GNU/Linux

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • New MakuluLinux Teaser…

    A new little Teaser showing off some new Features being worked on at MakuluLinux for our Upcoming “Max” release.

  • Jupiter Broadcasting ☛ Linux Action News 282

    FFmpeg gets new superpowers, Plasma’s switch to Qt6 gets official; what you need to know. Plus we round up the top features coming to Linux 6.3.

  • The BSD Now Podcast ☛ BSD Now: 496: Hacking the CLI

    Automation and Hacking Your FreeBSD CLI, Run your own instant messaging service on FreeBSD, Watch Netflix on FreeBSD, HardenedBSD January 2023 Status Report, How To Set Up SSH Keys With YubiKey as two-factor authentication, OpenSSH fixes double-free memory bug that’s pokable over the network, A late announcement, but better late than never, Next NYC*BUG and more

  • fossified

    Magnus, Daniel, Henrik, and I have met here and there when doing various things around open source. It can range from hanging out over beers at fosdem, to doing compliance work together at customers. Regardless of context, we always have fun and lots to talk about. So what’s better than starting a podcast — that way, we need to meet up just to talk. From this, fossified was born.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Trend Oceans ☛ How to List all Open File Descriptors

    One of the easiest ways to list all open file descriptors is to use the lsof command If you are here to list out all the open file descriptors, then you may be aware of what a file descriptor is and what the use of it is, but if you are unaware of file descriptors…

  • UNIX Cop ☛ How to install Podman on CentOS 9 Stream / Fedora?

    Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install Podman on CentOS 9 Stream / Fedora. What is Podman? Podman is a container engine compatible with the OCI Containers specification. Podman is part of Red Hat Linux, but it can also be installed on other distributions.

  • HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install CryptPad Collaborative Office Suite on Ubuntu 22.04

    Cryptpad is an open-source collaborative office suite that serves as an alternative to Office 365. It allows you to access office applications via the web browser. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install the Cryptpad suite on a Ubuntu 22.04 server.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Visual Studio Code on Manjaro Linux [Ed: This is proprietary Microsoft spyware and sites called "linux" something ought not recommend or even mention it; it gives Microsoft power and data]

    Microsoft Visual Studio Code, commonly known as VS Code, is a free, open-source, cross-platform code editor developed by Microsoft. It was first released in 2015 and has since gained immense popularity among developers across the globe.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install yay AUR Helper on Manjaro Linux

    Yet Another Yogurt, or YAY, is a popular AUR helper written in Go programming language. AUR (Arch User Repository) is a community-driven repository of user-created packages for Arch Linux and its derivatives.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install WPS Office on Manjaro Linux

    WPS Office is a popular office suite software that provides users various tools for creating, editing, and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. The software was developed by Kingsoft Office Software Corporation Limited, a Chinese company, and is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms.

  • Linux Capable ☛ How to Install LibreOffice Manjaro Linux

    LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite first released in 2010. It includes programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and more. LibreOffice is available for various platforms, including Linux, Windows, and macOS, making it a popular choice for users who want a free and reliable alternative to proprietary office suites.

  • Linux Cloud VPS ☛ How to Install Node.js on AlmaLinux

    In this guide, we will show you, how to install Node.js on Almalinux. It is an open-source JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Nodejs also provides an event-driven architecture and non-blocking I/O that is optimized & scalable.

  • List all files in a folder in a git repository by last commit date

    $ git ls-tree --name-only HEAD foldername/ | while read filename; do echo "$(git log -1 --format="%ci " -- $filename) $filename"; done | sort -r

  • OMG Ubuntu ☛ How to Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 on Kubuntu 22.10

    Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 on Kubuntu 22.10 using the Kubuntu Backports PPA. Learn how to add the PPA to upgrade Plasma in minutes.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • 9to5Linux ☛ Xfce’s Apps Update for February 2023: Ristretto Gets Printing Support, Major Notifications Changes, and More

    February 2023 was another busy month for Xfce devs as they released many new versions of popular Xfce apps and core components to bring you new features and improve reliability and stability by fixing more bugs, crashes, memory leaks, and other annoyances preventing you from fully enjoying your Xfce desktop.

    Major changes were brought to the xfce4-notifyd notification daemon that implements the Freedesktop.org desktop notifications specification on Xfce, which received no less than four releases up to version 0.8.2. These include a new setting to never expire notifications, the ability to reposition notifications when the work area changes, and an improved Xfce panel icon when there are unread notifications.

  • It’s FOSS ☛ Pop!_OS is Working on a New Text Editor, Taking Cues from Vim and VS Code

    System76 has been busy adding things to their upcoming COSMIC DE on Pop!_OS; they recently shared what they were up to for the month of February.

    A new Bluetooth applet was included with the rest of the work-in-progress applets for the ‘cosmic-panel’, with discussions about how config files and widget layering should work on COSMIC DE.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • KDE ☛ KDE Gear 22.12.3

      Over 120 individual programs plus dozens of programmer libraries and feature plugins are released simultaneously as part of KDE Gear.

      Today they all get new bugfix source releases with updated translations, including…

    • 9to5Linux ☛ KDE Gear 22.12.3 Is Out to Improve Kdenlive, Ark, Kate, and Other Apps

      KDE Gear 22.12.3 is here to improve various of the included KDE apps for a better, more stable, and reliable experience. For example, it improves the Ark archive manager to properly check if there is sufficient free space available before extracting archives.

      The Kdenlive video editor received some fixes as well, such as a fix for a crash and offset when moving a group that includes a subtitle, a subtitle scrolling issue, the ability to scroll the timeline when moving a subtitle, a subtitle overlap issue on import, as well as a subtitle snapping issue.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• SUSE/OpenSUSE

  • OpenSUSE ☛ openSUSE Tumbleweed gains optional x86-64-v3 optimization

    Tumbleweed users who performed a distribution upgrade or zypper dup the last weeks on the rolling release with “recommended packages” enabled (the default) and matching hardware received a new package named patterns-glibc-hwcaps-x86_64_v3 automatically installed. This is a new Tumbleweed feature which will also automatically install the “recommended” package named with the -x86-64-v3 name suffix that provides the optimized version of the library.

    “The performance optimizations people will gain from this change is the result of much effort and discussion,” said Douglas DeMaio, a member of the openSUSE release team. “The x86-64 architecture thread on the mailing list really drove the discussion and the results will immediately provide performance improvements for those with x86-64-v3 hardware. It would be great if people write about these improvements so the results can be shared among users of our rolling release.”

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • Which distribution to choose from the RHEL family?

    In today’s post we are going to recommend which distro use, from the RHEL family, for office environments and which one for a business environment.

  • Enterprisers Project ☛ Pillars of resilient digital transformation: New HBR Analytic Services report

  • Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: From FCAIC to FCA: Evolving to Community Architect

    In January 2023, the Fedora Council approved a title change for the Fedora community role. The Fedora Community Action & Impact Coordinator (FCAIC) is now renamed to Fedora Community Architect (FCA).

    Does a title change make sense?

    Last December, I was working together with Matthew Miller and Ben Cotton on our role pages in the Council docs, as part of a planned review of our role documentation. While reviewing the FCAIC role documentation, I took a new look at the role title and whether I felt it was still right. While it does describe the role and responsibilities well, it still doesn’t feel quite right to me, in a similar way that Community Lead didn’t feel right in 2016. I spent some time thinking about the FCAIC role, how it has changed over the years, and what I feel it describes. Since I am still early in the role, it felt like a good time to consider a title change.

    I settled on Fedora Community Architect as the new title for the FCAIC role. In addition to being shorter, I feel like it better describes the role. Community work does not have an industry-accepted job ladder, as is more common with software engineering. Red Hat eventually settled on the title of community architect to encapsulate and describe community work in its pioneering open source communities. I also like Community Architect as a title. There is more literature and examples for others to understand the work.

  • Kevin Fenzi: Tracking down a bug

    I thought I’d share a fun hour or so of my afternoon and how I approached tracking down a bug in the Fedora Xfce spin.

    The bug is https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2170682 “Updates cause Xfce to lose all menu icons”. A curious bug, on updating to the latest version icons in menus no longer were enabled (although the user didn’t disable them and they are enabled by default).

    Since the report happily had the update where it started, I went and looked first upstream (which turned out to be a mistake, but you never know). I looked through the recent commits for xfce4-settings to see if anything stood out as possibly being related to this. Nothing really did. All the changes seemed minor and unrelated.

  • Fedora Magazine ☛ Fedora Magazine: 4 cool new projects to try in Copr for March 2023

    This article introduces four new projects available in Copr, with installation instructions.

  • Jakub Kadlčík: For my Fedora packaging sponsorees

    You have just been sponsored to the Fedora packager group and your
    review ticket was formally granted the fedora-review+ flag?

• Devices/Embedded

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Sequent Microsystems launches LCD Adapter HAT for Raspberry Pi SBC

    Sequent Microsystems launched last month an LCD Display Adapter HAT compatible with the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer. This Raspberry Pi HAT is also equipped with up to 6x Push buttons, a rotary encoder and an onboard STM32 MCU.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ LILYGO T-TWR is an ESP32-S3 board with an SA868 Walkie-Talkie module

    LILYGO T-TWR is an ESP32-S3 development board fitted with an SA868 Walkie-Talkie module and a UHF or VHF antenna, a speaker, a microphone, a small 0.96-inch OLED, and a 18650 battery holder, plus some I/Os for expansion. Equipped with an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-16NR8 module, the T-TWR offers WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, a dual-core processor with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM, and enables users to design their own Walkie-Talkie, while its expansion capabilities allow the control of devices. L

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• OSI Blog ☛ Why Open Source should be exempt from Standard-Essential Patents

  With the European Commission soon to offer the Parliament a bill relating to Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs), it is worth taking time to understand exactly why vendors requiring negotiations to use the patents they have embedded in “open” standards is antithetical to Open Source practice. The value and prosperity generated from Open Source arises from Open Source software licenses seamlessly and frictionlessly permitting anyone to use, modify, and redistribute the software for any purpose including monetization. When SEPs are licensed in such a way that bilateral negotiation with the licensors is a necessary element of software use, Open Source projects must necessarily avoid implementation of the associated standards to the extent that it is possible for them to do so. A requirement for bilateral, after-the-fact patent licensing is by definition not Open Source due to this introduction of licensing friction.

  This is not a matter of ideology but of pragmatics. Open Source developer communities operate on the assumption that the intellectual property owners – including both copyright and patent owners – have granted in advance all necessary rights to enjoy the software in any field of use and in any way. SEPs licensed on bilaterally-negotiated terms break this model and thus are naturally avoided. Further, the tendency for such bilateral negotiations to have some form of non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as a prerequisite also prevents many communities wanting to engage with them as unlike companies they do not have the mechanisms or resources to “firewall” NDA terms and thus routinely refuse NDAs.

• It’s FOSS ☛ FOSS Weekly #23.09: Fedora 38 and GNOME 44 Features, NixOS Guide and More

  April will see the release of next versions of Ubuntu and Fedora. March will have next version of KDE and GNOME.

• Events

  • Brendan Gregg ☛ Brendan Gregg: USENIX SREcon APAC 2022: Computing Performance: What’s on the Horizon

    At USENIX SREcon22 APAC I gave the opening keynote on the future of computer performance, rounding up the latest developments and making predictions of where I see things heading. This talk originated from my updates to [Systems Performance 2nd Edition], and this was the first time I’ve given this talk in person!

    [...]]

    I began my tech career as a junior Unix sysadmin in Newcastle, NSW, Australia, in 1999, with no connection to the exciting world of tech in Silicon Valley, New York, or even nearby Sydney. As I was determined to become great at my new occupation regardless of my location, I read every sysadmin book, article, and magazine I could find on the shelf. This included SysAdmin magazine, which contained articles from various experts including Amy Rich, and a couple of advertisements: One was to submit your own articles to the magazine for publication (by writing to the editor, Rikki Endsley) and another was to attend USENIX conferences in the US and learn directly from the experts! I made both of these my goals, even though I’d never been published before and I’d never been to the US. Or even on a plane.

    I didn’t end up getting published in SysAdmin directly, but my performance work did make it as a feature article (thanks Matty). As for attending USENIX conferences: I finally started attending and speaking at them in 2010 when a community manager encouraged me to (thanks Deirdre Straughan), and since then I’ve met many friends and connections, including Amy who is now USENIX President, and Rikki with whom I co-chaired the USENIX LISA18 conference. USENIX has been a great help to my career and my employers, and I hope it is just as helpful for you. It’s an important vendor-neutral space to share the latest in technology.

  • Carl Schwan ☛ Digital Market Act workshop in Brussels

    This Monday, I was in Brussels to attend a stakeholder workshop for the Digital Market Act (DMA) organized by the European Commission. For those who don’t know that is the DMA, it’s a new law that the European Parliament voted on recently and one of its goals of it is to force some interoperability between messaging services by allowing small players to able to communicate with users from the so-called Gatekeepers (e.g., WhatsApp).

    I attended this meeting as a representative of KDE and NeoChat. NeoChat is a client for the Matrix protocol (a decentralized and end-to-end encrypted chat protocol).
    I started developing it with Tobias Fella a few years ago during the covid lockdown.

    I learned about this workshop thanks to NLNet, who funded previous work on NeoChat (end-to-end encryption). They put Tobias Fella and me in contact with Jean-Luc Dorel, the program officer for NGI0 for the European Commission. I would never have imagined sitting in a conference room in Brussels, thanks to my contribution to open-source projects,

  • Ubuntu ☛ Meet Canonical at Embedded World 2023

    Embedded World is almost here! With 930+ exhibitors, 200 nonstop hours of knowledge sharing, and an exciting programme structured along 9 tracks with 60+ sessions and 18 classes, Embedded World is the must-attend global event for the embedded community.

    [...]

    The embedded ecosystem is a key focus area for Canonical. We are fully committed to supporting device manufacturers and IoT pioneers across their deployment journeys by providing a best-in-class experience for embedded Linux in production.

    At Embedded World, you’ll connect with manufacturers engaging in large-scale, mass-deployments of Linux boards. Those forward-thinkers and innovators push the envelope of digital infrastructure by adopting Ubuntu Core, the most popular Linux-based operating system (OS) purposefully designed for the embedded world. By relying on an enterprise-grade Linux distribution supported over 10+  years, they empower their enterprise customers to focus on what drives their business, shortening time-to-market.

    Meet our experts at  Booth 4-600 in Hall 4 to learn about Ubuntu Core, the secure, application-centric IoT OS for embedded devices. Embedded devices on Ubuntu Core remain fully operational during both application and system updates, as the delta, OTA, transactional updates are either 100% successful or not installed, leaving no trace of failure other than log details. Device manufacturers are relieved of the time and effort required to implement reliable updates. 

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • LibreOffice 7.5.1 Community available for download

    LibreOffice 7.5.1 Community, the first minor release of the LibreOffice 7.5 line, the volunteer-supported free office suite for desktop productivity, is available from our download page for Windows (Intel/AMD and ARM processors), macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel processors), and Linux [1].

• GNU Projects

  • FSF ☛ FSF Blogs: February GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Eighteen new GNU releases!

• Programming/Development

  • Qt ☛ Qt Creator 10 Beta2 released

    We are happy to announce the release of Qt Creator 10 Beta2!

  • Python

    • TecMint ☛ Getting Started with Python Programming and Scripting in Linux – Part 1

      It has been said (and often required by recruitment agencies) that system administrators need to be proficient in a scripting language.

    • TecMint ☛ Learn Python Control Flow and Loops to Write and Tune Shell Scripts – Part 2

      In the previous article of this Python series, we shared a brief introduction to Python, its command-line shell, and the IDLE.

Leftovers

• teleSUR ☛ Türkiye: Half Million Homeless in Kahramanmaras After Quakes

  According to Tayyip Erdogan, 461 000 people are currently sheltered in the entire province of Kahramanmaras.

• Hardware

  • Tom’s Hardware ☛ U.S. Govt Outlines Requirements for CHIPS Act Subsidies [Ed: Bailout sold to the taxpayers as "good for kids"]

    To get CHIPS Act subsidies, semiconductor companies will have to agree to numerous terms.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • France24 ☛ FBI director says Covid pandemic likely caused by China lab leak

    FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Covid-19: Medic urges Hong Kong students to remove face masks to improve learning, immunity

    As Hong Kong lifts its almost three-year-old Covid-19 mask mandate on Wednesday, a medical expert has urged students to take their masks off for the benefit of their education and immune system.

  • The Scientist ☛ Opinion: New Diabetes Drug Signals Shift to Preventing Autoimmunity

    A therapy for type 1 diabetes is the first to treat patients before symptoms appear, paving the way toward preventing this and other autoimmune diseases.

  • The Scientist ☛ Ecologists Use Museum Specimens to Dig into the Parasitic Past

    New techniques to quantify what lived in and on preserved animals throw light on how parasite abundance has changed over time.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Many in Hong Kong continue to wear masks despite end of mandate

    “I don’t feel safe not wearing one,” said a professional in the city.

  • The Straits Times ☛ No human-to-human transmission found in Cambodian bird flu cases

    An investigation shows that both father and daughter, who died last week, contracted the virus from birds in the village.

  • The Age AU ☛ NSW nurses told to stop posting explicit content on OnlyFans

    Nurses and midwives have been warned against posting content on the adults-only website by the industry’s professional complaints body.

  • YLE ☛ THL: No need for Covid booster jabs this spring

    With the exception of individuals in risk groups, the health agency does not recommend vaccine boosters for most people.

• Proprietary

  • Vice Media Group ☛ OpenAI Is Now Everything It Promised Not to Be: Corporate, Closed-Source, and For-Profit [Ed: Killed by Microsoft, by means of infiltration]

    OpenAI is today unrecognizable, with multi-billion-dollar deals and corporate partnerships. Will it seek to own its shiny AI future?

• Security

  • Trend Oceans ☛ How to Secure Your Computer from Getting Hacked

    Here are some pointers to keep your electronic device safe while connected to the internet. Since we live in a digital age, the internet has become an important part of our daily lives. It makes things easier and more efficient.

  • Piles of confidential ANZ bank documents found ‘floating down the street’ after they were carelessly dumped in a skip bin on a busy street

    Piles of confidential documents containing the personal details of ANZ customers have been found thrown in a skip bin on a busy street by someone walking by.

    Scott Collins, 26, was walking near Armadale Central Shopping Centre, in Perth’s south-east, when he noticed the papers overflowing from the bins which were being used in renovations.

    He said they included bank statements, letters and internal communications that showed customer account numbers, personal details, emails, phone numbers and transaction histories.

    ‘I was just coming from work… I managed to find these documents floating down the street,’ he told 9News.

  • Information Security Media Group, Corporation ☛ Supreme Court Hears Healthcare Identity Theft Case

    Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seem ready to restrict federal prosecutors’ use of a federal law criminalizing identity theft after hearing a case challenging its application in a Medicaid fraud case.

  • SANS ☛ BB17 distribution Qakbot (Qbot) activity, (Tue, Feb 28th)

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • HRW ☛ Indian Government Moves to Remedy Its Violation of Children’s Privacy

      This week, the Indian government announced a third-party security audit of Diksha, the educational app it owns and uses to provide online education to students in grades 1 to 12. The government also committed to better protect the data privacy of children and teachers using its app.

      The news comes after Human Rights Watch reported in January that the app had, for over a year, exposed the personal data of millions of students and teachers. The unprotected records included children’s names, schools, the state, district, and block where they live, test scores, and partially redacted phone numbers and email addresses. Human Rights Watch also documented how the app had the capability to collect children’s precise location data, and that it transmitted their data to a third-party company using a tracker designed for advertising.

      The New Delhi-based digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation has called on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to initiate an inquiry into the government’s violations of children’s privacy.

• Defence/Aggression

  • LRT ☛ Vilnius police investigate vandalism on Ukraine’s trophy tank

    A destroyed Russian tank on display in central Vilnius was spray-painted on Tuesday night. The tank, exhibited since last week, has become a site of symbolic fight between supporters of Ukraine and Russia.

  • RFA ☛ Myanmar military destroys more than 100 homes in Mandalay on encroachment claims

    Residents of two blocks find themselves homeless overnight amid a junta eviction campaign.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Nuclear Watchdog Confirms Inspectors Found Particles Of Near Weapons-Grade Uranium In Iran

    Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched up to nearly 84 percent in Iran’s underground Fordow uranium enrichment site, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi confirmed on February 28.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India pushes Russia, China to join G-20 consensus on war wording

    India is trying to push for one similar to that reached by G-20 leaders last year.

• Environment

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Scientist ☛ Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science

      Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.

    • The Scientist ☛ Infographic: How Tadpoles Use Glucose to Fuel Tail Regrowth

      Unlike other fast-growing cells, regenerating tadpole cells fuel growth using the pentose phosphate pathway rather than glycolysis, a study indicates.

    • The Scientist ☛ How Do Scientists Decide a Species Has Gone Extinct?

      Getting it wrong can harm the very creatures that scientists are trying to protect.

    • Copenhagen Post ☛ Novo Nordisk’s use of monkeys in testing has skyrocketed

      Animal rights group has criticised biotech giant for going against its own declared target of curbing its use of monkeys

  • Overpopulation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Japan’s birth rate plunges to a record low in 7th year of decline [Ed: That seems like a smart move from Japan. Why the negative tone? Because this paper is owned and controlled by PAP and its ilk?]

      The lack of births will reduce Japan’s workforce and taxpayers in the world’s third-largest economy.

• Finance

  • JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Biden student loan forgiveness

    The US Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments in Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, two cases that will determine the future of the Biden administration’s student loan debt forgiveness program.

  • New Yorker ☛ It’s O.K. to Be Confused About This Economy

    Even the experts don’t really know where inflation and jobs are headed.

