Fake Clinics Quietly Edit Their Websites After Being Called Out on Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Claims
Fake Clinics Quietly Edit Their Websites After Being Called Out on HIPAA Claims
In a promising sign that public pressure works, several crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs, also known as “fake clinics”) have quietly scrubbed misleading language about privacy protections from their websites.Electronic Frontier Foundation
UK Government urges citizens to delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems
National Drought Group meets to address “nationally significant” water shortfall
Five areas remain in drought with six more in prolonged dry weatherEnvironment Agency (GOV.UK)
Temperature records broken as extreme heat grips parts of Europe
Extreme heat is breaking temperature records across Europe, early measurements suggest, and driving bigger and stronger wildfires.
In south-west France, records were broken on Monday in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Émilion and Saint-Girons. Météo France said the “often remarkable, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures” in the region were 12C above the norm for the last few decades.
In Croatia, air temperature records were set in Šibenik, at 39.5C, and Dubrovnik, at 38.9C, while large forest fires raged along its coasts and ripped through neighbouring countries in the Balkans.
Beyond Europe, dozens of temperature records were broken across Canada, and record-breaking heat above 50C in Iraq was blamed for a nationwide blackout.
Temperature records broken as extreme heat grips parts of Europe
Unprecedented temperatures causing difficulties in south-west France, Croatia, Italy and Spain with wildfire destruction across Europe up 87%Ajit Niranjan (The Guardian)
Interlock Ransomware Group Leaks 43GB of Data in City of St. Paul Cyberattack
Interlock Ransomware Group Leaks 43GB of Data in City of St. Paul Cyberattack
St. Paul hit by Interlock ransomware attack, 43GB of data leaked, city refuses ransom, launches Operation Secure St. Paul with FBI and National Guard.Deeba Ahmed (Hack Read)
Issues posting comments or Posts on some Threads
I have hade issues posting on lemmy threads. Both commaenta and a normal post. Is this because I use a VPN?
Example:
I have successfully replied to a comment in the "gaming" section of Lemmy (once). A while later I wanted to post a thread, or comment, but simply can't because 'a problem occurred' or something similar.
AI start-up Perplexity makes surprise bid for Google Chrome
AI start-up Perplexity makes surprise $34.5bn bid for Google Chrome
One technology industry investor called the $34.5bn offer a "stunt" that is much lower than Chrome's true value.Osmond Chia (BBC News)
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It's a gimmick to get publicity. But if it happens, the company has to generate revenue to pay it off.
Guess how browser makers make money off a 'free' product?
Couchpotato, sonarr alternatives in 2025
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UN chief warns Israel, Russia over reports of sexual abuse by armed forces
In his annual report to the UN Security Council on conflict-related sexual violence, Guterres said that Israel and Russia could be listed next year among the parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence”.
In his warning to Israel, Guterres said he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces” against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention centre and a military base.
“Cases documented by the United Nations indicate patterns of sexual violence such as genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner,” Guterres wrote.
In the case of Russia, Guterres wrote that he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups”, primarily against Ukrainian prisoners of war, in 50 official and 22 unofficial detention facilities in Ukraine and Russia.
UN chief warns Israel, Russia over reports of sexual abuse by armed forces
UN chief Antonio Guterres puts both countries ‘on notice’ over documented pattern of sexual violence.Al Jazeera
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Western “democracies” will still support the genocidal Israeli regime no matter how many reports come out detailing the atrocities it commits. Hell, the most powerful “democracy” has a rapist pedophile leading it. They won’t let their Zionism and dehumanization of Palestinians be dissuaded by such pesky concepts like ethics or humanity.
Kill your leaders
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UN chief warns Israel, Russia over reports of sexual abuse by armed forces
In his annual report to the UN Security Council on conflict-related sexual violence, Guterres said that Israel and Russia could be listed next year among the parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence”.
In his warning to Israel, Guterres said he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces” against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention centre and a military base.
“Cases documented by the United Nations indicate patterns of sexual violence such as genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner,” Guterres wrote.
