Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 05/12/2022: GStreamer 1.21.3



  • GNU/Linux

    • 9to5Linux9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: December 4th, 2022 - 9to5Linux

      The 114th installment of the 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup is here for the week ending on December 4th, 2022, keeping you guys up to date with the most important things happening in the Linux world. If you missed last week’s 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup, catch up with all the things here.

    • Kernel Space

      • LWNKernel prepatch 6.1-rc8 [LWN.net]

        The eighth and presumably final 6.1 kernel prepatch has been released for testing. "So everything looks good, and while the calming down may have happened later than I wished for, it did happen. Let's hope this upcoming week is as quiet (or quieter)."

      • The Register UKA brand new Linux DRM display driver – for a 1992 computer

        Uytterhoeven is the maintainer of Linux/m68k, the Motorola port of the Linux kernel, and one of the interesting things about the new driver is that he developed it entirely on emulated hardware, using an interesting virtual machine called ARAnyM by Czech developer Petr Stehlík.

        Even more unexpected is that this isn't the only 680x0 VM for Linux kernel developers. QEMU 6.0 also has a new target, known as m68k, implemented by Laurent Vivier. This is for a nonexistent Virtual M68k Machine. The new QEMU machine type uses some technology from the Goldfish emulator used in Android development...

    • Applications

      • GStreamer 1.21.3 unstable development release

        The GStreamer team is pleased to announce another development release in the unstable 1.21 release series on the road to the 1.22 stable release.

        The unstable 1.21 release series adds new features on top of the current stable 1.20 series and is part of the API and ABI-stable 1.x release series of the GStreamer multimedia framework.

        The unstable 1.21 release series is for testing and development purposes in the lead-up to the stable 1.22 series which is scheduled for release in December 2022. Any newly-added API can still change until that point.

        A feature freeze is now into effect for the 1.21 series, but newly-added API might still change until the final 1.22.0 stable release, and minor features may also still be added until then.

      • GhacksMulti-boot tool Ventoy adds support for 32GB Fat32 and multi-languages

        The multi-boot tool Ventoy is updated regularly with new features. Ventoy 1.0.84 is the latest version, which adds support for 32 gigabyte and larger FAT32 storage devices and multi-language support in the Ventoy boot menu among other improvements.

      • DebugPointTrue Lightweight Notepads for Ubuntu and Other Linux [Compared]

        We highlighted some of the best Notepad++ replacements for Ubuntu and other Linux distros a few days back. Since Notepad++ is an advanced notepad, it may not fit the actual lightweight criteria. For example, if you want to take some quick notes and nothing else, then Notepad++ or code editors can be an overkill.

        Also, a thin resource footprint-based editor can be kept open for longer without worrying about memory and other things.

        In addition, many DebugPoint readers commented about the following editors in the Notepad++ article. Hence this special list.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Linux CapableHow to Upgrade to Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera”

        The following tutorial will teach you how to upgrade to Linux Mint 21.1, codenamed Vera from Linux Mint 21.0, Vanessa, using the terminal with CLI commands. The Linux Mint team does not recommend this method, but it does work well for your standard Linux Mint system, given it is only a minor upgrade and not a major release.

        Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera” is a significant release that includes many new features and improvements. The Cinnamon desktop environment has been updated to version 5.6, bringing numerous performance and stability improvements and introducing a convenient new ISO verification tool – conveniently located in the context menu for easy access when right-clicking on your downloaded ISO images, guaranteeing the authenticity and integrity of every file.

        Some other features include better support for high-resolution displays, an updated look and feel, and improved in-house tools such as the Driver Manager and Software Sources. The Driver Manager is now easier to use and can run in user mode, so it won’t ask for your password when launched. Additionally, the configuration of removed drivers can now be easily purged. Software Sources has also been updated, with better handling of PPA keys. These improvements make Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera” a more polished and user-friendly release, making it an excellent choice for newcomers to the Linux world.

      • OpenSource.com6 steps to get verified on Mastodon with encrypted keys

        Mastodon permits its users to self-verify. The easiest method to do this is through a verification link. For advanced verification, though, you can use the power of shared encrypted keys, which Mastodon can link to thanks to the open source project Keyoxide.

    • Games

      • CoRecursiveDOOMed to Fail: A Horror Story

        Today Rebecca Burger Becky Heineman shares the tale of porting Doom to the 3DO console under extreme conditions. There is an engine to tweak, deadlines to hit, hardware acceleration to get working, and dramatic rock anthems to record.

        We also learn about how game piracy led her to game development and what it was like to do game development in the mania of the mid-nineties. Finally, we close with Becky’s advice on learning bare metal development skills.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • OpenSource.comWhy you should try the Nemo file manager on Linux

        Computers are fancy filing cabinets, full of virtual folders and files waiting to be referenced, cross-referenced, edited, updated, saved, copied, moved, renamed, and organized. In this article, I'm taking a look at a file manager for your Linux system.

