Interesting Links for 14-10-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Ofcom fines 4chan £20K for Online Safety Act failings

(tags:regulation 4chan uk internet censorship )

2. California stops using coal

(tags:coal california electricity usa GoodNews environment )

3. Malinche has long been blamed for the fall of Aztec empire. Now she's being viewed in a different light

(tags:history mexico )

4. Firefox is the best mobile browser

(tags:firefox phones browsers )

5. Google, Meta and Microsoft have all opted to stop showing political ads in the EU as new rules kick in

(tags:advertising politics europe )

6. England is now experiencing a significant Covid wave

(tags:Pandemic )

7. How ultrasound is ushering a new era of surgery-free cancer treatment

(tags:cancer ultrasound )

8. Multiple news outlets say they won't sign new Pentagon rules on access

(tags:usa journalism censorship military )

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

Wow, lots of news. As to Malinche, it's a good story. Politics and ignorance mixed caused a lot of lies to be produced and spread.

As to #2 - that's impressive! And #7. And #5. And I have replaced Chrome with Firefox on my iPhone. Now looking for a better map app, since Google Maps is getting dumber and dumber.

[cmcmck]

6.And of course they've just taken away the right to free covid jabs from the over 65's.

He and I are probably going to have to spend £200 to get jabbed and a lot of people can't afford that!

[andrewducker]

Yup. And you'd think that it would be worth it to not clog up the hospitals!

They aren't even vaccinating the doctors. Imagine how many unnecessary sick days happen.

[redbird]

I see that #2, despite the present-tense headline, is better stated as "California is going to stop using coal" (or even "plans to stop"). Here on the other side of the continent, New England has almost stopped using coal--the last coal-burning power plant in the regional grid has switched to natural gas, to run at times when other power sources aren't sufficient (either higher demand, or at times when solar and/or wind aren't generating a lot of electricity. NPR noted that there is one paper mill up in Maine that's burning coal rather than drawing electricity from the power grid, and that there's no way to be sure of how electricity imported from New York, or further afield, is being generated.

[poshmerchant]

New York State imports 5% of its electricity from Ontario and Québec. Québec electricity is 94% hydroelectric and 4% wind. Ontario electricity is 55% nuclear, 24% hydroelectric, 8% wind, 8% natural gas, and 5% solar.

[foms]

Keeping in mind that a chunk of that has been from the fraught of Churchill Falls.

[ninetydegrees]

5) "Politicians on both sides of the aisle said it could be detrimental to democratic debate." Yeah because them showing political ads before really helped the democratic debate... Or are we rewriting history again?

[cellio]

I'm surprised that it's only £20K -- I mean, this is 4chan, which must be swimming in OSA violations and which, according to the article, blew off requests for documentation. (Granted, it's The Register, but still...)

[andrewducker]

These fines tend to start small and give companies a chance to comply before they ramp up. I'm intrigued to see where it goes.