Links 14/01/2024: Conflict in Yemen, Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) Try to Worsen Patent Law Again
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Amit Gawande ☛ My Experiments with Blogging Platforms
In 2022, I was fascinated by what Ghost promised as a platform. It was well-reviewed, polished and highly recommended. It suited the long-form style of writing I wanted to do more of. It had a built-in newsletter. I wanted all of that. The question was, can it become my primary blogging platform. A year of continuous usage convinced me it wasn’t. Though I liked what it offered, it didn’t fit my style of writing. I am very informal in what I write. Sometimes, it is heartfelt life stories. Other times, it’s meaningless updates. More often, it’s the latter. Ghost isn’t a right fit for such posts.
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Leon Mika ☛ Elm Connections Retro
If you follow my blog, you would’ve noticed several videos of me coding up a Connections clone in Elm. I did this as a bit of an experiment, to see if I’d would be interested in screen-casting my coding sessions, and if anyone else would be interested in watching them. I also wanted to see if hosting them on a platform that’s not YouTube would gain any traction.
So far, I’ve received no takers: most videos have received zero views so far, with the highest view count being three. I’m guessing part of the reason is that the audience for this sort of stuff is just not there, or maybe it is but they’re spending all their watch-time on YouTube and Twitch. Building an audience on a platform like PeerTube might be feasible, but it’ll be quite a slog to fight for oxygen from these juggernauts.
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Valhalla's Things: Mini Books
In 2022 I read a post on the fediverse by somebody who mentioned that they had bought on a whim a cute tiny book years ago, and that it had been a companion through hard times. Right now I can’t find the post, but it was pretty aaaaawwww.
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Science
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Brr ☛ Redeployment Part Two
Hello and welcome back! We’re going to pick up right where we left off. In Redeployment Part One, we emerged from polar night, deep-cleaned the station, and prepared for the first flight and the arrival of our summer crew.
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Science Alert ☛ Seeing Blue at Night May Not Be What's Keeping You Up After All
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Science Alert ☛ Wild Hypothesis Suggests Insect Wings Arose From Gills
A big surprise from 300 million years ago.
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Science Alert ☛ World's 'Rarest Insect' Makes Stunning Comeback After Near-Extinction
Hidden in a secret refuge for 80 years.
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Science Alert ☛ What Would Happen if All The Fish in The Ocean Disappeared?
The consequences would be disastrous.
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Hardware
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Daniel Lemire ☛ Estimating your memory bandwidth
One of the limitations of a compute is the memory bandwidth. For the scope of this article, I define “memory bandwidth” as the maximal number of bytes you can bring from memory to the CPU per unit of time. E.g., if your system has 5 GB/s of bandwidth, you can read up to 5 GB from memory in one second.
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Hackaday ☛ It’s The Simple Things
I love minimal hacks. Limitations are sometimes the spark for our greatest creativity, and seeing someone do something truly marvelous with the simplest of technological ingredients never fails to put a smile on my face.
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Hackaday ☛ Tips For 3D Printing Watertight Test Tubes
[DaveMakesStuff] uses 3D printed test tubes for plants and similar purposes, and he’s shared how to make them on a 3D printer, complete with different models each optimized for different nozzle sizes.
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Hackaday ☛ Simulate Running A Small Hardware Business With Hardware Hustle
[Oskitone]’s Hardware Hustle is a printable roll-and-write tabletop game that can be played on a single sheet of paper. It simulates attempting to run a small hardware business sustainably. Buy parts, make products, and sell them without burning yourself out!
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Hackaday ☛ Reverse Engineering Smart Meters, Now With More Fuming Nitric Acid
If you’re lucky, reverse engineering can be a messy business. Sure, there’s something to be said for attacking and characterizing an unknown system and leaving no trace of having been there, but there’s something viscerally satisfying about destroying something to understand it. Especially when homemade fuming nitric acid is involved.
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Hackaday ☛ Skip The Radio With This Software-Defined Ultrasound Data Link
We know what you’re thinking: with so many wireless modules available for just pennies, trying to create a physical data link using ultrasonic transducers like [Damian Bonicatto] did for a short-range, low-bitrate remote monitoring setup seems like a waste of time. And granted, there are a ton of simple RF protocols you can just throw at a job like this. Something like this could be done and dusted for a couple of bucks, right?
