Leftovers

• Deutsche Welle ☛ Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: 200 years on

  Ludwig van Beethoven had his hands full before the premiere of his Ninth Symphony on May 7, 1824. The work was eagerly awaited in Vienna. Copyists were working flat out to reproduce the handwritten score for the performance. Beethoven not only supervised their work, but also took care of finding musicians, singers, and a suitable venue.

• Science

  • Air Force Times ☛ Eyeing the storm: Air Force’s ‘Hurricane Hunters’ are busier than ever

    Equipped with a small parachute, sensors, a microprocessor, radio transmitter and GPS gear, the dropsonde measures air temperature, the dew point, and wind speed and direction as it falls toward the ocean, sending data back to the aircraft along the way.

    Hogue, the aircraft’s loadmaster, checks whether the information is coming in clean. He passes it to Maj. Chris Dyke, the mission’s aerial reconnaissance weather officer, or flying meteorologist, who sits a few feet away at a special computer where he analyzes information gathered by the dropsonde and other aircraft sensors, then transmits it to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Quelle surprise. Son of TACT (TACT2) shows that chelation therapy doesn’t work for heart disease

    In the days leading up to my starting to write today’s post, I thought that I’d just write a followup to last week’s post about “turbo cancers” supposedly caused by COVID-19 vaccines, mainly because there are as yet two truly awful articles supposedly supporting this antivax claim that I have yet to deal with. However, as I was perusing my usual sources for blogging topics, I realized that I’ve already written about “turbo cancer” twice in a row, but more importantly I came across articles that would allow me to “close the loop,” so to speak on a topic that was a frequent topic of discussion on this blog going way, way back. That topic is the quackery known as chelation therapy for cardiovascular disease (particularly coronary artery disease) and how the evidence-based medicine (EBM) model had led the NIH to spend $30 million on an unethical study (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, or TACT) to assess whether chelation therapy actually works. The result was an at best equivocal study that was widely touted by quacks after its results were reported in 2012 as proof of the efficacy and safety of the treatment, even though it only showed a benefit using a composite endpoint—there was no statistically significant difference in any of the endpoints that made up the composite endpoint—and then only in diabetic patients.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Axios ☛ Hollywood documentary films face a generative AI labeling dilemma

    Why it matters: With no laws or standards governing when and how to tell viewers about AI's involvement in the creative process, film and TV makers are winging it — and further eroding the line between reality and fiction.

    Driving the news: Media companies and content creators keep getting caught not disclosing their use of generative AI.

  • Axios ☛ How Meta, YouTube, TikTok and other big tech are labeling AI-generated images

    Between the lines: Tech giants have guidelines in place for their own platforms, and are also joining coalitions to set industry standards for labeling.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Papers Please ☛ Facial recognition and “identity verification”

      A new effort is being made by some Senators to restrict the use of facial recognition by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airlines, and airports in the US.

      But the proposed cure may be worse than the disease. The latest version of the proposed legislation, while undoubtedly well intentioned, includes a provision that would, for the first time, provide a basis in Federal law for “identity verification” of airline passengers.

      The problem with facial recognition is that it’s a tool for identifying people. Legalizing (unjustified and previously unlawful) demands for travelers to identify ourselves in other ways is not a solution to the problems of either facial recognition or ID demands.

    • RFERL ☛ Chinese-Made Surveillance Cameras Are Spreading Across Eastern Europe, Despite Security Concerns

      RFE/RL reporting shows that despite escalating scrutiny in Western capitals about an overreliance on Chinese technology in critical infrastructure, Dahua and Hikvision cameras are also in use at sensitive sites, including military bases in Romania and special police headquarters in Hungary, which experts say exposes them to hackers and foreign adversaries.

    • EFF ☛ Add Bluetooth to the Long List of Border Surveillance Technologies

      The product now being deployed in Texas, called TraffiCatch, can detect wifi and Bluetooth signals in moving cars to track them. Webb County, which includes Laredo, has had TraffiCatch technology since at least 2019, according to GovSpend procurement data. Val Verde County, which includes Del Rio, approved the technology in 2022. 

      This data collection is possible because all Bluetooth devices regularly broadcast a Bluetooth Device Address. This address can be either a public address or a random address. Public addresses don’t change for the lifetime of the device, making them the easiest to track. Random addresses are more common and have multiple levels of privacy, but for the most part change regularly (this is the case with most modern smartphones and products like AirTags.) Bluetooth products with random addresses would be hard to track for a device that hasn’t paired with them. But if the tracked person is also carrying a Bluetooth device that has a public address, or if tracking devices are placed close to each other so a device is seen multiple times before it changes its address, random addresses could be correlated with that person over long periods of time.

      It is unclear whether TraffiCatch is doing this sort of advanced analysis and correlation, and how effective it would be at tracking most modern Bluetooth devices.

    • EFF ☛ EFF Zine on Surveillance Tech at the Southern Border Shines Light on Ever-Growing Spy Network

    • Mozilla ☛ Julia Janssen creates art to be an ambassador for data protection

      At Mozilla, we know we can’t create a better future alone, that is why each year we will be highlighting the work of 25 digital leaders using technology to amplify voices, effect change, and build new technologies globally through our Rise 25 Awards. These storytellers, innovators, activists, advocates, builders and artists are helping make the internet more diverse, ethical, responsible and inclusive.

