Leftovers

• Dhole Moments ☛ Furries Are Losing the Battle Against Scale - Dhole Moments

  Many of the most annoying and pervasive problems with the furry fandom–from the cyclical nature of Twitter discourse to the increasingly frustrating issue of furry convention main hotel registrations selling out immediately after opening–are entirely predictable if you know even a little bit of mathematics.

  And it’s going to get worse. If you don’t believe me, read on.

• Chloé Vulquin ☛ My Thoughts On Notes

  This has led to my note output to multiply. I need to take notes about what I do in a given day, comments on what I find, what needs to be done, and more. Additionally, the notes are heterogenous in nature, such that if I was to group them “logically”, they would quickly become a pain to search. Being already familiar with Luhmann’s Zettelkasten, I figured I would go over the software available for organising notes, since I don’t exactly have the space needed to do a physical note cabinet.

  Instead of focusing on terminology, I’ll try to express the trends I found in more practical terms. To this end, I should first describe what the conclusions (i.e consequences) of what I’d want are first.

• Lou Plummer ☛ I Like Your Blog If...

  As I spend less and less time on commercial websites and more time exploring the blogs on IndieWeb platforms, I am developing a type and preferences. There's plenty to choose from.

• Gregory Hammond ☛ China WeChat: could a competitor exist outside? - Gregory Hammond

  Using one app could make it easier for many people, especially those who are often overwhelmed with technology, or don’t use it often. How could it make life easier? One example is instead of needing to buy packages from your cell phone company for calling minutes and texting, you may just need the one for data. In some places in the world, data on a cell phone is the most expensive package.

  You could go into the app to contact a delivery company about an upcoming package, or view details about that package without having to leave the app. WeChat also has the ability to have an account where you can post like social media. What about being able to pay using it just by scanning a code and using the app, and that includes paying a friend. While being able to chat with family and friends. This seems like so many features rolled all into one app, and that’s kind of what WeChat currently is.

• Lykolux ☛ Small blog changes

  It is satisfying to tinker with CSS and get results after a short amount of time. If you have any ideas for improvments, feel free to reach me out!

• Lykolux ☛ Nothing but work

  I worked a lot today, because there was a lot to do, quickly. Work-Life balance is sometimes hard, but the most important is this balance is balanced most of the time. So I’m writing a quick one tonight, because I’m beat.

• Licensing / Legal

  • 404 Media ☛ Watch Man Park His Car On Zoom While Appearing Before a Judge For Suspended License Trial

    A Michigan man stunned a court into silence when he logged into Zoom to attend his own suspended license hearing while driving a car.

    Corey Harris joined the Zoom call to appear before District Judge Cedric Simpson in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 15 in the middle of pulling up to his doctor’s office, he said in the livestream. The full day of hearings were streamed on YouTube as part of Simpson's criminal docket proceedings.

• Science

  • NPR ☛ What is Manhattanhenge? Here's when and where you can see the phenomenon

    Even though Tyson likened Manhattanhenge to the sunset views at solstice in Stonehenge, England, city planners did not intentionally build Manhattan for the purpose of having epic sunsets.

    “When we had people building the grid of Manhattan in the early 19th century, they didn't realize that when the sun was going to arc at a certain time of year, we'd be seeing the sun right down the streets of Manhattan,” he shared.

• Education

  • Anne Sturdivant ☛ Brag for yourself.

    I just read Melanie Richard's Coping with imposter syndrome yesterday and was reminded of a "brag document" (more here) which is a great thing to have for your staff manager, to keep a log for doing quarterly or yearly reviews, or for merit increase/promotion requests. It got me thinking this might be something I want to have on my weblog at /brag (yay! another slash page!).

  • Phil Eaton ☛ How I run a software book club

    This post is for folks who are interested in running their own book club. None of these ideas are novel. I co-opted the best parts I saw from other people running similar things. And hopefully you'll improve on my experience too, should you try.

    Despite the length of this post running a book club takes almost no noticeable effort, other than when I need to select and confirm discussion leaders. It is the limited-effort-required to thank that I've kept up the book clubs so consistently.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Can You Hear Me Now? Try These Headphones

    When you are young, you take it for granted that you can pick out a voice in a crowded room or a factory floor. But as you get older, your hearing often gets to the point where a noisy room merges into a mishmash of sounds. University of Washington researchers have developed what they call Target Speech Hearing. In plain English, it is an AI-powered headphone that lets you look at someone and pull their voice out of the chatter. For best results, however, have to enroll their voice first, so it wouldn’t make a great eavesdropping device.

  • CNX Software ☛ Arm unveils Cortex-X925 and Cortex-A725 CPUs, Immortalis-G925 GPU, Kleidi Hey Hi (AI) software

    Arm has just announced new Armv9 CPUs and Immortalis GPUs for mobile SoCs, as well as the Kleidi Hey Hi (AI) software optimized for Arm CPUs from Armv7 to Armv9 architectures. New Armv9.2 CPU cores include the Cortex-X925 “Blackhawk” core with significant CPU and Hey Hi (AI) performance improvements, the Cortex-A725 with improved efficiency, and a refreshed version of the Cortex-A520 providing 15 percent efficiency improvements.

