Leftovers

• RFA ☛ The ‘Korean Wave’ already crashed on Cuba

  Havana is home to dedicated K-pop fanclubs, dance troupes, and superstans, just like everywhere else.

• Press Gazette ☛ National World’s Manchester site in strategy shift to ‘find place’ in crowded market

  Editor Adam Lord hopes that a focus on "Ordinary Mancs, Extraordinary Stories" will help to differentiate the site.

• Bruce Schneier ☛ On the Voynich Manuscript

  Really interesting article on the ancient-manuscript scholars who are applying their techniques to the Voynich Manuscript.

  No one has been able to understand the writing yet, but there are some new understandings:

  Davis presented her findings at the medieval-studies conference and published them in 2020 in the journal Manuscript Studies. She had hardly solved the Voynich, but she’d opened it to new kinds of investigation. If five scribes had come together to write it, the manuscript was probably the work of a community, rather than of a single deranged mind or con artist. Why the community used its own language, or code, remains a mystery. Whether it was a cloister of alchemists, or mad monks, or a group like the medieval Béguines—a secluded order of Christian women—required more study. But the marks of frequent use signaled that the manuscript served some routine, perhaps daily function...

• Jonathan Dowland ☛ Jonathan Dowland: ouch,_part_2

  Things developed since my last post. Some lesions opened up on my ankle which was initially good news: the pain substantially reduced. But they didn’t heal fast enough and so medics decided on surgical debridement. That was last night.

• Reason ☛ Can Nostr Make Twitter's Dreams Come True?

  Twitter's founder says Nostr is “100 percent what we wanted”—an open, ownerless network.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Google Announces Rollout of Made in India Pixel 8 Smartphones

    The company announced their plans to make Google Pixel phones in India during the Google for India event in 2023. However, it is reported that only Google Pixel 8 is made in India, not the Pixel 8 Pro or Pixel 8a. Google is expected to make the Pixel 8a next in India. There were also reports of Tech giant Apple planning to manufacture the Pro models of the iPhone 16 series through its partner Foxconn in India.

  • New York Times ☛ Google Unveils Pixel 9 Phones to Beat Apple’s iPhone

    The internet giant unveiled the next generation of Pixel phones, headphones and watches to stand out in a hardware market that has mostly ignored it.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Google announces new lineup of AI-powered Pixel 9 phones, Pixel Watch 3 and more

    Google LLC today announced its new family of Pixel 9 smartphones, along with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, powered by a new AI-focused chip, that feature the company’s artificial intelligence Gemini family of models to enhance apps and experiences.

  • Vox ☛ Biden targets another junk fee: subscriptions that are hard to cancel

    President Joe Biden has made taking on “junk fees” — hidden fees on everything from airline bookings to concert tickets — a key part of his domestic agenda.

    His administration has already tried to limit fees on things like bank overdrafts and late credit card payments, and Monday, it turned its attention to making subscriptions and memberships easier to cancel.

    White House policy adviser Neera Tanden said in a call with reporters that new Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission rules should make it so Americans only need “one or two clicks on your phone” to end a service.

• Science

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Flexible Fiber LEDs made with perovskite quantum wires should enable advanced wearable displays and other technologies

    A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology proves the effectiveness of fiber LEDs made with perovskite quantum wires.

  • H2 View ☛ EET acquires Thornton Park for UK hydrogen innovation

    Essar Energy Transition (EET) has acquired Thornton Science Park in the UK’s north west, with plans to transform it into a cutting-edge energy transition hub focused on hydrogen fuel technologies.

  • Science Alert ☛ Northern Lights Predicted in California Following Severe Solar Storm

    What a show!

  • Science Alert ☛ Want to Live Past 100? Experts Recommend These Four Habits.

    Join the club!

  • Science Alert ☛ Dementia Risk Can Be Cut by 45% If Together We Do These 14 Things

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Have Finally Identified Where Gluten Intolerance Begins

    Proof at last!

  • Science Alert ☛ Obesity Drug Case Study Links Man's Heart Problems With Extreme Weight Loss

    There's a good lesson to be learned.

  • Science Alert ☛ Fatherhood at Fifty Is a Growing Trend, With Impacts on Child Health

    The biological clock is not just for mothers.

