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Links 1/11/2021: GNU Linux-Libre 5.15 and Audacity 3.1



  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: “Halloween Edition”

      This week was spooky and brought some cool things, such as Linux 5.15 as the next LTS kernel, a new Linux laptop from Star Labs, a new Raspberry Pi model, as well as a new release of the Ubuntu Online project for demoing Ubuntu in a web browser.

      On top of that, this week we got a new NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver release, new releases of the Nitrux and Escuelas Linux distros, a new KDE Plasma point release, and a new Calibre release. You can enjoy these and much more in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for October 31st, 2021, a.k.a. the Halloween Edition!

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux Kernel 5.15 Released. This is What's New

        A quiet "Halloween" release yet impactful Linux Kernel 5.15 is here improving Processors, Storage, Graphics and other components. Here's a release recap and how to download and install for Ubuntu.

      • Linux 5.15 Kernel Released - LinuxStoney

        After two months of development, Linus Torvalds has released the Linux 5.15 kernel . Notable changes include: new NTFS driver with write support, ksmbd module with SMB server implementation, DAMON subsystem for monitoring memory access, locking primitives for real-time mode, fs-verity support in Btrfs, process_mrelease system call for shortage response systems memory, remote attestation module dm-ima.

        The new version received 13,499 fixes from 1888 developers, the size of the patch is 42 MB (changes affected 10,895 files, 632,522 lines of code added, 299,966 lines removed). About 45% of all changes introduced in 5.15 are related to device drivers, approximately 14% of changes are related to updating code specific to hardware architectures, 14% are related to the network stack, 6% are related to filesystems, and 3% are related to internal kernel subsystems.

      • Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS Released! Brings Improved NTFS Driver to Linux - It's FOSS News

        On Halloween, Linus Torvalds announced the availability of the next mainline, Linux Kernel 5.15.

        While Linux Kernel 5.14 focused on improvements for ARM-based systems, the focus seems to be on some significant changes this time.

        Here, I shall highlight the key highlights of this release.

      • Linux Kernel 5.15 released, futex2 work to help Linux gaming going into Kernel 5.16 | GamingOnLinux

        For the futex2 work coming from Collabora developer André Almeida, another developer Thomas Gleixner has sent in a request for Linus Torvalds to have it included along with other work so we should see it in the next Kernel release. This is for the new system call sys_futex_waitv that will help Linux gaming.

        As Almeida previously described it: "The use case of this syscall is to allow low level locking libraries to wait for multiple locks at the same time. This is specially useful for emulating Windows' WaitForMultipleObjects. A futex_waitv()-based solution has been used for some time at Proton's Wine (a compatibility layer to run Windows games on Linux). Compared to a solution that uses eventfd(), futex was able to reduce CPU utilization for games, and even increase frames per second for some games. This happens because eventfd doesn't scale very well for a huge number of read, write and poll calls compared to futex. Native game engines will benefit of this as well, given that this wait pattern is common for games.".

      • FUTEX2's sys_futex_waitv() Sent In For Linux 5.16 To Help Linux Gaming

        As expected after first reporting on it a month ago when the FUTEX2 patches were queued up in locking/core, this work with the new sys_futex_waitv() system call for helping the Windows on Linux gaming experience will indeed land for Linux 5.16.

        The FUTEX2 work has been a long time coming and landing for Linux 5.16 is the main part: the sys_futex_waitv system call that allows for waiting on multiple futexes. This is very useful for the likes of Wine and Proton (Steam Play) for better matching the behavior of Microsoft Windows' WaitForMultipleObjects functionality. Making use of this new system call on Linux 5.16+ when patches land for Wine / Proton will allow for greater performance possibilities. Native Linux games may also make use of this system call directly or via a wrapper (e.g. glibc patches have been floated) as well for performance/efficiency benefits. The performance advantage may be in the ballpark of a few percent.

      • GNU Linux-Libre 5.15 Kernel Is Here for Those Who Seek 100% Freedom for Their PCs

        Based on the Linux 5.15 kernel series, the GNU Linux-libre 5.15 kernel is here to clean up a lot of drivers in an attempt to offer you a pure kernel free of proprietary code. Drivers that needed cleaning up include adreno, btusb, btintel, brcmfmac, and gehc-achc.

