Leftovers

• The Cyber Show ☛ Gromit, we salute you!

  Good role models are hard to find nowadays. In this valley of dying stars who do you point your kids to and say "There's someone to admire and emulate!". When it comes to science and technology the cupboard looks barer each day. Our media lionises fakes, frauds, impostors, witty and beautiful science "presenter personalities", or greedy, sinister clown technologists who call themselves laughable things like "thought leaders" or "amoral business investors". This freak show of colossal bellends doesn't leave much to write home about.

  So why not choose a fictional plasticine dog? He's more real than any "AI", or any tepid human who defers to one. I'd like to nominate Gromit as an unlikely hacker hero.

  Gromit the dog is what Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and all those screwball US billionaires would like to be, but never will. Despite that time Preston the robot dog attempted to frame him for mistreatment of sheep, Gromit has never been involved in any sex scandals, Bond-villain paedophile island romps, or running Dickensian child-slave factories, unlike his human counterparts in the technology industry. Gromit is simply a decent engineer.

• Phil Eaton ☛ How I run a coffee club

  People tend to talk in a little circle and then move around over time. It's basically no different than a happy hour except it is over a non-alcoholic drink and it's in the morning.

• Matt Cool ☛ IndieWeb Is Cool

  They are all about owning your websites and have been a consistent source of inspiration for my personal site. Their discord is a wild example of bridging from multiple platforms - true connectors/heroes in my book.

• James G ☛ Questions on my mind

  I ask myself the question What should I make next? often. When I don’t have a new idea to work on, I think about what’s next. Figuring out what to build is hard, but I know deep down that ideas always come – whether after a conversation, after reading an article on a topic I find interesting, or after reflecting on something that I have noticed.

• Chris O'Donnnell ☛ 29 Years of Blogging

  This site launched in the tilde directory of my ISP on December 31, 1995. To say it changed my life would be a bit of an understatement. I turned that night of drinking homebrew and learning HTML by looking at the source code of IBM.com into a career 3 months later when I got my first of many web design related jobs.

• Daniel Miller ☛ The Ghost of Somebody’s KPIs Are Rattling Their Chains in My Forest

  My point is, people don’t care about this stuff. They don’t care that these networks, as so perfectly described by Erin, are a significant part of the systematic rise of racism and fascism across the world (and now in an alarmingly very real way, in this country). So how do we create the networks and systems required not just by those of us in this tiny minority that want to enact change, but for the larger minority that equally won’t enjoy the inevitable outcomes of their own ignorant compliance or simple indifference? 🪖

• Don Marti ☛ predictions for 2025

  (looks like I had enough notes for an upcoming event to do A-Z this year…)

• [Repeat] CS Monitor ☛ Chefs are rediscovering Ukraine’s cuisine – and identity

  Thus began a decadelong search for old Ukrainian recipes, lost food-preparation practices, and ingredients introduced to Ukraine by foreign traders plying Black Sea trade routes but later suppressed by Soviet rulers.

• Kansas Reflector ☛ Kansas Supreme Court: 'Skill-gaming' company lacks standing in lawsuit against state regulators

  The justices also vacated a district court ruling that rejected claims the state’s criminal gambling statutes were unconstitutionally vague because there was no provision giving companies fair notice on whether a device was considered a game of chance or skill.

• Vox ☛ The many problems with online sports betting, explained

  For the athletes competing, like three-time NBA champion and podcast host Danny Green, who retired from professional basketball in the fall, hearing from bettors who are upset about lost wagers has become the norm. “They say, ‘You owe me money,’” Green told Today, Explained about angry sports bettors messaging him on social media. “They’re obviously cussing, saying, ‘You bleep! You son of a you-know-what! You cost me. Couldn’t you just get two more rebounds?”

  Superstars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have also spoken out about how legalized sports gambling has changed the relationship between athletes and fans. “Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity and the fun away from the game at times, let me just be honest with y’all,” Irving said on the streaming platform Twitch last year.

