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posted by janrinok on Thursday February 08 2024, @10:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-reads-those-anyway dept.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/trio-wins-700k-vesuvius-challenge-grand-prize-for-deciphering-ancient-scroll/

Last fall we reported on the use of machine learning to decipher the first letters from a previously unreadable ancient scroll found in an ancient Roman villa at Herculaneum—part of the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge. Tech entrepreneur and challenge co-founder Nat Friedman has now announced via X (formerly Twitter) that they have awarded the grand prize of $700,000 for producing the first readable text. The three winning team members are Luke Farritor, Yousef Nader, and Julian Schilliger.

As previously reported, the ancient Roman resort town Pompeii wasn't the only city destroyed in the catastrophic 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Several other cities in the area, including the wealthy enclave of Herculaneum, were fried by clouds of hot gas called pyroclastic pulses and flows.

[...] Brent Searles' lab at the University of Kentucky has been working on deciphering the Herculaneum scrolls for many years. He employs a different method of "virtually unrolling" damaged scrolls, which he used in 2016 to "open" a scroll found on the western shore of the Dead Sea, revealing the first few verses from the book of Leviticus. The team's approach combined digital scanning with micro-computed tomography—a noninvasive technique often used for cancer imaging—with segmentation to digitally create pages, augmented with texturing and flattening techniques. Then they developed software (Volume Cartography) to unroll the scroll virtually.

[...] In October, Farritor, a college student and SpaceX intern, successfully read the first text hidden within one of the rolled-up scrolls using a machine-learning model. The achievement snagged him $40,000. Nader, an Egyptian bio-robotics student in Berlin, received a smaller $10,000 First Ink prize for essentially being the second person to decipher letters in a scroll. Schilliger, a Swiss robotics student at ETH Zurich, won three Segmentation Tooling prizes, which enabled 3D mapping of the papyrus.

Schilliger, Farritor, and Nader then formed a "superteam" to create the winning entry, extracting 15 columns of text from inside the carbonized scroll. In addition, there was a three-way tie for runner-up, with each entry winning $50,000 for devising new approaches to the subtleties of ink labeling and sampling: Shao-Qian Mah; Louis Schlessinger and Arefeh Sherafati; and Elian Rafael Dal Prá, Sean Johnson, Leonardo Scabini, Raí Fernando Dal Prá, João Vitor Brentigani Torezan, Daniel Baldin Franceschini, Bruno Pereira Kellm, Marcelo Soccol Gris, and Odemir Martinez Bruno.

[...] The Vesuvius Challenge co-founders thought when they started the challenge that there was less than a 30 percent chance of success within the year, since, at the time, no one had been able to read actual letters inside of a scroll. However, the crowdsourcing approach proved wildly successful. It's still just 5 percent of a single scroll, so Friedman, Searles, and Gross have announced a new challenge for 2024: $100,000 for the first entry that can read 90 percent of the four scrolls scanned thus far.

[...] "We have not yet found the villa's main library, which would have contained a much wider range of Greek and Latin literature," historian Garrett Ryan wrote on the Vesuvius Challenge site. "That library, with its thousands or even tens of thousands of scrolls, must still be buried. If those texts are discovered, and if even a small fraction can still be read, they will transform our knowledge of classical life and literature on a scale not seen since the Renaissance."

Previously on SoylentNews:


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Thursday February 08 2024, @05:34PM   Printer-friendly

https://newatlas.com/medical/neuropathy-chronic-nerve-pain-non-opioid-compound/

Researchers have discovered a non-opioid compound that, in mice, effectively reduced the pain hypersensitivity associated with chronic and often debilitating nerve pain caused by diabetes or chemotherapy drugs. It's opened the door to developing a drug to treat the condition for which existing painkillers do little.

Diabetes, chemotherapy drugs, multiple sclerosis, injuries and amputations have all been associated with neuropathic pain, usually caused by damage to nerves in various body tissues, including the skin, muscles and joints. Mechanical hypersensitivity – or mechanical allodynia – is a major symptom of neuropathic pain, where innocuous stimuli like light touch cause severe pain.

Many available pain medications aren't effective in reducing this often-debilitating type of chronic pain. However, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), in collaboration with UT Dallas and the University of Miami, may have advanced the treatment of neuropathic pain by discovering a molecule that reduces mechanical hypersensitivity in mice.

"We found it to be an effective painkiller, and the effects were rather long-lived," said Stephen Martin, a co-corresponding author of the study. "When we tested it on different models, diabetic neuropathy and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, for example, we found this compound has an incredible beneficial effect."

[...] "It's our goal to make this compound into a drug that can be used to treat chronic pain without the dangers of opioids," Martin said. "Neuropathic pain is often a debilitating condition that can affect people their entire lives, and we need a treatment that is well tolerated and effective."

Journal Reference:
Muhammad Saad Yousuf, et al., Highly specific σ2R/TMEM97 ligand FEM-1689 alleviates neuropathic pain and inhibits the integrated stress response, PNAS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306090120


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Thursday February 08 2024, @12:48PM   Printer-friendly

The European Parliament has reached a provisional deal on EU regulations to strengthen consumers' right to repair.

Negotiations over the bill have been ongoing for a while now - the rules were first proposed in March 2022, and the hope is that new requirements will be finalized in 2024.

The thinking is that consumers should be better informed about the lifespan and repairability of products before buying them, and there should be measures to boost repair after the legal guarantee period has expired.

All told, the bill looks set to bolster the repair sector. Manufacturers must make spare parts and tools available for "a reasonable price" and be prohibited from using contractual clauses or hardware or software blocks to obstruct repairs. While singling no company out specifically, the European Parliament said: "In particular, they should not impede the use of second-hand or 3D issued spare parts by independent repairers."

Other consumer rights in the deal include options for borrowing a device while their own is being repaired or opting for a refurbished unit, an additional one-year extension of the legal guarantee for repaired goods, and free online access to indicative repair prices.

Under the regulation, manufacturers must inform customers of the duty to repair and be obligated to fix "common household products," such as a washing machine or smartphone. The European Parliament has left open the possibility of adding more items over time.

[...] It will be a while before this all goes into effect, though. Once both Council and Parliament adopt the directive, member states will have 24 months to get it into national law.


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Thursday February 08 2024, @08:03AM   Printer-friendly

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/07/failed_usb_sticks/

The report, from German data recovery company CBL, concluded that NAND chips from reputable manufacturers such as Hynix, Sandisk, or Samsung that had failed quality control were being resold and repurposed. While still working, the chips' storage capacity is reduced.

"When we opened defective USB sticks last year, we found an alarming number of inferior memory chips with reduced capacity and the manufacturer's logo removed from the chip. Clearly discarded and unrecognizable microSD cards are also soldered onto a USB stick and managed with the external one on the USB stick board instead of the microSD's internal controller," explains Conrad Heinicke, Managing Director of CBL Datenrettung GmbH.

[...] Technological advancements have also affected these NAND chips, but not in a good way. The chips originally used single-level cell (SLC) memory cells that only stored one bit each, offering less data density but better performance and reliability. In order to increase the amount of storage the chips offered, manufacturers started moving to four bits per cell (QLC), decreasing the endurance and retention. Combined with the questionable components, it's why CBL warns that "You shouldn't rely too much on the reliability of flash memory."

