Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Lionel Dricot ☛ The future of Offpunk: UNIX command-line heaven and packaging hell

  Two years ago, I decided that I wanted to be able to browse Gemini while offline. I started to add a permanent cache to Solderpunk’s AV-98, the simplest and first Gemini browser ever. It went surprisingly well. Then, as the excellent forlater.email service went down for a week, I thought that I would add a quick and hackish HTTP support to it. Just a temporary experiment.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • The Register UK ☛ EFF urges Chrome users to get out of the Privacy Sandbox

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation has urged folks to switch off several Privacy Sandbox settings in Google Chrome to mask their online habits, or to consider switching to Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari.

    Chrome's Privacy Sandbox is neither private – preventing one from being observed – nor a sandbox – an environment in which code can be executed in isolation. Rather it's a suite of advertising, analytics, anti-spam, and anti-tracking technologies. The goal for some of these is to replace third-party cookies.

• Programming/Development

  • Earthly ☛ 10 Advanced Git Commands Part2

    The last article discussed ten advanced Git commands you should know as a developer.

    In this article, we take a look at ten more advanced commands including bisect, reset, and archive.

  • Rlang ☛ 3 R functions that I enjoy

    Straight from my sticky note, three functions that I like a lot, despite their not being new at all… But maybe new to some of you?

  • Python

    • [Repeat] James G ☛ PyPi, the Cheese Shop

      The Python Package Index, abbreviated as PyPI and also known as the Cheese Shop, is the official third-party software repository for Python.

Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Weird, Fleshy Plant Parasite Has One of The Weirdest Genomes to Date

    <

    And it stinks.

  • Science Alert ☛ Got Garlic Breath? Scientists Find a Possible New Remedy

    No harm in trying.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Consciousness: why a leading theory has been branded 'pseudoscience'

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Jellyfish: our complex relationship with the oceans' anti-heroes

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Face pareidolia: how pregnant women could help us understand why we see faces in inanimate objects

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] The first dog-fox hybrid points to the growing risk to wild animals of domestic species

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Virtual reality can help emergency services navigate the complexities of real-life crises

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Antimatter: we cracked how gravity affects it – here's what it means for our understanding of the universe

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Do liposomes make food supplements more effective? A chemistry expert explains common myths about these products

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Simple Add-On Makes Cheap Plasma Cutter Suitable For CNC Use

    Plasma cutters are ridiculously cheap these days, just cruise by the usual online sources or your local Harbor Freight if you’ve got any doubt about that. But “cheap” and “good” don’t always intersect on a Venn diagram, and even when they do, not every plasma cutter is suitable for use on the spanking new CNC table you’re building. But luckily, there’s a mod for that.

  • Hackaday ☛ Horrendous Mess Of Wires

    When do you post your projects? When they’re done? When they’re to the basic prototype stage? Or all along the way, from their very conception? All of these have their merits, and their champions.

  • Hackaday ☛ A 1970s Mask ROM Microcontroller Spills Its Secrets

    If you buy any kind of electronic gadget today, chances are it’s powered by a microcontroller with a program stored in its internal flash ROM. That program’s code is often jealously guarded by the manufacturer, who will try their best to make sure you can’t just read back the chip’s contents by using lock bits or some sort of encryption. Things were more laid back in the 1970s and ’80s, when code was stored unencrypted in standard EPROM chips, or, for high-volume applications, in mask ROMs integrated in microcontrollers. Reading back the code of such micros was still very difficult because chips simply didn’t have a way of dumping their contents. [Andrew Menadue] ran into this issue when trying to repair an old HP calculator printer, and had to apply a clever hack to dump the contents of its Mostek MK3870 chip.

  • Hackaday ☛ CNC Soldering Bot Handles Your Headers

    Soldering pin headers by hand is a tedious task, especially when your project has a huge number of them. [iforce2d] has a large number of boards with a lot of headers, and has created a rather special CNC machine to to do the job. It’s a soldering robot, controlled by LinuxCNC and you can see it below the break.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • International Business Times ☛ How Remote Working Is Negatively Affecting Gen Z

    Despite the UK Parliament report that claims remote and hybrid working boasts an "increased well-being, self-reported productivity and work satisfaction, reduced work-life conflict, new ways to collaborate and more inclusive ways of working through the use of technology", for those who have never experienced in-house roles, the effect is a complete contrast.

