Links 10/10/2023: Recording Number of Gaming Layoffs
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM)
- Monopolies
-
Leftovers
-
Ruben Schade ☛ Finding those few bloggers all those years later
On the rare chance I come across an old blog that either wasn’t abandoned or deleted, it’s interesting to see where the writer ended up.
-
Matt Rickard ☛ Moravec's Paradox
He hypothesized this was because high-level reasoning was a relatively recent development in human evolution that was built on top of the much older, low-level sensory and motor skills.
-
Kev Quirk ☛ Absolutely Do Not Change Your Blogging Platform
In this post, Matt talks about the various blogging platforms he's used over the years, what he learned from it, and why you shouldn't do the same thing.
-
The Washington Post ☛ Burger King, the erroneous apostrophe in your TV ad is killing me
I’m afraid this is another thrilling installment in “As the Apostrophe Turns,” my long, lonely crusade against the misuse of everyone’s favorite possessive punctuation mark. But the apostrophe doesn’t serve only to signal possession; it also indicates when a letter has been removed. You’re is short for you are.
-
Science
-
Science Alert ☛ 'People Were Eating Them': Long Ago Cannibalism Was Normal, Study Says
A different kind of funeral.
-
Science Alert ☛ The Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Shows Key Differences
The largest study of its kind.
-
Science Alert ☛ Comet Impact Sparked a Massive Change on Earth 13,000 Years Ago
-
Tom's Hardware ☛ China Wants 300 ExaFLOPS of Compute Power by 2025
The Chinese government, through six of its primary ministries, announced its ambitious plan to dramatically elevate the country's computing prowess roughly a year. Currently, China possesses an aggregated computational power of 197 ExaFLOPS, but it wants to increase that aggregated performance to around 300 ExaFLOPS by 2025, a which would be a major accomplishment, if achieved.
-
CNBC ☛ China targets 50% boost in computing power as AI race with U.S. ramps up
The world's second-largest economy wants to have computing capacity equal to 300 exaflops, six government departments, including the powerful cyberspace regulator said.
-
Hackaday ☛ The Ultimate US Astronomy Roadtrip
Have 73 hours to kill and fancy a 4,609-mile road trip? Then you can check out some of the best observatories in the US (although we would probably recommend taking a couple of weeks rather than cramming the trip into three days, so you can spend at least one night stargazing at each).
-
-
Education
-
Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Building a Voluntary Contribution Transaction System
In a recent piece on the use of AI outside the publishing workflow, I advocated for a ‘Voluntary Contribution Transaction System’ (VCTS). The rationale behind it is straightforward: individual scholars and professionals make numerous voluntary contributionsto the scholarly ecosystem by reviewing and editing for journals, designing and moderating panel discussions, being on different boards, committees, and working groups, mentoring early-career professionals, being award and competition judges, and writing blog posts, to name just a few. Many of these activities are already recognized in different forms, for example, through The Royal Society’s Résumé for Researchers, universities’ evaluation and promotion rules, and awards given by scholarly publishing organizations. But these contributions are largely not valued in a concrete manner across the publishing landscape. We therefore need a system that will not only recognize voluntary contributions, but will also give tangible benefits to the volunteers. Hence, the VCTS.
-
Futurism ☛ Denver Gave Homeless People $1,000 Per Month and It Got Them Off the Streets and Working Full-Time
The results of the universal basic income (UBI) experiment were both counterintuitive and totally expected, given the results of previous experiments like it in which recipients ended up with much better access to stable and safer living arrangements and improved mental health. In Denver, many of them started working full-time, pulling themselves out of spiraling debt, getting housed, and bettering their professional opportunities.
-
Pro Publica ☛ Woman Seeks to Gain Control of Harvard Museum Photos of Enslaved People
The woman turned her car onto the campus of Harvard University, a place she had never been, and parked near a museum renowned for its invaluable cultural artifacts. But on that day in 2010, Tamara Lanier did not come to see ancient Mayan murals or African masks. She arrived to view historic photographs of enslaved people she had recently come to believe were her own ancestors.
