Links 02/02/2024: Okta and Zoom Layoffs, Software Patents From the EPO Thrown Out Again
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- 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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Federal News Network ☛ Contractor’s email attachment binds the government in a work order
Sometimes paperwork is just paper. A contractor submitted three bids for a contract to remove medical waste at facilities operated by the Health and Human Services. Only the middle of the three bids included an attachment. When it won the contract on the third bid, the company figured, the terms in the attachment applied. The government disagreed.
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France24 ☛ Olympics: Hey Hi (AI) to help guide foreign visitors on Paris metro [Ed: Translations are not "AI"; this hype is verging on the ridiculous]
As Paris gets set to welcome visitors from all over the world for this summer’s Olympics, the city is turning to artificial intelligence to help them navigate the French capital. More than 3,000 staff on Paris’s public transport system (RATP) have been provided with AI-powered handheld devices that can translate between French and 16 different languages, including Mandarin, Arabic and Korean.
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MWL ☛ At long last: the MWL Title Index
I try to hold down the amount of information on this site. I truly do. I also try to keep the menus at the top no more than one layer deep. But finding individual titles on my web site has become increasingly difficult. People complain that they can’t find titles.
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Xe's Blog ☛ Xe Iaso on usesthis.com
Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Xe Iaso, I'm a technical educator, Twitch streamer, vtuber, and philosopher that focuses on ways to help make technology easier to understand and do cursed things in the process. I live in Ottawa with my husband and I do developer relations professionally.
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Science
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CS Monitor ☛ Humans and the moon: A closer look at an evolving relationship
A science journalist offers perspective on how humans can wisely steward the new phase of lunar exploration.
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Vice Media Group ☛ Scientists Discovered Strange ‘Entities’ Called ‘Obelisks’ In Our Bodies. Their Purpose Is a Mystery.
Scientists discovered “obelisks” described as a new biological “entity” in the human body. “It's insane,” one researcher told Science Magazine.
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Stanford University ☛ Earth systems students oppose proposed name change to major
Over 100 students signed a letter to the Doerr School of Sustainability opposing a proposal to rename the earth systems major to "sustainability sciences & systems." Some say the change "greenwashes" the discipline and obscures the true causes of climate change.
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Science Alert ☛ Breathtaking JWST Images of 19 Spiral Galaxies Reveal Incredible Diversity
"Mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades."
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Science Alert ☛ Tomato Juice Can Kill Salmonella, The Bacteria That Terrorizes Our Guts
A secret weapon against food poisoning?
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Science Alert ☛ Study of 6,000 Scans Reveals Brain-Wide Patterns Linked to ADHD Symptoms
This could revolutionize diagnosis.
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Science Alert ☛ Critically-Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale Found Dead, Tangled in Rope
A tragic loss, with only around 360 left in the world.
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Science Alert ☛ Biogen's Controversial Alzheimer's Drug Withdrawn From Market
It was once touted as a breakthrough.
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Science Alert ☛ We Finally Know How Ancient Roman Concrete Was Able to Last Thousands of Years
Mystery solved!
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Education
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Pro Publica ☛ Private Schools Pushing Parents to Exploit Expanded Voucher Programs
Tara Polansky and her husband were torn about where to enroll their daughter when they moved back to Columbus, Ohio, a year and a half ago. The couple, who work for a nonprofit organization and a foundation, respectively, were concerned about the quality of the city’s public schools and finally decided to send her to Columbus Jewish Day School. It was a long drive out to the suburbs every day, but they admired the school for its liberal-minded outlook.
So Polansky was startled when, in September, the school wrote to families telling them to apply for taxpayer-funded vouchers to cover part of the $18,000 tuition. In June, the Republican-controlled state government had expanded the state’s private-school voucher program to increase the value of the vouchers — to a maximum of $8,407 a year for high school students and $6,165 for those in lower grades — and, crucially, to make them available to all families.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. blocks shipment of 24 Nvidia Hey Hi (AI) GPUs to China over concerns about self-driving truck company
TuSimple, which is exiting the U.S. market, attempted to send 24 A100 GPUs to Australia — but the shipment was blocked over concerns they might eventually make their way to China.
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Hackaday ☛ Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Typewriter Orchestra
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The DIY Life ☛ The New Geekom IT13 Mini PC is Awesome with an External GPU
Today we’re going to see if we can game on the new Geekom IT13 mini PC. This mini PC is powered by a 13th Gen defective chip maker Intel Core i9 13900H with 14 cores – 6 performance cores running at up to 5.4Ghz and 8 efficiency cores running at up to 4.1Ghz.
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Hackaday ☛ 3D Mouse With 3D Printed Flexures And PCB Coils
3D mice with six degrees of freedom (6DOF) motion are highly valued by professional CAD users. However, the entry-level versions typically cost upwards of $150 and are produced by a single manufacturer. [Colton Baldridge] has created the OS3M Mouse — an open source alternative using PCB coils and 3D printed flexures.
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Hackaday ☛ High Caliber Engineering On A Low Torque PCB Servo Motor
Building a 3D motor printed motor is one thing, but creating a completely custom servo motor with encoder requires some significant engineering. In the video after the break [365 Robots] takes us through the build process of a closed-loop motor with a custom optical encoder.
