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Links 20/9/2021: Telegram Desktop 3.1, Arcan as Operating System Design



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: September 19th, 2021

        This week was all about bug fixing and testing upcoming releases. LibreOffice 7.2 and Darktable 3.6 got their first bugfix release, and GIMP 2.10.28 and Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS also arrived as minor bugfix releases. On the other hand, we were able to take the upcoming Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 and KDE Plasma 5.23 releases for a test drive.

        On top of that, Kali Linux SparkyLinux distros got new ISO releases with some cool new features and other interesting changes, and the GNOME Subtitles app received a major update after a couple of years of silence. You can enjoy these and much more in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for September 19th, 2021.

      • Linux for Starters: Your Guide to Linux – Become Anonymous – Part 18

        This is a series that offers a gentle introduction to Linux for newcomers.

        It’s just about impossible to stay totally anonymous online. Online privacy, also known as internet privacy or digital privacy, refers to how much of your personal, financial and browsing information remains private when you’re online. Staying safe online can help protect you and your loved ones’ identity and personal information from risks like theft.

        You should value data privacy online in the same way as the real world.

        It’s important to remember that downloading apps using a company’s “free” email service (such as Gmail) or social networks like Facebook grabs information about you. Even visiting a website means you’re sharing data about yourself. And, as some people in your life know you better than others, online privacy exists on a spectrum: some online entities gather and store more information about you than other platforms.

    • Applications

      • Telegram Desktop 3.1 Introduces Interactive Emoji, Live Stream Recording, and More

        Telegram Desktop 3.1 is here with some pretty cool new features, such as the ability to record live streams and video chats in a group or channel with options to record video and audio or only audio, which will be saved in your admin’s Saved Messages panel, as well as support for read receipts in small groups with the option to view which group members have read it by selecting a message and right clicking on it.

        And, to make your Telegram sessions more enjoyable and fun, the Telegram Desktop 3.1 update brings 8 new themes for private chats with day and night versions, beautifully animated backgrounds, gradient message bubbles, and unique background patterns, but this can only be enabled from a mobile device if you want to enjoy it on your desktop too, and 6 new interactive emoji.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How to upgrade openSUSE Leap from 15.1 or 15.2 to 15.3 - Unixcop

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to upgrade from lower openSUSE like 15.0 or 15.0 to 15.3.

        In my case, I’m using openSUSE LEAP 15.1, before starting the upgrade, we strongly advise backing your actual Data in case you are using this release in production environments.

      • How to install Asterisk 18 on CentOS 8 - Unixcop

        Asterisk is a free to use, opensource and powerful communication system that is why it is used IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers used in SMBs, enterprises, call centers, carriers and government institutions around the globe. Installing Asterisk Server is the first step towards implementation of an affordable, reliable and highly available PBX and VoIP systems because it is an open source platform so user may use it as per their requirement. In today’s guide we will be covering the installation and configuration of Asterisk 18 LTS on CentOS 8 because Asterisk 18 recently released for production use and is available for download. If you’re using earlier releases of Asterisk then it is the right time to plan for upgrade.

      • How to Install Tor Browser on Fedora 34 - LinuxCapable

        or, also known as The Onion Router, is open-source, free software that enables anonymous communication when using online services such as web surfing. The Tor network directs the Internet traffic through a free worldwide volunteer overlay network with over six thousand relays and continues to grow. Many users want to find more ways to keep their information and activities anonymous or at least as private as possible, which has led to Tor Browser growing quite popular in recent years as it conceals a user’s location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis.

        The Tor network is intended to protect the personal privacy of users and their freedom and ability from conducting communication without having their activities monitored, and data were taken without their consent and used to sum it up.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install the latest Tor Browser on Fedora 34.

      • How to configure Samba Server with Debian 11 - Unixcop

        Today we will learn How to configure Samba Server with Debian 11. Communication is the key point of having a server. But, what if resources are not able to communicate with each other? Yes, this could happen when you are having both Linux and Windows. Sharing resources b/w Linux and windows can be difficult. Samba is the solution for the challenge. The Samba server facilitates sharing resources in a hybrid environment.

