Links 04/12/2023: COVID-19 Data Misused Again, Anti-Consumerism Activism
Contents
- Leftovers
- Gemini* and Gopher
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Leftovers
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Ruben Schade ☛ You can read audiobooks
A few months ago I witnessed someone get chewed out on a social network for mentioning they read an audiobook. Shocking, I know! I was glad to be sitting down at the time, because I’m not sure I could take such an assertion sitting down. Wait, standing. I can’t stand for it. While sitting. Like a gentleman.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Goodbye to Inasoul, and Banh and Boba
Our favourite Bánh mì store Banh and Boba in Sydney shut its doors today. Clara was lucky enough to see their post on social control media so we could have it one last time. This closure came just a few weeks after our favourite Filipino takeaway store Inasoul also abruptly shut down, and earlier this year we lost our local Alley LuJiaoXiang
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New York Times ☛ Are Fake Christmas Trees the New Normal?
The popularity of faux firs is soaring as the look becomes more convincing. But it isn’t necessarily good news for the environment.
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NYPost ☛ Locals furious at ‘pathetic’ Christmas tree display
Residents of this popular seaside town have been left furious over a “pathetic” and “embarrassing” council-decorated Christmas tree.
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Science
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The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] The way a sperm tail moves can be explained by mathematics worked out by Alan Turing
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The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Israeli hostages may need to fight to regain a sense of control in their everyday lives – expert explains
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The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] How colonial violence in Tasmania helped build scientists' reputations and prestigious museum collections
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ AMD makes CPU and GPU comeback in latest Steam Hardware Survey — Red Team regains lost ground from Nvidia and Intel
The sudden uptick in Nvidia GPU and defective chip maker Intel CPU usage from October was wiped away in November, and now things are back to normal.
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The Next Platform ☛ If You Want To Sell Hey Hi (AI) To Enterprises, You Need To Sell Ethernet
Server makers Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo, who are the three largest original manufacturers of systems in the world, ranked in that order, are adding to the spectrum of interconnects they offer to their enterprise customers.
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Hackaday ☛ Generating Motion Via Nitinol Wires
Generally, when we’re looking to build something that moves we reach for motors, servos, or steppers — which ultimately are all just variations on the same concept. But there are other methods of locomotion available. As [Jamie Matthews] demonstrates, Nitinol wires can be another way to help get things moving.
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Hackaday ☛ The Physics Lesson I Keep Re-Learning
One of the most broadly applicable ideas I’ve ever encountered is the concept of impedance matching. If you’re into radio frequency electronics, you’re probably thinking that I mean getting all your circuit elements working to a common characteristic resistance for maximum power transfer. (If you’re not, you’re probably wondering what that jumble of words even means. Fear not!)
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Hackaday ☛ Build Yourself A Screw Propelled Robot To Tackle The Dirt
Wheels and tracks are common choices for robot propulsion, but they’re not the only game in town. You can do some nifty things with long extruded screws , and they work pretty well in soft terrain. [gokux] set about building a small robot using this propulsion method using 3D printed parts.
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SparkFun Electronics ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Not Your Mother's Spam Mail
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SparkFun Electronics ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] XRP Delivery Challenge Guide Using Servo and Sensors
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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The Kent Stater ☛ CARES Center works to address food insecurity on-campus
In 2020, 23% of undergraduate students nationwide experienced some form of food insecurity, as reported by the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study.
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Science Alert ☛ A Radical New Drug Is Poised to Extend The Life of Large Dogs
This would be amazing!
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NYPost ☛ GOP senators urge Biden to restrict travel between US and China amid child pneumonia outbreak
Rubio, Vance, Scott, Tuberville, and Braun called to "immediately restrict travel" as China has had a "long history of lying about public health crises."
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2023-11-28 [Older] Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Confirmed by Governments to Harm Health, Excess Deaths Remain Very High Worldwide
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Science Alert ☛ First-of-Its-Kind Trial Gives New Hope For Treating Multiple Sclerosis
Encouraging results.
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Science Alert ☛ Plastic Waste Is Turning Tiny Marine Animals Off Sex
"It will have an effect on the whole food chain."
