Leftovers

• EFF ☛ For The Bragging Rights: EFF’s 16th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night

  The weather was unusually cool for a summer night. Just the right amount of bitterness in the air for attorneys from all walks of life to gather in San Francisco’s Mission District for EFF’s 16th annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night.

  Inside Public Works, attorneys filled their plates with chicken and waffles, grabbed a fresh tech-inspired cocktail, and found their tables—ready to compete against their colleagues in obscure tech law trivia. The evening started promptly six minutes late, 7:06 PM PT, with Aaron Jue, EFF's Director of Member Engagement, introducing this year’s trivia tournament.

  A lone Quizmaster, Kurt Opsahl, took the stage, noting that his walk-in was missing a key component, until The Blues Brothers started playing, filling the quizmaster with the valor to thank EFF’s intern fund supporters Fenwick and Morrison Forrester. The judges begrudgingly took the stage as the quizmaster reminded them that they have jobs at this event.

• Sara Jakša ☛ Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day - My Current Volunteer Responsibilities

  Yesterday was the Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day. Juhis reminded up about it and Chris wrote about all the organisations he is currently involved in.

  I liked about the idea of listing the ongoing volunteering commitments. I think I do the pruning constantly - with entire life, not only volunteering. Plus, it could give me a more top down overview to see if I am leaning too much in some direction.

• Pete Brown ☛ Everything changes and it's really easy to get upset about that.

  This year, the local promoter that has booked and run the festival since its early years has sold it to a regional promoter and now there are a bunch of new rules and other changes—no beach umbrellas, no chairs over thirty inches tall, reserved VIP areas in front of all the stages.

  I am doing my best to stay positive about the whole thing, but it is super-easy to decide that all of these changes mean it is going to suck. “It didn’t used to be like this! It used to be cool and then they sold out and now it sucks!” Already, the town Facebook groups are filling up with this kind of stuff.

• Robert Birming ☛ The stupid act of being rude

  These situations are fortunately rare and nothing I take personally. But there is one question that pops up every time it happens:

  Why?

• Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Jennifer Devastatia del Gato

  This is the 43rd edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Jennifer "💕 Devastatia 💕" del Gato and her blog, devastatia.com

  I think I have mentioned it before but I absolutely love her site because it's precisely everything mine isn't. My site is this super clean, super calm place, with no JS, no weirdness going on, and almost no images. Her site is a proper experience and you'll understand what I mean when you click that link. And even though the containers are incredibly different we share an appreciation for a certain type of living the web which is why I'm very grateful to have her as a guest on this series.

• Matt Webb ☛ The Overton window of weirdness is opening (Interconnected)

  The future could get weird quite quickly.

• Nathaniel Snelgrove ☛ Make something worthwhile by embracing your flaws

  Naturally, this whole thing reminded me of the creative process, which to me is about embracing ourselves and our imperfections. If we can’t accept our flaws, we’ll never make anything worthwhile. I think we can create from a good place or a bad place, but each unique creation of ours bears the signature flaws that make us unique. So if we want to commit ourselves to doing good creative work for all our lives, we have to embrace our flaws.

• Lou Plummer ☛ Begrudging Riches

  I don't go for a bunch of hogwash about how different it was in the old days either. Remember what Babe Ruth said when he was informed that his salary demands would exceed that of the president of the United States? The Babe said, "I had a better year than the president."

• Idiomdrottning ☛ GTD in a connected world

  One GTD idea that has fallen by the wayside was to have “agenda lists”, you’d keep an “Alice” list with stuff you wanted to talk to Alice about the next time you see her, and a “Bob” list and so on. These days, it’s hard to argue for having such “agenda lists” when you have your computer in your pocket so you can always send things to them right away instead of waiting for a chance to see them. Writing the thing down on the list takes almost as much time as just writing it down in a message to them.

  But it’s not a worthless idea. Some people we still do have in our IRL lives and I’ve been experimenting with using agenda lists again. Jury’s still out but it’s something I’ve been trying for the past half a year.

• Gabriel ☛ Getting by with the bare minimum.

  There used to be a time in my life when I was much more enthusiastic and invested in technology as a whole. As things have become more accessible and life a lot busier, I have very little time to be on top of information as I once was, I feel like.

• Gabriel ☛ Gabz/mL · Blog your heart out!

  A long while ago I quoted something from this random and fabulous post, I had forgotten about, Take Care of Your Blog. The quote was,

  "Blog your heart out! Blog about something you’ve learned, or blog about something you’re interested in."

• Heliomass ☛ Station Stories: Radisson

  All of these stations are really interesting, bearing the hallmarks of the brutalism which was popular at the time, and Radisson is one of the most magnificent of them all… although it has heavy competition along the line.

• [Repeat] Bruce Schneier ☛ New Blog Moderation Policy

  There has been a lot of toxicity in the comments section of this blog. Recently, we’re having to delete more and more comments. Not just spam and off-topic comments, but also sniping and personal attacks. It’s gotten so bad that I need to do something.

  My options are limited because I’m just one person, and this website is free, ad-free, and anonymous. I pay for a part-time moderator out of pocket; he isn’t able to constantly monitor comments. And I’m unwilling to require verified accounts.

• Robert Birming ☛ Our blogging inspiration

  I've met a few people who want to start blogging, or blog more often, but have trouble coming up with things to write about. This inspired me to write about what inspires me (the meta world of blogging).

• Josh Withers ☛ AI, wasted on us old people

  You’ve got to be careful when you pull this card, so many in tech pull it too quickly, but you’ve got to reserve the Steve Jobs Card for times when it matters.

  I can’t stop thinking about AI - artificial intelligence, not Apple Intelligence - and the original 1984 Mac.

• Lee Peterson ☛ Evolution of Personal Blogging: My Journey Since 2008

  I’ve been blogging since 2008 in various forms, be it a personal site like this or on my first guitar only niche site. Over these years I’ve come to discover that writing on my personal site is where I get the most joy.

  I also found that when I was hosting my own niche sites I was more into the administration side of things, nowadays I just pay for WordPress to host my site and don’t go near this. It might be because I work in IT all day or just because I am getting older and don’t have the capacity or knowledge.

• Lee Peterson ☛ Hybrid productivity

  If I’m all technology I’d miss the ability to see and manipulate something physical like my notebook. I’ll write daily notes and often go back to remind myself of events or little words of wisdom to keep me on track. I also like the slowing down of stepping away from a screen and thinking and writing.

  So, what’s hybrid productivity?

• Hackaday ☛ See Them Knocking With A Doorbell Alert

  Picture it: you’re on the treadmill, running through a forest, sweating like a pig, and the doorbell rings because a package is being delivered. Would you even hear it? Chances are, if you’re rocking out to music on headphones and your treadmill is as noisy as [Antonio]’s, you wouldn’t, and you’d once again face the dreaded ‘we’ll try later’ slip.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Ghost Particles' Could Be The Secret Behind The Heaviest Elements

    A profound new discovery emerges.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Is Launching an 'Artificial Star' Into Orbit Around Earth. Here's Why.

    "This is some really awesome science."

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Pink Sands in Australia Reveal Hidden Antarctic Mountains

    An epic secret traveled from a continent away.