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia inks order for 16,000 Hey Hi (AI) GPUs worth $500 million — Indian data center company seeks to own 32,000 Nvidia H100 and GH200 GPUs by 2025
Yotta is ordering 16,000 of Nvidia's H100 and GH200 GPUs, which can't be sold in China anymore.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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NYPost ☛ Costco just launched a $2 Starbucks breakfast sandwich dupe — but is it any good?
One service-minded sammie-lover put the day-starting doppelgangers to the test.
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Futurism ☛ Bottled Water Industry Says Please Disregard This Horrifying Discovery About Our Product
Earlier this week, a disturbing study found that a one-liter water bottle contains hundreds of thousands of "nanoplastic" particles.
They're so small — measured on a scale down to a billionth of a meter — that they can enter human cells, a possibility that has alarmed scientists.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identify The Optimal Number of Daily Steps For Longevity, And It's Not 10,000
Humans are essentially built to ambulate. Evolution has honed our physiology to walk long distances, shedding heat easily as we tick-tock back and forth like inverted pendulums across the landscape in search of food and water.
This means our metabolisms, cardiovascular fitness, impact on our bones and muscles, and even our mental health are all tuned to appreciate a good hike. Squeezing just about any kind of stroll into our busy schedule will serve us well by helping us live longer, healthier, happier lives.
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Science Alert ☛ Rabies Is a Deadly, Unpredictable Threat. Here's How to Protect Yourself.
It still kills thousands every year.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Conversation ☛ An international body will need to oversee AI regulation, but we need to think carefully about what it looks like
However, creating an AI or technology-specific international organisation, whatever it may be called, faces three particularly difficult challenges.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ The Cult of Mac
Take the App Store. Apple blocks third parties from offering rival app stores for its iOS platform, which means you can only install apps that have been blessed by Apple. That blessing is contingent on the software authors involved giving $0.30 out of every dollar you spend in their apps to Apple.
This has two effects: first, it makes certain products impossible to offer. The gross margin on an audiobook is 20%. Apple takes a 30% cut of sales. Try to sell audiobooks in an app, and you'll lose money on every sale. That's why non-Apple audiobook stores like Libro.fm and Downpour require you to buy your books in a browser, which hamstrings them and gives Apple an unbeatable advantage (Apple doesn't charge itself 30% on every transaction, obviously).
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Chris Hannah ☛ Artifact is Already Shutting Down
Also, isn’t it a bit weird that this news was posted on a Medium blog? I can understand wanting it in a more permanent place outside of the actual Artifact app, since that will soon stop working. But Medium? Not their own artifact.news domain, or even just a blogging platform with a better reading experience than something like Medium. Maybe that sort of decision shows why the app was like it was.
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404 Media ☛ [Crackers] Break into AI Hiring Chatbot, Could Hire and Reject Fast Food Applicants
The script returned a Firebase configuration for what appeared to relate to fast food chain KFC. The researchers took that configuration and put it into Firepwn, a tool available on Github used for testing the security of apps using Firebase. At first, the researchers didn’t have the ability to read any of the data stored. But after creating a new user account through Firebase, they gained read and write access to the underlying database.
This revealed a wealth of data, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, location of branches, messages, work shifts, and some passwords, according to MrBruh’s blog post. The data related to franchisee managers, job applicants, and employees of Chattr, the chatbot platform which the Firebase instance related to.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Nvidia: AI fuels tech transformation for retail and consumer packaged goods
Digging deeper, Nvidia says that a top priority for AI is improving operational efficiency. Seventy-two percent of retailers using AI say it has led to lower operating costs. In fact, 23% percent say they’ve reduced expenses by more than 15%. This is obviously another important data point because it makes the business more profitable. Most information technology projects address revenue or operational efficiency, so the fact AI accomplishes both makes it almost a “no brainer” for retailers.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Cloudbooklet ☛ YouTube Ublock Origin Not Working 2024: Causes and Solutions
Learn how to fix YouTube uBlock origin not working issue. Find out the common causes and solutions to resolve the issue of ad-blocking on YouTube with uBlock Origin.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Your washing machine could be sending 3.7 GB of data a day — LG washing machine owner disconnected his device from Wi-Fi after noticing excessive outgoing daily data traffic
An LG washing machine owner disconnected the appliance from Wi-Fi after noticing it ate 3.66GB of daily data. He took to Ex-Twitter / X to ask for help and advice.