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Latvia ☛ Latvia develops healthy food quality label
The Latvian Association of Dietitians and Nutrition Specialists (LDUSA) has created a quality label “recommended by nutritionists”. As Guna Bīlande Chairman of the Association's Board of Directors, told Latvian Radio, there is considerable interest from producers in obtaining this label.
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The Straits Times ☛ China combats surge of respiratory illnesses of known pathogens
Medical experts said vaccination efforts are still vital to stemming the spread.
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The Conversation ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] COVID inquiry heard Boris Johnson 'struggled' with graphs – if you do too, here are some tips
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Confidentiality
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Health Worker Arrested for Misusing Vaccination Data: A Case of Breach of Trust
A health worker has been apprehended by the authorities for an alleged misuse and disclosure of vaccination data. The individual, whose identity has not been revealed, has been charged with accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes. The incident came to light recently, prompting swift action from the concerned authorities. The accused is scheduled to appear in the Wellington District Court on Monday to face the charges.
Te Whatu Ora, the organization where the health worker was employed, has confirmed that the employee has been removed from their position. A complaint has been filed with the police, who are actively investigating the matter. Additionally, Te Whatu Ora has initiated an internal employment investigation to further understand the scope of the incident. Margie Apa, the Chief Executive of Te Whatu Ora, emphasized that the individual had worked in the health system for several years and had the necessary authorization to access the data.
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New Zealand Herald ☛ Police arrest man in connection with alleged Te Whatu Ora mass privacy breach of Covid vaccination data
A 56-year-old man was arrested this afternoon in relation to the “unauthorised disclosure and misuse of data”, police said.
He is charged with accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes and will appear in Wellington District Court tomorrow.
“As the case is before the court, police cannot comment further,” police said.
A man believed to be a Te Whatu Ora staff member was interviewed on a New Zealand conspiracy theory site last week. He claimed he developed a database for the vaccine rollout and quoted from that work.
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Defence/Aggression
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea begins reconnaissance satellite operations: KCNA
North Korea says it has transmitted photos of the Pentagon, US bases and “target regions” in the South.
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JURIST ☛ UN Security Council votes to end mission in Sudan after ‘disappointing’ results and rising violence
The UN Security Council voted to cease the ongoing political mission in Sudan on Friday.
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New York Times ☛ Israeli Intelligence Errors Over Hamas Attack Plan Prompt Scrutiny, but Little Backlash
The Israeli media and The New York Times published damaging revelations suggesting that senior officers had ignored or dismissed intelligence reports about the likelihood of a major Hamas attack.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] North Korea's Kim Inspects New Spy Satellite Photos of 'Target Regions' -KCNA
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] North Korea's Kim Received Photos Taken by Spy Satellite of White House, Pentagon -KCNA
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France24 ☛ Will Israel repeat its military tactics in southern Gaza?
Israel resumed its military operation in the Gaza Strip on Friday with heavy bombardments. As strikes continue, the United States is pressuring the Israeli military to exercise restraint, particularly in the south, where nearly 2 million Palestinians are now concentrated. Will it work?
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France24 ☛ ‘Khan Yunis is now a combat zone’: Bombardments resume across the Gaza Strip
After a seven-day ceasefire, fighting has resumed in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces report hitting “over 200 terror targets” while the Palestinian health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave reported at least 100 deaths by the afternoon of December 1. Strikes have spread from the north to the south of Gaza, where many civilians have taken refuge.
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New York Times ☛ Israel-Hamas War: Israel Launches Strikes and Orders Evacuations in Southern Gaza
Israeli warplanes pounded targets in southern Gaza the day after a truce with Hamas collapsed. Gazan health authorities said that Israeli attacks had killed more than 15,000 people since Oct. 7.
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New York Times ☛ U.S. Expels Ex-Chile Army Officer to Face Charges in Killing of Víctor Jara
Pedro Barrientos, 74, was charged in the kidnapping, torture and killing of the popular folk singer Víctor Jara days after the 1973 military coup that deposed President Salvador Allende.
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Susan Sarandon Apologizes for Her 'Phrasing' in Anti-Jewish Rant at NYC Pro-Palestinian Rally After Being Dropped From Agency
During the rally at Union Square on November 17, Sarandon spoke to the crowd and compared the experiences of Jews and Muslims in the United States, saying that Jews were "getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence."
