Links 21/11/2023: 'Open' 'AI' Collapsing (as We Predicted All Along) While Argentina Moves to the Far Right
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
- Gemini* and Gopher
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Leftovers
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Hackaday ☛ Two-Channel Guitar Stomp Box Makes Momentary Switches Latching
When we first saw [Maarten Tromp]’s article about a “momentary latching switch” for guitar effects pedals, we have to admit to being a bit confused. When it comes to push-button switches, “momentary” and “latching” seem to be at odds with each other, with different mechanisms inside the switch to turn one into the other. What gives?
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Science
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Hackaday ☛ 3D Human Models From A Single Image
You’ve seen it in movies and shows — the hero takes a blurry still picture, and with a few keystrokes, generates a view from a different angle or sometimes even a full 3D model. Turns out, thanks to machine learning and work by several researchers, this might be possible. As you can see in the video below, using “shape-guided diffusion,” the researchers were able to take a single image of a person and recreate a plausible 3D model.
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Education
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s priciest elite private high school costs over $31k a year
The average total cost of sending a child to an autonomous private high school is about 18.5 times that of sending one to a regular high school.
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Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Learning While Female in Kabul
How educators around the world keep hope alive in a hopeless place.
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Hardware
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Computers Are Bad ☛ 2023-11-19 Centrex
I have always been fascinated by the PABX - the private automatic branch exchange, often shortened to "PBX" in today's world where the "automatic" is implied. (Relatively) modern small and medium business PABXs of the type I like to collect are largely solid-state devices that mount on the wall. Picture a cabinet that's maybe two feet wide, a foot and half tall, and five inches deep. That's a pretty accurate depiction of my Comdial hybrid key/PABX system, recovered from the offices of a bankrupt publisher of Christian home schooling materials.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ The US government banned Nvidia's fastest gaming GPU from China — chipmaker pulls RTX 4090 listings due to Hey Hi (AI) concerns, but leaves RTX 6000 Ada
Nvidia no longer sells the GeForce RTX 4090 in China, but the data center and workstation-oriented RTX 6000 Ada still seems to be available online.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Steam Deck gets a new competitor — Ayaneo Slide RGB keyboard handheld gaming PC launches on IndieGogo from $699
Ayaneo has put its Slide handheld gaming PC up for pre-order on IndieGoGo for $699. It says that the hardware will begin shipping in mid-December.
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Hackaday ☛ Hacking Apple’s Magic Mouse To Fix Its Worst Flaws
The Magic Mouse was first released by Apple in 2009 and was a major departure from previous designs. It was sleek, low-profile, and featured a touch pad on the top for gestures. Although the first generation was powered by two AA batteries and didn’t lead to much commentary, the 2015 redesign caused a lot of scathing memes and worse, mostly due to the rechargeable battery and the Lightning charging port that had been located on its bottom, leading to Dead Magic Mouse syndrome when you wanted to charge it. Since then myriad hackers have tried to fix the Magic Mouse’s issues, with [Ivan Kuleshov]’s recent attempt being perhaps the most straightforward and possibly successful.
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Hackaday ☛ How The WS2812 Is Made
[Scotty Allen] of Strange Parts is no stranger to Chinese factory tours, but this one is now our favorite. He visits the font of all WS2812s, World Semi, and takes a good look at the machines that make two million LEDs per day.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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TruthOut ☛ The Story Behind the Abortion Win in Ohio Offers Important Insights for 2024
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Science Alert ☛ More Parents Are Giving Kids Melatonin Without Knowing The Risks
Is it safe?
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New York Times ☛ This Is Not the Way to Help Depressed Teenagers
Large-scale, “light touch” interventions have backfired.
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Hackaday ☛ First CRISPR-Based Therapies For Sickle Cell Disease And Beta Thalassemia Approved In The UK
The gene-therapy-based treatment called Casgevy was recently approved in the UK, making it the first time that a treatment based on the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool has been authorized for medical treatments. During the clinical trials, a number of patients were enrolled with either sickle cell disease (SCD) or β thalassemia, both of which are blood disorders that affect the production of healthy red blood cells. Of the 45 who enrolled for the SCD trial, 29 were evaluated in the initial 12-month efficacy assessment, with 28 of those found to be still free of the severe pain crises that characterizes SCD. For the β thalassemia trial, 42 patients were evaluated and 39 were still free of the need for red blood cell transfusions and iron chelation after the 12-month period, with the remaining three showing a marked reduction in the need for these.
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New York Times ☛ Rosalynn Carter Lauded for Humanitarian Work, Mental Health Advocacy
Politicians from both sides of the aisle and other notable figures paid tribute to the former first lady, who died on Sunday.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Rosalynn Carter, mental health activist, humanitarian and former first lady, dies at 96
Rosalynn Carter, who as first lady worked tirelessly on behalf of mental health reform and professionalized the role of the president’s spouse, died Sunday at the age of 96, according to the Carter Center.
