Leftovers

• Unicorn Media ☛ How Many People In Your State Are Trying to Get the Same Tech Job That You’re Seeking?

  What percentage of the workforce in your state are IT Professionals? How many people per square mile work in tech? Where does your state rank?

• Ruben Schade ☛ Stymied by legacy measurements in the morning

  We’re getting a delivery from a Swedish furniture manufacturer this morning, so I was doing some measurements and calculations to confirm where they’d go in the apartment. One cabinet is going to be a place to display some of our retrocomputers, and I wanted to make sure they’d fit.

• Vox ☛ 2024-11-27 [Older] Is it possible to have both pride and humility?

• Bob Monsour ☛ Tagging posts and 'futzing' with my site

  I spent a few hours mulling over this website and futzing with it. I tweaked some CSS to simplify things. And I decided to add more tags to some of my posts. The personal category was a bunch of odd stuff. Those posts also have tags like travel, politics, and health.

• Amit Patel ☛ SDF Halos

  These outlines are called “halos” in the cartography world. There are many styles one can use. A solid outline is the simplest thing to implement, so I started with that. Apple Maps and Google Maps use a solid outline too. However, a solid color outline can be distracting, and Cartographer Tom Patterson instead uses background blurring with feathering (variable strength) to produce nicer looking halos. That article made me want to try other styles.

• Ruben Schade ☛ The Who: Back to serif again

  Remember Bookman Old Style? I did all my high school assignments in that. I loved it for its serif flourishes, and for taking up more space on a page. If you tell a student there’s a font size and page length requirement, they’re going to figure out ways around it. I remember Ms Gravina giving me full marks once on an English project, and commenting that she respected my chutzpah.

• Lou Plummer ☛ The Modern Miracles

  Like most people, I take all of this for granted and seldom take the time to consider what a true miracle it is and how rapidly it has all evolved. I even get irritated when my mind can conceive of an idea that no one has invented yet. Actually, that rarely happens. People seem to come up with ideas and make them realities faster than I can master the skills to take advantage of them.

• Jeremy Cherfas ☛ Sign-up Spam

  The numbers go up, but I am still hoping this is not a trend. And the complainers worry me. Presumably these are people whose actual email addresses have been used without their knowledge. I wonder, do they blame me, the innocent party is all this? And if they do, could there be any consequences?

• Sean Goedecke ☛ I don't know how to build software and you don't either

  Are microservices better than monoliths? Should teams set their own technical direction, or is it better to have that dictated by some external architect? Should you write long-term complex projects in an untyped language? If you’re on the internet for ten seconds, you’ll see many engineers who argue about these topics as if the answer was obvious.

  The longer I work in tech, the less confident I get about any of these big questions. I’ve seen enough things work that I thought were terrible ideas, and vice versa. In fact, I’m not convinced it’s even possible to be justifiably confident that there’s a right answer to these questions. Nobody knows!

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Popular Fitness Regime May Reduce Need For Prescription Drugs

    Strong stuff!

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal a Very Compelling Reason to Use Your Air Fryer

    We had no idea.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Opposite of Déjà Vu Exists And Is Even More Uncanny

    The weird world of jamais vu.

  • Science Alert ☛ Huge Experiment Gives First Glimpse of The Internal Structure of a Neutron

    A monumental step forward.

  • Science Alert ☛ Timekeeping Is on The Verge of a Giant Leap in Accuracy. Here's Why.

    We're counting down!

• Career/Education

  • University of Michigan ☛ Are textbook prices too high? A look into UMich’s textbooks

    Textbooks are an essential part of nearly every college student’s experience. Whether an online version, a tattered used book or a copy borrowed from fellow classmates, these reading materials serve as a base for many college courses. However, some classes impose a total textbook cost as high as $297.50, according to The Michigan Daily’s data team. The Daily looked into how textbook prices at the University of Michigan compare between classes, departments and course levels, utilizing course syllabi from the University’s course guides and data from U-M Barnes & Noble and Amazon for 146 courses offered in the fall 2024 semester and winter 2025 semester.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Universities urging foreign students to return to US campuses before Trump inauguration

    The institution is asking pupils to return to campus by January 13, when the semester begins.

    “This is especially important given that a new presidential administration will take office on January 20 and — as is common — may issue one or more executive orders impacting travel to the US and visa processing,” a statement sent out by USC read.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Printing In Multi-material? Use These Filament Combos

    If one has a multi-material printer there are more options than simply printing in different colors of the same filament. [Thomas Sanladerer] explores combinations of different filaments in a fantastic article that covers not just which materials make good removable support interfaces, but also which ones stick to each other well enough together to make a multi-material print feasible. He tested an array of PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, and Flex filaments with each in both top (printed object) and bottom (support) roles.

  • Hackaday ☛ Tis The Season

    ’Tis the season for soldering! At least at my house. My son and I made some fairly LED-laden gifts for the immediate relatives last year, and he’s got the blinky bug. We were brainstorming what we could make this year, and his response was “I don’t care, but it needs to have lots of LEDs”.

