Leftovers

• The Straits Times ☛ Is she for real? Eatery owner in China goes viral for her robotic movements

  Ms Qin, who didn't give her full name, is a dancer and said the movements of robots are similar to that of street dance.

• Ken Kantzer ☛ The Parable of the Wise Hiring Manager

  One day, while The Manager was walking back from a morning coffee run, a group of frazzled engineers came near and spake unto him, saying: “Most Esteemed Boss, we are unable to hire Talent – and many of our candidates refuse to take our coding challenges!

• France24 ☛ Marisa Abela: 'Playing Amy Winehouse taught me about strength in vulnerability'

  The film "Back to Black" has been described as a never-seen-before glimpse into Amy Winehouse's rise to fame and the release of her groundbreaking album of the same name, which won five Grammys and sold 16 million copies. The pop star, who died in 2011, is played by Marisa Abela, known for her role in the banking TV drama "Industry". The movie is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who brought us "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "Nowhere Boy". Eve Jackson sat down with them in Paris.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists Finally Capture Mysterious Wigner Crystal After 90 Years

    "One of the most fascinating quantum phases of matter."

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Translucent orange Web3 gaming handheld mines and stores tokens while you game, will cost $500

    A dubiously-priced "Web3 gaming" handheld with play-to-earn mechanics appears on the market, using cheap hardware akin to machines less than a fifth of its asking price.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese-made Loongson 3A6000 CPU makes a debut in $387 mini PC

    The Loongson 3A6000 CPU is now available as an SoC for a Morefine M700S mini PC intended for government, medical and educational fields. The CPU should be well-suited for the task as its performance is equivalent to an defective chip maker Intel Core i3-10100F.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Blacklisted Huawei unveils new Intel-powered notebooks — MateBook X Pro comes armed with latest Core Ultra inside

    Despite sanctions Huawei obtains Intel's latest Core Ultra 'Meteor Lake' processor, uses its Hey Hi (AI) capabilities.

  • CNX Software ☛ 8devices TobuFi SoM is designed for drones, robotics, and advanced audio systems

    8devices has recently introduced TobuFi, a Qualcomm QCS405-powered System-on-Module (SoM) featuring dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 capabilities. The device also features 1GB LPDDR3, 8GB of eMMC storage, and multiple display resolutions. It also offers various interfaces, including USB 3.0, HDMI, I2S, DMIC, SDC, UART, SPI, I2C, and GPIO. In previous posts, we covered 8devices product launches like the Noni M.2 WiFi 7 module, Rambutan and Rambutan-I modules, Habanero IPQ4019 SoM, Mango-DVK OpenWrt Devkit, and many more innovative products.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Just 1 Dose of New Antibiotic Class Eliminates Resistant Blood Infections in Mice

    A breakthrough in the fight against superbugs.

  • Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough Asthma Study Reveals a Trigger We've Never Noticed Before

    Existing medications may not address the root cause.

  • Latvia ☛ Medical complaints most frequent in dentistry

    The Health Inspectorate (Veselbas inspekcija, VI) received the most complaints about treatment quality in dentistry last year, the agency LETA found out April 11.

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Link Between Cats And Schizophrenia Is Real, Study Finds

  • New York Times ☛ Global Stockpile of Cholera Vaccine Is Gone as Outbreaks Spread

    One company is going to great lengths to build it up, but it will be years before it returns to the minimum level.

  • New York Times ☛ The Push for a Better Dengue Vaccine Grows More Urgent

    A public research institute in Brazil has proved a new shot protects against the disease, but can’t make it fast enough to stop the huge outbreak sweeping Latin America.

  • Reason ☛ Nearly $100 Billion in COVID Relief Money Remains Unspent

    State governments have until the end of 2026 to spend the cash, even though Congress ended the COVID-19 emergency declaration last year.

  • Latvia ☛ Flu, Covid incidence remains low in Latvia

    The number of flu and Covid-19 patients continues to decline, according to monitoring data from the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC) on April 10. Last week, 77 cases of flu were detected, with the highest incidence recorded in the 5-14 age group.