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ Camping union warns new law could give Denmark a trailer park culture similar to the US

    March 1 brought a reprieve for winter campers served an eviction notice in Køge, but will the proposed new rules be enough to save them next winter?

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Mayors and governors will drive the future of North American economic integration

    Local leaders are forging ahead on initiatives that enhance North American economic collaboration. By excluding them from key international summits, national leaders are missing out on a big opportunity.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Calls mount for Russia to face tribunal for aggression against Ukraine

    As Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its second year, calls are mounting for the establishment of a special tribunal to try the Russian leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, writes Irina Paliashvili.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ To counter the Wagner Group’s presence in Africa, the US will need to prioritize stabilizing Libya

    Quelling the Wagner Group’s influence in Libya will be challenging, as the US must address Libyan realities and unite Europe and regional powers to support its foreign policy endeavor.

  • France24 ☛ Dozens killed, scores injured after two trains collide in Greece

    At least 32 people were killed and another 85 injured after two trains collided near the Greek city of Larissa, authorities said, as emergency services raced Wednesday to find survivors among the charred wreckage.

  • France24 ☛ Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls treated in latest mystery poisoning

    Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls needed hospital treatment on Tuesday after another mysterious poisoning, a news agency reported, the latest in a spate of suspected attacks in the Islamic republic.

  • France24 ☛ UN secretary general visits Iraq for the first time in six years

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Iraq for his first visit in six years Tuesday in a show of “solidarity” after a drawn-out political crisis in the country.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: Prosecutors to seek witness anonymity order as trial adjourned over defendant’s injury

    Hong Kong prosecutors are set to apply for a witness anonymity order in the city’s largest national security trial relating to 47 pro-democracy figures. Meanwhile, the hearing was adjourned after a defendant on bail was absent in court due to a sports injury.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Protest song Glory to Hong Kong played again at sporting event instead of Chinese, as gov’t demands probe

    Pro-democracy protest song Glory to Hong Kong has been played at a sporting event in Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of the city’s official national anthem, China’s March of the Volunteers.

  • RFERL ☛ Pakistani Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Former Prime Minister Imran Khan

    A court in Pakistan has issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a case involving state gifts and concealing his assets from the sale of the gif

  • Vice Media Group ☛ A Scammer Is Pretending to Be Andrew Tate on TikTok and Racking Up Millions of Views

    By posing as Tate, Dr. Reality hopes to make a buck.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ ‘This Is a Problem’: A New Hyper-Realistic TikTok Beauty Filter Is Freaking People Out

    The “Bold Glamour” filter, which seamlessly changes people’s facial features and simulates makeup, has been used over 6 million times.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Did Steven D’Antuono Make It Easier for Trump to Steal 47 Classified Documents?

    By treating Trump differently than any other person suspected of stealing classified documents, Steven D’Antuono may have given Trump the opportunity to steal another 47 documents.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Douglass Mackey Allegedly Aimed to Depress Black Turnout in Pennsylvania

    According to messages EDNY wants to introduce at the Douglass Mackey trial, his goal was to depress turnout of Black voters in Pennsylvania — a goal that perfectly enhanced Paul Manafort’s plan to win.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New Yorker ☛ [Satire] Rupert Murdoch Calls Telling Truth Under Oath Worst Experience of His Life

      “I don’t know how they manage it,” the media mogul said, of inveterate truthtellers. “I’ve told the truth once, and I don’t intend to do it again.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Digital Music News ☛ City of Frankfurt Cancels Upcoming Roger Waters Concert Over Antisemitism

    The German city of Frankfurt has cancelled an upcoming Roger Waters concert over his antisemitic remarks. 

  • Michael West Media ☛ Lisa Wilkinson responds to Lehrmann defamation action

    Bruce Lehrmann has accused two major news organisations of being “recklessly indifferent to the truth” for reporting rape allegations made by his former colleague Brittany Higgins, legal documents reveal.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India leads world in cutting Internet access for 5th year in a row: Watchdog

    Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese activists approached by online accounts impersonating Reuters reporters

    Chinese activists – including dissident artist Badiucao – have been approached by social media users falsely claiming to be journalists from Reuters, the news agency reported on Tuesday. The two journalists who had their identities faked were Shanghai bureau chief Brenda Goh, and correspondent Jessie Pang, who is based in Hong Kong.

  • RFA ☛ People posing as Reuters reporters try to infiltrate China’s ‘white paper movement’

    Using fake accounts on Telegram, Instagram, they tried to get information about overseas Hong Kongers.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • JURIST ☛ US appeals court holds employers can discriminate against employees who obtain abortions

    The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Monday ruled that employers who oppose abortion have a right to refuse to employ people on the basis of their reproductive health decisions under the freedom of association contained in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

  • JURIST ☛ Immigrant workers reach class action settlement over Tennessee meat packing plant raid

    A US federal judge Monday approved a settlement for over $1 million in a class action lawsuit that involved a 2018 immigration raid on a Tennessee meat packing plant that lead to the detainment of approximately 100 Latinx workers.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Sri Lankan workers defy strike ban to protest against rescue plan

    >Around 40 trade unions, such as government hospital staff and bank employees, have called for work stoppages.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • IT Wire ☛ NBN Co, NSW to deliver better broadband to 11,000 regional premises

    NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia’s national broadband network, and the NSW Government have announced that they will jointly fund the provision of enhanced broadband services to 11,000 homes and businesses in 46 locations.

    In a statement, NBN Co said this would involve either building or co-locating 56 new fixed wireless towers that could use 5G millimetre wave technology.

    The announcement comes ahead of the NSW state elections which are scheduled to be held on 25 March. The cost of the initiative was not provided.

• Monopolies

  • Digital Music News ☛ StubHub Says Live Nation/Ticketmaster FAIR Ticketing Act is ‘Anything But Fair’

    StubHub says the FAIR Ticketing Act is “particularly concerning” in a marketplace where Live Nation and Ticketmaster “regularly manipulate the release of ticket supply and availability to take advantage of high demand through dynamic ticket pricing.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Are Drill Bits Now Abstract Ideas Too?

      Not too long after the Supreme Court decided Mayo v. Prometheus, I wrote an article suggesting, based on some of the history that followed Funk Brothers, that patents on ordinary industrial processes and compositions could become ineligible in Mayo’s wake. As the Federal Circuit has interpreted Mayo and Alice, some of that has come to pass. In the controversial case of American Axle v. Neapco, the Federal Circuit held claims to a process of manufacturing automobile driveshafts ineligible under § 101, because the claims were directed to ‘laws of nature’ and nothing more. And in Yu v. Apple, the Federal Circuit held claims directed to a digital camera ineligible as “abstract ideas.”

    • Guidelines for Examination 2023 enter into force [Ed: The EPO's management keeps introducing illegal guidelines that allow illegal patents. Where's the oversight? Nowhere.]

      The latest EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines enter into force on 1 March 2023, with the public user consultation continuing until 4 April.

GNU/Linux

• Linux Magazine ☛ Planet Computers Launches ARM-based Linux Desktop PCs

  Planet Computers has brought to market a new line of mini Linux desktop computers. The XR Series is powered by ARM multicore processors and run Ubuntu Linux 20.04

  According to Janko Mrsic-Flogel, CEO of Planet Computers, “By productizing Linux into a mini desktop PC, the XR is another step toward creating a more open and inclusive computing ecosystem.”

  The XR series will be launching with two different units: XR1 (four-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal storage) and XR2 (eight-core CPU, a Mali-G610 GPU, from 4GB to 32 GB of RAM, and from 32 GB to 256 GB of internal storage).

• Liliputing ☛ PineTab2 Linux tablet will sell for $159 and up

  The PineTab2 is a Linux-friendly tablet with a 10.1 inch display, a detachable keyboard, and a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor.

  First unveiled in December, the new tablet has a faster processor, more memory, sturdier build quality and other improvements over the original PineTab. But one thing the new tablet has in common with its predecessor? It’s cheap. The PineTab2 will sell for $159 and up when it goes on sale soon.

• Server

  • Netcraft ☛ February 2023 Web Server Survey [Ed: The Web is shrinking. Many sites go offline.]

    In the February 2023 survey we received responses from 1,127,630,293 sites across 270,727,775 unique domains, and 12,142,793 web-facing computers. This reflects a loss of 4,638,508 sites, 240,148 domains and 13,907 computers.

    OpenResty had the largest percentage growth in sites this month: it is now used by 95,176,082 sites, an increase of 2,884,258 (+3.13%) since last month. This brings its share of sites to 8.44%, up from 8.15% (+0.29pp). OpenResty’s market share by domain count remained stable, with a slight 0.01pp increase this month – its small loss of 14,039 domains was counteracted by the greater loss of domains across all vendors this month.

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Daniel Stenberg ☛ Fossified pilot episode

    We decided we wanted to try putting together a podcast and talk about all things FOSS: from lightweight news down to more deep dives and interviews and discussions with peeps who know more. With our takes and personal views applied of course.

• Applications

  • Linux Links ☛ 10 Best Free and Open Source Food and Drink Software

    The necessary requirements for life are physical conditions which can sustain life, nutrients and energy source, and water. This article relates to the last two requirements. Linux software can play a key part in helping to improve our health and quality of life. If you want to stay fit, part of the solution is to ensure that you are eating the right types of food in the right quantity. Nutrition analysis is important to ensure that you have a healthy balanced diet containing a variety of foods including fruit, vegetables and lots of starchy foods.

    This article is not just limited to software that ensures you maintain a healthy diet. We also feature the best free Linux software for helping people to cook delicious food. Although this software will not help you turn into Gordon Ramsay, Hélène Darroze, or Bobby Flay, it will open new doors in the world of cooking. Rest assured, we have not forgotten beer lovers, as we also identify the finest beer software available.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Net2 ☛ How to Uninstall NodeJS on Ubuntu 22.04

    NodeJS is pretty popular when it comes to building server-side applications with JavaScript. But, if you don’t need it anymore on your Ubuntu 22.04 system, you might want to uninstall it.

  • OpenSource.com ☛ Use your Raspberry Pi as a streaming server

    There are various reasons to stream live video transmissions from webcams. The Raspberry Pi platform is perfect for such applications. It requires little power for continuous applications such as live-streaming servers. Communication with a Raspicam camera module, USB cam, or other network video signals is possible. The system is an RTMP, HLS, and SRT server. This article shows how to set up the Raspberry Pi as a streaming server to use HLS streaming. You need a video source to use it as a streaming server.

    Even without a Raspberry Pi, you can do the steps described here. In addition, there are further installation instructions for Windows, Linux, and macOS available.

    Setup

    The application is datarhei Restreamer, a graphical user interface for the datarhei Core. The datarhei Core runs the well-known media framework FFmpeg under the hood. The easiest way to start with datarhei Restreamer is to install the official Docker container. The download and installation of the program via Docker Hub are automatic with the pull command. Restreamer starts immediately after the installation. If you don’t have a Raspberry Pi, use one of the other Docker containers on the datarhei Restreamer GitHub page (e.g., AMD64 or GPU Cuda support).

    datarhei Restreamer and datarhei Core are both open source software under the Apache License 2.0.

  • TecAdmin ☛ How to Change PHP Session Timeout

    As a web developer, understanding PHP session timeout is essential to building secure and reliable web applications. A PHP session is a way to store user information across multiple pages, and session timeout refers to the duration for which a session remains active before expiring.

  • TecAdmin ☛ Calculate difference between two dates in Bash

    In Bash, you can easily calculate the difference between two dates. This can be useful in various scenarios, such as calculating the number of days between two events or determining the age of a person. In this article, we’ll discuss different methods to calculate the difference between two dates in Bash.

  • Wesley Moore ☛ Creating a Podcast From a Mastodon Account With XSLT

    With my recent experience with Deno Deploy fresh in my mind I considered using it. However I opted for a decidedly late 90s solution: XSLT. According to Wikipedia “XSLT is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents”. The ‘originally’ refers to fact that you can now generate any text with it, not just XML. Since it was created in the era of “XML ALL THE THINGS”, XSL templates are themselves XML documents. It also makes extensive use of XPath expressions to select nodes and extract their content.

  • Ubuntu ☛ Setup your own VPN server

    Why do we need a VPN server? A VPN (Virtual Private Network) server is a network server that allows users to create a secure and encrypted connection to another network over the internet. Here are some reasons why we need a VPN server: [...]

  • Linux Handbook ☛ Use the Chage Command in Linux

    It is not a typo. I’m actually talking about the chage command here!

• Games

  • Idiomdrottning ☛ Fun in games

    Our rules and our affordances and our objectives lead us to do things whether or not those things are what we want to do or not. So having rules to do fun things or reward can be a good thing in a game.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ LEGO Bricktales to get a free Easter content update

    The absolutely charming building-puzzle adventure game LEGO Bricktales is getting a free content update ready for Easter. Quite a lovely game overall, and great for a younger audience too — why should adults get all the fun?

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Apex Legends banning some Linux players, keep an eye out Steam Deck players

    It appears that Apex Legends from Respawn and EA has started banning some players on Linux, and while the Steam Deck uses Linux too it seems nearly all the bans were desktop Linux players.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Steam Deck hits over 8,000 games Playable or Verified, plus February’s most-played

    Valve’s popular Linux-powered gaming handheld, the Steam Deck, has officially crossed over the 8,000 mark for games noted to be Playable or Verified.

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Get a whole lot of games in Humble’s Türkiye and Syria Charity Bundle

    Humble Bundle has put up a new bundle of games to support relief efforts for Türkiye and Syria, after they were recently devastated by earthquakes. 100% of the proceeds will go to charity, with Humble taking no cut (and as a Humble Partner I take no cut either just to be clear).

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Godot Engine 4.0 out now plus console porting is coming

    Today is the big day! Godot Engine 4.0 is officially out now, and there’s also work happening for developers to port their games to consoles now too.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Plasma 5.27.2 for Kubuntu 22.10 available via PPA

      We have had many requests to make Plasma 5.27.2 available in our backports PPA for Kubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu).

      As usual with our PPAs, there is the caveat that the PPA may receive additional updates and new releases of KDE Plasma, Gear (Apps), and Frameworks, plus other apps and required libraries. Users should always review proposed updates to decide whether they wish to receive them.

    • KDE Yocto Updates

      Since I am planning to go on vacations very soonish (actually, just idling the time until I head for the airport…), I think it is good time to wrap-up the recent changes in the KDE Yocto area.

      As you might have noticed, 4 weeks ago there finally was an in-person FOSDEM again. It was great event, many interesting people were there and I had really good chats. One of the main topics for me was discussing the next steps for our Yocto efforts, in particular as Volker and Hannah were also around.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Barry Kauler ☛ New logo for EasyOS

  That little dog at the beach idea was interesting, but too cluttered; couldn’t get it to scale down very well to a 48×48 pixel image. Then yesterday I remembered a logo that was created for Wary Puppy, one of our ancient puppies. That pup was cross-compiled from source using T2. Wary is long gone — had to strain my brain to recall — yes, it was released in 2010, with updates until early 2013. I was still leading the Puppy project back then. There was also Racy Puppy, and sometime in 2013 I retired from the leadership roll. Distrowatch Puppy release announcements have jogged my memory.

  I think it was ‘afgs’ who designed that logo for Wary. I searched the old forum, couldn’t find it, but I do have a couple of png images…

• BSD

  • Vermaden ☛ FreeBSD Home Audio Studio

    This time it will be about setting up Home Audio Studio on a FreeBSD 13.1 system.

• SUSE/OpenSUSE

  • OpenSUSE ☛ Open Source Policy Update Spotlights AI Considerations

    A recent update of SUSE’s Open Source Policy is giving developers, communities and projects food for thought as Artificial Intelligence chatbots and protocols are gaining popularity and are being integrated into the fabric of global society.

    The policy is specific to all SUSE employees; the ambition, however, is that open-source communities and developers give the policy careful consideration and that the policy will inspire other companies to adopt or introduce an open-source policy.

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • Unicorn Media ☛ 3-Years After Red Hat, Is Jim Whitehurst Still the ‘Open-Source Way’ Guy?

    At an online media event staged by Germany-based software vendor Software AG earlier this month, former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst was very much the booster for open-source, as well as the open management style inspired by open-source principles that he instituted during his time as Red Hat’s CEO.

    That doesn’t mean that all open source advocates are going to be in total agreement with, or even like, his views on the subject. He is, after all, a businessman, an investor, and an advisor, so his views are much more aligned with those of profit-driven enterprises, where the open source development model is a means to an end, than folks who are steeped in the free software philosophy, and who tend to view open-source and free software as the whole enchilada rather than a piece of the puzzle.

• Debian Family

  • Junichi Uekawa: Got crosvm building in Debian.

    Got crosvm building in Debian. Now to rebase and try to upload. Or maybe upload the version I have first and then rebase.

  • Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities Feb 2023

    Focus

    This month I didn’t have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble.

  • Diffoscope ☛ Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 237 released

    The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope
    version 237. This version includes the following changes:

    * autopkgtest: only install appt and dexdump on architectures where they are
      available. (Closes: #1031297)
    * compartors/pdf:
      + Drop backward compatibility assignment.
      + Fix flake warnings, potentially reinstating PyPDF 1.x support (untested).
    

    You find out more by visiting the project homepage.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ Linux Mint set to improve Flatpak support and Warpinator security updates

    In the latest Monthly News post, Linux Mint’s Clement Lefebvre detailed some upcoming changes and improvements to the popular Linux distribution.

  • Ubuntu ☛ Create stop motion animation with Dragonframe on Ubuntu

    “It’s a story you may think you know, but you don’t.”

  • University of Toronto ☛ Ubuntu is a Canonical product

    A while back I wrote that from an outside perspective, Ubuntu is Canonical’s thing, in that Canonical runs the show despite having outside contributors. But in the wake of wrestling with Canonical’s advertisements in a stock 22.04 LTS machine and losing, I want to amend that observation with an important additional one. Ubuntu is not merely Canonical’s, Ubuntu is a Canonical product. Which is to say, Ubuntu exists to make money for Canonical. Further, the current evidence suggests that Canonical feels it’s not making enough money for them; hence the steadily increasing advertisements in Ubuntu, along with other moves.

• Devices/Embedded

  • CNX Software ☛ GHLBD Android calculator mini review – An Allwinner A50-based Android 9.0 calculator

    Ifound this GHLBD calculator on a platform selling second-hand electronic products. Three labels of this product appeal to me: “Calculator”, “Android 9.0” and “Allwinner A50“. If you only look at the appearance, this calculator is not much different from that of ordinary calculators, but the Android operating system is running on it and the screen tells me that it is definitely not an ordinary calculator.

    When I bought it, I only spent 69 RMB ($10 US). I didn’t really have a use case for it, but curiosity drove me to buy one. I decided to introduce it and disassemble it to check out the hardware design.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Ken Shirriff ☛ How the 8086 processor determines the length of an instruction

    The Intel 8086 processor (1978) has a complicated instruction set with instructions ranging from one to six bytes long. This raises the question of how the processor knows the length of an instruction.1 The answer is that the 8086 uses an interesting combination of lookup ROMs and microcode to determine how many bytes to use for an instruction. In brief, the ROMs perform enough decoding to figure out if it needs one byte or two. After that, the microcode simply consumes instruction bytes as it needs them. Thus, nothing in the chip explicitly “knows” the length of an instruction. This blog post describes this process in more detail.

  • Pine64 ☛ February update: things are taking shape

    Let me start by apologizing to everyone for skipping yet another monthly community update. This has largely been my fault as I was rather busy in January and following FOSDEM at the start of February I found myself occupied with things related to the EU store. I hope for things to go back to normal now; you can expect future community updates at the end of each month as per usual. Again, I apologise, mea culpa.

    I hope that this month’s update and the news it brings will more than make up for the wait: the Nestflash section ins absolutely packed this month, we’re revealing PineTab2’s pricing and SKU variants (both of which I’m sure you’ll be pleased with), announcing that Star64 will be available in the next 6 weeks (or so) and report on all the work that has gone into PinePhone (Pros) development in the recent two months … and much more

  • Hackaday ☛ Making Ghidra Play Nice With RP2040

    Developing firmware for RP2040 is undeniably fun, what’s with all these PIOs. However, sometimes you will want to switch it around and reverse-engineer some RP2040 firmware instead. If you’ve ever tried using Ghidra for that, your experience might have been seriously lackluster due to the decompiled output not making sense when it comes to addresses – thankfully, [Wejn] has now released patches for Ghidra’s companion, SVD-Loader, that turn it all around, and there’s a blog post to go with these.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • CBC ☛ Travelling soon? Get ready to pay higher cellphone roaming rates

    Two of Canada’s biggest telecom providers are raising the fees they charge customers when they use their devices outside of Canada.

  • Android Police ☛ Best games like Super Smash Bros. on Android in 2023

  • Gadgets Now ☛ Vivo V27 Pro vs OnePlus 11R: How the two premium Android smartphones compare

  • TheHinduBusinessLine ☛ Google to bring eSIM transfer feature to Android� – The Hindu BusinessLine

  • Giz China ☛ Harmony OS is set to defeat Android and iOS – Gizchina.com

  • CNX Software ☛ GHLBD Android calculator mini review – An Allwinner A50-based Android 9.0 calculator – CNX Software

  • Nokia Power User ☛ Nokia G20 – Nokia G21 confirmed to be Android 13 compatible now – Nokiapoweruser

  • 9to5Google ☛ Android 14 will bring passkey support for Dashlane and other apps

  • The Sun ☛ Google has hidden ‘life-saver’ button in Android – it can save you from deadly mistake but there’s a big catch | The US Sun

  • New features arrive for Android and Wear OS

  • Android Central ☛ RedMagic 8 Pro review: A gaming phone unlike any other | Android Central

  • Phone Arena ☛ New iPhone 15 Pro looks more boring than a PowerPoint: Android winning the phone design war? – PhoneArena

  • CNX Software ☛ Firefly AIO-3588SG – A compact, low-profile 8K SBC with WiFi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet – CNX Software

  • Make Tech Easier ☛ Android TV vs. Google TV: A Comparison Guide – Make Tech Easier

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Mozilla

    • Jan-Erik Rediger: Five-year Moziversary

      I can’t believe it’s already my fifth Moziversary.
      It’s been 5 years now since I joined Mozilla as a Telemetry engineer,
      I blogged every year since then: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.
      As I’m writing this I’m actually off on vacation (and will be for another week or so) and also it’s super early here.
      Nonetheless it’s time to look back and forward.