• Linuxiac ☛ Wishing to All Our Dear Readers a Bright 2025

  First and foremost, I want to say a heartfelt thank you! The love you’ve shown us and your trust in us to keep you informed about everything happening in the Linux world and the broader FOSS ecosystem have made 2024 our best yet at Linuxiac. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

• Aman Mittal ☛ 2024 - A year in review

  As 2024 draws close, it’s time for my annual year in review reflection. This tradition helps me analyze and appreciate the various projects and experiences that shaped my year. Let’s dive into what 2024 brought.

• Heliomass ☛ State of the Blog 2024 | heliomass.com

  The principle goes like this: Web servers keep logs, typically generated by Apache. In most cases (including my website) those logs are archived and eventually removed after a short period of time to save space. On their own, the logs are useful for debugging issues.

• Derek Kędziora ☛ A Sabbatical from the Internet Anti-Resolution

  My anti-resolution1 for 2025 is to take a break from online discourse, including writing on this blog. I’ve been writing here with varying levels of frequency for eight years. And hence it’s time for a sabbatical, before what’s going to be an incredibly intense but rewarding period of life that’s just around the corner. I’ll be back eventually and hopefully with something fresh to say.

• Rob Knight ☛ Just 2024 Things

  In September during some rather heavy rain we forgot to bring our awning in and it snapped off it's brackets. That was a fun adventure trying to remove that without smashing the patio doors. My dad has offered to buy us a new one which I'll need to fit in the new year.

• Science

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ The Speed of Human Thought Is Far Slower Than the Average Wi-Fi, Study Suggests

    The authors came by their number after examining scientific papers about human feats of speed, then applying methods from the field of information theory to calculate how quickly the brain processes thoughts in these situations. For example, advanced typists hammer away at the keyboard at 120 words per minute, but all that finger dexterity still only translates to ten bits per second of information processing, the researchers conclude. Elite video gamers seem to have lightning-fast reaction times and make split-second decisions, but even their thoughts max out at ten bits every second.

• Career/Education

  • Pro Publica ☛ What an Unregulated School Voucher Program Looks Like

  • Loura ☛ Homeschooling costs for the 24/25 school year

    I work full-time as a software engineer and I’m the primary homeschooling parent for my children. I’m also a secular, eclectic, academic homeschooler which in homeschooling circles is pretty small segment. What that means is, I have to have an easy-to-use curriculum since 40+ hours of my week are for work, I want rigorous curriculum choices customized to my kids and I’m not interested in anything religious or masquerading as secular or that whitewashes history which removes many curriculum choices and communities.

    So rigorous and easy-to-use means that I spend $$$. These numbers are what I spend and are not representative of other homeschoolers.

  • Allen Pike ☛ An Unreasonable Amount of Time - Allen Pike

    Teller describes the underlying principle like so:

    "Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."

    This is true of tricks, and also of crafts.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • EPIC ☛ Judge Allows California Regulation of Addictive Feeds to Go Into Effect

    The centerpiece of California’s SB 976 is a restriction on “addictive feeds,” or algorithms that select and organize media for users based on users’ behavior on their platform and not their explicit preferences. Until January 2027, companies are only prohibited from providing addictive feeds to users they know are minors unless the minors’ parents consent. From January 2027 onward, companies will be required to use age assurance techniques to determine whether a user is a minor, subject to regulations that will be issued by the Attorney General. The law also includes a restriction on nighttime notifications for minors, a requirement that companies disclose certain statistics about minors’ use of the platform, and a number of default settings that allow parents to control when their children receive notifications, how long they can use addictive feeds, who can contact their children, and whether their children can see the number of likes and comments their posts receive. The law, enacted in September, was set to go into effect January 1, 2025.

