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GOODY GOOD
EU approves ban on destruction of unsold clothing
New rules will also ensure products are more environmentally friendly and that goods are also more easily repaired and recycled.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states on Tuesday reached an agreement to stop large retail groups of destroying unsold clothes and footwear.
The rules are aimed at cracking down on the impact of “fast fashion” and reducing waste.
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-approves-ban-on-destruction-of-unsold-clothing/a-67641000
GREAT JOBS REPORT
The U.S. economy added another 199,000 jobs in November — more than expected — and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.7%. #DemsKeepDeliveringJobs
BAD BAD BAD
BOYCOTT
“STAND TOGETHER MUSIC” “FIRE” “SPIN” “CHARLES KOCH”
Revealed: how top pop stars are used to ‘launder the reputation’ of Koch family
Stand Together Music, part of rightwing billionaire Charles Koch’s advocacy network, collaborates with Pitbull, Machine Gun Kelly and others
Last September, the rapper Killer Mike was DJing hip-hop classics like Snoop Dogg’s Ain’t No Fun at a music festival afterparty in Louisville, Kentucky. “The inspiration for the night’s set is freedom of speech, so say what the fuck you want!” he told a crowd of hundreds. Killer Mike, half of the duo Run the Jewels, is known for speaking out against police brutality and racial injustice, as well as campaigning for Bernie Sanders.
But this night’s set was co-sponsored by Stand Together Music, an organization backed by the libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who made his fortune in fossil fuels. Other sponsors of the party included the free-speech group Fire (which has received millions of dollars in contributions from the Charles G Koch charitable foundation), as well as the music outlet Spin, an official partner of Stand Together Music.
According to an exposé by Mary Trump, In 2018, Speaker Mike Johnson received illegal campaign contributions from a company owned by Russians. “American Ethane,” a company that was 88 percent owned by three Russian nationals: Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev gave Johnson at least three checks for $6,100, that he was forced to return. She notes that since, Johnson has consistently voted against Ukraine and for Russian interests.
#TECH / #SECURITY
CZ Must Stay in the U.S. Until His Sentencing
US District Judge Richard Jones just ruled that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) can’t return to his home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before he is sentenced in the US
Image parsers in UEFIs are riddled with vulns.
Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack. UEFIs booting Windows and Linux devices can be hacked by malicious logo images.
By replacing the legitimate logo images with identical-looking ones that have been specially crafted to exploit these bugs, LogoFAIL makes it possible to execute malicious code at the boot process.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/12/just-about-every-windows-and-linux-device-vulnerable-to-new-logofail-firmware-attack/
Why the 23andMe Data Breach Is Such a Disaster
https://gizmodo.com/what-23andme-data-breach-means-for-users-victims-1851080672
Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos
“Imagine with Meta AI” turns prompts into images, trained using public Facebook data. DID YOU PUT YOUR BABY’S PIC UP THERE? SO STUPID.
Bodhipaksa: “[Google] Bard increasingly just made s*it up [about me]”
“Inspired by @cstross’s experience of Google’s Bard generating
increasingly inaccurate “fun facts” about him, I had a go at
that myself.
I asked for five fun facts, then five more, and another five.
Bard increasingly just made shit up. At the start of the second set of five facts, Bard states I’m a musician. I’ve never recorded any albums of “meditative music.”
Bard is a bullshit generator. It reminds me of grading essays by students who hadn’t done the assigned reading.”
https://mastodon.scot/@bodhipaksa/111540214136443297
Warning regarding use of Microsoft email (Outlook, etc.)
I’m seeing increasing cases of Microsoft behaving badly with inbound email, despite proper use of DKIM, SPF, etc. I see items (including not only mailing list email but individual items) that are sitting in my outbound queues all day long — or even longer, and I’m watching now to see if many never make it through. Typical errors are “server busy, try again later” again, and again, again.
I urge that if you or your organization are using Microsoft email services in any way, that you verify that you are not losing inbound email, and perhaps consider a transition to a reliable email service. ~ ANON
CRYPTO
CAN TRADITIONAL FINANCE SHOW PROOF OF RESERVES?
SEC actually out here saying that Proof Of Reserves are bullshit (always has been) pretty much putting every stable coin and exchange on blast.
Pretty sure that’s the ticking time bomb point of our banking system.
SEC — Exercise Caution with Crypto Asset Securities: Investor Alert
March 23, 2023
https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-and-bulletins/exercise-caution-crypto-asset-securities-investor-alert
<snip>
Proof of Reserves is a term crypto asset entities, including trading platforms and/or entities that issue crypto assets securities, use to describe a voluntary method for offering evidence that in the aggregate an entity has sufficient reserve assets to cover what is held for customers and/or accounts at a given point in time. Crypto asset entities may be offering these types of assessments as a way to satisfy customers that their funds are safe and available upon demand. However, these types of services may not provide any meaningful assurance that these entities hold adequate assets to back their customers’ balances. Further, crypto asset entities might use these in lieu of audited financial statements in order to obscure and confuse customers about the safety of their assets. For example, a proof of reserves typically:
- may only provide a snapshot of what is, for example, held by an entity in certain wallets or accounts, or backing customer assets as of a point-in-time;
- may not disclose management’s activities during the period between the snapshots (for example, use of customer crypto assets in crypto asset lending or other activities);
- does not tell customers the whole story about the entity’s liabilities and, for example, whether the customer has to “stand in line” behind other creditors if the entity fails; and
- may not offer protection against the entity moving customer assets shortly after a proof of reserves is completed.
In addition, a proof of reserves is not as rigorous, or as comprehensive, as a financial statement audit and may not provide any level of assurance. For example, audited financial statements typically require audits of a complete set of financial statements performed by a registered public accounting firm in accordance with PCAOB auditing standards. With so-called proof of reserves, there are no specific audit requirements for the engagement or the information reported, allowing an entity full discretion to manage the terms of the engagement. For example:
- the extent and frequency of assessments performed around customer assets;
- the determination of the reserves (for example, which wallets and accounts are examined as part of the assessment);
- the level of assurance provided (for example, reasonable, limited, or no assurance) and the standards applied;
- the type of third-party assurance provider engaged (i.e., accountant or non-accountant assurance providers, affiliated or independent); and
- whether the results are made public, including the extent and format of the information shared.
Investors should be aware that this level of management discretion undermines any suggestion that a proof of reserves offers protections similar to a financial statement audit. In sum, investors should exercise extreme caution when relying on proof of reserves to conclude that a crypto asset entity has sufficient reserve assets to meet customer liabilities.
</SNIP>
SAB 121
@MattWalshInBos
SAB 121 and how Gary Gensler, the lead henchman of Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army, is turning the SEC into a merit regulator and using an obscure accounting rule to prevent major banks from touching crypto in the United States…
https://twitter.com/MattWalshInBos/status/1680937881970397184
SAB 121 makes their crypto business non-viable
https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-04-23/s70423-187559-342402.pdf
BNY is the most trusted custodian on earth. They launched digital assets in 2022 but according to their filings have ‘de minimis’ assets. They are the custodian on none of the Bitcoin ETF proposals. Why is the SEC decapitating BNY’s crypto custody business?