    Speaking to three individuals aged 21 to 24 and members of Gen Z who have each recently graduated and succeeded in obtaining freelance, hybrid or remote positions, I found that there is much struggle attached to online employment.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Crossing glaciers and fjords: Norwegian reindeer migrate for winter

    The reindeer—bred by the indigenous Sami reindeer herders that span northern Europe—are semi-nomadic and travel across vast expanses as they move between their winter and summer grazing grounds.

    To make their journey home, the reindeer bypass two glaciers before arriving at the foot of the Jokelfjord glacier—the only one in Europe which drains into the ocean.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Earthworms contribute to 6.5% of world grain production: study

    The authors said their findings represent one of the first attempts to quantify the contribution of a beneficial soil organism to global agricultural production.

  • Steve “Debate me, bro” Kirsch is at it again with SIDS and The Great Autism Debate

    As I try to ramp up to normal posting again next week, I couldn’t help but note a rather amusing “offer” from tech bro turned rabid antivaxxer and COVID-19 conspiracy theorist, Steve Kirsch. When last we left him, he was spreading one of the less believable and verifiable pieces of “evidence” that vaccines supposedly cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), basically an anecdote in which a police officer claimed to have investigated SIDS cases and found that they always happen after vaccination. As I discussed at the time, though, the police officer wouldn’t give her name, and the numbers just made no sense. If her estimate of the number of cases she’s investigated were true, the CDC should be in her city investigating an epidemic of SIDS, given that her story, again if true, would suggest that SIDS is five- to ten-fold more prevalent there than the US average. Obviously, her story is pure nonsense (as I discussed in depth), but that never stopped Kirsch, for whom no story is too unbelievable as long as it supports his now current belief that all vaccines are deadly poison that doesn’t even protect against disease.

  • CBC ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Hyundai and Kia recalling 603,176 vehicles in Canada due to fire risk

  • CBC ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] New masking rules for health-care settings in B.C. coming into force Oct. 3, officials confirm

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Quartz ☛ AI in Focus: One quiet Apple outspends the whole barrel

    But don’t mistake its silence for inaction: Apple is very much in the game. In fact, it’s been snapping up more AI companies than any of its peers. Its acquisitions include: [...]

  • India Times ☛ Apple says it will fix software problems blamed for making iPhone 15 models too hot to handle

    Apple is blaming a software bug and other issues tied to popular apps such as Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to heat up and spark complaints about becoming too hot to handle.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Gizmodo ☛ Social Media Users Don't Want to BeReal Anymore, Report Finds

      The number of people actively using BeReal on Android and iOS dropped from 3.7 million users in November to roughly three million in August, Similarweb found.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Common Dreams ☛ “Trump is Legally Barred from the Ballot” Michigan Voters Challenge Trump’s Eligibility Under Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause

    Free Speech For People and Michigan attorney Mark Brewer, on behalf of a diverse group of Michigan voters, filed a lawsuit in state court today to bar Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot in 2024. The lawsuit argues Trump is disqualified from holding public office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, also known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, for his role in inciting and facilitating the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ EU's Mediterranean leaders meet as migrant numbers rise

    Some 186,000 people have already arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea between January and September 24 of this year, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

    Of this, 130,000 have arrived in Italy, an 83% increase compared to last year.

  • Vox ☛ 2023 was the year the US finally destroyed all of its chemical weapons

    The United States achieved this just shy of its September 30 deadline under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the 1997 international treaty that bans the production, use, and stockpiling of these weapons. The US was the last country party to the treaty to eliminate its declared chemical weapons stockpile, destroying the kinds of agents and munitions once hoarded for use on the battlefield.

