Bonum Certa Men Certa

Leftover Links 06/08/2023: India's Laptop and Tablet Import Ban Postponed



  • Leftovers

    • teleSURNormal Life Far From Reach After Earthquakes in Türkiye: IFRC

      Over 50 percent of families supported by the IFRC and Turkish Red Crescent are taking on new debts after the earthquakes as the country battles inflation.

    • El PaísFrom Vinyl to USB: The evolution of Mexico City’s ‘sonideros’

      The sonidero scene of the Mexican capital came into conflict in February, when Sandra Cuevas, the mayor of the borough of Cuauhtemoc, banned the small pop-up “dance clubs” that for years had brought together the residents of the Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood. The politician stated that her decision had been motivated by “many noise complaints from neighbors,” and proposed that they be relocated to enclosed spaces. Meanwhile, the complaints that the Legal Department of Mexico City received for “noise” between January and December 2022 amounted to three.

      One month later, Cuevas turned the situation around by recognizing the sonideros as “cultural heritage” and sharing a photo of her with 20 of their representatives holding the title. Afterwards, the secretary of culture of Mexico City, Claudia Curiel, stated that the declaration of heritage required a long process that involved authorities and specialists, and that it could only be offered by the head of government. “It’s not just handing out a diploma,” said Curiel.

    • HackadayBrowser-Based Robot Dog Simulator In ~800 Lines Of Code

      [Sergii] has been learning about robot simulation and wrote up a basic simulator for a robodog platform: the Unitree A1. It only took about 800 lines of code to do so, which probably makes it a good place to start if one is headed in a similar direction.

    • Science

    • Education

      • El País‘Young people don’t read because the phone is a much more affordable form of leisure’

        Q. In the book, you are very critical of social networks.

        A. My students’ concentration has dropped tremendously with smartphones. We touch the mobile close to a thousand times a day and communicate with others about 150 times. With the mobile on the table, you act like a person with a much lower IQ. Many children who shine academically practice ballet or music, which require a lot of concentration. Kids are often very aware that they don’t remember short videos they’ve watched or that they get nervous if there’s no change in activity. They watch shows, and even listen to music, at 1.5x speed, because they are unable to keep up. No one listens to an entire song, they always hit the little button first. That shreds their attention spans.

    • Hardware

      • Ruben SchadeSupporting (very!) legacy systems

        (I’m AFK today, so I tidied up a half-baked blog post from perennial drafts folder. It’s still not really fleshed out the way I’d usually like, but maybe there’s something there).

        When a tired IT worker suggests someone turns it off, then on again, it’s because it’s shocking how often this works. Any functional programmer worth her salt will tell you how bad state is, and sometimes things enter a weird, unknown, or unplanned state that a simple reboot can clear and fix.

        >
      • IT WireAfter protests, India delays laptop, tablet import ban by three months

        The Indian Government has delayed its move on immediately banning importers of laptops, tablets and some kinds of PCs, giving the industry three months to wind up these practices, following a backlash against an order on Thursday that said the ban would take immediate effect.

      • Tom's HardwareIntel Plans Massive Fab Expansion in Oregon

        Intel has submitted a permit application outlining plans to build a fourth model of its D1X R&D facility and rebuild its decades-old D1A R&D fab.

      • New York TimesThe Chip Titan Whose Life’s Work Is at the Center of a Tech Cold War

        The insight that Mr. Chang gained from the textbook was deceptively simple: the idea that microchips, which act as the brains of computers, could be designed in one place but manufactured somewhere else. The notion went against the semiconductor industry’s standard practice at the time.

        So at the age of 54, when many people begin thinking more about retirement, Mr. Chang instead put himself on a path to turn his insight into a reality. The engineer left his adopted country, the United States, and moved to Taiwan where he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. The company does not design chips, but it has become the world’s biggest manufacturer of cutting-edge microprocessors for customers including Apple and Nvidia.

      • Tom's HardwareApple Finishes Dumping Intel Entirely, Touts Results

        The launch of Apple's Mac Pro based on its M2 Ultra processor formally marked the completion of the company's transition from Intel's CPUs to its own system-on-chips, which took about three years. The transition spurred users of Macs to upgrade and encouraged users of Windows to switch to Macs. Roughly half of Apple's PCs bought in Q2 were purchased by new users.

      • HackadayDIY Eye Tracking For VR Headsets, From A To Z

        Eye tracking is a useful feature in social virtual reality (VR) spaces because it really enhances presence and communication when one’s avatar has a realistic gaze. Most headsets lack this feature, but EyeTrackVR has a completely open source solution ready for anyone willing to put it together.

