Leftovers

• Robert Birming ☛ Listen Up!

  That is the quality I most wish people would say about me. It is also the quality that has largely been lost in our modern society, unfortunately.

• Michal Zelazny ☛ Something new

  Words aren’t the only way I want to express myself. There are also pictures. For a few weeks I’ve been looking for a place that I could use to share them. Nothing has met my needs. It took me some time to look at the most obvious place. But here I am, with the new format for blog posts.

• James G ☛ Advent of Patterns: Offline mode

  Offline mode is a version of an application that usually depends on internet but can work without an internet connection. Offline mode ensures that software can be useful even if a user does not have access to the internet at a given time.

  There are two main types of offline mode: read-only, and read-and-write. In a read-only offline mode, you can read the content you have available locally but not make any changes to the content or state of data stored in an application. Applications that support read and write offline mode let you both read and make changes to content. These changes will then be saved when a device is connected to the internet.

• James G ☛ Advent of Patterns: Change previews

  Supporting previews implies that there is a distinct publishing and development step, such as is the case in writing and publishing content in CMS systems like WordPress or writing, testing, and deploying code in software development.

  Below, I’ll talk through examples of both asynchronous and live previews.

• NPR ☛ 80 years later, Glenn Miller's sudden disappearance remains unsolved

  There is no wreckage of Glenn Miller's plane, and no definitive answers. Eighty years ago this week, he disappeared without a trace.

  Miller wasn't even supposed to be on board the small prop plane. But, anxious to get going after multiple weather delays, he'd hitched a ride without authorization. It took days for anyone to realize he'd gone missing.

• Career/Education

  • New York Times ☛ How Student Phones and Social Media Are Fueling Fights in Schools

    Fights like these reflect a troubling national trend: Cellphones are stoking — and making it harder to stop — violence in schools from Massachusetts to California.

  • Axios ☛ Universities warn international students to return before Trump inauguration

    Driving the news: At least 10 universities, mostly on the East Coast, have told international students to be back stateside before the Jan. 20 inauguration. They include the University of Southern California, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, MIT and others.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ China approves mpox vaccine for clinical trials

    There is currently no approved mpox vaccine in the country.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Eyelash viper’, leaf-nosed bat among new species found in Mekong

    Around half of all the new species identified in the region in 2023 were found in Vietnam.

  • NYPost ☛ US obesity rates drop for the first time in a decade likely due to popular weight loss medications

    The secret agent in the decrease might be semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist that fuels popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, according to the study authors.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean milk recalled after cleaning solution contamination

    A person who drank the affected product vomited blood and was hospitalised.

  • Wired ☛ Mega-Farms Are Driving the Threat of Bird Flu

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that four of the cases in humans had no known connection to livestock, raising fears that the virus eventually could jump from one human to another, though that hasn’t happened yet. On December 5, a study published in Science by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute said it would take only a single mutation in the H5N1 virus for it to attach itself to human receptor cells.

  • TMZ ☛ Chris Rock Jokes About Alleged CEO Shooter Luigi Mangione on 'SNL'

    After that, Chris got serious for a moment, reminding the audience Thompson was a "real person" and a father with kids, while also sending his condolences to the CEO's family.

    But then, Chris joked, "You also got to go, ‘You know, sometimes drug dealers get shot.'”

  • The Hill ☛ Luigi Mangione hires high-profile lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo: What to know

    Agnifilo, who obtained a law degree from Georgetown Law and previously served as a legal analyst for CNN and hit TV show Law and Order, will use her experience to represent Mangione in one of the year’s most high-profile cases.

  • CNN ☛ Luigi Mangione retains high-powered New York attorney as he faces second-degree murder charge

    Karen Friedman Agnifilo will represent him in New York. Friedman Agnifilo previously worked as the chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under Cyrus Vance Jr. for seven years and is a veteran with deep experience in New York City’s criminal justice system. She has worked in private practice since 2021.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • TechRadar ☛ Amazon pauses $1bn Abusive Monopolist Microsoft 365 rollout following Russian security concerns

    Amazon has reportedly delayed its deployment of Abusive Monopolist Microsoft 365 following a Russia-linked cyberattack where threat actors were believed to have accessed some employees’ email accounts.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Apple Intelligence AI mangles headlines so badly the BBC officially complains – Pivot to AI

    Apple needs you to buy the new iPhone even though the old models still work just fine. Enter Apple Intelligence, Apple’s wrapper around ChatGPT, to abbreviate your messages for you!