  • Wired ☛ Science Is Full of Errors. Bounty Hunters Are Here to Find Them

    With his fellow meta-science researchers Ruben Arsland and Ian Hussey, Elson has set up a way to systematically find errors in scientific research. The project—called ERROR—is modeled on bug bounties in the software industry, where hackers are rewarded for finding errors in code. In Elson’s project, researchers are paid to trawl papers for possible errors and awarded bonuses for every verified mistake they discover.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 3,300-year-old shipwreck challenges history of seafaring

    Finding the Late Bronze Age ship so far out to sea suggests that the navigational skills of ancient sailors were more advanced than previously thought, as they could sail without having to see land, the IAA said.

    The wreck was found last year 90 kilometers (56 miles) off the coast of northern Israel. The boat and its cargo were fully intact, the IAA said, adding that it appeared to have sunk either in a storm or after being attacked by pirates.

• Education

  • Erik Itland ☛ Why is it that innovations require heroics? — Erik I

    Steve Blank managed to summarize something that has bugged me a long time:

    "Why is it that innovations require heroics to occur in our organization?"

  • Michigan News ☛ Concordia University to shut down majority of on-campus academic programs after 2024-25

    Current students will be able to take most classes online through Concordia University Wisconsin or transfer to the Wisconsin campus after next year, according to the statement. The Wisconsin campus will remain open and offer traditional, on-campus classes for students.

  • The Scotsman ☛ Fears of ‘death’ of mobile libraries as yellow vans disappear in Highlands

    For those living in the most isolated pockets of the Highlands, the sight of the yellow library van coming into view has long been a welcome one.

    But now, concerns for the future of the mobile libraries have been raised after the distinctive vans – complete with desk and bookshelves –dwindle in numbers.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Michigan universities contributed $23.9 billion to Michigan economy in 2023

    In 2022, the universities carried out life sciences research and development initiatives valued at $1.64 billion. Over the last five years, these institutions have undertaken mobility-related research and development projects worth more than $565 million. Overall, the URC’s annual research and development expenditure totals $2.87 billion, positioning Michigan among the top 10 states in academic research and economic development.

• Hardware

  • The Drone Girl ☛ India's top drone companies: how they're making money

    What’s it like being a drone company in India right now? On one hand, largely supportive government policies have created a fertile ground for growth. Plus, the country’s diversity and size allows for a vast (and still somewhat untapped) market of drone applications.

    But navigating the Indian drone market has its challenges. Competition is surprisingly fierce, with a fair amount of Indian drone companies already in operation — plus an uptick in foreign drone companies trying to get a slice of India’s drone market. Other challenges for Indian drone companies includes affordability, plus ever-evolving laws adding to the navigational challenges.

  • Logikal Solutions ☛ Debian 12 is Better Than Windows 10

    Despite its Nanny-State origins, Windows 10 wasn’t polite enough to let me know the external drive was throwing off the S.M.A.R.T. “Drive is likely to fail soon” message. Debian 12 coughed it up right away.

  • Hackaday ☛ Build Your Own Tape Recorder/Player

    If you want to read something from magnetic tape, you need a tape head, right? Or you could do like [Igor Brichkov] and make your own. It looks surprisingly simple. He used a washer with a small slot cut in it and a coil of wire.

  • Hackaday ☛ Tired With Your Robot? Why Not Eat It?

    Have you ever tired of playing with your latest robot invention and wished you could just eat it? Well, that’s exactly what a team of researchers is investigating. There is a fully funded research initiative (not an April Fools’ joke, as far as we know) delving into the possibilities of edible electronics and mechanical systems used in robotics. The team, led by EPFL in Switzerland, combines food process engineering, printed and molecular electronics, and soft robotics to create fully functional and practical robots that can be consumed at the end of their lifespan. While the concept of food-based robots may seem unusual, the potential applications in medicine and reducing waste during food delivery are significant driving factors behind this idea.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • DeSmog ☛ Real-Time Data Show the Air in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ is Even Worse Than Expected

  • New York Times ☛ Gilead Shot Provides Total Protection From HIV in Trial of Young African Women

    An injection given just twice a year could herald a breakthrough in protecting the population that has the highest infection rates.

  • Reason ☛ Boom in DIY Medical Testing Gives Americans More Control Over Their Health

    Thanks to clever inventions and investments from venture capitalists, the average American can head to CVS and purchase kits to test for drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDs, diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol.

  • Off Guardian ☛ WATCH: Regenerative Agriculture – #SolutionsWatch

    We all know the problem of The Future of Food.

  • Latvia ☛ Ogle festival to focus on men's mental health this year

    On July 12 and 13, Olaine Mežaparks will host the fifth annual Ogle festival, designed to give everyone the opportunity to improve their mental health and well-being. This year, the festival will focus on men's mental health, the organizers said.

  • Gregory Hammond ☛ Let’s go back to having events online

    Getting one thing out of the way since I mentioned it somewhat in the opening paragraph, COVID-19. A majority of people says “it’s over” and go back to their events like it’s 2019 and before. However, there are many people still taking precautions. By having an event online, you keep everyone safe, and it allows those who are taking precautions to be reassured that you care about their health.

    Why should you care about an attendees’ health? If one person is not feeling well, then most likely other people won’t feel well afterwards. You don’t want your event to be known as the one where many people got sick, that includes the volunteers or staff at the event. Sure, you can have requirements in place, however, that doesn’t mean everyone will read and obey them. You don’t want your event or location to be known as the event where people got thrown out because they didn’t follow your strict requirements.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Denmark’s sea wind farm brings energy, seafood, and seaweed

    It’s part of efforts to explore multiple uses for remote wind parks far out at sea, such as fresh seafood production.

    Run by the Swedish state-owned power firm Vattenfall and Denmark’s Aarhus University, the four-year project started in 2023 off the Danish east coast at Scandinavia’s largest wind farm, Kriegers Flak. With its first harvest just 18 months later, it’s already showing signs of early success.

    “There’s an increasing competition for space on land and in the sea,” said Aarhus University senior scientist Annette Bruhn, who leads the project. “We can, in one area, produce both fossil-free energy and food for a growing population.”

  • Futurism ☛ Microplastics Found in Human Penises

    As detailed in a study published in the journal IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal this week, scientists found microplastics in 80 percent of penile tissue samples taken from six individuals who were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction and had an inflatable penile prosthesis surgically fitted.

    The microplastics ranged from 20 to 500 microns in diameter, with the commonly used plastics polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) being the most prevalent.

    "The detection of microplastics in penile tissue raises inquiries on the ramifications of environmental pollutants on sexual health," the paper reads. "Our research adds a key dimension to the discussion on man-made pollutants, focusing on microplastics in the male reproductive system."

  • CS Monitor ☛ Parents ban smartphones for children, citing safety concerns across Europe

    Try saying “no” when a child asks for a smartphone. What comes after, parents everywhere can attest, begins with some variation of: “Everyone has one. Why can’t I?”

    But what if no pre-teen in sight has one – and what if having a smartphone was weird? That’s the endgame of an increasing number of parents across Europe who are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young kids jeopardizes their safety and mental health – and share the conviction that there’s strength in numbers.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Should social media come with a health warning?

    More recently, concerns about social media have centered on young people. There’s a lot going on in our teenage years as our brains undergo maturation, our hormones shift, and we explore new ways to form relationships with others. We’re thought to be more vulnerable to mental-health disorders during this period too. Around half of such disorders are thought to develop by the age of 14, and suicide is the fourth-leading cause of death in people aged between 15 and 19, according to the World Health Organization. Many have claimed that social media only makes things worse.

