Links 17/11/2023: Diplomacy With China and More Fentanylware (TikTok) Bans
Contents
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Leftovers
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Arne Bahlo ☛ We Need to Bring Back Webrings
After contemplating to build something dynamic2 for search without JavaScript, I decided to stay with a static site. It’s faster and you don’t have to worry about security or stability. And of course I choose the best programming language on the planet, Rust (my beloved). Wait, come back, this is not a Rust post!
A static site generator mostly needs to do five things: [...]
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Peter 'CzP' Czanik ☛ Peter Czanik: Music of the week: the Cello
I love the melodies of Metallica songs. However, I strongly prefer instrumental music. That’s why I was very happy, when someone brought Apocalyptica to my attention: they played Metallica on four cellos. Over the years I discovered that metal or any other music sounds nice on cellos, as I learned about two more bands: 2cellos and Mozart Heroes.
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Ruben Schade ☛ The costs of data archiving
Shanti Mathias wrote an interesting article for the Kiwi-based Spinoff, in which she discussed the true cost of digital memories:
It’s easy to take hundreds of photos, or save hundreds of messages, without thinking about the cost. But the vision of unlimited digital space isn’t as breezy as the word ‘cloud’ implies.
I’m sympathetic to the problem, but the leap from photos to clown storage highlights another issue.
The storage capacity of our mobile devices has remained stagnant for a decade, relative to the size of images and videos these devices produce. This despite huge breakthroughs in solid-state storage density in other devices; just look at desktops and servers. Why is this?
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Ruben Schade ☛ Ruben’s Laws of Tabbed Interfaces
You don’t need a tab when it’s open.
You notice why you needed a tab as soon as you close it.
Your chance of a tab reopening in the same state as before is inversely proportional to how important it was.
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Education
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Axios ☛ College students bid adieu to foreign language classes
The big picture: The humanities are under attack nationally amid a push for bottom-line, return-on-investment style results in education — and a broader mistrust of institutions of higher learning.
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Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ It’s a Bleak Climate for Foreign Languages as Enrollments Tumble
All but three of the 15 most commonly studied languages experienced enrollment decreases. In addition, the total number of foreign-language programs reporting enrollments fell by 961, an 8-percent dip.
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The Atlantic ☛ Public Schools Were Not Inevitable
America’s public schools owe a great deal to the efforts of 19th-century abolitionists and reformers. In a new story for The Atlantic’s special issue on Reconstruction, my colleague Adam Harris wrote about how Reconstruction shaped America’s modern public-education system. Reformers in the South such as Mary Brice worked to realize the then-radical notion that free, universal schools should serve all students. I called Adam this week to discuss the backlash faced by early efforts to build public schools, and how that opposition is still embedded in discussions about public education today.
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Hardware
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MIT Technology Review ☛ Huawei’s 5G chip breakthrough needs a reality check
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. This is going to be a BIG week for US-China relations: On Wednesday, Pooh-tin Jinping will sit down with Joe Biden in San Francisco and talk about military issues, trade, and more.…
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Tom's Hardware ☛ China Publishes Its Own Top 100 Supercomputer List: No Exaflops Machines Listed
China publishes its fifth list of top Chinese supercomputers as companies cease to submit results to the American-led Top500 list.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Yet more evidence that “died suddenly” is not a real thing
If there has been one consistent narrative promoted by the antivaccine movement going back decades, it’s that vaccines are both ineffective and dangerous, which is why the “died suddenly” narrative that has arisen since the release of COVID-19 vaccines, in which the vaccines are supposedly causing healthy young people to drop dead unexpectedly, should not have surprised anyone. Consistent with the “died suddenly” conspiracy theory, historically one common claim that long predates the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines has been that vaccines kill, in particular that they kill young people, children, and, of course, babies. The first time I encountered this claim was in the context of antivaxxers making the wildly false and implausible argument that “shaken baby syndrome” (now more properly called abusive head trauma) is a “misdiagnosis” for vaccine injury, to the point that antivaxxers even rallied around Alan Yurko, who two decades ago killed his girlfriend’s baby by shaking him and then tried to get off by claiming that the baby had died of vaccine injury. After that, I soon encountered conspiracy theories blaming vaccines for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and then later blaming the HPV vaccine for the sudden deaths of teen girls and young women. Antivaxxers even made a conspiracy pseudo-documentary entitled Sacrificial Virgins: Not for the Greater Good, in case you didn’t get the message.
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JURIST ☛ California federal judge rejects social control media platforms’ effort to dismiss lawsuit alleging harm to child users
A California federal judge ruled against major social control media platforms on Tuesday in their effort to dismiss a case brought by concerned parents, advocacy groups and school districts against the social control media platforms’ addictive design. The plaintiffs asserted that social control media platforms—like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and Google—are defective by design [...]