  • Confidentiality

    • Mullvad VPN ☛ DNS traffic can leak outside the VPN tunnel on Android

      The leaks seem to be limited to direct calls to the C function getaddrinfo. Apps that use this way to resolve domain names cause leaks in the scenarios listed above. We have not found any leaks from apps that only use Android API:s such as DnsResolver. The Chrome browser is an example of an app that can use getaddrinfo directly.

      The above applies regardless of whether Always-on VPN and Block connections without VPN is enabled or not, which is not expected OS behavior and should therefore be fixed upstream in the OS.

      We’ve been able to confirm that these leaks occur in multiple versions of Android, including the latest version (Android 14).

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Scotsman ☛ Al Jazeera: What is Al Jazeera and why has Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu shut down its operations?

    Al Jazeera has angered Mr Netanyahu by broadcasting statements in full by Hamas. It has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip throughout the conflict, in which some of its own staff have been killed or injured.

  • The Dissenter ☛ Israel's Al Jazeera Ban Slams The Door On Freedom Of The Press

  • VOA News ☛ D-Day veteran spreads message of peace ahead of 80th anniversary

    For over 60 years, he did not talk about his WWII experience.

    But he began attending D-Day commemorations in 2007 and in recent years, he has seized many occasions to give his powerful testimony. A book about his life, "Spirits are guiding" by author Marie-Pascale Legrand, is about to be released this month.

    In 2018, he moved from Maine to Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, a French small town in the Normandy region to stay at a friend's home.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, coming from his nearby home, he was among the few veterans able to attend commemorations. He stood up for all others who could not make the trip amid restrictions.

  • ABC ☛ On D-Day, 19-year-old medic Charles Shay was ready to give his life, and save as many as he could

    A Penobscot tribe citizen from Indian Island in the U.S. state of Maine, Shay has been living in France since 2018, not far from the shores of Normandy where many world leaders are expected to come next month. Solemn ceremonies will be honoring the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and other nations who landed on June 6, 1944.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Australian police shoot dead 'radicalized' teen

    "There are indications he had been radicalized online," Cook said. The police, too, acknowledged that the attack had "hallmarks" of terrorism.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Airstrikes and Easter baskets Snapshots from Ukraine’s third Orthodox Easter against the backdrop of all-out war — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia reportedly awards convicted pedophile a medal and pardon for fighting in Ukraine — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia to conduct military drills practicing tactical nuclear weapon use, says Defense Ministry — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘The point of no return’: One former Russian prisoner-turned-soldier describes deserting the army and fleeing to France — Meduza

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • NPR ☛ China makes cheap electric vehicles. Why can't American shoppers buy them?

      Climate, national security, American jobs: This is why Srinivasan is torn. Even if he's not a fan of big auto companies, exactly.

      "At some point, if we don't support U.S. auto manufacturers, [Chinese automakers] are just going to come in, undercut it," he says. "Then we're dependent on China for cheap EVs. And I don't think that's sustainable for the country long term."

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Bumblebees Surprise Us Again: New Study Reveals Their Impressive Cooperative Skills

      In a series of lab experiments, bumblebees (Bombus sp.) that trained together on tasks to retrieve a sugary reward were more likely to wait for their partner before returning to the task than bees that trained alone.

      "The study's findings challenge conventional notions of insects, and the ability to work together towards a common goal is present even in the miniature brain of bumblebees," says Olli Loukola, lead author of the study and behavioral ecologist at the University of Oulu in Finland.

      The findings come amid a growing awareness of possible insect consciousness and follow demonstrations of human-like collective intelligence in bumblebees, specifically.

    • The Revelator ☛ How Do You Protect Something Most People Will Never See?

• Finance

  • Daily Mail ☛ Elon Musk's Tesla announces fourth week of layoffs as EV car maker continues to shred staff

    Elon Musk's Tesla has laid off staff from the software, service and engineering departments in a fourth week of job cuts as the EV car maker keeps shedding staff.

    The move comes after Tesla announced it would cut the prices of three of its five models in the US as the company faces falling sales, stiff competition in the electric vehicle market and the recall of nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks due to a potentially fatal flaw with the accelerator.

    In a damning blow, Musk also announced Tesla would axe 10 percent of its global workforce of roughly 140,000 earlier this month, claiming the layoffs would 'enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.'

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Tesla layoffs: Elon Musk's company cuts more jobs in these teams, report claims

    Tesla layoffs: Employees at Tesla received emails over the weekend as part of broader layoffs, it was reported.

  • TechStory Media ☛ Layoffs 2024 – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Paytm lays off hundreds of employees

    Currently, a US-based IT services company Cloudflare is under extreme public audit for handling terminations casually without any proper clarity as to why the employees are getting terminated. An accounts executive of the company, Brittany Pietsch recorded herself getting terminated over a video call. When she asked the executives who were in the call as to what was wrong with her performance that made the company decide to fire her, the HR executives were pretty clueless about any specific performance-related issue from Brittany’s side. It is important to note that Britanny was hired only a few months ago and was reportedly given praise and good reviews by her manager without any signs of performance issues from her side.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • YLE ☛ Sowing division — Russian disinformation becoming more sophisticated

      But Russia doesn't care where on the political spectrum it can drive a wedge into, according to Jakub Kalensky of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE).

