Techrights

Links 27/08/2024: Gannett Caught With Slop, Shuts Down Site

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 28, 2024

GNOME bluefish

Contents

=> https://techrights.org/#m2814143109 HTTPS: Defence/Aggression

=> https://techrights.org/#m2814143115 HTTPS: Finance

Leftovers

Jason Velazquez ☛ Raw dog the open web!

Monoculture is winning. The Fortune 500 has shrink-wrapped our zeitgeist and we are suffocating culturally.

But, we can fight back by bookmarking a web page or sharing a piece of art unsanctioned by our For Your Page. To do that we must get out there and raw dog that open web.

In our current digital landscape, where a corporate algorithm tells us what to read, watch, drink, eat, wear, smell like, and sound like, human curation of the web is an act of revolution. A simple list of hyperlinks published under a personal domain name is subversive.

Lou Plummer ☛ What Do You Do for Fun

Oh, and writing. This has been a fun post. I blog a lot because it's fun. I've never thought of myself as an artist. I still don't, but I love to create something out of nothing, whether it be a photograph, a poem, or an essay. My mom calls them columns. I just call it Monday evening at the keyboard. Whatever you do today, try to have some fun.

Andrea Contino ☛ The unperfect Blogger

For those who might have noticed, which I imagine are few, and those who have still decided to read me, I have started posting in English lately.

I've done this for a very simple reason. By now, all the blogs and bloggers I read and want to engage with are written in English. Even, and especially, by Italians.

Science

Interesting Engineering ☛ Junk science and injustice: How flawed forensics trap the innocent

What is junk science? Junk science is a term used to describe theories or methods that are presented as scientifically valid, despite lacking adequate research or evidence to substantiate them.

After his initial meeting with Steven Mark Chaney, Fabricant found himself in his rental car, parked outside the Huntsville prison.

As he reflected on the extraordinary visit, he began jotting down notes, realizing the potential for a broader narrative. His thoughts turned to his experiences with the Innocence Project and the critical issue at hand: how junk science had led to the unjust imprisonment of individuals like Chaney. This moment would serve as the catalyst for exploring the far-reaching consequences of flawed forensic practices in the American criminal justice system.

The Register UK ☛ Helen Fisher, MRI maven who showed how love works, dies

The FTI is now seen as a far more effective personality test than the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator still in common use. Unlike the Myers-Briggs test, the FTI was backed up by evidential testing – again using fMRI. In 2010 Dr Fisher co-founded the start-up Neurocolor to apply the technique to the business world.

Los Angeles Times ☛ Caltech, long a bastion of male students, enrolls first class of majority women

In a milestone breakthrough, more than half of Caltech’s incoming undergraduate class this fall will be women for the first time in its 133-year history. The class of 113 women and 109 men comes 50 years after Caltech graduated its first class of undergraduate women, who were admitted in 1970.

Education

Robert Birming ☛ Dare to Fail

The actual road towards success is the most important teacher in life. It's only then, when we let go and throw ourselves out there, that we’re on the right track, no matter how long or short that track may be. There are no shortcuts.

Daniel Miessler ☛ We've Been Lied To About Work

So work tends to be a series of disappointments for most people, punctuated by a few rays of light.

I was curious about how many people felt this way—not wanting to do a full essay on just my own opinions, and found this from Gallup about the quiet quitting phenomenon.

Chris Nager ☛ Design engineering

This post is my perspective on, and appreciation for, design engineering. I’ll explain why design engineering is an important role and what the expectations may be for a design engineer.

Chris ☛ Why Story Points Don't Work

If there are no concrete steps we can take where the end result is an objective judgment of whether a statement was correct or not, we have not been sufficiently reality-based. We cannot learn from non-reality-based hypotheses.

Josh Austin ☛ A Manifesto for Radical Simplicity

In a world where complexity often reigns, we choose a different path. We believe that simplicity is not just a design principle—it’s a way of life. Radical Simplicity is about cutting through the noise, focusing on what truly matters, and delivering results that are effective and efficient. Here’s how we live by it:

Hardware

The Register UK ☛ Thailand approves Western Digital's hard disk expansion plan

An announcement from the Thai Board of Investment (BOI) revealed that Western Digital's ฿23 billion ($675 million) plan to expand its facilities in the provinces of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya and Prachin Buri has got the go-ahead.

The Register UK ☛ IBM details upcoming chips to support AI on mainframes

Announced at the Hot Chips 2024 conference in Palo Alto, the Telum II processor is expected to bring significant performance improvements to the mainframe, according to Big Blue. The company also gave a preview of the Spyre AI Accelerator, and said it expects both chips to be available with next-generation IBM Z systems coming in the first half of 2025.

Olimex ☛ Tools for SMT production: magnetic support, solder paste dispenser, Samsung pick and place nozzle filters and nozzles

Reuters ☛ Intel board member quit after differences over chipmaker's revival plan

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

El País ☛ A quarter of coma patients still have some form of consciousness

An international team of scientists has just published a study with 241 patients in various hospitals and has concluded that one in four have some degree of consciousness. The work, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is an effort to answer an anguishing question for those people who have a loved one in such a condition: do they hear me when I speak to them? Do they know that we are here? These patients sometimes regain consciousness, but often remain in a coma for years or even decades. “There is a very distressing question for families, which is whether they should turn off life support,” says Morgado.

