● 04.05.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 05/04/2023: GTK 4.11.1, Wayland 1.22, and Gajim 1.7.3

Posted in News Roundup at 10:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ System76 teases made-in-Denver Linux laptop

• System76 has been selling PCs that ship with Linux pre-installed for years. But for most of that time the company has worked with third-party manufacturers. A few years ago System76 announced plans to establish its own factory in Denver. Since then, the company has begun building its own desktops and keyboards.

• Now the company’s CEO says the first System76 laptop built in-house is on the way, and he’s posted pictures of an aluminum LCD panel that he says will be part of the upcoming notebook.

Linux Magazine’s Latest (New) Issue

=> ↺ Introduction

• This month in Linux Voice.

=> ↺ Text-based menus and information pages

• Whiptail interfaces add menus and information pages to your Raspberry Pi projects.

=> ↺ Kernel News

• Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the little links that bring us closer within the Linux kernel community.

=> ↺ A Deep Dive into the ELF File Format

• Linux and other Unix-based systems use the ELF file format for executables, object code, and shared libraries. Take a peek inside to learn how an ELF file is organized.

=> ↺ FOSS Picks

• Graham has finally taken delivery of a couple of RISC-V development boards for Linux experimentation. Expect plenty of cross-build tools in future issues!

=> ↺ Booting up the coreboot firmware alternative

• Coreboot is an open source firmware alternative with an emphasis on speed and simplicity.

=> ↺ Analyze network traffic with Sniffnet

• Network traffic remains a closed book for many users. Sniffnet lets less experienced users monitor their network traffic with ease.

=> ↺ DuckDuckGo from the Terminal

• Since 2008, DuckDuckGo has been making waves as an efficient and much more private search engine alternative to Google. The unaffiliated command-line tool ddgr is designed to make running DuckDuckGo searches from the terminal a breeze.

=> ↺ Find files and directories with FSearch

• In a crowded field of search applications, FSearch offers many interesting functions for quickly searching files and folders, with more promised in the future.

=> ↺ Flatpak updates with systemd

• You can automate Flatpak updates without a package manager using systemd’s services and timers.

=> ↺ Historical Record

• A new effort to record the history of open source is underway.

=> ↺ Better Boundaries

• Is the whole high-tech scene imploding? If so, it won’t be the first time, but every time it implodes, it comes back a little different, so even temporary implosions are relevant.

=> ↺ This Month’s DVD

• Fedora 37 Workstation and TUXEDO OS 2

=> ↺ Bookmark organization with floccus and LinkAce

• LinkAce and floccus synchronize and manage bookmarks while storing your data locally.

=> ↺ News

• In the news: Gnome 44 Release Candidate; Flathub Vying to Become the Standard Linux App Store; Debian 12 to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.27; Planet Computers Launches ARM-Based Linux Desktop PCs; Ubuntu No Longer Shipping with Flatpak; openSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta; Linux Kernel 6.2 Released with NewHardware Support; Kubuntu Focus Team Releases NewMini Desktop; and US National Cybersecurity Strategy Released.

=> ↺ A simpler packet filter

• Filter rules for firewalls can be tricky. As the successor to iptables, nftables simplifies the process of creating and maintaining firewall rules.

=> ↺ Repositories for energy-saving software

• A number of open source projects offer tools for analyzing energy usage in software.

=> ↺ TUXEDO OS 2 Preview in test

• The popular Linux PC forge TUXEDO extends Ubuntu to include the latest KDE packages and says goodbye to Snap for its in-house TUXEDO OS distribution. The latest version is suitable for any PC.

=> ↺ The disaster of MIPI cameras on Linux

• Linux users have long gotten used to the standard hardware in their systems working perfectly. Recently, however, things have gotten dicey for webcams supporting the MIPI specification. We’ll tell you why and what to do about it.

=> ↺ Viewing wildlife with a Pi Zero photo trap

• Armed with no more than a Raspberry Pi photo trap, you can discover who pays a visit to your garden at night.

=> ↺ A command-line dictionary tool

• With the dict client, you can quickly search dozens of natural language dictionary databases for the perfect word.

=> ↺ Energy-efficient programming with Go and beyond

• Go has a reputation for producing energy-saving applications, but you still have to know what you are doing.

=> ↺ Let an AI chatbot do the work

• The electronic brain behind ChatGPT from OpenAI is amazingly capable when it comes to chatting with human partners. Mike Schilli picked up an API token and has set about coding some small practical applications.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 5.15.106

=> ↺ Linux 5.10.177

=> ↺ Linux 5.4.240

=> ↺ Linux 4.19.280

=> ↺ Linux 4.14.312

=> ↺ Linux 6.2.10

=> ↺ Linux 6.1.23

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ [ANNOUNCE] wayland 1.22.0

=> ↺ [ANNOUNCE] xf86-input-libinput 1.3.0

Applications

=> ↺ Gajim 1.7.3 – Gajim

• Gajim 1.7.3 enables you to mute notifications for specific contacts and brings some improvements and bug fixes. Thank you for all your contributions!

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Detach Child Pop-up windows from Parent in Ubuntu 22.04

• In Ubuntu, Fedora and other Linux with GNOME desktop, you may found that many applications have child dialogues attached to parent windows.

=> ↺ How to easily run multiple Linux distributions on one computer with Boxes

• I’ve been writing regularly for years now about one of my favorite topics, Linux.

=> ↺ What is the difference between ‘git pull’ and ‘git fetch’?

• Out of many different Git commands ‘Git Pull‘ and ‘Git Fetch‘ allow users to update their local repository with changes made in a remote repository. Although they are relative, however, work differently.

=> ↺ How to Install Percona XtraDB Cluster on Debian 11

• Percona XtraDB Cluster is a fully open-source database clustering solution for MySQL. It allows you to create a robust, high-availability MySQL server deployment that provides high performance.

=> ↺ How to install Erlang on Amazon Linux 2 – AWS EC2?

• Erlang which is also known as Erlang/OTP, or Open Telecom Platform (OTP) is a programming language with similar syntax to other functional languages such as Haskell and Lisp. It is designed to build scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems. At Ericsson Telecom in Sweden, it was created by Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, and Mike Williams around 37 years ago, which makes it quite trustable. That’s why Erlang has been used to build many high-profile systems, including the telephony infrastructure of Ericsson, WhatsApp, and RabbitMQ, among others.

=> ↺ How to install PHP 8.2 with Apache on Debian 11 Linux

• Debian 11 is an excellent server OS to run the LAMP stack. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language especially suited for web development. However, Debian 11 comes with PHP version 7.4. Here is how to install PHP 8.2 with Apache server on Debian 11 using the CLI or over ssh based session.

=> ↺ Copying all files and folders to another directory in Linux

• We’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of copying all files from one directory to another using the cp command. We’ll also provide examples to help you understand how to use the command in different scenarios. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a good understanding of how to copy files in Linux using the cp command.

=> ↺ 15 Practical Examples of Linux bc Command

• In Linux, the bc command is a versatile tool that can be used to perform complex mathematical calculations, automate tasks, and write scripts. The bc command supports a wide range of functions, operators, and variables that allow you to perform calculations with great precision and flexibility. In this article, we will discuss 15 practical examples [...]

=> ↺ bc Command in Linux With Examples

• In Linux, the bc command is a powerful tool for performing mathematical calculations. The bc command can be used in scripts or on the command line to perform calculations, set variables, and even write scripts. In this article, we will discuss the bc command in Linux and provide practical examples to illustrate its use.

=> ↺ How to install Checkmk on Rocky Linux 9 / Alma Linux 9

• Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install checkmk on Rocky Linux 9 / Alma Linux 9.

=> ↺ How to Install FileZilla on Linux Mint 21/20

• FileZilla is an incredibly powerful and user-friendly File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client that allows users to transfer files between a local computer and a remote server. With its cross-platform compatibility, FileZilla supports Windows, macOS, and Linux systems, making it a preferred choice for webmasters, developers, and casual users alike.

=> ↺ How to Install Python 3.11 on Linux Mint 21/20

• Python 3.11 is one of the latest iterations of the popular programming language and brings many improvements and changes to enhance the overall coding experience. Building upon the solid foundation of Python 3.10, this new version introduces several enhancements that streamline development, boost performance, and refine syntax.

=> ↺ How to Install VidCutter on Linux Mint 21/20

• As a Linux Mint user, you might seek efficient, user-friendly video editing software that caters to your needs. Look no further because VidCutter is here to save the day! This robust, open-source video editor offers many features and is perfect for novice and experienced users.

=> ↺ How to Install VLC Media Player on Linux Mint 21/20

• VLC Media Player is a versatile and powerful multimedia player renowned for its ability to play virtually any media file format without the need for additional codecs. Developed by the VideoLAN organization, VLC is free, open-source software compatible with multiple platforms, including Linux Mint.

=> ↺ Linux Network Command Cheat Sheet

• Using Linux network commands, you can manage and troubleshoot network connections, interfaces, routing tables, and other networking-related functions. Command Description arp This command is used to display and manipulate the kernel’s ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) cache. ifconfig This command is used to display and configure network interfaces on the system.