In the case of Russia, Guterres wrote that he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups”, primarily against Ukrainian prisoners of war, in 50 official and 22 unofficial detention facilities in Ukraine and Russia.
UN chief warns Israel, Russia over reports of sexual abuse by armed forces
UN chief Antonio Guterres puts both countries ‘on notice’ over documented pattern of sexual violence.Al Jazeera
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Ett av de projekt som Föreningen för Digitala Fri- och Rättigheter (DFRI) driver är att ta fram en ny och bättre digital legitimation. Anledningen till varför det behövs en bättre e-legitimation anger de tydligt i projektbeskrivningen.
blog.zaramis.se/2025/08/13/for…
För en bättre e-legitimation - Svenssons Nyheter
För en bättre e-legitimation. Ett av de projekt som Föreningen för Digitala Fri- och Rättigheter (DFRI) driver är att ta fram en nyAnders_S (Svenssons Nyheter)
Serving a simple website from a Jail with Bastille
In this short little howto we will be setting up a simple Jail via Bastille and host a static website.
Beware: The article assumes that sudo is configured. You can of course also use doas or switch to root, if you so desire. Some commands need root rights to work – keep that in mind as you go along!
First, we need to install Bastille itself.
$ sudo pkg install -y bastille
After installing, we enable the bastille service.
$ sudo sysrc bastille_enable=YES
And finally we start it.
$ sudo service bastille start
The next step on the list is to acually alter the bastille config to adapt it to our needs. Beware that in this guide I assume that you’ve installed FreeBSD with ZFS – or that you have a ZFS pool on hand that we can leverage. By default FreeBSD calls this pool zroot (Which can be altered during the install of FreeBSD). If you do not use ZFS be sure to not alter the variables below – the default is not leveraging ZFS.
Edit the configuration file.
$ sudo vim /usr/local/etc/bastille/bastille.confbastille_tzdata="Europe/Berlin"...bastille_zfs_enable="YES"bastille_zfs_zpool="zroot"...
In my case, as you can see, I’ve adapted the timezone and set up ZFS for the coming Bastille Jails. Be sure to alter the timezone according to your needs.
Next up is creating a loopback interface.
$ sudo sysrc cloned_interfaces+=lo1$ sudo sysrc ifconfig_lo1_name="bastille0"
Start the newly created interface after creating it.
$ sudo service netif cloneup
Now we can move on to the bootstrap phase. The following command will get the newest release (As of this time) and prepare the environment.
$ sudo bastille bootstrap 14.3-RELEASE update
Alright, with that done we can create our first Jail.
The command given will create a Jail named “web” and give it the IP address of 10.0.23.60. Also specifying the interface after the IP address is important.
Note: Be sure to alter the given address to your own needs!
$ sudo bastille create web 14.3-RELEASE 10.0.23.60/24 vtnet0
So far so good. Check if the Jail is created with the “list” option to bastille.
$ sudo bastille list
If the output shows our newly created Jail called “web” we are good to go.
Now we want to enter our freshly created Jail to continue the setup.
$ sudo bastille console web
First, let’s install pkg and update the repository.
# pkg# pkg update
Next we’ll install the needed software (Webserver) to host our website. We also install a editor – pick the one your prefer (In this example we’ll use vim).
# pkg install -y lighttpd vim
Enable Lighttpd and start it afterwards.
# sysrc lighttpd_enable="YES"# service lighttpd start
We could now configure Lighttpd to our needs and change quite some settings. But in the interest of keeping it simple we will use the default configuration for now. If however you want to change things you can always take a look into the configuration directory which can be found under /usr/local/www/lighttpd (Multiple config files).
By default Lighttpd serves the directory /usr/local/www/data (Document Root). This is where we will put the needed files of our little website.
But, the directory “data” is not yet created. So let us just do that.
# cd /usr/local/www/# mkdir data# chown www:www data
Make sure the owner is set correctly since Lighttpd will by default leverage the user www and group www.
Final stretch ahead. Let’s cd into the directory and clone a simple website from git – After installing git of course.
