Links 06/11/2023: Lots of Buzzwords, Australian Warming up to China Again
Contents
- Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
- Leftovers
- Gemini* and Gopher
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Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
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Education
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BIA Net ☛ Hitit University revokes prisoners’ permission to study over ‘security concerns’
The senate of the university unanimously decided that students, if they don't fulfill the obligation of attending classes, won't be allowed to take exams, and they have the right to freeze their registrations upon their request.
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Leftovers
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New York Times ☛ Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts
Surprised individuals and small-business owners can’t pay rent or make payroll, and no one ever explains what they did wrong.
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Education
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The Atlantic ☛ ‘An Existential Threat to American Higher Education’
Although Cirino argues that his changes simply bring more structure to board appointments, in practice, such moves have tended to bring more politics into university boards, not less. In 2019, caught between a conservative board of governors that wanted to return a Confederate monument to its pedestal and a campus community that wanted it permanently removed, Carol Folt announced that she would be resigning as the president of UNC Chapel Hill; she removed what was left of Silent Sam on her way out. The moment crystallized the new activist posture of boards of trustees, and bills such as Cirino’s could only accelerate that activism.
Critics immediately assailed the bill as an assault on higher education. “The ACLU of Ohio does and always has supported robust free speech, academic freedom, and intellectual-diversity protections on Ohio’s college and university campuses,” Gary Daniels, the chief lobbyist for the group, said during a committee hearing to discuss the bill. “However, we believe S.B. 83 is contrary, not complementary, to these goals.”
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Hardware
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New York Times ☛ More Semiconductors, Less Housing: China’s New Economic Plan
Policymakers, wary of inciting reckless borrowing in real estate, are instead investing heavily in factories and trying to help indebted local governments.
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Hackaday ☛ Adding Temperature Sensor Functionality To The CH32V003 MCU
As cheap as the WCH CH32V003 MCU is, its approximately $0.10 price tag looks far less attractive when you need to start adding on external ICs for missing basic features, such as temperature measurement. This is a feature that’s commonly found on even basic STM32 MCUs. Fear not though, as [eeucalyptus] shows, you can improvise a working solution by finding alternative sources that can act as a thermometer.
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Hackaday ☛ What Parts Should You Desolder?
A rite of passage for a young electronics enthusiast used to be collecting an array of surplus boards from whatever could be found, and using them as sources of parts to desolder. It was possible with a bit of work and searching to build all manner of electronic projects without spending much at all. Many hardware hackers know their way around consumer electronics from the decade before their teenage years as a result. Secondhand components can still be used, but the type of components to be found has changed, as well as those needed. [ElectricMonkeyBrain] takes a look, and asks “What should you desolder?”.
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Hackaday ☛ Reducing Poop On Multicolor Prints
While multicolor printing eliminates painting steps and produces vibrant objects, there are two significant downsides; filament consumption and print time. A single-nozzle filament printer needs to switch from one color to another, and doing so involves switching to the other filament and then purging the transition filament that contains a mixture of both colors, before resuming the print with the clean new color.
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Hackaday ☛ Oh, The Places You’ll Go With Stop Motion Animation
Robots made of broken toy parts, stop-motion animation, and a great song to tie it all together were not on our bingo card for 2023, but the results are perfect. [Mootroidxproductions] recently released the official music video for I Fight Dragons 2019 song “Oh the Places You’ll Go”.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Eesti Rahvusringhääling ☛ Feature: Go to the forest – a professional secret revealed
What is horticultural therapy in the age of mobile [Internet] and digital technology? What draws people to come together and touch the earth with their hands, without fear of getting dirty? After all, meetings have become possible without leaving home and without the risk of staining clothes or catching a virus.
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ABC ☛ More hospitals across the US are closing maternity wards
Dr. Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, told WBRC that hospitals in Alabama have been struggling to staff units and have lost money from treating uninsured patients.
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The Atlantic ☛ Local Cops Aren’t Prepared for This Kind of Bloodshed
In a minority of cases, police manage to disrupt mass shootings in progress. That takes luck: At a mall in Allen, Texas, earlier this year, a police officer happened to be nearby and heard gunshots. He rushed toward the sounds and ended up killing the gunman, limiting the number of victims to eight.
