Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Target Lifting Mechanism Goes Wireless

  “WARNING: DO NOT Hammer on this mechanism” sounds like the start of a side quest. A quest is exactly what [CelGenStudios] started when he came upon a strange box with this message.

• Jose Munoz ☛ Automating a monthly link roundup: January 2024

  I already have a /bookmarks page where I capture links and highlights; it even has its own RSS feed! I’m not sure how many people are subscribed to that, but I thought doing a roundup for regular subscribers might be a good idea to bring those 2 feeds together! If you are subscribed to my bookmarks feed please let me know if this type of post is too redundant.

• Amit Gawande ☛ Update on No-Syndication Experiment

  What does all of this mean for my no-syndication experiment? As of now, nothing has changed. I like this unshackled feeling while I write. As if no one’s watching and weighing up my every word.

  How about taking my writing to the readers? I am yet to find an organic way to do that. Automatic and passive syndication is not that.

• LRT ☛ Stained glass work discovered in Vilnius strip club to be given state protection

  On Tuesday, the Vilnius Academy of Arts announced that one of its lecturers and an alumna discovered Three Muses, which was considered a lost masterpiece of stained glass, in a strip club in Vilnius.

• Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Phil Gyford – Manu

  This is the 24th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Phil Gyford and his blog, gyford.com

  Both Piper and Ana suggested Phil as a potential guest but he was already on my radar thanks to his incredible work on ooh.directory which is such a great site and an amazing tool for a project like P&B.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal What The Sky Looks Like in X-Ray Vision

    "Mind-blowing numbers for X-ray astronomy."

  • Science Alert ☛ Obesity Disrupts Mitochondria, And We May Have Figured Out How

    "The future possibilities are exciting."

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea tests new rocket launcher control system

    It said the launcher would lead to a "qualitative change" in its defence capabilities.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Digital technologies have made ancient manuscripts more accessible than ever, but there are risks and losses, too

    Nikodemos hoped to correct this by collecting and printing texts that would otherwise fall to dust. By making the manuscripts into a book, he would preserve the knowledge they contained—but not the manuscript, not the artifact itself.

    He does not mention how difficult his Byzantine manuscripts were to read and transcribe, even for someone familiar with the language. Copying by hand takes dozens, even hundreds of hours of intensive labor. Reading them means learning to decode scribes' handwriting, abbreviations, and shorthand.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Color of Your Eyes Could Actually Affect Your Reading Ability

    In their preliminary experiment, Kyoko Yamaguchi and her student Faith Erin Cain from Liverpool John Moores University explored the possibility with 39 adult volunteers undergoing a simple 30-second eye test under decreasing intensities of light.

  • Science Alert ☛ Strange Meteorite Fragments That Exploded Over Berlin Now Identified

    They look completely different to most meteorites.

  • Science Alert ☛ First Look at Asteroid Hints It's a Fragment of a Lost Ocean World

    An eerie resemblance to something we've seen before.

• Education

  • Henrik Warne ☛ Finding a New Software Developer Job

    For the first time ever, I was laid off, and had to find a new software developer job. I managed to find a new one, but it took longer than I thought, and it was a lot of work. I was in contact with 30 companies, got a no from 8 companies, no reply from 6 companies, and offers from 3 companies. Here is what I learnt from the process.

  • Daniel Miessler ☛ Your Work Can Only Be As Good As Your Problems Are Meaningful

    Putting it another way, your work can only be as interesting as your problems.

  • Gregory Hammond ☛ Making progress on your goals - Gregory Hammond

    What is your current goal? You may have a professional, or personal one.

    Some people choose to let their goals lead their life and what they do, or you may do something because you want to. If you have goals, have you reevaluated them recently? Or have you completed them but forgot about it?

  • Shariq Raza Qadri ☛ Logical Fallacies - Part II

    I have been reading through a book on Theology recently. In one of the chapters I came across some fallacies mentioned which I hadn’t known previously. So, I thought to share them. I have documented some logical fallacies from a dedicated book on the subject before.

    Now, let’s dive into another set of fallacies.

  • Tom Greenwood ☛ Should we abolish busyness? - by Tom Greenwood - Oxymoron

    This puts a whole new perspective on the term sustainable business and makes it feel like even more of an oxymoron. If sustainability is the ability to sustain something over the long term, then sustainable business would be to stay busy indefinitely.

