Leftovers

• New York Times ☛ Ice Skating Rinks Are Popping Up All Over America

  From 100 stories high in New York to the balmy shores of Florida, Instagrammable ice skating rinks are popping up all over America.

• Federal News Network ☛ DHS names new deputy CIO after current one to retire in March

  Coast Guard Rear Adm. Christopher Bartz will be the next deputy CIO at the Homeland Security Department after spending his career with the service.

• Chris ☛ Improving a Gut Feeling Forecast

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Selects a Wild Plan to "Swarm" Proxima Centauri With Thousands of Tiny Probes

    To boldly go...

  • New York Times ☛ An Ultrasound Experiment Tackles a Giant Problem in Brain Medicine

    The effects of drugs that treat Alzheimer’s, cancer and other illnesses are often limited by the blood-brain barrier. A small study suggests a way forward.

  • Off Guardian ☛ WATCH: How To Be Happy – #SolutionsWatch

    So, do you care what The Wall Street Journal says about what “The Science™” says about how to be happy? Yeah, neither do I. No, you shouldn’t care about what others tell you is the key to your own happiness. But what is the pursuit of happiness?

• Education

  • Latvia ☛ Funding allocated to post-doctoral research in Latvia

    EUR 39 million will be available for post-doctoral studies in Latvia until 2029, the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) said, according to the regulations developed by the government on Tuesday, January 9.

• Hardware

  • New York Times ☛ The Next Front in the U.S.-China Battle Over Chips

    A U.S.-born chip technology called RISC-V has become critical to China’s ambitions. Washington is debating whether and how to limit the technology.

  • IT Wire ☛ Global PC shipments show small rise in final quarter of 2023

    One firm, Canalys, said the 65.3 million units shipped during the quarter represented modest growth of 3% year-on-year, with notebooks at 51.6 million units, up 4% from 2022, while desktops fell 1% to 13.7 million units. For the year, 247 million units were shipped, a drop of 13% year-on-year.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Amazing Glove Is Life Changing For Those With Parkinson's

    "That is what tech should do."

  • New York Times ☛ ‘Gas-Station Heroin’ Sold as Dietary Supplement Alarms Health Officials

    Tianeptine, found at convenience stores, at smoke shops and online, can mimic an opioid. It is among a growing class of substances that are difficult to control.

  • teleSUR ☛ Tanzania: Chinese Medical Teams Support Healthcare Development

    The 11 members of the 26th Chinese medical team have worked in Tanzania for two years, stationed at the Muhimbili National Hospital, the Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute, the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute and the Mbeya Regional Referral Hospital.

  • Latvia ☛ Record-high blood donor activity last year in Latvia

    Last year observed the biggest blood donor response in the past 12 years, according to information compiled by the Blood Donor Center (VADC) January 11.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s dog meat industry up in arms over Bill banning the trade

    The law bans the raising, butchering, retailing and selling of dog meat for human consumption.

  • Science Alert ☛ Breakthrough Alzheimer's Discovery Reveals Five Distinct Variants

    This might explain the treatment fails.

  • YLE ☛ Drug availability issues on the rise

    Drug availability issues in Finland particularly impacted three groups of medicines last year, including those for diabetes, ADHD and prostatic hyperplasia.

  • Stanford University ☛ ‘Put down the goddamn cell phone,’ Clarence B. Jones advises students

    Clarence B. Jones was Martin Luther King Jr.'s attorney and speechwriter, known for drafting King's "I Have a Dream" address.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Silicon Angle ☛ SAP will pay $220M+ to settle bribery charges brought by Justice Department, SEC

    SAP SE will pay more than $220 million to settle bribery charges brought against it by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Justice Department announced the agreement today.

  • New York Times ☛ Amazon Cuts Hundreds of Jobs at Studios and Twitch

    The layoffs add to a growing number of cuts in the tech industry this past year.

  • Medevel ☛ Ongoing Issue with Accessing Netlify Accounts: Dashboard Error

    It appears that there is an ongoing issue with accessing Netlify accounts, as reported by numerous users.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Twitch Lays Off 500 Employees in Amazon’s Downsizing Initiative for 2024

    Amazon announced a series of layoffs impacting Prime Video, but its gaming division Twitch is also impacted. The streamer is cutting 500 people from their roles—an estimated one-third of staff. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy announced the layoffs this morning, with 500 people estimated to be around 35% of Twitch staff.