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Defence/Aggression
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Reason ☛ Does Biden Need Congressional Authorization for His Strikes Against the Houthis? [Updated]
The answer is likely "no" for US military action so far, because it is a defense against attack. But a broader conflict or one of much longer duration would be different.
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New York Times ☛ Much of Houthis’ Offensive Capability Remains Intact After U.S.-led Airstrikes
The strikes damaged the group’s ability to carry out complex missile and drone attacks, U.S. officials said, but identifying targets has proved to be a challenge.
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RFERL ☛ Biden Says U.S. Delivered Private Message To Tehran About Iran-Backed Huthis
U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington had sent a private message to Tehran about Yemen-based, Iran-backed Huthi rebels responsible for attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
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New York Times ☛ Houthi Militia Threatens to Respond to U.S. Airstrikes as Crisis in Gaza Grows
Officials of the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen threatened to respond to American-led airstrikes over the past two days.
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New York Times ☛ The Necessary Risk of America’s Military Strikes in Yemen
Given the increasingly critical threat the Houthis pose to the freedom of commerce and navigation in the Red Sea, the United States had to act.
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JURIST ☛ India Supreme Court grants protection from arrest to minister in murder attempt charge
The Indian Supreme Court granted Friday protection from arrest to Union Minister of State Nisith Pramanik in a case with charges of attempt to murder against him.
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JURIST ☛ Bangladesh High Court upholds decision to invalidate candidacy of politician accused of assaulting journalist and threatening police
The Bangladesh High Court rejected on Thursday a writ petition filed by Mostafizur Rahman Chowdhary, an Awami League-nominated candidate, and affirmed the decision of the Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh to cancel Chowdhary’s candidacy for Chittagong-16 amid allegations that Chowdhary assaulted a journalist and threatened police.
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Atlantic Council ☛ The sentencing of a US Navy sailor is a window into Chinese espionage. Here’s how the US should respond.
China’s intelligence services recognize that national security information do
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Atlantic Council ☛ In Yemen and elsewhere, manageable local issues are driving an unmanageable regional crisis
The United States and international response should remain otherwise measured so as not to play into the hands of the Houthis.
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France24 ☛ 24-hour protest for release of Israeli hostages kicks off in Tel Aviv
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv late Saturday calling for the release of hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas militants, on the eve of the 100th day of their captivity. The protest came as Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu said “no one will stop” his country from achieving victory and as the US carried out a fresh strike on a Houthi rebel target in Yemen, amid fears the conflict could engulf the wider region.
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NPR ☛ 'Frankly astonished': 2023 was significantly hotter than any other year on record
The global average temperature in 2023 was significantly warmer – by nearly three tenths of a degree Fahrenheit – than the previous warmest year, according to measurements released Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. European Union measurements released earlier this week came to a similar conclusion.
The global average includes temperatures measured throughout the year over both land and oceans, and changes are usually an order of magnitude smaller.
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JURIST ☛ Judge overseeing Trump civil fraud trial receives bomb threat at home
The timing of the disruption, which coincided with the period Judge Engoron was engaged in the closing arguments phase of the trial, has raised concerns about potential intimidation tactics aimed at the judiciary. The trial, which has seen a comprehensive review of extensive financial records and witness testimonies, hinges on allegations of fraudulent practices within the Trump Organization.
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Reuters ☛ ECB's Lagarde: Re-election of Trump in US would mark threat for Europe
"If we draw lessons from history, by which I mean to say the manner in which he (Trump) carried out the first four years of his mandate, it is clearly a threat," Lagarde told France 2 TV.