  • Rob Knight ☛ The Converse Experiment: Report One

    The day after I just put them on because the wedding was over and they could just go into the normal shoe rotation. Then a month went by and I realised I had worn them every day which gave me a data point I wish I'd done for the many other pairs of Converse I've bought over the years: how long does a pair actually last? I had a vague idea but nothing concrete.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Democracy Now ☛ PFAS Cover-Up: How 3M Hid Risks of Forever Chemicals & “Gaslit” Scientist Who Tried to Sound Alarm

    As public concern grows about the health and environmental impacts of so-called forever chemicals, a new investigation by ProPublica and The New Yorker reveals that 3M, the American manufacturing giant, discovered and concealed the risks of these toxic substances for decades. PFAS are used in everyday products, from nonstick cookware to food packaging, but take decades or longer to break down in the body and environment. They have been found in the blood of almost every person in the United States and are linked to serious health effects.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Wisconsin Public Radio ☛ ‘Wall Street Journal’ layoffs continue, despite lucrative AI deal and record profits

    The Wall Street Journal has laid off even more journalists, despite a surge in paid subscribers, strong profits at its parent company, and a new nine-figure licensing deal with OpenAI.

    The union representing the newsroom –- the International Association of Publishers’ Employees –- staged an hour-long walkout Thursday to object to the job cuts. Staffers stuck Post-it notes protesting the move on the glass walls of the office of Editor in Chief Emma Tucker, whose vision for the paper has come under fire.

    The layoffs of at least eight reporters who covered national and breaking news follow double-digit cuts to staff in Washington and abroad, although the paper has added some positions back in recent months. The union tabulation only covers those represented by the local; others have been laid off as well.

  • IT Pro Today ☛ Amazon Workers Walk Out Amid Layoffs, Citing Concerns for Climate

    Hundreds of Amazon staff members walked off the job on Wednesday afternoon demanding a flexible remote work policy and renewed commitments to reducing carbon emissions to zero.

    The walkout is a collaboration between Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and an informal group of employees who oppose Amazon's mandated return to office. Employees say recent layoffs and the mandate - which increases emissions as workers commute - have left them questioning whether Amazon executives are leading the company in the right direction.

    "It's definitely concerning how low the morale is," said a Seattle-based Amazon employee who walked out and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. "There's a lot of distrust in leadership right now."

  • Andy Bell ☛ How I’m using “AI”

    I put “AI” in quotes in my writing because the current iteration of “AI” is hardly intelligent. But, whether I like it or not, it is the colloquial term right now.

    I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that I am certifiably Not A Fan™ of “AI” either. I don’t like art and culture being diluted into unseasoned slop and I certainly don’t like “AI” being a cause of mass-layoffs and putting people in real danger in a lot of cases.

  • uni Oxford ☛ What does the public in six countries think of generative AI in news?

    Based on an online survey focused on understanding if and how people use generative artificial intelligence (AI), and what they think about its application in journalism and other areas of work and life across six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA), we present the following findings.

  • The Register UK ☛ MIT professor hoses down predictions AI will boost GDP

    Acemoglu goes on to argue that AI is unlikely to significantly improve wages and that even if the technology improves the productivity of low-end and middle-performing workers, it may not reduce inequality.

    "I estimate that AI will not reduce inequality and is likely to have a negative effect on the real earnings of low-education women (especially white, native-born low-education women)," he asserts in his paper. His findings also suggest that "AI will further expand the gap between capital and labor income as a whole."

  • Wired ☛ Chatbots Are Entering Their Stone Age

    Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI, announced a major new product today that attempts to prove the thesis that tool use is needed for AI’s next leap in usefulness. The startup is allowing developers to direct its chatbot Claude to access outside services and software in order to perform more useful tasks. Claude can, for instance, use a calculator to solve the kinds of math problems that vex large language models; be required to access a database containing customer information; or be compelled to make use of other programs on a user’s computer when it would help.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Latvia ☛ Company reportedly fell victim to million-euro phone fraud

      Cases of fraud on the Internet and over the phone have become so commonplace that almost everyone has come across attempts by fraudsters to steal data or money. One particular case was experienced this year, when a million euros were defrauded from a company at one time through the company's accountant, reported Latvian Television May 28.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Record ☛ Senate Intel Committee approves changes narrowing scope of Section 702 surveillance law

      U.S. senators want to tweak a recently renewed surveillance authority in an attempt to honor a pledge to narrow which entities the federal government can compel to hand over communications.

      The Senate Intelligence Committee last week unanimously approved legislation that would amend a bill that reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The statute allows the National Security Agency to vacuum up the content of calls, emails and other electronic information of overseas targets from U.S. technology providers. It also sweeps up the personal data of an unknown number of Americans.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ 7 New Pegasus Spyware Infections Spotted In Europe

      Seven Russian and Belarusian-speaking independent journalists and opposition activists based in Europe were targeted or infected with NSO Group’s proprietary Pegasus spyware.

      A joint investigation by Citizen Lab and Access Now detailed incidents from August 2020 to January 2023 and concluded that a single NSO Group customer might be responsible for at least five of these cases.