  • Science Alert ☛ World-First Experiment Reveals Why Some People Never Get COVID-19

    Just why some people are better protected than others hasn't been clear, with field research complicated by difficulties in accurately pinpointing the moment of exposure.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Wired ☛ Perplexity Plagiarized Our Story About How Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine

    Our findings, as well as those of the developer Robb Knight, identified a specific IP address almost certainly linked to Perplexity and not listed in its public IP range, which we observed scraping test sites in apparent response to prompts given to the company’s public-facing chatbot. According to server logs, that same IP visited properties belonging to Condé Nast, the media company that owns WIRED, at least 822 times in the past three months—likely a significant undercount, because the company retains only a small portion of its records.

    We also reported that the chatbot was bullshitting, in the technical sense. In one experiment, it generated text about a girl following a trail of mushrooms when asked to summarize the content of a website that its agent did not, according to server logs, attempt to access.

  • The Verge ☛ TikTok’s AI tool accidentally let you put Hitler’s words in a paid actor’s mouth

    Launched earlier this week, TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars let businesses generate ads using the likeness of paid actors. It also uses AI-powered dubbing that lets advertisers enter a script to make the avatars say what they want within TikTok’s guidelines. Even though only users with a TikTok Ads Manager account can access this tool, the version CNN found let anyone with a personal account try.

  • Neil Selwyn ☛ “We are all using shared resources”

    Our interviews with school leaders are throwing up some interesting reasons for this. One recent interview involved a discussion of teachers using GenAI to assist with lesson planning and the production of lesson content. Alongside the suggestion that teachers might lack the necessary time and energy to play around with new tools, was the observation that many teachers already have perfectly good lesson content to hand. Moreover, if this lesson content has been produced by trusted colleagues and peers then it can be assumed to be something that will work … something that GenAI cannot guarantee.

  • Henrique Dias ☛ RunGap: An End to Bosch's Malformed FIT Files

    A few months ago I wrote about the struggles I was having with Bosch’s eBike Flow app and their FIT files. Since then, I have been using my script to clean up the files and later import with HealthFit. I have now just found a better solution though.

    Just like I mentioned in my old post, importing the cleaned up files produced by my script would still lead to some weird issues regarding the quantity of calories. The HealthFit app seemed to change it depending on the pauses, as if the calories amount were for the total activity time instead of for the ride time. This bothered me, but I never did anything about it.

  • Benedict Evans ☛ Apple intelligence and AI maximalism

    But meanwhile, if you step back from the demos and screenshots and look at what Apple is really trying to do, Apple is pointing to most of the key questions and points of leverage in generative AI, and proposing a thesis for how this is going to work that looks very different to all the hype and evangelism.

  • The Register UK ☛ Study uses large language models to sniff out hallucinations

    Applying statistical machine learning to languages at an ever-increasing scale has become in vogue with tech vendors and investors alike, but it is well known that such language models are prone to errors. In the much-hyped world of LLMs, shortcomings that might be deemed malfunctions in other contexts are euphemistically called "hallucinations."

  • International Business Times ☛ China's AI-Powered Sexbots Are Redefining Intimacy, But There Will Be Limitations - Are We Ready?

    Pushing the boundaries of sex doll interaction, a leading Chinese manufacturer is developing AI-powered chatbots for their products. Starpery Technology, a global giant in the industry, is training cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) to elevate their products with artificial intelligence.

  • SCMP ☛ China’s next-gen sexbots powered by AI are about to hit the shelves | South China Morning Post

    Traditional dolls, supported by a metal skeleton and a silicone exterior, are limited to simple responses and lack the expressive capabilities needed to engage with a human.

    “The new generation of sex dolls, powered by AI models and equipped with sensors, can react with both movements and speech, significantly enhancing user experience by focusing on emotional connection rather than just basic conversational abilities,” Lee said.

  • Wouter Groeneveld ☛ The Fuck Shit Stack Called AI

    A Fuck Shit Stack. What a grand combination of my two favourite words! Pondering on its possible use cases, my mind immediately went to the alarming rate at which big and not so big tech companies try to employ AI. Now, I don’t like writing about AI—not just because I simply know too little about it, but mainly because I’m getting so very tired of having to read anything AI related and don’t want to produce yet another lamentation.

    Yet I feel the need to at least partially document the latest “developments”. The term development denotes some kind of progress which I don’t believe is there except if you’re a stock broker, hence the usage of quotes. Below is a link dump of AI-related news that has me worrying about our digital (and perhaps also analogue) future. I am starting to become ashamed to be a software developer because of all this. I sincerely hope there is still time to turn this ship around, but I fear that as long as the economy values the economy and AI tools can be used to exploit people in favour of the economy, there won’t be.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Unmitigated Risk ☛ Groundhog Day: Learning from Past Key and Credential Compromises

      Organizations need to step up and embrace multi-factor authentication, adopt strong hardware-backed authenticators like Passkeys, and move workloads from shared secrets to hardware-backed asymmetric credentials for better security. We also can’t overlook the importance of managing third-party risks and ensuring proper configuration and monitoring to protect our API and signing keys.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Patrick Breyer ☛ Chat control vote postponed: Huge success in defense of digital privacy of correspondence!

      “Without the commitment and resistance of countless individuals and organizations in Europe, the EU governments would have decided today in favour of totalitarian indiscriminate chat control , burying the digital privacy of correspondence and secure encryption. A big thanks to all who have contacted politicians and spoken out in the past few days. The fact that we have prevented the orwellian chat control for the time being should be celebrated!”

• Defence/Aggression

  • Defence Web ☛ South Korea’s defence industry continues its rapid growth

    In a context of rising military tensions across the globe, defence markets have expanded significantly. However, a newcomer is making waves in the competitive and exclusive landscape of the defence industry.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pivoting away from China, Taiwan companies rekindle South-east Asia romance

    Among Asean countries, Singapore is the top recipient of Taiwanese investments.

  • RFA ☛ Vietnam asks Philippines to respect its interests and consult on sea boundary

    Manila is seeking to extend its continental shelf in the South China Sea.

  • RFA ☛ Collapse at notorious Myanmar rare earth mine kills 15 people

    Boom in unregulated mining is fueled by demand from China and beyond for minerals used in electric vehicles.

  • RFA ☛ China threatens death penalty for supporters of Taiwan independence

    The directive extends Beijing's attempts at 'long-arm' law enforcement to the island.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “Green Border”: Agnieszka Holland’s New Film Shows “Impossible Choices” Facing Refugees in Europe

    The new film Green Border, from acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland, dramatizes the humanitarian crisis facing millions of migrants seeking refuge in Europe. It tells the true story of how refugees from the Middle East and Africa became trapped in 2021 at the so-called green border between Poland and Belarus, through the perspectives of refugees, border guards and refugee rights activists. “Fear and the hate are so easy to be spread when our borders or our comfort is attacked by the challenge of newcomers,” warns Holland, who connects the crisis depicted in the film to Europe’s growing anti-migration political atmosphere. “Frankly, it is an incredible mess right now. And it’s going in a very dangerous direction,” she says. Green Border opens today in New York and nationwide next Friday.

