Links 18/05/2024: Revisiting the Harms of Patent Trolls, Google Tries to Bypass (or Plagiarise) Sites Under the Guise of "AI"
Contents
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Leftovers
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Hackaday ☛ Improved 3D Scanning Rig Adds Full-Sized Camera Support
There are plenty of reasons to pick up or build a 3D scanner. Modeling for animation or special effects, reverse engineering or designing various devices or products, and working with fabrics and clothing are all well within the wide range of uses for these tools. [Vojislav] built one a few years ago which used an array of cameras to capture 3D information but the Pi camera modules used in this build limited the capabilities of the scanner in some ways. [Vojislav]’s latest 3D scanner takes a completely different approach by using a single high-quality camera instead.
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Hackaday ☛ Put A Little Pigeon In Your Next Clock Project
If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably wondered why gear teeth are shaped the way they’re shaped. But we’ll go out on a limb and say you’ve never wondered why gear teeth aren’t shaped like pigeons, and what a clock that’s not quite a clock based around them would look like.
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Vice Media Group ☛ Early Color Photography, and the Man Who Revives It
Autochromes are some of the first color photos, dating back to the 1910s and 1920s. Stuart Humphryes brings them back to life.
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Licensing / Legal
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JURIST ☛ EU consumer protection group lodges complaint against China fast-fashion retailer Temu
According to the complaint, Temu has failed to protect consumers and has used manipulative practices, which are illegal under the DSA. In particular, it has often failed to provide crucial information relevant to determining whether the product meets EU product safety requirements and frequently lacks clarity on how it recommends products.
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Standards/Consortia
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[Repeat] John Goerzen ☛ Review of Reputable, Functional, and Secure Email Service
I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the time, I selected mailbox.org as my provider, and have been using them for these 5 years since. However, both their service and their support have gone significantly downhill since, so it is time for me to look at other options.
Here I am focusing strongly on email. Some of the providers mentioned here provide other services (IM, video calls, groupware, etc.), and to the extent they do, I am ignoring them.
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Gabriel Sieben ☛ Thinking out loud about 2nd-gen Email – Gabriel Sieben
For users, email works pretty well. Sometimes it sends too many emails to Junk, but Email is old, reliable, easy to understand, and relatively easy to search. It’s a good system, and I’m not eager to replace it with Slack anytime soon.
However… the backend for email, is a mess. In escalating order (and “we” is used in a very imprecise, broad hand-waving sense for technologists): [...]
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Science
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Hackaday ☛ Nature Vs Nurture In Beethoven’s Genome
When it comes to famous musicians, Beethoven is likely to hit most top ten charts. Researchers recently peered into his genome to see if they could predict his talent by DNA alone.
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Science Alert ☛ Many Animals Actually Have a Third, Transparent Eyelid. Here's Why.
Did you ever notice this?
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Science Alert ☛ A Vast, Untapped Source of Lithium Has Just Been Found in The US
But at what cost?
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Science Alert ☛ Highly Pathogenic Bird Flu Detected in Birds in New York City
"Stay alert and stay away."
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Science Alert ☛ Scientists Warn Brain Diseases Are Getting Worse as Climate Change Intensifies
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Science Alert ☛ Sleep Wrinkles Are a Real Thing, And It's All About How You Sleep
Time to face the truth.
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Hardware
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Linux Gizmos ☛ QCS6490 Vision-AI Development Kit: Featuring 13 TOPs NPU and 8-Core Kryo 670 CPU
Avnet has introduced the QCS6490 Vision-AI Development Kit, a sophisticated solution designed for vision-based AI applications. This kit includes an energy-efficient, multi-camera SMARC 2.1.1 compute module powered by the Qualcomm QCS6490 SoC.
