Link without the paywall

archive.ph/w7XU7

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/indeed-glassdoor-cut-1300-jobs-amid-ai-integration-memo-shows-2025-07-10/

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized the domain names of several gaming-related pirate sites, including NSW2U.com, which has been Nintendo's nemesis for years. The operation was carried out in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, including the Dutch fiscal police. It is not immediately clear whether the action is linked to any arrests or indictments.

FBI Seizes Gaming Piracy Domains Including 'Pre-Release' Target NSW2U * TorrentFreak

^{Ernesto Van der Sar (TF Publishing)}

Datacenters are slurping ever more energy to meet the growing demands of AI, but some estimates of future demand imply an increase in hardware that would be beyond the capacity of global chipmakers to supply, according to an environmental nonprofit.

Warnings about the amount of energy that AI datacenters will consume have been getting more strident. A recent report by Deloitte Insights estimated that the total power required by bit barns in the US will increase by a factor of five by 2035, and consultants Bain & Company issued advice to utility companies to revamp the way they operate to support a rapid scale-up of energy resources.

But what happens if those estimates are overinflated? If power companies invest heavily in additional power generation and transmission infrastructure, but datacenter growth does not come near the forecast level, the cost of that expansion would have to be borne by other customers.

Which ... is already happening. $50-a-month rate hike?! As recently as 2019, I was paying $25 per month for my first MWh, all inclusive.

Meanwhile, some US power companies are already set to impose price hikes on consumers because of those pesky bit barns, according to various reports.

The Financial Times said that National Grid, with users in New York and Massachusetts, is to raise rates by $50 a month, while Northern Indiana Public Service Company is upping monthly rates by $23 a customer.

Reuters reports that PJM Interconnection, which serves a number of states clustered near the east coast, is set to increase its energy bills by more than 20 percent this summer. Its area of coverage includes Virginia, home to the largest concentration of datacenter capacity in the world.

Slow down on building power plants for all those new AI datacenters, report warns

: Projections are likely exaggerated, a new analysis from an environmental group says

^{Dan Robinson (The Register)}

The new Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe 2230 is a single-sided M.2 2230 (22x30mm) form-factor SSD that will be available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities, reaching sequential read and write speeds of up to 6,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s. The Kingston NV3 is also available in the standard M.2 2280 form-factor.

Look, I'll be the first to admit that this is a not-even-glorified press-release rewrite.

That out of the way, it's pretty amazing that 2230 has become viable at large capacities while still hitting PCIe 4 speeds. Sure, it's not the latest gen in the wild, but my guess is you'd need active cooling for PCIe 5 in this form factor.

My first NVMe drive was shockingly tiny -- like, I know millimetres and all, but I'm old enough that our first (20MB) hard drive was full-height 5¼". Being able to get this kind of throughput in such a small space makes a 2280 look like an SD card adapter for a 2230 microSD.

Kingston adds M.2 2230 form-factor to the NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD lineup

Reaching 6,000MB/s and at up to 2TB Kingston has added a new form-factor to the popular NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD lineup, the 2230, which will be perfect for those gaming handheld consoles and other devices.

^{Slobodan Simic (Fudzilla)}

The construction of thousands of dams since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to wobble, new research suggests.

Scientists found that large dams hold so much water they redistribute mass around the globe, shifting the position of Earth's crust relative to the mantle, the planet's middle layer.

Earth's mantle is gooey, and the crust forms a solid shell that can slide around on top of it. Weight on the crust that causes it to shift relative to the mantle also shifts the location of Earth's poles, the researchers said.

Dams around the world hold so much water they've shifted Earth's poles, new research shows

Dam construction since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to "wander" away from the planet's rotational axis because of the massive weight of water reservoirs.