Though excited, she steeled herself. She had seen the images online. She had felt gripped by the steely gaze of a man named Renty. And she had grieved for his daughter, a young woman named Delia, seated with the top of her dress unbuttoned, pulled down and bunched in her lap. Tears blurred her eyes.
-
Business Insider ☛ Denver experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. It reduced homelessness and increased full-time employment, a study found.
Commentary on homelessness often focuses on mental health and addiction, perceived as the chief drivers of a spike in people sleeping on the streets in cities from Sacramento, California, to Jacksonville, Florida. But the Pew Charitable Trust wrote in a recent analysis that research had "consistently found that homelessness in an area is driven by housing costs."
-
Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ A student asked how I keep us innovative. I don't.
Last week, I did a Q&A session for a friend's security class. One of the students asked a question that I loved. They asked something like, "As a principal engineer, how do you make sure your company stays at the forefront of innovation?"
There are two reasons I love this question. The first is that it's a good and natural one, which I had early on too. The second is that it's unintentionally leading. It assumes you should be working at the leading edge of innovative technology.
And that's why my answer started with "I don't. I make sure we don't." A leading question gets a snappy answer! But that's not the whole story, of course.
The key is to understand why you don't want to be on the leading edge of innovation all the time, and also to understand when it's appropriate.
-
-
Hardware
-
University of Michigan ☛ U-Michigan a partner in two CHIPS Act Midwest microelectronics hubs
The Microelectronics Commons program establishes a network of technology hubs designed to accelerate domestic hardware prototyping and “lab-to-fab” commercialization of semiconductor technologies, as well as develop the U.S.-based semiconductor workforce. Ultimately, its goal is to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign microelectronics and safeguard the nation from supply chain risks, according to the program’s website.
-
Herman Õunapuu ☛ Zimaboard: the closest thing to my dream home server setup
You might be thinking, “Wait, that’s your dream setup? No clusters of machines, Threadrippers, 10 Gigabit networking, crazy number of disks?”. Well, yes. After years of trying all sorts of setups and learning about my home server usage patterns, this is the set of requirements that finds a balance between performance, efficiency and silence.
-
The Drone Girl ☛ This startup used drones like blimps to display ads. Soon, it could be a critical public safety tool
This year, Promo Drone launched a drone dedicated almost entirely to emergency response and public safety called the Starling X.2. Williams, who is founder and CEO of Promo Drone, said the idea came about as team members sought to come up with ways their company could expand and evolve.
-
Hackaday ☛ Learning About Ferroresonant Transformers While Fixing A 1970s Power Supply
While troubleshooting the power supply of a 1970s Centurion system, [Usagi Electrics] came across a fascinating feature of these units: the ferroresonant, or constant voltage transformer (CVT). The main difference between a regular transformer and a CVT is that the former has a quite direct correlation between the input and output voltage, as the magnetic flux induced on the primary side is directly translated to the secondary (output) side.
-
Hackaday ☛ Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Arboreal Keyboards
Well, unfortunately we don’t know much yet about this nice wooden keyboard from [Kelvin Chow], but maybe this inclusion will encourage [Kelvin] to post more about it.
-
Hackaday ☛ Decoding The 8088
There is a lot to like about open software, and in some areas, a well-thought-out piece of software can really make a huge impact. A great example of this is the Sigrok project. Creating simple devices that act like a logic analyzer is relatively easy. What’s hard is writing nice software for such a setup including protocol decoders. Sigrok has done it and since it is open, you can add your device and decode your protocol. [GloriousCow] had done the hardware part of interfacing to the 8088 in an IBM PC using an off-the-shelf logic analyzer that uses a customized version of Sigrok. But the output was a CSV file you had to process in a spreadsheet program. The next step: write a decoder for Sigrok to understand 8088 bus cycles.
-
Hackaday ☛ Giant LED Matrix Fills Blank Space In The Kitchen
We’ve all got one: a blank space somewhere in our home that we don’t know what to do with. [James Miller] had one above his kitchen cabinets, so he filled it with a giant LED matrix. The result is a large but surprisingly attractive LED screen that can send messages, provide illumination, or while away the idle hours of the night playing Conway’s Game of Life.
