Links 12/12/2023: VMware Layoffs and Hostilities in South China Sea
Contents
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Leftovers
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MIT Technology Review ☛ Inside the decades-long fight over Yahoo’s misdeeds in China
When you think of Big Tech these days, Yahoo is probably not top of mind. But for a 62-year-old Chinese dissident named Xu Wanping, the company still looms large—and has for nearly two decades. In 2005, Xu was arrested for signing online petitions relating to anti-Japanese protests.
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Kev Quirk ☛ Renovating the Garage
The next step in the reonvations at home, is the garage (my workshop). Difference being this time, is that I did it myself.
Since spending all our savings on the first stage of the renovations during our first year at the smallholding, the next step was to renovate the garage. However, since we had no money left, I decided to do it myself, rather than have a professional do it. I've always disliked DIY, but saving money is more important than my delicate sensibilities, so I got stuck in and sorted it myself.
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Science
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Built a Functional Computer With Human Brain Tissue
We have so many questions!
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Science Alert ☛ Most Night Shift Workers Have a Sleep Disorder, Study Confirms
A serious problem.
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Education
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YLE ☛ Can Spanish teachers solve Finland's daycare dilemma?
The City of Helsinki is training teachers in Spain to work at its Swedish-language daycares.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Tech In Plain Sight: Super Glue
Many inventions happen not by design but through failure. They don’t happen through the failure directly, but because someone was paying attention and remembered the how and why of the failure, and learns from this. One of these inventions is Super Glue, the adhesive that every tinkerer and engineer has to hand to stick pretty much anything to anything, quickly.
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Hackaday ☛ Bunnie Huang’s Shenzhen Guide Gets A New Edition – Written By Naomi Wu
If there’s one city which can truly claim to be the powerhouse of high-tech manufacturing here in the 21st century, it’s the Chinese city of Shenzhen. It’s likely that few people don’t own something made in that city or with parts that have passed through companies in the legendary electronic component markets of its Huaqiangbei district.
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CNX Software ☛ SZBOX DS135D – A dual-screen laptop with an defective chip maker Intel Processor N100 CPU
A few companies have been making dual-screen laptops – where one of the screens is placed where you’d typically find the keyboard and touchpad – for several years, and this type of design was brought back to the forefront with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i introduced earlier this year with two 13.3-inch displays and a 13th-gen defective chip maker Intel Core Raptor Lake-U processor for $2,000 and up.
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CNX Software ☛ STMicro VD55G1 – A small, low-power global shutter I3C camera sensor for computer vision
STMicro VD55G1 is a new global shutter I3C camera sensor with a small die size of 2.7 x 2.2 mm, 804 x 704 pixels native resolution, and consuming about 1mW in its ‘always-on’ autonomous mode to wake up the host when motion is detected. Camera sensors are available with rolling or global shutter, with most from the former type, but as we’ve seen in our reviews of the e-Con Systems See3CAM_24CUG (USB 3.1) and the Raspberry Pi Global Shutter (MIPI CSI) global shutter cameras, the latter is much better we capturing moving objects clearly at high frame rates with fewer artifacts than with rolling cameras.
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Hackaday ☛ Wireless Bike Brakes
Bicycles are the most efficient machines for moving a person around, and wireless drivetrains have been heralded as a way to make shifting more consistent and require less maintenance. [Blake Samson] wondered if the same could be true of wireless brakes.
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Hackaday ☛ Homemade Raman Laser Is Shaken, Not Stirred
You wouldn’t think that shaking something in just the right way would be the recipe for creating laser light, but as [Les Wright] explains in his new video, that’s pretty much how his DIY Raman laser works.
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CNX Software ☛ CWWK x86-P5 fanless mini PC with two 2.5GbE ports ships with up to defective chip maker Intel Core i3-N305 CPU
CWWK x86-P5 is a fanless mini PC powered by an defective chip maker Intel Alder Lake N-series N100 (quad-core) or Core i3-N305 (octa-core) and equipped with two 2.5GbE ports using defective chip maker Intel i226V controllers making it suitable for networking applications such as a firewall or a soft router.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ US Woman Takes Her Gun Into an MRI Scanner And Gets Seriously Lucky
Let’s go over this one more time.
