Links 04/11/2023: Many More Layoffs, Attacks on the Press
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM)
- Monopolies
- Gemini* and Gopher
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Leftovers
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NYPost ☛ Matthew Perry called ‘beautiful’ Lauren Graham ‘one of his favorite’ people before death
Perry, who died at age 54 on Saturday of an apparent drowning, shared a sweet photo of the "Gilmore Girls" alum in his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing."
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Ruben Schade ☛ Giving up on a forever crossing
I’ve been talking a lot about crossings and roads again recently. I wouldn’t say they’d been on my mind lately, so much as they’ve forced themselves upon me. They’re also a fascinating physical system anyone can watch evolve and change in real time: a car-switched network you could say.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Finding a Bic Cristal Re’New in Japan
This draft post was originally written in Japan, but the images I uploaded broke. I’ve re-uploaded.
I waxed lyrical about the Bic Orange Finepoint a decade ago, and I stand by them being my favourite ever pen. They’re cheap as chips, light, feel nice to hold, are wonderfully smooth on any paper I’ve tried, dry instantly, and draw precise lines without being too thin.
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Science
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Hackaday ☛ 2000-Year Old Charred Manuscripts Reveal Their Secrets
Imagine trying to read a 2000-year old scroll from an ancient civilization. Now imagine that scroll is rolled up, and in a delicate, charred, carbonized form, having been engulfed by the fiery eruption of a volcano. The task would seem virtually impossible, and the information in the scroll lost forever. Right?|
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Hackaday ☛ Random Number Generator Is A Blast From The Past
Hackers love random numbers, or more accurately, the pursuit of them. It turns out that computers are so good at following our exacting instructions that they are largely incapable of doing anything that would fit the strict definition of randomness — which has lead to some elaborate methods of generating the unexpected.
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Education
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Weapons detection system expands U-M security operations
U-M is expanding its security operations with a new walk-through weapons detection system at Michigan Stadium. The new system will be operational with the Nov. 4 football game against Purdue University.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Pour One Out For This Bottle-Playing Robot
If you have an iota of musicality, you’ve no doubt noticed that you can play music using glass bottles, especially if you have several of different sizes and fill them with varying levels of water. But what if you wanted to accompany yourself on the bottles? Well, then you’d need to build a bottle-playing robot.
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Hackaday ☛ Pocketable Yagi Antenna Really Shoots For Distance
For amateur radio operators, the quest for the perfect antenna never seems to end. Perhaps that’s because our requirements are always changing. We never quite seem to get to one design that can do everything. This copper-foil Yagi antenna might not do everything, but it really seems to tick off the boxes for gain and directionality along with ultra-portability.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong customs seize 3.4 tons of hairy crabs worth HK$2.3m, suspected to be smuggled from mainland China
The Hong Kong authorities have seized around 3.4 tons of hairy crabs suspected to have been smuggled from mainland China. The crabs are estimated to have a market value of HK$2.3 million.
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YLE ☛ Number of Finland’s organic food producers continues to fall
Market conditions and changes in terms for subsidies are driving more organic farmers out of business.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Mozilla ☛ Mozilla Privacy Blog: Mozilla Mornings: Big tech, big AI? Why keeping markets open matters
Mozilla Mornings in Brussels is back, debating Hey Hi (AI) competition and open systems
AI dominates global policy discussions, but there’s no consensus on how to act. A topic gaining prominence is how to maintain a competitive market where new players, small businesses, non-profits, and others can access innovative tools.
The significant costs of building advanced Hey Hi (AI) models can eventually lead to market consolidation. Alternatively, open-source advocates see open-source Hey Hi (AI) as a means to challenge the existing (or future) concentration of power to a small number of tech companies and a way to reduce the barriers to developing Hey Hi (AI) models.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Techdirt ☛ Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley
A burglary case that included evidence found at the scene (broken glass, a canister of pepper spray) and an apparent eyewitness has fallen apart because the government decided going right to Google meant it could ignore Supreme Court precedent and the Constitution.
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Privacy International ☛ Joint Stakeholder Submission - Colombia, 44th Universal Periodic Review
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Defence/Aggression
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France24 ☛ Syria's Raqqa struggles to rebuild after years of rule by Islamic State group
The city of Raqqa symbolises the tragic fate of Syria over the past 12 years. From the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, the northern city was a major target for rebel groups. It then became the stronghold of Islamic State group terrorists, who made Raqqa the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate. The city went through three years of hell – suffering atrocities, public hangings and slave auctions – before being bombed and then liberated in 2017 by an international US-led coalition. Since then, the "Pearl of the Euphrates" has struggled to get back on track.
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Reason ☛ English Police Apparently Arrest Man for Criticizing Immigration of Supporters of Palestinians
From the Express (UK) (Max Parry) (expurgation, of course, in the news story): The arrest, made at 9.55pm on Tuesday, October 31 in east London, comes after a video was posted on Facebook (Farcebook) where the person behind the camera appears to condemn the number of Palestinian flags on Bethnal Green Road.
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RFA ☛ Myanmar’s navy arrests over 200 Rohingya fleeing Rakhine
Officials apprehended three groups escaping to Malaysia and Thailand
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RFA ☛ N Korea issues nuclear threat over US-S Korea space alliance
The warning comes after an unsuccessful US Air Force missile test.
