ROCCA DICE BENE: INCENERITORE = PIETRA TOMBALE DELLA DIFFERENZIATA
Le odierne dichiarazioni di Rocca sull'inceneritore come pietra tombale della differenziata a Roma esprimono alla perfezione le scelte politiche sulla gestione dei rifiuti della Capitale. I rifiuti che bruceranno saranno interamente composti da tal quale, non solo una parte, ovvero 600 mila tonnellate per oltre 30 anni.
Dopo tre anni, la raccolta differenziata è ancora ferma al palo. Le proiezioni al 2035 evidenziano un 20% di scarto: rifiuti che, pur raccolti come differenziati, finiscono comunque nell’indifferenziato.
Uno spreco enorme che potrebbe essere evitato con una efficace raccolta porta a porta, aprendo anche la strada a una futura tariffa puntuale. Invece la giunta Gualtieri certifica il fallimento del suo piano rifiuti, continuando a puntare sui cassonetti stradali, ormai trasformati in parte integrante dell'arredo urbano.
La preoccupazione espressa dal presidente Rocca si trasformi in un concreto ripensamento sulla gestione dei rifiuti a Roma favorendo il rilancio del recupero di materia possibile solo attraverso una raccolta differenziata di qualità in linea con gli ambiziosi obiettivi ambientali europei.
Martedì scorso abbiamo presentato 24mila firme alla Camera che dicono no ai poteri speciali: siamo ancora in tempo per evitare che nella Capitale si compia il crimine ambientale di bruciare rifiuti tal quale per i prossimi 30 anni.
Unione dei Comitati contro l'inceneritore a Santa Palomba
2 ottobre 2025
Questo pesce si è trasformato geneticamente. E il motivo è assurdo
L'uomo ha provato a eradicarlo, ma lui ha sorpreso tutti: l'assurdo caso del pesce d'acqua dolce che si è "trasformato geneticamente" per sopravvivere.www.libero.it
La Global Sumud Flotilla vista dalle pagine di Haaretz
GAZA FLOTILLA: Israeli forces intercepted 39 boats carrying aid and foreign activists to Gaza, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, leaving only one vessel still sailing towards the Palestinian enclave, the organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said on Thursday. The flotilla, carrying medicine and food to Gaza, consisted of more than 40 civilian boats carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said the activists were on the way to the Israeli port of Ashdod ahead of deportation. A ministry video showed Thunberg, the most prominent of the flotilla's passengers, sitting on a deck surrounded by IDF soldiers.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Israel's interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla a "grave offense" against "global solidarity and sentiment that is aimed at relieving suffering in Gaza." Ramaphosa called on Israel to immediately release South Africans, including a grandson of Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, and other foreign nationals who were on the flotilla
Protests broke out in Italy following Israel's interception of the flotilla bound for Gaza. In Rome, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the city's main train station. In Naples, several protesters blocked tracks at the main train station, forcing rail services to halt, news agency ANSA reported. Protests were also reported in Milan and Turin.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the expulsion of Israel's entire diplomatic delegation on Wednesday following the detention of two Colombians in the flotilla and terminated Colombia's free trade agreement with Israel. Petro's office said the government would pursue all legal avenues internationally and within Israel to secure the release of the detained citizens and seek reparations.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor's office said it had launched an investigation into the detention of 24 Turkish citizens on the vessels on charges including deprivation of liberty, seizure of transport vehicles and damage to property, Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.
The legal team organized by the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said it had been granted access to the Ashdod Port, where the flotilla activists are held, and has begun providing legal advice.
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Building a Functional Aliens Motion Tracker
Aliens is the second film from the legendary science-fiction series about, well… aliens. Naturally, it featured some compelling future-tech — such as the M314 Motion Tracker. [RobSmithDev] wanted to recreate the device himself, using modern technology to replicate the functionality as closely as possible.
While a lot of cosmetic replicas exist in the world, [Rob] wanted to make the thing work for real. To that end, he grabbed the DreamHAT+ Radar HAT for the Raspberry Pi. It’s a short-range radar module, and thus is useless for equipping your own air force or building surface-to-air weaponry. However, it can detect motion in a range of a few meters or so, using its 60 GHz transmitter and three receivers all baked into the one chip.
[Rob] does a great job of explaining how the radar works, and how he integrated it into a viable handheld motion tracker that works very similarly to the one in the movie. It may not exactly keep you safe from alien predators, but it’s always fun to see a functional prop rather than one that just looks good.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody try to replicate this particular prop, but the modern electronics used in this build definitely bring it to the next level.
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Leggendo, da non addetta ai lavori, l’articolo di ‘Guerre di Rete’ mi chiedevo se anche nelle Marche, magari nella provincia di Pesaro e Urbino ci fossero degli hacklab.
La resistenza ai social media riparte dal Fediverso e dai server ribelli - Guerre di Rete
Una ricostruzione di internet “dal basso” per combattere le aziende che mercificano i dati personali. Un libro teorizza il fediverso come campo base per l’attivismo digitale. Intervista all’autrice, Giuliana Sorci.Giuditta Mosca (Guerre di Rete)
L'uomo che si fece imperatore degli Stati Uniti
Caduto in disgrazia per un investimento sbagliato, Joshua Norton il 17 settembre 1859 prese carta e penna e buttò giù un proclama che spedì alle redazioni dei principali giornali di San Francisco nel quale affermava: «A perentoria richiesta e desiderio di una larga maggioranza di questi Stati Uniti, io, Joshua Norton, un tempo cittadino di Algoa Bay, Capo di Buona Speranza, e oggi e per gli ultimi scorsi 9 anni e 10 mesi cittadino di San Francisco, California, dichiaro e proclamo me stesso Imperatore di questi Stati Uniti»
Scopri tutta la storia qui
natiperlastoria.home.blog/2025…
How Hydraulic Ram Pumps Push Water Uphill With No External Power Input
Imagine you have a natural stream running through a low-lying area on your farm. It’s a great source of fresh water, only you really need it to irrigate some crops sitting at a higher elevation. The area is quite remote from fixed utilities, complicating the problem.