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CBC ☛ Police say a man waved a terror group's flag. Here's why it may be difficult to prosecute as a hate crime
Getting a conviction for public incitement of hatred would mean that the Crown would have to prove that those actions would likely lead to a breach of the peace, said Richard Moon, University of Windsor law professor.
"It's not always clear how one establishes that," he said. "Usually, when you think of something like incitement intended to lead to breach of a peace of some kind, there's a kind of immediacy, maybe even authority that an individual has that is likely to encourage others to take some kind of violent action."
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Meduza ☛ Moscow priest who was removed from post defrocked for refusing to recite prayer for ‘Holy Rus’ victory
The Moscow Diocesan Court has defrocked Archpriest Alexey Uminsky, who was previously removed from his position at the Moscow Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Khokhly and banned from service. The church court reached the decision in a January 13 session, reports Novaya Gazeta.
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Meduza ☛ Russia’s Justice Ministry adds writer Boris Akunin and publication Kholod to ‘foreign agents’ registry — Meduza
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[Repeat] New York Times ☛ In Taiwan, Voters Choose President as China Tensions Loom
Taiwan’s vice president, whose party has emphasized the island’s sovereignty, defeated an opposition party that favors reviving engagement with China.
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New York Times ☛ China Failed to Sway Taiwan’s Election. What Happens Now?
Beijing loathes the new president, Lai Ching-te. He aims to protect the status quo with caution and American help, but tensions are likely to rise.
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RFA ☛ Taiwan chooses Vice President Lai as new leader in rebuke to China
But the results split between 3 parties spells a tough path for him balancing Beijing’s pressure and domestic issues.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwan election 2024: Ruling DPP fails to retain legislative majority after winning presidential race
Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has failed to retain a majority in the Legislative Yuan after winning the presidential election.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Lai Ching-te of ruling DPP wins Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, as voters dismiss Beijing’s warnings
By Tom Grundy, Kelly Ho, Irene Chan and Mercedes Hutton in Taipei. Lai Ching-te, of the ruling, liberal Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has won the 2024 Taiwan presidential election following a tight race.
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RFA ☛ Chinese social control media users glued to 'interesting' Taiwan election
Some comments reference the lack of democratic process in China, while some insist the island belongs to Beijing.
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France24 ☛ Taiwan’s Lai Ching-te wins presidential vote, vows to defend island from China threats
Taiwan’s ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), secured a historic third term on Saturday as Vice President Lai Ching-te won the country’s widely watched presidential election with 40.05 percent of the vote.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Experts react: Taiwan just elected Lai Ching-te as president despite China’s opposition. What’s next?
Atlantic Council experts explain what a Lai presidency will mean for Taiwan’s foreign policy trajectory—and how China is likely to respond.
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CS Monitor ☛ Taiwan elects pro-sovereignty president, despite opposition by China
While domestic issues such as the sluggish economy and expensive housing also featured prominently in the campaign, Lai Ching-te’s appeal to self-determination, social justice, and rejection of China’s threats ultimately won out.
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The Straits Times ☛ China opposes Japan's congratulatory message to Taiwan president-elect
The Chinese embassy in Japan said on Sunday that it "resolutely opposed" Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa's statement congratulating Taiwan's new president-elect Lai Ching-te.
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New York Times ☛ Two SEAL Team Members Missing After Incident Off Somalia Coast
The sailors were said to have disappeared into the water after a vessel boarding attempt. Pentagon officials said the episode was not related to recent clashes with the Houthi militia in Yemen.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Belarusian Diaspora Group 'Outraged' At Prison Term For Returning Member
A Belarusian diaspora group in Sweden says it is "outraged" at the sentencing in Minsk of one of its members to five years in prison after her return to her homeland.
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YLE ☛ Minister: Loviisa plant cuts dependence on Russian nuclear fuel
Fortum plans to use up its existing Russian stock before switching to a western supplier.
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YLE ☛ PM bemoans economy, prepares for Russian influence
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) lamented the state of the Finnish economy on Saturday.
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New York Times ☛ A Russian Dissident’s Fraught Path to Canadian Citizenship
Maria Kartasheva was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court for criticizing the war in Ukraine, threatening her citizenship application in Canada.
