Links 05/01/2024: Russia's Help From North Korea and Return of COVID-19 Alerts
Contents
- Leftovers
- 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/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Kev Quirk ☛ When Will I Stop Blogging?
In short, I agree with Matt. I hope I’ll be able to blog for the rest of my life, but the likelihood is that it'll just fizzle out at some point. Matt’s point about the community moving on is what I think will be the most likely scenario for this all ending. After all, that’s the main reason why I blog.
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Education
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Lawrence Tratt ☛ Choosing What To Read
Like many people, I spend a lot of time reading. Since there is much more that I could read than there is time for, I have to make choices about what I should read. In this short post I’m going to outline what my reading choices have become and why. My aim isn’t to suggest that anyone else should make the same choices – indeed, they’re intensely personal – but, rather, that thinking about such choices is worthwhile.
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New York Times ☛ The Problems Only Start With Plagiarism
In Claudine Gay’s case, the plagiarism — and I think it qualifies as plagiarism — seems a venial sin rather than a mortal one. Yes, her doctoral dissertation and several of her academic papers appear to duplicate the language of other scholars in a way that fails to give sufficient credit. But that in itself isn’t irredeemable; when a couple of punctuation marks or a footnote can be all that separates vice from virtue, there’s a lot of room for interpretation and for honest error. However, plagiarism is a signifier of potentially much more damning sloppiness: Even when, as here, it isn’t an egregious case of trying to claim credit for someone else’s ideas, it can be a sign that the work has more fundamental problems. It’s a signal to advisers and peers to give that work extra scrutiny, scrutiny that is sadly lacking.
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The Atlantic ☛ The Plagiarism War Has Begun
This seemed wrong to me. I was there when I wrote the thing, and I’d have remembered copying seven out of every 10 words from other sources, even 20 years later. Turns out it was wrong. I wrote the dissertation from 2002 to 2004, and the plagiarism software checks a work against whatever it finds—even if the compared text was published later. As Bailey told me, “iThenticate doesn’t detect plagiarism. It detects copied or similar text.” From there, Bailey said, “You have to do a lot of manual work.”
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Hardware
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The Drone Girl ☛ Why Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks paid an important drone company a visit
And Skydio’s military production will likely only increase, given news earlier this year that Skydio would shut down its consumer drone arm. The reasoning wasn’t because Skydio was struggling. Instead, the move was to capitalize on the need for building drones and related products for enterprise and defense industries. Shortly after that announcement, Skydio went on to host a mega press event where it launched its Skydio X10 drone, an enterprise-range drone that stands out for its high-resolution cameras.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Jamie Zawinski ☛ How the press manufactured consent for never-ending COVID reinfections
Add these factors together: how do you run a society with a constantly, rapidly increasing subset of the population long-term ill? Frankly, it doesn't make any sense. It's not only a moral issue; yes, I believe it's wrong to forcibly infect everyone with a vascular disease with unknown long-term health effects over and over again. But it's also just practically unfeasible to operate a functional economy while rapidly disabling the workforce.
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Futurism ☛ Scientists Say They’ve Invented a Way to Turn Genes On and Off Like Light Switches
That's why it's intriguing that scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine have published research in the science journal Nature Biotechnology that they say may crack the code on how to safely control these modified genes, switching them on and off with the molecular equivalent of a dinner room light switch dimmer.
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Hackaday ☛ DIY Chemistry Points The Way To Open Source Blood Glucose Testing
Every diabetic knows that one of the major burdens of the disease is managing supplies. From insulin to alcohol wipes, diabetes is a resource-intensive disease, and running out of anything has the potential for disaster. This is especially true for glucose test trips, the little electrochemical dongles that plug into a meter and read the amount of glucose in a single drop of blood.
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Latvia ☛ Flu incidence grows in Latvia
The incidence of influenza in Latvia continued to increase gradually last week, while the incidence rate of Covid-19 stabilized, according to January 3 monitoring data from the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC).
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hongkongers urged to mask up and get jabbed as peak flu season approaches
Hong Kong is nearing the peak of its influenza season, the Centre for Health Protection has said, urging residents to wear masks in crowded places and get flu and Covid booster shots.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Gizmodo ☛ Researchers Say There’s a 5% Chance That AI Will Cause Human Extinction
The survey asked 2,778 scientists who had published peer-reviewed AI studies about their predictions for the future. The overwhelming feeling? Uncertainty.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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EFF ☛ EFF Asks Court to Uphold Federal Law That Protects Online Video Viewers’ Privacy and Free Expression
For decades, the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) has safeguarded people’s viewing habits by generally requiring services that offer videos to the public to get their customers’ written consent before disclosing that information to the government or a private party. Although Congress enacted the law in an era of physical media, the VPPA applies to internet users’ viewing habits, too.
The VPPA, however, is under attack by Patreon. That service for content creators and viewers is facing a lawsuit in a federal court in Northern California, brought by users who allege that the company improperly shared information about the videos they watched on Patreon with Facebook.
Patreon argues that even if it did violate the VPPA, federal courts cannot enforce it because the privacy law violates the First Amendment on its face under a legal doctrine known as overbreadth. This doctrine asks whether a substantial number of the challenged law’s applications violate the First Amendment, judged in relation to the law’s plainly legitimate sweep. Courts have rightly struck down overbroad laws because they prohibit vast amounts of lawful speech. For example, the Supreme Court in Reno v. ACLU invalidated much of the Communications Decency Act’s (CDA) online speech restrictions because it placed an “unacceptably heavy burden on protected speech.”
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International Business Times ☛ The UK Border Force Facial Recognition Trial at UK Airports Puts the Spotlight on Immigration
The new passport-free travel measures and UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) abre part of the UK government's plan to speed up the immigration process as it would help the border force in making admission decisions and fixing ID issues.b
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Greece ☛ Your car is tracking you. Abusive partners may be, too.
