● 03.11.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 11/03/2023: Collapse of Misbehaving Banks

Posted in News Roundup at 9:41 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Server

=> ↺ Kubernetes Blog: k8s.gcr.io Redirect to registry.k8s.io – What You Need to Know

• On Monday, March 20th, the k8s.gcr.io registry will be redirected to the community owned registry, registry.k8s.io .

=> ↺ Adopting FinOps in a Large-Scale Cloud Deployment

• One of the biggest issues related to large-scale cloud deployments is overspending. It’s no surprise that as organizations scale their cloud-native Kubernetes environments, the associated costs rise along with that growth. However, there is a disconnect between the rising expenses and how well businesses can accurately and effectively monitor and

=> ↺ Ermetic Adds Kubernetes Support to CNAPP

• Ermetic has added Kubernetes support to its cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) that enables IT and cybersecurity teams to discover and fix misconfigurations, compliance violations and risky or excessive privileges. Amy Amriel, chief marketing officer for Ermetic, says rather than requiring organizations to manage Kubernetes security in isolation from every

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Implementing Vulkan extensions for NVK

• Since joining the graphics team at Collabora as a Software Engineering Intern last November, I have implemented several Vulkan API extensions for NVK, an open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA hardware in Mesa.

Applications

=> ↺ 7 Best Ubuntu Screen Recorders for Everyday Use

• We are now in 2023. Everyone is constantly seeking to acquire new skills and technical capabilities as the use of technology is deeply integrated in our day-to-day lives. From providing online tutorials to holding presentation for professional business meets, everything needs screen recording tool to make your stand.

• There are plenty of screen recording tools available in the market for Linux and other distributions. Deciding on the right screen recording tool for you is important and a tedious task. But don’t worry because we will make this task simple for you.

• In this article, we will introduce you to some of the best screen recording tools that you can use on Ubuntu.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Use Rsync Command on Linux

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the Rsync command on Linux.

=> ↺ How To Install Easy Effects on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Easy Effects on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

=> ↺ How to Use a Bash Script to Run Your Python Scripts

=> ↺ Configuring the Squid Proxy Server: A Comprehensive Tutorial

• Squid is a popular open-source proxy server that can be used to enhance the security and performance of your Debian server. Once you have installed Squid, you need to configure it to suit your specific needs.

=> ↺ Difference Between Shutting Down, Restarting, and Halting Linux

• Linux provides various commands to perform different types of system shutdowns. However, the terms used to refer to these shutdown types can be confusing, especially for new Linux users.

=> ↺ How to Check if a Port is Blocked by the Firewall in Ubuntu

• Having trouble getting access to a particular network resource? It could be due to the firewall blocking the port. As you know, all the applications require access to certain ports, and when the firewall blocks those ports, the applications will not function properly and will not be able to communicate with the network.

=> ↺ Install and Use iostat on Linux

• Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn about iostat on Linux. This tool allows you to monitor CPU usage and provides information about input and output processes on the system. The command iostat Reports Central Processing Unit (CPU) statistics and input/output statistics for devices, partitions, and network file systems (NFS).

=> ↺ The guide to troubleshooting common Linux Mint issues

• Based on the popular Linux kernel, Mint is an all-inclusive operating system. It offers a user-friendly interface and is known for its stability and security. However, Linux Mint may encounter issues affecting its performance and day-to-day functionality like any other OS.

=> ↺ The comprehensive guide to fixing Boot problems in Linux Mint

• Many issues, including hardware incompatibilities, corrupted system files, or incorrect configurations, can cause boot problems in Linux Mint. These problems can lead to slow boot times, boot failures, or even a complete inability to boot the system.

=> ↺ How to install and use Nginx on Ubuntu

• Nginx (pronounced as ‘engine-x’) is a popular web server software known for its high performance and reliability. It is open-source software used by many popular websites, including Netflix, GitHub, and WordPress. Nginx can serve as a web server, load balancer, reverse proxy, and HTTP cache, among other things.

=> ↺ How To Install GCC on Rocky Linux 9

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install GCC on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is a popular and widely used open-source compiler that supports many programming languages, including…

=> ↺ How to share clipboard between Ubuntu VirtualBox and host

• If you’re using Ubuntu on a VirtualBox, you might find yourself needing to move some text between your host computer and the virtual machine. Luckily, copying and pasting between them is pretty easy to achieve.

Games

=> ↺ New version of Box86 and Box64 unlocks Steam Big Picture Mode and Heroic Games Launcher on ARM

• There’s a new version of Box86 and Box64 out – the amazing piece of software from PtitSeb that can make your ARM Linux PC or SoC run x86 and x86_64 code with great performance.

