Links 03/02/2025: Microsoft's Termination Controversy and EU Hey Hi (AI) Act Compliance Day
Contents
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Leftovers
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Hackaday ☛ How The Main Frame Became The Mainframe: An Etymological Dissertation
In his most recent article, [Ken Shirriff] takes a break from putting ASICs under a microscope, and instead does the same in a proverbial manner with the word ‘mainframe’. Although these days the word ‘mainframe’ brings to mind a lumbering behemoth of a system that probably handles things like finances and other business things, but originally the ‘main frame’ was just one of many ‘frames’. Which brings us to the early computer systems.
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Science
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-24 [Older] Emotions change our perception of time – as demonstrated on The Traitors
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-27 [Older] Why neglecting your brain health can make it harder to achieve physical goals
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Science Alert ☛ The Arctic's 'Last Ice Area' May Vanish Even Faster Than Predicted
"These findings underscore the urgency."
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Science Alert ☛ Peeing Appears to Be Contagious in Humanity's Closest Relatives
"This phenomenon may have deep evolutionary roots."
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Science Alert ☛ Your Tonsils Can Actually Come Back After You've Had Them Removed
Wait, what?
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Science Alert ☛ Earth's Underworld Is Full of Life, And It Goes Deeper Than We Ever Knew
Life finds a way, even thousands of meters below us.
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Science Alert ☛ Physicists Confirm The Existence of a Third Form of Magnetism
These aren’t the magnets you know.
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Science Alert ☛ A Type of Fiber Could Have Weight Loss Benefits Similar to Ozempic
And it's found in everyday foods.
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Science Alert ☛ Colossal 'Anomalies' in Earth's Mantle Aren't What We Thought
Impostors buried in the wrong graveyard.
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Science Alert ☛ 80% of Americans With Dementia May Not Even Know They Have It
A huge diagnostic dilemma.
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] Will the US get to Mars quicker if it drops or delays plans to visit the Moon?
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Career/Education
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Junichi Uekawa: February.
February. This is entrance exam season for Tokyo Junior High Schools. Good luck to those who are going through it now.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Is Fire Conductive Enough To Power A Lamp?
Is fire conductive? As ridiculous that may sound at first glance, from a physics perspective the rapid oxidation process we call ‘fire’ produces a lot of substances that can reduce the electrical insulating (dielectric) properties of air. Is this change enough to allow for significant current to pass? To test this, [The Action Lab] on YouTube ran some experiments after being called out on this apparent fact in the comments to an earlier video.
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Hackaday ☛ Wearable Tech Tips Directly From The Queen
What’s the only thing cooler than building something electronic? That’s right — wearing it proudly for all to see.
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Hackaday ☛ Giving A Proprietary Power Supply The Boot
You’ve probably noticed that everywhere you go — the doctor’s office, hotels, or retail shops, there are tiny PCs everywhere. These small PCs often show up on the surplus market for a very good price, but they aren’t quite full-blown PCs. They usually have little option for expansion and are made to be cheap and small. That means many of them have custom and anemic power supplies. We aren’t sure if [bm_00] needed a regular power supply to handle a graphics card or if the original power supply died, but either way, the HP small-form-factor box needed a new power supply. It took some clever work to be able to use a normal power supply in the little box.
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Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications
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Android Authority ☛ T-mobile and Starlink satellite connectivity explained
In August 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a bold plan to expand cellular connectivity across the US with the help of low-orbit satellites. The service aims to bring cell service to previously underserved areas such as national parks, uninhabitable areas like deserts and mountain ranges, and even territorial waters. Most of these regions cannot be covered by traditional surface-level cell towers.
The benefits of satellite connectivity are clear. You get consistent coverage regardless of terrain and it acts as a safety net for users that find themselves traveling through less populated areas. So in this article, let’s break down T-Mobile’s partnership with SpaceX and their bold plan to link your smartphone with Starlink satellites in the sky.
