Links 30/08/2024: Serious Abuses Against Uyghurs and Dyson Abandons Frivolous Libel Claim Amid Mass Layoffs
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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The Strategist ☛ Critical technology tracker: two decades of data show rewards of long-term research investment
China and the United States have effectively switched places as the overwhelming leader in research in just two decades, ASPI’s latest Critical Technology Tracker results reveal.
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Hackaday ☛ 2024 Tiny Games Contest: Blind Maze Is Fun For All
If you think about it, even difficult mazes on paper are pretty easy. You can see all the places you can and can’t go, and if you use a pencil instead of a pen, well, that’s almost like cheating.
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Hackaday ☛ 2024 Tiny Games Contest: Mini Cyclone Tests Reaction Time
Round and round goes the red LED, and if you can push the button when it overlaps the green LED, then you win. Cyclone is almost too simple of a game, and that’s probably part of why it’s so addictive.
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Science
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Science Alert ☛ Matching Dinosaur Footprints Found 3,700 Miles Apart Reveal Earth's Past
How did they walk so far?
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Science Alert ☛ Mitochondria Dump DNA in The Brain, Potentially Cutting Years Off Our Lives
It’s far more frequent than we thought.
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Science Alert ☛ Young Boy Accidentally Shatters 3,500-Year-Old Jar at Museum
It was especially rare.
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Science Alert ☛ 20 Million Years Ago This Sea Cow Was Eaten by a Crocodile, And a Shark
A no good, awful, terribly bad day.
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Science Alert ☛ 'Misokinesia' Phenomenon May Affect 1 in 3 People, Research Shows
The struggle is real.
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Science Alert ☛ Intermittent Fasting Could Trigger Cancer Risks, Study in Mice Shows
A worrying link.
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Science Alert ☛ Ozempic vs Wegovy: The Risks And Side Effects of Semaglutide Drugs
Know before you buy.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Detect Invisible Electric Field Around Earth For First Time
A great unseen force has been revealed.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ China invested $6.1 billion in a state data center project in two years — the "Eastern Data, Western Computing" project aims to utilize the country's undeveloped land
According to a state official, the Chinese government has invested $6.1 billion in a new state data center project since 2022. The move comes as China becomes increasingly ostracized in the global tech market.
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Hackaday ☛ Reconfigurable Tracked Robot Has Some Neat Flexible Abilities
When you think of tracked robots, you might think of bomb disposal robots or others used in military applications. You probably haven’t seen anything quite like this, however—it’s a “reconfigurable continuous track robot” from researchers [Tal Kislasi] and [David Zarrouk (via IEEE Spectrum).
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Hackaday ☛ 3D Printering: Klipper, The Free 3D Printer Upgrade [Ed: "Klipper" name stolen from KDE]
I have several 3D printers, and I’ve always been satisfied with using either Repetier or Marlin on all of them. There are a few other firmware versions that could run on my hardware, but those two have been all I’ve needed. Sure, it was painful for a while having to juggle features to fit the firmware image onto the smaller microcontroller boards. Now that Marlin supports big 32-bit boards however, that hasn’t been a problem. But recently, I’ve been on a program to switch everything to Klipper.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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France24 ☛ From croissants to macarons: France, a pastry lover's paradise
France is famous for many things, but one of the first that comes to mind is food. The country boasts hundreds of cheeses, sophisticated dishes and incredible wines, but the cherry on top of French gastronomy is all its delicious desserts. France is a sweet-lover's paradise, with shops full of fabulous pastries at nearly every street corner. Where does this savoir-faire come from? Genie Godula and Florence Villeminot find out more in this episode of French Connections Plus, where they get a class in macaron making from world-famous pastry chef Pierre Hermé.
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New Yorker ☛ What Can We Learn from Menstrual Blood?
By drawing data out of tampons and pads, startups hope to shed light on poorly understood diseases.
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It’s Already August. We Used to Have About 9,000 Deaths a Week and Now It’s Over 10,000.
IN 2019 in week 32 we had 9,122 deaths registered in England and Wales. The average for 2014-2019 is 9,026, so 2019 was a relatively bad year. Today, based on the numbers just released by ONS, we can see that this year (in the same week) we had 10,030 death [...]
