Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 16/03/2023: War Escalations and More



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 9to5LinuxSystem76’s Meerkat Mini Linux PC Now Ships with 12th Gen Intel Core i CPUs

        Yes, System76 even sells a mini PC and the latest variant can be configured with 10th, 11th, or 12th Gen Intel Core i Series processors with up to 12 cores and 16 threads and up to Intel Iris Xe graphics on the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P CPU, which also offers up to 4.7 GHz clock speeds.

        Other 12th Gen Intel Core i Series processors include the Intel Core i3-1220P with 10 cores and 12 threads and up to 4.4 GHz clock speeds, as well as Intel Core i5-1240P with 12 cores and 16 threads and up to 4.4 GHz clock speeds. However, only the i5-1240P and i7-1260P CPUs have Intel Iris Xe graphics as the i3-1220P CPU feature Intel UHD graphics.

    • Applications

      • Linux Links13 Best Free and Open Source Linux Hex Editors

        Hex editors are often used for debugging and reverse engineering binary communication protocols. They can also review files with an unknown file format, reviewing program memory dumps, and hex comparison. Hex editors can help you remove watermarks or other data that is hidden within a file. Hex editors are a favorite tool of game modding communities.

        If you use a text editor to open a binary file, you will see large amounts of incomprehensible information, seemingly random accented characters, and long lines overflowing with text. Editing or saving a binary file in a text editor will corrupt the file.

        We feature our recommended hex editors. They are all free and open source software.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Events

      • Unicorn MediaDespite What You’ve Heard, Open Source 101 Isn’t Just for Newbies

        If you live within driving distance of Charlotte, North Carolina and don’t have any plans for next Thursday (that’s March 23), you might want to make plans to attend Open Source 101 2023. It’s a single day conference, meaning that if you’re coming from Raleigh, Greensboro, or Asheville you won’t have to stay away from home overnight.

        Don’t let the fact that it’s being billed as an “introduction to open source” event keep you away. By my way of thinking, if you’re like most of us, there are probably plenty of aspects to open source that are not generally in your everyday wheelhouse. Here’s your chance to do some catching up in these areas, without needing to have a whole lot of knowledge when walking in the door.

  • Leftovers

    • HackadayVoice Without Sound

      Voice recognition is becoming more and more common, but anyone who’s ever used a smart device can attest that they aren’t exactly fool-proof. They can activate seemingly at random, don’t activate when called or, most annoyingly, completely fail to understand the voice commands. Thankfully, researchers from the University of Tokyo are looking to improve the performance of devices like these by attempting to use them without any spoken voice at all.

    • HackadayRetrotechtacular: Military Graphics In The 1960s

      While you might think the military doesn’t have a sense of humor with names. Take the AN/MSQ-19 “automated tactical operations central” for example. (Video, embedded below.) But then, when you find out that the truck-sized computer at the heart of it was MOBIDIC — yes, that’s pronounced Moby Dick — you know someone had a good chuckle somewhere. The video below was a promotional video from the early 1960s, and although it shows the unit in operation, it was most likely a mockup and not fully functional.

    • Education

    • Hardware

      • HackadaySpin Up To Speed With This Stroboscope

        A stroboscope is not the most common tool, and while they can be purchased fairly inexpensively from various online stores, they are straightforward enough tools that plenty of us could build our own mostly from parts laying around. The basic idea is to shine a flashing light on a spinning object, and when it appears stationary the stroboscope will indicate the rotational speed. There are a few specialty parts that might not be in everyone’s parts drawers, though, and [John] shows us the ins-and-outs of his own DIY stroboscope.

      • HackadayWooden ITX PC Case Smacks Of Sophistication

        Computer cases have come a long way from the ugly beige boxes of the early 2000s. Still, if it was going to sit on his desk, [MXC Builds] wanted something with a little more class. His custom Ironbark ITX PC seems to fit the aesthetic nicely.

      • HackadayE-Paper Wall Paper

        Just like the clock clock of old, there’s something magical about a giant wall of smaller pieces working together to make a larger version of that thing. The E-Paper Wall 2.0 by [Aaron Christophel] is no exception as it has now upgraded from 2.9″ to 7.4″ screens.