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Hackaday ☛ Check Out These Amazing Self-Soldering Sleeves From World War II
Imagine you’re a commando, doing some big secret mission on the continent in the midst of World War II. You need to hook up some wires to your explosive charges, and time is of the essence. Do you bust out the trusty Weller and see if those petulant Axis chaps will let you plug it in somewhere? No! You use a pyrotechnic self-soldering sleeve, as [Our Own Devices] explains.
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Hackaday ☛ The Gyro Monorail: How To Make Trains Better With A Gyroscope
Everyone who has ever handled a spinning gyroscope found themselves likely mesmerized by the way it absolutely maintains its orientation even when disturbed. Much of modern technology would be impossible without them, whether space telescopes or avionics. Yet during the early 20th century a much more radical idea was proposed for gyroscopes, one that would essentially have turned entire trains into gyroscopes. This was the concept of the Gyro Monorail, with Louis Brennan being among those who built a full-sized, working prototype in 1910, with its history and fate covered in detail by [Primal Space], along with an accompanying video.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ Measles Cases Soaring Worldwide as WHO Reports Alarming 45-Fold Rise in Europe
It's highly infectious, and mostly preventable.
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Latvia ☛ Flu epidemic continues in Latvia
While the number of Covid-19 patients dropped slightly last week, there is a rather rapid increase in flu incidence, the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC) reported.
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Latvia ☛ Government guarantees at a relatively low level in Latvia
The most common form of contingent liabilities in EU countries is government guarantees on liabilities, and occasionally, on assets of third parties. In 2020 and 2021, government guarantees provided in the EU increased substantially following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Science Alert ☛ Experts Confirm: US Is Dealing With an 'Out-of-Control' STI Epidemic
Even babies are at risk.
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CS Monitor ☛ Free pads and frank discussion: Bangkok schools tackle ‘period poverty’
In Thailand, improving access to period products requires breaking stigmas as well as material investment. Though national efforts have stalled, local programs have created space for young people and experts to openly address menstrual health.
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University of Michigan ☛ MHealthy offers incentive for questionnaire and goal setting
The MHealthy Rewards program is encouraging U-M employees to take proactive steps to learn about and improve their health by offering a $75 incentive.
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Science Alert ☛ There's a Surprising Link Between Music And Brain Health
It's never too late to start!
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Science Alert ☛ Financial Stress Could Impact Your Health More Than Grief, Study Finds
It's a heavy burden to carry.
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Pro Publica ☛ Under Ken Paxton, Texas’ Elite Civil Medicaid Fraud Unit Is Falling Apart
For years, an elite team of lawyers at the Texas attorney general’s office went toe-to-toe with some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, on a mission to weed out fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system.
And the team was wildly successful, securing positive press for the attorney general’s office and bringing in money for the state — lots of it. In a little more than two decades, the Civil Medicaid Fraud Division has helped recover a whopping $2.6 billion. Of that, $1 billion went to the state’s general fund, which pays for critical services like education and health care.
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DeSmog ☛ Norway Farmed Salmon Industry Accused of “Food Colonialism” in New Report
Producers in Norway, the world’s top supplier of farmed salmon, are pushing up to four million people in West Africa into food insecurity and depriving them of critical nutrients, according to a new report.
Published by food and farming campaign group Feedback Global, the research states that major farmed fish and aquafeed producers – including European transnational companies Mowi, BioMar, Cargill, and Skretting – are between them extracting nearly two million tonnes of whole, wild fish annually from the world’s oceans, according to 2020 data.The majority of these small, highly nutritious fish are being turned into fish oil, a key ingredient in salmon aquaculture feed, as well as fishmeal – the product of grinding up whole fish or fish byproducts into a flour used in aquafeed and feed for livestock.
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DeSmog ☛ Jane Fonda Joins Land and Water Defenders at Americas Energy Summit
Fossil fuel executives attending the Americas Energy Summit at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans this month were greeted with door hangers on their hotel rooms January 19. Instead of “do not disturb,” the message on the hanger read, “LNGS: Do not destroy our coast.”
The door hangers were one of several actions taken by protesters throughout the week, which culminated in a gathering of about 200 people — including actress Jane Fonda, musician Maggie Rogers and dozens of Southwest Louisiana fishers — in a park across from the convention center. At one point, six fishing boats were parked in front of the convention center, before police threatened to tow them away. A street theater performance recounted environmental opposition to fossil fuel development in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, and land defenders chanted memorable slogans, including one about natural gas and greenwashing: “so natural, it starts fires in your sink.”
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The Kent Stater ☛ Free suicide prevention training offered to students and faculty
Students and faculty can help save lives by attending a free Question, Persuade, and Refer training course offered online or in person. This training instructs participants on how to recognize warning signs of suicide, refer others in crisis and get help for themselves.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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The Strategist ☛ It takes a village to regulate AI [Ed: But they mean computer programs, not AI]
Artificial Intelligences are not people. They don’t think in the way that people do and it is misguided, or even possibly dangerous, to anthropomorphise them.
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New York Times ☛ Apple’s Vision Pro Headset Costs Closer to $4,600 With Necessary Add-Ons
The new headset teaches a valuable lesson about the cost of tech products: The upsells and add-ons will get you.
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EuroGamer ☛ Devolver-owned studio Artificer reportedly cuts half its staff
"Yesterday, Devolver and studio Artificer made the tough decision to reduce the Artificer workforce by 28 employees, 18 effective immediately and 10 after their current project releases," it told us.
