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Cake day: mag 17, 2022

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Tra i 38 Paesi del network EuroVelo, l’Italia è la destinazione più ricercata per i turisti che vogliono trascorrere le vacanze in sella ad una bicicletta. Un flusso di turisti, sia italiani sia stranieri, con un peso economico non indifferente che, l’Istituto nazionale ricerche turistiche (Isnart) stima in quattro miliardi di euro.

Interoperability “opens up a real Pandora’s box”, researchers say
Everyone’s worried that the UK Online Safety Bill and the EU Child Sex Abuse Regulation will put an end to end-to-end encryption. But according to a new paper the Digital Markets Act already passed by the EU could have the same effect. Here is the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14178

Nel corso degli ultimi 25 anni la Cina è stata “la fabbrica del mondo”, ovvero il paese dove sono stati prodotti i beni di cui il resto del pianeta aveva bisogno. Questo meccanismo è tuttora in corso, ma la marcia indietro degli investitori è chiaramente innescata.

It's remarkable that the responsible EU Commissioner gets away with this, without tremendous criticism from media and members of the EU Parliament, Mullvad writes in its blog. "It’s obvious during the interviews [which she gave to various media] that Ylva Johansson does not understand her own bill and what consequences it would have."

China has been keen to prevent a much-discussed UN convention on crimes against humanity. But at the end of last year a medley of countries led by Bangladesh, Gambia and Mexico infuriated China and Russia by paving the way towards one in a committee of the UN- and they are gathering an unstoppable wave of support in the General Assembly.

The targets of recent raids were not typical criminals, but eight soft-spoken intellectuals, several of them elderly, who work for Memorial, a human-rights group now banned in Russia.

You’ll find ample evidence about this issue across many media platforms and the source is the UN, just FYI.



This is sadly true. There’s a lot wrong with Cloudflare and I also knew they control the on-ramps to bitcoin, but I didn’t know that they have already blocked persons.


I think crypto as a technology is not a very good store of value

I fully agree. That’s why I use it as a means of payment rather than as value investment -:)

Blockchain is revolutionary, but blockchain projects need to have utility

Absolutely, that’s what is missing at 99.9% of blockchain projects unfortunately (but I still hope for the 0.1% :-))


Yeah, your post wasn’t yet visible to me when I posted mine a few minutes ago, but I am thinking the very same. The next big thing is here and they need to train the chat bots :-)


I have been using some crypto as a means of payment and find it often easier and cheaper than banking services in the fiat system.

Developers -and possibly others- could use it to monetize their work and becoming less dependant from commercial app stores. The blockchain can be a good tool for proof of provenance (although the latter doesn’t necessarily come with a currency).

By using crypto, we can cut the middleman.

There are some use cases for crypto imho, but only a few companies try to exploit its potential.

But, yeah, it seems we already have the next big thing:

Tech chief says the development of chatbots is a more worthwhile use of processing power than crypto mining


The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education. Matiullah Wesa has continued to drum up support from locals for his organization which campaigns for schools and distributes books in rural areas.

Fair. The article is not specifically about TikTok, though. For example, it mentions the case of Whitney Duan and her ex-husband (here’s an article about it) who wrote a book about that topic. One book review reads:

The Chinese Communist Party depicted in Shum’s firsthand account is the epitome of capitalist excess, with the sons and daughters of high-ranking party officials going on global shopping and gambling sprees, spending the vast sums their parents and relatives amassed through rampant corruption, influence-peddling, ruthless political maneuvering and backstabbing.

But just read the book yourself.


"It’s not uncommon for Chinese authorities to forcibly “disappear” business executives, a practice that has increased in recent years under President Xi Jinping. Some executives have never been heard from again. Some have returned to work as if nothing had happened. Some ended up going to prison. Some even mysteriously died when incarcerated."

For those interested there are two interesting articles on this topic:

The Mind Is a Battlefield: Lessons from Japan’s Security Policy on Cognitive Warfare

It says:

The cognitive domain, which encompasses emotions, beliefs, values, and other intangible aspects of human cognition, has emerged as a crucial front in today’s wars. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recognizes the strategic importance of cognitive factors in winning information wars, and has devoted considerable research to this area: they aim to gain superiority in the cognitive domain by influencing public opinion, applying psychological pressure on key figures and ultimately influencing decision-making to win wars with minimal cost – or even without fighting. This perspective has been integrated into Beijing’s military strategy …

The Future of China’s Cognitive Warfare: Lessons from the War in Ukraine

There is also a lot of academic research, e.g., How China’s Cognitive Warfare Works: A Frontline Perspective of Taiwan’s Anti-Disinformation Wars


"We [...] need to raise public awareness of the risks associated with digital platforms and neurotechnology devices by giving the public concrete information about the risks to themselves and national security. Educating users about potential dangers and promoting digital literacy will empower individuals to make informed decisions about their online presence and the devices they use."

