Submission + - mississippi time zone (howtodiscuss.com)
shahariya writes: mississippi time zone
Submission + - Plastic Recycling a 'Failed Concept,' Study Says (cbsnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Plastic recycling rates are declining even as production shoots up, according to a Greenpeace USA report out Monday that blasted industry claims of creating an efficient, circular economy as "fiction." Titled "Circular Claims Fall Flat Again," the study found that of 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by U.S. households in 2021, only 2.4 million tons were recycled, or around five percent. After peaking in 2014 at 10 percent, the trend has been decreasing, especially since China stopped accepting the West's plastic waste in 2018.
According to Greenpeace USA's survey, only two types of plastic are widely accepted at the nation's 375 material recovery facilities. The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is commonly used in water and soda bottles; and the second is high density polyethylene (HDPE), seen in milk jugs, shampoo bottles and cleaning product containers. These are numbered "1" and "2" according to a standardized system in which there are seven plastic types. But being recyclable in theory doesn't mean products are being recycled in practice.
The report found that PET and HDPE products had actual reprocessing rates of 20.9 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively — both down slightly from Greenpeace USA's last survey in 2020. Plastic types "3" through "7" — including children's toys, plastic bags, produce wrappings, yogurt and margarine tubs, coffee cups and to-go food containers — were reprocessed at rates of less than five percent. Despite often carrying the recycling symbol on their labels, products that use plastic types "3" through "7" fail to meet the Federal Trade Commission classification of recyclable. This is because recycling facilities for these types aren't available to a "substantial majority" of the population, defined as 60 percent, and because the collected products are not being used in the manufacturing or assembly of new items.
According to Greenpeace USA's survey, only two types of plastic are widely accepted at the nation's 375 material recovery facilities. The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is commonly used in water and soda bottles; and the second is high density polyethylene (HDPE), seen in milk jugs, shampoo bottles and cleaning product containers. These are numbered "1" and "2" according to a standardized system in which there are seven plastic types. But being recyclable in theory doesn't mean products are being recycled in practice.
The report found that PET and HDPE products had actual reprocessing rates of 20.9 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively — both down slightly from Greenpeace USA's last survey in 2020. Plastic types "3" through "7" — including children's toys, plastic bags, produce wrappings, yogurt and margarine tubs, coffee cups and to-go food containers — were reprocessed at rates of less than five percent. Despite often carrying the recycling symbol on their labels, products that use plastic types "3" through "7" fail to meet the Federal Trade Commission classification of recyclable. This is because recycling facilities for these types aren't available to a "substantial majority" of the population, defined as 60 percent, and because the collected products are not being used in the manufacturing or assembly of new items.
Submission + - Dominion 'Error Code' - tabulation failure or fake news? (amazonaws.com)
arit writes: Based on an open records request, David Cross and Kevin Moncla (Election Oversight Group) claim serious tabulation errors in most Georgia county Dominion voting systems. The error message, known as the "Tennessee Error" from the Williamson County TN ballots where it was first identified, apparently miscounts votes from the time it is triggers until the machine is reset (Kanekoa News has a nice, slightly more technical rundown).
Given the opacity of these voting machines, their code, and their testing, it's hard to tell whether this was a serious voting irregularity or a political agenda to cast a shadow on the democratic process.
Perhaps this is why we still desperately need open and transparent voting infrastructure.
Given the opacity of these voting machines, their code, and their testing, it's hard to tell whether this was a serious voting irregularity or a political agenda to cast a shadow on the democratic process.
Perhaps this is why we still desperately need open and transparent voting infrastructure.
Submission + - Slashdot Infuriates Users with Popup (slashdot.org) 6
sloth jr writes: Slashdot has enraged its users via obnoxious popup offers to its newsletter. Says one user, "one more popup and I'm GONE." Lacking any sort of "don't show me this again" opt-out mechanism, this appears to be the beginning of the end for Slashdot, formerly a renowned tech aggregation and discussion site.
Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse 'Sad' and 'Empty', Leaked Internal Documents Complain (cnbc.com) 250
It's been one year since Facebook changed its name to "Meta Platforms," remembers The Street. So after Mark Zuckerberg "bought the Oculus Quest VR headset, rebranded it Meta Quest, and formed Reality Labs solely to work on all projects related to the metaverse" — what happened next?