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France24 ☛ Rosalynn Carter, former US first lady, mental health activist dies at 96
Former US first lady Rosalynn Carter, who President Jimmy Carter called "an extension of myself" owing to his wife's prominent role in his administration even as she tirelessly promoted the cause of mental health, died on Sunday at age 96, the Carter Center said.
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Science Alert ☛ Children May Be 'Evolutionarily Primed' to Need More Than 2 Parents
It takes a village.
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BBC ☛ ‘I was addicted to social media - now I'm suing Big Tech’ - BBC News
The lawsuit says four of the largest social media firms knowingly expose children to harmful products.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Universal Children’s Day: Post-Covid, Hong Kong must ensure children’s rights, let them be heard, and tackle self-harm
Committee on Children’s Rights On Universal Children’s Day in 2022, society was still living under the pandemic. One year later, wearing a mask has become a personal decision. However, many children are still wearing them in public.
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The Strategist ☛ The long tail of China’s zero-Covid policy
For three years, China’s zero-Covid policy consistently received high-profile media coverage from the Chinese and the international press.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Not appropriate’ to draw conclusions over post-Covid drop in exam grades, says Hong Kong Education Bureau
It is not appropriate to draw any conclusions from the decline in performance among Hong Kong students in a city-wide assessment, the Education Bureau has said. The Territory-Wide System Assessment (TSA) tests have resumed after being suspended for three years due to Covid-19.
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JURIST ☛ HRW urges China to allow commemorations of ‘White Paper’ protests
Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement Sunday calling on China to allow commemorations for the one-year anniversary of the “White Paper” protests against the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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New York Times ☛ Why We’re Still Breathing Dirty Indoor Air
The pandemic and recent wildfires have shown how unhealthy indoor air can be. But scientific and governmental inertia have slowed the necessary remedies.
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University of Michigan ☛ U-M researcher took to the streets — all of them
Kathy Klinich enjoys the satisfaction of crossing off a goal.
When the city of Ann Arbor issued its Visit Every Park Challenge — and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of an Alaskan cruise — she decided to try to visit each of the city's 162 parks.
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Canned seafood moves beyond tuna sandwiches in a pandemic trend that stuck
Canned mackerel, sardines and squid gained in popularity during quarantining.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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New York Times ☛ Mayhem at Proprietary Chaffbot Company + Our Interview With Sam Altman
Tech’s wildest weekend.
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Scoop News Group ☛ Senior Ukrainian cybersecurity officials sacked amid corruption probe
Yurii Shchyhol and Victor Zhora were accused of participating in a scheme to contract software at inflated prices.
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RFERL ☛ Head Of Ukrainian Agency Suspected Of Graft Fired
The Ukrainian government on November 20 dismissed the chief of the country's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, Yuriy Shchyhol, and informed him that he was a suspect in an investigation into the embezzlement of 62 million hryvnyas ($1.72 million).
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Arturo Borrero ☛ Arturo Borrero González: New job at Spryker
Last month, in October 2023, I started a new job as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at the Germany-headquartered technology company Spryker. They are primarily focused on e-commerce and infrastructure businesses.
I joined this company with excitement and curiosity, as I would be working with a new technology stack: proprietary trap AWS and Terraform. I had not been directly exposed to them in the past, but I was aware of the vast industry impact of both.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong police says scammers touting dog meat sales to trick buyers into downloading bogus app
Hong Kong police have alleged that scammers are touting dog meat sales in order to lure people into downloading a malicious mobile app. The police received 11 reports from apparent victims claiming to have lost over HK$1.36 million in total.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Off Guardian ☛ This Week in the New Normal #77
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world. 1. The NHS’s Hey Hi (AI) health surveillance The UK’s National Health Service launched three pilot schemes in different parts of England this week [...]
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OpenRightsGroup ☛ Parliamentary Briefing – Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
The Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill will have its report stage in Parliament on November 29 2023.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ Using Generative Hey Hi (AI) for Surveillance
Generative Hey Hi (AI) is going to be a powerful tool for data analysis and summarization. Here’s an example of it being used for sentiment analysis. My guess is that it isn’t very good yet, but that it will get better.
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Press Gazette ☛ Data privacy and advertising: How marketers are ‘killing democracy’
Dominance of tech platforms over private data is harming news media.
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Reason ☛ DEA's Domestic Surveillance 'Mission Creep'
It appears that DEA agents have been employed on non-drug-related investigations for far longer than they were originally authorized.
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CCIA ☛ DoJ Trial Against Surveillance Giant Google Showcases Lack of Competitive Harm
Ten weeks after it began, the evidence-phase of the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) trial against Surveillance Giant Google...
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MIT Technology Review ☛ A controversial US surveillance program is up for renewal. Critics are speaking out.