  • New York Times ☛ Ángeles Flórez Peón, Spanish Civil War’s Last Militiawoman, Dies at 105

    Ángeles Flórez Peón was 17 when she braved mortar and artillery fire to bring food to her fellow Republican volunteers in the trenches of northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

    At 18, she was a nurse tending to the wounded in the doomed effort to save Spain from a military takeover. Nationalist troops attacked the hospital where she worked, in coastal Asturias, and she was later arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a women’s prison — marked forever, she said, by the memory of seeing fellow inmates being taken out at night and shot.

  • US News And World Report ☛ China Threatens Death Penalty for 'Diehard' Taiwan Separatists

    China on Friday threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases for "diehard" Taiwan independence separatists, a ratcheting up of pressure even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction on the democratically governed island.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ After ISIS bombs, an urgent call to preserve an ancient Syrian temple

    The bombs ISIS detonated in the summer of 2015 caused great damage to the Temple of Bel, but did not succeed in destroying the structure entirely. Specialists visiting the site after its 2016 liberation from the terrorist group were able to confirm that although the walls of the cella had collapsed, along with columns of the surrounding porticos, a large western gate and the foundations of the temple walls remained intact.

    Nevertheless, write Abdulkarim and Seigne, the structure's devastation disastrously impacted not only the site itself but also the lives of the citizens surrounding it. The return of the Palmyra community is crucial, the article authors write, "not only because they are a source of labor and practical expertise, but also due to their collective memory and ownership of the site. They are a part of its story."

  • New Statesman ☛ Labour can never win on TikTok

    For at least a decade, social media has played host to a particular stylistic affectation – we might call it “Brits online”. To be a Brit online is to perform a sort of relatable, makeshift crapness – the recreated inner world of a GCSE student on a rainy geography trip, or of someone curing a hangover at Greggs. On the open plain of the English-language [Internet], which springs from America’s flashy and ahistorical Silicon Valley, one must set themselves apart. Now we are in the midst of the first TikTok election, and the warring parties have fallen into the clutches of the very British meme.

  • [Old] The Atlantic ☛ New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity

    For more than two decades, through two wars and domestic upheaval, the idea that al-Qaeda acted alone on 9/11 has been the basis of U.S. policy. A blue-ribbon commission concluded that Osama bin Laden had pioneered a new kind of terrorist group—combining superior technological know-how, extensive resources, and a worldwide network so well coordinated that it could carry out operations of unprecedented magnitude. This vanguard of jihad, it seemed, was the first nonstate actor that rivaled nation-states in the damage it could wreak.

    That assessment now appears wrong. And if our understanding of what transpired on 9/11 turns out to have been flawed, then the costly policies that the United States has pursued for the past quarter century have been rooted in a false premise.

  • The Register UK ☛ Sweden says Russia is interfering with Nordic satellites

    The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) first confronted Russia about the interference on March 21, according to Bloomberg, exactly two weeks after Sweden joined the North Atlantic alliance. On June 4 the Swedes reportedly escalated their complaints about the interference to the International Telecommunications Union in Switzerland.

  • RFERL ☛ 'A Big Betrayal': Afghan Women Sound The Alarm Ahead Of Key International Event That Will Include Taliban

    Rights campaigners have slammed the world body for inviting the Taliban to the June 30-July 1 event in Qatar, a move that they say provides tacit international legitimacy to the Taliban’s unrecognized and internationally sanctioned government.

    Activists are also enraged that the UN has made major concessions to the extremist group, which has severely curtailed women’s rights since seizing power in 2021. That includes preventing the participation of Afghan women and removing the issue of women’s rights from the agenda of the meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Putin just reminded the world why Russia must lose

    On the eve of last weekend’s Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, Vladimir Putin unveiled a peace proposal of his own. The presentation of this rival peace plan was an obvious attempt to undermine Ukraine’s Swiss initiative, but it also served as a timely reminder that Putin is waging an old-fashioned war of imperial conquest and will continue to escalate his demands until he is defeated.

  • NL Times ☛ Russian ships spying on North Sea infrastructure

    According to De Tijd and FTM, 167 non-military Russian ships have carried out 945 suspicious actions near critical infrastructure in the North Sea over the past ten years. It involved research vessels, cargo ships, refrigerated ships, tankers, fishing boats, and even passenger vehicles.

    The “suspicious actions” happened in the economic zones of the North Sea countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway. The Russian ships always got within a kilometer of pipes and cables and lingered there.

  • New Eastern Europe ☛ Countdown to war – how populism grew while democracy fell silent

    But what if the real ticking clock to February 2022, and what is seemingly becoming a Third World War, began after the proverbial slate was wiped clean – for better or for worse – from 1989 to 1991 – that is to say, after the end of the so-called Cold War? If we start our countdown from this point, then five key moments bring us to the hellish prospect of another all-out war in Europe.

  • CBC ☛ Truck with anti-Muslim messaging registered to Rebel News Network

    In a phone interview with CBC News, Rebel News owner Ezra Levant said the ad was created by a group called Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses. Levant would not divulge the identity of anyone behind the group, nor confirm if it is based in Toronto.

  • India Times ☛ S regulator says TikTok may be violating child privacy law

    The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it had referred a complaint against TikTok to the Justice Department, saying the popular video sharing app may be violating child privacy laws.

    The complaint, which also names TikTok's Chinese parent company Bytedance, stems from an investigation launched following a 2019 settlement, the FTC said in a statement.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ No fixed price A week after Russia’s largest exchange halted dollar and euro trades, the ruble is behaving erratically — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘It could undermine the traditional family’: Insiders say the Kremlin is keeping an anti-domestic violence law in limbo on purpose. Here’s why. — Meduza

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Russia’s flagship international forum showcases Putin’s pariah status

      The lack of international attendees at Russia's flagship economic forum in June highlighted Vladimir Putin's pariah status on the world stage, writes Edward Verona.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Blogger Fined After Being Detained Before Putin Visit To Siberia

      A court in Russia's Sakha-Yakutia region in Siberia fined blogger Pyotr Shepelev 10,000 rubles ($117) on June 21 for taking part in an unsanctioned rally in January.

    • RFERL ☛ South Korea Summons Russian Envoy Over Defense Deal With Pyongyang

      Russia's Ambassador to Seoul, Georgy Zinoviev, was summoned to the South Korean Foreign Ministry on June 21 to protest a defense deal signed earlier this week by Russian President Vladimir Putin with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Shows He Can Antagonize the U.S. Far Afield From Ukraine

      His support for North Korea’s military ambitions showed he can inflict pain on the U.S. and its NATO allies in ways beyond aggression in Ukraine.

    • Latvia ☛ Latest Osokins Freedom Festival raised another 20,000 euros for Ukraine

      The latest iteration of the Osokins Freedom Festival, a popular musical charitable event, has raised more than 20,000 euros for Ukraine, according to the festival organizers.

    • Defence Web ☛ World continues to be less peaceful, with conflict greatest since post-WWII levels

      The average level of global peacefulness had deteriorated once again, with 56 active conflicts raging around the world – the most since the end of the Second World War, and with fewer conflicts being resolved.

    • France24 ☛ Euro 2024: Austria earn victory against Poland, Ukraine fight back to beat Slovakia

      .Austria claimed a convincing 3-1 win over Poland in Berlin on Friday to take a step towards the Euro 2024 knock-out rounds.