    As an LLM, Apple Intelligence also mangles them — because LLMs don’t summarize text, they just shorten it. In one instance, a message chain starting with “That hike almost killed me!” became “Attempted suicide, but recovered and hiked in Redlands and Palm Springs.”

  • Abhinav Gopalakrishnan ☛ Macos features that were exciting but didn’t see much usage

  • The Verge ☛ Instagram’s head says social media needs more context because of AI

    Just as it’s good to remember that chatbots will confidently lie to you before you trust an AI-powered search engine, checking whether posted claims or images come from a reputable account can help you consider their veracity. At the moment, Meta’s platforms don’t offer much of the sort of context Mosseri posted about today, although the company recently hinted at big coming changes to its content rules.

  • Axios ☛ Computers could soon make their own decisions, former Google CEO says

    When the system begins to "self-improve," he said, it may be time to consider pulling the plug. Asked if a powerful system could counter efforts to shut it down, Schmidt told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "In theory, we better have somebody with the hand on the plug."

  • [Old] CBS ☛ Labelers training AI say they're overworked, underpaid and exploited by big American tech companies

    The familiar narrative is that artificial intelligence will take away human jobs: machine-learning will let cars, computers and chatbots teach themselves - making us humans obsolete.

    Well, that's not very likely, and we're gonna tell you why. There's a growing global army of millions toiling to make AI run smoothly. They're called "humans in the loop:" people sorting, labeling, and sifting reams of data to train and improve AI for companies like Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft and Google. It's gruntwork that needs to be done accurately, fast, and - to do it cheaply – it's often farmed out to places like Africa –

    Naftali Wambalo: The robots or the machines, you are teaching them how to think like human, to do things like human.

    We met Naftali Wambalo in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the main hubs for this kind of work. It's a country desperate for jobs… because of an unemployment rate as high as 67% among young people. So Naftali, father of two, college educated with a degree in mathematics, was elated to finally find work in an emerging field: artificial intelligence.

  • Westenberg ☛ The Matthew Effect of Post-Twitter Social Networks

    The same paper would get more attention if a famous name was on it, even if their contribution was identical to a case where an unknown researcher did the work.

    In his analysis, Merton pointed to the Gospel of Matthew’s observation about the rich getting richer as a perfect encapsulation of how social systems tend to compound initial advantages.

  • Westenberg ☛ Welcome to the Protestant Reformation of Social Media

    Twitter, in its heyday, served a similar function for what we might call the “digital clerisy” — the loose confederation of journalists, academics, tech workers, and extremely online intellectuals who shaped public discourse.

    Your follower count was your precise position in a massive social hierarchy. Someone with 50,000 followers occupied a clearly defined space relative to someone with 5,000 or 500,000.

    Even if you claimed to reject this system (and many did, loudly and often), you were still playing the game. Just as medieval heretics defined themselves in opposition to the Church, Twitter critics operated within the very framework they criticized.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Site36 ☛ New police technology in Germany: Unleashed facial recognition takes off

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippine Senate ratifies military access agreement with Japan

    It is the first of its kind that Japan has signed in Asia, meant amid China’s growing assertiveness.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Dems go it alone in Michigan House, where chaotic meeting ends in lame-duck limbo

    Frustrations grew among some Democrats as leadership failed to cobble together the unanimous support needed to pass key legislation. Some votes failed, and as midnight neared, one Detroit representative left the building, killing the Democrats’ ability to pass anything — and ending a marathon week.

  • The Local DK ☛ Inside Denmark: A bleak view of the future and what is fedtemøg?

    In the interviews, given to Politiken, Jyllands-Posten, Berlingske and Kristeligt Dagblad, she warned of the need for Denmark and other Western countries to arm themselves – literally and figuratively – against “dark forces”.

    “These dark forces have united in a way which represents a new situation,” she told Politiken.

    “That’s why democracies are in a much more dangerous position than they’ve been before in our lifetimes. The only way through is to fight for it,” she said.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Britain will use ‘mafia-busting tactics’ to stop small boat gangs in joint taskforce with Italy

    Italian and British law enforcement officers, specialist financial investigators with mafia experience and forensic accountants will work together to freeze criminal bank accounts, carry out joint operations and mount more prosecutions against international people-smuggling gangs.