      • HackadayPrepare To Brake: Quick Intro To Metal Bending

        If you want to bend metal to make shapes, you might use equipment like a brake. But if you don’t have one, no worries. You can still do a lot with common tools like a vise and torches. [Bwrussell] shows you how. He welds together a die to use as a bending jig and makes a set of table legs.

      • HackadayLK-99: Diamagnetc Semiconductor, Not Superconductor?

        Every so often, along comes a story which, like [Fox Mulder] with his unexplained phenomena, we want to believe. EM drives and cold fusion for example would be the coolest of the cool if they worked, but sadly they crumbled when subjected to scientific inquiry outside the labs of their originators. The jury’s still out on the latest example, a claimed room-temperature superconductor, but it’s starting to seem that it might instead be a diamagnetic semiconductor.

      • AxiosScientists race to replicate high-stakes claim of a new superconductor

        A team of scientists claimed to develop a material that could act as a superconductor at room temperature — a holy grail of physics that researchers around the world are now trying to replicate.

        Why it matters: Superconductors that can operate at room temperature and ambient pressure hold promise for quantum computing, a more efficient energy grid, producing energy from fusion and more innovation.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • QuartzChina is proposing a two-hour limit on children's smartphone use

        The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) proposed a rule that would limit smartphone use for people under the age of 18 on Wednesday (August 2), the latest step by Chinese regulators to curb young people’s internet use.

      • Hong Kong Free PressUnder 18s in China to have smartphone, internet use curbed every evening

        Chinese children and teens will be cut off from accessing the internet at night and have their smartphone use curbed under new rules unveiled Wednesday aimed at fighting internet addiction.

      • The Straits TimesChina looks to limit children to two hours a day on their phones

        Providers of smart devices will be required to bar users under 18 from accessing the internet from 10pm to 6am.

      • India TimesChina wants children to spend less time on smartphones, might mandate "minor mode"

        The country's internet regulator this week proposed regulations that if adopted as written would require smartphones, apps and app stores to build a "minor mode" into their products. The aim is to restrict how long children can spend on their phones and what content they can read or watch.

        The proposal, which is open for public comment, would expand the Chinese government's efforts to regulate aspects of children's online activity that it has deemed to be negative influences, experts said.

      • Jacobin MagazineThe Company Whose Chemicals Poisoned East Palestine Still Opposes Rail Safety Legislation

        In February, a train derailment exposed the town of East Palestine, Ohio, to toxic vinyl chloride. Since then, the company that made the chemicals has spent millions to stop railway legislation that could help prevent another disaster.

      • Science AlertSex Toys Shed Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals With Unknown Effects

        While it is too early to say how dangerous these chemicals are, the fact that they haven't been safety tested for our most intimate body parts is worrisome.

        "Some of the phthalates identified in our experiments have been observed concurrently with serious fertility complications or loss of fertility in rodents at high concentrations," the authors of the study write, "though causation may not have been demonstrated, the correlation is concerning enough to warrant further investigation."

      • New YorkerThe Hidden Harms of CPR

        For decades, physicians have debated whether CPR should be offered to people who suffer from the final blows of incurable illness, be it heart failure, advanced cancer, or dementia. Although CPR has become synonymous with medical heroism, nearly eighty-five per cent of those who receive it in a hospital die, their last moments marked by pain and chaos. The pandemic only deepened the risks: every chest compression spewed contagious particles into the air, and intubation, which often follows compressions, exposed doctors to virus-laden saliva. Hospitals in Michigan and Georgia reported that no COVID patient survived the procedure. An old question acquired new urgency: Why was CPR a default treatment, even for people as sick as Ernesto?

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • New York TimesSo What Do We Call Twitter Now Anyway?

        Some people have wondered if the X name will stick, especially with the word tweets still appearing on the site. The app’s home button is also still shaped like a birdhouse, and the company’s website — at least for now — remains Twitter.com.

        So is the Twitter name retired? And do we now call a tweet a “xeet” or “xcerpt”?

      • HackadayBreak Free From Proprietary Digital Radio

        Digital modes are all the rage these days in amateur radio — hams are using protocols like WSPR to check propagation patterns, FT8 to get quick contacts on many bands with relatively low power, and MSK144 to quickly bounce a signal off of a meteor. There’s also digital voice, which has a number of perks over analog including improved audio quality. However, the major downside of most digital voice modes, at least those in use on UHF and VHF, is that they are proprietary with various radio brands having competing digital standards. To get above the noise a more open standard can be used instead.

      • Windows TCO

        • Security WeekMicrosoft Criticized Over Handling of Critical Power Platform Vulnerability

          In March, researchers at vulnerability management company Tenable discovered a critical vulnerability in Microsoft’s Power Platform. The platform, which can be connected to Microsoft 365, Azure and other apps, enables organizations to analyze data, build applications and automate processes.