  • Hackaday ☛ Liquid Metal Ion Thrusters Aren’t Easy

    What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we see that they seem to have a lot more in common than we’d initially thought.

  • US Navy Times ☛ How recovering a Japanese Zero at Pearl Harbor added to its mystery

    Surprisingly few hard facts were revealed by the examination of AI-154.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Off Guardian ☛ Bird Flu: The “Next Pandemic” is right on schedule

    We haven’t published anything about bird flu since June. There hasn’t been much to say. Nevertheless, I still regularly comb through journals and news sites, ensuring we don’t miss anything potentially important.

  • New York Times ☛ Canada’s 988 Crisis Hotline, a ‘Pathway to Survival,’ One Year Later

    The hotline responded to more than 300,000 calls and texts in its inaugural year, reinforcing appeals for Canada to establish a national suicide prevention strategy.

  • New York Times ☛ In Congo, a Medical Mystery Offers Clues to the Mpox Epidemic

    In a remote Congolese town, a medical mystery led to the discovery of alarming changes in the mpox virus and, eventually, to a global health emergency.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s health ministry records 10,272 cases of waterborne diseases in six flood-hit states

    More than 100 healthcare facilities have also been affected by the floods in Malaysia.

  • Science Alert ☛ Mushroom Extract Shows Promising Effects Against Prostate Cancer

    It's not even an exotic mushroom.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Type 2 diabetes: South Asians genetically at risk — study

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Laughing gas: How dangerous is the "balloon drug"?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Kiss away the calories: 11 fun facts about kissing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Hypothermia: What happens when your body freezes?

  • Rolling Stone ☛ UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Suspect Had Monopoly Money in Backpack

    The investigation into the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO took another bizarre twist Saturday as it was reported that a backpack linked to the alleged killer contained only two items: A jacket and Monopoly money.

  • The Age AU ☛ Some see suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing as a folk hero

    Instead, the executive’s killing has released a tide of online frustration towards the health insurance industry, with some people even voicing their support for the gunman.

    It is unclear what motivated the killing or whether it was tied to Thompson’s work in the industry. Police have yet to identify the shooter, and he remained at large as of Sunday (Monday AEDT).

  • CBC ☛ 1 in 7 ER visits could have been a doc visit; New Air Canada carry-on rules: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet

    Now, CIHI has developed a new indicator to gauge how hard it is to access care: emergency department visits for conditions that could potentially be managed in primary care.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ 2024-11-28 [Older] 5 Reasons Why I Steer Clear of Apple Products

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] Balancing Growth and Regulation: Apple’s Investment Struggles in Indonesia

  • Futurism ☛ Mariah Carey Denies That Her Holiday Video Is AI Slop, But We're Not Convinced, for Obvious Reasons

    Christmas queen Mariah Carey has released her latest yuletide dispatch — and it looks an awful lot like it was made with AI.

    As part of Spotify's annual "Wrapped" campaign, which calculates users' top songs, the "All I Want For Christmas" singer provided a video to her top fans that appeared to show the star perching in front of a holiday tree while rocking some Santa-style red and white threads.

  • New York Times ☛ Apple Faces Lawsuit Over Child Sexual Abuse Material on iCloud

    The notice arrived months after Apple had unveiled a tool that allowed it to scan for illegal images of sexual abuse. But it quickly abandoned that tool after facing criticism from cybersecurity experts, who said it could pave the way to other government surveillance requests.

    Now, the woman, using a pseudonym, is suing Apple because she says it broke its promise to protect victims like her. Instead of using the tools that it had created to identify, remove and report images of her abuse, the lawsuit says, Apple allowed that material to proliferate, forcing victims of child sexual abuse to relive the trauma that has shaped their lives.

• Security

  • Licensing / Legal

    • Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Mapping reliability to accountability

      I have spent the past 2 years rolling out Service Levels across a large organization (110+ teams). During this time I sat down with the majority of those teams face to face to identify their service, methodically discover their reliability metrics (SLI), and set reasonable expectations (SLO) and establish full ownership.

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ US govt says Cisco gear often targeted in China's Salt Typhoon attacks on 8 telecommunications providers — issues Cisco-specific advice to patch networks to fend off attacks

      The U.S. CISA released special guidelines to help organizations stay safe from attacks, releasing specific instructions for Cisco devices.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • New York Times ☛ UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting: Detectives Scour Video Record of Suspect’s Movements

      Cameras are everywhere in Manhattan and they helped lead investigators to a distinctive backpack in Central Park that could be a key piece of physical evidence.

    • New York Times ☛ In Grim Twist, Some Root for Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killing

      The authorities have pleaded for help in finding the person who killed Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare. But some seem more interested in rooting for the gunman.

    • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Search for Brian Thompson’s killer yields evidence, but few answers

      They have seen him smiling on a security camera, but don’t know his name. They found the backpack he discarded, but don’t know where he’s gone.

