Leftovers

• How To Make Your Laptop Last FOREVER (My ThinkPad Mods & Upgrades)

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Can you sleep your way to better decision making? Here’s what the science says

  • Latvia ☛ Latvian pupils do well in computer literacy test

    Latvian 8th-grade students have achieved high results in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), significantly exceeding the average results of the study's member states and ranking 7th among 31 countries, the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) said on November 12.

  • Rlang ☛ Smith-Pittman Algorithm: Enhancing Community Detection in Networks

    Social network analysis examines individual entities and their relationships among them. The data is represented as a “graph” where individual entities are referred to as “nodes” and their relationships between them as “edges. A primary area of study in SNA is the analysis of interconnectivity of nodes, called ”communities” and identification of clusters through the use of algorithms called ”community detection algorithms”.

    I was lucky enough to develop an community detection algorithm with Tyler Pittman under the supervision of Dr. Wei Xu and which proved to offer “more descriptive” community identification in certain settings when compared to other algorithms – such as the Girvan-Newman and Louvain algorithms. To make the algorithm readily available for other users, the {ig.degree.betweenness} R package was created. If you want to learn about the setting for which the algorithm was originally developed, check out the arXiv preprint here.

• Career/Education

  • Daniel Lemire ☛ Graduate degrees are overrated

    Irrespective of how smart and educated you are, it is difficult to beat a “can do” attitude. The world is built by people who are eager to get things done as opposed to people who merely want to talk or write. Or, at least, that should be what happens in a healthy society.

• Hardware

  • Over 1,000 Intel Israel employees leave the company

    For the first time in a decade, Israel's biggest private employer has less than 10,000 employees. "Globes" talks to Intel Israel employees and former employees.

    The corridors in Intel Israel's development center have been much quieter these days, as the biggest wave of layoffs the company has ever known is about to be completed, and those remaining get used to a new reality.

    Former Intel Israel employees have told "Globes" that the situation at the chipmaker is the complicated one of an enterprise operating under pressure and feeling overwhelmed, due to an acute liquidity crisis at the global parent company.

  • PC World ☛ Burglars are jamming Wi-Fi security cameras. Here's what you can do

    According to a tweet sent out by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire division earlier this year (spotted by Tom’s Hardware), a small band of burglars is using Wi-Fi jamming devices to nullify wireless security cameras before breaking and entering.

  • Terence Eden ☛ Gadget Review: Swivel Based Recliner Lotus XC6/XR6 Chair

    People like to send me gadgets to review. My motto is "if it has a USB-C port, I'll review it!"

    So the good people at Flexispot have sent me a chair with a USB-C port. Fair play!

  • System76 ☛ Engineering Thelio Astra

    We sat down with System76 Mechanical Engineer, Britain and Product Manager, Tony to discuss some of the work that went into the development of Thelio Astra.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Jarrod Blundy ☛ Apple is straight-up telling us to lie

    Clearly, you caught it that time, right, especially since my lede is in the title. I think this is the first time Apple has actively encouraged us to lie to one another in one of its ads.

  • Techdirt ☛ Judge To Zuckerman: Release Your App First, Then We’ll Talk Section 230

    The first shot to use Section 230 to force adversarial interoperability on platforms has hit a setback.

    Earlier this year, we wrote about an absolutely fascinating lawsuit that was an attempt to activate a mostly-ignored part of Section 230 in a really interesting way. Most people know about Section 230 for its immunity protections for hosting and content moderation of third party content. But Section (c)(2)(B) almost never warrants a mention. It says this: [...]

  • The Register UK ☛ Fujitsu does not trust Post Office use of Horizon data

    Fujitsu's Europe boss has told a public inquiry into the Post Office scandal — one of the widest miscarriages of justice in UK history — that the company does not trust the UK public body in its use of Horizon system data to support future police prosecutions.

    Speaking at the inquiry this week, Paul Patterson, director of Fujitsu Services Ltd, described his unease about the Post Office continuing to pursue local branch shortfalls based solely on data from Horizon — the aging system at the centre of the scandal.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

    Researchers used the system, called LucidSim, to train a robot dog in parkour, getting it to scramble over a box and climb stairs even though it had never seen any real-world data. The approach demonstrates how helpful generative AI could be when it comes to teaching robots to do challenging tasks. It also raises the possibility that we could ultimately train them in entirely virtual worlds. The research was presented at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) last week.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ North Korean-linked hackers were caught experimenting with new macOS malware

    Researchers can’t tell if the malware was used in a campaign, or North Korean operatives were caught before they could deploy it in the wild.

  • Wired ☛ Two Upstart Search Engines Are Teaming Up to Take on Google

    The for-profit joint venture, dubbed European Search Perspective and located in Paris, could allow the small companies and any others that decide to join up to reduce their reliance on Google and Bing and serve results that are better tailored to their companies’ missions and Europeans’ tastes. “We could derank results from unethical or unsustainable companies and rank good companies higher,” Kroll says of the eco-minded Ecosia.