  • The Gray Zone ☛ Scandal deepens around CNN’s Clarissa Ward staging Syria prison scene

  • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: South Korea’s Power Vacuum

    Plus, how travel benefits us.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korea’s Impeachment Crisis Strains Its Alliance with the U.S

    President Yoon Suk Yeol shifted his country closer to Washington and stood up to Beijing. But that foreign policy could be recalibrated in the future.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean President Yoon’s political implosion, from martial law to impeachment

    Mr Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached on Dec 14, suspending him from his official duties.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Yoon impeached: Powers stripped, benefits kept and retirement

    South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been stripped of his duties and powers as head of state.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after impeachment

    Mr Han Duck-soo spoke with US President Joe Biden by phone.

  • New York Times ☛ ​After Impeachment, South Korea Is Left With No Elected Leader

    The suspension of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s powers left a seasoned but unelected prime minister in charge of a country facing daunting challenges at home and abroad.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Yoon defied prosecutors’ summons in martial law probe: Report

    The prosecution reportedly plans to issue another summons on Dec 16.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korean opposition urges swift removal of impeached President Yoon

    South Korea’s Constitutional Court has 180 days to rule on Mr Yoon’s future.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea state media slams South’s Yoon as ‘ringleader of rebellion’

    Yoon tried to shift blame for “foolish emergency martial law declaration” onto opposition parties: KCN

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean lawmakers backing Yoon’s impeachment face party backlash

    At least 12 lawmakers in Yoon's own party voted in favour of his impeachment.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Safe, orderly protests highlight South Korea’s mature democracy

    Large crowds demonstrate without fear, backed by a strong belief in democracy, said experts.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea court begins review of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment

    Yoon and a number of senior officials face potential charges of insurrection.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon says he is stepping down

    Mr Han said he had no regret in doing so.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s military faces leadership void amid martial law probe

    Prosecutors have sought arrest warrants for the accused generals, all of whom have been dismissed from their posts.

  • New Yorker ☛ In South Korea, a Blueprint for Resisting Autocracy?

    After President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered martial law, the legislature voted to impeach him. But it could take months to remove him from office, and uncertainties remain.

  • North Korea says ‘lies’ by South’s Yoon about a ‘threat’ led to impeachment

    South Korea’s suspended president cited ‘threats’ from North Korea as one of the reasons for imposing martial law.

  • France24 ☛ S. Korean opposition calls for ‘swift’ removal of impeached Yoon as he defies prosecutors’ summons

    South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused to comply with a summons to appear before prosecutors for questioning over insurrection allegations stemming from his failed bid to impose martial law, prosecutors said Sunday. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called for the "swift" formalisation of his removal from office.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China vows ‘healthy and stable’ ties with South Korea after Yoon Suk Yeol impeachment

    China on Monday vowed to push for “healthy and stable” ties with South Korea after Seoul’s Constitutional Court launched proceedings against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Central Bank likely to raise key rate to 23 percent in December, analysts predict — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Targets Russian Fuel Supply Lines To Zaporizhzhya

      Ukraine on December 14 carried out a complex operation targeting fuel supply routes from the Russia-annexed Crimea to occupied areas of Zaporizhzhya, an informed source has told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame Over Deadly Bombings

      Authorities in Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of orchestrating deadly bombings over the past week.

    • Ukraine military releases images of North Korean casualties in Kursk

      Kyiv said a ‘language barrier’ was an issue for North Koreans as they join Russian assaults in significant numbers.

    • New York Times ☛ Four Scenarios for Ukraine’s Endgame

      The war is entering what could be its final phase. What happens next?

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Troops Remaining In Syria Lack Food, Water, Says Ukrainian Intelligence

      Russian military personnel still in Syria are experiencing a lack of food and drinking water as an evacuation of troops and equipment continues, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (GUR).

    • France24 ☛ Russia is using North Korean troops in attempt to reclaim Kursk, Zelensky says

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address Saturday that Russia is deploying North Korean soldiers in its operations attempting to retake Ukrainian positions in its Kursk region. He also claimed that "losses among this category are already noticeable".

    • France24 ☛ Countries slowly pave the road to restoring diplomatic ties with Syria

      One week after Syria's regime collapsed, the UK confirmed "diplomatic contact" with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the offensive. Next Tuesday, Qatar will reopen its embassy in Damascus while a team with French diplomats will travel to Syria to assess the political and security situation on the ground. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments in Syria.