        The Cinnamon project was formed as a reimplementation of GNOME 2 using the components of GNOME 3. Eventually, it diverged enough to be a true fork, and today the Cinnamon desktop uses GTK3 libraries and forked versions of key GNOME 3 applications to create a "classic" GNOME experience. One of the components contributing to the traditional GNOME experience is Nemo, a file manager based on the GNOME 2 version of Nautilus.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • It's FOSSLinen is a Google-Searchable Open-Source Alternative to Slack and Discord

      Linen is an interesting open-source project brewing up.

      It aims to be an open alternative to Slack and Discord, focusing on making communities more accessible and helping reduce the support burden.

      It could be worth adding it as an open-source Slack alternative, but it is in its early stages of development when publishing this.

    • Education

      • CNX SoftwareUniHiker education platform teaches STEM with Mind+ and Jupyter (in China)

        DFRobot UniHiker is a STEM education platform with a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, a Rockchip RK3308 quad-core Cortex-A35 processor, a GD32V RISC-V microcontroller, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as various headers for expansion, and a BBC Micro:bit compatible edge connector.

        The UniHiker runs Debian 10 Linux and can be used to teach programming using Mind+ visual programming IDE or Jupyter open-source interface, as well as IoT and AI basics thanks to tutorials and lessons available in Chinese only as the platform clearly targets the education market in mainland China at this point in time.

      • EIN PresswireMoodle enters into acquisition of eAbyas to deliver services in India

        Moodle has announced its acquisition of eAbyas Info Solutions, a Moodle Certified Partner servicing the EdTech sector across India.

    • Programming/Development

      • [Old] Dave DeLongHTTP in Swift

        An 18-part series on building a Swift HTTP framework: [...]

  • Leftovers

    • HackadayRocket Switch – Accessibility Done With Elegance

      Quite a few makers try and create devices helpful to others – today’s hack, Rocket Switch, is a lovely example of that. It’s a design by [Neil Squire] of [Makers Making Change], with a PCB that plugs onto an Adafruit Rotary Trinkey, soldering onto its exposed pads, equipping it with two headphone jacks connected to GPIOs. This is a simple design – only two headphone jacks and resistors, complete with a 3D printed case. The value is not as much in its construction, but more in what the Rocket Switch provides to its users.

    • Science

      • HackadayMiracle Of Science: Scotch Tape Improves Generator

        We were always amused that one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the recent past — graphene — was started with pencil lead and Scotch tape. Now, researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have determined that double-sided Scotch tape can improve triboelectric power generators. Triboelectric generation, of course, is nothing new. These energy harvesters take mechanical and thermal energy and turn them into tiny amounts of electricity. What’s new here is that PET plastic, aluminum, and double-sided tape can make an inexpensive generator that works well.

      • New Book: Synthetic Data

        Synthetic data is used more and more to augment real-life datasets, enriching them and allowing black-box systems to correctly classify observations or predict values that are well outside of training and validation sets. In addition, it helps understand decisions made by obscure systems such as deep neural networks, contributing to the development of explainable AI. It also helps with unbalanced data, for instance in fraud detection. Finally, since synthetic data is not directly linked to real people or transactions, it offers protection against data leakage. Synthetic data also contributes to eliminating algorithm biases and privacy issues, and more generally, to increased security.

      • Tom's HardwareQuantum Computing May be Bolstered by Liquid-Like Electrons | Tom's Hardware

        The quantum computing field may have just received a coherence and error-prevention boost in the form of parafermions: grouped electrons that behave as liquids in a special state of matter. Scientists with the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (opens in new tab) have demonstrated experimental results they expect to lead to parafermions when electrons maintain temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius). The research achieved a breakthrough by demonstrating that there are conditions in which electrons can have strong interactions – something that scientists merely theorized until now.

    • Education

      • Chicago Sun TimesBob McGrath, ‘Sesame Street’ cast member, dies at 90

        The public television show used the colorful, humorous, fast-paced style of TV commercials to relay lessons on letter and numbers as well as heavier subjects like children’s emotional health. Young viewers even learned about mortality when they were informed, sensitively, of Mr. Hooper’s death.

        “We’ve always looked at children as just short people,” McGrath told the Sun-Times in 1998. “We’ve never talked down to them.”

      • NPRBob McGrath, longtime star of 'Sesame Street,' has died at 90

        But after he was shown tapes of Muppets creator Jim Henson's work, he told a crowd at a 2016 convention in Florida, he was "totally blown away."

      • Pro PublicaThe Corporation Exploiting Washington’s Special Education System

        Donna Green hit her breaking point last summer, six months into her job as the top administrator at the Northwest School of Innovative Learning.

        She had grudgingly accepted when her request for classroom computers was ignored and a furniture order for what she called an “embarrassingly barren” campus was answered with plastic folding tables. She’d worried that her staff was inexperienced but had figured her decade in special education would help fill that void.

