𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Friday, February 24, 2023
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Generated Sat 25 Feb 02:41:53 GMT 2023
Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (𝚛𝚘𝚢 (at) 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚣 (dot) 𝚌𝚘𝚖)
Full hyperlinks for navigation omitted but are fully available in the originals
The corresponding HTML versions are at 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈
Latest in 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕 and older bulletins can be found at 𝒉𝒕𝒕𝒑://𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔.𝒐𝒓𝒈/𝒕𝒙𝒕-𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔
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Gemini index for the day: gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/24/
╒═══════════════════ 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════╕
Previous bulletins in IPFS (past 21 days, in chronological order):
QmXCyRSEqZvXQpdJJgNTZ2SmscGBN8faNeNbNZcV8zoX6D
QmbqEc6DR3dJD1Zez6UEB9NiyCWswQvsYE1yFxnM6ghvgG
QmaVY3HqyuHpVGyMxeT4Bud2vNW78oYnx8dJCM6ZZK5ziE
QmSUai4xNvwMKU2TbSerbPiWGAVberWqCyRsFtpfBmSJUA
QmdqfApkUHoNL7LgRhijLyQ917yqySCE8TFPFh8Efixmuk
QmYUwzBTiff9y3NpVBbZgEPJYspVVxmzVVYkzar4igJRiY
QmWU4whiYNSNx6oxSqvGVEkr1unaGuqfGtoiphqZLBAxVJ
QmQUWdJviNhacCKbEie2yYrdrQaNYjUhGH7B8majeYU6Vb
Qmckkfq1rqb7mTK7w6RbFZJjskRKcnUk8PdtMmcLwUhXgV
QmVY5cAKghhEttE24TaNrAQgciJau5j7EoeaEmfjYdbLMD
QmUUEWf3hsUuMVJFPVavJpe7kPpi5bCmXqN9PPz7qbVMEu
QmVBn9QkCHpe2cDLPr9H2kyS7vx3eRh5a9NN8CDSJEKw58
QmYGXGQ6SW216dEJ4TMfGyb7yDMBF4n6zCEwza8SfCQjDJ
QmbPtsyc7sJxSwGRbURzMBpmJpQAgABouVYWUyXdfGhcFh
QmSCXZVE6CQ7coFZMzXzjrALhoFTURwUpGRmU6CktGzSQz
QmPbC3tAdXsThGxVyQYA3w5ThD5inZGhqy6fsNKHm55vAM
QmfXoJrbKnWSQ2LZPdcn6D62y58ADQrCM6VaEptoYdSLz7
QmVFthGmR5Kh2aG2L3dgjZk4cCYoHhxwUKnwVSzKutqpZ9
Qmb1ifnMR1HKQVZSvpC4pPPzaFprCcVWkqqqznNJrvKGMT
QmRmM7KSPSMNkJa65wrPNTYM2RSbSjrTUjyFydLzyeS74W
QmcGKU7J3P2cV9jwQZBuJGz5uH9cKMjzpiF2ZKW9ZitXGr
╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
⦿ IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 23, 2023 | Techrights
䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login):
http://techrights.org/2023/02/24/irc-log-230223/#comments
䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised):
http://techrights.org/2023/02/24/easyos-5/#comments
http://techrights.org/2023/02/24/mostly-devices/#comments
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 48
╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2023/02/24/irc-log-230223/#comments
Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/02/24/irc-log-230223/
⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.24.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
Gemini_version_available_♊︎
✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Thursday,_February_23,_2023⠀✐
Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:38 am by Needs Sunlight
Also available via the Gemini protocol at:
* gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techrights-230223.gmi
* gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-230223.gmi
* gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-social-230223.gmi
* gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techbytes-230223.gmi
Over HTTP:
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_
#techrights_log_as_HTML5 #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_
#boycottnovell-social_log_as_HTML5 #techbytes_log_as_HTML5
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_
#techrights_log_as_text #boycottnovell_log_as_text
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_
#boycottnovell-social_log_as_text #techbytes_log_as_text
Enter_the_IRC_channels_now
=> =============================================================================
§ IPFS Mirrors⠀➾
CID Description Object type
IRC log for
QmUozqNzY4J6kGjP3uDHwpTAFpsQzY5ZwRL9hmKNfHPtZ5 #boycottnovell 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell
QmTjbLwvWwZfyb9RvHuqVzgfyy4FHYGpgAFG2YyK88MBg4 (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell-
QmWHnvRnxjHRUKetpKU9zjdc1WbZfVfbxZLmwEQuCDpMtX social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell-
QmZKtAvh1S3ndF93qxd8be643CQsdW8Y6i2LeXM928HgT1 social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
(full IRC log
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
QmeDoU6HMBiRKVGPdwrb7dxBxDKhsco3285hRa8ddouMaG #techbytes 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#techbytes
QmTCwrqXgV3b1XX1hi8Bq3VrXEUF6UBTUaUkLAr11kjVGj (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
QmYYdNX71mdp3nS8oEznK8UpZnCs8THGpuAx47UhnMZLQh #techrights 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#techrights
QmQpLrhQgXos5z4pmL9VyASGgZGMVnJtzJ75JCc6ZBgMwH (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈
§ Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾
Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmcGKU7J3P2cV9jwQZBuJGz5uH9cKMjzpiF2ZKW9ZitXGr
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 175
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⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.24.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
Gemini_version_available_♊︎
✐ Links_24/02/2023:_EasyOS_Progress_and_China_Claims_It_Wants_Ukraine
Ceasefire⠀✐
Posted in News_Roundup at 1:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈
§ Contents⠀➾
* GNU/Linux
o Audiocasts/Shows
o Kernel_Space
o Graphics_Stack
o Applications
o Instructionals/Technical
o Games
* Distributions_and_Operating_Systems
o EasyOS
o BSD
o SUSE/OpenSUSE
o Fedora_/_Red_Hat_/_IBM
o Debian_Family
o Canonical/Ubuntu_Family
o Devices/Embedded
o Open_Hardware/Modding
o Mobile_Systems/Mobile_Applications
* Free,_Libre,_and_Open_Source_Software
o Events
o Web_Browsers/Web_Servers
o Education
o FSF
o Programming/Development
# Rust
* Leftovers
o Science
o Education
o Hardware
o Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
o Proprietary
o Entrapment_(Microsoft_GitHub)
o Security
# Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
# Privacy/Surveillance
o Defence/Aggression
o Environment
# Energy/Transportation
# Wildlife/Nature
o Finance
o AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
o Censorship/Free_Speech
o Freedom_of_Information_/_Freedom_of_the_Press
o Civil_Rights/Policing
o Internet_Policy/Net_Neutrality
o Digital_Restrictions_(DRM)
o Monopolies
# Patents
# Copyrights
* Gemini*_and_Gopher
o Personal
o Technical
# Programming
* § GNU/Linux⠀➾
o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾
# ⚓ The BSD Now Podcast ☛ BSDNow_495:_Limited_Jail_Time⠀⇛
FreeBSD Status Report Fourth Quarter 2022, How to
limit a jail, the parallel port, Hello System 0.8,
Solbournes in space, and more
# ⚓ Video ☛ Is_Ubuntu_22.04_Really_LTS?_|_Ubuntu_Kernel
Weirdness_–_Invidious⠀⇛
# ⚓ Video ☛ A_Quick_Look_At_Linux_Mint_Debian_Edition_5_–
Invidious⠀⇛
# ⚓ Video ☛ LINUX_vs_WINDOWS:_complete_performance_test!_–
Invidious⠀⇛
# ⚓ Video ☛ How_to_install_Shotcut_video_editor_on_KDE_Neon_–
Invidious⠀⇛
# ⚓ Video ☛ How_to_install_Wire_Desktop_on_KDE_Neon_–
Invidious⠀⇛
# ⚓ Video ☛ KaOS_2023.02_overview_|_An_independent_distribution
focused_on_Qt_and_KDE._–_Invidious⠀⇛
o § Kernel Space⠀➾
# ⚓ Make Use Of ☛ Linux_6.2_Makes_Apple_Silicon_Support
Official⠀⇛
# ⚓ LWN ☛ The_extensible_scheduler_class⠀⇛
It was only a matter of time before somebody tried
to bring BPF to the kernel’s CPU scheduler. At the
end of January, Tejun Heo posted the second
revision of a 30-part patch series, co-written with
David Vernet, Josh Don, and Barret Rhoden, that
does just that. There are clearly interesting
things that could be done by deferring scheduling
decisions to a BPF program, but it may take some
work to sell this idea to the development community
as a whole.
The core idea behind BPF is that it allows programs
to be loaded into the kernel from user space at run
time; using BPF for scheduling has the potential to
enable significantly different scheduling behavior
than is seen in Linux systems now. The idea of
“pluggable” schedulers is not new; it came up in
this 2004 discussion of yet another doomed patch
series from Con Kolivas, for example. At that time,
the idea of pluggable schedulers was strongly
rejected; only by focusing energy on a single
scheduler, it was argued, could the development
community find a way to satisfy all workloads
without filling the kernel with a confusion of
special-purpose schedulers.
# ⚓ LWN ☛ A_proposed_threat_model_for_confidential_computing
[Ed: Linux getting infected by fake "privacy" for the clown
computing ploy]⠀⇛
The field of confidential computing is still in its
infancy, to the point where it lacks a clear,
agreed, and established problem description. Elena
Reshetova and Andi Kleen from Intel recently
started the conversation by sharing their view of a
potential threat model in the form of this
document, which is specific to the Intel Trust
Domain Extension (TDX) on Linux, but which is
intended to be applicable to other confidential-
computing solutions as well. The resulting
conversation showed that there is some ground to be
covered to achieve a consensus on the model in the
community.
o § Graphics Stack⠀➾
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Mesa_23.0_out_now_improving_open_source
graphics_drivers⠀⇛
Mesa 23.0.0 has been released today upgrading open
source graphics drivers for Linux. As usual you
should wait for the first point release for
stability.
o § Applications⠀➾
# ⚓ Linux Links ☛ Machine_Learning_in_Linux:_astroML_–
statistical_data_analysis_in_astronomy_and_astrophysics⠀⇛
In essence, Machine Learning is the practice of
using algorithms to parse data, learn insights from
that data, and then make a determination or
prediction. The machine is ‘trained’ using huge
amounts of data.
In other words, Machine Learning is about building
programs with tunable parameters (typically an
array of floating point values) that are adjusted
automatically so as to improve their behavior by
adapting to previously seen data.
astroML is a Python module for machine learning and
data mining built on NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn,
matplotlib, and Astropy.
The aim of the project is to offer a repository of
Python implementations of common tools and routines
used for statistical data analysis in astronomy and
astrophysics, and to provide a uniform and easy-to-
use interface to freely available astronomical
datasets.
# ⚓ Linux Links ☛ Machine_Learning_in_Linux:_Software_Apps⠀⇛
This is a new series looking at practical
applications of Machine Learning from a Linux
perspective. We only feature free and open source
software in this series.
Let’s clear up one potential source of confusion at
the outset. What’s the difference between Machine
Learning and Deep Learning? The two terms mean
different things.
In essence, Machine Learning is the practice of
using algorithms to parse data, learn insights from
that data, and then make a determination or
prediction. The machine is ‘trained’ using huge
amounts of data.
o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾
# ⚓ OSTechNix ☛ How_To_Use_Proxmox_Backup_Client_To_Backup
Files_In_Linux⠀⇛
This guide explains what is Proxmox Backup Client,
how to install Proxmox Backup Client and how to
create file level backups using Proxmox Backup
Client application.
# ⚓ Philip_Withnall:_Tip_for_debugging_refcounting_issues:
change_ref_calls_to_copy⠀⇛
Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at a
refcounting_issue_in_GLib’s_D-Bus_implementation.
As with many things in GLib, the allocations in
this code use refcounting, rather than new/free, to
manage object lifecycles. This makes it quite hard
to debug lifecycle issues, because the location of
a bug (a ref or unref call which isn’t correct) can
be quite far removed (in time and code) from where
the effects of that bug become visible. This is
because the effects of refcounting problems only
become visible when an object’s refcount reaches
zero, or when the program ends and its refcount
still hasn’t reached zero.
# ⚓ Connect_to_a_server_behind_a_NAT_using_mosh⠀⇛
# ⚓ TechRepublic ☛ How_to_deploy_the_Helpy_help_desk_platform
with_Docker⠀⇛
# ⚓ Make Use Of ☛ How_to_Delete_One_or_More_Lines_in_Vi_and
Vim⠀⇛
# ⚓ Make Use Of ☛ How_to_Configure_Static_IP_Address_on_Ubuntu
22.04_LTS_and_22.10⠀⇛
# ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Steps_to_Install_Magento_2_on_Ubuntu_22.04
Linux⠀⇛
# ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Install_Linux_Kernel_6.2_in_Ubuntu_22.04_|
20.04_Linux⠀⇛
# ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_Sublime_Text_on_a
Chromebook⠀⇛
# ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_Wire_Desktop_on_KDE
Neon⠀⇛
# ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_0_A.D._on_a_Chromebook
in_2023⠀⇛
# ⚓ Linux Made Simple ☛ How_to_install_Shotcut_video_editor_on
KDE_Neon⠀⇛
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_ClamAV_on_Ubuntu_22.04_or
20.04⠀⇛
ClamAV, short for Clam AntiVirus, is an open-
source, cross-platform antivirus software tool
designed to detect and remove malicious software
from computer systems, such as viruses, malware,
and spyware.
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Cockpit_on_Fedora_Linux⠀⇛
Cockpit is a powerful and popular web-based
interface allowing users to easily manage Linux
servers. A simple and intuitive design provides a
user-friendly way for system administrators to
manage multiple servers from a single interface,
making it an increasingly popular choice in recent
years.
# ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Difference_between_Mainline,_Stable,_and
Longterm_Kernel_in_Linux⠀⇛
The Linux kernel (developed by Linus Torvalds) is a
basic fundamental component of the operating
system. It is responsible for managing all the
essential hardware and software components by
acting as a bridge between them, hence without it
we cannot have Linux-based systems.
# ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Install_Linux_Kernel_6.2_in_Ubuntu_22.04_|
20.04_Linux⠀⇛
Ubuntu is one of the most popular operating systems
built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by
Linus Torvalds.
# ⚓ Linux Shell Tips ☛ How_to_Switch_Between_CLI_and_GUI_on
Linux_Server⠀⇛
If we trace the evolution of computers, we can see
that initially, we don’t have Mouse. So, we used to
interact with computers having
# ⚓ Linux Shell Tips ☛ How_to_Find_Out_File_Creation_Date_and
Time_in_Linux⠀⇛
Sometimes, you might be interested to know when a
file was created on a Linux system. In this guide,
we will check out how
# ⚓ Dan Langille ☛ Wrong_recordsize_on_zfs_send_|_zfs_recv
filesystems⠀⇛
Over the past few days, I’ve posted a lot about
transferring jails from two hosts into one host.
One of the steps involves using zfs send | zfs recv
to send the files from one host to another. I’m
using syncoide for that transfer.
A new fileystem’s recordsize defaults to 128K. In
my case, that is usually OK, except for some
specific datasets. For example: [...]
# ⚓ [Old] uni Linköping ☛ Silent_Corruptions [PDF]⠀⇛
● Corruption: data is changed unintentionally
# ⚓ University of Toronto ☛ How_to_block_people’s_automatic
mail_forwarding_(to_GMail,_at_least)⠀⇛
Here’s what you do. First, configure a strict DMARC
policy for your domain, one that tells receivers
that you want them to reject any email that doesn’t
pass DMARC. Then, set up a restrictive SPF policy,
one that definitely only passes things sent from
your server. Finally, the important step: don’t
sign your outgoing email with DKIM.
# ⚓ OSTechNix ☛ How_To_Use_Proxmox_Backup_Client_To_Backup
Files_In_Linux⠀⇛
In our previous tutorial titled “Getting Started
with Proxmox Backup Server”, we discussed how to
backup and restore Proxmox VMs and Containers.
Today, we will learn how to create file level
backups using Proxmox Backup Client application.
Proxmox Backup Client comes in handy when you want
to backup certain files instead of backing up the
whole VM or Container. It also can be useful when
you want to backup files from non-VMs or non-
Containers (i.e. a physical machine).
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Ubuntu_Mainline_Kernel
Installer_on_Ubuntu_22.04_or_20.04⠀⇛
The Ubuntu Mainline, Kernel Installer tool is a
popular utility for Ubuntu users who wish to
install the latest stable version of the Linux
kernel on their system. This tool provides a simple
way to install and manage the mainline kernel on
Ubuntu, which can offer better hardware support,
improved performance, and new features.
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Linux_Kernel_6.2_on_CentOS
Stream_EL9_or_EL8⠀⇛
Linux Kernel 6.2 introduces an impressive array of
new and improved features that enhance its
performance and expand its hardware support.
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Create_a_Database_in_MySQL_Terminal
on_Linux⠀⇛
Welcome to MySQL, a popular and widely-used open-
source relational database management system. New
users of MySQL and Linux might feel overwhelmed
when first learning to work with databases in the
MySQL terminal. However, creating a database is an
essential and straightforward process you can
easily accomplish with simple commands.
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_FFmpeg_5_on_Ubuntu_22.04_or
20.04⠀⇛
FFmpeg 5 is a major release of the popular open-
source multimedia framework, offering a powerful
command-line tool for processing and converting
audio and video files. This update has many new
features and improvements that make it an
attractive choice for developers, video editors,
and anyone needing to work with multimedia files.
# ⚓ H2S Media ☛ Steps_to_Install_Magento_2_on_Ubuntu_22.04
Linux⠀⇛
Magento is an open-source, cloud-based eCommerce
platform owned by Adobe. The community version of
the e-commerce platform can be self-hosted by users
who wish to start their e-commerce website.
# ⚓ Linux Capable ☛ How_to_Install_Android_Studio_on_Linux_Mint
21_or_20⠀⇛
Android Studio is a widely used integrated
development environment (IDE) for developing
Android applications. It is a powerful tool that is
used by millions of developers around the world.
With comprehensive features, it is the go-to IDE
for Android development.
o § Games⠀➾
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ ChimeraOS_39_released_switching_to_the_new
Steam_Big_Picture_Mode⠀⇛
ChimeraOS, the Linux distribution designed for
couch gaming much like SteamOS, has version 39 out
now. This is the first release since Valve swapped
to the New Big Picture Mode from the Steam Deck.
Designed very much to be just like SteamOS, except
with a bunch of added extras, it boots directly
into Steam Big Picture Mode.
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ New_Steam_Desktop_and_Steam_Deck_Beta
includes_various_controller_fixes⠀⇛
Another fresh Beta update is now available for
Steam Deck and Steam Desktop, pulling in some good
sounding fixes for various controllers. According
to both changelogs, it’s the same across both since
they’re now sharing most things since the new Big
Picture Mode has been moved over to desktop
(although they’re still cleaning all the Steam Deck
specific bits from it).
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ No_Man’s_Sky_Fractal_gets_a_VR_overhaul,
new_Expedition,_Gyro_update⠀⇛
No Man’s Sky has another big update out now that
includes an overhaul of quite a few features like
much better VR support, and a new Expedition. The
game continues to run nicely on Steam Deck and
Linux Desktop with Proton.
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Valve_reveals_a_whole_bunch_of_upcoming
Steam_Sales⠀⇛
Valve has now revealed most of their upcoming big
Steam Sales and Steam Fests, here’s all the
details. They’re giving out all the dates, to
enable developers to get in early on planning a
year of promotional activities. Nice that it’s
public, as it gives us normal people the ability to
build up our wallets ready to unload them on Valve
for some new goodies.
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Totally_Accurate_Battlegrounds_now_works_on
Linux_and_Steam_Deck⠀⇛
Totally Accurate Battlegrounds got upgraded
recently due to needing to implement new anti-
cheat, and thanks to that this free to play game
now works on Linux Desktop and Steam Deck.
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Stellaris:_First_Contact_releasing_March
14th_with_a_free_update⠀⇛
Paradox have announced that the Stellaris: First
Contact Story Pack will be releasing on March 14th,
along with the Canis Minor free update for all
players.
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Check_out_the_Safe_in_Our_World_Charity
Bundle_2023⠀⇛
Mental health charity, Safe In Our World, which
focuses on the video game industry has teamed up
with Fanatical for a full charity bundle full of
games. 100% of the proceeds go to Safe In Our
World.
# ⚓ FSF ☛ FSF_Blogs:_Experience_the_fifteen_years_of
LibrePlanet_celebration_firsthand_as_a_volunteer⠀⇛
# ⚓ Daniel Stenberg ☛ Restocked_on_stickers⠀⇛
I attended FOSDEM 2023 and over the two days of
conference I gave away well over a thousand curl
stickers. Every last curl sticker I had in my
possession.
# ⚓ FSFE ☛ Call_for_Papers_for_foss-north_open_(Gothenburg,
April_2023)⠀⇛
foss-north is a Free Software conference in
Gothenburg that brings together Nordic Free
Software communities. This year, the Free Software
Foundation Europe is organising a track covering
political and legal aspects of Free Software, as
well as best practices from Scandinavia. We’re
looking forward to your contribution by March 5!
* § Distributions and Operating Systems⠀➾
o § EasyOS⠀➾
# ⚓ Barry Kauler ☛ openssl_updated_to_3.0.8⠀⇛
Jon (scsijon in the forum) posted a warning about
security
vulnerabilities in ‘openssl’ and the need to update
to version 3.0.8 (or
1.1.1t):
https://forum.puppylinux.com/
viewtopic.php?p=80939#p80939
As I compile every package in OpenEmbedded, and the
recipe for
‘openssl’ is rather complicated, I had to wait
until the OE devs have
updated. Within the last few days, they have:
http://layers.openembedded.org/layerindex/recipe/
68561/
I downloaded the 3.0.8 recipe and compiled the
package. Commits: [...]
# ⚓ Barry Kauler ☛ French_translations_contribution⠀⇛
JJM (esmourguit in the forum) has been maintaining
the French
langpack for years. Now that there are no longer
langpack PETs,
emourguit has booted Easy 4.101 and used MoManager
to examine the
current state of translations.
He has contributed some fr translations:
https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/
679002f6dcfb3094a9d5ae9aaca8464e4080e961
There was a problem with translating the ‘vobcopy’
binary executable, discussed on the forum: [...]
# ⚓ Barry Kauler ☛ youtube-dl_downloader_update_fixed⠀⇛
A few days ago, I posted that YouTube Downloader is
broken:
https://bkhome.org/news/202302/youtube-dl-youtube-
downloader-is-broken.html
Smithy had sent me an email, with an alternative
download URL, but I misunderstood.
The official youtube-dl site last release was
December 17, 2021. The
project is very active, with regular commits, but
the “Update” button in
the menu “Internet -> YouTubeDL YouTube downloader”
only downloads
the Dec. 2021 release. That was one of my
misunderstandings; it only downloads
the latest tagged release, not from the latest
commit.
# ⚓ Barry Kauler ☛ Non-translated_desktop_icon_labels_in
container_fixed⠀⇛
I posted about the problem in the Easy 4.101
announcement, issue-1:
o § BSD⠀➾
# ⚓ Ruben Schade ☛ rsync(1)_on_FreeBSD_with_a_modern_Walkman⠀⇛
One of the primary draws to a modern Walkman is
that it presents as a generic storage device,
meaning my FreeBSD tower can now act as a media
hub, rather than relying on dedicated software like
iTunes or Apple Music.
o § SUSE/OpenSUSE⠀➾
# ⚓ OpenSUSE ☛ Ruby_Default_Switches_in_Tumbleweed⠀⇛
This week’s openSUSE Tumbleweed roundup will look
at five snapshots that have been released since
last Friday.
Snapshots include switching the default Ruby for
the rolling release along with software updates for
packages like pidgin, parole, OpenSSL, php, sudo,
tigervnc and more.
Snapshot, 20230222 updated just four packages. The
major release of gnu-unifont-fonts 15.0.01 arrived
in the snapshot and it introduced a couple new
subpackages and cleaned up the spec file. The
curses emulation library ncurses 6.4.20230218 added
a patch and provided some configuration script
improvements. The ibus-m17n 1.4.19 update added a
parrot icon emoji and made some Weblate
translations for the Sinhala language, which is
spoken in Sri Lanka. There was also an update for
Ark Logic video cards with the xf86-video-ark 0.7.6
update, which brings a decade worth of accumulated
changes that has the ability to build against xorg-
server 1.14 and newer out of the box.
o § Fedora / Red Hat / IBM⠀➾
# ⚓ Jakub Steiner ☛ Flathub_Brand_Refresh⠀⇛
While Flatpak itself is an architecturally
decentralized way to distribute apps, Flathub
embraces the convenience for people to come to one
place to install apps. There’s some fairly big
changes coming to Flathub that I’m extremely
excited about, that will make sure the new wave of
Linux apps doesn’t fizzle out and we’ll maintain a
sustainable application ecosystem.
# ⚓ Enterprisers Project ☛ Artificial_intelligence:_6_tips_to
get_started⠀⇛
# ⚓ Enterprisers Project ☛ 5_Harvard_Business_Review_articles
that_will_resonate_with_CIOs_right_now⠀⇛
# ⚓ LWN ☛ An_overview_of_single-purpose_Linux_distributions⠀⇛
Akashdeep Dhar and Sumantro Mukherjee, who are both
members of the Fedora Council and work at Red Hat
as software engineers, explained how they use
Fedora CoreOS as the base operating system to run
multiplayer game servers in containers. As
described in its documentation, Fedora CoreOS is
“an automatically updating, minimal, monolithic,
container-focused operating system”.
Fedora CoreOS (sometimes abbreviated FCOS) provides
the host operating system for these containers; it
only includes those packages that are needed for a
minimal networking-enabled and container-ready
setup. At the time of this writing, the latest
stable release had 415 packages. It supports the
x86_64, aarch64 (including the Raspberry Pi 4), and
s390x architectures; it runs on bare metal,
virtualized, or on various cloud platforms.
A Fedora CoreOS machine is provisioned using
Ignition, which is a tool that partitions disks,
formats partitions, enables systemd units, and
configures users. Ignition only runs once during
the first boot of the system, from the initramfs.
An Ignition configuration file is formatted as
JSON, but for end users Fedora CoreOS recommends
using a Butane configuration, which is a YAML file
that Butane translates into an Ignition
configuration. The “System Configuration” section
in Fedora CoreOS’s documentation shows some
examples of how to configure storage, network,
containers, users and groups, time zones, and more
in a Butane configuration. In their talk, Dhar and
Mukherjee showed a Butane configuration to set up a
Minecraft server in a container, and they also
published it in their GitHub repository.
When installing Fedora CoreOS, you choose one of
three update streams. “Next” is for experimenting
with new features, “testing” represents what is
coming in the next stable stream, and “stable” is
the stream with changes that have spent a time in
the testing stream. Most end users should choose
the stable stream. You refer to the Ignition file
with your customizations, in a manner that depends
on your installation type. For instance, when
installing from PXE you append the
coreos.inst.ignition_url=URL option to the kernel,
referring it to the location of the Ignition file
on a web server.
# ⚓ Red Hat Official ☛ Build_a_Grafana_dashboard_to_visualize
data_using_Ansible_and_Podman⠀⇛
Examine your data in a user-friendly dashboard that
shows multiple views of the same data.
# ⚓ Fedora Project ☛ Fedora_Community_Blog:_CPE_Weekly_update_–
Week_8⠀⇛
This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community
Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any
questions or feedback, please respond to this
report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on
libera.chat.
We provide you both infographics and text version
of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly
look at what we did, just look at the infographic.
If you are interested in more in depth details look
below the infographic.
# ⚓ Fedora Magazine ☛ Fedora_Magazine:_rpmdistro-repoquery:_a
cross-distribution_repoquery_tool⠀⇛
This article showcases rpmdistro-repoquery, and
describes how to use it to simplify doing RPM-based
package operations across multiple distributions.
This does not require using SSH to log into another
host or starting a container or VM.
✐ Introduction⠀✐
Whether you’re a packager, system administrator, or
a user of Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream, or their
derivatives (RHEL, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux etc.),
you might already be familiar with dnf repoquery.
This tool allows you to query the repositories
configured on the system for information about
available packages, whether or not they are
currently installed on the local machine.
This is great, within limits. For instance, on
Fedora Linux, you can query packages built for
stable and branched Fedora Linux releases and, if
you install fedora-repos-rawhide, packages in the
development branch. Sufficient care is required to
make sure you don’t enable repos meant for
different Fedora Linux releases by default and thus
accidentally upgrade the running system.
# ⚓ SparkFun Electronics ☛ Dr._Mark_Dean_and_the_Personal
Computer⠀⇛
Prior to 1980, IBM had mainly been known for
manufacturing computers for businesses to use, and
they were falling behind in the market for at-home
microcomputers where companies like Apple, Tandy
and Commodore were excelling. Other large companies
like HP were starting to enter the space, and IBM
buyers were buying Apple devices for at-home
computers. IBM got to work with designing the first
PC.
