Leftovers

• Computers Are Bad ☛ iron mountain atomic storage

  I have quipped before about "underground datacenters," and how they never succeed. During the late decades of the Cold War and even into the '00s, the military and (to a lesser extent) the telecommunications industry parted ways with a great number of underground facilities. Missile silos, command bunkers, and hardened telephone exchanges were all sold to the highest bidder or---often in the case of missile silos---offered at a fixed price to the surrounding land owner. Many of them ended up sealed, the new owner only being interested in the

• Henrik Warne ☛ My Simple Knowledge Management and Time Tracking System

  I am using a very simple system for remembering commands and procedures, and for tracking what I work on. I have two plain text files called notes.txt and worktime.txt. In the notes file, I write down things that are important to remember. For example: various shell commands, steps when creating a new release, how to install and configure tools, company procedures for time reporting etc.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ Computing industry legend Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL ‘You’ve got mail,’ passes away at 74

  While Elwood Edwards was best known for his lineup of AOL quotes, namely "You've got mail!", "Files done," "Goodbye," and "Welcome," he was also active on the radio and in various newsrooms up until his retirement, working on graphics, camera operation, and more. His pay for the original AOL collaboration in 1989 was just $200. Still, in the following decades, that voice role established him in the collective consciousness, leading to subsequent cameos even in TV shows like The Simpsons.

• Julia Evans ☛ New microblog with TILs

  One kind of thing I like to post on Mastodon/Bluesky is “hey, here’s a cool thing”, like the great SQLite repl litecli, or the fact that cross compiling in Go Just Works and it’s amazing, or cryptographic right answers, or this great diff tool. Usually I don’t want to write a whole blog post about those things because I really don’t have much more to say than “hey this is useful!”

  It started to bother me that I didn’t have anywhere to put those things: for example recently I wanted to use diffdiff and I just could not remember what it was called.

• John Gruber ☛ Kottke on the Art and Power of Hypertextual Writing

  Writing for the web came pretty naturally for me. But that’s because reading on the web also came naturally to me. But nothing builds muscles like exercising them regularly. And now, 20+ years into writing Daring Fireball, I don’t really think of writing in hypertext as a special form of writing. It’s just writing. It’s non-hypertext writing that now feels slightly weird to me. Limiting.

• FSF ☛ Nothing says end of the year like new GNU Press gear!

  Because the GNU Press shop will only be open until December 31, we suggest you place an order before then. You can make these purchases in good conscience because all proceeds support the mission of the FSF to protect the freedom to run, copy, modify, and share software. As a reminder, members get a 20% discount – so if you're not one already, join today!

• Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Dalton Mabery

  This is the 63rd edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Dalton Mabery and his blog, dltn.io

• Chuck Grimmett ☛ Making Rosin and Fly Tying Wax

  Some guides I found tell you to just burn the pine resin and it will turn into rosin. The problem is that most resin contains lots of bark, leaf pieces, bugs, etc. This stuff all turns into carbon when burned, so you have carbon + resin, which is essentially pitch. Useful stuff too, but I wanted just rosin, so I decided to separate it out. The best way I found to filter it is to dissolve the resin with acetone, then strain it through a coffee filter.

• Science

  • BBC ☛ Skynet-1A: Why did the UK's oldest space satellite end up thousands of miles from where it should have been?

    Orbital mechanics mean it's unlikely the half-tonne military spacecraft simply drifted to its current location.

    Almost certainly, it was commanded to fire its thrusters in the mid-1970s to take it westwards. The question is who that was and with what authority and purpose?

  • Futurism ☛ SpaceX Activating System to Practice for Destroying Space Station

    As Space.com reports, it's the first time a SpaceX capsule has fired its thrusters while actively docked to "reboost" the ISS, or keeping it in a stable orbit, a task that historically has been taken care of by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

    In addition to keeping the space station at the correct altitude, SpaceX and NASA are using the opportunity to collect data for their joint plans to destroy the ISS.

  • The Register UK ☛ NASA fires up engines on is supersonic X-59 aircraft

    The X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (Quesst) airplane has been designed to generate what the agency refers to as a shaped sonic boom, or "sonic thump" [PDF] – rather than the sonic booms that have caused civilian supersonic flight over land to be banned in the US and most other countries. The X-59 is supposed to generate a brief burst of noise at 75 perceived loudness decibels (PLdB), compared to over 100 decibels generated by Concorde and military aircraft.

