Leftovers

• International Business Times ☛ Lily Allen 'Dipping Her Toes' Into OnlyFans; Ex-Pop Star Is Selling Feet Pics For $10 Each

  In a podcast episode published on June 30, Allen joked about the potential of making money from her highly-rated feet. "I have a lady who comes and does my nails, and she informed me that I have five stars on WikiFeet, which is quite rare," Allen said. "But yes, my feet are rated quite highly on the internet."

• Sumana Harihareswara ☛ Middle Age and Absences

  I am embarking on the part of my life where I can't have conversations with Mel anymore and it's awful. I keep writing words but none of them are enough.

• Daniel Miller ☛ Friend Vs Enemy

  To Friend’s credit, at least they didn’t name their bot some random female name. But somehow that only made it more creepy. In my experience, calling a stranger “Friend” means you’re about to start a fight.

• New Statesman ☛ Remembering the war correspondent Kim Sengupta

  He spent nearly 30 years at the Independent as defence and diplomatic correspondent and editor. He was revered in our trade for his curiosity, bravery and determination to report from the world’s war zones. The last time I saw him he was preparing to head to the far north of Israel, to the Lebanon border – towards conflict and danger.

• Jacky Alciné ☛ Find me at (my) home (server)

  The server I've "lived" at for some time in the Fediverse is currently down. No socket connection (meaning I can't travel to their machine from my home machine over the network I'm on). I thought it was an issue with my phone but then I tried in the browser and in the flagship Mastodon app, to no avail. I think this is my personal reminder that anything I don't directly control, I can't expect to keep up as long as I'd like. I'm not terribly interested in running the behemoth that is Mastodon on my small VPS. I did mention that I was curious about running a proxy from my home server to this VPS to play with things.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Techdirt ☛ T-Mobile Sued For ‘Lifetime’ Price Guarantee That Wasn’t

    T-Mobile raised rates on everybody, including users on plans that were supposedly locked in. Annoyed customers initially filed complaints with the FCC, and now they’ve filed suit. A fresh class action lawsuit filed in US District Court for the District of New Jersey says the company misled millions of wireless subscribers:

• Science

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ The Largest T. Rex Could Have Been 70 Percent Heavier Than Fossils Suggest

    However, “some isolated bones and pieces certainly hint at still larger individuals than for which we currently have skeletons,” co-author David Hone, a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London, adds in the statement.

  • The Register UK ☛ China to get around GPU bans with homebrew supercomputers

    Leading Chinese computer scientists have suggested the nation can build large language models without imported GPUs – by using supercomputers instead.

• Education

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : ADAGE: If You Want To Hide Something From A Zambian, Put It In A Book

    “It’s regrettable we are not a reading nation,” Kenneth Kaunda said when he officiated at the opening of the Lubuto Library in 2007. He continued, “yet vast amounts of knowledge, useful creative information that could change you and me are still in the print media, in black and white, in books and magazines.” He added, “If you read, you’ll come out of the darkness that blurs your vision and keeps you in the vice-grip of poverty.”

  • University of Michigan ☛ Why you should embrace a liberal arts education

    During this time, like many freshmen, I was taking my first-year writing seminar. Toward the end of the term, my professor gave what he called his “shameless pitch for the humanities.” Holding a Ph.D. in French literature, he emphasized the importance of the humanities and the liberal arts as a whole, tracing their roots back to ancient Greek thinkers like Plato and Socrates. Initially, I didn’t see the value in including humanities and social sciences in my undergraduate studies. However, about a week later, I discussed this advice with a respected mentor. He pointed out a compelling historical trend: the longer one’s education remains broad and unspecialized, the more prolific you will become.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ DRAM and NAND revenue could swell to $90 billion and $67 billion respectively in 2024, thanks to AI-driven demand

    The DRAM and NAND flash industries could hit a huge revenue milestone this year. Storage Newsletter reports that DRAM and NAND flash revenue is expected to increase by a whopping 75% and 77% this year, respectively. The main attraction is high-revenue-generating products that are increasing in demand, such as High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM).

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Korea Times ☛ Gun violence is destroying the soul of Chicago and America

    Mayor Brandon Johnson, during a news conference with police leadership after the Fourth of July violence, said he was heartbroken and there would be consequences for those “wreaking havoc on my streets.” Johnson’s words have not slowed the ferocity of gun violence in the city. The Black community is being decimated by guns while Black elected leaders turn a blind eye to lives cut short too soon. They eloquently shout “enough is enough,” but the violence continues unabated on their watch — shattering the hopes and dreams of those wrapped in the darkness of poverty.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • 9to5Google ☛ Reddit now blocks all search engines other than Google

    Reddit can be a valuable source for information from real people, which is why Google is spending millions on a deal with the platform. But, now, Reddit has started to block many of its results from showing in other search engines properly.