^{Sascha Pare (Live Science)}

Succedono cose sempre più pazze in questa economia… anzi, solo cose pazze, oserei dire… ma, indubbiamente, ogni tanto, tra queste folli follie, qualche schiribizzo dal grande valore aggiunto pur spunta fuori. Tipo, il cosiddetto movimento politico, ed omonima iniziativa dei cittadini europei, conosciuto come BASTA Uccidendo Giochi!!! (Per i britannici, anche se loro non hanno […]

octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…

minioctt

2025-07-10 17:44:08

fermaggio dell’omicidio videoludico grazie all’antimiseria europea??? (Petizione ECI “Stop Killing Games”)

Succedono cose sempre più pazze in questa economia… anzi, solo cose pazze, oserei dire… ma, indubbiamente, ogni tanto, tra queste folli follie, qualche schiribizzo dal grande valore aggiunto pur spunta fuori. Tipo, il cosiddetto movimento politico, ed omonima iniziativa dei cittadini europei, conosciuto come BASTA Uccidendo Giochi!!! (Per i britannici, anche se loro non hanno più niente a che fare con l’Unione Europea e dunque mi chiedo che bisogno ci sia da parte mia di precisare per loro, “Stop Killin’ Games“.)

È un disegno di legge per la protezione dei consumatori in ambito videoludico, ma per tutte le informazioni si legga stopkillinggames.com/ 👾

Qualche giorno fa, la petizione sulla piattaforma ECI ha superato il famigerato obiettivo di un milione (1000000, che numerone) di firme, quindi, a fine luglio, la commissione europea, come da protocollo dovrà dare uno sguardo alla questione, e ci sono decenti probabilità che le richieste del popolo in questione all’iniziativa diventino fottuta legge! O, almeno, così succederà se il numero delle firme valide sarà sufficiente… individui imprecisati dicono che per stare sicuri bisognerebbe arrivare almeno a 1,4 milioni di firme; io invece dico, per avere un margine bello tosto, puntiamo a 2 milioni come minimo. 😳

Come scrivo questo siamo a 1.3 milioni, con l’influsso di adesioni che rallenta sempre di più ogni giorno… e in questo senso, questa è secondo me la buona occasione per ricordare di questo affare anche da parte mia, e quindi dire di firmare a chi ancora non l’ha fatto. Infatti, a parte il problema solito che, per la legge dei grandi numeri, usciranno fuori puntualmente varie firme invalide quando i potery forty andranno a fare i controlli… con questa iniziativa sono successe a mio avviso diverse cose strane, e ho il sospetto che le firme non valide saranno molte più del solito. Ecco infatti un elenco delle stranezze che, per quanto ne so io, è esaustivo:

• Si parla dall’anno scorso di questa cosa, ma stranamente solo nelle nicchie, e con poca gente che firmò subito subito. A quanto ho capito, questo è perché uno streamer di nome Pirate Software ha attivato una grande macchina del fango nei confronti dell’iniziativa, giusto per suoi interessi economici, e molta gente gli ha dato retta… e ok, ma allora non capisco come mai a un mese dalla chiusura dell’evento la macchina fangosa abbia così gravemente fallito. 🙄
• Per qualche motivo, la petizione si può firmare anche soltanto compilando un <form> in cui si scrivono i propri dati anagrafici e il numero di un proprio documento di identità… neanche a dirlo, per colpa di ciò si potrebbero senza problemi inviare firme invalide, anche da fuori dell’UE. Quindi… mi raccomando, firmate con SPID o CIE, così la vostra firma informaticamente non può essere considerata carta straccia (spero). 😽
• Il giorno in cui il milione di firme è stato raggiunto, lo si è raggiunto con così tante, tutte di botto, da aver mandato la piattaforma ECI in down intermittente per parecchie ore… cosa che da un lato fa temere che alcune firme siano “corrotte” o qualche merdata del genere (non mi risulta fosse mai successo un simile incidente, quindi il software potrebbe non essere a prova di spacc)… e dall’altro mi fa sospettare che ci sia stato un attacco bot al form di cui sopra, che è protetto solo da un CAPTCHA vecchio stile… quindi il rischio è di tante firme invalide. ☠️