    • New Yorker ☛ What the Murder of the UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. Means to America

      What the death of a health-insurance C.E.O. means to America.

    • NYPost ☛ Police find monopoly money, jacket in backpack believed to belong to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin

      Thompson, 50, was gunned down outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown just before dawn on Wednesday.

    • The Straits Times ☛ US alleges China hacked calls of ‘very senior’ political figures, official says

      October reports said Trump family members and Biden administration officials had been targeted by China hackers.

    • INTERVIEW: An Ex-FBI agent helps unravel the mysteries of a spy swap

      The former head of the bureau's Beijing office explains the recent exchange of prisoners between China and the U.S.

    • The Register UK ☛ How Chinese insiders exploit its surveillance state

      Chinese tech company employees and government workers are siphoning off user data and selling it online - and even high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials and FBI-wanted hackers' sensitive information is being peddled by the Middle Kingdom's thriving illegal data ecosystem.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan reports near doubling of Chinese warships nearby

    Taiwan's defence ministry said on Sunday that China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the island in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect will be a new round of war games.

  • JURIST ☛ European Commission orders Fentanylware (TikTok) to retain information following controversial Romanian election

    The European Commission announced on Thursday that it would step up monitoring of the Fentanylware (TikTok) platform’s compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). The move comes in the context of the ongoing Romanian elections and aggressive online campaign of front-runner candidate Calin Georgescu.

  • New York Times ☛ On These Apps, the Dark Promise of Mothers Sexually Abusing Children

    Smartphone apps downloaded from Fashion Company Apple and Surveillance Giant Google can allow parents and other abusers to connect with pedophiles who pay to watch — and direct — criminal behavior.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Myanmar: How far will China go to keep junta afloat?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Merkel defends controversial decisions at book launch

  • The Straits Times ☛ Six Pakistani soldiers, 22 militants killed in clashes near Afghan border, army says

    Six Pakistani soldiers and 22 militants were killed in armed clashes in a northwestern region near the Afghan border on Saturday, the army said, as Islamist fighters increase their attacks on security forces in the area.

  • The Local SE ☛ 2024-11-29 [Older] EXPLAINED: How Sweden wants to make it easier to find and deport paperless migrants

  • New York Times ☛ Records Seized by Israel Show Hamas Presence in U.N. Schools

    But interviews and an analysis of the records shared with The Times by the Israeli military and foreign ministry indicate that Mr. al-Khatib was one of at least 24 people employed by UNRWA — in 24 different schools — who were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, another militant group. Before the war, the agency was responsible for a total of 288 schools, housed in 200 different building compounds, in Gaza.

    A majority were top administrators at the schools — principals or deputy principals — and the rest were school counselors and teachers, the documents say. Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Can Democracy Survive Online?

    The dream of a democratic web has turned into a nightmare of moderation crises, content mines, and billionaire overlords. Rebuilding digital spaces for meaningful participation in a post-X future will require nothing less than reclaiming the digital commons.

  • YLE ☛ PM Orpo on Syria's regime change: "People can no longer just come to Europe like before"

    Islamist rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday. In response to the news, Orpo said It was too early to determine whether this will lead to an influx of Syrians to Europe and Finland.

    "Europe is prepared. Lessons have been learned since 2015. People can no longer just come to Europe like before," Orpo told reporters during the prime minister's traditional question hour on Yle Radio 1.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Federal appeals court upholds rapidly approaching TikTok ban

    The law Congress passed this year to force the Chinese parent company of social media giant TikTok to either sell the service or face a U.S. ban is constitutional, a panel of federal appeals judges ruled Friday.

    The order from a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals preserves the bipartisan law President Joe Biden signed in April forcing ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to cease operations in the United States over concerns the platform’s data gathering could be obtained and used by the Chinese Communist Party.

  • BoingBoing ☛ Muhammed now the most popular baby name in England

    Muhammed is the most popular baby name in England for the first time. It pipped Noah for the top spot by less than 100, though when you include variants such as Mohammed it's been way ahead for years.

  • Coda Media Inc ☛ Legendary Kenyan lawyer takes on Meta and Chat GPT

    Tech platforms run from Silicon Valley, and the handful of men behind them, often seem and act invincible. But a legal battle in Kenya is setting an important precedent for disrupting the Big Tech’s strategy of obscuring and deflecting attention from the effect their platforms have on democracy and human rights around the world.

    Kenya is hosting unprecedented lawsuits against Meta Inc., the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Mercy Mutemi, who made last year’s TIME 100 list, is a Nairobi-based lawyer who is leading the cases. She spends her days thinking about what our consumption of digital products should look like in the next 10 years. Will it be extractive and extortionist, or will it be beneficial? What does it look like from an African perspective?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Can Europe build itself a rival to Google?

    When it comes to searching the [WWW], there's little that Europeans can do without America.

    When Europeans go looking for information, 90% of them

    rely on US tech giant Google to find what they're after. Around 5% use Microsoft's Bing.