  • Vice Media Group ☛ Kia and Hyundai Blame TikTok and Instagram For Their Cars Getting Stolen

    Kia and Hyundai also argue that the engine immobilizer cannot be the key factor in theft rates because “among” the most stolen vehicles in 2022 according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau is the 2021 Toyota Camry which has an immobilizer. However, this ignores that the most stolen vehicles that year were Chevy and Ford pickups, which are also the most popular vehicles in the country, followed by the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord, and all of the most popular models stolen are older cars which predate immobilizer installation. The fifth through seventh on the most stolen vehicles list, which the NICB notes are all new to the top 10 list last year, are the Hyundai Sonata and Elantra. Furthermore, Kia and Hyundai are being sued specifically by cities where the theft trends are most prevalent, whereas NICB data is not that granular and only goes down to the state level.

  • RFERL ☛ As Ethnic Armenian Exodus Tops 100,000, UN Readies For Nagorno-Karabakh Visit

    The update came hours after Armenia said it had filed a suit with the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prevent the targeting of ethnic Armenians amid signs of a roundup by Baku amid the massive exodus a week after Azerbaijan seized Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Germany bans neo-Nazi group for 'indoctrination of children'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Germany introduces border checks with Poland, Czech Republic

  • Defence Web ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] South Africa’s wider defence tragedy

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] The US Wants Saudi Arabia and Israel to Get Cozy

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Fourth Bahraini Serviceman Dies After Houthi Drone Attack Close to Saudi Border

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Bob Menendez Isn’t Merely Corrupt. He Carried Water for a Brutal Dictator.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Police make arrest tied to Tupac Shakur's killing

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Switzerland: Landmark case against Belarus 'death squad' member

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Swiss court acquits Belarus 'death squad' member

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Putin Says Russian-Held Regions in Ukraine Endorse Their Choice to Join Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Slovakia Election Pits a Pro-Russia Former Prime Minister Against a Liberal Pro-West Newcomer

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Special Report-WhatsApp to War: How Cubans Were Recruited to Fight for Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Ukrainian Drone Injures One, Damages Building in Southern Russia -Governor

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] How Putin’s Coup-Proofing Measures Have Undermined Russia’s War Effort in Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Russia and South Sudan: Exploring Opportunities for Bilateral Cooperation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Russian national youth teams back in UEFA, German bosses agree

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: IAEA tells Russia to leave Zaporizhzhia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Slovaks Choose Between Pro-Russian Ex-PM Fico and Pro-Western Liberals

    • Vox ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] How Armenia and Azerbaijan’s conflict could still destabilize the region

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Can Multipolar BRICS-11 Ensure Global Peace and Stability?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Russian Shelling Kills Five in Southern, Eastern Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] 'Not against Ukraine': Russian deserters tell their story

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] The Coincidences Behind Canada’s Nazi-Honoring Debacle Are Deeply Unsettling

    • The Local SE ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] France urges Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden's Nato membership

    • BIA Net ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Erdoğan links Turkey’s F-16 purchase to Sweden's NATO membership

    • ANF News ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Terrorists in Rojava, heroes in Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] U.S. Army Hospital in Germany Is Treating Americans Hurt Fighting in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Ukraine updates: Borrell visits Odesa, pledges support

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Oil Pipeline Ruptures in Western Ukraine, Nine Injured -Governor

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Putin Marks Anniversary of Annexation of Ukrainian Regions as Drones Attack Overnight

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Romania Detects Possible Airspace Breach During Overnight Drone Attack on Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] UK Aims to Offer Military Training Inside Ukraine, Minister Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Ukraine Hosts a Defense Industry Forum Seeking to Ramp up Weapons Production for the War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Ukraine Lures Western Weapons Makers to Transform Defence Industry

    • CBC ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] 1st day of school for 6 Ukrainian hockey players in Quebec City

    • International Business Times ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] British Defense Minister Grant Shapps Strengthens Ukraine's Air Defenses in High-Stakes Kyiv Talks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] NATO's Stoltenberg: Poland and Slovakia Will Still Back Ukraine After Elections

    • CPJ ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Journalist Oleksandr Pavlov injured in drone attack in Ukraine

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Caitlin Johnstone: Neocons Love the Ukraine War

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Global Leaders Plead for Peace in Ukraine at UN

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Germany: Inflation drops to lowest since Ukraine invasion

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Ukrainian, French Defence Ministers Pledge to Work Together on Arms

    • Scheerpost ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Global Days of Action to End the War in Ukraine

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Good Guys, Bad Guys and Ukrainian Nationalism

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Quartz ☛ We need whistleblowers. Here are 9 ways workplaces can make it safe to speak up

    Retaliation against those who report wrongdoing in the workplace remains all too common. Rather than being commended, whistleblowers are attacked and vilified. Thus, the mere thought of blowing the whistle, let alone following through, can bring about severe psychological distress.