E allora… su, firmate, i link sono sopra!!! Il gaming ha bisogno della tosta democrazia per non cadere ancora più in basso… 🥵

(Piccola parentesi… Pirate Software è proprio allucinante. Ha invitato a non firmare perché, secondo lui, ci sarebbe il rischio che l’industria dei giochi live service muoia — e già qui, ci vedrei solo aspetti positivi, se solo questa paura fosse davvero legittima — e le povere aziende e zzz… che è una modalità di pensiero non solo contorta, ma specialmente curiosa per qualcuno che ha come nickname “software pirata”, ossia una roba che notoriamente non fa piacere alle aziende. Ma, ormai, al giorno d’oggi le prediche vengono sempre dai pulpiti più marci mai osservati… però, almeno, il karma ha colpito forte: è notizia delle ultime ore che il suo canale sta emorraggiando iscritti, e di ciò inevitabilmente noi ne godiamo.)

#ECI #EU #Europa #europe #europea #european #EuropeanCitizenInitiative #EuropeanUnion #initiative #iniziativa #petition #petizione #StopKillingGames #ue #UnioneEuropea #videogames #videogiochi

European Citizens' Initiative

Give your support !

^#SITE_NAME#

Step into the radiant future of

Solar Gardens!

Coming July 31, 2025

Solar Gardens is a fun-filled, light-hearted tile-drafting board game where each player will take on the role of a visionary architect specializing in carbon neutral engineering to build a rooftop garden in harmony with nature. Guided by principles of sustainability, innovation, community, and strategy, players must work to harness renewable energy to create tranquil garden environments.

In order for your solar garden to be the winner, your goal is to score the most points by building the most aesthetically pleasing solar farms, windmill systems, water filters, and cultural hubs. Solar Gardens is a wonderful opportunity to discover the power of creativity, and optimism where a brighter future is always within your reach.
Can you and your fellow architects create a self-sufficient, resilient garden before time runs out, or will your rooftop paradise dry up?

As a bonus, Solar Gardens is made of biodegradable, plastic-free materials and uses paper stickers to hold the game box together in transit. Also, it is a part of The National Forest Foundation’s Sapling Program where a portion of your purchase of this amazing game will be donated to help plant trees in national parks around the United States–a benefit of the National Forestry Foundation.

DOWNLOAD THE RULEBOOK

Key Details:
2-5 Players
30-45 minutes
Ages 12+

Overview:
Solar Gardens is a tile-drafting strategy game where players compete to create flourishing rooftop gardens by drafting tiles and placing them in their grid, aiming to build the highest-scoring rooftop garden. Each tile represents a different element of a rooftop garden, such as solar panels, wind turbines, plant beds, rainwater collectors, decorative features, and more. In order to win, players must balance aesthetics, energy efficiency, and animal diversity to score more points than their opponents.

Contents:
12 Page Rulebook
Starting Player Token
5 Player Aide Boards
5 Foldable Player Boards
90 Tiles
1 scoring pad
Creative Team:

Game Design: Alex Cutler
Initial Game Development: Eric Slauson
Game Development: Aaron Salmonowicz
Producer: Alex Uboldi
Graphic Design: Bryan Weiss
Art: Daniel Clarke
Editing: Neil Kingham

This kind of content is regularly posted to .ml "news" comms along with other known propaganda outlets and conspiracy websites. It's the exact kind of content .ml admins @dessalines@lemmy.ml and @davel@lemmy.ml want to propagate and spread.

Join the lemmy.ml boycott today and help foster a better Lemmy-verse! No more posts, comments (except to counter their propaganda ofc!) or upvotes on any comms on the Lemmy.ml instance!

And consider donating to individual instances instead

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedi…

propastop.org/en/2020/12/01/ea…

mediabiasfactcheck.com/eurasia…

International politics has ceased to be a theater and has become a circus without a big top and without shame.

