● 01.18.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 18/01/2023: Lakka 4.3 and Microsoft Confirms Mass Layoffs

Posted in News Roundup at 10:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Kubernetes Engineer Interview: Top 15 Questions and Responses

• Kubernetes is quickly becoming one of the most popular container orchestration tools in the world. As organizations look to scale their distributed applications, they need to find skilled Kubernetes Engineers to help them make the most of it. To help you find the right candidate, we’ve compiled a list of the top 15 questions to ask during an interview with a Kubernetes Engineer. We’ll also provide sample responses to give you an idea of what to expect from a qualified engineer. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of the skills necessary to be a successful Kubernetes Engineer and have a solid foundation for your next hire.

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Career Path of a Linux Engineer: From Junior to Senior – Linux Careers

• As Linux becomes an increasingly important part of modern technology infrastructure, the role of a Linux Engineer is becoming more and more critical. The career path of a Linux Engineer can be challenging but also rewarding. It includes a progression from Junior to Senior positions, and it is important to understand the different responsibilities and skills required at each stage. In this article, we will explore the Linux Engineer career path, the education and skills required, the opportunities and challenges faced at different stages, and the best practices and resources for building a successful career in Linux Engineering. This guide will provide you with the information you need to navigate the Linux Engineer career path and achieve your professional goals.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Introduction to Element (with Matrix) – Invidious

• Today I talk about using element and we introduce the new Switched To Linux matrix public space. We talk about setting up element, finding rooms, and connecting to people.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 6.1.7

=> ↺ Linux 5.15.89

=> ↺ Linux 5.10.164

=> ↺ Linux 5.4.229

=> ↺ Linux 4.19.270

=> ↺ Linux 4.14.303

Applications

=> ↺ PQMusic – minimalistic audio player

• If you’ve followed my ramblings (sometimes known as reviews), you’ll know I’m intensely passionate about music. Over the past few years I’ve reviewed so many open source music players I’ve lost count of them all. However many I review, there’s always an enterprising Linux user who tells me I’ve missed one. Always happy to fill in the gaps, hoping to find a gem of a music player that will replace my favourite (that’s Tauon Music Box). I’ve even convinced a few of the motley LinuxLinks open source enthusiasts to migrate to Tauon Music Box. It’s either my cunning persuasiveness or that Tauon Music Box is just mindbogglingly awesome.

• Now I am really rambling. Let’s get back to the focus of this article; my take on PQMusic.

• PQMusic is billed as a minimalistic and easy to use audio player. The software is written in the Python programming language.

• This is free and open source software.

=> ↺ 20 Best Instant Messaging Programs for Linux

• Instant messaging is the perfect way to stay connected in real-time with multiple people all at once, and Linux has some of the best options out there. There are many different kinds of tools that integrate various individual protocols but have a consistent purpose: connecting you with your loved ones, coworkers, or customers. Each application may vary slightly in how it works, but all provide efficient communication for its users.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Server Monitoring with Monit

• I self-host my blog, other websites, Matomo, Mastodon, etc. I love self-hosting. But I need monitoring, to be alerted when things go wrong, as my setup is getting more and more complex. So, I recently asked a question on the Fediverse, being in need of a monitoring system for my VPS, as I need simple, common-sense health alerts. I got a recommendation for M/Monit, which seems to work well. This article shows my configuration.

=> ↺ An aggressive, stealthy web spider operating from Microsoft IP space

• By the time I noticed it today this spider had made somewhere over 25,000 requests today in somewhat over twelve hours, or at least with that specific user agent (it’s hard to see if it used other ones with all of the volume). It made these requests from over 5,800 different IPs; over 600 of these IPs are on the SBL CSS and one of them is SBL 545445 (a /32 phish server). All of these IP addresses are in various networks in Microsoft’s AS 8075, and of course none of them have reverse DNS. As you can tell from the significant number of IPs, most IPs do only a few requests and even the active ones did no more than 20 (today, by the time I cut them off). This is a volume level that will fly under the radar for anyone’s per-IP ratelimiting.

=> ↺ My talk on CSS runtime performance

• In the end, I’m pretty satisfied with the talk. My main goal was to shine a light on all the heroic work that browser vendors have done over the years to make CSS so performant. Much of this stuff is intricate and arcane (like Bloom filters), but I hoped that with some simple diagrams and animations, I could bring this work to life.

=> ↺ 5 ways to use the Linux terminal to manage your files

• A terminal is an application that provides access to the user shell of an operating system. Traditionally, the shell is the place where the user and the OS could interface directly with one another. And historically, a terminal was a physical access point, consisting of a keyboard and a readout (a printer, long ago, and later a cathode ray tube), that provided convenient access to a mainframe. Don’t be fooled by this “ancient” history. The terminal is as relevant today as it was half a century ago, and in this article, I provide five common file management tasks you can do with nothing but shell.

=> ↺ What to do if you encounter a Checksum mismatch error in Flatpak

• The Checksum mismatch error may occur in Flatpak when installing or updating an application. The error indicates that the checksum of what it downloaded is different from what was expected – in other words, the download is probably corrupted or incomplete. Flatpak is smart enough to avoid installing the app or update when it can’t verify the integrity of the files it retrieved, and will issue an error message instead.

• You can ordinarily just try updating the application again, or waiting until your internet connection is more stable. If you still receive the same error, then there are a few troubleshooting steps you can take in order to resolve the issue. In this tutorial, we will explore several causes of the Checksum mismatch error and show some troubleshooting steps that you can take to get your Flatpak tool installing apps and updates correctly again. Follow along with the step by step instructions below on your Linux system to get Flatpak working again as intended.

=> ↺ How to fix the Error updating application in Flatpak

• Flatpak normally does a good job of keeping apps up to date by querying your configured remotes for new versions of installed apps. However, if Flatpak runs into trouble during an update, you may receive the Error updating application message in your terminal. This could occur for a variety of reasons, but usually just means that Flatpak can’t access the remote repository to install a needed update.

• In other cases, the error could also indicate some other problem with Flatpak which is then manifesting itself as being unable to install new updates. In this tutorial, we will explore several causes of this error and show some troubleshooting steps that you can take to get your Flatpak tool downloading updates correctly again. Follow along with the step by step instructions below on your Linux system to get Flatpak working again as intended.

=> ↺ Fixing the Error creating sandbox error in Flatpak

• One of Flatpak’s most fundamental features is that it runs all applications in their own sandbox. If Flatpak runs into an issue with creating a sandboxed environment for an application, it will issue the Error creating sandbox in your terminal. This may occur either when installing, updating, or running a Flatpak application, since these events trigger Flatpak to attempt to create a new sandbox for the app.

• The error typically indicates an issue with either user permissions or access to system resources. In this tutorial, we will explore several causes of the Error creating sandbox message and show some troubleshooting steps that you can take to get your Flatpak tool to create sandbox environments correctly again. Follow along with the step by step instructions below on your Linux system to get Flatpak working again as intended.

=> ↺ How to Create a Flatpak Application from Scratch

• Application developers will often choose Flatpak as a medium for packaging and distributing their software. Flatpak allows developers to make their software available across all types of Linux systems without having to publish individual installers to satisfy the requirements of each distribution. App developers can also utilize Flatpak’s distribution system which relies on software repositories; it is rather easy to host your own or upload your work to a renowned Flatpak remote.

• In this tutorial, we will take you through the step by step instructions to create a Flatpak application from scratch on a Linux system. We are assuming that you have already built and compiled your application, but if not, we will work with a simple ‘Hello World’ Bash script just to illustrate how you can package your application in Flatpak and add it to a repository for distribution to other users.

=> ↺ Linux TMUX Command Tutorial

• Linux has many commands to work with multiple terminals from a single window which is called a terminal multiplexer. Multiple tasks can be performed from a single screen by dividing the screen into multiple panes by a terminal multiplexer. Tmux is one of the terminal multiplexers of Linux to speed up the terminal tasks. This tool is installed by default in the latest version of the Linux operating system (ex-Ubuntu 20+). The uses of this tool are shown in this tutorial.

=> ↺ Bash Tree Command

• The bash tree command is comparable to the well-known ls command of Linux, which is used to list the files and directories. The major difference among the commands is that the files and folders are presented in a tree-like structure by the tree command. The tree command iterates through a file hierarchy and prints the files and subdirectories in a formatted list with depth indentation. With the tree command of bash, we can quickly determine the positions of the files and folders, examine their access permissions, and also fetched the hidden files or directories.

=> ↺ Bash Declare an Empty Array?

• Arrays are the collection of the same type of data elements that are stored in contiguous memory locations. Or we can say that it is the simplest form of a data structure whose elements can be accessed directly using the index number where these are stored. Most of the time, it becomes necessary to store the same kind of data in memory instead of creating multiple variables for each data. We can simply use an array to store data of similar type in a single array. Most of all, every programming language supports arrays the same as Linux does. We can also create an array using various commands and methods in Linux.

• Using the bash array, we can store the data in contiguous memory. Bash array stores data in the form of indexing or it can also be said that it is a collection of variables. But in the typical array, we can only store the same type of elements but the bash array allows us to store all types of data in single arrays like storing the strings and numbers.

=> ↺ Linux Screen Command Tutorial

• The screen command is a very useful command of the Linux operating system. When any task is done by dividing the task on multiple terminal windows, it is difficult to manage the task. This problem can be solved easily using the screen command. Multiple terminal instances can be opened in a single terminal window using the screen command. This command has many other advanced features that do not exist in the general terminal. The different uses of this command are described in this tutorial.

=> ↺ Resolving the Dependency not found error in Flatpak

• You might receive the Dependency not found error in Flatpak whenever an application that you are trying to run or install has a dependency that can’t be currently found on your Linux system. Ordinarily, Flatpak will automatically download all necessary dependencies when it installs an application, but this does not always work perfectly in practice. The fix for this error usually involves identifying the missing dependency, and then installing it.

• In this tutorial, we will explore several causes of the Dependency not found error in Flatpak. Once your dependency issues are resolved, the impacted Flatpak apps should be able to install, update, and run without a hitch.

=> ↺ Setting Up a Flatpak Remote Repository to Make Installing Apps Easier

• Flatpak provides developers and administrators with a lot of flexibility in how they decide to distribute applications. Flatpak can query online repositories (or “remotes”) for software to download and for new updates to already installed applications. Developers can choose to host their own repo and share it with users that wish to download their software, or submit their work to a well known online repo like FlatHub.

• Similarly, system administrators can create collections of software they wish to distribute to a network of computers, and create their own Flatpak repo to facilitate with the distribution and installation of that software, as well as using it to maintain updates. In this tutorial, we will take you through the step by step instructions to set up your own Flatpak remote repository to make installing apps easier on a Linux system.