      • HackadayUnconventional Computing Laboratory Grows Its Own Electronics

        While some might say we’re living in a cyberpunk future already, one technology that’s conspicuously absent is wetware. The Unconventional Computing Laboratory is working to change that.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Counter PunchHow It Feels to Be Hungry

        My long-dead father used to say, “Every human being deserves to taste a piece of cake.” Though at the time his words meant little to me, as I grew older I realized both what they meant, symbolically speaking, and the grim reality they disguised so charmingly. That saying of his arose from a basic reality of our lives then — the eternal scarcity of food in our household, just as in so many other homes in New York City’s South Bronx where I grew up. This was during the 1940s and 1950s, but hunger still haunts millions of American households more than three-quarters of a century later.

        In our South Bronx apartment, given the lack of food, there was no breakfast. It was simply a missing meal, so my sisters, brother, and I never expected it. Lunch was usually a sandwich and sometimes a can of juice, though none of us used the whole can.€ We knew enough to just put a little juice in our glass and then fill it with water. Dinner, which one of my sisters called the “real food,” would invariably be cheap and starchy servings meant to fill us. There wasn’t any cooked fish, salad, or fresh fruit. Rarely was anything left over. Most of our neighbors faced similar food scarcity and many suffered physical problems at relatively young ages: dizziness, fatigue, loss of strength, and other maladies, including asthma and diabetes.

      • Common Dreams'The Last Thing We Need': Critics Decry US Government's OK of $31 Billion Railroad Merger

        U.S. federal regulators on Wednesday approved the first major railroad merger in more than two decades, a move that follows the East Palestine rail disaster and that critics warned would reduce competition, raise prices, cost jobs, and threaten safety.

      • Meduza‘Take the pills you’re given’ How Russia’s prison system prevents inmates with HIV from getting the treatment they need to survive — Meduza
      • Project CensoredFeral Hogs Threaten Agriculture and Human Health - Validated Independent News

        In addition to causing an estimated $2.5 billion in damage to agriculture crops, livestock, pastures, and forests each year, National Geographic reported, feral swine also carry diseases that “could potentially spread to people,” including leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, brucellosis, swine influenza, salmonella, hepatitis, and pathogenic E. coli. These pathogens can have serious impacts on human health. Leptospirosis, for example, can cause kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and death if left untreated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

      • The NationEveryone Has the Right to Food

        My long-dead father used to say, “Every human being deserves to taste a piece of cake.” Though at the time his words meant little to me, as I grew older I realized both what they meant, symbolically speaking, and the grim reality they disguised so charmingly. That saying of his arose from a basic reality of our lives then—the eternal scarcity of food in our household, just as in so many other homes in New York City’s South Bronx where I grew up. This was during the 1940s and 1950s, but hunger still haunts millions of American households more than three-quarters of a century later.

    • Security

      • Krebs On SecurityMicrosoft Patch Tuesday, March 2023 Edition

        Microsoft on Tuesday released updates to quash at least 74 security bugs in its Windows operating systems and software. Two of those flaws are already being actively attacked, including an especially severe weakness in Microsoft Outlook that can be exploited without any user interaction.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • TechdirtTexas Deputy Sued For Privacy Violations After Live Streaming A Traffic Stop On TikTok

          I don’t know, maybe don’t do this?

        • TechdirtWhatsApp Tells UK Government It’s Still Not Willing To Undermine Its Encryption

          The UK government is entertaining even more plans to undermine (or actually outlaw) end-to-end encryption. And it’s not gaining any support from the multiple services (and multiple people) these efforts would harm.

        • Papers PleaseTSA confirms plans to mandate mug shots for domestic air travel

          In an on-stage interview yesterday at South By Southwest by a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, the head of the US Transportation Security Administration made explicit that the TSA plans to make collection of biometric data€  mandatory for airline travel:

          According to a report in today’s edition of the newspaper by Alexandra Skores on the statements by TSA Administrator David Pekoske:

          Mandatory mugshots for all airline passengers have been part of the TSA’s road map since at least 2018, despite objections such as those raised by the ACLU and the Identity Project.

