● 02.23.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 23/2/2022: Samsung Failing People, SQLite 3.38 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 6:50 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Novena Open Source Laptop Reborn As Desktop Machine | Hackaday

• When your 5-year-old laptop dies it’s usually time for a replacement. But [Andrew Menadue]’s Novena laptop is fully open-source. He has full access to all the documentation, so he decided to try his hand at repairing it instead. The power supply circuit board went up in smoke one day — he attributes this to poor battery health due to him not using it frequently enough. Given his usage pattern, he decided to switch the Novena into a desktop machine.

• He made the conversion with a new pass-through power supply board, and the computer booted up but with no display. It seems that the power supply failure took out additional circuits as well. [Andrew] goes down a deep rabbit hole of board and chip swapping, all to no avail. Eventually the display suddenly springs to life, and he concludes the problem was with the EEPROM configuration settings and not LCD display hardware.

• [....]

• We wrote about the Novena way back in 2014, and more recently the MNT Reform project. What are your thoughts on these open source laptop projects? Do you have any laptops that you’ve rehabilitated after five or more years? Let us know in the comments below.

=> ↺ [Old] MINISFORUM DeskMini UM700, a mini-PC with Ryzen that now launches Manjaro Linux

• «Man does not live on Windows alone…» and the DeskMini UM700 is a compact computer with internal hardware based on AMD’s Ryzen, which now launches Manjaro Linux as its operating system. And we’re highlighting it because there aren’t too many new teams pre-installing the free system.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install Htop on Debian 11 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Htop on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Htop is a free, open-source, cross-platform interactive process viewer. Htop was created as a replacement for the Linux program top, and it has a lot of the same features as the top, but with a lot more flexibility in terms of how system processes can be interpreted.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Htop system monitoring tool on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

=> ↺ How to run and manage containers as systemd services with Podman | FOSS Linux

• Linux containers are executable application components that combine app source code with operating system libraries and dependencies needed to run the code in different environments. Containers combine lightweight application isolation with the flexibility of image-based deployment methods. Developers use containers as an application packaging and delivery technology.

• RHEL based systems (CentOS and Fedora Linux) implements containers using technologies such as namespaces for system process isolation, control groups for resource management, and SELinux for security management. Red Hat also provides command-line tools like podman, skopeo, and buildah to manage container images and pods.

• This article illustrates how to run and manage containers as systemd services with podman. To get started, review our articles on introduction to Linux containers, managing containers with Podman, and managing systems units.

=> ↺ 10 Useful Tools to Create Bootable USB from an ISO Image

• CD and DVD writers are a thing of the past. You are not likely to find them in modern-day laptops. If your goal is to create a bootable medium, then creating a bootable USB drive from an ISO file remains your best option.

• There are quite a number of tools that can help you create a bootable USB drive. Some will even go further and let you create a multi-boot USB drive where you get to choose the OS that you want to install.

• Here are some of the widely-used utilities for creating a bootable USB drive from an ISO file in Linux desktop systems.

=> ↺ Fedora Packaging: resolving /usr/bin/../bin/../lib/bfd-plugins/LLVMgold.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32 | Definite’s Extractor

• Resolving /usr/bin/../bin/../lib/bfd-plugins/LLVMgold.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32 for fedora packaging.

=> ↺ Install Xubuntu 20.04, 21.10, or 22.04 on Raspberry Pi 4 — Sean Davis

• The Raspberry Pi 4 and 400 are capable ARM devices able to run a desktop-class operating system, albeit slowly. Ubuntu has a tutorial for installing a desktop on the Raspberry Pi, but I recommend using Martin Wimpress’ desktopify script to install with improved hardware support. In this guide, I’ll be using a patched version that enables installation on Ubuntu 21.10 and 22.04.

• Please note that the Raspberry Pi is not supported by the Xubuntu Team. This installation method is made available for those looking for something different to use their Raspberry Pi for, or those needing to test against ARM hardware.

=> ↺ 5 new sudo features sysadmins need to know in 2022 | Opensource.com

• When you want to grant administrative access to some of your users while controlling and checking what they do on your systems, you use sudo. However, even with sudo, there are quite a few unseen issues—just think about giving out shell access. Recent sudo releases added features that let you see these issues and even control them. For example, you can turn on more detailed and easier-to-process log messages and log each command executed in a shell session.

• Some of these features are brand new. Some of them build on features introduced in version 1.9.0 or even earlier. For example, sudo could record everything that happened on a terminal, even in version 1.8. However, the system stored these recordings locally, and they were easy to delete, especially those where the recordings were the most useful: Shell sessions. Version 1.9.0 added central session recording collection, so recordings cannot be deleted by the local user, and recent versions added relays, making the collection even more robust.

=> ↺ Install Zig Programming Language on Linux – TREND OCEANS

• Zig is an open-source, imperative, statically typed, compiled programming language designed by Andrew Kelley in 2016. Zig’s programming language has made some big claims by its designer that Zig utilizes C libraries better than C itself.

• You heard it correctly! First, its own programming language, and it can also compile the C/C++ program from its compiler, which we are going to learn today.

=> ↺ Monitoring your sever by installing Matomo on Debian 11

• Matomo is an application that is installed on the server that allows us to analyze and track our website to obtain various statistics.

• Thanks to Matomo, anyy people who own websites in the world, can know the number of visitors, site performance, Google Ads behavior and so on.

• So if you own a blog or a website, you should learn how to install and use Matomo.

=> ↺ How to Install Wireshark on Debian 11 Bullseye – LinuxCapable

• Wireshark is a powerful and popular network communication tool that allows viewing individual recorded data packets or sorting them according to specific content. This networking software enables you to see what’s going on in your computer and helps take apart any encrypted messages being sent around it through analysis of their contents with ease!

• Some of the most common tasks Wireshark is used for amongst users of the software include troubleshooting networks with performance issues and cybersecurity tracing connecting, viewing contents of suspect network transactions, and identifying bursts of network traffic for further analysis.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install WireShark on Debian 11 Bullseye.

=> ↺ How to Install Htop on Rocky Linux 8 – LinuxCapable

• Htop is a free, open-source, cross-platform interactive process viewer. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. The terminal UI is a great way to see what your system looks like inside, both in terms of processes and other info. It’s also completely customizable, so you can change colors or add different widgets for more visual representation!

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Htop Interactive Process Viewer on Rocky Linux 8 Workstation or Server.

=> ↺ Download Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish – LinuxCapable

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) is now available on the daily builds download page. In addition, there are other flavors, such as Kubuntu XFCE Netbook Edition, which features a KDE 4 desktop environment instead of GNOME pre-installed on this version; however, if that’s not what suits your taste, then go ahead with the standard edition.

• The download links below allow you to try out different flavors of Ubuntu. The desktop environment installed in each flavor varies, but all are up-to-date with the latest software from this distribution’s stable release schedule and daily sync process!

=> ↺ How to Install Apache Tomcat 10 on Ubuntu 20.04

• The Apache Tomcat Server is an open-source and reliable web and Java Server Page container that is a popular option for developers building and maintaining dynamic applications based on Java. It is used to implement Java servlet and Java Server Pages (JSP) technologies and WebSocket APIs.

• The Apache Tomcat server is not as feature-rich compared to the traditional web servers such as Apache or Nginx. However, when it comes to applications built entirely on JSP, then Apache Tomcat is King.

• The latest stable version is Tomcat 10 and it was released on January 10, 2022. It provides support for JSP 3.0, Servlet 5.0, WebSocket 2.0, EL 4.0, and Authentication 2.0 to mention a few.

• In this tutorial, we walk you through the installation of Apache Tomcat 10 on Ubuntu 20.04.

=> ↺ How To Install Wine to Run Windows Applications On Debian

• When it comes to installing Windows applications on Linux, there’s no application that does it better than Wine. Wine is a compatibility layer that enables users to run Windows applications on POSIX compliant operating systems such as Linux and UNIX derivatives such as BSD, FreeBSD, and macOS.