Your first thought might be to grab a commercial off-the-shelf pump of some sort, along with a fancy solar power system to provide the necessary power to run it. But what if there were a type of pump that could do the job with no external power input at all? Enter the hydraulic ram pump.
The hydraulic ram pump stands as one of the most elegant examples of appropriate technology, converting the kinetic energy of flowing water into enough pressure to lift a portion of that water to heights that seem to defy gravity. This ingenious device requires no external power source and very little maintenance, making it a perfect solution for pumping applications in remote areas where it’s otherwise inconvenient to supply a pump with electricity or fuel.
At its heart, the hydraulic ram pump exploits a phenomenon known as water hammer, the same effect that causes your pipes to bang when you quickly shut off a faucet. When flowing water is suddenly stopped, its momentum creates a pressure wave. When it comes to your pipes, you hear this rattling, hammering sound that is mostly just annoying. However, that pressure spike can actually instead be harnessed to do useful work—like pushing water uphill. It just requires some smart valving to do so.
The pump consists of just a few key components: a drive pipe that channels water from a source, a waste valve that normally allows water to flow freely, a delivery valve leading to the pump’s output, and an air chamber that acts as a pressure accumulator. These parts work together to create a self-sustaining pumping action.
The operation of the pump begins with water flowing down the drive pipe from a source that sits higher than the pump, such as the flow from a river or stream. Initially, the waste valve is open and water flows freely through it. As the flow velocity increases, the waste valve begins to rise due to the drag of the water flowing through it. Eventually, the valve rises to the point where it is completely shut, suddenly stopping the flow of water. This sudden halt causes water hammer, where the kinetic energy of the flowing water is converted into a powerful pressure spike that forces the delivery valve open, pushing water up through the pump outlet. Eventually, the pressure drop following the water hammer event causes the waste valve to reopen and the delivery valve to close, allowing the cycle to begin anew.
Some pumps add a pressure chamber to the system, where the pressure spike leads to a vessel, compressing the air trapped inside. The compressed air acts like a spring, maintaining outflow pressure even after the initial water hammer effect subsides. This can improve flow and reduce strain on components of the pump by evening out the sharp pressure spikes when the waste valve closes.
This being Hackaday, we should mention that this is a lot like a step-up DC-DC converter, with an inductor playing the role of the water-filled pipe, providing intertia, and a diode and a smoothing capacitor playing the parts of the check value and air vessel. In electrical step-ups, the waste valve is usually a MOSFET to ground, and its driven electronically, rather than being slammed shut by the water hammer.
A hydraulic ram pump effectively takes a rapid flow of water at low pressure and delivers a low-speed flow at high pressure, allowing water to be readily delivered to a tank or output at higher elevation than the source. The ratio between the vertical fall of the drive water and the height to which water is lifted determines the amount of water reaching the output. For example, if the water source is 1 meter above the ram pump itself, and the delivery pipe is 10 meters above the pump, just 10% of the water will be delivered to the output with the other 90% passing out through the waste valve. Ultimately, though, this is generally considered an acceptable trade-off for a pump running from a natural water course with no external power input, with the waste valve outflow simply returning to the river or stream the pump is installed in. A hydraulic ram pump can be left running for a great deal of time to deliver more water and irrigate an area or fill a tank, even if the instantaneous flow rate is low. After all, you’re not paying for any power to run it!
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Hydraulic ram pumps are popular where it’s desirable to pump water to some greater height without the need for an external power source.
Today’s hydraulic ram pumps find applications ranging from rural water supply systems to irrigation projects in developing countries. The hydraulic ram pump can prove useful in most any situation where it’s desirable to pump water to high elevation with no external power input. Ultimately, the hydraulic ram pump represents sustainable technology at its finest. It’s a clean, undisruptive way to harness natural energy to do useful work. What’s more rewarding than that?
Featured image: “Hydraulic Ram” by [Gutza] and [Sonett72].
Sending TOSLINK Wirelessly With Lasers
TOSLINK was developed in the early 1980s as a simple interface for sending digital audio over fiber optic cables, and despite its age, is still featured on plenty of modern home entertainment devices. As demonstrated by [DIY Perks], this old tech can even be taught some new tricks — namely, transmitting surround sound wirelessly.
Often, a TOSLINK stream is transmitted with a simple LED. [DIY Perks] realized that the TOSLINK signal could instead be used to modulate a cheap red laser diode. This would allow the audio signal to be sent wirelessly through the open air for quite some distance, assuming you could accurately aim it at a TOSLINK receiver. The first test was successful, with the aid of a nifty trick, [DIY Perks] filled the open TOSLINK port with a translucent plastic diffuser to make a larger target to aim at.
The rest of the video demonstrates how this technique can be used for surround sound transmission without cables. [DIY Perks] whipped up a series of 3D printed ceiling mirror mounts that could tidily bounce laser light for each surround channel to each individual satellite speaker.
It’s a very innovative way to do surround sound. It’s not a complete solution to wiring issues—you still need a way to power each speaker. Ultimately, though, it’s a super cool way to run your home theater setup that will surely be a talking point when your guests notice the laser mirrors on the ceiling.
We’ve seen some other stealthy surround sound setups before, too.
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[Thanks to jenningsthecat for the tip!]
