Leftovers

• New York Times ☛ Famed Long Pond Studio Breaks Free of Design Rules

  Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond recording studio breaks a lot of design rules. It’s why musicians like Taylor Swift have put it on the map.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong tourism minister refutes claims of ‘pandering,’ expensive tourism policy

  Hong Kong’s tourism minister has slammed a political commentator’s “fallacious” assertion that the city’s tourism policy had driven out high-value establishments and yielded weak economic returns.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Substantial Atmosphere Detected on a Rocky Super-Earth For The First Time

    An alien world wrapped in a surprisingly thick embrace.

  • Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough Method Pierces Ionosphere to Reveal Radio Universe in Stunning Clarity

    An achievement previously thought impossible.

  • Hackaday ☛ Much Faster Cold Brew Through Cavitation

    Some coffee snobs might call this sacrilege. Cold brew is supposed to take a long time — that’s part of how it gets its characteristic smoothness. But a group of engineers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) have figured out a way to cut the time down from several hours to a mere three minutes, using ultrasonic waves.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Displays We Love Hacking: LVDS And EDP

    There are times when tiny displays no longer cut it. Whether you want to build a tablet or reuse some laptop displays, you will eventually deal with LVDS and eDP displays. To be more exact, these are displays that want you to use either LVDS or eDP signaling to send a picture.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD takes CPU market share from defective chip maker Intel in desktops and servers, but defective chip maker Intel fights back in laptops

    Market tracking from Mercury Research reports about AMD's significant market share gains in Q1 2024 at Intel's expense.

  • Hackaday ☛ Robotic Platform Turns Shop Vac Into Roomba

    The robotic revolution is currently happening, although for the time being it seems as though most of the robots are still being generally helpful to humanity, whether that help is on an assembly line, help growing food, or help transporting us from place to place. They’ve even showed up in our homes, although it’s not quite the Jetsons-like future yet as they mostly help do cleaning tasks. There are companies that will sell things like robotic vacuum cleaners but [Clay Builds] wanted one of his own so he converted a shop vac instead.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Arm’s annual guidance fails to impress, stoking fears that some Hey Hi (AI) stocks may be overpriced

    Shares of the U.K.-based computer chip designer Arm Holdings Plc were tracking lower in after-hours trading today after the company posted quarterly results that edged past Wall Street’s estimates, only to disappoint with somewhat conservative guidance for the coming financial year.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Body's Cells Could Age Years in a Single Day, Challenging Past Research

    Something to watch out for.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Common Sleeping Pill May Reduce Build-Up of Alzheimer's Proteins, Study Finds

  • New York Times ☛ RFK Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain

    The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.

  • University of Michigan ☛ U-M initiative pairs students with older adults to improve hand function

    Through the Hands and Health at Home program, School of Kinesiology students visit older adults in the Ann Arbor area twice a week to perform exercises to improve hand function.

  • teleSUR ☛ DRC: WHO Expresses Concern Over Monkeypox Outbreak

    In April 2024, a high-level emergency regional meeting on monkeypox in Africa was convened in DRC capital Kinshasa, gathering 12 health ministers of regional countries, aiming to develop common strategies to prevent and intervene effectively in the face of monkeypox in Africa.

  • Federal News Network ☛ The new Defense Department health records system isn’t quite out of the woods either

    After a multi-year effort, Defense Department health and tech officials got a new electronic health record system completed.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Canadian Space Agency hosts challenge for new tech in astronaut healthcare

    The Canadian Space Agency recently wrapped up it's Deep Space Healthcare Challenge, in which the winner got $500,000 in grant funding.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Autistic Students at Shrub Oak School Have Suffered Without Oversight

    From the first months that Brett Ashinoff was at Shrub Oak International School in New York, his parents felt uneasy about the residential school for students with autism.

    They worried that Brett, who already was thin, was losing weight. They said his nails weren’t getting cut. He would refuse to get into the car to return to Shrub Oak after visits home, sitting for hours on the porch until his father coaxed him into the vehicle.

  • WhichUK ☛ What really works to lower cholesterol?