• Not all Windows applications are supported, and to get a comprehensive list of all supported applications, head over to the Wine application database – AppDB.

=> ↺ How to Install LibreOffice on Debian 11 Bullseye – LinuxCapable

• LibreOffice is a free, open-source office productivity suite used by millions worldwide. The office suite software uses a native file format ODF or Open Document Format, an accepted and almost required structure in multiple organizations across the globe.

• LibreOffice includes Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing).

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install LibreOffice’s latest release on Debian 11 Bullseye desktop.

=> ↺ How to Install Apache Maven on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – LinuxCapable

• Apache Maven is an open-source tool that allows the building automation of your java projects. It can also be used for projects in C#, Ruby, etc. Its most popular usage would likely involve Java development! The maven project comes from the Apache Software Foundation, where they were previously part of the Jakarta Project before moving on their own.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Apache Maven on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish.

=> ↺ How to Install Arduino on Debian 11 Bullseye – LinuxCapable

• The Arduino IDE is free and open-source software to write and upload your programming code. It consists of an editor with features like assisted editing enabled by the compiler so you can do everything from within one program without switching between files or windows as often – it does help streamline things! The tool also enables better compiling because errors will be noticed before they’re uploaded.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Arduino IDE on Debian 11 Bullseye desktop.

=> ↺ How to Install Eclipse IDE on Fedora 36/35 – LinuxCapable

• Eclipse IDE is a robust, integrated development environment used in computer programming. It contains the base workspace and an extensible plug-in system that allows you to easily customize its features, making it one of the two most popular IDEs for Java developers (until 2016).

• Imagine working on any project, no matter what language or framework it uses. The Eclipse platform gives developers this flexibility by using different plug-ins for their individual needs, whether that’s developing rich client applications with Java-inspired features like mobile compatibility and multi-window support in mind OR creating an IDE tailored specifically toward programming languages such as JavaScript, which often requires more tools than others might offer out of the box.

=> ↺ How To Install Sublime Text on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Sublime Text on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Sublime Text software is a well-known lightweight source code editor. It offers features like command palette, goto anything, auto-completion, snippets, and plugins, among others, and works on all major platforms, including Linux, macOS, and Windows.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the sublime Text source code editor on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

Distributions

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ Top IT skills to build in 2022, according to CIOs

• Staying up to speed on relevant skills is critical for all IT professionals who want to grow in their careers, and when it comes to what skills are in high demand, these CIOs know what they need.

• We asked CIOs who recently won the 2021 New York CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards what skills they believe will be important for IT professionals in the coming year. The awards were presented by the New York CIO Leadership Association, a professional community that annually recognizes CIOs for their excellence in technology leadership.

=> ↺ Getting to know Albert Chai, general manager for Red Hat RoSEA

• We’re delighted to welcome Albert Chai to Red Hat as a general manager for Red Hat’s Rest of Southeast Asia (RoSEA) region. In his new role, Albert will be responsible for Red Hat’s business operations in a dynamic region with accelerated growth.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Bluefin International Debuts R Series All-in-One Digital Signage System – rAVe [PUBS]

• Bluefin International has debuted the R Series all-in-one (player and display) digital signage system capable of running Android 10, Debian 10 and Linux.

=> ↺ Apollo Lake telematics system features Hailo-8 NPU

• Nexcom’s rugged, Linux-ready “VTC 1021” in-vehicle telematics system combines Apollo Lake with an up to 13-TOPS Hailo-8 NPU with GPS, 2x GbE, 2x optional PoE, 2x mini-PCIe, SATA, HDMI, USB, CAN, COM, and DIO.

• Nexcom continues to sample different types of edge AI NPUs for its embedded systems. In 2020, the company announced three Apollo Lake systems equipped with Google’s Coral Edge TPU mini-PCIe cards for AI acceleration, including the VTC 6222-GCIoT. Last month, Nexcom introduced a smaller AIEdge-X 100-VPU edge AI system for smart retail that combines Apollo Lake with up to 2x Intel Movidius Myriad X VPUs. The company has now announced a partnership with Hailo to launch an Apollo Lake based VTC 1021 in-vehicle system aimed at telematics and ADAS that is loaded with Hailo’s 3-TOPS per Watt Hailo-8 NPU.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Bringing digital skills to disadvantaged children across India

=> ↺ Making a Board for the PIC32 VGA Signal Generation Project

• Although I have tried to maintain an interest in computing hardware over the last two years or so, both contemporary and somewhat older technologies, I haven’t really had much time or energy to devote to electronics projects. However, I was becoming increasingly bothered by my existing VGA signal generation project taking up space on a couple of solderless breadboards, demanding lots of jumper wires, and generally not helping me organise and consolidate my collection of electronics-related acquisitions, components, and so on. I was also feeling a bit bad for not moving the VGA project to the next step, which is what I had virtually promised to do. Having acquired a new computer in 2020 but not having really looked at KiCad since migrating to the new machine, I finally picked up the courage to set out translating my existing notes into a proper circuit diagram, reacquainting myself with KiCad’s peculiarities, and then translating this into an actual board layout.

• [...]

• Several weeks later, I received the boards in the post, thankfully without any customs fees or other charges. In the meantime, I had also ordered components that I needed from a supplier in the UK, Technobots, who happen to sell logic chips and other things that suppliers targeting the “maker” community tend not to bother selling. Thankfully also in this case, the components arrived without incurring fees and charges, although I had kept the value of my order fairly low. In Norway, the industrial lobby hate to see people importing things, often taking the tone that people should buy locally produced goods, but since nobody makes these things here, anyone “local” that sells them has to import them, and the result is often just the cheapest stuff at ridiculously high prices and some middlemen making all the money, rather than anyone earning a decent living out of actually producing anything. But anyway.

• The boards themselves were well made, as I have seen before, although I was disappointed with the “tabs” around the edge. When boards get made, people will tell you that they are all put on a big panel together and that they therefore need to be attached to each other somehow. The manufacturer will then typically spell out that apart from separating the boards by snapping them apart, they don’t do any further finishing work on the edges because we, the customers, aren’t paying for that level of service. However, I don’t remember the remnants of these inter-board connections – the tabs – being so awkward on previous boards from OSHPark. If I had to do anything before, I’m sure it just involved some gentle trimming, but these needed the application of glasspaper to grind down the tabs to be level with the actual board edge. Given the sub-millimetre tolerances involved in board fabrication, I find it perverse that such finishing would fall to someone – me or someone in the factory – to do this by hand.

• [...]

• The three-board arrangement of VGA terminal block, VGA signal board, and Arduino Duemilanove.

=> ↺ This insane kinetic clock robot flips itself into position

• Displaying the time these days is trivial — you could do it with any Arduino board and a simple four-digit seven-segment display. But as humans, we crave novelty and it isn’t uncommon to see a clock that is more art than a practical timekeeping device. That is true of AKUROBATTO, which is an insane kinetic clock robot that flips itself into position.

• AKUROBATTO consists of a skateboard deck-shaped platform and a motorized robot. The robot acts like the hands of an analog clock, with two arms joined by a pivot joint. One can tell the time by judging the relative angular positions of the two arms. That sounds straightforward, but it gets more interesting when you realize that the pivot point between the two arms is not hard-mounted. So to change the angle between the arms, the robot must lock itself into place on the platform and then flip around.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Why I will never buy another Samsung device

• One day, I took the phone out of my pocket and the screen had a black part in the middle and the top half no longer responded to touch. When I got home the black part has expanded and kept growing. The screen clearly had failed from the fold. But hey, no worries, I had not dropped the phone, it was in case and I’ve only used the phone the way I’ve always used my other phones. So I’ll just send it to Samsung for repairs and all is good. Folding is still new tech so shit happens, I didn’t really mind.. until I received a response from Samsung repair: [...]