      • How to Install Handbrake (open-source video transcoder) on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux

        Handbrake is a free and open-source video converter. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It supports the most modern codec. You can use it to process the most common multimedia files, DVD or Blu Ray sources that are not copyrighted.

      • How to Compile Redis source code on Ubuntu 20.04

        This is an alternate method and Redis recommends it as it makes sure you get the latest stable version. Sometimes, the version provided by the distro’s repository may be outdated.

        So you have to download the Redis source code and compile it. Make sure GCC compiler and libc is installed on your system.

      • How to Install Wine on Debian 11 Bullseye - LinuxCapable

        Wine is an open-source compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows applications on Unix-like operating systems like Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. It is an interface that translates Windows system calls into equivalent POSIX calls used by Linux and other Unix-based operating systems.

        For Linux users, Wine is a savior when running Windows-based applications on UNIX systems. However, not all Windows applications will run in Wine and may have strange crashes or bugs. The Wine AppDB is a database containing a list of applications that have been tested and confirmed to work under Wine.

      • Monitoring for process completion in 2021 – Ariadne's Space

        A historical defect in the ifupdown suite has been the lack of proper supervision of processes run by the system in order to bring up and down interfaces. Specifically, it is possible in historical ifupdown for a process to hang forever, at which point the system will fail to finish configuring interfaces. As interface configuration is part of the boot process, this means that the boot process can potentially hang forever and fail to complete. Accordingly, we have introduced correct supervision of processes run by ifupdown-ng in the upcoming version 0.12, with a 5 minute timeout.

        Because ifupdown-ng is intended to be portable, we had to implement two versions of the process completion monitoring routine. The portable version is a busy loop, which sleeps for 50 milliseconds between iteration, and the non-portable version uses Linux processor descriptors, a feature introduced in Linux 5.3. For earlier versions, ifupdown-ng will downgrade to using the portable implementation. There are also a couple of other ways that one can monitor for process completion using notifications, but they were not appropriate for the ifupdown-ng design.

      • How to Merge Multiple PDF Files into One PDF in Linux

        PDF or Portable Document Format files have more to offer to its users apart from the obvious advantages of being easily printable and shareable over a network.

      • How to install, configure and use Nessus Vulnerability Scanner on CentOS 8

        Nessus is one of the most popular remote vulnerability assessments trusted by more than 30,000 organizations worldwide. Nessus scans the system and raises an alert if it discovers any vulnerabilities that malicious hackers could use to gain access.

        Nessus does not actively prevent attacks, It will check security loopholes present in infrastructure. It provides detailed system security reports which will be very helpful for fixing any vulnerabilities and make the server more secure.

        Nessus is available in many different versions, In this tutorial, we will install the free version of Nessus knows as Nessus Essentials which can scan 16 IPS.

        Nessus is a cross-platform vulnerability scanner and supports many OS, but in this article, we will show you how to install Nessue Essentials on Centos 8.

      • How to Install Let's Encrypt SSL for NGINX on Rocky Linux 8

        Security is one of the top-of-mind concerns for website owners, more especially, if you are running an eCommerce store or a site that accepts users’ confidential information such as usernames and passwords. The plain HTTP protocol is insecure as data is sent in plain text and hackers can eavesdrop on the communication sent to and from the web server.

        To overcome this risk, it’s recommended to secure a web server using a TLS/SSL certificate. This is a cryptographic digital certificate that encrypts your web server and ensures data exchanged with the webserver is encrypted.

        Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate is a digital certificate provided by Let’s Encrypt CA ( Certificate Authority) to secure a web server. It’s a free TLS/SSL certificate that is valid for only 90 days, whereupon renewal is required before expiry. It’s beneficial for startups or individuals who cannot afford a premium SSL certificate for their blogs or websites.

        In this guide, we will demonstrate how you can install the Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for NGINX on Rocky Linux 8

      • Watch Logs in Real Time in Linux With Tail, Less & Multitail

        You know how to view files in Linux. You use cat command or probably less command for this purpose.

