Links 19/02/2024: Terrorists in Twitter and Julian Assange Verdict Imminent
Contents
-
Leftovers
-
Hackaday ☛ Star Wars-Inspired Cosplay Prop Uses Old Vintage Camera
Lots of people make replica lightsabers from Star Wars or tricorders from Star Trek. Not so many people have tried to recreate the binoculars from The Last Jedi, but [The Smugglers Room] whipped up a pretty rad pair from old parts.
-
Hackaday ☛ Metal 3D Printing Gets Really Fast (and Really Ugly)
The secret to cranking out a furniture-sized metal frame in minutes is Liquid Metal Printing (LMP), demonstrated by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They’ve demonstrated printing aluminum frames for tables and chairs, which are perfectly solid and able to withstand post-processing like drilling and milling.
-
Wouter Groeneveld ☛ 25% Creating, 75% Hustling
In retrospect of several creative endeavors, on average, I feel like I spend 25% of my time creating, and 75% hustling. I don’t think that’s a healthy balance at all: it should be 60%+ creating and 40% or less hustling. Yet in this world where uninterrupted yelling is the norm to get your stuff to sell, it seems that I have little choice.
This ad campaign driven approach to do business has been bothering me for quite some time. I want to create, not to keep on poking people to take a look at my creations. I want to create, not to publish campaigns periodically and overflow other people’s feeds while sending money to Meta. I want to create, not worry about the black hole the creation will end up in if I don’t do enough of the hustling.
-
Steve Ledlow ☛ We were never supposed to see our own faces this much
I turn the self view off not because I’m overly self-conscious about my appearance (though I recognize this is something that makes it even more stressful for many people), but because I can’t help but get distracted by my dog in the background or looking to see what item I may have left on the table behind me. Sometimes, I become focused on my facial expressions. No matter the distraction, these are all things that can be avoided by disabling the self-view and focusing the attention on the other people, as you would in an in-person conversation.
-
Mark Hysted ☛ and back to Hugo
So why change again? Mainly speed, whatever I do with Wordpress some things are a little slow. I expect throwing money at the problem would solve some of this but I could just change to Hugo and things be zippy.
-
Education
-
Hindustan Times ☛ How QR codes helped authorities detect moles during WB class X board exams
Unique Quick Response (QR) code, embedded in every question paper in this year’s Madhyamik (class X board) examination help the authorities to detect moles in the system within a span of a few minutes, said a top official of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE).
“Over the past few years, it had almost become a trend in which the moment question papers were distributed in the exam halls, some students who managed to sneak into the halls with mobile phones, used to take pictures of the question papers and upload them on social media. They used to go viral in no time,” the official said.
-
India Times ☛ Online learning apps India: The Netflix model may just save India’s online learning apps
Byju’s rapid decline has put a big dampener on that excitement. Yet, online education is still a viable proposition in the world’s most-populous nation, though it’s the test-prep market that has real demand, not K-12 or coding.
-
-
Hardware
-
Hackaday ☛ Wireless All The Things!
Neither Tom Nardi nor I are exactly young anymore, and we can both remember a time when joysticks were actually connected with wires to the computer or console, for instance. Back then, even though wireless options were on the market, you’d still want the wired version if it was a reaction-speed game, because wireless links just used to be too slow.
-
Hackaday ☛ Back To Basics With A 555 Deep Dive
Many of us could sit down at the bench and whip up a 555 circuit from memory. It’s really not that hard, which is a bit strange considering how flexible the ubiquitous chip is, and how many ways it can be wired up. But when was the last time you sat down and really thought about what goes on inside that little fleck of silicon?
-
Hackaday ☛ WoWMIPS: A MIPS Emulator For Windows Applications
When Windows NT originally launched it had ports to a wide variety of platforms, ranging from Intel’s x86 and i860 to DEC’s Alpha as well as the MIPS architecture. Running Windows applications written for many of these platforms is a bit tricky these days, which [x86matthew] saw as a good reason to write a MIPS emulator. This isn’t just any old emulator, though. It maps 32-bit Windows applications targeted at the MIPS R4000 CPU to an x86 CPU instead. Since both platforms run in a little-endian, 32-bit mode, this theoretically should be a walk in the park.