    • The Verge ☛ Google Home adds a Favorites Widget to Android

      Quick access to smart home devices is coming to Android in the form of a new Google Home Favorites widget. This will let you control devices, actions, and automations directly from the homescreen of your phone. There’s also a new Favorites tile and complication coming to Wear OS for accessing frequently used devices right from your wrist.

    • Meduza ☛ Pegasus spyware was used to target seven more journalists and activists in the E.U.

    • Citizen Lab ☛ By Whose Authority? Pegasus targeting of Russian & Belarusian-speaking opposition activists and independent media in Europe

      In a joint investigation with Access Now, we found that seven Russian and Belarusian-speaking independent journalists and opposition activists based in Europe were targeted and/or infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus mercenary spyware.

    • AccessNow ☛ Exiled, then spied on: Civil society in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland targeted with Pegasus spyware

      At least seven more Russian, Belarusian, Latvian, and Israeli journalists and activists have been targeted with Pegasus within the EU.

  • Confidentiality

    • The Register UK ☛ Indian stock exchange finally encrypting all trader messages

      India's Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has told market participants they need to adopt encryption – which, shockingly, isn't already implemented – for certain messages sent to its trading platforms when using its Enhanced Trading Interface (ETI).

      ETI is the bourse's interface for traders, and sent out its directive last Monday.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Record ☛ All democracies 'struggling’ with foreign manipulation, warns Estonian president

    “The cyber world allows our adversaries to cheaply and covertly subvert our society. Cyber attackers are becoming more and more unpredictable and crafty,” he said in a keynote speech at the International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon), adding that the number of high-impact cyber incidents in Estonia had increased by 25% in 2023.

  • Wired ☛ The Unusual Espionage Act Case Against a Drone Photographer

    On January 5, 2024, Fengyun Shi flew to Virginia while on leave from his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and rented a Tesla at the airport. His research focused on using AI to detect signs of crop disease in photos. Shi’s subject that week wasn’t plants, however, but allegedly the local shipyards—the only ones manufacturing the latest generation of Navy carrier ships in the country, and nuclear submarines as well.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong national security police make 7th arrest under new security law

    A 53-year-old woman was arrested by Hong Kong national security police on Wednesday over “seditious” online posts, becoming the seventh person apprehended under the new law in a case linked to jailed human rights activist Chow Hang-tung.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China wants ties with Arab states that will be model for world peace

    BEIJING - China wants to build up its relations with Arab states as a benchmark for maintaining world peace and stability, President Pooh-tin Jinping said in a speech on Thursday that also addressed the Gaza crisis.

  • France24 ☛ Trump's former UN ambassador Nikki Haley writes 'Finish Them' on Israeli shell

    Former US presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has been photographed writing "Finish Them" on an Israeli shell as she toured sites near the northern border with Lebanon.

  • JURIST ☛ Netherlands public prosecution service prosecutes teen boy for assaulting politician Thierry Baudet

    A 16-year-old boy who assaulted a politician will be prosecuted by the public prosecution service on charges of attempted serious assault, local media said on Monday. The boy, who was 15 at that time, assaulted Thierry Baudet, the leader of Forum voor Democratie, in Groningen last year.

  • EDRI ☛ La Quadrature du Net takes legal action against the French government’s censorship of Fentanylware (TikTok) in New Caledonia [Ed: "censorship of Fentanylware (TikTok) in New Caledonia" as in preventing China riling up violent riots?]

    Through an emergency proceeding (reféré-liberté) filed last week, La Quadrature du Net asked the Conseil d’État (Council of State) to suspend French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s decision to block the Fentanylware (TikTok) platform in New Caledonia.

  • EDRI ☛ EDRi-gram, 29 May 2024

    EDRi member La Quadrature du Net is taking legal action against the French prime minister’s decision to block Fentanylware (TikTok) in New Caledonia. The French government is resorting to the tried-and-tested authoritarian reflexes of obstructing people’s freedom of expression as tensions in the archipelago reach new heights.

  • France24 ☛ TikTok ban lifted on French overseas territory of New Caledonia

    French authorities on Wednesday said they had lifted a ban in New Caledonia on TikTok, which they suspect of fuelling recent unrest in the French Pacific territory.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Sale of Rīga's 'Moscow House' will raise funds for Kyiv

      The sale of a former Russian political and cultural hub in Rīga will raise thousands of euros for Ukraine, following a decision of the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, on May 30.

    • NYPost ☛ Biden gives Ukraine permission to use US weapons to attack Russia — marking shift in long-standing policy

      A US official noted, however, that Ukraine will not be allowed to use long-range US weapons to hit military targets deep inside Russian territory.

    • France24 ☛ Biden allows Ukraine to hit Russia with US weapons to defend Kharkiv

      President Joe Biden has lifted restrictions on Ukraine using weapons supplied by the United States against targets on Russian territory, but only to defend the under-fire Kharkiv region, a senior US official said Thursday.

    • France24 ☛ NATO chief Stoltenberg pushes alliance to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia

      NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg pushed at the start of a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers on Thursday to let Ukraine use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, a move sought by Kyiv but opposed for now by its chief backer Washington.

