Leftovers

• Matt Webb ☛ Colophon (Interconnected)

  I roll my own blogging system.

  Each post is a text file in a directory named for the date. Today the files use Markdown with some metadata at the top. For example, here’s the Markdown version of this post.

  This format pre-dates “Markdown front matter” popularised by Jekyll which is why it doesn’t look the same. I’ve been writing here since 2000. Pre 2012 the files are still in XML, originally output by blogger.com.

• Science

  • 404 Media ☛ Who’s this Medieval Dead Guy at the Bottom of a Castle Well?

    Sverris Saga, an Old Norse epic, is packed with tales of heroic feats, marriage alliances, dynastic feuds, and bloody battles during the life of Sverre Sigurdsson, who reigned as King of Norway from 1177 to 1202. In one passage, the King’s enemies successfully infiltrate Sverresborg Castle, his fortress in Trondheim, setting it ablaze and tossing a corpse into the drinking well and covering it with boulders.

    In 1938, workers excavating the ruins of Sverresborg Castle found human remains under boulders at the base of its well, raising the eerie question of whether this was the same corpse mentioned in Sverris Saga. Now, more than 800 years after the violent conquest of the fortress, scientists have conducted radiocarbon-dating and DNA-sequencing on the remains to find out.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Secret Pattern Hidden in Sudoku Will Blow Your Mind

    The Phistomefel Ring (or the Phistomefel Theorem) is beautifully illustrated in a video by Numberphile that you'll find embedded below.

    It's named after a German sudoku constructor, and as well as being a super-smart pattern of digits, might also help you solve these puzzles more quickly in the future.

  • Science News ☛ Two teenagers have once again proved an ancient math rule

    Two years ago, a couple of high school classmates each composed a mathematical marvel, a trigonometric proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Now, they’re unveiling 10 more.

    For over 2,000 years, such proofs were considered impossible. And yet, undeterred, Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson published their new proofs October 28 in American Mathematical Monthly.

• Education

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Tech work satisfaction and fulfillment

    I keep seeing articles in newspapers and journals that Zoomers and Millennials are wanting more from their employment than previous generations. I’m not sure that’s broadly true; nobody wants to get nothing from what they spend a significant amount of their lives on. But these generations do seem more vocal about it, at least based on the recruiters and managers I know in Singapore and Australia.

  • Max Levchin ☛ To build a meritocracy — too long to tweet

    Maybe, but how do you do better? High performance culture is pretty easy to define: a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time. But what do you actually do [sir] to have such a culture? And what do you not do?

    So I jotted down a few incomplete one-liners of what that means to me as Affirm’s founder and CEO. This list is neither exhaustive (I reserve the right to add and remove things here) nor is it even especially well-organized, but culture is like obscenity in Jacobellis v Ohio: you know it when you see it.

  • The Nation ☛ These 3 States Could Use Millions in Public School Funding for Private Schools

    Campaigns around “school choice”—or the ability for parents to use funding originally allocated for their child’s public education for a private school instead—have attracted millions in political donations during the 2024 election cycle. While proponents argue that it gives them greater control over their child’s education, school choice can divert funding away from public schools and opens the door to using taxpayer money to fund private, religious education.

  • Bertrand Meyer ☛ Blog Archive Europe asleep (a key-not) - Bertrand Meyer's technology+ blog

    It is too easy, however, to cast all the blame on outsiders. Perhaps the most important message that I would have wanted to convey to the department heads, deans, rectors and other academic decision-makers attending ECSS this week is that we should stop looking elsewhere and start working on the problems for which we are responsible. Academia is largely self-governed. Even in centralized countries where many decisions are made at the national level in ministries, the staff in those ministries largely consists of academics on secondment to the administration. European academia — except in the more successful countries, already alluded to, and by the way not exempt either from some of the problems of their neighbors — is suffocating under the weight of absurd rules. It is fashionable to complain about the bureaucracy, but many of the people complaining have the power to make and change these rules.

    The absurdities are everywhere. In country A, a PhD must take exactly three years. (Oh yes? I thought it was the result that mattered.) By the way, if you have funding for 2.5 years, you cannot hire a PhD student (you say you will find the remaining funding in due time? What? You mean you are taking a risk?) In country B, you cannot be in the thesis committee of the student you supervised. (This is something bequeathed from the British system. After Brexit!) Countries C, D, E and F (with probably G, H, I, J and K to follow) have adopted the horrendous German idea of a “habilitation”, a second doctorate-like process after the doctorate, a very effective form of infantilization which maintains scientists in a subservient state until their late thirties, preventing them during their most productive years from devoting their energy to actual work. Universities everywhere subject each other to endless evaluation schemes in which no one cares about what you actually do in education and research but the game is about writing endless holier-than-thou dissertations on inclusiveness, equality etc. with no connection to any actual practice. In country L, politicized unions are represented in all the decision-making bodies and impose a political agenda, censoring important areas of research and skewing scientist hires on the basis of political preferences. In country M, there is a rule for every elementary event of academic life and the rule suffers no exception (even when you discover that it was made up two weeks earlier with the express goal of preventing you from doing something sensible). In country N, students who fail an exam have the right to a retake, and then a second retake, and then a third retake, in oral form of course. In country O, where all university presidents make constant speeches about the benefits of multidisciplinarity, a student passionate about robotics but with a degree in mechanical engineering cannot enroll in a master degree in robotics in the computer science department. In country P (and Q and R and S and T) students and instructors alike must, for any step of academic life, struggle with a poorly designed IT system, to which there is no alternative. In country U, expenses for scientific conferences are reimbursed six months later, when not rejected as non-conformant. In country V, researchers and educators are hired through a protracted committee process which succeeds in weeding out candidates with an original profile. In country W, the primer criterion for hiring researchers is the H-indez. In country X, it is the number of publications. I would need other alphabets but could go on.