  • Wired ☛ How Do You Live a Happier Life? Notice What Was There All Along

    At the same time there may be not-so-great things around us—cracks in a relationship, rudeness online, inefficiencies at the workplace—and it seems we often get used to these maladies, so we are less likely to try and change them.

    In other words, we stop noticing what was always there. Here’s how you can change that.

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Insurers Use Patient Progress to Justify Denials of Mental Health Coverage

    Their doctors are left to walk a tightrope trying to convince insurers that patients are making enough progress to stay in treatment as long as they actually need it, but not so much that the companies prematurely cut them off from care. And when insurers demand that providers spend their time justifying care, it takes them away from their patients.

  • Science Alert ☛ These Habits Can Keep Your Brain Looking Young at 70

    The team used a deep learning AI model to assess brain age from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, having previously trained it on more than 18,000 scans of people without any cognitive issues.

    Information from blood samples was then cross-referenced with the assessed brain ages, together with data collected by the researchers on various lifestyle factors, medical conditions, and cognitive tests.

  • The Hill ☛ AI tool helps detect heart issues early

    The AI system, developed by scientists at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, analyzes electronic health records to detect warning signs of atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition causing irregular and abnormally fast heart rates, per the BBC.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Venezuela fines TikTok over deadly viral challenges

    Venezuela's Supreme Court on Monday fined TikTok $10 million over viral challenges that authorities say led to the deaths of three children.

    Judge Tania D'Amelio criticized the popular short video app for its negligence in failing to implement "necessary and adequate measures" to curb content promoting the challenges.

  • Greece ☛ The social media trap

    The addiction of children and adolescents to social media is a real epidemic of our time, so the government’s initiatives to address the problem is welcome. But parents also have a share of the responsibility, even if they often feel powerless in the face of their children’s absolute dependence on mobile phones.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Business Journals ☛ Here are some of Seattle's most notable tech layoffs of 2024

    The company also laid off about 650 employees from its gaming division in September and an undisclosed number of employees in July.

  • The Register UK ☛ China's cyber intrusions turns sinister in 2024

    The FBI and other US federal agencies rang in 2024 boasting about disrupting a Chinese botnet composed of "hundreds" of outdated routers intent on breaking into US critical infrastructure facilities. Spoiler alert: the botnet is back.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ The contrarian CIO approach to gen AI hype, explored | Has the gen Hey Hi (AI) hype bubble burst? Analyzing the tactical CIO approach

    “Gen AI is going to cost three to five times that of traditional systems do the same thing,” said David Linthicum, enterprise technology analyst at theCUBE Research. “If they’re not funded, it’s going to be very difficult for them to make the move. That’s the concern right now. You’re seeing CIOs pushing back on a lot of the hype that the vendors are starting to produce. I don’t know how many billions of dollars are spent on generative AI marketing, but it’s got to be a huge amount.”

  • Wired ☛ To Fight AI Search Spam, Prioritize Real Human Voices

    At some point in the future, AIs may create works of art, music, and writing that rival human-created ones. For now, what's most impressive about most generative AIs is their capacity to produce lots of mediocre work very quickly. This ability is transforming many industries: In the world of higher education, where I work, we are discovering that it's very hard to tell AI-produced mediocrity from something that indicates that a student is learning to produce good work. But no industry has been so transformed by AI than the shadowy world of search engine optimization.

  • Fernando Borretti ☛ How I Use Claude

    Claude is Anthropic’s AI, like ChatGPT but more capable. I was a casual user until the 23 October release (informally “Claude 3.6”), when it crossed a quality threshold I didn’t even know was there. It is really, really good. I have been using it a lot more since, and I got curious as to how much more.

    You can export your Claude conversation history. It’s just a zip file with a massive JSON blob. I wrote the types to represent it, and Claude wrote most of the matplotlib. The code is here, and it’s set up so you can run it on your own export very easily.

  • Chris Coyier ☛ Watching Google Search in 2025

    AI slop generation is flooding the web, and people are feeling like that’s what Google wants in the sense that that’s what seems to work for SEO.

