Leftovers

• Task And Purpose ☛ DoD can’t say if North Korean troops in Russia are 'gorging on pornography'

  Rachman did not specify who his source was or how this person would be in a position to know whether roughly 10,000 North Koreans deployed to Russia had figured out how to find such adult sites, considering the country’s tight controls on internet use, but this is social media, and “some guy” on Twitter (ahem, I mean ‘X’) posting about whether North Korean troops are spending their downtime watching porn is enough to drive 1.5 million people to read the post, as of publication time.

• Futurism ☛ North Korean Soldiers Deployed to Ukraine Reportedly "Gorging" on Uncensored Internet's Porn

  North Korea's internet is famous for being extremely locked down. Even accessing the web is largely reserved for those able to secure the required authorization.

  According to a 2016 investigation by security engineer Matt Bryant, North Koreans could only access 28 different websites at the time, most of which were state propaganda and news about Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. (It's unclear whether that number has changed over the last eight years.)

• Nicolas Magand ☛ Website updates

  In the last two or three weeks, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions specifically about the services/software I use for the website itself. Some of the decisions listed below have been quite the pickle, but I figured I’d share the reasons behind them in a new post. That is, if I manage to finish writing it before I change my mind again.

• Deutsche Welle ☛ Giveaway: 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

  The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, heralding in a new era in the country's history. That was 35 years ago — and we're celebrating: [...]

• Phil Eaton ☛ Effective unemployment and social media

  So while you're unemployed and able to muster the motivation, write about things that are interesting to you! Build projects that intrigue you. Leave a little note on every post and project that you are looking for work. And share every post and project on social media.

• Greg Morris ☛ I'm A Blogger

  I, too, tried this thing called making money on the [Internet]. At the time it was usually referred to as becoming a writer because a ‘blogger’ was a somewhat pejorative term that writers looked down their nose at. Yet, in the circles I tried to push myself in to, we were all nothing more than bloggers.

• Giles Turnbull ☛ Keep an 'Ask' note

  It’s useful and necessary for me, because my brain processes slowly, over many days. I’ll keep thinking of more things to ask, in dribs and drabs, for quite a while. Every time a new question pops into my head - which will usually happen while I’m thinking about something completely different - it’s easy to quickly open the “Ask” note and jot it down.

• Science

  • Science News ☛ Putting vampire bats on treadmills reveals an unusual metabolism

    A substantial portion of the carbon dioxide the bats exhaled during a workout (up to 60 percent) came from metabolizing fuel other than the carbs or fats that typically power a running mammal, the team reports November 6 in Biology Letters. Instead, much of the energy bats were using came from a recent high-protein meal of cow blood; the gases contained telltale traces from amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

  • Rlang ☛ Good Software Engineering Practices (GSEP) in FDA Submissions – 7 Categories to Follow

    Good software engineering practices are essential during the FDA submission process, especially if the software is used in the development, manufacturing, or control of drugs/medical devices.

    In plain English, these Good Practices ensure the software systems are safe, reliable, and compliant with regulatory requirements. On the other hand, poor software practices can lead to data integrity issues, security vulnerabilities, and product safety risks, all of which could result in FDA rejections, delays, or costly recalls.

• Career/Education

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Firms that read more perform better: Researchers analyze online reading habits from employees across firms worldwide

    "There is also evidence that such reading patterns are strongly linked to how innovative firms are as well as the diversity of economic activities they engage in," adds co-author Alan Kwan, from the University of Hong Kong.

    "Showing that firm performance is linked to information consumption is very exciting," evaluates Lee. "The findings suggest that understanding how companies manage information can offer valuable insights into their operation dynamics and financial health."

  • Rlang ☛ Getting comfortable talking about tech

    I’ve spent over 40 hours so far this year delivering talks and workshops about programming, visualisation, and data science, with several more hours still to come before the end of the year. If you’d told me 10 years ago that this is something I would do voluntarily (and would actively enjoy), I would never have believed you. I’d have been horrified at the thought.

    And as I’ve started organising more events and finding speakers for meetups, I’ve realised that there are many more people who are also horrified at the thought of talking about tech in public. For example, there are so many people who write code every day but don’t feel comfortable talking about their code in public. I was definitely that person for a long time.

    Now, I think I might actually be at my most relaxed when I’m running workshops. So I wanted to write down some of things that have helped me in getting comfortable talking about tech (although hopefully some of the advice is also useful for non-tech talks!)

  • Lou Plummer ☛ AMA - What advice would you give someone graduating from high school?

    All the people out there making noise about how college isn't for everyone and that becoming a plumber or joining the army are good solid alternatives, you know the ones I'm talking about, those people are anti-education conservatives who went to college themselves and who plan on sending their children. They are trying to cover for the inability or unwillingness to make education affordable to the masses like the social democracies in Europe do—the countries that aren't sending half their tax revenues to defense contractors. People who go to college make more money, have longer life expectancies, and are happier than the people who don't go.

  • International Business Times ☛ Want To Be A Millionaire? Dave Ramsey Says To Start By Turning Off Your Television, Here's Why

    In a recent post on X, financial expert Dave Ramsey revealed one of his top tips for aspiring millionaires: turn off your television. Ramsey's advice might seem surprising, but his reasoning goes beyond a simple anti-TV stance. According to Ramsey, financial success begins with lifelong learning, and one of the best ways to achieve this is by reading consistently.

