Links 21/03/2024: Censorship and Repression in HK Accelerated, Next Steps for Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban
Contents
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Leftovers
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Ruben Schade ☛ Having a dedicated computer workbench again
I hated our massive family house in Kuala Lumpur when I was a teenager. The serviced apartment we had before was amazing; it was close to public transport, amenities, and things to do. We could see much of KLCC from the lounge! By comparison, that house in far-flung suburbia may as well have been on the moon, with even trips to coffee shops being out of the question unless you booked a cab.
[...]
Before I had this setup, I’d have to turn off my primary desktop, unplug the monitor and peripherals, and connect it all to what I was testing. Then when I was done, plug it all back in again, turn it back on, and navigate the awkward Dell LCD menu to get the right input back.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Dang Wangi station in Kuala Lumpur
I mentioned Kuala Lumpur in my post about a computer workbench, which made me nostalgic. Me? Never!
We used to go up to KL fairly often when we moved to Singapore. Even as a little kid I was obsessed with public transit and stations, and KL’s metro was really interesting. It was a far cry from Singapore’s MRT in reach, capacity, and frequency, but was still cooler than what I remembered in Australia.
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Hackaday ☛ Cute CO2 Gauge Tells You When To Crack A Window
[Cyrill] has a good home automation scheme going: there are a number of physical switches set around the place that control the essential functions. The only problem is that in the winter time, this results in a great deal of phone checking as [Cyrill] tries to monitor the CO2 level. Tired of all this screen time, [Cyrill] set about to create an incredibly cute (and useful) Co2 monitor that plainly shows the current level and how bad it is, relatively speaking.
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Hackaday ☛ Breadboard SDR Doesn’t Need Much
[Grug Huhler] built a simple Tayloe mixer and detector on a breadboard. He decided to extend it a bit to be a full-blown software defined radio (SDR). He then used WSJT-X to monitor FT8 signals and found that he could pick up signals from all over the world with the little breadboard system.
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Hackaday ☛ Repairing A Gear With A Candle (and Some Epoxy)
You have a broken gear you need to fix, but there’s no equivalent part available. That’s the issue [Well Done Tips] faced with a plastic gear from a lawnmower. While we’d be tempted to scan the gear, repair the damage in CAD and then 3D print a new one, we enjoyed hearing about his low-tech solution. In addition to the write up, there’s a video showing the process you can watch below.
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YLE ☛ Tuesday's papers: Angry farmers, chat doctors and a 10m2 home
When it comes to micro apartments, how small is too small?
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YLE ☛ THL survey: Over 40% of immigrants in Finland have faced discrimination
The health agency's survey queried around just over 7,800 adults whose parents and themselves were born abroad.
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Hackaday ☛ Your Text Needs More JPEG
We’ve all been victims of bad memes on the Internet, but they’re not all just bad jokes gone wrong. Some are simply bad as a result of being copies-of-copies, as each reposter adds another layer of compression to an already lossy image format like JPEG. Compression can certainly be a benefit in areas like images and videos, but [Michal] had a bit of a fever dream imagining this process applied to text. Rather than let the idea escape, he built the Lossifizer to add JPEG-like compression to text.
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Ruben Schade ☛ The calming joy of pink noise
One of my earliest childhood memories involved being excited for the box fan my parents would put in my bedroom over summer. The gentle whirring sound of its blades cutting through the air and blowing it across the room was comforting in a way I couldn’t describe, to the point where I genuinely missed it when winter came around.
As I got older, I came to understand the concept of white noise, and how it helps some people relax or concentrate. I don’t suffer tinnitus fortunately, but I do find very quiet rooms disconcerting. Maybe it was my subsequent upbringing in dense, humid cities with traffic noise and air conditioning. Either way, to this day I have a small tower fan I leave running in the corner of our bedroom, even in a Sydney winter.
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Science
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Science Alert ☛ 'Light Speed' Electrons Discovered Moving in 4 Dimensions For The First Time
When three just aren't enough.
