ReHacked vol. 229: Nakano Sun Plaza, The Truth Behind Poland's 'Anti-Vampire' Graves, Write about what you learn and more
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AI-Generated Art Lacks Copyright Protection, D.C. Court Says #copyrights
Artwork created by artificial intelligence isn’t eligible for copyright protection because it lacks human authorship, a Washington, D.C., federal judge decided Friday.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with the US Copyright Office’s decision to deny a copyright registration to computer scientist Stephen Thaler, who argued a two-dimensional artwork created by his AI program “Creativity Machine” should be eligible for protection.
The ruling is the first in the country to establish a boundary on the legal protections for AI-generated artwork, which has exploded in popularity with the rise of products like OpenAI Inc.'s ChatGPT and DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion.
70 years ago, an Anglo-US coup condemned Iran to decades of oppression – but now the people are fighting back #history #politics
The 1953 coup d'etat in Iran ushered in a period of exploitation and oppression that has continued – despite a subsequent revolution that led to huge changes – for 70 years. Each year on August 19, the anniversary of the coup, millions of Iranians ask themselves what would have happened if the US and UK had not conspired all those years ago to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected leader.
Iran, the Middle East and, arguably, the whole world may well have been profoundly different. Apart from rewriting the destiny of Iran and its neighbours, the coup paved the way for a series of imperialist interventions and the toppling of democratically elected governments across the global south. Perhaps Washington might have thought twice before plotting coups in Guatemala in 1954, Congo in 1961 or Chile in 1973, if they’d been unable to overthrow Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, so easily and profitably.
Why Do Old Books Smell So Good? – ScienceSwitch #interesting
Telltale Scents
An almond scent comes from benzaldehyde in the paper. Vanillin, the main compound in vanilla, is responsible for a sweet vanilla fragrance. Ethylbenzene, used in inks and paints, has a sweet plastic smell. 2-Ethyl hexanol, found in solvents and scents, smells lightly floral.
New books use modern chemicals like hydrogen peroxide and alkyl ketene dimers, so they give off different VOCs. The VOCs can also indicate exposure to smoke, water damage, or other aging factors.
Amsterdam to use "noise cameras" against too loud cars | NL Times #society
Amsterdam has started the fight against noisy motorcycles and cars. On Friday, the city placed electric road signs in two places to warn road users if their vehicles are too loud. The warnings will eventually be replaced by “noise cameras,” which, like speed cameras, automatically send a fine to the offending driver, Parool reports.
The test with the noise signs will start at the Stadhouderskade in the city center and Molenaarsweg in Amsterdam-Noord. The installation consists of a noise meter and a screen a little further on. If the meter registers too much noise, the driver will see the message “Te luid” - “Too loud” in Dutch. Later this month, more sound meters and signs will be installed on Europaboulevard in Zuid and on Tussen Meer in Nieuw-West.
A Casualty of Capitalism: Nakano Sun Plaza | Tokyo Weekender #architecture
For half a century, everything that happened in Nakano, happened in the shadow of the “Tokyo Pyramid,” otherwise known as Shoji Hayashi’s elegant and much-loved municipal landmark, Nakano Sun Plaza. Since its opening in 1973, the clean geometry and friendly-but-functional modernity of the building’s triangular construction has provided Nakano with not just a memorable identity, but also a hint of Showa-era pizazz that has helped elevate the ward’s image above that of the densely populated Shinjuku outpost it might otherwise have been considered.
As the building, which started its life as the National Working Youth Center, reaches its own middle age, its 50 years of valuable service will be marked not by celebration, but by the arrival of the wrecking ball. Ambitious and costly development plans mean that Nakano’s hitherto cheerfully ramshackle streets, whether they like it or not, are in for a dose of the now familiar blandifying steel, glass and concrete treatment that seems destined to scrub the 21st century capital of any stubborn stains of character, something that Sun Plaza has in droves.
The Truth Behind Poland's 'Anti-Vampire' Graves - Atlas Obscura #history
In late July 2023, archaeologists working on a 17th-century cemetery outside the southeastern Polish village of Pień excavated the remains of a child who appeared to have been interred in the period’s “anti-vampire” style. The child (its sex is unknown) placed face-down—with a padlock near its feet.
“That was very typical for an anti-vampire security practice,” says Dariusz Poliński, from the Middle Ages department at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, who led the excavation.
New York City bans TikTok for government employees | Engadget #privacy #security
New York City will ban TikTok from government devices, The Verge reported on Wednesday. City agencies have 30 days to remove the ByteDance-owned app from their devices. Employees will not be allowed to download or use TikTok on their city-sanctioned tech effective immediately. This comes three years after New York state banned TikTok from government devices in 2020, according to Times-Union.
AddyOsmani.com - Write about what you learn. It pushes you to understand topics better. #learning
The Feynman Technique is a method named after the physicist Richard Feynman, designed to help individuals learn and understand subjects deeply. It aligns well with the practice of writing about what you learn, and its principles can be summarized in the following steps:
- Choose a Concept: Select a concept or topic you want to understand.
- Teach It to a Child: Try to explain the concept as if you were teaching it to a child. Use simple language and avoid jargon.
- Identify Gaps and Go Back to the Source Material: If you find areas where your explanation falters, go back to the source material to fill in the gaps.
- Simplify and Use Analogies: Create analogies and use simple language to make the concept more relatable and easier to grasp.
- Review and Refine: Continuously review and refine your explanation until you can articulate the concept in the simplest terms possible.
OpenFarm - You Can Grow Anything #life
Simple as choose a crop - find a guide - grow!
Growing Guides show you how to care for your Crop during all of its Life Stages. Each Guide is based on specific environmental conditions and growing practices, and ranked for compatibility with you and your gardens.
Internet Archive Responds to Recording Industry Lawsuit Targeting Obsolete Media | Internet Archive Blogs #copyrights
Of note, the Great 78 Project has been in operation since 2006 to bring free public access to a largely forgotten but culturally important medium. Through the efforts of dedicated librarians, archivists and sound engineers, we have preserved hundreds of thousands of recordings that are stored on shellac resin, an obsolete and brittle medium. The resulting preserved recordings retain the scratch and pop sounds that are present in the analog artifacts; noise that modern remastering techniques remove.
Statement from Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive:
“When people want to listen to music they go to Spotify. When people want to study 78rpm sound recordings as they were originally created, they go to libraries like the Internet Archive. Both are needed. There shouldn’t be conflict here.”
The data of 760,000 Discord.io users was put up for sale on the darknet #security
An unidentified individual has listed the data of 760,000 Discord.io (the site is dead at the moment, so you can see an Archive.org snapshot here) users for sale on a darknet forum. This discovery was brought to light by the "Information Leaks" Telegram channel, associated with the Russian service for tracking vulnerabilities, data leaks, and monitoring fraudulent online resources.
Discord response:
Discord is not affiliated with Discord.io. We do not share any user information with Discord.io directly and we do not have access to or control of information in Discord.io's custody.
We are committed to protecting the privacy and data of our users and encourage our users to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to help keep their accounts protected, and consider SMS Authentication.
Additionally, we have revoked the oauth tokens for any Discord user that has used Discord.io, so that app can no longer perform actions on behalf of those users until they re-authenticate.
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