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Here’s why your phone and PC slow down over time (software degradation) and how to fight back [Ed: Conflating PC with Microsoft and Windows]

    Some of you might be familiar with the concept of software degrading over time. It’s not immediately clear to many why that would be the case. How can code, which is just a set of instructions written in a programming language that a computer can understand and execute, degrade? Let’s talk about it.

  • New York Times ☛ Microsoft Debates What to Do With Hey Hi (AI) Lab in China [Ed: It's just losing loads of money anyway. The Communists won't bail out Microsoft.]

    Amid U.S.-China tensions, the company has faced questions over whether operating an advanced research lab in Beijing is politically tenable.

  • Reuters ☛ Microsoft’s Proprietary Chaffbot Company investment could face EU merger probe, EU regulators say

    Microsoft’s financial backing for Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot maker Proprietary Chaffbot Company may be subject to European Union merger rules, EU antitrust regulators said on Tuesday [...]

  • Zimbabwe ☛ Apple now paying users for intentionally slowing down older iPhones – Batterygate

    We have been told that software degrades over time, indeed it does and we will explore that a little more in a future article. We have also been told that hardware degrades over time too, none of us needs convincing on this one.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Facial Scanning by Burger King in Brazil

      In 2000, I wrote: “If McDonald’s offered three free Big Macs for a DNA sample, there would be lines around the block.”

      Burger King in Brazil is almost there, offering discounts in exchange for a facial scan. From a marketing video:

      “At the end of the year, it’s Friday every day, and the hangover kicks in,” a vaguely robotic voice says as images of cheeseburgers glitch in and out over fake computer code. “BK presents Hangover Whopper, a technology that scans your hangover level and offers a discount on the ideal combo to help combat it.” The stunt runs until January 2nd...

    • NYOB ☛ Meta ignores the users’ right to easily withdraw consent

      Meta ignores the users’ right to easily withdraw consent

      If Instagram and Facebook (Farcebook) users want to withdraw their consent, they have to buy an expensive subscription

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Knife Attacker Hoped to End Lee’s Presidential Ambitions, South Korean Police Say

    The suspect had planned the attack last week on the country’s opposition leader for months, the police said, and had written an eight-page manifesto.

  • RFA ☛ N Korea erases ‘one people’ notion with South, opens door for nuclear use

    Pyongyang used to describe the nuclear arsenal as the ‘treasure of Koreans,’ hinting non-use against the South.

  • YLE ☛ Dozens of diplomats sign letter criticising Finland's Gaza response

    Such incidents are quite rare in Finland.

  • Reason ☛ Ron DeSantis Wouldn't Say No to Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza

    But he would say no to pro-Palestinian speech.

  • The Strategist ☛ No one knows how to make a guided missile

    The Department of Defence isn’t at a loss for advice in the run-up to its release of the defence industry development strategy, expected early this year.

  • YLE ☛ Finland's Niinistö discusses Balticconnector pipeline incident with Chinese leader Xi

    The leaders met via video call, and also discussed bilateral relations as well as the current geopolitical situation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea to provide $3 million aid to Japan for quake relief

    South Korea will provide $3 million worth of humanitarian aid to Japan for Noto peninsula earthquake relief, its foreign ministry said on Thursday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US State Dept approves possible Tomahawk weapons system support sale to Australia

    The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of Tomahawk weapons system support services and related equipment to Australia for $250 million, U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Wednesday.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US, Chinese officials discuss law enforcement issues including fentanyl

    Senior U.S. and Chinese officials, in a virtual meeting on Wednesday, discussed cooperating on law enforcement issues including the illicit flow of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security said.

  • France24 ☛ Venezuela’s Zolfaghar boats are just the latest military equipment provided by Iran

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launched military exercises near the border with Guyana on December 28, following weeks of crisis between the neighbouring countries over the Essequibo region. Amid the growing tensions, it emerged that Venezuela is in possession of Iran-made combat boats. The news isn't surprising, given that Iran has provided the Venezuelan army with boats, drones, rockets and missiles for years.

  • teleSUR ☛ Israeli Airstrikes Kill Over 90 Palestinians in Gaza

    On Wednesday, the Israeli occupation forces intensified its bombardment from the air, land, and sea.

  • RFA ☛ Civilians bear brunt of attacks in northern Sagaing region

    Airstrikes, artillery fire and landmines have killed over 400 people in four townships over 2 years.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Federal News Network ☛ Congress gets options on how to improve oversight of something nearly every agency does

    Rulemaking. The government does lots and lots of it. But because the power to regulate is the power to destroy, rulemaking has rules. And like all agency activities, it requires congressional oversight. The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office for ideas on how to improve rulemaking oversight.

