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● 02.22.23

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● Links 22/02/2023: KDE Plasma 5.27.1 and New Fears Over Nukes

Posted in News Roundup at 9:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Risks to Consider When Using Linux

• Linux is a free and open-source operating system that’s popular among developers, businesses, and individuals. The flexibility and customizability of Linux make it an excellent choice for those looking for more control over their computer systems. However, like any other operating system, using Linux comes with some risks. This article will discuss the risks associated with using Linux and how to create a Linux risk register for managing the risks you face when using Linux.

Server

=> ↺ Agility Vs. Complexity in Cloud-Native Applications

• One of the main motivations for using cloud-native application methodologies is to simplify our applications and their infrastructures. Cloud-native methodologies are designed around creating larger and more sophisticated applications without unnecessarily increasing application complexity. And central to everything is agility.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Top Four Takaways From My Appearance on Doc Searls’ ‘FLOSS Weekly’ Podcast

• In case you don’t know, about a month ago I was on FLOSS Weekly, a weekly podcast hosted by Doc Searls, which was really a lot of fun. I’d never met Searls, virtually or otherwise, but it turns out that we have a scary number of things in common. The co-host for the show was Simon Phipps, who I’ve known virtually for a while.

• Neither Searls nor Phipps should need any introduction to followers of Linux and open-source. Among other things, Phipps is currently standards and policy director at Open Source Initiative, where he’s also served as president, and is also a board member at AlmaLinux.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 6.1.13

=> ↺ Linux 5.15.95

=> ↺ Linux 5.10.169

=> ↺ Linux 5.4.232

=> ↺ Linux 4.19.273

=> ↺ Linux 4.14.306

=> ↺ Kernel 6.2: More Rust support for drivers

• With more SoC support, a new V4L2 driver and a new dma-buf locking convention among its contributions, Collabora was one of the most active employers for this latest kernel development cycle.

Applications

=> ↺ Machine Learning in Linux: Real-ESRGAN – image and video restoration software

• This series looks at highly promising machine learning and deep learning software for Linux. We’ll cover a wide range of applications of this technology. The first article in the series looked at GFPGAN, deep learning software for real-world face restoration. Real-ESRGAN and GFPGAN have been integrated with each other, but they are also individual projects from the same developer. Real-ESRGAN is a project that aims to create practical algorithms for general image/video restoration as opposed to face restoration.

=> ↺ Darktable 4.2.1 Brings Support for New Cameras, Better Support for Fujifilm’s RAF

• In darktable 4.2.1, the devs implemented a new way to identify JPEG images by using magic bytes instead of file extensions so that they won’t end up in files with unexpected extensions, a collapsible section to the sigmoid module so that unused controls in standard processing scenarios are hidden by default, and the ability to assign shortcuts to the “quick access” style and preset menus.

• This release also brings some minor updates to image overlays in the culling view so that they are less intrusive, properly honors the “hide histogram” setting when restarting the app, and ensures that wide pop-ups are correctly displayed on the same monitor as the associated widget.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install MySQL on Fedora 37

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MySQL on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, MySQL is a popular and widely-used open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that is used by many web-based applications …

=> ↺ How to install KeeWeb Password Manager on Ubuntu

• KeeWeb is a password manager that can be used on any platform and is compatible with KeePass. It allows for safe storage of both online and offline passwords and can be synced with file storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox.

=> ↺ RESTful Tomcat Application

• Introduction Web services: Tomcat can also be used to host web services built using technologies such as SOAP or RESTful api. This allows developers to expose their web services to other applications and integrate them into larger systems.

=> ↺ High Availability Storage with Pacemaker

• Introduction High Availability Storage with Pacemaker is a solution for ensuring that critical data and applications remain available and accessible even in the event of hardware failures or other disruptions.

=> ↺ How To Install Java and Java SE Development Kit on AlmaLinux 9

• Today, you will learn how To Install Java and Java SE Development Kit on AlmaLinux 9

=> ↺ Iptables and logging: How to monitor network traffic

• In today’s digital age, monitoring network traffic has become increasingly crucial for businesses and individuals. With the rise of cyber threats and attacks, being able to keep an eye on your network traffic can help you detect potential security breaches before they become a major problem. In this article, we’ll discuss using iptables to monitor and log network traffic for analysis.

=> ↺ How to Install 7-Zip on Manjaro Linux

• 7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver software developed by Igor Pavlov in 1999. It has gained popularity over the years as one of the best compression software due to its high compression ratio and support for a wide range of archive file formats.

=> ↺ How to Upgrade Apache on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

• If you are currently running Ubuntu LTS, your version of Apache is probably not the latest stable release from the Apache Foundation.

=> ↺ How to Install Git on Rocky Linux EL9 or EL8

• Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system that tracks source code changes during software development.

=> ↺ 8 Simple Ways to Securely Delete Files in Linux

• We have seen how to fully erase the contents of your hard disk, but what happens if all you want is to permanently delete one, two or a dozen files? This guide shows you some of the most popular solutions for complete file deletion in Linux.

Games

=> ↺ How to Upgrade Your 64GB Steam Deck’s Storage Capacity Now to 512GB for Just $60

=> ↺ Release candidate: Godot 4.0 RC 3

• We’re almost ready to release Godot 4.0! Barring any last minute critical regression, this RC should reflect what the 4.0-stable release will be.

=> ↺ Utilising FOSS in Video Game Development

• In recent years, the utilisation of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) has gained significant popularity within the gaming industry.

=> ↺ Let Machine Learning Code An Infinite Variety Of Pong Games

• In a very real way, Pong started the video game revolution. You wouldn’t have thought so at the time, with its simple gameplay, rudimentary controls, some very low-end sounds, and a cannibalized TV for a display, but the legendarily stuffed coinboxes tell the tale. Fast forward 50 years or so, and Pong has been largely reduced to a programmer’s exercise to see how few lines of code can stand in for what [Ted Dabney] and [Allan Alcorn] accomplished. But now even that’s too much, as OpenAI Codex can generate a playable Pong from just a few prompts, at least most of the time.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.27.1 Improves Support for Wine Games in Plasma Wayland, Fixes Bugs

•  KDE Plasma 5.27.1 comes just a week after the release of KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS to further improve your Plasma desktop experience, especially when playing video games through Wine on the Plasma Wayland session as the mouse cursor will no longer disappear when it touches the bottom or right screen edge when using a graphics card that does not support atomic mode-setting.

• This first KDE Plasma 5.27 point release also brings support for the latest NetworkManager 1.42 network connection management tool so that the Plasma-NM (NetworkManager) widget no longer displays the redundant loopback interface.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Canonical: Future Ubuntu Releases Won’t Support Flatpak by Default

• Canonical, the maker of Ubuntu, announced that future Ubuntu releases (including official flavors) will not include support for the Flatpak sandboxed binary format by default, starting with Ubuntu 23.04.

• This should not come as a surprise for anyone as Ubuntu, like many other popular GNU/Linux distributions out there, didn’t offer support for the Flatpak binary format by default. Those who wish to install Flatpak apps will need to manually install the Flatpak Runtime by following the instructions on the official website.

=> ↺ Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Other Ubuntu Flavors Are Making a Big Change

• Canonical is the primary company behind Ubuntu Linux, but it also develops the Snap format, a container and distribution technology for Linux applications. Snap has proven controversial in the Linux ecosystem, thanks to its centralized design and occasional poor performance. Beyond the reach of Ubuntu, its primary competitor is Flatpak, which many Linux distributions install by default — sometimes alongside Snap, and other times instead of Snap. Some Linux desktops have pushed back harder against Snap, like Linux Mint working directly with Mozilla to offer a non-Snap version of the Firefox browser.

=> ↺ A New Era for Ubuntu Flavors: Snap Takes the Lead (No More Flatpak by Default)

• When Flatpak portable packages emerged in the Linux space, Canonical quickly followed with their own version – Snaps. Both formats provide a dependable and efficient solution for creating portable bundles.

• Flatpaks have traditionally been centered around desktop software, offering access to various repositories and being more compatible across multiple platforms. On the other hand, Snap packages are focused on providing both server and desktop applications from a single repository managed by Canonical. Additionally, these packages will only run on Linux distributions that utilize systemd init implementations.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Puri.sm puts out LapDock for its Librem 5 smartphone

• Puri.sm has sold all-FOSS laptops for almost a decade. In 2021, we covered its new Linux-based smartphone, the Librem 5. Last year, its founder and CEO talked to The Reg and explained about its hardware and software.

• The enabling technology here is that the Librem smartphones and laptops run very closely-related OSes. If you don’t read the company’s description closely enough, you might be forgiven for coming away with the impression that it’s the same OS: the company’s in-house Linux distro, PureOS, which you can download and run on your own PC.

• That distro, PureOS, is an x86-64 distro for PC-compatibles, whereas the phone has a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 i.MX8M SoC. So, at the very least, there are two editions of the distro: an x86-64 one for generic PCs, and an Arm one for the Librem phone. As far as we can tell, the Arm edition of the OS doesn’t run on any other vendors’ devices.

=> ↺ How to Automate Watering of Plants With Arduino (and Keep Your Plants Healthy)

• Do you enjoy healthy plants, but would like to automate the watering of them? Here we show you how to accurately measure the soil’s moisture level, and automate the watering of them to keep your plants healthy. What You Need to Automate Your Plant Watering 1. Arduino You will need a microcontroller such as the Arduino Uno. A microcontroller is a good tool for repetitive tasks, where a single board computer such as a Raspberry Pi would be overkill in terms of computing power.

=> ↺ the future are RISC(V) (ARM) CPUs – RK3588 is 3.04x in single-core and 3.65x in multi-core faster than Raspberry 4 (geekbench.com)

• some users laugh about other users meassuring the power usage of devices.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Google Maps can now open while Android Auto is running

=> ↺ Google bolsters firmware security for Android | SC Media

=> ↺ Google says users like Android’s new Predictive Back Gesture

=> ↺ Stripe expands Tap to Pay to Android, turning NFC-enabled Android devices into payment terminals | TechCrunch

=> ↺ Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3.2 arrives with some crucial Pixel display fixes

=> ↺ Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3.2 rolling out for Pixel with Jio 5G enabled

=> ↺ Nokia G10 now confirmed to be Android 13 compatible – Nokiapoweruser

=> ↺ Best Android phones in 2023 – CBS News

=> ↺ Vuzix Announces Android 11 Support for Its Latest Portfolio of Enterprise Smart Glasses

=> ↺ ‘Tiny’ indicator on Android phones that lets you know if you’re being spied on – Daily Star

=> ↺ Google has ‘hidden’ upgrade inside all Android phones – unlocking it makes long list of free improvements | The US Sun

=> ↺ People are just realizing Android secret volume trick solves one of your phone’s biggest problems | The US Sun

=> ↺ Google to bring enhanced firmware safety to your Android phone – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Google’s Privacy Sandbox is Coming Soon for Android Phones – Phandroid

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: A complete Android phone – India Today

=> ↺ 15 hidden Android features you should be using | Tom’s Guide

=> ↺ Google is making your Android phone safer with hardened firmware

=> ↺ Android’s new Fast Pair phone setup is awesome on the Galaxy S23

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ How OSI will renew its board of directors in 2023

• The OSI board of directors will renew three of its seats with an open election process among its full individual members and affiliates.