    • NYPost ☛ Russian paramilitary soldiers killed in friendly fire attack by North Koreans after enlisting DPRK help

      The friendly fire was a result of a language barrier, Ukraine says.

    • France24 ☛ Oil spill near Black Sea after two Russian tankers seriously damaged in storm

      Russia mounted a rescue effort Sunday after two oil tankers were wrecked in rough seas off Moscow-annexed Crimea and one broke apart, killing at least one sailor and causing an oil spill. Two criminal cases have been opened by Russian investigators.

    • Latvia ☛ Ukraine asks for different types of drones from Latvia-led 'drone coalition'

      As prevously reported, Latvia is the co-leader – along with the United Kingdom – of a 'drone coalition' that has already sent more than 2,800 drones worth approximately 5.8 million euros to Ukraine.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian athlete banned from competition for wearing ‘small Russia’ T-shirt

      Kornelija Dūdaitė, a member of the Lithuanian functional fitness national team, was banned from competing at the World Championships in Hungary after wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Make russia small again”.

    • LRT ☛ Should Lithuania separate Russian ‘language from politics’? Minister sparks controversy

      Lithuania’s new Culture Minister Šarūnas Birutis said last week the country should separate “culture from politics” and not discriminate against the Russian language. This view sparked condemnation as well as support from people in Lithuania.

    • RFERL ☛ Damaged Russian Tanker Spills Oil Into Kerch Strait During Storm

      A Russian oil tanker began spilling oil into the Kerch Strait after splitting in two during a heavy storm, Russian authorities said on December 15.

    • Meduza ☛ Russia evacuates some embassy staff from Damascus — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Kash Patel Also Lied about Trump's Personalization of US Intelligence

    First Mother Jones and then NYT had stories this week laying out a bunch of false claims that Kash Patel made about his experience at DOJ.

    The headline lie in both is that, in his Government Gangsters book and interviews since, Kash lied about how significant a role he played in the Benghazi investigation, as MoJo lays out here.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Meduza ☛ Two Russian tankers wreck in Kerch Strait storm, killing one sailor and risking ‘one of largest environmental disasters’ ever in Black Sea

      Russia’s Federal Maritime and River Transport Agency has reported an oil spill at the site of the tanker accidents. Emergency response teams from the Federal Marine Rescue Service and the Federal Emergency Management Ministry are working to contain the environmental impact, though the exact scale of the spill remains unclear at this time. Svetlana Radionova, the head of Russia’s Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service, told reporters that specialists are conducting necessary measurements to assess the situation.

    • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia : Zambia Secures $34.65 Million Funding for Climate Resilience Through Nature-Based Solutions

      “The approval of Zambia’s Nature, People, and Climate Investment Plan marks a major step in our commitment to sustainable development,” Mr. Mposha stated. “This funding will help us implement targeted interventions to protect our environment while supporting communities dependent on natural resources.”

• Finance

  • Yahoo News ☛ Read the memo Calendly's CEO sent to employees announcing 70 job cuts

    Its CEO, Tope Awotona, emailed employees at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday with the subject heading "Important Update: Team Changes and Reorganization."

    Awotona said he had "some difficult news" and told workers that the company was carrying out "strategic reorganizations" across its engineering, customer experience, marketing, and billing departments and that "approximately 70" people would be affected.

  • Seer Medical co-founder forced to revise key claims in Breakthrough Victoria dispute

    The case between the state-based venture capital fund and a struggling portfolio company has become a flashpoint in the debate over government funding for startups.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Rare foreign-born CEO says Japan needs immigration to thrive

    Dr Lekh Juneja, head of rice cracker giant Kameda Seika, worries his adopted country has lost its edge.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia presses ahead with VAT hike across the board, not just for luxury goods

    The Indonesian govt will also introduce measures to soften the blow for lower-income earners.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Hill ☛ Can academia regain the public's trust?

      Laden notes that Americans disagree not only about facts and policies, but also about “what sources of information can be trusted” and “what makes a source of information trustworthy in the first place.”

      College-educated people tend to trust mainstream media, government reports, and scientific and academic sources whose facts, interpretations, and conclusions are based on disciplinary expertise and generally accepted rules of evidence.

      Aware of ways in which pedigreed experts sometimes “dismiss [their] lived experience,” those without college educations may value “situated knowledge and understanding” developed “on the basis of long acquaintance with and participation in various social practices.” They may trust community members and religious authorities and distrust scientific information “precisely because it is scientific.”

