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Yesterday β€” 30 June 2024Main stream

A European wild cat was nearly extinct. Now, it is making a comeback

30 June 2024 at 21:47
A European wild cat was nearly extinct. Now, it is making a comeback. The Iberian lynx is no longer classified as endangered, with one group calling it the "greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation."

In 2002 there were only about 60 adult Iberian lynx in Portugal and Spain, and the species was labeled "critically endangered." After a lot of hard work, there are now more than 2000 young and adult Iberian lynx on the Iberian Peninsula.

β€˜My knees are as strong as Megan Thee Stallion!’ What 20 celebrities learned at Glastonbury 2024

30 June 2024 at 10:33

Cut your toenails, play bingo – and drink rum instead of lager. Performers including Marina AbramoviΔ‡, Sugababes, Don Letts and Paloma Faith share their tips

You find out about yourself at Glastonbury. It is a campus bursting with lessons for the body and mind. Maybe you have an affirming experience, where you learn you’ve got way more stamina than you realised, that you are able to let your insecurities go and fully let loose, or that actually you really, really like hardstep and you’re building that playlist just as soon as you get home. Or maybe your Damascene moment is a starker one, where your mental age and actual age collide head-on. For better or worse, you will learn something about yourself. And for life lessons learned this year, who better to turn to than the performers and celebrities at this year’s festival?

Marina Abramović, artist
I was terrified at the idea of talking to 200,000 people to create a seven-minute moment of silence. I was really, truly thinking this was almost impossible. But I learned that actually it is possible – to keep the energy concentrated of this amount of people in this moment of human history. And this was something that was a huge discovery: that we humans can change the world by just being together.

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Β© Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

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Β© Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

New Linux 'Screen of Death' Options: Black - or a Monochrome Tux Logo

30 June 2024 at 11:34
It was analgous to the "Blue Screen of Death" that Windows gives for critical errors, Phoronix wrote. To enable error messages for things like a kernel panic, Linux 6.10 introduced a new panic handler infrastructure for "Direct Rendering Manager" (or DRM) drivers. Phoronix also published a follow-up from Red Hat engineer Javier Martinez Canillas (who was involved in the new DRM Panic infrastructure). Given complaints about being too like Microsoft Windows following his recent Linux "Blue Screen of Death" showcase... Javier showed that a black screen of death is possible if so desired... After all, it's all open-source and thus can customize to your heart's content. And now the panic handler is getting even more new features, Phoronix reported Friday: With the code in Linux 6.10 when DRM Panic is triggered, an ASCII art version of Linux's mascot, Tux the penguin, is rendered as part of the display. With Linux 6.11 it will also be able to handle displaying a monochrome image as the logo. If ASCII art on error messages doesn't satisfy your tastes in 2024+, the DRM Panic code will be able to support a monochrome graphical logo that leverages the Linux kernel's boot-up logo support. The ASCII art penguin will still be used when no graphical logo is found or when the existing "LOGO" Kconfig option is disabled. (Those Tux logo assets being here.) This monochrome logo support in the DRM Panic handler was sent out as part of this week's drm-misc-next pull request ahead of the Linux 6.11 merge window in July. This week's drm-misc-next material also includes TTM memory management improvements, various fixes to the smaller Direct Rendering Manager drivers, and also the previously talked about monochrome TV support for the Raspberry Pi. Long-time Slashdot reader unixbhaskar thinks the new option "will certainly satisfy the modern people... But it is not as eye candy as people think... Moreover, it is monochrome, so certainly not resource-hungry. Plus, if all else fails, the ASCII art logo is still there to show!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

USENIX Security ’23 – Beyond The Gates: An Empirical Analysis of HTTP-Managed Password Stealers and Operators

30 June 2024 at 11:00

Authors/Presenters:Athanasios Avgetidis, Omar Alrawi, Kevin Valakuzhy, Charles Lever, Paul Burbage, Angelos D. Keromytis, Fabian Monrose, Manos Antonakakis

Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Anaheim Marriott; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

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The post USENIX Security ’23 – Beyond The Gates: An Empirical Analysis of HTTP-Managed Password Stealers and Operators appeared first on Security Boulevard.

β€˜Most of the flirting is virtual – you sit at a computer and talk to girls online’: This is how we do it in China

30 June 2024 at 10:00

Tao grew up in a conservative family and era – so how did meeting Chen, who was younger and more experimental, change him?

After seven years together, we’ve started to have great sex. It’s taken time to shed my sexual guilt

He wasn’t used to talking about sex, and his fantasies tended to be quite safe

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

Hunger strikes and suicide attempts as asylum seekers claim Essex site is β€˜like prison’

30 June 2024 at 03:00

Helen Bamber Foundation report finds β€˜growing feelings of desperation’ among camp’s 600 residents

Increasing numbers of asylum seekers housed in a former military base are attempting suicide, self-harming and refusing to eat as conditions worsen, a new report has warned.

Tensions have been rising at Wethersfield in Essex, where about 600 men have been left β€œwith little to do and growing feelings of desperation”, claims the Helen Bamber Foundation, a human rights charity.

