Leftovers

• The Irregulators ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] Security Issues With Used Panties Marketplace

• Hackaday ☛ Adding Texture To 3D Prints

  [3DJake] likes putting textures on 3D prints using things like patterned build plates and fuzzy skin. However, both of those techniques have limitations. The build plate only lets you texture the bottom, and the fuzzy skin texture isn’t easy to control. So he shows how to use Blender to create specific textures to produce things like wood-like or leather-like surfaces, for example. You can see how it works in the video below.

• Gabriel ☛ Type and Publish?

  I don't keep a list of topic ideas, I probably should. Many times I find myself asking; what was that thing I wanted to write about? I think my problem is not having a central place where to keep those ideas. In Reminders, maybe?

• Austin Kleon ☛ Edge indexes - Austin Kleon

• Ars Technica ☛ From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction

  "You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building."

  That simple sentence first appeared on a PDP-10 mainframe in the 1970s, and the words marked the beginning of what we now know as interactive fiction.

  From the bare-bones text adventures of the 1980s to the heartfelt hypertext works of Twine creators, interactive fiction is an art form that continues to inspire a loyal audience. The community for interactive fiction, or IF, attracts readers and players alongside developers and creators. It champions an open source ethos and a punk-like individuality.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ First Hubble Image Taken In New Single Gyro Pointing Mode

    After Space Shuttle Atlantis’ drive-by repair of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in May of 2009, the end of the STS program meant that the space telescope had to fend for itself with no prospect for any further repair missions. The weakest point turned out to be the gyroscopes, with of the original six only three functioning until May 24th of 2024 when one failed and couldn’t be reset any more. To make the most out of the HST’s remaining lifespan, NASA decided to transition again to single-gyroscope operation, with the most recent imaging results showing that this enables HST to return to its science mission.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Watch SLS 3D Printed Parts Become Printed Circuits

    [Ben Krasnow] of the Applied Science channel recently released a video demonstrating his process for getting copper-plated traces reliably embedded into sintered nylon powder (SLS) 3D printed parts, and shows off a variety of small test boards with traces for functional circuits embedded directly into them.

  • Hackaday ☛ Ask Hackaday: How Do You Make Front Panels?

    We’ll admit it. The closer a project is to completion, the less enthusiasm we have for it. Once the main design is clearly going to work on a breadboard, we’re ready to move on to the next one. We don’t mind the PCB layout, especially with modern tools. However, once the board is done, you have to do the case. Paradoxically, this was easier in the old days because you just picked some stock box, drilled some holes, and while it looked terrible, it was relatively easy.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Wired ☛ Potatoes Are the Perfect Vegetable—but You’re Eating Them Wrong

    That reclassification may have failed, but the potato has had a spectacular fall from grace. Once this miraculous nutrient-dense vegetable was the fuel of human civilization. Now the spud in the US has become synonymous with a garbage, industrialized food system that pours profits into a handful of companies at the expense of people’s health.

    America’s favorite vegetable is facing a Sophie’s Choice moment. Should we accept that fresh spuds have lost the fight against the tide of fries, hash browns, and waffles, or is there hope for a potato renaissance? Can the humble spud achieve the rehabilitation it deserves?

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Social media among many barriers to bringing back a draft, report says

    Alongside cultural obstacles are practical ones. The report also found the military services would likely need to relax military entry standards to accommodate a conscripted force of young people who largely don’t meet fitness, education, and mental health standards.

  • University of Michigan ☛ A TikTok ban is a step toward a healthier generation

    With the consequences of constant social media usage only now becoming clear, the government’s efforts to regulate and control the field make sense. While they have long promised to create a more connected world, social media platforms like TikTok have actually created the opposite. People now feel more isolated than ever before, and this lack of social interaction has created a generation with the highest rates of social anxiety in history. While these apps may be social in nature, many fear that high amounts of screen time have created a generation of individuals incapable of in-person interactions, confrontations and relationships.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Ohio helps make Michigan No. 1 in weed sales — but perhaps not for long

    “Usually it takes 18 to 24 months just to start off a program … and get something up and running,” said Beau Whitney, chief economist for the National Industrial Hemp Council of America.

    That gives Michigan’s retailers — and the municipalities getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in marijuana tax money — some time before they face substantial competition.