    • France24 ☛ EU countries agree to begin membership talks with Moldova and Ukraine

      EU countries on Friday formally approved launching accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week, a landmark event for the two countries at the start of their long path towards joining the bloc.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian troops go on fifth Ukrainian training mission in UK

      The fifth group of Lithuanian soldiers has left for an international training mission in the United Kingdom to contribute to the combat training of Ukrainian troops, the Armed Forces said on Friday.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Hails Ukraine's Soccer Victory, Draws Parallels To War Effort

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 21 congratulated the country’s national soccer team’s victory over Slovakia at the Euro 2024 championships in Germany, drawing parallels to Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

    • RFERL ☛ Blinken Condemns Steps By Russia, North Korea To Deepen Military Ties

      U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned deepening military cooperation between the North Korea and Russia, including the transfer of arms in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, the State Department said on June 21

    • RFERL ☛ Russia-Friendly Radev To Co-Lead Bulgaria At NATO Summit In Washington

      Caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev and Russia-friendly President Rumen Radev will jointly represent Bulgaria at the NATO summit in Washington next month that is likely to discuss plans for further aid to Ukraine in its fight against the Kremlin’s forces.

    • RFERL ☛ EU To Open Accession Negotiations With Ukraine, Moldova On June 25

      The European Union will start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week, the EU's Belgian presidency announced on June 21, a move that will mark a watershed moment for the two countries' aspirations to eventually join the bloc.

    • RFERL ☛ Kazakh Nationals Identified As Suspects In Shooting Of Kazakh Opposition Activist In Kyiv

      Ukraine's National Police said on June 21 that two Kazakh nationals are suspected of shooting a noted Kazakh opposition activist and journalist Aidos Sadyqov in Kyiv earlier this week.

    • RFERL ☛ Several Dead In Russian Strikes On Ukraine; Kyiv Launches Counterattacks

      At least six people were killed in Russian shelling and missile strikes on Ukrainian targets as Moscow claimed Kyiv had launched a "mass" drone attack on occupied Crimea and several regions inside Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding

      Fearful that conscription is a one-way ticket to bloody trench warfare, the men spend their days holed up at home to avoid draft officers who roam the streets.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Citizen Detained In Montenegro At U.S. Request Over Alleged Election Interference

      A Russian citizen has been detained in Montenegro at the request of U.S. authorities on suspicions of having illegally interfered in the 2020 U.S. election, according to Russian and Montenegrin media on June 21.

    • RFERL ☛ 4 Killed In Helicopter Crash In Russia's Far East

      Four people died in a helicopter crash in the Amur region in Russia's Far East, authorities reported on June 21.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Scheerpost ☛ ‘Manufacturing Obituaries’: Media Falsely Reports Noam Chomsky’s Death

    The New Statesman ran—and subsequently deleted—a Chomsky obituary Tuesday following rumors of the 95-year-old’s passing. Other outlets including Jacobin kept or tweaked Chomsky obits, with telltale signs like the word “obituary” in their URLs belying their inaccuracy.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Noam Chomsky's Death News Fake, Says Linguist's Wife

    “No, it is false,” she wrote Tuesday in response to an emailed query from The Associated Press. Noam Chomsky, 95, had been hospitalized in Brazil while recovering from a stroke suffered a year ago, Valeria Chomsky told the AP last week. But the Beneficencia Portuguesa hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement that Chomsky was discharged on Tuesday to continue his treatment at home.

  • Futurism ☛ Boeing CEO Admits It's Retaliated Against Whistleblowers

    In a senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked Calhoun how many employees Boeing had disciplined or fired for "retaliation against whistleblowers" — and Calhoun's answer was evasive yet revealing.

    "I don't have that number on the tip of my tongue, but I know it," the outgoing Boeing chief said, who was suspiciously forgetful when asked for the specifics on a number of occasions. "I know it happens."

• Environment

  • The Hill ☛ Arnold Schwarzenegger: ‘Climate change dialogue’ not going to work

    Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said the traditional “climate change dialogue” is not going to work anymore, particularly when it comes to high-polluting countries.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Heat waves challenge journalists to be honest about climate change reality

    As a journalism teacher at the University of Kansas, I edit many news stories for fledgling writers. So many young reporters struggle to identify what the news actually is. They mention the boring stuff first and place the compelling news at the end of the story. Our journalistic jargon for this mistake, which I have written on countless student drafts? “Don’t bury the lede.”

    In other words, don’t place vital information at the end of your story.

    Along with shifting so much of life on earth, this climate crisis might push us to invent something new in journalism too. We will need a new way to report on the daily heat while acknowledging the larger possible cause. A way to describe the destruction of a hurricane while nodding to the rising sea temperatures as a likely ingredient.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Tropical Storm Alberto replenishes dams in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas

    After making landfall early Thursday on the Tamaulipas coast, the storm moved inland, bringing torrential rains to the drought-afflicted region.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 9 dead after heavy rains cause flooding, landslides in southern China’s Guangdong province

    Heavy rains in southern China have killed nine people and left six missing, state media reported Thursday. Downpours in Guangdong province this week sparked floods and landslides, with the spate of extreme weather impacting nationwide.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Labour’s Shadow Decarbonisation Minister Received Sponsorship from Gas Industry Lobbyists

    • Dan Q ☛ Special Roads

      Sometimes I’ve seen signs on dual carriageways and motorways that seem to specify a speed limit that’s the same as the national speed limit (i.e. 60 or 70 mph for most vehicles, depending on the type of road), which seem a bit… pointless? Today I learned why they’re there, and figured I’d share with you!

    • The Hill ☛ Amtrak service still disrupted in Northeast

      Amtrak service was suspended between New Haven and Philadelphia due to a power outage Thursday. Amtrak Northeast said in a series of posts on X that an overhead power outage was reported between New York City and Newark and warned of “significant delays” while crews worked on the problem.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ What's holding back mass solar adoption in South Africa

      South Africa urgently needs to change this. It is highly dependent on coal fired power stations – about 85% of power is derived from fossil fuels. In addition, for the last decade it has faced increasingly severe power cuts. The rapid adoption of solar power could alleviate the pressure.

      Government has taken steps to improve the situation. In its 10-point energy plan, published in 2022, it relaxed the requirements needed for private power generation. It also introduced short-lived tax rebates for solar panel installations starting in March 2023.

    • The Register UK ☛ How much of that data do you really need?

      In a 2023 report, just before the IT world became obsessed with AI, Watts wrote a foreword to a report [PDF] that made clear just how bad the data wastage situation was getting. That report noted that 41 percent of data currently stored by UK organizations was unused and unwanted.

      But "40 percent is low, very low," Watts tells The Reg. "What we have seen coming back is that it can be between 70 to 80 percent in some cases."

      That's a lot of redundant data sitting on powered servers.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ The Mysterious 'Ecocide' Collapse of Easter Island Never Really Happened

      The truth is revealed.

    • Crooked Timber ☛ Occasional paper: Fungal banking

      The fungal network gives them that help. The fungus not only provides micronutrients, it actually can pump glucose into young seedlings, compensating for the sunlight that they can’t yet reach. This is no small thing, because the fungus can’t produce glucose for itself! Normally it trades nutrients to trees and takes glucose from them in repayment. So it’s reaching into its own stored reserves to keep the baby seedling alive.