-
-
Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
-
New Yorker ☛ The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat
China has invested heavily in an armada of far-flung fishing vessels, in part to extend its global influence. This maritime expansion has come at grave human cost.
-
France24 ☛ Majority of Afghanistan earthquake victims are women and children, WHO says
Women and children make up two-thirds of the victims of the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan who were hospitalised with severe injuries, the head of the World Health Organisation's emergency response in the country said on Monday.
-
Hackaday ☛ Implant Fights Diabetes By Making Insulin And Oxygen
Type 1 diabetes remains a problem despite having an apparently simple solution: since T1D patients have lost the cells that produce insulin, it should be possible to transplant those cells into their bodies and restore normal function. Unfortunately, it’s not actually that simple, and it’s all thanks to the immune system, which would attack and destroy transplanted pancreas cells, whether from a donor or grown from the patient’s own stem cells.
-
University of Michigan ☛ Grant offers virtual job-interview training to students with autism
A new $3. 16 million grant awarded to U-M by the National Institutes of Health will be used to offer virtual job interview training to teenagers and young adults with autism.
-
New York Times ☛ Ozempic Can’t Fix What Our Culture Has Broken
When women say that it is better to be sick and thin than healthy and fat, they are perfectly rational.
-
New York Times ☛ Skeletons of 1918 Flu Victims Reveal Clues About Who Was Likely to Die
While a narrative emerged that the pandemic indiscriminately struck the young and healthy, new evidence suggests that frail young adults were most vulnerable.
-
Dr. William Makis: Promoting the nonsense that is “turbo cancer”
There’s a line from a movie that I like to quote sometimes when I feel obligated to blog once more about a previously covered topic that I’ve become tired of. It comes from The Godfather, Part III and features aging mafia don Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) expressing frustration over being pulled back into the family “business” that he thought he had finished, all with an immortal line, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” Sadly, yes, I’m feeling the energy of this video right now, and I go once more into the fray, particularly given that the person who “pulled me back in” a week ago is someone whom I never would have predicted even a few months ago, an eminent oncologist and cancer biologist whose research greatly influenced me (and whose work I used to cite a lot) when I was in graduate school in the 1990s, Prof. Wafik El-Deiry, who amplified nonsensical “turbo cancer” claims by a quack named Dr. William Makis.
-
Meduza ☛ Man arrested for staging protest in Red Square demanding lifesaving medication for his son — Meduza
-
-
Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
-
India Times ☛ EU sees 'convergence' with Japan on AI: official
The EU and Japan are deepening cooperation over technology such as AI, cybersecurity and chips seen as important for economic security.
-
-
Security
-
Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
-
Sean Conner ☛ The Temptation
At this point, I'm seriously considering if I should just call and cancel Remington's appointment and just savor the confusion and anger that will happen at 8:30am on Wednesday, with the hope that someone will figure out the email address is wrong. While the confusion and anger would happen, I'm beginning to seriously doubt they would track it down to the email address. Even Bunny, BUNNY! agrees that I should just call and cancel the appointment, especially after I've called them twice about this. I mean, I thought I was being a BOFH for thinking of doing this, but I would have never thought of Bunny as a BOFH.
-
Computers Are Bad ☛ prolific counterfeiting
Counterfeiting is an interesting aspect of the contemporary hardware industry, particularly for programmable microcontrollers sold for higher-level applications. My first exposure to this strange world was probably the ELM327. A company called ELM Electronics developed the ELM327, basically a PIC microcontroller with software they wrote. It provides a serial interface and command set for interacting with OBD-II diagnostic ports. The ELM327 was widely used for serial, USB, and Bluetooth OBD-II readers, and it was a lot more widely used after someone dumped the ROM from one and started selling their own PICs with the same software---cheaper.
-
-
Privacy/Surveillance
-
Eclectic Light Company ☛ What can macOS Sonoma find in my images?
When it released macOS Ventura, Apple announced that it extended Spotlight search to include “information from images in Photos, Messages, Notes and the Finder to enable searching by locations, scenes, or even things in the images, like text, a dog or a car”, and those have been further enhanced in Sonoma. Image analysis is controversial, because of its potential for abuse, and the sensitivity of image content. Periodically claims are made that Apple secretly exfiltrates data about images stored on our Macs or devices, despite the lack of any evidence. This article looks at the metadata derived from image analysis by macOS, and how it can and can’t be accessed.