Dowdall called Mercedes customer service repeatedly to try to remove her husband’s digital access to the car, but the loan and title were in his name, a decision the couple had made because he had a better credit score than hers. Even though she was making the payments, had a restraining order against her husband and had been granted sole use of the car during divorce proceedings, Mercedes representatives told her that her husband was the customer so he would be able to keep his access. There was no button she could press to take away the app’s connection to the vehicle.
“This is not the first time that I’ve heard something like this,” one of the representatives told Dowdall.
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The Register UK ☛ NHS England published heavily redacted Palantir contract as festivities began
Critics have pointed out that redacting a significant proportion of the contract and publishing it in the run-up to the festive season hardly fulfilled NHS England's promise to ensure "that trust and transparency lessons have been learnt."
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[Old] National Health Service UK ☛ Data platform FAQs
FDP-AS is not a ‘like for like’ replacement of the contract that NHS England currently has with Palantir for the provision of Foundry.
We have deliberately reassessed our data analytics requirements over those that emerged during the pandemic and have not stipulated the solution to deliver these requirements. Any supplier can respond with their solution.
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The United Kingdom ☛ Federated Data Platform and Associated Services
This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.
PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES UK, LTD. -
Gannett ☛ Major porn site blocks North Carolina users, urging them to oppose new state law
The second most-visited porn site in the world is blocking North Carolina users ahead of a state law set to take effect Monday.
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Politico LLC ☛ A Simple Law Is Doing the Impossible. It’s Making the Online Porn Industry Retreat.
Though the first of its kind, Louisiana’s age-verification bill was not the last. Nearly identical bills have passed in six other states — Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, Utah, Virginia and Texas — by similarly lopsided margins. In Utah and Arkansas, the bills passed unanimously. The laws were passed by overwhelming margins in legislatures controlled by both parties and signed into law by Democratic and Republican governors alike. In just over a year, age-verification laws have become perhaps the most bipartisan policy in the country, and they are creating havoc in a porn industry that many had considered all but impossible to actually regulate.
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Associated Press ☛ North Carolina legislature cracks down on pornography sites with new age verification requirements
Similar age verification requirements passed by other state legislatures have had varied success in court.
A federal judge struck down a Texas law requiring age verification and health warnings to view pornographic websites earlier this month and blocked the state attorney general’s office from enforcing it. The judge agreed with claims that the law violated free speech rights and was overbroad and vague.
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Tedium ☛ The Gator Bites Back: Facebook’s new “Link History” anti-feature reminds me of a very old data-siphoning trick: Create something of nominal value to convince consumers to give up the goods.
To be clear, it’s not a total shock that Facebook is using this data to siphon your information. It’s likely been doing this for years, only now it’s asking through the front door, because it really has no other choice. Regulators are putting too much pressure on Meta to support anything that isn’t front-facing, and additionally the biggest player in the smartphone game, Apple, has been slowly winnowing down its access to data.
So now, it’s stuck asking (really, informing with a clear exit sign), rather than Facebook just taking. It actually feels kinda like a throwback. I was there back in the day when the social network convinced thousands of websites to put their code on it in exchange for the ability to get a like button or a list of fans. It seemed so nice at the time, but it was hiding something: A bunch of code that gave it an external social graph, and an understanding of the further reaches of the Web.
It was a Trojan horse, and we fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Once it had everything it needed behind its walled garden, it didn’t really need to focus on those goofy little widgets anymore.
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India Times ☛ TikTok looks to take on Amazon in US, eyes $17.5 billion shopping business in 2024
TikTok’s ambitious target sets up a clash not just with Amazon but also fellow Chinese-owned outfits Temu and Shein, who’ve been making big strides among younger American shoppers. Unlike its two rival discounters, TikTok is counting on its social media reach and the appeal of viral videos to hook buyers.
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Salon ☛ Fear of MAGA "backlash" is no reason to let Donald Trump make an illegal run for president
There's no use pretending Trump didn't engage in insurrection in his two-month campaign to overthrow an election. Even Trump's lawyers don't really contest that he did it, which is why they resort to a nonsensical argument that the presidency isn't an office of the United States. This is an obviously dumb argument from people who are out of ideas.
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RFERL ☛ Russian [Crackers] Were Inside Ukraine Telecoms Giant For Months, Says Cyberespionage Chief
Russian hackers were inside Ukrainian telecoms giant Kyivstar's system from at least May last year in a cyberattack that should serve as a "big warning" to the West, Ukraine's cyberespionage chief told Reuters. [...]
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New York Times ☛ Mike Sadler, Intrepid Desert Navigator in World War II, Dies at 103
“His navigating skills were legendary,” wrote Sean Rayment, the author of the book “Tales From the Special Forces Club: Mike Sadler’s Story” (2013). He said Mr. Sadler’s skills had “helped to ensure the success of some of the S.A.S.’s most spectacular missions during the North African campaign.”
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Techdirt ☛ California Judge Says Because Snapchat Has Disappearing Messages, Section 230 Doesn’t Apply To Lawsuits Over Snapchat Content
Well, this is dumb. As detailed by NBC News, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff has rejected a perfectly reasonable attempt by SnapChat to have a lawsuit thrown out on Section 230 grounds. The case involves family members of kids who overdosed on illegal drugs like fentanyl, suing Snap for apparently providing the connection between the drug dealers and the kids.
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Defence/Aggression
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Insight Hungary ☛ Hungary denies extradition request for Russian linked to high-profile murder
Hungary has declined Ukraine's request to extradite a Russian man accused of involvement in the 2017 killing of Amina Okuyeva, a member of the volunteer Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, RFE/RL reports. Ukrainian law enforcement arrested Igor Redkin and three others in 2020, suspecting their role in the fatal shooting of Okuyeva and the injury of her husband, Adam Osmayev, in Kyiv.
Former Ukrainian lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk, Okuyeva's former adviser, revealed that Redkin had violated house arrest conditions and fled Ukraine during the initial days of Russia's full-scale invasion. Mosiychuk confirmed that Redkin is in Hungary.