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The Straits Times ☛ Jailed Malaysian ex-PM Najib discharged from hospital after testing negative for Covid-19
He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.
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New York Times ☛ Ending TB Is Within Reach — So Why Are Millions Still Dying?
Tuberculosis has passed Covid as the top infectious disease killer, despite new medicines and better diagnostic tools.
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Latvia ☛ African swine fever continues spreading in Latvia
African swine fever has already been detected in 851 wild boar this year, up 20% from last year in the same period. The disease has also reached eight domestic pig holdings this year, with a total of 269 pigs eliminated, Latvian Radio reported on November 6.
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Science Alert ☛ FDA to Finally Outlaw Soda Ingredient Banned Around The World
It’s time.
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Science Alert ☛ Huge Study Implicates Salt in Type 2 Diabetes, But Let's Look At The Facts
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Science Alert ☛ Overfeeding Cats Produces Changes Inside Them We Never Knew About
It's not just weight gain.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Futurism ☛ OpenAI’s Chief Scientist Worried AGI Will Treat Us Like Animals
"I think a good analogy would be the way humans treat animals," he said. "It's not that we hate animals. I think humans love animals and have a lot of affection for them. But when the time comes to build a highway between two cities, we're not asking the animals for permission. We just do it because it's important for us."
"I think by default, that's the kind of relationship that's going to be between us and AGIs," Sutskever continued, "which are truly autonomous and operating on their own behalf."
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Futurism ☛ Brian Cox Says AI Replacing Actors Is a “Human Rights Issue”
"The younger actors are put in a situation where they're told they have to do this and they don't, but they don't know that at the time," he said. "It's been pretty horrendous. And then the deal, you know, we give you $50 or £50 to have you in perpetuity well, basically, I'd have told them to fuck off."
Cox said that although his concerns about AI don’t exactly keep him up all night, he still wants the whole debacle "to be sorted."
"I think AI is a human rights issue," the actor said. "It's not just a union issue. It's actually an identity theft. And it's very, very prevalent at the moment."
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India Times ☛ Tech giants jockey for position at dawn of AI age
The cloud is where most generative AI systems -- which can deliver content as complex as a poem or scholarly essay in just seconds -- will be unfurled.
Generative AI, considered by many observers to be a seismic change similar to the advent of the [Internet] age, is based on AI systems called large language models.
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Daniel Miessler ☛ Our Personal AI Assistants Will Soon be Our Interfaces to the World
And the security issues there—with compromises, manipulation, and basically any integrity issues with our AI’s will be extraordinary. Because the extent to which you control someone’s personal AI will largely be the level of control you will have over them as well.
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New York Times ☛ Chatbots May ‘Hallucinate’ More Often Than Many Realize
When summarizing facts, Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot technology makes things up about 3 percent of the time, according to research from a new start-up. A Surveillance Giant Google system’s rate was 27 percent.
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JURIST ☛ EU dispatch: G7 leaders’ breakthrough on regulating artificial intelligence complements EU initiative
Law students from the European Union are reporting for JURIST on law-related events in and affecting the European Union and its member states. Ciara Dinneny is JURIST’s European Bureau Chief and a trainee solicitor with the Law Society of Ireland.
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Security
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Defence/Aggression
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11/3/23: The Last Outlaws: The Legacy of Anti-War and Vietnam (w/ Howie Hawkins)
Howie Hawkins sits down with The Last Outlaws to discuss the legacy of the anti-war movement in America and his experience being drafted during The Vietnam War. We also touch upon current aspects of United States foreign policy.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ One year out: how a free and fair 2024 presidential election could be under threat
“The United States electoral process, and indeed American democracy itself, is under great stress,” warned a September report by a group of election experts for the Safeguarding Democracy Project. “No longer can we take for granted that people will accept election results as legitimate.”
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India Times ☛ Migrants reaching Spain's Canary Islands near 32,000 this year
So far this year, 31,933 people have reached the islands, compared with the 2006 small boats crisis when 31,678 people made it to the Canaries, regional authorities told Reuters.
