Links 12/03/2024: Russia's Lost Momentum, Reddit is Offloaded to Gamblers
Contents
- Distributions and Operating Systems
- Leftovers
- Standards/Consortia
- Licensing / Legal
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
- Leftovers
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Distributions and Operating Systems
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Leftovers
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[Repeat] Tedium ☛ The No Symbol: The History Of The Red Circle-Slash
Today in Tedium: Recently, I heard someone talking about the red circle and slash, and it made me realize something—how little we actually talk about the red circle and slash, one of the most obvious symbols around. It’s used for all sorts of use cases. If you search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s trademark archive, you will find all sorts of cheesy or weird logos that reference this simple tool of negation and prohibition. It is literally the easiest way to add visual language to something else that already exists, and turn it into a logo or bumper sticker. And the reason is, simply put, that it’s well understood. Does it have a name? A purpose? Did someone specifically invent it? How did it become so common, and why is it so clear what it means, despite the fact that seemingly nobody talks about it? Today’s Tedium considers the unusually common red circle and slash. — Ernie @ Tedium
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Joel Chrono ☛ Website changes, Flexbox and stuff
A series of events happened that somehow made me think I really should dedicate a bunch of time to modifiying my website structure once again.
I am not quite sure of what exactly triggered me to do this, but there are many things that made me keep going at it until today. Among them is sickness, and boredom and—Yep, pretty much that.
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Standards/Consortia
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] How leap years are viewed across the globe
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APNIC ☛ KeyTrap
The language of the press release is certainly dramatic, with “devasting consequences” and the threat to “completely disable large parts of the worldwide Internet.” If this is really so devastating then perhaps, we should look at this in a little more detail to see what’s going on, how this vulnerability works, and what the response has been.
But before we launch into the details of KeyTrap perhaps it’s useful to understand the respective roles of the DNS infrastructure.
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APNIC ☛ Improving Regional Internet Registry alignment in the RPKI space
As a result of the Number Resource Organization (NRO) Strategic Review Process, which started in 2022, the NRO agreed to work towards providing a robust, coordinated, and secure Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) service as one of the main priorities.
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Licensing / Legal
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Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Service Level Agreement
SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. The agreement here refers to a legally binding contract not just a handshake between teams (that’s where internal SLO usually stops).
SLA is a legal layer on top of the SLO. Think of it as a more serious objective on top of a high-level indicator. It builds on top of what we have covered so far: [...]
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Science
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RTL ☛ 18th-century object worth millions: Paganini's violin gets X-ray treatment in quest of sound secrets
The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), a particle accelerator in the southeastern city of Grenoble, scanned the instrument down to the cellular structure of its wood.
The idea is to create a 3D model of the violin in and out of which people can zoom, down to a micron, or millionth of a metre.
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Jamie Brandon ☛ Unexplanations: relational algebra is math
I see this claim appear in various forms: relational algebra is math, is based on math, comes from math, has strong mathematical foundations.
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Education
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University of Michigan ☛ Americans’ trust in science survived polarization, Trump attacks
Trump’s attacks on scientific experts — exemplified by criticism of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — increased the level of partisan polarization in the United States and made the question of scientific expertise more salient to many Americans.
The proportion of adults who had no attitude about scientific expertise in 2016 dropped significantly during the four years of the Trump administration.
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Phil Eaton ☛ First month on a database team
A little over a month ago, I joined EnterpriseDB on a distributed Postgres product (PGD). The process of onboarding myself has been pretty similar at each company in the last decade, though I think I've gotten better at it. The process is of course influenced by the team, and my coworkers have been excellent. Still, I wanted to share my thought process and personal strategies.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Stressless Shortwave Reviewed
[Dan Robinson] picked up a shortwave receiver known as the “stressless” receiver kit. We aren’t sure if the stress is from building a more complicated kit or operating a more complicated receiver. Either way, it is an attractive kit that looks easy to build.
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Hackaday ☛ A 555-Shaped Discrete Component 555
While the “should have used a 555” meme is strong around these parts, we absolutely agree with [Kelvin Brammer]’s decision to make this 555-shaped plug-in replacement for the 555 timer chip using discrete parts, rather than just a boring old chip.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Craig Murray ☛ Healthcare
I have a post on the political class’s frenetic attempts to criminalise dissent nearly finished, which I hope will be up tonight.
[...] In the NHS I would have had to plead for a receptionist at all for an appointment to see a GP, and would have had to go to a hospital for the X-Ray and ECG. Then they would have probably decided to wait a week before giving antibiotics.The Greek system was simply massively, massively a faster, more efficient and better experience. It was entirely free, except for 38 euros for the four prescriptions.
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Fenbendazole: I’m having flashbacks to laetrile and Stanislaw Burzynski
Nearly 17 years ago, Dr. Mark Hoofnagle coined a term, crank magnetism, to describe how believers in one form of pseudoscience, quackery, and conspiracy theory almost inevitably start believing in multiple forms of pseudoscience, quackery, and conspiracy theories. At the time, he was discussing how creationists were attracted to the arguments of HIV/AIDS denier Peter Duesberg because they thought that these arguments somehow also undermined evolution as well. Back around the same time, inspired by Dr. Hoofnagle’s term, I noticed so many more examples. I’ll cite a few, not so much because readers might be familiar with them (although some longtime readers might), but just to show that crank magnetism, as new as it might seems to so many of my colleagues who had never noticed it before, is, in fact nothing new:
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India Times ☛ Tiny plastic particles in blood vessels raise heart attack, stroke risk: study - Times of India
Researchers from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples, Italy enrolled 257 patients who came for surgery to remove plaque or fatty deposits in the carotid artery – arteries present on the side of the neck that supplies blood to the brain.
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CBC ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] U.S. senators demand answers from Pfizer about a $50 donation to a Canadian MAID group
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CBC ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] She mourned her son's death at an Ottawa hospital. Then he sent her a text message
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Menopause needs a societal rethink
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] France makes abortion a constitutional right
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Why France enshrined abortion rights in its constitution
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] US pharmacy giants to start selling abortion pill
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Gaza: Famine looms due to aid restrictions
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Sask. wants details before joining federal pharmacare plan
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Regina drivers pulled over for any reason this month will have to take a sobriety test
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Global malnourishment: 1 in 8 people are obese
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Fact check: Are dietary supplements a rip-off?
