Leftovers

• Lev Lazinskiy ☛ jwz Discovers Enshittification at Feedly

  I loved this post from jwz about Feedly where he beautifully describes the feeling you get when you realize a service that you’re using is being enshittified.

• Joel Chrono ☛ A morning before work

  I just arrived to my bus to work, and decided to write about how my morning started today

• Derek Kędziora ☛ The past and technology

  The reason why is worth considering, and I would take it a step further and say it’s flawed to speak of computer and human memory with the same word: [...]

• Joel Chrono ☛ Prose, circumlocution and cantinfleadas

  Inspired by a much better post, I write about how my mind went too off-topic for my own good

• Austin Kleon ☛ Typewriter interview with Chase Jarvis

  Chase Jarvis has interviewed me many times over the years. We had tacos at Mi Madres a few months ago when he was in Austin to do some promotion for his brand new book, Never Play It Safe. Halfway through our lunch I said, “Hey, do you have a typewriter?” and he got a big grin on his face…

• Lucidity ☛ Get Me Out Of Data Hell

  It is 9:59 AM in Melbourne, 9th October, 2024. Sunlight filters through my windows, illuminating swirling motes of dust across my living room. There is a cup of tea in my hand. I take a sip and savor it.

  I text the other senior engineer, who unlike me is full-time, on the team: "I'm ready to start at 10", as is our custom.

  The minute hand moves.

  It is 10:00 AM in Melbourne, 9th October, 2024. The sun is immediately extinguished and replaced by a shrieking skull hanging low in a frigid sky. I glance down at my tea, and it is as blood. I take a sip and savor it.

  I text the other senior engineer on the team: "Are you ready to enter the Pain Zone?", as is our custom.

• Sebastiaan Andeweg ☛ How I blog in multiple languages

  Henrique is forcing me into participating in this collective blogging event called the "IndieWeb Carnival", this time hosted by ZinRicky. This month's topic is "Multilingualism in a Global Web", but I'll just write a bit about my own use of different languages on this site and on social media.

• Robert Birming ☛ The Power of Passion

  Regardless of what your goal is with your blog (if you have one), make sure it's something you're passionate about. Otherwise, both you and your readers will get tired of it.

  No advertising or SEO beats genuine passion.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Supercon 2023: Receiving Microwave Signals From Deep-Space Probes

    Here’s the thing about radio signals. There is wild and interesting stuff just getting beamed around all over the place. Phrased another way, there are beautiful signals everywhere for those with ears to listen. We go about our lives oblivious to most of them, but some dedicate their time to teasing out and capturing these transmissions.

  • New York Times ☛ Google Researchers Win Nobel Prize Amid Company’s Antitrust Battle

    On Wednesday, the Nobel Prize committee conferred considerable prestige to Google’s pursuit of big ideas. Demis Hassabis, the chief executive of Google’s primary artificial intelligence lab, and John Jumper, one of the lab’s scientists, were among a trio of researchers who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their efforts to better understand the human body and fight disease through A.I.

  • CBC ☛ Nobel chemistry award goes to trio of scientists researching protein structure

    In 2020, Hassabis and Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the academy said.

• Education

  • Yordi Verkroost ☛ The Pathless Path

    I could have stayed on that path for years to come, without any problems. But after about eight years, I began to sidetrack. My first deviation was becoming a learning and development advisor, while still at the same company. That side road eventually became more defined, leading me to my current role as both a high school and university teacher. It wasn’t something I planned, but it felt natural. It felt exactly like what I should do at the time.

  • Yordi Verkroost ☛ Rigid Hiring Rules

    And I get this student's reaction. I absolutely do. What I can’t understand is this rigid attitude of companies. Even if a student seems like a perfect fit, as was the case here, a missing checkmark on a form can be enough to lose a promising opportunity. There’s no flexibility, no creativity in the company's approach—just cold, spreadsheet-based management.

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ Agency in reading

    When I was in HS, there was a book another student told me was terrible, and I begged my teacher not to make me read it; he made a deal with me that if I didn’t like it, I could switch to a different book. It turned out the book (iirc) was great so we didn’t need the deal, but I think the teacher handled it well: it showed me he respected me and wouldn’t force me to continue something I loathed, but prompted me to try it and form my own opinion. I learned to pay closer attention to who I took book reviews from, and to give books a chance while knowing I could quit ones I disliked.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • CBC ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Canadian doctors warned to be on the lookout for scurvy

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] We’ve worked out a way of understanding how microbial communities shape life on Earth

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Marburg outbreaks: One of the world’s deadliest viruses

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Grounds for debate: Is tea or coffee the greener sip?

  • Ness Labs ☛ Why we worry: the weird rewarding cycle and what to do about it

    We spend a lot of time worrying. About work, money, friends, family, the future. For most people, it’s not the kind of paralyzing worry that prevents us from getting anything done. It’s more akin to background noise which we can be pretty good at ignoring. But it’s still there.

    It makes it harder than we’d like to fall asleep, and it sometimes hinders our decision-making when we focus on what could go wrong instead of what could go right. Worrying can lead to fatigue and irritation. If it’s so bad for us, why do we worry? Why is it that such an anxiety-inducing mental state is so common?

  • The Nation ☛ Republicans Are Hazardous to Your Health

    The authors are quick to say that this is a descriptive study—it doesn’t establish a cause-and-effect relationship between a state’s politics and health outcomes, and there may be other factors at work that are driving the results. However, this paper reinforces insights from other researchers who have looked at possible links between state politics and health outcomes and come to similar conclusions. This isn’t surprising: State policies on a variety of issues, from health care (e.g., Medicaid expansion) and public health, to other “determinants of health,” including taxation, education, the social safety net, immigration, and abortion, are all going to affect health outcomes.

  • Science Alert ☛ TikTok Says Cinnamon in Coffee Helps You Burn Fat. Here's The Truth.

    If you want to lose weight, there are evidence-backed approaches that won't spoil your morning coffee.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Little kids are spending big money on skin-care products

    Dermatologists and estheticians say the unease is more than just the usual hand-wringing of an older generation. They worry “skinfluencers” are pushing children to splurge on products that in some cases could cause damage to sensitive young skin, and are concerned the craze is kick-starting an unhealthy fixation with physical appearance.

  • CS Monitor ☛ These heirloom seed lovers grow community – and biodiversity too

    At the National Heirloom Exposition in Ventura, California, one of the largest gatherings of seed enthusiasts in the United States, visitors are greeted by an enormous pile of twisted squash. Heirloom seeds are available to buy or swap.

  • Mere Civilian ☛ One week on Threads

    Threads timeline is curated using algorithms. It shows posts that it thinks you'll like or that may provoke a reaction. Additionally, the timeline never ends, isn't sorted chronologically, and displays posts from people you don't follow. This combination keeps you interested and hooked. NO 🚫 THANK YOU 👊

  • New York Times ☛ Opinion | A Former Whistle-Blower Under Trump on What’s at Risk for Public Health

    Dr. Bright is a virologist and a former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • NL Times ☛ Blackmailers using deepfake sex videos of victims in extortion trend

    Helplines in the Netherlands are getting more reports of people on dating apps being confronted by deepfake videos of themselves performing sexual acts and demands for money or the video will be posted online. “It is a very worrying trend,” the helpline for Offlimits, an expert agency against online abuse, told AD.