    From lifestyle changes to stenols to statins - we look at the ways you can lower your cholesterol and why it matters

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • New York Times ☛ Apple’s New iPad Ad Leaves Its Creative Audience Feeling … Flat

    An ad meant to show how the updated device can do many things has become a metaphor for a community’s fears of the technology industry.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against Proprietary Chaffbot Company partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT

    Developer forum Stack Overflow was met with intense backlash from users over its partnership with Proprietary Chaffbot Company and the decision to scrape the site's answers for Hey Hi (AI) training; attempts to delete or edit questions and answers are met with bans.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ China has a flourishing market for deepfakes that clone the dead

    If you could talk again to someone you love who has passed away, would you? For a long time, this has been a hypothetical question.

  • Microsoft's gaming division prepares for more layoffs after studio shutdowns

    Microsoft's Xbox division is reportedly bracing for further job cuts following the recent closure of three of its studios Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, and Alpha Dog Studio. This move is part of a larger cost-reduction strategy currently underway. According to Bloomberg, Xbox has given voluntary severance packages to producers, QA testers, and other ZeniMax staff this week.

  • The Business Journals ☛ Austin game studio Arkane Studios shuts down, laying off 96 employees

    It's part of a broader downturn in the gaming industry that has been reverberating in Austin

  • Xbox Has No Idea What They’re Doing, and I’m Not Sure They Ever Did

    My friends both online and IRL have joked for years that I am somehow the world’s biggest Xbox fan, despite not owning an Xbox since 2003 and not enjoying any Xbox Game Studios games. The truth is that despite never being an Xbox guy, I have long been a huge fan of Bethesda’s games, and I often joke back that when Xbox acquired Bethesda Softworks in 2021 they also acquired me.

  • It’s Time To Hold Phil Spencer Accountable For Xbox’s Failures

    However, recent situations have also seen Xbox grapple with a series of setbacks, including layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. Yesterday, Xbox announced it would shut down Arkane and Tango Gameworks, the latter of which ironically produced Xbox’s best-rated title of 2023.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Microsoft guts four studios to focus on priority games aka Bethesda games

    Microsoft makes ruthless cuts to development staff despite successful releases.

• Security

  • LWN ☛ Security updates for Wednesday

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (glib2.0 and php7.3), Gentoo (Commons-BeanUtils, Epiphany, glibc, MariaDB, Node.js, NVIDIA Drivers, qtsvg, rsync, U-Boot tools, and ytnef), Oracle (kernel), Red Hat (git-lfs and kernel), SUSE (flatpak, less, python311, rpm, and sssd), and Ubuntu (libde265, libvirt, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-gcp,

    linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4,

    linux-iot, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-raspi,

    linux-raspi-5.4, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde,

    linux-gkeop-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency,

    linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux-oem-6.5, and nghttp2).

  • Security Week ☛ Android Update Patches Critical Vulnerability

    Android’s May 2024 security update patches 38 vulnerabilities, including a critical bug in the System component.

  • LinuxSecurity ☛ Overcoming Insider Threats in Open Source Environments

  • Federal News Network ☛ OMB forms replacement for FedRAMP JAB

    The Office of Management and Budget selected CIOs, CISOs and other technology experts to be part of the new FedRAMP Board, which replaces the JAB.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Energy Dept advisor studying intersection of OT and zero trust

    CISOs across the public and private sectors are confronting quickly evolving cyber threats,, including API attacks and supply chain compromises.

  • Security Week ☛ New ‘TunnelVision’ Technique Leaks Traffic From Any VPN System

    A new VPN bypass technique allows threat actors to snoop on victims’ traffic by forcing it off the VPN tunnel using built-in features of DHCP.

  • Security Week ☛ Brandywine Realty Trust Hit by Ransomware

    Philadelphia-based real estate company Brandywine Realty Trust shuts down systems following a ransomware attack.

  • Security Week ☛ University System of Georgia Says 800,000 Impacted by MOVEit Hack

    University System of Georgia says Social Security numbers and bank account numbers were compromised in the May 2023 MOVEit hack.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Healthcare provider Ascension warns that it has suffered from a ‘cyber security event’

    U.S. healthcare provider Ascension is warning that it has suffered from a “cyber security event” that has resulted in disruptions to clinical operations. In a network interruption update, Ascension said that it first became aware of issues today when it detected unusual activity on select technology network systems.