Il parlamento ugandese ha adottato una delle leggi più repressive contro l’omosessualità, considerata come un’eredità del colonialismo e della decadenza occidentale. Una posizione promossa anche dalla Russia.

L’app di appuntamenti creata da Guixi ha ottenuto molte critiche su Weibo, il principale social network usato in Cina. Alcuni si sono chiesti se sia legittimo che le autorità raccolgano e condividano le informazioni personali delle persone single per cercare di accoppiarle, a maggior ragione senza il loro consenso.

Da anni sindaci e giunta regionale di destra provano a depotenziarli, come mostra la storia della Casa delle Donne di Terni.

New tools built by researchers at AI startup Hugging Face and Leipzig University and detailed in a non-peer-reviewed paper allow people to examine biases in three popular AI image-generating models: DALL-E 2 and the two recent versions of Stable Diffusion. Here is the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11408

The Kremlin claims that Rosselkhozbank, Russia’s fifth-biggest lender, only funds farmers and the food industry. But an investigation has found that amid the Russian pressure, Rosselkhozbank quietly arranged to lend up to $350 million to a little-known Hong Kong trading house that ships oil from Rosneft, the Russian state oil company.

Albert Ho was granted bail in August 2022, with media reporting he needed medical treatment for lung cancer. The judge who granted bail told Ho that if his bail will be revoked "he won’t be able to receive any kind of private medical care”.

Per via di un'ondata di caldo anomala seguita a una serie di alluvioni, che ha ridotto i livelli di ossigeno e soffocato la fauna.

Sono aumentati i laboratori per produrre merchandising contraffatto e le bancarelle che lo vendono, spesso controllate dai clan.

The decision is relevant for almost all EU websites. However, when websites include this technology they also forward all user data to the US multinational and onwards to the NSA. While the European Commission is still aiming to publish the third EU-US data transfer deal, the fact that US law still allows bulk surveillance means that this matter will not be solved any time soon, an NGO says.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the guidance is an author’s “duty to disclose the inclusion of AI-generated content in a work submitted for registration," the US Copyright Office says. Also, authors must be human to register works. However, an author who arranges generative AI into a specific sequence—like designing the layout for a comic book—can potentially copyright that sequence of images, if the arrangement is “sufficiently creative."

Il piano della Commissione europea va controcorrente rispetto ai dogmi della globalizzazione degli ultimi trenta o quarant’anni, basati su catene di rifornimento estremamente fragili da un capo all’altro del pianeta. Per onestà dobbiamo riconoscere che questo sistema assicurava anche la possibilità di appaltare lontano dall’Europa i lavori meno “puliti”, come l’estrazione dei minerali o il loro raffinamento.

Le donne hanno sempre rappresentato un’eccezione nel panorama politico del paese, ma se possibile con le scelte fatte dalla leadership recente la situazione è peggiorata.

The two men are accused to possess books which “provoke hatred or contempt” for the central government, the Hong Kong SAR government and Hong Kong’s judiciary. Meanwhile, the UN called upon the authorities to repeal the sedition laws and refrain from using them to suppress the expression of critical and dissenting opinions.

I just read an article on how cybercriminals use ChatGPT that is perfect for this thread (-:


Researchers should not use race as a proxy for describing human genetic variation, report says
Race is a social concept, but it is often used in genomics and genetics research as a surrogate for describing human genetic differences. "This is misleading, inaccurate, and harmful", the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the US say as they propose a new framework for scientists.

The laptop's 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex A53-based CPU offers roughly the performance of a Raspberry Pi 3 or a mid-2010s budget smartphone—just barely enough to get by for basic browsing and document editing, fine for command-line work, and difficult to live with for just about anything else.

Overall, 1,483 unique allegations were reported against 1,539 police officers – or 0.7% of the workforce. There were 1,177 cases of alleged police-perpetrated violence, including sexual harassment and assault, reported between October 2021 and April 2022, according to data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

Yes, it’s bad if people are that naive, and it’s even worse when others appear to exploit the despair of people. The app has 32 permissions and contains 4 trackers that openly say that they would collect behavioral data and advertise their trackers using slogans like “we help marketers make better decisions”.


The government is right to prohibit the use of Tiktok on work devices, but experts think that the ban should also apply to other apps. "I don't think it's as simple as TikTok - bad; American companies - good. I think they're all bad," Australian National University cybersecurity researcher Vanessa Teague says.

dont think its controversial to think that governement officials shouldnt have any form of social media on their government issued phones. Its insane that governements have worse digital practices than a lot of mid size businesses

Yes. And what makes this thread even more weird is the fact that Tiktok is not even available in China. ByteDance offers a similar service, Douyin, that looks and works just like it, but the Western version is unavailable, and not just for government officials but the entire population.