-
Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel's CHIPS Act award package exceeds $10 billion, payout expected within two weeks: Report
Intel is in talks with the U.S. government over a $10+ billion subsidies + loans package.
-
Tom's Hardware ☛ House cleaners find two of the world's first desktop PCs in random boxes — defective chip maker Intel 8008-powered Q1 PC has 16KB of memory, 800 kHz CPU
Two of the Q1 PC, which is the first-ever desktop PC made with a single-chip microprocessor, were found during routine waste clearing in London.
-
Tom's Hardware ☛ Controversial benchmarking website goes behind paywall — Userbenchmark now requires a $10 monthly subscription
Infamous for its rants about AMD and leaking early hardware samples, Userbenchmark will now be charging users to run its benchmark tool.
-
Jon Chiappetta: New Samsung S90C OLED – Green Screen Of Death
So last year, for my birthday, I purchased a new Sony PS5 to update my gaming console after soo many years and it immediately failed on me by always shutting down during game play. This year, for my birthday, I decided to try and update my 8 year old TV with a new Samsung OLED for the first time and as my luck would have it, I was presented with the “Green Screen Of Death”.
-
-
Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
-
Science Alert ☛ DNA From Beethoven's Hair Reveals Surprise Some 200 Years Later
Today it is no secret that one of the greatest musicians the world has ever known was functionally deaf by his mid-40s. It was a tragic irony Beethoven wished the world understood, not just from a personal perspective, but a medical one.
The composer would outlive his doctor by nearly two decades, yet close to two centuries after Beethoven's death a team of researchers set out to fulfill his testament in ways he would never have dreamed possible, by genetically analyzing the DNA in authenticated samples of his hair.
-
Science Alert ☛ Don't Be Fooled: Here's What 'FDA Approved' Really Means
It might not be what you think.
-
New York Times ☛ Is Red Wine Actually Good for You? How the Drink Affects Heart Health
For a glorious decade or two, the drink was lauded as good for the heart. What happened?
-
Physicians are their own worst enemies with respect to misinformation
A couple of years ago, I wrote about how so many of my colleagues seemed shocked at the emergence of so many antivax physicians, pointing out that no one should be surprised at how many antivax physicians there are. At the risk of coming across as saying, “I told you so,” I basically told you so then, noting that those of us who have been writing about the antivaccine movement knew that none of this was new, that, contrary to what so many of my colleagues (and, truth be told, most pundits) appeared to think, prior to the pandemic far too many physicians held antivax views, a number that has only increased since 2020. Basically, the prevalence of antivax physicians only seemed new to my colleagues because they hadn’t been paying attention before the pandemic and had thus been able to falsely reassure themselves that the antivax quack problem in our profession was just Andrew Wakefield and maybe a handful of cranks and quacks. Of course, my response to that dismissal was always to ask why state medical boards had long been so toothless—and they have long been toothless—with respect to policing our profession and disciplining antivax quacks—indeed disciplining all quacks, which state medical boards have long failed to do (e.g., see the case of Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, who has been preying on desperate cancer patients since the late 1970s, mostly unmolested). COVID-19 just laid bare how toothless state medical boards have long been with respect to protecting the public from quacks, antivax or otherwise.
-
Reason ☛ The Sindex: Cigarette Prices Outpacing Inflation
The Reason Sindex tracks the price of vice: smoking, drinking, snacking, traveling, and more.
-
-
Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
-
Embracer Group cancels nearly 30 unannounced games, sparks industry backlash
Embracer Group's recent spree of cancellations, amounting to nearly 30 unannounced games within just six months, is sending ripples across the gaming industry. The company, known for its aggressive acquisitions, has acquired renowned teams behind titles like Borderlands and Deus Ex, yet has left many projects in limbo.
In the wake of these cancellations, Embracer's CEO, Lars Wingefors, openly admitted that the company's primary focus is to maximize shareholder value, sparking criticism for prioritizing profits over creative endeavors. This approach underscores a broader trend in the industry where mergers and acquisitions often lead to layoffs and studio closures, casting doubt on the purported benefits of consolidation.