• Career/Education

  • Pro Publica ☛ Despite Trump’s Win, Voters Widely Reject School Vouchers

  • Crooked Timber ☛ The submissive university

    Together with many other academics in the Netherlands, I have been very busy in organizing a nation-wide demonstration next Thursday against the 1 billion budget cuts to higher education that our very-right-wing government has announced. (For background explanation, see this earlier post).

    Today, I have a long opinion piece in the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad analyzing the crisis in higher eduction. For our non-dutch speaking colleagues, and anyone with an interest in this matter, my colleague from the law department Bald de Vries edited an AI-based translation (to which I made a few further tweaks) – you can find it below the fold.

    The weaker the university, the easier it is for the cabinet to implement authoritarian policies

  • Zach Flower ☛ Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?

    It's been a very long time since I've posted anything here--don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you all; it just turns out that the first year as a teacher is extremely time-consuming.

    Whodathunkit, right?

    From building my curriculum, one lesson at a time (fun), to grading and learning classroom management (less fun), to administrative tasks (not fun at all), it's been a hell of a first three months!

  • El País ☛ Teachers’ mounting ChatGPT frustrations: ‘They keep using it, even though I’ve warned them not to’

    “Students don’t even try to hide it. This is just adding to teenagers’ general disaffection with school,” says Ojeda, who posted a viral message on his X account in September about his frustration with the indiscriminate use of AI for assignments. His sentiment has been echoed by other teachers from around the world, who warn about the ease in which students are able to delegate their work to such technological tools.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Evaluating book summary services

    Which leads us to the idea that these summaries save time. It makes sense on the surface; a half-hour audio programme is faster than several hours reading a book. But reading non-fiction isn’t just recognising words in your head, it’s about ruminating on ideas and building understanding. Short snippets save you time in the same way a fast food burger saves you cooking. It’s true, but you miss out on a lot.

• Hardware

  • Chris Aldrich ☛ Fine Line Ribbon for your Typewriter Ribbon Needs | Chris Aldrich

    I’ve yet to find a bulk dealer in typewriter ribbon that has a significant website with listings of their offerings and options. (Let’s hear it for analog!) Baco Ribbon certainly didn’t, so I called a few times and made some orders and pieced together most of what Baco Ribbon & Supply Co. offers.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Plonk early, plonk often

    Your posts are either in the service of making the world better, or they’re not. If you’re in the latter camp, you get a plonk.

  • Robert Birming ☛ Truly Quiet

    A moment of silence is always quiet, of course, but it was a stillness that has been lost in today's society. It was a stillness that didn't involve waiting to post status updates, send messages, or post photos and videos.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Men beware! Your Instagram feed might be fueling body insecurity, muscle dysmorphia

    The researchers stressed the harmful nature of social media as it only portrays a particular body type, making everyone believe that it is the only ideal type and that other body shapes are unnatural, even when they are equally fit. Similarly, male bodies on social media feature excessively brawny figures with veiny arms, ripped biceps and six-pack abs. This type of portrayal creates a fixation on a hyper-muscular physique. As per the research, men between the ages of 18 and 34 who frequently consume celebrity, fashion and fitness content report higher levels of dissatisfaction with their bodies.

  • India Times ☛ meta: Meta's Zuckerberg not liable in lawsuits over social media harm to children

    US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California rejected accusations on Thursday that Zuckerberg directed Meta's efforts to conceal from children the serious mental health risks of using Facebook and Instagram.

    The plaintiffs called Meta's billionaire cofounder the "guiding spirit" behind alleged concealment efforts, saying he ignored repeated internal warnings about the risks and publicly downplayed them.

  • Deseret Media ☛ Navajo food traditions tap into the past, and future, of farming the arid Southwest

    Wytsalucy, a plant scientist with the Utah State University extension in San Juan County and a member of the Navajo Nation, said this peach was a vital part of the Indigenous diet and trade economy for hundreds of years. Accounts from Spanish missions describe sprawling orchards grown by Pueblo Indians as early as the 1630s.

