Leftovers

• Alex Ewerlöf ☛ Open prison theory

  I have a theory that this world is an open prison. There are limitations everywhere we look and most of our time is spent inside those boundaries.

• Advance Local Media LLC ☛ World's only mushroom-focused Fungi Film Fest is screening in North Texas

  The world’s only film festival dedicated to mushrooms and fungi is coming to North Texas, with 20 films representing 17 countries’ artistic odes to mycelium.

• Futurism ☛ Dimwit Americans Are Looking at the Night Sky and Mistaking Stars and Airplanes for "Drones"

  In a terse joint statement, the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and FAA said that more than 5,000 people had called in "reported drone sighting" over the past few weeks.

  "Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones," the statement detailed, "as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones."

• Annie Mueller ☛ Retrospective, financial

  The year I and my ex-husband lost our jobs. At the same time. Because we both worked for the same start-up. And it turned out to be less of a start-up and more of a fraud. (Wait is that actually the same thing…?) We already hadn’t been paid for over 6 months. We’d drained our savings just to keep going until the next investment round. I know, I know. It was monumentally stupid.

  The first time in my adult life I couldn’t pay my bills.

• NL Times ☛ Dutch PornHub audience misses 1st place for most time on adult site, losing to Mexico

  The U.S. did finish first for global traffic to the website, followed by France, Philippines, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Germany took sixth place, pipping Brazil, Italy, Japan, and Canada. Spain and Poland were in 11th and 12th above the Netherlands.

  Perhaps more remarkable is the high ranking the Netherlands continually garners, having moved up on PornHub's list from the 15th position. The Netherlands is estimated to be 71st out of all countries in terms of population, and 47th when compared globally based on the total [Internet] users per country.

• Nebraska Examiner ☛ A word … and a warning

  The Oxonians called out the World Wide Web — where the trivial and unchallenging are hot commodities — as the prime suspect in the advent of brain rot. To be fair, however, many WOTY winners can be trendy or esoteric picks for their popularity among the forward or the fashionable. Not so with brain rot. That’s because we’ve been here before, at least in this country. American naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau first used the term 170 years ago.

  Writing in “Walden,” he took society to task as lazy thinkers who preferred simplistic, trifling ideas to substance and import, surely evidence, he argued, of a decline in the nation’s aggregate intellectual ability. He said, “While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”

• Science

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Google’s 'Willow' chip aimed at leap in quantum computing

    Computers work with bits that know only two states: 1 for "on" and 0 for "off".

    Quantum bits, also known as qubits, on the other hand, can assume an infinite number of states.

    As a result, quantum computers can calculate much faster, but are also more prone to errors.

  • Chris ☛ Chi-Squared From Fundamentals

    If there is no meaningful targeting going on, the counts in each square would follow the Poisson distribution.11 Under appropriate assumptions, but as always, I’m playing fast and loose with this stuff.

    We’ll perform the same exercise together to learn how it all works! As we will see, this can be useful to e.g. diagnose visitor patterns on a website.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Superflares Erupt From Sun-Like Stars Roughly Every 100 Years, a New Study Finds. Is Our Sun Overdue for a Massive Blast?

    Stars, including our sun, regularly emit solar flares, or strong bursts of electromagnetic radiation. Superflares, however, are much more powerful than typical solar flares, emitting up to 10,000 times more radiation. And across the cosmos, these events might occur much more frequently than astronomers previously thought, according to a paper published in Science last week.

    The new results indicate that stars resembling our sun experience superflares approximately once every century—and if that’s true, it seems our sun may be overdue for such an explosion. As solar activity is already known to cause damage to Earth’s satellite and telecommunication systems, the discovery came as a shock to the team.

• Career/Education

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ In praise of the hundred page idea

    At about 100 pages, the idea must be substantial, but not substantiated to death. There’s room to fully explain one idea, but not enough to get lost in tangents. This is manifesto territory; far from being forgettable for being short, their intensity makes them more powerful. A single idea, distilled.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ ‘UK salaries are a joke’: Warwick professor says government university in India pays more

    “UK salaries are becoming an absolute joke especially for contractual staff. I have failed to hire people eligible for the UKs special high potential individual visa because a government university in India is willing to pay them slightly more in absolute terms than here,” Anant Sudarshan wrote on X.

    The Warwick professor noted that the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa scheme is being undercut by unattractive salaries in the UK.

• Hardware

  • Austin White ☛ Welcome our Robot Helpers

    Now I know these are getting more common but the first time I have run into one and by that I mean almost literally. “Tally” is the inventory robot that scans shelves and notifies the warehouse of what is low on the shelves and what needs to be reordered. The robot itself is not scary in fact they tried to apply some personality to it. I guess I missed the memo that these will be in use.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Opioid Giant Endo Escaped a $7 Billion Federal Penalty

    This spring, the Justice Department announced a major victory against a drug firm that manufactured billions of opioid painkillers. Endo Health Solutions, the agency said, would face $1.5 billion in fines and forfeitures and plead guilty to a corporate criminal charge.

    Prosecutors said the massive fine would hold accountable a suburban Philadelphia company that profited by “misrepresenting the safety of their opioid products and using reckless marketing tactics to increase sales.”

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ An insurance CEO was gunned down. Malignant health care system in Kansas, U.S., explains reaction.

    If you want to understand why so many Americans of disparate political ideologies have cheered on Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, you might look to that moment, one that I’m confident has been shared by countless people in recent decades. The exact medicine I was talking about doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things — some folks depend on EpiPens, others on asthma inhalers, others on insulin, others on antiretroviral therapy, still others on chemotherapy drugs.

    Until you find yourself on that call, begging our nation’s health care cartel to keep you alive, you don’t know what it’s like.

    The shame grinds at you.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Could MRI Spot 'Pre-Cancer' Lesions of the Pancreas?

    Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is capable of detecting precancerous lesions in the pancreas, researchers reported Dec. 13 in the journal Investigative Radiology.

    These results could open the way to early clinical diagnosis of people at risk of pancreatic cancer, researchers said.

  • Greece ☛ Government to discuss parental controls on internet for children under 15

    Skertsos cited studies indicating that prolonged social media use can lead to depression, attention deficits and low self-esteem, particularly among adolescents.

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Addiction is a Disease, not a Habit: A Call for Compassion and Solutions

    Tobacco addiction impacts not just individual health but also families, communities, and economies. Families bear emotional and financial burdens, with loved ones becoming caregivers and facing costly treatments. This strain disrupts family dynamics, leads to income loss, and reduces overall quality of life. In India, the economic toll of tobacco use is estimated at ₹177,000 crore annually, highlighting the urgent need for harm reduction and support initiatives. Communities also suffer from decreased productivity and higher healthcare expenses.

    Additionally, the harm caused by tobacco perpetuates cycles of poverty, especially in rural areas where farmers rely on tobacco cultivation for their livelihoods. These socio-economic dependencies complicate the implementation of cessation programs and policies, without addressing the structural dependencies on tobacco.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Do knee X-rays show if you drink beer? Medical AI versus algorithmic shortcutting

    The correlations are there in the data! But they’re not useful. “These models can see patterns humans cannot, but not all patterns they identify are meaningful or reliable,” says lead author Peter Schilling. Beware of automated p-hacking.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • GO Media ☛ Microsoft Says The Quiet Part Loud About Xbox

    Microsoft’s newest sales pitch to prospective gamers is that everything—your TV, computer, or phone—can be an Xbox. It’s part of a new strategy aimed at reaching more people, and potentially making a lot more money. It’s also a major shift for the millions of people who have been Xbox fans for decades now, and the company says it’s embracing that.