  • Futurism ☛ Wikipedia Declares War on AI Slop

    Still, a lot of poor-quality AI content is tough to spot, especially when it comes to confident-sounding errors hidden in complex material.

    One example flagged to 404 by editors was an impressively crafted history of a "timbery" Ottoman fortress that never actually existed. While it was simply wrong, the text itself was passable enough that unless you happen to specialize in 13th-century Ottoman architecture, you likely wouldn't have caught the error.

  • New York Times ☛ Can You Turn Off Google and Meta’s AI Tools? Sometimes, and Here’s How.

    Big tech brands like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Meta have all unleashed tech that they describe as artificial intelligence. Soon, the companies say, we’ll all be using A.I. to write emails, generate images and summarize articles.

    But who asked for any of this in the first place?

  • International Business Times ☛ Kaspersky Is Shutting Down Its London Office And Laying Off Staff Following US Shutdown And Sale Ban

    The cybersecurity industry has been dealt another blow as Kaspersky announced the closure of its UK office and subsequent layoffs, just months after similar measures were taken in the US.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ CISA official: AI tools ‘need to have a human in the loop’

    Lisa Einstein, who took over as CISA’s first chief AI officer in August and has played a critical role in each of those efforts, considers herself an optimist when it comes to the technology’s potential, particularly as it relates to cyber defenses. But speaking Wednesday at two separate events in Washington, D.C., Einstein mixed that optimism with a few doses of caution.

  • 404 Media ☛ ‘I Applied to 2,843 Roles’: The Rise of AI-Powered Job Application Bots

    Using AI Hawk's Auto Jobs Applier bot, I applied for 17 jobs in an hour on LinkedIn.

  • SchwarzTech ☛ Article: Future Generations and the Argument for “Computer Literacy”

    With our 1-to-1 program, a number of students still often use their personal devices—lots of Macs, iPads, or Chromebooks—for everything except exams. This exacerbates the issues above as a PC that’s been sitting for a few weeks is often needier, playing catch-up on updates. Students tend to use what they feel comfortable with and if they’re able to complete their work, why should we criticize how they do it?

  • Carlos Becker ☛ Gumroad, where is my money?

    Speaking of alternatives, there aren’t any depending on your country. Where I live (Brazil), they only accept PayPal. No bank accounts, no Stripe. I’ve been wanting to use any of the other two options for years now (they are cheaper), and asked their support about it many times, but always replied something along the lines of “we are working on it”1.

  • Daniel Miessler ☛ How to Use Hugging Face Models with Ollama

    Ollama is one of my favorite ways to experiment with local AI models. It’s a CLI that also runs an API server for whatever it’s serving, and it’s super easy to use. Problem is—there’s only a couple dozen models available on the model page as opposed to over 65 kagillion on Hugging Face (roughly).

  • The Register UK ☛ Hold my Pimms! Wimbledon turns to tech for line-ball calls

    The club on Wednesday revealed that Live Electronic Line Calling (Live ELC) tech “will be adopted at The Championships from 2025: and trusted to make “‘out’ and ‘fault’ calls that have previously been made by line umpires.”

    Live ELC will be used on all courts – even the lowly ones employed for qualifying matches.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Amazon details new AI-powered package management system

    Amazon’s newly detailed VAPR system is designed to speed up the process. According to the company, internal tests indicate that the technology can save drivers more than half an hour per delivery route. Additionally, the drivers who tested VAPR reported that it reduced the amount of physical and mental effort involved in their work.

    Usually, finding the parcel ordered by a customer requires reading the text on the packages in a van’s storage compartment. VAPR spares drivers the hassle. It uses a projector to shine a green “O” on the packages that should be dropped off at a given stop and a red “X” on the other parcels.

  • Nick Heer ☛ Private Systems for Public Services

    One of the side effects of the decline of née Twitter is in the splintering of its de facto customer support and alert capabilities. Plenty of organizations still use it that way. But it should only be one option. Apps like WhatsApp should not be the preferred contact method, either. Private companies’ contact methods should be available, sure — meet people where they are — but a standard method should always be as easily available.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ New IPANDETEC Report Shows Panama’s ISPs Still Lag in Protecting User Data

      Companies are awarded stars and partial stars for meeting parameters set for each category. Más Móvil scored highest with four stars, while Tigo received two and one-half stars and Digicel one and a half. Celero scored highest among fixed internet providers with one and three-quarters stars. Interfast and DBS received three-fourths of a star and one-half star, respectively.The report showed progress on a few fronts: Más Móvil and Digicel publish privacy policy for their services, while Más Móvil has committed to follow relevant legal procedures before providing authorities with the content of its users’ communications, a significant improvement compared to 2021.Tigo maintains its commitment to require judicial authorization or follow established procedures before providing data and to reject requests that don’t comply with legal requirements.Más Móvil and Tigo also stand out for joining human rights-related initiatives. Más Móvil is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact and belongs to SUMARSE, an organization that promotes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Panama.Tigo, meanwhile, has projects aimed at digital and social transformation, including Conectadas: Empowering Women in the Digital World, Entrepreneurs in Action: Promoting the Success of Micro and Medium-sized Enterprises, and Connected Teachers: The Digital Age for teachers.All three fixed internet service providers received partial credit for meeting some parameters for digital security.

      Still, the report showed that internet providers in Panama have a long way to go to incorporate best practices in most categories. For instance, no company published transparency reports with detailed quantitative data for Panama.Both mobile and fixed internet telecommunications companies are not committed to informing users about requests or orders from authorities to access their personal data, according to the report. As for digital security, companies have chosen to maintain a passive position regarding the promotion of digital security.None of the mobile providers have opposed requiring users to undergo facial recognition to register or access their mobile phone services. As the report underlines, companies' resignation "marks a significant step backwards and affects human rights, such as the right to privacy, intimacy and the protection of personal data." Mandating face recognition as a condition to use mobile services is "an abusive intrusion into the privacy of users, setting a worrying precedent with the supposed objective of fighting crime," the report says.No company has a website or relevant documents available in native languages. Likewise, no company has a declaration and/or accessibility policy for people with disabilities (in physical and digital environments) or important documents in an accessible format.But it's worth noting that Más Móvil has alternative channels for people with sensory disabilities and Contact Center services for blind users, as well as remote control with built-in voice commands to improve accessibility.  Tigo, too, stands out for being the only company to have a section on its website about discounts for retired and disabled people.IPANDETEC’s Quien Defiende Tus Datos series of reports is part of a region-wide initiative, akin to EFF’s Who Has Your Back project, which tracks and rates ISPs’ privacy policies and commitments in Latin America and Spain. 

    • Digital Music News ☛ Ticketmaster Becomes First to Integrate with Apple Wallet

      Ticketmaster has become the first ticketing company to integrate with the new Apple Wallet, which now includes key event information, like a map of the venue and parking details. To kick off the new functionality, Ticketmaster’s first new tickets to take advantage of these new features are the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) at their home game at BMO Stadium on Saturday, October 19.

