Leftovers

• Robert Birming ☛ SeptemBest: A Quality Blog Challenge

  The idea is to blog in the way you normally do. Whether that’s one post every two weeks or two a day doesn’t matter. Then, at the end of September, you choose the text that you think was your "best" during the month.

• Manuel Moreale ☛ The social web

  I recently wrote a post where I ranted shared my thoughts on the IndieWeb. As a result of that I had a great exchange with Jason over email (and that is why you should have a public email) and in talking to him I realised two things:

  1. I had a fundamental misconception of what the IndieWeb actually is (and this is a great post you can read that touches on that misconception around the term)

  2. The Social Web != being social on the web

• Greg Morris ☛ Short Review Periods

  For many years, I’ve had an issue with professional reviewers and the number of devices they cover. The smartphone market is ever-growing with what seems like hundreds of devices each year, leaving the period between first use and review desperately short for many people who can and does present issues.

• David Revoy ☛ Raptus comic convention in Bergen, Norway

  Hello, I am thrilled and honored to announce that I will be attending the Raptus comic book convention in the beautiful city of Bergen, Norway from the 13 to 15 September 2024. As a French comic book artist, it is both exciting and humbling to have the opportunity to share my work with a new audience and connect with other artists and fans from around the world.

• Andrea Contino ☛ Thoughts on my 15 years of blogging - Go With The Flow

  During this brief Italian vacation, I realized that I started this blog in 2009, today. That's 15 years ago.

  A very long time, and although it's not my longest-running online presence, but it's certainly the most consistent one.

• Anne Sturdivant ☛ What the indie web means to me.

  The indie web to me is giving of yourself and your knowledge to further the independent web. Today I ended up down a rabbit hole of links on this very subject. It started with reading Manu's recent post, referring back to another post pushing back a little on the IndieWeb. But I think Manu has a change of heart, through the power of other people taking time to talk through it, Manu comes around.

• Science

  • Bertrand Meyer ☛ Blog Archive The power and terror of imagination

    The sole reason for fearing and skirting negative numbers was an inability to accept a construction that contradicted a simplistic view of physical reality. Like object-oriented programming and many other bold advances, all that was required was the audacity to take imagined abstractions seriously.

  • Rlang ☛ An IV study design to estimate an effect size when randomization is not ethical

    An investigator I frequently consult with seeks to estimate the effect of a palliative care treatment protocol for patients nearing end-stage disease, compared to a more standard, though potentially overly burdensome, therapeutic approach. Ideally, we would conduct a two-arm randomized clinical trial (RCT) to create comparable groups and obtain an unbiased estimate of the intervention effect. However, in this case, it may be considered unethical to randomize patients to a non-standard protocol.

  • University of Michigan ☛ It Happened at Michigan — The first practical holograms

    Leith approached Upatnieks, a Latvian immigrant who had recently completed his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and joined Willow Run Laboratories, in 1960 to help develop practical holography. They developed a two-step process using beams of light to re-create physical objects as holograms. The pair called their discovery “lensless photography” because “a lens was not used between the object and the photographic plate.”

    Leith and Upatnieks first debuted practical holography in the fall of 1963, and the discovery took the science community by storm after their display at the Optical Society of America meeting the following spring.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Mathematicians model a puzzling breakdown in cooperative behavior

    At a basic level, cooperation flourishes when the costs to cooperation are low or the benefits large. When cooperation becomes too costly, it disappears—at least in the realm of pure mathematics. Symbiotic relationships between species—like those between pollinators and plants–are more complex, but follow similar patterns.

    But new modeling published today in PNAS Nexus adds a wrinkle to that theory, indicating that cooperative behavior between species may break down in situations where, theoretically at least, it should flourish.

• Education

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ List of Old NSA Training Videos

    There are a bunch explaining the operations of various cryptographic equipment, and a few code words I have never heard of before.

  • Elliot C Smith ☛ Know which type of goals you're chasing

    Other companies, especially smaller ones, tend to change direction regularly. Goals and projects are small and set out as they arise. There is a general agreement that what you picked might fall off the priority list and that, for the most part, what’s most important will move around. In this company, goals are like an animal that you’re chasing. It knows you’re coming and is doing it best to get away from you.

  • Baldur Bjarnason ☛ A note on estimated reading times – Baldur Bjarnason

    But, from my perspective as somebody who still regulary works on web-based reading systems, the biggest argument for why they might not be ableist is that they are largely bullshit. They aren’t that useful – at least not in the way people think.