=> ↺ Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo Works Well on Linux with Proton

• The Resident Evil 4 chainsaw demo just landed ahead of the game that’s releasing later this March 2023.

=> ↺ New product: OS/2 Video Poker 2.0™

• From Reed Software, Arca Noae is proud to announce the availability of OS/2 Video Poker 2.0! OS/2 Video Poker 2.0 plays the fast action game of video poker found in casinos world wide. Enjoy a real video poker game experience right on your home or work computer.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: CPE Weekly update – Week 10 2023

• This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

• We provide you both infographics and text version of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly look at what we did, just look at the infographic. If you are interested in more in depth details look below the infographic.

Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2023-10Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)!The F38 Beta is go for release on the early target date (2023-03-14).I have weekly office hours most Wednesdays in the morning and afternoon (US/Eastern time). Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else. See the upcoming meetings for more information.AnnouncementsCalls for ParticipationHelp wantedMeetings & EventsReleasesAnnouncementsInactive packagers will be removed after the F38 release.Fedora Discussion now supports saved searches.API keys in Red Hat Bugzilla are now set to expire after one year.The Fedora Council is considering a policy to create a Code of Conduct Committee.Check your meetings for upcoming summer time changes.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ 5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

=> ↺ Stolen or lost Android phone? Here’s how to find it and get it back

=> ↺ Billions of Android phone owners can unlock two free Google ‘vacation upgrades’ today – it’s a dream come true | The US Sun

=> ↺ Best package tracking apps on Android in 2023

=> ↺ Apple 5G baseband signal is far behind Android brands

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ listmonk: Is an Open-source Self-hosted Mailchimp Alternative

• listmonk is a fast, feature-rich, standalone, self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager that comes packed into a single binary. It uses a PostgreSQL (⩾ v9.4) database as its data store. The backend is written in Go, while Vue with Buefy is used for the frontend’s UI.

=> ↺ Comment Sidecar: A self-Hosted Commenting Service and Alternative to Disqus

• Comment-sidecar is a lightweight, tracking-free, self-hosted commenting service that aims to work in restricted self-hosted webspaces where only PHP and MySQL are available. It is easy to embed into statically generated sites created with Hugo or Jekyll, and it serves as an alternative to Disqus.

=> ↺ Lemmy is a Self-hosted Bookmark Aggregator and Reddit Alternative.

• Lemmy is a free and open source social link aggregation and discussion platform, with content organized into communities for easy subscription to topics of interest. It uses voting to prioritize the most interesting items. Lemmy is licensed under the strong copyleft AGPL License…

=> ↺ How Open source can Help Healthcare Services in Low-Resource Environment

• Open source software is rapidly gaining ground as a cost-effective alternative to proprietary software. In developing countries with limited resources, open source software can be the key to improving healthcare services.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Andy Wingo: pre-initialization of garbage-collected webassembly heaps

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Marco Rubio Reminds You to Adjust Your Clock on Sunday With Renewed Push for Permanent Daylight Saving Time

• Alongside Daylight Saving Time (DST) comes the yearly discussion in Congress of whether to eliminate it altogether. We lose that extra hour of sleep as the clocks spring forward on Sunday.

=> ↺ 19 States That Have Passed Permanent Daylight Saving Time and Why They Haven’t Implemented It

• Come Sunday, March 12, at 2:00 a.m. EST, Daylight Saving Time will begin. We’ll lose an hour because the 20th-century federal government decided we should. Then on November 5th we’ll gain an hour, and be plunged into darkness. For over half a century, we’ve accepted that this cycle is normal.

Leftovers

Science

=> ↺ What to Know About the Much-Hyped New Superconductor Discovery

• For over a century, scientists have sought a holy grail of materials: a room-temperature superconductor, a material that can carry electrical charges without resistance, which would revolutionize the energy landscape as we know it.

Education

=> ↺ The modern classroom chair: exploring the ‘coercive design’ of contemporary schooling

• This new paper explores the politics of educational design … exploring how the coercive logics of neoliberal schooling are baked into the design of everyday physical objects such as classroom chairs This paper analyses three examples of ‘innovative’ new chair designs now being sold to schools with promises of disciplining students’ bodies to achieve classroom order…

Hardware

=> ↺ moteus-n1 beta release

• Implied by my previous writeup on pin selection for external connectors, we’ve got a new variant of the moteus controller to announce today in beta form, the moteus-n1! This variant is intended to be more feature-full, higher performance (and higher cost).

