This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/04/22/tor-browser-12-5a5/.

● 04.22.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 22/04/2023: Several More Ubuntu-Based Releases, Tor Browser 12.5a5

Posted in News Roundup at 7:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Server

=> ↺ US Public Sector regulatory compliance with Ubuntu Pro and AWS GovCloud

• Co-authors: Massimiliano Gori , Product Manager, Canonical & Mark Thomas, Solutions Architect, AWS 

• Federal government organisations that either collect, store, share, transfer, or process sensitive data, as well as all federal agencies, their contractors, and service providers, are required to operate in high-security environments to ensure the safety of sensitive data such as Personally Identifiable Information or confidential information.

=> ↺ Perfect order: Delivering the right products at the right time in the right quantity

• Within inventory management, perfect order refers to the ability to deliver the correct product to the customer, in the right quantity, at the right time, in the right condition, with the right documentation and at the right cost. Essentially, it means meeting customer demand without errors or delays to the highest degree possible. Inventory management encompasses procedures and processes that directly or indirectly affect the bottom line ordering, receiving, storing, tracking and accounting for all of the goods a business sells. It is a key element of supply chain management and is critical to any business that sells physical goods or is responsible for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) supplies.

• To achieve perfect order, a company must have an efficient inventory management system that optimizes inventory levels, tracks inventory movement and ensures accurate order fulfillment. This involves balancing the cost of carrying inventory with the cost of stockouts and lost sales, as well as implementing processes and technologies that enable real-time inventory visibility and accurate demand forecasting.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] How to install Telegram on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] How to install Fedora 38.

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] NVIDIA on Linux is WAY BETTER than everyone says, but…

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Fedora 38 overview | Welcome to Freedom.

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] From Noob To Power User With Manjaro KDE

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Is The Free Software Foundation Still Important?

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] How to install WebStorm on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] How To Upgrade To Fedora 38 From Fedora 37.

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] How to install Ubuntu Budgie 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] How to install GoLand on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] uBlue Linux: Immutable Fedora With Batteries Included

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Ubuntu Budgie 23.04 overview | Embrace the change

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] PROTON 8.0 is now OUT to play Windows games on Linux #SHORT

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Solus Linux Returns From The Distro Afterlife

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] UBUNTU 23.04 & all flavors review: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Cinnamon, Ubuntu MATE…

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] How to install Synfig Studio on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] How to install Kubuntu 23.04.

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] The fight for Free Software ain’t over, so why has the Free Software Foundation given up?

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] Clipboard: Simple Unified Linux Clipping Tool

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] How to install Skype on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] Linux Content Creators Coming Together To Help XeroLinux – DT LIVE!

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] Hamonikr 6.0 Taebaek Quick Overview #shorts

=> ↺ 2023-04-16 [Older] The death of Solus?, OpenAI defamation suit, EU builds its own Google: Linux & Open Source News

=> ↺ 2023-04-16 [Older] Installing Linux Software Is More Confusing Than Ever

=> ↺ 2023-04-16 [Older] UPDATE: Microsoft’s Handheld Mode for Windows will NEVER materialize| Press Steam to Start Ep 4

=> ↺ 2023-04-16 [Older] Build Your Own Distro With Archiso

Applications

=> ↺ Alternatives to popular CLI tools: watch

• This article spotlights alternative tools to watch.

• The software featured here is free and open source.

• Please share in the Comments section below any other open source CLI tools that are alternatives to watch. We will then update this article.

• For alternatives to other popular CLI tools, read this article.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Browsing the Internet Using W3M in Linux

• Is it possible to access “linuxtldr.com” or any other website from the Linux terminal? Yes, and you will also learn how to do it in this article.

=> ↺ Upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 from Ubuntu 22.10 [Step by Step Guide]

• Ubuntu 23.04 has been released! Besides installing from new .iso image, here’s a step by step guide shows how to upgrade from Ubuntu 22.10. NOTE: The Upgrade process may fail! So it’s HIGHLY recommended to backup your important data first!!

=> ↺ Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” is Out! Kernel 6.2, GNOME 44, & New Installer

• The Ubuntu Team announced the Ubuntu 23.04 yesterday! Ubuntu 23.04, code-name “Lunar Lobster”, is a short term release with 9-month support until January 2024. The release is powered by the latest Linux Kernel 6.2. The Ubuntu Kernel supports for building and running external kernel modules using Rust programming language.

=> ↺ details/summary inconsistencies

• Scott O’Hara wrote a fantastic blog post about the details and summary elements last year. He explains that there are a lot of oddities and inconsistencies, and he backs his statements with detailed testing.

• To better understand the extent of these oddities and inconsistencies, I did my own testing (not as detailed as Scott’s), and here’s what I found: [...]

=> ↺ The traditional workaround for stuck NFS(v3) locks

• The most visible way for the server and clients to become de-synchronized is a stuck lock, where the server believes a client has a file locked but the client thinks it doesn’t. A file with a stuck lock can never be (re-)locked by any programs trying to do so, and it will normally stay that way until the reboot of either or both of the server or the client the server thinks has the file locked. As a result, working around these stuck locks has been a concern of NFS server system administrators for a long time and people have come up with a traditional brute force solution.

• (In informal conversation sysadmins may talk about ‘clearing’ a stuck lock this way, but we’re not really doing that; we’re working around it with brute force.)

=> ↺ Setting the ARC target size in ZFS on Linux (as of ZoL 2.1)

• However, raising the ARC target size will only have a meaningful effect if ZFS can actually use more memory. If the free memory situation is bad enough that memory_available_bytes is negative, your newly set ARC target size will pretty much immediately start shrinking, possibly significantly, and the ARC will have no chance to actually use much more extra memory. If available memory is positive but not very large, it may turn negative once the ARC’s actual size grows a bit more and then ZFS will shrink your recently-raised ARC target size back down, along with probably shrinking the ARC’s actual memory use.

=> ↺ 10 Advanced Git Commands

• However, over the years, Git has emerged as the standard tool for version control because of how powerful it is. So if you’re using Git on a regular basis, then you can vastly improve your workflow by learning some of these advanced features.

• In this article, I’ll discuss ten advanced Git commands every developer should know.

=> ↺ Managing header-spacing in markdown/org-mode files

• After going over my init file recently, making some changes, I noticed that the spacing was not at all consistent. So I figured “How hard could it be to recognize headers and insert/remove newlines before them?”