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Science Alert ☛ Shape Changes in Brain Cells Could Play a Critical Role in Middle-Age Spread
Don't blame your brain just yet.
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Education
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Latvia ☛ Joint harassment reporting system in academia considered
Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša (New Unity) has proposed a review of the codes of ethics of universities and to create a more unified reporting system. Culture Minister Agnese Logina (Progressives) also believes that the reporting system should be strengthened, Latvian Radio reported on March 19.
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YLE ☛ Teachers: Reducing class size top priority
Teachers in Finland are displeased about a number of things in their classrooms, a new survey finds.
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Reason ☛ These Students Lost More Than Half a Year of Learning During COVID
Schools districts that stayed almost entirely remote significantly hindered progress, according to new data.
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Hardware
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Linux Links ☛ TEAMGROUP Z44A7 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD Review
Here's our review of the TEAMGROUP Z44A7 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD.
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Hackaday ☛ 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A Piano-Controlled Smart Home
There’s a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where a little flap in the wall flips down to reveal a small organ embedded there. Gene Wilder plays a bit of Rachmaninoff on the organ, and the giant door to the chocolate room slowly creaks open.
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Zimbabwe ☛ China asks local EV Companies to increase spend on Chinese chipmakers
The Chinese government has asked domestic Electronic Vehicle (EV) companies to increase spending with local chipmakers. This is an effort to reduce dependence on American chipmakers. The directive, according to a Bloomberg report, was issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
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CNX Software ☛ Nuvoton’s NuMicro M091 Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller targets industrial sensors
Nuvoton recently launched the NuMicro M091 Series of microcontrollers, these are 32-bit MCUs based on the Arm Cortex-M0 core, featuring 4 sets of operational amplifiers with 8 MHz gain bandwidth (GBW), 4 sets of 12-bit DAC, up to 16 channels of 2 MSPS 12-bit SAR ADC, a temperature sensor, and extensive I/O options.
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CNX Software ☛ SONOFF POW Ring Review – A WiFi CT Clamp power meter tested with eWelink and Home Assistant
The trend of measuring the energy usage of household electrical devices has become increasingly popular among Smart Home users in the past few years. We have received the new SONOFF POW Ring Smart Power Meter Switch device for review from ITEAD. Unlike SONOFF’s existing energy monitoring devices such as POW Elite, SPM, DualR3, POW3, and POW Origin, this new device, also called POWCT, utilizes a current transformer (CT) to measure the current flow, or total power being consumed.
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Science Alert ☛ Diamond Can Be Squeezed Into Something Even Harder. Now We Know How to Do It.
A different kind of bling.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Federal News Network ☛ Coast Guard improves access to mental health care
A new Coast Guard policy will require supervisors to refer personnel to a health care provider for an evaluation as soon as service members request assistance.
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The Straits Times ☛ Severely ill patients in South Korea fed up and fearful as medical stand-off drags on
A patient advocacy group urged the government and doctors to “stop fighting on the bodies of dying patients”.
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YLE ☛ Report: Finland has some of the cleanest air in the world
The only countries that met the WHO's air quality standards last year were Finland, Australia, Estonia, Iceland, Grenada, Mauritius and New Zealand.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia plans to develop health tourism over next three years
Latvia is committed to developing the export of healthcare services over the next three years, increasing the number of health tourists and returning doctors from abroad. This is foreseen in the Action Plan for the Development of Health Services Exports 2024-2027, which was approved by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, March 19.
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Science Alert ☛ Pacemakers Powered by Light Could Revolutionize Heart Disease Treatment
Thinner than a human hair.
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Science Alert ☛ 50% of Us Have an Email Problem. Here Are Some Tips on Dealing With It.
Get it sorted.
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Science Alert ☛ Humans Living in Cities Are Slowly Losing Their Ability to Digest Plants
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Science Alert ☛ Antidepressants Could Trigger Some Cases of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Another possible cause.