"Over the past year, both companies have worked together to navigate the studio's difficulties to ensure Artificer remains open and that their hard work is realised with the launch of their next game. Layoffs are not easy, and the remaining team at Artificer and Devolver Digital are committed to supporting these talented and creative professionals find new roles throughout the industry."
The original story continues below.
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CRN ☛ Zoom Layoffs Total 150 As Video Giant Turns Attention To 'Critical' Areas, Including AI
Zoom Video Communications is carrying out more job cuts. This time, the company is slashing about 150 jobs, according to a report first published by Bloomberg on Thursday.
Zoom, which was a staple for millions of global users working remotely at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been on the decline in popularity as many workers returned to the office and as companies shifted into hybrid models.
A spokesperson for Zoom confirmed the cuts to CRN.
"We regularly evaluate our teams to ensure alignment with our strategy," the spokesperson said. "As part of this effort, we are rescoping roles to add capabilities and continue to hire in critical areas for the future."
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Silicon Angle ☛ Okta to cut 400 employees a year after its last round of layoffs
Identity access management company Okta Inc. said today in a message to employees that it will lay off 7% of its staff, or about 400 employees, in a cost-cutting measure, according to an email message.
“In order to grow profitably, we need to run the business with greater efficiency,” Okta Chief Executive Todd McKinnon said in the message obtained by CNBC. “While we’ve taken steps in the right direction, the reality is that costs are still too high.”
In his message to employees, McKinnon said that it was a “proactive measure” designed to set the company up for “long-term success.”
This staff cut comes almost exactly one year after the company’s last round of layoffs in February 2023, which cut its workforce by 5%, or about 300 employees at the time. During that period, McKinnon said that the company also needed to reduce spending and noted the company overestimated market demand.
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Forbes ☛ Okta, Zoom Cut Hundreds Of Jobs—Here Are 2024’s Tech Layoffs
Athletic apparel giant Nike announced this week it expects to incur hundreds of millions of dollars in employee severance costs as it reportedly plans to slash hundreds of workers, making it the latest major U.S. company to reduce its head count, even as recession fears start to cool (see Forbes’ layoff tracker from earlier this year here).
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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RFA ☛ Myanmar arrests alleged Chinese scammers, former MP
Roughly 44,000 people associated with fraud have been deported from Myanmar, according to the Chinese embassy.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Internet Society ☛ Keeping Kids Safe Online: Navigating the New Parents’ Guide to Encryption
To some, encryption might seem like the stuff of spy movies, but we all rely on it to keep us safe. You might be surprised to learn how often it touches your life. Chances are, you’re using it right now, and you could probably use it more often to better protect yourself online.
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Reason ☛ Controversial Surveillance Law Up for Renewal (Again) in April
Congress gave FISA’s Section 702 a brief lease on life, but civil liberties concerns haven’t gone away.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ CFPB’s Proposed Data Rules
In October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a set of rules that if implemented would transform how financial institutions handle personal data about their customers. The rules put control of that data back in the hands of ordinary Americans, while at the same time undermining the data broker economy and increasing customer choice and competition. Beyond these economic effects, the rules have important data security benefits.
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Defence/Aggression
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New York Times ☛ F.B.I. Director Warns of China Hacking Threat
In testimony before Congress, Christopher A. Wray, the agency’s director, said Beijing was preparing to sow chaos if disputes with the United States flared into conflict.
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RFA ☛ FBI director: Chinese hackers targeting US infrastructure
Attacks on key infrastructure could ‘crush American will for the US to defend Taiwan,’ another official said.
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The Straits Times ☛ Philippines plans to buy submarines to defend sovereignty in South China Sea: Senior official
The Navy said the move reflected a shift in strategy away from internal to external defence.
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The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan elects parliament speaker ruling party views as pro-China
Taiwan's parliament on Thursday elected a former presidential candidate for the largest opposition party as its new speaker, who will be responsible for hosting visiting foreign lawmakers and who the ruling party has said is pro-China.
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YLE ☛ Two suspects charged in Kankaanpää terrorism case
Two of the five men who were suspects in the case have been charged with crimes committed with terrorist intent.
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Site36 ☛ Survivor of Ceuta massacre calls on UN committee: Deaths, injuries, pushbacks unpunished in Spain
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Site36 ☛ Organisations renew criticism of high-risk FCAS project: The cyber fighter jet could cost trillions
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Site36 ☛ Turmoil over Budapest antifa trial: Italy summons Hungarian ambassador, Meloni calls Orbán
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YLE ☛ Slip, fall, injured — who pays?
The costs of taking a spill on an icy pavement can be high, but the law in Finland is usually clear about liability.
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YLE ☛ Migri: No positive decisions for eastern border asylum applications
Last year's immigration figures reflect ongoing conflict, economic downturn and labour shortages in Finland, according the Finnish Immigration Service.
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YLE ☛ Appeal court acquits Sierra Leonean man accused of war crimes
The ruling by the Turku Court of Appeal confirmed a lower court's 2022 verdict in the case.
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New York Times ☛ Biden Discusses Possible Retaliation in Syria, Iraq and Iran
The president vowed to retaliate after the attack, which killed three American soldiers on Sunday. On Tuesday, he confirmed a decision without providing details.