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Latvia ☛ Pirola subtype of Covid-19 found in Latvia
In three municipalities of Latvia – Saldus, Jūrmala and Madona – the monitoring of wastewater has shown the new variant of the Covid-19 Omicron type “Pirola”, said the scientific institute BIOR on November 15.
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teleSUR ☛ Germany Not to Reallocate COVID-19 Funds for Climate Actions
The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling "is a bitter setback for climate protection," said Greenpeace.
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TruthOut ☛ Texas’s New Ban on COVID Vaccine Mandates May Threaten the Medically Vulnerable
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New York Times ☛ By the Numbers: How Schools Struggled During the Pandemic
New federal data from the 2020-2021 school year shows the reach of online learning, the struggle to hire teachers and the lack of counselors.
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Federal News Network ☛ Lead pandemic watchdog urges lawmakers to extend COVID anti-fraud tool to all federal spending
The chairman of the PRAC argues a big-data system set up to investigate pandemic fraud could help prevent improper payments across all federal spending.
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The Straits Times ☛ South Koreans take first mask-free college exam since Covid-19 pandemic
The annual exam is widely considered one of the most important tests in the country.
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Pro Publica ☛ How the Railroad Industry Intimidates Employees Into Putting Speed Before Safety
Bradley Haynes and his colleagues were the last chance Union Pacific had to stop an unsafe train from leaving one of its railyards. Skilled in spotting hidden dangers, the inspectors in Kansas City, Missouri, wrote up so-called “bad orders” to pull defective cars out of assembled trains and send them for repairs.
But on Sept. 18, 2019, the area’s director of maintenance, Andrew Letcher, scolded them for hampering the yard’s ability to move trains on time.
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Pro Publica ☛ Priority Health Denied His Last Hope, CAR-T Cancer Treatment
Forrest VanPatten was 50 and strong after years as a molten-iron pourer when he learned in July 2019 that a hyperaggressive form of lymphoma had invaded his body. Chemotherapy failed. Because he was not in remission, a stem cell transplant wasn’t an option. But his oncologist offered a lifeline: Don’t worry, there’s still CAR-T.
The cutting-edge therapy could weaponize VanPatten’s own cells to beat back his disease. It had extended the lives of hundreds of patients who otherwise had no chance. And VanPatten was a good candidate for treatment, with a fierce drive to stay alive for his wife of 25 years and their grown kids.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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NYOB ☛ noyb files complaint against EU Commission over targeted chat control ads
noyb files complaint against EU Commission over targeted chat control ads
The EU Commission used micro-targeting to promote its child sexual abuse legislation. This violated european privacy law [...]
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Defence/Aggression
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CBC ☛ Scientists warn of 'dangerous future' if global emissions aren't cut
The report, published Tuesday evening in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, projected heat-related deaths and food insecurity will skyrocket by mid-century — particularly in the developing world.
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The Nation ☛ The Single Most Dangerous Expansion of Fossil Fuel in the World
Here’s the story. Last Tuesday, a bevy of elected officials, led by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, joined environmental activists like me for a press conference calling for a halt to LNG exports based in part on new research findings on methane. That may sound like a topic too arcane to interest politicians, but in fact it couldn’t be more crucial. Robert Howarth, a Cornell professor and the dean of methane science, last month released a new paper showing that America’s growing exports of liquefied natural gas represent a grave climate danger. Between the carbon released when the LNG is burned, the methane that leaks along the way, and the energy that it takes to ship it, he found that exported LNG is much worse for the climate even than burning coal—in many cases, twice as bad. This is huge news—and it builds on the superb work that frontline groups have been doing along the Gulf, from Port Arthur to Lake Charles, documenting the damage that these enormous export terminals are doing.
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El País ☛ UN agency report says Iran has further increased its uranium stockpile
The International Atomic Energy Agency also said that Iran has pushed back against the agency’s objections to Tehran’s ban on some of its inspectors designated to monitor the country’s nuclear program.
In its confidential quarterly report distributed to member states, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that according to its assessment, as of Oct. 28, Iran has an estimated 128.3 kilograms (282.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, which represents an increase of 6.7 kilograms since its September report. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ US Govt Says Banned Chipmaking Equipment Still Ends Up in China
The China export rules imposed last year require U.S. companies and individuals to secure licenses for selling equipment and technologies used in producing non-planar transistor logic chips on 14nm/16nm nodes and smaller, 3D NAND with 128 layers or more, and DRAM memory chips with a half-pitch of 18nm or less. These regulations also extend to foreign firms exporting U.S.-originated components.
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NL Times ☛ Court orders Dutch firm to compensate Iranian victims for mustard gas attacks in 1980s
The Dutch company Melchemie (Now Otjiaha), owned by billionaire Hans Melchers, who died early this month, is not liable for personal injury, the court ruled.