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Defence/Aggression
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JURIST ☛ Syria president issues decree granting amnesty and reducing sentences for certain crimes
Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on Thursday (Legislative Decree No 36 of 2023) granting amnesty for certain crimes committed before the decree was issued, subject to conditions. Judge Muhammad Eid Baloza announced that 350 prisoners in Damascus have been released under the decree as of Saturday.
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The Strategist ☛ A national defence strategy for the Philippines
Manila’s recently published national security policy recognises that there are multifaceted threats to the country.
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The Straits Times ☛ Philippines seeks partnership to maintain peace in South China Sea
Tensions in the South China Sea require the Philippines to partner with allies and neighbours to maintain peace in the region, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Sunday.
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Democratic Party banners targeting young voters stir controversy
November 20, 2023 10:18 AM
The new banners included controversial phrases such as “The party for me” and “I don’t know about politics, I just want to live a good life”.
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RFA ☛ N Korea set to proceed ‘satellite’ launch soon: S Korea military
Pyongyang has a history of staging provocations when the South’s leader goes abroad.
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NYPost ☛ Hamas captives spill secrets about operating from hospitals: ‘We became their human shields’
Hamas operatives recently apprehended by Israel are spilling secrets under interrogation about how the terror network is using hospitals to strike at Israeli forces.
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New York Times ☛ Israel-Hamas War: Deadly Strike Hits Northern Gaza Hospital Where Many Were Sheltering
At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded at the Indonesian Hospital, Gazan officials said, after witnesses reported Israeli tanks moving toward it.
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New York Times ☛ Strike on Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital Kills at Least 12
The strike killed 12 people, officials said, at the Indonesian Hospital in the Gaza Strip, where the U.N. says most hospitals no longer function and those that do cannot provide complex care.
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France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: Israel releases CCTV footage it says shows hostages at Gaza hospital
Israel's military released security camera footage Sunday it said showed hostages being brought into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 7 after being kidnapped during Hamas's attacks on southern Israel. Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israel's subsequent military operations in the Gaza Strip, with the army saying Hamas uses it as a base. The militants and medical staff have denied these claims.
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New York Times ☛ Gaza Infants Evacuated From Al-Shifa Hospital
U.N. officials said 31 premature babies in precarious health were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital to a hospital further south in Gaza.
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France24 ☛ Israel army says finds 55-metre tunnel under Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital
The Israeli military on Sunday said it had uncovered a tunnel under Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital that stretched 55-metres beneath the war-torn complex where troops have been conducting a major operation. More than 30 premature babies have been evacuated from the same hospital, which the World Health Organization says has become a "death zone".
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JURIST ☛ India security forces kill five suspected militants in raid on Kashmir village
Security forces in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir engaged in a fatal encounter that killed five suspected militants, police reported on Friday. Police say that at least two were adolescents were among the deceased, and three had recently joined rebel factions.
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The Straits Times ☛ 2024 is going to be difficult, says European business association chief in China
China’s move to step up security with a slew of new laws makes it more difficult for foreign firms to operate there.
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CS Monitor ☛ Deal close for Gaza hostage release, temporary cease-fire, US official says
Though the White House denied a Washington Post report that a deal had been reached, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Sunday that the release of “considerably more than 12” hostages, along with a multi-day pause in fighting, is in the works.
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TruthOut ☛ Colorado Judge Labels Trump’s Actions as Insurrection
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Putin To Participate In Virtual G20 Meeting On November 22 After Skipping Live Summit
Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate in a virtual meeting of G20 leaders on November 22 after again skipping the annual in-person summit in India in September, Russian state television reported.
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Reason ☛ Will Russia Ever Be Free?
Promise and peril in post-Putin Russia
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JURIST ☛ Yale report: Belarus and Russia collaborate in systematic deportation of Ukrainian children
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab released a report detailing alleged collaboration between Belarus and Russia in the systematic deportation of Ukrainian children on Thursday. The 66-page report, titled “Belarus’ Collaboration with Russia in the Systematic Deportation of Ukraine’s Children,” analyzes open source information to establish key details regarding the removals.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Reports Progress Securing Dnieper River Beachheads
The Ukrainian military said it has pushed Russian forces some "3 to 8 kilometers" away from the bank of the Dnieper River as its forces attempt to secure beachheads on the eastern side of waterway.
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Teen Who Was Taken To Russia Is Reportedly In Belarus
Bohdan Yermokhin, a 17-year-old orphan who was taken to Russia from the occupied Azov Sea port city of Mariupol and who has been trying to return to Ukraine, has left Russia, Russian media reported.
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New York Times ☛ The Invisible War in Ukraine Being Fought Over Radio Waves
Using electromagnetic waves to flummox and follow smarter weapons has become a critical part of the cat-and-mouse game between Ukraine and Russia. The United States, China and others have taken note.
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Meduza ☛ Zelensky replaces Ukraine’s Medical Forces commander, says ‘fundamentally new level of medicine’ needed — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Teenager who was deported from occupied Mariupol to Russia and served military summons returns to Ukraine — Meduza
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LRT ☛ Why Lithuanian butter is sold in Canada with Russian labels?
