ReHacked vol. 189: The world has reached 8 billion people, French Court rules that refusing to disclose a mobile passcode to law enforcement is a criminal offence and more
“If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance.” --Alan Watts
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Then and now
Our society, the internet went from Cyberpunk’s manifesto back in 1993 to this:
In its 7 November 2022 decision, the Court of Cassation ruled that where a mobile phone is equipped with an “encryption device”, the passcode to unlock its home screen may constitute a “decryption key” if the activation of this code has the effect of revealing the encrypted data contained in or accessed by the device. Therefore, where a mobile phone has these technical features – as is the case with most mobile phones today – and is likely to have been used in the preparation or commission of a crime, the owner, who has been informed of the criminal consequences of a refusal to communicate the passcode to investigators, is obliged to reveal the passcode to investigative authorities or face a criminal conviction for a refusal to do so.
DeviantArt upsets artists with its new AI art generator, DreamUp [Updated] | Ars Technica #copyrights #art #ai
DreamUp creates novel AI-generated art based on text prompts. Due to its Stable Diffusion roots, DreamUp learned how to generate images by analyzing hundreds of millions of images scraped off sites like DeviantArt and collected into LAION datasets without artists' permission, a potential irony that some DeviantArt members find problematic.
The world has reached 8 billion people — but soon we'll hit a decline we'll never reverse - ABC News #world #humankind
We never know precisely how many of us are alive at any one time, but this Tuesday is the United Nations’ best estimate on when we’ll reach 8 billion human beings.
Eight billion. It’s a number too big to imagine but think of it this way: In the time it takes you to read this paragraph, the world’s population grew by around 20 people.
While the Earth’s population is growing quickly, the growth rate is starting to slow down. Eventually, it will start falling and our societies will shrink.
Humanity is changing day by day in ways we can’t perceive over short periods, but in ways that will reshape our world over the coming century.
Man who lived in Charles de Gaulle airport for 18 years dies there | France | The Guardian #world
An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and inspired the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal died on Saturday in the airport, officials said.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according to an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said.
Karimi Nasseri, who claimed to be British but is believed to have been born in 1945 in the Iranian province of Khuzestan, lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by choice.
WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project (1990) #internet #history
Robotic Falcon Keeps Birds Away From Airports - IEEE Spectrum #engineering
In an effort to find a more practical and lasting solution, Hemelrijk and colleagues designed a robotic peregrine falcon that can be used to chase flocks away from airports. The device is the same size and shape as a real hawk, and its fiberglass and carbon fiber body has been painted to mimic the markings of its real-life counterpart.
Rather than flapping like a bird, the “RobotFalcon” relies on two small battery-powered propellers on its wings, which allows it to travel at around 30 miles per hour for up to 15 minutes at a time. A human operator controls the machine remotely from a hawk's-eye perspective via a camera perched above the robot’s head.
Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other #nature
Octopuses are known for their solitary nature, but in Jervis Bay, Australia, the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) lives at very high densities. A team of cephalopod researchers decided to film the creatures with underwater cameras to see whether — and how — they interact.
Once the researchers pulled the cameras out of the water, they sat down to watch more than 20 hours of footage. “I call it octopus TV,” laughs co-author David Scheel, a behavioural ecologist at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. One behaviour stood out: instances in which the eight-limbed creatures gathered shells, silt or algae with their arms — and then hurled them away, propelling them with water jetted from their siphon. And although some of the time it seemed that they were just throwing away debris or food leftovers, it did sometimes appear that they were throwing things at each other.
TikTok’s Greatest Asset Isn’t Its Algorithm—It’s Your Phone | WIRED #privacy
TIKTOK'S ASCENT TO becoming the most popular site on the internet has sparked endless discussions about its stickiness—as if it were capable of hacking our normal cognitive pathways and transmitting messages straight into our brains. For the most part, critical analysis attributed the platform’s effectiveness to its seemingly all-powerful algorithm. Technology critics like Eleanor Cummins and Rob Horning, for example, unpacked the ways users saw the algorithm as a tool for self-discovery—how it seemed to be “showing you who you’ve always been,” ensuring an endorsement of content it delivered. Others have dissected the cultural appeal of the algorithm, claiming that it fills a void in contemporary spiritual life by positioning itself as a data-backed deity that reads our swipes and likes much like the ancient oracles did our palms and stars. Taken as a whole, these analyses see misplaced faith in the algorithm as the primary culprit behind our particular vulnerabilities to TikTok.
