41054-04-02 Westernmost City Baseline Citizen Survey found not to be conducted correctly

Westernmost City Public Works Coordination Department face Eirtise made an announcement today that the Baseline Citizen Survey had not met the requirements set by the Larger Continent Uniform Testing Standards Advocacy Group. In fact, Westernmost City has not issued a baseline survey in accordance with the requirements for 5 years.

The survey used a set of questions designed to elicit feedback on the city's accommodations for people with a specific anxiety disorder. The questions were part of the Asonat Positive Impact Measurement Scale, which was originally developed in 41022, but was shown to give biased results by a meta-analysis conducted in 41044. The Uniform Testing Standards Advocacy Group removed it from their list of approved methods in 41045.

"Our[ex] standard yearly review failed to catch it because of flaws in our[ex] process," Eirtise explained. "And since only 0.0032 of citizens passed the screening questions and actually saw the outdated questions, it went unreported. We[ex] are conducting a complete review not only of the survey, but also of our[ex] survey approval process to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Westernmost City had previously agreed to treat the Uniform Testing Standards Advocacy Group's requirements as binding, and so are paying fines to those citizens who saw the outdated questions. The results have also been flagged in the public survey result database, and referents notified. Westernmost City Finance Department face Kireket says the fines were paid by the city's insurance, but that the price of some Westernmost City reliability bonds in the market had fallen in response.

41054-04-03 Largest City may need non-hydroelectric power sources

The prediction market on whether Largest City would suffer a brownout this coming winter went above 0.023 today, briefly trading as high as 0.03 before settling at 0.0235. Prediction markets are opaque, so there is no way to say exactly what lead to the change, but the new climate figures released by the Global Oceanic and Atmospheric Modeling Group may be the source of the update. Largest City Public Works Coordination Department face Lhihet had this to say about the change:

Our[ex] experts suspect this elevated risk is due to a combination of two factors.

Firstly, increased demand. Largest City has grown above population projections for the last decade. Currently there are 1.13 times more people living in the city than projected 13 years ago. Our[ex] infrastructure has largely kept up with that change, but power plants especially have a long lead time on construction, so we[ex]'re operating in the lower end of the safe range.

Secondly, the weather. This winter is expected to be unusually cold over Largest City, potentially cold enough to impact the functioning of the hydroelectric dams which provide a portion of our power. Largest City has several non-hydroelectric power options, but solar also has correlated failures in cold conditions. We[ex] have nearly completed work on a new fission plant which should be able to take up the slack, but it won't be completed this year. The Mid-continent Transport and Industrial Area Common Investment group is also independently building a windfarm, from which we[in] may be able to buy power in an emergency.

Largest City is designed to operate safely without power for at least three days, with most buildings including gravity-driven water supplies and thermal batteries. Still, users of the mid-continent power grid should expect slightly higher electricity prices this winter either way.

41054-04-04 Trains continue to be very safe

This article is part of a recurring special feature (every 32 days) on non-newsworthy items that remain important to have an accurate understanding of.

Modern train designs are exceedingly safe and reliable. While several hundred people die from accidents with trains every year, this is an artifact of the fact that there are approximately 1e15 interactions between humans and trains every day.

The Larger Continent Transport Safety Assurance Group publishes an annual report covering the safety standards for trains, and their independently measured compliance numbers. As of the last report, published on 41053-30-02, 0.55553 of trains on Larger Continent (and Distant Island, which is part of several Larger Continent safety groups, even though it uses Smaller Continent signalling and governance standards) are compliant with the standards.

Train designs have also continued to improve. Compared to trains 300 years ago, modern trains are simultaneously faster, safer, and more efficient. A more complete comparison is available from the Volunteer Historical Narratives Project.

41054-04-05 Anonymous proof that that Network metadata consistency layer is inconsistent

Reclusive anonymous theoretician 0x34a2e9bb published a proof today that version 5 of the protocol which the Network uses to efficiently synchronize metadata is inconsistent — meaning that it may sometimes present two different conflicting views of the same underlying information, even when every relevant participant is online and correctly following the protocol. The Network Engineering Task Force, which approved of the new protocol version two years ago, has called for implementations to fall back to the version 4 protocol. The version 4 protocol is not known to have the same issue, and has a much simpler consistency mechanism, meaning it is probably safe.

Network Engineering Task Force face Kolheta said this in an interview:

The problem is that 0x34a2e9bb's proof is non-constructive. So they proved that version 5 is broken, without proving how it is broken. It is an amazingly clever piece of theoretical mathematics! Which also means that nobody else understands the proof.

Honestly, there's some debate about whether this is more likely to be a problem with version 5, or a problem with the meta-theory of the theorem prover which 0x34a2e9bb used to demonstrate the issue. NETF protocols go through several rounds of deliberation and testing before being approved, including fuzz testing of different implementations. If there is a problem with version 5, it is incredibly elusive.

Still, version 4 is only about 7% less efficient in real-world Network conditions, and we[ex]'re much more confident that version 4 is correct. Anyone using version 4 or earlier likely has a consistent local metadata cache, and any possible inconsistencies should sort themselves out once not using version 5. We[ex] recommend implementations should fall back to version 4 until we have more confidence about what the problem with version 5 is.

The NETF has also posted a bounty, for anyone who can provide a constructive proof of version 5's flaws. 0x34a2e9bb is not available for public discussion, but their proof is currently being studied by many independent mathematicians, with the collaborative annotation published by Mathematicians Without Scruples available here.

41054-04-10 Language and Culture materials for first contact simulation festival released

The First Contact Simulation Festival Committee, who run the event every 4 years, have released the language and culture materials for the 41100 festival. Committee face Thelati had this to say, in a public statement:

We[ex] are very excited for this cycle's event. Our[ex] language materials include contributions and review from a large number of speculative xenobiologists and contemporary linguists.

As ever, we[ex] invite people to produce media in this cycle's language ahead of the event, to help people studying to play the part of the aliens. Please remember to tag your media appropriately, though, to avoid spoilers.

People who may be interested in participating in the festival on the human side should avoid spoilers before the event — something we[in] can all help with. People who want to participate on the alien side should make use of the study materials on our website to become fluent by early 41100 at the latest. When registering for the event as an alien, there is a short comprehension test. But don't worry, people who aren't fully fluent are still welcome in the event hall and festival grounds outside the main ballroom.

The First Contact Simulation Festival will be held in Lost Ancestors City this cycle, a location which Thelati says was chosen for its near-equatorial position and large surrounding oceans. They refused to comment on speculation that this meant this cycle's aliens had not discovered artificial gravity, saying that people who want to avoid spoilers would just have to wait.

41054-04-22 Single provider protections for Sithel Communications ending soon

When a company is the first to provide a product or service in a region, they gain protection from normal anti-monopoly laws for some years. That protection is ending soon for Network connectivity company Sithel Communications, which was the first provider to bring high-speed fiberoptic links to eastern Larger Continent. Cities in their service region that have a single provider protection period of 50 years will see that protection ending between 41054-05-10 at the earliest and 41056-02-23 at the latest. Sithel Communications has launched petitions to delay the end of the single provider protection period in five cities, but experts claim that there is little chance of that the petitions will be successful. The price of leasing a fiberoptic connection from Sithel Communications is expected to drop by between .2 and .45, depending on the area being serviced and other contract terms once the period expires.