  • [Repeat] YLE ☛ Turku becomes first major Finnish city to leave X

    The city of Turku has closed its account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

    The decision, confirmed by the city's communications director Saara Malila, makes Turku the first of Finland's six largest cities to withdraw from the platform.

  • Manton Reece ☛ Algorithmic timeline endgame

    I’m not an AI skeptic. I believe in AI as a tool to help humans, allowing us to achieve things we couldn’t quite reach before. But I don’t believe in it to replace our jobs wholesale, whether real jobs or the virtual factory floor of unpaid content creators. Most AI company CEOs skirt around the downsides of AI, and they certainly don’t talk out loud about replacing jobs. That it seems Meta’s leadership openly wants to replace humanity’s creativity is a little bit sick.

  • Chris ☛ The Making of a Forecasting Bot

    It is difficult to backtest these kinds of ai, because we only want to give them the information they would have had if they had made the forecast on a particular date, and it is virtually impossible to do this reliably and not accidentally leak information from the future. So I don’t know yet how the Basean Loom really performs. It has made forecasts every now and then22 The intention was to keep it going daily, but that didn’t end up happening. in the Q4 ai Forecasting Benchmark Tournament and we’ll see how it pans out.

    In my preliminary tests, the Basean Loom has achieved a community-weighted expected Brier score of 0.21–0.24, which is good for a computer, but not better than even myself, so quite some ways away from superhuman performance. Taking the testing history together, I will make the following forecast of its performance in the Q4 tournament.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • CBC ☛ Get one of those $36.29 direct deposits from Facebook? Here's what you should know

      The payments are the result of a class action settlement with the social media company Meta. The lawsuit alleged the company had used people's Facebook photos without their consent as part of an advertising tool.

    • Techdirt ☛ 41 Percent of Americans Live Under Age Verification Laws Targeting Porn

      These laws coming out of state legislatures are scripted like how Russell Vought, a controversial architect of Project 2025 and one of Trump’s closest Christian nationalist allies, described in a viral undercover video revealing how age verification laws serve as a “back door” ban on porn.

      As of this writing, nearly 139 million U.S. residents live in states with age verification laws on the books that specifically target adult entertainment platforms like Pornhub.com or xHamster.com.

    • [Old] Business Insider ☛ Zoom Admits Data Got Routed Through China - Business Insider

      In a statement late Friday, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan admitted to mistakenly routing calls via China.

    • Security Week ☛ Rhode Islanders’ Data Was Leaked From a Cyberattack on State Health Benefits Website

      State programs that rely on RIBridges include Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Childcare Assistance Program, Rhode Island Works, Long-term Services and Supports, the At HOME Cost Share Program and health insurance purchased through HealthSource RI.

      “While this data has been compromised, that does not mean it has been used for identity theft purposes—yet,” the statement added.

    • Tedium ☛ The Year’s Best Feature Article: Where Your Car’s Data Goes

      So, with all of that preface … it doesn’t make me jump for joy that my pick for this year’s winner for Best Feature Article is a Times story. But it is a deserving one that made a real impact.

      That impact comes from Kashmir Hill, a reporter named after a Led Zeppelin song who has been doing some of the best reporting on digital privacy of anyone around. Hill’s March piece, “Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies,” exposed something that affected the lives of real people and represented an under-the-radar privacy violation.

      In essence, automakers have utilized the innovations that have made cars smarter to both gather data about how people drive, but then distribute it to data brokers, who then sell it back to insurers. And when I say data brokers, I am talking about LexisNexis, a company that cut its teeth on being a researcher’s best friend, and is now using that mandate to sell drivers’ private data directly to insurers.

    • CCC ☛ Police 2.0: Peaceful activism is terrorism and fakenews are facts

      On 23 October 2019 peaceful activist Frank van der Linde found out the Dutch Police was associating him with terrorism to other countries' law enforcement.