  • The Hill ☛ Couples need IVF now more than ever. We should be asking why.

    Lost in the debate is the question of why couples increasingly need fertility assistance at all.

    While multiple factors drive infertility rates — including couples choosing to delay having children while they build their careers, only to find it’s more difficult to conceive at an older age — evidence is building that the introduction of manmade chemicals into the environment has played a role.

    Over several decades, research has emerged confirming that exposure to manmade chemicals in the environment accelerates ovarian aging, contributing to infertility and earlier onset of menopause.

  • New York Times ☛ It’s Time to Ban Pharmaceutical Advertising

    There are too many drug ads on social control media to ever regulate them properly, and ads drive up prescription costs.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] We bring dengue to Europe, local mosquitos do the rest

  • Democracy Now ☛ Pentagon Ran a Secret Anti-Vax Campaign to Undermine China at the Height of the Pandemic: Reuters

    The U.S. military ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign at the height of the pandemic in the Philippines and other nations to sow doubt about COVID vaccines made by China, according to a new investigation by Reuters. The clandestine Pentagon campaign, which began in 2020 under Donald Trump and continued into mid-2021 after Joe Biden took office, relied on fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to target local populations in Southeast Asia and beyond. The campaign also aimed to discredit masks and test kits made in China. “Within the Pentagon, within Washington, there was this fear that they were going to lose the Philippines” to Chinese influence, says Joel Schectman, one of the reporters who broke the story. Schectman says that while it’s impossible to measure the impact of the propaganda effort, it came at a time when the Chinese-made Sinovac shot was the only one available in the Philippines, making distrust of the vaccine “incredibly harmful.”

  • Pro Publica ☛ CT, MA, WA Warn Against Sending Autistic Students to Shrub Oak International School

    Two more states are now scrutinizing a New York boarding school for autistic students and have warned school districts about troubling conditions there.

    In Connecticut, education officials visited Shrub Oak International School and alerted districts that a state watchdog group determined there were ongoing “serious safety concerns” at the unregulated for-profit private school. Separately, the state’s Department of Developmental Services, which serves residents with intellectual disabilities and autism, has decided to stop sending more students there, an agency spokesperson told ProPublica. That agency described the facility as looking “more akin to a penal institution than an educational campus.”

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] US: Supreme Court maintains access to abortion pill

  • Hackaday ☛ Can You Freeze-Dry Strawberries Without A Machine?

    Summer has settled upon the northern hemisphere, which means that it’s time for sweet, sweet strawberries to be cheap and plentiful. But would you believe they taste even better in freeze-dried format? I wouldn’t have ever known until I happened to get on a health kick and was looking for new things to eat. I’m not sure I could have picked a more expensive snack, but that’s why we’re here — I wanted to start freeze-drying my own strawberries.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Microsoft and Bethesda Offer Refunds to Redfall Players for Unreleased Content

    The studio's final title can now be officially considered a failure following the shutdown of Arkane Austin. Microsoft is offering full refunds to buyers of Redfall in the Bite Back edition, which is especially noteworthy. This happens automatically on Xbox Series X/S (via Jez Corden on X), but Bethesda also grants refunds on PCs, although it takes more time.

  • Mike Rockwell ☛ OpenAI Adds Former NSA Director to Its Board

    I plan to disable as much of the Apple Intelligence features as I possible can. Not just because of potential privacy implications, but also because I find the entire category to be of questionable usefulness.

  • New York Times ☛ ShotSpotter Alerts Waste NYPD Officers’ Time, Audit Says

    ShotSpotter, a system the Police Department uses to detect gunfire, is overwhelmingly inaccurate and leads officers to spend hundreds of hours each month investigating nonexistent shots, according to an audit the New York City comptroller released Thursday.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Netzpolitik ☛ Victory, for now: No Majority on Chat Control for Belgium

      There will be no EU Council decision on chat control today. The Belgian Council Presidency did not think it could achieve a majority and has taken the point off the agenda. This was confirmed to netzpolitik.org by the Council Presidency and member states. The delegates of the EU member states were supposed to agree on a common proposal this afternoon.

      The point has instead been tabled until further notice. The responsible Committee of Permanent Representatives convenes every week, but Belgium will almost certainly not be able to get a majority next week. From July 1 onwards, Hungary will take over the Council Presidency from Belgium. Hungary has already stated in the programme of its presidency that it will continue the negotiations on chat control.