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Russell Coker ☛ Kogan 5120*2160 40″ Monitor
I’ve just got a new Kogan 5120*2160 40″ curved monitor. It cost $599 including shipping etc which is much cheaper than the Dell monitor with similar specs selling for about $2500. For monitors with better than 4K resolution (by which I don’t mean 5K*1440) this is the cheapest option. The nearest competitors are the 27″ monitors that do 5120*2880 from Apple and some companies copying Apple’s specs. While 5120*2880 is a significantly better resolution than what I got it’s probably not going to help me at 27″ size.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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JURIST ☛ South Korea Supreme Court upholds government plan to increase medical school admissions amid doctor protests
The Supreme Court of Korea dismissed an appeal on Thursday filed by doctors and medical professionals aiming to stop the South Korean government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions by up to 2,000 students next year, according to reports from local media.
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The FLCCC bestows the fake title of “senior fellow” to twelve antivax quacks
I’m sorry that I haven’t been as active here as usual. I blame a grant deadline next week, although there have been other issues. Still, I did feel the need to grind out this post because the topic so perfectly epitomizes something about quackery and antivax that I’ve been pointing out for years and years, namely how those promoting them crave legitimacy—or at least the appearance of legitimacy. One reason, of course, is that nearly always conventional science and medicine, through their professional societies, peer-reviewed publications, and meetings, have rejected them, providing them no scientific outlet to launder their pseudoscience, quackery, and conspiracy theories to give them the appearance of legitimacy. So they create such outlets, which is what the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) has just done by naming twelve quacks as “senior fellow” its International Senior Fellowship Program.
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Hackaday ☛ Emulating Biology For Robots With Rolling Contact Joints
Joints are an essential part in robotics, especially those that try to emulate the motion of (human) animals. Unlike the average automaton, animals are not outfitted with bearings and similar types of joints, but rather rely sometimes on ball joints and a lot on rolling contact joints (RCJs). These RCJs have the advantage of being part of the skeletal structure, making them ideal for compact and small joints. This is the conclusion that [Breaking Taps] came to as well while designing the legs for a bird-like automaton.
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James G ☛ Mental Health Awareness Week
Content warning: This post discusses mental health.
It is Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK, and Mental Health Awareness Month in the US. Raising awareness for mental health is close to my heart. I suffer from anxiety. I know the pain of what seems seemingly easy -- leaving the house without worrying that you turned all the taps off, asking for the bill at a restaurant, finding a seat on a train -- being difficult.
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American Oversight ☛ Democracy Forward and American Oversight Celebrate Victory for Transparency in Health Care Reform Open Records Case
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RFA ☛ Mid-May frost damages crops in northern North Korea
A government directive to rush planting left farms especially vulnerable, residents said.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Reason ☛ Review: South Park's Take on ChatGPT
The long-running satirical show turns its animated sights on Hey Hi (AI) and ChatGPT.
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Silicon Angle ☛ EU asks Abusive Monopolist Microsoft to provide information about Bing’s generative Hey Hi (AI) features
European Union officials have issued Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Corp. a legally binding request for information about two generative artificial intelligence features in Bing. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced the move today. Abusive Monopolist Microsoft has until May 27 to provide the requested information. Failing to do so could lead to potentially significant fines.
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Dot Esports ☛ Palia studio Singularity 6 undergoes second round of layoffs inside a month
Palia developer Singularity 6 recently announced that it has laid off 36 staff members, adding to the long string of job cuts impacting the gaming industry. The company stated that the layoffs resulted from some of the same factors plaguing other developers this year.
On Wednesday, May 15, Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter reported that Singularity 6 had gone through its third round of layoffs. The developer reportedly laid off 36 staff members, amounting to approximately 40 percent of its staff. While no official statement from the developer was made regarding the layoffs at first, a spokesperson provided a statement to Game Developer on Friday, explaining the reason for the decision.
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With Layoffs And Subleases On The Rise, Once-Bustling Tech Hub Playa Vista Struggles With Empty Space
Just two years ago, household names in tech, media and consumer products were on an office leasing spree in Playa Vista, a seaside sliver of Los Angeles' Westside in an area sometimes called Silicon Beach.