[...] It's always wise to be careful when choosing your storage device and beware of offers that seem too good to be true. Back in 2022, a generic 30TB M.2 external SSD was available for about $18 on Walmart's website. It actually held two 512MB SD cards stuck to the board with hot glue – their firmware had been modified to report each one as 15 TB. There was also the case of fake Samsung SSDs with unbelievable slow speeds uncovered last year.


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Thursday February 08 2024, @03:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the no,-really,-it's-not-true. dept.

Documents show industry-backed Air Pollution Foundation uncovered the severe harm climate change would wreak

"The fossil fuel industry funded some of the world's most foundational climate science as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents have shown, including the early research of Charles Keeling, famous for the so-called "Keeling curve" that has charted the upward march of the Earth's carbon dioxide levels."

A coalition of oil and car manufacturing interests provided $13,814 (about $158,000 in today's money) in December 1954 to fund Keeling's earliest work in measuring CO2 levels across the western US, the documents reveal.

Keeling would go on to establish the continuous measurement of global CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. This "Keeling curve" has tracked the steady increase of the atmospheric carbon that drives the climate crisis and has been hailed as one of the most important scientific works of modern times.

[...] Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with its warnings of the severe harm climate change will wreak, only to then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts to delay action on the climate crisis.

"They contain smoking gun proof that by at least 1954, the fossil fuel industry was on notice about the potential for its products to disrupt Earth's climate on a scale significant to human civilization," said Geoffrey Supran, an expert in historic climate disinformation at the University of Miami.

[...] "These documents talk about CO2 emissions having planetary implications, meaning this industry understood extraordinarily early on that fossil fuel combustion was profound on a planetary scale," he said.

"There is overwhelming evidence the oil and gas industry has been misleading the public and regulators around the climate risks of their product for 70 years. Trusting them to be part of the solutions is foolhardy. We've now moved into an era of accountability."

Obligatory XKCD


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Wednesday February 07 2024, @10:34PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Microsoft opened its arms to Linux during the Windows 10 era, inventing an entire virtualized subsystem to allow users and developers to access a real-deal Linux command line without leaving the Windows environment. Now, it looks like Microsoft may embrace yet another Linux feature: the sudo command.

Short for "superuser do" or "substitute user do" and immortalized in nerd-leaning pop culture by an early xkcd comic, sudo is most commonly used at the command line when the user needs administrator access to the system—usually to install or update software, or to make changes to system files. Users who aren't in the sudo user group on a given system can't run the command, protecting the rest of the files on the system from being accessed or changed.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, user @thebookisclosed found settings for a Sudo command in a preview version of Windows 11 that was posted to the experimental Canary channel in late January. WindowsLatest experimented with the setting in a build of Windows Server 2025, which currently requires Developer Mode to be enabled in the Settings app. There's a toggle to turn the sudo command on and off and a separate drop-down to tweak how the command behaves when you use it, though as of this writing the command itself doesn't actually work yet.

The sudo command is also part of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), but that version of the sudo command only covers Linux software. This one seems likely to run native Windows commands, though obviously we won't know exactly how it works before it's enabled and fully functional. Currently, users who want a sudo-like command in Windows need to rely on third-party software like gsudo to accomplish the task.

The benefit of the sudo command for Windows users—whether they're using Windows Server or otherwise—would be the ability to elevate the privilege level without having to open an entirely separate command prompt or Windows Terminal window. According to the options available in the preview build, commands run with sudo could be opened up in a new window automatically, or they could happen inline, but you'd never need to do the "right-click, run-as-administrator" dance again if you didn't want to.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Wednesday February 07 2024, @05:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the AI-overlords dept.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/microsoft-in-deal-with-semafor-to-create-news-stories-with-aid-of-ai-chatbot/

Microsoft is working with media startup Semafor to use its artificial intelligence chatbot to help develop news stories—part of a journalistic outreach that comes as the tech giant faces a multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the New York Times.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft is paying an undisclosed sum of money to Semafor to sponsor a breaking news feed called "Signals." The companies would not share financial details, but the amount of money is "substantial" to Semafor's business, said a person familiar with the matter.

[...] The partnerships come as media companies have become increasingly concerned over generative AI and its potential threat to their businesses. News publishers are grappling with how to use AI to improve their work and stay ahead of technology, while also fearing that they could lose traffic, and therefore revenue, to AI chatbots—which can churn out humanlike text and information in seconds.

The New York Times in December filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging the tech companies have taken a "free ride" on millions of its articles to build their artificial intelligence chatbots, and seeking billions of dollars in damages.

[...] Semafor, which is free to read, is funded by wealthy individuals, including 3G capital founder Jorge Paulo Lemann and KKR co-founder Henry Kravis. The company made more than $10 million in revenue in 2023 and has more than 500,000 subscriptions to its free newsletters. Justin Smith said Semafor was "very close to a profit" in the fourth quarter of 2023.

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Google, DOJ Still Blocking Public Access to Monopoly Trial Docs, NYT Says - 20231020
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A Jargon-Free Explanation of How AI Large Language Models Work - 20230805
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Ads Are Coming for the Bing AI Chatbot, as They Come for All Microsoft Products - 20230404
Deepfakes, Synthetic Media: How Digital Propaganda Undermines Trust - 20230319


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Wednesday February 07 2024, @01:07PM   Printer-friendly

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68172162

Researchers at the world's biggest particle accelerator in Switzerland have submitted proposals for a new, much larger, supercollider. Its aim is to discover new particles that would revolutionise physics and lead to a more complete understanding of how the Universe works. If approved, it will be three times larger than the current giant machine. But its £12bn price tag has raised some eyebrows, with one critic describing the expenditure as "reckless".

The biggest achievement of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was the detection of a new particle called the Higgs Boson in 2012. But since then its ambition to track down two holy grails of physics - dark matter and dark energy - have proved elusive and some researchers believe there are cheaper options. The new machine is called the Future Circular Collider (FCC). Cern's director general, Prof Fabiola Gianotti, told BBC News that, if approved, it will be a "beautiful machine".

[...] The proposal is for the larger FCC to be built in two stages. The first will begin operating in the mid 2040s and will collide electrons together. It is hoped the increased energy will produce large numbers of Higgs particles for scientists to study in detail.

The second phase will begin in the 2070s and require more powerful magnets, so advanced that they have not yet been invented. Instead of electrons, heavier protons will be used in the search for brand new particles.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Wednesday February 07 2024, @08:25AM   Printer-friendly

https://www.science.org/content/article/electrifying-new-ironmaking-method-could-slash-carbon-emissions

By extracting metallic iron without producing carbon dioxide, the new process could even be carbon negative, at least for part of the world's iron production

Making iron, the main ingredient of steel, takes a toll on Earth's delicate atmosphere, producing 8% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Now, a team of chemists has come up with a way to make the business much more eco-friendly. By using electricity to convert iron ore and salt water into metallic iron and other industrially useful chemicals, researchers report today in Joule that their approach is cost effective, works well with electricity provided by wind and solar farms, and could even be carbon negative, consuming more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it produces.

"It's a very clever approach," says Karthish Manthiram, a chemical engineer at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved with the study. He notes that the process has other advantages, including working at a low temperature, and being amenable to working with intermittent renewable electricity. "It checks all the boxes."