  • Robert Birming ☛ The Silver Lining

    A friend of mine lost his job. He had been working there for five years and was very upset about the situation. My response was:

    "Congratulations."

• Hardware

  • PC World ☛ 8 critical tips for extending your robot vacuum's life expectancy

    Fortunately, the steps to extending your vacuum’s lifespan are simple, and many are directly recommended by manufacturers. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of your robo-cleaner.

  • The Drone Girl ☛ BotLab Dynamics drone show broke 5 world records in 13 minutes

    How is this for tech in action? This one single drone show broke five Guinness World Records in less than 13 minutes. BotLab Dynamics, an India-based drone light show company, put on the show, which was created for the Amaravati Drone Summit 2024 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

    The show, which took place on Oct. 22, 2024, featured 5,500 drones. Those drones flew into seven formations, most of which were strategically planned to check multiple Guinness World Record boxes. That include an aerial recreation of the Amaravati Buddha Stupa and an aerial depiction of the Indian tricolor flag. And while each formation was a feat in its own right, the performance stood out by setting five world records.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Antivaxxers launch a frontal assault on the Killer Rabbit of plasmids

    I admit that the title of this post might be straining an analogy a bit in the service of my love of old Monty Python sketches and movies, but what can I say? I first encountered them in the 1970s on late night PBS when I was a teenager, and they stuck with me. Also, it sort of reminds me of how antivaxxers keep coming back again and again to attack something about vaccines that they have mistakenly or falsely convinced themselves to be a the enemy, something that (to them) makes vaccines horrifically dangerous. The problem is that they don’t possess a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch to destroy this particular killer rabbit, or, if they do, they proceed to count to five and blow themselves up, instead of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Such was my nostalgia-fueled take when I encountered yet another antivax screed about the dreaded “plasmid DNA in vaccines”—and SV40, too!—from one of the most inaptly named antivax Substack bloggers of all, the self-proclaimed 2nd Smartest Guy in the World (or, as I like to call him, 2ndSGitW). Yes, antivaxxers are launching another frontal assault on the Killer Rabbit of Plasmids, and, yes, they shouldn’t, because that rabbit’s dynamite.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Up to 3.2M in Michigan may be getting water from PFAS-tainted aquifers

    Up to 3.2 million Michiganders get their water from aquifers containing detectible amounts of PFAS, according to a new federal report That’s 1-in-3 state residents, a stat that highlights the prevalence of both household wells and polluting industries in Michigan

  • Omicron Limited ☛ AI algorithm accurately detects heart disease in dogs

    The research team, led by the University of Cambridge, adapted an algorithm originally designed for humans and found it could automatically detect and grade heart murmurs in dogs, based on audio recordings from digital stethoscopes. In tests, the algorithm detected heart murmurs with a sensitivity of 90%, a similar accuracy to expert cardiologists.

  • USMC ☛ Marine gender study reveals importance of ‘explosive strength’

    The 700-page, $2 million study, commissioned by the Marine Corps and completed by the University of Pittsburgh, was completed in summer 2022 and released to Military Times several months later in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

    This summer, after a lengthy publication review process, the study’s key findings were published in a special issue of the journal Military Medicine.

  • Lou Plummer ☛ Inevitable Things

    I have got to say that I enjoy having been around enough to be retired from my career job. It's cool going to work these days because I want to, not because I have to. I could stop at any time. That's pretty empowering. It makes the crappy days that inevitably happen at work more bearable. I'm not even the oldest person in my office. Our database manager is three years my senior, and she takes no shit from anyone. She's my role model.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Verge ☛ Gmail will now help you write an email on the web with AI

    On mobile, the option will replace the existing “Refine my draft” shortcut. Instead of swiping to see options to polish, formalize, elaborate, or shorten an email, the app will automatically refine the message when the “polish” shortcut is swiped. Users can then tweak the message further with Google’s other AI editing tools.

  • Wired ☛ AI Slop Is Flooding Medium

    Earlier this year, WIRED asked AI detection startup Pangram Labs to analyze Medium. It took a sampling of 274,466 recent posts over a six-week period and estimated that over 47 percent were likely AI-generated. “This is a couple orders of magnitude more than what I see on the rest of the internet,” says Pangram CEO Max Spero. (The company’s analysis of one day of global news sites this summer found 7 percent as likely AI-generated.)

    The strain of slop on Medium tends toward the banal, especially compared with the dadaist flotsam clogging Facebook. Instead of Shrimp Jesus, one is more apt to see vacant dispatches about cryptocurrency. The tags with the most likely AI-generated content included “NFT”—out of 5,712 articles tagged with this phrase over the last several months, Pangram found that 4,492, or around 78 percent, came back as likely AI-generated—as well as “web3,” “ethereum,” “AI,” and, for whatever reason, “pets.”

  • Stefan Grund ☛ OnlyFans > Spotify

    Imagine being an artist and having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify but earning more money from having 1,000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Kunlun’s Melodio and Mureka AI slop music — hear the audio samples – Pivot to AI

    Music slop from Melodio will probably do for someone. Would they pay for it? We doubt it.

    AI music being up to “yeah, it’ll do” is an interesting achievement — but it won’t give the slop cultural or even subcultural resonance. So we think music is no more unsafe than it was already.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Silverchair Buys ScholarOne from Clarivate

    Manuscript submission and peer review management is not the sleepy category that an unfamiliar observer might imagine. It’s at the forefront of publisher efforts to transform the author experience in an open access environment while addressing the publisher imperative to screen out problematic submissions that threaten research integrity. It has also grown to incorporate conference management, both traditional conferences and in some cases virtual/hybrid conferences.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ Cop Companies Want All Your Data and Other Takeaways from This Year’s IACP Conference

      IACP, held Oct. 19 - 22 in Boston, brings together thousands of police employees with the businesses who want to sell them guns, gadgets, and gear. Across the four-day schedule were presentations on issues like election security and conversations with top brass like Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. But the central attraction was clearly the trade show floor. 