=> ↺ I’ve switched from Samsung phones and will never come back.

• Samsung has the steepest subsidies, because you get the phone, and then you realize that one of the things they do, it’s like buying a new PC with Windows and then having to root through 40 pieces of bloatware, spyware, and trial software, only with the Samsung phone, you can’t even disable a lot of it.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Ditching Evernote? Here Are Your Top Alternatives

• Joplin is a free, open-source note-taking app that uses a lot of the same structure as Evernote, in terms of how you can group and organize notes and notebooks. It’s reasonably user-friendly, and you have the option of bringing your own storage and syncing or paying for Joplin Cloud, starting at 1.99 euros per month for 1GB of storage.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Is Firefox OK?

• The decline and potential demise of Firefox is a massive problem that everybody seems to be kind of tiptoeing around, too afraid to acknowledge that if Firefox were indeed to disappear, we’d be royally screwed.

• [...]

• The desktop Linux world is playing with fire by being so reliant on Firefox, and now that Firefox and Mozilla seem to be in some serious dire straits, I’m dumbfounded by the fact nobody seems to be at all preparing for what happens if Mozilla ever truly goes down.

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ CouchDB vs. MongoDB: 10 things you should know | FOSS Linux

• CouchDB is an Apache Software Foundation Product inspired by Lotus Notes. It is one of the NoSQL DB providers. It is a non-relational database meaning it does not use rows and columns to store data, as is the case with relational databases. Erlang is the most widely-used programming language by CouchDB.

• It is also an open-source document-oriented database, and in the document field, it is stored as key-value maps. The fields can be a simple key, value pair, list, or map. Documents stored in the database are given document-level unique identifiers (_id) and revision (_rev).

=> ↺ SQLite Release 3.38.0

Programming/Development

Go

=> ↺ Golang GRPC

=> ↺ The Golang Mutex

=> ↺ Golang YAML

=> ↺ Golang WebSocket

=> ↺ Golang Waitgroup

=> ↺ Golang REST API

=> ↺ Golang Type Alias

=> ↺ Golang Select Call

=> ↺ How to Read and Write Excel Files in Go

• In this post, you will learn how to read and write Excel files using the Go programming language. For our examples, we will use the xlsx file format.

Python

=> ↺ Python support for regular expressions

• Regular expressions are a common feature of computer languages, especially higher-level languages like Ruby, Perl, Python, and others, for doing fairly sophisticated text-pattern matching. Some languages, including Perl, incorporate regular expressions into the language itself, while others have classes or libraries that come with the language installation. Python’s standard library has the re module, which provides facilities for working with regular expressions; as a recent discussion on the python-ideas mailing shows, though, that module has somewhat fallen by the wayside in recent times.

=> ↺ Asin() Python

• We have standard built-in math module functions in the Python programming language for higher-level mathematical calculations. We also use the math module for inverse trigonometric functions that perform operations opposite to trigonometric functions. This article focused on one of the inverse trigonometric functions, i.e., asin(). Asin() function is also referred to as the inverse of sine or arcsine of the number lies between the range of -1 and +1. To access this function, we have to import the math module then call this function by using math static objects. Let’s use this Asin() function to perform arcsine operations.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ How to Echo Newline in Bash

• In Bash, there are multiple ways we can display a text in the console or terminal. We can use either the echo or printf command to print a text. Each of these commands has their unique behaviors. In this guide, we’ll learn how to print a newline in Bash.

C++

=> ↺ How to Insert Data into a C++ Set

=> ↺ How to Change a Set to a Vector in C++

=> ↺ Create a STD Set in C++

=> ↺ C++ String Length

=> ↺ C++ Check If File Exists

=> ↺ C++ Delete Array

=> ↺ C++ Factorial

Leftovers

=> ↺ Paul Farmer, 1959–2022

• I don’t even remember when I first met Paul Farmer, he was so much a part of my world, especially my world in Haiti. Maybe I met him down there, where he’d lived on and off for five years at a time, after college. Or maybe in Boston, where—when I met him—he was on the way to becoming a world-famous infectious diseases doctor with an endowed chair at Harvard Medical School. Once I knew him, he became a touchstone for me. We had the same attitudes about power and powerlessness, but that wasn’t what made him precious.

=> ↺ Remembering Dr. Paul Farmer: A Public Health Pioneer Who Helped Millions from Haiti to Rwanda

• We remember the life and legacy of Dr. Paul Farmer, a public health icon who spent decades building community health networks helping millions of poor people in Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and beyond. He died unexpectedly Monday at the age of 62. We feature Farmer’s past interviews with Democracy Now! and speak with his longtime colleague, Dr. Joia Mukherjee. Farmer leaves behind a remarkable legacy and an “enormous community of people that he brought to this large table that is now global health,” says Mukherjee, chief medical officer for Partners In Health, where she worked with Farmer for 23 years.

=> ↺ Paul Farmer Leaves Behind the Legacy of a Global Public Health Movement

Education

=> ↺ Florida Pulls Amendment That Would Force Teachers to Out Students After Uproar

=> ↺ When the MAGA Movement Comes for Your School

• Phillips’ fight with Collin College is part of a broader struggle over education here in the swath of suburbs and exurbs of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, once conservative strongholds that in recent years have become more diverse — racially, culturally, and politically — as business-friendly tax policy draws emigration from across the nation and abroad. But the influx of new people and ideas has produced a backlash: The area was home to an unsettling number of Jan. 6 defendants, and in recent years, Philips says, there has been a resurgence in far-right extremism.

• Much of the struggle is playing out in schools. Despite right-wing pundits’ continued braying about “censorship” and “cancel culture,” the local brand of revanchism has pushed to penalize educators who speak their minds and ban books that challenge conventional wisdom or present uncomfortable truths.

=> ↺ No student loan for pupils who fail GCSE maths or English

• The Department for Education will announce plans to set minimum entry requirements to ensure students “aren’t being pushed into higher education before they are ready”.

• The proposals, which will be put to consultation, will suggest that students who fail to gain a Grade 4 – equivalent to a C in the previous grading system – in GCSE maths and English should be barred from accessing student loans.

Hardware

=> ↺ Bluetooth LE Audio is going to change the entire wireless audio game

• Bluetooth is one of the most important open technologies in the world, right up there with Wi-Fi. While the Bluetooth spec is frequently updated, the underlying technology for Bluetooth audio, the most ubiquitous usage for Bluetooth most people depend on, hasn’t been meaningfully revamped for nearly its entire existence.

• This is where Bluetooth LE Audio comes in. The spec has been available for about two years for device makers to work on, but the first products to feature it should be released this year. It promises not only to improve the experience we have with current audio use cases, but build a foundation for new applications that weren’t possible before. It truly is a new generation of technology. Even better, it will be compatible with any Bluetooth 5.2 or newer-equipped device, which means most phones and audio devices from the last two years should be upgradeable to Bluetooth LE Audio via firmware update.

=> ↺ Classic Multimeter Tells You If Your WiFi’s Working | Hackaday

• Debugging network issues isn’t easy; many a sysadmin has spent hours trying to figure out which of the many links between client and server is misbehaving. Having a few clear pointers helps: if you can show that the internet connection is up, that already narrows down the problem to either the server or, most likely, the client computer.

• After hearing “is the internet up” one too many times, [whiskeytangohotel] decided to make a clearly visible indicator to show the status of the local uplink. He used his father’s old Simpson 260 VOM as a display, with its large analog indicator pointing at a steady value if the internet’s up, and wagging back and forth if there’s an outage. The exact value indicated is determined by the average ping time for a couple of different servers, so that you can also tell if the connection is slower than normal.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Billie Eilish Advocates for Plant-Based School Meals on Capitol Hill

• Grammy Award-winning artist Billie Eilish and her mother Maggie Baird attended a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday in support of legislation that would implement plant-based meals in the U.S. school system.