    Companies committed to whistleblowing programs can make all the difference by creating supportive work environments where whistleblowers feel protected and safe.

• Environment

  • FAIR ☛ Bloomberg Muddies Climate Protests’ Vital Message: End Fossil Fuels

    Meanwhile, the scientific consensus is straightforward—and bleak. We are at imminent risk of surpassing the internationally agreed-upon threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2023 report warned that global emissions need to be cut by almost half by 2030 if we are to meet this goal. The planet’s current 1.1°C increase has already led to more frequent and deadly severe weather across the globe.

    The urgency with which we need to bring down emissions is clear. Still, news media muddy the waters, encouraging public apathy by focusing on protesters’ tactics at the expense of their demands.

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Find Microplastics Inside Clouds

    The team sampled water from mists shrouding the peaks of Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama, identifying nine different kinds of polymers and even one type of rubber anywhere from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers in size.

    The new discovery doesn't bode well, adding clouds to an already lengthy and worrying list of places where microplastics have been found in nature, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to near the peak of Mount Everest.

  • Gizmodo ☛ The Microplastics Are in the Clouds Now

    In a new study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, a team of Japanese scientists outline how they found microplastics on top of two mountain peaks in Japan. They climbed the peaks of Fuji and Oyama to collect water samples from the mists that veil the tops of both mountains. They then used advanced imaging techniques on the collected samples to learn more about the properties of the water and found little bits of plastic.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ Pipeline spills oil into Kansas creek near Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

    About 10 barrels — or 420 gallons — of oil and 1,500 barrels of saltwater spilled into the creek.

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] ECtHR holds landmark climate case involving 32 governments

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] New study predicts climate change impact on Turkey's regions

  • NL Times ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] German climate activists will join the XR A12 blockade in The Hague

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] A Major Win Against Factory Farming Points to a Powerful New Direction for the Climate Movement

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] US Home Insurers Are Leaving Climate Risk Areas. We Need Affordable Housing Now

  • CBC ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Canada is pouring billions of dollars into the electric vehicle industry. Will it pay off?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] UAE's President-Designate for UN COP28 Offers Full-Throated Defense of Nation Hosting Climate Talks

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Climate Change Means New York City's Flooding Is 'New Normal,' Governor Says

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Tens of Thousands Demand Climate Action in Swiss Capital

  • Vox ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] How do you prepare a city like New York for major floods?

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Ohio State University Researchers Are Using AI to Understand Changing Biodiversity

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Suing for a Livable Climate

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] The Beef Industry is Destroying the American West and Worsening the Climate Crisis

  • HRW ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] European Court Hears Climate Crisis Case Brought by Children

  • University of Michigan ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Lt. Gov. talks climate policy, tech jobs, higher education access

  • Vox ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] The “new abnormal”: The rise of extreme flooding, briefly explained

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Climate Chaos and the Deserts

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Extreme floods and fires: Is climate change to blame?

  • Vox ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] How radical should you be when you’re trying to save the planet?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Why are climate activists taking 32 nations to court?

  • HRW ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Vietnam: Drop Charges Against Climate Activist

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Germany records 3,100 heat-related deaths

  • Energy/Transportation

    • CBC ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] EV battery giant Northvolt to build multibillion-dollar plant in Quebec

    • CBC ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Ontario prepares to go big on nuclear, with demand for electricity poised to soar

    • CBC ☛ Canada is pouring billions of dollars into the electric vehicle industry. Will it pay off?

      The numbers are eye popping. A new manufacturing facility to be built by Northvolt, a Swedish battery giant, will occupy 170 hectares — an area the size of more than 300 football fields — on Montreal's South Shore, in a parcel of land spanning two communities.