    • Hardware

      • Nanoengineers Develop a Predictive Database for Materials

        Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering have developed an AI algorithm that predicts the structure and dynamic properties of any material—whether existing or new—almost instantaneously. Known as M3GNet, the algorithm was used to develop matterverse.ai, a database of more than 31 million yet-to-be-synthesized materials with properties predicted by machine learning algorithms. Matterverse.ai facilitates the discovery of new technological materials with exceptional properties.

      • HackadayThe PalmPilot Returns, This Time In Your Browser

        The PalmPilot doesn’t seem to get much retrocomputing love, but maybe it should. After all, it might not have been the very first handheld, but it was probably the most successful, and that ultimately led to the era of the smartphone. Whether you miss your old Palm applications, or never got to experience them the first time around, fear not. You can now relive them in all their glory in your browser thanks to the Internet Archive project.

      • HackadayDIY Repair Stand Holds Your Bike And Weighs It

        If you’ve ever done maintenance or repair work on your bicycle, you’ll know that positioning a bike in your workshop isn’t trivial. You can use your bike’s kickstand, or lean it against a wall, but then you can’t work on the wheels. You can place it upside-down, but then the shifters and brake levers are hard to reach. You can hang it from the ceiling, but then you first need to install hooks and cables in hard-to-reach places. Ideally you’d want to have one of those standing clamp systems that the pros use, but their price is typically beyond a hobbyist’s budget.

      • HackadayDirty TRS-80 Has A Surprise Hack

        [Adrian] had a TRS-80 model IV that looks like it was stored in a mulch pile. However, it seemed to have some surprises. The first hint that something was up was that the keyboard looks like a model III and there are two mystery knobs in the back.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • The EconomistYoung Americans increasingly end their own lives

        The rise in youth suicide is part of a broader increase in mental-health problems among the young. This preceded the pandemic but was probably accelerated by it. In 2021 nearly half of American high-school students said that they had experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year, up from 26% in 2009; one in five seriously considered suicide, up from 14%; and 9% attempted to end their life, up from 6% (see chart). Although the rates for 15- to 19-year-olds are not unprecedented (there was a similar peak in the early 1990s), the rates for ten- to 14-year-olds are higher than ever before.

      • NBC4 Navy sailors assigned to same facility die by apparent suicide within weeks, amid growing concerns of mental health crisis

        It is the latest cluster of Navy suicides this year to spark concerns of a fleetwide mental health crisis.

        The four sailors worked for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), which maintains military ships and is based in Norfolk, Virginia.

    • Proprietary

      • France24French hospital suspends operations after cyber attacks [iophk: Windows kills]

        The regional health agency (ARS) said the hospital had cancelled operations, but was doing everything possible to keep walk-in services and consultations running.

        Extra staff had to be called in to the intensive care unit because, while the machines there were still functioning, more people were needed to watch the screens as they were no longer working as part of a network, aid Braun.

      • ABCHospitals warned to guard against cybercrime after Medibank and Optus wake-up calls [iophk: Windows kills]

        The troubling warning is high on the list of predictions offered by cyber security experts heading into 2023 and in the wake of unprecedented [breaches] affecting millions of Medibank and Optus customers.

        Global firm Palo Alto Networks suggests it is time hospitals, government services and businesses start discussing whether they would pay a ransom and how much they would fork out.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • India TimesChina can use TikTok to collect data on users & spy: FBI chief

          Wray said the FBI was concerned that the Chinese had the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations. ”

        • HackadayBreathe Through Your Ears?

          With all the attention given to heart rate monitoring and step counting, respiratory rate monitoring is often overlooked. Smartwatches are starting to incorporate respiratory rate monitoring more and more these days. However, current devices often simply look at breaths per minute without extracting more interesting features of the respiratory waveform which could give us more insight into our bodies than breaths per minute could alone. [Davies] and his team decided they wanted to change that by making an earbud that can measure respiratory rate.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • CNNTrump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post

        Former President Donald Trump called for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election and reinstate him to power Saturday in a continuation of his election denialism and pushing of fringe conspiracy theories.

      • ME ForumLondon's Mayor Celebrates Notorious Islamist Group

        The MCB's "elders," however, are prominent Islamists with a long history of spouting and encouraging extremism. Most were part of an Islamist network known as Jamaat-e-Islami.

      • FirstpostIn Nitish Kumar’s blatant minority appeasement, local Muslims permitted to offer prayers at Buddhist shrine

        A cavern in Kaimur Hills, nearly 3 km south of Sasaram in Bihar’s Rohtas district, where Lord Buddha is believed to have spent a night after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, has turned into a symbol of the Nitish Kumar-led government’s blatant appeasement of minorities.

        Barely a few days earlier, on 29 November, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), tweeted that it had wrested control of a 2300-year-old Buddhist shrine in Sasaram from Muslim encroachers, who used it to offer prayers.

