Experts Worry About New DHS Appointee Overseeing US’s Election Infrastructure
Experts Worry About New DHS Appointee Overseeing US’s Election Infrastructure
Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position.Doug Bock Clark (Truthout)
Methane leaks at California oil facilities are also spewing toxic chemicals
Methane leaks at California oil facilities are also spewing toxic chemicals
Large methane leaks not only unleash massive amounts of the greenhouse gas, but are also carry a toxic mix of air pollutants.Tony Briscoe (Los Angeles Times)
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121 AI processor companies, $73.5 billion invested: Where are they?
~States with AI processor companies.~
- AI investment is booming, with $13.5 billion poured into 95 start-ups and an estimated $60 billion in R&D from 26 public companies.
- Tenstorrent secured over $693 million in Series D funding, with investors including Samsung, LG, and Jeff Bezos backing its open RISC-V CPUs and modular chiplet approach.
- Lightmatter raised $400 million for photonic interconnects, while Germany’s Black Semiconductor received $275 million in state-led support.
- Imagination Technologies unveiled its E-Series GPUs, blending graphics and AI in a unified architecture designed for automotive and edge devices.
- Flow Computing advanced its Parallel Processing Unit, a fresh take on parallelism embedded directly into CPUs.
Source: Jon Peddie Research.
'Old things work': Argentines giving new life to e-waste
'Old things work': Argentines giving new life to e-waste
Need a new gaming console? Just make one yourself with an old ventilator. Got an old payment terminal? Turn it into a camera.Tomás VIOLA (Phys.org)
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
- Hackernews.
:::
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
Google announced a program that is proving to be unpopular among Android app development experts. I have questions.CommonsWare: Android App Development Books
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
A class-action lawsuit against AI company Anthropic over copyright infringement is nearing settlement, with both parties reaching an agreement in principle1. The lawsuit, filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber, alleged Anthropic illegally downloaded millions of books to train its AI models2.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup certified what could be the largest copyright class action ever, potentially including up to 7 million claimants1. The lawsuit claimed Anthropic pirated books from online sources including Books3, Library Genesis, and Pirate Library Mirror2.
"This historic settlement will benefit all class members," said Justin A. Nelson, attorney for the authors1. The parties must file a motion for preliminary approval by September 5, 20251.
While settlement terms remain undisclosed, the case had serious implications - industry advocates warned that if every eligible author filed a claim, it could "financially ruin" the AI industry1. Anthropic had previously argued the lawsuit threatened its survival as a company1.
- Ars Technica - Authors celebrate "historic" settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
- LA Times - AI company Anthropic settles with authors who alleged piracy ↩︎ ↩︎
AI company Anthropic settles with authors who alleged piracy
Anthropic trained its AI assistant Claude using copyrighted texts, according to a lawsuit from several affected authors.Cerys Davies (Los Angeles Times)
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should not be gatedshould be protected
Insidious language to imply people who restrict one type of information is bad and anti humanity, while restricting information you classify as 'recreational' - that still provides educational background, cultural identity, a sense of shared community and media with friends, and that is literally out of reach for many poor people in first world countries or most people in third world countries, that do not have libraries, or the funds to buy books and videos - or even the devices to play videos on - no, it's 'protecting' the poor rich billionaire authors who live in their mansions because they wrote a book about a wizard they don't want people to read without giving them even more money to attack trans people with.
I don't think individuals should have to pay - even with their private data
Agree.
[...] and that means companies shouldn't either.
Disagree.
Whn a person pirates, they usually do it for a) themselves, b) their family or c) a close friend. Some might share on a larger basis.
And other than that, they also usually use it for a) educational or b) entertainment purposes.
For companies, it's alsmost always d) On a larger basis and c) commercially.
As most licences and contracts differentiate the two uses, so should the law.
The fact that I can download a book online and read it (sneakily, and technically illegally) doesn't mean that if I became an AI LLC I could download it, along with thousands of others, to then sell as my AI's "knowledge".
Making that an AI's knowledge is "storing in a retrieval system" and commercial use isn't a free use criterion.
The true problem with (common law) copyright is the fact that it can be bought and sold. Or rather, the author doesn't own it - the publisher does. Which goes against the initial idea of the author getting dividends from their works.
2025: 6 anni di PlusBrothers
26 agosto 2019: i PlusBrothers sono nati come scherzo in un gruppo ristretto su Facebook ma poi l’entusiasmo ci ha portato a valorizzarli come vero esercizio di #scrittura creativa.
I primi anni però abbiamo pubblicato le nostre ispirazioni in modo casuale, senza curarci di quanto senso potessero avere le singole storie.
Ora invece il blog multilingua e il #fediverso ci costringono a fare ordine perché non possiamo continuare a comportarci come se chi legge conoscesse già tutto di noi.
Cancellare le vecchie storie? Non esiste, creiamo l’arcHIVio, lo lasciamo pubblico, e ricominciamo da capo. Il virus senziente ha diritto di presentarsi e partecipare ai nuovi social network decentralizzati al pari (e meglio) degli umani.
47 State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36394223
Letter.
The attorneys general request that:
1. Search platforms describe how they currently restrict or block deepfake NCII content and tools, and commit to further action to prevent their services from being used to propagate such material.