  • The Scotsman ☛ Meta AI was asked about Trump shooting and it didn’t end well

    In the now infamous response, Meta AI described the shooting as a “fictional event”. It added: “As a reliable assistant, I strive to provide accurate and trustworthy information. Since there has been no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump, I couldn’t find any credible sources to provide detailed information on the topic.”

  • Futurism ☛ Microsoft Is Losing a Staggering Amount of Money on AI

    Nonetheless, whether the $19 billion — and far more that will surely chase it — will ever be recouped remains to be seen. Despite the astronomical costs, Microsoft and its peers have yet to see any significant amounts of revenue from AI worthy of disclosure in financial earnings, meaning they're currently losing a staggering amount of money on the tech.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ Delving deep into user accounts in Directory Services

    Older versions of macOS used to provide advanced options for users in Users & Groups settings, where you could even change a user’s UUID. Then a bright spark thought it would be fun to tell users to change that in a misguided bid to improve their privacy. When someone who seems to know what they’re writing about tells you to do that, you go and try it, don’t you? Only changing a user’s UUID is catastrophic, and most who did so ended up having to rebuild the contents of their Mac from scratch to put the damage right. The lesson is that you should never try anything you don’t understand, for which there’s no simple undo, and which might have serious side-effects. Please don’t do that: it’s such a crazy idea that it’s malicious in intent. As a result, Apple has progressively removed those dangerous advanced user settings, to keep them out of harm’s way.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Won’t Apologize After Sharing Faked AI Video of Kamala Harris

    Over the weekend, Elon Musk posted an AI-doctored video of Vice President Kamala Harris on X-formerly-Twitter — and thus far, he hasn't apologized for it.

    In the video, which Musk posted on July 26 and has since been viewed hundreds of millions of times, the presidential candidate's voice was altered to make it sound like she was bragging about being "the ultimate diversity hire."

  • Futurism ☛ Ferrari Exec Suspects Call From CEO Is Deepfaked, Asks Question Only He Would Know the Answer To

    That's when things got even shadier, according to Bloomberg. The unnamed executive then jumped on the phone with the phony Vigna, who used a deepfaked voice to "speak" in a live conversation with the targeted scam-ee. In Vigna's voice, the scammer fibbed that the CEO was using a super-secret number to conduct super-secret business, hence the strange messages from the new number. But still not quite convinced, the executive asked the scammer a question that only the real Vigna would know: what book did the exec just lend to his high-powered boss?

  • Wired ☛ Google Cracks Down on Explicit Deepfakes

    Google product manager Emma Higham says that new adjustments to how the company ranks results, which have been rolled out this year, have already cut exposure to fake explicit images by over 70 percent on searches seeking that content about a specific person. Where problematic results once may have appeared, Google’s algorithms are aiming to promote news articles and other non-explicit content. The Aniston search now returns articles such as “How Taylor Swift's Deepfake AI Porn Represents a Threat” and other links like a Ohio attorney general warning about “deepfake celebrity-endorsement scams” that target consumers.

  • 404 Media ☛ AI ‘Friend’ Company Spent $1.8 Million and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name

    Friend, an AI companion company announced today, spent $1.8 million out of a total of $2.5 million it raised to start the company on its domain name, friend.com, according to its founder Avi Schiffmann and a screenshot of the transaction shared with 404 Media.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • WhichUK ☛ Scam car finance claims services on social control media

      Adverts on Facebook (Farcebook) and Instagram offer to help you with complaints and compensation claims

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Don’t Let Your Domain Name Become a “Sitting Duck”

      More than a million domain names — including many registered by Fortune 100 firms and brand protection companies — are vulnerable to takeover by cybercriminals thanks to authentication weaknesses at a number of large web hosting providers and domain registrars, new research finds.

    • Matt Palmer ☛ Matthew Palmer: Health Industry Company Sues to Prevent Certificate Revocation

      It’s not often that a company is willing to make a sworn statement to a court about how its IT practices are incompatible with the needs of the Internet, but when they do… it’s popcorn time.

      The Combatants

      In the red corner, weighing in at… nah, I’m not going to do that schtick.

      The plaintiff in the case is Alegeus Technologies, LLC, a Delaware Corporation that, according to their filings, “is a leading provider of a business-tobusiness, white-label funding and payment platform for healthcare carriers and third-party administrators to administer consumer-directed employee benefit programs”. Not being subject to the US’ bonkers health care system, I have only a passing familiarity with the sorts of things they do, but presumably it involves moving a lot of money around, which is sometimes important.

      The defendant is DigiCert, a CA which, based on analysis I’ve done previously, is the second-largest issuer of WebPKI certificates by volume.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ Our Last Chance to Stop KOSA | EFFector 36.10

      It can feel overwhelming to stay up to date, but we've got you covered with our EFFector newsletter! 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:

    • EFF ☛ Texas Wins $1.4 Billion Biometric Settlement Against Meta. It Would Have Happened Sooner With Consumer Enforcement

      As part of the Texas settlement, Meta (formerly Facebook) can seek pre-approval from the state for any future biometric projects. The settlement does not require Meta to destroy any models or algorithms trained on Texas biometric data, as the state urged in its original lawsuit. And the settlement appears designed to avoid that remedy in the future.