    Is that viable?

    And more importantly, is that what we really want?

  • Mandaris Moore ☛ The 100

    For years, I would hear people say that it takes 100 days to develop a new habit. I didn’t set out to do that. I wanted to write on a more regular basis and just started writing on November 1st of last year. I was determined to write something every day and post it.

• Hardware

  • MaskRay ☛ Toolchain notes on z/Architecture

    z/Architecture is a mainframe computer architecture supporting 24-bit, 31-bit, and 64-bit addressing modes. It is the latest generation in a lineage stretching back to the 1964 with IBM System/360 (32-bit general purpose registers and 24-bit addressing). This lineage includes System/370 (1970), System/370 Extended Architecture (1983), Enterprise Systems Architecture/370 (1988), and Enterprise Systems Architecture/390 (1990). For a deeper dive into the design choices behind z/Architecture's extension from ESA/390, you can refer to "Development and attributes of z/Architecture."

  • Andre Franca ☛ From Tactile to Linear Keyboard Switches

    However, two years of using tactile switches led me to reconsider what I wanted in a switch. A linear switch would be a better option for both typing and gaming, instead of tactile ones.

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Printed DIN Rail Mount Is Attractive

    DIN rails aren’t very common in hobby projects, although you do see them occasionally. But in some industries, they are everywhere. The rail is just a piece of aluminum or steel with slots to hold it to a wall or bulkhead. There are two small lips that equipment like circuit breakers, power supplies, or controllers can attach easily. A common 3D printing project is a way to mount something like a printer controller to DIN rails. [NotLikeALeafOnThe Wind] shows a different take on it: a magnetic holder that temporarily attaches a rail to a ferrous surface.

  • Hackaday ☛ Benchmarking Latency Across Common Wireless Links For MCUs

    Although factors like bandwidth, power usage, and the number of (kilo)meters reach are important considerations with wireless communication for microcontrollers, latency should be another important factor to pay attention to. This is especially true for projects like controllers where round-trip latency and instant response to an input are essential, but where do you find the latency number in datasheets? This is where [Michael Orenstein] and [Scott] over at Electric UI found a lack of data, especially when taking software stacks into account. In other words, it was time to do some serious benchmarking.

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Printed Basketball Could Be A Game Changer

    Basketball has changed a lot over the years, and that goes for the sport as well as the ball itself. While James Naismith first prescribed tossing soccer balls into peach baskets to allow athletes to stay in shape over the winter, today, the sport looks quite different both rule-wise and equipment-wise.

  • Hackaday ☛ Printing A Log

    We’ve used wood filament before, and we hazily remember a Cura plugin that changed temperatures to create wood grain. But unlike [Patrick Gibney], we never thought of printing a faux wood log coaster that looks like it has rings. Check out the video below to see how it works.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ SCSI isn't dead yet — new SSD for old or obsolete systems is a boon for retro computing fans

    The new SCSIFlash-Fast is a 3.5-inch form factor drop-in replacement drive that can take the place of any ancient 68-pin or 80-pin connector SCSI HDD without the system even noticing.

  • IT Wire ☛ US announces chip investment plans after Japan progress revealed

    In January, reports emerged that the world's biggest manufacturer of semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, would have to delay the opening of a factory in Arizona till 2027 or even 2028.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Haaretz ☛ Talking to the Unconscious: Israelis Reduce Delirium During Surgery

    With EyeControl technology, the medical team can detect when a patient has regained consciousness, facilitate communication with them, transmit soothing messages, and play family recordings from a distance.