    Losing a bit of licensing revenue won’t be much of a hit to Microsoft or Google, which together own about 95 percent of the global search industry outside China. But at a time when services such as ChatGPT and TikTok are already redefining how users search, tiny rivals potentially becoming more attractive to users could force the bigger companies to accelerate their investments in regional upgrades.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Green Open Access - Free for Authors But at a Cost for Readers

      The price of the Gold-APC model for open access publishing increasingly challenges both the budgets and sensibilities of researchers and their institutions. Recently, I’ve observed that some advocates of open access have retreated from the goal of “flipping the system” and instead recommend that researchers publish closed and just deposit a version of their articles in a repository or on a preprint server. Putting aside the reality that this strategy of avoiding payment for open access publishing cannot be used if one is publishing in a fully Gold-APC journal, including those that have been flipped to open access, or if the author is under a zero-embargo open access mandate that the publisher refuses without the author paying for open access, the Green open access approach not only preserves the subscription system but also imposes hidden costs on readers, prolonging the inequities that open access aims to address.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Zimbabwe ☛ The Minister is right, there's no $2500 fine for unlicensed WhatsApp groups, it's $1000 and 7 years imprisonment

      Let’s be fair on this. I will assume that there were people who misunderstood the original post and assumed it meant there would be $2500 fines for using WhatsApp groups without a data protection licence.

    • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ The rise of mobile wallets, and why consolidation is coming

      Digital wallets are enjoying robust growth. Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2024 estimates digital wallets will account for 61% of e-commerce payments and 46% of point-of-sale payments worldwide by 2027.

      The card schemes are also throwing their weight behind the payment method. Mastercard has just announced Mastercard Pay Local, which will allow consumers to make payments at more than 35 million merchants that accept these wallets. The company says the service has been geared towards markets where digital wallets are widely used including Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

    • NYOB ☛ Ads: Meta wants to be 'less illegal' - but much more annoying...

      In the battle over the illegal use of personal data for advertisement, Meta has announced another variation that is not "Yes or No" consent: This time Meta will try "less personalized" ads, which may also annoy users into consenting. However, since 2018 the GDPR requires consent for advertisement. Until 2023 Meta has simply ignored that requirement. Last year Meta started to charge money for the "no" option - originally more than €240 per year. Now Meta announced the next round in this game with EU regulators: Instead of a simple yes/no banner, users shall have the option to get "less personalized ads" where data like location and date of birth will still be used - without consent. Also the "less personalized ads" will come as "full screen" ads that cannot be skipped. This approach is known from many "freemium" gaming apps, where the ads become so annoying that users are basically "annoyed" into consenting or paying. noyb has previously brought cases against Meta's pay-or-okay approach.

    • Wired ☛ The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance

      To carry out all of those spoken and unspoken threats, the incoming Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will tap into—and may very well expand—the American government’s vast surveillance machinery, and they appear poised to use it more than any administration in recent US history.

      That means now is the time for anyone in an at-risk group, those who communicate with them—or even those who want to normalize privacy and create cover for more vulnerable people—to think about how they can upgrade their data security and surveillance resistance ahead of a second Trump administration.

    • Wired ☛ The Real Problem With Banning Masks at Protests

      While today’s activists have more reliable communication tools than did Revolutionary War–era agitators, the Boston Tea Party’s ringleaders didn’t have to contend with surveillance technology, like Stingrays that impersonate cell phone towers to track nearby cell phones en masse, geofence warrants that let law enforcement request location data from companies about all the devices in a certain area (often without a warrant), professional social media monitoring firms that maintain scores of clandestine accounts to surveil activists, networks of automated license plate reading cameras that can track protesters’ vehicles, and even gait analysis technologies that can identify someone based on how they walk.

    • 404 Media ☛ 'FYI. A Warrant Isn’t Needed': Secret Service Says You Agreed To Be Tracked With Location Data

      The Secret Service has used a technology called Locate X which uses location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on phones. Because users agreed to an opaque terms of service page, the Secret Service believes it doesn't need a warrant.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Dissenter ☛ Jury Finds US Military Contractor CACI Guilty Of Abu Ghraib Torture

  • Site36 ☛ More Israel in German schools and universities: Parties plan another motion against anti-Semitism

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ Dozens of WWII-era inert munitions found in Beatrice, Nebraska, home after resident's passing

    “Thankfully in this case, none of the items were live munitions, but it’s not safe to assume that of any potential explosive device you may find,” said Sgt. Clayton Dishong, commander of the Patrol’s bomb squad.

  • Science Alert ☛ 2024 Predicted to Be First Full Year Above 1.5°C of Global Warming

    This year is on track to become the first full year of 1.5°C of global warming above pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels, smashing last year's record jump in temperatures already, which was 0.60°C above the 1991-2020 average.

    This finding is supported by data from Copernicus, Berkeley Earth and the UK Met Office released for the United Nation's COP29 climate change summit which is currently underway in Azerbaijan.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Declassified spy images help locate ancient battle site

    The battle, which took place in 637/8 AD, was a crucial victory by the Arab Muslims in the expansion of Islam beyond Arabia. Until now, its precise location was not clear.

