Comment He demonstrated how much he lost on grants (Score 2) 64
... using a graph that suddenly went up at the end.
Comment Simple solution to probes toppling over (Score 1) 47
Hire someone who plays Kerbal Space Program. We've been coming up with solutions for this for years.
Comment Rover-penetrating radar (Score 1) 16
The object of this expedition is to see if we can find any traces of the Mars Climate Orbiter expedition.
Submission + - Amazon to close newly unionized facility (www.cbc.ca)
An anonymous reader writes: After opening it's first Quebec facility in 2020, Amazon will be closing all seven locations located within the province — just after it's Lachine location unionized. Amazon stated that it was done as a cost cutting measure and was going back to using local small businesses.
Submission + - Amazon Exits Quebec Operations, To Cut About 1,700 Jobs (msn.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: E-commerce giant Amazon.com is exiting its operations in the Canadian province of Quebec, leading to the loss of about 1,700 full-time jobs, the company said on Wednesday, prompting Ottawa to express its unhappiness. The online retailer will phase out operations across seven sites in the province — the only location in Canada with unionized Amazon employees — over the next two months. It will return to a third-party delivery model, relying on local small businesses, similar to its approach before 2020.
Submission + - Federal Court (Finally) Rules Backdoor Searches of 702 Data Unconstitutional (eff.org)
schwit1 writes: The district court found that regardless of whether the government can lawfully warrantlessly collect communications between foreigners and Americans using Section 702, it cannot ordinarily rely on a “foreign intelligence exception” to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant clause when searching these communications, as is the FBI’s routine practice. And, even if such an exception did apply, the court found that the intrusion on privacy caused by reading our most sensitive communications rendered these searches “unreasonable” under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. In 2021 alone, the FBI conducted 3.4 million warrantless searches of US person’s 702 data.
Submission + - Fifteen Years Later, Citizens United Defined the 2024 Election (brennancenter.org)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: The influence of wealthy donors and dark money was unprecedented. Much of it would have been illegal before the Supreme Court swept away long-established campaign finance rules. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court’s controversial 2010 decision that swept away more than a century’s worth of campaign finance safeguards, turns 15 this month. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called it the worst ruling of her time on the Court. Overwhelming majorities of Americans have consistently expressed disapproval of the ruling, with at least 22 states and hundreds of cities voting to support a constitutional amendment to overturn it. Citizens United reshaped political campaigns in profound ways, giving corporations and billionaire-funded super PACs a central role in U.S. elections and making untraceable dark money a major force in politics. And yet it may only be now, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, that we can begin to understand the full impact of the decision.
Submission + - Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy (404media.co)
An anonymous reader writes: If it wasn’t already obvious, the last 72 hours have made it crystal clear that it is urgent to build and mainstream alternative, decentralized social media platforms that are resistant to government censorship and control, are not owned by oligarchs and dominated by their algorithms, and in which users own their follower list and can port it elsewhere easily and without restriction. [...] Mastodon’s ActivityPub and Bluesky’s AT.Protocol have provided the base technology layer to make this possible, and have laid important groundwork over the last few years to decorporatize and decentralize the social internet.
The problem with decentralized social media platforms thus far is that their user base is minuscule compared to platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, meaning the cultural and political influence has lagged behind them. You also cannot directly monetize an audience on Bluesky or Mastodon—which, to be clear, is a feature, not a bug—but also means that the value proposition for an influencer who makes money through the TikTok creator program or a small business that makes money selling chewing gum on TikTok shop or a clothes brand that has figured out how to arbitrage Instagram ads to sell flannel shirts is not exactly clear. I am not advocating for decentralized social media to implement ads and creator payment programs. I’m just saying that many TikTok influencers were directing their collective hundreds of millions of fans to follow them to Instagram or YouTube, not a decentralized alternative.
This doesn’t mean that the fediverse or that a decentralized Instagram or TikTok competitor that runs on the AT.Protocol is doomed. But there is a lot of work to do. There is development work that needs to be done (and is being done) to make decentralized protocols easier to join and use and more interoperable with each other. And there is a massive education and recruitment challenge required to get the masses to not just try out decentralized platforms but to earnestly use them. Bluesky’s growing user base and rise as a legitimately impressive platform that one can post to without feeling like it’s going into the void is a massive step forward, and proof that it is possible to build thriving alternative platforms. The fact that Meta recently blocked links to a decentralized Instagram alternative shows that big tech sees these platforms, potentially, as a real threat.
The problem with decentralized social media platforms thus far is that their user base is minuscule compared to platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, meaning the cultural and political influence has lagged behind them. You also cannot directly monetize an audience on Bluesky or Mastodon—which, to be clear, is a feature, not a bug—but also means that the value proposition for an influencer who makes money through the TikTok creator program or a small business that makes money selling chewing gum on TikTok shop or a clothes brand that has figured out how to arbitrage Instagram ads to sell flannel shirts is not exactly clear. I am not advocating for decentralized social media to implement ads and creator payment programs. I’m just saying that many TikTok influencers were directing their collective hundreds of millions of fans to follow them to Instagram or YouTube, not a decentralized alternative.
This doesn’t mean that the fediverse or that a decentralized Instagram or TikTok competitor that runs on the AT.Protocol is doomed. But there is a lot of work to do. There is development work that needs to be done (and is being done) to make decentralized protocols easier to join and use and more interoperable with each other. And there is a massive education and recruitment challenge required to get the masses to not just try out decentralized platforms but to earnestly use them. Bluesky’s growing user base and rise as a legitimately impressive platform that one can post to without feeling like it’s going into the void is a massive step forward, and proof that it is possible to build thriving alternative platforms. The fact that Meta recently blocked links to a decentralized Instagram alternative shows that big tech sees these platforms, potentially, as a real threat.
