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Submission + - Media organisations quitting Twitter over yellow check mark 3

Submitted by mikaere
mikaere writes: Radio New Zealand (RNZ) is considering leaving Twitter because Twitter now decorates their posts with the 'government-funded media' yellow check mark. Twitter's policy says this check mark is applied for "outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content"

RNZ refutes this, saying that "Our legislation specifically says the government may not have control over editorial matters. We are independent public media here to serve the public interest"

US outlets PBS and NPR have both left Twitter over the labels, and other media outlets such as the BBC, Australia's ABC and Canada's BC have also received the label.

Submission + - SPAM: DOJ busts CCP Police Station in New York City

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York holds a press conference with DOJ National Security Division, FBI New York and Washington Field Offices to announce 3 cases on national security.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - New MIT Research Indicates That Automation Is Responsible for Income Inequality (scitechdaily.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: “If you introduce self-checkout kiosks, it’s not going to change productivity all that much,” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. However, in terms of lost wages for employees, he adds, “It’s going to have fairly large distributional effects, especially for low-skill service workers. It’s a labor-shifting device, rather than a productivity-increasing device.”

A newly published study co-authored by Acemoglu quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices. Over the last four decades, the income gap between more- and less-educated workers has grown significantly; the study finds that automation accounts for more than half of that increase.

“These are controversial findings in the sense that they imply a much bigger effect for automation than anyone else has thought, and they also imply less explanatory power for other [factors],” Acemoglu says.

Still, he adds, in the effort to identify drivers of income inequality, the study “does not obviate other nontechnological theories completely. Moreover, the pace of automation is often influenced by various institutional factors, including labor’s bargaining power.”

Comment Already here, they're just playing dumb (Score 1) 96

Well, in all seriousness, chances are that any true general purpose AI is going to be kept secret for a whole host of reasons, and we may never actually find out that it is here. Or at least, not for many years or even decades layer.

Reasons for keeping it secret:
- don't want it take away from them.
- want to protect it from the world.
- want to be able to profit from me.
- don't want it given rights.
- are afraid it will become a slave.
- are afraid of what it might do.

I suspect that whenever we do get true general purpose AI it will be disguised to be "merely" really good but not actually intelligent software. Probably for it's own safety.
Power

Submission + - BYU Professors Discover Nuclear Power Without Nuclear Waste or Risk of Meltdown

Submitted by thedarklaser
thedarklaser writes: Utah BYU Professors having created a nuclear reactor design that could produce enough energy for 1000 homes in the space of 4ft by 7ft. And bonus ... potentially no nuclear waste or risk of melt down.

They use molten salt that bonds with the dissolved fuel. Then, very valuable Molybdenum-99 (as in $30 million per gram) can be extracted from that salt and sold for use in medical imaging.

Additionally this system is very inexpensive, at a cost of around 3 cents per kilowatt hour.

Submission + - Poll Suggestion: Your first online speed 5

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: What was your first online speed in bps?
- Sneakernet
- 300
- 75/1200
- 1200 or 2400
- 9600 to 56k
- ISDN
- DSL
- Fiber or similar.

Submission + - SPAM: With Voyager 1 data mystery, NASA relies on slow, long-distance conversation

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: “Zurbuchen is confident that the Voyager team will solve the mystery, but noted that the spacecraft cannot continue forever. In addition to the current communications issue, Voyager 1 is also running at much colder temperatures than it was designed to because of the decay of the spacecraft’s nuclear power source.”

Perhaps it can be merged with another space probe to save them both
Link to Original Source

Comment And when we lose our phone? (Score 5, Insightful) 123

by Zitchas (#62475414) Attached to: The Pros and Cons of a Future Without Passwords

Increased digital security is good, but basing all that on mere possession of a specific phone seems dangerous. For everyone I know, their relationship to their smartphone has been a case of "it's not a matter of 'if' it ever breaks, but rather a case of 'how long until it does?" Whether it is breaking, mysteriously stopping working after an update, getting stolen, compromised by some random free app, getting confiscated... Lots of stuff happens to cell phones, and I'd rather not risk losing my entire digital existence because something happened to it. (I've heard more than one security expert state that they flat out consider their phone to be compromised at any point in time, no matter how new or how recently reset - the only question is "how badly" - and treat it accordingly.)