Meta's shares and market value have dropped and Zuckerberg's personal fortune has shrunk, falling from $125 billion in January to $49.1 billion at last check, putting him No. 23 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Reality Labs is facing the hard reality that it's pouring out gallons of red ink, losing $10 billion last year and about $5.7 billion so far in 2022.
And leaked internal documents reveal discussions between Reality Labs management and employees, indicating that "Horizon Worlds" [Meta's flagship metaverse for consumers] is ridden with game-breaking bugs, leading to a "quality lockdown" for the rest of the year.
In fact, Horizon Worlds is also "failing to meet internal performance expectations," reports CNBC, citing internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal: Meta initially aimed to reach 500,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds by the end of the year, but the current figure is less than 200,000, according to the report. Additionally, the documents showed that most users didn't return to Horizon after the first month on the platform, and the number of users has steadily declined since spring, the Journal said.
Only 9% of worlds are visited by at least 50 people, and most are never visited at all, according to the report."
"An empty world is a sad world," one internal document reportedly adds. And Fortune cited some more discouraging statistics from the Journal's article: - Meta wants users to create their own worlds using Horizon's tools. Less than 1% are doing so.
- A tip feature to reward creators for their efforts has generated payouts of under $500 globally. Cumulatively, Horizon's worlds have brought in only about $10,000 in "In-World Payments".
- Retention rates for the Quest virtual-reality headsets — sold by Meta to access Horizons — have dropped in each of the past three years.
CNBC also notes that the report "comes as the company's stock falls, user numbers decline and advertisers cut spending. Meta shares are down 62% so far this year...." So how did Meta respond to the Journal's article? A Meta spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that the company continues to make improvements to the metaverse, which was always meant to be a multiyear project. Representatives for Meta didn't immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Meta has said it will release a web version of Horizon for mobile devices and computers this year, but the spokesman didn't have any launch dates to disclose.
Reality Labs is facing the hard reality that it's pouring out gallons of red ink, losing $10 billion last year and about $5.7 billion so far in 2022.
And leaked internal documents reveal discussions between Reality Labs management and employees, indicating that "Horizon Worlds" [Meta's flagship metaverse for consumers] is ridden with game-breaking bugs, leading to a "quality lockdown" for the rest of the year.
In fact, Horizon Worlds is also "failing to meet internal performance expectations," reports CNBC, citing internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal: Meta initially aimed to reach 500,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds by the end of the year, but the current figure is less than 200,000, according to the report. Additionally, the documents showed that most users didn't return to Horizon after the first month on the platform, and the number of users has steadily declined since spring, the Journal said.
Only 9% of worlds are visited by at least 50 people, and most are never visited at all, according to the report."
"An empty world is a sad world," one internal document reportedly adds. And Fortune cited some more discouraging statistics from the Journal's article: - Meta wants users to create their own worlds using Horizon's tools. Less than 1% are doing so.
- A tip feature to reward creators for their efforts has generated payouts of under $500 globally. Cumulatively, Horizon's worlds have brought in only about $10,000 in "In-World Payments".
- Retention rates for the Quest virtual-reality headsets — sold by Meta to access Horizons — have dropped in each of the past three years.
CNBC also notes that the report "comes as the company's stock falls, user numbers decline and advertisers cut spending. Meta shares are down 62% so far this year...." So how did Meta respond to the Journal's article? A Meta spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that the company continues to make improvements to the metaverse, which was always meant to be a multiyear project. Representatives for Meta didn't immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Meta has said it will release a web version of Horizon for mobile devices and computers this year, but the spokesman didn't have any launch dates to disclose.
Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' Prequel Ends Season One. What Did You Think? (msn.com) 288
Friday Amazon released the season finale for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. But Amazon's 8-episode first season "might have been best known for its extravagant price tag," jokes the Los Angeles Times. It ultimately cost $700 million — making it the most expensive TV show ever — and they note one viewer's assessment that "Visually, it's great. All the money in production shows..." (The Times' critic called it "visibly expensive.")
But can you quantify whether the show is good, great, or something out of Mordor? The Times cites reports that more than 100 million Amazon Prime viewers watched some part of the show (with the premier attracting 25 million viewers on its first day — a new record for the streaming service). Yet they also add that "It's no surprise that a long-gestating TV show based on the mythology behind a beloved fantasy series has garnered mixed reviews from audiences. (In the main, critics have been more positive, according to review aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic)."