    Even if they choose a web browser based in Europe, it's most likely using Google or Bing's infrastructure, meaning requests are sent to the US companies and their rankings are displayed.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ NATO to revise strategy on how to tackle hybrid warfare

    NATO allies have decided to increase intelligence sharing, enhance cooperation with private companies, and make critical infrastructure more resilient to tackle hybrid warfare as cases of suspected sabotage increase on NATO territory.

  • RFERL ☛ Romanian Court Annuls Presidential Election, Throws Process Into Chaos

    Georgescu's victory sent shock waves across the West after Romania's Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) declassified documents said to prove a massive, Moscow-orchestrated cybercampaign in his favor on TikTok that largely went under the radar of Romanian authorities.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ The role of TikTok in Romania's presidential election

    The Supreme Court of Romania has pulled the ripcord: On Friday, the judges annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election in November.

    “The procedure for the election of the President of Romania will be completely reopened,” the Constitutional Court announced. It made the decision “to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process.”

    The video app TikTok is said to have played a role in this: The far-right and pro-Russian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu had been massively promoted via TikTok with the help of coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid advertising.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ US court upholds law ordering sale of TikTok

    President-elect Donald Trump — who takes office on January 20 — was unsuccessful in banning TikTok during his previous term in 2020. But in a change of stance, he said before the November presidential election that he would not allow the TikTok ban.

  • RTL ☛ Edging closer: TikTok closer to US ban after losing court appeal

    The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless ByteDance sells the platform by January 19.

    While recognizing that "170 million Americans use TikTok to create and view all sorts of free expression," the three-judge panel unanimously upheld the law's premise that divesting it from China's control "is essential to protect our national security."

  • NL Times ☛ Film director, Muppet Show puppeteer Frank Oz to open World War II expo in The Hague

    American puppeteer and film director Frank Oz, the man behind various characters in Sesame Street and the Puppet Show, is opening an exhibition on Tuesday in the National Archive in The Hague about the war history that his parents, the puppeteers Isidore Oznowicz and Françoise Ghevaert, went through.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ One of the last Pearl Harbor survivors recalls that infamous day

    It’s believed there are fewer than 20 Pearl Harbor survivors still alive.

  • El País ☛ Pearl Harbor Day: A timeline of the event that lead the United States into World War II

    The attack was carried out before Japan made a formal declaration of war. Although the military intended to declare war 30 minutes before the attack, the message did not reach Washington until hours later.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ AI fakes, cyberattacks threaten German election

    Cyberattacks on prominent individuals and organizations may pose a significant threat to the election, experts say. Once obtained, sensitive data can be used in coordinated "hack-and-leak" operations, in which stolen material — often altered or taken out of context — is released to undermine the credibility of political candidates or parties.

    "Against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia probably has the greatest and most obvious interest in influencing the election in its own favor," Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), warned in late November.

    But domestic actors operating from within Germany pose an equally significant risk to the integrity of the election, Lentsch said.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Iran 'dramatically increasing' enrichment, IAEA warns

    IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that Iran is "dramatically" increasing enrichment up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% needed for a nuclear weapon.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Iran Planning To 'Dramatically Increase' Uranium Enrichment

    The IAEA report said the effect of the change "would be to significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent," according to news agencies quoting the report on December 6.

    This means the rate of production will jump to more than 34 kilograms of highly enriched uranium per month at its Fordow facility alone, compared to 4.7 kilograms previously, the report to the IAEA's board of governors says.

  • NYPost ☛ Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flees Damascus as rebels move into country’s capital: report

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane and left Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Asian Symphony Orchestra strikes the right notes for peace

    Helmed by a Singaporean conductor, the orchestra brings together musicians from the region.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea ruling party vows to engineer ‘orderly exit’ for Yoon

    The announcement was made at a joint press briefing on Dec 8.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s PM to convene Cabinet meeting, issue joint statement with ruling party leader

    An extraordinary Cabinet meeting will be convened at 2pm after the joint statement is released.

  • New York Times ☛ Opposition Grows to South Korea’s President as He Faces Impeachment

    The leader of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s own party has backed impeachment, on which the National Assembly is set to vote on Saturday.

  • France24 ☛ South Korea president escapes impeachment over martial law fiasco

    South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol escaped impeachment Saturday over his brief declaration of martial law, after lawmakers from his ruling party boycotted a vote despite huge protests outside parliament. Story by Emily Boyle.

  • New York Times ☛ Protesters Vow to Keep Pressure on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol

    Demonstrations in the city and nationwide demanding the president’s ouster intensified through the week, and Saturday’s rally was the largest yet.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea’s Capital Defence Command was strong choice to detain top lawmakers: Source

    Under martial law, the Defence Counterintelligence Command chief can detain and investigate individuals.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korean President Yoon Survives Impeachment Vote After Martial Law

    The country was thrown into deeper uncertainty after the governing party changed its stance and refused to oust him. Protesters vowed to keep the pressure on.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korean Leader’s Deal to Avoid Impeachment Signals Bigger Turmoil Ahead

    President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an opposition-led attempt to remove him by getting his party members to back him. But his troubles could now become theirs too.