The Iranians were soldiers or volunteers in the Iranian army when they suffered horrific injuries as a result of Iraqi attacks with mustard gas, their lawyer Lisebeth Zegveld said. They were fighting in the border area between Iran and Iraq at the time and were between 16 and 22 years old. According to the victims, the Dutch companies are liable because they supplied Iraq with raw materials for making mustard gas.
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The Conversation ☛ The Doomsday Clock warns the world about catastrophe – here’s why it stands at 90 seconds to midnight
At the beginning of 2023, the hands of the Doomsday Clock were set at a mere 90 seconds to the hour, the closest it has ever been to midnight. There is no one overall reason for this move. Of course, with climate change now a major factor in the threat to humanity, the clock has to reflect this, and does. But it is, however, other more immediate factors that have largely caused the hands to be pushed forward.
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The Conversation ☛ AI is already being melded with robotics – one outcome could be powerful new weapons
In September 2023, US Marines conducted a proof of concept test involving another four-legged utility robot. They measured its abilities to “acquire and prosecute targets with a M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon”.
The test reignited the ethics debate about the use of automated and semi-automated weapon systems in warfare. It would not be such a big step for either of these platforms to incorporate AI-driven threat detection and the capability to “lock on” to targets. In fact, sighting systems of this nature are already available on the open market.
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New York Times ☛ F.B.I. Ramps Up Investigations of Hamas
“We also have a large number of tips and leads related specifically to Hamas and radicalization and recruitment,” Mr. Wray said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security about worldwide threats to the United States. “We are urgently running down every tip and lead.”
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Democracy Now ☛ March for Israel Speaker Pastor Hagee Once Said God “Sent Hitler to Help Jews Reach the Promised Land”
Speakers at Tuesday’s “March for Israel” on the National Mall included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Christian fundamentalist House Speaker Mike Johnson and radical Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee, who once said God “sent Hitler to help Jews reach the Promised Land.” Sarah Posner, a reporter focused on the American Christian right, discusses Hagee and Johnson’s backgrounds and explains how Hagee and other extremist evangelical Christians and Jewish Zionists use each other to advance their own movements. Rabbis for Ceasefire’s Alissa Wise notes the “influence of Christian Zionism on U.S. foreign policy is way understated” and should be vigorously countered by white American Christians, just as white American Jews have mobilized a high-profile opposition to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
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CS Monitor ☛ Protesters of Israel-Hamas war fear nuance is getting lost
Israel’s war against Hamas has unleashed a torrent of responses from Westerners, both positive and negative. Many are finding it a challenge to express their feelings without being co-opted by darker forces in society.
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The Straits Times ☛ US, China, South-east Asia defence officials meet amid crises
Defence ministers and officials from the United States, China, Russia and Southeast Asia gathered in Indonesia on Thursday for a meeting where they are expected to discuss geopolitical crises in and outside the region.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea, Russia discuss expanding economic cooperation: Report
The two countries signed a protocol of the meeting, KCNA said, without disclosing details.
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The Straits Times ☛ Armenia skipping CSTO summit is latest anti-Russian move orchestrated by West: Moscow
November 16, 2023 12:26 AM
Russia said on Wednesday that Armenian Prime Minister's Nikol Pashinyan's decision to stay away from a summit of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was the latest anti-Russian move by Armenia orchestrated by the West.
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YLE ☛ Niinistö: Border arrivals may be Russia's response to defence agreement with US
President Sauli Niinistö says he supports government preparations that would enable further restrictions at the border.
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Meduza ☛ Explosion at gunpowder factory in central Russia, drone fragments found at site — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian bailiffs say murderer pardoned for military service not exempt from paying damages — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Belarus Declares Compilation Of 19th-Century Author's Works 'Extremist'
The Belarusian authorities have declared a two-volume compilation of works by a 19th-century writer who is considered a father of Belarusian literature "extremist."
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Meduza ☛ E.U. proposal would reportedly have Denmark inspect and block Russian oil tankers — Meduza
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AntiWar ☛ A Great Man in Moscow
When the Trump administration obtained an indictment of Edward Snowden for violation of the Espionage Act of 1917, many of us who believe that the Fourth Amendment means what it says were deeply critical of the government, and we remain so today.
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Meduza ☛ Moscow university buys Canadian drone detection system, likely circumventing sanctions — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Independent survey finds record number of Russians want peace talks — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia allocates more than one-third of its 2024–2026 draft federal budget to defense spending — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Finland to close border crossings with Russia — Meduza
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New York Times ☛ Russian Payments to Top Journalist Hubert Seipel Jolts Germany
The revelation that the broadcaster Hubert Seipel accepted payments from an oligarch is stirring worries in Germany that Russia is using an old playbook to promote its interests.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s message to NATO: ‘Defending freedom has a price tag’
“Stay firmly on the course and boost our long-term support" to Ukraine, Kallas said at the EU-US Defense & Future Forum.
