Leftovers

• Digital Music News ☛ Lyte Faces Multiple Lawsuits from Festival Organizers Over Alleged Breach of Contract, Fraud, and Missing Payments

  Seemingly shuttered ticketing platform Lyte is now grappling with multiple lawsuits filed by festival organizers who say they’re owed sizable sums following the company’s abrupt shutdown. Lost Lands organizer Apex Event Management and the team behind North Coast Music Festival just recently fired off those complaints, amid continued operational woes for Lyte.

• Jonas Hietala ☛ Why I still blog after 15 years

  Before you know it, your little babies have started school, you celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park, and that little blog you started have now been going for 15 years.

  15 years is a long time; longer than I’ve been waiting for Winds of Winter, and that wait has felt like an eternity. How did I—who frequently abandon projects for the next shiny thing—manage to continue this blog for so long?

  I’m as surprised as anyone but I’ve tried to make a retrospective of how this may have happened.

• Lou Plummer ☛ Saturday Morning Cartoons and Other Joys

  As far as quality goes, the shows were not Disney or Pixar quality or anything close to it. There were cartoons featuring the Jackson 5 and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. We had Scooby Doo and Josie and the Pussycats. There were also classics like the Jetsons and the Flintstones. We would watch all morning until American Bandstand and Soul Train came on, signaling another week of waiting until our little film festival would repeat itself.

• Smithsonian Magazine ☛ This Lost Mozart Composition Hasn't Been Heard for Centuries. Now, You Can Listen to It

  A 12-minute piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been discovered in a library in Germany. Researchers think the composer wrote the previously unknown piece—called Serenade in C—when he was a young teenager.

• Science

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ The world’s first glass-based quantum photonic chip design and production facility opens in Milan

    A self-proclaimed leading producer of glass-based photonic chips has raised $8.5 million to expand its operations. Ephos says the new seed funding will accelerate the opening of ‘the world’s first facility for the design and production of glass-based quantum photonic chips.’

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Find Corals With a Secret That Could Aid Reef Conservation

    This is important.

  • Science Alert ☛ New 'Ghost Shark' Species Discovered Lurking in Deep Ocean

    Hunting prey more than a mile below the surface.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Discovered a Heightened Toxicity Risk For Children With Autism, ADHD

    Here's what we know.

  • Science Alert ☛ We Finally Know What Creates Static Electricity, After Thousands of Years

    So simple.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Scientists grow ‘lost tree’ mentioned in Bible using mysterious 1,000-year-old seed

    DNA analysis has revealed that the tree belongs to a unique species of the Commiphora family, which is distributed across Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula and known for its aromatic gum resins.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ CERN at 70: Smashing elementary particles for humanity

    The European Organization for Nuclear Research — better known as CERN — is a place of scientific breakthroughs.

    Since 1954, thousands of the world's best scientists and emerging minds have converged on Switzerland to explore how the universe works. On September 29, CERN will celebrate its 70th anniversary.

    CERN has been the seat of some of the most important discoveries in science — from the confirmation of the elusive Higgs boson in 2012, to more practical innovations like the invention of the World Wide Web.

  • Science Alert ☛ Rogue Waves Can Reach Four Times Higher Than We Thought

    "When these waves with a high directional spread converge, the water is pushed upwards, forming a partially standing wave. An example of this is known as a crossing wave."

    So-called rogue waves are those that reach jaw-dropping heights, such as the famous Draupner wave that reached 26 meters (85 feet), or a wave measuring a reported 42.7 meters in the Tasman Sea. These waves are the result of multiple waves traveling in different directions meeting at a central point.

  • Nature ☛ Three-dimensional wave breaking

    [...] Unlike in two dimensions, three-dimensional wave-breaking onset does not limit how steep waves may become, and we produce directionally spread waves 80% steeper than at breaking onset and four times steeper than equivalent two-dimensional waves at their breaking onset. Our observations challenge the validity of state-of-the-art methods used to calculate energy dissipation and to design offshore structures in highly directionally spread seas.

• Education

  • Chris Enns ☛ The Contractor's Dilemma: Coping When Clients Disappear

    This post is a gentle reminder to anyone who works with contractors in the digital sense (i.e. developers, writers, editors, production, etc.)—that if you decide you no longer want to work with them on your project, do them the courtesy of telling them "Hey, it's not working out for [reasons]" rather than them having to find out by seeing a new version (episode, video, etc.) of the thing they thought they were working on.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ College Students: Don’t Work on Wall Street

    America’s top colleges send a huge share of their graduates to work directly in finance. This pipeline between elite universities and Wall Street is the result of a deliberate campaign of influence, and it’s made the world significantly worse.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ D-Robotics RDK X3 Development Board features Sunrise X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SoC with a 5TOPS “Bernoulli” BPU

    The D-Robotics RDK X3 development board is designed for edge Hey Hi (AI) applications and features a Sunrise X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor running at 1.5GHz with a dual-core BPU (Brain Processing Unit) with 5 TOPS of edge inference capability. The board includes a 40-pin GPIO interface, ensuring compatibility with Raspberry Pi 4B accessories for versatile project development.

  • Hackaday ☛ Most Powerful Laser Diodes, Now More Powerful

    Many hobbies seem to have a subset of participants who just can’t leave well enough alone. Think about hot rodders, who squeeze every bit of power out of engines they can, or PC overclockers, who often go to ridiculous ends to milk the maximum performance from a CPU. And so it goes in the world of lasers, where this avalanche driver module turns Nichia laser diodes into fire-breathing beasts.

  • Hackaday ☛ Supercon 2023: The Road To Writing Great Step-by-Step Instructions

    Ikea is known as a purveyor of build-it-yourself flatpack furniture. Lego is known as a purveyor of build-it-yourself toys. Both are known for their instructions. The latter’s are considered incredibly clear and useful, while the former’s are often derided as arcane and confusing—though the major difference between the two is color printing.