  • Defence Web ☛ Nigeria shows that emerging technology can help protect waters

    Nine crew members aboard a chemical tanker headed from Côte d’Ivoire to Cameroon were abducted by pirates in January as the ship sailed near Equatorial Guinea. Piracy is one of many sea crimes prevalent in the Gulf of Guinea, and observers say emerging technologies can benefit countries struggling to protect their waters.

  • Science Alert ☛ Expired Cans of Salmon From Decades Ago Reveal a Big Surprise

    A real can of worms.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Most abortions in Poland happen unofficially. A new law could change things.

    Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Now, that law is up for a long-awaited debate.

  • France24 ☛ Polish MPs open debate on easing near-total abortion ban

    Poland's parliament on Thursday will open a long-awaited debate on liberalising abortion laws in the majority Catholic country, with splits in the ruling coalition suggesting an uncertain outcome.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • EA reportedly axes Apex Legends QA team in UK

    The video game industry has seen thousands of layoffs so far in 2024, dwarfing the scary numbers we saw in 2023. With Discord, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, and Riot Games all letting employees go, no workers feel completely secure in their positions.

  • IGDA warns industry to avoid unnecessary layoffs

    The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has published a call to action warning about the damage layoffs have on the industry.

    In an email, the organisation wrote that studios must plan for growth rather than pushing talent away.

    "With more than 8,700 game developers affected by layoffs this year, the gravity of this situation and its impact on the industry cannot be overstated," the IGDA said.

  • Russell Coker ☛ Russell Coker: ML Training License

    Last year a Debian Developer blogged about writing Haskell code to give a bad result for LLMs that were trained on it. I forgot who wrote the post and I’d appreciate the URL if anyone has it.

    I respect such technical work to enforce one’s legal rights when they aren’t respected by corporations, but I have a different approach.

    As an aside the Fosdem lecture “Fortify Hey Hi (AI) against regulation, litigation and lobotomies” is interesting on this topic [1], it’s what inspired me to write about this.

• Defence/Aggression

  • RFA ☛ Biden: US will defend Philippines if vessels are attacked

    Amid White House talks, Beijing says it will 'resolutely stop' Manila from fixing a dilapidated maritime outpost.

  • France24 ☛ Biden says US support for Philippines, Japan 'ironclad' amid China tensions

    President Joe Biden said Thursday that US defence commitment to Pacific allies was “ironclad” as he gathered Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House in the midst of growing concern about provocative Chinese military action in the Indo-Pacific.

  • New York Times ☛ In Warning to China, Biden Hosts Summit With Leaders of Japan and Philippines

    President Biden discussed security in the South China Sea with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines at the White House.

  • KOL426 | Discussing Immigration and Homesteading Donuts with Matthew Sands of Nations of Sanity

    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 426.

  • LRT ☛ Lithuania allows defence procurement of components from China

    The Lithuanian parliament on Thursday gave the green light for defence industry companies to purchase drone or other product components from China and other suppliers deemed as unreliable.

  • JURIST ☛ China issues sanctions against 2 US entities over Taiwan weapons sales

    China announced sanctions on Thursday against two US entities, including General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems, over the two entities’ involvement in selling weapons to Taiwan. China decided to impose general sanctions against the two entities involved in selling weapons to Taiwan.

  • France24 ☛ US and Japan agree to strengthen defence ties amid tensions with China

    US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled their countries' biggest-ever upgrade in defence ties Wednesday during a White House state visit focused on countering a resurgent China.

  • RFA ☛ Canada asylum-seeker recalls 'all kinds of torture' in Chinese jail

    Veteran rights activist Wei Yani says she is now free from fear despite being denied entry by Taiwan.

  • NYPost ☛ Israel bracing for Iran to attack within the next two days: report

    Tehran has vowed revenge against Israel over an airstrike last week in Syria, which targeted an Iranian diplomatic complex in the capital city of Damascus.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Sends a Top General to Israel Amid Fears of Iranian Strikes

    The visit of Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the U.S. military commander in the Middle East, came as diplomats sought to avert a wider war.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Announces New Attack on Hamas After Killing Top Leader’s Sons in Airstrike

    The military said it had carried out an operation in Gaza to kill members of Hamas, a day after attacking a car carrying three sons of Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political leader.