    • LRT ☛ How Russia prepares children in occupied Ukraine to fight against their own country

      Yunarmia, or Youth Army, was created in 2016 at the initiative of then-Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and says it has 1.3 million members. Children as young as 8 can join its ranks by filling out a questionnaire in a mobile application.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia High Court orders ex-PM Muhyiddin to pay $121k to ex-finance minister in defamation suit

    He was told to make the payment before Dec 31.

  • France24 ☛ France's Charlie Hebdo magazine holds 'funniest, meanest' God cartoon contest 10 years after attack

    The satirical weekly was [attacked] by two Islamic extremists on January 7, 2014, who gunned down eight members of staff including some of the country's most famous cartoonists inside its premises in central Paris.

    The attackers – two brothers who were later killed by police – targeted Charlie Hebdo after its decision to publish caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, Islam's most revered figure.

  • Lou Plummer ☛ The Real Me and The Real You

    I am as guilty as anyone in some ways. I would rather not be a Debbie Downer or mark myself as a whiner by complaining online. Who really wants to hear that? As a photographer, I'm going to take 1000 pictures to show you 10. That's the way it works. Most of us are not pretending to be someone we are not. We are just putting our best foot forward, sharing things we are proud of or that we are celebrating. I know my friends well enough to know they don't have perfect lives, regardless of what it looks like on Facebook, Bluesky or Mastodon. Hopefully, I don't have too may friends still using Twitter.

  • [Old] Politico ☛ Erdoğan sues Dutch far-right MP Wilders over ‘terrorist’ cartoon

    Wilders — whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) is the biggest opposition force in the Dutch parliament — in turn called Erdoğan a “loser” on Twitter. “So the man who calls me a fascist and previously called the whole of the Netherlands fascist and a remnant of Nazism is now going to press charges against me? The world upside down,” he added.

  • [Old] Reuters ☛ Erdogan files criminal complaint against Dutch politician Wilders

    They said the comments by Wilders could not be viewed as freedom expression and that Wilders had targeted Erdogan's "honour, dignity, character and reputation". Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the lawsuit as unacceptable.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New York Times ☛ ABC to Pay $15 Million to Settle a Defamation Suit Brought by Trump

    Several experts in media law said they believed that ABC News could have continued to fight, given the high threshold required by the courts for a public figure like Mr. Trump to prove defamation. A plaintiff must not only show that a news outlet published false information, but that it did so knowing that the information was false or with substantial doubts about its accuracy.

  • BBC ☛ Donald Trump awarded $15m in ABC News defamation case

    ABC News has agreed to pay $15m (£12m) to US President-elect Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor falsely said he had been found "liable for rape".

    George Stephanopoulos made the statements repeatedly during an interview on 10 March this year while challenging a congresswoman about her support for Trump.

    A jury in a civil case last year determined Trump was liable for "sexual abuse", which has a specific definition under New York law.

  • CBS ☛ ABC News agrees to contribute $15 million to Trump presidential foundation to settle defamation suit

    In May 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll over an alleged incident that occurred in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in the mid-1990s. Trump was also found liable for defaming Carroll over comments he made about her after she published a book in 2019 detailing the alleged encounter.

    The jury, however, did not find Trump liable for rape. He was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump has vehemently denied the allegations.

  • NBC ☛ ABC to pay $15 million legal settlement in Trump defamation case

    Mace, who has publicly discussed being raped as a teenager, was asked during the March interview with Stephanopoulos about Trump's treatment of women and the E. Jean Carroll case.

    Stephanopoulos said during the interview that Trump "has been found liable for rape by a jury." Trump, however, was found liable in a civil case for sexually abusing Carroll, not liable for her alleged rape. The nine-member jury in that case checked the box marked "no" when asked whether Carroll had proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” that “Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • New York Times ☛ Private Schools Group Apologizes After Claims of Antisemitism at Event

    After criticism from Jewish groups over speeches at a conference, the president of the National Association of Independent Schools said future addresses would be vetted.

  • France24 ☛ Iranian society 'disillusioned, fatigued': Hijab law will 'further marginalise, delegitimize regime'

    An Amnesty International report warns that women could even face the death penalty if convicted under the "Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab" law. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry welcomes Tara Kangarlou, Author, Award-Winning Global Affairs Journalist and Adjunct Professor in the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) at Georgetown University.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia to sign anti- star wars treaty

    The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers has approved the draft law proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science, which concerns approval of an international treaty that sets the principles for countries’ activities in space exploration and the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies, reports Labs of Latvia.