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Printing On Top Of Laser Cut Acrylic

    [Julius Curt] needed to mark acrylic panels with a bit more clarity than the usual way of rastering the surface, so they attempted to 3D print directly to an acrylic sheet, which worked perfectly. The obvious way to do this was to bond the acrylic sheet to the bed with glue temporarily, but another way was tried, and it’s much less messy and precarious.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

    Breast cancer is an insidious disease that afflicts people from all walks of life, all lifestyles, and across all socioeconomic groups. Women make up the overwhelming majority of breast cancer diagnoses, but men can also get breast cancer. The rate of breast cancer in men, however, is less than 1% of that of women.

    Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, let's take a look at some statistics about breast cancer. These statistics come from the Susan G. Komen foundation, a leader among leaders in the fight against breast cancer. Please visit their “Breast Cancer Statistics” page to view all of the information available.

  • [Old] EcoWatch ☛ Bottled Water Contains Hundreds of Thousands of Plastic Particles Small Enough to Invade Human Cells, Study Finds

    “Plastics are now omnipresent in our daily lives. The existence of microplastics (1 µm to 5 mm in length) and possibly even nanoplastics (<1 μm) has recently raised health concerns. In particular, nanoplastics are believed to be more toxic since their smaller size renders them much more amenable, compared to microplastics, to enter the human body,” the researchers wrote in the study.

    The research team used new technology to identify and count nanoplastics in bottled water, the press release said. The particles are so small they are able to pass directly into the bloodstream from the lungs and intestines and into organs like the heart and brain. They can also penetrate individual cells. Their effects on biological systems are not yet known, and scientists are in a hurry to figure it out.

  • Harvard University ☛ Should schools ban cellphones?

    “We have been living with this incredibly seductive technology for several years and what is finally coming to light is that constant exposure to social media and games and other tech products is actually phenomenally distracting and harmful,” said Susan Linn, the author of “Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children” and a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

  • Rachel ☛ Thoughts on working inside a data center suite

    I have a few more thoughts on the whole topic of colocation. First of all, Joel wrote in with a couple of tips beyond the basic "screwdriver and flashlight" that I mentioned. He says you should bring hearing protection, a step-stool or small ladder, and a jacket if you get cold. I like this thinking, and figured I'd expand on this for the benefit of those wondering what this all means.

  • Air Force Times ☛ VA to research link between PFAS chemicals and kidney cancer

    Veterans Affairs officials will research the link between kidney cancer and exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, at military bases, a move that could eventually provide presumptive benefits to thousands of veterans suffering from the illness.

    If a link is established, the move would mark the first time the department provided fast-track benefits for any condition related to PFAS exposure.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Strategist ☛ Unlocking AI’s potential for all through global collaboration

    Over the past year, we have co-chaired the UN secretary-general’s High-level Advisory Body on AI, a group of 39 individuals from government, civil society, the private sector and academia representing a wide range of regions, genders, age groups and disciplines. Together, we developed a set of principles and recommendations for international AI governance, aiming to ensure that the technology serves the public interest by grounding it in human rights and international law. To engage diverse perspectives and voices, we involved more than 2000 participants from every region, consulted more than 1000 experts, reviewed 250 written submissions and held more than 100 virtual discussions.

  • The Register UK ☛ US Army using AI to bolster lousy recruiting numbers

    According to reports of the discussion (a recording is not available at the time of reporting), Recruit 360 has the ability to comb through more than 30 million applicant files using 1,700 different variables to generate prospect lists limited to people AI has identified as having potential interest in joining the service.

  • The Register UK ☛ If your AI does the crime, you'll do the time: DoJ

    In other words, it doesn't matter whether it's the AI that broke the law – the company will be held accountable. Executives should therefore take steps to identify and address these risks before the DoJ comes knocking.

  • Futurism ☛ Godfather of AI Says Elon Musk Is Lying About Self-Driving Teslas

    Yann LeCun, the so-called "Godfather of AI" who currently serves as Meta's AI czar, accused the billionaire of lying "again and again" about when fully-automated Teslas would arrive.

  • ABC ☛ Vacaville PG&E customer finds out he's been paying neighbor's bill for up to 18 years

    Turns out, he's been paying the bill for the unit next door, possibly since 2006.

    "Even after I turned off my breakers, I kept going outside to check my meter to see if it was still running and it was still running. And I couldn't believe it," Wilson said.

  • North Shore News ☛ Avis Car Rental bills B.C. woman for 36,000 kilometres in 3 days - North Shore News

    “And they didn't really care. I asked to be put through to a supervisor, because sometimes that's what you need to do and they just hung up on me. And I don't know if they do that purposely, but I just kept getting hung up on,” she said.

    For days after, there was "Nothing from Avis. Not a peep,” she said.

    Boniface asked VISA to cancel the charge but their process for a dispute could take at least 45 days. On Friday morning, she confirmed the charges had gone through.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Timeshare Owner? The Mexican Drug Cartels Want You

      The FBI is warning timeshare owners to be wary of a prevalent telemarketing scam involving a violent Mexican drug cartel that tries to trick people into believing someone wants to buy their property. This is the story of a couple who recently lost more than $50,000 to an ongoing timeshare scam that spans at least two dozen phony escrow, title and realty firms.

    • Rohan Kumar ☛ Post-OCSP certificate revocation in the Web PKI - Seirdy

      Today, TLS certificates in the Web public key infrastructure (PKI) have long validity: almost all remain valid for at least three months! An attacker compromising a certificate early enough in its lifetimenote 1 keeps it compromised for months. Certificate revocation addresses this problem: a client must know to distrust a certain key for a domain, even if the valid key hasn’t expired yet.

      The issue? Billions of clients use the Web PKI: browsers, crawlers, link-preview generators, chatbots, email servers, email clients, etc. The easy part for a CA is knowing when to revoke a certificate.note 2 The hard part is telling every client to ignore a certain compromised certificate. All approaches to revocation trace their roots to at least one of the following: [...]

