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● 10.07.22

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Posted in News Roundup at 9:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Windows 11 Adoption Stats Less Than 3% of Machines – Make Tech Easier

• Windows 11 made quite a splash when it was released last year, but the stats say that it may not have been that big of a splash – more like just a toe dip in the water than a big belly flop. The stats say that while Windows 11 has been publicly available for the past year, only 2.61% of Windows machines are running it.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 13 Quick Tips to Make Linux File Manager Nautilus Even Better – Invidious

• Nautilus is GNOME’s default file manager application, and you may have seen it in many Linux distributions. It’s a good file manager with plenty of features. However, you can enhance your experience by employing some tweaks and tips. In this video, I share 13, actually 14 with the bonus, tips. Check them out and see which ones are suitable for you.

=> ↺ Stadias closure WILL impact Deck gamers! (Plus other Deck news) – Invidious

=> ↺ Why I Regret Buying the Steam Deck Reaction – Invidious

• 04:20 to 09:20 audio cut out totally my own doing and mistake I own that. I really got to remap that mute mic hot key. These are one takes and real first reactions to the videos so everything is left in mistakes and all. So another day another person giving their reason the Steam Deck is a regrettable purchase. Lets see if this one has some actual reasons or if its more full of stupid.

=> ↺ Linux Action News 261

• Our thoughts on IBM slicing up more of Red Hat, what stands out in Nextcloud Hub 3, and a few essential fixes finally landing in the Linux kernel.

=> ↺ First Insights: Deep Dive AI Podcast

=> ↺ pays to do this whitewashing

=> ↺ The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 974

• Joe slides in the two cheeseburgers.

=> ↺ Linux Hangout and Future Directions – Invidious

• Today we will return to our Thursday live show and talk about random topics and some future channel directions.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ iTWire – Linux bug in kernel version 5.19.12 said to damage Intel-based laptop panels

• Laptops which are built atop Intel’s 12th generation Core processors are affected by a bug in version 5.19.12 of the Linux kernel, according to a post from an Intel Linux engineer on Tuesday.

• Ville Syrjälä said in his post: “After looking at some logs we do end up with potentially bogus panel power sequencing delays, which may harm the LCD panel.”

• He suggested to Greg Kroah-Hartman, maintainer of the stable kernel line, that this be immediately reverted and a new stable release issued.

=> ↺ Pros and Cons of Using Btrfs Filesystem in Linux

•  Whenever you install Linux, you get to choose a file system, especially when you are manually partitioning your disk.

• The most common option is Ext4, which is used as default in many desktop Linux distributions. But, after Fedora took the plunge to use Btrfs as its default file system, many desktop Linux users switched to Btrfs.

• If you are one of them who want to switch to Btrfs, let me help you by listing the Pros and Cons of Btrfs as a file system. This will help you to decide whether to switch or not.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Differences between a thread and a process

• In this article, we will try to clarify the differences between an operating system process and a thread. But before jumping into the main disparities, we will first define what is the role of each of these operating systems’ important entities.

=> ↺ 10 ways to use the Linux find command | Enable Sysadmin

• Discover what you’re looking for, find misplaced data, and troubleshoot everyday problems with this handy Linux command.

=> ↺ How to Create User Manually in AWS Cognito (CLI) – TecAdmin

• Amazon Cognito is a user identity and access management solution that makes it easy for developers to create and manage user authentication, user data, and authorization for their mobile and web apps. In this article, we are going to see how you can create users in AWS Cognito using AWS CLI. Different services have different APIs so the syntax may be different than what you’re used to but don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with some great examples that are sure to get you up and running in no time. It’s super easy to get started with the AWS SDKs. Each service has its own unique commands – so let’s get started!

=> ↺ How to Change LibreOffice Language and Spell Check on Ubuntu

• If you want to use a different or additional language in LibreOffice, that language pack must be installed separately. In this tutorial, you will learn how to change the language for LibreOffice, and you’ll also see the steps for configuring the spell check feature to work with your language of choice.

• The steps below have been performed on Ubuntu Linux, but should also work on a variety of other Linux distros. The new language and spell check features will work for the entire LibreOffice suite: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, and Charts.

=> ↺ How to Install Ubuntu Linux in VMWare – It’s FOSS

• Software like VMWare gives an easy option to try and use Linux inside Windows. This article covers a step-by-step guide on installing Ubuntu inside VMWare in Windows.

• Virtualization is a good way to try Linux from the comfort of Windows. WSL and WSL2 might be easier but not everyone has access to them. And for a relatively better desktop experience, a VM is better.

• You may have to use Linux as part of the course curriculum, for some development tools (like Docker) or just for experimenting with Linux desktop before making the switch. VMWare and similar virtualization software can be of great help.

• You don’t have to make actual changes to the disk partition, no changes in the boot and Linux runs like any other application inside Windows.

=> ↺ How To Install Jenkins on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Jenkins on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration tool that helps to automate the software build, testing, and deployments involved in the software development process. It is a server-based application written in Java, and it typically runs as a background service on Windows or Unix machines. We use Jenkins to automatically monitor the repository for changes to our source code. As soon as someone pushes his/her changes to the central source code repository, Jenkins analyzes the new source files for changes.

• 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 the step-by-step installation of the Jenkins automation server on Rocky Linux. 9.

=> ↺ How to Mount ISO File in Linux – Linux Nightly

• To access the contents of an ISO file in Linux, you will need to mount it. In this tutorial, you will learn how to mount an ISO file using command line and GUI.

=> ↺ How to Remove Exif Data via Linux Command Line – Linux Nightly

• Images that contain Exif metadata may reveal when and where a photo was taken and with what device, among other things. While this is usually a desirable feature, it can also be a privacy concern if the images are going to be shared or published online. Exif data also helps inflate file size. In this guide, we’ll see how to remove EXIF data from JPG, JPEG, PNG, and other image files from the Linux command line.

• There are quite a few tools available that can remove Exif data, but one we’ve found to work very well is ExifTool. This program can strip Exif metadata without recompressing the image, so there’s no loss in quality. There are a variety of options that can be used with the program, such as exporting a new version of the image (without the Exif data) or simply resaving the image in-place. We’ll show you all the most useful commands below.

=> ↺ How to Use the Bash Sort Command

• “The Bash sort command is used to sort a file’s content and give output in the stdout. With sort, you can sort a file’s contents alphabetically, in reverse, numerically, ascending, or descending order. The sort command sorts a file’s contents line by line, and the input you give acts as the sort key. By the end of this guide, you will have an understanding of using the Bash sort command.”

=> ↺ How to add a local DNS entry on Linux

• In this short but interesting post, you will learn how to add a local DNS entry on Linux. Let’s get started.

• As we all know, DNS servers are responsible for translating IP addresses into a domain name easier to remember by humans. So, we don’t have to learn by heart IP addresses, but only the domain name associated with them.

=> ↺ How to install Guake Terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Linux

• Get the simple steps in this tutorial to install Guake Terminal on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish to run commands.

• Guake (based on Quake) is a Python-based terminal emulator. Guake behaves like the terminal at Quake: By a certain keystroke (hotkey) Q12 ) the window rolls down from the top of the screen and back in when the same key is pressed again. Furthermore, tabs are supported, changing the size (here height), the transparency of the window, and much more.

• It is a simple multimonitor terminal for GNOME Desktop Environment. It comes with Compiz transparency and shows animation. It gives tabs an environment and the names of tabs can be customized for ease of working. We can configure the automatic start of Guake Terminal at login along with some script that we want to execute.

• Guake provides 130 color palettes to customize the look and feel of the boring old black color terminal. Like other terminals, we can show and hide it by simply pressing a single key again and again.

=> ↺ How to install Hyper Terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Replace your default Gnome terminal by installing the Hyper Terminal app on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy JellyFish for more features and customization options.

• Hyper is an Electron-based Terminal emulator with a number of customization options, and that is your first priority, Hyper Terminal should be the best choice for you. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript this terminal app is more suitable for developers, and also has support for plugins to increase the productivity of the program.