Tracy Durnell ☛ The globalization of attention

I like this framing — that attention has been globalized. What he’s really getting at is the harm of demanding that everything scale. The corporate imperative to scale has infiltrated our understanding of success, till we cannot imagine success without scale.

Chinlock Holdings LLC ☛ I didn't even make it a week

I couldn’t even make it out of the mall before retreating to the comfort of my iPhone.

Mark Hysted ☛ oh no, glasses | mark hysted

It has finally happened. I didn’t quite get to 50 years old and I’m having to wear glasses for reading and screen work as my eyes have finally given in to the onslaught of endless hours of email and teams meetings.

Michał Sapka ☛ Microdosing Google Youtube

I’d love to be able to simply rely on the few channels I subscribe to (I even have them in my RSS reader). But the pull of “hey, maybe I will find something interesting now” is too strong.

If I’d break my Google Youtube addiction, my relation with the internet would be much healther. I may even like it again! I just don’t want to put out my damn phone in front of my kid. YT is the easiest thing to fill 5 mintutes of empty time. But it sucks your soul in the process.

The Hill ☛ Pesticide may be contributing to wild bee population decline

While there are many reasons for the global bee population downswing, the surging application of two specific pesticides has been particularly influential in these dynamics, according to the study, published Tuesday in Nature Sustainability.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Verge ☛ Gannett is shuttering site accused of publishing AI product reviews - The Verge

Staff at Reviewed, the consumer product reviews site owned by Gannett, previously accused the company of publishing articles written using AI tools.

The Hindu ☛ Job cuts at Microsoft...

Recently, Intel announced massive job cuts for 15,000 employees accounting for 15% of its workforce in the beginning of August due to weak results

[...]

In January, Microsoft fired 2,000 employees from its gaming unit, sometime after it acquired Activision Blizzard. A second round of layoffs followed in June when Microsoft cut around 1,000 jobs in the tech giant’s cloud business Azure and the HoloLens mixed reality segment.

Then in July, a third round of layoffs were announced in product and programme management roles to streamline organisational processes further. While the company didn’t confirm the number of people who were fired, the layoffs seemed to affect people globally.

Team behind Lego 2K Drive suffers layoffs

This is the second layoff for Visual Concepts in a year's time, as Sept. 23 also saw a round of layoffs. It's a trying time in our industry, to put it mildly. More than 9,000 jobs have been lost in the past six months, with Microsoft alone laying off more than 2000 employees. Gaming media have not been immune either. I recently wrote about the horrendous closing of Game Informer, GameStop's in-house gaming publication.

Bryan Lunduke ☛ Is A.I. Programming Really the Future?

Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google & everyone else says Artificial Intelligence is the future. Is my anti-AI stance reasonable?

Futurism ☛ AI Appears to Be Slowly Killing Itself

As Aatish Bhatia writes for The New York Times, a growing pile of research shows that training generative AI models on AI-generated content causes models to erode. In short, training on AI content causes a flattening cycle similar to inbreeding; the AI researcher Jathan Sadowski last year dubbed the phenomenon as "Habsburg AI," a reference to Europe's famously inbred royal family.

And per the NYT, the rising tide of AI content on the web might make it much more difficult to avoid this flattening effect.

Logikal Solutions ☛ Flatpak Can't Print or Attach Files

Limited file access is the real humiliating kick to the crotch. Everybody has a NAS (Network Attached Storage) of some kind today. We have multiple computers that need to share files and “the cloud” is completely insecure. If you don’t believe that statement ask yourself this:

What is safer? A set of drives attached to my network with all Internet access turned off or a “cloud service” by big named cloud service provider that every hacker in the world is trying to penetrate?

Question to ask

Cyble Inc ☛ Uber Fined 290 Million Euros By Dutch Data Regulator

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has imposed a massive fine of 290 million euros on ride-hailing giant Uber, after it was found lacking adequate safeguards for the transfer of personal data of European taxi drivers to the United State, marking the third time the Dutch DPA has taken action against Uber.

The Hindu ☛ Auto drivers’ society mulls AI-based queue system

The society, which has a membership of over 5,000 autorickshaw drivers, is a conclave of auto-driver unions in the district. “The unique AI-based prepaid auto-queue system will initially cater to 100 autorickshaws. There is no app involved. It will streamline operations at the stand, ensure equal opportunities for drivers, and match auto availability based on commuters’ demand,” said Binu Varghese, a director board member of the society.

Futurism ☛ Did AI Already Peak and Now It’s Getting Dumber?

If you think AI platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT seem dumber than before, you aren't alone.

Computer World ☛ I’ve got the genAI blues

Indeed, all too often, the end result is annoying and obnoxiously wrong. Worse still, it’s erratically wrong. If I could count on its answers being mediocre, but reasonably accurate, I could work around it. I can’t.

India Times ☛ French judge extends police custody for Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

A statement from the Paris prosecutor's office said Durov's police custody order was extended on Monday evening for up to 48 hours. After that, authorities must release or charge him, the prosecutor's office said in an earlier statement.