Mark Dean is an inventor and engineer who had a
long career with IBM. During that time, he was part
of the race to design the first personal computer
and holds three of the nine patents associated with
IBM’s first PC.
o § Debian Family⠀➾
# ⚓ OMG! Linux ☛ Raspberry_Pi_OS_Update_Adds_New_Touchscreen
Driver⠀⇛
The first update to the official operating system
for Raspberry Pi devices in 5 months features a
handful of interesting changes, new drivers, and
always-important bug fixes.
Chief amongst the changes is a new touchscreen
driver available from the Screen Resolution tool,
which also sees some ‘minor’ UI changes. There’s
also support for a new msdri3 video driver, and the
kms++-utils package is now included by default
(saving you an apt install).
o § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾
# ⚓ GamingOnLinux ☛ Ubuntu_flavours_to_drop_Flatpak_by_default
and_stick_to_Snaps⠀⇛
Canonical has announced a change in the packaging
defaults for the various “flavours” like Kubuntu,
Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie and so on to exclude
Flatpak and stick with Snap. Yes that’s flavours,
not flavors but also flavors in the announcement.
# ⚓ Ubuntu News ☛ Ubuntu_22.04.2_LTS_released⠀⇛
The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release
of Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its
Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as
other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.
# ⚓ Ubuntu Fridge ☛ The_Fridge:_Ubuntu_22.04.2_LTS_released⠀⇛
# ⚓ Lubuntu ☛ Lubuntu_Blog:_Lubuntu_22.04.2_LTS_is_Released!⠀⇛
Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors,
Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS has been released. With the
codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd
release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu
with LXQt as the default desktop environment.
# ⚓ Ubuntu ☛ Harnessing_the_potential_of_5G_with_Kubernetes⠀⇛
Harnessing the potential of 5G with Kubernetes 5G
is the fifth generation of wireless technology
which is transforming the way we connect and
communicate. With data transfer speeds up to 100
times faster than 4G, 5G technology enables faster
download and upload times, lower latency and a
higher number of connected devices.
# ⚓ Ubuntu ☛ What_is_real-time_Linux?_Part_I⠀⇛
Welcome to this three-part blog series on real-time
Linux. Throughout the series, we will assess the
key features of a real-time system. We will
understand how a real-time capable Linux kernel
differs from mainline, and touch upon the
performance trade-offs you should consider when
choosing real-time versus a low-latency kernel, for
instance.
# ⚓ Ubuntu ☛ Closed_loop_architecture_and_persistent_volumes
for_network_functions_–_Highlights_in_OSM_release_THIRTEEN⠀⇛
Open Source MANO (OSM) has announced its thirteenth
version which is supported for six months (short-
term support). This release targets feature
enhancements for VNF vendors residing in the OSM
ecosystem. It features new scalable architecture
for service assurance and closed-loop operations,
using Apache Airflow and Prometheus. It is capable
of handling service assurance scenarios including
auto scaling and auto healing in cloud environments
and various edge locations. Additional features
include enhancements in the deployment of Network
Services (NS), execution environments, life cycle
management (LCM), air-gapped installation, improved
persistent volume management, and a few
advancements in the OSM client.
Service providers are adopting new technologies
such as 5G and IoT, each with its own set of needs.
OSM is model-driven and offers convenience in
designing complex network functions (NFs) having
interconnectivity with each other. The reusability
of NFs abstracts the underlying details of network
function virtualisation (NFV). On the whole,
release THIRTEEN’s new features offer opportunities
for service providers to address scalability
challenges and expand their range of orchestration
features.
# ⚓ LWN ☛ No_more_Flatpak_(by_default)_in_Ubuntu_Flavors⠀⇛
The Ubuntu Flavors offerings (Kubuntu and the like)
have decided that the way to improve the user
experience is to put more emphasis on the Snap
package format.
o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾
# ⚓ Linux Gizmos ☛ Firefly_launches_8K_AI_Core_board_in_BGA
package⠀⇛
Firefly mentions that they will provide support for
Android 12.0, Ubuntu, Debian 11, Buildroot, RTLinux
and Kylin Linux. It appears that the Resource page
for this device isn’t available yet.
There might be a compatible development board for
the Core-3588SG that looks similar to the ROC-
RK3588S-PC as shown above, but there isn’t much
information available on the product page.
# ⚓ CNX Software ☛ SONOFF_MINI_Extreme_(MINIR4)_ESP32_WiFi
smart_switch_can_fit_into_most_gang_boxes⠀⇛
SONOFF MINI Extreme (aka MINIR4) is a ridiculously
small WiFi smart switch based on ESP32 wireless
microcontroller and designed to be connected to a
load such as a light bulb and a wall switch that
can be a momentary switch, a door exit switch, an
SPDT switch, a latching switch, or even dry contact
sensors. The tiny form factor (39.5×33 x16.8mm)
enables the WiFi smart switch to fit into various
boxes, even the smaller European gang boxes.
# ⚓ CNX Software ☛ Embit_EMB-LR1280-mPCIe-4x_is_a_2.4GHz_LoRa
mPCIe_module_based_on_Semtech_SX1280_chipset⠀⇛
Embit EMB-LR1280-mPCIe-4x is an mPCIe (mini PCIe)
module based on four Semtech SX1280 2.4 GHz LoRa
transceivers and designed for OEM gateways that can
work worldwide thanks to the use of the 2.4GHz ISM
band and supports ranging. We first covered 2.4GHz
LoRa and the SX1280 transceiver two years ago as a
solution to design region-independent products
specially suited to maritime and intercontinental
logistics applications.
o § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾
# ⚓ Arduino ☛ Controlling_a_model_railroad_with_a_vintage_Atari
ST⠀⇛
Rossignol’s model railroad features DCC (Digital
Command Control), which controls the amount of
power and its polarity going to the tracks, as well
as switches. Rossignol just needed a way for his
Atari to communicate with the DCC. For that, he
chose an Arduino Mega 2560 board. The Atari talks
to the Arduino via an RS232-to-TTL converter, and
the Arduino, in turn, talks to Rossignol’s DCC-EX
via I2C.
# ⚓ Purism ☛ Update_on_Librem-EC_1.12⠀⇛
Librem-EC 1.12 for the Librem 14 has been released
with a fix to the PL4 power limit to address sudden
shutoffs that still remained in the 1.11 release.
Once again, the issue was in a subtle corner case,
which we were able to identify with help from
testers. Update to 1.12 with our update
instructions, and check out the source code. Thank
you to all those who helped us troubleshoot and fix
this issue!
# ⚓ Purism ☛ Lapdock_Kit:_Transform_your_Librem_5_into_a
laptop⠀⇛
The Lapdock Kit allows you to experience the full
potential of the Librem 5 and the Nexdock 360 while
getting expert support from the Purism support
team. Have all of your apps and all of your data in
one device that can fit in your pocket and act like
a phone when you need it to, but then transform
into a laptop when you want to type out an email,
do some image editing or watch a video on a larger
screen.
# ⚓ Raspberry Pi ☛ Desert_Eye_2.0_robot_|_The_MagPi_#127⠀⇛
Desert Eye is also a great showcase for Raspberry
Pi 4, which Aviv chose for its video processing
capabilities – “a large consideration in this
robot” – as well as controlling its motion and
communications. Aside from the cameras, Raspberry
Pi 4 controls the two main DC motors, a stepper
motor so the camera can rotate while being
stabilised, the GPS and wireless connectivity, and
a three-axis sensor and fan.
o § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾
# ⚓ Digital Trends ☛ This_new_Android_phone_is_crazy_tough_and
talks_to_satellites_|_Digital_Trends⠀⇛
# ⚓ Gadget Bridge ☛ How_to_add_a_password_to_any_file_or_app_on
Android?⠀⇛
# ⚓ Gadget Bridge ☛ How_to_Fix_‘Can’t_Delete_Apps’_on_Android
smartphones_or_tablets⠀⇛
# ⚓ Ghacks ☛ Mozilla:_Top_Android_apps_exploit_privacy
loopholes⠀⇛
# ⚓ Phone Arena ☛ Nokia’s_new_Android_12_Go_edition_phone_is_as
basic_as_it_gets_–_PhoneArena⠀⇛
# ⚓ 9to5Mac ☛ Android_Emergency_SOS_via_Satellite_rivals_will
soon_be_common⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Verge ☛ LumaFusion_video_editor_now_widely_available
for_Android_and_ChromeOS_–_The_Verge⠀⇛
# ⚓ Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd ☛ Nothing_Phone_1
receives_Android_13_based_Nothing_OS_1.5:_How_to_download
update_and_new_features⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android Police ☛ How_to_print_text_messages_from_your
Android_phone_or_tablet⠀⇛
# ⚓ Geeky Gadgets ☛ How_to_clear_cache_on_an_Android_phone_–
Geeky_Gadgets⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android Authority ☛ Your_Android_phone_might_soon_be_able
to_generate_AI_images_in_seconds⠀⇛
# ⚓ Hacker News ☛ Even_Top-Ranked_Android_Apps_in_Google_Play
Store_Provide_Misleading_Data_Safety_Labels⠀⇛
* § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾
o ⚓ OpenSource.com ☛ 5_open_source_tools_to_take_control_of_your_own
data⠀⇛
These are just a few services you can install on any
Linux PC or laptop. You need a server that’s always on to
ensure your services are constantly available. That
doesn’t necessitate a major investment, though. You can
use many kinds of computers as Linux servers. The easiest
and most inexpensive is a Raspberry Pi, which has
excellent support with a helpful and enthusiastic
community.
Getting a Raspberry Pi set up is “as easy as pie,” thanks
to the Raspberry Pi imager. It only needs about 5W of
power, so it doesn’t take much energy to keep it running.
There are many similar low-powered devices, including the
Odroid, Orange Pi, and Rockpi.
You can also install Linux on any PC or laptop and run it
as a server. It’s a great way to repurpose old computers.
o ⚓ Linux Links ☛ 7_Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Virtual_Globes⠀⇛
Google Earth is a very popular virtual globe app. While
it’s available for Linux the software is freeware, and
therefore not open source. In this article we recommend
the best free and open source virtual globe software. We
also include related software in this roundup.
While none of the software applications featured in this
article have all of the features offered by Google Earth
(although some offer some different features), and they
are not exactly comparable, they are all worthy of
investigating.
o ⚓ Joinup ☛ Luxembourg_launches_open_source_chat_for_officials_and
citizens⠀⇛
The Luxchat services provide end-to-end encryption and
retain all messages in decentralised servers located in
Luxembourg. Luxchat and Luxchat4Gov will offer the same
features, but the infrastructures are kept separate, as
the government version is intended for professional use
in the public sector.
o ⚓ Gregory Hammond ☛ My_experience_going_viral_on_Mastodon⠀⇛
I learned that you can’t keep up with your notifications
when this happens (especially if you don’t check them
that often). You just have to accept it.
o ⚓ PowerDNS ☛ First_Release_Candidate_of_PowerDNS_DNSdist_1.8.0⠀⇛
We are very happy to release the first candidate of what
will become dnsdist 1.8.0!
This release contains a significant amount of changes
since the last major release, 1.7.0, which was released a
bit over a year ago. We try to stick to a major release
every six months, but this one took a bit longer than
expected as we tackled a few challenges: [...]
o ⚓ Terence Eden ☛ Signal’s_new(ish)_URI_Scheme⠀⇛
Sadly, they’ve taken the same xenophobic attitude as
GitHub and insist that only good ol’ American letters and
numbers can be used. No fancy accents, right-to-left
languages, or Korean Hangul.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see if this
prompts a surge in Signal take-up. Especially important
as Signal are dropping SMS support
o ⚓ PowerDNS ☛ First_Release_Candidate_of_PowerDNS_DNSdist_1.8.0⠀⇛
Hello! We are very happy to release the first candidate
of what will become dnsdist 1.8.0!
o ⚓ LWN ☛ NASA_and_open-source_software⠀⇛
From the moon landing to the James Webb Space Telescope
and many other scientific missions, software is critical
for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). Sharing information has also been in the DNA of
the space agency from the beginning. As a result, NASA
also contributes to and releases open-source software and
open data. In a keynote at FOSDEM 2023, Science Data
Officer Steve Crawford talked about NASA and open-source
software, including the challenges NASA has faced in
using open source and the agency’s recent initiatives to
lower barriers.
Software has always been a big part of NASA’s work. Who
hasn’t seen the photo of computer scientist Margaret
Hamilton next to a hard-copy stack of the Apollo software
she and her team at MIT produced? The stack of code is as
tall as she is. In 2016, the original Apollo 11 Guidance
Computer source code for the command and lunar modules
was published on GitHub in the public domain. You can
even compile the code and run it in a simulator.
o § Events⠀➾
# ⚓ FSFE ☛ Call_for_Papers_for_foss-north_open_(Gothenburg,
April_2023)⠀⇛
foss-north is a Free Software conference in
Gothenburg that brings together Nordic Free
Software communities. This year, the Free Software
Foundation Europe is organising a track covering
political and legal aspects of Free Software, as
well as best practices from Scandinavia. We’re
looking forward to your contribution by March 5!
o § Web Browsers/Web Servers⠀➾
# ⚓ Daniel Stenberg ☛ Restocked_on_stickers⠀⇛
I attended FOSDEM 2023 and over the two days of
conference I gave away well over a thousand curl
stickers. Every last curl sticker I had in my
possession.
o § Education⠀➾
# ⚓ Adafruit ☛ Headlamp_for_BSA_Electronics_Merit_Badge
#3DPrinting⠀⇛
This is a headlamp I designed to be used to
complete the BSA Electronics Merit Badge. All you
should need to complete the merit badge is included
in the PowerPoint slides that are also included. It
takes about 3 hours to finish all the requirements.
You could also use this to teach anyone about basic
circuit design using KCL and KVL.
o § FSF⠀➾
# ⚓ FSF ☛ FSF_Blogs:_Experience_the_fifteen_years_of
LibrePlanet_celebration_firsthand_as_a_volunteer⠀⇛
o § Programming/Development⠀➾
# ⚓ Ruben Schade ☛ ChatGPT_shovelware_was_inevitable⠀⇛
Last September, Dan Olson of Folding Ideas released
a documentary about a pair of grifters who
underpaid gig-econonmy ghost writers to churn out
audio book spam. The books are designed to exploit
trending topics in Audible in lieu of any
expertise, and achieve “passive income” with as
little effort (on your part) as possible: [...]
# ⚓ Earthly ☛ Earthly_CI:_Launching_a_new_era_for_CI⠀⇛
After digging deeper and swapping notes with
software engineers daily for the last 3 years,
here’s what we believe are the stickiest CI/CD
situations developers face daily.
# ⚓ Anders Borch ☛ Monorepos_Lead_To_Bad_Developer_Culture⠀⇛
A monorepo is a version controlled code repository
that contains many projects. Although these
projects may be related, they are usually logically
separate and maintained by different teams.
The opposite of a monorepo is a multirepo, where
each project is stored in a completely separate,
versioned repository. Multirepos come naturally –
most of us do it when we start a new project.
At first glance, choosing between monorepos and
multirepos may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a
decision that will greatly affect your company’s
development workflow.
# ⚓ Idiomdrottning ☛ Federation_and_forges⠀⇛
Having a forge set up to provide a fancy schmancy
UI around send-email (like sourcehut) and/or pull-
request would solve everything. No need for
ForgeFed when we’ve already got email.
There are three use-case a good forge needs to
support.
# ⚓ Joe Brockmeier ☛ Joe_Brockmeier:_The_right_way_to_name
music_files_and_my_Picard_file-naming_script⠀⇛
Last year I got deep into using MusicBrainz_Picard
to help tag music before I add it to my collection.
The MusicBrainz database is fantastic, and it saves
me a lot of time tweaking metadata. Most of the
time I can just look up an album and it finds the
correct info automagically. As an added bonus,
it’ll rename the files so that the folder and
filenames all match the same scheme. You know, the
right way to name and organize music files.
✐ Random filenames⠀✐
I think I downloaded my first MP3 somewhere around
1997, using a super-speedy 56K modem. This was when
you had to have a download manager for huge
downloads that measured in the multiple megabytes,
and a 1GB disk drive would be consider spacious.
My MP3 collection grew pretty slowly, since
portable MP3 players were still a few years off and
CDs were still the most convenient way to listen to
music. Digital downloads were just for novelty or
rarities that I couldn’t get on CD like some
unofficial Tori Amos tracks off a fan page.
My collection grew slowly and organically, and
there wasn’t much organization to it. Eventually I
got a Creative Nomad player the size of portable CD
player. It had, I think, a whopping 6GB of space.
Eventually I got an iPod and kept adding to the
collection.
✐ The correct directory (folder) and filename
scheme for MP3s, FLACs, and other music files⠀✐
At some point, after the collection passed the
200GB mark, the digital mess started bugging me and
I started experimenting with naming schemes and
attempts to clean up the structure and tagging of
all the files.
# ⚓ KDAB ☛ FMA_Woes⠀⇛
Given a strictly positive integer i, this code will
calculate i+1 “equally spaced” values between 1 and
0:
const double scale = 1.0 / i;
for (int j = 0; j <= i; ++j) {
const double r = 1.0 - j * scale;
assert(r >= 0);
}
If you’re looking for a trap, this does actually
work for any i > 0. One can verify it
experimentally; run the code with i from 1 to
INT_MAX.
For simplicity, just consider the case j = i (the
maximum for j, in the last loop of iteration
above):
const double scale = 1.0 / i;
const double r = 1.0 - i * scale;
assert(r >= 0);
# ⚓ FLOSS_Weekly_720:_Fostering_an_Open_Source_Culture_–_Aurn
Gupta_on_Generative_AI,_OpenJDK,_CNCF⠀⇛
Arun Gupta, VP and General Manager of Open
Ecosystems at Intel Corporation, joins Doc Searls
and Simon Phipps on this episode of FLOSS Weekly.
Gupta has been an open source strateg…
# ⚓ Telemetry_required?_Ask_users_first!⠀⇛
In this article, I will discuss the recent problems
with compiling LibreOffice using Microsoft Visual
Studio, things that I did to debug and find the
root cause, the source of problem itself – which is
problems in Microsoft’s telemetry – and how I could
fix it.
# § Rust⠀➾
# ⚓ Rust Blog ☛ Governance_Reform_RFC_Announcement [Ed:
Rust outsourced some more to proprietary Microsoft
stuff]⠀⇛
# ⚓ LWN ☛ An_RFC_for_governance_of_the_Rust_project [Ed:
Microsoft already controls the development process, in
proprietary prison (GitHub), so why not also outsource
governance to Microsoft? Rust is hopeless.]⠀⇛
The Rust community has been working to reform
its governance model; that work is now being
presented as a draft document describing how
that model will work.
* § Leftovers⠀➾
o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Caravaggio/Poussin:_The_Politics_of_Art_History
Writing⠀⇛
Our visual culture, focused on art of the immediate
present, identifies three old masters as grand culture
heroes: Piero della Francesca; Vermeer; and of course
Caravaggio. (And now, Artemisia Gentileschi also belongs
on that short list, as a feminist hero. ) Almost nothing
is known about the lives of Piero and Vermeer, but we
know something about Caravaggio (1573-1610). And this
relatively short lived, gay, violent superstar, a rebel
as if sent from central casting, inspires not only art
historical research, but fictional biographies and even
movies. A quarter of a century ago, I summarized this
literature, little knowing how much was still to be
written. A great deal more is known about Nicolas Poussin
(1594-1665). We have, for example, his extensive
correspondence. He is most famous nowadays for saying
that Caravaggio came into the world to destroy painting.
Indeed, one French book about Caravaggio is simply
called: To Destroy Painting. But unlike Caravaggio,
Poussin doesn’t have a mystique. And outside of France,
he isn’t a culture hero.
Caravaggio and Poussin never met, for by the time that
Poussin got to Italy Caravaggio had died. Caravaggio has
a great story. His fame is justified. But recent research
has revealed that Poussin, too, has a story, which
deserves to be better known. Born in Northern France, it
took him some years to make his way to Rome, which was
the center of the European art world in the way that in
the 1940s New York City was the epicenter of ours.
Poussin arrived only in his late twenties. Along the way
he painted some pictures, which recently have been
rediscovered. One of these early works, The Sack and
Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem by Titus (1625-6),
discovered in a London auction house by the famous
connoisseur, Denis Mahon, has found an appropriate home,
the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. This large picture is
recognizably in the style of Poussin’s later best known
history paintings. A number of other early works,
Sleeping Venus and Cupid and Venus (or a Nymph) Spied On
by Satyr are two, from this period are more puzzling.
They have been questioned for an interesting reason:
these frankly lascivious scenes, textbook examples of
male voyeurism, seem inconsistent , as one catalogue puts
it, with “the conventional view of Poussin as an austere
and serious artist.” And just last year the museum at
Lyons presented an exhibition centered around another
recently rediscovered work, also found in a London
auction, La Mort de Chioné (1622). The subject is rare
and disconcerting: Chione, who was the lover of Apollo
and Hermes, vainly compared her own beauty to that of
Artemis, and so Apollo’s sister killed her by shooting an
arrow through her tongue. Learning that this painting was
made in Lyons, it’s possible to fill in some of the gaps
in Poussin’s early movements to Rome.
o ⚓ New York Times ☛ Turkish_Builders_Come_Under_Intense_Scrutiny
Over_Shoddy_Construction⠀⇛
More than 43,000 deaths in Turkey from an earthquake have
raised painful and angry questions over whether some of
those fatalities could have been avoided with better
building standards.
o ⚓ Thousands_of_İstanbulites_request_earthquake_inspection_after
Maraş_quakes,_says_official⠀⇛
The devastating earthquakes on February 6 revived the
fears of an anticipated powerful earthquake in the
metropolis.
o ⚓ France24 ☛ View_from_Aleppo:_‘Syrians_are_angry_with_the_West’
over_lack_of_earthquake_aid⠀⇛
With international aid still struggling to reach Syria
two weeks after the devastating February 6 earthquakes,
calls are mounting for Western countries to lift
diplomatic sanctions on the Syrian regime and facilitate
the flow of aid. A local doctor helping the humanitarian
efforts in Aleppo, in northwestern Syria, tells FRANCE
24 that people feel abandoned by the West.
o ⚓ teleSUR ☛ Earthquake_of_Magnitude_6.8_Strikes_Eastern
Tajikistan⠀⇛
Several aftershocks followed the initial earthquake,
which was felt at 05H37 local time
o ⚓ The Atlantic ☛ When_a_Christian_Revival_Goes_Viral⠀⇛
As of this Friday, the university will no longer hold
public worship services. “I have been asked if Asbury is
‘stopping’ this outpouring of God’s Spirit and the
stirring of human hearts,” the university president said
in a statement. “I have responded by pointing out that we
cannot stop something we did not start.” Indeed, the
phenomenon has been reported to have spread to other
schools, including Samford University, Lee University,
and Cedarville University.
o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ A_Looming_Book_of_Soul_Fragments⠀⇛
Confession: I have a few books out there that no one
knows about because I haven’t written them . . . well,
finished them.
I’ve talked in previous columns about “wrestling with
infinity” — the match I always lose — by which I mean,
picking a subject too large to reduce to words and
eventually getting hopelessly lost in it, e.g.: shifting
human consciousness, transcending what we think we know,
truly creating peace (whatever that is).
o ⚓ Geshan ☛ 5_similarities_between_software_systems_and_being
married_(read_with_a_pinch_of_salt)⠀⇛
Software systems and marriages have many things in common
and there are differences too. In this post, you will
learn about 5 things that are similar in both software
systems and marriages, let’s get going!
o § Science⠀➾
# ⚓ IDA ☛ Ynys_Enlli_named_first_International_Dark_Sky
Sanctuary_in_Wales,_United_Kingdom⠀⇛
YNYS ENLLI, Wales, UK – Ynys Enlli (Bardsey
Island), north Wales, has received International
Dark Sky Sanctuary (IDSS) certification from the
International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).
# ⚓ Omicron Limited ☛ Mushrooms_could_help_replace_plastics_in
new_high-performance_ultra-light_materials⠀⇛
A research group from VTT Technical Research Center
of Finland has unlocked the secret behind the
extraordinary mechanical properties and ultra-light
weight of certain fungi. The complex architectural
design of mushrooms could be mimicked and used to
create new materials to replace plastics. The
research results were published on February 22,
2023, in Science Advances.
# ⚓ Quillette ☛ The_Overregulation_of_Science⠀⇛
Forces that discourage brilliant action and timely
investigation of hypotheses are bad for science.
One such force is excessive regulation. When rules
and regulations are illogical and overly
burdensome, their primary effect is to dampen
enthusiasm for research and to delay scientific
progress. In the realm of medical research with
human subjects, the Institutional Review Board
(IRB) is often the culprit. To get a sense of the
costs of over-regulation by the IRB, it is
instructive to look back to episodes that predate
the IRB entirely, predate the modern all-
encompassing IRB, or were outside the IRB’s
purview.
o § Education⠀➾
# ⚓ RIPE ☛ The_RIPE_Labs_Article_Competition_is_Open⠀⇛
As we launch our third RIPE Labs article
competition, we’re again looking to be reminded of
just how interesting a phenomenon the Internet is.
As always, we’re looking for articles about where
the Internet came from, where it’s going, and how
we measure and understand where it is right now.
That’s quite an open brief, for sure. But the
important thing to keep in mind is that we’re
looking for stories and analyses that are truly
eye-opening for the people who help keep the
Internet running.
# ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Make_learning_Danish_mandatory,_argues
language_school_interest_group⠀⇛
De Danske Sprogcentre recommends abolishing the
rule that the right to free lessons disappears
after five years of residence
o § Hardware⠀➾
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Fixing_A_Reflow_Oven’s_Conveyer_Belt_With_An
NE555_And_Stepper_Motors⠀⇛
Some design choices on manufacturing equipment
really leave you scratching your head for a while,
as recently happened to [Chris Cecil] when the belt
on a reflow oven’s conveyer snapped. Although the
solution seems simple enough, getting a new belt on
the thing would involve essentially taking the
entire machine apart, before reassembling it again.
Thus the frayed belt went through the oven over and
over until during a recent production run of
Smoothieboard controller boards until [Chris] heard
a funny noise and the conveyer ground to a halt.
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Supercon_2022:_Tap_Your_Rich_Uncle_To_Fund_Your
Amateur_Radio_Dreams⠀⇛
Imagine you had a rich uncle who wanted to fund
some of your projects. Like, seriously rich —
thanks to shrewd investments, he’s sitting on a
pile of cash and is now legally obligated to give
away $5,000,000 a year to deserving recipients.
That would be pretty cool indeed, but like anything
else, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably
is, right?
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Supersized_Laptop_Laughs_In_The_Face_Of
Portability⠀⇛
Sometimes a project needs to go big, and [Evan and
Katelyn] threw portability to the wind to build the
“world’s biggest” laptop.
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Sneaky_Clock_Displays_Wrong_Time_If_It_Catches
You_Looking⠀⇛
We have a soft spot for devices that subvert
purpose and expectation, and that definitely sums
up [Guy Dupont]’s Clock That Is Wrong. It knows the
correct time, but whether or not it displays the
correct time is another story. That’s because
nestled just above the 7-segment display is a
person sensor module, and when it detects that a
person is looking towards it, the clock will
display an incorrect time, therefore self-defeating
both the purpose and primary use case of a clock in
one stroke.
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Sailing_On_A_Sea_Of_Seven-Segment_Displays⠀⇛
The amount of information the humble seven-segment
display can convey is surprising. There are the ten
numerals, dead-ringers or reasonable approximations
for about half the alphabet, and even a few not-
quite-canonical symbols. But when you put 12,288
segments to work, you get all that and much more.
# ⚓ New York Times ☛ Inside_Taiwanese_Chip_Giant,_a_U.S.
Expansion_Stokes_Tensions⠀⇛
Employee doubts are rising about Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s $40 billion
investment in an Arizona factory.
# ⚓ New York Times ☛ How_Arizona_Is_Positioning_Itself_for_$52
Billion_to_the_Chips_Industry⠀⇛
The state has become a hub for chip makers
including Intel and TSMC, as the government
prepares to release a gusher of funds for the
strategic industry.
o § Health/Nutrition/Agriculture⠀➾
# ⚓ Deutsche Welle ☛ ‘Forever_chemicals:’_The_hidden_toxins_in
your_body⠀⇛
The “Forever Pollution Project” has found more than
17,000 sites in Europe that are contaminated by
perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS). More
than 2,000 of these sites can be considered
hotspots.
Known as “forever chemicals” by experts, they could
be damaging human health.
Roland Weber, an environmental consultant with the
United Nations, describes them as “one of the most
threatening chemicals ever invented.”