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JURIST ☛ Amnesty International report finds Meta contributed to human rights abuses against Tigrayan community in Ethiopia
Amnesty International on Monday accused Meta, the parent company of Facebook, of contributing to human rights abuses against the Tigrayan community in Ethiopia, stemming from an armed conflict between forces aligned with Ethiopia’s federal government and forces affiliated with Tigray’s regional government.
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JURIST ☛ Indonesia counter-terrorism unit arrests 59 militants suspected of planning to disrupt election
Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has arrested 59 suspected militants in connection to a purported plan to disrupt the democratic process, the unit spokesperson announced on Tuesday. The spokesperson revealed that the detained individuals had intentions to carry out attacks targeting security forces responsible for safeguarding the election proceedings.
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RFERL ☛ Two Kyrgyz Police Officers, Pakistani National Detained in Bishkek On Charge Of Running Prostitution Ring
Kyrgyzstan's State Committee of National Security (UKMK) said on November 3 that it had detained two Kyrgyz police officers and a Pakistani national on a charge of running a prostitution ring in the Central Asian nation.
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RFERL ☛ UN Security Council Extends EU Peacekeeping Mandate In Bosnia, Debates High Representative's Report
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the European Union's peacekeeping and security mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina for another year.
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BIA Net ☛ 'Turkey not united in the face of disaster'
AFAD responded to the question posed by Deputy Halıcı: Out of the promised 115 billion Turkish lira in the "Turkey United in the Face of Disaster Campaign" broadcast live on TV channels after the February 6 earthquakes, 30 billion has not been deposited. Of the deposited 85 billion, public banks had committed 76.6 billion.
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea lining up banks to help finance $22 billion arms sale to Poland
After hitting statutory limits on import-export lending, South Korea is gathering local banks to help Poland buy $22 billion worth of weapons in Seoul's largest arms sale, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
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LRT ☛ Foreign banks interested in entering Lithuania – finance minister
Lithuanian Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė says that foreign banks are interested in entering the Lithuanian market, adding, however, the emergence of a new bank in the country may take time.
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Site36 ☛ Rome on collision course: Instead of Libyan coast guard, sea rescuers are punished again
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Site36 ☛ Fewer boat crossings, visit to Frontex: EU and Tunisia implement migration pact
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[Old] Site36 ☛ “Day of Honour” protests in Hungary: Pre-trial detention of Antifas from Germany and Italy extended
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Site36 ☛ Refugees against German Register of Foreigners: Constitutional Complaint against “Second Class Data Protection”
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Site36 ☛ Pullbacks with escort: Cyprus wants to station a ship for migration defence in Beirut
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Site36 ☛ Large majority against killer robots: 164 states vote in favour of UN resolution, Israel and Iran abstain
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Site36 ☛ Most expensive fighter jet ever in turbulence: Germany could pull out of €100bn FCAS and join UK project
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The Straits Times ☛ German minister announces complete ban on Hamas activities
Germany will from Wednesday ban the activities of Hamas, already a designated terrorist organisation in the country, as well as pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, the interior minister announced on Thursday.
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The Nation ☛ Guess What, Glenn Youngkin? The GOP Makes Gun Crime Worse.
In next week’s Virginia state legislative elections, there are two big issues. One is abortion, since it’s the only Southern state that hasn’t imposed new restrictions since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. The GOP drive for at least a 15-week ban helps Democrats—70 percent of women say it’s driving their votes, while only 47 percent said the same in 2019. The other is crime, which Republicans believe will help them. The party hyped crime fears in the 2021 election, falsely charging that moderate Democrats, for instance, supported the “defund the police” movement even when they hadn’t. The ploy seemed to work: The GOP took control of the House of Delegates and Glenn Youngkin strolled into the governor’s mansion.
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France24 ☛ Myanmar military junta vows to hit back at armed groups' offensive
Myanmar’s junta chief vowed Friday to strike back after an alliance of ethnic minority groups seized towns and blocked trade routes to China in the biggest coordinated offensive against the military since it seized power in a coup.
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RFERL ☛ Kazakh Opposition Politician Launches Hunger Strike To Demand Open Trial
The chairman of Kazakhstan’s unregistered Algha Kazakhstan (Forward Kazakhstan) party, Marat Zhylanbaev, who is on trial on charges of taking part in the activities of a banned group and financing an extremist organization, has launched a hunger strike.
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Off Guardian ☛ Violins in a Musty Attic
There is a kind of dark twisted amusement that strikes me sometimes. I don’t know about you. Oh I know. There is not a dang thing funny about a dang thing in this world right now but if you become jaded enough well, it is almost pure comedy. Today I’m indulging my jadedness. …
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Meduza ☛ WSJ: U.S. intelligence shows Wagner Group may transfer anti-aircraft system to Hezbollah — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Kremlin Dismisses Report On Wagner Plan To Give Hizballah Air Defense System
The Kremlin on November 3 dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that U.S. intelligence believed Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to provide the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah with an air-defense system, saying such talk was unfounded
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Atlantic Council ☛ 10 Years On: China’s Belt & Road Initiative and its Future in the Middle East
David O. Shullman and Yun Sun join us to delve into the current state of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the challenges and opportunities it presents for the Middle East's development agendas.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Seeks Further War Support In Berlin
Visiting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appealed in Berlin for further support for his country's fight against Russian forces, with international attention currently focused on the situation in the Middle East.
