Nick @internic@qoto.org

It's about f'in time the big publications pressed Mr. Trump on his statements this past week that supporters just needed to vote for him one more time, and then "you don't have to vote again." Trump's response -- which is that if he's elected "the country will be fixed" and their votes won't be needed -- seems pretty unambiguous. It is absolutely unreal that this is the GOP candidate for president, and that this blatantly antidemocratic statement alone does not somehow disqualify him from running.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/30/us/harris-trump-election

I'm reading a lot about #ChatGPT4o and #htr, so I figured I'd spot-check it with this document: https://fromthepage.com/lva/va-revcon-74-76/work-7811594-024/display/33996304

The results were better than nothing, but still not great.

In particular, it was not able to read Lord Dunmore's name, nor read either of two references to "Emancipate our Slaves". If you've been following historical debates about the #1619project , you can imagine how problematic it would be to rely on this transcription for full-text search.

For what must the 10th time in 15 years, I re-learned that Levi-Civita is just a single person.

A #security question for #infosec folks: Is it advisable for the typical user to use a continuously running antivirus/anti-malware software package on MacOS? (I'll put a poll but I'm even more interested if anyone is willing to elaborate or point to informative articles on the topic.)

Can anyone point me to the source of this David Parnas quotation about certifying software engineers? "When someone builds a bridge, he uses engineers who have been certified as knowing what they are doing. Yet when someone builds you a software program, he has no similar certification, even though your safety may be just as dependent upon that software working as it is upon the bridge supporting your weight."

I’d hoped by now we’d see some substantial, effective legal challenges to existing LLMs’ reliance on stolen IP. In December we learned that Apple was seeking licensing deals with news publishers…and in June they announced their OpenAI partnership.

So long as vendors and end users have no serious legal exposure, there’s no market for ethical LLMs. That’s a real condemnation of the U.S. IP regime and legal system.

I sort of love that these two vehicles have the same bed size.

The Kei's is actually a bit more useful because you can fold down the sides.

An electric Kei could be a game changer in cities.

Been a while since I pulled an all-nighter, but it’s always cool to work with a space operations team through the graveyard shift – professionalism, madcap humour, & coffee gets everyone through 🙂👍

But after 28 hours awake, my processed BepiColombo Mercury flyby images have been delivered & I’m taking a nap.

You may seem them via ESA & JAXA before I wake, but I’ll be sure to post them here later too – there are some very cool shots in there 🫡😴🛌😴💤

#SpaceScience #SpaceExploration

Small, harmless asteroid burns up in Earth’s atmosphere over the Philippines.

AP reports: "The asteroid — about 3 feet (1 meter) across — was spotted by astronomers in Arizona and broke apart over the coast of the Philippines hours after the discovery. This space rock, dubbed 2024 RW1, is only the ninth to have been spotted before its impact."

https://flip.it/yQK_m7

For similar content, follow @space-ScienceAlert

#Asteroid #Space #NASA #Philippines #Science #Astronomy

Who's doing research in interactive graphics software using R, with javascript or with python, these days? Do you know anyone? Are you working on new tools? Curious to hear of new work. #rstats

Our Editor Won a 6-Year #Legal Battle. It Didn’t Feel Like a Victory.
==

After publishing a story on a doctor accused of violating federal research rules and skirting ethical guidelines, ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein was named in a #libel suit. An appeals court recently dismissed the case, but the experience took a toll.
https://www.propublica.org/article/bud-frazier-dismissed-libel-lawsuit

#Ethics #Journalism #News #Law #Lawsuit #Media

Marking the moment at ESOC tonight: 21:48:47 UTC, the exact second of ESA/JAXA #BepiColombo’s closest approach to Mercury on its fourth flyby 🛰️🌚

From left to right, Johannes Benkhoff (current Bepi project scientist), Geraint Jones (incoming Bepi project scientist), & Jack Wright (research fellow & Bepi MCAM scientist) 🙂👍

Now we have to wait half an hour to reacquire the signal from Bepi & then a few more hours until the first images come down 🤞

#SpaceScience #SpaceExploration

One of the great pure delights of my life is that I'm the go-to person for the women in my life to call up when they want to negotiate for a better salary. Most especially when they've never done it before. It's unreal how many bonkers scenarios I've learned about from this and how much we've all been able to share across industries and areas of work just by making it safer to talk about.

A watched star never novas.

And by star I mean T Coronae Borealis.

I was 0 / 3 for "Things I expect to happen this summer"

No Polaris Dawn
No Starliner Return
No T Coronae Borealis

We're discussing all this & more in Monday's @astronomycast.bsky.social recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GTvT3dXqbQ

Biden #EPA Rejects #Plastics Industry’s Fuzzy Math That Misleads Customers About Recycled Content
==

The plastics industry uses a controversial accounting method to inflate the recycled content it advertises in products.

A new EPA policy won’t allow it for any products it endorses as a “Safer Choice.”

#News #Government #Plastic #Environment #Oil #Regulation #Recycling #Pollution

https://www.propublica.org/article/epa-rejects-mass-balance-plastics-recycling-safer-choice

Others have said this, but the Internet Archive's appeals-court loss to Big Publishing is a disaster for everyone but the cartel of companies and a tiny number of A list authors.

The publishers will tolerate libraries only as long as they can control everything about how books can be loaned. If public libraries were being invented today, the cartel would make their core functions illegal.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235958/internet-archive-loses-appeal-ebook-lending

Barnes & Noble is currently running a 25% off pre-order event, which includes Effective C, 2nd Edition: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/effective-c-2nd-edition-robert-c-seacord/1145598127. Promotion ends Friday, September 6th.

Coupon code (if needed) : PREORDER25

> #Microsoft confirms that #Windows 11 Recall #AI is not optional — a glitch made it appear so in the Windows 11 24H2 KB5041865 update
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-confirms-that-windows-11-recall-ai-is-not-optional-a-glitch-made-it-appear-so-in-the-windows-11-24h2-kb5041865-update

But don't worry, the company that is unable to correctly implement a toggle switch assures us that they definitely implemented this new immensely complex piece of technology nobody asked for directly in the operating system in a way that is secure and under no circumstances puts anyone in danger in ways security researchers said it will.

I missed this research at the time, but it's really great and worth sharing. A security researcher created and published a set of AWS keys tied to a canarytoken to determine how long it takes for inadvertently exposed private keys to get stolen and, crucially, illegally used.

In some cases, the canarytoken was triggered in less than 60 seconds after the keys were stolen. In other words, criminals are fast. If you exposed your keys, the sooner you act, the better.

More: https://cybenari.com/2024/08/whats-the-worst-place-to-leave-your-secrets/