    • Reclaim The Net ☛ OpenAI Adds Former NSA Director To Its Board

      The inclusion of Nakasone on OpenAI’s board is a decision that warrants a critical examination and will likely raise eyebrows. Nakasone’s extensive background in cybersecurity, including his leadership roles in the US Cyber Command and the Central Security Service, undoubtedly brings a wealth of experience and expertise to OpenAI. However, his association with the NSA, an agency often scrutinized for its surveillance practices and controversial data collection methods, raises important questions about the implications of such an appointment as the company’s product ChatGPT is, through a deal with Apple, about to be available on every iPhone. The company is also already tightly integrated into Microsoft software.

    • New Yorker ☛ Apple Is Bringing A.I. to Your Personal Life, Like It or Not

      Apple is confident that its access to all of your day-to-day information—where you travel, what you read, whom you talk to and when—will allow its A.I. tools to be more dynamic and more useful than OpenAI’s ChatGPT (which, for all its alarming powers, still operates out of a contained prompt window). “It has to understand you and be grounded in your personal context, like your routine, your relationships, and more,” Cook said during the event. Siri, Apple’s voice assistant on the iPhone since 2011, can understand what you say (most of the time), set alarms, and check the weather. But Apple Intelligence, which performs like a turbocharged Siri, is more of a ghost in the machine, animating the functions of your phone. The A.I. community calls this sort of tool an “agent.” Let your A.I. agent access all of your contacts, texts, and calendars, and it will competently plan your life. Apple presented, as an example, asking the tool, “Play the podcast my wife sent the other day.” Having a machine that can decode such vague references seems quite convenient, but consider that it also requires the phone to understand who your wife is and to rifle through your conversations with her.

    • Reason ☛ Judge Tosses Biometric Data Suit Against X

      X's child porn detection system doesn’t violate an Illinois biometric privacy law, the judge ruled.

    • EFF ☛ Police are Using Drones More and Spending More For Them

      Since 2020, the state of Minnesota has been obligated to put out a yearly report documenting every time and reason law enforcement agencies in the state — local, county, or state-wide — used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, without a warrant. This is partly because Minnesota law requires a warrant for law enforcement to use drones except for specific situations listed in the statute. The State Court Administrator is also required to provide a public report of the number of warrants issued for the use of UAVs, and the data gathered by them. These regular reports give us a glimpse into how police are actually using these devices and how often. As more and more police departments around the country use drones or experiment with drones as first responders, it offers an example of how transparency around drone adoption can be done.

      You can read our blog about the 2021 Minnesota report here.

      According to EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance, 130 of Minnesota’s 408 law enforcement agencies have drones. Of the Minnesota agencies known to have drones prior to this month’s report, 29 of them did not provide the BCA with 2023 use and cost data.

    • EFF ☛ Opposing a Global Surveillance Disaster | EFFector 36.8

      As we reach the end of our road trip, know that you can stay up-to-date on these issues with our EFFector newslettter! You can read the full issue here, or subscribe to get the next one in your inbox automatically! You can also listen to the audio version of the newsletter on the Internet Archive, or by clicking the button below:

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

      • Idiomdrottning ☛ The Dumbphone Experience

        For the actual phone part of the phone I’m still on my dumbphone, but the tablet means that I’m never more than 3 cm away from what’s pretty much indistinguishable from the smartphone experience I thought I had left behind.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] German police raids drug gang with extremist links

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Sudan: UN Security Council demands end to Darfur crisis

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] China's Premier Li Is Visiting New Zealand, Where Security Fears Vie With Trade Hopes on the Agenda

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] UN Security Council Demands Halt to Siege of Sudan City of 1.8 Million People

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] UN Security Council to Vote on Demand for Halt to Siege of Sudanese City

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] Mnangagwa Considers Zambia as a Security Threat in Southern Africa

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Eyeing Showdown With Hezbollah, Israel Presses Shadow Campaign in Syria

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Kentucky Man Convicted of Training With Islamic State Group in Syria

  • ANF News ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Confessions of two ISIS terrorists involved in numerous killings and terrorist acts

  • Project Censored ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] The Apache Stronghold & Euphemizing Genocide

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ How underwater drones could shape a potential Taiwan-China conflict

    The report’s authors detail a number of ways that use of drones in any South China Sea conflict would differ starkly from current practices, most notably in the war in Ukraine, often called the first full-scale drone war.