• You can find a number of plugins in the Hyper Repository, and I am sure you will definitely find some of them useful for you. With support for ZSH, you can actually change the complete look and feel of the emulator and the support for various themes in some way or another can increase your productivity and workflow. Just give Hyper Terminal a try to unleash the full potential of a Terminal emulator.

=> ↺ What is KDE Connect? How Do You Use It? [Beginner's Guide]

• Technology evolves at a rapid pace. That includes the software, hardware and different form factor devices. The future is all about seamless integration and workflow across different devices. Every day, we are moving a little closer to a state where you send and receive data across all connected devices. And KDE Connect application is a flag bearer on Linux desktop systems.

• KDE Connect is an application developed by the KDE Desktop team that offers seamless connectivity between Linux System and any other system running Windows, macOS, Android or Linux. In this article, we explain what KDE Connect is, its main features, basic usage guide and installation steps.

=> ↺ Essential DNF Commands for Linux Users [With Examples]

• DNF (Dandified Yum) is a package manager used in RPM-based Linux systems (RHEL, Fedora, etc.). It is a successor of the Yum package manager (Yellowdog Update Modified). The DNF package manager is efficient in performance, memory consumption and dependency resolution issues.

• Here’s a easy to understand guide with common dnf commands for your reference. Take a look.

=> ↺ How to find your motherboard model and other hardware information in Linux

• Regardless of your motherboard’s manufacturer, a single command line tool makes it simple to find your hardware’s manufacturer, model, and more in Linux.

=> ↺ Most Common SSH Command Usage and Configuration in Linux

• In this guide, we will discuss the common use cases of SSH. We will also discuss commonly used SSH configurations that can be used in day-to-day life to boost your productivity.

• Secure Shell (SSH) is a widely adopted network protocol, which allows us to interact with remote hosts in a secure way. It provides security by encrypting all communication between them.

=> ↺ Configure Docker Daemon to Use HTTP Proxy

• Running Docker inside a semi-isolated corporate network.

=> ↺ Data visualization with Grafana and Telegraf – Zoltán’s Blog

• Few weeks ago we have decided to create a dashboard where we can monitor the status of the SUSE Linux Enterprise maintenance update queue. Naturally there are tons of cool open source solutions to build this type of monitoring. Two decades ago I probably would have written a Perl or Python based monitoring script for the monitoring part and use the good old gnuplot (http://www.gnuplot.info/) to visualize the data and create an active page written in some silly web UI framework. Let’s just say that luckily those times has passed.

• I have turned to the development team of the openQA and asked them what do they use for their monitoring system. It is a really good open source practice to use the technology what our friends are using so we can ask for help and we can later contribute to their projects.

=> ↺ Apply Linux Kernel Patches from LKML | Adam Young’s Web Log

• Linux kernel work can call for you to test out a patch set that someone has posted to the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML). If the patch sets are sufficiently long enough, you want to apply them all together, and not have to down load them individually. I recently worked through this, and here’s how I got things to work.

• For example, picking the top one (today) from LKML: [PATCH 0/8] MediaTek watchdog: Convert mtk-wdt.txt to dt-schema. I actually don’t care about this particular patch, but the process is the same.There is a link to this on the lore.kernel.org Webpage.

• Note that this title bar implies there are 8 patches (labeled 1 to 8) inside it, and a Patch labeled 0 which serves as the header to the whole patch set. When you try to apply the patch using git -am it is going to complain about that first one, but this is not a problem.

• If, like me, you tend to do development work on a system that is not your primary email client, you will want a way to download the patches directly to the target machine. I am going to use wget to fetch a patchset in its mailbox format using gzip compression. There is a link to the gz file at the bottom of the page. Scroll to the section that shows the thread.

Games

=> ↺ No more Steam Deck reservation queue — buy it now, plus Docking Station available

• The day is finally here. Valve has removed the reservation queue for the Steam Deck, so you can buy it right now. Additionally, the Steam Deck Docking Station is also now available.

=> ↺ Cassette Beasts is a wonderful take on monster catching

• It needs to hurry up and be 2023 so I can play the full game of Cassette Beasts, an upcoming monster catching / creature collection game from Bytten Studio and RawFury. Coming with full Native Linux support built with Godot Engine, it’s easily one of my biggest highlights from the ongoing Steam Next Fest, where it has a rather great demo available to play right now.

=> ↺ Dead Cells now has a Boss Rush mode if you like pain

• Love pain? Want to make your life difficult? Good news for you then as Dead Cells now has a fresh upgrade out with a Boss Rush mode so you can sweat against the toughest.

=> ↺ Formula Retro Racing – World Tour is a fresh upcoming low-poly racer

• Love your classic racing games with low-poly visuals? Keep an eye on Formula Retro Racing – World Tour which releases next year and has a demo available along with Native Linux support.

=> ↺ RimWorld – Biotech expansion announced and a big free update

• RimWorld is set to get even bigger with the upcoming Biotech expansion that releases in a few weeks, along with a major free update for all players.

=> ↺ SteamOS 3.3.2 and a Stable Steam Deck Client Update are out now, here’s what’s new

• SteamOS 3.3.2 and a Steam Deck Client Update are out now, pulling together all the recent Beta / Preview updates and putting them out for everyone. Here’s what’s new.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Screenshots/Screencasts

=> ↺ Xubuntu 22.10 Beta

• Today we are looking at Xubuntu 22.10 Beta. It comes with XFCE 4.16, Linux kernel 5.19, and uses about 900MB of ram when idling.

=> ↺ Xubuntu 22.10 Beta Run Through – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at Xubuntu 22.10 Beta. E

=> ↺ Linux Lite 6.2 RC1

• Today we are looking at Linux Lite 6.2 RC1. It comes with Linux Kernel 5.15, based on Ubuntu 22.04, XFCE 4.16, and uses about 500 – 900 MB of ram when idling.

=> ↺ Linux Lite 6.2 RC1 Run Through – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at Linux Lite 6.2 RC1.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ QEMU, Vim update in Tumbleweed

• Snapshot releases of openSUSE Tumbleweed were plentiful during the month of September with the rolling release delivering 27 snapshots out of 30 days in the month.

• Since last Friday, four snapshots have been released.

• Several libraries were updated in snapshot 20221003. An update of libva 2.16.0 was among those changed in the snapshot; the Video Acceleration Application Programming Interface for Linux simplified some mapping tables. Another library to update was libcap 2.66. This library made the Makefiles more robust to address an error and the package fixed some documentation typos. The links 2.28 package disabled the cache when following redirects from consent.google.com. An update of yast2-network 4.5.8 fixed an issue when writing the NetworkManager configuration without a gateway. The C library for parsing command line parameters, popt 1.19, fixed multiple resource and memory leaks. It also improved random number handling. There were several other packages to update in the snapshot including libbluray 1.3.3, tdb 1.4.7, python-cryptography 38.0.1 and more.

=> ↺ Understanding the benefits and cost savings of the SUSE and Intel Server Platform for SAP Environments

=> ↺ SUSE Launches its Inaugural Customer Awards at SUSE Exchange London and Munich

=> ↺ Multi-factor authentication on SUSE’s Build Service | SUSE Communities

• The Open Build Service (OBS) is a generic system to build and distribute packages from sources in an automatic, consistent and reproducible way. It makes it possible to release software for a wide range of operating systems and hardware architectures.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ EuroLinux Desktop Review: A Worthy Alternative to Ubuntu LTS?

• EuroLinux is a Polish company which has been developing open-source server OS and solutions for almost a decade, mostly in the Europe market. The company is also known for its Linux server operating system (OS) based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

• A couple of weeks back, the company introduced a desktop operating system based on RHEL – “EuroLinux Desktop”.

• Since few distros are available based on RHEL, I thought of giving it a spin and finding out how it is designed, its performance, etc. Moreover, the team markets the distro as “combines the look and functionality of Windows® and macOS® with the reliability and security of a server-based Enterprise Linux distribution”.

• EuroLinux desktop is free to download and install. However, you can buy the support if you are a small business owner or have other commercial needs. Here’s a detailed review of EuroLinux Desktop.