# ⚓ Jacobin Magazine ☛ Rail_Carriers’_Cost-Cutting_Is
Endangering_All_of_Us⠀⇛
Rail carriers are operating longer, heavier freight
trains, and with fewer workers than ever. The train
derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, is a reminder
that the issues railworkers nearly struck over last
year are far from resolved.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Demanding_Transparency_in_East_Palestine,
Ohio⠀⇛
Norfolk Southern’s toxic train wreck disaster in
East Palestine, Ohio is one of America’s worst
environmental catastrophes in memory. The Trump
regime’s slash-and-burn approach to government
regulation is a clear culprit for the railroad
safety issues that paved the way for the crash, yet
the Biden administration’s hands aren’t clean
either since President Biden busted a potential
railroad worker strike by forcing their union to
take a deal the majority didn’t like.
The situation highlights a disturbing level of
regulatory capture in America by corporations that
always prioritize profits over people and safety,
regardless of which party occupies the White House.
Then there are the citizens of East Palestine and
the surrounding region who are left to pick up the
pieces, with grave concern about whether the air,
water, and soil in their town are still safe.
# ⚓ New York Times ☛ Politics_Invade_the_East_Palestine,_Ohio,
Train_Crisis⠀⇛
The train derailment in Eastern Ohio has spawned
conspiracy theories and contradictory narratives,
with politicians from both parties parading through
town to further their agendas.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Khanna_Leads_Call_for_FDA_to_Address_Flu
and_Cold_Medicine_Shortage⠀⇛
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna led several Democratic members
of Congress in calling on the Food and Drug
Administration to take more aggressive action to
ensure families and healthcare providers have
access to common over-the-counter medicines that
have been depleted on drugstore shelves across the
U.S. this winter.
# ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Dangerous_opioid_trend_developing_in
Denmark⠀⇛
Children between 14 and 17 are increasingly
becoming addicted to the drugs. For many it is
their first taste of narcotics
# ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19:_Hong_Kong_extends_mask
mandate_again,_as_rapid_tests_for_secondary_students_axed
from_next_Wed⠀⇛
The compulsory Covid-19 mask mandate – which has
been in place for over two-and-a-half years – is to
be extended for another 14 days again on Thursday.
# ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_Cigarette
packs_rise_by_HK$12_in_bid_to_disincentivise_smoking⠀⇛
The typical cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes has
risen by HK$12, from around HK$62 to HK$74. Finance
Secretary Paul Chan increased the duty on
individual cigarettes by 60 cents with immediate
effect in a bid to encourage Hongkongers to quit
smoking.
# ⚓ RFA ☛ Chinese_police_detain_at_least_five_people_over
medical_insurance_protests⠀⇛
Activist is taken away by Shenzhen authorities
after tweeting video of rallies in Wuhan and Dalian
# ⚓ Axios ☛ Norfolk_Southern_blames_misinformation_for_its
derailed_response⠀⇛
Data: Memo, Twitter, Axios research; Chart: Erin
Davis/Axios Visuals
Rail operator Norfolk Southern is getting slammed for its response following
the derailment_of_one_of_its_trains carrying hazardous materials near East
Palestine, Ohio, this month.
⚓ JURIST ☛ EPA_orders_Norfolk_Southern_to_cover_costs_of_Ohio_train_derailment
cleanup⠀⇛
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday announced that
it has ordered Norfolk Southern to manage cleanup operations
resulting from a February 3 train derailment in Ohio.
⚓ Common Dreams ☛ NTSB_Report_Suggests_Overheated_Wheel_Bearing_May_Have
Derailed_Toxic_Train_in_Ohio⠀⇛
Federal investigators on Thursday released a highly anticipated
preliminary report about the February 3 derailment of a train
carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio, where residents
are now worried about health and environmental effects.
⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Legislators_Demand_Hearings_on_Choate⠀⇛
All 59 Republican members of the Illinois General Assembly are
calling for legislative hearings on a state-run mental health center
in rural southern Illinois, citing findings of a culture of abuse,
cover-ups and poor patient care from a monthslong investigative
series by Lee Enterprises Midwest, Capitol News Illinois and
ProPublica.
Late last week, the members sent a letter to key Democratic committee
chairs in the Illinois House and Senate asking them to schedule a
bicameral public hearing on the facility.
⚓ NBC ☛ What’s_really_behind_the_wave_of_sadness_among_teenage_girls?_We_asked
9_of_them.⠀⇛
Sahak said she thinks girls’ levels of sadness might be more serious
than what was reflected in the survey. Teens her age are trapped in a
cycle of comparison on social media, she said — viewing themselves
relative to friends, celebrities and influencers, which can worsen
insecurities and feelings of inadequacy.
As an example, she pointed to a trend on TikTok in which people
compare their faces from the side to see whether they have “good
profiles.”
⚓ Gannett ☛ Michigan’s_children_remain_targets_of_big_tobacco⠀⇛
“In Detroit, there is a tobacco retailer within 1,000 feet of every
school,” said Jones. “The tobacco industry spends nearly $300 million
in Michigan each year to keep people addicted and attract new, young
customers.”
The costs of their addictions in public health costs and loss of life
will only be amplified as these children age into tobacco-consuming
adults. Health care costs for smoking-related illness in Michigan
total around $4.5 billion in a year.
⚓ India Times ☛ European_Commission_bans_TikTok_on_official_devices:
spokesperson⠀⇛
The ban also means that European Commission staff cannot use the
Chinese-owned video-sharing app on personal devices, including
phones, that have official apps installed, the spokesperson said,
confirming a report by news website Euractiv.
⚓ Security Week ☛ TikTok_Banned_From_EU_Commission_Phones_Over_Cybersecurity⠀⇛
The European Union’s executive branch said Thursday that it has
temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a
cybersecurity measure, reflecting widening worries from Western
officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.
In a first for the European Commission, its Corporate Management
Board suspended the use of TikTok on devices issued to staff or
personal devices that staff use for work.
⚓ CNN ☛ European_Commission_bans_TikTok_from_official_devices⠀⇛
The European Commission has banned TikTok from official devices
because of concerns about cybersecurity, a move sharply criticized by
the company in its latest run-in with Western governments over how it
handles user data.
⚓ TruthOut ☛ Trump_Lies_About_Slashing_Rail_Safety_Rules_During_Visit_to_East
Palestine⠀⇛
⚓ Counter Punch ☛ A_Health_Care_Cliff_is_Coming⠀⇛
I’m one of the 84 million Americans who get our health care through
Medicaid. And I’m one of the 18 million who might lose it starting
this spring unless our policymakers take action.
I went to college, got a degree, and planned on being self-
sufficient. But in my early 20s, I was struck by an autoimmune
condition that caused painful, chronic flare ups that affected my
ability to stand or walk.
⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Health_Care_is_Sick_and_Profit_is_the_Disease⠀⇛
Your doctor is out and unable to see you now. Not out for lunch or
out on vacation — but out of medical practice.
America’s perverse health care system, which sublimates care to the
profiteering demands of Wall Street speculators who essentially own
today’s system, has been driving out hordes of nurses, pharmacists,
and now doctors too.
⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Does_Being_Balanced_at_the_New_York_Times_Mean_Giving_the
Right_Space_to_Lie?⠀⇛
Guess so since it gave Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan
Institute, plenty of space to say things that are extremely
deceptive, if not outright lies. The gist of Riedl’s piece is that it
will not be possible to sustain Social Security and Medicare without
tax increases on the middle class.
Much of the piece is the standard line about an aging population
posing an impossible burden that we have been reading about in the
NYT and elsewhere for many decades. For example, Riedl includes an
old favorite:
§ Proprietary⠀➾
* ⚓ The Economist ☛ It’s_time_for_Alphabet_to_spin_off_YouTube⠀⇛
Compared with the attention heaped on Bob Iger’s return to the
helm of Disney and the stepping back of Reed Hastings at
Netflix, news on February 16th that Susan Wojcicki would resign
from YouTube after nine years as ceo caused barely a rustle in
the media pages. That is a sign of two things. First, how
little attention Wall Street analysts and entertainment-
industry scribblers pay to the business of YouTube, even though
it has become a hub—as well as a byword—for global video.
Second, how overshadowed it is by the teetering ramparts of its
parent company, Alphabet. Sundar Pichai, the tech giant’s
beleaguered boss, is fighting wars on so many fronts, from
Microsoft’s ChatGPT-inspired encroachment on Google search to
trustbusters and the Supreme Court, that the goings-on at
YouTube must seem like a sideshow.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ Adobe_signs_chip_supplier_Qualcomm_for_marketing_tech
software⠀⇛
Once best known for tools like Photoshop used to create
websites and digital marketing materials, Adobe has expanded
its business to include software for managing those materials
and tracking how well they work at bringing customers in the
door.
* ⚓ Scoop News Group ☛ Russian_national_accused_of_developing,_selling
malware_appears_in_U.S._court [iophk: Windows TCO]⠀⇛
Pankov stands accused of developing NLBrute — also known as
nl.exe or nlbrute.exe — and advertising it for sale on an
underground forum as early as June 2016, according to an
indictment unsealed this week. During that time he also sold
more than 35,000 compromised login credentials for access to
systems around the world, including in the United States,
France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. At least two
of those sales were to undercover U.S. law enforcement
officers, according to the indictment, and involved login
credentials for two separate Florida-based law firms.
* ⚓ Barry W Jones ☛ How_Microsoft_Became_Phishing’s_Biggest_Enabler⠀⇛
It might sound strange to hear that Microsoft, a company who
goes to great lengths to protect computers and networks, is one
of the biggest contributors to phishing and fraud on the
planet. It’s true unfortunately.
They aren’t actually committing the acts themselves of course,
but they are enabling the problem by withdrawing support for
standards designed to help stop it. Here’s why this is such a
big deal.
* ⚓ Rlang ☛ Why_should_I_use_R:_The_Excel_R_Data_Wrangling_comparison:_Part
1 [Ed:Why assume everyone uses Microsoft's proprietary stuff?]⠀⇛
This is part 1 of an ongoing series on why you should use R.
Future blogs will be linked here as they are released.
The era of data manipulation and analysis using programming
languages has arrived. But it can be tough to find the time and
the right resources to fully switch over from more manual,
time-consuming solutions, such as Excel. In this blog we will
show a comparison between Excel and R to get you started!
When choosing between R and Excel, it is important to
understand how both solutions can get you the results you need.
However, one can make it an easy, reputable, convenient
process, whereas the other can make it an extremely
frustrating, time-consuming process prone to human errors.
* ⚓ Daniel Miessler ☛ How_to_Access_ChatGPT_via_Voice_Command_(Using
Siri)⠀⇛
Here’s how to call ChatGPT using an Apple Shortcut in 3 steps.
§ Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)⠀➾
* ⚓ The Register UK ☛ Who_writes_Linux_and_open_source_software? [Ed:
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is having another senior moment. He judges Free
software only by the catalogue that Microsoft controls, using proprietary
software. He needs to retire to avoid alienating the few who still
trusted his writings. SJVN is either willfully ignorant or lying; judging
Microsoft "contributions" based only on what it is controlling in its
platform is propaganda that goes back to 2014, when it made plans to buy
the company; those who don't trust Microsoft don't host anything there
and SJVN does not count them. How foolish. This is not your daddy's
"SJVN"; this is a clown.]⠀⇛
Even now, I run into those who think Linux and open source
software is made by people living in their parents’ basement
and writing the code out of the goodness of their hearts.
Wrong. So, so wrong.
§ Security⠀➾
* ⚓ SANS ☛ Internet_Wide_Scan_Fingerprinting_Confluence_Servers,_(Wed,_Feb
22nd)⠀⇛
* ⚓ Bruce Schneier ☛ A_Device_to_Turn_Traffic_Lights_Green⠀⇛
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ The_5×5—Strengthening_the_cyber_workforce⠀⇛
Experts provide insights into ways for the United States and
its allies to bolster their cyber workforces.
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ Why_You_Should_Listen_to_Twitter_on_Two-Factor
Authentication⠀⇛
Elon Musk was right: Text messages are not the most secure way
to protect your account.
* § Integrity/Availability/Authenticity⠀➾
o ⚓ University of Toronto ☛ The_web_single_sign_on_versus
availability_problem⠀⇛
A SSO system is very convenient when it works, but if and
when it’s down for some reason, it’s a single point that
prevents you from using anything else (unless you happen
to be lucky). Many of the staff things that we could
protect with SSO are in fact exactly the things we most
want to be available when the rest of our systems are
falling over; for example, it would be pretty bad if our
metrics system’s dashboards weren’t accessible during an
outage. Grafana Loki? Our searchable archive of our
worklogs? All things that we really, really want to have
access to if at all possible, and that need access
restrictions.
o ⚓ Vice Media Group ☛ How_I_Broke_Into_a_Bank_Account_With_an_AI-
Generated_Voice⠀⇛
Banks in the U.S. and Europe tout voice ID as a secure
way to log into your account. I proved it’s possible to
trick such systems with free or cheap AI-generated
voices.
* § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾
o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Spying_on_Muslims,_Good;_Spying_on_Christians,
Bad⠀⇛
The FBI has retracted a document showing that its
“Richmond division launched an investigation into
‘radical traditionalist’ Catholics and their possible
ties to ‘the far-right white nationalist movement,’”
because, as the FBI said, the document “does not meet our
exacting standards” (Catholic News Agency, 2/9/23).
With the US right using the FBI’s investigation into
former President Donald Trump as proof that the federal
law enforcement agency is run by the radical left (Mother
Jones, 9/4/22), the latest news has become new ammo in
the conservative cultural offensive.
o ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Thousands_Of_Bite-Sized_Privacy_Law_Violations_Could
See_White_Castle_Subjected_To_Billions_In_Fines⠀⇛
Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA),
passed in 2008, continues to be the Little Legislation
That Could. While occasionally hijacked by opportunistic
litigants whose privacy hasn’t actually been violated,
it’s also been used to achieve some objective good.
o ⚓ JURIST ☛ Amazon_completes_$3.9B_acquisition_of_healthcare
provider⠀⇛
Amazon and 1Life Healthcare, Inc. (One Medical) Wednesday
announced Amazon’s completed $3.9 billion acquisition of
One Medical. Amazon announced its intended acquisition of
the membership-based healthcare provider in July 2022.
[...]
However, there may be ramifications for both One Medical
customers’ health data privacy and the accessibility of
healthcare. Although the FTC declined to challenge the
acquisition, spokesperson Douglas Farrar said the FTC
will continue to investigate any potential harm to
competition the merger may cause, as well as potential
consumer harm resulting from Amazon’s control and use of
One Medical’s sensitive consumer health data.
o ⚓ Tor ☛ Meeting_You_Where_You_Are:_We’ve_added_WhatsApp_User
Support⠀⇛
Providing support and necessary tools for those who find
themselves in places where Tor access is restricted has
become one of our top priorities. And as our community
continues to grow, we are constantly looking for ways
that make it easier and safer to connect with us. That’s
why, over the last two years, we have been working on
improving Tor online user support: from launching the Tor
Forum and bridging Tor IRC channels to Matrix in 2021 to
rolling out support channels on messaging apps like
Telegram and Signal in 2022.
Today, we are excited to announce the addition of our
WhatsApp user support — providing another option for
users across the world to get in touch with us.
o ⚓ New Statesman ☛ UK_police_still_relying_heavily_on_Chinese
surveillance_camera_technology⠀⇛
o ⚓ Techdirt ☛ UK_Proposes_Even_More_Stupid_Ideas_For_Directly
Regulating_The_Internet,_Service_Providers⠀⇛
The UK government has made no secret of its desire to
convert providing encryption into a criminal act. The
fact that some things are beyond the government’s reach
is unacceptable. While lawmakers may suggest this will
only target “criminal” purveyors and users, there’s no
reason to believe this won’t be expanded every time law
enforcement finds it slightly difficult to access
information it believes it’s entitled to.
o ⚓ CoryDoctorow ☛ Fighting_the_privacy_wars,_state_by_state⠀⇛
In 2021, Apple updated its mobile OS so that users could
opt out of app tracking with one click. More than 96%
opted out, costing Facebook $10b in one year. The kicker?
Even if you opted out, Apple continued to spy on you,
just as invasively as Facebook had, as part of its
competing targeted ad product: [...]
o ⚓ The Hill ☛ Facebook,_Twitter,_Minecraft_report_inconsistent
policies_in_Google_Play_about_how_they_use_your_data,_study_finds⠀⇛
Mozilla, the not-for-profit organization behind the
Firefox browser, looked at the 20 most popular paid and
free apps in the Google Play app store for its report.
It found that nearly 80 percent of the 40 apps reviewed
had “some discrepancies” between the app’s privacy
policies and the information the app reported on Google’s
data safety form.
o ⚓ RTL ☛ Facebook,_Instagram_roll_out_paid_subscription_in
Australia,_New_Zealand⠀⇛
Some attempts to join Meta Verified from Sydney found the
service was not available on the first day of the
rollout.
o ⚓ uni Stanford ☛ My_Comment_to_the_UK_Government_on_Its_Proposal_to
Ban_“Bespoke,”_“Sophisticated”_Encrypted_Phones⠀⇛
I don’t like this proposal, as I told Joseph Cox at
Motherboard. (Joseph is a journalist who’s both British
and, as the foregoing links reveal, has extensively
covered secure phone networks and their infiltration by
the police, including for his upcoming book on ANOM.) It
would effectively turn owning or offering one of these
devices into a strict liability crime. That’s because the
only defense the proposal carves out is one that would be
impossible for defendants to invoke in practice, due to
the Government’s stance (which it states overtly in the
proposal) that everyone who owns one is a criminal.
§ Defence/Aggression⠀➾
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Case_for_Diplomacy_in_Ukraine⠀⇛
As 2023 unfolds, we fear that American policy will continue to
be characterized by both mission creep and the absence of any
sort of diplomatic engagement with Russia.
Throughout the course of the war, the Biden administration has
slowly, steadily, even stealthily increased America’s
involvement. Calls from Kiev for more and more weapons have, at
every turn, been met with President Biden’s acquiescence.
Meantime, Congress has continued in its decades-long abdication
of its constitutional responsibilities, opting instead to act
as a rubber stamp on ever-increasing amounts of financial and
military assistance to Ukraine. All the while, Kiev’s appetite
has grown larger with the eating.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Moldova’s_Future_is_Bleak_Unless_it_Saves_Itself⠀⇛
Moldova, a small landlocked country in Eastern Europe is the
poorest nation in Europe. Despite its natural beauty, cultural
richness, and strategic location, the country has been
struggling with economic, political, and social challenges that
have hindered its development and prosperity. There are several
reasons why Moldova is so poor and there are numerous
challenges it faces in its journey towards growth and
stability.
The economy heavily relies on agriculture, particularly on wine
and fruits production, which account for a significant portion
of its exports. However, the country faces challenges in terms
of modernizing its agricultural practices and infrastructure,
which limits its competitiveness in the global market.
Additionally, corruption, limited foreign investment, and weak
economic policies have hindered the country’s economic growth.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_War_on_Terror_and_the_Battle_for_Young_Minds⠀⇛
During a Veterans Day celebration in my small Maryland
community, a teacher clicked through a slideshow of smiling men
and women in military uniforms. “Girls and boys, can anyone
tell me what courage is?” she asked the crowd, mostly children
from local elementary schools, including my two young kids.
A boy raised his hand. “Not being scared?” he asked.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Ukraine_War_One_Year_in:_Nine_False_Narratives⠀⇛
Here we are one year after Russia’s blood-drenched invasion of
Ukraine, the country that has always been the leading tripwire
for a global nuclear war in the post-Soviet era. The subsequent
United States (US)-Russia proxy war that has unfolded and
escalated there is a rolling slaughterhouse with a body count
in the tens if not the hundreds of thousands. It feels
increasingly like a chapter in a dystopian novel depicting the
march to World War III.
And, of course, the fog of propagandistic stupefaction
surrounding this deadly conflict has been extremely thick on
all sides, including what’s left of the shattered and lame US
“left.” The intra-portside polarization over Ukraine is darkly
comedic at this point. If you stake out a consistent communist
anti-imperialist position on the Ukraine War, as I try to do in
this essay, one group of white male lefties calls you a NATO
fan and another group of white male lefties calls you a
Putinist. Both charges are absurd and idiotic.
* ⚓ CNN ☛ UK_defense_secretary_criticizes_Prince_Harry_for_‘boasting’_about
Taliban_deaths⠀⇛
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he disagrees with the
Duke of Sussex’s decision to reveal how many Taliban fighters
he killed while serving in the British Army in Afghanistan,
saying “boasting about tallies” lets down others in the armed
forces.
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ U.N._General_Assembly_Calls_for_Lasting_Peace_Deal_in
Ukraine⠀⇛
The assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for a
peace agreement that guarantees Ukraine’s sovereignty. Several
of Russia’s key allies abstained, including China, Iran and
India.
* ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ One_year_on:_Numerous_events_to_mark_anniversary_of
invasion⠀⇛
Demonstrations, marches, speeches and commemorations will take
place across the country in support of Ukraine today
* ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Danish_donations_to_Ukraine_exceed_all_expectations⠀⇛
Well over a billion kroner and counting
* ⚓ CNN ☛ Hear_US_Defense_Secretary’s_prediction_about_Russia’s_war_in
Ukraine⠀⇛
In a clip from an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, US
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discusses Russia’s war with
Ukraine, the role of the United States, and his predictions.
* ⚓ CNN ☛ China_calls_for_Russia-Ukraine_cease-fire_as_neutrality
questioned_and_social⠀⇛
* ⚓ Axios ☛ China_calls_for_cease-fire_in_Russia-Ukraine_war⠀⇛
China’s government called for a cease-fire between Russia and
Ukraine and for the start of peace talks to end the yearlong
war.
* ⚓ CNN ☛ Why_US_officials_believe_China_will_send_‘lethal_support’_to
Russia⠀⇛
Reports obtained by CNN appear to show China is sending parts
labeled for military use to Russia as aid in Ukraine war. CNN’s
Will Ripley explains.
* ⚓ CNN ☛ US_plans_to_expand_training_of_Taiwanese_forces⠀⇛
* ⚓ Tech Times ☛ US_Air_Force’s_Drones_To_Have_Face_Recognition!_New_Tech
Now_Raises_Fears—Here’s_Why⠀⇛
This means that these UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will be
able to identify their targets easily by just looking at their
faces.
For some individuals, this is a great innovation since it will
make defense drones more accurate. However, this technology
raises fears among other people because they can easily kill
specified individuals.
* ⚓ Spiegel ☛ China_Reportedly_Negotiating_with_Russia_To_Supply_Kamikaze
Drones⠀⇛
China reacted quickly, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson
accusing Blinken of spreading disinformation. But information
obtained by DER SPIEGEL indicates that the planned cooperation
between Beijing and Moscow goes even further than Blinken makes
it sound.
* ⚓ Defence Web ☛ Islamist_terrorism_is_rising_in_the_Sahel,_but_not_in
Chad_–_what’s_different?⠀⇛
Since the rise of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the emergence of
Islamist-Salafist groups in northern Mali in 2013, the Sahel
has increasingly been caught in the maelstrom of Islamist
terrorism.
* ⚓ ADF ☛ Illicit_Weapons_Trade_Plagues_Lake_Chad_Basin⠀⇛
A group of herders were tending to their cattle in a pasture
near Airamne village in Nigeria’s restive northeastern
borderlands when the shooting began.
Boko Haram fighters emerged from their camps in Gajiganna
forest on December 24, 2022 to launch an attack. The herders
returned fire.
* ⚓ Bruce Schneier ☛ Cyberwar_Lessons_from_the_War_in_Ukraine⠀⇛
The Aspen Institute has published a good analysis of the
successes, failures, and absences of cyberattacks as part of
the current war in Ukraine: “The Cyber Defense Assistance
Imperative Lessons from Ukraine.”
* ⚓ Aspen Institute ☛ The_Cyber_Defense_Assistance_Imperative_–_Lessons
from_Ukraine [iophk: Windows TCO]⠀⇛
Informed by the ongoing work of a variety of organizations
providing operational cyber support to Ukrainian institutions
through the Cyber Defense Assistance Collaborative, this paper
seeks to define cyber defense assistance, outline its primary
component parts, and identify key lessons learned that can help
inform how such assistance can be provided in future
geopolitical conflicts. It also makes the case that an
effective national security toolkit requires the ability to
deliver cyber defense assistance to allies.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russia_doubles_down_on_claims_that_Kyiv_is_preparing_to_attack
Transnistria_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Less than 24 hours after claiming Ukraine is preparing to carry
out a false-flag attack in Transnistria, Russia’s Defense
Ministry said on Thursday evening that it had detected a
“significant build-up” of Ukrainian troops and military
vehicles near the “Ukrainian-Transnistrian border.”
* ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Children_of_War⠀⇛
During a Veterans Day celebration in my small Maryland
community, a teacher clicked through a slideshow of smiling men
and women in military uniforms. “Girls and boys, can anyone
tell me what courage is?” she asked the crowd, mostly children
from local elementary schools, including my two young kids.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Forgotten_Terrorist_Pretext_of_the_Vietnam_War⠀⇛
After the 9/11 attacks, terrorism became the ultimate
entitlement program for America’s political elite. Whether it
is illegally spying on Americans or blowing Somali dissidents
to smithereens, invoking terrorism justifies any attack favored
by for Washington policymakers. But the disastrous results of
granting politicians a blank check should have been undeniable
almost 60 years ago.
Back in the 1960s, terrorism was what the communists did.
Antiterrorist moral fervor and ideological blinders propelled
the U.S. into its biggest foreign policy blunder since World
War Two.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ ‘We_don’t_have_another_motherland’:_Nine_years_into_Russian
occupation_and_oppression,_Crimean_Tatars_hold_out_hope_for_Ukraine’s
return_—_Meduza⠀⇛
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Russia_in_Africa⠀⇛
In January 2022, armed Russian militants operating under the
banner of the notorious Wagner Group of mercenaries – a Private
Military Company (PMC) operating internationally with Kremlin
support – began a security operation targeting the villages of
Aïgbado and Yanga, 600km to the east of Bangui, the capital
city of the Central African Republic. The result was the brutal
massacre of almost 70 Black African men, women, and children,
conducted in both villages at the hands of the Russian
mercenaries and their comrades among the Central African
government troops. Countless more were injured and displaced –
with images across various social media reports and news sites
indicating the graphic torture and murder of unarmed civilians,
hands bound behind their backs[1] as they are subjected to
violence well past the legal threshold for war crimes. The
United Nations (UN) Mission in the country, MINUSCA, confirmed
through a statement released by Stéphane Dujarric, also the
spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres, that they
had received reports of violence involving government troops
and unnamed external “security personnel”, with many casualties
and displacements running in the hundreds[2].
A UN Probe was subsequently announced earlier this year amid
increasing media attention and reports, local accusations and
international speculation concerning the Wagner Group’s
involvement; it has been long confirmed by the Central African
Republic’s (CAR) government that Russian mercenaries are indeed
present in the country, having been hired as ‘advisors’.
Further online reports have since suggested the UN probe was
hampered by the intentional placing of landmines to prevent
access for UN Peacekeepers and investigators – but information
confirming this fact is hard to find. What can be verified
regarding the UN investigation of this Wagner-perpetrated
massacre is this:
* ⚓ Hackaday ☛ German_Air_Force_Surplus_Teardown⠀⇛
It isn’t clear to us how [mrsylvain59] came into possession of
a late-model piece of military gear from the German airforce,
but we enjoyed watching the teardown below anyway. According to
the documentation, the thing has a huge price tag, although we
all know that the military usually pays top dollar for various
reasons, so we are guessing the cost of the parts is quite a
bit less than the price tag.
* ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Swedish-Finnish_NATO_membership_to_be_put_before
Hungarian_Parliament_next_week⠀⇛
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ ‘The_war_is_bad_for_Russia_but_good_for_the_regime’_Ukraine’s
Defense_Intelligence_Chief_Kyrylo_Budanov_on_defending_Bakhmut,
‘technological_penetration,’_and_why_recruiting_spies_still_matters_—
Meduza⠀⇛
This article is a very brief summary of what Ukraine’s Defense
Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov told Forbes Ukraine, in an
extended interview that surveyed the first year of Russia’s
invasion, what it revealed about Russia to Ukrainian
intelligence, and what predictions can be made on that basis.
The full interview is available in Ukrainian and Russian. Here
are Budanov’s main insights, in our own words.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ Dispatch_from_Dnipro_How_‘Ukraine’s_outpost’_and_its_people
are_faring_after_one_year_of_all-out_war_—_Meduza⠀⇛
* ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Possible_Murder_of_Pablo_Neruda⠀⇛
On September 23, 1973, just 12 days after the bloody military
coup in Chile, one of the world’s most famous poets, Pablo
Neruda, died in the Santa María medical clinic in Santiago,
where he was being treated for prostate cancer. At the time of
his death at age 69, a private plane sent by the Mexican
government was waiting to transport the Nobel laureate into the
safety of exile. Given his long history as a leading member of
Chile’s Communist Party, and his close ties to the deposed
government of Salvador Allende, Neruda had many reasons to flee
Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s forces.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Chile’s_Battle_for_Memory⠀⇛
Every morning, as I take my daily walk up toward the nearby
Andes mountains, I pass by the Aeródromo Tobalaba, an airfield
catering to a wide variety of private planes.