        • EFFTell the UK’s House of Lords: Protect End-to-End Encryption in the Online Safety Bill

          End-to-end encryption ensures that governments, tech companies, social media platforms, and other groups cannot view or access our private messages, the pictures we share with family and friends, or our bank account details. This is a universal right, and one that is a particularly vital protection for the most vulnerable in society—such as children or human rights defenders who rely on private messaging to do their jobs in hostile environments.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Counter PunchWar: Still Not Healthy for Children

        If you’re old enough to remember the slogan “War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things,” then you’re old enough to remember that activists for peace can end a war. The phrase was popular during the Vietnam war, and a massive antiwar movement compelled the United States to negotiate an end. Fifty years later, the world needs antiwar activists more than ever: due to the aggravations of global climate change coupled with an increasing threat of nuclear missiles, a future war could easily become an extinction level event.

        The Vietnam-era peace movement used nonviolent tactics, and demonstrations were large. On October 15, 1969, an estimated two million people joined peace demonstrations around the United States. More people participated on November 15, 1969, when half-a-million demonstrators flooded Washington, D.C., while simultaneously more than a quarter million gathered in San Francisco and millions more protested around the world. If enough people work together for the cause of peace, they can be successful, and the world is in desperate need of another success now.

      • Common DreamsThe Selling of the Iraq War Involved Mass Gullibility Atop Mass Hysteria

        Twenty years after the United States under the administration of George W. Bush invaded Iraq, it is undeniable that the war was one of the biggest blunders in the history of U.S. foreign policy. The war was entirely one of choice; Iraq was not posing any significant threat to the United States and U.S. interests. The costs were huge. Estimates by academic experts of the war’s long-term monetary cost to the United States —covering everything from bullets to medical care for disabled veterans — are on the order of two to three trillion dollars.

      • Site36The Bundeswehr flies the world’s largest drones over the Black Sea. When will the first one crash?

        Germany is the largest contributor to five Nato „Global Hawk“ drones in Sicily. The military alliance has been using them to monitor its „eastern flank“ for two years.

      • ScheerpostCop City Protestor Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Finds His Hands Were Raised at Time of Death

        The family of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán held a press conference Monday morning outside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse to release the full autopsy of Tortuguita and to discuss the lawsuit the family filed this week against the City of Atlanta under the Georgia Open Records […]

      • Counter PunchSilent in Ukraine: Weapons Perpetuate, Do Not End Wars

        As is the case of long wars, the warring parties and their affiliated media in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have painted each other using uncompromising language, making it nearly impossible to offer an unbiased view of the ongoing tragedy that has killed, wounded and expelled millions.

        While it is understandable that wars of such horror and near complete disregard of the most basic human rights often heighten our sense of what we consider to be moral and just, parties involved and invested in such conflicts often manipulate morality for political and geopolitical reasons.

      • Counter PunchUranium Weapons Residues in UK Air Samples Have Been Measured Since the Ukraine War, Why is Google Suppressing the Evidence?

        Since Fukushima in 2011 there has been a revolution in the scientific understanding of the relation between radiation exposures and subsequent cancer and leukemia. But you would be hard put to find anything about this on Google, which has, over the same period of time as it has increasingly excluded any real news about what is going on in the real world, systematically erased, excluded, airbrushed and spun the news in a way that was common the Soviet Union from Stalin to Brezhnev. This is the era of “fake news”. Much of the work on the radiation risk model has been carried out by me and my colleagues in the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR).

        By 2023, last year, my increasing personal scientific credibility had enabled me to publish in the scientific peer-review literature 5 papers which showed clearly that the legally defined exposure levels, based on the risk model of the International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP) was in error by a factor of upwards of 10,000-fold. In the latest 2023 paper this means that owing to the power of the nuclear military complex more than 300 million people have died from € cancer caused by the fallout from the 1960s atmospheric testing. This is the cancer epidemic which began in the 1980s, and which every one of you reading this article will have experienced. You might have thought that this was news, since it was based on scientific peer-reviewed publications.

      • MeduzaPolish authorities arrest six people for alleged spying in connection with cameras found at key railway junctions — Meduza

        Polish security agents have arrested six people on suspicion of spying for Russian, the Polish radio station RMF FM reported on Thursday.

      • Craig MurraySweet Rockall

        A recurring row has broken out over the island of Rockall, an uninhabited rock in the Atlantic whose ownership is disputed between the UK and Ireland. The Scottish government, under whose jurisdiction Rockall falls, has banned Irish vessels which traditionally fish there from doing so.

      • Counter PunchIs a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Imminent?