  • Hackaday ☛ Possible Discovery Of Liquid Water In Mars’ Mid-Crust By The Insight Lander

    One of the most sought after substances in the Universe is water – especially in its liquid form – as its presence on a planet makes the presence of life (as we know it) significantly more likely. While there are potentially oceans worth of liquid water on e.g. Jupiter’s moon Europa, for now Mars is significantly easier to explore as evidenced by the many probes which we got onto its surface so far. One of these was the InSight probe, which was capable of a unique feat: looking inside the planet’s crust with its seismometer to perform geophysical measurements. These measurements have now led to the fascinating prospect that liquid water may in fact exist on Mars right now, according to a paper published by [Vashan Wright] and colleagues in PNAS (with easy-read BBC coverage).

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ 2× HiDPI > 1× > 1.5×

    I’ve talking a lot here about PC Screen Syndrome, the phenomena where modern PCs can’t compete with displays Fashion Company Apple were shipping more than a decade ago. It’s akin to a 486 owner looking at an Amiga and saying nah, let them eat Hercules! Nobody will ever need more than 640 KiB! The mouse will never catch on!

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY Gaming Laptop Built Entirely With Desktop Parts

    Gaming laptops often tend towards implementing more desktop-like hardware in the pursuit of pure grunt. But what if you were to simply buy desktop hardware yourself, and build your own gaming laptop? That would be very cool, as [Socket Science] demonstrates for us all.

  • Hackaday ☛ The Long, Slow Demise Of DVD-RAM

    While CDs were still fighting for market share against cassettes, and gaming consoles were just starting to switch over to CD from cartridge storage, optical media companies were already thinking ahead. Only two years after the introduction of the original PlayStation, the DVD Forum had introduced the DVD-RAM standard: 2.58 GB per side of a disc in a protective caddy. The killer feature? Essentially unlimited re-writeability. In a DVD drive that supports DVD-RAM, they act more like removable hard drive platters. You can even see hard sectors etched into the media at the time of manufacture, giving DVD-RAM its very recognizable pattern.

  • The Next Platform ☛ Huawei’s HiSilicon Can Compete With Nvidia GPUs In China

    Each time that the United States has figured out that it needed to do export controls on massively parallel compute engines to try to discourage China from buying such gear and building supercomputers with them, it has already been too late to have much of a long term effect on China’s ability to run the advanced HPC simulations and Hey Hi (AI) training workloads that we were worried would be enabled by such computing oomph.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ G.Skill launches ultra-low-latency RAM for defective chip maker Intel and AMD CPUs — DDR5-6400 32GB memory kit dips to C30

    G.Skill has unveiled a new high-performance DDR5 memory spec aimed purely around performance. The new kit has a very low latency configuration of DDR5-6400 with a CAS latency 30.

  • Hackaday ☛ Cheap DIY Button Pad Uses Neat Punchcard Trick

    A StreamDeck is effectively a really cool box full of colorful buttons that activate various things on your PC. They’re fun and cool but they’re also something you can build yourself if you’re so inclined. [Jason] did just that for his sim racing setup, and he included some nifty old-school tech as well.

  • Hackaday ☛ Portable Router Build: Picking Your CPU

    I want to introduce you to a project of mine – a portable router build, and with its help, show you how you can build a purpose-built device. You might have seen portable routers for sale, but if you’ve been in the hacking spheres long enough, you might notice there are “coverage gaps”, so to speak. The Pi-hole project is a household staple that keeps being product-ized by shady Kickstarter campaigns, a “mobile hotspot” button is a staple in every self-respecting mobile and desktop OS, and “a reset device for the ISP router” is a whole genre of a hacker project. Sort the projects by “All Time” popularity on Hackaday.io, and near the very top, you will see an OpenVPN &Tor router project – it’s there for a reason, and it got into 2014 Hackaday Prize semifinals for a reason, too.