Events

=> ↺ PostgreSQL@SCaLE20x: the schedule is up!

• PostgreSQL(at)SCaLE is a two day, two track event that takes place on Thursday-Friday March 9-10, 2023, in Pasadena, California, at the Pasadena Convention Center as part of SCaLE 20x.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ xts_0.13.0 on CRAN

• An updated version of xts is now on CRAN.

=> ↺ Billy Warren: A straight Guide to Salsa CI – A Debian Continuous Integration tool

• I won’t waste your time with introductions. The title says it all so let’s jump right in. I’ll give you as many links as possible so that this article stays as short as possible.

• So first, what is Salsa? Salsa is a name of a GitLab instance that is used by Debian teams to manage Debian packages and also collaborate on Development. If you have used GitLab before, the Salsa platform is not any different. To have a feel of it, it is available at https://salsa.debian.org. Still, want to know more? Find more information in the wiki. Intrigued to a point of getting started? Setup up your account by following this information

Leftovers

=> ↺ It may be time to drop all your meetings

=> ↺ The internet’s favorite stalker goes abroad

• Hello, you. I see you, scouring The Michigan Daily Arts section, looking for your new favorite TV show to watch. You probably saw this headline and a familiar face and let out a little gasp of excitement. “It can’t be,” you think. “Is he really back?” You better believe it. 

=> ↺ No humans allowed

• The Z Center held its second annual dog swim in December just before draining the pool for maintenance.

=> ↺ Amid Rubble and Tears, a Glimmer of Hope: The Real Heroes in Syria and Türkiye

• Amidst the tragedy of the devastating earthquake in Syria and Türkiye, the heroism of those who save lives and offer support amid unimaginable odds serves as a reminder of the abundant humanity so often overlooked in the region.

=> ↺ YouTube As Infinite File Storage

• Anyone who was lucky enough to secure a Gmail invite back in early 2004 would have gasped in wonder at the storage on offer, a whole gigabyte! Nearly two decades later there’s more storage to be had for free from Google and its competitors, but it’s still relatively easy to hit the paid tier. Consider this though, how about YouTube as an infinite cloud storage medium?

=> ↺ True Champions of Humanity in Türkiye and Syria: We Thank You

• On February 7, a funeral was held in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. It was one of numerous such funerals to be held on that day across Syria and Türkiye, following a devastating earthquake that killed and injured thousands.

• Each one of these funerals represented two seemingly opposite notions: collective grief and collective hope. The Jinderis funeral was a stark representation of this dichotomy.

=> ↺ Aldo Leopold for Our Time

• One could tick off details about Aldo Leopold’s life—born January 11, 1887, in Burlington, Iowa; educated as a forester at Yale; worked for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona for roughly two decades; married Estella Bergere in October of 1912; accepted an appointment to the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1924; and, in 1935, came into possession of “the shack,” near Baraboo, along the Wisconsin River, a place that figures as a hub in A Sand County Almanac, and on which property he died, of an apparent heart attack, while fighting a grass fire on April 21, 1948. Leopold was 62 years old, famous and revered in some conservation circles, reviled in others. He was buried in Burlington.

• Curt Meine’s biography (Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work)—over 500 pages of text, not counting notes, bibliography, and index—is a slow-read page turner. It’s slow because it’s so packed with vivid information and insights. It’s a page turner for the same reasons—not only Leopold’s interesting life but also the multifaceted conservation movement in America from the late nineteenth-century until the time of his death.

Science

=> ↺ There Might Be a Simple Reason We Haven’t Found Life on Mars

• … yet.

=> ↺ After a 20-Year Search, Scientists Have Finally Found Earth’s True Innermost Core

• This is huge.

=> ↺ New NASA Images Reveal the Grim State of China’s Mars Rover

• China’s Zhurong rover appears to still be snoozing since entering into hibernation mode a little less than a year ago. The Chinese robot was supposed to wake up in December but recent images captured by a NASA orbiter reveal that the rover hasn’t moved from its position on the Martian surface for months.

=> ↺ Mercury Floats in Front of the Sun in New Images From the Solar Orbiter

• On January 3, the Solar Orbiter spotted Mercury passing in front of the Sun.

=> ↺ Roskosmos Says Russian Spacecraft Leak Caused By External Impact

• A coolant leak from an uncrewed Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station resulted from an external impact and not a manufacturing flaw, Russia’s space corporation said on February 21.

=> ↺ There’s Another Core Within Earth’s Core, Scientists Discover

• The innermost inner core (IMIC) “could be a fossilized record of a significant global event from the past,” scientists say.

=> ↺ Japanese Officials Investigate Mysterious Sphere That Washed Up on Beach

• Officials blocked off a 200-meter radius to investigate the sphere, which closely resembles a metal buoy, but have not determined what it is.

Education

=> ↺ Slamming the Door on Scholarship

• War and politics could make on-the-ground study of China and Russia difficult, if not impossible.

Hardware

=> ↺ 3D Printing Antennas With Dielectric Resin

• [Machining and Microwaves] has long wanted to use a 3D printer to print RF components for antennas and microwave lenses. He heard that Rogers — the company known for making PCB substrates, among other things — had a dielectric resin available and asked them if he could try some. They agreed, with some stipulations, including that he had to visit their facility and show his designs in a video. Because of that, the video seems a little bit like a commercial, but we think he is genuinely excited about the possibility of the resin.

=> ↺ Retro Gadgets: Make Your Scope Dual Channel

• We live in a time when having an oscilloscope is only a minor luxury. But for many decades, a good scope was a major expense, and almost no hobbyist had a brand new one unless it was of very poor quality. Scopes were big and heavy and, at the price most people were willing to pay, only had a single channel. Granted, having one channel is better than having nothing. But if the relative benefit of having a single channel scope is 10 points, the benefit of having two channels is easily at least 100 points. So what was a poor hacker to do when a dual-trace or higher scope cost too much? Why, hack, of course. There were many designs that would convert a single trace scope into a poor-quality multichannel scope. Heathkit made several of these over the years like the ID-22, the ID-101, and the ID-4101. They called them “electronic switches.” The S-2 and S-3 were even earlier models, but the idea wasn’t unique to Heathkit and had been around for some time.

=> ↺ OpenStructures Is A Modular Building System For The RepRap Age

• Modular construction toys like LEGO and Meccano are great for prototyping, but they aren’t so great for large builds. OpenStructures promises to be a modular building system for projects large and small.

=> ↺ Travel The World Looking For Retro Tech, Virtually

• For those who have a passion for vintage hardware, whether it be a classic computer or a war-surplus ham radio rig, finding the things without resorting to paying shipping fees on eBay can sometimes be tricky. Your best bet is to find a local fair or swap event, but it always seems they’re the kind of thing you find out about the weekend after they were held.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Gut Microbiomes Offer Insights into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• Levels of health-promoting gut bacteria are linked with severity of fatigue symptoms, a study finds.

=> ↺ Science Falls Behind as Syphilis Stages Another Comeback

• Syphilis is among the oldest known sexually-transmitted infections. Scientists still struggle to detect and treat it.

=> ↺ Did Five Supreme Court Justices Lie to Congress About Abortion Views?

• The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, issued last year, overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), and dismantled the federal constitutional right to abortion. One of the lingering questions in the aftermath of Dobbs is whether any of the five justices who voted to take that drastic step lied about their views on abortion during their respective confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

=> ↺ Newsom, 19 Other Governors, Form Alliance to Combat Anti-Abortion Efforts

=> ↺ Tackling Earth’s tremors and cancerous tumors

• Forecasting earthquakes is complex, relying on specialized analysis of minute signals from the Earth’s crust. Cancer treatment is also a highly complex field, involving thousands of researchers and billions of dollars worldwide. Either would be enough to fill the waking hours of any scientist.

=> ↺ Why this stroke survivor biked 4,500 miles across the US

• After a stroke in 2010, Debra Meyerson ’79, SM ’80, was paralyzed on the right side of her body and needed months of speech therapy before she was able to produce even the simplest of words. Today, she’s speaking out about stroke recovery—especially the mental health and emotional aspects of healing, which she says don’t…

=> ↺ Limits on Fruit and Vegetable Sales in Some UK Supermarkets

• The country faces supply issues due to adverse weather conditions in Southern Europe and North Africa.

=> ↺ UK supermarkets Tesco, Aldi and Asda are rationing fruit and salad vegetables

=> ↺ Democratic Governors Form Reproductive Freedom ‘Firewall’ to Protect Access

• Days before a right-wing federal judge is expected to hand down a major ruling regarding the legality of medication abortion, the Democratic governors of 20 states announced an alliance to protect access for their constituents and strengthen the ability of people in anti-abortion states to get care.

=> ↺ EPA Orders Norfolk Southern to Clean Up Contamination From Ohio Train Crash

• The EPA issued a legally binding order to the company, requiring it to identify and clean up contaminated soil and water, reimburse the agency for cleaning services that will be offered throughout the town to give residents peace of mind regarding the safety of air and drinking water, attend public meetings, and pay for the costs the EPA incurs during the cleanup.

=> ↺ The EPA has ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for all clean up costs at the Ohio derailment site

• Federal regulators from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

=> ↺ EPA orders Norfolk Southern to clean up toxic derailment

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for cleanup of the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck and chemical release. The order came Tuesday as federal regulators took charge of long-term recovery efforts. The EPA warned Norfolk Southern that if it failed to comply, the agency would perform the work itself and seek triple damages from the company. Norfolk Southern’s CEO promised to do what’s necessary to ensure the community’s long-term health. The developments came nearly three weeks after more than three dozen freight cars — including 11 carrying hazardous materials — derailed, prompting an evacuation and the intentional release and burn-off of toxic vinyl chloride in five of the rail cars.

=> ↺ Ohio Train Latest: Clinic Opens for Residents and EPA Demands Payment

• Ohio’s Health Department is opening clinic today to address growing health concerns from East Palestine residents after this month’s toxic train derailment.<

=> ↺ US Department of Transportation, EPA urge actions to ensure safety following Ohio train derailment

• US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Tuesday called on railway transport company Norfolk Southern to comply with safety regulations and announced steps the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will take to ensure railway industry safety and accountability. T

=> ↺ Myanmar junta’s confiscation of food, medicine leaves Kayah state residents at risk

• Soldiers are aggressively patrolling checkpoints along major roadways for the goods.

