Leftovers

• Robin Sloan ☛ The golden door

  It was the summer of 2004. For two years, I’d worked at the Poynter Institute, a storied haven for jour­nal­ists in St. Petersburg, Florida; my first job out of college. It had been a trans­for­ma­tive time. Every week, a new cohort of reporters arrived, and whenever I wasn’t editing articles or writing code (ActionScript!) I sat in on their sessions, sponge-like. With my colleague Matt Thompson, I started a blog; together, we produced the short film EPIC 2014.

• Thord D Hedengren ☛ Work mode does change things

  Work's back in full force, which has been interesting from a digital balance point of view. I know a lot of people who can't disconnect, have to check their emails and social media inboxes at all times, that sort of thing. I'm not one of them, these things don't stress me out like they used to. From a digital balance standpoint, going back to work from the summer holiday made little difference.

• Ruben Schade ☛ The promise of HTML and CSS

  I launched Ruben’s Retro Corner back in November last year, ostensibly to organise and gather information on my growing retrocomputer collection, but also to relive my primary school days when I hand-coded HTML without a CMS. It also uses plain HTTP 1.1 and valid HTML3, so my oldest 32-bit machines can still write and access it.

• [Repeat] Ruben Schade ☛ An advanced case of “In Their Defence”

  A friend of mine once joked that I was great at making excuses for other people. I’m starting to realise it’s not an asset.

• Digital Music News ☛ Prager Metis Hit With $1.2 Million SEC Fine in ‘Auditor Independence’ Suit Settlement, Legal Docs Show

  Prager Metis is set to pay $1.2 million to settle the auditor-independence lawsuit filed against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That seeming end to the legal battle between the SEC and the prominent industry accounting firm came to light in the former’s newly submitted (and unopposed) motion for final judgement entry.

• Pro Publica ☛ NYC Bill Calls for Overhaul of State’s Guardianship System

• Look, I'm the Victim Here

  Now, I've received a lot of criticism for this (not really; just amusement and the occasional comment about me being weird which, to be fair, is more a statement of fact).

  The first sections of that post related to the cat Bamse. I kidnapped him, subsequently returned him, and then become partly adopted by him.

  [...]

  And now it's going to become even worse! His owner contacted me to say that she will be moving house in November. The area she'll be moving to isn't well suited for outdoor cats, and she wondered if I can take over ownership of Bamse.

• Björn Wärmedal ☛ A Kind Person's Guide to Kidnapping

  One unexpected thing the Summer vacation brought me was plenty of opportunities to practice kidnapping. Mostly, but not limited to, children.

• Science

  • Stanford University ☛ Stanford Impact Labs pledge nearly $2 million in 5 social science projects

    Stanford Impact Labs plan to invest in five social science initiatives that address social problems ranging from youth smartphone use to legal justice.

  • Astronomy & Astrophysics ☛ Bright unintended electromagnetic radiation from second-generation Starlink satellites | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

    This growth in the number of satellites has worrisome implications for astronomy (Walker et al. 2020a, 2020b, 2021) as the probability that satellites are passing through the fields of view of ground-based telescopes (as well as space-based) is drastically increasing, and sunlight reflected from these satellites, as well as radio signals emitted by them, are detectable by astronomical instruments (e.g., Tyson et al. 2020; Michałowski et al. 2021; Mróz et al. 2022; Kruk et al. 2023). Assessing the impact of these satellite constellations on different astronomical observatories and science cases is an increasingly important topic of recent research (e.g., Green et al. 2022; Bassa et al. 2022; Barentine et al. 2023; Lang et al. 2023; Kovalev et al. 2023; Hainaut & Moehler 2024).

    For radio astronomy, the use of the radio spectrum is regulated by the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R), which publishes the relevant international treaty in the form of the Radio Regulations. These regulations cover the intentional use of the radio spectrum for different applications (or services) such as communication, remote sensing, navigation, as well as astronomy. It considers wanted and unwanted emission, for example that due to out-of-band emission from spectral side-lobes. In particular, the ITU-R allocates several frequency ranges to the radio astronomy service. Rec. ITU-R RA.769-2 provides thresholds on the received power (or power flux densities) that must not be exceeded by other active radio services in these bands. As these bands focus on spectral lines affected by Galactic Doppler shifts, the frequency ranges are relatively narrow.

• Education

  • Jim Nielsen ☛ Estimated Reading Time Widgets

    Because I’ve always seen reading time as such an incredibly personal thing, I’ve never once paid any heed to these widgets. In fact, I’ve been slightly perturbed a service would presume to know how quickly I could read an article.

    That’s to say nothing of the fact that if I come to a text to understand it (or merely enjoy it for that matter), speed is the very last thing on my mind.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ New DuckyPad Pro Is Bigger And Smarter Than Original

    In a world that has no shortage of macropads, the duckyPad still managed to set itself apart. The open source mechanical pad offered an incredible array of customization options, and thanks to its onboard OLED display, you never had to wonder which key did what. But there’s always room for improvement.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel outlines a plan to get back in the game: Pause fab projects in Europe, make the foundry unit an independent subsidiary, and streamline the x86 portfolio

    Intel reviews its projects and product plans as part of the turnaround plan introduced in August.

  • New York Times ☛ Intel, Aiming to Reverse Slump, Unveils New Contracts and Cost Cuts

    The chipmaker, which has been struggling, said on Monday that it obtained a new government grant, signed a contract with Amazon and would pause some initiatives.

  • Hackaday ☛ Ferrites Versus Ethernet In The Ham Shack

    For as useful as computers are in the modern ham shack, they also tend to be a strong source of unwanted radio frequency interference. Common wisdom says applying a few ferrite beads to things like Ethernet cables will help, but does that really work?