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ Digital ID Isn't for Everybody, and That's Okay

      mDLs and digital IDs are being deployed faster than states can draft privacy protections, including for presenting your ID to more third parties than ever before. While proponents of these digital schemes emphasize a convenience factor, these IDs can easily expand into new territories like controversial age verification bills that censor everyone. Moreover, digital ID is simultaneously being tested in sensitive situations, and expanded into a potential regime of unprecedented data tracking.

      In the digital ID space, the question of “how can we do this right?” often usurps the more pertinent question of “should we do this at all?” While there are highly recommended safeguards for these new technologies, we must always support each person’s right to choose to continue using physical documentation instead of going digital. Also, we must do more to bring understanding and decision power over these technologies to all, over zealously promoting them as a potential equalizer.

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ ICYMI: Leak Confirms Our Phones Are Listening To Us

      Most people distrust their drinking water supply worldwide, with consequences for public health, the environment, and the economy, according to an article from Newsweek. An international survey found that 52.3 percent of those polled globally said they expected to be seriously harmed by their drinking water within the next two years. “If we think our water is unsafe, we will avoid using it,” said senior author Professor Sera Young, global health scientist at Northwestern University, in a statement. “When we mistrust our tap water, we buy packaged water, which is wildly expensive and hard on the environment; drink soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages, which is hard on the teeth and the waistline; and consume highly processed prepared foods or go to restaurants to avoid cooking at home, which is less healthy and more expensive.”

      A new malware called NGate allows cybercriminals to steal near field communication data from Android phones via sophisticated social engineering, according to an article from TechRepublic. The data is relayed to the fraudsters before being used to steal cash. The cyberattack, based on both a complex social engineering scheme and the use of a new Android malware, is capable of stealing users' near field communication data to withdraw cash from NFC-enabled ATMs.

      Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic and vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again, according to an article from the Associated Press. In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg alleges that the officials, including those from the White House, “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to take down “certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire.” The officials “expressed a lot of frustration” when the company didn't agree, he said in the letter.

    • 404 Media ☛ Podcast: Telegram is Working With the Cops

      Telegram says it will now provide user data to the police; the walls are closing in on the Snowflake hacker; and why Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld is bad (and Nintendo will probably win).

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Record ☛ After TikTok inquiry, Republicans call for investigation into Temu data practices

    In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and FBI, members of the Select Committee on Intelligence asked a range of questions about whether investigations are underway examining Temu and its parent company Pinduoduo (PDD).

  • VOA News ☛ Biden administration seeks to ban Chinese, Russian tech in most US vehicles

    The measure announced Monday is proactive but critical, the agency said, given that all the bells and whistles in cars like microphones, cameras, GPS tracking and Bluetooth technology could make Americans more vulnerable to bad actors and potentially expose personal information, from the home address of drivers, to where their children go to school.

    In extreme situations, a foreign adversary could shut down or take simultaneous control of multiple vehicles operating in the United States, causing crashes and blocking roads, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on a call Sunday.

  • Cyble Inc ☛ Iran's Role In Cyberattacks On Sweden Over Quran Controversy

    Fredrik Hallstrom of Sapo emphasized the link between the perpetrators and the Revolutionary Guards, noting that the attack not only targeted individuals but also aimed to amplify the existing threats against Sweden. The security service is increasingly concerned that foreign actors like Iran are exploiting such incidents to create divisions and instability within the nation.

  • Wired ☛ TikTok’s Defense Strategy Involves Throwing Shein and Temu Under the Bus

    Shein and Temu came from China’s fiercely competitive ecommerce industry and were able to take over the world by storm by shipping low-cost apparels and goods globally. Each boasts tens of millions of customers around the world, and they are often compared to TikTok as the rare examples of Chinese tech companies that have truly succeeded in the US.

  • YLE ☛ Paper: Finns Party MP heckles SDP leader during Swedish remarks in Parliament

    Lindtman continued speaking at the podium, but referred to the incident at the end of his address.

    "Swedish is our other national language and I ask that it also be respected in this hall," Lindtman said.

  • The Hindu ☛ In Kerala, a war of words over political [sic] Islam

    Talking to the media ahead of the release of his Malayalam book, Kerala: Muslim Politics and Political [sic] Islam, in Kozhikode, Mr. Jayarajan claimed that there was an alliance between the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). He warned that political Islam is dangerous, as was seen in the rise of extremist groups such as the JIH and the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was banned by the Indian government in 2022.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ Israel’s Pager Attacks and Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

    Israel’s brazen attacks on Hezbollah last week, in which hundreds of pagers and two-way radios exploded and killed at least 37 people, graphically illustrated a threat that cybersecurity experts have been warning about for years: Our international supply chains for computerized equipment leave us vulnerable. And we have no good means to defend ourselves.

    Though the deadly operations were stunning, none of the elements used to carry them out were particularly new. The tactics employed by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied any role, to hijack an international supply chain and embed plastic explosives in Hezbollah devices have been used for years.

  • ADF ☛ Terrorist Attacks in Togo Spark Fears for Ghana’s Security

    Increasing violence in Togo by extremists has stoked fears that neighboring Ghana might be the next coastal West African country in the terrorist groups’ crosshairs. The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) militant coalition claimed responsibility for a July 20 attack on Togolese Army forces in Kpankankandi, near the border with Burkina Faso.

  • ADF ☛ Sudan Massacre Video Reveals Ethnically Motivated RSF Atrocities

    Militiamen waved their weapons in the air and chanted triumphantly over the lifeless bodies of five young men, all brothers, at the Kassab displacement camp near Kutumin Kassab, in western Sudan. Described by a local farmer as hard-working, the Suleiman brothers included a 14-year-old student, two tailors and one cattle herder.

  • ADF ☛ Egypt-Somalia Defense Pact Escalates Horn Tensions

    Tension already was bubbling in the Horn of Africa in late August when two desert-camouflaged Egyptian military cargo planes landed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu with weapons, ammunition and about 300 special forces commandos.