        In addition, this release cleans up a new AArch64 qcom variant’s devicetree file, removes cleaning up scripts for the prism54 and rtl8188eu drivers, which were removed upstream in favor of new drivers that need cleaning up too, and it cleans up the mechanism behind the new option to enable -Werror during compilation.

      • GNU Linux-libre 5.15 Released - More Deblobbing, Fixing "-Werror" Breakage - Phoronix

        Right after last night's Linux 5.15 kernel release, the Free Software Foundation folks issued GNU Linux-libre 5.15-gnu as the newest version of their downstream that removes functionality dependent upon binary-only/non-free-software firmware/microcode as well as the ability to load closed kernel modules and other determined non-free-software restrictions.

        This cycle the Linux-libre developers have been dealing with the Linux kernel's new -Werror Kconfig option to enable that compiler option that raises warnings to errors. While that option was set to not be enabled by default now for Linux 5.15, the Linux-libre folks have been trying to clean-up some of their machinery since when they go through the "deblobbing" process it often leaves unused arguments to functions and other changes that emit new compiler warnings. So the Linux-libre developers have been working to make changes there so such warnings won't be raised to errors.

    • Applications

      • Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Adobe InDesign

        What if you are looking to move away from Adobe and embark on a new world of online freedom, where you are not tracked, monetised and attached to Adobe’s ecosystem. We only recommend free and open source alternatives. Our recommended software don’t necessarily replicate every feature of their Adobe counterparts but they offer sufficient functionality for many tasks.

        What are the best free and open source alternatives?

      • Audacity 3.1 Sound Editor Released

        The release of the free sound editor Audacity 3.1 has been published , which provides tools for editing sound files (Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3 and WAV), recording and digitizing sound, changing the parameters of the sound file, overlaying tracks and applying effects (for example, noise suppression, changing the tempo and tone ). Audacity code is distributed under the GPL license, binaries are available for Linux, Windows and macOS.

        Audacity 3.1 was the first significant release to be formed after the project was taken over by the Muse Group. In preparing the new release, the main focus was on simplifying the audio editing operation.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Krita on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Krita on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Krita is a free and open-source photo editing and digital painting application. Krita is a multi-platform application, and it offers a lot of features like designing illustrations, drawing texture arts, and much more.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Krita digital painting on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • Migrate CentOS 7 To AlmaLinux 8, CentOS 8, Rocky Linux 8 - OSTechNix

        As you may already know, it was not possible to migrate between major version of RHEL-derivatives. Meaning - you can't directly upgrade from CentOS 7.x to CentOS 8.x version. The only way was fresh installation. Not anymore! You can now easily migrate from CentOS 7.x to any 8.x of your choice using ELevate tool. This guide explains how to migrate CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8, CentOS Stream 8, Oracle Linux 8, and Rocky Linux 8 using AlmaLinux ELvate tool.

      • How I dynamically generate Jekyll config files | Opensource.com

        Jekyll, the static site generator, uses the _config.yml for configuration. The configurations are all Jekyll-specific. But you can also define variables with our own content in these files and use them throughout your website. In this article, I'll highlight some advantages of dynamically creating Jekyll config files.

      • How to Install Java 14 on CentOS/RHEL 7/8 & Fedora [Ed: Newly updated]

        Java is a secure, stable, and well-known, general-purpose programming language and computing technology platform with many interconnected capabilities.

        To run Java-based applications, you must have Java installed on your server. You mostly need the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), a collection of software components used to run Java applications on the Linux machine.

        If you want to develop software applications for Java, you need to install the Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK), which comes with a complete JRE package with tools for developing, debugging, and monitoring Java applications and it is an Oracle’s supported Java SE (Standard Edition) version.

      • How to Install Skype on Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux [Ed: Bad idea either way, because it is spyware]
      • How to Repair File System Errors in Debian

        The Debian Linux distribution laid down the foundation for the creation of other popular Linux operating system platforms like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Kali Linux. The community-supported development of this GNU/Linux distribution attributes it as free and open-source software.

        Unfortunately, the prominence of the Linux operating system and its related distributions like Debian does not spare it from nagging file system errors. Fortunately, Linux ensures that you are never helpless when faced with such operating system performance challenges.