      Hundreds of vendors of police technology spent their days trying to attract new police customers and sell existing ones on their newest projects. Event sponsors included big names in consumer services, like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Verizon, and police technology giants, like Axon. There was a private ZZ Top concert at TD Garden for the 15,000+ attendees. Giveaways — stuffed animals, espresso, beer, challenge coins, and baked goods — appeared alongside Cybertrucks, massage stations, and tables of police supplies: vehicles, cameras, VR training systems, and screens displaying software for recordkeeping and data crunching.

    • The Strategist ☛ Encrypted messaging apps: a persistent challenge in fighting organised crime

      Ghost represented a significant leap in the technological capabilities of organised crime. Allegedly developed by Jung as a business venture, it facilitated a range of illicit activities, from drug and weapons trafficking to money laundering. An estimated 800 devices were in circulation globally, 376 of which in Australia. Disguised as standard smartphones, they allowed users to create anonymous profiles and communicate securely. The breadth of activities coordinated through Ghost reinforces the escalating sophistication of organised crime groups and, just as importantly, their ability to adopt and operationalise new technology.

    • DJ Bernstein ☛ 2024.10.28: The sins of the 90s

      The talk says that, in the 1990s, "cryptosystems were still classified as munitions and subject to strict export controls". The talk describes the "crypto wars" as "a series of legal battles, campaigns, and policy debates that played out in the US across the 1990s", resulting in "the liberalization of strong encryption in 1999", allowing people to "develop and use strong encryption without being subject to controls".

      OK, that sounds familiar. Which parts are the "sins"?

      Answer: the talk claims that "the legacy of the crypto wars was to trade privacy for encryption—and to usher in an age of mass corporate surveillance".

      Wow. That sounds bad, and surprising, definitely something worth understanding better. If cryptographic export controls had instead remained in place after 1999, how would that have improved privacy and reduced corporate surveillance?

      Answer: the talk claims that, without strong cryptography, "the metastatic growth of SSL-protected commerce and RSA-protected corporate databases would not have been possible".

      Wait, what? Let's look at the facts.

  • Confidentiality

    • [Old] Cisco Systems Inc ☛ The Quantum Threat: Options for Migrating to Quantum Safe Cryptography

      Like porridge, you don’t want to be too hot or too cold on migration. But what is “just right”?

      • Moving too soon will be challenging. You’ll be doing a lot of the implementation yourself, and you could be left without interoperability if you move before the ecosystem does.
      • Moving too late, you could very well be vulnerable to the quantum threat.

      Here’s what “just right” looks like to me: doing an assessment now, prioritising assets and being ready for a migration on your critical systems, products and data. And then doing nothing, except occasionally refreshing that assessment, and channelling your security energies elsewhere.

    • [Old] Cisco Systems Inc ☛ Quantum-Safe Cryptography & Standards: QSC, PQC, QKD & More!

      Quantum computing is an entire field unto itself, and not something we can define in simple terms. The good news is that we can define quantum-safe cryptography! QSC refers to algorithms that cannot be cracked or weakened by a quantum computer (QC).

      Today, quantum-safe cryptography encompasses two types post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution. (For more on terminology and distinctions, do check out this excellent proposed standard on the subject.)

      There’s one important distinction I have to make: When I talk about “quantum”, I’m almost surely talking about post-quantum cryptography (PQC). When other people talk about “quantum”, they sometimes mean quantum key distribution (QKD). So let’s clear up this point: [...]

• Defence/Aggression

  • RFERL ☛ NATO Confirms North Korean Troops In Russia, Says It Shows Putin's 'Desperation'

    Speaking in Brussels on October 28, NATO chief Mark Rutte called the move a "significant escalation" in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and said it shows Russian President Vladimir Putin's "desperation" after "more than 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded" in the war.

  • El País ☛ Hero rats save lives in Angola: Trained rodents detect mines for people to farm again

    They have been here since the civil war that ravaged Angola for almost three decades, from 1975 to 2002, and they still cause serious injuries to the population. That is why a team of workers from different parts of the country, with international participation, is dedicated to deactivating and removing the explosives, to transform the de-mined land into farms for residents. On the plot where the presence of reptiles was reported, Japanese and Belgian funds, through the NGO APOPO, are channelled to clear the land of hidden threats, including missiles or shrapnel. To do this, the team have metal detectors and the help of specially trained rats.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Next ‘Stop the Steal’ Movement Is Here

    Given that the MAGA right seeded election denialism after Trump lost his bid for the presidency in 2020, such claims are not surprising. Some kind of “Stop the Steal” redux has long seemed almost inevitable. Less obvious is what the downstream impacts will be. Claims that noncitizens are voting have already led to the erroneous removal of registered voters from the polls, as seen in Texas, but other effects are less clear. Intelligence officials have warned that they anticipate violence around the election. But what does that actually look like, especially if Trump loses?

  • The Hill ☛ U.S. Intelligence Alert: Extremists May Disrupt 2024 Elections

    Domestic violent extremists are considering a range of activities to disrupt the 2024 election and the peaceful transfer of power, with U.S. intelligence agencies seeing greater discussions around a future civil war and plans to destroy ballot drop boxes.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Why Does Elon Musk Still Have a Security Clearance?