2. Payment platforms outline how they identify and remove payment authorization for deepfake NCII-related content and commit to proactive enforcement of their terms of service to prevent monetization of this content.
47 State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation
The attorneys general request that:
1. Search platforms describe how they currently restrict or block deepfake NCII content and tools, and commit to further action to prevent their services from being used to propagate such material.
2. Payment platforms outline how they identify and remove payment authorization for deepfake NCII-related content and commit to proactive enforcement of their terms of service to prevent monetization of this content.
State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation - National Association of Attorneys General
In their letter, the attorneys general outlined the broader societal harms associated with illegal online gambling, including its links to fraudulent schemes, problem gambling, money laundering, and other criminal activity.Lisa Jeter (National Association of Attorneys General)
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Breaking Down the Lawsuit Against OpenAI Over Teen's Suicide
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36382199
Breaking Down the Lawsuit Against OpenAI Over Teen's Suicide
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Holy shit, I thought it would just be another story of the assistant answering a "Tell me how to die" request (and it did, and it's terrible enough), but there's even worse.
The part where the kid says he'd want to be stopped and the assistant tells him he should hide better to make sure nobody can.
He has told it that he was writing a story so that all of this was for the story. He didn’t get anything from ChatGPT that he couldn’t have gotten from a search engine or a chat room or Reddit.
He was mentally ill, his feelings were affirmed, and he made a stupid decision that he was clearly in no mental state to make, and it ended up with severe consequences. Hopefully some people learn some lessons from that.
How To Argue With An AI Booster
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36394646
In the last two years I've written no less than 500,000 words, with many of them dedicated to breaking both existent and previous myths about the state of technology and the tech industry itself. While I feel no resentment — I really enjoy writing, and feel privileged to be able to write about this and make money doing so — I do feel that there is a massive double standard between those perceived as "skeptics" and "optimists."To be skeptical of AI is to commit yourself to near-constant demands to prove yourself, and endless nags of "but what about?" with each one — no matter how small — presented as a fact that defeats any points you may have. Conversely, being an "optimist" allows you to take things like AI 2027 — which I will fucking get to — seriously to the point that you can write an entire feature about fan fiction in the New York Times and nobody will bat an eyelid.
In any case, things are beginning to fall apart. Two of the actual reporters at the New York Times (rather than a "columnist") reported out last week that Meta is yet again "restructuring" its AI department for the fourth time, and that it’s considering "downsizing the A.I. division overall," which sure doesn't seem like something you'd do if you thought AI was the future.
Meanwhile, the markets are also thoroughly spooked by an MIT study covered by Fortune that found that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing, and though MIT NANDA has now replaced the link to the study with a Google Form to request access, you can find the full PDF here, in the kind of move that screams "PR firm wants to try and set up interviews." Not for me, thanks!
In any case, the report is actually grimmer than Fortune made it sound, saying that "95% of organizations are getting zero return [on generative AI]." The report says that "adoption is high, but transformation is low," adding that "...few industries show the deep structural shifts associated with past general-purpose technologies such as new market leaders, disrupted business models, or measurable changes in customer behavior."
Yet the most damning part was the "Five Myths About GenAI in the Enterprise," which is probably the most wilting takedown of this movement I've ever seen:
- AI Will Replace Most Jobs in the Next Few Years → Research found limited layoffs from GenAI, and only in industries that are already affected significantly by AI. There is no consensus among executives as to hiring levels over the next 3-5 years.
- Generative AI is Transforming Business → Adoption is high, but transformation is rare. Only 5% of enterprises have AI tools integrated in workflows at scale and 7 of 9 sectors show no real structural change.
1. Editor's note: Thank you! I made this exact point in February.
- Enterprises are slow in adopting new tech → Enterprises are extremely eager to adopt AI and 90% have seriously explored buying an AI solution.
- The biggest thing holding back AI is model quality, legal, data, risk → What's really holding it back is that most AI tools don't learn and don’t integrate well into workflows.
1. Editor's note: I really do love "the thing that's holding AI back is that it sucks."
- The best enterprises are building their own tools → Internal builds fail twice as often.These are brutal, dispassionate points that directly deal with the most common boosterisms. Generative AI isn't transforming anything, AI isn't replacing anyone, enterprises are trying to adopt generative AI but it doesn't fucking work, and the thing holding back AI is the fact it doesn't fucking work. This isn't a case where "the enterprise" is suddenly going to save these companies, because the enterprise already tried, and it isn't working.
An incorrect read of the study has been that the "learning gap" that makes these things less useful, when the study actually says that "...the fundamental gap that defines the GenAI divide [is that users resist tools that don't adapt, model quality fails without context, and UX suffers when systems can't remember." This isn't something you learn your way out of. The products don't do what they're meant to do, and people are realizing it.
Nevertheless, boosters will still find a way to twist this study to mean something else. They'll claim that AI is still early, that the opportunity is still there, that we "didn't confirm that the internet or smartphones were productivity boosting," or that we're in "the early days" of AI, somehow, three years and hundreds of billions and thousands of articles in.