      Meta announced in November 2021 that it would shut down its tool that scanned the face of every person in photos posted on the platform. The tool identified and tagged users who had purportedly opted in to the feature. At the time, Meta also announced that it would delete more than a billion face templates.

      The company shut down this tool months after agreeing to a $650 million class action settlement brought by Illinois consumers under the state's strong biometric privacy law.

    • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft Dynamics 365 called out for 'worker surveillance'

      According to a probe by Cracked Labs - an Austrian nonprofit research group – the software is part of a broader set of applications that disempowers workers through algorithmic management.

      The case study [PDF] summarizes how employers in Europe actually use software and smartphone apps to oversee field technicians, home workers, and cleaning staff.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Box and Slack expand partnership with new platform integrations

      The companies are also rolling several other enhancements as part of their expanded partnership. Joint customers have access to a tool that makes it possible to preview PDFs, spreadsheets and other files from a Box folder in Slack. The companies say previews now receive changes made to upstream Box files within a few seconds, which ensures users have access to the latest information.

    • The Nation ☛ The Olympics Have Turned Paris Into a Panopticon

      In March 2023, the French National Assembly passed the Olympic Games Law, which greenlighted algorithmic video surveillance. This not only etched the technology into French law but made France the first country in the European Union to do so. Using advanced software, algorithmic video surveillance speeds up the processing and analysis of CCTV imagery based on human inputs that narrow the technology’s focus. For example, algorithmic video surveillance can be programmed to target behaviors such as people wearing all-black, individuals moving in an erratic way, or even inanimate objects on the ground.

      Noémie Levain, an attorney with La Quadrature du Net, a Paris-based digital rights group, told us that the Olympics were a convenient pretext for fast-tracking the technology. She said that algorithmic video surveillance is a tool for the police “to enhance social control on public space.” AI-driven video surveillance “can discriminate,” she said, both “technologically and politically,” allowing security forces to zero in on political activists, migrants, and unhoused people.

      She pointed out an important “hypocrisy”: that the experimental technology has been sold to the public for use at the Olympics, but that “it started before [the Olympics] and will end [long] after.” Moreover, French policing officials have already deployed it at concerts, festivals, and other sporting events.

    • The Register UK ☛ Meta to pay $1.4B to end facial biometrics lawsuit in US

      The lawsuit dates back to Facebook's 2011 photo tagging feature, which performed automated facial recognition on people present in uploaded photos. The system would suggest to users who was in their pictures based on their faces, and offer to link through to those friends' profiles from the images.

    • Security Week ☛ Meta Agrees to $1.4B Settlement With Texas in Privacy Lawsuit Over Facial Recognition

      Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday.

    • EPIC ☛ FTC Investigates Surveillance Pricing Practices of Eight Companies

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Meta Facial Recognition Lawsuit Settled With Texas For $1.4B

      The Texas lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused Meta of violating a state law prohibiting the collection and sale of biometric information, such as facial and fingerprint data, without explicit user permission.

      In 2020 – when the company was known as Facebook – Meta settled a similar lawsuit with the state of Illinois for $650 million where the tech giant allegedly used photo face-tagging and other biometric data without the permission of its users. U.S. district judge James Donato approved the deal at the time in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illinois in 2015.

  • Confidentiality

    • Dhole Moments ☛ What Does It Mean To Be A Signal Competitor? - Dhole Moments

      So, let me explain what it means for a communication product to qualify as a Signal competitor from the perspective of someone whose job involves auditing cryptography implementations.

      [...]

      Every private messaging app must be open source in order to qualify as a Signal competitor.

      If it’s not open source, it’s not even worth talking about.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : Unscrupulous People Vandalising Tombstones for Metal Plates At Milemu Cemetry

    Mr Mumba said the unscrupulous people were vandalising tombstones and metal plates bearing names of the dead which they were later selling as scrap metal to illegal scrap metal dealers.