# pkg install -y git-lite# cd data# git clone github.com/jhx0/bsd-website.gi… mv bsd-website/* .
Our frehsly cloned site should now be moved into the data directory.
The only thing left to do is opening your webbrowser of choice on our client system and navigation to the IP address previously configured.
$ firefox 10.0.23.60
Finsihed!
Beware: This is a default setup – There are many ways to improve this!
Look into the configuration of Lighttpd, esp, considering security related alterations.
Have fun everyone.
Stay Open!
Streamio whilst traveling
Hello me hearties.
I have a question about the Streamio app/Service.
I travel full time and with all the paid streaming services requiring a 'home' IP address I'm now looking for alternatives.
Streamio seems to fit the bill, however I have one question. Although I will be streaming to one or maybe 2 devices, I would probably like to use REAL DEBRID, But, Can I use different IP addresses, for example, one week I might be in Japan, the next week I'll be in Thailand.
In my case would it be best to purchase my own private IP from a VPN provider?
Any advice would be awesome.!
Thank you
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This might be of use?
stremio-addons.net/addons/aios…
"AIOStreams consolidates multiple Stremio addons and debrid services into a single, easily configurable addon. It allows highly customisable filtering, sorting, and formatting of results and supports proxying all your streams through MediaFlow Proxy or StremThru for improved compatibility and IP restriction bypassing."
I use this addon, but not for the proxy stuff.
Do not use Real Debrid and use TorBox, do not make problems with IPs as explained here:
support.torbox.app/en/articles…
I use it and now it works very well, first I used Real Debrid.
if you want my referral:
torbox.app/subscription?referr…
Can I Use My Account With Many Different IP's? | TorBox Help Center
TorBox can be used anywhere!support.torbox.app
Wildlife team 'devastated' by Holt Heath fire animal deaths
A group that has been searching the burnt remains of a heath fire for surviving animals has said it is "devastated" by the loss of wildlife.
The Dorset Heaths Partnership is made up of 10 organisations working together to protect and enhance the Dorset heathlands
Paul Attwell is the partnership's team manager and said the blaze, which started at Holt Heath near Wimborne in Dorset on Saturday morning, was "horrendous".
Wildlife team 'devastated' by Holt Heath fire animal deaths
The Dorset Heaths Partnership found more than 50 dead reptiles on Tuesday.Curtis Lancaster (BBC News)
Rare Sowerby's Beaked Whale washes up in Norfolk
A Sowerby's Beaked Whale, a poorly known deep sea species, has perished after washing up on a beach in Norfolk.
The animal was found in The Wash near Holme-next-the-Sea on Wednesday 6 August by a member of the public, who alerted it to British Divers Marine Life Rescue. By the time a BDMLR representative arrived at the scene, the whale had died, according to Wild Ken Hill on Facebook.
The whale was found to be a female. At this time of year females move south from Arctic breeding grounds – and it may be that this individual was with a young animal.
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Google will now let you pick your top sources for news search results
Google is making it easier to see news from your favorite outlets. A new feature, called “preferred sources,” will let you choose the outlets you want to see featured the most in Search’s “top stories” section.
Google’s top stories hub appears when you search for something related to a current event, and displays a bunch of relevant articles from around the web. Along with prominently featuring articles from your preferred outlets in the top stories list, Google may also include them in a new “from your sources” section. Google first started testing the preferred sources feature in June, and now it’s rolling out to users in the US and India.
Google is adding a new way to personalize the news you see
Google is rolling out a new “preferred sources” feature that lets you choose which outlets you want to see the most in Search’s “top stories” section.Emma Roth (The Verge)
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Who said you can move furniture with a bike?
I saw this bike made by an independent bike shop for himself.
It's an electric longtail and can carry a 300kg europallet, plus the toolbox on the front, plus an extra person or material on the bike rack!