  • Hackaday ☛ Stemfie, The 3D-Printable Construction Set

    Construction kit toys are cited by many adults as sparking great creativity and engineering talent in their youth. LEGO, Meccano, K’NEX, Lincoln Logs—these are all great commercial options. But what about printing your very own construction kit at home? Meet Stemfie.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Modder adds so much RGB to a Fractal Design North XL PC build that even the wooden façade lights up

    YouTube Creator Zack Freedman builds a custom PC and ensures that every part of the desktop computer he can see has RGB.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Federal News Network ☛ VA spends billions without a crucial oversight tool

    The Veterans Affairs Department has a system for detecting errors and fraud payments made for health care. suspended the Program Integrity Tool two years ago.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Mood of mainland-born Hongkongers consistently better than those born in city, survey finds

    The mood of Hongkongers born in mainland China has consistently been better than those born in the city, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) released the results of its latest public sentiment index on Tuesday.

  • New York Times ☛ How Food Prices Have Changed During the Biden Administration

    Grocery prices are no longer rising as rapidly, but food inflation remains a top issue for voters, polls show.

  • Reason ☛ Lawsuit Challenges Florida Lab-Grown Meat Ban

    The ban was "enacted with the express purpose of insulating Florida agricultural businesses from innovative, out-of-state competition," according to the suit.

  • France24 ☛ Africa's top health body declares monkeypox a 'public health emergency'

    Mpox, the high infectious disease that used to be called monkeypox, has been declared a “public health emergency of continental security” by Africa’s top health body over an outbreak that spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sweetening Your Yogurt With Honey Could Boost Its Probiotic Benefits

    One type did better than the rest.

  • RFA ☛ BenarNews website unblocked in Bangladesh days after Hasina resigns as PM

    US-funded portal has been mostly unavailable since an unfavorable report on the government’s pandemic handling.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Greg Morris ☛ Who Pays For This?

    We’ve long known that the balance sheets of darling valley companies like Open AI are massively in the red. Meta, Google, and Apple are also spending Billions trying to catch the craze and still can’t make a useful enough product to turn a profit, so why exactly are all these start-ups joining in, you might wonder? I suspect for nothing more than cashing in on the latest investment craze into AI businesses.

• Defence/Aggression

  • ADF ☛ Unresolved Issues Undermine Ethiopian Peace Accord

    ADF STAFF When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed the Pretoria peace accord in 2022, it stopped the war between the federal government’s coalition of forces and the Tigray rebels, but it did little to resolve the disputes between the Tigrayan and Amhara people over territory and resources.

  • ADF ☛ ‘Terrifying’ Kidnappings Surge in Ethiopia Amid Political, Economic Strife

    Fighters from the Oromo Liberation Army rebel group took a woman named Alemetu from her home in Ethiopia’s Oromia region as she tried to sleep. She was taken to an abandoned school where 40 OLA fighters lived and was held hostage for four weeks.

  • ADF ☛ Rwanda Launches Isōko Peace Institute to Promote Resilience, Learn from History

    Thirty years after genocide killed hundreds of thousands of its people, Rwanda launched the Isōko Peace Institute to help communities worldwide learn to live in harmony. The announcement was made during a three-day peace conference at the University of Rwanda that featured 400 academics, policymakers and high-ranking authorities.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Gary, IN’s Lawsuit Against Gunmakers Survives Lawmakers’ Legal Threat

    Republicans in Indiana’s legislature passed a bill this year intended as the final blow to a long-running lawsuit filed by the city of Gary against gun manufacturers seeking to hold them accountable for local illegal gun sales.

    The lawmakers even included language making the bill retroactive to ensure that it would apply to the Gary suit, which was filed nearly a quarter century ago.

  • ADF ☛ Vigilante Bowmen Fight Kidnapping Epidemic in Chad

    With bows, slingshots and spears in hand, the young villagers advanced in a line through a forest in the town of Pala in southwest Chad. As the early morning light sifted through the trees, some crawled through the undergrowth while others crouched behind eucalyptus trees.

  • Reason ☛ Intel N.Y.-Based Israeli Employee Alleges Firing Over Complaints of Executive's Pro-Hamas Posts, Seeks Pseudonymity

    From a motion filed today in Doe v. defective chip maker Intel Corp. (S.D.N.Y.); for more on the underlying lawsuit, see defective chip maker Intel Axes Israeli NYC Engineer Who Complained About Boss 'Liking' X Posts Cheering Hamas: Suit (N.Y. Post, Beri Kochman): John Doe is a Jewish Israeli executive at Intel, a global multi-technology company [...]