    • LRT ☛ Former US ambassador to NATO: Inviting Ukraine to join would be meaningless

      The US administration believes that inviting Ukraine to join NATO is meaningless and will therefore not be taken at the Washington summit in July. “Much better to say under what conditions we will all agree to move forward,” Ivo H. Daalder, head of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, told LRT.lt in an exclusive interview.

    • RFERL ☛ One Dead, 12 Wounded In Russian Shelling Of 5-Story Building In Kharkiv

      Russian forces hit a five-story residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, causing a fire and possibly trapping people in the burning rubble, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said after the attack that occurred around midnight local time on May 30.

    • RFERL ☛ Moldovan Parliament Denounces Russian 'Genocide' In Ukraine

      Moldova's parliament denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "genocide" in connection with Moscow's treatment of children in occupied areas, but the assembly's Moscow-friendly opposition parties refused to take part in the vote.

    • RFERL ☛ Biden Partially Lifts Ban On Ukraine Using U.S. Weapons In Strikes Inside Russia: Reports

      U.S. President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending the eastern city of Kharkiv, according to media reports quoting unidentified sources.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Not Invited To D-Day 80th Anniversary, French Presidency Says

      Russia will not be invited to events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings next week given its war of aggression against Ukraine, the French Presidency said on May 30.

    • RFERL ☛ Germany Pledges New $542 Million Arms Package To Ukraine

      German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on May 30 announced a new German arms package worth 500 million euros ($542 million) to support Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Sri Lanka Tightens Controls To Stop Men From Being Duped Into Fighting In Ukraine

      Sri Lanka will tighten controls to try to stop its men being lured to Russia to fight in Ukraine with often false promises of salaries and benefits.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says Naval Drones Destroy Two Russian Boats In Crimea

      The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) has said its naval drones destroyed two Russian "Tunets" boats in Crimea.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Jailed For 13 Years For Urging Russian Troops To Surrender

      A military court has sentenced a resident of the western Russian region of Chelyabinsk to 13 years in a maximum-security prison and fined him 200,000 rubles ($2,245) on a charge of high treason for calling on those mobilized to the military to surrender to Ukrainian forces.

    • RFERL ☛ Stoltenberg Floats Talks On Lifting Of Weapons Restrictions As NATO Meets In Prague

      Ukraine can prevail in its battle to repel Russian forces with the "robust support" of its allies, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said, as foreign ministers from the military alliance's 32 member countries gathered in Prague to discuss a fresh military aid framework for Kyiv.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Debris analysis shows Russia using North Korean missiles in Ukraine, US military says

      WASHINGTON - A Pentagon intelligence agency says analysis of debris imagery confirms that Russia has fielded North Korean missiles in its war in Ukraine, according to a report summary released in an unclassified form on Thursday.

    • The Straits Times ☛ US officials meet China’s vice foreign minister after sanctions warning

      The meeting comes a day after US accused China of supporting Russia's war in Ukraine.

    • CS Monitor ☛ How a lethal Ukrainian sea drone is protecting the global food supply

      One lesson of the Russia-Ukraine war is that Ukrainian farmers’ prosperity and the world’s food security are very much linked. Now, in David-and-Goliath fashion, a Ukrainian sea drone has been deployed in the Black Sea to help keep the grain flowing.

    • New York Times ☛ Under Pressure, Biden Allows Ukraine to Use U.S. Weapons to Strike Inside Russia

      White House officials said the president’s major policy shift extended only to what they characterized as acts of self-defense so that Ukraine could protect Kharkiv, its second-largest city.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukrainian Drone Strikes Target Russian Nuclear Radar Stations

      A radar facility more than 1,100 miles into Russia was damaged, satellite imagery showed. The attacks have drawn concern from U.S. officials.

    • New York Times ☛ Trump Is Guilty on All Counts

      Also, Biden will allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons in Russia. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.

    • New York Times ☛ Taking the Fight to Russia: The West Weighs Ukraine’s Use of Its Weapons

      More NATO allies are backing Kyiv’s pleas to allow its forces to conduct strikes in Russian territory with Western weapons.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Warns of Deepening Russian Threat in the North

      Analysts say an offensive in the Kharkiv or Sumy regions could stretch Ukrainian troops to the breaking point and allow Moscow to punch through.

    • Meduza ☛ In their own words, Kharkiv residents describe life under constant Russian bombardment

    • Meduza ☛ Kremlin spokesman blames West for ‘provoking’ Ukraine into continuing ‘senseless war’

    • JURIST ☛ EU Parliament probe: police raid targets suspected in alleged Russian interference operations ahead of elections

      Belgian Police conducted raids on Wednesday in an investigation into alleged Russian interference within the European Parliament, particularly focusing on accusations that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were paid to promote Russian propaganda via the Voice of Europe website.

    • LRT ☛ Four suspects in Lithuania‘s probe into Vičiūnai Group‘s exports to Russia

      Lithuania’s law enforcement authorities investigating the possible export of sanctioned goods to Russia by a company owned by Vičiūnai Group have identified four suspects, the LRT Investigation Team reports.

