Links 24/12/2023: Kangaroo Court Update and a Merry Christmas
Contents
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Leftovers
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Ruben Schade ☛ Site updates: Omake, and no more post abstracts
A bit of housekeeping:
I’ve decided to stop writing summaries/abstracts for posts. I don’t think they were that useful, and I’d stopped exposing them via description metadata a while ago. Instead, I’m going to focus on writing better titles.
My Omake page has been migrated from OPML to my omake XML format. The blogroll remains OPML.
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Science
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists May Have Found an Ancient Path Into America 24,000 Years Ago
A frozen highway lost to history.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Have Invented a Simple New Test For Creativity, And You Can Try It Out
What does 'banana' have to do with 'handball'?
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Education
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The Straits Times ☛ No good grades, no good jobs: How China’s youth are chasing their dreams in an uncertain future
Four young people speak candidly on how they have redefined personal success but also hold fears about their future.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ China's GPU sales fell 8 percent from October to November due to shortages but are still up 11 percent YoY
Although November's GPU sales in China were 11% higher compared to November 2022, sales are down since last October.
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CNX Software ☛ SONOFF iPlug S60 – A $10.9 compact WiFi smart socket with built-in energy monitoring function
SONOFF iPlug S60 is a compact ESP32-C3-based WiFi smart socket with built-in energy monitoring support and available with either Type E/F or Type G prongs for respectively European and British markets, as well as other countries using those types of sockets.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ Can't Hear Conversation When There's Noise Around? A Study Links This to Dementia Risk
This might be hard for some to hear.
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Science Alert ☛ Alarming Increase in Microplastics Detected in Human Placentas
We urgently need more research.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Air pollution in China worsens in 2023, for the first time in a decade
China’s air pollution worsened in 2023, the first time it has done so in a decade, a study released on Friday said.
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YLE ☛ Food Authority orders removal of "dangerous" spicy chips from Finnish market
There are many videos posted online of people eating extremely spicy foods, including the Hot-Chip Challenge tortilla chips.
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European Commission ☛ Gaza: Joint Statement by High Representative Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič on the risk of famine
European Commission Statement Brussels, 22 Dec 2023 We are deeply shocked by the results of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment for Gaza released on Thursday.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Latvia ☛ Latvia's Strops Technologies develops new kind of camera
Strops Technologies, a video surveillance system company, is developing its next-generation camera and system, which uses artificial intelligence to reduce manual labour spent identifying whether an unauthorised vehicle or public transport is using a bus lane.
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Defence/Aggression
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RFA ☛ Myanmar junta kills 7-year-old in northern airstrike
Troops killed a man, torched homes and stole rice in another Sagaing region village.
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New York Times ☛ Strike in Somalia Said to Kill Mastermind of Attacks on Americans and Kenyans
Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of the extremist group al-Shabab, was believed responsible for attacks in Kenya on a university town that killed 148 people, and on a U.S. military base that killed three Americans.
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RFA ☛ N Korea’s second nuclear reactor seems operational: IAEA
Activities at Yongbyon facility spark concern about Pyongyang acquiring additional sources for nuclear weapons.
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Defence Web ☛ SAAF Chief visits China
Following the September visit to South Africa by General Chang Dingqiu, Commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLA Air Force), December saw SA Air Force (SAAF) Chief, Lieutenant General Wiseman Mbambo, repay the courtesy.
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Federal News Network ☛ Bridging the military financial readiness gap through tailored guidance
As a former U.S. Air Force pilot and current leader of more than 500 advisers, I understand the financial challenges military members face. Military families are immersed in a culture of service, sacrifice and frequent relocation that often puts their financial security on the back-burner.
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France24 ☛ Assad regime bombs civilian area near Aleppo to retaliate against rebels
Five civilians were killed when the Syrian regime bombed the town of Darrat Azza on December 17, 2023. Darrat Azza is part of an area held by rebels opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Among the dead are a pregnant woman and a child. Our Observers on the ground say that the bombing was intense and that it deliberately targeted civilians.
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RFA ☛ After 3 years, Chinese who left during pandemic return to North Korea
About 70 Hwagyo will soon return to their homes; some were separated from family members.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Atlantic Council ☛ Navigating Sweden’s NATO membership: Insights for political and operational adaptation
Sweden is on the cusp of joining Finland as NATO's newest members, bridging a crucial gap in the region's security architecture and creating new opportunities for closer security cooperation. Once Sweden is in NATO, the Baltic Sea will be a geographically coherent strategic space—or, in more casual parlance, a "NATO lake."
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RFERL ☛ Putin Signs Decree On Temporary State Takeover Of Russia's Biggest Auto Dealer
Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 22 signed a decree on temporarily putting Rolf, the country's largest auto dealership, under state management.
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Environment
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong logs 32% waste recovery rate in 2022 as NGO says city still far from sustainability goals
Hong Kong recovered 32 per cent of its municipal waste in 2022, as an NGO said the city still has a long way to go in reaching its sustainability goals. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) on Friday released the city’s waste statistics for 2022.