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[Updated] New York Times ☛ Russia Launches Large-Scale Missile Attack on Ukraine
The assault was in line with a wider air campaign that Russia began in late December, seeking to wear down Ukrainian air defenses.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Attacks Facilities of the Ukrainian Military-Industrial Complex
The Russian Armed Forces also hit five Ukrainian brigades in the Donetsk area.
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RFERL ☛ In Ukraine, France's New Foreign Minister Tells Kyiv 'Our Determination Is Intact'
New French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne arrived in the Ukrainian capital within hours of a combined missile and drone attack by Russia that triggered Ukrainian air defenses in several southern and eastern regions early on January 13.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Orthodox Church Calls For Expulsion Of Priest Who Failed To Pray For Victory
The Russian Orthodox Church on January 13 published a verdict calling for the expulsion of a priest who has made anti-war remarks and who failed to pray for the “victory of Holy Russia,” according to Russian media.
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France24 ☛ Russia claims to have struck 'Ukrainian military-industrial complex'
Russia on Saturday said it destroyed all targets in a barrage of strikes on facilities producing ammunition and drones in Ukraine.
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France24 ☛ France renews support for Ukraine after Russia launches overnight strike
France's newly appointed Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday on his first official visit abroad, vowing that Paris would maintain its support as Russia’s full-scale invasion nears its second anniversary.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Futurism ☛ In Leaked Audio, Microsoft Cherry-Picked Examples to Make Its AI Seem Functional
According to BI, the audio contains a Microsoft researcher discussing the results of "threat hunter" tests in which the AI analyzed a Windows security log for possible malicious activity.
"We had to cherry-pick a little bit to get an example that looked good because it would stray and because it's a stochastic model, it would give us different answers when we asked it the same questions," said Lloyd Greenwald, a Microsoft Security Partner giving the presentation, as quoted by BI.
"It wasn't that easy to get good answers," he added.
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[Old] Bryan Lunduke ☛ How to leak info to The Lunduke Journal (anonymously and securely)
Work at a Big Tech Company (or Foundation) or on a big open source project? Seeing something happening that the public should know about? Afraid to step forward for fear of losing your job?
Allow me to walk you through exactly how to leak information -- directly to The Lunduke Journal -- while maintaining your anonymity.
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Ben Jojo ☛ Where is all of the fediverse?
Now we can look up their DNS records (in this case we are looking at a single A record), match them to a AS number, and then using the bgp.tools naming export, we can rank them by hosting provider name: [...]
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Environment
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The Hill ☛ The social costs of greenhouse gas emissions in health care are astounding — and we’ve been ignoring them completely
The largest industry in the world’s largest economy, U.S. health care accounts for roughly half — or $4.7 trillion — of total annual global health care spending. Long known for wasteful spending, U.S. health care is remarkably energy inefficient. For example, out of 6,129 hospitals, the industry’s largest GHG emitting sector, only 37, or 0.6 percent, were EPA Energy Star certified for energy efficiency in 2023. This number is even more trivial when you realize Energy Star measures only Scope 1 and 2 energy use intensity, which account for as little as 25 percent of hospitals’ total GHG footprint.
Despite the fact that health care’s GHG emissions disproportionately harm Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, HHS does not regulate health care’s GHG emissions. HHS has never discussed GHG social costs. It doesn’t even mention Energy Star in the HHS and the National Academy of Medicine’s recently released Sustainability Journey Map, intended to support health care’s decarbonization.
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Energy/Transportation
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India Times ☛ Venezuela kills off petro cryptocurrency
Ultimately however, its use remained limited to some state operations such as the payment of taxes. Traffic fines were handed out in petros, but it was not possible to actually pay them using the cryptocurrency.
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Overpopulation
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El País ☛ Protecting the world’s most densely populated island from mass tourism
Although there’s no official data, the island attracts hundreds of daily tourists, causing division among the locals and raising environmental concerns. “I don’t want us to be known for this because many tourists look down on us and think there’s poverty and overcrowding here,” said Caraballo. “But they don’t know that we’re actually rich — we have the sea! We live peacefully together. No one here has more than anyone else, and we all share whatever little we have. It’s all about island solidarity.”
