Leftovers

• Tantek Çelik: Responsible Inventing

  I finally understand why Rambaldi may have hidden so many inventions.

• James G ☛ Thinking in words

  A paper titled "Language is primarily a tool for communication rather than thought", published in Nature, recently caught my eye. Here is an excerpt from the conclusion: [...]

• Tomas Tomecek: Love and Hate

  I made a significant discovery recently about my life.

  I can love and hate something. At the same time. There are many of such things. This dynamic is affecting my whole life significantly. I actually mean those “love” and “hate” words. I love talking to people. But I can also hate it immensely as well. The imbalance can drive me crazy and I’m so glad I could finally put a name on this situation. I love you, and hate you, at the same time. The balance between the two changes every day. Like a sunset or a sunrise. Light and darkness live inside me.

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ Why NASA and Boeing Are Being So Careful to Bring the Starliner Astronauts Home

    Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will spend additional weeks in orbit as teams on the ground study malfunctioning thrusters on the Starliner spacecraft.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Signal of Future Alzheimer's May Be Hidden in The Way You Speak

    Early warnings could make all the difference.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA: Fly Through The Pillars of Creation in This Stunning 3D Video

    A must-watch experience!

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Have a Radical Plan to Pump Carbon to The Bottom of The Ocean

    But would it work?

• Education

  • NPR ☛ New York City is moving to ban phones from school. Will it work?

    A lot. In one study last year from the group Common Sense Media, researchers found that on a typical day, kids between the ages of 11 and 17 were on their phones for a median of almost 4 1/2 hours per day. And while some kids only used their phones for a few minutes, others averaged more than 16 hours a day.

    A good share of that screen time is happening at school. The same Common Sense study found that 97% of kids use their phones during school hours for a median of about 43 minutes per day — roughly the length of one full classroom lesson.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ FDA: Severe Illness From Psychedelic Candy Now Seen in 20 States

    Here’s what we know.

  • FAIR ☛ David Himmelstein on Medicare Dis-Advantage, Tauhid Chappell on Cannabis Equity

  • International Business Times ☛ Rising Concerns: Over Half of CEOs Label Company Culture Toxic as Mental Health Issues Surge

    The poll revealed a stark contrast between generations regarding the impact of workplace culture on mental health. While only 38 per cent of baby boomers reported experiencing mental health problems due to their job, a striking 65 per cent of Gen Z employees indicated that their mental health was adversely affected by their work environment.

    The research emphasises the responsibility of CEOs in tackling issues related to toxic workplace cultures. Rae Shanahan, Businessolver's Chief Strategy Officer, highlighted that company executives often underestimate the influence managers have on their teams. "The CEO can't fix it, but the CEO can certainly set the stage," Shanahan explained, noting that business anxiety often leads to workplace toxicity and that solutions must begin at the top.

  • Pro Publica ☛ No Surprises Act Could Lead to Higher Insurance Premiums, Fewer Doctors

    In 2020, Congress passed the No Surprises Act to protect patients from exorbitant medical bills that had burdened Americans with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The law was designed to decrease the charges for patients treated by an out-of-network doctor during medical emergencies. Such ER visits often left people vulnerable to so-called surprise bills, in which their insurer would only pay a portion of the expensive treatment.

    One of the biggest health care reforms since Obamacare, the No Surprises Act appears to have worked in one important sense. Patients have reported fewer crippling bills. Although little hard data exists, an insurance industry survey found that consumers avoided some 10 million surprise bills in the first nine months of 2023. A think tank report also suggests that people are paying less for the care they receive in the ER and other medical situations covered by the law, such as air ambulance trips.

  • Science Alert ☛ The FDA Approved Menthol Vapes Despite Serious Risks. Here's Why. [Ed: The FDA also approved experimental vaccines that had barely been tested, neither been shown to be effective nor safe]

    Let's clear the air.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Time Cells' in The Brain Could Be More Crucial Than We Ever Realized

    They could help detect Alzheimer's too.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Don Marti ☛ Don Marti: Money bots talk and bullshit bots walk?

    Now that AI can beat a Turing test by bullshitting, what’s the next test? In Prediction Market Trading as an LLM Benchmark, Jesse Richardson suggests that setting up an LLM to trade on a prediction market (e.g. Polymarket, which is the platform I’ll talk about here) could be a particularly strong benchmark with a number of desirable properties. Scott Alexander also suggests prediction markets as a useful challenge for bots.