For most neighbors in La Reina, the district in Santiago where
my wife and I keep a house, this is a welcome open space in a
congested city—a guarantee that no high-rises will blot out the
horizon. For me, in a year that marks the 50th anniversary of
the coup against the democratically elected government of
Salvador Allende, the Aeródromo stirs up less-warm feelings.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ Poland_begins_installing_anti-tank_barriers_on_borders_with
Russia_and_Belarus_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Poland has begun installing anti-tank barriers on its borders
with Russia and Belarus, the country’s defense minister,
Mariusz Błaszczak, announced Thursday evening.
* ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Texas_Governor_Says_Most_Gun_Crimes_Involve_Illegally
Owned_Weapons._That’s_Not_True_for_Mass_Shootings.⠀⇛
Without mentioning the Uvalde mass shooting, Texas Gov. Greg
Abbott last week declared school safety a priority for the
current legislative session and again dismissed calls for more
laws that would restrict access to guns.
“Some want more gun laws, but too many local officials won’t
even enforce the gun laws that are already on the books,” the
governor said during his annual State of the State address.
Without providing a source or clear data, he then asserted that
“most gun crimes are committed by criminals who possess guns
illegally.” Abbott proposed a 10-year mandatory minimum
sentence for people who are not legally allowed to have a
firearm but have them anyway.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Energy_Wars:_Outing_the_Nordstream_Saboteurs⠀⇛
When news first emerged over explosions endured by the
NordStream pipelines, known collectively as Nord Stream 1 and
Nord Stream 2, an army of guessers was mobilised. The
accusation that Russia had done it seemed counterintuitive,
given that the Russian state company Gazprom is a majority
shareholder of Nord Stream 1 and sole owner of NordStream 2.
But this less than convenient fact did not discourage those
from the Moscow-is-behind everything School of Thinking. “It’s
pretty predictable and predictably stupid to express such
versions,” snarled Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
The first reports noted three leaks in both the NordStream 1
and NordStream 2 pipeline systems. A fourth was subsequently
revealed. Then came news that the first explosion had taken
place in a Russian built section of the pipeline. Der Spiegel
summed up the various questions. Was Moscow behind it? Or the
United States, which had always been implacably opposed to the
project? And what of Ukraine or perhaps “rogue” agents? For
those wishing for a more savoury sauce, there was babbling that
Mossad might have been behind it.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Does_South_Korea_Really_Need_the_F-35?⠀⇛
In a recent article a retired Republic of Korea Army [ROKA]
Lieutenant General talked about how important the F-35 is to
the security of his country. General Chun In-bum said: “For
reasons of interoperability and to maintain the highest quality
armed forces, the South Korean military uses U.S. arms to
conduct its mission to maintain peace. These include Apache
attack helicopters, F-15 and F-16 fighters, and the F-35
stealth fighter. The South Korean Air force [ROKAF] operates
forty F-35s and is planning to acquire twenty more to
supplement its capabilities.”
But he is concerned that political issues will make the F-35
even more expensive than it already is and it is the most
expensive fighter plane in history. He continued: “The main
concern is the ongoing dispute in Washington about the F135
engine that powers the F-35. There are those in the Pentagon
and Congress who have called for an upgrade to the propulsion
system—and rightfully so, given the F-35’s need for better
thrust and vertical lift—but there are also voices calling for
a completely new engine system called the Adaptive Engine
Transition Program (AETP). Thus far, we have seen hundreds of
millions of dollars earmarked for the development of this new
engine and this year is a pivotal year for the future of the F-
35 program. The proposed creation of an entirely new engine,
compared to upgrading the existing F135, would greatly burden
South Korea and other allies who operate the F-35.”
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ When_the_World_Said_No_to_War⠀⇛
Twenty years ago — on February 15, 2003 — the world said no to
war. People rose up in almost 800 cities around the world in an
unprecedented movement for peace.
The world stood on the precipice of war. U.S. and U.K.
warplanes and warships — filled with soldiers and sailors and
armed with the most powerful weapons ever used in conventional
warfare — were streaming towards the Middle East, aimed at
Iraq.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Oakland_Police_Department:_Above_the_Law?⠀⇛
When I first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1978, I
lived in East Oakland. My friend and I shared a run down
three-bedroom Victorian with a couple guys we met at a daily
free meal in Berkeley. Our house was a block away from
Foothill Avenue on East 17th Street. We were the only white-
skinned folks for a couple blocks. A dozen or so blocks to our
east was a neighborhood where lots of Hells Angels lived.
Although the Oakland police were constantly stopping young
Black people in the streets, emptying their pockets, rolling
up their sleeves and either arresting or punching them, I was
only bothered once by those uniforms. It was while I waited
for the bus that would take me to Berkeley, where I hung out.
Fortunately, I had no marijuana or other illegal substances on
me. After the cops emptied my pockets, took my name and called
it in to see if I had any warrants, they let me go and told me
I was stupid for living around so many n**gers. Both the cops
were white.
Unfortunately, my interactions with the police in Berkeley were
not as uneventful. I was knocked around by them, harassed too
many times to count, arrested on bullshit charges a half-dozen
times, and even taken to the hills, threatened with a severe
beating and then told to get out and walk back. But, that’s
another story. The only real link to the subject of this
piece–the Oakland Police Department–is that one of the cops who
relished harassing me and many other people on the Berkeley
streets had been fired for “accidentally” shooting a four-year
old in an Oakland police raid of questionable legality. That
same cop broke the arm of a friend of mine when he challenged
an arrest he was making.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ “Qualified_Immunity”_Strikes_Again⠀⇛
Over the last few decades, we’ve seen numerous bad actors
escape punishment for their bad acts — ranging from theft to
sexual misconduct to summary execution — for no better reason
than that they were government employees, under the doctrine of
“qualified immunity.”
Now the US Supreme Court appears to have dropped the
“qualified” part in favor of just plain immunity, full stop.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Liquidating_the_Legacy_of_Revolution:_Ideology_of_the
Russian_Invasion⠀⇛
1991, Leningrad. The private office of the deputy mayor of the
city. A reporter for the city’s television channel interviews a
young official from Anatoly Sobchak’s team. In the frame — a
man with a childish face in a white shirt. Behind him, you can
see window blinds, a television, a table lamp, a telephone,
open folders with papers. A typical Soviet office environment.
But something does not add up. From behind the scenes, the
voice of the journalist says that yesterday, he could still see
a bust of Lenin in this office, but today it had disappeared
somewhere. What had happened?
‘I find it difficult to answer what happened. Because this,
probably, was done by one of my assistants,’ the official
answers. ‘If you are interested in my opinion of this person,
of the doctrine he supposedly represented, then I would say […]
that all this is no more than a beautiful and harmful fairy
tale. Harmful because the implementation, or attempt to
implement it in the life of our country has caused it enormous
damage. And in this regard, I would like to speak about the
tragedy we are experiencing today. Namely, the tragedy of the
collapse of our state. You can’t call it anything but a
tragedy. I think it was the leaders of October 17th who laid a
time bomb under the foundation of the unitary state called
Russia. What did they do? They split our fatherland into
separate principalities, which previously did not appear on the
world map at all, endowed these principalities with governments
and parliaments, and so now we have what we have […] it’s
largely those people’s fault, whether they wanted it or not.’
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ A_Dangerous_Fishing_Expedition:_The_Select_Committee_on
China⠀⇛
Riled up against China, GOP congressmembers have long felt that
Washington’s new cold war needed a special venue. So as soon as
the baton passed to Republicans in the House, they set up a
select committee on China. This is majority leader Kevin
“Trump’s the Man” McCarthy’s baby, and if it sounds to you like
a forum for much grandstanding and frothing about the communist
menace, the yellow peril and the need to beef up the FBI, CIA,
DIA and NSA, so they can hunt down China’s spies from the halls
of government to the groves of academe – “they’re everywhere”
supposedly – you may be onto something. I’m not sure what that
something is, but it’s a good bet it ends with U.S. navy
aircraft carriers steaming toward Taiwan. In fact, a four-star
general, Mike Minihan, said as much January 27. “My gut tells
me we will fight in 2025,” he wrote in a memo to his
subordinates. In which case it’s time to head for the hills –
since every place else will be radioactive.
Proving the veracity of Minihan’s talkative gut, we learned
February 8 that the U.S., U.K. and Australian militaries
engaged in joint air drills over the Nevada desert, in
preparation for…war with China. Specifically, reported Reuters
February 8, “to simulate high-end combat operations, against
Chinese fighter aircraft and defenses.” Also in early February,
there bubbled up more murmurings in the press about Tokyo
beefing up its military and boosting ties with the Philippines,
the better to confront Beijing – at Washington’s behest, of
course. So the storm clouds gather, as China, too, speeds up
its production of nuclear missiles and muscles up its army, the
better, Beijing hopes, to deter the U.S. from provoking the
invasion of Taiwan that it would use as an excuse for war.
Kinda like the Ukraine incitement redux, except this time the
Washington sociopaths are ready to make the China war nuclear
from the get-go.
* ⚓ RFA ☛ India_is_keeping_close_ties_with_Myanmar,_even_transferring
weapons,_NGOs_say⠀⇛
Radar technology, automatic rifles and air defense systems sold
to junta despite human rights abuses
* ⚓ RFA ☛ Philippines_and_Australia_advance_defense_cooperation_in_South
China_Sea⠀⇛
Canberra pushes for joint patrols with the Philippines, as
Manila and Washington discuss same
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ Idaho_legislature_proposes_bill_to_reintroduce_firing_squad_as
execution_method⠀⇛
The Idaho Ways and Means Committee Wednesday introduced House
Bill 186 in the Idaho House of Representatives, which would
provide for execution by firing squad.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ US_foreign_policy:_China_is_important_but_the_top
priority_is_stopping_Russia⠀⇛
Members of the US foreign policy establishment are wrong to
prioritize a “China First” perspective at a time when Putin’s
Russia is waging a major war of aggression in Ukraine, writes
Richard D. Hooker, Jr.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ What_I_heard_in_Munich:_Four_fears_are_holding_the
West_back_from_quicker,_bolder_support_for_Ukraine⠀⇛
There is fear of escalation, fear of having Ukraine fully in
the European family, fear of a defeated Russia, and fear of a
defeated Ukraine.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Superhumans_Center:_Symbol_of_Ukrainian_defiance
amid_Russia’s_war⠀⇛
Opening in the coming months, the Superhumans Center war trauma
hospital in western Ukraine is a symbol of Ukrainian defiance
as Russia’s brutal invasion enters its second year, writes co-
founder Andrey Stavnitser.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Russia_policy_after_the_war:_A_new_strategy_of
containment⠀⇛
To prevent further damage to the rules-based international
order, the United States and its allies will need a strategy of
containment to deter Russia militarily and decouple Russia from
the international community, until Moscow has earned the right
to be considered a partner once more.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ The_balloon_drama_was_a_drill._Here’s_how_the_US_and
China_can_prepare_for_a_real_crisis.⠀⇛
The communication breakdown between the United States and China
could prove disastrous if a crisis arises that’s bigger than a
balloon—which is why they need to start talking now.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Undermining_Ukraine⠀⇛
From the very start of the war, the Kremlin emphasized
demoralizing Ukrainian audiences and destroying their will to
fight. Building on daily monitoring of the Kremlin media
ecosystem, this report analyzes Russia’s attempts to undermine
Ukraine by targeting local, regional, and global audiences
since February 2022.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Russian_Troops_Breached_Ukrainian_Defenses_On_February_21,_But
Were_Pushed_Back,_Says_Governor⠀⇛
Russian troops managed to break through Ukrainian defenses near
the eastern town of Kreminna on February 21 but were pushed
back and lost some of their heavy equipment, a senior Ukrainian
official said.
* ⚓ RFA ☛ Satellite_photos_show_expansion_of_Chinese-funded_naval_base_in
Cambodia⠀⇛
Ream Naval Base now has two new piers
* ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Our_Children_Are_Experiencing_Militarization_of_the_US_Up
Close_and_Personally⠀⇛
* ⚓ TruthOut ☛ One_Year_After_Russian_Invasion_of_Ukraine,_Much_of_Africa
Remains_Neutral⠀⇛
* ⚓ RFA ☛ NGOs_demand_better_conditions_for_detainees_in_Thailand_after
Uyghur_man’s_death⠀⇛
Aziz Abdullah, a Uyghur detainee, died after falling sick at
the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Putin_could_still_win_unless_the_West_speeds_up
efforts_to_arm_Ukraine⠀⇛
Ukraine’s international partners are gradually providing the
country with the weapons it needs to beat Russia, but excessive
caution and continued delays could still allow Vladimir Putin
to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Ukraine_Allies_Vow_To_Strengthen_Defenses⠀⇛
U.S. President Joe Biden met NATO and European leaders in
Warsaw on February 22, with the allies vowing in a statement
afterward to further “reinforce our deterrence and defense
posture across the entire Eastern flank from the Baltic to the
Black Sea.”
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ U.S._Ambassador_Condemns_Bosnian_Serb_Leader_‘Reprehensible’
Genocide_Denial⠀⇛
The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina has issued a scathing
condemnation of longtime Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik’s
latest denial of a genocide in the massacre of 8,000 men and
boys at Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in 1995, calling such
efforts “reprehensible,” illegal, and destabilizing.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Marking_One_Year_Of_War_In_Ukraine,_UN_Chief_Denounces_Russia⠀⇛
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of the founding UN
Charter and international law and called out Russian threats
about its possible use of nuclear weapons.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ UK_immigration_court_upholds_revocation_of_ISIS_trafficking
victim’s_citizenship⠀⇛
The UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission Wednesday
rejected 23-year-old Shamima Begum’s appeal against the
government’s 2019 revocation of her British citizenship. The
East London native was only 15 when she traveled to Syria to
align with ISIL and marry an ISIL fighter.
* ⚓ RFA ☛ China_appoints_special_envoy_to_Pacific_island_countries⠀⇛
Qian Bo, who was China’s envoy to Fiji, will attempt to
strengthen ties with small island states.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Narrative_warfare⠀⇛
In the weeks and months leading up to Russia invading Ukraine
on February 24, 2022, the Kremlin and pro-Kremlin media
employed false and misleading narratives to justify military
action against Ukraine, mask the Kremlin’s operational
planning, and deny any responsibility for the coming war. Dive
into a full accounting of the road to war.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Our_experts_decode_the_Putin_speech_that_launched
Russia’s_invasion_of_Ukraine⠀⇛
Vladimir Putin’s February 24, 2022, speech launching a war of
aggression in Ukraine was full of false, misleading narratives
that Putin, official Kremlin channels, and pro-Kremlin Russian
media outlets had been circulating since 2014. Experts unpack
the narrative themes that Russia used to justify the war.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ In_Ukraine’s_Kherson,_dozens_of_children_deported_to
Russia⠀⇛
The Ukrainian government says Russia has illegally deported
more than 16,000 children to Russian territory since 2014, a
practice that intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion of
Ukraine a year ago. Not all children are taken by force, but
evidence is mounting of a coordinated effort to indoctrinate
Ukrainian children and send them to Russian foster families. In
the southern city of Kherson, witnesses say Russian forces took
children from at least two orphanages as they pulled out of the
city last October.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Tunisian_president_says influx_of_sub-Sahara_African
migrants_must_end⠀⇛
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied denounced undocumented sub-
Saharan African immigration to his country on Tuesday, saying
in comments criticised by rights groups that it was aimed at
changing Tunisia’s demographic make-up.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Jailed_Georgian_Ex-President_Alleges_‘Murder’_Plot,_Appeals_For
Help⠀⇛
Jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has
alleged a widening plot by officials and others to “murder” him
and appealed via social media for his country and the world to
prevent “this criminal corporation” from carrying out “their
evil intentions.”
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Two_Senior_U.S._Lawmakers_Chide_Austria_For_Granting_Visas_To
Russian_Deputies_For_OSCE_Meeting⠀⇛
Two senior U.S. lawmakers say Austria erred by issuing visas to
the Russian delegation — all of whom are under European Union
sanctions due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — for this week’s
meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe in Vienna.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Blinken_To_Meet_With_UN’s_Guterres_About_Ukraine_And_Will
Stress_Expanding_Grain_Deal⠀⇛
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of a UN
Security Council ministerial meeting this week coinciding with
the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of
Ukraine.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Hungary_To_Vote_On_Finland,_Sweden_NATO_Bids_In_Early_March⠀⇛
Hungarian lawmakers will vote on the NATO bids by Finland and
Sweden in early March, according to the parliamentary agenda
published on February 22.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ China_Did_Not_Consult_Ukraine_On_Its_Purported_Peace_Plan,
Official_Says⠀⇛
Ukraine’s top diplomat, Dmytro Kuleba, said his Chinese
counterpart, Wang Yi, shared “key elements of the Chinese peace
plan” during their meeting in Germany earlier this week.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Biden_Reassures_NATO’s_Eastern_Flank_Of_Protection_From
Russia⠀⇛
U.S. President Joe Biden once again reassured countries on
NATO’s eastern flank, all of which used to be under the thumb
of the former Soviet Union, that the Western defense alliance
would help them in the event of an attack.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Russia,_China_Show_Off_Ties_Amid_Maneuvering_Over_Ukraine⠀⇛
Russia and China showcased their deepening ties on February 22
in meetings others are watching for signs that Beijing might
offer the Kremlin stronger support for its war in Ukraine.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ Mexico_ex-official_convicted_of_bribery_in_US_over_cartel
ties⠀⇛
Genaro Garcia Luna, formerly the highest-ranking law
enforcement official in Mexico, was convicted Tuesday by a
federal jury in New York for assisting the Sinaloa drug cartel.
* ⚓ RFA ☛ Back-to-back_patriotic_February_holidays_prove_exhausting_ordeal
for_North_Koreans⠀⇛
“They wish the holidays would just disappear.”
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Fighter_jets,_quakes,_NATO_stakes:_Are_US-Turkish_ties_on_a
reset?⠀⇛
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday came in the wake of
the devastating earthquakes that have rattled the Turkish
leader’s projection of his country as a regional hegemon. With
Turkey turning into a recipient of generous US humanitarian
aid, will Ankara play the role of Washington’s friend rather
than foe?
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Germany_expels_two_Iranian_diplomats_over_dual_national’s
death_sentence⠀⇛
Germany on Wednesday said it was expelling two diplomats from
the Iranian embassy in Berlin over the death sentence an
Iranian court handed down against an Iranian-German national.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ French_high-school_student_stabs_teacher_to_death_during
class⠀⇛
A teenage pupil stabbed to death a teacher in the middle of a
lesson at a school in southwest France on Wednesday, the
regional prosecutor said.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Ukraine_won_the_‘geek_war’_but_it_wasn’t_enough_on_the_front
line⠀⇛
In the early stages of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian
ingenuity and ability to adapt commercially available equipment
helped stem the Russian advance. It proved less useful on the
eastern front line, when Ukraine needed heavy weapons. But a
year after the invasion, there’s little doubt that Ukraine’s
DIY ingenuity has left a lasting mark on modern warfare.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Live:_‘No_evidence’_Russia_moving_closer_to_nuclear_weapon
use,_Biden_says⠀⇛
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticised Russia’s
decision to suspend a key nuclear treaty, but said there was
“no evidence” that Moscow was moving closer to actually using
an atomic weapon. Russian President Vladimir Putin said
Russia will maintain increased attention on boosting its
nuclear forces in an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the
Fatherland public holiday and a day before the first
anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Eastern_European_Countries_Jointly_Condemn_Russia’s_War_In
Ukraine,_Says_Polish_Official⠀⇛
All members of the Bucharest Nine, the nations on NATO’s
eastern flank that joined the alliance after being dominated by
Moscow during the Cold War, have jointly condemned Russia’s war
in Ukraine, a Polish presidential adviser said on February 22.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ UN_Court_Orders_Azerbaijan_To_Unblock_Lachin_Corridor_Amid
Armenian_Accusations_Of_‘Ethnic_Cleansing’⠀⇛
The UN’s top court has ordered Azerbaijan to allow free passage
through the Lachin Corridor, which extends between Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan clawed back from ethnic
Armenians in 2020 in a six-week intensification of a decades-
old conflict between the post-Soviet foes.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Finland_And_Sweden_Are_Heading_Into_NATO_‘Hand_In_Hand,’
Finnish_President_Says⠀⇛
Finland and Sweden are proceeding “hand in hand” toward NATO
membership but that the decision to ratify the applications for
the two Nordic countries lies with Turkey, Finnish President
Sauli Niinisto said on February 22.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ President_Sandu_Invites_Biden_To_‘Revisit’_Moldova_Amid_Russia
Tensions⠀⇛
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on February 22 that at a
meeting the previous day in Warsaw she invited U.S. President
Joe Biden to “revisit” her country, which shares a 1,200-
kilometer border with Ukraine.
* ⚓ LRT ☛ Ukraine’s_President_Zelensky_to_come_to_Vilnius_for_NATO_summit_–
ambassador⠀⇛
President Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to travel to Vilnius
for NATO’s summit in July, Petro Beshta, Ukraine’s ambassador
to Lithuania, has told BNS in an interview.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Wagner_Group’s_bloody_year_in_Ukraine:_From_murder_squad_to
cannon_fodder⠀⇛
It was supposed to be Russia’s secret weapon for a swift and
efficient victory in Ukraine. But in the year since Wagner
Group mercenaries were dispatched to Kyiv to hunt down
Ukraine’s president, what was once an elite murder squad has
become a group of mostly ill-trained and unequipped convicts
who today serve as “cannon fodder”.
* ⚓ Defence Web ☛ Islamist_terrorism_is_rising_in_the_Sahel,_but_not_in
Chad_–_what’s_different?⠀⇛
Since the rise of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the emergence of
Islamist-Salafist groups in northern Mali in 2013, the Sahel
has increasingly been caught in the maelstrom of Islamist
terrorism. The region is now described as the new global
epicentre of violent extremism.
* ⚓ LRT ☛ Ukraine’s_war_trophy_tank_to_go_on_display_in_Vilnius⠀⇛
Russian tanks destroyed by the Ukrainian forces will go on
display in Lithuania and three other European countries.
* ⚓ LRT ☛ With_Moscow_visit,_China_shows_it’s_leaning_toward_Russia,_says
Lithuanian_FM⠀⇛
While Beijing insists on neutrality in the Ukraine war,
Lithuania’s foreign minister insists that a recent visit by
China’s top diplomat to Moscow shows its sympathies lie with
Russia.
* ⚓ LRT ☛ Measures_against_sanctions_dodging_are_‘sufficient’,_says_EC_rep
in_Lithuania⠀⇛
Russia and Belarus are constantly looking for ways to get round
EU sanctions, but it is necessary to find ways to prevent this
from happening, says Marius Vaščega, head of the European
Commission Representation in Lithuania.
* ⚓ teleSUR ☛ China-Russia_Partnership_Never_Targets_Any_Third_Party:
China⠀⇛
The China-Russia relationship, which has stood the test of the
drastic changes in the world situation, is mature, tough and as
stable as Mount Tai.
§ Environment⠀➾
* ⚓ CNN ☛ It’s_never_been_this_warm_in_February._Here’s_why_that’s_not_a
good_thing⠀⇛
Record warmth in February — a time that’s supposed to still
feel like winter — might not sound like such a bad thing, but
its negative consequences spread across the plant world,
sports, tourism and agriculture. And it is another clear sign
that our planet is warming rapidly, experts say.
“Whenever we get these events, we should always be thinking
there’s the possibility or likelihood that human-induced
climate change is increasing the likelihood of strange
weather,” Richard Seager, climate researcher at the Lamont-
Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, told CNN.
“The more it goes on, the more they can bring such tremendous
damage.”
* ⚓ RTL ☛ Global_wildlife_contaminated_by_‘forever_chemicals’⠀⇛
Over 300 wildlife species showed traces of the nearly
indestructible synthetic chemicals, according to a report from
the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) PFAS Project Lab
released on Wednesday.
The mapping of over 125 peer-reviewed scientific studies is the
first global scoping of the problem in wildlife, the authors
said.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Climate_Code_Red_Analysis_and_Sea_Level_Warnings⠀⇛
Climate Code Red, a very thorough and well-respected source on
climate change/global warming, recently issued a three-part
study on where things stand with the climate system via looking
through the rearview mirror at 2022 and reflecting that charred
image into the future: Faster, Higher, Hotter: What We Learned
About the Climate System in 2022 by David Spratt, Research
Director, Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration,
Feb. 20, 2023.
For starters, several aspects of global warming are at all-time
highs, for example, coal use is at an all-time high and not
surprisingly all three of the major greenhouse gases CO2, CH4,
and N2O hit record highs in 2022. According to the Global
Carbon Project: Carbon emissions from fossil fuels hit a new
record of 37.5B tons. Topping off these all-time records, the
International Energy Agency expects fossil fuel emissions to
possibly peak in 2025 but remain at a “high plateau at a high
level” for a decade or more with no significant decline
expected in the foreseeable future. Good luck with Net Zero.
* ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ From_good_intentions_to_good_actions⠀⇛
In September 2020, India and Denmark marked a historic
partnership. By launching the first Green Strategic Partnership
of its kind, the two countries chose each other as preferred
partners to fast-track climate solutions and reconcile economic
growth with ambitious green
* § Energy/Transportation⠀➾
o ⚓ France24 ☛ Economists_urge_China_to_adopt_new_model_to_head_off
climate_risks⠀⇛
A team of influential economists has urged China to adopt
a new development model based on “wellbeing” rather than
GDP growth in order to fulfil its 2060 net-zero emissions
goals and head off the mounting threats of climate
change.
o ⚓ New York Times ☛ Wind_and_Solar_Energy_Projects_Risk_Overwhelming
America’s_Antiquated_Electrical_Grids⠀⇛
An explosion in proposed clean energy ventures has
overwhelmed the system for connecting new power sources
to homes and businesses.
o ⚓ Bridge Michigan ☛ 5_(mostly)_good_things_to_know_about_Michigan’s
progress_on_EVs⠀⇛
The move appears to have come at the right time: EV
battery investment topped $73.6 billion in 2022, up from
about $25 billion a year earlier, according to data from
the Chicago Federal Reserve. The increase underscores the
urgency of automakers to ramp up EV production and move
the vehicles’ critical supply chains to the U.S.
o ⚓ The Economist ☛ North_Korean_hackers_stole_a_record_$1.7bn_of
crypto_last_year⠀⇛
Despite being unable to feed its people, North Korea has
found innovative ways to fund its missiles programme,
including by forging foreign currency, committing
insurance fraud and making and selling arms and
narcotics. A more novel revenue stream is stolen
cryptocurrency. Last year its hackers pinched a record
$1.7bn of the stuff, according to a report published this
month by Chainalysis, a data firm based in New York.
o ⚓ Rocky Mountain Institute ☛ Cryptocurrency’s_Energy_Consumption
Problem⠀⇛
Cryptocurrency has an energy consumption problem. Bitcoin
alone is estimated to consume 127 terawatt-hours (TWh) a
year — more than many countries, including Norway. In the
United States, cryptocurrency activity is estimated to
emit from 25 to 50 million tons of CO2 each year, on par
with the annual emissions from diesel fuel used by US
railroads.
o ⚓ Popular Mechanics ☛ The_First_Nuclear-Powered_Bitcoin_Mine_Is
Here._Maybe_It_Can_Clean_Up_[Cryptocurrecy].⠀⇛
Electricity usage from global [cryptocurrency] mining
quadrupled from 2018 to 2022, according to the U.S.
government. By mid-2022, [cryptocurency] assets were
using upward of 240 billion kilowatt hours per year—more
than the annual electricity of countries such as
Argentina or Australia. [Cryptocurrency] electricity
usage made up nearly 1 percent of all annual global
electricity usage, and [cryptocurrency] operations
consume up to 1.7 percent of all U.S. electricity usage.
o ⚓ Associated Press ☛ Police:_[Cryptocurrency]_mining_operation
found_in_school_crawl_space⠀⇛
A former employee of a Massachusetts town is facing
charges of allegedly setting up a secret cryptocurrency
mining operation in a remote crawl space at a school,
police said.
Nadeam Nahas, 39, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday
on charges of fraudulent use of electricity and
vandalizing a school, but he did not show up and a judge
issued a default warrant after rejecting a defense motion
to reschedule, a spokesperson for the Norfolk district
attorney’s office said.
o ⚓ Michael West Media ☛ Farmers,_elders,_Teals_meet_to_thwart_Santos
fracking_the_Pilliga_and_the_Liverpool_Plains⠀⇛
Kamilaroi elders, farmers and politicians gathered under
a temporary pavilion on the Gunn property east of
Gunnedah this week, right in the middle of the Liverpool
Plains. They want to stop the fossil fuel developments
that threaten our food supply, reports Callum Foote.
Farmers and landholders organised a conference this week
with the sole intent of stopping Santos’s expansion into
the Liverpool plains through the proposed development of
the Hunter Gas Pipeline; and if possible, stop the
development of the Narrabri and Pilliga gas fields.