      So what have I been up to in the past year?
      My team changed again. We onboarded Perry and Bruno and when Mike left we got Alessio as the manager of us all.
      In September we finally met again at the Mozilla All Hands in Hawaii.
      Not everyone was there, but it was great to meet those that were.

    • Mozilla ☛ Mozilla Performance Blog: Improving the Test Selection Experience with Mach Try Perf

      If you’ve ever tried to figure out what performance tests you should run to target some component, and got lost in the nomenclature of our CI task names, then you’re not alone!

      The current naming for performance tests that you’ll find when you run ./mach try fuzzy can look like this: test-android-hw-a51-11-0-aarch64-shippable-qr/opt-browsertime-tp6m-essential-geckoview-microsoft-support. The main reason why these task names are so convoluted is because we run so many different variant combinations of the same test across multiple platforms, and browsers. For those of us who are familiar with it, it’s not too complex. But for people who don’t see these daily, it can be overwhelming to try to figure out what tests they should be running, or even where to start in terms of asking questions. This leads to hesitancy in terms of taking the initiative to do performance testing themselves. In other words, our existing system is not fun, or intuitive to use which prevents people from taking performance into consideration in their day-to-day work.

       

      Development

       

      In May of 2022, the Performance team had a work week in Toronto, and we brainstormed how we could fix this issue. The original idea was to essentially to build a web-page, and/or improve the try chooser usage (you can find the bug for all of this ./mach try perf work here). However, given that developers were already used to the mach try fuzzy interface, it made little sense for us to build something new for developers to have to learn. So we decided to re-use the fzf interface from ./mach try fuzzy. I worked with Andrew Halberstadt [:ahal] to build an “alpha” set of changes first which had revealed two issues: (i) running hg through the Python subprocess module results in some interesting behaviours, and (ii) our perf selector changes had too much of an impact on the existing ./mach try fuzzy code. From there, I refactored the code for our fzf usage to make it easier to use in our perf selector, and so that we don’t impact existing tooling with our changes.

      The hg issue we had was quite interesting. One feature of ./mach try perf is that it performs two pushes by default, one for your changes, and another for the base/parent of your patch without changes. We do this because comparisons with mozilla-central can sometimes result in people comparing apples to oranges due to minor differences in branch-specific setups. This double-push lets us produce a direct Perfherder (or PerfCompare) link in the console after running ./mach try perf to easily, and quickly know if a patch had any impact on the tests.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • 9to5Linux ☛ LibreOffice 7.5.1 Brings New Light/Dark Mode Switch, Fixes More Than 90 Bugs

    
    LibreOffice 7.5 arrived in early February 2023 as a major release to the popular open-source office suite bringing lots of new features and enhancements. But there’s always room for improvement, so LibreOffice 7.5.1 is here to introduce a new manual light/dark mode switch.

    This new switch is implemented under Tools > Options > View as a drop-down box that lets you easily and quickly switch LibreOffice’s interface to use either the Light or Dark theme. LibreOffice 7.5 introduces a new Dark Mode that’s automatically enabled to match your system settings.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Data

    • Latvia ☛ EC refers Latvia to EU Court for non-compliance with open data rules

      On February 15, the European Commission (EC) turned against Latvia in the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) for failing to incorporate the EU Open Data Directive into national law, according to an EC statement.

• Programming/Development

  • Daniel Miessler ☛ How AI is Eating the Software World

    I don’t use the word understand lightly, it’s the most important word in this essay. But what does it actually mean for software to understand something? Here’s how I think about the progression from data to understanding, and this is the definition I’m using to back my claim that large GPT models actually understand.

  • 37signals LLC ☛ The simplest thing that could possibly work

    I’m a programming child of the agile software movement. Just as I was starting out, Kent Beck published Extreme Programming Explained in 2000. It was a revelation. I had just enough exposure to Big Upfront Design and waterfall methodologies to appreciate what a monumental shift this was. Beck’s methodology x-rayed the ills of the traditional approach, and made the terminal diagnosis crystal clear.

  • Sean Heelan ☛ Finding 10x+ Performance Improvements in C++ with CodeQL – Part 2/2 on Combining Dynamic and Static Analysis for Performance Optimisation

    In this post we’re going to go deeper, with a static analysis that actually looks at the application’s code. When I started thinking about combinations of analyses for performance optimisation, I didn’t find much in the way of off-the-shelf static analyses that I could just use. So, I decided to build my own. We’re going to try and answer the question: can we use static analysis to find C/C++ code patterns that lead to sub-optimal machine code being emitted by the compiler?

    I’ll first describe a particular code pattern that can lead to the compiler emitting unnecessary memory reads, and failing to auto-vectorise loops. When these patterns exist they can lead to functions being 10-20x or more slower than they otherwise could be. I’ll show how we can build CodeQL queries to find the patterns, and how we can modify the code to allow the compiler to auto-vectorise. I’ll then discuss results of applying the queries to a few code bases, lay out some issues that arise, and detail some potential future work and open questions.

  • Chris ☛ Mind the Gap When Learning

    There are many models for knowledge acquisition: your lamdas, oodas, etc. I like the Shewhart cycle22 Also known under many other names, e.g. the Deming cycle, pdsa, or pdca, depending on who you ask., so that’s the one I’ll talk about here. But it doesn’t matter which one you prefer; most of these models are basically the same thing33 Except for ooda which is weird in a way I don’t understand and nobody has been able to adequaty explain to me. But then again, I have only myself to blame for not yet reading Boyd. Maybe it would be obvious if I did!: a way to operationalise the scientific method.

  • Lucas Fryzek: Journey Through Freedreno

    Android running Freedreno

    As part of my training at Igalia I’ve been attempting to write a new backend for Freedreno that targets the proprietary “KGSL” kernel mode driver. For those unaware there are two “main” kernel mode drivers on Qualcomm SOCs for the GPU, there is the “MSM”, and “KGSL”. “MSM” is DRM compliant, and Freedreno already able to run on this driver. “KGSL” is the proprietary KMD that Qualcomm’s proprietary userspace driver targets. Now why would you want to run freedreno against KGSL, when MSM exists? Well there are a few ones, first MSM only really works on an up-streamed kernel, so if you have to run a down-streamed kernel you can continue using the version of KGSL that the manufacturer shipped with your device. Second this allows you to run both the proprietary adreno driver and the open source freedreno driver on the same device just by swapping libraries, which can be very nice for quickly testing something against both drivers.

    When “DRM” isn’t just “DRM”

    When working on a new backend, one of the critical things to do is to make use of as much “common code” as possible. This has a number of benefits, least of all reducing the amount of code you have to write. It also allows reduces the number of bugs that will likely exist as you are relying on well tested code, and it ensures that the backend is mostly likely going to continue to work with new driver updates.

    When I started the work for a new backend I looked inside mesa’s src/freedreno/drm folder. This has the current backend code for Freedreno, and its already modularized to support multiple backends. It currently has support for the above mentioned MSM kernel mode driver as well as virtio (a backend that allows Freedreno to be used from within in a virtualized environment). From the name of this path, you would think that the code in this module would only work with kernel mode drivers that implement DRM, but actually there is only a handful of places in this module where DRM support is assumed. This made it a good starting point to introduce the KGSL backend and piggy back off the common code.

    For example the drm module has a lot of code to deal with the management of synchronization primitives, buffer objects, and command submit lists. All managed at a abstraction above “DRM” and to re-implement this code would be a bad idea.

    How to get Android to behave

  • Python

    • Everything Smart Home ☛ Everything New in Home Assistant 2023.3!

      Finally, for this release, Python 3.11 is now supported!

      Again this won’t mean much to most of you as this only affects Home Assistant core users and hasn’t yet been added to Home Assistant OS or Container yet, but after speaking to the devs, this support for core will firstly allow them to start getting some feedback before making changes to OS and container as Python 3.11 is quite a big change so they want to make sure it’s fully stable first.

  • Rust

    • Maira Canal: Rust for VGEM

      In the last blog post, I pointed out that I didn’t know exactly what it would be
      my next steps for the near future. Gladly, I had the amazing opportunity to
      start a new Igalia Coding
      Experience with a new project.

      This time Melissa Wen pitched me with the idea
      to play around with Rust for Linux in order to rewrite the VGEM driver in Rust.
      The Rust for Linux project is growing fast with new bindings and abstractions
      being introduced in the downstream RfL kernel. Also, some basic functionalities
      were introduced in Linux 6.1. Therefore, it seems like a great timing to start
      exploring Rust in the DRM subsystem!

Leftovers

• Common Dreams ☛ Body Slam: FCK PTN!

  Again highlighting its tenacity, its resilience and its way with words, Ukraine marked last week’s grim anniversary of Russia’s invasion with a new postage stamp featuring an image from street artist Banksy’s recent visit there: A small boy deftly flipping to the ground a man in a judo match, with in one lower corner the words, in Cyrillic, “FCK PTN.” The “allegorical” image, says the post office, describes, “A year of resistance – painful, ragged, fierce, persistent,” but above all “Ukrainian.”

• Meduza ☛ Putin inaugurates (and blesses) Moscow’s brand-new Big Circle subway line — Meduza

  Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the brand-new Big Circle Line of the Moscow subway on Wednesday, participating in the opening ceremony remotely.

• Hackaday ☛ The Tale Of Two Broken Flukes

  Some repairs happen as if by pure luck, and [Sebastian] shows us one such repair on Hackaday.io. He found two Fluke 175 meters being sold on eBay, with one having a mere beeper issue, and another having a “strange error”. Now, theoretically, swapping beepers around would give you one working meter and a kit of spare parts – but this is Fluke we’re talking about, and [Sebastian] wasn’t satisfied leaving it there.

• Counter Punch ☛ The Frog in Hot Water

  Do you, as I do, find yourself looking around to the realization that things are getting a little weird around here? Do you feel that things have gotten out of hand and out of control? Do you feel like maybe we are sitting in a bit of hot water? I sure do and to the point where I often, more and more it seems, just want to throw up my hands and surrender.

  To surrender would certainly be one response to these times and an understandable response at that but let’s do keep it in mind that surrender, though it may appeal to a certain part of our personality, comes with its own set of consequences. One possibility might be that all those things that make us uncomfortable will just right themselves like a spinning top that eventually resolves its wiggle and finds balance or another possibility is that the water, getting hotter and hotter, begins to boil and the frog, poor frog, is boiled to death.

• Science

  • [Old] uni Oxford ☛ Mathematics of the Faraday Cage∗

    The amplitude of the gradient of a potential inside a wire cage is investigated, with particular attention to the 2D configuration of a ring of n disks of radius r held at equal potential. The Faraday shielding effect depends upon the wires having finite radius and is weaker than one might expect, scaling as | log r|/n in an appropriate regime of small r and large n. Both numerical results and a mathematical theorem are provided. By the method of multiple scales, a continuum approximation is then derived in the form of a homogenized boundary condition for the Laplace equation along a curve. The homogenized equation reveals that in a Faraday cage, charge moves so as to somewhat cancel an external field, but not enough for the cancellation to be fully effective. Physically, the effect is one of electrostatic induction in a surface of limited capacitance. An alternative discrete model of the effect is also derived based on a principle of energy minimization. Extensions to electromagnetic waves and 3D geometries are mentioned.

• Education

  • Latvia ☛ Academic grants for Ukrainians set to continue in Latvia

    Students and researchers who have come to Latvia from Ukraine following the war launched by Russia will continue to receive support – a grant for studies or for the pursuit of scientific or academic work, with a total of up to €688,000 this year, according to the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) rules approved by the government on Tuesday, February 28.

  • Derek Sivers ☛ 50 conversations in Bangalore and Chennai

    So I scheduled fifty one-hour conversations with fifty interesting people over seven days. Back-to-back meetings from 9am to 10pm every day. It was one of the most intense and fascinating (and heart-warming and educational) things I’ve ever done in my life. I recorded almost every conversation into a little voice recorder, then had it transcribed. When I got home to New Zealand I spent 30 hours reading through the transcriptions to help me remember what we talked about, then made a tiny summary, below.

  • Substack Inc ☛ Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm?

    For decades, campus standards have been plummeting. The hallowed, ivy-draped buildings, the stately quads, the timeless Latin mottos—all that tradition and honor have been slipping away. That’s an old story. Then Covid struck and all bets were off. With college kids doing college from their bedrooms and smartphones, and with the explosion of new technology, cheating became not just easy but practically unavoidable. “Cheating is rampant,” a Princeton senior told me. “Since Covid there’s been an increasing trend toward grade inflation, cheating, and ultimately, academic mediocrity.”

    Now that students are back on campus, colleges are having a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle. Remote testing combined with an array of tech tools—exam helpers like Chegg, Course Hero, Quizlet, and Coursera; messaging apps like GroupMe and WhatsApp; Dropbox folders containing course material from years past; and most recently, ChatGPT, the AI that can write essays—have permanently transformed the student experience.

  • Times Higher Education ☛ Essay mills ‘under threat from rise of ChatGPT’

    There are early signs that firms which specialise in selling assignments are already having to shift their business models in the face of more students using the likes of ChatGPT to generate answers of a similar or better quality to what they may have been tempted to buy previously.

• Hardware

  • Daniel Lemire ☛ ARM vs Intel on Amazon’s cloud: A URL Parsing Benchmark

    We wrote a fast URL parser in C++. It does not do anything beyond portable C++: no assembly language, no explicit SIMD instructions, etc.

    Can the ARM processors parse URLs faster?

  • Hackaday ☛ Self-Destructing USB Drive Releases The Magic Smoke

    There were some that doubted the day would ever come, but we’re happy to report that the ambitious self-destructing USB drive that security researcher [Walker] has been working on for the last 6+ months has finally stopped working. Which in this case, is a good thing.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Thoroughly Modern Serial Terminal

    The humble desktop serial terminal may have long disappeared from the world of corporate IT, but there are still plenty of moments when professionals and enthusiasts alike need to hook up to a serial port. Many of us use a serial port on our laptops or other mobile devices, but [Neil Crawforth] has gone one better than that with the VT2040. It’s an old-style serial terminal in a super-handy portable format, and as one might guess from the name, it has an RP2040 microcontroller at its heart.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • NYPost ☛ China cryptically warns Elon Musk about sharing posts on COVID lab leak theory

    “He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth),” Musk responded, referring to the nonprofit group that was awarded nearly $8 million in federal research grants to study bat coronaviruses in China.

  • NYPost ☛ Air pollutants found at Ohio train derailment site could pose long-term risks, researchers say

    An independent analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data from the Ohio train derailment site found that nine of the toxic chemicals detected could pose long-term health risks if they continue at current levels.

  • Off Guardian ☛ No, “Covid” STILL doesn’t come from a lab

    Kit Knightly The big Covid news the last couple of days has been that the US Department of Energy, via the Wall Street Journal, has claimed that a laboratory leak is the “most likely” origin of “Covid”.

  • Off Guardian ☛ The UK is “rationing” vegetables…& it’s all about normalization

    Kit Knightly The past few days have seen certain fruits and vegetables “rationed” by major UK supermarkets. Aldi, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have all put limits on customer purchases of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Just yesterday, Lidl added their own name to that list.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Biden Admin Sues Petrochemical Giants Over Deadly Chemical Pollution in Cancer Alley

    The Biden administration on Tuesday sued two corporations behind a petrochemical plant in Louisiana, arguing that the facility poses “unacceptably high cancer risks” to the low-income and predominantly Black residents of nearby communities and demanding significant cuts in toxic pollution.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Kathy Hochul Says She’s for Safer Railroads — Right After Vetoing a Rail-Safety Law

    Less than three months ago, Hochul struck a different tone with her veto pen. The proposed two-person crew bill — which the governor rejected on December 9, 2022 — would have required most freight trains to be operated by at least a conductor and an engineer, a safety measure that both rail unions and bipartisan lawmakers supported. Railroad companies and business groups opposed it.

  • Axios ☛ TikTok expanding time limits on app

    Details: TikTok, one of the top downloaded apps in the world, will prompt teens under 18 years of age to enter a passcode in order to continue watching beyond 60 minutes — “requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time,” TikTok head of trust and safety Cormac Keenan said in a post.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ TikTok sets new default time limits for minors

    The update also mirrors gaming rules imposed on minors in China, where TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was formerly based. ByteDance now says it has no headquarters because it is a global business and that instead it has leaders in Singapore, New York and elsewhere managing its business. In 2021, Chinese authorities issued new rules that let minors play online games for only an hour a day and only on Fridays, weekends and public holidays — an effort to curb internet addiction.

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Implements Screen Timers by Default for Teen Accounts

    Now every account belonging to someone under the age of 18 now has a 60-minute daily screen time limit. Teens can turn off this feature, but if they spend more than 100-minutes daily they will be prompted to re-enable it. TikTok says during its testing period, it saw increased screen time management tools usage by 234%.

  • The Scientist ☛ The Heart Can Directly Influence Our Emotions

    During feelings of anxiety, the brain kicks the heart into overdrive. But as it races, does the heart, in turn, talk to the brain? For centuries, scientists have debated whether the heart holds sway over the mind, and now, research published today (March 1) in Nature suggests that physical states can influence emotional ones. The study found that an elevated heart rate can cause anxious behaviors in mice—but only in risky circumstances. This suggests that interventions that target the heart might be effective treatments for panic disorders, the authors suggest.

  • The Atlantic ☛ No One Really Knows How Much COVID Is Silently Spreading … Again

    Three years later, the coronavirus is still silently spreading—but the fear of its covertness again seems gone. Enthusiasm for masking and testing has plummeted; isolation recommendations have been pared down, and may soon entirely disappear. “We’re just not communicating about asymptomatic transmission anymore,” says Saskia Popescu, an infectious-disease epidemiologist and infection-prevention expert at George Mason University. “People think, What’s the point? I feel fine.”

  • [Repeat] CBS ☛ Industry ethicist: Social media companies amplifying Americans’ anger for profit

    TikTok has done that by serving up an addictive mix of short videos. Some are silly, others overtly political. It’s owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance and Harris says the version that’s served to Chinese consumers, called Douyin, is very different from the one available in the West.

    “In their version of TikTok, if you’re under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos,” Harris said. “And they also limit it to only 40 minutes per day. Now they don’t ship that version of TikTok to the rest of the world. So it’s almost like they recognize that technology’s influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world.”

    The version served to the West has kids hooked for hours at a time. The impact, Harris says, is predictable.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Big Ag Exploiting Carbon Markets to Intensify Grip on Food System: Report

    Climate and agricultural policies aimed at bolstering carbon markets will fail to curb planet-heating emissions while enabling powerful agribusiness corporations to greenwash their polluting operations and augment their control over the food system.

  • Teen Vogue ☛ TikTok Bans at Public Universities: Student Reactions and Concerns

    “Everyone’s frustrated. It’s a bit polarized,” said Eric Aaberg, a 23-year-old content creator and social media strategist, who attends the University of Texas at Dallas. “The majority of people I know are really against this recent ban.” Asked if he was concerned about TikTok’s cybersecurity risks, Aaberg made the argument that there are plenty of apps that track data and have had data breaches, including US-based companies like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

  • IWF ☛ Why Ban TikTok? Same Reasons We Ban Fentanyl

    Like fentanyl, the version of TikTok China shops to Americans is addictive and destructive; it is marketed primarily to younger people. TikTok U.S. users between the ages of 10 and 19 account for 37 percent of all users, and 64 percent of users are under 30 years old. American youth are increasingly using TikTok not just for entertainment, but also as a search engine, giving the platform even more information and influence. This does not even begin to address TikTok as a “superhighway” for actual drugs or a “danger zone” for the sexual exploitation of children.

• Proprietary

  • Techdirt ☛ Overwhelmed By All The Generative AI Headlines? This Guide Is For You

    Between Sydney “tried to break up my marriage” and “blew my mind because of her personality,” we have had a lot of journalists anthropomorphizing AI chatbots lately. 

  • Security Week ☛ Ransomware Attacks: Don’t Let Your Guard Down [iophk: Windows TCO]

    History has shown that cyber adversaries are often adjusting their tactics and techniques to account for evolutions of their victims’ defense strategies before starting a new wave of attacks. For instance, threat actors have shifted from just infecting systems with ransomware to multi-faceted extortion where they steal data and threaten to release it to the public or even sell it. In those cases, traditional ransomware defense tools are less effective.

  • Security Week ☛ Dish Network Says Outage Caused by Ransomware Attack [iophk: Windows TCO]

    However, Dish confirmed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday that it was indeed targeted in a cyberattack, specifically a ransomware attack.

    The incident was first announced on February 23 and an investigation revealed on February 27 that certain types of data were exfiltrated from the company’s IT systems.

  • Sean Conner ☛ I’m seriously wondering who is trolling who at this point

    Does the Sean Conner who lives in Tennesee not know his own Gmail address? I always wonder about that. But regardless, I decided to reply with a bit of surrealism.

  • Computer World ☛ Bing’s AI chatbot came to work for me. I had to fire it.