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New York Times ☛ No Vaccines, Tests or Treatments: Congo Lacks Tools to Confront Mpox
The country at the center of a global health emergency is struggling even to diagnose cases and provide basic care.
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New York Times ☛ Battling Mpox in the Outbreak’s Epicenter
The New York Times visited a remote hospital in Congo where children and adults suffer with mpox, recently declared a global health emergency.
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MIT Technology Review ☛ A new smart mask analyzes your breath to monitor your health
Your breath can give away a lot about you. Each exhalation contains all sorts of compounds, including possible biomarkers for disease or lung conditions, that could give doctors a valuable insight into your health.
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France24 ☛ Israel, Hamas agree to limited pauses in Gaza fighting to allow for polio vaccinations
Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories, said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to limited pauses in the fighting in Gaza to allow vaccinations against polio. Hamas said it is “ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure the campaign", according to a statement from Hamas’s political bureau. The urgent campaign comes after a 10-month-old Palestinian boy was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus, having missed the chance to be vaccinated because he was born just before the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants and Israel's ensuing offensive.
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The Strategist ☛ 20 years after the first Australian meth epidemic, another is upon us
Australian communities are teetering on the edge of a second methylamphetamine crisis that, if not addressed urgently, will lead to widespread health and safety issues.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identify 4 Key Factors That May Predict Cognitive Decline
Here's what we know.
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New York Times ☛ Life After Factory Farming: ‘The Longer They’re Out, the Happier They Are.’
Tyler Whitley works with a group that helps farmers leave industrialized livestock agriculture, and says consumers can play a role.
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Breach Media ☛ With Doug Ford’s closure of supervised drug sites, I dread what is to come
As a outreach worker for a decade in Toronto, I know Premier Ford’s reckless drug policy is a return to an old and deadly model
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ St. Paul to settle lawsuit after man says EMTs, paramedics disregarded stroke symptoms
The 84-year-old lived independently and now requires 24-hour care.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Silicon Angle ☛ Elastic shares plunge 25% on lower revenue projections amid slower customer commitments [Ed: After going proprietary]
Shares in Elastic N.V. plunged nearly 25% in late trading today after the enterprise search software company warned of slower growth and fell short on outlook alongside an otherwise solid quarterly earnings report.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Adm. Grace Hopper’s 1982 NSA Lecture Has Been Published
The “long lost lecture” by Adm. Grace Hopper has been published by the NSA. (Note that there are two parts.)
It’s a wonderful talk: funny, engaging, wise, prescient. Remember that talk was given in 1982, less than a year before the ARPANET switched to TCP/IP and the internet went operational. She was a remarkable person.
Listening to it, and thinking about the audience of NSA engineers, I wonder how much of what she’s talking about as the future of computing—miniaturization, parallelization—was being done in the present and in secret.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Matthew Green on Telegram’s Encryption
Matthew Green wrote a really good blog post on what Telegram’s encryption is and is not.
EDITED TO ADD (8/28): Another good explainer from Kaspersky.
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NYOB ☛ Unsere Wasserkraft & KSV 1870: Clean electricity only after a dirty credit check?
Unsere Wasserkraft & KSV 1870: Clean electricity only after a dirty credit check?
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Defence/Aggression
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Defence Web ☛ Mali is still unsafe under the military: why it hasn’t made progress against rebels and terrorists
The scale of casualties suffered by the Wagner group and Malian forces during a recent assault in the Tinzaouaten region reveal vulnerability in Mali’s counterinsurgency posture. The attack was reported in the media as the biggest loss for Russian paramilitaries in several years of operating in Africa.
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New York Times ☛ Top Biden Aide Holds Rare Talks With Chinese Military General
Jake Sullivan also met with China’s top leader, Pooh-tin Jinping, who said the United States should “find a correct way for the two major countries to get along.”
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RFA ☛ 10 nations join Super Garuda Shield military exercise in Indonesia
Analysts say the event reflects Jakarta’s strategic defense culture of non-alignment.