    The Southwest peach is smaller and less sweet than what you find at the supermarket. Its flavor also varies based on which part of the region it's from, she said. Some taste like melon. Others have a hint of cinnamon. Traditionally, Navajo people would dry peaches to preserve them for the following year, and one tree could feed a whole family.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Chris Wellons ☛ Everything I've learned so far about running local LLMs

    Over the past month I’ve been exploring the rapidly evolving world of Large Language Models (LLM). It’s now accessible enough to run a LLM on a Raspberry Pi smarter than the original ChatGPT (November 2022). A modest desktop or laptop supports even smarter AI. It’s also private, offline, unlimited, and registration-free. The technology is improving at breakneck speed, and information is outdated in a matter of months. This article snapshots my practical, hands-on knowledge and experiences — information I wish I had when starting. Keep in mind that I’m a LLM layman, I have no novel insights to share, and it’s likely I’ve misunderstood certain aspects. In a year this article will mostly be a historical footnote, which is simultaneously exciting and scary.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Microsoft persuades Mail and Calendar users to migrate to Outlook — Mail and Calendar app will cease to work after December 31

    The difference between the experience of a standalone app and a cloud-based option is very noticeable. Hence, the decision to axe a reliable option leaves a bad taste among users, as the experience is not seamless and does not have the same functions. Microsoft will unlikely reconsider this decision as it did in the past, leaving no other option but to use different apps available or to make a point via its store.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Beatles ‘Now & Then’ First AI-Assisted Song Grammy Nommed

    The AI-based software is similar to how certain video or audio chat platforms like Zoom, FaceTime, or Discord might filter out background noise from a call. Machine learning helped isolate the sound of Lennon’s late ‘70s demo tapes to clean up existing audio for use in a modern song.

    The end result is a track that’s astoundingly up for two Grammys — the first AI-assisted song to achieve such a feat. But that begs the question whether novelty will be enough to secure the Beatles a win against contemporary heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish. Or do these modern artists stand a chance against a legendary band like the Beatles?

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ D-Link refuses to patch a security flaw on over 60,000 NAS devices — the company instead recommends replacing legacy NAS with newer models

    The following D-Link models are affected by the issue: DNS-320 Version 1.00, DNS-320LW Version 1.01.0914.2012, DNS-325 Version 1.01, Version 1.02, and DNS-340L Version 1.08.

    Unfortunately for the users of these devices, D-Link declined to release a security patch for this issue, noting that “Products that have reached their EOL/EOS no longer receive device software updates and security patches and are no longer supported by D-Link.” The affected models have all reached their end-of-life/end-of-service date as of 2020, and “D-Link US recommends retiring and replacing D-Link devices that have reached EOL/EOS.”

  • India Times ☛ ChatGPT rejected 250,000 requests to create deep fakes on US election day

    OpenAI said in a blog post that ChatGPT also turned over 2 million people onto other websites for poll-related news and information on election day and the following day.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ A brief history of privacy protection on Macs

    For the first 15 years of Classic Mac OS, right up to Mac OS 9 in 1999, Macs remained fundamentally single-user, and privacy wasn’t an issue of much concern. In those halcyon years of desktop publishing and HyperCard, users were more excited by opening information up than keeping it private, and the [Internet] was in its infancy. It was Mac OS 9 that first integrated multiple user accounts and started to secure information using keychains.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Microsoft adds AI to Notepad — yes, Notepad. And Paint.

      Notepad users on the Windows Insider preview channels can now shorten, lengthen, or rephrase text. This will cost you AI credits, which you can get with the mandatory price rise on your Office 365 subscription, or buy separately. [Microsoft]

      If Notepad puts harmful, offensive, or otherwise “undesirable outputs” into your document, just hit “report”! Microsoft assures us that this hardly ever happens.

    • The Korea Times ☛ Concerns grow over AI textbooks as digital dependence increases among students

      Starting next March, teachers will be required to use both paper textbooks and AI digital versions. The digital textbooks will be introduced for English, mathematics and information technology classes for third and fourth grade in elementary school, as well as first-year students in middle and high school.

      The new digital textbooks aim to support personalized learning, adjusting content to each student’s level and pace. Teachers will also have access to data-driven insights, allowing for more customized education plans.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ As a jaded tech journalist, I’m in a battle to keep ‘smart’ devices out of my home – despite my partner’s efforts

      There’s one battle my husband and I have fought ever since we started cohabiting: whether to allow “smart” appliances in our home. He, an enthusiastic gadget fan, would happily connect all of our household goods to the [Internet] so he could control them from his phone. I, a jaded tech journalist, am far too paranoid to surround myself with a bunch of data-guzzling surveillance machines.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Canada Sends Mixed Signals With TikTok Shutdown Order

    The announcement said the decision to shut down TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, had come after “rigorous scrutiny by Canada’s national security and intelligence community.” Citing security laws, Mr. Champagne said he couldn’t tell reporters anything about what that review had unearthed.