=> ↺ How to Create and Publish Flatpak Packages

• As an application developer, you may be interested in packaging and distributing your work through Flatpak. Lots of developers choose to use Flatpak because it allows them to deploy their application across a variety of different Linux system, without needing to worry about individual dependencies and differences between distributions. There are also many public software repositories, like FlatHub, where you can upload your work and not need to worry about hosting it yourself.

• In this tutorial, you will see how to get started with developing Flatpak packages by creating and publishing your first Flatpak app. Follow along with the step by step instructions below as we take you through the steps to create, package, and publish your new Flatpak program on Linux.

=> ↺ Snapd vs Flatpak vs Appimage: Cons and Pros review

• When it comes to software installation on Linux, package management systems like Snapd, Flatpak, and AppImage are frequently mentioned and compared. All three of them are distribution independent package managers, meaning that they can be used on any Linux system regardless of what distribution you are running. In this tutorial, we will look at the differences between these three tools and discuss their pros and cons to help you decide which one would serve you best.

=> ↺ How to set up Syncthing on a Chromebook

• Syncthing is a decentralized syncing application for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. However, did you know you can also use it on Chrome OS? In this guide, we’ll go over how to set up Syncthing on your Chrome device.

=> ↺ How to Install Python Pip on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

• Python is a popular programming language for web development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more. One of the best tools for managing Python packages is pip, a package manager for Python. Pip is included with Python 2.7.9 and later and Python 3.4 and later, but it may not be installed by default on some Linux distributions. This guide will show you how to install Python Pip on Ubuntu Linux using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to set up Minio as an Object Storage in Rocky Linux Server

• Object storage is a computer data storage that manages data as objects, as opposed to other storage architectures like file systems which manages data as a file hierarchy, and block storage which manages data as blocks within sectors and tracks. Object storage is used for housing videos and photos, music, and files for online collaboration.

=> ↺ How to use Helm charts with Portainer

• Helm was created to simplify Kubernetes; MicroK8s was created to ease the complexity of Kubernetes deployment; Portainer was created to simplify container deployment. If you put those three things together, you have the means to deploy full-stack Kubernetes applications and services with ease. Believe it or not, it’s not nearly as hard as you might expect.

• If a much simpler Kubernetes experience is what you desire, read on to learn how Portainer can help. If you haven’t already deployed Portainer to a MicroK8s cluster, find out how before continuing. Once you have Portainer deployed to your MicroK8s cluster, you can then take advantage of Helm, without any further installation.

=> ↺ How to Talk to Other Users on the Network in Linux

• The write command in Linux allows two logged-in users to communicate with each other via the terminal in real time until they are on the same network.

• This command copies the text from one terminal to another, making it possible to send messages or text content with or without piping.

• Note that both parties need to have terminal write access turned on before they can talk to each other. If you don’t know what this means, check out our mesg command article.

• So, let’s keep this aside and see how you can send message or text file content to another user with or without piping using the write command in Linux.

=> ↺ How to Check, Allow, or Disallow Terminal Write Access in Linux

• By default, all the Linux systems accept standard input from another user connected in the same network using the wall or write commands.

• It is possible due to the terminal’s ability to write messages received from another user on the screen; check out our article on Stdin, Stdout, and Stderr Streams in Linux, including what TTY is, to learn more.

• The ability to receive messages from another network user and write them to your terminal can be enabled or disabled using the mesg command.

• In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to check all the users and specific user terminal write access and how to set or stop the terminal’s permission for writing messages.

=> ↺ Beginners Guide for Uname Command in Linux

• The uname (which stands for “Unix Name”) is a commonly used Linux command-line utility to print basic information about the operating system name and system hardware.

• The output with the “-a” flag will give you a summary of your system architecture, kernel name, kernel release, kernel version, hardware platform, and many more.

• In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to use the uname command and its options to get your desired system information (with practical examples).

=> ↺ How to Use ‘sleep’ Command to Delay Linux Command Execution

• In this guide, we will discuss practical examples of sleep commands. After following this guide, Linux programmers will be able to use the sleep command to write robust shell scripts.

• Linux programmers and system administrators prefer to write shell scripts to automate simple tasks. However, writing a robust script is not an easy task. We need to handle many corner cases, such as – retry mechanism, debugging, logging, error reporting, etc.

=> ↺ How to Copy and Move Files with Specific File Extensions in Linux – TREND OCEANS

• Struggling to copy and move files with a specific file extension in Linux? This guide will teach you the commands necessary for copying and moving files with a specific file extension.

=> ↺ How to Install ImageMagick on Fedora Linux

• ImageMagick is a powerful command-line tool for manipulating images on a Linux system. Some benefits of using ImageMagick include converting, cropping, resizing images, and adding effects like transparency and text overlays.

=> ↺ How to Install Telnet on Fedora Linux

• Telnet is a network protocol that allows users to remotely access and manage devices over a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) network, such as the Internet. Using Telnet on your Fedora system, you can easily connect to remote servers and perform tasks such as managing files, running commands, and configuring settings.

=> ↺ How to Install Rust on Fedora Linux

• Rust is a programming language designed to be fast, safe, and concurrent. It is an open-source language that was first released in 2010 and has since grown in popularity among developers. Rust is particularly well-suited for systems programming, and its unique ownership model provides a high level of safety and security.

=> ↺ How to install Linux Kernel 6.x on CentOS 9 Stream

• CentOS, although not what it used to be, is still very well appreciated by the community, who see it as a healthy balance between stability and new features. However, it may be appropriate to make some tweaks to have recent versions of the Kernel. So, in this post, you will learn how to install Linux Kernel 6.x on CentOS 9 Stream.

• Many more experienced users will consider that having a recent kernel can be beneficial to their work or usage experience. In this sense, this may be quite true, especially with hardware issues.

• Thanks to the good support that CentOS 9 Stream has, it is possible thanks to the community to achieve our goals without too much trouble.

• Let’s go.

=> ↺ How to Copy and Move Files with Specific File Extensions in Linux

• When you want to move or copy files with a specific file extension, then you can use the same mv and cp commands with a wildcard character, which is a more dynamic way to move the file at once.

Games

=> ↺ Circle of Kerzoven is an upcoming settlement builder with lots of simulation

• Circle of Kerzoven appears to be one I missed that was pointed out in December last year, as an interesting looking settlement building game that simulates a whole lot of things you need to keep an eye on. The developer of the game pointed it out on the GamingOnLinux Forum.

=> ↺ Stone Kingdoms is an in-development open source remake of Stronghold

• Anyone remember the original Stronghold from FireFly Studios? Well, there’s an open source remake named Stone Kingdoms. Currently in-development and available on itch.io and GitLab, the code is under the Apache 2.0 License but it also includes the artwork from the original game with permission from FireFly too (according to the developer of the project).

=> ↺ GE-Proton 7-44 is out with multiple game-specific fixes, plus initial HDR work

• The community-built version of Proton, the Windows compatibility layer, GE-Proton 7-44 is out now and here’s what’s new. As a reminder: this version is not endorsed by Valve, and doesn’t have all the testing that the official Proton does, and so sometimes new releases can come with issues.

=> ↺ Bluetooth support for the Stadia Controller is now live

• Google has put up a web-based tool to turn on the Bluetooth mode for the Stadia Controller, as we finally say goodbye.

=> ↺ Stellaris: First Contact story pack announced focusing on pre-FTL and cloaking

• Stellaris: First Contact is the next DLC for the space sci-fi strategy game from Paradox, with more of a focus on the early game. Sounds nice, because after quite a few games played, the early game does end up feeling a little stale.

=> ↺ GameImage turns games, emulators and Wine into an AppImage – useful perhaps for Steam Deck

• Formerly named Agape, GameImage is a way to package up games with either Wine or an Emulator into a portable AppImage that could be useful for the Steam Deck. I could have sworn I wrote about this before, but apparently not. Edit: it was Winepak I was thinking of previously.

=> ↺ The Division 2 launched on Steam but no support of Steam Deck or Linux

• In another clear case of anti-cheat woes for Steam Deck and Linux desktop gaming, The Division 2 is another broken game. Ubisoft continue their shift back onto Steam, with Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 launching January 12. If you were excited to give it a run on Steam Deck though, or a Linux desktop, you’re completely out of luck right now.

=> ↺ The longest beard wins in wizard brawler MageQuit

• In the mood for a simpler action game to play with friends in local or online multiplayer? MageQuit isn’t a new game, but I did miss that it added full Native Linux and Steam Deck support.

=> ↺ Old World – The Sacred and The Profane DLC adds a lot of new events

• Old World – The Sacred and The Profane is a new DLC for the impressive historical strategy game from Mohawk Games and publisher Hooded Horse. I’m actually really surprised by Old World, it arrived on Steam back in May 2022 with full Native Linux support that worked great. Since then, they’ve continued regularly updating the game with new free content and upgrades.

=> ↺ The next Valheim biome will be Ashlands, a land of the dead

• Valheim developer Iron Gate AB has begun teasing the next biome update, and they’re doing things a little bit differently with Ashlands. They’re not going to be so secretive about it, as they want to be more transparent. This will also likely help for those who kept thinking they weren’t doing enough, as their community was quite outspoken on how long Mistlands took to arrive.

=> ↺ Steam desktop and Steam Deck Beta fixes up more on-screen keyboard issues

• Valve has released a fresh Steam desktop and Steam Deck Client Beta, with more fixes for the on-screen keyboard and other adjustments.

=> ↺ Top 15 Best Linux Racing Games

• Gone are the days when people believed that Linux was short on entertaining games. Now, an abundance of options for gamers is available on this platform! In fact, compared to a few years ago, there have been so many advancements in the realm of gaming accessibility with regard to Linux. Are you looking for an adrenaline-pumping, exciting experience? Then Linux racing games are the perfect fit! State-of-the-art graphics and animation will provide a thrilling gaming experience like no other. Plus, many of these games are free or open source – so all gamers can find something to suit their needs and budgets.

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ News – Lakka 4.3 release

• Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution based on RetroArch that transforms a small computer like a Raspberry Pi into a full blown retrogaming console.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Containerization vs. Virtualization : understand the differences

• Over the last couple of decades, a lot has changed in terms of how companies are running their infrastructure. The days of dedicated physical servers are long gone, and there are a variety of options for making the most out of your hosts, regardless of whether you’re running them on-prem or in the cloud. Virtualization paved the way for scalability, standardization and cost optimisation. Containerization brought new efficiencies. In this blog, we’ll talk about the difference between the two, and how each is beneficial.

• Back in the old days, physical servers functioned much like a regular computer would. You had the physical box, you would install an operating system, and then you would install applications on top. These types of servers are often referred to as ‘bare metal servers’, as there’s nothing in between the actual physical (metal) machine and the operating system. Usually, these servers were dedicated to one specific purpose, such as running one designated system. Management was simple, and issues were easier to treat because admins could focus their attention on that one specific server. The costs, however, were very high. Not only did you need more and more servers as your business grew, you also needed to have enough space to host them. 