    Reading time of any given text is affected by a number of different variables:

• Hardware

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Intel reveals their Core Ultra 200V 'Lunar Lake' available starting September 24

    Lunar Lake has launched now officially as the Intel Core Ultra 200V series, due out from September 24th for "AI PCs". The actual launch on September 24th will include systems from Acer, ASUS, Dell Technologies, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI and Samsung and others will various products going up from today for pre-order.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ AAEON’s PICO & GENE Boards with Intel Atom x7000RE Processors

    The PICO-ASL4, built on the 100mm x 72mm PICO-ITX form factor, supports Intel Atom x7433RE and x7835RE processors and can accommodate up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM using a single-channel SODIMM Non-ECC module.

  • Intel’s Dow status under threat as chipmaker’s shares plunge

    Intel was one of the first two tech companies to join the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the late-’90s dot-com boom, along with Microsoft. Now, a slump in Intel’s share price could cost the American chipmaker its place in the blue-chip index.

  • Chris Aldrich ☛ Acquisition: 1958 Olympia SM3 Portable Typewriter

    On Saturday, August 3rd, after a patience-trying wait, I picked up this lovely green 1958 Olympia SM3. It’s the first typewriter in my collection with both an exotic character set as well as a typeface that veers outside of the standard pica and elite typefaces.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Jeroen Sangers ☛ Doing nothing is more fun than we think

    We often underestimate how valuable doing nothing can be, because we do not realize how interesting and enjoyable our own thoughts can be. People usually choose activities to keep busy, often because they are afraid of getting bored. But doing nothing can be surprisingly enriching, as shown by the positive responses of people in studies. If we learn to appreciate moments of rest more, we can learn to enjoy simply thinking and reflecting. This can ultimately contribute to a more balanced and satisfying life.

  • Arduino ☛ Exercise while you game with this interactive treadmill add-on

    Motion-based controls for games have been around for decades, but even with the latest generation of virtual reality headsets, gaming is still done with relatively limited movement unless one has access to an expensive VR walking/running setup. As an effort to get more physical activity in, Iacopo Guarneri has developed a motion-capturing add-on that can be worn while on a treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical to control in-game actions.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Futurism ☛ Trump Posts AI-Generated Image of Kamala Harris as Joseph Stalin, But Instead It Just Looks Like Mario

    It wasn't the first time that Trump has used AI to attack Harris. Last month, days after falsely accusing his rival of using AI to fake the appearance of large crowds greeting her at a campaign stop — and, in the process, arguing that a presidential candidate using AI to create fake images should warrant disqualification on "election interference" grounds — Trump posted an AI-drawn image of a red-clad Harris speaking to a herd of Soviet-like figures, a hammer-and-sickle flag waving overhead.

  • Tedium ☛ Why Does Oracle Make Its Cloud Signup So Terrible?

    Oracle’s form to access free cloud server space seems designed to discourage you from taking advantage of the offering. It’ll leave you frustrated.

  • New York Times ☛ Order to Block Elon Musk’s X in Brazil Is Upheld

    The five-justice panel voted unanimously to back the order, issuing strongly worded opinions saying that the blackout of X complied with Brazilian law and that it was necessary to enforce the nation’s rules against a foreign company that was flouting them.

    X “seems to believe it’s above the law,” wrote one justice, Flavio Dino. “Economic power and the size of a bank account do not give rise to outlandish immunity.”

  • Ben Tsai ☛ ↗ Will AI go the way of the Concorde?

    The Concorde was not built on stolen resources that exploits the creative work of anyone who has ever posted anything to the Internet. The Concorde was not feared to destroy humanity or imagined as the vehicle to all future flourishing. The Concorde technology was not inanely applied to every thinkable domain, taking investment away from all other humanity-improving endeavors.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Telegram investigated in South Korea over surge of sexual deepfake content

    Authorities in South Korea have begun an investigation into the embattled instant messaging app Telegram, focusing on the platform’s relationship with deepfake sex crimes that have caused a stir in the country.

  • The Korea Times ☛ Telegram apologizes for handling of deepfake porn content in Korea

    Korea's media regulator said Tuesday encrypted messaging app Telegram has complied with its request to remove certain deepfake pornographic content on its platform and apologized for its response to digital sex crimes.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Telegram complying with regulators, says South Korea

    A South Korean broadcaster revealed last month that university students were running an illegal Telegram chatroom, where they shared deepfake pornographic material featuring female classmates. Other chatrooms were subsequently discovered, sparking public outrage.