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Mastering USPTO DOCX Formats: The Ultimate Guide [Ed: USPTO now forcing people to use proprietary Microsoft formats or pay heavy penalties. This serves to show how corrupt this office has become; its Director, Vidal, used to work for Microsoft.]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been working diligently towards introducing a system supporting the submission of new patent monopoly applications in structured text, particularly utilizing the DOCX format, over the past few years.
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India Times ☛ ai europe: AI talent war heats up in Europe
Riding the investment wave, a crop of foreign AI firms - including Canada's Cohere and U.S.-based Anthropic and OpenAI - opened offices in Europe last year, adding to pressure on tech companies already trying to attract and retain talent in the region.
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MIT Technology Review ☛ LLMs become more covertly racist with human intervention
Since their inception, it’s been clear that large language models like ChatGPT absorb racist views from the millions of pages of the [Internet] they are trained on. Developers have responded by trying to make them less toxic. But new research suggests that those efforts, especially as models get larger, are only curbing racist views that are overt, while letting more covert stereotypes grow stronger and better hidden.
Researchers asked five AI models—including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and older models from Facebook and Google—to make judgments about speakers who used African-American English (AAE). The race of the speaker was not mentioned in the instructions.
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Pro Publica ☛ After Walmart Bought Finance App One, Complaints Soared
Only a few hours elapsed between the time that Carl’s pay landed in his checking account and when online thieves pilfered it. “They took all of it but like 67 cents,” he said. Months before, Carl had signed up for One Finance, a banking app. It’s owned and promoted by Walmart, where Carl works in a grocery department.
He was enticed by features like cash back on purchases at Walmart and the chance to receive his pay two days early, as well as by low fees and high interest rates. Everything was fine until Carl used his One debit card — for the very first time — to buy a video game at Walmart last fall. The next time he checked the app, he saw a series of unauthorized transactions that had drained his account. To get by, he tapped his savings, which he said was “just enough to cover everything.” Carl asked to be identified by first name only out of concern for his job security.
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Ghacks ☛ Microsoft starts rollout of Windows DMA compliance changes in Europe - gHacks Tech News
Microsoft has started the rollout of Digital Markets Act changes in its Windows 10 and 11 operating systems for users from the European Economic Area.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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EFF ☛ EFF’s Submission to Ofcom’s Consultation on Illegal Harms
For years, we opposed a clause contained in the then Online Safety Bill allowing Ofcom to serve a notice requiring tech companies to scan their users–all of them–for child abuse content. We are pleased to see that Ofcom’s recent statements note that the Online Safety Act will not apply to end-to-end encrypted messages. Encryption backdoors of any kind are incompatible with privacy and human rights. However, there are places in Ofcom’s documentation where this commitment can and should be clearer. In our submission, we affirmed the importance of ensuring that people’s rights to use and benefit from encryption—regardless of the size and type of the online service. The commitment to not scan encrypted data must be firm, regardless of the size of the service, or what encrypted services it provides. For instance, Ofcom has suggested that “file-storage and file-sharing” may be subject to a different risk profile for mandating scanning. But encrypted “communications” are not significantly different from encrypted “file-storage and file-sharing.”In this context, Ofcom should also take note of new milestone judgment in PODCHASOV v. RUSSIA (Application no. 33696/19) where the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that weakening encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of communications for all users, and violates the human right to privacy.
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The Register UK ☛ European Commission broke data protection law with Microsoft
The European Commission has been reprimanded for infringing data protection regulations when using Microsoft 365.
The rebuke came from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and is the culmination of an investigation that kicked off in May 2021, following the Schrems II judgement.
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El País ☛ Why the iris offers the most precious biometric data
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) made an unprecedented decision this past Wednesday. For the next three months, the Worldcoin orbs will no longer be allowed to operate in the country. Since July 2023, these devices have scanned the irises of some 400,000 Spaniards, in order to validate their accounts and reward them with a batch of cryptocurrencies (which have a cash value of about $80).
The data collected to-date by Worldcoin — a company linked to Sam Altman, the godfather of ChatGPT — is currently blocked. It cannot be processed or shared, until an international investigation decides whether or not it’s legal for a private company to collect this type of data.
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The Verge ☛ Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to use indoor security cameras, regardless of where they’re placed or what they’re used for. In an update on Monday, Airbnb says the change to “prioritize the privacy” of renters goes into effect on April 30th.
The vacation rental app previously let hosts install security cameras in “common areas” of listings, including hallways, living rooms, and front doors. Airbnb required hosts to disclose the presence of security cameras in their listings and make them clearly visible, and it prohibited hosts from using cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms.
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Gizmodo ☛ Airbnb Finally Bans Creepy Indoor Cameras at Properties Worldwide
Airbnb is banning all indoor security cameras at properties worldwide, according to an announcement published online Monday. The change comes after years of horror stories circulating online about secret hidden security cameras, which have long been banned on the platform, though still pop up frequently around the world.
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The Register UK ☛ No more indoor security cameras in rentals, says Airbnb
Airbnb guests will be delighted to know that their short-term rentals don't contain indoor security cameras – once a change to the platform's community policy takes effect at the end of April.
Airbnb on Monday posted news of its plan to ban the use of indoor security cameras in its listings. The use of indoor security cameras – in common areas only – was previously allowed.
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Defence/Aggression
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Democracy Now ☛ “Empire’s Laboratory”: How 2004 U.S.-Backed Coup Destabilized Haiti & Led to Current Crisis
Caribbean leaders are holding an emergency meeting in Jamaica today to discuss the crisis in Haiti, where armed groups are calling for the resignation of unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Haiti is under a state of emergency, with tens of thousands displaced amid the fighting, and United Nations officials warn the country’s health system is nearing collapse. Ariel Henry was appointed prime minister after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but he is currently stranded outside the country after a trip to Kenya, where he was seeking a U.N.-backed security force to help him maintain power. For more, we speak with Haitian American scholar Jemima Pierre, who says the unrest in Haiti today can be traced to decisions made two decades ago by the United States and other outside powers. “The root of this crisis is not last week, it’s not this week, it’s not even Ariel Henry. But we have to go back to 2004 with the coup-d’état,” says Pierre. She adds that because successive security plans have been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, “the whole world is participating in the occupation of Haiti unwittingly.”