          The security hole was caused by “insufficient access control to Azure Function hosts, which are launched as part of the creation and operation of custom connectors in Microsoft’s Power Platform”.

    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • QuartzThe right to pay anonymously has become part of an EU culture war

          Karl Nehammer, Austria’s chancellor, announced plans to enshrine the right to pay with cash into the country’s constitution on Friday (August 4), as card€ contactless payments become more popular in Europe.

        • Ruben SchadeCory Doctorow on privacy

          Posted this morning

          They’re disguising a demand as an observation.

        • Stacey on IoTSmart home startup Tuo is betting on Matter. Should it?

          This story originally ran on Friday, July 28, 2023 in my weekly IoT newsletter. You can sign up for the newsletter here.€  This week, I’ve been testing an attractive smart button from a new company called Tuo.

        • Scoop News GroupChildren’s online safety bills clear Senate hurdle despite strong civil liberties pushback

          Critics say the bills will make the internet less safe for kids by increasing digital surveillance and reducing access to encrypted services.

        • TechdirtLarge EU Internet Retailer Whines That It Shouldn’t Have To Comply With The DSA’s Most Stringent Rules

          A few months ago, when the EU designated 17 companies as “VLOPs” — Very Large Online Providers — subject to the most stringent regulations, one name that I heard lots of folks in the US be confused about was Zalando, which is a large EU-focused online retailer. It was also one of only two companies actually based in the EU to be designated as such (Booking.com was the other). And it seems that Zalando was just as surprised as everyone else, as it has now sued to challenge that designation.

        • TechdirtDC Circuit Says FOSTA Is Perfectly Constitutional, Nothing To See Here

          Back in January there was some hope that the panel of judges hearing the latest version of the challenge to FOSTA’s constitutionality had recognized the problems with the law. That’s because during oral arguments they seemed to express skepticism about its constitutionality, noting that it appeared to criminalize any efforts to legalize prostitution.

        • QuartzThe right to pay anonymously has become part of an EU culture war

          Karl Nehammer, Austria’s chancellor, announced plans to enshrine the right to pay with cash into the country’s constitution on Friday (August 4), as card contactless payments become more popular in Europe.

        • ReasonOnline Privacy at Risk from Awful U.K. Internet Regulation Bill

          "The Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage in the House of Lords, gives the British government the ability to force backdoors into messaging services, which will destroy end-to-end encryption," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned last week. "If it passes, the Online Safety Bill will be a huge step backwards for global privacy, and democracy itself. Requiring government-approved software in peoples' messaging services is an awful precedent. If the Online Safety Bill becomes British law, the damage it causes won't stop at the borders of the U.K."

        • The VergeKenya suspends Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning [cryptocurrency] project

          Kenya isn’t the only country looking into the potential risks associated with Worldcoin. Regulators in France, Germany, and the UK are also evaluating the project and whether it may violate privacy protections. Despite this, Worldcoin maintains that “biometric data never leaves the orb” and is “permanently deleted” after you sign up. The company instead saves your IrisCode — a unique set of numbers that represents your identity.

        • Interesting EngineeringChina's top SUV maker to add ChatGPT-like bot into cars

          Marking the entry of AI systems into mass-market cars, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) is set to integrate Baidu’s ChatGPT-like AI system, which enables conversation between driver and car.

        • The Register UKGoogle offers to alert netizens when their personal info shows up in Search

          In the interest of privacy – something of an issue at the Mountain View, California-based ad giant – the Chocolate Factory has upgraded its Results About You tool, introduced last year as a way to help people remove personally identifiable information from Google Search results.

          Essentially, you can get alerted when your personal contact information turns up in search results, and tell Google to not show that.

        • Ruben SchadeWe noticed a new login to your …!

          Alert fatigue is a well-understood psychological phenomena where we discount, tune out, or ignore information when we’re overwhelmed by it, thereby defeating the entire point of the alerts. I’d say IT security professionals forget the human element at their peril, though its the rest of us that pay the price.

        • El PaísWhy Sam Altman wants to scan two billion eyes

          There’s another problem. The consent form (that nobody reads) says that the spheres also take high-resolution images of the user’s face, eyes and body, in addition to recording vital signs, such as heart rate and breathing. The French and German data protection authorities see signs of infringement of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and have jointly launched an investigation.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • FuturismIt's So Hot That Decades-Old Cactuses Are Toppling Over in Defeat

        "Since 2020, we have had elevated mortality in our population of saguaros compared to mortality rates pre-2020," Kimberlie McCue, chief science officer at the Desert Botanical Garden, told the AP. "So part of our thinking is that there are still saguaros today that were compromised from what they went through in 2020. And that this could be sending them over the edge."