  • Inside Towers ☛ South Africa Cracks Down on Cell Tower Vandalism

    Found guilty of stealing copper and batteries from a Vodacom cell tower, five men were each sentenced to 10-year prison terms. All five were Zimbabwean citizens who illegally crossed the border into South Africa, Data Center Dynamics reports.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ More than 80 arrests made in connection to copper wire theft

    Deputy Chief Michael Oreb of LAPD’s Central Bureau said authorities have deployed 26 task force operations, from high-visibility patrols to undercover actions. At East 16th Street near the Butte Street Junction, the site of Tuesday’s announcement, police on Monday shut down a wire-stripping group that would use the alleyway as a site for stowing the stolen material.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Opinion: Would Trump stop free elections? Hitler and Mussolini's paths could be a clue

    Trump seems to want something even more radical: no voting at all. The GOP supports this with claims that elections have been so corrupted by Democrats that they have ceased to be a valid way to choose leaders. As the MAGA loyalist Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told Newsmax in 2023, “The American people should just stand up and say, ‘Listen, enough’s enough, let’s don’t have elections anymore.’ ”

    Strongmen always tell us who they are and what they are going to do. With the example of the Fascists in mind, we should take Trump and his enablers seriously. The endgame of Republican election denial is not to challenge particular election results but to suppress free and fair voting altogether.

  • Maine Morning Star ☛ With 2024 campaign growing intense, watchdogs warn of election threats

    “We’re still living with the legacy of those lies,” she said. “They’ve undermined the faith of many Americans in our elections and fed anger and heated rhetoric … Those lies have also led to threats and harassment to election officials who have seen massive turnover in their ranks.”

    On top of those challenges, election workers and voters also must deal this cycle with improving generative artificial intelligence tools that make disinformation easier than ever, Common Cause experts said.

    And state laws, such as a measure that went into effect in Florida after the 2022 elections to cancel automatic delivery of vote-by-mail ballots, promise further confusion and disenfranchisement, they said.

    To combat those threats to election integrity, the group is gearing up for campaign-season education drives.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Kansas Stops Enforcing a Law Against Impersonating Election Officials

    The groups challenging the law argue it's so vague that volunteers who register voters could face criminal charges if someone mistakenly believes they are election officials, even if those volunteers are clear that they aren't verbally, in writing or on signs. State officials have scoffed at that argument, but groups curtailed their activities, including one involved in the lawsuit, Loud Light, which seeks to register young people.

    “We are fired up and ready to register thousands of young Kansans to vote again,” Davis Hammet, Loud Light's president, said in a statement Wednesday, describing the law as a ”voter registration suppression scheme."

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Air New Zealand is first major airline to scrap 2030 emissions target

    Firm says it is now re-adjusting to a realistic end date and blames difficulties in procuring new planes and sustainable jet fuel

  • Digital Music News ☛ DOJ Fires Back Amid Intensifying TikTok Forced Sale Battle

    Five weeks ago, TikTok formally sought an injunction blocking the forced sale deadline it’s staring down in the U.S. Now, the Justice Department has fired back against the request and the arguments therein.

    That 115-page retort, substantial portions of which were redacted from the public copy, was just recently submitted against the three consolidated petitions. One of those petitions is attributable to ByteDance and TikTok themselves, with the others having been introduced by creators and an entity called Based Politics.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ UK Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary handed life sentence

    Choudary's life sentence carries a minimum term of 28 years. He will not be released before the age of 85.

    The judge said he ordered such a length term because the preacher "encouraged young men into radical activity."

  • Freedom From Religion Foundation ☛ Don’t be fooled: Project 2025 isn’t going away — Freedom From Religion Foundation

    News media report that Dans is stepping down amid the intense scrutiny of the 900-plus page proposal for the first 180 days in office of the next Republican president. Yet Politico reports that the work of Project 2025 — which includes policy and personnel prescriptions for a Republican administration — will continue, according to a person familiar with the project who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

  • Digital Music News ☛ House of Representatives Bans All ByteDance Apps for Staffers

    All apps from Chinese firm ByteDance will be banned on devices for staffers in the House of Representatives, not just TikTok.

    In two weeks, all apps from TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance will be banned on devices for all staffers in the House of Representatives, according to a memo sent to staffers on Tuesday, July 30.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Doubles One-Time Payments To Those Who Enlist To Fight In Ukraine

      In a move to try to ease a shortage of troops, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on July 31 that raises one-time payments to individuals who sign a contract to serve in the invasion of Ukraine.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine's Zelensky says he wants Russia ‘at the table’ for next peace summit

      In an interview with French reporters at a school gym in the western town of Rivne on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia should be represented at a second peace summit set for November after a first summit convened by Ukraine last month in Switzerland did not feature Russia on the invitee list.

    • LRT ☛ Why Lithuania will no longer fund Ukrainian students?

      From this September, the government will no longer subsidise the tuition fees of Ukrainian students newly enrolled in Lithuanian universities and colleges.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Outlines Plan For Ukraine's Economic Recovery And Increased Investment

      U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker on July 31 outlined a five-step plan to make Ukraine’s economy more attractive to private sector investment.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Lawmakers OK Bill Obliging Naturalized Citizens To Register For Military

      The Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, on July 31 approved in all three readings a bill that obliges naturalized Russian citizens to go through military registration.