=> ↺ How to Use ZIP and UNZIP Command to Create, Extract ZIP File in Linux

• Let’s see how you can use the zip command to create a zip file, add a new file to an existing zip file, list zip file content without extracting it, delete the contents of zip, and encrypt zip with a password for added security.

=> ↺ How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 From 22.10 (Kinetic to Lunar)

• Ubuntu 23.04 was released on April 20, 2023, with the latest and greatest GNOME 44 desktop, Linux Kernel 6.2 and a good amount of new features.

• However, if you want to make the jump and want to upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04, here are the steps.

WINE or Emulation

=> ↺ Proton 8: Wine Rebase and Updated Steam Runtime on Debian 11

• Proton 8 is out! The wait has been fairly long, since Proton 7 was released more than a year ago. This follows the release of Wine 8.0 on January 23rd 2023 (first stable release of the branch 8).

Games

=> ↺ Roblox intentionally blocking Linux with Wine in their new update

• It seems the days of using workarounds to play Roblox on Linux may be coming to an abrupt end, with the upcoming launch of their new client blocking Linux intentionally.

=> ↺ Flathub app store for Linux and Steam Deck gets overhauled

• The redesign of the Flathub app store for Linux is now live, bringing with it a refreshed look along with showing verified developers and their apps. A much needed change that really does look a whole lot better.

=> ↺ Valve improving Mesa graphics drivers on Linux for a “secret” game (update: Jedi Survivor)

• Update: Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned on Twitter it’s for the upcoming Star Wars Jedi Survivor.

=> ↺ Get a bunch of co-op shooters in this latest bundle

• Time to team up with a few friends to take down zombies and aliens. Humble Bundle has a fun looking co-op shooter bundle. I’ll list each item available in the bundle along with expected compatibility on Steam Deck and Linux desktop. Noting if they’re Native Linux or ProtonDB ratings.

=> ↺ Dota 2: The New Frontiers Update is out and it’s huge

• Dota 2: The New Frontiers Update might be one of the biggest updates to Valve’s free to play MOBA ever and it’s here now.

=> ↺ Steam Deck hitting retail stores in Japan from April 29th, South Korea to follow

• Komodo announced today that they’re expanding the retail presence of the Steam Deck into Japan now, with South Korea to follow after.

=> ↺ Proton Experimental for Steam Deck & Linux upgraded with Proton 8

• As expected after the recent big release of Proton 8, Valve has now also upgraded Proton Experimental which is now based on Proton 8 plus a whole bunch more. This is the extra special version of Proton, where Valve put in features and improvements before they’re ready to be rolled out to the majority of Windows games running on Steam Deck and Linux desktop.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ This week in KDE: Stomping all the bugs

• This week was a veritable fiesta of bugfixing, and we cut Plasma’s list of VHI priority bugs nearly in half! Lots of other apps got bug fixes, too. And finally, KDE’s volunteer contributors landed some great new features and UI improvements!

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ deepin 20.9 is officially released!

• deepin operating system is a Linux distribution dedicated to providing beautiful, easy-to-use, and secure services to global users. It has consistently been one of the highest-ranked Linux distributions developed by a team from China. (Learn about Deepin’s international ranking.)

• The core goal of Deepin 20.9 version is to provide users with a stable system running version. This version does not integrate new system functions, but mainly focuses on fixing and optimizing stability issues present in the 20.8 version, in order to ensure system stability.

• Deepin 20.9 has upgraded its Qt version to 5.15.8, and updated applications such as log viewer, photo album, drawing board, and system software package manager. It has fixed many experience-affecting issues, further improving the user experience of the system. Welcome friends to try it out!

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” Released!

• I am so proud to announce Ubuntu Cinnamon’s first release as an official flavor – 23.04 Lunar Lobster!

• In our previous post, we discussed what will change now that we have reached flavor status. Thank you to everyone who has helped along the way!

• The 23.04 release is Ubuntu Cinnamon’s eighth release (I had to count). Here’s to another eight!

=> ↺ Edubuntu 23.04 Released

• We are pleased to announce the release of Edubuntu 23.04, codenamed “Lunar Lobster”. This has been a project of love for my husband Erich and myself and I am happy to see it back with the people where it belongs once again.

• This release will be supported for nine months (Until January 2025).

=> ↺ Ubuntu Unity 23.04

=> ↺ Ubuntu Kylin 23.04 officially released

• On April 21, 2023, the Ubuntu Kylin team announced the release of Ubuntu Kylin open source operating system version 23.04.

• As a short term support release, Ubuntu Kylin 23.04 comes with Linux 6.2 kernel and Mesa 23.0 graphics driver by default, and is fully upgraded with a series of core system software and base libraries. This version is mainly used to provide a development and testing platform for developers, and you are welcome to download and use it.

=> ↺ Voyager 23.04

• I introduce you Voyager 23.04in final version. A 2 in 1 version with always the same idea, to unify the Gnome and Xfce desktops in a single distributionVoyager, à sélectionner à votre session. Le tout dans un style coloré complètement repensé pour ce duo, Gnome 44 desktop coupled with Xfce 4.18 desktop . With the promise finally realized, to have 2 unified systems Gnome and Xfce, light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and Tablet. The 2 offices are quite distinct and their respective applications are for the most part invisible, for one or the other environment. This version is based on the Linux kernel 6.2 and the Ubuntu distribution “ Lunar Lobster ” with its novelties.Voyager 23.04 a été compressé en zstd au lieu de xv pour plus de rapidité en clé USB. 23.04 is an intermediate release with a 9-month update that prepares the future 5-year LTS – Long-term support – release that will arrive shortly for Gnome and Xfce. With integrated, options grouped in the Box Voyager like Conky Control , Effects , Repair ,Screencast, Switch Ubuntu , Wine development and Steam Gaming and Gnome extensions selected according to PC needs. A Special Gaming type GS profile has been created in xfce. With numerous Themes and Wallpapers and essential software . This release contains Software – Gnome Software, which was preferred over Ubuntu’s, to manage Deb, Snap and Flatpack packages together . firefox was installed in deb for better compatibility with gnome extensions and many other new features to discover like Scrcpy to have your smartphone screen on PC. As you can see, the new theme will be much sunnier than the old version for wanting to put color in the spotlight, but you will still have the possibility to change it with its many already integrated themes.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Budgie 23.04 Released!