Cattle farmer Rosemary Nankivell told the meeting:
o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Dark_Side_of_Renewable_Energy:_How_Bioenergy
Causes_Air_Pollution⠀⇛
Bioenergy is often seen as a more environmentally-
friendly alternative to other forms of energy generation.
But the truth is that it can actually be quite harmful to
the environment. Bioenergy has a dark side: It
contributes to air pollution.
Biomass, or bioenergy, creates energy by burning living
materials like plants and trees. The wood pellet industry
uses trees to make wood pellets. It then ships them to
Europe and Asia and burns them in power plants to create
electricity. Wood pellet plants are as dirty and
problematic as coal plants.
o ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Groups_Launch_World’s_First-Ever_Climate_Lawsuit
Against_a_Commercial_Bank⠀⇛
A trio of advocacy groups on Thursday launched the
world’s first climate lawsuit against a commercial bank,
alleging that the Paris-based firm BNP Paribas is
violating its legal obligations by continuing to finance
planet-wrecking oil and gas development on a massive
scale.
o ⚓ CNN ☛ FTX_founder_Sam_Bankman-Fried_indicted_on_new_criminal
charges⠀⇛
Federal prosecutors announced new criminal charges
against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto trading
platform FTX, expanding his potential liability in what
authorities allege is a billion dollar fraud.
o ⚓ LWN ☛ Free_software_and_fiduciary_duty⠀⇛
Serial litigant Craig Wright recently won a procedural
ruling in a London court that allows a multi-billion-
dollar Bitcoin-related lawsuit to proceed. This case has
raised a fair amount of concern within the free-software
community, where it is seen as threatening the “no
warranty” language included in almost every free-software
license. As it happens, this case does not actually
involve that language, but it has some potentially
worrisome implications anyway.
Wright is known for, among other things, claiming to be
Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the original paper
describing Bitcoin, and for filing numerous lawsuits
within the cryptocurrency community. In the case at hand,
he (in the form of his company “Tulip Trading Limited”)
claims to own about $4 billion in Bitcoin sitting in the
blockchain — a claim that, like his others, is not
universally acknowledged — but to have lost the keys
giving access to that Bitcoin after his home network was
broken into. It is, Wright claims, incumbent upon the
maintainers of the Bitcoin network software to develop
and merge a patch allowing the claimed Bitcoin to be
transferred to a key that he controls.
The various Bitcoin developers, it turns out, are
unconvinced by Wright’s claim to that Bitcoin and even
less convinced that the Bitcoin miners would accept a
software update that included such a patch. Wright,
allegedly backed by some deep pockets with eyes on part
of a $4 billion prize, has taken 15 of these developers
(and one organization) to court. The case fared poorly in
in its first round, but now an appeals court has issued a
ruling allowing an appeal to proceed, saying that there
are issues of interest to be litigated.
At a first look, this case appears to be a warranty
issue, and many observers have seen it that way. Wright
is asserting that a bug in the Bitcoin system is keeping
him from getting his hands on his well-earned billions,
and that the maintainers of that code owe him a fix. The
code in question is covered by the MIT license, which
explicitly disclaims the existence of any warranty; if
the court were to find that a warranty obligation exists
anyway, the resulting precedent could put free-software
developers at risk worldwide. It is not surprising that
people are concerned.
* § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾
o ⚓ RFA ☛ Nearly_four_tons_of_slaughtered_cats_found_in_Vietnam,_as
well_as_480_live_cats⠀⇛
The carcasses were likely meant to be used for
traditional medicine
o ⚓ Federal News Network ☛ 1st_baby_pangolin_in_Europe_born_in_Prague
zoo,_doing_well⠀⇛
A Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo, the
first birth of the critically endangered animal in
captivity in Europe, and is doing well after initial
troubles, the park said on Thursday.
§ Finance⠀➾
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ Chip_Makers_Turn_Cutthroat_in_Fight_for_Share_of
Federal_Money⠀⇛
Semiconductor companies, which united to get the CHIPS Act
approved, have set off a lobbying frenzy as they argue for more
cash than their competitors.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ When_Neoliberals_Declared_War_on_the_Poor⠀⇛
For Bill Clinton and Dick Morris polls were everything. Morris
developed what he called a “neuro-psychological profile” of the
American voter, and established an iron rule that no initiative
could be undertaken by the White House unless polling showed an
approval rating of 60 percent. By constant polling, he
concocted what he called a “values agenda,” for Clinton. At the
top of the list was affirmative action. “Mend it, don’t end it”
was the mantra, which meant, in practice, destroy affirmative
action from the inside while professing support for the general
principle.
Next came TV violence. Intimidate the networks, Morris advised,
into adopting a “voluntary” system of ratings for TV shows and
movies. Soon media executives were summoned to the White House
for a session with Clinton and Al Gore. Simultaneously Clinton
pushed for the installation of the so-called V-chip in all new
TV sets, which would allow parents to block all offensive
material. Next came teen pregnancy, an issue pounded on by the
Clinton White House, even though the rate had been falling.
Education: go after tenured teachers, an attack increasingly
popular in Morris’s focus groups, and demand that at least they
be tested. Youth: advocate school uniforms and curfews for
teens. Gay marriage: on Morris’s advice Clinton embraced the
Defense of Marriage Act, a purely grandstanding piece of
legislation that preemptively barred gay marriages from
recognition under federal law for any purpose. Immigration: the
poll numbers were off the chart, and the Clinton White House
duly set a goal to double the number of turn-backs by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service–among other things,
enlisting the Labor Department to help speed the pace and
breadth of workplace raids. Taxes: Morris believed that Main
Street America was now playing the market, so that a 20 percent
reduction in the capital gains tax rate would be hugely
popular.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ Google_tells_developers_to_implement_alternative_billing
from_April_26;_developers_cry_foul⠀⇛
The CCI in its two rulings — one on October 20 and the second
on October 25 — had directed the American company to make close
to 20 changes in the operation of its services in India which
included providing alternative payment options to developers.
* ⚓ 37signals LLC ☛ Caring_about_costs_is_cool⠀⇛
But costs aren’t just about the bottomline, they’re also a
measure of efficiency. I have a distinct distaste for waste.
Money spent on the frivolous or the ill-considered is money
that can’t be spent elsewhere. Like an engine drinking too much
oil just to run. Tight tolerances (but not too tight!) are a
joy in themselves.
* ⚓ DroidGazzette ☛ Stripe_launches_Tap_to_Pay_on_Android⠀⇛
As it leverages the Terminal, Tap to Pay is fully integrated
with Stripe, thus aiming to support businesses with managing
both in-person and online payments in a single place. This lets
them track customer transactions across channels, offer
improved customer experience, and simplify reporting and
revenue reconciliation. What is more, the Terminal and Tap to
Pay solutions are fully compatible with Stripe Connect, which
helps platform businesses to offer their users the capability
of accepting in-person payments in an easy manner. Businesses
running on platforms that can now accept these payments on
Android devices include Squire, Fareharbor, Oddle, and GiveTap.
* ⚓ CBC ☛ As_tip_amounts_rise,_many_Canadians_say_they’d_rather_skip_the
tip_—_and_some_restaurants_agree⠀⇛
Folke introduced its no-tipping policy when the vegan
restaurant opened in June 2022. Deo says employees earn well
above minimum wage ($15.65 per hour in B.C.) and get full
benefits. All overhead costs, including salaries, have already
been factored into the menu prices, so customers simply pay the
bill.
“It was really important to us to have an inclusive work
environment where everyone was compensated fairly,” said Deo.
“It’s not our customers’ responsibility to pay our staff
properly. … It’s our responsibility to make sure that our staff
are taken care of.”
* ⚓ CNN ☛ India’s_opposition_vows_to_keep_‘raising_questions_about_Adani
group’_after_spokesperson_arrested⠀⇛
When dozens of security personnel crowded onto the runway of
New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport on Thursday, it was not to
capture a terrorist or fleeing criminal mastermind, or even to
apprehend an unruly passenger.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ Ukrainian_court_seizes_property_worth_150_million_USD_from
Oksana_Marchenko,_Viktor_Medvedchuk’s_wife_—_Meduza⠀⇛
A Ukrainian court seized the property of Oksana Marchenko, wife
of former Ukrainian pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
Marchenko is suspected of financing Russian law enforcement
agencies.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ On_the_Great_Resignation:_Interrogating_the_Neoliberal
Narrative⠀⇛
One of my acquaintances, a university employee, told me that
she was shocked when she heard in a high-level staff meeting a
senior administrator say, “we are quite aware of the trending
‘quiet quitting’ culture, and we warn our staff that doing so
will result in quiet firing.” She was shocked partly “because I
didn’t even know at the time how widely this debate has been
circulating in the mainstream media. I don’t follow the news.
But even more shocking to me is that a place like a university
would use such a threatening tone to address an issue that may
have much more serious underlying causes.” My acquaintance’s
concerns are legitimate. In that same conversation, I asked:
“did it occur to that senior university administrator that
there would be no quiet quitting if people didn’t feel that
they are being quietly marginalized and bullied in the first
place?” “Well, people would not have resorted to this approach
if they felt fulfilled, are paid decent living wages, and
allowed to create and contribute rather than just serve as cogs
in a bigger machine,” she added. We both found that countering
“quiet quitting” with “quiet firing” is immature and
vindictive, because it totally ignores the causes that got
people to this point.
Our conversation took place around the time the narrative of
“the great resignation” and “quiet quitting” began trending in
the mainstream media, so I decided to interrogate the
mainstream narrative, while at the same time talk to as many
people on the ground as I can, and research as many resources
as possible to capture what the working and struggling people
at the receiving end of this serious issue have to say about
it. Not surprisingly, I found a frightening discord in the ways
the mainstream media is framing the issues by focusing almost
exclusively on the neoliberal, elitist, and privileged
viewpoints, while deliberately ignoring the workers’ side of
the story. This is when I decided that, as an independent
anthropologist with a great interest in labor issues, I needed
to dig deeper and share what I find publicly. My hope is not
only to raise critical questions that we must wrestle with in
the U.S., but also to expose the extent to which the ruling
class totally disregards people’s voices. After all, it is
these hundreds of millions of working people who struggle to
make a living, and when all their struggle doesn’t result in
living fulfilling, dignified, and meaningful lives, we are
ignoring serious issues that could have detrimental effects on
the entire society.
* ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Denmark_ranks_among_top_countries_to_launch_a
startup⠀⇛
Business Name Generator rated 50 countries on its 2023 Global
Startup Index and the Danes came in the top 10
* ⚓ Copenhagen Post ☛ Government_confident_new_bill_will_enable_companies
to_more_easily_recruit_foreign_labour⠀⇛
But economy minister cautions that new law will not open the
floodgates, setting a provisional limit of 15,000 on the number
that can be employed
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy_Sends_Ukrainian_Lawmakers_Sweeping_Sanctions_On
Russian_Financial_Institutions⠀⇛
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has submitted a
resolution to lawmakers endorsing a decision by his National
Security and Defense Council to impose sweeping sanctions
against Russian financial institutions, including the Russian
central bank, insurers, and a host of other enterprises.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Russia_and_China_have_been_teaming_up_to_reduce
reliance_on_the_dollar._Here’s_how_it’s_going.⠀⇛
Squeezed by sanctions, Russia has turned to Chinese yuan and
gold, but both introduced new vulnerabilities and
inconveniences.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Iran’s_economic_future_is_uncertain._It’s_no
surprise_why_Raisi_visited_China.⠀⇛
From February 14-16, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was in
Beijing for his first foreign trip of the year and the first
official visit to China for an Iranian leader in twenty years.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_financial_regulator_orders_Mormon_church_to_pay_$1M_penalty
for_inaccurate_investment_filings⠀⇛
The Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday announced
charges against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
and its investment management company for failing to file
necessary forms and providing inaccurate information. The SEC
first raised concerns about the church’s reporting practices in
2019.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget:_Radio_caller_chides_‘stingy’
finance_chief_after_consumption_vouchers_halved_to_HK$5k⠀⇛
Hong Kong’s finance chief said the city must be cautious how it
spends its surplus after a radio caller chided him for a
“stingy” decision to halve the value of the consumption voucher
to HK$5,000 in the budget for the coming year.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_HK$5,000_consumption
vouchers_for_all_eligible_residents⠀⇛
Hongkongers are set to receive another round of consumption
vouchers totalling HK$5,000, Finance Secretary Paul Chan has
announced.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ China_and_private_lenders_are_blocking_a_solution_to
the_global_debt_crisis._The_G20_must_step_in.⠀⇛
The international community must apply pressure so that China
and private-sector lenders join in facilitating a collective
haircut that includes all lenders.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_Mixed_reviews_as_critics
slam_gov’t_for_overlooking_the_poor⠀⇛
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced the first
budget of Chief Executive John Lee’s administration on
Wednesday. The city is expected to see a HK$140 billion
deficit, over double of the original estimation of HK$56.8
billion.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_Tax_cuts_scaled_back,
transport_subsidy_extended,_other_relief_measures⠀⇛
Tax cuts for Hong Kong taxpayers have been scaled back as the
city’s financial minister announced a series of measures to
alleviate economic pressure on the public.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_unveils_HK$761_billion_budget_in_bid
to_boost_post-Covid_recovery⠀⇛
Hong Kong’s finance chief unveiled a HK$761 billion (US$97
billion) budget on Wednesday, plunging into the coffers to pay
for the recession-hit city’s post-Covid recovery. Hoping to
kickstart the finance centre’s economy, Finance Secretary Paul
Chan announced tax cuts and more consumer spending vouchers.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_Police_equipment_budget
rises_59%,_despite_spending_just_8.5%_of_2022_allocation⠀⇛
Funding for the Hong Kong Police Force is to remain largely
frozen in the coming financial year, though the “plant, vehicle
and equipment” budget was increased by 59 per cent in finance
chief Paul Chan’s 2023 budget.
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong_Budget_2023:_City_expects_HK$140
billion_deficit,_but_predicts_‘visible_rebound’_in_economy⠀⇛
The Hong Kong government expects to record a deficit of HK$140
billion in 2022-23, more than double the HK$56 billion initial
estimate. The estimated fiscal deficit was revealed by
Financial Secretary Paul Chan when he delivered the budget for
the upcoming fiscal year at the Legislative Council on
Wednesday.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_Supreme_Court_rules_‘daily-rate’_oil_rig_employee_qualifies
for_overtime⠀⇛
The US Supreme Court Wednesday issued a 6-3 opinion ruling that
Michael Hewitt, an oil rig employee making over $200,000
annually, qualified for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards
Act (FSLA). The court held that Hewitt, a daily-rate employee,
was not an executive exempt from the FSLA’s overtime pay
guarantee.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_Department_of_Justice_announces_policy_incentivizing
companies_to_report_misconduct⠀⇛
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday announced a policy
incentivizing companies to voluntarily self-report criminal
conduct. The United States Attorney’s Offices’ Voluntary Self-
Disclosure Policy, which is effective immediately, aims to
nationally standardize these disclosures and encourage
companies to maintain effective compliance programs,
efficiently remediate misconduct and cooperate with the
government in corporate investigations.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_Supreme_Court_rules_bankruptcy_debtor_liable_for_partner’s
fraud⠀⇛
The US Supreme Court Wednesday ruled in a slip opinion that a
Chapter 7 bankruptcy debtor cannot discharge a debt that
resulted from her partner’s fraudulent activity under 11 U.S.C.
§ 523(a)(7)(A). Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the
unanimous opinion.
* ⚓ teleSUR ☛ German_Inflation_Rises_to_8.7_Pct_in_January:_Destatis⠀⇛
The measures to curb inflation are mostly focused on energy.
However, food prices are also driving inflation in Europe’s
largest economy.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ EU_Echoes_Inflation_Fears_Behind_Bulgarian_Delay_In_Joining
Eurozone⠀⇛
The European Commission says Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro by
next January is “no longer realistic” because of inflation, an
acknowledgement that sheds greater light on the caretaker
government in Sofia’s announcement last week that its new
“target date” is January 2025.
§ AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾
* ⚓ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong_Kong’s_Democratic_Party_postpones_spring
dinner_after_restaurant_pulls_out_last_minute_for_‘urgent_repair’⠀⇛
The Democratic Party – the largest remaining opposition party
in the city – has been forced to postpone its spring dinner
after three restaurants pulled out of hosting the party and its
supporters.
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ Tech_Leaders_in_Israel_Wonder_if_It’s_Time_to_Leave⠀⇛
Ahead of a judicial overhaul that could transform the country
and frighten away investors, the executives of Start-Up Nation
are mulling an exodus.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Israeli_troops_conduct_deadly_raid_in_flashpoint_West_Bank
city⠀⇛
Israeli troops killed 11 Palestinians, including at least four
gunmen and four civilians, and wounded more than 100 people
during a Wednesday raid on a city in the occupied West Bank,
witnesses, militant groups and medical officials said.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Mexico’s_Senate_approves_controversial_electoral_reform
bill⠀⇛
Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday approved a reform of the country’s
electoral institute, a move that opponents say will undercut
democracy but which the president contends will save money and
reduce political privileges.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ ‘Putin_has_lost_influence_in_the_world,’_top_Ukrainian
lawmaker_tells_FRANCE_24⠀⇛
In an interview with FRANCE 24′s Gulliver Cragg in Kyiv, the
head of the parliamentary faction of President Volodymyr
Zelensky’s Servant of the People party discussed the situation
in Ukraine, one year after the start of Russia’s full-scale
invasion. David Arakhamia said Russian President Vladimir Putin
had “lost influence in the world” as a result of Moscow’s
military setbacks in Ukraine. Arakhamia said “everyone” should
worry after Putin said he would suspend his country’s
participation in New START, the last remaining major nuclear
arms control treaty between the US and Russia.
* ⚓ France24 ☛ UN_chief_calls_Russia’s_war_in_Ukraine_‘affront_to
collective_conscience’⠀⇛
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday condemned
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it “an affront to our
collective conscience” as the General Assembly met in a special
session two days before the anniversary of Moscow’s attack.
Read FRANCE 24′s blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All
times are Paris time (GMT+1).
* ⚓ France24 ☛ ‘Putin_is_a_global_problem,’_Ukraine’s_foreign_minister
tells_FRANCE_24⠀⇛
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed confidence
that Ukraine would win the war against the invading force of
Russia, in an interview with FRANCE 24. Speaking in Brussels a
few days ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion,
the top Ukrainian diplomat explained why he thinks President
Vladimir Putin represents a global threat for the international
community, saying that the Russian president’s strategy was
“destruction and undermining stability”. Kuleba added, “No one
is interested in having a UN Security Council member and a
nuclear power messing up the world.”
* ⚓ RFA ☛ Vietnam_arrests_Facebook_user_for_allegedly_posting_‘illegal
content’⠀⇛
Le Minh The recently served a 2-year sentence on the same
charge.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ Charai_in_The_Hill:_A_reminder_for_the_fight_against
despots:_Citizens_are_victims⠀⇛
The current generation is challenged by democracy’s enemies. On
the feeblest pretexts, a charismatic dictator has sent soldiers
into a neighboring nation. Once again, the dictator imagines
his prey is weak because it is a democracy, backed by other
democracies.
* ⚓ Atlantic Council ☛ #BalkansDebrief_–_What_is_the_future_for_Kosovo
Serbs_in_the_north?_|_A_Debrief_with_Tatjana_Lazarevic⠀⇛
Nonresident Senior Fellow Ilva Tare interviews Tatjana
Lazarevic, the Editor-in-Chief of the KoSSev news portal and a
resident of the Kosovo Serb-majority city of Mitrovica in the
north of Kosovo.
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ How_the_U.S._Adopted_a_New_Intelligence_Playbook_to
Expose_Russia’s_War_Plans⠀⇛
In a previous era, the warning might have remained private, at
least for some time. But a new intelligence playbook honed just
before and during the war in Ukraine has redefined how the
United States uses its classified knowledge to undercut Russia
and its partners.
The playbook is not just about naming and shaming Russia and
its allies; it has become a powerful tool in the United States’
arsenal to try to stymie the Kremlin’s offensive by exposing
Russia’s military plans and in aligning support for Kyiv’s war
effort in allied capitals.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ Facebook-parent_Meta_planning_fresh_layoffs,_to_impact
thousands:_report⠀⇛
In a statement shared with Meta employees, co-founder and chief
executive officer Mark Zuckerberg had said going ahead, the
company would make further cuts on discretionary spending and
extend the freeze on fresh hiring until March 2023.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ SAP_Labs_lays_off_300_staffers_in_India⠀⇛
SAP Labs, research and development business unit of German
technology firm SAP, last week laid off around 300 executives
across its India centres, people aware of the matter told ET.
The layoffs majorly impacted Bengaluru and Gurgaon offices,
they said.
It was a result of shuttering of a global delivery centre that
housed custom development roles to undertake SAP implementation
projects, one of the sources said.
* ⚓ Broadband Breakfast ☛ Supreme_Court_Considers_Liability_for_Twitter_Not
Removing_Terrorist_Content⠀⇛
Many of Wednesday’s arguments hinged on specific
interpretations of the ATA, which states that liability for
injuries caused by international terrorism “may be asserted as
to any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing
substantial assistance, or who conspires with the person who
committed such an act of international terrorism.”
* ⚓ India Times ☛ SAP_Labs_lays_off_300_staffers_in_India⠀⇛
It was a result of shuttering of a global delivery centre that
housed custom development roles to undertake SAP implementation
projects, one of the sources said.
The affected employees, some of whom with 10-15 years of
experience, have been provided severance packages of salaries
equating the number of years they served at the company, among
other benefits, the person said.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ Alibaba_laid_off_19,000_employees_in_2022_to_improve_cost
efficiency⠀⇛
Alibaba, which still has a workforce of 239,740, per its latest
report, remains one of China’s biggest private-sector
employers.
* ⚓ Hindustan Times ☛ Elon_Musk_fires_Twitter_staff_again_despite_promises
of_no_more_layoffs:_Report⠀⇛
Despite promising in November 2022 that there will be no more
layoffs, Elon Musk has fired more employees from Twitter, as
per a report in The Verge. Tech site The Information first
reported about layoffs hitting the sales team last week. In the
third round of job cuts since November, dozens of employees
from the sales and engineering departments were affected.
* ⚓ Unmitigated Risk ☛ Global_Trend_in_Tech_Regulation_and_its_Consequences
for_the_EU_and_the_US⠀⇛
It’s worth noting that the EU’s approach to regulation has been
very implementation-specific when compared to the U.S. approach
to similar regulation, as seen with the EIdAS, the EU’s digital
signature legislation, and the associated supporting efforts
which choose which technologies must be used. The first version
of which left the topic of interoperability as a footnote and
ignored the concept of reciprocity. This essentially created
member-state monopolies around the legislation where country-
to-country transactions would still be signed on pen and paper.
That did change a few years ago, but better technological
approaches to solving the associated problems were established
and proven since the initial legislation was proposed two
decades ago, and their adoption was held back due to this
legislation’s technical specificity.
* ⚓ RiskyBiz ☛ An_interview_with_Andrew_Boyd,_director_of_the_CIA’s_Centre
for_Cyber_Intelligence⠀⇛
In this interview the director of the CIA’s Center for Cyber
Intelligence (CCI) sits down with Risky Business podcast host
Patrick Gray to talk about: [...]
* ⚓ Michael Geist ☛ Mandated_Payment_for_Links_To_Cover_35%_of_News
Expenditures?:_Google_Responds_to_Bill_C-18_By_Testing_Blocking_Links_to
News_Content⠀⇛
The battle between Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez
and Internet giants Google and Facebook continues to head
toward a seeming inevitable collision in which the government
repeatedly says it will not be intimidated even as the two
Internet companies block or reduce access to news content on
their platforms in Canada. Reports last night indicate that
Google is now testing blocking news links for a small
percentage of Canadian users, with the company saying it needs
to assess potential responses to Bill C-18. This follows
earlier Facebook comments indicating that it would consider
blocking news sharing on its platform if the bill is enacted in
its current form.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Problem_with_Israel’s_So-Called_‘Crisis_of
Democracy’⠀⇛
Since the start of the new year, reading about Israel in the
Hebrew-language press has been an unnerving experience.
One article described a maternity ward in which a Palestinian
woman from Nazareth was persuaded to move rooms after a Jewish
woman complained about sharing the same space with a non-Jew.
* ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Ivanka_Trump,_Jared_Kushner_Subpoenaed_to_Testify_in_DOJ’s
Trump_Investigation⠀⇛
* ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Loss_of_trust_and_a_deepening_rift:_the_Hungarian_EU
commissioner_and_his_comment_about_idiots⠀⇛
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ From_Russiagate_with_Love⠀⇛
A January 2023 publication from the Columbia Journalism Review
(CJR) spawned the latest round of spin and shifting baselines
from Russiagate apologists. Russiagate refers to the claims
that Russia meddled in and influenced the outcome of the U.S.
election in 2016, had direct connections to Donald Trump and
his associates, and worked to help defeat Hillary Clinton for
the presidency. A recent article from Columbia University’s
Graduate School of Journalism, written by investigative
reporter Jeff Gerth, utilized exiting media reports, and
“dozens of people at the center of the story—editors and
reporters, Trump himself, and others in his orbit,” to conclude
that the legacy news media inaccurately covered the connection
between Russia and Donald J. Trump during his Presidency. While
this may be news to some diehard Democrats and their allies in
the “liberal” press, the media’s reporting failures on the
matter were not missed by all.
In addition to concluding Russiagate was a failure of the
Fourth Estate, Gerth’s report reveals that rather than
reckoning with their failures, many in the news media continue
to avoid the topic altogether. Gerth explained that “my final
concern, and frustration, was the lack of transparency by media
organizations in responding to my questions. I reached out to
more than sixty journalists; only about half responded.”
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ America_in_Denial:_Exposing_the_Religious,_Racial,_and
Class_Dimensions_of_Rightwing_Extremism⠀⇛
The last few years have seen the emergence of one of the
largest progressive movements in history – Black Lives Matter –
which spotlights America’s continued crisis of white supremacy.
Progressive movements historically provoke significant
rightwing backlash, and the modern era is no exception. A new
poll sponsored by the Marcon Institute for anti-racist studies
and social justice provides comprehensive evidence of how white
Christian nationalist politics are mainstreamed in contemporary
society. Yet the purveyors of hate, who vehemently deny their
role in normalizing white supremacist politics, are making it
increasingly difficult to expose bigotry.
The Marcon poll contacted a nationally representative sample of
1,021 Americans and asked them a battery of questions to gauge
their level of support for white Christian nationalism. In an
era marked by record inequality, the poll also provides hints
about whether this ideology is fueled by economic insecurity.
In a comprehensive examination of white supremacy and public
opinion, our poll asked many questions about race in America.
The results paint an ugly picture – large numbers of people
embrace all sorts of white nationalist-compatible beliefs, even
as they insist that they are not racist or affiliated with
extremist ideology. We include each of the questions in our
white nationalism index immediately below, along with
information about how Republicans, Democrats, and the public
overall reacted.
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Balloongate:_Lots_of_Hot_Air_and_the_Cold_U.S./China
Hotline⠀⇛
During the recent Balloongate, the United States Secretary of
Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, tried to call someone in the
Chinese military to ease tensions. The fact that he apparently
asked to speak to someone in the Central Military Commission
instead of the Defense Minister is not crucial. What is of
primary concern is that Beijing reported that Austin’s calls
were rejected three times.
Direct communication between the defense ministers of the
world’s leading military powers in the 21st century seems like
a no brainer. Whatever tensions may exist between China and the
United States, instant communication between the military
leaders should be indispensable to guaranteeing that a major
confrontation doesn’t begin because of some trivial
misunderstanding.
* § Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda⠀➾
o ⚓ BBC ☛ Moldova_warns_of_Russian_‘psy-ops’_as_tensions_rise⠀⇛
Russia’s defence ministry alleged, with no evidence, that
Ukrainian saboteurs would stage an invasion of
Transnistria dressed as Russian soldiers as a pretext for
a Ukrainian invasion.
Moldova has warned for weeks that Russia is plotting to
seize power.
And officials rejected Russia’s claims as “psy-ops” as
part of the war.
o ⚓ Scoop News Group ☛ Russia’s_information_war_against_Ukraine_went
stealth_after_Meta_crackdown⠀⇛
The new assessment of Russian influence operations comes
from data that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, released
Thursday just as the war in Ukraine nears its one-year
anniversary. Similarly, data out this week from other
social media researchers concludes that Russian state-
sponsored media influence operations aren’t as potent as
they once were.
o ⚓ LRT ☛ Researcher_of_conspiracy_theories:_‘If_you_tell_someone
they_are_stupid,_they_won’t_go:_I’m_sorry,_I’ll_stop’_–_interview⠀⇛
Sociologist Karolis Jonutis has been studying populism,
but recently turned his attention to conspiracy theories.
