AI) start-up’s per-use compensation plan

    New generative Hey Hi (AI) entrant sets out plan for "fair attribution" revenue-sharing model.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ ISPs Hijack Cloudflare/Google DNS Requests, Ending Site-Blocking Workarounds

    When ISPs are instructed to block pirate sites, tampering with their own DNS records is often the weapon of choice. This type of blocking can be circumvented by switching to public DNS offered by companies including Cloudflare and Google. Tests carried on several ISPs in Malaysia this week reveal that requests to Cloudflare and Google public DNS servers are being hijacked and diverted to local ISP DNS servers.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ RIAA Backs AI Copyright Lawsuit Against Anthropic, Sees Similarities with Napster

    The RIAA and several other organizations condemn AI startup Anthropic for allegedly flaunting copyright law. The criticism appears in an amicus brief in support of a court injunction requested by music publishers, who want the AI company to stop using lyrics without permission. According to the RIAA, Anthropic's defense relies on the same rhetoric as Napster once did.

  • Techdirt ☛ After 33 Years, GameStop Shuts Down And Disappears ‘Game Informer’

    Well this is a real punch in the gut. For years, we have been talking about a strange lack of interest within the video game industry when it comes to game preservation. In far, far too many cases, both single player and multiplayer video games that rely on backend checks to start the game, or online servers on which to play them, or games being available in digital storefronts essentially disappear at the whim of game publishers’ desire to keep them available. Never mind that this can mean that games people purchased become unavailable to them. Never mind that these publishers could make their games’ source code available so that fans could keep them running. It all just goes away without recourse for the public, due to the fact that these games remain protected by copyright, despite their being unavailable to the public, thereby breaking the supposed copyright contract. It’s a massive problem if you care about the preservation of culture.

  • Variety ☛ Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta Targeted in U.K. Creators' AI Crackdown

    Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Apple and Meta are facing heat from the U.K.’s creative community over the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence (AI) development.

    The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) has fired off a stern warning to these tech behemoths and others in the software development sector, demanding an end to the unauthorized use of creative works for AI training and operation.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Finland Slashes Its Private Copying Compensation Plan

    “The compensation for private copying is mandatory under the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society […] and the Finnish Copyright Act as a condition to the freedom of citizen to copy works for their private use through a private copying exception,” the letter continues. “Finland thus has the responsibility to organize and secure this fair compensation to authors.”

    The authors’ collective management organizations stress that private copying compensation is a significant source of income for authors in the European Union and beyond. “In Finland, a yearly amount of 5.5 million euros to be split between authors, performers, producers, and publishers in the audiovisual, music, text, and visual arts sectors cannot be considered in any way as an adequate, sufficient, or fair compensation for private copying.”