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New York Times ☛ Widening Mideast Crisis: Iran Says It Doesn’t Want War as U.S. Weighs Response to Lethal Drone Strike
Concerns over the possibility of even more tumult in the Mideast are rising. And the future of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, a humanitarian lifeline in war-torn Gaza, is under fierce debate.
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The Straits Times ☛ Iran's Guards pull officers from Syria after Israeli strikes
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter said.
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RFERL ☛ Iraqi Militants 'Suspend' Actions Against U.S. As Washington Mulls Response To Drone Strike
An Iraqi militant group backed by Iran suspected of being behind a drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan has announced a "suspension" of operations against U.S. forces as Washington said it had decided how to respond to the attack but did not elaborate.
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The Kent Stater ☛ White House formally assigns blame for drone strike in Jordan that killed 3 American service members
The US believes an umbrella group of militants called Islamic Resistance in Iraq was behind the drone attack in Jordan that killed three American service members, the White House said Wednesday, its first formal attribution for the incident.
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AntiWar ☛ USA Keeps Fighting for Iran
According to neoconservative theoreticians David Wurmser and Richard Perle, George W. Bush’s Iraq War II (supported by Senator Biden) was supposed to weaken Iran and Syria and therefore Hezbollah’s threat to Israel.
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France24 ☛ US says Islamic Resistance in Iraq group carried out attack on base in Jordan
The United States on Wednesday attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, as President Joe Biden weighs his response options to the strike.
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Defence Web ☛ Gauteng police recover over 400 firearms
The South African Police Service (SAPS) in Gauteng, together with other law enforcement agencies, has recovered over 400 firearms and 6 000 live rounds of ammunition during the month of January.
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Defence Web ☛ Northern Kenya’s disarmament dilemma
Banditry and the proliferation of illegal small arms are critical drivers of insecurity in Kenya’s North Rift Region. Survey-derived baselines project the number of illicit firearms in the country to be over 650 000, with most concentrated in pastoral counties.
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BIA Net ☛ Gomidas' works designated UNESCO World Heritage
The Kütahya-born artist who is often referred to as the "founder of Armenian Classical Music" was one of the 234 Armenian intellectuals who were arrested on April 24, 1915, the day marked as the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
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New York Times ☛ Biden Urged to Re-examine Israel Support After Lawsuit Dismissed
The judge, after expressing regret that he was limited by constitutional precedent, urged President Biden to rethink U.S. policy on Israel’s military siege in the Gaza Strip.
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New York Times ☛ Strained U.S. Immigration System Draws More and More Asylum Claims
Seeking asylum has become the surest way for migrants to stay in the U.S. The underfunded immigration system can’t keep up, so cases languish for years.
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New York Times ☛ Impeachment Case Against Mayorkas Ignores Government’s Immigration Powers
House Republicans have charged President Biden’s homeland security secretary with breaking the law by failing to enforce border mandates, but statute gives him wide authority to address immigration.
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JURIST ☛ US House committee votes to approve of articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
The House Committee on Homeland Security voted 18-15 to approve sending two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas early Wednesday morning after hours of hearings on the matter. The articles will now go to the House of Representatives floor for another vote.
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RFA ☛ 10 offenses that could lead to getting hauled in to ‘drink tea’
State security police highlight ways that people can run afoul of China's vague espionage laws.
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New Yorker ☛ Can the Government of Mexico Bring the U.S. Gun Industry to Book?
A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit from the Mexican government against American firearms manufacturers can move forward. Now the gunmakers are preparing an appeal to the Supreme Court.
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The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand takes step towards joining Aukus security pact
Both countries had agreed on greater defence cooperation.
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The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan election panel summons meeting on rising poll violence
February 01, 2024 2:47 PM
Pakistan's election panel has summoned top security officials for a meeting on Thursday to discuss increasing violence in the country's western provinces ahead of next week's national election, including the killing of a candidate a day earlier.
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New York Times ☛ An Israeli Charity for Palestinians Grapples With Oct. 7 Attacks
Before the war, Road to Recovery helped bring sick Gazans to Israeli hospitals. Several of its volunteers died in the Hamas attacks, and donations to the group have slowed.
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Pro Publica ☛ VA Secretary Vows to Increase Staffing at Clinic Tied to Two Deadly Shootings
The secretary of veterans affairs, Denis McDonough, visited a clinic in Chico, California, last week and personally pledged to address concerns about inadequate staffing in the VA facility’s mental health unit.
His visit came after a ProPublica investigation revealed serious lapses in the psychiatric care two veterans received at the clinic. After years of struggling to get adequate treatment, and in the midst of mental health crises, the veterans shot and killed their mothers within days of each other in January 2022. The ProPublica story grew out of an inquiry by the VA’s inspector general that examined the agency’s shortcomings in one of the deaths.
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RFA ☛ S Korea labels Kim regime irrational, calls for an end to provocation
President Yoon accused Pyongyang of blatantly ignoring international law.
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Atlantic Council ☛ A US-South Korea alliance strategic memo on countering Beijing’s economic coercion
Economic interdependence of South Korea, United States, and other Indo-Pacific countries with China is enabling Beijing to pose threats to national security through economic coercion.