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Science Alert ☛ Cutting Back on One Amino Acid Increases Lifespan of Mice Up to 33%
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Science Alert ☛ 12,000-Year-Old Preserved Human Brains Defy Soft Tissue Decay Assumptions
"They can tell us about life and death in our ancestors."
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teleSUR ☛ Somalia: UN Agencies Provide Health Supplies to +5 Mln People
The beneficiaries of these health interventions include over 50 percent of women and over 1.2 million children under five years of age in the drought-affected communities.
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RFA ☛ Health authorities on alert as anthrax infects 14 in southern Laos
Transporting and slaughtering farm animals has been banned in two districts in Champassak province.
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PHR ☛ New “Criminalized Care” Report Shows How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians
Today, Lift Louisiana, Physicians for Human Rights, Reproductive Health Impact, and the Center for Reproductive Rights published an extensive fact-finding report titled “Criminalized Care: How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians.”
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Standards/Consortia
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LRT ☛ Lithuania’s elderly feel left behind amid push for digitisation
With the proliferation of digital services, some seniors in Lithuania feel discriminated against. According to the Association of the Elderly, without a smartphone and basic skills of how to use it, people struggle to access information about healthcare or even get a discount at a shop.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Techdirt ☛ GM, LexisNexis Sued For (Nontransparent) Sale Of Driver Behavior Data To Insurers
Last week the New York Times published a story confirming what everybody assumed was already happening. Automakers collect reams of personal behavior, phone, and other data (without making it clear to consumers) then sell it to a long list of companies. Including insurance companies, who are now jacking up insurance rates if they see behavior in the dataset they don’t like.
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Press Gazette ☛ Dan Wootton and the growing UK right to privacy explained
Wootton case highlights an increasingly cautious approach to privacy by publishers.
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Citizen Lab ☛ Citizen Lab submission to Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on draft guidance for processing biometrics
The recommendations call for an elaboration of the definition of biometric data, guidelines on what constitutes as sensitive biometric data types, and the usage of biometric data processing.
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Techdirt ☛ Italy’s Piracy Shield Blocks Innocent Web Sites And Makes It Hard For Them To Appeal
Italy’s newly-installed Piracy Shield system, put in place by the country’s national telecoms regulator, Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (Authority for Communications Guarantees, AGCOM), is already failing in significant ways. One issue became evident in February, when the VPN provider AirVPN announced that it would no longer accept users resident in Italy because of the “burdensome” requirements of the new system. Shortly afterwards, TorrentFreak published a story about the system crashing under the weight of requests to block just a few hundred IP addresses. Since there are now around two billion copyright claims being made every year against YouTube material, it’s unlikely that Piracy Shield will be able to cope once takedown requests start ramping up, as they surely will.
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Defence/Aggression
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea leader Kim guides new solid-fuel engine for hypersonic missile, KCNA says
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided a ground test of a solid-fuel engine for a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic missile as part of a program of developing national defence capability, state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday.
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The Straits Times ☛ Where is Kim Keon-hee? South Korean First Lady’s absence raises questions
Ms Kim was said to be last seen in public upon her return from the Netherlands in 2023.
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YLE ☛ Border Guard: More than 30 people suspected of human smuggling across eastern border
The Finnish Border Guard has opened 25 criminal investigations into the organisation of unauthorised crossings.
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Federal News Network ☛ Fewer active-duty military families encourage young people to enlist
The number of families recommending service to their loved ones has precipitously dropped since 2016, the largest annual military family lifestyle survey finds.
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Latvia ☛ Internal Security Bureau sends police violence case to prosecutor
The Internal Security Bureau (IDB) said March 19 it has sent a criminal case to the prosecutor's office for the investigation of a criminal offense involving a municipal police officer.