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Ditto has built a database for intermittent connectivity

• That’s why I was intrigued by Ditto, a four-year-old startup in San Francisco that makes software designed to share data over intermittent connections. The company just signed a deal that will see Alaska Airlines adopt the technology for collaboration and data sharing between ground and air crews even when there’s no internet connectivity.

=> ↺ Fanless Edge Computer features Xilinx Kria SoM

• Last month, Axiomtek launched the RSC201 Vision System based on the Kria K26 System-on-Module from Xilinx to target commercial and industrial applications. The RSC201 is equipped with one 1x GbE LAN port, 1x CAN bus, 1x 4K display, and 5G connectivity support.

=> ↺ TI unveils ULC1001 ultrasonic lens cleaning chip for self-cleaning cameras – CNX Software

• Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced the ULC1001 digital signal processor (DSP) ultrasonic lens cleaning (ULC) technology designed – when combined with DRV2901 piezo transducer driver – for self-cleaning camera systems to quickly detect and remove dirt, ice, and water using microscopic vibrations.

• Cameras used in the automotive, industrial, robotics, and smart farming industries may require cleaning from time to time and that usually means manual cleaning leading to potential downtime, higher maintenance cost, and so on. It could also be done through mechanical parts but that adds further complexity to the system, so instead, Texas Instruments ULC1001 and DRV2901 combo enables cameras to rapidly self-clear contaminants using vibrations to eliminate debris.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Restore the mechanical sounds to your Apple II diskette emulator #VintageComputing #AppleII #Floppy

• Do you miss the iconic sounds of mechanical click-clacking from original Apple II floppy drives? Does the familiar rattling of a boot floppy bring a smile to your face? Noisy Disk uses a mechanical relay to create authentic-sounding mechanical stepping sounds for disk head movements for a Floppy Emu disk emulator’s virtual 5.25 inch floppy disk.

=> ↺ pycasso: How to build a picture frame to show you random AI art every day

• After a quick configuration, we have a battery-powered unit that doesn’t need to be plugged in to power except to recharge. It powers up at a predefined recurring time, and then turns itself off again. No cables, someone can hang it on the wall if they like. It has 3 switches on it and the first switch by default boots the pi unit, which is perfect for cycling the image ad-hoc. The PiJuice class in python has a lot of features which I’m still exploring. We currently use the battery level information to draw a little square in the corner of the screen when the battery is low.

=> ↺ 1940s Philco radio sings again with new Raspberry Pi heart

• Almost every single GPIO pin on Raspberry Pi 4 is used in this project. A 7.9-inch capacitive touch LCD screen provides an oscilloscope-style display showing the sound waves on the front of the radio.

=> ↺ I fixed my beautiful little Commodore Plus/4!

• I’m glad these machines are getting more attention and interest today, to the point where people are even investing time on creating videos and even replacement components. These are special machines that have a unique place in 8-bit computer history, even if Commodore bungled their marketing and pricing at the time. If the C128 is my favourite second-hand 8-bit computer of all time, the Plus/4 and C16 aren’t that far behind.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Unlocked Galaxy A42 5G gets Android 13 and One UI 5.0 in the USA – SamMobile

=> ↺ Sony Xperia 10 IV gets Android 13 – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ Sony Xperia 10 IV gets Android 13 – comments

=> ↺ Does Waze keep freezing on Android Auto? You aren’t alone

=> ↺ How to delete downloaded files on an Android device – Android Authority

=> ↺ How to block any number in Google Messages on Android

=> ↺ How To Fix An Android Phone Clock Showing The Wrong Time

=> ↺ How to split screen on Android | Tom’s Guide

=> ↺ How to Enable Accessibility Features on Android – Phandroid

=> ↺ Xiaomi 13 breaks the screen brightness record of Android phones

=> ↺ Android 13 for Nokia XR20 in new markets, Nokia X10 gets January Security update 2023 – Nokiapoweruser

=> ↺ The Xperia 10 IV is the latest Sony device to receive Android 13

=> ↺ What is Android System WebView? Should you disable it? -

=> ↺ Google working on AirTag rival supported by 3 billion Android phones | The Independent

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ I’m also on Mastodon

• Twitter’s rash move to block the only clients that made Twitter somewhat usable was apparently intentional: [...]

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 109 Released with Manifest V3 Extensions Support

• The first Firefox release of 2023 arrives. Firefox 109 is now available to download via its official website and other distribution channels.

• This monthly release comes after the prior Firefox 108 release, which was released in December.

• Here’s a summary of the new features.

=> ↺ Important: Thunderbird 102.7.0 And Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Users

=> ↺ Microsoft is sabotaging Free software for its monopoly’s sake

• On Wednesday, January 18, Thunderbird 102.7.0 will be released with a crucial change to how we handle OAuth2 authorization with Microsoft accounts. This may involve some extra work for users currently using Microsoft-hosted accounts through their employer or educational institution.

• In order to meet Microsoft’s requirements for publisher verification, it was necessary for us to switch to a new Azure application and application ID. However, some of these accounts are configured to require administrators to approve any applications accessing email.

• If you encounter a screen saying “Need admin approval” during the login process, please contact your IT administrators to approve the client ID 9e5f94bc-e8a4-4e73-b8be-63364c29d753 for Mozilla Thunderbird (it previously appeared to non-admins as “Mzla Technologies Corporation”).

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ SQLite-based databases on the postgres protocol? Yes we can!

• Applications built on SQLite are very easy to get started with. SQLite requires no setup, no maintenance, and no scaling, and the result of that execution lies entirely in a single file that you could drop into your CI/CD for quick verification. What’s not to like?

Education

=> ↺ DistroTube’s Interview “Theology Professor and Free Software Advocate, Corey Stephan Ph.D.”

• On October 21, 2022, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Derek Taylor of DistroTube about my advocacy and use of free and open source software as a professional Catholic theologian. Here, I share a full transcript of that interview.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ 2023: The Year of Open Science

• 2023 is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese Lunar calendar, the year Voyager 2 is predicted to overtake Pioneer 10 as the second-farthest spacecraft from Earth, and the Year of Open Science. In an announcement by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), 2023 was declared the Year of Open Science, along with new actions to advance open and equitable research. Creative Commons (CC) congratulates everyone involved in these momentous announcements, which promise to advance open science in the US federal government and bring new investments in open access research. A list of the participating agencies, as well as updates on the initiative, can be found at the newly created open.science.gov.

=> ↺ Coming Soon! Season 2 of Open Culture VOICES

• Open Culture is a growing sector of the open movement around the world, with museums, galleries, archives and libraries increasingly making collections available and accessible online. The Open Culture VOICES series aims to shine a light on the leaders and advocates in the sector to inspire others and increase the accessibility and availability of cultural heritage globally.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Qt for MCUs 2.3.1 Released

• Qt for MCUs 2.3.1 has been released and is available for download. As a patch release, Qt for MCUs 2.3.1 provides bug fixes and other improvements, and maintains source compatibility with Qt for MCUs 2.3.x. It does not add any new functionality.

=> ↺ Domain-Specific Error Macros

• When I write custom errors in a project, I also like to write a few small error macros to accompany them. In my opinion this can make error handling just a little nicer to use. In this post I briefly want to talk about domain-specific error macros such as ensure!, what they’re useful for, and the io-ensure prototype crate I’ve written which I’m propose for inclusion in the stdlib next time I get the chance.

=> ↺ Why We Need to Know LR and Recursive Descent Parsing Techniques

• A couple of people have asked me for my thoughts on part an article from Tiark Rompf called (roughly) “Just Write the Parser” which advocates the use of recursive descent parsing over more “formal” approaches to parsing, at least in the context of teaching compilers. I’m fairly sure I read this article a couple of years ago, but it may have been updated, or simply have been discovered anew. Either way, since I admire both Tiark and his work a great deal, it was useful for me to engage with his ideas and compare them to my own.

• In this post, I’m going to summarise Tiark’s argument as I see it, and try to explain where I agree and disagree with that summary. I will inevitably rehash many of the arguments from my 2020 “Which Parsing Approach?” post, but I’m going to try to focus on some factors which I now realise were at best buried, and at worst inadequately explained, in that previous post.

=> ↺ C++ vs Rust: which is faster?

• I ported some Advent of Code solutions from C/C++ to Rust, and used the opportunity to compare performance. When I couldn’t explain why they performed differently, I had no choice but to disassemble both and look at what the codegen was like!

=> ↺ Trading Functionality For Time

• Software development projects contain a lot of tradeoffs, where we exchange one thing for another. Some of these are not obvious; this is one of those.

=> ↺ Type Checking If Expressions

• To make a language that fits in your head (or at least my head, whose working space seems to get smaller every year), I needed to jettison as many feature as I could. My experience across a range of hobby and not-so-hobby languages is that static types add roughly an order of magnitude of complexity, so types were one of the first things to go. Like most scripting languages, I made mine dynamically typed.

=> ↺ Things they didn’t teach you about Software Engineering

• Domain knowledge is more important than your coding skills

=> ↺ How setting the TZ environment variable avoids thousands of system calls

• To avoid extra system calls on server processes where you won’t be updating the timezone (or can restart processes when you do) simply set the TZ environment variable to :/etc/localtime (or some other timezone file of your choice) for a process. This will cause glibc to avoid making extra (and unnecessary) system calls.

• To understand why this is and how to test if your processes can benefit, read on!

=> ↺ Arnaud Rebillout: Build container images in GitLab CI (iptables-legacy at the rescue)

• It’s 2023 and these days, building a container image in a CI pipeline should be straightforward. So let’s try.

• For this blog post we’ll focus on GitLab SaaS only, that is, gitlab.com, as it’s what I use for work and for personal projects.

=> ↺ Adding Linux BlueZ DBus peripheral role support

• Broadly speaking the Qt’s Bluetooth Low Energy (“BT LE”) support consists of two complementing use cases: the central/client and the peripheral/server roles. For more details about the two roles please consult the Qt Bluetooth documentation.

=> ↺ C++ Is The Programming Language of the Year 2022

• C++ has been awarded the Programming Language of the Year 2022 title by Tiobe, a leading Quality Assurance service provider. C++ won the award because it has the fastest growth among the top 20 languages. We at Qt welcome this selection as it confirms our long-term commitment to C++ as the underlying programming language for the Qt framework and Qt development platform.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Living on a narrowboat – embracing constraints

• What’s clear from the design is that given the outside space at the bow and the stern, the total internal cabin length is actually more like 42 feet, from the steps down into the galley from the double doors on the cruiser stern, all the way to the step up from the bedroom, through the double doors at the front, into the well deck at the bow (remember, each of the squares in the diagram represents 1 foot x 1 foot or 30 cm x 30 cm).

