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bascule

@bascule@mas.to

Cryptography and infrastructure engineer. Climate activist. Renewable energy fan. Anti-fascist. He/Him/They #TimHead

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

CVE-2024-5535: SSL_select_next_proto buffer overread in OpenSSL

Notably it was discovered while rewriting the relevant code in Rust.

https://jbp.io/2024/06/27/cve-2024-5535-openssl-memory-safety.html

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

When will the heat end? Never.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/25/weather/us-summer-heat-forecast-climate

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

May 2024 was the warmest May on record, and 2024 is on track to beat 2023 for warmest year on record

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/31/metro/may-warmest-global-temperatures-new-england/

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

“The politics of failure have failed. We need to make them work again!”

U.S. Energy Secretary says we need 98 more nuclear reactors like Georgia’s Plant Vogtle 3&4, which cost $35 billion and took 17 years to build.

However, the CEO of the Georgia utility that just finished the first two scratch-built American reactors in a generation says his company isn't ready to pick up that baton.

https://apnews.com/article/georgia-nuclear-plant-energy-secretary-granholm-05a6e2444a8b5a9e9c7c61b111b87192

bascule OP ,
@bascule@mas.to avatar

98 nuclear reactors would be more than doubling the US’s current nuclear fleet.

At Vogtle prices, it would cost $1.7 trillion, the same size as the US national deficit for 2023, and twice the current annual defense budget.

It wouldn’t be sufficient to decarbonize the US power grid. It would only provide ~40% of the clean energy we need. 60% would still need to come from renewables.

It also simply isn’t going to happen. Operators don’t want it, and there’s no money/labor to do it.

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

How a smear campaign against NPR led Elon Musk to feud with Signal

Rightwing media personalities on X transmuted a screed against NPR’s CEO into a fight over encryption via the Transitive Property of Bad People

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/18/npr-elon-musk-signal

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Quoting @matthew_d_green from the hellsite:

“Telegram has launched a pretty intense campaign to malign Signal as insecure, with assistance from Elon Musk. The goal seems to be to get activists to switch away from encrypted Signal to mostly-unencrypted Telegram”

bascule OP ,
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Musk claimed that Signal has unpatched security vulnerabilities. As a cryptography expert I’m not aware of any: instead Signal has top-notch state-of-the-art encryption which has been adopted by its competitors it’s so good.

Telegram isn’t end-to-end encrypted by default. It has no group chat encryption whatsoever. It uses a bizarre, badly designed “MTProto” protocol about which dozens of cryptography papers have documented myriad unfixed flaws.

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Hello there G4 geomagnetic storm!

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index

bascule OP ,
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Update: hello there G5 geomagnetic storm!!!

bascule OP ,
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Allegedly this is the biggest geomagnetic storm in 20 years

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

In the late 2000s/early 2010s I thought if more people simply knew about FISA warrantless surveillance it could be stopped.

Perhaps the Supreme Court would strike it down as unconstitutional, in violation of the 4th Amendment.

Turns out nobody cares, and they're about to make it a lot worse. And as for the Supreme Court, well...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/house-fisa-government-surveillance-senate

bascule , to random
@bascule@mas.to avatar

Today in “worst interactions I’ve ever had on Reddit”, it was certainly a treat to discover I was permabanned from a climate-related subreddit, apparently for their secret rule of not offending nukebros by posting facts about the technology’s historical failures, which is considered “anti-progress”.

The “With some exceptions, you will not be permabanned unless you go out of your way to achieve it” note in their rules is icing on the cake.

u/bascule is permanently banned from r/ClimateActionPlan [–]subreddit message via /r/ClimateActionPlan[M] sent 1 day ago Hello, You have been permanently banned from participating in r/ClimateActionPlan because your comment violates this community's rules. You won't be able to post or comment, but you can still view and subscribe to it. Note from the moderators: Banned for bringing /r/energy and /r/uninsurable anti-progress nonsense into the sub. Keep your biases out of the solutions to climate change. If you have a question regarding your ban, you can contact the moderator team by replying to this message.

Posted by bascule. 1 point. 5 days ago. bascule 1 point 5 days ago Even when the US was on top of our nuclear game in the '70s during Nixon's "Project Independence" with the goal of building 1,000 nuclear reactors, cost overruns and delays were rampant. We barely got to 100. Nearly half of the reactors that were planned ended up being cancelled. Many reactors still took >15 years to build. Here's how a 1985 issue of Forbes put it (before Chernobyl would overshadow the managerial failure with a safety one the next year): NUCLEAR FOLLIES: The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale. The utility industry has already invested $125 billion in nuclear power, with an additional $140 billion to come before the decade is out, and only the blind, or the biased, can now think that most of the money has been well spent. It is a defeat for the U.S. consumer and for the competitiveness of U.S. industry, for the utilities that undertook the program and for the private enterprise system that made it possible. Without even recognizing the risks, the U.S. electric power industry undertook a commitment bigger than the space program ($100 billion)
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    bascule OP ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    @trawg I guess nuclear power fans need to willfully keep themselves ignorant of the facts or they would stop being nuclear power fans

    breadandcircuses , to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    Let's assume that at some point in the near future our society makes the smart choice of turning toward degrowth. Yay!

    That still would mean, however, that a certain level of heavy industry will be required. We can't feed and house and clothe and provide health care for eight billion people without producing at least some steel and some plastics. That's just reality.

    So, what are the best alternatives for rapidly reducing carbon emissions while also managing to keep everyone alive?