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Atlantic Council ☛ A US-South Korea alliance strategic memo on deterrence
With North Korea’s rapidly advancing military technology, aggressive nuclear policy changes, and deepening ties with the PRC making deterrence on the Korean Peninsula increasingly more complex, this is how the US and South Korea can shore up cooperative deterrence and boost alliance resilience.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Drone reportedly crashes on premises of St. Petersburg oil refinery — Meduza
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Off Guardian ☛ Russia’s Fauci says arsenal of genetic vaccines will protect against “Disease X”
Riley Waggaman Gamaleya Center Director Alexander Gintsburg has called on Russia to develop genetic vaccine prototypes in anticipation of future public health crises.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korean delegation to visit Moscow, Russian lawmaker says
February 01, 2024 4:07 PM
A North Korean delegation will visit the lower house of Russia's parliament on Feb 13, state news agency RIA quoted a deputy from the opposition Communist Party as saying on Thursday.
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Meduza ☛ Second Russian presidential candidate drops out of race immediately after submitting campaign materials — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian anti-war presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin submits signatures to officially join race — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘He’ll either be killed or put in prison’ Presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin is particularly popular among Russian youth. Here’s what they have to say about his plan to run for office. — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian State Duma passes law enabling asset seizure for convictions related to ‘fake news’ about army — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian veteran’s son who enrolled in top university with lowest-ever test scores drops out after one semester — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘Orchestrated by Russian diplomats’: Arrested in Thailand, members of the anti-war rock group Bi-2 could now be facing deportation to Russia — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ All members of anti-war Russian-Belarusian rock band Bi-2 who were arrested in Thailand deported to Israel — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Massive Russian Internet outage reportedly caused by ‘software issues’ — Meduza
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France24 ☛ Armenia joins International Criminal Court, Moscow decries 'unfriendly step'
Armenia on Thursday formally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), officials said, in a move that traditional ally Moscow has denounced as "unfriendly".
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Meduza ☛ ‘Don’t ruin their lives’: Russian woman says police pressured her to withdraw rape report against off-duty soldiers — Meduza
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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H2 View ☛ Plastic Omnium starts construction of Chinese hydrogen storage vessel plant
French automotive supplier Plastic Omnium has started the construction of its hydrogen storage vessel “mega-plant” in China to meet commercial vehicle demand.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China overtakes Japan as biggest vehicle exporter globally, helped along by electric cars
China’s global dominance in electric cars helped it overtake Japan as the world’s biggest vehicle exporter last year, official data confirmed Wednesday. Japanese giants such as Toyota and Nissan have been much more cautious than their Chinese counterparts like BYD on electric vehicles (EVs), banking instead on hybrid models. ]
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DeSmog ☛ TotalEnergies Has no Place in African Football
The African Cup of Nations (AFCON) — Africa’s landmark football tournament — is heading into the quarter finals in Cote D’Ivoire.
As promised, the tournament has celebrated the diversity of African football and cultures. The atmospheres have been electric, and fans have travelled from every corner of the continent to celebrate its most popular sport.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Federal News Network ☛ NGA seeks ideas for using data to predict illegal fishing
Illegal fishing harms the legal fishing industry and endangers the marine ecosystem. That is why the Coast Guard and other agencies spend so much time trying to detect and stop it. Now the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is launching a prize challenge for data-based ways to get on top of illegal fishing.
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Finance
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Reason ☛ David Stockman on Why Trump Can't Fix the Debt: 'This Guy Is Part of the Swamp'
Reagan's former budget director says pro-inflation policies destroyed prosperity—and that the only solution is a new, anti-statist political party.
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New York Times ☛ The Fed Holds Interest Rates Steady and Is Not Quite Ready to Cut Them.
Federal Reserve officials, seeking more progress on the fight against inflation, hinted that their next move will be a cut in interest rates — just not yet.
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University of Michigan ☛ Dollars over democracy
American democracy relies on civic participation; the fundamental right to vote is critical to maintaining a healthy government meant to serve the people. Democratic ideals, based on ancient Greece’s system of self-government, put power back in the hands of the people.
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Reason ☛ Brickbat: Uncharitable Fraud
A civilian employee of the U.S. Army has been charged with stealing $100 million from the military.
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RFA ☛ US official: China may never surpass America’s economy
The comments follow Monday’s collapse of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande with more than $300 billion in debt.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s factory activity contracts again, as Beijing struggles to kickstart economy
China’s factory activity contracted in January for the fourth consecutive month, official data showed Wednesday, as Beijing struggles to find ways to jumpstart its sluggish economy. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) — a key measure of factory output — came in at 49.2 percent in January, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
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Latvia ☛ Chinese deliveries growing in popularity
Shoes, clothing, cosmetics and electronic goods are the most common items in Latvian parcels, and more and more often they are coming from China, according to research from one of the country's main automatic parcel machine operators.
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Latvia ☛ Bumper profits for Latvia's banks last year
Latvian financial institutions, including banks, worked with a profit of EUR 573.5 million last year, which is 75% more than in 2022, according to information released by the Bank of Latvia, reports the LETA newswire.
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LRT ☛ New banking players expected to enter Lithuania this year – central bank
New players are expected to enter Lithuania’s banking sector this year, Simonas Krėpšta, a member of the Bank of Lithuania, has said.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New Yorker ☛ Why You Keep Seeing Biden Falling on Instagram
Supporters of the Trump and Biden campaigns are trying to engineer viral moments to win the election through memes and social control media.
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New York Times ☛ A Spy Cam. A Dior Pouch. And South Korea’s First Lady.
A scandal involving the president’s spouse has become a major issue for his party ahead of a crucial parliamentary election.