New York Times ☛ The [Cryptocurrency] Industry Loudly Defends Telegram’s Pavel Durov

The wave of support for Mr. Durov was a reflection of the multitrillion-dollar [cryptocurrency] industry’s heavy reliance on Telegram. For years, it has been the chat app of choice for [cryptocurrency] entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, including prominent figures like Justin Sun, the founder of the [cryptocurrency] platform Tron.

New York Times ☛ How Pavel Durov, Telegram’s Founder, Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man

Thirteen years later, Mr. Durov’s anti-establishment streak appears to have gotten him into a fresh round of trouble with the authorities. On Saturday, he was arrested in France as part of an investigation into criminal activity on Telegram, the online communications tool he founded in 2013, which had grown into a global platform defined by its hands-off approach to policing how users behaved.

The Verge ☛ Why the Telegram CEO’s arrest is such a big deal

All of this puts Telegram in a unique position. It’s not taking a significantly active role in preventing use of its platforms by criminals, the way most big public social networks do. But it’s not disavowing its role as a moderator, either, the way a truly private platform could. “Because Telegram does have this access, it puts a target on Durov for governmental attention in a way that would not be true if it really were an encrypted messenger,” said Scott-Railton.

Casey Newton ☛ How Telegram played itself

Many important details about the case remain secret, and most sources I spoke with declined to comment on the charges before evidence is made public.

But to anyone who has followed Telegram’s story over the past few years, the events of the past few days have appeared to be increasingly unavoidable.

France24 ☛ Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested over probe into cybercrime on app, French prosecutors say

Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested as part of an investigation into drug trafficking, child sexual abuse materials and fraudulent transactions on the popular messaging app, French prosecutors said Monday. French authorities later extended Durov's detention until Wednesday, a source close to the case told AFP.

VOA News ☛ Telegram boss to stay in French custody as Russia alleges US meddling

The messaging platform, which analysts have described as a virtual battlefield, has been heavily used by both sides of the war in Ukraine and war-related news and propaganda channels around the globe.

Futurism ☛ Warrant Against Telegram CEO Linked to Crimes Against Minors

Given the already hotly debated subject of content moderation and whether social media companies should be held responsible for what their users post, it'll be a fascinating story to watch unfold.

The Guardian UK ☛ What the Telegram founder’s arrest means for the regulation of social media firms

In this week’s newsletter: Pavel Durov’s detention by French authorities is a major break from the norm – but his low-moderation, non-encrypted app is an anomaly

404 Media ☛ 1 in 10 Minors Say Their Friends Use AI to Generate Nudes of Other Kids, Survey Finds

We’ve long known that AI tools were commonly used among minors and that nudify apps in particular, which can take a photograph of anyone and use AI to make them appear nude, have spread chaos and panic through several schools across the country, but the Thorn survey, conducted in partnership with research firm BSG, is one of the first attempts we’ve seen to measure the scope of the problem.

JURIST ☛ France president: Telegram CEO arrested following judicial inquiry, not for political motives

Telegram posted in support of its president and CEO on Sunday claiming that Durov has “nothing to hide” and that the messenger platform abides by the laws of EU, including the Digital Services Act. The platform’s moderation is “withing industry standards and is constantly improving,” the post read, refuting the allegation on Telegram’s inadequate moderation standards by the French authorities.

New York Times ☛ Telegram Turmoil Threatens Chronicle of Russia’s War in Ukraine

One in two Russian citizens use Telegram today, either to obtain information [sic] or to communicate with others, up from about 38 percent at the start of the war, according to the Levada Center, an independent Russian pollster.

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

The Register UK ☛ Dutch officials fine Uber €290M for GDPR violations

The Dutch DPA said that the investigation that led to the fine began after complaints from a group of more than 170 French Uber drivers who alleged their data was being sent to the US without adequate protection. Because Uber's European operations are based in the Netherlands, enforcement for GDPR violations fell to the Dutch DPA.

Unfortunately for Uber, it already has an extensive history with the Dutch DPA, which has fined the outfit twice before.

Wired ☛ Struggling to Unlock Your Phone? You Might Have Lost Your Fingerprints

The absence of these identifying marks—which can be the result of excessive typing, manual work, chemotherapy, or sports—is becoming more of an issue in the age of biometrics.

Defence/Aggression

Deutsche Welle ☛ Solingen knife attack heats up German election campaign

The Washington Post ☛ Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy

Though there is no evidence that the new inroads are aimed at anything other than gathering intelligence, some of the techniques and resources employed are associated with those used in the past year by a China-backed group known as Volt Typhoon, two of the people said. U.S. intelligence officials said that group sought access to equipment at Pacific ports and other infrastructure to enable China to sow panic and disrupt America’s ability to move troops, weaponry and supplies to Taiwan if armed conflict breaks out.

CS Monitor ☛ Boko Haram child soldiers face challenges reintegrating

“Growing up with them, I thought I was fighting for a greater cause,” he says of his time with the group, whose goal is to create a fundamentalist Islamic state. Gradually though, the life of fighting and hiding began to wear him down.

VOA News ☛ At least 100 people killed in central Burkina Faso in latest jihadi attack

At least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by al-Qaida-linked jihadis, according to videos of the violence analyzed by a regional specialist, who's described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation.

