Links 07/07/2024: Music Getting Objectively Worse, Software Patents Bubble in China
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Anton Podviaznikov
This is the 45th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Anton Podviaznikov and his blog, podviaznikov.com
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Mark Dominus ☛ A potpourri of cool-looking scripts
With the continuing debasment of Google search, it was much more difficult than it should have been to find an example of a medieval ledger that contained the numbers I wanted. I eventually succeeded: 1 and 6 were written as 'j' and 'vj' as I remembered. But while looking for what I wanted, and while doing similar-image search for the original graphic, I ran into a lot of very handsome and intriguing pictures. Some of these are below.
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Mark Dominus ☛ A triviality about numbers that look like abbc
Mathematically this is uninteresting. The proof is completely trivial. (Such a number is simply !!1110a +111c!!, and !!111=3\cdot 37!!.)
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Science
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Why most people are right handed but left eyed
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] China probe returns carrying samples from moon's far side
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[Repeat] Bert Hubert ☛ SkewDB
Welcome to SkewDB! A free database of GC and many other skews for over 53,000 chromosomes and plasmids (viewer, blog post).
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Education
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Thorsten Ball ☛ With Nothing to Do
It lead me to write something in a note that I still have on my computer and that I’m looking at right now. It’s what I learned about myself in those weeks. It says: “I want my work to count. It should matter.”
I guess everyone says that when you ask them, but what I learned about myself was that I’m hyper-sensitive to it, that I need it.
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Hardware
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AnandTech ☛ Samsung Joins The 60 TB SSD Club, Looking Forward To 120 TB Drives
Samsung plans to offer the BM1743 in two form factors: U.2 for PCIe 4.0 x4 to address traditional servers and E3.S for PCIe 5.0 x4 interfaces to address machines designed to offer maximum storage density. BM1743 can address various applications, including AI training and inference, content delivery networks, and read-intensive workloads. To that end, its write endurance is 0.26 drive writes per day (DWPD) over five years.
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Techdirt ☛ Ukraine Turns To Flying Machine Guns And Autonomous AI-Controlled Drone Swarms To Counter Russian Numbers
It’s no secret that Ukraine is having a hard time in its fight against Russia at the moment. That’s in part because Ukraine is being limited in how deep into Russia it can attack using Western-supplied weapons. But mostly it is a matter of numbers: Russia has more men that it is willing to sacrifice in assaults, and more weapons and ammunition that it can use to pound Ukrainian positions and cities. As Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation, told the UK Times: “We don’t have as many human resources as Russia, they fight, they die, they send more people, they don’t care, but that’s not how we see war.” Since it can’t match Russia in raw manpower and firepower, Ukraine has turned to technology to help it fight back.
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Archive Today ☛ Ukraine’s tech hub creates drones that kill as a ‘swarm’
Krupiienko says he will soon be ready to unleash something never before seen on the front line: an artificially intelligent “swarm” of up to seven drones capable of co-operating with each other to blow up tanks as well as snoop on the enemy. What was once science fiction is reality: the first “killer robots” are here.
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The Drone Girl ☛ Channel Fourth of July spirit with these drone light shows
In honor of July Fourth, we rounded up some of our personal favorite drone light show videos on Instagram to share with you. It’s not the same as watching a drone show in person, but it’s still pretty neat. And hey, if you want to catch a drone light show in person, check out our guide to the top public drone shows of 2024, including a list of some scheduled for later this year.
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The House of Moth ☛ A little-known fact about the Power Mac G5 and what to do with this information
How many fans does a Power Mac G5 have? Depending on the configuration this answer varies but you can be almost sure the answer is always one short. Let’s take a look at the Late 2005 Quad in this example.