Here is the link to the shop website: cycles-penet.fr/
Cycles Penet Frères – Fabrication de vélos rallongés personnalisés
Artisan assemblant des vélos longtails, robustes et durables au meilleur prix du marché.www.cycles-penet.fr
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Musk threatens Apple and calls OpenAI boss a liar as feud deepens
Musk threatens Apple and calls OpenAI boss a liar as feud deepens
Relations between the two tech bosses have soured amid a slew of lawsuits and social media digs.Liv McMahon (BBC News)
AI companion apps are on track to generate $120M+ in revenue in 2025, and in H1 there were 60M downloads of this kind of app, up 88% YoY
Holy shit. And I thought I was alone.
Where the hell are we heading as humanity?
AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025 | TechCrunch
The number of AI companion apps has grown more than 60% since 2024.Sarah Perez (TechCrunch)
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China has built the world’s largest bullet-train network
China has built the world’s largest bullet-train network
And there’s a lot more to come. But is it a waste of money?The Economist
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New Uvalde Records Reveal Details About School Safety Concerns and Shooter’s Behavioral Issues
The release is part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit that news organizations brought against state and local governments. The fight continues to get the Texas Department of Public Safety to release its own records.
35 Union Pacific train cars derail near Texas town, no injuries reported
Authorities say 35 cars of a Union Pacific train derailed near a small Texas town but there were no injuries reported and no evacuations ordered.
https://apnews.com/article/train-derailment-texas-union-pacific-f9682fd217599b61291b672f20d36692
Brazilian Court Allows Boeing to Continue Hiring Local Engineers
A Brazilian court has ruled that Boeing can continue hiring engineers, rejecting a lawsuit that sought to limit the US planemaker's recruitment practices.
Brazilian Court Allows Boeing to Continue Hiring Local Engineers
A Brazilian federal court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to restrict Boeing's recruitment of local engineers, allowing the US planemaker to continue its hiring practices in the country.Prachi Patel (Simple Flying)
UK | Government expands police use of live facial recognition vans
The Home Office says the technology helps locate suspects but civil liberties groups warn of heightened surveillance.
US | Trump administration to review 19 Smithsonian museums to ensure exhibits are ‘patriotic’
White House letter orders review as part of a broader push to assert oversight over cultural institutions
Archived version: archive.is/20250812215326/theg…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Can't Log in to User on Linux Mint Cinnamon (Loops Back to Login Window)
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/34365607
Hi fediverse,I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on an issue that means I can't access the main user account on my Linux Mint (Cinnamon) operating system.
Context:
I'm using a dual boot setup of windows and mint on my laptop.
I use mint (or used to, when I could access my user) for pretty much anything that doesn't require things* only my windows instance has. (*things such as support for video games that support windows but not linux, for example)When creating my main user account, I made a mistake in the username. It was irritating enough for me to want to change it, and as doing so seemed like it should have been fine, I settled upon three guides and ended up (mostly?) just following this one:
linuxuprising.com/2019/04/how-…
I cant remember all of what happened anymore, but I have the following screenshots, along with the stuff I do remember.
(note: red blocks represent the new username, blue blocks represent the old username)
At the used-by-process error, I first tried following the guide precisely, then hoped that "PID" was Process ID, and that the guide expected me to put the ID that usermod stated after "PID", and tried doing that.
Idk if that fvcked something up...
Then I guess I fixed that somehow, idk if I did so by restarting and logging in only as tempuser, or if I had already done that and fixed it some other way.
Anyway I meant to run each line of the command separately to avoid stuff going wrong, but accidentally did both at once. I hoped it'd be fine anyway.
Then stuff happened I guess.
Anyway,
I cant remember much more but I know that I tried to log back in as my main user account and I found out that:
- The username had been successfully changed.
- I could not log into my main user account.
Imputing the correct username and password was successful, and acted like it was logging me in as usual. Then after the usual black screen, it just throws me back to the login window.
This still happens.
I went through a fair bit of internet searching, followed some advice. All that most people were saying was to check how much disk space you have left - and to not keep timeshift snapshots on the same drive as your OS.
(this is one such post, and (I think) the only one I found that I definitely recognise from the previous searching: reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comment…)
I did ctrl-alt-f1 and ran df -h, and deleted most of the timeshift snapshots I had (I think I had maybe 6 and deleted 4 or 5).