-
Hackaday ☛ A Badge For AI-Free Content – 100% Human!
These days, just about anyone with a pulse can fall on a keyboard and make an AI image generator spurt out some kind of vaguely visual content. A lot of it is crap. Some of it’s confusing. But most of all, creators hate it when their hand-crafted works are compared with these digital extrusions from mathematical slop. Enter the “not by AI” badge.
-
India Times ☛ Artificial intelligence: A celebrity dies, and new biographies pop up overnight. The author? AI
Even with such small payouts, the ease of creating these books might make it worthwhile if the sales volume were high enough. One author, listed as Bettie Melton, publishes several books a month. Some of the recent titles published under that name include biographies of recently deceased celebrities such as Henry Kissinger and musician Myles Goodwyn, as well as books about people who are still very much alive, like football coach Bill Belichick.
-
Futurism ☛ Trump's Dad Resurrected Via AI to Tell Son He's a Disgrace
Deepfakes were little more than a looming threat last election cycle, but this time around they seem almost certain to have a corrosive effect on the discourse.
That doesn't always mean that AI-generated fakes are mistaken for the real thing. The very existence of AI-generated imagery and audio, experts have pointed out, means that politicians who were actually caught saying something dumb or bad have a new excuse: they can just blame the embarrassing footage on AI.
-
Futurism ☛ AI May Destroy Humankind in Just Two Years, Expert Says
"The difficulty is, people do not realise," Yudkowsky, the founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in California, told the newspaper. "We have a shred of a chance that humanity survives."
-
The Guardian UK ☛ ‘Humanity’s remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’: meet the neo-luddites warning of an AI apocalypse | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian
Crabapple, the artist who took a stand against image generators, believes it should be possible for all of us to reckon more frankly with the dirty underbelly of clean-seeming tech. Take this nice idea of the digital cloud, she says. We chat about the cloud as though it’s neutral, immutable, something benign. After all, it’s a cloud. “But there’s no fucking cloud,” says Crabapple, “there’s other people’s computers. There are vast datacentres that are sucking up water and electricity and rare-earth metals, literally boiling up the planet … For me, what luddite success would look like would be a societal shift where we ask ourselves, ‘Why are we burning our planet? Making our lives shittier? Getting rid of every last bit of our autonomy and privacy just to make a few guys rich?’ Then maybe started doing something about this legislatively.”
-
The Register UK ☛ AI models can be weaponized to hack websites on their own
Computer scientists affiliated with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have demonstrated this by weaponizing several large language models (LLMs) to compromise vulnerable websites without human guidance. Prior research suggests LLMs can be used, despite safety controls, to assist [PDF] with the creation of malware.
-
Time ☛ The Only Way to Deal With the Threat From AI? Shut It Down
Without that precision and preparation, the most likely outcome is AI that does not do what we want, and does not care for us nor for sentient life in general. That kind of caring is something that could in principle be imbued into an AI but we are not ready and do not currently know how.
-
India Times ☛ artificial intelligence: Experts urge govt to invest in open data, compute for AI leadership
India's success in the global AI race depends on open data, open compute, and open models. The government needs to invest in creating enabling conditions, including solving the compute crunch, supporting startups, and prioritizing critical sectors. Existing frameworks are sufficient to regulate AI.
-
India Times ☛ ai search: Ready to go beyond Google? Here's how to use new generative AI search sites
Google searches are declining in quality, leading to the rise of generative AI chatbots as alternative search tools. These chatbots offer conversational search experiences with readable summaries of information. However, their accuracy and reliability vary, and it is crucial to verify information from reliable sources.
-
Trail of Bits ☛ A few notes on AWS Nitro Enclaves: Images and attestation
AWS Nitro Enclaves are locked-down virtual machines with support for attestation. They are Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), similar to Intel SGX, making them useful for running highly security-critical code.
However, the AWS Nitro Enclaves platform lacks thorough documentation and mature tooling. So we decided to do some deep research into it to fill in some of the documentation gaps and, most importantly, to find security footguns and offer some advice for avoiding them.
This blog post focuses specifically on enclave images and the attestation process.