  • VOA News ☛ Chad says Boko Haram fighters fleeing to neighboring states

    Boko Haram launched an armed rebellion against the Nigerian government in 2009 to establish an Islamic state. Fighting has since spread to neighboring countries and has killed more than 40,000 people, displacing over 3 million according to the United Nations.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Launches Photo Sharing Integration with Lemon8

    The integration arrives as TikTok is facing a potential ban in the United States. ByteDance has been pushing Lemon8 as a sister app to TikTok, potentially to move creators there without having to make them sign up for a new account.

  • New York Times ☛ Can Trump Prevent a TikTok Ban? His Team Says ‘He Will Deliver’

    Mr. Trump’s support for TikTok would be a stunning reversal from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the United States and force its sale to American companies because of its ownership by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant.

    A federal law signed in April says TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, must be sold to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19 — a day before Mr. Trump’s inauguration — or face a ban in the United States.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Ten Killed in India's Manipur After Firefight With Security Forces

  • Off Guardian ☛ The Revenge of Trumpenstein

    So, it’s déjà vu all over again. That’s right, he’s back! Trumpenstein the Monster! Literal Russian-Agent Hitler! The Ayatollah of Orange Shinola! And this time he’s not screwing around! No, this time, he is really going to “drain the swamp”! He’s going to rebuild that “big, beautiful wall”

  • RFERL ☛ Opposition Rally Calls Georgian Election 'Artfully Faked' At Rally In Batumi

    Two opposition coalitions organized a rally in the southwestern Georgian city of Batumi on November 12 to demand new elections.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Stanford University ☛ ‘Anora’ mostly avoids tired tropes about sex work

      Sean Baker’s “Anora” is a modern-day Cinderella story. The protagonist is a sex worker, and her prince is the son of a Russian oligarch.

    • LRT ☛ Russian ice skater appeals to keep her Lithuanian citizenship

      A Lithuanian court on Tuesday examined ice dancer Margarita Drobiazko's appeal against the decision to strip her of her Lithuanian citizenship, with a verdict due on December 10.

    • Latvia ☛ Dobele sends its 60th convoy to Ukraine

      Latvians and Ukrainians marched side by side through the streets of Dobele on Monday, November 11. This was the ceremonial escort of the 60th consecutive aid convoy to the front line. It carries drones for reconnaissance, warm blankets for rest, and food for strength, Latvian Television reported.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Russia emerges as the real winner of Georgia’s disputed election

      Critics say Georgia's October parliamentary elections were marred by widespread vote-rigging, but the success of the ruling Georgian Dream party is nevertheless a major victory for Russia that consolidates Moscow's position in the Caucasus region.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Russia and China must counter US ‘containment,’ Russia security chief says

      By Olivia Hotham. Senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday told China’s foreign minister Wang Yi their two countries’ most urgent task should be countering “containment” by the United States, as they met for security talks in Beijing. Moscow and Beijing have expanded military and defence ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three […]

    • Ukraine ‘holds back’ 50,000-strong force including North Koreans: Zelenskyy

      Both Russia and North Korea have formally ratified their June pact that includes a mutual defense clause.

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Air National Guardsman Who Leaked Secrets On War In Ukraine Sentenced To 15 Years

      A federal judge on November 12 sentenced a member of the U.S. Massachusetts Air National Guard to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ North Korea Approves Deal With Moscow That Allows Troop Deployment

      North Korea has ratified a "comprehensive strategic partnership" agreement with Russia, cementing a deal that has paved the way for its soldiers to fight on Russian soil against Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Kryviy Rih, Mykolayiv Declare Day Of Mourning After Deadly Russian Attacks

      The Ukrainian cities of Kryviy Rih and Mykolayiv have announced a day of mourning in the aftermath of Russian strikes in recent days that killed at least nine civilians, including three children, as Moscow kept up its daily attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure at the onset of winter.

    • CS Monitor ☛ How Trump will tackle security flash points from Ukraine to China

      President-elect Donald Trump is an unpredictable actor on the world stage. While that brings uncertainty, some analysts say his style might prove beneficial in addressing some global conflicts.

    • CS Monitor ☛ They took up arms to fight Russia. They’ve taken up pens to express themselves.

      Ukrainian soldier-poets are springing up all along the front lines of their war against Russia, feeding a literary renaissance.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Doctor, Accused of Antiwar Stance, Is Jailed After Child’s Testimony

      The mother of a 7-year-old boy accused the Moscow pediatrician, Nadezhda Buyanova, of telling him that his father’s death while fighting in Ukraine was justified.

    • New York Times ☛ Blinken Heads to NATO as Alliance Prepares for Trump’s Return

      Officials meeting in Brussels will discuss Ukraine’s war against Russia amid concerns that the new administration will slash U.S. support for Kyiv.