-
Papers Please ☛ The difference between stating your name and showing ID
The 11th Circuit Court of appeals has ruled that it is clearly established law that even in a state with a “stop-and-identify” law, and even if police reasonably suspect you of a crime, police may not require you to show ID or arrest you if you refuse to do so.
We don’t think people should be required to identify themselves. Self-identification can amount to self-incrimination, and compelling individuals to answer any question from police or other government agents would violate the Constitutional right not to be compelled to give evidence against oneself. You have the same right to remain silent if police ask, “What is your name?” as you have if you are asked any other question.
Despite this bedrock principle, some states have passed “stop and identify” laws of dubious Constitutionality that purport to require people to identify themselves on demand to any law enforcement officer who reasonably suspects them of a crime.
-
Meduza ☛ Russian bank Tinkoff to collect biometric data from customers, send to state system — Meduza
-
-
-
Defence/Aggression
-
RFA ☛ Did the Chinese submarine accident happen?
Big questions remain over the alleged deaths on a Chinese nuclear submarine in August.
-
[Repeat] RFERL ☛ Head Of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization Concerned Over Russia's Moves To 'De-Ratify' Pact
Lawmakers in the Russian State Duma earlier on October 9 asked the Duma's Committee for International Issues and the Foreign Ministry to set a schedule for debates by October 18 on the revocation of Russia’s ratification of the CTBT.
-
LRT ☛ ‘Window to Europe’: Russians use Kaliningrad transit train to enter Lithuania
The State Border Guard Service (VSAT) says Russians with residence permits or other documents that entitle them to stay in Lithuania end their journey here. Stopping this flow of people is tricky, as it is not only Russians who disembark the Moscow-Kaliningrad train in Kena.
-
Craig Murray ☛ Now We Have Your Attention
There have been decades of photos of dead Palestinian women and children, and kids being beaten, humilated and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1.
-
Common Dreams ☛ On Mighty Vengeance: We Should All Have Equal Life, Peace, Justice, Dignity. Period.
Horror on all sides. What is there to say on the conflagration consuming Gaza and Israel. As the US and much of the western world denounce the Hamas "terror," millions more acknowledge its savagery but painstakingly insist we see nuance and context in desperate acts of resistance by a people who have long had done to them what they, now, have done in turn - in the only way they feel they can to avow, "Palestine will not be buried." The awful lesson: "Ultimately, the dispossessed will rebel."
-
Site36 ☛ Humanitarian aid: After Austria and EU, Germany might also stop projects in Palestine
-
Site36 ☛ Bombs and missiles on Rojava: Turkey continues airstrikes in Northeast Syria
-
Meduza ☛ Kremlin warns ‘third party’ could become involved in Israel-Hamas conflict after U.S. moves warships towards Israel — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Four Russian citizens reported missing in Israel after Hamas attack — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Kadyrov calls for end of Israel-Hamas conflict, offers to send Chechen peacekeepers to ‘restore order’ — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Zelensky says Russia has direct interest in stoking war in Middle East — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Hamas representative says Israeli hostages include Russian citizens — Meduza
-
Democracy Now ☛ “Dark Days”: Israeli Human Rights Leader Orly Noy on Israel’s War on Palestinians After Hamas Attack
Israel has declared war on Hamas after Hamas fighters launched a surprise coordinated attack over the militarized border, the largest in decades. In a military operation titled “Al-Aqsa Storm,” as many as 1,000 fighters from Hamas broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and carried out an unprecedented attack inside Israel on Saturday morning. Hamas cited the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and increasing settler violence in the occupied West Bank as reasons for the move. Israel responded by pounding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, which hit housing blocks, tunnels and a mosque. Over the past three days at least 1,300 people have died, including over 800 inside Israel and almost 500 in Gaza. We spend the hour discussing the unprecedented developments, starting in Jerusalem with Orly Noy, chair of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and editor of the Hebrew-language news site Local Call. “There is a really strong sense of demanding revenge within the Israeli public,” reports Noy, who says the attack catching Israel off guard is a massive military intelligence failure. “Once the immediate crisis is over, the Israeli public will be demanding answers from the government and Netanyahu.”