=> ↺ User Management Command Cheat Sheet

• Linux user management commands create, modify, and delete user accounts and groups. Similarly, these commands are used to manage user account properties such as login shells, primary groups, and passwords. User management commands help system administrators control access to resources and manage user permissions on Linux systems to ensure security and accessibility.

=> ↺ Linux System Information Command Cheat Sheet

• A Linux operating system provides system information commands that provide information about various elements of the system, such as hardware, software, and configuration. A variety of information can be obtained from these commands, including kernel version, distribution name, distribution version, processor type, memory usage, networking configuration, and running processes.

=> ↺ Text Processing Command Cheat Sheet

• Text Processing Commands are a set of built-in commands that are used to manipulate text. These commands allow users to quickly and efficiently search, modify, and extract data from text files.

=> ↺ File Management Command Cheat Sheet

• In Linux, file management commands are used to manage files and directories. Those who regularly work with the Linux operating system, whether they are users, system administrators, or developers, will find these commands invaluable.

=> ↺ How To Install OTRS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OTRS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

=> ↺ How To Install Node.js on Fedora 37

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Node.js on Fedora 37. For those of you who didn’t know, Node.js is a powerful and flexible runtime environment for building scalable, efficient, and high-performance network applications.

=> ↺ How To Install NTP on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install NTP on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, NTP is a client-server-based protocol that is used to synchronize the time between different devices on a network.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GTK 4.11.1

• Here is the first GTK snapshot of the new development cycle. A lot of things fell into place recently, so it is worth taking some time to go through the details of what is new, and what you can expect to see in 4.12.

• The family of GtkListView, GtkColumnView and GtkGridView widgets was one of the big additions in GTK 4. They are meant to replace GtkTreeView, but up until now, this was clearly still a bit aspirational.

• In GTK 4.10, we’ve finally taken the big step to port GtkFileChooser away from tree views—a sign that list views are ready for prime time. And the next GTK 4 release will bring a number of missing features…

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ Linux Lite 6.4 Gets Lighter With More Features like WebP Image Support

• Linux Lite is known for its lightweight and Windows-like layout that provides users with a familiar operating system experience.

• The last major release, Linux Lite 6.2 saw the inclusion of various user interface tweaks/bug fixes, and now another release is here that also has various improvements on offer.

• Let me take you through the Linux Lite 6.4 release.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ SUSECON Call for Papers, and the great content that it generates!

• Today is the day! The eagerly awaited SUSECON Call for Papers is open!

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Apple and IBM join Big Tech layoffs

• Both Apple and IBM have started to remove staff, though at a lower rate than contemporaries like AWS, Microsoft and Meta.

• Let’s start with Apple.

• So far the iPhone maker has avoided layoffs, despite growing headcount by tens of thousands over the past five years. Other Big Tech firms have blamed over-recruiting in the pandemic as the main reason for the mass redundancies they are currently enacting.

• Instead Apple has preferred to cut costs by other means, for example by ending contractor relationships, delaying bonuses and limiting work travel.

• That’s not to say that the company has completely avoided criticism. After 18 months of threats, Apple told employees to return to the office three days a week back in February, and has since started tracking badge swipes and issuing warnings to employees who fail to do so.

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: FMN Replacement Blog – March

• It’s been about two months since our last blog post was out. The team wants to give everyone an update on our progress and let you know that we are nearly at the finish line!

• WAAAAAY back in early September 2022, we sent out an email to the community to lay out the reasons for replacing Fedora Messaging Notifications (FMN). At the time of writing the last blog post, we had deployed our code to the staging environment and were in the process of bug hunting. Some of our feature sets had been finished, like users receiving message notifications via IRC, but most were still in a “in progress” state. We were quietly optimistic about delivering the finished project on time.

Linux Mint

=> ↺ Color Variants & Styles Are Coming to Linux Mint 21.2

• Recently, Linux Mint has been focusing on its look and feel more than usual.

• With Linux Mint 21.1, you get a new default theme and several subtle visual refinements.

• And it looks like more such changes are in progress for the upcoming Linux Mint 21.2. As usual, a new monthly blog post highlighted some progress planned for the next release.

=> ↺ Linux Mint team adds styles to Cinnamon desktop

• Work on the Cinnamon desktop is being performed by the Linux Mint team all of the time. This month, it unveiled significant improvements to the themes that users can pick and introduced “styles”.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ ESP32-S3 based 1.28-inch round touchscreen display supports Arduino programming

• Makerfabs ESP32-S3 Round SPI TFT with Touch 1.28′ is a small ESP32-S3 with a 1.28-inch round color touchscreen display, a microSD card, support for USB and battery power, and two’Mabee’ extension connectors.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi RP2040 pHAT board comes with a 40-pin GPIO header

• 0xC0FFEE’s RP2040 PHAT is both a Raspberry Pi RP2040 development board and a pHAT for Raspberry Pi and Pi Zero Linux SBCs that exposes the I/Os through the 40-pin GPIO header traditionally found in Raspberry Pi single board computers. The board comes with all features of the Raspberry Pi Pico board including a USB port for power and programming, an SPI flash, and a BOOT button, but also adds a Reset button.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ How to take a voice note on Android

=> ↺ Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2023-04-05 – Android Authority

=> ↺ Magisk v26.0 adds Android 14 compatibility, while dropping legacy device support

=> ↺ Nokia T21 tablet review: Can build quality and two Android upgrades save aging�hardware? | Technology News,The Indian Express

=> ↺ 5 best weather apps for Android in 2023

=> ↺ Using Android Auto Wirelessly: 5 Reasons to Choose the AAWireless Dongle

=> ↺ Best open-world games on Android in 2023

=> ↺ Top 10 cost-effective Android mobile phones in all price categories

=> ↺ Primebook 4G Android Laptop Review | Affordable, with OS tradeoffs – The Hindu

=> ↺ Sweet new deal makes Google’s old but not outdated Pixel 5 a must-buy for Android purists – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Samsung’s April 2023 security patch is live for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 in the US

=> ↺ Accessing Android apps from your phone to your Galaxy Chromebook will soon be possible – SamMobile

=> ↺ How to Use Google’s Nearby Share to Share Files Between Android and Windows

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Open source community analysis with actionable insights

• Organizations are increasingly adopting open source software development models and open source aspects of organizational culture. As a result, interest in how open source communities succeed is reaching an all-time high.

• Until recent years, measuring the success of open source communities was haphazard and anecdotal. Ask someone what makes one community more successful than another, and you will likely get observations such as, “The software is great, so the community is too,” or “The people in this community just mesh well.” The problem with these evaluations is not that they are necessarily wrong, but that they don’t provide information that others can use to reproduce successful results. What works for one community is not necessarily going to work for another.

• Research universities, businesses, and other organizations interested in determining what makes open source projects successful have begun to collaborate on finding ways to measure aspects of community in a qualitative and data-driven way. One of the more prominent efforts is CHAOSS, a Linux Foundation project focused on creating metrics, metrics models, and software to better understand open source community health on a global scale. Unhealthy projects hurt both their communities and the organizations relying on those projects, so identifying measures of robustness isn’t just an interesting project. It’s critical to the open source ecosystem.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

=> ↺ Mullvad VPN and Tor Project Unite to Create a New Browser – It’s FOSS News

• Mullvad x Tor Project collaborates on building a new web browser with its VPN integration!

=> ↺ New Privacy-Focused Browser Aims to Protect Your Data Online

• The Tor Project and Mullvad VPN, two organizations that are all about user privacy, released a new privacy-focused web browser, called Mullvad Browser, on Monday. The browser is free to download and works on Windows, MacOS and Linux. There’s also a Firefox extension in beta you can download.

• “The mass surveillance of today is absurd,” Jan Jonsson, Mullvad VPN’s CEO, said in a news release. “The Mullvad Browser is all about providing more privacy alternatives to reach as many people as possible and make life harder for those who collect data from you.”

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Funny Programming Pictures Part XXVIII

• Because, sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand pull requests.

=> ↺ 7 Best Open Source Free React Landing Page Templates

• What is a landing page?

• A landing page is a specialized web page designed to create a strong first impression and encourage visitors to take a specific action. It’s not just another page on a website, but a standalone page crafted in response to a marketing campaign or offer. Landing

=> ↺ EverShop Is an Open-source React eCommerce Platform

• EverShop is an eCommerce platform based on GraphQL and React that includes essential commerce features. It is built with React, is modular, and fully customizable. The platform is easy to install, set up, and customize.

=> ↺ Maintenance release: Godot 4.0.2

• As the work on Godot 4.1 continues, more fixes and enhancements become available to existing 4.0 users as patch releases. Meet Godot 4.0.2, addressing more of your reports, including several regressions from 4.0.1, and improving platform support for Android, macOS, and Windows!

Python

=> ↺ Python Delete File If Exists

• To remove a file only if it exists, use the remove() method and the unlink() methods. However, you need to wrap these methods in try-except statements.

=> ↺ Qt for Python: the new 6.5 version is out!

• You may have seen the many cool things that Qt 6.5 includes, so now we want to talk about everything being developed by the Qt for Python team.