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France24 ☛ Mali: How junta and Wagner forces seized control of rebel stronghold Kidal
Mali's army has recaptured the strategic northern town of Kidal, a stronghold of Tuareg-dominated separatist groups that has long posed a major sovereignty issue for the ruling junta. The capture is a significant symbolic success for Mali's military leaders, who seized power in 2020. France 24's Wassim Nasr takes a look at how the army were able to take back the city, including with the help of Wagner troops.
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Atlantic Council ☛ China’s support for Russia has been hindering Ukraine’s counteroffensive
A deep dive into trade data reveals how materials imported from China are vital for Russia’s ability to sustain its continued stubborn efforts to hold onto Ukrainian territory.
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Defence Web ☛ Climate risk in a world at war
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, the world has seen the unfolding of possibly the worst humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. This runs parallel to the Ukraine war and several African conflicts – all markers of a world at war.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Says It Shot Down Drones As Strikes Hit Central Ukraine
Russia's Defense Ministry says it shot down five Ukrainian drones early on November 16, as blasts could be heard by witnesses in Ukraine's central Khmelnitskiy region.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine 'Cannot Afford Any Stalemate' In War With Russia, Zelenskiy Says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine cannot afford a stalemate in the war against Russia, saying this would create a "volcano that is sleeping but will definitely wake up."
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The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine's Zelensky says UK Foreign Secretary Cameron in Kyiv for visit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Britain's new Foreign Secretary David Cameron had arrived in Kyiv on his first working visit abroad.
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YLE ☛ Police seek eyewitnesses to vandalism of Soviet war monument in southwest Finland
Local newspaper Salon Seudun Sanomat published a photo on Tuesday showing the small grey monument with the words “Slava Ukraini” in it in black and red spray paint.
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New York Times ☛ Lull in Russian Bombing Brings Sleep to Kyiv Residents
An unusually long lull in Russian bombing has left people in the Ukrainian capital feeling well-rested, healthier and more productive, at least for now.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Charges 3 Officials With Treason Over Efforts to Investigate Biden
Three officials were accused of operating at the behest of Russian intelligence when they aligned with efforts by Rudolph W. Giuliani to tie the Biden family to corruption in Ukraine.
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Meduza ☛ Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky arrested for treason The deputy is suspected of working for Russia and interfering in U.S. elections — Meduza
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Atlantic Council ☛ Conflict with China? Germany is not prepared.
Compared to Germany’s dependence on Russian oil and gas, its dependence on the Chinese market is many times greater.
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France24 ☛ 'A cold cell for being a journalist': Husband of US-Russian national Alsu Kurmasheva calls for her release
Alsu Kurmasheva is a dual US-Russian citizen and journalist who has been detained by Russia since October 18, charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent” despite having travelled to Russia for a family emergency. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Her husband has called for the State Department to designate her as "wrongfully detained". "She is a US citizen and has the same rights as any US citizen,” he says.
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RFA ☛ N Korea, Russia strengthen key sector ties, risk UN sanctions breach
Moscow’s support for the North could offer a way to navigate through the complex web of international sanctions.
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Meduza ☛ Czech Republic to freeze all Russia’s real estate assets — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Prague Freezes Russian Property On Czech Territory
The Czech government on November 15 froze property owned by Russia on Czech soil as it put a company managing Russian property abroad on its sanction list.
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Rejects Appeal Of Former Governor Furgal Against His 22-Year Sentence
The Moscow regional court has rejected an appeal filed by Sergei Furgal, the former governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, against a 22-year prison term he was handed after a jury convicted him of attempted murder, a charge he has steadfastly denied.
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RFERL ☛ Woman Charged In Killing Of Pro-Kremlin Blogger Pleads Not Guilty As Trial Starts
Darya Trepova, who is suspected of involvement in the killing of prominent pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, pleaded not guilty to a charge of terrorism as her trial started on November 15 in St. Petersburg.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Prosecutors Seek Nine Years In Prison For Navalny Associate, Ex-Deputy Minister Milov
The prosecution asked a Moscow court on November 14 to convict and sentence in absentia former Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov, an associate of imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, on a charge of distributing fake information about Russian armed forces.
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RFERL ☛ 15-Year-Old Son Of Chechen Leader Kadyrov Gets Seventh Award
Adam Kadyrov, the 15-year-old son of the authoritarian ruler of the Russian region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was awarded with the Order for Serving Islam on November 15, his seventh award since he beat up Russian teenager Nikita Zhuravel, who was arrested for burning a Koran in August.
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RFERL ☛ Woman Who Fled Ingushetia Over Domestic Violence Detained In Armenia
Police in the Armenian city of Ashtarak have detained a 21-year-old woman who fled her native region of Ingushetia in Russia's North Caucasus to escape domestic violence, Russian women's rights defender Svetlana Anokhina told RFE/RL on November 15.
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RFERL ☛ Blast At Russia's Tambov Gunpowder Plant Investigated As 'Terror' Attack
An explosion that occurred on November 11 at a gunpowder factory in Russia's Tambov region is being investigated as a a terrorist attack.