  • Techdirt ☛ Appeals Court Declares Injunction Against Ohio’s Blocking Of Immunity-Stripping Bill Moot Because It Dicked Around Long Enough To Make It Moot

    That’s what has now happened in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. An Ohio ballot measure that would have stripped local government officials of absolute immunity was denied no less than eight times by Ohio Attorney General David Yost. The ballot measure got the signatures it needed to be added to ballots, but AG Yost rejected it repeatedly. Yost moved the goalposts with each filing, refusing to provide the applicants with any guidance as to how they could bring this ballot measure into compliance with constantly shifting guidelines.

  • RFERL ☛ Iran Detains Singer Who Performed Without Head Scarf

    Iranian police released singer Parastoo Ahmadi in the early hours of December 15 following a brief detention after she performed without the mandatory head scarf, her lawyer has confirmed.

    Ahmadi caused a stir on social media earlier this week after recording a performance with her hair uncovered and wearing a dress. The performance, recorded with a crew of male musicians, was uploaded to YouTube.

  • RFERL ☛ Husband Of Iranian Rights Lawyer Arrested In Tehran

    The sentence against Reza Khandan also banned him from membership in political parties and groups, leaving the country, and using the Internet and other media and press activities.

    Sotoudeh, a vocal advocate for numerous activists, has been arrested several times since 2010. Her detention has included periods of solitary confinement, highlighting the challenges faced by human rights defenders in Iran.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Semafor Inc ☛ More YouTube viewers are watching on their TVs

    In an interview with Semafor, Kurt Wilms, the platform’s senior director of product management, said that online creators had noticed the spike — and a corresponding jump in their revenue. According to Wilms, the number of creators who are making the majority of their revenue from these living room devices is up 30% year-over-year. Categorically, the company noted that sports viewership was growing particularly strongly: TV watchtime of sports content, which is primarily game highlights, commentary, and clips, was up 30% year over year.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Justin Duke ☛ buttondown.com/alternatives

  First off — credit where it's due, I originally came across this genre of page on Memberful's site, and my reaction was pretty much the exact same as Chris's.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Next USPTO Director: IPO Weighs In [Ed: IPO is not an expert; IPO is a front group of IBM et al i.e. for software patents and more and more litigation; they want the USPTO to be an instrument of money-wasting and monopoly. The former USPTO Director had worked for Microsoft. The Patently-O blog tries to amplify the stance of patent extremists; rather than be run by scholars those are just captured people from the industry, i.e. a serious conflict of interest.]

    The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) has sent a detailed letter to President-Elect Trump outlining its recommended qualifications for the next USPTO Director. [IPO-Recommendations-re-USPTO-Director-Qualications-and-cover-letter] Although I do not expect a nomination from the President until well after inauguration on January 20, transition teams are compiling and vetting short lists of potential candidates, and so the letter comes at an important time in the process.  IPO President Krish Gupta (Dell) emphasized in the letter that the USPTO Director "should be a top-caliber individual with strong organizational management and leadership skills and in-depth knowledge of patent monopoly and trademark law and practice."

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ APM Music Discloses Multiple American Hockey League Team Settlements Amid Infringement Battle

    About three months after levying a copyright monopoly infringement complaint against the American Hockey League (AHL) and a number of its teams, Associated Production Music (APM) has moved to settle with multiple defendants.

  • The Scotsman ☛ Dodgy Firesticks crackdown: can you go to jail?

    The authorities have been clamping down on so-called ‘dodgy’ Firesticks in recent months - and you might be wondering what the risks of owning one could be. Police and officers from FACT have been visiting homes as part of the crackdown in 2024.

    It even led to the arrest of a man in Wales - as the operation was carried out across the UK. The full list of areas targeted has been revealed and includes major cities and regions.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Japanese Anime Companies Shut Down Another 15 Pirate Sites in Brazil

    Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA is reporting new successes in its overseas efforts to disrupt access to pirate sites. Earlier this month, operators of pirate anime sites in Brazil received in-person visits from CODA, acting on behalf of three major Japanese anime producers. CODA reports that Bakashi.tv, the third most-visited anime site in Brazil, shut down among 15 in total. No other sites are officially named, but our unofficial list provides a few pointers.