        That's good for files that has static content. But log files are dynamic and their content change with time. To monitor logs, you need to watch the log file as its content changes.

        How do you see the content of log files in real time? Tail is the most popular command for this purpose but there are some other tools as well. I'll show them to you in this tutorial.

      • [Old] How to Use Unison to Synchronize Files Between Servers

        This tutorial will show you how to set up and use the Unison File synchronization tool on Debian systems. Using Unison, you can sync files between two different disks or directories in the same system or two other systems over the network.

      • [Old] Command Line – unison

        Although unison has been around for years, chances are you have never heard of unison. For one thing, rsync and ssh tend to be the default commands for file syncing. For another, unison's documentation is maddeningly incomplete. In the absence of man or info files or usage instructions from the creators, the existing help focuses on building a command to use at the prompt – and, considering that unison has 88 options, that is not a very attractive option, even without a command history, especially if you have several sets of files with which you regularly work. So far as I can see, the only distribution that mentions how to simplify the use of unison with preference files is Arch Linux, and even it is incomplete – as is the original documentation that Arch references. Yet once preference files are created, the number of on-the-fly options is greatly reduced, and unison becomes a handy tool for file syncing, backups, and even merging files.

    • Games

      • The Jackbox Party Pack 8 arrives on October 18 | GamingOnLinux

        It's back again with some new games to make you laugh at your friends through. The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is set to release on October 18 along with continued Linux support.

      • As Steam Deck ships to devs, Valve plans NEW console! - Invidious

        New DOTA2 leaks show that Valve are working on TWO NEW CONSOLES.

      • Laser Chess game Deflection is out now providing a fun new strategy game | GamingOnLinux

        Take down the enemy King with a great big laser, that's the aim of the game in Deflection. It's basically the original Laser Chess updated for modern platforms by Coreffect Interactive.

        A simple idea with you moving mirrors around that can bounce the laser, while also having different sides that are vulnerable to the enemy laser. Positioning and thinking ahead are the key to victory here and Coreffect Interactive have clearly put a lot of thought into it. It's another case of a game that's real easy to get into and understand, however becoming good at it is a whole different thing. It's more than that though as there's a few different pieces you get to use like portals to move the laser around and a disrupter to weaken pieces close to it too.

      • Free and open source flight sim FlightGear is working on VR support | GamingOnLinux

        It's currently at a stage where they consider it highly experimental, more of a proof-of-concept but if they get it all hooked up properly it could help aid other developers too since it's FOSS.

      • Open source dungeon builder KeeperRL adds a Dwarves faction in the latest big release | GamingOnLinux

        KeeperRL continues expanding as a mix of dungeon building, adventuring and RPG mechanics all blended together and now there's a playable Dwarves faction.

        Over 7 years of development has gone into this game so far and it just keeps getting better. Alpha 33 adds in not just a whole new faction but it also overhauls some existing systems. Some of what's new includes a special storage system with custom storage furniture for various equipment types, a new fog effect, new z-level enemies with progressing difficulty, crossbows got added, a reworked flanking/parry mechanic with visual indicators and hints, combat experience is now based on the number of unique kills, a new 'swamp' biome for some villains that was officially added from a mod, fast travel between z-levels in the turned-based mode and so much more. There's even a new intro.

      • Call of Saregnar is a nod to 90s party-based RPGs and it's on the way to Linux | GamingOnLinux

        Do you miss earlier party-based RPGs? Call of Saregnar is an in development title from Damjan Mozetič inspired by the likes of Betrayal at Krondor, TES: Daggerfall and Realms of Arkania.

        The developer explains that it's a game of exploration and investigation with an emphasis on story and characters, and that it "proudly ditches the cliches of the RPG genre and expects you to think". What makes it real interesting is that it blends together a low-poly 3D style with the characters made from shots of real-life actors.

        [...]

        On the status of Linux support, the developer made it clear on Twitter that it's already hooked up.