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RFA ☛ US, China rebuild military contacts even as China warns on Taiwan
Gen. Zhang Youxia and Jake Sullivan agreed on theater-level telephone call soon.
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RFA ☛ Philippines to exhaust options before seeking US military help for sea missions
The US military commander for the Indo-Pacific has offered naval escorts for Manila in the South China Sea.
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RFA ☛ Australia to hold largest-ever joint military exercise with Indonesia in November
Announcement comes as Indonesian and US troops stage joint annual drills along with eight other nations.
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The Strategist ☛ China’s failed first attempt to stymie the Pacific Policing Initiative
It wasn’t the perfect start for the endorsement of the Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI) on Wednesday at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting.
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University of Michigan ☛ U.K. riots should be a warning to U.S. politicians
After more than a week of rioting, looting and high tensions across the United Kingdom, the nation’s most severe bout of unrest in a decade came to an end on Aug. 8.
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The Kent Stater ☛ US Army rebukes Trump campaign for incident at Arlington National Cemetery
The US Army issued a stark rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign over the incident on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, saying in a statement on Thursday that participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery, and “abruptly pushed aside” an employee of the cemetery.
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New York Times ☛ Pelosi’s Car Passed Near Pipe Bomb on Jan. 6, According to New Video
As the then-speaker was being evacuated from an overrun Capitol, her security detail drove her near a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee headquarters that had yet to be rendered fully safe.
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CS Monitor ☛ Haiti’s start for real security
Initial success against gangs by foreign forces only opens a door for both the people and an interim government to achieve the "greater good.”
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The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan delivers protective equipment to Haiti security forces
Taiwan's embassy in Haiti on Thursday presented Haiti's national police and army with protective equipment such as helmets, tactical kneepads, eye protectors and bulletproof vests, to support their fight against powerful gangs.
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The Strategist ☛ No, Malaysia is not moving away from the West
Australia should understand that, from Malaysia’s perspective, being closer to China does not mean moving away from Australia or the West. Premier Anwar Ibrahim’s pro-China statements should be no cause for alarm. Misinterpreting Anwar’s actions ...
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RFERL ☛ Macron Hails Fighter Jet Deal Signed By Serbia As Historically Significant
French President Emmanuel Macron began a landmark state visit to Serbia on August 29 with the signing of an agreement on the purchase of 12 Rafale multipurpose fighter jets, which he said represented a shift toward Europe.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Putin To Visit ICC Member Mongolia On September 3, Says Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia, which is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), next week, the Kremlin said on August 29.
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Atlantic Council ☛ There can be no European peace without Ukrainian victory
Putin's Russia is an expansionist power that will inevitably go further if it is not stopped in Ukraine. Western leaders must recognize that there can be no European peace without Ukrainian victory, writes Olena Halushka.
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Environment
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The Straits Times ☛ Typhoon Shanshan pounds Japan with torrential rains, severe wind
The typhoon has claimed at least three lives and injured 78 people so far.
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New York Times ☛ South Korean Court Orders Stronger Steps on Climate Change
A ruling by the Constitutional Court declared the nation’s current measures insufficient and a violation of the rights of future generations.
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JURIST ☛ South Korea’s Constitutional Court mandates concrete carbon-reduction targets through 2049
The Constitutional Court of South Korea ruled on Thursday concerning the constitutionality of several key provisions related to the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, impacting the future of the country’s climate policy. It mandated that the government develop concrete plans for emission reductions through 2049, addressing climate campaigners’ concerns that current measures violate their rights.
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Energy/Transportation
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The Straits Times ☛ Air China’s first C919 plane makes its debut flight
The C919 features a two-class configuration with 158 seats.
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Hackaday ☛ Driven To Over-Engineer A Kids’ Car
You know, it feels as though it’s getting more and more difficult to compete for Father of the Year around here. And [Jon Petter Skagmo] just laid down a new gauntlet — the incredibly overly-engineered kids car.
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Barry Kauler ☛ Surprising stability of solar-powered bicycle
Last year I posted some pictures of electric bicycles with overhead solar panels:
That post included this photo:
My thinking at the time was this type of design would be impractical, due to side winds. Well, it turns out I was wrong!