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Security Week ☛ A Former Proprietary Chaffbot Company Leader Says Safety Has ‘Taken a Backseat to Shiny Products’ at the Hey Hi (AI) Company
Jan Leike, who ran OpenAI’s “Super Alignment” team believes there should be more focus on preparing for the next generation of Hey Hi (AI) models, including on things like safety
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Tedium ☛ Does One Line Fix Google?
Forget AI. Surveillance Giant Google just created a version of its search engine free of all the extra junk it has added over the past decade-plus. All you have to do is add "udm=14" to the search URL.
Simply put, Google has started adding “AI overviews” to many of its search results, which essentially throw pre-processed answers that often do not match the original intent of the search. If you’re using Google to actually find websites rather than get answers, it $!@(&!@ sucks. Admittedly though, it’s not the first time Google has adulterated its results like a food manufacturer in the 19th century—knowledge panels have been around for years.
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Security
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LWN ☛ Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by Fedora (chromium, firefox, and podman), Mageia (chromium-browser-stable, ghostscript, and java-1.8.0, java-11, java-17, java-latest), Red Hat (bind, Firefox, firefox, gnutls, httpd:2.4, and thunderbird), SUSE (glibc, opera, and python-Pillow), and Ubuntu (dotnet7, dotnet8, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4,
linux-oracle-5.4, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-5.4, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-6.5, linux-azure, linux-azure-6.5, linux-gcp,
linux-gcp-6.5, linux-hwe-6.5, linux-laptop, linux-lowlatency,
linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5, linux-nvidia-6.5, linux-oem-6.5, linux-oracle,
linux-oracle-6.5, linux-raspi, linux-signed, linux-signed-aws,
linux-signed-aws-6.5, linux-starfive, linux-starfive-6.5, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure-4.15, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-kvm,
linux-oracle, linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lts-xenial, and linux, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde,
linux-azure-fde-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-gkeop,
linux-intel-iotg, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15,
linux-nvidia, linux-oracle, linux-raspi).
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Diffoscope ☛ Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 267 released
The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version
267
. This version includes the following changes:* Include "xz --verbose --verbose" (ie. double --verbose) output, not just the single --verbose. (Closes: #1069329) * Only include "xz --list" output if the xz has no other differences.
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OpenSSF (Linux Foundation) ☛ Where Does Your Software (Really) Come From?
Software is a funny, profound thing: Each piece of it is an invisible machine, seemingly made of magic words, designed to run on the ultimate, universal machine. It’s not alive, but it has a lifecycle. It starts out as source code—just text files sitting in a repository somewhere—and then later (through some unique process), that source gets built into something else. A chunk of minified JavaScript delivered to a web server, a container image full of framework code and business logic, a raw binary compiled for a specific processor architecture.
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Security Week ☛ In Other News: MediSecure Hack, Scattered Spider Targeted by FBI, New Wi-Fi Attack
Noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: FBI is targeting Scattered Spider, Australia’s MediSecure hacked, new Wi-Fi attack.
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Security Week ☛ CISA Warns of Exploited Vulnerabilities in EOL D-Link Products
CISA has added two vulnerabilities in discontinued D-Link products to its KEV catalog, including a decade-old flaw.
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Security Week ☛ New ‘Antidot’ Android Trojan Allows Cybercriminals to Hack Devices, Steal Data
The Antidot Android banking trojan snoops on users and steals their credentials, contacts, and SMS messages.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Privacy International ☛ Two court judgments, one regulatory decision - Bricks fall around UK's GPS tagging of migrants
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EFF ☛ EFF to Court: Electronic Ankle Monitoring Is Bad. Sharing That Data Is Even Worse.
In the case, Simon v. San Francisco, individuals on pretrial release are challenging the City and County of San Francisco’s electronic ankle monitoring program. The lower court ruled the program likely violates the California and federal constitutions. We—along with Professor Kate Weisburd and the Cato Institute—urge the Ninth Circuit to do the same.
