Links 14/02/2024: Burnout Confessions and "Privacy Isn't Dead."
Contents
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Leftovers
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New York Times ☛ When the Voice You Hear Is Not the Actor You See
The playwright Lucas Hnath has been making magic with the sound of speech. Now he’s directing a play by Mona Pirnot, his wife, in which a computer speaks her words.
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The Register UK ☛ Autodesk founder John Walker dies at 75
He proceeded to write his own history of AutoDesk, entitled the Autodesk File, his history of his most famous company. Its subtitle, Bits of History, Words of Experience is a nod to the classic textbook Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice, but in fact AutoCAD's customisation is driven by the other "language of the gods": a dialect of XLisp called AutoLisp, as the AutoDesk File explains. Such is the influence of AutoLisp that many other CAD programs include forms of it, including BricsCAD, DraftSight, and IntelliCAD and its dozen-plus derivatives.
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Blake Watson ☛ Things I miss
I don’t link to it often but I do have an archive of my old disability blog. It used to have its own domain and everything. I did my best to make sure that old domain and any URLs still work and redirect to this static archive—because cool URIs don’t change. But I don’t link to them much anymore because the posts are old and I am slightly embarrassed by some of them.
But every now and then I poke around in the archives myself and reminisce about times past.
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El País ☛ One hundred years of ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ a composition that changed music history
Well-known dance music director Paul Whiteman wanted to cancel his concert on February 12, 1924. He acknowledged as much in Jazz, the autobiography he published shortly thereafter with journalist Mary Margaret McBride. But that performance at the prestigious classical concert hall Aeolian Hall in New York, which had been grandiosely announced as An Experiment in Modern Music, ended up being legendary. The idea arose from the hall audience’s delight at the inclusion of jazz tunes in a classical recital.
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Science
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Omicron Limited ☛ New InP-based modulator with record-high bit rates could help move more data faster
In an important step toward fulfilling this requirement, researchers have developed a new compact indium phosphide (InP)-based coherent driver modulator (CDM) and showed that it can achieve a record high baud rate and transmission capacity per wavelength compared to other CDMs. CDMs are optical transmitters used in optical communication systems that can put information on light by modulating the amplitude and phase before it is transmitted through optical fiber.
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SparkFun Electronics ☛ NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter ends its mission, but this is just the beginning
Off-the-shelf parts became an important part of Ingenuity’s build. Rechargeable batteries, avionics, cameras and sensors could all be sourced from companies like SparkFun, and used not only for initial prototyping, but for the actual mission itself. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum before Ingenuity even had its feet on Martian soil, JPL engineer Tim Canham talked about the importance of being able to use commercially available parts from start to finish, and calls out SparkFun and the laser altimeter they used for takeoff and landing. (Good news - you can still get one for the next mission, regardless of how far from home it is!)
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Science Alert ☛ Bone Stuffed With Henbane First Solid Evidence of The Plant's Use as a Drug
Confirmed.
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Science Alert ☛ Greenland Is Literally Rising From The Ocean as It Loses Its Fringe of Glaciers
Wait, what?!
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Hardware
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Logikal Solutions ☛ Linux and USB Floppy Drives
Everybody thinks they are dead, but floppy disks are still around and you basically need a USB floppy drive to use them because modern motherboards don’t have a header connection for the ribbon cable internal drives need. I know own two USB floppy drives because I forgot I had an IBM portable floppy drive buried under a bunch of portable DVD R/W drives behind a bunch of Super Floppies.
Why this post now? I was cleaning out part of a closet in the parents office and found a slinky of 3.5 inch floppies. Yes, I even found some 5 1/4 disks, but did not save those. Mom used to use these disks to backup Quicken files. Early versions of Quicken used to offer the option of backing files up onto floppy disks.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Reason ☛ COVID Vaccine Injuries Deserve a Day in Court
Injury claims for COVID vaccines are subject to a different process than other vaccines.
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[Old] Fourmilab ☛ Reversing Myopia: An Anecdotal Report
What does this mean? If you're a myope and, as the Mill Valley optometrist inferred, you spend most of your life looking at things up close: books and computer screens, you might consider getting reading glasses corrected for that distance and wear them most of the time. You'll need glasses corrected for infinity for driving, wildlife and landscape photography, hunting, and viewing cinema, but if you're like me, that will average out to on the order of an hour a day. If your experience is anything like mine, you may discover that ditching 20/20 correction at infinity in favour of 20/20 correction at 40 cm will not only halt the progression of your myopia but, slowly, begin to roll it back.
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Brandon ☛ Sometimes You Have to Start Back at the Beginning
So, over the weekend, I hit up the used book store and bought some paperback books. I even went as far as to buy a neck light so I can read in bed. That way I can go screen less a little bit more each night.
Then I decided to cut myself some slack. I need to stop beating myself up over not exercising, not eating right, not saving more money, and not being more productive. I made a deal with myself. The next two weeks, the only thing I have to do is journal every day and meditate for five minutes. Nothing else. If I feel compelled, great, but those are the only two things I must do. The week after that, if all is well, I'll add in a day of exercise.
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France24 ☛ Sounding the alarm: France sees explosion in syphilis cases
In the past few years, France has seen a steep rise in sexually transmitted infections, but there is one in particular that is rising at an alarming rate: syphilis. Experts are worried. Due to the ongoing fight against HIV, syphilis has long been relegated to a much less talked about second place in French public health policy. In the meantime, the number of syphilis cases has exploded, soaring by 110 percent between 2020 and 2022.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Rare case of human plague identified in Oregon, likely spread by pet cat, health officials say
A person in Deschutes County, Oregon, has been diagnosed with a case of bubonic plague, making them the state’s first confirmed case of this rare bacterial infection since 2015.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia has work to do on bowel cancer prevention
The colorectal or bowel cancer screening test is simple and effective, but only a few use this opportunity, Andrejs Pčolkins, chief doctor of the Latvian Oncology Center, and Uldis Veseris, head of the society of patients of bowel cancer, said on Latvian Radio program “How to Live better” on February 13.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia has no system for medicine supplies in emergencies
Latvia still does not have a system in place to provide the necessary stocks of medicinal products in emergencies when international supplies to Latvia may be disrupted. This issue is particularly important because 94% of the Latvian medicines market is made up of imported medicines, Latvian Radio reported on February 13.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal What Happens to Your Life Expectancy When You Quit Smoking
"Ridiculously effective."