Debian Family

=> ↺ SparkyLinux 2022.10 Semi-Rolling Replaces LightDM with SDDM

• A new display manager, kernel 5.19, and two new themes are some of the features in the just-released update to the Sparky Rolling series.

• SparkyLinux is a Debian-based lightweight desktop-oriented Linux distribution that aims to be easy on system resources and can breathe new life into aging computers.

• The distro has two editions. The first is a regular point release based entirely on the stable Debian branch that adheres to the established pattern of releasing new versions over time.

=> ↺ Debian 12 Picks Up Ubuntu’s Triple Buffering Patch for GNOME

• Among some good news on the Debian 12 features, another exciting and useful change is now landed. The Triple buffering patch for the GNOME desktop from Ubuntu is now merged in Debian 12.

• The triple buffering code developed by Ubuntu, now lands in Debian 12 Bookworm unstable for GNOME and planned release on 2023.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ ODROID-Go Ultra Amlogic S922X portable gaming console and devkit launched for $111

• Hardkernel ODROID-Go Ultra (OGU) portable gaming console and devkit is powered by the same Amlogic S922X hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor found in the company’s ODROID-N2+ SBC. The new model also adds a 16GB eMMC flash for faster storage and increases the RAM capacity to 2GB.

• The Korean company’s adventure with portable gaming consoles started with the ESP32-based ODROID-Go to celebrate its 10th birthday in 2018. At the time it looked like a side project, but the console was popular enough that they released their first Linux handheld game console with the ODROID-Go Advance (OGA) in 2019, and then the ODROID-Go Super (OGS) in 2020 with a larger 5-inch display, and both equipped with a Rockchip RK3326 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor. The new ODROID-Go Ultra is based on the same design as the OGS model, but with a serious jump in performance, and the ability to support more demanding emulators.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Data ethics for computing education through ballet and biometrics

• For our seminar series on cross-disciplinary computing, it was a delight to host Genevieve Smith-Nunes this September. Her research work involving ballet and augmented reality was a perfect fit for our theme.

=> ↺ Cheekmate – a Wireless Haptic Communication System

• Social media is abuzz lately over the prospect of cheating in tournament strategy games. Is it happening? How is that possible with officials watching? Could there be a hidden receiver somewhere? What can be done to rectify this? These are probing questions!

• We’ll get to the bottom of this by making a simple one-way hidden communicator using Adafruit parts and the Adafruit IO service. Not for actual cheating of course, that would be asinine…in brief, a stain on the sport…but to record for posterity whether this sort of backdoor intrusion is even plausible or just an internet myth.

=> ↺ This tinyML-powered baby swing automatically starts when crying is detected | Arduino Blog

• No one enjoys hearing their baby cry, especially when it occurs in the middle of the night or when the parents are preoccupied with another task. Unfortunately, switching on a motorized baby swing requires physically getting up and pressing a switch or button, which is why Manivannan Sivan developed one that can automatically trigger whenever a cry is detected using machine learning.

• Sivan began his project by first gathering real world samples of crying sounds and background noise from an Arduino Portenta H7 and Vision Shield before labeling them accordingly in the Edge Impulse Studio. From here, he created a simple impulse which takes in time-series audio data and generates a spectrogram which is then used to train a Keras neural network model. Once fully trained, the model could accurately distinguish between the two sounds about 98% of the time.

=> ↺ Git Your PCBs Online

• Last time, I’ve shown you how to create a local Git repository around your PCB project. That alone provides you with local backups, helping you never lose the changes you make to your files, and always be able to review the history of your project as it developed.

=> ↺ Exploring The Cutting Edge Of Desktop ARM Hardware

• While the x86 architecture certainly isn’t going away anytime soon, it seems that each year more and more of our computing is done on ARM processors. It started with our smartphones, spread into low-cost Chromebooks, and now Apple’s gone all-in with their M1/M2 chips. But so far we haven’t seen too much movement in the desktop space, a fact which has arguably slowed the development of ARM-compatible software and operating systems.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Simple trick for all Android phone users that stops creepy trackers | The US Sun

=> ↺ Top 7 Reasons Why Android Is Better Than iPhones

=> ↺ Best 5 Encrypted Messaging Android Apps 2022

=> ↺ Google’s new Security & Privacy pane for Android is coming soon

=> ↺ The Pixel Watch might be Google’s Apple Watch, but is that what Android needs?

=> ↺ Galaxy S22 Series Gets Another Android 13 Beta Update

=> ↺ Samsung One UI 5.0 (Android 13) update and bugs tracker (cont. updated)

=> ↺ Sideloading apps could infect your Android phone with malware

=> ↺ Google Play system updates October: Android TV tweaks

=> ↺ Qt for Android Automotive 6.2.6

=> ↺ Android Auto bug preventing phones from pairing persists

=> ↺ Google launches watch, next generation of Pixel smartphones

• Google has launched its new line of Pixel smartphones, along with the first Pixel watch and earbuds.

• A tablet has also been mentioned in the launch literature but it has not yet been authorised as required from the US Federal Communications Commission or other regulatory bodies.

• The smartphone has two models, the 7 and the 7 Pro, which will both be powered by the Tensor G2 processor. Both will come with Android 13.

=> ↺ How to Compress Large Audio Files on Android – Make Tech Easier

• Have you ever tried to send a large file through WhatsApp or other messaging app to only get the message that it’s too big? It’s something that’s happened to almost everyone and can be very annoying if it’s something you need to send immediately.

• If the audio (or video) file you want to send goes over WhatsApp’s 64MB limit, the following apps can help you. They are easy to use, so you have nothing to worry about if you don’t get along with technology very well.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Metal-enriched silkworm silk is one of the strongest materials ever

• The resulting silks, depending on how they had been dissolved, had properties that exceeded those of natural silks. The researchers found that the average force the silks could receive without stretching (up to 2 gigapascals) was 70 per cent higher than the average value from natural spider silks (0.9 to 1.4 GPa). Its Young’s modulus – a measure of how easily it can stretch – was higher than any natural silk, meaning it is stiff rather than stretchy.

=> ↺ Building A Digital Library Of Amateur Radio And Communications

• For years the Internet Archive has provided the online community with a breathtaking collection of resources, out of print books, magazines, recordings, software, and any other imaginable digital asset in easily retrievable form. Now with the help of a grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation they are seeking to create a collection that documents amateur radio from its earliest days to the present.

=> ↺ A Poetic Invitation: 5 x 5

Science

=> ↺ Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

• Bertozzi, a chemistry professor and director of Sarafan ChEM-H on campus, shares the approximately $1 million prize with Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless Ph.D. ’68. Her research includes mapping cells through bioorthogonal reactions, discoveries crucial for health innovations, including cancer treatments alongside other applications.

Education

=> ↺ How underpaid are Hungarian teachers really in comparison with other tertiary graduates?

• Rotating strikes, vigils, demonstrations – protests in various forms have been ongoing since early September over the state of Hungary’s massively underfunded education system and the degradingly low pay and high workloads of teachers. The Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for education, has been trying to counter these with sackings and issuing warnings, which seem to be adding fuel to the fire. In this article, we will show exactly what it means that teachers earn very little, and how this compares with other professions and with salaries in other developed countries.

Hardware

=> ↺ Robot Blade Runner Turns In World Record Time

• While we wish colleges and universities competed more on academics, we can’t deny that more people are interested in their athletics programs. Oregon State, however, has done a little of both since their bipedal robot, Cassie, became the world’s fastest bipedal robot according to the Guinness Book of World Records. You can see a video of the 100 meter run below, but don’t blink. The robot turned in a time of around 25 seconds.

=> ↺ Immersive Cursive: Growing Up Loopy

• Growing up, ours was a family of handwritten notes for every occasion. The majority were left on the kitchen counter next to the sink, or in a particular spot on the all-purpose table in the breakfast nook. Whether one was professing their familial love and devotion on the back of a Valpak coupon, or simply communicating an intent to be home before dinnertime, the words were generally immortalized in BiC on whatever paper was available, and timestamped for the reader’s information. You may have learned cursive in school, but I was born in it — molded by it. The ascenders and descenders betray you because they belong to me.