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The Straits Times ☛ Armenian PM says he will intensify efforts for peace treaty with Azerbaijan: TASS
November 16, 2023 3:46 PM
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he intended to intensify political and diplomatic efforts to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, Russia's TASS news agency reported on Thursday.
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Environment
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El País ☛ Artificial intelligence guzzles billions of liters of water
This is not an isolated case in the United States, a country that concentrates approximately 30% of all the data centers in the world. Arizona, Utah and South Carolina are well aware of the insatiable thirst of this type of infrastructure. They are also familiar with it in the Netherlands, where Microsoft was involved in a scandal last year when news broke out that one of its facilities consumed four times more water than declared in a context of drought. Or in Germany, where Brandenburg authorities denied Google permission to build a data center in the region, as a Tesla gigafactory was already consuming too much water.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Light pollution found to have far-reaching effects on some North American bats
A new study published in Global Ecology and Conservation shows just how far two light-averse North American bat species will go to avoid ALAN.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Nebraska plan to divert water could put destructive carp in Kansas lakes
I first wrote about this issue in 2021, though the history of this permit reaches back to 2018, when entities affiliated with water and irrigation districts in Nebraska applied to the NeDNR to transfer water from the Platte River Basin to the Republican River Basin to meet the requirements of a 1934 water compact among Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. In 2018, the application was denied because of objections by opposing parties, including then-Gov. Jeff Colyer, who wrote a letter against the plan in an effort to protect Kansas’s multimillion dollar sport-fishing industry.
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Energy/Transportation
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DeSmog ☛ More than Half of World’s Largest Companies’ Net Zero Pledges Are False Promises, Study Finds
Companies’ climate commitments are largely misaligned with their lobbying activities, with more than half of the world’s largest corporations at risk of “net zero greenwashing,” according to a new report.
An analysis of nearly 300 of the top companies from the Forbes 2000 list found that 58 percent did not match their climate policy influencing actions with their public claims of being committed to the Paris Climate Accord and achieving net zero emissions.
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DeSmog ☛ Local Governments and Grassroots Activists Stop Spate of US Carbon Capture Pipelines
Players in the carbon dioxide pipeline industry canceled major pipeline projects in recent weeks, marking an inauspicious start to President Biden’s ambitious plans to develop carbon capture infrastructure as a key emissions mitigation tool.
It is welcome news to CO2 pipeline opponents, however, which have included a wide spectrum of interest groups united in their concerns over pipeline safety.
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Wildlife/Nature
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DeSmog ☛ The Outlaw Ocean Project Exposes China’s Use Of Forced Uyghur Labour To Supply UK Seafood Industry
Britain is facing calls to impose import controls on China after an investigation revealed that supermarkets are sourcing seafood from companies exploiting forced labour by minority Uyghurs.
The Outlaw Ocean Project documented the forcible transfer of more than a thousand Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities 2,000 miles from their homes in landlocked Xinjiang to 10 fish processing plants in the coastal province of Shandong since 2018.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Reason ☛ Coleman Hughes: The End of Race Politics?
The author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America says colorblindness should remain our North Star during a live conversation with Nick Gillespie.
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The Register UK ☛ Right-to-repair fight going national as FTC asked to lay down the law
The pair are also asking the FTC to consider a repairability scoring system that could be included in existing device labels, a la energy efficiency stickers, to show how easy (or not) it is to fix.
Most crucially for electronics - especially those made by Apple - the petition asks the FTC to implement rules such that "identical components from two identical devices ought to be interchangeable without manufacturer intervention." In other words, no more parts pairing.
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Futurism ☛ Official Lets Slip That Something Is Wrong With Elon Musk's Health
Let's face it: Musk's behavior during COVID made him seem like the exact type of boss who would show up at work with a cold and cough on anybody, including a foreign dignitary. So the fact that he blew off a strategic international meeting is striking.
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RFERL ☛ Putin Signs Amendments To Presidential Election Law That Limit Reporting During Vote
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill on amendments to the law on presidential elections, which restrict coverage of the poll scheduled for March next year by the media.
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France24 ☛ US Congress passes funding bill to avoid government shutdown
The US Congress passed a stop-gap funding bill Wednesday to keep federal agencies running for another two months and avert a painful holiday season government shutdown, although the deal leaves out aid to war-torn Ukraine and Israel requested by President Joe Biden.
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LRT ☛ Automatic guns in Lithuanians’ hands: more effective defence or tragedy waiting to happen?
Amid the continuing war in Ukraine, some politicians in Lithuania are calling for looser gun laws, arguing that more citizens should be able to participate in armed resistance. Others urge caution: wider accessibility of automatic firearms may lead to American-style mass shootings.
