Leftovers

• US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] The Aftermath of Taiwan’s Earthquake

• New York Times ☛ Hudson Yards ‘Vessel’ Sculpture Will Reopen With Netting After Suicides

  The 150-foot-high tourist attraction, which closed in 2021, will be fitted with stop people from jumping.

• Tedium ☛ What’s A Workgroup?

  How groupware gave us the first glimmers of what collaboration could be like in the online era, then became so pervasive that we don’t even think about it anymore.

• James G ☛ The joy of computing

  I have been coding since I was eight or nine years old. I started with drag-and-drop programming, trying to figure out how to make a game in a tool called Abusive Monopolist Microsoft TouchDevelop. I recall making one or two things, but I mostly tinkered with what was made by the community; there was a vast gallery of open programs with which you could play. I was curious about how I could make something new. At my computer, I could define a game.

• Russell Coker ☛ Russell Coker: Software Needed for Work

  When I first started studying computer science setting up a programming project was easy, write source code files and a Makefile and that was it. IRC was the only IM system and email was the only other communications system that was used much. Writing Makefiles is difficult but products like the Borland Turbo series of IDEs did all that for you so you could just start typing code and press a function key to compile and run (F5 from memory).

  Over the years the requirements and expectations of computer use have grown significantly. The typical office worker is now doing many more things with computers than serious programmers used to do. Running an IM system, an online document editing system, and a series of web apps is standard for companies nowadays. Developers have to do all that in addition to tools for version control, continuous integration, bug reporting, and feature tracking. The development process is also more complex with extra steps for reproducible builds, automated tests, and code coverage metrics for the tests. I wonder how many programmers who started in the 90s would have done something else if faced with Microsoft's proprietary prison Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub as their introduction.

• James G ☛ Philosophy musings

  Today, sitting on a comfortable bed in a hotel room, I have been reading and watching videos about philosophy: existentialism, (optimistic) nihilism; Satre, Camus. Also, I have been watching videos on computer science. I was hoping to find a coding project on which to work, an activity that can occupy me easily for an afternoon. I found something else: progress on a thread of my recent (rather depressing) ponderings on from what I derive meaning.

  I set high standards for myself; a day where I do not feel engaged -- either intellectually, or in being with others -- begets worries of languishing. I worry when I am not making progress on a new project that I am lost. That I could be doing something, but am not. Indeed, finding the next project on which to work is difficult. Perhaps that is a truth I am yet to internalise. I spent all afternoon learning about computer science in search of inspiration, then I turned to philosophy for a break. I did not think of a project on which to work but, later, I felt inspired to write this post. A post in which I want to reflect on a tiny corner of the big question of in what I find meaning, and the role gratitude plays in my world.

• US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Simon Harris Elected New Irish PM, Promising 'New Ideas, Energy'

• Vox ☛ 2024-04-05 [Older] We know where the next big earthquakes will happen — but not when

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Invented a Bizarre New Material That Gets Tougher When You Hit It

    This could be really useful.

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Stars at The Heart of The Milky Way Hide a Dark Secret

    The secret of eternal youth.

  • Science Alert ☛ Thousands of Meteorites in Antarctica Are Destined to Be Lost Forever

    Sinking like a stone.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Vision Can Predict Dementia 12 Years Before Diagnosis, Study Finds

    One of the earliest warnings of cognitive decline.

  • Science Alert ☛ Study Reveals Most Valued Traits in a Romantic Partner, And It's a Nice Surprise

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. lawmakers annoyed with Huawei's latest laptop with defective chip maker Intel Meteor Lake CPUs

    As the presidential election race heats up, Republican lawmakers criticize Biden administration export decisions.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. blacklists Intel's and Nvidia's key partner in China — three other Chinese firms also included in the blacklist for helping the military

    The U.S. government added Sitonholy, one of China's largest solution providers based on defective chip maker Intel and Nvidia processors, to the Entity List.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Jim Keller suggests Nvidia should have used Ethernet to stitch together Blackwell GPUs — Nvidia could have saved billions

    Jim Keller advises Nvidia to use Ethernet to stitch two Blackwell GPUs in GB200.

  • Hackaday ☛ PicoNtrol Brings Modern Controllers To Atari 2600

    While there’s an argument to be made that retro games should be experienced with whatever input device they were designed around, there’s no debating that modern game controllers are a lot more ergonomic and enjoyable to use than some of those early 8-bit entries.

  • Hackaday ☛ Who’s Afraid Of A CRT?