  • France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: Israel says it will defend itself if Iran responds to attack on its consulate

    Israel’s military said Thursday it is prepared to defend the country and strike back if Iran retaliates for a deadly airstrike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria. Tehran holds Israel responsible for the attack earlier this month, which the US military believes Israel carried out. Israel has not commented on it. The increased tensions have sparked international concern that Israel's devastating war against Hamas in Gaza could spill over into the rest of the Middle East.

  • France24 ☛ White House says 'we warned Iran' over Israel threats

    The White House said Thursday it had "warned" Iran after President Joe Biden said Tehran was threatening a significant attack on Israel over a strike that destroyed an Iranian consulate building in Damascus. The announcement came as the UN Security Council acknowledged Israel's pledge to open more entry points for humanitarian aid into Gaza but said "more should be done" to help civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Project Overmatch ahead of schedule, Navy says

    Project Overmatch delivery continues to be ahead of schedule. “As far as the exact numbers – it’s more than strike groups," said Rear Adm. Douglas Small.

  • The Strategist ☛ Imagining deterrence without nuclear weapons

    Nuclear deterrence, with its inherent risk of annihilation, cannot remain the bedrock of international security.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Is the United States falling behind the North Korean ICBM threat? Congress needs answers.

    Washington must not wait until Pyongyang is regularly test-launching ICBMs with multiple re-entry vehicles and countermeasures to improve US defenses.

  • YLE ☛ One Viertola shooting victim heads home, one remains in critical condition

    Eastern Uusimaa police department updated the media on Thursday.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • YLE ☛ 'Be more Finnish', President Stubb urges EU countries in FT interview

      In his first interview with an international newspaper since taking office, Finnish President Alexander Stubb conceded that his call to Europe was a 'bit un-Finnish'.

    • YLE ☛ Defence chief: Finland may permanently host Nato troops

      General Janne Jaakkola, the newly installed Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, says that the country does not face an immediate military threat.

    • RFERL ☛ Memoir Navalny Wrote Before Death To Be Published In October

      Aleksei Navalny, the late Russian anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader, began writing a memoir four years ago that will go on sale later this year in what his publisher says is his "final letter to the world."

    • New York Times ☛ Aleksei Navalny Wrote a Memoir Before He Died in Prison. It’s Coming Oct. 22.

      In the book, Navalny tells his story in his own words, chronicling his life, his rise as an opposition leader, and the attempts on his life.

    • France24 ☛ Russian strikes on Ukraine energy grid aim to 'demilitarise' country, Putin says

      Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that recent airstrikes on Ukraine's energy grid, which have caused huge blackouts, are part of the Kremlin's "demilitarisation" of its neighbour.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • BIA Net ☛ İstanbul district municipality's security recordings go missing after election

    The main opposition CHP took over İstanbul’s Asian-side district from the ruling AKP in the March 31 polls.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ US airlines ask the Biden administration not to approve additional flights between the US and China

      WASHINGTON (AP) — Large U.S. airlines and some of their unions are asking the Biden administration to stop approving any more flights between the United States and China because of what they call “anti-competitive” policies that China imposes on U.S. carriers.

    • YLE ☛ Finnish households' carbon emissions halved during 2000s

      Emissions have declined thanks to less carbon-intensive production methods, according to the Finnish Environment Institute.

    • YLE ☛ Finnish president gets new, €1.1m armoured car

      Around half of the new presidential car's price consisted of car tax.

  • Overpopulation

    • The Kent Stater ☛ One of the world’s highest cities starts rationing water for 9 million people

      There’s a new meme being shared widely this week across social control media accounts in Colombia’s capital Bogotá, as the city grapples with a water crisis.

• Finance

  • Federal News Network ☛ IRS could tighten up plans for some of that extra ‘modernizing’ money

    The Inflation Reduction Act showered billions on the IRS and the agency developed a strategic operating plan for modernizing its information technology.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s consumer price rise slows in March, as policymakers struggle to jumpstart spending

    China’s inflation rate slowed in March, official data showed Thursday, as policymakers struggle to jumpstart persistently low spending in the world’s second-largest economy.