    I began by asking the chatbot for advice about how I could use Lean Six Sigma techniques, used for streamlining manufacturing processes, to improve my factory. I told the chatbot: “I own a small factory where I manufacture office furniture. I’d like to use lean six sigma techniques to improve efficiency and cut costs but don’t know where to begin. Can you give me advice on how to do it?”

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • TruthOut ☛ Chicago Picks Progressive to Take On School Privatizer in Mayoral Runoff

• Security

  • Latvia ☛ Constitution Protection Bureau: 2022 brought ‘most intense cyber-attacks so far’

    On February 28, the Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) published the unclassified part of its annual report for the year 2022. SAB is one of three national security authorities in Latvia. The others are the State Security Service (VDD) and the Defence Intelligence and Security Service (MIDD).

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Latvia ☛ Drone surveillance management system takes step forward in Latvia

      The State Civil Aviation Agency (CAA)’s open competition for the establishment of a system for the management and monitoring of unmanned aircraft or drones announced the winner on February 28. The information technology company “ZZ Dats” was recognized as the winner, the CAA said.

    • Techdirt ☛ Even After Its Own Data Protection Agency Said There’s No Safe Way To Do Age Verification, France Wants To Do Age Verification For The Internet

      It’s become the in thing to do everywhere, these days: try to institute age verification for the internet. There’s been an ongoing, unsubstantiated, moral panic that the internet is somehow “dangerous” for children, even as most of the evidence suggests… it’s actually mostly good for kids and the evidence has supported that for years.

    • India Times ☛ YouTube accused of collecting children’s data in the UK: Report

      As per the report, an official complaint has been lodged with the ICO by campaigner Duncan McCann. He accused the popular video streaming platform of gathering data about children’s activities on the site. McCann claimed that Youtube is collecting data about the videos that are watched by children, where they are watching and what device they are watching it on.

    • Broadband Breakfast ☛ Congress Prepares to Reintroduce Privacy Law, GOP Introduces Hatch Act Expansion, $20 Million ECF Round

      The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Tuesday passed two bills that would place new restrictions on government interactions with private companies, with GOP lawmakers claiming the measures would limit alleged government censorship of right-wing viewpoints on social media.

      [...]

      “Compelling social media to carry the propaganda of big liars cannot be the meaning of free speech in the 21st century,” Raskin said.

    • Vice Media Group ☛ Airbnb Is Banning People Who Are ‘Closely Associated’ With Already-Banned Users

      More quietly, for a decade now, the company has had background checks completed on its users. Since 2016, they have been completed by a third-party service that claims on its website to complete background checks in less than 0.3 seconds. The speed is a necessity——the site has 6.6 million active listings—but it also leads to bans over matters as trivial as a decade-old misdemeanor related to an unleashed dog.

    • Greece ☛ New evidence emerges in spyware probe

      The Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA) has identified at least 300 text messages containing spyware-infected links and sent to around 100 individuals, the head of the agency, Konstantinos Menoudakos, told PEGA, the European Parliament committee investigating the use of Predator and other surveillance spyware, on Tuesday.

      Menoudakos said the HDPA is still trying to identify the senders and recipients of the infected SMS messages as part of its ongoing investigation into the illegal surveillance of journalists, politicians, businesspeople and others.

    • MWL ☛ Selling Direct and Customer Support

      Although I do see that the customer has four MXs, and they’re all the same priority. It might be one of them is misconfigured. I’ll send another message, see what happens. Or, maybe the customer will see this blog or my fedi post and see that they have email trouble.

      If I demanded phone numbers for ebook purchase I could text them, but that would require I collect phone numbers and I want to not have that information.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Policy Recommendation: Countering Russian Escalation of the Ukraine War

    So far, the Ukraine war has remained a limited war, from the standpoint of the U.S. and NATO as no troops have been committed, and both the Russian army and the fighting have been contained in Ukraine.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ China’s position statement on Ukraine is nowhere near a “peace plan”

    Here, I try to make sense of the recently put-out Chinese position statement on the Ukraine crisis and why it can hardly be seen as a “peace plan” per se.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Imran Khan’s softening vis-à-vis U.S.

    Days before US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to India and Central Asia, Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, stated that US was concerned about Pakistan debts vis a vis China.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ The Myths Playing and Colliding in the War in Ukraine

    Myths do play in war. And legends in the history of war.

  • NYPost ☛ Columbia University grad shot dead in the West Bank amid increased violence

    The 27-year-old was in Israel for a friend’s wedding when he was gunned down while driving, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford.

  • Counter Punch ☛ START or Stop: Do Nuclear Weapons Treaties Matter?

    One nuclear bomb can destroy a city and kill most of its people. (Photo: US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons)

    After writing an initial quick reaction piece about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend his country’s participation in the New START Treaty, there has been time for some logic to set in. In other words, I have thought more about this and something doesn’t add up.

  • Counter Punch ☛ When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch

    Late last week (June 29, 2008) the New Yorker released a 6,000 word story by Seymour Hersh under the vague title, “Preparing the Battlefield”. The lead paragraph ran as follows:

    Beyond the assertion in the second paragraph that secret ops against Iran by US military and CIA are being “significantly expanded”, that was about it so far as hot news was concerned. There’s actually incredibly little detail in the 6,000 words about the actual Finding. Most of the rest of Hersh’s essay led the reader in discursive fashion  through comical interludes of zero political consequence, fairly stale news, (such as the scale of differences between the White House and Admiral Fallon) and lengthy cites from Col. Sam Gardiner about the internal political situation in Iran. As traditional in Hersh’s pieces, there was a quote from Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. officer.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The Nemesis of the Bomb in the Hanford Nuclear Wasteland

    The Bomb

    The PBS documentary on the history of atomic and nuclear weapons, The bomb, is unforgettable. It brings to light the megalomania for absolute power. We learn that from the “accidental” splitting of the nucleus of the Uranium atom in the late 1930s by German chemists, and the armies of physicists pursuing atomic fission for the development of a powerful bomb, we ended with the real McCoy. This was the atomic bomb “Trinity” the Americans dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, incinerating the Japanese by the tens of thousands and smashing the cities into dust – in 1945.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian missile strike destroys entire section of Zaporizhzhia apartment building — Meduza

    Russia launched a missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early Thursday morning, the city’s acting mayor, Anatoly Kurtev, reported.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Neo-Colonialism in Ukraine

    On February 25, 2023, in response to the Chinese government’s proposal for peace negotiations in the Ukraine conflict, Joe Biden stated that the idea of China negotiating the outcome of the war was “just not rational.”  He continued, telling ABC News, “Putin’s applauding it, so how could it be any good?”  Ignoring the childishness of Biden’s statement, it seems only reasonable to ask not only whether Biden understands how negotiations work, but whether he even read the Chinese proposal before talking to the media.  Rejecting peace talks is not only dangerous, it’s stupid.  Furthermore, to quote Joe BIden, it’s just not rational.

    It’s important to remember that in the early 1990s Washington was fine (even overjoyed) with a capitalist Russia.  Washington remained at the unchallenged top of the capitalist world order and could exploit Russia’s resources and markets.  Indeed, US investors went hog wild in the wake of the Soviet Union’s demise, championing their favorite apparatchik Yeltsin as he and a fair number of other Russians sold off the public’s property and services to the highest bidder.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Pak: U.S. warns of TTP’s ‘liberate’ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plan, establish ‘Sharia’

  • Counter Punch ☛ Avalon Militarism

    The global pandemic was not completely catastrophic in its effects.  It led to the cancellation, and postponement, of wasteful projects and events.  It spared public money.  But as the pandemic slides into the shadow of policymaking, bad habits have returned.  The profligates are here to stay.

    One such habit is the Avalon air show, a celebration of aeronautical militarism in the southern hemisphere best done without.  In 2021, the organisers announced with regret that the event would be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions and uncertainty.  Last October, however, organisers promised a return to form in 2023.  Those with tickets “can look forward to a whole new program with jaw-dropping aerial displays, a refreshed food and beverage offering, and live entertainment.”

• Environment

  • BBC ☛ Fire knocks out half of Argentina’s power grid

    The blackout comes in the middle of a heatwave and drought in Argentina.

    With the South American nation still in its summer months, temperatures are consistently above 35C in some parts of the country.

    The sweltering conditions coupled with the power outage have brought daily life to a halt in some regions, with classes suspended and businesses closed. Many are also having to go without air conditioning or refrigeration.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Common Dreams ☛ ‘A Truly Unfortunate Outcome’ as 9th Circuit Denies Injunction Against Nevada Lithium Mine

      Indigenous and environmental activists on Wednesday decried the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ denial of an emergency injunction sought by conservation groups to block a proposed northern Nevada lithium mine that opponents argue was approved illegally and will harm the land and wildlife in the delicate desert ecosystem.

    • India Times ☛ Karnataka: Reflective tape, rear marking plate with QR code a must

      When scanned, the QR code will show details of the agency providing the plates and tapes.

    • Vice Media Group ☛ Utah Wants to Build the World’s Longest Gondola to Solve Traffic

      There are four main resorts in the Wasatch Range within a short driving distance of Salt Lake City: Brighton and Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon; and Alta and Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Each canyon is accessible via a mostly two-lane road about eight to ten miles long. And in recent years, getting to and from the mountains increasingly involves getting stuck in traffic.

    • TruthOut ☛ Ocasio-Cortez Blasts GOP Energy Bill as “Fossil Fuel Industry Wishlist”

    • Hackaday ☛ What Happened To Sweden’s Slot Car EV Road?

      Many EVs can charge 80% of their battery in a matter of minutes, but for some applications range anxiety and charge time are still a concern. One possible solution is an embedded electrical rail in the road like the [eRoadArlanda] that Sweden unveiled in 2016.

    • Common Dreams ☛ First-of-Its-Kind Report Details Hundreds of Millions Pumped Into Academia by Big Oil

      An analysis of more than two dozen U.S. universities’ donor bases reveals the lengths fossil fuel companies have gone to in recent years to manipulate research into the climate emergency, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into some of the country’s schools as scientists struggle to convince policymakers that extractive industries must be reined in.

    • Common Dreams ☛ Climate Coalition Targets Big Banks and Insurance Giants With New Campaign

      A coalition of more than 240 advocacy groups on Wednesday launched a “Shareholder Showdown” campaign in support of shareholder resolutions urging climate action and respect for Indigenous rights at major U.S. and Canadian banks and insurance companies.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Moose could play a big role in global warming

      “Moose are an ecosystem engineer in the forest ecosystem, and strongly impact everything from the species composition and nutrient availability in the forest,” said Gunnar Austrheim, an ecologist at the NTNU University Museum who was one of the study’s co-authors. “A grown animal can eat 50 kilograms of biomass each day during summer.”

      That consumption represents roughly 10 percent of what the Norwegian forest industry itself harvests, he said.

• Finance

  • Forbes ☛ Sysdig Wireshark Foundation, We’re Gonna Need A Safer Cloud

    Wireshark is a traffic protocol analyzer with more than 2,000 contributors and over 60 million downloads in the last five years. Sysdig, as Wireshark’s current corporate sponsor, encouraged the creation of the new Wireshark Foundation. The nonprofit will now be home to SharkFest, Wireshark’s developer and user conference, as well as the Wireshark source code and assets.

    This summer, Wireshark will celebrate its 25th anniversary as an open source project. Over the years, Wireshark has been sponsored by several companies. Most recently, in January 2022, Sysdig assumed responsibility for the project. The move into the Wireshark Foundation donates Wireshark to the community and (hopefully) ensures that Wireshark has a long-term home that goes beyond a specific company or sponsor.

  • Sysdig Inc ☛ Sysdig announces new Wireshark Foundation to foster open source innovation and development

    Sysdig Inc., the unified cloud and container security leader, today announced a new foundation that will serve as the long-term custodian of the Wireshark open source project. Wireshark is the world’s foremost traffic protocol analyzer, with more than 2,000 contributors and over 60 million downloads in the last five years. Sysdig, as Wireshark’s current corporate sponsor, encouraged the creation of the foundation. The nonprofit will be home to SharkFest, Wireshark’s developer and user conference, and the Wireshark source code and assets.

  • India Times ☛ Stripe continues to cut valuation, now valued at $55 billion down from $63 billion: report

    This is at least the third time since June that the payments startup has cut its internal valuation. Stripe had cut the internal value of its shares by about 11%, implying a valuation of $63 billion, in January.

  • New York Times ☛ Tech Is Allowing Businesses to Overcharge You in Tips

    Tipping practices may become part of a broad government crackdown on so-called junk fees, extra costs that businesses tack on to products and services while adding little to no value. The Federal Trade Commission, which announced an investigation into the practices last year, said people could experience “junk fee shock” when companies used deceptive tech designs to inflate costs at the end of a purchase.

  • Counter Punch ☛ A Union Takes on the Housing Crisis

    You can’t have a living wage without sufficient affordable housing, and you can’t afford decent housing without a living wage.

    These claims are being championed by the workers of one local, UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents more than 32,000 workers in hotels, restaurants, food service facilities, and concessions throughout Southern California and Arizona.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Savings, Taxes and Share Buybacks

    Many people who should know better have been saying silly things about households running down their savings and being forced to cut back consumption. The problem with these sorts of comments is that savings in our national income accounts have little to do with how most of us think about savings in our lives. Less of the former does not necessarily mean that people will have less money to buy things.

    Before going into the specifics, let me just make a point to orient people. Saving in the national income accounts is almost entirely a story of the top half of the income distribution, and largely the top 10 percent.

  • TruthOut ☛ Conservative Supreme Court Justices Question Biden’s Student Debt Plan

  • Common Dreams ☛ Why Far-Right Republicans Cannot Be Trusted on the Pentagon Budget

    Since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives earlier this year, the so-called “Freedom Caucus” — the badly misnamed right-fringe of the congressional GOP — has been flexing its influence.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Counter Punch ☛ The Proposed TikTok Ban Goes Too Far. The Current TikTok Ban Doesn’t Go Far Enough.

    On February 27, Reuters reports, the White House gave federal agencies a 30-day deadline to ensure that all government-owned devices are  TikTok-free.

    The supposed, but seemingly evidenceless, reason: Because a Chinese company owns TikTok — a smart phone app for creating and sharing short videos — the Chinese government may be using  it to spy on Americans.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Latin America will be the Global Gateway’s proving ground in 2023

    To build lasting partnerships against climate change in a fragmenting international order, Europe should demonstrate the ambition of the Global Gateway in Latin America, where China’s Belt and Road Initiative has the advantage. The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell is saying all the right things about Latin America.

  • Common Dreams ☛ First Biden Veto Expected After Senate Votes to Sacrifice Pension Rule to Corporate Greed

    U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to issue his first veto after two Democrats—Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana—partnered with the GOP on Wednesday to pass legislation that would block his administration’s rule allowing retirement plan managers to consider climate and other factors in investment decisions.

  • Counter Punch ☛ A National Divorce? Separating the Red and Blue

    When Marjorie Taylor Greene recently tweeted, “We need a national divorce,” she set off a furor. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this,” the Georgia congressional representative said.

    Subsequent tweets clarified she was not calling for a new civil war or creation of two separate nations, but a radical devolution of federal power that would leave states in control of domestic policy and retain a common national defense. While her statements might seem extreme, they represent a substantial element of the political right that even has reflections on the left. The sense we no longer have much in common as a country, but as Greene puts it, suffer from “irreconcilable differences,” spans the spectrum.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Jimmy Carter is a Liberal Saint Now, Was a War Criminal Then…

    For a deeper discussion of this issue, check out Green and Red Podcast’s episode on Jimmy Carter as Liberal Saint/Neo-Liberal War Criminal.

  • Broadband Breakfast ☛ Nearly 80 Service Providers Engaged Equipment in Secure Networks Blacklist: FCC Report

    In a publicly released report on Wednesday, the OEA identified 79 companies, listed below, in its 2022 Supply Chain Annual Report that have engaged equipment on the list. The order emanates from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019.

    The providers must report equipment that has been obtained on or after August 14, 2018, with subsequent additions to the blacklist requiring reporting if the equipment was obtained 60 days or more after the date they were added to the list.

  • India Times ☛ Alphabet’s Waymo cuts 137 jobs in second round of layoffs this year

    Including the latest job cuts, the division has let go of 8% of its workforce, or 209 employees, this year.

  • IT Wire ☛ Edith Cowan University WA Cyber Security Innovation Hub officially opened

    Western Australia’s Edith Cowan University (ECU) has officially launched the WA Cyber Security Innovation Hub, to be known as CyberWest, as the state’s newly revamped,cyber security centre.

  • India Times ☛ Amazon’s cloud unit to invest $6 billion in Malaysia by 2037

    This marks the company’s latest move in its plan to build AWS Infrastructure Regions across southeast Asia.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Here are the countries that have bans on TikTok

    TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, has long maintained that it does not share data with the Chinese government and that its data is not held in China. It also disputes accusations that it collects more user data than other social media companies, and insists that it is run independently by its own management.

    Despite TikTok’s claims, many countries around the world remain cautious about the platform and its ties to China. Here are the countries and regions that have implemented partial or total bans on TikTok.

  • Security Week ☛ Why TikTok Is Being Banned on Gov’t Phones in US and Beyond

    So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don’t work for the government be worried about the app, too?

    The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data.

  • India Times ☛ European Parliament latest EU body to ban TikTok from staff phones

    The European Commission and the EU Council last week banned TikTok from staff phones due to growing concerns about the company, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, and whether China’s government could harvest users’ data or advance its interests.

  • CBC ☛ What does TikTok know about you? What should you know about it?

    It’s voluminous terms of service lay out what you’re agreeing to; access to personal data like contacts, calendars, information about which device you’re using, which operating system and your location.

    Like other platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, TikTok also monitors the content you engage with and for how long.

    But TikTok also monitors how you use your device and how it functions, including “keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings and connected audio devices,” according to those terms.

    It’s also able to identify “the objects and scenery that appear [in your videos], the existence and location within an image of face and body features … and the text of the words spoken.”

    Ninety-nine per cent of people are not going to read the dozens of pages of terms of service,” said Heidi Tworek, the Canada Research Chair and Director, of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia.

  • Hollywood Reporter ☛ TikTok Facing Increasing Prospect of National Ban in New Bill Passed by House Committee

    The legislation directs the Treasury Secretary to issue a directive prohibiting Americans from engaging transactions with entities that could transfer sensitive personal data to entities directed or influenced by the Chinese government. It also empowers the President to impose sanctions on certain transactions relating to connected software applications controlled by entities that could facilitated China’s intelligence, censorship or surveillance activities, including efforts to steer U.S. policy and regulatory decisions. Under the bill, the president can waive certain sanctions and make a decision on whether TikTok or any of its affiliated companies meet the criteria for sanctions.

  • India Today ☛ WhatsApp banned over 29 lakh Indian accounts in January 2023, here is why

    WhatsApp has banned these user accounts under Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The latest report from the instant messaging platform reveals that WhatsApp banned over 2,918,000 accounts of Indian users between January 1 – January 31, 2023.

    The accounts were banned after receiving grievances from users in India. WhatsApp actioned against these accounts following its prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApp’s Terms of Service. The report further quotes that out of 2,918,000 banned accounts, WhatsApp has banned around 1,038,000 proactively before receiving any reports from users.

  • Michael Geist ☛ Bill C-18, Google and Mandated Payments for Links: My Appearance on CBC’s Power and Politics

    As the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage summoned Google to appear next week before committee (and implausibly provide all internal documentation related to Bill C-18 by tomorrow), media coverage of the bill and Google’s response has intensified. I was pleased to appear on CBC’s Power and Politics to discuss the the bill, Google’s response, and the implications of mandated payments for links that the government expects could fund 35% of news expenditures in all news outlets in Canada.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The Coup in Israel

    Israel has always been touted as America’s most reliable friend in the Middle East, a bastion of democracy in a region dominated by autocracies. Now that picture is fraying as the far-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes power.

    Beholden to the bloc called Religious Zionism, Netanyahu is pursuing a far-right agenda on two fronts: further chipping away at the Palestinians’ fundamental rights of citizenship and property, and pushing for so-called judicial reform. Let’s look more closely at the latter issue, the most dangerous threat today to Israel as a democracy.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Showdown in Nevada as Democratic Establishment Targets Party Chair

    To understand the current fierce attacks on the progressive leadership of the Nevada Democratic Party, it’s helpful to recall the panicked reaction from political elites three years ago when results came in from the state’s contest for the presidential nomination. Under the headline “Moderates Hustle to Blunt Sanders’ Momentum After Nevada Win,” the Associated Press reported that “Bernie Sanders’ commanding Nevada caucus victory made him a top target for his Democratic rivals and a growing source of anxiety for establishment Democrats.”

    Such anxiety spiked for Nevada’s establishment Democrats a year later, in early March 2021, when a progressive slate, headed by activist Judith Whitmer, won every officer seat in the state party, stunning its entrenched leaders. As sheexplained at the time, “what they just didn’t expect is that we got better and better at organizing and out-organizing them at every turn.”

  • Counter Punch ☛ Leftist Governance Work

    A famous quotation — often dubiously attributed to Winston Churchill — claims that “history is written by the victors.” More accurately, history is written by the powerful. This underscores the need for dissident voices to counter any lies present in mainstream historiography.