=> ↺ Cambodia PM Hun Sen says doctors tell him he’s prediabetic

• The 70-year-old strongman has previously boasted about his good health.

=> ↺ EPA Orders Norfolk Southern to Pay for Cleanup of East Palestine Train Disaster

=> ↺ Rail Unions Warned Us: Greed is Dangerous

• The toxic clouds that billowed up from a derailed freight train in Ohio earlier this month are a chilling metaphor for the toxic greed that has infected so many of our big corporations.

• After having to evacuate, residents of the town near the derailment are cautiously going back home, but they still don’t know the full extent of the damage to the area’s environment and public health.

=> ↺ ‘Too Many Holes’: Rail Workers Say Buttigieg Plan of Action Is Not Enough

• U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s newly unveiled plan to improve railroad safety is inadequate, an inter-union alliance of rail workers declared Tuesday.

=> ↺ Report: Credit Scores Are Lower in the South, and Medical Debt Could Be to Blame

=> ↺ Two Stroke Survivors Move Their Hands Again After Experimental Therapy

• “Feels like a tickle”.

=> ↺ Scientists Witness The ‘Tipping Point’ of Alzheimer’s in The Lab For The First Time

• Watching the roots take hold.

=> ↺ Companies Decide to Keep Four-Day Workweek After Finding It’s Better

• According to an ongoing study in the UK, the four-day workweek may be the key to success for companies and their employees. The world’s biggest four-day workweek trial included the participation of 61 British companies, some of whom now say they won’t return to the regular Monday through Friday work schedule.

=> ↺ Working Just Four Days a Week Could Give Many of Us a Better Night’s Sleep

• Employers also saw benefits.

=> ↺ Another Person Cured of HIV After Stem Cell Transplant

• A fifth known person has likely been cured of HIV following a specialized stem cell transplant. According to the man’s doctors, he has lived essentially free of the virus for about a decade.

=> ↺ Why America needs a COVID truth commission

• The American people deserve a similar bipartisan, scientifically minded COVID-19 commission so the public-health disaster of the past three years is not repeated.

=> ↺ WATCH: WHO’s Sordid History of So-Called Pandemics

• Meryl Nass interviews James Corbett for CHD.tv. Following on their previous discussions, they interpret recently drafted amendments to the International Health Regulations for future pandemics.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Tumblr’s Blue Checkmark Parody Actually Made Them Money

• Tumblr created a shakeup in the digital world this week when it reported an 125% revenue increase from iOS in-app purchases—from what seemingly started out as a simple parody.

Security

USCERT ☛ CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to CatalogCISA has added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation.CVE-2022-47986 IBM Aspera Faspex Code Execution VulnerabilityCVE-2022-41223 Mitel MiVoice Connect Code Injection VulnerabilityCVE-2022-40765 Mitel MiVoice Connect Command Injection VulnerabilityUSCERT ☛ CISA Releases Two Industrial Control Systems AdvisoriesCISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations:ICSA-23-052-01 Mitsubishi Electric MELSOFT iQ AppPortalICSMA-21-187-01 Philips Vue PACS (Update C)  

=> ↺ US Military Emails Exposed via Cloud Account

=> ↺ Hacker Breaches Activision Slack, Steals Call of Duty Info

• Screenshots show how a hacker tricked an Activision worker into providing a two-factor authentication token.

=> ↺ Activision did not notify employees of data breach for months

• On December 4, hackers successfully phished an employee at the games giant Activision, gaining access to some internal employee and game data.

• This data breach was not disclosed until last weekend, when cybersecurity and malware research group vx-underground posted on Twitter screenshots of the stolen data, as well as the hackers’ messages on Activision’s internal Slack channel.

• But the public weren’t the only ones caught off guard by news of the breach. Activision has yet to notify its own employees of the data breach, and whether their data was stolen, according to two current Activision employees who spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not allowed to talk to the press.

=> ↺ Version 0.34.0 of Falco, an Open Source Runtime Security Tool was Recently Released

• Falco, an open-source runtime security tool recently announced their latest release version 0.34.0. Highlights of the latest release include support for older RHEL distros, the ability to download and update Falco rules at runtime, and the experimental release of a modern eBPF probe.

=> ↺ VMware Plugs Critical Carbon Black App Control Flaw

• VMware issues a critical fix for a vulnerability that allows hacker to gain full access to the underlying server operating system.

=> ↺ Enterprise Blind Spots and Obsolete Tools – Security Teams Must Evolve

• The conventional tools we rely on to defend corporate networks are creating gaps in network visibility and in our capabilities to secure them.

=> ↺ A DNA Testing Company Forgot About 2.1 Million People’s Data. Then It Leaked.

• A prominent DNA testing firm has settled a pair of lawsuits with the attorney generals of Pennsylvania and Ohio after a 2021 episode that saw cybercriminals steal data on 2.1 million people, including the social security numbers of 45,000 customers from both states.

=> ↺ New ‘Stealc’ information-stealing malware grows in popularity on dark web

=> ↺ Watch out for scams posing as the Kanta Services and My Kanta Pages!

• There are a lot of scam messages in circulation at the moment as criminals try to access Finnish personal data. The Kanta Services will never contact users by email or text message to ask for their information. The only way to log in securely to the My Kanta Pages is to go to www.kanta.fi

• At present there is an unusual number of scam messages in circulation claiming to be from the Kanta Services and trying to access people’s personal data.

=> ↺ Singapore data centre says no data loss discovered after report on hackers obtaining logins

• Data centre operator ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has noticed no data loss or impact to its customer service portals following a hacking incident in 2021, it said on Tuesday (Feb 21).

• Through unspecified means, the hackers made away with login credentials – email addresses and passwords – for customer-support websites for STT GDC and Chinese data centre operator GDS, reported Bloomberg, citing a report by cybersecurity research firm Resecurity.

• Login credentials for more than 1,000 people at STT GDC were stolen, while GDS had information for more than 3,000 people, including its own employees and those of its customers, stolen, according to Bloomberg.

=> ↺ Ways and means committee demands investigation into 2021 taxpayer info leak

• Nineteen months after the confidential tax filings of American citizens were leaked, the House Committee on Ways and Means is seeking answers.

• In a letter to the Inspector General for Tax Administration, committee chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) relays his “expectations” regarding the “egregious and unprecedented” leak of this tax information, a duty which he affirms the IRS is tasked with keeping “confidential and secure.”

• “U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Yellen stated at the time that this was a ‘very serious situation’ and that the issue was referred to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). She also indicated that she would keep Congress updated on the matter. Yet, nineteen months after the outrageous leak, Congress and, more importantly, the American people have no idea how this betrayal of taxpayer confidentiality happened or whether anyone has been held accountable,” Smith writes.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Letting ‘Secrecy Prevail,’ SCOTUS Declines to Hear Challenge to NSA Mass Surveillance

• Privacy advocates on Tuesday blasted the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the Wikimedia Foundation’s case against a federal program for spying on Americans’ online communications with people abroad.

=> ↺ Pay-Per-Chew: More restaurants trying subscription programs

• Consumers are willing to pay monthly subscription fees for streaming services, pet food and even toilet paper. And now some restaurants are betting they’ll do the same for their favorite meals. Large chains like Panera and P.F. Chang’s as well as neighborhood hangouts are increasingly experimenting with the subscription model as a way to ensure steady revenue and customer visits. Some offer unlimited drinks or free delivery for a monthly fee; others will bring out your favorite appetizer each time you visit. They’re following a trend: The average American juggled 6.7 subscriptions in 2022, up from 4.2 in 2019. That’s according to Rocket Money, a personal finance app.

=> ↺ NSA’s “state secrets” defense kills lawsuit challenging Internet surveillance

=> ↺ Supreme Court declines to hear Wikimedia case against NSA surveillance program

• Critics of the high court’s decision not to hear the case say the justices have struck a blow against civil liberties.

=> ↺ China increases surveillance, security in run-up to Tibetan New Year celebrations

• Authorities warn they will take action against events that endanger national security.

Confidentiality

=> ↺ DHS and Cybersecurity Agency Cannot Search for Text Messages with Election Deniers Because of Prior Practice of Wiping Government Phones

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ What Time is It?

• Every January since 1947, the Board of the Doomsday Clock has announced the position of the hands on the Doomsday Clock.  It was set at 100 seconds to midnight in 2020, stayed there through 2021 and 2022, and then was reset to 90 seconds last month.   This is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been.

• From Google:   The Doomsday Clock is set anew every January by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 10 Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by manmade technologies.

=> ↺ Foreign Ministers Say G7 Will Keep Up Economic Pressure Over Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine

• The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations said on February 21 that their countries would continue to impose economic costs on Russia and urged the broader international community to reject what they described as Moscow’s “brutal expansionism.”

=> ↺ Finland makes it clear it won’t wait for Sweden to join Nato

• FINLAND and Sweden may be moving hand in hand toward Nato, but Finland is prepared, if necessary, to let go and enter the alliance without its western neighbour, confirm statements made last weekend in conjunction with the Munich Security Conference, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

• The Nordic countries submitted their bids to join the defence alliance in May 2022, a couple of months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

=> ↺ Russia protests US ambassador over arming of Ukraine amid Biden’s visit to Kiev

• On Tuesday, Russia issued a formal protest, known as a demarche, to US ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy over continued US efforts to arm Ukraine. The move came shortly after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev on Monday, where he pledged another $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including artillery ammunition, rockets, and anti-armor systems.

• Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was protesting “the growing involvement of the United States in hostilities on the side of the Kiev regime.”

=> ↺ Putin warns of widening Ukraine operation and suspends nuclear treaty with US

• Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning on Tuesday that if the West decides to supply Ukraine with longer-range advanced weapons, it will force Russia to push the threat further away from its borders. In his annual address to parliament, Putin accused the West of using Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia and a training ground. He stated that it is obvious that the longer the range of Western systems that arrive in Ukraine, the further Russia will be forced to push the threat away from its borders.

=> ↺ WADA Appeals ‘Wrong’ Exoneration Of Russian Teen Figure Skater Valieva

• The World Anti-Doping Agency announced on February 21 that it plans to appeal to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport against Russian anti-doping officials’ exoneration last month of a teen Russian Olympic gold medalist ice skater for a positive doping test.

=> ↺ ‘Dangerous and Reckless’: Putin Halts Russia’s Participation in Nuclear Treaty With US

• Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during a national address Tuesday that he is suspending his country’s participation in the New START Treaty, Moscow’s lone nuclear arms control agreement with the United States.

