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● 08.29.23

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● Leftover Links 29/08/2023: Fukushima Uproar in China

Posted in News Roundup at 7:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Leftovers

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Playground Sign Outlaws ‘Loitering at Slide Entry or Exit’

• “This is literally a playground that’s for 2- to 5-year-olds,” says former preschool teacher Katie Courtney.

=> ↺ [Repeat] Jeff Geerling ☛ A Pigeon is still faster than the Internet

• Besides IEEE’s speculative work, nobody’s actually re-run the ‘bird vs. Internet’ race in over a decade.

• Now that I have gigabit fiber, I thought I’d give it a try.

=> ↺ [Old] CNET ☛ Pigeon-powered Internet takes flight

• The Bergen Linux Users Group had some assistance from the Vesta Brevdueforening carrier pigeon club and Alan Cox, a programmer at Linux leader Red Hat and top deputy of Linux founder Linus Torvalds.

• The pigeon protocol didn’t mean the fastest of networks, though. Taking an hour and 42 minutes to transfer a 64-byte packet of information makes the pigeon network about 5 trillion times slower than today’s cutting-edge 40 gigabit-per-second optical fiber networks.

• With a bit more luck than the Bergen group experienced, a basic Web page probably could be loaded in a couple of hours, participant Vegard Engen said in an e-mail interview.

=> ↺ appcalls and replies

• AppCalls seem to be like AppMesage, except that the receiving end will also get a call_id with the message. the receiving end then seems to be expected to send an AppCallReply in response that uses the call_id instead of a route_id. So there’s at least this sort of bidirectionality.

Science

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Tirziu in GIS on growing space cooperation between China and Latin America

• On July 4, Scowcroft Strategy Initiative nonresident senior fellow Aleksandra Gadzala Tirziu wrote an article for GIS discussing how China is increasing its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean to gain an edge in the new space race.

Education

=> ↺ France24 ☛ French education minister announces ban on Islamic abayas in schools

• French authorities are to ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said Sunday, arguing the garment violated France’s strict secular laws in education.

=> ↺ Securepairs ☛ Want to teach repair to K-12 kids? There’s a grant for that!

• The Culture of Repair Project is launching its Fall 2023 grants cycle on September 1st, offering resources to K-12 educators for creating programs and materials focused on teaching repair as a way to address environmental and societal challenges.

• Grant amounts ranging from $1000 to $10,000; eligibility requires registration as a 501(c)(3) in the U.S. If you’re interested in applying for a grant, use the button below to learn more!

=> ↺ Bridge Michigan ☛ University of Michigan [Internet] outage wreaks havoc on first day of class

• Students at the Ann Arbor campus told Bridge Michigan they had trouble accessing their student email and the university portal with class schedules. Some students said they could access Canvas, the learning management system that holds class syllabi and assignments.

=> ↺ uni Michigan ☛ U-M [Internet] outage delays Record email delivery

• The University Record’s daily email delivery is being delayed to the internet outage that began Aug. 27 and affects systems across the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.

Hardware

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ 3M is paying $5.5 billion to resolve 300,000 lawsuits over defective combat earplugs

• 3M has agreed to pay more than $5.5 billion to resolve some 300,000 lawsuits claiming it sold defective combat earplugs to the US military—just a little over half of what its litigation liability would gave been otherwise.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer) ☛ Wegovy and Ozempic Weight Loss Drugs in the New York Times. The Paper Doesn’t Discuss Horrifying Side Effects.

• The drug companies only have one goal, which is to sell you more drugs. They don’t tell your doctor everything they need to know. So even if your doctor isn’t a bad person, they still only largely hear and believe one side of the story.

=> ↺ University of Southern California ☛ Social media’s addictive loop compels users to share mindlessly

• Engaging in likes, shares, posts and retweets becomes habitual, eclipsing the original motivations that initially drew them to the platform. What was once a conscious choice transforms into automatic, almost impulsive action.