  • The Record ☛ Cyberattack hits agency responsible for London’s transport network

    An unspecified cybersecurity incident is impacting Transport for London (TfL), the government body responsible for the transport network in Britain’s capital, it announced late on Monday.

  • BBC ☛ Transport for London faces 'ongoing cyber security incident'

    It said there was no evidence customer data had been compromised and there was currently no impact on TfL services.

    Insiders have told BBC London they have been asked to work at home if possible, and that it is the transport provider's backroom systems at the corporate headquarters that are mainly affected.

  • Wired ☛ The US Navy Is Going All In on Starlink

    The Navy is testing out the Elon Musk–owned satellite constellation to provide high-speed internet access to sailors at sea. It’s part of a bigger project that’s about more than just getting online.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Tory councillor’s wife’s criminal social media post ‘did not break X rules’

    The childminder pleaded guilty to publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred at Northampton Crown Court on Monday.

    Despite the post breaking UK law, it did not break the increasingly lax content rules on X – previously known as Twitter.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Sextortion Scams Now Include Photos of Your Home

      An old but persistent email scam known as “sextortion” has a new personalized touch: The missives, which claim that malware has captured webcam footage of recipients pleasuring themselves, now include a photo of the target’s home in a bid to make threats about publishing the videos more frightening and convincing.

      Sextortion — even semi-automated scams like this one with no actual physical leverage to backstop the extortion demand — is a serious crime that can lead to devastating consequences for victims. Sextortion occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them with images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Archive Today ☛ Meet the security robot patrolling an Atlanta neighborhood

      Known as a Knightscope K5, the device patrols the Wingate City Lights apartment community in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. Property managers hope the autonomous machine, which can record activity and report anything concerning to the Atlanta Police Department, will deter crime.

      The devices, which the company says have been have been used in places like malls, hospitals, airports, casinos and across the country, feature 360-degree, high-definition cameras, microphones and thermal sensors. Detecting unusual swings in air temperatures could alert authorities to a fire or people loitering in unauthorized areas, notes Stacy Stephens, Knightscope’s executive vice president and chief client officer.

      The K5 can identify both license plates and people, through facial recognition, and can use wireless signal detection to identify mobile devices, Stephens said.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Clearview AI fined €30.5M in the Netherlands over its facial recognition database

      The penalty is the latest in a series issued to the company by data protection regulators. Moreover, Clearview AI’s business practices were the focus of multiple lawsuits in the U.S. over the past few years.

      Clearview AI operates a database that contains more than 30 billion photos of people’s faces. Those images are collected from sources such as social media without the affected individuals’ knowledge or permission. The company uses the data to power a facial recognition service that it sells to law enforcement agencies, other government organizations and those organizations’ contractors.

    • India Times ☛ Meta to inform Brazilians how it uses their personal data to train AI

      Brazil's National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) in July suspended Meta's new privacy policy over the use of personal data to train AI, but overturned this last Friday saying Meta had agreed to issue the disclosures.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Meta to Inform Brazilians How It Uses Their Personal Data to Train AI

      Meta's users in Brazil will receive the warnings starting on Tuesday by email and notifications on Facebook and Instagram, and will be able to reject the use of their data by the firm to train generative AI, it said in a statement.

    • NL Times ☛ Clearview AI fined €30.5 million for “illegal” facial recognition database

      The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA) has fined Clearview AI 30.5 million euros for building an “illegal” facial recognition database with the photos of billions of people, including Dutch people, without their knowledge or consent. The Dutch DPA also warned that using Clearview AI’s services is illegal.

      Clearview is an American commercial business that offers facial recognition services to intelligence and investigative services. Customers can provide camera images to Clearview to find out the identity of people shown in the images. Clearview has a database with over 30 billion photos of people scraped off the internet without the involved people’s knowledge or consent. Clearview then converts the photos into a unique biometric code per face.

    • PC World ☛ Can a VPN really hide all of your torrent activity?

      So what is the answer if you still want to torrent? A VPN, or virtual private network. Not only does a VPN hide your traffic inside a private tunnel so nosey outsiders can’t track you, but in doing so it encrypts your data for added protection. Below I’ll talk about how torrents work, if a VPN really hides your torrent activity, and if using a VPN to torrent is right for you.