      • The HillMusk’s ‘free speech’ Twitter vision put to test by Ye

        The decision was made in an ad hoc manner and with special treatment for Ye, Carusone said. Before he was suspended, Ye tweeted a screenshot with a text from Musk saying, “Sorry, but you have gone too far. This is not love.”

      • ScheerpostZelensky Looks to Ban Christian Denomination With Ties to Moscow

        The Ukrainian President called for the Russian Orthodox Church to be outlawed after Kiev’s intelligence agency conducted several raids on Orthodox cathedrals.

      • ScheerpostThe Secret Reason the US is Still in Syria

        It’s tough to overstate how bad things are in Syria. According to the UN, “90 percent of all Syrians today are forced to live below the poverty line with around 12 million grappling with severe food insecurity.”

      • Counter PunchEchoes of Chile's Past

        Efforts to overthrow the democratically elected president had thus far been unsuccessful. An insurrectionary month-long strike by truck drivers and entrepreneurs in October of 1972 had just been thwarted by the extraordinary mobilization of Chilean workers. But the writing was on the wall. This is not a mere metaphor: On many walls of the country, paramilitary fanatics had scrawled the words “Djakarta, ya viene”—“Jakarta is coming,” referring to the massacre in that city of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians after the coup against the left-wing government of Sukarno in 1967.

        It was this prophecy of death and doom that Allende was trying to prevent. His 1972 trip was meant to explain to the international community what was at stake in Chile and to enlist the sympathy of the nations of the world. The cornerstone of that strategy was€ a rousing speech€ that he delivered 50 years ago this Sunday, on December 4, 1972, to the UN General Assembly.

      • MeduzaExplosion in Nizhnevartovsk building kills six, injures four — Meduza

        An explosion occurred in a five-story building in Nizhnevartovsk, in western Siberia, reports TASS, citing local emergency services.

      • MeduzaKremlin ‘recommends’ that Russian regions and TV stations support ‘patriotic’ artists for New Year’s concerts — Meduza

        The Russian presidential administration has sent recommendations on conducting New Year’s events to regional authorities, cultural institutions, and state-owned companies, reports news agency RBC. A source close to one regional administration confirmed the details of the recommendations to the publication.

      • BBCSan Francisco to allow police 'killer robots'

        San Francisco's ruling Board of Supervisors has voted to let the city's police use robots that can kill.

        The measure permits police to deploy robots equipped with explosives in extreme circumstances. Dr Catherine Connolly, from the group Stop Killer Robots, said the move was a "slippery slope" that could distance humans from killing.

        The city's police - the SFPD - told the BBC they do not currently operate any robots equipped with lethal force.

      • Counter PunchThe Cruel, Dishonest and Shameful Story of Britain’s Last Colony may be Coming to an End

        Greenhill, later Lord Greenhill of Harrow, was well aware that this was not the case at the time of writing, but cavalierly asserted that in future there would “be no indigenous population except seagulls who have not yet got a committee”.

        In a tone of nauseating jollity, this senior British diplomat picks up on the seagull reference to explain what was going to happen to the 1,500 people or more who had lived and worked in Chagos for generations. “Unfortunately,” he wrote, “along with the Birds go some few Tarzans or Men Fridays whose origins are obscure, and who are being hopefully wished on to Mauritius etc.”

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • International Business TimesKyle Rittenhouse Asks Elon Musk To Release Info On 'Censoring' Done On His Trial

        While preparing for his trial, Rittenhouse's lawyer L. Lin Wood sought to raise money to help with his client's legal fees. He later accused Twitter of blocking him from publishing posts on grounds that he was "glorifying violence. His account was later reinstated, as per The New York Post.

    • Environment

      • Counter PunchWestern Diplomats Offer Rotten Climate Carrot, and Wield Broken Sanctions Stick

        In recent weeks, Western climate deal-makers have, as well, wielded their own carrot and stick, but unless withdrawn and reconsidered, they will provide only a continuation of – rather than break from – a future of rising greenhouse gas emissions, massive loss and damage due to extreme weather, and the polluters’ refusal to acknowledge, much less reimburse, the historic climate debt they owe. The two cases we have seen up close, are the Just Energy Transition Partnership carrot and Carbon Border Adjustment stick. So, what’s rotten and what’s broken?

        Amsterdam revelations

      • Foreign PolicyEurope’s Climate Chief: The 1.5-Degree Goal Is on ‘Life Support’

        Most commentary about COP27 has branded the summit a bit of a letdown. In short, the world agreed to compensate poor countries for climate-related loss and damage, but the money allocated for this was tiny. And there was no agreement to reduce emissions further. Do you agree? How would you grade the outcomes from COP27?

      • NBCToddler Attacked by Coyote Outside Woodland Hills Home

        NBC has chronicled other coyote attacks on children this year.

      • Los Angeles TimesCoyote attacks toddler on front lawn of Woodland Hills home

        The coyote can be seen attacking the child as her father was busy locking up the family’s SUV, the family’s doorbell video showed. The animal knocked the child down, grabbed her left leg and attempted to drag her away as she screamed.