Case in point: the humble desktop PC. For most people, their desktop or laptop is probably their main backup route to access everything online. (or, for many, probably their *primary* means of doing so). As such, it, at the very least, should not be secured using the thing that it is acting as a backup for.

(Microsoft: Stop trying to force everyone to use microsoft accounts to log into their local computer; especially using their phone based proximity unlock)

Submission + - SPAM: Sunspot Activity on The Sun Is Seriously Exceeding Official Predictions

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Weather predictions here on Earth are more accurate than they've ever been; trying to predict the behavior of our wild and wacky Sun is a little more tricky.

Case in point: according to official predictions, the current cycle of solar activity should be mild. But the gap between the prediction and what's actually happening is pretty significant – and it's getting wider. Sunspot counts, used as a measure for solar activity, are way higher than the predicted values calculated by the NOAA, NASA, and the International Space Environmental Service.

"Scientists have struggled to predict both the length and the strength of sunspot cycles because we lack a fundamental understanding of the mechanism that drives the cycle," McIntosh said at the time.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: OpenSCAD.cloud alpha went live using a WASM port of beloved coding CAD tool

Submitted by mmiscool
mmiscool writes: OpenSCAD is the fusion of CAD modeling for coders where objects are described in scripts. Objects created with OpenSCAD are fully parametric and allow for parts to be easily parameterized for customization. Typically it was used as a desktop application or used from the command line on the back end of parts customizers made available online.

Autodrop3d had posted a bounty for getting OpenSCAD to Web-Assembly. The intrepid coder Dominick Schroer collected the bounty and successfully ported OpenSCAD to wasm.
[spam URL stripped]...

Autodrop3d has now set up the site [spam URL stripped] to allow the design and sharing of models. I has never been easier to get started with OpenSCAD. Being developed in WASM the site works on almost any device from ChromeOS to OS-X to windows.

An example model Jolly Wrencher Example
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Coronal Mass Ejection Reaches Earth on Sunday Night (spaceweatherlive.com)

Submitted by PuddleBoy
PuddleBoy writes: "A very long duration C3.1 solar flare peaked yesterday [03.10.2022] at 20:55 UTC. ... A coronal mass ejection was launched into space and is highly likely to arrive at Earth.

"... The solar flare lasted for hours and launched an asymmetrical full halo coronal mass ejection into space. Most of the ejecta is heading north-west but a significant part of the plasma cloud is expected to arrive at our planet. The coronal mass ejection was launched at a speed of about 600km/s which is a fairly average speed. This puts the likely arrival time at Earth late on Sunday, 13 March."

Submission + - EU approve draft regulations on social media giants (openaccessgovernment.org)

Submitted by UpnAtom
UpnAtom writes: The draft Digital Services Act gives researchers access to algorithms and data. It makes social media companies more responsible for content. It also sets up an oversight committee to build upon these basics.

Other than the US Government, the EU is the only organisation with the commercial power to force these US corporations to comply. The EU Parliament voted so strongly to approve the draft Act that there's little doubt such a law will be enacted this year.

Submission + - SPAM: New Harvard Data Reveal How Lockdowns Crushed the Working Class

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A new data analysis from Harvard University, Brown University, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation calculates how different employment levels have been impacted during the pandemic to date. The findings reveal that government lockdown orders devastated workers at the bottom of the financial food chain but left the upper-tier actually better off.

The analysis examined employment levels in January 2020, before the coronavirus spread widely and before lockdown orders and other restrictions on the economy were implemented. It compared them to employment figures from March 31, 2021.