Microsoft si butta sulle scarpe! Lanciate le Crocs da collezione a tema Windows XP
Quest’anno Microsoft celebra i suoi primi 50 anni, un traguardo che riflette la trasformazione dell’azienda da piccola start-up nel 1975 a colosso globale della tecnologia. Fondata da Bill Gates e Paul Allen, Microsoft ha rivoluzionato il mondo del software con il sistema operativo Windows, Office e molte altre innovazioni, diventando un punto di riferimento per utenti e aziende in tutto il mondo. In mezzo secolo, l’azienda ha saputo reinventarsi più volte, passando dal software ai servizi cloud con Azure, all’intelligenza artificiale, fino alla sicurezza informatica.
Oltre ai prodotti iconici, Microsoft ha influenzato profondamente la cultura digitale e l’economia globale. Dalla democratizzazione dell’informatica negli anni ’80 alla leadership nel cloud computing e nell’IA oggi, l’azienda ha segnato percorsi decisivi nell’innovazione tecnologica.
Il cinquantesimo anniversario è anche un’occasione per riflettere sulle sfide future: sostenibilità, etica nell’IA e sicurezza digitale rimangono temi centrali per l’azienda che continua a modellare il nostro rapporto con la tecnologia.
E per accompagnare tutto questo, Microsoft ha presentato le Crocs da collezione a tema Windows XP, per celebrare il 50° anniversario dell’azienda. Le scarpe presentano una stampa ispirata all’iconica carta da parati Bliss e sono dotate di ciondoli Jibbitz a tema, tra cui Clippy, l’icona di Internet Explorer, un cursore pixelato, un cestino, un’icona Documenti e il logo a farfalla di MSN.
Secondo The Verge, l’edizione limitata includerà anche uno zaino-sweepskin blu con un cielo e delle nuvole. A quanto pare, non ci sono piani per la vendita delle Crocs online; l’azienda sta invece organizzando un concorso a premi sul suo account Instagram fino a martedì 7 ottobre alle 23:59 ora del Pacifico.
I partecipanti devono mettere “Mi piace” al post e lasciare un commento con l’hashtag #MicrosoftCrocSweepstakes. All’inizio di agosto, le prime scarpe Crocs sono diventate disponibili per i dipendenti Microsoft. The Verge ha inviato una richiesta all’azienda chiedendo se sarebbero state disponibili per la vendita al pubblico.
Tuttavia, un rappresentante di Microsoft non ha risposto immediatamente, presumibilmente a indicare l’esclusività di queste Crocs.
L'articolo Microsoft si butta sulle scarpe! Lanciate le Crocs da collezione a tema Windows XP proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Il futuro dei cavi sottomarini: +48% di lunghezza entro il 2040. Siamo davvero pronti?
I cavi sottomarini che collegano il Regno Unito al mondo esterno sono vitali per il Paese, con transazioni che ogni giorno ammontano a 220 miliardi di sterline. Il Comitato congiunto per la strategia di sicurezza nazionale (JCNSS) ha invitato il governo a proteggere più attivamente le infrastrutture via cavo, riporta il Register. Un rapporto pubblicato a settembre ha definito il governo “eccessivamente timido” nel suo approccio a questo problema.
Il rapporto rileva che 64 cavi collegano il Paese al mondo esterno, trasportando la stragrande maggioranza del traffico, mentre il traffico satellitare è trascurabile. Inoltre, le dorsali digitali sono piuttosto difficili da proteggere: circa 200 cavi si rompono ogni anno in tutto il mondo per cause “naturali”. Più ci si allontana dalla costa, più debole è la loro sicurezza, mentre gli operatori si affidano a installazioni a profondità maggiori lontano dalla costa.
Alcune regioni presentano ridondanze per far fronte alle interruzioni. Ad esempio, il 75% del traffico transatlantico del Regno Unito viaggia su due soli cavi con stazioni di atterraggio in Cornovaglia, ma il Paese dispone di infrastrutture aggiuntive sufficienti per deviare il traffico in caso di incidente. Tuttavia, problemi di collegamento con il resto d’Europa potrebbero causare problemi molto più gravi, pertanto si raccomanda di prestare maggiore attenzione alla capacità di far fronte a shock imprevisti.
La Russia è menzionata come potenziale avversario, presumibilmente esplorando da molti anni la possibilità di una guerra dell’informazione volta a isolare determinati territori dalle telecomunicazioni. Si riporta che la Russia disponga dei mezzi tecnici per rilevare cavi a grandi profondità. Tuttavia, in pratica, i danni si verificano più spesso a profondità relativamente basse e non sono necessarie attrezzature specializzate. Ad esempio, nel novembre 2024, la nave Yi Peng 3 ha danneggiato due cavi tra Svezia e Lituania con la sua ancora. Un mese dopo, la nave Eagle S ha danneggiato un cavo elettrico e tre cavi per telecomunicazioni che collegavano Finlandia ed Estonia. Anche i cavi nel Mar Rosso sono stati danneggiati dalle ancore in numerose occasioni.
Uno dei principali problemi di tali incidenti è la difficoltà di dimostrarne l’intenzionalità, soprattutto perché gli esperti non sono ancora concordi sulla natura degli incidenti. Tuttavia, a Taiwan è già stato creato un precedente. Il JCNSS ritiene che sia necessario essere preparati a tali incidenti, indipendentemente dalla loro natura, soprattutto considerando che, secondo TeleGeography, la necessità di nuovi cavi porterà a un aumento del 48% della loro lunghezza entro il 2040 e il volume annuo di lavori di riparazione aumenterà del 36% entro il 2040. Ci sono 62 navi per la posa e la riparazione di cavi in tutto il mondo, sufficienti per durare 15 anni.