In an interview with LRT.lt, he discusses what gives rise
to unsubstantiated beliefs and whether arguments on
social media can be effective.
o ⚓ CNN ☛ ‘It’s_a_major_blow’:_Dominion_has_uncovered_‘smoking_gun’
evidence_in_case_against_Fox_News,_legal_experts_say⠀⇛
Fox News is in serious hot water.
§ Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾
* ⚓ IT Wire ☛ Google_blocks_some_news_content_in_Canada_ahead_of_online
law⠀⇛
The law, known as Bill C-18, makes it compulsory for companies
like Google and Meta, the parent of Facebook, to work out deals
with media companies for the re-use of their content.
The Canadian Press quoted Google spokesman Shay Purdy as saying
on Wednesday: “We’re briefly testing potential product
responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of
Canadian users.”
* ⚓ RFA ☛ Tibetans_tell_relatives_abroad_not_to_call_them_during_Tibetan
New_Year⠀⇛
The holiday comes just before a politically sensitive
anniversary on March 10, commemorating the Tibetan uprising of
1959 during which tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the
streets of the regional capital Lhasa in protest against
China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland a decade
earlier.
* ⚓ Computer World ☛ Supreme_Court_justices_parse_US_antiterrorism_law_in
Twitter_case⠀⇛
Much of the hearing was devoted to a careful parsing of the
Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), the law
under which the Tammneh family brought their lawsuit. Their
argument, essentially, is that Twitter is liable for providing
a platform to terrorists who used it to communicate and plan
the attack. Twitter, for its part, argued that it couldn’t be
held responsible without a demonstration that it had been
informed of a specific attack and failed to do anything about
it.
* ⚓ Techdirt ☛ NY’s_‘Hateful_Conduct’_Social_Media_Law_Blocked_As
Unconstitutional⠀⇛
Last summer, we wrote about New York’s law to require websites
to have “hateful conduct” policies, noting that it was
“ridiculous” and “likely unconstitutional.” The law was passed
in the wake of the horrific Buffalo super market shooting,
where the state’s Governor and Attorney General sought to blame
the internet, rather than the government’s own failings that
contributed to the death toll.
* ⚓ NCAC ☛ NCAC,_FIRE_release_joint_letter_on_censorship_of_State_College
of_Florida_art_exhibition⠀⇛
Photo Credit: Clifford McDonald, Good Trouble, 2023 The
National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Foundation
for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) are alarmed by
reports of the apparently politically motivated censorship of
an art exhibition entitled “Embracing Kindness” at the State
College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota’s Bradenton campus.
* ⚓ NCAC ☛ NCAC_Identifies_Books_Secretly_Banned_By_Michigan_School
District⠀⇛
NEW YORK – On February 17, the National Coalition Against
Censorship (NCAC) delivered a letter to the Forest Hills Public
School Board in Grand Rapids, Michigan, identifying 10 books
that were secretly removed by Superintendent Dan Behm in
violation of the school district’s reconsideration policy.
§ Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press⠀➾
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ International_Federation_Of_Journalists_Suspends_Russian_Union
Of_Journalists⠀⇛
The International Federation of Journalists has suspended with
immediate effect the Russian Union of Journalists over its
action since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its role in
annexed Ukrainian territories.
* ⚓ Variety ☛ NPR_to_Cut_10%_of_Workforce_as_Ad_Revenue_Slumps⠀⇛
Final decisions about which jobs will be cut are expected to be
made by March 20, in consultation with unions representing
NPR’s workers, according to a memo NPR CEO John Lansing sent to
staff Wednesday. The not-for-profit organization has a yearly
budget of about $300 million; in 2023, revenue is likely to
fall short of that by $30 million-$32 million, he said,
according to an NPR report.
* ⚓ Variety ☛ Indian_Income_Tax_Department_Searches_BBC_Offices_Following
Controversial_Modi_Documentary⠀⇛
A BBC spokesperson said: “The Income Tax Authorities remain at
the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. Many staff have now
left the building but some have been asked to remain and are
continuing to cooperate with the ongoing enquiries. We are
supporting our staff during this time and continue to hope to
have this situation resolved as soon as possible. Our output
and journalism continues as normal and we are committed to
serving our audiences in India.”
* ⚓ CNN ☛ BBC_won’t_be_‘put_off’_covering_India_by_tax_raids_and
censorship⠀⇛
The BBC says it will not be “put off” from reporting in India
after the government prevented a documentary critical of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi from airing in the country and raided
the broadcaster’s offices.
* ⚓ CNN ☛ Florida_shooting_spree_leaves_3_people_dead,_including_a_child
and_a_TV_news_employee_covering_one_of_the_shootings⠀⇛
Mina said the two journalists – a photographer and reporter –
were on the scene to cover the homicide that morning and were
shot in or around their vehicle.
* ⚓ Gannett ☛ Journalist_and_9-year-old_among_3_dead_in_Florida_shootings,
sheriff_says;_suspect_arrested⠀⇛
While authorities have not previously seen violence against
media in the area, Mina said they are investigating.
“But certainly we have seen (violence against media) around the
nation and around the world,” Mina said. “So that’s something
we’re definitely going to be taking a look at and see if we can
put the pieces together and see why this happened.”
* ⚓ Marcy Wheeler ☛ Maggie_Haberman’s_Foray_into_Campaign_Finance
Journalism⠀⇛
For some reason, Maggie Haberman went to FEC filings to
understand a prong of the January 6 investigation that might
implicate her sources rather than the January 6 Committee
transcripts where she is named personally.
§ Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾
* ⚓ Jacobin Magazine ☛ The_Capitalist_Road_to_Serfdom⠀⇛
By design, the corporation is not a democratic enterprise. Its
management is hierarchical, its imperatives are growth and
profit, and its structure is a de facto class system of owners,
managers, and workers. You could argue that in the earliest
days of capitalism, something like the concept of free
enterprise actually existed: firms of various sizes competed,
with even the largest dwarfed in both size and influence by
most nation states. Today, the world’s biggest companies not
only wield monopolistic power and exert considerable political
influence, but in many cases have market capitalizations
exceeding the GDPs of entire countries.
* ⚓ Business Insider ☛ A_former_Google_exec_is_suing_the_company,_saying_a
coworker_sexually_harassed_and_drunkenly_berated_him⠀⇛
Olohan, a New Jersey resident, says in the complaint, which was
first reported by Bloomberg, that he suffered workplace
retaliation by Miller after rejecting advances from her and
reporting them to Google’s human-resources department.
* ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Poor_People’s_Campaign,_Families_Demand_DOJ_Probe_of
Over_100_West_Virginia_Jail_Deaths⠀⇛
Activists with the Poor People’s Campaign and relatives of some
of the 13 inmates who died at West Virginia’s Southern Regional
Jail last year held a press conference Thursday to implore the
Biden administration to investigate conditions at the notorious
lockup, as well as the deaths of more than 100 prisoners in the
state during the last 10 years.
* ⚓ EFF ☛ Fourth_Circuit:_Individuals_Have_a_First_Amendment_Right_to
Livestream_Their_Own_Traffic_Stops⠀⇛
After police officers tased, choked, and severely beat Dijon
Sharpe during a traffic stop, he decided that next time he was
in a car that was pulled over, he would livestream and record
the encounter. Ten months later, in October 2018, Sharpe,
sitting in the passenger seat of a stopped car, took out his
phone and started livestreaming on Facebook.
When an officer saw that he was livestreaming, he grabbed
Sharpe and tried to take the phone. The officer explained that
Sharpe was free to record the encounter, but he could not
livestream due to supposed concerns about officers’ real-time
safety (a policy later ascribed to the city of Winterville,
NC). Sharpe sued to vindicate his First Amendment rights.
It’s great that the Fourth Circuit held that individuals have a
First Amendment right to livestream their own traffic stops.
The court rightly acknowledged, “Creating and disseminating
information is protected speech under the First Amendment.”
* ⚓ Reviving_the_lost_work_of_a_groundbreaking_Black_composer⠀⇛
Ph.D. candidate Bryan Ijames followed his ear, his heart and
some scholarly detective work to resurrect a forgotten piece by
composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor that will be performed March
16 at Hill Auditorium.
* ⚓ NYPost ☛ Google_exec_fired_after_a_female_boss_groped_him_at_drunken
bash,_suit_says⠀⇛
Olohan said he reported the issue to Google’s human resources
department the following week, but nothing ever came of the
complaint.
* ⚓ Hindustan Times ☛ Google_worker_claims_he_was_fired_for_rejecting
female_colleague’s_advances:_Report⠀⇛
Olohan also accused Miller of false complaints against him for
“microaggressions” in retaliation for reporting the 2019
incident to HR, which caused him anxiety. Olohan continued to
face hostility as he was publicly reprimanded by an inebriated
Miller at a Google event in December 2021. Although Miller
apologised, she repeated the same behaviour at a bar in April
2022. Olohan’s lawsuit accuses Google of taking no action
despite knowing that “Miller’s harassment stemmed from his
rejection of her sexual advances”.
* ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ US_Strike_Activity_Surged_in_2022_as_SCOTUS_Workers’
Rights_Ruling_Looms⠀⇛
The number of U.S. workers who staged work stoppages in a wide
array of industries in 2022 surged by nearly 50% from the
previous year, new federal data shows—but the resolve among
employees demanding fair pay after years without a raise,
better working conditions, and paid sick leave may be under
threat as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a key labor case.
* ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Expanding_Social_Security_Is_Winning_Policy_and
Politics_for_Democrats⠀⇛
Democrats learned the wrong lesson about Social Security in the
1990s. That incorrect lesson was unfortunately reinforced in
2005. Now is the time to learn the right lesson. President Joe
Biden is on the right track, but to truly succeed, he must
shake off the wrong lessons of the past.
* ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Can_an_Apartheid_State_Have_a_‘Crisis_of_Democracy’?⠀⇛
Since the start of the new year, reading about Israel in the
Hebrew-language press has been an unnerving experience.
* ⚓ The Nation ☛ I_Signed_the_New_York_Times_Open_Letter._I_Have_More_to
Say.⠀⇛
To say that it was a decision for me to put my name on the open
letter to The New York Times condemning the publication for its
continuous anti-trans rhetoric suggests that it required more
thought than it actually did. I received an email at 11:02 on a
Saturday evening from a friend who was one of the organizers of
the letter, and I replied at 11:04 pm that “I would absolutely
love to sign the letter.”
* ⚓ The Nation ☛ Who’s_Afraid_of_Tommie_Smith?⠀⇛
Tommie Smith can still make the craven recoil like a vampire
confronted with sunlight. And the track legend, who along with
John Carlos raised his fist following their 200-meter race at
the 1968 Olympics, is still needing to fight to have his story
told. Smith and Carlos felt compelled to act on the medal stand
because their personal glory was less important to them than
standing up against racism, white supremacy, and poverty. But
in some parts of the United States, just acknowledging that
moment has been barred or even criminalized.
* ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Democrats:_Biden’s_New_Asylum_Policy_Is_“Almost_Identical”
to_Trump_Transit_Ban⠀⇛
* ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Our_Man_in_Iran⠀⇛
* ⚓ France24 ☛ Tunisia_detains_prominent_dissidents_amid_growing
crackdown⠀⇛
Tunisian police detained two prominent dissidents and
surrounded the home of a third on Wednesday, part of an
escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied, who
has labelled his opponents traitors and criminals.
* ⚓ RFERL ☛ Posthumous_Trial_Of_Russian_Ultranationalist_Martsinkevich
Halted_At_Parents’_Request⠀⇛
A court in Russia has stopped a posthumous case against Maksim
Martsinkevich, a notorious Russian ultranationalist who died
while in detention in 2020, at the request of his parents, the
family’s lawyer, Aleksei Mikhalchik, said on February 22.
* ⚓ LRT ☛ Lithuania_is_making_‘tepid’_progress_in_improving_social_rights_–
NGOs⠀⇛
Lithuania has made minor improvements in protection of human
and social rights, NGOs say, but they are “tepid”.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ American_Bar_Association:_high_plea_bargain_rate_hurts
criminal_justice_system_integrity⠀⇛
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Plea Bargain Task Force
Wednesday released its 2023 report, which found that 98 percent
of criminal proceedings end in a plea bargain instead of a jury
trial.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ Seattle_becomes_first_US_city_to_ban_caste_discrimination⠀⇛
Seattle’s city council Tuesday voted to ban discrimination on
the basis of caste. Seattle is the first city to adds “caste”
to other anti-discrimination provisions of its municipal code,
following the California state university system’s decision
last January to prohibit discrimination on this basis.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_appeals_court_rules_students_cannot_be_prosecuted_under
South_Carolina_school_disturbance_laws⠀⇛
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Wednesday ruled that two South Carolina school disturbance laws
cannot be used to prosecute students for disruptive behavior.
The could said that children as young as seven were referred to
prosecutors by their schools under these laws.
* ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russia_has_started_expelling_transgender_women_who_lack
Russian_citizenship_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Moscow courts have ordered the deportation of at least four
trans women under the new law on “LGBT propaganda,” reports
Mediazona.
§ Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ Australia_royal_commission:_head_government_lawyer_knew
Robodebt_scheme_was_illegal⠀⇛
A former Australian government lawyer Tuesday informed a royal
commission that he withheld legal advice that the Robodebt
scheme, an automated debt assessment and recovery method
utilized by Services Australia from 2015 through 2019, was
illegal.
* ⚓ New York Times ☛ Supreme_Court_Wrestles_With_Suit_Claiming_Twitter
Aided_Terrorists⠀⇛
The case, arising from an attack in Istanbul, was a companion
to a case argued a day before that tested a shield for
technology platforms.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_Supreme_Court_weighs_online_platforms’_liability_in_Google
recommendations_case⠀⇛
The US Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments in Gonzales
v. Google, a case that could upend how social media companies
handle content distribution. At the heart of the case is a
question of whether tech giants like Google can face liability
when their algorithm recommends ISIS recruitment videos.
* ⚓ JURIST ☛ US_Supreme_Court_considers_whether_internet_service_providers
are_liable_for_terrorism-related_content⠀⇛
The US Supreme Court Wednesday heard oral arguments in Twitter
v. Taamneh and considered whether internet service providers
are liable under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act when users post terrorism-related content.
* ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Your_‘Simple_Solution’_To_Section_230_Is_Bad:_Julia_Angwin
Edition⠀⇛
It’s getting to be somewhat exhausting watching people who
don’t understand Section 230 insisting they have a simple
solution for whatever problems they think (mostly incorrectly)
are created by Section 230. And, of course, the NY Times seems
willing to publish all of them. This is the same NY Times that
had to run a correction that basically overturned the entire
premise of an article attacking Section 230. And it did so
twice.
* ⚓ Jim Nielsen ☛ Introducing:_notes.jim-nielsen.com⠀⇛
I have a new website at notes.jim-nielsen.com where I’ll
publish my reading notes going forward (a link, excerpt, and
sometimes brief commentary from things I read). You can
subscribe to the RSS or JSON feed if you feel so inclined, but
it’s really more for me than anybody else.
§ Digital Restrictions (DRM)⠀➾
* ⚓ Digital Music News ☛ More_Shakeups_at_Spotify’s_Podcast_Unit_—_Max
Cutler_Departing_Just_Weeks_After_Dawn_Ostroff’s_Exit⠀⇛
More shakeups are headed for Spotify’s podcast division after
Dawn Ostroff’s departure. Max Cutler, Head of Audio Talk Shows
& partnerships is departing to start a new venture. According
to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg, Cutler will depart his
position on May 1.
* ⚓ India Times ☛ Netflix_cuts_subscription_cost_in_more_than_30_countries:
report⠀⇛
In Latin America, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Venezuela, among
others, have seen a reduction in subscription costs, as have
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in Asia, the
report said.
Netflix has in some cases reduced the price of subscriptions by
up to 50%.
* ⚓ Techdirt ☛ DOJ_Supports_‘Right_To_Repair’_Class_Action_Against_John
Deere⠀⇛
U.S. consumer protection in general has had an ugly few
decades. One bright spot however has been the shift in the
“right to repair” movement from niche nerdy fare to the
mainstream.
§ Monopolies⠀➾
* ⚓ India Times ☛ US_Justice_Department_accuses_Google_of_evidence
destruction_in_antitrust_case⠀⇛
The government said Google “falsely” told the U.S. in 2019 that
it had suspended “auto-deletion” and was preserving chat
communications as it was required to do under a federal court
rule governing electronically stored information.
* § Patents⠀➾
o ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Warren,_Sanders:_Merck’s_Hunt_to_Extend_Cancer_Drug
Patent_May_Be_Patent_Abuse⠀⇛
o ⚓ IP Kat ☛ Spotting_the_difference_between_the_priority_document
and_the_claims_(T_1303/18) [Ed: EPO kangaroo courts in action
again]⠀⇛
o ⚓ JUVE ☛ Alcon_and_AMO_reach_global_settlement_over_cataract
surgery_equipment [Ed: Juve conflates patents with "intellectual
property", as usual]⠀⇛
To end their ongoing global proceedings, Alcon has
reported making a one-time payment of $199 million to
competitor AMO, which settles litigaton over medical
devices for cataract surgery.
o ⚓ Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Federal_Circuit_Gives_Stare_Decisis
Effect_to_a_Judgment_of_Claim_Validity⠀⇛
C.R. Bard, Inc. v. Med. Components, Inc., 2023 WL 2064163
(Fed. Cir. Feb. 17, 2023)
In Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of
Illinois Foundation (1971), the Supreme Court held that a
judgment of invalidity in a suit against one infringer
accrues to the benefit of any other accused infringer
unless the patent owner shows that he did not have a fair
opportunity procedurally, substantively and evidentially
to pursue his patent claim the first time. Collateral
estoppel (i.e., issue preclusion) under Blonder-Tongue is
non-mutual. While a judgment of invalidity binds the
patent owner and its successors in interest because it is
a party to the suit with adequate opportunity to contest
the matter, a judgment of validity cannot operate in the
patent owner’s favor to bind persons who are neither
parties nor in privity with parties to the suit.
* § Copyrights⠀➾
o ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Lego_Confirms_Zelda_Lego_Set_By_Trying_To_DMCA_Leaks
Of_It_To_Hide_It⠀⇛
The Streisand Effect. Some folks know it. Some folks even
think that some people that know it use it purposefully
to their own advantage. Other times people who should
know better simply flail around and end up turning
content viral which they had intended on burying. So,
whenever we do these kinds of posts, someone will
inevitably show up in the comments to suggest we’re being
gamed by even reporting on a thing, typically absent any
actual evidence that such gaming is occurring.
o ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ ‘Time_for_U.S._Lawmakers_to_Discuss_Pirate_Site
Blocking’⠀⇛
The CreativeFuture coalition, which represents companies
and individuals in the film, TV, music, and publishing
industries, wants pirate site blocking put back on the
political agenda. CEO Ruth Vitale finds it
incomprehensible that an anti-piracy measure commonplace
in other Western democracies is unavailable in the United
States.
o ⚓ Michael Geist ☛ Canadian_Copyright,_Fair_Dealing_and_Education,
Part_Three:_Millions_Spent_on_Transactional_Licences_Demonstrate
Fair_Dealing_is_No_Free_For_All⠀⇛
Canadian copyright lobby groups have repeatedly tried to
convince the government that the 2012 copyright reforms
and Supreme Court fair dealing jurisprudence created a
free-for-all in which education refuses to pay licence
fees due to their reliance on fair dealing. The data from
yesterday’s post on massive shift to site licences tells
a different story, namely that Canadian educational
institutions spend hundreds of millions annually on
licences that provide both access works and the
flexibility to use them in a myriad of ways. My Fair
Dealing Week series on Canadian copyright, fair dealing
and education (Setting the Record Straight) continues
with another type of licence that has grown in importance
in recent years: the pay-per-use or transactional
licence. These licences, which grant access to, and use
of, individual works, demonstrate that lobby group claims
bear little relationship to reality. Indeed, if the lobby
groups were right about unlimited uncompensated copying,
why would education still spend millions a pay-per-use
licences? They obviously wouldn’t, but since fair dealing
represents a fair approach to both creators and users,
education recognizes that fair dealing does not lead to
the complete elimination of licensed copying.
o ⚓ Walled Culture ☛ Copyright_has_been_one_of_life’s_certainties:
but_will_it_always_be?⠀⇛
Copyright seems to serve the public well enough – there’s
no shortage of books, music or films being produced each
year. But here, too, there are problems, albeit of a less
obvious kind – for example, the issue of orphan works.
These are works, typically books, that are still covered
by copyright, but unavailable because the original
publisher has gone out of business, or simply isn’t
interested in keeping them in circulation. Copyright
means that unless the current owner can be located – a
difficult task for obscure works that were created
decades ago – it is against the law for someone else to
reprint them. Nobody benefits from this, but attempts to
address this situation, like the EU’s Orphan Works
Directive have been half-hearted and ineffectual, and the
problem remains.
The situation is arguably worse in the world of cinema.
While books held in libraries are durable, and are likely
to survive until such time as their copyright expires and
reprints may be made, that’s not true for films, which
often exist as a unique copy on extremely flammable or
delicate media. It is estimated that already half of all
U.S. films made before 1950 have been lost, while the
figure for films shot before 1929 is over 90%. Copyright
restrictions prevented copies being made of the films,
which could have preserved them for posterity.
o ⚓ [Old] The United Kingdom ☛ Research_and_analysis:_Executive
summary⠀⇛
These factors may be exacerbated by the fact that it is
challenging for music companies to know who among the
growing pool of creators will be successful. This
inherent uncertainty combined with consumer tastes that
tend to tip to a relatively small number of artists means
that it is challenging for creators to succeed. We do not
think that these factors arise from how firms compete in
the market.
We have found that it is unlikely that the outcomes that
concern many stakeholders are primarily driven by
competition. Consequently, it is unlikely that a
competition intervention would improve outcomes overall,
and release more money in the system to pay creators
more. In such circumstances, there is a greater risk that
a competition intervention will result in unintended
consequences and worse outcomes for both consumers and
creators. The costs, risks and uncertainty created by a
market investigation (which could run for 2 years) would
be imposed on the industry and borne, ultimately, by
consumers. We have therefore decided to not undertake a
market investigation.
o ⚓ The Verge ☛ The_US_Copyright_Office_says_you_can’t_copyright
Midjourney_AI-generated_images⠀⇛
The images themselves, however, “are not the product of
human authorship,” and the registration originally
granted for them has been canceled. To justify the
decision, the Copyright Office cites previous cases where
people weren’t able to copyright words or songs that
listed “non-human spiritual beings” or the Holy Spirit as
the author — as well as the infamous incident where a
selfie was taken by a monkey.
o ⚓ Forbes ☛ AI-Created_Images_Aren’t_Protected_By_Copyright_Law
According_To_U.S._Copyright_Office⠀⇛
The U.S. Copyright Office has ruled that illustrations in
a new comic book that were created with the AI program
Midjourney are not protected by copyright law, according
to a letter issued by the Copyright Office. News of the
decision, first reported by Reuters, comes as internet
users become accustomed to a new world of content
creation that increasingly depends on artificial
intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney.
o ⚓ Reuters ☛ AI-created_images_lose_U.S._copyrights_in_test_for_new
technology⠀⇛
Images in a graphic novel that were created using the
artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have
been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright
Office said in a letter seen by Reuters.
“Zarya of the Dawn” author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to
a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote
and arranged, but not for the images produced by
Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Tuesday.
o ⚓ The Register UK ☛ America:_AI_artwork_is_not_authored_by_humans,
so_can’t_be_protected_by_copyright⠀⇛
Last September, the USCO approved an application for
Zarya Of The Dawn, a graphic novel created by Kristina
Kashtanova, registering the work as intellectual property
protected by copyright. The decision reinvigorated the
legal debate over whether digital artwork created by the
latest AI text-to-image tools could be copyrighted or
not.
However, the USCO has reversed its initial decision and
scrapped the copyright certificate previously issued for
Kashtanova’s comic book. After reviewing the case
officials ruled that the text, selection, coordination,
and arrangement of images used to create the novel are
the work of Kashtanova and can be protected by copyright
– but the individual software-generated images themselves
cannot be.
As the USCO sees it, the layout of the novel and its text
is copyright Kashtanova, but the images in the frames –
created from written prompts – is not copyright protected
because no person created it.
o ⚓ New York Times ☛ Science_Fiction_Magazines_Battle_a_Flood_of
Chatbot-Generated_Stories⠀⇛
While the deluge has become a nuisance, the stories are
easy to spot. The writing is “bad in spectacular ways,”
one editor said.
§ Gemini* and Gopher⠀➾
* § Personal⠀➾
o ⚓ and_so,_some_time_passed…⠀⇛
i’ve actually been thinking about the geminispace for a
while. i made a little post on station a few weeks ago, i
think. what’ve i been up to? well, in the past six months
i: learned how to drive again. still need to fill out the
logbook and get my hours. i’m still incredibly behind,
since i’m scared i procrastinate. but right now my car is
being worked on, and when it comes back i’m motivated to
finally get it done! i only need 14 hours logged, and
then i can take the big test for my full license. wish me
luck in that regard!
started making a lot more art again, and i also coded my
website from scratch this time. learned to crochet.
changed my name. switched insurance providers, started
mastectomy process.
o ⚓ 🔤SpellBinding:_FLRSTUY_Wordo:_OGLED⠀⇛
o ⚓ Democracy_WTF⠀⇛
There are protests in Israel against the Judicial Reform
and for democracy.
Recently, I sam a post on LinkedIn calling hi-tech
employess to change
their job titles to “Chief Democracy Officer”. That’s a
great opportunity
to be promoted to CXO.
* § Technical⠀➾
o § Programming⠀➾
# ⚓ Side_Project:_Interactive_Fiction⠀⇛
For the past two weeks, I’ve been working on a
little Interactive Fiction side project. It has
been a nice palate cleanser between all the daily
routines and longer-term projects like Lagrange.
There’s something about Interactive Fiction engines
that has fascinated me for a long time. I bought a
copy of TADS version 2.2 back in ~1994 and had some
fun times building little games with it.
=> =============================================================================
World Wide Web but a lot lighter.
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 5626
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⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 02.24.23⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
Gemini_version_available_♊︎
✐ Links_24/02/2023:_Devices_and_General_News⠀✐
Posted in News_Roundup at 1:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈
§ Contents⠀➾
* GNU/Linux
* Distributions_and_Operating_Systems
o Devices/Embedded
o Open_Hardware/Modding
* Leftovers
o Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
o Security
# Privacy/Surveillance
o Defence/Aggression
o Environment
# Energy/Transportation
# Wildlife/Nature
# Overpopulation
o Finance
o AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
o Censorship/Free_Speech
o Freedom_of_Information_/_Freedom_of_the_Press
o Civil_Rights/Policing
o Internet_Policy/Net_Neutrality
o Digital_Restrictions_(DRM)
o Monopolies
# Patents
# Copyrights
* Gemini*_and_Gopher
o Personal
o Technical
# Programming
* § GNU/Linux⠀➾
o ⚓ Linux Gizmos ☛ Beryl_AX_Wi-Fi6_Router_runs_on_OpenWrt_v21.02⠀⇛
The company GL.iNet recently launched a compact Wi-Fi6
router offering 1x 2.5GbE WAN port and 1x GbE LAN port.
The Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) supports both 2.4GHz/5.0GHz
bands and it’s capable of running OpenVPN at 150Mbps.
* § Distributions and Operating Systems⠀➾
o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾
# ⚓ Linux Gizmos ☛ Mini_PC_equipped_with_12th_Gen_Intel
processors_and_dual_2.5GbE_ports⠀⇛
The KC12 is a compact Mini-PC featuring the Intel
Core i5-1240P and the Intel Core i7-1240P. The
device is equipped with 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x M.2280
slots, 1x Thunderbolt, Wi-Fi6/Bluetooth 5.0
connectivity and other various peripherals.
# ⚓ CNX Software ☛ ZBMINI_Extreme_Zigbee_smart_switch_review
with_Home_Assistant⠀⇛
But in this review, we will show you how to manage
the ZBMINI Extreme using another approach namely
with integration with Home Assistant home
automation framework. Home Assistant is a very
popular open-source software, contributed by lots
of great people around the world. We will use Home
Assistant version 2023.2.0 installed on a Raspberry
Pi 4 SBC with 4GB or 8GB RAM and a 128GB SD card.
We won’t use an external Zigbee Bridge, and
instead, we will make use of a Zigbee USB Dongle
that connects directly to the Raspberry P i4 USB
port. For the dongle, we have a Conbee II Zigbee
USB dongle to create a Zigbee network in order to
communicate with other Zigbee devices
o § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Testing_The_Raspberry_Pi_Debug_Probe⠀⇛
We mentioned the Raspberry Pi Debug Probe when it
was launched, a little RP2040-based board that
provides both a USB-to-UART and an ARM SWD debug
interface. [Jeff Geerling] was lucky enough to snag
one, and he’s put it through its paces in a handy
blog post.