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Energy/Transportation
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Silicon Angle ☛ Futuristic transit company Hyperloop One to shut down
After years of attempting to reinvent the nature of transit with a futuristic tube-based concept that would bring passengers and freight between locations at high speed, the startup Hyperloop One is shuttering its doors on Dec. 31.
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New York Times ☛ North Korea’s New Reactor Increases Ability to Produce Plutonium
A light-water reactor could provide more weapons-grade plutonium, abetting the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s vow to expand his nuclear arsenal.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Boeing delivering 1st plane to Chinese airline since 2019
Boeing said Thursday that a 787 Dreamliner plane will be delivered to Juneyao Airlines, the US aviation giant’s first commercial delivery to a Chinese carrier since 2019. The jet departed from Everett, Washington en route to land at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, according to FlightAware.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Science Alert ☛ Flowers Are Evolving to Self-Pollinate, And It Could Be a Big Problem
This may have serious consequences.
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Finance
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YLE ☛ Finland's unemployment rate continues to tick upwards
There were 26,000 more people unemployed last month compared to November of 2022, with Finland's unemployment rate among 15-74-year-olds now standing at 7.6 percent.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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NYPost ☛ Wisconsin’s liberal Supreme Court strikes down state’s legislative maps, orders them redrawn before 2024 elections
The liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ordered state lawmakers to redraw legislative maps which have allowed Republicans to control the Legislature in the Midwestern swing state since 2011.
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RFERL ☛ Hundreds Of Kazakh Oil Workers Continue Strike As Two Of Them Fall Ill
More than 500 oil workers in Kazakhstan’s western region of Manghystau are continuing a strike launched almost two weeks ago despite two of their colleagues falling ill on December 21 with blood pressure problems.
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France24 ☛ Macron accused of doing far-right’s bidding with stricter immigration law
French President Emmanuel Macron is under renewed fire after urging his minority government to vote for a strengthened immigration bill that was endorsed by the far right. The late Tuesday vote, which divided Macron's coalition MPs and prompted his health minister to resign a day later, was heralded by far-right leader Marine Le Pen as an “ideological victory” upon its passage.
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RFA ☛ China’s Pooh-tin Jinping to pay homage at Mao mausoleum amid fears of new personality cult
The move comes as state media lauds the legacy of Mao Zedong, claim Pooh-tin is a red 'reformer' like his father.
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RFA ☛ US defense bill spends big against China’s maritime claims
The $886 billion bill includes $16 billion to deter China’s sovereignty claims and approves key parts of AUKUS.
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YLE ☛ Find your candidate with Yle's presidential election compass
Yle's presidential election compass offers a viewpoint on how the candidates line up on various issues.
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YLE ☛ Helsinki plans to "urgently" tackle problems at Central Station taxi rank
The move follows an Yle investigation which revealed that some taxi drivers feel that the ranks have become territorial and violent.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Federal News Network ☛ IG criticizes IRS effort to enforce Fentanylware (TikTok) ban
In today's Federal Newscast: The National Security Agency issued its cybersecurity year-in-review report. A new document calls on DoD to improve its processes for civilian harm reduction. And the Treasury IG said the IRS needs to do more to enforce the Fentanylware (TikTok) ban.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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JURIST ☛ India Parliament lower house passes bill to reform telecommunications sector
The lower house of India’s Parliament, the Lok Sabha, passed the Telecommunications Bill, 2023. The bill passed on Wednesday through a voice vote after the government hailed the bill as one of the biggest reforms in the sector.
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RFA ☛ Hong Kong court rejects bid to get Jimmy Lai's sedition charge dropped
Lawyers for the Fashion Company Apple Daily founder had argued that the prosecution had exceeded a time limit for the charge.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Yum Cha: Democrat Emily Lau recalls early morning visit from Hong Kong national security police
Police officers from Hong Kong’s National Security Department visited democracy and rights advocate Emily Lau at her home in August 2021 to request information about the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG), which was later dissolved.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China unveils new gaming curbs, sending tech giant Tencent stocks tumbling
China on Friday announced new plans to restrict the online gaming industry, sending shares in tech giants including Tencent tumbling. New draft restrictions published online by the regulator are aimed at limiting in-game purchases and compulsive playing behaviour.
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New York Times ☛ Substack Says It Will Not Ban Nazis or Extremist Speech
Responding to criticism of its hands-off approach to content moderation, the company said it would not ban Nazi symbols or extremist rhetoric so long as newsletter writers do not incite violence.
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Reason ☛ Social Media Censorship and The First Amendment
Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya debates St. John University's Kate Klonick on the federal government's role in social control media censorship.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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France24 ☛ Why Gaza war is most deadly conflict for journalists in recent history
At least 68 journalists and media workers have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. No other conflict has taken so many journalists' lives in such a short timeframe, with Palestinian journalists in Gaza accounting for the vast majority of the victims. FRANCE 24's Erin Ogunkeye spoke to Tim Dawson, Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, about these killings and the widespread claims that journalists are being deliberately targeted by the Israeli military.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Reason ☛ ICE Leaked These Asylum Seekers' Personal Information. A Court Just Dismissed Their Lawsuit.