    • Meduza ☛ Russian businessman in prison for embezzling over $240 million announces plans to go to war in Ukraine — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ When a Russian city unveiled a memorial honoring local soldiers killed in Ukraine, residents were outraged to spot a convicted murderer among them — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Financial Times: Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ has points developed just for Trump, including sharing natural resources with West — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ School Director In Russia's Bashkortostan Fined In Feud Over Ethnic History Books

      A court in Russia’s Bashkortostan fined school director Svetlana Khakimova 2,000 rubles (about $20) for keeping the book Hidden History of Tatars in her school’s library.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Pediatrician Gets 5 Years For Anti-War Comments To Patients

      A 68-year-old Russian pediatrician has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges related to the dissemination of so-called fake news about the Russian military after a patient's mother accused her of making antiwar comments made during an appointment.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Issues Warrant For International Criminal Court Judge

      A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for International Criminal Court (ICC) Judge Haykel Ben Mahfoudh on a charge of "illegal incarceration."

    • RFERL ☛ Jailed Mother Of Chechen Bloggers Faces New Charges

      Investigators in the Russian North Caucasus region of Chechnya have launched a new probe against Zarema Musayeva, the jailed mother of three Chechen opposition bloggers in exile.

    • RFERL ☛ Bashkir Activist Released From Russian Prison After Health Deteriorates

      A Russian court granted the "immediate" release of ethnic Bashkir activist Rustem Mulyukov on November 12 due to his deteriorating health.

    • RFERL ☛ Abkhazia Opposition Activists Released Amid Protests

      Authorities in Georgia's Moscow-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia on November 12 released five opposition activists after protesters blocked all three access bridges into the capital, Sukhumi and a major highway.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Russia Attempts to Collect Its Winnings

      Russia has been engaged in a whole bunch of dick-wagging since Trump won the election. That's likely because the last time they helped Trump get elected, he deferred on and then failed to deliver his side of the bargain.

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Russian drones, glide bombs and a ballistic missile kill 6, injure 30 in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russian strikes kill 5 in southern regions

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Will Russia exposure leave North Korean troops wanting more?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Russian Attacks Kill Six in Southern Ukraine, Regional Governors Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Russian, Indonesian Navies Hold Joint Counter-Terrorism Drills

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] No Russian Missile Attack on Ukraine After Country Put on High Alert

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Israel Sees Progress in Lebanon Ceasefire Talks, Says Russia Can Help

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Russian Glide Bombs, Drones and a Ballistic Missile Kill 6, Injure 30 in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Russian Attacks Kill Two, Injure 19 in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Ukraine Rushes to Reinforce East as Pressure Mounts in South and Russia's Kursk

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Could a Trump Presidency Revive Russia’s Arctic LNG Project Amidst U.S. Sanctions?

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Ukraine targets Moscow with its biggest drone attack of the war

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia says dozens of drones target Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Fritz Frustrates Medvedev and the Russian Loses His Temper at the ATP Finals. Sinner Beats De Minaur

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Moldova Says Two Russian 'Decoy' Drones Crashed on Its Territory

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Russia Open to Hearing Trump's Proposals for Ending the War, an Official Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Russia Sees No Grounds for Strategic or Arms Control Talks With US, Interfax Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Russia's Putin Orders More Efforts in Suppressing Extremism

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Ukraine Commander Says Challenges Increase in War With Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Weapons Factory, Kyiv Source Says

    • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] North Korean Soldiers Allegedly Hooked on Porn Following Deployment to Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] Bloggers Report Russian Forces Moving Closer to Ukrainian Frontline Town

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] Russian Drone Attack on Ukraine's Odesa Kills One, Injures 13, Governor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-07 [Older] France Summoned North Korean Diplomat Over Troops in Russia, Ministry Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-07 [Older] Russian Attack on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Damages Oncology Ward, Kills Four

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Russia-Africa: Forging Stronger Partnership

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] As it loses ground to Russia, Ukraine greets Trump win with public praise and private worry

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Kremlin Says U.S. Ties at a Low but Russia Is Open to Dialogue After Trump Declares Victory

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Russia Denies It Was Behind US Bomb Hoaxes or Incendiary Devices on Planes

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Security Hawk Says Russia Will Take More Steps up Nuclear 'Ladder of Escalation'

    • Vox ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Russia’s campaign against the West is getting more aggressive

    • CBC ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Source says Trump advised Putin not to escalate Ukraine war, Kremlin denies conversation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Trump talks Ukraine in separate calls with Putin, Scholz

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Says Strength Must Come With Diplomacy to Achieve Peace

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Don't Prejudge Trump Over Ukraine, France Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] EU Has Supplied Ukraine With Over 980,000 Shells, Borrell Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Finland Dismisses 'Finlandisation' Model for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Museum Tanks and Trench Systems Enhance Ukraine Training, EU Commander Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] UK Defence Minister: We Expect Trump to Remain Committed to Ukraine and NATO

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Ukraine Battles to Shape 'Starting Positions' for Any War Talks After Trump Return