      • How to configure MPLS with tc in the Linux kernel | Enable Sysadmin

        Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a telecom routing technique that uses labels to direct data between nodes. It is supported by the Linux networking stack, and many articles and tutorials have been written about how to configure it with ip route. However, you can also handle MPLS at a lower level with tc.

        Real deployments typically use control plane software to configure MPLS dynamically. However, it's useful to be able to execute tc commands manually for learning, experimenting, and testing Linux kernel features.

        This article explains how to match different fields in MPLS headers with tc-flower, covers the different MPLS actions that tc supports for adding, modifying, or removing MPLS headers, and finally shows how to encapsulate MPLS into the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

        All commands are based on Linux v5.14 and iproute2 v5.10.0 (you can use an iproute2 version older than the kernel because v5.10.0 implements all the required Netlink features). Also, the upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 will have these features in tech preview. Sysadmins will have to install the kernel-modules-extra package.

      • How to install & configure Redis 6 on OpenSUSE Leap 15.3

        Redis is an in-memory data structure store, used as a distributed, in-memory key–value database, cache and message broker, with optional durability. Redis supports different kinds of abstract data structures, such as strings, lists, maps, sets, sorted sets, HyperLogLogs, bitmaps, streams, and spatial indices.

      • Install PHPServerMon on Ubuntu with PHP-FPM, nginx, MySQL
    • Games

      • Roblox is back online after an outage that lasted three days

        After an outage that began Thursday evening, Roblox finally came back online late Sunday . The company said in a tweet at about 4PM ET Sunday that it was “incrementally bringing regions back online.”

        A company spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Verge that the outage “involved growth in the number of servers in our datacenters and was not due to any peak in external traffic or any particular experience.

      • Wrought Flesh is an upcoming FPS where you swap your organs | GamingOnLinux

        Developer Narayana Walters is close to releasing Wrought Flesh, a retro-styled first-person shooter that has a unique upgrade system where you swap-out your flesh for something a little better.

        "Rip out enemies organs and equip them in your own body. Fight biopunk monsters and drugged-up space bandits. You are a Gajeshian Cultist: A near-mythological being built from the bodies of long-dead saints. You have arrived on the partially terraformed planet of Colcol on a temple-ordained mission to find and kill someone. Explore the planet and trace your victims steps to the end."

      • Roguelite FPS dungeon crawler Ziggurat 2 has left Early Access | GamingOnLinux

        Ziggurat 2 from Milkstone Studios is a fast-paced roguelite FPS dungeon crawler and the 1.0 release is out now. Another that has native Linux support, continuing like their previous releases.

      • Best Linux Distro for Gaming

        In this article, we’ll go through the best Linux distro for gaming. There are several to choose from, including special Linux distros dedicated to gaming only.

        Although you can play games on any Linux distro, there are still some distros that stand out for gaming. Most people will recommend that you use whatever distro you want to and just install the gaming software and emulators you need (there’s a list of them at the bottom of this article). There’s still a good use for these kinds of distros, especially if you need to turn a computer into a gaming console, or if you want to run a gaming distro in a live environment, without the need to set up and install everything. So, in this article, we won’t be featuring distros like Ubuntu, Manjaro, Arch, or any other daily drivers. If you need those kinds of recommendations, check our other Best Distros lists.

        We’ll jump straight to the best distros, but if you want to learn more about what makes a Linux distro “the best” for gaming, or the best software for gaming on Linux, scroll down to the bottom.

        [...]

        The requirements for Lakka are extremely low, hence being able to run it on an RPi.

        You can check a detailed list of supported mini PCs and Lakka’s requirements here. But generally, you can assume that your generic PC or laptop can run Lakka without an issue.

        Lakka turns your computer into a retro gaming console. If you want to turn your computer into a gaming console that you can play new games on, try ChimeraOS.

    • Distributions

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • Multiple Matrix sessions with Element on Fedora Linux

          Element is a Matrix protocol client which allows you to communicate end-to-end-encrypted (E2EE) with anyone else using the Matrix protocol. Matrix is “an open network for secure, decentralized communication” and Element is your gateway into this network.

          This article shows you how to operate multiple distinct sessions of the Element Matrix client on Fedora Linux.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Introducing to the Gemini protocol

        Today I’ll tell you a bit about the Gemini protocol which aims to be an alternative to HTTP for a more secure, lightweight, and text-focused web.