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Futurism ☛ Global Warming Is Even Worse Than We Thought, Scientist Says
According to these new estimates, we're on track to blow past 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming — a limit set by world leaders in the 2015 Paris Agreement — sometime during this decade. And by 2050, we'll already have hit 2 degrees Celsius.
"The 1.5 degree limit is deader than a doornail," Hansen said at a news conference on Thursday, as quoted by The New York Times.
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New York Times ☛ 35 Years After Addressing Congress, James Hansen Has More Climate Warnings
“The 1.5 degree limit is deader than a doornail,” said Dr. Hansen, now the director of the Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program at Columbia University, during a news conference on Thursday. The 2 degrees goal could still be met, he said, but only with concerted action to stop using fossil fuels and at a pace far quicker than current plans.
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Science Alert ☛ The Next Six Years Will Make or Break Our Climate Goal of 1.5°C Warming
If humanity wants to have a 50-50 chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we can only emit another 250 gigatonnes (billion metric tonnes) of CO₂.
This effectively gives the world just six years to get to net zero, according to calculations in our new paper published in Nature Climate Change.
The global level of emissions is presently 40 gigatonnes of CO₂ per year. And, as this figure was calculated from the start of 2023, the time limit may be actually closer to five years.
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[Old] Science Alert ☛ Humans Now Control The Majority of All Surface Freshwater Fluctuations on Earth
A regime change of almost unimaginable scale has taken place in the natural world, reflecting humanity's vast and growing dominance over one of our planet's most vital resources: freshwater.
In what researchers say is the first global survey of human impacts on the water cycle, scientists have used NASA satellite measurements to remotely quantify changes in the level of water held in a stunning number of water bodies: 227,386 of the world's ponds, lakes, and reservoirs, whether small or large.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Migration: Germany set to tackle refugee issues
Roughly 200 refugees arrive in Berlin every day. They are supposed to stay in an initial reception facility such as the one at the former Tegel airport only for a short time, before being relocated to accommodation elsewhere in the city. But available apartments are hard to come by, and some refugees have been stuck at Tegel for more than a year. Currently, some 4,000 people live there and a further expansion is underway to provide up to 8,000 places.
The refugee situation in the German capital is echoed in cities and municipalities all over the country. So far in 2023, 220,000 migrants have made their initial applications for asylum. And of the 1 million Ukrainian refugees from the war, more and more are now registering with the authorities to be housed by the state.
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Craig Murray ☛ The Right of Self-Defence
Israel does have the right of self-defence, but only in precisely the same way other countries do. In fact, the only unique factor about Israel here is that it is the only country to have been found by the International Court of Justice specifically to have abused and exceeded the concept of right of self-defence, in its treatment of the Palestinians.
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NYPost ☛ Israeli strikes on Gaza intensify, pressure mounts over civilian casualties
Israeli fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza and troops seized a militant compound in the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday, while the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said the air strikes killed dozens of people.
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RFA ☛ Five dead, over 1,000 trapped in Myanmar city battle
More than 100,000 have evacuated the surrounding area after heavy airstrikes in Sagaing region.
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teleSUR ☛ Israeli Forces Kidnap Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi
She had been arrested in 2017, when the Israeli occupation forces detained, tortured and murdered several members of her family.
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NYPost ☛ Filipino radio anchor fatally shot while on Facebook (Farcebook) livestream watched by followers
A video of the attack shows the bespectacled Jumalon, 57, pausing and looking upward at something away from the camera before two shots rang out.
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Meduza ☛ Ramzan Kadyrov’s 15-year-old son, who beat a prisoner on camera, given top position in Chechen leader’s security service — Meduza
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New York Times ☛ Will the Supreme Court Toss Out a Gun Law Meant to Protect Women?
Even pro-firearms politicians are absent in the briefs supporting a lawsuit to make it harder to keep weapons out of abusers’ hands.
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The Straits Times ☛ Two Koreas race to launch first home-grown military spy satellites
S. Korea and N. Korea seek satellite launch success with support from US and Russia, respectively.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian to train 450 new officers to guard Belarus border
Some 450 new officers are expected to join Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT) and guard Lithuania’s border with Belarus over the next two years, Rustamas Liubajevas, the VSAT chief, has said.