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Federal News Network ☛ Federal guidance for how to standardize elections
A new report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) tested the durability of a new kind of way for people to vote. Electronic poll books, or e-poll books, look to replace paper records and allow access to digital voter registration records. As you can imagine though, with convenience comes the opportunity for that information to fall into the wrong hands. So have should e-poll books be secured? To dive into the topic, Federal Drive Executive Producer Eric White talked with Christy McCormick Chairwoman of the EAC.
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ACLU ☛ We Quizzed ACLU Experts on Voting Rights. Can You Beat Them?
Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and the right that empowers us to enact change and hold elected officials accountable. It is also key to achieving systemic equality, particularly given our country’s long history of limiting access to the ballot for communities of color, especially Black voters, which persists today. Discriminatory policies and legislation continue to prevent voters of color from exercising this right easily, if at all.
As another presidential election year draws near, the ACLU continues to protect the right to vote and push back against attempts to suppress our voices at the ballot box. The ACLU voting rights team is working to expand and protect voting rights around the country. So we decided to put their expertise to the test with some rapid-fire voting rights questions. Watch their answers below, or take a shot at answering some of the questions yourself.
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Vice Media Group ☛ The Taliban Is Rollerblading While Armed In Viral Footage. WTF Is Going On?
The viral video has its origins on an Afghan parkour athlete's YouTube channel.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Gizmodo ☛ Meta Officially Accepts Blood Money to Promote the Big Lie
Meta made a quiet policy update last year allowing advertisers on Facebook and Instagram to say the 2020 election was rigged. The company has made one thing clear: you can’t use their ad systems to question the legitimacy of the American election system — unless you have a credit card, in which case they’re happy to help. It’s a change that mirrors shifts across the rest of the Silicon Valley.
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Axios ☛ Americans flock to TikTok for news [sic]
What's happening: The Pew study shows that news consumers have accelerated their shift toward digital channels in the past year.
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JURIST ☛ Nepal bans Fentanylware (TikTok) nationwide
During a Cabinet meeting held Monday, the Nepalese government banned the social control media platform TikTok, according to local newspaper Kantipur. Minister for Communication Rekha Sharma announced the decision by underlining the “negative effects of [the app] on social harmony and goodwill.” She also mentioned that preparations for the implementation of the decision are already underway.
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New Yorker ☛ We’ve Been Wrong to Worry About Deepfakes (So Far)
Daniel Immerwahr, a history professor at Northwestern University, discusses why videos generated by artificial intelligence haven’t had more influence on electoral politics.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Quillette ☛ Anti-Enlightenment Thinking, Past and Present
COVID-19 has not been our only challenge. On 16 October 2020, Samuel Paty was beheaded by an Islamic extremist outside a suburban Paris school after he showed a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in class during a lesson on freedom of speech. Fourteen people were charged with complicity in the murder. This was not the psychotic act of a lone madman, but a premeditated crime carried out by people who shared John Calvin’s belief that those who fail to show due deference to their religious beliefs should be killed. Four centuries ago, this attitude would have been unexceptional in much of the world, including France. Hundreds of millions of people in non-western countries are still sympathetic to that view. Blasphemy remains a capital crime in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ Estonia's first ever Ukrainian-language radio station launches this Friday
According to the Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Estonia, this led them to consider the necessity of introducing a mass media channel for Ukrainians. to preserve their cultural identity and language, as well as access objective and independent information. The channel also aims to help promote Ukrainian integration into Estonian society and strengthen the dialogue between Ukrainian and Estonian communities.
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The Dissenter ☛ Reporter Arrested At East Palestine Train Derailment Press Conference Sues Police
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Press Gazette ☛ Ecosystem of a story: How to maximise both reach and engagement using different entry points
"This is not about creating more work but planning what you might need to capture to fill your ecosystem."
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Civil Rights/Policing
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La Quadature Du Net ☛ New fronts for 2024!
For 15 years La Quadrature du Net has been defending everyone’s rights and fundamental freedoms in the digital age. These 15 years of struggle would not have been possible without you — thank you so much! And we need you to keep fighting in 2024!
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France24 ☛ UK's Sunak seeks new Rwanda migrant deportation scheme after Supreme Court strikes down first plan
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he would sign a new treaty with Rwanda to resurrect his plans to send asylum seekers to the East African country after the Supreme Court rejected an original scheme as unlawful.
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RFA ☛ New Tibetan translation software harnesses AI to preserve language
Tibetan is widely spoken in the Himalayan region, used not only in the Tibet Autonomous Region, but also in western parts of China, northern Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of India. But its 30-letter syllabic alphabet, script format, lack of punctuation and several dialects can make translation difficult.
Considered a breakthrough in Tibetan education software development, the software created by the Monlam Tibetan IT Research Centre uses artificial intelligence to translate written and spoken Tibetan into English, Chinese and other languages faster and more accurately than any existing translation software.