=> ↺ Top 10 Python GUI Frameworks for Developers | Built In

• Graphical user interface, or GUI, as it’s more commonly known, is one of the three main cornerstones of any application, along with security and performance. Maintaining the right balance between these three vital aspects can help you ensure an intuitive and seamless user experience. We can’t stress enough how important it is to have a user interface that’s minimalistic and, at the same time, robust. Gone are the days when developers would lose their minds creating the perfect user interface in the absence of powerful tools like frameworks.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Switzerland to host women’s Euro 2025 football tournament

• Switzerland will host the 2025 Women’s European Championship, European soccer’s governing body UEFA said on Tuesday.

=> ↺ 2023-03-30 [Older] Crib Sheet: Escape from Yokai Land

=> ↺ 2023-04-01 [Older] Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

=> ↺ Kind Of A Jesus Christ Thing

• As you may have heard, some big mob boss got arraigned today in New York for the first 34 of his bounteous crimes, sins, grifts and unholy transgressions, and as Biden likes to say, it’s a big fucking deal. It seems law enforcement offered to do it quietly, but the mobster wanted it splashy. So it will be, with “law enforcement zoo,” snipers, perp walk, shrieking zealots. Says one poor cop burdened with it, “It’ll be a shitshow.” Update: It was.

=> ↺ Letters From the April 17/24, 2023, Issue

• The subheading to Joan Walsh’s article declares “ecstasy and community return on Bruce Springsteen’s 2023 tour” [“Our Lost Years,” March 6/13]. If that’s the case, it must be a community of the wealthy and privileged. I once had the pleasure of meeting Bruce Springsteen at a campaign stop in Columbus for John Kerry, but I cannot afford seats for his current tour. In Tampa, tickets went for $199 for the “cheap seats,” other tickets selling for $299 and soaring with “dynamic pricing” to as much as $5,000. Part of the problem is Ticketmaster’s monopoly. But performers like The Cure have found ways to respect their fans and keep ticket prices more affordable. Springsteen could certainly afford to do the same.Mary Jo Kilroy columbus, ohio2

=> ↺ Facing Compounding Crises, Syria Requires Long-Term Investments

• Nothing could have prepared us for what we sawin the wake of the Türkiye-Syria earthquake.

=> ↺ Supercon 2022: Chris Combs Reveals His Art-World Compatibility Layer

• [Chris Combs] is a full time artist who loves using technology to create unique art projects and has been building blinky artwork since about a decade now. In his 2022 Supercon talk “Art-World Compatibility Layer: How to Hang and Sell Your Blinky Goodness as Art” (Slides, PDF), [Chris] takes us behind the scenes and shows us how to turn our blinky doodads in to coveted art works. There is a big difference between a project that just works, and a work of art, and it’s the attention to small details that differentiates the two.

=> ↺ Podcast Episode: Losing Until We Win: Realistic Revolution in Science Fiction

Hardware

=> ↺ Xiaomi Scooter Firmware Hacking Gets Hands-On

• Scooter hacking is wonderful – you get to create a better scooter from a pre-made scooter platform, and sometimes you can do that purely through firmware modifications. Typically, hackers have been uploading firmware using Bluetooth OTA methods, and at some point, we’ve seen the always-popular Xiaomi scooters starting to get locked down. Today, we see [Daljeet Nandha] from [RoboCoffee] continue the research of the new Xiaomi scooter realities, where he finds that SWD flashing is way more of a viable avenue that we might’ve expected.

=> ↺ Videostrong HC1 Home Care Hub for the elderly serves as Smart Speaker, Smart Home gateway, video phone

• Videostrong HC1 Home Care Hub is a Smart Home/IoT gateway designed for the elderly that also serves as a smart speaker with 10-meter far-field voice recognition, a video phone with a video built-in camera and speaker, and a 4K Android TV box.

=> ↺ RISC-V In The Datacenter Is No Risky Proposition

• It was only a matter of time, perhaps, but the skyrocketing costs of designing chips is colliding with the ever-increasing need for performance, price/performance, and performance per watt.

=> ↺ Legato Logic is building a chip for battery-powered sensing

• It’s clear there is huge demand for low-power, smarter sensors at the edge, and Legato Logic has a chip that it thinks can do just that using less than a milliwatt of power.

=> ↺ New Expansion Module Brings Standard Slots To Ancient Laptop

• Upgrading and repairing vintage laptops is often a challenge — even if their basic hardware is compatible with ordinary PCs, they often use nonstandard components and connectors due to space constraints. The Sharp PC-4600 series from the late 1980s is a case in point: although it comes with standard serial and parallel ports, the only other external interface is a mysterious connector labelled EXPBUS on the back of the case. [Steven George] has been diving into the details of this port and managed to design a module to turn it into a pair of standard ISA ports.

=> ↺ China Strikes Back at Micron Technology Even as It Signals Openness

• Beijing’s security review of Micron Technology, which has deep roots in China, could have wide-ranging ramifications for other foreign businesses.

=> ↺ Silkscreen Busy? Put Labels Inside Pads

• When making a PCB informative and self-documenting, there’s often just not enough space to silkscreen all the labels you want, and slowly but surely, you collect a set of tricks: using different through-hole pad shapes to denote ground or power pins, standardized pinouts for connectors, your own signal name shortening notations, and so on.

=> ↺ Upgrade Your Voodoo With More Memory

• In 1996, the 3Dfx VooDoo VGA chipset changed computer graphics forever. Because of the high cost of memory, most of the boards had only 4 MB of memory — which seemed a lot back then. However, the chipset could actually handle up to 8 MB. [Bits and Bolts] couldn’t stand that his board only had 4 MB, so he did what any good hacker would do: he figured out how to add the missing memory!

=> ↺ Reshoring Vacuum Tube Manufacturing, One Tube At A Time

• For most of us, vacuum tubes haven’t appeared in any of our schematics or BOMs in — well, ever. Once mass-manufacturing made reliable transistors cheap enough for hobbyists, vacuum tubes became pretty passe, and it wasn’t long before the once mighty US tube industry was decimated, leaving the few remaining tube enthusiasts to ferret out caches of old stock, or even seek new tubes from overseas manufacturers.

=> ↺ 3D Printed Post Modern Grandfather Clock

• Projects can often spiral, not down or up, but out. For [Derek] he started playing around with a 3D-printed escapement mechanism and thought it was a wonderful bit of engineering. But with a simple drum and weight, it only had a runtime of a few minutes. What started as a simple “can I make it run longer” spiraled into a full-blown beautiful grandfather clock.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Johnson & Johnson Reaches Deal for $8.9 Billion Talc Settlement

• The company faces a flood of lawsuits claiming its talc products caused cancer. The proposed settlement requires approval by a bankruptcy court, but has the backing of plaintiffs’ lawyers.

=> ↺ 2023-03-27 [Older] Sleep, exercise and heart health: The impacts of coffee, according to a new study

=> ↺ Self-Charging Battery Battles Tumors in Mice

• A battery that charges itself in salty fluids starves tumors of oxygen, helping improve some drugs treat cancer, a study finds.

=> ↺ 2023-03-31 [Older] Chinese cities are so broke, they’re cutting medical benefits for seniors

=> ↺ 2023-03-31 [Older] CNN reached out to fentanyl chemical manufacturers in China. See what they said

=> ↺ Police Union Director Indicted For Importing And Distributing Cop-Killing Fentanyl

• Nothing kills cops like fentanyl. I mean, I don’t think it’s actually killed any cops yet, but any cop in the general vicinity of it acts like they’re dying and heads off the ER, surrounded by enablers, cop shop PR staff, and journalists willing to act as stenographers.

=> ↺ ‘People Are Going to Die’: Florida Senate Republicans Pass Abortion Ban

• “This is a devastating day for our state and freedoms,” said one Democratic Florida state lawmaker. “This six-week abortion ban is deeply unpopular, dangerous, and un-American.”

=> ↺ States Try to Obscure Execution Details as Drugmakers Hinder Lethal Injection

• In 2011, Jeffrey Motts was executed in South Carolina. More than a decade later, the state hasn’t carried out another execution because officials have struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection. Now, to resume executions, lawmakers are debating a bill that would further shroud the state’s lethal injection […]

=> ↺ Power Struggle

• If you squint at it long enough, the abortion debate can look like an opportunity for conservatives to act like liberals—at least rhetorically. In arguing against abortion rights, conservatives cast themselves as brave advocates for an inconvenient moral truth. By standing up for the “little guy”—that is, the fetus—they claim to take the side of the oppressed. Like the most annoying of liberals, anti-choice conservatives can also treat this “oppressed class” as an ornament for their own self-regard, insisting that in their opposition to abortion rights, they provide “a voice for the voiceless.”

=> ↺ ‘A Win for All Living Beings’: Appeals Court Tosses Mountain Valley Pipeline Permit

• A U.S. appellate court panel on Monday unanimously struck down a key water permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a nearly completed fracked gas project long opposed by people living along the over-300-mile route through Virginia and West Virginia.