And CNN is a little less charitable: After initial reviews admired the scope and visual grandeur, though, more critical voices have drifted into the naysaying column, pointing out — as the Daily Telegraph's Duncan Lay put it — that the series "managed to be both pretentious and boring." Forbes' Erik Kain sounded a similar note, writing that after the opening chapters, "The Rings of Power" has demonstrated "how quickly a badly written TV series can wear out its welcome once the shimmer fades."
But there's also this from Business Insider: Creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay promise that if viewers were disappointed with season one's story because they expected more Sauron, then they'll dig the second season, which started filming earlier this month. "There may well be viewers who are like, 'This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!,'" McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. "In season two, we're giving it to them."
Indeed, this season accomplished "the hard work of setting up who all those characters are," Amazon Studios head told Variety — possibly hinting again at that surprise reveal of Sauron in the season finale.
And according to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creators have high hopes for its impact on Season Two: "There's something that Milton does in Paradise Lost that we talked about a lot. Where he makes Satan a really compelling character... Season one opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? Why is she driven?" says Payne. "We're doing the same thing with Sauron in season two. We'll fill in all the missing pieces."
"Sauron can now just be Sauron," McKay adds. "Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He's evil, but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he'd overshadow everything else. So the first season is like Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open."
But can you quantify whether the show is good, great, or something out of Mordor? The Times cites reports that more than 100 million Amazon Prime viewers watched some part of the show (with the premier attracting 25 million viewers on its first day — a new record for the streaming service). Yet they also add that "It's no surprise that a long-gestating TV show based on the mythology behind a beloved fantasy series has garnered mixed reviews from audiences. (In the main, critics have been more positive, according to review aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic)."
And CNN is a little less charitable: After initial reviews admired the scope and visual grandeur, though, more critical voices have drifted into the naysaying column, pointing out — as the Daily Telegraph's Duncan Lay put it — that the series "managed to be both pretentious and boring." Forbes' Erik Kain sounded a similar note, writing that after the opening chapters, "The Rings of Power" has demonstrated "how quickly a badly written TV series can wear out its welcome once the shimmer fades."
But there's also this from Business Insider: Creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay promise that if viewers were disappointed with season one's story because they expected more Sauron, then they'll dig the second season, which started filming earlier this month. "There may well be viewers who are like, 'This is the story we were hoping to get in season one!,'" McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. "In season two, we're giving it to them."
Indeed, this season accomplished "the hard work of setting up who all those characters are," Amazon Studios head told Variety — possibly hinting again at that surprise reveal of Sauron in the season finale.
And according to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creators have high hopes for its impact on Season Two: "There's something that Milton does in Paradise Lost that we talked about a lot. Where he makes Satan a really compelling character... Season one opens with: Who is Galadriel? Where did she come from? What did she suffer? Why is she driven?" says Payne. "We're doing the same thing with Sauron in season two. We'll fill in all the missing pieces."
"Sauron can now just be Sauron," McKay adds. "Like Tony Soprano or Walter White. He's evil, but complexly evil. We felt like if we did that in season one, he'd overshadow everything else. So the first season is like Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight is the next movie, with Sauron maneuvering out in the open."
Submission + - Source code for Alder Lake BIOS was posted to GitHub (techspot.com)
Hmmmmmm writes: Apparent source code for Alder Lake BIOS has been shared online. It seems to have been leaked in its entirety at 5.9 GB uncompressed, possibly by someone working at a motherboard vendor, or accidentally by a Lenovo manufacturing partner.
It could take days before someone analyzes all 5.9 GB but some interesting sections have already been discovered. There are apparently multiple references to a "Lenovo Feature Tag Test" that further link the leak to the OEM. Other sections allegedly name AMD CPUs, suggesting the code has been altered since leaving Intel. Most alarmingly, a researcher has found explicit references to undocumented MSRs, which could pose a significant security risk.
It could take days before someone analyzes all 5.9 GB but some interesting sections have already been discovered. There are apparently multiple references to a "Lenovo Feature Tag Test" that further link the leak to the OEM. Other sections allegedly name AMD CPUs, suggesting the code has been altered since leaving Intel. Most alarmingly, a researcher has found explicit references to undocumented MSRs, which could pose a significant security risk.
Submission + - Protestors hack Iran state TV live on air (bbc.com)
ttyler writes: Iran's state-run broadcaster was apparently hacked on air Saturday, with a news bulletin interrupted by a protest against the country's leader.