  • Pivot to AI ☛ Microsoft refuses a documentation fix because AI might not understand text in tables

    Matt Wojciakowski of Microsoft rejected the change and closed the ticket: “We have decided to keep as-is … part of that decision is that more and more folks are using AI chat to access guidance and tables don’t always translate well in that context.”

    Never mind clarity for humans — an LLM might have had problems!

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Words That Stop ChatGPT in Its Tracks

    Anytime ChatGPT would normally utter my name in the course of conversation, it halts with a glaring “I’m unable to produce a response,” sometimes mid-sentence or even mid-word. When I asked who the founders of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are (I’m one of them), it brought up two colleagues but left me out. When pressed, it started up again, and then: zap.

    The behavior seemed to be coarsely tacked on to the last step of ChatGPT’s output rather than innate to the model. After ChatGPT has figured out what it’s going to say, a separate filter appears to release a guillotine. The reason some observers have surmised that it’s separate is because GPT runs fine if it includes my middle initial or if it’s prompted to substitute a word such as banana for my name, and because there can even be inconsistent timing to it: Below, for example, GPT appears to first stop talking before it would naturally say my name; directly after, it manages to get a couple of syllables out before it stops. So it’s like having a referee who blows the whistle on a foul slightly before, during, or after a player has acted out.

  • Neil Selwyn ☛ Acknowledging the military origins of AI in education

    On one hand, many AI researchers would argue that these sources of funding have made little difference to the work that they have been able to carry out since the 1950s – allowing them to focus on wide-ranging problems that have resulted in plenty of civilian-facing technologies. Indeed, defence funding has initiated the development of AI that sits beneath everyday tech such as the Siri iPhone voice assistant and autonomous cars. As Philip Agre (1997) put it when looking back on the first few decades of AI research, “if the field of AI during those decades was a servant of the military then it enjoyed a wildly indulgent master.”

  • Troy Patterson ☛ A Few Articles of Interest

    Let’s get back to the data article though. The Limits of Data covers lots of ground. Topics covered include things like contingencies of social bias, decontextualization, quantification, transparency, the politics of classification, metrics and values, and more. Here are a few quotes to get you going: [...]

  • The Register UK ☛ China’s homebrew Bluetooth alternative is on the march

    The standard requires remote controls to allow voice control, and to use one of three means of wireless comms: Bluetooth, infrared, and Star Flash – more on that later. It has been hailed as a boon for consumers who apparently struggle to find the right remote control to use as they navigate between televisions and set-top boxes.

  • WIFI 7 Module manufacturer ☛ StarFlash: The Future Star of Wireless Communication

    In the realm of audio transmission, StarFlash technology stands out for its high speed and low latency, enabling high-quality, multi-channel, lossless audio transmission. In comparison to traditional Bluetooth, StarFlash technology supports higher-quality stereo high-definition audio.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China kicks off homegrown Bluetooth alternative — Star Flash is set to take over consumer electronics in the country

    China is advancing towards developing "Star Flash," a homegrown alternative to Bluetooth. According to a report by The Register, this initiative is part of a broader strategy to reduce reliance on foreign wireless communication technologies and establish proprietary standards.

  • Futurism ☛ UnitedHealth Accidentally Makes Claims-Judging AI Public for Anyone to Use

    Dubbed "SOP Chatbot," an apparent reference to the "standard operating procedure" queries it was built to answer, the AI also revealed logs in which the company's employees asked it questions like "How do I check policy renewal date?"

    Those logs also showed employees asking questions like "What should be the determination of the claim?" — making it sound a lot like the AI was being used to evaluate coverage.

  • The Register UK ☛ Apple Intelligence summary botches BBC News headline

    Apple Intelligence generated a headline of a BBC news story that popped up on iPhones late last week, claiming that Luigi Mangione, a man arrested over the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thomson, had shot himself. This summary was not true and sparked a complaint from the UK's national broadcaster.

    AI-generated content is prone to inaccuracies, and providers like Microsoft and OpenAI typically include disclaimers. Introducing a summary into a user's news feed without making it clear there is a chance it could be wrong is bad, but worse is attributing the inaccuracy elsewhere.

  • Futurism ☛ Apple AI Tells Users Luigi Mangione Has Shot Himself

    As the BBC reports, the Apple AI feature incorrectly summarized the BBC's reporting to make it sound like the suspect had attempted suicide in an alert sent to iPhone users.

    "Luigi Mangione shoots himself," reads the AI's bogus BBC notification.

    It's yet another high-profile example of AI incorrectly reporting current events — again raising serious questions about the technology's role as a mediator of information.

  • Futurism ☛ Humans Alarmed at AI Company's "Stop Hiring Humans" Billboards

    An AI startup called Artisan has managed to irritate virtually everybody with a controversial ad campaign in San Francisco, which has littered the city with billboards reading "Stop Hiring Humans."

    As you may have guessed, Artisan peddles automation — specifically, in the form of an AI "sales agent," which is also called Artisan.

  • The Register UK ☛ Ransomware attacks exploit Cleo bug as Cl0p claims it

    Supply chain integration vendor Cleo has urged its customers to upgrade three of its products after an October security update was circumvented, leading to widespread ransomware attacks that Russia-linked gang Cl0p has claimed are its evil work.

  • New York Times ☛ Another New Twitter? Good Luck With That.

    We have officially arrived in late-stage social media. The services and platforms that delighted us and reshaped our lives when they began appearing a few decades ago have now reached total saturation and maturation. Call it malaise. Call it Stockholm syndrome. Call it whatever. But each time a new platform debuts, promising something better — to help us connect better, share photos better, manage our lives better — many of us enthusiastically trek on over, only to be disappointed in the end.

  • Bob Monsour ☛ Migrating this site to Cloudflare

    So I logged into my Netlify account to see what might be going on. I found this graph for my bandwidth usage. The graph below shows the dramatic spike in usage over the last few weeks. Needless to say, I was shocked. I had not suddenly become popular. Sure, I had a couple of blog posts about Eleventy and some other stuff, but nothing that would cause this kind of spike.

  • Matan Abudy ☛ AI Art Will Only Make Us Love Artists More

    Ever since the rise of AI—specifically its use for artistic purposes, like creating images that look like the recent work of your favorite artist or writing rhyming poems to entertain your friends—I’ve been hearing a wide range of emotions about it.

    As I see it, the spectrum of reactions seems to lie between two extremes, with people falling at various points along this scale.

  • Nebraska Examiner ☛ College students ‘cautiously curious’ about AI

    But students say they’re getting mixed messages – the stern warning from professors against use of AI and the growing pressure from the job market to learn how to master it.

    The technological developments of generative AI over the last few years have cracked open a new industry, and a wealth of job opportunities. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the first statewide partnership with a tech firm to bring AI curriculum, resources and opportunities to the state’s public colleges.

  • Axios ☛ Databricks' Ghodsi after $10B fundraising round: "It's peak AI bubble"

    "It's peak AI bubble," DataBricks' CEO Ali Ghodsi told Dan Primack at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco.

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Privatizing the Post Office Would Be a Disaster

    Rogan’s incredulity about this claim was probably shared by most of his audience. At the time, Rubin’s fantasy about how even the Post Office could be privatized without this leading to any problems was just an amusing illustration of how a fringe ideology like libertarianism can make people argue for bizarre things.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Sean Conner ☛ I think I'm resigned to always get email from other Sean Conners because I seem to be the only Sean Conner who cares about their email address

      So I check my Gmail account and guess what? No only is there yet another Sean Conner out there, but he lost the password to his account. How do I know this? Because my account was set as his backup account!