    • Patrick Breyer ☛ Chat control blitz decision? Hungary wants to push through unprecedented EU plans for messenger mass surveillance after all

      As early as tomorrow morning, a majority of EU governments could endorse the controversial draft law on chat control, which had been removed from the agenda in June after massive protests. According to a report by the news service Contexte, the new Hungarian Council Presidency intends to achieve a majority with a small twist, namely removing the searching for unknown material using „artificial intelligence“ from the mandatory measures (as requested by the Netherlands) and making it voluntary for providers. The exact details of the Hungarian proposal have been leaked by Contexte. But the proposal is still to require bulk automated searches in and disclosure of private chats, including end-to-end encrypted chats, that might contain illegal photos or videos. If a user opts out of this “upload moderation” of their chats, they would be blocked from receiving or sending any images, videos and URLs. Signal and Threema have announced they would end their services in the EU if forced to implement the proposed automated monitoring (so-called “client-side scanning”).

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ TikTok likely helped far right in German elections: analysts

    Given TikTok's popularity among young users, this could be linked to the strong presence of AfD content on the platform, said Roland Verwiebe, a professor at the University of Potsdam and one of the coordinators of a project monitoring the activity of German parties on TikTok.

    "We believe that the AfD's success on TikTok very likely contributed to the AfD's electoral success," Verwiebe told DW.

    "Half of all 16-24-year-olds only get their political information [sic] from TikTok," he added. "That makes the platform extraordinarily influential."

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Telegram Became a Sanctuary for Domestic Terrorists

    From attempting to incite racially motivated violence to encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure, the alleged crimes planned and advertised by extremists on Telegram go far beyond the charges facing CEO Pavel Durov.

  • The Record ☛ Indicted pair of foreign nationals were behind swatting attack on CISA director

    A federal indictment against the two men was unsealed last week. The pair are charged with conspiracy and more than two dozen counts of making threats over the span of more than three years.

    In addition to Easterly, the duo targeted a former U.S. president, members of Congress and senior federal law enforcement officials.

  • The Atlantic ☛ What Trump doesn’t understand about the military

    Donald Trump has disgraced himself in many areas. But his longevity in public life after expressing open contempt for the men and women of the United States military, and especially those who have been wounded or killed in the service of their country, is an appalling achievement unmatched by any of his predecessors.

    Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg has written several important articles about Trump and his relationship with the military—he broke the story about Trump referring to America’s fallen soldiers as “losers” and “suckers”—and that reporting has now been gathered into a book for Atlantic Editions titled On Heroism.

  • Deseret Media ☛ US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel

    The seven-count criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death. It also accuses Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons, including rockets, and military supplies.

  • Nick Heer ☛ Third Circuit’s Section 230 TikTok Ruling

    Notably, the “Blackout Challenge” or the “Choking Game” is one of few internet challenges for teenagers which is neither a media-boosted fiction nor relatively harmless. It has been circulating for decades, and was connected with 82 deaths in the United States alone between 1995–2007. Which, yes, is before TikTok or even social media as we know it today. Melissa Chan reported in a 2018 Time article that its origins go back to at least the 1930s.

  • US Navy Times ☛ How Navy chiefs conspired to get themselves illegal warship Wi-Fi

    The enjoyment of those wireless creature comforts by enlisted leaders aboard the ship carried serious repercussions for the security of the ship and its crew.

    “The danger such systems pose to the crew, the ship and the Navy cannot be understated,” the investigation notes.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Be careful with your vote so we don't vote democracy out of existence

    Our system, which relies on people’s choices at the ballot box, can be voted right out of existence if that’s what the majority chooses to do. “Majority rule” means that the candidates who get the most votes get to wield authority on our behalf. If we choose candidates who assert that they will ignore our founders’ original principles – particularly the obligation to protect the rights of those who hold minority views – in favor of efficiently enforcing the will of the majority, democracy may easily disintegrate.

    It wouldn’t take a war. It wouldn’t require a police state – although that could follow if democratic principles are rejected. No, the very heart of democracy, the process by which each of us votes for our leaders, can result in democracy being voted out of business.

  • Starmer permanently ties UK nuclear arsenal to Washington

    Labour has reinforced the “special relationship” with Washington by agreeing to make Britain’s nuclear arsenal permanently dependent on the US.

    In one of its first, but little-noticed foreign policy moves, Labour has amended the Eisenhower-era 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) that is crucial to Britain’s Trident nuclear missile system.