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RFERL ☛ EU Expansion Is A Geopolitical Necessity, Germany's Baerbock Says
Enlarging the European Union by accepting more East European countries into the bloc is a geopolitical necessity but will require "deep" reforms of its institutions, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on November 2.
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France24 ☛ ‘Unbearable uncertainty’: Ukrainians turn to psychics to know when war will end
After more than 600 days since the Russian invasion, psychics and fortune tellers offering predictions on when the war will end are becoming increasingly popular in Ukraine with some soothsayers’ military forecasts racking up hundreds of thousands of views on social control media. The phenomenon, according to one psychologist, comes down to people finding ways to cope with the “unbearable uncertainty” clouding the country’s future.
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CS Monitor ☛ Russia’s nuclear saber rattling: A threat or wake-up call for the West?
Threats would appear to signal conflict. But the Kremlin’s nuclear diplomacy, seen by the West as risking escalation, is categorized as a longer-term strategy of deterrence in Russia.
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Meduza ☛ Putin signs law revoking Russia’s ratification of Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty — Meduza
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France24 ☛ Putin signs law revoking Russia's ratification of nuclear test ban treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a move strongly criticised by the United States.
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JURIST ☛ Russia withdraws as signatory of global nuclear test ban
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill that withdraws Russia as a signatory to the global nuclear test ban treaty. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is an international treaty aimed at banning all nuclear explosions on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground.
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Meduza ☛ Moscow Prosecutor’s Office to investigate lawmaker’s call to ‘destroy’ people who don’t support Putin — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘A series of celebrations’ Ahead of the presidential elections, Putin plans to drum up support with patriotic concerts — Meduza
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teleSUR ☛ Putin Warns of Intensification of Sanctions Against Russia
He instructed the Bank of Russia to support business investment in production, technology and human development.
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teleSUR ☛ New US Sanctions against Russia
In total, thirty Russian individuals and almost two hundred legal entities were hit by restrictions.
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The Straits Times ☛ Russia dismisses new US sanctions: 'You will never defeat Moscow'
Russia on Friday dismissed new U.S. sanctions over the war in Ukraine, saying that the United States would never defeat Moscow, while the boss of Russia's fastest growing natural gas company quipped the sanctions were a badge of success.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Activist Skoryakin, Who Went Missing In Kyrgyzstan, Found In Moscow Detention Center
Russian activist Lev Skoryakin, who went missing in Kyrgyzstan in October, has been kept held in a cell in Moscow's Butyrka detention center.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Russian War Report: Russia just lost the most troops in a single battle so far in 2023
In Ukraine, fighting over the strategically important town of Avdiivka has led to heavy Russian losses. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda is targeting the Armenian government.
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RFERL ☛ Critic Of Chechen Leader Granted Political Asylum In Germany
Mokhammad Abdurakhmanov, an outspoken critic of the authoritarian leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on November 2 that he has obtained political asylum in Germany after two unsuccessful attempts.
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RFERL ☛ Imprisoned Siberian Anti-War Activist Ponomarenko Reportedly Faces Additional Charge
Imprisoned Siberian anti-war activist and journalist Maria Ponomarenko is reportedly facing an additional charge of attacking prison guards and may face up to five additional years in prison if convicted, the RusNews website cited Ponomarenko's friend on November 2 as saying.
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Reason ☛ Brickbat: Don't Get Cross
The Russian central bank has stopped circulation of a new 1,000-ruble note following complaints from some priests of the Russian Orthodox Church. The priests complained that the image on the note of a church in Tatarstan does not have a cross on it.
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Meduza ☛ ‘We won’t forgive and we’ll trample on your remains’: Pussy Riot debuts new anti-war music video and demands Ukrainian children be returned home — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Ukraine fatigue Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni targeted by Russian prank callers, says ‘fatigue from all sides’ when it comes to the war — Meduza
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New York Times ☛ House Passes $14.3 Billion in Aid for Israel but Leaves Out Ukraine
The Republican-led House approved $14.3 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas, tying the aid to spending cuts. The Senate plans to craft its own bill that will include aid for Ukraine and Gaza.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s Top Commander Says War With Russia Has Hit a ‘Stalemate’
In a candid assessment, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said no “beautiful breakthrough” was imminent and that breaking the deadlock could require advances in technological warfare.
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New York Times ☛ Somewhat Guiltily, Ukrainians Miss Matthew Perry
Even as the war’s devastation rages on, Ukrainians have found space to mourn an actor who brought them comfort and laughter.
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New York Times ☛ War Hasn’t Stopped the Kyiv Biennial. It’s Multiplied It.
The contemporary art show has spread beyond Ukraine’s borders and is now an eight-city European festival about war, democracy and solidarity.
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New Yorker ☛ Not All of America’s National-Security Threats Are Overseas
Congress’s foreign-aid follies with Israel and Ukraine, and the fear of Trump in 2024.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Plans $425 Million Ukraine Weapons Aid Announcement
The Biden administration plans to announce a $425 million military aid package for Ukraine on November 3 including counter drone rockets and munitions, two U.S. officials said.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says Russia Hits Civilian Targets In Kharkiv, Tries To Encircle Avdiyivka
Ukrainian officials in the northeastern city of Kharkiv said nearly a dozen Russian drones had struck civilian targets in or around the city overnight on November 2-3, while the military cited more than 50 battles in the past 24 hours.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Faith leaders highlight Russian religious persecution in occupied Ukraine
A delegation of Ukrainian faith leaders recently visited the United States and participated in a panel discussion to address Russia's policies of religious persecution and repression in occupied Ukraine.