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Laser_Scanner_Upgraded_To_Use_PCB_Motor⠀⇛
[Rik]’s Hexastorm laser scanner project originally
used a discrete polygon mirror controller+motor
module from Sharp to spin a prism. But the scanner
head was a bit difficult to assemble and had a lot
of messy wires. This has all been replaced by a
single board featuring a PCB-printed motor, based
on the work of [Carl Bugeja]. The results are
promising so far — see video below the break.
# ⚓ Hackaday ☛ An_Amiga_Mouse,_The_Modern_Way⠀⇛
When we recently featured an Amiga upgrade project,
[EmberHeavyIndustries ] was prompted to share one
of their own, an adapter to allow a modern USB HID
mouse to be used with the Commodore quadrature
mouse port.
* § Leftovers⠀➾
o ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Stirring_Humor_into_‘Old_Age’⠀⇛
No doubt everyone grows old in their own way.
But once you actually hit it — that three letter word,
“old” — watch out: “An aged man is but a paltry thing,/
A tattered coat upon a stick . . .”
o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Lo-Fi_Tchaikovsky⠀⇛
[Kevin] over at Simple DIY ElectroMusic Projects
recently upgraded his Lo-Fi Orchestra. To celebrate his
400th blog post, he programmed it to play Tchaikovsky’s
1812 Overture. Two Arduino Nanos, four Arduino Unos, four
Raspberry Pi Picos, and one Raspberry Pi have joined the
Lo-Fi Orchestra this year, conducted by a new Pico MIDI
Splitter. Changes were made in every section of the
orchestra except percussion. We are delighted that the
Pringles tom and plastic tub bass drums remain, not to
mention the usual assortment of cheap mixers, amps, and
speakers.
o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ NASA_Help_Wanted:_Ham_Radio_Operators_Please_Apply⠀⇛
NASA’s been recruiting citizen scientists lately, and
their latest call is looking for help from ham radio
operators. They want you to make and report radio
contacts during the 2023 and 2024 North American
eclipses. From their website:
o ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Tragedy_of_Till_Is_Our_Failure_to_Grasp_Its
Radical_Politics⠀⇛
Danielle Deadwyler was widely expected to receive an
Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mamie Till-Mobley
in Chinonye Chukwu’s extraordinary film Till. She
consistently received the strongest reviews of any lead
actress. Manhola Dargis wrote in The New York Times,
“With fixed intensity and supple quicksilver emotional
changes, Deadwyler rises to the occasion as Mamie,
delivering a quiet, centralizing performance.” Ronda
Penrice of The Wrap concurred: “This magnificent
performance elevates Deadwyler to the ranks of the great
actors of our time.” The New Yorker’s Richard Brody
described her performance as “one of the most radiantly,
resonantly expressive to grace the screen this year.”
Even before she snagged the Gotham Award for outstanding
lead performance in November, she had already secured a
spot on virtually every critic’s Oscar prediction list.
So when neither Deadwyler nor Viola Davis received Oscar
nods, it sent tremors through the industry and beyond.
Rolling Stone critic Marlow Stern noted, “Deadwyler’s
snub is perhaps the most shocking, given the gravity of
the role and how she rose to the occasion.” Richard Brody
was also “shocked,” as was fellow New Yorker critic
Michael Shulman, who called Deadwyler “a contender” for
how she “took a grieving-mother role that could have been
clichéd and made her thrillingly alive and complicated.”
Sarah Polley, writer/director of the Oscar-nominated
Women Talking, urged her Twitter followers to see Till,
adding that Deadwyler “gave one of the best performances
of all time.”
o ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ What_Happened_to_Jefferson_Rodríguez⠀⇛
The call to 911 came in a little after 11 p.m. A man said
a small boy on his dairy farm had severe head injuries.
He said he thought the boy had been trampled by a cow.
Ann Ingolia, a deputy for the Dane County Sheriff’s
Office, was in the middle of her shift when she heard the
dispatch on this warm summer night in 2019. She turned on
her siren and headed over, down winding roads and rolling
hills, past the farms and fields that mark the landscape
of this part of south-central Wisconsin.
o ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Why_It’s_So_Hard_to_Sue_Doctors_for_Sexual_Assault
in_Utah⠀⇛
At 19 years old and about to be married, Stephanie Mateer
went to an OB-GYN within walking distance of her student
housing near Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
She wanted to start using birth control, and she was
looking for guidance about having sex for the first time
on her 2008 wedding night.
o ⚓ Hackaday ☛ Keebin’_With_Kristina:_The_One_Where_Shift_(Really)
Happens⠀⇛
Hooray, the system works! [Sasha K.] wrote to let me know
about their Thumbs Up! keyboard, which is the culmination
of a long journey down the DIY rabbit hole to end game.
(Seriously, it’s kind of a wild ride, and there’s a ton
of pictures).
o ⚓ The Nation ☛ Jay_Jackson’s_Audacious_Comics⠀⇛
In June 1941, Harold Gray’s nationally syndicated comic
strip Little Orphan Annie made a singular contribution to
the war effort: The titular heroine formed a group called
the Junior Commandos, a club for boys and girls who
wanted to fight fascism. The logic behind the Junior
Commandos was that because the United States was in a
total war, kids had to pitch in too. Some of the Junior
Commandos’ adventures were fanciful, such as foiling a
Nazi submarine attack off the shores of America. Others
reflected the ways that total war had transformed
everyday American life: starting up vegetable gardens,
buying war bonds, rationing and recycling. The concept of
the Junior Commandos took off in real life too, with many
actual kids’ organizations mimicking the good citizenship
promoted in the strip.
o ⚓ Spiegel ☛ Zelenskyy’s_Heroes:_Ukraine’s_Best_Respond_to_the
Earthquake_in_Turkey⠀⇛
Rescue workers from Ukraine have been working nonstop
since the Russian invasion to save civilians from the
ruins of their buildings. After the earthquake in Turkey,
though, some of them took a break from the war to help
out in the disaster zone.
o § Health/Nutrition/Agriculture⠀➾
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Moderna’s_2022_Windfall_a_‘Scandalous’
Result_of_Pandemic_Profiteering,_Campaigners_Say⠀⇛
The Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical giant
Moderna announced Thursday that it brought in over
$19 billion in revenue and $8.4 billion in profits
in 2022 thanks primarily to its Covid-19 vaccine,
which was made possible by federal funding and
government technology.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Jackson’s_Water_System_Is_Broken_by_Design⠀⇛
Every March, cardinals arrive in Kali Akuno’s front
yard in Jackson, Miss., to build nests in his
trees. But in spring 2017, something odd happened:
The chicks hatched on cue but then died. “They
didn’t fall out of the nest,” Akuno says. “They
starved.”1This story was supported by the Pulitzer
Center and produced in partnership with the Jackson
Advocate.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Toxic_Forever_Chemicals_Found_in_More_Than
330_Animal_Species⠀⇛
More than 330 animal species around the world are
at risk of harm from exposure to toxic “forever
chemicals,” according to an Environmental Working
Group analysis published Wednesday.
# ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Regulators_Overhaul_Inspections_of_Hospice
Providers⠀⇛
In late January, amid intensifying scrutiny of the
quality of care provided by the American end-of-
life care industry, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services has reformed how it inspects
hospice providers. The changes, detailed in a 196-
page document, went into effect immediately.
Under the new protocol, inspectors must sample data
from multiple locations where the hospice operates
and evaluate a broader range of metrics. These
include records on the hospice’s inpatient care,
bereavement practices and reasons patients are
leaving the service alive. “An unusually high rate
of live discharges could indicate that a hospice
provider is not meeting the needs of patients and
families or is admitting patients who do not meet
the eligibility criteria,” the revised rules note.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Want_to_Fix_Public_Health?_Stop_Thinking_Like
a_Doctor.⠀⇛
A changing of the guard in US public health is
impending—and, with it, a chance to rejuvenate a
flailing field. Anthony Fauci has retired in the
shadow of one of the worst preventable disasters in
history, and President Biden is moving to make new
appointments while establishing a permanent White
House Office for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Policy. In doing so, Biden and his advisers must
confront the fact that the rot in public health is
structural: It cannot be cured by simply rotating
the figureheads who preside over it. Building
effective national health infrastructure will
require confronting pervasive distortions of public
health and remaking the leadership appointment
systems that have left US public health agencies
captive to partisan interests.
# ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Pollution_From_a_Plastics-Based_Fuel_Has_a_1-
in-4_Lifetime_Cancer_Risk⠀⇛
The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a
Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel
from discarded plastics as part of a “climate-
friendly” initiative to boost alternatives to
petroleum. But, according to agency records
obtained by ProPublica and The Guardian, the
production of one of the fuels could emit air
pollution that is so toxic, 1 out of 4 people
exposed to it over a lifetime could get cancer.
“That kind of risk is obscene,” said Linda
Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t let that
get out.”
o § Security⠀➾
# § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Cyber_companies_accompanied
Netanyahu_on_his_visit_to_Budapest,_one_of_them_later
trained_foreign_intelligence_officers_in_Hungary⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Supreme_Court_Needs_to_Rein_In_the
Surveillance_State⠀⇛
Rapidly advancing technologies are giving the
government dramatically more power to track
us and peer into our lives, with “national
security” often the justification for
intrusive new forms of surveillance. But if
these technologies lead us toward a
surveillance state, it will be in part
because our courts failed to play their
constitutional role as a check on Executive
Branch power.
o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Who’s_Winning_and_Losing_the_Economic_War
Over_Ukraine?⠀⇛
With the Ukraine war now reaching its one-year mark
on February 24, the Russians have not achieved a
military victory but neither has the West achieved
its goals on the economic front. When Russia
invaded Ukraine, the United States and its European
allies vowed to impose crippling sanctions that
would bring Russia to its knees and force it to
withdraw.
Western sanctions would erect a new Iron Curtain,
hundreds of miles to the east of the old one,
separating an isolated, defeated, bankrupt Russia
from a reunited, triumphant and prosperous West.
Not only has Russia withstood the economic assault,
but the sanctions have boomeranged–hitting the very
countries that imposed them.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Putin_Announces_Suspension_of_the_New_START
Treaty⠀⇛
New START is the last remaining nuclear arms
control treaty between the US and Russia.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ German_Lawmaker_Calls_for_Nord_Stream_Probe⠀⇛
Sevim Dagdelen takes the Scholz government to task
for its lack of “strength and will” in responding
to Seymour Hersh’s reporting on the U.S. sabotage
of the Russian pipeline. Video and text of her Feb.
10 speech to the Bundestag.
# ⚓ The Dissenter ☛ March_to_Iraq_War,_20_Years_Later:_February
22,_2003⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Dissenter ☛ March_To_Iraq_War,_20_Years_Later:_February
23,_2003⠀⇛
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ At_Least_10_Palestinians_Killed,_More_Than
100_Injured_in_Israeli_West_Bank_Raid⠀⇛
A child and two elderly people were among at least
10 Palestinians who were killed Wednesday morning
by Israeli military forces conducting a raid in the
West Bank city of Nablus.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Seven_Things_We_Could_Do_If_We_Cut_the
Pentagon_by_$100_Billion⠀⇛
What would be possible if we had an extra $100
billion to spend on urgent human needs?
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Democrats_Introduce_Bill_to_Return_$100B_From
Pentagon_Budget_to_the_Public⠀⇛
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Lee,_Pocan_Revive_Bill_to_Cut_Military
Budget_by_$100_Billion⠀⇛
U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan on Wednesday
reintroduced their People Over Pentagon Act, which
would slash $100 billion from the nation’s military
budget and reallocate that money to urgent needs,
from investments in education and healthcare to
combating the climate emergency.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Chile’s_Battle_for_Memory:_A_Report_From_the
Latest_Front⠀⇛
Santiago, Chile—Every morning, as I take my daily
walk up toward the nearby Andes mountains, I pass
by the Aeródromo Tobalaba, an airfield catering to
a wide variety of private planes.
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Chomsky:_A_Stronger_NATO_Is_the_Last_Thing_We
Need_as_Russia-Ukraine_War_Turns_1⠀⇛
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Kenyan_Writer:_History_Explains_Why_Much_of
Africa_Chooses_Neutrality_Over_West’s_Support_of_Ukraine⠀⇛
One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
many African countries have tried to avoid strong
denunciations or shows of support for either side
in the conflict, walking a diplomatic tightrope
even as the war has had a major impact on food and
fuel prices across the continent. Kenyan writer and
political analyst Nanjala Nyabola says that
neutrality is influenced by memories of Africa as a
conflict zone during the Cold War, as well as a
desire to chart foreign policies independent of
former colonial European powers.
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Scholar_Ho-fung_Hung_on_China-Russia
Relations_&_Whether_Beijing_Could_Mediate_Ukraine_Peace
Deal⠀⇛
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met with Russian
President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov in Moscow this week, where they
reaffirmed the close relationship between the two
countries. The high-profile visit comes just days
before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. For more on China’s relationship with
Russia and its role in the Ukraine war, we speak
with Ho-fung Hung, professor of political economy
and sociology at Johns Hopkins University.
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ “A_War_of_Imperial_Aggression”:_How
Russia’s_Invasion_One_Year_Ago_Changed_Ukraine_&_the_World⠀⇛
Friday marks one year since the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Over the past year, at least 8,000
Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to
the United Nations, but the true death toll is
believed to be higher. The U.N. refugee agency said
this week that more than 8 million refugees have
fled the fighting in Ukraine. This week, U.S.
President Joe Biden met with NATO leaders in
Warsaw, while Russian President Vladimir Putin
warned that Western countries sending military aid
to Ukraine bear responsibility for prolonging the
death and destruction of the war. We begin today’s
show looking at the war’s impact and future with
Nina Krushcheva, a professor of international
affairs at The New School and the great-
granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev, and Hanna Perekhoda, a Ph.D. student in
history at the University of Lausanne and member of
the democratic socialist organization Sotsialnyi
Rukh. Perekhoda is from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Malcolm_X_Would_Call_Biden_a_‘Pretender
Public_Defender’⠀⇛
Malcolm X, one of the most effective critics white
America has ever known, who decried “straight-
jacketed thinking, and straight-jacketed
societies,” believed: “In our mutual sincerity we
might be able to show a road to the salvation of
America’s very soul.”
Malcolm X wasn’t ever, to put it blandly — an
adjective one could never pin to the charismatic
firebrand — naïve about how difficult such an
effort would be, and the challenge for white people
who accepted it. He explained: “Indeed,
how can white society atone for enslaving, for
raping, for unmanning, for otherwise
brutalizing millions of human beings, for
centuries? What atonement would the God of Justice
demand for the robbery of Black people’s labor,
their lives, their true identities, their culture,
their history — and even their human dignity?”
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Who_Killed_Malcolm_X?_Family_to_File_$100M
Suit_v._FBI,_CIA,_NYPD_&_Others_to_Find_the_Truth⠀⇛
On the 58th anniversary of Malcolm X’s
assassination, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump
announced a new lawsuit from Malcolm X’s surviving
family seeking compensation from the NYPD, CIA and
FBI for its role in concealing evidence in his
murder case. This lawsuit comes more than a year
after it was confirmed that federal and local
agencies had a role in the wrongful conviction of
Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam for the
murder. Aziz and Islam’s convictions were
overturned in 2021, and they were awarded a $36
million settlement for wrongful imprisonment by the
state and city of New York. We air excerpts of
Tuesday’s public comments from Crump and one of
Malcolm X’s daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, of their
intent to file a wrongful death lawsuit over
evidence concealed in the murder investigation, in
part to seek answers on the extent of the
government’s involvement in the civil rights
leader’s death.
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ As_Putin_Suspends_New_START_Treaty,_Is
There_Still_Hope_for_Nuclear_Disarmament?⠀⇛
Russian President Vladmir Putin’s announcement that
Moscow would suspend its participation in the New
START treaty threatens to end the last remaining
nuclear arms control agreement between the United
States and Russia. Putin made the pledge during his
annual State of the Nation address on Tuesday, when
he accused Western nations of provoking the
conflict in Ukraine. The treaty limits the U.S. and
Russian strategic nuclear weapon stockpiles and
gives each country opportunities to inspect the
other’s nuclear sites. Russia says it will continue
to respect the caps established by the treaty, but
that it will no longer allow inspections. For more
on the treaty and the wider challenge of nuclear
proliferation, we speak with Dr. Ira Helfand, a
longtime advocate for nuclear disarmament, who says
the need to end nuclear weapons “transcends” all
other issues between the U.S. and Russia. “If we
don’t get rid of nuclear weapons, they’re going to
be used. And if they’re used, nothing else that
we’re doing is going to make any difference,” says
Helfand. He is the former president of
International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War, which received the 1985 Nobel Peace
Prize, a member of the steering group of the
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons,
as well as the co-founder and past president of
Physicians for Social Responsibility.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ ‘Victory_for_the_Afghan_People’_as_US_Judge
Blocks_9/11_Families_From_Seizing_Frozen_Assets⠀⇛
A coalition of Afghan-American community
organizations on Wednesday welcomed a U.S. federal
judge’s ruling rejecting a bid by relatives of 9/11
victims to seize billions of dollars in assets
belonging to the people of Afghanistan.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ ‘Victory_for_the_Afghan_People’_as_US_Judge
Blocks_9/11_Families_From_Seizing_Frozen_Assets⠀⇛
“This money belongs to the Afghan people, and no
one else,” said Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, a
coalition of Afghan-American community groups.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ It’s_Not_All_Balloon_Buffoonery:_Weaponizing
Anti-China_Paranoia⠀⇛
By Blake Fleetwood / Original to ScheerPost The
U.S. suffered worldwide embarrassment in the last
two weeks while the American media and Republican
and Democratic politicians hyperventilated over
four UFO balloons that turned out to be harmless.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Chinese_Balloon_the_Biden_Team’s_Hot
Air⠀⇛
Over the past 60 years, U.S. presidents have
benefitted from advice from moderate and pragmatic
advisers as well as examples of presidents ignoring
such advice and suffering the consequences.
President John F. Kennedy was not admirably served
by his secretaries of state and defense, Dean Rusk
and Robert McNamara, but a little-known U.S.
Foreign Service Officer, Llewellyn Thompson, former
ambassador to the USSR, provided the off-ramp that
resolved the Cuban missile crisis without use of
force. An official in the administration of Lyndon
B. Johnson, George Ball, provided superb advice
that challenged the Cold War thinking of the “best
and brightest” leftovers from the Kennedy
administration, but Johnson ignored Ball and
blundered into the tragic Vietnam war.
President Jimmy Carter had advisors to his left
(e.g. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Marshall
Shulman) and right (National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski), but unfortunately ignored the
wisdom of Vance and Shulman on key issues involving
the USSR. The Reagan administration was going
nowhere in resolving national security issues,
until a new secretary of state, George P. Shultz,
and a Foreign Service Officer, Jack Matlock,
provided the guidance that led to the breakthrough
on arms control negotiations and detente in the
1980s.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ UN_Security_Council_on_Nord_Stream_Attack_With
Ray_McGovern_and_Jeffrey_Sachs⠀⇛
Ray McGovern and Jeffery Sachs addressed the U.N.
Security Council Tuesday on the Nord Stream
pipelines sabotage in light of Sy Hersh’s
reporting.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Patrick_Lawrence:_Russia_Takes_Another_Step
Back_From_the_West⠀⇛
News that Russia will suspend its participation in
the New START nuclear arms pact, which arrived
Tuesday via Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the
Federal Assembly, had to land hard.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Scott_Ritter:_Arms_Control_or_Ukraine?⠀⇛
As Russia suspends New START, the sooner the
Ukraine war ends, the sooner the U.S. and Russia
can work to preserve arms control to avert the
ultimate disaster.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Why_Environmental_Groups_Must_Oppose_War⠀⇛
Should an environment-protecting group like
W.A.T.E.R. get involved in issues of international
war? Or conversely, should W.A.T.E.R. “stay in its
own lane”? More generally, should pro-environmental
groups also be anti-war? The US government has been
involved with fighting or funding wars for much of
the past 80 years, so the question for us, as
Americans, is not new. It is particularly pressing
now because of the war in Ukraine.
Everyone knows that wars are hugely destructive to
both people and the environment; that is indeed the
tactical intent of every exploding bomb and lethal
projectile. Escalation to nuclear use would be a
worldwide humanitarian and ecological disaster.
Fighting around nuclear power plants – an
especially stupid thing to do – may well lead to
catastrophic toxic radioactive waste release spread
over huge swaths of land. It is obvious that
military action (and preparation for action) itself
consumes a huge amount of energy and produces a
huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions. According
to a 2019 study at Boston and Brown Universities1,
“the DOD is the world’s largest institutional user
of petroleum and correspondingly, the single
largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases
(GHG) in the world.”
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Proxy_War_in_Ukraine_Must_End⠀⇛
* No Guns For Nazis, No Love For Putin!
* End The Proxy War Between NATO & Russia Now!
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ War_in_Ukraine_and_ICBMs:_The_Untold_Story
of_How_They_Could_Blow_Up_the_World⠀⇛
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, media
coverage of the war hasn’t included even the
slightest mention of intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs). Yet the war has boosted the
chances that ICBMs will set off a global holocaust.
Four hundred of them — always on hair-trigger alert
— are fully armed with nuclear warheads in
underground silos scattered across Colorado,
Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming, while
Russia deploys about 300 of its own. Former Defense
Secretary William Perry has called ICBMs “some of
the most dangerous weapons in the
world,” warning that “they could even trigger an
accidental nuclear war.”
Now, with sky-high tensions between the world’s two
nuclear superpowers, the chances of ICBMs starting
a nuclear conflagration have increased as American
and Russian forces face off in close proximity.
Mistaking a false alarm for a nuclear-missile
attack becomes more likely amid the stresses,
fatigue and paranoia that come with protracted
warfare and maneuvers.
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ EU_foreign_ministers_express_support_for
Ukraine_in_joint_video,_Hungarian_FM_only_one_to_send
substitute⠀⇛
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Putin_announces_plans_to_deploy_nuclear-capable
Sarmat_missiles_amid_media_reports_of_failed_tests_—_Meduza⠀⇛
In a video released by the Kremlin’s press service
to mark Russia’s Defender of the Fatherland Day on
Thursday, Vladimir Putin announced that the
country’s nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental
ballistic missiles will be moved to combat
readiness this year.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ In_Defender_of_the_Fatherland_Day_message,_Russian
State_Duma_speaker_says_holiday_‘doesn’t_apply_to_those_who
fled’_the_country_—_Meduza⠀⇛
In a Telegram post marking Russia’s Defender of the
Fatherland Day, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav
Volodin said that the holiday is an occasion to
celebrate “both the men and the women” who
“faithfully serve Russia.”
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ After_days_of_pointed_complaints,_Evgeny_Prigozhin
says_Wagner_Group_to_begin_receiving_ammunition_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin said Thursday
that shipments of ammunition for the mercenary
company are on their way.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Evgeny_Prigozhin_blames_Wagner_Group_casualties_on
Defense_Ministry,_demands_‘ammo_for_Wagner’_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Evgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group has published a
photo of several dozen dead mercenaries. Prigozhin
himself explains that all of them were killed on
February 21, and that their deaths could have been
avoided if not for the scarcity of ammunition
supplied by the Defense Ministry.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russia_charges_Ukrainian_soldier_with_using
prohibited_methods_of_warfare_in_first-of-its-kind_case_—
Meduza⠀⇛
Investigators in Rostov-on-Don have filed charges
against Ukrainian soldier Anton Cherednik for
allegedly using prohibited methods of warfare and
forcibly seizing power, Russian state news agency
TASS reported on Wednesday.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Russian_State_Duma_unanimously_approves_bill_to
suspend_Russia’s_cooperation_with_New_START_Treaty_—_Meduza⠀⇛
Russia’s State Duma has voted unanimously to
suspend Russia’s cooperation with the New START
Treaty, which is the U.S. and Russia’s only
remaining nuclear arms control agreement.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Stadium_rally_in_support_of_invading_Ukraine
begins_in_Moscow._Putin_is_expected_to_speak._—_Meduza⠀⇛
A patriotic rally whose motto is “Glory to the
defenders of our Fatherland!” is beginning in
Moscow. TASS is running a live broadcast of the
event.
o § Environment⠀➾
# ⚓ The Revelator ☛ The_First_Must-Read_Environmental_Books_of
2023_Have_Arrived⠀⇛
# ⚓ DeSmog ☛ Vivian_Krause_to_‘Oil_Mafia’_Supporters:_‘The
Environmentalists_Have_Won’⠀⇛
Vivian Krause may well claim the title of the
Canadian woman who launched a thousand op-eds.
For over a decade Krause’s claim — that American
philanthropic organizations are influencing
Canadian environmental groups — provided the basis
for hundreds of editorials alleging a far-reaching
conspiracy to landlock Canadian oil and gas
resources. Columnists pointed to Krause’s research
as evidence that American-backed eco-radicals had
taken over federal and provincial governments in
Canada, halted major pipeline projects, and “played
right into the business interests of U.S.
billionaires by becoming their useful idiots.”
# § Energy/Transportation⠀➾
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Policy_Lets_Norfolk_Southern_Officials
Order_Crews_to_Ignore_Safety_Alerts⠀⇛
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Norfolk_Southern_Agrees_to_Paid_Sick_Leave
for_3,000_Workers_Amid_Ohio_Crisis⠀⇛
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Trump_Is_Returning_to_the_Scene_of
His_Crime_When_He_Visits_the_East_Palestine_Train
Wreck⠀⇛
When Donald Trump accepted the GOP
presidential nod in Cleveland in July 2016,
he might have been picturing a place like
East Palestine, Ohio — just 85 miles
southeast of the massive podium where he was
standing — as he promised voters he’d
“deliver a better life for the people all
across this nation that have been ignored,
neglected, and abandoned.”
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ As_Trump_Visits_East_Palestine,
Critics_Say_‘He_Should_Be_Apologizing’_for_Safety
Rollbacks⠀⇛
Ahead of former President Donald Trump’s
Wednesday visit to East Palestine, Ohio—where
a Norfolk Southern-owned train transporting
carcinogenic chemicals derailed on February
3, prompting a mass evacuation and release of
pollutants—progressive critics highlighted
the key role his administration played in
making the fiery crash and its toxic
aftermath more likely.
# ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Norfolk_Southern_Lets_Officials_Order
Crews_to_Ignore_Safety_Alerts⠀⇛
Norfolk Southern allows a monitoring team to
instruct crews to ignore alerts from train
track sensors designed to flag potential
mechanical problems.
ProPublica learned of the policy after
reviewing the rules of the company, which is
engulfed in controversy after one of its
trains derailed this month, releasing toxic
flammable gas over East Palestine, Ohio.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Under_Massive_Pressure_Amid_Ohio
Crisis,_Norfolk_Southern_Agrees_to_Paid_Sick_Leave
Deal⠀⇛
Facing intense scrutiny and backlash over the
toxic derailment of one of its trains in
eastern Ohio, Norfolk Southern on Wednesday
reached a deal with a leading rail union to
provide up to a week of paid sick leave per
year to around 3,000 track maintenance
workers.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ A_Norfolk_Southern_Policy_Lets_Officials
Order_Crews_To_Ignore_Safety_Alerts⠀⇛
In October, months before the East Palestine
derailment, the company also directed a train
to keep moving with an overheated wheel that
caused it to derail miles later in Sandusky,
Ohio.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ It’s_Time_to_Talk_About_Nationalizing
America’s_Railroads⠀⇛
If the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train
carrying hazardous materials in East
Palestine, Ohio, tells us anything, it is
that the corporate CEOs, billionaire
speculators, and profit-hungry investors who
control America’s transportation systems are
not up to the job of running railroads. As
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown told CNN, “There’s
no question [that the railroad company]
caused it with this derailment because they
underinvested in their employees.”
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Electric_Vehicles_Are_No_Silver
Bullet—Transportation_Fixes_Must_Go_Further⠀⇛
The U.S. faces a critical juncture for the
decarbonization of its transportation
system.Will zero emissions transportation be
an electrified status quo, with ever more
massive electric SUVs stuck in traffic on
highways connecting sprawling metropolitan
regions? Or will it diverge from car
dependency to take the form of e-bikes and e-
buses zipping around denser, more walkable
cities and suburbs?
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Report_Urges_Biden_to_Stop_Aiding_Big
Oil_‘Ploy_to_Prolong_the_Era_of_Fossil_Fuels’⠀⇛
Titled Liquefied Natural Cash: How Methane
Exports Reverse Climate Progress, Harm
Consumers and Endanger Communities, the
report highlights the surge of methane gas
delivery contracts inked in the wake of
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly a year
ago, a boom aided in part by the Biden
administration’s efforts to export more U.S.
gas to European allies.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Biden_Proposes_First_Gulf_of_Mexico
Offshore_Wind_Lease_Sales⠀⇛
Clean energy advocates on Wednesday applauded
an announcement from U.S. Interior Secretary
Deb Haaland, who said her department is
proposing the first-ever offshore lease sale
for wind power in the Gulf of Mexico, long a
center of oil and gas extraction.