• That’s clearly a constraint that one cannot ignore. But it’s not the most significant one. More importantly, constraints are not necessarily a bad thing anyway.

=> ↺ Kirby Sucks, Literally

• What’s common between one of the most legendary video game characters of all time and a fume extractor ? They both suck. [Chris Borge] is not an electronics hobbyist and only does some occasional soldering. This made his regular fume extractor bulky and inconvenient to position where needed. What could serve him better would be a small extractor that could be attached to a clip or an arm on his helping hand accessory. Being unable to find an off-the-shelf product or a suitable 3d printed design that he liked, he built the Kirby 40mm Fume Extractor.

=> ↺ Megahex Will Give You Robo-Arachnophobia

• Some projects start with a relatively simple idea that quickly turns into a bit of a nightmare when you get to the actual implementation. [Hacksmith Industries] found this to be the case when they decided to build a giant rideable hexapod, Megahex. [YouTube]

=> ↺ MA Automakers Stall Right To Repair Reform After Running Ads Claiming Improved Repair Options Would Aid Sexual Predators

• The auto industry in Massachusetts has successfully stalled consumer technology repair reform in the state, after repeatedly and falsely claiming that shoring up consumer repair options would be a massive boon to the state’s sexual predators.

=> ↺ Supercon 2022: All Aboard The SS MAPR With Sherry Chen

• How do you figure out what is in a moving body of water over a mile wide? For those in charge of assessing the water quality of the Delaware river, this is a real problem. Collecting the data required to evaluate the water quality was expensive and time-consuming, taking over six years. Even then, the data was relatively sparse, with just a few water quality stations and only one surface sample for every six miles of river.

=> ↺ From A 6502 Breadboard Computer To Lode Runner And Beyond

• As disruptive and generally unpleasant as the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 were, they often ended up being a catalyst for significant personal growth. That was often literal growth, thanks to stress eating, but others, such as [Eric Badger], used the time to add skills to his repertoire and build a breadboard 6502 computer and so much more.

=> ↺ One-Size-Fits-All Wrench Points To A Nut Job

• When [Hand Tool Rescue] came across a 1919 patent for a one size fits all wrench, he couldn’t help but recreate it. Described in the patent as “a new, original, ornamental design for a wrench”, the wrench had a slot for possibly every fastener that the inventor could think of. Not only did it have slots for several hexagonal fasteners, but many others for octagonal, square and even a pentagonal fastener.

=> ↺ Grass Gauge Tells You When The Lawnmower’s Catcher Is Full

• If you’re not mowing your lawn regularly, you’re probably familiar with the hassle of overfilling your catcher. Grass clippings end up scattered everywhere, and you end up with a messy yard after all your hard work. [Dominic Bender] designed a mower fill gauge to eliminate this problem which shows you when your catcher is getting full.

Science

=> ↺ Frederick Douglass 1818–1895

Education

=> ↺ Parents ‘in disbelief’ after ISIS flag sent out by Toronto school principal in email

• In a message meant to celebrate the beginning of Somali Heritage Month and Islamic Heritage Month, principal Darlene Jones copied and pasted an image of the ISIS flag in an email to approximately 700 families whose children attend her school in Toronto’s Parkdale community.

=> ↺ Exit. Selling your SaaS

• In a strictly general term, 90% of buyers come with these red flags. Only a few show genuine interest and even fewer make the process a delight.

Hardware

=> ↺ Gloomy year for smartphones globally, and not much to anticipate in 2023

• Global smartphone shipments fell below the 1.2-billion unit mark in 2022, with the 11% year-on-year drop marking a low point for the industry, according to the technology analyst firm Canalys.

• The new year is not expected to see any dramatic change in fortunes for the industry, with only flat to marginal growth predicted and the market outlook remaining tough.

• The fall in the final quarter of the year was worse than for the full year, with shipments suffering a 17% hit, Canalys added.

• As iTWire has reported, another analyst firm, Gartner, reported a higher annual shipment figure for 2021: 1.4 billion units, driven by a resurgence in the first half of that year.

• [...]

• Regarding the outlook for 2023, Chiew said: “Though inflationary pressures will gradually ease, the effects of interest rate hikes, economic slowdowns and an increasingly struggling labour market will limit the market’s potential.

• “This will adversely affect saturated, mid-to-high-end-dominated markets, such as Western Europe and North America.

• “While China’s re-opening will improve domestic consumer and business confidence, government stimuli are only likely to show effects in six to nine months and demand in China will remain challenging in the short term.

• “Still, some regions are likely to grow in the second half of 2023, with Southeast Asia, in particular, expected to see some economic recovery and a resurgence of tourism in China helping to drive business activities.”

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Merchants of Spin: Monsanto’s Astroturfing of Glyphosate in the EU

• In a previous article, I discussed pending legal cases against Monsanto and the legal precedent that may be created if Monsanto were to succeed with a favorable ruling from the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June. When this case is heard, Monsanto will certainly argue that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) pre-empts states from imposing label requirements “in addition to or different from” those imposed under FIFRA. If Monsanto succeeds, this would create a split in the circuit courts which means a Supreme Court challenge would be the next judicial step. In this piece I ironized how many states such have tighter regulations around gambling and online casinos than do they for mitigating environmental damage. And I wasn’t exaggerating an iota. The reason for this is simple: the agrochemical sector is flanked by PR and astroturfing firms that have set up elaborate stages upon which they give the illusion that grassroots movements oppose proposed bans of glyphosate.

• Big Tobacco left in its tracks a legacy of marketing and public relations for future having successfully recruited the participation of physicians who, in the first half of the twentieth century, recommended smoking to their patients, many suggesting that smoking was healthy. This lesson in grift has been taken up today by public relations companies that have pushed glyphosate onto farmers and governments. The PR firms have even pressured the European Union not to ban glyphosate in the wake of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) 2015 cancer report.

=> ↺ ‘We Need Medicare for All’: Record Number in US Postponed Healthcare in 2022

• Nearly 40% of people in the United States said they or a family member delayed medical care last year due to the prohibitively high cost of treatment under the nation’s for-profit healthcare model, according to a Gallup survey published Tuesday.

=> ↺ 38 Percent of Americans Delayed Medical Care Due to Cost in 2022, a Record High

=> ↺ Eating One Freshwater Fish Equals a Month of Drinking Water With ‘Forever Chemicals’: Study

• Yet another study on Tuesday raised the alarm about the dangers of “forever chemicals,” revealing that eating just one locally caught freshwater fish in the continental United States can be equivalent to drinking contaminated water for a month.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft Prepares to Lay Off Thousands of Employees, Including in Azure-Related Units — The Information

• Microsoft is preparing to lay off thousands of staff in multiple divisions starting as soon as Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

=> ↺ Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees tomorrow

• Microsoft is preparing to announce job cuts tomorrow. Sky News reports that thousands of roles will be cut, with the software giant said to be looking at cutting around 5 percent of its workforce. With more than 220,000 employees at Microsoft, that could mean more than 10,000 layoffs.

=> ↺ Microsoft to cut thousands of jobs across divisions – reports

• The company plans to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported, according to a person familiar with the matter, while Insider reported that Microsoft could cut recruiting staff by as much as one-third.

• The cuts will be significantly larger than other rounds in the past year, the Bloomberg report said.

=> ↺ Microsoft (MSFT) Might Cut 11,000 Jobs Amid Market Turmoil – January 18, 2023 – Zacks.com

• The company is expected to cut 11,000 jobs in a fresh round of mass layoffs, which amounts to around 5% of the workforce being fired.

=> ↺ Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees

=> ↺ Microsoft is reportedly planning to layoff 11,000 employees

=> ↺ Microsoft layoffs: Big job cuts reportedly coming | CNN Business

=> ↺ Microsoft Layoffs May Impact 11,000 Jobs In HR And Engineering Departments: Report

• In a fresh round of mass layoffs, it is the Microsoft layoffs. As per media reports, just days after vacating its US office along with Meta, the tech giant, Microsoft, is resorting to axing as many as 11,000 jobs.

=> ↺ Microsoft could layoff 11,000 employees: Reports | Computerworld

• The new offers being made are 30% less in compensation as compared with previous offers made for similar positions at the company, the report claims.

=> ↺ Microsoft Layoff: Twitterati share memes to react to the retrenchment trend

• Microsoft is set to lay off thousands of employees today, reports suggest. The layoffs would be the latest in the US technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.

=> ↺ Irish jobs at risk as Microsoft plans 5% cut to global workforce

• Microsoft employs over 3,500 people in Ireland, many at its One Microsoft Place campus in Leopardstown, south Dublin.

=> ↺ Report: Microsoft plans to lay off as many as 11,000 people Wednesday

• Microsoft appears set to be the next tech giant to slash its workforce in anticipation of a global economic slowdown.

=> ↺ Microsoft reportedly to lay off employees this week – GeekWire

• Microsoft reports is second fiscal quarter earnings next Tuesday. The company’s stock is down more than 20% in the past year.

=> ↺ Microsoft to lay off thousands of employees today: Report

• The cuts also come just weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned of two years of challenges ahead for the tech industry. In an interview with CNBC, Nadella admitted Microsoft wasn*t “immune to the global changes” and spoke of the need for tech companies to be efficient.

=> ↺ Microsoft to lay off thousands of employees today: Report

• Microsoft is set to lay off thousands of employees today. Citing Sky News, Reuters reported that thousands of roles would be cut, with the software giant looking to cut around 5 per cent of its workforce or about 11,000 roles.

=> ↺ Microsoft to cut thousands of jobs – reports

• Other reports suggested jobs would be cut in a number of engineering division, and recruitment staff were also facing the chop.

Security

=> ↺ Thinking of Hiring or Running a Booter Service? Think Again.

• Most people who operate DDoS-for-hire businesses attempt to hide their true identities and location. Proprietors of these so-called “booter” or “stresser” services — designed to knock websites and users offline — have long operated in a legally murky area of cybercrime law. But until recently, their biggest concern wasn’t avoiding capture or shutdown by the feds: It was minimizing harassment from unhappy customers or victims, and insulating themselves against incessant attacks from competing DDoS-for-hire services.

=> ↺ mjg59 | PKCS#11. hardware keystores, and Apple frustrations

• There’s a bunch of ways you can store cryptographic keys. The most obvious is to just stick them on disk, but that has the downside that anyone with access to the system could just steal them and do whatever they wanted with them. At the far end of the scale you have Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), hardware devices that are specially designed to self destruct if you try to take them apart and extract the keys, and which will generate an audit trail of every key operation. In between you have things like smartcards, TPMs, Yubikeys, and other platform secure enclaves – devices that don’t allow arbitrary access to keys, but which don’t offer the same level of assurance as an actual HSM (and are, as a result, orders of magnitude cheaper).