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Latvia ☛ 'Stopify' reports year of success in donation streaming to Ukraine
A year ago, in November 2022, the platform Stopify - a donation streaming service in support of the Ukrainian armed forces - was launched by Latvia. 7,640 subscribers from 49 countries have donated a total of 889,120 euros to Ukraine, and 12 deliveries of equipment have been arranged for the Ukrainian army within a year, Stopify reported on November 2.
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France24 ☛ 'People are resisting': Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko on Ukraine, Putin and being poisoned
Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko has survived a poisoning attempt and managed to evade a Chechen hit squad, but the attempts on her life have not dissuaded her from becoming one of Russia's most outspoken dissenters. She has just published her first book, "I Love Russia", which she wrote while in exile abroad.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Putin will win unless the West finally commits to Ukrainian victory
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is more confident than ever that time is on his side in Ukraine and believes the Western world ultimately lacks the political will to oppose him, writes Ivan Verstyuk.
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NYPost ☛ Kremlin spread rumor Putin died to gauge his popularity, Ukraine says
The Telegram channel "General SVR" reported last week that Vladimir Putin had died.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Federal News Network ☛ VA whistleblower office no longer ‘agency in crisis.’ But lawmakers question its results
Members of the House VA Committee are concerned VA's Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection doesn’t have independence from the rest of the department to carry out its work.
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Environment
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The Straits Times ☛ Fish catches in Malaysia declining due to climate change
Many fish species, including the ubiquitous ikan kembung (mackerel) have declined in numbers.
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Energy/Transportation
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YLE ☛ Survey: Two thirds of Finns think there are too many e-scooters
A vast majority said they think scooters are too fast.
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YLE ☛ Record 89% of Finland’s electricity from fossil-free sources last year
Domestic production covered 85 percent of Finland’s electricity consumption, with 54 percent generated from renewable energy sources.
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New York Times ☛ As Cars Have Grown Bigger, Parking Spaces Might, Too
Australians are grumbling about a recent invasion of American-style giant pickup trucks. But even before that, vehicle sizes were increasing.
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Overpopulation
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European Commission ☛ Vice-President Suica delivers a keynote speech via video message for the event: “Conference on Talent and the Demographic Challenge and Policies against Depopulation ”, organized by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition of Spain
European Commission Speech Brussels, 03 Nov 2023 Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to address this conference.
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Finance
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Silicon Angle ☛ Coinbase sees declining trading volume as Block surges on robust growth
Financial technology firms Coinbase Inc. and Block Inc. both reported quarterly earnings today and it was a tale of two different outcomes, as Coinbase shares fell on declining trading volume and Block shares surged as much as 17% on higher-than-expected growth. >
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The Strategist ☛ Albanese must not play Xi’s trade games
The well-worn observation that China is at once Australia’s largest trading partner and its primary security concern is often portrayed as a conundrum in which trade-offs may be needed.
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New York Times ☛ Israel, the I.R.S. and the Big Grift
Holding national security hostage to help tax cheats.
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WhichUK ☛ Bank of England holds base rate at 5.25% - when will it come down?
Monetary Policy Committee continues with plan to battle high inflation
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Silicon Angle ☛ Atlassian shares slide on widening loss in latest quarter
Shares in Atlassian Corp. fell about 10% in after-hours trading today after the Australian collaboration software company reported a widening loss in its latest quarter report.
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YLE ☛ Finnish tech industry orders slump by 30%
Technology Industries of Finland, which represents the metal, mechanical engineering, electronics and IT sectors, sounded a warning for 2024.
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Silicon Angle ☛ FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted on all seven counts in fraud and conspiracy trial
Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd., has been found guilty on all seven counts in his federal trial on fraud and conspiracy charges.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Despite earnings and revenue beats, Clownflare shares fall on outlook miss [Ed: Clownflare cannot make money]
Shares in Clownflare Inc. fell about 5% in late trading today after the content delivery network company reported earnings and revenue beats but missed on revenue guidance in its latest quarterly report.
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Silicon Angle ☛ PayPal targeted by SEC with subpoena related to its stablecoin offering
Payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc. disclosed today that it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to its U.S. dollar stablecoin, PYUSD.
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Cointelegraph ☛ OpenSea lays off 50% of staff with severance in preparation for version 2.0 launch
Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced on Nov. 3 that it was laying off employees. Co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer broke the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying the company was launching OpenSea 2.0 with a smaller team.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Techdirt ☛ ExTwitter Admits Elon Has Cut 56% Of The Value Of The Company; Fidelity Says It’s Actually Worth Even Less
Back in March of this year, Elon Musk effectively admitted that he had set fire to more than half of Twitter’s value in telling employees that they’d be getting stock grants with the company valued around $20 billion. That’s a pretty steep discount from the $44 billion he paid for the company. Now, some would say it wasn’t actually worth $44 billion at the time (the stock before he bought in was valued around $33 billion), but valuation is based on the last price someone actually paid. Of course, even if we go with the $33 billion number, Musk admitting that it would only be valued at $20 billion so soon after taking the company over is kind of embarrassing.
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The Straits Times ☛ Japan PM Kishida arrives in Philippines on official visit
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in the Philippines on Friday for a two-day official visit aimed at boosting defence and security ties at a time of heightened tension in Philippines-China relations.
