Leftovers

• James G ☛ Making things happen

  The Internet Phone Book allowed me a chance to have an experience I never dreamed of: holding a big yellow book in one hand while, with the other, I try to type a domain name. While looking through the pages, I have my eyes out for the word “coffee”. I feel like I’m exploring. I’m looking for things in a new way. I’m not sure what I’ll find.

• Gregory Hammond ☛ Why I Left the Christian Church

  Churches and those who it employs over the years changes, and that’s usually a good thing, however I noticed starting with one person that services were becoming more like rock concerts. More lights, design of the stage, it all being louder, are just some of what looks like regular concerts. There were also religious-specific things that made it more like a concert, focused on taking photos and videos of those in the few front rows that usually have their hands raised.

  Aren’t services focused on God, not those in the audience, or on the stage?

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ After 50 successful years, the European Space Agency has some big challenges ahead

    [ESA] operates cutting edge spacecraft designed to monitor the Earth, as well as space telescopes that study the distant cosmos. It has launched robotic spacecraft to other planets and to objects such as comets. It is also involved in human spaceflight – training European astronauts to work on the International Space Station (ISS).

  • Niklas Oberhuber ☛ Estimating Logarithms - Niklas Oberhuber

    We note that due to the nature of the logarithm (always referring to base 10 from here one out), the logarithm of any number N is approximately equal to the number of digits of N minus one. This is quite easy to see when thinking about numbers between 100 and 1000 for example: [...]

  • Omicron Limited ☛ 'Intercrystals' pave the way for greener electronics and quantum technologies

    As described in a report in the science journal Nature Materials, the scientists stacked two ultrathin layers of graphene, each a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal grid. They twisted them slightly atop a layer of hexagonal boron nitride, a hexagonal crystal made of boron and nitrogen. A subtle misalignment between the layers that formed moiré patterns—patterns similar to those seen when two fine mesh screens are overlaid—significantly altered how electrons moved through the material, they found.

  • Quanta Magazine ☛ For Algorithms, a Little Memory Outweighs a Lot of Time

    Time and memory (also called space) are the two most fundamental resources in computation: Every algorithm takes some time to run, and requires some space to store data while it’s running. Until now, the only known algorithms for accomplishing certain tasks required an amount of space roughly proportional to their runtime, and researchers had long assumed there’s no way to do better. Williams’ proof established a mathematical procedure for transforming any algorithm — no matter what it does — into a form that uses much less space.

• Career/Education

  • Federal News Network ☛ Judge blocks Trump’s orders to dismantle the Education Department and fire employees

    The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.

    One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general.

  • Michigan News ☛ Ann Arbor teachers, parents call on district to keep performance spaces in school rebuilds

    However, teachers and other school community members said the lack of a fixed performance space couldn’t adequately be replaced with pop-up portable platforms.

    “It’s a significant downgrade from what we already have access to,” Ryan said.

  • LabX Media Group ☛ Open Science: An Antidote to Anti-Science

    Simply put, the US research enterprise is headed for irrevocable damage. Policies that undermine scientific infrastructure and talent represent a grave threat to US leadership in global science, innovation, and importantly, people’s trust in scientific research. These actions will also drive researchers to seek opportunities abroad, further diminishing the nation’s standing in the global scientific community. Indeed, the European Commission has recently launched the ‘Choose Europe for Science Program’ for 2025–2027, with more than $500 million in funding to attract scientists, primarily from the US, who are impacted by federal funding cuts.

  • Brendan Gregg ☛ 3 Years of Extremely Remote Work

    In the last 3 years I've attended 77 meetings that began between 1am and 6am, roughly once every two weeks, followed by my usual 7am start, Monday to Saturday. I'm working remotely from Australia for a US firm (Intel) who does not have a local office here. I'm not complaining. I work weird hours, but I don't think I work too many. I'm writing this post because there are some misconceptions and assumptions about the lives of remote workers, and I thought I'd share my own details as an anecdote, along with some tips for others in a similar situation (US job from Asia).

  • CS Monitor ☛ More states ban cellphones to help students focus in school

    “We protected our kids before from cigarettes, alcohol, and drunk driving, and now, we’re protecting them from addictive technology designed to hijack their attention,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announcing that as of September, public schools would be smartphone-free from “bell-to-bell.”

    The momentum coincides with survey results from April showing that almost 50% of teens think social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age. Educators have been among those who have asked politicians to consider bans.

• Hardware

  • Pete Brown ☛ Again I find myself thinking of Threads. And laundry.

    It feels like everything is now built around replace, not repair, but I can only imagine all of this is only going to get worse due to the US starting trade wars with every other country on the planet. We have all of this gear we depend on, and even the small portion that is manufactured domestically requires parts from all over the world.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Gretchen Whitmer’s big goal: A Michigan chip plant before she leaves office

    Hemlock Semiconductor, a major manufacturer near Midland, produces polysilicon, the raw material used to make semiconductors, but does not make the chips on its own.

    Another nearby company, South Korean firm SK Siltron, produces the wafers but does not forge microprocessors from them.

    Whitmer wants to land a firm that will finish the production in Michigan.

  • Lee Peterson ☛ Tools

    I’ve ditched the technology and gone back to tools that serve me when I have too much on. I will probably go back to technology when I realise again that I’ve forgotten an appointment or I’m at the shops and realise I left my list at home.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Harvard University ☛ Miracle drugs don’t come out of nowhere

    The world’s most significant medical therapies often spring from surprising sources.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Microplastics are 'silently spreading from soil to salad to humans'

    Both microplastics and nanoplastics have now been found in lettuce, wheat and carrot crops. This happens through various means, from plastic mulching, fertilizers and even through being dropped by clouds.

    This is particularly concerning when combined with findings of these plastics in the human lungs, brain, heart, blood, and even placenta.

  • The Washington Post ☛ AI chatbot output not free speech, judge says in wrongful-death case

    Sewell Setzer III, 14, died by suicide last year at his Orlando home, moments after an artificial intelligence chatbot encouraged him to “come home to me as soon as possible.” His mother, Megan Garcia, alleged in a lawsuit that Character.AI, the chatbot’s manufacturer, is responsible for his death.

  • El País ☛ The Luigi Mangione phenomenon: just another murderer or pop-culture Robin Hood?

    The “social bandit” merged with the “halo effect” — the cognitive bias that assigns positive traits based on physical appearance or first impressions — a tradition stretching from Bonnie and Clyde to Charles Manson. The $150,000 raised for his legal defense, prison warnings not to send him more letters, and graffiti reading “Free Luigi” are all evidence of this. Mangione had become a pop-culture Robin Hood.