      "The Russians don't discriminate — they work with both the far right and the far left. At this point they're focusing on the far right because it has gained influence and support in Europe," CoE deputy director Kalensky said.

      Russia's goal is not only to influence EU decisions but also to paralyse the whole decision-making process. On this front, Arhippainen mentions Germany as a case in point. While the country's leadership has condemned Russia's aggression since the beginning of the war, it has also hesitated at every turn to assist Ukraine, according to Arhippainen.

    • [Old] Informa PLC ☛ Nokia chairman admits to misinformation over Elop payout

      Nokia’s chairman Risto Siilasmaa has admitted giving misleading information to the press regarding outgoing CEO Stephen Elop’s exit payout, according to reports in the Finnish news.

      Last week it emerged that Elop is set to receive a $25m payout for overseeing the sale of Nokia to Microsoft, his previous (and future) employer. In a statement sent to the Financial Times as well as Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat following that revelation, Siilasmaa said there was “no essential difference” to predecessor Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s contract and that the terms in Elop’s contract were similar to Kallasvuo’s.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-03 [Older] Jewish Students Grapple With How to Respond to Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Wall Street Journal relocates Asia HQ to Singapore

    Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is set to relocate its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, resulting in an unspecified number of journalists to be laid off. This after consideration by the US publication following the move from other foreign firms to move out from their headquarters from the Chinese financial hub of Hong Kong.

    In a letter seen by AFP, WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said, “Some of these changes are structural: We are bringing together our business, finance and economics coverage. Some are geographic: We are shifting our center of gravity in the region from Hong Kong to Singapore, as many of the companies we cover have done.”

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Kansas GOP leaders follow Bannon's advice for manipulating media: 'Flood the zone with s***'

    Throughout 2024, they followed the advice of once and future Donald Trump henchman Steve Bannon. The perpetually rumpled Bannon told author Michael Lewis back in 2018 that “the Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with s***.”

    To put it less profanely, he recommended achieving policy goals by generating a mass of low-quality news stories, controversies and arguments, which would distract reporters intent on separating fact from fiction. In the background, White House officials and their allies could then work toward their nefarious goals unimpeded.

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Files Charges Against Media Members Over BBC Report On Shakarami Death

    Iran's judiciary has filed charges against several journalists and media activists who disseminated a BBC World Service report concerning the alleged "sexual abuse and murder" of protester Nika Shakarami during the 2022 protests.

    The BBC report, released on April 29, cited a "highly confidential" government document that allegedly names those responsible for Shakarami's death and senior commanders involved in a subsequent cover-up.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Variety ☛ Condé Nast Reaches Deal With Union, Averting Met Gala Strike

    The Condé Nast Union, affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York, represents about 540 editorial workers at Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour. GQ, Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Self, Teen Vogue, them, and Condé Nast Entertainment. Condé Nast workers at the New Yorker, Wired and Ars Technica are also unionized with the NewsGuild of New York.

  • Techdirt ☛ Was There A Trojan Horse Hidden In Section 230 All Along That Could Enable Adversarial Interoperability?

    There’s a fascinating new lawsuit against Meta that includes a surprisingly novel interpretation of Section 230. If the court buys it, this interpretation could make the open web a lot more open, while chipping away at the centralized control of the biggest tech companies. And, yes, that could mean that the law (Section 230) that is wrongly called “a gift to big tech” might be a tool that undermines the dominance of some of those companies. But the lawsuit could be tripped up for any number of reasons, including a potentially consequential typo in the law that has been ignored for years.

    Buckle in, this is a bit of a wild ride.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• CBC ☛ Taylor Swift fan had concert tickets and a place to stay. Then Booking.com pulled the rug out from under her

  A legal expert in technology says her experience shows consumers can't trust that what they book on travel sites is locked in — and that they'll actually get what's being offered.

• CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Amazon illegally interferes with an historic UK warehouse election

  Back to Amazon and Prime. Was it some oversight that cause the company make it so marvelously painless to sign up for Prime, but such a titanic pain in the ass to leave? Again, no speculation is required, because Amazon's executives exchanged a mountain of internal memos in which this is identified as a deliberate strategy, by which they deliberately chose to trick people into signing up for Prime and then hid the means of leaving Prime. Prime is a Roach Motel: users check in, but they don't check out: [...]

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate Site Owners Must Surrender, Informants Get Five-Figure Reward

    After re-writing the rules of anti-piracy enforcement, the P.CoK team at Kakao Entertainment have now torn up the rulebook, set it on fire, and thrown both its remains and conventional thinking out of a window. For a limited time only, pirate site owners can hand themselves in and receive a five-figure* reward. Anyone who knows a pirate site operator not seizing this opportunity can receive* the same amount* by becoming an informant. (*Terms & Conditions apply)