• We are pleased to announce the release of the next version of our distro, the 23.04 release for both the desktop and Raspberry Pi4.

• This is a standard release supported for 9 months packed full of all sorts of new capabilities. If you want a well tested and longer term support then our 22.04.2 LTS version is supported for 3 years.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu Studio 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Xubuntu 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Edubuntu 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu Unity 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Lubuntu 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu Kylin 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Distribution Release: Voyager Live 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu MATE 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Distribution Release: Kubuntu 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu 23.04

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Distribution Release: Ubuntu Budgie 23.04

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Testing a 96-core Ampere Altra Developer Platform

• I somehow convinced Ampere/ADLINK to send me a workstation after my now years-long frustrated attempts at getting graphics cards working on the Raspberry Pi.

=> ↺ Gowin Semi introduces Arora V 138K eval board

• Gowin Semiconductors announced this week an evaluation board based on the GW5AT-138 FPGA series targeting communications, server imaging, automotive and other high-speed applications.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Neo6502- Open Source Hardware Modern Retro Computer Project

• I will admit, I have a sentiment for retro computers. This is probably because my career in IT started many years ago with the Bulgarian Apple ][ clone called IMKO2, later renamed to Pravetz 82.

• This is also one of the reasons Olimex stepped into the AgonLight production.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ How do you screen record on Android

=> ↺ Apps crashing on your Android phone? Google will soon prompt you to update them – PhoneArena

=> ↺ 10 more fun, niche, weird apps for Android (volume 2) – Android Authority

=> ↺ Top 5 Best Android Phones to Buy in 2023 – Gizchina.com

=> ↺ 7 Best Fax Apps To Use On Your Android Phone

=> ↺ People are just realizing secret Google codeword gives Android users free internet upgrade – type it into device now | The US Sun

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ 10 ways to celebrate Earth Day with open source

• Even though we strive to live every day like Earth Day here on Opensource.com, today is an especially good day to discover new ways to help the planet. Open source brings forth many possibilities for people from all areas and levels of technical expertise.

• There are open source tools anyone can use to explore nature’s magic, whether looking up at the night sky or down at the plants in your own backyard. Open source empowers web developers to build sustainability into their practice. Our readers love to rescue old computers with Linux, preventing them from piling up in landfills. Homeowners look to open source solutions for monitoring energy usage or installing EV stations. Opens source brings like-minded folks together to solve the world’s biggest problems, like hunger and climate change. 

• This Earth Day, take the time to reflect on how to incorporate open source into your sustainability habits. 

=> ↺ The future of the sharing business model

• Younger generations prioritize experiences over assets and quality over quantity in many areas of life, and technology has evolved to help fulfill their desires. That’s the position of Arun Sundararajan in his book The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism. According to Sundararajan, these young people do not want to be burdened with owning unneeded things.

• Notice these demand changes:

• With new technologies becoming available, this new lifestyle is becoming more achievable. It is a future in which peer-to-peer exchange becomes increasingly prevalent, and the crowd replaces the corporation at the center of capitalism. The sharing economy, as Sundrararajan defines it, is similar to Jeremy Rifkin’s Collaborative Commons, as described in The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism. However you define it, these are growing communities aligned with the principles of open organizations.

Education

=> ↺ Using R to Develop Solutions for Industrial Problems

• Vincent Guyader talked to the R Consortium about his background with the R language, describing his acquisition of experience and skills in developing solutions to scientific and industrial problems. He also spoke about the founding of his company, ThinkR, and his role as organizer of R Addicts Paris.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Arduino IDE 2.1 is now available!

• The development of the Arduino IDE is made possible thanks to a passionate open source community, and to everyone supporting us with donations, purchases of original Arduino hardware, or Arduino Cloud subscriptions.

=> ↺ AgonLight Weekend Programming Challenge – ISSUE 1

• Some of you probably remember the Weekend Programming Challenge we ran ten years ago! The code is still here. The idea behind it was for people to learn from each other’s solutions and have fun. To add a bit of competition, a small reward was awarded to the winner, usually a new Olimex board.

• We decided to resume this coding challenge for AgonLight.

=> ↺ What’s new in R 4.3.0?

• In R, almost all of your data will be stored as a vector. Even if your vector holds a single value it is still considered to be a vector by R. This is unlike many other languages, and getting comfortable “thinking for the whole vector” can gain you efficiencies from several viewpoints. Your code will be more concise and it may even run quicker, when compared with an iterative approach to the same problem.

=> ↺ Will emerging artificial intelligence boost research productivity?

• As people like Stonebraker have remarked, we have lost our way: people publish to get jobs and promotions, and no longer to advance science. the focus on peer-reviewed publications has more to do with a status competition between researchers and academics, than a genuine desire to advance science. The metrics have been gamed. Researchers, generally, no longer have customers: nobody uses the result of the work, except maybe other researchers. Peer-reviewed papers are getting increasingly boring

Python

=> ↺ How I teach Python with open source tools

• I love to teach Python. I start by beginning where the learner begins. My first question is, “How would you like to learn Python?”

• They usually answer, “What’s Python?”

• That’s when I give them some examples of websites built with Python they might already be familiar with. I also provide examples of using Python in data science, engineering, web development, and, most recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

• Most folks are intimidated when you try to introduce computer programming because their first efforts failed or someone told them programming is difficult. I show them a simple print statement that easily demonstrates how much the Python syntax is like the language they speak.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ How To Install And Configure Alacritty Terminal Emulator In Linux

• In this article, we will take a look at one of the popular terminal emulators named Alacritty and how to install Alacritty in various Linux distributions, and finally how to configure Alacritty terminal emulator to get the most of it.

Leftovers

=> ↺ So I Went a Little Viral and Survived

• For starters, if you haven’t read my post “Low Code Software Development Is A Lie”, you should give it a go. The internet seemed to enjoy reading it for the most part. I generally don’t do any self-promotion of posts short of directly sending links to a few friends over Discord that I think might be interested in the topic. So at least one of my few dedicated readers (who presumably use the RSS feed to keep tabs on my content), posted it to Reddit and YCombinator. A riveting discussion was had by all. Note: I did not participate in any of the discussions as I had already spoken my piece on this topic. I just enjoyed reading what others had to say about it.