      This talk goes over the bizarre, worrying and, frankly, quite funny journey that Frank van der Linde has embarked on, hoping on a litigation frenzy to seek justice and fight back against the institutional intimidation of activists.

• Defence/Aggression

  • VOA News ☛ Ayatollah Khamenei falsely denies existence of Iran’s proxy military forces

    Iran provided U.S.-designated terrorist groups in Iraq, including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, with training, funding, logistical support, weapons and operational influence.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Court Sides With State Over Pennsylvania County's Handling of Voting Machines After 2020 Election

    A Pennsylvania court on Tuesday ruled 6-1 that the secretary of state has the authority to direct counties not to allow “unauthorized third party access” to voting machines or risk having those machines decertified and unable to be deployed for elections.

  • [Old] MCB ☛ 2021 Census: As UK Population Grows, So Do British Muslim Communities | Muslim Council of Britain

    The population of England & Wales stands at 59.60 million; the Muslim population is 3.87 million, or 6.5 % of the total.

  • The Hill ☛ Olaf Scholz takes veiled swipe at Elon Musk-Donald Trump relationship

    “After all, it’s customary to make wishes on New Year’s Eve,” Scholz said later. “What I wish for is that we will not let ourselves be played off each other.”

    His comments come days after the German government accused the billionaire of trying to influence its February election.

  • The Korea Times ☛ Elon Musk wants weak Europe, says Germany's vice chancellor

    The calls by Musk are not made out of ignorance, said Habeck, who is the chancellor candidate for the Greens party in German national elections due in February.

    "It is logical and systematic. Musk is strengthening those who are weakening Europe. A weak Europe is in the interest of those for whom regulation is an inappropriate limitation of their power," added Habeck.

  • VOA News ☛ France strikes Islamic State targets in Syria

    Islamic State militants took control of large areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, drawing an international response that included a U.S.-led coalition aimed at defeating the group.

    The militants have lost much of the territory they once held, but they are still present in Syria.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Jimmy Carter Sought to Expand Democracy Worldwide Long After He Left the White House

    Carter's leadership on democracy issues remains a north star for the center, Carroll said.

    “You can help strong systems be in place, but they need to be watched continually. You can never rest on your record on democracy and elections. You always have to be vigilant and keep an eye on the process,” he said.

  • The Record ☛ Finland identifies seven suspects among crew of alleged Russian 'spy' tanker

    Finnish authorities have identified but not arrested seven suspects among the crew of an alleged Russian spy ship that was seized after breaking several submarine cables in the Baltic Sea.

    It follows the seizure of the Eagle S, an oil tanker that departed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Christmas Day, is suspected of intentionally dragging its anchor for several miles resulting in the complete severing of multiple cables, including the Estlink 2 power cable and four telecommunications cables.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Finnish investigators discover anchor drag marks of “almost a hundred kilometers” in undersea cable damage case — anchor is allegedly missing from detained tanker

    The investigation focuses on the Eagle S, suspected of dragging its anchor on Christmas Day to cut the Estlink 2 power cable and several other internet and communications cables connecting Finland and Estonia. Authorities have already boarded the ship, but its anchor is reportedly missing. The authorities then sailed the Eagle S into Finland's territorial waters. They moved it to an even more secure anchorage in Svartbäck to facilitate the investigation, with other ships restricted from approaching the ship to maintain security. Its crew has also remained aboard for further questioning, with Finnish Customs authorities also looking into its cargo.

  • NPR ☛ What to know about Finland, Russia's 'shadow fleet' and a severed undersea cable

    Finnish authorities investigating a severed undersea power cable said over the weekend that they discovered a 60-mile-long anchor drag mark on the seafloor — which they say is linked to a Russia-affiliated vessel.