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Science Alert ☛ World First: 13-Year-Old Child Cured of a Deadly Brain Cancer
"I watched as the tumor completely disappeared."
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Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's Linked to Epigenetic Changes in Immune Cells Outside The Brain
New clues to this complex disease.
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Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough: New Blood Test Predicts Schizophrenia Risk
And which treatments would be most effective.
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University of Michigan ☛ UMich needs to rethink access to UHS
Earlier this semester, I attempted to make an appointment with University Health Service for the second, and probably last, time in my college career. I sat on the phone on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, hoping that, at some point, I would stop listening to their dreadful hold music and talk to a real person.
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University of Michigan ☛ Annual MI Healthy Climate Plan report shows movement toward state-wide goals
In April 2022, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy released the MI Healthy Climate Plan outlining the state’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition toward economy-wide carbon neutrality.
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New York Times ☛ New Details in Menendez Bribery Case: A Diamond Ring and Covid Tests
In a court filing, prosecutors say Senator Robert Menendez urged New Jersey mayors to use a coronavirus testing lab that was paying his wife.
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Federal News Network ☛ Nursing homes reveal need for CDC to improve national data reporting site
For nearly 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has operated a data gathering site, called the National Healthcare Safety Network. In 2020, CDC made it mandatory for nursing homes to report COVID cases.
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New York Times ☛ C.D.C. Considers Ending 5-Day Isolation Period for Covid
Americans may be advised that it’s safe to return to regular routines after one day without a fever.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Toast, and fixing burnout with self-care
This podcast by the Scientific American was titled You Can’t Fix Burnout With Self-Care. I left the episode with almost more questions than answers, surprisingly enough.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Vice Media Group ☛ A Crowd Attacked a Self-Driving Car and Set It on Fire. It's Unlikely to Be the Last Time.
Footage of the incident was captured and posted on social media by Michael Vandi, Chief Shipping Officer of cloud AI firm Addy AI. It’s a wild scene, emblematic of the ever-growing hostility between San Francisco residents and the big tech companies that use the city’s public streets as a testing ground for self-driving cars.
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John Graham Cumming ☛ John Graham-Cumming's blog: The original WWW proposal is a Word for Macintosh 4.0 file from 1990, can we open it?
The "I can't test it" made me sad. There are two other files (an RTF version and an HTML version generated in 1998 from the original file). But can we open the original document?
The original document is 68,608 bytes and file on my Mac says it's a Microsoft Word for Macintosh 4.0 file. That matches with TBL's note on the W3C page saying: "A hand conversion to HTML of the original MacWord (or Word for Mac?) document written in March 1989 and later redistributed unchanged apart from the date added in May 1990."
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Kevin Wammer ☛ Some thoughts on online monetization
However, I believe the impact of AI and the changing landscape (it's only a question of time before Google decides to copy Arc Search and stop sending traffic) will make this unsustainable.
If people want to continue enjoying their favourite creators, it won't be sustainable anymore for them to do so for free — ads will only work for huge companies at the extreme end of the creator's bell curve. On the other end, I believe you will find people supported by their fans.
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Federal News Network ☛ Latest security risk: AI’s hardware side
Artificial intelligence is the type of software that is finding its way into every domain. But AI also depends on specialized semiconductor circuits. One warning suggests that these chips, and the systems that use them, need protection from theft and misuse. For more, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Onni Aarne, a consultant at the Center for a New American Security.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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The Verge ☛ Passkeys, explained: how they might really kill passwords
Passkeys: how do they work? No, like, seriously. It’s clear that the industry is increasingly betting on passkeys as a replacement for passwords, a way to use the internet that is both more secure and more user-friendly. But for all that upside, it’s not always clear how we, the normal human users, are supposed to use passkeys. You’re telling me it’s just a thing... that lives on my phone? What if I lose my phone? What if you steal my phone?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we bring in an expert: Anna Pobletts, the head of passwordless (best title ever?) at 1Password. She has been working on all things post-password for a long time and has seen every use case you can think of. She’s convinced that passkeys are the future but also has some ideas on the right (and not-so-right) way to get started.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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CS Monitor ☛ On government drone use, privacy advocates say: Not in my backyard
A case in the Michigan Supreme Court is raising new questions about the right to privacy: Can a township’s unmanned drone surveil a homeowner's property without violating the Fourth Amendment?
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EDRI ☛ Temporary ePrivacy derogation: Companies like Facebook (Farcebook) must never indiscriminately scan people’s private messages
In response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the extension of the interim ePrivacy derogation, EDRi warns that even when they are ‘voluntary’, any measures for digital platforms to indiscriminately scan people’s private messages are an unacceptable interference with our human rights.
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The Hill ☛ College Board to pay $750K for selling New York students’ SAT data
New York alleged that the College Board collected students’ personal information after they took the SATs, PSATs or AP exams. The state said the College Board “licensed this data to colleges, scholarship programs, and other customers who used it to solicit students to participate in their programs.”
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EFF ☛ Privacy Isn't Dead. Far From It. | Electronic Frontier Foundation
This feeling is sometimes called “privacy nihilism.” Those of us who care the most about privacy are probably more likely to get it, because we know how tough the fight is.
We could go on about this feeling, because sometimes we at EFF have it, too. But the important thing to get across is that this feeling is valid, but it’s also not accurate. Here’s why.
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Gizmodo ☛ Google's Gemini AI Keeps Your Conversations for Up to 3 Years (Even If You Delete Them)
Google’s Gemini, the AI assistant formerly known as Bard, has received rave reviews, with many people hailing it as heads above OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But if you plan on using Gemini, it might be a good idea to give the privacy policy a quick read-through.
Not only does Google explicitly warn users not to give Gemini any sensitive information they wouldn’t want a human reviewer to read, but Google is also retaining many of your questions to help make their tools better. In fact, everything you tell Gemini might be kept by the company for up to three years—even if you delete all your information from the app.