• So just how viral did I go? Well in big boy internet terms, not anything to write home about. But the initial surge was about a 100x increase in traffic on my site that quickly ramped down over the next few days. A week later, traffic is still elevated, but much closer to normal levels now. Here are the anonymized versions of the summaries so you can follow along Sans Crawlers and With Crawlers. Note: I will be referring exclusively to the “Sans Crawlers” version of the summary.

Science

=> ↺ different kinds of differential

• The problem is that new ephemera are only produced hourly, and the orbits of satellites varies on a minute level too rapidly for hourly observations to keep up with. Additional latency in the upload process means that the ephemera transmitted by GPS satellites can be several hours old. The observations are somewhat limited in precision anyway, considering the incredible precision modern GPS receivers are capable of. So, variation in the actual orbit of satellites from the ephemera leads to ephemeris error in GPS fixes.

• Ephemeris error isn’t actually that big of a source of error, but it’s an interesting one so I wanted to talk about it anyway. Besides, it has introduced us to the term “assisted GPS” or “AGPS,” which is unrelated to but often confused with augmentation systems. Assisted GPS just refers to the use of an alternate data path, such as IP, to obtain the current GPS network information that receivers need to make a first fix.

Education

=> ↺ In L.A. Schools, Solidarity Strike Scores Big for Both Unions

• When Los Angeles educators joined school support staff on the picket lines last month, our solidarity strike helped them clinch a contract with a 30 percent raise. Riding that wave, yesterday educators reached a tentative agreement of our own, with a 21 percent raise, smaller classes, and improved staffing.

=> ↺ HSE’s transformation into a Kremlin-controlled research institute Meduza explains how the war has changed Russia’s most liberal university — Meduza

• For over 30 years, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) was considered Russia’s most liberal university, home to the country’s best researchers and instructors. In recent years, HSE’s image as an independent university has rapidly crumbled. It began to dismiss employees for making political remarks and banned independent student media. HSE nonetheless remains an important research centre and a sought-after place of study for prospective students. Meduza’s special correspondent Margarita Liutova explains how one of Russia’s leading universities has changed since the start of the war and the role that Yaroslav Kuzminov, HSE’s founder and previous rector, has played in these changes.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ “I know you are, but what am I? John Leake and Peter McCullough vs. “conspiracy theories”

• I have argued that all antivaccine pseudoscience is based on variations of a conspiracy theory that I first dubbed in 2014 the “central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement.” Indeed, more than that, I’ve argued that all science denial is a form of conspiracy theory. Unsurprisingly, antivaxxers, quacks, and science deniers who rely on conspiracy theories to support their world view take umbrage at correctly being labeled as conspiracy theorists, to the point that I consider it almost a sine qua non of conspiracy theorists that they will defend their conspiracy theories as being about actual legitimate conspiracies and then engage in projection by accusing those pointing out their conspiracy theories of engaging in—you guessed it!—conspiratorial thinking and conspiracy theories. This brings us to an excellent example of just this phenomenon by John Leake and Dr. Peter McCullough in the form of a post on Dr. McCullough’s Substack by Leake entitled What Is A Conspiracy Theory? While this could be a fact-based description of how to differentiate a conspiracy theory from an actual conspiracy, the tagline (“Examining a pejorative label”) gives the game away. This is about portraying their conspiracy theories as actual conspiracies demonstrated by evidence. It’s all about projection.

=> ↺ WHO releases largest global collection of health inequality data

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) today launched the Health Inequality Data Repository (HIDR), the most comprehensive global collection of publicly available disaggregated data and evidence on population health and its determinants. The repository allows for tracking health inequalities across population groups and over time, by breaking down data according to group characteristics, ranging from education level to ethnicity.

=> ↺ Why the pharmaceutical industry has been so quiet on mifepristone

• The US Supreme Court is expected to make a decision soon on whether the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone more than 20 years ago should be revoked.

=> ↺ ‘A Quick Death or a Slow Death’: Prisoners Choose War to Get Lifesaving Drugs

• An estimated 20 percent of Russia prisoner recruits are H.I.V. positive. To some, the front lines seemed less risky than prisons where they said they were denied effective treatments.

=> ↺ A Radical Experiment in Mental Health Care in Belgium, Tested Over Centuries

• In the Belgian town of Geel, families have long taken in people with psychiatric conditions. Could this approach work elsewhere?

Proprietary

=> ↺ The algorithm has reconciled with classical music

• But the age of access was better suited to popular music because streaming platforms categorize music using very few attributes (or metadata): artist, album name and song title. These three attributes are enough to find a track by Rosalia or Beyoncé quickly, but not a specific recording of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. Dozens of performers have recorded this composition, and some more than once. A streaming music platform should at least allow searching by composer, composition, catalog number, movement and performers.

=> ↺ How do you decentralise emergency alerts?

• Look, first off, it makes sense for organisations to put warning messages where their audience is likely to see it. No one sensible begrudges that. Twitter is a channel just as legitimate as radio, TV, or loudhailers in the street.

• The problem comes when that’s the only channel.

=> ↺ Should we fear the Hyena Code?

• Stanford and MILA’s Hyena Hierarchy is a technology for relating items of data, be they words or pixels in a digital image. The technology can reach similar accuracy in benchmark AI tasks as the existing “gold standard” for large language models, the “attention” mechanism, but with as little as 100 times less compute power.

Security

=> ↺ New Alpha Release: Tor Browser 12.5a5 (Android, Windows, macOS, Linux)

• Tor Browser 12.5a5 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory.

• This release updates Firefox 102.9.0esr, including bug fixes, stability improvements and important security updates. We also backported the Android-specific security updates from Firefox 112.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Cisco Releases Security Advisories for Multiple Products

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Drupal Releases Security Advisory to Address Vulnerability in Drupal Core

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Oracle Releases Security Updates

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] VMware Releases Security Update for Aria Operations for Logs

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] CISA and Partners Release Cybersecurity Best Practices for Smart Cities

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Purism and SLNT Announce Partnership to Provide Security to Mobile Devices

=> ↺ OpenSSF give supply chain security a boost with SLSA 1.0

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Small businesses revealed to no longer prioritise cyber security measures

=> ↺ Cybersecurity threat level remains high in Finland – targeted attacks on the rise

• The threat level of cyber security has remained high, and the number of targeted cyber attacks in Finland has increased, according to a press release from Traficom. Finnish organizations are increasingly becoming targets of cyber attacks, and the nature of these attacks has changed. Specifically, the number of targeted attacks, in which the target organization is carefully selected, has increased. Despite this increase, Traficom and the Finnish Security Intelligence Service consider a society-wide cyber attack to be unlikely.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Here’s How You Can Get In On Facebook’s $725 Million Class Action Settlement

• A new website is allowing Facebook users to claim their share of a $725 million settlement for a class action lawsuit against Facebook, or Meta. The lawsuit came in response to Meta revealing in 2018 that the data and personal information of around 87 million people was improperly accessed by the data consultation firm Cambridge Analytica—which was used by the Trump campaign. The litigation has been ongoing since 2018, and ended in December of last year with the settlement agreement. Meta denies that it violated any law.