Iron is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, but in its natural state is bound to oxygen in the various minerals that make up iron ore. To extract metallic iron from this ore, workers typically mix it with a high-carbon form of coal called coke and heat the combination to about 1500°C in a blast furnace. At that temperature, the carbon atoms strip the oxygen atoms from the iron, producing CO2 that wafts into the atmosphere and leaves behind the molten metal. Steelmakers then combine this iron with a small amount of carbon and other trace metals to forge steel.

Although this way to make iron and steel is cheap and time tested, it produces significant amounts of CO2. The world mines 2.5 billion tons of iron every year, and reducing it to iron emits as much CO2 as the tailpipes of all passenger vehicles combined. So, scientists are looking for economically viable ways to produce metallic iron that don't generate greenhouse gases.

To that end, Paul Kempler, a chemical engineer at the University of Oregon, and colleagues wondered whether an industrial process for making chlorine from saltwater could be repurposed for ironmaking. In this "chlor-alkali" process, water containing sodium-chloride is placed in an electrochemical cell resembling a battery that contains two electrodes submerged in a liquid electrolyte. The positively charged electrode, the anode, pulls electrons from chloride ions, causing chlorine atoms to pair up into chlorine gas. At the same time, electrons flowing in from the cathode split water molecules into pieces that pair with the sodium ions and one another to make sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas.

To tweak the setup to purify iron, Kempler's team added iron oxide particles to its cathode. Now, the electrons sent to it would also release the oxygen atoms from iron oxide and again form sodium hydroxide—as well as leave behind solid metallic iron. The process is highly efficient, the researchers claim. In fact, they estimate that selling the chlorine and some of the sodium hydroxide at current market prices should enable the overall process to produce iron at roughly the same price as making it in blast furnaces. And because sodium hydroxide can bind CO2 and convert it into carbon-based minerals, the process could be used to help capture CO2, making it carbon negative.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Wednesday February 07 2024, @03:39AM   Printer-friendly

The majority residents of Paris have voted in favor of heavy parking fees for suburban utility vehicles over 1.6 tons or more. These new fees rise to €18 an hour in the city center, with lower rates further out. The goals are to improve air quality, road safety, and provide for better commuting by bicycle.

Starting September 1st, gas or hybrid SUVs, and other larger vehicles weighing over 1.6 tonnes (1.76 tons), will be charged €18 (around $19.40) per hour to park in the center of Paris, and €12 (around $12.90) per hour in the rest of the city. The new pricing also applies to electric vehicles weighing over two tonnes (2.20 tons). Exemptions are in place for taxis and city residents, which means those traveling into Paris from outside the city will be most impacted. According to one of the posters for the referendum, only three in 10 Parisians even own a personal vehicle.

[...] Under Hidalgo, a Socialist, the streets of Paris have been transformed with 84 kilometers (52 miles) of cycle lanes created since 2020 and a 71% jump in bike usage between the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns and 2023, according to City Hall.

[...] SUVs have become increasingly popular in France, favored by families in particular.

The Verge: Paris votes to crack down on SUVs

Previously:
(2023) Test Bike Generators in Paris, Rotterdam, and Barcelona
(2023) Parisians Say Au Revoir to Shared E-scooters


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 06 2024, @10:53PM   Printer-friendly

https://spectrum.ieee.org/aluminum-nitride

Over the past decade, one of the biggest stories in semiconductors has been a surprise eclipsing of traditional silicon—in the field of power electronics, where silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) have raced past silicon to capture multibilllion-dollar segments of the market. And as major applications fell to these upstarts, with their superior attributes, a question naturally arose. What would be the next new power semiconductor—the one whose superior capabilities would grab major market share from SiC and GaN?

Attention has focused on three candidates: gallium oxide, diamond, and aluminum nitride (AlN). All of them have remarkable attributes, as well as fundamental weaknesses that have so far precluded commercial success. Now, however, AlN's prospects have improved enormously, thanks to several recent breakthroughs, including a technological advance at Nagoya University reported at the most recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, held this past December in San Francisco.

The IEDM paper describes the fabrication of a diode based on alloys of aluminum nitride capable of withstanding an electric field of 7.3 megavolts per centimeter—about twice as high as what's possible with silicon carbide or gallium nitride. Notably, the device also had very low resistance when conducting current. "This is a spectacular result," says IEEE Senior Member W. Alan Doolittle, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech. "Particularly the on-resistance of this thing, which is ridiculously good." The Nagoya paper has seven coauthors, including IEEE Member Hiroshi Amano, who won a Nobel Prize in 2014 for his role in inventing the blue LED.

[...] "This is a new concept in semiconductor devices," says Jena, of the Nagoya device. The next step, he adds, is fabricating a diode that has a layer of pure AlN at the junction, rather than 95 percent AlN. A layer of AlN just 2 micrometers thick would suffice to block 3 kilovolts, according to his calculations. "This is exactly where this will go in the very near future," he says.

At Georgia Tech, Doolittle agrees that there is still room for enormous improvement by incorporating higher levels of pure AlN in future devices. For example, the breakdown electric field of the Nagoya diode, 7.3 MV/cm, is impressive, but the theoretical maximum for an AlN device is about 15. Thermal conductivity, too, would be greatly improved with more AlN. The ability to conduct heat is vitally important for a power device, and the thermal conductivity of the AlGaN alloy is mediocre—below 50 watts per meter-kelvin. Pure aluminum nitride, on the other hand, is very respectable at 320, in between GaN, at 250, and SiC, at 490.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 06 2024, @06:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the space-lasers dept.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlinks-laser-system-is-beaming-42-million-gb-of-data-per-day

SpaceX's laser system for Starlink is delivering over 42 petabytes of data for customers per day, an engineer revealed today. That translates into 42 million gigabytes.

"We're passing over terabits per second [of data] every day across 9,000 lasers," SpaceX engineer Travis Brashears said today at SPIE Photonics West, an event in San Francisco focused on the latest advancements in optics and light.

[...] Although Starlink uses radio waves to beam high-speed internet to customers, SpaceX has also been outfitting the company's satellites with a "laser link" system to help drive down latency and improve the system's global coverage.

[...] Brashears also said Starlink's laser system was able to connect two satellites over 5,400 kilometers (3,355 miles) apart. The link was so long "it cut down through the atmosphere, all the way down to 30 kilometers above the surface of the Earth," he said, before the connection broke.

"Another really fun fact is that we held a link all the way down to 122 kilometers while we were de-orbiting a satellite," he said. "And we were able to downstream the video."

[...] For the future, SpaceX plans on expanding its laser system so that it can be ported and installed on third-party satellites. The company has also explored beaming the satellite lasers directly to terminals on the Earth's surface to deliver data. But Brashears said a "deeper study" is necessary to enable the technology.

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Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 06 2024, @04:16PM   Printer-friendly

In order to create a new company it is necessary to provide bylaws which state how that company will be governed. Draft 8 of the bylaws received one suggested change when it was presented to the community. However, there were a few problems that have been identified since Draft 8 was published in a Meta. One was the waiving of anonymity by anyone who wished to serve on the board. As the idea behind all seats on the board was that they should be elected by the community from volunteers in the community, and would periodically be replaced by subsequent volunteers and election, over time many of our community would have had their anonymity compromised. This was unpopular and made it difficult to envisage the long-term support of the community for such roles.

