Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Moonbounce Music

  There’s something inspiring about echos. Who among us hasn’t called out or clapped hands in a large space just to hear the sound reflected back? Radio takes this to a whole new level. You can bounce signals from buildings, aircraft, the ionisphere, or even the Moon itself. Humans have been bouncing radio waves from the moon for decades. It’s been used at war, and in peacetime. But [Hainbach] might be the first to use it for music.

• New York Times ☛ A Place Where It Snows All Summer

  At a factory in western New York, the holiday décor brand Buffalo Snow has been manufacturing blizzards for almost 40 years.

• Hackaday ☛ 2024 Tiny Games Contest: Are You A Good Judge Of Time?

  What can you do with a one-button keyboard? Quite a bit, actually, especially if that key has a little screen on it. That’s the idea behind [Maker M0]’s MagicClick macro pad, which is an updated version of a highly useful project we have featured in the past. Well, now there’s a tiny game to go with it.

• Manuel Moreale ☛ Fifty shades of people and their blogs

  This past Friday the 50th interview of the People and Blogs series went live and we’re also about to close the first year for this series. As always, milestones are arbitrary but I thought it would be fun to take a moment to look back at the first 50 interviews.

• India Times ☛ Who is Rachel Gunn AKA Raygun? Meet Australian Olympic breaker and university lecturer who scored zero points | World News

  Rachael Gunn, better known by her stage name "Raygun," recently found herself in the eye of a social media storm following her participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics. As breakdancing made its historic debut as an Olympic sport, Gunn, representing Australia, performed with a distinctive style that set her apart from her competitors. However, instead of receiving praise for her originality, she became the target of widespread online trolling and criticism.

• Wired ☛ Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Dies at 56

  Wojcicki found herself hanging out with the young founders and became fascinated by the rise of the search startup. She soon joined it herself, about the time the 15-person company moved out of her house and into an actual office, over a bicycle shop in Palo Alto. In 2002, she took over the Google advertising arm, eventually heading a multibillion-dollar business that transformed the entire industry. In 2014, she became CEO of the company's video product YouTube, running one of the world’s biggest media properties and navigating it through competitions with other social networks and crises of content moderation. Though she was one of the most powerful women in all of business, she played it low-key, even to her departure in February 2023, “to start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” as she wrote in the company blog.

• Chris Hannah ☛ My Digital Life After Having a Baby

  After some thinking, I realised that it's not that I'm not interesting it doing any of those things. I want to write on my blog, I want to keep up with other blogs, and I definitely want to keep programming in my spare time. Among a whole bunch of things I used to do day-to-day on my devices.

  The problem is that I now need to optimise the technology I use, and the choices that I make, around a new reality. I don't have no time to do anything, I just have a little less time than before, which makes some tasks more cumbersome.

  It adds a new level of friction that I wasn't used to before.

• Hackaday ☛ Achieving Human Level Competitive Robot Table Tennis

  A team at Google has spent a lot of time recently playing table tennis, purportedly only for science. Their goal was to see whether they could construct a robot which would not only play table tennis, but even keep up with practiced human players. In the paper available on ArXiv, they detail what it took to make it happen. The team also set up a site with a simplified explanation and some videos of the robot in action.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identify Neural Network Vital For Creativity in The Brain

    This is what creativity looks like.

• Education

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Access to knowledge is a right, not a privilege

    To bring public libraries into the 21st century requires a comprehensive national policy that outlines strategies for library services, community outreach, and development. This policy should emphasise the importance of libraries as essential services for supporting strong democracies. National-level support is crucial to enforce public library laws, made possible by a national model public act that sets minimum standards for states to create a network of libraries at the state, district, and town levels, ensuring broad access to library services, reading materials, and learning resources. Additionally, a national licence for electronic resources should include public libraries, giving the public access to e-books, scholarly literature, and children’s books, thereby enhancing library services and resource sharing for all citizens.

  • PC Mag ☛ The Scariest Hacks, Bugs, and Scams We Saw at Black Hat 2024

    The PCMag security team ventured to Las Vegas this week to brave the heat and experience the scarier sides of the internet at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference. Below are some of the more memorable demonstrations, sights, and sounds from the show.

  • New York Times ☛ How Has Tech Changed Your School Experience? We Want to Hear About It.