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Democracy Now ☛ Guilty: U.S.-Backed Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Convicted of Drug Trafficking
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty of cocaine trafficking Friday after a two-week trial in a New York federal court, where prosecutors accused Hernández of ruling the Central American country as a narco-state and accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection. He faces a possible life sentence. Hernández served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022 and was a close U.S. ally despite mounting reports of human rights violations and accusations of corruption and involvement with drug smuggling during his tenure. Hernández was arrested less than a month after his term ended and was extradited to the United States in April 2022. “The majority feeling is satisfaction, a feeling of progress in achieving justice,” says activist Camilo Bermúdez from Tegucigalpa. He is a member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, the organization founded by Berta Cáceres, the Lenca Indigenous environmental defender who was assassinated in 2016 while Juan Orlando Hernández was president. We also speak with Dana Frank, professor of history emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who says the 2009 U.S.-backed coup against President Manuel Zelaya set the stage for the corrupt governments that followed. While U.S. prosecutors may have convicted Hernández, Frank stresses that multiple U.S. administrations “legitimated and celebrated him.”
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ SCOTUS Lines Up Behind Trump’s Defensive Strategy - emptywheel
There is no doubt the Republicans on SCOTUS (hereinafter R-SCOTUS) are lined up behind Trump in his criminal cases. The timeline in the ridiculous immunity case and the decision in the Colorado ballot case are clear demonstrations of their commitment to his reelection despite his obvious unfitness for office.
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The Strategist ☛ Why Chinese policing in Pacific island countries is a problem
Chinese police have been found to work with criminal groups in foreign countries to establish informal police stations. The presence of such establishments was first reported in 2022 by the international NGO Safeguard Defenders, which focuses on transnational repression by China. It counted more than 100 of them in 53 countries.
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France24 ☛ Trump promises to free US Capitol [insurrectionists] if reelected
The [insurrectionists] -- egged on by the then-president and fueled by his false claims of voter fraud -- stormed the seat of US democracy on January 6, 2021, in a bid to halt the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
Around 1,358 defendants have been charged in the 38 months since then, according to the latest figures from the Justice Department released last week. About 500 have been sentenced to prison terms.
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The Hill ☛ Boeing whistleblower found dead in apparent suicide
John Barnett, 62, died of an apparent self-inflicted wound on Friday, the Charleston County Coroner’s office said. He was found in his truck at his hotel’s parking lot.
A 32-year veteran of Boeing, Barnett’s 2019 whistleblower allegations claimed that overworked employees at its South Carolina plant frequently fitted substandard parts on planes and reported faulty oxygen systems that could result in as many as 1 in 4 oxygen masks not operating properly.
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The Hill ☛ Heritage backs bill banning TikTok
“Heritage Action SUPPORTS the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This bill will protect Americans from the influence of the CCP through TikTok,” the group wrote on social media, using an acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.
The House is set to vote on a bill this week that would force ByteDance — the China-based parent company of TikTok — to divest itself of the video app or face a ban on the platform in the U.S. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with unanimous support on Thursday.
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Axios ☛ TikTok ban: House vote set for Wednesday morning
Tensions between Congress and TikTok have reached a boiling point ahead of a high-stakes House vote — scheduled for Wednesday — that could lead to a U.S. ban of the massively popular video app.
Why it matters: Intense lobbying is underway on both sides of the bipartisan bill, which would force Beijing-based Bytedance to divest its ownership of TikTok within 165 days. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to visit Capitol Hill this week as part of the company's full-court press.
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RTL ☛ Major reversal: TikTok dragged into US election as Trump opposes ban
In a major reversal, former US president Donald Trump on Monday said he was against a ban of TikTok as the fate of the popular video-sharing app was dragged into the US election campaign.
Years of on-and-off attempts of banning the Chinese owned app have resurged in the United States with the introduction of a bill in Congress that could see the app forced to cut ties with its Chinese owner, Bytedance.
The US House of Representatives could vote this week on the bill with furious lobbying on both sides making it hard to predict the outcome, and the stance of Trump could prove key for Republicans.
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Digital Music News ☛ Possible TikTok Bidder Emerges As Forced Sale Bill Draws Support
Beyond the considerations associated with raising the sizable sum at hand, different prospective buyers would undoubtedly come to the table should the forced-sale legislation, specifically the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, become law. (About four years back, as part of a separate government-powered push for TikTok’s sale, Microsoft appeared poised to buy the platform.)
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New York Times ☛ Despite Trump’s Opposition to TikTok Ban, House Moves Ahead With Bill
“We must ensure the Chinese government cannot weaponize TikTok against American users and our government through data collection and propaganda,” Mr. Scalise said in his weekly preview of legislation to be considered on the House floor.
The 13-page bill is the product of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which has served as an island of bipartisanship in the polarized House. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously last week to advance the legislation, which would remove TikTok from app stores in the United States by Sept. 30 unless its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, sold its stake.
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India Times ☛ TikTok a US security threat, says Trump, similar to Facebook
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday told CNBC on Monday that TikTok was a national security threat but likened it to threats posed by other social media networks such as Meta's Facebook.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Late-breaking history: the f word
So now I turn to the most challenging question in my notebook of column ideas, the issue that might be the hardest to tackle, the one requiring perhaps the broadest view: Why are Americans more willing to embrace fascism now than at any time in living memory?
This is not a question posed for the sake of shock value, though the facts supporting it are shocking enough. Take a look at what historian John Ganz and others recently had to say about American fascism, or consult this Gallup poll on the country’s sharp move to the right since 2021, or the presumptive Republican nominee for president’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.
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The Scotsman ☛ Atkins warns against allowing extremist views to 'percolate' through society
Mr Gove warned some of the "good-hearted" people who have taken part in the series of protests since the Israel-Hamas war began could have inadvertently given credence to events organised or attended by extremists.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins warned: "There are some people, sadly, who hold views that are contrary to the values that we hold as a country and we should not allow those views to percolate through society".
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Meduza ☛ ‘They could start to resist’ How the Russian authorities are working to indoctrinate and digitally surveil deported Ukrainian children
Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian Education Ministry has been developing a set of methods for “reeducating” Ukrainian children who have been forcibly deported to Russia. The documents outlining these methods state that a “destructive ideology” is widespread among Ukrainian teenagers and that Russian teachers and social workers must “re-educate” the “rising generation” based on the “spiritual-moral values” and “historical and national-cultural traditions of the Russian Federation.” The ultimate aim is for the deported minors to “develop a Russian identity.”