  • Greece ☛ Copper theft at properties remains rampant 

    Athanasios Stroumboulis, president of the Athens Plumbers Association, told Kathimerini that the matter has yet to be effectively addressed since emerging as an issue during Greece’s economic crisis.

    “Copper remains a highly sought-after material for scrap,” the association’s chief told Kathimerini, adding that, in many instances, plumbers and contractors have had to adapt by replacing copper pipes with iron pipes, at least for external heating installations.

  • Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont ☛ Germany marks 1989 Berlin Wall fall with 'Preserve Freedom' party

    Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme "Preserve Freedom!", against the somber backdrop of war in Gaza and Ukraine, and fears that democracy is under attack around the world.

    The liberal ideals of 1989 "are not something we can take for granted", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after the his governing coalition collapsed.

  • RTL ☛ 35 years: Germany marks 1989 Berlin Wall fall with 'Preserve Freedom' party

    Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme "Preserve Freedom!", against the somber backdrop of war in Gaza and Ukraine, and fears that democracy is under attack around the world.

    The liberal ideals of 1989 "are not something we can take for granted", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after the his governing coalition collapsed.

  • New York Times ☛ Elon Musk Uses X to Promote Trump’s Incoming Administration

    Mr. Musk, who owns X, posted on the platform about politics more than 400 times between Tuesday and Friday, celebrating Mr. Trump’s victory and talking about the causes that the president-elect should take up in office. Mr. Musk’s posts included a photo of himself and his son X Æ A-Xii Musk surrounded by Mr. Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago, as well as another photo of himself with Mr. Trump that was captioned “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” a Latin phrase that appears on the dollar bill and means “a new order for the ages.”

  • The Guardian UK ☛ ‘They blew it’: Democrats lost 22,000 votes in Michigan’s heavily Arab American cities

    Kamala Harris received at least 22,000 fewer votes than Joe Biden did four years ago in Michigan’s most heavily Arab American and Muslim cities, a Guardian analysis of raw vote data in the critical swing state finds.

  • VOA News ☛ In historic shift, American Muslim and Arab voters desert Democrats

    A nationwide exit poll of more than 1,300 voters by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) found that significantly less than 50% of Muslim voters backed Harris. That compares with an estimated 65% to 70% that reportedly voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Examining Al Qaeda and ISIS’ Exploitation of Insecurity and Instability

    Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) has exploited the global tumult facilitated by geopolitical confrontations, technological developments, armed conflicts, and political instability to remain relevant as a critical security threat physically and expand its digital Caliphate simultaneously. This has taken place on a more global level vis-à-vis Al-Qaeda (AQ), another Salafi-jihadi, albeit a rival terrorist organisation, whose exploitation of tumult and insecurity has primarily taken place in Somalia, Mali, and Burkina Faso, via its affiliates – Al-Shabaab and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). As would be evident in this paper, ISIS has touted greater success vis-à-vis Al-Qaeda in cementing itself as the deadlier terrorist group through the various attacks carried out by ISIS Central or its affiliates.

  • RFERL ☛ Musk Reportedly Took Part In Call Between Trump And Zelenskiy

    [...] The billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla said during the call that he would continue to support Ukraine through his Starlink satellites. Zelenskiy thanked Musk for the satellite Internet devices, which are used by Ukrainian troops. [...]

  • BoingBoing ☛ 14 Signs of Fascism: Umberto Eco's Warning for Modern Times

    Eco argues that fascism seems to be a default state for humanity. "Freedom and liberation are an unending task" to counter it, he said.

  • Open Culture LLC ☛ Umberto Eco's List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism | Open Culture

    While Eco is firm in claim­ing “There was only one Nazism,” he says, “the fas­cist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change.” Eco reduces the qual­i­ties of what he calls “Ur-Fas­cism, or Eter­nal Fas­cism” down to 14 “typ­i­cal” fea­tures. “These fea­tures,” writes the nov­el­ist and semi­oti­cian, “can­not be orga­nized into a sys­tem; many of them con­tra­dict each oth­er, and are also typ­i­cal of oth­er kinds of despo­tism or fanati­cism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fas­cism to coag­u­late around it.”