    • New York Times ☛ Does Your School Use Suicide Prevention Software? We Want to Hear From You.

      Such tools — produced by companies like Gaggle, GoGuardian Beacon, Bark and Securly — can pick up what a child types into a Google search, or a school essay, or an email or text message to a friend. Some of these alerts may be false alarms, set off by innocuous research projects or offhand comments, but the most serious alerts may prompt calls to parents or even home visits by school staff members or law enforcement.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Login.gov announces availability for facial recognition technology

      Following a facial recognition pilot with the single sign-on platform, the GSA announced that the verification tech is now generally available.

    • Barry Hess ☛ I Finally Lost My Smart Ring!

      I rolled back into the hotel room and was hit with a wave of relief. No longer do I have to worry about losing the ring. The ring was lost. I could no longer lose the ring! It was an expensive mistake. Our time together was over. I was released.

    • OpenRightsGroup ☛ ICO response to ORG complaint against Meta and AI – 25 September 2024

      Thank you for your letter of 15 July to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) raising Open Rights Group’s (ORG) concerns about Meta’s proposed use of UK users’ personal information for training generative artificial intelligence (AI). We have taken note of this complaint to inform our work in this area.

      The ICO has been engaging with Meta in relation to its processing of UK Facebook and Instagram user data for these purposes, including on the areas of concern raised in your letter. As you might be aware, in June 2024 Meta paused its plans to use Facebook and Instagram user data to train generative AI. This was in response to a request from the ICO. Following this, Meta made changes to its approach, such as by making it simpler for users to object to the processing.

    • The Local DK ☛ EU unveils plans to make passports and IDs digital for Schengen travel

      The European Commission has released details of its proposal to make passports and national identity cards available in a digital format on smartphones to "speed up travel" to and within the Schengen Area.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Deebot Robot Vacuums Are Using Photos and Audio to Train Their AI

      An Australian news agency is reporting that robot vacuum cleaners from the Chinese company Deebot are surreptitiously taking photos and recording audio, and sending that data back to the vendor to train their AIs.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Germany to beef up security checks amid spying fears

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] The Impact of Bangladesh’s Political Shift on North East India’s Geopolitics and Security

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] India: Security forces say Maoist rebels killed in gunfight

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Iran Rejects UK Security Official's 'Accusations' Against Tehran, Foreign Ministry Says

  • NL Times ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Palestinians accuse Israeli security service of influencing International Criminal Court

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Pakistan locks down capital ahead of pro-Khan rally

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] How are German-Israeli relations a year after Hamas attacks?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] How India-China border tensions impact Ladakh nomads

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] India: Top court rules against caste-based tasks in prisons

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Interview with Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev: 'Trump and Harris will not accept a Putin victory'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Israel may be using German-leased Heron war drones

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] US-Taiwan aid package a signal to China ahead of election?

  • The Dissenter ☛ Israel Charges American Journalist With 'Aiding The Enemy' For Reporting On Iranian Missile Strikes

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] From TikTok to tailgates, Trump and Harris woo young Michigan voters

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Facebook, YouTube and TikTok Users in Europe Get Forum to Challenge Social Media Content Decisions

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] States Sue TikTok, Claiming Its Platform Is Addictive and Harms the Mental Health of Children

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Ken Paxton Sues TikTok for Violating New Texas Social Media Law

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] TikTok Sued by 13 States and DC, Accused of Harming Younger Users

  • CBC ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Getting fitness tips on social media can be harmful — but it doesn't have to be

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Charge Against TikTok Personality Upgraded in the Killing of a Louisiana Therapist

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Midwest secretaries of state host election security and integrity summit in Nebraska

    The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, hosted the event.

    Evnen’s three counterparts from Iowa (Paul Pate), Missouri (Jay Ashcroft) and South Dakota (Monae Johnson) joined the event, which Evnen said he expects to be repeated in future years. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab participated in other summit events, including briefings on NCITE research, but was unable to attend the news conference, officials said.

    Pate, who is in his fourth term as Iowa’s secretary of state, said he has seen elections evolve and become “more aggressive” in the past two decades, particularly through technology. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate. Oct. 9, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

    Yet election confidence remains essential, Pate said, and secretaries of state are doing everything they ca

  • The Strategist ☛ What would victory in Ukraine look like?

    He failed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected advice to flee the country and create a government in exile, and instead rallied his troops, saved the capital, and derailed Putin’s plan. Zelensky subsequently used the soft power of attraction to win foreign support and increase Ukraine’s hard power of military might. The result of Putin’s invasion was to strengthen Ukraine’s national identity and NATO, which has added two new members, Finland and Sweden, that previously had a long-standing policy of neutrality. Judging by Putin’s original war objectives, Ukraine has already won.

    The problem, of course, is that Russian troops still control approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and Putin has revised his war goals to demand that Ukraine recognise his annexation of four eastern provinces (including some that Russian troops do not fully control). The war seems to be stalemated, but Putin has turned it into a war of attrition. While Russian casualties are enormous, he may be betting that time is on his side, given Russia’s larger population and economy. Eventually, Ukraine’s will to fight may erode, as will Western support.

  • NL Times ☛ Human trafficking in Groningen is a bigger problem than city authorities realize: study

    There are more victims of human trafficking in the city of Groningen than the authorities know about, according to a study by the Center for Child Trafficking and Human Trafficking (CKM) commissioned by the municipality. Over half of care providers and professionals think they’ve had contact with multiple human trafficking victims in the past two years.

  • La Prensa Latina ☛ Democracy in Colombia is in danger, claims Foreign Ministry

    Speaking at the Ministry’s headquarters, Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Rojas described the situation as serious, and considered that the maneuver against the president seeks to take that process to the Commission of Accusation of the House of Representatives and later to the Senate.

    He warned that one of the objectives might be to promote Article 109 of the Constitution to declare the president unworthy and remove him from office. According to Rojas, it is a very dangerous procedure that begins by ignoring presidential immunity.

  • JURIST ☛ US states sue TikTok for harming children's mental health

    The factual allegations outlined in the suit include that the app is designed to be addictive and that it misrepresents itself as safe for children. It is also argued that minors are particularly susceptible to the harmful influence of the platform. The plaintiffs allege that despite there being internal documentation to show that the company knows the harmful impact of its product, it has continuously misrepresented itself to be a safe space and exaggerated the effectiveness of in-built features designed to combat addiction.