“This phrasing was a terrible mistake, as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true,” Sarandon wrote in an Instagram post.
“As we all know, from centuries of oppression and genocide in Europe to the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, PA., Jews have long been familiar with discrimination and religious violence which continues to this day.”
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The fallout from Sarandon's remarks was swift and significant. The actress, known for her roles in films such as Dead Man Walking, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue, was dropped as a client by her Hollywood agency, UTA.
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CPJ ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Former state security agent convicted in torture of Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque
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ANF News ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Young Yazidi man rescued by Internal Security Forces
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Poland and Ukraine: A relationship in crisis
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Zelenskiy Says Change Needed in Ukraine's Mobilisation System
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Disputed Crimea gold treasures returned to Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy visits eastern front line
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Truthdig ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Biden Must Push for Peace in Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Calls for Fortifications in Key Frontline Areas
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Ukraine’s new ‘enemy’ – war fatigue in the West
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Counter Punch ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] And Still, Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] NATO, Ukraine swat away talk of war fatigue
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International Business Times ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Wife Of Ukraine's Spy Chief Poisoned With Heavy Metals: Report
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Polish truckers protest "unfair competition" by blocking Ukraine border crossings
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kuleba tells NATO 'there is no stalemate'
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Slovak Truckers to Block Ukraine Crossing, Joining Polish Protests
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NL Times ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam returns Crimean artifacts to Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Ukraine reports 10 deaths in snowstorm
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] US Senate to Take up Israel, Ukraine Aid as Soon as Next Week - Schumer
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Putin Won't Make Peace in Ukraine Before 2024 US Election -US Official
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] US Funding for Ukraine Arms Has Poured Into Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] US and Germany risk owning Ukraine’s stalling war effort
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Chechen Leader Says He Is Ready to Send Another 3,000 Fighters to Ukraine
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The Age AU ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] Cory Bernardi’s ‘far-right’ Ukraine stance at odds with Lachlan Murdoch’s trip to Kyiv
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] Can Ukraine survive until February of 2024?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy urges support to protect grain exports
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] Republicans Want to Pair Border Security With Aid for Ukraine. Here's Why That Makes a Deal So Tough
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] The Ukraine war is a ‘great bargain’ for US in the Black Sea
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] The Debate Over Ukraine Aid Was Already Complicated. Then It Became Tangled up in US Border Security
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] Five Wounded in Kyiv by Largest Drone Attack Yet on Ukraine - Officials
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] Swiss President Pledges More Support for Ukraine in Kyiv Visit
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] Ukraine Needs More Air Defences to Protect Grain Exports - Zelenskiy
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] Ukraine Unveils Monument to Soldier Shot Dead in Widely Shared Video
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Ukrainian optimism fades at start of another winter
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NL Times ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Foreign Defense Ministers concerned Wilders government will pull support from Ukraine
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CBC ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Right-wing MAGA politics caused Conservatives to turn backs on Ukraine, Trudeau claims
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Ukraine’s Holodomor: 'There is nothing worse than hunger'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Ukraine: This 96-year-old survived Soviet Holodomor famine
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Spiegel ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Cake and Casualties: Uzhhorod Is Ukraine's Most Peaceful City
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Canada PM Trudeau Says His Main Rival Abandoning Ukraine Due to Trump Influence
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Dutch Minister Says She Hopes Aid to Ukraine Will Continue Despite Election Outcome
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Ukraine Prepares Army Mobilisation Reforms as War Drags on - Zelenskiy
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Ukrainian Sabotage of Crimea Bridge 'Overturns' Naval Operations -Intelligence Head
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Zelenskiy Names 'Three Victories' Ukraine Needs on International Front
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Environment
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New York Times ☛ 7.6-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Philippines but Tsunami Warnings Are Lifted
The authorities in Japan and the Philippines lifted tsunami warnings in coastal regions after ordering evacuations. Power failures near the epicenter were reported.
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teleSUR ☛ COP 28: The G77+China Summit Inaugurated
This is the first time the Group has met at a COP to agree positions for climate change negotiations.
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YLE ☛ Orpo: Finland contributes €3 million to new climate fund for developing countries
Finland also joins over 20 UN countries by signing a petition calling for nuclear power capacity to be tripled by 2050.