BIA Net ☛ Turkey’s aid agency supports Taliban media with equipment

The handover of the equipment took place during a ceremony to celebrate the 104th anniversary of the Ittifaq-i Islam newspaper, one of the oldest publications in the country. In addition to this outlet, Afghanistan’s state-run Bakhtar News Agency and the TV unit of the Information and Culture Ministry will benefit from Turkey’s assistance.

New York Times ☛ At UMichigan, Pro-Palestinian Protesters Shut Down Student Government

Pro-Palestinian protesters won council elections, and have refused to fund campus groups, like the men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, unless their divestment demands are met.

USMC ☛ Marine Corps infantry’s secret weapon: A $9.95 unofficial website

The site dates to 1998, when McBreen, then attached to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, was tasked with distributing standard operating procedures being developed to fight and train. When a sergeant suggested posting the document to the “World Wide Web,” McBreen took it upon himself to create a place to host it.

“I didn’t do anything for a couple of years,” McBreen said. “And my wife said, ‘Hey, we’re still paying $9.95 a month to this web hosting company. And so I got on – you know, once every six months, I would look and see how it’s doing. And there were thousands of downloads.”

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

Latvia ☛ Latvian and Lithuanian Foreign Ministers speak at EU's eastern border

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Baiba Braže, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, visited the Lithuanian-Belarusian border crossing point at Adutiškis, August 26 and held a joint press conference, which you can watch below.

Meduza ☛ ‘Someone who refuses to cooperate with the FSB can’t be a hero’: Why Russian officials aren’t losing sleep over Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest — Meduza

ADF ☛ With Bear Brigade, Russia Boosts Brutal Sahel Footprint

Russia has added more armed men to its Sahel operations, this time in the form of the Bear Brigade, which has operated in Burkina Faso since May. Experts say the Bear Brigade is among an estimated 300 Russian security operatives in Burkina Faso, which includes members of Russian military intelligence, the GRU. >

New York Times ☛ Top Biden Aide Visits China to Reinforce U.S. Strategy

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will raise thorny issues like Taiwan and Russia with only months left before a new administration takes office.

RFERL ☛ Telegram CEO's Detention In France Extended As Moscow Cries Foul

The detention of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born co-founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has been extended by a French investigative judge until August 28 as Moscow expressed outrage over what it said appeared to be "a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication."

RFERL ☛ U.S. Imposes Sanctions On 6 Companies Implicated In Report By RFE/RL's Schemes

A list of individuals and companies added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s sanctions list last week as a result of the help they provided Moscow in obtaining electronic components includes four Russian and two European companies that had been implicated in an investigative report by Schemes

RFERL ☛ Georgian President Calls October Polls A 'Choice Between Europe And Russia'

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has called the upcoming parliamentary elections a "choice between Europe and Russia" for the South Caucasus nation.

RFERL ☛ Germany Buries 1 Millionth War Dead In Lithuania Under '92 Pact Signed With Russia

The German War Graves Commission held a ceremony on August 27 in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas to mark the 1 millionth German war dead reburied since the end of the Cold War.

France24 ☛ Russia warns France against trying to 'intimidate' detained Telegram founder Pavel Durov

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has suggested the French government is trying to intimidate Russian-born Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging app Telegram, who was arrested outside of Paris on Saturday for 12 alleged crimes related to drug trafficking, the sale of child sexual abuse material and fraud on the messaging platform. Durov will be held in police custody in Paris for a further 48 hours, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

France24 ☛ Free speech and ‘homeland’: Moscow's ‘opportunistic’ response to Telegram boss Durov’s arrest

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said relations with France are at their “lowest” level following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov at an airport outside Paris on Saturday. The arrest has prompted a stream of condemnations from those in power in Russia – even though the Kremlin itself tried to ban Telegram in 2018.

Defence Web ☛ Russian flags waved during Nigeria protests: why it’s a cause for concern

The #EndBadGovernance protest in Nigeria from 1 August to 10 August took a rather unexpected dimension when some protesters in Kano and Kaduna states, both in the country’s north-west region, were seen waving and sharing Russian flags on the streets.

The Kent Stater ☛ A Russian Elon Musk with 100 biological children: Meet Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov is a lot of things to a lot of people. Programming prodigy. Billionaire entrepreneur. Kremlin stooge. Free-speech fighter. Biological father to at least 100 kids.

New York Times ☛ Russia Bombards Ukraine, Killing at Least 2

The bombardment that began on Monday could have additional significance, coming three weeks after the Ukrainian military’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

New York Times ☛ In Eastern Ukraine, Terrifying Bombardment and Near Total Destruction

Powerful guided “glide bombs” have helped Russia raze entire towns with ever greater speed. “When you drive into a ruined town, it’s like hopelessness,” one soldier said.

RFERL ☛ Several Killed, Missing After Russian Strike On Ukraine Hotel

At least 4 people were killed while several others were either wounded or missing on August 27 in a second massive drone and missile Russian attack on Ukraine in as many days that included a strike on a hotel in Kryviy Rih, in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Sentences Ukrainian Ex-Envoy To Kazakhstan In Absentia

The Basmanny district court in Russia sentenced former Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Petro Vrublevskiy in absentia to six years in prison on August 26 on a charge of inciting ethnic hatred.

RFERL ☛ UN Nuclear Chief Visits Russia's Kursk Atomic Plant Near Front Line

UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived on August 27 at the Kursk nuclear power plant, which Moscow says has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces.