  • ADF ☛ Coastal West Africa Struggles to Suppress Spreading Sahel Violence

    Terrorists in Benin’s W National Park have killed at least seven Beninese security forces and five rangers working with a nonprofit organization.

  • Defence Web ☛ UNSC is “outdated” and needs African representation – Guterres

    Addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday (12 August) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticised it as being “an outdated structure” with a “lack of representation for Africa”. According to him these undermine the “credibility and global legitimacy” of the UNSC.

  • Defence Web ☛ ECOWAS carries out maritime security exercise

    Efforts by the East African regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to strengthen maritime safety off its Atlantic Ocean coast saw the third iteration of Operation Safe Domain take place from 5 to 9 August.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Charges dropped against 4 Hong Kong prison officers over alleged gang rape as complainant will not testify

    Hong Kong prosecutors have dropped charges against four prison service officers over an alleged gang rape of a woman in a party room last year because the complainant will not testify.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ How Ukrainian Troops Invaded Russia

      Planned in secrecy, the incursion was a bold move to upend the war’s dynamics and put Moscow on the defensive — a gambit that could also leave Ukraine exposed.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Claims Its Forces Control 74 Settlements In Russia's Kursk Region

      Ukraine's top military commander on August 13 said Ukrainian forces have taken control of 74 settlements in Russia's Kursk region as Ukrainian forces continued to make headway.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s Incursion Into Russia: What to Know

      The incursion caught Russia by surprise and signified a shift in tactics for Kyiv after more than two years of war with Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ Tuesday Briefing

      Russia’s response to a Ukrainian incursion.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia Cans the Laughter: Unveiling Propaganda in Russian Comedy

      As of July this year, Latvia’s National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP), the country’s media watchdog, has banned the retransmission and distribution of 142 Russian TV channels. Entertainment programs, including popular comedy shows familiar to Latvian audiences, are a staple of Russian television. Although these shows are often perceived as purely for entertainment and free from political influence, this is a misconception.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian prosecutors probing 50 cases of Russia sanctions violations

      Lithuanian prosecutors have opened over 50 investigations over suspected violations of international sanctions on Russia or Belarus, according to Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė.

    • RFERL ☛ Bulgarian Extradited To U.S. To Face Charges On Illegal Export Scheme

      Bulgarian national Milan Dimitrov was extradited to the United States where he is charged with participating in a scheme to illegally export sensitive microelectronics to Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Moldova Suspends Companies That Brokered Airplane-Parts Sales To Russia

      Moldova has suspended the activity of three companies -- Airrock Solutions, Aerostage Services, and Maxjet Service -- that had brokered airplane-parts sales to Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Fines Telegram Over Failure To Remove Unspecified 'Banned' Content

      A Moscow court has ordered the Telegram messaging app to pay a 4 million-ruble ($44,130) fine for failure to delete "banned information."

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Film Director In Exile's Prison Sentence Reduced In Retrial

      Russian film director Ivan Vyrypayev has been retried and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison in absentia on the charge of "discrediting the Russian armed forces."

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Woman Jailed For Killing Pro-Kremlin Blogger Hospitalized

      Russia's Pervy Otdel rights group said on August 13 that Darya Trepova, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for her role in the killing of pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky (aka Maksim Fomin), was transferred to a prison hospital for unspecified reasons.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ After Serving as a Pawn for Russia, Roger Stone Became a Pwn of Iran

      The news that Roger Stone was pwned by suspected Iranian hackers may get more interesting. For now, however, it recalls the 2020 Iranian effort that adopted false identities of the Proud Boys.

    • New York Times ☛ Why China’s and Russia’s Militaries Are Training Together

      The two countries have held joint exercises near Alaska, Taiwan and Japan in defiance of the United States and its alliances.

    • RFERL ☛ Serbian Official Thanks Russia For Unrest Warning Day After Arrest Of Protesters

      Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin discussed security issues and the "active involvement of external forces in creating tensions" in Serbia with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, the Serbian government said on August 13.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘No decent alternative’: As the Kremlin cracks down on YouTube, Russians cancel Internet contracts and organize protests — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Beyond reform’: A group of Russian commanders are secretly on trial for imprisoning, torturing, and killing their own soldiers, new investigation finds — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Youths detained in Belarus return to Latvia

      Four young people who were previously detained in Belarus have returned to Latvia, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on social control media August 12.