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El País ☛ The biggest hit songs have increasingly simple and repetitive melodies
They no longer make songs like they used to. And this is not just being said out of nostalgia by the musical critics who lived through the musical revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s. A study that analyzed the biggest musical hits in the United States, between 1950 and 2022, has confirmed this, using scientific evidence. The researchers concluded that the melodies of the most popular songs are increasingly simple and repetitive. However, they clarify that this does not mean that today’s musical hits are worse or poorer musically, but rather that the complexity and richness in elements other than the melody are less evident.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] Chinese traditional medicine did nothing for my psoriasis. But it was my mother's love language
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Michal Zelazny ☛ Life update #4
Oh, and I've left Mastodon. I'd like to stop here for a moment. I thought I'd write a separate post about my conclusions and feelings after over a month on the platform, but... I don't want to. It would be another post about how someone left social media and how it's a great thing and everyone should do the same. It really is a great thing for me and not everyone should do it. It works for me, I'm calmer, I have deeper connections with a smaller group of people, I'm building my own personal network, the best one for me, based on messages and emails and the occasional (I hope there will be more) FaceTime call. I'm glad I did it, I miss some people and I'm still hoping they'll send me a message one day.
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Robert Birming ☛ The joy of not knowing
So much of our unhappiness would never take hold if we focused on the present instead of trying to predict the future. So much of our disappointment would more or less evaporate if we focused more on what we have than on what we think we lack.
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Alabama Reflector ☛ ‘Frustrating’ partisan stalemate: the new normal for farm bills?
Historically, farm bill alliances were more regional than partisan. They were built on a common ground of support for shared crops or producers: cotton in the South, corn in the Midwest and wheat in the Western Plains.
“What was our biggest issue back in the four farm bills that I wrote was not Republican versus Democrat. It was usually Midwest against the Southeast or the Northeast or the Southwest from a crop standpoint,” former Senator Saxby Chambliss said in an interview.
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Michigan Advance ☛ Stabenow says GOP farm bill is ‘not balanced’ and won’t pass through the US Senate
“The politics of food has gotten, very, very, very partisan and very, very disheartening to me,” Stabenow said. “Because traditionally, we’ve been able to come together around those issues.”
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Federation of American Scientists ☛ Farm Bills: Major Legislative Actions, 1965-2024; Updated May 29, 2024 [PDF]
In 2023, no markups or legislative action occurred to reauthorize the farm bill besides the extension. The 2018 farm bill took eight months from introduction to passage and failed initially by vote in the House. By comparison, the 2014 farm bill took more than 21 months from introduction to enactment, failed by vote in the House, and spanned the 112th and 113th Congresses, including a one-year extension. The 2008 farm bill took more than a year to enact and was complicated by revenue provisions from another committee of jurisdiction, temporary extensions, and vetoes.
Most farm bills have been introduced in the first session of a two-year Congress (the odd-numbered year). Three of the farm bills that were introduced in the second session—the 1970, 1990, and 2018 farm bills—were enacted during a lame duck Congress of the same year. The 2014 farm bill was the first farm bill to start in one Congress (2012), remain unfinished, and require reintroduction in a subsequent Congress.
This report examines the major legislative milestones for the last 12 farm bills.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] You Can Ask YouTube to Take Down AI-Generated Content That Looks or Sounds Like You
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Boston Herald ☛ Massachusetts-based software company UKG lays off 14% of its workforce, 2,200 employees
The head of Massachusetts-based software company UKG intended to hold the development until next week, but as speculation circulated, he delivered the news the day before the Fourth of July: Roughly 14% of its workforce will be laid off.
That means about 2,200 of an estimated 15,000 employees worldwide will soon be left without a job, according to an email Chris Todd, the company’s chief executive officer, sent on Wednesday.
“We are announcing a number of organizational changes that will allow us to aggressively focus on critical areas of growth and to provide flexibility to actively invest in important new areas,” Todd wrote in his email.
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Microsoft begins new round of layoffs to streamline workforce
[Ed: "streamline workforce" is the same as mass layoffs apparently] -
India Times ☛ Microsoft layoffs, Google’s campus security row, Motorola’s latest foldable and more top tech news of the week
Microsoft has not revealed the number of people laid off as part of the latest layoffs. But the job cuts reportedly impact multiple teams and geographies. According to posts shared by the employee on LinkedIn, the layoffs affect people in product and program management roles.
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The Verge ☛ Police pulled over a Waymo car for driving in the oncoming lane
On June 19th, a Phoenix police officer pulled over an autonomous Waymo vehicle that had been driving in an oncoming traffic lane. The car was apparently confused by some construction signs and reportedly ran a red light before pulling over in a parking lot to let the officer talk to one of Waymo’s support representatives.