• “I’m proud to advocate for this legislation that will help to fight climate change, combat food insecurity, and promote health equity,” said Eilish, singer, songwriter, and activist.  

=> ↺ GOP Candidates in MI AG Race Say They Oppose Precedent on Right to Birth Control

=> ↺ Mask Mandates Lift While Uncertainty About New Subvariant BA.2 Hangs in the Air

=> ↺ “We Could Have Really Used the Compensation:” COVID’s Second Wave in Rural India

=> ↺ Opinion | The World’s Failed Response to Covid-19 in Africa Must End

• When the Ebola virus was ravaging West African countries in 2014, health care providers, public health researchers and activists worked feverishly to stamp it out before it spread and turned into the type of life-shattering pandemic we’re all too familiar with today.

=> ↺ All they wanted for Christmas was for Mum to be alive

• There are no official figures for how many pregnant women received oxygen, how many are on ventilators or how many Caesarean sections have been carried out to save the lives of foetuses and mothers with Covid. Neither the relevant ministry nor the National Health Care Service Centre collects statistics on this. Or so they say. Nor can you find out how many pregnant women have died during the pandemic but from time to time in the register of coronavirus victims, pregnancy is given as the pre-existing health condition. Gábor Biszak’s wife Erika, who was 31 weeks pregnant, was one of the victims. The doctors saved their third child by performing a Caesarean section last spring. Nimród, Johanna and Boróka are now growing up without a mother. The older two try to process what happened in their different ways. We spent eight months following the life of Gábor and his children. Translation by Charles Hebbert.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft is testing an annoying desktop watermark if you install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware

=> ↺ Only a masochist

• One of the obstacles standing in the way of some people upgrading from Windows 10 to Window 11 is system requirements. Even some relatively new systems are unsupported due to lacking features such as TPM 2.0, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and there are various workarounds that make it possible to install Windows 11 on pretty much any system.

=> ↺ Slack Down! Issues in Sending Messages, Accessing Platform, Experienced

• Slack, the business communication platform of Slack Technologies, is currently down. Some of its users claimed that they are experiencing issues when sending messages and accessing the platform.

Security

=> ↺ CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

• CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence that threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerabilities listed in the table below. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors of all types and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise.

=> ↺ Anti Interdiction on the Librem 14

• Whether you face extreme threats or want some extra peace of mind, you might want to be able to detect if someone tampers with your laptop when it’s out of your possession. Anti-interdiction can be particularly handy when traveling and for the initial delivery.

=> ↺ Report: Missouri Governor’s Office Responsible for Teacher Data Leak

• Missouri Governor Mike Parson made headlines last year when he vowed to criminally prosecute a journalist for reporting a security flaw in a state website that exposed personal information of more than 100,000 teachers. But Missouri prosecutors now say they will not pursue charges following revelations that the data had been exposed since 2011 — two years after responsibility for securing the state’s IT systems was centralized within Parson’s own Office of Administration.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ IRS: Selfies Now Optional, Biometric Data to Be Deleted

=> ↺ Massachusetts Court Says No Expectation Of Privacy In Social Media Posts Unwittingly Shared With An Undercover Cop

• Can cops pretend to be real people on social media to catfish people into criminal charges? Social media services say no. Facebook in particular has stressed — on more than one occasion — that it’s “real name” policy applies just as much to cops as it does to regular people.

=> ↺ DC AG argues Facebook’s Zuckerberg should be required to answer data privacy questions

• The allegations began in 2018 when a political consulting firm did not tell customers what information was collected on Facebook and how it was shared.

• In the Feb. 15 court filing, the lawyers said they should be allowed to “probe [Zuckerberg's] and the company’s knowledge about Cambridge Analytica’s actions and his decision to act or, as the case was, fail to act upon learning about it,” according to Reuters.

• The court filing comes as D.C. alleges Facebook ignored a court order on Jan. 10 from the District of Columbia Superior Court that allowed lawyers to question Zuckerberg.

=> ↺ Find You: Building a stealth AirTag clone

• After AirTags are reportedly used more and more frequently for malicious purposes, Apple has published a statement that lists its current and future efforts to prevent misuse

• We built an AirTag clone that bypasses all those tracking protection features and confirmed it working in a real-world experiment (source code available here)

=> ↺ AirTag clone bypassed Apple’s tracking-protection features, claims researcher

• A security researcher claims he bypassed the tracking protection features built into Apple’s Find My app and AirTag tracking devices with a custom-made AirTag clone.

• Amid mounting concerns that AirTags are ripe for abuse by stalkers and other wrongdoers, the researcher said he successfully tracked an iPhone user for five days (with their consent) without triggering a single tracking notification.

• Launched in April 2021, AirTags communicate with Apple’s Find My service to help users keep track of personal items such as keys, wallets, and luggage.

• However, several reports of malicious misuse have surfaced, from devices planted to facilitate grand theft auto to those surreptitiously slipped into victims’ coat pockets.

=> ↺ AirTag clone developed by researchers works around Apple’s anti-stalking measures

• In a blog post published by security researcher Fabian Braunlein of Positive Security on Monday, several “quite obvious bypass ideas” for current and upcoming protection measures were published. Braunlein believes that all can be put into practice.

• To test the assumption, a cloned AirTag was produced. The report claims that the stealth AirTag was able to track an iPhone user for over five days, without triggering any tracking notifications.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Arbery’s Murderers Found Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes

• This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates…

• A jury on Tuesday found three white men who murdered unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery guilty of federal hate crimes.

=> ↺ California Advocates Counterattack Corporate Crime and Control

• If you call the vendors for an explanation, be prepared to wait and wait and wait for any human being to answer or call back, even after you’ve pushed all the required buttons to leave a voice mail message. The vendors are counting on you to surrender, mumbling that you’ve got better things to do with your time.

• If you’re lucky enough to get a human and you disagree about the bill, you know that if you persist against their assurances of accuracy, your credit score can go down. Algorithms can be made to work so impersonally.

=> ↺ Opinion | The Sacralization of War, American-Style

• Lately, random verses from the Bible have been popping into my mind unbidden, like St. Paul’s famous line from Galatians, “A person reaps what they sow.” The words sprang into my consciousness when I learned of the death of the 95-year-old Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped encourage Martin Luther King to declare his opposition to the Vietnam War so long ago.

=> ↺ The Conflict is Now

• Of course, such rhetoric is nothing new, as we can recall Reagan’s descriptor of the “evil empire” or Bush’s “axis of evil”, or hundreds of other such declarations about the “evils” of drugs, poverty, crime, etc. But ‘evil’ has become the assumed position of any ideological opponent in recent years, as the culture developed by both political parties, their demagogues, and their aligned corporate and media entities has been to present either ‘red’ or ‘blue’ (people, speech, books, etc.) as evil to be disallowed and overcome. Even non-partisans in the U.S. can now feel themselves drawn into these party debates as instances like vaccine mandates require them to take a partisan position in spite of themselves. There are some issues, in other words, that are so overwhelming politicized that they are difficult for anyone to ignore or remain ‘neutral’ on.

• One of the most shocking aspects of the January 6th, 2021 event is that, in contradistinction to nearly all dealings with mass protest, the state had so profoundly failed to protect itself, demonstrating law enforcement’s sympathies with hardcore right extremism in real time. Indeed, the state has consistently shown itself to brutalize protesters, most recently those from Black Lives Matter and labor movements, and so such a failure is especially striking given the optics and reality of preferential treatment for largely white, largely male, largely middle-aged crowds. It is unlikely that the state will lapse in this way again (recall the military occupation of Washington D.C. that followed January 6th) and is likely to take extreme measures to secure itself against anything resembling that attack. Especially since the 1960s, and intensified exponentially after 9/11/2001, the government has long used the paradigm of counter-revolution (or domestic warfare) against its own citizens in the name of national security. The violence that is consistently cause for alarm in the halls of government and media, however, is not that perpetrated by the state on its own citizenry, but extra-legal, inter-personal acts. These acts do not constitute a ‘civil war’ in the sense often imagined by the public, but rather as simmering conflict in which both the state and the public are often targeted in coordinated but ‘random’ attacks. Extra-state violence is most likely to proceed in more disjointed, seemingly random acts, not because mass mobilization has been defeated or delegitimized, but out of a tactical consideration.