The board has, as a minimum, three members. The President, a Secretary and an Accountant. These posts must waive anonymity as their identities have to be declared at incorporation and periodically thereafter. There is no escaping this requirement. However, the Governance Committee was also formed from community members and they have not had to waive their right to anonymity. The solution to the problem is relatively straight forward. The board will be established to fill the 3 necessary posts by volunteers, and will be responsible for fulfilling the legal requirements that such posts require. The operational control will be vested in a new group (or committee if you insist) which will comprise of a board member, the Team Leaders and the 5 Community Representatives, and others with specialist knowledge where necessary, thus removing the need for these people to be identified. They can use their regular usernames. The Management Group will provide operational guidance to the board. The community will be represented by their chosen representatives who will be looking after their interests and they will have direct access to the board during all discussions and communications. The Management Group will not hold regular meetings as issues that need resolving occur frequently and irregularly. They will use email and IRC as we have always done, thus removing the burden of meetings that, no matter when they were scheduled, proved to inconvenient to many members to say the least and have taken lot of man hours that could have been more usefully spent.

To see us over the transition we need to have a set of bylaws (Draft 9) approved by the community. We have volunteers who will create a temporary board and community representatives, while we sort out policy and prepare for the election process so that the community can be involved in the election of all posts. This will be a temporary arrangement and the bylaws below - which are very heavily based upon Draft 8 which was provided by k0lie/replic8tor - can and will be changed over the next few months to reflect whatever is deemed to be the best arrangement for the long term.

Please remember that the bylaws are only concerned with the board and site governance. Policy matters, management of the site on a daily basis, etc are not part of the bylaws and you will all have your chance to give your views once the transition has taken place. I welcome your comments but I will repeat - these bylaws are temporary and can be changed over the coming months as people see fit. I am more concerned at the moment with getting something that will work and allow us to move forward rather than reflecting each and every nuance of our future operation.

Time is of the essence. Please make your comments promptly because as soon as we know that we have something that will work we would like to move on to incorporation.

I gratefully acknowledge and thank k0lie/replic8tor for Draft 8. To ease the problem of assessing the bylaws I can identify the following sections as having been edited to reflect what is possible rather than what might have been ideal under other circumstances.

  • Sections 1.01 and 1.02: There may be benefits from incorporating in the State of Oregon. We are still looking into this.
  • Sections 5.01, 5.12, and 5.14.
  • Section 7.02, 7.06, 7.07 (deleted in toto)

START ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY-LAWS OF XXXXX

A XXXXX NON-STOCK CORPORATION QUALIFYING FOR NONPROFIT, TAX-EXEMPT STATUS

ARTICLE I

REGISTERED AGENT AND REGISTERED OFFICE; OFFICE LOCATIONS

Section 1.01 Name; Registered Agent and Registered Office. The name of the organization is XXXXX Corporation (the "Corporation"). The registered agent and registered office of the Corporation in the State of XXXXX shall be as set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation, as it may be amended.

Section 1.02 Principal and Other Offices. The Board of Directors of the Corporation (the "Board" or "Board of Directors") shall determine (and may change) the location of the Corporation's principal office in its reasonable discretion; the Board may also cause the Corporation to have such other offices within or without the State of XXXXX or the United States as it deems appropriate, in its reasonable and good faith discretion.

ARTICLE II

PURPOSE

Section 2.01 The purposes of the Corporation shall be those set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation (the "Certificate"), as it may be amended.

ARTICLE III

MEMBERS

Section 3.01 Membership; Classes of Membership. Membership in the Corporation shall be available on such bases and terms, and subject to such qualifications and criteria, as the Board determines, in its reasonable and good faith discretion.

Section 3.02 Meetings. The annual meeting of the Director Members (the "Annual Meeting of the Director Members") for the election of Directors and delivery of a financial statement, shall be held each year at the place (including by electronic means such as a website providing conference services), time, and date, as may be fixed by the Board. Special meetings of the Director Members shall be held whenever necessary called by resolution of the Board or the Secretary. The Secretary or another officer tasked with such role shall, upon receiving written demand or resolution, promptly give notice of such meeting as provided in Section 3.03, or, if the Secretary fails to do so within five (5) business days thereafter, any Member signing such demand may give such notice. The Chairman of the Board (the "Chairman") shall preside at the meetings of the Members, or in the absence of the Chairman, an acting Chairman shall be chosen by and from among the Members present. The Secretary of the Corporation or another officer designated for such role shall act as secretary at all meetings of the Members, or, in the absence of the Secretary or the appropriate designated officer, an acting Secretary shall be chosen by the Members present.

Section 3.03 Notice of Meetings. Written notice of the place, date, and hour of any meeting shall be given to each Director Member entitled to vote at such meeting by mailing the notice by first class mail with postage prepaid, by personal delivery, or by email not less than ten (10) nor more than fifty (50) days before the date of the meeting. When such preference is provided, each Director Members preferred method of notice shall be used. Notice of any meeting other than the Annual Meeting of the Director Members shall indicate the person or persons calling the meeting, and notice of any special meeting shall also indicate the purpose(s) for which it is called. Director Members may waive the prior notice requirement expressly or by attending the meeting (other than for the purpose of contesting appropriate notice and calling thereof).

Section 3.04 Quorum. At all meetings of Director Members, all Director Members eligible to vote, present in person or by proxy, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. In the absence of a quorum, the Director Members present in person shall adjourn the meeting from that time until a quorum is present. Notice of the new meeting is not required if the time and place for the new meeting is announced at the meeting at which the adjournment is taken, and at the new meeting any business may be transacted which might have been transacted at the meeting as originally called.

Section 3.05 Voting. Except as otherwise provided by statute or these by-laws, the vote of all of the Director Members shall be the act of the Director Members. At any meeting of the Director Members, each Voting Director Member present, in person or by proxy, shall be entitled to one (1) vote. The record date of eligibility of voting rights shall be set by the Board no less than one (1) day before the date of the meeting. At all elections of Directors, the voting may but need not be by ballot and a plurality of the votes of the Director Members present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting and entitled to vote on the election of directors shall elect.

Section 3.06 Proxy. Every Director Member entitled to vote at a meeting of Director Members or to express consent or dissent without a meeting may authorize another person or persons to act for such Director Member by proxy. Every proxy must be in writing and signed by the Director Member or the Director Member's duly authorized agent, or by email setting forth information from which it can be reasonably determined that the proxy was authorized by such Director Member. No proxy shall be valid after the expiration of eleven (11) months from the date thereof unless otherwise provided in the proxy. Every proxy shall be revocable at the pleasure of the Director Member executing it, except as otherwise provided by law. For the purposes of conducting meetings, all proxies shall be delivered to the Secretary of the Corporation or, upon the absence of a Secretary, the presiding Director Member appointed to act as secretary of the meeting. Authorization for a proxy shall be valid only for a singular meeting identified directly in the proxy authorization. Each natural person shall only be able to represent a single proxy vote per issue.