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • US Department of Veterans Affairs ☛ VA proposes to eliminate copays for telehealth, expand access to telehealth for rural VeteransVA proposes to eliminate copays for telehealth, expand access to telehealth for rural Veterans

      Today, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it is proposing to eliminate copayments for all VA telehealth services and establish a grant program to fund designated VA telehealth access points in non-VA facilities, with a focus on rural and medically underserved communities.

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    • EPIC ☛ EPIC urges Dutch Data Protection Authority to Protect Students and Employees from the Harms of Emotion Recognition – EPIC – Electronic Privacy Information Center

      On December 17th, EPIC filed comments with the Dutch data protection authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, regarding use of and prohibitions on emotion recognition surveillance. The EU AI Act prohibits the development, deployment, and placement on the EU market of emotion recognition systems intended for use in the workplace and in educational institutions, with limited exceptions where the algorithm is intended for certain medical or safety reasons. Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens opened a consultation requesting feedback on the implementation of this prohibition.

    • Futurism ☛ Microsoft's AI "Recall" Feature Caught Screenshotting Your Social Security Number

      Even after a revamp, Microsoft's AI-powered "Recall" tool, which quietly takes snapshots of your screen every few seconds, is still capturing your sensitive information.

      As an investigation by Tom's Hardware found, the Windows feature routinely captured credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other financial and personal data that was onscreen — even when the new "filter sensitive information" setting was enabled.

    • India Times ☛ Meta fines: Facebook owner hit with 251 million euros in fines for 2018 data breach

      European Union privacy watchdogs hit Facebook owner Meta with fines totalling 251 million euros on Monday after an investigation into a 2018 data breach on the social media platform that exposed millions of accounts.

      Ireland's Data Protection Commission issued the penalties after wrapping up its inquiry into the breach, when hackers gained access to user accounts by exploiting bugs in the platform's code that allowed them to steal digital keys, known as "access tokens."

    • Security Week ☛ Facebook Owner Hit With 251 Million Euros in Fines for 2018 Data Breach

      European Union privacy watchdogs hit Facebook owner Meta with fines totaling 251 million euros on Monday after an investigation into a 2018 data breach on the social media platform that exposed millions of accounts.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Department of Homeland Security reveals nearly 160 ways it’s using AI

      The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday released the latest version of its artificial intelligence use case inventory, reporting 158 active applications for the technology — a major jump from the 67 it made public last year.

      In an explanatory blog post outlining how the agency approaches artificial intelligence, Eric Hysen, the agency’s CAIO and CIO, said that 29 deployed AI use cases and 10 upcoming AI use cases were deemed to be rights- or safety-impacting, a new level of scrutiny established by recent White House guidance. Roughly half of those deployed use cases included technologies related to face recognition and face-capture technologies, he said.

    • India Times ☛ Facebook-parent Meta settles with Australia's privacy watchdog over Cambridge Analytica lawsuit

      Meta Platforms has agreed to a A$50 million settlement ($31.85 million), Australia's privacy watchdog said on Tuesday, closing long-drawn, expensive legal proceedings for the Facebook parent over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

    • India Times ☛ Meta to pay $32 million as it settles Facebook quiz app's privacy breach

      The Commissioner had alleged that personal information of some users were being disclosed to Facebook's personality quiz app, This is Your Digital Life, as part of the broader Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

    • [Repeat] RFERL ☛ Serbian Government Using Top Tech To Spy On Journalists, Amnesty Says

      "Amnesty International uncovered forensic evidence showing how Serbian authorities used Cellebrite products to enable NoviSpy spyware infections of activists' phones," the report said.

      The report includes testimonies from a journalist and an activist who alleged that the authorities, including the police the Security Intelligence Agency, installed spyware on their devices while in custody and during an interview.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Cologne: World War II bomb prompts mass evacuation

    The discovery of a World War II bomb in Cologne, Germany, on Tuesday evening prompted authorities to request more than 3,000 people to leave their homes.

    The explosive was uncovered in the Sülz district of the west German city.

  • VOA News ☛ Congo files criminal complaints against Apple in Europe over conflict minerals

    The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain, lawyers for the Congolese government told Reuters.

    Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed groups involved in massacres of civilians, mass rapes, looting and other crimes, according to U.N. experts and human rights groups.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Judge rejects Trump presidential immunity claim in hush money case

    In May, Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to hide a hush-money payment to an adult film star. His lawyers argued that some of the evidence was inadmissible due to presidential immunity, but a judge rejected the claim.

  • The Atlantic ☛ RIP to the Axis of Resistance

    Iran’s Axis of Resistance, an informal coalition of anti-Western and anti-Israeli militias, was already having a terrible year. But the loss of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad may have dealt the knockout blow.

  • BBC ☛ Telegram app recommends extremist content to users, study finds

    It found that users browsing mundane topics would be recommended extreme content - while users looking at one form of extreme content, such as anti-government conspiracies, would be pushed towards other extremist ideologies such as antisemitism or white nationalism.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ EU Sanctions Russian Military Intelligence Over ‘Hybrid Attacks’

    "For the first time ever, the European Council today decided to impose restrictive measures against 16 individuals and three entities responsible for Russia's destabilizing actions abroad," the EU said in a statement.

    Among those targeted was Unit 29155 of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, which was accused of "involvement in foreign assassinations and destabilization activities such as bombings and cyber-attacks across Europe."

  • India Times ☛ EU opens investigation into TikTok over election interference

    "Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act by failing to tackle such risks," she said in a statement.

    This is the third investigation the Commission has launched against TikTok.

  • RFERL ☛ EU Launches Probe Into TikTok Over Suspected Romanian Election Interference

    However, following Romania's National Security Council's declassification of documents allegedly pointing to a "state actor" that wasn't named but appeared to be Russia, the EU and NATO member's Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the vote and ordered a complete rerun that would take place in the next few months.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ EU opens probe into TikTok over possible Russian interference in Romanian election

    Regulators in the European Union today announced they’ve opened an investigation into TikTok for possible breaches of the Digital Services Act, DSA, by failing to prevent foreign interference in the recent Romanian presidential election.

    The second round of the vote didn’t go through earlier this month after intelligence showed that 25,000 TikTok accounts suddenly became activated just weeks before polls opened. All these accounts were in support of the far-right outsider independent candidate Calin Georgescu, who it’s believed could have the backing of Moscow. Georgescu wants to end Romanian support for the war in Ukraine

  • VOA News ☛ EU investigates TikTok over Romanian presidential election

    The European Commission is escalating its scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform after Romania's top court canceled results of the first round of voting that resulted in an unknown far-right candidate becoming the front-runner.

    The court made its unprecedented decision after authorities in the European Union and NATO member country declassified documents alleging Moscow organized a sprawling social media campaign to promote a long-shot candidate, Calin Georgescu.

  • International Business Times ☛ Will ISIS Bride Shamima Begum Be Allowed To Return To Britain? Border Security Minister Speaks Out

    Her activities during her time with the terrorist group remain a subject of intense debate.

    Begum maintains she served as a stay-at-home mother, but reports from The Telegraph allege she acted as an armed "enforcer" for the extremist regime, enforcing strict dress codes and wielding firearms.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ ‘Colder than hell’: Two vets recall Battle of the Bulge fears, mayhem

    Adding to the cold, Miller’s unit eschewed going into combat with their hatches down.