    • RFERL ☛ Leak Suggests Bulgarian PM Tried To Pull Support For Srebrenica Genocide Resolution At UN

      Leaked documents of a back-and-forth between Sofia and its UN envoy have sparked accusations that caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev succumbed to “external pressure” over a widely followed UN vote in an effort to appease neighboring Serbia or Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Large Fire Breaks Out In Eastern Moscow

      A large fire broke out early on May 30 in the eastern part of Moscow in a production building and a warehouse, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.

    • New York Times ☛ OpenAI Says Russia and China Used Its Hey Hi (AI) in Covert Campaigns

      Iran and an Israeli company also exploited the tools in online influence efforts, but none gained much traction, an Proprietary Chaffbot Company report said.

    • New York Times ☛ Europe Banned Russia’s RT Network. Its Content Is Still Spreading.

      A study found that hundreds of sites, many without obvious Kremlin links, copied Russian propaganda and spread it to unsuspecting audiences ahead of the E.U. election.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Panikoff quoted in The Independent on Russia using Iranian drones to bomb Ukranian civilians

    • JURIST ☛ Poland to further fortify border with Belarus after migrant stabs soldier

      Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday that Poland will further fortify its border with Belarus following an incident where a Polish soldier was injured by a migrant. “We will defend our border with all available means,” Donald Tusk said after the attack occurred.

    • LRT ☛ Minsk-linked Lithuanian company to produce passports for Belarusian opposition

      Garsų Pasaulis, a Lithuanian company that used to have links with an oligarch close to the Minsk regime, will produce alternative passports designed by the Belarusian opposition, the 15min news website reports on Thursday.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Rohan Kumar ☛ Takeaways from the Google Content Warehouse API documentation leak

    In March, the official Elixir client for Google APIs received an accidental commit for internal non-public APIs. The commit added support for Google’s Content Warehouse API, which includes Google’s 14,000+ search ranking factors. Oops! Some people noticed this after its redaction earlier this month, and the news broke on May 28. You can read through the Content Warehouse API reference on HexDocs. I skimmed through these and read some blog posts by others who looked more deeply.

    In particular, I referenced Secrets from the Algorithm: Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Has Leaked by Mike King. Note that Mike King’s article doubles as an advertisement for his company’s services and for the legitimacy of search engine optimization (SEO) companies in general. I don’t endorse that message. I disagree with some of its claims, and elaborate on them in the coming sections. That said, I found the article well-researched. It cross-references information against other leaks, too.

  • New Yorker ☛ Piecing Together the Secrets of the Stasi

    East Germans all seem to know a few stories like Genin’s. They tell them about their neighbors and co-workers and best friend’s cousins. They watch “The Lives of Others”—the 2006 film about a Stasi agent who spies on a playwright and his girlfriend—and shake their heads, saying, “They should have made it about my Tante Hilda.” The sheer number and surreal specificity of Stasi stories are proof of the agency’s insidious reach, of how deeply it infiltrated every corner of East German society. But they also show how thoroughly its secrets were later exposed. In January, 1992, the newly unified German government made almost the entire archive of Stasi reports available to the public: a hundred and eleven kilometres of files, divided into some nine thousand index headings, covering half a century of surveillance. It was the most radical release of state secrets in history: WikiLeaks on a vast scale.

    The Stasi files offer an astonishingly granular picture of life in a dictatorship—how ordinary people act under suspicious eyes. Nearly three hundred thousand East Germans were working for the Stasi by the time the Wall fell, in 1989, including some two hundred thousand inoffizielle Mitarbeiter, or unofficial collaborators, like Genin. In a population of sixteen million, that was one spy for every fifty to sixty people. In the years since the files were made public, their revelations have derailed political campaigns, tarnished artistic legacies, and exonerated countless citizens who were wrongly accused or imprisoned. Yet some of the files that the Stasi most wanted to hide were never released. In the weeks before the Wall fell, agents destroyed as many documents as they could. Many were pulped, shredded, or burned, and lost forever. But between forty and fifty-five million pages were just torn up, and later stuffed in paper sacks.

• Environment

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Environmentalists dodge wetlands threat, but larger floodplain development lurches ahead

    About half of New Boston Crossing’s site rests in the floodplain, but the company’s attorneys and consultants have sought to navigate through objections raised at the city, county and federal levels. The Wichita-based company’s idea has been to gain consent for fill-and-build construction on ground elevated by rock and soil to — hypothetically — rise above inevitable flooding. The elevation material would come from digging an 18-acre pond.

  • New York Times ☛ The Right Kind of Tipping Point

    For centuries, the burning of coal, oil and gas has produced huge volumes of planet-warming gasses. As a result, global temperatures rose by an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than at the dawn of the industrial age, and extreme weather is becoming more frequent.

    But we now appear to be living through the precise moment when the emissions that are responsible for climate change are starting to fall, according to new data by BloombergNEF, a research firm. This projection is in roughly in line with other estimates, including a recent report from Climate Analytics.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ GB News Gives Dozens of Appearances to UK’s Main Climate Denial Group

    • DeSmog ☛ Occidental Petroleum’s net-zero strategy is a ‘license to pollute,’ critics say

    • Nebraska Examiner ☛ 21 states join Biden administration in bid to modernize nation’s aging grid

      Twenty-one states are joining a push by the Biden administration to modernize America’s aging electric grid, which is under pressure from growing demand, severe weather and a changing power generation mix that includes lots of wind and solar.