=> ↺ Stop This Dangerous Bill That Would Normalize Face Surveillance in California

• EFF opposes this bill, along with more than 50 organizations including ACLU California Action. Together, we have called on the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee to stop it from moving forward. Join us in saying California should not normalize government use of face recognition technology.

=> ↺ The STOP CSAM Act Would Put Security and Free Speech at Risk

• The bill is aimed at removing from the internet child sexual abuse material (CSAM), also known as child pornography. Existing law already requires online service providers who have actual knowledge of “apparent” CSAM on their platforms to report that content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which is essentially a government entity.  NCMEC then forwards actionable reports to law enforcement agencies for investigation.  

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Moscow court ‘arrests’ Ukraine intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov in absentia — Meduza

• A Moscow district court has granted a motion to arrest in absentia the top Ukrainian military official Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.

=> ↺ US B-1 Bombers Drill in India for First Time

• The US has been increasing military cooperation with India as part of its strategy against China

=> ↺ ‘Just a simple artilleryman, knee-deep in shit’: Prigozhin claims Putin spokesman Peskov’s son served in Wagner Group ‘manning an Uragan’ — Meduza

• Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin claims that the son of Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov served in the ranks of his “private military company.”

=> ↺ Albania cancels visa-free travel for Russian citizens — Meduza

• Russian citizens will now have to apply for a visa to travel to Albania, according to the Albanian Embassy in Russia. Previously, Russian citizens could visit visa-free from May until September and stay for up to 90 days. Now, citizens of the Russian Federation will have to apply for a visa all year round.

=> ↺ Red Cross Expresses Alarm Over Detainee Health at Guantánamo Bay

• As the prisoners age, their physical and mental health needs are increasingly challenging, the leader of a visiting delegation said.

=> ↺ YLE: Russian vessels detected mapping critical infrastructure in Baltic and North Sea

• RUSSIAN civilian and military vessels have been detected mapping critical infrastructure targets in the Baltic Sea and North Sea, reveals an investigation carried out by the public broadcasting companies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

• MOT, the team of investigative journalists at YLE, on Wednesday reported that suspicious vessels have been detected at least in the territorial waters of Denmark and Norway.

=> ↺ Ukraine’s Allies Are Struggling to Deliver Key Weapons

• Documents that were among leaked classified military assessments of the war reveal the struggles of Western allies to fulfill their pledged deliveries of tanks and other weapons systems.

=> ↺ Canadian Suspect in Paris Synagogue Bombing Is Found Guilty

• The attack killed four and injured dozens. But decades of false leads, a lack of evidence and legal wrangling delayed a trial.

=> ↺ No Reprieve in Sudan Even for Eid Holiday as General Rejects Calls for Cease-Fire

• Gunfights in the capital, Khartoum, continued for a seventh day, despite pleas for a pause as the Muslim-majority nation marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

=> ↺ U.S. Says It Will Begin Training Ukraine on Abrams Tanks Within Weeks

• The 31 M1 Abrams tanks promised by Washington could reach Ukraine by the fall, far sooner than expected, American officials say.

=> ↺ What We Know About the Fighting in Sudan

• The strategically important country in northeastern Africa has been consumed by days of fighting between two military factions, and plans for a transition to a civilian-led democracy are now in shambles.

=> ↺ Russia Accidentally Bombs Belgorod, Its Own City, Injuring 3

• A blast in Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, was the result of “an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

=> ↺ Books You Can Read to Understand What’s Going on in Sudan

• For a deeper understanding of what’s going on, here’s what to read.

=> ↺ Pentagon Aid Package to Ukraine Includes Old M21 Anti-Tank Mines

• The M21 mines do not run afoul of international treaties. But unlike other mines the United States has given to Kyiv, they can be lethal indefinitely.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Russia’s ailing ruble takes another hit. What happens now?

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv reports Russian drone attacks

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Moscow court seeks arrest of Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Russia Court Orders Arrest in Absentia of Bulgarian Reporter Grozev -RIA

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Russian Troops Fighting in Western Bakhmut, Wagner Frets Over Ukraine Attack

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Breaking up with Russia is hard for many Western firms

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Russia mapping offshore windfarms, other infrastructure in North Sea: MIVD

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Rwanda’s Kagame defends Russia’s presence in Africa

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Ukraine’s first gold medalist urges Bach to ban Russians

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Did Russian Officials Sting Evan Gershkovich?

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] The US, Russia, and Ukraine: 75 Years of Hate Propaganda

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Brazil welcomes Russia’s Lavrov amid US criticism

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] How the Russia question is dividing world sport

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Ukraine updates: Putin visits Russian troops in Kherson, Luhansk

=> ↺ 2023-04-16 [Older] Russian Hockey Competition Linked to War in Ukraine Ending

=> ↺ 2023-04-15 [Older] Tit for tat: Russia freezes accounts of German Goethe Instituts

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Ukraine’s President Zelensky addresses Mexico lawmakers

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Will the West Turn Ukraine into a Nuclear Battlefield?

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Pentagon leaks? Ukrainians more focused on must-win battle.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] NATO leaders talk tanks, ammo and support for Ukraine

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Ukraine tightens rules on frontline reporting

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] 15th aid package: Finland sending Ukrainian troops training gear

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Denmark to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] Netherlands, Denmark will buy 14 Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Matt Gaetz forces Biden to reveal how many U.S. troops are in Ukraine

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Ukraine updates: Germany says Patriots delivered to Kyiv

=> ↺ 2023-04-18 [Older] Economics as a Weapon of War: Ukraine, China and Beyond

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] G7 foreign ministers urge unity on China, Ukraine

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] Sudan Must Quickly Resolve Internal Security Issue to Avoid Collapse

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] The Leaking Republic: The Pentagon’s Take on Information Security

=> ↺ Fighting Intensifies in Khartoum as Sudan Cease-Fires Fail

• With two generals vying for power, residents in the Sudanese capital said the violence had destroyed hospitals, airfields and homes, and left civilians caught in the crossfire.