    Ramsey, the 64-year-old financial coach known for his no-nonsense advice, believes that spending time on self-improvement, especially through reading, is crucial to building wealth. "The average millionaire reads a nonfiction book every month," he shared, emphasising that wealthy individuals are often focused on self-education rather than mindless entertainment. His advice to his followers: make reading a daily habit, dedicating 30 minutes each night to acquiring knowledge that could improve their future, according to Ramsey on X.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ On life being directed

    There’s a bit of satisfaction in knowing that hard worked paid off. But I don’t feel entirely responsible… or even mostly. My genes, where I was born, how I was raised, and the opportunities I had were not of my doing. Whether nature or nurture, I wasn’t responsible.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Zinc Creep And Electroplasticity: Why Arecibo Collapsed

    It’s been nearly four years since the Arecibo Telescope collapsed, an event the world got to witness in unprecedented detail thanks to strategically positioned drones. They captured breathtaking video of one of the support cables pulling from its socket as well as the spectacularly destructive results of 900 tons of scientific instruments crashing into the 300-meter primary reflector. But exactly why did those cable sockets fail?

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Cover letters

    For someone living the digital lifestyle and working in a paperless office, I still print and post a lot of documents. And yes, also fax, which a few of you were mortified to read about. The latter is only for fun; the printing is because I demand delivering hardcopies of important forms like contracts in lieu of whatever fancy online form or email address a company wants me to use. I work in IT, and therefore don’t trust these things! Maybe it’d only be marginally safer in the post, but I’m still more comfortable.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ A Huge Amount of Doctors Are Already Using [chatbots] in Medical Care

    Crucially, because the technology has not been developed for use in a specific context or to be used for a specific purpose, we don't actually know how doctors can use it safely. This is just one reason why GenAI isn't suited for widespread use in healthcare just yet.

    Another problem in using GenAI in healthcare is the well documented phenomenon of "hallucinations". Hallucinations are nonsensical or untruthful outputs based on the input that has been provided.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ How Sugar Rationing During World War II Fended Off Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Later in Life | Smithsonian

    Limiting sugar during the first 1,000 days after conception—the period including pregnancy and the two years after birth—may reduce a child’s risk of diabetes and hypertension in adulthood.

    Scientists reached this conclusion, detailed last week in the journal Science, after studying the effects of sugar rationing in the United Kingdom during World War II.

  • Futurism ☛ Trump Threatens to Ban Vaccines

    Trump also didn't rule out banning vaccines, something Kennedy Jr. had previously vowed to do — an unhinged and incredibly dangerous plan that flies in the face of common sense and scientific evidence.

    Even more strangely, the move would come in spite of the Trump administration's early efforts to accelerate the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine, which ultimately paid off in one of the administration's signature accomplishments.

  • NBC ☛ Trump doesn't rule out banning vaccines if he becomes president

    Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent this year before he dropped his bid and endorsed Trump, has long spread conspiracies and falsehoods about vaccines and other public health matters. He has, for example, frequently claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, even though studies have debunked that theory for decades.

    Asked Sunday whether banning certain vaccines would be an option during a second term, Trump didn’t rule it out.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ AIs Discovering Vulnerabilities

    I’ve been writing about the possibility of AIs automatically discovering code vulnerabilities since at least 2018. This is an ongoing area of research: AIs doing source code scanning, AIs finding zero-days in the wild, and everything in between. The AIs aren’t very good at it yet, but they’re getting better.

  • 404 Media ☛ Inside the Plan to Use AI to Purge Voter Rolls

    At a public meeting in Columbia County, Georgia late last year, Dr. Rick Richards explained that he had run a piece of software he created called EagleAI against Georgia’s voter registration records.

  • Techdirt ☛ Election Conspiracy-Mongers’ ‘Election Integrity’ App Flaw Reveals Voter Suppression Plan (Along With User Data)

    Yet, as Wired points out in an article today, the app’s security was so piss poor that it exposed all sorts of private info of those using the app, including emails and the submitted comments by users. That allowed Wired’s excellent security reporter Dhruv Mehrotra to take a look at what people were using the app for, and apparently, “committing actual voter fraud” was on the list: [...]

  • Wired ☛ Flaw in Right-Wing ‘Election Integrity’ App Exposes Voter-Suppression Plan and User Data

    The vulnerability, which has since been patched, exposed a California election officer who used the app to post about her racist and illegal scheme to demand IDs from certain voters based on perceived citizenship status. California does not require voters to show identification in most cases. Election officials are now investigating the incident, WIRED has learned.

    The app, VoteAlert, is the latest initiative from True the Vote, a Texas-based nonprofit founded by Catherine Engelbrecht, a once-fringe right-wing figure who helped to mainstream the modern election denial movement. Known for promoting election conspiracy theories without substantiating evidence, the organization has repeatedly touted technology to legitimize its claims of widespread voter fraud, even though it has refused to present proof when challenged.

  • Wired ☛ Inside the Massive Crime Industry That’s Hacking Billion-Dollar Companies

    Based on interviews with malware developers, hackers who use the stolen credentials, and a review of manuals that tell new recruits how to spread the malware, 404 Media has mapped out this industry. Its end result is that a download of an innocent-looking piece of software by a single person can lead to a data breach at a multibillion-dollar company, putting Google and other tech giants in an ever-escalating cat-and-mouse game with the malware developers to keep people and companies safe.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ South Africa is working on unique digital identity for citizens

      The department of home affairs is “amending its five-year strategic plan and annual performance plan to embed digital transformation and inter-agency collaboration” into its work, its spokesman Duwayne Esau said. “It is still early days as this planning process remains a work in progress,” he said in a text message Tuesday.