  • ANF News ☛ Operation Enduring Security: Seven ISIS terrorists captured in Hol Camp

    The terrorists were attempting to exploit the humanitarian conditions within the camp to conceal themselves, stockpile weapons, and plan and carry out terrorist attacks inside and outside the camp.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Insight Hungary ☛ Orban congratulates Trump on election victory

      Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his victory in the U.S. presidential election in a post on X,

      "The biggest comeback in U.S. political history! Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his enormous win. A much-needed victory for the World!, " the Hungarian leader posted before the official results were yet to be announced. Orban has been a vocal supporter of Trump since his first term. "Mar-a-Lago calling. Just had my first phone conversation with President Donald Trump since the elections. We have big plans for the future!" he wrote in another tweet. On his TikTok, he claimed that X owner Elon Musk was also present during the conversation.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • NPR ☛ How France uncovered the mystery of the forbidden photos of Nazi-occupied Paris

    “So on that famous Friday, April 12, I will remember all my life, I discovered the name of the man who took the photos,” says Broussard. “His name was Raoul Minot, and he was an employee of Le Printemps. He was not a professional photographer, but someone who decided to take his own camera and to go in the streets of Paris and to take as many pictures as possible.”

    Broussard discovered Minot had taken the photos along with his wife, Marthe, who also worked at Le Printemps. They printed them in the store’s professional studio, which explains how they got the hard-to-find photographic paper during wartime rationing.

• Environment

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Consider Drastic Action as Doomsday Glacier Threatens to Flood Entire Islands and Coasts

    Larger than the state of Florida, the icy mass contains so much water that scientists predict that its melting could single-handedly raise global sea levels by over two feet — and possibly over five times more that, if it triggers a broader collapse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ 'Doomsday' Antarctic glacier melting faster than expected, fueling calls for geoengineering

    One study published in May and led by University of California Irvine and University of Waterloo scientists found that warming tidal currents are accelerating the Thwaites' melting and leading to quicker retreat than models have predicted, while another study published in August and led by researchers at Dartmouth College and University of Edinburgh found that the Thwaites may be less vulnerable to instability and collapse than previously thought.

  • VOA News ☛ As data center industry booms, English village becomes battleground

    The projects are controversial because the data centers would be built on "greenbelt" land, which has been set aside to prevent urbanization. Rayner wants to tap the greenbelt for development, saying much of it is low quality. One proposed Buckinghamshire project, for example, involves redeveloping an industrial park next to a busy highway.

  • EcoWatch ☛ COP29 CEO Caught Agreeing to Facilitate Oil and Gas Deals During Climate Summit

    Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations COP29 Climate Change Conference Elnur Soltanov has been recorded by Global Witness apparently agreeing to help facilitate fossil fuel industry deals at the summit, reported The Guardian.

    A member of the campaign organization posed as a fake oil and gas representative offering to sponsor the event in exchange for assistance with the deals.

  • The Korea Times ☛ Korea's ski tourism loses momentum amid population decline, climate crisis

    Although the number recovered to about 3.8 million in the 2021-22 season, this is only half of what it was a decade ago, far behind its past reputation.

    Another key factor behind ski tourism’s loss of momentum is the ongoing climate crisis and consequent rise in the winter temperatures.

  • Wired ☛ Invasive Species Are Threatening the Quality of New York’s Tap Water

    But over the course of the past five years, the three invasive species—a fast-growing aquatic plant, a fingernail-sized mollusk and a water flea—have made homes there.

    Invasive species are non-native to the ecosystems in which they reside, and often pose significant threats to native plants and animals. They are usually introduced, either directly or indirectly, through human intervention, and it is often costly to get rid of them.

  • SBS ☛ Cases of mass tree vandalism are cropping up. Here's why | SBS News

    Motive is key to this increase in tree destruction, which often has to do with money, Moore said.

    Trees near bodies of water are common victims. Longueville, Castle Cove, and Brighton-Le-Sands in Sydney have all experienced mass tree destruction in the last year — actions likely motivated by a desire for elusive water views.

  • Futurism ☛ Secret Video Shows Top Climate Change Conference Official Promising to Facilitate Fossil Fuel Deals

    The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), a yearly climate change conference where world leaders convene to discuss just how screwed we really are, has long been revealed to be a sham.