    The Baltic Sea power cable that runs between Finland and Estonia was damaged last week, along with multiple data cables.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Futurism ☛ Mother of OpenAI Whistleblower Alleges He Was Murdered, Says There Were Signs of Struggle

    "We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death," Ramarao tweeted. "Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police."

    "Suchir’s apartment was ransacked," she continued, adding that there was some "sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots."

  • The Register UK ☛ FAA allegedly ignores more than 90 percent of whistleblowers

    Curious over a series of high-profile failures at Boeing followed by a glut of whistleblower reports, the Seattle Times dug into Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports to Congress from 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Times found that of the 728 safety complaints received, only 8.5 percent (62 cases) resulted in findings of violations, while nearly 40 percent of complaints were dismissed before reaching the fact-finding phase.

  • The National Security Archive ☛ Jimmy Carter: A Declassified Obituary | National Security Archive

    Highest-level national security documents reveal tough-minded, detail-oriented president

    Handwritten notations could be severe — once chided Brzezinski: “Lying?” “You’ll be wasting your time”

    President privately complained Kissinger was a “liar,” “irresponsible” over U.S. treatment of Shah

• Environment

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ The mindset of more (series introduction)

    We’re conditioned to believe we must buy continuously. Disposability becomes the default; we accept that nothing is built to last. Only the rich can afford durability. Repair is criminalized or made impossible by restricting access to parts or using manufacturing methods that prevent disassembly. Our access to borrow shared resources, like books stored by the Internet Archive, is under threat.

    Once consumers accepted the impermanence of our possessions, limiting ownership became a feasible business model. At first, it was: you can’t share it — you must buy your own. Now, it’s: you can’t buy it — you must rent it. Actually buying cultural works becomes harder as streaming services dominate the marketplace. Corporations even want to rent you the heated seats in your car.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Register UK ☛ Second Jeju Air 737-800 faces mechanical trouble

      The disastrous crash of a Boeing 737-800 in South Korea over the weekend, which killed 179 of the 181 people onboard, was followed by a second incident involving Jeju Air. On Monday, the flight was forced to return to its origin due to a reportedly similar landing gear issue.

    • The Hill ☛ Former president Jimmy Carter's legacy in energy and conservation

      In his single term in the Oval Office, Carter took a range of actions on issues that remained influential long after his presidency ended, from imposing new wilderness protections to creating the federal Department of Energy during the recurring energy crises of the 1970s.

  • Overpopulation

    • Deseret Media ☛ The world population will be 8.09 billion on New Year's Day after a 71 million increase in 2024

      The 0.9% increase in 2024 was a slight slowdown from 2023, when the world population grew by 75 million people. In January 2025, 4.2 births and 2.0 deaths were expected worldwide every second, according to the estimates.

    • SBS ☛ A new generation is born today. Who is generation beta?

      The incoming generation beta — people born between 2025 and 2039 — is the seventh concurrent generation of our time.

      They're expected to make up 16 per cent of the global population and many of them are expected to live long enough to see the dawn of the 22nd century.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • CCC ☛ How election software can fail

    This talk will show some incidents with the election software in The Netherlands: how the software failed, and when/how it was discovered. Go over how seeing the elections from the outside, and give some history of voting computers and software. Ending with some reflecting on the future.

  • The Zambian Observer ☛ Trump bragging to friends Elon Musk renting cottage from him at $2K a night - The Zambian Observer

    Sleeping on the property gives Musk access to Trump, which has only added to social media mockery that the South African-born CEO is the “shadow president.”

    “Mr. Trump has bragged to people that Mr. Musk — the world’s richest man — is ‘renting’ one of the residential spaces at Mar-a-Lago,” the report said. “It is unclear how much Mr. Musk will ultimately end up paying for the cottage, which historically has rented for at least $2,000 a night, according to a person with knowledge of the fees.”

  • Axios ☛ Elon Musk headline traffic dominates Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg

    The bottom line: Don't expect anything to change anytime soon, as Musk's personal megaphones get louder by the day.