• Those are the findings of a new study by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

=> ↺ El País ☛ Why you should never smoke in cars: ‘The concentration of carcinogens where children sit makes your hair stand on end’

• In closed, small places with little ventilation, the levels of exposure to environmental smoke — both from the burning of the cigarette and from what the smoker exhales — increase, and so do the risks. Fernández is one of the authors of a study coordinated by the Barcelona Public Health Agency and published in the Environmental Research journal in which they measure the concentrations of nicotine in the air, as well as the nitrosamines, the carcinogens in tobacco, in private vehicles in Spain and the United Kingdom. They also measured some compounds found in the dust settled on car surfaces. “It is a sporadic, brief exposure (between 15 minutes and one hour), but with concentrations six to 12 times higher than those that take place outdoors. It is a short, but intense and repetitive exposure. And it is cumulative,” warns Fernández. A 2011 study by this same researcher estimated that the prevalence of tobacco use in vehicles was 5.5%, and 2.2% of passengers under 14 years of age were exposed to secondhand smoke inside the vehicle.

=> ↺ CNN ☛ Largest study of brains of athletes younger than 30 finds early signs of CTE even in amateur players

• The report, published in JAMA Neurology on Monday, describes the features of 152 brains donated between February 1, 2008, and September 31, 2022, to the UNITE brain bank — the largest tissue repository in the world focused on traumatic brain injury and CTE. Sixty-three out of the 152 donated brains (41%) had autopsy-confirmed CTE.

=> ↺ Mondaq ☛ France: French State Ordered To Compensate Victims Of Air Pollution For The First Time

• In two judgments handed down on June 16, 2023, the Paris Administrative Court recognized for the first time the existence of a causal link between the bronchiolitis and ear infections affecting two children and the French State’s failure to take action in terms of air pollution.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

=> ↺ The Kent Stater ☛ AI-generated songs fuel ethics debate

• As access to generative artificial intelligence expands, AI-generated songs top the trending page on TikTok. The genre has billions of views on the platform, and clips of famous characters, personalities and musicians covering songs flood the app’s “For You” page.

=> ↺ Matt Rickard ☛ AI and Text-First Interfaces

• The oldest and most Lindy software tools and interfaces are all text-based — the command line, the word processor, and email. Essentially unchanged, they have survived iterations of graphical interfaces from Windows 95 to macOS, from proto networks like ARPANET to the Internet. Part of it is simplicity — text is the simplest way to model the world digitally.

• As tools that primarily operate on text, will Large Language Models revive text-based interfaces? Will they merge seamlessly with the Lindy text interfaces we’ve used for decades or eventually replace them?

=> ↺ International Business Times ☛ Windows 11 will stop changing your default browser choice, but there’s a catch

• To those unaware, Microsoft has been catching flak for forcefully opening system links in its own Microsoft Edge browser for a while now. Apparently, the company ignored default settings. In a bid to amend its reputation, the company recently started allowing Windows 11 users to uninstall more built-in apps.

=> ↺ WhichUK ☛ ‘My niece ran up a bill of more than £400 on my mobile phone’

• It turned out that these costs came from Google Play. After investigating, I found that my 11 year-old niece had run up a bill while playing games on my phone over a number of months. My carer usually deals with my phone bill, so I hadn’t noticed this was happening. In total, my niece ran up a bill of more than £400 over 40 transactions.

• I contacted EE and it told me that Google was liable. It said the spend cap I relied on to stop extra charges only restricts data usage outside of my usual allowance, and doesn’t block third-party charges such as app store purchases.

Security

=> ↺ Trail Of Bits ☛ iVerify is now an independent company!

• We’re proud to announce that iVerify is now an independent company following its four-year incubation at Trail of Bits.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Two Men Arrested Following Poland Railway Hacking

• Polish police have arrested two men suspected of illegally hacking into the national railway’s communications network, causing disruption to 20 trains.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Leaseweb Reports Cloud Disruptions Due to Cyberattack

• Dutch cloud company Leaseweb shut down some critical systems last week due to a cyberattack.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Ohio History Organization Says Personal Information Stolen in Ransomware Attack

• Personal information stolen in ransomware attack at Ohio History Connection posted online after organization refuses to pay ransom.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ 3 Cryptocurrency Firms Suffer Data Breach After Kroll SIM Swapping Attack

• Three bankrupt cryptocurrency companies — FTX, BlockFi and Genesis — suffered data breaches following a SIM swapping attack at Kroll. 

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Microsoft once again revokes VeriSign digital certificates: Here’s why it matters

• Once again, Microsoft Corp. has revoked a collection of VeriSign Inc.’s digital certificates, another sign of how fragile that foundational digital ecosystem is..