Here's the output of df -h that I think is from after I deleted the timeshifts:
Idk what to do, hope someone can advise.
(TL;DR: tried to change username on mint, now whenever I try to log in to the user it throws me back to the login window after the usual black screen. Hope this suffices for a summary...)
How To Change Username On Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint Or Fedora
This is a step by step guide on how to change your username on Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint (and other Linux distributions based on Debian/Ubuntu), and Fedora.Linux Uprising Blog
Check permissions on your home folder. Make sure everything is owned by your new username.
I had a separate partition mounted on /home on my old system. I remounted the same partition at /home on the new system, and got the same bootloop issue. The problem was that the old permissions were for 1001:1001, not (newuser):(newuser). Had to log into a TTY and chown (newuser):(newuser) -R /home/(newuser) to get everything working.
I tried logging in with tempuser and remembered that I have no idea how to access the files on my main user. In the file manager the home folder for said user isn’t accessible, and I assume that’s because I set it to be encrypted when setting it up. Thus I can’t access the files to copy them over to a new user or anything. Also, I assume I wouldn’t be able to rename the homedir as such, and don’t know where to start checking or changing user settings and permissions and such.
First, check if you can login, with your new user, on the Linux console (i.e. Ctrl-Alt-F1 through F7). If you can, the username change probably went through correctly. Report back if you cannot login via console or you get warnings/errors.
Your login session does automatically terminate if the session process for Cinnamon exits, booting you back to GDM (or whatever login manager you have). So probably the Cinnamon session process, started by GDM, craps out for some reason. The reason is probably, I suspect, that it cannot access or cannot find some file it wants to open.
Check ~/.xsession-errors, it might tell you what went wrong.
Also check the permissions of your home folder, the files in your home folder, and check if you correctly set up the symbolic link from /home/olduser to /home/newuser as the guide suggests.
A proposito delle meduse che hanno bloccato la maggiore centrale nucleare di Francia - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
A proposito delle meduse che hanno bloccato la maggiore centrale nucleare di Francia - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Considerando attentamente l’esiziale vulnerabilità di un asset strategico come una grande centrale elettrica alimentata mediante l’utilizzo di carburante nucleare, è significativo il potenziale problematico di collocarla presso quello che costituisce…Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
Israel's army formed special intel unit to 'justify killing' of hundreds of Gaza journalists
Israel's army formed special intel unit to 'justify killing' of hundreds of Gaza journalists
The unit, called the ‘Legitimization Cell,’ was established by the military intelligence directorate, which includes Unit 8200thecradle.co
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World's largest sovereign wealth fund divests from Israeli companies
World's largest sovereign wealth fund divests from Israeli companies
The decision by Norway followed revelations of the fund's stake in an Israeli jet engine manufacturerthecradle.co
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i hope the safe guards in place for the members of the ethics committee guard against (a) leader(s) who get to decide on future members of the ethics committee.
i say this because the united states also has such committees but both our president and our congresspeople sabotage it by either refusing to certify new members or appoint members with conflicts of interest (eg fossil fuels executives in charge of the environment protection agency).
The Math Hack You Didn’t Know Was in Your Credit Card
What Is the Luhn Algorithm? The Math Behind Secure Credit Card Numbers
Find out how this simple algorithm from the 1960s keeps your wallet safeJack Murtagh (Scientific American)
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Is it worth paying a direct download website?
Is it worth paying for a direct download website? When downloading for free it takes 6-8 hours (and for some reason it got interrupted and failed, so I have to attempt again) but if I paid for it I could download it in 3 minutes. I'm worried that the free version just doesn't support having a download take that long, so it will be impossible to obtain.
I'm not sure if it is safe, nor stupid to do so though. Specifically, I'm talking about torbobit (dot) net
Would you consider torrenting (from non-private torrents) safer than ddl? I can either pay the ddl or a vpn and use a torrent. Idk.