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Meduza ☛ Bloomberg: Russia’s plans to establish military bases in Libya spark concern in U.S. over potential ‘to spy on all of E.U.’ — Meduza
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RFERL ☛ Putin To Stay In Power Past 2024, Sources Say
Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until least 2030.
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RFERL ☛ In Rare Foreign Trip, Russian President Putin To Visit Kazakhstan This Week
The Kazakh presidential press service said on November 6 that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Astana on November 9.
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France24 ☛ Ukraine's Zelensky 'not ready' for talks with Moscow unless troops withdraw
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he was "not ready" for talks with Russia unless its invading troops withdraw, as Kyiv investigated a deadly strike on its soldiers.
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France24 ☛ EU weighs advancing Ukraine's membership bid as Russia war drags on
The European Union executive is expected to recommend taking Ukraine one step closer to becoming a member of the bloc this week, according to EU officials, a coveted prize for Kyiv as weariness creeps in nearly two years after Russia's invasion.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Olympic Committee Files Appeal Against Its Suspension By IOC
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has appealed the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend its membership, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced in a statement on November 6.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Strikes Odesa With Missiles, Drones, Causing Injuries And Damage
Russia has struck Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa with missiles and drones, wounding at least eight people and causing extensive damage to a renowned art museum and residential buildings in the city's historic center, while drone debris set grain warehouses on fire, Ukrainian officials said.
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Man Who Joined Military After Family Killed In Russian Attack Dies At The Front
A top Ukrainian official reported on November 5 that Yuriy Hlodan, the Odesa man who joined the country’s military after his family was killed by a Russian missile in April 2022, has died at the front lines in the war against Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Defense Chief Orders Probe Of Deadly Russian Attack On Military Awards Ceremony
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov offered his condolences and ordered a “full investigation” after Russian missiles reportedly killed some 20 soldiers attending an awards ceremony held in a frontline position in the south of the country.
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New York Times ☛ For Bloodied Ukrainian City, River Crossings Offer Small Hope of Relief
The city of Kherson resides in a purgatory between liberation and occupation — free of Russian troops but in range of much of Moscow’s arsenal. Secretive river operations are offering hope of some relief.
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New York Times ☛ Russian Strike on Soldiers at Ceremony Was a Crime, Zelensky Says
Troops were killed as they gathered in a southern village for a military commemoration, officials said.
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Meduza ☛ Ukrainian missile strike damages Russian vessel at shipyard in annexed Crimea — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian missile hits Ukrainian military award ceremony in Zaporizhzhia region, preliminary reports say at least 20 soldiers killed — Meduza
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JURIST ☛ Moscow court gives prison sentence to Navalny-linked photographer
Russian prisoners’ rights group Pervy Otdel reported on Friday that a Moscow court sentenced Aleksandr Strukov, the erstwhile photographer affiliated with incarcerated opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, to an eight-year prison sentence. The charges brought against him encompassed allegations of public calls for terrorism, inciting hatred, and violating citizens’ rights to practice religion.
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LRT ☛ Russia-registered cars no longer try to enter Lithuania – customs
The Lithuanian Customs has not recorded any attempts to enter Lithuania by cars with Russian registration plates for more than a month.
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RFERL ☛ Third Russian Activist Released From Prison After Serving Term In 'Network' Case
A third Russian activist has been released from prison after serving six years in the high-profile Set (Network) case, which rights defenders and opposition activities have called "fabricated."
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RFERL ☛ Russia To Continue Voluntary Cut Of Oil Exports Until Year's End
Russia will continue the additional voluntary supply cut of 300,000 barrels per day from its crude oil and petroleum product exports until the end of December 2023 as previously announced, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on November 5.
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Environment
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Futurism ☛ Humans Are Spiking the Level of Poisonous Mercury in the Atmosphere
The work, published as a study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that the atmosphere once contained about 580 metric tons of mercury before human emissions of the substance began.
Today, those atmospheric mercury levels are as high as 4,000 metric tons, according to a 2015 study cited by the researchers. That's a huge gap, and some of the best evidence yet of the extent of mercury pollution by humans.