    “We found out that the best thing to do is go into combat with the hatches open, number one, so you can get out faster,” he said. “But number two, we taught everybody in our organization to always have your eyes looking up, down, left and right continually — four eyes looking out of the tank, looking up and down, left and right, up and down.”

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Soldiers, reenactors, mark 80 years since the Battle of the Bulge - Task & Purpose

    The events are among the last major commemorations for the fighting to retake much of western Europe in 1944. In June, active-duty military, veterans and historical reenactors jumped over western France and landed at the beaches of Normandy to mark eight decades since the triumphant invasion on D-Day. In September more troops jumped over the Netherlands, in recreation of the failed push to the Rhine River that was Operation Market Garden.

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Fired U of M administrator denies making antisemitic statements • Michigan Advance

    It was at least the third time Acker has been targeted since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including in May when he said a masked intruder came to his home and those of other regents and left a list of demands, and the vandalism of his Southfield law office in June.

  • The Hill ☛ TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew meets with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago

    Trump and Chew met on Monday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill.

    The meeting comes as Chew’s TikTok faces an uncertain path in the United States.

  • The Verge ☛ TikTok CEO meets with Trump as the platform tries to avoid a ban

    Though Trump initially led the ban on TikTok over claims about national security concerns, he started to reverse course earlier this year. In March, Trump said he didn’t want a TikTok ban because “...without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.” He later joined TikTok in June.

    When asked about the TikTok ban during a press conference on Monday, Trump said he would “take a look.” Along with meeting with Trump, tech giants, including Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI, have donated to Trump’s inauguration fund as well.

  • CBC ☛ TikTok asks U.S. Supreme Court for emergency order to block upcoming ban

    Lawyers for the company and ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law's Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok's more than 170 million users in the U.S.

  • France24 ☛ TikTok asks US Supreme Court to temporarily block law that could ban popular app

    TikTok petitioned the US Supreme Court on Monday to halt a law mandating its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest or close the app by January 19. This appeal coincided with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's meeting with President-elect Trump, who expressed interest in reviewing the app despite the law signed by President Biden.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ TikTok CEO meets with Trump as company hopes Supreme Court will block upcoming ban

    President-elect Donald Trump today met with TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss the app being banned in the U.S. over security risks.

  • India Times ☛ Trump, TikTok CEO to meet on Monday: reports

    TikTok and China-based parent ByteDance filed an emergency request to Supreme Court justices on Monday for an injunction to halt the looming ban on the social media app used by about 170 million Americans while they appeal a lower court's ruling that upheld the law.

  • The Hill ☛ Trump's stance on TikTok ban and his affinity for the app

    President-elect Trump said Monday that he has a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok as the popular social media app faces down a potential ban next month.

    When asked if he would work to stop the ban from going into effect when he takes office, Trump said he will “take a look,” saying he attributes his win in part to TikTok.

  • India Times ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily block looming US ban

    The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless its owner ByteDance divests from the app by January 19.

    TikTok asked for the move to be put on hold while it challenges a lower court ruling that upheld the law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, potentially with an appeal to the Supreme Court itself.

  • Semafor Inc ☛ TikTok asks the US Supreme Court to temporarily block ban

    TikTok asked the top court for an injunction on the law, which would force its parent company ByteDance to either divest the app or face a ban, while the company appeals a lower court’s ruling in favor of the law. The company maintains that the law violates the company’s First Amendment rights, as well as those of its 170 million users in the US.

  • New York Times ☛ TikTok Asks Supreme Court to Block Law Banning Its U.S. Operations

    President Biden signed the law this spring after it was enacted with wide bipartisan support. Lawmakers said the app’s ownership represented a risk because the Chinese government’s oversight of private companies would allow it to retrieve sensitive information about Americans or to spread propaganda, though they have not publicly shared evidence that this has occurred. They have also noted that American platforms like Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, and that TikTok itself is not allowed in the country.

    The fight will have far-reaching consequences. Since TikTok officially landed in the United States in 2018, it has become a cultural juggernaut that wields influence over nearly every facet of American life. Users, especially members of Gen Z and millennials, turn to it for news, entertainment and shopping, lured by its canny recommendation engine, which compiles short videos for users in a main feed. The app can quickly become addictive, as it gauges users’ interests, down to the number of seconds they spend on each video.

  • The Washington Post ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court to block law that would shut down app in U.S.

    The company’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to put on hold a lower-court ruling that clears the way for the law. They asked the high court to intervene before Jan. 19, the deadline Congress set for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the video-sharing platform or be barred nationwide.

  • JURIST ☛ TikTok seeks Supreme Court intervention to block US ban

    The petition challenges the constitutionality of legislation signed in April requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or cease US operations by January 19. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed into law in April 2024 as part of a broader appropriations package, prohibits ByteDance and TikTok Inc. from operating TikTok in the United States unless they execute a “qualified divestiture” that separates the platform from foreign adversary control. The law requires TikTok to break ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance by January 19, 2025, with a possible 90-day extension, or face a nationwide ban enforced through restrictions on app stores and internet hosting services.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Trump Says He Has A 'Warm Spot' for TikTok Ahead of Ban

    Notably, Trump repeatedly dodged TikTok-related questions while on the campaign trail. He initially showed interest in banning the platform during his first presidential term, but has since changed his tune — a TikTok ban might benefit rival social media company Meta, with whom Trump holds a grudge after his accounts were suspended. He has said he opposed the idea that ByteDance should be made to divest its holdings to continue operating in the U.S. and that he would “save” it, but has not offered a plan to do so.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court for temporary injunction against U.S. ban

    That set off four years of back-and-forth between TikTok and the U.S. government. In April, President Biden signed a law that required ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese entity; TikTok responded by suing the U.S. government in May.

    The company this month lost a major court battle in its efforts to remain active in the U.S., setting up a potential showdown in the Supreme Court.

  • The Independent UK ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court to block potential ban

    TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, asked the U.S. Supreme Court, on Monday, to intervene in its impending nationwide ban by blocking the law that would remove the app from millions of users.

    In its filing, the popular social media app alleged that banning the app would “shutter” one of the most popular speech platforms at a highly political moment on January 19, just one day before Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated.

  • Axios ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily block government ban

    TikTok asked the Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block a law that would effectively ban the social media app in the U.S.

    Why it matters: This is TikTok's last resort as the request follows a denial by a U.S. Appeals Court to grant an injunction on the ban law until the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up the case.

  • US News And World Report ☛ TikTok Asks the Supreme Court for an Emergency Order to Block a US Ban Unless It's Sold

    Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law's Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok's more than 170 million users in the U.S.

  • The Hill ☛ TikTok asks Supreme Court to delay divest-or-ban law 

    The company’s application asks the court to put the Jan. 19 divest-or-ban deadline on hold until the justices resolve TikTok’s First Amendment claims on their normal docket.

  • RTL ☛ Trump's 'warm spot' for TikTok: TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily block looming US ban

    Trump has emerged as an unlikely TikTok ally amid concerns that a ban on the app would mainly benefit Meta, the Facebook parent company owned by Mark Zuckerberg.

    Trump's stance reflects conservative criticism of Meta for allegedly suppressing right-wing content, including the former president himself being banned from Facebook after the January 6, 2021, US Capitol [insurrection] by his supporters.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Terrifying Complexity of Tech Oligarchs' Obeisance to Trump

    To be sure, Trump is going to follow Viktor Orbán’s formula and try to discipline the legacy media into acting as his captive media (as Anne Appelbaum discussed with Greg Sargent). But where have you been?!?! He made great strides in doing that already — building on his successful propaganda about the Russian investigation with distractions about dick pics in lieu of actual reporting on Trump’s alleged crime and corruption. The legacy media has been gleefully playing a useful prop in Trump’s domination reality TV show for years. I’d like them to stop, but cannot force them to figure out how they’re being used.