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] North Korea threatens South, US over joint military drills
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Does India influence Bangladesh politics?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Has rape become normalized in India?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Indian police hunt for suspects after tourist gang raped
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CBC ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Court upholds Quebec law that bars teachers, police from wearing religious symbols
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Venezuela: Maduro calls DW 'Nazi' outlet after graft report
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Canada Strongly Supported Haiti’s 2004 Coup d’État
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Why Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is sure to get a warm reception in Canada
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Tour du Rwanda: Probe underway into sexual abuse claims
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Suspected Islamists kidnap nearly 50 women in Nigeria
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] UK lowers N. Ireland terror threat after year on 'severe'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Will China's tough talk on Taiwan translate into action?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] German government agrees payment card for asylum-seekers
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Germany falls short on women in parliament, Rwanda on top
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Germany: Police wounds woman in stand-off at hospital
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Germany's spy scandal raises tough questions from NATO allies
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Japan commemorates US nuclear test in Pacific 70 years later
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Mali's military in the north: The struggle for control
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Belgium: Police arrest 4 teens over alleged jihadi plot
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Berlin police seize suspected home of RAF fugitive
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Burkina Faso: 170 people 'executed' in attacks on villages
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Germany aims to confront extremism in Sahel region
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Toronto police reviewing pro-Palestinian protest that prompted Trudeau team to scrap event
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Bangladesh: Dozens killed in fire, says health minister
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] EU unblocks frozen funding for Poland
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CS Monitor ☛ Seven Oscars for ‘Oppenheimer,’ a fittingly foreboding film for the times
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” swept the Academy Awards show with seven wins, including the Oscar for best picture.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Russian lawmakers seek to annul Soviet-era transfer of Crimea to Ukraine — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘The important thing is what people believe’: Russian opposition figures on the controversial ‘Noon Against Putin’ election protest strategy — Meduza
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France24 ☛ Five things to know about Russia’s upcoming presidential election
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking a fifth term as Russians vote from Friday to Sunday in an election that has already raised transparency and accountability concerns. After two anti-war candidates were disqualified, the remaining three have all supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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New York Times ☛ With Pride and Hope, Ukraine Celebrates Oscar Win for Mariupol Documentary
Ukrainians say recognition for “20 Days in Mariupol” will help debunk Russian propaganda and refocus attention on the situation in Russian-occupied territories.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Hails Oscar Winner '20 Days In Mariupol'; Navalny Remembered
Ukrainians hailed Mstyslav Chernov's 20 Days In Mariupol, a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that won the Academy Award for best documentary, saying they hope it "keeps other Mariupols" from happening.
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RFERL ☛ Imprisoned Kara-Murza Says Putin's Rule Based 'Exclusively On Fear And Apathy'
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza said in an exchange of letters with blogger Anna Yarovaya that Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule is based "exclusively on fear and apathy," and will collapse in the "foreseeable future."
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Latvia ☛ Russia trying to recruit spies in Latvia, says security service
The interests of the Russian special services last year were to recruit and train persons to carry out harmful activities not only in Ukraine, but also in the Baltic countries, including Latvia, according to the 2023 activity report of the State Security Service (VDD).
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France24 ☛ Zelensky says Russian advances in Ukraine 'halted'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russian advances had been "halted" in Ukraine and the situation was now "much better" for his troops than in recent months.
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France24 ☛ Sweden’s flag raised over NATO headquarters as membership cemented
Sweden’s flag was raised at NATO headquarters on Monday, cementing the Nordic country’s place as the 32nd member two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine persuaded its reluctant public to seek safety under the alliance’s security umbrella.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine’s Oscar win puts Russia’s war crimes back in international spotlight
Ukraine's historic Oscar win for the documentary film "20 Days in Mariupol" puts Russia's war crimes firmly back into the international spotlight, writes Peter Dickinson.
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RFERL ☛ Following Pope's Comments, NATO Head Says Ukraine Needs Weapons, Not White Flags
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed a call by Pope Francis for Ukraine to "raise the white flag and negotiate with Russia," saying the best way to end the conflict is to arm Kyiv.
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RFERL ☛ Borrell Urges EU To Beef Up Defense Industry For Potential Threats, Keep Aiding Ukraine
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged the bloc to strengthen its defense industry and replenish its stockpiles in order to be ready to face "potential threats" while continuing to provide military aid to Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Conviction Of Former Mediazona Publisher Verzilov Canceled
The Moscow City Court on March 11 canceled the verdict and sentence of Pyotr Verzilov, the former publisher of the independent media website Mediazona, citing procedural violations, and sent the case back for retrial.
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RFERL ☛ Belarus Begins 'Comprehensive' Check Of Combat Preparedness
The armed forces of Belarus have begun a "comprehensive" checkup of combat readiness, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on March 11 on Telegram.
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teleSUR ☛ Ukraine Not To Raise the White Flag to Negotiate With Russia
Previously, Pope Francis said that Ukraine should have the courage to engage in a peace negotiation process.
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RFERL ☛ Hungary's Orban Says Trump's Plan To End Ukraine War Is To Cut Funding
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, back in the country after a private meeting in the United States with Donald Trump, said the former president has "quite detailed plans" about how to end Russia's war against Ukraine and won't give Kyiv any further funding to hasten an end to the conflict.
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RFERL ☛ Report: Ukraine May Get F-16s By July, But Only 6 Out Of 45
Ukraine may only receive six out of some 45 U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets promised by its Western allies by July, according to The New York Times.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Downs 15 Out Of 25 Russian Drones; Damage Reported In Kharkiv
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 15 out of the 25 drones that Russia launched at Ukraine's territory on March 11, the military said, adding that Russian shelling caused victims among civilians as well as material damage.
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The Straits Times ☛ German bishops call on Vatican to clarify pope's Ukraine 'white flag' remarks
German Catholic bishops on Monday called on the Vatican to clarify remarks in which Pope Francis said Ukraine should have "the courage of the white flag" and negotiate an end to the conflict with Russia.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Faces Losses Without More U.S. Aid, Officials Say
William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, and Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, described an increasingly dire situation.