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Science Alert ☛ We're Disrupting Another Major Earth Cycle, And No One's Talking About It
Human activity is heating up the planet, putting wildlife in danger, and even altering Earth's spin. Now it appears we're also having a seriously detrimental effect on the planet's natural salt cycle, a new study reveals.
While geological and hydrological processes naturally bring salt up to Earth's surface over long time spans, we're speeding up this natural flow due to mining, land development, and the use of road salts to melt ice.
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[Old] Nature ☛ Groundwater level observations in 250,000 coastal US wells reveal scope of potential seawater intrusion
Seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers can increase groundwater salinity beyond potable levels, endangering access to freshwater for millions of people. Seawater intrusion is particularly likely where water tables lie below sea level, but can also arise from groundwater pumping in some coastal aquifers with water tables above sea level. Nevertheless, no nation-wide, observation-based assessment of the scope of potential seawater intrusion exists. Here we compile and analyze ~250,000 coastal groundwater-level observations made since the year 2000 in the contiguous United States. We show that the majority of observed groundwater levels lie below sea level along more than 15% of the contiguous coastline. We conclude that landward hydraulic gradients characterize a substantial fraction of the East Coast (>18%) and Gulf Coast (>17%), and also parts of the West Coast where groundwater pumping is high. Sea level rise, coastal land subsidence, and increasing water demands will exacerbate the threat of seawater intrusion.
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The Atlantic ☛ Plant Seeds Are Stuck
Plants probably need their seed-dispersing animals now more than ever. As temperatures quickly rise because of climate change, many plants may have to move to cooler locations to survive. However, research by seed-dispersal ecologists is suggesting that the world’s shrinking animal populations may not have the capacity to mediate these migrations.
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Digital Music News ☛ Concord Officially Acquires Round Hill Music Royalty Fund in $469M Deal
RHM boasts several royalty-generating evergreen music copyright assets, including the rights of 51 catalogs and over 150,000 songs. The RHM portfolio includes tracks from artists like Celine Dion, James Brown, Bonnie Tyler, Phil Collins, Backstreet Boys, and Louis Armstrong. RHM also owns a stake in the Carkin catalog, which includes hits from Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Meatloaf, Air Supply, Bonnie Tyler, Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee, and George Harrison.
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NDTV ☛ Delhi's Air Quality Worsens, Arvind Kejriwal Calls Emergency Meet Today
The meeting comes at a time when the national capital is battling apocalyptical air pollution. Delhi's air remained severely polluted for the fifth consecutive day on Monday morning with the Air Quality Index (AQI) still in the 'severe' category. The overall AQI in the national capital was recorded at 488.
Some of the worst-affected areas in the national capital include RK Puram (466), ITO (402), Patparganj (471), and New Moti Bagh (488).
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The Straits Times ☛ Blizzards in China’s north-east ground flights, force school closures
Most parts of Harbin suspended primary and secondary schools, kindergartens and off-campus training institutions.
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Energy/Transportation
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Futurism ☛ Pilots Testing Electric Airplane Say It's Weirdly Quiet
What really captured his heart was the near silence. After all, Beta's airplane does away with the need for loud jet engines or propeller engines, allowing it to soar through the sky while making a relative whisper. It's essentially the equivalent of the near silence enjoyed by drivers of modern EVs.
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New York Times ☛ Electric Planes, Once a Fantasy, Start to Take to the Skies
Beta is one of many companies working on electric aviation. In California, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation are developing battery-powered aircraft capable of vertical flight that, they say, will ferry a handful of passengers short distances. Those companies have backers like Toyota, Stellantis, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and large investment firms. Established manufacturers like Airbus, Boeing and Embraer are also working on electric aircraft.
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Overpopulation
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The Hindu ☛ Kerala advised to be on guard against overexploitation of groundwater resources
As far as the State’s ‘dynamic ground water resources’ are concerned, extraction for all uses is currently 2.73 billion cubic metres (BCM). The net groundwater available for future use is 2.18 BCM. Challenges faced by Kerala include the limited ground water resource, the increase in dependence on it, drying up of dug wells and springs in highland areas, and quarrying and sand mining, Dr. Ambast said.