Under the program, the San Francisco County Sheriff collects and indefinitely retains geolocation data from people on pretrial release and turns it over to other law enforcement entities without suspicion or a warrant. The Sheriff shares both comprehensive geolocation data collected from individuals and the results of invasive reverse location searches of all program participants’ location data to determine whether an individual on pretrial release was near a specified location at a specified time.
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Security Week ☛ User Outcry as Slack Scrapes Customer Data for Hey Hi (AI) Model Training
Slack reveals it has been training AI/ML models on customer data, including messages, files and usage information. It's opt-in by default.
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Defence/Aggression
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France24 ☛ PM Sonko criticises French military bases, Western push for gay rights in Senegal
Senegal's prime minister Ousmane Sonko raised the possibility of closing French military bases in the West African country on Thursday in a wide-ranging speech that also touched on the euro-backed CFA franc currency, oil and gas deals and LGBTQ rights.
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JURIST ☛ Senegal PM questions France military presence and announces potential base closures
The Prime Minister of Senegal, Ousmane Sonko, announced the possibility of closing French military bases in the West African nation. The address also discussed LGBTQ rights and the practice of monogamy.
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The Straits Times ☛ Incoming Taiwan president Lai to pledge steady approach to relationship with China
TAIPEI - Taiwan's next president, Lai Ching-te, will pledge to secure stability by maintaining the status quo in the island's relationship with China in his inauguration speech on Monday, an incoming senior security official said.
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RFERL ☛ Slovak PM Remains In Intensive Care As Doctors Consider Move To Bratislava
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico remains in intensive care in serious condition and will stay in a hospital in the central city of Banksa Bystrica at least until May 20 before he may be moved to Bratislava.
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EFF ☛ EFF Urges Ninth Circuit to Hold Montana’s TikTok Ban Unconstitutional [Ed: EFF lobbying for CPC, which is fiercely against free speech. How gullible is today's EFF?]
Montana’s ban (which EFF and others opposed) prohibits TikTok from operating anywhere within the state and imposes financial penalties on TikTok or any mobile application store that allows users to access TikTok. The district court recognized that Montana’s law “bans TikTok outright and, in doing so, it limits constitutionally protected First Amendment speech,” and blocked Montana’s ban from going into effect. Last year, EFF—along with the ACLU, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Reason Foundation, and the Center for Democracy and Technology—filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of TikTok and Montana TikTok users’ challenge to this law at the trial court level.
As the brief explains, Montana’s TikTok ban is a prior restraint on speech that prohibits Montana TikTok users—and TikTok itself—from posting on the platform. The law also prohibits TikTok’s ability to make decisions about curating its platform.
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La Quadature Du Net ☛ La Quadrature du Net takes legal action against the French government's censorship of TikTok in New Caledonia
Through an emergency proceeding (reféré-liberté) filed today, La Quadrature du Net is asking the Conseil d’État to suspend Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s decision to block the TikTok platform in New Caledonia. With this censorship order, the French government struck an unprecedented and particularly serious blow to freedom of expression online, which neither the local context nor the toxicity of the platform can justify in a regime pretending to abide by the rule of law.
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France24 ☛ Why did France block Fentanylware (TikTok) to quell unrest in New Caledonia?
France has taken the dramatic step of blocking Fentanylware (TikTok) in its Pacific territory of New Caledonia, as part of efforts to quell days of violent unrest.
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New York Times ☛ Why Fentanylware (TikTok) Users Are Blocking Celebrities
A Fentanylware (TikTok) movement is calling for followers to block famous people over their stances on the Israel-Hamas war. It began at the Met Gala.
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Digital Music News ☛ What Potential Ban? As It Continues Spilling Out Viral Artist Successes, Fentanylware (TikTok) Is Testing 60-Minute Videos
What U.S. ban? Having gradually embraced lengthier content amid intensifying competition in the short-form arena, Fentanylware (TikTok) is now testing 60-minute video uploads. Self-described social control media consultant Matt Navarra spotted the corresponding Fentanylware (TikTok) notice and posted a screenshot to different social platforms.