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Counter Punch ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] How to Carbonize Planet Earth
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TruthOut ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Discarded Toys Are Creating an Electronic Waste Crisis. Here’s How to Stop It.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Amazon Rainforest Destruction Slows Sharply Year to Date, Report Says
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Energy/Transportation
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European Commission ☛ Speech by President von der Leyen at COP28 on tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 [Ed: The hypocrite in chief, making assurances and promises for a year when she is already retired and not even accountable in the reputation sense]
Today, the world takes an important step to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
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YLE ☛ Rovaniemi Airport gears up for record-breaking winter | Yle News | Yle
The capital of Finnish Lapland expects to see up to 20 percent more flights than last winter.
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Green Party UK ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Greens respond to Labour Warm Homes Plan
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Green Party UK ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Greens call for president of COP to go following oil and gas deal revelations
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Finance
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Fast Company ☛ Silicon Valley’s $445 million robot pizza revolution that wasn’t
“What if there was a better way to make and deliver pizza to you?” asked CNBC’s Jim Cramer—shirtsleeves rolled up, wagging his finger at the camera—as he passionately set up a segment of his popular Mad Money show in June 2018. “Turns out, there is, which brings me to Zume, Inc., a Silicon Valley–based startup trying to bring this industry to the modern era.” Cramer, on location in Mountain View, California, and standing in front of a shiny red food truck, quickly introduced Zume’s robots, cuing up footage of a robotic arm balletically moving pizzas in and out of ovens inside a warehouse. This, he intoned, was a revolution. “We automate everything else, why not pizza?”
When Zume cofounder Alex Garden stepped into the frame, the frenetic energy spiked further. “If you think about the huge explosion in scenarios that food companies are trying to address today,” Garden said, meaning improving margins, finding workers, and meeting consumer demand for the convenience of delivery and healthier food, “this”—Garden pointed at the vehicle—“is the key to making it all work.”
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TruthOut ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Amazon Fined Just $7,000 Over Indiana Worker’s Death Caused by Unsafe Conditions
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TruthOut ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Workers Kick Off Black Friday With “Biggest Ever Global Strike Against Amazon”
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] EU Regulators Say Amazon's Acquisition of Vacuum Maker IRobot May Harm Competition
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] EU Antitrust Regulators Say Amazon's IRobot Deal May Restrict Competition
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Gizmodo ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Amazon Takes the Delivery Throne From UPS and FedEx
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TruthOut ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] House GOP-Led Hearing Is a Trojan Horse for Social Security Cuts, Critics Warn
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Counter Punch ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Social Security and Medicare: Fun with Numbers Time
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The Age AU ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Alarm bells are ringing louder in China as its financial cancer spreads
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CBC ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Big banks announce layoffs and more bad loans as TD, Royal and CIBC post quarterly results
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International Business Times ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Central Banks Risk Tipping UK and Other Developed Countries Into Recession
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Mississippi Rep. Banks Gets Probation on Tax Conviction and Intends to Remain in Office
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New York Times ☛ He Won Election to Canada’s Parliament. Did China Help?
A Canadian rapporteur said there was “well-grounded suspicion” that Han Dong, a member of Parliament from Toronto, may have benefited from support from the Chinese Consulate.
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New York Times ☛ George Santos Reveals One Truth: It’s Easy to Abuse Campaign Finance Laws
The newly ousted congressman, while an extreme case, illustrated the weaknesses of a system that relies on politicians to report their finances in good faith.
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JURIST ☛ Federal appeals court finds Trump is not immune from January 6, 2021 Capitol riot civil lawsuits
A Washington DC federal appeals court found on Friday that former US President Donald Trump is not immune from civil lawsuits for his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] Japan, China Foreign Ministers Agree Plan to Hold Security Talks, Improve Ties
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Gizmodo ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Elon Musk to Boycotting Advertisers: Go F*ck Yourselves
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Facebook Parent Meta Sues the FTC Claiming 'Unconstitutional Authority' in Child Privacy Case
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CNN ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Details From Unsealed Lawsuit on Instagram Looking the Other Way at Preteen Accounts and Knowingly Serving Teens Harmful Content
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2023-12-01 [Older] You Can Hate Donald Trump and Object to Electronic Voting Machines at the Same Time
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] India Warns Facebook, YouTube to Enforce Rules to Deter Deepfakes - Sources
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Censorship/Free Speech
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RFERL ☛ Iranian Rapper's Violent Re-Arrest For Comments In Video Sparks Outrage
The re-arrest of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has triggered a wave of outrage after reports that armed security agents beat the dissident while taking him into custody even though he is still recovering from being tortured during his previous prison time.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 41
In the 41st month since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, criminalising secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism, debate arose over whether some national security trials could be transferred to mainland China if proposed new US sanctions become law.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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The Straits Times ☛ Village vloggers in China cash in on livestreaming
These farmers-turned-hosts bypass middlemen to pitch their agricultural products directly to customers.