  • Are ivermectin and fenbendazole the new laetrile? (Part two: ivermectin)

    Last Friday, I wrote about a cancer cure testimonial that had gone viral by a man named Kevin Hennings. In the hour-long viral video, Mr. Hennings was interviewed by comedian Jim Breuer on his podcast, where the credulous host touted his story of having undergone surgery and chemotherapy for colon cancer and then, as everyone was about to give up, discovered the deworming agent fenbendazole as part of a “cocktail” with other “repurposed” drugs like cimetidine plus herbs and supplements like curcumin and an extract from mushrooms, among other things, and then started taking it. He’s doing well, and of course he attributes his current decent health to the fenbendazole and other woo rather than to all the conventional treatment that he had undergone. In fairness, he said he had stage IV cancer, but, as is the case of so many alternative cancer cure testimonials, Mr. Hennings’ story lacked key details that would allow an oncologist to infer whether his fenbendazole cocktail had any antitumor activity at all. The whole story reminded me of nearly every other alternative cancer cure testimonial that I’ve ever deconstructed, and I noted that such testimonials went back at least to laetrile, the “miracle cancer cure” of the 1960s and 1970s and asked, Are ivermectin and fenbendazole the new laetrile?

  • Science Alert ☛ Rare Human Case of Bubonic Plague in Oregon Confirmed by Authorities

    It's still out there.

  • Science Alert ☛ Groundbreaking New Response to Cardiac Arrest Expected to Save Lives

    Right now only two countries are doing it.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Financial Times ☛ This has nothing to do with "HEY HI"; it is about a rotting economy and large companies in massive debt and high interest rates on their debt https://www.ft.com/content/9bace2e9-3ecb-4651-a6c0-b16f0226c0e0 [Ed: This has nothing to do with "HEY HI"; it is about a rotting economy and large companies in massive debt and high interest rates on their debt]

    Microsoft, eBay and PayPal have each cut thousands of jobs since the start of the year

  • Hackaday ☛ AI’s Existence Is All It Takes To Be Accused Of Being One

    New technologies bring with them the threat of change. AI tools are one of the latest such developments. But as is often the case, when technological threats show up, they end up looking awfully human.

  • The Conversation ☛ The video game industry is booming. Why are there so many layoffs? [Ed: This headline is a deliberate lie. It's not booming at all. Hence the mass layoffs. Gaslighting in the media benefits nobody, not even the media owners, who will see their audience fuming and walking away. The economy is so good that many companies have no choice but to shed off workers, says the media funded by oligarchy.]

  • Tech Layoffs ‘Become Contagious’ Amid AI Investments [Ed: This has nothing to do with the "HEY HI" bubble, the go-to excuse after misleading and false narratives such as "new normal", "quiet quitters", and "great resignation"]

  • Amazon accused of “union-busting” in Midlands warehouses

    Amazon is facing allegations from the GMB union for "union-busting" at its Midlands warehouses.

    Workplace message boards told staff: “We want to speak with you. A union wants to speak for you.”

    The allegation comes as the employees prepare for a three-day strike at the Coventry warehouse next week.

    Workers advocate for a wage increase to £15 per hour and negotiation rights over their pay and working conditions.

  • Jamie Zawinski ☛ Burn Robot Burn!

    Autonomous murderbot tries to drive through Chinese New Year street party, gets whole entire ass handed to it.

  • The San Fancisco Standard ☛ Waymo robotaxi set on fire in San Francisco's Chinatown

    “There were thousands and thousands of people,” Peskin said. “On the street, it was so crowded we couldn’t get through the crowd [to other events]. How that led to graffiti and stomping on an autonomous vehicle—and arson—I don’t know. But I’ve never seen Chinatown so crowded.”

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Chris McLeod ☛ More Words on Webmentions (and Backfeed)

      Aside from the privacy and implementation concerns noted in the last post, Cam noted in his own post that another problem backfeed can lead to is context collapse. This isn’t a problem I have much experience with (so can’t really talk to it) but I thought it worth noting here for completeness.

• Defence/Aggression

  • US News And World Report ☛ Hamas Had Command Tunnel Under U.N. Gaza HQ, Israeli Military Says

    The tunnel, which the military said was 700 metres long and 18 metres deep, bifurcated at times, revealing side-rooms. There was an office space, with steel safes that had been opened and emptied. There was a tiled toilet. One large chamber was packed with computer servers, another with industrial battery stacks.

    "Everything is conducted from here. All the energy for the tunnels, which you walked through them are powered from here," said the lieutenant-colonel, who gave only his first name, Ido.

    "This is one of the central commands of the intelligence. This place is one of the Hamas intelligence units, where they commanded most of the combat."

    But Ido said Hamas appeared to have evacuated in the face of the Israeli advance, preemptively cutting off communications cables that, in an above-ground part of the tour, he showed running through the floor of the UNRWA Headquarters' basement.

