Food waste: Amount thrown away totals 900 million tonnes

Found on BBC News on Tuesday, 23 March 2021
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The UN Environment Programme's Food Waste Index revealed that 17% of the food available to consumers - in shops, households and restaurants - goes directly into the bin.

"The 923 million tonnes of food being wasted each year would fill 23 million 40-tonne trucks. Bumper-to-bumper, enough to circle the Earth seven times."

Food is too cheap it seems.

‘Climate neutral’ is a lie — abandon it as a goal

Found on Nature on Monday, 15 March 2021
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We must cut carbon emissions to zero in absolute terms, not merely to net zero.

To eliminate all carbon emissions, we must phase out coal and natural gas, as well as, in my view, nuclear power. We must switch to sources that are 100% renewable, such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal — something that will hopefully start to happen in Germany after September’s elections.

There is no way to eliminate all carbon emissions. Even "green" sources have them. You need to reduce the need for resources.

Trustpilot removed 2.2 million bogus reviews in 2020

Found on BBC News on Saturday, 13 March 2021
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The business-review site said the vast majority were dealt with by automated software without human involvement.

BBC Watchdog and BBC Radio 5 Live, among others, have highlighted cases of companies cheating Trustpilot's system by either getting genuine negative reviews removed or paying for positive ones.

People trust online reviews? Really?

Hard-coded key vulnerability in Logix PLCs has severity score of 10 out of 10

Found on Ars Technica on Thursday, 11 March 2021
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On Thursday, the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Administration warned of a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to remotely connect to Logix controllers and from there alter their configuration or application code. The vulnerability requires a low skill level to be exploited, CISA said.

Hopefully those systems are connected to the Internet.

Banks in Germany Tell Customers To Take Deposits Elsewhere

Found on Slashdot on Wednesday, 10 March 2021
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Germany's biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, have told new customers since last year to pay a 0.5% annual rate to keep large sums of money with them. The banks say they can no longer absorb the negative interest rates the European Central Bank charges them.

Banks in Europe resisted passing negative rates on to customers when the ECB first introduced them in 2014, fearing backlash. Some did it only with corporate depositors, who were less likely to complain to local politicians.

Negative interest is a simple and easy way to steal money from people.

John Deere Promised To Back Off Monopolizing Repair. It Then Ignored That Promise Completely.

Found on Techdirt on Friday, 26 February 2021
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The company's crackdown on "unauthorized repairs" turned countless ordinary citizens into technology policy activists, after DRM (and the company's EULA) prohibited the lion's share of repair or modification of tractors customers thought they owned.

John Deere, Microsoft, Apple, and countless other companies have a vested interest in making independent repair impossible and cumbersome.

When you are the only one allowed to repair your product, there is no incentive to make it as best as possible, because you'll miss possible extra earnings.

I was invited for a covid vaccine because the NHS thought I was 6cm tall

Found on Liverpool Echo on Wednesday, 24 February 2021
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When I received a text saying it was time for my first Covid-19 vaccine I was really surprised - but what came next was frankly surreal.

The man from the surgery took a sharp intake of breath and tried to remain composed as he informed me that rather than having my height registered as six foot two, it had been put into the system as 6.2 centimetres.

I'm not sure how he kept it together when he told me that this, combined with my weight, had given me a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28,000.

Imperial vs Metric. The old battle.

Faced with the sack, Nominet CEO half-apologizes for taking the 'wrong tone'

Found on The Register on Tuesday, 23 February 2021
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CEO of .uk registry operator Nominet has pleaded with the organisation’s members to hear him out before they consider backing a campaign to fire both him and other non-elected members of the board.

Members were quick to point out that one instance of the “wrong tone” being used by Haworth was also the spark that started the whole campaign: when he theatrically shut down the Nominet members' online forum in the middle of his speech at its recent annual meeting citing “increasingly… aggressive and hostile” behavior by folks.

Suddenly, when their job is a risk, they act. It would be better if CEOs keep that in mind before they fire people.

Amazon: The unstoppable rise of the internet giant

Found on BBC News on Saturday, 20 February 2021
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Today, Amazon is one of the most valuable public companies on the planet, with Mr Bezos vying with Tesla's Elon Musk for the title as world's richest man.

Having successfully dominated online retail, the firm has now set its sights on expanding its services - and perhaps surprisingly, into physical stores - to create a new way of shopping.

Yet, their online shop is one of the worst there is.

Breached water plant employees used the same TeamViewer password and no firewall

Found on Ars Technica on Friday, 19 February 2021
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The Florida water treatment facility whose computer system experienced a potentially hazardous computer breach last week used an unsupported version of Windows with no firewall and shared the same TeamViewer password among its employees, government officials have reported.

The revelations illustrate the lack of security rigor found inside many critical infrastructure environments.

It was pretty clear from the start that is was something stupid like that.