    • YLE ☛ US charges Virginia firm over suspected illegal tech exports bound for Russia via Finland

      "Before consolidating the packages into larger pallets for shipment to Finland, the defendants affixed to each package a label with a Russian postal service tracking number so that the Russian postal service could easily ship the package to the customer in Russia," the department's release continued.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • EFF ☛ EFF Lawsuit Discloses Documents Detailing Government’s Social Media Surveillance of Immigrants

      Thousands of pages of government procurement records and related correspondence show that the Department of Homeland Security and its component Immigrations and Customs Enforcement largely continued an effort, originally called extreme vetting, to try to determine whether immigrants posed any threat by monitoring their social media and internet presence. The only real change appeared to be rebranding the program to be known as the Visa Lifecycle Vetting Initiative.

      The government disclosed the records to EFF after we filed suit in 2022 to learn what had become of a program proposed by President Donald Trump. The program continued under President Joseph Biden. Regardless of the name used, DHS’s program raises significant free expression and First Amendment concerns because it chills the speech of those seeking to enter the United States and allows officials to target and punish them for expressing views they don’t like.

      Yet that appears to be a major purpose of the program, the released documents show. For example, the terms of the contracting request specify that the government sought a system that could:

    • Federal News Network ☛ DoD rolling out free Wi-Fi to remote barracks

      To provide and expand access to Wi-Fi, Secretary Austin directed all military services to create Wi-Fi pilot projects in fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 at no cost to service members, which will “form the basis of a long-term plan to build a Wi-Fi-connected force,” the memo reads.

    • The Register UK ☛ Your air fryer might be spying on you for China, says Which?

      Testing out products across four categories, the outfit discovered that all three air fryers it looked at wanted permission to record audio on the user's phone, for no specified reason.

      One wanted to know gender and date of birth when setting up an owner account, while the Xiaomi app linked to its air fryer was found to be connected with trackers from Facebook, Pangle (the ad network of TikTok for Business), and Chinese tech giant Tencent.

      Air fryers from brands Aigostar and Xiaomi both sent the owner's personal data to servers in China – although this was flagged in the privacy notice, for what it's worth.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Why this former Finnish president wants a new European spy agency

      In practice, this would mean deeper, more structured cooperation among member states to share intelligence and respond faster to hybrid threats, such as cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns. This recommendation acknowledges the reality that Europe’s security challenges demand something stronger than piecemeal national efforts or ad hoc alliances, as the hybrid attack on the Finnish, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian borders made clear.

    • Axios ☛ How Meta's AI makes use of customers' personal information

      As Facebook's parent company has aggressively injected Meta AI into its products, it has fueled its systems with a bounty of customer data.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ How data control is driving a new US-China economic divide

      Data has been called the new oil and the new gold for its value to the modern global economy. Just like any commodity, scarcity can lead to problems. The US-China competition discourse about data has focused on sensitive personal data and high-end intellectual property. By contrast, relatively quotidian business information like corporate, trade, and financial data is often taken for granted, even though it is the lifeblood of international commerce. Yet China has been clamping down on the availability of this otherwise routine business information. Beijing’s actions will significantly impact the efficacy of the tools of economic statecraft that the United States and its allies are increasingly using to advance their political goals. The resulting situation is squeezing global businesses, which are forced to make compliance decisions with a paucity of information.

    • Silicon Angle ☛ Palantir shares surge over 12% on strong earnings and raised revenue outlook

      Palantir’s strong numbers were driven by customer growth, as the company closed 104 deals in the quarter worth more than $1 million and its overall customer count grew 39% year-over-year and 6% quarter-over-quarter. A decent portion of the company’s growth was driven by the U.S. government. Palantir reported that U.S. government revenue rose 40% year-over-year and 15% quarter-over-quarter, to $320 million. U.S. commercial revenue also grew, up 54% year-over-year, to $179 million.

    • The Verge ☛ Apple will let you share lost AirTag info with an airline

      In iOS 18.2 the Find My app now has a “Share Item Location” option that creates a link that can be sent to anyone, not just your trusted contacts. On Apple devices, the link will open the Find My app, allowing someone else to see the location of the AirTagged item. On non-Apple devices, the link will instead open a web page with a map showing the item’s last known location.

    • MacRumors ☛ Find My Gains Option to Share Lost Item Location With an 'Airline or Trusted Person' in iOS 18.2

      Apple in iOS 18.2 beta 2 added a new feature to the Find My app, which is designed to allow you to share a lost item's location with a trusted person. Apple says that the feature is meant to help you locate an item through a third-party, like an airline employee.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Truthdig ☛ What the U.S. Air Force Doesn't Want You To Notice on Election Night

    ICBMs are not viable for national defense. They are a relic of a bygone era having been invented by Nazi Germany, and their presence only escalates the risk of nuclear accidents or conflicts. A single launch could lead to a nuclear exchange that would annihilate cities, contaminate the environment and cause irreversible harm to our planet’s ecosystem. Once an ICBM is launched, it cannot be recalled. I don’t want a nuclear strike or accident to happen. We can change course now, and our first step is to decommission the ICBM program also because it is a staggering financial burden to maintain.

    Nuclear weapons only provide the terrifying threat of annihilation, either by command or by accident. Nuclear weapons and ICBMs only make the world less safe and strip us of security.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Engaged in Secretive "Emergency" Project to Alter Pennsylvania Ballots After They’re Cast

    Though the NYT's unnamed insider sources did not say anything outright about America PAC's concerns for Pennsylvania, the ballot-curing effort there does lend the effect of anxiety about the outcome of the election expected to be extremely tight.

    While much is unclear about America PAC's ballot-curing campaign, including whether or how much operatives are being paid and how many have been deployed, there's a lot more sunlight on the process for Democratic volunteers, who have set up entire ballot-curing networks online dedicated to donating their time on and after Election Day for similar aims.

  • NDTV ☛ Elon Musk Is Sued Over $1 Million Election Giveaway

    The complaint filed by Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty in the Austin, Texas federal court said Musk and his America PAC organization falsely induced voters to sign by claiming they would choose winners randomly, though they were predetermined.

