Tag Archives: Declines

UK Traffic to Popular Adult Sites Declines Following Introduction of Age Verification

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Since the implementation of stringent age verification measures last month, visits to popular adult websites in the UK have seen a significant decline, according to recent data.

Daily traffic to PornHub, the most frequented porn site in the UK, dropped by 47%, from 3.6 million on July 24 to 1.9 million on August 8.

Data from digital market intelligence firm Sircerweb indicates that the next popular platforms, Xvideos and Xhamster, also experienced declines of 47% and 39% during the same period.

As reported initially by the Financial Times, this downturn seems to reflect the enforcement of strict age verification rules commencing on July 25 under the Online Safety Act. However, social media platforms implementing similar age checks for age-restricted materials, like X and Reddit, did not experience similar traffic declines.

A representative from Pornhub remarked, “As we have observed in various regions globally, compliant sites often see a decrease in traffic, while non-compliant ones may see an increase.”

The Online Safety Act aims to shield children from harmful online content, mandating that any site or app providing pornographic material must prevent access by minors.

Ofcom, the overseeing body for this law in the UK, endorses age verification methods such as: verifying age via credit card providers, banks, or mobile network operators; matching photo ID with a live selfie; or using a “digital identity wallet” for age verification.

Additionally, the law requires platforms to block access to content that could be harmful to children, including materials that incite self-harm or promote dangerous behaviors, which has sparked tension over concerns of excessive regulation.

Ofcom contends that the law does not infringe upon freedom of expression, highlighting clauses intended to protect free speech. Non-compliance can lead to penalties ranging from formal warnings to fines amounting to 10% of global revenue, with serious violations potentially resulting in websites being blocked in the UK.

Nigel Farage’s Reform British Party has vowed to repeal the act following the age verification requirement, igniting a heated exchange where the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, was accused by Farage of making inappropriate comments.

The implementation of age checks has accordingly led to a surge in virtual private network (VPN) downloads, as users seek to circumvent national restrictions on certain websites. VPN applications frequently dominate the top five spots in Apple’s App Store.

Source: www.theguardian.com

John Norton’s Article: The Rise of the Blogosphere as Traditional Internet Usage Declines

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ILog in to Dave Winer’s blog.
script news
you’ll see constantly updated notes that tell you how many years, months, days, hours, and seconds your blog has been running.
The year field will switch to 30 sometime tomorrow morning. That means Dave’s blog will be stirring things up every day for 30 years.

He really
notable person
a talented hacker and software developer who embodies the spirit of the early Internet.
In the 1980s, he created a new type of software called ThinkTank.
“Outliner”
It’s a computerized version of the hierarchical list we all use when planning articles and presentations, but until then was scrawled on paper.
Like Dan Bricklin’s spreadsheets, this was a novel idea at the time, but nearly every type of writing software now includes an outliner.
Surprisingly, Microsoft Word also has this feature.

In 1983, Winer founded a company called Living Videotext to develop and commercialize the outline idea, and six years later sold it to Symantec to earn enough money to do his own work for the rest of his life.
I got the funds. One of them is to play a leading role in development.
RSS
(Very Simple Syndication) is a tool that allows users to track different websites in one application (a news aggregator), constantly monitoring the site for new content.
(Think of this as the hidden wiring of the web.)

As the use of RSS feeds became commonplace, someone had the idea of ​​being able to attach audio files to RSS feeds, and Dave implemented that idea with a nice geeky touch.
I attached a Grateful Dead song. Initially, this new technology was called audio blogging, but eventually a British journalist came up with the term “podcasting” and the word stuck.