=> ↺ V600 Alder Lake Mini PC features Thunderbolt 4 port, dual 2.5GbE, up to Core i9-12900H CPU

• V600 mini PC is equipped with an Alder Lake processor from Core i5-1240P up to a Core i9-12900H, up to 64GB RAM, and high-speed interfaces such as Thunderbolt 4 and dual 2.5GbE networking. The mini PC also comes with two M.2 NVMe sockets, one PCIe Gen 4, one Gen 3, and support for SATA drives up to 7mm thick, offers three 4K-capable video outputs with HDMI and DisplayPort video interfaces, and several other USB 3.2/2.0 ports.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ A more equitable covid vaccine rollout could have saved a life every 24 seconds in 2021

• The World Health Organization (WHO) declared covid-19 a pandemic three years ago, on Mar. 11, 2020. The declaration has not lapsed, and though most cases are mild, more than 20 million people are currently ill with covid.

=> ↺ AP Top Health News at 7:25 p.m. EST

• Oregon closer to magic mushroom therapy, but has setback House votes to declassify info about origins of COVID-19 Pandemic 3 years later: Has the COVID-19 virus won?

=> ↺ The contaminated Río Santiago: opportunity lost for Guadalajara?

• John Pint tours the parts of this highly polluted river that are safe — and shows what Guadalajara has to gain from cleaning up the Santiago.

=> ↺ Consumer advocacy group urges judges to uphold smoking ban

• Some businesses have been granted suspension orders against the stringent new law since it went into effect in January.

=> ↺ Stanford to end Color COVID-19 testing program, still provide rapid tests

• Stanford is ending its Color COVID-19 testing program, which provided free PCR tests to members of the community. Rapid tests will still be available on campus.

=> ↺ Scientists Have Developed a Blood Test For Anxiety

=> ↺ Scientists Have Figured Out How Honeybees Learn Their Waggle Dance Moves

=> ↺ Plastic pollution in oceans has reached ‘unprecedented’ levels in 15 years

• Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has reached “unprecedented levels” over the past 15 years, a new study has found, calling for a legally binding international treaty to stop the harmful waste.

=> ↺ For Every Person on Earth, There Are 21,000 Pieces of Plastic in the Ocean

• An analysis of global plastic data over the past four decades, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that there’s now an estimated 170 trillion plastic particles—more than 2.2 million tons—floating in the world’s oceans. That number saw a sharp increase in the past 15 years, dovetailing, the researchers found, with…

=> ↺ How Fungi Could Cause the Next Pandemic

• Fungi are some of the strangest living things on Earth. Some are single-celled organisms like bacteria, other are multicellular beings akin to plants and animals. Some can even shapeshift between these forms of life.

=> ↺ The Forced Medication of All Citizens

• Karen Hunt “…most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World It all started back in the 1950s with “these drugs will make you feel better, just try them.” And people did.

Security

=> ↺ Security updates for Friday [LWN.net]

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium and wireless-regdb), Fedora (caddy, python-cryptography, and redis), Oracle (gnutls), SUSE (hdf5, opera, python-Django, redis, tomcat, and xen), and Ubuntu (apache2 and snakeyaml).

=> ↺ Blackbaud Fined $3M For ‘Misleading Disclosures’ About 2020 Ransomware Attack

• Blackbaud has been slapped with a $3 million civil penalty by the SEC for “making misleading disclosures” about a 2020 ransomware attack that impacted more than 13,000 customers.

=> ↺ North Korean hackers used polished LinkedIn profiles to target security researchers

• As part of the shift in tactics, the hackers have deployed a range of new tools and social engineering tactics to lure their victims.

=> ↺ Unpatched Akuvox Smart Intercom Vulnerabilities Can Be Exploited for Spying

• Researchers discover a dozen serious vulnerabilities in Akuvox smart intercom, but the vendor has not released any patches.

=> ↺ Multi-Technology Script Leading to Browser Hijacking, (Fri, Mar 10th)

• In the FOR610 class, we learn how to perform malware analysis. The training focuses on Windows PE files but in the real world, malware samples use multiple technologies to perform malicious actions. I spotted a VBScript file…

=> ↺ How OpenSSF Aims to Make Log4j-Like Incidents Rare

=> ↺ ‘Linux’ Foundation still bringing up “Log4j” (2021)

=> ↺ Alleged NetWire RAT Operator Arrested in Croatia as FBI Seizes Website

• Authorities seized a domain distributing the NetWire RAT and arrested a Croatian individual who administered the website.

=> ↺ Millions of AT&T Customers Notified of Data Breach at Third-Party Vendor

• AT&T is notifying millions of wireless customers that their CPNI was compromised in a data breach at a third-party vendor.