      The administration, which has set a goal of a carbon-free power sector by 2035, announced Tuesday that the states had joined what it called the “Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative,” which is intended to “help drive grid adaptation quickly and cost-effectively to meet the challenges and opportunities that the power sector faces.”

    • David Rosenthal ☛ One Heck Of A Halvening

      The fundamental idea behind Bitcoin is that, if you restrict the supply of something, its price will rise. That is why the system arranges that there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin by halving the reward paid for mining the next block every 210,000 blocks (about every four years), an event called the "halvening" (or more recently just the halving). It is an article of faith among the crypto-bros that, after the halvening, the price will rise. For example: [...]

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian municipalities failing in felling and forest management

      Municipalities do not deal effectively with the forest resources under their possession, and by not properly managing forests, municipalities reduce the future value of the forest and the possibility to earn thousands of euros in revenue, according to a new report from the State Audit Office (Valsts Kontrole, VK).

  • Overpopulation

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Scientists predict high groundwater depletion risk in South Korea by 2080

      Groundwater forms when precipitation such as rain and snow seeps into the soil, replenishing rivers and lakes. This resource supplies drinking water. However, a recent study has alarmed the scientific community by predicting that approximately three million people in currently untapped areas of Korea could face groundwater depletion by 2080.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Former Intelligence Chief Tapped as Next Dutch Prime Minister

    Dick Schoof is poised to be the country’s first new leader in over 13 years. His selection came as a relative surprise, after more than six months of negotiations to form a governing coalition.

  • The Washington Post ☛ America’s best decade, according to data

    We did spot some peaks: When asked which decade had the most moral society, the happiest families or the closest-knit communities, White people and Republicans were about twice as likely as Black people and Democrats to point to the 1950s. The difference probably depends on whether you remember that particular decade for “Leave it to Beaver,” drive-in theaters and “12 Angry Men” — or the Red Scare, the murder of Emmett Till and massive resistance to school integration.

    “This was a time when Repubs were pretty much running the show and had reason to be happy,” pioneering nostalgia researcher Morris Holbrook told us via email. “Apparently, you could argue that nostalgia is colored by political preferences. Surprise, surprise.”

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Behold The Terrors of the Texas Republican Platform

    I have pulled out just a few notable parts of the 50-page platform below. In order to avoid this turning into a long ass Wikipedia-style entry, let me stipulate up front: The Texas Republicans love guns and hate gays and hate taxes and love Jesus and hate public schools and love oil and hate immigrants. I’m not writing a comprehensive survey here but you should understand that basically the entire national Republican platform is in here, sometimes in bitterly concentrated form. What makes the Texan Republicans stand out to me is how boldly open they are about their derangements, in a major state, where they do in fact wield total political control.

  • [Repeat] Michael Lynch ☛ I Sold TinyPilot, My First Successful Business

    When you sell a business at TinyPilot’s scale, there’s no deposit. You can invest hundreds of hours into preparing reports for due diligence, reveal all your confidential business secrets, and spend thousands of dollars negotiating legal documents and still walk away with nothing if the buyer backs out.

    As due diligence stretched on, my negotiating position became markedly weaker. Before signing the LOI, I could easily move on to the next buyer. By month two of due diligence, walking away from the deal meant restarting this costly and time-consuming process from zero. I’d also risk TinyPilot’s sales slipping after so many months being distracted from the business.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ EPA says it’s ‘on target’ to complete process for cybersecurity risk assessment

    The Environmental Protection Agency said it is “on target” to establish a process to conduct organization-wide cybersecurity risk assessments within the next six months, putting a hard timeline on its long-awaited response to a watchdog report critical of the agency’s cyber posture.

  • The Verge ☛ Elon Musk finally agrees to testify in the SEC’s Twitter investigation

    This means Musk will have to appear at one of the SEC’s offices for an up to five-hour interview. The document says Musk and the SEC have already agreed to a date, but it’s not disclosed “for confidentiality purposes.”

    In 2022, the SEC opened an investigation into Musk’s failure to properly disclose his stake in Twitter. But the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk last October after he refused to testify in the agency’s probe. The SEC claims Musk “abruptly notified the SEC staff that he would not appear” two days before his scheduled deposition and refused to testify at a later date. Earlier this year, the SEC accused Musk of trying to delay the investigation.

  • The Verge ☛ Microsoft needs Windows developers like never before

    It failed miserably. Developers didn’t flock to universal Windows apps, and Microsoft eventually abandoned its touch-friendly UI in favor of a more traditional desktop in Windows 10. The cross-platform dream of the Windows 8 era didn’t last very long.

  • The Nation ☛ Young People See “a Dying Empire” Because They’re Paying Attention

    Not surprisingly, a corollary belief stemming from this glum appraisal is that elections aren’t very consequential; 48 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “it doesn’t matter who wins elections, nothing changes,” with just 30 percent disagreeing. (A sizable cohort of 26 percent said they neither disagreed nor agreed, which still lands far short of a ringing endorsement of the prospect of reform through the ballot box.)