    I write about technology in schools for The New York Times including innovations, like artificial intelligence-powered chatbots and classroom tutoring bots. This year, I’ve also been reporting on school tech problems — including an article about a group of middle school students who impersonated their teachers on TikTok, and a podcast on high school boys who used A.I. “nudification” apps to make fake nude images of their female classmates.

    To better understand tech use and misuse in schools and inform my reporting, I’d like to hear from teachers, students, parents and school administrators about your experiences. I’ll read each submission and may use your contact information to follow up with you. I will not publish any details you share without contacting you and verifying your information.

  • New York Times ☛ Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones

    The issue isn’t simply that some children and teenagers compulsively use apps like Snap, TikTok and Instagram during lessons, distracting themselves and their classmates. In many schools, students have also used their phones to bully, sexually exploit and share videos of physical attacks on their peers.

    But cellphone restrictions can be difficult for teachers to enforce without schoolwide rules requiring students to place their phones in lockers or other locations.

  • ARRL ☛ New York High School Helps License Amateur Radio Operators

    Staten Island Technical High School began as a New York City public high school in 1988. Its student body is comprised of lifelong learners, innovation facilitators, contributors to the betterment of society and intellectually inquisitive young men and women. In September of 2005, the school was granted the status as New York City’s 7th Specialized High School by the New York City Department of Education. New York City’s Specialized High Schools are comprised of the most academically gifted and talented students.

  • New York Times ☛ Schools Have a Tech Problem

    But the phone crackdowns illustrate a larger issue. Technology rules and safeguards in schools often lag far behind student use and abuse of digital tools.

    And it’s not just phones — school-issued laptops, tablets and classroom apps can also become sources of distraction and bullying. In today’s newsletter, I’ll highlight some of the tech challenges schools are facing.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ The First New Long Wave Radio Station Of This Millennium

    The decline of AM broadcast radio is a slow but inexorable process over much of the world, but for regions outside America there’s another parallel story happening a few hundred kilohertz further down the spectrum. The long wave band sits around the 200kHz mark and has traditionally carried national-level programming due to its increased range. Like AM it’s in decline due to competition from FM, digital, and online services, and one by one the stations that once crowded this band are going quiet. In the middle of all this it’s a surprise then to find a new long wave station in the works in the 2020s, bucking all contemporary broadcasting trends. Arctic 252 is based in Finland with programming intended to be heard across the Arctic region and aims to start testing in September.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Cheap Logitech F710 controller may have contributed to Titan submersible implosion, lawsuit alleges

    A wrongful death lawsuit after the Titan submersible implosion prominently features the cheap game controller as a contributing factor to the tragic accident.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Cult Sci-Fi author repackages WordStar 7 DOS — 680MB zip has software, emulators, manuals, and tips squished in

    Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer, Robert J. Sawyer, has painstakingly packaged a distribution of WordStar 7.0d for DOS. Sawyer says he spent weeks of his time to craft this full install of the seminal word processor, making it possible to be 'up and running on a backdoored Windows computer in a matter of minutes.'

  • Futurism ☛ Google Shows Off Robot That It Says Plays Ping Pong as Well as a Human

    A video shows the robot wielding an extended table tennis paddle, confidently aiming the ball to throw off its human opponent.

    But when it'll be able to take on the likes of China's national team, which recently won gold at the ongoing Olympics in Paris, remains to be seen. While Google's engineers can seemingly keep up with the robot, a professional in the sport will be far harder to beat.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The Dell OEM Sound Blaster Live! CT4780

    Today’s Music Monday is less about a specific song, and more about some weird hardware you may have been forced to figure out how to play music on back in the day. TL;DR, try these drivers on Archive.org.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Fasting-Style Diet Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to Human Brains

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Heart medication digoxin recalled over incorrect dose possibility: Health Canada

  • Science Alert ☛ New Biomaterial Could Finally Repair Damaged Cartilage in Injured Joints

    An end to joint reconstructions?

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Language Could Make It Easier to Tell Different Colors Apart

    The eye of the beholder goes deeper than you think.

  • Science Alert ☛ Olympics: There's a Worrying Link Between Newest Sports And Injury Rates

    Teething pains?

  • Vox ☛ 2024-07-30 [Older] Africa is beating HIV. But the rest of the world is falling behind.

  • Science Alert ☛ DNA From 'Lost European Prince' Solves a 200-Year-Old Conspiracy

    An answer at last.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-31 [Older] Mpox Outbreaks Declared in Kenya and Central African Republic. the Race Is on to Contain the Spread

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Berlin: Thousands march in COVID-19 pandemic skeptic protest

  • New York Times ☛ What Killed Harmony Ball-Stribling?