    Which brings me to Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX, America’s private space contractor and an organization presumably full of people with clearances. (I emailed SpaceX to ask how many of its workers have clearances. I have not gotten an answer.) Trump is surrounded by people who shouldn’t be given a clearance to open a checking account, much less set foot in a highly classified environment. But Musk has held a clearance for years, despite ringing the insider-threat bells louder than a percussion maestro hammering a giant glockenspiel.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Arson destroys hundreds of ballots inside a Washington state drop box

    “It’s heartbreaking. It’s a direct attack on democracy,” said Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey.

    Kimsey said hundreds of ballots were destroyed. It was not immediately known exactly how many ballots were burned or damaged. The FBI is among the agencies investigating the incident.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Worries grow about disinformation, false claims and even violence as election nears

    A pro-democracy organization warned Monday that disinformation and violent rhetoric could make the weeks that follow Election Day especially fraught, pushing the country past the upheaval that arose four years ago during the last presidential transition.

  • NBC ☛ Extremists inspired by conspiracy theories pose major threat to 2024 elections, U.S. intelligence warns

    U.S. intelligence agencies have identified domestic extremists with grievances rooted in election-related conspiracy theories, including beliefs in widespread voter fraud and animosity toward perceived political opponents, as the most likely threat of violence in the coming election.

    In a Joint Intelligence Bulletin that was not distributed publicly but was reviewed by NBC News, agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warn state and local law enforcement agencies that domestic violent extremists seeking to terrorize and disrupt the vote are a threat to the election and throughout Inauguration Day.

  • JURIST ☛ Netherlands PM to tighten permits and border controls amid 'asylum crisis'

    Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced on Friday his plan to limit temporary asylum permits to a maximum of three years and to introduce new border controls next month. Schoof said the cabinet had reached an agreement to alleviate the “asylum crisis” after the Council of Ministers meeting.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner sues to stop Elon Musk $1 million voter sweepstakes

    Krasner, a Democrat, filed the civil suit on behalf of the commonwealth in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas alleging that the sweepstakes runs afoul of the state law that gives the state sole authority to operate a lottery and violates Pennsylvania’s consumer protection laws.

    “To be clear, this is not a case about whether Defendants have violated state or federal laws prohibiting vote-buying. Instead, this case is very simple because America PAC and Musk are indisputably violating Pennsylvania’s statutory prohibitions against illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers,” the lawsuit says.

  • NPR ☛ Philadelphia DA sues Elon Musk over $1 million giveaway to registered voters

    “America PAC and Elon Musk are running an illegal lottery in Philadelphia (as well as throughout Pennsylvania),” the suit said.

    “In other words, America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens – and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) – to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery.”

  • NPR ☛ Ballots set on fire in three states as Election Day approaches

    In the final stretch before Election Day, ballots have been set on fire and damaged in two ballot drop boxes and a Postal Service mailbox in three states. Federal officials have warned that in recent months, some social media users have encouraged sabotage of ballot drop boxes.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Military absentee ballots in Pennsylvania could be caught in lawsuit

    The Republican congressmen say that Pennsylvania should not count any overseas absentee votes — including military votes — without directly verifying the identity of the voter behind the ballot. But Pennsylvania officials along with state and national Democrats say that Pennsylvania’s process for absentee ballots complies with federal law and has been in place for numerous elections with virtually no sign that illegal or otherwise invalid votes have been counted. One veterans group argues that any last-minute change would throw out thousands of votes cast correctly by military members overseas.

  • NL Times ☛ Russia and China are "intensifying" cyber attacks on the Netherlands, NCTV warns

    Russia and China are stepping up their cyber attacks on the Netherlands and its allies, warned the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and Security (NCTV). They are “intensifying and broadening” their attacks. China is no longer limiting itself to espionage but also seems to be preparing for sabotage. In addition, new countries are joining the cyber risks front.

    Aggressive countries like Russia and China are using an increasingly broad arsenal of cyber weapons, said NCTV Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg in his annual review of the Netherlands’ digital security. Moreover, according to this Cybersecurity Image, they are increasingly hiring companies and hacktivists.

  • VOA News ☛ Around 40 killed in Chad in jihadist attack on army

    A vast expanse of water and swamps, Lake Chad's countless islets serve as hideouts for jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), who make regular attacks on the countries' army and civilians.

    Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, leaving more than 40,000 people dead and displacing two million, and the organization has since spread to neighboring countries.

  • VOA News ☛ For Japanese Unit 731 survivor, speaking truth carries a cost 

    For decades, Shimizu kept his past hidden, not even telling his wife or the two daughters they raised together in a quiet corner of the Japanese Alps. But now, at 94, he is not remaining silent.

    Though not directly involved in the atrocities, Shimizu is speaking out about his experience with Unit 731, recently returning to China to apologize in person.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Further | Fascism! (Again) | Opinion

    Replicating another racist, toxic, unnerving hate fest 75 years ago, Trump held a vitriolic rally Sunday in New York vowing to end "the migrant invasion of our country." His best people echoed him: Puerto Rico is "a floating island of garbage," Harris "the devil," and Dems "degenerates (we) need to slaughter" to create what his Goebbels calls an "America for Americans, and Americans only." In 1945, the feds sent pamphlets to World War ll soldiers to explain what "fascism" is. Now, we should know.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ The end of US democracy: a flowchart

    There’s not much I can do about it, but I still spend a lot of time thinking about what I, and others outside the US, should do if that country ceases to be a democracy. But, it doesn’t seem as if lots of other people are thinking this way. One possibility is that people just don’t want to think about it. Another, though, is that I’ve overestimated the probability of this outcome.

    To check on this, I set up a flowchart using a free online program called drawio. Here's what I came up with

  • Task And Purpose ☛ The Army once planned for an armed base on the Moon

    In the early years of the Cold War, with the Space Race heating up, weapons testing ongoing and proxy conflicts raging around the world, the United States Army decided it needed to take a decisive step for national security. The plan? Conquer the Moon. Or at the very least establish a forward operating base on the lunar surface.