Proprietary

=> ↺ In Defense of Clip Art

• When I was a child, I spent a lot of my life in Microsoft Word and later in Microsoft Publisher, its desktop publishing equivalent, making everything from menus for fruit stands to faux Crate & Barrel catalogs. My parents bought me Greeting Card Factory software for my birthday. Graphic design, it could be said, was my passion. In each of these projects, I used clip art, the stock imagery that usually came bundled with software or on a dodgy CD-ROM you’d get at Borders called something like “50,000 Best Clip Art Images.” For children such as myself, clip art was the digital equivalent of a sticker book—it was also an incredible way to play pretend, housed in harmless office software isolated from the Internet. It was free—at the point of purchase—meaning it could be used on everything from school flyers to actual menus in actual businesses, “CurlzMT” typeface and all. If you are older than 25, you probably remember clip art’s mix of vague abstraction (e.g., gestural line figures in oversize ’90s suits holding briefcases) and goofy cartoonishness. These aesthetics remain indelible parts of early digital kitsch, along with GeoCities (itself populated with clip art) or WordArt.

=> ↺ Hackers Can Remotely Open Smart Garage Doors Across the World

• A security researcher found a series of vulnerabilities with the Nexx brand of smart garage openers. He says he could remotely find garages to target, and then open them across the internet.

=> ↺ Developers Are Connecting Multiple AI Agents to Make More ‘Autonomous’ AI

• They hope to create an agent that can do a number of tasks on its own, such as developing a website, creating a newsletter, and writing on a Google doc.

=> ↺ ‘Rollercoaster of emotions,’ says Microsoft employee fired after 25 years of service

• The year 2023 started off on a sombre note for many tech professionals as several major companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Salesforce, announced mass layoffs in an effort to cut costs. This wave of job cuts has left thousands of techies around the world without employment, and social media platforms are filled with stories of people sharing their layoff experiences.

=> ↺ Tech companies plan hundreds more Bay Area job cuts as layoffs worsen

• Roku, Lucid and Microsoft have revealed plans for fresh Bay Area job cuts, together adding hundreds of workers to the region’s worsening layoffs.

=> ↺ Stable Channel Update for Desktop

• The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 112 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux. This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.

• Chrome 112.0.5615.49 (Linux and Mac), 112.0.5615.49/50( Windows) contains a number of fixes and improvements — a list of changes is available in the log. Watch out for upcoming Chrome and Chromium blog posts about new features and big efforts delivered in 112.

Security

=> ↺ Zimbra Flaw Exploited by Russia Against NATO Countries Added to CISA ‘Must Patch’ List

• CISA has added to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog a Zimbra vulnerability exploited in attacks targeting NATO countries

=> ↺ WiFi Flaws Allow Network Traffic Interception on Linux, iOS, and Android

• The WiFi flaw discovered by researchers from Northeastern University and KU Leuven can impact a wide range of operating systems, including Linux, iOS, and Android, leaving them vulnerable to potential interception of network traffic if exploited by hackers.

• Wireless networking stacks found in a wide range of operating systems were left vulnerable due to an ambiguity in the WiFi specification, explained academics from Northeastern University and KU Leuven in a paper (PDF) titled “Framing Frames: Bypassing WiFi Encryption by Manipulating Transmit Queues.” The ambiguity can allow exposure of network traffic if exploited by threat actors.

=> ↺ Analyzing the efile.com Malware “efail”, (Tue, Apr 4th)

• Yesterday, I wrote about efile.com serving malicious ake “Browser Updates” to some of its users. This morning, efile.com finally removed the malicious code from its site. The attacker reacted a bit faster and removed some of the additional malware. But luckily, I was able to retrieve some of the malware last evening before it was removed.

=> ↺ Notorious Genesis Market cybercrime forum seized in international law enforcement operation

• The FBI led “Operation Cookie Monster” to shutter the site linked to millions of instances of fraud and cybercrime globally.

=> ↺ North Korea Hacking Cryptocurrency Sites with 3CX Exploit

• News:

=> ↺ 3CX Supply Chain Attack: North Korean Hackers Likely Targeted Cryptocurrency Firms

• 3CX supply chain attack appears to have been conducted by North Korean hackers with the goal of targeting cryptocurrency firms.

=> ↺ NATO Seeks Contractors to Test Security of Web Assets

• NATO is looking for penetration testing vendors to assess the security of its internet-facing web assets.

=> ↺ Self-Propagating, Fast-Encrypting ‘Rorschach’ Ransomware Emerges

• The sophisticated, self-propagating Rorschach ransomware is one of the fastest at encrypting victim’s files.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ CardinalOps Extends MITRE ATT&CK-based Detection Posture Management

• Tel Aviv- and Boston-based CardinalOps has extended its detection posture management capability with MITRE ATT&CK Security Layers.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ IRS Wants to Buy Internet Mass Monitoring Tool

• The U.S. military and FBI have previously bought access to netflow data from a company called Team Cymru. Now the IRS wants to buy products from the company too.

=> ↺ The Broad, Vague RESTRICT Act is a Dangerous Substitute for Comprehensive Data Privacy Legislation

• We’ve explained our opposition to the RESTRICT Act and urged everyone who agrees to take action against it. But we’ve also been asked to address some of the concerns raised by others. We do that here in this post.

• At its core, RESTRICT would exempt certain information services from the federal statute, known as the Berman Amendments, which protects the free flow of information in and out of the United States and supports the fundamental freedom of expression and human rights concerns. RESTRICT would give more power to the executive branch and remove many of the commonsense restrictions that exist under the Foreign Intelligence Services Act (FISA) and the aforementioned Berman Amendments. 

• But S. 686 also would do a lot more. 

=> ↺ Smart locks endanger tenants’ privacy and should be regulated

• Smart locks come in many forms. At the most basic level, they are physical locks that can be opened with a nontraditional key like a smartphone or fingerprint. Most significantly from a privacy perspective, they allow the lock company (and sometimes landlords) to collect data each time you or any of your guests unlock your physical door. To do this, the locks themselves may be connected to the internet, or they can rely on an app you must install on your phone (the key) to transmit the data to the lock company’s servers. Depending on the model, the lock might also record other data—like an image of the person trying to unlock the door.

• Smart locks have become increasingly popular in recent years, specifically with landlords. For example, in 2019, tenants in New York City forced a settlement after a landlord attempted to require tenants to use smart locks. The settlement required an option for physical keys. The smart lock at issue in that case was made by a company called Latch. While Latch was not named in the lawsuit, the company changed its privacy policy to remove reference to marketing and collection of other location data. Its software is reportedly in more than 125,000 dwelling units or commercial spaces. Many other companies make smart locks as well. They are part of the growth of smart home devices.

=> ↺ The RESTRICT Act Restricts More Than TikTok

• Supporters of expanding the federal police state have found a new bogeyman to scare the people into surrendering their liberty: TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to upload their own videos. It is used by tens of millions of Americans and is one of the most popular websites in the world.

=> ↺ Enough is Enough. Tell Congress to Ban Federal Use of Face Recognition

• Now, Congress must do its part. We’ve created a campaign that will easily allow you to contact your elected federal officials and tell them to support the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act.

=> ↺ Britain’s data watchdog fines TikTok $15.9 million for alleged misuse of children’s data

• The Information Commissioner’s Office estimated that the app allowed up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 use the platform in 2020.

=> ↺ TikTok’s Trials and Tribulations Continue With UK Data Protection Fine

• The UK’s data protection regulator fined TikTok £12.7 million for “failing to use children’s personal data lawfully”

=> ↺ Twitter’s recommendation algorithm opens platform to manipulation, bot attacks, researcher finds

• Twitter’s source code apparently revealed how it’s possible to game the company’s software to reduce access to specific accounts.

=> ↺ The complex math of counterfactuals could help Spotify pick your next favorite song

• A new kind of machine-learning model built by a team of researchers at the music-streaming firm Spotify captures for the first time the complex math behind counterfactual analysis, a precise technique that can be used to identify the causes of past events and predict the effects of future ones.

=> ↺ How to Connect a Smart Plug to Alexa and Set a Timer and Power Schedule

• Not all of your home devices are smart, and you might not want to replace them either. This is where a Wi-Fi enabled smart plug comes in handy as you just need to plug it in and connect to a mobile app.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ An Architect’s Dream of Rebuilding a Battered City in Ukraine

• Max Rozenfeld has spent much of the war imagining how the destruction of Kharkiv presents opportunities for reinventing its future.

=> ↺ Western News Media Downplay Ukraine War Crimes

• In late March, the United Nations issued a new report on war crimes being committed by both Russian and Ukrainian forces. The document provides a shocking litany of brutal behavior on the part of both militaries, although the investigators concluded that Russian units have committed the majority of offenses.

=> ↺ Daniel Pocock: Thyon, Switzerland: ED531 Lancaster Australian ANZAC casualties, 80th anniversary

• The most significant loss of Australian lives in Switzerland was the crash of Lancaster ED531 at Thyon in Canton Valais.

• The 80th anniversary of the crash is in June 2023.

• Various web sites have appeared with reasons for the crash. Some suggest the aircraft collided with high-tension wires. The power poles are visible in the photos. Some web sites suggest the aircraft was shot at. Witness reports explain that the aircraft had discharged its bombs in an unpopulated area before colliding with the mountain: this would have been a normal course of action after being shot at but also after a mechanical failure. The photos show the aircraft was largely intact when it crashed. It may have been shot at but that does not prove why it crashed.