  • Hackaday ☛ A Brand New USB Modem In The 2020s

    The dulcet tones of a modem handshake may be a thing of the distant past for most of us, but that hasn’t stopped there being a lively hacking scene in the world of analogue telephones. Often that’s achieved using old devices resurrected from a parts bin, but sometimes, as with [Brian]’s USB modem, the devices are entirely new.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ EPA Scientists Faced Retaliation After Finding Harm From Chemicals, Reports Find

    More than three years ago, a small group of government scientists came forward with disturbing allegations.

    During President Donald Trump’s administration, they said, their managers at the Environmental Protection Agency began pressuring them to make new chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. They were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports — and in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Women Killed by the Dobbs Decision

    But it was too late. Thurman’s heart stopped on the operating table.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Calculated How Much Exercise We Need to 'Offset' a Day of Sitting

    We know that spending lots of time sitting down isn't good for us, but just how much exercise is needed to counteract the negative health effects of sitting down all day?

    Research suggests about 30-40 minutes per day of building up a sweat should do it.

  • BDG ☛ 10 Years Later, the Return of ‘Flappy Bird’ Highlights a Dark Turn for the Games Industry

    No one likes microtransactions, but they seem especially dark in the context of Flappy Bird. Not long after it found global success, the original Flappy Bird was taken down by its creator, Dong Nguyen, who says he made the decision because its design could potentially be harmful to some players.

    “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” Nguyen told Forbes in February 2014. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever."

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Dot Esports ☛ Popular CDL commentator Miles Ross laid off by Microsoft, ‘exclusivity with Call of Duty’ ends

    “Last week I was let go from ATVI during the latest wave of Microsoft layoffs alongside some brilliant friends in the CDL team,” Ross said on X/Twitter. “While this certainly sucks I am still extremely excited for the BO6 season, and even more amped for what the future holds. For now, my exclusivity with Call of Duty has ended, so bang my line and let’s kick some ass together.”

  • Frederik Braun ☛ Frederik Braun: Prompt Injections and a demo

    I have many thoughts about AI. I will use the term "AI" throughout this article, even though I am opposed to the notion of these system being actually intelligent. However, this article will focus on one point only: Prompt injections.

  • Francesco ☛ A philosophy of “Whatever is best for the ROI” is cowardice, not leadership

    A creative direction is different from a purely–business–oriented one and, even if he says this is not the case2, in the linked article John Gruber clearly explains why Tim Cook’s Apple is different from the one Steve Jobs used us to.

  • Windows TCO

    • The Register UK ☛ Rhysida ships off Port of Seattle data for $6M

      The Port of Seattle – the local government office that oversees Seattle's seaport and airport – confirmed it was the victim of a ransomware attack in a refreshingly comprehensive incident update posted to its website on Friday.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Scam ‘Funeral Streaming’ Groups Thrive on Facebook

      Scammers are flooding Facebook with groups that purport to offer video streaming of funeral services for the recently deceased. Friends and family who follow the links for the streaming services are then asked to cough up their credit card information. Recently, these scammers have branched out into offering fake streaming services for nearly any kind of event advertised on Facebook. Here’s a closer look at the size of this scheme, and some findings about who may be responsible.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Debit cards are rapidly replacing cash in South Africa

      “Although almost everyone uses cash as a payment method, it represents only 21% of the total payment value, again reiterating the small average value per payment.”

• Defence/Aggression

  • Federal News Network ☛ Schedule F would make agencies ‘hard-pressed’ to meet national security threats

    Former DHS and DoD officials said possible efforts to reimplement Schedule F would divert resources, stagnate progress and ultimately harm national security.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Dem Homeland Security chair: Details of Trump assassination attempt ‘very troubling’

    Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan also said at a Monitor Breakfast that former President Donald Trump’s recent comments about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which has been facing bomb threats, shows that “Words have power.”

  • CS Monitor ☛ Hezbollah security breach: Pagers explode across Lebanon and Syria

    In the largest security breach since October 2023, handheld Hezbollah pagers exploded across Lebanon and Syria, wounding more than 2,750 people on Sept. 17. Explosions lasted for about an hour after detonation.

  • Security Week ☛ Hundreds of Pagers Exploded in Lebanon and Syria in a Deadly Attack. Here’s What We Know.

    Between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed inside pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then remotely triggered simultaneously.

  • ADF ☛ Community-Oriented Policing Underused in Peacekeeping

    The African Union has authorized more than 25 peace support operations across the continent over the past 20-plus years, but few have included community-oriented policing (COP) to counter extremism.

  • ADF ☛ Observers Worry About Impact of Lifting CAR Arms Embargo

    The recent lifting of the United Nations’ 11-year-old arms embargo on the Central African Republic has been praised as a diplomatic victory but has also raised concerns for its potential to worsen insecurity across the region.

  • JURIST ☛ Ecuador president proposes constitutional reform permitting establishment of foreign military bases

    Ecuador’s President, Daniel Noboa Azin, announced the decision to present a bill amending Article 5 of the constitution to permit the establishment of foreign military bases in the country on Monday. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the President announced a “Partial Reform Project to the Constitution” would be presented before the National Assembly.

  • ADF ☛ Somali Bomb Disposal Experts Risk Their Lives to Save Others

    Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an August 21 suicide bomb attack that killed 10 people, including seven security officers and two civilians, at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu.

  • University of Michigan ☛ #corecore and #floptok: Breaking down popular ‘brainrot’ memes

    We have reached the brainrot stage of the internet. Memes have become memes on memes, often with so much lore that it becomes nearly impossible to parse together the meaning if you weren’t there for the meme’s inception. This phenomenon has become as evident as ever with the #corecore and #floptok trends currently sweeping TikTok.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Made Its Case Against a Ban In Front of An Appeals Court Panel of Judges — And It Didn’t Go Well

    TikTok spent two hours making its case against a ban in front of an appeals court panel of judges, but it may not have gone so hot. After spending more than two hours making its argument against a nationwide ban in front of a trio of federal judges, Fentanylware (TikTok) may have sealed its own fate.