    • Distributions

      • Arcan as Operating System Design

        Time to continue to explain what Arcan actually “is” on a higher level. Previous articles have invited the comparison to Xorg ( part1, part2 ). Another possibility would have been Plan9, but Xorg was also a better fit also for the next (and last) article in this series.

        To start with a grand statement:

        Arcan is a single-user, user-facing, networked overlay operating system.

        With “single-user, user-facing” I mean that you are the core concern; it is about providing you with controls. There is no compromise made to “serve” a large number of concurrent users, to route and filter the most traffic, or to store and access data the fastest anywhere on earth.

        With “overlay operating system” I mean that it is built from user-facing components. Arcan takes whatever you have access to and expands from there. It is not hinged on the life and death of neither the Linux kernel, the BSD ones or any other for that matter. Instead it is a vagabond that will move to whatever ecosystem you can develop and run programs on, even if that means being walled inside an app store somewhere.

      • Reviews

        • A low-key good experience for Thor-oughly new penguins: Elementary OS 6, aka Odin



          Elementary OS is one of my favourite distros to review because it always brings interesting new ideas to the Linux desktop. It's a very opinionated distro and not for everyone, but so long as the elementary vision aligns with your own, I think it's one of the nicest, most polished distros around.

          The key is aligning visions. If you like to endlessly tweak and customize your desktop experience, this is not the distro for you. Technically there is a "tweak" tool, similar to Gnome Tweaks, which allows you to do things like add a minimise button to elementary OS's windows and make other changes. That's helpful if there's just one or two things that are stopping you from loving elementary OS, but it's not going to make customising everything viable.

          If, on the other hand, you just want a clean, attractive desktop that you don't have to fiddle with, offers most of the basic applications you need out of the box, and can be a set-it-and-forget it system, elementary OS Odin is an excellent choice.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • 5 DevSecOps myths, explained

          New ways of doing things tend to beget new myths and misunderstandings about those emerging methods. A common example: As newer work processes and cultures get popularized, people commonly begin to tout a single correct way to implement them.

          In all likelihood, though, there’s more than one “right” way to do it – and that’s true for DevSecOps, as it was with DevOps before it.

          Demystifying DevSecOps, then, is actually a meaningful (if not wholly necessary in some organizations) step toward a successful implementation. That’s because DevSecOps, like DevOps, is as much a matter of people and culture as anything else.

          As Red Hat associate principal solutions architect Mike Calizo wrote over at opensource.com, “DevSecOps encourages security practitioners to adapt and change their old existing security processes and procedures. This may sound easy, but changing processes, behavior, and culture is always difficult, especially in large environments.”

        • Red Hat's Upstream Contributions Are Making For A Great Fedora Workstation 35 - Phoronix

          Fedora Workstation 35 will hopefully be out at the end of October (currently the beta is running behind schedule) and when it does ship it's once again at the bleeding-edge of Linux features. Fedora Workstation 35 is shaping up to be another great release for those interested in a feature-rich desktop experience.

          Fedora Workstation 35 test builds have been working out great on the few systems I've tried so far in the lab. More Fedora Workstation 35 testing and benchmarks will be coming up in the weeks ahead. In anticipation of the upcoming Fedora 35 Beta, Red Hat's Christian Schaller once again published a new blog post outlining some of the big changes on the Fedora Workstation side for this six-month update.

        • Rajeesh K Nambiar: A new set of OpenType shaping rules for Malayalam script

          TLDR; research and development of a completely new OpenType layout rules for Malayalam traditional orthography.

          Writing OpenType shaping rules is hard. Writing OpenType shaping rules for advanced (complex) scripts is harder. Writing OpenType shaping rules without causing any undesired ligature formations is even harder.

        • The NeuroFedora Blog: Next Open NeuroFedora meeting: 13 September 1300 UTC
        • Next Open NeuroFedora meeting: 27 September 1300 UTC
    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Programming/Development

        • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

          • Oil Has Multi-line Commands and String Literals

            In June's post Recent Progress on the Oil Language, I wrote that Oil has Python-like multi-line string literals, but enhanced like the Julia language.