=> ↺ Russia’s Wagner Group is a feature not a bug of the Putin regime

• Russian private paramilitaries like the Wagner Group are a symptom of the institutionalized corruption at the heart of Putin’s regime and not just another instrument in Russia’s hybrid warfare toolbox, writes Allen Maggard.

=> ↺ Plugging the gap in critical technologies

• ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue is already on its way to becoming the world’s premier policy summit on critical, emerging, cyber and space technologies.

=> ↺ How to keep Western tech out of Russian weapons

• The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center convened a panel of experts for a virtual event in March to discuss how to prevent the use of Western technologies in Russian weapons, reports Aleksander Cwalina.

=> ↺ Putting Australia at the centre of global technology advancement

• Australia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, opened ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue with a warning that Australia must establish a much stronger technological base. An edited version of his speech follows.

=> ↺ Why Zelensky Will NOT Take Back Crimea

• Seventeen months ago the US State Department officially declared the US will “NEVER” recognize Crimea as part of Russia. Three months ago Ukrainian President Zelensky vowed to “take back” Crimea. Is this possible? In June 2016 I visited Crimea with a delegation from the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI).

=> ↺ AUKUS has a people problem

• Unless Australia can develop its skilled workforce, it will struggle to acquire the advanced defence capabilities outlined in the AUKUS agreement.

=> ↺ How to close the gap between Turkey and Sweden on NATO enlargement

• Turkey is not yet ready to greenlight Sweden’s NATO accession but significant progress has been made. Here’s a possible outline of a compromise.

=> ↺ China warns of ‘further damage’ to Sino-US relations ahead of Tsai-McCarthy Wednesday meeting

• An upcoming meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will “further damage” relations between Beijing and Washington, China warned Monday.

=> ↺ 2023-03-31 [Older] Roaming Charges: Spare the AR-15, Spoil the Child

=> ↺ 2023-03-30 [Older] Voices From the Mass Graves

=> ↺ 2023-03-29 [Older] The F-16 is Still a Great Plane. USAF Pilots are Another Story

=> ↺ What’s Behind the New Calls to Invade Mexico

• Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t exactly famous for her restraint, but on March 15 she posted a tweet that was berserk even by her standards. The tweet showed a photograph of an onion-shaped ball of duct tape, which Greene claimed was an “explosive found by Border Patrol Agents.” This homemade bomb, Greene argued, justified a military response.1

=> ↺ Belarus KGB claims having foiled terrorist attack on Russian consulate, arrests 2 suspects — Meduza

• Belarus KGB claims having averted a terrorist attack on the Russian consulate in Grodno, a Belarusian city near the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

=> ↺ Daria Trepova remanded in jail, charged with terrorism, while National Republican Army takes credit for Tatarsky assassination — Meduza

• A district court in Moscow has granted the prosecution’s motion to remand Daria Trepova, arrested after the blast that killed the pro-Kremlin war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday.

=> ↺ Ukraine and Hungary must closely work together – Hungarian State Secretary of Foreign Ministry after visit to Kyiv

=> ↺ World leaders urge Turkey and Hungary to let Sweden join Nato

• Leaders from the US, the UK and Germany celebrated Finland officially joining the Nato alliance on Tuesday, while urging holdouts Turkey and Hungary to accept Sweden into the alliance.

=> ↺ DeSantis on the War in Ukraine

• “A territorial dispute,” he said. Attacks on him for that became widespread. Assuming that he’d rather not provoke, Perhaps he’d better stick to bashing “woke.”

=> ↺ In a World On Fire, What Do We Owe Each Other?

• March 2023 marked 12 years since the beginning of the war in Syria. The exact death toll is unknown because the violence won’t stop long enough to count the dead, but reliable sources estimate that at least half a million people have died and 6.7 million more have fled their homes. March 2023 was also the first anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has led to some 200,000 casualties. In the same month, the situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo deteriorated, as armed groups intensified attacks against civilians. In Mexico, at least 38 people died in a detention center for refugees and migrants, most of whom were fleeing the crisis in Venezuela. In the Mediterranean, more than 100 people died while trying to navigate cruel border policies to seek refuge in Europe.

=> ↺ France to try senior Assad allies for crimes against humanity in Syria

• French judges have ordered senior officials of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria to stand trial for collusion in crimes against humanity, a first in France, according to court documents seen by AFP Tuesday.

=> ↺ 2023-03-24 [Older] The Endless Wars: 2003-2023

=> ↺ Israeli air strike on Damascus kills two civilians, Syrian state media reports

• Two Syrian civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike Tuesday, state media reported, the fourth such attack on government-held areas of the war-torn country in less than a week.

=> ↺ Russia’s penitentiary regulator moves to require 48-hour notice of community prison inspectors — Meduza

• Human rights advocates in Russia believe that a new policy floated by Russia’s federal penal system regulator FSIN will be “the beginning of the end” of human rights advocacy in Russian prisons.

=> ↺ When I left Kyiv, I thought I would never dance again

=> ↺ The latest from Arte Weekly: While Europe debates arms shipments to Ukraine, Russian soldiers plead with Putin, requesting more equipment

=> ↺ What the Owner of an AR-15 Sees in Every Single Place He Goes

• To the would-be tactician, all of life is an opportunity to imagine military-style maneuvers.

=> ↺ France tries alleged PKK figures accused of extortion, terror financing

• France was on Tuesday set to try 11 alleged senior members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), accused of extortion, terrorist financing and propaganda for the organisation.

=> ↺ Finland’s NATO membership reinforces Baltic security, says Lithuanian president

• Finland’s formal accession to NATO reinforces the security of the Baltic Sea region and the entire Eastern flank of the alliance, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.

=> ↺ ‘Warsaw will melt, and Vilnius will drown’ – what’s behind Putin and Lukashenko’s nuclear plans?

• Just a few weeks ago, Vladimir Putin praised the non-sharing of nuclear weapons during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Now, he is promising to deploy them in Belarus. According to experts, the move is aimed at pressuring the West and the US, but the power of Russia’s scare tactics is waning.

=> ↺ Russia Charges Woman With Terrorism Over Cafe Bombing That Killed War Blogger

• Russia’s Investigative Committee has formally charged Darya Trepova for terrorism offenses for her alleged role in the assassination of a prominent Russian war blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe.

=> ↺ Afghan Taliban Raid Kills Six Members Of Islamic State Group

• An overnight raid by Taliban forces in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh Province killed six members of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group, a Taliban spokesman said on April 4.

=> ↺ 🔴 Live: Finland becomes NATO member as Russia warns of countermeasures

• Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, after completing ratification in well under a year – the fastest membership process in the alliance’s recent history. As Western allies strengthen ties, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Tuesday that Russia may get “tough” with a hostile European Union.

=> ↺ Finland Joins NATO, Russia Warns Of Countermeasures

• Finland formally joined the NATO military alliance on April 4 in a historic policy shift brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing a threat from Moscow of “countermeasures.”

=> ↺ Will Finland’s political turn mean a course change on NATO too?

• Finland is joining NATO just as its center-left government lost a general election. Here’s what to expect with the center-right National Coalition Party in charge.

=> ↺ Finland joins NATO in historic shift prompted by Ukraine war

• Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, in a historic strategic shift provoked by Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which doubles the US-led alliance’s border with Russia.

=> ↺ St Petersburg café killing exposes Russia’s security woes

• Moscow has blamed Ukrainian security services and supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for the killing of a prominent Russian ultranationalist blogger in a St Petersburg café. Kyiv and Navalny’s supporters have denied the allegations. But the attack on a figure with close links to the Wagner Group has underscored blowback threats from the war in Ukraine.

=> ↺ Ukraine unveils plan for recaptured Crimea – but West ‘reluctant’ to help

• Ukraine unveiled on Sunday a 12-point plan outlining how it would reintegrate Crimea back into the country if it regained the territory militarily. Kyiv has repeatedly said that seizing the peninsula back from Russia is one of its key war aims. But Washington is tacitly sceptical.

=> ↺ Thaci Voices ‘Regrets And Pain’ For Kosovo War Victims At Hague Trial

• The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has expressed “regret and pain” for all those who lost their lives during the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s.

=> ↺ Lawsuit Seeks Records Of Toxic Exposures At Uzbek Air Base

• Veterans advocacy groups sued the U.S. Department of Defense on April 3 seeking records of toxic conditions at an air base in Uzbekistan blamed for causing cancer and other illnesses among U.S. troops who served there in support of the war in Afghanistan.

=> ↺ Baku Summons Iranian Ambassador Over Protest Note Related To Alleged Anti-Iranian Media Reports

• Baku has summoned Iran’s ambassador in objection to a note of protest alleging that media in Azerbaijan were disseminating anti-Iranian reports.

=> ↺ Saving Lives From Landmines ‘Cannot Wait,’ Says UN

• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called for far-reaching global action to rid the world of landmines and other lethal remnants of war that endanger civilians for generations on end and impede socioeconomic development.