# ⚓ DeSmog ☛ The_Natural_Gas_Industry_Sees_Cow_Manure_Gas
as_the_Key_to_a_Net_Zero_Future⠀⇛
Chevron has been talking a lot about cows
lately. Alongside POLITICO articles about
clean energy, in D.C. newsletters, on
Facebook and LinkedIn, are Chevron’s recent
ads featuring taglines like “We’re looking to
turn the methane from cow 💩 into the fuels of
the future.” Each ad links to a page on
Chevron’s website which explains how methane
captured from manure is actually “renewable
natural gas.”
But Chevron isn’t the only one talking cow
manure. As world leaders convened in Egypt
last November to negotiate climate action at
the United Nations COP27 summit, a dairy
industry trade association also ran a social
media campaign highlighting efforts to
“upcycle methane” from cattle. The ads showed
anaerobic digester machines capturing methane
emissions from manure and turning it into
biomethane, which can be upgraded into
natural gas. The public relations behemoth
Edelman, which has come under fire for its
work for the oil industry, created Facebook,
Twitter, and even TikTok ads for this
campaign.
# § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Two_Minutes⠀⇛
I recently read an article discussing Held,
et al v. Montana. This case, the first of its
kind in the United States to go to trial, was
filed in Montana First Judicial District
Court by 16 young Montanans. These plaintiffs
are suing to enforce their inalienable right
to a clean and healthful environment,
guaranteed under Article II, section 3 of our
Montana Constitution.
The article prompted me to reflect upon the
evolutionary history of our species, homo
sapiens–a story of soaring accomplishment and
abject failure.
# § Overpopulation⠀➾
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ An_Aging_Population_Poses_Issues,
Just_Like_the_Baby_Boom_Did⠀⇛
The New York Times had an interesting piece
on aging societies in Asia and elsewhere. The
piece rightly points out that as the elderly
comprise a larger share of the population,
societies will have to make adjustments to
meet their needs. This is not some sort of
crisis, as it is often portrayed, by rather a
challenge that has to be recognized, similar
to other challenge posed by past demographic
changes.
The NYT piece noted that older people are
likely to need more medical care than younger
adults. Also, many will face chronic
conditions like dementia, which will be
difficult to deal with, especially for those
without children or other family members to
help them. It also pointed out that many
older people are forced to work late in life
because they don’t have a sufficient income
on which to retire.
o § Finance⠀➾
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ More_Drivel_Over_the_National_Debt!⠀⇛
How the hell can we expect Americans to understand
what the national debt means if the media doesn’t
report it accurately?
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Distortion_of_Breakfast_Price_Hikes_Leaves_WSJ
With_Egg_on_Face⠀⇛
At the same time these companies are acting like
their hands are tied by supply disruptions, their
profits have skyrocketed.
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Inflation_of_food_prices_in_Hungary
decreased_for_first_time_in_20_months,_but_we_are_still_way
ahead_of_rest_of_EU⠀⇛
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Hungarian_inflation_now_more_than_two_and
a_half_times_the_EU_average_at_26.2⠀⇛
# ⚓ MIT Technology Review ☛ Digital_business_building_driven_by
conviction_and_experimentation⠀⇛
Investors today no longer reward companies for
incremental changes in their core business.
Embracing digital throughout the business can help
traditional companies exponentially increase value
and their ability to compete with digital natives,
if done correctly.
# ⚓ Michael West Media ☛ Shareholders_re-Joyce_again,_as_Qantas
ignores_tax-payers,_passengers_and_staff⠀⇛
The ebullience with which Qantas chief Alan Joyce
announced the airline’s well telegraphed record
half year pre-tax profit of $1.4 billion,
underscored perfectly the jarring disconnect now at
play in the company. Michael Sainsbury reports.
True to its priorities, the company also announced
a share buyback of $500 million, its second in the
past 12 months designed to prop up its share price.
That’s a cool $840 million diverted to shareholders
instead of investing much needed funds on its aging
fleet, maintenance division and staff wages that
continue – for the majority of employees – to go
backwards in real terms, as inflation neutralises
the small increases.
# ⚓ Michael West Media ☛ Shine_Justice?_Class_action_law_firm
poised_to_sue_class_action_law_firm⠀⇛
It is understood that a class action law firm is
planning to take a class action against class
action law firm Shine Justice. What’s the scam?
The scam is shonky accounting, as per the story
below. The question is, is this law firm breaking
the law? We posed questions to them and their
auditors PwC but they declined to respond. Then
they came out with more of the same today when they
disclosed their financial statements and the share
price tanked 20%.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Humanity_Faces_Converging_Debt_Crises⠀⇛
An enormous debt bomb threatens the U.S. federal
government and the nation’s financial system unless
warring politicians can agree on a plan to defuse
it. However, there are even bigger debt bombs
ticking away beneath us all, of which fewer people
are aware. It may be impossible to disarm all of
them, but action is required to minimize the
casualties.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ What_Will_Happen_When_Banks_Go_Bust?_Bank
Runs,_Bail-Ins_and_Systemic_Risk⠀⇛
Financial podcasts have been featuring ominous
headlines lately along the lines of “Your Bank Can
Legally Seize Your Money” and “Banks Can STEAL Your
Money?! Here’s How!”
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ Biden’s_Missing_Word:_Inequality⠀⇛
On February 2nd, Pres. Joe Biden delivered his
annual State of the Union address and received
considerable praise for both the “progressive”
positions he took and his combative tone. He seemed
awake, getting ready to announce his 2024
candidacy. According to one source, former Pres.
Donald Trump offered some praise.
However, the word “inequality” was absent from
Biden’s speech.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Lesson_We_Need_to_Teach_Our_Nation’s
Rich⠀⇛
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Day_the_World_Should_Have_Changed⠀⇛
There was a day when humanity was invited to
reinvent its relation with power, when we should
have realized that competition among nations as we
knew it was obsolete, as well as pretty well all
our relations based on power and domination.
The day was July 16, 1945, the day of the Trinity
test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, when the first
nuclear weapon was exploded, proving that humanity
had pierced the secrets of the atom and could now
build weapons staggeringly larger than the 25-
kiloton bomb exploded that day. The hydrogen bomb
was already envisioned. It would use fission
devices such as the Trinity bomb to create a fusion
reaction that would unleash energies hundreds of
times greater. Even the name of the test indicated
that scientists understood humanity had obtained a
godlike power.
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Price_of_ticket_for_100E_airport_bus_in
Budapest_to_increase_by_HUF_700_in_April⠀⇛
o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ McCarthyism,_Then_and_Now⠀⇛
And the (True) One-Party State in America.
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ GA_Grand_Jury_Foreperson_Implies_Trump_Will_Face
Charges_for_Raffensperger_Call⠀⇛
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ President_Novák_shakes_hands_with_US
President_Biden_at_B9_meeting⠀⇛
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán’s_visit_to_Kyiv_is_being_planned⠀⇛
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ New_York_Court_Says_Fox,_Rudy_Giuliani_Can’t
Escape_Defamation_Lawsuit_Over_BS_Stolen_Election_Claims⠀⇛
Donald Trump and his supporters are unable to
process facts. That inability led to many of them
engaging in questionable election-related lawsuits
and extremely questionable election-related public
statements. Alleging a “stolen” election, Trump and
his backers claimed, without any supporting
evidence, voting machines/software made by Dominion
Voting Systems and Smartmatic conspired to rob the
lame duck of a second term in office.
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Will_Trump_&_Allies_Finally_Face_Jail_for
Election_Lies?_Georgia_Grand_Jury_Recommends_Indictments⠀⇛
The special grand jury in Georgia that is
investigating attempts by former President Donald
Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election
has recommended more than a dozen indictments, and
the list could include Trump. Emily Kohrs, the
foreperson of the grand jury, confirmed the
indictments on Tuesday, though it’s still unclear
if they will include crimes other than perjury.
Prosecutors will ultimately decide what charges to
bring in the coming days. For more, we speak with
The Nation’s D.C. bureau chief, Chris Lehmann, who
says convictions are still unlikely, given that
“the legal system favors heavily entrenched power.”
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ By_Caving_to_Israel,_Biden_Opens_the_Door
to_War_With_Iran⠀⇛
As all eyes were on Ukraine and Chinese balloons in
the sky, the Biden administration seemingly shifted
America’s longstanding opposition to Israel
starting a disastrous war with Iran.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Biden_Administration_Takes_Its_Capitulation_to
Israel_to_an_Absurd_New_Level⠀⇛
An independent human rights expert was denied a
post for accurately criticizing Israel.
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ Mark_Fiore:_Freedom_Liberry⠀⇛
The movement to ban certain books is gaining
traction in Florida and around the country. Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis is riding the book ban
bandwagon to national fame (after first riding
Covid misinformation bandwagon) as he prepares to
run for president.
# ⚓ Site36 ☛ „Brussels_farce“:_Hungary’s_justice_minister_rails
against_EU_committee⠀⇛
A parliamentary EU committee investigated political
persecution in Hungary using the „Pegasus“ spyware.
The government suspected a left-wing conspiracy and
was apparently poorly informed about it.
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Orbán_lists_his_opponents:_a_harsh
outburst_against_the_West_at_the_Fidesz-KDNP_caucus_meeting⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Real_Problem_With_Marjorie_Taylor_Greene’s
Call_for_a_“National_Divorce”⠀⇛
Over Presidents’ Day weekend, House GOP darling
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia caused yet
another firestorm by calling for a “national
divorce.” She tweeted: “We need to separate by red
states and blue states and shrink the federal
government. Everyone I talk to says this.”
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Unfulfilled_Promise⠀⇛
When it comes to understanding modern politics,
analogies abound. We have the 1938 Munich
conference as a metaphor for the perils of being
“weak” on foreign policy. Modern hyper-partisanship
has driven comparisons to the 1850s and the lead-up
to the Civil War. With the combination of the
Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests,
and a new wave of strikes roiling the nation,
scholars and journalists have compared our current
moment to the 1918 influenza pandemic and the
following year’s Red Summer, when the United States
appeared to be on fire with strikes and protests
from coast to coast.1
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Leadership,_Kevin_McCarthy–Style⠀⇛
He bowed to the wackos’ demands. He’d needed their
votes. Those were vital To winning the office he
craved. Now all he has left is the title.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Rosa_Parks,_Courage_and_Leadership⠀⇛
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Politico:_Orbán_threatening_with_veto
unless_4_individuals_removed_from_sanctions_list⠀⇛
# ⚓ Telex (Hungary) ☛ Judit_Varga’s_talk_about_dollar-funded
left_ridiculous_and_shameful_–_chair_of_Pegasus_delegation⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Ralph_Nader_Remembers_Michael_Pertschuk⠀⇛
The tumultuous start of the 118th Congress has
planted it squarely in the public eye. We should
broaden out our field of vision to include
congressional staff members. These unsung but
influential aides should be made aware of what
their predecessors accomplished in the past, led by
Michael Pertschuk.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Putin_spends_3.5_minutes_speaking_to_Russians
gathered_at_stadium_rally_—_Meduza⠀⇛
President Vladimir Putin gave a much-anticipated
speech before thousands of Russians gathered at
Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
# ⚓ Meduza ☛ Air_defense_system_spotted_near_Moscow’s_Luzhniki
Stadium,_ahead_of_Putin_speech_—_Meduza⠀⇛
A Pantsir missile system has been spotted opposite
Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, where Vladimir Putin
spoke today, as part of a patriotic rally
commemorating a year of Russia’s full-scale
invasion of Ukraine. TV Rain has published a video
of the air defense installation near the Moscow
State University building.
# § Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda⠀➾
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Lawsuit_Shows_Hannity,_Carlson,
Ingraham_Among_Fox_News_Hosts_Who_Knew_Election_Claims
Were_Baseless⠀⇛
As Donald Trump and his inner circle
potentially face indictments over their
efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Fox
News is also in legal hot water for
amplifying the same unfounded claims about
election fraud. Dominion Voting Systems,
which makes voting machines, has sued the
conservative cable news outlet for $1.6
billion in a defamation suit that has exposed
how top hosts and executives knew they were
spreading misinformation but continued to
push the conspiracy theories on air. “Fox
News, despite its corporate name, is not in
fact a news organization,” says Chris
Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation.
“What they are doing is promulgating lies for
the sake of maintaining audience share and
high profitability.”
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Crazy_Like_a_Fox_(Satire_Alert)⠀⇛
In a recent defamation lawsuit against Fox
News, Dominion Voting Systems contends that
dozens of people with editorial
responsibility—from the top of the
organization to the producers of specific
shows to the hosts themselves—made false on-
air statements that Dominion’s voting
machines were programed to change the results
of the 2020 presidential vote so that Trump
could lose. The late Roger Ailes, founder and
former chairman of Fox News, was instrumental
in setting up the network’s news division. In
their play Rupert!, Marvin Kitman and Richard
Lingeman imagine Ailes explaining the
philosophy behind his proposed news channel.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Climate_Misinformation_Is_Now_Our
Main_Competitor⠀⇛
What do people across the U.K. really think
about climate misinformation? Outright denial
that climate change is real is waning, but
there are still real barriers to engagement
and effective climate action. Today, most
people are neither climate activists nor
climate deniers. Confronted with ever-
worsening climate impacts, the majority
believe that climate change is real—but they
aren’t actively engaged in trying to create
change to tackle it.
o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Ron_DeSantis_Carves_Out_a_Brand_as_a_Book-
Burning,_Anti-LGBTQ+,_Racist_Authoritarian⠀⇛
Ideological attacks on public education are central
to the politics of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who
is carving out a brand as a book-burning, gay-
phobic, transphobic, racist authoritarian. A Fauci-
hater and anti-vax hero of right-wing media,
DeSantis restricted instruction on gender identity
and sexual orientation with his “Don’t Say Gay”
law. He limited what schools can teach about racism
and diversity with his “Stop WOKE” law. He rejected
math textbooks en masse for what the state called
“prohibited topics,” such as critical race theory;
and he banned an Advanced Placement course in
African-American studies for high school students
on the grounds that it is a tool for “political
indoctrination.” Playing the wannabe tough guy, he
wants to troll his way to the White House as
America’s premiere culture warrior.
o § Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press⠀➾
# ⚓ The Dissenter ☛ LuxLeaks_Whistleblower_Wins_Case_Before
Europe’s_Top_Human_Rights_Court⠀⇛
# ⚓ Scheerpost ☛ LuxLeaks_Whistleblower_Wins_Case_Before
Europe’s_Top_Human_Rights_Court⠀⇛
By Kevin Gosztola / The Dissenter The grand chamber
of the European Court of Human Rights recently
ruled in favor of a whistleblower who worked for
the multinational accounting conglomerate
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and exposed tax
evasion schemes in Luxembourg.
# ⚓ Don’t Extradite Assange ☛ Darkness_into_light:_Night
Carnival_for_Assange⠀⇛
The latest expression of support for Assange was
the Night Carnival protest in London, the very spot
where Dickens pictured the poisonous fog to be
thickest. Its slogan is ‘Light into Darkness’,
using the age-old subversive nature of carnival to
shine a light on this very dark corner of the
political and legal system.
o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Sanders_Says_US_Must_Condition_Aid_to_Israel_to
Rein_in_“Racist_Government”⠀⇛
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Seattle_Becomes_First_US_City_to_Ban_Caste
Discrimination_With_Kshama_Sawant_Ordinance⠀⇛
The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday for the
first U.S. ban on caste-based discrimination, a
move the measure’s socialist sponsor hopes will
inspire similar legislation nationwide.
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ WI_Supreme_Court_Election_Candidate_Is_Trump
Loyalist_Involved_in_Electors_Plot⠀⇛
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ “It’s_White_Supremacy”_—_Critics_Lambaste
Greene’s_Call_for_“National_Divorce”⠀⇛
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ The_Supreme_Court_Just_Heard_2_Cases_That
Could_Break_the_Internet⠀⇛
Humility, thoughtfulness, and restraint are not
virtues one can in good faith associate with our
current Supreme Court. The past few years have seen
a rash of extremist rulings from the conservatives
who control the court, with the six
archconservatives assuming the power to invalidate
human rights, grant new rights to guns and
corporations, and win the culture wars for their
far-right confederates. The Supreme Court no longer
acts as an impartial panel of jurists but as a
cabal of rulers eager to foist their worldview upon
the rest of us.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Progressives_Score_a_Major_Win_in_the
Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_Primary⠀⇛
Just 33 minutes after polls closed in the primary
election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat that
will determine the balance of power on one of the
most powerful and contentious judicial benches in
the country, the Associated Press announced that
liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz will advance
to the general election on April 4. The Milwaukee
County judge, who ran as an unapologetic defender
of abortion rights and fair elections, overwhelmed
the other three contenders in the first round of a
contest that political observers on both sides of
the nation’s partisan divide consider the most
consequential election fight of 2023.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ In_‘Extremely_Rare’_Ruling,_SCOTUS_Orders
Resentencing_of_Arizona_Prisoner⠀⇛
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a rare
rebuke of Arizona’s criminal justice system as the
majority ruled in favor of a death row inmate who
has called for a resentencing, saying the state
ignored legal precedents during his trial.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ Supreme_Court_Declines_to_Hear_Challenge_to
‘Unconstitutional’_Arkansas_Anti-BDS_Law⠀⇛
In a move decried by one critic as a “significant
loss for the First Amendment,” the U.S. Supreme
Court on Tuesday declined to hear a challenge to an
Arkansas law requiring companies doing business
with the state to sign a pledge vowing not to
boycott Israel.
# ⚓ Counter Punch ☛ The_Cult_of_Violence:_New_Poll_Finds
Evidence_of_Authoritarian_Values_Driving_U.S._Public
Opinion⠀⇛
Social scientists have long expressed concerns that
a large number of Americans embrace authoritarian
modes of thinking that are centered on suppression
of dissent, violence, and an infatuation with
strong leaders.
New evidence reveals that these authoritarian
values are endorsed by a disturbing number of
Americans, with the trend being most acute on the
American right. A new national poll sponsored by
the Marcon Institute for anti-racist studies and
social justice suggests that the way in which
authoritarian values are manifested with the
American public may be shifting. The poll was
conducted from February 7-9, and contacted a
nationally representative sample of 1,021
Americans.
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ Disability_Justice_Organizers_Dream_Big_and
Resist_a_Culture_of_Disposability⠀⇛
# ⚓ Democracy Now ☛ Guilty:_Mexico’s_Ex-Top_Cop_García_Luna
Convicted_in_U.S._Drug_Trafficking_Case⠀⇛
A New York court on Tuesday convicted Genaro García
Luna, Mexico’s former secretary of public security
and a close ally of U.S. law enforcement for
decades, of drug trafficking and money laundering,
among other charges. Prosecutors said García Luna
accepted millions in bribes from the very criminal
groups he was meant to be fighting, including the
infamous Sinaloa Cartel formerly led by Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán. García Luna faces up to life in
prison and is the most high-ranking Mexican
official ever tried in the U.S. For more, we speak
with award-winning journalists Peniley Ramírez and
Maria Hinojosa, co-hosts of Futuro Media’s podcast
USA v. García Luna. They say the case exposes how
corrupt the so-called war on drugs has been on both
sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. “The U.S.
government, the DEA, the entire security apparatus
failed here,” says Hinojosa.
# ⚓ TruthOut ☛ While_Ex-Elected_Officials_Invest_in_Cannabis,_I
Remain_in_Prison_for_Selling_It⠀⇛
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ The_Democratic_Party_Failed_Striking
Warrior_Met_Coal_Miners_in_Alabama⠀⇛
After almost two years on the picket line, the
hundreds of United Mine Workers of America members
who have been on strike at Warrior Met Coal in
Alabama have offered to go back to work. They still
do not have the fair contract they have sacrificed
so much for. Their negotiations will continue, but
they did not win this strike—and that is tragic.
The company and its private equity owners bear the
most direct responsibility for precipitating this
heartless, inhuman struggle. But if you are looking
for a meaningful place to focus your rage over the
way that this strike has turned out, look directly
at the Democratic Party.
# ⚓ Common Dreams ☛ New_Biden_Rule_Denounced_as_‘Trump’s_Asylum
Ban_Under_a_Different_Name’⠀⇛
The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed a rule
that immigrant rights groups, civil liberties
organizations, and some Democratic lawmakers
condemned as an illegal attack on asylum-seekers
that resembles an inhumane policy pursued by former
President Donald Trump.
# ⚓ Pro Publica ☛ Help_ProPublica_and_The_Salt_Lake_Tribune
Investigate_Sexual_Assault_in_Utah⠀⇛
We’re reporting on sexual assault by health care
professionals, an issue we highlighted in our story
about a Provo OB-GYN who was sued by nearly 100
women who said he sexually assaulted them during
treatments. You can fill out our confidential form
below to tell us about other practitioners and
health care institutions you think we should report
on.
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ In_the_Dominican_Republic,_the_Fight_for
Abortion_Rights_Is_a_Fight_Against_Anti-Blackness⠀⇛
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic—There’s a
citywide blackout. No street lights, no shop
lights—just headlights from passing cars. “This is
just your typical Friday night,” Alicia Mendez
Medina says, and a bodega worker nods from behind
her. Alicia bids her goodbye and we head to Parque
Duarte, the place many have described as “the it
spot” for nightlife in Santo Domingo. She orders
some wine.
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ I_Explained_To_A_Court_How_California’s_‘Kid’s
Code’_Is_Both_Impossible_To_Comply_With_&_An_Attack_On_Our
Expression⠀⇛
Last year, Techdirt was one of only a very few
sites where you could find out information on
California’s AB 2273, officially the “California
Age Appropriate Design Code” or “Kid’s code.” As
with so many bills that talk about “protecting the
children,” everyone we talked to said they were
afraid to speak up, because they worried that
they’d be branded as being against child safety.
Indeed, I even had some people within some larger
tech companies reach out to me suggesting it was
dangerous to speak out against the bill.
o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ After_Introducing_Caps_And_Raising_Prices,
Starlink_Introduces_$200_Global_Roaming_Charge⠀⇛
To be clear, Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service
is great if you have no other options and can
afford it. Especially if you’ve spent an eternity
stuck on an expensive 3 Mbps DSL line straight out
of 2003, or a traditional, capped, expensive
satellite broadband connection. The ability to get
somewhere between 10 and 100 Mbps in your cabin in
the woods (if it works) is a great thing.
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Some_Initial_Thoughts_On_The_Supreme_Court_Oral
Arguments_In_Gonzalez:_Non-Experts_Might_Still_Make_A_Mess_Of
Things,_But_Without_Understanding_Why⠀⇛
Despite the Supreme Court hearing what could be the
most consequential case regarding the future of the
internet in decades, I decided to log off for most
of Tuesday and go do something fun, far away from
any internet connection. I didn’t listen live to
the oral arguments, but rather chose to listen (at
3x speed) to the arguments Tuesday evening, while
simultaneously reading the transcript. My colleague
Cathy Gellis didn’t just listen to the oral
arguments, but attended live at the Supreme Court
(and is doing the same today with the associated
Taamneh case), so I expect that she’ll have a more
thorough analysis from her later.
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Supreme_Court_Passes_On_Important_Parody_Case,
Allows_Cops_To_Treat_Satire_As_A_Criminal_Act_In_The_Sixth
Circuit⠀⇛
While we’re all waiting to see if the Supreme Court
is willing to destroy Section 230 immunity the way
it did abortion rights, more bad news has been
delivered by the top court in the land. Hidden
among the list [PDF] of dozens of cases the Supreme
Court will not be reviewing is this one, rejected
without comment by the justices.
# ⚓ Zimbabwe ☛ Liquid_(Zol)_facing_another_service_degradation
nationwide,_its_slow_speeds_until_further_notice⠀⇛
It was just under two weeks ago that we were
talking about Liquid having an outage. Then, we
were told the outage was as a result of a fibre
break. The outage did not lead to people being cut
off completely, but rather getting slow speeds,
Well, it’s just happened again.
o § Digital Restrictions (DRM)⠀➾
# ⚓ Techdirt ☛ Colorado_Passes_Landmark_Agricultural_‘Right_To
Repair’_Bill⠀⇛
Colorado is the latest state to move forward on new
“right to repair” legislation despite a growing and
sustained lobbying effort by industry. The Colorado
House of Representatives passed the bipartisan
Consumer Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment Act
(HB23-1011) with a 44-17 vote on Tuesday, the first
major right to repair legislation to be passed so
far in 2023.
o § Monopolies⠀➾
# § Patents⠀➾
# ⚓ The Nation ☛ Destroying_Culture_With_Modified_Corn
[Ed: Modified Corn = patented]⠀⇛
# § Copyrights⠀➾
# ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ Russia_Claims_Ukraine_&_Allies_Use
Pirate_Sites_to_Spread_Propaganda⠀⇛
A Russian security company is reporting a
surge in movie and TV show-related domain
registrations. Some believe that pirates are
buying domains to exploit an upcoming gap in
the market when Hollywood licenses expire at
the end of the month. Telecoms regulator
Roskomnadzor claims that Ukraine and its
allies are running pirate sites for
propaganda purposes.
# ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ The_European_Union’s_Official_Site
Has_a_Persistent_‘Piracy’_Problem⠀⇛
The European Union warns that pirate sites
can lead users to malware and other unwanted
content. Unfortunately, the EU also has its
own piracy problem; its official website
continues to be exploited by bad actors to
advertise piracy-related scams. Meanwhile,
male enhancement gummies, Onlyfans hacks,
gift card generators, and other scams are
promoted too.
# ⚓ Torrent Freak ☛ MPA:_Pluto_TV_.m3u_Playlists
Facilitate_Piracy_on_a_Massive_Scale⠀⇛
A condition of watching streaming service
Pluto TV is that users must use approved
methods such as official apps. This is the
reason that Pluto TV is free, since revenue
is generated through advertising. Unofficial
Pluto TV .m3u playlists are easy to access
and do away with advertising and user
behavior tracking mechanisms. A copyright
complaint sent by the MPA this week pulls no
punches; these playlists facilitate piracy on
a massive scale.
* § Gemini* and Gopher⠀➾
o § Personal⠀➾
# ⚓ Contrasting_Visual_and_Nonvisual⠀⇛
I’m aggressively non-visual. So much so that I am
still utterly baffled by the idea of a picture. I
mean, how on Earth do you squish three-dimensional
reality into two dimensions on a page, a screen, a
canvas, or what have you? If I sit here and try to
grok it, you’d probably see figurative smoke coming
out of the top of my head.
And yet, I love Lisp. Lisp, and S-expressions in
particular, helped me understand trees.
o § Technical⠀➾
# ⚓ My_Pinebook_Pro_Lives!⠀⇛
Really, that’s it. I just goofed up the eMMC and
since it boots to that first by default I had to
remove the chip in order to be able to mess with it
again using Armbian on an SD card.
Now I’ve just gotta get around to grabbing an eMMC
to USB adapter of some sort so I can re-flash it
with a copy of the OS as it lives on the SD card,
and I’ll be back up to 64GB of cheap storage.
For the kinda stuff I’ll likely wind up doing here
that’s about as convoluted as I’d need my storage
size to be.. anything more than that and I should
probably be offloading it to a storage hard drive
anyway.
# ⚓ A_breakdown_of_the_triple-star_pointer⠀⇛
I few days ago I read “Lessons learnt while trying
to modernize some C code [1]” (via Lobsters [2])
and one of the problems of C stated stood out to
me: “Avoid constructs like `char ***`. I thought it
was a joke, but people do pass around `char ***`
and it’s insane—almost impossible to comprehend why
do you need a pointer to a pointer to a pointer.”
Yes, it happens, but come on! That doesn’t happen
often enough to complain about!
# ⚓ GPT-3_On_Electronic_Pets⠀⇛
I’ve lately wanted a pet, but no animal lives up to
my criteria. Jokingly both I and friends have said
that maybe I should get an e-pet instead, like a
tamagotchi. Of course, an e-pet doesn’t alleviate
loneliness in the least! But don’t just take my
word for it; listen to an AI explain it for you.
# § Programming⠀➾
# ⚓ Reply_–_Christina_–_February_2023_Five_Questions_
(5Q)⠀⇛
Christina, looks like the questions as posted
on your gemcap have been truncated a bit by
Nano or Emacs &c. FYI. I still cleave to Nano
as my default $EDITOR, but have aliased it to
always run with flags for line numbers and
line wrap for this reason. Highly
recommended. Not to mention setting the
config for endearing ansi colours! Anyway, no
worries, I shall make do with inference. If
clarification is needful and interesting,
please ping me by XMPP.
# ⚓ I’m_learn-ding⠀⇛
Illness aside, I’ve been trying to
keep myself busy over the last month,
mostly in my attempts to continue
learning C. I still have no real desire
to make my own applications, but I want
to maintain and modify applications
that I already use, like adding Atom
support to `snownews`, and fixing some
problems that I found when compiling it
for Snow Leopard. I also kinda want to
toy with other applications, like I did
when learning what I know of Perl.
Lua will come soon enough, as I use
`wordgrinder` on a daily basis, and I’d
like to be able to eventually fork the
older 7.2 version I modified since it
runs better on my OS of choice than the
current version does.
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