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Security updates for Monday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, clamav, librsvg, rar, and unrar-nonfree), Fedora (caddy, chromium, and xen), and SUSE (ca-certificates-mozilla, gawk, ghostscript, java-1_8_0-ibm, java-1_8_0-openjdk, php7, qemu, and xen).

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Update: Tucson Unified School District sends out notifications about January cyberattack

• There’s another update to the January cyberattack on TUSD by the Royal ransomware group. While the district was still claiming that sensitive data hadn’t been compromised, data from employees was already being leaked on the dark web as early as February.

=> ↺ Dutch News ☛ Security breach at land registry exposes millions of addresses

• A data breach at the Dutch land registry Kadaster has exposed the addresses of every homeowner in the Netherlands, an investigation by RTL Nieuws has found.

• The privacy watchdog AP called for the agency to close the loophole immediately after it was discovered by journalists.

• The Kadaster’s website includes a search facility that allows anyone to find the owner of a registered property.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Medical organizations and IT vendors “should bear part of the cyber damage”.

• A document released on August 24 by the Japan Medical Association Policy Research Institute (Nichi-Isouken), which aims to plan medical policy, is causing controversy on SNS. Regarding contracts and responsibility sharing between medical institutions and system vendors, based on the “principle of good faith”, if the vendor’s risk explanation is insufficient, the medical institution will assume a certain amount of responsibility even if there is no description in the contract. may be questioned.”

=> ↺ Cybernews ☛ Medically-tailored food provider, PurFoods, discloses data breach

• PurFoods, which positions itself as a provider of “tailored home-delivered meals,” has reported a data breach affecting over 1.2 million people.

• PurFoods (doing business as Mom’s Meals) filed a data breach report with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, stating that attackers acquired sensitive info such as name or other personal identifier, together with financial account number or payment card (credit or debit) number, security and access codes, and passwords or PINs for the account.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Signs of Malware Attack Targeting Rust Developers Found on Crates.io

• The Crates.io Rust package registry was targeted in preparation of a malware attack aimed at developers, according to Phylum.

=> ↺ The Unseen Potential of Wake-on-LAN

• Will the pre-pandemic norm of exclusively in-office work ever return? The answer is a resounding no. What was coined as the new normal in 2020 has seamlessly transitioned into the normal of 2023 and beyond. Research from Gartner® forecasts that “almost 50% of employees will continue to work remotely post COVID-19.”

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ 10 Million Likely Impacted by Data Breach at French Unemployment Agency

• The personal information of roughly 10 million individuals might have been compromised in a data breach at French unemployment agency Pole Emploi.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ LockBit ransomware’s stolen source code fuels new threat variants

• Security researchers are warning that a new wave of LockBit ransomware variants is in the wild following a leak of the source code used by the prolific ransomware gang last year. First emerging in 2020, the LockBit ransomware gang operates on a ransomware-as-a-service model where affiliates use already-developed ransomware to execute attacks.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ [Repeat] Bruce Schneier ☛ Remotely Stopping Polish Trains

• Even so, this is being described as a cyberattack.

=> ↺ Wired ☛ The Cheap Radio Hack That Disrupted Poland’s Railway System

• But as disruptive as the railway sabotage has been, on closer inspection, the “cyberattack” doesn’t seem to have involved any cyber at all, according to Lukasz Olejnik, a Polish-speaking independent cybersecurity researcher and consultant, and the author of the forthcoming book Philosophy of Cybersecurity. In fact, the saboteurs appear to have sent simple “radio-stop” commands via radio frequency to the trains they targeted. Because the trains use a radio system that lacks encryption or authentication for those commands, Olejnik says, anyone with as little as $30 of off-the-shelf radio equipment can broadcast the command to a Polish train—sending a series of three acoustic tones at a 150.100 megahertz frequency—and trigger their emergency stop function.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer) ☛ My Complaint To Illinois Department of Insurance About GEICO Blackmailing Me Has Apparently Been Resolved Now.

• They’ve been losing money hand over fist in Illinois according to the news (the news aimed at investors) and have been jacking up premiums massively (20-25% in a single year sometimes!) but they also, looking at what they’ve done to me, basically openly break the law looking to drive your premiums up even further.

• It’s very brazen, and I assume they usually get away with it due to people not paying attention and not knowing where to complain.