=> ↺ Rubber Band Behemoth Winds Its Way Toward World Record

• Egged on by adoring fans who demanded more aircraft videos, [ProjectAir] has decided to break the world record for rubber band powered aircraft… despite having never built a rubber band powered aircraft. Why rubber band power?

=> ↺ Seven Segments, But Not As We Know Them

• We’ve seen a lot of clever re-imagining of the classic 7-segment display, and proving there is still room for something new is [Jack]’s 7-segment “DigiTag” display.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Mass shootings are far rarer outside the United States.

• From 1966 to 2012, Americans accounted for 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide, according to a 2016 study by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama. The study found that among countries with more than 10 million people, only Yemen had a higher rate of mass shootings per capita.

=> ↺ UMich to ban use of smokeless tobacco products, electronic nicotine delivery systems

• The ban comes in conjunction with The Great American Smokeout, an annual event that takes place on the third Thursday of November. Since 1997, the American Cancer Society has used the Smokeout to encourage people to quit smoking. The use of tobacco products will still be allowed in privately-owned vehicles on campus and on public sidewalks.

=> ↺ Judge dismisses Flint water crisis charges against former Michigan officials

• Seven former government officials faced felony charges tied to the Flint water crisis

• An earlier Michigan Supreme Court decision ordered the dismissal of the charges

• The dismissal was a result of prosecutors incorrectly using a one-person grand jury

=> ↺ Biden to pardon federal marijuana convictions

• President Joe Biden is issuing an executive order pardoning all Americans who have been federally convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana.

• The move will only affect a relatively small number of cannabis convictions since most occur at the state level.

=> ↺ Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law

• The pardons will not apply to people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. And officials said there are no people now serving time in federal prisons solely for marijuana possession. But the move will help remove obstacles for people trying to get a job, find housing, apply to college or get federal benefits.

• Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession, who vastly outnumber those charged under federal laws.

=> ↺ Biden pardons all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession in first major steps toward decriminalization

• And the President will task the Department of Health and Human Services and Attorney General Merrick Garland to “expeditiously” review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, the first step toward potentially easing a federal classification that currently places marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD.

=> ↺ Exclusive: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Used Covid Aid to Pay for a Border Wall

• Texas’s Governor Greg Abbott is a magician—or at least a skilled practitioner of three-card monte. In spring 2021, he declared southern Texas “a disaster area” overrun by marauding migrants, thanks to what he labels President Joe Biden’s “open border policies.” To stem the flow, Abbott launched Operation Lone Star (OLS), marshaling the Texas National Guard and state troopers to beef up security at the border with Mexico. He also tapped the OLS budget for his recent headline-grabbing scheme to bus 12,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago since last spring.

=> ↺ Hervé Guibert’s Last Laugh

• The 1990 publication of To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life—Hervé Guibert’s candid roman à clef about a fake AIDS vaccine—made the novelist, photographer, and AIDS victim both rich and famous. He gave interviews on national TV, and his toothsome blue-eyed face appeared in magazines and on affiches plastered across Paris. During the subsequent two years, Guibert made his proximity to death the subject of four more novels and a hospital diary. He also produced La Pudeur ou l’impudeur (Modesty or Immodesty), an hour-long home video in which he documents himself craning his arms into pajamas, shooting diarrhea, and play-acting a suicide attempt, as if bent on disarming and satisfying the tumescent sympathies of a liberal French middle class who had become perversely invested in watching him, their resident AIDS patient, perish in real time. In December 1991, a month before his video diary aired on the television network TF1, a botched suicide attempt and complications with the virus led to Guibert’s actual death at the age of 36.

=> ↺ Absence of Universal Health Care Can Be Traced to State Repression of Socialists

=> ↺ Opinion | Why We Can’t Have Nice Things—Like Socialism—in the United States

• Donald Trump has had the urge to crush many things, including the last election. So I must admit I found it eerily amusing that, when the FBI entered his estate at Mar-a-Lago recently, they did so under a warrant authorized by the Espionage Act of 1917. History certainly has a strange way of returning in our world and also of crushing alternatives. Whatever Trump did, that act has a sorry track record in both its own time and ours when it has been used, including by his administration, to silence the leakers of government information. And because my latest book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and America’s Forgotten Crisis, is about the crushing of alternatives a century ago in this country, in the midst of all this, I couldn’t help thinking about a part of our history that The Donald would undoubtedly have been the first to crush, if he had the chance.  

Proprietary

=> ↺ Former Uber exec convicted in [breach] cover-up

• A former Uber executive has been convicted on charges that he obstructed a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation involving two [breaches] of the company that happened in 2014 and 2016.

• A jury found Joe Sullivan guilty of obstruction of proceedings of the FTC and misprision of felony, which is taking steps to conceal a felony from authorities, on Wednesday after a four-week trial.

Pseudo-Open Source

Openwashing

=> ↺ French open-source cybersecurity startup CrowdSec raises $13.7M

• Founded in 2019, CrowdSec offers an open-source security engine that analyzes the behavior of internet protocol addresses. The company’s platform focuses on real-time threat detection, security automation, data breach prevention, reputation and behavior analysis to respond to attacks and share signals across the community.

Security

=> ↺ Top CVEs Actively Exploited by People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors

=> ↺ Microsoft Windows TCO (Microsoft tops the list; 4 out of 13 for “Remote Code Execution”)

• CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA) have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) providing the top Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) used since 2020 by People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actors. PRC state-sponsored cyber actors continue to exploit known vulnerabilities to actively target U.S. and allied networks, including software and hardware companies to illegally obtain intellectual property and develop access into sensitive networks.

=> ↺ Wladimir Palant: Scirge: When your employer mandates spyware

• I recently noticed Scirge advertising itself to corporations, promising to “solve” data leaks. Reason enough to take a look into how they do it. Turns out: by pushing a browser extension to all company employees which could be misused as spyware. Worse yet, it obfuscates data streams, making sure that employees cannot see what data is being collected. But of course we know that no employer would ever abuse functionality like that, right?

• [...]

• There is no point searching for Scirge in any of the extension stores, you won’t find it there. Each company is provided with their individual build of the Scirge extension, configured with the company’s individual Scirge backend. The extension is then supposed to be deployed “automatically using central management tools such as Active Directory Group Policy” (see documentation).

• This means that there are no independent user counts available, impossible to tell how widely this extension is deployed. But given any Scirge server, inspecting extension source code is still possible: documentation indicates that the Firefox extension is accessible under /extension/firefox/scirge.xpi and the Chrome one under /extension/firefox/scirge.crx.

• The stated goal of the browser extension is to look over your shoulder, recording where you log in and what credentials you use. The idea is recognizing “Shadow IT,” essential parts of the company infrastructure which the management isn’t aware of. And you would never use your work computer for private stuff anyway, right?

=> ↺ Blizzard tried to make it mandatory to have a phone for 2FA with Overwatch 2, and wasn’t allowing people with cheap prepaid plans to authenticate. 2FA is kind of dumb if you use text messaging. | BaronHK’s Rants

• Blizzard tried to make it mandatory to have a phone for Two Factor Authentication with Overwatch 2, and wasn’t allowing people with cheap prepaid plans to authenticate.

• This is all getting pretty nasty, and rather stupid. Pretty much the only point of requiring a phone for 2FA is to force everyone to get cell phones whether they need one or not.

• There’s an authenticator application for GNOME that’s FOSS and works pretty much the same way any other authenticator application does.

• But a lot of Web sites demand SMS text messaging, which isn’t even secure.

• Someone can get around it via SIM card cloning, which doesn’t happen with authenticators, which don’t need cell phones.

• It’s totally debatable how much actual security 2FA even adds.

=> ↺ When ‘experts’ speak, it’s best to state their affiliations upfront

• Whenever there is a network attack in Australia — what some commentators call “cyber attacks” carried out by “hackers” — dozens of well-known and not-so-well-known commercial operatives literally fall over themselves in a bid to try and gain some advantage from the disaster.