  • NYPost ☛ TikTok 'Chase bank glitch' shows people committing alleged check fraud

  • ABP ☛ Tech Industry Sees Layoffs Surge To 27,000 In August, Highest Since January; Here Are The Details

    This month, IBM announced the closure of its research and development operations in China, a move expected to impact over 1,000 jobs. The US-based tech giant has been grappling with decreased demand for its hardware and difficulties in expanding within the Chinese market.

• Environment

  • The Revelator ☛ In France, One Group Seeks to Do the Unthinkable: Unite the Climate Movement

  • Baldur Bjarnason ☛ A short conversation on individual responsibility – Baldur Bjarnason

    (Originally published on Mastodon, where I get these kinds of comments all the time.)

  • VOA News ☛ 'Queen of Trash' in dock in Sweden's biggest toxic waste scandal

    A once-acclaimed waste management company is accused of dumping or burying some 200,000 tons of waste from the Stockholm area at 21 sites, with no intention of processing it correctly.

  • Wired ☛ Ski Resorts Are Stockpiling Snow to Get Through Warm Winters

    It’s time to check on the snow pile. In mid-August, Marko Mustonen, commercial director of Levi ski resort in northern Finland, logs on to a live webcam view of an elongated heap of snow snaking down a hillside. He shares his screen with me on Zoom so that I too may observe the precious hoard. The snow is neatly covered by thick, white, insulating blankets—and surrounded by grassy green terrain.

    “It’s looking very good,” Mustonen remarks. “This is the biggest amount of snow we have ever stored. I think we are reaching the optimum.”

    Four separate stockpiles like this one at Levi amount to a total of 260,000 cubic meters of snow, enough to fill 100 Olympic swimming pools. It is one of the largest snow-storing operations in the world. With this hefty supply at hand, Levi can more or less guarantee opening some key ski routes in November without having to rely on natural snowfall.

  • Andrea Contino ☛ Airplane Waste - Go With The Flow

    Starting with these headphones. How many of these are distributed around the world every day? And how many of those are/will be recycled? I imagine the environmental impact of these tiny objects is not insignificant, and as I put them on to listen to the audio of "Dune: Part Two," I wondered if there was a way to avoid distributing more than 300 pairs on each transoceanic flight.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Vintage Everyday ☛ “It’s a Bird”, 1930 Stop-Motion Film About a Bird That Likes to Devour Car Parts

      Here’s the strangest cartoon with an automotive theme you’ll ever see. From the delightfully demented mind of comedian Charley Bowers comes the 1930 stop-action classic, It’s a Bird. Ever see a bird devour an entire Model T Ford? Watch this.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Lighthouses of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are beacons of history

      After French explorers reached the Great Lakes region in the early 1600s, word traveled back to Europe about a “great northern sea” – the uppermost lake that soon earned the name Lake Superior. Europeans and early American Colonists began using it for fur trading and, later, to transport mined copper and iron. In the second half of the 19th century, lighthouses were erected along Lake Superior’s coast to help guide ships through the notoriously rough waters.

• Finance

  • Pro Publica ☛ Is My Short-Term Los Angeles Rental Legal?

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • India Times ☛ Salesforce: Salesforce to acquire AI voice agent firm Tenyx, joining AI talent race

    Enterprise cloud firm Salesforce on Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire Tenyx, which develops artificial intelligence-powered voice agents, to advance its AI-driven solutions.

    The acquisition, for which no deal value was disclosed and is expected to close in the third quarter, will see Tenyx's co-founders, CEO Itamar Arel and CTO Adam Earle, along with their team, join Salesforce.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ White House publishes latest plan to protect a key component of the [Internet]

    A report from the Office of the National Cyber Director released Tuesday is meant to serve as a roadmap for network operators, cloud service providers, critical infrastructure owners, government agencies and others to safeguard BGP. Among its chief recommendations is the adoption of infrastructure developed to enable additional security mechanisms for BGP.

  • [Old] Techstrong Group ☛ The Cyber Resilience Act Threatens the Future of Open Source

    The seemingly purposeful omission of exemptions for open source would put undue onus on open source foundations and maintainers and poses a serious risk to not just EU innovation and security but global collaboration. Something we, and many others in the industry, have tried to raise awareness about over the past six months. Unfortunately, the EU has largely ignored the industry’s voice. Holding open source developers whose components end up in commercial products liable for security issues will stifle innovation and harm the EU economy without providing a substantive improvement in security.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ Russian propaganda celebrates German far right

      In Russia media, commentators and pundits welcome the far-right gains in Germany's regional elections. They see it as supporting its interests in Ukraine, undermining German democracy and helping domestic propaganda.