    She also said the defendants profited from the giveaway by driving traffic and attention to Musk's X social media platform, and by collecting personal information such as her name, address and phone number that they could sell.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk and Donald Trump Are Spending Election Night Together

    This is one the loudest signs yet of just how quickly Musk has wormed his way into Trump's inner circle — but it's not surprising. Musk has spent well over $100 million supporting Trump through his America PAC, and has attended several of his rallies, gracing attendees with awkwardly executed "USA!" chants and curious, X-shaped leaps.

  • ADF ☛ Shift in Boko Haram Tactics Requires Security Forces to Adapt

    Encompassing parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, the Lake Chad Basin has proved to be a troublesome theater with its many swamps and islands.

  • ADF ☛ Islamic State Sahel Province Expands Influence as It Gains Territory

    The Islamic State-Sahel Province (IS Sahel) is gaining territory amid a security situation that has worsened since military juntas took power in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

    The group is expanding its operations around the Sahel after the drawdown of Western troops from the region and as al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) ceded vast pockets of territory near the border between Mali and Niger. The two groups have fought each another in the past.

  • RFERL ☛ Parcels That Exploded In Europe Reportedly Part Of Russian Plot

    The newspaper reported on November 5 that the devices that ignited in July in depots of global courier DHL in the British city of Birmingham and the German city of Leipzig were part of a test run in the Russian plot.

  • CBC ☛ Phoney bomb threats reported on Election Day in 5 U.S. battleground states

    Hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed at polling locations in five U.S. battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as election day voting was underway, the FBI said on Tuesday.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Russia-linked bomb threats briefly halt swing state voting, officials say

    In Georgia, several large Democratic-leaning counties around Atlanta temporarily closed polling places after receiving threats; voting resumed after authorities evacuated and cleared the locations, and many of the precincts will stay open late because of the delays.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Elon Musk sued over million-dollar election giveaway

    An Arizona voter filed a proposed class-action case against the billionaire, alleging Musk falsely said his pro-Trump America PAC would choose winners randomly, when the selections were predetermined.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Literal Neo-Nazi Leader Endorses Trump

    Chris Hood, the founder of the thuggish neo-Nazi group NSC-131, has endorsed the MAGA candidate for president, calling on fellow fascists in the swing states “to vote for Donald Trump.”

  • BoingBoing ☛ Musk's "neutral" Twitter runs page-wide Trump ads

    Remember when Elon Musk bought Twitter and pledged to make it the neutral town square where anybody was welcome, regardless of political affiliation? Even before Musk hit the campaign trail with Trump to get his fellow billionaire elected, it was evident this was little more than PR talk – one only needs to look at the massive amount of white supremacists on the site – but pushing massive Trump ads on random users feels like a new low.

  • Wired ☛ TikTok Employees Shrug Off the US Election

    TikTok is one of the tech companies that could be most impacted by the outcome of the US elections. But as the election result looms, employees there found themselves surprisingly disengaged from the high-level political drama that could decide the app’s fate.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ France: TikTok taken to court over content policing

    A lawsuit against TikTok in France comes after two 15-year-olds took their own lives after being exposed to content on the platform. Social media companies have long faced criticism due to the lack of content policing.

  • VOA News ☛ Russia, Indonesia begin unprecedented naval drills

    In the beginning “harbor phase,” Indonesia and Russia have focused on increasing naval interoperability through ship tours and simulation games, according to a press release from the Indonesian navy.

  • Michigan News ☛ Why Michigan’s Muslim voters could make Jill Stein 2024′s Ralph Nader

    A new generation confronted similar mathematics in 2016. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, third-party voters could plausibly have swayed the outcome. Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by less than a percentage point—a deficit she could have recovered from with half of Stein’s votes. The story was similar in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Clinton lost by one point and Stein’s votes would have covered her loss.

  • The Atlantic ☛ This Election Is a Test

    I warned on January 7 that the horror of the previous day would be whitewashed, but I had no idea how successful the effort would be. The road to impunity began with McConnell and his House counterpart, Kevin McCarthy, who had also fiercely criticized Trump. McCarthy traveled to Mar-a-Lago to make amends. McConnell, hoping that voters would do the work of banishing Trump without him having to take any personal risks, flinched from an impeachment conviction that could have barred Trump from running. For other Republicans, espousing election denial became a litmus test.

  • VOA News ☛ Chad president threatens to withdraw from regional force after Boko Haram attack kills over 40 Chad troops

    Officials from Chad say its military is not getting enough assistance to fight the terrorist group since an attack last week killed more than 40 of Chad’s soldiers.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ The banking scandal that broke Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Techdirt ☛ No, Section 230 Doesn’t ‘Circumvent’ The First Amendment – But This Harvard Article Circumvents Reality

    When it comes to Section 230, we’ve seen a parade of embarrassingly wrong takes over the years, all sharing one consistent theme: the authors confidently opine on the law despite clearly not understanding it. Each time I think we’ve hit bottom with the most ridiculously wrong take, along comes another challenger.

    This week’s is a doozy.

    I don’t want to come off as harsh in critiquing these articles, but it’s exasperating. It’s very possible for the people writing these articles to actually educate themselves. And in this case in particular, at least two of the authors have published something similar before and have been called out for their factual errors, and have chosen to double down, rather than educate themselves. So if the tone of this piece sounds angry, it’s exasperation that the authors are now deliberately choosing to misrepresent reality.

  • Vox ☛ The new Jeffrey Epstein tapes and his friendship with Trump, explained | Vox

    On the tapes — which, it must be noted, feature only Epstein’s version of events — Epstein proclaims he was Trump’s “closest friend.” He depicts the pair as bros who partied together for over a decade, and Trump as a dedicated womanizer and adulterer.