    The suit particularly observes a spike in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation among youth across the nation, a claim which is buttressed by various research studies. Different sources were cited to demonstrate how widely the platform is used by children, and also how addictive it can be.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Former NATO Chief to Chair Munich Security Conference From February

    • CPJ ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Ukranian journalist Viktoria Roshchina dies during Russia prisoner exchange

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Indifference in the Face of Power: Russia’s Apathy Toward Both Putin’s Reign and His Fall

    • NL Times ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Unilever confirms the sale of its Russian activities to Arnest Group

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Hamburg names square after Russian journalist Politkovskaya

    • HRW ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] UN Renews Human Rights Mandate on Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] North Korea's Kim Lauds 'Longest Ruling Party' on Anniversary With Russian Guests

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Ukrainian Journalist Dies in Russian Detention, Officials Say

    • CPJ ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Italian journalists Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini arrested in absentia over Russia war report

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Telegram: why the app is allowed when other social media is censored in Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] EU Commission Chief: Hungary's Russia, China Policies Pose Security Risk

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Russia Declares Local Emergency in Region Where Ukraine Says It Hit Weapons Arsenal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Russian Court Hands Ex-Marine Trevor Reed Long Sentence in Absentia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Russia Says Hezbollah Is Still Organised Despite Israeli Attacks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Ukraine Eyes Peace Summit by Year-End That Includes Russia, Envoy to Turkey Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Ukrainian Drone Strikes Another Arms Depot Inside Russia, Officials Say

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Ukraine updates: North Koreans 'likely' died fighting for Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Romania's Top Court Says It Barred Candidate From Presidential Race Over Pro-Russian Views

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Russian Attack on Ukrainian City of Kharkiv Injures 21, Officials Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Russian Climbers Die on Nepal's Dhaulagiri Peak, Hiking Company Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Russian Shelling Kills One, Injures Five in Ukraine's Kherson Region

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Russia Says Emergency Hotlines With US and NATO Remain as Nuclear Risks Rise

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Russia's GRU Seeking to Cause 'Mayhem' in Britain and Europe, UK's MI5 Spy Chief Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Ukraine's Military Says It Shot Down 18 Russian Drones Overnight

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] UK Sanctions Russian Troops for Chemical Weapons Use in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Zelenskiy: Ukraine Maintaining Sufficient Pressure on Russian Forces in Kursk Region

    • HRW ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] UN Human Rights Council Should Renew Expert Monitor on Russia

    • International Business Times ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russia Outmaneuvers Sanctions With Barter Deals: Accepting Rice And Mandarins From Pakistan Instead Of Cash

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Freed Russian Arms Dealer Bout Back in Weapons Business, WSJ Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Detained Ex-Russian Defence Ministry Official to Face New Charges of Embezzlement, TASS Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Fire Breaks Out at Oil Depot in Crimea, Officials Appointed by Russia Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Kremlin Says Russia Will Appoint a New Ambassador to the United States

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russia Has Opened Criminal Cases Against 14 Foreign Journalists for Crossing Kursk Border, FSB Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russian Court Jails U.S. Citizen Hubbard for Nearly Seven Years on Ukraine Mercenary Charge

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russian Court Sentences a 72-Year-Old American to Nearly 7 Years in Prison for Fighting in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russian Court Sentences U.S. Citizen Gilman to Over 7 Years in Prison on Assault Charges

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Russian State Media Company Hit by Unprecedented Cyberattack, Kremlin Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Ukraine Says Russian Hypersonic Missile Hit 'Area Of' Major Air Base

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Ukraine Strikes a Russian Oil Hub as Zelenskyy Says the War Is in 'A Very Important Phase'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-06 [Older] What if Russia blocks the export of its raw materials?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-06 [Older] Russia Strikes Ukraine With Drones and Missiles

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-06 [Older] Russia Targets Kyiv, Odesa in Latest Drone Attack

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Russian Prosecutors Seek 7-Year Sentence for US Man Accused of Fighting for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Russia's Envoy to U.S. Ends His Term at Time of Bilateral Turmoil

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Russian Prosecutor Seeks 7-Year Sentence for US Man Over Mercenary Charges, IFX Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Ukraine Downs a Russian Warplane and Russia Claims Gains in the East

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Romania Finds Russian Drone Fragments Near Ukraine Border

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Russia Retrains Ex-Soldiers Heading Back to the Battlefield

    • CPJ ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] CPJ calls for an end to ‘systematic pressure’ on Ukrainska Pravda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy on 'victory plan' tour of Europe

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Ukraine war: Zelenskyy wants more weapons from Germany

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Biden Spoke With German Chancellor, Discussed Ukraine, Says White House

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Exclusive-World Bank Board Approves New Ukraine Fund, With Money From US, Japan, Canada, Sources Say

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Ukraine summit postponed after Biden cancels Germany visit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Pope Francis to Meet Ukraine's Zelenskiy on Friday

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Ramstein Meeting on Ukraine Postponed After Biden Cancels Trip

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Zelenskiy Meets Croatia PM Ahead of Ukraine-South East Europe Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Blinken to Discuss Myanmar, South China Sea and Ukraine at Asia Summits Laos

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Hungary PM Orban Says Ukraine Cannot Win on the Battlefield

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Hungary to Hold up G7 Loan to Ukraine Until After US Election

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Ukraine Could Be Facing Toughest Winter Since Invasion Began, NATO Chief Says

    • NL Times ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Netherlands pushing €400 mil. into drones for Ukraine; First Dutch F-16s deployed in war

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv strikes oil terminal in Crimea

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Ukraine's Shmyhal Discusses Energy Security With Slovakia's Fico

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-06 [Older] Dutch Defence Minister Pledges 400 Million Euros for Drone Action Plan With Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskyy to present 'victory plan' in Ramstein

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-05 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy to Present 'Victory Plan' at Ramstein Meeting

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Washington Post ☛ Who is bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto? What an HBO doc found.

    The identity of the inventor of bitcoin might be the [Internet]’s most enduring and consequential mystery — especially because that person could personally control a cryptocurrency stash worth tens of billions of dollars. Now the creator of a new HBO documentary thinks he may have solved the riddle.

• Environment

  • France24 ☛ 'Irreversible' environmental disasters loom as global temperatures rise, new study finds

    A major study published on Wednesday warns that even temporarily exceeding the 1.5°C global warming limit could lead to irreversible consequences, including rising sea levels and mass biodiversity loss. With global emissions still rising, scientists stress that hopes of reversing climate overshoot without drastic action are dangerously misguided.

  • Futurism ☛ Our Climate Is So Screwed Up, It Rained in the Sahara Desert

    "It's been 30 to 50 years since we've had this much rain in such a short space of time," Houssine Youabeb of the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology told the AP.

  • Wired ☛ Hurricane Milton Shows How a Storm’s Category Doesn’t Tell the Full Story

    But while Milton’s wind speed was reduced, the inundation of water forecast for Florida remained just as massive as before. Tampa, a city of 3 million that hasn’t taken such a direct hit in a century, faces a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet, along with nearby St. Petersburg and Sarasota, according to the National Hurricane Center. This comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene pushed an 8-foot surge into the area. Central and northern Florida could also see 12 inches of rainfall, with up to 18 inches in isolated areas.

    That Milton could decrease in category but still threaten such a high storm surge and volume of rainfall shows a major shortcoming of the Saffir–Simpson scale, by which we assign hurricanes categories 1 through 5: It’s based solely on wind speed, even though in an era of climate change, hurricanes have been unleashing more and more water on cities. That has left hurricane forecasters trying to move beyond these categories and convey the risk of storm surge and flooding, so people will still evacuate even if wind speeds slacken.