  • ADF ☛ Tunisian Navy Seeks to Acquire $110 Million in Near Shore Patrol Boat Capability

    Tunisia is on track to buy an undisclosed number of 20-meter Archangel patrol boats from the United States at an estimated cost of $110 million. The purchase will include GPS, navigation and communications systems, and training.

  • ADF ☛ Senior Enlisted Leaders Across Africa Meet At ASELC 2024 to Strengthen NCO Corps

    The 2024 African Senior Enlisted Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi, brought noncommissioned officers from across the continent for four days of sharing best practices, networking, and professional development. “NCOs are the backbone of the military all over the world,” Warrant Officer Sally Mussa of the Malawi Defence Force told the gathering.

  • ADF ☛ Threat of Extremist Groups Continues to Grow

    United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was among the many speakers who delivered stark assessments on extremist violence in Africa at a counterterrorism summit earlier this year in Abuja, Nigeria.

  • ADF ☛ Gambian, U.S. Militaries Join to Discuss Oversight, Professionalism

    Soldiers from The Gambia and the U.S. joined for a one-week event in August to share knowledge and best practices related to military professionalism and accountability. Members of the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) and the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) attended the meeting in Banjul.

  • Site36 ☛ Again incendiary devices and explosions in Cologne, hand grenade discovered under a torched car

    After incidents involving incendiary devices and explosives, the police in Cologne are searching again for unknown perpetrators. A similar series occurred two months ago. The investigations were criticised. Following an explosion in a clothing chain shop in the German city Cologne on Wednesday morning, the police are searching for the suspected perpetrator.

  • JURIST ☛ Amnesty International calls for investigation of Lesotho Defence Force amid torture and killing allegations

    Amnesty International on Wednesday urged the Lesotho government to investigate allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings committed during the Lesotho Defence Forces’ (LDF) campaign to confiscate illegal firearms from gang members, Operation Hard Fist.

  • RFA ☛ UN report describes torture and death of hundreds in custody since Myanmar coup

    Freed detainees report being raped, beaten with motorcycle chains, electrocuted and scalded with boiling water.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ JD Vance Makes Light of Actual Foreign Interference in His State

    After that, in a truly deranged Xitter manifesto basically arguing that if the media doesn’t platform the false claims of Nazis attacking migrants, they’ll shoot someone, JD Vance falsely claimed that that’s proof a double standard from the media, then continued to lie that Kamala Harris was responsible for the assassination attempts against Trump.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Emphasis on electronic warfare a must, Air Force secretary says

    The study is part of a broader Air Force effort to understand key technologies that affect operations across multiple mission areas — and it follows a push from the service in recent years to better leverage the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, sensing, intelligence and non-kinetic warfare.

  • The Register UK ☛ Chinese boffins claim Starlink signals can defeat stealth

    They can claim that all they want but the reality is: It's not that useful militarily, and if it were, Beijing almost certainly wouldn't let anyone blab about it.

  • France24 ☛ North Korea launches second set of short-range ballistic missiles in a week

    North Korea continued a series of provocative maneuvers early Wednesday when, for the second time since Thursday, it fired a second round of short ballistic missiles – a move experts say could be linked to the isolated country's suspected illicit supplying of arms to Russia [...]

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Security Week ☛ Russian Security Firm Doctor Web Hacked

      Antimalware company Doctor Web was recently targeted in a cyberattack that prompted it to disconnect all resources from its networks.

    • Latvia ☛ Ombudsman: children may speak whatever language they want to each other

      The internal rules of schools cannot require pupils to communicate only in Latvian during breaks, the Ombudsman's Office told the Russian-language service of LSM+.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Putin is becoming entangled in his own discredited red lines

      Putin is attempting to impose a new red line over the use of Western long-range missiles inside Russia, but Ukraine has already been using these weapons in occupied regions claimed by Russia for more than a year, writes Peter Dickinson.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Perhaps it’s all part of a clever plan’: Russian pundits and politicians react to Putin’s latest army expansion order — Meduza

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Dispatch from Kyiv: The Kursk offensive is working, but Ukrainians are worried about US wobbling

      Morale in Kyiv has been boosted by the early success of the incursion into Kursk, but tempered by concerns over US support.

    • France24 ☛ Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped', says Ukraine military official

      A spokesman for the Ukrainian army said on Wednesday that the Russian counter-offensive in the Kursk region had been halted and that parts of that zone remained "under Ukrainian control". In western Russia, Ukrainian drones "destroyed" a warehouse containing missiles and artillery ammunition on Tuesday night, Ukrainian officials added.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania to provide extra €40–50m in military aid to Ukraine this year – minister

      Lithuania is planning to provide another 40–50 million euros in military aid to Ukraine this year, Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas has said.

    • RFERL ☛ Imprisoned Siberian Journalist Afanasyev Honored With 2024 Free Media Award

      Mikhail Afanasyev, the imprisoned editor-in-chief of the Novy fokus (New Focus) online newspaper covering the Siberian region of Khakassia, has been given a 2024 Free Media Award for journalistic bravery.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Usyk Briefly Detained In Poland

      Ukraine's unified heavyweight world boxing champion, Oleksandr Usyk, has been released at the Krakow airport in Poland after being detained late on September 17.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Says 'Victory Plan' Ready As Drone Attack Targets Arms Depot In Russia

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on September 18 that Kyiv has "fully prepared" its "victory plan" to end the war with Russia and the most important thing now is the determination to implement it.