-
The Verge ☛ Reddit has a new AI training deal to sell user content
Reddit will let “an unnamed large AI company” have access to its user-generated content platform in a new licensing deal, according to Bloomberg yesterday. The deal, “worth about $60 million on an annualized basis,” the outlet writes, could still change as the company’s plans to go public are still in the works.
-
The Register UK ☛ FTC asks the public if they'd like AI fakes protection
The US consumer watchdog announced as much on Thursday, alongside the introduction of a final rule that will give the Commission the ability to directly file federal lawsuits against AI impersonation scammers who target businesses and government agencies. The changes will also make it possible for the agency to target the makers of the code used in such scams more quickly.
The initial proposal doesn't cover the impersonation of private individuals, however. So the FTC is releasing this [PDF] supplemental notice asking for public comment on whether they should be covered by the new rules as well.
-
-
Security
-
Privacy/Surveillance
-
Steve Ledlow ☛ Dumb Home - Tangible Life
The reason I say that we live in a dumb home is that I’ve purposely avoided smart home equipment related to things like lights, light swtiches, home applicances, door locks and window shades/blinds. It isn’t that I don’t see the convenience or geeky angle of how lights turning on and off when you enter or leave spaces or saying a command and things magically happening all around the house at once. I’ve avoided them because they strike me as the type of home tech we’ve been falsely conditioned to think will reduce friction in our lives. I want a purely mechanical door lock that I don’t have to consider if it needs new batteries. I want an oven, refridgerator, washer and dryer that don’t need firmware updates and just consistently do the thing they were made to do.
-
CBC ☛ A wedding party had their suitcases ransacked. They want Sunwing to take responsibility
While Dave's AirPods were found on another part of the island, "mine are on Providence Street in Montego Bay," Lisa explained. "It shows you exactly where it is, and it's 2,861 miles away. So they're in Jamaica."
-
-
-
Defence/Aggression
-
Craig Murray ☛ Rethinking Ukraine: Putin and the Mystery of National Identity
The genocide in Gaza – or more precisely the major NATO powers’ active and practical support for the genocide in Gaza – has forced me to re-evaluate my views on Ukraine in a manner more sympathetic to the Russian narrative.
-
Futurism ☛ Amazon Rainforest Set for Collapse, Scientists Warn
Large parts of the Amazon’s iconic rainforest are nearing an irreversible "tipping point" and collapse in less than 30 years due to deforestation and climate change, scientists warn in a new paper published in the journal Nature.
It's a grim vision of "compounding disturbances": that nearly half the Amazon could by 2050 transform into either scrubby savannah fields, forest with low tree cover and open canopy, or a degraded forest that has "recovered" from environmental disturbances but is filled with many invasive "opportunistic plants."
-
International Business Times ☛ Elon Musk Slammed For Verifying Terrorist Accounts On X
According to a Tech Transparency Project report, the terror group affiliates were given blue check marks – a symbol that makes for longer posts, better promotion and account verification.
The subscription perks are also meant to indicate that the identity of the account owner has been verified.
-
India Times ☛ tiktok ban: US divided on TikTok ban even as Biden campaign joins the app, AP-NORC poll shows
TikTok has vigorously defended itself, saying in part that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and won't do so if asked. The company also has promised to wall off U.S. user data from its parent company through a separate entity run independently from ByteDance and monitored by outside observers. TikTok says new user data is currently being stored on servers maintained by the software company Oracle.
-
The Atlantic ☛ What the president is doing on TikTok
The president of the United States is now on TikTok. Joe Biden’s campaign launched an account during the Super Bowl on Sunday, kicking things off with a post about the game captioned “lol hey guys.” I called my colleague Charlie Warzel, who covers tech and internet culture, to discuss what the president is doing on the video platform, and how politicians face the same pressures as any other content creator.
-
Counter Punch ☛ Never Forget Who Donald Trump Really Is
Donald Trump, widely known for stiffing his creditors, drew an enthusiastic response from a campaign audience when he made his troubling statements on behalf of “America First” and American isolationism. These statements were reminders of his 16-minute inauguration speech in 2017, when Trump berated the Washington elites for ignoring the American people and allowing inner cities to fester in “crime and gangs and drugs.” “The American carnage stops right here, right now,” he said. “From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. America first.”