-
Democracy Now ☛ “Do You Hear the Bombing?”: Gazan Human Rights Lawyer Raji Sourani Describes Israeli Siege of Gaza City
“Do you hear the bombing?” asks our guest Raji Sourani in Gaza City, as Israel reportedly bombed the Islamic University of Gaza nearby him and intensified its bombardment after it declared war against Hamas. The award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza describes the situation in Gaza, where Israel has now cut off food and electricity, and responds to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling Gazans to leave, calling it “nonsense,” and asks, “Where to? We don’t have safe passage.”
-
Democracy Now ☛ Hamas Killed His Friend, But Knesset Member Cassif Says End the Occupation Now, All “Pay the Price”
We speak to Ofer Cassif, an Israeli Jewish Knesset member with the Hadash-Ta’al coalition, about Hamas’ surprise attack and Israel’s response. Cassif condemns the violence and killing of civilians “on both sides,” adding that both “Israelis and Palestinians pay the price of the arrogant, criminal, ongoing occupation that Israel refuses to end.” He then calls for an immediate end to occupation and of Israel’s “fascist subjugation” of Palestinians, an act which he says will “also liberate the Israelis.”
-
Democracy Now ☛ Historian Rashid Khalidi: Palestinians “Living Under Incredible Oppression, … It Had to Explode”
In New York, we speak with Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, who lays out how this weekend’s extreme violence between Hamas and Israel will force “a paradigm shift.” Colonial powers will no longer believe they can force people to live under the conditions Israel has subjected Palestinians to and expect no retaliation of the oppressed, says Khalidi. “That idea has exploded as a result of the horrific events over the past two-and-a-half days,” says Khalidi, who calls the blockade of Gaza “a pressure cooker. It had to explode.” In response to the escalated conflict, the U.S. promised Israel would have “what it needs to defend itself,” pledging more military aid and munitions to Israel, already the largest annual recipient of U.S. military funding, as the Biden administration moved warships toward Israel. “We finance this occupation. We finance this violence,” says Khalidi, who calls on Biden to defuse the situation instead of escalating it. “You cannot make peace over the bodies of Palestinians.”
-
Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
-
-
Transparency/Investigative Reporting
-
RFA ☛ Did the Chinese submarine accident happen?
The media reports left submarine experts and military observers perplexed.
-
-
Environment
-
Vox ☛ It’s clearer than ever that we’re pushing the Amazon rainforest to its dreaded demise
Then, once deforestation reaches a certain threshold — which the authors don’t define — rainfall could decline by as much as 50 percent over the course of several years or perhaps decades, the model shows. That threshold is the tipping point. (Past studies suggest the threshold might be between 20 and 40 percent of the Amazon deforested.)
-
RFA ☛ Over 13,000 flood victims relocated in Myanmar’s Bago region
Five regions nationwide face transportation delays and heavy flooding as rainy season continues.
-
Energy/Transportation
-
H2 View ☛ Masdar targets 10GW of renewable energy projects in Malaysia after signing MOU
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to invest $8bn in up to 10GW of renewable energy projects.
-
KUOW TV ☛ Dude, where’s my train? Why freight makes Amtrak late
Late is par for the course for Amtrak trains nationwide. The passenger rail company blames illegal interference from freight trains for most of its passengers’ often-substantial delays.
Rail advocates say enticing more passengers to take a train instead of driving or flying — and making a dent in the heavy climate impact of American transportation — will require measures to reduce those delays and boost train travel’s speed and reliability.
-
Software At Scale ☛ The Hidden Performance Cost of NodeJS and GraphQL
NodeJS and GraphQL are popular technologies for building web applications, but in my experience, they come with certain scaling and performance tradeoffs to be aware of.
tl;dr: GraphQL's modular structure generally leads to code that instantiates excessive promises, which degrades request performance. Benchmarks show a 2-3x latency increase.
-
Silicon Angle ☛ Standard Power details plan for data centers powered by miniaturized nuclear reactors
Standard Power, a New York-based provider of colocation and data center construction services, plans to use miniaturized nuclear reactors to power some of its facilities.