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Β© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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Β© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

USENIX Security ’23 – A Plot is Worth a Thousand Words: Model Information Stealing Attacks via Scientific Plots

29 June 2024 at 11:00

Authors/Presenters:Boyang Zhang and Xinlei He, Yun Shen, Tianhao Wang, Yang Zhang

Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Anaheim Marriott; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

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The post USENIX Security ’23 – A Plot is Worth a Thousand Words: Model Information Stealing Attacks via Scientific Plots appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Before yesterdayMain stream

"But the entire tale – sausages and all – was made up by Wise."

By: Kattullus
29 June 2024 at 20:06
Gill Partington recounts the story of Thomas James Wise in the London Review of Books and the LRB Podcast. Wise was the doyen of Victorian bibliophiles, and might the most prolific literary forger in history. Thomas J. Gearty jr. wrote a brief survey of his forgeries in 1973. You can see images from Wise's work, with explanations by librarian Alexander Johnston, on the University of Delaware Library website.

Coldplay at Glastonbury review – Chris Martin takes tens of thousands on the adventure of a lifetime

29 June 2024 at 20:21

Pyramid stage
Fireworks! Lasers! Confetti! More fireworks! Coldplay pull out every last stop for their record fifth headline performance, and you’d be churlish not to love it

It is, as Chris Martin points out, 25 years since Coldplay’s Glastonbury debut, a silver anniversary they commemorate tonight by unexpectedly dusting down an acoustic version of Sparks from their debut album Parachutes. Perhaps more pertinently, it’s the fifth time they’ve headlined the festival, and they’ve got the hang of it to such an extent that it increasingly feels like the job the quartet were put on earth to do.

Since their last appearance in 2016, they’ve completed a 180-degree turn from earnest stadium balladeers to purveyors of relentless, balls-out, more-is-more visual overload: their gigs are now effectively a 21st-century equivalent of U2’s Zoo TV shows, albeit without any of U2’s accompanying theorising about the media or the relationship between art and commerce.

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Β© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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Β© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Revealed: the tech entrepreneur behind a pro-Israel hate network

29 June 2024 at 09:00

The Guardian used public records and open source materials to identify Daniel Linden of the Shirion Collective

A prime mover behind the Shirion Collective, a conspiracy-minded, pro-Israel disinformation network seeking to shape public opinion about the Gaza conflict in the US, Australia and the UK, is a tech entrepreneur named Daniel Linden living in Florida who co-wrote a guidebook for OnlyFans users, the Guardian can reveal.

Shirion has harassed pro-Palestinian activists, including many Jews, offered bounties for the identity of pro-Palestinian protesters, spread conspiracy narratives centered on figures like George Soros, and boasted of an AI-surveillance platform but offered few concrete details of how the technology functions.

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Β© Photograph: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Β© Photograph: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

β€˜Sex in an LA spa was strangely wholesome, like an extension of the wellness experience’: This is how we do it in America

29 June 2024 at 07:00

Rob used to be hyper-monogamous – but then he met Mikey and discovered a whole world of experimentation

I’ve resisted the idea of fooling around – I feared the subtext was that I wasn’t enough

It was wonderful seeing Rob glowing in the knowledge that he is irresistible

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

Which Tory big beasts could lose their seats in the general election? | Michael Savage

29 June 2024 at 06:00

There may be more than one β€˜Portillo moment’ this time, with the chancellor and a former leader among those at risk

The felling of Michael Portillo became a famous moment of the 1997 Labour landslide. This election could see a series of Tory big beasts lose their seats if the polls prove to be right. From a former leader to the current chancellor, these are the senior Conservatives at risk.

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Β© Photograph: Reuters

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Β© Photograph: Reuters

Netflix’s Finest: 7 Must-Watch Cybersecurity Shows That Redefine Thrill

By: Editorial
29 June 2024 at 05:07

Cybersecurity Shows

Netflix is renowned for its diverse and engaging lineup of drama-filled shows that cater to a wide array of audiences. Among its extensive catalog, Netflix has also produced and curated a significant number of series that delve into the complex and often thrilling world of technology and cybersecurity. These shows not only entertain but also shed light on the intricate issues and challenges that define the digital age. In this article, we highlight some of the best cybersecurity-themed shows available on Netflix. These selections range from riveting docuseries that explore real-life cybercrimes and the people behind them, to fictional dramas that imagine high-stakes scenarios involving hacking, data breaches, and digital espionage. Whether you are a tech enthusiast, a cybersecurity professional, or simply someone who enjoys a good thriller, these shows offer a fascinating look at the digital world's darker side. Join us as we explore these top-notch series that bring the exciting and often perilous world of cybersecurity to your screen.