• Environment

  • JURIST ☛ Climate advocacy groups calls for investigation into Canada’s big 5 banks for misleading sustainable investing disclosures

    Investors for Paris Compliance (I4PC) launched a complaint against the Ontario Securities Commission and the Autorité des marchés financiers of Québec on Tuesday, asserting that Canada’s big five banks’ sustainable investing disclosures are misleading to shareholders. 

  • Energy/Transportation

    • RFERL ☛ Transport Route Linking China's Shenzhen With Uzbek Capital Launched

      The World Road Transport Organization (IRU) said the first Chinese TIR truck loaded with electronic products departed from China's southern city of Shenzhen to reach its final destination, the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, via a new 6,500-kilometer transportation corridor.

    • Breach Media ☛ Quebec’s playbook for beating Big Oil

      In 2022, Quebec led the world with its ban on oil and gas extraction. A determined movement made it happen

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ What Wiped Out The Largest Ape Ever to Roam Earth? We May Finally Have an Answer

      Adapt, or die.

    • Science Alert ☛ Massive 15-Foot Sea Creature Discovered Washed Up on Beach

      "I have never come across anything like it before."

    • NYPost ☛ 10-foot-tall ‘strange beings’ seen traversing Brazilian island as alien rumors swirl

      Even aliens need a tropical vacation.

• Finance

  • Atlantic Council ☛ China’s local government debts are coming due

    China's economic slowdown brings local government debts into sharp focus, threatening infrastructure and social services.

  • YLE ☛ Alko sales down 4% in 2023

    Sales data for last year also revealed that white wine is more popular than red wine among Finnish consumers.

  • Latvia ☛ Slowdown in real estate deals in Latvia

    After a sharp rise in real estate transactions just a year ago, there is now a pause in the property market. Both apartment and house buyers and banks are waiting. For the most part, this is due to uncertainty about the future of interest rates, Latvian Radio reported on January 10.

  • New Yorker ☛ One Man’s Fight to Close the Racial Wealth Gap, in “The Barber of Little Rock”

    John Hoffman and Christine Turner’s short film follows Arlo Washington as he helps members of his community escape the hazards of banking while Black.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia anti-graft agency questions ex-PM Ismail in $200 million publicity spending probe

    The questioning comes amid a widening crackdown by Mr Anwar on alleged graft among top politicians.

  • RFA ☛ US and Chinese military officials meet in Washington

    The talks came just days before Taiwan’s presidential election, and the island’s future was on the agenda.

  • RFA ☛ China targets Taiwan's temples, Matsu worshippers in influence ops

    How a sea goddess was co-opted by Beijing's United Front operations targeting millions of voters.

  • RFA ☛ Tibetan woman detained and beaten for social control media posts critical of China

    Tsering Tso was held for ‘administrative detention’ for 15 days.

  • RFA ☛ Media Watch: How is Taiwan fighting China’s disinformation campaign?

    Taiwan has beefed up defenses, but Beijing has become more experienced.

  • RFA ☛ Security priorities in Taiwan’s presidential election

    Deterrence and dialogue remain at the core of all three Taiwanese parties’ security agendas, analysts say.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Threads vs Bluesky: Meta’s Ex-Twitter rival appears to be winning with publishers [Ed: Outsourcing will never be winning with publishers. It will control, censor, and abuse/exploit publishers.]

    But a few major publishers seem to be taking invite-only Bluesky seriously.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ SEC endorses 11 bitcoin ETFs amidst investigation into X hack incident [Ed: A saner SEC would just quit social control media as it is a massive liability. It's wrong to let Musk, who steals from taxpayers, control the communications made by governments worldwide. They say SEC did not use 2FA. Even if it didn't, so what? That's missing the point that cybercriminals control X/Twitter.]

    The price of bitcoin rose today after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved proposals for 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, a day after SEC’s X Inc. (Twitter) was hacked and made the same announcement.

  • Reason ☛ William Penn Statue Reversal Shows Positive Power of Social Media

    In an era when X (formerly Twitter) is blamed for all the ills of the world, here's a case where it did good.

  • RFA ☛ Biden to send delegation to Taiwan after election

    Former lawmakers, governors and cabinet secretaries may join the ‘unofficial’ trip, a White House official said.