I'm tired of having the same arguments with these people, and I'm sure you are too. No matter how much blindly obvious evidence there is to the contrary they will find ways to ignore it. They continually make smug comments about people "wishing things would be bad" or suggesting you are stupid — and yes, that is their belief! — for not believing generative AI is disruptive.
Today, I’m going to give you the tools to fight back against the AI boosters in your life. I’m going to go into the generalities of the booster movement — the way they argue, the tropes they cling to, and the ways in which they use your own self-doubt against you.
They’re your buddy, your boss, a man in a gingham shirt at Epic Steakhouse who won't leave you the fuck alone, a Redditor, a writer, a founder or a simple con artist — whoever the booster in your life is, I want you to have the words to fight them with.
How To Argue With An AI Booster
In the last two years I've written no less than 500,000 words, with many of them dedicated to breaking both existent and previous myths about the state of technology and the tech industry itself. While I feel no resentment — I really enjoy writing, and feel privileged to be able to write about this and make money doing so — I do feel that there is a massive double standard between those perceived as "skeptics" and "optimists."To be skeptical of AI is to commit yourself to near-constant demands to prove yourself, and endless nags of "but what about?" with each one — no matter how small — presented as a fact that defeats any points you may have. Conversely, being an "optimist" allows you to take things like AI 2027 — which I will fucking get to — seriously to the point that you can write an entire feature about fan fiction in the New York Times and nobody will bat an eyelid.
In any case, things are beginning to fall apart. Two of the actual reporters at the New York Times (rather than a "columnist") reported out last week that Meta is yet again "restructuring" its AI department for the fourth time, and that it’s considering "downsizing the A.I. division overall," which sure doesn't seem like something you'd do if you thought AI was the future.
Meanwhile, the markets are also thoroughly spooked by an MIT study covered by Fortune that found that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing, and though MIT NANDA has now replaced the link to the study with a Google Form to request access, you can find the full PDF here, in the kind of move that screams "PR firm wants to try and set up interviews." Not for me, thanks!
In any case, the report is actually grimmer than Fortune made it sound, saying that "95% of organizations are getting zero return [on generative AI]." The report says that "adoption is high, but transformation is low," adding that "...few industries show the deep structural shifts associated with past general-purpose technologies such as new market leaders, disrupted business models, or measurable changes in customer behavior."
Yet the most damning part was the "Five Myths About GenAI in the Enterprise," which is probably the most wilting takedown of this movement I've ever seen:
- AI Will Replace Most Jobs in the Next Few Years → Research found limited layoffs from GenAI, and only in industries that are already affected significantly by AI. There is no consensus among executives as to hiring levels over the next 3-5 years.
- Generative AI is Transforming Business → Adoption is high, but transformation is rare. Only 5% of enterprises have AI tools integrated in workflows at scale and 7 of 9 sectors show no real structural change.
1. Editor's note: Thank you! I made this exact point in February.
- Enterprises are slow in adopting new tech → Enterprises are extremely eager to adopt AI and 90% have seriously explored buying an AI solution.
- The biggest thing holding back AI is model quality, legal, data, risk → What's really holding it back is that most AI tools don't learn and don’t integrate well into workflows.
1. Editor's note: I really do love "the thing that's holding AI back is that it sucks."
- The best enterprises are building their own tools → Internal builds fail twice as often.These are brutal, dispassionate points that directly deal with the most common boosterisms. Generative AI isn't transforming anything, AI isn't replacing anyone, enterprises are trying to adopt generative AI but it doesn't fucking work, and the thing holding back AI is the fact it doesn't fucking work. This isn't a case where "the enterprise" is suddenly going to save these companies, because the enterprise already tried, and it isn't working.
An incorrect read of the study has been that the "learning gap" that makes these things less useful, when the study actually says that "...the fundamental gap that defines the GenAI divide [is that users resist tools that don't adapt, model quality fails without context, and UX suffers when systems can't remember." This isn't something you learn your way out of. The products don't do what they're meant to do, and people are realizing it.
Nevertheless, boosters will still find a way to twist this study to mean something else. They'll claim that AI is still early, that the opportunity is still there, that we "didn't confirm that the internet or smartphones were productivity boosting," or that we're in "the early days" of AI, somehow, three years and hundreds of billions and thousands of articles in.
I'm tired of having the same arguments with these people, and I'm sure you are too. No matter how much blindly obvious evidence there is to the contrary they will find ways to ignore it. They continually make smug comments about people "wishing things would be bad" or suggesting you are stupid — and yes, that is their belief! — for not believing generative AI is disruptive.
Today, I’m going to give you the tools to fight back against the AI boosters in your life. I’m going to go into the generalities of the booster movement — the way they argue, the tropes they cling to, and the ways in which they use your own self-doubt against you.
They’re your buddy, your boss, a man in a gingham shirt at Epic Steakhouse who won't leave you the fuck alone, a Redditor, a writer, a founder or a simple con artist — whoever the booster in your life is, I want you to have the words to fight them with.