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New York Times ☛ Doja Cat Makes the Leap From the Internet to the Arena Stage
The extremely online 28-year-old singer and rapper’s Scarlet Tour accentuates her flair for big statements.
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Engadget ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Substack adds new video tools to compete with Patreon and YouTube
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Engadget ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Inside the 'arms race' between YouTube and ad blockers
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Monopolies
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Patents
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IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] EPO doubles down on opposition acceleration commitment [Ed: EPO, which commits only to crime, does not value patent quality]
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2023-11-28 [Older] Allgenesis Biotherapeutics Inc. v. Cloudbreak Therapeutics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2023)
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2023-11-30 [Older] USPTO Kicks Off Semiconductor Technology Pilot Program to Expedite Semiconductor Manufacturing Applications [Ed: As if more monopolies is always the solution, it's just protectionism for large companies at small ones' expense]
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Copyrights
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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🔤SpellBinding: ULNOPSF Wordo: EXACT
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Blending the Seams
“Blending over the seams” between modules is a phrase I picked up from one of Lazy Litch’s ads; the name for it I mean. The actually-doing-it part (as opposed to the knowing-what-to-call-it part), I’ve been doing from day one.
It means making sure the modules you use run together and bleed into each other.
Having similar NPCs between two modules actually be the same person, or having clues to one module be in the next module etc. And replacing cultures so that a reference to “Thorcin” can be swapped out to a reference to “al-Badia” if that better fits the world you’re running in, or ice can become sand.
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Prepping
Not in the right-wing, end-of-the-world, guns-and-ammo-and-a-thousand-cans-of-soup sense. We've spent the weekend making a big list of things to do before we take off for somewhere warmer, and it's been a long time since our last real vacation, so this feels both strange and familiar.
Went to the bank yesterday, purchased a bunch of currency in case there are credit card issues (this happened to us in Switzerland, a decade and a half ago); notified the bank of start and end dates, picked up lots of sunscreen for my lily-white skin, made lists of instructions for the pet sitter.
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The Many Benefits of Anti-Consumerism
It's been a year of non-technical interests, as I detailed a bit on my weblog [1]. Among them were Digital Minimalism, Financial Independence (especially through Frugality), Investing, and more recently Sustainability and Zero-Waste.
[...]
Repairing, repurposing, and most importantly sharing our possessions can keep waste out of landfills and strengthen our communities.
I'm sharing all this not to preach, judge, or otherwise posture as a better earth citizen than anyone else. I'm just as guilty of buying my own lawnmower for ~10 mows a year instead of arranging a joint custody with neighbors (albeit before having given this much thought).
I bring this all up because I'm excited. My seemingly complex and varied lifestyle goals all have a simple, effective, solution to get me 90% of the way there: just buy less.
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Pondering Pomegranates
The latest method is to peel the whole thing, on the assumption that the skin has seen too many miles and probably is best for the compost. This may let you see any under-the-skin bad spots to carve out and discard. Next some care is taken to nick and split the core open to get at the seeds. Some first whack at the fruit to loosen up the seeds, but that may crush them, and I did not like the results. The remaining rind and any non-peeled skin is frozen and saved for used in soups and stocks. It is a (mild?) bittering agent. Probably the rind should be dehydrated first to cut down on frost generation, but that would take additional time and energy.
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Politics and World Events
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Is it you or is it the system?