Best Cybersecurity Shows on Netflix

Β 7. The Great HackΒ 

The Great Hack is a 2019 Netflix documentary that explores the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its impact on privacy and democracy. The film discloses how the political consulting firm used personal data derived from Facebook to influence voter behaviors in various elections like the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit referendum. There are key figures from the actual events like data scientists and former Cambridge Analytica employees who share their thoughts on the ethical implications and societal impact of data exploitation.Β Β  This is one of those cybersecurity shows on Netflix that is a particularly great watch as it aims to share with the public the extent to which personal data can be manipulated to sway public opinion.Β  It also helps the audience critically evaluate the security and political climate of the world they’re living in as it raises questions about data privacy, corporate power, and the role of democracy in a digital world.Β 

6. The Billion Dollar CodeΒ 

The Billion Dollar Code is a 2021 German Netflix drama series that follows two young German computer enthusiasts who develop TerraVision in the 1990s. TerraVision was an innovative software that allowed users to virtually navigate the globe using satellite images, which is similar to what Google Earth does today. These initial idea and development phases lead to their eventual legal battle against Google, who accuse them of infringing on their creation of Google Earth.Β Β  This show consists of courtroom drama and flashbacks that cover the steps of innovation and the battles surrounding intellectual property in the tech industry. The movie provides insight into the moral dilemmas faced by inventors when working with or against powerful corporations.Β 

5. ConnectedΒ 

Connected is a 2020 Netflix docuseries hosted by science journalist Latif Nasser, who explores the different ways in which aspects of our world are interconnected. Each episode dives into a different subject, ranging from surveillance to the human microbiome, and how they could be linked through hidden patterns and systems. Nasser meets with experts all over the globe and uncovers stories that reveal the science and history behind these connections. This is one of those cybersecurity shows that has a very broad concept, but there are specific episodes that explore technology-based matters. Weather forecasting devices, surveillance technology, and nuclear weapons are some of the topics they explore. It is a great educational show to look at how the cyberworld is intertwined with the physical world.

4. Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet HorrorΒ 

Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror is a 2022 Netflix documentary that investigates the dark underbelly of the Internet. It focuses on a terrible case of digital exploitation in South Korea dubbed the "Nth Room" case. This case followed a network of online chat rooms where anonymous users exploited and blackmailed young women and minors into producing explicit content. These crimes utilised encrypted messaging apps which made it difficult for law enforcement to track down the perpetrators. This documentary follows victims’ advocates, journalists, and most notably, cybercrime experts, as they break down the web of digital abuse and try to successfully apprehend the offenders. It highlights the challenges of combating cybercrime in an age of increasing digital anonymity and highlights the dangerous need for stronger online protections. The film acts as a reminder of the real-world consequences of unchecked digital behavior.Β 

3. The Future OfΒ 

The Future Of is a 2022 Netflix docuseries that explores how cutting-edge innovations and technologies might shape various aspects of our lives in the near future. Each episode focuses on a different topic, such as gaming, food, fashion, space exploration, and love. Through interviews with experts, futurists, and industry leaders, the series presents a blend of scientific predictions and creative speculation of where these topics may go.Β  It uses current advancements to create possible scenarios, highlighting the many possibilities but also the ethical dilemmas that come with extensive technological progress. This show inspires curiosity about what's to come but also probes viewers to think critically about the implications of technology on society.Β 

2. Love, Death + Robots.Β 

Love, Death + Robots is a Netflix animated anthology series that features a collection of short stories surrounding science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comedy. This show is known for its mix of animation styles, ranging from photorealistic CGI to traditional 2D animation. Each episode offers its own unique narratives that explore themes such as AI, dystopian futures, and extra-terrestrials. Love, Death + Robots differs from the other shows due to its fictional nature sports mature themes, and provides fresh and innovative takes on the development of technology through an animated form of storytelling.

1. Black MirrorΒ 

"Black Mirror" is one of Netflix’s most popular series, it follows an anthology format where every episode explores a different dark and often dystopian side of technological advancements. Each standalone episode presents a story set in a near-future or alternate present, delving into the consequences of human beings’ relationship with technology. The series tackles themes like surveillance, virtual reality, social media, AI, and human consciousness.Β  Black Mirror forces viewers to confront the darker aspects of technological progress and its impact on human behavior and societal norms as it highlights the potential for misuse and ethical dilemmas. This show has garnered critical acclaim for its ability to provoke reflection on the potential future of humanity in an extensive digital world, even having an episode that criticizes its very own streaming service, Netflix.Β  We hope at least one of these may have triggered your interest. Especially as there’s a show in there for everybody. Whether you’re interested in learning about real-life cybersecurity events that have occurred, or curious about predictive storylines that address the dangers of advanced technology.Β Β 

With no Internet, algorithms will soon become humbled and lonely

By: chavenet
29 June 2024 at 04:34
So the aftermath of the Internet exploding is inevitably going to come with ambivalent, and even bittersweet, feelings. Many of us are probably going to miss the amazing sense of connection we have with people all around the globe and the book recommendations, free recipes and gardening tips, but, to no less an extent, are probably going to be extremely relieved to no longer be quite so pressured by corporations to be rampantly interested in our own surfaces or be beset by the constant lingering sense that we are arguing with people we've never met about a version of ourselves that doesn't exist. Yes, having go into the city to our bank to transfer some money, just like we did during the 20th Century, will be a pain. But I am looking forward to being able to relax while eating some salty snacks without worrying about the way their residue sticks to my thumb and makes my online banking app impossible to open. It's a case of swings and roundabouts. from What Will Life Really Be Like After The Internet Gets Incinerated? by Tom Cox [The Villager]

Council tax: final-year students warned they could get surprise bills

29 June 2024 at 02:00

Students are exempt during their course but as soon as they finish their final year they are liable to pay

Final-year university students have been urged to check that they do not owe council tax for the last few weeks of their rented accommodation.