      • The Telegraph UKThe ferocious wild creatures causing chaos in Europe’s cities

        In last couple of years, through little fault of their own, boar have become an utter societal menace. Permanent resident on the frequently updated Global Invasive Species Database’s ‘100 Worst’ list, they have been steadily mincing around the forests of Europe for millennia, breeding enthusiastically, bothering their domesticated porcine kin, and being hunted and eaten by humans with zeal. Since the 1980s, though, their numbers have swollen in connection with two other rises: the proportion of people living in cities, and the average temperature.

      • VOA NewsEU Chief Says Bloc Must Act Over US Climate Plan 'Distortions'

        The White House touts the IRA as a groundbreaking effort to reignite US manufacturing and promote renewable technologies.

      • RTLUK groups hope creative biodiversity message takes flight

        It is hoped a new global biodiversity framework will be agreed at the Montreal talks, which run from December 7 to 19.

        The UN has said world leaders will not attend the gathering but the RSPB is asking British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to be present.

      • ScheerpostDoes Claiming 1.5€° Is Unachievable Serve Fossil Fuel Interests?

        The Energy Mix It’s “factually incorrect and politically very wrong” to say a 1.5€°C limit on average global warming is no longer possible, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said this week, pushing back on the “unusual coalition” of scientists, activists, and fossil industry “incumbents” that have been carrying that […]

      • Energy

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Counter PunchUser Group Pie: The Folly of Collaboration

          Note that these collaborations do not represent groups with a common interest cooperating in an effort to achieve a common goal. Such traditional collaborations used to represent strength in the conservation movement. For example, back in the early 1980’s when I still lived in Wyoming, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, the Wyoming Wilderness Association, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Earth First! plus numerous individuals cooperated in an effort that ultimately led to the passage of the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984. It wasn’t a great bill, but considering our republican congressional delegation, we did pretty well getting a million acres of Wilderness designated. The groups had their strategic differences, but the goal that everyone shared was to maximize wilderness designations. Contrast that with today’s “collaboratives” in which conservation groups deal away public wildlands to self-interest groups that are in complete opposition to basic conservation goals. Like timber companies and off-road vehicle groups, including organized anti-wilderness mountain bikers. The difference between the two “collaboration” models is night and day. Nowadays when I hear the term I cringe. Because I know that wilderness is going to get the shaft.

          Here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Gallatin Range is the only major mountain range within and adjacent to Yellowstone National Park with no designated Wilderness. A big chunk of the range is a congressionally designated Wilderness Study Area, but over the years the Forest Service chose to illegally allow off road vehicles including mountain bikes, to proliferate, despite a legal mandate to preserve the area’s wilderness character. In other words, the agency allowed local anti-wilderness constituencies to proliferate; once the door was opened to them, the off road vehicle people felt that they had an established right. And the Forest Service didn’t want to make the hard decision to kick them out and re-establish wilderness character as required by law. Instead, the agency initiated a collaboration process designed to force local citizens to resolve the conflict, or put another way, to do the agency’s job. This pitted citizen versus citizen, exacerbating community polarity.

    • Finance

      • ScheerpostThe Chris Hedges Report: The Fed’s Response to Inflation Is Another Upward Transfer of Wealth (With Richard Wolff )

        Capitalist profiteering is the real driver of the inflation crisis, and raising interest rates only passes the costs onto workers already overwhelmed by personal debt and stagnant wages.

      • TruthOutFinancial Technology Firms Made “Massive Profits” on PPP Loans, Engaged in Fraud
      • Michael West MediaSleeping with the Enemy: ASIC’s case against National Australia Bank's adversary hits a sex snag - Michael West

        “Hi Babe, always enjoy our romps” is not the type of evidence you’d expect in a corporate regulator’s case against an advocate for bank victims. Callum Foote explores ASIC’s curious prosecution of Geoff Shannon of Unhappy Banking fame, a case which has embroiled the National Australia Bank.

      • Michael West MediaMining lobby tricks government with its big taxpayer fairytale, swaps Deloitte for EY - Michael West

        The Minerals Council of Australia has duped Energy Minister Madeleine King into repeating its highly inflated claims of how much taxes its mostly foreign multinationals members pay. Callum Foote reports on an $85 billion PR scam.

        The Minister for Energy, Madeline King, has repeated claims from mining lobby group, Minerals Council of Australia, that the mining industry made payments of $43.2 billion in company tax and royalties to Australian governments in in a speech given at the ​​NT Resources Week conference. The figures were repeated on ABC Radio without question.

        As revealed here last year, Big Four consulting firm Deloitte used to do the misleading report for the mining lobby. This year it is another Big Four firm, Ernst & Young. The EY report, has – like Deloitte’s previous work – failed to disclose that up to 60% of the tax that they claim the mining industry pays is returned in the form of GST refunds.