• I will continue looking for another car insurance company when this deletion of the blackmail[1] propagates its way to my CLUE report.

• I let A.J. have an earful about how GEICO’s actions are completely illegal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 and are a federal crime. Furnishing false information to a credit bureau is, theoretically, a serious offense.

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ The College Board Tells TikTok and Facebook Your SAT Scores

• Gizmodo observed the College Board’s website sharing data with Facebook and TikTok when a user fills in information about their GPA and SAT scores. When this reporter used the College Board’s search filtering tools to find colleges that might accept a student with a C+ grade-point average and a SAT score of 420 out of 1600, the site let the social media companies know. Whether a student is acing their tests or struggling, Facebook and TikTok get the details.

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Finnish border officials use facial recognition software to nab Russian terrorism suspect

• With the use of facial recognition software, the border guard was able to confirm that Torden and Petrovskiy were the same person.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Atlantic Council ☛ Scowcroft scorecard: NATO’s Vilnius communiqué embarks on a new era of deterrence, but punts on key decisions

• During the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, heads of state and government issued a 90-paragraph communiqué, outlining key priorities for NATO in the coming term. Did allies succeed in addressing today’s threats while accounting for tomorrow’s challenges? Experts from the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative weigh in on the Summit declaration.

=> ↺ Defence Web ☛ Niger: another symptom of Africa’s weak crisis-response capacity

• Last month’s coup in Niger once again revealed Africa’s crisis of multilateralism. Political and security developments in Niger and other African countries confirm the continent’s collective security dilemmas and the deficiencies of its architectures for peace, security and governance.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Security forces will stop Afghan women from visiting national park, Taliban says

• The Taliban will use security forces to stop women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, according to information shared by a spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry. The ministry alleges that women have not been observing the proper way to wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, when going to Band-e-Amir in the central Bamiyan province.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Japan summons Chinese ambassador after stones thrown at embassy, schools

• Japan’s prime minister urged China to ensure its people “act in a calm and responsible manner” after instances of stones being thrown at diplomatic missions and schools, following the release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Japan reports wave of Chinese phone harassment after Fukushima discharge

• A Fukushima businessperson said his restaurants and pastry shops received about 1,000 calls, mostly from China.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Beijing’s protests over Fukushima water release spark panic-buying of salt

• But Chinese tourists seem keen to visit Japan after Beijing’s lifting of a group tour ban.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ TikTok’s U.S. Future Still in Limbo as Commerce Secretary Visits China

• Despite the intense pressure on the popular short-form video app, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, efforts to ban or regulate it in Washington have not yet borne fruit. And even with all that scrutiny, Ms. Raimondo is not planning to discuss TikTok while in China, a glaring omission that reflects the impasse at which it has left the Biden administration.

=> ↺ Greece ☛ Police arrest migrant smuggler as escapade ends in crash

• Upon closer inspection, authorities discovered a total of seven refugees from Syria inside the van. These individuals lacked the necessary travel documents required to establish legal residency within Greek territory.

=> ↺ The Nation ☛ The Conservatives Who Read the Constitution— and Found It Disqualifies Trump

• That mention of disqualification was a reference to the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was added after Southern states revolted against the republic in the Civil War. Section 3 of the amendment reflects on officials who support insurrection and rebellion and explicitly declares:

• “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ The UN Is Undertaking an Unprecedented 6-Month Withdrawal of Nearly 13,000 Peacekeepers From Mali

• Guterres said the logistics of moving troops and equipment is further constrained by the presence of “terrorist armed groups” and the recent military takeover of Niger, a key transit country.

• U.N. experts said in a report last week that Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and that their al-Qaida-linked rivals are also capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Job-seeking Vietnamese teens trafficked to Laos, family members say

• Lured by the promise of jobs, the teens may be headed for Myanmar or China, relatives say.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.S. and China Agree to Broaden Talks in Bid to Ease Tensions

• During a visit to Beijing, Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said the two sides would meet to discuss export restrictions and intellectual property, among other issues.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ U.S. Commerce Secretary Faces a Wide Range of Issues in China

• From tourism to advanced technology, here are the topics that are dominating the secretary’s visit to China this week.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Friends at any price: China seeks allies, arms markets in West Africa as French influence wanes