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Bert Hubert ☛ European Innovation & Technical Capabilities
I think my role here is to state very clearly what many people are thinking. Because these are uncomfortable thoughts. Are we still able to innovate? Is Europe by now not completely dependent on the US and China? Do we still have it in us to invent the future? It is no fun to think about these things.
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Shariq Raza Qadri ☛ More Tech Layoffs
In the last two years, we have witnessed more than 4,000,000 layoffs across the tech industry. Some attribute this to the mass hiring spree during the pandemic, driven by the Work From Home (WFH) culture and the Web3 hype in particular. However, once everything returned to normal, things started to fall apart.
This trend shows no sign of stopping in 2024. The new year has barely begun, yet in the last week alone: [...]
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YLE ☛ Finnish passport climbs to second place in global ranking [Ed: Misleading. Finland is actually 8th along with several more countries. Germany is in #1 along with 6 others.]
Finnish passport holders have visa-free access to a total of 193 countries, up from 189 last year.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Scott Perry Explains How Trump, Fox, and Russian Propaganda Made Him Hate Rule of Law
While chasing Hunter Biden's dick pics on Wednesday, Scott Perry laid out the false beliefs that lie behind his attack on the democracy and rule of law.
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New Yorker ☛ The 2024 Primaries That Weren’t
The 2024 Presidential primary season officially begins with next week’s Iowa caucuses, but the race for the Republican nomination is already in its home stretch.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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[Repeat] RFA ☛ Tibetan woman detained and beaten for social media posts critical of China
While in detention, at least a dozen policemen interrogated and beat Tso and broke her mobile phone, while forcing her to “reform her behavior,” she said in a social media post on Nov. 17, 2023, following her release.
Since then, Tso’s personal social media accounts on various platforms, including TikTok and Kaishou, have been closed down and can no longer be accessed, one source inside the country told Radio Free Asia.
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The Atlantic ☛ Don’t Fire People for Making Pornography in Their Free Time
Pornhub is watched by more people than Netflix. OnlyFans, a site that is best known and substantially used for adult content, reports more than 3 million creators worldwide. Almost inevitably, in the coming years more and more people in public roles will be outed for making porn. Broadly, our digital culture gives Americans opportunities to judge and to be judged. Educators will be caught on cellphone cameras or CCTV drinking at bars, participating in street protests, being rude to waiters, entering strip clubs, leaving abortion clinics, failing to pick up after dogs, running red lights, and imperfectly disciplining their children.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Vintage Everyday ☛ Tibet in 1924 Through Wonderful Photos
Tibet was a de facto independent state in East Asia that lasted from the collapse of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912 until its annexation by the People's Republic of China in 1951.
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[Repeat] RFA ☛ Refusing to add ‘China’ to sash, Tibetan woman forced out of pageant
“The organizers, under Chinese pressure, gave me two options: to participate with ‘China’ added to my sash or to not wear a sash at all, which I felt defeated the purpose of my participation which was to represent my country, Tibet,” Paldon told Radio Free Asia from her home in New York, after returning from Cambodia.
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Futurism ☛ Inmate's Body Returned to Family Missing All Organs, Including Brain
It's the second reported case in recent months of the bodies of inmates of Alabama's prison system — which has long been criticized for its inhumane treatment of prisoners — being returned in horrendous condition with missing body parts.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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New Yorker ☛ Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet
Online platforms allowed me to cultivate a freer version of myself. Then the digital world began to close off.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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PCGamesN ☛ Resident Evil is being review bombed after Capcom reportedly adds DRM
Resident Evil Revelations, the spin-off, third-person shooter from 2012, is being review bombed on Steam following claims that Capcom updated the game to include DRM (digital rights [sic] management) software. As of this writing, the RE Revelations Steam rating, based on recent reviews, has plummeted to ‘mostly negative,’ following an influx of criticism beginning on Wednesday January 10. Capcom has previously said that it regards videogame mods as equivalent to cheating, and a variety of backend updates have been made to Resident Evil Revelations during the past week. The creator of the DRM software allegedly added to the horror game has also replied to players, though the contents and nature of Capcom’s recent updates remain unclear.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Improving Efficiency to Increase Competition Act: Burdens of Bayh-Dole [Ed: Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) are sponsored (bribed) by the litigation industry, so this is lobbying for the rich, not actual political representation]
The Leading pro-IP Senators, Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) recently introduced a bill focusing on patents stemming from research paid-for by federal grants. The proposed legislation, titled the “Improving Efficiency to Increase Competition Act,” would require a government study on reporting requirements related to the landmark Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.