      • ScheerpostChris Hedges: Know Thine Enemy

        The expedited legislation passed by Congress to avert a strike by railroad unions dealt one more blow in the decades long war waged by the two ruling parties against the working class.

      • Counter PunchRailway Vote Benefits One of the Least Deserving Industries
      • Counter PunchUS Railroad Workers ‘Under the Thumb’

        Beginning last September, that intervention has ensured that the workers would not be able to strike in order to advance their interests and demands. This past week both the administration and Congress have made a railroad strike illegal by passing legislation to that effect.

        The right of workers to strike has been under attack at least since 1947 when Congress passed what was called the ‘Taft-Hartley’ Act that year. That legislation ensured that government and politicians reserved the right to force workers back to work for 90 days in the event contract negotiations failed and a strike was imminent. During a 90 day ‘cooling off’ period, as it was called, government mediators had the opportunity to join the negotiations, try to browbeat the parties to get them to settle, and to make a recommendation as to the terms of a settlement. During the ‘cooling off’ management of course also had 90 more days to prepare to prepare to defeat a strike once the 90 days was up.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Reformers Win Big in United Auto Workers Election, Reject Entrenched Leadership
      • NPRJapan's Disney store sells merchandise of Winnie the Pooh supporting China's protests

        The products are created through Disney's MADE program, which the product descriptions call "D-MADE" and allows people to customize their own Disney merchandise. The collection includes hoodies, shirts, tote bags and mugs.

      • VOA NewsWorld Cup Host Qatar Seeks to Change Minds on Islam

        Social media posts have claimed that hundreds of fans have changed faith but AFP's fact-checking service has shown those claims are fake.

      • ScheerpostThe Twitter Files

        Journalist Matt Taibbi reported a massive scoop regarding Twitter's internal handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story in a long Twitter thread on Dec. 2 after receiving documents from Elon Musk.

      • ScheerpostMatt Taibbi: Munk Debate on Mainstream Media

        Author Douglas Murray and Matt Taibbi take on Malcolm Gladwell of the New Yorker, and Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times.

      • Michael West MediaRex Patrick: "exceptional circumstances" choke National Anti-Corruption Commission - Michael West

        Labor may rue the day it mired the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) in secrecy. Transparency warrior Rex Patrick reports on the “exceptional circumstances” provision which weakens corruption watchdog.

        Having passed through the House of Representatives last week, the Senate is set to debate and pass Albanese’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) legislation this week. It won’t be short leashed, blind, toothless, limping corruption watchdog

      • Pro PublicaRussia’s Honorary Consuls Serve Putin’s Political Agenda

        BUDVA, Montenegro — Near a teeming town square along the Adriatic coast, where ancient city walls surround the ruins of bygone empires and shops and churches rise over the sea, Russia’s newly appointed representative to this tiny Balkan nation opened his consulate office.

        Boro Djukic, the first honorary consul named by Russia in Montenegro, was supposed to use his prestigious post to champion cultural ties and the interests of local Russian business owners and tourists — a benevolent bridge between the two countries.

      • Counter PunchGallic Rebuke: France and the US Rules-based Order

        Araud is very much the diplomat establishment figure, having also served as French representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2014.€  But despite his pedigree, he was most keen to fire off a few salvos against such concepts as the “rules-based order” so treasured by the Anglosphere and the “West” more broadly defined.€  “To be frank, I’ve always been extremely sceptical about this idea of a ‘rules-based order’.”€  Both he and the French in general loved the United Nations, “but the Americans not too much”.

        With unerring frankness, he also noted that the UN and broader international hierarchy was dominated by the US-European bloc.€  The undersecretaries to the organisation reflected that fact, as did the stewardship of the World Bank and the IMF.€  “So that’s the first element: this order is our order.”

      • Counter PunchThe United Nations Promise of Peace – Also In Ukraine

        It is not only the fault of the Security Council and General Assembly, but also the fault of the mainstream media that continues to disseminate dis-information and pour fuel on the fire, the fault of the war-profiteers worldwide, the fault of the military-industrial-digital-financial complex that drives the process and prevents a sensible compromise to end hostilities.

        Many are asking the question, what good is the United Nations? € Who still believes in it? What good is a Secretary-General who does not take the bull by the horns, does not name a spade a space, does not proactively propose implementable blueprints for peace and mobilizes the entire UN system in support of valid peace initiatives.

      • TruthOutAfter Dinner With Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, Trump 2024 May Be Dead on Arrival
      • Common DreamsGOP Silence on Trump's Call to Axe Constitution Reveals 'Full Embrace of Fascism': House Dem

        Repeating his thoroughly disproven lie that the 2020 election was stolen, former President Donald Trump called Saturday for discarding the U.S. Constitution to overturn his loss.