Section 3.07 Action without a Meeting. Action may be taken without a meeting on written consent (which can be solicited by the Corporation to all Director Members and returned by the Director Members in electronic form, such as email) setting forth the action to be taken, signed by such Director Members as would be required to take the relevant action at a meeting. Such consent may be written or electronic. If consent is electronic it must be able to be reasonably determined to have been sent by the Director Member. In the event action is taken by written consent, the Members not voting thereon shall be given prompt notice of actions taken by written consent without a meeting. The request of such consent shall be made publicly before the request is made as a Meta posting on soylentnews.org or on an earmarked journal entry from an account earmarked for such publications. The results of such a request shall be similarly published as a Meta posting on soylentnews.org or on an earmarked journal entry from an account earmarked for such publications.

Section 3.08 Community Members. As noted in Section 3.01, Community Members shall have their own distinct voting rights for substantive management, governance, or control rights over the Corporation. The Board of Directors may elect to call a meeting of the Community Members, in its discretion, on such terms as it deems fit. The Board may further seek the informal, non-binding guidance of the Community Members in connection with any issue, topic, or decision to be made, or may form a temporary or ongoing advisory board with respect to an issue, topic, or decision to be made, or to ensure an independent decision in the case of a decision or transaction involving a conflict of interest affecting one or more Board members. Formal voting exercised by the Community Members under the provisions provided for them in the bylaws, or in instances of voting specifically requested by the Board Members, shall be considered binding and the results of such a vote shall have higher precedence and authority than any other voting class.

ARTICLE IV

Community Members

Section 4.01 Definition. The Community Members shall consist of registered users of the SoylentNews.org website who maintain an active account in good standing of the site policy. Each unique natural person who qualify is entitled to one vote as a Community Member. The Secretary shall be responsible for overseeing the maintenance of such a record of users and for determining who qualifies for eligibility as a Community Member during voting by the community members.

Section 4.02 Voting Procedures. The election of or replacement for any Director Members shall be conducted by a vote of the Community Members. Any natural person willing and legally able shall be eligible for election. Elections shall use proportional ranked choice voting using the Droop quota for voting calculations. In cases of election or positions being voted on, the community members shall be given a period of one week before any voting to submit names to be voted on. Community members shall be given a period of voting of four weeks for any vote before them. A super-majority of the board may vote to change an individual case of the communities' voting period duration but may not do so if the duration would be less than one-hundred and sixty eight (168) hours. The total vote of the community members shall be the number of votes cast by all eligible Community Members for each vote. Voting for changes to the bylaws may be accomplished by a simple vote requiring the supermajority of the total vote of the Community Members. All other voting shall require a simple majority of the total vote as its quota. Changes to the bylaws may only be made through a Community Member vote.

Section 4.03 Vote Qualification. Community Members shall be considered eligible for a vote if they qualify under the definition of a Community Member as defined in Section 4.01 for a period of not less than thirty (30) days prior to the start of the voting period. The topic of a vote may be proposed by any Community Member. For such a proposal to be considered by a vote of the community it must be either (a) sponsored by any Director Member or (b) have the approval of a minimum of 10% of the active users of the website in the last weekly report as recorded by the SoylentNews platform. Technical measures may be used to ensure the integrity of the voting. The Secretary shall oversee that these criteria and measures are used to maintain a list of valid voting Community Members for each vote as appropriate.

ARTICLE V

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Section 5.01 Board Powers and Number. The affairs and property of the Corporation shall be managed by or under the direction of the Board of Directors (the "Board"), subject to applicable law and in accordance with the purposes and limitations set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation and herein. The number of voting directors shall be three (3). The numbers of directors can be increased or decreased from time to time, by resolution of the Board, but such action by the Board shall require a vote of a majority of the Entire Board and no decrease shall shorten the term of any director then in office. As used in these by-laws, the term "Entire Board" shall mean the total number of directors entitled to vote which the Corporation would have if there were no vacancies on the Board. The board shall consist of three (3) Voting Director Members consisting of the President, Secretary, and Treasurer.

Section 5.02 Election and Term of Office. The initial directors shall be the persons named in the Certificate of Incorporation and shall serve until the first Annual Meeting of the Director Members. Thereafter, to become a director, a person shall be nominated and elected by the community members as detailed in Section 4.02 at a meeting of Director Members for the purpose of the annual election of Directors. Directors shall hold office for a term of one (1) years, and each shall serve for such term and until the election and qualification of a successor, or until such director's death, resignation, or removal. Directors may be elected to any number of consecutive terms.

Section 5.03 Qualification for Directors. Each director must be a natural person and shall be at least 18 years of age. The Board may set such other qualifications for directors as it deems necessary or appropriate, in its good faith discretion. Any director must be a Director Member, and should a director no longer be a Director Member (or vice versa), he or she shall be immediately removed as a director and shall no longer be a Director Member, receiving no compensation for his or her membership interest.

Section 5.04 Newly Created Directorships and Vacancies. Newly created directorships resulting from an increase in the authorized number of directors, and vacancies occurring for any reason, including any vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation, or removal of a director, may be filled by holding community election for the available position(s) as specified in Section 4.02. Each director so elected shall serve until the next Annual Meeting of the Director Members or until such director's successor is elected or appointed and qualified.

Section 5.05 Removal. Any director may be removed at any time by a vote of a majority of Director Members (excluding from the numerator and denominator the director(s) to be removed). Removal by voting of the Community Members need not to be with cause.

Section 5.06 Resignation. Any director may resign from the Board at any time by giving prior written notice to the Board. Unless otherwise specified in the notice, the resignation shall take effect at the time of receipt by the Board or such officer. The acceptance of such resignation shall not be necessary to make it effective. No resignations shall discharge any accrued obligation or duty of a director. As set forth above, resignation as a director shall terminate the former director's Director Member status.

Section 5.07 Meetings. The annual meeting and regular meetings of the Board shall be held at such times and places as may from time to time be fixed by the Board or may be specified in a notice of meeting. Special meetings of the Board may be held at any time upon the call of the President or as determined by the Board in each case at such time and place as shall be fixed by the person or persons calling the meeting, as specified in the notice thereof.

Section 5.08 Notice of Meetings. Notice of a meeting may be sent by mail, telephone, facsimile transmission, telegraph, courier service, electronic mail or hand delivery, directed to each director at his or her address or contact information as it appears on the records of the President. Each director's preferred method of communication shall be used if one has been provided to the Corporation. Such notice shall state the time and place where the meeting is to be held and to the extent possible, the purpose(s) for which the meeting is called. Notice shall be deemed to have been given when sent, and if by mail, when deposited in the United States mail with prepaid postage thereon. Notice of any regular meeting for which the time and place is not fixed by the Board must be given to each director not less than three (3) days before such meeting. Notice of a special meeting of the Board must be given to each director not less than three (3) days before such meeting, provided, however, that notice of special meetings to discuss matters requiring prompt action may be given no less than forty-eight hours before the time at which such meeting is to be held if given personally, by telephone, by facsimile transmission or by electronic mail, unless the meeting relates to an emergency which must be resolved within forty-eight hours, in which case notice shall be given as promptly as possible. Notice of a regular or special meeting need not be given to a director who submits a signed waiver of notice before or at the meeting's commencement, or who attends the meeting without protesting (not later than the commencement of the meeting) the lack of notice to him or her. The community members shall be notified of all meetings in the form of a Meta article to SoylentNews or to a specific SoylentNews journal earmarked for the committees use. The notification to the community members shall be made at least three days in advance of the meeting.