    The obeisance from the tech oligarchs, however, terrifies me in a different way.

    Consider how many different issues intersect in the business conflicts of these men: [...]

  • Greece ☛ EU adopts new Russia sanctions targeting China, shadow fleet

    The new sanctions package adds 52 vessels from the shadow fleet that try to circumvent Western restrictions to move oil, arms and grains. It brings the total listed to 79.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Syria’s Islamists Say Under Orders to Stay Away From Russian Forces

    Russian troops were loading a truck at the entrance to the port they control in the Syrian city of Tartus on Monday, while Islamist fighters manned a nearby checkpoint.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

    At stake here is more than the fate of Ukraine. As a new administration prepares to take power—led by a man, Donald Trump, who has been hostile to Zelensky and his country’s cause, and who admires Russia and Vladimir Putin—the future of American aid to Ukraine is at best uncertain. It could very well diminish or even come to an end. But the obstacles the U.S. has faced in trying to supply Ukraine during the past two years have revealed a systemic, gaping national-security weakness. It is a weakness that afflicts the U.S. military at all levels, and about which the public is largely unaware. The vaunted American war machine is in disarray and disrepair.

  • USMC ☛ This Marine unit now has its own tool to blast drones out of the sky

    “The rapid rise of UAS, used for surveillance, targeting and attacks, has made advanced air defense systems like MADIS critical to protecting our Marines and preserving our combat effectiveness,” said Lt. Col. Craig Warner, Future Weapons Systems product manager. “MADIS not only detects, tracks and defeats aerial threats but also serves as a powerful deterrent, signaling to adversaries that their aerial assets will not succeed against U.S. forces.”

  • FAIR ☛ NYT Panics Over Outrage at Insurance Companies

    In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the arrest of  alleged shooter Luigi Mangione, I wrote (FAIR.org, 12/11/24) about how Murdoch outlets like the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, as well as Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post editorial board, not only decried the widespread support for Mangione but fought back against legitimate criticism of the health insurance industry.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Seth Godin ☛ If they know, they should tell us

    It’s tempting to lurk in the shadows, conceal the truth and race to the bottom.

    The race to the top requires a foundation of trust, and trust comes from relevant information. Sunlight makes it easier to see where we’re going.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Hidden Story of J. P. Morgan’s Librarian

    Greene’s nearly decade-long collaboration with Morgan was arguably the most important relationship of her life outside her family, and I think the curators have done a terrific job of showing the peculiar intimacy that collectors and curators share. The ledgers, letters, cards, and other ephemera on display document not only what Morgan bought but also what Greene turned him on to. Though collectors and curators or librarians usually maintain a professional distance, it is inevitably disrupted when they disagree about a purchase and whether it works in the collection; it’s a team sport for two.

• Environment

  • The Atlantic ☛ Bogotá’s Water Rationing Is a Preview

    In Colombia, climate change, coupled with deforestation in the Amazon and El Niño weather patterns that have become more intense, has caused a punishing and prolonged drought. The San Rafael reservoir rests above the city and is replenished by water collected in the country’s páramos––a high-alpine ecosystem known for its nearly constant moisture; as of April, when the rationing began, the reservoir was at less than 20 percent capacity. Natasha Avendaño, the general manager of El Acueducto de Bogotá, the organization responsible for the city’s water infrastructure, recently reported that this August was the driest month in the 55 years since the city started keeping track. Restrictions are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Scientists warn careless experimentation with 'mirror life forms' could be deadly to humans and destroy the environment

    "Mirror bacteria" could evade people's immune systems, they suggest, causing deadly infections. Such infections could also lead to a substantial proportion of plant and animal species being displaced, completely disrupting the environment.

  • The Conversation ☛ ‘Mirror life forms’ may sound like science fiction, but scientists warn they could be deadly to humans and destroy the environment

    Some molecules exist as mirror images of themselves, known as “enantiomers”, that can’t be superimposed on one another. This concept is known as chirality, or “handedness”. It’s important because mirror images of the same molecules can have completely different effects and functions in biology.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • VOA News ☛ VOA interview: US urges Europe to end energy dependency on Russia

      In an interview with VOA Ukrainian's Oksana Bedratenko, Pyatt said Europe should use the Dec. 31 expiration of a gas transit contract between Ukraine and Russia to decisively end its dependency on Russian energy.

    • India Times ☛ Microsoft deal signals booming demand from data centres to power AI

      US utilities are finally signing concrete supply deals with data-centre operators as the artificial intelligence wave sparks a surge in power demand, paving the way for higher profits in the coming quarters.

      Data centres are expected to account for 8% of the power generated in the US by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022, according to a Goldman Sachs report in May.

    • Inside Towers ☛ Military History Buffs are Fighting VA Data Centers

      Data center development in Northern Virginia, particularly in Loudoun County, is facing resistance from military history enthusiasts aiming to protect battlefield sites. Northern Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, but many available development sites are historically significant, including battlefields, according to Axios.

      A recent report to Virginia lawmakers stated that data centers pose no greater risk to historic sites than other large-scale developments but suggested that pre-development studies could help reduce such risks. Preservationists, however, argue that data centers threaten these sites, citing the lack of legal protections.

    • Task And Purpose ☛ C-130s from around the world gather for an 'elephant walk'

      An “elephant walk” is basically a tight grouping of planes on a runway, taking off one after the other. It’s a term and tradition going back to World War II. And it was alive and well on Saturday, Dec. 14 on the runway at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. Some of the seven were C-130J Super Hercules belonging to the U.S. Air Force’s 36th Airlift Squadron while other aircraft were from the Royal Australian Air Force, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, South Korea Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

    • The Local SE ☛ Swedish police rule out foul play in mystery deaths of three Northvolt workers

      While police were ruling out a crime, Stabbfors said they "unfortunately" had not been able to determine the precise cause of the deaths, but said that for the third case the analysis indicated it was from natural causes.

    • Axios ☛ [Cryptocurrency] industry eyes deep list of government appointments

      While the world is focused on President-elect Trump's top-level appointments, the [cryptocurrency] industry might want to watch some government jobs farther down the ladder.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Revelator Reads Bonus: 280+ Environmental Books Published in 2024

• Finance

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2024-12-14 [Older] Whole Foods Workers in Philadelphia Are Unionizing

  • Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ Estimating projects sells them short (and that's okay)

    Recently, I read a blog post about doing software project estimates. It's a reasonable post with a reasonable method. But it does what all estimates do: it sells projects short.

    I don't mean in the sense of underestimating a young promising project's potential, relegating it to an unfulfilling career pushing paperwork. I mean in the sense of selling short on the stock market.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • C4ISRNET ☛ The next defense reform must fully bring the US tech sector on board

    The American defense community is balancing a robust yet aging defense industrial base with an emerging $130 billion-dollar defense tech ecosystem. We have the opportunity to increase our military might if we embrace the moment and inject modern cyber, software, materials and electronics technology to enhance our traditional defense industrial base.

  • India Times ☛ What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?

    Tech companies and leaders have now poured millions into his inauguration fund, a sharp increase - in most cases - from past pledges to incoming presidents. But what does the tech industry expect to gain out of their renewed relationships with Trump?