    This article offers some intriguing ideas --

    "How To Escape From The Iron Age"
    ➡️ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/03/how-to-escape-from-the-iron-age/

    I know very little about the steel industry, so I’d be interested if there are experts here who can comment on what's suggested.

    bascule ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses Molten Oxide Electrolysis can be used to produce virgin steel electrolytically from iron in a process similar to how aluminum is produced from bauxite.

    No hydrogen required.

    https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/innovation/this-new-technology-could-kill-the-business-case-for-hydrogen-in-green-steel-production/2-1-1609504

    bascule , to random
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    RustCrypto has released an implementation of Offset Codebook Mode v3 (OCB3), a parallelizable mode of authenticated encryption built on a tweakable block cipher that can MAC and encrypt with a single invocation of the block cipher per block:

    It's pretty much the holy grail of authenticated encryption but was held back by patents until recently, when the creator Phil Rogaway disavowed his remaining patents.

    bascule , to random
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    Filling Nuclear Power’s $5 Trillion Hole Is Beyond the Banks

    Nuclear-energy officials arrived in Brussels this week amid a growing wave of public support for atomic power. They left humbled by the tepid reaction of bankers assessing the price tag of their ambitions.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-22/filling-nuclear-power-s-5-trillion-hole-is-beyond-the-banks

    bascule OP ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    I feel like nuclear lobbyists an "nuke bros" have successfully changed public sentiment around nuclear power.

    However, good vibes can't change nuclear power's bad economics, which are only getting worse as renewables get cheaper.

    CelloMomOnCars , to random
    @CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

    " used to be rare in the , but as the region warms, so-called rain-on-snow events are becoming more common. The rains accelerate ice loss, trigger flooding, landslides, and avalanches, and create problems for wildlife and the Indigenous people who depend on them."

    https://e360.yale.edu/features/arctic-rainfall-climate-change

    bascule ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    @CelloMomOnCars also check out the Arctic Rain On Snow Study (AROSS): https://nsidc.org/rain-on-snow

    Here's one of their earlier papers:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27031-y

    bascule , to random
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    Hinkley Point C, Britain’s newest nuclear reactor, has seen projected costs rise from £18 billion to £50 billion ($60 billion), and planned construction times rise to 15 years, with a new planned startup date of 2031.

    It follows a pattern of other reactor projects in the Western world beset with delays and cost overruns, including the US’s Plant Vogtle 3&4, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3, and France’s Flamanville 3.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/business/uk-nuclear-power.html

    bascule , to random
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    Normally I put content warnings on Musk posts, but this one deserves attention as it's election manipulation.

    Elon is falsely claiming that Biden’s strategy is to “get as many illegals in the country as possible” and “legalize them to create a permanent majority.”

    He's fueling ongoing xenophobia that's leading to a global rise in fascism.

    https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/feb/06/elon-musk/elon-musk-is-wrong-to-say-joe-biden-is-recruiting/

    breadandcircuses , (edited ) to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    This might be an unpopular opinion, but I’ll state it anyway.

    Those of us fortunate enough to have access to washing machines and dryers should use them as little as possible.

    Try to wear your clothing — shirts, trousers, socks — more than once, ideally several times, before washing them again. That will save water, save energy, cause less pollution, and make your clothing last longer.

    bascule ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses definitely stop using natural gas driers

    bascule , to random
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    Penn Jillette has renounced libertarianism, having apparently been pushed over the edge by anti-maskers

    https://www.cracked.com/article_40871_penn-jillette-wants-to-talk-it-all-out.html

    > Many times when I identified as Libertarian, people said to me, “It’s just rich white guys that don’t want to be told what to do,” and I had a zillion answers to that — and now that seems 100 percent accurate.
    > [...]
    > I’m going to vote Democrat, maybe that’s all you need to know. I will not vote for a third-party candidate.

    breadandcircuses , (edited ) to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    All right, True Blue Democrats, come at me if you want. Block me if you wish (as some of you already have). It doesn’t matter, though, you will not stop me from telling the truth.

    Yes, Trump is terrible. In fact, he’s so bad he somehow makes Joe Biden look good — which is very hard to do!

    However, if you’re willing to take an honest look at history, you will see that the establishment, centrist, neoliberal Democratic Party has been an enemy of the environment, of working people, and of democracy itself for decades now.

    That’s a bold statement, I know, but there are plenty of facts to back it up. So are you open-minded enough to have your assumptions challenged? Strong enough to face possibly crushing disappointment?

    If you are, then read the article linked below. Here's a bit from the opening…

    The tragedy of the American mind is that it doesn’t remember anything that happened longer than five minutes ago. That’s why, election after election, the general electorate acts like what they see in the present is the First Time This Has Ever Happened.

    Nowhere is this affliction more prevalent than among Democrats. By a potent combination of social engineering, manufactured consent, cognitive bias, corporate media propaganda, inflated ego, dialectical thinking, fear of Republicans, and a brain full of logical fallacies instead of logic, they trip over the exact same obstacles over and over and over again.

    FULL ARTICLE -- https://medium.com/@adventuresinthefreeworld/a-brief-history-lesson-timeline-of-democrats-running-centrist-presidential-candidates-and-a09c31692d26

    The author goes on to show, in great detail, how Democratic party bosses have deliberately sabotaged leftist, working class candidates again and again, decade after decade, instead always backing centrists who would reliably serve the interests of corporations and the donor class.

    I deeply wish that none of this was true. But it is. We need system change!

    bascule ,
    @bascule@mas.to avatar

    @breadandcircuses Democrats are about as good at throwing the progressive side of their party under the bus as Republicans are bad at reigning in the extreme right/fascist element of their party.

    If only it were the opposite, our democracy would be in a lot better shape.

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