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RFERL ☛ Islamic State Claims Its Suicide Bombers Were Responsible For Deadly Blasts In Iran
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for a pair of explosions in Iran that killed at least 84 people during commemorations for a former Iranian commander slain four years ago in a U.S. airstrike.
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teleSUR ☛ Iran Asks UN Security Council to Condemn Kerman Attack
On Thursday, the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Democracy Now ☛ Can Russia Be Defeated? Nina Khrushcheva on Why “the West Must Face Reality in Ukraine”
As Ukraine and Russia complete an exchange of nearly 500 prisoners amid ongoing hostilities, American news outlets are reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be open to ceasefire talks behind the scenes. But in Moscow, “That’s not how we see it,” says Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. “Putin has been quite clear from the beginning that Russia is going to achieve all its goals,” and, despite international sanctions, the majority sentiment in Russia is that even ceasefire negotiations will result in the country ending the war “on stronger terms,” Krushcheva says.
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Meduza ☛ Over 30 drones shot down over Russian-annexed Crimea, says Russian Defense Ministry — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ WSJ: Russia in talks with Iran to buy short-range ballistic missiles — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia reports 10 missiles shot down over Belgorod region — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘My aunt died because of you’: How a Russian quack doctor in Kyrgyzstan may be helping Moscow duck sanctions — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian missile shot down over western Russia — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Putin issues decree granting Russian citizenship to foreigners who sign one-year contract with Russian army during war against Ukraine — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ U.S. National Security Council spokesperson says Putin does not seem ready to negotiate, despite media reports saying otherwise — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia says one injured after Ukrainian missiles shot down over Crimea — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Ukrainian military intelligence says Su-34 bomber plane caught fire in Russia — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ North Korea has given Russia ballistic missiles and launchers, says U.S. National Security Council spokesperson — Meduza
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Atlantic Council ☛ To defeat Putin in a long war, Ukraine must switch to active defense in 2024
By embracing a strategy of active defense in 2024, Kyiv can achieve the twin goals of preventing any major Russian advances and creating conditions that strongly favor Ukraine in what is increasingly a war of attrition, writes Mykola Bielieskov.
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JURIST ☛ Russia offers citizenship to foreign fighters in Ukraine war
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on Thursday allowing foreign nationals fighting for Russia in its war in Ukraine to obtain Russian citizenship for themselves and their families. The decree comes just days after the UN condemned Russia for a recent spate of attacks in Ukraine, as the war nears its third year.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Belarus opposition are key allies in the fight against Russian imperialism
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominates Europe’s geopolitical agenda, but neighboring Belarus is also a critical battleground in the fight back against Putin’s resurgent brand of Russian imperialism, write Tatsiana Kulakevich and Michael Berg.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Russia’s invasion aims to erase Ukrainian cultural identity
Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine seeks to destroy Ukraine's national heritage and erase Ukrainian identity. The authorities in Kyiv should respond by placing Ukrainian culture at the heart of the country's recovery efforts, writes Martha Holder.
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RFERL ☛ Putin Signs Citizenship Decree To Attract Foreigners To Fight For Russia
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree expediting Russian citizenship to foreigners who sign at least one-year contracts to serve in the military or in "military formations."
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New York Times ☛ Putin’s Drive to Rewrite History Snares a Retired Lithuanian Judge
A few years ago, Kornelija Maceviciene ruled against Soviet officers for a brutal crackdown on pro-independence protesters in her country in 1991. That has made her a target for a Russian court.
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CS Monitor ☛ In new Russia Expo, a look at what Putin wants his country to be
The new Russia Expo is offering the country’s public a view of its many regions and cultures. But experts say it also offers a window into Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russia’s present and future.
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Atlantic Council ☛ With Russia focused on Ukraine, Georgia should forge ahead boldly with its Euro-Atlantic ambitions
Georgian officials should recognize the present opportunity to advance stronger ties with Europe and the United States, especially ahead of Georgian elections this year.
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AntiWar ☛ Ukrainian Tragedy That Might Escalate Into Armaggedon
The war in Ukraine is about to enter its 3rd year with no signs of ending, meaning more deaths and destruction for this unfortunate country.
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AntiWar ☛ Should US Taxpayers Cover Ukraine’s Pensions?
Thus far, the US federal government has spent about $9 billion on Ukrainian pensions. If Congress approves President Biden’s next supplemental aid package, the Ukrainian pension payments will continue at a rate of up to $600 million per month.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Why is the UN secretary-general so worried about Gaza but not Ukraine?
António Guterres should apply the same standard to Ukraine as he did to Gaza and put forward a Security Council resolution addressing Russia's nuclear threats.
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Scoop News Group ☛ Russian hackers reportedly breached telecom network months before attack
The attack on Kyivstar took out mobile and home internet service for as many as 24 million people in Ukraine.
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JURIST ☛ Ukraine and Russia announce first prisoner exchange since August
Ukraine and Russia announced their first prisoner-of-war exchange since August 2023 on Wednesday. The exchange involved a total of nearly 500 prisoners captured by both Ukraine and Russia. Following the exchange, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted its mediation efforts in the exchange.
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JURIST ☛ EU imposes sanctions on world’s largest diamond mining company against Russia
The Council of the European Union (EU) announced new sanctions imposed on the company PJSC Alrosa and its CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev on Wednesday. The EU Council claimed that the sanctions imposed represent the unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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LRT ☛ Lithuania strongly protests Russia’s airstrikes on Ukraine
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed its strong protest to Russia over the missile and drone attack on Ukraine.
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LRT ☛ Kaunas mayor’s Vičiūnai Group added to Ukraine’s list of war sponsors
Vičiūnai Group, controlled by Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and his business partner Liudas Skierus, was added to Ukraine’s list of international war sponsors, the country’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has announced.