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Trump, GOP Push Misinformation on Hurricanes as Climate Crisis Intensifies

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Hurricane Milton slams Florida: What you need to know

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] What if you can’t afford to flee a hurricane?

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] These Floridians couldn’t flee Hurricane Milton. They’re incarcerated.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Amid Hurricane Milton, GOP Reps Are Blocking Climate Action

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Climate Crisis Made Ocean Heat Driving Milton Up to 800 Times More Likely

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] WTTC Reveals Significant Decrease in Travel & Tourism’s Climate Footprint Emissions

  • Renewable Energy World ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Minneapolis Climate Action takes equitable approach to combating climate change

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] How Hurricane Milton exploded into a terrifying Category 5 storm in just hours

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Is FEMA messing up? An expert weighs in.

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Overview: Denmark’s climate policies and latest progress to net zero

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Leaked recordings detail a major environmental agency quietly gutting its workforce

  • Vox ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] This awkward fish works harder than you

  • Energy/Transportation

    • FAIR ☛ ‘The Insurance Industry Is the Fossil Fuel Industry’: CounterSpin interview with Derek Seidman on insurance and climate

      Janine Jackson interviewed writer/researcher Derek Seidman about insurance and climate  for the October 4, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Will the Dangote refinery solve Nigeria's oil issues?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] EU greenlights tariffs for Chinese electric vehicles

    • Copenhagen Post ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Denmark postpones green hydrogen transmission rollout to Germany to 2031

    • DeSmog ☛ Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick: Where Do They Stand on Climate Action?

    • DeSmog ☛ Greens Pressure London Mayor to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads on Public Transport

    • DeSmog ☛ The First Gas Utility Sued for Climate Deception

    • New York Times ☛ Bitcoin Documentary ‘Money Electric’ Reopens Search for Satoshi Nakamoto

      Let’s start with the first part. Among Bitcoin buffs and cryptocurrency journalists, the mystery of Mr. Nakamoto’s identity has been the subject of fierce debate and painstaking investigation for more than a decade. But nothing has been proved conclusively, and a handful of bungled attempts to crack the case — most notoriously a 2014 Newsweek cover story that put the blame on a physicist, Dorian Nakamoto, who turned out to have nothing to do with Bitcoin at all — have only muddied the waters.

    • NDTV ☛ US Airbnb Host Hit With Rs 1.25 Lakh Electricity Bill After Guests Mine Rs 84 Lakh In Crypto

      An Airbnb host in the US was forced to add 'no cryptocurrency mining' to the list of instructions after a bizarre guest experience. According to Business Insider, Airbnb host Ashley Class revealed in a video posted to TikTok that she had banned [cryptocurrency] mining in her short-term rentals after she got a massive electricity bill of $1,500 (approximately Rs 1.25 lakh). The guests initially seemed like model renters. They were "five stars all the way," Ms Class said, with no issues or hiccups during their three-week stay. However, this was until the guests made her rental property a makeshift [cryptocurrency]-mining hub and ran up $1,500 in utility charges.

    • Six Colors ☛ Putting my solar (power) system in my menu bar

      It was a busy summer at the Snell house. Our roof predated our purchase of our house, and we’ve been in this house 25 years, so… yeah. We needed a new roof. Getting a new roof was an opportunity to add a rooftop solar power system and update our HVAC system, so we went all in, and all summer I coordinated with three different companies, all of whom wanted to spend time on my roof, or attaching things to the side of my house, or rewiring things on the inside.

    • CBC ☛ Was bitcoin's mysterious creator a Canadian? A new HBO documentary says yes (maybe)

      In the 15 years since bitcoin was first created, no one has been able to crack one mystery: the true identity of the creator, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto.

      Now, a new HBO documentary has opened the case files again to point the finger at a new candidate: Canadian [cryptocurrency] expert and software developer Peter Todd.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-10-04 [Older] Thailand: Cats and elephants threatened by monsoon flood

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Gazing at your dog can connect your brains, research shows

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Rethinking Dry Forest Management in a Warming Climate

    • EcoWatch ☛ ‘We Are Reaching Points of No Return’: WWF Report Finds Wildlife Has Declined 73% in Half a Century

      In the report, the scientists said species loss could speed up along with increased global heating, precipitated by tipping points in the Arctic, the Amazon rainforest and marine ecosystems. This could lead to disastrous consequences for humans and the environment.

      “We are dangerously close to tipping points for nature loss and climate change. But we know nature can recover, given the opportunity, and that we still have the chance to act,” said Matthew Gould, chief executive of ZSL, as reported by The Guardian.

    • Kiel University ☛ Elephants remember zookeepers after many years

      The results are also interesting for keeping elephants in zoos. Because if the pachyderms really do remember their keepers for so long, then this suggests that they are pretty important to the animals. A stable relationship with their human caregivers can therefore potentially have a very positive effect on the well-being of zoo elephants.

• Finance

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] What to Know About This Year's Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Tips, Overtime, Social Security: A Look at Donald Trump's No-Tax Pledges and What They Might Cost

  • BIA Net ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Turkish banking giant Yapı Kredi discriminates against visually impaired customer

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Pro Publica ☛ Tim O’Hare’s Rise in Texas Shows the Far Right’s Vision for Local Government

    Over the past two decades, Tim O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity.

    He rode a wave of conservative resentment, leaping from City Council member of Farmers Branch, a suburb north of Dallas, in 2005 to its mayor to the leader of the Tarrant County Republican Party.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Battle Over Ballot Drop Boxes Rages On in Wisconsin

    They are squat, stationary and seemingly innocuous. But ever since the high drama of the 2020 presidential election, humble drop boxes have been more than a receptacle of absentee ballots; they’ve morphed into a vessel for emotion, suspicion and even conspiracy theories.

    In the battleground state of Wisconsin, especially, the mere presence of these sidewalk containers has inspired political activists and community leaders to plot against them, to call on people to watch them around the clock and even to hijack them.

  • New York Times ☛ The Downfall of FTX’s Ryan Salame and Crypto Advocate Michelle Bond

    He was a wealthy cryptocurrency executive with a shiny white Porsche and a luxury condo in the Bahamas. She was a crypto policy expert with political ambitions, advocating for the industry in Washington.

    A romance blossomed after they were brought together by an unlikely matchmaker: Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX crypto exchange.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ White House is prioritizing secure [Internet] routing, using memory safe languages

    Speaking at a Recorded Future event Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Coker said the White House is looking at next steps to secure Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, which directs data through the most efficient [Internet] route via thousands of public and private networks.

    The White House wants to advance BGP security through the adoption of security mechanisms known as Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI). The White House last month announced its plans to have RPKI in place in more than 60% of the federal government’s advertised IP space by the end of the year.

  • The Record ☛ OpenAI disrupts 20 campaigns to misuse its tech as federal officials mull international use of AI

    OpenAI said it has disrupted more than 20 operations this year by nation-states and affiliates to abuse its technology and use it for a range of malicious activity.