=> ↺ Serious Vulnerability Patched in Veeam Data Backup Solution

• A serious vulnerability in Veeam Backup & Replication may allow attackers to obtain encrypted credentials from the configuration database.

=> ↺ Capitol Hill data breach more ‘extensive’ than previously known

• A sweeping cybersecurity breach of congressional members’ private information was more extensive than previously known and affects not only House lawmakers and their staff but also Senate employees.

• The Senate sergeant-at-arms alerted Senate staff about the breach Thursday in an email obtained by CNN.

• The compromised data is “extensive,” and includes sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, home addresses and information on Senate employees’ health insurance plans, the sergeant-at-arms said in the email, which urged Senate staff to freeze their family credit to guard against fraud.

=> ↺ SEC Charges Software Company Blackbaud Inc. for Misleading Disclosures About Ransomware Attack That Impacted Charitable Donors

=> ↺ 3,400 death registry records accessed in Hawaii Department of Health data security breach

=> ↺ UNC data leak exposes more than 1,000 Social Security numbers

• “Human error” played a role in the recent data leak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has exposed more than 1,000 Social Security numbers.

• UNC said 1,025 people had their personal information mailed incorrectly. The university mistakenly sent out IRS Form 1099s with names, addresses, social security numbers, or tax identification number to the wrong people.

• “While 3,403 forms were printed correctly, only 2,214 envelopes were mailed. Upon further investigation, the University determined that due to human error and a processing issue, some of the 2,214 mailings included more than one IRS form,” said Query.AI Chief Information Security Officer Neal Bridges.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ EU undermining privacy – “your chats belong to us” (except the SMS chats of Mrs von der Leyen with Pfizer (of course))

• “Von der Leyen under pressure: The head of the EU Commission refuses to release text messages about the expensive vaccine deal with Pfizer. She is accused of lack of transparency.

=> ↺ Your Computer Clock is Wrong – no it is not – Elon’s Twitter let Onion Tor service certificate expire – how to fix it (client side)

• have to give a HUGHE praise to the Tor Project! just checked and they DO AN EXCELLENT job at keeping the user private the developers who constantly work to make the system better the thousands of volunteering admins…

=> ↺ TikTok Whistleblower Tells Congress Data Protections Don’t Stop Chinese Access

• A former TikTok employee turned whistleblower has reportedly met with multiple U.S. senators expressing concerns TikTok’s plan to secure U.S. user data won’t go far enough to stop possible Chinese espionage.

=> ↺ What TikTok Withholds Is As Concerning As What It Posts, Says NSA Director

• US Army General Paul Nakasone, commander of the US Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, warns that what TikTok doesn’t show you is just as concerning as what it does.

=> ↺ TikTok Hires Biden-Connected Consulting Firm as Federal Ban Looms

• TikTok hires Biden-connected consulting firm SKDK as federal ban looms. TikTok has hired top Biden-connected consulting firm SKDK while it continues facing scrutiny in Washington, Politico reports. The public affairs and political consulting firm is providing communications support to the company as it faces continued fire from the government.

=> ↺ Should Facial Recognition Technology be Banned? | Future Tech

=> ↺ Meta Wants to Grab Wandering Twitter Users With a New Decentralized App

• While Twitter deals with daily chaos and mounting debt, its biggest competitors are thinking they can do tweet storms even better than the ol’ blue bird. On Friday, Meta confirmed that it was working on a new stand-alone app for sharing Twitter-like messages.

=> ↺ Meta explores decentralized social network to rival Twitter

=> ↺ CIA and Mossad-linked Surveillance System Quietly Being Installed Throughout the US

• Under the guise of stopping mass shootings, a surveillance system backed by top Mossad, CIA and FBI officials is being installed in schools, houses of worship, and other civilian locations throughout the country, much of it thanks to the recent donation of an “anonymous philanthropist.”

Confidentiality

=> ↺ Cerebral Informing 3.1 Million Individuals of Inadvertent Data Exposure

• Cerebral is informing 3.1 million individuals that their PHI was inadvertently exposed via third-party tracking technologies.

=> ↺ Acronis Clarifies Hack Impact Following Data Leak

• Acronis said a single customer’s account was compromised after a hacker leaked gigabytes of information on a cybercrime forum.

=> ↺ PDPC penalizes Eatigo over data protection failures leading to 2020 breach

• On October 31, 2020, Eatigo reported a data breach of customer data and that the data had been put up for sale on a popular forum.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ White House Budget Plan Seeks to Boost Cybersecurity Spending

• President Biden’s new $6.9 trillion budget proposal for 2024 shows that the administration wants to increase cybersecurity spending.