    One such lie is that the economic successes of leftist governments in Brazil, Venezuela, and elsewhere are mostly attributable to commodities. In reality, they have far more to do with progressive social programs. But liberals and reactionaries argue the reverse. Common are allegations that Venezuela is merely a “petro state.” And mainstream sources often insist that Lula’s successes in Brazil were the inevitable byproduct of a commodities boom.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Growing Backlash to Montana’s GOP-Controlled Legislature

  • TruthOut ☛ Critics Decry “Fascist” GOP Bill That Would Dismantle Florida Democratic Party

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Techdirt ☛ Techdirt Podcast Episode 345: The Supreme Court Takes On 230

    After all these years, the Supreme Court is finally weighing in on Section 230 in the Gonzalez and Taamneh cases, and the outcome could have a very significant impact. Our organization, the Copia Institute, filed an amicus brief in the case, as did many other parties. This week, we’re joined by Jess Miers from the Chamber of Progress and lawyer Cathy Gellis (who wrote our amicus brief), both of whom attended the Gonzalez hearing in person, to discuss the status of both cases and what they could mean for the future of the internet.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Now that Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming have been censored, I’m next for the chop

    Self-censorship because everyone’s so terrified of getting in trouble on the internet. A couple of years ago, Sebastian Faulks declared that he was no longer going to describe the appearance of female characters in his novels because he didn’t believe he had the right.

    It’s so silly and pandering, much of this. I fear the online mob, like many writers now, but if we try to write without upsetting a single person we might as well hand over the reins to the AI robots immediately.

    The trouble is, while remaining anxious about the mob and accusations of racism or sexism or any other -ism, we writers are increasingly expected to reflect diversity in our books.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Anti-War Teen Jailed For Interview With RFE/RL Mistreated, Threatened, Lawyer Says

    An 18-year-old Moscow anti-war activist arrested last week for giving an interview to RFE/RL’s Russian Service, has been threatened and mistreated, his lawyer says. [...]

  • uni Emory ☛ How we can re-obtain the lost humor?

    Unfortunately, it is becoming more difficult for younger generations to obtain that sense of humor and accept who they really are. We have developed a cultural consensus that those who have high self-esteem should be rewarded by the system instead of those who recognize, laugh at and grow out of their shortcomings in public (in other words, humorists). According to Timothy Keller, an American theologian, pride is the implicit driving force behind that culture. Contemporary education, for example, is one of those systems that can confirm it. Colleges admit those who acquire more leadership roles at a school, more academic rewards and better grades. In such a competitive environment, students delight in becoming prominent figures in their schools.To obtain that pride and pleasure, they can only present their flawless images of themselves on their college applications or during any public display instead of true bruised images. They must hide away from the scenarios that require publicly reflecting on things they need to improve upon or their genuine selves, the very process of becoming a humorist. Therefore, pride takes away students’ opportunities to obtain a sense of humor since they are too invested in being supposedly perfect instead of facing their true selves.

  • Digital First Media ☛ Schiraldi: Free speech means freedom to disagree

    An unfathomable number of “free-thinking” liberal universities keep free speech on campus under lock and key. Most recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “free speech” policies were exposed. Turns out that MIT’s faculty are self-censoring. Not as in, refraining from blurting out every thought — self-censoring as in actually restricting controversial speech.

    This should be disturbing to the average American because MIT is a cutting-edge research institution where it’s presumed that broad exploration and unfettered discussion of scientific possibilities help make our country and the world better off.

  • TruthOut ☛ Billions Are Available to Tackle Environmental Racism. Where Is the Money Going?

  • TruthOut ☛ Trump Supporters Reportedly Banned from DeSantis Book Signing

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Dissenter ☛ The Difficulty of Destiny: ‘Ithaka’ And A Father’s Struggle For His Son’s Freedom

  • BBC ☛ How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists

    At least five such articles have been subject to fake copyright claims, including one by the respected South African newspaper Mail & Guardian, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

    The claims – which falsely assert ownership of the stories – have been made by mystery individuals under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law meant to protect copyright holders.

  • CPJ ☛ CPJ, press freedom groups express support for Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr following libel verdict

    The Committee to Protect Journalists and 12 other international press freedom organizations reiterated their support on Wednesday for journalist Carole Cadwalladr after the U.K. Court of Appeal ruled in a libel lawsuit against her on February 28. Cadwalladr reports for the Guardian newspaper and its Sunday sister paper, the Observer.

    Millionaire businessman and political donor Arron Banks sued Cadwalladr for saying that he was lying about his relationship with the Russian state in a TED Talk and a comment posted on Twitter. Yesterday’s judgement upheld an earlier court decision dismissing the claim in respect of the tweet, but ruled that Cadwalladr should pay damages over claims made in the TED Talk.

  • NL Times ☛ Half of journalists have been threatened with legal action

    Half of journalists have at least once in their careers faced the threat of legal action as a result of a proposed publication, according to a survey of over 800 journalists carried out by Persveilig. Three-quarters of those surveyed have been working in journalism for more than ten years. A quarter of those journalists say they are wary about what they publish to avoid the risk of legal threat.

    Six percent of those surveyed have modified a publication at least once because of the risk of legal action. Four percent have in some cases refrained from publishing. Journalists receive threats of legal action most often from a lawyer representing a private individual or a company. In smaller numbers, legal threats come from the government or a government lawyer.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Foreign journalists in China restricted, harassed and constantly tracked in 2022, says press group

    Nearly half of foreign journalists in the country were ordered to leave a place or denied access on health and safety grounds last year despite presenting “no health risk by China’s own standards”, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in its annual report.

    A similar proportion said problems with smartphone “health codes” rendered them unable to travel at some point last year.

    Almost 40 percent said at least one of their sources had been harassed, detained, questioned or suffered other negative consequences from speaking to foreign media, while 45 percent reported similar official pressure on Chinese colleagues.

  • BIA Net ☛ Türkiye sentences a journalist under ‘disinformation law’ for first time

    Özgür Öğret, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) representative in türkiye, and Ülkü Şahin, a lawyer with the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS), also followed the hearing.

    In protest of the “disinformation law,” Aygül refused to make a defense at the hearing.

  • FAIR ☛ DeSantis’ War on Florida’s Press Is Designed to Hit Nationwide

    The trick of executives projecting their policy mishaps on the press is as old as politics itself. But DeSantis is far more dangerous than your average governor, not just because he is seeking the presidency, but because he is actively trying to legally neuter the free press in the same way he is trying to destroy academic freedom and freedom of speech in his own state. And he could win, because he has much of the conservative movement behind him.

    The Florida state legislature is considering a bill that seeks “sweeping changes to Florida’s libel and defamation law,” the Orlando Sentinel (2/21/23) reported. It would presume “information from anonymous sources to be false and removes protections that allow journalists to shield the identity of sources if they are sued.” And the bill “limits the definition of who would qualify as a public figure,” which means that more people would be able to sue news outlets without having to show that the outlets displayed a reckless disregard for the truth.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Latvia ☛ Rīga Holocaust memorial vandalized again

    Vandals have struck for the second time in a week at a memorial to victims of the Holocaust in Rīga, reported LTV February 27.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Historic Labor Ruling Slams ‘Egregious and Widespread Misconduct’ by Starbucks

    Building on a series of blows to Starbucks on Wednesday, a federal administrative law judge found the coffee giant “committed hundreds of unfair labor practices” at stores in and near Buffalo, New York, the origin of a national unionization wave.

  • TruthOut ☛ Sanders Moves to Subpoena Starbucks CEO Over Rampant Union Busting

  • TruthOut ☛ Iowa Republicans Propose Amendment That Would Ban Same-Sex Marriages

  • Common Dreams ☛ Rail Labor Leader Calls Norfolk Southern’s Business Model ‘Dangerous to America’

    A rail labor leader on Wednesday sent a scathing letter to Ohio’s Republican governor warning that Norfolk Southern’s business model poses a threat to communities across the U.S.—one that must be met with swift regulatory action.

  • Common Dreams ☛ NYC to Pay Millions to Police Brutality Protesters Violently Arrested by NYPD

    Hundreds of people who were trapped, beaten, and wrongfully arrested by New York City police officers during a nonviolent 2020 racial justice protest in the Bronx will each receive $21,500 if a judge approves the terms of a settlement filed in federal court late Tuesday.

  • The Nation ☛ The New Era of Backlash in Sports and Politics

    Douglas Hartmann, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies protest movements among athletes, believes that the Black Lives Matter movement that followed the 2020 police murder of George Floyd launched a new era in sports and politics, and I’m inclined to agree. The years of 2012 to 2020 saw players trying to organize a protest-oriented, progressive political intervention inside the sports world. Examples of this abound, from the Miami Heat posing in their hoodies after the murder of Trayvon Martin to the kneeling of Colin Kaepernick, to the retirement of Maya Moore, to the WNBA players helping to swing the US Senate. I could go on and on, and not just with star athletes but also with legions of young people who took a knee, raised a fist, and became emboldened because their agency as athletes mattered in the fight against police violence.

  • BW Businessworld Media Pvt Ltd ☛ Total Contribution Of Unpaid Women To India’s GDP Almost 7.5%: SBI

    The State Bank of India (SBI) in a report indicated that the total contribution of unpaid women to the economy is around Rs. 22.7 lakh crore which is almost 7.5 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP).

    The report from the SBI’s Economic Research Department stated that the total contribution of unpaid women to the economy is around Rs 14.7 lakh crore in rural India and Rs 8.0 lakh crore in urban areas.

  • Reason ☛ Ohio Woman Says Cops Broke Her Wrist for Recording During Traffic Stop

    According to the suit, Mills was left with a broken wrist and other injuries to her arm and breasts. The complaint alleges that the officers’ excessive force violated Mills’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. The complaint also says that the Walton Hills Police Department’s practices are the “moving force behind the injuries suffered by Amanda,” and the department is guilty of “failing to adequately train, adequately supervise, as well as failing to investigate and discipline, its police officers when it comes to the excessive use of force.”

    While Mills’ claims and the video she recorded are chilling, she faces an uphill battle in receiving restitution due to the specter of qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects government officials from civil liability even when their actions are unconstitutional.

    In Mills’ case, police seemed to have been enraged in particular by her attempt to film them—an activity which has consistently been ruled to be protected by the First Amendment.

  • BBC ☛ Iran: Dozens of schoolgirls taken to hospital after new gas poisonings

    Research by BBC Persian established that at least 830 students, mostly schoolgirls, had been poisoned as of Sunday, while a member of parliament put the figure at 1,200 in Qom and the western city of Borujerd alone as of Tuesday.

  • France24 ☛ Poison attacks hit at least 26 girls’ schools in Iran on Wednesday

    Iranian officials have said they are investigating the mysterious poisonings of schoolgirls around the country over the past three months. One official has blamed the attacks on unspecified groups opposed to education for girls, but many Iranians believe that the state is itself behind these “chemical attacks”, to intimidate women and girls and keep them at home and out of school. Photos and videos shared online show the impacts of these widespread attacks, resulting in as many as 800 poisonings.

  • TruthOut ☛ A 4-Day Work Week Bill Is Being Reintroduced in the House as Idea Gains Speed

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Oxygen for the Fire’: White-Collar Starbucks Workers Blast Union-Busting

    Dozens of white-collar Starbucks employees have endorsed a petition calling out the Seattle-based coffee chain for requiring them to return to the office and interfering with a national unionization push by baristas, Bloombergrevealed Wednesday.

  • New York Times ☛ Hundreds of Schoolgirls Fall Sick in Iran, and Officials Suspect Poisoning

    Hundreds of schoolgirls in Iran have been hospitalized in over 10 cities after falling sick with respiratory, cardiac and neurological symptoms, and senior officials said they might have been deliberately poisoned.

  • France24 ☛ Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls treated in latest mystery poisoning

    Tehran says hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested in connection with the protests, which the authorities generally describe as “riots”.

  • RFA ☛ Czech minister meets Tibetan counterpart

    Lipavský is the first minister of a European nation to openly meet with the CTA’s foreign ministry officials. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the ongoing G20 foreign minister gathering in India.

  • JURIST ☛ US appeals court holds employers can discriminate against employees who obtain abortions

    The case now goes back to the district court on remand to reconsider the freedom of expressive association claim.

  • Idiomdrottning ☛ An even-handed and restrained criticism of police

    “But not all cops are killers”, some say. “Moderate policemen have a responsibility to watch their own police community and stop this radicalization process.” They say “I don’t criticize all police, just ‘policists’, those who dress in those old-fashioned uniforms, those who carry weapons, those who want to turn all of Europe to a ‘Europolis’ police state.”

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • MacRumors ☛ iPhone 15 USB-C Cables Without MFi Badge May Have Data Transfer and Charging Speed Limits

    Since being introduced in 2012, first-party and MFi-certified Lightning ports and connectors have contained a small integrated circuit that confirms the authenticity of the parts involved in the connection. Non-MFi-certified third-party charging cables, for example, do not feature this chip, often leading to “This accessory is not supported” warnings on connected Apple devices.

• Monopolies

  • India Times ☛ EU antitrust regulators narrow charges against Apple

    However, the victory for the US tech giant will be short-lived as a new EU tech law known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will apply from May, bans both of the Apple practices investigated by the Commission, with fines of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover for infringements.

    The Commission said Apple’s so-called anti-steering obligations, which prevent developers from informing users about other purchasing options, violate EU rules against unfair trading conditions.

  • Techdirt ☛ Microsoft Inks 10 Year Deal To Bring Xbox Games To Nintendo Consoles [Ed: Sometimes it seems like Techdirt isn't just running Microsoft ads but it also habitually lobbying for GAFAM interests, including for Microsoft, while bagging "deregulation" Koch money]

    What amazing timing! Merely a few weeks back we were discussing the major regulatory hurdles the United States, the EU, and the UK were putting in front of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68 billion. Agencies from all three governing bodies, while differing on some specifics, generally had the same concerns: lessening the competitive marketplace through industry consolidation, that the deal will incentivize Microsoft to start making AAA game franchises exclusives to Microsoft systems, and the idea that the only bulwark thus far offered against those concerns has been Microsoft’s promises.

  • Patents

    • Michael West Media ☛ The Big Mac of avoidance: how intellectual property payments eat our tax revenue [Ed: Patents as tax evasion ploy, created by the looters to serve the looting class]

      The most expensive thing in a McDonald’s Big Mac is not the patty or the labour cost, but the intellectual property that McDonald’s uses to minimise its tax in Australia. Callum Foote reports on one of the methods the multinationals use to shift profit to tax havens and the government’s response.

      The shifting of profits through fees paid on intangible assets such as intellectual property royalties and service fees takes billion of dollars out of the Australian taxation system yearly, and some of the biggest household names are in on the scam: Amazon, Oracle, E-Bay, Accenture, Microsoft.

  • Software Patents

    • Gizmodo ☛ Ford Tries to Patent a Dystopian Future Where Self-Driving Cars Repo Themselves

      Ford has filed a patent for theoretical tech that would, among other things, allow its vehicles to repossess themselves if a driver falls behind on car payments. In Ford’s version of the future, delinquent customers’ cars could drive themselves back to a dealership (or to an impound lot or even a scrap yard) if the owner fails to pay up in time. Unfortunately, this is not joke.

      The U.S. Patent Office published the company’s application last Thursday, February—about 1.5 years after Ford first filed it. The patent, titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” hasn’t been officially granted (yet), but is nonetheless an unsettling peek into an alternate universe where private companies have even more of a say over our day-to-day lives.

    • Interesting Engineering ☛ Ford’s latest patent enables vehicles to repossess themselves and drive away

      According to previously released patent filings, the new system, which can disable one or more vehicle functions, could be installed in any Ford vehicle. It claims that everything on the car, including the air conditioning and engine, can be turned off. It continued by stating that with the new system in place, autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles might be transferred from their initial location to a secondary location, making it easier for them to be towed.

  • Copyrights

    • Michael Geist ☛ Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part Six: A Fair Reading of Fair Dealing

      As this series has shown, institutions have a range of options for clearing copyright, far beyond the traditional models of textbooks, course packs and photocopying. Given the diversity of institutions and programs across Canada, there will never be a “one size fits all” approach for every post-secondary student and the materials they need. Not everyone is studying Canadian literature. In fact, few do. It is stating the obvious that the materials for a university nursing student fundamentally differs from what students in a college automotive program needs during their studies. The nursing student may rely on digital e-books, while the automotive student will need access to the latest technical manuals on working with electric vehicles. This means that where their respective institutions go to find the best materials to support their learning will likely be different as well.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate IPTV: Police & Sky Nationwide Crackdown, Four Arrested

      The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, Police Scotland, and Sky TV, say they have carried out nationwide raids against suspected pirate IPTV suppliers in the UK. Four people have been arrested and police say that 200 ‘cease and desist’ notices have been issued to individuals suspected of running illegal streaming services.

    • Techdirt ☛ Documents Expose Yet Another Reputation Management Company Abusing Copyright Law To Bury Negative Content

      For years, companies have been offering questionable services to downrank and bury information their customers don’t want surfacing during Google searches. And for years, these tactics have routinely involved abuse of copyright law, forged/faked court orders, and the filing of bogus lawsuits in hopes of securing default judgments from inattentive judges.

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • 🔤SpellBinding: ACDEMVU Wordo: NINES

  • # Rewilding Music

    Apologies for the long-windedness, Pub-goers. This does feel a bit like a two-beers-too-many undergraduate rant, but it’s been on my mind. Many things have been, lately.

    I have been thinking about the role of music in the lives of both non-civilized peoples and in our own pre-industrial past.

    My mind’s idea of the shape of music is mostly that of industrially-produced ‘professional’ music. Singers are supposed to sound like -this-, rhythms are -that-, acceptable melodies and structures span -this- particular area, carefully mapped out by musical theorists, tastemakers, record labels, and most recently streaming service algorithms. Certain genres are allowed to stretch those boundaries, but it doesn’t change the fact that _making_ music is largely the province of an army of specialists, and simply not a thing the majority of modern humanity does…Ours is but to purchase and consume.

  • Hello for the first time

    Hello I’m bashful-script and I probably won’t be posting much here. I’m a lifelong internet lurker and that is unlikely to change. The idea of commenting a lot and interacting with people online sounds really cool in my head but it’s hard to pull off in practice… at least for me. But who knows maybe I’ll try something new.

• Technical

  • Customizing My Pinetime

    Another quick post about the Pinetime, this time about how I’ve modified the firmware to customize one of the default watch faces.

    Since I’ve been wearing my Pinetime I’ve settled on the standard digital watch face. It’s one of the cleaner and more straightforward options, plus I really like its font. There’s just a couple minor things about it that I wish were different.

    So far the only way to add or modify a watch face is through flashing new firmware. It’s a little more of a hassle than it ideally should be, but if all you’re wanting to do is make tweaks to an existing face and you’re not put off by a little code then it’s not that scary.

    I set out by forking the InfiniTime repository. The only file I had to modify was /src/displayapp/screens/WatchFaceDigital.cpp. The code, at least for this watch face, is fairly easy to understand so I didn’t have to go looking for documentation to make the quick changes I was wanting. Altogether I touched maybe 3-4 lines.

  • Pentester for Socials

    Cynicism. It runs rampant in me. Mostly due to long stretches of isolation at my apartment, speaking only to my 70+ year old neighbor once per morning, if that, for weeks on-end. Also, because I’ve experienced so much emotional/isolation-sourced trauma, that I cease to *need* significant communication with others, let alone respect the life of those communicating with me. Can’t find “bonding”? Then devalue those who will, make it a “non-issue”.

  • Enabling a simple-but-good minibuffer completion experience in Enabling a simple-but-good minibuffer completion experience in Emacs

    I mentioned on [emacs.ch] that to use Emacs effectively, you don’t actually have to memorize all of the cryptic multi-chord keybindings for every mode you use. If you know the basics, you can pretty much always do anything you need in just a few keystrokes using M-x and a decent minibuffer completion system. I recommended the lightweight completion stack of `vertico `, `marginalia `, `orderless `, and `prescient `, a set of packages that work well together and with Emacs’ built-in completion systems. Someone requested that I post my config, and it took me a while to get to it, but here it is.

GNU/Linux

• Games

  • Boiling Steam ☛ New Steam Games with Native Linux Clients, with Lumencraft and Basements and Basilisks – 2023-03-01 Edition

    Between 2023-02-22 and 2023-03-01 there were 22 New Steam games released with Native Linux clients.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • Red Hat ☛ What is Podman Desktop? A developer’s introduction

    I’m a developer. Well, I like to think that I am; I spent twenty-odd years as a software engineer before joining Red Hat ten years ago, and since then, I’ve been evangelizing the company’s tools and products from a developer perspective. I’ve seen the agile revolution and the rise of containers, and I was there when Kubernetes crawled out of the sea and into our hearts.

    Developing locally in the container era

    But for the last four or so years, I’ve found developing containers locally a bit of a challenge. I’m used to being able to just log onto an OpenShift cluster and do my builds, normally through Source-2-Image or just by pointing the system at a Git repo with a Containerfile. But this isn’t an option for a lot of developers.

    I also used Docker a lot in the early days, but had a problem when I switched to developing on my Mac instead. To get around that problem, I actually hosted a Fedora virtual machine (VM), amusingly named ‘builder’, on which I did all my Docker builds. I would prepare all my source, create a Git repo, fire up the VM, ssh into it, clone the repo, build, test. Any problem I had, I would have to drop back to my Mac desktop, fix the code, git add, git commit, rinse and repeat.

    Podman benefits for developers

    Then along came Podman. Podman is, put simply, Docker with some security enhancements—it solves the old problem of having to run your containers as root, which was always a worry for me when using Docker. The Podman project actually defines Podman as “a daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI Containers on your Linux System. Containers can either be run as root or in rootless mode.”

  • Red Hat ☛ How a manual intervention pipeline restricts deployment

    It is important to consider multiple factors when deploying production code. Later on, we will deploy, such as securing permission, pulling requests, testing the robustness of the application, and making sure it is tested thoroughly. Deployments will occur in the production cluster after a manual intervention step is added for management approval.

    The advantages of manual intervention are avoiding accidental deployments and achieving governance over the production environment and security. Our goal in this article is to create a manual intervention pipeline. In the middle of the pipeline are the CI and CD.