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Techdirt ☛ Data Brokers Help Spam Chemo Patient With Cremation Services Because That’s How Things Work Now
Every few weeks for the last fifteen years there’s been a massive scandal involving some company, telecom, data broker, or app maker over-collecting your detailed personal location data, failing to secure it, then selling access to that information to any nitwit with a nickel. And despite the added risks this creates in the post-Roe era, we’ve still done little to pass a real privacy law or rein in reckless data brokers.
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ACLU ☛ Dozens of Police Agencies in California Are Still Sharing Driver Locations with Anti-Abortion States. We're Fighting Back.
Over the last decade, California has built up some of the nation’s strongest driver privacy protections, thanks to the hard work of activists, civil rights groups, and elected leaders.
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Confidentiality
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Loura ☛ Private key (AES-CBC) encryption and decryption in Deno
I found myself needing to encrypt a small string on Deno (and subsequently decrypt it later) for a small side project. I checked out a few websites with code samples. But those didn’t work/were out of date. So this is what worked for me:
Note: I am not a security expert and I don’t play one on TV. You shouldn’t trust anything important with random code you found on the internet. Seriously.
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Defence/Aggression
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JURIST ☛ Venezuela human rights activist detained for links to alleged plot to assassinate president
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab confirmed on Sunday the arrest and detention of Rocío San Miguel, a prominent human rights activist and leader of the NGO Control Ciudadano, for alleged involvement with a conspiracy to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro. Saab announced on X (formerly Twitter) that a warrant had been issued for San Miguel’s arrest.
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New York Times ☛ Middle East Crisis: How Israeli Commandos Rescued 2 Hostages in Gaza
The Israeli operation succeeded, but airstrikes launched to cover the mission killed dozens, according to the Gaza health authorities.
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New York Times ☛ She Survived an Airstrike That Killed Her Entire Family in Gaza
Eleven-year-old Dareen al-Bayaa lost dozens of her family members in a single airstrike in Gaza. She is one of at least 17,000 children across the territory who have been orphaned or separated from their parents.
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Defence Web ☛ Impact of Red Sea crisis on Africa – red flag or red herring?
Still reeling from the effects of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war, African countries face yet another geopolitical hurdle with the Red Sea crisis and its potentially significant economic ramifications. While current disruptions will primarily affect trade routes and supply chains between Europe and Asia, African countries won’t escape the contagion.
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RFA ☛ North Korea fires cruise missiles off its east coast
The move comes after leader Kim Jong Un threatened to destroy the South.
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France24 ☛ North Korea fires several cruise missiles into Sea of Japan
North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles Wednesday, Seoul's military said, part of a string of weapons tests this year that have accompanied increasingly aggressive rhetoric from leader Kim Jong Un.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea fires several cruise missiles off east coast, says South Korea military
So far in 2024, Mr Kim Jong Un has declared South Korea his country’s “principal enemy”.
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RFA ☛ 'I love seeing the quiet power that she really exudes in these pictures.'
American stylist analyzes the fashion of North Korea’s ‘Respected Daughter’
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The Straits Times ☛ Japan PM Kishida plans South Korea visit on March 20, Fuji TV reports
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting South Korea on March 20, broadcaster Fuji TV reported on Wednesday.
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Vox ☛ Universal Music Group pulled the plug on songs for TikTok. Now what?
At the end of January, when Universal Music Group (UMG) failed to negotiate a new licensing deal with TikTok, it removed its entire music catalog from the app. Just like that, thousands of videos featuring music by artists like Drake, Taylor Swift, and Bad Bunny were suddenly silent.
UMG said it made the decision because TikTok offered to pay only a fraction of the rate that other social platforms offer. For its part, TikTok said that Universal was putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
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Vice Media Group ☛ ‘Bad News’ for Humanity: A Critical Climate System Could Collapse Sooner Than We Thought
We’re on track towards a “cliff-like” tipping point where Atlantic Ocean currents abruptly shut down, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances. Once this tipping point is reached, it will have a massive impact on the global climate, including potentially plunging large parts of Europe into a deep freeze and significantly altering the Amazon rainforest’s ecosystem.
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) acts like an escalator, bringing warm, salty waters northward and upward to the top layers of the Atlantic Ocean, while forcing colder water south into deeper water. Through this process, AMOC redistributes heat around the planet to stabilize climates from Europe to the equator.
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Le Monde ☛ Biden slams Trump's 'dumb' and 'dangerous' NATO threats
"For God's sake, it's dumb, it's shameful, it's dangerous, it's un-American," Biden said in a televised address from the White House to urge the House of Representatives to pass vital war aid for Ukraine.
"Can you imagine a former president of the United States saying that? The whole world heard it. And the worst thing is he means it," he added. "No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will."
Washington's allies reacted with alarm after Trump made his most extreme broadside yet against the US-led military alliance – even by his standards of long-term NATO-bashing.
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Hindustan Times ☛ Biden condemns ‘dangerous’ Trump NATO remarks, calls for Ukraine funding
Biden said Trump's comment made it more urgent that congress pass his long-stalled funding request to support Ukraine's defence against Russia.
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Vox ☛ Russia-Ukraine war: The case for US arming Ukraine
Supporting Ukraine’s defense is one of the single easiest foreign policy calls of my lifetime, a policy that has both protected Ukrainians from Russian slaughter and advanced America’s geopolitical interests in Europe. It has done so at a relatively low cost in dollars and zero cost in American lives. There is nothing to gain by abandoning it, and everything to lose.
Let’s start with the most basic point: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was an act of evil. Since the war’s beginning, the Russian government and its propaganda outlets have openly announced that their war aim is to seize Ukrainian territory and subjugate its government to the Kremlin.
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New York Times ☛ Finland’s New President Faces Unexpected Test After Trump’s NATO Comments - The New York Times
Alexander Stubb was elected vowing to bolster Finland’s new role in NATO, just as Trump’s threats have thrown the future of the alliance into doubt.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Turkey arrests suspected IS member working at nuclear plant – DW – 02/13/2024
Counter-terrorism police in Turkey have arrested a suspected member of the so-called "Islamic State" group who was working at a nuclear plant, authorities said on Tuesday.
Local media reported that the suspect was a Russian national who had been working at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant under false identity papers.