      • Omicron LimitedNet zero: Direct costs of climate policies aren't a major barrier to public support, research reveals

        Our research also shows that the UK public is broadly on board with net zero, including measures that would involve lifestyle changes. With the market research company Ipsos, we polled more than 5,000 people across the UK on their attitudes to a range of net zero policies. Our findings indicated high levels of public support (in both 2021 and 2022) for most of them, with support strongest for frequent flyer levies, changing product prices to reflect environmental impacts, phasing out gas boilers, and electric vehicle subsidies.

      • Science AlertNuclear War Would Be Worse For Our Climate Than Predicted in The Cold War

        Climate modelling shows the reduced sunlight would plunge global temperatures by up to 10ËšC for nearly a decade. These freezing conditions, combined with less sunlight for plants to photosynthesize, would have catastrophic consequences for global food production and lead to mass starvation worldwide.

        Modern climate models are much more sophisticated than those used in the 1980s. And while there are fewer nukes in working order today, more recent results from computer simulations suggest that the grim prophecy delivered by scientists 40 years ago may actually have been an underestimate.

      • Hong Kong Free PressNatural disasters in China caused 147 deaths or disappearances in July

        China said Friday that natural disasters had caused 147 deaths or disappearances in July, after the heaviest rains since records began hit the country’s capital at the end of the month. China has been hit hard by extreme weather in recent months, from record-breaking heatwaves to deadly rain.

      • RFAChina plan to flood villages to spare Beijing sparks clashes in Hebei province

        Residents guard local levees for fear officials will inundate their homes in the middle of the night.

    • Finance

      • The Straits TimesTiny ‘window’ in Shanghai attic space put up for rent draws ridicule, debate over accommodation cost

        The window is about the size of a hand, and is part of an 8 sq m room.

      • Michael West MediaHuge fines on table as tax avoidance crackdown ramps up

        Tax advisors who help their clients avoid Australian laws could be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties as part of the biggest crackdown on misconduct in the nation’s history.€ 

        Strengthening regulator powers and integrity in the tax system will also be part of a Commonwealth push to restore public confidence.

      • AxiosDoctors say insurers are ignoring orders to pay surprise billing disputes

        Insurers are sometimes ignoring rulings to pay providers, or failing to pay them in full, under the arbitration system established by the new federal surprise billing law, providers tell Axios.

        Why it matters: The No Surprises Act, a bipartisan effort to limit unexpected out-of-network medical bills, required that insurers and providers undergo an independent arbitration process to settle their differences without involving patients. The complaints from providers are the latest snag with the arbitration system that launched last year.


        • Providers have previously complained the system has been so bogged down by disputes that they have to wait months to get through the arbitration process to get reimbursed.
        • Now, some providers say the feds need to better enforce the law to make sure insurers honor arbitrator rulings.
      • A timeline of some of the major layoffs to hit Canadians in the past year

        While Canada has not officially entered a recession, thousands of workers who have been laid off in the last year might say they feel differently. On Friday, Telus became the latest corporation to announce plans that it will slash its workforce.

        The news adds to an eventful year for workers as Canadians grapple with a high cost of living. Workers across sectors — including the federal government and B.C. ports — have gone on strike to demand better wages and better pay.

        Here’s a look back at some of the biggest layoffs that have hit Canadians over the last year.

      • Discord cutting 4% of staff as part of restructuring

        Discord is trimming its headcount as the voice, video, and text app reorganizes some of its business units.

        According to news outlets, including Business Insider, the company has laid off nearly 40 employees, or four per cent of its total workforce.

        The cuts have affected staff on Discord’s marketing, design, and entertainment partnership teams.

        “[We] are ensuring that those impacted are being supported,” a company spokesperson told the publication.

      • The Sunday Times UKAccenture: tech’s silent partner cuts deep in Ireland

        The tech sector slowdown has led Accenture to axe 900 staff. How did the former Andersen Consulting become such a significant employer in Ireland?

      • Increase in expenses of state institutions outpaces inflation rate in Turkey

        The expenditures of ministries and other state institutions more than doubled in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2022, shows an official report.

      • Helsinki TimesInflation picked up pace in Finland in July

        Statistics Finland on Monday reported that its harmonised consumer price index crept up by 0.3 per cent between June and July, translating to a year-on-year increase of 4.2 per cent in July. Prices rose last month particularly for culture and recreation-related products and services, by 8.6 per cent from the previous year.

      • AxiosHollywood strikes cost cities and states billions

        As Hollywood writers and actors strikes stretch on, states and local businesses are suffering billions of dollars' worth of losses amid the halt in production.

        Why it matters: Film and TV production hubs like California, New York and Georgia now face massive budget losses even as they content with the problems of high inflation and rising cost of living.


        State of play: California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed a $310.8 billion state budget that covered a nearly $32 billion deficit while extending tax credits for film and TV productions.