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France24 ☛ Hamas chief accuses Israel of 'sabotaging' truce talks after Gaza hospital raid
Hamas's Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel on Tuesday of sabotaging ceasefire talks after its raid on Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, which Israel alleges is being used for military purposes. The UN's human rights chief earlier warned that Israel's severe restrictions on aid into the Gaza Strip and its ongoing bombardment of the Palestinian territory could mean it is using starvation as a "method of war". Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
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Defence Web ☛ Report: Al-Shabaab extends reach with offer to protect Somali pirates
After a six-year lull in major attacks, Somali pirates in December attacked four vessels as international navies relocated from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, where they protect maritime traffic from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian PM nominates Kasčiūnas for defence minister
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė has officially nominated Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence, to President Gitanas Nausėda for the position of defence minister, the government said on Tuesday.
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RFERL ☛ Navalnaya Tells World Not To Recognize Putin As 'Legitimate' Leader
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has urged the international community to refuse to recognize President Vladimir Putin as a "legitimate" leader of the country after elections last weekend that have "no meaning."
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RFERL ☛ Former Belarusian Hockey Player Kaltsou Dies In Apparent Suicide
Belarusian ice hockey player Kanstantsin Kaltsou has died in Florida in an apparent suicide, police in Miami said.
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Environment
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The Straits Times ☛ US-China advance work on curbing methane emissions, US deputy climate envoy says
GENEVA - Cooperation between the U.S. and China on methane is advancing, the deputy U.S. special envoy on climate change said on Tuesday, saying there was an opportunity for Beijing to slash emissions from its massive coal sector at little or no cost.
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Energy/Transportation
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Techdirt ☛ Ultra-Heavy EVs Will Easily Demolish Nation’s Unprepared Guard Rail System
The U.S. is a global leader in traffic-related fatalities, with a thirty-percent jump in the last decade. That’s in contrast to every other developed country, which saw a decline.
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teleSUR ☛ Oil Giants Look at New Strategy Amid Global Energy Transition
CERAWeek draws over 9,000 government, industry and academic leaders from 80 countries.
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Science Alert ☛ Famous Criminal Bill Gates' TerraPower to Fast Track First Next-Gen Nuclear Plant in US
"It's a game changer."
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Overpopulation
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Overpopulation ☛ The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) at 30 – Let’s Address the Unfinished Agenda
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, a watershed event in international population and reproductive health policy. It’s a good time to reflect on its legacy.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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The Straits Times ☛ China foreign minister says China, Australia economies 'highly complementary'
The economies of China and Australia are "highly complementary" and have great potential, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with his Australian counterpart, according to a statement released by his ministry on Wednesday.
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The Straits Times ☛ China's top diplomat meets Australian counterpart in Canberra
China's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, met with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra on Wednesday for talks which Australia said would include human rights, tariffs and regional security.
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RFA ☛ Blinken meets Marcos, stresses ‘ironclad’ support for Philippines in South China Sea
Top American diplomat is visiting Manila to lay groundwork for trilateral talks between the US, Philippines and Japan.
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RFA ☛ Did the European Parliament pass a bill denying the ‘One China principle’?
Verdict: Misleading
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RFA ☛ Thai illegal surrogacy ringleader, 3 others sentenced to 50 years
The organization recruited Thai women to deliver babies where prospective parents paid thousands of dollars.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon plans first China visit after meeting Wang Yi
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon plans to make a first trip to China as premier, his foreign minister said Tuesday after talks with Beijing’s top diplomat.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese professor at Japanese university ‘missing’ after trip home, institution says
A Chinese professor at a Japanese university has been missing for about six months since his trip home last year, raising concerns about his safety, the institution said Tuesday.
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Atlantic Council ☛ There will be no ‘short, sharp’ war. A fight between the US and China would likely go on for years.
US policymakers and military leaders must rigorously study and plan for a broad range of implications of a years-long war against China.
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RFA ☛ North Koreans shocked as Cuba establishes ties with South Korea
Silence from Pyongyang befuddles those who recall state media slamming China, Vietnam and Hungary for doing the same.