  • Futurism ☛ The Microplastics in Your Brain May Be Causing Mental Health Issues

    Now, ominous data is starting to trickle in, with new research comprising four papers published in the journal Brain Medicine suggesting that microplastics could be contributing to rising rates of depression, dementia, and other mental health ailments across the globe.

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Guest Post - Public Access to the Endless Frontier

    Well, another very good read followed a few weeks later, in the form of an editorial by Mary Sue Coleman in Inside Higher Ed (Coleman is president emerita of the Association of American Universities, president emerita of the University of Michigan, and former president of the University of Iowa). On the heels of the NIH’s February 7 announcement of its intention to reduce indirect cost recovery to a flat rate of 15%, Coleman wrote eloquently about the nature of the partnership between federal agencies and US universities that indirect costs, however technical their jargon, enable and sustain. Succinct in her discussion of indirect mechanics, Coleman’s piece elevates the EF as symbol. We learn about a high-stakes Oval Office summons from FDR to Vannevar Bush, just as the Allies were liberating Europe. Following from Bush’s declaration that “we better do something damn quick,” the federal investment in science “put a man on the moon, ended polio in the U.S., blunted the scourge of AIDS, and put the world in the palm of our hands with the smart phone.”

• Proprietary

  • The Register UK ☛ VMware price hikes? 800-1,500%, claim Euro customers

    This is the according to the European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO), an independent body formed by customer organizations, and CISPE – a trade association of 37 cloud providers in the region – to monitor the behavior of software vendors accused of abusing their monopoly position.

  • Cyble Inc ☛ Russian GRU Hackers Targeting Logistics And Tech Firms

    Targets at the center of the campaign were freight operators, rail networks, air traffic systems, and cloud tech vendors—anyone with a role in getting military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Targets have included organizations in 14 countries, including IP cameras in Hungary, a Russian ally.

  • Deseret Media ☛ [Cracker] who breached communications app used by Trump aide stole government data

    While Reuters could not verify the entire contents of the TeleMessage trove, in more than half a dozen cases the news agency was able to establish that the phone numbers in the leaked data were correctly attributed to their owners. One of the intercepted texts' recipients — an applicant for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — confirmed to Reuters that the leaked message was authentic; a financial services firm whose messages were similarly intercepted also confirmed their authenticity.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • [Old] BBC ☛ Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images

      At first it looks real, but on closer inspection everyone's skin is a little too shiny and there are missing fingers on people's hands - some tell-tale signs of AI-created images.

    • The Strategist ☛ Trump brings AI, not democracy, to the Middle East

      The abrupt reversal of Biden-era restrictions on chip exports to the Gulf shows that Washington is adjusting to a rapidly shifting geopolitical and geoeconomic terrain. In this situation, the Gulf can leverage its capital and strategic positioning, potentially changing the trajectory of US pre-eminence in the region.

    • Truthdig ☛ Machine Learning MAGA: Rise of the Christian Cyborg

      The transhumanists, in contrast, are a rather different bunch. Their cohort is much smaller, represented by Silicon Valley elites like Elon Musk. Unlike the traditionalists, they don’t have an army of millions in MAGA, yet they wield an outsized influence within the Trump administration. They also tend to be nonreligious. Musk, for example, has been an “atheist icon” who says that we probably live in a computer simulation, though his views have evolved in recent years (more on that below).

    • International Business Times ☛ Teleperformance uses AI to 'Neutralise' Indian Accents to Help Reduce Miscommunication

      In a move that is stirring both interest and controversy, global call centre giant Teleperformance is deploying artificial intelligence to subtly alter the accents of its Indian customer service agents during live calls. The aim, the company says, is to improve clarity, boost empathy, and reduce misunderstandings between callers—particularly those based in Western countries.

    • Yordi Verkroost ☛ AI Shouldn’t Replace What We Love to Do

      Humans run marathons because they like the challenge. They don’t voluntarily run such distances just to get from A to B—that travel problem was solved long ago by horses, and later by trains and cars.

      Similarly, humans enjoy learning new things and applying that knowledge in their hobbies or work.

      In that respect, using AI to completely replace us in activities we actually enjoy doing ourselves might be the wrong direction to take.

    • Namanyay Goel ☛ AI Can’t Even Fix a Simple Bug — But Sure, Let’s Fire All Our Engineers

      The newly released GitHub Copilot agent was given permission to make pull requests on Microsoft’s .NET runtime, and the results couldn’t be funnier.

      The AI confidently submitted broken code, while human developers patiently explained why it didn’t work. Over and over again, for days.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ You can’t feed generative AI on ‘bad’ data then filter it for only ‘good’ data

      An LLM is a lossy compressor for text. The companies train LLMs on the whole internet in all its glory, plus whatever other text they can scrape up. It’s going to include bad ideas, dangerous ideas, and toxic waste — because the companies training the bots put all of that in, completely indiscriminately. And it’ll happily spit it back out again.

      There are “guard rails.” They don’t work.

    • Futurism ☛ It's Still Ludicrously Easy to Jailbreak the Strongest AI Models, and the Companies Don't Care

      You wouldn't use a chatbot for evil, would you? Of course not. But if you or some nefarious party wanted to force an AI model to start churning out a bunch of bad stuff it's not supposed to, it'd be surprisingly easy to do so.

    • 404 Media ☛ Civitai, Site Used to Generate AI Porn, Cut Off by Credit Card Processor

      Civitai, an AI model sharing site backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that 404 Media has repeatedly shown is being used to generate nonconsensual adult content, lost access to its credit card payment processor.

    • Becky Spratford ☛ RA for All: Just Say No to AI: How NOT To Do a Summer Reading Resource

      If they learn anything from this, it should be one, to make sure even those they outsource work to are not allowed to use AI, and two, it would be a whole lot easier if they paid real people that they know, from Chicago to create their bookish content.

    • The Independent UK ☛ In lawsuit over teen's death, judge rejects arguments that AI chatbots have free speech rights

      The judge's order will allow the wrongful death lawsuit to proceed, in what legal experts say is among the latest constitutional tests of artificial intelligence.

    • Digital Music News ☛ 'Samba Legend' Cleber Augusto Taps AI To Release New Album

      But it was Alexandre Marmita, said to share Augusto’s vocal tone, who acted as the chief “voice donor” here, per the major. That refers specifically to providing interpretations of songs in Augusto’s style.

      From there, AI “enhanced” these interpretations before bringing a depiction (trained on prior recordings, of course) of Augusto’s voice into the fold, Warner Music Brazil relayed. All told, Minhas Andanças features 13 re-recordings of existing tracks and one completely new effort.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Feds finger Russian 'Qakbot mastermind', 700k computers hit

      Uncle Sam on Thursday unsealed criminal charges and a civil forfeiture case against a Russian national accused of leading the cybercrime ring behind Qakbot, the notorious malware that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and helped fuel ransomware attacks costing victims tens of millions of dollars.