=> ↺ 2023-04-17 [Older] After the Ukraine Documents Leak, Mainstream Media Is Missing the Story

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] U.S. Homeland Security opens investigation into St. Lawrence River deaths

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] China’s new security role in the Middle East under President Xi Jinping

Environment

=> ↺ Day One of ‘The Big One’: Tens of Thousands Gear Up for Mass Climate Rallies in UK

• Thousands of climate advocates descended on London Friday for the first day of “The Big One,” a multi-day mass mobilization aimed at pressuring the United Kingdom’s government to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and accelerate the transition to renewable energy as key environmental indicators signal time is running short.

=> ↺ Can You Fight for Climate Justice Without Being Antiwar?

• Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answer–no. Here’s why.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Tufton Street Linked Donors Have Given £630,000 to the Conservatives Since Sunak Became Prime Minister

• The Conservative Party has received in excess of £600,000 since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister from four board members at leading Tufton Street ‘think tanks’, a new DeSmog analysis shows.

• The data also shows that free market groups based in Tufton Street, Westminster, have retained significant influence in Sunak’s administration. More than half a dozen Tufton Street alumni currently serve as special advisers to the government, while seven ministers have appeared at events hosted by Tufton Street groups since Sunak became prime minister in October. 

=> ↺ Spike in German Finance For Gas Export Projects Harms U.S. Gulf Coast Communities, Report Finds

• Deutsche Bank and other German lenders have poured finance into gas export terminals on the U.S. Gulf Coast since Russia invaded Ukraine, a report has found, sparking anger among residents who say the megaprojects are devastating their communities. 

• German banks lent 2.17 billion euros to U.S. gas export projects since the beginning of 2022, a sharp increase on the 1.86 billion euros in loans made during the 10 preceding years combined, according to underlying data used to produce the report by environmental groups Urgewald, Environmental Action Germany (DUH) and Andy Gheorghiu Consulting. The banks also underwrote 610 million euros of bonds for the projects from 2012-2021, the data showed.

=> ↺ SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess

• Residents of Port Isabel said that their city was covered in grime following SpaceX’s rocket launch on Thursday. The city said there was no “immediate concern for people’s health.”

=> ↺ Chile is nationalizing new lithium production, vowing “no more mining for the few”

• Chilean president Gabriel Boric said he plans to nationalize the country’s lithium production in a nationally televised address on Thursday (April 20).

=> ↺ Canada Lands Volkswagen Battery Plant With Billions in Subsidies

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the assistance was needed to offset incentives offered by the United States.

=> ↺ Germany and Finland: Two sides of the nuclear power coin in Europe

• The start-up of the Finnish reactor was a rocky road: it was first scheduled to be completed in 2009 and cost $12 billion, three times more than the original estimate. With Finnish conservatives holding a firm grip on power, more nuclear power projects are expected. Petteri Orpo, the front-runner in the prime minister race, often says in campaign speeches that nuclear power should be “the cornerstone of Finnish energy policy.”

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Thousands Flock to See a Rare Total Solar Eclipse in Australia

• Tens of thousands descended on a tiny town in Western Australia, hundreds of miles from any city, to view a celestial spectacle.

=> ↺ The Biggest, Darkest Sky in Australia

• Looking for darkness in Australia’s biggest state.

=> ↺ The Real Way to Save Animals? Think More Selfishly

• Vaccines. Ozempic. Pacemakers. Painkillers. Modern wind turbines. Avocados.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ A quarter of Danish women in their 20s could go childless in light of climate concerns

• One in four Danish women aged 20-30 say they are considering not having children due to concern about climate change, according to a study carried out by the think-tank Kraka with support from the consultancy firm Deloitte.

=> ↺ Why Finland is the happiest country in the world – an expert explains

• Finland comes out top, followed by Denmark and Iceland. Just why Finns are happier than others comes down to a number of factors including lower income inequality (most importantly, the difference between the highest paid and the lowest paid), high social support, freedom to make decisions, and low levels of corruption.

=> ↺ Finland: Record Low Birth Rate In 2022

• According to Statistics Finland, this decline is due to families opting not to have a second or third child. Finnish researchers say the declining fertility rate is related to cultural and social changes leading to higher standards for starting a family.

Finance

=> ↺ How workers get trapped by “bondage fees”

• Now, if you think about it for even a second, it’s obvious that there’s only one way that hiring a doorman through a staffing agency could be cheaper than just hiring the doorman: the staffing agency has to pay the doorman less. A lot less, because the staffing agency is making money here, too – so the doorman is splitting that lower payment with the agency.

• The staffing agencies are platforms – just like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Tiktok. They have end-users (apartment dwellers) and business customers (workers who staff apartments), and they intermediate between them, selling one to the other and making money on both sides.

=> ↺ Banks aren’t getting free money anymore

• Regional banks are seeing declining deposits as people remember that banks should actually pay them interest on their money.

• Driving the news: Large regional banks reported quarterly results on Thursday — and declining deposits were a common theme.

=> ↺ The global economy’s slow-motion reset

• Over the last year, the world’s major central banks have tightened their policies more rapidly than has been seen in decades, ending an era of ultra-low interest rates that had become a basic assumption across global commerce and finance.

=> ↺ BuzzFeed News shutters amid digital media reckoning

• The shuttering of BuzzFeed News after years of painful layoffs and cutbacks represents the end of an era for the digital publishing industry.

• Why it matters: Companies like BuzzFeed, Vox Media and Vice Media that rapidly expanded and raised lots of cash at high valuations in the aughts are struggling in a dramatically different media landscape.

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] UK Social Security Should Guarantee Adequate Living Standard

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ John Fetterman’s Triumphant Return to the Political Stage

• John Fetterman is back in the US Senate, and his political instincts are as sharp as ever.

=> ↺ The Republican Party of Death Content to Let Poverty Kill at Will

• Kevin McCarthy has a keen new idea about what he thinks he can get out of Democrats in Congress in exchange for Republicans authorizing the government to pay the trillions in debt that Donald Trump racked up in his four years in office.