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Atlantic Council ☛ A US-South Korea alliance strategic memo on reassurance and coordination for a China conflict
Washington and Seoul have drawn closer together in recent years, but concerns remain about what role the alliance would play in a US-China military conflict. The US and South Korea should take these steps to address this sensitive question.
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JURIST ☛ US appeals court denies rehearing in case that may limit private organizations’ ability to file lawsuits under Voting Rights Act
The US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals declined Tuesday to rehear with the full Eighth Circuit panel of judges a prior appeals court decision curtailing private organizations’ ability to sue under section two of the Voting Rights Act for alleged racial gerrymandering in redistricting decisions.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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The Straits Times ☛ Make-your-own fake news sites spark concern in South Korea
The websites let users distribute misleading information, stoking fears in upcoming elections.
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RFA ☛ Ahead of Tibetan New Year, China urges monks to ‘expose, denounce’ Dalai Lama
Authorities tell eminent Buddhist monks to safeguard the ‘unity of the motherland.’
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New York Times ☛ News Outlet Blames Photoshop for Making Australian Lawmaker’s Photo More Revealing
9News apologized for the edited photo of the member of state Parliament, Georgie Purcell, which it said was a result of “automation by Photoshop.”
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Silicon Angle ☛ TrueMedia.org aims to use Hey Hi (AI) to fight political deepfakes
A new nonprofit, nonpartisan organization called TrueMedia today announced it’s developing a tool that will use artificial intelligence to detect deepfakes with an aim to protect the 2024 U.S. election cycle from misinformation.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong gov’t tells school to axe agreement with performing arts group, citing national security guidelines
A Hong Kong performing arts group has been left without a venue for two plays after the school that was hosting them was told by the city’s Education Bureau (EDB) to cancel the lease agreement, citing national security guidelines. Performing arts group Fire Makes Us Human said on Facebook (Farcebook) on Wednesday...
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Actor Gregory Wong among 4 found guilty of rioting in Hong Kong legislature during 2019 demos
Hong Kong actor Gregory Wong has been among four found guilty of rioting inside the city’s legislature on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China during the 2019 protests. Thursday’s verdict came after a 34-day trial that began last May in which six defendants, including Wong, pleaded not guilty to rioting.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ German business chamber chief airs concerns over Hong Kong security law, after leader John Lee comment
German business leaders will respect Hong Kong’s new, local security law, but remain concerned about civil society and whether the legislation’s wording will be precise, the president of the German Chamber of Commerce has told HKFP.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong to consider ‘public interest’ exemption for leaks of ‘state secrets’ under new security law
Hong Kong will consider whether a “public interest” exemption should be included in the theft of state secrets offence under a proposed new security law, security chief Chris Tang has said.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong press group refutes ‘untruthful remarks’ made by security chief at event for new security law
Hong Kong’s largest association of journalists has defended itself over “untruthful remarks” after being called out by security chief Chris Tang as “unrepresentative” of the media at a consultation event for Hong Kong’s homegrown national security legislation.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Reason ☛ The 5th Circuit Says Criminalizing Journalism Is Not Obviously Unconstitutional
The appeals court dismissed a civil rights lawsuit by a Laredo gadfly who was arrested for asking questions.
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RFA ☛ Evidence against Jimmy Lai ‘obtained through torture’: UN expert
A key prosecution witness was allegedly tortured during detention in a Chinese prison between 2020 and 2021.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Apple Daily ex-publisher trying to ‘blame’ Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai with ‘contradictory’ testimony, lawyer says
The former publisher of shuttered pro-democracy tabloid Fashion Company Apple Daily was trying to “put the blame” on media mogul Jimmy Lai with his “contradictory” testimony, Lai’s lawyer has said in the activist’s closely-watched national security trial. Wearing a dark-coloured down jacket, Cheung Kim-hung took to the witness stand for the 10th day on Wednesday.
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Press Gazette ☛ RAJARs: BillBC local radio sees sharp listener decline in Q4 2024 amid cutbacks
Full breakdown of speech and news-based radio listening figures for Q4 2024 from RAJAR.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Techdirt ☛ British Man Put On Trial In Spain Over Stupid (But Obvious) ‘Blow Up A Plane’ Joke
Lots of things look pretty great up front but completely terrible in retrospect. Most of us, however, tend to weather our worst decisions without getting a foreign military force involved.
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New York Times ☛ French Farmer Was Spark Behind Widespread Protests
Jérôme Bayle had enough of the hardships of French farming, so he blocked a highway with friends. Hundreds of other farmers have followed suit.
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Reason ☛ He Was Charged With Human Trafficking for Driving His Wife to Work
"The sole basis for targeting Joe was the race/ethnicity of his wife and her occupation" at an Asian massage parlor, the lawsuit claims.
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Reason ☛ ACLU Sues Ronald McDonald House for Refusing To House People Convicted of Assault
The ACLU's lawsuit is filed on behalf of a New York man whose application to stay in a Ronald McDonald House was denied because of his 12-year-old felony assault conviction.
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Reason ☛ Antifa-vs.-Patriot-Prayer-Related Tort Lawsuit Partly Thrown Out but Partly Allowed to Go Forward
From today's Oregon Court of Appeals decision in Cider Riot, LLC v. Patriot Prayer USA, LLC, in an opinion by Chief Judge Erin Lagesen, joined by Judge Jacqueline Kamins and Megan Jacquot: Plaintiff Cider Riot, LLC, is a brewery and bar in Northeast Portland. Plaintiff Goldman-Armstrong is its owner and operator.