=> ↺ Critics Want to Know Why ‘Bloodthirsty Warmonger’ John Bolton Still Invited on TV

• Anti-war advocates on Tuesday denounced the corporate media for giving former National Security Adviser John Bolton—a longtime proponent of regime change and U.S. military action around the world—a platform to discuss his views on the current tension in Ukraine.

• MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell invited the former official for the Trump and George W. Bush administrations to discuss how President Joe Biden should confront Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent escalation of tensions.

=> ↺ Biden Urged to Ignore War Hawks and Pursue ‘Real Path to Peace’ in Ukraine

• With Republicans, hawkish Democrats, and notorious warmongers pushing President Joe Biden to take more punitive action against Russia following its latest aggressive moves in Ukraine, peace advocates in the U.S. and abroad on Tuesday urged the administration to instead intensify cooperative diplomatic efforts and do everything in its power to prevent a military conflict.

• “We call for a re-examination of NATO, which has long outlived any good purpose, and holding serious disarmament talks with Russia.”

=> ↺ Trump Claims Putin Wouldn’t Have Invaded Ukraine on His Watch: ‘No Way!’

• As demands for urgent diplomacy stacked up Tuesday due to the escalating crisis in Ukraine, former U.S. President Donald Trump issued a statement that ignored his administration’s contributions to regional tensions while reminding the world of his cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Trump’s move came after Putin recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine as independent and authorized Russian “peacekeeping” forces.

=> ↺ Bernie Sanders Denounces Russia for ‘Indefensible’ Invasion of Ukraine

• Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday called for the U.S. and its allies to impose heavy sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and other oligarchs in the country as he condemned Moscow’s escalating military aggression toward Ukraine.

• “Vladimir Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine is an indefensible violation of international law, regardless of whatever false pretext he offers,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. “There has always been a diplomatic solution to this situation. Tragically, Putin appears intent on rejecting it.”

=> ↺ Putin Recognizes Ukraine Separatists; Khrushchev’s Great-Granddaughter Says War Can Still Be Avoided

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, drawing sharp rebukes from the U.S. and other Western countries that have warned for weeks of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration issued new sanctions, and Germany has stopped the certification of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in an attempt to quash the country’s dependence on Russian natural gas. We speak with Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at The New School, who says she remains skeptical that Russia will launch an all-out war against Ukraine. She also says Russia’s recent attempts at allying with China should not be perceived as a threat, as “China is not going to make up for all the losses that the upcoming sanctions will bring onto Russia.”

=> ↺ Traumatized by the news Levada Center director Denis Volkov on why we shouldn’t expect a ‘Donbas consensus’ following Putin’s recognition of the ‘republics’ in eastern Ukraine

• Russia recognized the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine on February 21. President Vladimir Putin formally announced the decision following a National Security Council meeting that looked more like staged production than an actual debate. Senior Russian officials expressed unanimous support for recognition, even though it appeared to be a sure path towards an all-out war with Ukraine. At the same time, Putin claimed there was broad public support for the move. Will we see a repeat of the “Crimean consensus” that emerged after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014? And how do ordinary Russians really feel about the Kremlin’s further intervention into Ukraine? Meduza turns to sociologist and Levada Center director Denis Volkov for insight.

=> ↺ ‘Many moments were not included’ Russia’s Security Council session on recognition for eastern Ukraine’s separatists was billed as a live broadcast. Not only was it taped — it was edited.

• The Kremlin’s handling of recognition for the self-proclaimed separatist “republics” in eastern Ukraine has raised many questions, including purely logistical uncertainties surrounding the National Security Council session, where President Putin ordered senior officials to state their support or opposition to the recognition of the so-called DNR and LNR. The gathering was made available to the public in an unusual national broadcast on Monday evening. At first glance, the event seemed to be aired live, but some noticed signs (such as the time displayed on different wristwatches) that the footage was prerecorded and even edited. These viewers were right.

=> ↺ MSNBC Host: Disastrous Foreign Policy Leaves US With Less ‘Credibility’ to Condemn Russia

• MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan argued in a monologue Monday night that the United States would have “more credibility” to condemn the recent actions of Russia in Ukraine if it wasn’t currently supporting illegal occupations by its allies around the world—and if it didn’t have its own long record of carrying out brazenly unlawful invasions of sovereign countries.

• “I’d just like us to be consistent in our approach to illegal invasions and occupations.”

=> ↺ Opinion | Bob Dylan, Masters of War, and the Ukraine Crisis

• Fifty-nine years ago, Bob Dylan recorded “With God on Our Side.” You probably haven’t heard it on the radio for a very long time, if ever, but right now you could listen to it as his most evergreen of topical songs:

=> ↺ Opinion | The Stakes Are Very High in Ukraine

• If the Ukraine crisis erupts into war—even intensified limited war in Eastern Ukraine with overt Russian intervention—the consequences will be severe and far-reaching.

=> ↺ Opinion | What Putin Has Done in Eastern Ukraine Is Illegal, But Is It a Full Invasion?

• Russia’s official recognition of the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk republics is both illegal under international law and acutely unhelpful politically, and makes a diplomatic resolution of the existing crisis even less likely. 

=> ↺ Afghanistan: A journey from war to terror

=> ↺ State Department Gratuitously Invokes Monroe Doctrine Against Russia

• First, some particulars.  The mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post, are exaggerating Russian diplomatic efforts in South America, describing normal diplomatic activity as a frenzied campaign to increase influence in Washington’s backyard.  In the only evidence theTimes could produce, the article said that Putin “spoke” to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for the first time since 2014; “called” the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela; “hosted” the president of Argentina; and “scheduled” a meeting with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.  The Times concluded that these contacts were proof of Putin’s efforts to “build on ties that go back to the Cold War and shed light on the global nature of his ambitions.”  Total boilerplate!!

• A day later, the Post—playing catch-up—castigated Bolsonaro for bringing “Latin America’s largest and most powerful country into an embrace with one of the United States’ greatest foreign adversaries.”  Like the Times, the Post maligned Putin’s “gambit to forge stronger relationships in Latin America, far from Russia’s traditional sphere of influence.”  The Post concluded that Putin was successfully “outflanking the West’s attempts to isolate his country.”  U.S. officials have contributed to this propaganda campaign with charges of Russian online influence operations to sow unrest in South America.  Again, no evidence was produced.

=> ↺ As Honduras’s New President Seeks End to Narco-State, Will US Stand in Her Way?

=> ↺ Russia-Ukraine is an Information War, So Government Intelligence Needs More Scrutiny Than Ever

• The American and British intelligence services seldom got things right during the Iraq, Libyan and Syrian conflicts, but they are now being cited as reliable guarantors of the credibility of stories about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• This narrative is sold to the public as the fruit of “open intelligence”, supposedly more democratic than the more secretive approach of the past. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week told the UN, apparently relying on information provided by US intelligence, that Russia could stage a provocation to provide a casus belli by fabricating “so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake – even a real attack – using chemical weapons.”

=> ↺ Whistleblower Exposes Credit Suisse’s Bankrolling of Spy Chiefs Involved In CIA Torture

• Over a year ago, a whistleblower provided Credit Suisse bank account data to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung from over 18,000 accounts, which belong to foreign customers.