“The victims may not have been persecuted or tortured due to the data breach yet, but the likelihood of those outcomes has increased due to ICE’s conduct.”
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Mozilla ☛ Mozilla Open Policy & Advocacy Blog: Mozilla’s Comments to FCC: Net Neutrality Essential for Competition, Innovation, Privacy
[Read our full submission here]
Net neutrality – the concept that your internet provider should not be able to block, throttle, or prioritize elements of your internet service, such as to favor their own products or business partners – is on the docket again in the United States. With the FCC putting out a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to reinstate net neutrality, Mozilla weighed in last week with a clear message: the FCC should reestablish these common sense rules as soon as possible.
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Patents
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JUVE ☛ Huawei and Bird & Bird successful against Amazon in dispute over wifi routers
[Ed: This corrupt site, which lobbies for crimes, fails to disclose that the parties bribe it for marketing, so it is cherry-picking how or what it covers]Two European subsidiaries of Amazon and Eero – a manufacturer of wifi routers also owned by Amazon – have infringed European patent monopoly EP 3334112 and may now no longer sell Wifi-6-capable products in Germany. The Regional Court Munich handed down this ruling on December 15, on the same day as the hearing.
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Kangaroo Courts
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Unified Patent Court: 160 cases since June 2023 [Ed: This is an illegal kangaroo court. It serves EU critics by serving to show that the laws and constitutions got abolished in an act of corruption. This court can be dismantled if many countries leave the EU, seeing the EPO's corruption.]
Since the start of operations 1 June 2023, the Unified Patent Court has received 160 cases. The court published an overview of the cases last week. The German local divisions are by far the most popular for infringement actions, and the language of 49 percent of the cases is German as well.
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Copyrights
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Ruben Schade ☛ The freemium model to support web “content”
Mike Masnick wrote an interesting post for TechDirt about the history of paywalls, online advertising, and the race to find a viable business model to support people. He quotes Fred Wilson who observed in 2006:
Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc, then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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As December races by
Our bar performance was a blast last night. It wasn't an easy crowd to read, but the owner assured us she'd heard from many patrons that they hoped she brings us back. I'm quite happy about that, as it's a beautiful venue, and less than a mile from home.
We've our third performance in three days this afternoon, then off to the family Christmas gathering.
Of course, that's just a thought, as is the thought that it's just a thought, as is the thought of there being a free-willed individual having said thoughts, and then more thought underlying *that* thought... and... and....
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highlights of 12023
this year, my theme of the year was oleaje (waves). the idea was to observe the cycles regarding interests, patterns of thought, initiatives, self-perception, and more, that I tend to move in. it was very enlightening!
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Data loss, memory
So, I lost my data quite a few times. Yesterday I found a backup on a USB drive I didn't knew existed.
And... I didn't open it yet. The few file names I saw seem to be from 2-years-ago-me.
I'm not sure how I feel about that guy.
I'm not sure I want to know how I feel about that guy.
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Memory Holed: Berkey Water Filters vs the EPA
Remember when the EPA decided to arbitrarily designate Berkey water filters as a pesticide, because they are capable of filtering viruses? Probably not, since their largest distributor was forced offline today, and the EPA article they wrote doesn't even show up on Archive.org. I read it yesterday though, and my brain isn't available for the Federal Gov to wipe (yet).
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Merry Christmas!
Another trip around the sun. The longest days of darkness are now behind us, only just, and the days of light are coming back once again. I, for one, can't wait. I don't usually have too much depression during the darker months, but they are disruptive to my sleep patterns to a degree.
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Technology and Free Software
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Do you like software freedom? What about freedom in Christ?
If you're reading this on gemini, you probably have some awareness of of the Free Software Movement. ("Free" does not refer to the neccesity of payment, but to the permissions licensed to the user) While the Open Source "Movement" suggests pragmatic reasons why one should use free software, the FSM has been rooted in morality. The Free Software Movement rejects proprietary software as invalid, or evil. Adherence to the Free Software Movement often looks like replacing the proprietary software (which is already entrenched in your life) with free (as in freedom) equivalents.
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With the year coming to an end...
With the year coming to an end, I was thinking about what would make me switch away from FF. There's only one thing: security. With a dwindling market share, and a C-suite that seems to be distracted at best, the risk is that the team is too small.
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RSS and my web experience
While I may not be typical I am an example of a web user who experiences much of the web via RSS. I read blog and site content via RSS. I "follow" my friends and colleagues via RSS.
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Find Bluesky RSS Feeds
This makes things much more convienient for me. The RSS feed is visible via the HTML markup on a person's profile page (which are now public).
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Internet/Gemini
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Four things Fedi could become
Topic-based mailing lists and IRC channels were a huge part of the Internet when I grew up. For those a li’l younger, think subreddits or tumblr tags, or Discord servers. Now, ActivityPub doesn’t support hashtags well but FEP-1b12 can be the ticket here.
To me this is a throwback to when the internet was manageable and cozy and fun. Yeah, yeah, there are some super toxic subreddits and tumblr tags and there were some epic and super damaging email flamewars. It doesn’t solve everything. But it’s damage control.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.