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Science Alert ☛ Simulated Sunshine Could Have a Remarkable Effect on Alzheimer's Symptoms
A promising non-drug treatment.
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Reveal a New Way Our DNA Can Make Novel Genes From Scratch
And it's way faster than usual.
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New York Times ☛ How Abigail Echo-Hawk Uses Indigenous Data to Close the Equity Gap
The public health researcher Abigail Echo-Hawk is a leading voice in a movement to empower Indigenous people, wielding data as a tool for racial equity.
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NYPost ☛ Third death reported in cantaloupe salmonella outbreak as illnesses span 38 states
A third person in the US has died and 96 have been hospitalized after consuming cantaloupes and pre-cut fruit products connected to a salmonella outbreak, causing concern among top US health officials.
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Latvia ☛ Tragic crash raises issue of drivers' health checks
Health checks should be stricter for drivers and should be carried out often enough, say experts approached by Latvian Radio December 11. The issue of the frequency and quality of medical tests was widely debated in the public room following a tragic crash on Saturday in Rīga, where a 91-year-old man accidentally hit two young people, one of whom lost her life.
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University of Michigan ☛ Whitmer signs final piece of Reproductive Health Act into law
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the final piece of the Reproductive Health Act into law Monday morning with the goal of expanding abortion access in Michigan. The RHA has been making its way through the Michigan legislature since the package was introduced last March and passed by the Michigan House and Michigan Senate this fall.
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JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court declines case surrounding reproductive health clinic ‘buffer zones’
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a case that would have restricted the use of “bubble” zones around abortion clinics, areas where protesters are not permitted. The court’s decision means that the buffer zones will remain in place.
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RFA ☛ A hero of China's AIDS villages
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RFA ☛ Whistleblowing AIDS doctor, rights campaigner Gao Yaojie dies in New York
Gao was honored with multiple rights awards for her work on behalf of AIDS villages in China's Henan province.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese dissident doctor and AIDS whistleblower Gao Yaojie dies aged 95
A dissident doctor who became China’s most outspoken and celebrated AIDS campaigner, spending years under government pressure before finding refuge in the United States, has died at the age of 95, a long-time supporter told AFP.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Irish Examiner ☛ VMware to cut more than 360 Irish staff
Cloud computing firm, VMware is set to let go more than 360 staff members following the firm's recent acquisition by US semiconductor company, Broadcom.
The Irish Examiner understands that a letter was sent to staff on Monday proposing a total of 364 redundancies impacting roles across the organisation.
VMware, which now goes by VMware by Broadcom following the takeover, employs more than 1,000 people, the vast majority of which are based in Cork, with the proposed redundancies set to impact more than a third of its Irish employee base.
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Irish Independent ☛ Irish tech firms expect to lay off more staff than they hire in 2024, survey finds
Businesses in the IT sector expect to lay off more staff than they hire for the first time since 2020, according to the latest employment outlook survey from ManpowerGroup.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Oracle’s stock slides as revenue and guidance come up short
Shares of the database giant Oracle Corp. fell more than 8% in after-hours trading today after it reported fiscal second-quarter sales and guidance for the current period that fell below Wall Street’s estimates.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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WhichUK ☛ Rogue parking ads still rife on Google, warns Which?
Drivers urged to avoid search engines when attempting to download parking apps
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Privacy/Surveillance
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OpenRightsGroup ☛ ORG and the 3million win in court again
The Immigration Exemption to data protection is STILL unlawful as Courts tell Home Office again that they cannot sidestep Parliament when using personal data to profile migrants.
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Techdirt ☛ Letter From Sen. Wyden To The DOJ Says Governments Are Gathering Push Notification Data From Google, Apple
If nothing else, Senator Ron Wyden is keeping us on top of the surveillance curve. The privacy-focused senator has asked more uncomfortable questions of more federal agencies than anyone since the Church Committee.