    • The Register UK ☛ Suspects behind DanaBot that hit 300K computers named

      There are two variants of DanaBot. One is available to rent – malware-as-a-service-style – via the dark web. It costs $1,000 a month; there are various packages rising to $4,000 that include the malware, support software, an API, a testing engine, and in-person tech support.

    • Krebs On Security ☛ Oops: DanaBot Malware Devs Infected Their Own PCs

      The U.S. government today unsealed criminal charges against 16 individuals accused of operating and selling DanaBot, a prolific strain of information-stealing malware that has been sold on Russian cybercrime forums since 2018. The FBI says a newer version of DanaBot was used for espionage, and that many of the defendants exposed their real-life identities after accidentally infecting their own systems with the malware.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Kettering Health Cyberattack Shuts Down Systems, Delays Care

      The cyberattack on Kettering Health has triggered a system-wide technology outage, affecting several critical patient care systems throughout Kettering Health’s network. As a result, elective inpatient and outpatient procedures scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, have been canceled. These procedures will be rescheduled at a later date, with more details to be shared as the situation evolves.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Purism ☛ How Big Tech Exploits Apps to Circumvent Privacy Laws & a Solution from Purism

      Technically, laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) apply to all personal data processing, regardless of whether a service is accessed via a URL or a mobile app.

    • The Register UK ☛ Russia to pass law to track migrants using their smartphone

      Those who fall within the scope of the new law will have to provide the state with details of their residence within Moscow, their fingerprints, biometric photography, and allow devices to be monitored via geolocation. They will also have to install a mobile application the state will specify.

    • The Record ☛ New Google program targeting children with AI chatbot may violate FTC privacy rules

      The tech giant recently sent emails to parents signed up for Family Link — which allows them to create Gmail accounts for their children and offers other special services — advising them that their children can engage with the chatbot on homework or in conversation to “create stories, songs, and poetry.”

      Children with parent-controlled Google accounts will be able to independently access the chatbot, according to an email to parents seen by Recorded Future News. The email said that Google will notify parents if their children do access the chatbot, allowing them to disable access at that point.

    • Cyble Inc ☛ Gemini AI For Kids? Google Under Fire From Privacy Watchdogs

      The issue came into the spotlight after Google sent emails to parents using Family Link, notifying them that their children could now access Gemini. The chatbot is available through web and mobile apps, and while parents have the option to disable access, the default setting allows use. This opt-out model, critics argue, bypasses an essential requirement of COPPA: verifiable parental consent.

      The backlash was instant and loud. A broad coalition led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Fairplay fired off letters to both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, demanding an immediate halt to the rollout. They called on the FTC to investigate whether Google has violated federal privacy law.

    • Sightline Media Group ☛ TSA trained to accept military IDs in lieu of REAL IDs, officials say

      As of May 7, individuals must show a REAL ID, or acceptable alternative, to board domestic commercial flights, visit military installations and access certain federal facilities. REAL ID driver’s licenses are identified by a star in the upper right-hand corner. DOD ID cards, including those issued to dependents, are among the forms of identification listed on the TSA website as acceptable alternatives to the REAL ID.

    • International Business Times ☛ 23andMe Sells DNA Database to Regeneron in £256m Deal: Is Your Data Safe?

      In a shocking deal, it was announced that Regeneron would acquire 23andMe for £256 million (roughly $330 million). The deal includes most of 23andMe's assets, notably its biobank of about 15 million genetic samples and associated data. The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after a data breach compromised millions of user profiles, exposing concerns about privacy and misuse.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Site36 ☛ Kurdish politician Yüksel Koç in German prison on PKK charges – while the party lays down its arms

  • The Strategist ☛ Learn from Finland: Australia doesn't assess its risks, isn't ready for them

    History teaches us that national preparedness is not only prudent; it is essential. Finland, a country with many similarities to Australia, has long understood this. Its total defence strategy integrates military and civilian preparedness, involving every sector of society in safeguarding the nation. As just one example, the Finnish government has sent to every household a checklist for preparing for incidents and crises that advises on how to prepare and cope in the event of war or other unexpected crises. Australia could learn much from Finland’s example, and there are real opportunities for collaboration between our countries to build stronger resilience and preparedness.

    So, what must Australia do?

  • RFA ☛ US lawmakers press hotel giants over ‘Taiwan, China’ label

    Rep. John Moolenar, Republican chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, wrote Wednesday to the CEOs of Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt, demanding to know whether they were using the term at Beijing’s request.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Space Force eyes commercial tech to fill low Earth orbit sensing gaps

    As more commercial and government satellites launch to LEO, the service has a growing need for visibility in the domain, which resides about 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface.

  • Truthdig ☛ The Hidden Provision That Would Make Trump King - Truthdig

    So what’s next? Will the Supreme Court and lower courts hold the administration in contempt and enforce contempt citations?

    Not if the Big Ugly Bill is enacted with the following provision, now hidden in the bill:

    “No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued …”

    Translated: No federal court may enforce a contempt citation.

  • Mike Brock ☛ Starving the Beast - by Mike Brock - Notes From The Circus

    Let's speak plainly about what we're witnessing. This is not a good-faith disagreement about tax policy or the proper size of government. It is a calculated strategy to manufacture the conditions under which programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and food assistance can be eliminated without facing the political consequences of directly attacking them.

    They call it “starving the beast”—an approach that has animated Republican fiscal policy for decades. The strategy is simple: pass massive tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, creating unsustainable deficits. Then, when the inevitable fiscal crisis arrives, declare with rehearsed solemnity that America "simply can't afford" its social safety net anymore.

    The evidence is not hidden. It's right there in plain sight.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Digital Fascism is Still Just Fascism

    But the most frightening part of this for the rest of the world is that his email account has been shut down by Microsoft, according to ICC staffers. This may seem like a small thing, especially in the list of other problems he’s facing. In fact, he opened an account with Switzerland-based Proton mail, and presumably got back to emailing people, at least the ones whose email addresses he could remember.

    What makes his account suspension so chilling, is what it implies, how it threatens much of the world. His suspension from a Microsoft email account wasn’t court ordered, nor did it legally need to be. Big Tech companies use click-though contracts on everything we use. What they give they can take away at any time, for the benefit of anyone they like, even if who they like is a big angry Cheeto president with tiny, tiny hands.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Sweden to charge jihadi over Jordanian pilot burned to death

    The 32-year-old Swedish citizen Osama K., originally from the city of Malmo, is suspected of helping in the execution of a captured Jordanian pilot while fighting for IS.