        Is China really on the verge of invading the island of Taiwan, as so many top American officials seem to believe? If the answer is “yes” and the U.S. intervenes on Taiwan’s side — as President Biden has sworn it would — we could find ourselves in a major-power conflict, possibly even a nuclear one, in the not-too-distant future. Even if confined to Asia and fought with conventional weaponry alone — no sure thing — such a conflict would still result in human and economic damage on a far greater scale than observed in Ukraine today.

        But what if the answer is “no,” which seems at least as likely? Wouldn’t that pave the way for the U.S. to work with its friends and allies, no less than with China itself, to reduce tensions in the region and possibly open a space for the launching of peaceful negotiations between Taiwan and the mainland? If nothing else, it would eliminate the need to boost the Pentagon budget by many billions of dollars annually, as now advocated by China hawks in Congress.

      • Counter PunchBlood Does Not Wash Away Blood

        The extraordinary March 10, 2023 announcement that China’s top diplomat, Mr. Wang Yi, helped broker a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran suggests that major powers can benefit from believing that, as Albert Camus once put it, “words are more powerful than munitions.”

        This concept was also acknowledged by General Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff who said on January 20th, 2023, that he believes Russia’s war in Ukraine will conclude with negotiations rather than on the battlefield. In November of 2022, asked about prospects for diplomacy in Ukraine, Milley noted that the early refusal to negotiate in World War One compounded human suffering and led to millions more casualties.

      • Common DreamsAfter Brutal Assault, Yanis Varoufakis Urges Progressives to Focus on 'What Really Matters'

        Recovering from a brutal assault that left him with a broken nose and cheekbone, leftist Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis on Tuesday urged progressives "not get distracted" from the railway accident that killed 57 people last month or the neoliberal "privatize everything doctrine" he blames for the disaster.

      • Common DreamsThe Not-So-Winding Road from Iraq to Ukraine

        March 19th marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. This seminal event in the short history of the 21st century not only continues to plague Iraqi society to this day, but it also looms large over the current crisis in Ukraine, making it impossible for most of the Global South to see the war in Ukraine through the same prism as U.S. and Western politicians.

      • Common DreamsOkinawa Governor Meets AOC and Others in DC Over Burden of US Military Bases

        Denny Tamaki, the recently re-elected Governor of Okinawa, traveled to DC for a weeklong trip to lobby lawmakers and officials to reduce the disproportionate burden of US military bases in Okinawa, which hosts over 70% of US military presence in Japan. The Governor met with leading US officials including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers and aides, as well as government officials, diplomats, and academics, to discuss the critical issues pertaining to the US bases and stress the need for diplomacy to ease tensions with China.

      • Common DreamsIraq War Costs Could Hit Nearly $3 Trillion by 2050: Report

        As the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq approaches, a leading research institute on Wednesday said that "the total costs of the war in Iraq and Syria are expected to exceed half a million human lives and $2.89 trillion" by 2050.

      • Common DreamsWar Reparations Demanded 20 Years After US Invasion of Iraq

        Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the George W. Bush administration's illegal invasion of Iraq this weekend, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights on Wednesday renewed its call for reparations "for those harmed as a result of the U.S.'s unlawful act of aggression in its cruel, senseless, and baseless war-for-profit."

      • ScheerpostDennis Kucinich: Iraq Plus 20 – Lies as Weapons of Mass Destruction

        Part One: The Script for the Lead-Up to War

      • ScheerpostUS and NATO Allies Were Responsible for Nearly 65% of Global Arms Exports in 2018-22

        The US share in global arms exports increased from 33% to 40% in 2018-22, and its ally France, the third-largest exporter of weapons, was also a significant beneficiary, with its share increasing from roughly 7.1% to 11%.

      • MeduzaRegional conscription officials send out summonses ‘to check data’ on draft-eligible men — Meduza

        Conscription officials in at least three Russian regions — Lipetsk, Penza, and Voronezh — have started mailing summonses to local draft-eligible men. This has been confirmed by the regional authorities.

      • MeduzaRussian comedian Danila Poperechny says Uzbek authorities turned off his mic whenever he spoke about Ukraine or Putin at Tashkent show — Meduza

        Russian standup comedian Danila Poperechny said that the organizers of a show he performed in Tashkent on Tuesday censored his set by turning off the microphone “when the joke or the topic even tangentially touched on the current agenda,” referring to the war in Ukraine and other issues that are politically sensitive in Russia.