    • Latvia ☛ Children stranded by tour operator return to Latvia Monday

      The repatriation of 81 travelers from Spain to Latvia went successfully, Latvian Radio reports on Monday, August 12.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Troops Likely Suffering From Lack Of Drinking Water In Ukraine, British defective chip maker Intel Says

      Russian troops fighting in Ukraine are likely suffering from a shortage of drinking water because of the damage inflicted by Moscow's strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure and compounded by high temperatures, British intelligence said in its daily report August 13.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian PM Says Kyiv Gets 4.2 Billion Euros From EU

      Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on August 13 that his country had received another 4.2 billion euros from the European Union's Ukraine Facility program.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian crowdfunder under fire over alleged ‘borrowing’ from Ukraine donations

      Last week, media reported that the Lithuanian prosecutors have opened a pre-trial investigation into the Lithuanian crowdfunding platform Contribee. It has now emerged that one of its shareholders took a large sum of money from an NGO account on Contribee for his personal use.

    • France24 ☛ 🔴 Live: Ukraine controls 74 Russian settlements in Kursk region, Zelensky says

      Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that his troops now control 74 Russian settlements in the Kursk region as some 200,000 Russian civilians fled the area. A presidential adviser said the incursion into Russian territory is designed to push Moscow into talks. Follow our live coverage for the latest updates.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Ukraine’s Kursk offensive proves surprise is still possible in modern war

      Ukraine’s Kursk offensive has succeeded in demonstrating that surprise is still possible despite the increased transparency of the modern battlefield, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Belarus’s political prisoners must not be forgotten

      New sanctions unveiled in August have highlighted the plight of Belarus's approximately 1,400 political prisoners, but much more must be done to increase pressure on the Lukashenka regime, writes Hanna Liubakova.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ New US-Ukraine partnership proposal from influential senators is a recipe for bipartisan success

      Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham came to Kyiv this week with an ambitious bipartisan vision for the future of US-Ukrainian relations, writes Andrew D’Anieri.

    • ADF ☛ Russian Mercenaries Accused in Rash of Rapes in CAR

      Gender-based violence and allegations of rape in the Central African Republic (CAR) have escalated in recent months, and locals are casting much of the blame on Russian mercenaries.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Reiterates Moscow's Support For Palestine At Talks With Abbas

      Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow’s support to Palestine at the talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow on August 13.

• Environment

  • DeSmog ☛ Piñon Dark Horse Fire Reveals How Oil Industry Environmental ‘Solution’ Spurs Climate Crisis

  • Energy/Transportation

    • RFA ☛ PNG jolts donors over power grid roll-out as China sale dismissed

      “Room for improvement” by U.S. and allies to deliver electricity infrastructure upgrade, says PNG Power chairman.

    • Latvia ☛ US, Latvia team up for crypto regulation education dissemination

      The Latvian central bank, Latvijas Banka (LB) is hosting special training sessions this week in which experts from the United States will teach their Latvian counterparts how to tackle crime in the often murky world of virtual assets.

    • Pro Publica ☛ Nike’s Private Jet Emissions Are Up Despite Vows to Cut Carbon

      On dozens of occasions since 2020, a private Gulfstream jet belonging to Nike has touched down at Moffett Field, a federally owned airfield on the banks of San Francisco Bay.

      The Silicon Valley site’s most notable feature is a hulking building known as Hangar One, which in the 1930s housed a U.S. Navy airship and today is a conspicuous landmark along U.S. 101.

  • Overpopulation

    • Overpopulation ☛ Losing Our Minds

      In the 1970’s the leading intellectuals in the United States were concerned about overpopulation. Fifty years later, the best and brightest minds in America now think we are running out of people. What the hell is going on? by Brad Meiklejohn “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

• Finance

  • ADF ☛ Experts Urge Nigeria to Target Bandits’ Finances

    For at least 25 years, bandits have plagued northern Nigeria, terrorizing and stealing from residents, recruiting new members, and driving the region’s chronic insecurity.