  • ADF ☛ Dismantling Nigeria’s Black Axe Criminal Network Remains a Global Challenge

    A series of undercover “Operation Jackal” investigations have dealt a blow to Nigeria’s notorious Black Axe criminal networks. But authorities warn that the group’s global reach and technological sophistication means much work remains.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Arrest of Alleged Terrorgram Collective Leaders Sows Panic in Neo-Nazi Telegram Channels

    The recent crackdown on the social media platform Telegram has triggered waves of panic among the neo-Nazis who have made the app their headquarters for posting hate and planning violence.

    “Shut It Down,” one person posted in a white supremacist chat on Tuesday, hours after Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced he would begin sharing some users’ identifying information with law enforcement.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ In photos: Civilians flee Pokrovsk and surrounding area as Russia resumes assault on the city — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Putin proposes changing Russia’s nuclear doctrine to allow attacks on non-nuclear states — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Meet the Russian ‘guru’ whose followers work grueling hours at his Moscow restaurants for free — and then go into debt attending his retreats — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Glide Bomb Attack On Kramatorsk Kills 2

      The number of people killed in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk rose to two people, regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said on September 25.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Speaker Urges Zelenskiy To Remove Ukrainian Ambassador

      The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana), has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to fire his ambassador to the United States after Zelenskiy took part in a tour of a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania.

    • RFERL ☛ Trump Says Zelenskiy Takes Billions While Refusing To 'Make A Deal' To End War

      Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 25 of taking billions of dollars from the United States while at the same time refusing to "make a deal" to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.

    • RFA ☛ At UN, Zelensky rejects China-Brazil peace plan

      The Ukrainian president questioned the ‘true interest’ of the two countries in pushing the plan.

    • France24 ☛ ‘Godless people’: Russia mulls ban on promoting childless lifestyles

      A group of Russian MPs have put forward a bill that would ban any “propaganda” promoting childless lifestyles and the choice not to have children, including in the media, online advertising and in films. It comes as the country faces a demographic crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky alleges Russian plan to attack Ukraine’s nuclear plants in defiant UN speech

      Ukraine’s President Voldymy Zelensky on Wednesday told the United Nations General Assembly that he has received an “alarming” intelligence report indicating that Russia is planning to attack the country’s nuclear power plants, warning it could lead to a nuclear disaster. Zelensky said that Moscow is using satellites to gather images and information about the plants.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza and limiting UN veto power: Takeaways from Macron’s speech at the UN

      French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday took to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly and reiterated his unwavering support for Ukraine, but also called for Israel to end its “escalation” in Lebanon and suggested that the UN Security Council limit veto power in certain cases. Here are the main takeaways from Macron’s address in New York.

    • France24 ☛ Exclusive: On the ground in Russian territory held by Ukrainian forces

      Ukraine is still holding swathes of territory in the Kursk region of Russia, seven weeks after a lightning offensive designed to draw Russian troops away from eastern Ukraine and gain leverage in potential peace negotiations with Moscow. FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent was given access to Ukrainian-held areas of Kursk region, embedded with the Ukrainian army and a small number of journalists.

    • European Commission ☛ Speech by President von der Leyen at the second meeting of the Ukraine Compact

    • New York Times ☛ What Is Zelensky’s ‘Victory Plan’ for Ukraine’s War With Russia?

      The Ukrainian leader aims to present President Biden with a strategy to improve his country’s position ahead of any peace negotiations with Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ As Zelensky Calls for Global Focus on Ukraine, Putin Rattles Nuclear Sabers

      Hours after the Ukrainian president appealed for the West’s continued support, Russia’s authoritarian leader, Vladimir V. Putin, moved to significantly ease the circumstances under which his country might counter with nuclear weapons.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Declares Changes to Russian Nuclear Doctrine

      President Vladimir V. Putin heightened his warnings against the West, asserting that Russia should be permitted to use nuclear arms in the event of an attack by a nation backed by a nuclear power.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Warns U.N. Against Ceding to Russia’s ‘Insane’ Desire for Land

      President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the meeting of world leaders that capitulating to Russia would only give its president, Vladimir Putin, the “political space to continue the war.”

    • RFERL ☛ At UN, Zelenskiy Claims Russia Plans Attacks On Ukraine's Nuclear Plants

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 25 said he has received reports saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to attack nuclear power plants and infrastructure in Ukraine with the goal of disconnecting the plants from the power grid.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Widens Scope Of Russia's Nuclear Doctrine

      Russian President Vladimir Putin said on September 25 that a conventional attack on Russia by any country that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack.

    • France24 ☛ Putin calls for changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, widening net for ‘aggressor’ states

      President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday presented proposed changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, saying a nuclear power supporting another state’s attack on his country should from now on be considered as participating in the aggression. Although Putin did not specifically say that such a scenario would trigger a Russian nuclear response, the doctrine spells out the conditions for which Russia can launch its nuclear weapons and could have implications for the war in Ukraine.

    • JURIST ☛ Russia adopts bill banning adoption for countries that allow gender reassignment

      Members of Russia’s State Duma, the country’s legislative authority consisting of 450 members, adopted a bill Wednesday to ban the adoption of children from the Russian Federation by citizens in countries where gender reassignment is permitted, emphasizing the need to uphold “traditional values.”

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Wants To Ban Adoption By Countries Allowing Gender Transition

      Russian lawmakers approved the first reading of legislation that would ban the adoption of Russian children by citizens from countries where gender transition is legal in a nod to the Kremlin's crusade to protect what it views as "traditional family values."

    • LRT ☛ Russian rep walks out during Lithuanian president’s UN speech

      Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, who strongly criticised the Kremlin at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, was not surprised that the Russian ambassador demonstratively left the hall during his speech.

    • LRT ☛ ‘Middle finger to Russia’ – what does Kubilius’ defence and space portfolio mean?

      Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius has been assigned the post of EU Commissioner for Defence and Space, which is new and shrouded in uncertainty. How influential will this post be? It is difficult to say yet, but experts note that Kubilius has the unique opportunity to define the importance of his portfolio himself.

    • University of Michigan ☛ Hear no evil: Combating foreign interference during an election season

      On Wednesday, Sept. 4, the United States Department of Justice indicted members of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, for its payment of nearly $10 million to the American media outlet Tenet Media.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Don’t Make the Same Mistake with Iran that Denialists Made with Russia

      Lefties are doing with the Iranian targeting of Trump what MAGAts have done with the Russian investigation: doubt that a hostile country would target the US by targeting a US presidential candidate.

    • New York Times ☛ In the Footsteps of Dostoyevsky in Three German Spa Towns

      The Russian novelist, a compulsive gambler, lost everything in the opulent spa and gambling towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden. An admirer of his books follows his footsteps.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania terminates passport contract with Garsų Pasaulis over Belarus ties

      Garsų Pasaulis, one of Lithuania’s largest printing companies, has been declared unreliable by the State Security Department (VSD).

    • LRT ☛ 8,000 foreigners have permits to study in Lithuania

      Almost 8,000 foreigners, mostly from India, Belarus, and Pakistan, currently have temporary residence permits in Lithuania issued on the basis of studies.

    • RFERL ☛ Poland Detains Belarusian Woman Found Smuggling Illegal Migrants From Iran, Afghanistan

      Poland's Border Guard Service said its officers detained a Belarusian woman who was attempting to smuggle three illegal migrants from Iran and one from Afghanistan into Lithuania in her car.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Silicon Angle ☛ X releases first transparency report since Elon Musk took over the platform

    The short answer is: quite a lot. The report states that in the first six months of 2024, about 5.3 million accounts were suspended, compared with the 1.6 million accounts that were hit with a suspension in the first half of 2022. The new X “removed or labeled” more than 10.6 million accounts for violating policy, about 5 million of which were flagged under the platform’s “hateful conduct” policy. Some 2,361 profiles were hit with a ban.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Why RFK Jr.'s inappropriate relationship with a journalist matters

    New York suspended her for violating its standards on “conflicts of interest and disclosures,” according to an unsigned note to readers on the magazine’s website. “Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust,” it said.

  • Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ What are Russian research vessels doing in the Baltic Sea?

    While civilian ships leave traces through Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals, Russian research vessels usually disable their tracking systems, making them virtually invisible at sea. To track these vessels, the investigative team used weather reporting systems as a backdoor. A Soviet-era rule still applies, requiring Russian vessels to transmit weather reports via Morse code. Anyone who knows the right radio frequencies can access this information.

    "Who pays attention to weather reports? But the messages could be encoded. Military systems worldwide are famous for their ciphers. Special jargon, slang, whatever. Information can be transmitted even in a weather report," Boriss said.

    "In maritime tradition, weather reports are sent to home bases. These are three to four-minute messages about the weather, such as wind speed, water salinity and temperature. But the message also includes the ship's location. More importantly, it reveals the ship's speed and destination," explained data journalist Joris Heijkant.

• Environment

  • TruthOut ☛ Ohio Residents Evacuated After Toxic Railcar Chemical Leak

    A leak of styrene, a chemical used in plastic and rubber production, was discovered Tuesday afternoon in Whitewater Township, Ohio, about 16 miles west of Cincinnati. Video showed the chemical spewing from the top of a railcar reportedly owned by Genesee & Wyoming, a U.S.-based multinational.

  • The Hill ☛ Chemical fumes leak from Ohio train, prompts evacuation order

    The chemical styrene leak can cause headaches, nausea and respiratory issues in the short term and may even lead to organ damage in the long term.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Bottled Water Is Taking an Increasing Toll on Planetary and Human Health, Experts Warn

    Every minute, one million bottles of water are bought all over the world, a press release from BMJ Group said. The experts say that figure will continue to rise as demand escalates.

    “The widespread use of bottled water contributes significantly to pollution; it exposes people to potentially harmful contaminants and also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions,” Amit Abraham, lead author and assistant professor of clinical population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q), told Newsweek.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • JURIST ☛ California DOJ sues ExxonMobil over plastic recycling claims

      California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday against petroleum giant ExxonMobil alleging the company misled the public about the recyclability of plastic products and plastic pollution.

    • CS Monitor ☛ In a one-two punch against plastic, California sues Exxon, bans plastic bags

      California sued ExxonMobile on Sept. 23 for misleading the public through slick marketing campaigns about its plastic products. A day earlier, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning all plastic bags starting in 2026.

    • The Revelator ☛ Mining Policy Must Be Reformed

    • DeSmog ☛ How A British-owned PR Firm Helped ‘Squash’ Pipeline Protests in Uganda

    • DeSmog ☛ Mapped: Inside Ireland’s Powerful Farming Lobby

    • DeSmog ☛ EPA Found No Threat of Air Pollution During an Oil Spill in Louisiana’s Bayou Lafourche Despite Sickening Fumes

    • Renewable Energy World ☛ The Air Force is testing geothermal for on-base power

      Unlike traditional geothermal techniques that rely on geological formations of hot water and steam that limit their use, GGS repurpose fracking technology to extract thermal energy from miles below the Earth’s surface.

    • The Register UK ☛ Altman reportedly trying to sell Biden on a slew of AI DCs

      Citing executives at Constellation Energy Corp., Bloomberg also reported that Altman may be planning as many as 5-7 such datacenters, but will start with one.

      However, building even one of these facilities will be a daunting task. Five gigawatts is an enormous amount of power, with each of these datacenters requiring roughly equivalent to the output of five pressurized water nuclear reactors.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ When does it become worth it?

      In retrospect, I think my second sentence is a bit more assertive than I would say my opinion actually is, but I am very interested to see what the differences are in iPhone battery life between those that limit charging and those that let the OS do its thing. Everything I’ve seen indicates to me that the benefits to battery health are so minor as to be within the margin of error.