    One woman’s death reveals the myriad ways in which social and economic factors endanger pregnant women in the United States.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Nails Reveal A Lot About Your Health – Here's What to Look For

    That manicure could be hiding something important.

  • Science Alert ☛ Expert Reveals 5 Ways Your Pet Can Help You Be Healthier And Happier

    A beautiful friendship.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vegetable prices in Malaysia expected to stabilise, say local farmers

    Cameron Highlands produces more than 50 per cent of local vegetables in Malaysia/

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Windows Central ☛ Former Xbox studio Tango Gameworks and 'Hi-Fi Rush' have been acquired by PUBG's Krafton Inc, saving it from closure [Ed: Just shows that Microsoft's layoffs are flippant, panic-based (Xbox sales down 42% in latest quarter)]

    Tango Gameworks will live on, as Microsoft has reached an agreement with publisher Krafton to maintain the studio. Krafton Inc, known for games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has fully acquired Tango Gameworks from Xbox, as well as the the rights to recent action hit Hi-Fi Rush.

  • VOA News ☛ China's drivers fret as robotaxis pick up pace — and passengers

    Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets, economists and industry experts said.

    Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials compared with the U.S which is quick to launch investigations and suspend approvals after accidents.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Cult Sci-Fi author repackages WordStar 7 DOS — 680MB zip has software, emulators, manuals, and tips squished in

    For our younger readers, WordStar for DOS was last updated in 1992, and is currently classed by some as ‘abandonware.’ Though the DOS edition of the software was indeed abandoned, there have been several changes of ownership of the publishing company, numerous WordStar releases for more modern platforms like Windows, and a handful of clones trying to keep the WordStar flame burning on modern platforms. In other words, Sawyer's characterization of WordStar for DOS as abandonware isn't a legal one.

  • Wired ☛ Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All

    Today, at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas, Demirkapi is unveiling the results of this work, detailing a massive trove of leaked secrets and wider website vulnerabilities. Among at least 15,000 developer secrets hard-coded into software, he found hundreds of username and password details linked to Nebraska’s Supreme Court and its IT systems; the details needed to access Stanford University’s Slack channels; and more than a thousand API keys belonging to OpenAI customers.

  • Martin Hähne ☛ The Way We Use LLMs Makes All The Difference

    I am not using a lot of AI stuff. I do, however, have access to and use GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT since we are supposed to be using them at work. I am also totally aware of the problems (ethical, environmental, social, economical, …) that LLMs pose, thanks to Mastodon and my feed reader.

    So, being exposed to lots of AI stuff in practice and lots of critical (and sometimes not so critical) thought about using LLMs, I have observed a certain clarifying trend in my thinking about AI.

    But before we come to that, I have to frame my thoughts correctly.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • 404 Media ☛ Here are the Hacker Tools a DEF CON Hotel is Hunting For

      Security at one Las Vegas hotel where many DEF CON attendees are staying is searching rooms specifically for hacker tools such as Flipper Zeroes, WiFi Pineapples, and soldering kits, according to a copy of security’s instructions.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] United States revokes plea deal for 9/11 plotters

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Some Yankee Stadium Bleachers Fans Chant `U-S-A!' During `O Canada' Before Game Against Blue Jays

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Canada raises travel advisory for Israel to 'avoid all travel' due to escalating violence

  • Off Guardian ☛ 2024-07-31 [Older] Stranglehold of Imperialism: Inflicting Hunger and Hardship in Africa

  • [Repeat] LRT ☛ ‘Deafeating Russia is best thing we could do for Russia‘ – interview with Timothy Snyder

    Timothy Snyder, a professor of History at Yale University and the author of books including Bloodlands and The Road To Unfreedom, spoke to Sashko Shevchenko of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service about possible scenarios for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, what the collapse of Russia as an empire could look like, the current mobilisation efforts in Ukraine, and other matters related to the war.

  • India Times ☛ With smugglers and front companies, China is skirting US AI bans

    The United States, with some success, has tried to control the export of chips. Still, The New York Times has found an active trade in restricted AI technology -- part of a global effort to help China circumvent U.S. restrictions amid the countries' growing military rivalry.