While students are exempt from the tax during the course, they are liable to pay as soon as they finish their final year.

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Β© Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

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Β© Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

I spent months interviewing people about their sex lives. This is what I learned

29 June 2024 at 02:00

Flirting in China, sex work in Australia, dangerous liaisons in Nigeria – intimate relations vary wildly around the world, as I discovered while compiling a global special of the Guardian’s This is how we do it column

A friend of mine moved to the UK recently, and tells me English men are bad at foreplay. It’s a culture shock. She’s Spanish, and insists that oral sex is – for a Spaniard – second nature. Whereas English men rarely attempt it, and when they do, she wishes they would stop.

Does where you are born determine how you will have sex? Perhaps this seems like a stupid question. We tend to see sex as being unlearned and instinctive; something humans around the world do in a relatively similar way – with slight adjustments according to taste and sexuality. There is no global β€œoral sex satisfaction” survey I can find to verify what my friend told me. If you try to define the sexual character of a whole Β­country, you will resort to stereotypes. β€œContinental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles,” the Hungarian-born George Mikes wrote in 1946. This is a sweeping generalisation, but I can’t entirely dismiss it.

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

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Β© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian

NASA and SpaceX misjudged the risks from reentering space junk

28 June 2024 at 20:22
A European ATV cargo freighter reenters the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean in 2013.

Enlarge / A European ATV cargo freighter reenters the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean in 2013.

Since the beginning of the year, landowners have discovered several pieces of space junk traced to missions supporting the International Space Station. On all of these occasions, engineers expected none of the disposable hardware would survive the scorching heat of reentry and make it to Earth's surface.

These incidents highlight an urgency for more research into what happens when a spacecraft makes an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere, according to engineers from the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research center based in El Segundo, California. More stuff is getting launched into space than ever before, and the trend will continue as companies deploy more satellite constellations and field heavier rockets.

"The biggest immediate need now is just to do some more work to really understand this whole process and to be in a position to be ready to accommodate new materials, new operational approaches as they happen more quickly," said Marlon Sorge, executive director of Aerospace's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. "Clearly, that’s the direction that spaceflight is going.”

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If your immutable Linux desktop uses Flatpak, I’m going to have a bad time

28 June 2024 at 20:08

The openSUSE project recently announced the second release candidate (RC2) of its Aeon Desktop, formerly known as MicroOS Desktop GNOME. Aside from the new coat of naming paint, Aeon breaks ground in a few other ways by dabbling with technologies not found in other openSUSE releases. The goal for Aeon is to provide automated system updates using snapshots that can be applied atomically, removing the burden of system maintenance for β€œlazy developers” who want to focus on their work rather than desktop administration. System-tinkerers need not apply.

The idea behind Aeon, as with other immutable (or image-based) Linux distributions, is to provide the core of the distribution as a read-only image or filesystem that is updated atomically and can be rolled back if needed. Google’s ChromeOS was the first popular Linux-based desktop operating system to follow this model. Since the release of ChromeOS a number of interesting immutable implementations have cropped up, such as Fedora Silverblue, Project Bluefin (covered here in December 2023), openSUSE’s MicroOS (covered here in March 2023), and Ubuntu Core.

↫ Joe Brockmeier at LWN

With the amount of attention immutable Linux desktops are getting, and how much work and experimentation that’s going into them, I’m getting the feeling that sooner or later all of the major, popular desktop Linux distributions will be going this route. Depending on implementation details, I actually like the concept of a defined base system that’s just an image that can be replaced easily using btrfs snapshots or something like that, while all the user’s files and customisations are kept elsewhere. It makes intuitive sense.

Where the current crop of immutable Linux desktops fall flat for me is their reliance on (usually) Flatpak. You know how there’s people who hate systemd and/or Wayland just a little too much, to the point it gets a little weird and worrying? That’s me whenever I have to deal with Flatpaks. Every experience I have with Flatpaks is riddled with trouble for me.

Even though I’m a KDE user, I’m currently testing out the latest GNOME release on my workstation (the one that I used to conclude Windows is simply not ready for the desktop), using Fedora of course, and on GNOME I use the Mastodon application Tuba. While I mostly write in English, I do occasionally write in Dutch, too, and would love for the spell check feature to work in my native tongue, too, instead of just in English. However, despite having all possible Dutch dictionaries installed – hunspell, aspell – and despite those dictionaries being picked up everywhere else in GNOME, Tuba only showed me a long list of variants of English.

After digging around to find out why this was happening, it took me far longer than I care to publicly admit to realise that since the latest version of Tuba is only really available as a Flatpak on Fedora, my problem probably had something to do with that – and it turns out I was right: Flatpak applications do not use the system-wide installed spellcheck dictionaries like normal applications do.

This eventually led me to this article by Daniel Aleksandersen, where he details what you need to do in order to add spellcheck dictionaries to Flatpak applications. You need to run the following commands:

$ flatpak config languages --set "en;nl;"
$ sudo flatpak update

The list of languages uses two-letter codes only, and the first language listed will serve as the display language for Flatpak applications, while the rest will be fallback languages – which happens to include downloading and installing the Flatpak-specific copies of the spellcheck libraries. Sadly, this method is not particularly granular. Since it only accepts the two-letter codes, you can’t, say, only install β€œnl-nl”; you’ll be getting β€œnl-be” as well. In the case of a widely spoken language like English, this means a massive list of 18 different varieties of English. The resulting menus are… Not elegant.