    The grip the fossil fuel industry has had over the organizers and host countries became painfully apparent last year when conference leader and Emirati oil executive Sultan Al Jaber claimed that there's "no science" behind phasing out fossil fuels to keep global temperatures from creeping above 1.5 degrees Celsius, a preposterous and self-serving claim that flies in the face of decades of scientific evidence.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ What a Donald Trump presidency means for Michigan’s environment

    The former and now future president, a climate denier who spent his first term in office rolling back environmental rules, is expected to quickly reverse President Joe Biden’s efforts to rein in climate change and air and water pollution, instead embracing a pro-fossil fuel, anti-regulation agenda.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • VOA News ☛ EV industry watching Musk's role in tariff fixing

      The electric vehicle industry is closely watching to see how Tesla boss Elon Musk, who played a key role in the victory of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, will use his influence with the incoming president to steer the industry's future.

      At stake are several issues including the new administration's approach to tariffs on Chinese EVs and tax credits. In anticipation of decisions favorable to Tesla, shares in the company rose 27% after the election result was announced, taking its market capitalization to $1 trillion.

    • Vintage Everyday ☛ In 1882, the Pentacycle Was Designed by Edward Burstow Specifically for Delivering Post

      So how do you solve a problem of bumpy roads with no tarmac? Simple, you put a row of springs around the wheel! How do you carry bulky goods on your bike with ease? If you are Horsham born architect and inventor Edward Burstow, you create an iconic Horsham bike, the ‘pentacycle’.

      The original pentacycle was designed and patented by Burstow in 1882. It had a large central wheel directly driven by pedals like a penny farthing bicycle, with a “bath-chair type handle,” and four smaller wheels for stability. This arrangement led to it being referred to as the “hen and chickens” cycle, as it resembled a mother hen surrounded by her four chicks. It was trialled by rural postmen in Horsham and, although liked, the design was not widely adopted.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Watch baby elephant play harmonica at Fort Worth Zoo

      The Fort Worth Zoo recently posted a video of one of their young elephants playing the harmonica along with an explanation of the story behind the training.

    • BoingBoing ☛ Absurdly cute images of baby elephants sucking on their own trunks for comfort

      At birth, a baby elephant is not yet fully in control of its trunk. It takes time for them to learn how to use it for tasks like drinking, playing, or feeding. However, in the early months of life, a baby elephant may instinctively put its trunk in its mouth, similar to how a human infant might suck on its thumb or fingers as a coping mechanism.

  • Overpopulation

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania sits on future ‘black gold’

      Unless urgent action is taken, over half of the world’s food industry will be affected by the freshwater crisis, according to a new report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Lithuania is not among the most vulnerable countries, but might still experience water shortages over the next 25 years.

    • [Old] UK ☛ Births by parents’ country of birth, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

      In England and Wales, 30.3% of all live births were to non-UK-born mothers in 2022; an increase from 28.8% in 2021, continuing the long-term trend of the percentage of live births to non-UK-born mothers generally increasing.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Greece ☛ The algorithm and taxes

    Claims that the new law forbids lowering the minimum wage is just propaganda. Wage/pension reductions were prohibited in the past, but when the international bailouts and deflation policy came, they were slashed “with one law, and one article,” to use a famous quote by former premier Alexis Tsipras before coming to power. In reality, the algorithm is not being established as a guarantee for the increase of the minimum wage, but to prohibit its increase above inflation and average productivity, that is, to prevent any redistribution in the wage’s favor. If, for social or economic reasons, it is judged that the minimum wage needs to be raised further, the law of the algorithm will forbid it. In essence, it sterilizes the process of setting the minimum wage with politics and negotiation. That’s why it won’t last long – it will be one of the first laws to be repealed.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Only Thing Worse Than Talking to Joe Rogan

    According to exit polls, Harris did do poorly with young men. Yang was clearly correct that she had nothing to lose. As my colleague Spencer Kornhaber wrote on Thursday, Harris may have avoided Rogan’s three-plus-hour, formless interview format for fear of messing up, “but given who ended up winning the election, this … seems like an antiquated concern.” Was this the difference? Definitely not. But it was a difference. Next time, I would guess, Rogan and his ilk will not be snubbed; the oddball [Internet] is mainstream enough to seriously court.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • SBS ☛ Why has the misinformation bill triggered worries about freedom of speech?