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PC Mag ☛ Phoenix Police Pull Over a Waymo Robotaxi for Driving Into Oncoming Traffic
In May, Waymo said that it was serving more than 50,000 paid, driver-free trips every week in its three major operating cities: Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The Waymo One service operates 24/7 in parts of all three cities. In Phoenix, the vehicles are also used for Uber Eats deliveries.
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Gannett ☛ What happens when a Waymo gets pulled over in Phoenix?
It prompts a question that can only be asked in the handful of U.S. cities that allow autonomous vehicles: What happens when an officer stops a car and there's no driver?
That question, accompanied by a photograph of a Waymo autonomous vehicle that had been pulled over in central Phoenix on June 19, was posted on the social media website Reddit last month. Phoenix police and Waymo officials confirmed the vehicle was driving in an oncoming traffic lane near Seventh Avenue and Osborn Road. There was no passenger, and no other cars involved.
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Defence/Aggression
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HRW ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] South Sudan: Damaging Security Law Revisions Adopted
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[Repeat] RFA ☛ Taiwan spy chief warns of sharp rise in Chinese infiltration
"The number of cases [we are investigating] has increased significantly compared with previous years," Tsai told the island's Legislative Yuan. "The Chinese Communist Party's infiltration activities are increasingly rampant in Taiwan, posing a severe challenge to national security work."
Taiwan is currently ruled as the Republic of China, a sovereign state formed in 1911 after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and whose Kuomintang government fled to the island after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists in 1949.
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The Nation ☛ How to Beat Trump in a World of Unreason
If we rely on voters’ existing virtuous character, rational deliberation, or deep empathy as a starting point for democratic politics, we will never succeed. Cultivating an ethical responsibility to one another is precisely the work of political organizing and policymaking. The mass energy that goes into racist and authoritarian desire can be redirected, but such redirection can only be achieved by a politics that offers inspiring and inclusive policy agendas capable of addressing disaffection, and aggression.
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Mexico News Daily ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Sheinbaum names interior minister, security minister and other top cabinet appointments
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Operation Azm-e-Istehkam: A National Imperative for Security and Stability
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Defence Web ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] POPCRU hoping for better resourced police and efforts to tackle policing killing from new minister
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Bolivia: 17 arrested with links to failed coup
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Bolivian General Accused of Failed Coup Is Transferred to a Maximum-Security Prison
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] The UN Starts to Move Tons of Aid From US-Built Pier After Security Fears Suspended Work There
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Vox ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] America’s international public health plan is too focused on Americans
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ANF News ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] PUK: Turkey's sole aim is to disrupt Iraq’s security and stability
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Defence Web ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] A safer South Africa is within reach, says ISS
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Kenyan Police Arrival in Haiti Marks New Era for Security, Prime Minister Tells UN
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] White House Planning Conference for Social Media Influencers Ahead of TikTok Ban [Ed: Lobbying by addicts]
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International Business Times ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] 'The Rich File For Bankruptcy More Than People Who Actually Need It': TikTok About 'Restarting' Finances Goes Viral
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv pulls forces from part of Chasiv Yar
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Scholz promises Germany won't be 'party' in Ukraine war
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv gets $2.2 billion in IMF funding
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NL Times ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Netherlands secures permit to send F-16s to Ukraine; Zelenskyy thanks Rutte and Schoof
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Scheerpost ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] President Gets a Reality Check on Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Hungary's Viktor Orban makes a surprise trip to Ukraine
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Hungary's Viktor Orban pushes cease-fire in surprise Ukraine trip
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Ukraine updates: Orban visits Kyiv for first time since war
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: Government overthrow plot foiled — SBU
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Netherlands to Start F-16 Deliveries to Ukraine Soon, Government Says
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Wounded and war weary: Images of soldiers returning from the front in Eastern Ukraine
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Urged Support for Ukraine, EU and NATO in His Farewell Speech
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Zelenskyy Appeals to West to Relax Targeting Limits for Ukraine as Glide Bombs Hammer Front Line
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Guided Bomb Attack on Ukraine's Kharkiv Kills One, Injures Eight, Officials Say
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Research Expert Tells UN It Has 'Irrefutably' Established Missile Debris in Ukraine Is North Korean
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Belarus Bolsters Air Defence Forces Along Ukrainian Border
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] Militant attacks in Dagestan: A new generation of radicals?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] How to get Putin to negotiate? Strategy and resolve
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russia and India: In the common interest no matter what
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Can Putin rely on India to boost Russia's war economy?