Jack Butler won the 7,000km Sun Trip 2024 on a bicycle similar to the above. Including riding in "gale force" winds. Here is his participant page and a photo of his bike: [...]
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H2 View ☛ China’s Hygreen Energy invests $2.2bn into Spanish green hydrogen project
Hygreen Energy has announced it will invest up to €2bn ($2.2bn) into a green hydrogen production project in the Andalusian region of Spain.
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H2 View ☛ Zoomlion delivers first skid-mounted hydrogen station to Chinese truck project
China’s Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology has delivered its first fully autonomous skid-mounted hydrogen refuelling station to a heavy-duty truck project in Inner Mongolia.
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Wildlife/Nature
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New York Times ☛ Weaver Bird Nests in Africa Appear to Reflect Local Styles and Traditions
Sparrow weavers in Africa appear to learn distinct building styles that reflect group traditions, research shows. It raises intriguing questions about avian intelligence.
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Overpopulation
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea hits record high births to unmarried women amid declining total births
Babies born to people who were not married have steadily increased since 2020.
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Finance
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RFA ☛ Over 1 million Chinese restaurants close amid economic downturn
Officials have less money to spend, while many people are still getting takeout delivered at home.
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RFA ☛ Pakistan-based Uyghur businessmen praise China during Xinjiang visit
Activists say Beijing-funded trip was meant to dispel accusations of genocide in the region.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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LRT ☛ Local politicians rush to return ill-gotten funds as ‘receipts scandal’ probes continue
As investigations continue into the possible misuse of allowances by Lithuania's local government politicians, some of them have rushed to return the money voluntarily. However, it does not mean they will escape prosecution.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Press Gazette ☛ Dyson abandons Channel 4 News libel claim
Channel 4 News was "determined to defend its fair, accurate and duly impartial reporting".
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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RFA ☛ Hong Kong finds former editors guilty of sedition in blow to press freedom
It marks the first sedition conviction against any journalist since 1997.
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RFA ☛ EXPLAINED: How much has media freedom deteriorated in Hong Kong since 2020?
The sedition conviction of two Stand News editors is the latest of many blows to independent media in the city.
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Press Gazette ☛ Bristol Cable unlocks £40,000 grant after meeting membership funding target
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Press Gazette ☛ UK local news websites see audience bounceback
Updated ranking of top 78 UK local news websites for July 2024.
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JURIST ☛ US appeals court revives Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against New York Times
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday revived a libel lawsuit filed by the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin against the New York Times (NYT). In 2022, US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the case during jury deliberations.
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JURIST ☛ UN rights experts raise concerns regarding inhumane treatment of journalist Jose Zamora
UN human rights experts raised concerns Wednesday regarding the treatment of journalist Jose Ruben Zamora, who has been imprisoned in Guatemala for nearly two years, claiming that Zamora is being held in potentially life-threatening and inhumane conditions that could amount to torture.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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JURIST ☛ HRW: China persists in committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang
As the second anniversary of the UN’s critical report on Xinjiang approaches, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday: “The Chinese government persists in committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang while denying repression there.”
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The Strategist ☛ ‘Northern frontier culture’: How China is erasing ‘Mongolia’ from Mongolian culture
Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to change the term that people use to refer to Mongolian culture and to the cultural and historical heritage of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) [...]
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JURIST ☛ Canada court hears teen girl strip searched six times in custody in violation of provincial laws
A downtown Toronto court judge heard Wednesday as part of an agreed statement of facts that a teenage girl in custody had been strip-searched six times at two different facilities while in custody.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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APNIC ☛ APRICOT 2025 update
The APNOG Board regrets to inform that APRICOT 2025 will not proceed in Dhaka.
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SANS ☛ Simulating Traffic With Scapy, (Fri, Aug 30th)
It can be helpful to simulate different kinds of system activity. I had an instance where I wanted to generate logs to test a log forwarding agent. This agent was processing DNS logs. There are a variety of ways that I could have decided to simulate this activity:
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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