  • The Korea Times ☛ Adele quietly deletes Rising Sun flag image after Korean fans protest

    However, Seo expressed some disappointment, saying, "While it was a good move to promptly remove the Rising Sun flag from the video, it’s a bit regrettable that no public apology was issued. Two years ago, Maroon 5 faced a similar controversy when it used the Rising Sun flag pattern on its website's background, but it quickly removed it following public outcry."

    He emphasized the importance of raising awareness about the historical background of the Rising Sun flag to prevent its future use.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Sweden’s ‘snitch law’ immigration plan prompts alarm across society

    Doctors, social workers and librarians are among those in Sweden who have sounded the alarm over a proposal being explored by a government-appointed committee that would force public sector workers to report undocumented people to authorities.

  • The Independent UK ☛ How children as young as nine are being indoctrinated by the far-right – as revealed by former neo-Nazi

    Children as young as nine are being radicalised by their far-right relatives, a reformed neo-Nazi has warned.

  • The Nation ☛ Why JD Vance Is Unpopular and Project 2025 Has Gone Underground

    It was the grassroots outcry against Project 2025, soon echoed by elected Democrats, that made the right-wing policy agenda both widely known and unpopular. In early July, polling from Navigator Research found a surge of awareness about Project 2025, with 54 percent of the public knowing about the document as against only 29 percent a month earlier. Further, only 11 percent of Americans viewed Project 2025 favorably, as against 43 who viewed it unfavorably.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Central Asia and the Taliban

    Thus, the geopolitical situation in Central and South Asia is developing very actively. Some Central Asian countries will seek to deepen relations with the Taliban. These contacts will be based on economic cooperation and security issues. The Taliban and Pakistan will never be able to reach an agreement. Relations between the two countries will remain tense and conflictual. The political influence of the Pakistani military on various clans and factions of the Taliban will decrease.

  • The Local DK ☛ Denmark boosts border checks with Sweden amid gang [sic] violence

    Sweden has struggled to contain the rising gang [sic] violence in recent years, with shootings and bombings now weekly occurrences across the Scandinavian country.

    Other violent incidents linked to Sweden's gangs [sic] have taken place in Norway, Turkey and Iraq in recent months.

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-01 [Older] Father, son accused in Toronto terror plot deny son's involvement

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-01 [Older] Canada has no plan to broadly give undocumented workers residential status, minister says

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] China lodges complaint after Canadian warship passes through Taiwan Strait

  • CBC ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Canada quietly announces cost of building new supply ships has jumped by almost $1 billion

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Middle East updates: US send more warships, jets to region

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] More than 30 killed in Somalia beach attack

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Nigerian police teargas protesters, arrest hundreds

  • Defence Web ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] In Libya, everything comes down to military muscle

  • Defence Web ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Ghana and South Africa to strengthen military ties following high-level meeting

  • Defence Web ☛ 2024-08-01 [Older] Luanda brokers DR Congo ceasefire

  • JURIST ☛ Australia senator condemns Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians as ‘war crime’

    Senator Penny Wong on Saturday condemned the statements made by the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich surrounding the military justification for the purposeful starvation of Palestinians, in the statement on her social control media X (formerly Twitter).

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Criticized After Strike Kills Scores in Gaza

    Israeli officials defended the attack on a former school compound, saying Hamas was using it as a base for military operations in Gaza City.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Israeli strike on Gaza school used as shelter kills at least 80, Palestinian officials say

    The strike came as U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire agreement. The Israeli military says it hit a Hamas command center inside the compound. A top Hamas official denied there were militants in the school.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli military orders more evacuations in southern Gaza after deadly school strike

    The Israeli military ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza early Sunday after a deadly air strike on a school-turned-shelter in the north on Saturday killed at least 90 Palestinians, according to the territory's civil defence agency. Israel said the strike targeted a militant command post and killed at least 19 fighters.

  • JURIST ☛ US Eighth Circuit strikes down ATF rule on pistol braces as “arbitrary and capricious”

    The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on Friday that the Biden administration’s effort to prohibit pistol braces was “arbitrary and capricious.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Philippines’ Marcos condemns China’s ‘illegal and reckless’ actions over disputed S.China Sea reef

    Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on Sunday condemned what he called “illegal and reckless” actions by China’s air force last week against a Filipino military plane patrolling over a disputed South China Sea reef.