-
JURIST ☛ UN report: Taliban restrictions limit women’s rights in Afghanistan
A United Nations report published Friday indicated that the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s attire and its requirement that women have a male guardian are limiting Afghan women’s freedom of movement and access to education, employment, health care and other basic rights.
-
Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
-
New York Times ☛ Navalny’s Health Was Imperiled by Prison Conditions
Although Aleksei A. Navalny’s cause of death is not known, his staff often worried that brutal conditions imposed on him in ever crueler prisons might lead to his death.
-
Meduza ☛ Several prison cameras not working on day of Navalny’s death, says human rights group Gulagu.net — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Alexey Navalny’s mother travels to prison where her son died — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Alexey Navalny’s associates confirm his death — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Inmate at Navalny’s prison shares events leading up to politician’s death, contradicts official statements — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Navalny’s press secretary says his body not in morgue where prison claimed to send it — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Over 24 hours after Navalny’s death, nobody can find his body. Here’s what we know. — Meduza
-
RTL ☛ "Very sad day" for Russia: Navalny death must lead to action: Litvinenko's widow
"We remember when (US President Joe) Biden a few years ago mentioned Navalny and he said if Navalny would die, it would be crushing for Putin," said Litvinenko, who now teaches dance classes in London.
"I want to see what does it mean, not just words. And this is very important. Go from words to some action."
Crucially, this means backing Ukraine in its war against Russia, she added.
-
New Yorker ☛ Trump’s Threat to NATO Is the Scariest Kind of Gaffe: It’s Real
Legal cliffhangers aside, Trump has demonstrated his remarkable continued ability to hijack the national conversation, warping and distorting not only America’s politics but also its foreign policy to suit his toxic personal mixture of dictator worship, blustery nationalism, and deep-seated skepticism about U.S. engagement in the world. Over the weekend, he delivered an anti-NATO rant at a campaign rally that sparked days of news coverage and outraged responses from his opponents. “I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,” he said, of Russia—all but inviting Vladimir Putin to attack European countries that did not, in Trump’s view, spend enough on their defense budgets. “You gotta pay!” The Secretary-General of NATO weighed in; so did the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who warned solemnly that “U.S. credibility is at stake.” Leaders from Poland and the Baltic states were officially alarmed; veterans of Trump’s White House, including his former national-security adviser John Bolton and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, cautioned, as they have many times before, that NATO is not likely to survive a second term of their former boss. In blistering remarks at the White House, on Tuesday, President Biden denounced Trump using some of his strongest language yet about his predecessor, whose threat to allies, he said, was “dumb,” “shameful,” “dangerous,” and “un-American.”
-
-
-
Environment
-
Omicron Limited ☛ Australians are washing microplastics down the drain and it's ending up on farms
In our new research, we sampled biosolids from three states and calculated the average contribution of microplastics per person: 3g in New South Wales and 4.5g in Queensland. But the average in South Australia was 11.5g—that's about the same amount of plastic as a plastic bag.
Roughly 80% of this microplastic comes from washing clothes. We need to protect agricultural soil from contamination by making simple changes at home, mandating filters on washing machines and introducing more effective wastewater treatment.
-
Futurism ☛ Bill Nye Issues Warning for the World
Last year another assessment, this time from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that the Gulf Stream may collapse as soon as 2025, which could lead to temperatures on the European continent lowering up to 10-15 degrees.
"It's happening," Nye said. "It's happening faster and faster... as we lose ice, we lose sunlight reflecting into space, which makes things warm up faster and faster."
-
El País ☛ Hermit crabs have swapped their shells for metal and plastic | Science | EL PAÍS English
The research team found that crabs prefer debris over shells because it’s easier to find along coasts and provides better camouflage. They also analyzed factors like odor, weight and sexual signaling. Carrying a heavier natural shell requires more energy, and the color and smell of plastic can help attract a partner. A study conducted in 2021 found that crabs are attracted to a chemical emitted by plastics.