    • RFERL ☛ Moscow Courts Sentences Ukrainian Journalist To 5 Years In Prison In Absentia

      The Basmanny district court in Moscow on July 31 sentenced in absentia Ukrainian television journalist Natalia Moseychuk to five years in prison on a charge of inciting hatred.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Signs Law On Suspending Ukraine's External Debt Payments

      The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 31 signed a law allowing Kyiv to suspend external debt payments until October 1, 2024.

    • RFERL ☛ Prison Term Of Shooter Of Enlistment Officer In Siberia Extended To 20 Years

      A court in Siberia on July 30 extended by one year the 19-year prison term of Ruslan Zinin, who shot a military commissioner at an enlistment center in the city of Ust-Ilimsk in 2022 amid protests against a military mobilization for the war in Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Calls For 'Bold' Decisions By Allies As Kyiv Repels 'Massive' Russian Drone Attack

      Air-defense systems successfully repelled what officials called "the most massive attack of 2024" on the Ukrainian capital as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Kyiv's Western partners to make "bold decisions" and deliver enough resources that will allow Ukraine to fully protect its skies.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Zelenskiy says Ukraine does not want China as a mediator

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Kyiv does not want China to act as a mediator in its 29-month-old conflict with Russia but hoped Beijing would apply greater pressure on Moscow to end the war.

    • New York Times ☛ More Ukrainians Appear Open to a Peace Deal

      Most Ukrainians still oppose ceding any territory to Russia. But polls and recent remarks by the country’s leaders highlight a palpable shift in the conversation around peace talks.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine's Zelenskiy wants China to put more pressure on Russia

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Kyiv does not want China to act as a mediator in its 29-month-old conflict with Russia but hoped Beijing would apply greater pressure on Moscow to end the war.

    • France24 ☛ Kremlin critic Kara-Murza disappears from Russian jails, fuelling prisoner swap rumours

      Prominent Russian opposition figure and dual British national Vladimir Kara-Murza has “disappeared” from Russian prisons along with jailed US national Paul Whelan, according to lawyers and rights activists. Reports of the two prisoners being moved from Russian jails to unknown locations have fuelled rumours of a likely prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries.

    • LRT ☛ Hungary easing entry for Russians increases risks in Europe – Lithuanian president

      Hungary’s decision to ease the entry procedure for Russian and Belarusian citizens increases security risks in Europe, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Border Guards Leave Yerevan Airport

      Russia on July 31 completed the withdrawal of its border guards from Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport, a move that was demanded by Armenia earlier this year amid mounting tensions between the two countries.

    • RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Extends Pretrial Detention Of French National Accused Of Spying

      Russian state news media reported on July 31 that the Zamoskvorechye district court in Moscow extended the pretrial detention of French researcher Laurent Vinatier, who Russian investigators have said pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining information about the Russian military.

    • RFERL ☛ Location Of Russian Prisoners Whelan, Kara-Murza Unknown; Other Inmates Also Incommunicado

      A lawyer of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison term on espionage charge that he rejects, said on July 31 that she does not know her client's whereabouts.

    • RFERL ☛ Death Toll In Dam Break In Russia Rises To 4

      Officials in Russia's northwestern region of Karelia said on July 31 that rescue workers found the body of another victim from a dam burst earlier this week on the White Sea-Baltic Canal (Belomorkanal), bringing the death toll to four.

    • RFERL ☛ Siberian Man Who Cut Off Wife's Nose, Ear Gets 5 1/2 Years In Prison

      The Olekminsk district court in Russia's Siberian region of Sakha-Yakutia sentenced a man to 5 1/2 years in prison for severely beating his wife and cutting off her nose and an ear, the court said on July 30.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Starts 'Final Stage' Of Tactical Nuclear Weapons Drill

      The Russian Defense Ministry said on July 31 it started the "final, third stage" of tactical nuclear missiles' drills with involvement of the Central and Southern Military Districts.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian-Belarusian border fence project completed

      The construction of a fence of almost 145 kilometers along the Latvian-Belarusian border has been completed, the State Enterprise "Valsts nekustamie īpašumi" (State Real Estate) said July 31.

    • LRT ☛ Minsk regime behind Belarusian shop attack in Vilnius – opposition leader

      The Lukashenko regime is responsible for the recent incident in Vilnius when a Belarusian souvenir shop was vandalised, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Vilnius-based Belarusian opposition leader says.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Washington Post ☛ Far-right riot in Southport after misinformation on stabbings

    Chadwick said the claim spread quickly online for a combination of reasons: Emotions were high as people sought information in the aftermath of a gruesome attack, the claim was charged, and content restrictions on X have been loosened since the social media platform was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022.

    “We also know that historically social media algorithms are tweaked in order to further that content, because they know that it promotes engagement, and engagement over the long term is their business model,” he said.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Art Historian Discovers Long-Lost Portrait of Henry VIII in Background of Social Media Post

    After examining the artwork in person, Busiakiewicz, a consultant at Sotheby’s, and Aaron Manning, a specialist at a royal palace outside of central London, identified it as a long-lost likeness of the mercurial monarch, painted in the late 16th century as part of a collection of 22 portraits depicting European royals, statesmen and military leaders alike.

