Tag: news
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I continue to fight to make BBC News' RSS feeds not-suck, despite ongoing efforts to dilute their value by the BBC themselves.
Last month they started injecting ads for their email newsletter-based subscription option into their RSS feed. But I don't need email: I have RSS! The ad initially slipped through the filters because it looks like the URL of a news article: sneaky move, BBC!
Anyway; it's fixed now and these newsletter ads should no longer appear in the feeds available on https://bbc-feeds.danq.dev - hurrah!
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Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says
The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. I feel physically sick.
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Elon Musk, Human Ponzi Scheme
With thanks to Mark Palko for sharing: this seems like a spot-on observation of Musk's career. Wouldn't it be nice if the world's first trillionaire also happened to be the world's last trillionaire?
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NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
New Scientist reports that the NHS are closed-sourcing a lot of their code, out of fear that AIs like Mythos will facilitate easier exploitation of their systems if they don't. Which is pretty-much... completely backwards thinking.
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BBC News RSS... with full-size thumbnails!
A user of my Improved BBC News Feeds reached out to suggest that I upgrade the resolution of the thumbnail images. Turns out this was a quick win: my noodles hadn't even cooled before I finished.
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Off the back of my project to un-suckify BBC News' RSS feeds (https://bbc-feeds.danq.dev) by removing non-news content and duplicate items, I received an email this week (addressing me by the wrong name, I might add) from somebody who asked if I could do the same... for the Daily Mail.
I'm so very tempted to provide an empty RSS feed and say "there you go; that's an RSS feed of the Daily Mail but with the crap bits removed".
Turns out my distaste for the Daily Mail is greater than my love of clean RSS.
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Email from Simon G to Dan Q, subject "Dail Mail RSS that doesn't suck", with message: Hey Darren, I’ve come across your BBC RSS feeds and find them really useful over the last few days. Thank you so much for this!! I’m not sure how easy it is but could you do something similar with the Daily Mail as that has thousands of reposts a week? Happy to contribute/donate.
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For the last few years I've been running a proxy of the BBC News RSS feeds (https://bbc-feeds.danq.dev) that strips out duplicate content, non-news content, and (optionally) sports news.
This weekend, for the first time, somebody asked if it could produce an edition that included only the sports content. Which turned out to be slightly more difficult, because it's the kind of scope-creep that my "uninterested-in-sports-news" brain couldn't conceive that anybody would want! But I got there in the end.
If anybody's looking for their fill of "BBC News Feeds... But Better!", give it a look.
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Woodcraft Folk statement on the exclusion of trans children from Girlguiding
Girlguiding UK recently opted not to modernise their articles, meaning that their interpretation of the Supreme Court's misguided decision necessarily excludes trans girls and young women from Girlguiding. So it was heartening to read this statement from Woodcraft Folk, reaffirming that their support for trans kids is fundamental and unwavering.
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AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time
The BBC and EBU did some research and discovered that AI assistants tasked with bringing you news get it right only slightly more-often than they get it wrong, and they get it catastrophically wrong about one time in five. This should be a surprise to nobody.
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"Trans former judge plans to challenge gender ruling at European court": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qw2149yelo
Representation matters. That we have a trans former-judge, somebody both well-equipped and motivated to escalate this important challenge to the ECHR, is hugely fortunate.
We need more representation (of trans people specifically, but many other groups too, and perhaps particularly in the intersections) in positions of power, expertise, and authority. To defend the human rights of all of us.
Wishing you luck, Victoria McCloud.
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Scots Fire Brigade Union demand new legal protections for people with more than one romantic partner
Scotland's Fire Brigade Union is calling for legal protections for the polyamorous. Wait, what?
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Feed Readers Beat Doomscrolling
If you're dodging news media because the alternative is catastrophic doomscrolling... perhaps you ought to be using a feed reader? It's a much healthier way to keep up with the Web.
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"I'm only asking for basic respect." - Dr. Beth Upton, in the face of a hostile courtroom, media, and world.
Her fucking bravery is amazing. 💖
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After "fixing" BBC News' RSS feeds I noticed that I was seeing less news (and, somehow, stressing less over everything happening in the USA). Turns out that in switching myself to my new system I'd subscribed to the UK edition, whereas previously I'd been on the Full edition. I've corrected it now in my RSS reader, but it was an interesting couple of days.
tl;dr: I accidentally stopped reading international news and I was less stressed
Anyway: if you're not already using my improved BBC News RSS feeds, they're at: https://bbc-feeds.danq.dev
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UK’s secret Apple iCloud backdoor order is a global emergency, say critics
The UK seems to be strongarming Apple to weaken the security of its consumer products, which is fucking stupid. Weakened and backdoored encryption in mainstream products doesn't help catch smart criminals. But it does help smart criminals to catch regular folks.