  • Privacy International ☛ PI statement during informal consultations on autonomous weapons systems in New York

    The Open informal consultations on lethal autonomous weapons systems, held in accordance with General Assembly resolution 79/62 at the UN in New York on 12-13 May 2025, examined various legal, humanitarian, security, technological, and ethical aspects of these weapons. These consultations aimed to broaden the scope of AWS discussions beyond those held by the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) at the UN in Geneva. Find out more about what happened during the discussions at Researching Critical Will's AWS Diplomacy Report, Vol. 2, No. 2

    PI's statement during the informal consultations in New York, 12-13 May 2025

  • Vox ☛ The 2015 Charles Murray book that foretold Trump’s power grab

    In May 2015, prominent right-wing intellectual Charles Murray published a book calling on the superrich to fund an American rebellion against their government.

  • Bruce Schneier ☛ The Voter Experience - Schneier on Security

    In software development, the concept of user experience (UX) is fundamental to the design of any product or service. It’s a way to think holistically about how a user interacts with technology. It ensures that products and services are built with the users’ actual needs, behaviors, and expectations in mind, as opposed to what developers think users want. UX enables informed decisions based on how the user will interact with the system, leading to improved design, more effective solutions, and increased user satisfaction. Good UX design results in easy, relevant, useful, positive experiences. Bad UX design leads to unhappy users.

    This is not how we normally think of elections. Campaigns measure success through short-term outputs—voter contacts, fundraising totals, issue polls, ad impressions—and, ultimately, election results. Rarely do they evaluate how individuals experience this as a singular, messy, democratic process. Each campaign, PAC, nonprofit, and volunteer group may be focused on their own goal, but the voter experiences it all at once. By the time they’re in line to vote, they’ve been hit with a flood of outreach—spammy texts from unfamiliar candidates, organizers with no local ties, clunky voter registration sites, conflicting information, and confusing messages, even from campaigns they support. Political teams can point to data that justifies this barrage, but the effectiveness of voter contact has been steadily declining since 2008. Intuitively, we know this approach has long-term costs. To address this, let’s evaluate the UX of an election cycle from the point of view of the end user, the everyday citizen.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Neil Young speaks up for Springsteen against Trump: ‘Think about cleaning up the mess you made’

    Neil Young has become the latest celebrity musician to back Bruce Springsteen in speaking out against the Trump administration, telling the president he should think about “saving America from the mess you made.”

  • Task And Purpose ☛ The Army wants to wage war differently. This unit is the guinea pig.

    The concept is being developed as the Army shifts its focus to fighting conventional wars in the 21st century. As the service changes the way it organizes its forces and prepares for the next big conflict, several units have been hand-selected as part of the service’s Transforming in Contact initiative, including the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team. Started by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in 2024, the plan centers around quickly fielding new tech to soldiers so they can give feedback on how it’s best used, before they’re in a situation where they have to rely on it.

• Environment

  • Techdirt ☛ Trump Admin Forcing African Countries To Embrace Elon Musk’s Starlink If They Want To Continue Receiving Lifesaving Aid

    That’s before you even get to the billions in additional subsidies Musk is poised to receive. Musk has particularly benefited the Trump administration’s relentless promotion of Starlink, Musk’s expensive, congestion-plagued, ozone layer destroying, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network.

  • CBC ☛ How prescribed burns can help ecosystems thrive

    The traditional and prescribed burns in High Park have gone on for two decades, named Biinaakzigewok Anishnaabeg by the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle that collaborates with the City of Toronto on the present-day rendition of what was a longstanding Indigenous practice.

  • EcoWatch ☛ Cultural Values on Indigenous Lands Help Forests Thrive at Nearly Twice the Rate of Protected Areas: Study

    The participatory mapping showed that when forest areas were considered culturally and spiritually significant, they tended to remain intact.

    “Many Indigenous communities integrate farming, spirituality and conservation in how they use the land,” Alejo explained. “Our findings show that this diverse set of values aligns with areas where forests have remained stable, suggesting a strong connection between cultural practices and long-term forest stewardship.”

    Sacred sites, areas with medicinal plants and traditional gathering and hunting grounds were spread throughout the forest, supporting sustainable use.

  • The Nation ☛ Warren Buffett Is a Climate-Wrecker

    Drawing on his decade of covering energy news for the LA Times and, previously, The Desert Sun, Roth reported that Abel began his career as a supporter of renewable energy. But as Abel rose through the ranks at Berkshire, he shifted to backing coal, the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive conventional fossil fuel.

  • Wouter Groeneveld ☛ Reducing Waste Is A Matter Of Changing Perspective

    What if you stack every sponge wasted in ten years? Then you would have built a spongy Pisa tower with a total height of about 3.60 metres. Oh yes, I just got up, grabbed a ruler, and went to the kitchen to measure the current already questionably clean sponge. I’m that thorough.

  • DeSmog ☛ REVEALED: Now There’s Proof That the Fossil Fuel Industry Uses Cultural Sponsorships to Block Climate Action

    For years, campaigners have warned cultural institutions against accepting oil money, arguing that sponsorships are a key weapon in the public relations arsenal the industry deploys to thwart climate action.

    Dozens of documents uncovered by a U.S. Congressional investigation appear to confirm those suspicions – demonstrating that API and oil giants BP, Shell, and Chevron have used sponsorships to allay public concerns over their role in the climate crisis while simultaneously lobbying against policies aimed at tackling it.

  • University of Michigan ☛ The Trump administration’s assault on environmental regulation is reckless

    These regulations are critical safeguards designed to protect the public from chronic disease and health complications associated with pollutant exposure in air and water. By stripping essential environmental regulation law, the Trump administration poses a significant threat to the nation’s health and undermines protections that affect all aspects of life.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Age AU ☛ Donald Trump and travel to the US: Is it still safe to fly United and travel in America?

      The Federal Aviation Administration has been trying to upgrade its network of staff and equipment for decades, while attracting more air traffic controllers. There are now 14,000 air traffic controllers in the US, nearly 2000 of them hired last year. However, that still leaves a shortfall of 3000.

    • Futurism ☛ How Much Electricity It Actually Takes to Use AI May Surprise You

      Video generation is where the sparks really start flying. The lowest-quality AI video software, a nine-month old version of Code Carbon, took an eye-watering 109,000 joules to spew out a low-quality, 8fps film — "more like a GIF than a video," the authors noted.