=> ↺ ISS: UK seems ready to return its ‘last African colony’

• Could the protracted dispute over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean finally be drawing to a close? Britain steadfastly insisted for decades that it was the rightful owner of what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

=> ↺ Wagner announces opening of recruitment centres in 42 Russian cities

• The head of Russian mercenary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the opening of recruitment centres in dozens of cities on Friday. Prigozhin is currently entangled in a power struggle with the defence ministry, having several times claimed battlefield victories ahead of the Russian military, lambasted Russia’s top brass and accused the military of not sharing ammunition with his forces.

=> ↺ Latvian defense spending hits 2.25% of GDP

• The passing of Latvia’s 2023 budget on Thursday, March 9, ensures that Latvia will spend an amount equivalent to 2.25% of GDP on defense in 2023, with that figure set to rise to 2.4% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025 as part of a longer budgetary framework included with the legislation.

=> ↺ Military helicopter turned courier to deliver heart for transplant

• This week, at the request of cardiac surgeons of the Paul Stradiņš Clinical University  Hospital (PSKUS), the Air Force of Latvia’s National Armed Forces (NBS) stepped in and turned speedy courier to transport a donor heart by helicopter from a remote Latvian hospital to the operating theater, where a patient was waiting for a new heart, according to a press release from the NBS.

=> ↺ 10-year-old student arrested for having gun at Maine school

• Police say they arrested a 10-year-old student in Maine on Friday after the student arrived on school grounds with a firearm. The Waldo County Sheriff’s Office says no one was injured. The office said it responded to Monroe Elementary School in Monroe just before 9 a.m. after fielding a report that the student had a firearm. The sheriff’s office says police worked with school staff to detain the student and seize the firearm. The student was then arrested and taken to the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office. The office says there is no ongoing threat to the public.

=> ↺ Who Did Blow Up the Nord Stream Pipeline?

• In September 2022, the Nord Stream gas pipelines exploded in one of the most spectacular political and environmental acts of terrorism in history.

=> ↺ Israel’s Liberal Supporters Are Taking Their Denial to a New Level

• This week, when the New York Times featured an opinion piece by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, it harmonized with a crescendo of other recent pleas from prominent American supporters of Israel.

=> ↺ Victory Is Defeat: Palestinian Children’s Art Exposes Israel’s Cultural Genocide

• The following text tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting for, and what pro-Israelis are fighting against: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” T

=> ↺ Scientists Call for a Global Treaty to Address Space Junk

• What goes up must come down, and that includes all of the satellites, rocket stages, and junk that humans have launched into space.

=> ↺ Violent Extremist Organizations Threaten West Africa’s Development

• Violent extremist organizations, such as militant Islamist groups, have been a major threat to West Africa’s development. In Burkina Faso, these organizations have spread instability through violent events and have become increasingly active in the Sahel region (Brottem, 2022).

=> ↺ The Frog of War

• Sylvia Shawcross There are seven types of frogs in the Ukraine. So whenever you look at the map of the Ukraine to see how the war ”They” (we can’t call them the elite anymore because it upsets people so we’ll just call them Them with a capital T or They with a capital T….

=> ↺ Iran, Saudi Arabia agree to re-establish relations after years of tensions

• Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tensions between the two countries, including a devastating attack on the heart of the kingdom’s oil production attributed to Tehran.

=> ↺ Eight dead in shooting at Jehovah’s Witness hall in German city of Hamburg

• A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses centre in the German city of Hamburg has left eight people dead, including the suspected gunman, police said Friday, as the motive for the attack remained unclear.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Public Records Victory: CDC Agrees to Settlement in American Oversight Lawsuit Challenging Agency’s FOIA Practices

=> ↺ News Roundup: Exposing Lies

Environment

=> ↺ We Got Climate Change Wrong – All of Us

• It has been said that “Where there is smoke, there’s fire”. This is also true when it comes to climate change. The increased frequency and severity of floods, droughts, and storms, are just the smoke, while the Carbon Ratio is the real fire.

=> ↺ 2 dead, nearly 10,000 under evacuation orders as California floods intensify

• CNN– At least two people have died as the result of the ongoing storm inundating California, and nearly 10,000 residents are under evacuation orders, officials said.

=> ↺ Atmospheric river floods California towns, brings rain, snow

• More than 9,000 California residents were under evacuation orders Friday in California after a new atmospheric river brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds, swelling rivers and creeks and flooding several major highways. In Santa Cruz County, a creek bloated by rain destroyed a portion of Main Street and isolated several neighborhoods in Soquel, a town of 10,000 people.