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russia Says Apple Blocks 25 VPN Apps in Russia, IFX Reports
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russia Jails US Citizen Robert Woodland for 12-1/2 Years in Drug Trafficking Case
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russian Paratroop Commander Ordered Detained on Corruption Charges
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russian Pranksters Who Target Western Politicians Get State Award, Says RIA
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Russia's Ambassador to US Says His Assignment Coming to an End
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] The Kremlin Says India's Modi Will Visit Russia on July 8-9, Hold Talks With Putin
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Ukraine’s Army Retreats From Positions as Russia Gets Closer to Seizing Strategically Important Town
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Putin tells Xi Russia-China relations are at their 'best'
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Russian Regulator Encourages Use of Crypto to Counter Sanctions
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Putin Arrives in Kazakhstan for Russia-China Dominated SCO Summit
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Russia's Novorossiysk Authorities Limit Beach Access After Sea Drones Attacks
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Ukraine Not Ready to Compromise With Russia, Says Zelenskiy Aide
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Turkey's Erdogan Offers to Help End Russia-Ukraine War; Kremlin Rules Him Out as Intermediary
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] South Korea eyes nuclear arms as North allies with Russia
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Russia Turns to India Amid Medicine Shortage Crisis
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Russian Official Says Ukrainian Shelling of Russia's Belgorod Region Kills One, Injures 9
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Russia Sent Kilo Attack Submarine Toward Irish Sea Twice, Bloomberg News Reports
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Russia Shoots Down Five Aerial Targets Over Crimea, Governor Says
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Armenia scapegoats Russia for its own foreign policy failures
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Russia Says It Downed 36 Ukraine-Launched Drones Over Several Russian Regions
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Ukrainian Drones Attack Russian Steel Mill in Overnight Raid - Company
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Ukraine updates: 10 held by Russia, Belarus return to Kyiv
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Russian Attack on Southeastern Ukrainian Town Kills Seven, Officials Say
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] 12 Killed in Russian Attacks on Ukraine. Rescue Work Continues at Destroyed Apartment Building
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] 10 Ukrainians Held Prisoner for Years in Russia Return Home After Vatican Mediation
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] What Next After Putin Awards Sassou-Nguesso with Russian Medal?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Estonia to keep anti-Russia stance under new prime minister
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Putin Says Russia May Resume Global Deployment of Intermediate Range Missiles
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] One Killed, Six Injured in Russian Missile Attack on Ukraine's Dnipro
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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VOA News ☛ In Cambodia, reporting on illegal scam centers brings threats
Physical and online harassment, surveillance and legal threats related to media coverage have all been reported by local and foreign journalists.
Reporting on the centers, along with the associated allegations of fraud, human trafficking and other abuses is becoming a "risky endeavor," said American freelancer Danielle Keeton-Olsen.
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Environment
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Fungi are adapting to body heat — a 'doomsday scenario'
"The danger and importance of new fungal pathogens is believed to be seriously underestimated," wrote the study authors in a paper published in the journal Nature Microbiology.
There are also indications that rising temperatures are allowing fungi to mutate and become resistant to antifungal drugs.
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Deseret Media ☛ Uranium still poisoning Navajo people. But they can't stop the ore from coming
Despite Navajo Nation being granted federal funding and winning lawsuits against mining companies for damages, and years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice earmarked a $5.15 billion settlement for nationwide environmental cleanups — including about $1 billion to clean up 49 mine sites on Navajo lands, and efforts could take up to a century.
Even with the ongoing effects of uranium mining on the Navajo people, a new mine has opened just outside of the south rim of the Grand Canyon — and it will transport uranium ore across Navajo land, despite its prohibition by tribal law.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Alaska's top-heavy glaciers are approaching an irreversible tipping point
Our work, now published in Nature Communications, has shown that Juneau is an example of a climate "feedback" in action: as temperatures are rising, less and less snow is remaining through the summer (technically: the "end-of-summer snowline" is rising). This in turn leads to ice being exposed to sunshine and higher temperatures, which means more melt, less snow, and so on.