  • Gameloft Toronto lays off 49 staff

    Gameloft has laid off most of its staff at its Toronto office, according to a report.

    As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, sources claimed 49 staff have been let go. The studio's game, Disney Magic Kingdoms, has been transferred to its team in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

    Another project from the Toronto team was also said to have been cancelled earlier this year, coinciding with a round of job cuts.

    Sources said HR, IT, and management were the only areas not impacted by the job losses.

  • Gameloft Toronto Layoffs: Around 50 jobs cut, production activity slowed

    Gameloft has fired 49 employees at its Toronto studio due to the current situation in the games market, GamesIndustry.biz reports. A company spokesperson stated that the decision to “implement a reduction in workforce” was “necessary” after a thorough review of their production capacities. Their decision aims to align the studio with the ever-changing market conditions.

  • Tech Layoffs 2024: How Many Employees Lost Their Jobs in June

    Industry that used to command their own fight in the market for both growth and stability has now finally been sent to the pit of harsh reality. Thousands of workers were laid off when the axe fell on industry in 2024. It was yet another terrible month for technology workers in June of 2024 as many lost their jobs.

  • America Online ☛ Novant Health to slash over 170 jobs in the Carolinas, including in the Charlotte area

    Novant Health is laying off 171 employees in the Carolinas, with more than half in the Charlotte region.

    The health care company’s layoffs affect 90 workers at 6237 Carolina Commons Drive in Indian Land, S.C., just south of Charlotte, and 81 employees at 101 N. Cherry St. in Winston-Salem, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notices filed this week in each state. The layoffs are effective Aug. 25.

  • IBM & Kyndryl Sued for Age Discrimination…Again

    IBM and its spin-off IT infrastructure provider Kyndryl are being sued for age discrimination.

    Five senior executives from both companies brought forward the complaint, which accuses the tech firms of discontinuing roles for older employees while advertising positions for younger applicants.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft CEO of AI: Online content is 'freeware' for models • The Register

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Microsoft’s Proprietary Chaffbot Company partnership could face EU antitrust probe

    Microsoft Corp.’s partnership with Proprietary Chaffbot Company could face an antitrust probe in the European Union, the bloc’s top competition official has revealed. European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager detailed the potential investigation in a speech today.

  • European Commission ☛ Speech by EVP Margrethe Vestager at the European Commission workshop on "Competition in Virtual Worlds and Generative AI"

    European Commission Speech Brussels, 28 Jun 2024 I'm delighted to be joining you today to conclude this workshop on competition in Virtual Worlds and Generative AI. This is a hot topic.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ James Bamford on Section 702 Extension

      Longtime NSA-watcher James Bamford has a long article on the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

    • [Old] The Nation ☛ The NSA Wants Carte Blanche for Warrantless Surveillance

      The issue of NSA’s warrantless surveillance is one I have been following for a very long time. While in law school in 1974, I was also serving in the US Navy reserves and was sent for two weeks of active duty to an NSA listening post in Puerto Rico. Soon after arriving, I discovered that the agency was illegally eavesdropping on Americans. As a result, I turned whistleblower and reported the operation to the Church Committee, a congressional investigation into the US intelligence community led by Senator Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat. It sent a team on a surprise visit and discovered that the agency had lied about halting the practice years earlier. Since then, I have authored three books, produced several PBS documentaries, and written scores of articles on the NSA. Twice the Justice Department threatened me with prosecution under the espionage act for my writing. But it failed to justify the charges and never followed through on the threats.

  • Confidentiality

    • Roger Bidon ☛ Modern cryptography on the NES - Super Tilt Bro. for NES

      We are on 2024, hackers do not operate on Commodore 64 anymore, the game needs to protect you against today's threats. In this article we will go into the depths of the cyber-war by introducing how your passwords are typically protected, and the choices made for Super Tilt Bro. Spoiler, SHA-256 is at the heart of all that, and its implementation on the 6502 CPU will be discussed.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Defence Web ☛ Top UN body demands Houthis cease Red Sea ship attacks

    Ever-increasing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by rebel Houthis saw the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) this week demand cessation of attacks on commercial and merchant vessels.