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Security Week ☛ The French Government Says It’s Being Targeted by Unusual Intense Cyberattacks
A group of hackers called Anonymous Sudan, considered by cybersecurity experts as pro-Russia, claimed responsibility for the attacks in online posts.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian high school students refuse to compete against Russians in robotics championship
Lithuanian high school students, who competed in the European Robotics Championship in Italy over the weekend, refused to face a Russian team.
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RFERL ☛ Montenegro's Pro-Russian Parliament Speaker Survives No-Confidence Vote
Andrija Mandic, the pro-Russian head of the New Serbian Democracy party, will continue to serve as the speaker of the Montenegrin parliament after surviving a no-confidence vote.
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RFERL ☛ Former Russian Banker Forced To End Philanthropy Projects After 'Foreign Agent' Designation
A former Russian tycoon who made a fortune in retail and banking has been forced to end his philanthropy projects aimed at fighting leukemia after Moscow designated him a "foreign agent."
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RFERL ☛ Kremlin Declines To Comment On Report That Russia Has New Navy Chief
Russia has appointed Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev as acting commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, replacing Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the Fontanka news outlet and the Izvestia newspaper reported on March 10, citing unidentified sources.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Denounces Israel’s Obstruction to Investigate Crimes in Gaza
Palestine Receives Collective Punishment for Hamas Actions
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teleSUR ☛ Russia, Iran and China Conduct Joint Maritime Maneuvers
The Russian Ministry of Defence reported that the purpose of the manoeuvres is to check the safety of maritime economic activities in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Tucking In Alexander Smirnov: Abbe Lowell Accuses David Weiss of Doing Russia’s Bidding
Abbe Lowell just pointed to the Scott Brady transcript to claim that David Weiss was doing Russia's bidding by reneging on the plea deal with Hunter Biden.
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RFERL ☛ Former Leader Of Independent Labor Union In Belarus On Trial
The former chairwoman of an independent labor union at the Naftan oil refinery in Belarus went on trial in the northeastern city of Vitsebsk on March 11 on a charge of inciting hatred.
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RFERL ☛ Belarusian Court Liquidates Banned BelaPAN News Agency
A court in Minsk has ordered the liquidation of the banned independent news agency BelaPAN amid an intensified crackdown on media and civil society in Belarus following the 2020 disputed presidential election that handed victory to authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
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JURIST ☛ Kazakhstan dispatch: IAEA Nuclear Security summit co-chaired by Kazakhstan will address major arms control and safety challenges
Aidana Tastanova is a Kazakhstan national and a 4th-year law student attending the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under a Kazakh government scholarship.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Hindustan Times ☛ Boeing whistleblower found dead, here's what he had exposed about aircraft giant - Hindustan Times
Barnett raised disquiet on the use of components that failed the statuary checks in the frame of 787 aircraft production. He claimed that the strains on the workers were the reasons why they were forced install such substandard parts after production started in South Carolina. He complained about the production process and his feeling that it was unsafe and hasty.
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TMZ ☛ Boeing Whistleblower Dies by Suicide Amid Involvement in Lawsuit with Company
A whistleblower who was at war with Boeing died last week -- and investigators say it appears he took his own life, this while he was embroiled in a lawsuit against the company.
John Barnett was discovered dead on Saturday out in Charleston, SC -- where cops say his body was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot ... with him suffering an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. No word on if foul play is suspected -- but police are investigating.
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Gizmodo ☛ Boeing Whistleblower Who Raised Safety Concerns Found Dead
BBC reports that, in the “days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.” Barnett had been scheduled to appear in court again on Saturday for his third day of depositions related to the suit but never showed, the BBC reports. After his failure to appear, a call was put out to look for Barnett. He was subsequently found dead in his truck, which was in the parking lot of the motel he was staying at, the outlet writes.
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BBC ☛ Boeing whistleblower found dead in US
John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.
In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.
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The Register UK ☛ DoJ reportedly launches Boeing criminal investigation
Some passengers on the eventful January flight from Portland to Ontario were reportedly notified that they are potential victims of crime.
Part of what is under question is whether Boeing complied with a 2021 settlement regarding two fatal 737 MAX crashes that occurred in 2018 and 2019 and killed 346 people. Boeing was found at fault for how it communicated information about the aircraft's control system and was required to pay $2.6 billion in penalties and compensation, in addition to making some changes.
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Environment
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Truthdig ☛ The EU Passes Landmark Law Criminalizing Ecocide - Truthdig
An illegal toxic dump site in Croatia, the theft of water from a major aquifer in southern Spain, illegal trading of ozone-depleting refrigerants in France: This is just a sampling of the environmental crimes that European countries are struggling to stop. The lack of accountability for these acts stems in part from the European Union’s legal code, which experts say is riddled with vague definitions and gaps in enforcement. That’s about to change.
Last week, EU lawmakers voted in a new directive that criminalizes cases of environmental damage “comparable to ecocide,” a term broadly defined as the severe, widespread, and long-term destruction of the natural world. Advocates called the move “revolutionary,” both because it sets strict penalties for violators, including up to a decade in jail, and because it marks the first time that an international body has created a legal pathway for the prosecution of ecocide.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks, researchers say
Extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding, as experienced in recent years, will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent. The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published the first-ever European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) to help identify policy priorities for climate change adaptation and for climate-sensitive sectors.
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France24 ☛ Europe must do more against 'catastrophic' climate risks, warns study
For instance, the combination of heat waves as well as acidification and oxygen depletion of the seas and other human-caused factors such as pollution and eutrophication -- meaning an excess of nutrients which collapses aquatic ecosystems -- and fishing, threaten marine ecosystems, the report noted.
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CBC ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Federal natural resources minister says no carbon rebates for Sask. after province says it won't remit levy
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] CO2 emissions reached record high in 2023 — IEA
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Can ship cruises actually be net zero by 2050?
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The Revelator ☛ Adapt, Move or Die? Plants and Animals Face New Pressures in a Warming World
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Energy/Transportation
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DeSmog ☛ Top Fossil Fuel Ad Ban Critic Runs Group That Got $450K from Oil Company
After NDP member of Parliament Charlie Angus introduced a bill in February proposing to ban misleading fossil fuel advertising in Canada, the oil and gas advocate Stephen Buffalo wrote an incendiary National Post column attacking the legislation.