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Trump, Putin Speak as Biden Plans to Lobby Trump to Stick With Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] US to Speed up Interceptor Missiles Delivery to Ukraine, WSJ Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Trump in Phone Call Advised Putin Not to Escalate in Ukraine - Washington Post

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] Ukraine Says Reports It Was Informed in Advance of Trump-Putin Call Are False

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-10 [Older] UK's Starmer to Meet Macron in France to Discuss Ukraine Support After Trump Win

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Ukraine updates: Musk reportedly joined Trump-Zelenskyy call

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Blasts Heard in Ukraine's Kyiv, Reuters' Witnesses Report

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] EU Moves to Reassure Ukraine of 'Unwavering Support' After Trump Win

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Polish PM to Meet French, UK, NATO Leaders to Discuss Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-09 [Older] Trump Transition Distances Itself From Ukraine Peace Plan Outlined by Republican Strategist

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] Musk Joined Trump's Call With Ukraine's Zelenskiy, Media Reports Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] The Pentagon Is Letting a Small Number of U.S. Defense Contractors Fix Weapons in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] Trump Put Elon Musk on Phone With Ukraine's Zelenskyy During Congratulatory Call, Official Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-07 [Older] Germany's Ukraine Support for 2025 Is Safe Despite Coalition Break-Up, Sources Say

    • The Local SE ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Swedish prime minister warns Donald Trump presidency puts Ukraine aid at risk

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] On Ukraine's Front and in Kyiv, Hope and Pragmatism Compete When It Comes to Trump's Election

    • New York Times ☛ Russia and Iran Vie for Influence in the Caucasus Region

      In the volatile Caucasus region, Russia and Iran, often seen as united in their aims, are vying to secure trade routes and influence. That leaves Western countries facing an unusual dilemma.

    • Meduza ☛ Russian court declares blogger Yelena Blinovskaya bankrupt after tax evasion and large-scale money laundering charges — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Car explodes in Sevastopol, killing driver identified by Telegram channels as first-rank captain from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia launches missile and drone strike on Kyiv — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Family of Russian spy reportedly changed surname after Bellingcat exposed husband’s true identity — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ten Russian soldiers reportedly flee military base in Novosibirsk region — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ U.S. says North Korean troops already fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk region — Meduza

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania allows border guards to shoot down drones

      On Tuesday, Lithuania's parliament adopted amendments allowing officers to shoot down drones and other flying objects. This follows a series of incidents involving weather balloons and drones carrying contraband from Belarus reaching as far as Vilnius.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian parliament denounces customs treaty with Belarus

      The Seimas of Lithuania on Tuesday denounced the country’s customs cooperation treaty signed with Belarus almost two decades ago.

    • RFERL ☛ Jailed Belarusian Opposition Figure Kalesnikava Reportedly Meets With Father

      Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava briefly met her father, Alyaksandr Kalesnikau, for the first time since December 2022, former opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich announced on November 12 on Telegram.

    • RFERL ☛ Polish President Refuses Group Photo At COP29 Summit Due To 'Lukashenka's Presence'

      Polish President Andrzej Duda has skipped the official group photo at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, with Polish broadcaster Polsat saying the decision was driven by the presence of the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

    • Meduza ☛ Jailed Belarusian activist Maria Kalesnikava meets with father after no contact with family for year and a half — Meduza

• Environment

  • Omicron Limited ☛ More evidence that Europe's ancient landscapes were open woodlands: Study finds oak, hazel and yew were abundant

    The results show that European wildwoods were rich in hazel, oak, and yew—species thriving in dynamic semi-open ecosystems rather than in classic dense forests.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Who is funding fossil fuel expansion?

    The NGO said such expansion would unlock the equivalent of 230 billion barrels of untapped oil and gas, the production and burning of which would, they calculated, release 30 times as much as the EU's annual greenhouse gas emissions.

    Their oil and gas database tracked significant activity in "frontier countries" — such as South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea — that have little or no existing oil or gas production. The NGO said this risks locking them into a fossil fuel future.

  • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ COP29 Opens in Azerbaijan Amid Controversy Over Fossil Fuel Ties

    Former oil executive Mukhtar Babayev opened this year’s COP29 negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan Monday, amid controversy over the petrostate’s promotion of its fossil fuel industry and criticism that the United Nations climate summit is merely a “greenwash conference.”

  • DeSmog ☛ COP Won’t Survive for Long Unless We Tackle Climate Corruption

    Less remarked on, but by no means less important, is the issue of corruption that threatens to undermine the integrity of this year’s entire conference.

    Corruption may not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering the fight against climate change – but it should be. For the second year in a row, COP will be hosted by a petrostate.

  • DeSmog ☛ Revealed: Big Oil Told 70 Years Ago That Fossil Fuel Emissions Could Impact ‘Civilization’

    This month, the 70th anniversary of researchers warning Big Oil about the risks of climate change, atmospheric carbon dioxide is 50 percent higher than before the Industrial Revolution. Record-breaking heat waves, violently destructive storms, wildfires, drought, and flooding are all increasing due to the effects of greenhouse-gas-induced climate change. Yet, in meetings held behind closed doors over multiple decades, oil and gas executives have consistently decided to deny, dismiss, or downplay the risk of burning fossil fuels to protect their business – just like WSPA’s oilmen of the 1950s. Compelling new evidence shows this pattern of behavior was already hardwired into the industry’s DNA by 1955 and persists today.