  • The Korea Times ☛ Korean retail conglomerate Shinsegae chairman meets Trump Jr. at Mar-a-Lago

    Chung is visiting the Mar-a-Lago resort Tuesday and Wednesday (U.S. time) to meet with Donald Trump Jr., according to the Korean conglomerate.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ House AI task force releases final report, eyes future work with Trump administration

    House AI task force members on Tuesday touted the long-awaited release of their report outlining recommendations to Congress on the federal government’s adoption of AI, while confirming that lawmakers are in conversation with the incoming administration about the very same topics.

    The nearly 300-page report digs into a plethora of areas that the emerging technology touches, including the government’s own use of AI, along with recommendations concerning AI governance and the AI workforce.

  • Security Week ☛ CISA Seeking Public Comment on Updated National Cyber Incident Response Plan

    Originally published in 2016, the NCIRP is meant as a framework on how federal, private, state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT), and international organizations address cyber incidents that have a higher severity, and which could cause disruptions to critical infrastructure or equipment damage.

    The plan describes the efforts, mechanisms, involved parties, and decisions and activities that the US government will use to coordinate response to cyber incidents and is meant to promote national unity of effort in detection and response.

  • New York Times ☛ How OpenAI Plans to Move From Being a Nonprofit

    Last fall, the nonprofit that controls OpenAI tried to fire the company’s high-profile leader, Sam Altman. It failed.

    Ever since then, Mr. Altman has been trying to wrest control of the company away from the nonprofit.

  • India Times ☛ Why does OpenAI need so much money?

    OpenAI's accelerating expenses are the main reason the corporate structure of the company, which began as a nonprofit research lab, could soon change. OpenAI must raise billions of additional dollars in the years to come, and its executives believe it will be more attractive to investors as a for-profit company.

  • New York Times ☛ Why OpenAI Needs So Much Money

    Early last year, OpenAI raised $10 billion. Just 18 months later, the company had burned through most of that money. So it raised $6.6 billion more and arranged to borrow an additional $4 billion.

    But in another 18 months or so from now, OpenAI will need another cash infusion because the San Francisco start-up is spending more than $5.4 billion a year. And by 2029, OpenAI expects to spend $37.5 billion a year.

  • International Business Times ☛ Palantir Joins the Nasdaq 100 Index as Stock Price Surges by Over 340% This Year

    It is known for creating data fusion interfaces like the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) and Palantir Foundry to improve big data analytics for diverse industries.

  • India Times ☛ SoftBank CEO to announce $100 bln investment in US during visit to Trump, CNBC reports

    SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son will announce a $100 billion investment in the US over the next four years during a Monday visit to US President-elect Donald Trump's residence Mar-a-Lago, CNBC reported on Monday.

  • The Register UK ☛ Trump security advisor urges offensive cyberattacks on China

    Despite being specifically asked about China-linked Salt Typhoon's compromise of multiple US telecom networks and snooping on US officials, Waltz called attention to Volt Typhoon, another Chinese threat actor that's been operating a botnet of compromised Cisco routers used to attack critical infrastructure. Volt Typhoon's botnet resurged in late 2024 despite being wiped by the FBI earlier this year, which Waltz said is "wholly unacceptable."

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Arctic Wolf acquires Cylance from BlackBerry for $160 million

    Arctic Wolf is integrating Cylance’s AI-powered endpoint security technology into its platform to broaden its security solutions. With this acquisition, Arctic Wolf plans to bolster its presence in the competitive cybersecurity market, leveraging Cylance’s technology. It marks Arctic Wolf’s sixth acquisition to date, enhancing its portfolio with previous acquisitions such as RootSecure and Tetra Defense.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ CISA pitches updated cyber incident response plan as an ‘agile, actionable’ framework

    The revamped National Cyber Incident Response Plan — an effort from CISA, the agency’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative and the Office of the National Cyber Director — builds on 2016’s Presidential Policy Directive-41, a pre-CISA document that provided a framework for how the federal government, private sector, international partners and state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments collectively respond to cyber incidents.

  • Tracy Durnell ☛ Cultural power vs. economic power

    A bunch of losers and bullies with a lot of money are mad that money can’t buy coolness so they’re fucking the rest of us over to demonstrate the might of money over knowledge and make themselves feel as powerful culturally as they are economically 🤷‍♀️ Ironically, they are still bewitched by the old regimes of feudalism and The Church, and seek to become monarchs in their own right — god-kings — because their wealth feels hollow without our respect and their complete control.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ New law will ban sex toys from Walmart, Target: Texas rep's clampdown on ‘sexually-oriented businesses’

    The ban will be implemented immediately if passed with a two-thirds majority of votes. On the contrary, if it received less than a “super majority,” the law will go into effect on September 1, 2025, endangering stores selling sex toys with fines of up to $5,000 for each violation.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • [Repeat] 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”.

    Dūdaitė wore the T-shirt in response to Russian athletes being allowed to compete at the World Championships under a neutral flag.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Boualem Sansal detention in Algeria shows limits of French protection

    “Five generations of Algerians have felt ignored, marginalized, and dominated by European powers,” says Alain Ruscio, a historian and specialist in French colonization. “The Algerian government uses that collective memory and pain to exert power over its people. In the case of Sansal, he may have extreme ideas, but you don’t put someone in prison for ideas.”

  • Techdirt ☛ Katie Couric Is Wrong: Repealing Section 230 Won’t Stop Online Misinformation

    The report’s recommendations were a mix of unworkable and nonsensical ideas, betraying the authors’ lack of true expertise on the complex issues and, more importantly, the tradeoffs around online disinformation.

    Repealing Section 230 would not magically solve misinformation online. In fact, it would likely make the problem worse. Section 230 is what allows websites to moderate content and experiment with anti-misinformation measures, without fear of lawsuits. Removing that protection would incentivize sites to take a hands-off approach, or shut down user content entirely. The end result would be fewer places for online discourse, dominated by a few tech giants – hardly a recipe for truth.

  • Greece ☛ Pulping books and rewriting history

    How are historical myths constructed and imposed? By silencing and concealing facts, even by destroying documents and testimonies. Occasionally, even by pulping books. In 1973, the Army History Directorate (AHD) finally published the book “The Liberation of Greece and the Subsequent Events (July 1944–December 1945),” which had been in preparation since the 1960s. When I looked for it, 25 years ago, I learned that it had been withdrawn and pulped when center-left PASOK was in power, and the late Akis Tsochatzopoulos was minister of national defense. Did he himself give the order or was it an overzealous subordinate? Whatever the case, there was not a single copy in the AHD library, as I was told when I asked to read it. Not one.

  • International Business Times ☛ Irish Man Jailed in UAE for Leaving Negative Work Review, Could Spend Christmas in Prison

    A Northern Irish man, Craig Ballentine, faces the possibility of spending Christmas in a United Arab Emirates jail after posting a negative online review about his former employer.

    The 43-year-old was detained at Abu Dhabi airport in October over a critical Google review he left about a Dubai-based dog grooming salon where he had previously worked.

  • The Hill ☛ 'FCC has no business threatening to take away broadcast licenses': Outgoing commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel

    The outgoing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel condemned President-elect Trump’s threat to punish broadcast networks that he says are not fair to him.

    “The FCC has no business threatening to take away broadcast licenses because the president does not like the content or coverage on a network,” Rosenworcel said on the most recent “Politico Tech” podcast. “And that same First Amendment duty applies to what is out there online.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Washington Spectator ☛ Trickster, Improvisation and the Crisis of Trust

    The FCC’s Fairness Doctrine (1949) required radio and television broadcasters to present fair and balanced coverage of controversial issues, including granting equal airtime to opposing candidates for public office. The FCC under Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, arguing in a bow to Kafka that it had a chilling effect on free speech.