  • An Eagle company laid off 100s of workers the night before announcing its $1.5B sale

    PetIQ laid off hundreds of employees less than a day before announcing it would be acquired by a private equity firm, according to a veterinarian at the company. Dr. Elizabeth Dudas told the Idaho Statesman that the Eagle-based veterinary supply company notified affected employees at a 3-minute Microsoft Teams call the evening of Aug. 6. The meeting was followed by an email, delivered at 10:47 p.m. by the company’s legal department.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Wisconsin Tribe Built a Lending Empire on 600% APR Loans

    In bankruptcy filings and consumer complaints, thousands of people across the country make pleas for relief from high-interest loans with punishing annual rates that often exceed 600%.

    Although they borrowed small sums online from a slew of businesses with catchy names — such as Loan at Last or Sky Trail Cash — their loans stemmed from the same massive operation owned by a small Native American tribe in a remote part of Wisconsin.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • RFA ☛ Vietnam’s top leader to visit China next week: media

    General Secretary To Lam is set to meet with President Pooh-tin Jinping, Vietnamese diplomats told Reuters.

  • RFA ☛ Philippines slams Chinese actions against air force plane as unjustified, reckless

    Analysts say latest on-air incident over South China Sea raises questions about China’s sincerity.

  • RFA ☛ Five things the Shujun Wang trial revealed about Chinese espionage

    A federal jury last week convicted the writer and historian of working on behalf of China’s spy agency.

  • RFA ☛ In Tim Walz, Chinese social control media users see hope

    But experts say his inclusion on the Harris ticket may not have much of an impact on China policy.

  • NYPost ☛ X CEO Linda Yaccarino says GARM antitrust lawsuit aimed at fixing ‘broken’ ad ecosystem

    “We were victimized by a small group of people pushing their authority or ability to monopolize what gets monetized,” Yaccarino said.

  • New York Times ☛ Head of Panel That Ruled Against Jordan Chiles Represents Romania in Other Cases

    The decision outraged U.S. Olympic and gymnastics officials, and led to a torrent of online abuse against both Chiles and Ana Barbosu, the Romanian athlete who ended up with the bronze.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Macau leadership election set for October – only 400 eligible to vote and candidates pre-vetted

    Around 400 establishment figures are set to elect Macau’s new leader on October 13, with a new law requiring candidates to be vetted for their political stance. Each must also sign a declaration of allegiance to Beijing, as well as to the Special Administrative Region.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFA ☛ Chinese censors clamp down on posts about grisly body-snatching case

    Police and prosecutors probe claims that thousands of bodies were stolen and sold to make dental bone grafts.

  • AccessNow ☛ #KeepItOn in Annobón: Authorities in Equatorial Guinea must end internet shutdown and other human rights abuses

    Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition are calling on authorities in Equatorial Guinea to immediately restore internet and telecom services in Annobón.

  • AccessNow ☛ #KeepItOn: Equatorial Guinea authorities must end internet shutdown and other human rights abuses in Annobón

    #KeepItOn coalition urges authorities in Equatorial Guinea to restore access to the internet and mobile telecommunication services in Annobón.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • New York Times ☛ Transfers and Pay Cuts: Pregnant Officers Accuse Border Agency of Discrimination

    Under a $45 million settlement, Customs and Border Protection agreed to adjust its policy around pregnancy. Some women say the agency has instilled a culture of shame and perpetuated a fear of retaliation.

  • CS Monitor ☛ From Illinois to Sierra Leone, laws on child labor and child marriage

    Progress roundup: Social media family vlogs must set aside pay for children in Illinois. And child marriage is outlawed in Sierra Leone.