• As someone who reports on incidents of this kind with alarming regularity, one is often at the receiving end of singularly ill-informed missives, all striving to get a few lines in, just as long as their names are attached to those meaningless words.

• However, there is nothing wrong with this particular form of narcissism, provided proper disclosure is made, so that the public, our ultimate masters, know what is driving those comments.

=> ↺ iTWire – Maurice Blackburn files OAIC complaint over Optus data breach

• Law firm Maurice Blackburn has made a formal complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in connection with the data breach which the telco Singtel Optus experienced recently.

• The OAIC can order Optus to pay damages to customers affected by the leak which was disclosed on 22 September.

• The representative complainant is Macquarie University academic Sean Foley, one of the millions whose data was compromised, Maurice Blackburn said in a statement on Friday.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ LibreSSL 3.6.0 released

• We have released LibreSSL 3.6.0, which will be arriving in the LibreSSL directory of your local OpenBSD mirror soon. This is a development release for the 3.6.x branch, and we appreciate additional testing and feedback before the final release coming soon with OpenBSD 7.2.

=> ↺ LibreSSL 3.6.0 released

• Signalling another turn of the seasons, Brent Cook (bcook@) announced that a new release of LibreSSL is out. The announcement reads: [...]

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ The FBI Monitored Marilyn Monroe Over Suspected Communist Ties

• The root of the FBI’s interest in Monroe was her romantic involvement with Miller, which began as a secret affair but grew into a media spectacle. Miller was a politically involved individual, engaged with many of the Communist Party’s cultural and social front groups, a progressive American writer who staunchly opposed fascism. Suspicions were aroused that Monroe, too, might be a Communist, causing the FBI to escalate its tracking of her whereabouts and the monitoring of her political opinions. The US has always tried to brand itself as a country of freedom and individual autonomy, but the FBI was jailing Americans and censoring culture that didn’t fall in line with this branding. This is the story of how Marilyn Monroe was dragged into the world of anti-Communist hysteria.

=> ↺ Remove your personal info from the top 7 people search sites without charge

• Speaking of your home, your address is connected to your name all over the web – along with your age, cellphone or landline number, family members’ names, every address where you lived, and lots more. You should delete it, and I’ll show you how.

=> ↺ Google pays $85 mn to settle location tracking data lawsuit in US

• Earlier this year, the attorneys general of three states and the District of Columbia had sued the tech giant, alleging that Google pushed Android users with “repeated nudging, misleading pressure tactics, and evasive and deceptive descriptions” to share more information either “inadvertently or out of frustration”.

• The lawsuit built on the 2020 complaint filed by the Arizona Attorney General over location data collection.

=> ↺ Elton John and Prince Harry sue Daily Mail publisher over ‘privacy breach’

• Sir Elton John is among several public figures taking legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail over what they call “gross breaches of privacy”.

• The Duke of Sussex, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and actresses Sadie Frost and Elizabeth Hurley have also filed cases against Associated Newspapers Ltd.

• The company’s alleged activity includes having listening devices secretly placed inside people’s cars and homes.

=> ↺ A National Lab Is Promoting a “Digital Police Officer” Fantasy for Law Enforcement and Border Control

• The research team is based out of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a facility managed by the corporation Battelle on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy. They have commissioned concept art and published articles in magazines aimed at law enforcement leaders, EFF has learned through a review of materials, including records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ ISIS infiltrated a refugee camp to recruit fighters. Inside the Biden admin’s plan to stop it.

• The Biden administration has enacted a new plan to reduce the population of a sprawling refugee camp near the Iraq-Syria border that has become a haven for the Islamic State terrorist group to recruit members, plot a comeback and carry out some of its most brutal tactics — including the torture and sexual abuse of women and girls — according to five senior administration officials.

=> ↺ Man gets 4 years for plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer

• Kaleb Franks, 28, is the second person sentenced in the plan to abduct Whitmer, a Democrat, which the government has said was orchestrated by anti-government extremists.

• He pleaded guilty to kidnapping conspiracy in February and cooperated with prosecutors, testifying at a trial in August that resulted in the convictions of two men accused of being the ringleaders, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.

=> ↺ ACTION ALERT: NYT Celebrates Neo-Nazi Azov Unit

• Three years ago, describing an Australian white supremacist charged with massacring 49 people in New Zealand, the New York Times (3/15/19) wrote: “On his flak jacket was a symbol commonly used by the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary organization.”

=> ↺ Walking a Tightrope on Ukraine: How India Is Balancing Ties to Russia & United States

• India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call on Tuesday that he will help peace efforts with Russia, just days after India abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the Russian annexation of four regions in Ukraine. We speak to the prominent Indian activist Kavita Krishnan about the different stances of India’s political parties toward the war in Ukraine and the interrelated struggles against authoritarianism in countries such as Iran and India. India’s foreign policy is currently like “walking a tightrope,” says Krishnan. “It would like to have a relationship with Russia. At the same time, it wants to build a bridge with America.”

=> ↺ Russian conscripts buy their own gear and essential medications. The government will not reimburse them. — Meduza

• Russians conscripted during mobilization are forced to buy their own military gear, since the army does not supply even the basics they will need when sent to the front. The Russian government website “We Explain,” set up to answer questions about current laws and regulations, has posted an article, which says that conscripts should not expect reimbursement for their expenses.

=> ↺ A group of armed Russian soldiers fled from Kherson to Ukraine — Meduza

• A group of Russian soldiers escaped from the military unit of the Cossack detachment Don, located in annexed Kherson, and are currently wanted in Russia. Photographs of wanted posters were published on Telegram channels and social media, including on the Telegram of Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Honcharenko. 

=> ↺ Zelensky calls on NATO to launch a preemptive strike to prevent Russia from using nuclear weapons — Meduza

• Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky announced that NATO should preemptively strike Russia, in order to “exclude the possibility of use of nuclear weapons by Russia.” He did not specify whether he had in mind a preventative nuclear strike or the use of conventional weapons.

=> ↺ Multiple sources deny a story about 13 armed men escaping from Kherson — Meduza

• The Rostov-on-Don publication 161.ru managed to contact people who were mentioned in a “wanted poster” about 13 armed soldiers who had escaped from Kherson to Crimea, which circulated widely on social media on October 6.

=> ↺ Not Even Nuclear War Will Stop the Fighting in Ukraine

• We live in extremely dangerous times. It feels like August 1914, and the world’s leading actors are playing a game in which not everyone understands the rules.

=> ↺ Do Sanctions Work?

• In October 1935, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini launched an invasion of Ethiopia, designed to satisfy long-standing Fascist ambitions for a neo-Roman empire of conquest in Africa. Having had ample warning of Italian designs on Africa’s last uncolonized state, officials in the British and French finance ministries had already drawn up elaborate plans to deploy what they called “the economic weapon” against a major European power launching an unprovoked war of aggression. Fearful of the consequences of direct military confrontation, they opted instead for a more clinical approach: cutting off Italy’s ability to purchase crucial imports of food and fuel by blocking its access to credit and refusing to purchase its exports. Under the auspices of the League of Nations, some 52 countries—including, crucially, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin—joined an international effort to poleax Italy’s rampaging war economy.

=> ↺ War or Peace Is the Most Neglected Issue on the November Ballot

• America has had elections where questions of war and peace were definitional. That was certainly true in 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson campaigned and won on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War.” It was very much the case in the 1968 and 1972 Democratic presidential primaries, when peace candidates Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern disrupted the status quo with campaigns that objected to the Vietnam War. And as recently as the 2006 midterm elections, Democrats channeled frustration with the ongoing Iraq War into major victories in the fight for control of Congress.

=> ↺ One from a ‘blood clot,’ another by suicide The Russian conscripts who died without going to war — Meduza

• Since the start of Russia’s current mobilization, new conscripts have complained about their living conditions prior to being dispatched to the front. Newly drafted soldiers are routinely sent to Ukraine without adequate training, essential gear, or even warm clothing. What’s even more alarming is the number of deaths that occur among these new conscripts even before they leave their home country. We have compiled stories from across Russia that have emerged to date.