      • Michael West MediaBecause the U.S. says so - $368 Billion for subs!
      • ScheerpostUS, UK, Australia Unveil AUKUS Nuclear-Powered Submarine Deal

        Monday, the US, Britain, and Australia€ unveiled their plans€ to develop nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS, a military pact the three countries signed in September 2021 to coordinate on advanced military technology against China.

      • TruthOutRussia-US Drone Encounter Is “an Incendiary Development,” Says Jeremy Scahill
      • Democracy NowThe Nord Stream Bombing: Jeremy Scahill on Why U.S. Remains Most Likely Culprit in Pipeline Sabotage

        Questions continue to swirl about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines in September. Last month, the legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported the sabotage was carried out by the U.S. Navy with remotely triggered explosives during NATO exercises. The U.S. has denied the claim. We speak to The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill about his latest article, “Conflicting Reports Thicken Nord Stream Bombing Plot.”

      • Democracy NowJeremy Scahill on Growing Proxy War Between U.S. and Russia & Downing of U.S. Drone in Black Sea

        A U.S. drone crashed in international waters Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea. According to U.S. officials, one of the Russian warplanes collided with the MQ-9 Reaper drone and damaged its propeller, but Russia denies the aircraft made contact. The incident occurred about 75 miles southwest of Crimea and marks another blow to relations between the two nuclear-armed powers. Jeremy Scahill, senior correspondent for The Intercept, describes the drone encounter as “an incendiary development” in the U.S. proxy war against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. “This is a vehicle of war, and it doesn’t have to have missiles on it to be part of a system that makes the U.S. a combatant in this war,” says Scahill.

      • TruthOutAsked About Regime Change in Russia, Trump Calls for One in the US Instead
      • The DissenterMarch To Iraq War, 20 Years Later: March 15, 2003
      • MeduzaFormer Yekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roizman arrested on charges of disseminating extremist material — Meduza

        Yekaterinburg police have arrested the city’s former mayor, Evgeny Roizman, on charges of disseminating extremist material, the Telegram channel It’s My City reported on Thursday, citing Roizman’s ex-wife, Yulia Kruteeva, and his lawyer, Vladislav Idamzhapov.

      • Democracy NowMexico’s Missing: 100,000+ Cases Unsolved as Leaked Military Docs Shed New Light on Ayotzinapa 43

        As news of missing Americans in Mexico dominates headlines, tens of thousands of Mexicans remain missing in cases that have gone unsolved — some of them for decades. This includes the 2014 case of 43 young men from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college who were attacked and forcibly disappeared. Senior analyst at the National Security Archive Kate Doyle joins us with new details about what happened in Ayotzinapa, drawn from the 4 million emails and records stolen from the Mexican Defense Ministry by an anonymous collective of hackers known as “Guacamaya.” Doyle co-produced the After Ayotzinapa podcast with Reveal as part of the NSA’s ongoing work on this case.

      • MeduzaPipeline operator Transneft reports finding explosive devices near a pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline — Meduza

        Two explosive devices were discovered in the Bryansk region, at a pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline, Igor Demin, a spokesperson for the pipeline operator Transneft, told TASS.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Environment

      • Project CensoredNew College Textbooks Include Less About Climate Change Than in Previous Editions - Validated Independent News

        The study, conducted by faculty and student researchers at North Carolina State, examined 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. The amount of content devoted to climate change increased until the 2010s when it began to drop to an average of three pages per book. According to the study, “The number of research publications between 1970 and 2019 has grown exponentially, but the proportion of textbook coverage has decreased from one textbook sentence per 200 scientific publications to one textbook sentence per 1,100 scientific publications.”

      • DeSmogIndigenous Group Fighting Emissions Cap Quietly Supported by Top Canadian Oil Company

        A national Indigenous group is fighting a proposed federal limit on oil and gas sector emissions by arguing it will harm First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.€ 

        But the group has a powerful non-Indigenous ally, according to corporate documents from Canada’s second-largest oil and gas producer.€ 

      • Energy/Transportation

        • TruthOutGroups Sue to Block Biden-Approved Willow Oil Project in Alaska
        • The NationSacred Native American Indian Territory
        • The NationThe Obscene Invention of California Capitalism