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teleSUR ☛ Donald Trump Jr. Takes Witness Stand in NY Civil Fraud Trial
NY Attorney General James accused former president Trump and his children of inflating their assets by billions of U.S. dollars to secure better loan terms.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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BIA Net ☛ Journalist Tolga Şardan arrested for 'spreading disinformation'
Şardan reported on a "judicial report" alledgedly preented by the country's intelligence agency to the presidency. The authorities have denied the existence of such a report.
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BIA Net ☛ Journalist Cengiz Erdinç detained over alleged intelligence report
Earlier, journalist Tolga Şardan was arrested for “spreading disinformation” for allegedly reporting on a “non-existent” intelligence report. Erdinç had tweeted about the report as well.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Techdirt ☛ DSA Framers Insisted It Was Carefully Calibrated Against Censorship; Then Thierry Breton Basically Decided It Was An Amazing Tool For Censorship
A few weeks ago, I highlighted how EU chief Digital Services Act enforcer, Thierry Breton, was making a mess of things sending broadly threatening letters (which have since been followed up with opening official investigations) to all the big social media platforms. His initial letter highlighted the DSA’s requirements regarding takedowns of illegal content, but very quickly blurred the line between illegal content and disinformation.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ K-pop star Blackpink’s Lisa and Hong Kong actress Angelababy banned from Chinese social control media platform
K-pop singer Lisa of megastar girl group Blackpink has been banned from China’s Weibo social control media platform, sparking speculation among fans Friday that the censorship was tied to a burlesque performance she gave in Paris.
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The Straits Times ☛ HK student jailed for 2 months under sedition over social control media posts in Japan
This is the first known Hong Konger convicted under the colonial-era sedition law over online speech in Japan.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong student who made ‘seditious’ online posts in Japan jailed for 2 months
A Hong Kong student accused of making “seditious” online posts, many of them while abroad, has been sentenced to two months in jail. Yuen Ching-ting, wearing a beige hoodie and a mask, appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Friday.
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RFERL ☛ Georgian Government Is Suppressing Free Expression, PEN Says.
The U.S.-based PEN writers' association warned in a report published on November 2 that the government in Georgia is clamping down on freedom of speech and cultural expression in ways that could have implications for Georgia's bid to join the European Union.
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ACLU ☛ Why We Must Reject Efforts to Restrict Constitutionally Protected Speech on College Campuses
The devastating conflict in Israel and Palestine has roiled campuses here at home. College students across the country are exercising their constitutional right to free speech by organizing, protesting, posting, and debating, sometimes resulting in speech that is intemperate, hateful, and abhorrent. We’re also seeing a rise in antisemitic and anti-Arab and Muslim discrimination, with documented threats against Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, and Middle Eastern and South Asian origin students and faculty alike. These colliding dynamics have left colleges and universities contending with how to manage increased threats, genuine fears, and anguished tensions on their campuses while trying to keep students and faculty safe. We take the weight and complexity of these challenges seriously, and understand that balancing public safety and public debate can feel insurmountable.
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Stanford University ☛ Saller and Martinez speak on Israel-Gaza at Faculty Senate meeting
University administrators addressed rising campus tensions over the Israel-Gaza war at the Faculty Senate. They reiterated a commitment to student safety and free speech.
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Stanford University ☛ GSC debates solutions to exclusivity in student organizations
The Graduate Student Council dove into student funding, club processes, free speech and potential future joint bills between the GSC and UGS.
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Reason ☛ This City Wants To Ban Gun Ads at the Airport
Commercial speech enjoys First Amendment protections, whether politicians like it or not.
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Reason ☛ Libel Suit: Former Trump National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn vs. Former Lincoln Project Director Fred Wellman
Defendant had (among other things) tweeted about Flynn, "He's a traitor. He's being paid by Putin. Stop pretending Flynn hasn't forsaken his oath to the nation for money." Flynn's Complaint, filed today in Flynn v. Wellman (M.D. Fla.), claims this was a deliberate lie.
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Reason ☛ "Can a Public Official Block You on Social Media?," with Prof. Jeff Rosen, Prof. David Cole, and Me
Jeff Rosen is the head of the National Constitution Center; David Cole is the National Legal Director of the ACLU; we discuss the Supreme Court's cases on the subject, which were argued Tuesday.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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The Dissenter ☛ Alabama Prosecutor Criminalizes Journalists For Publishing 'Grand Jury Evidence'
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France24 ☛ Africa's Sahel region: A media desert
Ten years ago, French radio journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were murdered by a commando from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the north-eastern Malian town of Kidal. Since then, the security situation in Africa’s Sahel region has continually worsened. Today, the vast area stretching from Mauritania to Sudan has become a no man's land for journalists, a black hole for news.
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RFERL ☛ Noted Belarusian Journalist Alyaksandr Mantsevich Gets Four Years In Priosn Amid Crackdown
A court in the town of Maladechna near Minsk sentenced noted Belarusian journalist Alyaksandr Mantsevich to four years in prison on a charge of discrediting the country amid an ongoing crackdown on independent media and democratic institutions by authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Court Sentences In Absentia Former Mediazona Publisher Verzilov To More Than Eight Years
A Moscow court has sentenced in absentia the former publisher of the independent news website Mediazona, Pyotr Verzilov, to 8 1/2 years in prison on a charge of distributing fake news about Russian armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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France24 ☛ 'In Senegal, homophobia follows you even after death': Mob exhumes, burns corpse
A mob in a small town in Senegal dug up the body of a man suspected of being gay, dragged his body through the streets and then burned it during the night of October 28, 2023. While there have been other instances of exhumations of people suspected of being gay, the incident that took place in Kaolack, a town 200 kilometres southeast of Dakar, is different because it was filmed and posted online, says our Observer, a member of a group dedicated to upholding the human rights of LGBT Africans.