  • JURIST ☛ Taiwan defense ministry activates warning system after China satellite rocket breaches airspace

    The Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced Tuesday that it had activated the air threat warning system following after Chinese rockets launching satellites reportedly passed through its airspace.

  • France24 ☛ China military tells US it will 'never compromise' on issue of Taiwan

    Chinese military officials told US counterparts at talks this week that Beijing will "never compromise" on the issue of Taiwan and urged them to stop "provocative actions" in the South China Sea, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing will ‘never compromise’ on Taiwan, China military officials tell US

    China vowed Wednesday it will “never compromise” on Taiwan and told the United States to stop providing military aid, days ahead of a crucial election on the self-ruled island. China claims Taiwan, which holds elections on Saturday, as part of its territory and has vowed to seize it one day.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China says Taiwan ruling party ‘creating panic’ with emergency alert over Beijing satellite

    China on Wednesday accused Taiwan’s ruling party of “creating panic” after the island’s authorities issued a national emergency alert over a satellite launch by Beijing. Phones across Taiwan blared with a “presidential alert” Tuesday afternoon, around the time Beijing announced the successful launch of its Einstein Probe satellite, which it says will gather astronomical data.

  • New York Times ☛ In Taiwan’s Elections, China Seems to Want a Vote

    In its coming elections, Taiwan is voting in China’s shadow.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US urges China not to interfere in Taiwan elections

    The official said Washington does not take sides in elections and does not have preferred candidates.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China says Taiwan presidential front runner a ‘severe danger’

    Presidential front runner Lai Ching-te has accused China of trying to undermine the election.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China warns Taiwan ruling party presidential candidate over possible confrontation

    China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement on Thursday it hopes the majority of Taiwanese recognise the 'extreme danger' of Taiwan's ruling party presidential candidate Lai Ching-te in possibly triggering a cross-strait confrontation.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden’s Appeal to Black Voters Needs an Overhaul

    The president’s speech at Mother Emanuel was a missed opportunity.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong national security police question Simon Cheng’s family as exiled activist gives blessing to sever ties

    National security police have taken the parents and sisters of wanted activist Simon Cheng away for questioning as the self-exiled opposition figure gave the family his blessing to sever ties with him if necessary.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Man jailed for 3 months over wearing ‘seditious’ shirt with protest slogan at Hong Kong airport

    A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months over wearing a “seditious” t-shirt bearing the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” at the airport. Chu Kai-poon, 26, appeared at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Wednesday.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Straits Times ☛ National security trial of tycoon Jimmy Lai: What's happened so far

    Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai is on trial accused of endangering China's national security.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Activist Jimmy Lai paid pro-democracy parties and overseas media outlets, Hong Kong court hears in nat. security trial

    Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai made sizable donations to local pro-democracy parties and overseas media outlets, prosecutors said in a high-profile trial that could see the activist jailed for life if convicted.

  • BIA Net ☛ The persecution of journalism continues!

    While the government in Turkey continues to turn a blind eye to the regression in the rule of law and media freedom, the connections between investigative journalists and the public are being weakened through detentions, arrests, and censorship applied to 449 online news articles and content within three months.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • ACLU ☛ Language Access is a Civil Right, For Both Children and Adults

    CLICK VIDEO BELOW FOR AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION

    Play the video

    For deaf people, language deprivation during early childhood represents the most significant threat to the exercise of their civil rights and liberties.

    Not having adequate exposure to a language early in life has profound, lifelong consequences. Deaf students nationally graduate from high school and college at lower rates. They are among the many youth with disabilities who are disproportionately funneled into the criminal legal system. Long term negative outcomes span educational and employment contexts, and are especially bleak for deaf and hard of hearing children who also share marginalized racial identities, such as those who are Black.

  • France24 ☛ Poland's populists slam 'political' arrests as ex-officials launch hunger strikes

    A former interior minister and his aide have launched hunger strikes from prison after being detained on abuse of power charges Tuesday for masterminding a fake graft case to discredit another politician in 2007.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Public Knowledge ☛ Public Knowledge Applauds Bipartisan Bill Funding Affordable Connectivity Program

    New bill would fund the ACP with an additional $7 billion dollars for 2024.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Global On-Demand Audio Streams Hit a Record 4.1 Trillion During 2023 — As 45.6 Million Tracks Received Zero Plays, Report Shows

    Global on-demand music streams spiked more than 22 percent during 2023 to top four trillion, newly released data has revealed.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Yes, a “single biomolecule” means one biomolecule

    PacBio was partially successful in its IPR against Personal Genomics that resulted in cancellation of some claims of US7767441.  Both sides appealed with PacBio wanting all the claims cancelled, and Personal Genomics wanting restoration of its patent monopoly rights. The case focuses on preamble claim construction and interpreting the prior art.