          When gold was found in the American River in 1848, a brand-new world was born—one that thrust Northern California into the perpetual spotlight, and one in which the market’s insatiable appetite for “innovation” solidified, however ironically, the region’s loyalty to draconian conceptions of racial order. The miners are, in effect, still here—their wash pans have just become iPhones—and still doing their part to uphold a long-standing tradition of the American West: overpromising and under-delivering, all while devouring obscene amounts of global assets in the process. In Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, journalist Malcolm Harris sets out to identify the origins of Silicon Valley’s doctrine of abundance and rigorously traces its technocratic lineage all the way back to the Golden State’s early opportunists.1

        • Counter PunchWillow Project: A Carbon Bomb is Exploding in the Arctic of Alaska

          Karlin Nageak Itchoak, senior director for Alaska at the non-profit Wilderness Society, is very much against the $ 8 billion petroleum extraction Willow Project. The Willow Project is in a 25-million acre-park of largely pristine wilderness in the Arctic of Alaska. The official name of this beautiful land is the National Petroleum Reserve. Imagine giving such a name to this planetary paradise of wildlife and indigenous societies!

          The Willow Project is supposed to produce 180,000 barrels of petroleum per day, which represents 1.5 percent of all US oil production. Building the transportation and mining infrastructure for extracting petroleum from this vast territory will do irreparable damage to ecosystems and wildlife in Alaska. It will also inflict deleterious harm on the planet by telling the world the United States will continue its petroleum business as usual. Besides, an active Willow Project will nullify all the promises President Joe Biden made for fighting climate change. Biden will then look no better than Donald Trump or other presidents in the pocket of the petrochemical industry.

        • Common DreamsGreen Groups Sue to Fight Biden Approval of 'Illegal' Willow Project

          Environmental groups filed two separate lawsuits on Tuesday and Wednesday to fight the Biden administration's decision to approve a massive fossil fuel drilling project on Alaska's North Slope, a step that opened the door to hundreds of millions of tons of additional planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions.

        • Common Dreams'Promise Breakers': Report Exposes Rich Nations Failing to End Fossil Fuel Financing

          A report released Wednesday by Oil Change International reveals that while the Glasgow Statement is already shifting billions of dollars from fossil fuels to clean energy around the world, some rich nations are still failing to live up to promises made under the 2021 agreement.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Counter PunchThe Destiny of Humans, Nature and Grizzlies are Linked

          Enos Mills first called for protection of grizzly bears in his 1919 book “The Grizzly,” as he watched them being exterminated for Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and California.

          Not until 1973 would the U.S. pass the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In 1975, with less than a thousand grizzlies remaining mostly around Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, the lower 48 grizzlies were listed as protected under the ESA.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Common DreamsWhen the Book-Burners Come to Your Town

        Not so long ago, book burnings were considered a festive group activity by assorted right-wing zealots. Today, though, burning seems so old-fashioned and, well... crude.

      • TechdirtTechdirt Podcast Episode 347: Why Is Congress So Wrong About Section 230?

        Misunderstandings (honest or otherwise) about Section 230 abound — across the political spectrum and, of course, in Congress. Each side believes weakening or eliminating the law will achieve its own distinct goals, and both sides are wrong. Following the most recent (but far from the first) very frustrating congressional hearing about Section 230, this week we’re joined by TechFreedom’s Free Speech Counsel Ari Cohn for a discussion about why and how congress constantly gets Section 230 so wrong.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • MeduzaProsecution petitions Moscow court to arrest former Meduza publisher in absentia — Meduza

        The prosecution has petitioned a Moscow court to arrest the former Meduza publisher Ilya Krasilshchik in absentia. The media executive has been charged with “spreading fakes” about the Russian army under the new Russian law against military disinformation.

      • Don't Extradite AssangeStella Assange in Rome and Bologna, Italy

        The Faculty of Political Science of the Sapienza University of Rome was packed with students addressed by Stella Assange, MEP Sabrina Pignedoli, Prof. Maria Cristina Marchetti and Prof. Alessandro Guerra.

      • Don't Extradite AssangeThessaloniki Documentary Festival and Athens Ithaka screening with Stella Assange

        The screening of “Ithaca – The battle for the release of Julian Assange” kicked off at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival ini crowded room, including the Secretary of MeRA25 Yanis Varoufakis.