Section 5.09 Quorum. At each meeting of the Board, the presence of a majority of the Entire Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business or any specified item of business. If a quorum is not present at any meeting of the Board, a majority of the directors present may adjourn the meeting to another time without notice other than by announcement at the meeting, until such a quorum is present, except that notice of such adjournment shall be given to any directors who were not present at the time of the adjournment.

Section 5.10 Voting. Except as otherwise provided by statute or these by-laws, the vote of a majority of the directors present at the time of a vote, if a quorum is present at such time, shall be the act of the Board.

Section 5.11 Meeting by Remote Communication. Any one or more members of the Board or any committee thereof may participate in a meeting of the Board or such committee by means of a conference telephone, video conference, internet-based meeting forum, internet relay chat (IRC), or similar communications equipment. Participation by such means shall constitute presence in person at a meeting provided that all persons participating in the meeting can hear and or otherwise materially participate with each other at the same time and each director can participate in all matters before the board, including, without limitation, the ability to propose, object to, and vote upon a specific action to be taken by the board or committee. The preferred method of remote communication for meetings shall be a publicly visible and accessible internet relay chat service. In the event that the preferring method is unavailable, the board shall use free and open alternatives when such alternatives are recommended or visible for all official business to remain inclusive and transparent to the Community Members.

Section 5.12 Action without a Meeting. Any action required or permitted to be taken by the Board or any committee thereof may be taken without a meeting if all members of the Board or committee consent in writing to the adoption of a resolution authorizing the action. Such consent may be written or electronic. The resolution and written consents thereto by the members of the Board or such committee shall be filed with the minutes of the proceedings of the Board or such committee. Additionally, the community shall be informed of any such Actions by publication in an agreed place which provides access to all community members.

Section 5.13 Director Compensation. Generally, the Corporation shall not pay compensation to directors for services rendered to the Corporation in their capacity as directors, except that directors may be reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their duties to the Corporation. However, the Board may determine to compensate one or more of the directors for their services as such, in its discretion. In addition, a director may receive compensation, in the Board's discretion, for the performance of services provided to the Corporation in any capacity separate from his or her responsibilities as a director such as, without limitation, service as an Officer of the Corporation.

Section 5.14 Staff Delegation. The board shall create and ratify a staff policy detailing the structure, description, operations, and policies of a staff group. The staff group shall consist of one or more teams as determined by the staff policy each with its own team leader. The team leaders and five (5) Community Representatives shall be collectively referred to as the ("Management Group") as referenced in Section 5.01, and they shall provide operational direction to the board. The Management Group shall be responsible for the daily operations of SoylentNews as outlined in the staff policy. Director Members are ineligible to be concurrently serving the role of a Director Member and that a team leader / member of the management group. The membership of a Director Member on the staff team shall be at the sole discretion of the team leader and is otherwise fully encumbered by the duties, responsibilities, and qualifications of the staff policy.

ARTICLE VI

COMMITTEES

Section 6.01 Executive Committee and Other Committees of the Board. The Board, by resolution adopted by a majority of the Entire Board, may designate from among the directors an Executive Committee and other committees of the Board consisting of three (3) or more directors. Each committee of the Board shall have such authority as the Board shall by resolution provide; and the Executive Committee shall have all the authority of the Board, except that no such committee shall have the ability to address those matters prohibited to be addressed by the full Board under the relevant statute or state laws.

Section 6.02 Quorum and Action by Committee. Unless otherwise provided by resolution of the Board, a majority of all of the members of a committee shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business and the vote of a majority of all of the members of a committee shall be the act of the committee. The procedures and manner of acting of the Executive Committee and of the committees of the Board shall be subject at all times to the directions of the Board.

Section 6.03 Alternate Members. The Board may designate one (1) or more directors as alternate members of any committee, who may replace any absent or disqualified member or members at any meeting of such committee.

Section 6.04 Reporting. The official business and meetings and resolutions of the committee shall be documented and made publicly available for official record. Notifications of meetings shall be given to the community a minimum of 72 hours in advance of the meeting, however reasonable effort shall be made to post these meetings as soon as they are scheduled, and shall be made in the form of a Meta article to SoylentNews or to a specific SoylentNews journal earmarked for the committees use.

ARTICLE VII

OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS

Section 7.01 Officers. The officers of the Corporation shall consist at least of a President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. The Board may from time to time create vacancies for such other officers, including one or more Vice Presidents, as it may determine. All officers shall be elected by the Community Members from slates of candidates eligible and willing to serve, the composition of which may be determined by the Board or the President or such other Officer to whom the Board delegates such task. While the President, Secretary, and Treasurer shall be Director Members, any other officer may but need not be a director or a Community Member.

Section 7.02 Election, Term of Office, and Qualifications. The officers of the Corporation shall be elected annually by a majority vote of the Board at the annual meeting of the Board, and each officer shall hold office until such officer's successor is elected and qualified or until such officer's earlier death, resignation, or removal. Except as may otherwise be provided in the resolution of the Board choosing an officer, no officer need be a director. One person may hold, and perform the duties of, more than one office, except that the same person may not hold the offices of President and Secretary. All officers shall be subject to the supervision and direction of the Board. The Board may set such qualification requirements for officers as it deems appropriate.

Section 7.03 Removal. Any officer elected or appointed by the Board may be removed at any time, with or without cause, by a vote of a majority of the Entire Board.

Section 7.04 Resignations. Any officer may resign at any time by giving at least ten (10) days' written notice to the Board. Unless otherwise specified in the notice, the resignation shall take effect at the time of receipt by the Board. The acceptance of such resignation shall not be necessary to make it effective.

Section 7.05 Vacancies. A vacancy in any office arising from any cause shall be filled for the unexpired portion of the term by Community Member voting.

Section 7.06 President. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Board and Director Members. He or she shall have the general powers and duties of supervision and management of the Corporation which usually pertain to his or her office, and shall keep the Board fully informed of the activities of the Corporation. The President shall perform all such other duties as are properly required of him or her by the Board. He or she has the power to sign and execute alone in the name of the Corporation all contracts authorized either generally or specifically by the Board, but only with clear and explicit agreement of the Community as under Section 8.01, unless the Board shall specifically require an additional signature.

Section 7.07 Section Vacant.

Section 7.08 Secretary. The Secretary shall record and keep the minutes of all meetings of the Board and Director Members (or Community Members, if so called) in books kept for that purpose. He or she shall see that all notices and reports are given and served as required by law or these by-laws. He or she shall affix the corporate seal to and sign such instruments as require the seal and his or her signature and shall perform all duties as usually pertain to his or her office or as are properly required of him or her by the Board. All records of official meetings, actions, minutes shall be published on a publicly available and accessible platform for the community to read. The location shall be posted permanently in an appropriate location on the main website.