However, there is a flip side to this story. In 2019, scientists discovered 414 million pieces of garbage washed up on the shores of the Cocos Islands, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. They analyzed the impacts of this waste on the region’s hermit crabs and found that over half a million had died, trapped in the man-made objects they inhabited.
-
Vox ☛ Proposed California state legislation takes on powerful AI models
Even for such powerful models, the requirements aren’t overly onerous: The bill requires that companies developing such models prevent unauthorized access, be capable of shutting down copies of their AI in the case of a safety incident (though not other copies — more on that later), and notify the state of California on how they plan to do all this. Companies must demonstrate that their model complies with applicable regulation (for example from the federal government — though such regulations don’t exist yet, they may at some point). And they have to describe the safeguards they’re employing for their AI and why they are sufficient to prevent “critical harms,” defined as mass casualties and/or more than $500 million in damages.
The California bill was developed in significant consultation with leading, highly respected AI scientists, and released with endorsements from leading AI researchers, tech industry leaders, and advocates for responsible AI alike. It’s a reminder that despite vociferous, heated online disagreement, there’s actually a great deal these various groups agree on.
A year later, as President Joe Biden makes his first official visit to the site, neither has come to a vote.
-
Omicron Limited ☛ 20°C seems the optimal temperature for life on Earth to thrive: What this means in a warming world
Have you ever wondered about the optimal temperature for life on Earth? For humans, 20°C is comfortable. Any warmer and we work less efficiently because releasing heat requires energy.
We know many species can live at much colder or warmer temperatures than humans. But our systematic review of published research found the thermal ranges of animals, plants and microbes living in air and water overlap at 20°C. Could this be a coincidence?
-
Energy/Transportation
-
The Conversation ☛ AI has a large and growing carbon footprint, but there are potential solutions on the horizon
Given the huge problem-solving potential of artificial intelligence (AI), it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that AI could also help us in tackling the climate crisis. However, when we consider the energy needs of AI models, it becomes clear that the technology is as much a part of the climate problem as a solution.
The emissions come from the infrastructure associated with AI, such as building and running the data centres that handle the large amounts of information required to sustain these systems.
-
-
Wildlife/Nature
-
Hindustan Times ☛ Elephant family ‘bonds over’ water trough. Heartwarming scene captured on camera
The video shows a herd of elephants quenching their thirst by drinking water from the water trough. The water trough is an artificial container that aims to provide drinking water to animals and livestock on farms.
-
-
-
AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
-
New Yorker ☛ The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas
The Secretary of Homeland Security has been forced to respond to an unprecedented flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Why are Republicans in Congress impeaching him for it?
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong gov’t uses 2019 protests to justify new security legislation without fully learning from them
For months during 2019, Hong Kong was rocked by increasingly violent anti-government protests. Demonstrators focused initially on an unpopular extradition bill that the government seemed determined to legislate despite strong opposition.
-
Latvia ☛ PM Siliņa to participate in Munich Security Conference panel
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa is participating in a panel at this year's Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany.
-
Chris ☛ The Curse of Capital Management
Here are some ideas that might explain why capital management takes over an orgasination: [...]
-
Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
-
Omicron Limited ☛ Disinformation threatens global elections: How to fight back
A 2023 study showed that the vast majority of academic experts are in agreement about how to define misinformation (namely as false and misleading content) and what this looks like (for example lies, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience). Although the study didn't cover disinformation, such experts generally agree that this can be defined as intentional misinformation.
-
France24 ☛ Why pro-Russian accounts are sharing a fake video of French farmers and manure
Pro-Russian social media users have been widely circulating what looks like a Euronews report showing French farmers dumping manure outside the Ukrainian embassy. French farmers began protesting for better pay in January and the video claims that the farmers took the drastic manure action after the Ukrainian ambassador penned a letter asking them to stop their protests. But this video is fake. It’s one of a series of fake news reports aimed at making Ukraine look bad in the eyes of the West.
-
Security Week ☛ Tech Companies Sign Accord to Combat AI-Generated Election Trickery
Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Proprietary Chaffbot Company and Fentanylware (TikTok) gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters.