  • Overpopulation

    • Hindustan Times ☛ Delhi water crisis: Atishi to begin fast; BJP says AAP dishing out lies

      “In 2018, the Kejriwal government similarly accused the Haryana and Punjab of not providing water to Delhi. They took the accusation to the Upper Yamuna River Board, which, after investigation, ruled that the Kejriwal government’s accusation was false and that Haryana was supplying water to Delhi as per the agreement. In 2021, the AAP government again blamed Haryana and took the matter to the Supreme Court. The committee established by the Supreme Court investigated and reported that Haryana was supplying full water to Delhi as per the agreement. The Supreme Court reprimanded the Kejriwal government after this report in 2021,” Sachdeva said.

• Finance

  • Reason ☛ N.J. Businessman Indicted for Sopranos-Style Economic Development Racket

    George Norcross III's alleged actions are almost cartoonishly corrupt. But for economic development programs, it's not too far off from business as usual.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Unveils Rules to Curb Investments in Chinese Technology

    The Treasury Department unveiled rules to curb financing of Chinese semiconductors, quantum computers and artificial intelligence systems.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Insight Hungary ☛ Orban chooses Trump campaign slogan for EU presidency

    Every six months a different country takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union, with Hungary taking over from 1 July until the end of the year. On Tuesday the slogan and logo of the Hungarian presidency were unveiled.The slogan is not other, but Donald Trump's emblematic election slogan, "Make America Great Again", with a bit of modification: Make Europe Great Again.

    Trump used the MAGA hook in 2016, when he became US president. “It is a reference to an active presidency,” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka told Politico. “It actually shows manifest the expectation that together we should be stronger than individually but that we should be allowed to remain who we are when we come together. It also portrays the idea that Europe is able to become an independent global actor in our transforming world.”

  • Daniel Pipes ☛ The History of Turkey: Grandeur and Grievance

    Refreshingly, the author avoids the special pleading for Türkiye that too many specialists fall into, forthrightly referring to the "Armenian genocide" and to "public and state antisemitism." He even asserts that "direct lines lead from the Armenian genocide to the Holocaust." No less importantly, he writes that "Turkey cannot justify its claim to be a homogenous national state. The existence of the Kurds and the Alevis clearly refutes it."

  • US News And World Report ☛ Social Media Influencers Can Now Cover the Democratic Convention

    “Similar to traditional media, the DNCC will provide credentialed creators with logistical assistance tailored to their needs, allowing them to cover the convention, connect with surrogates and VIPs, and share the convention experience with their audiences in a way that suits their media consumption and sharing styles,” it announced on its official website.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Owner ByteDance Plans to Spend $2.1B on 'AI Hub'

    The announcement from ByteDance comes after several investments into Malaysia by other tech giants as well. Last month, Google announced plans to develop a data center and Google Cloud region within Malaysia. Google’s development is to meet the growing demand for cloud services around the world, and offer artificial intelligence AI literacy programs for Malaysian students and educators. Google’s investments in Malaysia are based in the Sime Darby Property’s Elmina Business Park, in Greater Kuala Lumpur.

  • India Times ☛ Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to start a new AI company

    The company is called Safe Superintelligence and is described on its website as an American firm with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. Sutskever made the announcement revealing that he was starting the company in a post on X.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Melinda Gates Opens Up About Divorce and New Life

    According to a Wall Street Journal report, Melinda might have been unhappy with Bill Gates's connection to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender ultimately this led to divorce. However, this is not confirmed yet.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Begs Advertisers to Return as Twitter's Revenue Plunges

    After all, who could forget that Musk quite literally told advertisers to go fuck themselves in November — fighting words that likely didn't sit well with the execs he's now pleading to return to X.

  • New Yorker ☛ Project Trump, Global Edition

    Cut off all economic ties with China? End all aid to Ukraine? The ex-President’s men have a plan.

  • New York Times ☛ How Britain’s Labour Party Became Electable Again

    In less than five years, the opposition Labour Party has gone from massive defeat to the favorite to win next month’s election. How did they do it?

  • Tedium ☛ Dear Meta: A One-Way Fediverse Integration Isn’t Good Enough

    If Meta is going to support the fediverse, it needs to actually support people who don’t live on Threads. No lip service. No half-finished betas.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Hill ☛ Fauci blames Trump admin staff for feeding him misinformation, animosity

      But he said he had to contradict the former president “because he was saying things that were not correct.”

    • Greece ☛ AI making scammer bait plausible

      Deepfake videos of the prime minister and well-known athletes, or articles signed by authoritative journalists proposing investments with high profits are circulating on social media preying on the careless and naive. Artificial intelligence is making the bait thrown by fraudsters at their unsuspecting victims increasingly plausible.

    • Vox ☛ Social media misinformation is as bad as it‘s ever been. Does anybody care? 

      Misinformation on the [Internet] has never been worse. Or at least that’s my analysis of it, based on vibes.

      People on TikTok are eating up videos saying a bunch of inaccurate things about the dangers of sunscreen, while the platform’s on-app Shop propels obscure books containing bogus cures for cancer onto the Amazon bestseller list. Meanwhile, the presumed Republican nominee for president is fresh off what appears to be a successful push to neuter efforts to address disinformation campaigns about the election. Also, Google’s AI Overview search results told people to put glue on pizza.

    • New Statesman ☛ The first TikTok election has a misinformation problem

      But this isn’t the full picture of online influence. Major social media platforms – particularly TikTok – have seen a sharp rise in political deepfakes, doctored videos and misinformation that are outpacing official content from parties and politicians. A BBC investigation found two weeks into the election campaign that TikTok users were being served a high volume of AI-generated deepfake videos featuring party leaders, such as ones of Rishi Sunak appearing to say he would use public funds to send his “mates loads of dosh”, alongside more obvious fakes, such as videos claiming the Conservatives’ national service programme would send British teens into war zones. Other content includes the widespread, false claim that Keir Starmer was responsible for not prosecuting Jimmy Savile. These videos weren’t only being shared by bots or anonymous accounts, but by celebrities, political activists, students and influencers. Their popularity is easy to understand: these videos are far punchier, more salacious and entertaining than the overwhelmingly staid content from official sources that seem all too obviously made by an elder-millennial marketing officer.

    • VOA News ☛ In US, fake news websites now outnumber real local media sites

      Fake websites masquerading as news now outnumber legitimate local news websites, with Russia playing a leading role in their proliferation, say media analysts.

      Research by disinformation watchdog NewsGuard shows a surge in “pink slime” websites. Known for publishing low-quality content or disinformation, the sites take their nickname from a meat byproduct used as a filler.

      The producers of such sites are generally partisan entities or those producing clickbait content for maximum profit, says NewsGuard. The watchdog said the use of technology and generative AI has allowed for an increase in production of fake sites.

    • BBC ☛ TikTok: AI fakes, abuse and misinformation pushed to young voters

      Whether they are real people or not, their comments can create the impression that their preferred party has greater support.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Daniel Pocock ☛ Ultimate Judgment: the Debian Suicide Cluster

    According to the financial disclosures from Software in the Public Interest, Inc, over $120,000 has been spent paying lawyers to write insults to my family and I after my father died. They are now circulating suspicious documents and forgeries they created themselves to insult my family again.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Pakistani 'blasphemy vigilante' mob kills man

    Hundreds are in prison facing blasphemy charges, with judges often postponing trials for fear of retribution if they are deemed too lenient.