The company detailed the plan on Friday. It intends to source the reactors from NuScale Power Corp., a publicly traded nuclear energy company. NuScale is not the only company developing miniaturized nuclear reactors, but it’s the currently the sole market player to have received regulatory approval for its system design in the U.S.
-
Interesting Engineering ☛ Kawasaki brings out world's first strong hybrid motorcycle
Strong hybrid systems have a considerable battery capacity and can operate only on electricity, helping to make it a zero-emission vehicle in congested city areas. As the "first of its kind, the Ninja 7 Hybrid sets the bar for HEV motorcycling" and offers the best elements of ICE and EV models, according to a statement by Kawasaki.
-
H2 View ☛ Swedish hydrogen test bed hopes to inform future steel plant design
The H2-Labs project will also explore how to save and utilise residual heat from hydrogen production, while looking into how hydrogen production can be made more energy and cost efficient.
-
[Repeat] Ruben Schade ☛ Deadlocked intersections, systems, and brains
In physical situations like that intersection, traffic only moves again when someone takes the initiative to solve it. They might start reversing to clear space for another car, which signals to the car behind them to move, and a chain effect starts. Soon, that truck has moved, another car can, and finally the articulated bus that decided blocking three lanes and a pedestrian crossing was a good idea can get on its way. Congratulations, the stack is popping again! Well, until the next imported American light truck arrives.
-
Hackaday ☛ E-Bikes Turned Solar Car
There is something to be said for a vehicle that gains range just by standing outside in the sun. In the video after the break, [Drew Builds Stuff] demonstrates how he turned a pair of bicycles into a solar-powered vehicle.
-
-
Overpopulation
-
Interesting Engineering ☛ The UAE wants to build an underwater bullet train to Mumbai
However, the project is not meant to serve only passengers who are averse to taking the air routes. Instead, Dubai is looking at it as a means to expand bilateral trade with India. Fujairah's port city will export oil to India while bringing fresh water from the Narmada River to the UAE.
-
-
-
Finance
-
Yahoo News ☛ CD Projekt Red Staff Form Union in Response to Recent Layoffs
A few months ago, CD Projekt Red announced it was laying off 100 staff in the first quarter of 2024. Now, some from the company have formed a union, which will offer support to game developers in Poland.
-
Game Informer ☛ CD Projekt Red Devs Form Union Following Layoffs
-
CD Projekt staff form union after layoffs - and want everybody in the industry to join
There's a side mission in Cyberpunk 2077 that involves abducting a notorious union-breaker. One wonders if any of the people who worked on that have joined the union founded by CD Projekt RED employees this month. The union is part of the larger Polish worker's organisation OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza, and comes in response to CD Projekt's firing around 100 employees in July due to "overstaffing". Its membership is anonymous and open to people in the industry who aren't employed by the Witcher and Cyberpunk studio, but are thinking about forming a union in their own workplace.
-
Games ☛ Over 6,000 games industry jobs lost in 2023 so far
September was the worst month for layoffs, new data shows
Over 6,100 gaming jobs have been lost so far over the past year due to layoffs and studio closures, according to new data.
-
Flexport laying off 950 employees following leadership change
Flexport, a prominent logistics provider based in San Francisco, is reducing its workforce by around 950 employees, according to inside sources.
The layoffs come as founder Ryan Petersen resumes control to address financial setbacks — marking a significant change in the company’s leadership dynamics.
-
-
AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
-
RFA ☛ China's Xi wants more political 'struggle' in ruling party ranks
Xi Jinping's 'special instruction' calls for more intensive propaganda efforts within the government system.
-
RFA ☛ US Senate leader asks Xi for ‘level playing field’
Chuck Schumer also said he was pleased China ultimately rebuked Hamas’ attack on Israel.
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s leader Xi Jinping tells top US senator Beijing-Washington relations impact ‘destiny of mankind’
By Peter Catterall in Beijing, China Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China-US ties would impact the “destiny of mankind”, as he met with a group of American senators in Beijing.