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Greece ☛ Turkish police arrest an ISIS suspect who worked at nuclear power plant
The $20 billion power plant is being built by Russian state-owned energy giant Rosatom in Mersin province on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. It was inaugurated last April and is expected to start producing electricity next year.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ German fast rail traffic paralyzed in south by metal thieves
Rising prices for scrap metal have encouraged an increasing number of copper thieves in Germany.
These thieves include lone wolves as well as highly organized criminal gangs that use special tools.
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Site36 ☛ Antifa trial: Germany has no problem with human rights in Hungary, Police in Finland arrest another wanted person
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ADF ☛ Smuggled Gold Fuels War in Sudan, U.N. Says
In its ongoing battle for control of Sudan, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rely heavily on gold smuggled out of the country and its close ties to Russia’s Wagner Group, now known as Africa Corps, according to a United Nations analysis.
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Democracy Now ☛ Could Indonesia Return to Military Rule? Allan Nairn on the “Massacre General” Running for President
Wednesday’s presidential election in Indonesia could see the ascendance of General Prabowo Subianto, who has tried for years to seize power after decades of involvement in mass killings, kidnapping and torture across Indonesia, in occupied East Timor and in independence-seeking Western New Guinea. Subianto is a longtime U.S. protégé and the son-in-law of former Indonesian dictator Suharto. He once mused about becoming “a fascist dictator” and has said the country is “not ready” for democracy. We are joined in Jakarta by longtime investigative reporter Allan Nairn, who has spent decades covering Indonesia and East Timor. Nairn discusses Subianto’s bloody, authoritarian record and concerns about potential voter fraud and intimidation.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Latvia ☛ Charity concert for Ukraine on February 24 in Latvia
On February 24, at 18:30, Latvian and Ukrainian singers and musicians will join together in a charity event to express their solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people.
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Reason ☛ Tucker Dreams of Moscow
Plus: Aid for Ukraine, remote learning for 5-year-olds, intermittent fasting for Palestine, and more...
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France24 ☛ Russia puts Estonian Prime Minister Kallas on a wanted list
Russia has put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on a wanted list, an official register showed Tuesday, as tensions soar between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
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France24 ☛ US Senate passes aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan but prospects uncertain in House
The US Senate on Tuesday approved $60 billion in funding for Ukraine, in a bill House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated his Republican-led chamber will reject.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Needs Nearly $9 Billion To Rebuild Its Cultural Sites, Tourism Industry, UNESCO Says
Ukraine will need nearly $9 billion over the next decade to rebuild its cultural sites and tourism industry following Russia's invasion and war, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on February 13.
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RFERL ☛ Protesting Bulgarian Farmers Pour Milk In Sofia's Streets As Ukrainian Imports Flood Market
Farmers from across Bulgaria blocked two main thoroughfares in the capital, Sofia, on February 13, pouring milk onto the streets as they called for the resignation of Agriculture Minister Kiril Vatev among other demands.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Nationalizes Assets Of Russian Oligarch And Ex-Duma Deputy
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office said on February 13 that the Anti-Corruption High Court has nationalized assets in Ukraine belonging to Russian oligarch and former lawmaker Ivan Savvidi.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Envoy Doesn't Expect Ukraine NATO Invitation At July Summit
The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, said on February 13 that she does not expect the alliance to issue a membership invitation to Ukraine at its summit in Washington in July
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teleSUR ☛ Bulgarian Farmers Demand Compensation for Ukrainian War Effects
This new protest comes a day after the government and agricultural associations announced that they had signed an agreement.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Issues Arrest Warrant for Estonian PM Kaja Kallas
Russia initiated 16 criminal cases for the destruction, damage, and desecration of Soviet soldiers' monuments and graves in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine.
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YLE ☛ Finnish court hands Russian war crimes suspect suspended sentence for border offences
Voislav Torden is suspected of an aggravated war crime and other offences in Ukraine 2014–15 when he was identified as a mercenary with a neo-Nazi group.
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New York Times ☛ Biden Denounces Trump’s Comments on Russia and NATO as ‘Un-American’
The president cited the former president’s comments in seeking to increase pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson to allow a floor vote on a $95 billion package of security aid for Ukraine and Israel approved by the Senate.
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New York Times ☛ How Congress Could Bypass Republican Opposition to Funding Ukraine
Lawmakers in the House may resort to an arcane procedural move to force action on a foreign aid bill that Speaker Johnson has suggested he would not put to a vote.
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New York Times ☛ With the Ukraine Aid Vote, the Republicans Are Isolationist Again
A deeply unserious Republican Party faces a deadly serious global moment.
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New York Times ☛ As U.S. Weighs Aid, Ukraine Turns to European Allies for Support
President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to seek more military assistance in Berlin, Paris and possibly London.
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New York Times ☛ Russia Used a New Hypersonic Missile, Ukraine Says
Russia has not confirmed that a Zircon hypersonic missile was used. The United States says it’s looking into the claim.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Aid Bill Faces Hurdles in the House Amid G.O.P. Opposition
Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated he won’t put the Senate legislation to a vote in the House, leaving proponents scrambling to find a path to passage.
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New York Times ☛ Performance by Maestro With Russian Ties Is Canceled in Vienna
A Teodor Currentzis concert at the Wiener Festwochen was canceled after the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv, also on the program, raised concerns about his ties to Russia.
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New York Times ☛ A bill with $14 billion for Israel’s war in Gaza passes the Senate but may falter in the House.
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New York Times ☛ Senate Passes $95 Billion Aid Package for Israel and Ukraine, But Fate Is Still Uncertain
Democrats and a group of Republicans teamed up to approve the $95 billion bill, which also includes aid to Israel and civilians in conflict zones, but the House speaker threatened to ignore it.
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Meduza ☛ ‘A significant diversion of resources’: Ukrainian drone attacks are hitting oil facilities further inside Russia than ever before. How will this affect the war? — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian singer who apologized after attending ‘Almost Naked’ party visits wounded Russian soldiers in annexed Ukrainian territory — Meduza
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Latvia ☛ Russia deems Latvian politicians 'wanted' in futile gesture
Russia has declared dozens of European politicians and officials "wanted" in its latest example of not being able to process the fact that most of the world finds it abhorrent.