    • Futurism ☛ Microsoft Needs So Much Power to Train AI That It's Considering Small Nuclear Reactors

      Regardless of where it gets its electricity from, Microsoft has some massive power and water bills to pay for right now — and given the growing hype surrounding AI, they're only likely to grow.

    • The Verge ☛ Microsoft is going nuclear to power its AI ambitions

      Data centers already use a hell of a lot of electricity, which could thwart the company’s climate goals unless it can find clean sources of energy. Energy-hungry AI makes that an even bigger challenge for the company to overcome. AI dominated Microsoft’s Surface event last week.

    • CNBC ☛ Microsoft is hiring a nuclear energy expert to help power its AI and cloud data centers

      Specifically, Microsoft is looking to hire someone to lead the company's technical assessment for integrating small modular nuclear reactors and microreactors "to power the datacenters that the Microsoft Cloud and AI reside on," per the job posting.

    • CBC ☛ Airlines claim passenger safety at risk under new passenger rights rules

      The changes appear to scrap a loophole through which airlines have denied customers compensation for flight delays or cancellations when they were required for safety purposes. The sector wants that exemption restored, and says it doesn't want pilots to feel pressured to choose between flying defective planes and costing their employer money.

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Consumers Energy tells Michigan residents it needs partners to keep hydro dams

    • 2023-09-28 [Older] Denmark’s energy crisis 'not yet history': agency

    • Green Party UK ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Caroline Lucas condemns approval of Rosebank oil field

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] UK approves controversial North Sea oil and gas production

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Omicron Limited ☛ World's biggest bat colony gathers in Zambia every year. Researchers used artificial intelligence to count them

      To crack the problem we clearly needed a new approach. Using an array of small video cameras, we filmed the bats leaving their roost and then developed artificial intelligence to count them. This offers an inexpensive, fast and repeatable way to count large numbers of moving animals.

      Our average estimate for the Kasanka colony for five days in November 2019 was 857,233 bats. This makes it one of the biggest bat colonies in the world, and the most important in Africa.

      The next question is why we wanted to count them.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Australia: Man dies after whale flips fishing boat

• Finance

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] German economy set to shrink in 2023, experts say

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Evergrande's woes will hurt China's recovery

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] China's property crisis: Evergrande's woes threaten recovery

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Can Indonesia social media e-commerce ban help merchants?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Eurozone inflation dips to 4.3%, fueling interest rate hopes

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Common Dreams ☛ Let's Get Real: On Spurious Clowns, Sad-Sack Theater and National Secrets In the Shitter

    Hours before a likely, senseless government shutdown, the goons and sycophants of a GOP House Dysfunction Caucus lurched through a fact-free Biden impeachment clown show the esteemed Jamie Raskin called an "invertebrate appeasement" of fanatics heeding their master's voice "like flying monkeys on a mission for the Wicked Witch of the West." Raskin and other Dems were smart, tough, caustic, often hilarious - Jasmine Crockett for the brutal win! - which gives us hope: A Republic, if you can keep it.

  • Vox ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Twitter’s CEO had a wild, combative appearance at the Code conference

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Elon Musk and X/Twitter's CEO Can't Seem to Agree on Whether Their Election Integrity Team Is 'Gone'

  • The Verge ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Linda Yaccarino’s Excruciatingly Uncomfortable Interview With Julia Boorstin at the Code Conference

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] [Guest post] Deepfake it till you make it: How does AI relate to postmortem personality rights? [Ed: HEY HI nonsense. Warping the debate with buzzwords.]

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] TikTok Videos Promoting Steroid Use Have Millions of Views, Says Report Criticized by the Company

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Engadget ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] The Supreme Court will hear social media cases with immense free speech implications

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Does [a computer program] have a right to free speech? Only if it supports our right to free thought

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Turkish Film Festival Cancelled After Row Over Censorship

  • EFF ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] EFF's Comment to the Meta Oversight Board on Polish Anti-Trans Facebook Post

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] A European Body Condemns Turkey's Sentencing of an Activist for Links to 2013 Protests

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFERL ☛ U.S. Senators Demand Russia Free 'Wrongfully Detained' Americans Gershkovich And Whelan

    The bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee has led the introduction of a call by 27 senators for the immediate release by Russian authorities of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who they say has been "wrongfully detained in Russia for merely doing his job."