    This was a very real plan considered by the Army. In fact, the Army wanted a nuclear-powered intelligence base on the lunar surface in the middle of the 1960s, staffed by 12 soldiers who would be armed with several types of space weapons, including guns derived from claymores. ‘Project Horizon, A U.S. Army Study for the Establishment of a Lunar Military Outpost’ was a 1959 study by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency looking into this very real proposal that the military was considering.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Why NKorea is sending troops to Ukraine – and how it risks an ‘escalation spiral’

    “Those people might be somewhat pacified if North Koreans are being used in place of disproportionately used minorities,” he says. Some 600,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in the war, by U.S. estimates.

  • Haaretz ☛ Under Its Fearless Editor, Lebanese Newspaper An-Nahar Maintains Its Opposition to Syria, Hezbollah and Iranian Influence

    The atmosphere in Beirut was tense after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. The public blamed Syria. Demonstrators took to the streets, calling for Syrian forces to get out of Lebanon and for an international investigation into the killing. On June 2, journalist Samir Kassir, who worked at the An-Nahar newspaper and had been critical of Syria's involvement in Lebanon, was murdered.

• Environment

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ AI will add to the e-waste problem. Here’s what we can do about it.

    Depending on the adoption rate of generative AI, the technology could add 1.2 million to 5 million metric tons of e-waste in total by 2030, according to the study, published today in Nature Computational Science.

    “This increase would exacerbate the existing e-waste problem,” says Asaf Tzachor, a researcher at Reichman University in Israel and a co-author of the study, via email.

  • The Local SE ☛ Risk to Nordic countries of Gulf Stream collapse is 'seriously underestimated'

    In addition, they wrote, a series of new papers have been published which indicate that the risk was higher than previously thought.

    "Recent research since the last IPCC report does suggest that the IPCC has underestimated this risk and that the passing of this tipping point is a serious possibility already in the next few decades," they wrote.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Renewable Energy World ☛ Iowa company recycles rare earth materials from wind turbines, electronics

      Most recycling facilities extract things like copper and aluminum from the same scraps, but few know how to break down the batteries, meaning those rare earth material components are often lost.

      Rare earth materials are a series of elements with properties like conduction or magnetism that make them essential to electronics. They’re also part of the 10%-15% of wind turbine materials that are not currently recycled.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Lithium-ion batteries causing fires, dangers on California freeways

      For more than two days, a vital shipping passageway in the Port of L.A. was shut down, and the cause was surprising to some. A big rig overturned, sparking a fierce lithium-ion battery blaze that spewed toxic gases, snarled port traffic and resulted in what one official said was massive economic losses from delayed shipments.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Big fight looming over Free State solar farm

      The dispute highlights South Africa’s transition from dependence on coal to a wider range of technologies including natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy projects. The country is forecast to add 50GW of wind and solar stations by 2030 to replace some of the generation from the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.

    • Pi My Life Up ☛ Connecting Enphase to Home Assistant

      Enphase is a brand of solar microinverters and batteries. While one of the pricier solar power solutions, they are known for being of high quality.

      As part of a typical Enphase solar installation, you would have had an Enphase Envoy installed. This device tracks the power production of your system. Depending on how this system has been wired into your house, it can also track your house’s power consumption.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Environmental Muralist Faunagraphic Brings an Urban Oasis to the Concrete Jungle

    • New York Times ☛ If You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow

      Ms. Joyce is far from alone in fearing the wrath of the crow. CrowTrax, a website started eight years ago by Jim O’Leary, a Vancouver resident, has since received more than 8,000 reports of crow attacks in the leafy city, where crows are relatively abundant. And such encounters stretch well beyond the Pacific Northwest.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Reuters ☛ TSMC suspended shipments to China firm after chip found on Huawei processor, sources say

    Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (2330.TW) , opens new tab suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo after a chip it made was found on a Huawei AI processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei's Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect U.S. national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product.

  • Inside Towers ☛ White House Issues Guidance for National Security Use of AI - Inside Towers

    As part of formally designating NIST’s AISI, the NSM lays out strengthened and streamlined mechanisms for the institute to partner with national security agencies, including the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy. The memo calls on the AISI to collaborate with industry to test frontier AI models that might pose a threat to national security and issue guidance on a variety of topics.

  • The Register UK ☛ WordPress demands conf organizers share social media logins

    Organisers of WordCamps, community-organized events for WordPress users, have been ordered to take down some social media posts and share their login credentials for social networks.

    The order to share creds came from an employee of Automattic, the WordPress host whose CEO happens to be Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress. A letter sent to WordCamp organizers explains that the creds are needed due to "recurrent issues with new organizing teams losing access to the event's social media accounts."

  • R Scott Jones ☛ Content creators vs influencers

    In my mind, content creators and influencers are quite different things. People can choose—and often do—to play both roles, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same thing. Both roles produce “content” to generate an audience, but for entirely different reasons.

  • The Washington Post ☛ Volkswagen may close plants in Germany for first time in its history

    Europe’s largest car manufacturer and Germany’s biggest employer intends to shut at least three of its 10 factories, permanently reduce staff at its remaining production sites and slash pay by 10 percent, Daniela Cavallo, chair of Volkswagen’s works council, told employees in Wolfsburg, Germany, according to a transcript seen by The Washington Post.

  • [Old] BBC ☛ Trial of ex-VW boss begins over 'dieselgate' emissions scandal

    Martin Winterkorn was chief executive of the German company in 2015 when it was engulfed in a scandal that sent shockwaves through the entire industry.

    It emerged the company had been deliberately manipulating official emissions checks, building cars that could pass laboratory tests while producing illegal levels of pollution in daily use.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Nvidia overtakes Apple as world's most valuable company

    Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched $3.53-trillion, slightly above Apple’s $3.52 trillion, LSEG data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8%, with a market value of $3.47-trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4%, valuing the iPhone maker at $3.52-trillion.