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JURIST ☛ Russia adds Estonia Prime Minister to wanted list
Russia has put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ wanted database, according to a report issued Tuesday by independent Russian media outlet Mediazona. This is the first time a foreign head of government has been added to the list.
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JURIST ☛ Russia announces sanctions against 18 British nationals
Russia announced new sanctions against 18 British nationals in response to the UK’s “confrontational policies” against the country on Monday. However, the statement did not mention which particular policy the sanctions are responding to. The sanctions were made against not only the UK’s government officials but also scholars.
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LRT ☛ Russia may double troops along border with Baltics, Finland – Estonian intelligence
Moscow is planning to possibly double the number of troops along its western border with the Baltic states and Finland, as it anticipates a potential military conflict with NATO in the coming decade, Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service warns.
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LRT ☛ Pro-Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate Lithuanian military system
On February 3, the Lithuanian Armed Forces detected a suspicious login to the user account of its distance learning information system ILIAS. Pro-Russian hackers claim to have infiltrated the military systems of Lithuania and other NATO countries.
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LRT ☛ Russia puts 29 Lithuanian politicians, public figures on wanted list
Russia has placed Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, Klaipėda Mayor Arvydas Vaitkus, and several dozen other Lithuanian politicians and public figures on its wanted list, Mediazona, a Russian independent news website, reported on Tuesday.
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RFERL ☛ Blinken Says He Spoke With Paul Whelan, U.S. Citizen Being Held By Russia
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on February 13 that he had spoken the day before with Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is being detained in Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Estonia Says Russia Is Preparing For A Military Confrontation With The West
Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West within the next decade and could be deterred by a counter buildup of armed forces, Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service said on February 13.
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RFERL ☛ German National Detained In Russia For Carrying Cannabis Candies
Russian authorities said on February 13 that a 38-year-old German national was detained at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg for having candies containing cannabis, which is legal in Germany but illegal in Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Puts Estonian PM And Dozens Of Baltic Officials On Wanted List For Removing Monuments
Moscow has placed Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on Russia's wanted list, the first time a foreign leader has been put on the Interior Ministry's list, for "destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers" as relations between the Kremlin and the West continue to show signs of deteriorating.
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Meduza ☛ Russian Prosecutor General’s Office seeks to nationalize three factories allegedly illegally privatized in 1990s — Meduza
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LRT ☛ Belarusian opposition vows to correct Lithuania border error in new passports
The Belarusian opposition has vowed to eliminate map errors in its alternative passports as they now incorrectly show the border between Lithuania and Belarus, the office of opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya said on Tuesday.
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RFERL ☛ Imprisoned Belarusian Oppositionist Held Incommunicado For One Year
Self-exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya wrote online on February 13 that imprisoned opposition activist Maryya Kalesnikava has been held incommunicado for exactly one year.
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Meduza ☛ Bloomberg: around half of tankers tied to Russia and sanctioned by U.S. stop delivering oil — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Afghan journalist convicted of illegal border crossing fears deportation from Russia — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Over 400 evacuated as major fire breaks out in residential building in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai — Meduza
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Environment
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Vox ☛ Watch: Rare footage shows the lives of polar bears through their own eyes
In search of answers, scientists strapped recording devices to 20 polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay, where the ice-free period has increased by roughly three weeks since 1979, as part of a study published today in the journal Nature Communications. The cameras recorded 115 hours of footage over three recent years, providing a rare window into the land-bound lives of these animals.
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Energy/Transportation
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YLE ☛ Strikes halt rail traffic, close daycare centres and shut down industrial sector
Union action led to the cancellation of long-distance trains and commuter rail traffic throughout the country on Monday.
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YLE ☛ Tuesday's papers: Trains cancelled, immigrant "underclass", political strikes continue
As Monday's railroad strike was ending, VR announced that all trains on Tuesday were being cancelled due to a safety issue.
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Futurism ☛ Cybertruck Owners Say They're Already Rusting
The use of stainless steel, which technically can stain and rust, is a baffling design decision. The Cybertruck is meant to be a workhorse that can go anywhere at any time, per the EV maker's own marketing materials — not an expensive collector's item that you only take out under ideal conditions.
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Common Dreams ☛ California Bill Would Expand Rooftop Solar to Working-Class Families
The bill’s introduction comes as a new report celebrates the dramatic growth of rooftop-solar power over the past decade. The report, from Environment California Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group, recommends policies to keep rooftop solar growing, including considering all of its benefits. These benefits include reducing fossil fuel dependence, easing strain on the grid during high electricity demand, increasing resilience to threats like extreme weather, and limiting the amount of land needed for clean energy — all at a steadily falling cost.
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David Rosenthal ☛ Clouds Over The Mines
In early December 2022 when I wrote skeptically about the economics of Bitcoin mining in Foolish Lenders the Bitcoin "price" was around $17K. It has now climbed 153% to around $43K and, below the fold, I am still posting skeptically about the economics of mining.
Source The first clue that the future for miners is clouded comes in Bitcoin Outlook Clouded by Falling Miner Reserves Ahead of April’s Halving by Sidhartha Shukla and David Pan:
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New York Times ☛ This Arctic Circle Town Expected a Green Energy Boom. Then Came Bidenomics.
Mo i Rana offers a stark example of the competition underway. The industrial town is trying to establish itself as the green energy capital of Norway, so Freyr’s decision to invest elsewhere came as a blow. Local authorities had originally hoped that the factory could attract thousands of employees and new residents to their town of about 20,000 — an enticing promise for a region struggling with an aging population. Instead, Freyr is employing only about 110 people locally at its testing plant focused on technological development.
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Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Investors are turning bearish on Tesla
The problem for the EV maker is six of those seven companies are benefiting from the enthusiasm surrounding burgeoning artificial intelligence technology. The group hit a record 29.5% weighting in the S&P 500 last week even with Tesla’s decline. But despite Musk’s efforts to position his company as an AI investment, the reality is Tesla faces a unique set of challenges.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Molly White Reviews Blockchain Book
Molly White—of “Web3 is Going Just Great” fame—reviews Chris Dixon’s blockchain solutions book: Read Write Own: [...]