=> ↺ Quake swarms at neighboring Alaska volcanoes raise concerns

• Not one but two volcanoes on the same island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain were showing signs of unrest on Friday, rocked by seismic activity. Elevated earthquake activity at both Tanaga and Takawangha volcanoes on uninhabited Tanaga Island hundreds of miles from Anchorage could indicate a possible eruption.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ India’s demand for fuel hit a quarter-century high in February

• The demand for fuel in India rose to its highest level in at least 24 years in February, partly due to Russian oil imported at a hefty discount.

=> ↺ India’s newly-found lithium reserves carry an environmental cost

• The discovery of vast lithium deposits in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir, hailed as a win for the country’s clean energy transition, comes at a price for communities in the Himalayan region, say villagers and environmental scientists.

=> ↺ Judge Says SBF’s Proposed Bail Conditions Are Too Cushy

• A federal judge doesn’t think proposed changes to Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions will be enough to address the disgraced FTX founder’s messy online behavior while awaiting trial, according to a Friday Reuters report.

=> ↺ Biden to sign off on $8 billion oil drilling project in Alaska: reports

• President Biden is planning to approve an $8 billion oil drilling project on federal land on Alaska’s North Slope next week, according to multiple reports.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ The First-Ever Complete Map of an Insect Brain Is Truly Mesmerizing

• “Everything has been working up to this.”

=> ↺ World’s Largest Organism Is Slowly Being Eaten, Scientist Says

• Nothing lasts forever.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Fertility rate in Latvia close to EU average

• In 2021, 4.09 million babies were born in the EU. This was a slight increase compared with 2020, when 4.07 million babies were born. Overall, there has been a downward trend in the number of children born in the EU, which began in 2008 (4.68 million children), according to Eurostat figures published March 9.

Finance

=> ↺ Silicon Valley Bank is the second-largest US bank failure in history

• The closure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) today marked the second-largest US bank failure in history.

=> ↺ Financial regulators close Silicon Valley Bank

=> ↺ US regulators seize Silicon Valley Bank in largest bank failure since financial crisis

• California banking regulators on Friday closed SVB Financial Group, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis, moving quickly to protect depositors as a crisis at the startup-focused lender rippled through global markets and hit banking stocks.

=> ↺ Macron insists pension reform is necessary as protests, strikes press on

• French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need for raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 in order to make the French pension system financially sustainable in the coming years, in a letter to workers’ unions released Friday.

=> ↺ Silicon Valley Bank is the first FDIC-insured bank to fail in 2023

• Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was shut down on March 10 by California’s state banking regulator and put under the control Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which promised to give insured depositors access to their money by the morning of March 13 and will attempt to return funds to uninsured depositors as the agency sells…

=> ↺ After the US added 300,000 jobs in February, the Fed will likely raise rates faster

• The US economy added 311,000 non-farm jobs between January and February, beating economists’ expectations for an addition of 225,000 jobs in the month, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

=> ↺ GM seeks to cut jobs by offering thousands of workers the chance to get paid to quit

• General Motors is doing layoffs a little differently: It’s letting people choose to leave.

=> ↺ Silicon Valley Bank Seized by FDIC as Depositors Pull Cash

• The FDIC seized the assets of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, which could impact cybersecurity firms that use the bank’s services.

=> ↺ Meta Will Stop Offering Reels Bonuses to Creators on Facebook and Instagram

• Meta is discontinuing its program to pay bonuses to creators for making Reels on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram and Facebook parent Meta is pausing its program to incentivize creators to make Reels and reach specific benchmarks. Initially introduced in 2021, the program paid bonuses to content creators to generate more short video content.

=> ↺ Meta Isn’t Paying Influencers for Reels Any More

• Facebook and Instagram influencers are losing access to a big moneymaking program that was previously paying out thousands of dollars per vid. It was an effort to get more Instagram users interested in watching the social network’s short-form video format Reels.

=> ↺ Silicon Valley Bank collapses after failing to raise capital

• Silicon Valley Bank collapsed Friday morning after a stunning 48 hours in which its capital crisis set off fears of a meltdown across the banking industry. Its failure marks the largest shutdown of a US bank since 2008, when Washington Mutual fell during the financial crisis.

=> ↺ UNICEF warns of deepening inequalities in Europe and Central Asia

• The COVID-19 pandemic, climate disasters and ongoing conflict have deepened inequalities among children in Europe and Central Asia, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a report published on Thursday, calling for more robust support for boys and girls at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

=> ↺ More than 1.2 million march in France. Protesters aim to ‘bring France to standstill’

• More than 1.2 million protesters marched in France on Tuesday as rail workers and refinery staff began rolling strikes and trade unions stepped up their campaign to try to stop Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age to 64.