• The German newspaper shared the data with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which brought in media partners from all over the world to investigate and verify the data. Now, in a major global journalism project called “Suisse Secrets,” OCCRP and several media organizations have revealed the names of criminals and corrupt government officials who had Credit Suisse accounts, including spy agency chiefs implicated in torture and rendition during the “war on terrorism.” Switzerland has a strict bank secrecy law, which allows the Swiss government to harshly punish whistleblowers who leak banking data containing alleged evidence of corruption. Swiss banks also enjoy a law that enables authorities to prosecute journalists for publishing, or even possessing, banking data.

=> ↺ ‘War Between Nuclear-Armed Powers Is Not an Option’: Calls for Diplomacy Surge

• The urgency of diplomatic steps to avert a war in Eastern Europe reached new heights Tuesday following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to recognize two breakaway regions in Ukraine as independent and deploy troops—described as “peacekeeping” forces—to the Donbas, heightening fears of an all-out military conflict.

• “As long as there is any hope of preventing a wider war, it is our duty to pursue it.”

=> ↺ ‘Decisions of Koran are supreme’: Safdar Nagori, key conspirator of Ahmedabad blasts, remorseless after death penalty

• Safdar Nagori, one of the 38 convicts sentenced to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case by a Gujarat court on Friday, appeared remorseless after the sentencing for a terror act that killed 56 people, and was heard saying the Constitution does not mean anything to him.

• Nagori (54), a native of Madhya Pradesh who was associated with the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was a key conspirator of the blasts, according to the prosecution.

=> ↺ France: Critic of Islam Mila attacked again by migrants in broad daylight

• She recounted these scenes later that evening, still in her posts. “I get so annoyed all the time, but 99% of the time you don’t feel like filming it,” she laments. “I’m not attacked as Mila, but as a woman,” she adds, describing an everyday life that has become unbearable for women. Finally, in the evening, she decided to press charges. On Twitter, she revealed that the police “probably can’t do much” because the main attacker was “probably an illegal”.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Identity of man killed by police after starting fire at Dearborn mosque released

• Dearborn police have identified the man as Ahmed Taqi, who started a fire at the Al-Huda Islamic Association in the early morning hours of Feb. 12.

• Police said after squad cars arrived at the scene of the fire, which caused damage to the women’s entrance of the mosque, Taqi fired at officers.

Environment

=> ↺ Climate change: Sea ice levels reach lowest level on record in the Antarctic Ocean

• There is currently less ice in the Antarctic Ocean than at any time on record as climate change pushes up temperatures – and it is continuing to melt, according to new figures.

• Preliminary measurements show the sea ice around the continent fell to 1.98 million square kilometres on Sunday 20 February – below the previous record minimum, set in March 2017, of 2.1 million square kilometres.

• This is the lowest level since the National Snow and Ice Data Center began taking satellite measurements in 1979.

=> ↺ The Supreme Court Could Hamstring Federal Agencies’ Regulatory Power in a High-Profile Air Pollution Case

• This case stems from actions over the past decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, a centerpiece of U.S. climate change policy. In 2016, the Supreme Court blocked the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which was designed to reduce these emissions. The Trump administration repealed the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with the far less stringent Affordable Clean Energy Rule. Various parties challenged that measure, and a federal court invalidated it a day before Trump left office.

• The EPA now says that it has no intention to proceed with either of these rules, and plans to issue an entirely new set of regulations. Under such circumstances, courts usually wait for agencies to finalize their position before stepping in. This allows agencies to evaluate the evidence, apply their expertise and exercise their policymaking discretion. It also allows courts to consider a concrete rule with practical consequences.

Energy

=> ↺ Global Gas Pipeline Boom Poses Climate, Financial Disaster

• As campaigners and scientists continue to demand keeping fossil fuels in the ground, an analysis on Tuesday revealed the incredible amount of gas development humanity has planned, despite the climate and financial risks.

• “The world is at an inflection point, where it can hasten the transition to renewables or further entrench itself in fossil fuels.”

=> ↺ US Gas Exporters Set to Benefit After Germany Halts Russian Pipeline

• The U.S. fossil fuel industry is poised to benefit from an expected expansion of gas exports to Europe after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday suspended approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in response to Russian military aggression toward Ukraine.

• “The crisis plays right into the hands of American shale gas companies, which are reaping a windfall.”

=> ↺ Carbon Footprint of The Most Popular Social Media Platforms

• The advent of easily accessible technology, e-commerce, online streaming, and social networking platforms has led to massive amounts of data being stored and processed every second. The IT infrastructures needed to support this digital age consume a large amount of energy and have a negative impact on the environment. There have been several different efforts to estimate the carbon footprint of the [Internet], but there is no proven exact method for it. Therefore, the goals of this paper are, first—to critically review the carbon emission calculation methods and compare the results, and second—to publicize the environmental impact of our daily simple habit of [Internet] usage. We calculated the carbon footprint of the most popular four online services (TikTok, Facebook, Netflix, and YouTube) by using top-cited methods such those from Obringer, the Shift Project, Andrae, and Hintemann and Hinterholze. When comparing the emitted carbon dioxide, the weighted average of online video streaming usage per day is 51 times more than 14 h of an airplane ride. Netflix generates the highest CO2 emissions among the four applications due to its high-resolution video delivery and its number of users.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ The Surprising Biodiversity Hidden in the World’s Fragile Mangrove Forests

Finance

=> ↺ Rick Scott Panned for New Plan Pushing Tax Hikes on the Poor

• GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida came under fire Tuesday in response to his new 11-point “Rescue America” plan for if Republicans reclaim a majority of Senate seats—particularly its call to raise taxes on low-income Americans.

• “Scott… wants working families and seniors to pay more.”

=> ↺ Flags on the March!

• In January, the U.S. Consumer Price Index, generally known as the inflation rate, grew 0.6% for an annualized increase of 7.5%. That’s the highest rise in over 40 years. Though salaries have climbed almost as fast, especially among low-wage workers, the inflation increase has caused a political crisis for Democrats and the Biden administration. If, as seems correct, there’s an inverse ratio between gas prices and electoral success, Congressional Democrats face a drubbing in the 2022 midterms. And if they go down, the burden of preserving the republic will rest upon the hunched back and wobbly convictions of Joe Biden.

• There are of course things Biden can do about inflation: For example, he can crack down on price gouging by issuing executive orders to stop it.[1] He can encourage the Department of Justice to initiate anti-trust proceedings against fuel companies, drug companies, internet providers, agricultural commodity suppliers, and large landlords. And he can ask patriotic Americans to do their civic duty by not buying so many things – that will reduce prices too.

=> ↺ Over 100 Starbucks Locations Have Filed for Unionization

=> ↺ From the Kingpins of Private Equity, A New Dagger to Democracy

=> ↺ It’s Time for Young People to Demand a Solution to the Student Debt Crisis

• A common phrase said to the millions of young people that seek higher education is that “college is a ladder of upward mobility.” Unfortunately, from trade school to college, this ladder is sinking in a swamp of $1.7 trillion of student loan debt.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Indigenous Nations Allege New Maps in North Dakota Violate Voting Rights Act

=> ↺ Ocasio-Cortez Calls Out Tucker Carlson for His Dangerous “Libelous Harassment”

=> ↺ Redefining Chile Amid Intersecting Crises

• Many of the issues being debated by the members of the convention are specific to Chile yet would seem far too familiar to readers in the United States and elsewhere: How to reduce wealth inequality, respond to an enormous influx of undocumented migrants, reform a violent police force, protect freedom of expression in an increasingly surveilled society, and contend with climate change without disrupting vital economic growth. And how to build a new national identity based on confronting the amnesia that has allowed the atrocities of the past, particularly against people of color and indigenous nations, to be buried and forgotten.

• If this experiment in national redefinition is successful, it could serve as an inspiring model for countries around the world. But if voters were to reject these reforms, in a referendum due before the end of September, it would further erode Chileans’ confidence in democracy as a solution to the ills of a country that, like so many nations today, could succumb to the temptations of authoritarianism.

=> ↺ On “Legitimate Political Discourse”

• • Said “we’re going to take out country back” as they headed to physically assault the legislative branch of the US government.