Thank you.
it honestly depends on how much you use the service.
i had an account for a while to a site that shut down. while i had it i was downloading a bunch of different files, not necessarily pirated stuff.
i'd say if torrents isn't a viable option and you would be using that site downloading at least 500 mb worth of data a day, it might be worth it. if something you want is available only on one of these sites, it depends on how bad you want it and how soon you want it.
New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history
New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history
The historic number of No Kings protesters and their expansive geographic spread are signs of a growing and durable pro-democracy movement.Erica Chenoweth (Waging Nonviolence)
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Butter made from carbon tastes like the real thing, gets backing from Bill Gates
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/34272214
A California-based biotechnology startup has officially launched the world's first commercially available butter made entirely from carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, eliminating the need for traditional agriculture or animal farming. Savor, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates through his Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, announced the commercial release of its animal- and plant-free butter after three years of development.The revolutionary product uses a proprietary thermochemical process that transforms carbon dioxide captured from the air, hydrogen from water, and methane into fat molecules chemically identical to those found in dairy butter. According to the company, the process creates fatty acids by heating these gases under controlled temperature and pressure conditions, then combining them with glycerol to form triglycerides.
Butter made from carbon tastes like the real thing, gets backing from Bill Gates
A company in Batavia, Illinois is making butter in a way you've never seen before. No animals, no plants, no oils; this butter is made from carbon.Tara Molina (CBS Chicago)
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We focus too much on efficiency and cost sometimes. Sometimes efficiency is only a "nice to have" while being outweighed by practicality, convenience, safety, and any of the other factors we choose to make a priority.
It is expensive and inefficient for an airplane to have two engines instead of just one. We do it anyway because it's required for safety and redundancy. We made that the priority, and that was an active choice. We need to start making more active choices about what the priority is when it comes to our energy futures. All priorities have tradeoffs. Cost and efficiency have their own tradeoffs. Question it when people tell you that things can't be done because of "cost" or "efficiency". When they do that they're presupposing what the priority is, but often it's billionaires trying to cut corners to make themselves richer at our expense, our safety, our futures. We can do inefficient things. Sometimes it's even the right choice.
Or we could burn more coal so we can generate the energy needed for synthetic gasoline…
The problem is, people can, do, and will use that exact same argument to say we don't need any more solar panels or wind turbines, because we don't need and can't use or store the excess power for anything and that's why we need to keep thermal plants as backup for base load generation. Look, when we produce too much electricity, the electricity cost goes to zero and negative! It's "wasteful and inefficient"! But these two problems can solve each other. Synthetic fuels (doesn't have to be gasoline, hydrogen is step 1, methane/LNG is a bit more manageable as a chemical fuel. As long as the carbon source is atmospheric, then it and other synthetic hydrocarbons are carbon neutral to burn) provide an on-demand energy sink/storage method that can support and drive more electrification and renewable power, it just has to be part of a consistent and systemic approach with strict regulation and a clear view of the big picture (something sorely lacking these days).
Nailed it.
We need a solar grid that can meet our demand during a 9-hour, overcast, low-angle winter day. That same grid will be producing more than 4 times as much power as we need during a 15-hour, high-angle summer day, even after we include air conditioning loads.
We need massive, seasonal loads to soak up that excess power and keep solar profitable.
Fake butter isn't going to do it, but things like desalination, hydrogen electrolysis, and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon production are all likely candidates.
What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom
Like many teachers at every level of education, I have spent the past two years trying to wrap my head around the question of generative AI in my English classroom. To my thinking, this is a question that ought to concern all people who like to read and write, not just teachers and their students. Today’s English students are tomorrow’s writers and readers of literature. If you enjoy thoughtful, consequential, human-generated writing—or hope for your own human writing to be read by a wide human audience—you should want young people to learn to read and write. College is not the only place where this can happen, of course, but large public universities like UVA, where I teach, are institutions that reliably turn tax dollars into new readers and writers, among other public services. I see it happen all the time.There are valid reasons why college students in particular might prefer that AI do their writing for them: most students are overcommitted; college is expensive, so they need good grades for a good return on their investment; and AI is everywhere, including the post-college workforce. There are also reasons I consider less valid (detailed in a despairing essay that went viral recently), which amount to opportunistic laziness: if you can get away with using AI, why not?