=> ↺ Russian Federation Council Speaker calls for Ukraine to enter negotiations ‘today’ at G20 summit — Meduza

• At the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit summit in Indonesia on Thursday, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko proposed to Ukraine’s delegation that the two countries begin peace negotiations “today.”

=> ↺ Pavel Durov criticizes WhatsApp as a ‘surveillance tool.’ Hackers can gain full access to the phone, he says. — Meduza

• Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram messenger and the social network VKontakte, described a new vulnerability discovered last week in WhatsApp. On his Telegram channel, Durov wrote that hackers would only need to send a malicious video or make a video call to gain full access to the targeted phone.

=> ↺ ‘Together in electric dreams’ Journalist Nikolay Ovchinnikov explains how Russian music is coping with the war — Meduza

=> ↺ Patriarch Kirill calls for two days of ‘zealous’ birthday prayers for Putin — Meduza

• The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill blessed the Orthodox bishops, clergy, monastics, and all the faithful to offer their “zealous home prayers” for the health of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on October 7, his seventieth birthday.

=> ↺ Judge’s Ruling Puts New York Gun Control Efforts on Path Back to Supreme Court

• Judge Glenn T. Suddaby of the state’s Northern District ruled that large portions of the law which went into effect last month in New York, making “sensitive” places including New York City’s crowded Times Square, parks, and theaters “gun-free zones,” were unconstitutional.

=> ↺ Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza charged with treason — Meduza

• Russian authorities have opened a new criminal case against jailed opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, RT reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed source. The politician reportedly stands accused of treason.

=> ↺ Russian lawmakers ask Attorney General to address military supply shortage — Meduza

• Russian State Duma Defense Committee head Andrey Kartapolov and Security Committee head Vasily Piskarev have submitted a letter to Attorney General Igor Krasnov asking him to find a solution to the supply problems plaguing the country’s military, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

Environment

=> ↺ Princeton Activists Just Won a Historic Victory for Climate Research

• In addition to fully divesting the endowment of fossil fuels, Princeton will also reject gifts and grants from 90 companies involved in the coal and tar sands sectors of the fossil fuel industry, including current research funders ExxonMobil, Syncrude, and Total E&P. This is a departure from typical divestment decisions. Dissociation has only ever been used twice before at Princeton: to combat apartheid in South Africa in 1987 and in protest of the Darfur genocide in Sudan in 2006.

=> ↺ Opinion | Experts Say Climate Crisis Made Hurricane Ian $10 Billion More Destructive

• Although the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season is far from over, it is already leaving a lethal legacy.

Energy

=> ↺ ‘Flying Blind’: Analysis Shows World’s Biggest Polluters Hide Climate-Related Financial Risks

• Carbon Tracker, which assesses how fossil fuel companies are financially adapting to the climate emergency, revealed in Still Flying Blind: The Absence of Climate Risk in Financial Reporting that 98% of 134 companies did not show that they’d considered the impact of climate matters when compiling yearly financial statements.

=> ↺ Michigan lands two more EV battery plants, bringing up to 4,000 jobs

• The new plants, valued at $4 billion, will be located near Big Rapids and in western Wayne County. Previously announced projects by General Motors and LG Energy Solutions would be near Lansing and Holland. Collectively, the four projects could add about 7,300 new advanced-manufacturing jobs and an estimated EV battery investment of $8.5 billion to the state.

=> ↺ Prime Minister Liz Truss Accepted £5,000 From Climate Denial Funder

• Lord Nigel Vinson made the donation towards transport costs for Truss’s campaign, according to the latest register of MPs’ financial interests out this week, which covers donations in the month up until October 3.

=> ↺ After Dumping $15 Billion Into Fossil Fuels, World Bank Urged to Stop ‘Investing in Climate Disaster’

• “The Earth is on fire and the World Bank is one of the biggest arsonists in disguise.”

=> ↺ World Bank Continues Financing Fossil Fuels Despite Climate Crisis

• The report analyzed the financial flows from the World Bank in recent years, and identified the top 10 fossil fuel projects moving forward with the help of the development bank. In the list’s number-one spot is the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), a long-distance gas pipeline that runs from Azerbaijan through Turkey, moving gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea throughout southern Europe.

=> ↺ Sanders Calls for End to Military Aid to Saudi Arabia Amid OPEC Production Slash

=> ↺ After OPEC Move, Sanders Says US Must ‘Eliminate Military Assistance to Saudi Arabia’

• In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) denounced the Saudi-led OPEC cartel over its “blatant attempt to increase gas prices at the pump,” which he said “cannot stand.”

=> ↺ Opinion | EVs and the Green Grid to Power Them Are the Best Response to OPEC

• In a major blow to President Joe Biden, on Wednesday, OPEC+ took steps toward cutting the oil production of the members by 2 million barrels a day. Jackie Northam at NPR reports the views of analysts who believe that Saudi Arabia and Russia drove the decision in order to get prices back up over $100 a barrel. Oil prices have fallen consistently since last spring when the price touched $120 a barrel on the Brent Crude Exchange, to only $93 a barrel today. It had been as low as $88 a barrel in recent days, but news of the OPEC decision sent prices higher.

=> ↺ Riyadh sends a signal Will OPEC’s production cuts save the Russian economy? — Meduza

• On October 5, the 24 countries that make up OPEC+ reached a deal to cut oil production by two million barrels a day in a bid to bring prices back up amid a weak global economy. The news caused the price of Brent crude oil to increase to more than $93 a barrel. To find out whether this portends the failure of the West’s anti-war sanctions, Meduza spoke to Institute for Energy and Finance president Marcel Salikhov.

=> ↺ Fury Over Privatized Grid Grows as Tens of Thousands Still Without Power in Puerto Rico

• “We are going to be here, every day, until the town of Ponce has electricity.”

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Plundering Wilderness for ‘Financial Certainty’

Overpopulation

=> ↺ California offers to cut back Lake Mead water use amid drought

• California is, for the first time in a series of negotiations, offering to cut back its use of water from Lake Mead next year.

• California on Wednesday offered to conserve 400,000 acre-feet, or 130 billion gallons, of water from Lake Mead annually from 2023 through 2026.

Finance

=> ↺ ‘Puerto Rico Has Become a Microcosm for the Worst Kind of Capitalist Ideas’

• Janine Jackson interviewed Center for Popular Democracy’s Julio López Varona about Puerto Rico colonialism for the  September 30, 2022, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

=> ↺ Starting ‘not tomorrow, but today,’ Lukashenko orders price freeze in Belarus — Meduza

• The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko ordered a price freeze across all business sectors, beginning on October 6. Belta reports Lukashenko’s announcement at today’s meeting with the economic segment of his government:

=> ↺ Our Democracy Was Stolen A Long Time Ago w/ Chris Hedges and Jimmy Dore

• “American democracy has been steadily eroding since the Reagan administration, Hedges says, and if you think Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene is what killed democracy you have not been paying attention.”

=> ↺ IMF Urged to Unlock $650 Billion for Poor Nations Facing Crises ‘Unprecedented in Human History’

• In a letter sent ahead of the IMF’s annual gathering in Washington, D.C. next week, the organizations specifically urged the U.N. agency’s leadership to support a “major new general issuance of at least $650 billion worth of debt-free Special Drawing Rights,” an international reserve asset that can be exchanged for dollars and other currencies.

=> ↺ Opinion | For Our Kids and Our Future, We Must Fight to Extend the Childhood Tax Credit

• I like to think I’m an American success story.

=> ↺ Trump Erased Millions of Possible PPP Fraud Flags in Last Days in Office

=> ↺ US Jobless Claims Jump as Fed Shoves Economy to ‘Precipice of Global Recession’

• For the week ending October 1, total initial jobless claims were 219,000, more than analysts expected and up from 190,000 the previous week. The weekly increase in unemployment applications was the largest since June, according to the new federal numbers, though the job market remains strong overall for the time being.

=> ↺ Democrats Push to Lift Ban on Student Loan Bankruptcy Relief

• “This legislation updates the federal bankruptcy code to ensure student loan debt is treated like almost every other form of consumer debt.”