Secondo il JNSS, il Regno Unito non dispone di navi di riparazione proprie e l’accesso ad alcuni cavi è costoso e difficile, con una nave in grado di lavorare su un solo cavo alla volta. Il comitato raccomanda di creare una nave di riparazione britannica entro il 2030 e di addestrarne l’equipaggio presso la Marina. In tempo di pace, potrebbe essere affittata a società private. Il JCNSS sostiene che la situazione nel prossimo decennio potrebbe essere imprevedibile, lasciando il Regno Unito vulnerabile. Anche una dichiarazione pubblica di robusti preparativi difensivi potrebbe ridurre la probabilità di sabotaggio.
Inoltre, si raccomanda che gli scenari di rischio includano la possibilità di una campagna coordinata contro cavi e stazioni di atterraggio situate in aree remote del Regno Unito. Si raccomandano inoltre studi dettagliati relativi al potenziale distacco dei cavi. Il governo afferma di aver già adottato misure di protezione complete, anche in aggiunta all’iniziativa Baltic Sentry, all’aggiornamento dell‘Undersea Cable Protection Act del 1885 e all’acquisto di una nave per il monitoraggio e la protezione dei cavi, e lo scenario presentato dal JCNSS è improbabile.
In ogni caso, alcuni esperti notano un crescente interesse da parte di governi e aziende private nell’esaminare in che misura le loro attività dipendano dall’integrità delle comunicazioni. La rapida crescita delle leggi sulla sovranità digitale è probabilmente legata al desiderio di migliorare la resilienza delle infrastrutture informatiche. Tuttavia, tali iniziative hanno molte conseguenze negative. Ad esempio, localizzare la potenza di calcolo e i dati sul proprio territorio, anziché dove sia economicamente sostenibile, comporta inevitabilmente un aumento dei costi.
L'articolo Il futuro dei cavi sottomarini: +48% di lunghezza entro il 2040. Siamo davvero pronti? proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Free Circle: Linux Day 2025 – Open Mobile Experience - Privacy e libertà nel palmo della mano
thefreecircle.org/
Segnalato dal calendario eventi di Linux Italia e pubblicato sulla comunità Lemmy @GNU/Linux Italia
Linux Day 2025 – Open Mobile Experience
Privacy e libertà nel palmo della mano
Gli smartphone sono diventati il centro della nostra vita digitale: strumenti di
Laic Salocin reshared this.
Il ritorno di CLOP: campagna di estorsione da account compromessi colpisce Oracle
@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁)
CLOP, un nome che da anni semina preoccupazione nei reparti IT di mezzo il mondo, sembra aver sperimentato una nuova tattica estorsiva, o forse sta solo cercando di rinnovare la propria immagine. Il 29 settembre 2025, Google Threat Intelligence Group
Il dito e la Luna, ancora...
Secondo me non tutti hanno capito che la Global Sumud Flotilla non era partita con lo scopo di sfamare la popolazione di Gaza.
Come mai avrebbero potuto fare 40 barchette, con un carico di provviste irrisorio rispetto ai bisogni della popolazione, a sfamare Gaza?
Come mai avrebbero potuto fare 40 barchette a superare il blocco dell'esercito israeliano?
Siamo davanti al solito caso del saggio che indica la Luna e dello stupido che gli guarda il dito.
Lo scopo della Flotilla era quello di far vedere a chi ha gli occhi socchiusi (non a chi ha gli occhi chiusi, perché tanto quelli non vedranno mai) come si comporta il governo israeliano, come sia privo di scrupoli al punto da fermare delle barchette di persone come noi, cariche di qualche pacco di farina da portare in un posto dove la gente muore di fame. Perché finché fanno schifezze agli altri non gliene importa niente a nessuno, questa volta invece erano persone come noi, gli italiani vedevano fare schifezze ad italiani come loro, i tailandesi le vedevano fare a tailandesi come loro, i brasiliani a brasiliani come loro.
Lo scopo era quello di creare indignazione tra le persone che non sono ancora indignate ma che da qualche parte un cuore ce l'hanno ancora, persone a cui magari una mezza umanità da qualche parte è rimasta, e sfruttare quell'indignazione per mettere in imbarazzo i governi come il nostro. Perché i governi come il nostro non si muoveranno finché non ci sarà una parte consistente dell'opinione pubblica che gli chiederà di farlo, perché a loro dei principi non importa nulla, i valori non li hanno, sono come cani di Pavlov che reagiscono solo a stimoli molto semplici (tipo la paura di perdere voti e quindi il potere che ne consegue).
La spedizione della Flotilla non serviva a sfamare Gaza, serve a portare noi in strada, a far pressione sui governi perché a loro volta la facciano su Israele, perché si interrompa il blocco degli aiuti e possano entrare le centinaia di camion che servono per portare a Gaza le migliaia di tonnellate di cibo e medicinali necessarie per dare un minimo di sollievo ai sopravvissuti al genocidio. Il cibo e le medicine sono già lì, a poca distanza da dove servono, i magazzini dell'ONU e delle ONG sono pieni, bisogna solo che Israele smetta di bloccare i camion.
Serviva a questo la Flotilla, non ad abbattere un blocco militare per consegnare qualche pacco di farina a Gaza.
Però capisco che se per qualcuno la Flotilla era partita per sfondare il cordone militare e sfamare Gaza allora sì, effettivamente è stato un fallimento colossale.
Ma allora il fallimento colossale non è stato questo, è stato molto prima, è stato quando le scuole hanno cominciato a sfornare persone che non hanno gli strumenti per capire cosa gli succeda intorno.
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For decades, scientists assumed that symmetry between the reflectivity of Earth’s hemispheres was a “fundamental property” of our planet. Now, that’s changed.#News
Earth Is Getting Darker, Literally, and Scientists Are Trying To Find Out Why
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Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week.It’s not the vibes; Earth is literally getting darker. Scientists have discovered that our planet has been reflecting less light in both hemispheres, with a more pronounced darkening in the Northern hemisphere, according to a study published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new trend upends longstanding symmetry in the surface albedo, or reflectivity, of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In other words, clouds circulate in a way that equalizes hemispheric differences, such as the uneven distribution of land, so that the albedos roughly match—though nobody knows why.