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YLE ☛ THL: Finland's birth rate decline resumes
The birth rate ticked up during the pandemic, but that reversal does not seem to have lasted.
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Science Alert ☛ The World's Largest Forest Wilderness Seems to Be Shrinking
Billions of trees are at stake.
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Finance
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New York Times ☛ Swing State Voters Are Souring on Biden
A new Times/Siena poll finds Donald Trump leading President Biden in five of six key battlegrounds.
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New Yorker ☛ Sybrina Fulton: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Anybody’s Son”
The mother whose teen-age boy’s death inspired a movement a little more than a decade ago continues to grieve his loss, and to demand accountability.
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The Straits Times ☛ Norway says exploring how to revive Israel-Palestinian diplomatic channel
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Monday Oslo was exploring ways to revive a diplomatic channel between Israel and the Palestinians to find a political solution to the decades-long conflict.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Proposed US sanctions could see ‘significant’ Hong Kong security cases handled in mainland China, scholar says
Pro-Beijing scholar Lau Siu-kai has said that Beijing may step in to transfer “significant national security cases” in Hong Kong for trial in mainland China if proposed US sanctions on members of the city’s Judiciary were to disrupt normal court proceedings.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ New Hong Kong security law will not affect freedoms, and won’t be retroactive, security chief says
Hong Kong’s security chief has said that rights and freedoms will be protected after the local Article 23 security law is enacted next year, echoing assurances previously given about the 2020 national security law.
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The Straits Times ☛ China says will work to restore peace in Palestinian territories
China will do its utmost to restore peace in the Palestinian territories as it takes over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), its foreign ministry said on Monday, as tensions intensify in the Middle East.
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New York Times ☛ U.S. Officials Fear American Guns Ordered by Israel Could Fuel West Bank Violence
Israel wants 24,000 assault rifles. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister overseeing the police, has given rifles to civilians and is forming “security squads.”
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The Straits Times ☛ Australia’s PM Albanese says important to have communication with China
Mr Albanese met Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping in Beijing on Monday.
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The Straits Times ☛ China's President Pooh-tin meets Cuban prime minister in Beijing
China's President Pooh-tin Jinping met Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Monday, Chinese state media reported, a day after the Cuban leader signed cooperation documents with Xi's deputy at a trade fair.
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The Straits Times ☛ Australia's Albanese retraces historic Beijing walk on visit to mend ties
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stopped by Beijing's Temple of Heaven on Monday as he followed in the footsteps of the first Australian leader to visit China, retracing a walk made five decades ago as ties were being established.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s leader Pooh-tin Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meet in Beijing as relations thaw
Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing on Monday, state media reported, a high-water mark in their nations’ ties following years of tensions that cut billions of dollars in trade.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing calls on Myanmar to cooperate amid clashes along country’s border with China
A senior Chinese diplomat has urged Myanmar to “cooperate” in maintaining stability on their shared border, Beijing said Monday, after armed groups fighting the junta seized a strategic trading outpost.
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The Straits Times ☛ China urges Myanmar to cooperate on maintaining stability on border
Last week, Myanmar's ruling military said it was trying to restore order near the border.
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The Straits Times ☛ China appoints He Lifeng as head of office of the Central Financial Commission: Central bank publication
China's economy tsar He Lifeng has been appointed as head of office of Central Financial Commission, according to a central bank publication Financial News report on Monday.
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RFA ☛ Vietnam rapidly builds up South China Sea reef
Satellite images show remarkable pace of reclamation on a Hanoi-controlled atoll in the Spratlys.
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New York Times ☛ Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Will Meet With Chinese Counterpart
The high-level meetings in San Francisco will lay the groundwork for talks between President Biden and China’s top leader, Pooh-tin Jinping.
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The Straits Times ☛ Eyeing North Korea, Tokyo holds first missile evacuation drill in years
Monday's drill was the first such drill in Tokyo since 2018.
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The Straits Times ☛ US, South Korea, Japan to launch consultative group on North’s cyber threats
US, Japan, South Korea agreed to hold quarterly meetings under the new framework.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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The Atlantic ☛ The Hong Kong Activist Who Called Washington’s Bluff
His gambit drew on a famous precedent and a vexed history. The United States had cast its lot, at least verbally, with the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and the administration of then-President Donald Trump styled itself as tough on China. But how much was it willing to venture for the democratic opponents of the Chinese Communist regime?