  • The Daily Beast ☛ Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’

    Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast.

    The convicted pedophile even boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania by claiming, “the first time he slept with her was on my plane,” which was dubbed the Lolita Express.

• Environment

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : Zambia Army Issues Urgent Warning to Scrap Metal Dealers Over Unexploded Ordnances

    The Zambia Army has issued a crucial warning to scrap metal dealers across the country, urging them to exercise heightened caution when handling unknown materials. This advisory comes amid growing concerns about the potential dangers posed by Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs), which have reportedly been surfacing in the scrap metal trade.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ ‘People do not want to believe it is true’: the photographer capturing the vanishing of glaciers

    Two decades ago Greenpeace asked Åslund to use photographs taken in the early 20th century, and photograph the same views in order to document how glaciers in Svalbard were melting due to global heating. The difference in ice density in those pictures, taken almost a century apart, was staggering.

  • NL Times ☛ Travel sector says Hague ban on fossil fuel ads restricts their freedom of speech

    Several Dutch cities, including Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Eindhoven, are considering banning advertisements that promote the use of fossil fuels, but The Hague is the first to actually do so. From January 1, there will be no ads for flight holidays, cruise ships, or hybrid- or combustion-engine cars on bus shelters and billboards in the city. According to responsible alderman Robert Barker (PvdD), The Hague is “even the first in the world to do this.”

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ EU Accused of Inviting Fossil Fuel Executives to COP28 Under False Pretences

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Prioritizing Public Transportation Over Electric Vehicles in Indonesia

      Compared to leading adopters of electric vehicles, such as China and European nations like Norway, Iceland, and Sweden, these countries’ substantial economic resources enable them to access and manufacture electric vehicles at scale. Which four countries that use electric vehicles are countries that are included in the high income category. Therefore, in overcoming climate change, it is important to be able to realize who benefits more, do not let EV production countries benefit more and cause upper-middle countries to continue to experience inequality due to the inability to access electric vehicles.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ The US Navy Put Cameras on Dolphins And The Results Were Wild

      For a scientific study published in 2022, the US Navy strapped cameras to dolphins, which are trained to help identify undersea mines and protect some of America's nuclear stockpile, then gave them free rein to hunt in San Diego Bay.

      The clever marine mammals did not disappoint, offering up exciting chases and even targeting venomous sea snakes to the surprise of the researchers.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Researchers call for nuanced understanding of 'tribe' in Arab world

    The study of Arab tribes should not be abandoned because Middle East and North African citizens continue to insist on the relevance of the term in their daily lives, says a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Political Science.

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ How McKinsey Helped MBS Write a New Playbook for Buying Influence in Washington

    At first blush, McKinsey's relationship with the Saudis was par for the course. Little matter that a firm like McKinsey had become a consigliere for a regime that, back home, launches mass executions, organizes beheadings, and treats women as effective chattel; in the world of foreign lobbying in Washington, this had all been normalized. But McKinsey didn't stop there. As The New York Times later reported, McKinsey had specifically pointed the Saudi regime to three critics who were dragging down the dictatorship's image. Shortly after flagging the dissidents for Saudi authorities, the regime unleashed a new crackdown. Officials arrested either the critics or their family members, jailing them on specious charges. McKinsey denied responsibility for the dictatorship's moves—the organization claimed it was "horrified" that the Saudis may have used the firm's work for such censorship—but the chain of events was clear. The regime tossed millions of dollars at McKinsey, which then fingered a range of dissidents tarnishing the image of the Saudis, who then directed their forces at smothering these critics. McKinsey got paid, and the dissidents got jail time—or worse.

  • Axios ☛ A clear-eyed view of what's coming: 76 days from Election Day to inauguration

    What's next: Here are three key dates to watch, starting 36 days after Election Day, as laid out by TD Cowen's Chris Krueger in his "DC Download." All could be flashpoints if the presidential fight drags on: [...]

  • YLE ☛ Telia to cut 500 jobs in Finland

    The negotiations began in September, with the Stockholm-based firm stating at the time that it planned to reduce its global workforce by around 3,000 people across all of its units and regions.

  • The Register UK ☛ Former Facebook lobbyist joins UK comms regulator

    A former Vice President of Public Policy for Facebook is among the new faces to join the board at Britain's telecoms regulator, Ofcom.

    Lord Richard Allan was selected by Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to become non-executive director for a four-year period on November 1, the Department confirmed this week.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Here are the post-election disinfo threats experts are watching for

    Tuesday, Nov. 5: The first is Election Day on Nov. 5.. Intelligence agencies have said to expect rising instances of false content about election irregularities, something that has been borne out repeatedly in the past week. As some states report election results sooner than others, the first few weeks after Nov. 5 could create a waiting period ripe for disinformation actors.

  • The Conversation ☛ Misinformation really does spread like a virus, suggest mathematical models drawn from epidemiology

    We’re increasingly aware of how misinformation can influence elections. About 73% of Americans report seeing misleading election news, and about half struggle to discern what is true or false.

    When it comes to misinformation, “going viral” appears to be more than a simple catchphrase. Scientists have found a close analogy between the spread of misinformation and the spread of viruses. In fact, how misinformation gets around can be effectively described using mathematical models designed to simulate the spread of pathogens.

    Concerns about misinformation are widely held, with a recent UN survey suggesting that 85% of people worldwide are worried about it.

  • European Commission ☛ Digital Services Act – transparency reports (detailed rules and templates)

    EU rules on digital services require all providers of intermediary services, including providers of online platforms to publish a transparency report on the content moderation in which they engage.