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Meduza ☛ Locomotive and freight train collision in Russia's Chelyabinsk region derails 12 cars — Meduza
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Democracy Now ☛ The Climate Election: Mark Hertsgaard on Why 2024 Must Focus More on Climate Crisis
We speak with The Nation's environment correspondent Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now, about how journalists under attack by climate deniers must not let fear of retaliation stop them from covering the subject, especially during an election year. “It's not our job as journalists to censor ourselves because one party or one candidate decides that they’re going to deny climate science. We owe it to the public to report that to the public without fear or favor,” he says. Hertsgaard also discusses the role of climate policy in the 2024 election and the fifth anniversary of progressive lawmakers’ first attempt to pass a Green New Deal.
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DeSmog ☛ Reform Candidate in ‘Green Tory’ By-Election Has Record of Climate Science Denial
Rupert Lowe, the Reform party candidate in Thursday’s Kingswood by-election, claimed in 2020 that there is “no definitive evidence” for “the cult of climate change”.
The by-election is being held after Chris Skidmore, a prominent Conservative advocate for climate policies, quit as the local MP over the government’s plans to formalise the awarding of annual North Sea oil and gas licences.
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The Straits Times ☛ Singapore-owned plane that crashed was flying in unusual pattern, says Malaysian villager
One fruit seller said he heard a very loud explosion before the crash happened.
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Wildlife/Nature
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YLE ☛ WWF Finland: Endangered Saimaa ringed seals begin crucial breeding season
The figures from last year show that conservation efforts, aimed at protecting and replenishing the population of the highly-endangered but much-loved Saimaa seals, are beginning to bear fruit.
An annual live stream of the Saimaa seals in their natural habitat, which attracts millions of viewers each year, has also helped to bring widespread attention to the plight of the species.
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Overpopulation
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The Strategist ☛ The impact of global food chokepoint pressures on Asia’s food security
In the last few years Asia’s food security has suffered a series of crises induced by conflict, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, causing great disruptions to food supply systems [...]
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Finance
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Digital Music News ☛ SiriusXM Lays Off Reported 160 Employees Amid Push to ‘Become Even More Efficient, Agile, and Flexible’
Weeks after reporting a sizable self-pay subscribership falloff for 2023 – and against the backdrop of a major operational revamp – SiriusXM has laid off approximately 160 employees. The unfortunate news entered the media spotlight in reports from the radio trades today, and affected professionals were continuing to pen related Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn posts...
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CNBC ☛ Nintendo CEO once halved his salary to prevent layoffs, and it worked—why that’s so uncommon today
As sweeping rounds of layoffs rock the tech, media and finance industries in 2024, some video game fans are thinking about former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.
Iwata ran the Kyoto, Japan-based video game company from 2002 until his death in 2015. In 2013, Nintendo released the Wii U console as a successor to the mega-popular Wii. It was a commercial failure, pushing the company into years of losses.
To avoid layoffs, Iwata took a 50% pay cut to help pay for employee salaries, saying a fully-staffed Nintendo would have a better chance of rebounding.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Federal News Network ☛ Congress swings-and-misses at impeachment, foreign aid, federal telework
Can it get any more chaotic in Congress? This week will tell, as we might see another try at impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alexandro Mayorkas, foreign aid, and federal telework. It's a broken record and you are the needle.
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New York Times ☛ Meet the Woman Who Helped Pay for That R.F.K. Super Bowl Ad
Nicole Shanahan, a Bay Area lawyer once married to the Surveillance Giant Google co-founder Sergey Brin, gave $4 million and creative guidance to a group backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid.
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France24 ☛ Thousands of Khan supporters block highways to protest Pakistan's election results
Thousands of supporters of Pakistan's imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan and members of other political parties blocked key highways and started a daylong strike in the volatile southwest Monday to protest alleged rigging of last week's elections.
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The Verge ☛ Spotify layoffs made it harder to discover new music on the platform
Spotify sucks at new music discovery. That’s not exactly a hot take considering how long users have been complaining about it over the years, but it used to be much easier to forgive when alternative services like Pandora and SoundCloud could help to make up for Spotify’s shortcomings. With the company’s domination over the music streaming industry now becoming difficult to ignore, it’s getting harder to organically find new songs and artists — especially on the Spotify platform itself.
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Patrick Breyer ☛ Pirates don’t support flawed AI Act
“Unfortunately, despite the good position of the European Parliament, the national governments managed to cripple the AI Act. Hence, the Pirates cannot support it. That does not mean that the legislation doesn’t have some positive aspects. Thanks to improvements which I proposed, students won’t be discriminated when during exams. The practice called e-proctoring may falsely accuse students of cheating, especially those with disabilities or those with dark skin. And the AI Act will put a stop to that by requiring stricter criteria for such AI usage. I also appreciate the ban on social scoring systems as we know them from China. It is an endless pity how such promising legislation has gone awry at the last minute and that we therefore cannot vote in favor.”
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RFA ☛ Almost $5 billion of Indo-Pacific aid in bipartisan Senate bill
After an all-nighter in the Senate, Trump-allied Republicans in the House threaten to tank the legislation.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Digital Music News ☛ As Fentanylware (TikTok) Becomes YouTube, YouTube Becomes TikTok—Vertical Live Steams Now Live for Everyone
As Fentanylware (TikTok) moves to become more like YouTube with horizontal videos, YouTube becomes more like Fentanylware (TikTok) by offering vertical livestreams. Fentanylware (TikTok) began experimenting with offering its user base the ability to upload horizontal videos back in 2022.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Short corrective comments can help social media users to spot false information, study shows
While the study shows the general effectiveness of social correction, it also finds that miscorrections affect social media users as well: when user comments flag correct news as false, readers can perceive real news as less accurate. User comments may also cause further confusion on social media platforms.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Off Guardian ☛ AI and the new kind of propaganda
Do you remember how the unconstitutional, pastel-authoritarian and totally batshit insane “Disinformation Governance Board” – with its Mary Poppins-cosplaying, Monty Python level of unintentional self-satirizing department head – was rolled out two years ago like a half-joke, half-beta-test of a version of the 1984 Ministry of Truth?