    We are creating a series of articles about complete CI/CD pipelines on the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform using Jenkins and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. This 3-part series will cover the following topics:

    • Part 1: Continuous Integration with Jenkins on OpenShift
    • Part 2: Continuous Deployment using Ansible Automation Platform on OpenShift
    • Part 3:  Restricting a production deployment on OpenShift with Jenkins and Ansible

    An overview of the architecture and workflow

    This article is the third installment of the series. Assuming you have already read the previous articles on continuous integration and continuous deployment, proceed with the demonstration.

    The architecture diagram in Figure 1 illustrates the multiple clusters we will use in this demonstration. Adding manual intervention in CI/CD flow restricts the deployment on production. The purple line represents the production workflow. The workflow triggers when the release manager logs in to the Jenkins dashboard and clicks on approval. Then the Ansible Automation Platform triggers and fetches the playbooks from Git to do the deployment on the production cluster using the token and certificate of that cluster.

  • Red Hat ☛ How to employ continuous deployment with Ansible on OpenShift

    In our previous article, we learned how to create a continuous integration pipeline on Red Hat OpenShift using Jenkins. In this article, we will learn how to perform continuous deployment on OpenShift using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

    Follow the series:

    • Part 1: Continuous integration with Jenkins on OpenShift
    • Part 2: Continuous deployment using Ansible Automation Platform on OpenShift
    • Part 3: How a manual intervention pipeline restricts deployment

    This article assumes that you have basic knowledge of Jenkins, OpenShift, and Ansible Automation Platform. You will need administrator privileges for your Openshift cluster to execute this blog.

    The CD pipeline architecture

    The architecture diagram in Figure 1 illustrates all actions that occur after developers push and when Jenkins detects the changes to help with polling or webhooks. When Jenkins triggers the Ansible Automation Platform, continuous integration will occur. The Ansible Automation Platform fetches the playbook and configuration files over Git, which are required for the deployment of game applications. With the help of a template, Ansible Automation Platform deploys the application to the OpenShift cluster.

  • Red Hat ☛ How to use continuous integration with Jenkins on OpenShift

    In this article series, we will set up a CI pipeline to compile and package a JavaScript game application into a Docker image using Jenkins on Red Hat OpenShift. Once we build the image, it will be pushed to the external Red Hat Quay container registry, Quay.io. When the developer pushes the changes into the Git repository, all these actions trigger.

    This is a series of complete CI/CD pipelines on OpenShift using the Jenkins and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. We will cover the following topics:

    • Part 1: Continuous integration with Jenkins on OpenShift
    • Part 2: Continuous deployment using Ansible Automation Platform on OpenShift
    • Part 3: How a manual intervention pipeline restricts deployment

    This article is based on the assumption that you have basic knowledge of Jenkins, OpenShift, and Ansible Automation Platform. You will also need administrator privileges for your Openshift cluster.

    The CI pipeline architecture

    The developer commits and pushes the changes after initiating the action, as shown in the architecture diagram (Figure 1). Jenkins will detect the changes with the help of polling or webhooks. We build the image in the OpenShift cluster and push it to the Quay.io container registry using buildconfig.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Stacey on IoT ☛ How to name your smart home devices in the age of Matter [Ed: There is nothing "Smart" about it]

    Now that the official Matter rollout has come and gone, more and more new devices will start to support the multiplatform standard. So too will some older smart home products, with software upgrades.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • Hackaday ☛ Aaron Christophel Brings DOOM To Payment Terminal

    Payment terminals might feel intimidating — they’re generally manufactured with security in mind, with all manner of anti-tamper protections in place to prevent you from poking around in the hardware too much. But [Aaron Christophel] thinks that level of security isn’t aren’t always in practice however, and on his journey towards repurposing devices of all kinds, has stumbled upon just the terminal that will give up its secrets easily. The device in question is Sumup Solo terminal, a small handheld with a battery, LTE connection and a payment card slot – helping you accept card payments even if you’re on the go.

  • Arduino ☛ Recreating a century-old Argentinian rainmaking machine

    You’ve heard about the many different snake oil concoctions shilled by con men over the centuries, but did you know that inventors created a variety of machines for similar purposes? The most well-known example is probably the belt vibrator, which purported to induce weight loss.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Tor ☛ Arti 1.1.2 is released: HsDir groundwork and cell handling improvements

  Arti is our ongoing project to create a next-generation Tor client in Rust. At the start of this month, we released Arti 1.1.1. Now we’re announcing the next release in its series, Arti 1.1.2.

  Since our last release, our primary focus has been preparation for onion service support in Arti. Since the last release, we’ve implemented the parsing logic for the various layers of onion service descriptors, and the various computations needed to maintain a directory ring to decide where to find those descriptors.

• Tor ☛ The Results Are In: Furthering Our Mission In The Global South

  In 2017, the Tor Project developed and launched its Global South Strategy (GSS) which was conceived as a means to establish closer ties and build better relationships with at-risk communities in the Global South and to understand how we can remove common barriers to the adoption of our services. The goal is to empower people to be more secure on the internet by prioritizing a user-centric approach for the development of Tor technologies and products.

  Following the success of the first five years of the program, we engaged Firetail, a strategy consultancy working to achieve social progress, to conduct a thorough assessment of our approach. We wanted to track and measure progress towards the above goals. Today, we are pleased to share this evaluation report, its findings and recommendations with our community.

• Giving Voice to the Future: Support OpenVoiceOS in establishing a non-profit association.

  OpenVoiceOS (OVOS) is a collective of programmers and hardware enthusiasts who produce an open-source voice assistant. We formed in 2019-2020 as an offshoot of the Mycroft community, bringing a handful of third-party projects under one roof. Our projects have been an extension of MycroftAI projects and core technologies itself, which slowly became independent of its parent.

  Over the years, We’ve been operating in a manner of an soft fork and a non entity for over two years without giving the arrangements much thought.

• CubicleNate ☛ Nheko | Matrix Client written in Qt on openSUSE

  Matrix is a secure, decentralised, real-time, communication protocol that allows you to send messages and pictures free from the encumberments of a centralized authority. You can look at Matrix as an alternative to using Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, etc. Confusingly, Matrix is a protocol not a client.

• Events

  • Hackaday ☛ FOSDEM 2023: An Open-Source Conference, Literally

    Every year, on the first weekend of February, a certain Brussels university campus livens up. There, you will find enthusiasts of open-source software and hardware alike, arriving from different corners of the world to meet up, talk, and listen. The reason they all meet there is the conference called FOSDEM, a long-standing open-source software conference which has been happening in Belgium since 2000. I’d like to tell you about FOSDEM because, when it comes to conferences, FOSDEM is one of a kind.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • Silicon Angle ☛ EDB boasts ‘five nines’ uptime in new Postgres database version

    EnterpriseDB Corp., which sells a commercial version of the popular open-source Postgres database management system, today announced version 5.0 of EDB Postgres Distributed with new high-availability features, easier installation and the ability to integrate with the Open Telemetry suite of observability tools.

  • Dhole Moments ☛ Database Cryptography Fur the Rest of Us

    An introduction to database cryptography.

• GNU Projects

  • GNU ☛ guile-cv @ Savannah: Guile-CV version 0.4.0

    This is a maintenance release, which introduces new interfaces.
    

    Changes since the previous version

    For a list of changes since the previous version, visit the NEWS file. For a complete description, consult the git summary and git log

Leftovers

• uni Stanford ☛ ‘Be your own rockstar’: Entrepreneurs and influencers explore social tech

  Entrepreneurs and innovators gathered at Stanford on Feb. 23 for APARC’s conference on social tech futures. Keynote speaker YOSHIKI, leader of rock bands The Last Rockstars and X Japan, encouraged members of the Stanford community to pursue their dreams and make a positive impact.

• CNN ☛ At least 32 dead, 85 injured as trains collide in Greece

  At least 16 people have been killed and 85 injured after two trains collided near the city of Larissa in Greece late Tuesday night, Reuters reported, citing authorities.

• Updated earthquake toll in Türkiye is 45,089

  Over 11 thousand aftershocks followed the February 6 earthquakes according to the announcement made by AFAD.

• The Nation ☛ Death, Destruction, and Lars Von Trier

  In the first episode of Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom Exodus, there’s a gag that hews closely to The Office (the Danish show’s distant relative in cringe-inducing workplace comedy) at its worst. Stig Helmer Jr. (Mikael Persbrandt), the imperious new surgeon at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet, condemns the neurosurgical ward’s all-white staff, calling its lack of diversity “beneath contempt.” But wait—the Black doctors are simply running behind. The other lead surgeon, Pontopidan (Lars Mikkelsen), sends for two Black custodians, who are given lab coats and no explanation for their sudden promotion. They look confused. Helmer Jr. grumbles. On to the next item on the agenda.

• Counter Punch ☛ The War on Positivity

  The populist left seems to think cancel culture, rather than environmental catastrophe is our biggest threat to freedom. While I certainly do not support the editing of Roald Dahl’s books it is worth looking into what his defenders get wrong when they try to paint our modern world.

  First of all there is a narrative out there that body shaming is out. It isn’t. It’s in and it has never been more in. Look at the suicide rates of young girls. Anyone who defends people of all body types is canceled. One author who writes about fat or ugly people gets his words changed a little and the Prime Minister comes to his defense.

• Telex (Hungary) ☛ Soft armour, mythical figures and ripped jeans – Hungarian brands showcased at Milan Fashion Week

• Hackaday ☛ Morse Code Clock For Training Hams

  It might seem antiquated, but Morse code still has a number of advantages compared to other modes of communication, especially over radio waves. It’s low bandwidth compared to voice or even text, and can be discerned against background noise even at extremely low signal strengths. Not every regulatory agency requires amateur operators to learn Morse any more, but for those that do it can be a challenge, so [Cristiano Monteiro] built this clock to help get some practice.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ The Die Is Cast!

    We all know the basics of how metal casting works, a metal is heated up to melting point and the resulting liquid metal is poured into a mold. When the metal sets, it assumes the shape of the mold. It’s a straightforward way to reliably replicate a metal item many times over, and the basics are the same whether the metal is a low-temperature alloy in a silicone mould or a crucible of molten steel poured into a sand mould.

• Education

  • The Nation ☛ Ron DeSantis’s War on Florida Students

    Empty bookshelves in classrooms. Teachers afraid to display rainbow flags. School board members subjected to ideological purity tests. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s ongoing assaults on the K-12 education system provide a look not just at what is becoming a statewide dystopia for those of us who live here but also at how he would lead the nation.

  • Common Dreams ☛ New College of Florida Students and Faculty Protest DeSantis’ Right-Wing Assault on Education

    Roughly 300 students and faculty at the New College of Florida, along with their supporters, gathered before a board of trustees meeting on Tuesday to demonstrate against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ takeover of the small public liberal arts college and his broader attack on public education.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Gov. DeSantis: You’re a History Grad. Tell Me When Systemic Racism Ended?

    When Ron DeSantis was asked by a Fox News host two years ago if the United States is “systemically racist,” the Florida governor quickly responded: “It’s a bunch of horse manure.” He went on to boast that he had banned such ideas in Florida’s schools.   

    Boisterously banning books, educational curricula and college programs that address racism or LGBTQ dignity – or both (with added bigotry toward writers like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde) – DeSantis is building his national “anti-woke” profile as he seems to be readying a presidential campaign against his former hero Donald Trump.   

  • Techdirt ☛ New DeSantis-Endorsed Florida Bill An Outright Attack On The 1st Amendment And Free Speech

    Florida governor Ron DeSantis likes to proclaim himself a defender of free speech, but time and time again he’s looked to stifle, suppress, and silence speech. He’s done it with his social media bill that limits the 1st Amendment rights of social media sites, with his Stop WOKE Act which literally bars speech, and with his various retaliation bills against Disney for daring to criticize him. And a few weeks ago he made it clear that he wanted to undermine a core bedrock 1st Amendment Supreme Court case, arguing that the finding in NY Times v. Sullivan should be done away with. We’ve already explained why that ruling is so important, because without it, powerful politicians like DeSantis would be able to constantly tie up critics in court with SLAPP suits.

  • TruthOut ☛ DeSantis Pivots Right on Abortion, Laying Groundwork for Presidential Primary

  • Common Dreams ☛ Burning Books and Education on the Path to Fascist Dictatorship

    Widening the lens on the escalating assault on education and those who teach it offers chilling thoughts on the future of U.S. democracy.

  • The Nation ☛ Black History Isn’t One Month

  • uni Stanford ☛ Acceptance rate drops to 3.62%, majority enrolled are non-white students

    The Class of 2026 had the lowest acceptance rate in the University’s history, dropping from 3.95% in the previous year. The newly admitted class consists of more female, FLI, and non-white students compared to previous years.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ A More Expressive Synth Via Flexure

    Synthesizers can make some great music, but sometimes they feel a bit robotic in comparison to their analog counterparts. [Sound Werkshop] built a “minimum viable” expressive synth to overcome this challenge. (YouTube)

  • Hackaday ☛ Brand New Colecovision Console – On A Breadboard

    The Colecovision console from the early 1980s is probably not the most memorable platform of its era, but it retains a retrocomputing following to this day. The original hardware can be a bit pricey in 2023, so [nanochess] has built one of his own on a breadboard. It’s fully functional from original Colecovision cartridges, and we see it in the video below the break running Frogger.

  • Hackaday ☛ Arc Overhangs In PrusaSlicer Are A Simple Script Away

    Interested in the new hotness of printing previously-impossible overhangs? You can now integrate Arc Overhangs into PrusaSlicer and give it a shot for yourself. Arc overhangs is a method of laying filament into a pattern of blossoming concentric rings instead of stringing filament bridges over empty space (or over supports).

  • Ruben Schade ☛ AliExpress anime and electronics comments

    AliExpress can useful for buying certain components I can’t get from anywhere else, but the comments are the real gems. You’ll see people complaining that heatsinks get too hot, that a function generator couldn’t “detect” anything, and that a MiniPRO IC tester didn’t come with any EPROMs.

    I suspect if the site sold electric cars, people would complain that all the petrol spilled out when they tried to pour it into the charging port, or that a DIMM stuck to the side of their phone didn’t offer any additional capacity. I suppose you self-select for such people when you compete so aggressively on price over anything else.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Common Dreams ☛ It’s Time to Realize the Farm Bill’s Transformative Potential

    When the Farm Bill appears for debate in Congress every five years, most of the public pays little attention.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Brilliant PR Move’: Advocates Skeptical as Eli Lilly Vows 70% Insulin Price Cut

    Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical giant that has become virtually synonymous with the sky-high cost of insulin in the United States, pledged Wednesday to cut the list prices for its most widely used insulin products by 70%, a move that advocates and experts met with deep skepticism even as they welcomed its potentially significant benefits for some people with diabetes.

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ An attack on the entire Hungarian medical profession – reactions to bill on medical chamber

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ Fidesz-KDNP majority adopts bill on medical chambers – one day after it was submitted

  • uni Stanford ☛ Stanford professor Jef Caers discusses addiction, mental health, sexuality and stopping fossil-fuel-funded research

    Professor Jef Caers shared intimate stories from his life in and out of academia at a Feb. 24 event organized by the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability and Scientists Speak Up.

  • New York Times ☛ China Moves to Erase the Vestiges of ‘Zero Covid’ to Deter Dissent

    The ruling Communist Party is waging an ambitious propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory of its handling of the pandemic, which included some of the harshest restrictions in the world.

  • New York Times ☛ China Dismisses Latest Claim That Lab Leak Likely Caused Covid

    The response came after the Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that the coronavirus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia works on establishing joint Cancer Center

    Latvia is currently developing a national Cancer Center for a joint framework for the treatment of oncology patients. Preparations show how deep-rooted the issues in oncological care are, Latvian Radio reported on March 1.

• Proprietary

  • The Nation ☛ Chat GPT Gets Real

  • Techdirt ☛ Rovio Delists Last Paid ‘Angry Birds’ Game Because The Free Version Is More Profitable

    You have to love a story that comes full circle after all these many years. For a long, long time, we at Techdirt have been advocating for business models that make use of free content. The idea, which can certainly be counterintuitive, is that if you make parts of your product free to the customer, particularly the parts that are reproducable at zero marginal cost, then you can build in value-adds one way or another that you can charge for. Whatever you lose in not charging for some content, you can make it up via an increase in reach and/or market share, assuming you do it well. At this point, the examples of such business models are ubiquitous, but it wasn’t all that long ago that you would hear executives from various industries flatout state publicly that “nobody can make money from ‘free’.”

  • Container Journal ☛ Principle of Shared Responsibility in Cloud-Native Applications

    Using the cloud means you can focus on your application and use a third party for most of your infrastructure. The cloud provides virtual interfaces that abstract away the details of operating infrastructure. That’s great for convenience, but what about security? Who is responsible for keeping your cloud-native application safe

  • Container Journal ☛ VMware Extends Kubernetes Reach to Bare Metal Platforms

    At the Mobile World Congress conference, VMware today extended its Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework to make it possible to run disaggregated and virtualized radio access network (RAN) functions directly on a bare metal server using the VMware Tanzu distribution of Kubernetes. The extension, available as a technical preview

• Security

  • Silicon Angle ☛ LastPass says malware used to hack DevOps engineer in 2022 password vault breach

    Password manager LastPass US LP reeled from multiple data breaches in 2022 when hackers accessed sensitive information from databases, and today the company revealed how attackers used that information to target a senior DevOps engineer with malware to “launch a coordinated second attack” that breached password vaults.

  • APNIC ☛ APOPS 1 at APRICOT 2023 / APNIC 55

    Attacks on DNS infrastructure, Space Division Multiplexing, and last mile connectivity at APRICOT 2023.

  • NVISO Labs ☛ Cortex XSOAR Tips & Tricks – Leveraging dynamic sections – number widgets

    Introduction Cortex XSOAR is a security oriented automation platform, and one of the areas where it stands out is customization. A recurring problem in a SOC is data visualization, analysts can be swarmed with information, and finding out what piece of data is currently both relevant and significant can become hard. O

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • New York Times ☛ Twitter Outages Are on the Rise Amid Elon Musk’s Job Cuts

      Elon Musk’s repeated job cuts are stoking new fears that there aren’t enough people to triage Twitter’s problems.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Site36 ☛ Western Balkans test field: Frontex already operates in four non-EU states

      Frontex was once established to support EU Member States with an external border in their surveillance. The tasks of this European Border and Coast Guard have always included improving controls on land and at EU airports and seaports. However, with the increasing externalisation of European migration defence from 2015 onwards, this scope of responsibility soon proved to be too narrow. In 2016, the governments therefore decided with the EU Parliament to allow „operations on the territory of third countries“ in the Frontex Regulation for the first time – subject to the consent of the government there.

    • Techdirt ☛ German Court Places Limits On Mass Surveillance Enabled By Peter Thiel’s Palantir Software

      Big data has always been big business but, in recent years, it’s also become big government business. The stuff advertisers like is also stuff the government likes. Millions of tax dollars have been fed to private companies offering government agencies a wealth of information they’ve never had access to before. Everyone carries a computer in their pockets these days, and the always-on nature of the internet creates a wealth of data that can be obtained, stored, and analyzed for less than pennies on the byte.

    • Techdirt ☛ Legislation Aiming To Give Law Enforcement Access To More ALPR Data Dies In Virginia

      Legislating from the bench is always problematic. People who like what courts have decided will claim this was the right thing to do. People who don’t like the decision will claim this is an overstep.

    • The Dissenter ☛ Denmark Justice Minister Approves Secret Charges Against Former Defense Minister Who Discussed NSA Spying With The Press

    • EFF ☛ Win for Government Transparency and Immigrant Privacy Rights at Second Circuit

      As government agencies increasingly use digital tools to track citizens and immigrants, we need to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to make that surveillance transparent. But while the government opens its databases to public scrutiny, it must also protect individual privacy.

      Late last month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must be transparent and respect privacy by producing deidentified data on how it arrests, classifies, detains, and deports immigrants. The court agreed with plaintiff American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that ICE must also replace Alien Identification Numbers (A-Numbers), exempt from FOIA because they would identify individual immigrants, with unique but random identifiers.

    • EDRI ☛ Poland: the government declares no further extension of data retention obligation

      Data retention obligation will not be further extended in Polish law on electronic communication. However, the current, unlawful scope of telecommunication data retention remains unchanged.

    • EDRI ☛ European Commission must have greater ambition in combating sexual violence

      Last year, the European Commission made a far-reaching proposal to protect children against sexual violence. But a study by Delft University shows that there is a lot wrong with the substantiation of the proposal.

    • EDRI ☛ EDRi-gram, 1 March 2023

      In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we celebrate the success of EDRi’s member in the Czech Republic against the use of Google analytics in state services.

      We are also exploring the consequences of internet restrictions for people imposed by the Turkish government to silence criticism. You will also find the Stop Scanning Me movement’s recently launched petition enabling people to fight against the European Union’s attempt to scan every move we make online.

    • EDRI ☛ The secret services’ reign of confusion, rogue mayors, racist tech and algorithm oversight (or not)

      Have a quick read through January’s most interesting developments at the intersection of human rights and technology from the Netherlands.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Common Dreams ☛ Conservative US Jewish Groups Issue Rare Rebuke of Israeli Settler Violence

    The leading Conservative and Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States on Monday issued rare condemnations of Sunday’s deadly rampage by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, joining U.S. and Israeli human rights groups in decrying the violence.

  • Counter Punch ☛ End the War with an Armistice

    President Joe Biden needs to start saying no to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But it’s not easy and it’s complicated.