By Alberto García Watson

What used to be disguised as strategic diplomacy is now openly exhibited as geopolitical pantomime without shame or principle. Donald Trump's recent decision, with the enthusiastic blessing of diplomats from the United Kingdom and Spain, to remove Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the list of terrorist organizations is not only an affront to memory: it is an official consecration of hypocrisy as a diplomatic doctrine.

HTS, the marketing version of Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, has a Nuremberg-worthy record: a decade of beheadings, suicide bombings, slavery, sectarian repression, ethnic cleansing and social destruction under the leadership of its charismatic executioner, Abu Mohammad al-Golani. But, of course, it was enough for him to put on an Armani suit and take a couple of photos with his beard trimmed and combed for Syria's number one terrorist to suddenly become a “regional stability actor”. Hollywood should be taking note.

The marketing of terrorism: from jihad to “multilateralism”

The most insulting thing is not only its media whitewashing, but the real motive that has made it “digestible” for the West: al-Golani is now the guarantor of a future Syria that, surprise, would gladly adhere to the Abraham Accords. Yes, the same agreements that normalize relations with Tel Aviv, while bombs continue to fall on Gaza and illegal settlements devour Palestine. So he is not only forgiven for the past: he is rewarded for betraying what was once the most sacred pan-Arab cause.

This turn is not pragmatism: it is geopolitical prostitution. Golani has not changed his principles; he has simply learned to put them up for rent. And nothing rents more today than to offer a fragmented but obedient Syria, submissive to Israel's interests and aligned with Washington's whims. The noble Palestinian cause, which for decades was the banner of resistance in the Arab world, is today conveniently pushed under the bus by the same man who preached its defense with blood and fire.

The West: selective memory and moral balance

Meanwhile, European capitals are juggling to justify this diplomatic resurrection. The British minister speaks of “pragmatism”. The Spanish Chancellor calls for “reviewing certain designations”. That is to say: if a terrorist is useful, he is called a partner. If he serves the narrative, he is called reformed. And if he kisses the ring of power, he is offered immunity with canapé and glass in hand.

The victims, thousands of Syrians, beheaded journalists, massacred civilians have been filed away as footnotes in the great novel of realpolitik. Not a mention. Not an apology. Not a hint of memory. The West, which once painted its face with the war against terrorism, today paints its face with indifference.

What's next? Golani at the UN talking about Human Rights?

It would not be unusual to see him next as a panelist at a forum on “peaceful transitions” or “security in the Middle East”. Perhaps he will be invited to Davos, or even Jerusalem, to talk about how “regional cooperation is the way to the future.” The same man who murdered in the name of extremism will now lecture on interfaith coexistence. This is not satire. It is foreign policy.

Conclusion: Treason as diplomatic currency

Al-Golani's whitewashing is not a mistake, it is a clear message: terrorism is forgiven, recycled and rewarded, as long as the traitor on duty signs where he is told to. It doesn't matter if he stabs his own people, if he betrays the Palestinian cause or if his record is worthy of the Hague Tribunal: if he surrenders to the new order, he becomes a preferred partner.

And so, terrorism is institutionalized, betrayal is celebrated and dignity is exported at a bargain price. The fight against extremism is no longer a cause: it is a slogan. And forgiveness, like sovereignty, is bought in cash or oil.

Terrorismo con traje y corbata: Grotesca rehabilitación de Al-Golani por Occidente | HISPANTV

La política internacional ha dejado de ser un teatro para convertirse en un circo sin carpa y sin vergüenza.

^HISPANTV.COM

A friend messaged me the other day. I saw it. I didn’t reply. A week later, I finally responded with the classic: Sorry for the late reply, just got to this.

She called me out. You didn’t just get to this, she said. I saw the double ticks.