-
New York Times ☛ Xi-Schumer Meeting Raises Hopes of Smoother U.S.-China Relations
Mr. Xi said there were “1,000 reasons” to make the relationship work. Earlier, the Senate majority leader had criticized Beijing for its response to the attack by Hamas in Israel.
-
India Times ☛ X removes Hamas-affiliated accounts as its CEO drops out of key tech event
Elon Musk-run X on Tuesday said it has removed newly-created Hamas-affiliated accounts and purged tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas violence, as its CEO Linda Yaccarino cancelled her appearance at a key tech conference next week.
-
India Times ☛ Should new tech rules apply to Microsoft's Bing, Apple's iMessage, EU asks
EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's users and rivals whether Bing should comply with new tough tech rules and also whether that should be the case for Apple's iMessage, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The European Commission in September opened investigations to assess whether Microsoft's Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising as well as Apple's iMessage should be subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
-
-
Censorship/Free Speech
-
RFERL ☛ Chechen Trial Of Russian Teen Who Burned Copy Of Koran Postponed
The trial of 19-year-old Nikita Zhuravel, who publicly burned a copy of the Koran in the Russian city of Volgograd, was moved to October 13 after he was not brought to the courtroom for unspecified reasons in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya on October 9. [...]
-
[Repeat] MIT Technology Review ☛ How to fight for internet freedom
You may not be shocked to hear that governments are using generative AI to manipulate conversations and automatically censor what’s online. But now we have a better sense of how this is happening, when, and where: a new report shows that political actors in 16 countries, including Pakistan, Nigeria, and the United States, have used generative AI over the past year to exert increased control over the internet.
Last week, Freedom House, a human rights advocacy group, released its annual review of the state of internet freedom around the world; it’s one of the most important trackers out there if you want to understand changes to digital free expression.
-
Freedom House ☛ Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence
AI has allowed governments to enhance and refine their online censorship. The world’s most technically advanced authoritarian governments have responded to innovations in AI chatbot technology, attempting to ensure that the applications comply with or strengthen their censorship systems. Legal frameworks in at least 21 countries mandate or incentivize digital platforms to deploy machine learning to remove disfavored political, social, and religious speech. AI, however, has not completely displaced older methods of information control. A record 41 governments blocked websites with content that should be protected under free expression standards within international human rights law. Even in more democratic settings, including the United States and Europe, governments considered or actually imposed restrictions on access to prominent websites and social media platforms, an unproductive approach to concerns about foreign interference, disinformation, and online safety.
-
-
Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
-
France24 ☛ Saudi kingdom's impunity, five years after gruesome killing of Jamal Khashoggi
-
The Guardian UK ☛ Biden accused of betrayal of Khashoggi over push to deepen Saudi ties
Biden took office initially intending to downplay the traditional US role in the Middle East, a policy consistent with holding Saudi Arabia at arm’s length following the outcry that greeted Khashoggi’s murder.
But the president has since performed a volte-face by saying on a visit to the region that the US would “remain an active, engaged partner” and adding: “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or Iran.”
-
The Washington Post ☛ Five years after Khashoggi murder, lots of geopolitics, little justice
This week marks a bleak anniversary. Half a decade ago, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor who had been living in the United States, entered his nation’s consulate in Istanbul and was never seen again. Investigations found that Khashoggi had been abducted and brutally murdered by a Saudi hit squad. U.S. intelligence officials believed the order to “capture or kill” Khashoggi came from the very top in Riyadh — that is, from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
-
-
Civil Rights/Policing
-
RFA ☛ An app that connects Hong Kongers exiled in Britain
The app offers migrants the chance to connect with others from the city after Beijing’s crackdown sparks exodus.
-
RFA ☛ China shuts down Lhasa temples during National Day holiday period
Tibetans are told they will lose their jobs or be expelled from schools if they visit religious sites.
-
New Yorker ☛ The Uyghurs Forced to Process the World’s Fish
China forces minorities from Xinjiang to work in industries around the country. As it turns out, this includes handling much of the seafood sent to America and Europe.