        Introducing to the Gemini protocol

        Gemini is an alternative protocol to HTTP and Gopher that aims to sell itself not as a replacement for HTTP and Gopher but more as a demonstration of what the web was meant to be.

        For the creators of Gemini, the current web is insecure, slow, cumbersome, invasive, overloaded with advertising, and above all lacking in privacy. Therefore, they want to revindicate the web as it was meant to be instead of the current one.

        For this protocol, a rather peculiar name has been chosen as it bears the same name as the NASA project of the 1960s. In general, Gemini pages come with a special document format, commonly called “gemtext”, which allows linking to other documents.

      • Programming/Development

  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • Scammers Are Creating Fake Students on Harvard.edu and Using Them to Shill Brands

        In short, swathes of Harvard.edu have become a spammer free-for-all where fake students and other accounts hawk an endless parade of dubious stuff: online casinos, synthetic urine, real estate in Florida, CBD, wireless speakers, coupons, tourism in Krakow, garage door openers, UV sanitizers, DUI attorneys, nutritional supplements, fitness supplements, orthodontists, pet products, more pet products, cannabis delivery, bathroom fixtures, a random moving company in New York, online therapy, concealed carry holsters, kitchen sinks, more kitchen sinks, more kitchen sinks, more kitchen sinks, bitcoin mining, vacuum cleaners, foot massagers, ob/gyn clinics, lawn decorations, bouncy castles, ottoman beds, automotive mechanics, seasonal depression lamps, exercise equipment, more exercise equipment, a realtor in Winnipeg, weighted blankets, home security alarms, roller skates, narration services, keto-friendly snacks, a site for hiring motivational speakers, flatscreen TVs, creatine supplements, fertility doctors, commercial power washing services, and many more incongruous yet trashy brands and services.

      • National Library to close reading rooms for five years

        The Estonian National Library closed its Tõnismäe reading rooms for renovation on October 30. The building's lobby will remain open until December. The library closed to the tune of a concert by Jarek Kasar, Jaan Pehk and Vaiko Eplik.

    • Health/Nutrition

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Security

          • ‘Trojan Source’ Bug Threatens the Security of All Code

            Virtually all compilers — programs that transform human-readable source code into computer-executable machine code — are vulnerable to an insidious attack in which an adversary can introduce targeted vulnerabilities into any software without being detected, new research released today warns. The vulnerability disclosure was coordinated with multiple organizations, some of whom are now releasing updates to address the security weakness.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • AI Regulation: The EU should not give in to the surveillance industry lobbies

              Although it claims to protect our liberties, the EU’s draft text on artificial intelligence (AI), presented by Margrethe Vestager, actually promotes the accelerated development of all aspects of AI, in particular for security purposes. Loaded with exceptions, resting on a stale risk-based approach, and picking up the French government’s rhetoric on the need for more experimentation, this text should be modified down to its foundation. In its current state it risks endangering the slim legal protections that European law holds out in face of the massive deployment of surveillance techniques in public space.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • A.I. Is Not A-OK

        The first time I interviewed Eric Schmidt, a dozen years ago when he was the C.E.O. of Google, I had a simple question about the technology that has grown capable of spying on and monetizing all our movements, opinions, relationships and tastes.

        “Friend or foe?” I asked.

        “We claim we’re friends,” Schmidt replied coolly.

        Now that the former Google executive has a book out Tuesday on “The Age of AI,” written with Henry Kissinger and Daniel Huttenlocher, I wanted to ask him the same question about A.I.: “Friend or foe?”

      • PPA chief: We respond to all threatening social media posts

        The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) says it will respond to all potentially threatening social media posts, including by contacting the original poster, amid reports of coronavirus-skeptic individuals issuing calls via the major platforms to disrupt the work of hospitals and businesses.

        Speaking to ETV current affairs show "Ringvaade" Friday, PPA northern district prefect Joosep Kaasik said that his authority: "Reacts to all threatening posts immediately. If a threat can be read into a post, then our task is to take preventative action on that threat as soon as possible, meaning we always contact the person behind the post."

      • Afghan Crime Wave Adds to Taliban Dystopia

        Officials of the former government, intelligence service, and military have been snatched from their homes after applying for passports and providing biometric and other identification information, he said.