        In response, pro-democracy advocates argued that Trump's comments, other recent actions, and the refusal of GOP lawmakers to denounce them are reflective of the Republican Party's growing support for right-wing authoritarianism.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Republican War on Democracy Has Spread to Ballot Measures

        In the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections, analysts are wondering why the seemingly inevitable Republican wave did not materialize. As we sift through the surprising results, there is a common denominator among many of the progressive victories: ballot measures. All five ballot measures on abortion went for the pro-choice side, as Republicans and independents joined Democrats to expand and protect reproductive rights. In Nebraska and Nevada, voters overwhelmingly voted to increase their state's minimum wage, even as Republicans won big races in both states. And, South Dakota became the most recent Republican-controlled state to pass Medicaid expansion.

      • ScheerpostUS Youth Observe Cuba’s Elections—and Learn About ‘Real Democracy’

        A delegation of youth from the United States observed Cuba’s November 2022 municipal elections and offer an inside look into a true people’s democracy, where workers decide who will govern them, not wealthy oligarchs and corporations.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • The Telegraph UKIndonesia set to criminalise sex before marriage – even for tourists

        According to a draft seen by Reuters, insulting the president, a charge that can only be reported by the president, carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

      • The EconomistStudents are often at the heart of protests in China

        For the students, it is not all about draconian lockdowns. Some are frustrated by a lack of freedom. Young protesters, on campus and off, have taken to holding up blank sheets of paper to highlight China’s tight controls on expression. In a more cerebral form of defiance, students at Tsinghua held up the Friedmann equations. These are formulae that describe the expansion of the universe. “Friedmann” also happens to sound a lot like “freed man”.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The Times Of IsraelIran demolishes family home of climber who competed without a hijab

        Rekabi was later placed under house arrest and according to reports, her brother was also detained for a period of time. The BBC has cited unnamed sources saying that her apology was forced.

        Iran’s official judiciary news agency, Mizan, said the destruction of the home was due to its “unauthorized construction and use of land,” adding that the demolition had taken place months before Rekabi competed.

      • VOA NewsIran Morality Police May Have Been Shut Down, But No Official Word

        The actions of the morality police have been at the center of more than two months of deadly protests in the country after the death in mid-September of Mahsa Amini, 22, while she held in their custody after they detained her for allegedly not covering her hair properly with a hijab.

      • Outlook IndiaAfghanistan: Woman Flogged For Going To Shop Without Male Guardian

        This is the Taliban brutally lashing a woman in Takhar province for going to the shop without a male guardian.

      • [Old] BBCQatar World Cup: Families seek answers over migrant worker deaths

        Qatar has transformed its infrastructure in the run up to the World Cup, which starts on Sunday. Millions of people from South Asia have been employed on building projects, including from Nepal - where families have told the BBC safety failures led to the death of their loved ones.

      • NBCColorado grandmother sues police detective following SWAT raid based on false 'Find my iPhone' ping

        The complaint contends that Staab's affidavit violated Johnson's right, afforded by the state constitution, to "be free of unreasonable searches and seizures." The affidavit allegedly "lacked probable cause that evidence of crime could be found" at Johnson's home, since it was based on an unverified and vague ping by Apple's "Find My" app, which is used to track Apple devices.

      • Counter PunchOy Ye

        It’s empirically true that Jews are disproportionately represented in Hollywood. The question that matters is what this implies. Dave Chappelle was right to note that there are also plenty of Black people in Ferguson, although Hollywood is above all an industry not a location. Yet even assuming that Jewish people disproportionately€ control€ Hollywood — notwithstanding invariable Jewish gofers and the otherwise kicked upon (Harvey Weinstein surely didn’t rape only gentiles and Woody Allen knows full well that abuse starts at home) — what does€ this€ imply?

        An antisemite – that is, an anti-Jew — starts and stops with identity, as for him the Jew by nature connives with his brethren to exploit others, and Jewish dominance of Hollywood is therefore a mere means to an end. If only the moguls could be replaced with Christians, the antisemite implies, Hollywood would be fairer, less profit-hungry, and less exploitative.

      • Counter PunchLabor’s Weakness

        The history of the United States includes many, many federal interventions into strikes, boycotts and other labor actions, especially since the industrialization of the nation began in earnest after the Civil War. Given the importance of the railroads to this capitalist episode that not only saw intense industrialization but also an increased concentration of wealth, power and control of the national economy in the hands of a few families, railroad workers experienced this quite intensely. Indeed, two national railroad strikes–in 1877 and 1894–were brutally crushed by US troops and private security groups. Furthermore, the executive branch was the branch that ordered these actions. In 1926, the federal government enacted a law that gave the government permission to intervene before a railroad strike occurred. Like it gave Truman in 1950 and Bush in 1991 the power to act, this is the law that informs the current action by the feds.