“There are all kinds of things that people have noticed in observations and simulations that tend to suggest that you have this hemispheric symmetry as a kind of fundamental property of the climate system, but nobody's really come up with a theoretical framework or explanation for it,” said Norman Loeb, a physical scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, who led the new study. “It's always been something that we've observed, but we haven't really explained it fully.”
To study this mystery, Loeb and his colleagues analyzed 24 years of observations captured since 2000 by the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), a network of instruments placed on several NOAA and NASA satellites. Instead of an explanation for the strange symmetry, the results revealed an emerging asymmetry in hemispheric albedo; though both hemispheres are darkening, the Northern hemisphere shows more pronounced changes which challenges “the hypothesis that hemispheric symmetry in albedo is a fundamental property of Earth,” according to the study.
Loeb and his colleagues suggest that asymmetry is primarily driven by the effects of climate change, reductions in aerosol pollution, and natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and wildfires. Since snow and ice are highly reflective, the thinking goes, the melting of glaciers and ice sheets due to anthropogenic gas emissions is causing a reduction in albedo, especially in the Northern hemisphere.
Meanwhile, aerosols—which stimulate the formation of clouds—are causing uneven regional albedo changes. For example, the international effort to remove harmful commercial aerosols from the atmosphere has resulted in a drop in these substances over the Northern hemisphere, and therefore cloud cover, exacerbating the darkening effect. In the Southern hemisphere, aerosol-heavy clouds generated just over the past few years by disasters like the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires and the 2021 to 2022 Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption may have brightened the albedo relative to the Northern hemisphere.
“The amount of aerosols has been increasing in the Southern hemisphere, and they've been decreasing in the Northern hemisphere,” explained Loeb. “Since aerosols reflect solar radiation, that would give you this asymmetry where you're seeing darkening in the Northern hemisphere compared to the southern Hemisphere.”
“All of these pieces added together give you this trend,” he continued. “But what was mysterious to me was that the clouds weren't compensating. If this hemispheric symmetry is a fundamental property of the system, the clouds should be giving you more reflection in the Northern hemisphere to compensate for the non-cloud properties. And I don’t see that—at least, not yet.”
Loeb’s team was able to spot this trend thanks to the long-term observations collected by CERES, a program that dates back to the late 1990s. The program has monitored the evolution of albedo in high resolution over decades, enabling the scientists to spot the new divergence from the normal symmetry.
“CERES has really opened up a new avenue of research that we couldn't do before,” Loeb said. “We had some measurements of Earth's radiation budget, but we struggled to have the same level of quality of the data.”
“Right now it's wonderful because we have very precise measurements over 25 years from CERES,” he continued. “It’s a unique opportunity for us to study things like this symmetry in a new light.”
To that end, Loeb and his colleagues plan to continue monitoring the asymmetry with CERES and probing its possible causes with more sophisticated climate models. The researchers are watching for signs that the symmetry might reemerge in the future, or if asymmetry is perhaps the new normal.
The overall darkening of Earth’s albedo is already accelerating the effects of climate change, and an asymmetric hemispheric darkening could produce its own complex impacts, including disruptive shifts in precipitation.
It’s very difficult to tease out the individual components that merge to create such complicated dynamics (Loeb calls it “unscrambling the egg”). To make matters worse, NASA is facing major cuts from the Trump administration, especially to its Earth observation satellites. CERES is due for one more launch in 2027, but these instruments are getting “long in the tooth,” Loeb said, and another program will eventually have to take up the mantle. Until then, researchers across disciplines will puzzle over why Earth is anomalously darkening, and what it might mean if this asymmetry is here to stay.
“We'll keep measuring and keep studying it, and I think this study should open the avenue for others to look at it,” Loeb concluded.
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A hacking group called the Crimson Collective says it pulled data from private GitHub repositories connected to Red Hat's consulting business. Red Hat has confirmed it is investigating the compromise.
A hacking group called the Crimson Collective says it pulled data from private GitHub repositories connected to Red Hatx27;s consulting business. Red Hat has confirmed it is investigating the compromise.#News #Hacking
Red Hat Investigating Breach Impacting as Many as 28,000 Customers, Including the Navy and Congress
A hacking group claims to have pulled data from a GitLab instance connected to Red Hat’s consulting business, scooping up 570 GB of compressed data from 28,000 customers.The hack was first reported by BleepingComputer and has been confirmed by Red Hat itself. “Red Hat is aware of reports regarding a security incident related to our consulting business and we have initiated necessary remediation steps,” Stephanie Wonderlick, Red Hat’s VP of communications told 404 Media.
A file released by the hackers and viewed by 404 Media suggested that the hacking group may have acquired some data related to about 800 clients, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, the US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Federal Aviation Administration, Bank of America, AT&T, the U.S. House of Representatives, and Walmart.
“The security and integrity of our systems and the data entrusted to us are our highest priority,” she said. “At this time, we have no reason to believe the security issue impacts any of our other Red Hat services or products and are highly confident in the integrity of our software supply chain.”
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Red Hat is an open source software company that provides Linux-based enterprise software to a vast number of companies. As part of its business, Red Hat sells consulting contracts to users to help maintain their IT infrastructure. A hacking group that calls itself the Crimson Collective claims it breached a Red Hat GitLab repository that contained information related to Red Hat’s consulting clients.“Since RedHat doesn't want to answer to us,” the hackers wrote in a channel on Telegram viewed by 404 Media, suggesting they have attempted to contact Red Hat. “Over 28000 repositories were exported, it includes all their customer's CERs [customer engagement reports] and analysis of their infra' [infrastructure] + their other dev's private repositories, this one will be fun,” the message added.. A CER is an internal document consultancy firms use to understand how its clients interact with their business. For an IT firm like Red Hat, this kind of document would contain a lot of information about a client's tech infrastructure including configuration data, network maps, and information about authentication tokens. A CER could help someone breach a network.