  • France24 ☛ Hopes dashed as Iran's new president stays silent on morality police arrest

    A video showing Iran's morality police violently arresting two teenage girls has once again sparked widespread anger in Iran. The footage surfaced at a time when many Iranians had hoped that the newly installed centrist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, would fulfil his campaign promise to end or at least mitigate the violence perpetrated by the dreaded "Gasht-e-Ershad" patrols against women. But the president has not commented on the video, and his appointment of an ultra-hardline interior minister has dashed hopes of change on Iran’s strict hijab rules.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Federal News Network ☛ NTIA’s waiver for broadband expansion poses national security risks

    Members of Congress say exempting optical pluggables from the "buy American" requirements poses a national security threat.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ The ‘Apple Tax’ Hits Patreon—New Payment Options for iOS to Cover 30% Fee

    The Fashion Company Apple Tax is coming for Patreon subscribers on iOS as the app must switch to Apple’s in-house payment system or face removal from the App Store. Fashion Company Apple is requiring Patreon to switch to their in-app payment system for all iOS transactions or be kicked out of the App Store.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Public Knowledge ☛ Beyond Remedies: Why the U.S. v. Surveillance Giant Google Decision Underscores the Need for a Digital Regulator [Ed: Conflict of interest: Microsoft inside the board of this NGO]

  The ruling is a step in the right direction to improve competition in the search and text advertising markets — but there is still more work to be done.

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ IPEC grants Cloud Cycle’s declaration of non-infringement

    Cloud Cycle has landed a win in its dispute with Verifi over slump-monitoring technology at the IPEC. Verifi’s EP 1 720 689 protects a “method and system for calculating and reporting slump in delivery vehicles”.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Fintiv challenged in Federal Circuit Amicus by Unified and Zero Motorcycles

    On August 12, 2024, Unified Edge filed an amicus brief with the Federal Circuit addressing whether the USPTO's implementation of Fintiv as a precedential matter violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The brief explains why the USPTO has not only failed to follow the APA’s required rulemaking procedure but also has promulgated the Fintiv factors in the absence of any ambiguity under 35 U.S.C. §§ 314(a) and 315(b). 

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Patent case: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG vs. Bette GmbH & Co. KG, UPC [Ed: UPC is illegal]

      In a long awaited, but timely decision the Düsseldorf local division has the honour to be the first to decide an infringement case before the UPC. Indeed, the court lived up to its promise to deliver a decision in about 1 year.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ Dolby HEVC/AV1 patent monopoly affirmed invalid in China

      On July 31, 2024, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court (BIPC) confirmed that all claims of Chinese patent monopoly CN102256122 were invalid. The CN’122 patent monopoly is owned by Dolby International. The claims were initially found invalid by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, but Dolby appealed to the BIPC.

    • Unified Patents ☛ SOTAT surveillance patent monopoly found invalid

      On August 12, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of all the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,854,207, owned and asserted by SOTAT, LLC, an NPE. The ‘207 patent monopoly relates to a mobile surveillance system that connects to a mobile device and has been asserted against fifteen defendants, including Canary Connect, HeathCo, Wyze Labs, Adobe Systems, Vivint, and Resideo.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 18 (Part II): TTAB Grants Petition to Cancel BLOOKE Registration for Bicycles

    Look Cycle, owner of the mark LOOK for bicycles and bicycle parts, petitioned to cancel a registration for the mark BLOOKE for bicycles, parts, and accessories, alleging likelihood of confusion, nonuse, and fraud. The Board upheld all three claims This blog post will discuss the first two; yesterday's post dealt with the fraud issue. Look Cycle International v. Kunshan Qiyue Outdoor Sports Goods Co., Ltd., Cancellation No. 92079409 (August 9, 2024) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Karen S. Kuhlke).

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ SiriusXM Swipes Back at SoundExchange’s $150 Million Unpaid Royalties Suit, Urging Dismissal and Damages for Counterclaims

    Has SoundExchange’s unpaid royalties lawsuit against SiriusXM evolved into an all-out war? The satellite radio giant is hitting back at the complaint and demanding, among other things, damages for counterclaims. SiriusXM submitted its answer and counterclaims today, approximately one year after SoundExchange sued for north of $150 million in allegedly owed royalties.

  • France24 ☛ Banksy frees the animals at London Zoo in final installment of art trail

    An artwork appearing on the shutters of the London Zoo has been confirmed as the latest and final image in Banksy’s surprise animal art trail across the British capital. It is the ninth Banksy to appear in as many days in London and follows images that have popped up each morning since last Monday of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans, a cat, piranhas and a rhinoceros.

  • Latvia ☛ New exhibition showcases early work of photographer Jānis Deinats

    On Saturday, August 17, the Latvian National Museum of Art will open the doors on a new exhibition dedicated to the work of photographer Jānis Deinats.