    • New York Times ☛ Pavel Kushnir Dies in a Russian Prison

      Among the hundreds of Russians jailed for criticizing the war in Ukraine, the death of Pavel Kushnir in detention has transformed him into an antiwar symbol.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Seizes Town in Donetsk as Ukraine Hits Ammunition Depot

      The capture of Ukrainsk underscored Russia’s steady advances in the Donetsk region. Ukraine is trying to counter with strikes on Russian military infrastructure.

    • Meduza ☛ Gunfire breaks out in Moscow as Wildberries CEO claims husband led raid attempt on company’s central office — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Belarusian Supreme Court Rejects Self-Exiled Rights Defender's Prison Sentence Appeal

      The Supreme Court of Belarus on September 18 rejected an appeal filed by self-exiled rights defender Leanid Sudalenka against a five-year prison term he was handed in absentia in June on a charge of participating in extremist activities.

    • LRT ☛ YouTube removes Belarusian accounts at Lithuanian watchdog’s request

      YouTube on Wednesday removed 18 EU-sanctioned Belarusian radio and television accounts at the request of the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian citizen reportedly detained in Belarus

      A Latvian citizen may have been detained in Belarus after going there by car, LETA newswire reported on September 17.

    • Meduza ☛ Russian police are joining the army for higher pay, leaving behind overworked colleagues who are more likely to resort to torture — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ An Ugly Divorce, Russia’s Richest Woman and a Deadly Shooting in Moscow

      The Russian businesswoman Tatyana V. Bakalchuk has been locked in a dispute with her estranged husband for months over the fate of her company, Wildberries.

    • RFERL ☛ Kara-Murza Advocates For Prisoners Still Held In Russia In Return Trip To U.S. Capitol

      The Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers promised to continue fighting for the freedom of Russian and Belarusian political prisoners as they welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza back to the U.S. Capitol.

    • RFERL ☛ Veteran Activist Briefly Detained For Questioning In Russia's Tatarstan

      Telegram channels in Russia's Tatarstan quoted the wife of prominent veteran activist Zinnur Agliullin as saying that her 73-year-old husband had been detained for questioning after police searched their home.

    • RFERL ☛ 3 Men Suspected Of Plotting 'Armed Coup' Arrested In Yerevan

      Armenia's Investigative Committee said on September 18 three suspects, allegedly trained in Russia, had been arrested for planning an armed coup with four more still at large.

    • RFERL ☛ 2 Dead, Several Wounded In Shoot-Out Near Moscow Office Of Russia's Largest Retailer

      Two people were killed and seven -- including two police officers -- were wounded in a shoot-out near the office of Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, on September 18.

    • RFERL ☛ Another Top Russian Military Official Held On Corruption Charges

      Russia's Investigative Committee said on September 18 that it had detained a top military official on a charge of taking a large bribe

    • RFA ☛ North Korea ‘modifying’ Russian jet as early warning aircraft: think tank

      Experts said the possibility of Russian help could not be ruled out.

    • JURIST ☛ UN reports continued deterioration of human rights in Russia

      The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) highlighted the ongoing deterioration of human rights in Russia, in a report published on Tuesday.

• Environment

  • C4ISRNET ☛ France plans low-orbit demonstrator that can target other satellites

    France wants to avoid putting kinetic weapons in space that would risk creating debris in orbit, and the demonstrator won’t be weaponized, though it may include a “dazzling” capacity, Adam said on the sidelines of conference. Low Earth orbit, or LEO, is the busiest orbital range, with more than 5,000 satellites launched and thousands more planned, according to U.S. Space Operations Command.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ What the jet stream and climate change had to do with the hottest summer on record

    The most severe and persistent heat waves are often associated with an atmospheric pattern called a heat dome. As an atmospheric scientist, I study weather patterns and the changing climate. Here's how heat domes, the jet stream and climate change influence summer heat waves and the record-hot summer of 2024.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ ‘They destroyed our little town.’ What Michigan’s auto industry left behind

    The mayor said he worked his connections to secure a meeting with Ford. When they were face to face, he urged officials to either put the factory to better use or up for sale. The Ford people were polite but noncommittal as they explained roadblocks to a potential sale.

    As they spoke, Kolar said, one of the Ford reps used the word “brownfield.”

  • The Independent UK ☛ Warning of ‘butterfly emergency’ as survey finds record-low insects

    But this year’s results were the worst in the count’s 14-year history, with participants spotting just seven butterflies on average per count, down almost half on last year’s average of 12, and the lowest the survey has seen.

    And 9,000 counts were logged as seeing no butterflies – the highest in the history of the citizen science scheme, which asks people to submit their results even if they do not see any of the insects in their 15-minute count.

  • Futurism ☛ AI Datacenters More Than 600 Percent Worse for Environment Than Tech Companies Claimed

    When a tech company reports its emissions, what they're showing you are "market-based" emissions, which are tamped down by purchasing energy certificates, or "Recs," which they then factor into their calculations.

    These supposedly certify that a company is offsetting its dirty energy consumption with an equivalent amount of renewable energy. You'll want to note that the renewable efforts don't have to be undertaken by the company getting the certificates. Some third party that they pay can handle doing the work of producing the renewables on their behalf — convenient, right?

    Any of these tech companies can buy Recs, and in practice little is done to verify how much is actually being "offset." Basically, it's like money laundering except for an energy bill.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Hackaday ☛ Thermal Runaway: Solving The Bane Of Electric Vehicles

      Although battery fires in electric cars and two-wheeled vehicles are not a common phenomenon, they are notoriously hard to put out, requiring special training and equipment by firefighters. Although the full scope of the issue is part of a contentious debate, [Aarian Marshall] over at Wired recently wrote an article about how the electric car industry has a plan to make a purportedly minor issue even less of an issue. Here the questions seem to be mostly about what the true statistics are for battery fires and what can be done about the primary issue with batteries: thermal runaway.