            Here are examples from the Oil Language Tour.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Nokia has recommenced participation in the O-RAN Alliance

        The O-RAN Alliance said it became aware of concerns regarding some participants that may be subject to U.S. export regulations, and has been working with O-RAN participants to address these concerns. The O-RAN Board has approved changes to O-RAN participation documents and procedures. While it is up to each O-RAN participant to make their own evaluation of these changes, O-RAN is optimistic that the changes will address the concerns and facilitate O-RAN’s mission, the Alliance said.

      • Nokia and O-RAN: an unwavering commitment

        Nokia has long been a believer in – and champion of – open and interoperable technologies. We believe that Open RAN technology has the potential to enrich the mobile ecosystem with new solutions and business models, and an expanded multi-vendor ecosystem. This is what customers and consumers want – and it is something we are committed to seeing through.

  • Leftovers

    • Hitchcock's Sabotage: Film as Terrorism

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    • Tesla and the Anthropocene

      Anyway, that 25K price tag got me thinking. When I can afford a Tesla, should I get one? First, I’m taking a due diligence drive. May I show you the sights?

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    • As a Korean American Professor, Here Is What I Think "The Chair" Gets Right
    • Bad Boy Bobby: Herald Sun Discovers Concept Of 'Heritage Value' In Precisely The Way You Might Expect

      It’s one of the perplexing things about right-wingers. They hate change, but they love knocking old shit over to make way for newer shit. Hence the confusion over a story that cropped up in the Herald Sun overnight railing against developers in Melbourne.

    • Education

      • Terrorists Use Children In Burkina Faso Attacks

        Insecurity and attacks on schools, students and teachers had forced the government to close 2,500 schools before schools closed nationwide in mid-March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

        Experts say the roots of conflict in the Sahel have shifted from political to economic.

        Poverty is among the factors that have Burkinabe children both “in supply” and “in demand” by extremist groups, according to Christopher M. Faulkner, a national security affairs fellow at the U.S. Naval War College, and Center for Strategic and International Studies researcher Jared Thompson.

    • Hardware

      • Q&A With Co-Creator of the 6502 Processor

        Mensch, an IEEE senior life member, splits his time between Arizona and Colorado, but folks in the Northeast of the United States will have the opportunity to see him as a keynote speaker at the Vintage Computer Festival in Wall, N.J., on the weekend of 8 October. In advance of Mensch's appearance, The Institute caught up with him via Zoom to talk about his career.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • Opinion | Biden Pledged to Protect People and the Environment From Toxic Chemicals—Now It's Time to Act

        When President Biden took office, he pledged to protect people and the environment from toxic chemicals now poisoning communities across the United States. If he is serious about that promise, then his administration must align its foreign policies with its domestic commitments when it participates in the next meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an international treaty that prohibits dangerous pollutants that persist in the environment.

      • 'I Had a Duty of Care': Doctor Praised for Violating Texas' New Abortion Ban

        "I provided an abortion to a woman who, though still in her first trimester, was beyond the state's new limit. I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care."

        Dr. Alan Braid, who provides abortion care in San Antonio, explained his decision to violate Texas' new law in a Saturday opinion piece for The Washington Post, drawing praise and gratitude from reproductive rights advocates and healthcare professionals nationwide.

      • ByteDance’s New TikTok for Chinese Kids Sets Strict User Limits

        ByteDance Ltd. introduced a TikTok-style service for China’s youth that sets strict controls on daily usage after Beijing stepped up efforts to protect minors from the [Internet]’s risks.

      • China’s Version of TikTok Limits Kids’ Screen Time to 40 Minutes Per Day

        TikTok owner Bytedance is set to bring in screen time caps for Douyin, the Chinese version of the phenomenally successful app, for users under 14 years old as Beijing continues to crack down on the influence of tech companies in the country

      • California moves closer to decriminalizing psychedelic drugs

        The legalization movement that brought upmarket marijuana shops to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco is now focused on psychedelic drugs. A voter initiative to decriminalize magic mushrooms was recently approved for signature-gathering, and a legislative proposal is set to be considered next year.