    The AI giant published a 54-page report Wednesday detailing efforts by actors from China, Iran, Russia, Israel and other countries to do everything from writing more sophisticated malware code to rewriting phishing emails and Twitter posts.

  • France24 ☛ Indian tycoon Ratan Tata, respected for his business acumen and philanthropy, dies at 86

    Ratan Tata, a pillar of India's proud but dwindling Zoroastrian Parsi community, who led the Tata Group for decades, died in a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night, aged 86. His years at the helm of a family business empire founded under British colonial rule saw the Tata Group expand its global footprint. Back home, Tata was renowned for his group's myriad charity projects.

  • International Business Times ☛ Elon Musk's Starlink Gives Hurricane Helene Victims Free Internet For 30 Days—With A $400 Catch

    According to Baughman, it was not worthwhile for residents to accept Musk's offer, considering that it would take "months" before they could receive service. By then, normal [Internet] access would likely have been restored.

    "Assuming someone can get over the one or two, if not more, bridges that are down and physically get their hands on the device, you still need electricity to run the thing," Baughman said. "Thousands of people are out of power still and hundreds if not thousands of those don't have a generator."

  • [Old] Business Insider ☛ Bill Gates Is Still Pulling Strings at Microsoft, Overseeing AI Ideas - Business Insider

    Publicly, Gates has been almost entirely out of the picture at Microsoft since 2021, following allegations that he had behaved inappropriately toward female employees. In fact, Business Insider has learned, Gates has been quietly orchestrating much of Microsoft's AI revolution from behind the scenes. Current and former executives say Gates remains intimately involved in the company's operations — advising on strategy, reviewing products, recruiting high-level executives, and nurturing Microsoft's crucial relationship with Sam Altman, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI. In early 2023, when Microsoft debuted a version of its search engine Bing turbocharged by the same technology as ChatGPT, throwing down the gauntlet against competitors like Google, Gates, executives said, was pivotal in setting the plan in motion. While Nadella might be the public face of the company's AI success — the Oz who built the yellow-brick road to a $3 trillion juggernaut — Gates has been the man behind the curtain.

    "What you read is not what's happening in reality," another Microsoft executive said. "Satya and the entire senior leadership team lean on Gates very significantly. His opinion is sought every time we make a major change."

  • [Old] LXer ☛ LXer: Microsoft Getting Closer to the Fire

    A dispute that has kept the House Ethics Committee from considering Majority Leader Tom DeLay's activities may have ramifications for Microsoft. When one begins to untangle the remarkable political organization created by Microsoft and lobbyists Preston, Gates Ellis et al, you find some uncanny coincidences.

    The ethics committee, the House's mechanism for enforcing rules for members, has operated for exactly one day since Congress convened in January. In the meanwhile, a former Preston, Gates and Ellis lobbyist, Jack Abramoff has become the target of several serious investigations and the focus of the D.C. media.

    Abramoff left Preston Gates in 2000. Even so, he's a problem for the firm's management. Reports have surfaced questioning Abramoff's financing of travel for lawmakers, especially House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). All of the spending under investigation happened while Abramoff worked at Preston Gates.

  • [Old] LXer ☛ LXer: Following Bill Gates' Linux Attack Money

    In the same letter he writes, "One of Microsoft's high-level executives says (published) that freely distributed software code such as Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat."

    Little doubt exists that Microsoft has reached legislators. In an earlier article added to this one below, we discussed how a dispute in the House Ethics Committee has kept the members from meeting and considering House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's activities that could have ramifications for Microsoft. In making legislators aware of many issues, the Redmond company's financial reach may be part of why the committee has delayed their investigation. Perhaps everyone involved hopes that a delay will allow the heat to pass on this and other issues.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • EFF ☛ Podcast Episode Rerelease: So You Think You’re A Critical Thinker

      With this year’s election just weeks away, concerns about disinformation and conspiracy theories are on the rise.

      We covered this issue in a really enlightening talk in March 2023 with Alice Marwick, the director of research at Data & Society, and previously the cofounder and principal researcher at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

    • VOA News ☛ Russian propagandists push fake story that Zelenskyy bought Hitler's car

      In fact, the article with headline "Hitler's parade car bought by Ukraine's Zelensky" was another fake spread by Russian propaganda.

      There is no such media outlet as the Seattle Tribune, just a website masquerading as a full-fledged publication. And the article itself was a compilation of Russia's disinformation "greatest hits" about Ukraine — "Nazism," "unrestrained corruption" and "wasting American aid."

    • Futurism ☛ No, SpaceX's Starlink Internet Isn't Free for All Hurricane Survivors

      IT expert Kenny Baughman, who lives in the Helene-hit area of Boone, North Carolina, told the Register that Starlink's misleading offer was a "play on desperation." (Baughman also left a comment in a post-hurricane help group on Facebook calling the offer a "crafty bait and switch.")

      "When someone comes along and says I'm going to give you free [Internet], people start going nuts," Baughman told the Register. "Starlink is pulling on the heartstrings of people overwhelmed by disaster."

    • The Atlantic ☛ What the White House is doing on Reddit

      This has been quite a week for disinformation across the [Internet]: Some of the lies being spread as storms batter the Southeast come from accounts that belong to everyday users posting sensational images with the help of AI, but some have come directly from elected officials, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, who are using the storm to fuel a political agenda. Debuting on Reddit this week was a way for the White House to push back against misinformation, Christian L. Tom, the White House director of digital strategy, told me earlier today. “We view Reddit as a good example of a service that allows people to align around shared interests,” including specific topics and locations, Tom said.

    • The Atlantic ☛ I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is

      The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality. As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the [Internet]. The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel. Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed on the East Coast by the U.S. government, and “truth seeker” accounts on X that posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” in order to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”

    • VOA News ☛ Hurricane disinformation leads to danger, experts say

      Disinformation and conspiracy theories have spread quickly in response to natural disasters in the southeastern United States, creating distrust in the government response, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

      “It is absolutely the worst I have ever seen,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters on a Tuesday call.

      The spread of lies surrounding the natural disasters comes at a time when social media infrastructure will allow “virtually any claim” to amplify and spread, experts say.

    • VOA News ☛ On TikTok, AI-generated 'Russian' women deliver pro-China messages with sales pitch

      A joint investigation by Voice of America and social media analytics firm Doublethink Lab uncovered several accounts on TikTok like Alina's and Lisa’s that feature videos of Russian women generated by artificial intelligence, or AI. All the accounts emerged around July and August and followed a similar pattern of leveraging patriotic sentiment to bolster China-Russia ties before going on to promote products.

    • The Washington Post ☛ How China is using X to influence local elections in 2024 campaign

      The accounts are part of Spamouflage, China’s largest known covert influence operation, which often uses prolific distribution techniques to spread Chinese Communist Party talking points across the [Internet]. Active since at least 2017, the network has posted on more than 40 [Internet] platforms, according to the digital forensics research group Graphika.

      But the recent campaigns illustrate a shift in China’s strategy, as it seeks to actively influence political discourse in the United States. Once focused on promoting positive narratives about the CCP, Chinese propaganda campaigns are increasingly weighing in on local and national elections and posting about hot-button U.S. political issues, such as police violence, Black Lives Matter and immigration, experts said.