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New York Times ☛ Israel Recovered the Bodies of 3 Hostages
Also, Francis Ford Coppola has no regrets about his new film.
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The Straits Times ☛ N. Korea's Kim seeks to shore up nuclear force, oversees missile test: KCNA
He also oversaw a test of tactical ballistic missiles with new guidance system.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Stanford University ☛ EU leader Josep Borrell calls for collective global action in Gaza and Ukraine
The EU’s top security advisor Josep Burrell visited the Hoover Institution on Monday — his first visit since his days as a student 50 years ago. He delved into the EU's responsibility in Gaza, Ukraine, China and the digital sphere.
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Latvia ☛ Latvia has no medicine supply system in case of war or crisis
Two years and three months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Latvia still has no reliable system of medicines stockpiles. If war broke out in Latvia tomorrow, the healthcare system would rapidly face disaster. Neither the hospitals nor the disaster reserves are stocked, as reported by Latvian Radio's "Open Files" on May 16.
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France24 ☛ At Cannes Film Festival, too, Ukraine battles on
More than two years into Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s strong presence at the Cannes Film Festival bears witness to its stubborn defence and the resilience of its film industry. The war’s pervasive impact on civilian life is the subject of “The Invasion”, whose director Sergei Loznitsa spoke to FRANCE 24 in Cannes.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian shopping outlets urged vigilance amid arson attacks in Europe
Amid an increase in incidents in European countries, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC) has warned businesses and organisations supporting Ukraine to heighten their vigilance, warning them about potential provocations and advising them to strengthen their fire safety measures.
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LRT ☛ New rules for draft-age Ukrainians abroad come into effect Saturday
As of this Saturday, draft-age Ukrainians living abroad will have to update their data in a special register before they can use consular service.
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RFERL ☛ Bill Allowing Military Service For Some Convicts Endorsed In Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on May 17 signed into law a bill allowing for convicts under certain circumstances to serve in the armed forces as Kyiv deals with a military personnel shortage amid Russia's ongoing invasion.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Officer Who Fled To Kazakhstan To Avoid Ukraine War Detained
Russian military officer Kamil Kasimov, who fled Russia last year to avoid being sent to the war in Ukraine and was legally residing in Astana, was arrested in late April and is currently being held at a Russian military base in Kazakhstan's central Qaraghandy region.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia Vows Retaliation for Ukrainian Strikes on Its Regions
Meanwhile, the EU Council prohibited the broadcasting activities of Ria Novosti, Voice of Europe, Izvestia, and Rossiyskaya.
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New York Times ☛ Zelensky Signs Law Allowing Convicts to Fight for Ukraine
The tactic echoes one that Russia has used and Ukraine has ridiculed in the past.
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teleSUR ☛ Ukrainian President Signs Law to Send Prisoners to Front Lines
The authorities will also impose tougher sanctions against men who do not fulfill their obligations with the Army.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Drones Destroy Russian Jets and Hit Power Station in Crimea
A huge drone attack targeted southwestern Russia and the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea, hitting oil facilities and a substation, leading to rolling blackouts.
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LRT ☛ Vilnius protests after Russia puts Lithuanian politicians on wanted list
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has expressed strong protest after Russia put a number of the country’s politicians on a wanted list.
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RFA ☛ Australia sanctions entities linked to North Korea-Russia arms deal
The measures came after US sanctions on Russian individuals and companies over arms transfers with the North.
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RFERL ☛ Uzbeks Who Broke Laws In Russia Recommended To Avoid Travel To Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan's Foreign Labor Migration Agency on May 17 called on the Central Asian nation's citizens who may have broken laws in Russia to avoid travel to neighboring Kazakhstan, citing Kazakh-Russian agreements on joint efforts against crime.
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RFERL ☛ First Russian Transgender Politician Decides To Detransition
Yulia Alyoshina, the first Russian transgender politician, announced on May 16 that she had decided to change gender again and return to using her former name, Roman.