Like many Alaskan glaciers, Juneau's are top-heavy, with lots of ice and snow at high altitudes above the end-of-summer snowline. This previously sustained the glacier tongues lower down. But when the end-of-summer snowline does creep up to the top plateau, then suddenly a large amount of a top-heavy glacier will be newly exposed to melting.
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TMZ ☛ Serious Warning For Death Valley Visitors Ahead of Record Heat
The National Weather Service is warning the famed national park in California's Mojave Desert will become a legit inferno, amid a national heatwave, which means Death Valley could break its own record -- 130 degrees -- for the highest temperature ever reliably recorded ... and that's raising concerns for park officials.
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Wired ☛ The Supreme Court Is Gutting Protections for Clean Water and Safe Air
In its decision last week overturning Chevron deference—a crucial legal precedent that gives federal agencies the ability to interpret laws that are otherwise vague or ambiguous—the Supreme Court has taken the future of an incalculable number of regulations on public health, clean water, and clean air out of the hands of scientists for organizations like the EPA and passed it along to nonexpert judges who will hear challenges to these regulations in court.
“Anybody who doesn’t like a federal-agency regulation can now bring it before a court,” said Jillian Blanchard, a director at Lawyers for Good Government. “It’s scary.”
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Defence Web ☛ French senate report warns of growing threat of space debris pollution - defenceWeb
Several bodies monitor debris, such as the European Union’s Space Situational Awareness programme. However, the largest registry is Space Track, maintained by the US military. It has been partly public since the 2009 collision between Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33, and tracks more than 28 000 objects over 10 cm in size. Moreover, objects in low orbit eventually fall back to Earth due to the deceleration induced by the atmosphere, and between 10% and 40% of their mass survives re-entry. Even if the risk of collision with an individual is low, it does exist, as the proliferation of constellations increases the chance of collision with a human. This only adds to the environmental consequences of atmosphere re-entry, with most satellites ending up in the Pacific Ocean.
The report shows that space debris comes from a variety of sources:
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Japan: Deaths on Mount Fuji ahead of climbing season
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] Fatal heat wave sweeps Greece, claims more lives
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] How Spain's tourism industry is dealing with drought
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NL Times ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Studies show that the climate gains from using hydrogen decrease if it comes from far
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-29 [Older] Conflict Watch: Climate Change Shocks Ethiopia
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] California Legislature Votes to Ask Voters for Permission Borrow $20 Billion for Climate, Schools
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Tuvalu Should Deal with Climate Refugee Concerns
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Shark Eggs May Simply Stop Hatching Under Climate Change
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CBC ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Death of humpback whale in Nova Scotia river raises climate change questions
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Climate Crisis Deepens, When Will We Get It?
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The Age AU ☛ 2024-07-05 [Older] Is Australian red wine becoming more alcoholic because of climate change?
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] The new Catan board game tackles climate change. But will it be fun enough to stick?
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] China Combats Climate Change. The U.S., Not So Much
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Right-Wing Shift May Slow, Not Reverse Climate Action
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TruthOut ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Amid Climate Crisis, Global Warming Was Glossed Over in Presidential Debate
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Counter Punch ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Big Banks Break Their Climate Pledges by Promoting Big Meat
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Vox ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Hurricane Beryl is the terrifying storm that scientists have been expecting
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CBC ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Okanagan fruit farmers switch crops in attempt to salvage season
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NL Times ☛ 2024-07-02 [Older] Netherlands permitted by EU commission to spend 158 million euros on climate subsidies
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Energy/Transportation
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Canada to Start 30-Day Consultation to Impose Surtax on Chinese Electric Vehicles
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Several killed after train hits bus in southern Slovakia
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-30 [Older] Energy Transition: The Unforeseen Security Risks of Decarbonization
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-07-01 [Older] Amid growing worries about energy security and climate change, the South Caucasus countries adapt
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] Peru and Ecuador to Join Efforts on Security and Oil Integration
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-04 [Older] SoftBank Has Discussed Energy Project Funding With Banks, the Information Reports
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The Strategist ☛ Top secret cloud and AI loomerism
Australia is not far behind the herd. The US was the first of the Five Eyes to get a top secret cloud service. In 2013, the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract with AWS was worth a reported US$600 million over 10 years. In November 2021, the CIA awarded the successor program, Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E), to five vendors—AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle—for probably more than US$10 billion over 15 years. Britain was next in 2021, again with AWS, in a deal worth probably up to £1 billion over 10 years.