I get flak from both sides around this dialectic:
Some people are like “it’s only the system, you don’t have to do anything, keep nomming those cheeseburgers, the only problem is the 100 richest corporations or the 0.1% richest people”. Or, “the attention span crisis is something we can only address with collective action, all attempts at trying to address your own phone addiction is just selfish and advicing others to do the same is just cruel optimism”. And I’m like yeah, true, that’s the core of the issue, but do eat plants though, and go offline more often. We can’t throw out all aspirations of changing things in our own lives. Yeah, yeah, direct action isn’t the only tool in the box but we need all the tools we can get.
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Science and Games
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The self-balancing mathematics of D&D
In a railroad game, even one using XP and levels, where the DM serves up the encounters, they have a lot of responsibility to make the fights tight and tense. Too easy? That was the DM’s fault. Too hard? That was the DM’s fault. Even to the point that some DMs in this style might be tempted to put their fingers on the scale a li’l bit and fudge some things.
A game that uses milestone levels, regardless of whether it’s railroaded or if it’s wide open, has the same problem. The DM needs to make sure the players get the tools they need to face the opposition they take on. In fact, the problem is bigger, because the DM has all the same responsibility and all the same issues, but fewer tools at their disposal since getting really really good at encounter design isn’t enough if the player characters haven’t been leveled enough.
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New characters are level one
I’ve said before that #boatmode, our D&D campaign that sorta came back from hiatus yesterday with session 255, wasn’t our first D&D campaign, not even our first campaign on this planet and this continuity. I started the numbering with #boatmode session one because of one defining feature:
New characters are level one.
Well, we use the Tasha’s Cauldron rule for “sidekicks” who don’t have XP but instead have their level follow the party average. That does help even out the party level even more than the inherent leveling-out-effect of an XP curve.
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Technology and Free Software
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Old-School Emacs Regions
One thing I used to do all the time and almost forgot about it when markdown-mode introduced the whole “commands work one way if you have an active region and another if you don’t” thing is this: I’d be typing along merrily, then thinking “OK this next part is going to be <cite>”, set the mark, keep typing, and then when I had typed the thing I’d hit the key that wrapped that past part in cite tags, be outside of the tags, and keep typing.
That’s something that transient regions just can’t do since they, by design, deactivate the region if you type anything.
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Enforcing Standards with NixOS
Some time ago, I stumbled into std[1], a batteries-included development stuff. It looks like something I would really like to get into, mainly because it gave off notes of Buck2[2], which is something that interests me when dealing with microservice ecosystems and polyglot frameworks. And I know I love a polyglot solution to problems.
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File Divergence
A few years ago I wrote a "microblogging" script to keep an offline, Twitter-style micro-journal. The "timeline" file created by this script uses Markdown and has a simple structure: each post has a simply-ascending header, a post date, the post content itself, a list of any embedded attachments, and any reply information. I chose Markdown because it's easy to manipulate in a plain text editor but also renders well into a Web-like page. This makes the timeline itself file highly portable.
The structure of the file has some shortcomings. I use Syncthing to synchronize my journal between all my devices, but sometimes I'll add a post to the journal on two different devices before they have a chance to update each other. This causes a divergence between the files, as well as between potential attachments and reply links.
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File/directory entropy warrior
It's time, once again, to wade through files/directories created/downloaded during other life battles with sufficient haste to have made painfully disordered waste just crawling with Fear Of Losing Out via deleting a file that *might* come in handy to rectify someone *else's* eff up.
We're talkin' filenames now devoid of meaning, filenames suggesting "attempt iterations" without clarity as to which was actually used in whatever circumstance/situation.
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And then it happens
sftp'ing to tilde.club has been touch and go from the get go. It occasionally happens licketty split. But mostly the sftp invocation hangs for many minutes before connection and put's.
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Programming
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Merging vs Rebasing
OK, first of all, if you’re not the project lead, and the project lead has opinions, those are gonna be more important than what some rando Gemini capsule like this has to say. When in Rome, merge or rebase like the Romans do.
So the whole point of git compared to 90s style VCs like cvs or svn is that every copy of a repo is in one sense “the hub”, every copy of a repo, and even every branch of every copy, is the center of its own development and can have patches and commits applied to it. And that’s awesome.
That said, some of the time it’s helpful to still think of a git repo as being in one of three modes. Being at the “center”, or being at the outer end of a “spoke”, or being, in some sense, “both” (which can happen if you're a "lieutenant" on a larger project, or if upstream is late in accepting your patches and other people latch on to your version).
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.