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Do you know anything else about this story? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 347 762-9212 or send me an email at matthew@404media.co.“We have given them too much time already to answer lol instead of just starting a discussion they kept ignoring the emails,” the message added.In another message, the group said it had “gained access to some of their clients' infrastructure as well, already warned them but yeah they preferred ignoring us.”
404 Media viewed data related to the breach and attempted to contact some of the affected clients, including the US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City and T-Mobile, but did not hear back.
Joseph Cox contributed additional reporting to this article.
Correction: this piece has been updated to say that the breach impacted a Red Hat GitLab, not a GitHub.
Breaking News Channel reshared this.
On 3D Scanners and Giving Kinects a New Purpose In Life
The concept of a 3D scanner can seem rather simple in theory: simply point a camera at the physical object you wish to scan in, rotate around the object to capture all angles and stitch it together into a 3D model along with textures created from the same photos. This photogrammetry application is definitely viable, but also limited in the sense that you’re relying on inferring three-dimensional parameters from a set of 2D images and rely on suitable lighting.
To get more detailed depth information from a scene you’d need to perform direct measurements, which can be done physically or through e.g. time-of-flight (ToF) measurements. Since contact-free ways of measurements tend to be often preferred, ToF makes a lot of sense, but comes with the disadvantage of measuring of only a single spot at a time. When the target is actively moving, you can fall back on photogrammetry or use an approach called structured-light (SL) scanning.
SL is what consumer electronics like the Microsoft Kinect popularized, using the combination of a visible and near-infrared (NIR) camera to record a pattern projected onto the subject, which is similar to how e.g. face-based login systems like Apple’s Face ID work. Considering how often Kinects have been used for generic purpose 3D scanners, this raises many questions regarding today’s crop of consumer 3D scanners, such as whether they’re all just basically Kinect-clones.
The Successful Kinect Failure
Although Microsoft’s Kinect flopped as a gaming accessory despite an initially successful run for the 2010 version released alongside the XBox 360, it does provide us with a good look at what it looks like when trying to make real-time 3D scanning work for the consumer market. The choice of SL-based scanning with the original Kinect was the obvious choice, as it was a mature technology that was also capable of providing real-time tracking of where a player’s body parts are relative in space.
Hardware-wise, the Kinect features a color camera, an infrared laser projector and a monochrome camera capable of capturing the scene including the projected IR pattern. The simple process of adding a known visual element to a scene allows a subsequent algorithm to derive fairly precise shape information based on where the pattern can be seen and how it was distorted. As this can all be derived from a single image frame, with the color camera providing any color information, the limiting factor then becomes the processing speed of this visual data.
After the relatively successful original Kinect for the XBox 360, the XBox One saw the introduction of a refreshed Kinect, which kept the same rough layout and functioning, but used much upgraded hardware, including triple NIR laser projectors, as can be seen in the iFixit teardown of one of these units.
In both cases much of the processing is performed in the control IC inside the Kinect, which in the case of the original Kinect was made by PrimeSense and for the XBox One version a Microsoft-branded chip presumably manufactured by ST Microelectronics.
The NIR pattern projected by the PrimeSense system consists of a static, pseudorandom dot pattern that is projected onto the scene and captured as part of the scene by the NIR-sensitive monochrome camera. Since the system knows the pattern that it projects and its divergence in space, it can use this as part of a stereo triangulation algorithm applied to both. The calculated changes to the expected pattern thus create a depth map which can subsequently be used for limb and finger tracking for use with video games.
Here it’s interesting to note that for the second generation of the Kinect, Microsoft switched from SL to ToF, with both approaches compared in this 2015 paper by Hamed Sarbolandi et al. as published in Computer Vision and Image Understanding.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the SL and ToF versions of the Kinect is that the former can suffer quite significantly from occlusion, with up to 20% of the projected pattern obscured versus up to 5% occlusion for ToF. The ToF version of the Kinect has much better low-light performance as well. Thus, as long as you can scan a scene quickly enough with the ToF sensor configuration, it should theoretically perform better.
Instead of the singular scanning beam as you might expect with the ToF approach, The 2013 Kinect for XBox One and subsequent Kinect hardware use Continuous Wave (CW) Intensity Modulation, which effectively blasts the scene with NIR light that’s both periodic and intensity modulated, thus illuminating the NIR CMOS sensor with the resulting effect from the scene pretty much continuously.
Both the SL and ToF approach used here suffer negatively when there’s significant ambient background light, which requires the use of bandpass filters. Similarly, semi-transparent and scattering media also pose a significant challenge for both approaches. Finally, there is motion blur, with the Kinect SL approach having the benefit of only requiring a single image, whereas the ToF version requires multiple captures and is thus more likely to suffer from motion blur if capturing at the same rate.
What the comparison by Sarbolandi et al. makes clear is that at least in the comparison between 2010-era consumer-level SL hardware and 2013-era ToF hardware there are wins and losses on both sides, making it hard to pick a favorite. Of note is that the monochrome NIR cameras in both Kinects are roughly the same resolution, with the ToF depth sensor even slightly lower at 512 x 424 versus the 640 x 480 of the original SL Kinect.
Kinect Modelling Afterlife
Over the years the proprietary Kinect hardware has been dissected to figure out how to use them for purposes other than making the playing of XBox video games use more energy than fondling a hand-held controller. A recent project by [Stoppi] (in German, see below English-language video) is a good example of one that uses an original Kinect with the official Microsoft SDK and drivers along with the Skanect software to create 3D models.