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2024-11-08 [Older] Greens call on Starmer to lead international action at COP29

  • Energy/Transportation

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-11-11 [Older] Security Tightens in Lima as Peru Prepares to Host APEC Summit

    • DeSmog ☛ Fossil Fuel Giants Paying Thousands to Sponsor COP29 Events

    • DeSmog ☛ Q&A: How Refugees Are Regaining a Sense of Agency as Climate Impacts Bite

    • DeSmog ☛ Canada’s Fossil Fuel Export Emissions Set New Record in 2023

    • DeSmog ☛ Business Lobby Reaches Record High at UN Biodiversity Talks

    • Futurism ☛ Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won't Open

      Four people were killed in Toronto after the Tesla they were riding in crashed into a pillar and burst into flames.

      A fifth rider, an unidentified woman in her twenties, narrowly survived the crash after a bystander smashed open a window, allowing her to escape the burning vehicle.

    • The Korea Times ☛ Bitcoin nears $90,000 in new record high

      Cryptocurrency has been around for a while now, but has come under the spotlight in recent years.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] Are these tiny insects the world’s most bone-idle bugs?

    • The Revelator ☛ ‘Like a Phoenix,’ A New Forest Emerges From the Destruction in Ukraine

    • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-07 [Older] Plants and animals with bigger genomes grow less efficiently – new research helps explain why they never died out

    • Pro Publica ☛ A Biden Effort to Protect Old Forests Hasn’t Curbed BLM Logging

      On Earth Day in 2022, President Joe Biden stood among cherry blossoms and towering Douglas firs in a Seattle park to declare the importance of big, old trees. “There used to be a hell of a lot more forests like this,” he said, calling them “our planet’s lungs” and extolling their power to fight climate change.

      The amount of carbon trees suck out of the air increases dramatically with age, making older trees especially important. These trees are also rare: Less than 10% of forests in the lower 48 states remain unlogged or undisturbed by development.

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan deer hunt: Why rifle season won’t dent populations & other questions

      Bridge Michigan has written extensively about how declining hunter participation, sprawl and other factors have created deer overpopulation problems, resulting in more car crashes, crop losses and disease risks.

    • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ These Elephants Can Use Hoses to Shower—and Even 'Sabotage' Each Other, Study Suggests | Smithsonian

      Now, scientists have added another skill to this list: using hoses to keep themselves clean—and, possibly, to play pranks on each other. Researchers describe these behaviors in a new paper published last week in the journal Current Biology.

    • CBC ☛ This elephant gives herself nice showers with a hose. But another elephant keeps ruining them

      "She's very knowledgeable about how to use hoses, and has really very impressive strategies."

      Scientists who work with elephants say the findings, published in the journal Current Biology, are another example of the animals complex cognitive skills and ability to adapt to their environments.

  • Overpopulation

    • RFERL ☛ Bill Banning 'Childfree Propaganda' Gets Final Approval From Russian Lawmakers

      Russia's State Duma passed a bill on November 12 in its second and third readings that would ban "childfree propaganda," marking the government's latest move to regulate social discourse while pushing President Vladimir Putin's "family values" agenda.

      The bill now awaits approval from the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, before Putin can sign it into law.

    • New York Times ☛ Its Birthrate Falling, Russia Targets Child-Free Lifestyles

      The country’s lower house of Parliament passed a law that would ban what it calls “propaganda” discouraging Russians from having children.

• Finance

  • The Business Journals ☛ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy denies RTO is a 'backdoor' plan for layoffs [Ed: Layoffs disguised as "leaving"]

  • 23andMe, supported by Richard Branson, announces major layoffs and strategy shift following data breach

    23andMe, the genetic testing firm backed by Richard Branson's VG Acquisition Corp, has announced plans to lay off 200 employees in an effort to regain stability following a significant business slowdown over the past year.

    The company, which is cutting 40 per cent of its workforce, aims to recover from financial and operational difficulties triggered by a data breach and falling stock value, which led to a 70 per cent drop in share price to 4.67p over the last year, as reported by City AM.

  • Richard Branson-backed 23andMe axes hundreds of jobs

    Genetic testing company 23andMe, which is backed by Virgin billionaire Richard Branson’s former company VG Acquisition Corp, has revealed plans to make 200 redundancies in a bid to regain stability after a major slowdown in the business over the last year.

    The company is cutting 40 per cent of its workforce to help its continued survival after financial and operational struggles were set off by a data breach and declining stock value.

    The company’s chief financial officer, Joe Selsavage, said on Tuesday that “there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a growing concern”, unless it raises new funds.