  • BBC ☛ Warwick: Missing Henry VIII portrait found after random spot on X

    The post on X that caught his eye was from the Warwickshire Lieutenancy. The account had shared an image of a reception at the Shire Hall, with the portrait visible - just about - in the background.

  • CNN ☛ Missing Henry VIII portrait spotted on X by eagle-eyed historian

    But Busiakiewicz wasn’t interested in the people smiling at the camera. His focus was on the background where, hanging on a wall, was what he suspected was a missing portrait of the Tudor monarch Henry VIII.

    In a post published on his blog earlier this month, Busiakiewicz said he had been “scrolling at speed” when he spotted the painting “with a distinctive arched top” on the wall.

• Environment

  • APNIC ☛ Are subsea cables feeling the heat from climate change?

    Changes in the frequency, rate, magnitude, and nature of climate hazards will depend on the extent and timescale over which we reduce global fossil fuel emissions. Research into different greenhouse gas emission scenarios has started to explore how future climate change may affect subsea cables and their shore-based landing stations.

  • Deseret Media ☛ Navajo Nation blasts transport of uranium ore across reservation to Utah, firm defends effort

    It's a touchy issue in the Navajo Nation, the officials say, given the adverse impact uranium mining has had on the Navajo people over the years. "Our Navajo people have suffered for many years, and many lost their lives due to uranium mining on our homelands. The Navajo Nation will continue to oppose and fight against the transportation of uranium ore through our lands for the health and safety of our people," said Crystalyne Curley, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Reviving Germany's river landscapes

    An urban wetland region in Germany's east recognized the problem early on.

    "We realized 30 years ago already that our industrial, technical advancement has made the forest in this region develop in a wrong direction, that our ecosystem isn't resilient anymore. And that we need to go back to the old ways and let nature work for us," said Mathias Scholz, a floodplain ecologist with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, who has been studying the role of rivers and coastal wetlands for decades.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Barents Observer ☛ Moscow’s Arctic policy is based on lies and corruption, says Russian energy expert in exile | The Independent Barents Observer

      “It is a complete fake. The whole project is a fake. And I have the documents that prove it.”

      [...]

      The state oil company in 2014 said it made a major discovery in a well drilled together with U.S company ExxonMobil, and company leader Igor Sechin later compared the resources of the Kara Sea with Saudi Arabia. Few years later, Sechin announced that Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project in the Taymyr Peninsula would become “one of the biggest projects in the Arctic ever” and that more than 100 million tons of oil annually would be shipped out from a project terminal from 2030.

      “Everything is a fake. Rosneft is a fake company,” Krutikhin reiterates and explains that it is driven by a corrupt scheme developed together with the Russian government.

    • The Atlantic ☛ Lithium-Ion Batteries Have Gone Too Far

      This dejecting trend now afflicts a host of middle-tier and low-end home electronics: not just flashlights and remotes, but also toothbrushes, fabric-pilling removers, can openers, nose-hair trimmers, and sex toys. My handheld milk frother is rechargeable. Same goes for my kitchen scale. Ensuring that either of these gadgets worked on demand used to be straightforward: One simply filled a drawer with old-fashioned, disposable batteries—AAs, AAAs, and sometimes Cs. Now that drawer is full of cables too: a cold spaghetti of USB connectors that must be sorted and attached to fit the tool and task at hand.

      You’ve been duped into thinking that a rechargeable device always offers real convenience. Market forces have aligned with this widespread, false belief, and now the golden age of high-end consumer tech is having knock-on, ill effects. The newest batteries can be frustrating to use, and they aren’t fully safe to throw away. Lithium power is miraculous—but it’s gone too far.

    • Ubuntu ☛ Open source driving the future of EV charging

      The global transition towards electric vehicles (EVs) marks a major shift in the ongoing efforts against climate change and towards sustainable energy solutions. With EV sales skyrocketing to 14 million units in 2023, the demand for efficient and reliable EV charging infrastructure has never been more pressing. Addressing this need requires innovation, collaboration, and the use of cutting-edge technology. We are thrilled to announce a step forward in this mission: Canonical has collaborated with DFI and PIONIX to build an open source charging station software stack, which will be showcased at the Canonical booth at the upcoming IAA Transportation 2024 in September in Hanover.

    • Federal News Network ☛ DoD charges up to EV makers for the next great battery

      As the Defense Department looks to utilize electric vehicles more and more, it’s leaning on EV makers and researchers for the newest and best kinds of batteries. A new collaboration between GM Defense and several government research entities looks to achieve that goal. To learn more about this project, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin welcomed Pete Johnson, Vice President of Business Development for Integrated Vehicles for GM Defense.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Andhra Pradesh: Trained Elephants to Patrol Nallamala Forest Soon

      Globally, trained elephant squads are used to manage forest fires, counter antisocial activities and maintain peace among wildlife. For instance, Indonesia utilizes 23 trained elephants to combat forest fires.

