2021-08-08

Cool

One Bad Apple - The Hacker Factor Blog

However, after multiple requests (spanning years), I never got past the NDA step. Twice I was sent the NDA and signed it, but NCMEC never counter-signed it and stopped responding to my status requests. (It's not like I'm a little nobody. If you sort NCMEC's list of reporting providers by the number of submissions in 2020, then I come in at #40 out of 168. For 2019, I'm #31 out of 148.)

I understand the problems related to CSAM, CP, and child exploitation. I've spoken at conferences on this topic. I am a mandatory reporter; I've submitted more reports to NCMEC than Apple, Digital Ocean, Ebay, Grindr, and the Internet Archive. (It isn't that my service receives more of it; it's that we're more vigilant at detecting and reporting it.) I'm no fan of CP. While I would welcome a better solution, I believe that Apple's solution is too invasive and violates both the letter and the intent of the law. If Apple and NCMEC view me as one of the "screeching voices of the minority", then they are not listening.
Contra Drum On The Fish Oil Story - by Scott Alexander - Astral Codex Ten

Maybe a really harsh way to say this would be that Drum feels like it’s unfair to treat this story as a condemnation of the FDA, because it was a perfectly ordinary example of everything going as expected. I think it’s absolutely a condemnation of the FDA, for the same reason.

FEC Asks Congress to Ban Prechecked Recurring Donation Boxes
9/11 families to President Biden: Don't come to our memorial events
Drunk-driver detectors for cars mandated in infrastructure bill

New cars will be required to have technology to detect drunk drivers and a system to keep children from being accidentally left in vehicles on hot days under a series of long-sought safety measures included in the infrastructure bill awaiting a vote in the U.S. Senate.
- Infrastructure bill could enable government to track drivers’ travel data

As deadly weather disasters sweep globe, is a 1.5°C warming target impossible?
Why Snow in the Alps Is Turning Red

Growing patches of coloured snow in the French Alps could be a sign of the impact climate change is having in the mountains.

While red snow algae has been known for a long time (it is mentioned in a book published in 1819 as having been discovered during an expedition to the Arctic in 1818) it is still steeped in mysteries that scientists are attempting to unravel.
Scientists read 14,000 research papers to write the IPCC climate report