This is just an example, but using Flatpak, you’ll run into all kinds of issues like this, that then have to be solved by hacks or obscure terminal commands – not exactly the user-friendly image Flatpak is trying to convey to the world. This particular issue might not matter to the probably overwhelming English-speaking majority of Flatpak developers, but for anyone who has to deal with multiple languages on a daily basis – which is a massive number of people, probably well over 50% of computer users1 – having to mess around with obscure terminal commands hidden in blog posts just to be able to use the languages they use every day is terrible design on a multitude of levels, and will outright make Flatpak applications unusable for large numbers of people.

Whenever I run into these Flatpak problems, it makes it clear to me that Flatpak is designed not by users, for users – but by developers, for developers. I can totally understand and see why Flatpak is appealing to developers, but as a user, they bring me nothing but grief, issues, and weird bugs that all seem to stem from being made to make developers’ lives easier, instead of users’.

If immutable Linux distributions are really hellbent on using Flatpak as the the means of application installation – and it seams like they are – it will mean a massive regression in functionality, usability, and discoverability for users, and as long as Flatpak remains as broken and badly designed as it is, I really see no reason to recommend an immutable Linux desktop to anyone but the really curious among us.

  1. Even in a country like the United States, which we think of as an English-speaking country, there are currently 42 million Spanish-speaking people, who most likely also have to use English on a daily basis. The way multilingual features are treated as afterthoughts by the tech industry – even the open source one – is baffling. β†©οΈŽ

USENIX Security ’23 – PCAT: Functionality and Data Stealing from Split Learning by Pseudo-Client Attack

28 June 2024 at 15:00

Authors/Presenters:Xinben Gao, Lan Zhang

Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Anaheim Marriott; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

The post USENIX Security ’23 – PCAT: Functionality and Data Stealing from Split Learning by Pseudo-Client Attack appeared first on Security Boulevard.

USENIX Security ’23 – Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Models

28 June 2024 at 11:00

Authors/Presenters:Nicholas Carlini, Jamie Hayes, DeepMind; Milad Nasr Matthew Jagielski, Vikash Sehwag, Florian Tramèr, Borja Balle, Daphne Ippolito, Eric Wallace

Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Anaheim Marriott; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

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The post USENIX Security ’23 – Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Models appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Nigel Farage β€˜has questions to answer’ over Reform racism, says Rishi Sunak

28 June 2024 at 10:06

Essex police say they are β€˜urgently assessing’ racist and homophobic remarks made by party’s volunteers

Rishi Sunak has said he was hurt and angry to hear a Reform UK canvasser using a racial slur against him, saying Nigel Farage β€œhas some questions to answer”.

The prime minister responded after a Channel 4 undercover investigation found a Reform campaigner had called him a β€œfucking [P-word]”. Sunak repeated the slur and said he had done so because it was important to call it out for what it was.

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Β© Photograph: Rishi Sunak/Sky News

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Β© Photograph: Rishi Sunak/Sky News

Skeleton Key the Latest Jailbreak Threat to AI Models: Microsoft

28 June 2024 at 12:57
Microsoft Skeleton Key AI jailbreak

Microsoft details Skeleton Key, a new jailbreak technique in which a threat actor can convince an AI model to ignore its built-in safeguards and respond to requests for harmful, illegal, or offensive requests that might otherwise have been refused.

The post Skeleton Key the Latest Jailbreak Threat to AI Models: Microsoft appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Rocket Report: China flies reusable rocket hopper; Falcon Heavy dazzles

28 June 2024 at 07:00
SpaceX's 10th Falcon Heavy rocket climbs into orbit with a new US government weather satellite.

Enlarge / SpaceX's 10th Falcon Heavy rocket climbs into orbit with a new US government weather satellite. (credit: SpaceX)

Welcome to Edition 6.50 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX launched its 10th Falcon Heavy rocket this week with the GOES-U weather satellite for NOAA, and this one was a beauty. The late afternoon timing of the launch and atmospheric conditions made for great photography. Falcon Heavy has become a trusted rocket for the US government, and its next flight in October will deploy NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft on the way to explore one of Jupiter's enigmatic icy moons.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Sir Peter Beck dishes on launch business.Β Ars spoke with the recently knighted Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, on where his scrappy company fits in a global launch marketplace dominated by SpaceX. Rocket Lab racked up the third-most number of orbital launches by any US launch company (it's headquartered in California but primarily assembles and launches rockets in New Zealand). SpaceX's rideshare launch business with the Falcon 9 rocket is putting immense pressure on small launch companies like Rocket Lab. However, Beck argues his Electron rocket is a bespoke solution for customers desiring to put their satellite in a specific place at a specific time, a luxury they can't count on with a SpaceX rideshare.

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British Grand Prix director defends F1 ticket prices after Hamilton criticism

28 June 2024 at 07:22
  • Stuart Pringle says profits are ploughed back into event
  • Β£629 for four-day grandstand tickets

The managing director of the British Grand Prix, Stuart Pringle, has issued a staunch defence of the ticket pricing for this year’s race, emphatic that the money made from the event is ploughed back into the circuit and British motorsport, after criticism from Lewis Hamilton and fans that the cost of attending was too high.