    • The Register UK ☛ Spamouflage trolls pretend to be American patriots on X

      The pro-People's Republic of China propaganda crew set up at least 15 accounts on X and one on TikTok claiming to be US patriots, according to a new report by social media analytics firm Graphika.

    • The Record ☛ Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ operatives are mimicking disillusioned Americans online

      “Since mid-2023, Spamouflage has expanded its use of inauthentic online personas that impersonate U.S. voters or U.S.-based social media users,” Graphika wrote. “This activity is just a fraction of the larger Spamouflage network but is distinct from the operation’s typical use of low-quality inauthentic accounts with generic and thinly developed personas.”

      The researchers identified accounts posing as self-proclaimed patriots — using American flags or images of soldiers in their bios — and which “explicitly stated that they were American voters, soldiers, or ‘someone who love(s) America’ but had supposedly become disappointed at the U.S. government and the current administration.”

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Disinfo group Spamouflage more aggressively targeting U.S. elections, candidates

      A prolific disinformation group linked to the Chinese government has stepped up its efforts to impersonate Americans this year in an attempt to degrade and diminish U.S. politicians and institutions in the eyes of voters.

      Spamouflage — also known as Dragonbridge, Taizi Flood and Empire Dragon — produces high-volumes of spammy, inauthentic content online in an effort to influence political and public opinion in targeted countries. While typically not focused on elections or candidates in the U.S., Graphika researchers say that since mid-2023, associated accounts are increasingly mimicking American voters and criticizing politicians and candidates.

    • Graphika ☛ Chinese State-Linked Influence Operation Spamouflage Masquerades as U.S. Voters to Push Divisive Online Narratives Ahead of 2024 Election

      In the run-up to the 2024 election, these accounts have seeded and amplified content denigrating Democratic and Republican candidates, sowing doubt in the legitimacy of the U.S. electoral process, and spreading divisive narratives about sensitive social issues including gun control, homelessness, drug abuse, racial inequality, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. This content, some of which was almost certainly AI-generated, has targeted President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and, more recently, Vice President Kamala Harris.

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ China-linked 'Spamouflage' network mimics Americans online to sway U.S. political debate

      New research into Chinese disinformation networks targeting American voters shows Harlan’s claims were as fictitious as his profile picture, which analysts think was created using artificial intelligence.

      As voters prepare to cast their ballots this fall, China has been making its own plans, cultivating networks of fake social media users designed to mimic Americans. Whoever or wherever he really is, Harlan is a small part of a larger effort by U.S. adversaries to use social media to influence and upend America’s political debate.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ Egypt Should End Attacks on Free Expression, Release Unjustly Detained

    The groups said that Egypt should urgently cease targeting critics, end attacks on freedom of expression, and immediately release those unjustly detained. Egyptian authorities must ensure that all individuals are able to participate in public debate and openly express their opinions and criticism of State institutions and officials without intimidation or reprisal.

    The full statement and the list of signatories follow below.

  • New York Times ☛ From School Librarian to Activist: ‘The Hate Level and the Vitriol Is Unreal’

    It was part of a deluge of online threats and harassment that Jones has faced since the summer of 2022, when she was one of around 20 people to speak out against book banning during a July meeting at her local public library.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ CUHK journalism teacher Allan Au 'on leave' after op-eds ruled 'seditious'

    Among the 11 articles were four op-eds written by Au on the national security law and the sedition law, and their impact on Hong Kong.

    Au was arrested by national security police in April 2022. Local media outlets reported citing sources that Au was arrested for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious materials, under the colonial-era anti-sedition legislation.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Revisiting: Libraries and the Contested Terrain of "Neutrality" - The Scholarly Kitchen

    The question of whether libraries can – or even should – be “neutral” has been a difficult and controversial one for years. It is now becoming even more so as book bans become more prevalent and command more public attention. Recently, the political Right has increased its efforts to get books on various topics pulled from library shelves, especially in public and school libraries; the Left, on the other hand, generally engages in book banning from a different angle, trying to stop books from being published, calling for them not to be sold, and retroactively censoring books already published. In this politically charged context, the American Library Association offers an incoherent advocacy message, on one hand asserting that libraries must provide “an impartial environment” that offers “information spanning the spectrum of knowledge and opinions,” while on the other decrying “neutrality rhetoric” in librarianship for its role in “emboldening and encouraging white supremacy and fascism.”