    • CBC ☛ More young people flocking to birding as their hobby of choice

      "What's also impressive are the number of young people that are totally immersed in birding and who have become highly skilled and knowledgeable in a very short time," Alvo said.

      However, he said, younger people seem less likely to join ornithological societies, instead connecting with their peers on social media. That makes counting their numbers more challenging.

  • Overpopulation

    • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Earth Overshoot Day to focus on sustainable life

      Earth Overshoot Day, marking when humanity’s demand for resources exceeds what Earth can regenerate in a year, falls on August 1, 2024. This highlights the urgent need for sustainable practices, especially in rapidly developing countries like India.

    • ABC ☛ Earth Overshoot Day 2024 falls on August 1st

      August 1st marks Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity has used up nature's resource budget for the entire year, according to Global Footprint Network. This international sustainability organization pioneered the Ecological Footprint.

      Earth Overshoot Day falling on August 1st signifies that humanity is currently using nature 1.7 times faster than our planet's ecosystems can regenerate. This overshoot is possible by depleting natural capital, which compromises resource security. The consequences of ecological overspending are evident in deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to more frequent extreme weather events and reduced food production.

    • New York Times ☛ Why Are So Many Americans Choosing to Not Have Children?

      Rather, it indicates that larger societal factors — such as rising child care costs, increasingly expensive housing and slipping optimism about the future — have made it feel more untenable to raise children in the United States.

      “I don’t see it as a lack of a commitment to family,” said Mary Brinton, a sociologist who studies low fertility rates at Harvard. “I think the issues are very much on the societal level and the policy level.”

• Finance

  • The Korea Times ☛ South Korean [Internet]-only banks, card firms boost partnerships amid industry slump

    An increasing number of card firms are partnering with [Internet]-only banks to jointly issue private label credit cards (PLCCs).

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • RFERL ☛ Putin Holds Talks In Moscow With Indonesia's President-Elect

    Russian President Vladimir Putin met on July 31 with Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto in Moscow for talks on expanding relations between the two countries.

  • The Register UK ☛ EU AI Act in infancy, but using 'intelligent' HR apps a risk

    Rauer said the big tech companies had already begun to prepare for the Act a long time ago, but smaller and less tech-savvy market players are just beginning. "They are now in a rush, it will be quite a challenge for them to become compliant within the next 24 months."

    Rauer said it was not so much a technical burden to comply with the law than an administrative burden.

  • The Register UK ☛ Two senior board execs leave SAP

    The departure of two leadership figures from the board follows SAP's recent decision to expand the number of jobs affected by its restructuring program by around 20 percent after generating higher revenue but lower operating profit in the second quarter.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: The largest campaign finance violation in US history

    In other words, the billionaires backing Trump weren't doing so because they supported the racism, the national abortion ban, the attacks on core human rights, etc. Those were merely tradeoffs that they were willing to make to get the parts of the Trump program they do support: more tax-cuts for the ultra-rich, and, of course, free rein to defraud normies with cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes.

  • Molly White ☛ Coinbase appears to have violated campaign finance laws with a $25 million super PAC donation

    This $25 million contribution, however, appears to be in violation of federal campaign finance laws that prohibit contributions from current or prospective federal government contractors. This would be by far the largest known illegal campaign contribution by a federal contractor.

  • India Times ☛ intel layoffs: Intel plans to cut thousands of jobs to finance recovery

    In October 2022, Intel announced a cost-reduction plan that included "people actions", aimed at slashing annual costs by $3 billion in 2023, reducing the chipmaker's headcount to 124,800 at the end of 2023 from 131,900 a year earlier, according to regulatory filings.

  • Techdirt ☛ Senate To Kids: We’ll Listen To You When You Agree With Us On KOSA

    But, I did find it notable that, after all of the pro-KOSA team using kids as props to vote for the bill, how little attention was given last week to the ACLU sending hundreds of students to Congress to tell them how much KOSA would harm them.

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ How the Kids Online Safety Act Was Dragged Into a Political War

    What was supposed to be a simple piece of legislation to protect children online has been dragged into a heated political war. At the heart of the battle are concerns about how the bill could affect free speech on culturally divisive issues, which both sides of the spectrum worry could be weaponized under the guise of child safety. Liberals worry about censorship of transgender care, while conservatives are concerned about the same with anti-abortion efforts. The tech industry has also latched onto the same First Amendment arguments to oppose the bill.

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Senate Passes Child Online Safety Bill, Sending It to an Uncertain House Fate

    Despite the lopsided support among Republicans and Democrats, the package faces a fierce lobbying effort by technology companies that are resisting new regulation, and deep skepticism among free speech advocates who argue that it would chill individual expression and potentially harm some of those whom the bill aims to protect.