  • France24 ☛ Israel conducts deadly raids backed by air strikes in northern Gaza

    Days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of the military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza was ending, enabling the redeployment of troops in the north, Israeli warplanes on Friday struck the Shujaiya district of Gaza City in northern Gaza.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • European Commission ☛ Daily News 28 / 06 / 2024

      European Commission Daily news Brussels, 28 Jun 2024 Commission disburses an additional €1.9 billion to Ukraine in pre-financing

    • Latvia ☛ Luxury traffic jam on the Latvia-Belarus border signals a top spec sanctions loophole

      Following Russia's disgusting invasion of Ukraine, the European Union imposed sanctions on the aggressor state and its partner in crime, Belarus, but an expensive line of automobiles currently sitting on the border between Latvia and Belarus appears to drive a 4x4 sized loophole through the sanctions regime, reports Latvian Radio.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania’s agenda at Washington NATO summit: Ukraine, air defence, military spending

      Lithuania will raise the issues of Ukraine’s membership of the alliance, the place of the rotational air defence model in NATO’s plans, and the defence funding “floor” of 2.5 percent of GDP at the upcoming NATO summit in Washington.

    • RFERL ☛ IMF Downgrades Ukraine's Growth Outlook, OKs $2.2 Billion Under Loan Program

      The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) voted on June 28 to approve a $2.2 billion payout for Ukraine under an existing loan program and lowered its growth outlook following "devastating" Russian attacks against the country's energy infrastructure.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy: 10 More Ukrainians Returned From Russian Captivity

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 28 announced the return of 10  Ukrainian civilians who had been held captive by Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Moscow Resumes Attacks, Killing 5, As Ukraine Hits Tambov Oil Depot, Other Russian Targets

      As Ukrainians marked Constitution Day on June 28, Moscow unleashed a fresh wave of drone and artillery strikes on southern and eastern regions for the second day in a row, killing at least four people in a village in the Donetsk region, one person in Dnipropetrovsk, and injuring others in Kharkiv.

    • RFERL ☛ New Mortality Report Shows Russian War Deaths In Ukraine Exceed 71,000

      A new report says Russian mortality statistics show that the number of Russian troops killed since the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 likely exceed 71,000.

    • RFERL ☛ Finland To Provide Ukraine With 24th Package Of Military Aid

      Finland on June 28 approved a 24th package of military aid for Ukraine worth 159 million euros ($170 million), the Finnish Defense Ministry announced. Finnish President Alexander Stubb approved the new aid package at the request of the government.

    • RFERL ☛ Poland Likely To Sign Security Deal With Ukraine Before NATO Summit, Says Tusk

      Poland will almost certainly sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine before July's NATO summit in Washington, the Polish prime minister said on June 28.

    • Meduza ☛ Double the dead Federal mortality data suggests at least 64,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ Mikhail Baryshnikov on Leaving Everything Behind

      Fifty years ago, Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union. He discusses that day, the war in Ukraine and the challenges facing Russian artists today.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Vows to Make New Nuclear Missiles and Weigh Putting Them Near NATO Nations

      The announcement appeared to be the Russian leader’s latest attempt to raise the stakes in his conflict with the West, coming less than two weeks after his visit to North Korea.

    • Science Alert ☛ NASA Picks SpaceX to Destroy The International Space Station

      We don't want to think about it.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin: Russia Should Start Producing Previously Banned Intermediate-Range Missiles

      Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 28 at a session of the Security Council in Moscow that his country should start producing short and intermediate-range missiles that were banned under the now-defunct 1987 U.S.-Soviet Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea convenes key party meeting after Putin's visit

      The meeting came a week after Pyongyang and Moscow struck a military defence pact.

    • LRT ☛ Former minister’s spouse had business dealings with Russian criminal – media

      The husband of Lithuania’s former social security minister, who had to resign over suspicious family ties, had business dealings with a Russian national convicted for financial crimes.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania’s Customs uncovers sanction evasion scheme for car exports to Russia

      Lithuania’s Customs Criminal Service has uncovered a sanction circumvention scheme for car exports from Lithuania to Russia and Belarus, the service said on Friday.