  • CS Monitor ☛ South Korean President Avoids Impeachment: What’s Next?

    Most lawmakers in President Yoon's ruling party boycotted a vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. With growing protests, polls show most South Koreans support his removal.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s impeachment history offers clues to President Yoon’s political fate, future course

    Mr Yoon has become the country’s third leader to face impeachment proceedings.

  • The Straits Times ☛ K-Pop group Girls’ Generation 2007 song resurfaces as South Korea’s protest anthem

    Into the New World, the debut single by Girls’ Generation, was sung in rallies and protests this week.

  • The Straits Times ☛ K-pop, carols, guillotines up the tempo at S. Korea impeachment protests

    Ahead of the crucial impeachment vote, S. Korean protesters are massing outside the National Assembly.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea President Yoon apologises for martial law declaration; to let party decide his term

    He promised there will not be a second martial law declaration.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Full text of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s address to the nation

    President Yoon Suk Yeol promised there will not be a second martial law declaration.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea opposition leader ‘disappointed’ by Yoon’s address, presses him to step down

    Yoon’s term is scheduled to end in May 2027, but he might be forced to end his term prematurely.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Is S. Korea President Yoon’s apology enough to save him from impeachment vote?

    As expected, Mr Yoon's public address does not appear to have had any significant effects on the opposition.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol’s old high school suspends uniform policy to protect students

    The school also encouraged students to remain composed if confronted with unfair treatment.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Atrocities made a South Korean city infamous; a novelist made it immortal

    When President Yoon declared martial law this week, the outrage was deepest in Gwangju.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol close to averting impeachment

    Lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party streamed out of the Parliament’s main chamber.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean opposition party files motion to impeach interior and safety minister

    The vote on the minister’s impeachment is expected on Dec 10.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Do your job’: South Korean protesters frustrated by floundering impeachment vote

    Nearly 150,000 people were estimated by police to have filled the streets around the National Assembly.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea president escapes impeachment over martial law fiasco

    The motion did not meet the required two-thirds majority after Yoon's party boycotted the vote.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Yoon: Embittered survivor staggers on after impeachment vote

    Yoon's struggles at home have overshadowed the relative success he has had on the global stage.

  • The Straits Times ☛ President Yoon’s impeachment motion puts focus on South Korea’s generational gap

    At the heart of the divide are two very different experiences of life in South Korea.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Martial law, protest, walkout: South Korea’s wild week

    A look at recent events in a country thought to have consigned dictatorships to history.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Singapore Embassy in Seoul: Stay vigilant in case of further protests

    Singaporeans should avoid areas with large crowds and keep up to date on local South Korean news.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean opposition to propose new impeachment Bill after bid to impeach President Yoon fails

    Nearly 150,000 people gathered to protest, calling for the impeachment and arrest of Mr Yoon.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Yoon to depart office early, will not participate in state affairs before then, says party leader

    The announcement was made at a joint press briefing on Dec 8.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Impeachments, coups and deaths: The dark side of South Korean presidency

    Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak are among the disgraced ex-presidents.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Who are the ruling party lawmakers in South Korea who voted on Yoon’s impeachment?

    Three lawmakers from the ruling party cast their vote on the impeachment motion on Dec 7.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean protesters offered prepaid coffees, snacks as support poured in from far away

    One supporter paid for 90 bowls of soup for protesters outside the National Assembly in Seoul.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s ruling party floor leader offers to resign

    Mr Choo Kyung-ho was among 105 People Power Party lawmakers who boycotted the impeachment vote on Dec 7.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s PM to convene cabinet meeting; issue joint statement with ruling party leader

    An extraordinary Cabinet meeting will be convened at 2pm after the joint statement is released.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea police raid ex-defence minister’s official residence, office

    Mr Kim was put under emergency arrest, and had his phone confiscated.

  • JURIST ☛ Impeachment motion against South Korea president fails in National Assembly

    An impeachment motion against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol failed to proceed in the country’s National Assembly on Saturday after the session fell short of the required quorum. Only 195 members were present at the session, below the two-thirds threshold of 200 lawmakers needed to initiate the impeachment process.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Dissenter ☛ Biden's Legacy: Enhancing The 'State Secrets Privilege' To Protect The National Security State

  • El País ☛ Dozens of the world’s most cited scientists stop falsely claiming to work in Saudi Arabia

    This newspaper unveiled that Saudi universities were paying up to €70,000 a year to prestigious researchers to artificially pump up Arab institutions in international academic rankings

• Environment

  • Wired ☛ These 3 Things Are Standing in the Way of a Global Plastics Treaty

    While no deal was agreed in Busan, South Korea, where the talks took place, there was a feeling of renewed determination to create an ambitious and robust plastics treaty. In a memorable moment during the debate, a delegate from Rwanda spoke about the need for reductions in plastic production to confront mounting pollution, and was met with a standing ovation.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Why fertile land is turning to desert

    These already-arid lands are marked by low rainfall yet support 45% of the world's agriculture. Now, extreme drought linked to human-made global heating is helping to transform this area into an infertile wasteland.