It was this line of thinking that led me to conduct an experiment in my English classroom. I attempted the experiment in four sections of my class during the 2024-2025 academic year, with a total of 72 student writers. Rather than taking an “abstinence-only” approach to AI, I decided to put the central, existential question to them directly: was it still necessary or valuable to learn to write? The choice would be theirs. We would look at the evidence, and at the end of the semester, they would decide by vote whether A.I. could replace me.
What could go wrong?
In the weeks that followed, I had my students complete a series of writing assignments with and without AI, so that we could compare the results.My students liked to hate on AI, and tended toward food-based metaphors in their critiques: AI prose was generally “flavorless” or “bland” compared to human writing. They began to notice its tendency to hallucinate quotes and sources, as well as its telltale signs, such as the weird prevalence of em-dashes, which my students never use, and sentences that always include exactly three examples. These tics quickly became running jokes, which made class fun: flexing their powers of discernment proved to be a form of entertainment. Without realizing it, my students had become close readers.
During these conversations, my students expressed views that reaffirmed their initial survey choices, finding that AI wasn’t great for first drafts, but potentially useful in the pre- or post-writing stages of brainstorming and editing. I don’t want to overplay the significance of an experiment with only 72 subjects, but my sense of the current AI discourse is that my students’ views reflect broader assumptions about when AI is and isn’t ethical or effective.
It’s increasingly uncontroversial to use AI to brainstorm, and to affirm that you are doing so: just last week, the hosts of the New York Times’s tech podcast spoke enthusiastically about using AI to brainstorm for the podcast itself, including coming up with interview questions and summarizing and analyzing long documents, though of course you have to double-check AI’s work. One host compares AI chatbots to “a very smart assistant who has a dozen Ph.D.s but is also high on ketamine like 30 percent of the time.”
What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom
My students call it “Chat,” a cute nickname they all seem to have agreed on at some point. They use it to make study guides, interpret essay prompts, and register for classes, turning it loose on t…Literary Hub
Wplace Is Exploding Online Amid a New Era of Youth Protest
WPlace is a desktop app that takes its cue from Reddit’s r/place, a sporadic experiment where users placed pixels on a small blank canvas every few minutes. On Wplace, anyone can sign up to add coloured pixels to a world map – each user able to place one every 30 seconds. By internet standards one pixel every 30 seconds is glacial, and that is part of what makes it so powerful. In just a few weeks since its launch tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of drawings have appeared.Scrolling to my corner of Scotland, I found portraits of beloved pets, anime favourites, pride flags, football crests. In Kyiv, a giant Hatsune Miku dominates the sprawl alongside a remembrance garden where a user asked others to leave hand drawn flowers. Some pixels started movements. At one point there was just a single wooden ship flying a Brazilian flag off Portugal. Soon, a fleet appeared, a tongue-in-cheek invasion.
Across the diversity and chaos of the Wplace world map, nothing else feels like Gaza. In most cities, the art is made by those who live there. Palestinians do not have this opportunity: physical infrastructure is destroyed while people are murdered. Their voices, culture, and experiences are erased in real time. So, others show up for them, transforming the space on the map into a living mosaic of grief and care.
No algorithm, no leaders, but on Wplace, collective actions emerge organically. A movement stays visible only because people choose to maintain it, adding pixels, repairing any damage caused by others drawing over it. In that sense it works like any protest camp or memorial in the physical world: it survives only if people tend it. And here, those people are scattered across continents, bound not by geography but by a shared refusal to let what they care about disappear from view.
Wplace Is Exploding Online Amid a New Era of Youth Protest
Wplace is exploding onling amid a new ear of youth protest. From political pixel art to vigils over Gaza, this beautifully chaotic internet project is showing how young people are reinventing protest.Kristie De Garis
Pro
in reply to Pro • • •YaY
Even Firefox didn't do that.