  • OpenSSF (Linux Foundation) ☛ DruBOM: An SBOM for Drupal

    DruBOM is a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for Drupal. It is a list of all the dependencies of a Drupal project, including the Drupal core, modules, themes, and libraries.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • RFA ☛ New rules let China's state security police check people's devices

      Police can show their ID to gather electronic data to find out whether a criminal or illegal act has taken place.

    • EDRI ☛ Position paper: GDPR enforcement done right

      There is an urgent need to enhance legal certainty and prevent actions that undermine the effectiveness of and trust in GDPR enforcement. EDRi and Access Now have co-drafted a position paper on the EU Proposal for additional procedural rules concerning the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

• Defence/Aggression

  • YLE ☛ Police: 12-year-old suspect in deadly school shooting planned attack for weeks

    Investigators say they have found no evidence to support the suspect's previous claim that his motive for the shooting was bullying.

  • YLE ☛ A Finnish first: Court issues school bully restraining order

    The restraining order, issued to a preteen, was a last resort.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US sends warship through Taiwan Strait ahead of presidential inauguration

    China’s military described the sailing as “public hype“.

  • RFERL ☛ Taliban Rejects Claims Of Afghan Involvement In Recent Attacks In Pakistan

    The Taliban on May 8 rejected claims of Afghan involvement in recent attacks in Pakistan, calling it “irresponsible and far from the reality.”

  • RFERL ☛ Falun Gong Members Held Ahead Of Xi's Serbia Visit, Says Daughter Of 1 Detainee

    Three Serbian members of Falun Gong -- the Chinese spiritual movement that China's Communist Party has sought to stamp out since the late 1990s – were detained in Belgrade on the eve of Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping visit, a family member said on May 8.

  • New York Times ☛ In Serbia, Pooh-tin Underlines Close Ties With Ally That Shares Wariness of U.S.

    Visiting friendly leaders in Eastern Europe, the Chinese president commemorated the 25th anniversary of a misdirected U.S. airstrike that destroyed China’s embassy in Belgrade.

  • RFA ☛ Australia, China dispute helicopter incident in Yellow Sea

    Beijing said Australian plane was spying and disrupting Chinese military exercise.

  • RFA ☛ Court bans protest song over 'insult' to China's national anthem

    'Glory to Hong Kong' is a potential 'weapon' that must be taken down from online platforms, appeal judges say.

  • RFA ☛ Media Watch: Blinken’s April China visit fuels online rumors

    Rumors in Chinese and English aimed to downplay the significance of the US Secretary of State’s visit.

  • RFA ☛ INTERVIEW: Lawyer debunks China’s historical narrative of control over Xinjiang

    ‘Xi Jinping and his government in particular are bent on absolute control.’

  • The Strategist ☛ Don’t overestimate China’s ambitions in the Arctic

    Western analysts risk overestimating China’s emergence as an Arctic power, spurred by fears that they initially neglected the reappearance of the Arctic as a theatre for strategic competition.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Opinion: Mexico’s insecurity problem needs a solution based on evidence

    Mexico's next president must solve the country's insecurity problem with evidence, not belief, says the Mexico Institute's Vidal Romero.

  • NYPost ☛ Ohio SWAT team sold fake body armor imported from China as Homeland Security probes

    “We were notified by the Department of Homeland Security that the plates that we had were some of those plates that were found to be counterfeit and so as a result of that, we need to replace them.”

  • The Straits Times ☛ Blast in north Afghanistan kills three Taliban security personnel

    KABUL - Three Taliban security personnel were killed when a motorcycle carrying an explosive device blew up near a military vehicle in northern Afghanistan being used in opium poppy eradication operations, an interior ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

  • New York Times ☛ Podesta Meets With China’s Climate Envoy Amid Deep Economic Tensions

    Beijing’s dominance raises economic and security concerns, and tensions will be high as top climate diplomats meet this week.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Blinken Says Israeli Units Accused of Serious Violations Have Done Enough to Avoid Sanctions. Experts and Insiders Disagree.

    Years before Oct. 7, soldiers and officers in four Israeli security force units committed what the U.S. State Department would later determine to be serious human rights violations against Palestinians.