  • India Times ☛ Microsoft's AI demand under scrutiny as investors seek payday

    Microsoft is expected to report its slowest quarterly revenue growth in a year on Wednesday, while investors await signs of AI demand amid growing worries about the slow payoff from hefty investments in the technology.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft reshuffles execs in EMEA

    Microsoft has reshuffled its EMEA team, moving Clare Barclay from UK CEO to president of enterprise and industry, EMEA, while effectively swapping roles with Darren Hardman.

    Barclay, who has worked for Microsoft in the UK since 1998, was also appointed chair of the UK’s industrial strategy group last week.

    Microsoft said that as CEO of Microsoft UK, Barclay had built notable partnerships associated with its AI products, including arrangements with the London Stock Exchange Group, telco Vodafone and retailer Sainsbury’s.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Volkswagen to cut Germany footprint amid broader industry struggles

    The Wolfsburg-based automaker will reportedly close three German plants and reduce the size of its other factories in the country, and will lay off tens of thousands of employees, the representatives said.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Verge ☛ Meta is reportedly working on its own AI-powered search engine, too

      The Meta AI bot built into Instagram and Facebook currently uses Google — whose parent company, Alphabet, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow — and Microsoft Bing to answer questions about recent news and events.

    • The Record ☛ EU president denounces Russian influence campaigns targeting Western Balkans

      Speaking at a press conference in Kosovo this weekend — part of her trip to aspiring European Union member states in the region — von der Leyen emphasized that the EU is working daily to debunk misinformation and expose Russian propaganda “for the benefit of the whole region.”

      “We see that Russia is trying to spread its false narrative without success, and that it is possible for us to stand up with the truth, with transparency, and with very clear messaging,” she added.

    • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Worries grow about disinformation, false claims and even violence as election nears

      The comments from three members of the Defend Democracy Project came just days before voting ends on Nov. 5, though with several races extremely close, the country may not know for days who won the presidential contest as well as control of Congress.

      That could leave considerable space for speculation as state election workers count mail-in ballots and potentially undertake full recounts, similar to four years ago.

      “I think the biggest vulnerability will continue to be the mis- and disinformation that will happen in the aftermath of the election,” said Olivia Troye, who previously worked for Vice President Mike Pence as a special adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism.

    • Wired ☛ Cybercriminals Pose a Greater Threat of Disruptive US Election Hacks Than Russia or China

      Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-backed hackers have been active throughout the 2024 United States campaign season, compromising digital accounts associated with political campaigns, spreading disinformation, and probing election systems. But in a report from early October, the threat-sharing and coordination group known as the Election Infrastructure ISAC warned that cybercriminals like ransomware attackers pose a far greater risk of launching disruptive attacks than foreign espionage actors.

    • Michigan Advance ☛ Lying, liars, and the lies that they tell

      When politicians and public figures lie to us, they are tacitly calling us stupid and weak. Stupid enough to believe their lies; weak enough to accept them.

      As such, lying is a contemptuous act. Humans are social creatures. Lying is anti-social, and a debasement of both human nature and the trust and order on which we have built civilization.

      You can’t conduct a sustainable business built on lies. You can’t build a home based on false measurements.

    • Kansas Reflector ☛ ‘Firehose’ of election conspiracy theories floods final days of the campaign

      Fanned by former President Donald Trump and notable allies such as tech tycoon Elon Musk, election disinformation is warping voters’ faith in the integrity of the democratic process, polls show, and setting the stage once again for potential public unrest if the Republican nominee fails to win the presidency. At the same time, federal officials are investigating ongoing Russian interference through social media and shadow disinformation campaigns.

      The “firehose” of disinformation is working as intended, said Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that advocates for responsible use of technology in elections.

      “This issue is designed to sow general distrust,” she said. “Your best trusted source is not your friend’s cousin’s uncle that you saw on Twitter. It’s your local election official. Don’t repeat it. Check it instead.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • ANF News ☛ Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi taken to hospital

    The years of imprisonment and solitary confinement had seriously damaged his wife's health and required prolonged treatment, wrote Rahmani, and again called for Mohammadi's immediate release. He did not provide any further details about her health. Mohammadi suffers from heart failure. However, it remained unclear when and where Mohammadi was taken to the hospital and how long the 52-year-old activist will be treated there.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran Executes Jamshid Sharmahd, German-Iranian Opponent Who Lived in U.S.

    Mr. Sharmahd had permanent U.S. residency and was living in California at the time of his seizure. He operated the website of Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a little-known group also known as Tondar, and made videos claiming that the group was arming people to fight against Iran. The group is committed to overthrowing the government in Tehran and restoring the monarchy, and it has taken responsibility for attacks in Iran.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Jeff Bezos breaks silence over WaPo's non-endorsement after 200k subscribers cancelled the brand

    According to NPR's recently updated report on how things have been faring at the publication, over 200,000 WaPo readers cancelled their digital subscriptions in light of the eyebrow-raising, unconventional decision. At the same time, the media outlet is also experiencing an internal upheaval, with a few opinion section staffers resigning from their posts. Bezos’ statement came hours after three editorial board members stepped down over the publication’s decision not to politically back Vice Presidential Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

    A source privy to details of a previously planned endorsement of Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris told CNN on Friday that the draft had ultimately been scratched. The resulting response was indisputably uproarious. Former Post executive editor Marty Baron, who helmed the paper's charge under Bezos-led operations during the first Trump administration denounced the move as one reflecting “cowardice.”