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Techdirt ☛ Apple’s Nonsensical Attack On Beeper For Making Apple’s Own Users Safer
Apple has spent the past few years pushing the marketing message that it, alone among the big tech companies, is dedicated to your privacy. This has always been something of an exaggeration, but certainly less of Apple’s business is based around making use of your data, and the company has built in some useful encryption elements to its services (both for data at rest, and data in transit). But, its actions over the past few days call all of that into question, and suggest that Apple’s commitment to privacy is much more a commitment to walled gardens and Apple’s bottom line, rather than the privacy of Apple’s users.
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Defence/Aggression
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NYPost ☛ Cruise missile from Yemen strikes tanker ship: US officials
The Iran-aligned Houthis have waded into the conflict - which has spread around the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7 - attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself.
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Defence Web ☛ US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire in eastern DRC signals progress as US intelligence monitors armed activity
The White House on Monday welcomed the initiation of a 72-hour ceasefire in the conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which entities involved in the conflict have agreed to.
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RFERL ☛ EU To Increase Monitoring Mission In Armenia To 209 Observers From 138
The European Union’s top diplomat said the bloc will increase the number of observers for its mission in Armenia to 209 from 138.
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Reason ☛ When Should Security Clearance Be Denied Based on Interest in QAnon and Three Percenters?
Security clearances can be denied based on constitutionally protected speech; but there's an adjudicative process aimed at reviewing whether such denials make sense in light of the facts of each case.
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Pro Publica ☛ 5 Takeaways From ProPublica’s Investigation of Coast Guard Detentions at Sea
In late February, a smuggling boat carrying dozens of Haitians bound for the U.S. was intercepted so close to Florida’s shore that those aboard could see the lights of hotels and passing cars. But although they were in U.S. waters, they have few rights compared to people who arrive at land borders. That’s even true of the three young children traveling alone on that boat, a 10-year-old boy and two sisters, 8 and 4.
I spent months reporting on this group of people, the children in particular, and on the hidden world of immigration enforcement at sea, a border where different rules apply. These are five key findings of the investigation, published last week in partnership with The New York Times Magazine.
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Pro Publica ☛ Indiana’s Westforth Sports Linked to Hundreds of Chicago Guns
Early one morning in June 2022, Earl Westforth sat down at a small table inside a hotel conference room in northwest Indiana and began defending his life’s work.
Fourteen months earlier, the city of Chicago had sued his namesake Westforth Sports Inc., alleging that the outdoor- and sports-equipment shop was negligent in how it screened gun buyers and had become an epicenter for the unlawful purchase of guns, which were flooding into the violence-wracked city.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through Taiwan Strait, Taipei defence ministry says
A Chinese naval formation led by the Shandong aircraft carried sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Monday, Taipei’s defence ministry said. The carrier group entered the strait that separates the island and mainland China, travelling from north to south, Taipei’s defence ministry said.
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RFA ☛ US, allies denounce China’s ‘dangerous actions’ in South China Sea
US, EU and Japan expressed concerns over ‘dangerous maneuvers’ against Philippine vessels at the weekend.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Philippines summons China’s envoy amid rising tensions over confrontations in disputed South China Sea
The Philippines said it had summoned China’s envoy on Monday and flagged the possibility of expelling him following the most tense confrontations between the countries’ vessels in years at flashpoint reefs in the disputed South China Sea.
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France24 ☛ Philippines summons Chinese envoy after maritime confrontations at flashpoint reefs
The Philippines said it had summoned China's envoy on Monday and flagged the possibility of expelling him following the most tense confrontations between the countries' vessels in years at flashpoint reefs in the disputed South China Sea.
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New York Times ☛ What It Feels Like To Be the Target of China’s Water Cannons
The Philippines invited journalists on a mission to provide fuel to fishermen in disputed waters of the South China Sea amid tensions between Beijing and Manila.
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The Straits Times ☛ Philippines summons Chinese ambassador over South China Sea ‘harassment’
Manila said the actions of the Chinese vessels within the Philippine exclusive economic zone are illegal.
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RFA ☛ China’s issues warrants for 10 people in Myanmar’s Kokang region
The arrest warrants are the latest to target online scamming businesses near the Chinese border.
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YLE ☛ Council of Europe human rights commissioner rebukes Finland over eastern border closure
In a letter to the Finnish interior minister, Dunja Mijatović noted that Finland must adhere to its obligations under international refugee and human rights law even in the face of "reprehensible" actions by another state.