    In one incident in 2019, an Israel Defense Forces soldier shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian man on the side of a road in the West Bank. That soldier was given no jail time — only three months of community service.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Justice Department reportedly investigating Tesla for securities and wire fraud

    The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Tesla Inc. for securities and wire fraud over claims made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk about its Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” features.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Leader of 2019 radical protest group was alone in insistence on killing police, court hears at terrorism trial

    The leader of Hong Kong radical protest group “Dragon Slayers” – allegedly behind a thwarted bomb plot during the 2019 demonstrations – was the only one in his team that was insisting on killing police officers, a court has heard.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanians get a taste of curfew during military exercise – photos

      Tonight, some areas of Vilnius and Kaunas were put under curfew as part of the military exercise. Here is how it looked up close.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Hits Ukrainian Power Plants, Further Straining Energy System

      The assault, a day after Vladimir V. Putin was sworn in for a fifth term as Russian president, is part of a wider campaign to cut off power to Ukraine’s civilians.

    • AntiWar ☛ US Is Losing In Ukraine. Blame China, Says Blinken.

      At the close of his recent trip to China, on April 26 while still in Beijing, Sec. of State, Anthony Blinken, made an extremely bellicose statement to the press. 

    • Atlantic Council ☛ ‘Creative solutions’ with Russia’s immobilized assets must rise to the challenge Ukraine now faces

      $280 billion of Russian reserves can be used more strategically–without crossing red lines–to get funding to Ukraine.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine warns of outages as 'massive' Russian strikes target power plants

      Ukraine on Wednesday warned of possible power shutdowns across the country after a "massive" wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted the country's battered energy system.

    • RFERL ☛ 4 Arrested In India For 'Luring' Men To Fight For Russia In Ukraine

      Four people have been arrested in India accused of "trafficking" citizens to fight for the Russian Army in Ukraine, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said on May 8.

    • RFERL ☛ EU Reaches Deal To Use Proceeds From Russian Assets To Fund Ukraine Military Aid

      Ambassadors representing European Union states have reached a deal  “in principle” to use the proceeds of Russian assets frozen in the EU Union to finance military aid for Ukraine, the Belgian government said on May 8.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Parliament Passes Bill To Allow Some Prisoners To Serve In Military

      The Ukrainian parliament on May 8 approved a bill that would allow some categories of prisoners to serve in the country’s armed forces as it defends itself against a full-scale Russian invasion.

    • RFERL ☛ Lithuania Still Open To Sending Soldiers To Train Troops In Ukraine

      Lithuania remains open to the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine as part of training missions for Ukrainian soldiers, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

    • RFERL ☛ Jailed Ukrainian Magnate Kolomoyskiy Suspected Of Being Behind 2003 Attempted Contract Killing

      Ukrainian prosecutors and police on May 8 suggested that jailed billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskiy has been informed that he is under suspicion of a crime in connection with an attempted contract killing two decades ago.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia-Installed Officials Blame Ukraine For Attack On Luhansk Oil Refinery

      Kremlin-installed leader Leonid Pasechnik said an oil depot has caught fire in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, blaming the attack on Ukrainian shells.

    • RFERL ☛ Italian President Says Ukraine War Can't Be Solved By Rewarding Moscow's Aggression

      Italy’s president told the UN General Assembly on May 7 that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can’t be solved by rewarding its aggression and peace can only come when Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored.

    • RFERL ☛ China's Pooh-tin Arrives In Hungary For Orban Meeting, Next Leg Of European Charm Trip

      Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping, fresh off an apparently successful trip to Serbia, on May 8 arrived in Hungary, where he is scheduled to meet later in the night with another authoritarian leader -- Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- and where he'll likely receive another warm welcome.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China's Pooh-tin Jinping in Hungary to discuss Ukraine, infrastructure

      BUDAPEST - Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping is due to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday, with the war in Ukraine and infrastructure projects high on the agenda, as he makes his third stop on his first European tour in five years.

    • France24 ☛ Xi Jinping visits China-friendly Hungary on last stop of European tour

      Following a visit to Serbia, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Budapest on Wednesday in the last leg of his European tour aimed at strengthening already flourishing ties between Beijing and its closest EU ally.