  • Crooked Timber ☛ Washington Post cancellations

    As of an hour ago, Jeff Bezos posted an editorial on WaPo talking about how Americans don’t trust the media. Okay, but the 200,000+ people who cancelled their subscription on Friday presumably trusted WaPo enough to pay for it until last Friday. As noted by David Folkenflik at NPR, if a paper wants to stop endorsing political candidates, fine, but making that announcement less than two weeks before a presidential election is not a convincingly neutral stance. Do it a year or two out and few will raise major concerns. Do it at this point in time and lose a big chunk of your subscriber base, not because we didn’t trust you to provide good news coverage, but because what you did here was spineless.

  • NPR ☛ Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

    The Washington Post has been rocked by a tidal wave of cancellations from digital subscribers and a series of resignations from columnists, as the paper grapples with the fallout of owner Jeff Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

  • The Hill ☛ Washington Post loses over 200,000 subscribers over endorsement outrage: report

    The decision not to endorse reportedly was made by Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s billionaire owner, after its editorial board had already drafted and was planning to publish an editorial backing Vice President Harris.

    The decision has led to a handful of resignations, while scores of Post subscribers have taken to social media to share their decision to cancel a subscription. Many of those doing so have noted the newspaper’s “democracy dies in darkness” motto.

  • NPR ☛ 'Washington Post' flooded by cancellations after Bezos' non-endorsement decision

    More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters. Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of roughly 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon.

    A corporate spokesperson declined to comment, citing The Washington Post Co.'s status as a privately held company.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ UN body says Vietnam is unlawfully detaining journalist

    The 58-year-old journalist is being held in a prison in Dong Nai province. Pham, a contributor to VOA Vietnamese, is also the founder and head of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, or IJAVN.

    The group advocates for democracy, freedom of the press and expression, and against corruption in Vietnam. In the indictment against Pham, authorities described the IJAVN as “illegal.”

  • Meduza ☛ For 10 years, we’ve fought censorship to bring you the truth about Russia To celebrate this milestone, we’re sharing 20 things you probably didn’t know about Meduza

    For the past 10 years, we’ve covered Russia and beyond, despite the Kremlin’s ongoing efforts to silence us. To mark this milestone, we wanted to share a bit about ourselves with you, our readers. Over the past few days, you may have noticed a few pop-ups with these stories — funny, heartwarming, and sometimes difficult moments. Now, we’ve gathered them here so you can read them all in one place.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • New York Times ☛ Opinion | Trump’s Biggest Con: Pretending to Support American Workers

    The truth is that to the extent that Trump’s policy plans — or, in some cases, concepts of plans — differ from G.O.P. orthodoxy, it’s because they are even more antilabor and pro-plutocrat than his party’s previous norm.

    Background: Since the 1970s our two main political parties have diverged sharply on economic ideology. In general, Democrats favor higher taxes on the rich and a stronger social safety net; Republicans favor lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy paid for in part by cutting social programs.

  • SBS ☛ The charts that show why owning a house is out of reach for many Australians

    However, by his admission, Albanese is in a far "more privileged financial position" than most Australians as a recipient of a public salary for close to three decades.

    The wage price index, measuring median wage changes over time, has increased by 24 to 30 per cent — depending on where you live — over the past decade, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

  • YLE ☛ Food couriers demand better pay and working conditions

    Nkunda noted that the fee Wolt pays to couriers for food deliveries has gradually decreased, from 4-5 euros per delivery a few years ago to 3.20 euros today.

    "Next year it may be closer to two euros. Perhaps after that, closer to one euro. We are really concerned about this," he said, adding that making a decent living as a courier is becoming increasingly difficult.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Techdirt ☛ Your ISP Now Requires A Broadband ‘Nutrition Label’ To Clearly Show You You’re Being Ripped Off

    After countless years pondering the idea, the FCC in 2022 announced that it would start politely asking the nation’s lumbering telecom monopolies to affix a sort of “nutrition label” on to broadband connections. The labels will clearly disclose the speed and latency (ping) of your connection, any hidden fees users will encounter, and whether the connection comes with usage caps or “overage fees.”

    Initially just a voluntary measure, bigger ISPs had to start using the labels back in April. Smaller ISPs had to start using them as of October 10. In most instances they’re supposed to look something like this: [...]

  • APNIC ☛ Revising the criteria for the accreditation of RIRs

    In March 2024, I published an article discussing why the RIR system is under scrutiny. As self-regulatory bodies, the RIRs along with their respective communities increasingly need to prove that there are adequate checks and balances to ensure the stability and self-governance of the Internet Numbers Registry System. In the same article, I also shared the Number Resource Organization’s (NRO’s) plan to strengthen the accountability of the RIR system to this end.

    In this follow-up article, I want to share an update regarding the plan to revise the criteria for the accreditation of the RIRs.

  • Jim Nielsen ☛ For Sale: Used Domain (Clean Title)

    At a societal level, it’s not really a problem we’ve had to wrestle with (yet). Imagine, for example, 200 years from now when somebody is reading a well-researched book whose sources point to all kinds of domains online which at one point were credible sources but now are possibly gambling, porn, or piracy web sites.

    If you take the long view, we’re still at the very beginning of the internet’s history where buying a domain has traditionally meant you’re buying “new”.

  • YLE ☛ Unchecked fibre optic cable installation threatens critical infrastructure, experts say

    “The number of damages has grown as the work pace has intensified. We’re talking about hundreds of incidents annually,” said Niklas Granholm, Regional Director at Elisa.

    “Damages wouldn’t happen if everyone followed the agreed-upon rules,” said Mikko Kannisto, Head of Broadband Operations at DNA.

    According to Kannisto, some companies either don’t request or don’t wait for a cable location service. This service involves excavation companies requesting infrastructure providers to mark where underground cables are located.