• China’s expansion into the West African arms market is a shift in strategy for a country that has typically focussed its weapons sales on other African regions. But Beijing is not just competing for a share of a new market: amid waning French influence in West Africa, China is looking to make new allies and build influence.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Japan reports wave of Chinese phone harassment after Fukushima discharge

• Tokyo has urged Beijing to “ensure the safety of Japanese residents in China” after a wave of telephone harassment targeting businesses in Japan sparked by the controversial discharge of Fukushima wastewater.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Japan says harassment calls from China regarding Fukushima water release ‘extremely regrettable’

• Japan started the discharge of the treated water last Thursday.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Crucial that America, China have stable economic relationship: US commerce chief Raimondo

• She is in China to boost business ties between the world’s two largest economies.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Australian academic Yang Jun tells friends, supporters he fears death in mainland China jail

• An Australian academic jailed in China on espionage charges fears he will die in prison if he does not receive medical treatment, his friends said Monday. Chinese-born Australian Yang Jun has been jailed in China since 2019, accused of spying in a closed trial that was heavily criticised by human rights activists.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Philippines, Australia recommit to joint patrols in disputed waterway

• The defense leaders announced their ‘mutual interest’ plans during a military exercise in Zambales province.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Domestic challenges risk Taiwan’s ability to fend off China: US Congress’ research report

• Strained civil-military relations and a host of other challenges could undermine Taiwan, the report says.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan reports combat drone as China military activities continue

• Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said Su-30 and J-10 fighters and anti-submarine aircraft were involved.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Kim calls for North Korean military to be constantly ready to smash US-led invasion plot

• North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has called for his military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart plots to invade his country, as he accused the U.S. of conducting “more frantic” naval drills off the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. and South Korean militaries are holding joint summer exercises that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. The allies have insisted the drills are defensive in nature.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Prigozhin’s Death: Yet Another US Delusion Bites the Dust

• The idea that Yevgeny Prigozhin posed a plausible – or even desirable – alternative to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was always ludicrous.

=> ↺ AntiWar ☛ Russia as the New, All-Purpose US Pretext for Military Intervention

• Since the end of World War II, America’s political elite have cycled through a variety alleged foreign demons to justify a militarized, global interventionist policy.  Vladimir Putin and the Great Russian Menace is the latest version. 

=> ↺ Latvia ☛ Roadblock military drills near Latvia-Belarus border Monday

• On Monday, August 28, the training of the National Armed Forces in the border area “Namejs Wall” was completed with a highway-blocking exercise. Soldiers practiced stopping and delaying an enemy approaching, for example, from the Belarusian side, Latvian Television reported.

Environment

=> ↺ YLE ☛ Kone Foundation grants €200,000 to climate action group

• According to a Kone Foundation press release, the funds have been awared to a project entitled Metsän vuoro – Elokapinan väliintulo keskusteluun (roughly translated as “The Forest’s Turn – Extinction Rebellion Finland’s intervention in the debate”) which will include art performances, discussion events and protest marches.

• The campaign begins on 19 September and aims to intensify the debate around sustainable forest practices while also providing a platform for the voices of environmental authorities as well as leading researchers.

=> ↺ [Old] CGTN America ☛ Panama’s water problem

• [...] Even in one of the regions in the world with the most precipitation, the deforestation has reduced the territory’s capacity to generate and retain water.

=> ↺ [Old] CS Monitor ☛ Water Woes: Deforestation Could Dry Up the Panama Canal

• The creation of national parks has helped, but forest cover over the entire watershed has dropped from 80 percent in 1952 to 20 percent in 1985. A new STRI study is due to be published next year that will define the post-1999 environmental policy of the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) – as the commission will be called when the waterway reverts to Panamanian control.

=> ↺ Gannett ☛ Panama Canal authorities set restrictions on cargo ship travel due to unprecedented drought

• The Panama Canal, responsible for moving 80% of global trade has been working on implementing practices to improve water efficiency by researching long-term solutions to changes in climate after experiencing a bout of drought between 2019 and 2020.

• However, the current drought recurrence and severity has no historical precedence, officials announced earlier this month.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ RFA ☛ IMF: China leads as global fossil fuel subsidies hit record $7 trillion

• Governments spent more in trying to stabilize consumer prices, it says.

Finance

=> ↺ Forbes ☛ Sinking Profits Means Layoffs To Follow.