-
-
-
Censorship/Free Speech
-
Meduza ☛ Pussy Riot activists hold memorial protest for Navalny opposite Russian Embassy in Berlin
On February 18, Pussy Riot activists held a memorial protest for Alexey Navalny in Berlin. Group members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Lucy Shtein, as well as Navalny associate Lyubov Sobol and former Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova, were among those turned out to demonstrate in front of the Russian Embassy. The protesters planned to march from there to the Brandenburg Gate but were stopped by police.
-
Meduza ☛ U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracey lays flowers in Moscow for Alexey Navalny
Lynne Tracy, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, has laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone in Moscow in memory of Alexey Navalny, the embassy’s press service reported.
-
CPJ ☛ Russia bans freedom of expression group Article 19 as ‘undesirable’
The Ministry of Justice added Article 19 to its register on February 8, and local media reported about the designation on February 12.
Organizations that receive the undesirable classification are banned from operating in Russia, and anyone who participates in them or works to organize their activities faces up to six years in prison and administrative fines. The designation also makes it a crime to distribute the outlet’s content or donate to it from inside or outside Russia.
-
-
Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
-
Scheerpost ☛ An Open Letter from Editors and Publishers: Publishing is Not a Crime
The following is a letter from The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and DER SPIEGEL urging the U.S. government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.
-
The Dissenter ☛ Countdown To Day X: The Passage of Time In Assange's Case
-
[Old] New York Times ☛ An Open Letter from Editors and Publishers: Publishing is Not a Crime | The New York Times Company
The Obama-Biden Administration, in office during the Wikileaks publication in 2010, refrained from indicting Assange, explaining that they would have had to indict journalists from major news outlets too. Their position placed a premium on press freedom, despite its uncomfortable consequences. Under Donald Trump however, the position changed. The DOJ relied on an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during World War 1), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.
This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press.
Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.
-
Michael West Media ☛ Last chance for Julian Assange. It is time for Albanese to put his words into action.
In terms of significant dates and milestones in the long-running pursuit by the US of publisher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, this coming week ranks highly. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, a hearing before two judges in the UK’s High Court will hear Assange’s final bid to appeal against extradition.
If he is not granted leave by the court for a full appeal hearing, then this is the end of the penny section for Assange in his battle to stop his extradition to the US to face espionage act charges relating to the publication over a decade ago by Wikileaks of US war crimes and other abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UK government could deport Assange before his legal team has the opportunity to file proceedings and seek a stay in the European Court of European Rights if a full appeal is unsuccessful.
-
Scheerpost ☛ Chris Hedges: Julian Assange’s Final Appeal
Julian Assange will make his final appeal this week to the British courts to avoid extradition. If he is extradited it is the death of investigations into the inner workings of power by the press.
-
Modern Diplomacy ☛ First Qatar, Now Saudi Arabia: Time for Activists to Rethink
Unlike Qatar, Saudi Arabia feels it has leverage and does not need to pay attention to activists and others. It feels that it ranks in the top tier of players on the international stage where rights issues are not a determining factor.
It’s what allows Saudi Arabia to poke the United States in the eye on human rights and get away with it. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has proof positive given his ability to successfully put the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul behind him.
-
CPJ ☛ French journalist Vanessa Dougnac leaves India after journalism permit revoked
Indian authorities compelled Dougnac, a former South Asia correspondent for multiple international news organizations who is married to an Indian citizen, to leave the country on Friday after 23 years of reporting, according to a statement issued by her lawyers in the capital, New Delhi, which CPJ reviewed.
-
-
Civil Rights/Policing
-
JURIST ☛ Office of the Inspector General report reveals failures in safeguarding procedures for unaccompanied migrant children
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the government watchdog responsible for oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), published a report Thursday alleging that significant deficiencies in safeguarding unaccompanied migrant children arriving in the US have been discovered.
-
Mexico News Daily ☛ Mexico offers ayahuasca retreats for addiction recovery, PTSD and personal healing
Ayahuasca retreats in Tulum and nearby beach towns can help support complex mental health conditions.
-
RFA ☛ Short film about army life depicts North Korea’s caste system
Defector-turned-director based his film on his own experience in the military.