    • NL Times ☛ Cabinet to cut €110 million from budget for public transport in three major cities

      Money meant explicitly for public transport in and around the cities will be transferred to a general fund for provinces and municipalities. This is intended to reduce administrative burdens. However, this transfer will come with a 10 percent cut, already stated in the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB's coalition agreement. There was a budget of around 1.1 billion euros for the two transport regions of Amsterdam and Rotterdam-The Hague.

    • VOA News ☛ Electricity in short supply as Zambia deals with drought-driven energy crisis

      As Zambia deals with its worst drought in 20 years, businesses and households are going for days without electricity. Experts say the severe energy crisis could worsen Zambia ‘s already fragile economy and lead to massive job losses.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • France24 ☛ Brasilia wildfire rages across national park, threatening protected environments

      Wildfires engulfed the conservation area of Brasilia National Park on Monday and smothered the capital in smoke as the country grapples with a historic drought. The fire was reported to be human-caused, according to the government agency that manages the park, and appears to have started near the edge of a farm.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Alibaba cloud servers being 'carefully dried' after firefighter drenching last week

      In a status update on Monday, Alibaba Cloud services said it was still gradually restoring access to servers and data affected by a fire last week. Specifically, servers were being 'carefully dried' after sprinklers, and firefighters drenched them to save them from a fire.

    • ADF ☛ Chinese Loggers Exploit Miombo Woodlands at ‘Unsustainable’ Rate

      The Miombo Woodlands covers parts of eight African countries, stretching from Burundi to Angola to southern Mozambique. Yet most of the logging that goes on in the woodlands benefits a single country: China. Unlike the rainforest to the north, the Miombo is described as a dry tropical woodland.

    • The Revelator ☛ Speak of the Devils: The Animals We Fear the Most Are Fading Away

• Finance

  • Atlantic Council ☛ From rhetoric to reality: Nearshoring in the Americas

    Over the past five years, global shifts have reshaped the world. China's rise, US-China tensions, COVID-19, and Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine exposed supply chain vulnerabilities, pushing resilience to the top of the agenda. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) can seize the opportunity to provide solutions for US companies through nearshoring.

  • Latvia ☛ Theaters and concerts in Latvia had a good financial year

    Over the last two years, the number of visitors to both theatres and concerts has gradually increased, but not yet at the pre-pandemic level. How are theaters and concerts doing financially? Latvian Radio tried to investigate this on September 17.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Fraud and equity must go hand-in-hand when modernizing unemployment insurance

    The Government Accountability Office estimates that fraudsters stole up to $135 billion from UI programs during the pandemic.

  • [Old] Michigan News ☛ Michael Moore and Flint: An oral history of 'Roger & Me' after 25 years

    The film, which premiered in film festivals in 1989, went on to become an international success.

    For the city, Michael Moore put Flint on the map in a way only General Motors had before. For Moore, the film's success jump-started what has become arguably the most successful documentary making career in history.

    Through the years, The Flint Journal has revisited the topic through stories and photographs.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong social worker files complaint to gov’t watchdog over removal from licensing body

    A Hong Kong social worker who was removed from an industry licensing body after an overhaul aimed at “protecting” national security has filed a complaint to the government watchdog.

  • RFERL ☛ EU's Von Der Leyen Unveils New Commission Built For 'Prosperity, Security, Democracy' [Ed: How about cracking down on EPO corruption instead of participating in it?]

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on September 17 announced the new five-year makeup of the EU's executive arm, saying its "core priorities...are built around prosperity, security, democracy" against a backdrop of competitiveness.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Special treatment? How judges are handling Trump ahead of election.

    Prosecuting a former and would-be leader may be the ultimate stress test of a nation’s justice system. Donald Trump’s criminal cases are all delayed.

  • FAIR ☛ Study: To US Papers, ‘Identity Politics’ Is Mostly a Way to Sneer at the Left

    Following the Democratic National Convention, the New York Times’ “Critic’s Notebook” (8/23/24) published an analysis of Vice President Kamala Harris’ pantsuit choices during the event.

  • FAIR ☛ WSJ Calls for Keeping Judiciary in Shadows

    A New York Times investigation (9/15/24) has given us great insight into Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who—unlike the president and the speaker of the House—enjoys a great deal of shielding from press scrutiny. The paper reported that when a flurry of cases about the January 6 attempted insurrection at the Capitol reached the court, the “chief justice responded by deploying his authority to steer rulings that benefited [former President Donald] Trump.”

  • Dhole Moments ☛ The Continued Trajectory of Idiocy in the Tech Industry

    The main thing I wanted to convey today was, “No, you’re not alone, things are getting stupider,” to anyone who wondered if there was a spark of sanity left in the tech sector. Soatok hugging a giant pink heart while making a blep faceArt: AJ

    It’s not just the smarmy tech CEOs that are the problem. The rot has spread all the way to the foundations of many organizations. Hacker News, Lobsters, etc. are full of clueless AI maximalists that cannot see the harms they are inflicting.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ There’s no such thing as “shareholder supremacy”

    Before the rise of economism, it was common to speak of its subjects as "political economy" or even "moral philosophy" (Adam Smith, the godfather of capitalism, considered himself a "moral philosopher"). "Political economy" implicitly recognizes that every policy has squishy, subjective, qualitative dimensions that don't readily boil down to math.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Instagram introduces teen accounts with restricted features

    Instagram will make teenagers' accounts private by default in an effort to make the platform a safer place for young people.