=> ↺ Putin Suspends Nuclear Arms Control Pact With The U.S.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the Western World on Tuesday when he declared he will no longer participate in the New SMART nuclear treaty with the U.S. The withdrawal marks the last of the country’s nuclear arms control pact almost a year after it invaded Ukraine.

=> ↺ Russia to observe nuclear curbs despite Putin’s decision to suspend treaty

• Russia said Tuesday it will observe curbs imposed by the New START treaty, hours after President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow was suspending participation in the arms pact with the United States.

=> ↺ West Warns Of Instability As Putin Suspends Russian Participation In Nuclear Treaty

• President Vladimir Putin says Russia is suspending its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the last remaining nuclear arms accord with the United States, further raising concerns over global security during Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

=> ↺ World leaders condemn North Korea’s latest missile launch

• Experts warn North likely has capability to fire missiles that could reach the US without ‘re-entry’ issues.

=> ↺ Myanmar prison guards injure more than 80 inmates when argument turns violent

• Brutal punishment against political prisoners is typical in post-coup Myanmar, critics say.

=> ↺ Biden Offers ‘Strong Support’ To Moldova Amid Rising Russia Tensions

• U.S. President Joe Biden met with Moldova’s president in Poland on February 21 to offer support amid increasing bellicosity from Moscow as the former Soviet republic expresses fears it could be the next target in the Kremlin’s sights after Ukraine.

=> ↺ IMF Head Says New Lending To Ukraine Could Be ‘Sizable’

• Ukraine could secure “sizable support” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a new, longer-term program, and its economy should see a gradual recovery over the course of this year, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on February 21.

=> ↺ McCarthy Hands 41,000 Hours of Jan. 6 Footage to ‘Unrepentant Manipulator’ Tucker Carlson

• Watchdogs on Monday slammed Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to hand 41,000 hours of surveillance footage of the January 6 attack to far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly used his massive platform to peddle disinformation, spew bigotry, and cast doubt on the severity of the 2021 insurrection.

=> ↺ Kevin McCarthy Gives Tucker Carlson Capitol Attack Surveillance Footage

=> ↺ Kevin McCarthy Hands the January 6 Video Over to a January 6 Riot Promoter

• In a shocking move that has so far been weirdly under-covered by the media, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over roughly 44,000 hours of video footage of the January 6 insurrection to Fox News’s top sedition promoter, Tucker Carlson. Exclusively. Axios reported it Monday afternoon; Carlson confirmed it on his show Monday night.1

=> ↺ AUKUS alliance ‘future’ for Australia’s security: PM

• Australia’s partnership with the US and UK has been placed at the centre of the country’s national security, as Anthony Albanese reveals the outlook for the defence force.

=> ↺ Barbara Lee Officially Announces Senate Run, Vowing to ‘Stand on the Side of Justice’

• Declaring that “Californians deserve a strong, progressive leader who has delivered real change,” Democratic California Congresswoman Barbara Lee on Tuesday officially announced her entry into the race for Dianne Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat, a contest that’s expected to be one of the most closely watched—and expensive—of 2024.

=> ↺ Russia suspends participation in US-Russia nuclear arms treaty

• Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday announced Russia will suspend its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

=> ↺ Report Details ‘Staggering Toll’ of Russian War on Ukrainian Healthcare, With 700+ Attacks

• Nearly a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, five groups on Tuesday released a report and interactive map documenting at least 707 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in what the researchers argue are war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.

=> ↺ Who’s Winning and Losing the Economic War Over Ukraine?

• With the Ukraine war now reaching its one-year mark on February 24, the Russians have not achieved a military victory but neither has the West achieved its goals on the economic front. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States and its European allies vowed to impose crippling sanctions that would bring Russia to its knees and force it to withdraw.

=> ↺ A Diplomatic Surge is Needed to Prevent Endless War

• As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine War, Russia appears to be undertaking a major offensive while Ukraine is planning a counter-offensive. Each side appears to think it can clinch a clear military victory, and force the other side to accept that it can’t win.

• But the reality is that a stalemate has been reached that is causing immense suffering on each side, with particularly brutal destruction by Russia of civilian targets in Ukraine, including energy facilities, apartment complexes, hospitals, and even schools. The momentum Ukraine saw up through the fall seems to have dissipated.

=> ↺ Russia carries out deadly shelling attack on Kherson — Meduza

• Russian forces shelled Kherson on Tuesday, Kherson Regional Military Administration head Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

=> ↺ Russian ICBM test failed while Biden was in Ukraine: report

• The test of the nuclear-capable heavy SARMAT missile, dubbed Satan II by NATO, and classified as a “superweapon” by the head of Russia’s aerospace research agency, appears to have failed, according to the officials who spoke to CNN, who believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would have mentioned the test in his State of the Nation…

=> ↺ Did Biden Just Commit America to Another Forever War in Ukraine?

• Plus: the editors field a listener question on intellectual property.

=> ↺ Key battles in the Ukraine war: From Kyiv’s stand to the Kharkiv counterattack

• Russia expected it would quickly seize control of Ukraine at the outset of the invasion, as did many Western observers. But Ukraine fought back with remarkable tenacity and skill, boosted by Western weapons – and the front lines have shifted dramatically since Russian troops moved in on the northern, southern and eastern flanks. FRANCE 24 looks back on some of the decisive battles in the first year of Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

=> ↺ Fighter jets, quakes, NATO stakes: Are US-Turkish ties on a reset?

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday came in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that have rattled the Turkish leader’s projection of his country as a regional hegemon. With Turkey turning into a recipient of generous US humanitarian aid, will Ankara play the role of Washington’s friend rather than foe?

=> ↺ Europe Pays High Price for Russia-Ukraine Conflict

• One year into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, France and the rest of Europe are finding themselves in a delicate position, teetering under the impact of inflation, an energy crisis, and slowing economic growth.

=> ↺ Putin suspends participation in New START Treaty, the US and Russia’s only nuclear arms control agreement — Meduza

• Putin announced in his Federal Assembly address on Tuesday that Russia is suspending its cooperation with the New START Treaty, the only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia. He stressed that the suspension is not a full withdrawal.

=> ↺ Russian journalist Yulia Starostina charged with ‘discrediting’ Russian army for saying ‘love and friendship are stronger than war’ — Meduza

• Moscow police have charged journalist Yulia Starostina with “discrediting” the Russian army for saying “love and friendship are stronger than war” in a news report for TV Rain, according to the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo. Starostina’s hearing is scheduled for February 28.

=> ↺ Russian men accused of planning to damage military train sentenced to 3.5 years in first ‘sabotage’ case since war began — Meduza

• A Belgorod court has sentenced two local men to 3.5 years in prison for allegedly planning to damage a railroad used by Russian military trains, TASS reported on Tuesday, citing the FSB. The ruling marks the first time anybody has been sentenced under Russia’s law against sabotage since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine last year.

=> ↺ Ukraine defense intelligence: Russia is preparing to mobilize college students — Meduza

• Russia is preparing for a new round of mobilization, and this time the draft will tap into its student population, says Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.

=> ↺ It’s Time to End the Outrageous Militarization of America’s Police Force

• In the wake of the cruel and unconscionable death of Tyre Nichols, all five Memphis police officers involved in the incident have been fired and charged with second-degree murder. Scorpion—the aggressive, specialized police unit they belonged to—has been disbanded.

=> ↺ ‘The West is playing with marked cards’: Putin’s Federal Assembly address in a nutshell — Meduza

• This is a summary of the main points from Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russian government. The statements below are not direct quotations, but Meduza’s concise paraphrase of what Russia’s president said in his two-hour speech before the Federal Assembly.

=> ↺ Russia’s Foreign Ministry blames Washington for nuclear treaty suspension, calls on U.S. for ‘good-faith effort’ to make agreement sustainable — Meduza

• Russia’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in connection with Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty — the sole nuclear accord between the U.S. and Russia.

=> ↺ Russia insists U.S. is party to Ukraine conflict, demands withdrawal of ‘NATO troops and equipment’ from Ukraine — Meduza

• Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy for a talk about the increasing U.S. involvement in the Ukraine war.

=> ↺ The past is gone: Putin has revoked the 2012 decree that stressed international cooperation, signaling deep changes in Russia’s foreign policy — Meduza

• Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that revokes an earlier law he himself had signed in May 2012, during his third presidential term in Russia. What has just been revoked is a vision of Russia’s foreign policy that contained specific instructions to the government on cultivating cooperative relations with foreign countries, based on respect for the neighbors’ sovereignty and the promise of cooperation with various world regions. The new decree, effective February 21, 2023, disposes with that framework, appealing to Russia’s “national interests” in connection with “deep changes taking place in international relations.” Here are just some of the foreign policy provisions that Putin’s new decree overturns.

=> ↺ Cuba and Vietnam, What’s the Difference?

• During a visit to Mexico by Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), announced that he was willing to lead an international effort to pressure the U.S. government into lifting its six-decade-old economic embargo against the Cuban people. AMLO stated, “As a sign of goodwill and that all the countries of the Americas are willing to join forces, I consider and express with respect that the US government should lift, as soon as possible, the unjust and inhumane blockade of the Cuban people.”

• AMLO raises a good point: Why does the U.S. government continue to wage economic war against the people of Cuba with its unjust and inhumane economic embargo? 

=> ↺ Hitler@90.de

• Just over 90 years ago, as it is so often rather euphemistically perceived, “Hitler came to power”, on 30th of January 1933. Well, Hitler did not simply “come” to power. Nor was there, as it is also called, a “Machtergreifung” – the taking of power.

• In fact, between 1932-1933, Hitler’s popularity had started to weaken. His votes declined from 37.3% (July 1932) to 33.1%(November 1932). At no time, did the majority of Germans support Hitler in free elections.

=> ↺ Awaiting China’s Ukraine Peace Plan

• At the recently concluded Munich Security Conference, Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, proved the skunk at the party, interrupting the Western cheerleading for more and more war “for as as long as it takes” by announcing that on February 24, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, China will announce a peace plan for Ukraine which will underscore the need to uphold the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the UN charter while also respecting Russia’s legitimate security interests.

• A peace plan based on these announced principles might include all or most of the following elements:

=> ↺ Putin says he will suspend nuclear arms treaty with US

• Russian president Vladimir Putin announced he would suspend Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear arms control treaty during his annual State of the Nation address on Feb 21.