    A fundamental question remains insufficiently examined: in the context of libraries, what does “neutral” actually mean? Are there ways in which libraries can and should be “neutral,” and ways in which they should not? This post from several years ago examined these questions – ones that seem even more urgent in the current moment than they did then.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • ANF News ☛ MKG: Journalists were subjected to continued repression and attacks in August

    The report stated that the attacks against Kurdish journalists were especially prominent last month: “Kurdish journalists Hêro Bahadîn and Gulistan Tara lost their lives and 6 journalists were injured in an attack carried out by Turkey in Sulaymaniyah. In addition, journalists were prevented from fulfilling their duties in various ways, some of them were physically attacked and seriously injured.”

  • The Real News Network ☛ Julian Assange is free—defying imprisonment, and even assassination plots

    After more than a decade of persecution, Julian Assange has returned home to Australia a free man. He almost didn’t make it. The FBI and the Pentagon considered every available means—legal and otherwise—to prevent Julian from winning his freedom. Chip Gibbons and Kevin Gosztola return to discuss with TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Project Censored’s Eleanor Goldfield the inside story of Julian’s fight for freedom, and the monsters who tried to crush him.

  • John Gruber ☛ AnandTech Is Closing Down

    Awful news. There was no publication like AnandTech before it was founded, and there’s been no publication like it since. To say that it will be sorely missed is a profound understatement. When founder Anand Lal Shimpi left the site to join Apple 10 years ago, I was pretty skeptical that AnandTech could maintain relevance, let alone excellence. But it did, in spades. I’d go so far as to say it barely missed a beat. This news of a shutdown is just a gut punch. The only good news in the whole announcement:

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Inquiry into Marion raid has been hopelessly compromised. Kansans deserve an independent review.

    We will not see justice in the law enforcement raid on the Marion County Record newspaper until officials take an entirely different approach.

    Until now, the investigation into abuse of power by local officials has been overseen by Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey’s handpicked special prosecutors and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, with an assist from its Colorado compatriots. All have shown themselves unlikely or unwilling to serve justice. The prosecutors’ report offers a how-to manual for abusing journalists. The KBI, as shown by First Amendment attorney Max Kautsch’s columns last month, has long obfuscated the details of high-profile cases and covered for guilty cops.

    We need to start over.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • India Times ☛ 'Not allowed to speak': The systematic dehumanising of women by the Taliban in Afghanistan

    However, these hopes have largely been dashed as the Taliban has reverted to many of its previous repressive policies especially when it comes to women who have been reduced to mere shadows in their own country. Taliban's anti-women tendencies started to come to the forefront mere days after recapturing Kabul in August 2021.

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Ten Times This - by Hamilton Nolan - How Things Work

    Chris Bohner, an excellent labor researcher, just published his own data-filled overview of the state of the labor movement. In it, he compares the perpetually peppy rhetoric from union leaders with the statistics, in historical context. In 2024, Bohner reports, about 0.1% of American private sector workers will participate in a union election at work. In the 1970s, that figure averaged 1% each year. I want to highlight this portion of his report: [...]

  • Vox ☛ Why flight attendants aren’t paid during flight delays

    No one likes it when their flight is delayed. For flight attendants, though, a delay isn’t just a hassle – it’s a lot of unpaid work. You’re at the airport, in your uniform, yet the pay clock doesn’t start until the plane is pulling out of the gate.

    “I don’t know another job in the world where you can show up, clock in, essentially, and just not get paid,” says Rory Kimbrough, who represents JetBlue flight attendants as the executive board member at large for the Transport Workers Union Local 579. Kimbrough has been a flight attendant for 20 years.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Eugene Debs: “The Scab Is the Natural Born Foe of Labor”

    This Labor Day weekend, we share Eugene Debs’s 1888 broadside against that most hateful of characters: the strikebreaker. The scab “sinks to the level of a loathsome reptile,” Debs writes. “He becomes a walking, breathing stench.”

  • Techdirt ☛ Companies Are Simply Ignoring Many New State ‘Right To Repair’ Laws

    Laws are, of course, only worth something if they’re meaningfully enforced, and so far there have not been many indications that major companies are rushing to comply with these new consumer right to repair protections, or that state officials are in any particular rush to make them. Granted many of these laws are new, and it’s going to take a few shots over the bows of major offenders to spark compliance.