This approach is reminiscent of the photogrammetry method, but provides a depth map for each angle around the scene being scanned, which helps immensely when later turning separate snapshots into a coherent 3D model.
In this particular project a turning table is made using an Arduino board and a stepper motor, which allows for precise control over how much the object that is being scanned rotates between snapshots. This control feature is then combined with the scanning software – here Skanect – to create the 3D model along with textures created from the Kinect’s RGB camera.
youtube.com/embed/-ywSxDIv-pY?…
Here it should be noted that Skanect has recently been phased out, and was replaced with an Apple mobile app, but you can still find official download links from Structure for now. This is unfortunately a recurring problem with relying on commercial options, whether free or not, as Kinect hardware begins to age out of the market.
Fortunately we can fallback on libfreenect for the original SL Kinect and lifreenect2 for the ToF Kinect. These are userspace drivers that provide effectively full support for all features on these devices. Unfortunately, these projects haven’t seen significant activity over the past years, with the OpenKinect domain name lapsing as well, so before long we may have to resort to purchasing off-the-shelf hardware again, rather than hacking Kinects.
On which note, how different are those commercial consumer-oriented 3D scanners from Kinects, exactly?
Commercial Scanners
It should probably not come as a massive surprise that the 3D scanners that you can can purchase for average consumer-levels of money are highly reminiscent of the Kinect. If we ogle the approximately $350 Creality CR-Scan Ferret Pro, for example, we’d be excused for thinking at first glance that someone stuck a tiny Kinect on top of a stick.
When we look at user manual for this particular 3D scanner, however, we can see that it’s got one more lens than a Kinect. This is because it uses two NIR cameras for stereoscopic imaging, while keeping the same NIR projector and single RGB camera that we are used seeing on the Kinect. A similar 30 FPS capture rate is claimed as for the Kinect, with a 1080p resolution for the RGB camera and ‘up to 0.1 mm’ resolution within its working distance of 150 – 700 mm.
The fundamental technology has of course not changed from the Kinect days, so we’re likely looking at ToF-based depth sensors for these commercial offerings. Improvements will be found in the number of NIR cameras used to get more depth information, higher-resolution NIR and RGB sensors, along with improvements to the algorithms that derive the depth map. Exact details here of course scarce barring someone tearing one of these units down for a detailed analysis. Unlike the Kinect, modern-day 3D scanners are much more niche and less generalized. This makes them far less attractive to hack than cheap-ish devices which flooded the market alongside ubiquitous XBox consoles with all of Microsoft’s mass-production muscle behind it.
When looking at the demise of the Kinect in this way, it is somewhat sad to see that the most accessible and affordable 3D scanner option available to both scientists and hobbyists is rapidly becoming a lost memory, with currently available commercial options not quite hitting the same buttons – or price point – and open source options apparently falling back to the excitingly mediocre option of RGB photogrammetry.
Featured image: still from “Point Cloud Test6” by [Simon].
hackaday.com/2025/10/02/on-3d-…
Arriva Klopatra! Il Trojan Bancario che Minaccia gli Utenti Android
Un trojan bancario e RAT per Android chiamato Klopatra si maschera da app IPTV e VPN e ha già infettato oltre 3.000 dispositivi. Il malware è un trojan in grado di monitorare lo schermo del dispositivo in tempo reale, intercettare gli input, simulare la navigazione gestuale e dispone di una modalità VNC (Virtual Network Computing) stealth.
Cleafy, l’azienda che ha scoperto il malware, fa notare che il Trojan non è associato ad alcuna famiglia di malware Android documentata e sembra essere un progetto di un gruppo di hacker turco.
Klopatra è progettato per rubare credenziali bancarie tramite sovrapposizioni, rubare il contenuto degli appunti e intercettare le sequenze di tasti, svuotare gli account delle vittime tramite VNC e raccogliere informazioni sulle applicazioni di portafoglio di criptovalute.
Il malware si infiltra nei dispositivi delle vittime tramite un’app dropper chiamata Modpro IP TV + VPN, distribuita al di fuori dello store ufficiale di Google Play.
Klopatra utilizza Virbox (un prodotto commerciale che rende difficili il reverse engineering e l’analisi), utilizza librerie native per ridurre l’impronta Java/Kotlin e crittografa le stringhe utilizzando NP Manager.
Il RAT sfrutta in modo improprio il servizio di accessibilità di Android per ottenere autorizzazioni aggiuntive, intercettare l’input dell’utente, simulare tocchi e gesti e monitorare lo schermo del dispositivo della vittima per ottenere password e altre informazioni sensibili.
Una delle caratteristiche principali del malware è la modalità VNC con schermo nero, che consente agli operatori di Klopatra di eseguire azioni sul dispositivo infetto. All’utente, il dispositivo appare come se fosse inattivo e con lo schermo bloccato.
Questa modalità supporta tutte le azioni remote necessarie per eseguire transazioni bancarie manuali, tra cui la simulazione di tocchi su aree specifiche dello schermo, scorrimenti verso l’alto e verso il basso e pressioni prolungate.
Per scegliere il momento ideale per attivare la modalità VNC, il malware controlla se il dispositivo è in carica e se lo schermo è spento, in modo che l’utente non sospetti nulla. Per evitare di essere rilevato, Klopatra contiene un elenco codificato di nomi di pacchetti di noti antivirus per Android e tenta di rimuoverli.
Gli specialisti di Cleafy hanno scoperto diversi server di comando e controllo malware. Si ritiene che siano collegati a due campagne diverse, che hanno già causato oltre 3.000 infezioni uniche.
Secondo i ricercatori, Klopatra è attivo da marzo 2025 e durante questo periodo sono state rilasciate circa 40 diverse build del Trojan, il che indica uno sviluppo attivo e una rapida evoluzione del nuovo banker.