Buffalo, a member of the Samson Cree Nation, called Bill C-372 the “most egregious attack on civil liberties in recent Canadian history” and “a direct assault on Indigenous peoples.” He compared it to the Indian Act of 1876, a notorious federal law that attempted to erase the culture of First Nations peoples. His column ricocheted across the internet, where it was shared or referenced by industry groups, conservative columnists and rightwing politicians, including federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.
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DeSmog ☛ Climate Crisis Denier Lee Anderson Finds Common Cause With Reform UK
The UK’s main climate science denial party has gained its first member of parliament with the defection of suspended Conservative MP Lee Anderson.
Anderson announced today that he was joining Reform UK, a right-wing, anti-green and anti-immigration party which is currently polling at 12 percent.
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Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : 8 hour Load Shedding In Zambia Begins
Last month Zesco announced a substantial reduction in electricity generation at the Kariba North Bank Power Station for the year 2024. ZESCO Managing Director Victor Mapani revealed that the generation is expected to decrease to 214 Mega Watts, a significant drop from the 386 Mega Watts generated in 2023. This decline is attributed to the reduction in water levels at the Kariba Dam, which will adversely impact the power station’s ability to generate electricity.
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Futurism ☛ Boeing Jet Nosedives, Sending 13 Passengers to Hospital
A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner "nosedived" while traveling from Australia to New Zealand, the Associated Press reports, resulting in at least 50 injuries. According to local authorities, 13 passengers were taken to a hospital and one is in serious condition.
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Vintage Everyday ☛ Amazing Photos of the 1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk
The Sky Hawk’s base price was $2,477 before options, and 3,050 were produced that year. The Sky Hawk was discontinued for the 1957 model year. These amazing photos of this 1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk were taken by Steve Brown.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Explainer: German Gigafactory is key to Tesla's EV expansion plan in Europe
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Montenegro halts extradition of Terraform Labs founder to US
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] German train drivers to strike again as talks falter
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Germany: Lufthansa braces for new ground crew strike
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Germany: Public transport strike in full swing
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Germany: Tesla plant protesters to spend week in forest
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Germany: New train strike possible after wage talks collapse
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Wildlife/Nature
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-06 [Older] Thailand: Red panda found in luggage of suspected smugglers
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Biodiversity: Can extinctions be stopped?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] Kazakhstan: Wild horses to be reintroduced by European zoos
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] 'Nun cho ga,' the rare baby mammoth found in Yukon, heads to Ottawa
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] New species of green anaconda identified in Amazon
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Overpopulation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Why South Korean women aren't having babies
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The Hindu ☛ A possible solution for Bengaluru’s water crisis Data
As Bengaluru grows further outwards and faster than it can cope, water supply is one of the first casualties. Attempting to piece together the puzzle – where Bengaluru’s water comes from, where it is stored, who consumes it, where the wastewater goes – is an essential first step to reduce the city’s vulnerability to floods and drought. We zoom into four different aspects to do this.
The city’s population increased from 8.7 million in 2011 to about 12.6 million in 2021 (projected). Most of the growth has been in the periphery (Maps 1 and 2).
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Finance
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CBC ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Squint and you can see Alberta's budget surplus, before it potentially dries up
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Danielle Smith wants to save Alberta's oil wealth, but history shows it's a pledge that's hard to deliver
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Police spending in cities like Montreal keeps surging over budget. Where does the money go?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] How India's economic policies are hurting its farmers
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-02-29 [Older] Germany's Greens become boogeyman at farmer protests
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] The Body Shop Canada to close 33 stores, end online sales
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Canada Concerned About Critical Metals Market Manipulation, Minister Says
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Swiss vote to boost pension payments
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CBC ☛ 2024-03-03 [Older] Millions of dollars worth of lottery winnings go unclaimed in Canada every year
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Ahead of EU elections, is Europe's social model at risk?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Argentina's Milei vows to 'push' reforms despite opposition
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-02 [Older] Spain: Police bust counterfeiters of high-quality €100 notes
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] More changes to Germany's skilled immigration rules take effect
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Land of the Layoffs: 72% of High Earners Fear Losing Job to AI, Economic Woes [Ed: The layoffs are NOT due to "HEY HI". HEY HI is just the excuse of the day, after "quiet quitters", "great resignation" etc. got mocked and dismissed as an explanation.]
A new survey reveals that the relentless wave of tech industry layoffs combined with the rise of AI has fueled widespread anxiety over job security among American workers. More than 72 percent of Americans making more than $150,000 fear losing their jobs to AI and other sources of economic insecurity, while even 50 percent of those making under $50,000 feel the same way.
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FAIR ☛ LA Times Shortchanges Readers With Deficient Explanation for Rising Food Prices
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (3/10/24) had some tips for elders dealing with high prices for food—one of which was featured in the headline:
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BBC ☛ More than a fifth of UK adults not looking for work - BBC News
The UK's economic inactivity rate was 21.8% from November to January, official figures show.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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The Verge ☛ Reddit goes public: the latest updates on its IPO
Reddit is going public, seeking a $6.5 billion valuation after a year of upheaval that gave it more control over what CEO Steve Huffman has called a “vast corpus” of valuable data that can be used to train AI. As an example, Google recently cut a deal with Reddit worth a reported $60 million per year for real-time access to that data.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-05 [Older] US-China: How Biden took Trump's policy and raised the stakes
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Church of England told to invest billion pounds over slavery
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Decoding China: National People's Congress meets at bad time
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Vietnam tightens grip on social media influencers
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RFERL ☛ Two Women Arrested In Tehran For Dancing Dressed As Fictional Folk Character
Their performance was deemed by the authorities to be an act of "social defiance," leading to their arrest by order of the Tehran prosecutor for "committing acts of norm-breaking," according to reports by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Tensions have been rising in Iran over public conduct by Iranians and the enforcement of dress codes, especially with women.
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RFA ☛ Chinese arrests jump nearly 50% amid clampdown on ‘hostile foreign forces’
Chinese authorities arrested 726,000 people last year, a jump of 47.1% from the previous year, the country’s chief prosecutor told the National People’s Congress that ended Monday amid a crackdown on crimes linked to “hostile foreign forces.”