• Second quarter earnings are beating lowball guidance, but they are down again, nonetheless. So far business has kept hiring despite this squeeze on the bottom line. It seems that despite slowing sales and output growth, managements are willing to hoard labor, perhaps because they are haunted by the staffing shortages that plagued recoveries after the Covid lockdowns and quarantines first lifted. But the fact of wage costs weighing on profits cannot go on indefinitely. Such labor hoarding should end soon. Then, layoffs will begin.

• Earnings reports on the April-June earnings are not yet complete, but the picture is nonetheless clear. Company managements had offered depressing guidance so that some 79% of reported figures have outpaced estimates. That is some comfort but more significant is the continued earnings decline. A blend of reported figures and guidance suggests a 5.2% drop in earnings per share from spring last year, the third straight quarter of decline. Taking account of the decline in shares outstanding from buybacks and the like this per share expectation suggests something close to an 8% drop in net earnings.

=> ↺ Entrepeneur ☛ ‘Quiet Cutting’ Is the Latest Workplace Danger — Here Are 3 Signs You’ll Be Out of a Job Soon

• “Quiet quitting,” the TikTok-fueled trend of employees doing the bare minimum at work, has been joined by another “quiet” movement: “Quiet cutting,” the practice of reassigning roles in a bid to make employees leave without laying them off outright.

• A role reassignment is defined as “a change of an employee, while serving continuously within the same agency, from one position to another without promotion or demotion,” according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

• Of course, role reassignments aren’t always made with this intent; sometimes it’s the only way to keep workers employed. But other times, these measures are a way to “quiet cut” and avoid paying costly severance packages or unemployment benefits, The Wall Street Journal reported.

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Farmers Insurance says it is cutting 2,400 jobs in bid to ensure long-term profitability

• Farmers Insurance said Monday it will lay off 11% of its workforce — about 2,400 employees — as part of a corporate restructuring aimed at increasing its efficiency and long-term profitability.

• The California-based insurer said the job cuts will impact all lines of its business. Monday was the last working day at the company for most employees impacted by the layoffs, Farmers confirmed to The Associated Press.

• In a statement announcing the job cuts, Raul Vargas, president and CEO of Farmers Group Inc., a subsidiary of Swiss giant Zurich Insurance Group, alluded to “existing conditions” in the insurance industry.

=> ↺ ‘Inflation to start declining in 2024′

• Central Bank Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan stated that they are working to lay the groundwork for inflation to start declining in 2024.

=> ↺ Turkey tops global ranking of housing price inflation in Q1 2023

• The three largest cities of the country stood out as the cities with the most significant spikes in housing prices in the country.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ China looks forward to in-depth discussions with US on resolving trade issues

• China looks forward to in-depth discussions with the U.S. on resolving economic and trade issues, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting said on Thursday.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: Democrats’ landmark national security trial adjourned to November for closing arguments

• The landmark national security trial relating to 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures has been adjourned to November for the prosecution and defence to prepare closing arguments. It came after the last defendant completed testifying in the case surrounding an unofficial legislative primary poll held in 2020.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Silicon Valley billionaires secretly buy up land for new California city

• Until recently, news of Flannery’s scheme was kept from Solano locals, such as Fairfield, California mayor Catherine Moy. She figured out who was buying up property in the area for far more than the asking price by going to the county assessor’s office and looking at the records.

• Moy, who didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, has been posting about the mystery land grab on Facebook for years, the Times said, most recently expressing concerns about the purchase of land surrounding Travis Air Force Base – which is the busiest AFB in the US. One hopes the new city homes will be soundproofed.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ The Silicon Valley Elite Who Want to Build a City From Scratch

• Since then, a company called Flannery Associates has been buying large plots of land in a largely agricultural region 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. The company, which has little information public about its operations, has committed more than $800 million to secure thousands of acres of farmland, court documents show. One parcel after another, Flannery made offers to every landowner for miles, paying several times the market rate, whether the land had been listed for sale or not.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Apple, Long a Critic of Right to Repair, Comes Out in Support of California Bill

• Apple’s about-face came in a letter to the bill’s sponsor, Senator Susan Eggman. Apple’s letter marks a significant change from where Apple was on the issue in the past, when reporting in 2017 showed that lobbyists associated with Apple (and other tech companies) fought against the “Fair Repair Act” in New York, and again against the “Digital Fair Repair” Act in 2022. In a letter to New York Governor Hochul, Apple flat out denied the benefits of the bill for consumer choice, safety, and protection of the environment, while raising the specter of dire consequences if others were allowed to compete with them in the repair market. 