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ US kills 3 Islamic State leaders in 2 Syria operations

• U.S. officials say U.S. forces killed three senior Islamic State leaders in two separate military operations in Syria Thursday, including a rare ground raid in a portion of the northeast that is controlled by the Syrian regime

=> ↺ How the Stolen Election Myth Helped Shaped Wisconsin Voting

• A group of phony electors tried to claim the state’s electoral votes for Donald Trump. Wisconsin’s top lawmaker launched a yearlong inquiry led by a lawyer spewing election fraud theories. And its courts heard numerous suits challenging the integrity of the 2020 election and the people administering it.

=> ↺ British Prime Minister Liz Truss Is No Margaret Thatcher

• British Conservative Party conferences normally give their leaders unadulterated adulation, but these are far from normal times in the land of hope and glory. The delegates did their best to put on a show of loyalty in Birmingham when Prime Minister Liz Truss made her maiden speech, but it can’t have been easy with the party hitting record lows in the polls after the turmoil of the past two weeks. She was wise to leave the hall hurriedly before the applause subsided.1

=> ↺ Opinion | Hello, Fascism. And How Long Will You Be Staying?

• The telegenic star of Europe’s far right, Giorgia Meloni, released a video last August that was designed to dispel all the fears that Europeans were voicing about the potential “return of fascism” to Italy. Meloni’s short speech was a triumph of misdirection.

=> ↺ Nearly 300 Republican Midterm Candidates Embrace Trump’s Big Lie, Analysis Finds

=> ↺ New Poll Shows Lauren Boebert and Dem Challenger Are Statistically Tied

=> ↺ Small-Donor Giving to Fetterman Drives Record $22 Million Fundraising Haul

• Fetterman’s fundraising “shattered” the campaign’s second quarter total, which stood at $11 million—another record-breaking sum at the time.

=> ↺ Fetterman Calls Biden Marijuana Pardons and Reforms a ‘BFD’

• “I don’t want to hear any bullshit from Dr. Oz or any Republican conflating decriminalizing marijuana with seriously harmful crime.”

=> ↺ ‘Next Up? Legalize It’: Advocates Cheer Biden Move to Pardon Marijuana Convictions

• U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon issued a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” to people convicted of simple federal marijuana possession.

=> ↺ ‘Next Up? Legalize It’: Advocates Cheer Biden Move to Pardon Marijuana Convictions

• This must be the first of many steps to ending our decades long failed policies on marijuana.

=> ↺ Court Error Exposes Judge Aileen Cannon’s “Obvious” Trump Sympathy

=> ↺ Beyond First Aid

=> ↺ 11th Circuit Court Grants Expedited Review on Special Master in Trump Docs Case

=> ↺ Unauthorized Disclosure: Zoe Alexandra

=> ↺ Meet the Censored: Katie Halper

• The “Useful Idiots” co-host is dismissed from The Hill, which is a little too frank about the reason.

=> ↺ Opinion | Now Is the Moment for Global Solidarity with China’s Ethnic Minorities

• President Xi Jinping is on the verge of securing an unprecedented third term as the leader of the world’s most populous country, the People’s Republic of China. On October 16th, the Communist Party congress will declare Jinping as China’s ruler for an additional five years. Such congresses typically bring in a new batch of rulers but Xi, who is also head of state and leader of the military, amended the party constitution in 2018 to remove all term limits on the presidency, effectively making him China’s self-appointed forever-leader.

=> ↺ Opinion | How Can We Transcend the “Morality Police”?

• I’ve been haunted by a phrase for almost a month now: “morality police.”

=> ↺ Immigrant Rights Advocates Tell Congress to ‘Step Up’ After Court Declares DACA Illegal

• “DACA recipients can’t continue living court ruling to court ruling.”

=> ↺ The Supreme Court May Well Legalize Election Theft This Term

• The court’s rulings in two cases could drive a dagger through the heart of the democratic process.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Letter to Editor: Social media movements against China, Russia’s disinformation campaigns

• Most tend to think of information warfare from the perspective of government versus government. However, the constantly evolving dynamic of the internet ecosystem means that state actors usually fail to catch up. This is when online communities like NAFO come into play.

=> ↺ Conspiracy Channel OAN Tries To Survive Using Over The Air Antennas

• When last we checked in with One America News (OAN), it was trying (with the help of numerous Republican AGs) to pretend that DirecTV’s decision to boot the barely watched conspiracy network from its cable lineup was part of a vast, diabolical cabal to censor conservatives (it wasn’t). It then decided to attack Verizon, right before that cable provider kicked it to the curb as well.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ The censor cannot hold: The pressure of controlling China’s internet

• Some imagery was always off limits: pictures of tanks, candles or yellow umbrellas — a symbol of protest in Hong Kong — along with any criticism of President Xi Jinping and other Communist Party leaders, according to Zeng.

• He said guidance was handed down to ByteDance from the Cyberspace Administration of China, but supplemented by the company itself, ever wary of overstepping purposefully vague rules.

=> ↺ Trump Sues CNN Yet Again And It’s As Dumb, If Not Dumber, Than His Previous Failed Lawsuits Against CNN

• I’m only a human being, and not a machine, so it’s beyond my ability to keep track of all the times that Donald Trump has threatened to sue CNN for defamation, or actually carried through, on his threat. I will just note that it seems to happen a lot. None of these lawsuits have actually been successful in terms of winning the litigation. As always, they get tossed out. They appear to be fairly obvious SLAPP suits, designed to (1) cause pain to CNN by being costly and time consuming to defend and (2) convince his extremely gullible base of supporters that he’s “fighting” the evil media.

=> ↺ A website launched by the staff of Ekho Moskvy has been blocked in Russia — Meduza

• Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor, has restricted access to the site Ekho, a project of former employees of the radio station Ekho Moskvy, according to the Ekho Telegram channel.

=> ↺ Court’s Decision Upholding Disastrous Texas Social Media Law Puts The State, Rather Than Internet Users, in Control of Everyone’s Speech Online

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Activist Saturday

• On Saturday we try to put Hands Around Parliament in opposition to the extradition of Julian Assange. Human chains are being formed in support internationally in many different countries.

=> ↺ Mark Fiore: Extradition Threatens Julian Assange (and Press Freedom)

• With Julian Assange facing extradition to the United States, we’ll likely be hearing more about his case and see more protests around the world very soon. His legal battle against extradition from the UK to the United States has been winding its way through the British courts for months. […]

=> ↺ iTWire – Crowds to gather on Saturday to press for Assange freedom

• Supporters of jailed WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange will be staging protests on Saturday to call for his release.

• A human chain will start on Princes Bridge, Southbank, in Melbourne at 11am on Saturday and those who gather will be addressed by Assange’s brother and father, Gabriel Shipton and John Shipton, respectively at 12.30pm. The protesters will then march to Government House.

• In London, there will be a human chain around Parliament starting at 1pm UK time; a total of 3600 people have registered to take part.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Iran protests: What happened on Zahedan’s ‘Bloody Friday’?

• Iranian security forces have massacred over 80 people in the southeastern city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, in a crackdown on protests that erupted as Iran is convulsed by nationwide demonstrations, rights activists charge.

• President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the unrest that started on September 30 after Friday prayers, which officials have characterised as attacks by “extremists” on police stations.

• Activists however say the horrifying images of bloodied corpses with bullet wounds are emblematic of Tehran’s repressive polices towards a poor ethnic minority region.

=> ↺ A Whole Generation Revolts Against the Iranian Regime

• The protesters were not chanting in support of the revolution that turned Iran into a theocracy in 1979, but against an Islamic Republic that oppresses its people at home and wields power well beyond its borders. They were singling out a foreign government that upholds dysfunctional political systems in other countries so that it can manipulate them to its advantage and deploys proxy militias that mete out violence from Baghdad to Beirut against those who rise in opposition to Tehran’s dark worldview. The protests in Lebanon, which were only partially focused on Iran, were taking place just as Iraqis were marching through the streets across their country, openly protesting Iran’s stranglehold over their politics, their economy, and their clerical establishment. Meanwhile, Iranians, angered by an increase in fuel prices, were chanting “Death to the dictator” and setting dozens of government sites on fire.