        In light of the recent intervention, it seems like a good time to revisit a few realities about labor unions in the United States. Despite the recent upsurge in organizing activity in workplaces like Amazon, Starbucks and Chipotle, the truth is that most (and I mean most) workers in the United States are neither organized or even close to such a move. This is due to many factors, but the two that I consider most important are the federal and state laws that make union organizing very difficult and the lackadaisical effort that the major unions put into organizing unorganized workers. As someone who is just finishing up an almost two-year stint as president of my local, I can verify that the pressure to sign up new workers and organize the unorganized came more from our state AFL-CIO office than through any utterances or funding by the national and international of the union or AFL-CIO. Fortunately, Vermont is currently home to what is perhaps the most radical and democratic AFL-CIO Labor Council in the United States. This has meant that the Council spends money, time and energy on organizing unorganized workers.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | Service Workers in the US South Get New Union

        Within minutes of the formation of the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) earlier this month, Quadtrell Adams lay helpless on the walkway outside the Levi C. Chavous Conference Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Moments earlier, Adams had stumbled from the building upon sensing the onset of a seizure likely triggered by the flash of cameras and the carnival of shout and song inside. Having assisted Adams through previous episodes, fellow union members went into action. Russell Smalls, a convenience store employee, rubbed his friend's chest with turquoise stones, while others spoke to Adams softly and watched over him until his fits had passed.

      • Common Dreams'Intentional Vandalism' Leaves Thousands Without Power in North Carolina

        Officials in a North Carolina county where more than 40,000 households remain without power amid freezing temperatures declared a state of emergency on Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after multiple electrical substations were damaged by gunfire in an apparent act of criminal vandalism.

        "As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites," Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said in a statement. The massive blackout, which began just after 7:00 pm Saturday night, is "being investigated as a criminal occurrence." No arrests have been announced.

      • Common DreamsOpinion | The Grassroots Are Growing—And Reimagining What's Possible

        Ten years ago, two hundred New York City low-wage workers walked off their jobs at McDonald's, Burger King, and other fast-food restaurants to demand what most observers thought impossible: 15 bucks an hour and a union.

      • The Expansive Horizons of Antifascism: Interview With Editor Shane Burley
      • Common DreamsOpinion | Why Our Movements Need to Start Singing Again

        Social movements are stronger when they sing. That's a lesson that has been amply demonstrated throughout history, and it's one that I have learned personally in working to develop trainings for activists over the past decade and a half. In Momentum, a training program that I co-founded and that many other trainers and organizers have built over the last seven years, song culture is not something we included at the start. And yet, it has since become so indispensable that the trainers I know would never imagine doing without it again.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Bryan LundukePondering on Mastodon and the Fediverse - by Bryan Lunduke

        With so many people jumping from Twitter to Mastodon, let's take a moment to talk about some of the downsides (and upsides) of Mastodon... and the Fediverse in general. Along with some of my, rather bizarre, history with it.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakCompany 'Hijacks' Blender's CC BY-Licensed Film, YouTube Strikes User

          Blender releases its films under Creative Commons licenses because it wants them to be shared, remixed, and reshared. Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz is the co-founder of an AI driver safety company and a film music composer and producer. When a TV channel in Uzbekistan claimed ownership of a Blender film, YouTube gave Ruiz a copyright strike and rejected every appeal.

        • Torrent FreakNew Pirate Site Blocking Law Allows Intermediaries To File Complaints

          Site-blocking is now so commonplace that when yet another country adds itself to the list of participants, barely an eyebrow is raised in opposition. DNS interference is already in place so if that's met with a shrug, why should anyone care about Uruguay's new site-blocking law? Operators of TV services and intermediaries, despite not being copyright holders themselves, can now apply for blocking measures, actionable within four days.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Late to the party

        I've been blogging for 23 years as of today. This is also the first day this blog is being served up via `https:`. All I had to do was *just* install the latest version of Apache on my server [1].

        It took several days, but I got the latest version of Apache compiled and installed on my server. Yes, I did it the hard way. What better way of knowing how things work than doing it the hard way. I then spent Saturday updating the configuration. There were a few changes, like `NameVirtualHost [2]` being deprecated, and having to add “`Protocols [3] h2 h2c http/1.1`” and “`Require [4] all granted`”.

    • Technical

      • Trying to do more with less

        There was a time where I obsessively followed roadmaps, extrapolated SPEC results, and tried to get my hands on the latest electronic toys (or even pre-release samples of them.) There's a certain appeal, after all, to "this is the latest and best" - CPUs, phones, core IP, laptops, whatever.

        Capital likes to see this. They also put significant effort into making it seem "clean" - that the resource extraction, labor exploitation, and e-waste dumping are distant and easy to ignore. The tame tech media often participates in this. In late November, workers at Hon Hai's plant in Shenzhen - who, due to the PRC's harsh zero-COVID policies, are required to live at their jobsite - protested against living and working conditions, including a COVID outbreak inside of the bubble. The protest was violently put down by police. The tech media duly noted it, but only for a moment - soon it was forgotten, and a return to breathless speculation about Apple's incoming AR/VR headset and the performance characteristics of the M2 Max resumed.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



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