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VOA News ☛ Australia plans to build secret data centers with Amazon
The data centers are to be built in secret locations in Australia and be run by an Australian subsidiary of the U.S. technology company Amazon Web Service, the government said.
The deal is part of Australia’s National Defense Strategy, outlining its commitment to Indo-Pacific security and maintaining “the global rules-based order.” The country has a long-standing military alliance with the United States and is a member, with the United Kingdom, U.S., Canada and New Zealand, of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
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India Times ☛ Why is Amazon building a 'top secret' $2 billion cloud for Australia's military intelligence?
Amazon has secured a AUSD 2 billion contract with the Australian Signals Directorate - the agency responsible for foreign signals intelligence and information security. A local subsidiary of Amazon Web Services will build a Top Secret Cloud to provide secure data storage for military intelligence.
The deal will securely manage top secret data vital to Australia's national security. This contract is expected to last over a decade. It will build three secure data centres at undisclosed locations in Australia.
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Wildlife/Nature
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Overpopulation
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Sudan hunger spreads to capital and former breadbasket
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CBC ☛ Many Canadians in their 20s and 30s are delaying having kids — and some say high rent is a factor
But she would also like more space for a baby, as the 27-year-old and her partner currently live in a 500-square-foot apartment in Toronto's east end for $1,550 per month. Like many Canadians in their 20s and 30s, she says she's realizing she can't have both.
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Overpopulation ☛ New US population projection tool under construction
One of our more satisfying TOP projects over the years was creation of the TOP Grapher, by software developer Balázs Forián-Szabó. Built around policy-based EU population projections published in 2019, it allows visitors to see the impacts of changes in immigration and fertility rates on future population numbers for all 27 member countries of the EU, plus the UK and the EU as a whole.
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Finance
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Low productivity growth country's 'Achilles heel': Bank of Canada governor
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-23 [Older] She lied to get her twin daughters Inuit status and is about to be sentenced for fraud. Again.
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-24 [Older] Woman who defrauded Inuit organizations remanded into custody as she awaits sentence
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Germany sees divorce rate drop to lowest since 1990
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The Conversation ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] How divorce is boosting gender equality in Sweden – new study
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-25 [Older] Berlin museum pokes fun at Germany’s bureaucratic system
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Germany's citizenship reform takes effect
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] NATO selects Dutch Prime Minister Rutte as next boss
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] New NATO chief Mark Rutte faces balancing act
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] EU summit: Leaders back Von der Leyen for second term
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Germany: Net immigration sinks sharply in 2023
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Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Between Humanity and Security: Common European Asylum System Controversy
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] German Cabinet backs deportations for praise of terrorism
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] UN, Taliban talks: Why are Afghan women not invited?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-26 [Older] Clan crime in Germany: How dangerous is it really?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-06-27 [Older] Iran election: Can voters deliver an upset to hard-liners?
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Censorship/Free Speech
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VOA News ☛ Myanmar junta's VPN block poses 'major threat,' say analysts
Access to independent media has been tightly restricted in Myanmar since the military coup in 2021. But now, the junta is also blocking VPNs, in what analysts say marks an escalation in censorship.
The military — also known as the Tatmadaw — is now actively blocking virtual private networks, or VPNs, which help [Internet] users bypass restrictions to access websites, as well as social media and messaging platforms.
Analysts believe the junta may be using technology from a Chinese company to enforce the blocks.
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PC Mag ☛ Apple Shuts Down 25 VPN Apps in Russia Amid Putin's Internet Crackdown
Apple has removed 25 VPN apps from its App Store in Russia following a formal request from Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.
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[Repeat] Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chow Hang-tung denied bid to remove judge from national security trial
Chow has been detained since her arrest under the national security law since September 2021, which sparked the Alliance to disband. The national security trial will not commence this year.
The Alliance for three decades organised public memorials for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army quashed a student-led pro-democracy movement in Beijing.