    • CS Monitor ☛ For Moscow, the war in Ukraine is a rerun of World War II

      The Kremlin presents its war in Ukraine as a continuation of Moscow’s fight against Nazism in World War II. An exhibition of captured arms illustrates how.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s Parliament Passes Bill Allowing Some Convicts to Serve in Army

      The measure, which must still be signed into law, echoes a practice used by Russia, which has drafted tens of thousands of inmates into the war.

    • Meduza ☛ Russia targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in massive missile attack — Meduza

    • JURIST ☛ UK to expel diplomat Russia diplomat over accusations of espionage

      The UK Home Secretary James Cleverly announced on Wednesday that the country will expel an “undeclared” Russian military intelligence officer, accusing the defence attaché of espionage. Alongside the expulsion, a wave of sanctions against Russia will be introduced to “dismantle Russian intelligence gathering operations in the UK.” 

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania seizes 2 Tesla cars on suspicion of Russia sanctions violation

      Lithuanian customs officials have detained two Tesla Cybertrucks on suspicion that the electric vehicles were being shipped to Russia via Belarus in violation of EU sanctions.

    • LRT ☛ OSCE not sending observers to Lithuania’s election due to Vilnius’ conditions

      The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will not be observing Lithuania’s presidential election after Vilnius refused to let in delegates from Russia and Belarus, Delfi.lt reports.

    • RFERL ☛ U.K. Will Expel Russian Defense Attache Over 'Malign Activity'

      Britain will expel Russia's defense attache, remove diplomatic status from some properties, and limit the length of Russian diplomatic visas in response to what interior minister James Cleverly called Moscow's "malign activity."

    • Press Gazette ☛ BBC World Service risks being overtaken by Russia and China, warns outgoing director

      Russia and China are said to be investing hard in their foreign-facing news output.

    • New York Times ☛ U.K. to Expel Russian Defense Attaché as Diplomatic Feud With Moscow Escalates

      The British home secretary, James Cleverly, accused Russia’s foreign intelligence service of a pattern of “malign activity” in Britain and Europe.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘I’m going to make him a star’: Yaroslav Dronov was the frontman of a struggling cover band. Then he married a PR agent and became Shaman — wartime Russia’s most famous singer. — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Rīga's 'Moscow' district renamed 'Latgale' district

      As a continuation of freeing Latvia from Soviet occupation-related names, the Rīga neighborhood "Maskavas forštate" (Moscow Suburb, casually called Maskachka) has been renamed Latgales apkaime (Latgale neighborhood) according to the decision of the Riga City Council's Urban Development's committee on May 8.

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim expresses support for Putin in Victory Day message

      Russia on May 9 marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Dismisses Kyiv Allegation Of Role In Plot To Kill Zelenskiy, Other Officials

      Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman declined to comment on May 8 on an assertion by Ukrainian intelligence officials a day earlier that they had "thwarted" an assassination plot against Ukraine's president involving Russia's Federal Security Service.

    • RFERL ☛ Armenia Stops Financial Contributions To Russian-Led Military Alliance

      Armenia said on May 8 that it has stopped making financial contributions to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) after effectively suspending its membership in the Russian-led military alliance.

    • Latvia ☛ Photos: Exhibit shows 'war fractures' in Latvian cityscape

      In Rīga, a traveling exhibition "1944 – The War-Caused Fractures in Latvian Urban Landscape" is on display at the Freedom Monument. It tells the story of cities ravaged by World War II.

• Environment

  • Science Alert ☛ World Continues to Swelter as April 2024 Blazes Past Heat Records

    It's just getting worse.

  • New York Times ☛ Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds

    Biodiversity loss, global warming, pollution and the spread of invasive species are making infectious diseases more dangerous to organisms around the world.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Latvia ☛ Experts say airBaltic bonds interest rate 'high but appropriate'

      The 14.5% rate on bonds issued by the national airline airBaltic is high, but it is appropriate for the risk and the health of the company, as stated by financial market experts assessing the price of airBaltic's €340 million loan, LSM and Latvian Radio reports.