    • LRT ☛ Kallas as EU foreign affairs chief may tip bloc’s policies – Lithuanian FM

      Naming Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the European Union’s next foreign policy chief means that the EU accepts the Baltic states’ hard position on Russia, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has said.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Protests To Japan About Joint Exercises With NATO Countries

      Russia has protested to Japan about Tokyo's plans to hold joint military exercises on the island of Hokkaido and accused Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of placing his country "on a path to dangerous escalation."

    • RFERL ☛ Owner Of Office Building Near Moscow In Which 6 Died In Fire Arrested

      Russia's Investigative Committee said on June 28 that the owner of an office building in the town of Fryazino near Moscow in which six people died after a fire on June 24 has been arrested.

    • RFERL ☛ Probe Launched Against Self-Exiled Russian Historian

      The Moscow Prosecutor's Office said on June 28 that a probe was launched against self-exiled Russian historian Tamara Eidelman on a charge of "rehabilitating Nazism."

    • RFERL ☛ Court Again Rejects Early Release Request By Mother Of Chechen Activists

      A court in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya again rejected a request by Zarema Musayeva, the imprisoned mother of three self-exiled outspoken Chechen opposition activists, for an early release.

    • RFERL ☛ Google Translate Adds 110 Languages, Including Mother Tongues Of Ethnic Groups In Russia

      Google said on June 27 it added 110 languages in one day, including those of multiple ethnic groups in the Russian Federation, including Bashkir, Buryat, Chechen, Chukchi, Chuvash, Meadow Mari, Komi, Ossetian, Saami, Tuvan, and Yakut.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russia protests to Japan about joint exercises with Nato countries

      Moscow accused Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of placing his country "on a path to dangerous escalation".

    • Meduza ☛ Ten years ago, Donbas An OSCE observer reconstructs his experience on the ground in Luhansk at the outset of Russia’s war — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Anti-war activists dupe Russian officials with translations of Nazi poetry — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Former Belarusian ambassador to Germany who was recalled by Lukashenko dies under unclear circumstances — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Belarusian Man, Wife, Son Get Lengthy Prison Terms Amid Crackdown

      The Homel regional court in southeastern Belarus on June 28 sentenced three members of one family to lengthy prison terms on charges of treason, inciting hatred, extremism, and failure to report a crime.

    • RFA ☛ We'll always have Pyongyang

• Environment

  • The Revelator ☛ Bluelining: Insurance Companies Leave Climate-Vulnerable Communities Without Protection

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Tories Spend Tens of Thousands on Ads Spreading Bogus Driving Tax Claims

    • Lewis Dale ☛ Upgrading my tyres and tubes

      I’ve never really bought into the idea that spending ludicrous amounts of money on tyres for marginal gains was worth it. Up until now, I’ve been really happy with my 28mm Contintental Ultra Sport III tyres - according to bicyclerollingresistance.com they only have about 6 watts more rolling resistance compared to the Continental Grand Prix 5000’s, but are a fraction of the price- I think I’ve paid about £15 per tyre previously. The ones that came stock on my Ribble Endurance SL Disc were 700x28c wire bead Ultra Sport IIIs, so the heavier option. They’ve been absolutely fine the whole time, I can’t say I’ve struggled keeping up on club rides or anything like that.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ 7.2-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Peru, Injures 3

      A tsunami alert was lifted about an hour after the quake struck off the coast of the southern region of Arequipa.

    • New York Times ☛ For An Aquatic Veterinarian, It’s Never ‘Just A Fish’

      Stress, ovarian cancer, buoyancy disorders: Every pet has its troubles, and needs a good doctor who makes house calls.

• Finance

  • CS Monitor ☛ A fare deal: Uber and Lyft drivers to earn $32.50 per hour in Massachusetts settlement

    Uber and Lyft drivers will earn a minimum of $32.50 per hour along with benefits like paid sick leave and health care stipends in a new Massachusetts settlement. The companies will pay an additional $175 million to resolve previous wage law violations.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Democracy Now ☛ Biden-Trump Debate: Silky Shah on How Both Candidates Scapegoat Immigrants, Promote Xenophobic Myths

    Thursday’s CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was “a really, really rough night for those who are fighting for immigrant rights,” says Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network. “Trump repeatedly was stoking a moral panic on immigration, and Biden had very little in response.” Both candidates boasted about restricting immigration and militarizing the border, while casting immigrants as dangerous and violent. Their rhetoric was reflective of an increasing anti-immigration shift in both parties, “stoking a crime panic” that is “really terrifying to see,” says Shah.