    He added: “we will need additional liquidity to fund its necessary expenditures and financial commitments”.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Boss politics antitrust

    In other words, Xi Jinping's anticorruption efforts targeted genuinely corrupt officials – but only if they supported Xi's rivals. Xi's own cronies were exempted from this. Xi did use the anticorruption effort to consolidate power, but that doesn't mean he prosecuted the innocent – rather, he selectively prosecuted the guilty.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • US News And World Report ☛ Infowars Auction Could Determine Whether Alex Jones Is Kicked off Its Platforms

      The private auction is being held as part of Jones' personal bankruptcy, which resulted from the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments a judge and jurors ordered the bombastic internet show and radio host to pay to families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for repeatedly telling his audience that the Connecticut massacre of 20 children and six adults was a hoax staged by crisis actors.

    • Futurism ☛ MAGA Fans Seem to Think AI Videos of Barron Trump Singing Patriotic Songs Are Totally Real

      People will believe anything these days — including, it seems, obvious AI slop.

      As a viral post on X-formerly-Twitter highlights, one such example poorly, which attempts to show Donald Trump's son Barron singing a treacly AI-generated song, has picked up an astonishing number of fawning comments — though in a further sign of the times, it's unclear what percentage of those commentators are bots themselves.

    • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk's Grok AI Blasts Elon Musk as Huge Spreader of Misinformation

      X-formerly-Twitter owner and xAI CEO Elon Musk isn't very concerned about the truth.

      The astonishingly gullible billionaire has a well-documented tendency to spread misinformation, an embarrassing and often dangerous quality that's undermined his standing in the world of science and technology.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Conversation ☛ 2024-11-06 [Older] How close are we to an accurate AI fake news detector?

  • RFERL ☛ Navalnaya Says She And Ukraine Have 'One Enemy' After Activists Disrupt Her Speech

    "I am fighting against Putin's regime and against the war. And I think that these are interconnected things,” she said on Telegram. “My husband, Aleksei Navalny, fought against Putin and against the war, and was killed in prison for it. He used every court hearing against him, including the one on February 24, 2022, as a platform for an anti-war speech.”

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Moscow doctor accused by patient of criticising war is jailed for five years [Ed: A lack of free speech in Russia is a cautionary tale against many new policies in Canada, US, EU, and UK]

    A Russian court has sentenced an elderly Moscow paediatrician to five and a half years in prison after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her for comments she allegedly made about Russian soldiers in Ukraine during a private consultation.

  • VOA News ☛ Iran uses 'mental health' pretext to downplay woman’s dress code protest

    The arrest of a female student who undressed at the Islamic Azad University campus in Tehran has brought Iran’s strict dress code policies and controversial use of coercive psychiatric treatment back into the global spotlight.

    Witnesses at the university filmed a young woman stripped down to her underwear walking around the campus on November 2 and shared the videos on social media. The posts went viral, with rights advocates in the West saying the student was protesting the mandatory dress code for women, which is enforced by the volunteer militia Basij, who act as morality police.

  • Techdirt ☛ Threatened With A Ban In India, Wikimedia Agrees To Hand Over Personal Information About Wikipedians To Delhi High Court

    As Techdirt stories attest, Wikipedia has been attacked in the past for publishing true information that somebody doesn’t like. As well as wanting articles to be censored, those behind such attacks often also demand the names of those who worked on the article. Something similar is now happening in India, where the Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) has filed a lawsuit against Wikimedia Foundation in the Delhi High Court, claiming to have been defamed in an article on Wikipedia, and seeking 20 million Indian Rupees (about US$240,000) in damages. The Wikipedia article on ANI explains the background: [...]

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Hiltzik: Setting up as a freelance writer? Here are the perils

    She’s also independent, which means she’s unprotected by the fortification of lawyers and resources erected by the owners of newspapers such as The Times to fend off legal threats, frivolous and otherwise, that are part of the arsenal of people and firms we write about.

  • VOA News ☛ As Azerbaijan hosts UN climate conference, analysts point to poor rights record

    Over the past year, Azerbaijani authorities jailed at least 14 journalists over their work. Many of the journalists are facing charges of currency smuggling, which media watchdogs have rejected as bogus.

  • CPJ ☛ Cameroonian journalist Nsoyuka Guy-Bruno Maimo detained, beaten for covering protest

    “The members of Cameroon’s gendarmerie responsible for detaining, beating, and subjecting journalist Nsoyuka Guy-Bruno Maimo to degrading treatment must be held accountable,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program head, in Durban. “The press in Cameroon work in perilous conditions, with the threat of violence and detention hanging over them, and the arrest and abuse of Maimo only reinforces this fear.”

  • Matt Webb ☛ Happy birthday to the BBC In Our Time podcast, 20 years old today (Interconnected)

    I don’t recall whose idea it was to use the MP3 trial to experiment with podcasts. Ultimately I credit everything that came out of the technology and design team in that era (it was a very special time) to my boss Dan Hill who originated, connected, amplified and taste-made ideas like you wouldn’t believe.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-11-07 [Older] Amazon Night Shift Workers Walk Out After Daylight Savings Pushes Them To Work An Extra Hour Unpaid

  • The Register UK ☛ Canada okays bypassing software locks for repairs

    TPMs can take a number of forms, from simple administrative passwords to encryption, registration keys, or even the need for a physical object like a USB dongle to unlock access to copyrighted components of a device's software. Most commercially manufactured devices with proprietary embedded software include some form of TPM, and neither C-244 nor C-294 place any restrictions on the use of such measures by manufacturers.