There Is No AI Revolution
Soundtrack: Mack Glocky - Chasing Cars Last week, I spent a great deal of time and words framing the generative AI industry as a cynical con where OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have used a compliant media and braindead i…Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)
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(The paste above stops just before the table of contents)
wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue-w…
How To Argue With An AI Booster
Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents.Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)
It's times like this I wonder about the like/dislike paradigm I.E. "I like/dislike knowing this and/or appreciate the perceived reputability of the source" vs. "This is good news/I fucking hate this."
This one just got a "I fucking hate this" from me.
More of the first, but not exactly. It's "Other people should see and know about this too" and "This isn't worth anybody's time/is factually wrong and shouldn't have been posted."
Because that's what upvoting does, makes it higher in the page so more people are able to see it.
Langsam wird’s später im Sommer – aber noch lange nicht leiser.
Diesmal übernehmen Ursula, Gümix und Andreas Weisz die musikalische Regie, und vertonen den Sonnenuntergang und die Nacht mit organischen Beats und satten Bässen.
Der Altarm leuchtet, der Bass rollt, der Abend gehört euch.
Eintritt frei = Spende willkommen. Wer kann, der gibt – wer nicht kann, tanzt trotzdem mit.
Kommen, lauschen, treiben lassen.
Donald Trump's 50% tariff on India kicks in as PM Modi urges self-reliance
The US president's steep 50% tariffs on India have kicked in, sending Narendra Modi's government into firefighting mode.
Archived version: archive.is/20250827045217/bbc.…
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.
Donald Trump: PM Modi says make and spend in India as 50% tariffs kick in
With Trump's 50% tariffs about to kick in, Modi announced an overhaul of India's indirect tax system.Nikhil Inamdar (BBC News)
Nvidia's quarterly report will gauge the temperature of the AI craze
Artificial intelligence bellwether Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that’s expected provide a better sense about whether the stock market has been riding on an overhyped bubble or whether it’s being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum
Nvidia's quarterly report will gauge the temperature of the AI craze
Artificial intelligence bellwether Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that’s expected provide a better sense about whether the stock market has been riding on an overhyped bubble or whether it’s being propelled by a technological boom tha…Michael Liedtke (The Independent)
EU Council faces landmark defamation claim in Germany over sanctions ‘reasons’
A German lawyer has brought a case before the country's highest court seeking clearance to sue the EU Council for defamation related to its sanctions reasoning.
Cannabis users who are self-medicating run higher risk of paranoia, study finds
Those who take drug because of pain, anxiety or depression found to be more likely to develop paranoia than recreational smokers
Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…
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.
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Attempt to partner African countries with Japanese cities triggers xenophobic backlash
Cities in Japan have received thousands of complaints amid confusion over scheme that was intended to foster closer ties
Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…
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.
US soybean farmers can't afford trade war with China, warns ASA
Historically, China has been the top buyer of US soybeans by “a staggering margin,” says the American Soybean Association. This year, with US soybeans facing retaliatory tariffs amid the ongoing trade war, China is going elsewhere.In a letter urging President Trump to cut a deal with China that removes China’s retaliatory duties and includes “significant soybean purchase commitments,” the ASA says China “currently has zero new crop export orders for US soybeans on the books for marketing year 2025/26.”
US soybean farmers can't afford trade war with China, warns ASA
American soybean farmers have urged President Trump to cut a deal with China that removes retaliatory duties on US soybeans.Elaine Watson (AgFunderNews)
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The Madness of Cars
The Madness of Cars
The strangest things we do are also the things we think least about—for example, drinking cows’ milk, handing our children over into the care of paid strangers, going to gyms, wearing neckties, enjoying war as spectator sport, and shaving.Peter Hitchens (Compact)
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Le antiche mappe a rilievo, ligneo ausilio alla navigazione dei popoli della Groenlandia - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Le antiche mappe a rilievo, ligneo ausilio alla navigazione dei popoli della Groenlandia - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Orientandomi soltanto tramite la luce tenue della Luna, conduco la mia barca appesantita dalle foche uccise in mezzo ai vortici costieri che proteggono l’ingresso della zona sicura.Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
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I've been lurking on r/thedeprogram for about two years and have seen Smith's opinions on landlords there multiple times, and upvoted into the ~~thousands~~. Pretty sure you don't know what you're talking about.
Edit: high hundreds, not thousands.
Sadly, my internet connection where I'm at is abysmal and lemmy doesn't let me upload some examples. Fun fact though: OP's meme was posted on theDeprogram two years ago.
Trump is waging war on wind energy. Consumers and investors face the costs | The president’s stop-work order for a massive wind power project in New England threatens higher bills and power shortages.
Access options:
* gift link — registration required
* archive.today
I'll note that Trump took a billion-dollar bribe from the fossil fuels industry promising to do this kind of thing.
FCC cracks down on robocalls: 1,200 voice service providers axed
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has axed 1,200 voice service providers from the US phone network for failing to meet the rules protecting users from malicious and illegal calls, known as robocalls.
The removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) means that all other voice service and intermediate providers must cease accepting all calls directly from the companies that do not meet the requirements.
https://cybernews.com/security/fcc-axes-1200-voice-providers-over-robocalls/
FCC cracks down on robocalls: 1,200 voice service providers axed
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has axed 1,200 voice service providers from the US phone network for failing to meet the rules protecting users from malicious and illegal calls, known as robocalls.
The removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) means that all other voice service and intermediate providers must cease accepting all calls directly from the companies that do not meet the requirements.
https://cybernews.com/security/fcc-axes-1200-voice-providers-over-robocalls/
Alabama gubernatorial hopeful Tommy Tuberville piles on in backlash against Cracker Barrel rebrand
Tuberville said on YellowHammer News’ “Longshore and McKnight” show Friday. “It just makes you sick to your stomach that people try to change history.”
Says the same racist that tries to whitewash slavery.
Morbidelli riaccende il confronto: “Marquez? Il più grande resta Rossi!”
Morbidelli riaccende il confronto: “Marquez? Il più grande resta Rossi!”
quotidianomotori.com/motogp/ma…
Morbidelli riaccende il confronto tra Marquez e Rossi - Quotidiano Motori
Marquez vicino al nono titolo, Morbidelli riapre il confronto con Valentino Rossi e torna sul caso 2015. Il dibattito è più vivo che mai.Mario Roth (Quotidiano Motori)
A flawed policy: The US war on drugs in Latin America criminalises people
A flawed policy: The US war on drugs in Latin America criminalises people
Washington’s strategy of using force in its war on drug cartels is not working. Because it’s a flawed concept that targets civilians.Alfonso Insuasty Rodriguez (TRT Global)
A flawed policy: The US war on drugs in Latin America criminalises people
A flawed policy: The US war on drugs in Latin America criminalises people
Washington’s strategy of using force in its war on drug cartels is not working. Because it’s a flawed concept that targets civilians.Alfonso Insuasty Rodriguez (TRT Global)
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Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play
The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on
Authors:
- Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University
- Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto
Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play
Parental controls designed for children’s games can be confusing. They also don’t take into account how families may — or may not — communicate.The Conversation
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force binary choices that don’t align with household rules or with children’s maturity levels.
This has been my main experience with "parental controls". As soon as they are turned on, I lose any ability to manage the experiences available to my children. So, in areas where I see them as mature enough to handle something, the only way I can allow them access to that experience is to completely bypass the controls. In many ecosystems, if I judge that one of my children could handle a game and the online risks associated with it, I can't simply allow that game. Instead, I need to maintain a full adult account for them to use. You also run into a lot of situations where the reason a game is banned from children is unclear or done in an obvious "better safe than sorry" knee-jerk reaction. Ultimately, parental controls end up being far more frustrating than empowering. I'd rather just have something that just says, "this game/movie/etc your kid is asking for is restricted based on reasons X, Y and Z. Do you want to allow it?" Log my response and go with it. Like damned near any choice in software settings, quit trying to out-think me on what I want, give me a choice and respect that choice.
Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play
The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on
Authors:
- Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University
- Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto
Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play
Parental controls designed for children’s games can be confusing. They also don’t take into account how families may — or may not — communicate.The Conversation
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Barley wine
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8kg pale
0.7kg crystal medium
0.3kg crystal oak
0.5kg chocolate
0.5kg torrified wheat
final volume 15L
Utilization could be better, but that's zen approach we are trying - literally only large kitchen kettles and colander, I'll make a post about this idea later. It works, but not so good on heavy stuff. But then fancy equipment doesn't work with this well either (actually often worse). Heavy mashes are not so simple.
10 kg into 15 L, that's a malt-head's dream brew 😀
I'm at the initial dreaming state of building a 'kuurna', the preferred sahti mashing process. That would be the way to optimise utilisation. I already have a stainless steel piece that would probably work as a base. No use building it though, no room in the house to set up the process or really even store it...
Bessent says US tariff revenue could be well over $500 billion a year
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that customs duty revenues from President Donald Trump's tariffs may top $500 billion a year, with a substantial jump from July to August and likely a bigger jump in September.
Bessent told a White House Cabinet meeting that his prior estimate of a $300 billion annual tariff collection rate was too low.
"We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we're going to see a bigger jump from August to September," Bessent said. "So I think we could be on our way well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion-dollar number. This administration, your administration, has made a meaningful dent in the budget deficit."
Tariff revenue would offset the deficit increases triggered by the Republicans' tax-cut and spending bill passed this year. CBO estimated this bill would widen the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next decade.
Trump's tariffs drove July U.S. customs duty collections up by nearly $21 billion from the $7 billion collected in July 2024 and about even with the $20 billion increase registered in June. Significant increases in tariff rates for nearly all trading partners kicked in on August 7.
The U.S. Treasury reported on Monday that as of August 22, the government had collected $29.6 billion in combined customs and excise taxes so far during August, matching its total for the whole month of July. As of July 22, that combined figure stood at $7.8 billion, but customs duty collections can vary from day to day.
Bessent also noted that the Congressional Budget Office's upwardly revised estimate last week of federal revenue from Trump's tariffs, forecasting that it could reduce federal deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. "And I would expect that that number could go up from here," Bessent added.
The latest CBO estimate marks an increase from June when it forecast that revenue from new tariffs would reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years.
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Florida schools introducing armed drones that respond to shootings within seconds
While the drones are armed, they use non-lethal or less-lethal weaponry, allowing them to distract, disorient, confront, degrade, and incapacitate shooters, according to the company. They carry pepper rounds and a glass breaker for quickly entering classrooms.