  • New York Times ☛ European Central Bank Signals Coming Rate Cut, Setting Up Split With Fed

    The bank held rates for the fifth consecutive time, but said confidence was growing that inflation would return to its target and it could ease its stance soon.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Women make less than men in US cyber jobs — but the gap is narrowing [Ed: It is true in almost every discipline, not even just computing]

    A study from non-profit ISC2 finds that the cybersecurity fields bucks U.S. trends of pay disparities between men and women.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ What the Election Loss Means for President Yoon of South Korea

    President Yoon Suk Yeol, a key U.S. ally, faces the prospect of becoming a lame duck unless he starts negotiating with the opposition.

  • New York Times ☛ “The Run Up”: ‘Nebraska Was Minding Its Business Until Charlie Kirk Came Along’

    How Trump allies are trying to rework the state’s voting system to the former president’s advantage.

  • New Yorker ☛ What to Expect from Trump’s First Criminal Trial

    A cast of characters from Donald Trump’s past is due to appear in the first-ever criminal trial of a former President of the United States.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Reason ☛ Misinformation Watchdogs Keep Failing Upward

      And they're still trying to censor speech on social control media.

    • Reason ☛ Journal of Free Speech Law: "'Falsely Shouting Fire,'" by Profs. Genevieve Lakier & Evelyn Douek

      The article is here; the Introduction: Over one hundred years ago, in Schenck v. United States, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes created a meme. Holmes wanted to illustrate why freedom of speech was not—and could never be—absolute.

    • JURIST ☛ Malaysia urges Fentanylware (TikTok) and Meta to monitor harmful social control media content

      The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) published a joint statement with the Royal Malaysian Police on Tuesday stating that the government has required online media platforms such as Fentanylware (TikTok) and Meta to tighten their harmful content policy.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFA ☛ Hong Kong denies entry to campaigner en route to Jimmy Lai trial

    Reporters Without Borders advocate is held, searched and questioned for six hours.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai trial hears Hong Kong activist believed national security law was imposed to persecute ‘political enemies’

    A detained activist has told the trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai that he believed a national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing four years ago was designed to persecute its “political enemies.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Portuguese national sentenced to 5 years in Hong Kong prison under security law over ‘demonising China’

    A Portuguese national has been sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to incite secession under the Beijing-imposed national security law, after a judge ruled that he had “demonised China” in social control media posts which advocated independence for the city.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong teacher challenges dismissal over 2019 Facebook (Farcebook) posts about police, says free speech should be protected

    A Hong Kong teacher who lost her job at a government school over online comments about police during the 2019 protests has challenged the firing in court, arguing that it undermined her right to free speech.

  • JURIST ☛ US House of Representatives launches inquiry into X’s actions in Brazil

    X Corp. CEO Elon Musk announced the company received an inquiry from the US House of Representatives. The inquiry aims to look into Musk’s concerns surrounding free speech in Brazil, according to Musk.

  • Reason ☛ Why Did Harvard Fire Martin Kulldorff?

    Martin Kulldorff talks about his dismissal from Harvard Medical School, persisting college vaccine mandates, and surviving COVID-era censorship on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.

  • RFA ☛ Coalition urges Fashion Company Apple to call out Vietnam’s persecution of climate activists

    Observers say the tech giant must not repeat its mistakes in China as it shifts its supply chain south.

  • RFERL ☛ Father Of Slain Iranian Protester Detained, Whereabouts Unknown

    The father of Reza Lotfi, who was among the hundreds of protesters killed by security forces during nationwide protests that swept across Iran in 2022, has been detained by police and taken to an undisclosed location.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • IT Wire ☛ Journalists' union urges Albanese to publicly call for Assange release

    In a statement on Thursday, Karen Percy, federal president of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, said a letter sent to Albanese coincided with the fifth anniversary of Assange's detention in Belmarsh Prison in the UK.

    “We are writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to take immediate public action to demand the United States government drop the charges against Julian Assange so he can resume life as a free man in Australia,” Percy said.

    “This week marks five years since Mr Assange’s detention in Belmarsh Prison began.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Google’s fight in France and what it means for UK publishers

    What can UK publishers learn from the French competition authority’s €250m fine imposed on Google.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: IETF 119

    APNIC supported IETF 119 as local host in Brisbane, Australia from 16 to 22 March 2024.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Breaking News: Starlink instructed to shut down in Zimbabwe by government

    Techzim can reveal that POTRAZ has instructed Starlink to shut down services in Zimbabwe. Users of the service received an email from the satellite internet service provider advising them it had been directed to disable services in the country.