        The Taliban are also using lists of former officials and civil activists to pinpoint their children. “They took four such sons from a prominent school in Kabul. When the police station was asked, they said, ‘We don’t know who entered the school,’” the source said. “Life is broken.”

    • Environment

      • Glasgow follies

        This coming weekend, representatives from 196 nations will gather in Glasgow for the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change. Failure is assured, since addressing the fundamental causes of climate change isn’t on the agenda and all proposed national commitments are voluntary, with no penalties for not living up to them.

      • COP26: what’s the point of this year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow?

        Yet, there is hope. While many government proposals risk being empty words, the latest spike in European gas prices and the recent UK fuel shortages provide incentives for some governments, including the UK as COP host, to fast-track elements of their green growth strategies by electrifying home heating and transport. Similarly, the success of the Green Party in the recent German elections, with 14.8% of votes, sends an important signal of public support for climate action in a major economy.

      • COP26 Exposes Failure of Neoliberalism

        Prior to that august event, hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers evidenced an alarming fact that the climate system is broken, endangering all complex life. This fact is supported by the Alliance of World Scientists with over 15,000 signatories from 160 countries in support of the following declaration: World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency.

        As it happens, the UN climate conference extemporaneously puts the neoliberal brand of capitalism on public trial. Alas, the “free market” neoliberal brand of capitalism has miserably failed to address the global warming issue, thus failing to support civilization at large. After all, it's established, on an anthropomorphic basis, neoliberalism is an economic model that people emulate.

      • Stop Trying to Find Magic Words to Convince Climate Opponents
      • Opinion | Dim Prospects for Climate Mitigation

        Just in time for the COP26 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the Biden administration has released the€ National Intelligence Estimate: Climate Change and International Responses Increasing Challenges to US National Security Through 2040.€  The report, which relies on previous findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other scientific bodies, assume that by 2030, a 1.5ËšC rise in global temperature will be reached—the red line set by the Paris Agreement.€  To change that trajectory, “the IPCC estimates that global emissions would have to drop sharply in the next decade and reach net zero by around 2050 to limit warming to 1.5ËšC, or reach net zero by about 2070 to limit warming to 2ËšC.” Such a dramatic reversal of current trends is extremely unlikely, according to the NIE.

      • Growing Number of Indigenous People in US Are Becoming Climate Migrants
      • Opinion | Here Come the Abortion Bounty Hunters

        Texas’s cruel new anti-abortion law is more than just an unconstitutional restriction on reproductive choice. It’s also an egregious new frontier in late capitalism.

      • Haiti’s Humanitarian Crisis Reveals the Human Costs of US Interventionism
      • Energy

        • [Cryptocurrency] is ‘haram’, says Indonesian Islamic organisation

          Despite a booming [cryptocurrency] industry, the East Java branch of the Indonesian Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has declared cryptocurrency ‘haram’, or forbidden under Islamic law.

          The decision was reached through a ‘bahtsul masail’ which means a discussion in Javanese where members of the NU, as well as representatives of Islamic boarding schools, were involved in the deliberation.

        • [Old] David Graeber: After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep

          The media and political classes will definitely encourage us to think of it this way. This is what happened after the 2008 financial crash. There was a brief moment of questioning. (What is “finance,” anyway? Isn’t it just other people’s debts? What is money? Is it just debt, too? What’s debt? Isn’t it just a promise? If money and debt are just a collection of promises we make to each other, then couldn’t we just as easily make different ones?) The window was almost instantly shut by those insisting we shut up, stop thinking, and get back to work, or at least start looking for it.

          Last time, most of us fell for it. This time, it is critical that we do not.

          Because, in reality, the crisis we just experienced was waking from a dream, a confrontation with the actual reality of human life, which is that we are a collection of fragile beings taking care of one another, and that those who do the lion’s share of this care work that keeps us alive are overtaxed, underpaid, and daily humiliated, and that a very large proportion of the population don’t do anything at all but spin fantasies, extract rents, and generally get in the way of those who are making, fixing, moving, and transporting things, or tending to the needs of other living beings. It is imperative that we not slip back into a reality where all this makes some sort of inexplicable sense, the way senseless things so often do in dreams.