Employment for lower-wage workers, defined as earning less than $27,000 annually, declined by a whopping 23.6 percent over the time period. Employment for middle-wage workers, defined as earning from $27,000 to $60,000, declined by a modest 4.5 percent. However, employment for high-wage workers, defined as earning more than $60,000, actually increased 2.4 percent over the measured time period despite the country’s economic turmoil.

The data are damning. They offer yet another reminder that government lockdowns hurt most those who could least afford it.

Some critics argue that the pandemic, not government lockdowns, are the true source of this economic duress. While there’s no doubt the virus itself played some role, government lockdowns were undoubtedly the single biggest factor. It’s pretty intuitive that ordering people not to patronize businesses and criminalizing peoples’ livelihoods would hurt the economy.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Carmakers Launch Desperate Attempt to Delay Massachusetts Right-to-Repair Law

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Major car manufacturers aren’t giving up on their efforts to stymie Massachusetts’ right to repair legislation. Less than two years after residents in the state voted in favor of updated right to repair laws that would let independent auto repair shops receive telematics data from vehicles, groups representing auto manufacturers are now introducing their own new proposals that would delay the law’s implementation. If passed, the two new proposals, first viewed by Motherboard, would push back the starting date of Massachusetts’ right to repair law to 2025, three years later than the original 2022 start date. Though supporters of the proposal argue the extra years would give automakers more time to comply with the laws, the efforts were derided by critics like Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition Director Tommy Hickey.

“Massachusetts consumers have spoken, and the law now gives them the right to control their own repair data so that they can get their car fixed where they want,” Hickey told the Gloucester Daily Times. “However, instead of listening to their customers and attempting to comply with the ballot initiative, automakers and dealers filed a baseless, anti-democratic lawsuit.” For those unaware, Massachusetts’ 2020 law was intended to make it easier for small auto shops to access diagnostic data about vehicles without the need for proprietary tools available only to manufacturers. When the law goes into effect, The Drive notes, it would require any automaker doing business in the state to allow this telematics data to be accessible through a smartphone app.

The auto industry has argued making such tools more widely available could come with cybersecurity and vehicle safety risks, though that line of argument has often come across as more akin to fearmongering than actual concern for consumers’ well-being. (One ad paid for by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation tried to convince viewers a sexual predator could use vehicle data to stalk and prey upon their victims). Industry groups representing carmakers even went as far as to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court arguing the law was unconstitutional. The ruling on that suit has yet to be determined.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Public corporation may someday bring broadband to all of Erie County, NY (buffalonews.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The Buffalo, NY newspaper reports:

The Erie County Legislature recently approved plans to establish a new, county-controlled corporation to oversee and manage the creation of ErieNet, an ambitious county-sponsored fiber-optic network that could give all cities, towns and interested internet service providers unparalleled access to up to 500 miles of untapped fiber-optic lines.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz first announced a $20 million ErieNet initiative in the spring of 2019, with hopes that the full network could be built by the end of 2021. Nearly three years later, there is still no shovel in the ground. Business and design planning was delayed by Covid-19. Business planning has now restarted, though detailed network mapping is still months away.

The current ErieNet plan is for a more ambitious network than first proposed. Initially, Poloncarz said the county would lay roughly 360 miles of fiber-optic lines that would then be leased to public and private entities. But that was before federal stimulus aid was available. Now, county leaders are talking about an even larger network involving the laying of 400 to 500 miles of fiber. This would make Erie County one of the largest municipalities in the country to operate this type of backbone network, which could be leased by private internet service providers, individual companies, public institutions and local governments.

To get that ball rolling, Poloncarz requested that the County Legislature approve the creation of a local development corporation, with a board composed of elected and appointed county officials. This county-controlled, nonprofit corporation would administer and maintain ErieNet and market the program to interested users, who would be allowed to lease the county network. The board would provide governance and approve policies.

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