  • New York Times ☛ Supreme Court Says Prosecutors Overstepped With Jan. 6 Charge

    The ruling that the Justice Department misused a 2002 law in charging a pro-Trump rioter who entered the Capitol could have an impact on hundreds of other cases, including one against Donald Trump.

  • Democracy Now ☛ “Step Aside Joe”: After First Pres. Debate, Democrats Reeling from Biden Missteps & Trump Lies

    The first 2024 presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump was held on Thursday night. It marked the first time a sitting president debated a former one. It also marked the two oldest candidates ever to run for president, with a combined age of 159. The 90-minute discussion hosted by CNN was more of an incoherent debacle than any substantive debate. Biden was halting and disjointed. He was hard to hear, muffled his lines and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly lied — his false claims not challenged by CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. “Joe Biden really failed to rise to this moment,” says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation. “I expected nothing great, but it was so much worse.”

  • Democracy Now ☛ “Taking Black Jobs”? Economists Darrick Hamilton & Dean Baker on Inflation & Taxes in Pres. Debate

    We speak with two leading economists about Thursday’s CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, where the candidates sparred over tariffs, taxes, inflation and more. Trump repeatedly claimed that immigrants coming to the United States are stealing “Black jobs,” which is a “fascist notion,” says Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Biden has much to boast about, including strong job growth and falling inflation, but that Biden’s delivery was “very muddled.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China planning ‘major’ reforms, leader Pooh-tin Jinping says ahead of key political meeting

    Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping said Friday that the ruling Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a closely watched political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New Statesman ☛ The risk of deepfakes deciding elections is real

      The results were striking: all but two of the voters went in the direction the deepfakes had pushed them, implying that AI’s success rate in manipulating floating voters could be as high as 92 per cent.

      This is an excellent piece of journalism by Dispatches, which has led the way on coverage of deepfakes. There is a real appetite for using AI to change people’s minds in this way: a study by researchers at Google’s AI division, Deepmind, recently found that impersonation (deepfakes) was the most popular use of generative AI, and that “opinion manipulation” was the second most popular reason (after fraud) for doing so.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Anne Helen Petersen ☛ What Happened to People Magazine? - by Anne Helen Petersen

    When I got to grad school and eventually started my dissertation on the history of celebrity gossip, my favorite chapter was about the founding and accumulated power of People. As a Time Inc. publication, it mixed the established journalistic rigor of Time (everything went through fact-checking! they hired real journalists!) and “extraordinary stories about ordinary people” whose subjects could range from Gerald Ford (who appeared in a pool for the cover of the fourth issue) to “a zookeeper who lost a finger to his favorite anaconda.”

    By 1977, People had reached three million in guaranteed circulation — an absolutely wild number just three years after launch. People held that number for more than two decades, with massive (and massively profitable) direct sales at the newsstand. In the late ‘90s, guaranteed circulation hit 3.5 million; in the second half of 2002, sixteen consecutive issues of the magazine hit 1.5 million in newsstand sales alone, and total circulation reached 3.6 million.

  • AntiWar ☛ Julian Assange: Freedom This Time, No Thanks to the Media - Antiwar.com

    Everything Assange had warned the US wanted to do to him was proved correct over the next five years, as he languished in Belmarsh entirely cut off from the outside world.

    No one in our political or media class appeared to notice, or could afford to admit, that events were playing out exactly as the founder of WikiLeaks had for so many years predicted they would – and for which he was, at the time, so roundly ridiculed.

    Nor was that same political-media class prepared to factor in other vital context showing that the US was not trying to enforce some kind of legal process, but that the extradition case against Assange was entirely about wreaking vengeance – and making an example of the WikiLeaks founder to deter others from following him in shedding light on US state crimes.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • ACLU ☛ 55 Years After Stonewall, Police Reform Stalls at Symbolic Gestures

    Fifty five years after a police raid at a popular drag bar in Greenwich Village led to the Stonewall uprising, interactions between police and queer folks can certainly appear a lot different than they did in the 1960s. The laws banning crossdressing, obscenity, and same-sex sexual relations that enabled police to harass LGBTQ people have largely been overturned in court. The pride parades that commemorate the Stonewall uprising now often have a police escort. Many police departments have hired LGBTQ community liaisons, fly rainbow Pride flags in June, and issue proclamations honoring Transgender Day of Remembrance.