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RFA ☛ Russia fired North Korean missiles into Ukraine, US says
A White House spokesperson said the US was still assessing the impact of launches on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Has Used North Korean Ballistic Missiles In Ukraine, Is Seeking Iranian Missiles, U.S. Says
The White House on January 4 said U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran for use in its war in Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ NATO Calls Meeting Of New Ukraine Council Amid Massive Russian Attacks
NATO will hold a meeting with diplomats and officials from the alliance's members and Ukraine on January 10 to address the situation surrounding a wave of deadly Russian aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities across the country.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Says Reports It Wants Ukraine To Change War Strategy 'Not True'
The U.S. State Department says reports that Washington wants Ukraine to change its strategy in the full-scale war against Russia are untrue.
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RFERL ☛ Death Toll Rises To 32 From Russia's Deadliest Attack On Kyiv Since War Began
The Kyiv City Military Administration said overnight on January 3-4 that criminal investigators examining the scene of the deadliest air attack on the capital so far in the 22-month-old full-scale Russian invasion discovered two more bodies, raising the death toll to 32.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says It Hit Russian Command Post, Military Unit On Crimea
Ukraine said on January 4 that it hit a Russian military command post near Sevastopol and a military unit near the city of Yevpatoria in separate strikes on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine's Mobile Air Defenses Have Ammo To Withstand A 'Few More Attacks,' Says Commander
Kyiv's mobile air defenses have enough ammunition to withstand a few more powerful attacks but then will need more Western aid, Serhiy Nayev, the commander of Ukraine's joint forces, said on January 3.
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RFERL ☛ Polish Farmers Resume Blockade Of Ukraine Border Crossing
Polish farmers resumed their blockade of the Medyka border crossing with Ukraine on January 4, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk attempted to defuse the dispute.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missiles, launchers: White House
January 05, 2024 2:45 AM
North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missiles and launchers for use in Moscow's war against Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing newly declassified intelligence.
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New York Times ☛ A Trophy in Ruins: Evidence Grows That Russia Controls Marinka
Ukraine said it was defending territory behind the eastern frontline town. Its capture would be Russia’s most significant territorial advance in Ukraine in more than six months.
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New York Times ☛ White House Says North Korea Providing Russia With Ballistic Missiles
Russia has rebuilt its own domestic supply of cruise missiles, but to keep up with the intensity of the barrage against Ukraine, it has been turning to North Korea and Iran.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian Transport Minister to call for Russian grain import ban
Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens (Progressives) has again reiterated that imports and transit of Russian and Belarusian grain should be included in the European Union (EU) sanctions list, Latvian Television reported on January 3.
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LRT ☛ Europe will be ‘target of Russian aggression’ unless it maintains military superiority – Polish PM
Europe is the target of Russian aggression and it must maintain military superiority in order to be safe, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.
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New York Times ☛ Russian Oligarch Takes Sotheby’s to Court as Art World Watches
At trial next week, Dmitry Rybolovlev is set to accuse Sotheby’s of helping an art dealer trick him into wildly overspending for works, a claim the company disputes.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Cyble Inc ☛ CourtListener Website Down After Jeffrey Epstein Documents Released
The CourtListener website, a platform hosting crucial documents related to the infamous Jeffrey Epstein case, experienced a sudden crash due to an overwhelming surge in traffic.
The site, operated by the non-profit Free Law Project, initially displayed 40 documents made public by Judge Loretta Preska in New York, shedding light on the convoluted legal history of the disgraced financier and Epstein client list.
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Vice Media Group ☛ The U.S. Court System Couldn't Handle the Epstein Docs Release
America’s court records system wasn’t up to the task, and couldn’t keep up with demand. Anyone familiar with PACER knows that it’s terrible. The connection is spotty, court records are sometimes uploaded incorrectly, and the cost is ridiculous. This is a government-run service where, ostensibly, anybody can access public court documents—a cornerstone of U.S. democracy. As long as you’re willing to pay 10 cents a page or $2.40 per audio file, that is. When the documents run more than 900 pages, the cost adds up to about $35. That’s a barrier for many.
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Environment
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Omicron Limited ☛ Everlasting African wildfires fueled by aerosol feedback
The fire is essentially feeding itself in a kind of feedback loop as aerosols, induced by the perpetual conflagration, interact with the climate. It's a process that plays a critical role in the regulation of African ecosystems, reinforcing wildfires and paving the way for elevated fire seasons in subsequent years.
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Europe grapples with weather extremes
While, Scandinavia battled extreme cold and snowstorms that has disrupted transportation and day-to-day life, western Europe is facing strong winds and heavy rain leading to flood.
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Scandinavian Cold Snap Challenges Green Infrastructure
An unusual and severe cold snap has gripped Scandinavia, sending temperatures plummeting to minus 40 degrees Celsius, equivalent to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This harsh weather has hit the city of Skellefteå, Sweden, particularly hard, providing a striking illustration of how extreme weather events can challenge technological and infrastructure advancements designed to combat climate change.
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The Independent UK ☛ Extreme cold temperatures not seen for decades in Scandinavia cause widespread disruption
A large part of Europe has been swept by a wintry blast of snowstorms and freezing temperatures, with heavy rain and strong winds exacerbating harsh living conditions in the western regions.
The weather conditions have left three people dead in Britain and Netherlands and caused widespread disruption in transport services, power outages, and school closures.
Temperatures plunged to -40C in the Nordic region for a second day in a row on Wednesday while Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter.
Mercury dropped to -43.6C in Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland – the lowest temperature recorded in January in Sweden in 25 years, Sweden’s TT news agency reported.
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Energy/Transportation
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DeSmog ☛ Revealed: Three-quarters of Prestigious Green Advertising Awards Go To Agencies Working for Fossil Fuel Industry
Three-quarters of prizes at the UK’s top sustainable advertising awards went to agencies who work for the fossil fuel industry, a DeSmog analysis has revealed.
The second annual Ad Net Zero awards were held in partnership with industry magazine Campaign in London in November to recognise internal agency sustainability practices and green campaigns on behalf of clients including Heineken, Vodafone, and Sky.