Furthermore, a lot of other social media is blocked in China not just for officials but for the entire population, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and many others. Not that I think these apps are needed, I just don’t understand the critics for blocking Tiktok here.


TikTok execs had doubled down on efforts to convince UK policy advisers that their data is safe, but the UK will join the EU, US, Canada and other countries in banning TikTok. The move comes after a UK security review.

Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kenya are among the latest targets for English private schools aiming to expand overseas, often in partnership with property developers looking to build luxury developments or even entire cities.

Exposed data include patient names, birth dates, insurance information, and people's responses to mental health self-evaluations.

Il fisico tedesco Werner Heisenberg espose quasi un secolo fa il proprio “principio di indeterminazione” che offrì importanti elementi per teorizzare che il vuoto non sia mai veramente vuoto. E qui la faccenda da fisica si farebbe alquanto filosofica. Già i primi filosofi si chiedevano se potesse esistere uno spazio completamente vuoto contrapposto a quello in cui si trovano gli atomi dell’Universo.

L’Europa e l’Occidente hanno ridotto le importazioni di petrolio e di gas dalla Russia, da cui in certi casi dipendevano fortemente, e hanno bloccato le importazioni di beni meno fondamentali come oro, caviale e vodka, ma non riescono a trovare un accordo e a definire una linea comune sui diamanti.

L’European cyclists’ federation ha mappato lo stato dell’arte in 125 città europee (da Rotterdam a Copenhagen, passando per Salisburgo e Bruxelles) riunendo i risultati nella dashboard “Cargo-bike friendly cities”: https://ecf.com/tracker-cargo-bike-friendly-cities

Calling the FBI’s past abuses of Section 702 “egregious,” Darin LaHood—who is leading the House Intelligence Committee's working group pushing to reauthorize Section 702 amid a steeply divided Congress—said that “ironically,” being targeted by the FBI gives him a “unique perspective” on “what’s wrong with the FBI.”

Software development tool GitHub will require more accounts to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) starting on March 13. That mandate will extend to all developers who contribute code on GitHub.com by the end of 2023.

… an attempt to take over the territorial waters of other countries

Sometimes this appears to happen in somewhat irritating ways as reports say: Micronesia’s President David Panuelo has accused China of making ‘direct threats against my personal safety’


The prosecutor accused three people of acting as foreign agents with ties to overseas organizations, but refused to name the organizations. The defence lawyer said “not knowing the identity” of the alleged foreign government or entity made any mitigation difficult given the foreign agent allegation.

National cybersecurity agency deems TikTok a threat to Czechia

The Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB) has today warned Czechs against downloading the Chinese video application TikTok. It has labeled the app a “security threat” and said the public should “think twice” before using it.

Danish public broadcaster advises staff against using TikTok



Every year, the Committee to Protect Journalists documents the number of journalists behind bars worldwide. The 2022 edition sets a grim record of 363 names. But Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fails to appear on the list as has been the case since he was dragged from London’s Ecuadorian Embassy in 2019 and locked in solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison, dubbed “Britain’s Guantánamo.”

"TikTok is a Chinese company that currently is mandated to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement. The Belgian ban is based on a risk analysis by the country's intelligence services and recommendations by the national cybersecurity center.

David Panuelo, il presidente degli Stati Federati di Micronesia, ha accusato la Cina di pressioni, intimidazioni e corruzione nel Paese, dimostrando «un'acuta capacità di minare la nostra sovranità, di respingere i nostri valori e di utilizzare i nostri funzionari eletti e di alto livello per i loro scopi».


“The practical impacts [...] of Chinese control over our communications infrastructure, our ocean territory and the resources within them, and our security space, aside from impacts on our sovereignty, is that it increases the chances of China getting into conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand, on the day when Beijing decides to invade Taiwan,” David Panuelo said in a letter.

Yeah, especially from Facebook and other big tech. They never sell user data. Never. Pinky swear.


According to the survey cited in the article, the participating experts say that AI will also have useful implications, although the majority agrees that they will be outweighed by negative effects.

I am personally convinced of the latter and agree with Alejandro Pisanty saying that “the future is to be determined by the agendas of commercial interests and governments, to our chagrin”. The biggest problem imho is that this topic is almost exclusively discussed within professional circles. The wider public is completely unaware what lies ahead.

What we urgently needed is a broad discussion across the entire society, and this requires to communicate the relevant topics in a language the wider “non-tech” public can understand.

We need to ignite real public conversations to help people fully understand the stakes of these developments

I fully agree with this quote by Kathryn Bouskill.