RFERL ☛ Ukraine Attempting Incursion In Belgorod, Russian Regional Governor Says

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor or Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, says the situation is "difficult but under control" in the area amid an attempted incursion by Ukrainian troops.

RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Says Kyiv Test-Fired Its First Ukraine-Made Ballistic Missile

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv has conducted its first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile as Russia unleashed a second day of deadly strikes on across Ukraine.

RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Minister Defends Russian Singers During Independence Day

Kyrgyz Culture Minister Altynbek Maksutov in a televised interview on August 27 defended the participation of Russian entertainers who have openly supported Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine in celebrations of Kyrgyzstan's upcoming Independence Day.

Press Gazette ☛ Journalists under attack in Ukraine: Reuters security adviser killed and journalists injured

A round-up of journalists' lives lost, and others injured, while reporting from Ukraine.

LRT ☛ ‘Career on a silver platter’. The future of Lithuania’s Landsbergis

Gabrielius Landsbergis was catapulted onto the world stage when he became the foreign minister of Lithuania at the time of regional upheaval – the Belarus crisis in 2020, followed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But despite his voice hitting the right chords internationally, he made few friends at home.

JURIST ☛ EU dispatch: a freed Russian political prisoner speaks out in Berlin

Mykyta Vorobiov, Senior Editor for Long Form Content at JURIST, is a Ukrainian-born political analyst, journalist, and political science student at Bard College, Berlin.

France24 ☛ ‘Better than nothing’: Air raid shelters built in Russia’s Kursk, annexed Crimea

Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has demonstrated Kyiv’s ability to strike deep into enemy territory and bring the war to the doorstep of ordinary Russians. Now, Russia is building concrete bomb shelters on the streets of the city of Kursk as well as in annexed Crimea as it seeks to mitigate the heightened threat of attack.

France24 ☛ Ukraine’s army chief says forces still advancing in Russia’s Kursk region

Ukraine's top commander on Tuesday said that Kyiv's forces were still advancing in Russia's Kursk region, but warned that Moscow was building up its forces on the eastern Pokrovsk front to try to cut off Ukraine’s supply lines to the front. General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Tuesday that Kyiv’s troops have gained control of nearly 1,300 square kilometers in the region since their surprise incursion three weeks ago. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.

Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine ratifies Rome Statute but must address concerns over ICC jurisdiction

The Ukrainian Parliament recently ratified the Rome Statute to become a member state of the International Criminal court but concerns remain over future ICC jurisdiction in Ukraine, writes Celeste Kmiotek.

PHR ☛ New Policy Brief: How to Improve Documentation and Support Survivors of Torture and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine

Increasing numbers of survivors of torture and sexual violence inflicted by Russian forces in Ukraine need further support from Ukrainian authorities to improve how the country’s justice system documents crimes and supports survivors, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today.

Latvia ☛ Charity concert Wednesday to support Ukrainian and Latvian school pupils

The "Tavi Draugi' ("Your Friends") association will be hosting a charity concert on Wednesday, August 28, from from 18.00 to 22.00 to raise funds for Latvian and Ukrainian students.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

[Repeat] Security Week ☛ Georgia Tech Sued Over Alleged False Cybersecurity Reports to Win DoD Contracts

In 2022, two whistleblowers, Christopher Craig and Kyle Koza, previously senior members of the defendants’ cybersecurity compliance team, sued Georgia Tech under the False Claims Act, for submitting false summary level scores to help win DoD contracts.

Environment

EcoWatch ☛ Prozac Contamination in Water Is Changing Fish Behaviors, Study Finds

In a new study, scientists have confirmed that even low concentrations of the antidepressant pharmaceutical fluoxetine, also known by the brand name of Prozac, are affecting fish behaviors in the wild.

YLE ☛ Frozen north no more: Hotter summers set Lapland ablaze

This fire was one of 17 that have broken out this summer in Finnish Lapland's Inari region. According to Timo Nyholm, Duty Fire Officer at the Lapland Rescue Department, Inari sees about 10 wildfires in an average fire season over the summer months and this year the total is expected to pass 20.

A lack of precipitation has dried out the soil and the vegetation around Lake Inari making the terrain highly susceptible to fires, prompting wildfire warnings from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) covering much of the summer.

Energy/Transportation

DeSmog ☛ Baltimore Lawsuit Alleges Shale Investments by BlackRock, Fidelity, Others Fueled Shale Price Fixing Scheme

DeSmog ☛ Anti-Net Zero Reform MP Owns Green Tech Company

PC Mag ☛ These Kids Love Their Electric School Bus, But Some Adults Want to Pump the Brakes

"The first one we got was a no-brainer," says Superintendent Daniel Pacos. "But when we got $7.9 million in grant money to get 20 more, that’s when the concerns started coming out. People wanted to give the money back, like they heard other districts were doing, for political reasons."

Why would they oppose electric buses? Are they really that different than gas-powered ones? I boarded an electric bus to ask the people who ride one every day: The kids.

EducationWeek ☛ Why Some Districts Rejected Cash to Buy Electric Buses—And Others Want More

Electric buses on average cost roughly $350,000, several times more than the cost of a traditional diesel bus. Long-term costs for electric buses are typically lower, because they don’t depend on costly diesel fuel. But some districts don’t have the cash to shell out upfront.