The economy and politics of product labelling make some Lithuanians uncomfortable.
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RFERL ☛ Dozens Gather In Siberian City To Speak Out Against Legislation Curtailing Protests
Dozens of Russians gathered in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on November 19 to protest against a local government initiative that would ban protests in most city locations.
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RFERL ☛ Judge Who Convicted Russian Anti-War Protester Skochilenko Tabbed For Promotion
A professional board of judges in St. Petersburg has recommended for promotion the judge who on November 17 convicted artist Aleksandra Skochilenko of distributing false information about the armed forces and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
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YLE ☛ Defence Forces helping to build temporary border fence in Kuhmo; officials say some asylum seekers forced across border against their will
An x-ray scanning truck has been brought to the Vartius border station, where most asylum seekers are now arriving. Finnish officials say some are being "forced across the border" by Russia.
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Meduza ☛ Member of Russian Human Rights Council says staying in penal colony ‘life-threatening’ for anti-war protester Sasha Skochilenko — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Judge who convicted Russian anti-war protester Sasha Skochilenko recommended for promotion — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russia downs drone in Moscow region, falling debris hits highway — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Former Wagner Mercenaries Detained In Daghestan On Kidnapping Charge
Two former Wagner mercenaries recruited from penal colonies who recently returned from the war in Ukraine were detained in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan on a charge of kidnapping a businessman for ransom, local media reports said on November 20.
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France24 ☛ First photos of Wagner Group operating in Mali hit social control media
The Malian army took back the town of Kidal from a coalition of Tuareg separatists known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP) on November 14, with help from mercenaries with the Russian military contractor, the Wagner Group. The Wagner mercenaries allowed local people to take their picture – a first since the group was first deployed in the country in 2021.
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European Commission ☛ Commission adjusts phase-out of certain crisis tools of the State aid Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework
European Commission Press release Brussels, 20 Nov 2023 Today, the European Commission has adopted an amendment to the State aid Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework to prolong by six months a limited number of sections of the Framework aimed at providing a crisis response following Russia's aggression against Ukraine...
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France24 ☛ Pentagon chief Austin tells Zelensky in Kyiv that US support is 'for the long haul'
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday in a high-profile push to keep money and weapons flowing to Ukraine even as US and international resources are stretched by the new global risks raised by the Israel-Hamas war.
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LRT ☛ Quarter of Lithuanians feel anxiety caused by wars in Ukraine, Gaza Strip
The percentage of people in Lithuania who feel anxiety and stress has increased from 20 percent last spring to 25 percent currently, mainly because of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, according to the latest general index of emotional health, published in Lithuania for a second time this year.
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LRT ☛ Lithuania to use fines collected for sanction non-compliance to rebuild Ukraine
Fines collected in Lithuania for non-compliance with the existing international and national sanctions will be transferred to the Development Cooperation Fund and allocated to the reconstruction of Ukraine.
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LRT ☛ How occupied Ukrainian territories are being Russified – investigation
The Ukrainians stuck in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine testify to the daily fear they experience from the occupying power. The new authorities are destroying their identity, pushing those who do not have Russian passports out of their homes and threatening to take away their children. Soviet symbols also serve this purpose.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Adds Jamala, Popular Ukrainian Singer Of Crimean Tatar Origin, To Its Wanted List
The Russian Interior Ministry's registry of wanted persons shows that popular Ukrainian singer Susana Dzhamaladinova, who is also known as Jamala and is of Crimean Tatar origin, was added to the list in mid-October on a charge of distributing "fake" information about Russia's armed forces.
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New York Times ☛ Russia Puts Jamala, Popular Ukrainian Singer, on Wanted List
Jamala, the song contest’s 2016 champion, had been a prominent advocate for Crimea’s Tatar population. The region was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Urges Britain to Avoid Involvement in Ukraine Crisis
So far, London has sent military equipment to Ukraine totaling approximately US$8.23 billion.
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New York Times ☛ In Ukraine’s Slowed-Down War, Death Comes as Quickly as Ever
Ukraine is facing continual eastern assaults from Russian forces at a bloody cost for both sides, even as the lines on the map barely move.
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New York Times ☛ U.S. Defense Secretary Visits Ukraine in Show of Support
Lloyd J. Austin III’s trip was a gesture of solidarity when progress in the war against Russia has stalled and there are concerns about U.S. military aid.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Human Rights Council Member Calls Incarceration Of Anti-War Artist Skochilenko 'Deadly Dangerous'
A member of Russia's presidential Council for Human Rights says the incarceration of Russian artist Aleksandra Skochilenko for using price tags in a supermarket to distribute anti-war messages could be "deadly dangerous" to the 33-year-old.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Bans Entry To Moldovan Officials As Tensions Rise
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on November 20 that it summoned Moldovan Ambassador Lilian Darii to inform him that "a number of Moldovan officials were banned from entering the Russian Federation" in an "asymmetrical" response to Moldova's move to block several Russian websites.