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The Straits Times ☛ China says 'positive' peace talks held over north Myanmar conflict
Beijing is a major arms supplier and ally of the junta but ties have been strained in recent months.
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The Straits Times ☛ China is happy to see parties in Myanmar conflict to hold peace talks: Chinese foreign ministry
China is happy to see parties to the Myanmar conflict hold peace talks and is willing to provide further support, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Pooh-tin Jinping visits Vietnam in bid to counter US influence, as politics and security on agenda
By Alice Philipson China’s President Pooh-tin Jinping arrived in Vietnam Tuesday for his first visit in six years, as he seeks to counter the United States’ growing influence with the communist nation.
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The Straits Times ☛ China’s Pooh-tin arrives in Vietnam on two-day visit to strengthen ties
December 12, 2023 8:11 AM
The trip, the Chinese President's first in six years, had been months in the planning.
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New York Times ☛ Three Months After Biden, It’s Xi’s Turn to Court Vietnam
The Chinese leader wants assurances that the strategically important country isn’t taking Washington’s side against Beijing, analysts say.
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korea, US to hold new round of nuclear consultation talks: Seoul
South Korea and the United States will hold talks on nuclear deterrence on Friday as part of Washington's commitment to share more insight with Seoul into planning in the event of conflict with North Korea.
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YLE ☛ Monday's papers: Finland's Plan B, lessons from Estonia and more snow
What would a US Nato withdrawal under a second Trump term mean for Finland?
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Defence Web ☛ UN political mission in Sudan closes doors
Time is up for the United Nations (UN) political mission – UN Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) – in Sudan with its mandate terminated by the Security Council (SC).
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ St. Petersburg police want to deport families of three Uzbekistani boys who threw snowballs at city’s eternal flame — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Prison says Alexey Navalny no longer listed as inmate after associates unable to contact him for six days — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Alexey Navalny fails to appear at another court hearing, leaving associates unsure of his whereabouts for sixth day — Meduza
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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YLE ☛ Taxi ranks in Helsinki have become territorial and violent, drivers say
Capital region taxi drivers tell Yle that some operators have set up their own queueing systems at key ranks around the city, while threatening other drivers.
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Latvia ☛ WATCH: 'Energy Trilemma: The Backbone for Energy Transition – Baltic Sea Region Focus'
A conference on energy security, accessibility and sustainability in the Baltic Sea region is being held in Rīga December 11.
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New York Times ☛ The Power Vacuum at the Top of the Crypto Industry
A year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao ran two of the largest crypto companies. As they grapple with legal woes, others are jockeying to lead the industry’s next chapter.
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YLE ☛ No metro, tram or commuter trains: Looming transport strike likely to hit Helsinki region
The planned walkout by transport sector workers is set to affect services across the country on Thursday.
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YLE ☛ Transport strike on Thursday to affect all big cities
Thursday’s planned strike, instigated by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), could see public transport services grind to a halt across the country.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Bangkok MRT monorail open to passengers
Cat Vitale reported in Railway Technology:
French locomotive manufacturer Alstom has launched the passenger trials of its automated Innovia monorail on Bangkok’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Pink Line.
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DeSmog ☛ Revealed: Oil and Gas-Backed Think Tanks Give £240k to ‘Green’ Parliamentary Groups
Parliamentary groups focused on energy and the environment received nearly £240,000 worth of support from think tanks backed by oil and gas companies in the past two years, DeSmog can report.
All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal cross-party groups of MPs and Lords which discuss issues and try to influence policy around a specific subject area. They are required to register financial interests and “benefits in kind” – services at a reduced rate or free.
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DeSmog ☛ Give Climate Change the Name It Deserves: Fossil-Fueled Destruction
This article by Capital & Main is published here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.
There’s always a lag between a rupture of the status quo and settling on a word for it. The planet is heating at a life-threatening pace. And yet the two words we use to describe this rupture — “climate” and “change” — are beginning to seem too stiff and one-dimensional for conveying the violence to life-sustaining ecosystems that threaten the world as we have known it.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Science Alert ☛ A Zap From an Electric Eel Could Give Nearby Organisms New Genes
Shocking.