=> ↺ Audio Reveals Top GOP Lawyer’s 2024 Strategy: Make It Harder for College Students to Vote

• A longtime Republican lawyer who aided former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election told GOP donors that the party should be working to roll back voting on college campuses and other initiatives aimed at expanding ballot access, according to audio obtained by progressive journalist Lauren Windsor.

=> ↺ MP candidate lists reveal lack of women’s representation, warns rights group

• The group estimates that only 117 female representatives will enter parliament, resulting in a proportion of women in parliament of 19.50 percent

=> ↺ Armed attack on AKP office in Adana

• President Erdoğan implicitly criticized his political opponents, whose parties have also recently experienced similar attacks, by stating that he was not seeking to gain any advantage from the incident, unlike some others.

=> ↺ Dominic Raab, U.K. Deputy Prime Minister, Resigns Amid Bullying Scandal

• The hard-line Brexiteer, one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s most loyal political allies, was found by an independent inquiry to have mistreated subordinates.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] Hong Kong proposes changing law to allow appeals against High Court national security acquittals

=> ↺ German Legislator Sends Cops To Literally Police Twitter For Porn

• Germany’s awkward relationship with the internet continues. On one hand, the German government has told the EU government it’s not willing to follow orders that involve criminalizing encryption or mandating client-side scanning.

=> ↺ Jane Mayer on Justice Clarence Thomas

• The staff writer discusses the latest ethical questions about the judge. Plus, the bipartisan effort to rein in Presidential military power; and the music writer Hanif Abdurraqib.

=> ↺ Has Black Lives Matter Changed the World?

• A new book makes the case for a more pragmatic anti-policing movement—one that seeks to build working-class solidarity across racial lines.

=> ↺ Pirates: New EU [cryptocurrency] rules will harm NGOs and whistleblowers

• Today, the European Parliament is expected to approve the results of the trilogue negotiations on new regulations for cryptocurrencies. Pirate Party Members of the European Parliament strongly oppose identification obligations included in the “Information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets” legislation, which will effectively abolish anonymous transactions in digital currencies without any threshold. This will negatively impact organisations that depend on anonymous donations, Pirates warn. They will oppose the legislation.

=> ↺ Why I let go of my U.S. citizenship

• I forbid myself from anything too tempting or addicting. I keep no cookies in my home. To prevent myself from falling off the wagon, I strap myself to the mast.

• I was born in California, and lived the first forty years of my life in America. But I wanted to challenge myself to live in the rest of the world – to get to know it deeply – so that many countries would feel like home.

• It was a nice idea, but as soon as times abroad got a little tough, I’d move back to my comfort zone. America felt like an addiction.

• So I decided to ban myself from returning – to burn the ships.

=> ↺ Twitter removes ‘government-funded media’ tags, blue checks

• The group chaired by CBC president Catherine Tait had said Twitter applied the label without warning to the accounts of CBC/Radio-Canada, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (known as ABC), the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

=> ↺ Twitter removes labels for all news outlets, including Chinese state media

• The tags for other Chinese state media, such as Global Times, People’s Daily, Xinhua and CGTN, as well as for Russian state media, were also scrapped. The personal accounts of state-media journalists, including Global Times’ commentator Hu Xijin, were no longer labelled as China state-affiliated, too. Twitter is blocked in China, however many Chinese outlets, officials and journalists circumvent the block to use it.

=> ↺ Elon Musk paid the Twitter Blue fee for celebrities like LeBron James and Stephen King

• As Twitter’s legacy blue checks flickered out of existence, CEO Elon Musk personally paid for three celebrities (William Shatner, Stephen King, and LeBron James) to keep their verification.

=> ↺ The problem with Twitter’s blue checkmark is not the $8-a-month cost

• I used to pay for Twitter Blue. Back before Elon Musk took over, I coughed up $3 a month to Twitter for the luxury of some nice-to-have features.

Misinformation/Disinformation/TikTok

=> ↺ Fox’s Settlement With Dominion Shows That ‘Lies Have Consequences’

• When was the last time you forked over nearly $800 million?

=> ↺ Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That’s over now

• Musk’s stance of allowing Russian government posts to pop up freely on people’s feeds has now become company procedure. And it’s a radical departure from the so-called “shadow bans” — or in Twitter parlance “visibility filtering rules” — that were previously placed on those accounts.

• NPR has confirmed this was a deliberate decision from within the company.

• The previous guardrails on government accounts in Russia, China and Iran have now been removed, according to two former Twitter employees who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] TikTok’s CEO Breaks Silence After Brutal Congressional Hearing

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] ‘Our data has never been stored in China,’ TikTok CEO tells Ted Talks

=> ↺ 2023-04-21 [Older] TikTok begins removing videos with climate change misinformation

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] TikTok Says It’s ‘Never Seen This Type of Content Trend’ After Teen Dies From Benadryl Challenge

=> ↺ 2023-04-20 [Older] The latest TikTok weight loss trend is … hacking water?

=> ↺ 2023-04-19 [Older] ByteDance Is Hiring a US-Based ‘Music Strategist’ to Oversee TikTok, Resso, & Others — $300,000+ Salary for the Right Candidate

=> ↺ 2023-04-15 [Older] Montana legislature passes first Tiktok ban in US

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Vietnam orders media to scrub all content about prominent writer’s death

• Vietnam has ordered media outlets to remove news coverage about the death of literary critic and poet Dang Tien, and not to publish further reports about him because he was a member of a literature organization the government claims is anti-communist, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

=> ↺ Court drops custody case against parents of sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva, whose anti-war drawing sparked backlash from Russian authorities — Meduza

• The Russian authorities have dropped the custody case against the parents of Masha Moskaleva, the Tula sixth-grader whose father was hit with charges of “discrediting” the Russian military after she drew an anti-war picture at school last year.

=> ↺ Anti-Corruption Foundation: Alexey Navalny on trial again, prosecution to seek 35-year sentence — Meduza

• On April 26, Moscow’s Basmanny court will hold the first hearing in a new case against the opposition politician and Anti-Corruption Foundation founder Alexey Navalny.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation suit against Aussie website Crikey

• Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey, his lawyer confirmed in a statement Thursday.