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RFERL ☛ Finnish President Says Impossible To Return Asylum Seekers To Russia
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on November 20 that it had become impossible to return asylum seekers who did not meet the criteria for protection, and that this had to be taken into account when policies are set.
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RFERL ☛ Relatives Locate Tajik Opposition Journalist's Brother In Detention Center In Khujand
Asliddin Sharipov, the brother of the director of an opposition online television station, has been located in a detention center in Tajikistan’s northern city of Khujand weeks after he was extradited from Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Stoltenberg Says NATO Reviewing Making Peacekeeping Increase In Balkans Permanent
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is considering making permanent an increase in its military presence in Kosovo that came after violence erupted in northern Kosovo in September.
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RFERL ☛ Noted Russian Rights Activist Nina Katerli Dies At 89
Boris Vishnevsky, a municipal lawmaker in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, said on November 20 that well-known rights activist Nina Katerli has died at the age of 89.
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RFERL ☛ Former Governor Of Siberian Region Of Kemerovo Dies At 79
The governor of the Siberian region of Kemerovo, Sergei Tsivilyov, said on November 20 that his predecessor, who led the coal-rich region for more than 20 years, Aman (aka Amangeldi) Tuleyev, has died at the age of 79.
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RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Court Releases Kadyrov Critic, But Orders His Deportation
A court in Bishkek has ruled that Russian citizen Mansur Movlayev, an outspoken critic of Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, who was sentenced in Kyrgyzstan earlier in October to six months in prison for illegal border-crossing, must be released but that his deportation order to Russia remains in force.
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teleSUR ☛ Finland To Close Its Border With Russia
In response, Russia decided to terminate an intergovernmental agreement on promoting cross-border cooperation.
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YLE ☛ Kremlin spokesman dismisses accusations Russia behind asylum-seeker surge
Finland's government closed four border crossing points last week in response to Russian officials allowing undocumented asylum seekers to cross in growing numbers.
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YLE ☛ Protest in eastern Finland calls for Russian border to reopen
The demonstrators wanted at least one crossing point in the southeast of Finland to open to allow them to visit their relatives on the Russian side of the border.
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LRT ☛ Two men damage Belarus border barrier trying to let 10 migrants into Lithuania
Two men damaged the physical barrier on the Lithuanian border with Belarus at the Puškai frontier station on Saturday and tried to let 10 irregular migrants into Lithuania, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said on Monday.
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CS Monitor ☛ Moscow’s Metropol Hotel served as a ‘gilded cage’ for Western journalists
In “The Red Hotel,” Alan Philips unfolds the difficulties faced by British and American reporters in Moscow during World War II.
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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JURIST ☛ Australia war crimes whistleblower David McBride pleads guilty to three charges of stealing and unlawfully sharing military information
Australian war crimes whistleblower David McBride pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges of stealing and unlawfully sharing military information.
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Environment
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TruthOut ☛ Landmark Fifth National Climate Assessment Acknowledges Gender Disparities
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New York Times ☛ What Endures After a Climate Activist’s Suicide: Grief, Anger and Hope
Five years ago, David Buckel violently ended his life in a public park in Brooklyn. People who knew him were shocked and angry. Yet they refused to give up.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Hackaday ☛ Fixing Astronomy In The Blink Of An Eye
If you’ve ever set a telescope up in your backyard, you probably learned how quick any kind of lighting ruins your observation. In fact, a recent study found that every year, about 10% of the stars that were visible the previous year disappear in the mishmash of light scattering through the atmosphere. A company called StealthTransit has a solution: blink the lights in a controlled way. They have an animated video explaining the concept.
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Finance
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New York Times ☛ The Super Rich No Longer Try To Support Their Societies
In a break from the past, the Western world’s wealthiest people no longer try to support the societies they live in.
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Off Guardian ☛ ‘The Great Reset: Biopolitics for Stakeholder Capitalism’ Book Launch
When the restrictions under which we lived for two years were largely revoked in March 2022, the Great Reset of Western capitalism that was initiated in September 2019 was not revoked with them.
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New York Times ☛ Subscriptions Create Sneaky Sticker Shock
Silicon Valley has immersed us in an expensive, pervasive and perennially annoying type of automated capitalism.
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Zimbabwe ☛ 75% of jobs in banking sector lost since 2000, digitisation mostly to blame
That is a scary fact, the Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union (ZIBAWU) reports that 75% of jobs in the sector have been lost since the year 2000. Is it any wonder then that many graduates cannot find jobs? Every year we have trained bankers to enter a sector with shrinking opportunities.
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RetailWire ☛ Amazon Layoffs Result in Hundreds of Jobs Lost in Alexa Division
Amazon layoffs continue as several hundred employees in its Alexa division have been let go unexpectedly. This move forms part of a broader cost-saving initiative that the e-commerce giant has been implementing since last year.