  • Center for a New American Security ☛ Swarms over the Strait

    Drones have transformed battlefields in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ukraine, but in a companion report, Evolution Not Revolution: Drone Warfare in Russia’s 2022 Invasion of Ukraine, Stacie Pettyjohn finds that today’s drones have not yet revolutionized warfare and only present an evolution to existing ways of fighting. This report details the ways that drones have proliferated and impacted warfare in recent conflicts, with an eye toward their likely effect on a potential future American effort to defeat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The authors identify a range of ways that drones could be employed in this scenario to execute key missions for the United States, Taiwan, and China, and find that all parties could make extensive use of drones to rapidly close kill chains.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ US bans Russian antivirus software maker Kaspersky over national security concerns

    The reason behind the ban is not surprising: national security. The Commerce Department claims that the decision, made after a lengthy investigation, found that Kaspersky’s continued operations in the U.S. presented a national security risk given the Russian government’s offensive cyber capabilities and its capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky’s operations, the latter of which cannot be addressed through mitigation methods.

  • The Record ☛ US to ban Kaspersky Lab software nationwide later this year

    The Biden administration announced on Thursday it would ban the use of software from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab within the U.S., citing long-standing national security and data privacy concerns and a push to better protect critical infrastructure.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Biden administration bans sale of Kaspersky software in US 

    The Commerce Department will ban the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs from selling its software to U.S. consumers, the latest move by the Biden administration to curtail the Russian company’s operations in the United States.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Women could be added to military draft

    The idea of adding women to the draft, should one ever be enacted, has bounced around the halls of Congress many times with support from both political parties but never enough votes to become law. It’s unclear if this year’s attempt will gain enough support to pass.

  • The Hill ☛ TikTok files legal brief challenging US ban 

    TikTok and its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, filed the lawsuit last month against the U.S. government shortly after President Biden signed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act. In their first legal briefs, TikTok’s lawyers argued that the law is “unprecedented” and violates the First Amendment.

  • The Hill ☛ Fossil fuel consumption, emissions hit all-time highs: Research

    Global fossil fuel consumption also reached a record high, increasing 1.5 percent largely due to coal and oil, even though the share of fossil fuel in the overall energy mix marginally decreased.

    Overall energy emissions increased by 2 percent last year, exceeding 40 gigatonnes of CO2 for the first time, the report said.

  • New York Times ☛ Is Hamas Bound by International Law? What to Know.

    The armed Islamist group committed war crimes on Oct. 7, experts say, and continues to do so by holding hostages.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • The Age AU ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] This man fought on the front lines in Ukraine. Now he is preparing Taiwanese civilians for war with China

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Italian Premier Meloni Describes Putin's Cease-Fire Offer for Ukraine as 'Propaganda'

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] World leaders meet for Ukraine peace summit

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] EU agrees on starting membership talks with Ukraine, Moldova

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Ukraine updates: World leaders attend Swiss peace summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] The US Supports 'A Just and Lasting Peace' for Ukraine, Harris Tells Zelenskyy at Swiss Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Italy PM Says EU States Won't Be Directly Involved in G7 Ukraine Loan

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] US VP Harris Announces $1.5 Billion in Ukraine Aid at Switzerland Peace Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] World Leaders Join Ukraine Summit in Test of Kyiv's Diplomatic Clout

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] US Senator Says Ukraine Is ‘Gold Mine’ with $12 Trillion of Minerals ‘We Can’t Afford to Lose’

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Putin: Peace if Ukraine stops NATO plans, gives up regions

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Ukraine peace summit: Which Southeast Asian nations are going?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Soccer-Ukraine Players, in Video, Remind World of Wartime Hardship, Destruction

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] EU Agrees on Start of Accession Talks With Ukraine, Moldova

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] “Grain from Ukraine”: A humanitarian success the world must support

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] G7 summit: Biden to sign new security deal with Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Troubled G7 Leaders Focus on Ukraine War, China in Italian Summit

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Biden, Zelenskiy Inch Toward NATO With 10-Year Defense Agreement

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Ukraine updates: Fatal daytime strike on Zelenskyy hometown

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] UK's Sunak to Announce About $310 Million Ukraine Aid in G7 Summit

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] Ukraine Needs $10-30 Billion in investment Annually for Next Decade

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] Ukraine's museums plan their postwar future

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] Ukraine: Zelenskyy says Kyiv will end war on 'own terms'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] US Clears Way for Ukrainian Military Unit to Use American Weapons

    • Vox ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] We’re in a new era of conflict and crisis. Can humanitarian aid keep up?