=> ↺ Appeals Court Reverses Murder Conviction Of Cop Who Killed Suicidal Man 11 Seconds After Entering His House

• Huntsville, Alabama police officer William Darby was the only officer on the scene who felt a suicidal man needed to be murdered. And he was the last to arrive, uninvited, to a scene apparently under control, handled by two other officers who were doing an admirable job de-escalating the situation.

=> ↺ Russia carries out overnight drone attack on Odesa — Meduza

• Russian forces carried out a drone attack on Odesa and the wider Odesa region early Tuesday morning, according to local authorities and the Ukrainian military.

=> ↺ Kadyrov says opponents of new Moscow mosque should ‘go to the trenches with machine guns’ if they really care about ‘protecting Russian land’ — Meduza

• In a Telegram post on Tuesday, Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov referred to ongoing protests against the construction of a new mosque in Moscow as a “provocation.”

=> ↺ Artyom Uss, wanted in the U.S., arrives in Russia after escaping house arrest near Milan — Meduza

• Artyom (Artem) Uss, the son of Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Uss, is in Russia after having fled from under house arrest near Milan, RIA Novosti reports.

=> ↺ ‘I consider the president a war criminal’ An escaped Federal Guard communications officer speaks about Putin’s obsession with secrecy and self-preservation — Meduza

• Gleb Karakulov has the rank of captain in the Russian Federal Protective Service, also called the Federal Guard or “FSO.” His identity has been verified by the investigative team of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky-founded Dossier Center, whose journalist Ilya Rozhdestvensky interviewed Karakulov after his defection to Turkey. While in the Federal Guard, Karakulov worked as an engineer in the Presidential Communications department. His duties included ensuring the secrecy of Putin’s communications. Last October, the officer escaped to Istanbul, together with his wife and daughter, taking advantage of a work-related trip to the Kazakh capital Astana, where Putin had to make an appearance. According to Dossier, Karakulov is the highest-ranking secret service officer to escape from Russia and condemn the war with Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. The Russian authorities are now prosecuting him for desertion, as reflected in the federal records that helped verify the facts of his story. Meduza is summarizing what Karakulov said in his interview with Rozhdestvensky. The full version is available from Dossier.

=> ↺ US urges Iran to back political solution in Yemen conflict

• The United States called Tuesday on its longtime adversary Iran to help end Yemen’s conflict by backing a peace process, one year after a truce dramatically reduced fighting.

=> ↺ US air strike in Syria kills IS group chief responsible for planning attacks in Europe

• The US military said Tuesday it had carried out a strike in Syria killing a senior Islamic State group official responsible for planning attacks in Europe.

=> ↺ Russia Allows $1.2 Billion Sakhalin-2 Payment To Shell

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his consent to transfer 94.8 billion rubles ($1.21 billion) to Shell for its stake in the Far East Sakhalin-2 gas project.

Environment

=> ↺ The Planet Will Warm Past 1.5°C. What Now?

• The 1.5°C temperature target is difficult to honestly and openly discuss. Within the climate movement, it has become a locus of anguish, confusion, and even despair. Long a symbol of mobilization and hope, 1.5° has become central to both activist campaigns and scientific analysis. Yet it’s now clear that the planet will almost certainly warm more than 1.5°C.

=> ↺ ‘Completely Contradictory’: OECD Slammed for Labeling Fossil-Based Technologies ‘Climate-Friendly’

• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has agreed in principle on a new list of purportedly “green or climate-friendly” projects that are set to benefit from more favorable financial terms for export support after years of closed-door negotiations.

=> ↺ ‘Unconscionable’: Hochul Backs Proposal to Gut New York’s Landmark Climate Law

• Climate action groups and scientists are denouncing an effort by New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to gut the state’s signature emissions reduction law—one of the most ambitious in the United States—as the governor’s office claims the move is aimed at saving money for consumers and attempts to disguise it as a technical accounting change.

=> ↺ How the Biden Administration Can Help Accelerate Latin America’s Green Transition

• Gustavo Petro doesn’t just want to transform his own country; he wants to change the world. The new leader of Colombia, who took office last August, is targeting what he calls his nation’s “economy of death.” That means pivoting away from oil, natural gas, coal, and narcotics toward more sustainable economic activities. Given that oil and coal make up half his country’s exports — and Colombia is the world’s leading cocaine producer — that’s not going to be easy.

=> ↺ Making Sense of the Latest IPCC Report

• The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), a UN agency with climatologists from over 70 counties included) has just come out with a new report about climate change. The news is not good.

=> ↺ Documents Reveal Oil Giant Shell Knew About Climate Impacts Even Earlier

• “Despite internal awareness, the company systematically downplayed the problem to the public, instead promoting more and more fossil fuel use despite the dangers,” said one expert. “Now, five decades later, Shell continues to dawdle and delay.”

=> ↺ Carbon offsets stampede: Australian polluters are spending big in Indonesia

• Debate over Labor’s Safeguard Mechanism has raged like a fire through a Sumatran peat forest. One of the most controversial aspects of the program is the use of carbon offsets, which some of our biggest companies are now buying in Indonesia. Zacharias Szumer reports.

• Following credible claims that the Australian carbon offset system is riddled with errors, many are sceptical about the whole concept of offsets. Such scepticism was no doubt bolstered by a recent Four Corner’s episode, which cast doubt on carbon offset projects in Papua New Guinea.

=> ↺ Corporations Are Recruiting High School Students to Help Fuel the Climate Crisis

• In October 2022, student activists at Harvard, MIT, and Brown pulled out the stops to challenge Big Oil, demanding during an Exxon recruitment event that the administrations divest from fossil fuels. “We showed up, we started to chant, and we did not allow them to give their presentation,” said Phoebe Barr, an organizer of the disruption.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Japan to increase its hydrogen ambitions

• Japan has today (April 4) announced ambitions to increase its annual hydrogen supply to 12 million tonnes in 2040 from its current two million tonnes.

=> ↺ We Must Ask: Does Fossil Fuel Divestment Work?

• “After a decade of action, we are making a difference in the fight against climate change,”proclaims DivestInvest, the global divestment network. Dozens of leading climate organizations from 350.org to the World Council of Churches have enlisted as core partners or endorsers of DivestInvest.

=> ↺ Gas prices set to fall from May

• The Latvijas Gāze (Latvian Gas, LG) company will announce the prices of its universal natural gas service in the next few days for households, which will be effective from May, but has already suggested that the price of natural gas will be some 20-40% lower than at present.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Stork couple settles in livestreamed nest

• A stork couple has settled in the camera-equipped nest on top of the electricity distribution network Sadales tīkls (ST) power support pole. On March 28 one of the birds had settled in the nest, but on the evening of March 31,  the other joined, ST said.

=> ↺ Feast or famine: getting ready for the snowbird exodus

• As the end of snowbirds’ high season draws near in many of Mexico’s expat enclaves, we-who-stay prepare for the time ahead without them.

Finance

=> ↺ Five ways the World Bank can redefine its role in the global economy

• With a new president on the horizon and an appetite for reform in the US and beyond, the World Bank is ready for change. It can start by focusing on these five policy priorities.

=> ↺ Cuba Wins Lawsuit Against Vulture Fund In London High Court

• High Court Judge Cockerill ruled that such a fund has no legal standing to sue Cuba over the unpaid loans.

=> ↺ Agricultural prices were up by a third in 2022

• Data compiled by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB) and published April 4 show that in 2022, compared to 2021, the price index of agricultural output rose by 33.9 %, mainly due to an increase of 41.7 % in the price index of animal products and of 29.3 % in price index of crop products.

=> ↺ ‘Hungary is ready for the renegotiation of the double taxation treaty, but Washington isn’t’ – Szijjártó

=> ↺ Robert Maxwell Goes to Texas: The Story of Bluebonnet, Part 1

• As he tried to build a New York business empire, Robert Maxwell attempted to capitalize on the American savings and loans crisis, calling upon a dense web of arms dealers, money launderers, serious financial criminals and intelligence agents.

=> ↺ Globalisation isn’t over

• Late last year, Morris Chang, the legendary founder of Taiwan’s (and the world’s) leading semiconductor producer, proclaimed: ‘Globalisation is almost dead.’

=> ↺ The Revolution Against Shady Landlords Has Begun

• In New York, the real estate industry and the politicians in its pocket both reign supreme. These tenants have a plan to change that forever.

=> ↺ Into the Void: cemeteries operator losing money and executives, hides damning report

• The new Minister for Land and Property, Steve Kamper, will soon have to deal with the mess of Sydney’s cemetery sector bequeathed by the former NSW government. The cemetery operator is in disarray, with a damning report looming over the heads of its executives. Callum Foote reports.

• Sydney’s public cemeteries are running out of space with no plans to purchase more land and hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance liabilities yet unaccounted for.

=> ↺ Want to Turn the Pitiless March of Gentrification Into a Parable of Progress?

• An article in the March 3 edition of The New York Times caught my eye as an illustration of what Barbara J. Fields and Karen E. Fields describe as “racecraft”—the alchemy that vests the fiction of race with an apparent natural existence—and how it can obscure the class character of a political program through racial mystification.1

=> ↺ China slows reviews of mergers involving US companies: WSJ

• The move is seen as a response to Washington’s curbs on China’s tech industry.