  • CBC ☛ EU officials criticize Trump for condoning Russian attacks on NATO allies that don't pay enough

    EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton was asked in a French television interview about Saturday's remarks by Trump, who is likely to be the Republican nominee in this year's U.S. presidential election.

    "We cannot flip a coin about our security every four years depending on this or that election, namely the U.S. presidential election," Breton said, adding European Union leaders understood the bloc needed to boost its own military spending and capacities.

  • YLE ☛ Eighty years ago, 150 Soviet bombers aimed to destroy Kotka — but failed

    Kotka was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Finland during the Second World War.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine says Russia waging disinformation campaign to paint new AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as ‘Russian’ — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukrainian intelligence says Russia using Starlink satellite Internet system for combat operations in occupied territory — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky appoints Oleksandr Pavliuk as new commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Man dies after setting off explosive device in psychological assistance center in Russia’s Republic of Kalmykia — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky appoints Ihor Plahuta as new commander of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Pashinian Declines To Say Whether Armenia Would Arrest Putin Under ICC Warrant

      Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declined to say whether his country would arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin should he visit the Caucasus nation following Yerevan’s decision to join the International Criminal Court.

    • The Strategist ☛ Will Ukraine Survive?

      Russia’s war against Ukraine is about to enter its third year. There is much to feel good about, but there are also grounds for worry. In short, it is time to take stock.

    • France24 ☛ US Senate advances aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan despite Trump opposition

      A narrowly divided U.S. Senate moved closer to passing a $95.34 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Sunday, showing undiminished bipartisanship despite opposition from Republican hardliners and Donald Trump.

    • JURIST ☛ Ukraine army accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in attacks

      The Public Relations Service of the Support Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of using chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict, with a staggering total of 815 recorded attacks since the commencement of the large-scale war.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Man Accused Of Espionage, Participation In Terror Group Dies In Russian Detention

      A 71-year-old Ukrainian citizen who was accused by Russian authorities of espionage and participation in a terrorist organization has died in pretrial detention in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, the Memorial human rights monitor said on February 11.

    • RFERL ☛ Japan Expected To Pledge $106 Million In Reconstruction Aid At Tokyo Conference

      Tokyo will pledge $106 million in funds to aid Ukraine’s reconstruction from war damages, including areas such as demining and infrastructure, Japan’s Kyodo News reported.

    • RFERL ☛ Kyiv Claims Russian Military Using Musk's Starlink In Occupied Areas

      Ukrainian defense officials have claimed Russian forces in areas of eastern Ukraine that they occupy are using terminals of Elon Musk’s satellite Internet service Starlink.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Steps Up Leadership 'Reboot' As Russian Drone Assaults Hit Kyiv, Kharkiv

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy continued moves to “reboot” the leadership of his government and military even as Russia’s military launched another wave of drones across Ukraine overnight, including the capital, Kyiv.

    • The Straits Times ☛ ‘There to die’: Nepali mercenaries fight for Russia in Ukraine

      Conditions are brutal, and many have been killed or wounded.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Armenia's PM: 'We are not Russia's ally' in war against Ukraine

      Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview published on Sunday that his country was not Russia' ally in its war against Ukraine, but stressed its military cooperation projects were not directed against any single country.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine-Israel Aid Bill Clears Critical Hurdle in the Senate

      The bipartisan vote to advance the measure put it on track for passage, but its fate in the House remains uncertain amid stiff G.O.P. opposition, egged on by former President Donald J. Trump.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian Russian Union's leaders summoned by security service

      According to the public information about possible contacts of the leader of the Latvian Russian Union and current MEP Tatjana Ždanoka with Russian special services, both Ždanoka herself and the party co-chairman Miroslavs Mitrofanovs went to a conversation with the State Security Service (VDD) last week, reported Latvian Television's De Facto on February 12.

    • France24 ☛ Former PM Stubb wins Finland’s presidential election as rival Haavisto concedes

      Former conservative prime minister Alexander Stubb won Sunday's Finnish presidential election, after rival Pekka Haavisto conceded with nearly all of the votes counted.