    With one in three of the world's people living in these drylands, experts say that food insecurity, poverty, and mass displacement will accompany desertification.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Japan space agency aborts Epsilon S rocket test after fire

    • Kevin Boone ☛ Kevin Boone: They don’t make ’em like that any more: things you can switch off

      Back in the day, most electrical or electronic appliances had an on/off switch. When you switched an appliance off, it was really off; it consumed no energy.

      In 2024, the only electrical appliance in my house that I can actually switch off when I’m not using it, without disconnecting it from the electricity supply, is my toaster. Everything else, without exception, consumes some small amount of energy, even when it appears to be switched off. In this article I consider how much energy I’m wasting, and whether it really matters. Of course, any wasted energy is a bad thing for the natural environment; a more pragmatic question is how significant is our abandonment of on/off switches, compared to other ways in which we waste energy every day?

    • Wired ☛ To Build Electric Cars, Jaguar Land Rover Had to Redesign the Factory

      Halewood has now been modded for cars of the future. A fleet of 750 robots (“our version of the Terracotta Army,” says Ford), laser alignment technology, and cloud-based infrastructure join 3,500 JLR employees on the factory floor, expanded by 32,364 sqm (348,363 sq ft) to produce the manufacturer’s next-generation vehicles. New calibration rigs measure the responsiveness of a vehicle’s advanced driver-assistance systems, such as its cameras and sensors. Safety levels can be calibrated for future autonomous driving, says Ford.

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ There is no AI without energy

      The rise of AI is quickly emerging as one of the most important energy trends today. AI is already helping to accelerate the discovery of new energy materials and technologies, and it can be utilised to improve how energy is produced, consumed and distributed. At the same time, expanding AI and the digital economy requires huge data centres, which can each consume as much electricity as 100,000 households. Although data centres currently account for just 1% of electricity usage globally, there are already significant challenges to the grid in areas where they are concentrated, and demand is expected to keep growing. For example, in Ireland, data centres already account for 20% of electricity demand, while in the US state of Virginia, the share is over 25%.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Trenitalia tops list of Europe's rail operators — study

      The ranking was published by the European NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).Trenitalia was followed by Swiss operator SBB and Czech company RegioJet. Austria's ÖBB came in fourth, ahead of France's SCNF.

  • Overpopulation

    • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Having 3 kids is the coolest’: China ramps up push for more babies, but are couples biting?

      Couples and experts say the government's measures to build a “birth-friendly society” aren't all that enticing.

• Finance

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Germany needs 288,000 foreign workers annually until 2040 — study

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] El Salvador plots its future economic miracle

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Off Guardian ☛ WATCH: Repersoning Whitney Webb

    Whitney Webb is being digitally repersoned. What does this mean for the future of Hey Hi (AI) and digital ID? What does this mean for the future of humanity? And can it motivate us to create a post-social control media internet landscape?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Senegal's optimism rises with Diomaye's reform mandate

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Namibia's SWAPO faces new challenges in tight election

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Pakistan: Imran Khan supporters storm capital

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Pakistan: Pro-Khan protests stoke fear of military takeover

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Pakistan protests: Khan supporters reach central Islamabad

  • India Times ☛ Reverse flip in cart, Flipkart plans IPO delivery in 12-15 months

    Flipkart, India’s largest ecommerce firm valued at $36 billion, is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) in the coming year with a definite timeline of 12-15 months, multiple people aware of the development said. The proposed listing, which is likely to be the largest share issue by a new-economy company, will mark a seminal moment for the country’s startup sector that is now regarded as the third largest worldwide.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Practical cybersecurity: moving beyond fear-based awareness

    Cybersecurity programmes often emphasise awareness without providing clear, actionable steps. This approach can lead to “awareness fatigue”, where employees feel overwhelmed and disengaged. Anna Collard, senior vice president for content strategy and evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, explains: “Constant warnings about cyberthreats can leave employees feeling like there’s no safe way forward, which leads to inaction.”

    When employees see cyber risks as insurmountable, they may avoid addressing them altogether. Instead of creating a proactive culture, organisations inadvertently foster paralysis. To counter this, companies must focus on strategies that build confidence rather than fear.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Washington Post ☛ The ‘ghost engineers’ haunting Silicon Valley programming payrolls

      Denisov-Blanch shared his findings, from ongoing research not yet published in peer-reviewed form, after a Silicon Valley investor reignited a long-running debate over the existence of ghost engineers.