    This initiative provides the mandatory templates for these transparency reports. The templates provide guidance on the form, content and other details to meet the reporting requirements that are set out in the Digital Services Act. The initiative also provides common reporting periods.

  • CNN ☛ Rudy Giuliani’s apartment was emptied weeks ago, victims in defamation case say

    The complaint from the election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – whom Giuliani owes nearly $150 million for defaming them after the 2020 election – comes after lawyers for the mother and daughter visited Giuliani’s $6 million Manhattan apartment and discovered much of the furniture and valuable sports memorabilia was recently removed.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Wired ☛ Russia Is Going All Out on Election Day Interference

      Russian disinformation operations have had a prominent presence in United States elections since the Kremlin’s sea-changing influence campaign during the 2016 presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Trump. But with so much scrutiny and investigation into that operation’s mechanics and impact—including the use of hack-and-leak tactics against the Democratic National Committee, Clinton campaign, and other targets—Russia was less technically aggressive and more focused on influence operations in the midterms and 2020 presidential election. That momentary respite is now over.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ False bomb threats only blemish on Election Day voting process

      Election officials and federal authorities have spent a considerable amount of time over the past few weeks debunking fake or false media regarding the integrity of U.S. elections.

      Election Day has been a continuation of that trend, as federal, state and local election officials in swing states have attempted to stay on top of the routine kind of errors or glitches that happen every election cycle, while pushing back on egregious lies or misrepresentations being spread online by bad actors.

    • NPR ☛ Trump and allies have primed supporters to falsely believe he has no chance of losing

      A large part of Trump’s closing message in recent weeks has focused on attacking any outcome other than victory as tainted, illegitimate and fraudulent, with no proof or basis in reality.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ Alarm grows over Trump and Musk’s blizzard of baseless voter-fraud claims

      The social media platform X, owned by Musk, who has donated over $120m to a Super Pac backing Trump with get-out-the-vote efforts in Pennsylvania and other swing states, has become a leading purveyor of falsehoods and conspiracies to his 200 million followers, say critics.

    • New York Times ☛ 5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Election Misinformation

      The tidal wave of falsehoods, anecdotes and rumors is adding confusion and chaos to this year’s election process, forcing election administrators to forcefully debunk them in statements and social posts that have struggled to break through the noise. The misleading narratives have already spurred lawsuits and could fuel additional legal claims that may slow the electoral process or the declaration of winners.

      “I don’t know exactly how to measure it, but it certainly feels like an enormous problem,” said Amy Cohen, the executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors. “It just feels so, so difficult to get our arms around it.”

      Here are five reasons this year’s early voting period is flooded with falsehoods.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia, Iran Are Accelerating Disinformation Campaigns As U.S. Votes, Security Agencies Warn

      Russian-linked influence actors "are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences," said a statement issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on November 4.

      "These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials," it added.

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Misinformation really does spread like a virus, according to mathematical models drawn from epidemiology

      When it comes to misinformation, "going viral" appears to be more than a simple catchphrase. Scientists have found a close analogy between the spread of misinformation and the spread of viruses. In fact, how misinformation gets around can be effectively described using mathematical models designed to simulate the spread of pathogens.

      Concerns about misinformation are widely held, with a recent UN survey suggesting that 85% of people worldwide are worried about it.

    • The Atlantic ☛ The Most Controversial Nobel Prize in Recent Memory

      The most common critique of the AJR thesis hinges on methodological objections to the way in which they collected and analyzed the data. But you do not need a degree in economics or statistics to be skeptical of their argument. The real world simply provides too many counterexamples.

    • The Hill ☛ Foreign adversaries ramp up disinformation campaign ahead of US elections

      The intelligence community warned late Monday that U.S. adversaries are intensifying disinformation efforts around Election Day by promoting false claims surrounding voting.

      Russia, in particular, has been pushing false conspiracies that election officials are coordinating fraud, intelligence officials said.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Meduza ☛ Russia logs record number of ‘terrorist attacks,’ largely due to inclusion of anti-war and military actions

    The sharp rise in reported terrorism reflects the Russian authorities’ broad definition of the term. They categorize actions that could be perceived as anti-war protests — including arson attacks on military recruitment offices or even unsuccessful attempts at such attacks — as terrorism. Actions by Ukrainian military personnel are also frequently recorded as terrorism, further contributing to the increase in reported cases.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Swedish court jails far-right leader who burned Qur’an

    After Paludan’s trial last month, the chair of the court, Nicklas Söderberg, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also about Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion.

  • VOA News ☛ Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims

    The court took particular interest in whether the politician knew the protests were filmed and published on Facebook. Paludan had said that he wasn't aware of it, but the district court disagreed and said his "actions at the gatherings would be downright illogical if he didn't know about the publication on Facebook."

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Sweden jails activist who burned Quran for inciting hatred

    "It is permissible to publicly criticize, for example, Islam and even Muslims, but the contempt for a group of people must clearly not exceed the limits of a relevant and responsible discourse," judge Nicklas Soderberg said in a statement on Tuesday.

    "In these cases, there was no such discourse. Instead, the statements were merely intended to defame and insult Muslims," he said.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Swedish court sentences far-right politician for insulting Muslims

    In 2022, Paludan, founder and head of the Danish nationalist anti-immigration party Stram Kurs, made his offensive remarks directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans during protests that he led in the southern city of Malmo in 2022, the court said. He also burned a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, on at least one occasion. In response, a violent wave of riots swept the country.

  • The Local DK ☛ Swedish court jails Danish extremist Rasmus Paludan for hate crimes

    He has not been sentenced specifically for burning a Quran, rather for the comments he made while he was doing so.