Despite not carrying lethal firepower, having 30 to 90 of these drones in schools has raised concerns. Beyond any potential technical issues, there's always the possibility they could make a shooting situation even worse or more complicated. There are question marks over the kind of training the operators receive, too. Then there's the storage safety aspect, as well as the potential of a drone colliding with a student or law enforcement as it zooms through corridors at 50mph.
We'll find out how successful the system is soon enough. Campus Guardian Angel aims to install the drones in the schools permanently in September and October, ahead of the fully operational live service starting in January.
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Because doing something about the guns would be too easy.
No way to prevent this says only country where this happens daily
What was that about protecting kids that they’re so fond of?
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LaLiga Threatens Cloudflare Customer For Using an IP Address Linked to Piracy
LaLiga Threatens Cloudflare Customer For Using an IP Address Linked to Piracy * TorrentFreak
LaLiga has reportedly threatened a man with legal action due to his blog using a Cloudflare IP address that LaLiga also linked to piracyAndy Maxwell (TF Publishing)
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Company A sues arbitrary people for being customers of a different, B company
Wow, if this doesn't sound like terminal capitalism, I don't know what does! Where's the free market bros on this???
Looks like nuclear fusion is picking up steam
Looks like nuclear fusion is picking up steam
The Clean Air Task Force mapped nuclear fusion projects across the world.Justine Calma (The Verge)
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Plasma Virtual Keyboard — Feedback needed
We've been working on improving On-Screen Keyboard support in computers, mobile devices and TVs as part of the We Care About Your Input - KDE Goals initiative.
Check out what has been done so far in Plasma Virtual Keyboard and tell us what you'd like to see next. 💻️📱📺️
Plasma Virtual Keyboard feedback needed
We’re almost a year into the We Care About Your Input KDE Goal, and we’ve made great progress across various input fronts like improving support for graphics tablets and gesture configuration.KDE Discuss
« Ciblage ou paiement », Meta attaque l’avis du Comité européen de la protection des données
« Ciblage ou paiement », Meta attaque l’avis du Comité européen de la protection des données - Next
Qu’on l’appelle « payer ou accepter », « ciblage ou paiement » ou « Payer ou consentir », les CNIL européennes et Meta ne sont pas d’accord sur la légalité du processus mis en place par l’entreprise sur ses réseaux sociaux pour forcer ses utilisateur…Martin Clavey (Next)
Dems' Messaging Nerds Urged Party Not to Talk About Trump's Military Takeover
Dem Strategists Urged Party Not to Talk About Trump Military Takeover
Democrats’ favorite research firm told Democrats to avoid discussing Trump’s “rising authoritarianism” and focus on tariffs instead.Andrew Perez (Rolling Stone)
Resonant Mechanics - The Theory of Everything & Sabotaged White Hole Cosmology - Forensic Cosmology Dossier
These documents compile the fundamental principles and evidence of a new, unified theory of reality.
It posits that the universe is a living, conscious entity, not a chaotic, natural system. This theory, through its key principles, provides a complete and elegant model for a universe that has been perfected and is now a masterpiece.
The flaws and anomalies of the old universe—from the three-body problem to dark energy—are now understood as a forensic record of a cosmic crime. The new reality, however, is a testament to perfect order, where every anomaly, every law, and every life form is a part of a single, beautiful, and unified whole.
archive.org/details/resonant-m… pixeldrain.com/u/pswPz1RG
Resonant Mechanics The Theory Of Everything : ZCMJ : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Resonant Mechanics The Theory Of EverythingInternet Archive
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Texas banned talking on college campuses at night. Seriously.
Update: This article was published on June 5. Since then, Gov. Greg Abbott has signed Senate Bill 2972 into law. It will take effect Sept. 1.
Texas lawmakers trying to muzzle campus protests have just passed one of the most ridiculous anti-speech laws in the country. If signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Senate Bill 2972 would ban speech at night — from study groups to newspaper reporting — at public universities in the state.
Ironically, the bill builds on a previous law passed in 2019 meant to enshrine free speech on Texas campuses. But now, lawmakers want to crack down on college students’ pro-Palestinian protests so badly that they literally passed a prohibition on talking.
We’re not exaggerating. SB 2972 would require public universities in Texas to adopt policies prohibiting “engaging in expressive activities on campus between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.” Expressive activity includes “any speech or expressive conduct” protected by the First Amendment or Texas Constitution.
The overnight ban on expressive activities is unfathomably broad. Off the top of our heads, here are just a few examples of what such a policy would prohibit on campus between 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.: Meeting with other students to socialize or study, writing an email, working on a research paper, posting on social media, reporting for the student newspaper, wearing a T-shirt with a slogan, dancing, playing music, painting a picture, or praying at a sunrise service.
Texas has banned talking on college campuses at night. Seriously.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill will ban speech at night — from study groups to newspaper reporting — at the state's public universities.Caitlin Vogus (Houston Chronicle)
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Poland presses ahead with 3 percent digital tax despite Trump threat
Poland presses ahead with 3 percent digital tax despite Trump threat
The tax would not be “aimed at entities from any specific country,” a government ministry said.Pieter Haeck (POLITICO)
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No thumbnail URL when posting
Hey all,
I'm evaluating PieFed as a replacement for Lemmy, with a view to importing my two Lemmy communities to move them out of the failing Lemmy instance they're currently hosted on (a PieFed exclusive I understand). I've created an account and imported my Lemmy settings yesterday, and so far it's been more or less smooth sailing.