      “Everyone thinks this is an exaggeration but there are so many software engineers … who I know personally who literally make ~2 code changes a month, few emails, few meetings, remote work, < 5 hours/ week, for ~$200-300k,” Deedy Das said in an X post one morning last month.

    • The Register UK ☛ China launches AI that writes politically correct documents

      Xuexi is an app that offers info about Chinese president Xi Jinping's life and thoughts – plus tools that allow users to chat about them together.

      Reports from Hong Kong and China claim Baidu teamed with Xuexi to create a tool that Chinese bureaucrats can use to check documents they create to ensure they properly reflect Xi Jinping's thoughts – and that references to his ideas come from fact-checked sources.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Fact check: Image does not show torture in Syria

      A reverse image search shows the photo appears online in a Farsi language article which can be found here and alocal website report about an exhibition at the Ebrat Museum in Tehran, Iran. We found photos with the same setting on the museum's own website

      as well.

      We confirmed the results by looking at other sources and information on the Ebrat Museum in the Iranian capital. The museum displays wax figures in scenes showing how political prisoners were held in horrible conditions and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment by Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi's secret police (SAVAK) during the 1970s.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Hong Kong court rejects protester’s bid for early release under national security law

    The Hong Kong Court of First Instance upheld prison authorities’ refusal to grant remission to a prisoner convicted of offenses “endangering national security” on Friday. The case marks the first judicial review against the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) enacted by the region’s legislature in March of this year.

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] #5. Abortion Services Censored on Social Platforms Globally

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-11-30 [Older] Berkeley Free Speech Movement Forged an Organizing Blueprint That’s Relevant Now

  • EFF ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] 🍿 Today’s Double Feature: Privacy and Free Speech

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] #20. Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) Poses Serious First Amendment Concerns

  • VOA News ☛ Georgian journalists allege brutal beatings; protests rage against ending EU talks

    Police have been using increasing force in their attempts to curb the demonstrations, which have centered on the parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi. Riot police have used water cannons and tear gas every day to disperse the rallies, beating scores of protesters who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Appeasement in the New Age of Trump

    It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease.

    I write these words very aware that I’m probably saying goodbye forever to a television platform that I enjoy and from which I have benefited as both viewer and guest. I have been the recipient of personal kindnesses from the hosts that I have not forgotten.

    I do not write to scold anyone; I write because fear is infectious. Let it spread, and it will paralyze us all.

    The only antidote is courage. And that’s infectious, too.

  • RFERL ☛ Georgian Pro-EU Protesters On Streets Again After Violent Government Crackdown

    Tensions have been running high in Georgia since the ruling Georgian Dream party won an election on October 26 that the pro-Western opposition and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili say was rigged with the help of Moscow.

    Earlier on December 6, Zurabishvili called on Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to step down as pressure mounts on the government amid a violent crackdown on unrest.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • US News And World Report ☛ The US Believes Journalist Austin Tice Is Alive After Disappearing in Syria in 2012, Biden Says

    The United States has no new evidence that Tice is alive, but continues to operate under that assumption, according to a U.S. official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. will continue to work to identify where he is and to try to bring him home.

  • BIA Net ☛ Journalism: Self-defense of society

    With the emergence of a strong social vein in Kurdish politics, the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which began its publication life in May 1992 to reach a wide audience, became a constant target of the rulers of the state. Despite the killing of child-aged newspaper distributors, reporters, the arrest of its employees, and its repeated closures, the newspaper, which started again under different names, created the Free Press (Özgür Basın) tradition through its stubbornness.

    On Dec 3, 1994, although the İstanbul and Ankara offices were bombed simultaneously by the written order of then Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, we are talking about a newspaper that was published the next day. In essence, this newspaper engraved on its masthead a defense of truth that produces, resists, and never gives up against pressure, closures, and censorship.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] #9. Controversial Acquitted-Conduct Sentencing Challenged by US Commission

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] #16. Activists Rally outside Insurance Giants, Denouncing Fossil Fuel Investments

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-12-03 [Older] #15. Bottled Water Consumption Exacerbates Socioeconomic Inequalities

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ White British students not allowed to apply for security services internship

    “I understand the need to encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities,” he said.

    “But this is an overtly racist policy and it should be immediately discontinued. It implies it is impossible for any white person to be deprived or deserving of assistance.”

    One former senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer said he believed the decision not to allow poor white students to apply is “blatant discrimination”.

  • RFA ☛ Tibetan monk in poor health after his release from prison – Radio Free Asia

    Chinese authorities consider it illegal for Tibetans to contact exiles. They are particularly sensitive about contacts made with the Dalai Lama, who fled to northern India in 1959 and has been living there ever since.

  • SBS ☛ Over half of Australian teens have experienced sexual harassment: Report | SBS News

    Sexual harassment refers to when a person behaves in a sexual manner that is unwelcome and makes another person feel intimidated, uncomfortable, degraded or offended, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It can take different forms, including touching and grabbing, sexual remarks and showing sexually explicit images.