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ This 22-year-old is trying to save us from ChatGPT before it changes writing forever

• Over the last couple years, Edward has been studying an AI system called GPT-3, a predecessor to ChatGPT that was less user-friendly and largely inaccessible to the general public because it was behind a paywall. As part of his studies this fall semester, Edward researched how to detect text written by the AI system while working at Princeton’s Natural Language Processing Lab.

=> ↺ The College Essay Is Dead: Nobody is prepared for how AI will transform academia.

• The essay, in particular the undergraduate essay, has been the center of humanistic pedagogy for generations. It is the way we teach children how to research, think, and write. That entire tradition is about to be disrupted from the ground up. Kevin Bryan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, tweeted in astonishment about OpenAI’s new chatbot last week: “You can no longer give take-home exams/homework … Even on specific questions that involve combining knowledge across domains, the OpenAI chat is frankly better than the average MBA at this point. It is frankly amazing.” Neither the engineers building the linguistic tech nor the educators who will encounter the resulting language are prepared for the fallout.

=> ↺ AI Creator Offers $1 Million He’ll Never Have To Pay To Anyone Willing To Let His Lawbot Argue Their Supreme Court Case

• Josh Browder — the creator of the DoNotPay AI lawbot that helped users dodge $4 million in parking tickets — thinks his AI is ready to head to the big leagues.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Privacy Advocates Continue To Warn That Modern Toys Are A Privacy Mess

• A decade later and researchers and activists are still busy trying to get consumers to understand that modern toys are a privacy and security mess. Companies continue to over-collect data on children and monetize that data for advertising, allowing the creation of detailed profiles on children. All while not really making that clear in terms of service. And while hiding behind flimsy claims of “anonymization.”

=> ↺ Wisconsin Court Says Warrants Are Needed To Search Dropbox Accounts, Even If They Belong To Cops

• If you want access to content and communications, it seems pretty obvious you should get a warrant. There are plenty of warrant exceptions, but rooting around in things pretty much everyone believes have an expectation of privacy — whether it’s their house, their phones, or their online document storage services — generally requires a warrant.

=> ↺ Websites Selling Abortion Pills Are Sharing Sensitive Data With Google

• Online pharmacies that sell abortion pills are sharing sensitive data with Google and other third parties, which may allow law enforcement to prosecute those who use the medications to end their pregnancies, a ProPublica analysis has found.

• Using a tool created by the Markup, a nonprofit tech-journalism newsroom, ProPublica ran checks on 11 online pharmacies that sell abortion medication to reveal the web tracking technology they use. Late last year and in early January, ProPublica found web trackers on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that provide pills by mail: Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy and Online Abortion Pill Rx.

Confidentiality

=> ↺ What’s the right UX for an expired certificate?

• Every once in a while, I encounter some variation of the following question: how can a TLS certificate go from perfectly acceptable one day to completely insecure the next? In other words, why does the browser show a scary full-page warning for a certificate that expired one day, or even one hour, ago – the same as a certificate that is self-signed, chains to an unknown root, or presents the wrong name? The premise behind these questions is that an expired certificate (especially one that is recently expired) is not as bad as a certificate with some other type of validation error, and thus the warning UX shouldn’t be as severe.

• My answer to this question is three-fold: there are historical and security reasons to use the same UX for all different types of certificate validation errors, and there is a set of warning design problems to consider too.

• Looking at these reasons in more detail: [...]

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Suspected Islamic State security chief arrested in the Netherlands

• The suspect applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2019 and later settled in Arkel, prosecutors said. He was scheduled to appear before an examining magistrate in The Hague on Feb. 20.

=> ↺ Unrest in Bangladesh’s Barisal as Muslims Attack Hindu Man’s Shop after Bitter Fight over Sweets

• A total of 62 religious minorities went missing in 2022 and 849 people were threatened with death in the country, based on available data.

• Another 424 religious minorities were attempted to be killed and 360 of them were left injured, reports suggest.

=> ↺ Turkey’s Latest Genocide Against Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds.

• Today, however, few are unaware that these same genocidal atrocities have resumed against the very same religious minorities who most suffered at the hands of ISIS in northern Syria—this time by another Muslim force with caliphal aspirations: Turkey, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

=> ↺ How the the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy Drives Record Military Spending

• More than two millennia ago, in the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides recounted a disastrous conflict when Athens waged against Sparta. A masterwork on strategy and war, the book is still taught at the U.S. Army War College and many other military institutions across the world. A passage from it describing an ultimatum Athens gave a weaker power has stayed with me all these years. And here it is, loosely translated from the Greek: “The strong do what they will and the weak suffer as they must.”

• Recently, I read the latest National Defense Strategy, or NDS, issued in October 2022 by the Pentagon, and Thucydides’s ancient message, a warning as clear as it was undeniable, came to mind again. It summarized for me the true essence of that NDS: being strong, the United States does what it wants and weaker powers, of course, suffer as they must. Such a description runs contrary to the mythology of this country in which we invariably wage war not for our own imperial ends but to defend ourselves while advancing freedom and democracy. Recall that Athens, too, thought of itself as an enlightened democracy even as it waged its imperial war of dominance on the Peloponnesus. Athens lost that war, calamitously, but at least it did produce Thucydides, a military leader who became a historian and wrote all too bluntly about his country’s hubristic, ultimately fatal pursuit of hegemony.

=> ↺ Ludicrous Levels of Pentagon Spending Make Us Less Safe—Not More

• Late last month, President Biden signed a bill that clears the way for $858 billion in Pentagon spending and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy in 2023. That’s far more than Washington anted up for military purposes at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars or even during the peak years of the Cold War. In fact, the $80 billion increase from the 2022 Pentagon budget is in itself more than the military budgets of any country other than China. Meanwhile, a full accounting of all spending justified in the name of national security, including for homeland security, veterans’ care, and more, will certainly exceed $1.4 trillion. And mind you, those figures don’t even include the more than $50 billion in military aid Washington has already dispatched to Ukraine, as well as to frontline NATO allies, in response to the Russian invasion of that country.

=> ↺ What Price Is ‘Defense?’: America’s Costly, Dysfunctional Approach to Security Is Making Us Ever Less Safe

• A look at the madness of funding the Pentagon, going down the military drain.

=> ↺ Military Families Are Going Hungry While the Pentagon Budget Skyrockets

• By any standard, the money the United States government pours into its military is simply overwhelming. Take the $858 billion defense spending authorization that President Biden signed into law last month. Not only did that bill pass in an otherwise riven Senate by a bipartisan majority of 83-11, but this year’s budget increase of 4.3 percent is the second-highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Indeed, the Pentagon has been granted more money than the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined. And that doesn’t even take into account funding for homeland security or the growing costs of caring for the veterans of this country’s post-9/11 wars. That legislation also includes the largest pay raise in 20 years for active-duty and reserve forces and an expansion of a supplemental “basic needs allowance” to support military families with incomes near the poverty line.

=> ↺ Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis

• The development and the deployment of nuclear weapons are usually based on the assumption that they enhance national security.  But, in fact, as Gambling with Armageddon, Martin Sherwin’s powerful study of nuclear policy convincingly demonstrates, nuclear weapons move nations toward the brink of destruction.

• The basis for this conclusion is the post-World War II nuclear arms race and, especially, the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.  At the height of the crisis, top officials from the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union narrowly avoided annihilating a substantial portion of the human race by what former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, an important participant in the events, called “plain dumb luck.”

=> ↺ Rampant Speculation: Uranium, Dirty Bombs and Heathrow

• The dirty bomb and its purportedly famed radiation dispersal attributes has an undeserved mythology. It serves to bloat budgets and confer grants on specious theories propounded by specious theorists. It is all rather easy to make a security threat up, and a celluloid, Hollywood scenario of a dirty bomb going off in the middle of a metropolis killing thousands is just one of those instances. Scaring people is child’s play and often the work of the unscrupulous.

• This month, it was announced that staff at London’s Heathrow airport, where the appearance of snowflakes is enough to cancel flights, encountered what was alleged to be cargo contaminated by uranium on December 29. The Sun was the first paper to scream from the rooftops about a “Deadly shipment of uranium seized at Heathrow en route to Iranians based in UK”. The paper went on to suggest that the material in question “can be used in a dirty bomb.” In the narrative, all the appropriate countries were mentioned: dark origins in Pakistan; arrival on a flight from Oman; destination: UK-based nationals from Iran.

=> ↺ ‘A Small Piece of American Freedom’: Gun Show to Feature Kids’ Rifle Inspired by AR-15

• A Utah-based gunmaker came under fire again Tuesday for rebranding a semi-automatic rifle for children inspired by the AR-15 that’s so commonly used in U.S. mass shootings.

=> ↺ Ukraine’s Future: Peace Through War?

• Hopes and Realities

• Ukraine’s President Zelensky had a fairly successful visit to Washington last month, returning home with promises of more American weapons and unqualified US backing for Ukraine’s war effort. Zelensky’s sales pitch, that the war is an investment rather than a charity, went over very well in Congress.

=> ↺ Russian soldier who fled war zone killed upon arrest attempt — Meduza

• Dmitry Perov, a 31-year-old Russian soldier who fled the front on January 13, was shot by special forces in Russia’s Lipetsk region on Wednesday, local authorities reported.

=> ↺ Three top Ukrainian officials killed in helicopter crash near Kyiv — Meduza

• 18 people were killed in a helicopter crash in Brovary, a city in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, on the morning of January 18, according to Ukrainian authorities. All nine people who were aboard the aircraft reportedly died. Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram that 29 people were injured.

=> ↺ Ukrainian Interior Minister killed in helicopter crash — Meduza

• Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky was killed in a helicopter crash in the city of Brovary on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko.

=> ↺ ‘I can’t live without them’: The victims of Russia’s deadly missile strike on Dnipro — Meduza

• On January 14, the Russian military spent the entire day launching shelling attacks throughout Ukraine. The deadliest strike occurred in the city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile hit a nine-story residential building, killing at least 45 people (including six children). In the days that followed, Ukrainian media told the stories of many of the strike’s victims. Meduza summarizes them in English.

=> ↺ ‘What, like I directly pressed the fucking button?’ Journalists contacted the men Ukraine says are responsible for Russia’s Dnipro strike — Meduza

• On January 14, the Russian military launched a missile attack on Dnipro, Ukraine, which caused two sections of a nine-story residential building to collapse. According to Ukrainian authorities, the strike killed at least 45 people, including six children, and injured at least 79. After the Ukrainian Security Service revealed the names of six Russian military servicemen it said were responsible for the attack, journalists from the investigative Russian news outlet iStories reached out to the men for comment.