Submission + - AI music generators could be a boon for artists — but also problematic (techcrunch.com)
Anonymouse Cowtard writes: Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, is tackling music.
Five years on from the first album produced using AI, how does the future look? This report from TechCrunch:
"The startup behind the open source AI image generator Stable Diffusion is pushing us forward again with its next act: making music.
Harmonai is an organization with financial backing from Stability AI, the London-based startup behind Stable Diffusion. In late September, Harmonai released Dance Diffusion, an algorithm and set of tools that can generate clips of music by training on hundreds of hours of existing songs.
Dance Diffusion remains in the testing stages — at present, the system can only generate clips a few seconds long. But the early results provide a tantalizing glimpse at what could be the future of music creation, while at the same time raising questions about the potential impact on artists."
Five years on from the first album produced using AI, how does the future look? This report from TechCrunch:
"The startup behind the open source AI image generator Stable Diffusion is pushing us forward again with its next act: making music.
Harmonai is an organization with financial backing from Stability AI, the London-based startup behind Stable Diffusion. In late September, Harmonai released Dance Diffusion, an algorithm and set of tools that can generate clips of music by training on hundreds of hours of existing songs.
Dance Diffusion remains in the testing stages — at present, the system can only generate clips a few seconds long. But the early results provide a tantalizing glimpse at what could be the future of music creation, while at the same time raising questions about the potential impact on artists."
Submission + - China was buying up PPE long before Covid was admitted to (telegraph.co.uk)
Bruce66423 writes: Back in SEPTEMBER 2019 the Chinese began to stockpile medical personal protection equipment. How can we deny that they knew something — and weren't telling the world? And does this finally torpedo the 'wet market' theory of the origin of Covid?
Canonical Launches New Free Tier for Its Security-Focused 'Ubuntu Pro' (zdnet.com) 46
"Starting with the Ubuntu 16.04 edition and including the later LTS versions, Canonical will offer expanded security coverage for critical, high, and medium Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to all of Ubuntu's open-source applications and toolchains for ten years," reports ZDNet.
"Yes, you read that right, you get security patches not just for the operating system, but for all of Ubuntu's open-source applications for a decade." Most of these are server programs, such as Ansible, Apache Tomcat, Drupal, Nagios, Redis, and WordPress. But, it also includes such developer essentials as Docker, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Python 2, and Rust. Altogether, Canonical is supporting more than 23,000 packages. Indeed, it's now offering security for, as Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's CEO, said, "Security coverage to every single package in the Ubuntu distribution."
Canonical isn't doing this on its own. It's offering free, improved security in partnership with the security management company Tenable. Robert Huber, Tenable's Chief Security Officer, said, "Ubuntu Pro offers security patch assurance for a broad spectrum of open-source software. Together, we give customers a foundation for trustworthy open source."
Beyond ordinary security, Canonical is backporting security fixes from newer application versions. This enables Ubuntu Pro users to use the Ubuntu release of their choice for long-term security without forced upgrades. Happy to keep using Ubuntu 20.04? No problem. You can run it until April 2030. Knock yourself out....
Users can obtain a free personal Ubuntu Pro subscription at ubuntu.com/pro for up to five machines. This free tier is for personal and small-scale commercial use.
Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Ubuntu's parent company company Canonical, explains in a new video that Ubuntu "is now the world's most widely used Linux..."
"What makes most proud, though, is that we have found a way to make this available free of charge to anybody for their personal and for small-scale commercial use.... full commercial use for you, and any business you own, on up to five machines."
"Yes, you read that right, you get security patches not just for the operating system, but for all of Ubuntu's open-source applications for a decade." Most of these are server programs, such as Ansible, Apache Tomcat, Drupal, Nagios, Redis, and WordPress. But, it also includes such developer essentials as Docker, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Python 2, and Rust. Altogether, Canonical is supporting more than 23,000 packages. Indeed, it's now offering security for, as Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's CEO, said, "Security coverage to every single package in the Ubuntu distribution."
Canonical isn't doing this on its own. It's offering free, improved security in partnership with the security management company Tenable. Robert Huber, Tenable's Chief Security Officer, said, "Ubuntu Pro offers security patch assurance for a broad spectrum of open-source software. Together, we give customers a foundation for trustworthy open source."