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Reason ☛ Alleged Neo-Nazi Loses Libel Lawsuit
From Weaver v. Millsaps, decided Wednesday by the Georgia Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge C. Andrew Fuller, joined by Judges Anne Elizabeth Barnes and Benjamin Land: After Michael Weaver and others acting at his behest posted negative Surveillance Giant Google reviews of Valerie Millsaps's frame shop business, she published a response [...]
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Meduza ☛ Russian anti-war sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky’s sentence in ‘justifying terrorism’ case upped to five years imprisonment — Meduza
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Democracy Now ☛ Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wins $1 Million Defamation Case Against Right-Wing Climate Deniers
We speak with world-renowned climate scientist Michael Mann, who was just awarded more than $1 million in a defamation lawsuit against two right-wing critics who smeared his work connecting fossil fuels to rising global temperatures. He joins us to discuss the importance of resisting climate denialism through free scientific inquiry and expression. “We all pay the price when scientists don’t feel empowered to speak out about the implications of their science,” says Mann. Mann says he hopes his legal win will protect others who have been silenced by the threat of defamation so that “scientists will feel more comfortable in leaving the laboratory and speaking to the public and policymakers.”
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ACLU ☛ When Florida Officials Tried to Silence Our Pro-Palestinian Student Group, We Sued
While studying abroad a couple of years ago, I heard first-hand accounts from Jordanian-Palestinian friends about the displacement their families, and families like theirs, experienced during the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”). Moved by the painful memories they shared, I started researching student organizations advocating for Palestinian rights, and came across the Instagram of the University of Florida (UF) chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). When I enrolled at UF a few months later, I immediately joined.
As a member of UF SJP, it was devastating when top Florida officials ordered public universities to deactivate all SJP chapters in the state, including ours. I remember being in shock when I read the order. Officials justified deactivating our chapter not because of anything our group had said or done—but because of our affiliation with the national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a separate group. According to the order, certain views expressed in an advocacy toolkit the National SJP issued on October 7 violated Florida’s “material support of terrorism” law. But my student group was not even involved with the creation of that toolkit, which itself is protected by the First Amendment.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Common Dreams ☛ Global media freedom at risk as Julian Assange back in UK court facing possible extradition to USA
In advance of Julian Assange’s next hearing in the UK courts ahead of his possible extradition to the US, Amnesty International reiterates concerns that Assange faces the risk of serious human rights violations if extradited and warns of a profound ‘chilling effect’ on global media freedom.
“The risk to publishers and investigative journalists around the world hangs in the balance. Should Julian Assange be sent to the US and prosecuted there, global media freedoms will be on trial, too,” said Julia Hall, Amnesty International’s expert on counter-terrorism and criminal justice in Europe.
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RFERL ☛ Another Independent Kyrgyz Journalist Detained Amid Crackdown
The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said on February 13 that its officers had detained independent journalist Ali Ergeshev at the Manas airport in Bishkek on hooliganism charges. [...]
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BIA Net ☛ Operation against journalists in İzmir: Reporters from MA, JINNEWS, and Gazete Duvar detained
The police conducted raids on the homes of journalists in the early hours of the morning in İzmir.
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International Business Times ☛ British Journalist Sentenced To Prison In Malaysia For Defaming Queen
Clare Rewcastle Brown has been given the sentence in absentia for her book "The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose".
According to local media reports, the book contains accusations against the Sultanah of Terengganu. It reportedly alleges that the queen helped fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho become a TIA adviser, later renamed 1MDB.
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The Dissenter ☛ Countdown To Day X: Denying Assange's Freedom Of Expression
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Civil Rights/Policing
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The Straits Times ☛ Anti-Rohingya hate comes into focus in India after court petition against Facebook
The dismissed petition wanted Facebook (Farcebook) to stop using algorithms that allegedly fan harmful content.
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RFA ☛ Political prisoners at Myanmar junta-run prison go on hunger strike
The 47 prisoners in Mon state are protesting a recent decision to send two inmates to solitary confinement.
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The Straits Times ☛ Papua New Guinea PM to face no confidence motion in parliament after deadly riots
Papua New Guinea's opposition party lodged a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister James Marape when the Pacific Island nation's parliament returned on Tuesday, the first session since deadly riots in January during a police strike.
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JURIST ☛ Ontario Court of Appeal rules provincial legislation imposing wage caps on workers is unconstitutional
The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled on Monday that provincial legislation in the central Canadian province that capped public-sector workers’ wages is unconstitutional. This decision upheld the Ontario Supreme Court’s ruling in November 2023.
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OpenRightsGroup ☛ The case against police body-worn video cameras
A new investigation by the BillBC has revealed a shocking incident in which Thames Valley Police officers made “sickening” comments about a woman, filmed semi-naked with police body-worn video cameras. The woman was being filmed when her body became exposed while suffering a seizure.
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CS Monitor ☛ States boost minimum wages, but base pay doesn’t cover cost of living
The notion of having a minimum wage, say experts, is to have a pay floor that allows for a basic living standard. That living standard, however, varies from city to town and from state to state. Work philosophies and politics also come into play.
“It really is a reflection of what the body politic in the jurisdiction feels is the minimum that they would like to see any worker in that jurisdiction be paid per hour,” points out economist Jerry Nickelsburg, director of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson Forecast.
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RFERL ☛ Lawyer For Executed Iranian Protester Summoned To Court After Critical Remarks
Raeisian has repeatedly called the execution illegal, stating that it was carried out while a retrial petition was still in front of the Supreme Court.
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Gizmodo ☛ Uber, Lyft Drivers Are Ghosting Their Apps for Fair Wages on Valentine's Day
“Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers are TIRED of being mistreated by the app companies,” said Justice for App Workers, a national coalition with over 130,000 members, in a blog post. “Across the country, in Austin, Chicago, Hartford, Miami, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, and Tampa, we’re not taking rides to or from any airport on February 14.”
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Hamilton Nolan ☛ It's Book Time
Writing a book taught me that writing a book is a long process that takes a lot of work by a lot of people. I now have a deep, unshakable respect for authors, and for the unseen teams of people at publishing houses who make books a reality. If you have ever written a book before—even if the “critics” didn’t say it was “good,” even if it wasn’t a “best seller”—I salute you. That’s a lot of words to write. I am not saying that sarcastically. You should be proud of yourself. I have also resolved to buy more new books in the future. If the journalism industry is going to collapse, we need to protect one last place.