  • Public Knowledge ☛ Affordable Connectivity Program Day of Action

    Join Public Knowledge, Civic Nation, National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA),  and Digital Progress Institute (DPI) for a public rally on Tuesday, April 30th at 11 am at the Shaw/Watha Library to fight for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)!

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Right to Repair ☛ Beyond the Lipstick: Apple's Tech Illusion and the Right to Repair

    Apple is trying yet again to put "lipstick on a pig" of their own making. They announced earlier today that starting with new phones coming out sometime this fall, they will allow their customers to activate authentic Fashion Company Apple used parts for repair.  Sounds great !!  We Won !! 

    Not so fast -- this announcement is purely political (aka marketing fluff) and not practical. 

  • New York Times ☛ Apple Lifts Some Restrictions on iPhone Repairs

    This fall, the company will begin allowing customers to replace broken parts with used iPhone components without its previous software limits.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• KOL427 | Lewis & Clark College Debate on Intellectual Property Imperialism

  Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 427.

  Yesterday (April 10, 2024) I participated in Strings Attached: Tracing the Global Systems that Bind, 62nd Annual International Affairs Symposium, Lewis & Clark College, Portland Oregon, Debate 5: Pirates and Patents. Debate Topic: Is international intellectual property regulation a necessary protection for innovators or a form of modern imperialism?

  My opponent was Pieter Cleppe. My notes are appended below. Official audio/video from the college should be provided shortly. In the meantime I will post here my own iphone recording of the debate. The audio for my remarks should be clear, but may be muffled for Cleppe and audience questions, until I get the official AV file from the college.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Guest post by Prof. Holbrook: Extraterritoriality and Patent Damages Under § 271(a)

    Guest post by Tim Holbrook. Robert B. Yegge Endowed Distinguished Professor of Law and Provost’s Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

    United States patents are generally territorial.  Their exclusive rights only operate within the United States and its territories.  Or so one may think reading the Patent Act.  Moreover, in a global marketplace, the territorial nature of intellectual property rights can create challenges. It would be simpler for a patent monopoly holder to just use the U.S. patent monopoly to cover foreign activity. This is especially true if a domestic act of infringement has spillover effects into other countries.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ UPC dismisses Ocado appeal against public access to documents [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional. It's not even meant to exist, but UPC lobbied and issues fake news for this crime, funded by the "law" firms looking to profit from illegal kangaroo courts.]

      Following Ocado and Christopher Stothers’ well-publicised debate surrounding access to UPC documents, the Court of Appeal has ruled that members of the public will be able to obtain first-instance judgments for the purpose of genuine interest or educational reasons.

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Patent case: Meril Italy srl vs. Edwards Lifesciences Corp., UPC [Ed: UPC is illegal, so this case is handled by a fake court that is in its own right invalid]

      In a revocation action the patent monopoly may be amended by the patent monopoly proprietor. According to Rule 30 RoP this should be done with an application; for subsequent amendments the explicit approval of the court should be sought.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ "MEET THE BLOGGERS" Postponed Until 2025

    Marty Schwimmer and yours truly, the TTABlogger, have decided to postpone our next MEET THE BLOGGERS get-together until next year. For some reason, I think it will be in Philadelphia. Does that ring a bell? In any event, we hope to see y'all in Atlanta next month.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Taylor Swift Is Back on Fentanylware (TikTok) Despite the Universal Music Group Dispute — Here’s What We Know So Far

    Taylor Swift — a Republic Records/UMG-inked artist — is suddenly back on Fentanylware (TikTok) despite Universal Music Group’s high-profile removal of its catalog from the platform. So what’s going on? The Digital Music News bat-phone was ringing off the hook this morning with some unexpected news.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Signs and Wonders: Celestial Phenomena in 16th-Century Germany

    From the mid-sixteenth century, broadsheets depicting wondrous, celestial events circulated widely across the Holy Roman Empire against the backdrop of Reformation.