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The Register UK ☛ X-ploited: Mandiant restores hijacked Twitter account after attempted crypto heist
Miscreants took over security giant Mandiant's Twitter account for several hours on Wednesday in an attempt to steal cryptocurrency, then trolled the Google-owned security shop, telling its admins to change the password.
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Tim Bray ☛ Five Electric-Jag Years
I got a note from Jaguar advising that my free five-year “InControl Remote and Protect” subscription was expiring and would be $99/year (Canadian) going forward; thus this (final?) visit to the Jaguar Diary series.
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Gizmodo ☛ Wait, Is Bitcoin Going to Die?
The price of Bitcoin crashed nearly 10% on Wednesday, falling from $45,000 to below $41,000 in mere hours, hurting crypto’s best bull run in a year. But what, or who, could have been the culprit behind the crash? The day before, CNBC’s host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer, directed his powerful investing advice towards Bitcoin.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Pro Publica ☛ After Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Wildfire, Quantifying Victims’ Suffering Becomes a Legal Battle
If an arsonist or a construction company had ignited the fire that destroyed Meg Sandoval’s home and nearly everything she owned, New Mexico law would have allowed her to seek compensation for the stress of being forced to flee, the anguish of losing cherished belongings and the depression that set in as she remained in exile hundreds of miles away.
With few possessions to her name before the fire, that money would be a monumental help as she starts over.
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The Revelator ☛ Antarctica’s Looming Threat
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Overpopulation
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Greece ☛ Experts call for plan to manage water resources
Experts are calling for the implementation of a comprehensive water policy and the creation of a central body for the management of water resources, under a National Sustainable Management Plan, as is the case in other European countries.
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Finance
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Amazon’s Five-Year Corporate Hiring Binge, Revealed
Amazon’s corporate headcount more than tripled over five years to hit around 415,000 by the end of 2022, according to internal figures seen by The Information, far outpacing growth at other big tech companies such as Microsoft and Alphabet.
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Informa PLC ☛ Telefónica kicks off 2024 with plan to cut 20% of Spanish jobs
Many Europeans trudge back into the workplace with a hangover and a despondent feeling after the long Christmas and New Year break. For staff at Spain's Telefónica the mood is likely to be especially somber this January following a deal between company management and trade union reps on layoffs. UGT, CCO and Sumados will claim to have saved jobs, having reportedly warned of more swingeing cuts in December, but a substantial percentage of the workforce will be saying adios (or something ruder) to the telco.
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The Telegraph UK ☛ Recession alarm bells ring for eurozone as Britain bounces back
Britain’s private sector companies ended last year “on a high” just as businesses in the eurozone face a recession, latest survey data show.
Closely-watched purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) compiled by S&P Global show that Britain’s services sector saw the fastest jump in activity in December for six months, beating expectations.
The final composite PMI - covering both manufacturing and services - rose to 52.1 in December, up from 50.7 in November in what was the best performance of all the world’s major economies. A reading above 50 indicates growth.
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Greece ☛ Mobile and [Internet] banking account for most transactions
According to data collected by Kathimerini, the leading alternative digital network for 2023 was mobile banking, with over 5.6 million active users who carried out over 50 million transactions, which exceed in value of 14 billion euros.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Cancelling subscriptions
Some of these were easy. Turns out we were double-paying for a few things, so one of us were able to cancel and merge our accounts into family ones. Other accounts and sites we hadn’t logged into for ages, or our tastes and interests had moved on.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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India Times ☛ Mark Zuckerberg sold nearly half a billion dollars of Meta stock in last two months
The Meta chief executive sold shares on every trading day between Nov. 1 and the end of the year, unloading nearly 1.28 million shares for about $428 million, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing.
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[Old] Los Angeles Times ☛ Taking a Murky Look at the Darker Side of Bill Gates
In “The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates,” journalist Wendy Goldman Rohm portrays Microsoft as a scheming, double-crossing predator out to stomp its opposition into submission.
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[Old] CNN ☛ The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates
The notes that follow are an effort to provide an overview of the range of sources that Ms. Rohm used to develop the story told in The Microsoft File. While in some cases they may lack the specificity that some readers may hope for, they nonetheless convey the wide range of people and documents on which this book is based. The notes have been prepared as a narrative rather than the standard non-fiction format of page number followed by specific source because in many cases the source could not be directly named. However, we believe that the cumulative effect of this narrative rendition will answer the concerns that have been raised about the factual basis of the book.
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[Old] New York Times ☛ The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates
Like Rockefeller, Gates at various points has expressed his opinion that since he created markets, he should rightly own them. To both men market share was everything. Never mind all the short-term freebies and price cuts they had to give. Both knew it would all pay off down the road, as competition was eliminated and they were increasingly free to operate as they pleased.
Gates, like Rockefeller, knew how to cut off his competitors at the pass. Rockefeller nabbed oil shipments by planting his agents all over the globe. His motto was, "The coat-oil business belongs to us." If dealers bought a mere barrel of oil a year, they had to buy it from him. Likewise, Gates has left no stone unturned. For some time--until the feds partially put a stop to the practice he had computer makers pay a royalty to Microsoft on every machine they shipped, regardless of whether any Microsoft software was on it.
Gates tried to make sure that no alternative from any company, large or small, would ever gain any penetration in his market. Intelligence was important to Rockefeller, as it was to Gates, and both were quite good at it. The goal: to control the infrastructure and access to all routes to market.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Intel hires former HPE executive Justin Hotard to run its Data Center and Hey Hi (AI) group
Chipmaking giant defective chip maker Intel Corp. announced today it has hired former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. executive Justin Hotard as the new executive vice president and general manager of its key Data Center and Hey Hi (AI) Group.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel appoints new head of data center and AI group as it prepares to spin off ex-Altera FPGA unit
Intel on Thursday said it had appointed Justin Hotard, an HPE executive who specialized on artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), as executive vice president and general manager of its Data Center and AI Group. The main task of the new exec will be to improve Intel's positions on the market of AI hardware.