      • MIT Technology ReviewWhat’s next for China’s digital currency?

        China’s digital yuan was seemingly born out of a desire to centralize a payment system dominated by the tech companies Alibaba and Tencent. According to its central bank, the digital currency, also known as the e-CNY, is both a risk-free alternative to these commercial platforms and a replacement for physical cash, which is becoming obsolete.

        Almost three years into the pilot, though, it seems the government is still struggling to find compelling applications for it, and adoption has been minimal. Now the goal may be shifting, or at least broadening. China appears to be charging ahead with plans to use the e-CNY outside its borders, for international trade.

      • Increase in expenditures of state institutions outpaces inflation rate

        The expenditures of ministries and other state institutions more than doubled in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2022, shows an official report.

      • WhichUKLife insurance: is your cover still enough after two years of high inflation?

        NFU Mutual warns that a €£100,000 policy bought 20 years ago is worth less than half that today

      • AxiosThe heat wave is driving up gas prices
        Data: AAA; Chart: Axios Visuals

        Gas prices ticked up 15 cents in just the past week, as the heat wave hitting Texas and Louisiana slowed oil refineries down.

        /blockquote>
      • Ä°stanbul sees highest monthly surge in retail prices since April 2022

        The price increase was nearly 10 percent in July, with the city's annual inflation rate exceeding 63 percent, according to the Ä°stanbul Chamber of Commerce.

      • LatviaHealth insurance quality in Latvia decreases with inflation

        Despite rising prices, demand for health-insurance policies is stable and even with slightly upward rates. However, policy coverage is falling, so either there are fewer services paid for, or customers' co-payments increase, Latvian Radio reported on July 31.

      • teleSURUS Dollar Falls After Federal Reserve Rate Hike Decision

        Nevertheless, the U.S. inflation remains well above the central bank's target of two percent.

      • CS MonitorInflation battle: Federal Reserve hikes interest rate for 11th time

        For the 11th time in the past 17 months, the Federal Reserve has hiked its benchmark interest rate – this time from 5.1% to 5.3% – in an effort to curb inflation. The Fed gave no clear signs, however, of when or whether there will be further increases.

      • Turkey's Central Bank raises year-end inflation forecast from 22% to 58%

        The inflation rate for food prices is projected to reach 61 at the end of the year, according to the governor of the bank.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • RFATwo years after prison release, Hoa Hao follower arrested again in Vietnam

        Nguyen Hoang Nam is accused of Facebook posts that oppose the government and undermine religious unity.

      • RFAHong Kong police plan to arrest Danish artist, hold trial in mainland China: report

        Police decline to confirm if Tiananmen massacre sculptor Jens Galschiøt is wanted by national security department.

      • JURISTIndia state under curfew and internet access suspension after religious violence

        People living in parts of the northern Indian state of Haryana remained under a government-imposed curfew with suspended mobile internet services on Tuesday because of ongoing violence between members of the local Hindu and Muslim communities.

      • FuturismFacebook AI Accuses AI Researcher of Being a Terrorist

        At this point, AI chatbots tendency to hallucinate — in other words, completely make up — facts and citations is well-established. And to be clear, these hallucinations are never a benign thing. They're often convincing, even when they couldn't be further from the truth.

        But while some AI lies are relatively minor, others are awfully serious, especially when it comes to accusing people of doing very bad things that they definitely didn't do. Case in point: Meta's Blenderbot3 accusing Stanford AI researcher Marietje Schaake of being a terrorist.

      • MeduzaApple has removed Meduza’s flagship news podcast ‘What Happened’ from Apple Podcasts, without explaining the reason: Earlier this summer, the Russian state censorship authority had asked Apple to block the show

        Although the notice says nothing about the reasons for removing “What Happened,” earlier this summer Meduza learned about a complaint submitted to Apple by the Russian state censorship authority Roskomnadzor (RKN). Claiming that Meduza had violated the law, RKN demanded that Apple remove “What Happened” from its servers.

      • El PaísCensorship just isn’t what it used to be

        This was in my mind during a recent trip through the southern United States, as I saw the forces of censorship blossom all around once more. It seems different, though; censorship is not what it used to be. The United States, which for many years took freedom of expression further than any other modern democracy, is today a contradictory society, mired in implausible culture wars, where forms of censorship that not long ago would have seemed impossible, or that we would have deemed impossible under the much bragged about First Amendment, appear to be in better shape than ever. I heard that in South Carolina a student complained about the memoir of Ta-Nehisi Coates on the grounds that it made him feel ashamed of being Caucasian: the school’s response was to ban the book. A Tennessee college banned Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus, accusing it of including sexually explicit material, because there is a panel showing a drawing of a naked woman in the bathtub. The fact that the woman had just killed herself didn’t help.