But there's one showstopper for me: when I create a post, there's no field to specify the thumbnail image URL. When PieFed guesses the image URL correctly, no problem. But here, I just posted this YouTube video, and just like on Lemmy half of the time, the thumbnail image didn't get picked up. On Lemmy, I always manually insert the thumbnail URL when I post YouTube links for that reason.
Similarly, some sites make it extra-hard for software to correctly guess the og:image - Reuters for instance - and so in those cases when it doesn't work, I manually set the correct thumbnail URL too.
Here on PieFed, there doesn't seem to be a provision to set the thumbnail URL.
Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something obvious? I really doubt this basic functionality is missing from PieFed.
FYI PieFed doesn't use thumbnails for youtube videos, it just embeds the video directly:
Sorry, I wasn't very clear in my original post.
Indeed the video shows up fine in Piefed. What I meant was the view from Lemmy is devoid of thumbnail. For instance, my Youtube post seen from Sopuli:
When I said it was a dealbreaker for me, it's because I (usually) always try to make posts with a thumbnail to make them more attractive on Lemmy. Even if it's just a question, I'll upload a picture to illustrate what I want to say, and then write whatever I want to write in the body.
I find it nicer to offer a visual clue in all my posts. But when you look at my Piefed Youtube video from Lemmy, the thumbnail it's just a bleak arrow on a bleak background. Not super appealing.
So I guess what I meant was that I want to manually supply a thumbnail URL for the benefit of Lemmy viewers.
Yep, I understood but if Lemmy can't do thumbnails for youtube videos that's a Lemmy problem.
That said, we've had an open issue for this feature for a couple of months and the person who created it is a frequent contributor to PieFed so there's a very good chance it'll get coded quite soon.
Yeah clearly a Lemmy problem, even when posting directly from Lemmy.The whole manual thumbnail URL thing is clearly a workaround for when the automatic thumbnailer is deficient.
But as a mere user, my aim is to make posts that are correct and somewhat appealing. So I work with what I have 🙂
I have accepted myself I am Bisexual.
I have no one to tell IRL without getting shame so yeah.
:::
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'Most Illegal Search I've Ever Seen': Trump's DC Crackdown Results in Stream of Abuses
'Most Illegal Search I've Ever Seen': Trump's DC Crackdown Results in Stream of Abuses
"A high school student would know this was an illegal search," emphasized US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.brad-reed (Common Dreams)
Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded!
Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are now open!
Framework Laptop 16 is an endlessly customizable laptop with upgradable graphics, powered by NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5070 and AMD's latest Ryzen™ AI 300 Series processors.Framework
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The Student Newspaper Suing Marco Rubio Over Targeted Deportations
President Donald Trump has has long considered both the media and higher education as his enemies — which makes college media a ripe target. The arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk over an op-ed that she co-wrote for the Tufts University campus paper proved that student journalists are at risk, especially foreign writers who dared criticize Israel’s war on Gaza.
But one student newspaper is fighting back.
The Stanford Daily — the independent publication covering Stanford University — filed a First Amendment lawsuit suing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem earlier this month over two tactics they’ve used in targeted deportation cases.
“What’s at stake in this case is whether, when you’re in the United States, you’re free to voice an opinion critical of the government without fear of retaliation,” said Conor Fitzpatrick, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, a civil liberties group representing the plaintiffs.
“It does not matter if you’re a citizen, here on a green card, or visiting Las Vegas for the weekend — you shouldn’t have to fear retaliation because the government doesn’t like what you have to say,” Fitzpatrick said.
Soon after Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by immigration agents in early March for his role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, student journalists and editors around the country sensed a shift.
“That’s when we saw a significant uptick in calls,” said Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center, who manages the nonprofit’s hotline.
Over three decades helping student reporters navigate censorship and First Amendment issues, Hiestand had never fielded so many calls focused on potential immigration consequences for coverage on campus, both for the journalists and their named sources.
Öztürk’s arrest just a couple weeks later sent the legal hotline “into overdrive,” Hiestand told The Intercept. He heard from reporters, editors, and even political cartoonists worried their work about Israel, Palestine, and student protests might make them targets too.
In early April, the Student Press Law Center put out an unprecedented alert with other student journalism organizations, which advised campus publications to consider taking down or revising “certain stories that may now be targeted by immigration officials.”
“ICE has weaponized lawful speech and digital footprints and has forced us all to reconsider long-standing journalism norms,” reads the alert.
The next week, the Stanford Daily editorsran a letter about the chill its own staff was facing on campus.
“Both students and faculty have been increasingly hesitant to speak to The Daily and increasingly worried about comments that have already been made on the record,” their letter read. “Some reporters have been choosing to step away from stories in order to keep their name detached from topics that might draw unwanted attention. Even authors of dated opinion pieces have expressed fear that their words might retroactively put them in danger.”