      Better models use a lot more. With a recent update, that same tool takes 3.4 million joules to spit out a five-second, 16fps video, equivalent to running a microwave for over an hour.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ Solar is on a freaking roll

      Rapid solar growth is helping the world meet growing electricity demand and avoiding the use of more expensive fossil fuels. Global solar generation is now large enough to power all of India. Without the 2,131 TWh that solar power provides, global fossil generation would be 12% higher than it is today. In 2024, generation from solar avoided an estimated 1,658 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) of emissions - equivalent to the United States’ power sector emissions.

    • The Register UK ☛ Europe escaping clutches of US hyperscalers near

      A recent report in Politico claims that the European Commission is set to admit this goal is unrealistic, a view that will be outlined in an International Digital Strategy for Europe, due to be published in early June.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Tamed Elephant Handed Over To Andhra Pradesh To Deal With Man-Elephant Conflict

      Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan thanked “Karnataka for just for this noble gesture but for standing with us for ecological brotherhood.”

  • Overpopulation

    • The North Lines IN ☛ Indus Water Treaty to be renegotiated: Govt sources

      Sources said that the government is of the mind to rework the treaty according to the needs and reality of the current times, unlike the original treaty which was engineered according to the 50s and the 60s era. It is important to renegotiate the treaty, keeping in mind the current climate change, melting of glaciers, amount of water available in rivers, increasing population and clean energy.

    • The Hindu ☛ Should water be used as a weapon? | Explained

      What does the Indus Waters Treaty provide for? How has it been able to withstand three major wars between India and Pakistan? How have disputes surrounding India’s hydropower projects been arbitrated? How have other countries dealt with cross-border river disputes?

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • India Times ☛ OnlyFans owner in talks to sell to investor group at about $8 billion value, sources say

    The London-based company has drawn interest from several suitors in recent months. Talks have been held at least since March, the people said. Three sources said a deal could be reached in the next week or two. The sources also cautioned that there was no certainty a deal will be struck and requested anonymity ahead of an official announcement.

  • Federal News Network ☛ After years of growth, DoD cyber workforce braces for reductions

    In recent years, DoD ramped up its use of direct hire authority to drive down vacancy rates for cyber positions from upwards of 25% to around 15% — A level that remains today, according to Patrick Johnson, director of the workforce innovation directorate under the DoD chief information officer.

  • India Times ☛ China's Lenovo reports 64% profit decline in fiscal Q4

    Lenovo launched its first AI-powered PCs in China last May and followed that with a global rollout in September. CEO Yang Yuanqing has projected that AI PCs will account for a quarter of Lenovo's shipments by 2025, potentially reaching 80% by 2027.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Gets Rattled by Hard Questions He Can't Answer, Calls Interviewer an "NPC" While Giving One-Word NPC-Like Responses Himself

    As such, the interview perfectly summarizes Musk's distorted worldview and disconnection from reality. Critics have long pointed out that the billionaire has surrounded himself with sycophants who rarely say no to him, meaning that he's increasingly started to crumble under pressure when faced with difficult questions.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Billy Long wants IRS to take ‘clues from private sector’ on IT modernization

    A 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that fewer than 3% of taxpayers use the IRS’s Free File, a program run by the tax agency and a consortium of tax preparation companies. The highly lucrative tax preparation industry has lobbied extensively for decades against the creation of free and easy government filing tools.

  • New Yorker ☛ Can Scam Altman Be Trusted with the Future? [Ed: Cannot even be trusted around his own sister, who sued him for sexual abuse.]

    The “original sin” of this arm of technology, Hao writes, lay in a decision by a Dartmouth mathematician named John McCarthy, in 1955, to coin the phrase “artificial intelligence” in the first place. “The term lends itself to casual anthropomorphizing and breathless exaggerations about the technology’s capabilities,” she observes. As evidence, she points to Frank Rosenblatt, a Cornell professor who, in the late fifties, devised a system that could distinguish between cards with a small square on the right versus the left. Rosenblatt promoted it as brain-like—on its way to sentience and self-replication—and these claims were picked up and broadcast by the New York Times. But a broader cultural hesitancy about the technology’s implications meant that, once OpenAI made its breakthrough, Altman—its C.E.O.—came to be seen not only as a fiduciary steward but also as an ethical one. The background question that began to bubble up around the Valley, Keach Hagey writes in “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future” (Norton), “first whispered, then murmured, then popping up in elaborate online essays from the company’s defectors: Can we trust this person to lead us to AGI?”

  • The Atlantic ☛ OpenAI’s Ambitions Just Became Crystal Clear

    Earlier today, OpenAI announced its intentions to solve this apparent problem. The company is partnering with Jony Ive, the longtime head of design at Apple, who did pioneering work on products such as the iMac G3, the iPod, and, most famously, the iPhone. Together, Altman and Ive say they want to create hardware built specifically for AI [sic] software. Everyone, Altman suggested in a highly produced announcement video, could soon have access to a “team of geniuses”—presumably, ChatGPT-style assistants—on a “family of devices.” Such technology “deserves something much better” than today’s laptops, he argued. What that will look like, exactly, he didn’t say, and OpenAI declined my request for comment. But the firm will pay roughly $5 billion to acquire Io, Ive’s start-up, to figure that “something much better” out as Ive takes on “deep design and creative responsibilities” across OpenAI. (Emerson Collective, the majority owner of The Atlantic, is an investor in both Io and OpenAI. And OpenAI entered a corporate partnership with The Atlantic last year.)

  • Axios ☛ Apple vet Jony Ive joins OpenAI in $6.5 billion deal for his hardware startup [Ed: No real money changes hands here.]

    Ive's LoveFrom design consultancy will remain independent.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Zambian Observer ☛ Trump shows Congo images as ‘proof’ of white genocide in South Africa

      However, according to sources, some of the images shown was misrepresented. The photo, purported to show burial sites of white farmers, was in fact taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It depicted Red Cross workers handling body bags following a mass prison break in Goma, where numerous women were reportedly raped and burned alive.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ Trump’s evidence of South Africa ‘white genocide’ contains images from Democratic Republic of Congo

      The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

      The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

    • El País ☛ People with problematic social media use are more prone to believe in misinformation

      Problematic social media use measures a person’s dependence on social media and reflects a potential behavioral addiction disorder, says Dar Meshi, a researcher at Michigan State University and co-author of the article. This problematic use includes a variety of behaviors: constant preoccupation with social media, mood swings due to their use, a need for rewards in the form of likes or comments, real-life conflicts, or withdrawal symptoms.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • India Times ☛ Microsoft filters emails containing ‘Palestine,’ ‘Gaza,’ and ‘genocide’ amid employee protests

    Microsoft has reportedly started restricting internal emails containing certain terms, preventing them from being sent to both internal and external recipients. According to a report by The Verge, the terms “Palestine,” “Gaza,” and “genocide” are among those being filtered.