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The AtlanticA Strike Scripted by Netflix

        The writers are trying to roll back changes that the streaming service already made a new normal.

      • France24Arrests highlight the growing 'criminalisation' of LGBT+ people in Venezuela

        Thirty-three men were arrested in a popular spot among the LGBT+ community in Valencia, Venezuela on July 23. After the arrest, the men's names, photos and ID cards were shared in the media and online. Since released, the men are still awaiting legal proceedings. Venezuelan associations have denounced€ what they see as a growing trend of "criminalisation" of LGBT+ individuals and institutionalised homophobia in Venezuela.

      • RFAMalaysian investigators seek public’s help finding missing Myanmar activist, family

        Police circulated photos of Thuzar Maung, husband and children via Facebook.

      • JURISTACLU challenges constitutionality of first US religious charter school in new lawsuit

        The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit Monday attempting to block the Oklahoma from opening the US’s first religious charter school. The proposed charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, would be run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

      • ACLUA Religious Public Charter School in Oklahoma? Not on Our Watch.

        A religious school can’t be a public school, and a public school can’t be religious. These fundamental legal tenets have long protected both the integrity of our public-education system, which serves all students, and the right of private religious schools to indoctrinate students in accordance with a particular faith. In approving a Catholic public charter school, however, Oklahoma officials are not just blurring these lines separating church and state; they’re attempting to completely eviscerate them.

      • ReasonPolice Watched as a Man Drowned and Discouraged Bystanders From Helping, Lawsuit Claims

        When a bystander offered to give the officers flotation devices and a small boat, they refused.

      • RFERLBosnian Serb Officials Hit With U.S. Sanctions For Laws Undermining Dayton Peace Accords

        The United States has designated four top Bosnian Serb officials, including the Serb member of the country's presidency, for sanctions for undermining the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian War in the 1990s.

      • RFA‘He told me that if I ran away he would report me to the Chinese police’

        North Korean escapees recount their experiences as trafficking victims in China

      • Jacobin MagazineBaseball Fans Are Starting to Realize That the Owners Are Not Their Friends

        If Swanson’s research dates back over one hundred years ago, the themes still resonate today. In recent years, the ownership of the Oakland A’s sought to squeeze a multibillion-dollar ballpark out of the city. When they met opposition, ownership turned to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who has enthusiastically paved the way for the team to flee to Las Vegas. Oakland fans have been holding “reverse boycott” nights at the stadium this summer, calling out Manfred and demanding that owner John Fisher sell the team. Swanson sees a parallel between the John Fishers of the world and the owners of yesteryear who fought tooth and nail to maintain strict control over the players that fans paid to see.

        Jacobin contributor Michael Arria spoke to Swanson about baseball’s early labor fights, the rise of the MLB players union, and how the opinions of fans have changed over time.

      • Jacobin MagazineToday’s Hollywood Strikes Are Fights for Workplace Democracy

        WGA and SAG-AFTRA are doing that, too, in fighting for contract provisions that shape the nature of the work process. Writers are demanding that studios increase the minimum size of writers’ rooms on TV shows and agree to prohibitions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the writing process. Actors, meanwhile, want protections against the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated likenesses and limits on the use of self-taped auditions.

        Explaining the union’s position on AI, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher told PBS News Hour, “When [the studios] offer us a deal, and they say that a background person will get paid for one day’s work — we will scan their bodies, and then we can use their likeness in perpetuity — what is going to happen to that background person? He’s out of work. He’s been replaced by AI. That’s unacceptable.”

      • FuturismBackground Actor Describes When Marvel Made Her Go to a Strange Trailer to Be Scanned

        Alarmingly, Rubalcaba alleges that she and others were never told how or when their 3D likenesses would be used. In fact, the only thing she's sure of is that she wouldn't get paid for it, even though she says she never gave permission in the first place.

        For roughly the past twenty years, Hollywood projects have made use of techniques such as crowd tiling to duplicate a few actors to create enormous group scenes. Computer simulations are often used in tandem — or on their own — to create believable, variable behavior in these generated actors, which may be based on motion capture work like in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

        So while this practice isn't necessarily totally novel, it is now being cast in a much more foreboding light with the pernicious rise of AI in filmmaking, and indeed at large.

      • NPRMovie extras worry they'll be replaced by AI. Hollywood is already doing body scans

        Rubalcaba said the actors had their faces and bodies scanned for about 15 minutes each. Then their digital replicas were created.

        But here's the rub: She was never told how or if this digital avatar of herself would ever be used on screen. If it's used, she might never know. No matter what happens with it, she'll never see any payment for it.

        Disney did not return a request for comment.