    • Michigan News ☛ Solar farm gets final OK after years of pushback, legal battles

      A development agreement and a decommissioning agreement for a 120-megawatt, 1,000-acre solar farm northeast of Milan was approved in a 4-2 vote on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

    • The Conversation ☛ New solar cells break efficiency record – they could eventually supercharge how we get energy from the Sun

      The higher the efficiency of solar panels, the cheaper the electricity. This might make you wonder: just how efficient can we expect solar energy to become? And will it make a dent in our energy bills?

      Current commercially available solar panels convert about 20-22% of sunlight into electrical power. However, new research published in Nature has shown that future solar panels could reach efficiencies as high as 34% by exploiting a new technology called tandem solar cells. The research demonstrates a record power conversion efficiency for tandem solar cells.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Why one developer won’t quit fighting to connect the US’s grids

      Skelly contends he was early, not wrong, about the need for such lines, and that the market and policymakers are increasingly coming around to his perspective. Indeed, the US Department of Energy just blessed his latest company’s proposed line with hundreds of millions in grants.

    • VOA News ☛ Former executive gets 2 years in prison for role in FTX fraud

      Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried's fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized repeatedly to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.

    • Wired ☛ FTX Insider Caroline Ellison Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

      Although a rise in the price of cryptocurrencies means FTX customers are expected to be paid back in full—if only based on the dollar-value of the assets in their FTX accounts at the time of the collapse—the funds remain locked up in the bankruptcy proceeding.

      Ellison faced a theoretical maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. Before receiving her sentence, Ellison told the court of her regret for having become embroiled in the FTX fraud and the damage she had caused to customers. “My brain can’t even truly comprehend the scale of the harm I’ve caused,” she said, her voice quavering as she held back tears. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t try.”

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ New train to link Berlin and Paris in 8 hours

      A new high-speed train, operated by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn and France's SNCF, will allow passengers to travel between Berlin and Paris in approximately eight hours, Deutsche Bahn announced on Tuesday.

      The first departure is scheduled for December.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ New train service linking Paris and Berlin

      Say what you will about the reliability of DB of late, but this Australian on a far-flung, isolated continent can only look on with envy. I’d love to travel to the capital of another country in eight hours by train, and especially these two!

    • [Old] CNX Software ☛ A deep dive into Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W's power consumption

      Let go back to the Raspberry Pi OS Lite image with only UART and SSH enabled and nothing else at 125 mA idled. We’ll make some modifications to try to lower the power consumption mostly via raspi-config utility and editing config.txt.

    • NPR ☛ Southwest is changing how it boards planes, but don’t expect it to be faster

      Part of the time, the passengers boarded the regular Southwest way, with open seating. And part of the time, they had assigned seats according to the WILMA plan. In the end, Lawson recalls, there was a clear winner: WILMA.

      “It was like a 20% difference,” Lawson said. “That’s huge. It’s a very significant operational improvement.”

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ Moo Deng Is the Internet’s Favorite Pygmy Hippopotamus

      Moo Deng, whose name translates to “bouncy pork,” has united the internet while following a familiar path to stardom.

    • CBC ☛ Octopuses hunt alongside fish, but will wallop them if they fall out of line

      Despite their reputation as loners, it turns out octopuses will happily hunt in groups with other species — as long as everyone knows who's boss.

      Scientists in Germany have captured hours of footage of octopuses working in tandem with different species of reef fish to track down prey like smaller crustaceans, fish and molluscs and flush them out of their hidey-holes.

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Watch Octopuses Team Up With Fish to Hunt—and Punch Those That Don't Contribute

      In the waters of the Red Sea, fish and octopuses are forming an unlikely alliance: They’re joining forces to track down prey, establishing a hunting operation that’s potentially more effective than either creature working alone.With the octopus leading the charge, fish scout for hidden prey and signal where to capture a smaller fish or mollusk. But if freeloading fish are hovering around, looking to benefit from the hunt without contributing, the octopus punches them away, according to new research.

• Finance

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Drop in food prices pushes inflation down to 4.66% in first half of September

    Inflation is continuing its downward trend, coming in below expert forecasts for the first half of September.

  • Job Openings At Their Lowest Since 2021, Job Seekers Hurting

    The list of companies laying off workers keeps getting longer—from IBM...

  • India ☛ Mass Lay-Off At Disney, Microsoft, Others; Cos Sight Weak US Economy Amidst Fresh Recession Fears

    While, IBM too had recently laid off thousand of workers.

    These cost cutting measures are not limited to only US. Most of these companies had sacked employees on global level too particularly in India.

  • Is IBM quietly trimming its workforce?

    Apparently, all impacted employees will be informed by November 2024. The exact number of layoffs is yet to be officially known.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ How Meta Distanced Itself From Politics

    Ahead of November’s election, Meta has de-emphasized political content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads and doesn’t want to talk about candidates or campaigns.

  • New York Times ☛ Why Proprietary Chaffbot Company Is Trying to Raise So Much Money? [Ed: Worthless garbage and a Ponzi scheme/valuation scam]

    The San Francisco Hey Hi (AI) start-up believes there is not enough computing power on Earth to build the artificial intelligence it wants to create.

  • India Times ☛ OpenAI: OpenAI's technology chief Mira Murati to leave

    Microsoft-backed OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will leave the artificial intelligence startup, the executive said in a post on X, the latest in a string of executive departures this year.

  • Inside Towers ☛ EU Approves Swisscom Acquisition of Vodafone Italia - Inside Towers

    Swisscom says the completion of the Vodafone Italia transaction is on track. The company secured the financing for the purchase price of $8.9 billion in May and has received unconditional approval from both the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Italy, under Italy’s Golden Power legislation, and the Swiss Competition Commission. Golden Power legislation in Italy grants the Italian government special power to intervene in private investments and corporate transactions that operate in sectors deemed strategic for national security and public order, such as telecommunications.

