Tootfinder

For Saint Augustine of Hippo, writing in North Africa in the fourth century,
authentic attention placed us in relation with the divine.
For Saint Ignatius of Loyola, holed up in his cave in Catalonia in the 1520s,
what he called “attentive contemplation” was both a daily practice and a moral imperative.
During the Enlightenment, close attention emerged as a virtue essential to knowledge and disciplined investigation,
-- as demonstrated in 1740, when the natural…

Opinion | The ‘Attention Economy’ Is a Lie
It started in a laboratory. No one could have predicted where it would end.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/24/civil-liberties-groups-call-for-inquiry-into-uk-data-protection-watchdog
Dozens of civil liberties campaigners and legal professionals are calling for an…

Civil liberties groups call for inquiry into UK data protection watchdog
Campaigners including Good Law Project describe ICO ‘collapse in enforcement activity’ after Afghan data breach

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #Early
Speaker Music ft. AceMo:
🎵 Techno is a Liberation Technology
#SpeakerMusicftAceMo
https://speakermusic.bandcamp.com/track/techno-is-a-liberation-technology-ft-acemo
https://open.spotify.com/track/5MfMnIQWfWReXef8HvXHat

The US DOE accelerates its approach to equipping national labs with AI supercomputers by working with Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle, which will pay some of the costs (Don Clark/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/technology/national-laborat…

To Meld A.I. With Supercomputers, National Labs Are Picking Up the Pace
A.I. has added urgency to the U.S. national laboratories that have been sites of cutting-edge scientific research, leading to deals with tech giants like Nvidia to speed up.

»„Man muss sein Gehirn nicht benutzen" — Studie warnt vor kognitiven Folgen durch KI im Unterricht:
Während KI-Tools in den Klassenzimmern Einzug halten, schlagen Forscher:innen Alarm. Eine neue Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die neue Technologie vor allem Beziehungen negativ beeinflussen könnte«
Wer hätte dies je gedacht… moment mal um was geht es, um was denn genau, was labert die KI denn uns vor?!??
🤷

„Man muss sein Gehirn nicht benutzen": Studie warnt vor kognitiven Folgen durch KI im Unterricht | t3n
Während KI-Tools in den Klassenzimmern Einzug halten, schlagen Forscher:innen Alarm. Eine neue Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die neue Technologie vor allem Beziehungen negativ beeinflussen könnte. Das Center for Universal Education der US-amerikanischen Brookings Institution hat die KI-Nutzung von Kindern und Jugendlichen untersucht. Im Rahmen des einjährigen Projekts führten die Forscher:innen Interviews und Diskussionsrunden […]

EFF is proud to support the
“ICE Out of Our Faces Act.”
This new federal bill would ban ICE and CBP agents, and some local police working with them,
from acquiring or using biometric surveillance systems,
including face recognition technology, or information derived from such systems by another entity.
This bill would be enforceable, among other ways, by a strong private right of action.
The bill’s lead author is Senator Ed Markey.
We thank him for…

Yes to the “ICE Out of My Face Act”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have descended into utter lawlessness, most recently in Minnesota. The violence is shocking. So are the intrusions on digital rights and civil liberties. For example, immigration agents are routinely scanning faces of...

A profile of Paulina Borsook, as her 2000 book Cyberselfish, warning about Silicon Valley's love for "techno-libertarianism", finds a resurgence in interest (David Streitfeld/New York Times)
https://www.

The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley
Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish,” which offered dire predictions about the tech world’s love for libertarianism, is finding fans. It only took 25 years.

Gamma Imagers for Nuclear Security and Nuclear Forensics: Recommendations based on results from a side-by-side intercomparison
L. E. Sinclair, P. R. B. Saull, A. McCann, A. M. L. MacLeod, N. J. Murtha, A. El-Jaby, G. Jonkmans
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00826 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.00826 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.00826
arXiv:2602.00826v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Nuclear security operations and forensic investigations require the utilization of a suite of instruments ranging from passive gamma spectrometers to high-precision laboratory sample analyzers. Gamma spectroscopy survey is further broken down into wide-area search performed with large-volume scintillator-based mobile survey spectrometers which are integrated with geographic position sensors for mapping and identification of hot zones, and high-precision long-dwell measurements using solid state spectrometers for follow-on characterization to establish isotopic content and ratios. While performing well at detecting the presence, quantity and type of radioactivity, all of these methods have limited ability to determine the location of a source of radioactivity. In recent years, technology advances have resulted in gamma imager devices which can create an image of the distribution of radioactive sources using the gamma emissions which accompany radioactive decay, and overlay this on an optical photograph of the environment. These gamma imaging devices have arisen out of methods developed for medical physics, experimental particle physics, and astrophysics, resulting in a proliferation of different technological approaches. Those responsible for establishing a nuclear security concept of operations, require guidance to choose the proper gamma imager for each of the application spaces in a tiered response. Here the results of an intercomparison of two gamma imagers based on two widely different technologies, semiconductor and scintillator detectors, are presented. The optimal utilization of these imaging technologies in a tiered response is discussed based on the results of the trial. Finally, an outlook on future directions for gamma imaging advances is provided.
toXiv_bot_toot

Foda-se.
https://expresso.pt/sociedade/ciencia/2025-12-16-fisico-portugues-que-dirigia-laboratorio-no-mit-morto-a-tiro-em-boston-4705be26

Físico português que dirigia laboratório no MIT morto a tiro em Boston
A notícia foi dada pelo ministro Paulo Rangel numa audição no Parlamento. Nuno Loureiro dirigia o Centro de Ciência do Plasma e Fusão do Instituto de Tecnologia de Massachusetts desde maio de 2024

❌Mobile Fortify,
the new app used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use face recognition technology (FRT) to identify people during street encounters,
is an affront to the rights and dignity of migrants and U.S. citizens alike.
That's why a coalition of privacy, civil liberties and civil rights organizations are
🔥demanding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
shut down the use of Mobile Fortify,
release the agency's privacy anal…

Rights Organizations Demand Halt to Mobile Fortify, ICE's Handheld Face Recognition Program
Mobile Fortify, the new app used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use face recognition technology (FRT) to identify people during street encounters, is an affront to the rights and dignity of migrants and U.S. citizens alike. That's why a coalition of privacy, civil liberties and...