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SchwarzTech ☛ Article: No, Apple Didn’t Hand Over Your iPhone to Elon Musk in iOS 18.3
Gurman isn’t wrong, but using the phrase “secretly working with SpaceX and T-Mobile” makes it sound way more nefarious than it is. Just about everything Apple does before releasing things to the public could be considered “secret”—something as mundane as fixing an annoying bug. T-Mobile announced a partnership with Starlink in 2022 to fill in coverage gaps, but rather than use satellite technology, it would be using cellular technology from satellites. In other words, these low-orbit satellites would be talking to regular phones using the same technology the tower down the street would use. Calvin Wankhede from Android Authority explains: [...]
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Hackaday ☛ Custom Smartwatch Makes Diabetes Monitoring Easier For Kids
Living with Type 1 diabetes is a numbers game. There’s not a moment in the day free from the burden of tracking your blood glucose concentration, making “What’s your number?” a constant question. Technology can make that question easier to ask and answer, but for T1D patients, especially the kids who the disease so often impacts, all that tech can be a distraction.
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] Five reasons why vertical farming is still the future, despite all the recent business failures
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] Leonardo da Vinci’s incredible studies of human anatomy still don’t get the recognition they deserve
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Proprietary
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Tom's Hardware ☛ DeepSeek might not be as disruptive as claimed, firm reportedly has 50,000 Nvidia GPUs and spent $1.6 billion on buildouts
SemiAnalysis says that DeepSeek and its venture capitalist partner spent some $1.6 billion dollar on Hey Hi (AI) hardware from Nvidia, says SemiAnalysis.
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New York Times ☛ DeepSeek Hey Hi (AI) Is a Win for China, but a Danger to Party Control
DeepSeek’s success embodies China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence. But it could also threaten the grip on power the nation’s leaders hold.
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Anuradha Weeraman: DeepSeek-R1, at the cusp of an open revolution
DeepSeek R1, the new entrant to the Large Language Model wars has created quite a splash over the last few weeks. Its entrance into a space dominated by the Big Corps, while pursuing asymmetric and novel strategies has been a refreshing eye-opener.
GPT Hey Hi (AI) improvement was starting to show signs of slowing down, and has been observed to be reaching a point of diminishing returns as it runs out of data and compute required to train, fine-tune increasingly large models. This has turned the focus towards building "reasoning" models that are post-trained through reinforcement learning, techniques such as inference-time and test-time scaling and search algorithms to make the models appear to think and reason better. OpenAI&aposs o1-series models were the first to achieve this successfully with its inference-time scaling and Chain-of-Thought reasoning.
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Microsoft layoffs: Were the job cuts handled poorly?
Microsoft has initiated another round of layoffs, citing poor performance as the grounds for termination.
Laidoff workers found their healthcare benefits terminated immediately, and, in some instances, severance was withheld, Business Insider first reported.
The termination letters said employees would be ushered out of their roles without delay, stating:
“The reason(s) for the termination of your employment include that your job performance has not met minimum performance standards and expectations for your position … You are relieved of all job duties effective immediately and your access to Microsoft systems, accounts, and buildings will be removed effective today. You are not to perform any further work on behalf of Microsoft.”
While the letters made no mention of the offer of severance, they made it clear that medical, prescription, and dental benefits would end on the last day of employment.
Microsoft has also signalled that past performance and prior terminations would weigh heavily if employees attempted to return to the company in the future.
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Inkl ☛ Microsoft's Termination Letter For Underperforming Employees: Guise For Corporate Cost-Cutting?
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Buckle up! Meta CEO Mark Kapo-rberg warns employees of ‘crazy year’ ahead
Meta’s road map reportedly included plans with artificial intelligence, the metaverse and new data centres.
Apart from tech investments, however, Zuckerberg also highlighted shifts in company policies, such as decisions to soften rules around online speech, scale back DEI initiatives, end fact-checking programmes, and build an alliance with US President Donald Trump.