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Science Alert ☛ What Would Happen to Our Dogs if Everybody Vanished?
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Science Alert ☛ There's a Surprisingly Simple Explanation For Why Horses Have Long Faces
It's no joke.
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Overpopulation
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The Straits Times ☛ Children are the best investment for China, says Beijing think-tank
The Yuwa report recommended that maternity subsidies be distributed at a national level rather than by local governments
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Finance
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France24 ☛ ‘Half the price in Germany’: French shoppers cross border to beat inflation
Consumers in eastern France have long crossed the border to shop in Germany, where greater market competition and more own-brand products mean prices are often lower. But now, some say soaring inflation is making it more important than ever to cut costs by shopping on the other side of the Rhine, even if making significant savings is becoming more difficult.
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The Straits Times ☛ South Korean newlyweds have more debt than ever, report says
More of them are also double-income couples and earn higher wages on average.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Imagining a million versus billion
I remember one of my lecturers telling us this, but Heliograph reminded me recently. I love comparions that put things into context like this.
Note too this is a short-scale billion. More rational languages say a billion is a million million, which would be more than 31.7 millennia, or the time it takes for an average telco to send a tech out.
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Atlantic Council ☛ China’s manufacturing overcapacity threatens global green goods trade
Chinese lending is exacerbating a growing glut in its green manufacturing sector. Beijing is increasingly looking abroad to absorb excess capacity. This may have devastating effects for the global trading system as economies move to protect their own domestic industry.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia's Signet Bank buys LPB Bank
Latvian boutique bank Signet Bank confirmed December 12 that it had completed the takeover of another Latvian bank, LPB Bank.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian central bank produces coin for dedicated followers of fashion
On Wednesday December 13, the Latvian central bank (Latvijas Banka, LB) will stat selling a new coin dedicated to fashion.
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Pro Publica ☛ Help ProPublica Investigate the World of Subprime Car Loans
U.S. consumers are falling behind on their auto loans at historic rates. Experts blame inflation, soaring interest rates and high retail car prices. Our journalists want to learn more about this industry and understand the causes and consequences of the surge in delinquencies.
Many struggling car owners have “subprime” loans, in which people with poor credit scores agree to pay higher-than-normal interest rates to qualify. Lenders say the arrangement is meant to protect them in case the borrower can’t pay.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Imposes Sanctions On Two Former Bosnian Officials Over 'Significant Corruption'
The United States on December 11 imposed new sanctions against the former head of the intelligence agency of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the country's former state prosecutor over allegations of "significant corruption."
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Over 90% of Hong Kong’s newly elected district councillors sit on the three committees that decide who runs
Over 90 per cent of the district councillors elected by the public and a small circle of voters on Sunday are also members of the three government-appointed committees responsible for nominating who was able run in Hong Kong’s “patriots-only” local election.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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RFERL ☛ Iranian Students Face Disciplinary Action After Protests Over Faculty Comments
The Tehran University disciplinary committee has reportedly initiated proceedings against at least 30 students from its Faculty of Social Sciences, according to information released by the country's Student Guild Councils via their Telegram channel.
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Press Gazette ☛ Banned in UK, China state broadcaster now running free video news agency
AMSP claims to have 600 partner newsrooms using its content.
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Techdirt ☛ ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Is Also ‘Libel Tourist, Vexatious SLAPPer’ Elon Musk
We’ve already talked a bit about Elon Musk’s obvious censorial bullshit lawsuit against Media Matters. It’s quite obvious from the lawsuit that his intent is to intimidate critics and suppress speech about hateful content on ExTwitter. So far, it’s not working, as that lawsuit seems to have inspired more people to find more ads next to more hateful content. It’s also exposed just how many of the ‘free speech’ supporters who cheer on Musk’s every move are a bunch of hypocrites, as they’re now supporting a lawsuit to silence speech.
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CS Monitor ☛ Freedom of speech that starts with listening
The war in Gaza is prompting universities around the world to defend a pillar of democracy with the shared values of coexisting faiths.