  • Democracy Now ☛ 2024 Debate: Trump Lies About Abortions After Birth as Biden Fails to Defend Reproductive Rights

    Abortion rights were a key focus of Thursday’s CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the first to be held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Trump took credit for nominating the conservative justices who helped overturn the law, and falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions “even after birth.” “We have no examples of that whatsoever,” says Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown University. “There is no such thing as abortion after birth.” Goodwin says that while “Americans support reproductive freedom,” Biden’s messaging was weak in the debate.

  • New York Times ☛ When It Comes to Women’s Rights, Do Not Appease the Taliban

    When the Taliban retook power in August 2021, its leaders initially said that education for girls above the sixth grade would be suspended until conditions were suitable under Islamic rules. Now, more than 1,000 days later, school remains off limits for girls older than 12, and restrictions on education have expanded to universities. The Taliban now say education is “an internal matter,” and it remains unclear when — or if — schools will reopen to girls.

    Denial of education is just one of many Taliban decrees against women. Female civil servants were instructed not to report to work when the Taliban retook power. Women are now barred from working at nongovernmental organizations and humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations. Some female-owned businesses, like beauty salons, have been shuttered. Women and girls need to be accompanied by a male relative to travel.

  • US House Of Representatives ☛ Bipartisan Legislation Enhancing U.S. Support for Tibet Passes Congress | U.S. House of Representatives

    The Resolve Tibet Act enhances U.S. support for Tibet— empowering State Department officials to actively and directly counter disinformation about Tibet from the Chinese government, rejecting false claims that Tibet has been part of China since “ancient times,” pushing for negotiations without preconditions between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama or his representatives or the democratically elected leaders of the Tibetan community, and affirming the State Department’s responsibility to coordinate with other governments in multilateral efforts toward the goal of a negotiated agreement on Tibet.

  • US House Of Representatives ☛ Bipartisan Legislation Promoting Peaceful Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Passes Congress - Merkley

    No formal dialogue between Tibetan and Chinese authorities has happened since 2010, and Chinese officials continue to make unreasonable demands of the Dalai Lama as a condition for further dialogue.

    "“This latest indication of American support of Tibet is a source of hope and encouragement to the Tibetan people who have been struggling nonviolently against the Chinese communist government for more than six decades for their rights. I thank the main sponsors of the bill, Senators Jeff Merkley and Todd Young, Chairman Michael McCaul, and Rep. Jim McGovern, for their leadership. The bill is a strong message to China that the Tibetan issue has to be resolved through negotiation instead of an assault on Tibet’s unique and ancient civilization,” said International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) President Tencho Gyatso."

  • JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court strikes down Chevron deference, freeing courts to overrule regulatory agencies in expert determinations

    The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that courts must exercise independent judgment in assessing an agency’s statutory authority. This overruled the deference long afforded to an agency’s interpretation of its mandate under Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

  • New York Times ☛ Supreme Court’s Chevron Ruling Limits Power of Federal Agencies

    A foundational 1984 decision had required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes, underpinning regulations on health care, safety and the environment.

  • Federal News Network ☛ CBP updates how it treats business information in anti-dumping investigations

    CBP has taken steps to better balance transparency and privacy when it comes to what are known as Enforce and Protect Act administrative proceedings.

  • New York Times ☛ She Needed an Emergency Abortion. Doctors in Idaho Put Her on a Plane.

    In states that have banned abortion, hospitals have struggled to treat pregnant women facing health risks. A Supreme Court decision this week did not help.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ DynaIP entity, Cloud Systems HoldCo IP, IoT patent monopoly found invalid

    On June 28, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,909,779, owned and asserted by Cloud Systems HoldCo IP, LLC, an NPE and DynaIP entity.  The ’779 patent monopoly relates to methods for controlling devices in an environment.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Dialect natural language patent monopoly found invalid

    On June 27, 2024, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) entered a final rejection of the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 9,495,957, owned and asserted by Dialect, LLC, an NPE. The ‘957 patent monopoly relates to natural language human machine interactions using context information.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Battle between Abbott and SiBio intensifies following two UPC rulings [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional - a breakup/departure from Rule of Law]