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ACLU ☛ White Supremacy is Fueling Extreme Anti-Immigrant Policy in Texas
Last month, Texas lawmakers convened for a special legislative session to debate some of the most extreme anti-immigrant bills any state legislature has ever considered. Already, one such bill — SB 4, which threatens humanitarian workers and family members of undocumented immigrants with severe criminal penalties — was passed by both chambers and is now headed to Gov. Greg Abbott to be signed into law. With just days left in the current legislative session, the legislature is attempting to short-circuit debate and rush through an even more fanatical bill that manufactures a new state crime so that Texas police may arrest, jail, and deport people.
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ACLU ☛ Why I’m Challenging My School’s Sexist Dress Code Policies
Like many teens, it took some time to find the thing I really loved to do. A few years ago, I discovered my love for cross-country running. I loved running so much that I got out of bed to train before the sun rose — a feat my parents described as miraculous. During my freshman year, I set a personal record of a 5:51-minute mile. At the time, it seemed like things could only get better.
Unfortunately, when I returned for my sophomore year at Spring Woods High School, everything changed. We had a new head coach, which came with some concerning changes. I noticed differences in how the girls’ cross-country team was coached and trained as compared to the boys’ team.
For example, I noticed that the boys’ cross-country runners were prioritized in practices and at meets, even though our head coach was hired to train all of us. The boys’ team was assigned longer runs than the girls’ team, and the coaches would often end our practices as soon as the boys’ team finished their run, even if that meant the girls could not finish theirs. Also, a coach would often bike alongside the boys as they ran, giving encouragement and shouting out split times so they knew their pacing. Without encouragement from our coaches, the girls did neighborhood runs alone.
It would have been bad enough if the girls were only being coached unequally as compared to the boys. But the coaches also subjected us to a double standard regarding the dress code.
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Pro Publica ☛ Dark Money Nonprofit With Ties to Texas Billionaire Works to Defeat Midland School Bond [Ed: Funny that in relation to this Pro Publica fails to mention the Bill Gates bribes it takes; he does the same but vastly worse.]
Allies of influential Texas billionaire Tim Dunn are pushing ahead in Austin with efforts to create a private-school voucher system that could weaken public schools across the state. Meanwhile, Dunn’s associates in his hometown of Midland are working to defeat a local school bond proposal that his district says it desperately needs.
Dunn, an evangelical Christian, is best known for a mostly successful two-decade effort to push the Texas GOP ever further to the right. His political action committees have spent millions to elect pro-voucher candidates and derail Republicans who oppose them. Defend Texas Liberty, the influential PAC he funds with other West Texas oil barons, has come under fire after The Texas Tribune revealed that the PAC’s president had hosted infamous white supremacist Nick Fuentes for an October meeting and that the organization has connections to other white nationalists.
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Pro Publica ☛ UC Berkeley Moves Towards Its Largest Repatriation
The University of California, Berkeley, took a significant step this week toward repatriating nearly half of the 9,000 Native American remains it holds in its anthropology museum, saying they do not belong on its campus and should be returned to Indigenous people.
A notice filed Tuesday in the Federal Register indicates UC Berkeley is committed to repatriating 4,440 ancestral remains and nearly 25,000 items — including jewelry, shells, beads and baskets — that were excavated from burial sites across the San Francisco Bay Area. The notice follows extensive consultations between the university and tribes, including those that claim the Bay Area as their ancestral lands but are not recognized by the federal government, the university said.
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Techdirt ☛ Just Because CSLI Warrants Are New-Ish Doesn’t Mean You Can You Can Skimp On The Probable Cause
As far back as I can remember, cell site location info (CSLI) was always covered by the Third Party Doctrine. That court-created doctrine said anything “voluntarily” handed over to third parties can be obtained by the government. Without a warrant.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Techdirt ☛ Google Fiber Back From The Dead, Unveils 20 Gbps Fiber
When Google Fiber launched back in 2010, it was heralded as a game changer for the broadband industry. Google Fiber, we were told, would revolutionize the industry by taking Silicon Valley money and disrupting the viciously uncompetitive and anti-competitive U.S. telecom sector.
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Internet Society ☛ Achieving Greater Heights for MANRS
Partnering with the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), we believe that MANRS will continue to be further established as the globally recognized benchmark for global routing security.
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Latvia ☛ Two thirds of Latvian enterprises have a website
Nearly all commercial enterprises in Latvia use the internet in some way, and more than two-thirds have their own website. Such are the results of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) annual survey on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enterprises.
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JURIST ☛ Gaza Strip experiences complete blackout of communication and Internet services
The Palestinian Telecommunications Company, known as Paltel, reported Wednesday that the Gaza Strip no longer has access to communications or Internet services. The region first experienced communication outages on October 27, following heavy bombing and ground operations by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
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Techdirt ☛ Error 402: But How Do We Pay For Content?