  • Semafor Inc ☛ ‘A dying empire led by bad people’: Poll finds young voters despairing over US politics | Semafor

    As part of the online poll of 943 18-30-year-old registered voters, Blueprint asked participants to respond to a series of questions about the American political system: 49% agreed to some extent that elections in the country don’t represent people like them; 51% agreed to some extent that the political system in the US “doesn’t work for people like me;” and 64% backed the statement that “America is in decline.” A whopping 65% agreed either strongly or somewhat that “nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power” — only 7% disagreed.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ Inside the anti-Biden ‘wildfire’ from TikTok influencers ahead of the election

      The larger group is less interested in politics but sees TikTok as their main source of news, entertainment, relationships and education around certain topics, said Darr, who shared his findings with the Los Angeles Times.

      A White House spokesperson notes that the bipartisan TikTok law had been in the works before the Israel-Hamas war started and said that the chief concern is over the Chinese government’s ability to access users’ sensitive data and to manipulate the company’s secret algorithms, which control what videos go viral.

    • Science Alert ☛ One Action Has Made a Significant Impact on How Misinformation Spreads Online

      There are two types of 'superspreaders' of online misinformation: the intentional and organized spreaders of falsehoods or misleading claims, and those who unwittingly share information they didn't know was false.

      We've seen some of the fatal consequences of their combined effect running rife during the COVID-19 pandemic, but have far less detail on how eyeing such misinformation on social media changes people's behavior, particularly around vaccination.

      Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania set out to connect the dots to show cause and effect, analyzing the impact of more than 13,000 headlines on vaccination intentions among roughly 233 million US-based Facebook users – a pool equivalent to nearly 70 percent of the country's population.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Reason ☛ $1.1M Libel Award to Drag Performer Who Had Been Accused of Exposing Himself

    From the Couer D'Alene/Post Falls Press (Kaye Thornbrugh) yesterday: The jury found that blogger Summer Bushnell defamed Post Falls resident Eric Posey when she accused him of exposing himself to the crowd while he performed in drag at the Coeur d'Alene City Park bandshell in June 2022….

  • RFA ☛ Police probe singer for video showing South Vietnamese flag

    The tiny flag appeared in the background of a house in the US, but online critics bashed her.

  • Reason ☛ The Alito Flag Flap, Snyder v. Phelps, and Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire

    The latest reporting from the New York Times intersections with Free Speech cases.

  • JURIST ☛ Digital rights and civil society groups urge YouTube and Google to resist Russia censorship

    Digital rights group Access Now, alongside over 20 Russian and international civil society organizations, sent an open letter on Tuesday to YouTube and its parent company Google calling on them to cease aiding the Kremlin in censoring independent media and human rights organizations in Russia. The letter, entitled “Open letter to YouTube and Google: Stop helping Roskomnadzor censor Runet,” demands that YouTube and Google assess all blocking orders against international human rights standards and challenge any that unduly restrict access to protected expression.

  • Variety ☛ Trump Hits 'The Apprentice' Movie With Cease and Desist Letter

    The movie, which was independently produced, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn. It presents a damning portrait of the former president as an ethically compromised, philanderer who stiffs contractors and cuts deals with the mob to get his buildings completed. It includes other controversial details, including a scene where Trump rapes his first wife, Ivana, and depicts him abusing amphetamines to lose weight, as well as undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Independent UK news publishers see falls in revenue, audience and staff

    Non-profits have seen a dramatic fall in revenue since last year, according to 2024's annual PINF index.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Memberships making up 40% of revenue for South Africa’s Daily Maverick

    The publisher has 30,000 active members and is pleased with a churn rate of 4.65%.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Evening Standard set to go from daily to weekly print edition

    Standard journalists are to be consulted on "any impact on staffing".

  • The Dissenter ☛ Newspaper In Kansas That Faced Illegal Police Raid Backs National Reporter's Shield Law

  • [Repeat] Reason ☛ This Journalist Was Arrested, Strip-Searched, and Jailed for Filming Police. Will He Get Justice?

    The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office (FBSCO) has allegedly been vexed by his audacity. In July 2021, Pulliam was expelled by police from a press conference because they alleged he did not qualify as media, and in December of that same year, he was arrested for videoing police at a mental health call, despite that he had stationed himself about 130 feet away from the interaction. Officer Taylor Rollins demanded Pulliam move back even further, and he obliged, although he continued to film the deputy speaking to other bystanders at the scene (none of whom were arrested).

    That didn't end well for Pulliam, who was charged with interfering with police duties. (According to his complaint, Officer Ricky Rodriguez, who assisted with the arrest, told another cop at the jail that the ordeal would teach Pulliam a lesson "for fucking with us.") In April 2023, a jury was not able to reach a verdict in the case, with five jurors wanting to acquit and one urging to convict. It took law enforcement more than a year to decide not to pursue the case further.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Register UK ☛ IT worker sued over ‘vengeful’ cyber harassment of policeman

    In an ongoing civil lawsuit, an IT worker is accused of launching a "destructive cyber campaign of hate and revenge" against a police officer and his family after being issued a ticket for jaywalking.