    Starting on Tuesday, new users under 18 who sign up in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia will be given special "teen accounts" with restricted features and more parental oversight.

    Existing Instagram users under 18 in those countries will also be migrated to teen accounts over the next 60 days.

  • Techdirt ☛ KOSA Rises From The Ashes: House Committee Announces Markup

    This does not mean that KOSA is really going to get a vote. Lots of things could happen. But it does mean that KOSA (and COPPA 2.0, which the Senate combined into KOSPA — the Kids Online Safety & Privacy Act) are getting a bit of new life.

    It’s possible the markup will be delayed or won’t actually happen. Markups get announced and delayed and sometimes shelved entirely. And what happens at the markup may matter. Markups are when other committee members can offer up amendments, and it gives everyone a sense of what people feel about a bill. It’s possible that amendments could change KOSA quite a bit, though the fundamental problems of the bill are unfixable.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New York Times ☛ Ohio Woman Says She Regrets Sharing False Rumor About Haitians on Facebook

      The woman has since deleted the post claiming that one of her Haitian neighbors might have taken a neighbor’s cat. But it took on a life of its own.

    • New York Times ☛ California Gov. Newsom Signs Laws Regulating Election Hey Hi (AI) ‘Deepfakes’

      The state joins dozens of others in regulating the Hey Hi (AI) fakery in ways that could impact this year’s presidential race.

    • The Conversation ☛ AI is working its way into smartphones, but some tools could be subverted for misinformation

      New AI features in the Pixel 9 include “Add Me”, which enables a user to place themselves in a photo by taking another picture at the same spot and merging the images using augmented reality and AI. The “Magic Editor” tool leverages AI to rearrange the composition of an image and adjust people’s positions.

      And the “Reimagine” feature allows consumers to modify the background of an image by providing a text prompt.

    • VOA News ☛ Facebook owner Meta bans Russia state media outlets over 'foreign interference' 

      Meta said it's banning Russia state media organization from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow's propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday.

      The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia's covert influence operations.

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ No, the New Deal Wasn’t Racist

      The exchange between Gray and Ocasio-Cortez makes clear that the emphasis on racial motivation has seeped into contemporary discourse in ways that ultimately pose a challenge to efforts to build broad support for a more robust welfare state, conflating uneven effects with a racist or otherwise discriminatory intention. Such claims lead to confusing attempts to appeal to the broad popularity of the New Deal while at the same time condemning the program’s inherent racism. And, more critically, these claims do nothing to further the goals of those attempting to make a more generous social welfare state, instead suggesting a certain futility in efforts to build a more robust set of social democratic institutions geared toward advancing the common good — an argument the Right has eagerly (and easily) capitalized on.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • TechRadar ☛ The EU still wants to scan your private chats – here's what you can do about it

    Hungary, the country that now heads the Council of Europe after Belgium, has resurrected what's been deemed by critics as Chat Control, and MEPs are expected to vote on it at the end of the month. After proposing a new version in June, the Belgian presidency had to take the proposal off the agenda last minute amid harsh backlash.

  • Nick Heer ☛ ‘Chat Control’ Back on E.U. Agenda

    This is a similar effort to that postponed earlier this year. The proposal (PDF) has several changes, but it still appears to poke holes in end-to-end encryption, and require providers to detect possible known CSAM before it is sent. A noble effort, absolutely, but also one which fundamentally upsets the privacy of one-on-one communications to restrict its abuse by a few.

  • RFERL ☛ Moscow Man Gets Five Years In Prison For Talking To RFE/RL

    In July 2022, Kokhovets was approached by an RFE/RL journalist who asked him if he thought a detente between Russia and NATO countries was needed.

    "Of course we need (de-escalation), but it all depends on our government. It is our government that started it all.... It is Russia who created all these problems," Kokhovets told RFE/RL.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russian Man Jailed 5 Years Over Street Interview

    Russia has detained, fined and jailed thousands of people for opposing its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in what rights groups large-scale crackdown reminiscent of those during the Soviet era.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Doctors Without Borders Forced to Shut Down Operations in Russia

    The Switzerland-based humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders announced the sudden closure of its operations in Russia on Monday, ending its 32-year presence in the country.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Doctors Without Borders forced to leave Russia | The Independent Barents Observer

    It’s unclear why, in such a context, the MSF is still being closed by Russian authorities and how the MSF’s support could be replaced.

    Besides Arkhangelsk and Ivanovo, Doctors Without Borders also operated in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Kemerovo region, Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan regions.

  • Techdirt ☛ EU’s Top Censor Out Of A Job

    For the past few years, Breton has constantly boosted his own profile in pursuit of tech policy results that he, personally, wanted. As we’ve described, he has a long history of both self-promotion and inflating his job as Commissioner into basically being a full tech czar. He has repeatedly interpreted the Digital Services Act (DSA) to mean that he can demand certain content be removed, which has only served to piss off EU colleagues, who keep insisting the DSA is not a censorship law.

  • ACLU ☛ ACLU Bus Tour Brings Banned Books to Georgia

    Content creator Jameelah Jones and author Seema Yasmin joined the first stop on the ACLU’s Know Your Rights Bus Tour to discuss how your vote helps to fight classroom censorship.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Guardian considers sale of Observer to Tortoise after reporting £36.5m deficit for 2023/24 [Ed: Bill Gates propaganda platform is struggling]

    Growth in reader revenue fails to out-pace print and advertising decline.

  • Off Guardian ☛ Announcing the Independent Media Alliance

    Announcing the Independent Media Alliance Today we are thrilled to announce the creation of the Independent Media Alliance (IMA), a collaborative effort focused on promoting objective, fact-based media from a diverse team of journalists, podcasters, and writers.