      The local division The Hague has issued two opposing rulings in the dispute over continuous glucose-monitoring devices (CGM) between market leader Abbott and the Chinese newcomer SiBio and the latter’s distribution partner Umedwings.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ Recommended Reading: The Trademark Reporter, May-June 2024 Issue

    The May-June 2024 (Vol. 114 No. 3) issue of the Trademark Reporter has arrivede. [pdf here]. Willard Knox, Editor-in-Chief, summarizes the contents as follows (and below): "This issue offers readers an article on how the constitutional-avoidance doctrine allows courts to accommodate free speech concerns when applying the Rogers v. Grimaldi test in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, an article on how surveys can help brand owners facing “failure to function” refusals to register their trademarks, and a book review on the intersection of intellectual property and sustainability."

  • Digital Music News ☛ Louis Vuitton and Pharrell Williams Face Trademark Infringement Suit Over $565-Per-Pair ‘Pocket Socks’

    Louis Vuitton and Pharrell Williams can’t be “Happy” about the trademark infringement lawsuit they’re now facing over their $565-per-pair “pocket socks.” Pocket Socks – the Carlsbad-headquartered company that sells the official namesake product, that is – just recently submitted the concise complaint to a California federal court.

• Copyrights

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Generative AI’s big copyright monopoly battle commences, and chip upstarts target Hey Hi (AI) workloads

    It’s perhaps the biggest signal yet that generative artificial intelligence model providers aren’t going to get a free content ride: Record labels this week sued two Hey Hi (AI) music generators, and this one may prove to be the big battle over Hey Hi (AI) and copyright.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Songwriter Jon Hume Sues Universal Music Group for Copyright Infringement Over ‘Be Alright’ Stems

    Universal Music Group (UMG) is facing a copyright monopoly infringement action for allegedly using a number of stems in “Be Alright” without crediting or compensating the appropriate musician for the work.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Savills pays copyright monopoly bill for PR image after Press Gazette coverage

    Hyperlocal news website was facing £460 bill from rights holder of PR image.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Top FBI Official Now Heads the World's Leading Anti-Piracy Coalition

    The Motion Picture Association has a new Global Chief of Content Protection, who will lead the ACE anti-piracy coalition. Larissa Knapp joins the MPA after 27 years with the FBI, where she was one of the highest-ranking officials. Instead of leading thousands of agents, Knapp will now front the global fight against piracy.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Kim Dotcom Can't Prevent NZ Govt. Sending Hard Drives & Passwords to FBI

    Kim Dotcom's latest bid to prevent the New Zealand government from handing over his hard drives and passwords to the FBI has failed. In 2022, the High Court said the devices could be sent to the United States to assist in Dotcom's criminal prosecution there. Following Dotcom's inevitable appeal, the Court of Appeal has now dismissed the proceedings.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Training AI music models is about to get very expensive

    AI music is suddenly in a make-or-break moment. On June 24, Suno and Udio, two leading AI music startups that make tools to generate complete songs from a prompt in seconds, were sued by major record labels. Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group claim the companies made use of copyrighted music in their training data “at an almost unimaginable scale,” allowing the AI models to generate songs that “imitate the qualities of genuine human sound recordings.”

  • Rob Knight ☛ Perplexity AI, Robots.txt, and Other Questions

    It also turns out Perplexity were previously faking academic accounts on Twitter in order to scrape the service and provide that data as a search corpus. Perplexity's CEO is pretty proud of it:

    “So we built all this into a good search experience over Twitter, which we scraped with academic accounts just before Elon took over Twitter,” Srinivas said on the podcast. “Back then Twitter would allow you to create academic API accounts and we would create like, lots of them with like generating phone numbers, writing research proposals with GPT.”

    So basically Perplexity don't give a shit about the rules or consent. Cool.

  • France24 ☛ French court rules Maurice Ravel is sole author of classical music masterpiece 'Bolero'

    A French court on Friday ruled that composer Maurice Ravel wrote his famous "Bolero" piece by himself. The heirs of stage designer Alexandre Benois, who worked on the original performance of the piece, argued that celebrated Russian set-dresser should have been credited as a co-author.