=> ↺ Putin raises tension on Ukraine, suspends START nuclear pact

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended Moscow’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States. Putin announced the move Tuesday in a bitter state-of-the-nation speech where he made clear he would not change his strategy in the war in Ukraine. Putin emphasized, however, that Russia isn’t withdrawing from the pact yet. And hours after his address, the Foreign Ministry said Moscow would respect the treaty’s caps on nuclear weapons. It also said Russia will continue to exchange information about test launches of ballistic missiles per earlier agreements with the United States. In his speech, Putin cast both Russia and Ukraine as victims of Western double-dealing.

=> ↺ Opponents describe hideous conditions in Nicaraguan prisons

• Constant fear. Threats. Screams. Darkness. Cells measuring 6 feet by 9, with a hole in the floor for a toilet. Nicaraguan opposition prisoners have recounted the months, and sometimes years, they spent in the notorious prisons run by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. Water was in short supply, and what little food there was, was often rotten beans. Earlier this month, 222 opposition figures and journalists arrested by Ortega were flown to Washington. They began telling stories of the harsh conditions in prison, where visits were strictly limited.

=> ↺ US jury convicts Mexico’s ex-security minister García Luna

• On their third day of deliberations, the jurors at a U.S. federal court in NY found García Luna guilty of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel.

=> ↺ Former Mexican minister convicted in US of drug trafficking

• A former Mexican presidential cabinet member was convicted in the US on Tuesday of taking massive bribes to protect the violent drug cartels he was tasked with combating.

=> ↺ The French Senate and the Assyrian Genocide Resolution

• The world watched melancholy as the number of deaths from the massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to over 35,000. Efforts of recovering bodies or finding and helping survivors poured from around the world, specially for Turkey.

=> ↺ When Africa Is Just Around the Corner

• On January 23, 2022, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, announced Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was embarking on a new tour of Africa. During the week, the high-ranking Russian delegation paid a visit to several countries on the continent: South Africa being the traditional “mainstay” of Russia’s foreign policy in Africa…

=> ↺ Visiting Italian PM Says Ukraine Surrender ‘Cannot Be Real Peace’ But Jets ‘Not On The Table’

• Any peace that entails the surrender of Ukraine to invading Russian forces “cannot be a real peace” but the supply of military planes to Ukraine “is not on the table,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on February 21 after talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

=> ↺ Investigations By Denmark, Sweden, And Germany Into Nord Stream Blasts Are Ongoing

• Investigations into explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year are ongoing and it remains unclear when they will conclude, the Danish, Swedish, and German foreign ministries said on February 21 in a letter sent to the UN Security Council.

Environment

=> ↺ How the Electric Utilities Industry Created One of the ‘Largest’ Propaganda Campaigns in U.S. History

• Science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, authors of the classic 2010 book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, have released a new book placing that doubt machine into a longer arc of U.S. business and political history. 

• The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market explores an even more ambitious history dating from the dawn of the 20th century to the present day. 

=> ↺ Hope Amid Climate Chaos: A Conversation with Rebecca Solnit

• From throwing soup against paintings, to blocking roads, to striking for the climate, to stopping private jets from taking off, activists worldwide are pushing harder than ever for action to address global warming. And they are delivering a clear and consistent message: What has long been accepted as the status quo — expanding fossil fuels, investing in polluting industries, oil and gas propaganda, greenwashing, climate change denial, governmental delay in climate action — is simply not acceptable anymore. The climate movement is working incessantly to make this clear to everyone.

• When we talk about any movement, including the push for climate action, we’re talking about a “zeitgeist, a change in the air,” writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit writes in her essay-turned-book Hope in the Dark, which focuses on the intersection of activism, social change, and hope. It’s this last element, hope, that can become “an electrifying force in the present,” Solnit writes, “a sense that there might be a door at some point, some way out of the problems of the present moment even before it is found or followed.”  

=> ↺ Ecocide — Not Eco-Activism — Is a Crime Against Humanity, Says Steven Donziger

=> ↺ Austrian Youth Take their Government to Court Over ‘Ineffective’ Climate Policy

• Austria is the latest country to be facing a lawsuit brought by some of its youngest citizens who say their government is failing to protect them from the worsening climate crisis.

• Backed by the Austrian chapter of the youth climate strike organization Fridays for Future, a group of 12 children and adolescents launched a landmark constitutional climate case against the Austrian government on Tuesday. The case specifically challenges a 2011 climate protection law, claiming it is ineffective and outdated, and therefore infringes upon children’s constitutional rights.

=> ↺ Geoengineering the Atlantic Ocean?

• A series of retractable gates out in the Atlantic Ocean between New Jersey and the Rockaways in New York City—for $119 billion. That’s among the projects that have and are being considered—“geoengineering” is their category—at enormous cost to try to protect the New York Metropolitan Area from intense storms, among the impacts of global warming.

• Just out in the current issue of Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management of the American Society of Civil Engineers is an article about the schemes—with a title as extensive as the proposed projects: “Coastal Defense Megaprojects in an Era of Sea-Level Rise: Politically Feasible Strategies or Army Corps Fantasies?”

=> ↺ War is a Climate Killer

• War inevitably results in a huge amount of smoke and toxic emissions, increasing the release of greenhouse gases. (Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons)

• War brings death and destruction – not least to the environment and climate. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a depressing reminder of that fact, and further increases the military sector’s already enormous global CO₂ footprint. In addition, the eastern Ukrainian cities where fighting is taking place are home to fossil fuel infrastructure such as chemical factories, oil refineries, and coal mines, the bombing of which produces a cocktail of toxic substances that has devastating environmental impacts. Efforts to arm the two sides, moreover, are consuming materials and resources that could otherwise go towards tackling the climate crisis.

=> ↺ Rescuers in southeastern Brazil scramble to find survivors after floods

• Rescuers in southeastern Brazil searched frantically for survivors among dozens of people still missing Tuesday after record rainfalls caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 44 people over the weekend.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Man tied to Lyft driver slaying charged in separate case

• A man who police say was driving the car of a dead South Florida Lyft driver has been charged with murder and other counts in a separate case. Records show a Hardee County grand jury indicted Matthew Flores on Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge. The indictment relates to the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 43-year-old Jose Carlos Martinez in Wauchula. Police were actively searching for Flores in that case by Jan. 30, when Lyft driver Gary Levin went missing after dropping off a customer in Okeechobee. Flores was later spotted driving Levin’s red 2022 Kia Stinger in North Carolina, and officials say Flores was arrested after a chase through three counties.

=> ↺ Government lithium reserve established in Sonora

• “Oil and lithium belong to the nation, to the people of Mexico,” said President López Obrador in his speech on Saturday in Sonora.

=> ↺ Discovery of Lithium Reserve in Kashmir: New Complications in resolution of disputed land

• One of the greatest lithium resources in the world, the 5.9 million tonne lithium reserve was found in the Reasi district by the Geological Survey of India (GSI).

=> ↺ Electric cars dangle the promise of earning money for their drivers

• By Helen Massy-Beresford While drivers considering an electric vehicle (EV) might imagine the main benefit being less air pollution from their own journeys, EV batteries could also make money for car owners – and help countries stabilise their power grids.

=> ↺ Coinbase’s stock falls as user numbers and trading volume decline

=> ↺ The power of renewables: Productive use appliances as climate change solutions in sub-Saharan Africa

• Productive use appliances can mitigate emissions while encouraging climate adaptation and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. They can push households up the energy ladder and stimulate economic development, if managed correctly.

=> ↺ Scotland and Singapore to partner on hydrogen projects

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Scotland and Singapore has been signed to build hydrogen trade and innovation opportunities between the two countries.

=> ↺ Australia Should Ban New Coal, Oil, and Gas Projects

=> ↺ Union Pacific Train Loaded With Coal Derails in Nebraska

• Police, railroad workers and a hazardous materials’ response team were deployed to the scene.

=> ↺ Green Groups, Indigenous Leaders Urge Court to Block ‘Illegally Approved’ Lithium Mine

• A coalition of conservation groups on Tuesday joined Native American tribes in launching legal challenges to a proposed lithium mine in northern Nevada that critics say was “illegally approved” and will “irreparably damage” the delicate desert ecosystem and land where Indigenous peoples are seeking federal historical recognition of a genocidal massacre perpetrated by U.S. colonizers.

=> ↺ New emergency bid to appeal, block huge Nevada lithium mine

• Conservationists are seeking an emergency court order to block construction of a lithium mine near the Nevada-Oregon line. The new request filed Tuesday in federal court in Reno comes after a judge there directed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to revisit part of its approval of the plans but allowed construction to go forward in the meantime. Four environmental groups are asking the judge to temporarily halt any work at Lithium Americas’ mine until they can appeal her Feb. 6 ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge in Reno ordered the government’s lawyers to respond on an expedited basis by the end of Wednesday.

=> ↺ Biden Implored to Avert ‘Carbon Bomb’ by Blocking Texas Gulf Oil Terminals

• The Biden administration’s plan to potentially allow four new oil terminals along the Texas Gulf Coast would unleash a “carbon bomb” potentially equivalent to three years of all U.S. emissions and belie President Joe Biden’s stated intent to “act boldly on climate,” according to an analysis published on Tuesday.

=> ↺ Decisions on a Nuclear Future are Guided by Myths

• Last month I rushed through the august halls of the British parliament in Westminster, on my way to a briefing on small modular reactors for Members of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.

• Running late though I was, it was tempting to slow down and take in all the historic portraits and portals as I hurried down flagstoned hallways, through heavy oak doors and finally into the richly carpeted committee room. But the albeit fleeting impression all of this left was of a world completely isolated from the reality of the daily struggles most of us endure. The rarified air was almost suffocating.

=> ↺ ‘Inter-ministerial committee’ to be created for Rail Baltica project

• On February 21, the Latvian Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to establish a new bureaucratic body in an effort to speed up the Rail Baltica infrastructure project, which is estimated to be around four years behind its original schedue.

=> ↺ Government rejects Skulte LNG terminal developer’s requests

• The Latvian cabinet, on the basis of an analysis by the Ministry of Climate and Energy (KEM), rejected the terms of the project proposed by Skulte Liquefied Gas Terminal developer AS Skule LNG Terminal and its strategic investor, the Ministry said on February 21.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Overdevelopment Threatens Montana Quality of Life

• It’s becoming more clear every day that the endless push to develop Montana in every way possible is conflicting with and denigrating the very reason most Montanans live here – for our quality of life. Despite society’s delusions about “having it all” the simple truth is you can’t have it both ways.

Finance

=> ↺ US Tax Law Likely To Cause Economic Disparities

• Though the U.S. tax code contains no provision targeting a racial group, the law can actually cause or increase economic disparities between African American households and Whites, CNN reported Monday, citing a recent study.

=> ↺ Hunger Cliffs Loom in US With Extra Food Benefits Set to Expire

• Millions of Americans will find it harder to put enough food on the table starting in March 2023, after a Covid-19 pandemic-era boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits comes to an end. Congress mandated this change in budget legislation it passed in late December 2022.