The job cuts were announced by Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, in a note sent to staff members. However, the company did not disclose which specific Alexa projects would be affected by these layoffs. “As we continue to invent, we’re shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers — which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” Rausch stated in the memo.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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teleSUR ☛ Right-Wingers Vandalize Madrid in Protest Against Sanchez
The rally at the Cibeles Square was supported by the conservative Popular Party and the far-right VOX.
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France24 ☛ Right-wing libertarian Javier Milei wins Argentina's presidential election
Argentina elected right-wing libertarian Javier Milei as its new president on Sunday, rolling the dice on an outsider with radical views to fix an economy battered by triple-digit inflation, a looming recession and rising poverty.
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New York Times ☛ Argentina Elects Javier Milei in Victory for Far Right
Argentina’s next president is a libertarian economist whose brash style and embrace of conspiracy theories has parallels with those of Donald J. Trump.
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YLE ☛ Niinistö heads to Poland; possibly his last official visit
Last week's trip to Germany and next week's to Poland may well be the final official visits of President Sauli Niinistö's 12-year term.
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RFA ☛ Hong Kong independence documentary to screen in Taiwan
The director of a film about Hong Kong's independence movement says it highlights Beijing's broken promises.
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New Yorker ☛ Biden and Xi’s Blunt Talk
Nobody should expect diplomacy between the U.S. and China to return to the performative, if misleading, good cheer of a generation ago.
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New York Times ☛ At Least 24 People Killed in Strike on Gaza School Used as a Shelter, UN Says
Nearly 7,000 people were sheltering at the school, according to the United Nations. Another school had been struck on Friday.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Justice chief: Transfer of Hong Kong nat. security cases to China would be ‘exceptional,’ ultimately Beijing’s decision
The prospect of transferring local national security cases to mainland China would be “exceptional,” and ultimately a decision made by Beijing, Hong Kong’s justice chief has said.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Reason ☛ No Liability for Supposed Medical Journal Article Misrepresentation About How to Treat Lyme Disease
From the Fifth Circuit's decision Thursday in Torrey v. Infectious Diseases Soc'y of Am., written by Judge Kyle Duncan, joined by Judges Carl Stewart and Edith Jones; seems quite right to me: A professional society specializing in the study and treatment of infectious diseases published guidelines in a peer-reviewed medical journal for treating Lyme disease.…
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Reason ☛ Free Speech Advocates Are Often Hypocrites. This Doesn't Make the Cause Less Important.
When people from historically privileged groups are facing censorship, that doesn't mean people in historically marginalized groups are actually being empowered.
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Reason ☛ Journal of Free Speech Law: "Carriage and Removal Requirements for Internet Platforms: What Taamneh Tells Us," by Daphne Keller
This just-published article is here; the Abstract: The Supreme Court's 2023 Ex-Twitter v. Taamneh ruling arrived at a moment of potentially great change in the laws governing Internet platforms. The ruling, including Justice Thomas's factually dubious descriptions of platforms as passive and agnostic toward user content, will have major influence in two categories of future cases.…
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JURIST ☛ US appeals court weighs free speech with court integrity in Trump gag order arguments
Lawyers for former US President Donald Trump presented oral arguments before a DC appeals court Monday, arguing that the gag order prohibiting Trump from disparaging participants in his election interference criminal case violates the former President’s right to free speech.
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JURIST ☛ Afghan rights group says abusive posts and hate speech targeting Afghan women have tripled under Taliban rule
Human rights group Afghan Witness released a report on Monday saying that abusive online posts and hate speech targeting politically engaged women in Afghanistan have tripled since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
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RFERL ☛ Report: Online Abuse Of Politically Active Afghan Women Tripled After Taliban Takeover
Online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active women in Afghanistan has significantly increased since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021, according to a report released on November 20 by a U.K.-based rights group.
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BIA Net ☛ CHP's Özer and HEDEP's Buldan attend the concert of Kurdish soprano Pervin Chakar
Following the attendance of CHP Chairperson Özel and HEDEP Van Deputy Buldan at the concert of Kurdish soprano Pervin Chakar, there were reactions containing hate speech. Özel, Buldan, and CHP Diyarbakır Deputy Tanrıkulu, who also attended the concert, expressed their reactions. Chakar wrote on social control media, "Singing in my mother tongue is my greatest right."
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RFA ☛ Shanghai police detain young people over Halloween cosplay photos
Government censors have also contacted major online platforms to restrict future Halloween-related content.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Press Gazette ☛ Guardian welcomes ruling in libel fight over reporting of Serial’s Trojan Horse podcast
The Observer publisher said it will defend its journalism "robustly".