So, while Dave was there to create some cool stuff, it was his blog that brought him to a wider audience.
“Some people are born to play country music.”
he wrote
At some stage.
“I was born to blog. When I first started blogging, I thought everyone would become a blogger. I was wrong. Most people don’t have the urge to say what they think. I don’t have one.’”
Dave was just the opposite. He was (and still is) articulate and forthright.
His formidable track record as a technological innovator meant that he could not be dismissed as an eccentric.
The fact that he was financially secure meant he didn’t have to pander to anyone and could speak his mind. And he did.
That made him a prominent presence on the web from the moment he launched Scripting News in October 1994.

Like many of us, he realized that what became known as the blogosphere might be a modern realization of Jurgen Habermas’ ideas.
“Public sphere”
Because it was open to everyone, everything was up for discussion, and social status did not determine who was allowed to speak.
But what he – and we – underestimated is that tech companies like Google and Facebook have surrounded their public realm with their own walled gardens, where “free speech” is algorithmically enforced.
The speed and comprehensiveness of the central monitoring of speakers and their data. Mined for advertising purposes.

In my experience, most journalists fail to understand the importance of the blogosphere.
This is partly due to the fact that they thought, like Dr. Johnson, that “no one but a blockhead writes about anything other than money,” so bloggers must be weirdos.
(This is difficult for those of us who happen to be in this situation, but
both bloggers
)
But that was largely because the mainstream media was hypnotized and blindsided by the dizzying rise of social media.
Journalists have come to believe that the blogosphere must be a meeting place for old hats, relics of the past, weirdos in Cornish pasty shoes, nerds and ponytailed men. Social media was key.

If that’s really what they think, Winer has news for them.
The blogosphere is alive and well and thriving.
In fact, much of the best writing and thinking of our time is found here.
I can say this because I use tools and read them every day.
feedland.org – Something Dave made to make it easier to drink water from a fire hose.
Clay Shirkey, an early Internet sage,
Please put it down once
There is no such thing as information overload, only “filter failure.”
And there’s no excuse to ignore the blogosphere.

what i was reading

100th anniversary celebration

Jimmy Carter turned 100 this week, and his former speechwriter James Fallows wrote the following message:
generous rating His stuff on his Substack.

Look, I don’t have any hands…

Our ubiquitous future is astonishing.
blog post
By Allen Pike: I think self-driving cars will become commonplace.

The truth about monopoly

Antitrust Revolution: Title
great essay
in
harpers Barry Lynn, on democracy’s awakening to the dangers of corporate power.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Over 100 Shark Species at Risk of Drastic Population Declines by 2100

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Ocean warming threatens to reduce golden tiger shark populations

Shutterstock/Podlonaya Elena

The world's egg-laying shark populations could be hit hard by the end of the century as increasing ocean warming and acidification destroys embryos, potentially affecting more than 100 shark species.

This discovery was made possible by the discovery of the giant sandbar shark (Termitesis found in the Mediterranean Sea and the Northeast Atlantic Ocean. About 40 percent of sharks reproduce by laying tough, skinned egg capsules that contain the embryos. These shark embryos are highly sensitive to changes in ocean conditions, such as temperature and pH levels. The ocean absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing it to warm up and become more acidic.

Noémie Coulon Researchers at the French National Museum of Natural History exposed catshark eggs to a variety of ocean conditions, including monthly temperature changes, in a lab tank. Coulomb and his colleagues chose the catshark because it is one of the most abundant shark species in Europe.

In the first test, A “middle-of-the-road” climate scenario A 2.7°C increase in temperature above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a corresponding decrease in pH of 0.2, is projected. A second scenario (in which the world continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels) projects a 4.4°C increase in temperature and a 0.4 decrease in pH by the end of the century. The third is a historical baseline, which recreates water temperature and pH in shark habitats from 1995 to 2014.

A tiny spotted catshark embryo inside an egg

Noémie Coulon

The researchers then simulated conditions as the embryos developed over the next four months, and found dramatic differences in the embryos' hatching success rates depending on the experimental conditions: In the baseline and moderate scenarios, about 82% of the eggs hatched. But in the warmest scenario, only five of the 45 embryos survived, a loss of almost 90%.