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New York Times ☛ Security Screeners in Germany Go on Strike, Grounding Flights
An expected 200,000 passengers were expected to be affected by the action at 11 major airports, the latest show of labor unrest in Germany.
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YLE ☛ Sweeping strikes impact entire country from Wednesday to Friday
From early education walkouts to grocery store closures and factory shutdowns, political strike action will continue to affect services and industry throughout the week.
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YLE ☛ Thursday's papers: More strikes, vaping ban, political colour codes
Finland's morning papers report on expanding labour action that will see almost 300,000 workers on strike, bringing much of the nation's business and industry to a halt.
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EFF ☛ Dozens of Rogue California Police Agencies Still Sharing Driver Locations with Anti-Abortion States
In October 2023, Bonta issued a legal interpretation and guidance clarifying that a 2016 state law, SB 34, prohibits California’s local and state police from sharing information collected from automated license plate readers (ALPR) with out-of-state or federal agencies. However, despite the Attorney General’s definitive stance, dozens of law enforcement agencies have signaled their intent to continue defying the law.
The EFF and ACLU letter lists 35 specific police agencies which either have informed the civil liberties organizations that they plan to keep sharing ALPR information with out-of-state law enforcement, or have failed to confirm their compliance with the law in response to inquiries by the organizations.
“We urge your office to explore all potential avenues to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies immediately comply,” the letter said. “We are deeply concerned that the information could be shared with agencies that do not respect California’s commitment to civil rights and liberties and are not covered by California’s privacy protections.”
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Techdirt ☛ Microsoft Joins In On The ‘Screw Over LGBTQ Kids’ Party By Supporting KOSA
Well, this is not that much of a surprise, but in the leadup to the Senate “child safety” dog and pony show that will be happening in a few hours, Microsoft decided to twist the knife in to some of its competitors. Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith (who was formerly the company’s general counsel and absolutely understands the impact of what he’s doing) came out and endorsed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).
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APNIC ☛ Internet history: Next steps
Guest Post: The challenges of preserving Internet measurement history with the 'Internet History Initiative'.
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EFF ☛ EFF and Access Now's Submission to U.N. Expert on Anti-LGBTQ+ Repression
The submission addresses the trends, challenges, and problems that people and civil society organizations face based on their real and perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Our examples underscore the extensive impact of such legislation on the LGBTQ+ community, and the urgent need for legislative reform at the domestic level.
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Michael Geist ☛ Bill S-210 is Just the Beginning: How a Canadian Digital Lobby Group is Promoting a Standard to “Foster Widespread Adoption of Age Verification Technologies in Canada”
This week’s Law Bytes podcast features a revealing discussion with Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, the chief architect and lead defender of Bill S-210 or the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act. It may be the most dangerous Internet bill you’ve never heard of since it contemplates measures that raise privacy concerns, website blocking, and extend far beyond pornography sites to include search and social control media.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Techdirt ☛ Capcom Appears To Break Monster Hunter For The Steam Deck After DRM Swap
Here we go again. In the long and vaunted history of DRM in software, and especially in video games, there is one general truism: DRM tends to effect only legitimate buyers while so-called “pirates” route around it completely. There are all kinds of anecdotal stories as to the annoyances at best, and game-crippling outcomes at worst, that are said to be caused by DRM that either shipped with the game or, more annoyingly, were added after the game was bought. The DRM companies typically will tell you that any performance issues experienced with these games can’t possibly have anything to do with their DRM, a claim that flies in the face of thousands and thousands of instances of witness testimony on social media and the wider internet, while also stating that any inconveniences legit buyers experience due to DRM mishaps are outweighed by all the piracy the DRM kinda-maybe stopped for a while, possibly.
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Techdirt ☛ Amazon Prime Video Starts Charging Extra To Avoid Ads, As The Enshittification Of Streaming Video Truly Begins
Starting this week, Amazon Prime Video customers (who already pay $140 per year) will be charged $3 extra every month just to avoid ads that didn’t previously exist. Shifting toward ad-based tiers has been popular among streaming companies like Netflix, Max, Disney+, and Paramount. But whereas those services make a cheaper ad-based tier an opt-in choice for consumers, Amazon isn’t being so subtle:
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EFF ☛ What Apple's Promise to Support RCS Means for Text Messaging
The RCS standard will replace SMS, the protocol behind basic everyday text messages, and MMS, the protocol for sending pictures in text messages. RCS has a number of improvements over SMS, including being able to send longer messages, sending high quality pictures, read receipts, typing indicators, GIFs, location sharing, the ability to send and receive messages over Wi-Fi, and improved group messaging. Basically, it's a modern messaging standard with features people have grown to expect.
The RCS standard is being worked on by the same standards body (GSMA) that wrote the standard for SMS and many other core mobile functions. It has been in the works since 2007 and supported by Google since 2019. Apple had previously said it wouldn’t support RCS, but recently came around and declared that it will support sending and receiving RCS messages starting some time in 2024. This is a win for user experience and interoperability, since now iPhone and Android users will be able to send each other rich modern text messages using their phone’s default messaging apps.
But is it a win for security?