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Civil Rights/Policing
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TruthOut ☛ A Pick-Up Soccer Group Is Helping Welcome Refugees to New York City
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New Yorker ☛ A Rise in Antisemitism, at Home and Abroad
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt talks about antisemitism “from all ends of the political spectrum, and in between.” It threatens not only Jews, she says, but the stability of democracies.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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IT Wire ☛ Optus chief Bayer Rosmarin resigns in wake of nation-wide outage
Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned just a couple of days after she appeared at a Senate inquiry into the massive outage suffered by the telco on at the beginning of the month.
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APNIC ☛ BGPlay data misinterpretation led to a BGP false alarm call
Guest Post: BGP false alarm — what happened, and what can we learn from it?
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s digital reputation dented by government network outage
A “glitch in the network” was believed to be responsible for the malfunction.
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Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 185: Bill C-11 at the CRTC – A Preview of the Upcoming Online Streaming Act Hearing
The much-anticipated Bill C-11 hearing opens this week at the CRTC. For the next three weeks, the Commission will hear from a wide range of stakeholders, including digital and legacy creators, Internet giants, telecom companies, and consumer groups. This hearing, which builds on an earlier consultation on registration requirements, will address issues that include mandated Internet streaming company contributions and discoverability requirements. What brought us to this moment and what lies ahead?
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The Story Behind SoylentNews
THE situation at SoylentNews (SN) is not as bad as I was led to believe. As someone explained to me recently, it seems to boil down to ego and “bad communication”. We (Techrights mostly) had similar issues with the host. I say host, as the core team was communicating OK.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Announces Uruguay Exit Over Copyright Law Overhaul: ‘Additional Payments Would Make Our Business Untenable’
Early last month, Spotify threatened to exit Uruguay unless lawmakers modified a planned copyright monopoly law overhaul. Now, in the absence of these changes, the streaming service says it’s set to begin winding down in the nation of 3.5 million residents.
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Digital Music News ☛ MediaMuv YouTube Scammers Slapped With $3.4 Million in Restitution Charges
The two men behind the MediaMuv YouTube copyright monopoly scam have been slapped with $3.4 million in restitution charges as hundreds of disadvantaged artists have come forward. The two men found guilty of extracting over $23 million in revenue from YouTube’s Content ID system by masquerading as legitimate music rights holders have been court ordered...
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Monopolies
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The Straits Times ☛ Hyundai becomes first brand to sell cars on Amazon
Amazon will allow users to purchase cars directly from its website from next year, starting with Hyundai vehicles.
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New York Times ☛ Epic Games C.E.O. Says Surveillance Giant Google Has ‘De Facto Control’ on Android App
Tim Sweeney, who runs the company that created Fortnite, testified in a case that, if he wins, could allow competing payment systems on the Play Store.
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Patents
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JUVE ☛ Panasonic’s global SEP battle with Xiaomi and Oppo kicks into high gear [Ed: This "Unified Patent Court" is illegal and unconstitutional, but this publisher, JUVE, was bribed to spread lies and promote this crime, "Unified Patent Court" (corruption of the press), now it tries to legitimise it]
In July 2023, after years of negotiations, the Japanese electronics company Panasonic launched a global patent monopoly dispute with the two Chinese implementers Xiaomi and Oppo. All patents-in-dispute are relevant for the WCDMA and LTE standards. It is also the most extensive series of SEP lawsuits at the Unified Patent Court to date.
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Unified Patents ☛ MDSP Technologies navigation patent monopoly reexam granted
On November 13, 2023, two months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding a substantial new question of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,239,376, owned and asserted by MDSP Technologies LLC. The ‘376 patent monopoly relates to determining the position and acceleration of a mobile device using doppler aided inertial navigation.
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Unified Patents ☛ Dialect natural language patent monopoly reexam granted
On November 14, 2023, less than two months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding a substantial new question of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,495,957, owned and asserted by Dialect, LLC, an NPE. The ‘957 patent monopoly relates to natural language human machine interactions using context information.
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Unified Patents ☛ IPVal entity, 5G IP Holdings, 5G patent monopoly reexam granted
On November 14, 2023, three months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding a substantial new question of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,813,163, owned and asserted by 5G IP Holdings LLC, an NPE and IP Valuation Partners, LLC entity. The '163 patent monopoly generally relates to discontinuous reception (DRX) and utilizing slots within subframes to adapt DRX to function within the 5G frame structure.
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Further Thoughts on Patent Eligibility and Predictability [Ed: Patent extremists still moan about SCOTUS not tun by litigation fanatics like the lobbyists of the microcosm]
The two-part Alice/Mayo framework for assessing the patent monopoly eligibility of method claims, which formally involves determining whether a patent monopoly claim is “directed towards” one of the judicial exceptions (law of nature, natural phenomenon, or abstract idea), and if so, to determine whether there is “enough” additional “inventive concept” to render the claim a patent monopoly eligible “application” of that judicial exception, seems quite indeterminate on its face.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 32: No Preclusive Effect in Cancellation Proceeding if Challenged Registration Survives Reexamination or Expungement
In a rather straightforward ruling, the Board held that "the termination of a reexamination or expungement proceeding in favor of a registrant cannot be the basis for the registrant’s assertion of claim or issue preclusion in a proceeding before the Board to cancel that registration." The Board therefore denied respondents' motion for judgment and resumed the cancellation proceeding. Common Sense Press Inc. d/b/a Pocket Jacks Comics v. Ethan Van Sciver and Antonio J. Malpica, 2023 USPQ2d 601 (TTAB 2023) [precedential].