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Can Zelenskyy’s Swiss Summit bring peace for Ukraine?

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Macron Says France Working To ‘Finalize’ Plan To Send Troops to Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Switzerland Flags Cyberattacks, Disinformation Ahead of Ukraine Summit

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Never Forget That Donald Trump Snookered His Own Voters To Pass Ukraine Funding

    • Meduza ☛ ‘They couldn’t break them’: Ukrainian photographer Kostiantyn Liberov captures the brutal physical toll of Russian captivity — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Putin and Kim Jong Un’s mutual defense pact uses language nearly identical to the USSR’s 1961 treaty with North Korea — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Juggling priorities: Ukraine is counterattacking near Kharkiv, but insufficient manpower leaves other regions vulnerable to Russia’s ongoing offensive — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Democracy Now ☛ Meet Nadia Milleron: Her Daughter Was Killed in 2019 Boeing Crash, Now She’s Running for Congress

    Boeing CEO David Calhoun appeared before a Senate committee on Tuesday to face questions about the aerospace giant’s safety record, just hours after the release of a damning report on Boeing’s business practices. Released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the report found that the company lost track of hundreds of substandard aircraft parts, eliminated quality inspectors and put manufacturing workers in charge of signing off on their own work. We speak with Nadia Milleron, an aviation safety advocate, whose daughter Samya Stumo was killed on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019 when a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed due to the plane’s malfunctioning software that put the plane into a nosedive. She attended Tuesday’s hearing and is also running for Congress in Massachusetts. “Why is Dave Calhoun paid $32 million? He’s paid that money to cut costs. That’s what he’s good at. He’s not good at production. He’s not an engineer. He’s paid to strip-mine the company,” says Milleron, who signed a letter along with other families of Boeing crash victims calling on the Justice Department to consider criminal prosecutions against company leadership. “They need to clean house.”

• Environment

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Hidden Environmental Impact of AI

    Each time you search for something like “how many rocks should I eat” and Google’s AI “snapshot” tells you “at least one small rock per day,” you’re consuming approximately three watt-hours of electricity, according to Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, a research company exploring the unintended consequences of digital trends. That’s ten times the power consumption of a traditional Google search, and roughly equivalent to the amount of power used when talking for an hour on a home phone. (Remember those?)

    Collectively, De Vries calculates that adding AI-generated answers to all Google searches could easily consume as much electricity as the country of Ireland.

  • New York Times ☛ The Weatherman Who Tried to Bring Climate Science to a Red State

    It was a smaller market, and talk of global warming would be challenging in a politically conservative state. But research from 2020 showed that most Iowans were interested in news about climate change, and the state was a leader in wind energy. Mr. Gloninger’s weather forecasts could be a breakthrough.

  • Vox ☛ What’s a wild bat worth to you? This economist is asking.

    In a paper of hers, published in 2022, she and Dale Manning, another researcher, estimated the financial losses to farmers of a wildlife disease called white-nose syndrome that has been wiping out bats across the US. By detailing the extent of those losses in dollars, the authors make a strong case for spending money on protecting bats against the disease.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Papuan Tribe, Palm Oil Firms Battle for Land Rights in Indonesian Top Court

    At stake in three cases being decided by the court is the fate of nearly 115,000 hectares of forest, part of the single largest, collective palm oil bloc in the world's largest palm oil exporter, Indonesia.

    Located in Papua's Boven Digoel, the 270,000-hectare bloc is divided into seven concessions, three of which are now legally contested.