  • JURIST ☛ Philippines appeals court overrules revocation order against independent news website Rappler

    The Court of Appeals (CA) Special 7th Division of Philippines on Friday decided that the revocation order issued by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Filipino news website Rappler was illegal, ordering the SEC to restore the certificate of Incorporation of Rappler, Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation.

  • NYPost ☛ US Navy warship production hits 25-year low, falls behind China: ‘A terrible state’

    Navy shipbuilding has had its worst production in 25 years, putting the US behind rival China in production pace.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-04 [Older] Baerbock calls US missiles in Germany a 'credible deterrent'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Germany debates prisoner swap: A 'deal with the devil'?

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Rolling Stone ☛ A CIA Agent Went Undercover With Islamic Radicals. It Cost His Life

    “What he did — at the time, we thought it was amazing,” says a former CIA official. But “time and distance” have revised this person’s assessment. “Did he just give his life for nothing? All the risk and danger, so what? What really was accomplished? What was really done?” asks the former agency official.

    This article, based on extensive conversations with more than two dozen former CIA officials who spoke to Rolling Stone, is an attempt to answer those questions. It is the story of a man whose life, even for most of his CIA colleagues, is encased in shadow, unheralded and unknown; a spy secreted away from his agency compatriots, who fought in a secret war that was and wasn’t a war; an operative whose legacy is — even today — the object of contention and equivocation among the select CIA cohort who knew him and his work.

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ 'Wake-up call to humanity': Research shows the Great Barrier Reef is the hottest it's been in 400 years

    From these records, we could reconstruct average surface temperatures for the Coral Sea from the year 1618 to 1995, and calibrate this to modern temperature records from 1900 to 2024. The overall result was alarming.

    From 1960 to 2024, we observed annual average summer warming of 0.12°C per decade.

  • Nature ☛ Highest ocean heat in four centuries places Great Barrier Reef in danger

    Mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia between 2016 and 2024 was driven by high sea surface temperatures (SST)1. The likelihood of temperature-induced bleaching is a key determinant for the future threat status of the GBR2, but the long-term context of recent temperatures in the region is unclear. Here we show that the January–March Coral Sea heat extremes in 2024, 2017 and 2020 (in order of descending mean SST anomalies) were the warmest in 400 years, exceeding the 95th-percentile uncertainty limit of our reconstructed pre-1900 maximum. The 2016, 2004 and 2022 events were the next warmest, exceeding the 90th-percentile limit. Climate model analysis confirms that human influence on the climate system is responsible for the rapid warming in recent decades. This attribution, together with the recent ocean temperature extremes, post-1900 warming trend and observed mass coral bleaching, shows that the existential threat to the GBR ecosystem from anthropogenic climate change is now realized. Without urgent intervention, the iconic GBR is at risk of experiencing temperatures conducive to near-annual coral bleaching3, with negative consequences for biodiversity and ecosystems services. A continuation on the current trajectory would further threaten the ecological function4 and outstanding universal value5 of one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Liked to death? The social media race for nature photos can trash ecosystems—or trigger rapid extinction

    How? Viral photos of undisturbed natural beauty can lead thousands of people to head there. As more people arrive, they begin destroying what they loved seeing on screen.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] China hit by second bridge collapse in a month

    • CBC ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] As the ghost of Chornobyl lingers over Belarus, Quebec families offer kids a healthy home

    • The Hill ☛ Volodymyr Zelensky warns of fire at Russian-occupied nuclear power plant, radiation levels ‘within norm’

      “We have recorded from Nikopol that the Russian occupiers have started a fire on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Currently, radiation levels are within norm. However, as long as the Russian terrorists maintain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.”

    • Michigan News ☛ Ann Arbor OKs debated LED conversions for over 4,000 streetlights

      City Council voted 10-0 Thursday, Aug. 8, to accept a $980,000 carbon-reduction grant from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, while also putting $270,000 from the city’s climate-action millage funds toward the effort.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Deep-sea metals: Vital resource or environmental disaster?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Berlin train services disrupted, vandalism suspected

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Akon’s Multi-Billion Dollar Crypto City in Africa Gets a Reality Check

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Japan’s economic revitalization requires nuclear energy

      Japan's economy is recovering, with government efforts to boost population growth and expand energy-intensive industries like Hey Hi (AI) and semiconductors. However, current energy policies may not meet rising demand. Restarting nuclear reactors under enhanced safety measures is key to Japan’s energy security and climate goals. To sustain growth, Japan must continue restarting its nuclear fleet and invest in next-generation reactors, addressing workforce and supply chain challenges.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Australian trees in the Artarmon Reserve

      Speaking of trees, Clara and I wandered back to Chatswood this afternoon via the Artarmon Reserve. There were some stunning Australian trees that looked (and smelled!) amazing, and only about six kilometres from the Sydney CBD.