          How about this: Why don’t we stop treating it as entirely normal that the more obviously one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely to be paid for it; or insisting that financial markets are the best way to direct long-term investment even as they are propelling us to destroy most life on Earth?

        • A new study argues that insufficient infrastructure doomed the first electric cars

          The study then used a statistical model to predict how automotive history might have differed if the power grid had developed faster. It finds that if the amount of electricity America produced by 1922 had been available in 1902, 71% of car models in 1920 would have been EVs (though long-distance motorists would still have chosen petrol cars). Accounting for the extra power generation such a fleet would need, this would have cut America’s carbon-dioxide emissions from cars in 1920 by 44%.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • [Old] China: Authorities raid church, confiscate Bibles, detain members

        In recent years, numerous reports have emerged of Chinese authorities replacing crosses with the CCP flag, and images of Jesus Christ with President Xi in addition to converting churches into buildings for political activities.

        The CCP has also increasingly pressured church leaders to infuse their sermons with political ideology. Additionally, censors have begun removing the words “Christ” and “Jesus” from some publications, including on Chinese social media networks.

      • The EU's Dangerous Policy Towards Iran's Mullahs

        For almost six years since the 2015 "nuclear deal," the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was reached, the European Union has been appeasing Iran's ruling mullahs. What the EU fails to see is that that its soft policy towards the mullahs has been a total disaster and dangerous.

        Right after the "nuclear deal" was reached -- which by the way the Iranian regime never signed -- the EU, alongside the Obama administration, lifted nearly all its economic sanctions. It was a gift that helped the Iranian regime to reintegrate into the global financial system. The EU also made many concessions to Iran, such as agreeing to include in the nuclear deal sunset clauses enabling the mullahs soon to have as many nuclear weapons as they like.

      • Tibet’s Long Fight for Freedom

        It would certainly be appropriate if the world were to turn its attention back to the story of Tenzin Gyatso and the stolen realm at the Roof of the World. Tibet is the scene of some of the Chinese Communist Party’s worst crimes—crimes that began in the days of Mao Zedong, in a China now unrecognisable, and continued ever since, right up until the present day.

        The CCP claims that the Tibetan Autonomous Region is part of China’s eternal and unchanging territory, but others, including the Dalai Lama, counter that Tibet is a distinct and ancient nation. Certainly it had its own empires in the past, one of which even managed to (briefly) conquer the Tang dynasty capital in what is now called China. While some later dynasties exercised administrative control of Tibet, they always left it alone politically, and the region was not directly controlled by any “Chinese” emperor until the Qing (the last dynasty). In fact, the emperors were considered students of the Dalai Lamas.

        After the Qing collapsed in 1912—and the entire dynastic system along with it—Tibetans remained free until mid-century. Then the Red Disaster fell upon them. Exactly one year after the Communists had taken Beijing, soldiers swarmed through the mountain passes onto the Tibetan plateau and subdued the Dalai Lama’s government. It would seem reasonable to surmise that the Party had at least one eye on the region’s large deposits of lead, zinc, silver, lithium, copper, and gold, not to mention some of the world’s most important uranium reserves (just one year later Beijing would sign an agreement with Moscow to provide uranium ore in exchange for Soviet help with developing nuclear technology).

    • Misinformation/Disinformation

      • No mosque burnt, photos on social media fake: Tripura police

        Tripura police has denied that no mosque was burnt as was being made out in fake photographs posted on social media.

      • No mosque burnt, pictures fake: Tripura Police on alleged Panisagar incident

        The Tripura Police tweeted a few photographs of a mosque and said that the pictures circulating online were fake. “It is evident that masjid is safe and secure,” it tweeted.

        "During yesterday's protest rally in Panisagar, no masjid (mosque) was burnt and the picture being shared of burning or damaged masjid or collection of sticks, etc, are all fake news," Tripura Police tweeted.

      • Facebook puts tighter restrictions on vaccine misinformation targeted at children

        Meta says in a new blog post that it’s partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to take down harmful content related to children and the COVID-19 vaccine. This includes any posts that imply the COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe, untested, or ineffective for children. Additionally, Meta will provide in-feed reminders in English and Spanish that the vaccine has been approved for kids, and will also provide information about where it’s available.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

        "It is important to note that the university did not deny the First Amendment rights or academic freedom of professors Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin," the school said in an email to NPR. "Rather, the university denied requests of these full-time employees to undertake outside paid work that is adverse to the university's interests as a state of Florida institution."