Dragon’s Teeth - Stopping Tanks in Their Tracks - Tank Historia #history #warfare
Since the creation of the tank, people have come up with ways to stop them. One of the most simple yet effective methods is with dragon’s teeth.
Missile, bombs and high-velocity guns are all great ways to stop a tank, but dragon’s teeth can hold up entire battalions of tanks with relative ease.
Excellent at cutting off large swaths of land, dragon’s teeth have been employed all over the world since WWII to funnel and direct an attacking force into a more convenient area for the defenders.
Undetectable very-low frequency sound increases dancing at a live concert: Current Biology #science #psychology #physiology #health
Does low frequency sound (bass) make people dance more? Music that makes people want to move tends to have more low frequency sound, and bass instruments typically provide the musical pulse that people dance to. Low pitches confer advantages in perception and movement timing, and elicit stronger neural responses for timing compared to high pitches, suggesting superior sensorimotor communication. Low frequency sound is processed via vibrotactile and vestibular (in addition to auditory) pathways, and stimulation of these non-auditory modalities in the context of music can increase ratings of groove (the pleasurable urge to move to music), and modulate musical rhythm perception. Anecdotal accounts describe intense physical and psychological effects of low frequencies, especially in electronic dance music, possibly reflecting effects on physiological arousal. We do not, however, know if these associations extend to direct causal effects of low frequencies in complex, real-world, social contexts like dancing at concerts, or if low frequencies that are not consciously detectable can affect behaviour. We tested whether non-auditory low-frequency stimulation would increase audience dancing by turning very-low frequency (VLF) speakers on and off during a live electronic music concert and measuring audience members’ movements using motion-capture. Movement increased when VLFs were present, and because the VLFs were below or near auditory thresholds (and a subsequent experiment suggested they were undetectable), we believe this represents an unconscious effect on behaviour, possibly via vestibular and/or tactile processing.
Albert Camus on the Will to Live and the Most Important Question of Existence – The Marginalian #literature #philosophy #art #longread
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect.
Putin-linked businessman admits to US election meddling | AP News #politics #world
“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” Prigozhin boasted in remarks posted on social media.
The statement, from the press service of his catering company that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef,” came on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections.
It was the second major admission in recent months by the 61-year-old businessman, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin has previously sought to keep his activities under the radar and now appears increasingly interested in gaining political clout — although his goal in doing so was not immediately clear.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Prigozhin’s comments “do not tell us anything new or surprising.”
The crash dummy aimed at protecting women drivers - BBC News #safety #engineering
However, a team of Swedish engineers has finally developed the first dummy, or to use the more technical term - seat evaluation tool - designed on the body of the average woman.
Their dummy is 162cm (5ft 3ins) tall and weighs 62kg (9st 7lbs), more representative of the female population.
India lifted 415 million out of poverty in 15 years, says UN - The Economic Times #society #economy
In a "historical change" for India, 415 million people exited multidimensional poverty in the country in 15 years between 2005-06 and 2019-21, the United Nations (UN) said on Monday.
The incidence of poverty in the country dropped from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21, as per the latest Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) compiled jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
Judge Connolly made very clear that, in cases before him, it is not truthful to represent that a post office box is a "principle place of business" of an entity. He pointed out that he had prosecuted fraud cases against folks engaged in telemarketing schemes using suite numbers that were actually PO box addresses.
The Court also came prepared to point out that the same attorney had filed complaints on behalf of Lamplight both here and in Texas, just two months apart, and had provided different physical addresses for the principal place of business in each filing.
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