Submission + - TikTok is censoring anti-Trump content (newsweek.com)
smooth wombat writes: After going dark for 12 hours in response to a U.S. law saying it must divest from Chinese ownership, TikTok came back on line when the new administration took office. However, once up and running, users found one unexpected change. Anti-Trump content is now being censored. Words, phrases, and videos which were readily accessible pre-blackout were now unavailable or being removed entirely.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, which has received 4.5 million views at the time of reporting, claims that "TikTok is now region locking Americans from looking up things like "fascism" and "Donald Trump rigged election"."
The post includes two screenshots of the TikTok app. The screenshot is of the search page, and in both the search term is "Donald Trump rigged election." The post states that: "On the left are results from a device in America, and on the right are results from one in the UK."
The post on the left shows a results page stating "No results found," while on the left it shows two videos of the President.
Another post from the account Dustin Genereux said that, "Censorship on TikTok is at an all time high with accounts being deleted, posts going back years being flagged, people losing access to the creator fund for saying anything Anti-Trump, MAGA, Elon, etc. But free speech and all that right?"
A post on X, formerly Twitter, which has received 4.5 million views at the time of reporting, claims that "TikTok is now region locking Americans from looking up things like "fascism" and "Donald Trump rigged election"."
The post includes two screenshots of the TikTok app. The screenshot is of the search page, and in both the search term is "Donald Trump rigged election." The post states that: "On the left are results from a device in America, and on the right are results from one in the UK."
The post on the left shows a results page stating "No results found," while on the left it shows two videos of the President.
Another post from the account Dustin Genereux said that, "Censorship on TikTok is at an all time high with accounts being deleted, posts going back years being flagged, people losing access to the creator fund for saying anything Anti-Trump, MAGA, Elon, etc. But free speech and all that right?"
Comment Re:If masks do nothing (Score 0) 31
Face masks do, in fact, help prevent the spread of airborne viruses. The key is that it's the INFECTED that need to wear them. And the second key is that in the case of a widespread pandemic with a long incubation and post-symptom contagion period, you don't know if you are infected or not. That's why widespread masking was the recommendation.
It's a pity that Trump's Treason Fucks and the rest of the Inbred Klanass Republican Brain Dead Shitbags don't understand that logic. Thank you for killing my grandmother you sick treasonous subhuman sacks of shit.
N95 masks *help* -- they don't PREVENT, and the paper masks that most people were wearing don't do a GOD DAMN THING.
Dumbasses like you gave people a false sense of security. You caused more harm than good with your "wear a mask and you will be safe!!" bullshit.
Oh, and FYI, Trump is your president now -- deal with it.
Comment Re:so, Tor? (Score 1) 31
Bid difference between being aware you are running a tor node, and being unaware though..
I think most thinking people would agree that PUAs are bad. I think a lot of people who would never set themselves up to be a tor exit node for a variety of reasons would install some vr head set stuffs to play with. If the hey and you'll be a vpn transit egress is not disclosed or buried down in the fine print, well that is kinda nasty behavior
If they are unaware (and that is a very big if) then yes, PUAs are bad.
I was referring to the general tone of the article, and a lot of the comments -- that allowing VPN connections to exit *in general* is bad.
Comment Re:so, Tor? (Score 2) 31
Tor nodes, anyone?
Yup, that was my thought as well. Fucking hypocritical article (for
Preach: "Run a Tor exit node!" (which I do -- and I think everyone should)
Article: "Sharing your connection as a VPN transit - BAD!!"
lol
Comment Re: Beaurocrats with too much time on their hands (Score 1) 279
Canada has universal healthcare. Despite the strain our system is under, we both pay less per capita than Americans, and have better health outcomes and greater life expectancy.
You should not be asking "How will we pay for universal healthcare??" You should be asking "What are the best ways to spend the billions of dollars we save once we have universal healthcare?"
The reasons universal healthcare saves money are many. Some of them are: Getting rid of the profit motive in healthcare, encouraging people to get treatment before it progresses to a severe (and expensive) stage rather than avoiding going to the doctor for fear of fees, and having much more leverage when bargaining over drug prices because you represent an enormous buyer.
LMFAO!
Canada patient: Doc, I have a hangnail. Can you help me out?
Canada doctor: Have you considered the end of life options that we have?
Canada patient: ??????? WTF???????
Before anyone thinks this is a joke:
https://reason.com/2022/09/07/...
https://apnews.com/article/cov...
Comment Re: Beaurocrats with too much time on their hands (Score 2) 279
Canada has universal healthcare. Despite the strain our system is under, we both pay less per capita than Americans, and have better health outcomes and greater life expectancy.
You should not be asking "How will we pay for universal healthcare??" You should be asking "What are the best ways to spend the billions of dollars we save once we have universal healthcare?"
The reasons universal healthcare saves money are many. Some of them are: Getting rid of the profit motive in healthcare, encouraging people to get treatment before it progresses to a severe (and expensive) stage rather than avoiding going to the doctor for fear of fees, and having much more leverage when bargaining over drug prices because you represent an enormous buyer.
LMFAO!
Canada patient: Doc, I have a hangnail. Can you help me out?
Canada doctor: Have you considered the end of life options that we have?
Canada patient: ??????? WTF???????
Comment Soo .. no pussy flavor? (Score 4, Funny) 26
Anything new is always used for porn first
WTF?!?
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