  • David Rosenthal ☛ Self-Own

    The essence of successful bullshit is that it should be both plausible and presented authoritatively. Bullshitters are always tempted to buttress the appearance of authority by including actual evidence rather than just their interpretation of the evidence, but this is often a fatal mistake. Below the fold I discuss a classic example from MAGA's campaign to demonize immigrants.

  • The Hill ☛ Jimmy Carter's leadership: A true example of Christian values

    Carter also made a point to not enrich himself before, during and after the presidency and instead devoted his life to building a better world. Six-figure speeches, consulting gigs, lobbyist work and playing kingmaker was of no interest to him. Instead, he built homes for Americans, worked for peace in the Middle East, contributed toward relief efforts during natural disasters, and worked to decrease humans suffering from disease, poverty, climate change and social inequality.

    Carter alienated evangelicals with his support of civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment and openness to other faiths in America. One could make the argument that the Christian right grew as a reaction to Carter’s liberal interpretation of Christianity. However, the driving force for everything Jimmy Carter did politically was based on a sermon he heard which asked, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

  • The Register UK ☛ AT&T, Verizon, Lumen confirm Salt Typhoon breach

    Following the intrusion, the White House emphasized the inadequacy of voluntary cybersecurity measures against nation-state threats. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched a public rule proposal requiring basic cybersecurity practices for telecom carriers. The commissioners are expected to vote on the rule by January 15.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ The Truth in Crisis: Navigating the Post-Truth Age

      In the heart of the post-truth era lies a fundamental shift in how people form their beliefs. Facts, once the cornerstone of informed decision-making, have become secondary to personal beliefs and emotions. The digital age has supercharged this transformation. Social media platforms, designed to engage and entertain, often prioritize sensationalism over truth. As algorithms prioritize content that triggers emotional reactions, misleading information spreads faster than ever before, creating echo chambers that reinforce what people already believe. In this environment, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between reliable information and dangerous falsehoods.

      The consequences of this shift are far-reaching. When truth becomes malleable, so does the trust people place in their institutions. The media, once viewed as the gatekeeper of objective reporting, has become an arena for political battles, with facts often taking a backseat to agendas. People no longer rely on traditional sources of information; instead, they turn to social media, where misinformation and disinformation run rampant. The result is a divided public, with opposing groups unable to agree on basic facts. Political polarization deepens as citizens begin to live in separate realities, each fortified by their preferred sources of news.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Case of HK man accused of sedition under Article 23 adjourned

    Chow, a former member of pro-democracy party League of Social Democrats, was arrested under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, better known in the city as Article 23, in November and has been held in custody since.

    He is the fourth person to be charged for sedition under the homegrown security law.

  • [Old] HRW ☛ How Zoom Violated its Own Terms of Service for Access to China's Market

    On Dec. 18, prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department charged a China-based Zoom executive with conspiring to terminate Zoom meetings this year that commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre at the Chinese government’s behest. The 47-page complaint contains detailed exchanges between the executive and employees at Zoom’s California headquarters this year.

    It was a fascinating read, not least because few global tech companies that do business in China have ever made public the details of their communications with Chinese authorities on censorship issues, despite repeated calls to do so from human rights organizations and United Nations experts.

    What the complaint reveals is Beijing’s aggressive pursuit of global censorship of topics deemed sensitive or critical of Beijing, and Zoom’s failure to adequately protect its users’ rights to free expression and privacy.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ ‘Christmas miracle’ saves small-town Nebraska newspapers

    Rod Worrell calls it a “Christmas miracle,” but just hours before he was ready to print the final edition of the Ainsworth Star-Journal on Dec. 25, a new owner emerged.