    • H2 View ☛ China’s SANY Group to supply hydrogen refuelling equipment to Australia

      Chinese manufacturing firm SANY Group is set to supply electrolysers and hydrogen refuelling equipment to an unnamed Australian customer.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • CS Monitor ☛ Scientists recorded sperm whales. Their pod-casts offer hints on how they talk.

      For years, researchers have tried to link sperm whales’ underwater clicks to the meanings they communicate. A new study of their codas could serve as the basis for future translations of their alphabet.

    • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Think They've Found Our 'Neural Compass' That Stops Us Getting Lost

      Your brain's GPS revealed.

  • Overpopulation

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea president wants to create ministry to tackle low birth rates [Ed: They only treat this as a "problem" because of a broken system that gravitates towards human extinction and global warning by overproduction]

      The country has the world’s lowest birth rate.

• Finance

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Storage manufacturer SK hynix raided by South Korean regulators — investigation into supplier FADU intensifies

    SK hynix is the fifth organization to be raided by South Korea's watchdog group as part of its investigation into alleged securities fraud on the part of SSD and controller manufacturer Fadu.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden Looks to Thwart Surge of Chinese Imports

    The president has proposed new barriers to Chinese electric vehicles, steel and other goods in an attempt to protect his manufacturing agenda.

  • Alerzo lays off staff… again

    Alerzo, a B2B eCommerce player, had to let go of around 70 folks in February 2024, even though they snagged some funding in 2023.

    Word on the street is, they were trimming costs to stretch their runway. But Alerzo insists it's all about digitalising and building a sustainable business.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Simpl layoffs: Over 150 jobs cut, CEO apologizes to employees in town hall

    Simpl layoffs: The company, which previously employed around 650 people, has seen its workforce fall by roughly 25% in the past few months.

  • CNBC ☛ Nearly 50% of people are considering leaving their jobs in 2024—more than during the ‘great resignation’

    In 2022, at the height of the “great resignation,” a record 4.5 million workers each month — about 3% of the U.S. workforce — were quitting their jobs.

    While some economists have said this pandemic-era trend is over, new research from Microsoft and LinkedIn forecasts that even more people plan to leave their jobs in 2024.

    Nearly half (46%) of professionals say they’re considering quitting in the year ahead — higher than the 40% who said the same ahead of 2021′s great resignation, according to new research from Microsoft and LinkedIn, which surveyed more than 30,000 people in 31 countries between February and March 2024.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Kim Ki-Nam, Chief Propagandist in North Korea for Decades, Dies

    Mr. Kim, who served under all three generations of the country’s ruling family, was likened to Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister.

  • YLE ☛ MP Vornanen extends sick leave as police open internal enquiry

    The former police officer turned parliamentarian Timo Vornanen has been on sick leave since his suspected involvement in a shooting incident outside a karaoke bar in Helsinki at the end of last month.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Science Alert ☛ 'Deadbots' Could Be The Future of Advertising, Ethicists Warn, And We're Not Ready

      We need to be aware.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai trial: Media mogul’s personal bank accounts handled by ex-senior exec., court hears

    The personal bank accounts of Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai were handled by a former senior executive at his media company, a prosecution witness has said at Lai’s landmark trial under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-02 [Older] UN urges Georgia to withdraw 'foreign influence' bill

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-02 [Older] The Indigenous Amazon archer aiming for Olympic greatness

  • YLE ☛ Parliament passes bill limiting duration of industrial, political strikes

    The law reform will set the maximum duration of a political strike at 24 hours while industrial strikes will be limited to a period of two weeks.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • IT Wire ☛ The mysteries of DMARC explained in plain text [Ed: Monopolies are using it to elbow independent relays out of the way, consolidating mass surveillance]

    Email is an old method of communication — yes, it's been here since 1965 with the first messages on the Arpanet being sent in 1971 — but the way it operates is still as much of a mystery to the average punter as it was back in those days.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• CCIA ☛ Getting the scope right for regulating digital markets

  It is always a sensitive question which companies are “in” and “out” for major regulations.

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ The Gilded Gallows of Georg Honauer (1597)

    A broadside illustration depicting the execution of an alchemist, hanged upon a gallows made from the very object of his crime.