    • Axios ☛ TikTok users rely on content creators — not journalists — for news

      Why it matters: Instead, they are relying on creators, entertainers and influencers to deliver the news — even as mis-and-disinformation campaigns continue.

      State of play: More than half of Americans say they at least sometimes get news [sic] from social media platforms, according to Pew.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Hurricane Helene Is a Disinformation Super Bowl

      Fewer than 30 days from Election Day, authorities responding to the devastation of Hurricane Helene are not just battling downed trees, washed-out bridges and wrecked power lines to get food, medicine, water and shelter to Americans bereft in the storm’s aftermath.

      They’re also fighting a flood of disinformation and misinformation about those in need and about the federal response – much of it spread by partisans of former President Donald Trump who see a political advantage in portraying rescue and recovery efforts as hapless or nonexistent.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFERL ☛ Monument Honoring Soviet Victims Finally Erected In Siberia, Despite Officials' Roadblocks

    Sources familiar with the project to build the new monument, which flies in the face of Putin's narrative, told RFE/RL on October 10 that the idea dates back to 2008, when the Nizhnevartovsk city administration held a competition to design it.

    Despite initial momentum, the project stalled for years, with officials citing various logistical reasons.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ Hong Kong court rejects activist Jimmy Lai's bid to have a jury trial for libel case

    Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is one of the city's leading activists who was prosecuted under a sweeping national security law during Beijing's crackdown on dissent. He has been the subject of criticism by pro-Beijing media outlets for years.

  • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Journalist Viktoria Roshchyna Dies In Russian Captivity

    Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who had gone missing in Russian-occupied territories, has been confirmed dead while in Russian captivity, Ukrainian authorities reported on October 10.

  • VOA News ☛ Ukrainian journalist dies in Russian custody

    A journalist taken captive by Russia while reporting in eastern Ukraine has died in custody, Ukrainian officials announced Thursday.

    Viktoria Roshchyna, 28, had been in detention for over a year. Her death in Russian custody was announced by a spokesperson for Ukraine's prisoner-of-war unit.

  • CPJ ☛ Cameroon bans reporting on President Paul Biya’s health, whereabouts

    “The Cameroonian government should simply put the rumors to rest by arranging a public appearance by the head of state,“ said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The health of the president, who has been in power for 41 years and may seek re-election next year, is of public interest. Any misguided attempt to censor reporting about his health for national security reasons simply fuels rampant speculation.”

  • CPJ ☛ U.S. complaint filed against Salvadoran officer in 1982 killing of Dutch journalists

    The U.S.-based Center for Justice and Accountability filed the complaint on behalf of Gert Kuiper, Jan’s brother, in collaboration with human rights groups Fundación Comunicándonos and ASDEHU of El Salvador, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where Reyes Mena lives.

    The four Dutch journalists were with leftist rebels when they were killed in 1982. A report issued by the United Nations Truth Commission in 1993 concluded that Reyes Mena participated in planning the ambush of the journalists.

  • The Dissenter ☛ The Reporting That Led Israel To Arrest, Detain, and Prosecute An American Journalist

    Loffredo openly defied a Israeli military censor, which thousands of other international journalists have allowed to influence what they publish on Israel's war on Gaza

  • NPR ☛ Taylor Lorenz leaves 'Washington Post' after rift with editors

    When tech columnist Taylor Lorenz left the Washington Post last week, she did so with a splash: An interview with The Hollywood Reporter about launching her own digital magazine, called User Mag.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Observer sale latest: Former editors issue protest to Scott Trust

    Three former Observer editors have written to the Scott Trust expressing their “profound concern” over the proposed sale of the newspaper to Tortoise Media.

    Will Hutton, Roger Alton and John Mulholland have together racked up 20 years editing the UK’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

  • France24 ☛ FRANCE 24's journalist under investigation in Russia after reporting from Kursk

    Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it has opened criminal cases against foreign journalists for "illegally" crossing the border between Ukraine and Russia's Kursk region.

  • ANF News ☛ European delegation of journalists calls for action against any attack on media workers

    A joint delegation of Kurdish and foreign journalists living in European countries has been holding talks in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for three days to find out more about the background to the murder of journalists Gulistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] A National Movement To Organize Amazon Takes Off

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-10-10 [Older] Dell Forces Employees To Return To Office With Two-Day Notice 'Because That's What Amazon Is Doing' [Ed: Dell wants to cause people to resign to lessen severance payments and PR problems associated with mass layoffs]

  • Techdirt ☛ Court Reminds Cops That Smelling Decriminalized Weed Ain’t The Probable Cause It Used To Be

    If there’s anything that’s going to severely reduce the number of pretextual stops performed by cops, it probably won’t be the handful of traffic stop reform efforts being made by legislators. It’s going to be the continued legalization (or decriminalization) of marijuana possession.

    One of law enforcement’s favorite tricks is to pull over a car for bullshit reasons, pretend officers smelled marijuana, and engage in a warrantless search in hopes of finding something far more illegal than the pretense that initiated the stop.

  • Techdirt ☛ Court Reminds Cops That Smelling Decriminalized Weed Ain’t The Probable Cause It Used To Be

    But “odor of marijuana” is no longer as effective as it used to be. Smelling marijuana now just means smelling a legal substance in many cities and states. It’s like a cop initiating a search after saying they smelled gasoline. Smelling burnt marijuana is the hot new action, since it means officers could be dealing with someone driving under the influence.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ A Rare Monet Painting Has Been Returned to the Family of Its Rightful Owners—Eight Decades After It Was Stolen by the Nazis | Smithsonian

    After eight decades, a Nazi-looted Claude Monet painting stolen during World War II has finally been returned to its rightful owners.

    The artwork—Bord de Mer (Seaside)—could be worth up to $700,000. Painted around 1865, the hazy pastel depicts rocks along the beaches of Normandy, which Allied forces would later storm on D-Day in 1944.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Texan Doctor and the Disappeared Saudi Princesses

    Four daughters in the royal family were kept drugged and imprisoned for almost two decades. A physician who tried to free them speaks out for the first time.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Says Employees Aren't Children — No Return to Office

    Spotify says it has noticed no impact on productivity or efficiency since moving to a more distributed way of working. It has offices located in cities across the globe and in most major cities in the United States and Europe. Spotify’s chief concern is about the potential impact remote work can have on collaboration and innovation. To that end, it has begun working with the Stockholm School of Economics to conduct research into how remote work impacts collaboration and innovation.

  • SBS ☛ A crop top on a flight? The outfits that could get you kicked off a plane

    It's led many social media users to point out the sexist differences in dress codes and how they're enforced.

    These are Australian airlines' rules about what you can and can't wear on a flight.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • RIPE ☛ Tim Bruijnzeels: Patching Internet Vulnerabilities with RPKI

    The White House recently announced plans to boost Internet routing security in the US through improved RPKI coverage. So how does RPKI help secure BGP? How easy is it to boost coverage on a national level? And what's the future potential of the infrastructure? Our guest Tim Bruijnzeels shares his views.