=> ↺ Oleksiy Arestovich resigns as advisor to Zelensky’s office — Meduza

• Oleksiy Arestovich submitted his resignation from the position of external adviser to the office of the president of Ukraine.

=> ↺ Police arrest Moscow residents honoring Dnipro missile strike victims with flowers — Meduza

• Four people were arrested by Moscow police when laying flowers by the monument to the Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka.

=> ↺ MLK’s Vision Lives On in Atlanta’s Fight Against New Police Training Facility

=> ↺ Students Need Emotional and Community Support, Not Cops in Schools

=> ↺ Republican Arrested for Shootings on Dems’ Homes Months After His Election Loss

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Louisiana Sheriff’s Office Illegally Destroyed Misconduct Records For More Than A Decade

• These endemic problems are even worse in sheriff’s departments. Most sheriffs are elected, making them only answerable to voters. The cities and counties they ostensibly serve are hamstrung, unable to force these agencies to do much of anything because they technically operate alongside county governments, rather than working for them.

=> ↺ Ana Montes: Closer To A Whistleblower Than A Dangerous Spy

=> ↺ Why Biden and Trump Are Both Trapped in Secret-Document Scandals

• With the naming on Thursday of a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s possession of sensitive documents in the four-year window after he was vice president and before he was president, we now have the third national politician caught up in scandal over classified information. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was notoriously dogged by an FBI inquiry into her use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state. FBI director James Comey’s decision in the final weeks of the presidential campaign to reignite this controversy with two public letters likely cost Clinton the presidency. On August 8, 2022, the FBI descended on Mar-A-Lago, the Florida home of former president Donald Trump, to investigate his alleged possession and possible destruction of government records. There’s an ongoing special counsel investigation whether Trump violated the law.1

Environment

=> ↺ The latest from Arte Weekly: Climate activists put pressure on Europe, and a German state scraps Friday classes to solve teacher shortage

=> ↺ US Climate Envoy Backs UAE Oil Executive as President of UN Climate Summit

=> ↺ Why California’s Climate Change and Housing Crises Hit Women Hardest

• An advocate explains how gender equity goes beyond Roe v. Wade.

=> ↺ New Report Highlights Pesticides’ Overlooked Climate Connection

• As chemicals designed to kill insects and weeds, fungi and rodents, pesticides are among the most toxic and damaging substances on the planet. Their harmful impacts on human and ecosystem health are generally well understood. What receives far less attention, however, is the climate impact of these agrochemicals. Not only do pesticides directly contribute to the climate crisis, but a changing climate is likely to intensify pressure from agricultural pests and decrease plant resiliency, resulting in greater pesticide usage and therefore further greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report. 

• This “vicious cycle” of pesticide use fueling climate change, and vice versa, is examined in a report published Tuesday by the advocacy group Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA). According to PANNA, the assessment is the first in-depth scientific review of the relationship between pesticides and climate change. 

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Sinema High-Fives Manchin Over Filibuster Support While ‘Schmoozing With CEOs’ at Davos

• Independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia took heat Tuesday for high-fiving over their shared support of the filibuster while “rubbing elbows with Wall Street CEOs and celebrities in the lap of luxury” at the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland.

=> ↺ Greta Thunberg Detained Defending German Village From Coal Mining

• After arriving in Germany last week to support local campaigners battling the expansion, 20-year-old Thunberg joined activists staging a sit-in nearly six miles from the Lützerath, at the edge of the mine owned by energy utility RWE.

=> ↺ Despite Net-Zero Vows, Wall Street ‘Climate Arsonists’ Still Pumping Billions Into Fossil Fuels

• Top banks in the United States and around the world have made a show of embracing net-zero emissions pledges, portraying themselves as allies in the fight against the global climate emergency.

=> ↺ ‘This Insanity Belongs in Science Fiction’: At Davos, UN Chief Rips Fossil Fuel Expansion

• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a scathing address to corporate and political elites in Davos on Wednesday, ripping fossil fuel giants and governments for expanding oil and gas extraction in the face of increasingly devastating climate chaos across the globe.

=> ↺ The Final Nail in the Coffin for Alaska’s Pebble Mine?

• In December, the Pedro Bay Native Corporation (PBC) in Alaska placed 44,000 acres of its property under a $20 million conservation easement that may be the nail in the coffin for the proposed Pebble Gold and Copper Mine in Bristol Bay.

• The Pebble Mine ore deposit is considered the second-largest ore body of its type in the world. However, most of the ore is low grade which requires significant processing. Hence the need to move the ore from the mine site on a tributary to Bristol Bay waters to a shipping port at Pile Bay on Cook Inlet.

=> ↺ Republicans Are Cooking Up Their Dumbest Controversy Yet

• After spending an unseemly amount of time in the nation’s bedrooms and bathrooms, the culture wars have migrated into the kitchen. Once the grievance-minded Republican Party finally took control of the House, the mediasphere lit up with an acrimonious controversy over comments from Richard Trumka Jr., who serves on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, citing research showing that gas-range cooking can create adverse health effects, particularly for children. Trumka told Bloomberg News that such safety concerns might justify a future ban on the appliances.

=> ↺ Turns Out, Lightning Can Strike Twice, With A Little Help

• Few things are more impressive than a lighting strike. Lightning can carry millions of volts and while it can be amazing to watch, it is somewhat less amazing to be hit by lightning. Rockets and antennas often have complex lightning protection systems to try to coax the electricity to avoid striking where you don’t want it. However, a European consortium has announced they’ve used a very strong laser to redirect lightning in Switzerland. You can see a video below, but you might want to turn on the English closed captions.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ One River Dies, Another Is Born

=> ↺ Holland Lake and the Consent of the Governed

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Skipped Showers, Paper Plates: An Arizona Suburb’s Water Is Cut Off

• Earlier this month, the community’s longtime water supplier, the neighboring city of Scottsdale, turned off the tap for Rio Verde Foothills, blaming a grinding drought that is threatening the future of the West. Scottsdale said it had to focus on conserving water for its own residents, and could no longer sell water to roughly 500 to 700 homes — or around 1,000 people. That meant the unincorporated swath of $500,000 stucco houses, mansions and horse ranches outside Scottsdale’s borders would have to fend for itself and buy water from other suppliers — if homeowners could find them, and afford to pay much higher prices.

• Almost overnight, the Rio Verde Foothills turned into a worst-case scenario of a hotter, drier climate, showing what happens when unregulated growth collides with shrinking water supplies

=> ↺ China records 1st population fall in decades as births drop

• The National Bureau of Statistics reported Tuesday that the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of 2022 than the previous year. The tally includes only the population of mainland China, excluding Hong Kong and Macao as well as foreign residents.

Finance

=> ↺ The UK: a Return to the Past Masquerading as the Future.

• It is an understatement to say that 2022 has been a dismal year in British politics, except of course for the plutocrats who have their nasty paws on the levers of power with the active connivance of the Tory government.

• Alas, 2023 is not likely to be any different and will probably be even more chaotic than last year.

=> ↺ Oxfam Wants to More than Double the Tax Rate on Our Richest

=> ↺ For Every $1 Gained by a Bottom 90 Percenter Since 2020, a Billionaire Got $1.7M

=> ↺ Ellen Brown: Solving the Debt Crisis the American Way

• On Friday, Jan. 13, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to Congress that the U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit on Jan. 19, forcing the new Congress into negotiations over the debt limit much sooner than expected. She said she will use accounting maneuvers she called “extraordinary measures” […]

=> ↺ White House Warns GOP Not to Tie Debt Ceiling to Social Security Cuts

=> ↺ ‘Beyond Outrageous’: Bombshell Report Uncovers Restaurant Lobby’s Anti-Worker Scheme

• Labor advocates voiced outrage Tuesday in response to a New York Times investigation detailing how the powerful National Restaurant Association uses mandatory food-safety courses—which workers often pay for out of their own pockets—to help finance its campaigns against wage increases.

=> ↺ The American Shame of Mass Layoffs

• More than 150,000 tech workers lost their jobs in 2022, according to one estimate, and an additional 23,000 have been laid off since the start of 2023.

=> ↺ Khanna Warns House GOP Wants to ‘Hijack the Entire US Economy’ to Cut Social Security

• Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said Tuesday that House Republicans are threatening to “hijack the entire U.S. economy” and “subject it to collapse” in pursuit of cuts to Social Security and other right-wing policy goals, a warning that came as the Treasury Department prepared to take emergency measures to prevent the U.S. from breaching the debt ceiling.

=> ↺ If This Global Austerity Continues, So Will Angry Protest

• This week world leaders meet in Davos to discuss cooperation to address multiple crises, from COVID-19 and escalating inflation to slowing economic growth, debt distress and climate shocks.

=> ↺ The GOP’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Debt Ceiling Scam

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen just announced that the federal government will hit the limit on total federal debt on January 19, just two days from now.

=> ↺ It Is Comforting—But Foolish—to Believe the House GOP Inquisition Will Fail

• If you are anyone but a MAGA enthusiast, and you care about the future of democracy in the United States, then you think that what the Republican Party and especially the House Republican majority has planned for the next two years is very bad.

=> ↺ A Georgia Republican Brags That Voter Suppression Helped Them in 2022

• Just last week, we learned that a Wisconsin Republican election commissioner boasted of the party’s success in dampening Black turnout, especially in Milwaukee, last November. Thanks to the state GOP’s “well thought out multi-faceted plan,” commissioner Robert Spindell e-mailed colleagues, 37,000 fewer voters cast ballots there than in 2018, “with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas.” It could have cost Democrat Mandela Barnes a Senate seat.

=> ↺ A Fun Way to Deal With the Debt Ceiling

• Like all good Keynesian economists, I’m a big fan of the platinum coin. The law explicitly allows the Treasury to print platinum coins in any denomination. That means it absolutely could deal with the debt ceiling by printing a platinum coin denominated for $1 trillion and selling it to the Fed.

• This would not count as debt for debt ceiling purposes. The government would have sold an asset, the coin, in exchange for $1 trillion that it could then use to meet its bills. From an accounting standpoint, it would be the same thing as selling off blocs of government land for $1 trillion.

=> ↺ WATCH LIVE: Bernie Sanders Speech on ‘State of the Working Class’

• U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday evening is set to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C. about “the state of the working class” and how to address the urgent and overlapping crises it now faces.

=> ↺ France’s Pension Reform Battle Will Be Decided in the Streets

• Marseille—Emmanuel Macron has waited a long time for this.

=> ↺ The FTC’s New Rule Against Noncompetes Could Raise Wages by $300 Billion

• “You’re not really free if you don’t have the right to switch jobs or choose what to do with your labor,” Lina Kahn, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, wrote earlier this month. But thanks to noncompete clauses that ban employees from working for similar businesses if they leave their jobs, that is the reality for millions of Americans. Under Khan, the FTC wants to eliminate that practice. On January 5, the agency, which is responsible for regulating businesses so they don’t engage in unfair and uncompetitive practices, announced a proposed rule that would make noncompete clauses illegal.