    The adversaries in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and I include the United States and its allies in their proxy superpower conflict, seem determined to carry on the conflict to its bitter end, whatever that will be. At least that’s what they say publicly. It’s Ukraine, not Russia, that’s being physically destroyed.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The Cost of the Nation’s Endless Wars

    Oh, the hypocrisy.

    To hear President Biden talk about the Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, you might imagine that Putin is the only dictator bent on expanding his military empire through the use of occupation, aggression and oppression.

  • Counter Punch ☛ The US Navy is More Than Just Broken, Careerism is Tearing It Apart

    Last year, Major General John Ferrari, US Army (Ret.), a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute penned an article titled “The Navy is broken. Congress must launch a commission to find the path forward” in which he described the Navy as being beset by very serious problems caused by several factors:

    Furthermore, “As a result of all these factors, the Navy has broken people, broken ships, and broken readiness — and now faces an inflation crisis, once again echoing the Army of the late 1970s.”

  • Counter Punch ☛ Welcome to the Predator State

    To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, the Scorpions were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns drawn at the slightest sign of an infraction.

    On the night of January 7th, Tyre Nichols was two minutes from home when members of that squad pulled him over. Probable cause: reckless driving (if you believe the official story). Five Scorpions, all of them trained use-of-force specialists, proceeded to take turns hitting him with everything they had, including boots, fists, and telescopic batons.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Lessons Not Learned From the Pentagon Papers

    In June 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, a US government military analyst with the Rand Corporation and senior research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Daniel Ellsberg[1], released to the New York Times and Washington Post what became known as the “Pentagon Papers”, 47 volumes of confidential records comprising some 7000 pages of secret government reports that documented the US involvement in “dirty tricks” and illegal actions under the Presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.  The documentsdemonstrated that successive US Presidents had lied to the American people, that false flags had been organized, “fake news” disseminated, phoney narratives issued by successive Secretaries of Defense.  As a New York Times editor wrote, “the Johnson administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress about a subject of transcendental national interest”[2].

    The rational implications of the Pentagon Papers were succinctly articulated to the then President Richard Nixon by his chief of staff H.R. Haldeman.  Bottom line was that through such disclosures the American people would feel that “ You can’t trust the government; you can’t believe what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; …the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that … the president can be wrong.”[3]

  • The Dissenter ☛ March To Iraq War, 20 Years Later: March 1, 2003

  • Counter Punch ☛ Fifty Years of Resistance

    If only for a short time, the forces of good and evil and all of the shades in between came together. The protester and Yippie cofounder Abbie Hoffman was right about symbolically jumping on the Earth in the 1960s and the Earth jumping back in answer and that it would never happen again. The epoch of the great changes is now so far behind that even a distant look over a person’s shoulder can’t exactly bring it back again the way it really was. We were there as a segment of the generation of baby boomers when all of the forces coalesced and for the briefest of moments we made a difference. Many in the generation of baby boomers knew the distinction between a just war and a just cause in war and the wars in Southeast Asia were neither.

    July 2023 will mark 50 years since my arrest by the FBI for my resistance to the Vietnam War. A search of the Internet yields the result of the first attempt to have the record of my arrest expunged. Yet no record exists of the successful expungement of the FBI arrest record. If a search is completed today, the unsuccessful attempt with its pejorative description of my military status in 1973 remains. It’s like an endless, though pretty much ineffective, reminder of all of the horror and negativity of those days, except for the resistance. The issue of two attempts at appealing for an expungement of my record was stymied by incorrect advice about what federal court jurisdiction in which to file the case, which is not the fault of the government. As a former chaplain at Brown University observed: “I can’t believe this is still going on.” Once the government has a hold on a person, it generally won’t let go.

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ NATO enlargement: President Novák urges Parliament to make a wise decision

  • Meduza ☛ Drones and closed airspace A close succession of UAV strikes against oil and gas facilities deep inside Russia could mark a new phase of the war — Meduza

    Multiple drone strikes have occurred across Russia since Monday evening, in what some sources say is one of the more extensive air attacks on the country in the past year. While there is no conclusive evidence of coordination among these incidents, the pattern of military drones crashing near Russia’s oil and natural-gas facilities has already led many to speculate about Ukraine’s involvement. Neither Russia’s Defense Ministry nor the Ukrainian authorities have yet issued any statements about the extensive pattern of attacks, however. Here’s what we know, so far.

  • Meduza ☛ Podolyak: Drones crashing around Russia signal internal ‘panic and decay.’ Peskov: ‘We don’t believe him.’ — Meduza

    Following a series of isolated drone strikes around Russia on February 27–28, Mykhailo Podolyak, publicity advisor to the Zelensky administration, tweeted that Ukraine has nothing to do with these incidents, since it’s only defending its own territory in the war with Russia.

  • Meduza ☛ C-4 explosive reportedly found on drone that crashed outside of Moscow on Tuesday — Meduza

    The Russian FSB reportedly found the explosive plastic compound C-4 affixed to the drone that crashed in the village of Kolomna, about 75 kilometers (about 47 miles) from Moscow, on Tuesday.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Defense Ministry reports its air defense prevented ‘massive drone strike’ in Crimea — Meduza

    In its Wednesday briefing, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that an “attempted massive drone strike” had been prevented by Russia’s air defense forces in the annexed Crimea.

  • ADF ☛ M23 Aiming Brutality Along Ethnic Lines

    ADF STAFF Violence in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to rage, as rebels are trying to exploit ethnic divisions. Recent reporting by international advocacy organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed attacks by the group known as the M23 Movement were intended to exacerbate ethnic tensions…

  • ADF ☛ Wagner Mercenaries Remain a Barrier to Peace in Libya

    ADF STAFF Nearly five years after they first arrived in Libya, Wagner Group mercenaries show no signs that they’re willing to leave the country, despite a joint demand by representatives of Libya’s rival governments for them to do so.

  • ADF ☛ ISS Report: Iran Funnels Weapons that Arm Horn of Africa Extremist Groups

    ADF STAFF For years, Iranian weapons have wound up in Somalia, where they are sold to violent extremist groups such as al-Shabaab and the Islamic State. Through financial incentives, Iran established a proxy network in Somalia and has used the country to funnel weapons to the Houthi militia in Yemen since around 2016.

  • Silent anti-war movements offer hope and solidarity for protesters

    Flowers, plush toys, silence, mourning people and green ribbons are not usually associated with a protest. However, anti-Russo-Ukrainian War protesters have embraced this silent rebellion in the face of strict censorship from the Russian government. Protesters no longer take to the streets and gather with marches, signages or oral advocacy. 

  • Meduza ☛ Putin signs New START nuclear treaty suspension into law — Meduza

    Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that officially suspends Russia’s cooperation with the New START Treaty, the sole nuclear arms control agreement between Russia and the U.S.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s vanished combatants: Thousands of Russian servicemen are MIA in Ukraine. Most of them are likely dead, but their families can neither bury them nor file for state compensation. — Meduza

    Russia’s wartime casualties in Ukraine include a large class of personnel who are missing. Most of these troops have likely been killed, but their families can neither get ahold of their bodies nor file for the compensation promised by the state. Often, they try to find their loved ones through dedicated social media groups, and by querying hospitals, morgues, and the Defense Ministry. Novaya Gazeta Europe has analyzed 9,905 posts on the popular social network VKontakte (VK), discovering references to 1,365 Russian troops whose relatives are fruitlessly trying to locate them. Although this is only a fraction of all the missing army personnel, this limited data points to systemic problems in Russia’s military record-keeping.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Could Lula Help End the War in Ukraine? Brazil’s President Vows to Pursue Diplomacy, Won’t Arm Kyiv

    We speak with Celso Amorim, the foreign adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, about how Brazil could play a key role in peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Lula recently met with President Biden, who has unsuccessfully pushed Brazil to send weapons to Ukraine. Lula says he told Biden, “I don’t want to join the war, I want to end the war.” “If you only talk how to defeat Russia, how to enfeeble or weaken Russia, that will not come to a positive conclusion,” says Amorim, who also previously served as Brazil’s foreign minister, as well as its defense minister. “You have to talk to everyone, including your adversaries.”

  • Meduza ☛ Recruiters on social media seek attendees for ‘concert-rally’ to mark ninth anniversary of Crimea annexation, promising speech from Putin — Meduza

    Recruiters have begun searching on social media for potential attendees for an upcoming “concert-rally” at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, according to the Telegram channel Sirena.

  • uni Stanford ☛ ‘A civilization war’: Ukrainian leaders discuss a year of Russian invasion

    A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, four Ukrainian political and civic leaders discuss Ukraine’s future.

• Environment

  • Common Dreams ☛ Sales of SUVs—Responsible for More Carbon Pollution Than All But 5 Countries—Still Rising

    Although the total number of automobiles sold globally fell slightly last year, worldwide sales of sport utility vehicles rose significantly, with 330 million SUVs now on—and off—the world’s roads emitting more planet-heating greenhouse gases than all but five nations, an analysis published Monday revealed.

  • uni Stanford ☛ Earth on the verge of crossing critical climate thresholds, Stanford study finds

    Artificial intelligence provides new evidence for global warming thresholds, with temperatures projected to cross 1.5 degrees Celsius in 10-15 years. Further warming beyond 2 degrees is possible even with significant emissions reductions, according to the Stanford study.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Extinction Rebellion Protesters Target Law Firm for ‘Defending Climate Criminals’

    Dozens of protesters on Tuesday gathered at Eversheds Sutherland offices in four U.K. cities—Birmingham, Cardiff, London, and Nottingham—to call out the corporate law firm’s work for major polluters fueling the climate emergency.

  • DeSmog ☛ French NGOs Sue BNP Paribas, Europe’s Largest Financier of Fossil Fuel Expansion

    French environmental organizations Notre Affaire à Tous, Friends of the Earth France, and Oxfam France last week filed what they say is the world’s first climate lawsuit against a commercial bank, suing BNP Paribas over its continued funding of fossil fuels. The lawsuit is part of a burgeoning movement to pressure financial institutions to end their funding of the fossil fuel sector due to the climate emergency. And if these funders refuse to stop their polluting investments, the movement aims to hold them accountable through strategies such as direct action and litigation.

    The new lawsuit against BNP Paribas, filed February 23 in the Paris Judicial Court, claims that the French bank is in breach of France’s “duty of vigilance” law. That groundbreaking 2017 law requires large companies to assess risks and impacts of their business activities on human rights and the environment and develop plans to identify and mitigate those risks. The law has been invoked in other lawsuits against corporate polluters including French oil major TotalEnergies and most recently against French food company Danone over its contribution to plastic waste.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Nation ☛ How Nuclear Power Plants Became Tools of War

      In 1946, Albert Einstein shot off a telegram to several hundred American leaders and politicians warning that the “unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein’s forecast remains prescient. Nuclear calamity still knocks.

    • Common Dreams ☛ Nuclear Power Plants as Dangerous Tool of War

      In 1946, Albert Einstein shot off a telegram to several hundred American leaders and politicians warning that the “unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein’s forecast remains prescient. Nuclear calamity still knocks.

    • TruthOut ☛ The Nuclear “War” in Ukraine May Not Be the One We Expect

    • New York Times ☛ FTX Co-Founder Nishad Singh Pleads Guilty in Fraud Inquiry

      Nishad Singh, an FTX founder, pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Sam Bankman-Fried.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Omicron Limited ☛ Elephants in US zoos? Without breeding, future is uncertain

      Over the past year, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been pulled into a growing global debate over the future of elephants in zoos. In recent years, some zoos have phased out elephant exhibits due to the complexity of the animals and their needs. Still, others, like Fresno’s zoo, say they are committed to keeping elephants and are turning to breeding, arguing that a sustainable population of zoo elephants will help spur a commitment to wildlife conservation among future generations of visitors.

• Finance

  • Quartz ☛ South Africa and Nigeria graylisted for money laundering

    The gray listing of Africa’s leading economies—South Africa and Nigeria—by global anti-money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is expected to present far-reaching setbacks to the two countries’ economic growth.

  • Counter Punch ☛ Is Inflation Out of Control Again?

    The January data on consumer expenditures released yesterday had a lot of people freaking out. The story is that the Fed is going have to get out the big guns to really shoot inflation down.

    For those of us hoping that inflation would come down, without a big jump in unemployment, the report was definitely bad news. It showed strong growth in consumption, and more troubling, a 0.6 monthly increase in both the overall Personal Consumption Expenditure Deflator (PEC) and the core.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Rivian shares fall on mixed earnings and ongoing losses

    Shares in Rivian Automotive Inc. dropped in late trading after the electric vehicle maker reported mixed results and ongoing losses in its latest earnings report.

  • New York Times ☛ Rivian Lost $6.8 Billion Last Year as Production Fell Short

    The maker of electric trucks said it expected to double production in 2023 as the supply of parts became more reliable.

  • Quartz ☛ Biden is banking on chip makers to further his affordable childcare plans [Ed: Painting de facto corporate bailouts as "good for kids" (whom in practice you saddle with more debt)]

    US president Joe Biden’s war chest of subsidies for chip manufacturers comes with strings attached.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia’s corruption watchdog wants harsher penalties

    Penalties imposed in some corruption cases could be harsher, Jēkabs Straume, chief of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) said in the Saeima Defense, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Commission on February 28, LETA reported.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ HP beats earnings targets despite big drop in PC sales [Ed: That just means it set the targets very low -- a typical tactic to make losses seem like a "win"]

    Shares of the personal computer and printer giant HP Inc. rose slightly in extended trading today after it reported earnings that came in just ahead of analysts’ estimates, despite a big drop in revenue.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Thoughtworks tops fourth-quarter estimates, but stock tumbles 17%+

    Nasdaq-listed technology consultancy Thoughtworks Holding Inc. topped revenue and earnings per share estimates in the fourth quarter, but its shares nevertheless lost over 17% of their value during today’s trading session. The selloff may be connected to the company’s pessimistic first-quarter outlook.

  • WhichUK ☛ Klarna to start charging late fees

    Currently, you aren’t penalised for missing a payment with Klarna as you are with other BNPL schemes such as Clearpay or Laybuy. But for orders placed on or after 16 March, you could face fees of up to £10 if you don’t make your payments in time.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Too long, too complex, too weird: the twisted history of Tubular Bells

    Released 50 years ago this spring, Tubular Bells was a surprise smash that turned its teenage composer into a reluctant, and very wealthy, rock star. The album – which comprises just two vocal-free tracks that clock in at around 25 minutes each – sold 17 million copies, launched Richard Branson’s Virgin Records label, soundtracked the scariest horror film of all time and even had its ‘bent tube’ cover reproduced on Royal Mail postage stamps. It also marked an early fusion of classical music and rock, leading to one of the most logistically-challenging – but ultimately iconic – music performances in BBC television history.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Shareholder Showdown: The Most Important Climate Votes You’ve Never Heard Of

    Today, a coalition of over 240 organizations across North America announced a new campaign on big banks and insurance companies: Shareholder Showdown. This spring, we’re calling for shareholders to step up and push major corporations to start taking the climate crisis seriously.

  • Meduza ☛ Russia’s unofficial ‘tsarina’ Investigative journalists say they’ve discovered Putin’s ‘slush fund’ and how he showers his rumored lover in luxury — Meduza

    In a two-part investigative report released in Russian and English on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, journalists at Proekt revealed new details about an alleged “slush fund” used to finance Vladimir Putin’s lavish private life and the lives of his closest companions, including retired gymnast Alina Kabaeva, the rumored mother of at least three children with Russia’s president. The investigation focuses first on a Cyprus-based company called Ermira Consultants (including how it profits off vodka merchandized with Putin’s name) and then on palace constructed outside Valdai. Throughout both stories, readers learn about the enormous entourage of relatives, friends, and acquaintances who serve as nominal owners of Putin’s alleged vast wealth. Meduza summarizes Proekt’s main findings.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Hundreds Rally Outside Supreme Court Amid ‘Baseless’ Attack on Student Debt Relief

    Borrowers, advocates, and lawmakers converged on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday night and Tuesday morning to defend President Joe Biden’s stalled student debt relief plan as justices prepared to consider a pair of right-wing challenges to the popular proposal.

  • The Revelator ☛ Countdown to the Next East Palestine?

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Something Not Always Better Than Nothing’: Experts Warn Against Biden’s Child Care Scheme

    A new Biden administration policy that will reserve federal manufacturing funds for companies that help their employees access childcare will only perpetuate a system in which far too many U.S. families struggle to find care, one expert on the crisis said Monday.

  • Quartz ☛ Amazon UK workers are striking for the second time

    Workers staged the second-ever strike at Amazon UK today (Feb. 28) in a fight for higher pay. As many as 380 workers joined the picket line at a Coventry warehouse where the e-commerce giant employs about 1,500 people

  • Common Dreams ☛ How Unchecked Corporate Greed Makes Train Disasters Inevitable

    Stuff happens, right?

  • Common Dreams ☛ Florida Derailment Strengthens Case for Urgently Needed Railway Safety Proposal

    This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates…

  • TruthOut ☛ “I Am Fired Up”: Sanders, Warren Join Rally for Student Debt Cancellation

  • TruthOut ☛ Nebraska Democrat Vows to Filibuster All Bills Until Anti-Trans Bill Is Defeated

  • Common Dreams ☛ Justices ‘Cast Doubt’ on Biden’s Student Debt Forgiveness Plan

    President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive more than $400 billion in student loan debt to over 40 million borrowers drew criticism from conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as the justices heard oral arguments in a pair of cases that will decide the fate of one of the president’s signature policies and impact the financial futures of millions of Americans.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Student Debt Relief in Jeopardy as Conservative Supreme Court Justices Question Biden’s Plan

    The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two challenges to the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan, which could give tens of millions of federal borrowers up to $20,000 of relief. During arguments, several conservative justices expressed skepticism over the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan, while liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the Republican states who brought one of the lawsuits. We’re joined by Eleni Schirmer, who organizes with the Debt Collective and is a writer and postdoctoral fellow at Concordia University’s Social Justice Centre in Montreal. Her new piece in The New Yorker is headlined “How the Government Cancelled Betty Ann’s Debts.”

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘A Decent Society Would Not Let This Happen’: 30 Million Across US Face Food Aid Cuts

    As of Wednesday, around 30 million people across the United States will have their family’s food assistance slashed, despite high prices and expert warnings about a “hunger cliff.”

  • TruthOut ☛ 30 Million Across the US Have Their Family’s Food Assistance Slashed

  • Common Dreams ☛ Shareholder Capitalism and the Cruelty of Mass Layoffs

    Ever since Margaret Thatcher famously claimed, “There is No Alternative,” mass layoffs have ripped through Western democracies. In good times and bad, employees are discarded en masse. In the United States during the early 1980s, the axe first fell harshly on industrial workers as manufacturing collapsed.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Calls to Scrap the Cap Grow as Millionaires Stop Paying Into Social Security for the Year

    On Tuesday, not even two full months into 2023, millionaires will stop paying into Social Security for the rest of the year thanks to a cap on taxable income that progressive campaigners and lawmakers want to raise—or eliminate completely.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Craig Murray ☛ The Cheats’ Election

    It is over ten years since I allowed a guest post on this blog. This is because I never listen to anybody except myself. That way I avoid hearing anything disagreeable.

  • Meduza ☛ VK bans fully remote employees from living and working abroad, insists all staff must be in Russia

    In January, independent Russian media reported that VK had decided to fire the employees who had left Russia after Vladimir Putin had announced the mobilization. A company insider said the decision was motivated by information security concerns.

  • CBC ☛ Jagmeet Singh will deactivate TikTok account in response to security, privacy concerns

    Singh has nearly 879,000 followers on TikTok. Singh said his party plans to deactivate the account by the end of the day Tuesday.

    He said he’s not worried the move will cost him political support in spite of his large following on the popular video-sharing platform.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Calling Out ‘Hypocrisy and Censorship,’ Campaign Aims to Prevent US TikTok Ban

    Data privacy and free speech advocates on Tuesday sounded the alarm about “hypocrisy and censorship” as U.S. House Republicans pushed for a bill to effectively ban TikTok, a video-sharing platform created by the Chinese company ByteDance, across the country.

  • Axios ☛ Republicans want to help Biden ban TikTok

    Momentum against TikTok is brewing in Congress, where House Republicans are marking up legislation to empower President Biden to ban the app.

    Why it matters: The U.S. government’s security review of TikTok has dragged on for years, and lawmakers are growing impatient to appear strong against potential Chinese threats.

  • Techdirt ☛ Our Growing TikTok Moral Panic Still Isn’t Addressing The Actual Problem

    The Biden administration has given all federal agencies 30 days to ensure staffers do not have TikTok on any federal devices. All agency vendors are to adhere to the same rules within 90 days. It’s the latest evolution in a growing planetary moral panic that’s gotten well out ahead of its skis, resulting in often-performative solutions that don’t fix the actual problem.

  • JURIST ☛ Canada bans TikTok on government mobile devices as security precaution

    Fortier reiterated the Government of Canada’s commitment to maintaining the security of government information through this ban. While the Canadian government does not have evidence that government information was compromised through the use of TikTok, it says there are clear security risks that arise from TikTok’s data collection methods.

  • TechCrunch ☛ More layoffs at Twitter, and loyalist Esther Crawford isn’t spared

    The layoffs came this weekend after Twitter employees realized they had been cut off from using Slack. While it later came out that Twitter hadn’t paid its Slack bill on time, that’s not why the platform went down. The Platformer reported that someone at Twitter manually shut off access. Many employees worried that this was the first sign of layoffs to come, and while correlation does not equal causation, an entire company being cut off from their main mode of communication as layoffs started dropping like bombs caused confusion and panic all around.