Over the past few weeks of our Error 402 series on the history of web monetization, we talked about the rise of the commercialized internet, and how it enabled transactions online, leading to the original dot com bubble around e-commerce. But, as we noted, nearly all of that was based on using the internet as a kind of glorified mail order catalog to order something physical, rather than something digital.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Techdirt ☛ YouTube TV’s New NFL Sunday Ticket Stream Off To A Rocky Start
Cord-cutting, referred to as some sort of myth for many years, is now an obvious trend. And as I have personally claimed for years now, the last thread that is keeping the cable business in a state that’s anything remotely like its heyday is live sports broadcasts. In the past several years, however, more and more sports are being streamed across more and more services. Perhaps the most prominent of them is YouTube TV, which is as close a proximation of what you get with cable television as I’ve seen. The problem is that, while cable tv has had broadcast flubs with live sports in the past, streaming live sports brings with it new and perilous opportunities for failure. We saw an example of this with the World Cup several years ago, in which a semifinal match suffered from a YouTube TV outage that absolutely enraged fans. More recently, in an NBA playoff game earlier this year, the stream cut out and was replaced by a commercial for the forthcoming The Little Mermaid Disney movie on a loop. For a still young streaming service looking to drive up adoption rates, these experiences are what puts the brakes on YouTube TV gaining more customers who are live sports fans.
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Monopolies
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CCIA ☛ FTC’s Prime Complaint Flubs Facts
When an antitrust suit is brought to court, the plaintiff must prove that there was specific, factually-established conduct...
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Vice Media Group ☛ Amazon Execs Intentionally Made Site Shittier to Rake in More Profit, New Quotes from FTC Lawsuit Show
Former CEO Jeff Bezos instructed executives to "accept more defects," an internal term for irrelevant ads.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Nose of Wax: The Ongoing Ambiguity in Claim Construction Standards
One of the ambiguities with contemporary claim construction is how courts deal with loosely implied limitations from the specification. These do not rise to the level of ‘disclaimer’ but we’re never entirely sure whether the specification-forward approach of Phillips v. AWH will have traction. The courts tend to strongly oppose importing limitations into the claims absent a disclaimer, but claim-language hook can often lead to interpretative narrowing. This becomes even more interesting in situations where the patentee is using a coined term but without an express definition of scope. In those instances it seems appropriate to read more into the the specification — but how much more?
The Federal Circuit’s decision in Malvern Panalytical Inc. v. TA Instruments-Waters LLC, No. 2022-1439 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 1, 2023) offers some guidance — and also rejects the use of prosecution history from a non-family-member application in interpreting patent monopoly claim scope.
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JUVE ☛ Dutch and German judges lead the pack in UPC cases [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional, so these "judges" are puppets of a criminal coup, JUVE being among those paid to lobby and promote it with disinformation]
Prior to its launch, its supporters would often describe the Unified Patent Court as like a heavy, unstoppable oil tanker.
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Software Patents
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Digital Music News ☛ Sonos Officially Appeals After Federal Court Tosses $32.5 Million Jury Verdict
Last month, a federal judge tossed the jury verdict that Sonos had won as part of a high-profile patent monopoly infringement battle with Google. Now, the self-described sound experience company is officially appealing the decision. Sonos just recently submitted a notice of appeal in the years-running dispute, according to legal documents obtained by DMN.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 30: TTAB Grants Motion for Leave to Take Foreign Discovery Depositions by Videoconference
In this opposition proceeding concerning likelihood of confusion and dilution of the mark INSTAGRAM, the Board granted Instagram's motion for leave to take the discovery depositions of two Australia-based officers of Instagoods by oral examination via videoconference. Instagoods refused to consent to the request, but the Board found that Instagram established "good cause" under Rule 2.120(c)(1). Instagram, LLC v. Instagoods Pty Ltd and Instagoods Pty Ltd v. Instagram, LLC, Consolidated Oppositions Nos. 91266266 and 91285552 (October 11, 2023) [precedential] (Ashlyn Lembree, Interlocutory Attorney).
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ Apple Music Quietly Discontinues $4.99 Monthly Voice Plan
After a short two years, Fashion Company Apple has quietly discontinued its voice only plan for Fashion Company Apple Music. Here’s why.
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Project Censored ☛ Considering Bandcamp’s Changing Role in Music Industry Amid Layoffs
Much has been said about how broken the music streaming structure is for artists. Music insiders have long criticized services for their lack of transparency and disregard for songwriters and performers. Just last week, Music Business Worldwide reported that Spotify plans to slash its already meager royalty rates for its lowest-streaming artists. In 2015, singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom, whose music has never appeared on the platform, called Spotify a “villainous cabal of major labels” that was “built from the ground up as a way to circumvent the idea of paying their artists.”
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Public Domain Review ☛ Divide and Concur: A Radical Plan for Peace in Europe (1920)
A map and pamphlet that proposes dividing Central Europe into 24 sector-shaped cantons, among other eccentric reforms aimed at peace.
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Digital Music News ☛ ASCAP Formally Weighs in on AI, Calling for Enhanced Copyright Office Guidance and Opposing ‘Any Compulsory Licensing Requirements’
A little over one month after a number of ASCAP songwriters urged legislative action on artificial intelligence, the performance rights organization (PRO) has forwarded nearly 60 pages’ worth of music-specific Hey Hi (AI) commentary and regulatory recommendations to the Copyright Office.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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On getting tired of *seemingly* being the only one...