Zuckerberg said Meta now had an “opportunity to have a productive partnership with the United States government” – something that other businesses were also working towards.
“We’re in the middle of a pretty rapidly changing policy and regulatory landscape that views any policy that might advantage any one group of people over another as something that is unlawful,” Zuckerberg said.
“Because of that, we and every other institutions out there are going to need to adjust.”
Zuckerberg earlier praised Trump for the latter’s support of US technology companies.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Unicorn Media ☛ Today Is EU Hey Hi (AI) Act Compliance Day — Here’s What You Can and Cannot Do
Today is the first day in which companies doing business in the European Union must comply with some provisions of the Hey Hi (AI) Act.
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Social Control Media
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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US News And World Report ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] Lawsuit Accuses Amazon of Secretly Tracking Consumers Through Cellphones
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Defence/Aggression
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-24 [Older] Will German conservative Merz demolish far-right 'firewall'?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] Sudan: Attack on hospital kills 70, says WHO chief
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] Sarkozy corruption trial shows 'nobody is untouchable'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] North Korea says it tested strategic cruise missiles
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] How does Poland deal with Holocaust remembrance today?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] India's Republic Day parade showcases military might
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New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: Convicted Felon Ends Protections for Venezuelans
Plus, a lobster war in Nova Scotia.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea criticises Rubio, says it will respond strongly to US provocations
The US Secretary of State had called North Korea a “rogue state“ in a media interview.
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The Straits Times ☛ KL sinkhole tragedy: Jalan Masjid India shopping area returns to life in time for the festive season
An Indian tourist fell into a sinkhole in the popular tourist shopping district in August 2024.
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France24 ☛ Dictator plans talks over sweeping tariffs with Canada and Mexico
President The Insurrectionist announced he will discuss tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Monday, acknowledging potential economic "pain" from 25% duties but deeming it "worth the price." Returning from Florida, he revealed plans for talks with Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexico's Sheinbaum. Dictator has also imposed a 10% tariff on China.
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France24 ☛ Dictator orders 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods
President The Insurrectionist on Saturday signed an order to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent from China, firing the first shot of a trade war with the countries' long-time trade partners. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would put matching 25 percent tariffs on up to $155 billion in US imports in retaliation.
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New York Times ☛ Trade War Heats Up After Convicted Felon Orders Tariffs and Canada Retaliates
Amid warnings of price increases, Canada moved quickly to retaliate, China said it had planned countermeasures and Mexico said it would soon unveil its response.
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The Straits Times ☛ How things stand in China-US trade tensions as Convicted Felon 2.0 spawns tariffs
The new tariffs will pile on a yawning trade gap, a tech war and a reluctance to cooperate.
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The Straits Times ☛ China shrugs off new Convicted Felon tariffs but bruising trade war looms
Beijing has already factored in higher US duties, but this new conflict may rattle global trade.
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The Straits Times ☛ China denounces Convicted Felon tariff: ‘Fentanyl is America’s problem’
But Beijing leaves the door open for talks with the US that could avoid a deepening conflict.
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France24 ☛ Dictator announces tariff hike on Chinese imports over opioid crisis
President The Insurrectionist announced broad tariffs Saturday on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, claiming a "major threat" from illegal immigration and drugs – a move that sparked promises of retaliation. Accusing China of exporting fentanyl, the White House is imposing a 10 percent tariff hike on Chinese goods.
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The Straits Times ☛ Beijing keeps door open for talks with Washington in measured response to tariff hike
But analysts warned that China’s response should not be seen as a form of weakness.
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RFERL ☛ Rubio Visits Panama Canal, Delivers Convicted Felon Warning on Chinese Involvement
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Panama Canal on February 2, warning the host country that Washington will "take measures necessary" if it doesn’t curb Chinese involvement in the crucial waterway.
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RFERL ☛ Dictator Warns Americans Of Tariff 'Pain,' Threatens Wider Trade War With EU, U.K.