    The cable location service should be requested before excavation begins.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Register UK ☛ Apple's M4 iMac will ship with 16GB of memory as standard

    In a surprise announcement on Monday, Apple unveiled a rainbow of new iMacs powered by its M4 processor with 16 GB of memory as standard, a 12 MP webcam, and no shortage of AI gimmicks… er… features.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• EFF ☛ EU to Apple: “Let Users Choose Their Software”; Apple: “Nah”

  Our favorite parts of the DMA are the interoperability provisions. IP laws in the EU (and the US) have all but killed the longstanding and honorable tradition of adversarial interoperability: that’s when you can alter a service, program or device you use, without permission from the company that made it. Whether that’s getting your car fixed by a third-party mechanic, using third-party ink in your printer, or choosing which apps run on your phone, you should have the final word. If a company wants you to use its official services, it should make the best services, at the best price – not use the law to force you to respect its business-model.

  It seems the EU agrees with us, at least on this issue. The DMA includes several provisions that force the giant tech companies that control so much of our online lives (AKA “gatekeeper platforms”) to provide official channels for interoperators. This is a great idea, though, frankly, lawmakers should also restore the right of tinkerers and hackers to reverse-engineer your stuff and let you make it work the way you want.

  One of these interop provisions is aimed at app stores for mobile devices. Right now, the only (legal) way to install software on your iPhone is through Apple’s App Store. That’s fine, so long as you trust Apple and you think they’re doing a great job, but pobody’s nerfect, and even if you love Apple, they won’t always get it right – like when they tell you you’re not allowed to have an app that records civilian deaths from US drone strikes, or a game that simulates life in a sweatshop, or a dictionary (because it has swear words!). The final word on which apps you use on your device should be yours.

• India Times ☛ Microsoft-Google fight is out in the open: Microsoft exec writes 'open letter' against Google, claims attacking company on a range of topics

  According to Microsoft, Google has hired a European lobbying firm to establish this new organization, which is set to be unveiled this week. The software giant claims to have learned of this campaign through an unnamed European cloud provider who declined to participate and subsequently alerted Microsoft. This latest development comes shortly after Google filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with EU regulators in September. In its complaint, Google accused Microsoft of unfair licensing practices for Azure. This move followed Microsoft's settlement with CISPE, a group of European cloud infrastructure providers who had previously raised similar concerns about Microsoft's licensing terms.

• Techdirt ☛ Google Antitrust Remedies: Promoting Competition Without Punishing Users

  This remedy would certainly allow for more competition to arise, which has proven difficult today. No one (not even Microsoft’s Bing) really has the reach and comprehensiveness of Google’s index. DuckDuckGo is mostly built on Bing (I know it insists it’s more than that, but in practice, it appears to be mostly Bing — as we discovered when Bing banned Techdirt, and we also disappeared from DDG).

  Every attempt to build competing search engines seems to run into the scale problem eventually without access to Google results. Even Kagi, which was briefly a darling among folks looking for a search alternative, apparently makes use of Google’s search tech on the backend. It seems like a pretty reasonable idea to make it so that others can license access to the API and build Google results into alternative search products, as this gets at the actual issues underlying this case.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Variety ☛ Robert Downey Jr. Bans Hollywood From Creating Digital Replica: I Will Sue

      When host Kara Swisher said that “future executives certainly will” want to digitally recreate Downey on the big screen, the actor responded: “Well, you’re right. I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”

      “You’ll be dead,” Swisher noted, to which Downey replied: “But my law firm will still be very active.”

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Mysterious "Theater" Rips Cause Excitement in Piracy Circles

    For two decades, high quality screener rips leaked on pirate sites toward the end of the year. That 'tradition' ended a few years ago. More recently, however, there's been some excitement around a seemingly new type of leak, tagged "Theater". Are these high quality copies ripped from DCPs, or is something else going on?

  • Torrent Freak ☛ BeStreamWise: Police, BBC, & DAZN Quietly Added to IPTV Piracy Campaign

    Anti-piracy campaign BeStreamWise has been quietly expanding its membership since its launch just over a year ago. Hoping to suppress use of pirate IPTV, mostly in connection with live football, Sky, Premier League, and FACT have been busy driving the messaging home via the media. More quietly behind the scenes, however, the declared supporters list has been expanding with the BBC, DAZN, NBCUniversal, and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, among others.

  • The Verge ☛ Meta signs its first big AI deal for news

    Axios reports that Reuters will be compensated for its content appearing in Meta’s AI chatbot, which is accessible through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and links to Reuters stories will begin appearing for US users on Friday. Many of Meta’s splashiest AI features have so far been character focused — celebrity chatbots the company recently scrapped, for example — instead of centered around current events. Radice didn’t respond to questions about safety measures in place for AI responses that deal with news and current events.

  • 404 Media ☛ Scientists and Archivists Worry Epic Games’ Control of the 3D Model Market Will ‘Destroy’ Cultural Heritage

    Scientists, artists, and archivists are panicking about Epic Games’ deprecating of Sketchfab, the internet’s leading repository for open access 3D models, saying that the uncertain future of the platform under Epic Games’ ownership could break or limit access to hundreds of thousands of free 3D models, severely impacting their role in education, research, and conservation.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry

    Under DMCA 1201, giving someone a tool to "bypass an access control for a copyrighted work" is a felony punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine – for a first offense. This law can refer to access controls for traditional copyrighted works, like movies. Under DMCA 1201, if you help someone with photosensitive epilepsy add a plug-in to the Netflix player in their browser that blocks strobing pictures that can trigger seizures, you're a felon:

    https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-media/2017Jul/0005.html

    But software is a copyrighted work, and everything from printer cartridges to car-engine parts have software in them. If the manufacturer puts an "access control" on that software, they can send their customers (and competitors) to prison for passing around tools to help them fix their cars or use third-party ink.