  • VOA News ☛ US Senate passes major online child safety reforms

    Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that receives funding from Meta, Google GOOGL.O and other major technology companies, called the bills flawed. KOSA would open the door to censorship and COPPA 2.0 would cut off revenue for services aimed at teens, the group said.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Pair of lawsuits seek to revive fight over alleged censorship campaigns

      The Supreme Court’s decision last month to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that the federal government pressured social media companies to remove content delivered a victory for supporters of online content moderation, but in that ruling’s aftermath, a pair of cases winding their way through the judiciary could force a re-examination of when the government and researchers can share notes about false information with online platforms.

    • NBC ☛ Luxury yachts and other myths: How Republican lawmakers echo Russian propaganda

      Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine.

      Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own.

    • VOA News ☛ Online misinformation fuels tensions over deadly Southport stabbing attack

      Police say the name was fake, as were rumors that the 17-year-old suspect was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in Britain. Detectives say the suspect charged Thursday with murder and attempted murder was born in the U.K., and British media including the BBC have reported that his parents are from Rwanda.

    • ADF ☛ Al-Shabaab Continues to Expand Media Operations

      In Somalia, terror group al-Shabaab has spent years gaining and losing ground. But in the digital domain, al-Shabaab has limitless space in which to expand. It’s where one of the world’s best-financed terror groups spreads its propaganda, disinformation and recruiting messages throughout the region, the continent and the world.

      Shahada News Agency, one of al-Shabaab’s most prominent online messengers, recently announced it is expanding its coverage “to include all countries of the Islamic world.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Reason ☛ 70 Percent of College Students Say Speech Can Be as Damaging as Physical Violence

    A new survey from the Knight Foundation found that more than 1 in 4 college students agreed schools should prohibit "speech they may find offensive or biased."

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • EFF ☛ Security Researchers and Journalists at Risk: Why You Should Hate the Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty

    These vulnerabilities could be exploited to spread malware, cause data breaches, and get access to sensitive information of millions of people. This would undermine the very purpose of the draft treaty: to protect individuals and our institutions from cybercrime.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Trademarks

  • The Questionable Motivation Behind Twitter’s Rebrand Continues – Along with Two Federal Lawsuits

    X Corp., formerly known as Ex-Twitter Inc., was hit with another trademark infringement lawsuit last week out of the Northern District of California.

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Affirms Section 2(c) Refusal of TRUMPINOCCHIO for Shirts due to lack of Consent by ... Guess Who?

    In an opinion of a mere seven pages, the Board upheld a Section 2(c) refusal to register the proposed mark TRUMPINOCCHIO for “Bumper stickers; Cards, namely, greeting cards, note cards, business cards; Posters, Cups; Dishes, Caps being headwear; Hats; Jackets; Shirts," on the ground that the mark comprises the name of former President Trump without his written consent. This appeal had been suspended pending the outcome of the TRUMP TOO SMALL appeal (Vidal v. Elster). In re Richard Zajkowski, Serial No. 87554778 (July 29, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Karen S. Kuhlke).

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • Continuing the set up

      It's been fun getting more of a hang of Gemini Protocol formatting and arranging for this lil' capsule of mine. Given how much stuff I've had on my website/weblog "The Digital Ambler" for years now, and given how the best way to make geminispace fuller is to fill it with neat things (the whole "if you build it they will come" approach), I've been taking a look at some of the pages and main information posts I've made there over the years and made equivalent pages here. On the one hand, it's been fun to see what I actually think is nice to carry over versus what I don't think needs to be here (at least not yet); on the other, it's also been fun (and somewhat of a challenge) get things touched up and reformatted for gemtext markup.

    • μια καλή μέρα

      This morning I wanted to talk to my boss about how I learn best. She's been rather passive aggressive, and I really hate that. However, she dealt with someone more passive-aggressive than her all morning long, so I held off. We have weekly meetings, so δεν πειράζει· the weekly meeting is a better time anyway. Work was good, the concert after was nice, I'm going to bed.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Internet/Gemini

      • A Whole New World

        As of a couple days ago, this site is not longer being hosted from my custom CMS server [1]. It's served me well till now, but all good things must end. May it rest in peace.

        From the very beginning this site has been a way for me to publish articles. Whether they were called "thoughts" or "blog posts" or just "posts" changed over time, but the impetus was always the same: to talk about what I was thinking about or working on at that point in time. Each post is a snapshot, not to be updated, and therefore quickly obsoleted.

        I've been thinking a lot about this. This kind of model, where I produce a feed of content for others to consume piece-meal, is the dominant model on the internet. And for some things it does work well. Looking through my previous work there's quite a bit which _was_ interesting, but no longer is. Hell, this post you're reading now will probably end up in that bucket sooner than later. And that's ok! Something being ephemeral doesn't make it pointless.