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(2019) From Culinary Dud To Stud: How Dutch Plant Breeders Built Our Brussels Sprouts Boom | The Salt | NPR
I remember most of the brassicas of my youth with abject horror, especially my grandmother’s approach to boiling bitter, coarsely-sliced cabbage until it was practically white and then plating-up extremely rubbery stalky bits with ham which somehow had been both boiled-and-dessicated, serving it with blunt cutlery that was “too good to sharpen” and a streak…
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Both of these agencies want a piece of Microsoft’s Open AI partnership | POLITICO
It’s coming to something when government agencies are fighting a mafia turf-war over which one of them gets to regulate something which hasn’t really happened but which they feel ought to have happened / they feel may have kinda, sorta happened-ish, headcanon-style. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are deep in discussions over…
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Looks like Ireland is spinning up its own online safety bill
The consultation document weighs-in at a mere 84 pages. However will they achieve anything with something so small? PDF: https://cnam.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Draft_Online_Safety_Code_Consultation_Document_Final.pdf Via: https://www.threads.net/@mneylon/post/C2ZyqxCsohI/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
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Politicians should be using dedicated political messenger apps with record retention
As I have said previously: no app is obligatory for communication, and the device is the point of integration of apps for the user; so if there’s a requirement for records retention (and there should be) then politicians, civil servants and spads should be obligated to use a custom chat app to communicate securely amongst…
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DakotaTheKat on Twitter: “I have acquired the fabled NSA “FURBIE (sic) ALERT” memo” | …this is delightful
If you still have a Twitter account, this is delightful: someone FOIAed the late-90s panic about sound-recording Furby toys at the NSA — which I dimly remember at the time as part of the associated Furby moral panic / security zeitgeist, and that we have seen repeatedly since, in part amplified by (2016) IoT and (2023)…
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“Is it time to give up on old news?” | …thought-provoking essay from Jeff Jarvis
With newspaper circulation dropping we need to ask whether they have both been out-evolved by online communication and actively made themselves undesirable to their potential new consumers. Jeff offers a community-insider perspective. I recommend reading the whole thing. The way out of this will be to educate and empower our next generation, not in so-called…
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Former Linux kernel engineer Alan Cox weighs in on computer-data-as-evidence given the sketchy reliability of data-at-scale
Nice to see Alan sticking his oar back into the public discourse, below; I’ve been too occupied to muse on the bigger picture of the Post Office/Horizon scandal, but in a world of bitflips from cosmic-ray events (not to mention as Alan does: malware) perhaps the law needs to stop relying on data which lacks…
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Our toddler has a priority interrupt and it’s hilarious
All you need to do is start singing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes” and she’ll immediately stop whatever she’s doing and join in with the dance moves and singing. Getting dressed, preparing for bed, watching TV, demanding snacks… It’s the little things that count.
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“‘Outrageous’ tea recipe involving pinch of salt draws US embassy comment”
Without comment: A scientist from the country where you can find tea being made with lukewarm water from the tap claims to have found the recipe for a perfect cuppa. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/jan/24/perfect-cup-of-tea-needs-a-pinch-of-salt-and-squeeze-of-lemon-says-us-chemist
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Rishi Sunak told to go by top Tory or party faces ‘election massacre’ | Evening Standard | …the word is “and”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-westminster-prime-minister-simon-clarke-telegraph-b1134372.html
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British man appears in Spanish court over [PRIVATE JOKE] plane-bomb hoax | BBC News | … if you are using SnapChat then your text-chat messages are NOT encrypted and are actively surveilled
So: a chess nerd used SnapChat* group chat to joke amongst friends re: being a “Taliban Bomber” on a flight he was taking. The tip-off, military intercept & arrest is being falsely attributed to “Gatwick’s Wi-Fi network” (HTTPS obscures data in transit) — it’s obviously a consequence of Snap’s reporting/partnering with law enforcement to prevent…
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Joint Briefing on the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill | A BORING TITLE FOR A TERRIFYING BLOG POST …
…that details the UK Government’s plans to armtwist software providers into not fixing security bugs, plus obligate changes to enable surveillance. The current state of affairs is that the amendment: (quote:) READ THIS AND TELL OTHER PEOPLE https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/joint-briefing-on-the-investigatory-powers-amendment-bill/