=> ↺ Was the True Meaning of Capitalism Forgotten?

• So often we take the meaning of terms for granted without knowing their complicated histories and changing definitions. “Capitalism” is one such example. In his new book, Capitalism: The Story Behind the Word, Michael Sonenscher argues that the term remains difficult to define, even though it has myriad associations. A historian of political thought at Cambridge University, Sonenscher observes that we may link it to industrial organization, technical specialization, producers, competition, or markets. The main aim of his book, however, is to suggest that, although “capitalism” might now be understood as a kind of umbrella term that encompasses a range of subjects, it once had a very specific meaning that we have largely forgotten.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Looking back at 2022: Protecting and advancing digital rights in times of crisis

• In moments where we should be urgently tackling the climate crisis and working towards peace and justice worldwide, state funds and efforts seem to reinforce militarisation, fuel the climate crises and injustice. In response to increased surveillance and control practices coming from governments and private companies, EDRi members and partners have put forward a vision in which people live with dignity and vitality. What have we collectively achieved in 2022?

=> ↺ Taliban start buying blue ticks on Twitter

• The Taliban have started using Twitter’s paid-for verification feature, meaning some now have blue ticks on their accounts. House vandalized in Gopalganj over Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad

=> ↺ Elon Musk begins trial over Tesla tweet that cost him $20m

• In 2018, he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take the carmaker private.

• However the funding was not secured – and Tesla was not taken private.

• Shareholders argued that they lost billions of dollars due to the tweet after the share price plummeted.

=> ↺ ‘Investment Already Paying Off’: McCarthy Assigns Big Oil Favorites to Key Environment Panel

• A leading government accountability watchdog on Tuesday called out leaders of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives while revealing that the 21 GOP members appointed by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the Natural Resources Committee took a combined $3.8 million in campaign contributions from Big Oil.

=> ↺ If Democrats Need a Strong 2024 Ticket, Biden Should Not Be on It

• For many months, conventional media wisdom has told us that Joe Biden would be the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump in 2024 because he did it before. The claim was always on shaky ground — after all, Trump was the ultimate symbol of the status quo when he lost in 2020, as Biden would be in next year’s election. That’s hardly auspicious when polling shows that the current electorate believes the country is “off on the wrong track” rather than “headed in the right direction” by a margin of more than a 3-to-1.

=> ↺ New York Press: Hey, People, Leave That Judge Alone

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is going forward with her nomination of Hector LaSalle, a conservative mid-level appellate judge, to the state’s Court of Appeals (the top court), despite doubts that LaSalle has the votes in New York’s state Senate (amNY, 1/6/23; New York Post, 1/8/23).

=> ↺ GOP Releases Bill To Stop Administration From Pressuring Social Media Companies… And, It’s Actually Not Totally Crazy?

• Now that the House is (barely) in the control of the Republican Party, we expected an awful lot of dumb anti-tech laws (the Democrats are also pushing dumb anti-tech laws, but of a different nature). The GOP has, in the recent past, laid out a big long list of bills as part of its “big tech” platform, and most of them are ridiculous and often unconstitutional (and many of them conflict with each other). Furthermore, it was noted that part of Speaker McCarthy’s negotiations with hardliners, who initially withheld their votes in his quest to become Speaker, included setting up a silly special committee to “investigate” government “weaponization” of social media. This has come to pass.

=> ↺ Musk Appears To Have Deliberately Cut Off Popular 3rd Party Apps, And Still Hasn’t Officially Said Anything

• Back when Elon Musk was first exploring taking over Twitter, he spoke with Jack Dorsey who (as text messages released as part of Musk’s lawsuit over the purchase revealed) told Musk that the “original sin” of Twitter was setting it up as a private company, rather than being an open source protocol. This wasn’t a surprise. Dorsey had more or less said similar things publicly. Musk responded to those texts by saying “super interesting idea” and then that “I’d like to help if I am able to.”

=> ↺ ‘I’m not going to surrender my country to them, and I believe that the darkness will eventually fade away’ Alexey Navalny’s letter after two years in custody — Meduza

• January 17, 2023, marks two years since Alexey Navalny returned to Russia and was detained by authorities on trumped-up criminal charges after his attempted poisoning. The opposition leader has been in detention ever since. Today, a post appeared on Navalny’s social media for the anniversary of his detention. Meduza publishes it in full.

=> ↺ Dozens of Russian lawmakers release open letter in support of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny — Meduza

• More than 50 current and former lawmakers at various levels of the Russian government have signed an open letter in support of jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny.

=> ↺ Navalny associates launch campaign to free imprisoned politician — Meduza

• On the second anniversary of Alexey Navalny’s return to Russia and immediate arrest, his associates announced the launch of #FreeNavalny, a campaign that will “unite people around the world in their efforts” to free the politician from prison.

=> ↺ Russian defense minister says military reforms will last from 2023 until 2026 — Meduza

• On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu revealed new details about the country’s planned military reforms that were first announced in late December.

=> ↺ ‘We’re forced to appeal to you’ Following doctors’ lead, Russian lawyers publish an open letter to Putin demanding proper medical care for Alexey Navalny — Meduza

• On New Year’s Eve, jailed Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was transferred to a “punishment cell,” marking the 10th time prison authorities had used the measure against him since he was sent to his current prison this summer. On January 9, Navalny’s lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, reported that Navalny was suffering from a fever and a cough, and that he was not being given the medical care he needs. The following day, a group of Russian doctors published an open letter to Vladimir Putin, demanding he bring an end to Navalny’s “torment”; the letter ultimately received more than 600 signatures. Now, a group of lawyers have followed suit, publishing a letter to the president in which they demand that prison authorities stop using the “punishment cell” against Navalny and that civilian doctors be allowed to treat him. Meduza is publishing an English translation of their appeal.

=> ↺ How Russia Destroys its Male Population

• Russian women have the reputation of being strong and demanding, but they can be sweet and caring when they want to be. Nationalistic by nature, Russian women have long been patriotic and willing to send their husbands and sons off to war. But this has come at a steep price to the country. Today, with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine failing dismally, the women of Russia are turning their backs on him and are calling for their male family members to be returned home from the front lines.

• Russian men have died in large numbers in many wars since the time of the Cossacks, due to a variety of factors. The Cossacks, who were a semi-nomadic warrior class, were heavily involved in conflicts with neighboring powers, such as the Ottoman Empire and Poland. In the more recent history, during World War I and II, the Soviet Union suffered staggering losses, with an estimated 10 million military deaths and an additional 8-13 million civilian deaths. In addition to the devastating human toll, these conflicts also had a significant impact on the country’s economy and infrastructure. Furthermore, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was involved in several armed conflicts, such as the Afghanistan war, which also caused many deaths of Russian men.

=> ↺ Poetic Nonviolent Victory over War

• War is a language of lies. Cold and callous, it emanates from dull, technocratic minds, draining life of color. It is an institutional offense to the human spirit.

• The Pentagon speaks the language of war. The President and the Congress speak the language of war. Corporations speak the language of war. They sap us of outrage and courage and the appreciation of beauty. They commit carnage of the soul.

=> ↺ Collateral Damage and Other Slippery Slopes

• The beginning of the war on terror at the turn of the century coincided with the creation of new euphemisms to describe things that were already well defined. Although military idioms have long tortured language for the sake of specious arguments, there was a new audacity in the way it was being reshaped to excuse the previously inexcusable.

• Torture, for example, became ‘enhanced interrogation’ and it didn’t take long for images to leak from Abu Ghraib in Iraq showing the sadism that condoning it had unleashed on those held there, 70-90 percent of whom were innocent.

=> ↺ ‘After Russia’: In a new album, exiled popular musicians revisit the Russian émigré poetry of 100 years ago — Meduza

• A hundred years ago, in the fall of 1922 and winter of 1923, the Bolsheviks expelled hundreds of artists and intellectuals from Russia, forcing them to leave the country on what became known as the “philosophers’ ships.” Many of the exiled writers and poets continued to write in Russian, destined never to meet their readers back in their home country. A century later, Russia’s artists are once again leaving, this time because of the war in Ukraine and political persecution at home. To capture the echoes of Russia’s tragic history in the present, director and music producer Roma Liberov invited newly-exiled popular musicians to revisit the poetry of the “obscure generation” of Russian poets who wrote in exile, after leaving Russia 100 years ago. By setting their words to music, artists — including Noize MC, Monetochka, Nogu Svelo!, Pornofilmy, Naive, and others — probed their own experience of exile and how it “rhymes” with the lives of émigré poets the revolution scattered across the world. The resulting album, “After Russia,” got its name from a collection of poems published by Marina Tsvetaeva in 1928. The album premiered on Meduza on January 13. We are publishing a selection of tracks, together with some reflections on the project by the artists themselves.

=> ↺ ‘PMC Wagner’ officially registered as joint-stock company in Russia — Meduza

• BBC News Russian points out that the Russian Unified State Register of Legal Entities has a new entry, listing “PMC Wagner” as a joint-stock company.

=> ↺ ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ troops announce Russian capture of Soledar, marking third time Moscow’s forces have made this claim — Meduza

• The Territorial Defense Force of the Russian-annexed “Donetsk People’s Republic” reported Tuesday that Russian forces had taken control of the town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, marking the third time in seven days that the purported capture has been announced.

=> ↺ Defeated GOP Candidate for New Mexico House Arrested Over Shootings at Democrats’ Homes

• Solomon Peña, a Republican former candidate for New Mexico’s state House, was arrested by Albuquerque police on Monday in connection with a string of recent drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democratic lawmakers.

=> ↺ Abortion Rights Voters Are Reshaping Politics

• Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin would very much like to be considered a contender for the 2024 GOP presidential field. But to do that he’s got to build his credibility with social conservatives. To that end, he is attempting to restrict abortion access in one of the 26 states where abortion remains legal. But Virginia special-election voters just upended the plans of the high-profile Republican governor by electing a Democrat to a previously Republican legislative seat and solidifying the pro-choice majority in the state senate.

=> ↺ Abortion Bans Don’t Prosecute Pregnant People. That May Be About to Change.

• Legislation in Oklahoma and remarks from the Alabama attorney general could foreshadow new efforts to punish people who induce their own abortions.