• • Screamed “Hang Mike Pence” while invading the US Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.

=> ↺ Flushing Democracy

=> ↺ Supreme Court Rejects Trump Effort to Hide Jan. 6 Records

• The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped former President Donald Trump’s attempt to block the release of White House records to a congressional panel investigating last year’s deadly right-wing insurrection at the Capitol.

• The high court’s decision to formally reject Trump’s appeal comes just over a month after its near-unanimous order—with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting—paved the way for the National Archives to share more than 700 documents with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

=> ↺ When Socialists Govern

• Just over five years ago, when Leah McVeigh moved to Astoria, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, one of the first things she noticed about her apartment building was the dangerous intersection next to it. There were so many car crashes, she told me, that she learned to identify the sound of one: “There’s this specific crunch. And then quiet.”1

=> ↺ Trump Took 15 Boxes of Official Documents When He Left Office

• So why’d he take those boxes home? Well, here’s a strong suspicion: He meant to put stuff on display And charge a steep admission.

=> ↺ Who is Jamshid Sharmahd and what is the alleged US terror group ‘Thunder’?

• Tehran has carried out operations in Europe in recent years, including attempted assassinations, but illegally kidnapping someone in Europe seems to be a bridge too far for Iran. There was an attempted assassination of an Iranian-Kurdish dissident in June in the Netherlands.

=> ↺ EU to activate cyber response team to help Ukraine

• The EU’s cyber security team, established in 2019, has experts from Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

Misinformation/Disinformation

=> ↺ Why the Freedom Convoy is More American Than Canadian

• By many accounts, it seems as though the United States has exported its brand of toxic right-wing extremism across the northern border. Indeed, there are credible reports of Confederate American flags and swastikas being displayed by the Canadian protesters.

• Unsurprisingly, the so-called Freedom Convoy has also garnered outsized media attention in the United States, becoming a cause célèbre among domestic conservatives who see it as yet another front in the culture war around which to whip up frenzied hysteria and score political points.

=> ↺ No scientific basis for claims of ivermectin’s success in Uttar Pradesh, India

• Claims regarding the supposed success of ivermectin in preventing COVID-19 in India have been around for months, and have recently popped up again as India’s case numbers subside. India stopped recommending the use of ivermectin for management of the virus in September, citing a lack of scientific evidence of its benefits.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Trump’s Truth Social Bakes Section 230 Directly Into Its Terms, So Apparently Trump Now Likes Section 230

• When Donald Trump first announced his plans to launch his own Twitter competitor, Truth Social, we noted that the terms of service on the site indicated that the company — contrary to all the nonsense claims of being more “free speech” supportive than existing social media sites — was likely going to be quite aggressive in banning users who said anything that Trump disliked. Last month, Devin Nunes, who quit Congress to become CEO of the fledgling site, made it clear that the site would be heavily, heavily moderated, including using Hive, a popular tool for social media companies that want to moderate.

=> ↺ Killing free speech

• At that time too, media and civil society organisations had protested the contents of the law and warned that it would be used to curtail the space for free speech. The PTI government has now gone many steps ahead in making this draconian law even more restrictive; its scope has been broadened to include state institutions, like the military and judiciary, as aggrieved parties.

• The latest amendments give the authorities the powers to arrest anyone accused of promoting or broadcasting fake news. The courts will have six months to decide whether or not the complaint is genuine but during this period the accused is liable to remain in incarceration unless given bail. This means that anyone can be arrested by the authorities on vague charges. This can lead to wild accusations resulting in random detentions.

=> ↺ Muslim scholar against ‘wayang’, Indonesia’s traditional theatre

• According to a Muslim cleric, Indonesia’s traditional puppet theatre should be outlawed.

• “Wayang should be destroyed,” said Khalid Basalamah, when someone asked him what Islamic teaching said about this local tradition.

• Wayang is not just a form of entertainment. Young and old alike love to watch performances, which usually take place from midnight to dawn, also because of the folk wisdom and philosophical teachings they impart.

=> ↺ Mickelson apologizes for PGA, Saudi remarks, loses sponsor

• Author Alan Shipnuck released excerpts last week from his upcoming book about Mickelson, the US star calling the Saudis “scary” with a “horrible record on human rights.”

• “Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?” Mickelson said about the potential for joining the Saudi tour.

• “Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates,” he said. “They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse.”

=> ↺ Over two-thirds of UK social scientists warn their academic freedom is under threat, new study shows

• Academics have said their freedom is under threat with evidence suggesting one of the reasons for this concern is the effect of internationalisation including risks associated with the rising influence of authoritarian states such as China.

• Half of those who took part in a major new study said they felt their freedom to select teaching content was under threat. Half of politics and international scholars questioned said their freedom to conduct research was under threat, and 39 per cent said they thought institutional censorship was a problem.

• When asked if academic freedom was discussed in universities, 74 per cent of teaching and research said it was.

=> ↺ Lecturers admit self-censoring classes with Chinese students

• Academics are self-censoring to avoid causing offence to students from authoritarian states such as China, a new report has said.

• Two thirds said they believed that academic freedom was under threat in higher education and more than two fifths felt the same about their freedom to select teaching content.

=> ↺ UK scholars ‘more likely to self-censor’ when teaching Chinese students

• Forty per cent of academics specialising in China report self-censoring when teaching students from the nation, according to a survey looking at attitudes within universities on whether academic freedom is at risk from internationalisation.

• A new paper, published by academics from the universities of Exeter, Oxford and Portsmouth, presents the results of a survey distributed to 25,000 academics working in social sciences and humanities departments in UK universities and completed by 1,500 of them.

=> ↺ Is academic freedom at risk from internationalisation? Results from a 2020 survey of UK social scientists

• The question of the form that academic freedom takes and how it can be maintained in the context of the internationalisation of universities has become prominent in the UK in recent years. Both governmental and societal voices have raised concerns about perceived threats; however, much of the existing evidence is scattered and anecdotal. In October 2020, we distributed a survey in order to assess these issues. In this paper we report three main findings. First, UK social scientists express high levels of concern across a number of dimensions, from the effects of funding on research, to teaching content, to freedom of expression, and risks created by the online environment. Second, these concerns are somewhat greater in Politics, IR and Area Studies, suggesting that those disciplines which are most international in their content report greater risk. Finally, there appears to be demand for greater support. A majority of respondents did not know if guidelines existed in their department, and state that academic freedom was discussed infrequently or not at all. This suggests that institutional guidance and professional discourse have not kept pace with heightened concern. We find majority support for new legislation and even stronger support for a code of conduct.

=> ↺ How can US universities combat threat of teaching restrictions?

• National higher education leaders have voiced some protest against the developments but have largely left individual institutions to fight back as best they can, creating what Dr Friedman and other experts see as a rapidly normalising atmosphere of ideological attacks on basic academic freedoms.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ The Cypherpunks Mobilize to Save Julian Assange

• The prized object, which is part of an NFT collection called “Censored”, is not something one can take home, like, say, one of Louis XIV’s famous clocks; rather it’s a dynamic generative artwork that exists only in a digital format, changes daily, and was created with a very specific goal: to free Julian Assange through raising funds for his legal defense and raising awareness of the free-speech implications of his case.

• “Clock”, as its name suggests, does actually mark time—the number of days Julian has been incarcerated in high-security Belmarsh prison, that number being ONE THOUSAND THIRTY SEVEN days as of this writing, or so indicated the muted timer in uppercase white letters on a black background, blinking rhythmically, some have said, in sync with Julian’s heartbeat.

=> ↺ Journalists’ union challenges Peca ordinance in IHC

• The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) on Tuesday filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act Ordinance 2022.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ In Riverside County Jails, Organizing Against Repressive Conditions Takes Many Forms

• Denied meals, forced to endure painful restraints, and subject to retaliation for participating in hunger strikes when he was incarcerated inside Riverside County jails, Salvador Venegas took the law into his own hands when he filed a lawsuit pro se against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in August 2019. 