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RFA ☛ Vietnamese man gets 8 years for Facebook (Farcebook) posts
Nguyen Hoang Nam was convicted under vaguely written law often used to silence dissent.
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Reason ☛ After Resisting Demands To Punish 'Hate Speech,' Penn's President Capitulated. It Did Not Save Her Job.
Liz Magill and two other university leaders provoked bipartisan outrage by defending freedom of expression on campus.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Techdirt ☛ NYPD Still Shelling Out Millions In Lawsuit Settlements Every Year, Still Protecting Its Worst Officers From Accountability
The NYPD’s refusal to engage in nearly any form of accountability means it’s up to the city’s residents to pay billions for police work that adds tens of millions to the tab with lawsuit settlements.
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New York Times ☛ To Revive Portland, Officials Seek to Ban Public Drug Use
State and local leaders are proposing to roll back part of the nation’s pioneering drug decriminalization law and step up police enforcement.
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New Yorker ☛ Sentenced to Life for an Accident Miles Away
A draconian legal doctrine called felony murder has put thousands of Americans—disproportionately young and Black—in prison.
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Reason ☛ University Administrators Behaving Badly
A bit lost in the controversy over antisemitic speech on campus is the failure of university administrators to enforce existing rules that are content-neutral. I have already written about my own university's failure to enforce Virginia's law banning masked demonstrations. That failure continues, despite a letter from the state attorney general reminding universities of their…
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JURIST ☛ Major India hospital accused of organ trafficking
The Telegraph released an exclusive report claiming that there is an extensive illicit cash-for-kidney transplant scheme purportedly linked to Apollo Hospitals in Delhi, prompting an investigation by Delhi authorities.
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JURIST ☛ INTERPOL report reveals trafficking-based cyber fraud spread to Latin America
INTERPOL released a report on Friday stating that its “Operation Storm Makers II,” an operation targeting human trafficking-based cyber fraud, has revealed evidence showing that the crime has expanded to Latin America, far away from its center in Southeast Asia.
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JURIST ☛ US judge approves settlement prohibiting family separation at US-Mexico border
A US federal judge prohibited the practice of separating migrant children from their families for eight years on Friday following a settlement that will allow migrant children and their families, who were separated at the US-Mexico border, to be reunited.
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JURIST ☛ Amnesty International report claims Canada violated rights of indigenous protestors
Amnesty International released a report Monday alleging that the Canadian government consistently violated the human rights of indigenous Wet’suwet’en protestors demonstrating against the Coastal GasLink pipeline project.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Techdirt ☛ 2023: The Year ‘Cord Cutting’ Became The Majority Norm
It wasn’t that long ago that cable TV execs were trying to claim that “cord cutting” was either outright fiction, or a fad that would end once Millennials started procreating. The willful denial among cable execs was downright palpable for the better part of the last decade. Now they all just pretend like they never made those claims or predictions.
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WhichUK ☛ Regulator Ofcom proposes ban on unpredictable broadband and mobile mid-contract price rises after Which? campaign
The proposal will mean telecoms customers will no longer be forced to put up with annual inflation-linked price rises
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Techdirt ☛ House Committees Offer Up Competing Section 702 Reform Bills. Only One Has Any Actual Reforms.
As is the case any time surveillance powers are up for renewal, there’s always a chance to reform them. Most of these efforts tend to get derailed by a majority of legislators who just want to push things through before any lively discussion takes place. Every so often, legislation is passed that modifies authorized powers after the fact.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Epic Games wins historic antitrust case against Google
A federal court today ruled in favor of video game giant Epic Games, Inc. in a years-long antitrust case in which Epic has argued that Surveillance Giant Google LLC holds an illegal monopoly with its Play app store.
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France24 ☛ Fortnite's Epic Games wins US antitrust lawsuit against Google
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, won a major US court battle against Surveillance Giant Google on Monday when a jury decided that the search engine giant wields illegal monopoly power through its Android app store.
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Reuters ☛ Microsoft, Proprietary Chaffbot Company tie-up comes under antitrust scrutiny
Microsoft’s partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI is under US and UK antitrust scrutiny, the British regulator and a media report said on Friday, following the startup’s boardroom battle that led to the sudden ouster and return of CEO Sam Altman.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ When is the use of a product a “substantial noninfringing use” for purposes of Section 271(c)?