=> ↺ China calls on Japan to correct chip export restrictions

• Japan said last week it would restrict exports of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

=> ↺ Between ‘reset’ and ‘de-risk’, EU leaders Macron, von der Leyen pay rare visit to China

• For France’s Macron, the trip offers a chance for some economic wins.

=> ↺ Democracies can be best protected by de-risking, not decoupling

• All our countries have long benefited from open economies. We trade freely, exchange ideas and innovate across borders. But as we’re all aware, the geopolitical climate is rapidly changing.

=> ↺ Macron faces delicate Ukraine balancing act during China visit

• French President Emmanuel Macron will visit China from Wednesday, hoping to dissuade Beijing from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but without alienating a crucial trade and geopolitical player.

=> ↺ Richard Branson’s satellite-launch company Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy

• Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday after the satellite launch company failed to secure the long-term funding needed to help it recover from a January rocket failure.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Former Aide to Maryland Ex-Governor Dies After Shooting Involving F.B.I.

• Roy McGrath, who was chief of staff to former Gov. Larry Hogan, was wanted by the F.B.I. for three weeks after he did not appear for a federal fraud trial in March.

=> ↺ 2023-03-29 [Older] Lying About Lying: Lessons From Boris Johnson

=> ↺ Lying about Lying: Why We Must Revisit the Definition of ‘Fake News’

• The US-western-centric idea of fake news, waged by Republicans against Democrats and vice-versa, betrays a much larger, more ominous threat.

=> ↺ Adams Orders New Round of Budget Cuts That Could Erode City Services

• The Police Department, schools and CUNY won’t be spared in latest round of New York City budget reductions.

=> ↺ The Case for Banning Children from Social Media

• Most people seem to agree that something should be done to protect kids from what sure looks like an addictive product. But almost no one knows what that something is.

=> ↺ Surrogacy Emerges as the Wedge Issue for Italy’s Hard Right

• Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ordered municipalities to stop certifying foreign birth certificates for same-sex couples who used surrogacy, leaving some babies in a legal limbo.

=> ↺ Truth Social Traffic Has Surged Since Trump’s Indictment

• The former president has used Truth Social to respond to news about the indictment.

=> ↺ Going Viral on TikTok Can Get Students an A in These College Classes

• A marketing professor gave his students a challenge: If they made a video that got a million views, the final exam would be canceled.

=> ↺ Probe proposes bribery charges for 54 tied to Vietnam repatriation scheme

• Firms allegedly paid to get on a list of rescue flight providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

=> ↺ How Top GOP Leaders Block Title Lending Reform in Georgia

• In February, Georgia lawmaker Josh Bonner introduced a bill that he hoped would fix a thorny problem that entangles tens of thousands of state residents in debt each year.

• The Republican state representative from Fayetteville, a southern Atlanta exurb, aimed to close a loophole used by title lenders, who offer short-term cash to customers in exchange for a lien on their car title. The industry can currently charge triple-digit annual interest, more than three times what state law allows other financial companies.

=> ↺ Reflections on The New Anarchy and the Real Danger of MAGA Republicans

• The cover story of the April issue of The Atlantic is a riveting essay by executive editor Adrienne LaFrance entitled “The New Anarchy: America faces a type of extremist violence it does not know how to stop.”

=> ↺ Chants of ‘Fascists!’ Ring Out as Tennessee GOP Moves to Expel Dems Over Gun Control Protest

• Tennessee House Republicans on Monday initiated the process of expelling three Democratic lawmakers who joined protesters in demanding stricter gun laws following the Nashville mass shooting that left three young children and three adults dead.

=> ↺ Juan González on Chicago Mayoral Race: Can a Progressive, Multiracial Coalition Win?

• Chicago residents are voting Tuesday in a mayoral runoff election that has been dominated by issues of public safety, with the two leading candidates coming from different ends of the Democratic Party’s political spectrum. Brandon Johnson is an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union and backed by progressive forces in the city, and Paul Vallas is the former head of Chicago Public Schools who is endorsed by the police union. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González, who lives in Chicago, gives his analysis of the race and why it holds national implications. “It raises the question of ‘Can a progressive, multiracial coalition capture the mayoralty in the nation’s third-largest city, as Harold Washington did so 40 years ago back in 1983?’”

=> ↺ Trump’s Indictment Is a Slap on the Wrist, but Accountability Has to Start Somewhere

• It finally happened: Former president Donald Trump was charged this afternoon with 34 counts of falsifying business records by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In a spectacle that played out almost entirely behind closed doors, but was still carried on television news like Trump was flying to the moon to be arraigned by Xenomorphs, Trump surrendered voluntarily at a downtown Manhattan courthouse, was arrested and booked, pleaded not guilty, and then went back to Mar-a-Lago on his own recognizance.

=> ↺ Trump’s a Major Issue in the Chicago Mayoral Race

• Tuesday is going to be an all-Trump, all-the-time day. The American media won’t be able to get enough of the story of the former president’s arrival in New York and his arrest and arraignment on charges stemming from hush-money payments and other alleged crimes during his 2016 campaign. But Tuesday is also an election day that will see voters decide a critical Supreme Court contest in Wisconsin and choose a new mayor of Chicago, the nation’s third-largest and frequently most politically contentious city.

=> ↺ Wisconsin’s High-Stakes Supreme Court Race: What to Watch

• The election for a swing seat on the court is likely to determine whether abortion remains illegal in Wisconsin, as well as the future of the state’s heavily gerrymandered political maps.

=> ↺ Defendant-1 Charged with 34 Counts of Document Falsification to Hide 2016 Crimes

• Among the 34 charges is a conspiracy count that will sweep in a great deal of damning evidence. 

=> ↺ Trump Edition: What Is And What Shall Never Be

• Anybody who thinks this is all cut and dried as Bragg makes it is a dope. To what extent we shall see.

=> ↺ Three Things: Colonialist Carrotage

• “What the heck is colonialist about carrots?” one might ask. An awful lot in the U.S.

=> ↺ Orange Becomes Him

=> ↺ Tinpot Legislators

• Their One-Party Rule Will Be Ruinous for the Earth.

=> ↺ German Leftist Lawmaker Says US Soldiers and Nukes Must Leave Her Country

• On the floor of Germany’s parliament, Left Party MP Sevim Dağdelen called for the c. 38,000 US soldiers in her country to leave, and to take their nuclear weapons with them. She lamented that Washington “doesn’t actually want allies, just loyal vassals”.

=> ↺ Migrant Deaths in Mexico Put Spotlight on US Policy That Shifted Immigration Enforcement South

• The United States is a big part of that “extensive use” on both sides of the border.

=> ↺ What Israel’s Crisis Reveals About Its Democratic Compromises

• Amid widespread protests, the Prime Minister has halted a package of illiberal reforms. What are the roots of his effort—and of its rejection?

=> ↺ Palestinian Authority’s Abbas has ‘cut down’ every potential successor

• Palestinian human rights lawyer and former diplomat Ghaith al-Omari, a prominent advocate of the two-state solution and negotiations with Israel, gave FRANCE 24 a lengthy interview on a recent visit to Paris. In this second of a two-part series, he lamented the Palestinian Authority’s stagnation under longstanding President Mahmoud Abbas.

=> ↺ Merged BBC News TV channel begins operation: What has changed and why?

• UK-focused stories such as the sentencing of Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s killer will still be broadcast.

=> ↺ Music title Rock Sound saved by Gabriel Jagger’s Whynow

• All of Rock Sound’s former editorial employees were let go in January.

• The post Music title Rock Sound saved by Gabriel Jagger’s Whynow appeared first on Press Gazette.

=> ↺ FT takes majority stake in biopharma B2B site Endpoints News

• Endpoints News and FT have “strong alignment” in their mission and reader revenues focus.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ 2023-03-31 [Older] Breaking down Trump’s ‘Soros’ attack on the Manhattan DA

=> ↺ Europeans looking to doom us by giving Big Tech power to determine what’s disinformation

• The worst situation to be in is where you know that what you have is not ideal but you have no idea what would be ideal. We find ourselves in this predicament in way too many facets of life for my liking. We end up sounding like serial murmurers because of it.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Russian book publishers seek to circumvent LGBT ‘propaganda’ ban by selling books in other CIS countries — Meduza

• In the months since Moscow passed a law banning LGBTQ+ “propaganda,” some Russian publishing companies have begun looking for ways to access book markets in other CIS countries, Kommersant reported on Tuesday, citing industry sources.

=> ↺ Stanford president renews commitment to academic freedom amid law school controversy

• After law students disrupted a federal judge’s speech on campus, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne underscored Stanford’s commitment to academic freedom in an email marking the first day of spring quarter.

=> ↺ From the Graduate Student Council: We need a union

• “We need an organization,” writes the Graduate Student Council, “that will endure beyond any student government’s tenure and has institutional memory of past negotiations with University leaders.”

=> ↺ How the first moving picture originated from a Stanford controversy

• The technician and “father of the motion picture,” Eadweard Muybridge, was a photographer and alleged murderer. “Exposing Muybridge,” a 2021 documentary, unveils how Muybridge’s moving picture originated from a fickle relationship with Leland Stanford, writes Alexandra Blum.