      • El PaísIn Kenya labor dispute, workers who clean up toxic content on Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT for $3 an hour go to court

        In addition to the harshness of the content, moderators had to face working conditions that aggravated the situation. “You couldn’t talk to anyone about it, because there was a confidentiality clause. You couldn’t even share with your partner what you were going through… the nature of the job [is that it] destroys your personal life. It was frustrating,” he laments. To this was added the pressure of productivity: “If, in one week, you didn’t reach the required metrics, the next [week] you would receive an email warning you that you weren’t meeting the objectives. The programs controlled how much time you spent on each piece of content. You couldn’t take your eyes off the screen all day. It took two or three seconds from the moment you clicked on a publication until the machine placed another one for you to review. It didn’t give you a moment of calm… even taking a minute to go to the bathroom meant a problem with your supervisor.”

      • Pro PublicaNew Illinois Law Gives Tribal Nations Repatriation and Reburial Power

        Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Friday sweeping reforms that for the first time will give tribal nations — not state agencies, universities or museums — final say over how and when the remains of their ancestors and sacred items are returned to them.

        “With the Governor signing these bills into law, Illinois is proving that a government is capable of reflecting on its past injustices and planning for a future that respects and celebrates our interconnectedness,” Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Chairperson Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick said.

      • ScheerpostCaitlin Johnstone: Disrupt The Culture Wars

        One of the great challenges faced by westerners who oppose the political status quo today is the way the narrative managers of both mainstream factions continuously …

      • ScheerpostSolitary Confinement Survivors Rally Support for Proposed Federal Ban

        With over 122,000 people in solitary nationwide, lawmakers are seeking to end the practice in federal facilities.

      • Scheerpost‘Unconstitutionally Vague’ Texas Drag Ban Challenged By ACLU

        The Texas drag ban is the subject of a new lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Texas on Wednesday…

      • ScheerpostJudge Orders Former Fox News Reporter To Reveal Confidential Source
      • ScheerpostFederal Court Strikes Down Mississippi’s ‘Jim Crow’ Felon Disenfranchisement Law

        “Mississippi stands as an outlier among its sister states, bucking a clear national trend in our nation against permanent disenfranchisement.”

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

      • IT WireJudge gives go-ahead for anti-trust suit against Google over search

        A federal judge in Washington has cleared the way for a government lawsuit against Google over alleged blocking of competition in the search market to proceed from 12 September.

      • New York TimesJudge Narrows Scope of Google Search Antitrust Case

        The ruling did not affect some central parts of the antitrust cases about Google search, which are scheduled to go to trial next month.

      • Michael GeistBackdown or Bailout?: What Comes Next for the Government’s Epic Bill C-18 Miscalculation

        Meta’s announcement this week that it has started to block news links in Canada on both Facebook and Instagram due to Bill C-18’s mandated payments for links approach has sparked a flurry of commentary and coverage. News outlets such as Le Devoir have joined the Globe and Mail in expressing doubt about the government’s approach, news coverage has examined why the Meta ad boycott hasn’t taken off (hint: the government’s own party is still launching new ads) or why the Australian experience hasn’t been replicated in Canada (hint: different law, different time). Meanwhile, the political response has been discouraging with the government pretending to forget the Conservatives’ actual vote against Bill C-18 in the House of Commons, while the Conservatives insist on calling Bill C-18 a censorship bill when it isn’t.

      • CoryDoctorowAmerica's largest hospital chain has an algorithmic death panel

        Businesspeople understand the risks of competition, which is why they seek to extinguish it. The harder it is for your customers to leave – because of a lack of competitors or because of lock-in – the worse you can treat them without risking their departure. This is the core of enshittification: a company that is neither disciplined by competition nor regulation can abuse its customers and suppliers over long timescales without losing either:

        https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

        It's not that public institutions can't betray they public interest. It's just that public institutions can be made democratically accountable, rather than financially accountable. When a company betrays you, you can only punish it by "voting with your wallet." In that system, the people with the fattest wallets get the most votes.

      • Patents

      • Software Patents

        • The Register UKRead lips? Siri wants to feel them, according to fresh Apple patent

          Motion sensors in devices "may detect muscle movement, vibrations, head motions, and the like and output a stream of data representing the specific force, angular rate, and/or orientation created by said motions," Apple boffins wrote in their patent filing. These sensors could be embedded in wearable devices like a pair of AirPods, "smart glasses, or the like."

      • Copyrights

        • New York TimesMeta Removes News From Platform in Canada

          A Canadian law that will require tech companies to compensate domestic publishers has led Meta to start blocking news articles on its social networks.

        • New YorkerWorld Wide Gecs

          Laura Les and Dylan Brady, the duo behind the hyperpop band 100 gecs, are children of the Internet, which has offered them a seemingly divisionless array of musical influences.