  • Systemd Free ☛ VirtualBox : To whom does it matter whether corporate takeover of FOSS is problematic?

    Let’s examine the motives and the method used to direct “clients” of corporate software to choices they might had not made to begin with, and the particular late case of VirtualBox

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Senate bill aims to get troops ‘competency records’ for civilian jobs

    Service members would automatically receive a “competency record” along with their DD-214 during the separation process under the bill. The proposed plan is different from other programs where troops have to opt in or wait at least a year to get their own records, an official from Rosen’s office said. The record would include every course a service member graduated from and any training certifications and qualifications they earned for their military occupational specialty.

  • India Times ☛ Microsoft: Microsoft to spend $1.3 billion in Mexico on cloud, AI tech

    The investment will go toward improving connectivity and boosting the adoption of AI technology by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the firm said in a statement.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ X to soon allow users to see posts from blocked accounts

    X, formerly Twitter, will allow all public posts to be visible even to blocked accounts. The microblogging site will make posts of the users visible to individuals blocked by the user. X owner Elon Musk said, “block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public posts.”

  • India Times ☛ Sam Altman: OpenAI to remove non-profit control and give Sam Altman equity

    ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a move that will make the company more attractive to investors.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Korea Times ☛ How spreading a lie harmed a peaceful Ohio town

      Lies can be lethal.

      One of the deadliest examples took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921.

      The false report of a young Black man trying to assault a white woman incited a mob that murdered as many as 300 Black residents, destroyed more than 1,200 homes, businesses and churches and left some 10,000 people homeless.

    • Rolling Stone ☛ Alex Jones' Infowars to Be Auctioned to Pay Sandy Hook Families

      In the aftermath of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 children and 6 administrators were killed, Jones repeatedly and falsely claimed that the shooting was a “hoax” and that the murdered children and their families were “crisis actors.”

    • The Independent UK ☛ Olympian forgot to scan ham and asparagus at Walmart checkout – she was arrested and lost her job

      During her arrest, she told officers that she wasn’t aware the machine hadn’t registered the items, but they continued with the arrest anyway. When officers searched her purse, they found three disposable vapes as well as two unopened blister packs containing the anti-nausea medication Zofran, leading them to not only to charge her for theft over the unscanned items but also for possession of marijuana and a controlled substance.

    • National Post ☛ Shoplifting charges dismissed for Canadian Olympian, but loses job and reputation

      “The tough thing is, how do you get out to people that you are innocent? And this damage was done for something so ridiculous,” Pettipiece said.

      The dismissal of charges means she can teach again, but she’s thinking about building a career as a softball umpire at the collegiate level rather than coaching, Pettipiece said.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • ANF News ☛ Mother of a slain protester denied lawyer and family visits in Iranian prison

    The dadkhah (a Persian term used for victims’ relatives and survivors seeking truth and justice) mother has faced constant pressure and threats from security forces over the past two years due to her activism following the death of her son, Shahiyar Mohammadi.

  • VOA News ☛ Academic freedom declines under Hong Kong's national security regime, report finds

    Some analysts say the opaque definition of what constitutes a violation of the security law has created a chilling effect among students and faculty members at Hong Kong universities.

    "When the red line isn't clear, there will be a pervasive sense of fear, and students and faculty members will try to make adjustments to ensure they don't get into trouble," Maya Wang, the associate China director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA by phone.

  • Kev Quirk ☛ On Removing Content

    Does that mean we should throw caution to the wind and delete anything we subsequently disagree with in the future?

    Probably not. But I do think it's ok to delete stuff from your site from time to time.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ IRGC hacked a Swedish SMS service in response to Quran burning, authorities say

    Using a persona they dubbed “Anzu Team,” hackers working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) penetrated an unnamed Swedish company that operated a “major” SMS service and used the access to push the text messages, the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s office said in a statement, according to a machine translation.

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Hackers Behind Attack Urging Revenge For Koran Burnings, Sweden Says

    Iran's security service was behind a special operation against targets in Sweden, the Nordic country's Prosecutor's Office said.

    The operation saw hackers send thousands of text messages to Swedes calling for revenge over 2023 burnings of the Koran, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • CPJ ☛ Hong Kong denies work visa to photojournalist Louise Delmotte 

    “Denying Louise Delmotte’s entry is a petty act of retaliation against her journalistic work,” said Iris Hsu, CPJ’s China representative. “This pattern of denying journalists entry has become a way for government authorities to pressure and harass the media.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ AP photographer Louise Delmotte denied entry to HK after visa renewal rejected

    An award-winning French photojournalist working for Associated Press has been denied entry to Hong Kong months after an extension of her work visa was rejected by the city’s immigration authorities.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Ex-Hong Kong student leader denied early release from jail following national security committee decision

    A former Hong Kong student leader jailed over praising a knife attack on police in 2021 has been denied early release following a decision by the city’s national security committee, a court has heard.

  • EFF ☛ Calls to Scrap Jordan's Cybercrime Law Echo Calls to Reject Cybercrime Treaty

    We’ve criticized this law before, noting how it was issued hastily and without sufficient examination of its legal aspects, social implications, and impact on human rights. It broadly criminalizes online content labeled as “pornographic” or deemed to “expose public morals,” and prohibits the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other proxies. Now, EFF has joined thirteen digital rights and free expression organizations in calling once again for Jordan to scrap the controversial cybercrime law.

    The open letter, organized by Article 19, calls upon Jordanian authorities to cease use of the cybercrime law to target and punish dissenting voices and stop the crackdown on freedom of expression. The letter also reads: “We also urge the new Parliament to repeal or substantially amend the Cybercrime Law and any other laws that violate the right to freedom of expression and bring them in line with international human rights law.”