Last week the seven-time Formula One world champion Hamilton, who has a record eight victories at Silverstone, praised the event which is just over a week away but warned its prices might be untenable for families due to the cost of living crisis, an opinion that has been echoed by fans on social media.

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Β© Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

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Β© Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

How to Enhance Security Without Affecting the Customer Experience

28 June 2024 at 06:25
customer, experience, security

Navigating the landscape of customer interactions is a delicate balancing act that requires constant calibration between security and operability (or usability, if speaking from a customer’s perspective).

The post How to Enhance Security Without Affecting the Customer Experience appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A Family Affair review – Nicole Kidman’s hot age-gap romance quickly goes cold

27 June 2024 at 19:01

Zac Efron plays a heartless airhead movie star who is much too hastily transformed into Kidman’s Mr Perfect

When it comes to age-gap films starring Nicole Kidman, Jonathan Glazer’s Birth is surely impossible to follow. But newcomer screenwriter Carrie Solomon and director Richard LaGravenese are trying it with this romcom for Netflix which, despite a very cute high concept, resolves the unresolved sexual tension too early and jettisons the irony and comedy well before the end of the first act, leaving us with something a bit solemn.

The film in fact reunites Kidman with Zac Efron; they starred together in The Paperboy in 2013. Efron plays Chris Cole, a shallow and vain young movie star in LA who mistreats his much put-upon assistant Zara, kookily played by Joey King. With much pouting and eye-rolling she has to cater to his every whim and it is especially her job to organise the purchase of the special β€œbreakup” diamond earrings that Chris always gives to young women he’s going to dump.

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Β© Photograph: Aaron Epstein/Netflix

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Β© Photograph: Aaron Epstein/Netflix

NASA will pay SpaceX nearly $1 billion to deorbit the International Space Station

27 June 2024 at 12:54
Illustration of the SpaceX Dragon XL as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy's second stage in high Earth orbit on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit.

Enlarge / Illustration of the SpaceX Dragon XL as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy's second stage in high Earth orbit on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. (credit: SpaceX)

NASA has awarded an $843 million contract to SpaceX to develop a "US Deorbit Vehicle." This spacecraft will dock to the International Space Station in 2029 and then ensure the large facility makes a controlled reentry through Earth's atmosphere before splashing into the ocean in 2030.

"Selecting a US Deorbit Vehicle for the International Space Station will help NASA and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations," said Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations, in a statement. "This decision also supports NASA’s plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth."

NASA has a couple of reasons for bringing the space station's life to a close in 2030. Foremost among these is that the station is aging. Parts of it are now a quarter of a century old. There are cracks on the Russian segment of the space station that are spreading. Although the station could likely be maintained beyond 2030, it would require increasing amounts of crew time to keep flying the station safely.

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Reform UK activist filmed making racist comments about Rishi Sunak

Andrew Parker, who is canvassing in Clacton, also described Islam as β€˜a cult’ and suggested asylum seekers should be shot

A Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic and other offensive language.

Farage said he was β€œdismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.

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Β© Photograph: Channel 4 news

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Β© Photograph: Channel 4 news

Number of UK income tax payers leaps by 4.4m in three years due to threshold freeze

HMRC data shows 26% more people over state pension age paying tax on earnings than in 2021-22

The number of people dragged into paying income tax in the UK has leapt by an estimated 4.4 million in three years because of the government’s freeze on thresholds, official data shows, a statistic likely to reignite the election debate on tax.

The figures show that a continuing freeze on income tax thresholds, seen as a stealth tax by some, has pulled an extra 1.77 million pensioners into the income tax bracket.

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Β© Photograph: georgeclerk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Β© Photograph: georgeclerk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Driving licences and other official documents leaked by authentication service used by Uber, TikTok, X, and more

27 June 2024 at 12:21

A company that helps to authenticate users for big brands had a set of administration credentials exposed online for over a year, potentially allowing access to user identity documents such as driving licenses.

As more and more legislation emerges requiring websites and platformsβ€”like gambling services, social networks, and porn sitesβ€”to verify their users’ age, the requirement for authentication companies offering that service rises.

You may never have heard of the Israeli based authentication company, AU10TIX, but you will certainly recognize some of its major customers, like Uber, TikTok, X, Fiverr, Coinbase, LinkedIn, and Saxo Bank.

Au10tix advertising the authentication and age verification for the world's leading brands

AU10TIX checks users’ identities via the upload of a photo of an official document.

A researcher found that AU10TIX had left the credentials exposed, providing 404 Media with screenshots and data to demonstrate their findings. The credentials led to a logging platform containing data about people that had uploaded documents to prove their identity.

Whoever accessed the platform could peruse information about those people, including name, date of birth, nationality, identification number, and the type of uploaded document such as a drivers’ license, linking to an image of the identity document itself.

Research showed that the likely source of the credentials was an infostealer on a computer of a Network Operations Center Manager at AU10TIX.

Stolen credentials have shown to be a major source of breaches like those recently associated with Snowflake. Snowflake pointed to research which found that one cybercriminal obtained access to multiple organizations’ Snowflake customer instances using stolen customer credentials.