        The university has strong ties to DeSantis. The chair of the board of trustees at the school, Mori Hosseini, is an adviser to DeSantis and a major Republican donor.

      • Taliban killed 13 to silence music at a wedding party in Nangarhar: Afghanistan's ex-VP Amrullah Sale

        Former Vice President (VP) of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh, took to Twitter on Saturday to claim that the Taliban had killed thirteen people in Nangarhar province in order to silence music at a wedding party.

      • Taliban arrest 2 after 3 wedding guests killed over music in Nangarhar

        According to AFP, a relative of the victims said the Taliban men opened fire while music was being played. "The young men were playing music in a separate room and three Taliban fighters came and opened fire on them. The injuries of the two wounded are serious," the witness told reporters.

        When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan the last time between 1996 and 2001, they banned music. While the new government has not yet issued such a decree, its leadership still frowns on its use in entertainment and sees it as a breach of Islamic law.

      • Afghanistan: Gunmen attack wedding to stop music being played

        Since the Taliban returned to power, the group has been accused of murdering a folk singer and smashing up instruments. Many singers and musicians have already fled Afghanistan.

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • Journalist Survives Attack by Gunman in Kabul

        Gunmen on a motorcycle brandished small arms and fired on a broadcast journalist in his car in the Afghan capital of Kabul, lightly wounding him.

        Ali Reza Sharifi, a journalist for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, survived the late Friday night attack, Taliban deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi told The Associated Press.

      • Mexican journalist dies from wounds; 2nd slain in week

        Prosecutors in Acapulco said Friday that Cardoso, who worked for a news portal, had been found sitting on a city street with gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital. According to the National Union of Press Editors and information from the family relayed by CPJ, Cardoso had been taken from his home earlier Friday by armed men.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Struggles for Voting Rights Will Shape the Fate of Abortion Access
      • Coalition Demands Biden Condemn Israel's Crackdown on Palestinian Rights Groups
      • Opinion | Corporate Crime Woke Corporatism and the Rise of Law and Order Politics

        In late 2021, when Americans think of progressive or liberal politics, what do they think of?

      • Opinion | Refusing to Compromise on Human Progress

        The once ambitious "Build Back Better" legislation is being whittled down daily by right-wing democrats and their unwavering corporate loyalties. Progressives like Sanders have dug in refusing to let the bill be completely gutted - standing firm, for instance, on preserving Medicaid expansion. Progressive leader Nina Turner declared that “If Manchin and Sinema can push their will on the entire U.S. Senate and president, then the progressives—almost 100-strong—should damn sure be able to push their will too. They should not move. They got to hold. There's too much at stake.”

      • Liberation or Bust

        We are primates. We should have no difficultly imagining how a macaque must feel, captured, detained, tormented. Why does our law permit it? If a corporation can be a legal person, can’t a macaque?

        Cases have been made for the personhood of nonhuman great apes, but this line of advocacy has yet to achieve broadly meaningful results. Imagine the state of the biosphere by the time we get to the case for gibbons or lemurs or macaques.

      • Taxi Drivers in New York City Are on Hunger Strike for Debt Forgiveness
      • Police ‘Laughed’ When Biden Staffers Pleaded for Help as Trump Train Harassed Campaign Bus, Lawsuit Says

        As a result of the harassment, which resulted in at least one traffic accident, the Biden campaign ended up canceling three events in the state, and the FBI opened an investigation into the incident. The suit claims the police department violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 because they were aware of “acts of violent political intimidation” that were taking place and yet did nothing to stop them. The suit requested compensatory and punitive damages, legal fees and a jury trial, citing “ongoing psychological and emotional injury” the plaintiffs still experience.

      • Germany: Afghan asylum seeker vandalises church because as a Muslim he “cannot accept Christians”

        Thursday noon at the Frauenberg Church in Nordhausen: Pastor Klemens Müller happens to look out of the window and observes a man carrying the movable furniture out of the church. Chairs, hymn books, the cross from the church wall and other altar objects have already been dragged to the forecourt and he does not seem to be finished with his work, reports nzz-online.de.