U.S. President The Insurrectionist warned Americans they may face economic “pain” because of his newly imposed trade tariffs on the top three U.S. trading partners and he threatened a wider trade war to include the European Union and perhaps Britain.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China shrugs off new Convicted Felon tariffs but bruising trade war looms
The Insurrectionist’s new tariffs will probably not have a major impact on China’s economy but may herald the opening salvo of another bruising trade war with Beijing, analysts said Sunday. The US President on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners, with goods from China facing an additional 10 percent tariff on top of […]
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The Strategist ☛ Drifting into danger: will we ever see the independent intelligence review?
The road to hell is apparently paved with good intentions. But often, it’s tarmac laid with thoughtlessness and passivity.
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New York Times ☛ Minneapolis Settles With Woman Who Says Derek Chauvin Knelt on Her Back
The $600,000 settlement is the latest in a series of lawsuits alleging excessive force by Mr. Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.
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JURIST ☛ Israel ban on UNRWA enters into force despite global criticism
The Israeli ban on the United Nations Relief an Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday came into effect despite criticism and backlash, impacting the work of the organization in Gaza and the West Bank.
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JURIST ☛ China sets to file lawsuit with WTO following Convicted Felon’s US tariffs measures
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced plans on Sunday to file a legal complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in response to US President The Insurrectionist’s decision to impose a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. This move significantly escalates the ongoing trade tensions between the two countries.
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France24 ☛ French govt may face no-confidence vote as PM plans to bypass parliament
The French government is likely to face a no-confidence vote this week as Prime Minister François Bayrou said he plans to push his budget plans through parliament without a vote by using the now infamous 49.3 act. The latter, which was also used by former PM Michel Barnier, allows the government to bypass lawmakers when adopting laws.
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France24 ☛ Berlin rally draws thousands to denounce push for harsh new immigration rules
At least 160,000 turned out to protest in Berlin on Sunday against the center-right party, who is the front-runner in an upcoming federal election this month, for seeking the support of the far-right to push through tough new legislation on immigration.
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New York Times ☛ Top Security Officials at Aid Agency Put on Leave After Denying Access to Musk Team
Workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development are bracing for a loss of its independent status and sweeping layoffs as President Convicted Felon continues slashing foreign aid.
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New York Times ☛ Dictator Tariffs Threaten to Upend Global Economic Order
The invoking of national security to unravel trade agreements could scramble the international trading system in China’s favor.
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France24 ☛ US top diplomat warns Panama to reduce Chinese business interests in Canal
US top diplomat Marco Rubio on Sunday warned Panama's leader to take immediate steps to reduce Chinese business interests on the Canal, which President The Insurrectionist sees as a threat to US national security.
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Defence Web ☛ DRC security situation remains dire, SADC says after Goma falls to rebels
At an Extraordinary Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Friday, Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders acknowledged that despite previous peacekeeping efforts, the security situation remains dire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with over a dozen SADC troops killed in recent fighting.
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The Strategist ☛ Silence from Canberra on threat to national security
They say silence breeds contempt but the reticence of the Australian government about national security threats is more akin to the quote attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer when resisting Nazi Germany [...]
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NYPost ☛ Hamas tortured Yaren Bibas, father of youngest hostages, by taunting him about his family, but he’s still ‘clinging to hope’: report
Hamas has since claimed that his wife Shiri and their young sons Kfir and Ariel Bibas have been killed in captivity, which Israel has not confirmed.
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France24 ☛ US strikes in Somalia's Puntland kill 'key figures' from Islamic State group
US military strikes in northern Somalia have killed senior members of the Islamic State (IS) group, the head of the semi-autonomous Puntland region said Sunday.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Says at Least 18 Civilians Are Killed in Strikes
At least 14 people were killed in Poltava, Ukrainian officials said, blaming Russia. Four died in Sudzha, a Russian town held by Ukraine, in a strike each country blamed on the other.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Accused Of Killing Own Citizens In Bombing Of Boarding School In Kursk
The Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had struck a boarding school in the Ukrainian-occupied Russian region of Kursk, killing at least four of “their own citizens” and injuring dozens as the civilian death toll continues to mount in the war.