        • TechdirtDisney Deletes Months Old Film From Disney Plus, Ostensibly For More Tax Benefits

          Here we go again. It was only a month ago that Karl Bode wrote about Disney’s absolutely and totally cool process of removing a bunch of content from its Disney Plus streaming platform not because the content sucks and nobody liked it, but because it gets to play accounting tricks as to its assets in order to receive giant tax breaks. To some extent, a big media company prioritizing quarterly profit reports over providing customers value in its streaming platform is very much “Dog Bites Man” territory. However, it appears Disney isn’t particularly shy about taking this practice to absurd levels.

        • Torrent FreakSpain's Pirate Site Blocking Machine: Domains Blocked 2012 - 2023

          The Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission (S2CPI) is the body responsible for Spain's administrative pirate site blocking program. Since its launch in 2012, S2CPI has received almost 843 applications and issued instructions for local ISPs to block hundreds of 'pirate' domains. One site in particular has kept the authorities disproportionately busy.



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Exciting times
[Meme] Going Too Far to the Left Can Breed Militant Ideology
Some people can never be appeased because they prefer not to be appeased
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Even LKML Subjected to Slop/SPAM by Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com)
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The Biggest OEMs or Vendors of GNU/Linux Stopped Competing With Microsoft (Which Pays Them to Promote Windows, Too)
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[Meme] When You Discredit People Who Discredit Secret Code
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[Meme] When the Patent Office Does Illegal Things and Staff Speaks Out
many leaks received today
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Over at Tux Machines...
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Planet Debian Allows Politics (But It Depends on Your Opinions and Debian's Big Sponsors)
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Let's Encrypt Falls to a New Low of Only 0.6% of Gemini Capsules Known to Lupa
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Here's today's example
Links 06/11/2024: Election Disinformation and Legal Actions
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[Meme] Announcing "Results" Before Everyone Even "Played"
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US Polls Close in One Minute (Social Control Media Does Not Care, Will Not Wait)
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Concentration and Centralisation Versus Aggregation or Syndication
KDE has a history of burying old sites
Social Control Media, Even Hours Before Polls Have Closed
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Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 05, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 05, 2024
Wayland Pains in Community-Led Distros of GNU/Linux
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As a meme
Sanctions Cause Fragmentation in Software
some Chinese Linux developers are already subjected to restrictions similar to Russians'
Web Failing With Slop, Even in 'Linux' Sites (LLM Spam)
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[Meme] State of the World Wide Web and Online Journalism
Technically a failure (DRM) and cannot even get basic things right
Trump's signature policy, building a wall, copied from Irish-Australian student politician
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linus Torvalds' self-deprecating LKML CoC mail linked to Hitler's first writing: Gemlich letter
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] Turning 18 in One Day
just one more day
Birthday Tomorrow
Many cakes and drinks are ready; we're one day away now
The Internet is Failing to Protect Democratic Processes and Human Knowledge
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Links 05/11/2024: Criminal Referrals Regarding Patent Trolls and Disinformation About the Election Process (Already)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/11/2024: 'App' Needed for Parking, NNCP, Gomphotherium
Links for the day
How Voting Does Not Work
You cannot vote from an "app"
Saving the Planet With Honesty, Transparency, and Sharing (Not Only of Computer Code)
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Disinformation About Election Outcomes Even Before Any Election Outcomes (or Election/Voting!)
seeding doubt about election outcomes
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Links for the day
[Meme] Sweaty Under the Belly
"OK, my critics are 'spam'"
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[Meme] The 2024 'Info Bros'
And prehistoric googling
Computers Getting Worse (for the User) Over Time
This is like Windows-ism coming to "Linux" through the hardware
[Meme] How NOT to Vote
Another form of (mostly-unspoken-of) election interference
An LLM Inside a 'Search' Engine Means That Companies Tell You What They Want, Not What Web Pages to Visit
The future of 'googling' things might be as unreliable as using Social Control Media as a source of information
Google's Debt Has Increased and 'Cash on Hand' Fell by 22.27% This Past Year
These are the numbers that the corporate media intentionally leaves out
Against Outsourcing of Sites and E-mail
Software Freedom is great, but it is not enough if you let someone else do it 'for you'
Drew DeVault: People Talking About My Attack Site (Against the Founder of GNU/Linux) is "Spam"
"Spam on sr.ht mailing lists"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 04, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 04, 2024
There's a Reason Why Techrights is Turning 18 and Tux Machines Will Turn 20.5 Next Month
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"Oppose the Fascist"
what the founder of GNU/Linux said
Techrights Has a Long History of Fighting to Expose 'Team Mono' or Microsofters Inside GNOME
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Halloween, All Saints Day & Swiss citizenship
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 05/11/2024: Halloween Over, Intention and Implementation, Bookmark Syncing
Links for the day