=> ↺ Moscow court orders Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev’s arrest in absentia — Meduza

• A Moscow district court has ordered the arrest in absentia of Bellingcat investigative journalist Christo Grozev in absentia, reports Mediazona. 

=> ↺ 1st Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession of Classified Data

• The Espionage Act, as it is applied to the WikiLeaks publisher or any other journalist, also violates basic norms of due process, argues Bruce Afran.

=> ↺ Belarus prosecutor requests lengthy prison terms for journalists Raman Pratasevich, Stsypan Putsila, and Yan Rudzik

• The trial began on February 16, and authorities have filed more than 10 separate charges against each of the journalists, including organizing mass unrest, conspiracy to seize power, incitement to hatred, insulting the president, and creating an extremist group, according to news reports. The prosecutor also asked the journalists to pay a total of 30 million Belarusian rubles (US$11.9 million) in compensation for the damage inflicted on the country, according to media reports.

=> ↺ BuzzFeed To Close News Operations

• Mr Peretti said the company had come to the conclusion that it “can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.”

• He added that it would now concentrate its news output on its HuffPost website.

=> ↺ What does the end of Twitter mean for news media?

• They call it “the hellsite” for a reason. Over the years, Twitter has become synonymous with the spread of harmful ideas and misinformation – from anti-vax rhetoric to fake news. It has been a notorious catalyst for some of the most infamous events of the decade: Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the Capitol Hill riots.

• Herein lies the paradox of the platform – it is the home of both news and fake news, mainstream media and misinformation. Frequented by politicians and journalists, it is known as the site where news often breaks first. Ironically, news and misinformation have long-thrived on Twitter in tandem.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ While You Were Lighting Up on 4/20, I’m Serving Decades in Prison for Selling Weed

• I was sentenced in 1998 to 40 years in prison for selling marijuana. Even as it is decriminalized, I remain behind bars.

=> ↺ The Islamic Republic is mobilizing all its forces against unveiled Iranian women, but they’re pushing back

• In its latest statement on March 30, the Interior Ministry declared hijab as an unquestionable Sharia necessity and one of the fundamental and practical principles of the Islamic Republic. This statement underlines the fact that “there has not been, and will not be, any compromise nor leniency” by the regime in this matter. The ministry repeatedly portrayed the opposition to mandatory hijab as a plot by foreign adversaries of the regime and called upon all religious and cultural authorities, the judicial system, and even ordinary people to confront and take action against women who do not comply with the mandatory hijab in public.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Here’s what Zimbabwe’s [Internet] usage looks like, everything from capacity to consumption

• There was a huge bump in 2021 when the pandemic hit and we all had to work, learn and play remotely.

• We consumed 113,858 Terabytes of data via our mobile phones in 2022. That’s close to 7GB per person that year, or just over 500MB per month per person.

• In terms of what we actually do on the [Internet], it is encouraging to see that Zimbabweans are uploading more and more content by the year. We are no longer just passive consumers.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Touches Down in Washington to Lobby Against “Apple’s Stranglehold”

• Apple is notorious for charging third-party app developers as much as 30 percent in fees for sales made through the App Store. Regulators have accused the company of engaging in “anti-steering” practices, preventing services like Spotify from informing iPhone and iPad users about services they can purchase outside the App Store, mainly when those services directly compete with Apple’s ecosystem.

• As a result, Ek is in Washington, D.C., this week to lobby lawmakers to pass a law preventing Apple from engaging in such behavior — a proposition floating around Congress since last year. The Open App Markets Act is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Trademarks

=> ↺ TTAB Grants Cancellation for Nonuse: ULTRA SUN Sunscreen Was Offered For Sale But Not Sold or Transported Before Critical Date

• The Board granted a petition for cancellation of a registration for the mark ULTRA SUN for “[c]osmetic sunscreen preparations; sunscreen creams; water resistant sunscreen, sunscreen preparations,” finding that the mark was not in use as of the deadline for filing Respondent Sun Precautions’ statement of use in the underlying application. The parties invoked the Board’s Accelerated Case Resolution procedure but, the Board observed, they “wasted the efficiencies of ACR, their own resources, and the Board’s resources” by, inter alia, filing multiple copies of documents and other cumulative evidence, and by litigating irrelevant facts and issues. Ultrasun AG v. Sun Precautions, Inc., Cancellation No. 92072352 (April 18, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Jonathan Hudis).

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Bright Friday

• It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Overall things are going well: I’m progressing in the Byzantine music program (we’re on break until after Bright Week), I’m still looking for work, and I’m considering going to study abroad for a year.

=> ↺ hello world (again)

• happy belated new year, 2023 can you believe it? oh look, it’s already April!

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: ABGOPTS Wordo: REFIX

Technical

=> ↺ Mojang Makes A Good Ban Decision. People Still Upset.

• Two hours ago as of writing this, the Youtube channel FitMC (better knowns as “the 2b2t news guy”) uploaded a video talking about how griefers were banned from Minecraft.

=> ↺ Yretek – Wouldn’t it be cool to run python in your browser?

• Yes!, and that’s the premise of PyScript, an on-development tool to well, use Python as your javascript. Boy, was I excited about this alpha… But then, of course, this stuff works thanks to an interpreter of sorts, in old javascript. It would be cool if the browser would understand python instead, as many other cool things that have been added to the browsers making them fatter and fatter.

Science

=> ↺ [Older] Comics and Graphic Novels

• Roche Limit and Saga both sounded good and seemed to be highly recommended so we’ll see. I’m really into Descender right now and there is a follow up series called Ascender too. Another comic that I picked up at my pal Andrew’s really cool coffee shop in Georgia is Rogue Planet. It’s a fun one too and I need to track down the last issue that I’m missing. A good tip I received from someone on the fediverse pointed me to thriftbooks.com. You can’t find everything you might be looking for there but there is a whole boatload of stuff they do have for very good prices.

Programming

=> ↺ Abstraction is great

• Yesterday a colleague found a deadlock situation in my code. After I explained in broad terms the whole flow, they asked “what if …?”

• Indeed there was a possible deadlock. But afterwards they started trying to prove to me that the deadlock wasn’t possible because “we can see beforehand if we need to lock here”, and I had to tell them that “no, that’s not how that goes, because before we can check if we need to lock, we have first to update some internal state for which we need the lock”. They even made some message sequence diagrams to explain the circumstances.

• 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.