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uni Emory ☛ Tibet Week celebrates 25-year partnership with Dalai Lama
Tibet Week returned to Emory University for another year of connections, ceremony and celebration. The week of events, which took place from Nov. 6 to Nov. 11, held special significance as it marked the 25-year anniversary of Emory’s partnership with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Drepung Loseling Monastery. The theme for this year’s Tibet Week celebration was “Compassion in Action.” The series of events took place in Ackerman Hall on the top floor of the Michael C. Carlos Museum.
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ACLU ☛ The U.S. Touts Itself as a Global Leader in Human Rights. A New U.N. Report Says Otherwise.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee delivered a searing report highlighting the U.S. government’s failure to meet its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This international treaty, ratified by the U.S. in 1992, is one of only three key human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified.
The U.N. committee’s concluding observations echo many of the concerns and recommendations raised by civil society groups last month during the U.S. review, where they sounded the alarm on violations of various human rights issues including Indigenous rights, voting rights, freedom of expression and assembly, gender equality and reproductive rights, criminal legal reform, immigrants’ rights, and more. Here are three key takeaways from the committee’s report.
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France24 ☛ Iran releases prize-winning rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh
Nasrin Sotoudeh, 60, was arrested at the funeral on October 29 in Tehran of Armita Garawand, 17, who activists say was fatally beaten by the Tehran morality police.
Sotoudeh, who has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison serving a myriad of sentences in cases linked to her activism, was after her arrest moved to Qarchak women's prison outside Tehran and subsequently to Evin prison in the capital.
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El País ☛ ‘Working in Amazon offices was like slowly killing yourself’: Life in the tech giant, according to a former executive
The work culture at some tech companies is notoriously inhumane. But the details that Coulter shares about Amazon — even without mentioning real names or business secrets — suggest that, according to her, it was one of the worst tech companies to work for. EL PAÍS asked Amazon about the claims made in Coulter’s book, but the company declined to comment.
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RFERL ☛ 'I Won't Be Free': Afghan Women, Girls Face Grim Future After Expulsion From Pakistan
Some escaped their homeland so that their daughters could continue their education, following the Taliban's ban on women attending university and teenage girls from going to school.
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JURIST ☛ Nigeria labor unions defy court order and declare nationwide strike
Nigeria’s two largest labor unions launched on Tuesday a nationwide strike that is expected to continue indefinitely, until “the government at all levels wakes up to their responsibilities.”
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The Nation ☛ The Settled Actors’ Strike Brings Hollywood Back Online
On November 9, after 118 days, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors in film, television, and radio, ended its strike on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Taken together with the Writers Guild strike, which began May 2 and ended in late September, Hollywood-based labor actions brought the entertainment industry to a virtual standstill for six months.
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EFF to Supreme Court: Fifth Amendment Protects People from Being Forced to Enter or Hand Over Cell Phone Passcodes to the Police
he Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling undermining Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination and find that constitutional safeguards prevent police from forcing people to provide or use passcodes for their cell phones so officers can access the tremendous amount of private information on phones.
At stake is the fundamental principle that the government can’t force people to testify against themselves, including by revealing or using their passcodes.
“When the government demands someone turn over or enter their passcode, it is forcing that person to disclose the contents of their mind and provide a link in a chain of possibly incriminating evidence,” said EFF Surveillance Litigation Director Andrew Crocker. “Whenever the government calls on someone to use memorized information to aid in their own prosecution—whether it be a cellphone passcode, a combination to a safe, or even their birthdate—the Fifth Amendment applies.”
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Monopolies
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Trademarks
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Techdirt ☛ Does Elon Grok The Trademark Issues With ‘Grok’? AI Chip Company Groq Does
As you likely know by now, last week, Elon Musk released the initial version of the AI chatbot he created earlier this year via “xAI” which may or may not be part of his many other companies, but definitely uses employees, technology, and resources from those other companies. He named it “Grok,” though also claimed that it was “modeled after” Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
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Copyrights
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The Register UK ☛ AI copyright row deepens: Stability VP quits in protest over 'fair use' excuse
The VP of audio at Stability AI has decided his position at the content-generating startup is untenable, given his belief in protecting artists' copyrights and his now-former employer's stance that training machine-learning models on copyrighted material is legally OK.
"I've resigned from my role leading the Audio team at Stability AI, because I don't agree with the company's opinion that training generative AI models on copyrighted works is 'fair use'," former veep Ed Newton-Rex wrote on social media.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Won't Download a Car? Let's Try: "Piracy Turns Teenagers Into Gambling Addicts"
Even among those who accept piracy is illegal, there are some who still struggle to view casual streaming as a serious crime. By introducing credit card fraud, identity theft, and malware into the mix, it's hoped that piracy will absorb the juices of these 'real' crimes and be taken more seriously. In South Korea, where pirate movies and careless clicks turn innocent teenagers into crazed gambling addicts, anti-piracy messaging may have hit the jackpot.