=> ↺ DocuSign’s stock falls as executive changes cast shadow on strong earnings and revenue beat

=> ↺ New York sues KuCoin, claims it’s falsely representing itself as a cryptocurrency exchange

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore trade and diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by China

• Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to normalize diplomatic and trade relations on Friday (March 10) after years of tension that threatened to destabilize the Gulf region.

=> ↺ Iceland’s President Offers Socks to the Disabled Ex-Twitter Employee Mocked by Elon Musk

• Haraldur Thorleifsson has had a long week. On Monday, the Icelander tweeted at Elon Musk asking if he still had a job at Twitter, since he had been locked out of his work laptop and hadn’t been able to get in touch with Twitter human resources.

=> ↺ Elon Musk calls for release of QAnon Shaman from prison over Capitol riot actions

• “Free Jacob Chansley,” Elon Musk wrote in an explosive tweet on Friday.

=> ↺ President Niinistö of Finland visits Stanford, calls for trans-atlantic security cooperation

• As part of a five-day trip to the United States, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and his delegation visited Stanford and discussed matters of national security and strategic cooperation with Stanford scholars from the Freeman Spogli Institute and Hoover Institution.

=> ↺ The Dark Side of Social Media

• Social media has taken over each and every individual this way or the other. One cannot deny the fact that the pros of the social media overshadow the dark cons of social media.

=> ↺ Macron hails ‘new start’ in France-UK relations at Sunak meeting

• French President Emmanuel Macron hailed a “new start” in Franco-British ties at a bilateral summit in Paris with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, aiming at restoring close ties after years of tensions between the two countries.

=> ↺ The challenge of enshrining abortion rights in the French constitution

• During a speech given on International Woman’s Day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision to put forward a bill enshrining abortion rights in the country’s constitution. Despite being lauded by women’s rights groups, changing the constitution may be more difficult than it appears.

=> ↺ Turkish opposition unites against ‘weaker than ever’ Erdogan ahead of elections

• Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), has emerged as the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections scheduled for May 14. Kilicdaroglu hopes to deprive Erdogan of a third term as he grapples with the country’s economic crisis and the fallout from last February’s devastating earthquakes.

=> ↺ China’s parliament appoints Li Qiang as premier as Xi cements influence

• Li Qiang, one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s most trusted allies, was confirmed as premier on Saturday, as Xi cements his influence on the country’s top leadership.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ House Republicans Just Passed a Tech Censorship Bill That’s Pure Nonsense

• House Republicans this week rammed through an ill-constructed, self-aggrandizing “anti-censorship” bill supposedly aimed at preventing federal agents from pressuring tech companies to stifle conservatives. The bill, inspired in part by Republican outrage over Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story…

=> ↺ The Reason Why Europe’s “Right To Be Forgotten” Hasn’t Made it To The United States

• In the digital age, an individual’s data can be searchable and accessible at the speed of one click. The more someone interacts with the Internet, the bigger their digital footprint becomes. This footprint is collected, analysed and passed around by countless third parties without the owner’s explicit consent.

=> ↺ ‘This chills speech’: Faculty Senate raises concerns about Protected Identity Harm Reporting

• At their Thursday meeting, members of the Faculty Senate criticized the harm reporting process as being restrictive of free speech and academic freedom on campus.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Russia casts Georgia protests as coup attempt, accuses West of fomenting unrest

• Moscow on Friday accused foreign countries of fomenting days of mass protests in Georgia, likening them to an attempted coup designed to sow tension on Russia’s borders.

=> ↺ Women on a mission: MENA female entrepreneurs are making waves in the region

• Women entrepreneurs have emerged as a force to be reckoned with in many Arab economies, breaking stereotypes and paving the way for future generations.

=> ↺ BBC presenter Lineker pulled from air over ’1930s Germany’ post on UK migrant policy

• Former England soccer captain Gary Lineker has been taken off air by the BBC after his comments on Britain’s migration policy sparked a furious row between the government and the corporation’s highest paid presenter.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ To Infinity and Beyond, with Cloudflare Cache Reserve

• What if I told you… that you could run a website from behind Cloudflare and only have 385 daily requests miss their cache and go through to the origin service?