Sections 271(b) and 271(c) of the Patent Act form the statutory basis for the two forms of indirect patent monopoly infringement, induced and contributory, respectively. Section 271(c) explicitly provides that sale of a material that is “suitable for substantial noninfringing use” is not contributory infringement (note that this proviso does not apply to induced infringement under 271(b)).
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Kangaroo Courts
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ The UPC is dead. Long live the UMC! [Ed: Unified Patent Court is a Kangaroo Court and illegal "court"; it disgraces the very legitimacy of the EU]
When the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) endeavour was in the process of being designed back in the day, its architects presented the project as an example of a one-in-a-kind cosmopolitan litigation forum, the seat of patent monopoly judges and litigators from all cultures, skills, backgrounds, languages and walks of life.
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Software Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ IPVal entity, eCeipt, electronic receipts patent monopoly reexam granted
On December 7, 2023, less than a month after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding a substantial new question of patentability on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,643,875, owned by eCeipt, LLC, an NPE and IPValuation Partners entity.
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JUVE ☛ Microsoft and Bardehle Pagenberg pull back win in Zoe Life infringement dispute [Ed: Criminal Microsoft and Bardehle Pagenberg, which promotes crimes, as covered by JUVE, which actively lies to help criminals and establish fake "courts"]
Zoe Life Technology is an investor and owner of EP 11 26 674 for a “method and device to present data to a user”, originally filed by Ravenpack. The patent monopoly protects a technique for secure data transmission between the clown and user.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Finds "4:20" Deceptively Misdescriptive of Tobacco and Cigarette-Related Products Not Containing or Used With Cannabis
The Board upheld a Section 2(e)(1) refusal to register the proposed mark 4:20, finding it deceptively misdescriptive of "tobacco; cigarette papers; cigarette filters; cigarette tubes; cigarette rolling machines; handheld machines for injecting tobacco into cigarette tubes; machines allowing smokers to make cigarettes by themselves; none of the foregoing containing or for use with cannabis." (emphasis added).
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Techdirt ☛ Brew Works’ Rude Elf’s Reserve: How IP Bullying Birthed The Brand That Remains 20 Years Later
One of my favorite ways that lame trademark fights end is when the victim of the bullying makes slight changes to their branding such that it pokes the bully in the eye while still getting the victim out of legal harm’s way. When you couple that with the beer industry, all the more so. After all, much like everyone’s most favorite SCOTUS Justice: I like beer. For example, when Voodoo Brewery found itself staring down a C&D notice from the University of Pittsburgh over its “H2P IPA”, the name of which was a nod to the school, the company changed the name of the brew to “NON-TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT ALMA MATER IPA.” Not subtle, of course, but chef’s kiss all the same.
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Copyrights
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The FTC’s Misguided Comments on Copyright Office Generative Hey Hi (AI) Questions
The U.S. Copyright Office published a Notice of inquiry (“NOI”) and request for comments, Artificial Intelligence and Copyright, Docket No. 2023-6 on August 30, 2023, calling for comments from interested parties addressing dozens of questions. The Office’s questions focused on a wide range of issues including the copyright monopoly implications of the use of in-copyright works as training data, on the feasibility of licensing such uses, the impact on competition and innovation in Hey Hi (AI) industries depending on how courts resolved training data copyright monopoly issues, the copyrightability of Hey Hi (AI) outputs, whether new laws regulating generative Hey Hi (AI) were needed, whether Hey Hi (AI) developers should be obliged to disclose the sources of their training data, and whether Hey Hi (AI) outputs should be labeled as such.
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Software Freedom Conservancy ☛ SFC Responds to Big Tech's Disengenous Arguments in Copyright Office's “Artificial Intelligence Study”
A news item from Software Freedom Conservancy.
After filing our initial comments in the Copyright Office's request for comments, SFC staff have remained engaged in the process — we've given particular attention to comments related to software freedom and rights as assured through copyleft licenses like the GPL. We advocate for your software rights and freedoms in many ways — including participation on public policy discussion of relevant issues, such as this Copyright Office study.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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