-
Vox ☛ How a California tribe won their ancestral land back and saved endangered salmon
The tribe, which is located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, has been fighting for almost a decade to reintroduce their sacred salmon, the winter-run Chinook, to the McCloud River. For millennia, the tribe ensured the safe travel of the Chinook upstream to colder waters, so the fish could reproduce. They’d light fires at night along the river, as well as physically carry fish in baskets on foot if there were obstacles along the way.
-
RFA ☛ China shuts down Lhasa temples during National Day holiday period
The Chinese government has always imposed restrictions on Tibetans and conducted propaganda campaigns in Tibet during the National Day holiday period. But this year, authorities also began searching people traveling on public transportation. Those without proper documents were not allowed to stay in Lhasa, the sources said.
Officials also made Tibetan Buddhist monks in monasteries celebrate National Day on Oct. 1 and undergo political re-education.
-
Gizmodo ☛ Writers Guild Members Have Officially, Resoundingly, Ratified Their New Deal
After a tentative fair deal between writers and studios was reached on September 24, you can now remove “tentative” from that: the WGA strike, which began May 2 and put the state of Hollywood production under a microscope, is over-over. The acting union, SAG-AFTRA, has been on strike since July 13 and remains so.
In a statement posted to the WGA website, its leadership conveyed that the Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) passed with 99 percent approval (as io9 previously noted, the deal assured major gains for workers): [...]
-
Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Fight Against Apartheid Was an International Struggle
In an interview, veteran anti-apartheid fighter Ronnie Kasrils details his years in exile from South Africa, his efforts recruiting and training activists around the world, and the crucial role of this international contingent in defeating apartheid.
-
El País ☛ Native Americans celebrate their histories and cultures on Indigenous Peoples Day
Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., have holidays honoring Native Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. Many of them celebrate it on the second Monday of October, pivoting from a day long rooted in the celebration of explorer Christopher Columbus to one focused on the people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism. Dozens of cities and school systems also observe Indigenous Peoples Day.
-
Meduza ☛ ‘My case is far from unique’: How Russian activist Pyotr Verzilov left filmmaking behind and joined the Ukrainian army — Meduza
-
Forbes ☛ 2023 Layoff Tracker: GM, Stellantis And Ford Cut Thousands As UAW Strike Continues
Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the so-called Big Three automakers targeted by the United Auto Workers’ ongoing strike, continued to lay off employees this week as a result of the strike—following a string of layoffs at U.S. manufacturing and tech companies as lingering recession fears linger (see Forbes’ layoff tracker from the first quarter here).
-
-
Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
-
The Register UK ☛ Net neutrality meets opposition in US, while Europe mulls charges for Big Tech
Net neutrality is certainly a controversial topic in the Land of the Free, but it was a partisan issue long before the current FCC chair got involved. The apparently simple notion of requiring broadband [Internet] companies to provide a fair and equitable service that does not prioritize any particular content or traffic is a bone of contention that divides opinion.
-
EDRI ☛ Reclaim the Internet – Mozilla event
Mozilla invites you to an in-person event to shape its destiny and celebrate visionary voices who champion a more ethical, responsible and inclusive web. Together, let’s reclaim the [Internet].
-
-
Digital Restrictions (DRM)
-
Vox ☛ Why aren’t we watching more short films?
Short films, however, dwell in a liminal space between movies and TV, and they simply don’t get the same respect and interest. Even anthology shows like Black Mirror, which might be described as a collection of short films, are designed to generate meaning through their juxtaposition. I know the stand-alone short film is still a rarity on my entertainment menu, and I suspect I am not alone.
-
-
Monopolies
-
Copyrights
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Movie Piracy is Strongly Linked to Box Office Revenue
New research from piracy tracking firm MUSO shows that movie piracy is strongly linked to box office revenues. When pirated downloads peak or slow down, movie theater visits show a similar trend. While this may sound counterintuitive, the finding is actually quite obvious. Correlation is not causation and pirates are people too.
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Music Labels Warn Pirate Sites & Users After J-Pop & K-Pop Sites Shut Down
Following the unexpected shutdown of two popular J-pop and K-pop download sites in August, the Recording Industry Association of Japan has claimed responsibility. The group, which consists of 65 recording labels covering much of the Japanese market, also took the opportunity to remind internet users that in Japan, simply downloading pirated music is a crime.
-
-
-