Hakai Magazine ☛ Safety and Seaplanes

Floatplanes are ubiquitous on the coast and indispensable for remote communities, but they don’t need to follow the same regulations and reporting as commercial airlines. How do you keep pilots and passengers safe?

Futurism ☛ Burglar Discovers You Can “Peel” Cybertruck and Access the Inside

A clever car burglar broke into a vacant Cybertruck by popping one of the windows ajar and then peeling it wide open, which should alarm any owner of the Tesla vehicle, which has been marketed for its shatter-proof glass and tank-like exterior.

Los Angeles Times ☛ Police brushed him off. So he exposed an international bike theft ring on his own

Bike Index now registers the descriptions and serial numbers of about 1.3 million bikes worldwide. But when Hance started the site in 2013, it was a simpler era of theft. Back then, it was mostly a crime of opportunity: Single bikes would disappear from garages or street corners, taken by petty thieves usually wielding nothing more than bolt cutters. Hance’s site allowed police to reunite bikes with their owners if they were found or discarded. And it allowed buyers who cared about such things to do their due diligence to make sure they weren’t buying a stolen bike.

Wildlife/Nature

MIT Technology Review ☛ How a butterfly’s scales are born

Using a special microscopic technique to peer through an opening they created in the chrysalis itself, the team continuously imaged individual scales as they grew out from the wing’s membrane during a crucial time window in the butterfly’s development. These images reveal for the first time how a scale’s initially smooth surface begins to wrinkle to form microscopic, parallel undulations like the ridges in corduroy. The ripple-like structures eventually grow into more finely patterned ridges, which make many functions of the adult wing scales possible.

Finance

Yahoo News ☛ StanChart cutting about 20 jobs in Singapore, London in revamp of lender’s M&A team

Standard Chartered Plc is cutting about 20 jobs across places like London and Singapore as the lender restructures its mergers and acquisitions team by absorbing bankers focused on industry coverage, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The London-headquartered bank is also redeploying some of its industry expertise into financing teams or coverage, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is confidential. The aim is to provide more M&A capability as well as reduce overlaps, they said.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

FAIR ☛ Breaking News Alerts Keep Public Posted on Trivia and Trump

Much like the front page, breaking-news newsletters demonstrate which stories news outlets think deserve the most attention. It’s important real estate: By pushing these stories to readers, they influence the way we think about the world, even what in the world we should be thinking about. Even if readers don’t click through, just seeing the headlines can shape our perceptions. And, as a new FAIR study has found, those headlines often feed into predictable patterns that parrot official narratives, and prioritize clicks over well-informed citizens.

[Repeat] Silicon Angle ☛ Luca Maestri to step down as Apple CFO next year

Maestri (pictured) won’t depart the company completely. Instead, he will take on the role of head of Apple’s corporate services team, where he’ll be tasked with leading “information systems and technology, information security and real estate and development.”

Federal News Network ☛ First cohort of Air Force IT, cyber warrant officers to graduate in December

The service announced its plans to bring back warrant officers within the cyber and information technology professions earlier this year as part of its sweeping set of efforts to reshape the service’s force structure.

Competition for the 78 warrant officer slots turned out to be fierce — the service received over 400 applicants when it opened the application process for the program in May.

Security Week ☛ Cisco to Acquire AI Security Firm Robust Intelligence

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Robust Intelligence announced funding rounds totaling $44 million between 2019 and 2021, and Cisco now says it has also invested in the company.

Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ China's economy is in real trouble

PDD’s warning stunned investors because the company was long viewed as the main beneficiary of a Chinese “consumer downgrade” — its low-pricing strategy on Pinduoduo domestically and Temu abroad was intended to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers at a time of unprecedented economic volatility.

US News And World Report ☛ Sweden's Klarna Says AI Chatbots Help Shrink Headcount

"About 12 months ago, we would have been about 5,000 active positions within the company, and we are now down to about 3,800," CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in an interview, adding that almost all of the reduction had been achieved through attrition, not layoffs.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

The Register UK ☛ Microsoft Bing Copilot blames reporter for crimes he covered

Martin Bernklau, who has served for years as a court reporter in the area around Tübingen for various publications, asked Microsoft Bing Copilot about himself. He found that Microsoft's AI chatbot had blamed him for crimes he had covered.

MIT Technology Review ☛ A tool that lets users fight misinformation online

Users click a button to open a side panel where they label content as accurate or inaccurate or question its accuracy, and they can identify other sources whose assessments are trustworthy. Then, when the user visits a website that contains assessments from these sources, the side panel automatically pops up to show them. The extension also checks all links on the page a user is reading. If trusted sources have assessed content on any linked pages, the extension indicates as much and fades the links to content deemed inaccurate.

The Hill ☛ X's Grok AI chatbot updated after election falsehoods

The social platform X has updated its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok after five secretaries of state warned earlier this month that it was spreading false information about the election.

Censorship/Free Speech

Bryan Lunduke ☛ Zuck Regrets Censoring Facebook at Request of Democrats

"The White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire."