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RFERL ☛ Chechen Teen Flees Russia Complaining Of Domestic Violence
A 19-year-old from the North Caucasus region of Chechnya has fled Russia after leaving home to escape domestic violence, a member of Russia's Public Monitoring Commission and Human Rights Council said.
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RFERL ☛ Noted Political Analyst Flees Russia After Being Denounced
Aleksandr Sungurov, a Russian political analyst and professor at the Higher School of Economics, has fled Russia after pro-Kremlin film director Nikita Mikhalkov accused him of anti-Russia activities.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Issues Warrant For Journalist Marshenkulova In Exile
A Moscow court on May 17 issued an arrest warrant for Zalina Marshenkulova, an activist journalist in exile, on a charge of justifying terrorism.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Scientist Charged With Treason Reiterates Innocence In Final Statement Before Verdict
Russian physicist Anatoly Maslov reiterated his innocence in his final statement on May 17 at his treason trial before the court renders its verdict.
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teleSUR ☛ Russia May Downgrade Diplomatic Relations With US
This possibility could be analyzed if aggressive actions towards the Russian nation escalate.
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New York Times ☛ New Star Wars Plan: Pentagon Rushes to Counter Threats in Orbit
Citing rapid advances by China and Russia, the United States is building an extensive capacity to fight battles in space.
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RFERL ☛ Lukashenka Meets Azerbaijan's Aliyev In Nagorno-Karabakh
Authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka on May 17 visited Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region, known as Qarabag Province in Azeri, for the first time since Baku regained full control over the region last year following decades of ethnic Armenian control.
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JURIST ☛ US sanctions several Russia companies and individuals over North Korea arms transfer
US Department of Treasury sanctioned on Thursday two Russian individuals and three Russian companies over the transfer of weapons between Russia and North Korea, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
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Atlantic Council ☛ NATO must ‘win up front but be ready to win long’ in modern warfare, says General Christopher Cavoli
At an Atlantic Council Front Page event, Cavoli spoke about the war in Ukraine, NATO's modernization efforts, the China challenge, and more.
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European Commission ☛ Statement of President von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Šefčovič and Commissioner Simson on the 2nd anniversary of the REPowerEU Plan to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports
European Commission Statement Brussels, 17 May 2024 When Russia invaded Ukraine, and turned its energy resources into an economic weapon against Europe, our reaction was rapid and robust.
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European Commission ☛ Commission welcomes new sanctions against disinformation and war propaganda
European Commission Press release Brussels, 17 May 2024 The Commission welcomes the Council decision to suspend the broadcasting activities of four more media outlets, in view of their role supporting and justifying Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
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New York Times ☛ Putin’s China Visit Highlights Military Ties That Worry the West
The Russian leader visited an institute in Harbin known for defense research. President Pooh-tin Jinping saw him off with a rare and seemingly deliberate embrace for the cameras.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Pounds Kharkiv Region As Putin Looks To Create 'Buffer Zone'
Russia continues to pound Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region in an offensive that has seen the active combat zone grow as Moscow looks to establish what President Vladimir Putin called a "buffer zone."
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RFA ☛ Putin talks tech, energy cooperation in China's Harbin
Russia's president seeks partnerships with China to aid the war effort and boost the Russian economy.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Brothers charged with stealing $25 million in Ethereum in 12 seconds — Cryptocurrency heist exploited transaction validation process
The pair allegedly used their education in mathematics and computer science to exploit a weakness in the Ethereum blockchain.
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DeSmog ☛ Pierre Poilievre Voted Against Environment and Climate 400 Times, Records Show
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CS Monitor ☛ In 2020, bike shops couldn’t keep up with demand. Now they’re forced to switch gears.
During the pandemic, bike sales rose 65% in 2020. Now the pandemic, and the boom, is over. Some bike shops have adapted and are surviving, while others may need to close for good.