Another major problem is that these sets of credentials get traded and sold all the time. And it’s not as if when you sold them once, that’s it. Digital information can be copied and combined endlessly, leading to huge data sets that criminals can use as they see fit.

We’ve talked about the dangers of data brokers in the past. The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) defines data brokers as businesses that consumers don’t directly interact with, but that buy and sell information about consumers from and to other businesses. There are around 480 data brokers registered with the CPPA. However, that might be just the tip of the iceberg, because there are a host of smaller players active that try to keep a low profile.

Either way, for any company and particularly an authentication company working with sensitive data, having such an account accessible with just login credentials should be grounds for serious penalties.

In a statement given to 404 Media, AU10TIX said it was no longer using the system and had no evidence the data had been used:

β€œWhile PII data was potentially accessible, based on our current findings, we see no evidence that such data has been exploited. Our customers’ security is of the utmost importance, and they have been notified.”

For now, there’s not much that individual users of the brands can do apart from keep an eye out for any official statements, and consider an ongoing identity monitoring solution. Below are some general tips on what to do if your data has been part of a data breach:

Protecting yourself after a data breach

There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.

  • Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened, and follow any specific advice they offer.
  • Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose aΒ strong passwordΒ that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let aΒ password managerΒ choose one for you.
  • Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms ofΒ two-factor authentication (2FA)Β can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
  • Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims, and verify theΒ identity of anyone who contacts youΒ using a different communication channel.
  • Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
  • Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.
  • Set up identity monitoring. Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.

Check your personal data exposure

You can check what personal information of yours has been exposed on our Digital Footprint portal. Just enter your email address (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) to ourΒ free Digital Footprint scanΒ and we’ll give you a report.

Paging Gen-X

By: bq
27 June 2024 at 11:07
Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks is a tribute album released in 1995 containing cover tracks by major local bands, including one of the last recordings made by Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon before his death (3 is a Magic Number).

Track listing "Schoolhouse Rocky" - Bob Dorough and Friends "I'm Just A Bill" - Deluxx Folk Implosion "Three Is a Magic Number" - Blind Melon "Conjunction Junction" - Better Than Ezra "Electricity, Electricity" - Goodness "No More Kings" - Pavement "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" - Ween "My Hero, Zero" - The Lemonheads "The Energy Blues" - Biz Markie "Little Twelvetoes" - Chavez "Verb: That's What's Happening" - Moby "Interplanet Janet" - Man or Astro-man? "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" - Buffalo Tom "Unpack Your Adjectives" - Daniel Johnston "The Tale of Mr. Morton" - Skee-Lo

Message to Labour: don’t tax school fees. Make private schools work for the public good | Simon Jenkins

27 June 2024 at 12:09

Finding a balance between privatisation and nationalisation has defied past governments – the party must make this its mission

To tax or not to tax? Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools seemed a good idea at the time. Its programme was bereft of leftist clout. The tax would hit privilege at its roots, and bring in a windfall Β£1.6bn to benefit deprived state schools. What was not to like?

The trouble is that every tax carries unintended consequences. Estimates were that most parents would simply pay up. Schools would cut costs, offset VAT-able expenses and boost bursaries. Fees should not rise by more than 15%, which is what they have recently done anyway. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has indicated that she will not target parents with children who are at a critical stage of their school careers. The new tax will be gradual.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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Β© Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

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Β© Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

My partner wants me to ejaculate – and I’m not sure it’s possible

27 June 2024 at 09:21

I haven’t even experienced this when orgasming alone and wonder if this is normal for a woman. Does sex need to be more intense?

I have recently been seeing someone who is very curious about making me ejaculate. I usually only have orgasms via clitoral stimulation and when I do nothing ever comes out of me. I have never experienced female ejaculation. Is that normal? Does the sex need to be more intense? I also use vibrators on my own and have orgasms via clitoral stimulation, but still no ejaculation.

Please tell your recently met partner to leave his female ejaculation fantasies in the realm of his late-night pornography viewing where they belong. There is nothing wrong with you, and it is entirely unreasonable for him to put pressure on you to achieve something that – if it genuinely exists – is extremely rare. Instead of allowing him to make you question your β€œnormality”, change your expectations for him and be clear that you need him to appreciate you for who you are. You do not have to try so hard to please him. Instead, think about what you would really like from him, how he could please you further – and make those requests!

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Β© Composite: Getty/GNM design/Getty

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Β© Composite: Getty/GNM design/Getty

Cloud Security Tops Priority List for Organizations Globally

27 June 2024 at 06:57
cloud security, organizations, endpoint data Trend Micro

Cloud security has become a major focus for organizations worldwide as they battle with a growing number of data breaches and application sprawl that makes defense more complicated.

The post Cloud Security Tops Priority List for Organizations Globally appeared first on Security Boulevard.