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Press Gazette ☛ Telegraph journalists told use of Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot will result in same sanctions as plagiarism
Staff were warned against entering sensitive or proprietary data into ChatGPT.
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Digital Music News ☛ Freeplay Music Officially Closes CNN Copyright Infringement Case
Freeplay Music officially closes its $17 million copyright monopoly infringement case with CNN filed late last year. On November 30, 2022, production music library Freeplay Music filed a $17 million copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit against CNN, alleging the unauthorized use of around 115 works used in over 280 network segments.
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Digital Music News ☛ BandLab Owner Caldecott Music Group Just Bought Gawker
The internet’s twice-shuttered gossip column Gawker is coming back with a new owner—BandLab’s Caldecott Music Group. Variety has confirmed CMG CEO Meng Ru Kuok has closed a deal to obtain the Gawker trademarks and domain name, but not its article archive.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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🔤SpellBinding: UHIOSTF Wordo: TAMPS
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A wave, a wink, and a nod
I used to think becoming someone was what this ("life") was all about.
Yet none of the non-human animals seemed bothered by/with the like.
And you *know* just how perfect the word 'bothered' is in the previous sentence.
So why all the emphasis on - if not hullab
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How much is too much?
I'm not sure who decides these things. But it feels consensual. Feels widespread. Feels like if I didn't post at all someone would be chiding me for not participating, but posting more than once a day, well, we can't be having any of *that* you silly psychopath! Can't you see how us sane versions of individuality post no more than once a day?
But, well... I post.. and suddenly more is coming to mind, combined with some ongoing fear of missing out on getting text before eyes connected to mind allegedly part of (just what *are* we, anyway?) a *person* who really gets me, who's similarly been waiting half of forever for meaningful ongoing text exchange that's Just Right: a little sarcasm here, just the right words first-letter-uppercase'd there, well-placed whitespace, impeccable ASCII emoji emphasis, etc.
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the morning view
Going on vacation once I get home. Absolutely not traveling.
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Politics and World Events
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Why I'm Proud of My University
Briar Cliff was founded by Catholic Sisters and started out as an all-women's school for women who didn't have any other access to education. Over time, it expanded to welcome everyone, and it continued to give out the most financial aid out of all the 4-year schools in my area.
I had planned on going to a different University because I got a scholarship there, but I did not have the money to pay for the rest of the tuition. But at Briar Cliff, I was able to go because of how gracious they are with the Financial Aid. Once I got into the Theology classes, I also felt very welcome there, being gay and non-Christian (although I was not explicitly out at school).
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Technology and Free Software
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Jezebel Cheblik
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner than later. Sooner is today. My companion's silicon finally gave out. He felt so very confident about my soldering skill. "It's fine, Jez, I trust you." Well, he shouldn't have. Maybe my hand slipped, maybe it was meant to be.
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A cash-only life? Or, life without a debit card? (publ. 2023-11-16)
Around two months ago, I started an experiment to see how far I could go in living life without carrying around a debit card, and paying for things with cash only.
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On Google and Ads – a just-so story
This is a small thing that I am writing just so that I can reference it later, and to remind myself that I have already made a point similar to this. It is not necessarily factually true, and I have no citation or evidence, only half-remembered from various recorded talks and random people typing words on the Internet. It is, however, a nice story, so I'm writing it.
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Install Debian on Libre Computer "Renegade" with encrypted volumes
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Defaults
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16 November 2023
Well... it has been some time since my last visit to gopherspace and even a bit more since my last post. But don't worry, 'tis gopher aint dead yet!
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I gave emacs a serious look back in the day
Yep. Not unlike when, as a young lad, I decided it felt better to fold my hands "left hand higher in the finger interlock" than "right hand higher in the finger interlock", there was a time when I felt I had to settle on either vi(m) or emacs.
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"Exact phrase", please, Outlook 📧
Few people here will need an excuse to moan about Microsoft, but just in case, here's one.
Searching for "exact phrase" in my work email wasn't working. It would find messages containing either or both of the words. Lots of people on the web said "put it in quotes". Well, duh! Doesn't work. The fix is a registry tweak*. So the Outlook mail client allows for this feature, but provides no UI to switch it on. Who benefits from this feature being off by default??
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Internet/Gemini
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Local offline mirrors with redbean
Firstly, download redbean. The "original" flavor (no ssl, lua, or sqlite) is enough for this purpose.
Thenly mirror the website. For example, using GNU WGET, the following command will mirror my public wiki-like thing (but nothing up the tree, such as this post), excluding the assets directory. Some of the arguments aren't always necessary, adapt to your own needs.
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Programming
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Assembly
One debate is whether "web assembly" (WASM) is assembly at all. It strikes me more as a "web virtual machine" or webvm (VM), given there is a bytecode and implementations that apparently interpret rather than compile. WASM uses a verb (assemble) for what should be a noun (virtual machine)? Naming things is hard.
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.