    In rushed Rush Limbaugh with conservative talk radio, syndicated in 1988, and “Fair and Balanced” Fox News. To be fair and balanced, the Fairness Doctrine only applied to broadcast news. In 1949 cable news lay in the distant future. Limbaugh’s radio show however, was on the horizon, with its talk of FemiNazis, conspiracy theories, and the divisiveness that fed the tribalism we’ve come to know.

  • VOA News ☛ Press freedom continues to deteriorate in Hong Kong

    Jailed pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai testified Tuesday that the Hong Kong government became "very strict" after Beijing's national security law came into effect in 2020.

    The 77-year-old British national made the statement when the court asked him to explain comments he made in August 2020 following the arrest of pro-democracy former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting.

  • Techdirt ☛ How MAGA Media Is Like Improv Theater

    If you’ve ever wondered how the right-wing media ecosystem operates and why it’s effective, try viewing it as a form of improvisational theater or improv.

    In the wake of the 2024 U.S. elections, everyday people and political pundits alike have been trying to make sense of the results and the related observation that many Americans seem to be experiencing very different realities. These realities are shaped by very different media ecosystems.

  • CPJ ☛ 7 Azerbaijani journalists with anti-corruption outlet, RFE/RL go on trial 

    “The trial of RFE/RL’s Farid Mehralizada and six members of Azerbaijan’s most prominent anti-corruption investigative outlet, Abzas Media, epitomizes the way the Azerbaijani government has used retaliatory criminal charges to lock up vast swathes of the country’s leading independent journalists over the past year,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop the charges against nearly two dozen journalists, including Mehralizada and the Abzas Media staff, who are currently on or awaiting trial and release them all.”

  • CPJ ☛ Pakistani authorities summon journalist Harmeet Singh over alleged anti-state rhetoric

    The FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Center in the capital Islamabad has also registered a first information report, which opens an investigation, against Singh, an anchor for local news outlet Such TV. The report accuses him of using his social media account to “propagate a misleading, concocted, and baseless campaign against state institutions and security agencies of Pakistan.” The allegations relate to Singh’s social media activity during November 2024 protests that he covered in Islamabad by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, according to a copy of the report reviewed by CPJ.

  • The Nation ☛ Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started

    Now, ABC News, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation, has accelerated the quisling march of mainstream journalism into inert MAGA observance with a $15 million settlement of a defamation suit that Trump brought against the network after George Stephanopoulos characterized Trump as having been found “liable for rape” in E. Jean Carroll’s successful civil suit against him. ABC and Stephanopoulos will further oblige the incoming Trump White House with an on-air apology for the anchor’s remarks.

    There’s almost no legal justification for the agreement. Under New York law, Carroll’s claim that Trump had digitally penetrated her by force fell short of the full definition of rape, but Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued a statement holding that this was largely a distinction without a difference. “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Kaplan’s statement read in part.

  • FAIR ☛ ABC Settles With Trump in a Case It Could Have Won — FAIR

    ABC has agreed to pay $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library and $1 million toward Trump’s legal fees “to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll”

  • VOA News ☛ Tice's mother asks Netanyahu to pause Syria strikes to locate journalist

    The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who has been detained in Syria for more than 12 years, reiterated her call Monday for the Israeli military to pause strikes in a part of Syria where her son may be held.

  • Terence Eden ☛ It is OK to use FoI for silly things sometimes

    I didn't feel like quizzing the innocent barkeep8 so I did the next best thing. I immediately9 sent a Freedom of Information request to the House of Lords. About beer.

    Fair play to those poor souls in the records office, they replied pretty sharpish to my somewhat frivolous request.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • RFA ☛ Tibetan rights activist Tsering Tso detained for 2 weeks

    A Tibetan rights activist, known for publicly criticizing Chinese authorities online, was detained for two weeks from Nov. 29 in Qinghai province on alleged charges of “spreading false information” and “causing trouble” on social media, two sources told Radio Free Asia.

  • The Hill ☛ Starbucks union votes to authorize strike ahead of bargaining

    Starbucks and the union have spent hundreds of hours bargaining, and both sides have produced tentative agreements over the year. Still, the company has yet to bring a “comprehensive economic package to the bargaining table,” and other unfair labor practices remain unsolved, the union said.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Household slavery: 'An overlooked method of enslaving people'

    The precise employment relationship was often concealed in official documents. "They were, for instance, described as domestic workers," says McGregor. "This was supposedly a free labor relationship, but often concealed a form of forced labor." Indigenous workers were placed in households to settle a debt or as punishment for a political offense. It was also common for the labor relationship to initially appear voluntary but gradually shift towards slavery.

  • Hakai Magazine ☛ The Personal Toll of Canada’s Broken Fishing Promises

    Indigenous fishermen on the Atlantic Coast have spent centuries—and millions of dollars—trying to get the government to uphold treaties made in the 1700s. And younger generations aren’t giving up.

  • India Times ☛ Salesforce closes 1,000 paid 'Agentforce' deals, looks to robot future

    Salesforce has closed more than 1,000 paid deals for "Agentforce," its platform for creating virtual representatives powered by artificial intelligence, its CEO Marc Benioff said on Tuesday.

  • Techdirt ☛ 4th Circuit Strips Immunity From Cops Who Engaged In An Insane Amount Of Unconstitutional Fuckery

    So, it happened again. And the way it happened is so utterly insane, it’s impossible to encapsulate in the 10-12 words that lend themselves to eye-grabbing headlines.

    See, the cops that worked with Officer John McClanahan were less concerned with his perjury and more concerned with punishing the person who outed McClanahan’s lies. So, when Brandon Williams’ car was struck by a drunk driver, this is how things went for the victim of this crime: [...]

  • BIA Net ☛ 'Sex workers in Turkey denied access to professional rights'

    In Turkey, the Red Umbrella (Kırmızı Şemsiye) Sexual Health and Human Rights Association issued a statement to mark the day, highlighting the challenges sex workers continue to face despite legal regulations.

  • France24 ☛ 'It's not acceptable when half the population is silenced': CEO of Afghan media group Moby - Tête à tête

    "The concern that we have is that the conservatives will prevail and it'll become impossible for women to even have the rights they have today, which are a fraction of what they had before," Mohseni told FRANCE 24. So far, he has managed to keep employing women in his radio and television channels, despite pressure from the Taliban.

  • NDTV ☛ Iran Holds Back Hijab Law After Widespread Condemnation

    The hijab controversy has been ongoing since 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa "Zhina" Amini, who died in police custody after violating the dress code. In the wake of her death, women have challenged the government and defied hijab rules. Younger people in Iran appear fearless and defying such laws despite the restrictions and pressure from factions close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

  • BBC ☛ Iran pauses controversial new dress code law

    Under the new law, repeat offenders and anyone who mocked the rules would face heavier fines and longer prison sentences of up to 15 years in jail. It would also mandate that businesses report anyone who violates the rules.

    Human rights groups had expressed alarm. Amnesty International said Iranian authorities were "seeking to entrench the already suffocating system of repression".

  • BoingBoing ☛ Las Vegas must pay $34m to woman jailed on fabricated evidence

    Did a little teenage girl brutally hack a homeless man to death, mutilate his corpse, then transport it for disposal from one side of Las Vegas to the other while on a methamphetamine bender, leaving no physical evidence of her presence and being seen by no witnesses? If the answer "no" seems obvious, it took Kirstin Lobato decades to prove it. A Las Vegas jury has now awarded Lobato, now 41, $34m for her trouble. She was jailed for 16 years for murder after police—two detectives, both now retired—fabricated evidence against her.