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The Register UK ☛ Kremlin killed our VPN in Russian App store, claim devs
Updated At least two VPNs are no longer available for Russian iPhone users, seemingly after the Kremlin's [Internet] regulatory agency Roskomnadzor demanded Apple take them down.
Red Shield VPN, which is focused on providing its services to Russian users, claims it received a note from Apple that says its VPN was removed from the Russian App Store. The email, which the VPN operator shared on X, says Cupertino had to remove the app from the App Store in Russia since the software did not "conform with all local laws." This is after the Kremlin had apparently spent years trying technological approaches to block the use of the VPN.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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The American Prospect ☛ Julian Assange Did the Time, but Who Did the Crime? - The American Prospect
Assange’s “crime” was summed up by Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who told the press last week that “this deal contemplates that Assange will have served five years in prison for activities that journalists engage in every day.”
That is the consensus of almost all of the experts who have studied this case, including prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama, who investigated the case and decided that Assange could not be prosecuted, because of “the New York Times problem.” In other words, The New York Times would also have to be prosecuted for similar investigative reporting, something that caused alarm among editors at the most important U.S. newspapers.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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CBC ☛ 2024-06-22 [Older] South Asian newcomers to Canada say online hate is taking a toll
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Gizmodo ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] Dr. Disrespect's YouTube Channel Demonetized After He Admits to 'Inappropriate' Chat With Minor
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The Register UK ☛ FTC ban on noncompete clauses stayed by Texas court
A Texas federal judge issued an order [PDF] this week barring the FTC from enforcing its noncompete ban against tax prep firm Ryan LLC, the US Chamber of Commerce, and several other Texas business associations that sued the FTC over the matter in April, shortly after the Commission approved it. The rule is set to go into enforcement in September.
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The North Lines IN ☛ Dalai Lama turns 89; Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang attends birthday celebrations in Dharamsala
With the Dalai Lama ageing, concerns are being expressed over his successor. The Tibetans in exile fear that owing to large following of the Dalai Lama despite the fact that he has been in exile for more than 60 years now, the Chinese government might try to install its own Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama.
The Tibetan government in exile has time and again maintained that the Dalai Lama reserves the right to name his successor. Recently held convention of world parliamentarians in the US also supported the right of the Dalai Lama to name his successor.
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ Dalai Lama, Kailash Satyarthi write 'The Book of Compassion'
In "The Book of Compassion", two globally renowned spiritual and moral leaders reveal their vision for a globalised compassion that promotes freedom, joy, and inner peace, which sheds light on inequalities, injustice, climate change, the influence of Gandhi, ancient Indian and Tibetan knowledge systems, among many other things.
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US News And World Report ☛ As the Dalai Lama Turns 89, Exiled Tibetans Fear a Future Without Him
The incumbent Dalai Lama is a charismatic figure who popularised Buddhism internationally and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause in exile. Beijing sees him as a dangerous separatist, though he has embraced what he calls a "Middle Way" of peacefully seeking genuine autonomy and religious freedom within China.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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New Indian Express ☛ New Telecom Act: A missed opportunity for reform?
Certain provisions of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 came into effect on June 26, 2024, granting, among other things, the Indian government expanded powers to intercept communications and take temporary control of telecom networks in the interest of "public safety" or during emergencies.
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Zimbabwe ☛ TelOne partners OneWeb (Starlink competitor) and looks to slash fibre and ADSL prices too
Just over a month ago, Liquid, the largest IAP, partnered with OneWeb, one of Starlink’s biggest competitors in the low earth orbit satellite internet arena. We applauded the move, but Liquid wasn’t finished yet. Just over a week ago, they introduced more affordable unlimited packages.
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The Age AU ☛ With advertising dropping and mass job cuts, what does the future look like for Australia’s media and TV giants?
Australia’s largest media companies have started the new financial year on a sour note, with job losses and internal restructures fuelled by a protracted downturn in the advertising market.
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CBC ☛ Copper theft has been growing. The telecom industry wants tougher penalties
The number of incidents grew by about 200 per cent annually from 2021 to 2023, according to estimates from the Canadian Telecommunications Association. It says the service interruptions can become a matter of public safety when customers can't use their phones to call 911.