Damn. She was right. I’d opened it. I’d registered it. But I’d also shelved it. It needed a proper reply, and at that moment, I wasn’t equipped.

Maybe it got lost between revisiting pictures from 2016 and the reminder I set to cancel my Nibble app 7-day trial on day 6. Maybe I got a call? Perhaps I’d wanted to sink back into that Substack article about reclaiming attention, ironically while still on social media. Maybe I was working one of the four jobs I need to survive under capitalism’s boot heel. Maybe I was doing nothing?

Does free time now equal availability?

I get a ping from the family group chat, which doubles as an IT helpdesk for my mum. My best friend just FaceTimed me about a White Lotus episode, and another left a voice note crying about a possible diagnosis. All this, lodged between videos of cats and genocide.

The boundaries between reception and response have collapsed.

I’m not ignoring your message – I’m overwhelmed by the tyranny of being reachable

In today’s culture, responsiveness is a proxy for care. But being in constant rotation, always logging into another version of myself? I’m tired

^{Miski Omar (The Guardian)}

Every design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values, and emotional states.

It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs — interspersed with photos of a family picnic — with no distinction between these very different types of information. It is a design choice to use algorithms that find the most emotional or outrageous content to show users, hoping it keeps them online. And it is a design choice to send bright red notifications, keeping people in a state of expectation for the next photo or juicy piece of gossip.

Platform design is a silent pilot steering human behavior.

Social media platforms are bringing massive changes to how people get their news and how they communicate and behave. For example, the “endless scroll” is a design feature that aims to keep users scrolling and never reaching the bottom of a page where they might decide to pause.

I’m a political scientist who researches aspects of technology that support democracy and social cohesion, and I’ve observed how the design of social media platforms affects them.

Democracy is in crisis globally, and technology is playing a role. Most large platforms optimize their designs for profit, not community or democracy. Increasingly, Big Tech is siding with autocrats, and the platforms’ designs help keep society under control.

There are alternatives, however. Some companies design online platforms to defend democratic values.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/social-media-can-support-or-undermine-democracy-it-comes-down-to-how-its-designed/

I haven't push anything to the App Stores yet, but you can try PieFed on the web version of Blorp.

1. Go to blorpblorp.xyz/home/ in the browser
2. Login/add account by clicking the user icon in the top right corner
3. Select PieFed and choose a server

Likely I'll be pushing PieFed support to TestFlight next.

This might be the biggest PR I've ever written. It took a month of work and thousands of lines of code updated. There s a very high chance that random things will be a little broken, but I'll fix the bugs as I find them. That being said, it's very usable. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

PieFed is still pretty unstable. They could push a breaking change at any point that would require me to make an app update for PieFed to work again.

There are known issues that I'm solving with the help of the PieFed devs:

• Private messages don't load your reply messages to other users
• Comment loading is a little broken. You will see "missing comment" a lot

I hope you like the update, and I'm pretty confident this work will unlock the next chapter for Blorp. I might even look into mbin support, no promises.

A robot trained on videos of surgeries performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal without human help. The robot operated for the first time on a lifelike patient, and during the operation, responded to and learned from voice commands from the team—like a novice surgeon working with a mentor.

The robot performed unflappably across trials and with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real life medical emergencies.

Robot performs first realistic surgery without human help

In work led by Johns Hopkins researchers, the robot performed unflappably across trials and with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real life medical emergencies

^{The Hub}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/32908689

His comments came in response to a U.N. report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from “the genocide carried out by Israel” in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military.

“With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues,” Brin wrote in a forum for staff at Google DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence division, where workers were debating the report, according to the screenshots.

geneva_convenience

2025-07-09 08:41:27

Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. ‘transparently antisemitic’ after report on tech firms and Gaza

His comments came in response to a U.N. report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from “the genocide carried out by Israel” in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military.

“With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues,” Brin wrote in a forum for staff at Google DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence division, where workers were debating the report, according to the screenshots.