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RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Officials Acquitted In High-Profile Citizenship Case
A Bishkek court says it has acquitted the former chief of the presidential office, the former chief of the State Committee for National Security, and the former chief of the state commission on citizenship on charges of illegally granting Kyrgyz citizenship to 10 Turkish nationals.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Techdirt ☛ The Disinformation Campaign That Has Effectively Destroyed The Ability To Combat Disinformation
We already covered the oral arguments in the Murthy v. Missouri case earlier this week, showing that the Supreme Court appears to be quite skeptical of the arguments by the states regarding the federal government “jawboning” to convince social media to take down certain content. For months now, we’ve been pointing out that the factual record in that case is a mess, driven by conspiracy theorists pushing nonsense. Unfortunately, a few Judges both believed the nonsense and then when they couldn’t rely on it to make their point had to misquote people, quote things out of context, or entirely fabricate parts of quotes in their rulings.
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Security Week ☛ Preparing Society for AI-Driven Disinformation in the 2024 Election Cycle
The rapid evolution of Hey Hi (AI) and analytics engines will put campaign-year disinformation into hyperspeed in terms of false content creation, dissemination and impact.
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Bruce Schneier ☛ AI and the Evolution of Social Media
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social control media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond.
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Techdirt ☛ Five Questions To Ask Before Backing The TikTok Ban
With strong bipartisan support, the U.S. House voted 352 to 65 to pass HR 7521 last week, a bill that would ban TikTok nationwide if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell the popular video app. The TikTok bill’s future in the U.S. Senate isn’t yet clear, but President Joe Biden has said he would sign it into law if it reaches his desk.
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Digital Music News ☛ Just How Much is Fentanylware (TikTok) Worth? Let the Bidding Start at $100 Billion — Assuming ByteDance Allows the Sale
If ByteDance does divest from Fentanylware (TikTok) and allow its sale—just how much is Fentanylware (TikTok) worth? Estimates north of $100 billion are being thrown around by analysts. According to a report from the Financial Times, Fentanylware (TikTok) has hit $16 billion in sales in the United States.
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Digital Music News ☛ The TikTokifcation of YouTube and Vice Versa—How Streaming Is Converging
In 2023, Fentanylware (TikTok) became the fourth largest social network in the world—behind Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. It has its sights set on replacing YouTube as the premiere video destination—which it is already achieving among the youngest age cohorts (13-25). What does that mean for the music industry—which depends heavily on Fentanylware (TikTok) for music discovery?
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Digital Music News ☛ Senators Receive Briefing on Fentanylware (TikTok) By National Security Officials as Critical Vote Looms
U.S. Senators will receive a classified briefing on Wednesday from national security officials concerning threats posed by TikTok. The classified briefing will be hosted by chairs of the Commerce and Intelligence committees—Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) alongside Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). T
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Reason ☛ The Dark Side of Housing Bipartisanship
Plus: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is fooled by Fentanylware (TikTok) housing falsehoods, Austin building boom cuts prices, and Sacramento does the socialist version of "homeless homesteading."
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Reason ☛ Trump Files Defamation Lawsuit Against ABC for Saying He Was Found Liable for Rape Instead of Sexual Assault
The defamation lawsuit is the latest in Trump's campaign of lawfare against media outlets, but all of those suits have failed so far.
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RFA ☛ Hong Kong passes strict new national security law
Critics say the ‘Article 23' legislation will be used to target peaceful dissent and quell political opposition.
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JURIST ☛ Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously passes new national security bill
The Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously voted in favour of the new Safeguarding National Security Bill on Tuesday. The bill will be gazetted and come into effect on March 23. The bill consists of nine parts.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Article 23: Hong Kong’s ‘all-patriots’ legislature set to pass new security law after fast-tracked second reading
Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature is set to pass new security legislation, after the second reading of a proposed domestic security bill resumed earlier than expected.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong passes new security law, raising max. penalty for treason, insurrection to life in prison
Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature has unanimously passed new homegrown security legislation, making treason, insurrection and sabotage punishable by up to life in prison, and rejecting Western criticism that the law would further restrict the city’s freedoms.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Article 23: UN rights chief slams new Hong Kong security law as ‘regressive, rushed’
The UN rights chief denounced the “rushed” adoption Tuesday of a new national security law in Hong Kong, calling it “a regressive step for the protection of human rights”.