    Older consumer electronic devices follow a desirability curve in which after they fall from favour they can’t be given away. But as they become rarer, they reach a point at which everyone wants them. Then, they can’t be had for love nor money. CRT TVs are now in the first stage, they’re bulky and lower-definition than modern sets, and thus thrift stores and dumpsters still have them in reasonable numbers. To retrogamers and other enthusiasts, this can be a bonanza, and when he saw a high-end late-model JVC on the sidewalk [Chris Person] wasted no time in snapping it up. It worked, but there were a few picture issues, so he set about fixing it.

  • Hackaday ☛ Rabbit Sighted In The Wild

    Here at Hackaday we’re suckers for old abandoned technologies, the more obscure the better. The history of the telephone has plenty to capture our attention, and it’s from that arena that something recently floated past our timeline. [IanVisits] reports a sighting of a Rabbit in a London Underground station. The bunny in question definitely isn’t hopping though, it’s been dead for more than three decades. It’s a base station for a failed digital mobile phone system.

  • Hackaday ☛ Vintage Particle Counter Is A Treasure Trove Of Classic Parts

    If you need a demonstration of just how far technology has come in the last 40 years, just take a look at this teardown of a 1987 laser particle counter.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Bend Sensor Developed With 3D Printer Filament

    PhD students spend their time pursuing whatever general paths their supervisor has given them, and if they are lucky, it yields enough solid data to finally write a thesis without tearing their hair out. Sometimes along the way they result in discoveries with immediate application outside academia, and so it was for [Paul Bupe Jr.], whose work resulted in a rather elegant and simple bend sensor.

  • Hackaday ☛ Delays And Timers In LTSpice (no 555)

    If you need a precise time, you could use a microcontroller. Of course, then all your friends will say “Could have done that with a 555!” But the 555 isn’t magic — it uses a capacitor and a comparator in different configurations to work. Want to understand what’s going on inside? [Mano Arrostita] has a video about simulating delay and timer circuits in LTSpice.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal Where Most 'Hospital' Infections Actually Come From

    This might come as a shock.

  • France24 ☛ Brazil's Cerrado savanna sacrificed in the name of industrial soya, maize farming

    Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made saving the Amazon rainforest – now a key condition for a trade deal between the EU and South America's Mercosur bloc – a priority for his government. A year after Lula came to power, his gamble has paid off: deforestation has been halved in the Amazon. But this success comes at the cost of sacrificing another ecosystem that's just as vital to Brazil: the Cerrado. This savanna has already lost half of its natural vegetation due to intensive farming, notably for soya and maize. FRANCE 24's Fanny Lothaire, Louise Raulais and Anne-Laure Desarnauts report.

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Adolescents More at Risk From THC Than Ever

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Computer Weekly ☛ Education sector facing huge VMware cost increases after Broadcom ends discounts

    UK non-profit London Grid for Learning and Belgian university KU Leuven are just two of the academic organisations facing huge licensing increases after Broadcom scraps VMware academic discount scheme

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Tesla Settles Lawsuit With Family of Apple Engineer Killed in 2018 Crash

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] South Africa to Investigate Microsoft Over Cloud Computing Licensing Practices, Source Says

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • JURIST ☛ US House of Representatives reauthorizes controversial surveillance law

      The US House of Representatives passed on Friday a two-year reauthorization of an expiring warrantless surveillance law that had been stalled earlier in the week. The passed bill extends a contentious provision called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as FISA.

    • Security Week ☛ House Passes Reauthorization of Key US Surveillance Program After Days of Upheaval Over Changes

      The bill was approved on a bipartisan basis, 273-147, though it will still have to clear the Senate to become law.

    • Zimbabwe ☛ Safeguarding data privacy: Top 10 tips for organisations in Zimbabwe

      We’ve all seen the warnings about encrypting sensitive files and being aware of phishing attempts that aim to steal our personal information. But there’s more to data privacy than meets the eye.  Data privacy breaches can have a significant impact on individuals and corporations alike in terms of reputational and financial repercussions. >

    • IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Guest post: Exploring data privacy in Nigeria: Incorporated trustees of laws and rights awareness initiative v Nigerian Communications Commission

    • NL Times ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Dutch banks won't help gov't set gambling limit to protect customers' privacy

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Sydney stabbing that killed 6 was not an ideological attack, police say

    It had been determined that the assailant had suffered mental health issues in the past.

  • New York Times ☛ O.J. Simpson’s Book Publisher on the Interview When He ‘Confessed’ to Murder

    Years after Mr. Simpson was acquitted, he wrote a book and gave a shocking interview. The whole endeavor cost the publisher, Judith Regan, her job.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Israel closes schools over security concerns: Army

    The measure is set to last two days.