    • CBC ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] 'Worst-case' flood scenario could see Chilcotin River rise 10 metres: B.C. officials

    • CBC ☛ 2024-08-01 [Older] Landslide blocking B.C. river could give way causing flash floods, officials warn

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Hawaii: $4 billion settlement reached year after deadly Maui wildfires

  • Overpopulation

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ How not to be a terrible tourist: What Europeans want visitors to know

      Travel can be exhilarating or awful, and like it or not, we all leave footprints. Of course, some tourists tread more heavily than others, leaving residents swearing, slack-jawed or just shaking their heads.

      In this busy European travel season, here are some things tourism professionals and local people would like you to know, so you won’t be that tourist: [...]

    • New York Times ☛ Spain Is Thirsty. Here’s How It Gets Water.

      Acciona, a Spanish company that built the plant, says the facility can supply water for 1.6 million people through the process known as desalination. For much of the year, though, the output is largely used to nurture oranges, lemons and other crops for consumers in Northern Europe.

    • Omicron Limited ☛ In drought-hit Sicily, rainwater is dumped in the sea

      Some provinces, especially in the south, are seriously lacking in drinking water and cuts are recurrent.

      Like Cognata, Noto deplores the lack of public investment in maintaining the distribution network.

      Italy is the leading EU country in terms of absolute volumes of fresh water drawn from the surface or underground.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ Can Free Rent Revive Downtown San Francisco?

    The city, which is among those most devastated in the country after the pandemic, is trying to lure businesses back with a free-rent period.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Real World Economics: Central banks’ practices are on a perilous path

  • Odysee Inc ☛ NO MORE ADS

    Starting today, we're removing all ads.

  • India Today ☛ More than 1,30,000 IT employees have lost their job so far in 2024 as tech layoffs continue

    ... Microsoft, among the top companies who announced workforce reductions

    The tech industry, which was shaken by mass layoffs at the start of 2023, has continued to experience rounds of smaller layoffs as part of restructuring efforts throughout 2024. So far, more than 130,000 IT professionals have reportedly lost their jobs this year. The trend of job cuts however shows no signs of slowing down, as the industry continues to face economic challenges, competitive pressures, and the need to adapt to new market realities.

  • Large corporations expect to make more layoffs in the coming months

    The layoffs are expected for a wide variety of industries too. Worldwide tech companies including Google and Microsoft will make cuts and so will retail businesses including Nike and Amazon. Even finance leaders like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs say their workforce will shrink soon.

  • Exclusive: TikTok cuts jobs in Africa as part of global layoffs

    Several employees on the TikTok African team were laid off in June 2024 after the social media giant announced planned global layoffs. Before employees were told about the scheduled layoffs in May, the ByteDance-owned company cut a few roles on the African team in March, one person with knowledge of the matter said.

  • Paramount Global Faces Layoffs Amid Economic Turbulence

    The media giant cuts 2000 jobs as recession fears grip corporate America

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Ravi Dwivedi: How My Schengen Visa Was Refused by Austria

    Vienna - the capital of Austria - is one of the most visited cities in the world, popular for its rich history, gardens, and cafes, along with well-known artists like Beethoven, Mozart, Gödel, and Freud. It has also been consistently ranked as the most livable city in the world.

  • India Times ☛ Anti-terror tech group worried Elon Musk's X membership threatens its credibility: reports

    Members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) believe the group's credibility is undermined by X's membership and position on its board, according to The Sunday Times. The GIFCT also includes major social media groups Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Alphabet's YouTube.

  • University of Toronto ☛ Allocating disk space (and all resources) is ultimately a political decision

    In general, "political" is not a bad word. Politics, in the large, is about mediating social disagreements and, hopefully, making people feel okay about the results. Allocating limited resources is an area where there is no perfect answer and any answer that you choose will have unsatisfactory aspects. Weighing those tradeoffs and choosing a set of them is a (hard) social problem, which must be dealt with through a political decision.