    • YLE ☛ As it happened: Stubb wins presidency

      National Coalition Party candidate Alexander Stubb is set to become Finland's next president on 1 March, beating independent candidate Pekka Haavisto, backed by a voters' association and the Green party.

    • YLE ☛ Finland chooses its 13th president

      With close to half of eligible voters having cast ballots in advance, final election results are expected soon after polling stations close at 8pm.

    • France24 ☛ 'You got to pay!': Trump threatens to 'encourage' Russia to attack NATO allies behind on payments [Ed: France24 is foolishly doing "TRUMP SEZ" pieces that are vexatious. Good service for French taxpayers?]

      White House hopeful Donald Trump said on Saturday he would "encourage" Russia to attack members of NATO who had not met their financial obligations, his most extreme broadside against the military alliance he has long expressed skepticism about.

    • RFERL ☛ European Leaders, White House Denounce Trump's Remarks On Russia, NATO

      The White House, European leaders, and NATO condemned remarks by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who said that if he is reelected the United States might not defend alliance members from a potential Russian invasion if they don’t pay enough of their own defense.

    • JURIST ☛ Russia media regulator begins investigation into language learning service Duolingo for alleged ‘LGBT propaganda’

      Russia media regulator Roskomnadzor Friday began an investigation into the alleged spread of “LGBT propaganda” by the language learning application Duolingo, as reported by TASS, Russia’s state news agency.

    • New York Times ☛ Favoring Foes Over Friends, Trump Threatens to Upend International Order

      Former President Donald J. Trump suggested that he would incite Russia to attack “delinquent” U.S. allies, foreshadowing potentially far-reaching changes in the world order if he wins the White House again.

    • New York Times ☛ An Outburst by Trump on NATO May Push Europe to Go It Alone

      Many were alarmed by comments that he would “encourage” Russia to attack U.S. allies that didn’t pay into NATO, but European leaders were already pondering the prospect of an alliance without the United States.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Dissenter ☛ Countdown To Day X: Unprecedented Espionage Act Charges Against Assange

  • [Old] The Register UK ☛ Anti-open source ‘whitepaper’ devastated

    Roaring Penguin's David Skoll has written a fine rebuttal to the ADTI whitepaper. With his permission we're reproducing it whole and unedited: [...]

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • NYPost ☛ YouTuber accused of recording motorcycle ride going 150 mph in Colorado arrested in Texas

      A Texas YouTuber accused of recording himself going more than 150 mph on a motorcycle down a Colorado highway has been arrested in his home state, and the extradition process is underway.

    • New York Times ☛ How China Built BYD, Its Tesla Killer

      The leading Chinese electric vehicle company, with origins as a battery maker, has posted two years of million-car growth in sales.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Unsolved Case of Lone Pregnant Stingray Offers Surprising Explanation

      A remarkable new theory!

    • Science Alert ☛ Surprise Discovery Shows Blue Whales Have Been Mating With Another Species

      Their DNA reveals a hidden secret.

    • Science Alert ☛ Critically Endangered Parrot Bounces Back in Huge Conservation Victory

      Finally!

  • Overpopulation

    • CBC ☛ Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

      Worldwide, families are shrinking, according to a kinship study published in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. That study, using international demographic data for every country in the world, projected a 38 per cent global decline in living relatives for individuals aged 65 by the year 2095, compared to 1950.

• Finance

  • Net Media Europe ☛ Cisco To Cut ‘Thousands Of Jobs’ – Report

    Staff at Cisco brace for bad news ahead of an earning statement this week, amid reports of thousands of layoffs

    Networking giant Cisco Systems is reportedly planning a major restructuring that involves the loss of ‘thousands of jobs’.

  • Dolphin Publications B V ☛ Mass layoff looming at Cisco due to lower orders

  • Cisco Reportedly Plans Restructure With Layoffs Affecting ‘Thousands’

    Cisco is reportedly planning a restructuring that will involve layoffs affecting “thousands” of employees.

    First reported by Reuters, which cited three sources close to the matter, Cisco intends to refocus on high-growth areas.

    Reuters suggested the official announcement could come this week, with the tech giant’s earnings call scheduled for this Wednesday, February 14. However, a Reuters source said the company had not yet agreed upon the number of employees to be impacted.