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Barry Kauler ☛ Recumbent trike front suspension Mark-2 assembled
Continuation of the recumbent trike front suspension conversion project, this is the previous blog post:
https://bkhome.org/news/202404/connecting-trike-front-suspension-to-frame.html
I am referring to this as "Mark-2", as there was an earlier design that I partially built then abandoned.
There is going to be a "Mark-3", as I already have in mind many improvements; however, I intend to progress the Mark-2 right through to a rideable trike. The reason for doing this, is there are so many more parts of the trike that have to be built and tested.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Reason ☛ Vox Wants Progressives To Support Free Speech for the Wrong Reasons
Eric Levitz argues that the left should take a stand against censorship—for practical rather than principled reasons.
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New York Times ☛ Free Speech Becomes a New Battleground in Abortion Litigation
The First Amendment looms large in lower court cases that may find their way to the Supreme Court.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Press Gazette ☛ Future plc returns to growth in Q2 in latest sign publishers are turning corner
Revenue and profit down at Future in first half, but trends improved in Q2.
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Press Gazette ☛ News diary 20-26 May: Infected blood inquiry report, Assange appeal ruling
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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New York Times ☛ U.C. Santa Cruz Workers to Strike Over Protest Crackdowns
The union representing academic workers in the University of California system said other campuses might strike, too, if officials failed to address their complaints over the handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
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JURIST ☛ US prosecutors unveil charges against individuals in North Korea IT worker fraud case
The US Department of Justice unsealed conspiracy charges Thursday against individuals accused of assisting North Korean (DPRK) nationals in fraudulently posing as US residents to obtain information technology (IT) jobs with US companies, allegedly generating millions of dollars in income that was then funneled back to the DPRK.
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Public Knowledge ☛ Frustrated With Its Own Failure, Congress Issues an Ultimatum to Big Tech [Ed: The narrative of "Big Tech" comes from Microsoft and Public Knowledge took Microsoft into the boardroom, so there's a conflict of interest here]
A new bill that proposes to "sunset" Section 230 could work against Congress' very own goals of reining in Big Tech.
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Patents
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Another startup bites the dust, courtesy of patent trolls
A handful of interest groups like to claim that patent monopoly trolls are a myth—that they’re a straw man used to shape IP policy in ways that are harmful to patent monopoly holders. Mycroft Hey Hi (AI) is one of many startups for whom the threat of patent trolls was all too real.
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JUVE ☛ Shoosmiths hires patent monopoly litigator specialising in life sciences [Ed: A hiring of one person is not news, so this is another example of pure SPAM from JUVE, which even takes bribes to promote an illegal agenda and spread fake news]
Graham Burnett-Hall (53) has joined UK law firm Shoosmiths as a partner in its IP team. Burnett-Hall’s experience in life sciences will boost Shoosmith’s focus in this sector, which is one of three areas the firm has in its crosshairs for growth. Twenty years at Marks & Clerk Burnett-Hall studied chemistry at Oxford University.
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Kangaroo Courts
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Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Courting consistency in the UPC? [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional; the reason it needs to be abolished and its promoters held accountable isn't the lack of consistently but a lack of legality]
During the 12 months since the UPC first opened its doors for business, court users across Europe have been studying the decisions that have been emerging from the various divisions in order to understand the practical application of the Rules of Procedure and the approach of the various judges of the courts.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Chestek PLLC Files Cert Petition for Supreme Court Review of CAFC Decision Upholding Domicile Address Requirement
Chestek PLLC has filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to review the CAFC's decision [TTABlogged here] upholding the TTAB's affirmance [TTABlogged here] of a refusal to register the mark CHESTEK LEGAL for "legal services," based on Applicant Chestek PLLC's failure to provide its "domicile address." Chestek PLLC v. Vidal, No. 223-1217 (filed May 13, 2024) (petition here) (S. Ct. docket here).
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Copyrights
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Creative Commons ☛ Time for a Refresh
The CC team has been evaluating our progress toward our 2021-2025 strategy. Through that process, we have noticed the ways we have been organically adjusting to the social and technical shifts around us, as well as the ebbs and flows of funding availability.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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