  • YLE ☛ Foreign Ministry steps up Mideast travel warnings; Finnair reroutes to avoid Iran

    Fears of a retaliatory strike by Iran against Israel have raised tensions further in the Middle East in recent days.

  • NYPost ☛ Israel could potentially face multi-front war after Iran launches aerial attack on Jewish state: expert

    A Middle East expert warned that Iran's aerial strike targeting Israel has the potential to drag Jerusalem into a multi-front war.

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Student Still Missing Days After Being Detained

    A university law student who has been a supporter of Iran's Women, Life, Freedom movement is still missing several days after her arrest by security forces, the second time she has been detained since unrest broke out in September 2022.

  • France24 ☛ Some 2,000 foreign troops to help with security for Paris Olympics

    Some 2,000 foreign troops and police will be sent to Paris to bolster security for this summer’s Olympic Games as France remains on high alert following attack threats, the French armed forces minister said Friday.

  • NYPost ☛ Failed NYC mayoral candidate charged for socking TikToker in the face posts podcast about attacks on social control media, hurls insults at NYPD

    The one-time down-ballot mayoral candidate charged with allegedly randomly punching a TikToker in the face took to a podcast to hurl insults at the NYPD.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Rwanda: youth still grapple with effects of the genocide

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Photographer Claudia Heinermann on her 'Siberian Exiles' trilogy

      Documentary photographer Claudia Heinermann recently visited Riga to present the second part of her trilogy ‘Siberian Exiles’.

• Environment

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Zimbabwe declares national disaster amid El Nino drought

  • Truthdig ☛ 2024-04-05 [Older] Severe Drought in Southern Africa Leaves Millions on the Brink of Starvation

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Deadly Lack of Fresh Water Puts Nearly 350 Million South Asian Children at Risk

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Top EU Court Rules Swiss Climate Inaction Violates Human Rights in Landmark Case

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Senior Swiss women prevail in landmark climate case at Europe's human rights court

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Climate: ECHR judges side with Swiss group in rights ruling

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Factbox-Who Are the Elderly Swiss Women Behind the Landmark Climate Court Case Win?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Reaction to Swiss Women's Victory in Landmark Climate Court Case

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Climate Debt Trap, A “Vicious Circle” for Vulnerable Nations

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Explainer-How Three European Human Rights Cases Could Shape Climate Litigation

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-04-07 [Older] Big Oil Ignores Millions of Climate Deaths When Billions in Profit Are at Stake

  • The Local SE ☛ 2024-04-07 [Older] Top Europe rights court to issue landmark climate verdicts

  • The Age AU ☛ 2024-04-07 [Older] Could planned burns be making our forests more flammable?

  • The Local DK ☛ 2024-04-07 [Older] Top Europe rights court to issue landmark climate verdicts

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Greta Thunberg released after Dutch climate protest arrest, rejoins protest and is arrested again

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrested in the Netherlands

  • The Local SE ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg detained by Dutch police

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Detained Twice at Demonstration in the Hague

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Dutch Police Have Detained Activist Greta Thunberg at a Climate Demonstration in the Hague

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Gender And Climate Change: The Climate Crisis has a Greater Impact on Women

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] RBC to disclose more info on climate-related investments after U.S. investors demand changes

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] B.C. photographer wins prestigious award for climate photojournalism

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] AI may develop a huge carbon footprint, but it could also be a critical ally in the fight against climate change [Ed: Terrible greenwahsing]

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] Climate Change and Migration: Policy Must Change to Mitigate Displacement

  • University of Michigan ☛ 2024-04-05 [Older] University extends deadline for completing climate survey

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-05 [Older] Waterfront cities in Europe set sail for climate resilience

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] How Federal Tax Dollars Meant to Fight Climate Change Could End Up Boosting Louisiana’s Fossil Fuel Production

  • New Yorker ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] Is the Fight Against Climate Change Losing Momentum?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] US SEC Stays Climate Disclosure Rule Amid Legal Challenges

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Big grocers, retailers want Ontario's recycling plan changed

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Banks Won’t Save Nuclear Power

    • Truthdig ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] ‘Green Banks’ to Help Decarbonize Disadvantaged Communities

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] FirstEnergy Made Secret $1 Million Payment in 2017 to Support ‘Husted Campaign’ in Ohio

    • NL Times ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Regulator issues second fine in a week for misleading sales calls for energy contracts

    • NL Times ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Energy provider HEM fined over a million euros for misleading customers

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Major growth of clean energy limited the rise in global emissions in 2023

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] Kentucky Governor Vetoes Nuclear Energy Legislation Due to the Method of Selecting Board Members

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • RFA ☛ Wildfire destroys prized mushrooms, income source for Tibetans

      The resulting matsutake shortage will hurt livelihoods and exports to Japan and South Korea.