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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🔤SpellBinding — DEIRNOJ Wordo: SLIMY
This is a wordlog for the SpellBinding puzzle (in which you construct words using the specified letters; each word must contain the anchor letter).
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Two Tribes
I seem to have identified, throughout my life, two quite distinct tribes of people, and I wondered what insights might be found here. They are essentially the tribes who default towards or away from medicine. What do I mean? A few people that I know—and I have anecdotal evidence from others that they experience the same—seem to be on all sorts of medication pretty much all the time. There's one guy I know who is surfing stimulants and depressants throughout the day to keep awake and then hopefully sleep. There's one who suffers acid reflux and rather than look at his diet he continues to eat greasy burgers and spicy curry, but takes pills to deal with his condition.
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20 November 2023
Do you know this: You have an important assignment, an important task that is nearing its deadline, you KNOW you - as an responsible adult - should have finished said task a week ago, but instead you are calculating "Nah, i make the outline on monday, get it working tuesday or wednesday and the rest of the week i fill in the gaps". And it works, but every single time you are in blood-sweating hyperstress.
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muh jawb
My job status has changed from gainfully employed to happily without employment, but looking. The road to the current status change started after my boss was laid off back in April. The change in management changed drastically, along with my job responsibilities. Even though they were not happy with my skillset in regards to their agenda, I stuck it out until the end. They did not make it easy..and I guess I did not make it easy for them as well, having taken a Leave of Absense for two months with my torn achilles. I also did my best and worked really hard even though I saw the writing on the wall and ``` they were doing their best to make things challenging for me.
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Getting feedback with webmentions
This is a reply to Indiewebify me! And don't forget my webmentions![1] by Christian Engel (webmention) and Webmentions in three SSGs: Part 3[2] by Bryce Wray (webmention).
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Giddyup
Decent night sleep.
Chilly and grey out.
The holiday lights timer worked as was hoped it would.
I think a lot of the downfall of the web was a preponderance of people preferring appearances to substance.
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Food as Art
I was inspired by a post on another social network about an extremely wanky "fine dining" establishment. What follows is my response, mostly verbatim with a few edits for clarity and style. Because writing is art. Food is not.
The fine dining / "food as art" crowd has been shitting me up the wall for literally about ten years, but this is the first time I've actually had the presence of mind to articulate it properly. This is going to sound a little weird coming from a career chef, but aside from the sheer decadent wastefulness of it, food is not art.
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pronouns and language
a few months ago, i wanted to talk about a friend of mine while they weren't around. only problem was, that friend uses they/them pronouns, and i was talking in hebrew
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The end of panting
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Week 44/45/46: Status and Photo
My wife and I were scheduled to take a trip out of town with another couple in early September. That trip was canceled due to one of the party testing positive for COVID-19 the night before we left. We were staying at their house that night and had spent the entire afternoon with them unmasked, so we decided not to risk traveling while sick. Indeed, I tested positive for COVID-19 just a few days later.
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Hobby
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I am bad at winter cycle maintenance and it costs me
The frame on my 26" wheeled unicycle is now permenantly stuck to the seat post. This is a problem because it is one of the unicycles I use in the winter and I adjust the crank length to deal with different conditions in the snow. Longer cranks make for a slower ride but give better traction and balance at low speed. This is great for deeper snow. If it is just a light dusting however I run short (fast) cranks. When you adjust the crank length on a unicycle you have to adjust the seat height to match.
Anyway, I had this happen once before because I did not look after it in the winter and rust took hold. Last time a lot of hammering allowed me to eventually unfree it but not before I had initially given up and restorted to buying a new frame (and seat post). In the end this was OK as when I did eventually free it I built up two unicycles instead (one with the old frame and one with the new one).
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Technology and Free Software
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My Privacy Toolkit
These are some notes on technology I use to improve my daily security and privacy, inspired by a page on Supernova's capsule.
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Internet/Gemini
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Starting again in the text-only web
Years ago I used to blog. I used Wordpress since v1.x. Eventually I got lost working with a complex theme (Divi) and it wasn't fun anymore. On top of that we got cancel culture and I moved to a country where saying the wrong thing can get you years in prison. I've hardly posted in a decade.
Lately I've enjoyed the relative quiet of Geminispace and Gopherspace. It reminds me of the kinds of sites I used to visit in my high-school computer lab in the 1990s, like the Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter, of writing and reading things in text-mode apps for DOS, and visiting BBSes. It reminds me of that time, too, and the people and places I knew.
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.