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NYPost ☛ I watched a woke mob cancel a fashion blogger — for being Israeli
The same thing happened to our Israeli influencer. I reached out to the marketing leader for the United States regarding the complaint from the employee. I explained the concerns and gave my perspective that these concerns were not actually concerning.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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[Old] Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Rise of Bullshit Jobs
Suzi Weissman: In the book, you start out by distinguishing the bullshit jobs from shit jobs. Maybe we should start doing that right now, so we can talk about what the bullshit jobs are?
David Graeber: Yeah, people often make this mistake. When you talk about bullshit jobs, they just think jobs that are bad, jobs that are demeaning, jobs that have terrible conditions, no benefits, and so forth. But actually, the irony is that those jobs actually aren’t bullshit. You know, if you have a bad job, chances are that it’s actually doing some good in the world. In fact, the more your work benefits other people, the less they’re likely to pay you, and the more likely it is to be a shit job in that sense. So, you can almost see it as an opposition.
On the one hand, you have the jobs that are shit jobs but are actually useful. If you’re cleaning toilets or something like that, toilets do need to be cleaned, so at least you have the dignity of knowing you’re doing something which is benefiting other people — even if you don’t get much else. And on the other hand, you have jobs where you’re treated with dignity and respect, you get good payment, you get good benefits, but you secretly labor under the knowledge that your job, your work, is entirely useless.
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VOA News ☛ Freed Researcher Says Anti-Hijab Protests Changed Iran, Its Prisons
The movement — calling for the end of Iran's imposition of a headscarf on all women and clerical rule — was sparked by the death in Iranian custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's dress rules for women.
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VOA News ☛ UN Rights Committee Calls on Iran to Disband Morality Police
The U.N. rights committee said Iran should "amend or repeal laws and policies that criminalize the non-compliance with compulsory veiling ... and disband the morality police."
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Defence Web ☛ Lesotho/SA migration “model” to be researched amid high levels of illegal migration
Basotho without the necessary travel documentation regularly feature in the top three of people from countries neighbouring South Africa who are stopped by soldiers deployed on the national border protection tasking Operation Corona.
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Off Guardian ☛ The Anti-Human Agenda – Ex-Twitter (X) Thread
The following is our twitter (x) thread, compiled on Threadreader. They’ve outlined their plan for the GR & it’s an insane dystopian nightmare of enforced passivity, medical & climate tyranny.
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YLE ☛ "Tip of the iceberg": Doctors report colleagues' racist Facebook (Farcebook) posts, discriminatory decisions
An Yle investigation reveals racist and discriminatory attitudes among some doctors towards minority groups.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: RenasCON 2023
Adli Wahid presented on learning from honeypots at RenasCON 2023, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 14 October 2023.
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APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: SANOG 40
APNIC presented on RPKI and DDoS at SANOG 40, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 16 to 20 October 2023.
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APNIC ☛ How the cost of network ownership can change over time: Part 2
Guest Post: Comparing different approaches to networking and their impacts on pricing.
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Zimbabwe ☛ This dropped ‘Zoom call’ cost Zimbabwe thousands of dollars – unacceptable
Do you feel like you’re getting terrible internet quality? Have you been gaslit to believe it’s you and your devices and that the rest of the nation is surfing the interwebs like pros? Well, here is all the proof you need that connectivity issues are a shared trauma.
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Latvia ☛ Few in Latvia manage to avoid the internet
According to the annual survey on use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in households carried out by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB), the share of households with internet access in 2023 has reached 93.1 %. For comparison, 10 years ago 71.6 % of households had access to internet.