  • India Times ☛ UK revisits social media regulation after far-right riots

    The British government is considering changes to the Online Safety Act designed to regulate social media companies, following a week of racist rioting driven by false information online.

    Why it's important

    The act, passed in October but not set to be enforced until early next year, allows the government to fine social media companies up to 10% of global turnover if they are found in breach.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] US: Trump agrees to debate with Harris on Fox News

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Venezuela: Mass protests against President Maduro's contested reelection

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Vietnam: To Lam confirmed as country's top leader

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-03 [Older] Trump, Harris disagree over presidential debate plan

  • France24 ☛ In TV interview, Biden calls Trump 'a genuine danger' to US security

    President Joe Biden, in his first TV interview since dropping out of the White House race, warned that a second Trump term would undermine democracy

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New York Times ☛ Trump Falsely Claims Harris’s Rally Crowds Are A.I.-Generated

      The crowds at Ms. Harris’s events, including one in Detroit outside an airplane hangar, were witnessed by thousands of people and news outlets, including The New York Times, and the number of attendees claimed by her campaign is in line with what was visible on the ground. Mr. Trump falsely wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that “there was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Reason ☛ California School Punishes First-Grader for a Drawing, Sparking Federal Lawsuit

    According to court documents reviewed by Reason, B.B. and her mother, Chelsea Boyle, filed a series of complaints against the Capistrano Unified School District alleging a First Amendment violation.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • [Ed: Old, one year ago]CPJ ☛ Defiant Marion County Record hits newsstands following police raid

    At midday Wednesday, television crews were setting up for live broadcasts outside the Marion County Record; phones were ringing off the hook; and the paper’s owner, Eric Meyer was on a carousel of interviews about the police raid on their offices five days earlier.

  • CBC ☛ 2024-07-30 [Older] Sale of Atlantic Canada's biggest newspaper chain could reduce local content: expert

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Courts Acquit 2 Journalists On 'Collaboration' Charges But Uphold Sentences On Other Counts

    [...] The journalists ran afoul of authorities after writing about the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly. [...]

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HK press union chief vows to strive for press freedom after WSJ dismissal

    In a newsletter to HKJA members on Sunday, former WSJ reporter Selina Cheng said she did not expect her dismissal from the American newspaper last month to gain the attention of so many international media outlets and journalism groups.

    On July 17, Hong Kong and international media filmed Cheng leaving the US newspaper’s office at Wan Chai’s Central Plaza. She told the press at the time that some senior editors at WSJ found out she was running to become the press group’s leader, as the paper ordered her to quit the union.

  • VOA News ☛ Freed Morocco journalists urge release of political prisoners

    Three journalists released from jail, thanks to royal pardons, called Saturday for Morocco to free "all prisoners of conscience" and start "a new phase" for rights and liberties in the North African kingdom.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ One year after Marion raid, Kansas officials still don't care about constitutional freedoms

    I was never under any illusions that the news media was beloved by politicians or police. But I assumed that those politicians and police officers understood the essential importance of our shared constitutional freedoms.

    We now know not only that they didn’t care about it on Aug. 11, 2023, but they also don’t care about it on Aug. 11, 2024.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Specially-Appointed Prosecutors Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson: For Immediate Release, August 5, 2024 [PDF]

    This report details the findings and conclusions of the special prosecutors and is limited specifically to the assessment of criminal liability of various individiauls regarding the issuance of the warrants in question, the execution of the signed warrants and actions taken thereafter.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] Justice served: Guinea stadium massacre victims find peace

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] German lawmakers attend Auschwitz ceremony for Sinti-Roma

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • SANS ☛ Video: Same Origin, CORS, DNS Rebinding and Localhost, (Mon, Aug 12th)

    Trying something a bit different. A video demo to illustrate some concepts around "Origin" in web applications. Let me know if this is something you would like to see more of.

  • APNIC ☛ New NOG in the Asia Pacific region — TLNOG

    The first-ever Timor-Leste NOG (TLNOG) meeting will be held on 22 August 2024.

  • Tedium ☛ Dead On A Friday

    The Friday night death slot, and why Fridays carry such a hard-to-shake reputation as a place where good broadcast television goes to die.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Sites over platforms over sites

    Online search has become so bad thanks to spam and generative AI, it’s made people look fondly at Reddit again, of all places! Fans were abandoning their Digg clone a year ago for its draconian API changes, and in February given their worrying IPO:

    Now, Reddit — which is not yet profitable — says it seeks to grow its business through advertising, more e-commerce offerings and by licensing its data to other companies to train their artificial intelligence models.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • RFA ☛ Olympics fans in Laos watch events through social media, Thai broadcasts

    Laos’ television channels didn’t have enough advertising sponsors to show a live broadcast of the Paris games, an official from Laos’ Olympic committee said.