      • Project CensoredMarch 2023 Newsletter - Censored Notebook

        On March 7th, the Censored Press celebrated the publication of Kevin Gosztola’s Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange. You can listen to Gosztola’s book launch conversation with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, guest hosted by Mickey Huff, at The Dissenter, and you can watch Mickey’s interview with Kevin about Guilty of€ Journalism on€ The Project Censored Show by visiting the Project’s YouTube channel.

      • EFFThe Aftermath of Ola Bini’s Unanimous Acquittal by Ecuadorian Court

        But more than a month after the ruling, we continue to see the pattern of delays surrounding the case again. The oral sentence stated in January’s hearing has yet to be published in written form, and the precautionary measures against Bini remain in force. Despite his acquittal, the security expert still can’t leave Ecuador, use his bank accounts, or get back any of several of his devices seized in 2019. In the meantime, the Prosecutor’s Office and Ecuador's National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT) have already shown their intention to appeal once they receive the formal notification of the sentence.

        Bini himself has stressed the precursory nature of the ruling. He said it was the first time an Ecuadorian court had analyzed the issue of access to a computer system and, more importantly, resisted setting a broad interpretation of unauthorized access that would seriously endanger the beneficial work of security researchers and the vital role they play for our privacy and security across information systems.

        The court didn’t fall for the prosecutor’s flawed claims that merely connecting to a server that asks for a username could entail an access without authorization to such a system. Conversely, the three-judge tribunal unanimously agreed that there was no evidence that Ola Bini had committed any crime.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • TruthOutHonduran Activists Are Protesting “State of Emergency” That Suspends Civil Rights
      • Common DreamsNearly 400 Rights Groups Demand Biden Permanently End Family Detention

        Nearly 400 immigration justice and other advocacy groups on Wednesday added their voices to the call for President Joe Biden to reject family detention, amid reports that the White House is considering a revival of the practice that was used by the Trump and Obama administrations—despite the fact that it subjected thousands of families to numerous abuses and trauma.

      • Common DreamsLabor Celebrates as Michigan Senate Votes to Overturn 'Right-to-Work' Law
      • Pro PublicaMuseums and Universities Pledge to Return Native American Remains

        Until this year, the University of Kentucky’s William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology had never returned any of the more than 4,500 Native American human remains in its collections.

        That is about to change.

      • TruthOutACLU Sues US for Using Military-Grade Helicopters to Quell George Floyd Protests
      • MeduzaPolish activist convicted for providing abortion pills — Meduza

        A Warsaw court sentenced activist Justyna Wydrzynska to eight months of community service on Tuesday for allegedly abetting an illegal abortion, the first time such a case has gone to court in Poland, according to BBC News Russian.

      • Site36Report in Germany accuses police of „direct brutality“ at protest in Lützerath

        The police actions around Lützerath two months ago violated the freedom of assembly on several levels, write 14 observers from the Constitutional Rights Committee in a detailed report on the eviction of the brown coal village. They see a fundamental problem in the police monopoly on the use of force.

      • Democracy Now“Catastrophic”: Trump-Appointed Judge in Texas May Restrict Abortion Pill Mifepristone Nationwide

        We look at today’s hearing by a federal judge in Texas who could restrict medication abortions throughout the United States and revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of mifepristone, the abortion medication used in a majority of pregnancy terminations across the country. The Trump-appointed judge has ruled against the Biden administration in numerous cases and is widely expected to favor the anti-abortion side in the case, though an appeal of any ruling is all but certain. Amy Littlefield, The Nation's abortion access correspondent, says that while medication abortions are still possible without mifepristone, it can be less effective and more painful. “We're talking about imposing suffering on medication abortion patients across the country,” Littlefield says.

      • Project Censored“Cyber Misogyny” on the Rise During COVID-19 Pandemic - Validated Independent News

        In a 2015, Nicole Etherington, then an advanced PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario, coined the term cyber misogyny to describe “the various forms of gendered hatred, harassment, and abusive behavior targeted at women and girls via the internet.” Etherington’s 2015 brief defining the topic described the internet as a “new frontier for misogynistic hate, harassment, and abuse” and detailed some of its real-world consequences, including psychological distress, public humiliation, identity theft, job loss, and suicide. (Dr. Etherington is now a Senior Research Associate in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.)