The Guardian UK ☛ Calls to close ‘vile’ website ranking countries by tourist deaths on balconies

Responding to the news of Ramsay’s death on social media, a group calling itself the Balearics Federation of Balconing appeared to celebrate what it termed the “comeback” of British tourists on its ongoing rankings of deaths and injuries resulting from balcony falls on the Balearic islands.

VOA News ☛ Iran's Khamenei urges government to impose cyberspace controls

Iranians have over the years grown accustomed to using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade the restrictions.

CPJ ☛ Turkish court orders social media accounts blocked despite ruling that banned police ‘virtual patrolling’

The list of accounts CPJ reviewed included those of politicians, activists and individuals from various countries. As of August 27, some of those accounts were not accessible from inside Turkey, while others were suspended or deleted. The accounts of Amberin Zaman, chief correspondent for the independent news website Al Monitor; Deniz Tekin, a correspondent for the local media freedom group MLSA in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır; and the pro-Kurdish daily Yeni Yaşam were accessible despite being included on the court list. The account of Öznur Değer, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news site JİNNEWS, was inaccessible.

BIA Net ☛ Turkish court orders block on X accounts of well-known politicians, journalists

A court has ordered a block on 82 X accounts including those of well-known politicians and journalists, Free Web Turkey reports. The decision had been disclosed earlier, but its full extent has now been revealed.

India Times ☛ Malaysia tech firms: Tech firms must comply with Malaysia's laws, minister says amid backlash over social media licensing plan

The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) - whose members include Google, Meta and X - had made the call in an open letter to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, citing a lack of clarity over the proposed regulations.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the government was ready to discuss the proposed regulations with the AIC and other industry groups but had no plans to delay their implementation, aimed at tackling rising cybercrime.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

VOA News ☛ Female journalist silenced on air apparently in compliance with Taliban morality law

A Taliban-controlled state broadcaster in Afghanistan silenced a female journalist and her image during a live media event Tuesday, apparently in compliance with the radical rulers’ recently enacted morality law that bans women from speaking or showing their faces in public.

Officials of the de facto Taliban interior ministry organized a news conference in Kabul to share their annual performance before taking questions from around 10 journalists, including a woman.

BIA Net ☛ ‘Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming a dangerous place for journalists’

Two international press organizations have condemned a recent drone strike in the Kurdistan region of Iraq that resulted in the deaths of two journalists.

The Guardian UK ☛ ‘Being on camera is no longer sensible’: persecuted Venezuelan journalists turn to AI

In daily broadcasts, the AI-created newsreaders have been telling the world about the president’s post-election crackdown on opponents, activists and the media, without putting the reporters behind the stories at risk.

Press Gazette ☛ Highbury closure: 60-year-old journalism training centre ends

The closure of the 28-week NCTJ-accredited newspaper journalism course at Highbury Campus, part of the City of Portsmouth College, comes six months after the closure of the Centre for Journalism at the University of Kent.

But the closure does not appear to be part of a wider decline in journalism education but rather due to the changing landscape of the sector with more degree-level courses on offer.

Civil Rights/Policing

Papers Please ☛ 100,000 passport applicants have gotten the long form

More than 100,000 US citizens — almost ten times as many as the State Department had projected — have been required to complete one or both of two impossible “long form” supplements to their applications for US passports, according to records we received this month in response to a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request we filed in 2011.

[Numbers of passport applicants sent each of the two version of the long form passport application each year since 2014, as reported to us this month by the State Department in response to our 2011 FOIA request.]

Back in 2011, the State Department proposed an outrageous long form to be sent to some subset of applicants for US passports. The form includes a bizarre list of questions which most applicants would be unable to answer.

Site36 ☛ Frontex should no longer hand over refugees to Libya: Lawyers act against the transfer of location data

Because Frontex also informs the Libyan Coast Guard about boats that are not in distress at sea, refugees are taking action against this practice at the EU. Frontex defames this as “publicity”. Two weeks ago, Frontex confirmed that the number of people seeking protection and asylum crossing the Mediterranean to Europe is falling drastically.

Hamilton Nolan ☛ Companies Stronger Than Governments - by Hamilton Nolan

And how about getting a contract negotiated for the Staten Island Amazon warehouse that already voted to unionize? That vote was in April of 2022. Amazon challenged it on every stupid legal ground. They lost that challenge at the NLRB in January of 2023. But! Then they proceed into federal court, to relitigate every last bullshit point of it. Potentially, one day, all of the legal maneuvering will be exhausted, and a judge will order Amazon to bargain a contract, as they are legally required to, and at that point, Amazon will stall until the union drags it back into court once again. And in the meantime Amazon is challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB itself, willing to bring down the entire post-New Deal social order if that’s what it takes to not have a single union contract in its company. While all of this is playing out, many or most of the people who were working in the warehouse and voted to unionize in the first place will move on to other jobs. If the union succeeds in the gargantuan task of organizing another warehouse—during which time Amazon will blithely lie to and retaliate against and fire workers illegally, because penalties for doing so are so weak that it makes sense for the company to break labor law—then this entire legal process will start over again at the new warehouse. Repeat that a hundred times or so, and you’re really getting somewhere!