"It's not a victimless crime," said Eric Smith, senior vice-president of the Canadian Telecommunications Association.
Copper wire is typically used in traditional telephone and DSL internet lines, but thieves have been known to remove everything off a utility pole, including fibre-optic cables.
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Idiomdrottning ☛ Everyone must see everything
There are two kinds of protocols. Those where everyone must see everything (like Antenna and CAPCOM, and Twitter), and those where that’s not the case (like ActivityPub and email).
Here are three network layouts
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Alex Schroeder ☛ 2024-07-02 The importance of moderation
The spam problem arises when two systems “trust” each other and peer messages but one of the systems doesn’t act on abuse and moderation reports. Perhaps Usenet generated too much of a workload for system administrators so they stopped following up on those reports. Perhaps some servers had become too big to ban.
I think we have the exact same problems with fedi. Some instances seem too big to defederate from.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Spotify, Apple, & Amazon Top 90% U.S. Streaming Market Share
With this pertinent background information out of the way, Spotify (36%), Apple Music (30.7%), and Amazon Music (23.8%) boasted a cumulative 90.5% subscriber market share in the U.S. as of February of 2024.
Though it perhaps goes without saying, at the top level, the figures underscore the services’ considerable stateside presence despite stiff competition from, among others, YouTube Music. Somewhat surprisingly given the reach of YouTube proper, YouTube Music had an estimated 6.8% U.S. market share as of February.
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] European Union's Competition Boss Signals Fresh AI Scrutiny for Microsoft-OpenAI Deal and Google
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US News And World Report ☛ 2024-07-03 [Older] Microsoft Will Pay $14M to Settle Allegations It Discriminated Against Employees Who Took Leave
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India Times ☛ Apple okays Epic Games marketplace app in Europe
Before Apple's announcement, Epic said the iPhone maker had twice rejected documents the video-game publisher submitted to launch the Epic Games Store because the design of certain buttons and labels was similar to those used by its App Store.
"We are using the same "Install" and "In-app purchases" naming conventions that are used across popular app stores on multiple platforms, and are following standard conventions for buttons in iOS apps," Epic said in a series of posts on X.
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The Register UK ☛ Epic accuses Apple of breaking DMA after denying storefront
After the introduction of the DMA in March, Epic Games announced it would be bringing its own sales portal, imaginatively dubbed the Epic Games Store, to iOS to compete against Apple and avoid paying the usual commission to Cupertino, something allowed in the DMA rules. But it seems Apple is dragging its feet.
"Apple has rejected our Epic Games Store notarization submission twice now," Epic said on X, "claiming the design and position of Epic's 'Install' button is too similar to Apple's 'Get' button and that our 'In-app purchases' label is too similar to the App Store's 'In-App Purchases' label."
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Silicon Angle ☛ Reversing course, Apple approves Epic Games’ iOS game store
Apple Inc. today gave Epic Games Inc. the go-ahead to make its video game marketplace available for iOS users in the European Union.
The decision comes hours after Epic accused the iPhone maker of rejecting the app. In conjunction, Epic announced plans to share its concerns about the matter with the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm. Last month, the EU tentatively found that Apple had breached the bloc’s competition rules with its app distribution rules.
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Patents
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Software Patents
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The Register UK ☛ China filed most Gen AI patents since 2013
The Org's Patent Landscape Report – Generative Artificial Intelligence, delivered on Wednesday, found 733 patent families – sets of patents related to a single invention and with the same technical content – on GenAI in 2014 ballooning to more than 14,000 in 2023.
Scientific papers on the topic also exploded – from 116 in 2014 to more than 34,000 in 2023. A quarter of all GenAI patents, and over 45 percent of all GenAI scientific papers, were published in 2023 alone.
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Copyrights
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Make Tech Easier ☛ 2024-06-28 [Older] OpenAI, Microsoft Sued for Copyright Violations
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Torrent Freak ☛ U.S. Universities Warn Students about Limewire and Kazaa... in 2024
By law, American colleges and universities have to warn students about the piracy-related dangers of file-sharing software. These institutions take their obligations very seriously, as warnings for long defunct software such as LimeWire and Kazaa are still prevalent. Also making an appearance in 2024 are BearShare, Blubster, eDonkey, Gnucleus, Shareaza and others.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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