      A bill attempting to tackle misinformation online has stirred widespread controversy, with critics from across the political spectrum claiming it will infringe on freedom of speech.

      Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has said the bill — which passed the House of Representatives on Thursday — is necessary for keeping Australians safe.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Embarrassed By Its Own Wiretap Scandal, Mauritius Gov’t Hits Citizens With A Social Media Ban

    Yeah, not great. But the response from the government has been equally terrible. Rather than deal with the leaks responsibly (as appears to have been the case above), it has unilaterally declared that spreading the leaks will somehow undermine the nation’s security. So, there’s no more social media access for citizens because the ruling party trying to survive this scandal has decided it’s just not going to allow anyone to talk about this until after the November 10 election.

  • YLE ☛ Uusimaa school cancels classical music concert due to religious themes

    Many politicians are pushing back against the concert cancellation, stressing the importance of cultural education that embraces all facets of European heritage.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russia Seeks 6 Years in Prison for Medic for Criticizing Ukraine War

    The case against the 68-year-old — born in Ukraine’s Lviv, but who has lived in Russia for decades — showcases the level of repression that has gripped Russia while its troops fight in Ukraine.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • BIA Net ☛ Journalist Furkan Karabay detained in dawn raid after criticizing chief prosecutor

    Journalist Furkan Karabay was detained today in a dawn raid on his home over a social media post in which he criticized İstanbul’s chief prosecutor.

    The detention was confirmed by Hakan Çelenk, editor-in-chief of the 10Haber news site, where Karabay works.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Union Leader: It’s Time for the Democrats to Wake Up

    International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) represents over 140,000 workers in North America, and its president, Jimmy Williams Jr, spent the past few months on the campaign trail in an attempt to deliver a message to his members that Democrats have been unable to: the economy is hurting working people, and the answer is a transformation of the economy. But it wasn’t enough to combat what Williams describes as “forty or fifty years of failed policy.”

  • Futurism ☛ Black People Across the Country Are Getting Racist Text Messages Saying They’re Going to Be Enslaved

    In its investigation, CBS found that area codes from 25 different states had been used to send these vile missives sent to people as young as middle school age. When contacted, many of the numbers had been disconnected, while others went to voicemail boxes saying they'd been created using TextNow, an app that allows people to create phone numbers for free.

  • CBS ☛ Officials condemn racist text messages sent to Black residents in at least 32 states

    Officials and universities in a growing number of U.S. states are condemning racist text messages that were sent to Black residents this week. The messages, which began appearing Wednesday, were received by people in at least 32 states and the District of Columbia, CBS News has found.

    There were a number of variations of the messages using similar language, telling the recipient they had been "selected for cotton picking" or to become "a slave." All of the texts included instructions, times and dates to "be ready" and references to being picked up in a van. Some included the recipient's name or general location, according to people who received the texts and screenshots reviewed by CBS News.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Call to review ‘cancel culture’ in universities after ‘ostracised’ Oxford student takes own life

    Dr Dominique Thompson, an independent consultant tasked by Oxford with investigating Mr Rogers’s death, reportedly described a “pervasive cancel culture” as she said the allegations against Mr Rogers caused a “pile on” effect of students agreeing with others because of an “unwritten” moral imperative to “do the right thing”.

    Dr Thompson said: “It was shocking to hear that students were treating each other in this way, but I was not surprised by this pattern of behaviour.”

  • New York Times ☛ Conversations and insights about the moment.

    Trump’s win was devastating for many women. Their rage is understandable, but a 4B-style reaction is not constructive or sustainable. Women shouldn’t reduce their ability to demand policy changes and equal dignity to the ways in which we should or should not have sex or bear children. The 4B philosophy is shortsighted, primarily because it demonizes men, including those who champion equality and reproductive freedom, while also constraining the women who participate in it.

  • ICOUK ☛ AI toolks in recruitment: Audit outcomes report [PDF]

    We were concerned to find tools that collected far more personal information than was needed. In some cases, personal information was scraped and combined with other information from millions of peoples’ profiles on job networking sites and social media. This was then used to build databases that recruiters could use to market their vacancies to potential candidates. Recruiters and candidates were rarely aware that information was being repurposed in this way.

    We found several instances where AI providers incorrectly defined themselves as processors rather than controllers, and subsequently had not complied with the data protection principles. Some had attempted to pass all responsibility for compliance to recruiters using their tool. In these cases the arrangements were usually subject to vague or unclear contracts, that appeared to be deliberately broad or left recruiters in the dark.