=> ↺ Does Being Balanced at the New York Times Mean Giving Right-Wingers Space to Lie?

• Guess so, since it gave Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, plenty of space to say things that are extremely deceptive, if not outright lies. The gist of Riedl’s piece is that it will not be possible to sustain Social Security and Medicare without tax increases on the middle class.

=> ↺ A Self-Tax for the Common Good

=> ↺ The Future of Vehicle Prices

• On a lazy Friday afternoon, a person’s thoughts naturally turn to car price indexes. There actually is a reason that I became interested in this topic. I noticed that in the January Consumer Price Index, the new vehicle index rose 0.2 percent. The December measure was revised up due to new seasonal adjustment factors, so that what had been reported as a 0.1 percent decline last month, is now reported as a 0.6 percent increase.

• I was inclined to think this was an aberration, that we would see the downward trend that had previously been apparent in the data, reappear in another month or two. However, I noticed that the Manheim index for used vehicle prices showed a sharp uptick for January and the first half of February. This was after a full year in which declining prices were reversing much of the pandemic run-up. Perhaps my expectation that vehicle prices, both new and used, would soon look like they were back on their pre-pandemic path, was wrong.

=> ↺ US senators urge action on “surge” of Mexican steel imports

• A group of U.S. senators want the U.S. Trade Representative to invoke a 2019 trade agreement that could mean the return of 25% steel tariffs.

=> ↺ Bengal Lights for the Belt and Road Initiative: Specifics of Bangladesh Policy

• Bangladesh has been boasting the highest economic growth rates among the countries of South Asia over the past 10 years. The nation’s GDP per capita has reached USD 2,500, a number that surpasses those of the neighboring India and Pakistan. Dhaka is keen on fostering relations with Beijing, New Delhi and Washington concurrently.

=> ↺ What the Madoff Series Left Out

• A Netflix documentary series blames the SEC for missing the Ponzi scheme and then calls for giving the SEC more power.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Budget 2023: HK$5,000 consumption vouchers for all eligible residents

• Hongkongers are to receive another round of consumption vouchers totalling HK$5,000, Finance Secretary Paul Chan has announced.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Budget 2023: Gov’t to spend HK$50m on promotional work as city outlines new local ‘happy’ campaign

• Hong Kong is set to inject HK$50 million to support its promotional work…

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Republican Operatives Are Astroturfing Opposition to Solar Power

• Several grassroots groups opposed to solar projects in local areas may have one thing in common: a Virginia-based group with powerful GOP connections advising them on strategy.

=> ↺ Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe Ousted Over Alleged Spending on DJ Equipment

• Project Veritas, the far-right activist group aimed at holding journalists and progressives accountable through deleterious means, has cut off its nose to spite its face.

=> ↺ Magazine ABCs for 2022: Full breakdown of print and digital circulations

• Full breakdown of magazine ABC circulation data for 2022.

=> ↺ Danish ex-minister charged with revealing state secrets

• A former Danish defence minister said Tuesday he had been charged with leaking state secrets, in a case linked to a scandal regarding Denmark’s collaboration with US intelligence.

=> ↺ NPR says it’s cutting jobs by 10% as ad revenue drops

• NPR’s chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its current workforce – at least 100 people – and eliminate most vacant positions.

=> ↺ POP!

=> ↺ Five strong sentences from Viktor Orbán’s annual State of the Nation speech

=> ↺ ‘Embarrassed’ by ‘Racist’ Israeli Government, Sanders Threatens Bill to Withhold Aid

• Senator Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.) came on Face the Nation Sunday. In the course of the interview, Sanders lashed out at the new, extremist government in Israel, which includes a minister once convicted of incitement to racial violence and more than one figure belonging to Kahanist organizations of a sort that were at some points on the U.S. terrorism list.

=> ↺ For First Time in 6 Years, US Allows UN Security Council to Denounce Israeli Settlements

• The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously approved a formal statement expressing opposition to Israel’s ongoing expansion of illegal settlements on Occupied Palestinian Territory, the first time in more than six years the United States has permitted the body to rebuke its close ally.

=> ↺ Moscow court dismisses posthumous case against prominent neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich — Meduza

• A Moscow court has ended the posthumous criminal proceedings against neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich, also known as “The Hatchet,” at his family’s request, Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

=> ↺ Authorities blame hackers after air raid sirens sound over radio in multiple Russian cities — Meduza

• The sound of air raid sirens played over radio stations in at least nine Russian cities on Wednesday, according to the Telegram channels Baza and Ostorozhno, Novosti.

=> ↺ Time to End the Sanctions on Syria…and Everywhere Else

• The horrific February 6 earthquake in Southern Turkey and northern Syria has shined a spotlight on the broad-based economic sanctions that the US has imposed on  countries with supposedly “hostile” governments. It is not a pretty picture.

• In Syria, the US has been promoting regime change for decades. Since 2012 it has spent $billions to arm opposition forces, often including Islamic militants who are otherwise the enemies of the US and its allies as well as the Syrian government. The US has imposed brutal economic sanctions on Syria, which have further immiserated a population which was already reeling from 10 years of proxy war imposed on the country. At the same time, the US military and its allies occupy broad swaths of Syrian territory in the east and south, denying Syrians access to crucial oil and wheat resources. Turkey and local Syrians who are now effectively Turkish mercenaries illegally occupy much of northern Syria. And Turkish troops protect a NW Syrian enclave in the province of Idlib which is ruled by Al-Qaeda and its allies.

=> ↺ GOP-Controlled Statehouses Are Lurching Right Due to Unfettered Corporate Money

=> ↺ Demagogue Rising

• Rightwing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is overturning every liberal rock in his state of Florida because he’s running for president in a war against a woke America, aiming at books, institutions and sexual orientation he doesn’t like.

• And not only is no one stopping this renegade self-appointed censor of some of the cream of American literature and life – Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn? C’mon! – but most libraries are bowing before him as Mr. Fahrenheit 451 of the book burning world. (Paper burns at that temperature.)

=> ↺ Chicago Mayoral Race: Policing, Housing, Education Are Key Issues for 9 Dem. Candidates on Feb. 28

• A pivotal Chicago mayoral race, just a week away, on February 28, is an off-cycle election, and voter turnout could be low, as nine Democratic candidates court their vote and face pressure to address public safety and crime. Candidates include incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Congressmember Chuy García, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson and former Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas, who is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police. This comes as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis spoke Monday in Chicago in support of police. We discuss the race with Democracy Now! co-host Juan González in Chicago, along with Chuy García supporter Luis Gutiérrez, a former Democratic congressmember for Illinois and former member of the Chicago City Council, and Brandon Johnson supporter Barbara Ransby, a professor of Black studies, gender and women’s studies and history at the University of Illinois Chicago.

=> ↺ Police Murders of Fred Hampton to Laquan McDonald: Chicago Police Council Elections Are a First

• The police murder of Fred Hampton in Chicago in 1969 helped launch a movement more than 50 years ago for community-led police accountability. In a culmination of this campaign, Chicago voters next Tuesday will elect 22 local police councils tasked with community control of the police. Seven members of the councils will be part of a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, a new model of police oversight. We speak with Frank Chapman, longtime activist and field organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, about the initiative and how it aims to empower Black and Brown working-class civilians.

=> ↺ A Profession!

• The scene: a graduate seminar in literature sometime in the eerily becalmed days of the mid-1990s, when for an aspirant to an academic job, the future seemed poised to break in one of two directions—either the long-promised wave of retirements and a deluge of open positions, or a decisive sign that the hiring trend line was never going to reverse its downward course. Imagine not quite knowing what would happen—even if that is now, in fact, very hard to do. Imagine, with even greater difficulty, sitting in that seminar as a widely read, charismatic literary theorist stood explaining that our line of work was a profession—one that involved duties and allegiances that extended well beyond the separate institutions that would support our existence in the form of paid employment. The place where the person worked was not all that important; we would be judged—and rewarded—elsewhere.1

=> ↺ Letter from London: A Specious or Special Relationship?

• Those of you in the United States reading this right now may not be aware of the cold snap you have just sent over to us. More than numbing, it was like a meteorological kick in the teeth. No need for us to fall out, though. We have sent to you our own fair share of icy winds in the past, often those having come at us from across the Russian steppes. But it does get me thinking about the so-called special relationship. We are still thick as thieves, aren’t we? Even if the late Helmet Schmidt did once say that if you mention the UK’s special relationship in Washington, ‘no one knows what you are talking about’. Added to which, my New Yorker friend likes calling us a small island. ‘The UK is 35 percent of Texas,’ he teases: ‘Including Scotland.’

• Either way, it must have been one hell of an Atlantic crossing for all those chill winds. The second-largest ocean on earth, 150 million years old, takes no prisoners this time of year. In my childhood imagination — presumably from all those black and white movies on TV — it was always full of U-boats plus the odd Coleridge albatross as rendered by Gustave Dore also in black and white. With an average depth of 11,962 feet, none of us at school really knew what was going on down there except for giant cables and weird fish. In fact, just like a relationship, not just a special one, either, the deeper you went, the more interesting it became. I was amazed for example to learn the Puerto Rico Trench was an incredible 27,841 feet. From the air, the Atlantic was always a swirl of faraway greys, a glorious dull blob between two colourful entities. Skywards, I never saw balloons. Talking of which, we have just been told our RAF swing-role Typhoons remain on standby for such an invasion. Even though we are supposed to be on standby anyway. This whole balloon malarkey is more like Orson Welles and his adaptation on radio of HG Wells’s ‘The War of the Worlds,’ than it is anything real.

=> ↺ Hong Kong court adjourns case against 4 fugitive protesters and man who allegedly helped hide them to April

• A Hong Kong court has adjourned the case against four fugitive Hong Kong protesters who allegedly hid in safehouses for two years and a man who is suspected of helping them to April.

=> ↺ U-turn as Hong Kong revokes visa of Chinese scientist jailed over gene editing

• Authorities in Hong Kong said late Tuesday they had cancelled the work visa of a Chinese biophysicist who was jailed for creating the world’s first gene-edited babies, throwing cold water on his plans to relocate his research to the city.

=> ↺ UN urges Israel to pause judicial reform plans over human rights concerns

• In response to the proposed reform of Israel’s judicial system, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk Tuesday urged the country to halt its plans to overhaul the legal and judicial system over concerns of potential human rights violations.

=> ↺ UN Security Council denounces Israel West Bank settlements

• The UN Security Council (UNSC) Monday adopted a presidential statement expressing its “deep concern and dismay” over Israel’s recent approval of further construction and expansion in the West Bank.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

• The local paper’s Business section headlined (2/16/23): “Study shows ‘striking’ number who believe news misinforms.”  Clutching my pearls, I read—— “Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.”