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Trademarks
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Right of Publicity
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The Daily Beast ☛ George Carlin Estate Threatens Legal Action Over AI Special
“There’s the idea of someone’s image being used in perpetuity, including after their death, without consent or appropriate compensation,” Gondelman said. “And the subtler worry here is using material generated artists to train A.I. which is still an ongoing legal issue. You can’t really say ‘Write an hour of George Carlin material!’ to a bot that has never ingested/analyzed George Carlin’s previous material, which is a different legal/ethical grey area.”
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Futurism ☛ Voice Actors Shocked By Union’s Sudden Deal Allowing AI-Generated Performances
Earlier this week, the Screen Actor's Guild made the controversial choice to sign a deal to allow AI-generated voice performances in video games — and it's unclear who it consulted with to reach that decision.
Although SAG-AFTRA said in its statement about the deal with the AI voice firm Replica Studios that it had been "approved by affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community," there's been a chorus of voice actors calling bull since the move was announced on Tuesday.
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Copyrights
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New York Times ☛ Their Songs Were Stolen by Phantom Artists. They Couldn’t Get Them Back.
Bad Dog, a group from D.C., was forced to take a crash course in streaming fraud, a shadowy realm that costs musicians $2 billion a year.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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Drive to Survive 🏎
Once upon a time you couldn't film anything at an F1 race. Even wobbly clips taken from the stands would get removed from YouTube. There were TV rights to protect! But now Netflix films behind the scenes at races. Every year just before the season starts comes Drive to Survive, a documentary series about the previous year's F1. It's supposed to to have led to many new people watching, particularly the young.
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🔤SpellBinding: INOUSTQ Wordo: VICAR
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Somebody To Love
All my life, I have been a hopeless romantic. Love is probably one of my strongest of emotions, and for a long time, I've been seeking the love of my life.
My first crush was when I was only 9 years old. Her name was Rachel. I asked her to marry me when I was only 10, and she was speechless. Little did I know that the entire family was watching from the driveway, leaving me completely embarrassed.
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Politics and World Events
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LiveFromFrance S2E01
The end of the year was as tumultuous as the year 2023....And 2024 promises to be similar with the same actors/actresses.… or worse
2023 ended in France with the scandalous "immigration law". Scandalous because some of its articles were directly inspired by what the far-right party had wanted for years. Scandalous because it was worse than the government's version after a trip to the Senate, but the president's ego did the rest: he wanted a law for his right wing (don't forget, he is a conservative in progressive clothing), whatever is in it. The deputy of the president's party voted without enthusiasm after a day and night of negotiations. The Minister of Health resigned... he was the only one to do so (some resignations were refused!!?). Political courage? Some polls (paid by whom?) said that the French wanted this kind of law and that immigration was in the top 3 of the most important issues. Fear as a guide.
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Technology and Free Software
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TUT - A Mastodon Client for the terminal
I'm really skeptical about social media and avoid Facebook and Twitter like the plague. But a free, not commercially exploited communication platform like mastodon seems interesting, although I don't have much experience with it. So I thought I'll try it out.
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Programming
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20 Most Popular Programming Languages To Learn
As open source projects continue to thrive with increasing momentum, even large corporations like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook (Farcebook) are adopting such projects of their own. Contrary to the direct opposition faced by pioneers of early open-source projects, most open-source developers are hailed in high regard within the community today.
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Medevel ☛ Trowser: Free App to Browse Large Text Files with Ease
Trowser is a browser for large line-oriented text files, implemented in 3 alternate programming languages: Tcl/Tk, Python and C++/Qt.
Compared to plain text viewers, trowser adds color highlighting, a persistent search history, graphical bookmarking and a separate search result window.
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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.