This is likely only for US people living in the Boston area: Journalists in the Boston area


This is strongly related: ‘It makes me want to cry’: inside crumbling courts as judges wrestle with rise in rent eviction cases

Edit for an addition:

In a lobbying campaign targeting politicians, press, the Bank of England and the government, Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), had in recent months warned “landlords are selling because of punitive taxation” and of “decimated” supply hitting tenants. […]

But Beadle this month told an industry webinar: “Actually the truth is that while some landlords are leaving the sector, this sector is actually still increasing. That’s not terribly helpful to our argument to be honest with you. But in the context of cost of living and rising costs we have to tell that story and link the two.”

Source: Landlords accused of ‘making up stories’ in drive to change UK tax rules


A new study published just yesterday:

For the first time researchers have proven a clear correlation between deforestation and regional precipitation. […] The paper, published in the journal Nature, adds to fears that the degradation of the Amazon is approaching a tipping point after which the rainforest will no longer be able to generate its own rainfall and the vegetation will dry up.

People living in deforested areas have long provided anecdotal evidence that their microclimates became drier with lower tree cover.

Here is the link to the article, here the link to the study.

Edit for additional article: Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled, says acting UN biodiversity chief


I don’t know the person who wrote this post, but accusing someone of extremism (no matter if it’s left or right) because of linking to a news article like this is unnecessary to say the least.

The linked article describes more than “a few incidents”. I think we all read about the death of Mahsa Amini because she refused to wear a hijab or about the 16-year-old Asra Panahi who was beaten to death for refusing to sing pro-regime anthem.

It’s rather a systemic opression as women and girls as well as other minorities are treated like second-class citizens in Iran, and the situation in 2022 has worsened.


A few isolated incidents? How women and girls are treated in Iran has been covered by multiple media “in the west” and everywhere else. You can also ask Iranian women who were able to emigrate and learn more about these “few isolated incidents”.

And, no, this is not a cultural issue nor a ideological one.



The cited study provides a lot of evidence. Just in case you don’t have time to read it or don’t trust the source for whatever reason, have a look here, here, here or here, for example.


I wouldn’t say medieval, but there appears to be a strong tendency to autocratic and backward-looking, conservative rules - and not only in the “anglo-saxon” world. We see this in countries like China (see here and here, for example) and many other. For example, see here.

Edit for an addition: Just read that Anthony Albanese becomes first Australian PM to march in Sydney Mardi Gras LOL


Bei Client-side Scanning (was die Online Bill in UK und die geplante Chat Control in der EU vorsehen) nützt die Verschlüsselung nichts. Unklar ist mir, wie Signal den Rückzug vollziehen will. Man kann zwar einen Download von einer britischen IP-Adresse grundsätzlich verbieten, aber das können User und Userinnen umgehen.

Aber ja, das ganze Gesetz ist in vielerlei Hinsicht nicht durchdacht.


Hai ragione, stanno sempre in ombra, ma a torto. Le donne hanno fatto (e fanno) molto nella storia dell’informatica.

Ada Lovelace, Evelyn Boyd Granville, Radia Perlman, Joan Ball, Karen Spärck Jones, Stephanie Shirley, Adele Goldberg, Angelica Ross, Susan Kare, Williamina Fleming, Elizabeth Feinler, Grace Hopper, Annie Easley, Mary Allen Wilkes, Carol Shaw, Victoria Alonso, Donna Dubinsky, Megan Smith, e molte altre donne … :-)


Compare Alex Morgan’s statements now to her male colleagues’ behaviour during the football world cup in Qatar last year …


I don’t know which study you are refering to. Is it available somewhere?


c’è grave bug a livello di sistema operativo che ha colpito il fornitore esterno responsabile del nuovo servizio di storage introdotto nelle scorse settimane

Dicono che prima che la situazione ritorni a livelli normali servirà ancora un po’ di pazienza, con una finestra temporale di risoluzione stimata nelle 24/48 ore.


Hai ragione. Purtroppo ci sono tanti politici nel mondo che agiscono in modo simile.


Yes, only customers seem to be affected. I corrected the headline to make that clear. Sorry.


A tutti … forse è davvero troppo complesso per un articolo, ma anche i commenti sono molto interessanti. L’unica cosa certa è che la matematica è open source, giusto? 😄


This appears to be one of the hottest market trends with China having the most extensive public surveillance system, but we may assume other regions to gain ground.



That’s weird. I don’t encounter problems watching the video. Maybe try refresh the page or try this alternative.



This is sadly true. In my nearer environment literally everyone agrees, too, but politics is lagging behind.


I don’t know where you live, but I agree we should never be whining about a country and its people. To critisize the government if there’s a reason, but never the people. A country’s government and its people are not the same.


to substitute for that same page to be about the USA.>

Maybe, but does that make any country better?