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New York Times ☛ Democrats Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of Globalization
Watching Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Sam Altman lead a confab on the ethical principles and regulations that should guide A.I. development was reminiscent of Davos conferences in the 1990s and early 2000s.
You remember the story that those Davos conferences broadcast to the world: Everyone will be able to get a knowledge job. Consumer goods will become cheaper. Globalization coupled with the [Internet] will lead to prosperity for everyone.
Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.
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Federal News Network ☛ Why red-teaming is crucial to the success of Biden’s executive order on AI
One of the most critical components mentioned in the executive order related to our safety and security is AI red-teaming. In cybersecurity circles, “red-teaming” is the process whereby a team of professionals seeks to find vulnerabilities in a particular system or group of systems. They’re hired to find flaws in networks and applications before threat actors do, so issues can be resolved before damage is done. This is particularly important with AI because numerous organizations have rushed to implement it into their systems, and they may have unintentionally exposed themselves to new attack paths. These systems require testing, especially if they’re being utilized by government organizations or in critical infrastructure.
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The Nation ☛ The Freedom Caucus Is Coming for SNAP
The so-called Freedom Caucus, the hard-right faction of congressmembers who are willing to shut down the government to get deep spending cuts, has long had it in for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. In fact, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s reluctance to abrogate his debt-ceiling deal with President Biden and demand more cuts in SNAP fed into his ouster by the nihilist faction he once led. His eventual replacement, Mike Johnson, is outspoken in his disdain for the program, and only entreaties by farm state Republicans desperate to preserve commodity programs kept Johnson from derailing a one-year extension authorizing farm and nutrition programs, including SNAP.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Scoop News Group ☛ AI watermarking could be exploited by bad actors to spread misinformation. But experts say the tech still must be adopted quickly
As Washington putters on Hey Hi (AI) watermarking legislation, Fentanylware (TikTok) and Adobe are leading the way with transparency standards.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Man arrested over wearing shirt with protest slogan at Hong Kong airport pleads guilty to sedition
According to Ming Pao, the court heard on Thursday that it was an airport security guard who spotted Chu wearing a long-sleeve top with the phrase “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” on it. During the city’s first national security trial in July 2021, the slogan was ruled capable of inciting secession, an offence under the Beijing-imposed security legislation.
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Quartz ☛ Twitch updated its attire policy to plug the holes in its sexual content policy
The new policy states that streamers cannot be fully or partially nude and cannot imply full or partial nudity by covering their breasts or genitals with objects, censor bars or sheer clothing. All streamers must fully cover the area extending from the hips to the bottom of their pelvis and backside.
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Meduza ☛ Cultural center in Russia indefinitely suspends dance parties after song with lyrics ‘Ukraine has not yet perished’ played — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Another Uzbek Social Media User Sentenced To Prison For Posts Critical Of President
A 38-year-old social control media user who accused Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev of supporting Russia's war against Ukraine has been sentenced to 5 years and 1 month in prison.
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RFERL ☛ Kazakh TV Operator Stops Broadcasts Of Several Russian Stations
Kazakh television operator TVCOM says it has stopped broadcasting several stations launched by Russian state-run Channel One in a move to reduce the share of foreign news channels on the local market.
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RFERL ☛ Lukashenka Signs Law Putting New Curbs On Religious Groupings In Belarus
Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has signed a law tightening the activities of religious organizations by forcing re-registration and restricting associations to older groups with nationwide presences, his office said January 3.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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CPJ ☛ Al-Jazeera journalist Samir Sassi arrested on undisclosed charges in Tunisia
As of Thursday evening, authorities had not filed any charges or disclosed the reason for Sassi’s arrest, according to those sources. He is detained at a police station in Cité Ettadhamen, a municipality near Tunis, pending investigation.
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The Guardian UK ☛ Al Jazeera journalist arrested in Tunisia amid crackdown on freedom of press
Al Jazeera’s Tunisia bureau has been closed since President Kais Saied’s swift power grab in July 2021, but the network’s journalists remained accredited and maintained their coverage in Tunisia. Authorities did not provide a reason for shutting down the bureau at the time.
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CPJ ☛ Iranian journalist Hasan Abbasi rearrested and held incommunicado
In recent weeks, six journalists— Maryam Shokrani, Sara Massoumi, Milad Alavi, Matin Ghaffarian, Omid Tosheh, and Zeinab Rahimi—who reported on the death and funeral of 16-year-old Armita Geravand in October have been charged with “false news” or “spreading propaganda against the system,” according to news reports.
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Press Gazette ☛ Why ad-funded journalism-for-all faces fight for survival in 2024
When Chrome’s cookies are fully removed, sources told Press Gazette, the open web will have mutated from a place where up to 90% of users were in some way targetable by advertisers, to a vast desert in which most users are essentially invisible to publishers and their clients. Google plans on removing all cookies by the end of 2024. (Sources tell Press Gazette that they expect that deadline to get pushed back by several months).
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Press Gazette ☛ At least 8,000 journalism job cuts in UK and North America in 2023
As our estimate is only based on announced cutbacks at larger companies the true figure will be much higher. Job cuts at smaller companies rarely make the news but have been just as widespread last year.
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The Dissenter ☛ Coalition Urges Appeals Court To End Secrecy Around FBI Raid Against Florida-Based Journalist
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Civil Rights/Policing
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The Register UK ☛ Google illegally refusing to bargain with employee union, says NLRB
A three-judge NLRB panel reached that conclusion in a case between Google and a group of contract staffers working with Google's YouTube team who were hired through staffing firm Cognizant.
Cognizant contractors on the YouTube team voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union-Communication Workers of America (AWU-CWA) last April. Shortly after, the AWU accused Google and Cognizant of refusing to bargain with it on behalf of the YouTube contract workers.