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France24 ☛ Hong Kong adopts contentious law giving government more power to quash dissent
Hong Kong legislators unanimously passed a new national security law on Tuesday, introducing penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason and insurrection, and up to 20 years in jail for the theft of state secrets.
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Reason ☛ "Black Lives Mat[t]er" + "Any Life" Drawing "Not Protected by the First Amendment" in First Grade
Such speech can be found to be "impermissible harassment," the court says, partly because "deference to schoolteachers is especially appropriate today, where, increasingly, what is harmful or innocent speech is in the eye of the beholder."
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Reason ☛ Murthy v. Missouri and Government Urging Platforms to Restrict Speech
The government can't block viewpoints it condemns from its own property that has been opened to publicspeech. Should there be limits on government systematically and substantially encouraging private entities to block the same viewpoints from their property—which may be much more important to public debate than the government property where speech remains free?
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Reason ☛ The First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and Substantial Encouragement
Part of the Murthy v. Missouri challengers' claim is that the First Amendment bans the government from even "substantially encouraging" private entities to block user speech. And as I noted in the post below, I appreciate the difficulties with this claim (though I also appreciate its appeal). Here, though, I wanted to repeat one narrow observation…
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Reason ☛ Justice Jackson Seems to Be Charting a More Speech-Restriction-Tolerant Approach
Justice Jackson, like Justice Breyer (whom she replaced and for whom she clerked), seems to be considering an approach that is more embracing of speech restrictions that she views as especially urgent—including perhaps ones that departs from precedents such as the Pentagon Papers case.
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Reason ☛ 'Hamstringing the Government': A Viral Narrative Distorts Ketanji Brown Jackson's Understanding of Free Speech
If partisans have one thing in common, it's confirmation bias.
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JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court hears NRA First Amendment case
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in NRA v. Vullo on Monday. In this case, the NRA accuses a New York State official of improperly using regulatory authority to pressure banks and insurers to cut ties with the group in the aftermath of the Parkland High School shooting.
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JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in free speech challenge to Biden administration contact with social control media platforms
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a free speech challenge to the Biden administration’s encouragement of platforms to remove posts that officials deemed misinformation, including posts relating to elections and COVID-19.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Supreme Court tackles controversial topic of Biden administration-big tech cooperation
Both liberal and conservative justices at the Supreme Court today seemed wary of finding that the Biden administration acted improperly when it worked with Big Tech companies to censor online content it deemed “misinformation” regarding the 2020 presidential election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other issues.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Press Gazette ☛ Online publishers hit by declining Facebook (Farcebook) and advertising revenue in 2023
Audio and subscriptions were noted as bright spots in Q4 2023.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong activists urged US, Canada to impose sanctions and restrict arms sales amid 2019 protests, Jimmy Lai trial hears
Hong Kong activists appealed to Canada and the US to restrict arms sales to the city and to impose sanctions on city officials over alleged “human rights abuses” during the 2019 protests and unrest, the national security trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai has heard.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Techdirt ☛ ‘Consent’ Searches Aren’t Doing Anything To Reduce Crime
A lot of police work in the United States is just playing the odds. Roll the dice enough times, and you’re sure to come up a winner now and then. The odds really don’t matter because law enforcement agencies are playing with house money, so being wrong time and time again will never bankrupt them.