Section 7.09 Treasurer. The Treasurer shall have the care and custody of all the funds and securities of the Corporation and shall keep full and accurate accounts of all moneys received and paid by him or her on account of the Corporation. The Treasurer shall exhibit at all reasonable times the Corporation's books of account and records to any of the directors of the Corporation upon request at the office of the Corporation. He or she shall render a detailed statement to the Board of the condition of the finances of the Corporation at the annual meeting of the Board and shall perform such other duties as usually pertain to his or her office or as are properly required of him or her by the Board. The Treasurer shall be responsible for producing a yearly balance sheet and profit and loss statement reflecting the true status of the business as reported to the IRS. This report shall be made publicly visible and accessible to the Community Members in a place notified to the Community Members via the website or appropriate postings. Personal identifying information may be scrubbed from these reports but the services, role, and function or service such rendered shall not be obfuscated.

Section 7.10 Employees and Other Agents. The Board may from time to time appoint such employees and other agents as it shall deem necessary, but only with the clear and explicit agreement of the Community, each of whom shall have such authority and perform such duties as the Board may from time to time determine. To the fullest extent allowed by law, the Board may delegate to any employee or agent any powers possessed by the Board and may prescribe their respective title, terms of office, authorities, and duties.

Section 7.11 Compensation. Any officer, employee, or agent of the Corporation is authorized to receive reasonable compensation for services rendered to the Corporation when authorized by a majority of the Entire Board, in its discretion.

ARTICLE VIII

EXECUTION OF INSTRUMENTS

Section 8.01 Contracts and Instruments. The Board, subject to the provisions of Section 9.01, may, but only with the clear and explicit agreement of the Community, authorize any Officer or agent of the Corporation to enter into any contract, to execute and deliver any instrument, or to sign checks, drafts, or other orders for the payment of money, notes or other evidences of indebtedness in the name of and on behalf of the Corporation. Such authority may be general or may be confined to specific instances. No instrument required to be signed by more than one Officer may be signed by one person in more than one capacity unless called upon by the terms of such instrument. Any contract under consideration by the board and/or executed by the board shall be disclosed to the community members and the discussion of such shall be open to the public and recorded and published for public viewing.

Section 8.02 Tax Status-Related Filings. The Board, subject to the provisions of Section 9.01, may authorize any Officer or other agent to make, complete, and file (or cause to be filed) any document with any government agency, including the Internal Revenue Service and any filings necessary to cause the Corporation to become or to remain tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Code.

Section 8.03 Deposits. The funds of the Corporation shall be deposited in its name with such banks, trust companies, or other depositories as the Board or any Officer, to whom the Board has delegated such power, may from time to time designate.

ARTICLE IX

INDEMNIFICATION AND INSURANCE

Section 9.01 Indemnification. The Corporation may, to the fullest extent now or hereafter permitted by law, indemnify any person made, or threatened to be made, a party to any action or proceeding with any third-party by reason of the fact that he or she, his or her testator or intestate, was a director or officer of the Corporation, against judgments, fines, amounts paid in settlement, and reasonable expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees. No indemnification may be made to or on behalf of any such person if, in the determination of the Board (excluding the affected director(s)), (a) his or her acts were committed in bad faith or were the result of his or her willful misconduct or active and deliberate dishonesty and were material to such action or proceeding, or (b) he or she personally gained or sought to gain a financial or other benefit or other advantage or opportunity to which he or she was not entitled in connection with his or her actions or inactions in connection with service to the Corporation.

Section 9.02 Insurance. The Corporation shall have the power, but not the obligation, to purchase and maintain insurance to indemnify the Corporation for any obligation which it incurs as a result of its indemnification of directors and officers pursuant to Section 8.01 above, or to indemnify such persons in instances in which they may be indemnified pursuant to Section 8.01 above.

Section 9.03 Indemnification Agreements. The Board may cause the Corporation to enter into agreements which provide for the contractual indemnification of directors, officers, employees, or third parties, including agents, service providers, consultants, tax advisors, and others. The Board may approve a form of such contract including indemnification (such as a form of employment agreement, consulting agreement, etc.) with implementation and execution of such agreements delegated to one or more Officers.

ARTICLE X

INTERESTED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Section 10.01 Conflict of Interest Policy. The Board may determine to adopt a Conflict of Interest Policy governing situations where it faces a financial or other conflict or seeks to engage in an interested party transaction. For purposes of these by-laws, an "interested party transaction" is any contract or other transaction between the Corporation and (a) any present director or any individual who has served as a director in the five (5) years preceding the transaction ("past director"), (b) any family member of a present or past director, (c) any corporation, partnership, trust, or other entity in which a present or past director is a director, officer, or holder of a financial interest, (d) any present officer or any individual who has served as an officer in the five (5) years preceding the transaction ("past officer"), (e) any family member of a present or past officer, or (f) any corporation, partnership, trust, or other entity in which a present or past officer is a director, officer, or holder of a financial interest. If such a policy is adopted, in any instance where the Corporation proposes to enter into an interested party transaction, it shall follow the procedures and rules set forth in the Corporation's Conflict of Interest Policy.

Section 10.02 Approval other than Pursuant to Conflict of Interest Policy. If the Board does not or has not yet developed a Conflict of Interest Policy, the Board may approve an interested party transaction with the consent or approval of a majority of the directors that are not involved in the interested party transaction on a determination that the transaction (a) is in the best interests of the Corporation, (b) is fair to the Corporation and reasonable in its terms, (c) is in alignment with or not opposed to the Corporation's mission and charitable objectives, and (d) does not create an appearance of impropriety that might impair Member or public confidence in, or the reputation of, the Corporation (even absent any actual conflict or wrongdoing). The Board shall make a written record of its decision-making process in connection with an interested party transaction.

ARTICLE XI

AMENDMENTS

Section 11.01 These by-laws may be altered, amended, or repealed by the affirmative vote of the majority of the Entire Board present at any meeting of the Board at which a quorum is present, except a two-thirds vote of the Entire Board shall be required for any amendment to add or remove a provision of these by-laws requiring a greater proportion of directors to constitute quorum or a greater proportion of votes necessary for the transaction of business. Such action is authorized only at a duly called and held meeting of the Board for which written notice of such meeting, setting forth the proposed alteration, is given in accordance with the notice provisions for special meetings set forth herein. If these by-laws are altered, amended, or repealed by the Board, there shall be set forth in the notice of the next meeting of members for the election of directors the by-laws so adopted, amended, or repealed, together with a concise statement of the changes made. Any such change under this section shall still be required to meet the requirements of Section 4.02 requiring a community vote to adopt such changes.

ARTICLE XII

NON-DISCRIMINATION

Section 12.01 In all of its dealings, neither the Corporation nor its duly authorized agents shall discriminate against any individual or group for reasons of race, color, creed, sex, age, culture, national origin, marital status, sexual preference, mental or physical handicap, or any category protected by state or federal law.

ARTICLE XIII

REFERENCE TO CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION

Section 13.01 References in these by-laws to the Certificate of Incorporation shall include all amendments thereto or changes thereof as of the relevant time unless specifically otherwise stated by these by-laws. In the event of a conflict between the Certificate of Incorporation and these by-laws, the Certificate of Incorporation shall govern.

ARTICLE XIV

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section 14.01 Fiscal Year. The fiscal year of the Corporation shall be the calendar year unless otherwise provided by the Board.

Section 14.02 Seal. The Corporation is not required to have a corporate seal. Should it determine to use a seal, the corporate seal shall have inscribed thereon the name of the corporation, the year of its organization, and such other terms as are required. The seal may be used by causing it or a facsimile thereof to be impressed or affixed or in any manner reproduced.