  • PC Mag ☛ 15 Cool Things You Can Borrow From Public Libraries for Free

    Rather than spend $19.99 to stream the latest movies, why not see if your library has them as DVDs or Blu-rays you can borrow? Don't have a DVD player? An external disc drive costs as little as about $25. The cost is worthwhile after just one or two uses. The same goes for music, audiobooks, and other audio content on CDs.

  • India Times ☛ Netflix teams up with CBS Sports to produce Christmas day NFL games

    CBS has the broadcast rights for over-the-air television in the competing-team cities while NFL+, league's live streaming service, will show the games on mobile devices in the United States.

  • Macworld ☛ The M4 is coming to the Mac. It deserves better

    That means the M4 MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini would arrive a full six months after the M4 made its debut in the iPad Pro, a long enough time to make it feel old. The star of the show will probably be the Mac mini, mostly due to its rumored new design, but also because it skipped the M3 altogether. The iMac and MacBook Pro will be another minor spec bump.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Modern Diplomacy ☛ Google is officially an Illegal Monopoly. Why does it matter and what’s next?

  In the U.S., it is not illegal to be the only company on the market if it’s due to merit, but an illegal monopoly implies engaging in practices that alter the natural course of competition. The U.S. Department of Justice, first under the Trump Administration, and now under the Joe Biden’s, accused Google of manipulating search results to favor its own services and products to the detriment of its competitors and using data from one service to improve another.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Zebra’s Stripes: Just So Stories about Patent Standing

    The newest patent-focused petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court was recently filed by Zebra Technologies, challenging the Federal Circuit’s determination that the a patentee had standing to sue for infringement even though  a third party separately held rights to assign, license, and enforce patent monopoly rights.

    The case offers an increasingly common situation in patent monopoly litigation finance where the litigation funder is seeking legal assurances and collateral rights, but where those rights potentially risk stripping the patent monopoly owner from the exclusionary rights necessary to establish standing. 

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ 3D printer maker Bambu Lab faces patent monopoly infringement lawsuits that could threaten hobbyist 3D printing in general

    In east Texas, two lawsuits have begun that could have far-reaching consequences for hobbyist 3D printing as a whole.

  • Reuters ☛ Micron, Dell, HP win appeal over conflict claims tied to US patent official

    A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rulings for Micron (MU.O), opens new tab, Dell (DELL.N), opens new tab and HP (HPQ.N) , opens new tab, finding that the decisions could stand even though the attorney who represented the tech companies later became the office's director. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the companies' adversary in the USPTO case, patent owner Unification Technologies, had not shown , opens new tab that Kathi Vidal's previous participation in the case influenced the administrative judges who invalidated its patents.

  • India Times ☛ Micron, Dell, HP win appeal over conflict claims tied to US patent official

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the companies' adversary in the USPTO case, patent owner Unification Technologies, had not shown that Kathi Vidal's previous participation in the case influenced the administrative judges who invalidated its patents.

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2024-08-02 [Older] [Guest Post] Bad blood is not bad faith in South African trade mark disputes

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Warner Music is Looking for an Anti-Piracy Expert to Monitor Leaks

    Warner Music Group says it's building a world-class anti-piracy unit. As part of this quest, the company has a job opening for a new anti-piracy coordinator. Prospects will have to spot the latest piracy trends and find sites and services from where the latest leaks originate. Musical talent is not required, but independent and inquisitive prospects, with a strong attention to detail, are preferred.

  • Jessamyn West ☛ The mining of the public domain

    “Public.work is a search engine for public domain content.” The site claims to have over 100,000 public domain images. This in and of itself is not that special, but the interface is. It’s gorgeous, a fun and engaging discovery layer where every search becomes a URL that can be shared [example] and the page of images endlessly scrolls up, down, and even sideways. Of course, the endless scroll is a bit of a fiction because many niche searches have few results and thus you see images repeating almost immediately. As someone who has seen a lot of repositories of public domain images come and go, I realized I’ve become something of an expert in them. Here are some of my thoughts.