    Jordan’s law is a troubling example of how overbroad cybercrime legislation can be misused to target marginalized communities and suppress dissent. This is the type of legislation that the U.N. General Assembly has expressed concern about, including in 2019 and 2021, when it warned against cybercrime laws being used to target human rights defenders. These concerns are echoed by years of reports from U.N. human rights experts on how abusive cybercrime laws facilitate human rights abuses.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ We Still Need to Nationalize the Banks

    The demand for the government to take over banks was once a rallying cry of mass movements of workers and farmers in the United States. In an era of runaway Wall Street greed and power, that demand should again be central.

  • The Register UK ☛ Apple caves to second retail union after strike threat

    The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced yesterday the 78-member union at the Penn Square Apple Store in Oklahoma City ratified a three-year contract with Apple that includes some generous terms from Cook and Co. Wages at the store will rise up to 11.5 percent in the next three years, and workers now have guaranteed PTO to vote; healthcare; and a relocation and severance option in the event of store closure.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ The Highest Peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park Will Now Be Called by Its Cherokee Name

    A 6,643-foot peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been renamed “Kuwohi,” which means “mulberry place” in the Cherokee language.

  • US Navy Times ☛ Food insecurity among military families unacceptable, advocates say

    According to a 2023 study by Rand researchers, nearly 26% of active-duty service members are considered food insecure, and about 15% rely on food stamps or food banks to help support their families.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Internet Society ☛ Looking Beyond the Global Digital Compact

    We review the opportunities and concerns we see with the finalized Global Digital Compact (GDC) text.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Cybersecurity Experts Closing in on Ticketmaster Hacker

  Cybersecurity defense firm Mandiant is stalking the Ticketmaster hacker known as Judische who was behind the massive Snowflake breach. This breach impacted Ticketmaster, AT&T, Lending Tree, and more than 165 companies who utilized Snowflake’s services.

• CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Academic economists get big payouts when they help monopolists beat antitrust

  Kanter's incredible enforcement track record isn't just part of a national trend – his colleagues in the FTC, CFPB and other agencies have also been pursuing an antitrust agenda not seen in generations – but also a worldwide trend. Antitrust enforcers in Canada, the UK, the EU, South Korea, Australia, Japan and even China are all taking aim at smashing corporate monopolies. Not only are they racking up impressive victories against these giant corporations, they're stealing the companies' swagger. After all, the point of enforcement isn't just to punish wrongdoing, but also to deter wrongdoing by others.

• JURIST ☛ US DOJ files antitrust lawsuit against Visa for monopolizing debit network markets

  The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that it filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Visa for allegedly violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining a monopoly over debit network markets. Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act prohibit unreasonable restraints of trade and monopolies.

• Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Google braces for years of antitrust wrangling

  Google is embroiled in two separate antitrust trials brought by the US justice department, which alleges the tech leader illegally dominates the digital advertising market and online search. The ads trial kicked off in court this month. In the search case, which Google lost, judge Amit Mehta said he aims to iron out the final issues by August.

• Patents

  • EFF ☛ Patient Rights and Consumer Groups Join EFF In Opposing Two Extreme Patent Bills

    EFF has sent letters to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing both of these bills. The letters are co-signed by a wide variety of civil society groups, think tanks, startups, and business groups that oppose these misguided bills. Our letter on PERA states: 

  • Software Patents

    • EPO critics reject ‘special treatment’ of applications [Ed: Patents as bribes, EPO parroted by MIP in text outside the headline]

      Companies including Siemens, Bayer and Ericsson say they just want ‘thorough and complete’ examinations after an EPO memo suggests an ‘arbitrary’ reallocation of applications

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Jeff Geerling ☛ Elecrow responded, apologized for AI voice cloning

      AI voice cloning is a tool. It can be used, and it can be abused.

      Last week I was made aware that Elecrow, an electronics manufacturer and distributor, was using an unauthorized clone of my voice in some of their YouTube tutorials.

    • Thomas Rigby ☛ Missing the point on Goodbye Meta AI

      The general tone of the article was "people fell for a hoax" which, while true, misses the point that nearly two-thirds of a million people publicly objected to Meta's use of their content to train AI.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ U.S. Court Orders LibGen to Pay $30m to Publishers, Issues Broad Injunction

    A New York federal court has ordered the operators of shadow library LibGen to pay $30 million in copyright infringement damages. The default judgment comes with a broad injunction that affects third-party services including domain registries, browser extensions, CDN providers, IPFS gateways, advertisers, and more. These parties should stop facilitating access to the pirate site.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ LaLiga Will "File Criminal Complaints Against Google" Over Pirate IPTV

    After celebrating a court order that reportedly requires Google to remotely uninstall pirate IPTV app Magis TV from Android devices, LaLiga is far from done. President Javier Tebas has just informed the Europa Forum that LaLiga will file criminal complaints against Google in Spain, France, Brazil, and Ecuador. Tebas accused Google of collaborating with pirates when it could immediately "reduce piracy by 80%" instead. So what does LaLiga actually want?

  • The Register UK ☛ OpenAI will show secret training data to copyright lawyers

    The authors – among them Paul Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Michael Chabon, David Henry Hwang, and Ta-Nehisi Coates – sued OpenAI and its affiliates last year, arguing its AI models have been trained on their books and reproduce their words in violation of US copyright law and California's unfair competition rules. The writers' actions have been consolidated into a single claim [PDF].

    OpenAI faces similar allegations from other plaintiffs, and earlier this year, Anthropic was also sued by aggrieved authors.

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Quavo Popped with a Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Bubble Gum’

    But the collaboration never came to fruition, and L.Mont says Quavo “without express authorization” copied protected elements of the song in his own track of the same name. Quavo’s “Bubble Gum” was released and distributed by Universal Music Group, which is named as a co-defendant, through Quality Control Music, Capitol Records, and Motown.

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Ice Spice Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Abruptly Dismissed

    Ice Spice has reached an agreement to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her by a Brooklyn rapper who claimed her hit song, “In Ha Mood,” was copied from his earlier song, “In That Mood.”