    Even unproven blasphemy allegations can lead to the accused being lynched.

    According to rights groups, accusations of blasphemy are sometimes used as a means of settling scores.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Free Speech at Harvard

    In a recent op-ed in The Harvard Crimson—“Faculty Speech Must Have Limits”—the university’s dean of social science, Lawrence Bobo, made an extraordinary set of claims that seriously threaten academic freedom, including the chilling idea that faculty members who dare to criticize the university should be punished. Bobo is a senior administrator at Harvard, overseeing centers and departments including history, economics, sociology, and African and African American studies. When he writes about faculty free speech, those within and outside his division listen.

  • VOA News ☛ Nobel Committee condemns jailing of laureate

    The Norwegian Nobel Committee has condemned the decision by an Iranian court to add more than a year to the prison sentenced imposed on 2023 Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.

  • RFERL ☛ Mob In Pakistan Drags Burning Body Of 'Blasphemer' Through Streets In Swat Valley

    Swat police chief Zahid Ullah said police officers initially rescued the man from the people who attacked him and sheltered him at a police station in Madian.

    According to a local journalist in Madian, the mob broke down the gate of the police station and entered the building. They then poured gasoline on the man and set him on fire before dragging his lifeless body as they continued to beat him.

    The rioters also burned three police cars and set fire to the police station, the journalist said.

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Adds Journalist Kurbangaleyeva To Wanted List

    Russian authorities on June 19 added journalist Farida Kurbangaleyeva to the list of wanted persons and the registry of terrorists and extremists on unspecified charges. The Prague-based Kurbangaleyeva wrote on Facebook that the move was made by the Russian authorities most likely over her "openly saying that Russia...conducts a criminal, land-grabbing war in Ukraine, enslaves other peoples, annihilates identities, tortures, robs, rapes, and suppresses any kind of dissent." [...]

  • BIA Net ☛ İstanbul Bar slams investigation into YouTuber over ‘Sharia’ controversy

    Following a June 14 debate on YouTube with another social media personality who advocated for Sharia law, which garnered significant online attention, İstanbul prosecutors opened an investigation into Tema for ‘insulting religious values adopted by a section of the public’ and ‘inciting hatred and animosity among the public.’

  • Techdirt ☛ 500,000 Books Have Been Deleted From The Internet Archive’s Lending Library

    If you found out that 500,000 books had been removed from your local public library, at the demands of big publishers who refused to let them buy and lend new copies, and were further suing the library for damages, wouldn’t you think that would be a major news story? Wouldn’t you think many people would be up in arms about it?

    It’s happening right now with the Internet Archive, and it’s getting almost no attention.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Dissenter ☛ Why Is A Stanford Student Reporter Still Facing Felony Charges?

    Gohill was present for the direct action because he was assigned to report on the news. “In the course of his reporting, Gohill became barricaded inside the building,” the letter recalls. “He identified himself as a reporter, displaying his newspaper-issued press badge, and wearing a red Stanford Daily sweatshirt, which visibly distinguished him from protesters who dressed in black.”

  • Techdirt ☛ A Sinclair Exec Bought The Baltimore Sun And Is Turning It Into A Right Wing Propaganda Mill

    Like Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Daily Caller, Breitbart, Daily Wire, and other parts of the ever-growing right wing disinfo machine, Sinclair publishes a rotating crop of shallow infotainment, peppered with oodles of misleading fear-mongering over crime, homelessness, and immigration.

  • Washingon-Baltimore News Guild ☛ STATEMENT FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN GUILD – Washington-Baltimore News Guild

    Within the past few weeks — without notifying the dedicated journalists of the Baltimore Sun Guild — The Baltimore Sun began publishing articles from Sinclair Broadcast Group and its television station in Baltimore, Fox45.

    We are concerned that the nature of the relationship between Sinclair and The Sun has not been made clear to us or to our readers. And one of the first articles published from Sinclair failed to meet The Sun’s standards.

  • The Walrus ☛ How to Build an Audience as the Media Crumbles

    In media, time isn’t on anybody’s side. The rise of AI-generated search—which will reduce the need for users to click through to websites, further eating away at advertising revenue—may only hasten the inevitable. But we’re not helpless either. As one of the few publications in Canada that doesn’t have a paywall, we’re proving good journalism can win, especially if you think about your readers first.

  • VOA News ☛ Journalists' killings mount amid declining freedoms in Pakistan

    This was at least the sixth killing of a journalist in Pakistan this year. Four media members were killed just in May.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Reason ☛ Can an Amicus ask the Supreme Court to Overrule a Case Where the Parties Don't?

    The ACLU successfully asked the Court to reverse Wolf v. Colorado in Mapp v. Ohio.

  • Robin Rendle ☛ Robin Rendle — Job Hoppin’

    In the past I’ve watched designers hop from company to company every other year and thought to myself: Wow, what on earth are they doing? How can they possibly learn anything, how can they contribute anything meaningful to an organization if they’re stuck in an endless cycle of quitting and starting over again?

    This, I realize now, is 1. dumb and 2. cruel.

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ How Unite Here Plans to Double Organizing Spending and Save Democracy

    Unite Here is a mid-sized union that punches above its weight. Its door-knocking program is unrivaled, and has been vital to Democratic swing state wins in recent elections. And its formula for building political power for low-wage workers through rigorous, systematic labor organizing is a model for all unions. In my book, I wrote two chapters about Unite Here: One chapter about the Culinary Union in Las Vegas (Unite Here Local 226), which is perhaps the most fully realized example in the country of building working class power by organizing a city’s hospitality industry; and one chapter about Unite Here’s work in New Orleans and Miami, exploring the question of whether the machine that has been built in Vegas can be replicated in other cities with strong tourist economies.

  • Axios ☛ U.S. health care is deeply unequal — and might get worse

    Why it matters: All of the innovation in the world won't make any difference to patients if it's unaffordable or inaccessible, and right now everything in the pipeline is headed for a two-tiered system.

  • Federal News Network ☛ IRS has 37,000 webpages. About 2% get nearly all of its traffic

    The agency maintains about 37,200 total web pages — of which 26,600 are web pages written in English. The rest are translations in other languages.

    IRS.gov chief Angela Render said about 85% of visitors go to the agency’s top 100 English-language pages, and another 12% of traffic goes to the 900 next-most popular pages.

    “The first thing you might start to think is, ‘Well, if [1,000] pages satisfy 97% of the people coming to the site, why do we have the rest? Can’t we get rid of those?’ And the answer is that we have to serve everyone. We can’t pick our verticals like a business would,” Render said Tuesday during a virtual event hosted by ACT-IAC.

  • RTL ☛ 2023 Peace Prize laureate: Nobel committee condemns jail term for Iranian laureate Mohammadi

    Rights groups said Ghalibaf was taken into custody after accusing security forces on social media of putting her in handcuffs and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station.

  • The Hindu ☛ Reincarnation of next Dalai Lama will have major geopolitical implications: former political leader of Central Tibetan Administration

    “The next Dalai Lama will not be born in China. His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama has already declared that. In response, the Chinese government launched a major campaign to counter that position. But it is clear that Beijing does not have any role to play in the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama,” said Dr. Sangay making an elaborate presentation on the idea of reincarnation and why it could have a major geopolitical implication.