      • Ali al-Nimr: Saudi child protester who faced death penalty released

        Ali al-Nimr was 17 when he was detained in 2012 during anti-government protests by the kingdom's Shia Muslim minority.

        In 2014, a court condemned him to death by "crucifixion" - beheading followed by the public display of his body.

      • The march of bigotry in Bangladesh

        Pogroms against Hindus in East Pakistan occurred regularly under state patronage. Insecurity induced by communal violence forced Hindus to migrate to India. This was repeated before and during the 1971 war. Grabbing Hindu-owned properties and land was and remains a major factor in Bangladesh, where violence against the community has occurred intermittently during the 50 per cent of the population in 1947, the Hindu population has dwindled to less than 9 per cent in Bangladesh today.

      • Trial to Open in Killing of 2 Anti-Racist Protesters in US

        The trial, beginning Monday with jury selection, seems certain to underscore the deep fractures in American society over gun rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

        Prosecutors are expected to depict Rittenhouse as a right-wing extremist who had come to Kenosha with the specific intention of clashing with anti-racism demonstrators.

        His own lawyers will say he acted in self-defense, shooting only to protect himself from rioters pursuing him.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Power to the people

          Good evening and welcome to this wonderful COP26 event.€ I’m Catherine Stihler, CEO of Creative Commons, and the elected Chair of University Court, the governing body of the university.€ So I stand before you this evening with my two distinct but related hats on.

        • All of science gets a general index

          It's hard to overstate what a scam academic and scientific publishing is. It's run by an oligopoly of wildly profitable companies that coerce academics into working for free for them, and then sell the product of their labors back to the academics' employers (often public institutions) for eye-popping sums.

          Here's how that works: a publicly funded researcher (often working for a public institution) does some research. In order to progress up the career ladder and secure more funding, they need to publish their research in a prestigious journal. That journal asks other publicly funded researchers (chosen by a volunteer editorial board of publicly funded researchers) to peer-review and edit the paper. If the paper is selected for publication, the researcher signs over their copyright in it – life plus 70 years – to the journal, for free.

          Then, the sales department of the journal pays a call on institutions that pays the salaries of the paper's authors. They offer a "subscription" to the journal – that is, access to a database that costs almost nothing to maintain – that can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. Journal subscriptions have experienced rapid, sustained price inflation for decades.

          If someone at that institution were to share the paper their colleague produced in the next lab over, they'd be committing copyright infringement – because their colleague had to give their copyright away to the publisher as a condition of publication, which is, in turn, a condition of career advancement.

          This is chokepoint capitalism at its finest: publishers' primary "asset" is a legally defensible barrier between academics and their career prospects, so it can coerce them into accepting all kinds of abusive conduct.

          But as bad as it is that billion-dollar multinationals are extracting huge, parasitic rents from our publicly funded knowledge-creation system, that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The real harms come from what this does to science and scholarship. Locking up all those papers means that researchers who aren't affiliated with wealthy institutions are denied access to the raw materials of study and experimentation. (Naturally, this problem is most keenly felt in the Global South, which means that scientists and scholars in poor countries are denied access to the materials that might help them alleviate the scourges of poverty).

        • From a hidden Picasso nude to an unfinished Beethoven, AI uncovers lost art — and new challenges

          "Disclosing a work by Picasso is a matter of copyright and in particular moral rights," she said. "It is a timeless right, which belongs only to the heirs of the author.

          "Moreover, this Artificial Intelligence that 'learned' to paint 'like Picasso' will never have the sensitivity of a painter whose creativity is expressed in front of each blank canvas," Andrieu said.

          "The 'result' of this Artificial Intelligence is not a work and it is indecency to say otherwise," she said. "A machine cannot replace an artist, nor complete the work of an artist who has abandoned it on the way of its creation."

        • Dune Piracy Spiked After HBO Release, Due to Quality or PR?

          Last week, leaked copies of Dune appeared on pirate sites before the U.S. theatrical and HBO premieres. This is typically a recipe for a piracy surge. While there was indeed plenty of interest in pirated Dune copies, the biggest spike came after HBO leaks appeared days later. The unusual second wave was likely triggered by quality, PR, or perhaps a bit of both.



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