-
The Straits Times ☛ Why ‘Quarrels during Chinese New Year’ became the top-searched topic in China
Chinese youth told The Straits Times that their feelings about going home this year are “very mixed”.
-
The Straits Times ☛ China says no banned areas around Taiwanese islands after two killed
Taiwan has defended the actions of its coast guard after they got too close to a Taiwanese island.
-
JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court pauses bankruptcy settlement in Boy Scouts of America sexual abuse cases
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted a stay order Friday to appellants contesting the terms of a $2.46 billion settlement between sexual abuse victims and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). BSA declared bankruptcy in 2020 amid thousands of lawsuits for sexual abuse against Scout Leaders.
-
RFERL ☛ Former Envoy Gives Pessimistic Assessment Of Taliban As Crucial UN Meeting Opens
A former British diplomat and NATO representative in Afghanistan says he is not optimistic about the situation in the war-torn country as its Taliban leaders continue to restrict rights and freedoms, especially for females.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, Sir Nicholas Kay, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan between 2018 and 2020, said he saw little potential for change in Afghanistan in the near future with the Taliban holding a tight grip on society.
-
JURIST ☛ UN report: Taliban restrictions limit women's rights in Afghanistan
The report states that many Afghan women are not leaving their homes alone due to decrees issued by the Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. The hardline Islamist group has demanded women wear specific attire in public, such as the all-covering burqa, and only venture outside if accompanied by a close male relative, known as a mahram. According to the report, the presence of the mahram provides some women legitimacy to enter the public sphere, but it also limits women’s freedom of movement.
The Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry has enforced these rules by issuing warnings and fines and carrying out arbitrary arrests against violators. The enforcement has prevented many women across the country from going out alone, even for trips like medical visits, education or work. The Taliban regime dismissed the report’s findings, but human rights groups have highlighted that such measures represent a rollback of women’s rights.
-
RFA ☛ Short film about army life depicts North Korea’s caste system
Those with the highest songbun are descended from people who fought alongside national founder Kim Il Sung against colonial Japan prior to and during World War II, and have demonstrated through multiple generations that they are steadfast in their loyalty to the North Korean leadership.
These people are also the most privileged and can expect a fast track to membership in the ruling Korean Workers’ Party, which almost guarantees them cushy government jobs, the best education for their children, and expensive homes in the best parts of the capital Pyongyang.
Meanwhile those with the lowest songbun are descendants of those who collaborated with Japan during the colonial period, or criminals.
They have almost no hope of ever joining the party and they aren’t even allowed to visit the capital without a rare invitation from the government. They are given the most menial jobs and have little access to higher education.
-
RFERL ☛ Several More Baha'is Jailed In Iran As Crackdown Continues
Iran's judiciary has handed down lengthy sentences to several members of the Baha'i community, the country's largest non-Muslim group, the latest in a series of acts by the government against the faith's followers.
-
-
Manton Reece ☛ Apple is twisting the truth
It is hard to take this seriously after Apple’s bad-faith effort to comply with the DMA. I’m sure WebKit engineers regret this change, but Apple leadership doesn’t. By limiting PWAs just as PWAs are starting to be competitive with native apps, Apple ensures that native apps have no real competition on iOS, strengthening Apple’s hold on app distribution.
-
Copyrights
-
Digital Music News ☛ Cam’ron Ordered to Pay $51,000 For Using Copyrighted Photo
Although Cam’ron’s experience might sound like a strange one, the copyrights to a photo are typically retained by the person who snapped it — so being featured in a photo doesn’t necessarily grant someone the rights to use it, especially on commercial products.
And Cam’ron is only the latest celebrity to face such a dilemma, with stars like Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Miley Cyrus all having faced copyright infringement cases after using photos of themselves taken by someone else.
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Bitmagnet Allows People to Run Their Own Decentralized Torrent Indexer Locally
BitTorrent is often characterized as a decentralized file-sharing technology. However, its reliance on centralized indexes runs contrary to this idea. Over the years, several 'indestructible' alternatives have been proposed, including the relatively new Bitmagnet software. With Bitmagnet, people can run their own private BitTorrent index, relying on DHT and the BEP51 protocol.
-
Monopolies/Monopsonies
-