=> ↺ EFF ☛ The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act is A Terrible Alternative to KOSA

• The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act has five major components: 

• The bill would make it illegal for anyone under 13 to join a social media platform, and require parental consent for anyone between the ages of 13 and 18 to do so. Thus the bill also requires platforms to develop systems to verify the ages of all users, as well as determine the parental or guardian status for minors. 

• The problems inherent in age verification systems are well known. All age verification systems are identity verification systems and surveillance systems. All age verification systems also impact all users because it’s necessary to confirm the age of all people in order to keep out one select age group. This means that every social media user would be subjected to potentially privacy-invasive identity verification if they want to use social media.

=> ↺ Is YouTube a Social Media Site?

• More than two billion people visit YouTube every month. But is YouTube social media? Over the years, like any other platform, YouTube has picked up features from many social media platforms. Let’s break down the aspects of YouTube that determine whether it’s a social media site.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Gabon blocks internet access, imposes curfew amid election voting delays

• Gabon cut internet access and announced a nightly curfew as voting drew to a close Saturday, and opposition leader Albert Ondo Ossa denounced “fraud” in his battle for the presidency against incumbent Ali Bongo Ondimba.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ ‘No Reasonable Officer’ Would Have Arrested a Guy for a COVID-19 Joke, the 5th Circuit Says

• The appeals court ruled that a Facebook post alluding to World War Z was clearly protected by the First Amendment.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ How Does Intramural Speech Fit Within the First Amendment?

• A response to Porter v. North Carolina State University

=> ↺ Reason ☛ When Should the Law Regulate Content Moderation?

• Only when necessary to protect five basic internet rights.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Textbook battle continues as Mexican students go back to school

• The Supreme Court has yet to rule on lawsuits brought against the textbooks, which have been delivered to schools in 26 of 32 Mexican states.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘I wouldn’t tell a thief I planned to arrest them’: Hong Kong security chief declines to say if Danish artist wanted under sec. law

• The security chief was asked about the Pillar of Shame, an eight-metre artwork commemorating the victims who died in Beijing’s military crackdown on a student-led pro-democracy movement in 1989. The sculpture, created by Jens Galschiøt, had stood on the University of Hong Kong campus for 24 years before it was quietly removed by the school citing safety concerns in December 2021.

• It was seized by the city’s national security police in May as evidence for an incitement to subversion case involving the organiser of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen crackdown vigil and its three leading members: Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Elderly busker who played protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ intends to countersue prosecution, court hears

• An elderly man accused of playing a popular protest song in public without a permit has said he intends to launch a countersuit against the prosecution for allegedly violating his human rights, and to claim HK$1 million in losses from them.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Krygyz Prosecutor Files Suit Against Kloop Media Over ‘Critical’ Coverage

• The Bishkek city prosecutor’s office has initiated legal proceedings against the Kloop Media Public Foundation to suspend its work in Kyrgyzstan because of its critical coverage of the government.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Reason ☛ “Strangers on the Internet” Podcast Ep. 40: Prof. Brandy Wagstaff on Josh Wright Sexual Misconduct Allegations

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Should ‘Sensitivity Training’ Be Forced on Southwest Airlines?

• A Texas judge ordered that the airline submit to training on the rights of religious believers after losing a religious discrimination lawsuit.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ It Isn’t ‘Divisive Rhetoric’ That Kills People

• Plus: kids and screen time, banks and the FBI, and more…

=> ↺ Quartz ☛ Hong Kong’s new public enemy: the Cantonese language

• Hong Kong’s national security police has put opposition politicians behind bars, chased activists into exile and threatened them with bounties, atomized civil society, and decimated the Hong Kong independent media. Now, it has a new target: the Cantonese language.

=> ↺ International Business Times ☛ Taliban bans women from visiting national park in Afghanistan

• In their latest diktat restricting women’s access to public places, the Taliban have banned women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most famous national parks. The directive was released on Saturday, and involves the Band-e-Amir National Park, located in the central Bamiyan province. It is a popular tourist attraction that gets thousands of visitors every year.