=> ↺ The Surprising Strength of Brazil’s Democracy

• From the angry mob’s chants about a stolen election to the physical desecration of edifices of democracy to a shaken national political class trying to make sense of how things descended into mayhem, seeming parallels between the violent attack on the Brazilian Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court and Congress buildings by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro this January 8 and the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, abound. But appearances can be deceiving. Unlike January 6—which delayed the peaceful transfer of power in the United States for the first time in the country’s history—nothing of substance was interrupted in Brazil. The rioting in Brasília unfolded after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had taken place, on January 1. The rioters stormed empty public buildings in Brasília, as Brazilian politicians enjoyed the weekend elsewhere. As for Bolsonaro, the so-called Trump of the Tropics, he had already decamped for Florida.

=> ↺ Hungarian EU commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi could face investigation

=> ↺ Navracsics to travel to Brussels next Wednesday for meetings on Erasmus

=> ↺ DOJ and Congress Face New Calls to Probe Trump’s Financial Ties to Saudi Arabia

=> ↺ Boebert Demands Blocking of Dems From Committee for Being “Conspiracy Theorists”

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Rep. Ro Khanna on CA Flooding, Big Oil’s Climate Denial, Debt Ceiling, Assange & Possible Senate Bid

• The death toll from two weeks of flooding in California has reached at least 20. As climate scientists are predicting more extreme weather linked to climate change over the next two years, outrage is growing over how fossil fuel companies were fully aware of the link between fossil fuel emissions and global warming but spent decades obscuring the science in order to make maximum profits. We speak with Democratic California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who recently concluded a congressional investigation into the allegations and says the oil industry needs to be held accountable for the damage it has wrought. Khanna also discusses the looming fight over raising the federal debt ceiling, the refugee crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, espionage charges against Julian Assange, charges Biden faces of having classified documents at his home, calls for Republican George Santos to resign and more.

=> ↺ From Infiltrating Wikipedia to Paying Trump Millions in Golf Deals, Saudis Whitewash Rights Record

• The Justice Department and Congress are facing new calls to investigate Donald Trump’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia. The latest controversy centers on a new golf tournament owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. LIV has paid millions to golf resorts owned by Donald Trump, who has publicly supported the new league which is attempting to compete with the PGA. Meanwhile, an exposé has revealed that the Saudi government infiltrated Wikipedia to control information on the kingdom. Government administrators were recruited to edit the crowdsourced site in ways that portrayed Saudi Arabia in a positive light, and two noncompliant editors who contributed critical information about political detainees were themselves prosecuted and imprisoned. The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, appears to have banned 16 Saudi users for “conflict of interest” editing, yet it is unclear what additional steps they have taken to combat the Saudi government’s disinformation campaign. We speak to Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the organization that released the report on Wikipedia’s infiltration, who says that Saudi Arabia’s financial investments in American political leaders’ business dealings and deployment of government agents inside international organizations are key to its global project to conceal evidence of its human rights abuses.

=> ↺ When “died suddenly” comes for a colleague and friend

• Regular readers might wonder why there was no post earlier this week, as I usually do at least three posts a week. (True, that’s less than I used to do back in my heyday 15 years ago, but these days I try to maintain a Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule.) Truth be told, after the sudden death of Dr. Harriet Hall (a.k.a. The SkepDoc), I just didn’t much feel like it. Now I do, and the reason that I do is probably something that regular readers might be able to guess.

=> ↺ Promoting Falsehoods and Marginalizing Truth-Tellers – Censored Notebook

• The Washington Post’s coverage of a January 2023 study arguing that the post-2016 coverage of Russia election meddling may have been overblown, reveals a corrosive trend in legacy news media where the personalities and outlets that perpetuate inaccurate or false news are rewarded, and the truth-tellers who expose legacy media lies are marginalized and ostracized.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Elon Musk Can’t Solve Twitter’s ‘Shadowbanning’ Problem

• “Shadowbanning,” in its current usage, refers to a content-moderation tactic that reduces the visibility of a piece of borderline content rather than removing it entirely. It originally referred to something much more dramatic: quieting annoying personalities on message boards by making their posts totally invisible to everyone else. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have denied doing anything that extreme, but they do limit content’s reach in various ways—it’s frequently unclear how or why, which makes people suspicious. Shadowbanning can mean that posts aren’t promoted to a wide audience, or it can mean something more severe, such as hiding accounts from search results (platforms tend to blame this on bugs).

=> ↺ House vandalized in Gopalganj over Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad

• According to locals, a Hindu man posted a status on his Facebook account that had hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community of several villages in Kotalipara and Barisal upazilas of the district.

• Later, some local Muslims vandalized the house belonging to the accused’s extended family.

=> ↺ Hindu homes, businesses vandalised over FB post

• At least four houses and eight shops of the Hindu community were vandalised by religious bigots in Gopalganj’s Kotalipara upazila over a Facebook post on Sunday evening.

• The post was uploaded from the account of a Hindu youth.

=> ↺ CAIR Doubles Down On Firing of Mohammed Art Teacher

• Hussein is avoiding the fact that Shiites do depict Mohammed. The Muslim Brotherhood fronts are demanding that Americans enforce the Sunni sharia and accusing a professor of Islamophobia for showing Shiite art. This is theocratic gibberish that liberals are rejecting and even wokes are staggering under.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Nobel winner Maria Ressa and her online news outlet are cleared of tax evasion

• Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and her online news company were cleared Wednesday of tax evasion charges she said were among a slew of legal cases used by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to try to muzzle critical reporting.

=> ↺ Raid on journalists of „Radio Dreyeckland“ in Germany

• Police in Freiburg searched „Radio Dreyeckland“ on Tuesday morning. According to a press release, several search warrants issued by the public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe were executed. The background is a preliminary investigation on „suspicion of a violation of a ban on association“. The website of the radio collective had published an article with a link to „Linksunten Indymedia“.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Opinion | Keep Michigan water affordable and in public hands

• Privatization of water and sewer services elsewhere has led to inferior maintenance and higher costs to customers. Allowing private interests to commodify groundwater drains a vital public resource without benefit to the public. The future of our water is too important to leave to short-sighted, profit-seeking private interests.

• Here are a few steps Michigan must take to keep our water public and protected: [...]

=> ↺ A Man Pointed a Finger Gun at Cops, Was Jailed for Over a Year Without Trial, and Starved to Death Behind Bars

• Arrested for pointing his fingers at police in a threatening manner, Arkansas man Larry Eugene Price Jr. wound up in jail for more than a year without being convicted and eventually died of malnutrition and dehydration behind bars.

=> ↺ Kabul’s mannequins hooded and masked under Taliban rules

• Bashir said his sales are half what they used to be.

• “Buying wedding, evening and traditional dresses is no longer a priority for people,” he said. “People think more about getting food and surviving.”

=> ↺ Iran protests: Jailed activist Sepideh Qolian describes brutality in letter

• Ms Qolian is currently studying law in prison. In her letter she describes how Evin’s “cultural” wing – where she takes her exams – has been turned into a “torture and interrogation” building, and says she has witnessed young detainees being interrogated there.

=> ↺ A School Superintendent Says Our Story About Expulsions in His District Is Incorrect. Here’s Why He’s Wrong.

• Over the four academic years ending in spring 2020, Gallup-McKinley County Schools reported to New Mexico officials that it had expelled students at least 211 times, far more often than school districts in the rest of the state.

• Are you part of the Gallup-McKinley County Schools community? We’d like to hear from you.

=> ↺ Tories Advance ‘Indefensible’ Anti-Worker Bill as Thousands March to Defend Right to Strike

• Lawmakers from the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party advanced anti-strike legislation on Monday night despite the objections of tens of thousands of petitioners and thousands of demonstrators outside, but economic justice advocates made clear that the fight for fundamental workers’ rights is far from over.

=> ↺ Somebody Is Trying to Kill Me

• On a day honoring Martin Luther King Jr. – fierce warrior for racial justice and, despite his “Santa-Clausifying,” against poverty, militarism and “the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” – we are left wondering on what planet does distraught black man Keenan Anderson begging “Please help me” to police become “Please brutishly kill me”? In an America, still, that MLK called “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” Eloquently, achingly, he, Baldwin, Coates tell of white men who “have caused the darkness.”

=> ↺ Record Police Killings in 2022 Show Need to Continue Organizing for Abolition

• Building power and transformation is about encouraging the grassroots while confronting a resilient carceral state.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ The One Lone Audiobook now exclusive on my store

• Instead, it’s now exclusively on my bookstore. You can listen in the BookFunnel app, a browser, or download DRM-free MP3.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ Big Pharma Pushed Twitter to Hide Vaccine Equity Tweets, New Report Reveals

Copyrights

=> ↺ Iconic Fansubbing Site Legendas.tv Shuts Down Voluntarily

• For more than sixteen years, Brazil’s Legendas.tv has been the go-to repository for Portuguese subtitles. Its reign has now come to an end after the popular site voluntarily closed its doors. Legendas’ operators stress that legal streaming services have made foreign content more accessible. At the same time, the site’s financial position has been deteriorating.

=> ↺ Court Denies RIAA’s $250,000 Attorney Fees Request Against Yout

• The legal battle between the RIAA and Yout.com will go to appeal before potential attorneys’ fees are awarded, a federal court has ruled. The RIAA asked for $250,000 after winning its case against the YouTube ripper. However, according to Yout, a payment now would seriously harm its legal defense as funds are running low.

=> ↺ Combating IPTV Piracy: EC Calls for Evidence to Support Mitigation ‘Toolbox’

• The European Commission has issued a call for evidence to support an incoming “toolbox” to combat piracy of live events. For the next month, stakeholders are invited to share experiences and potential solutions to tackle pirate IPTV services. The only caveat is that proposals must be actionable under existing law, which rightsholders say isn’t up to the job.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Knives and Halberts and Bastionland

• It was good to have a bit of a back and forth because it brings things back into focus. Is it “done” or am I still working on it? I think I’m still working on it because I want it to be more than just the bare rules and a two or three tips on setting generation like Halberts. I have that. The generator I have generates non-player characters, it places monsters, undead, giants, dragons, mages, it assigns overlapping loyalties based on secret societies, theological preferences and political preferences, hints at the Swiss landscape with forests, swamps, a lake, rivers, valleys, mountains, passes.

=> ↺ Amateur Radio Log 2023-01-17 Mid-day (Fairbanks, AK, US)

• It appeared as though the Kp-index was dropping down to quiet levels, so I went out again for another 20-meter lunch break adventure, again using Fire Station 42. When I reviewed the Kp-index again later, it looked like it might have spiked back up right as I was heading out, up to level 3.

=> ↺ Train trip day 2

• Today has been rather relaxing. I’m writing this in the observation car on the train to the Southwest proper. There’s an amish fellow gesturing at me and talking to his family in Pennsylvania Dutch (weird Anabaptist German); I’m pretty sure I heard the word ‘computer’. The anabaptists who ride the trains are weird folks, generally insular with absolutely insane theology. Eventually he made me uncomfortable by staring at me, so I went back to my compartment.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: ABLMURN Wordo: DOPEY

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