  • Inside Towers ☛ Carriers, FCC Prepared for Milton’s Impact

    Carriers serving Florida areas predicted to be impacted by Hurricane Milton were preparing assets and staff before the storm to maintain emergency communications and expedite restoration. The FCC activated its Disaster Information Reporting System for Florida, to keep a close eye on communications outage data in the coming days and do what’s necessary to support recovery and restoration efforts. The agency also activated its Mandatory Disaster Response Initiative, which requires cooperation between wireless carriers to minimize the impact of communications outages, Inside Towers reported.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Cars bricked by bankrupt EV company will stay bricked

    There are few phrases in the modern lexicon more accursed than "software-based car," and yet, this is how the failed EV maker Fisker billed its products, which retailed for $40-70k in the few short years before the company collapsed, shut down its servers, and degraded all those "software-based cars": [...]

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ US plan to break up Google's search dominance threatens profit engine, AI growth

  The U.S. Department of Justice's proposed remedies to break up Google's search dominance could weaken its main profit engine and stall its advances in artificial intelligence, even though a final outcome may be years away, analysts said.

• CBC ☛ Ticketmaster changes Taylor Swift ticket transfer rules amid reported ticket thefts

  The ticket sales giant recently updated its website to say ticket transfers for Swift's concerts can only start 72 hours before the event. Previously, Swifties could transfer tickets between Ticketmaster accounts at any time.

  Representatives for Ticketmaster confirmed the rule but did not respond to questions about the reason for the change.

• [Old] Philip Greenspun ☛ Why Bill Gates is Richer than You

  Should the government be suing Microsoft for violating antitrust laws? Perhaps. But doesn't it seem kind of odd for government lawyers to be typing Microsoft Word documents about how bad Microsoft is? If the federales were serious about increasing competition in the world of software it would be much more effective simply to convert government operations to open-source software. For very small organizations it may not make sense to use open-source software. The cost of hiring a programmer to add a feature or two to Linux or Open Office, for example, can't be recovered if you only have five employees to use the feature. But the U.S. Government has millions of employees. Whatever it costs to improve the open-source software that the feds use will be much less than the government currently pays to Microsoft in license and upgrade fees. And, by releasing those improvements back to the community, the U.S. Government will greatly strengthen the market for open-source software and support.

• Patents

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-10-09 [Older] Tariffs and Government-Granted Patent Monopolies: Bad and “Good” Forms of Protectionism

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] Pfizer, BioNTech Win Bid to Invalidate CureVac's UK COVID Vaccine Patents

  • 2024-10-07 [Older] Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Cellect v. Vidal

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • IP Kat ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] [Guest Post] UPC Munich Local Division rules that advertising products under the same name creates a risk of patent infringement [Ed: UPC is illegal and should not even exist; this blog helped promote the illegality]

  • Software Patents

    • Truthdig ☛ The Wonks Who Refuse to Apologize for NAFTA - Truthdig

      In his recent appearance on Ezra Klein’s podcast, Harvard economist and Obama administration enforcer of neoliberal consensus Jason Furman was teed up to express at least some remorse for the Americans who were devastated by deindustrialization. Klein noted that a number of economists have argued that the human costs of deindustrialization were far higher than was predicted during the fights over NAFTA and similar free-trade agreements. It was a softball windup designed to give Furman the opportunity to say “The human costs in these places was deeply unfortunate, and we should have done far more to help them, but …”. And then he could go on to treat the terrible costs of deindustrialization as some minor downside to the overall benefits of globalization.

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-10-03 [Older] [Guest Post] Hands off my cheese! ASIAGO struggles for protection in Australia

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] Colour combination position trade mark not distinctive

  • [Old] International Trademark Association ☛ Trademark Dilution (Intended for a Non-Legal Audience)

    Unlike trademark infringement, trademark dilution does not necessarily involve the unauthorized use of a mark in connection with goods or services that are confusingly similar to those offered in connection with the famous mark. For example, the unauthorized use of FERRARI as a brand of harmonicas may not be trademark infringement, but it may be trademark dilution, even though harmonicas and luxury automobiles are so unrelated that consumers are unlikely to believe Ferrari harmonicas come from the famous automaker. Trademark dilution protects marks that are so well-known, highly reputable, or famous that jurisdictions have decided they deserve protection whether or not their unauthorized use is likely to cause consumer confusion.

  • [Old] New York City Bar ☛ Trademark Infringement Law - Trademark Dilution Law

    If a trademark becomes famous, like Nike or Xerox, the owner can also sue for trademark “dilution.” Dilution happens when a trademark’s distinctive quality is blurred or tarnished by another mark. There does not have to be any likelihood of confusion. The trademark is tarnished when a similar mark is placed on an inferior product of lesser quality, even if it is a totally different product.

  • Right of Publicity

    • The Korea Times ☛ South Korean man arrested for creating and selling approximately 4,300 deepfake sex videos of 72 female celebrities

      Police said Tuesday they have arrested a man in his 20s on charges of creating 4,313 sexually explicit deepfake videos of 72 female celebrities and selling them online.

      The man created the deepfake pornographic videos with a self-developed program using generative artificial intelligence and earning 3.83 million won ($2,839) by selling them between January and March this year.

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ How Nobel Prize-Winning Physics 2024 inspired AI’s in Cyber Security

      Imagine receiving a phone call from your CEO asking for an urgent transfer of $200,000. The voice is unmistakable, but what if it wasn’t your CEO at all? This is the terrifying reality of deepfake fraud, where cybercriminals use AI-generated voices to impersonate high-level executives and commit fraud. In 2023 alone, deepfake fraud attempts surged by a staggering 3000%, signaling that businesses must now be more vigilant than ever before.

      As cybersecurity threats grow more sophisticated, businesses need AI-driven solutions that can outpace attackers. This article explores how Nobel Prize-winning physics has inspired AI advancements in cybersecurity, laying the foundation for more effective defenses against emerging threats.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Seeks Smaller Indie Payouts Amid Merlin Split: Report

    Taking a step back, it’s worth reiterating that the controversial platform has in recent years quietly made a number of moves seemingly designed to bypass labels altogether.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Flawless IPTV Kingpin's 11-Year Prison Sentence Upheld at Court of Appeal

    In May 2023, five men behind one of the most successful pirate IPTV services ever seen in the UK, were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison following a private prosecution by the Premier League. Flawless TV leader Mark Gould received an unusually harsh 11-year custodial sentence but hoped that the Court of Appeal would be a little more sympathetic.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Appeal Court Affirms Piracy Liability Verdict Against ISP Grande, Vacates $47m Damages Award

    The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a copyright infringement verdict against Internet provider Grande, which failed to take action against allegedly pirating subscribers. The jury's $47 million damages award in favor of the major music label plaintiffs is vacated. According to the Court, individual tracks that are part of an album, should not be counted as separate works.

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-10-07 [Older] The German LAION decision: A problematic understanding of the scope of the TDM copyright exceptions and the transition from TDM to AI training

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-10-08 [Older] [Book Review] The Routledge Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century