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] Mercury Exposure Widespread Among Yanomami Tribe in Amazon, Report Finds

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Down 40% in Q1, Minister Says

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] 42 Arresting Photos of Wildlife in Action

    • CBC ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] IN PHOTOS | Efforts to free orphaned B.C. orca

• Finance

  • JURIST ☛ Former chairman of prominent China bank indicted for bribery and embezzlement

    The former chairman of China Everbright Group, Tang Shuangning, who used to serve as a senior official at the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is under indictment Friday on bribery and embezzlement charges. Tang was originally arrested in January.

  • YLE ☛ Orpo: Value-added tax will rise, but not on food

    VAT is set to rise on medicine, transport, culture and sport, but not on food.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden’s Student Loan Repayment Plan Is Being Challenged. Here’s What to Know.

    The income-driven plan known as SAVE has reduced payments for millions of borrowers. Lawsuits by Republican-led states are seeking to upend it.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Will Italy replace Germany as Europe's economic powerhouse?

  • YLE ☛ Berry-picking probes expand: Suspected human trafficking and corruption in Finland and Thailand

    Two former Thai ministers and other officials are suspected of corruption linked to berry harvesting in Finland.

  • YLE ☛ Finland sees rise in boating-related deaths in 2023

    Thirty-four people lost their lives in Finland last year due to boating accidents.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] The Supreme Court May Give Us Another 2008 Financial Crisis

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Bank of Canada holds key interest rate at 5%, says things moving in right direction

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Michigan invented shopping malls. Photos show rise, fall, rebirth since 1954

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ State Dept. Is Sending Its Top Diplomat for East Asia to China

    The announcement comes days after President Biden met jointly with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines to discuss Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea's Kim to develop long-standing ties with China, KCNA says

    Mr Kim expected the two countries to “steadily carry forward and develop this durable traditions of friendship”, KCNA said.

  • France24 ☛ Macron and Scholz call for 're-balancing' EU-China trade relations

    French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Friday for a “re-balancing” of trade relations between Europe and China on the eve of the German leader visiting Beijing.

  • RFA ☛ Viral video highlights targeting of Hmong women to marry Chinese men

    Many of the young women who accept the marriage offers end up victims of human trafficking in China.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] South Africa speaker resigns amid corruption probe

  • Vox ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] Good news: Democracy won in Senegal. Here’s why it matters.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-04-04 [Older] The scramble for influence in Africa

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • CPJ ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] CPJ calls on Taliban to drop plans to restrict Facebook access in Afghanistan

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-03 [Older] Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Down After Suffering Major Outage

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-04-07 [Older] Glenn Greenwald: “What We Discovered Shocked Me.” The #TwitterFiles Brazil

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] The Real Reason Elon Musk Is Throwing a Tantrum About 'Free Speech' in Brazil

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Elon Musk Confirms He’s Been Roleplaying as a Toddler for Years

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Twitter Comeback: Elon Musk To Revive Original Platform As Tesla's Crown Slips

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Elon Musk’s X Goes to War With Twitter.com, Creating a Phishing Nightmare

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Town Creates Public Art Ordinance After Free Speech Debate Over Doughnut Mural

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Student Arrested at Georgia University After Disrupting Speech on Israel-Hamas War

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Press Freedom and the Assange Appeal; Green Colonialism, Tribal Consent, and the Climate Crisis

  • CPJ ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] CPJ calls on Jordan to free photojournalist Ahmad Mohsen

  • CPJ ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Straits Times ☛ Mats said to show image of Islamic holy site are prayer mats, not door mats: Malaysian firms

    The mats appeared to carry the image of Kaaba, a stone shrine located in Mecca.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Two Years After Its Historic Win, a Divided Amazon Labor Union Lurches Toward a Leadership Election

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-04-06 [Older] Amazon's 'Just Walk Out' Stores Get Phased Out, Trump Sues Truth Social Founders, and More

  • CBC ☛ 2024-04-10 [Older] Data showing $134M paid to suspended Ontario police officers indicates system is failing: union, researcher

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-09 [Older] Ferragamo did not infringe Audrey Hepburn’s image/personality rights by stating that its shoes were originally designed for her

    • IP Kat ☛ 2024-04-08 [Older] Did Rihanna reveal enough?