I occasionally enjoy morphing frustration with others into statements that begin with "I still can't believe I'm apparently the only person who's ever lived who...". It's almost always only for my wife's benefit. And she's almost always not impressed. :-)
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Dealerships are the worst
I started getting the warning light that my key fob's battery was getting low. I look at the thing and it's not obvious how to open it, so I assume it's the usual auto industry BS of some proprietary opening device and probably a specialized battery for no reason other than to capture all the business of replacing them.
So I call the nearest Honda dealership. Of course, if I had any confidence that I could just walk in to the place and talk to a mechanic I'm sure it'd be a 3 minute interaction: they get out their specialized opening tool, pop in a new proprietary Honda battery, and I pay and go on my way. But instead I'm spending 10 minutes on hold for the service department, which just transfers me to the parts department where I spend another 5 minutes on hold before giving up. I try calling the next closest and spend another 10 minutes on hold before giving up there as well.
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Thoughts on Listening to Kenny G (2021)
Listening to Kenny G (2021) is a very fascinating look at the extraordinarily polarizing musician Kenny G. I've had it on my watchlist since YourMovieSucks—one of very few film reviewers I trust to give authentic opinions without just following popular opinion or industry pressure—gave it glowing praise in one of his film festival reviews before the film's public release, but I never got around to watching it until yesterday.
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Peek-a-boo, where/who are you?
We refer to now as "the present" because I AM always present.
But not as the ego/clown/monster, which is merely an "I" thought plus nested attribute thoughts.
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Science
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Stargazing: Orion's Belt, Betelgeuse — Fairbanks, AK, USA (publ. 2023-11-03)
The three bright stars, from right to left, are lettered δ (delta), ε (epsilon), and ζ (zeta) in Orion. Seems like there are a lot of memorable patterns here. The stars to the left (east) of δ make a rough half-circle. The bottom of that half-circle trails off into a wavy shape that looks like a letter "M", or two mountain peaks, tilted 90 degrees to clockwise. ζ is wedged in-between these two sets of curvy triplets of stars. And δ, ε, and ζ together, taken with the two bright stars above and below ζ, make a rough arrow shape.
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Technology and Free Software
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nostalgy
The nineties are when you dream of SEGA and they give you a NES clone, you play "Yiear Kung FU" - imagining that it is Mortal Kombat 2, and in the rest of the civilized world everyone is already playing Play Station.
The epigraph is so-so, but it makes it clear how bad it is to bring such things up again, in other words, to be nostalgic.
Nostalgia is such a thing, it makes you remember good times as if they really were good, but almost always this is far from the case. You were young, young, and not as experienced as you are now, you remember the good, replacing the bad with something non-existent, or rounding the bad to the point of romanticism. Melancholy is a dangerous thing.
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Yggdrasil's Upgrade
I move data back and forth between my home machines fairly frequently, including while I'm away from home. However, our home Internet service does not include a static IP address. My method of bypassing this is to use Yggdrasil, an IPv6 overlay network using cryptographic keys to assign IP addresses.
Recently Yggdrasil released a major update, from 0.4.7 to 0.5.0--the first version bump in almost a year. Several improvements were introduced to the application, including QUIC support, peer passwords, and PEM key-based node authentication. The biggest change, though, is a change to the routing scheme which is not backwards-compatible. As a result, nodes running 0.5 or higher cannot peer with nodes running 0.4.7 or lower.
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Friday link roundup: November 3, 2023
This has been known about for a while, but new people are still learning every day: The .io domain is allocated for the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is an *extremely recent* example of colonialism and ethnic cleansing.
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A writer's game
Write with dice, this is so much simpler than solitary role-playing games and it's meant to produce a story, one in which not even the author will know for certain where it's going. This, obviously, has the downside of bringing the flow of fiction to a dead end, one where the story cannot be savaged ---except by breaking the rules--- but that's adventure!
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Internet/Gemini
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hello there!
I'm glad to join all of you in geminispace! I have my capsule with agate server, but it doesn't support CGI afaik. Does somebody know how to add them to it? Maybe it's possible to host another server that supports them and make them work on the same domain but different pages? I'm a bit lost
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Esteemed Bubble residents
But I didn't know whether updating the original post would lead to that post somehow rising in Bubble's "All Posts" on the front page (it doesn't), which I imagine might have downsides were that how updating an older post worked with respect to that "All Posts" venue.
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This, that, the other
What is the draw of empty promises of the world that we sacrifice perfectly peaceful tranquility for them?
Try hard to ignore what you think religions have told you about "sin" in what follows:
"Sin" is merely willfully embracing - by believing in - being bound to so much less than you are.
[...]
In distantly related news, it occurred me I could be using "gemget" to scrape the so-called "Lupa database" for Gemini posts containing words of interest.
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I'm here and little lost.
It's only when I started using Lagrange, was I able to "set up an identity" on bbs. It allowed me to create a name and an account on here. I stumbled in, not exactly knowing how I got in, but I'm happy I'm here.
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Re: I'm here and little lost.
Same here. I think I've learned QCP (Quantum Certificate Physics) thrice, now. But the fact I so rarely need to understand it to the point of being able to traverse useful mechanics thereof means it's once again fading fast.
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Thursday afternoon
Re-organized my bookmarks in Lagrange moments before Entropy declared victory.
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It's going so much better this time around
I've been having such a fabulous time finding gemlog's via aggregators and links in subsequently found gemlog posts. I thought I'd attempted to do that in the past, but either just didn't really get what was going on, or there's somehow so much more to find now than then.
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.