      • The NationProtecting Survivors of Human Trafficking in New York

        At an undisclosed location in Flushing, Queens, sits the windowless office of the Garden of Hope, an abuse treatment center tending to a largely Chinese-speaking community of women. It counts survivors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and teenage dating violence among its attendees, many of them immigrants. Four counselors form the Garden’s human trafficking division, which looks after victims of the underground networks of New York City.

      • ShadowproofProtest Song Of The Week: ‘We Were Here’ By Aysanabee

        Originally published at Ongoing History of Protest MusicBorn Evan Pang, Aysanabee is a Canadian Indigenous multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer-songwriter. He is Oji-Cree and began creating music under his mother’s maiden name in order to reclaim his family name. Aysanabee’s mother gave him the last name Pang because she felt that a non-Indigenous name would make it easier to find employment.

        His 2022 debut album “Watin” was named after his grandfather. His grandfather was renamed from Watin to “Walter” by the McIntosh Residential School in northwestern Ontario that he was forced to attend.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • TechdirtCongress Lets The FCC’s Spectrum Auction Authority Lapse For No Good Reason

        Last week, Congress failed to shake off corruption and buckled to a telecom industry’ smear campaign to scuttle the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC. This week, the government body shifted from corruption to ordinary incompetence, after it failed to renew the FCC’s Spectrum Auction authority for no coherent reason.

    • Monopolies

      • TruthOutSanders Says “Much More” Must Be Done After Insulin Maker Announces Price Cuts
      • TechdirtMicrosoft Inks 2 More CoD Multiplatform Deals With Game Streaming Services

        Microsoft continues to make moves to get its purchase of Activision Blizzard past the various regulatory bodies that have voiced their concerns. While there are plenty of signs that the EU regulators are getting ready to approve the deal, there is still the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the States to get past. Microsoft’s strategy for getting over those hurdles has been very clear: ink as many decade-long deals to put the Call of Duty franchise on as many platforms as possible to show regulators that they aren’t planning on bringing games to exclusivity. Microsoft already has a deal in place for this with Nintendo and a proposed deal for it with Sony, which has been the main private objector to this purchase to begin with.

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakAuthorities Arrested 'Leaders' of Prolific Piracy Release Group EVO

          EVO, a P2P release group responsible for many high-profile movie screener leaks, mysteriously disappeared late last year. Anti-piracy coalition ACE now confirms that it identified the leaders of the EVO group around the same time. Several people were arrested and ACE is now collaborating with Portuguese authorities in an ongoing investigation.

        • Torrent FreakOperation 404: 11 Arrests, Hundreds of Pirate Sites, Apps & Domains Blocked

          Brazilian authorities are reporting a new wave of action as part of anti-piracy initiative 'Operation 404'. With support from the UK's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, MPA Latin America, and the Entertainment Software Association, 200 illegal streaming and gaming sites,128 domains and 63 music apps are reported blocked. Raids on locations across Brazil led to 11 arrests.

        • Creative CommonsCalling All Copyright Advocates: CC Copyright Platform Now Accepting Funding Proposals

          The Creative Commons Copyright Platform is a collaborative space for people who are interested in copyright policy issues. We work in a transparent, professional, ethical and public manner to undertake projects and activities aimed at fulfilling agreed-upon, collaboratively developed goals and principles.€ 

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Crazy CDDA Moment

        Bridges are a tricky thing to wire up aright, so sometimes you'll see "bridges to nowhere" in Cataclysm: Daring Driving Ahead, as in real life...presumably the procgen has less pork. As it turns out you can drive over the gap if you don't mind some damage to the vehicle. I suck at driving and managed to hit one more set of guard rails than was necessary; good thing I don't know how to drive in real life?

      • Right think, different think?

        I am writing this today because of something that’s been heavily on my mind lately. Beliefs can divide and kill. Having “correct” doctrines is not necessarily an indicator of life transformed by the Holy Spirit.

        As I observe the Christian world of the United States today, it's quite fascinating to think about some Christians' willingness to choose LGBTQ+ issues as the hill they're going to die on, just as they chose issues such as the defense of segregation and slavery in the past. As in the past, denominations and churches engage in acrimonious fights over matters such as ordinations of LGBTQ+ ministers and whether to include non-binary and trans persons into the life of the church.

    • Technical

      • Downloading Demos with steamctl

        steamctl is a neat tool to download Steam games on platforms that don't have their own steam client, like OpenBSD. Usually, you download games you own this way...


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day