• The task of turning what began as an agrarian republic into a globe-straddling Imperial Power bent on international “force-projection” takes time. Over many decades it has required the ceaseless toil of political and cultural managers, barrels of ink, thousands of teleprompter-dependent “personalities,” and trillions of propaganda pixels.

=> ↺ Myanmar junta’s switch to electronic voting won’t bode well for voters, analysts say

• The fear the military regime will manipulate ballots in its favor.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ ‘Gift to the Ruling Class’: Florida Bill Would Make It Easier for Officials Like DeSantis to Sue Critics

• A Florida House Republican introduced legislation Monday that would make it easier for state officials—such as censorship-happy Gov. Ron DeSantis—to sue for defamation, a measure that critics decried as a blatant attack on the freedom of the press and free expression with potentially sweeping implications.

=> ↺ Free Speech Advocates Say Florida Bill Would Silence Elected Officials’ Critics

=> ↺ Moscow Teenage Activist Detained After Interview With RFE/RL’s Russian Service

• Police in Moscow have detained 18-year-old activist Maksim Lypkan after searching his and his father’s apartments for giving an interview to RFE/RL’s Russian Service.

=> ↺ YouTube shuts down satirical spoof video channel targeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping

• Chinese censors are likely exploiting YouTube’s copyright infringement reporting system to erase political content.

=> ↺ China arrests family of Kazakh singer supposedly contacted by foreign reporter

• Family members punished for failing to stop her from communicating with purported AP reporter

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Kyrgyz Court Orders Ministry To Reveal Materials Of Probe That Led To Freezing Of RFE/RL Accounts

• A court in Kyrgyzstan has ordered the Interior Ministry to provide materials related to a probe that led to the freezing of the bank accounts of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk.

=> ↺ Missing Chechen Opposition Blogger Squashes Rumors Of His Death In Video Statement

• A noted self-exiled Chechen opposition blogger who has been missing amid rumors that he was killed by people close to the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has announced that he is alive.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ SDS rallies to protect affirmative action

• Students for a Democratic Society protested against challenges to affirmative action brought to the Supreme Court Tuesday. SDS members said affirmative action is an important policy to promote diversity.

=> ↺ Haiti: FIFA Failing Sex Abuse Survivors

=> ↺ Jailed Azerbaijani Activist’s Health Said To Be Critical Due To Hunger Strike

• Jailed Azerbaijani activist Baxtiyar Haciyev’s health has dramatically worsened due to his hunger strike and he could fall into a coma if he is not provided with urgent medical assistance, his lawyer Rovsana Rahimli told RFE/RL on February 21.

=> ↺ Prosecutors Allege Murder, Torture As Hague War-Crimes Trial Opens Of Former Kosovo Fighter

• Prosecutors accused former Kosovo Liberation Army fighter Pjeter Shala of the murder of one person and the illegal captivity and torture of nearly 20 others during Kosovo’s war of independence from Serbia, as his war crimes trial began in The Hague on February 21.

=> ↺ INTERVIEW: ‘Young people today are still speaking out’

• Former Xiamen University professor You Shengdong says dissent and political opposition are alive and well in China.

=> ↺ Transport strike will end – Posti’s deliveries to return to normal quickly, parcels to arrive in upcoming days

• Finnish Transport Workers’ Union AKT’s strike will end on Tuesday, February 21, at 12 pm as previously announced. The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU’s support measures that begun on February 16 will end at the same time.

• “AKT’s strike and PAU’s support measures have unfortunately caused delays and disturbances to our customers’ deliveries.

=> ↺ Lawyer Of Iranian Protester Sentenced To Death Says State’s Case Lacked Evidence And Witnesses

• The lawyer of Iranian protester Javad Ruhi, who has been handed three death sentences after being charged with “corruption on Earth,” says the cases against his client lacked evidence and witnesses.

=> ↺ US Sanctions Add to Afghans’ Pain, Poverty During Cold Winter

• “The United States has frozen Afghanistan money. Yes, it is such sanctions that have caused price hikes and poverty,” said a local Afghan resident, who complained of U.S. sanctions against Afghanistan.

=> ↺ Companies Can’t Ask You to Shut up to Receive Severance, NLRB Rules

• The board reverses two previous decisions that held that such severance agreements were lawful. Limits on free speech have become increasingly common aspect of many severance agreements.

=> ↺ The latest from Arte Weekly: As aids are coming late, the natural disaster could turn into a humanitarian one in Turkey and Syria

=> ↺ McCarthyism, Then and Now

• Can there be any question that we’re in a mad — and loud — new age of McCarthyism? Thank you, Kevin! And don’t forget the wildly over-the-top members of the so-called Freedom Caucus and their Republican associates, including that charmer, lyin’ George Santos, Jewish-space-laser-and-white-balloon-carrying Marjorie Taylor Greene, and — once again running for president — the man who never lost, Donald Trump-em-all.

• I’d like to say it couldn’t get crazier. Still, despite watching Greene shout “Liar!” and other Republicans yell “Bullshit!” during President Biden’s State of the Union Address, I suspect it could get much worse (and more dangerous) in Washington in the months to come. And believe me, that’s leaving Hunter Biden’s penis aside. When it comes to this era’s McCarthyism, don’t for a moment think that the debt ceiling is the only ceiling that could end up in the dust of history.

=> ↺ What can you do when your company reverses on remote work?

• If your employer says you have to return to the office, do you have any leverage?

=> ↺ McCarthyism, Then and Now

• Can there be any question that we’re in a mad — and loud — new age of McCarthyism? Thank you, Kevin! And don’t forget the wildly over-the-top members of the so-called Freedom Caucus and their Republican associates, including that charmer, lyin’ George Santos, Jewish-space-laser-and-white-balloon-carrying Marjorie Taylor Greene, and — once again running for president — the man who never lost, Donald Trump-em-all.

=> ↺ After Four-Day Workweek Trial, 91% of Companies Opt to Continue Schedule

• Sixty-one companies in the United Kingdom joined a pilot program in June 2022 in which they reduced their employees’ workweek to four days—with no reduction in salary—and eight months later, 91% of them say they have no plans to go back to a five-day week.

=> ↺ Angela Davis Discusses Malcolm X’s Legacy and Her Removal From AP Black Studies

=> ↺ Angela Davis on Assassination & Legacy of Malcolm X, Her Exclusion from AP Black Studies and More

• We speak with renowned scholar and activist Angela Davis on the 58th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. Davis is delivering a keynote address Tuesday at the Shabazz Center in New York, formerly the Audubon Ballroom, where the iconic Black leader was killed on February 21, 1965. Davis says Malcolm is still vital to understanding racism, power and justice in the United States and beyond. “Malcolm always placed these issues in a larger context, and I think that we can learn a great deal from that legacy today,” says Davis. She also responds to recent moves by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others to restrict the teaching of African American history, calling it an effort to “turn the clock back” on racial progress.

=> ↺ Prison Deaths Increased by 50 Percent in the First Year of the COVID Pandemic

=> ↺ Letters From the March 6/13, 2023, Issue

• Re “Why the Kennedy School Rejected Ken Roth,” by Michael Massing [Jan. 23/30]: The decision by Kennedy dean Douglas Elmendorf to deny Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth a fellow’s appointment reflects the toadying to Washington and to major donors that’s been going on at the Kennedy School for decades. In 1981, when I was a research fellow at what is now the Belfer Center, then-dean Graham Allison and much of the faculty hastened to retain political standing after Reagan’s election by moving to change the institution’s name to the Harvard School of Government. Learning of this attempt, the outraged mayor of Cambridge renamed Boylston Street, on which the school fronts, to John F. Kennedy Street. Seven years later, Derek Bok, the university’s president who had been upset by the scheme, finally pressured Mr. Allison to step down after the wheeling-dealing political science professor approved a draft agreement to make a rich Texas couple officers of the school in return for a $500,000 gift.2

=> ↺ Black History vs. Black Resistance: A Quandary

• Carter G. Woodson, the Black intellectual now remembered as the father of Black History Month, laid out the case for a national campaign of remembrance for Black history in a 1926 essay announcing the institution of “Negro History Week.” “If a race has no history, if it has no worth-while tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” Woodson wrote.

=> ↺ Asylum Seekers’ Arduous Journey Doesn’t End Once They Are in the United States

• Over the past several months, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent thousands of asylum seekers to New York. While finding shelter may be the migrants’ initial worry, it certainly won’t be their only concern.

=> ↺ Belarus moves to legalize capital punishment for treason in government office and military — Meduza

• The lower chamber of the Belarus parliament has passed a law authorizing capital punishment for treason, if committed by a government official or a member of the Belarus military.

=> ↺ A Return to Child Labor?

=> ↺ Techdirt Podcast Episode 344: The DoNotPay Story, With Kathryn Tewson

• If you’ve been reading Techdirt recently, you probably know all about supposed “AI Lawyer” service DoNotPay and the tireless investigation of the company undertaken by Kathryn Tewson, who has written a couple of Techdirt posts about the saga. This week, Kathryn joins us on the podcast for a long and entertaining discussion about the entire story (so far).

=> ↺ Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination

• The Seattle City Council has added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban caste discrimination. Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. The movement is getting pushback from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community. Proponents of the ordinance approved Tuesday say caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries and that without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the U.S. will have no protections. Groups opposing the measure say it will malign a community that is already the target of prejudice.

=> ↺ Can a Federal Court Vacate a Regulation Without First Concluding It Was Unlawful?

• A Ninth Circuit opinion concludes that when a federal agency seeks a voluntary remand of a contested rule, that is not enough to vacate the regulation.

=> ↺ Federal Lawmakers Call on Google CEO to Protect Striking Employees’ Rights: ‘Recognize the Invaluable Contributions YouTube Music Workers Bring to Your Company’

• Earlier this month, about 40 (previously remote) YouTube Music employees went on strike after being ordered to show up for work at the office. Now, in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, lawmakers in the House and the Senate are expressing their “serious concern” over the “alleged retaliation” that the striking staffers have faced.

=> ↺ UN subcommittee cancels visit to Australia after being denied access to detention and mental health facilities

• The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) Monday canceled its visit to Australia after it was denied access to detention centers and mental health facilities.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Supreme Court Justices Admit They Don’t Know Much About Social Media

• U.S. Supreme Court justices may be many things, but they definitely aren’t social media experts. The justices roasted themselves during oral arguments Tuesday of a case against Google that could determine the fate of nearly all speech online.

=> ↺ Supreme test in ‘terror-death posting’ case: Can Big Tech be blamed?

