Ketil Froyn @kefir@qoto.org

There’s been a lot of discussion about a rule we recently instituted regarding security testing on the infosec.exchange instance. I understand the value or pen testing as much or more than most people, and I’m fully cognizant that pen tests are happening all the time and I’m not getting the report. I get it. But there are now 28,000 people using this service to communicate. I know there are vulnerabilities waiting to be discovered. Finding blog post fodder by fuzzing instances that are already running hot due to explosive growth is not super helpful. But at the same time, I WANT that testing to happen.

As a result, I am going to set up two instances tomorrow that only federate with each other. This is where I’d prefer legitimate security testing be performed. I’ll also be using it as the QA environment to test new updates and settings prior to deploying to the production instance. I’ll moderate signups because I don’t want it accidentally becoming fediverse 2.0 in the ongoing rush for the doors at twitter, but will accept anyone who wants to join, with clear indications that it’s a sandbox and should not be considered safe.

Thanks for patience as we continue to find out way.

Oljeleitinga kan ikke fortsette, skriver Rasmus Hansson og jeg i Trønderdebatt.

https://www.tronderdebatt.no/oljeleitinga-kan-ikke-fortsette/o/5-122-58267

How do algorithms decide what content you see online? Is there really no way to prevent the misuse of social media to spread disinformation and hate?

Online platforms must be transparent and accountable for what their algorithms decide to promote. It's time we make this happen.

Starting today, we're setting up a European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency in Sevilla, Spain. This is one of the many measures in our new #DigitalServicesAct.

More info: https://algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu/index_en

#DigitalEU

Hi all, here is a curated lists of academic accounts on Mastodon by discipline. Kindly spread the word.

https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon

#phdlife #academicchatter #academia #education #research

@phdstudents

Babe, wake up, a new #JWST image just dropped.

Light from the protostar L1527 escapes above and below an edge-on protoplanetary disk (the dark line at the center of the image), creating an hourglass shape. This illuminates the cavities carved as ejected material from the star collides with the surrounding, dusty nebula.

Dust scatters shorter wavelengths of light, so blue areas are where the dust is thinner and orange areas are where the dust is more dense.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-055

#astronomy

As long as American bathroom stalls look like this, I have grave worries over what they think privacy means:

@Sheril and when we realize the vertical axis isn't linear, we see how bad for the climate beef really is. #MeatlessMondays aren't enough.

A new PNAS paper estimated the environmental impact of 57,000 #food products and the results favor chips.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2120584119 #science

This week, the world’s human #population is expected to reach 8B. About 109B people have lived and died. Each grain of sand represents 10M.

Spectacular #data visualization of human life on Earth by Max Roser #science