• Venegas, who is currently imprisoned in the SATF-CSP in California’s Central Valley, organized and participated in more than one hunger strike while detained in Riverside County (RivCo) between February 2014 and September 2020. In his capacity as a pro se litigant, he also crafted and filed multiple lawsuits against the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) and the county – four in federal and three in state courts.   

=> ↺ “Year of the Worker”: 2021 Saw Over 3 Million Strike Days With 140K Participants

=> ↺ LA Sheriff Threatens To ‘Subject’ City Council To ‘Defamation Law’ If They Won’t Stop Calling His Deputies ‘Gang Members’

• The man presiding over a law enforcement agency filled with gangs and cliques would prefer city officials stop referring to his employees as gang members.

=> ↺ Tapping Fortress Australia: Priti Patel’s Border Force Review

• During the Howard years, Downer served in the role of a position that has become all but irrelevant, outsourced as it is to the US State Department and the fossil fuel lobby.  It was during that time that Australia supercharged its draconian approach to refugees and border security, repelling naval arrivals and creating a network of concentration camps that has since been marketed to the world.  The UK Home Affairs Minister Priti Patel is positively potty for it but has only managed to adopt aspects of the “Australian model”, including the relocation of arrivals to offshore facilities and co-opting the Royal Navy in an intercepting role.

• Efforts to use third countries to process asylum claims have been frustrated, though Patel has opted for a legislative route in stymieing the process and limiting the settlement rights of unwanted migrants.  While she has authorised the use of push backs on paper, these have yet to take place and are the subject of a legal challenge by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and charity, Care4Calais.

=> ↺ She Said Her Husband Was Abusive. A Judge Took Away Her Kids and Ordered Her Arrest.

• After the judge in her Wisconsin divorce case ruled that her ex-husband — a man who had sought treatment for anger and alcohol issues — would get legal custody of and equal time with their four children, Julie Valadez vowed to fight back.

• But in every key ruling that followed, the Waukesha County Circuit Court judge overseeing her case, Michael J. Aprahamian, found Valadez’s concerns about her ex-husband not credible and her actions unacceptable. Aprahamian took away her ability to co-parent her children. He held her in contempt four times. And after Aprahamian ordered her arrest, she braced herself for jail.

=> ↺ ‘Huge Victory’: Colombian High Court Decriminalizes Abortion

• Women in Colombia are now free to seek abortion care without fear of criminal prosecution following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court on Monday—the result of years of campaigning by reproductive rights groups.

• “Today, women in this country have won.”

=> ↺ Redistricting Tactics Threaten to Suppress Black Representation in Louisiana

=> ↺ Sexual assault victim sentenced to 100 lashes, 7 years jail

• A Mexican woman who accused a Colombian man of sexually assaulting her while she was living and working in Qatar instead faces charges of engaging in an extramarital relationship, a crime that can be punished in the Middle Eastern country by up to seven years imprisonment and 100 lashes.

=> ↺ Women Workers Must Cover Up ‘Even With A Blanket’, Say Taliban

• Most women have been barred from their government jobs, since the Taliban retook power in August, though Afghanistan’s new rulers claim they will be allowed to return once some conditions are in place — such as segregated offices.

• On Tuesday, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a statement saying women should not go to work unless they were properly covered, and they could be fired if they did not follow guidelines

=> ↺ JUI-F opposes Aurat March, threatens to stop it with ‘baton’

• Aurat March, which was first held in Karachi in 2018, is now organised in numerous other cities across the country on March 8 every year to celebrate International Women’s Day and highlight the issues women face in Pakistan.

=> ↺ Bajrang Dal activist Harsha killed for supporting campaign against hijab, says Goa CM

• Sawant alleged that Harsha was killed by anti-nationals,anti hindu fundamentalists, for favouring the campaign against wearing hijab in educational institutes in the state.

=> ↺ Opinion | Divisions Among U.S. Evangelicals – The New York Times

• Readers discuss how racial and sexual issues and Donald Trump have led to strife and whether and how evangelicalism should be saved.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ 15 Years Late, The FCC Cracks Down On Broadband Apartment Monopolies

• A major trick dominant broadband providers use to limit competition is exclusive broadband arrangements with landlords. Often an ISP will strike an exclusive deal with the owner of a building, apartment complex, or development that effectively locks in a block by block monopoly. And while the FCC passed rules in 2007 to purportedly stop this from happening, they contained too many loopholes to be of use.

=> ↺ Submarine cable fault disrupts [Internet] services in Pakistan

• The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Tuesday said users of Trans World Associates (TWA), one of the two license holders for international landing stations of submarine cables, could face bandwidth disruptions due to a reported breakage in the company’s submarine cable system.

=> ↺ Local TV Giant Tegna Sold to Private Equity Firms in Megadeal

• Tegna owns 64 local TV stations in 51 markets and is the largest independent owner of NBC affiliates. The company was formed in 2015 when Gannett split itself in two, spinning out its TV station business as Tegna while retaining its legacy newspaper business.

• Following the close of the deal, Tegna stations in Austin (KVUE), Dallas (WFAA and KMPX) and Houston (KHOU and KTBU) are expected to be acquired by Cox Media Group, and Tegna’s over-the-top advertising platform Premion “is expected to operate as a stand-alone business majority owned by Cox Media Group and Standard General,” the companies said.

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Elon Musk Suggests That Piracy is Appealing Once Again

• The richest man on the planet tweeted a Pirate Bay-themed meme a few hours ago. Tesla CEO Elon Musk used the distracted boyfriend meme to suggest that paid streaming services have become a nightmare and that people are eying pirate alternatives instead.

=> ↺ Hollywood Wins Pirate Site Blocking Expansion in Australia

• Various Hollywood studios and Netflix are continuing their crusade against pirate sites Down Under. The companies have obtained a fresh blocking order at Australia’s Federal Court that requires local Internet providers to block dozens of websites. The targets mostly include streaming portals such as Soap2day, Yomovies, and 123movies.

=> ↺ Hollywood: PrimeWire Pirate Streaming Site is Defying Court Injunction

• A coalition of major Hollywood studios and Netflix is demanding urgent action from the court after streaming site PrimeWire defied a court order to stop distributing their movies and TV shows. The studios previously won a preliminary injunction which included an order preventing the transfer of PrimeWire domains. Just days later two domains were transferred and the infringement continues.

=> ↺ US Copyright Office Gets It Right (Again): AI-Generated Works Do Not Get A Copyright Monopoly

• For years, throughout the entire monkey selfie lawsuit saga, we kept noting that the real reason a prestigious law firm like Irell & Manella filed such a patently bogus lawsuit was to position itself to be the go-to law firm to argue for AI-generated works deserving copyright. However, we’ve always argued that AI-generated works are (somewhat obviously) in the public domain, and get no copyright. Again, this goes back to the entire nature of copyright law — which is to create a (limited time) incentive for creators, in order to get them to create a work that they might not have otherwise created. When you’re talking about an AI, it doesn’t need a monetary incentive (or a restrictive one). The AI just generates when it’s told to generate.

=> ↺ Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions ‘Actively Destructive To Video Game History’

• I’ve been banging on a bit lately about the importance of video game preservation as a matter of art preservation. It’s not entirely clear to me how much buy in there is out there in general on this concept, but it’s a challenge in this specific industry because much of the control over what can be preserved or not sits in the hands of game publishers and platforms compared with other forms of art. Books have libraries, films have the academies and museums, and music is decently preserved all over the place. But for gaming, even organizations like the Video Game History Foundation have to rely on publishers and platforms to let them do their work, or risk art being lost entirely to the digital ether or lawsuits over copyright. We’ve talked in the past about how copyright law is far too often used in a way that results in a loss of our own cultural history, and digital-only video games are particularly vulnerable to that.

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