    The court decision, which lawyers expect this month, will set an important precedent in a country that has pledged to both protect a $30 billion export industry, and improve governance amid allegations of deforestation and human rights violations.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Greece: Heat forces Acropolis closure for 2nd straight day

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Azerbaijan: Repressive climate ahead of COP29

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] The Tough Task of Forging a Labor-Climate Alliance

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Governors Need to Do More to Protect Their Low-Income Residents from Climate Change, Especially in the South

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Biden’s Border Restriction Are Stranding Climate Migrants in Extreme Heat

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Environmentalists Urge US to Plan 'Phasedown' of Alaska's Key Oil Pipeline Amid Climate Concerns

  • 2024-06-10 [Older] More action is needed say Greens as scientists raise the alarm on climate crisis

  • CBC ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Shannon Phillips targeted climate and parks action. Then she got targeted. The NDPer is now leaving office

  • CBC ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Can a diet that's good for the planet reduce your risk of dying from disease?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Supreme Court Seeks US Government Views on Honolulu Climate Suit Against Oil Companies

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Mexico Elected a Climate Scientist. But Will She Be a Climate President?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Explainer-From Trade to Climate, Five Takeaways From the EU Election

  • DeSmog ☛ Pathways Alliance Website Scrubbed Ahead of New Greenwashing Law

  • DeSmog ☛ Labour Candidate Maintains Ties to Climate Denial Group Despite ‘Conspiracy’ Claims

  • Pro Publica ☛ The Delusion of Advanced Plastic Recycling Using Pyrolysis

    Last year, I became obsessed with a plastic cup.

    It was a small container that held diced fruit, the type thrown into lunch boxes. And it was the first product I’d seen born of what’s being touted as a cure for a crisis.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Navigating the Energy Transition: Renewables Abound, but Grid Challenges Loom

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-09 [Older] Pathways Towards Africa’s Energy Security

    • CBC ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] Solar co-ops help more people get a piece of the sun's energy

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Nuclear is already playing a big role in clean energy delivery

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-14 [Older] Countries With the Most Wind Energy Capacity

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Duke Energy Power Equipment in Durham Found Damaged From Gunfire After Power Outage, Police Say

    • Kev Quirk ☛ Did Switching to an EV Save Me Money?

      So in short I've saved a shit tonne of money switching to an EV. Next month (July) I'm going to charge the MG only at home to give me a better idea of what it would cost if I didn't have the ability to charge at work. I think that will be an interesting comparison for people who don't have that ability.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Scotland's capercaillie population offered extinction lifeline

      The research, newly published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows this sort of diversionary feeding could be a significant contributor to saving the capercaillie from extinction. As a result of the study, it is already being rolled out by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), the RSPB Scotland and other partners in Deeside.

  • Overpopulation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-13 [Older] Record 120 million people displaced globally in 2024 — UN report

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ China eyes trade war targets across Europe for counterstrikes

    China looks to be readying actions to punish the EU for its proposed tariffs on electric cars.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ DOJ charges 24 in Sinaloa Cartel money laundering conspiracy

    The U.S. said 24 people are part of a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy linking the Sinaloa Cartel to illicit banking in China.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok’s US-Based ‘Music Content Investment Team’ Is Suddenly Beefing Up — With an Eye Towards ‘Acquiring and Managing Music Content’

    TikTok looks to acquire and manage music content as it starts beefing up its Music Content Investment Team, even in the face of a potential US ban.

  • Democracy Now ☛ First Illinois Latina Rep. Praises Biden’s New Immigration Executive Order But Slams Border Shutdown

    President Joe Biden’s latest executive order on immigration gives legal protections to about half a million undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens, preventing their deportation and providing a streamlined pathway to citizenship for them and their children. The announcement is being welcomed by immigrant rights groups, but comes just weeks after Biden signed another order giving himself far-reaching power to shut down the U.S. border with Mexico to limit asylum requests. The two executive orders “could not be more different from each other,” says Congressmember Delia Ramirez of Illinois. She attended Tuesday’s White House ceremony with her husband Boris Hernández, who came to the U.S. as a teenager and would qualify for protections under the new rule, and says Biden must offer an alternative to hard-line Republican policies. “Be the administration that shows the stark difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden as it pertains to immigration. Tuesday was a good step in that direction. What he did two-and-a-half weeks ago was not,” says Ramirez.

  • Digital Music News ☛ What Is Whee? A Look at ByteDance’s Instagram Clone for Outside the United States

    ByteDance isn’t resting on its laurels as the fight with the United States government over TikTok’s status here heats up. To that end, the Chinese company has launched ‘Whee,’ which appears to be an Instagram clone that is only available outside the U.S. for now.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ DHS releases critical infrastructure priorities for next two years

    “From the banking system to the electric grid, from health care to our nation’s water systems and more, we depend on the reliable functioning of our critical infrastructure as a matter of national security, economic security, and public safety,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. “The threats facing our critical infrastructure demand a whole of society response and the priorities set forth in this memo will guide that work.”