  • The North Lines IN ☛ Government puts Wikipedia on notice after complaints of bias and inaccuracies

    The popular online source of information is embroiled in legal cases in India over alleged inaccurate and defamatory content provided by it.

  • India Times ☛ Government puts Wikipedia on notice after complaints of bias and inaccuracies

    The government issued a notice to Wikipedia on Tuesday, expressing concerns over bias, inaccuracies, and the concentration of editorial control among a small group. It also questioned why Wikipedia shouldn't be treated as a publisher rather than an intermediary. This follows a September Delhi High Court ruling, which criticized Wikipedia's open editing model, citing risks related to defamatory content. Wikipedia has since defended its editing policies, ensuring legal compliance.

  • JURIST ☛ Controversial Türkiye espionage bill sparks international opposition

    Eighty-one human rights and civil society organizations, including Amnesty International, signed a joint statement on Monday opposing a proposed espionage law in Türkiye that would significantly enhance government power. The statement argues that the bill is overly broad and could enable the government to imprison journalists and human rights organizations for engaging in legitimate civil society activities.

  • RTL ☛ German's family doesn't 'trust anything' said by Iran on his death: daughter

    The family of Iran-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd does not trust anything said by the Iranian government about his fate, his daughter said Tuesday, after the judiciary announced he had died before his death sentence could be implemented.

    "We do not trust anything. We have to get proof from an independent investigation that is carried out outside of Iran," Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Tehran says German-Iranian died before execution

    "Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his execution was imminent, but he died before it could be carried out," judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters, without giving further details.

    Jahangir's statement directly contradicts an earlier one from the Iranian government saying the dual citizen had been put to death.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Iran claims German-Iranian dissident died before he could be executed

    Sharmahd’s daughter Gazelle, who is based in the US, has since demanded proof of how his life had ended, and also called for his body to be returned to her and her family.

  • RFERL ☛ Tehran Says German-Iranian Died Before Execution Could Be Carried Out

    Iran's judiciary says a dual German-Iranian national sentenced to death on terror charges died while in prison and was not executed, as previously reported by local media.

    Reports from state media that Jamshid Sharmahd was executed surfaced on October 28, sparking a diplomatic row with Berlin that saw Germany shut all three of Iran's consulates in the European nation.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Iranian-German Sharmahd Died Before His Execution, Iran Judiciary Says

    Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd died before his execution, which was announced by Tehran late last month, Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday, according to state media.

  • The Verge ☛ Here’s FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sucking up to Donald Trump by threatening to take NBC off the air

    FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr loves the idea of government speech regulations, and he especially loves the idea that he will be the one to impose them in a future Trump administration.

    That’s the short version.

  • Gustaf Erikson ☛ µblog - archive for 2024-11

    good thing I run my own blog so I don’t get banned for mentioning Hitler, unlike people on Threads

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • teleSUR ☛ Sudan: At Least 13 Journalists Killed Since War Broke Out

    The syndicate cited 60 cases of kidnapping and forced detention, including nine female journalists, and six complaints of hindering journalists’ work and restricting their movement.

    According to the statement, 58 cases of personal threats were recorded, including 26 against female journalists, and 27 cases of physical assault and looting of property, including three against female journalists.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • FAIR ☛ ‘You See Just How Many Immigrants Are Dying on the Job’: CounterSpin interview with Nicole Foy on immigration and labor

  • Papers Please ☛ What will the future bring for ID demands?

    There are elections today in  the USA. But we don’t need to know their outcome to predict many of the issues that the Identity Project and our supporters and allies will continue to face in the coming years. For what it’s worth, everything that was on our agenda for the first Obama Administration, following the 2008 elections, remains on our agenda today.

    At least since September, 11, 2001, throughout both Republican and Democratic administrations in the White House, demands for “Your papers, please!” have been supported by (1) a bipartisan consensus in Congress, (2) the lobbying power of an ever-growing homeland security-industrial complex, and (3) the malign convergence of interest between governments that want to identify us in order to track, profile, and control us for political purposes and corporations that want to identify us (or get the government to force us to identify ourselves) in order to track and profile us for commercial purposes.

    It was in the post-9/11 state of panic and trauma-impaired judgment that a de facto “airport exception” to the US Constitution was put in place. The societal trauma of 9/11  remains largely undiagnosed, unacknowledged, and untreated. To this day, it continues to interfere with rational policy-making on both air travel and ID requirements.

  • The Hindu ☛ Amazon CEO denies full in-office mandate is 'backdoor layoff' [Ed: Voluntary [sic] Layoffs]

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the plan to require employees to be in-office five days per week is not meant to force attrition or satisfy city leaders, as many employees have suggested.

  • CNBC ☛ 29% of U.S. households have jobs but struggle to cover basic needs

    Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, fall in the category of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — according to United Way's United for ALICE program, which first coined the term to refer to households earning above the poverty line but less than what's needed to get by.

    That figure doesn't include the 37.9 million Americans who live in poverty, comprising 11.5% of the total population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Uber Rival Putting a New Spin on Anti-Labor “Disruption”

    In Washington, DC, rideshare service Empower is arguing that it shouldn’t be subject to the same labor and safety regulations as competitors like Uber. In doing so, it’s updating the antidemocratic “disruption” strategy that Uber pioneered.

  • CS Monitor ☛ How Donald Trump voted in Florida today as a convicted felon

    For much of American history, a felony conviction came with lifetime disenfranchisement (among other rights taken away and never returned). If you refused to follow society’s laws, the logic went, you should lose the freedoms that come with it. That included voting.

    Over the past three decades, however, 26 states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws enabling people with felony convictions to regain the right to vote. In most cases, voting rights are restored automatically once an individual has served their sentence. In others, the person must also complete probation and parole, as well as pay any fines or restitution attached to their sentence.