  • UK Employers Plan Lower Pay Rises as Economic Growth Slows

    Given the prevailing economic uncertainties, UK employers are considering reducing pay rises for their employees over the coming year. This decision reflects the cautious approach being taken by businesses against a backdrop of slowing growth in the world's major economies, including the UK.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Feud over ex-Sarawak governor’s estate and health shines spotlight on family’s wealth

    
    
    

    Taib's blood relations and his wife are battling over the estate of possibly Malaysia's richest man.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • RFA ☛ The case for seating overseas legislators in Southeast Asian parliaments

    But if electoral commissions are now pondering ideas to better include their overseas nationals in the democratic process, it might be worth considering the more affordable and, perhaps, more democratic option of giving a handful of seats in parliament to overseas representatives.

  • Ali Reza Hayati ☛ Canada to ban Flipper Zero!

    Funny, isn’t it? The Canadian government seems to not have any security expert to consult with. They don’t seem to understand how does the device works and don’t even understand how secure cars have been specially those produced since 1990s.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ It may be too late to stop the great election disinformation campaigns of 2024 but we at least have to try

    It's already clear that 2024 will be known as the year of the first AI elections. AI's ability to harvest near-infinite amounts of data into actionable intelligence and produce personalized content to sway public opinion will assuredly be used by mainstream political parties seeking to gain a tactical advantage in campaigning.

    We are already seeing parties use AI to analyze data on voting patterns and targeting voters in real-time with algorithmically-driven ad placements.

    There's nothing inherently wrong or illegal about that, though it will alarm civil libertarians and does need to be regulated. The malevolent uses of AI by rogue actors is far more concerning. Deepfakes—false or manipulated texts, images, video and audio—are already being spread via the gaming of algorithms with the intention of manipulating voters.

  • Vox ☛ Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s self-described “coolest dictator,” wins reelection.

    Silvia Viñas is the co-host of a new podcast about Bukele, Bukele: El señor de Los Sueños. She says that if you define a democracy only as the people being able to vote, El Salvador has that.

    However, democracy is about much more. If Bukele controls everything without checks to his authority, Silvia asks, is the country’s government still a democracy? What follows is an adapted transcript of her conversation with Sean Rameswaram, co-host of Vox’s Today, Explained podcast, edited for length and clarity.

  • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: Pakistan’s Stunning Election Results

    Also, Donald Trump derides NATO and the U.S. prepares to watch the Super Bowl.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • JURIST ☛ European Commission begins drafting new guidelines to combat election disinformation

      The guidelines are being drafted under Article 35 of the DSA, which empowers the commission and Digital Services Coordinators of the Member States to “issue guidelines (…) to present best practices and recommend possible mitigation measures.” This is the first time that guidelines have been introduced under Article 35.The Commission stated that to aid its efforts in drafting the new guidelines, it has launched a public consultation which will be open for the submission of comments until March 7.

    • The Independent UK ☛ Buckingham Palace hits out over claims AI is being used to write books about Charles’ cancer

      The palace said its legal team was investigating a report that a number of books are being sold on Amazon with false claims about Charles’ illness.

    • LBC ☛ AI-made books with sick lies about King Charles' cancer prompt furious response from Palace threatening legal action

      The hoax biographies falsely claim to share exclusive revelations about the King and were listed alongside legitimate royal biographies.

      Jeff Bezos' platform takes up to 65 per cent of the books' sale price.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Dance moves and deepfakes: Indonesia’s presidential candidates duke it out on TikTok [Ed: With Fentanylware, Beijing gets to interfere and may decide who takes power. Of course they also blame "bad users" for spreading lies, even if the platform actively participates in the dissemination and does control trends (throttling and "viral" effects to choose winners or losers). They're never hands-off because all social control media has censorship.]

      In Indonesia, Fentanylware (TikTok) is the second-most used source of information on politics, after television.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Documentary on Indonesian elections ‘slanderous’, says Prabowo’s campaign team

      
      

      Dirty Vote was uploaded to YouTube on Feb 11, gaining more than 2 million views in less than 24 hours.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ Xinjiang doubles down on telling its story, countering narratives and courting trade, tourism

    The push comes as China increasingly faces criticism for its treatment of Uighur ethnic minority.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Michael West Media ☛ Right to disconnect changes require common sense: Labor

    Under Labor’s planned workplace reforms, workers will soon have the right to ignore unreasonable calls and emails outside their rostered shifts.