    Construing the Preamble: The claims were directed to “an apparatus for identifying a single biomolecule, comprising” three different elements. The preamble here has a purposive statement “for identifying a single biomolecule,” and a key question in the case is whether the preamble should be limiting. In the IPR, the patentee wanted a narrow construction – giving effect to the preamble – in order distinguish its invention from prior art apparently not capable of single-molecule identification.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Claim Construction and its Role in Eligibility

    Now in 2024, the Federal Circuit has issued a new opinion in separate IBM v. Zillow case with patents from a different family. U.S. Patent Nos. 6,778,193 and 6,785,676. Seemingly by happenstance, Judges Hughes and Stoll were both on this panel. Judge Hughes again wrote the majority opinion affirming the motion to dismiss on eligibility grounds; Judge Stoll again dissented-in-part, concluding that the district court should have construed the claims (or preliminary relied upon IBM’s proposed construction) before deciding eligibility.

    Intl. Bus. Machines Corp. v. Zillow Group, Inc., — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. January 9, 2024) 

  • Asian Tech Dominance, Examination Backlogs Highlight IFI CLAIMS’ Annual Patent Reports

    The dominance of Asian tech companies in the U.S. patent monopoly space and the impacts of growing backlogs in patent monopoly examination were major takeaways from the Top 50 U.S. Patent Assignees and Global 250 Lists, published by IFI CLAIMS on January 9. The patent monopoly database developer also released a Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies list reflecting the strong global popularity of smoking, whether via electrical device or in traditional cigarette form.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Umbra Tech firewall patent monopoly challenged

    On January 2, 2024, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 10,574,482, owned and asserted by Umbra Technologies Ltd. The ’482 patent monopoly is relevant to systems using a multi-perimeter firewall in a cloud-based system. The patent monopoly has been asserted against Cisco and VMware.

    View district court litigations by Umbra Tech.

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for DynaIP entity Cloud Systems Holdco IP data management patent monopoly prior art

    Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,975,051, owned by Cloud Systems HoldCo IP, LLC, an entity of Dynamic IP Deals. The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling, managing and routing data among multiple devices that are sources or consumers of streaming data and control devices present in a given environment in a hardware independent manner.

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 for Secure NFC PTY security patent monopoly prior art

    Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 9,374,712, owned by owned by Secure NFC PTY. Ltd. The invention relates to the field of information technology security (ITS), and particularly, but not exclusively, to a multi-issuer architecture to enable the coexistence of the Secure Element partitions allocated to each card issuer within NFC enabled devices such as mobile smart-phones.

  • JUVE ☛ Mannheim Regional Court: fewer cases, fewer chambers

    In future, only the 2nd and 14th Civil Chambers will hear patent monopoly cases in Mannheim, according to the current business distribution plan of the Mannheim Regional Court. Accordingly, the court has dissolved the traditional 7th Civil Chamber.

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Liberal Visions and Boring Machines: The Early History of the Channel Tunnel

    More than a century before the Eurostar and LeShuttle, a group of engineers and statesmen dreamed (and fretted) about connecting Britain to France with an underwater tunnel. Peter Keeling drills into the history of this submarine link, and finds a still-relevant story about the cosmopolitan hopes and isolationist panic surrounding liberal internationalism.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • Be Careful What You Wish For

      Overnight, five inches of snow. Fortunately, it's powdery, not the thick, heavy, wet stuff. I let the dogs out this morning, and they plowed through it to find a place to do their business. I let them in and began to shovel.

      One pass with the big push-scoop, another with the regular shovel to clean it up. I worked quickly and didn't care about being perfect. Most of the snow has apparently passed, but it's still snowing lightly out right now. I'll be out there again, for sure.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Programming

      • High-Level Features Are Mostly About Maintainability

        The topic of low-level vs. high-level comes up a lot in API design. It seems, though, that we rarely define what it is; what we mean by these terms. There's a vague understanding we all share, something to the level of "low-level means you need to type more" or "high-level is easier", and those are all true.

        What's a little more clear is the purpose of these different levels. For low-level the purpose is about providing maximum flexibility, the ability to find common "shapes" among different ideas, allowing them to be glued together, and to provide room for experimentation.