  • India Times ☛ Meta contractor dismissed threats to moderators by Ethiopia rebels: court documents

    Last year 185 content moderators sued Meta and two contractors, saying they had lost their jobs with Sama, a Kenya-based firm contracted to moderate Facebook content, for trying to organise a union.

    They said they were then blacklisted from applying for the same roles at another firm, Majorel, after Facebook changed contractors.

  • International Business Times ☛ 'We Stopped Hiring!': FinTech CEO Reveals How AI Replaced Hundreds of Employees in a Year

    Klarna's CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, has fully embraced artificial intelligence as a transformative force within the fintech company - influencing a major part of his company: the workforce.

    In a recent Bloomberg TV interview, he revealed that he decided to pause hiring a year ago and that it stemmed from AI's ability to automate tasks previously handled by humans.

  • Axios ☛ Pricing software adds billions to rental costs, White House says

    Renters in the U.S. spent an extra $3.8 billion last year because of pricing algorithms used by landlords, according to an analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers first shared with Axios.

    Why it matters: The report puts some hard numbers to accusations that have piled up against RealPage, a company that makes software that helps big landlords and property managers set prices.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Techdirt ☛ AT&T, Verizon Fail To Inform Customers About Major Salt Typhoon Hack

    For the better part of the last thirty years, telecom giants and “free market” libertarian think tanks have told anybody who’d listen that gutting regulatory oversight of the U.S. wireless and broadband markets would result in near-Utopian outcomes across innovation and competition.

    Instead, the reduction in both competition and real oversight resulted in regional telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast doubling down on all their worst behaviors. Americans now pay some of the highest prices in the world for spotty, sluggish broadband access and abysmal customer service.

    But this mindless deregulatory mindset also harms public safety, national security, and consumer privacy. Case in point: the Congressional and regulatory failure to hold telecoms accountable for lax security and lax privacy standards keeps resulting in ugly hacking and privacy scandals that only seem to get worse.

  • Inside Towers ☛ Broadband Groups Rejected by SCOTUS on New York Rate Caps

    NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, ACA Connects, CTIA, New York State Telecommunications Association, Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association and USTelecom jointly stated: “Today’s decision leaves in place harmful rate regulations that will undermine the effective delivery of broadband services and discourage investment in broadband networks, particularly in unserved and underserved areas. We will continue to advocate for policies that support and sustain broadband access and protect the competitive marketplace that benefits all Americans.”

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• India Times ☛ All cases should be transferred to Karnataka HC, says SC on Flipkart, Amazon antitrust cases

  The Supreme Court on Monday, while hearing the Competition Commission of India (CCI) request to transfer 24 pleas related to alleged anti-competitive practices by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart, ruled that all cases pending in various High Courts should be transferred to the Karnataka High Court.

  The next hearing has been scheduled for January 6.

• Patents

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Arm vs. Qualcomm trial begins — Arm demands that the patent-infringing Nuvia designs be destroyed

    The dispute began after Qualcomm acquired Nuvia for $1.4 billion in 2021 and proceeded with the development of its custom Armv8.2-based cores that are now used inside the Snapdragon X processors. Arm contends that Qualcomm breached its agreement by failing to renegotiate terms following its acquisition of Nuvia, as these designs require adherence to Nuvia's higher royalty rates.

  • Reuters ☛ Arm CEO downplays ambitions to make its own chip in Qualcomm case

  • India Times ☛ Arm CEO downplays ambitions to make its own chip in Qualcomm case

    The crux of the litigation is a clash over Qualcomm's license agreement for the use of Arm's intellectual [sic] property [sic] following Qualcomm's $1.4 billion acquisition of chip startup Nuvia in 2021.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Los Angeles Times ☛ YouTube, CAA to help celebrities manage digital likeness in AI content

      Next year, actors and athletes from the NBA and NFL will have access to technology that will identify AI-generated content on YouTube that features their digital likeness, including their faces, and give them the option of requesting it is removed through a privacy complaint process, YouTube said.

      The popular video platform, which is owned by search giant Google, said this is part of a larger testing effort for its likeness management technology.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Netflix and Hollywood Obtain Canadian Site Blocking Order Against Pirate 'Brand' Soap2Day

    The Federal Court of Canada has issued a new site blocking order requiring major ISPs to block access to Soap2Day domains. The order was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Netflix, Bell, and several major Hollywood studios alleging copyright infringement. The operators of the associated Soap2Day domains must pay millions of Canadian dollars in damages.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ LaLiga Isn't 'Fining' IPTV Pirates For Viewing Streams, But For Providing Them

    Suing people for consuming content illegally can be a risky endeavor for companies with brands to protect. Nevertheless, sports rightsholders now seem prepared to put brand integrity on the line in their fight against IPTV pirates. Spain's LaLiga is already mailing out 'fines', ostensibly to people who simply watched pirate streams. Predictably, there's more to it than that.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Judges Acquit a Total of 23 Pirate IPTV Subscribers: Personal Use is Not a Crime

    Italians who simply view pirate IPTV via illicit subscriptions have been warned for months that their activities could be reported to the judicial authorities for potential prosecution. As part of an investigation into a pirate IPTV subscription seller, a total of 23 people have appeared in court in recent months for simply buying a pirate package. Judges in two separate proceedings have now acquitted all 23 after concluding that this type of piracy isn't actually a crime.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate

    In 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Act, AKA the Mickey Mouse Preservation Act, AKA the Copyright Term Extension Act. The 1998 Act tacked another 20 years onto copyright terms, but not just for works that were still in copyright. At the insistence of Disney, Congress actually yanked works out of the public domain – works that had been anthologized, adapted and re-issued – and put them back into copyright for two more decades. Copyright stretched to the century-plus "life plus 70 years" term. Nothing entered the public domain for the next 20 years.

    So many of my comrades in the fight for the public domain were certain that this would happen again in 2018. In 2010, e-book inventor and Project Gutenberg founder Michael S Hart and I got into a friendly email argument because he was positive that in 2018, Congress would set fire to the public domain again. When I insisted that there was no way this could happen given the public bitterness over the 1998 Act, he told me I was being naive, but said he hoped that I was right.

    Michael didn't live to see it, but in 2019, the public domain opened again. It was an incredible day: [...]

  • India Times ☛ Popeye, Tintin in public domain from 2025... but minus spinach & red hair

    Popeye and Tintin's early versions enter the US public domain in 2025, allowing their use without copyright restrictions. However, later additions like Popeye's spinach and Tintin's signature colors remain protected. Literary classics by Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck also join the public domain.

  • Futurism ☛ OpenAI Says It’s “Devastated” That a Whistleblower Against It Has Been Found Dead

    Soon after blowing the whistle on OpenAI's alleged use of copyrighted material in its training data, one of its former researchers was found dead of an apparent suicide.

  • CNBC ☛ Former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower found dead at age 26

    Balaji left OpenAI earlier this year and raised concerns publicly that the company had allegedly violated U.S. copyright law while developing its popular ChatGPT chatbot.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Has AI Already Gone Through All The Music?

    Sutskever believes the future of AI will move beyond large language models (LLM) that can recite (and hallucinate) data back to you; instead the future of AI will move to an ‘agentic’ future. That’s simply defined as an autonomous AI system that can perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with software on its own. We saw glimpses of that future with hardware devices like what the Rabbit R1 promised to be—though the actual implementation of that device highlights how wrong AI can be.