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Monopolies
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 31: De Minimis Sales of Amplifiers Over Six-Year Period Leads to Cancellation of "CS" Registration for Abandonment
The Board granted a petition for cancellation of a registration for the mark CS for "amplifiers," finding that Petitioner Adamson Systems proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Respondent Peavey Electronics had discontinued use of the CS mark on amplifiers, with intent not to resume use. Peavey's de minimis domestic sales of amplifiers under the CS mark between 2016 and 2021 were "insufficient to constitute bona fide use of that mark in the ordinary course of trade," and there was no evidence "showing any intention to resume use of the mark, much less evidence excusing Respondent’s extended period of nonuse." Adamson Systems Engineering, Inc. v. Peavey Electronics Corporation, Cancellation No. 92076586 (November 1, 2023) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge David K. Heasley)
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ PropellerAds Labels MPA's Piracy Claims "Harassment" and "Defamation"
PropellerAds has filed a scathing response to an MPA submission to the USTR which labeled the advertising company a notorious 'piracy' market. The movie industry group relies on a baseless, inaccurate, and misleading report, PropellerAds argues, equating MPA's practices to harassment and defamation.
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[Repeat] Tedium ☛ California Nearly Killed HBO
Today in Tedium: Nearly six decades ago, residents of the state of California passed a ballot initiative that was so tough and finalizing that it would have likely shut off most innovation in the television industry for decades. It would have forced us to watch new movies in theaters. It would have made television a far less appealing medium long-term—and it would have harmed the long-term viability of one of the state’s largest job-generators. But just a year later, the state’s supreme court stepped in and prevented the ballot initiative from taking place—effectively stopping all these things from happening. And it was the result of a political campaign led by entrenched stakeholders that nearly did the deed. Today’s Tedium discusses the “Save Free TV” campaign. — Ernie @ Tedium
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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On getting tired of *seemingly* being the only one...
I occasionally enjoy morphing frustration with others into statements that begin with "I still can't believe I'm apparently the only person who's ever lived who...". It's almost always only for my wife's benefit. And she's almost always not impressed. :-)
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The joy of proximity to a comfortable number of others
Walked to a "dollar store" varietal and back. Minor satisfaction in acquiring things my wife hoped I could. I'll hit a few more such places en route to tonight's overnight destination.
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Stop Norway’s drills!
Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre (from the social democratic Arbeiderpartiet) said that they refuse to stop or even cut back on their fossil fuel drilling projects, saying that the solution will come from the demand side. I.e. he is hoping that demand for fossils will decrease as people stop flying, driving tractors, running factories and eating meat.
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🔤SpellBinding: ACELOTY Wordo: HIREE
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it’s a beautiful morning
It was too dark to tell when I first woke, but now that it’s getting lighter out I can see a dusting of snow covering the treetops, the leaves, and the ground. It was enough snow to cover everything, but only barely. The leaves in the trees are still visible. The air is cool and crisp and it’s quiet and very peaceful.
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Technology and Free Software
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Neovim configuration
I’ve rejected the NvChad setup on my personal systems in favor of making a configuration from scratch. The most advanced configuration is on my PinePhone where I most commonly write, but I still have the NvChad setup on my x86 “desktop” system. That (NvChad) leads to weird keybindings that fire and confound me while trying to do simple things. So, now I’m going to go with as close to a vanilla setup as possible, lazy load all the plugin that I used in Vim, and maybe eliminate the issues I’ve had with NvChad.
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Counterintuitive Configuration for Bash Colors in NixOS
To set dircolors/LS_COLORS in a NixOS fashion I had to set the configuration.nix property programs.bash.enableLsColors to false so that it would honor the value I put into programs.bash.interactiveShellInit where I specify the value I want because the behind-the-scenes magic for NixOS clobbers that degree of user customization.
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Converting binary to decimal quickly
I first learnt binary as a kid at school and on a few (admittedly rare) occasions it has been useful to know it for my day job (I work in IT). However, in all honesty, it is primarily just something I use to read my binary watch.
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Impressions about e-ink reader Note Air2 Plus
I’ve been a Kindle user since 2010, first with a Kindle 3, and for the last three years I’ve read on a Kindle Paperwhite pretty happily. However, over the years I’ve gotten more upset with the Amazon ecosystem. Moving your own books to the device is not super hard, but not straightforward; without Readwise[1] or any other export method, highlights and notes are kind of vendor-locked on it; and finally, the lack of support for Spanish public digital libraries (eBiblio[2]) was the last annoyance that made me give up for the time being.
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.