  • Papers Please ☛ Congress asks more questions about TSA blacklists

    The “No-Fly” and “Selectee” lists managed by Federal agencies through the joint Watch List Advisory Council (WLAC) aren’t the only blacklists and watchlists that are used to determine who is given US government permission to board an airline flight, and how they are treated when they fly.

    Senior members of relevant House and Senate Committees are asking overdue questions about the blacklists created and used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to target selected travelers for special scrutiny, surveillance, and searches when they fly.

  • EFF ☛ EFF to Tenth Circuit: Protest-Related Arrests Do Not Justify Dragnet Device and Digital Data Searches

    The case, Armendariz v. City of Colorado Springs, challenges device and data seizures and searches conducted by the Colorado Springs police after a 2021 housing rights march that the police deemed “illegal.” The plaintiffs in the case, Jacqueline Armendariz and a local organization called the Chinook Center, argue these searches violated their civil rights.

    The case details repeated actions by the police to target and try to intimidate plaintiffs and other local civil rights activists solely for their political speech. After the 2021 march, police arrested several protesters, including Ms. Armendariz. Police alleged Ms. Armendariz “threw” her bike at an officer as he was running, and despite that the bike never touched the officer, police charged her with attempted simple assault. Police then used that charge to support warrants to seize and search six of her electronic devices—including several phones and laptops. The search warrant authorized police to comb through these devices for all photos, videos, messages, emails, and location data sent or received over a two-month period and to conduct a time-unlimited search of 26 keywords—including for terms as broad and sweeping as “officer,” “housing,” “human,” “right,” “celebration,” “protest,” and several common names. Separately, police obtained a warrant to search all of the Chinook Center’s Facebook information and private messages sent and received by the organization for a week, even though the Center was not accused of any crime.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Brazilian Music Industry Grew 21% in H1 '24 As Streaming Thrived

    Predictably, this on-demand listening reliance didn’t change during H1 2024, when the lion’s share of recorded industry revenue derived from streaming, per the mentioned report. All told, Brazil experienced a 21 percent YoY revenue surge during Q1 and Q2 2024, to $255.37 million (R$1.44 billion) at the present exchange rate, the resource shows.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Argentinian Music Industry Grew 8.2% in 2023: Report

    On the streaming side, 64.5 percent of the category’s revenue derived from subscriptions last year, CAPIF indicated.

  • David Rosenthal ☛ "Owning" e-books

    LOCKSS provided a cheap way for libraries to collect, preserve and provide access to their own copy of journals. The competing e-journal preservation systems accepted the idea of rental; they provided an alternate place from which access could be rented if it were denied by the publisher.

    Similarly, libraries that purchased a paper book owned a copy that they could loan to readers. The transition to e-books meant that they were only able to rent access to the publisher's copy, and over time the terms of this rental grew more and more onerous.

  • Macworld ☛ The M4 Mac mini might finally have the courage to dump its USB-A ports

    Gurman also didn’t specify whether the HDMI port will be an HDMI 2.1 port. The current M2 Mac mini has HDMI 2.1, which was an upgrade from HDMI 2.0 in the M1 Mac mini, so, it seems likely that the M4 Mac mini will have HDMI 2.1. The only other port Gurman mentioned is the headphone jack, which is likely to stick around for another generation. With the M2 Mac mini, Apple implemented support for high-impedance headphones and that should continue with the M4 Mac mini.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• The Verge ☛ Oasis ticketing chaos prompts probe into dynamic pricing

  Dynamic pricing, also known as “surge pricing,” is a system that pushes higher prices for products as demand increases. The practice doesn’t break any British laws, but was already criticized for restricting access to music, sports, and theater events in Labour’s manifesto before the party came into power on July 5th.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Bell, Rogers & MPA's Pirate IPTV Lawsuit is a Slow-Motion Money Pit Nightmare

    After obtaining an injunction and an invasive search and seizure order at Canada's Federal Court, teams from Bell, Rogers, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and Warner Bros. targeted the alleged operators of IPTV service SmoothStreams at their homes in Canada. The defendants were charged with contempt of court when they failed to comply with the terms of the order. Two years later, the defendants are paying a heavy price and the main case hasn't even started.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ ‘Pirate’ Site nHentai Sued in U.S. Court for Copyright Infringement

    Nhentai, a popular adult site with dozens of millions of monthly visits, has been sued for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed by California company PCR Distributing, which operates several hentai brands. The complaint alleges that nhentai doesn't respond to takedown notices. The site attempted to settle the dispute confidentially months ago, but that attempt failed.