      • America’s car crash epidemic

        Cars killed 42,060 people in 2020, up from 39,107 in 2019, according to a preliminary estimate from the National Safety Council (NSC), a nonprofit that focuses on eliminating preventable deaths. (NSC’s numbers are typically higher than those reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) because the NSC includes car deaths in private spaces like driveways and parking lots, and it counts deaths that occur up to a year after a crash.)

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Please Stop Closing Forums And Moving People To Discord

          A few days ago Eurogamer closed their forums, bringing to an end over 20 years of community discussion. The site explained the move like sites and companies always do (only a few are still using them), and it made sense the way it always does (that’s a lot of money for not much gain), but that doesn’t mean the process itself isn’t something that sucks.

        • Security

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Opinion | Facebook Has Known for Over a Year That Instagram Is Bad for Teens, Despite Claiming Otherwise

              Facebook officials had internal research in March 2020 showing that Instagram—the social media platform most used by adolescents—is harmful to teen girls' body image and well-being but swept those findings under the rug to continue conducting business as usual, according to a September 14, 2021, Wall Street Journal report.

            • Why you need a personal laptop

              I’ve been there. Surveys have shown that over half of workers use work-issued devices for personal tasks — whether sending personal messages, shopping online, accessing social media, or reading the news. The prospect of using your work laptop as your only laptop — not just for work, but also for Netflixing, group chat messaging, reading fanfiction, paying bills, and emailing recipes to your mom — is understandably tempting, especially for folks who work from home. Keeping work tasks and personal tasks in one place may feel like an easy way to simplify your life, and it might save space on your desk. Most of all, it may seem like a good cost-saving measure.

              But I’m here to be the bearer of bad news: Don’t do that. Please, I’m begging you, don’t do that.

            • Facebook: Wall Street Journal series 'contained deliberate mischaracterizations'

              The five-part series, which ran last week, examines how Facebook has handled a number of issues including anti-COVID-19 vaccine rhetoric, the effects of Instagram’s app on younger users and the company’s response to employees who raised concerns about human traffickers and drug cartels on the platform.

              The Journal’s reporting was based on internal documents such as online employee discussions, research reports and presentation drafts.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • The War on Terror, Twenty Years and Counting

        As Sarsour noted, the past two decades have been devastating for people within the U.S. but especially for those living abroad, especially those in the Central Asian and Middle East region. From the drone strikes of weddings to now, leaving a political vacuum for groups like the Taliban to re-emerge and reconquer, U.S. involvement, justified by the War On Terror, has left countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, utterly “decimated”, Sarsour said.

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      • Opinion | US Admits Strike Killing 10 in Kabul Was a 'Mistake'—But It Is Not a New Problem

        The Associated Press reports that the survivors of family members killed in a U.S. hellfire missile strike on a civilian vehicle after U.S. troops and Afghan evacuees were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul are not satisfied with the apology issued by the U.S. military. They want compensation.

      • Russia and Belarus Are Using Migrants as a Weapon Against the EU

        In July, journalists from Belsat TV, the independent channel broadcasting from Poland to Belarus, revealed that Belarusian secret services were conducting an operation to transfer migrants from the Middle East via Belarus to Lithuania. Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, director of Belsat TV, explained explained to Foreign Policy that, “The state-owned company Centrkurort belonging to the President’s Affairs Board, which cooperates with Iraqi travel agencies, is responsible for bringing migrants from Iraq to Belarus. These people get Belarusian tourist visas and after landing at the Minsk airport, they are placed in hotels in Minsk and finally transported to the borders.”

        In the border zone, an elite special unit called OSAM, in which Lukshenko’s sons once served, is reportedly directly involved in the physical transfer of migrants to the other side of the border.

      • Turkey Doubles Down on Atatürk’s Genocidal Legacy

        “It’s not possible for books being used for instruction in our schools to portray Kemal Atatürk as a paradigm of a moral leader who ‘benefited the people,’” the Greek Cypriot Education Ministry said in a statement. “Because, as it’s well known, Ataturk and the Young Turks are responsible for crimes against people like the Armenian Genocide, of the Pontian Greeks, the Assyrians.”