  • Greece ☛ Cyprus eyes €700 fines for illegal taxis

    The Cypriot Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works has tabled a bill aimed at tackling the issue of passenger transport by unlicensed taxi drivers, proposing fines of 700 euros for first-time offenders and €1,500 thereafter.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indian state's polygamy ban divides some Muslim women

    In addition to the polygamy ban, the new code sets a minimum marriageable age for both genders and guarantees equal shares in ancestral property to adopted children, those born out of wedlock and those conceived through surrogate births. While BJP leaders and women's rights activists say the code aims to end regressive practices, some Muslim politicians say it violates the fundamental right to practice religion.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ In Europe, Platform Workers Are Winning Limited Protections

    Across Europe, platform workers have won a series of court cases ruling that they are employees, not self-employed. Moves for new EU-wide legislation have faced serious resistance from lobbyists but now look set to deliver some new protections.

  • RFERL ☛ Turkmenistan Conducting Virginity Tests To 'Evaluate Teenagers' Morality'

    Authorities have not sought the teenagers’ or their parents’ consent for the controversial tests carried out by gynecologists, several parents and students told RFE/RL.

    Students who “fail” the test are being reported to police and security services, according to an educational worker familiar with the campaign.

  • Vox ☛ Why the Protestant work ethic is making American labor miserable

    Anderson tells the history of the Protestant Work Ethic and how it gave rise to dueling interpretations. One of those interpretations was pro-worker and the other was not. And for various reasons, the anti-worker version is the one that ultimately prevailed — or at least it’s the one that dominates our society today.

    So I invited her onto The Gray Area to talk about what happened and why she thinks we need to reclaim the work ethic for workers. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. As always, there’s much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Starlink deactivates 350-400 accounts in South Africa. Should Zim users be worried?

    Some massive bad news is coming out of the south of Limpopo relating to Starlink. According to My Broadband, some 350 to 400 Starlink accounts have been switched off by Starlink themselves. These accounts are those that were being managed by StarSat South Africa, a telecommunications equipment reseller and satellite television provider. Starlink states that StarSat advertising and selling kits violated their terms of use. They are not recognized by Starlink as a licensed distributor of their services as a company. Moreover, Starlink has not yet been licensed in South Africa

    0 This brings us to my teapot-shaped country Zimbabwe. What does this mean for the Starlink kits in this country? After all, POTRAZ has not given Starlink an operator license yet and they recently launched a manhunt to arrest anyone importing the kits or using the service.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ Apple: Apple to settle trade secrets lawsuit against chip startup Rivos

  The companies told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that they had "signed an agreement that potentially settles the case," and that the agreement allows Apple to examine Rivos' systems and recover any confidential information.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Roblox 'Weight Lifting Sim' Dev Gains Muscle From DMCA Counter-Notice

    As the creator of the Weight Lifting Simulator series, among others, Christopher Boomer is one of the most successful game developers on Roblox. His games have been played billions of times and there's no shortage of copycats demanding a piece of the action. After being hit with a takedown notice, the developer of a similar game responded with a DMCA counter-notice. Boomer's follow-up lawsuit shows that the strategy is not without risk.

  • Greece ☛ Bill seeks to bring order to the internet

    The authors of the bill are aiming to significantly improve mechanisms for removing illegal content and create stronger public oversight of online platforms.

    Supervision will be undertaken by the National Council for Radio and Television, the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, the Ministry of Development, the General Secretariat for Communication and Information, the Intellectual Property Office and the Hellenic Industrial Property Organization.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding: ABUILTH Wordo: GLANS

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Programming

      • An extensible programming language

        A few days ago I wrote about adding a factorial operator to my assembler [1], and I noted that I knew not of any other languages that had such a feature. So imagine my surprise as I'm reading about XL (eXtensible Language) [2] (via Lobsters [3]) and the second example is factorial [4]! Not only that, but that was an example of extending the language itself! The last time I was this excited about software was reading about Synthesis OS (Operating System) [5], a JIT (Just-In-Time)-based operating system where you could create your own system calls [6].