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RFERL ☛ Death Toll In Poltava Strike Rises To 14 As More Bodies Pulled From Rubble
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a residential building in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava has risen to 14, including two children, according to the State Emergency Service.
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France24 ☛ Russian air strikes leave several dead, damage energy infrastructure in Ukraine
At least 11 people were killed on Saturday after Russia fired a torrent of drones and missiles on Ukraine, gutting dozens of residential buildings and damaging energy infrastructure across the country, according to Ukrainian officials.
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Latvia ☛ Regional parliament speakers to discuss Russian sabotage and helping Ukraine
On Monday, February 3 the Speakers of the parliaments of six countries bordering aggressor state Russia will meet in Tartu, Estonia, to discuss joint steps for further support to Ukraine and fighting against Russia’s hybrid activities.
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New York Times ☛ Russia, Seeking to Salvage Military Bases, Goes Hat in Hand to Syria
The arrival of the first top Russian diplomat in Damascus since Bashar al-Assad’s fall kicks off negotiations over the fate of Moscow’s bases in Syria.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] The weird psychology of airports
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NYPost ☛ United employee, 64, critically injured after American Airlines airplane wing strikes tug vehicle at Chicago O’Hare Airport
The collision flipped the tug vehicle and its driver, identified as a 64-year-old man employed by United, became trapped.
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Ruben Schade ☛ Helicopters are loud
I’m out on the balcony upstairs this morning having coffee. I know, shocking. Just as I opened Thunderbird to consult the morning calendar, a helicopter came into our view. It’s well away from us, at least a kilometre I’d say, but it has a direct line-of-sight owing to there being nothing but trees between us.
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Wildlife/Nature
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New Yorker ☛ Lessons for the End of the World
On Octavia Butler, the L.A. fires, and the uses and misuses of the things that cannot be recovered.
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Finance
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] Amazon’s Quebec Exit May Be a Strategic Miscalculation
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Civil Rights/Policing
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The Conversation ☛ 2025-01-24 [Older] Sexism linked to social ills for men and women, finds largest cross-cultural study of its kind
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CBC ☛ 2025-01-26 [Older] We're back with a new in-vets-tigation; Amazon closure: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] Amazon’s Retribution in Quebec Should Be a Wake-Up Call
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] UK format rights claim ends in Shambles
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Patents
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Kangaroo Courts
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] UPC finds that it has jurisdiction to consider infringement in the UK (UPC_CFI_355/2023) [Ed: Illegal fake 'court' pretends it runs the whole world]
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] The UPC's first decision on infringement by equivalence (Plant-e v Bioo, UPC_CFI_239/2023) [Ed: This is an illegal 'court', but IPKat nowadays tries to legitimise the corruption which made it]
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] No delay following an intervention to an accelerated EPO appeal during parallel UPC proceedings (T 1841/23) [Ed: The IP Kat people actively help EPO lies and injustice]
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Trademarks
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] Ruff outcome as Bad Spaniels found to have tarnished Jack Daniel's trademarks
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] New CJEU reference: What is the relevant point in time for the assessment of design infringement?
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] Is ‘coffee’ misleading for ‘tea’? EUIPO thinks so!
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] [Guest Post] Thatchers v Aldi – is the UK moving towards a tort of unfair competition?
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-29 [Older] [Guest Post] Unwrapping the Geographical Indication Status Dilemma of the ‘Dubai Chocolate’.
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Copyrights
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] New Vatican AI Guidelines for the development and use of AI models: from AI training to Vatican’s authorship and ownership of AI-generated outputs (at least within the Vatican City State)
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-28 [Older] CJEU to decide whether publishers may receive CMO-run funds from private copying
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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