      • Iranian guards sexually assaulted female IAEA inspectors - report

        Iranian security guards made female International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors remove clothing and then inappropriately touched them at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, according to The Wall Street Journal.

        At least four separate incidents of harassment were reported since early June, one diplomat told The Wall Street Journal, while another diplomat said that there had been five to seven. The most recent incident was reported in the past few weeks.

    • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

      • South African whistle-blower: I don't feel safe

        The recent murder of South African civil servant Babita Deokaran, who blew the whistle on government corruption, has highlighted the dangers for those who speak out against the mounting problem, writes the BBC's Pumza Fihlani.

    • Environment

      • Care Workers Demand Federal Support as First Responders in Climate Crises
      • Opinion | Tribal Solar Projects Provide More Than Climate Solutions

        In August 2021, two wildfires surrounded the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in central Montana. By August 11, more than 175,000 acres were ablaze, and all residents of Lame Deer, the largest town on the reservation, were asked to evacuate. Several communities lost power and cell service, and the local Boys and Girls Club set up door-to-door food delivery. Some of those forced to evacuate were staff at Covenant Tribal Solar Initiative, a nonprofit that supports tribal communities' transition to solar power and development of renewable energy workforces. Wildfires like those surrounding Northern Cheyenne—which may get worse because of climate change—exemplified the urgent need for Covenant's work.

      • Opinion | Welcome to the Pyrocene: Fossil Fuel Combustion Has Thrust Us Into a New Fire Age

        Fire in the West is expected, and not so long ago, it seemed something the West experienced more than anywhere else. Nationally, big fires were treated as another freak of Western violence, like a grizzly bear attack, or another California quirk like Esalen and avocados.

      • Energy

        • Why skippers aren’t scuppered

          The troubles began in 2020, when firms that had idled production in the expectation of a slump instead faced heavy demand for cars, electronics and home-exercise equipment. Generous stimulus, in America especially, kept order books full while the pandemic skewed spending toward goods rather than services. Producers of computer chips have been unable to keep up with the rush. The shipping industry had no spare capacity and has faced a series of disruptions, from the saga of the stuck ship Ever Given, to the closing of ports amid outbreaks of covid-19 and storms like Hurricane Ida. With the system stretched thin, a mishap anywhere affects the movement of goods everywhere. Experts reckon it may take a year or more for conditions to return to something like normal.

    • Finance

      • Report on Revolving Door and Tax Policy Sparks Calls for Federal Probe and Reforms

        As congressional Democrats are working out tax hikes targeting corporations and rich individuals for the Build Back Better package they hope to pass in the coming weeks, The New York Times on Sunday shone a spotlight on the revolving door between accounting firms and the U.S. government that benefits companies hoping to avoid taxes.

        "If any of the officials had arrangements for future employment with their former employers while meeting with the employers, they committed a crime under the conflict of interest law."—Walter Shaub, POGO

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Sanders, Top Dems Optimistic Party Will 'Come Together' for Reconciliation Package

        In a series of Sunday television appearances, key congressional leaders seemed optimistic that the Democratic caucuses of both chambers would join forces to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a Build Back Better package to advance President Joe Biden's agenda—even if it requires missing a rapidly approaching deadline.

        House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in order to advance the budget resolution for the broader package last month, struck a deal with a small group of right-wing Democrats that the chamber would "consider" the bipartisan bill by September 27, which is a week from Monday.

    • Misinformation/Disinformation

      • Rhetoric and frame analysis of ExxonMobil's climate change communications

        This is the first computationalassessment of how ExxonMobil has usedlanguage to subtly yet systematicallyframe public discourse about climatechange. We show that ExxonMobil usesrhetoric mimicking the tobacco industryto downplay the reality and seriousnessof climate change, to present fossil fueldominance as reasonable and inevitable,and to shift responsibility for climatechange away from itself and ontoconsumers. Our work is relevant tolawsuits, policy proposals, andgrassroots activism seeking to hold fossilfuel companies accountable fordeceptive marketing.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Navalny App Gone from Google, Apple Stores on Russia Vote Day

        Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny's Smart Voting app disappeared from Apple and Google stores Friday as Russians began voting in a three-day parliamentary election marked by a historic crackdown on the opposition.