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El País ☛ The activist who’s taking on artificial intelligence in the courts: ‘This is the fight of our lives’
The American has started a legal crusade against generative artificial intelligence (AI). In 2022, he filed the first lawsuit in the history of this field against Microsoft, one of the companies that develop these types of tools (GitHub Copilot). Today, he’s coordinating four class action lawsuits that bring together complaints filed by programmers, artists and writers. If successful, he could force the companies responsible for applications such as ChatGPT or Midjourney to compensate thousands of creators. They may even have to retire their algorithms and retrain them with databases that don’t infringe on intellectual property rights. “This is, for many of us, the fight of our lives,” he affirms. The first results of his efforts could arrive in a matter of months.
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New York Times ☛ Why London’s Tube Is Shutting Down Next Week
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, or R.M.T., announced the action over disputes concerning pay and working conditions.
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The Hill ☛ Khanna warns AI could ‘erode’ workers’ rights, pay
Khanna, who represents a district that includes Silicon Valley, wrote that while AI will “undoubtedly bring benefits” to the economy, the “real challenge” is figuring out how to “center the dignity and economic security of working-class Americans during the changes to come.”
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Democracy Now ☛ AMC Theater Tosses Bishop William Barber for Bringing Disability Chair to See “The Color Purple”
Civil rights leader Bishop William Barber joins us to discuss his calls for more awareness and justice for disabled people after he was kicked out of a Greenville, North Carolina, AMC movie theater last week when he went to see The Color Purple with his 90-year-old mother. Barber was threatened with trespassing and police forcibly removed him from the theater when the manager refused to allow him to use a specialized chair he carries to assist with an arthritic condition. “There was no attempt to accommodate,” Barber says of the theater’s discrimination on the basis of disability and the danger of its staff’s decision to call the police. “You cannot keep [people with disabilities] from enjoying what the rest of the public enjoys simply because they have some form of a disability.” He describes his meeting with the AMC CEO, discusses how the Americans with Disabilities Act is linked to the struggle for the Civil Rights Act, and says he plans to continue the fight for justice.
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Pro Publica ☛ IL Judge Closes Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center After It Failed to Meet New State Standards
The judge responsible for the administration of a troubled juvenile detention center in rural southern Illinois abruptly moved to close it as of Dec. 31, citing staffing shortages that made it difficult to meet new state standards governing the treatment of youth in custody.
The Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center had been featured in a November report by Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica that exposed the state’s lax enforcement of its own standards, despite audits that repeatedly found poor conditions at the facility.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Techdirt ☛ FCC Protects What’s Left Of Media Ownership Limits After Trump Attacks
During Trump’s tenure, his FCC took at absolute hatchet to what was left of media ownership limits. Those limits, built on the back of decades of bipartisan collaboration, prohibited local broadcasters and media from growing too large, trampling smaller (and more diversely owned) competitors underfoot.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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404 Media ☛ Polish Hackers Say Manufacturer's Repair DRM Killed Train's Power, Broke Compressor
The trains were designed to break if they sat idle for 21 days or if a GPS detected them at independent repair centers or competitors’ rail yards. Perhaps most interestingly, one of the analyzed trains had code in it that was supposed to artificially lock the train’s compressor on the seemingly arbitrary date of December 21; a NewAg train then actually had a compressor malfunction on December 21.
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[Old] 404 Media ☛ Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them
The fallout from the situation is currently roiling Polish infrastructure circles and the repair world, with the manufacturer of those trains denying bricking the trains despite ample evidence to the contrary. The manufacturer is also now demanding that the repaired trains immediately be removed from service because they have been “hacked,” and thus might now be unsafe, a claim they also cannot substantiate.
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Hackaday ☛ Enabling Intel AMT For BIOS-over-WiFi
Intel ME, AMT, SMT, V-Pro… All of these acronyms are kind of intimidating, all we know about them is that they are tied to remote control technologies rooted deep in Intel CPUs, way deeper than even operating systems go. Sometimes though, you want remote control for your own purposes, and that’s what [ABy] achieved. He’s got a HP ProDesk 600 G3 Mini, decided to put it into a hard to reach spot in his flat, somewhere you couldn’t easily fetch a monitor and a keyboard for any debugging needs. So, he started looking into some sort of remote access option in case he’d need to access the BIOS remotely, and went as far as it took to make it work. (Google Translate)
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Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Keeps Subleasing Pricey New York Office Space as Pandemic, Layoffs Thin Ranks
Spotify subleases its pricey New York office space as the pandemic and continued layoffs thin the company’s ranks. Spotify’s spendy New York City office space at 4 World Trade Center is getting some new subletters, according to reports from spokespeople for landlord Silverstein Properties.
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[Old] Wired ☛ "Oh No, Mr. Bill!" : The inside story of the antitrust case against Microsoft.
Industry software developers have also provided evidence to the DOJ, under subpoena, that Microsoft's monopoly power in operating systems, and the related interface specifications for those operating systems, gives it control over a "technological bottleneck" through which nearly all the other participants in the entire PC hardware and software industry must pass.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 35: TTAB Grants Motion to Sever Permissive Counterclaim from Cancellation Proceeding
By this interlocutory order, the Board unsurprising severed Respondent Gibson's permissive counterclaim that had a minimal relationship to the petitioners' cancellation claim. The Board concluded that judicial economy would be served by severance, and further found that Petitioner Estate would be prejudiced by the delay caused by discovery on the counterclaim, since it was not a party thereto. Paul Reed Smith Guitars and The Estate of Theodore M. McCarty v. Gibson Brands, Inc., 2024 USPQ2d 11 (TTAB 2023) [precedential] (Order by Ellizabeth J. Winter, Interlocutory Attorney).