    However, we also noted many encouraging practices. Some providers gave recruiters their own bespoke AI model, that they could tailor to their own needs and which avoided collecting unnecessary personal information. Others worked to be as transparent as possible, and shared detailed information online about the AI and how it worked in order to build people’s trust.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ US Unions Take on Artificial Intelligence

    The labor movement has a special responsibility to confront artificial intelligence’s imposition on workers: without unions, bosses have carte blanche to use AI to undercut workers at every level.

  • New York Times ☛ Big Tech Employees Quiet After Trump Is Elected

    But after this week’s presidential election, the largely liberal work forces of tech’s biggest companies were quiet. While the definitive nature of the election most likely played a role, the change also represented an effort by executives to dampen employee activism in recent years. They put in place policies restricting dialogue, monitored internal chat channels and vowed not to weigh in on the issues that fired up activist employees.

  • JURIST ☛ HRW: Saudi Arabia World Cup bid covers up labor abuses

    HRW explained that Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid, especially the “independent context assessment,” ignored the country’s record of labor rights violations. These include wage theft, lack of protective equipment, a ban on work unions, and an abusive visa sponsorship system known as “kafala.”

  • RFERL ☛ Afghan Women Not Barred From Speaking To Each Other, Says Taliban

    [...] Women in Afghanistan are not forbidden from speaking to one another, the Taliban government's morality ministry told AFP on November 9, denying recent media reports of a ban. [...]

  • Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont ☛ Afghan women not barred from speaking to each other: morality ministry

    Afghan media based outside the country and international outlets have in recent weeks reported a ban on women hearing other women's voices, based on an audio recording of the head of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV), Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, about rules of prayer.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Verge ☛ Instagram stops the ‘rug pull’ that disappears videos while you’re watching them

    That behavior — which Instagram apparently called “rug pull” internally — wasn’t just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it “because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement.”

    But that’s “really annoying,” he acknowledges, “so we stopped doing it.”

  • David Mead ☛ Locked music

    Since getting the new music setup, I've been wanting to re-download hi-res versions of the old .MP3 files I have.

    Bandcamp lets me grab .FLAC files for any album I've bought. Other services, not so much.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Pivot to AI ☛ To our patrons: don’t use the Patreon app on your iPhone!

  What’s going on?

  Patreon has a mobile app, for no good reason at all, and they take payments through their app. So Apple is now demanding a 30% cut of all payments via the Patreon app on an Apple device — both when you sign up and every month thereafter.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Key Pirate Bay Figures Don't Recognize Themselves in TV Series

    The Pirate Bay TV series is the entertainment industry's depiction of the torrent site's turbulent history. The creators don't take sides but mostly focus on the legal battle that only represents part of the story. According to Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and Piratbyrån's Rasmus Fleischer, living though it all was a completely different experience.

  • Heliomass ☛ Chasing Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes

    I came across an article the other week entitled “How David Bowie Helped Pave the Way For the Download Age”. It looked at Bowie’s pioneering yet unsuccessful attempt to digitally release his album “hours…”, a venture ahead of its time given the woeful internet download speeds of the era.

  • Futurism ☛ Woman Furious When Tattoo Artist Admits Her Half-Finished Tattoo Is AI-Generated

    As Doherty points out, image generators often build from — or rip off, depending on who you ask — publicly posted work from other artists, which seems to be as frowned upon in the tattoo world as it is among other artistic mediums.

  • The Register UK ☛ Judge tosses publishers' copyright suit against OpenAI

    A US judge has thrown out a case against ChatGPT developer OpenAI which alleged it unlawfully removed copyright management information (CMI) when building training sets for its chatbots.

    Publishers Raw Story and AltNet allege that when OpenAI removed the description of the copyright status, it resulted in a "concrete injury." The plaintiffs also argued there was a substantial risk that OpenAI's systems could "provide responses to users that incorporate … material from Plaintiffs' copyright-protected work or regurgitate copyright-protected works verbatim or nearly verbatim."

  • Wired ☛ OpenAI Scored a Legal Win Over Progressive Publishers—but the Fight’s Not Finished

    OpenAI has notched a victory in its ongoing legal fight against publishers over how its AI tools use creative work. On November 7, a judge dismissed a copyright case against the startup brought by independent publishers Alternet and Raw Story.