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ACLU ☛ Border Patrol’s Abusive Practice of Taking Migrants’ Property Needs to End
Seeking lives of safety and opportunity, people coming to the United States as migrants and asylum-seekers may carry only their most essential and beloved possessions. When they arrive in the U.S. and are taken into Border Patrol custody, many migrants endure the devastating loss of their property: Border Patrol agents routinely confiscate, trash, or force them to throw away their precious belongings.
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Techdirt ☛ Techdirt Podcast Episode 380: How To Actually Help Kids Online
As we’ve written about repeatedly, efforts to protect kids online and improve their mental health at the moment all seem to be focused on taking social media away from them, even though all the evidence suggests this would be harmful, not helpful. Today, we’re joined by Rob Morris, who aims to take a different approach with his online mental health service Koko, for a discussion about how the real way to help kids is to meet them where they’re at.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM) or Chatbots
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The Verge ☛ US patent office confirms AI can’t hold patents
However, to be able to register a patent, the person using the AI must’ve contributed significantly to the invention’s conception. A person simply asking an AI system to create something and overseeing it, the report says, does not make them an inventor. The office says that a person who simply presents the problem to an AI system or “recognizes and appreciates” its output as a good invention can’t claim credit for that patent.
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The Verge ☛ ChatGPT’s memory gives OpenAI’s chatbot new information about you
By default, memory will be turned on, and OpenAI says memories will be used to train its models going forward. (Companies using ChatGPT Enterprise and Teams won’t have their data sent back to the models.)
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Jamie Zawinski ☛ Today in ACAB
The proper way to understand your local police department is not as "Law and Order" but as "The Sopranos". Their goal is to amass money and influence (and with those, impunity) while doing as little work as possible.
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European Commission ☛ Commission approves the acquisition of Asiana by Korean Air, subject to conditions
European Commission Press release Brussels, 13 Feb 2024 The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Asiana Airlines Inc. ('Asiana') by Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd ('Korean Air'). The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the remedies offered by Korean Air.
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The Register UK ☛ FCC Commissioner blasts Apple over Beeper Mini affair
Enter Brendan Carr, a senior Republican on the Commission, who has now asked the FCC to assess whether Apple violated the FCC's part 14 rules on accessibility, usability, and compatibility.
It comes amid increasing scrutiny of Apple from both sides of the Atlantic. In response to a user highlighting the accessibility settings available on iDevices, Carr snapped back: "Do those settings fix the problem of degraded photo quality, down resolution of videos, removal of location info, inaccessibility of advanced messaging features, etc when messaging with Android?"
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Silicon Angle ☛ EU finds iMessage, three Microsoft products don’t qualify as core platform services
At the center of the decision is a high-profile antitrust law called the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, that the bloc implemented in 2022. It focuses on preventing anticompetitive behavior by “gatekeepers,” tech giants with popular services that meet certain antitrust criteria. Last September, the EU designated Apple and Microsoft as gatekeepers along with four other companies.
The DMA requires tech giants to provide a simple way for consumers to uninstall their apps. Additionally, the legislation places restrictions on how personal data may be used in targeted advertising. The DMA also contains more narrowly focused rules that apply only to certain types of services such as app stores.
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India Times ☛ EU Commission: Apple's iMessage, Microsoft's Bing escape EU rules
Apple's iMessage and Microsoft's Bing search engine got a reprieve from tougher EU rules curbing how tech titans do business, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
From next month, the world's biggest digital firms, identified as "gatekeepers" by the EU, must comply with strict do's and don'ts under a landmark law.
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Patents
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The Register UK ☛ USPTO stresses again that patent inventors must be human
The US Patent and Trademark Office this week repeated loud and clear it will only accept patent applications that list actual real humans as the inventor and not AI.
That said, officials signaled they are willing to consider inventions developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence, though the human inventors listed on the submitted paperwork must have made a "significant contribution" to the blueprints.
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AnandTech ☛ German Court Bans Sales of Select Intel CPUs in Germany Over Patent Dispute
Intel has expressed its disappointment with the verdict and announced its intention to challenge the decision. The company criticized R2 Semiconductor's litigation strategy, accusing it of pursuing serial lawsuits against big companies, particularly after Intel managed to invalidate one of R2's U.S. patents.
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Trademarks
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Techdirt ☛ Trader Joe’s Appeals Dismissal Of Its Bullshit Trademark Suit Against Its Employees’ Union
There’s that old saying that goes something like: when you’ve dug yourself into a hole, the very first thing you have to do is stop digging. Or, if you’re Trader Joe’s, you tell the foreman to hold your beer and grab the shovel to get back to work. Last summer, the grocer decided to take its own employees’ union to court, claiming that the union’s sale of merchandise that includes the name of the company was somehow trademark infringement. The claim never made much sense, given that all the merch is clearly labeled as coming from the union and not Trader Joe’s itself, the trade dress is fairly different anyway, and, oh by the way, this merch is only available through the union’s website. When the court dismissed the suit months later, it did so with a ruling that pointed all of this out in a fairly fiery manner.
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Copyrights
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Digital Music News ☛ Travis Scott, Metro Boomin, and James Blake Face Copyright Suit Over Alleged Unauthorized Sample
Travis Scott, Metro Boomin, Sony Music Publishing, and others are facing a copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit for allegedly sampling a track without permission on Utopia.
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Torrent Freak ☛ PornHub Sister Company Wins $2.1m Piracy Damages, But No Blocking Order
MG Premium has won its bizarre lawsuit against pirate site Goodporn. In the early stages of the case, the Pornhub.com domain was 'virtually' at stake, but Pornhub's sister company was eventually awarded over $2.1 million in damages. The court denied injunctive relief, however, which means that there are no domain seizures or site-blocking orders.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Court Dismisses Authors’ Copyright Infringement Claims Against OpenAI
Several authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, have suffered an early loss in their copyright battle against OpenAI. The authors accused OpenAI of using pirated copies of their books to train its models. A California federal court dismissed the vicarious copyright infringement and DMCA violation claims. However, the lawsuit isn't over yet.
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