  • Court House News ☛ Trump administration revokes Harvard’s ability to enroll international students

    Harvard can regain its ability to enroll in international students if it agrees to turn over a heap of records on foreign students within the next three days.

    Noem is demanding any and all records from the past five years of nonimmigrant students engaging in illegal activity, “dangerous or violent” activity, or threatening activity. She is also seeking “any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student at Harvard University” in the same window.

  • Harvard University ☛ Trump Admin Revokes Harvard’s Authorization To Enroll International Students

    The revocation would prevent Harvard from enrolling any international students on F- or J- nonimmigrant visas for the 2025-2026 academic year. Harvard currently hosts more than 6,000 international students, many of whom attend on F-1 or J-1 visas.

    The announcement comes just one week before thousands of international students at Harvard are set to graduate.

  • CNN ☛ Harvard University barred from enrolling international students by Trump administration

    The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, delivering a sharp punishment to the elite institution for refusing to bow to the administration’s policy demands.

    “Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

  • Time ☛ Harvard Barred From Enrolling Foreign Students. What to Know

    Roughly 27% of Harvard’s student body—about 6,800 students—come from outside the United States, a number that has grown steadily in the past decade, according to university enrollment data. Many of those students pay full tuition, contributing significantly to the university’s nearly $6 billion annual budget.

  • CNN ☛ What’s at stake for Harvard and its foreign students after DHS barred it from enrolling them

    Harvard was the first academic institution to rebuke key policy changes the Trump administration has demanded of elite US universities. The university has called the DHS action to bar the university from enrolling international students “unlawful” and says it’s working “to quickly provide guidance and support to members of our community.”

    Here are some of the answers to key questions about how the decision could impact Harvard: [...]

  • Reuters ☛ Trump administration blocks Harvard from enrolling foreign students, threatens broader crackdown

    The decision marked a significant escalation of the Trump administration's campaign against the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump's most prominent institutional targets. The move came after Harvard refused to provide information that Noem demanded about some foreign student visa holders at Harvard, the department said.

  • CBC ☛ Trump administration revokes Harvard's ability to enrol international students

    "We are being used as poker chips right now in a battle between the White House and Harvard," Gerdén, who is in his final year of studies at the university, told CBC News.

  • RFI ☛ US govt revokes Harvard's right to enroll foreign students

    Trump is furious at Harvard -- which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners -- for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and "woke" liberal ideology.

    The loss of such a large proportion of the student body could prove to be a huge financial blow to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Harvard vs Trump: How losing international students could crush universities

    Harvard called the move illegal. “The government’s action is unlawful. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University – and this nation – immeasurably.”

  • Harvard University ☛ Government Revokes Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students | Harvard Magazine

    Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said, “The government’s action is unlawful. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University—and this nation—immeasurably. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

  • CS Monitor ☛ Harvard community stands united and proud in wake of Trump funding cuts

    The donation amounts number in the millions and can’t match dollar for dollar with the billions pulled by the federal government. But Harvard community members say their actions have additional benefits. “We think that Harvard can be an example for other schools. We took a strong stand for safeguarding the school’s independence and that certainly has spread to other universities,” says Eric Maskin, Nobel Prize-winning economist and tenured faculty member.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ US blocks Harvard from enrolling foreign students

    The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday that it revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students.

    Trump has expressed his anger over Harvard's rejection of his demand that it submit to admissions and hiring oversight after he alleged the university was a center of antisemitism and "woke" ideology.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Georgia jails opposition leader amid crackdown on dissent

    A court in Georgia on Thursday put opposition leader Zurab Japaridze in pre-trial detention.

    The move comes as the government looks to crack down on its critics, following huge protests last year.

  • Garry Kasparov ☛ Facing My Would-Be Assassins

    The Islamic Republic of Iran has been after my head for years, hoping to silence me with intimidation, harassment, and now, murder. I have long been a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic. As the founder of the "My Stealthy Freedom" campaign against compulsory hijab, my calls for Iranian women to reject forced veiling drew the ire of the regime. I was seen as challenging the very foundation of the regime's control over its people.

  • Futurism ☛ Judge Slaps Down Attempt to Throw Out Lawsuit Claiming AI Caused a 14-Year-Old’s Suicide

    But this argument didn't quite cut it, the judge ruled, at least not in this early stage. In her opinion, presiding US district judge Anne Conway said the companies failed to sufficiently show that AI-generated outputs produced by large language models (LLMs) are more than simply words — as opposed to speech, which hinges on intent.

    The defendants "fail to articulate," Conway wrote in her ruling, "why words strung together by an LLM are speech."

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Relatives of Exiled Pussy Riot Members Targeted in Police Searches

    An investigator reportedly told Alyokhina’s mother that the search of her home was related to her daughter’s anti-war music video. Police also raided the home of Alyokhina’s father, who the exiled news website Mediazona said is seriously ill and unable to walk.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • [Old] Chicago Sun Times ☛ Chicago Sun-Times to lose 20% of staff after buyout offer - Chicago Sun-Times

    The departures consist mostly of writers and editors — many with decades of experience. The cuts are the most drastic the oft-imperiled Sun-Times has faced in several years and will bring about recognizable changes to its content, although top leaders said the buyouts ensure there will be no layoffs in the near future.

  • RFA ☛ Hong Kong journalists face tax audits in latest pressure on independent media

    The association expressed concern that this could further reduce the operating space for small-scale and independent news outlets in a city once known for its freewheeling media. It called for the revenue department to stop audits without clear justification and to publicly explain the rationale for what it sees as a potentially coordinated crackdown on independent journalism.

  • JURIST ☛ RSF calls on South Korea presidential candidates to commit to press freedom

    Against this backdrop, RSF issued a series of urgent recommendations to restore and safeguard press freedom in South Korea. These include ending discriminatory treatment of public media outlets like the public broadcaster Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and reinstating regular presidential press briefings. RSF also urges South Korea to repeal or amend criminal defamation laws, which are often used to punish journalists even when they report the truth, if their reporting is perceived as harmful, depending on the context. The organization calls for stronger protections against harassment and online threats, greater transparency in media regulation to prevent politically motivated censorship, and increased public funding for independent media to reduce political influence.

  • CPJ ☛ Turkish journalist Öznur Değer’s terrorism trial opens for her reports on PKK

    “The prosecution of Öznur Değer is yet another example of the witch hunt against critical journalists in Turkey. Reporting on sensitive issues does not equate with promoting violence,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should quickly free Değer, drop the charge against her, and put an end to such vindictive prosecutions.”