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ How to design a tech regulation

    It's not your imagination: tech really is underregulated. There are plenty of avoidable harms that tech visits upon the world, and while some of these harms are mere negligence, others are self-serving, creating shareholder value and widespread public destruction.

  • Anil Dash ☛ Systems: What does a board of directors do?

    Nearly every organization that is designed to have impact has a board of directors, whether that's a small non-profit, or a giant corporation, or anything in between. But having served on a number of boards across that entire range of institutions, I realize that most people who've never been in the boardroom have a lot of questions (and often, anxieties) about what happens on a board, so I wanted to share a very subjective view of what I've seen and learned over the years.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Pornhub intends to ban Nebraska users after passage of LB 1092 • Nebraska Examiner

    The company blames a new Nebraska state law requiring it to check the IDs of people using its site or hire another company to do so. Pornhub says it won’t assume that risk to its viewers.

    Users of the adult video repository with Nebraska Internet protocol addresses are receiving warning messages saying they will lose access to the site on July 15.

    That’s when Legislative Bill 1092, introduced by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, goes into effect. The legislation requires online porn companies to verify users’ ages.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • JURIST ☛ Malaysia court dismisses bar council constitutional challenge to ‘fake news’ emergency proclamation

      Malaysia’s Federal Court on Wednesday dismissed the Malaysian Bar’s bid to appeal a government emergency proclamation over fake news amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    • The Hill ☛ White House combats 'cheap fake' videos targeting Biden's fitness

      The rise of the videos, which do not use artificial intelligence (AI) but are cropped or edited in a way that is misleading, marks the latest instance of how technology may be used deceptively during the 2024 campaign.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Krebs On Security ☛ KrebsOnSecurity Threatened with Defamation Lawsuit Over Fake Radaris CEO

    On March 8, 2024, KrebsOnSecurity published a deep dive on the consumer data broker Radaris, showing how the original owners are two men in Massachusetts who operated multiple Russian language dating services and affiliate programs, in addition to a dizzying array of people-search websites. The subjects of that piece are threatening to sue KrebsOnSecurity for defamation unless the story is retracted. Meanwhile, their attorney has admitted that the person Radaris named as the CEO from its inception is a fabricated identity.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Trump's Lawyers Say Hush Money Gag Order Stifles Campaign Speech

  • CBC ☛ 2024-06-11 [Older] RCMP official calls for debate on hate speech law after probe of imam ends without charges

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Censorship, Free Speech, Carol Christ & Mario Savio

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Latvia ☛ Google to launch 'News Showcase' in Baltic states

    Google is to launch Surveillance Giant Google News Showcase, a new online news experience and licensing program in the Baltic States drawing on local media in Latvia, Google's communications consultant told LSM.lv.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] Amsterdam court sentences murderers of journalist De Vries

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • JURIST ☛ ICJ announces 31 written statements filed in right to strike case

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced in a press release on Tuesday that 31 written statements have been filed concerning whether workers have a right to strike under a key International Labor Organization convention.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “Another Wasted Life”: Rhiannon Giddens on How Death of Kalief Browder Inspired New Song

    “Another Wasted Life.” That’s the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens. She released a video of the song on October 2 to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day. The song was inspired by Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island jail for nearly three years, after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack. He was held in solitary confinement for two years and was repeatedly assaulted by guards and other prisoners.

  • The Kent Stater ☛ Townhall II opens new location downtown to acknowledge community needs

    Townhall II, an integrated health network that provides mental health and recovery treatment services to Portage County, opened a new location on Water Street last Wednesday to better serve the community.  The network was born out of two grassroots organizations from Kent State over 50 years ago.