=> ↺ “Complete Dissatisfaction with the Current Order”: Why Mahsa Amini Protests in Iran Are Not Slowing Down

• Protesters in Iran are continuing to demand justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the hands of the so-called morality police, as well as envisioning a political future beyond the Islamic Republic. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights estimates at least 154 people have been killed since the protests began. “We saw women, really, what it seemed like for the first time, putting their bodies in direct confrontation with the police,” says Nilo Tabrizy, writer and video journalist at The New York Times. “Today’s movement is not calling for reform. Today’s movement is calling for a new vision of politics … with women at the helm of it,” says Narges Bajoghli, professor of anthropology and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.

=> ↺ In Iran, Feminists Rise Up to Imagine “What Comes After the Islamic Republic”

=> ↺ ‘The Onion’ filed a real brief with the Supreme Court supporting man jailed for making fun of cops

• When was the last time you’ve read an amicus brief? If you’re not involved in the legal profession, chances are you may have never actually spent precious time reading one. This amicus brief (PDF) could change that. It was submitted by The Onion, which describes itself in the brief as “the world’s leading news publication” with “4.3 trillion” readers that maintains “a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires.” In addition to running a highly successful news publication, The Onion said it “owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily.” Oh, and its motto is “Tu stultus es.” That’s “you are dumb” in Latin.

=> ↺ California Governor Signs Bill Forbidding The Use Of Rap Lyrics As Criminal Evidence

• Rap music has long conveyed the narrative of the streets. As such, its subject matter often details violence, police oppression, and criminal activities. And the expression itself often provides the only legitimate potential source of income for people living in impoverished, high-crime areas.

=> ↺ In California, Prisoners Organize Program To Confront Patriarchy And Toxic Masculinity

• “It is true that masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways that patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving,” hooks writes in the 2004 edition of the book. “To know love, men must be able to let go of the will to dominate. They must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change.”

=> ↺ Poll Conducted Before Walker Abortion Report Shows Warnock Leading by 12 Points

=> ↺ At Least 66 Clinics in 15 States Have Ended Abortion Care Post-Dobbs

• “An already precarious abortion access landscape is likely to continue to deteriorate.”

=> ↺ Uganda named worst digital rights violator

• At last week’s Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2022, in Lusaka, Zambia, Uganda drew unwelcome criticism. Speaker after speaker described the east African country as the worst global example of a digital rights violator.

• The country’s recently passed ‘regressive’ Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill, 2022 with a clause that criminalizes ‘misuse of social media, the passed and repealed social media tax, and the pre and post-election internet shutdowns shored up Uganda’s reputation as the worst example of an abusive regime of its citizens’ rights online.

• It’s coming close to two years since the government shutdown Facebook ahead of the January 14, 2021 elections on suspicion of promoting then opposition candidate Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform and in retaliation against the platform’s shutdown of over 220 accounts conspicuously created by the ministry of ICT to shore up President Yoweri Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s popularity.

• Access to the entire internet was blocked for nearly a week while access to other social media platforms was restored after a month. From Ghana MP Samuel Nartey George; Abigail Mpabwa Bridgman of Meta (Facebook) Oversight Board; Jillian York, the director for International Freedom of Expression; Victor Ndede from Amnesty International Kenya; Cecilia Maundu of International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT); Felicia Anthonio of Access Now and Moses Gowi from Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), all condemned the continued blockade, saying it infringes on the citizens’ rights.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Telecom Experts Tell EU Leaders Their Plan To Tax ‘Big Tech’ On Behalf of ‘Big Telecom’ Is A Dumb Idea

• Last year we noted how FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr had launched a bad faith effort suggesting that “big tech” gets a “free ride” on the internet, and should be forced to fund broadband expansion. This argument, that tech giants like Google and Netflix somehow get a free ride (they don’t) and should “pay their fair share” to fund broadband expansion is a 20 year old AT&T lobbyist talking point.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Apple wins 728-mn-euro cut to France antitrust fine

• France’s competition authority levied the fine — its biggest ever — after concluding that the firm squeezed independent sellers of Apple products as it tried to push buyers towards its own stores and preferred retailers.

• But the Paris appeal court revised the decision and knocked 728 million from the fine, meaning Apple still faces having to pay 370 million euros.

=> ↺ Apple Leads Smartphone Industry Into Anti-Consumer, Environmental Hell

Trademarks

=> ↺ Authentic Brands Group Behind Another Silly Parent, Child Trademark Dispute

• We’ve talked about Authentic Brands Group here a couple of times and never for good behavior. The company that manages the rights for several living and deceased celebrities is also a notorious trademark troll and enforcer. Most recently we discussed a bizarre trademark opposition brought against Shaqir O’Neal, Shaq’s son, who had the trademark application for Shaqir’s name opposed by ABG… on behalf of his father Shaq.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Pornhub Sees DMCA Notices Vanish After Enabling Uploader Verification

• Pornhub has discovered the ‘holy grail’ to combat piracy on user-generated content sites. This remarkable achievement is exemplified by a historic 98% drop in DMCA removals. All that it took was the mandatory verification of uploaders’ identities. An impressive result that won’t go unnoticed by some of the largest media companies in the world.

=> ↺ There Are All Sorts Of Problems With Ruling That YouTube Ripping Tool May Violate Copyright Law

• There are a number of different tools out there that let you download YouTube videos. These tools are incredibly useful for a number of reasons and should be seen as obviously legal in the same manner that home video recording devices were declared legal by the Supreme Court, because they have substantial non-infringing uses. But, of course, we’re in the digital age, and everything that should be obviously settled law is up for grabs again, because “Internet.”

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Low, Grinding Buzz

• A perpetual rumble is the grey backdrop of the street below our apartment. It is the sound of constant motoring. Even if no car or motorcycle or scooter is passing, it exists. The impression the flow of machines across my consciousness has made over the seeming centuries painted the backdrop. Now it is a constant, even if in “reality” no machine exists to create the low, grinding buzz. It’s so persistent that one’d think I’d carry it with me to other places. In a manner, I do, but only as a phantom. The lack of the grey colour coating every molecule of my environment is a disturbance. I’ve grown so accustomed to it that it is, itself, silence and actual silence is a jittery, randomly filtered white noise. When I walk paths in the mountains near Fresneda, far from my home, the rustle of leaves and the scurry of hidden creatures is not sufficient to cover the dissonant growl that is the lack of that grey rumble.

Technical

=> ↺ A Technological Analogy

• It is a more recent technology and was, at first, just for fun. There’s no direct competition with the older, heavier solution. It is lighter, easier to learn and to use even if it might be hard to break some habits and to get moving differently.

• You can understand fully how it works with minimal effort. All the theory fits in one head! You can usually maintain it yourself and fix most breakage. If you can’t, your neighbour or your friend will probably help you.

• While using it, you can interact with other humans with a smile. You are not forced to be angry. You will not find yourself cursing behind a huge piece of glass while polluting your environment.

=> ↺ Get thee behind me, Belial

• I walk into the Computer Room at Chez Boca to find a box sitting on my chair. It’s a sealed and empty box that was shipped to me via https://www.fedex.com/ [1]. It can only mean one thing—it’s the box to ship Belial, the annoying Mac Laptop [2] back to The Enterprise.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Gemini is not decentralized

• Many people say that Gemini is decentralized.

• But it’s not like that!

• Yes, Gemini is handsome and graceful.

• But after all, as in https, gemini is organized on the same technological principles.

• And here you can also be banned for your thoughts and beliefs, and sometimes just because you are a citizen of some country.

• I had such a case when my capsule was banned. Other than that, I’m not the only one.

=> ↺ If Gemini is a bicycle, the web is a bus

• Maybe there could be a more integrated and user-friendly app? I vaguely remember the “blogging apps” from the early 00s. Maybe it could do both editing and transfer?

=> ↺ A seven-line summary of Gemini’s markup format

• All line breaks count for real, which is great for poetry but means that when you write long paragraphs, you need to put all of the paragraph on one line.

• That’s all. There is no way to mark text as italic or bold.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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