  • Press Gazette ☛ BBC’s Clive Myrie paid at least £66,000 by police, financial services industry and others

    Full details of BillBC journalist outside earnings for July 2023 to June 2024 revealed.

  • Greece ☛ Family of slain journalist seeks reversal of ‘not-guilty’ verdict against suspected assassins

    An experienced reporter, Karaivaz was known for exposing organized networks and corruption in the Greek police force. He was also a key witness in a 2015-2017 National Intelligence Service (EYP) investigation into corrupt police and sex/gambling rackets and was known to have contacts in the so-called Greek Mafia.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • RFERL ☛ Georgian Parliament Passes Restrictive Anti-LGBT Laws

    Lawmakers in Georgia have approved restrictive new laws curbing LGBT rights and allowing for bans on things like Pride marches and culture, in a vote boycotted by the opposition that underscores a dramatically polarized political landscape ahead of national elections in October.

  • France24 ☛ Sean 'Diddy' Combs arrested amid assault lawsuits and sex trafficking allegations

    Rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested by federal agents in Manhattan late Monday, with a district attorney saying the arrest stemmed from a sealed indictment. Combs' homes were raided in March by federal agents, and the rapper has been named in a number of civil lawsuits accusing him of years of physical and sexual assault.

  • NYPost ☛ Gym’s controversial rule to ban members from filming themselves has sparked a global ‘crackdown’

    An Aussie gym owner who controversially banned members from filming themselves working out has sparked widespread industry change as other fitness facilities around the world followed suit.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Candi Miller Died Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban

  • New York Times ☛ NYPD Officials Defend Shooting on Brooklyn Subway That Wounded Bystanders

    New York City police leaders said Wednesday evening that officers had done the best they could when they shot a man wielding a knife, also hitting a fellow officer and two bystanders — including one who suffered a grave head wound.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Raise Wages? No Need — McDonald’s Is Hiring Inmates Instead

    According to the first suit, filed by the legal nonprofit Justice Catalyst on behalf of inmates last September, ADOC transports dozens of incarcerated people per day to jobs at government agencies and private businesses around Alabama, including KFC, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s franchises. ADOC also delivers inmates to meatpacking plants run by companies like Koch Foods and Gemstone Foods. At each of their jobsites, inmates do the same work as any employee, sometimes for twelve hours or more per day. From 2018 until the suit was filed last September, one McDonald’s franchisee alone put an estimated 122 ADOC inmates to work in its restaurants.

    In a state without a wage floor of its own, allowing employers to default to the federal wage floor of $7.25 per hour, ADOC collects 40 percent of the inmates’ gross paycheck. ADOC also deducts fees from the inmates’ paychecks to pay for transporting inmates between the prisons where they live and the “free world” jobs where they work, as well as washing their uniforms.

  • EFF ☛ Human Rights Claims Against Cisco Can Move Forward (Again)

    Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit helped this cause, by affirming its powerful 2023 decision that aiding and abetting liability in U.S. courts can apply to technology companies that provide sophisticated surveillance systems that are used to facilitate human rights abuses.  

    The specific case is against Cisco and arises out of allegations that Cisco custom-built tools as part of the Great Firewall of China to help the Chinese government target members of disfavored groups, including the Falun Gong religious minority.  The case claims that those tools were used to help identify individuals who then faced horrific consequences, including wrongful arrest, detention, torture, and death.  

    We did a deep dive analysis of the Ninth Circuit panel decision when it came out in 2023. Last week, the Ninth Circuit rejected an attempt to have that initial decision reconsidered by the full court, called en banc review. While the case has now survived Ninth Circuit review and should otherwise be able to move forward in the trial court, Cisco has indicated that it intends to file a petition for U.S. Supreme Court review. That puts the case on pause again. 

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The promise of HTML and CSS

    I launched Ruben’s Retro Corner back in November last year, ostensibly to organise and gather information on my growing retrocomputer collection, but also to relive my primary school days when I hand-coded HTML without a CMS. It also uses plain HTTP 1.1 and valid HTML3, so my oldest 32-bit machines can still write and access it.

    Little did I know that it would grow into something (a bit) bigger. I’ve had email from people saying they use it to test their old machines and browsers for network acccess and browser compatibility. Others have described it as a protest of what the modern web has become, which I’m happy to take on. More than a few have said it’s now the home page of their current browser, which I’ll admit does make me smile.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • [Old] [Q] European Parliament ☛ Parliamentary question | UEFI Secure Boot and European Union standardisation | E-000162/2013 | European Parliament

    Has the Commission investigated, or is it planning to investigate in the future, whether obliging hardware vendors to include a specific proprietary standard in order to be able to offer specific options to their customers is an abuse of voluntary standards?

  • [Old] ZDNet ☛ Microsoft Windows 8 UEFI Secure Boot complaint: The case for and against | ZDNET

    Earlier this week Hispalinux, a Spanish group which represents 8,000 Linux users, filed a complaint with the European Commission over the UEFI Secure Boot required for Windows 8 hardware, labelling it an "obstruction mechanism" that limited consumers' choice of operating system.

    The group argued UEFI placed that choice between Microsoft, which it says holds a dominant market position, and hardware manufacturers.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Apple Inc ☛ Update on iPadOS 18 apps distributed in the European Union - Latest News - Apple Developer

  Starting September 16:

  • Users in the EU can download iPadOS apps on the App Store and through alternative distribution. As mentioned in May, if you have entered into the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU, iPadOS first annual installs will begin to accrue and the lower App Store commission rate will apply.

• Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Do one thing well and communicate with others

  The convenience for a regular user is so high. But the old saying about eggs in one basket is not pointless. If you’re not quite sure about it, imagine this: if you’re using Gmail and relying on that for logging into services, imagine what would happen if they would shut down your access and would not recover it. How much access to other places would you irrevocably lose? For a lot of people, I imagine: a shit ton. It’s a nightmare situation, especially given how difficult it is to even get a response from a human being at these massive corporations.