Beyond ordinary security, Canonical is backporting security fixes from newer application versions. This enables Ubuntu Pro users to use the Ubuntu release of their choice for long-term security without forced upgrades. Happy to keep using Ubuntu 20.04? No problem. You can run it until April 2030. Knock yourself out....
Users can obtain a free personal Ubuntu Pro subscription at ubuntu.com/pro for up to five machines. This free tier is for personal and small-scale commercial use.
Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Ubuntu's parent company company Canonical, explains in a new video that Ubuntu "is now the world's most widely used Linux..."
"What makes most proud, though, is that we have found a way to make this available free of charge to anybody for their personal and for small-scale commercial use.... full commercial use for you, and any business you own, on up to five machines."
Ransomware Attack Delays Patient Care at Several Hospitals Across the US (nbcnews.com) 30
"One of the largest hospital chains in the U.S. was hit with a suspected ransomware cyberattack this week," reports NBC News, "leading to delayed surgeries, hold ups in patient care and rescheduled doctor appointments across the country."
CommonSpirit Health, ranked as the fourth-largest health system in the country by Becker's Hospital Review, said Tuesday that it had experienced "an IT security issue" that forced it to take certain systems offline. While CommonSpirit declined to share specifics, a person familiar with its remediation efforts confirmed to NBC News that it had sustained a ransomware attack.
CommonSpirit, which has more than 140 hospitals in the U.S., also declined to share information on how many of its facilities were experiencing delays. Multiple hospitals, however, including CHI Memorial Hospital in Tennessee, some St. Luke's hospitals in Texas, and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle all have announced they were affected.
One Texas woman, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity to protect her family's medical privacy, said that she and her husband had arrived at a CommonSpirit-affiliated hospital on Wednesday for long-scheduled major surgery, only for his doctor to recommend delaying it until the hospital's technical issues were resolved.
The surgeon "told me it could potentially delay post-op care, and he didn't want to risk it," she said.
Wednesday the company confirmed that "We have taken certain systems offline."
CommonSpirit, which has more than 140 hospitals in the U.S., also declined to share information on how many of its facilities were experiencing delays. Multiple hospitals, however, including CHI Memorial Hospital in Tennessee, some St. Luke's hospitals in Texas, and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle all have announced they were affected.
One Texas woman, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity to protect her family's medical privacy, said that she and her husband had arrived at a CommonSpirit-affiliated hospital on Wednesday for long-scheduled major surgery, only for his doctor to recommend delaying it until the hospital's technical issues were resolved.
The surgeon "told me it could potentially delay post-op care, and he didn't want to risk it," she said.
Wednesday the company confirmed that "We have taken certain systems offline."
Submission + - Anonymous hacks Iranian TV? Mahas Amini Protests continue (instagram.com)
Nodsnarb writes: Claims are appearing that Anonymous has hacked Iranian State Television inviting the populace to join protests against the Imams and Religious conservatives...
Submission + - FBI Warns about Counterfeit Batteries (zdnet.com)
joshuark writes: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a public service announcement (PSA) warning consumers of the risks of buying counterfeit batteries for their devices.
The FBI warns that scammers are using "vulnerabilities in the global supply chain" and constant consumer demand for new batteries to sell a variety of counterfeits and unauthorized replicas online.
These genuine fakes can cause fires, overheating of electronic devices, and property damage. However the FBI does not name any sites, or organizations online selling the fake batteries.
The FBI also cautions, “to "always avoid" batteries that are: not properly packaged; have misprinted or misspelled labels; have labels that peel off; or do not have official manufacturer batch numbers.”
JoshK.
The FBI warns that scammers are using "vulnerabilities in the global supply chain" and constant consumer demand for new batteries to sell a variety of counterfeits and unauthorized replicas online.
These genuine fakes can cause fires, overheating of electronic devices, and property damage. However the FBI does not name any sites, or organizations online selling the fake batteries.
The FBI also cautions, “to "always avoid" batteries that are: not properly packaged; have misprinted or misspelled labels; have labels that peel off; or do not have official manufacturer batch numbers.”
JoshK.
Submission + - PayPal to Fine Users $2,500 for 'Misinformation' (nationalreview.com) 1
walterbyrd writes: Effective November 3, the new conditions will be added to the restricted activity section of the PayPal User agreement, the Daily Wire first reported. Changes include prohibitions on “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “promote misinformation.”