Authorities also formally prosecuted 1.688 million people last year, up 17.3%, Chief Prosecutor Ying Yong said.
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VOA News ☛ China Tightens Grip Over Internet During Key Political Meeting
Beijing operates some of the world's most extensive censorship over the [Internet], with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to news websites without using a virtual private network (VPN).
And as thousands of delegates gather in Beijing this week for the annual "Two Sessions" meeting, VPN software has increasingly struggled to circumvent the censorship while outages have become much more frequent, even when compared to previous sensitive political events.
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The Telegraph UK ☛ No religion has a 'right not to be offended', says security minister ahead of extremism crackdown
No religion has a right to be exempt from criticism, the security minister has said ahead of a crackdown on extremism.
Tom Tugendhat said no faith had a right not to be challenged amid concerns that some extremists have used intimidation and threats of violence against those perceived to have insulted Islam.
It follows the case of a teacher in Batley, West Yorkshire, who received death threats after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed during a religious education lesson almost two years ago and has remained in hiding ever since as he fears for his life.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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BIA Net ☛ Journalist Sedat Yılmaz, detained for 7 months based on secret witness statements: "Where are those 'serious crimes'?"
Following the detailed reasoning, Yılmaz commented on the case, saying, "You are detained for seven and a half months, and no one bothers to look at what is in this file. But routinely, every month when my detention was reviewed, they would say 'serious crimes are attributed to him,' and the continuation of detention would be demanded. Now I think, where are those 'serious crimes'? Of course, there is no one to ask this question to. They can keep you in custody for months, attributing serious crimes without anyone looking into the file. The suffering, pressure, and injustice you experience are additional. What can I say, hopefully, this will be the end for me and all my colleagues in the same situation."
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CoryDoctorow ☛ The Foilies (11 Mar 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
This marks the 10th anniversary of the Foilies – awards given to the public agencies responsible for the most egregious, absurd and outrageous defiance of freedom of information requests: [...]
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Ambassador Calls On Tajik Authorities To 'Support Journalists' Rights'
[...] In recent years, several Tajik journalists, rights activists, and opposition politicians have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges seen by rights groups as trumped up and politically motivated.
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El País ☛ Journalism without women in Afghanistan: “Stopping the work of female reporters is another form of violence against us”
Threats have followed Baran* for the six years she’s worked in the media. But the challenges of working under Taliban rule have made the job almost impossible. Most female journalists have either stopped working or left the country altogether.
Baran, 24, says the situation is “unbearable” with female journalists facing blanket “gender discrimination” and “misogyny” from the de facto authorities.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-03-01 [Older] Canada to Crack Down on Foreign Investment in Digital Media Sector
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-03-04 [Older] Germany's Olaf Scholz opposes Assange's extradition to US
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Is traditional media destined to become a relic of the past?
We saw it in the aftermath of the pandemic with the industry increasing its layoffs by 649% in 2022, which is the highest since the dot-com bubble burst.
Traditional job roles are being redefined and we’re experiencing businesses across all sectors reshape their workforce to accommodate this shift. Take the gaming industry for example, tech giant Microsoft recently confirmed a wave of layoffs of up to 1,900 employees. With reports indicating that the team responsible for bringing physical media to retail being one of the major casualties, it signals a further shift to a digital-first future.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Juha-Matti Santala ☛ Thoughts on accessibility in personal web
Accessibility is a topic close to my heart and I’ve been learning about it over the past few years. I’m still a long way from being an expert and this website has its own issues but I aim to improve things a little by little as I learn more.
Here is a collection of thoughts that the theme sparked in me when I was thinking of the small web sites that I’ve been building.
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RFA ☛ Rallies held around the globe for Tibetan Uprising Day
The weekend rallies also marked the 35th anniversary of martial law imposed on March 5, 1989, and the anniversary of the peaceful protests that erupted across Tibet in 2008, said Sikyong Penpa Tsering, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, in the cabinet’s March 10 statement.
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Techdirt ☛ Once More With Feeling: Banning TikTok Doesn’t Do Much If We Don’t Regulate Data Brokers And Pass A Privacy Law [Ed: It's not "policy hysteria" when a weapon, however it is marketed, gets into the pockets of kids and adults.]
While it seemed like our national policy hysteria over TikTok had waned slightly in 2024, it bubbled up once again last week upon rumors that the White House is supporting a “welcome and important” new bill that would effectively ban TikTok from operating in the United States.
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404 Media ☛ ‘Young Indian Method’ Teaches TikTok Spammers How to Hire and Control 'Third World Country Workers'
The most jarring thing that I saw for sale on a Discord for TikTok spammers wasn’t the “Red Pill clips,” the hours of Minecraft footage, the AI voice cloners, or the “American-made” TikTok accounts. It was a pdf document called “Young Indian Method,” which cost £7 and claims to help people to “earn money by utilizing third world country workers.” The document is full of dehumanizing language, warns readers that "Indians get lazy after they get paid," recommends readers "keep them hungry" so they will put in "maximum effort" until they get paid, and says they are “easily replaceable.”
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VOA News ☛ 'Sacred Job' Iraq Kurds Digitize Books to Save Threatened Culture
"Preserving the culture and history of Kurdistan is a sacred job," said Pishtiwan, perusing volumes and manuscripts from Dohuk city's public library in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region.
"We aim to digitize old books that are rare and vulnerable, so they don't vanish," the 23-year-old added, a torn memoir of a Kurdish teacher published in 1960 in hand.
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Techdirt ☛ NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says That If Police Radio Transmissions Aren’t Encrypted, The Terrorists Will Win
The NYPD has a problem with encryption, as do some of its preferred prosecutors. Back in 2010, Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism and Intelligence told NBC news reporters that the city was filled with terrorists willing to leverage everything from “rocks, bottles, and accelerants” to wage war on New York — something aided by these speculative persons’ ability to utilize device encryption to cover their digital tracks.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Techdirt ☛ Biden Mostly Ignored The Internet In His State Of The Union, But He Still Has Some Terrible Ideas About It In His Agenda
Every year, the President lays out the administration’s major agenda in the State of the Union address. For those of us who cover tech policy, there’s always some fear that something dumb will be said. In the last couple of years, Biden pushed nonsense moral panics about the evils of the internet. So, in some ways, this year’s State of the Union was a little better because it barely mentioned tech at all, and only did so in the most confusing of ways. This was basically all he said:
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Education
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APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: APTLD 85
APNIC participated at the 85th Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD 85) meeting, held in Goa, India from 19 to 22 February 2024.