• Are Google, Facebook, Twitter and other tech giants ­responsible for what their users see on social media?

=> ↺ Public Knowledge Urges FCC to Swiftly and Forcefully Address Digital Discrimination

• We urge the FCC to proactively set policies that end digital discrimination and promote equal access to broadband for all.

=> ↺ Is Ketanji Brown Jackson a Greater Threat to Big Tech Than Clarence Thomas?

• The Supreme Court’s newest member weighs in on the meaning of Section 230 in Gonzalez v. Google.

Monopolies

=> ↺ UK tribunal rejects application for £2.3 billion class action suit against Meta

• The UK’s competition tribunal Monday rejected an application for a £2.3 billion class action  lawsuit which accused Facebook’s parent company Meta of “unfair trading conditions.

Patents

=> ↺ EPO and IPQC reach impasse in patent quality discussion

• In autumn 2022, various companies launched the Industry Patent Quality Charter (IPQC) at the initiative of Beat Weibel, chief IP counsel at Siemens. Almost simultaneously, the EPO published its own new quality policy, which is an important component of its Strategic Plan 2023.

=> ↺ Litigation Investment Entities: The Investors Behind the Curtain

• Unified, as part of their ongoing deterrence activities, will be tracking and reporting on Litigation Investment Entities (LIEs) on at least a quarterly basis and attempting to shed light on this growing but nonetheless little-understood part of the patent litigation landscape. 

=> ↺ $12,000 for SoftBank entity, Neo Wireless, prior art

• On February 21, 2023, Unified added 6 new PATROLL contests, with a $2,000 cash prize for each, seeking prior art on the list below. The patents are owned by Neo Wireless, LLC, an NPE and SoftBank subsidiary. The contests will all end on May 1, 2023. Please visit PATROLL for more information or click on each link below.

=> ↺ Hilco Global entity Bell Semiconductor integrated circuit patent reexam granted

• On February 17, 2023, less than two months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the USPTO granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,007,259, owned and asserted by Bell Semiconductor LLC, an NPE and entity of Hilco Global. The ‘259 patent relates to a method of prioritizing dummy fill in a semiconductor chip.

=> ↺ $2,000 for Flick Intelligence content display patent prior art

• A new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, was added seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 9,465,451, owned by Flick Intelligence, LLC. The ‘451 patent generally relates to obtaining and displaying supplemental data about a displayed movie, show, event, or video game.

Copyrights

=> ↺ This Is Not a Bicycle: Human Creativity and Generative AI

• The rapid development of this technology has caught the attention of many, offering the promise of revolutionizing how we create art, conduct work, and even live our daily lives. At the same time, these impressive new tools have also raised questions about the nature of art and creativity and what role law and policy should play in both fostering the development of AI and protecting individuals from possible harms that can come from AI.

=> ↺ Félix Nartey — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 3

• Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage.  Felix is a Senior Program Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation and also volunteers with Creative Commons and Mozilla to promote the Commons and Open Access.

=> ↺ Brazil Shuts Major Anime Piracy Sites – It Might Be Hiding Something Bigger

• Brazil’s Ministry of Justice says that an operation to protect Japanese anime content has shut down two of the largest anime piracy sites in the country. The names of the sites appear to be a secret, so inevitably that makes them much more interesting. What we found may be bigger than naming two sites. More sites are also offline – big ones too.

=> ↺ Bungie Requests $6.7 Million Default Judgment Against LaviCheats

• Game developer Bungie continues its legal crusade against cheat sellers. The company has requested a $6.7m default judgment against the alleged operator of LaviCheats, who failed to show up in court. LaviCheats removed Destiny 2 cheats from its website but then began promoting other potentially-related sites.

=> ↺ Sports Illustrated Sure Looks Like It’s Trading Human Journalists for AI

• Karl just wrote about CNET, a once-vaunted resource for tech journalism, absolutely stepping on every rake it could find by using AI-generated content that was absolutely laughable: the content tended to be inaccurate, plagiarized, or otherwise so full of mistakes that an army of editors had to rework the content, largely wiping away any cost savings the site was hoping to achieve. Good times all around.

=> ↺ Flood of AI-Generated Stories Prompts Sci-Fi Magazine to Shut Down Submissions

• The Hugo award-winning Science Fiction-focused Clarkesworld Magazine can receive over 12,000 submissions in just one year.

=> ↺ Legendary Sci-Fi Magazine Halts Submissions Amid Deluge of AI-Written Stories

• “We don’t have a solution for the problem. We have some ideas for minimizing it, but the problem isn’t going away,” the editor of Clarkesworld said.

=> ↺ Dool-Hoff: A Dutch Maze with New Jerusalem at its Centre (1705)

• This 1705 maze instructs Christians on the possible pathways to New Jerusalem (and dead-ends to be avoided).

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ needing cozyness, an entrance into the Smol Pub

• ::removes hat, shakes it vigorously as my eyes glance across the pub with anticipation::

• Wow, there’s a dumpster on fire outside, everybody be careful if/when you have to go out there again!

• It’s dark out, so the blaze lights the surroundings well, but it is raining, so things will tamper down soon.

• If the Midnight ~bartender is on staff this evening, I’ll have an espresso. If The Midnight and Smol Pub do not share staff, I’ll just help myself to what I have in my thermos.

• I’m still here, around on the Smol Web, as it has been “a place” for me since 2018. A great many of us seem to be migrating to these parts, it seems, but nary a few will truly appreciate the ideals and concepts behind WHY the Smol Web is. But it (the Smol Web) is welcoming, so anyone can come about, be themselves, and things will work out

=> ↺ Adapting the game

• The simplest changes, mechanically, would be to change the list of talents. Pick a theme, decide upon careers, imagine the rolls you want to make. Don’t focus on the activities: only the activities where you want randomized outcomes are important.

• For a science fiction game like Dune… People like Sardaukar and Fremen need Fighting talents: Swords, Knives, Bolters, Unarmed. Is the use of Shields or Battledress something to roll for? Are there characters that don’t know how to use shields? Perhaps it’s better to just assume that without Shields you’re a soft target and bolters deal 5d6 damage.

=> ↺ Star Gazing 2023-02-21 Evening (Fairbanks, AK, US)

• God gave me an unexpected opening in the clouds last night, which I had not forseen from the NWS data or forecasts. There were thin, scattered clouds, but it was clear enough that I decided to head down to the boat launch, at about 8pm AKST. From the GOES images, it looked like clouds might roll in any minute, so I decided not to waste time loading up and setting up my telescope, but instead I just brought the binoculars, as well as an old hunting scope I found.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: DEHORTX Wordo: OHHHH

Politics

=> ↺ Roast – Colombia & Tanzania

• a repeat of the colombia from last time and a new tanzania. my last roast of the kenya was way underdone so my goal for these roasts was to slow down the rate-of-rise descent and use a lighter touch on the power to not stall. it seems to have worked great and i got good looking and smelling roasts from both! learning!!

Technical

=> ↺ Searching!

• Note: This article covers http and gemini.

• Up to 2000, I used a variety of search engines: AskJeeves (later, Ask.com), HotBot, Lycos, Yahoo, and others whose names I can no longer recall. I vaguely remember using Archie on dial-up text browsing, but cannot remember much about it beyond that it was used for FTP searches, and later Veronica for searching Gopher sites.

• I used Google regularly starting about 2000. It helped me the summer I was a fact checker for a weekly paper in Philadelphia. Over time I became more concerned with the surveillance aspects of Google products. When I learned about DuckDuckGo in 2010 or 2011 I started trying it out. For a few years, I jumped back and forth between search engines but by about 2013 or 2014 I started using DDG only.

=> ↺ We need to talk about your Github addiction

• Listen my fellow geeks in code, we need to have a serious conversation about Github.

• At first, Github was only a convenient way to host a git repository and to collaborate with others. But, as always with monopolies, once you are trapped by convenience and the network effect, the shitification process starts to try to get as much money and data from you.

• First of all, let’s remember that Github is a fully proprietary service. Using it to host the development of a free software makes no sense if you value freedom. It is not like we don’t have many alternatives available (sourcehut, codeberg, gitlab, etc). It should be noted that those alternatives usually offer a better workflow and a better git integration than Github. They usually make more sense but, I agree, it might be hard to change ten years of suboptimal habits imposed by the github workflow.

=> ↺ Privacy Needs Anonymity

• When you send a message to a friend on Facebook, Google, or other big messaging services, the company running the service often claims not to be able to read the contents of your messages. For the most part, I actually believe that to be true. But these days, they don’t need to.

=> ↺ Injection

• Rumor has it that full-size Edge ads are being injected by They Who Shall Not Be Named on the Chrome website; I say rumor as I have no direct experience of this. Some languages have observationals and evidentials for this sort of hearsay, while in English we must typically use elaborations.

=> ↺ Binary wrist watch

• Interestingly, while telling the time was somewhat cumbersome at first, it is rapidly getting easier. I have realised that I am starting to simply memorise quite a few positions, so that I can often read the time at a glance. I have also begun to notice patterns I had not really thought about or considered before wearing a watch like this. For example, any time you have a combination and it moves one place to the left it is (obviously) doubling. Since 000011 is 3, 000110 is therefore 6 and 001100 is 12. That means that as you learn basic patterns (when combining smaller numbers), you can use them to quickly understand bigger combinations that look the same.

=> ↺ Exciting news! & cool watches

• I am accepted into a masters program on Byzantine music theory! I’m very excited about it. The program is only about a year and a half, which is nice. Probably I’ll find some part-time work too, like being a barista or something.

=> ↺ Alternative OS’s

• i’m thinking i might delve back into the fun and joys that are weird alternative os things. every few years i like to wander off the beaten path, and try things like haiku, redux, amigaOS. just weird but fun things.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Replacing Duckling with Stargate, a new Gemini-to-HTTP gateway

• A few months back, I quietly added a “raw mode” to NewsWaffle. Normally, NewsWaffle takes the HTML of a news article and uses a port of the Readability library to extract the news article. It then runs the article HTML through a custom HTML-to-gemtext converter that I have tuned on the HTML and structure typically present in news websites. Sometimes Readability fails to find an article, or fully extract it, so I added in “raw mode” as a kind of backup which would convert all of the HTML. The output wasn’t as clean as the optimized article view, but at least this meant that users could see the content.

• But this also meant that users could use NewsWaffle in raw mode to view any HTML page over HTTP! It was in essense a super hacky general Gemini-to-HTTP gateway.

• Over the next month or so I would find myself taking especially bad, slow, or gross website URLs and pasting them into NewWaffle’s “Enter your own favorite news site” feature and then view them in raw mode. It was an OK way to clean up the content and make it readable.

Programming

=> ↺ Old Molly Metcalfe hacking Lisp

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