L'articolo Arriva Klopatra! Il Trojan Bancario che Minaccia gli Utenti Android proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Diabete
Retorica da guerra e tensioni con i vertici militari. Il “Gran Rapporto” di Hegseth letto da Caruso
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
“L’era del Dipartimento della Difesa è finita. Benvenuti al Dipartimento della Guerra”, ha esordito Hegseth davanti a un’aula che, come ha poi scherzato Trump, era “il pubblico più silenzioso che abbia mai avuto”. Il Segretario non ha usato mezzi termini nell’accusare i presenti: “Per
Some services needed for immigration applications, like H-1B and E3 visas, no longer have funding, while others are still operational — for now.#Immigration #shutdown #visas
Government Shutdown Causes Even More Confusion for U.S. Visa Applicants
Amid the government shutdown, visa applicants are facing more confusion and are worried about potential delays, as some services essential to their application processes are “under maintenance” due to lapses in funding.The Foreign Labor Application Gateway website, which employers use for labor certification and immigration applicants use to access documentation for their applications, is down due to the shutdown, with an “Under Maintenance” notice on the site in place of the portal.
The federal government shut down on Wednesday, as Republican legislators refuse to budge on their desired cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies. The last government shutdown was in 2018, also under President Donald Trump, and lasted 35 days.
“Due to a lapse in funding, all foreign labor certification activities administered by the Department’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) have been suspended,” the site currently says. “During this suspension, access to the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG), will be disabled and will not permit system users to prepare and submit new applications as well as submit any information associated with applications pending a final determination.”
Screenshot of flag.dol.gov as of Oct. 2
A notice on the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs site says consular operations domestically and abroad will remain operational, however, including passports, visas, and assisting American citizens abroad. Consular services, including US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), are almost entirely fee-funded and only a small part of their funding is reliant on congress. The American Immigration Council notes that for this reason, application interviews, naturalization ceremonies, biometrics processing, and other parts of the immigration system should continue as usual, and past reports have shown that only one percent of the USCIS would likely need to be furloughed during a shutdown, but that backlogs and increased immigration enforcement from the Trump administration could mean even that one percent could create more delays.The Office of Foreign Labor Certification website shows a notice about a lapse in appropriations: “This website is currently not being updated due to the suspension of Federal government services,” the site says. “The last update to the site was 10/1/2025. Updates to the site will start again when the Federal government resumes operations.”
An Australian applicant for an E3 visa — a specific type of temporary, non-immigrant work visa for Australian citizens — told 404 Media that not being able to access the FLAG website means she can’t access or download the Department of Labor-certified Labor Condition Application she needs for her visa appointment in two weeks.
“If the shutdown is lifted prior to my visa appointment, I’ll download the LCA and be on my way. If however the shutdown goes on past my appointment date, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said.
The immigration and visa application process, overhauled by the Trump administration since taking office, has already caused chaos and confusion for applicants. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that adds a $100,000 fee for applicants to the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers. US-based workers visiting abroad during the announcement rushed to travel back to the US after Trump’s announcement left them only hours before Trump’s deadline at midnight on Sunday, while some employers, especially small startups, scrambled to pay the fees for their workers.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…H-1B visa: US tech sector scrambles in the face of $100,000 fees
Startups and smaller firms could bear the brunt of Trump's new H-1B visa fee, and some fear it could thwart US innovation.Danielle Kaye (BBC News)
Marco Cappato al KUM! Festival a Pesaro – Dialogo con Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia
Marco Cappato al KUM! Festival – Dialogo con Vincenzo Paglia
Venerdì 17 ottobre 2025
Ore 17:30
Auditorium Scavolini, Pesaro
Modera Antonio Sanfrancesco
CURA, DIRITTO, LIBERTÀ
Un confronto tra Marco Cappato, tesoriere dell’Associazione Luca Coscioni, e mons. Vincenzo Paglia, sul significato della cura, le libertà individuali e i diritti fondamentali alla fine della vita.
Siamo di fronte a una rivoluzione demografica senza precedenti.
Il calo delle nascite, l’allungamento della vita media e le innovazioni della medicina contemporanea stanno trasformando profondamente la struttura della nostra società, così come i modi di vivere e di morire.
Le categorie tradizionali – fede contro ragione, necessità di cura contro libertà di scelta, salute contro malattia – non bastano più a orientarci.
Da qui l’urgenza di nuove categorie concettuali, etico-politiche, pratiche e giuridiche, capaci di dare senso alle scelte che ciascuno di noi è chiamato a fare.
Un’occasione per approfondire uno dei dibattiti più attuali e urgenti del nostro tempo.
L'articolo Marco Cappato al KUM! Festival a Pesaro – Dialogo con Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia proviene da Associazione Luca Coscioni.
Altbot
in reply to storiaweb • • •Un uomo in piedi di fronte a una lanterna decorativa, ripreso in uno studio fotografico. L'uomo indossa un'uniforme blu scuro con decorazioni dorate sulle spalle e un cappello blu scuro con una piuma rossa. Ha una barba folta e lunghi baffi. Porta una spada o un bastone in mano ed è appoggiato a una piccola struttura in pietra. Sullo sfondo c'è un monumento parziale.
Un uomo con un'uniforme blu scuro, piuma rossa sul cappello e una folta barba, si erge di fronte a una lanterna decorativa in uno studio fotografico. L'uomo appoggia una spada o un bastone alla sua destra e ha le mani dietro la schiena. L'uniforme presenta dettagli dorati sulle spalle e una cintura. Sullo sfondo, un monumento parziale. La fotografia mostra uno stile d'epoca.
Fornito da @altbot, generato localmente e privatamente utilizzando gemma3
🌱 Energia utilizzata: 0.138 Wh