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Copyrights
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Plagiarism Police come for Winston & Strawn
A recent copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit filed by small Boston intellectual property boutique Hsuanyeh Law Group PC (HLG) against international giant Winston & Strawn LLP focuses a dividing line that can highlight when copying the work of another firm is permissible. I believe that Winston & Strawn will eventually prevail based upon a fair use defense, but it is still an embarrassing situation for the firm and attorneys involved. I hope that they did not overbill the client. The role of attribution is also receiving increasing focus as attorneys begin to rely more heavily on Hey Hi (AI) outputs for their legal documents.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Lithuania's €140 Piracy 'Fines' Will Pay Off, Lawyer Says
In an effort to tackle online piracy, Lithuania has started issuing fines to online pirates. Thus far, fifty people have been handed a €140 fine, mostly for sharing pirated movies on the private torrent tracker Linkomanija. According to a local lawyer, these measures will reduce piracy, but traffic to the country's largest torrent site seems unaffected.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Silenzio! 'Anna's Archive' Shadow Library Blocked Following Publishers' Complaint
Appearing in the wake of the Z-Library shutdown late 2022, shadow library 'Anna's Archive' now bills itself as the "largest truly open library in human history." A complaint filed in December 2023 by the Italian Publishers Association, which represents publishers of books, scientific journals, and digital content, paints a somewhat different picture. As a result, telecoms regulator AGCOM has issued immediate blocking instructions to ISPs.
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El País ☛ ‘The New York Times’ sues OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of its stories to train chatbots
The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots, saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions. The paper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers trying to stop OpenAI from using copyrighted material.
In the suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the “unlawful use of the Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it” and “threatens the Times’s ability to provide that service.”
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The Register UK ☛ Here's a list of thousands of artists Midjourney's AI is ripping off, creatives claim
The spreadsheet is part of an ongoing case that argues Midjourney unlawfully profits from creators' intellectual [sic] property [sic] by allowing its text-to-image tool to specifically rip off their work without permission, in violation of US copyright law.
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Art Media LLC ☛ Database of 16,000 Artists Used to Train Midjourney AI, Including 6-Year-Old Child, Garners Criticism
The 24-page list of artists’ names used by Midjourney as the training foundation for its AI image generator (Exhibit J) includes modern and contemporary blue-chip names,as well as commercially successfully illustrators for companies like Hasbro and Nintendo. Notable artists include Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard Richter, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Damien Hirst, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Paul Signac, Norman Rockwell, Paul Cézanne, Banksy, Walt Disney, and Vincent van Gogh.
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India Times ☛ OpenAI in talks with dozens of publishers to licence content
OpenAI recently inked a multiyear licensing deal with Politico’s parent company Axel Springer SE for tens of millions of dollars, a person familiar with the matter previously told Bloomberg. In July, OpenAI announced an agreement with The Associated Press for an undisclosed amount. These deals are key to OpenAI’s future as it’s balancing the need for updated, accurate data to build its models with growing scrutiny about where that data is sourced from.
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Digital Music News ☛ Zayn Malik ‘Better’ Infringement Suit Defendants Push for Dismissal: ‘Melodies of Three or Four Notes…Are Not Protected by Copyright’
Last September, Zayn Malik was slapped with a copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit over “Better.”
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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#Lore24 - Day 4 - Votim
The largest known kotim[1] is the votim[2], the governance of the Isle of Vo which has not only the ability to manage the entire isle but also can affect reality by the belief of everyone connected to the votim. It expands on the ideas of the shared governance and the connected inputs to also include changing physical reality of the isle.
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Movie long forgotten
Today this movie is probably long forgotten. However, it left a lasting impression on me. The movie plays mostly in a little restaurant, the life lines of several people cross in this place over the course of a night. And by the morning twilight almost all of them are dead. Killed by gun shots and grenades.
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🔤SpellBinding: ACFIMSP Wordo: WRING
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Tale of the cart
I'm a cart as everycart, made of metal and plastic, with four wheels, a handle. I live in a parking, just in front of a supermarket. I've no home like you, humans. Just some shelters to protect us from rain and snow. Not very useful for the hot days of summer, when my handle is burning, almost melting. And I wear a lock system to put coins or token, as some humans are using us to play, destroy us or whatever they have in their sick brain. It's not a prison because we often change of shelter and we are rolling through the aisles of the supermarket, sometimes with a human child inside, most often with your shopping goods, groceries, and your bags, clothes. I'm not complaining about myself. I'm a happy cart, in a beautiful and calm suburb. I hope living many years like this, before going to retirement.
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Referring to the lark: How it likes to be addressed
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#Lore24 - Day 5 - Vogal Generations
In Flight of the Scions[1], one of the main characters, Ruben is a little person but the reason for his height was less about genetics and more about the continual influence of many generations being born under the influence of the votim[2]. The Vogal Generation[3] is the term that describes the increased powered, authority, and influence that children of telepaths have on the votim's governance.
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#Lore24 - Day 4 - Votim
The largest known kotim[1] is the votim[2], the governance of the Isle of Vo which has not only the ability to manage the entire isle but also can affect reality by the belief of everyone connected to the votim. It expands on the ideas of the shared governance and the connected inputs to also include changing physical reality of the isle.
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Politics and World Events
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FlightLog: Uproar
A bit of an uproar is going on in gemini space, because someone's feed got blocked on ~antenna. The words censorship and deplatforming are called out loud.
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Technology and Free Software
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An IRC channel for retro gamedev
Then there are channels related to more or less retro-computing, that will discuss development (like #dosgameclub on AfterNET), but that was a bit hit and miss, or very focused on one specific system.
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Network externalities
Today as I was being kicked up and down the street by how awful Medium is, I was considering why I have such a hard time recommending my own setup. I love to rag on iMessage and WhatsApp and Gmail and Tutanota and Medium and Facebook and I don’t even know what the kids or their parents use because I’m still on 1970s stuff, but I present little in the way of alternatives.
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Unsolicited opinions about what makes a good CLI
There are a lot of common conventions on how to build a CLI—and how users expect them to work—but nobody ever tells you what those conventions are, so you have to kinda just figure it out by using a bunch of different tools.
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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.