=> ↺ Statement on recurring internet shutdowns in West Bengal and Bihar in response to communal violence

• IFF is alarmed that the governments of West Bengal and Bihar are deploying internet shutdowns as a response to recent instances of communal clashes and violence, including by impermissible means such as under Section 144 of the CrPC.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Reporters Without Borders denied access to visit Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison

• Earlier today Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF’s) Secretary-General Christophe Deloire and Director of Operations and Campaigns Rebecca Vincent arrived to visit Julian Assange inside Belmarsh prison but were denied access at the last minute.RSF’s representatives had been granted permission to visit Assange before the four-year anniversary of his imprisonment in Belmarsh, where he has been held since 11 April 2019.Christophe Deloire, RSF Secretary-General, said: “We are deeply disappointed by the arbitrary decision of the Belmarsh Prison Governor to prevent us from visiting Julian Assange, despite following all relevant prison procedures and rules. Julian Assange has the right to receive visitors in prison, and we are legitimate to visit him as a press freedom NGO. We call for an urgent reversal of this decision and to be allowed visitation access without further delay.”Rebecca Vincent, RSF Director of Operations, said: “This is the latest in a long series of ludicrous obstacles that we have faced over the past three years in campaigning for the release of Julian Assange. At every level, British authorities have defaulted to secrecy and exclusion rather than allowing normal engagement around this case – from refusing to accept RSF petitions, to making it nearly impossible to access court, and now this. What do they have to hide? Regardless, we continue our campaign to #FreeAssange.“

=> ↺ Belmarsh Warden Blocks Assange From Meeting With Representatives Of Press Freedom Organization

=> ↺ We demand the immediate release of our colleague Evan Gershkovich A letter from independent Russian journalists — Meduza

• On March 30, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the arrest of our colleague Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen and a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Russian security forces claim he was engaged in espionage, and the Kremlin insists that he was “caught red-handed.” We, independent Russian journalists and representatives of civil society, do not believe these accusations and consider them unfounded.

=> ↺ Putin Should Have Read Evan Gershkovich, Not Imprisoned Him

• The Wall Street Journal reporter should be released immediately.

=> ↺ Evan Gershkovich and the Perils of Journalism Post Assange Persecution

• Russia should release Evan Gershkovich; if as part of a prisoner swap it should be speedily concluded.

=> ↺ Petitioners call for ban on domestic abuse victim-blaming in Editors’ Code

• Level Up say there should be a clause on domestic abuse stories as there is for suicide reporting.

=> ↺ How automation is becoming ‘intelligent friend’ in UK local media newsrooms

• With automated journalism beginning to make its mark in UK newsrooms, new research looks at how local journalists perceive and use the technology.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ UMich requests injunction against GEO, decision delayed until evidentiary hearing

• <

• The University of Michigan announced Friday that it would be taking legal action against the Graduate Employees’ Organization by filing a complaint with Washtenaw County Circuit Court and seeking a preliminary injunction.

=> ↺ EU Lashes Out At China For Support Of Russia In Ukraine War

• EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell lashed out at China on April 4 for its support of Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine and called it “a blatant violation” of Beijing’s UN commitments.

=> ↺ Iran, Taliban Discuss Release Of Iranian Nationals From Afghan Prisons

• The Taliban government is compiling a list of Iranian nationals imprisoned in Afghanistan for possible release following Tehran’s recent handover of hundreds of Afghan prisoners.

=> ↺ Rights Groups Call For ‘Immediate’ Release Of Tajik Lawyer Kholiknazarov

• A group of seven international rights organizations have called on Dushanbe to immediately and unconditionally release lawyer Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov, who is serving 16 years in prison related to his human rights activities in Tajikistan.

=> ↺ Two Florida Democratic Leaders Arrested While Protesting Florida Abortion Ban

• Two Florida Democratic leaders were among the protesters arrested late Monday during a demonstration against a proposed six-week abortion ban, which the Republican-controlled state Senate passed hours earlier.

=> ↺ The Big News for Democracy Today Will Be in Wisconsin—Not New York

• One of the biggest challenges to the future of American democracy is unfolding today, but not in Manhattan. It’s occurring in Wisconsin.

=> ↺ The 404 Awards: Honoring The Worst Of The Worst Tech Policy Ideas

• Today is April 4th, or 04/04 no matter which direction you use for showing dates (and, look, while it’s ingrained in my head, I think we can all admit that the US version of month/day/year is kinda weird.).

=> ↺ Mass deportations from Croatia and Hungary: Organisations complain of human rights violations

• More than 130,000 people were deported from Hungary to neighbouring Serbia without an asylum application being registered. Now Croatia is returning refugees on a large scale to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

=> ↺ How Marseille’s ‘cagole’ parties are providing a safe space for women

• For the past year in the southern French city of Marseille, the monthly ‘Cagole Nomade Party’ has been providing women with a place to enjoy a night of music and dancing without fear of harassment, with attendees asked to sign a ‘wall of consent’ promising to follow the rules upon arrival. The event also seeks to reclaim the word ‘cagole’, a regional and normally pejorative term for a coarse or provocative woman.

=> ↺ Maria Lvova-Belova: Alexey Moskalev’s daughter Masha to be placed in foster care — Meduza

• Social workers are looking to place Masha Moskaleva with a foster family, due to the criminal prosecution of her father Alexey Moskalev, arrested last week in Belarus after fleeing house arrest. Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova told the media about several foster families now being considered for Masha, during a Tuesday press-conference.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ UPC Registrar cannot advise on opt-out requirements

Trademarks

=> ↺ Precedential No. 11: TTAB Reverses Six “Goods In Trade” Refusals for NY Times Non-Syndicated Column Titles

• In six consolidated appeals, the Board reversed refusals to register the marks THE NEW OLD AGE, GOOD APPETITE, HUNGRY CITY, WORK FRIEND, LIKE A BOSS, and OFF THE SHELF for “columns” on the subjects of business, office, money, careers, and worklife balance, rejecting the USPTO’s position that each mark identifies only “individual portions of [A]pplicant’s publications” and does not identify “separate goods in trade.” The Board concluded that, in light of changes in the marketplace for the delivery of news, a new test is required for the registrability of non-syndicated columns or sections in printed publications or recorded media, and under that new test the columns qualified as good in trade. In re The New York Times Company, Serial Nos. 90106071, 90112154, 90112577, 90115155, 90115491, and 90115337 (March 30, 2023) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Angela Lykos).

Copyrights

=> ↺ Why the Senate Should Restore the User Content Amendment and Send Bill C-11 Back to the House of Commons

• Bill C-11 took a major step forward late last week as the government cut off debate yet again and forced a vote on an amended bill that rejected the Senate’s fix to concerns about user content regulation. The vote has sparked heated debates on social media, including mistaken insistence by some that the bill does not affect user content (it clearly does) or that it will censor what Canadians can say online (it will not).

=> ↺ Nkem E. Osuigwe — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 9

• “When the culture of openness is part of society it helps knowledge to grow” is what Nkem says to introduce her perspective on Open Culture. In this episode we learn about how the walls around culture discourage growth and discovery and how opening up knowledge and culture encourages inclusivity and fosters growth.

=> ↺ CC’s #BetterSharing Collection | April: The More We Share, The More We Have

• Each month throughout 2023, we will be spotlighting a different CC-licensed illustration from the collection on our social media headers and the CC blog. For April, we’re excited to showcase “The More We Share, The More We Have (series 1/2)” by Brazilian illustrator and cartoonist, Pietro Soldi. The piece, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, was inspired by a quote from Cory Doctorow, science fiction author, journalist and tech activist:

=> ↺ Techdirt Podcast Episode 349: Link Taxes Are Bad, Canada Edition

• Legacy media operations really, really want tech companies that send them traffic to pay them as well. From Rupert Murdoch’s link tax in Australia to the very bad JCPA in America, these requirements are nonsensical and run directly counter to the core functioning of the internet. Currently, one of the biggest pushes for such a law is happening in Canada with the government’s Bill C-18 — and it’s certainly no exception. Nobody has been following C-18 closer than law professor and researcher Michael Geist, and this week he joins us on the podcast to discuss the status of the bill and why, like similar laws around the world, it’s a very bad idea.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: BEFILSU Wordo: DUOMO

=> ↺ The chickadee

• When I moved in with my him, his daughter was one and a half. Between the daycare and her mom who took her half the time, she wasn’t there much, but I cherished it. Time seemed lighter when she had left her trail of joy in the appartment.

=> ↺ Daniel Janus, Ted Nelson, and the Web of Documents

• A couple of weeks ago I read a blog entry by Daniel Janus on what he calls the web of documents, tracing the idea of a digital document repository from Ted Nelson’s Xanadu project to the current state of the World Wide Web.

Technical

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ how to make a true 90s website?

• Recenly I got an idea of making a little website for sharing my drawings (im not an artist. yet.), and I wanted it to be like typical Geocities page. I shared the result with my friend. He answered “dude…” with attached screenshot of my code where I used “display: flex” for positioning.

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

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.