  • teleSUR ☛ New York Times IT Workers Strike on Election Eve

    Among the union’s demands is the inclusion of a clause to protect them from unfair dismissals, so that they can only be terminated for reasons such as misconduct. The workers are also requesting a salary increase and pay equity policies for men and women.

  • The Register UK ☛ NLRB claims Apple broke law by terminating labor organizer

    It's been more than three years since Scarlett first brought the matter to NLRB, arguing Apple had broken the law. Over the course of 2021 and 2022 she lodged three separate complaints that, according to the NLRB, asserted Apple maintained "an over-broad confidentiality rule," and interfered with discussions of pay – including on Slack, with the press, and in an employee-initiated wage survey.

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Scholar Calls Psych Ward Admission of Woman Who Disrobed In Protest 'Illegal'

    Iranian religious scholar and civil activist Sedigheh Vasmaghi said there is no legal basis for admitting a young woman into psychiatric care because she took her clothes off in apparent protest against harassment outside her Tehran university.

  • International Business Times ☛ 'If You Voted Democrat, I Will Not Protect You': Ohio Lieutenant Sparks Outrage With Facebook Post

    According to reports from the USA Today Network, Rodgers' posts included statements such as, "I know which of you supports the Democratic Party, and I will not help you survive the end of days." He further added, "At the end of the day, I will require proof of who you voted for if you ask me for help." This series of statements was met with immediate condemnation, with many citizens expressing fear and frustration over a public servant openly refusing aid based on political affiliation.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Locus Magazine ☛ Cory Doctorow: Hard (Sovereignty) Cases Make Bad (Internet) Law

    Both of these issues clearly relate to national sovereignty. Countries rou­tinely require firms that do business in their borders to name official business agents who represent the company to the government. You can’t operate a bowling alley or a mail-order vitamin business in a US state without telling the regional government whom to talk to if they have questions about your operation. Why should these gigantic companies, owned by cartoonishly evil billionaires, do any less?

  • Medium ☛ 27.6% of the Top 10 Million Sites are Dead

    The [Internet], in many ways, has a memory. From archived versions of old websites to search engine caches, there’s often a way to dig into the past and uncover information — even for websites that are no longer active. You may have heard of the Internet Archive, a popular tool for exploring the history of the web, which has experienced outages lately due to hacks and other challenges. But what if there was no Internet Archive? Does the [Internet] still “remember” these sites?

    In this article, we’ll dive into a study of the top 10 million domains and reveal a surprising finding: over a quarter of them — 27.6% — are effectively dead. Below, I’ll walk you through the steps and infrastructure involved in analyzing these domains, along with the system requirements, code snippets, and statistical results of this research.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Howard Oakley ☛ Why notarize apps?

    Signing and notarization of apps and other executable code is a controversial topic. Over the last decade and more Apple has steadily introduced increasingly demanding standards, now requiring developers to notarize apps and other code they distribute outside the App Store. This article tries to explain why, and how this contributes to Mac security.

    I would hope that what we all want is confidence that all executable code that our Mac runs, in particular apps, is exactly as was built by its developer. In addition to that, in the event that any code is found to be malicious, then macOS can promptly protect us by refusing to launch it. The first requirement is thus about verification of apps and code, and the second is about having a system that can block code from being launched in the first place.

  • NL Times ☛ Netflix European headquarters in Amsterdam raided in tax fraud investigation

    The Dutch police searched the streaming giant’s European headquarters in Amsterdam, while the French authorities raided the company’s offices in Paris. It is unclear whether anything was seized or any arrests were made.

  • Reuters ☛ Tax fraud investigators search Netflix offices in Paris and Amsterdam, says source

    The French investigation, carried out by the PNF, a special financial crime prosecution unit notorious for pursuing high-stakes white-collar probes that often involve large international companies, was opened in November 2022.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • The Hindu ☛ Stop abuse of patent monopolies in rare diseases, say patient representatives and treatment activists

    Health groups on Tuesday (November 5, 2024) argued that Roche’s legal action to block generic supply jeopardises public interest by limiting access to affordable medication. Roche’s patent for Risdiplam is effective until 2035, allowing them to charge approximately ₹6 lakh per bottle, while production costs suggest the drug could be made available for as low as ₹3,024 annually.

    Patient representatives and treatment activists have come together stating that government, courts, and lawmakers need to take urgent action to address the abuse of patent monopolies in rare diseases.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • The Washington Post ☛ MLK’s daughter Bernice blasted a deepfake showing her father backing Trump

      The video, posted Sunday night on the social network X by a pro-Trump account called MAGA Resource, falsely depicted King urging Black people to vote for Trump, claiming he did “more for the Black community than any other president.” By late Monday it had garnered over 10 million views.

      Bernice King posted Monday on X denouncing the video and called for it to be deleted. “It’s vile, fake, irresponsible, and not at all reflective of what my father would say,” King said. “And you gave no thought to our family.”

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate IPTV-Selling 'Law Enforcement Officer' Faces Wiretapping Claim

    A lawsuit filed in the U.S. claims that a pirate IPTV seller adopted a novel marketing strategy to support a business with 450,000 subscribers . According to the plaintiffs, the owner of the service "held himself out as a Chicago-area law enforcement officer" to "mitigate potential concerns" over the unlawfulness of his business. A theoretical damages claim of more than a billion dollars, plus an allegation of wiretapping, makes this case a little more spicy than most.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Google Asked to Remove 10 Billion “Pirate” Search Results

    Rightsholders have asked Google to remove more than 10 billion 'copyright infringing' URLs from its search results. The search engine doesn't celebrate the milestone in any way, but the takedown notices document intriguing shifts in volume over time, as well as shifting takedown interests.