    The report is the first Australian evidence from a nationally representative sample on young people's experience of sexual harassment, including those under 18 years, according to AIFS.

  • The Walrus ☛ When Your Landlord Is a Billion-Dollar Corporation | The Walrus

    That’s not much reassurance for tenants like Ali who, across many parts of Canada, are feeling squeezed by financialized landlords. Essentially, the financialization of housing refers to the process of turning housing into a tool primarily for profit. Deep-pocketed entities, like REITs, amass cheap housing stock. Their investors, in turn, expect high returns on that investment, which is why these landlords deploy strategies that squeeze out higher rents from tenants.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Techdirt ☛ Steam Adds Timeline Requirements, Refunds Around Its Pre-Order And Season Pass Policies

    Valve’s Steam PC gaming storefront appears to be on a bit of a pro-consumer kick as of late and I like it. We recently discussed the platform’s update to its purchase process, which now specifically includes explicit language around how the purchase is that of a revokable license to play the game, rather than any misleading or buried language that would lead a consumer to think they were actually buying the game outright. This doesn’t solve the problem of non-ownership of digital goods itself, of course, but it at least is a step in the direction of better informing the customer as to what they are getting in exchange for their dollars.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-26 [Older] Pharma & Biotech Patent Litigation Summit (& UPC Litigation Forum) returns to Amsterdam in January with 15% IPKat readers’ discount [Ed: Event about fake and illegal court, passing EPO corruption to the EU level]

  • Software Patents

    • University of Michigan ☛ Professors’ perspectives on textbook prices

      Electronic Resources Officer Kathleen Folger told The Daily that despite the burden of textbook prices, students should not pirate — or illegally download without patent or copyright permission — textbooks because of the computer safety risk.

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-30 [Older] CJEU: Commission could disagree with national authorities on GI applications under Regulation 1151/2012 (but not under Regulation 2024/1143)

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-27 [Older] [Book review] Design law: Global Law and Practice

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-11-30 [Older] Wine-maker's opposition against EUTM of an elderly man's face found by EUIPO to be nothing more than sour grapes

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ 'Historic Decision' to Imprison Pirate IPTV User Smells of Propaganda

    Greece is buzzing with news of a historic, landmark decision by a local court, to imprison a person for five months for subscribing to a pirate IPTV service. The news warrants an informed conversation about creators' rights and how the judicial system has sharpened its response to piracy. However, until evidence is produced to the contrary, the story should be stamped "propaganda" and noted for an offense of its own: a distraction from genuine progress in the fight against piracy.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-29 [Older] Canadian News Companies Challenge OpenAI Over Alleged Copyright Breaches

  • CBC ☛ 2024-11-29 [Older] Media outlets, including CBC, sue ChatGPT creator — but copyright law is unclear on AI, experts say

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-29 [Older] Canadian News Publishers Sue OpenAI Over Alleged Copyright Infringement

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • Why would anyone be a henchman for an evil organization?

      Years ago I asked how evil corporations hire people [1], but there's the other side: why work for an evil corporation? This After Hours video [2] attempts to answer that question.

    • Grief

      We got the sympathy card from the vet clinic today. It spoke of the rainbow bridge and the reunion to come. It's so damn _tempting_ to believe that the loved ones you lost are in in fact restored to health and waiting for you to join them on the other side of this life. When you're grieving, that hope is like a fucking knife in the heart. You'd give so much, believe any goddamn ridiculous thing, betray any trust, just for that to be true.

      I wasn't raised in any particular faith tradition. I'm weeping as I write this, uncertain what to believe, what to want, where to find comfort. I intuit that life is in some sense a circle, that the lives we absorb for our continuance must at some point be returned to the earth to nourish new life, that space must be made. I _know_ this.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Happy Two Years

        In less than a week I'll have been writing here for two years. My first online journal, on the web and on a variety of domains, lasted just a smidge more than that. Two and a half years? Between the first entries I've found in the wayback (I think I was writing before that, but, nothing archived) and when I shifted to LiveJournal. I've said it here before, but LiveJournal was the slow death of everything I loved about life-writing online. Everything forced into the same template, the same flow. A harbinger of what was to come, really, with CMSs and blogs and standardized designs giving rise to the WordPress Web. I wrote there for almost a decade, but really, only regularly for a few years at the start.

        2-3 years has been in the past my limit. Hoping that isn't true here as well. I've been keeping up on the small web, and it'll be two years there early next year. That feels closest to my old site (being, you know, an actual website), even though there, the community feels a lot smaller, though I suspect it's actually larger, just less inclined to email or drop a guestbook note. The quiet, there and here, has been the happiest part. No constantly-lit notification icons. No emails to say that someone's left a comment. Just what I find if I remember to check. Slower, better. I've changed tildes once. I was at rawtext.club at the start. But after the disk failure (and subsequent total data loss), I decided to move elsewhere. Thank goodness I'd been diligent about backing things up, putting them in private git repos. The developer's instinct, I guess: if it's worth doing, it's worth versioning.