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RFA ☛ INTERVIEW: ‘We have zero tolerance for the importation of products made with forced labor’
Robert Silvers of the US Department of Homeland Security discusses enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
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EDRI ☛ Written submission: Civil society shows evidence gaps in “Going Dark” group proposal for access to data for law enforcement
On 28 February 2024, EDRi and its members submitted written comments on the work of the High-Level Group (HLG) on “access to data for effective law enforcement". This HLG was set up under the Swedish Presidency of the Council in 2023 to allegedly find solutions to law enforcement ‘modern challenges’ in the digital era.
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Techdirt ☛ Court To Cops: There’s No ‘Instinct Exception’ For Drug Dogs Handlers Refuse To Handle
Officers who handle drug dogs like to claim they’re so highly skilled at animal handling they can recognize otherwise imperceptible moves by their animals as the dog “alerting,” giving them (and, more literally) their animals free rein to perform warrantless searches of vehicles.
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ACLU ☛ State Legislative Sessions: How They Impact Your Rights
State legislation is crucially connected to our civil liberties, and can either expand our rights or chip away at them. These bills touch nearly every aspect of our lives. From Roe v. Wade and the Dobbs case that overturned the right to an abortion, to Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws banning interracial marriage, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized marriage equality across the country — many Supreme Court cases that address all of our civil rights come from laws that were passed in state legislatures.
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Patents
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JUVE ☛ Patent case numbers rising at UK High Court
According to civil justice statistics, the number of new patent monopoly cases which parties are filing at the first-instance UK High Court are rising once again. In 2023, parties filed 46 new patent monopoly actions.
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Software Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Touchmusic distribution patent monopoly prior art
Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claims 1 and 2 of U.S. Patent 6,182,128, owned by Touchmusic Entertainment LLC, an NPE.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Are Gummy Vitamins Related to Personal Care Products Under Section 2(d)?
The USPTO refused to register the mark KUDO for "Gummy vitamins; Nutritional supplements in the form of gummies," finding confusion likely with the nearly identical mark KUDOS registered for "Hair shampoo, hair conditioner, soap for hands, face and body, skin/body moisturizer, skin/body lotion, shaving preparations, body/hand cream, skin cleansing cream, and bath gels/oil." Are the goods related? Do they travel through the same trade channels? How do you think this appeal came out? In re Salvation Nutraceuticals Inc., Serial No. 97015288 (March 8, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark Lebow).
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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Year [52] of Limerick Calendar System Comes to a Close - Happy New Year!
A little bit more than a year ago I came up with a calendar system called the "Limerick Calendar" which has 5 day weeks instead of 7 day weeks. It's called the Limerick Calendar because limericks are poems that have 5 lines to them. Considering the year is usually 365 days long, this means we can split the year into 73 weeks. 73 is just 1 week shy of a multiple of 12, which means we can have months that are almost exactly the same length with the exception of 1 extra week that needs to be inserted at some point.
This system turns out to be pretty similar to the Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric (POEE) Calendar, which is described on page 00034 of the "Principia Discordia". My calendar has a few different rules, especially for leap year and the start of the year.
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Equinox
Yes, well, they do. So the shadow map on good ol' sunclock will flip to the other side. Which reminds me of Vi, having determined the day of the solstice using "first principles", i.e. a shadow casting stick and a ruler.
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Technology and Free Software
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10 days until the world backup day
Just a friendly reminder folks, you've got approximately 10 days to back up all your stuff.
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Spring is here!
... and I rediscovered important PGP keys, certs and my key to Midnight! Shame on me for not noticing that my USB drive began to corrupt itself months ago and now rendered my keys useless. Luckily, all keys and certs were stored across a bunch of devices, so restoring them, alongside various other files, took less than an hour.
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Internet/Gemini
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Interview at Geomob Podcast
Earlier this week an episode of the Geomob Podcast was published where Steven Feldman interviews yours truly. It was a lot of fun to chat with Steven about Elastic, my experience in the geospatial industry, and Open Source in general. I could also advocate a bit about data privacy and digital identity which is a topic that has picked my interest even more lately with all the shit that is hitting that social network we all know about.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.