• …biggy, unless… that was out of a total of more than 166M requests in the same period…

=> ↺ Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC): An Explainer

• ‘Open Network for Digital Commerce’ (ONDC) is a government backed, network-centric, technology infrastructure. In this explainer we expand on what ONDC is, how it works, what the stated promises and potential challenges are, especially regarding ONDC’s capability to address market issues.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ HP Printers Are Doing the DRM Thing Again

• HP is receiving backlash after users reported that their non-brand ink cartridges stopped working following recent firmware updates.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ 4 day work week

• I’m very supportive of reducing work hours and days. I’ve recently got to unofficially try it out myself, because I asked for Fridays off for a couple weeks so I have some longer weekends to work on a university assignment. That would permit me more time to work on it, or at least have one day for rest and fun, one day for chores and errands, and one day to put in a lot of work.

• I’m surprised by the fact that I don’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It made me feel a little lost, and a little like those bad Sundays where you feel bad and depressed about your life, and like you should be doing something great but aren’t. And everything you think of doing sucks, isn’t available, or something you don’t wanna do right now. Or like in school days where the summer break started to feel boring and you caught yourself looking a bit forward to school again. I wonder if this is me being an indoctrinated worker being so used to 5 days, or if it’s my work circumstances or private circumstances?

=> ↺ Star Gazing 2023-03-10 Evening (Fairbanks, AK, USA)

• Last night about 9:00pm AKST I observed that atmospheric pressure had jumped up and the skies had cleared up. The NWS forecast had predicted 50% cloud cover so this was unexpected. I’m getting pretty good now at gathering up my telescope supplies and getting my telescope assembled, so I was out at the boat launch and had everything set up in about 30 or 40 minutes.

• The temperature at the boat launch was 5 °F, which was a big improvement over the -20 °F evenings I’ve been working with. The boat launch was getting a bit crowded since it was a warm Friday night and there was a campfire party going on, but I found a darker area to park in. The skies seemed very bright, which I think was due to light from the gibbous moon a little under the horizon. But I was able to find a darker patch of sky to the south east.

=> ↺ Waiting for weather

• I’m making instant coffee and slowly waking up. It’s Saturday and I’m up just after 7.

• There was supposed to be a storm sweeping in starting late last night, but that hasn’t happened yet. The environmental services are still calling for a big dump of snow, but I woke up this morning, looked out, and nothing. The same melted and refrozen drifts, the same semi-bare streets.

Technical

=> ↺ High Tech Devil’s Dictionary

• Proof of Work Cryptocurrency

• (n). A technique for transmuting electricity into money while burning the planet and generating bullshit as a byproduct. See also: Ponzi Scheme Protocol (PSP), Money Laundering Protocol (MLP).

=> ↺ Will MNT eat Pine64′s lunch?

• I was originally interested to see what the capabilities of this device were, especially as a target for postmarketOS, which I found particularly compelling from a technical standpoint. Since that time, my PinePhone has come to serve a unique role in my computing life; the battery is far too limited to allow the device to be a useful daily-driver cell phone, but having a very small linux system with the full capabilities of graphical Emacs, desktop Firefox, and a physical keyboard with support for commonly used meta keys has proven invaluable in a number of situations.

=> ↺ Invidious: Make Youtube cool again

• I have a complicated relationship with Youtube like, I imagine, a lot of people. While I really dislike everything that Google is doing with the platform and their idiotic algorithm, there are tons of exceptionnaly good content on the platform.

• You can find everything regarding computer science, 3d printing, physics talks, video games, history and so much more. It’s full of dedicated people talking about their passion. I used to only use the “Subscriptions” page of Youtube. The default home page has always been irrelevant, and the Popular tab is just plain cancer.

=> ↺ Thinking about threading.

• Several years ago I wanted to have a way to share short thoughts, and found items (links, images, and the like) on my website. Most of the website is made up of markdown files that render into HTML and while this isn’t difficult to update on a real computer it is cumbersome on what passes for the state of the art in mobile operating systems these days so I wanted something that I could post to using a web browser. I ended up building the resulting microblog system out of several Microsoft Azure services, namely Functions, Storage Tables, and Storage Blobs. Later, when I built this Gemini capsule I wanted to bring that content across so I wrote a Python program that fetches the data from the API and renders it out to gemtext and an Atom feed.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Collect traffic data for your Capsule

• As everyone else around here, I love a good tracking of visitors.

• Kidding… screw that.

• However, I feel it’s pretty good to know if your capsule gets any traffic at all and which part of it people find it more interesting. Some may not care, some may.

• This is why I’ve modified shavit to support sending traffic data into InfluxDB.

=> ↺ verified sites

• Mastodon has a feature which enables you to verify that a website in your profile belongs to you [1], and I’ve now added the same capability for website and blog links in Epicyon [2].

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

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