  • The Record ☛ China-linked group hacked Tibetan media and university sites to distribute Cobalt Strike payload

    A China-linked state hacker group has compromised Tibetan media and university websites in a new espionage campaign, researchers have found — part of a series of attacks targeting the Tibetan community in order to collect intelligence for Beijing.

    The websites of the digital news outlet Tibet Post and Gyudmed Tantric University were hacked in late May and remain compromised as of the time of writing. Researchers at Recorded Future’s Insikt Group track the group behind the activity as TAG-112.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Strand Consult ☛ The Market for 5G RAN in Europe: Share of Chinese and Non-Chinese Vendors in 31 European Countries

    The European Union uses its 5G security toolbox to focus on the security of equipment and to elevate risk management. This report can be used in conjunction with the toolbox to bring greater knowledge and transparency to communications infrastructure which is the foundation of modern society and economy.

    With its new report “The Market for 5G RAN in Europe: Share of Chinese and Non-Chinese Vendors in 31 European Countries”, Strand Consult brings valuable evidence of the location, amount, and share of Chinese and non-Chinese equipment in European telecom networks. This report, the second of its kind, describes the respective amounts of 5G equipment from Huawei, ZTE, and non-Chinese vendors in European mobile networks and the share of such in equipment in the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN). Here are the highlights from the new report.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Jeff Geerling ☛ M4 Mac mini's efficiency is incredible

    The M4 mini I just bought reaches 6.74 Gflops/W on the HPL benchmark.

  • Howard Oakley ☛ Inside M4 chips: P cores

    This is the first in a series diving deeper into Apple’s new M4 family of chips. This starts with details of its Performance (P) cores. Comparisons of their performance against cores in earlier M-series chips will follow separately when I have completed them.

  • Cory Dransfeldt ☛ Buying music

    I'm (still) not streaming music. Here's where I'm buying it.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • The Korea Times ☛ South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics shares over 100 patents with smaller firms

    The leading Korean tech giant transferred 128 patents to 85 companies this year to assist them in developing innovative products and solutions without royalty fees, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

  • Software Patents

    • R Street Institute ☛ Coalition Letter Opposing the PREVAIL ACT and PERA

      On behalf of the four organizations listed below, we urge you to vote NO on two bills that will negatively impact efforts to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S.

      We oppose these bills:

      S.2220 – PREVAIL Act
      S.2140 – PERA (Patent Eligibility Restoration Act)

    • EFF ☛ Tell Congress: We Can't Afford More Bad Patents | EFF Action Center

      A key Senate Committee is about to vote on two bills that would bring back some of the worst patents and empower patent trolls.

      UPDATE: This vote has been set for this Thursday, November 14, 2024.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Google's "Negligent" Piracy Response Prevented Critic Deindexing Its Own Site

    Google is facing criticism in Spain and Italy for alleged anti-piracy failures. The latest claim accuses Google of ignoring notices that aim to remove pirate IPTV providers from search results. So here's the thing: why would a company take down 10 billion URLs from search but suddenly start acting differently? The public labeling of Google as "grossly negligent" deserves context too; two weeks ago, Google's diligence prevented one of its accusers from deindexing its own website.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Kingpin Behind 'Noonoo TV' and 'TVWiki' Arrested in Korea

    Korean authorities have shut down the popular video piracy service TVWIKI, which had millions of users. A special unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism arrested the alleged operator, who is also believed to be connected to other streaming platforms. These include OKTOON, which was also pulled offline, and piracy giant NoonooTV, which voluntarily threw in the towel last year.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Europe’s richest man sues Elon Musk’s X over not paying for using his newspapers' content: Report

    The lawsuit is also supported by two other dailies, Le Figaro and Le Monde and claims that the newspapers are due for payment under a 2019 European directive which allows newspapers, magazines or press agencies to be remunerated when their content is reused by digital giants, according to the report.

    The report cited the title as saying X never agreed to open negotiations with French news publishers, in contrast to Google and Meta.

  • International Business Times ☛ Why Are Two Of The World's Richest Men Battling It Out In Court? Arnault Vs. Elon Musk's X

    Bernard Arnault, the luxury magnate behind LVMH, is taking legal action against X over alleged copyright violations involving his newspapers, Le Parisien and Les Echos.

    As Europe's wealthiest individual, Arnault has accused X (formerly Twitter) of content theft, with the lawsuit jointly filed alongside his French newspapers. The case, co-plaintiffed by Le Figaro and Le Monde, asserts that X has breached new copyright regulations by using their content without obtaining the necessary permissions or providing due compensation.