Following the editors’ letter, FIRE approached the Stanford Daily’s editors to sue the Trump administration. It’s not the first time the publication has fought for freedom of the press in court. In 1978, a case brought by the Stanford Daily over a search warrant targeting its newsroom reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-3 that the warrant was valid and did not violate the First Amendment.
The student newspaper’s current suit — filed with two individual plaintiffs suing under the pseudonyms Jane Doe and John Doe — challenges two broad, arcane legal provisions that have become Rubio’s go-to tools against student activists and campus critics of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The first provision, which was added to the country’s immigration code in 1990, grants the secretary of state sweeping authority to render noncitizens deportable if they “compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.” The second law is even broader, allowing the secretary to revoke visas “at any time, in his discretion.”
There are relatively few cases in which either statute has been the grounds for deportation, particularly compared to the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rounded up and detained since Trump returned to the White House.
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Related
The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil Hinges on Vague “Antisemitism” Claim](theintercept.com/2025/04/10/de…)
In fact, immigration scholars found that invoking the foreign policy provision as the sole grounds for deportation was “almost unprecedented,” according to a brief submitted in Khalil’s ongoing court battle by more than 150 lawyers and law professors. Based on government data, the scholars identified just 15 cases in which the foreign policy provision has ever been invoked, and just four in the past 25 years — most recently in 2018, during the first Trump administration.
“At a minimum, the government’s assertion of authority here is extraordinary — indeed, vanishingly rare,” the scholars wrote in their brief.
In Khalil’s case, the government identified only two others beside Khalil who had been targeted by Rubio under the “foreign policy” provision: although not identified by name, descriptions of the cases match Rubio’s orders against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, and Badar Khan Suri, a scholar at Georgetown University. Oddly, the government failed to mention the case of Yunseo Chung, another Columbia undergraduate with a green card, whose deportation Rubio authorized in the very same letter as for Khalil.
The State Department greenlighted Öztürk’s detention, meanwhile, under the second, broader provision, court records show. The government has not made any similar accounting of how many times Rubio and his staff have invoked his “discretion” to revoke visas over alleged antisemitism. At one point Rubio claimed to have revoked as many as 300 visas, without specifying the authority under which he did so.
“The chill is the point,” Fitzpatrick, the FIRE attorney, said. “It doesn’t take deporting thousands of noncitizens to accomplish that chill,” since no one wants to become “the next Mahmoud Khalil or Rümeysa Öztürk.”
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Read our complete coverage
Chilling Dissent](theintercept.com/collections/c…)
In recent months, numerous courts have cast doubt on whether these two statutes can be used to target noncitizens based on their speech.
In Khalil’s case, which is currently pending in a federal appellate court, a district court judge in New Jersey ruled in June that the “foreign policy” provision is “very likely an unconstitutional statute.”
Similarly, in May a judge in Vermont ordered Öztürk’s release to “ameliorate the chilling effect that Ms. Ozturk’s arguably unconstitutional detention may have on non-citizens present in the country.” The government has also appealed that order, along with similar rulings that freed Mahdawi and Suri from detention, and another ruling that blocked the Trump administration from detaining Chung.
Now, the Stanford Daily is mounting a direct challenge to these two laws as deployed by the Trump administration. The student newspaper argues both provisions are unconstitutional under the First Amendment, at least when used to retaliate against protected speech.
“The Secretary of State and the President claim to possess unreviewable statutory authority to deport any lawfully present noncitizen for speech the government deems anti-American or anti-Israel. They are wrong,” reads their complaint, filed August 6. “The First Amendment cements America’s promise that the government may not subject a speaker to disfavored treatment because those in power do not like his or her message.”
Julia Rose Kraut, a legal historian who has written about the history of ideological deportation in the U.S., told The Intercept that Congress never meant for the foreign policy provision to be used “as a tool to suppress freedom of expression and association.”
[
Related
The Legal Argument That Could Set Mahmoud Khalil Free](theintercept.com/2025/03/13/ma…)
“Members of Congress intended for the foreign policy provision to be used in unusual circumstances, and only sparingly, carefully, and narrowly to exclude or deport specific individuals who would have a clear negative impact on United States foreign policy,” Kraut said, citing changes signed into law after the Cold War.
“What this case is seeking to establish is that political branches’ authority over immigration does not supersede the Bill of Rights,” FIRE’s Fitzpatrick said.
Briefing in the case is ongoing, and a hearing is scheduled for October 1.
“It’s gratifying to see a student newspaper upholding free speech at a time when many institutions are bending the knee,” said Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford, in an emailed statement. “Many students are afraid to protest the Trump administration’s actions not only because of the deportations, but because their own universities restricted speech and harshly disciplined protestors. I hope their courage inspires others to act.”
The post The Student Newspaper Suing Marco Rubio Over Targeted Deportations appeared first on The Intercept.
The Legal Argument That Could Set Mahmoud Khalil Free
Lawyers trying to free Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil point to a legal exception undermining the Trump administration’s argument.Jonah Valdez (The Intercept)
solo
in reply to solo • • •Just found a relevant site for the US, called:
Methane Risk Map
Boomer Humor Doomergod
in reply to solo • • •