    Dr. Sangay pointed out that there are many Buddhist dominated countries in Asia and beyond and all these countries could end up being affected if the Chinese interfere with the process of finding a successor to the present Dalai Lama Dalai Lama who will soon be marking his 89th birthday on July 6. The present Dalai Lama who resides mostly in McLeodganj met with the U.S. lawmakers led by the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul and ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The process of reincarnation came into sharp focus on Wednesday when Mr. McCaul in his remarks before the Tibetan community in Dharamshala declared that China is trying to interfere into the “succession” of the present Dalai Lama. In response to the arrival of the U.S. lawmakers in India, Beijing had said that it would take “resolute measures” to defend its sovereignty.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Price hikes looming for .za [Internet] domains

    The South African Domain Name Authority (Zadna) has introduced inflation-linked price hikes that will see the wholesale cost of domain name registrations rise by 5.23% from R55 to R61 per domain name.

    The new pricing will kick in on 1 October, and wil be effective for one year.

  • India Times ☛ Wifi penetration continues to lag in India despite govt, telcos' efforts: DST Secretary

    Karandikar said that with mobile services like 5G, 6G moving to higher frequency bands it is becoming difficult to provide networks inside buildings where wifi can play an important role.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Your wishes are coming true, Potraz to license multiple operators to compete with Econet, TelOne etc

    We are past debating the benefits of making information and communication more affordable and accessible for the economy. No one is arguing the contrary anymore, not in words, but our actions and policies tell a different story.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Neither the devil you know nor the devil you don’t

    Spotify's relationship to artists can be kind of confusing. On the one hand, they pay a laughably low per-stream rate, as in homeopathic residues of a penny. On the other hand, the Big Three labels get a fortune from Spotify. And on the other other hand, it makes sense that rate for a stream heard by one person should be less than the rate for a song broadcast to thousands or millions of listeners.

    But the whole thing makes sense once you understand the corporate history of Spotify. There's a whole chapter about this in Rebecca Giblin's and my 2022 book, Chokepoint Capitalism; we even made the audio for it a "Spotify exclusive" (it's the only part of the audiobook you can hear on Spotify, natch): [...]

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• The Verge ☛ AT&T is still on the hook for offering landline service in California

  AT&T can’t pull the plug on landline service for customers across California. In a ruling on Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected AT&T’s request to release it from its obligations as a Carrier of Last Resort (COLR), as reported earlier by Ars Technica and CBS News.

• The Register UK ☛ Here's how the EU can force Apple to support competition

  In anticipation of the findings and what they may mean for Apple, Open Web Advocacy (OWA) – an international developer-focused group set up to get politicians up-to-date on technical details - today will issue its assessment of Apple's compliance proposal, with recommendations for how the iBiz might meet its legal obligations.

  A draft copy of the OWA report, provided to The Register ahead of time, claims Apple has failed to comply with the DMA, and has done so in ways that make life as painful as possible for competitors.

• Open Web Advocacy ☛ Apple DMA Review - Open Web Advocacy

  The lack of competition on mobile ecosystems is, at its heart, a structural one. Gatekeepers wield vast power due to the security model that these devices are built on. Traditionally, on operating systems such as Windows, macOS and Linux, users can install any application they want, with no interaction from the operating system gatekeeper, either by the business or the end user. Users can then grant these programs the ability to do anything they desire.

  Locking down what applications can do, such as restricting which APIs they can access behind user permissions, is not by itself anti-competitive and can bring legitimate security advantages. However, the manner in which it has been implemented on mobile devices is both self-serving and in its current form, significantly damages competition.

  This damage surfaces in several forms: [...]

• Cyble Inc ☛ Hacker Release 1M Customer Records From Ticketmaster Data Breach

  The Ticketmaster data breach update is distressing as the threat actors have now released records of 1 million customers for free. The Ticketmaster data leak, earlier confirmed by Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, involves unauthorized access and potential leak of sensitive customer information.

• Omicron Limited ☛ Anti-trust regulators should consider their options carefully when start-ups are acquired, new study suggests

  But that's only in general. Looking at particular cases, innovation can be minimally or even not affected by a ban. If the startup doesn't have much bargaining power and won't significantly profit from a buyout, a ban can boost competition with a small impact on innovation.

  The same goes for blocking a larger company from buying a smaller one so it can commercialize the startup's invention. If the creation is a potential blockbuster, the startup "can go on the market with very similar profits," compared to what it would reap from being bought, Prof. Seibel says. In this case, there may be even no impact on innovation whatsoever.

• Copyrights

  • Ali Reza Hayati ☛ Let Readers Read: An Open Letter to the Publishers in Hachette v. Internet Archive

    Let Readers Read: An Open Letter to the Publishers in Hachette v. Internet Archive

  • The Verge ☛ Redbox missed a multimillion dollar payment it couldn’t afford to miss

    The missed payment bodes ill for the DVD kiosk company, which now owes the remaining balance in full. More importantly, the missed payment suggests the company simply did not have the requisite money on hand, and the prospect of bankruptcy may be looming for Redbox and its deeply indebted corporate parent, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

    NBCUniversal sued Redbox over unpaid DVD and online rental royalties in February. The studio alleged in its complaint that Redbox had stopped paying royalties “around the summer of 2022” and that it was owed around $16.7 million altogether.

  • Wired ☛ My Memories Are Just Meta's Training Data Now

    Earlier this month, Meta announced that my teenage status updates were exactly the kind of content it wants to pass on to future generations of artificial intelligence. From June 26, old public posts, holiday photos, and even the names of millions of Facebook and Instagram users around the world would effectively be treated as a time capsule of humanity and transformed into training data.

    That means my mundane posts about university essay deadlines (“3 energy drinks down 1,000 words to go”) as well as unremarkable holiday snaps (one captures me slumped over my phone on a stationary ferry) are about to become part of that corpus. The fact that these memories are so dull, and also very personal, makes Meta’s interest more unsettling.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Five IPTV Operators Guilty of Movie & TV Piracy, Leader Faces 48 Years in Prison

    Five men accused of operating one of the largest pirate IPTV services in the United States, have been convicted by a Las Vegas federal jury. Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber, generated millions of dollars in revenue through Jetflicks, a subscription service that reportedly offered more content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime. Four of the men face up to five years in prison; Dallmann's maximum is 48 years.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ IPTV Operator Who Was Sentenced For One Week of Piracy is Less Lucky at Court of Appeal

    A man convicted of copyright infringement violations while operating a pirate IPTV service, had his sentence significantly increased this week by a Swedish court of appeal. A lower court previously held that the defendant had infringed the rights of major movie and TV companies, but due to limited evidence, only for a week. The court of appeal disagreed after his own use of the service was uncovered during a police raid.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Breaking: Megan Thee Stallion Beats ‘Savage’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Centering on Decades-Old Instrumental Track

    A New York federal court has officially dismissed with prejudice a copyright monopoly infringement complaint filed against Megan Thee Stallion, Warner Music, and others over “Savage.”

  • Digital Music News ☛ Warner Music Faces Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Tom Petty ‘Wildflowers’ Documentary’s Archival Footage

    Warner Music Group is facing a copyright monopoly infringement complaint from a filmmaker who says half of a 2021 documentary about Tom Petty’s Wildflowers (1994) consists of archival footage that was used without permission. That filmmaker and artist, Martyn Atkins, just recently submitted the straightforward suit to a California federal court.