“We were really shocked by the death rate,” Coulon said. “It will probably cause a population collapse.”

“Even a relatively short period of warmth, such as a particularly warm August, was enough to cause the hatching to fail. Based on these results, Coulon predicts other egg-laying sharks, including endangered or vulnerable species like the nurse hound, will be similarly devastated.”

But their extinction is not doomed, says Coulon: “If we make an effort to limit global warming to around 2°C, this species may be able to survive.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

UK declines invitation to join European ITER fusion project

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Inside the structure of the ITER reactor

The UK government has declined an offer to rejoin the ITER fusion experiment as a full member, following its exclusion from the project after leaving the EU. Instead, the UK will concentrate on domestic fusion initiatives in both the public and private sectors.

ITER, the world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment, is currently being built in France and is expected to be finished by 2025 after facing significant delays. It is funded by an extensive international collaboration involving countries such as China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United States, and the European Union.

Previously, the UK had access to ITER through its EU membership. However, post-Brexit, the UK is no longer part of the EU. Negotiations with the EU have disclosed that the UK will rejoin Horizon Europe, a joint scientific research effort, but not Euratom, which is focused on nuclear energy.

The Head of Euratom Research, Elena Righi, has advocated for the UK’s formal return to the ITER experiment. However, the UK government supports its decision to opt-out, believing that private sector investment in fusion research is a more efficient and cost-effective approach than utilizing commercial reactors.

Righi made these remarks during an event in Oxfordshire, England, celebrating the accomplishments of the JET fusion reactor, which was permanently shut down last year and is now slated for decommissioning.

“The European Commission and the Council of the EU express regret in their joint statement over the UK’s decision not to participate in the Euratom project and the Fusion for Energy joint venture,” stated Righi. “The EU institutions have strongly advocated for the UK’s participation in all four programs starting in 2028, including ITER and the European Commission’s three other large-scale fusion research projects,” he added.

“This move will facilitate a unified European fusion community to continue its collaborative efforts and resolve the existing disconnection between UKAEA participation and eurofusion [the European fusion research group], ultimately enabling more substantial UK integration in ITER’s construction and operation. “

New Scientist reached out to the European Commission for clarification on Righi’s comments, but did not receive a response.

During the same event, Andrew Bowie, the British Atomic Energy Minister, highlighted the UK’s support for refraining from rejoining the ITER project and reiterated the allocation of £650m for UK alternatives to Euratom. This funding will be utilized for a blend of private and public research endeavors.

“The ultimate goal of all the experiments, all the research, and the significant work at JET is to integrate into the power grid and supply electricity to homes and businesses,” Bowie emphasized. “Substantial private sector involvement will also be crucial to make fusion power commercially viable and introduce solar energy into households.”

“The decision not to rejoin was the right one. We believe that the UK has progressed to a stage where rejoining would divert resources, time, and funds away from advancing the fusion project. It wasn’t an ideological choice but a pragmatic one,” he stated.

Mr. Bowie mentioned that the UK is open to exploring new collaboration methods with ITER, including personnel exchanges, but explicitly ruled out re-entering the project officially, affirming the government’s support for this decision.

The UK is also developing plans for a fusion power plant, known as the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), which is projected to generate net energy gain by 2035, surpassing input electricity production within five years.

Juan Matthews, a researcher at Britain’s Dalton Institute for Nuclear Research at the University of Manchester, has expressed optimism over the potential of spherical reactors like STEP to offer smaller and more cost-effective fusion power compared to larger designs like ITER.

“We’ve faced ongoing delays. We seem stuck in the ‘big project syndrome,’ where plans go awry and costs escalate. Improved communication between the STEP initiative and ITER could pave the way for power generation achievements ahead of Europe. I am very hopeful about the utilization of spherical tokamaks,” Matthews elaborated.

topic:

  • nuclear fusion technology

Source: www.newscientist.com