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Gogo Continues In-Flight Services as Federal Circuit Rejects SmartSky’s Preliminary Injunction Appeal
In SmartSky Networks, LLC v. Gogo Business Aviation, LLC, No. 2023-1058 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 31, 2024), the Federal Circuit has affirmed a lower court denial of a preliminary injunction sought by the patentee SmartSky against Gogo. SmartSky sued Gogo in 2022 for patent monopoly infringement, alleging that Gogo’s 5G wireless network infringed several of SmartSky’s patents related to in-flight internet wireless connectivity. See U.S. Patent Nos. 9,312,947, 11,223,417, 10,257,717, and 9,730,077. Along with its complaint, SmartSky moved to preliminarily enjoin Gogo from providing its in-flight network. SmartSky argued it had shown a likelihood of success on the merits and that it would suffer irreparable harm without an injunction, but the D.Del. district court Judge Gregory Williams disagreed. A grant or denial of preliminary injunctive relief can be immediately appealed, but the patentee’s appeal has also failed.
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ EPO to introduce micro entity fee reductions [Ed: European Patent Office quality collapsed, justice abolished, so it could really use some distraction]
From 1 April 2024, the European Patent Office will increase most official fees by around 4%. The first two renewal fees, in respect of the third and fourth years, will also see significant rises of 30% in an effort to offset revenue lost as a result of the EPO reducing application pendency time.
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JUVE ☛ Richard Meade: “Better opportunities for the Bar’s junior advocates will foster diversity”
JUVE Patent: How will the cost cap in conjunction with the Shorter Trials Scheme aid efficiency at the UK High Court?
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OSI Blog ☛ Fixing a gap in the SEP regulation
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Software Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ ETRI HEVC patent monopoly revoked in EPO
On January 24, 2024, the European Patent Office announced the revocation of all claims of EP 3767952. The EP ‘952 patent, owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), relates to an apparatus for encoding image data and an apparatus for decoding image data, where the encoding/decoding makes use of motion vector coding for image compression, particularly an inter prediction method.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is "UNRIVALED LUXURY" Merely Descriptive of Cruise Ship Services?
The USPTO refused to register the proposed mark UNRIVALED LUXURY for, inter alia, cruise ship services, finding the mark to be primarily merely descriptive under Section 2(e)(1). On appeal, Applicant Seven Seas argued that the mark is at most suggestive because it is "an inventive composite mark that requires some imagination to arrive at a conclusion about the mark's significance in connection with the identified cruise ship and travel tour services for cruise ship passengers." How do you think this came out? In re Seven Seas Cruises S. de R.L., Serial No. 97219378 (January 29, 2024) [Not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Angela Lykos).
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ AI Piracy Not Part of the USTR’s Latest Notorious Markets Report—Yet
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual Notorious Markets Report, highlighting illicit digital and physical markets where copyright monopoly piracy occurs. While the RIAA recommended including a section on Hey Hi (AI) Piracy in 2023—it’s not included in the report yet.
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Digital Music News ☛ Copyright Office Initiates ‘Periodic Review’ of the MLC’s Designation, Sets May 29th Deadline for Initial Public Comments
The U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) has officially initiated its first “periodic review” of the designations of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) and the Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC). The USCO announced the review, required under 2018’s Music Modernization Act (MMA), via a Federal Register notice; the MLC acknowledged the development with a concise release.
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New York Times ☛ Law Enforcement Braces for Flood of A.I.-Generated Child Sex Abuse Images
Artificial intelligence technology has drastically simplified the creation of images of children being exploited or abused, whether real or fake.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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More reflection on the climate and myself
2023 was horrible. It was HOT. This made me very worried about global warming. And I've gone through the 5 phases of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Well, not acceptance but the realization that I am not a part of the problem due to my (lack of) habits. And that I have the ability to use my engineering skills to make things better - and publicise that so more fellow engineers can do the same. And have an excuse to publish my blurb on the internet.
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Technology and Free Software
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Indexing the rear derailleur
Probably one of the first maintenance one might want to do at home, unlike fixing a flat tire which is the first maintenance that you'll have to do outside of home. Adjusting the alignment of the derailleur can make riding more comfortable.
This page is not meant to be a fully detailed explanation of how to perfectly adjust the rear-mech but more a list of trick and observation I have been using to make my life easier. As such it assumes that you a familiar with limit-screws, the pinch bolt, and the general operation of the rear-mech. Maybe I'll make a full guide derailleurs at a later date.
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Write-Only Memory
mprotect(2) comes to mind though whether and how much this works may vary. Usually this is used to prevent writing and execution (W^X) of particular bits of memory, as an attacker may wish to write something and then execute what they have just written, and other people may wish to prevent such arbitrary code execution. This is complicated by legitimate needs to write and then execute memory, for example when SBCL compiles the LISP to assembly somewhere in memory.
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Remove openSUSE Pattern
I wanted to remove XFCE since I wasn't using it. Simply removing "xfce" at the command line only removed SuSE's "pattern" package: a placeholder that pulls in dependencies. Use --clean-deps to remove all the packages associated with a pattern.
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Internet/Gemini
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3.5CHAN
matto[1] and I were thinking the gopherverse could use some sort of an anonymous forum. There are several guestbooks[2] around, even an asynchronous chat[3] (thank you IanJ[4] for reminding me), but I am not aware of any type of a forum, so I hacked together this prototype.
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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.