I say this not to denigrate the importance of what the union has done at Amazon; on the contrary, it is one of the most important battles in the entire labor movement. I say it instead to try to lend some perspective to the scale of the playing field that this battle needs to take place upon. Global capitalism is a beast. Often, the discussion of companies becoming too powerful happens through an antitrust lens, with the focus on market power that is used to squeeze the public. But looking at it through the lens of labor, I think, makes it easier to grasp. “Market power” is an abstract term, but most of us have known some version of working in a shitty job for an enormous company with policies that suck and looking around one day and thinking, “Holy hell, how the fuck would I change this machine even if I wanted to?”

Vice Media Group ☛ Cops Are Using AI to Write Police Reports

We know that AI sometimes makes stuff up. Does it do that worse than cops already do? Certainly, being a bad writer doesn’t mean that you’d somehow be a good editor.

BIA Net ☛ Diyarbakır cafes faced with Islamist attacks over alcohol sale, women's clothing

The cafe’s operator, Bahoz Damlayıcı, expressed his frustration, telling the media, “Just an hour ago, I informed you that these individuals attacked us in front of dozens of police officers, and now they have been released. If anything happens to us, those who allowed their release are responsible.”

Damlayıcı explained that the threats began in May, with the situation deteriorating to violence in July. He also highlighted the attackers' ability to return freely to the scene of the crime despite their previous actions. "We don’t understand how these people, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ could just walk back into this street. If anything happens to us, they are to blame. We demand our safety be ensured and warn that these attacks on our lifestyle could soon threaten everyone in Diyarbakır. I call on everyone to stand in solidarity with us.”

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

[Old] Stanford University ☛ It's Groundhog Day at the European Commission

For the past two years, the European Commission has been pushing to radically change the internet and telecommunications market in the EU in order to benefit Europe’s largest telecom companies at the expense of innovation, net neutrality, and low broadband prices.

Zimbabwe ☛ Starlink Targeting 1 September Launch In Zimbabwe

Starlink is targeting a 1 September launch of services in Zimbabwe, Techzim is informed. Contacts in touch with insiders at Starlink tell us the company is in preparation to go live in just a week from now.

Strangely, the telecoms regulator in Zimbabwe, Potraz, maintains that Starlink’s application to operate in the country has not been approved.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

The Register UK ☛ Cognizant alleges Infosys swiped its trade secrets

Cognizant's subsidiary and healthcare software provider, TriZetto, claimed [PDF] Infosys unlawfully accessed and misused its confidential information after having access to it under seven Non-Disclosure and Access Agreements (NDAAs) that were framed to allow Infosys employees to complete work for mutual clients.

International Business Times ☛ Is This Why Your Rent Is Skyrocketing? DOJ And 8 US States Sue RealPage For Alleged Price-Fixing Scheme

US housing rents have jumped 19% to an average of $1,712 since 2019. While the rent increase was the least, at 1%, in the past year, renewed demand from renters could mount further upward pressure on rental pricing as new homes hit the tight real estate market. Furthermore, many potential first-time homebuyers are choosing to rent as record-high property prices and mortgage rates remain unaffordable. The ongoing unspooling of pandemic-era housing arrangements is also driving rental demand and prices. While there are several reasons for rents rising, new-age real estate tech companies have recently come under the scanner for possibly inflating rents in collusion with landlords.

Scheerpost ☛ ‘Corporate Greed at Its Absolute Worst’: FTC Challenges Kroger Merger

The trial, kicking off in a U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, centers on a claim by the FTC along with eight states and the District of Colombia that the merger would reduce industry competition—creating “a straight-up monopoly” in small communities like Gunnison, Colorado where 6,000 residents “would have to drive 65 miles to reach a non-Kroger supermarket,” according to AELP.

FTC Chair Lina Khan is also opposing the merger because it would weaken unionized workers’ bargaining power, particularly in parts of the country where dozens of Kroger and Albertsons stores are located near each other.

Copyrights

US News And World Report ☛ ‘ER’ Creator Michael Crichton’s Estate Sues Warner Bros. Over New Hospital Drama ‘The Pitt’

The estate of Michael Crichton, who wrote the screenplay for what became the pilot episode of “ER,” has sued Warner Bros. Television over a dispute about an upcoming medical drama they say is a rebranded version of an unauthorized reboot.

Los Angeles Times ☛ Michael Crichton's family sues Warner Bros. over 'ER' reboot

Fifteen years later, Crichton and Steven Spielberg developed his script into the groundbreaking series that ran on NBC for 15 seasons between 1994 and 2009, earning 124 Emmy nominations, winning 23. The show delivered “billions of dollars” to Warner Bros., states the complaint.

Before entering into an agreement with Warner Bros., Crichton extracted a series of contractual promises, including a “frozen rights” provision that prohibited the studio from making any sequels, remakes, spinoffs, or other productions derived from “ER” without his “express consent,” according to the suit. Further, the author would receive the appropriate credit, while his heirs would “receive compensation commensurate with the ultimate success of ‘ER,’ in connection with any future productions.”

Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate Streaming Giants Fboxz, AniWave, Zoroxtv & Others Dead in Major Collapse

After the recent shutdown of Fmovies, right now an entire streaming empire is collapsing. Big name casualties include Fboxz.to, Aniwave.to, Anix.to, AnimeSuge, Zoroxtv, the list goes on. In a message displayed on their homepages, visitors are advised to use legal options from now on. The exact same message appeared when 123movies threw in the towel a few years ago.