USENIX Security ’23 – Assessing Anonymity Techniques Employed in German Court Decisions: A De-Anonymization Experiment

26 June 2024 at 15:00

Authors/Presenters:Dominic Deuber, Michael Keuchen, Nicolas Christin

Many thanks to USENIX for publishing their outstanding USENIX Security ’23 Presenter’s content, and the organizations strong commitment to Open Access.
Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Anaheim Marriott; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

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The post USENIX Security ’23 – Assessing Anonymity Techniques Employed in German Court Decisions: A De-Anonymization Experiment appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Labour β€˜not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton

Labour officials said to be upset that Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was gaining traction for viral social media posts

Labour has been accused of β€œnot putting up a fight” against Nigel Farage in Clacton after the party’s candidate was instructed to leave the constituency after β€œdistracting” from Keir Starmer’s campaign.

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour’s equalities team, was installed by the party last month to contest the seat, weeks before Farage changed his mind and decided to stand in the Essex constituency.

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Β© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

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Β© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

May and June 2024 in space

26 June 2024 at 16:32
Around the sun, into orbit, towards the asteroids, to the moon and back again It's been too long since an update on humanity's space exploration. Let's catch up. There's a lot going on:

Sun NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory imaged Sol firing off two strong solar flares. The European Space Agency (ESA) published close-up footage of the Sun taken by the Solar Orbiter. Venus Researchers used Magellan spacecraft data from the early 1990s to determine that Venus probably has some ongoing volcanic activity. On Earth's surface Construction on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is nearly finished. In Texas SpaceX wants to produce one Starship rocket per day in their impending StarFactory. From Earth to orbit Successes: after months of delays, Boeing's Starliner finally launched and carried two astronauts to dock with the International Space Station (ISS), albeit with persistent helium leaks and thruster problems (previously). SpaceX launched and for the first time successfully splashed down a Starship. SpaceX reports it now carries 87% of orbital tonnage. A Long March 2C rocket carried a Franco-Chinese satellite, the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM), into orbit to study gamma ray bursts. NASA's first Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) cubesat rode a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Māhia, New Zealand into orbit, followed by another. Rocket Lab also orbited a South Korean Earth observing satellite as well as a solar sail experiment. GOES-U, the fourth and final satellite in the Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series, rode a Falcon Heavy into orbit. South Korea confirmed a North Korean launch failed to reach orbit. In Earth orbit "For the first time in history, three different crewed vehicles, Starliner, SpaceX's Dragon, and Russia's Soyuz, were all simultaneously docked" at the ISS. Zebrafish on the Tiangong space station are "showing directional behavior anomalies, such as inverted swimming and rotary movement." (video) NASA has delayed Starliner's return indefinitely. Leaks on the ISS are a persistent problem. The Hubble space telescope lost another gyroscope. An astronaut wants to help. Back down to Earth The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on making its space missions free of debris. A video clip shows a Chinese rocket falling near a village. NASA confirmed that SpaceX debris fell on North Carolina. Earth's moon Chang'e-6 (嫦ε¨₯六号) blasted off from Earth, traveled to the moon, then landed in the South Pole–Aitken basin, taking a selfie, and planting a flag made of stone. Two days later its ascender lifted off, carrying two kilograms of lunar material, which it delivered to its orbiter, which then transported the stuff successfully to the Earth's surface. (mix of official video footage and animation) Lunar plans: Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced their intention to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2035. A Japanese billionaire canceled his planned lunar trip. Mars The ESA and NASA agreed on a shared Martian rover project. NASA awarded nine companies grants to develop feasibility studies for Martian missions. To the asteroids Beyond the orbit of Mars, heading to its first asteroid, NASA's Psyche spacecraft fired up its electric thrusters. A research team applied AI to Hubble data and found more than 1,000 new asteroids. Saturn NASA approved funding for the Dragonfly mission to Titan. In the Kuiper belt Voyager 1 restarted sending data all the way back to Earth. (previously) Way, way beyond the solar system The James Webb space telescope imaged the farthest known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0.

Outsourcing truth and importance to the comments

By: chavenet
26 June 2024 at 15:42
"Within a week of actual research, we just threw out the term information literacy," says Yasmin Green, Jigsaw's CEO. Gen Zers, it turns out, are "not on a linear journey to evaluate the veracity of anything." Instead, they're engaged in what the researchers call "information sensibility" β€” a "socially informed" practice that relies on "folk heuristics of credibility." In other words, Gen Zers know the difference between rock-solid news and AI-generated memes. They just don't care. from Google studied Gen Z. What they found is alarming. [Business Insider; ungated]

Includes: 13 slang words Gen Zers are using in 2024 and what they really mean

Patent document showcases the cloud-only streaming Xbox console that never was

26 June 2024 at 16:01
  • The streaming-only Xbox would have looked like a smaller, squarer relative of the Series S. [credit: Microsoft ]

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Microsoft's mid-generation plans for the Xbox Series S and X consoles looked a whole lot different a couple of years ago than it does now. A leaked slide deck from the FTC v. Microsoft case last year outlined detailed plans for a spruced up Series S, an overhauled Series X, and even a redesigned controller. Another part of that roadmap included a streaming-only version of the Xbox, codenamed Keystone, that was designed to connect to Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming servers rather than rendering games locally.

Microsoft has talked openly about this version of the Xbox before. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told The Verge that the Keystone console was designed and fully functional, but that it wasn't launched because Microsoft had a hard time getting the price down low enough that it made sense next to the $299 Series S (which already occasionally goes on sale in the $200 to $250 range).

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