Section 14.03 Books and Records. The Corporation shall keep at the office of the Corporation correct and complete books and records of the activities and transactions of the Corporation, including the minute book, which shall contain a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation, a copy of these by-laws and all prior versions thereof (if and as applicable), all resolutions and written consents of the Board and General Members, and all minutes of meetings of the Members and meetings of the Board and committees thereof.

Section 14.04 Records Retention and Destruction Policy. The Corporation may adopt such record-keeping policies and procedures as necessary for its business, regulatory, and tax-exempt status.

Section 14.05 Annual Returns; Necessary Filings. The Entire Board shall review the Corporation's annual filing(s) with the Internal Revenue Service prior to it being filed. The Board may delegate to one or more Officers the preparation of filings and reports related to the Corporation's tax-exempt status or any other matter, subject to the Board's oversight, and may employ consultants or advisers, including legal or tax counsel, in connection with the preparation and/or review of such material(s).

Section 14.06 Electronic Signatures. Wherever a written instrument is required to be executed hereunder, an electronic signature, to the extent permitted by applicable law, shall be deemed to be a written signature.

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posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 06 2024, @01:21PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Marine anoxia is characterized by the oceans being severely depleted in dissolved oxygen, making them toxic and thus having devastating impacts on the organisms inhabiting them. One such event, known as Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), occurred ~93.5 million years ago across the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary of the Upper Cretaceous and lasted for up to 700,000 years.

During such scenarios, organic matter is buried at an elevated rate, producing distinctive layers of black shale in the geological record, which are depleted in the isotopically-heavier carbon-13, therefore generating a positive carbon isotope excursion of ~6‰ for this study period.

The specific factors triggering OAE2 are still debated, but the most widely supported is volcanism from the Caribbean Large Igneous Province and High Arctic Large Igneous Province, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and therefore warming the planet.

Among the plethora of impacts from a warmer planet is increased weathering of land, with fluvial processes transporting this material to the oceans, providing key nutrients to primary producers in the surface ocean. Enhanced primary productivity produces more oxygen, but trophic food chains ultimately use up more of this oxygen in their metabolic processes.

Compounded by decreased solubility of oxygen in warmer oceans, this results in widespread deoxygenation of Earth's marine realm, the focus of new research published in Climates of the Past.

[...] Revealing the significance of the work, Dr. Abraham said, "Our research delves into the ancient oceans' secrets, specifically a period 93.5 million years ago when much of the ocean was devoid of oxygen. By studying natural chemical fingerprints preserved in marine sediments, we uncover how volcanic activities and climate warming in the past led to drastic ocean deoxygenation. Understanding this in deep time is crucial, as they mirror the challenges we face today with the ongoing climate crisis, helping us predict and mitigate future consequences."

Taking samples of organic matter from the drilled cores, the research team isolated compounds of biological origin that are stable over geological time periods of millions of years, known as biomarkers. Dr. Abraham explains that biomarkers are known as "molecular fossils," adding, "Biomarkers are chemical compounds found in sedimentary rocks that originated from living organisms millions of years ago. Think of them as molecular fossils that, unlike bones or shells, are not easily visible to the naked eye. These compounds, once part of living organisms, have remained chemically stable over vast geological timescales.

"We extract them carefully using a series of chemical procedures and a technique known as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in the lab to isolate these compounds from the drilled sediments and to avoid contamination.

"Analyzing these biomarkers helps us reconstruct past environmental conditions, such as temperature and oxygen levels in the oceans, but linking their presence to specific historical environmental conditions requires meticulous laboratory work and a profound understanding of geochemical processes."

The scientists found that the percentage of total organic carbon content of the samples increased through the study period (3.8 million years), peaking at ~28 weight % at OAE2 from initial levels of 1–17 weight %. This occurred alongside a ~5-8°C increase in sea surface temperature up to ~43°C.

Key biomarkers of 28,30-dinorhopane and lycopane are indicative of this warming and decline in oxygen, forming an oxygen minimum zone in the Cenomanian, similar to those observed in the Black Sea today. This data is coupled with a noticeable reduction in the abundance of benthic foraminifera (bottom ocean-dwelling single-celled microorganisms) in the late Cenomanian, as they were not able to survive in the depleted-oxygen environment.

Such persistent low-oxygen layers increase in number and size with enhanced warming of the oceans, forming a thick zone at depth below a highly productive thin surface layer that is oxygen-rich. Biomarkers of C35 hopanoid thiophene and isorenieratane reveal this water-column euxinia (both anoxic and sulphidic) expanded to finally reach the surface photic zone through the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary at OAE2.

[...] Looking ahead to the future of Earth's oceans with the expansion of oxygen minimum zones, Dr. Abraham says, "In today's world, oceanic conditions are generally hypoxic but have not yet reached anoxic levels in open oceans. However, closed basins or seas are more prone to becoming anoxic.

"With ongoing global warming, it is predicted that oxygen minimum zones will expand both horizontally and vertically. Warmer water holds less oxygen, and increased surface temperatures can lead to stronger stratification of ocean layers, thereby reducing the mixing that normally replenishes oxygen in deeper waters.

"Additionally, global warming can enhance biological activity in surface waters, resulting in more organic matter sinking to the depths, where it consumes oxygen as it decomposes, a process evident during OAE2.

"Today, oxygen minimum zones are primarily found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with conditions making life hard for many marine species. With the current trends of global warming, these zones are expected to expand, reducing habitable marine space and adversely affecting marine biodiversity and fisheries.

"By the end of this century, if the current trajectory of warming and nutrient runoff continues, we might see a significant increase in anoxic and euxinic conditions in our oceans, threatening marine ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity."

Journal information: Climate of the Past


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 06 2024, @08:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the dystopia-is-now! dept.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/02/deepfake-scammer-walks-off-with-25-million-in-first-of-its-kind-ai-heist/

On Sunday, a report from the South China Morning Post revealed a significant financial loss suffered by a multinational company's Hong Kong office, amounting to HK$200 million (US$25.6 million), due to a sophisticated scam involving deepfake technology. The scam featured a digitally recreated version of the company's chief financial officer, along with other employees, who appeared in a video conference call instructing an employee to transfer funds.

Due to an ongoing investigation, Hong Kong police did not release details of which company was scammed.

Deepfakes utilize AI tools to create highly convincing fake videos or audio recordings, posing significant challenges for individuals and organizations to discern real from fabricated content.

[...] The scam was initially uncovered following a phishing attempt, when an employee in the finance department of the company's Hong Kong branch received what seemed to be a phishing message, purportedly from the company's UK-based chief financial officer, instructing them to execute a secret transaction. Despite initial doubts, the employee was convinced by the presence of the CFO and others in a group video call and proceeded to make 15 transfers totaling HK$200 million to five different Hong Kong bank accounts. The realization of the scam occurred approximately a week later, prompting a police investigation.

[...] Acting senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the Hong Kong police emphasized the novelty of this scam, noting that it was the first instance in Hong Kong where victims were deceived in a multi-person video conference setting. He pointed out the scammer's strategy of not engaging directly with the victim beyond requesting a self-introduction, which made the scam more convincing.


Original Submission