        "Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship," top Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter.

        The app promoted an initiative that outlines for Navalny supporters which candidate they should back to unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians.

      • The Data Is In — Trigger Warnings Don’t Work

        A recent Inside Higher Ed piece by Michael Bugeja, an Iowa State journalism professor, is emblematic of this shift. In light of the tumultuous times (a “mental-health pandemic,” ongoing sexual violence and racism, the anxiety of returning to in-person instruction), Bugeja says that trigger warnings are needed now more than ever. All faculty members should follow his lead, he argues, and include detailed trigger warnings on their syllabi accompanied by the following note: “You don’t have to attend class if the content elicits an uncomfortable emotional response.”

        Bugeja’s article prompted us to review the latest research on the efficacy of trigger warnings. We found no evidence that trigger warnings improve students’ mental health. What’s more, we are now convinced that they push students and faculty members alike to turn away from the study of vitally important topics that are seen as too “distressing.”

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • The Unified Patent Court. Do we finally have a predictable timeline? [Ed: Team UPC is still in control of IP Kat (what's left of it), posting fake news]

          After the Order of the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) dated 23 June 2021 (see here the IPKat post) it is now clarified that Germany is able to participate in the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) and the Protocol on the Provisional Application of the UPCA (the PAP-Protocol).

          [...]

          According to the current timeline of the Preparatory Committee, the UPC will be fully operational by mid-2022.

        • U.S. District Court Adopts Expansive Definition of aBLA “Submitter” - Kluwer Patent Blog

          Submission of an abbreviated Biologics License Application (“aBLA”), under the Biosimilar Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA”), for a biosimilar version of an already-approved biologic drug constitutes an “artificial act of infringement” for which the biologic’s patent owner may file suit.[1] In the recent AbbVie Inc. v. Alvotech hf.[2] decision, the district court adopted an expansive definition of what it means to “submit” an application, and allowed infringement claims to be brought against the foreign parent company of the applicant listed in the aBLA. This decision has important implications for cases where the biosimilar manufacturer is based outside of the United States.

          [...]

          The Hatch-Waxman Act was passed in 1984, twenty-five years earlier than the BPCIA. Based on this significant gap, there is far more case law in the ANDA than the aBLA context. It is thus possible that other courts will borrow other principles from Hatch-Waxman litigation as further cases are adjudicated under the BPCIA.

          Critically, those developing biosimilars should be aware that non-U.S. parties may be named as defendants consistent with the Alvotech court’s expanded definition of “submitter.” Entities that created or prepared the information in the aBLA, or entities that will participate in manufacture, distribution, marketing, or importation of a biosimilar may be subject to a suit for patent infringement, even if they are not named in the aBLA. For BLA holders, this decision may allow suit to be brought in a more favorable venue. Additionally, for foreign corporations at arms-length from the U.S. entity named in the aBLA, it will be important to factor into any contracts or licensing arrangements the associated potential liabilities and costs, as well as control of the litigation and its settlement.

        • Why ex-parte reexams are picking up at the USPTO

          Counsel at Cisco, Unified Patents and elsewhere unpick data that shows how patent challengers are turning to old procedures, often after discretionary denials

        • CVC Files Opposition to ToolGen Substantive Motion No. 1 [Ed: The latest on the truly insane campaign (lobbying more so than lawyering) to get patents, i.e. monopolies, on life, nature, genetics]

          On July 15th, Junior Party the University of California/Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its Opposition to Senior Party ToolGen's Substantive Motion No. 1 for benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/837,481, filed June 20, 2013 ("P3" or "ToolGen P3"), or alternatively, International Application No. PCT/KR2013/009488, filed Oct. 23, 2013 ("PCT"), in Interference No. 106,127.

      • Copyrights



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