  • The Nation ☛ When There’s a Communist Running City Hall

    To get an idea of how Elke Kahr understands her job, you only have to wait at her office. When I visited the communist mayor of the Austrian city of Graz one morning in early February, her two secretaries were busy taking calls from locals. “Would you want an appointment with the mayor?,” one of them asked an apparently upset caller. “What about tomorrow, 6:30 pm?” A few minutes later, the other secretary picked up the phone. “You sent us an e-mail,” she started. “I wanted to ask if you are free later this week.” Graz is no metropolis, but with nearly 300,000 inhabitants, it’s Austria’s second-largest city. As result of her approach to politics, Kahr’s workdays are almost always longer than 12 hours. Nearly every day, she meets with constituents from all backgrounds.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Rejecting Lightfoot, Chicago Picks Progressive to Face School Privatizer in Mayoral Runoff

    Chicago voters rejected Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s bid for a second term on Tuesday, elevating progressive Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to face conservative candidate Paul Vallas—an ardent school privatization advocate—in an April 4 runoff.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Loses Election; Candidates Backed by Police & Teacher Unions Head to Runoff

    Chicago-based Democracy Now! co-host Juan González gives an update on the Chicago mayoral race after incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to advance to a runoff election. The two top candidates are now Paul Vallas, the former head of Chicago Public Schools, who has been endorsed by the local police union, and Brandon Johnson, an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union. González says the race pits progressives in the city against centrist and conservative forces and could be a bellwether of where the Democratic Party goes.

  • Telex (Hungary) ☛ ‘You may ask a question, just don’t expect an answer!’

  • Quartz ☛ Bola Tinubu is the new president of Nigeria

    After four days of vote tallying, Nigeria has a new president in Bola Tinubu—the All Progressive Congress party candidate who campaigned on the slogan “it’s my turn.”/p>

  • RFERL ☛ Russia Fines Wikipedia Over Military ‘Misinformation’

    The Wikimedia Foundation was fined 2 million rubles ($27,000) by a Russian court on February 28 after the authorities accused it of failing to delete “misinformation” about the Russian military from Wikipedia, the courts service said. [...]

  • Reuters ☛ Russian court fines Wikipedia over military ‘misinformation’

    Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Russia introduced sweeping new laws restricting what people can report about the conflict, fining or blocking websites that spread information at odds with the Kremlin’s official narrative.

  • National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online ☛ Safety Tech Challenge Fund

    The REPHRAIN research centre are pleased to announce to release of “Towards a Framework for Evaluation CSAM Prevention and Detection Tools in the Context of End-to-end encryption Environments: a Case Study”.

    Through the Safety Tech Challenge Fund, the UK Government awarded funding to five projects to prototype innovative, automated technologies to help keep children safe in E2EE environments, such as online messaging platforms, while ensuring user privacy is respected.

  • EDRI ☛ Children deserve a secure and safe [Internet]

    Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) need to hear from you. They are now discussing a law that will endanger everyone’s privacy and safety. The proposed law promises to protect children from sexual abuse by breaking encrypted, secure communications.

    But experts show that breaking encryption will turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security and free expression. This includes the very children that this legislation aims to protect.

    The United Nations and UNICEF state, online privacy is vital for young people’s development and self-expression, and children should not be subjected to generalised surveillance.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Twitter updates violent speech policy with ‘zero tolerance’ for the worst cases

    It should be pretty obvious that users should not “incite, promote or encourage” other users to commit violence or promote “genocide” or “war crimes,” but the “coded language” Twitter says that is a masked threat is also verboten on the platform. Twitter says users will also face the music if they “glorify, praise or celebrate” acts of violence that have caused someone obvious harm.

  • Common Dreams ☛ ‘Fantastic News for the Country!’ Biden Nominates Julie Su for Labor Secretary

    Progressives on Tuesday applauded as U.S. President Joe Biden nominated Julie Su to succeed outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh—a choice the nation’s largest federation of unions said will “continue the Department of Labor’s historic legacy of pro-union leadership.”

  • Axios ☛ Biden to nominate Julie Su to head Labor Department

    President Biden announced Tuesday that he plans to nominate Julie Su, a longtime advocate for workers’ rights, to lead the Labor Department.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Arizona Child Welfare Director Dismissed Amid GOP Attacks Speaks Out

    Arizona’s newly elected Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, has given up on another of her Cabinet nominees in the face of misleading attacks from Republicans in the state Legislature. Matthew Stewart was forced out last Wednesday after serving just a month and a half as Hobbs’ director of the Department of Child Safety, the state child protective services agency.

    When Hobbs selected Stewart in December, she called him one of “the best minds Arizona has to offer” and a leader on racial justice issues who would “transform” a child welfare system that ProPublica and NBC News had found investigated the families of 1 in 3 Black children in metro Phoenix during a recent five-year period.

  • TruthOut ☛ Republicans Are Working on Making 70 the New Social Security Retirement Age

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Türkiye sentences a journalist under ‘disinformation law’ for first time

      Sinan Aygül had tweeted about allegations of child abuse against security, but deleted the tweets a few hours later, apologizing for sharing unconfirmed information.

    • Telex (Hungary) ☛ The latest from Arte Weekly: Inflation, refugees and propaganda – what the war in Ukraine brought to European countries

    • El País ☛ Murdoch testified Fox News hosts endorsed idea that Biden stole election

      The recently unsealed documents include excerpts from a deposition in which Murdoch was asked about whether he was aware that some of the network’s commentators –Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity –at times endorsed the false election claims. Murdoch replied, “Yes. They endorsed.”

      The Murdoch deposition is the latest filing in the defamation case to reveal concerns at the top-rated network over how it was handling Trump’s claims as its ratings plummeted after the network called Arizona for Joe Biden, angering Trump and his supporters.

    • TruthOut ☛ Rupert Murdoch Admits Fox Hosts “Were Endorsing” False Election Fraud Claims

    • France24 ☛ Murdoch admits some Fox News hosts ‘endorsed’ false election fraud claims

      Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that some Fox News commentators endorsed the false allegations by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he didn’t step in to stop them from promoting the claims, according to excerpts of a deposition unsealed Monday.

    • The Nation ☛ Rupert Murdoch Admits That Fox Pushed Trump’s Election Lies for Profit

      “It’s not red or blue—it is green.”

    • Rolling Stone ☛ Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud

      In his testimony, Murdoch admits that hosts on the network aired false claims about the election and alleged voter fraud, and that company executives could have intervened to prevent their broadcast.

    • El País ☛ The Nord Stream sabotage: conspiracy theories, suspicions and silence

      Another reason for the investigations’ secrecy is the intelligence-collecting methods and data being used. Western countries do not want to reveal clues about the technology they use to monitor the Baltic Sea or the sensors and other military equipment they have deployed in a sensitive European security area. This is why a joint inquiry was immediately ruled out, and independent investigations are underway. With war raging in Europe, some information cannot be shared – not even with allies.

    • RFERL ☛ Romania Warns Of ‘Fake News’ About It Massing Troops On Moldovan Border

      Russia has falsely claimed that Ukraine is planning to invade Transdniester, raising suspicions that Moscow is looking for a pretext to annex the separatist region, as it did with Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

    • The Kent Stater ☛ ‘It’s all a lie’: Russians are trapped in Putin’s parallel universe. But some want out

      Draconian new censorship laws targeted any media still operating outside the controls of the Kremlin and most independent journalists left the country. A digital Iron Curtain was reinforced, shutting Russians off from Western news and social media sites.

      And as authorities rounded up thousands in a crackdown on anti-war protests, a culture of fear descended on Russian cities and towns that prevents many people from sharing their true thoughts on the war in public.

    • NPR ☛ How Russia is losing — and winning — the information war in Ukraine

      Russia’s war in Ukraine isn’t just being fought on the ground and in the air with tanks, artillery and fighter jets. It’s also playing out online, where the Kremlin and its allies are using propaganda, fake social media accounts, forged documents and manipulated videos and images to push false narratives, in an effort to deflect blame from Moscow and undermine support for Ukraine.

      [...]

      Like the claim that Ukraine was developing biological weapons with the assistance of the U.S. government, which was picked up and amplified in the U.S. by far-right online influencers, followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, and even Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

    • The Nation ☛ A Comic That Captures the Antic Energy of a Post-Truth World

      The Department of Truth is set in a world where, if enough people believe it, a conspiracy theory will manifest and become reality. For example, in one storyline, the characters have to hunt down Bigfoot, who wanders the world as a hazy cryptid because cryptozoologists have spread the word about his existence. The comic book series centers on Cole, an FBI agent recruited into the Department of Truth, a US agency tasked with trying to rein in this alternative reality.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Counter Punch ☛ Sensitivity Rewrites: The Cultural Purging of Roald Dahl

    Censorship is never innocent, made worse for its strained good intentions.  For those responsible for setting and policing such policies, the inner judge comes out, stomping on assumed meanings, interpreting and removing things to ensure the masses are not corrupted.  Children’s stories and tales have not been exempted from this train of revision, expurgation and adjustment.

    In modifying the language of children’s texts, a number of agents come into play: concerned parents, worried authorities, and the considerations that reflect the temper and mores of the time.  Publishers, keen to ensure a wider readership, feel pressure to alter the original text to stay modern and trendy.

  • Meduza ☛ Journalist Yulia Starostina, who worked to help displaced Ukrainians, fined for ‘discrediting’ Russian army — Meduza

    A Moscow court has fined journalist Yulia Starostina 50,000 rubles ($667) on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army, according to the independent outlet Mediazona.

  • Techdirt ☛ Taamneh Case Gave Us A Glimpse Of The Horror Websites Would Face In A Post-Section 230 World

    Last week I wrote some initial thoughts on the Supreme Court hearing in Gonzalez v. Google. Of course, as lots of people mentioned, it was tied at the hip with another case, Taamneh v. Twitter, as both were granted cert together. The two cases have been connected for a while, as the decisions in the 9th Circuit on both of them weren’t just released on the same day, but in the same ruling. The fact patterns between the two cases are at least somewhat similar (and similar to a bunch of other ridiculous cases). Someone, somewhere in the world, was killed in a terrorist attack. The plaintiff (who represents the estate of the deceased) sues a social media company. Not because there’s any evidence whatsoever connecting that company to the attack, but because the plaintiffs claim that the social media sites “aided and abetted” terrorists by… letting them use the platform (not for planning the attack, just in general).

  • Meduza ☛ Russia moves to criminalize ‘Russophobia’ — Meduza

    Valery Fadeyev, chairman of Russia’s Human Rights Council, is calling for a new law that would criminalize “Russophobia.”

  • Renowned geologist Ahmet Ercan detained over earthquake comments

    The professor was detained for “provoking the public into hatred and hostility” over a social media post. He was released after spending the night at the police headquarters.

  • Fenerbahçe fans banned from away game after ‘earthquake’ protests

    Fans of the club protested the government during the last game in their home turf. The club said the decision was “unacceptable.”

  • Meduza ☛ Prigozhin asks legislators not to outlaw ‘constructive criticism’ of top military officials — Meduza

    Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin appealed to the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, asking him to exclude “constructive criticism” of Russia’s top military officials from the draft law that criminalizes “discrediting” the participants of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian government blocks Shutterstock for hosting ‘destructive materials, including suicide and pro-drug content’ — Meduza

    Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, announced Wednesday that it has blocked the website of the stock image provider Shutterstock in Russia, according to state media.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian authorities open investigation into university’s Ukrainian culture exhibit, but student council pushes back — Meduza

    The Russian Education and Science Ministry has organized an official investigation into Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) after the institution hosted an international fair with exhibits by students from various countries, including Ukraine, on Monday.

  • Meduza ☛ Russian police arrest father charged with ‘discrediting’ army after daughter drew anti-war picture at school — Meduza

    Alexey Moskalev, a single father who became the target of a felony case after his daughter got in trouble at school for drawing an anti-war picture in art class, has been arrested, the independent outlet Spektr reported on Wednesday, citing a person who knows the family.

  • Meduza ☛ New video shows one of the ‘violations’ for which jailed politician Alexey Navalny was sent to a ‘punishment cell’: short sleeves — Meduza

    The human rights group Gulagu.net has published a video shot in August 2022 at the prison holding Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny that reportedly shows one of the “violations” for which the jailed politician was subsequently moved to a “punishment cell.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Common Dreams ☛ Sanders, Democrats, and a Lone Republican Revive PRO Act to Strengthen Workers’ Rights

    Following a year in which strike activity surged and public approval of unions reached its highest point in nearly six decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Democratic lawmakers and a lone Republican on Tuesday in reintroducing legislation that would strengthen workers’ organizing rights and crack down on corporate union-busting.

  • TruthOut ☛ Bernie Sanders Reintroduces PRO Act as Labor Activity Is on the Rise

  • TruthOut ☛ Immigrants Win “Unprecedented” Settlement Over Violent ICE Workplace Raid

  • Axios ☛ Majority of countries guarantee paid paternity leave — but not the U.S.

    Data: World Policy Analysis Center; Chart: Alice Feng/Axios

    Sixty-three percent of countries around the world provide guaranteed paid parental leave for fathers, according to a report out Tuesday morning from the World Policy Analysis Center.

  • EDRI ☛ 2023: Important consultations for your Digital Rights!

    Public consultations are an opportunity to influence future legislation at an early stage, in the European Union and beyond. They are your opportunity to help shaping a brighter future for digital rights, such as your right to a private life, data protection, or your freedom of opinion and expression.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Longest Alabama Strike Ends as Warrior Met Coal Miners Return. Record Coal Prices Help Break Strike

    In Alabama, hundreds of striking miners are set to return to work Thursday after nearly two years spent on picket lines in the so-called right-to-work state. This was the longest strike in Alabama history. Its end comes after the Warrior Met Coal company successfully used replacement workers to keep its mines running, reporting large profits to shareholders due to the skyrocketing price of coal. At the same time, the company told miners they would only retain their jobs if they agreed to a 20% pay cut and to relinquish various benefits relating to weekend pay and healthcare. We go to Birmingham, Alabama, for an update from independent labor journalist Kim Kelly, who has covered the Warrior Met strike since it began and says many of the workers felt abandoned.

  • Democracy Now ☛ Death Toll from Migrant Shipwreck Reaches 67 While Italy Cracks Down on MSF & Other Rescue Groups

    At least 67 people, including children, died in a shipwreck Sunday off the coast of southern Italy, and rescue workers fear the death toll could climb above 100 as they recover more bodies from the sea. It is believed to be the deadliest migrant shipwreck of its kind in almost a decade. Almost 26,000 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014, but many governments have responded by criminalizing rescue efforts by humanitarian groups. Just days before this latest shipwreck off the coast of Italy, the Italian government of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni approved a new law making it harder for humanitarian aid rescue vessels to carry out their missions. For more, we speak with Caroline Willemen, a search and rescue leader with Médecins Sans Frontières, which has had one of its ships detained by Italian authorities as part of the new measures, blocking it from going to sea to save lives for at least 20 days.

  • Site36 ☛ EU states against civilian rescue: Ships should meet higher standards

    The German Federal Minister of Transport wants to tighten the Ship Safety Ordinance and thus put obstacles in the way of sea rescuers. Behind this is a master plan by an EU group in which three German ministries participate

  • Counter Punch ☛ Gee It’s Nice Your State is Blue, the War on Abortion’s Still Coming for You

    Let’s have a look at the latest development in the Christian fascist Amerikaner campaign to re-impose the full pre-Roe v.Wade female bondage of forced motherhood, paying special attention to the sickening “Weimar” role of the Democratic Party and its allied “choice” organizations/NGOs.

    Recall how the dismal Dems and their friends in Indivisible, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood,  and countless mainstream liberals and supposedly left “repro” groups across the country, justified their abject failures to:

  • Pro Publica ☛ Anti-Abortion Activists Are Fighting to Change Election Law

    For decades, lawyers at the Thomas More Society have backed provocateurs and long shot causes in hopes of winning severe restrictions on abortion in the U.S.

    As others in the anti-abortion movement distanced themselves from clinic protestors accused of trespassing, vandalism and sometimes violence, the Thomas More Society defended them in civil and criminal court. The legal nonprofit once sided with a Wisconsin pharmacist who refused to fill a birth control prescription on religious grounds.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “Alone and Exploited”: NYT Exposé Shows Migrant Kids in U.S. Forced into Brutal Jobs for Major Brands

    We speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Hannah Dreier, who revealed in a major New York Times investigation the widespread exploitation of migrant children in some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. In response, the Biden administration on Monday announced it would carry out a broad crackdown on the use of migrant child labor in the United States, vowing stricter enforcement of labor standards and better support for migrant children. “These kids are just on their own in these situations, with very little resources and very few ways out,” says Dreier. We are also joined by Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who says migrant children need better protection from unscrupulous employers and others who would seek to exploit them. “Children don’t have any knowledge or understanding of what their legal rights are,” says Chen.

  • TruthOut ☛ DeSantis Targets Immigrants in Lead-Up to Likely Presidential Run

  • Common Dreams ☛ Be Afraid of Rick Scott’s Reactionary Plan, But Thank Him for Saying It Out Loud

    Florida Senator Rick Scott is perhaps the leading policy voice in today’s Republican Party. His proposed “Rescue America Plan” outlines detailed policies that would supposedly address our shared national challenges and crises. They do not.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • EDRI ☛ Internet restrictions in Turkey violate fundamental rights

    After the major earthquake that took place in Turkey on 6 February, covering 10 provinces and a population of approximately 15 million, bandwidth restriction for social media platforms such as Twitter and Tiktok was implemented. Whenever the current government was criticised for not meeting its obligations, throttling was used as an option to filter and prevent the flow of information.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Newsletter spam… out of nowhere!

    Until this morning, I’d been subscribed to an email newsletter for an event organiser. It was more of an announcement feed than anything else, which probably could have been better serviced by RSS.

    Is there a gmane-like service, but that converts bulk email received in a special inbox to an RSS feed? Now there’s an idea! But I digress.

    Opening the floodgates

    Having emailed me one a month, or even once a quarter on occasion, this event organiser decided that escalating this to one to three emails a day was a good idea. This represents a thirty-fold increase at minimum, which is quite the feat given their emails printed on paper could barely achieve a tenth of that. They’ve now cumulatively sent me more email in the last week than the last three years, combined.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Techdirt ☛ After Backlash From Its Dumb Password Sharing Crackdown, Netflix Lowers Prices In 100 Countries (Just Not In The U.S.)

    So we’ve noted more than a few times that Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is a dumb cash grab. The company had already raised prices, it had already monetized the thing it was worried about (it already charges you extra if you want more simultaneous streams), and its hard 180 from encouraging password sharing to demonizing it turned off users just as streaming competition heated up.

• Monopolies

  • Patents

    • Zombie Patents! Can Expired Innovation Patents Still Be Examined and Certified?

      The Australian Patent Office recently issued two decisions on the examination and certification of innovation patents owned by UK company Diogenes Limited: Diogenes Limited [2023] APO 5 concerning innovation patent no. 2020104437 (‘Diogenes 1’); and Diogenes Limited [2023] APO 8 concerning innovation patent no. 2021103809 (‘Diogenes 2’).

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Some light for the sunrise: 5 questions for 5 French UPC Judges [Ed: Team UPC continues to promote an illegal and unconstitutional system with loaded headlines, meaningless puff pieces, and lobbying designed to mislead]

      Although the sunrise period starts today, the UPC remains in the shadows for the moment.

  • Software Patents

    • Techdirt ☛ Stupid Patent Of The Month: Clocking In To Work—On An App

      What if we told you the Stupid Patent of the Month has a sponsor, but we don’t know who it is? That would seem shady, wouldn’t it? 

    • EFF ☛ Stupid Patent of the Month: Clocking In To Work—On an App

      This month’s stupid patent, U.S. Patent No. 9,986,435, was brought to you—to all of us, really—from the murky depths of the litigation finance industry. Originally assigned to a shell company linked to giant patent troll Intellectual Ventures, this patent was sold off and is now in the hands of Mellaconic IP LLC, a recently-created Texas shell company. Mellaconic has sued more than 40 companies over claims that a vast array of HR software infringes their patent.

  • Copyrights

    • Creative Commons ☛ CC’s #BetterSharing Collection | March: Better Sharing, Brighter Future

      Each month throughout 2023, we will be spotlighting a different CC-licensed illustration from the collection on our social media headers and the CC blog. For March, we’re excited to showcase “Better Sharing, Brighter Future” by Mexican illustrator and cartoonist, David Espinosa. The piece, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, was inspired by a quote from Catherine Stihler, Creative Commons CEO:

    • Creative Commons ☛ Charles Riondet — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 4

      Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Charles is the Digital and Open Data Project Manager at Mucem where he works to increase the usability and engagement of the museums collection.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ BitTorrent Seedbox Provider Handed Criminal Conviction Over Users’ Piracy

      A man who rented out servers configured for BitTorrent file-sharing use has been handed a three-month suspended sentence in Denmark. Known as ‘seedboxes’, these pre-configured servers are not illegal per se, but when customers used the devices to break copyright law on known pirate sites, rightsholders held the server provider liable.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ US Court Denies Bungie’s $2.2m Claim Against UK ‘Ring-1′ Cheat Seller

      Bungie and Ubisoft’s request for default judgment in a prominent cheating lawsuit has been denied by a California federal court. The companies sought $2.2 million in copyright-related damages from a UK defendant they described as a key player in the “Ring-1″ group. The court concluded that the man was little more than a customer support staffer.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ U.S. Govt: Omi in a Hellcat Should Serve 15.5 Years For Pirate IPTV Scheme

      Three U.S. government attorneys say that Bill Omar Carrasquillo, aka Omi in a Hellcat, should serve 15 years and 8 months in prison for crimes related to his pirate IPTV service, Gears TV. The YouTuber agreed to plead guilty to felony copyright infringement, device fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion, among other crimes. Restitution: $30.2 million.