  • ANF News ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Italian defenders of democracy in solidarity with DEM Party and all those persecuted in Turkey

  • ANF News ☛ 2024-06-15 [Older] French NGO MRAP concerned about Turkey’s treatment of Kurds and political prisoners

  • TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-12 Ron Wyden Is Investigating Saudi Support for Jared Kushner’s Private Equity Firm

  • The Register UK ☛ Half of Dell US staff reportedly opted to work from home

    Some staff interpreted this policy as a stealth layoff, and we were told that opting to work remotely meant not funding on-site team meetings, no career advancement or movement inside the company, and that working offsite would be considered when choosing who would be the target for workforce reductions.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Family of Black Man Shot While Holding Cellphone Want Murder Trial for SWAT Officer

    “This is not just about one officer or one incident. It’s about a broken system that devalues Black lives," Jones said at a news conference with Lewis' father, wife and older brother and lawyers for the family.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ The OSI Deprogrammer

    It would be a lot better if the OSI reference model were treated as a model of OSI in particular, not a model of networking in general, as Jesse Crawford argued in 2021. OSI ought to be taught as an example alongside similar reference models of protocol stacks that are actually in use.

  • 404 Media ☛ Ted Cruz Wants Platforms To Be Liable for Deepfakes

    This is the first bill that would penalize platforms for hosting deepfakes.

    According to the bill’s text, social media platforms and other sites that host user-generated content would be required to have procedures in place for removing non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes, within 48 hours of a victim’s request. Platforms also have to make a “reasonable effort” to remove copies of the content. Enforcement would fall under the FTC’s purview, the bill says.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • 404 Media ☛ Ticketmaster Crashes During Olivia Rodrigo Presale—Here's Why

    The “Virtual Waiting Room” is a system created by Ticketmaster that essentially creates a lottery for fans to buy tickets. It is nominally designed to give everyone an equal chance to get to the “front of the line” to buy tickets. Ticketmaster allows an individual web browser and account to join the waiting room only one time, meaning everyone trying to buy tickets should be able to enter the lottery only once.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-10 [Older] Turkey Competition Board Fines Google 482 Million Lira Over Hotel Searches

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ Intellectual Ventures networking patents prior art found

    Unified is pleased to announce prior art has been found on three patents owned by Intellectual Ventures LLC, an NPE. The patents have been asserted against JP Morgan Chase, Comerica, and Liberty Mutual.

    We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent.

  • JUVE ☛ UK Court of Appeal’s FRAND ruling will signal London’s role in SEP litigation

    “Thank you for your detailed and interesting submissions,” presiding judge Richard Arnold could hardly have bid a more sober farewell to the barristers and solicitors representing InterDigital and Lenovo last Friday afternoon. But experienced patent monopoly judge Arnold is said to have a very sober style.

  • 2024-06-10 [Older] USPTO Unveils Examiner Guidance on Searching Drug-related Applications

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-12 [Older] US Lawmakers Seek China Patent Data Amid Science Pact Talks

  • 2024-06-11 [Older] FTC Warns Pharma Companies It Means Business with Its Orange Book Listing Policy

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for IP Investments Group entity, Advanced Transactions, email patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Umesh Sharma and Mani Manikandan, who split an award of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 7,386,594, owned by Advanced Transactions LLC, an entity of IP Investments Group. The ‘594 patent monopoly relates to an email campaign generator that generates an email campaign template from an email target database. It has been asserted against Belk, Fiesta Mart, Advance Auto Parts, Regis Corp., Marco’s Pizza, The Gap, AutoZone, and Staples.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Global Festival Cool Down Continues—60 Dutch Festivals Canceled This Year Alone

    The global festival cool down trend is continuing, with new data from the Netherlands suggesting more than 60 Dutch music festivals were canceled this year. The data suggests festivals with 3,000 attendees or more have been canceled, which is a record when you exclude pandemic years.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Ghana Warns Local TV Stations Not to Air 'Pirated' Films

    Virtually anyone with an Internet connection can access pirated movies and TV shows in a few keystrokes. In some cases, an Internet connection isn't even required. In Ghana, TV stations are reportedly showing pirated films to their viewers. This is so rampant that the Government's film authority has issued a warning.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Shield 2.0 IPTV Blocking Costs Will Be Paid By Italian Taxpayers

    If all goes according to plan, Italy's Piracy Shield IPTV blocking system will be retired at the end of the year. In its place, Piracy Shield 2.0, a tech platform likely to be billed as the most formidable anti-piracy system on the planet. Year one running costs of two million euros will be paid by Italian taxpayers, rather than the main beneficiaries, some of the world's most famous football clubs.