  • CPJ ☛ US press freedom groups launch Journalist Assistance Network to address growing need for legal, safety, immigration resources 

    “Journalists and newsrooms from across the country are increasingly concerned about a raft of measures and actions that threaten press freedom in the United States,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “We hope this network will make it easier for individuals and media organizations to locate advice and assistance.”

  • Press Gazette ☛ Facebook restrictions on news pages is 'attack on local journalism'

    Restrictions hitting local news pages on Facebook have been described as “an attack on local journalism”.

    Iliffe Media’s Kent Online was the latest site affected, spending a week with its presence in the Facebook news feed “restricted”.

    Kent Online saw referral traffic from Facebook down by about 48% week on week as a result.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Future of Media Awards 2025 are open for entries

    The awards recognise the best podcasts, apps, newsletters, video journalism, websites and examples of cutting-edge digital storytelling.

  • RFERL ☛ RFE/RL Journalist Alleges Torture, Fabricated Charges Amid Azerbaijan's Media Crackdown

    Mehralizada is one of seven journalists on trial for what they say are trumped up charges. Prosecutors also asked for 12-year sentences for Ulvi Hasanli, the director of the AbzasMedia independent news agency, and journalist Hafiz Babali.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ EU eyes action over Hungary's planned Russian-style law

    The bill is labeled "Transparency of Public Life” and the government says it is aimed at protecting Hungary's sovereignty from outside interference. But activists say it mimics Russia's foreign agent law and would similarly offer the Hungarian government sweeping powers to crack down on the press and critical voices in civil society.

  • Futurism ☛ Journalists at Chicago Newspaper "Deeply Disturbed" That "Disaster" AI Slop Was Printed Alongside Their Real Work

    "Our members go to great lengths to build trust with our sources and communities and are horrified by this slop syndication."

  • The Nation ☛ We Can’t Afford to Let the Fourth Estate Topple

    For all the deserved criticism of the American media, it remains one of the strongest pillars propping up what’s left of democracy in a time that’s been anything but good for the First Amendment.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Local DK ☛ Denmark formally raises retirement age to 70 in 2040

    People born after December 31st 1970 will have to work one year longer than those born before that date before becoming eligible for the state pension, after the plan to gradually raise the retirement age was passed by parliament on Thursday.

    The age of eligibility for Denmark’s state pension or folkepension is currently 67, but is already set to rise gradually. It will increase to 68 in 2030 and to 69 in 2035.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Denied parking over Hindi, Google techie says English should be India’s mandatory language

    He claimed that getting the language row out of the way can help people focus on real societal issues like “infrastructure, employment and job, education, research and innovation, cleanliness,” and more.

  • Michigan News ☛ Tribes say the U.S. misappropriated funds to pay for Native American boarding schools

    “The United States Government, the trustee over Native children’s education and these funds, has never accounted for the funds that it took, or detailed how, or even whether, those funds were ultimately expended. It has failed to identify any funds that remain,” according to the lawsuit.

    The lawsuit was filed against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education. A spokesperson for the Interior declined to comment on pending litigation.

  • Vox ☛ Forget “no tax on tips.” Abolish the subminimum wage.

    In short, the policy incentivizes businesses to lower workers’ wages and make them rely more on tips. But that’s exactly the opposite of what workers — and tipped workers in particular — need.

  • Wired ☛ 3 Teens Almost Got Away With Murder. Then Police Found Their Google Searches

    Meanwhile, another case—in which a keyword-search warrant was used to identify a serial rapist—is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If the warrant is upheld, as it was in Colorado, their use could accelerate nationwide. “Keyword warrants are dangerous tools tailor-made for political repression,” says Crocker. It’s easy to envision Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requesting a list of everyone who searched “immigration lawyer” in a given area, for instance.

  • Adriaan Roselli ☛ My Request to Google on Accessibility

    Please, if your team cannot explain how the thing satisfies all WCAG Success Criteria at Level AA, then don’t release the thing.

    If the thing is a new feature for the web platform (HTML, CSS, ARIA, SVG, etc.), then don’t even propose the thing until you have its WCAG conformance sorted.

  • RFERL ☛ Afghan Female Athletes Flee Taliban Only To Face New Hurdles In Pakistan

    Many fled to neighboring Pakistan, hoping for better opportunities and the ability to practice their sport, but all they've found are more problems.

  • Futurism ☛ CEO Who Bragged About Replacing Human Workers With AI Realizes He Made a Terrible Mistake

    However, while it could be easy to see Klarna as the canary in the coal mine for the AI industry as a whole, its rapidly mounting losses involve other factors as well. As the FT points out, many of the company's American customers are failing to repay their buy-now-pay-later loans.

  • CNBC ☛ Klarna doubles losses in first quarter as IPO remains on hold

    Klarna said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million, significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Alabama Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled officials fear federal cuts

    Without grants from IMLS, Napier said, the ALBPD would disappear.

    “Which means all of this goes away,” Napier said in an interview after the meeting, gesturing to long rows of shelves that have books in braille and audiobook tapes.

  • Vox ☛ Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos love Iain M. Banks’s Culture series

    The most avowed Culture fan among the broligarchs, however, is Musk. Musk has named Space X drone ships after the starships in the Culture books. His original name for the neuralink — a computer chip that can be implanted in human brains, pioneered by his neurotechnology company — was the neural lace, a piece of telepathic technology that Banks came up with in the Culture books. In 2018, Musk declared himself “a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks.” (It’s worth noting that in 2018, Musk was under fire for union busting but had not yet waded so far into national politics or declared public war against the “woke mind virus.”)

  • YLE ☛ Supreme Administrative Court: Food couriers are employees, not entrepreneurs

    According to the Supreme Administrative Court ruling, which now sets a precedent, couriers have been subordinate to the company, with the result that their independence was in part only illusory and masked a genuine employment relationship.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • ARRL ☛ JUST IN: Amateur Spectrum Addressed in US House Reconciliation Bill

    ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® reports that early this morning, May 22, 2025, the US House of Representatives passed a massive Reconciliation bill with the below spectrum provisions relevant to Amateur Radio.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ FCC looking to expand anti-robocalling initiative 

    While testifying before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Carr faced questions from multiple lawmakers about how the agency was progressing on efforts to reduce the number of robocalls Americans receive every day.

    Carr called the problem “exceptionally frustrating” and noted that robocalling is “probably the number one issue” he hears about from consumers.

  • Inside Towers ☛ Carr Tells House Committee Its Vital to Restore FCC’s Spectrum Auction Authority

    FCC Chair Brendan Carr began his testimony to members of a House Appropriations subcommittee yesterday with changes his agency has undertaken since January. He highlighted steps taken to “unleash” high-speed infrastructure builds.