  So I don’t want a super app or service. I want a lot of small apps and services that do one thing and do it really well. The crucial bit with that design is that these small apps and services must communicate with each other.

• Science Alert ☛ The Internet Is a Dumpster Fire. Here's How We Just Might Be Able to Save It.

  However, voting with our feet is only possible when there's competition. In the case of X, various other platforms – from Mastodon to Threads to Bluesky – enable users to pick one that aligns with their preferences, values and social circles. Search engines have alternatives, too, such as DuckDuckGo or Ecosia.

  But competition can only be created by moving to decentralised systems and removing monopolies. This actually happened in the early days of the [Internet] during the 1990s "browser wars", when Microsoft was eventually accused of illegally monopolising the web browser market in a landmark court case.

• Patents

  • Software Patents

    • EFF ☛ Senate Vote Tomorrow Could Give Helping Hand To Patent Trolls

      These are just a few of the patents used to harass software developers and small companies in recent years. Thankfully, they were tossed out by U.S. courts, thanks to the landmark 2014 Supreme Court decision in Alice v. CLS Bank. The Alice ruling  has effectively ended hundreds of lawsuits where defendants were improperly sued for basic computer use. 

    • The Register UK ☛ IBM win $45M from games maker Zynga in patent battle

      Jurors decided [PDF] last week that FarmVille maker Zynga, and its subsidiary Chartboost, had infringed on two IBM patents - including one from way back in the Prodigy days of 1989. In its complaint [PDF], IBM described the patents as core to the online networking and advertising structure of the modern [Internet], and argued that while other big tech companies have licensed the patents in suit, Zynga has spent "almost eight years" delaying discussions.

    • The Register UK ☛ Open source orgs strengthen alliance against patent trolls

      Patent trolls are increasingly targeting cloud native open source projects, leading the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Linux Foundation to make efforts to extend their legal shields over such efforts.

      The polite term for patent trolls is "non-practicing entities" (NPEs) – orgs that exist solely to extract licensing fees through legal claims of patent infringement.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is BRAINCARE Merely Descriptive of Goods and Services Related to Analysis of Brain Waves?

    The USPTO refused to register the proposed mark BRAINCARE for various goods and services related to the analysis of brainwave activity, deeming the mark to be merely descriptive under Section 2(e)(1). Applicant argued on appeal that the terms “brain” and “care” include so many different definitions that the mark could relate to just about anything, that the mark is merely suggestive because it does not "identify" a type of software or service, and that third parties have registered marks that include those terms. How do you think this came out? In re Wave Neuroscience, Inc., Serial No. 90630144 (September 11, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Albert J. Zervas).

  • TechCrunch ☛ Flappy Bird’s creator disavows ‘official’ new version of the game

    But this morning, the game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, posted a characteristically terse comment stating that he has nothing to do with the revival and that he “did not sell anything.” He added, “I also don’t support [cryptocurrency].”

    To be clear, Nguyen’s comments don’t exactly contradict anything in the foundation’s announcement, which described the group as a “new team of passionate fans committed to sharing the game with the world,” and said it had “acquired the rights from Gametech Holdings, LLC.” (Apparently Gametech successfully filed to terminate Nguyen’s Flappy Bird trademark a couple years ago.)

  • PC Gamer ☛ Flappy Bird makes an unlikely comeback after its creator apparently let the trademark lapse and the vultures swept right in

    The foundation acquired the trademark from the US company Gametech Holdings LLC, and here there's a slight whiff of skullduggery. Dong Nguyen originally applied for the trademark in 2014, alongside a little drawing of the logo. This application then seemed to sit in limbo for many years, eventually being opposed by a Delaware-based company called Gametech.

    As this was going on, the US patent office granted a trademark registration for Flappy Bird in 2018 (four years after the game was removed from sale) to another Delaware company called Mobile Media Matters. While I can't be exact on the link between Mobile Media Matters and Gametech, both companies' legal filings give the same Delaware address.

• Copyrights

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ There are more than 120 Hey Hi (AI) bills in Congress right now

    More than 120 bills related to regulating artificial intelligence are currently floating around the US Congress. They’re pretty varied.

  • Mark Nottingham ☛ On Opting Out of Copyright

    As discussed previously, the EU AI Act and emerging practice flip copyright’s default opt-in regime to an opt-out one. A rights holder now has to take positive action if they want to reserve their rights. While on the face of it they still have the same capability, this ends up being a significant practical shift in power.

    That’s partly because of the nature of opt-out itself. The burden shifts: now, the rights holder must find misuse of their content, and prove that they opted out.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Edwin D. Babbitt’s Principles of Light and Color (1878)

    An early treatise on chromotherapy — the supposed science of healing physical and psychic ailments with colour.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Magis TV IPTV Crackdown Blocks 70 Domains, Hundreds Already Wiped Out

    There have been many durable pirate sites over the years with The Pirate Bay perhaps the most high-profile of them all. While it has fewer years under its belt, pirate IPTV service Magis TV is under attack from all sides. The latest broadside in Argentina will see the country's ISPs block around 70 domains, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has seized a similar number yet Magis TV has somehow managed to stay afloat.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Germany Adds Sports Streaming Site 'TotalSportek' to Pirate Site Blocklist

    As part of a voluntary agreement with copyright holders, German ISPs block a list of structurally infringing websites. This blocklist has recently expanded with the sports streaming site TotalSportek. The responsible “Clearing Body” concluded that, since efforts to shut down the site or identify its owners failed, site blocking is a reasonable and proportionate measure.