    The allegations against John Christopher Spatafore – who at the time worked for the US city of Fresno's Community Hospitals of Regional Central California (CHCC) – are broad. They include digital harassment, sextortion, invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress, and defamation against the unidentified officer's family. The family is seeking $16.5 million in damages and fees.

  • TMZ ☛ Trump Accused of Saying N-Word on Season 1 of 'Apprentice' About Black Contestant

    Rumblings about Donald Trump allegedly saying the n-word have circulated for years -- but now, an ex-producer on "The Apprentice" is definitively claiming ... yeah, he said it.

  • EDRI ☛ Be scanned - or get banned!

    Belgium – currently holding the unenviable role of trying to broker a compromise between European Union (EU) Member States – claimed earlier this year that they had found a “more proportionate” way forward on this controversial law. Governments of countries including Germany, Austria, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Estonia and Finland have reportedly raised concerns throughout the process. However, they are now under even more extreme pressure to reach a Council deal on the CSA Regulation, even if they have to give up on digital rights and technical reality in the process.

    Now, a proposed Council text dated 28 May (9093/24) reveals a harshly different reality from Belgium’s promise of a human rights-respecting CSA Regulation. This new draft text carries over the many issues we’ve recently warned about (such as a shocking misunderstanding of statistics when images are wrongly flagged, a failure to respect vital end-to-end encryption, and a risk categorisation methodology that punishes secure and privacy-respecting services whilst rewarding those that systematically violate people’s privacy). It also adds two new major problems in addition:

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ [Podcast] We don’t need subnets any more

    Nets and subnets — do we actually need the idea of a subnet in the IP addressing architecture?

  • APNIC ☛ The LUCI project — connecting the remote Chini Lake area, Malaysia

    Guest Post: Hybrid LoRaWAN technology brings Internet access to Orang Asli villages.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Barry Sampson ☛ Value For Money?

  I know that a lot of people don't understand why, but I'm still really annoyed about the iPad Pro advert where they crushed a bunch of creative tools. In the advert, towards the left was something that most people probably wouldn't recognise - a brown rectangle, on which there's a black disc, with a smaller white rectangle inside it. That is a traditional animation disc.

  And that got me thinking. Do I want to give £2,000 to the richest company on the planet for a piece of technology that will last maybe five years, and at best always be a shallow imitation of the real world? Or do I want to give £900 to a small business for a piece of hardware that should outlast me?

  What would you do?

• 404 Media ☛ The Monopoly Case Against Ticketmaster, Explained

  The key thing you need to know about this 124-page lawsuit, and about Live Nation as an entity, is what this vertical integration means for anyone touching the live music industry and anyone who wants to see a concert anywhere in the U.S. The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed last week, paints a vivid picture of this vertically-integrated monopoly and explains all of the harms it has led to.

  In simple terms, Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, is not just selling fans tickets on Ticketmaster.com. It owns, operates, or has exclusive contracts with the vast majority of midsized and large concert venues, and a supermajority of all outdoor pavilions and amphitheaters. And it has a concert promotion and artist agent arm, meaning major bands and artists are signed to Live Nation promoters. For all but the smallest bands playing tiny indie venues, it is nearly impossible to book and perform a tour in the United States without touching Live Nation or Ticketmaster at some point. And this omnipresence over the whole industry means that Live Nation has a huge amount of control and power over how much bands are paid, how much tickets cost, and which venues they play at.

• Silicon Angle ☛ ShinyHunters lists 560M stolen Ticketmaster user records for sale following BreachForums resurgence

  The post on BreachForums claims that the data includes names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, ticket sale information, event information and order details. In addition, ShinyHunters claims to have credit card details but only the last four numbers of cards and expiration dates.

  The full stolen database is being offered for sale by ShinyHunters for $500,000.

• Digital Music News ☛ Ticketmaster Hack Reportedly Compromises 560 Million Accounts

  Stemming the tide of related criticism could prove a different story. Justified or not, the Eras Tour pre-sale fiasco spurred all manner of customer qualms, which then translated into, among other things, enhanced scrutiny from federal lawmakers. On social media, many are already weighing in on the reported Ticketmaster hack.

• Copyrights

  • Press Gazette ☛ Media manifestos 2024: Publishers urge action to control generative AI

    News Media Association sets out policy priorities for next UK government.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Court Denies Filmmakers' Renewed Attempt to Get Redditors' IP Addresses

    Reddit is not required to hand over to filmmakers the IP-addresses of several Redditors who made piracy-related comments. A California federal court denied the filmmakers' request for a 'de novo' review, after turning down their initial request in February. While this is bad news for the movie companies, a viable alternative appeared recently.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ FBI Carries Out Fresh Round of Z-Library Domain Name Seizures

    The U.S. Government's crackdown against Z-Library continues. The FBI just carried out a new round of seizures affecting several of the site's key domain names, including Z-Library.se. These efforts have also taken out the shadow library's main email domain but, thus far, its servers appear to be unaffected.