• Afghanistan’s acting minister of virtue and vice, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, said that women had not been wearing the hijab properly inside the park and asked security forces to stop them from entering the park until the government finds a “solution.”

• “Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” he added.

=> ↺ ANF News ☛ Taliban bans women from visiting national park

• Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the move, saying “walls are closing in on women in Afghanistan.”

• She added: “Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature, as we see from this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir.”

=> ↺ BIA Net ☛ Reports of torture, ill-treatment rise in 2022, says rights group

• In his article within the report, TİHV Chair Metin Bakkalcı emphasized that the fact that more than double their expected number sought help due to experiencing torture in 2022 is an indicator of the deteriorating human rights situation.

• The report revealed that out of the 1,201 applicants, 1,117 had experienced torture and ill-treatment themselves, while 84 reached out on behalf of their close relatives, contacting TİHV representatives.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Prof. Nicholas Nugent Guest-Blogging About “The Five Internet Rights”

• I’m delighted to report that Prof. Nicholas Nugent (Univ. of Tennessee) will be guest-blogging this week about his new Washington Law Review article, The Five Internet Rights.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Spiegel ☛ MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu Takes on Big Tech: “Our Future Will Be Very Dystopian”

• The rich and powerful have hijacked progress throughout history, says Daron Acemoglu. They did so back in the Middle Ages and also now in the age of artificial intelligence. In an interview, the MIT economist dives into the question of whether Silicon Valley is plunging humanity into destitution.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Michael Geist ☛ Why Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge Doesn’t Seem to Understand How Bill C-18 Works

• Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge went on a media offensive late last week, granting interviews to a wide range of publications. St-Onge noted that she had “positive” talks with Google and Meta that she was hoped would result in a compromise and improbably claimed concern for users’ rights to share information online, an odd position given that Bill C-18 undermines the free flow of information online with its mandated payments for links approach.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Murdered by My Replica?

• The companies developing generative AI seem to have something like that in mind for me, at least in my capacity as an author. (The sex and the housekeeping can be done by other functionaries, I assume.) Apparently, 33 of my books have been used as training material for their wordsmithing computer programs. Once fully trained, the bot may be given a command—“Write a Margaret Atwood novel”—and the thing will glurp forth 50,000 words, like soft ice cream spiraling out of its dispenser, that will be indistinguishable from something I might grind out. (But minus the typos.) I myself can then be dispensed with—murdered by my replica, as it were—because, to quote a vulgar saying of my youth, who needs the cow when the milk’s free?

• To add insult to injury, the bot is being trained on pirated copies of my books. Now, really! How cheap is that? Would it kill these companies to shell out the measly price of 33 books? They intend to make a lot of money off the entities they have reared and fattened on my words, so they could at least buy me a coffee.

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Future Resoundingly Wins Copyright Infringement Lawsuit — Judge Declares ‘Frequently Utilized Techniques in Popular Songwriting’ Are Not Copyrightable

• “The thematic elements that (both songs) address — guns, money, and jewelry — are frequently present in hip-hop and rap music,” writes Judge Pacold, citing examples including Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me),” Biggie’s “Machine Gun Funk,” and Kanye West’s “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.”

• “As defendants argue, the commonality of these themes in hip-hop and rap place the (themes) outside the protections of copyright law,” the judge writes. “Where elements of a work are indispensable, or at least standard, in the treatment of a given topic, they receive no protection.”

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ UFC, NBA & NFL Want to Fight Live Streaming Piracy With ‘Instant’ DMCA Takedowns

• The UFC, NBA, and NFL would like help from the U.S. Government to tackle live streaming piracy. The sports organizations want to update the DMCA to ensure that live content is removed “instantaneously or near-instantaneously”. The current takedown regulation simply fails to address the unique time-sensitivity of live broadcasts, they say.

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ “Insane” IPTV Blocking System “Will Solve Digital Piracy” But Not Yet

• Faced with warnings that the survival of top-tier football was at stake, in July lawmakers urgently signed off on tough legislation to block pirate IPTV services in Italy. On the first day of the new season this month, around 100 pirate service ‘violations’ were reportedly identified, but none were blocked. According to an inside source, Italy’s “insane” blocking system isn’t quite ready, but will “solve digital piracy” early October latest.

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