  • Craig Murray ☛ Meanwhile, Back in Scotland

    I flew back from Amsterdam yesterday after a month spent campaigning for Julian Assange, much of it organisational rather than public. Seeing Scotland with perspective after a month away really brings home the astonishing state of Scottish politics, particularly around the Independence movement.

  • CPJ ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Turkey urged to act on death threats against journalist İsmail Arı

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • CBC ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Airlines claim passenger safety at risk under new passenger rights rules

  • CBC ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Air Canada pilots picket at Toronto's Pearson, calling for better wages, working conditions

  • Scheerpost ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] Inside the High-Security “Black Site” Where Leonard Peltier Is Incarcerated

  • JURIST ☛ Iran authorities open fire on 1 year anniversary of Zahedan massacre and Mahsa Amini protesters

    “Bloody Friday,” also known as the Zahedan massacre, occurred in the wake of the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in Iranian morality police custody. Amini, a woman from the Kurdistan region of Iran, was arrested in Tehran over her “improper” hijab. Her death sparked nationwide protests against the government, citing human rights concerns.

    Despite pushback from Iranian authorities, protesters have sustained the demonstrations in Zahedan every Friday since the September 30, 2022 massacre. Videos posted on social media today showed protesters carrying injured people to medics under gunfire. Videos also captured unarmed protesters fleeing tear gas deployed by authorities near a mosque.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Nooses Found at Connecticut Construction Site Lead to Lawsuit Against Amazon, Contractors

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] 'White Torture' documents Iran's notorious prison methods

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • CS Monitor ☛ End of an era: Netflix to send out its last DVDs after 25 yearsa

    At its peak, the DVD boasted more than 20 million subscribers who could choose from more than 100,000 titles stocked in the Netflix library. But in 2011, Netflix made the pivotal decision to separate the DVD side business from a streaming business that now boasts 238 million worldwide subscribers and generated $31.5 billion in revenue last year.

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Welp, Now Disney+ Is Clamping Down on Password Sharing

• Monopolies

  • Florian Müller ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] Antitrust class action against Qualcomm (originally related to FTC action) thrown out on summary judgment; same judge previously denied discovery of my communications with Microsoft

  • Patents

    • 2023-09-29 [Older] Patent Luminaries Try to Set Congress Straight on Drug Price Controls [Ed: The patent maximalists still want to kill ill people for profit]

    • Florian Müller ☛ 2023-09-28 [Older] Sisvel's narrowband IoT patent pool boosts value proposition with Huawei and others bringing in many patents while lower rates enable new applications such as printable trackers

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-09-29 [Older] Broad functional claiming at the EPO (T 0835/21) [Ed: The EPO's kangaroo court is at it again]

    • Florian Müller ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] OPPO defends another 5G patent against Nokia's opposition: Mannheim trial scheduled for December, UPC PI motion conceivable, and what would the EUIPO do under the proposed regulation? [Ed: UPC is illegal. They issue embargoes based on an illegal court. They're distorting the very concept of the Rule of Law and constitutions by calling a crime "law".]

  • Trademarks

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-09-30 [Older] EUIPO shoots down application to register virtual firearm as a trade mark [Ed: EUIPO is possible the EU's most corrupt agency ]

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ The Rolling Stones Catalog Is Worth $500 Million, Mick Jagger Estimates — But Don’t Expect a Sale Anytime Soon

      To be sure, “‘the children don’t need $500 million to live well,'” per Jagger’s assessment of the situation and the IP’s estimated value. The possibility of donating the rights to charity was also broached during the interview, albeit without a commitment one way or the other from Jagger.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ Philippines Pirate Site Blocking Scheme Comes to Fruition

      After years of lobbying activity and behind-the-scenes discussions, the Philippines is set to roll out its pirate site-blocking scheme this coming November. In a fresh memorandum of understanding, signed by the Government's Intellectual Property Office, Internet providers agree to voluntarily block sites that are deemed to be copyright infringing; no court order needed.

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-09-27 [Older] US Copyright Office and AI: Notice of Inquiry and the Théâtre D'opéra Spatial case