Trading and Business
Centrist House Democrats Threaten to Block Budget Resolution Vote
Nine Democrats call for prioritizing vote on bipartisan infrastructure bill, at odds with Pelosi’s timeline.
Where is America Diversifying the Fastest? Small Midwestern Towns.
Columbus, Ind., hometown of Cummins and Mike Pence, embodies a new kind of immigrant melting pot far from the big city; ‘a snowball effect’.
This is interesting. As person who has lived in Big Towns, Small Cities, Ungoverned Badlands and every permutation on the foregoing spectrum I see the Rural-Urban divide as the force shaping our political future in the U.S. Whether we go only this far or centuries further will largely depend on the success or failure of people who embrace any of these lifestyles to relate to the others. The trend in the article is a wrinkle worth paying attention to.
Apple’s Software Chief Explains ‘Misunderstood’ iPhone Child-Protection Features (Exclusive)
Apple’s tools for flagging child pornography and identifying explicit photos in kids’ messages caused backlash and confusion.
We're not confused. This is spin.
I watched the interview. I am familiar with CSAM. Shortly after my stint with defense contractor Northrop Grumman I was recruited to a proof of concept project that was competing to build tools like those described by this Apple executive, based on CSAM. I resigned from the project after a few months, on ethical grounds...specifically the overreaching privacy intrusion inherent in such scanning software.
CSAM is an undisclosed list of file hashes that have been subjectively determined to be objectionable. Whether or not that subjective determination has been made through complete judicial process or merely by executive determination it is is unavoidably subjective and problematic. So is the fact that circulation of the CSAM hashes is not transparent.
This is warrantless surveillance, on behalf of the government in the familiar mold of KYC.
Apple's capitulation is a DANGEROUS precedent for surveillance to be built into a broad array of devices: other vendors phones, your personal computer...your smart home?
Clarifications heard, Apple. The features are not okay. No version of them is okay.
Baseball Isn’t Heaven in ‘Field of Dreams’ Town. It’s Blacked Out.
In Iowa, where baseball staged a high-profile promotion Thursday, viewers can’t watch six teams from surrounding states on MLB.tv because of blackouts.
Samsung’s De Facto Leader Leaves Prison—Now Comes the Hard Part
To quiet critics of his early parole, Lee Jae-yong must soon deliver major moves for the South Korean conglomerate.
In Other News
GOP lawmakers step up criticism of Biden on Afghanistan
GOP lawmakers have ramped-up criticism of President Biden's pull-out.
Afghan commander Ismail Khan captured as Taliban seize Herat
Taliban insurgents have seized most of Herat, Afghanistan's third largest city, and also captured Ismail Khan, the veteran local commander leading militia resistance there, local officials said on Friday.
Crypto platform Poly Network rewards hacker with $500,000 'bug bounty'
Poly Network, the cryptocurrency platform which lost $610 million in a hack earlier this week, confirmed on Friday it had offered the hacker or hackers a $500,000 "bug bounty".
The Taliban's rapid advance across Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents control an estimated 65% of Afghan territory, after making rapid advances against local forces who are largely fending for themselves as foreign troops withdraw.
Entertainment & Tech
Equi: an easy-to-use immediate mode GUI in pure Rust
Facebook shut down German research on Instagram algorithm, researchers say
Algorithm Watch said Facebook threatened them with legal action, forcing them to shut down their research on Instagram’s news feed algorithm.
Argentine fintech Ualá lands $350M at a $2.45B valuation in SoftBank, Tencent-led round
The dollars keep flowing into Latin America. Today, Argentine personal finance management app Ualá announced it has raised $350 million in a Series D round at a post-money valuation of $2.45 billion.
Vergecast: Samsung’s new foldables and Apple addresses iCloud scanning concerns
The Vergecast discusses Samsung’s newest product announcements and Apple’s important changes coming to Messages and iCloud.
Apple, makers of #spyPhone.
Razer’s latest keyboard accessories offer an easy way to spruce up your mech
Razer is expanding its range of mechanical keyboard accessories with new keycaps, cables, and wrist rests. The accessories start at $20 for the new wrist rests, ranging up to $50 for a customization kit with keycaps and a USB cable.
And also this...
Pokémon Go Creator Says The Metaverse Is A Nightmare
Niantic's CEO and founder John Hanke called the metaverse a nightmare concept born out of science fiction dystopias, rather than a technological ideal. He said that Niantic is committed to connecting people to the world around them with Augmented Reality.
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