    Now both the Star-Journal and the Valentine Midland News, two weekly papers that Worrell and his wife Kathy had owned for more than 40 years, will not close.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ UN: Taliban ban on Afghan women in NGOs 'absolutely' wrong

    On reclaiming power in 2021, the Taliban said it would take a more moderate approach towards women than it had prior to the US removing it from power. But it has excluded women and girls from higher education, many jobs and public spaces and even forbidden public singing or poetry recitals. The European Court of Justice defines Afghan women as a persecuted group.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Taliban bans windows to stop women from being seen at home

    Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, ordered that buildings should not have windows looking into places where a woman could be sitting or standing.

    The order applies to both new buildings and existing ones, according to a four-clause decree posted on social media site X (formerly Twitter) late on Saturday.

  • New York Times ☛ Jimmy Carter Helped Habitat for Humanity Grow and Build Homes for Millions

    The sight of Mr. Carter, then 95, bandaged but undaunted, and his wife, Rosalynn, helping to screw together front porches that October underscored their importance as Habitat’s longtime public faces. As the group’s volunteers in chief, they deployed the prestige of the presidency to transform a small Georgia housing charity into a global builder with a $360 million annual budget.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Gwyneth Paltrow Questions Her Spotify Wrapped Results

    Music fans approach the year’s end with excitement, awaiting Spotify’s reveal of the top artists and songs that individual users have listened to over the past 12 months. But this year, the results saw music fans worldwide questioning the information presented to them, insisting the artists or music presented were not actually their top listens.

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ Accepting friction: listening without a streaming subscription (Part 1)

    We also like things we own better – but now we rent our music. As soon as we stop paying, it will disappear. Without any feeling of ownership over what we listen to, it becomes less meaningful. Music collections used to serve a social function, letting others understand how our tastes overlapped, the way bookshelves do – but curating a music library is no longer a meaningful social signal. Even when we get together, if everyone’s just putting on some playlist, it doesn’t represent them the way it used to. This shift began with the transition from physical media to digital, but has been entrenched by streaming.

    On-demand music changed the function it played in our lives. With endless, easy access to all-the-time music, we listened to it on our own more. We didn’t have to listen to whatever was on the radio or whatever CDs we owned – we could stream anything we wanted from our phones. Listening became more individualistic. Microgenres flourished – hyper-categorization played to Spotify’s benefit – so even if we saw what our friends were listening to, we wouldn’t know what it was. Most music doesn’t have a shared meaning anymore.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ ACE Wraps Up Transformative Year with a Fresh List of Pirate Site Targets

    Anti-piracy coalition ACE wraps up a transformative and successful year. Despite major shifts in leadership, the MPA-backed coalition of media companies secured key victories, including the high-profile takedown of the Fmovies piracy network. ACE also reported a number of other successes and has already set its sights on new 'pirate' targets for the coming year.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Anthropic Agrees to Maintain Copyright 'Guardrails'

    “Anthropic will maintain its already implemented Guardrails in its current AI models and product offerings. With respect to new large language models and new product offerings that are introduced in the future, Anthropic will apply Guardrails on text input and output in a manner consistent with its already-implemented Guardrails. Nothing herein prevents Anthropic from expanding, improving, optimizing, or changing the implementation of such Guardrails, provided that such changes do not materially diminish the efficacy of the Guardrails,” the agreement reads.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Hiltzik: Our ridiculously complex copyright laws

    He’s merely the most familiar cultural artifact to enter the public domain on Wednesday. But as Jennifer Jenkins, co-director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain notes in her indispensable annual roster of newly public works (posted this year with co-director James Boyle), Popeye’s initial appearance in print is among thousands of culturally and artistically significant works to become copyright-free. That means they become available for anyone to copy, share and expand upon without paying their creators for rights.

    This year’s treasure trove includes literary works originally published in 1929, meaning their 95-year copyrights expire on New Year’s Day. They include William Faulkner’s novel “The Sound and the Fury,” in which he began to perfect his literary style and his gloss on racial and social stratification in his native Mississippi; Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”; and Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own.”