The meeting brought together 190 participants from across the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and Europe for training, networking, and to share information and best practices.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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US News And World Report ☛ Libraries Struggle to Afford the Demand for E-Books, Seek New State Laws in Fight With Publishers
Like many libraries, West Haven has been grappling with the soaring costs of e-books and audiobooks. The digital titles often come with a price tag that’s far higher than what consumers pay. While one hardcover copy of Cook’s latest novel costs the library $18, it costs $55 to lease a digital copy - a price that can't be haggled with publishers.
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El País ☛ Music streaming giants eliminate songs with low play counts
This change in approach can be seen in Spotify’s new policy: not paying royalties for songs with fewer than 1,000 streams in a year. A report from Luminate in 2023 revealed that 82.7% of songs were streamed less than 1,000 times, and that nearly 25% had no streams at all. With the constant growth of the music catalog, unstreamed songs are predicted to reach 100 million by 2028.
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Copyrights
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India Times ☛ Nvidia is sued by authors over AI use of copyrighted works
In a proposed class action filed on Friday night in San Francisco federal court, the authors said the takedown reflects Nvidia's having "admitted" it trained NeMo on the dataset, and thereby infringed their copyrights.
They are seeking unspecified damages for people in the United States whose copyrighted works helped train NeMo's so-called large language models in the last three years.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Authors Sue NVIDIA for Training AI on Pirated Books
Several authors have filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against technology giant NVIDIA, which leads the AI revolution. In addition to selling hardware and services, NVIDIA has its own large language models. The authors allege that the AI models were trained on copyrighted works taken from the ‘pirate’ site Bibliotik, and as such they're entitled to compensation.
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Quartz ☛ Nvidia is sued for allegedly training AI on copyrighted work
After weeks of leveraging the generative artificial intelligence boom to greater and greater heights, Nvidia is being sued by authors over training for its NeMo AI platform. Authors Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian, and Stewart O’Nan filed their proposed class action lawsuit in federal district court in California on Friday. They allege that their works were part of a dataset of nearly 197,000 books that helped train NeMo to generate ordinary written language.
Part of the collection of works NeMo was trained on included a dataset of books from Bibliotik, a so-called “shadow library” that hosts and distributes unlicensed copyrighted material. That dataset was available until October 2023, when it was listed as defunct and “no longer accessible due to reported copyright infringement.”
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Digital Music News ☛ France’s Centre National de la Musique Bites Back Against Spotify ‘Streaming Tax’ Accusations
In addition to raising its prices in France, Spotify also severed ties with two French music festivals — Les Francofolies de la Rochelle and Le Printemps de Bourges — due to the tax, which will require DSPs to pay 1.2% of both subscription based and ad supported revenue.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Brazil Piracy Concerns at USTR Follow MPA Anti-Piracy Deal Controversy
The USTR recently asked the International Intellectual Property Alliance to elaborate on why "recent positions" vocalized by Brazil's Ministry of Culture and cinema regulator ANCINE, were a cause for concern. IIPA said there was an implied bias towards the protection of domestic content, leaving U.S. content unprotected. In Brazil, a deal between MPA and ANCINE was effectively torn up for allegedly prioritizing U.S. content over that produced locally in Brazil.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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LiveFromFrance S2E03
This was the month of agriculture... especially because of the Paris International Agricultural Show. Like every year, the President and all the political personalities are awaited there by visitors and ... farmers. This year is a special year because of the riots and protests by many farmers all over France and Europe. The Prime Minister has already made many promises, which have been greeted cautiously by the main union, the FNSEA, and because the money is still not arriving in the bank accounts. Our king, sorry, President Macron, had a remarkable and unprecedented idea: to organise a big debate between farmers and ecologists with... him in the centre, of course. Too bad, everyone remembers the same idea during the yellow vests riots and nothing has changed. His advisers in his "chateau" made a strange mistake, telling journalists that the "Soulèvement de la terre", a "radical" environmental movement, had been invited. Macron and his government had just failed to dissolve the movement after being rejected by the courts. And the FNSEA is crying like a child because these ecologists are very, very angry with them. In the end, there was no debate and Macron was protected by hundreds of policemen dressed like medieval knights.
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Politics and World Events
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News Notes (publ. 2024-03-11)
UNRWA supporting Palestinian terrorism
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Technology and Free Software
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Some Progress in Solo TTRPG
Not a huge update here. Maybe not even worth a whole gemlog post but it's here anyway. I decided to start setting up my FoundryVTT so I can attempt to solo-play one—or a few—premade adventures in Eclipse Phase. This system is more "number-crunchy" than Starforged and was not designed with solo-play in mind. I guess this would be a sort of background check to see if it's even feasible or will it just drive me crazy?
I'm excited though. Setting up the maps provided in "Nano Ops - Grinder" in FoundryVTT was pretty fun too. To the point where I might want to start a side business making assets...maybe maps. There just doesn't seem like there's a lot of free scifi map assets and I'd like to help expand that a bit. I haven't decided on a style yet, though. I did also call it a business so not everything is going to be free. Just enough to get someone started quickly.
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More thoughts on my Solo TTRPG Campaign
I was planning on running a Starforged mini-campaign for myself. I even have Hugo set up to smooth out the process of posting roll results and various game-mechanics results.
However, I'm still faced with the dilemma of whether or not to play a modified Starforged mini-campaign, or play Eclipse Phase. I really like EP's settings. It has sourcebooks to add to it mechanically and lore-wise. I could try and combine Starforged with EP's settings but I would have to build a lot of assets myself. EP's biggest draw for me is the idea that if you have the means, you can change your body like you change clothes. But to translate that concept into Starforged would require a lot of rethinking and adjustments.
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Cavern of Dreams Review
Cavern of Dreams is a 3-D platformer developed by Bynine Studio and published by Super Rare Originals in a visual style and spirit of the N64 3-D platformer "collectathon" games of the late 90s. In this game, you play as a small dragon named Flynn who is trying to rescue his siblings from a bat named Luna. Throughout the game, you will find eggs of your siblings, get new abilities, solve puzzles, and help some strangers on the way.
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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.