    “We have done so by making it easier for providers to retire aging, copper-line networks and invest resources into fast, modern ones instead. We also clarified that tower construction projects could proceed without going through additional and onerous review processes,” he said during the FCC oversight hearing.

  • Techdirt ☛ States Forced To Kill Millions In Rural Broadband Investment After Trump Illegally Kills The Digital Equity Act… Simply For Having The Word ‘Equity’ In It

    Uniformly helping people access the internet: how utterly, diabolically woke! And how “populist” of King Trump to illegally end a beneficial law passed by Congress.

    South Dakota Rep. Erik Muckey doesn’t mince words in explaining how the Trump administration has no idea what they’re destroying: [...]

  • Inside Towers ☛ FCC Releases Internet Access Services Report

    As of June 2024, about 94 percent of homes and businesses in the U.S. had access to broadband through at least one provider, according to a new report from the FCC. The agency released its Internet Access Services Report. It summarizes data submitted by ISPs on connections and availability. The number is consistent with internet access reports from last year. The agency produces the reports twice a year.

    Total connections increased by about 2.5 percent between June 2023 and June 2024, to 549 million. Mobile connections increased 2.5 percent year-over-year to 416 million in June 2024, while fixed connections grew to 133 million – up about 2.3 percent from June 2023.

  • RIPE ☛ Forecasting Cloud Performance with RIPE Atlas

    Given the variety of cloud services utilised, we find that users, service providers, and infrastructure providers would strongly benefit from being able to predict network performance between the end users and the cloud providers. Motivated by this, we carried out a measurement campaign to answer these specific questions when it comes to providing a cloud service: [...]

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Register UK ☛ Signal shuts the blinds on Microsoft Recall with the power of DRM [Ed: Only a half-measure as Windows is a keylogger. Signal should just tell people to delete Windows. But then again, many other things suggest that Signal isn't the solution; it makes it harder to spy, but it targets devices which have back doors, its server side is "code dump" at best, and it makes demands that expose too much about users.]

    Chat app biz Signal is unhappy with the current version of Microsoft Recall and has invoked some Digital Rights Management (DRM) functionality in Windows to stop the tool from snapshotting private conversations.

    Recall, which is not enabled by default, lacks granularity in how it captures its screenshots. While it will ignore incognito-mode browser windows, everything else is fair game. Signal prides itself on chat privacy and sees automatic screenshot capture of message windows as unacceptable.

    In the absence of settings that developers can use to curb Microsoft's eye on the desktop, Signal has turned to DRM. Setting a DRM flag on an application window means Recall (and any other screenshotter) will ignore it.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Michał Sapka ☛ There are not good big tech companies left

  What can we do? Never, ever buy from the big companies. Not a single dollar from my hands should fall in the hands of Altmans, Nadellas and so on. Download their software, look for alternatives, make fun on people who do. All of that is fine. But I will gladly pay anyone who is small and does their thing, hoping that they will know when enough is enough.

• 9to5Mac ☛ Fortnite returns to the US App Store for iPhone and iPad

  Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store in August 2020 after Epic Games added a backdoor payment method to the game to circumvent Apple’s In-App Purchase system. Epic’s US Apple Developer account was also banned at this time. A multi-year legal battle then ensued between the two companies, with an initial ruling announced in September 2021. Both Epic and Apple appealed that ruling.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • RTL ☛ Melania Trump uses AI vocal replica to narrate audiobook

      US First Lady Melania Trump warned recently of the danger of AI deepfakes. Now she is releasing an audiobook narrated by an artificial intelligence-generated version of her own voice.

    • Digital Music News ☛ No Fakes Act Draws Music, Film Support Ahead of Senate Hearing

      “This diverse coalition of artists, actors and creatives who know the importance of protecting these individual qualities as well as the support from leaders in both political parties on Capitol Hill, highlights how vital the NO FAKES Act is to preventing AI-generated deepfakes and fraud from exploiting who we are,” Human Artistry Campaign senior advisor Moiya McTier added in part.

    • India Times ☛ Fortnite's Darth Vader is AI-powered. Voice actors are rebelling.

      A few years before Jones died, he agreed to let AI learn from archival recordings of his vocal performance, and his estate has publicly supported the actor's presence in Fortnite. But the new collaboration has been contentious because of a larger battle over AI that has led actors to strike against video game companies for more than nine months.

• Copyrights

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ Understanding Copyright in Music (Part III): Copyright Infringement

    It is not necessary that the entire musical work or sound recording be copied for an infringement of the reproduction right to occur, nor that the copying be literal. All that is necessary is that the copying be substantial and material and that protected expression is copied. Likewise, the similarity between the two works must also be a similarity of protected elements, not unprotected elements. For example, in music, this means that copying of common musical ideas like chord progressions or basic scales will not qualify as copyright infringement, but copying of more unique melodies might.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Chili's Moves to Settle Beastie Boys, UMG Copyright Lawsuits

    Shifting to Universal Music’s comparatively sweeping action – alleging the infringement of a variety of recordings and compositions – a separate May 7th mediation also brought about a settlement in principle. Like in the Beastie Boys v. Brinker’s battle, the major and the Chili’s operator plan to put the finishing touches on the resolution by July 7th.

  • Reuters ☛ US Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing

    The lawsuit said that Perlmutter's firing came a day after the office released a report on the high-stakes intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law. The office said in the report that technology companies' use of copyrighted works to train AI may not always be protected under U.S. law. Tech companies including OpenAI and Meta Platforms have told the office that being forced to pay copyright holders for their content could cripple the burgeoning U.S. AI industry.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ YouTube Processed 2.2 Billion Content ID Copyright Claims in 2024

    To protect copyright holders, YouTube regularly removes, disables, or demonetizes videos that contain allegedly infringing content.

    For years, little was known about the scope of these copyright claims. That changed three years ago when the streaming platform published its first-ever transparency report.

    The report showed that roughly 99% of all copyright claims on YouTube are handled through the Content ID system. Since many claims are automated, without human intervention, access is restricted to a few thousand vetted rightsholders.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Live Sports Piracy: France 'Contained' Illegal IPTV & Illicit Streaming in 2024

    Telecoms regulator Arcom has published a new report on the illicit streaming of sports content in France. In 2024, 18% of French citizens accessed sports content illegally, a figure unchanged from the previous year. Arcom notifications led to the blocking of 3,800 domains, with the Paris court adding over 400 in the same period. Concerns over pirate IPTV uptake will likely persist after 41% of users admitted that their new hobby is less than a year old.