Links 24/08/2024: Journalists Culled Through Social Control Media, Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Arrested in France
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- 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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Science Alert ☛ Surprise! Many of Us Have 'Hidden' Perfect Pitch Without Knowing It
Breaking down the stats from the team at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), 44.7 percent of the recordings had a zero pitch error margin, while 68.9 percent were accurate within one semitone of the original tune (that's the smallest of musical intervals, for the non-musicians).
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CBC ☛ There's an air guitar world championship — and this Canadian just won
This year's challenge began Wednesday with Airientation in Oulu, Finland, a city nearly 540 kilometres north of Helsinki, and was headlined by a class open to veterans and new guitarists alike. The Dark Horses Qualifications followed on Thursday, culminating with the World Championships Final on Friday night.
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Science
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Science Alert ☛ Tardigrades Trapped in Amber Reveal Secrets From Millions of Years Ago
Humans have recovered just four tardigrade specimens that became trapped in oozy, stick tree resin that hardened into amber, dating back nearly 150 million years. These are highly prized: they can shed some light on tardigrade evolution and, perhaps, their absolutely epic survival skills.
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CS Monitor ☛ NASA: Stranded astronauts must wait until 2025 for ride home
After months of tests and debate, NASA decided test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come back in a SpaceX capsule in February. Their empty Boeing Starliner capsule will attempt to return on autopilot in early September.
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Arthur O'Dwyer ☛ Make things simpler than possible
In this Knuth differs from Einstein, who famously said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” (Well, sort of. In On the Method of Theoretical Physics (1933) he wrote: “[T]he supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”) Knuth, on the other hand, says that you should make things simpler than possible, at least at first, because that’s the best way to plant the seed of understanding.
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Hardware
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New York Times ☛ Not Only for Killing: Drones Are Now Detecting Land Mines in Ukraine
Ukraine is a beta test for embedding artificial intelligence and other new technologies in drones and robots to find deadly land mines, saving lives and allowing military forces to advance more quickly.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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TruthOut ☛ Plastic Is Building Up in Our Brain
The health hazards of microplastics within the human body are not yet well-known. Recent studies are just beginning to suggest these particles could increase the risk of various conditions such as oxidative stress, which can lead to cell damage and inflammation, as well as cardiovascular disease.
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University of Michigan ☛ The five stages of online grief in context of tragedy
In 1969, psychiatrist and near-death studies pioneer Elisabeth Kübler-Ross defined what she called the five stages of grief in her book “On Death and Dying,” taken from her observations of terminally ill patients processing their impending deaths. The Kübler-Ross model initially extrapolated these experiences from the patients, then extended it to those who processed their loss. Today, loss and grief fill our social media feeds, often following the same patterns. We will apply these patterns in a general framework before elaborating on specific examples. Above all, I hope this can help.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Futurism ☛ Startup Alarmed When Its AI Starts Rickrolling Clients
Though he's not entirely sure how it happened, the Lindy CEO and founder told TechCrunch that he has a theory about how his AI assistants figured out how to execute this specific brand of [Internet] humor.
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India Times ☛ California artificial intelligence bill divides Silicon Valley
A bill aimed at regulating powerful artificial intelligence models is under consideration in California's legislature, despite outcry that it could kill the technology it seeks to control.
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India Times ☛ Meta, Spotify CEOs take aim at European AI regulations
Europe, which "has more open-source developers than America", is well placed to make the most of the open-source AI wave, the CEOs said in a joint statement on Friday. "Yet its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers." The CEOs said the tech industry in Europe faces "overlapping regulations and inconsistent guidance on how to comply with them" instead of clear rules.
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NDTV ☛ Porn Video Runs On Ad Board At Delhi's Connaught Place, Case Filed
But this is not the first time a glitch like this has been reported. A similar incident occurred last year in Bihar, where a porn clip was played at Patna railway station on the display screen meant for advertisements. The Railway Protection Force stepped in and stopped the footage.
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The Korea Times ☛ Telegram chief Pavel Durov arrested at French airport: officials
France's OFMIN, an agency tasked with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov as the coordinating agency in a preliminary investigation into alleged offenses including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime and promotion of terrorism, one of the sources close to the case said.
Durov is suspected of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform.
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VOA News ☛ CEO of Telegram messaging app arrested in France, say French media
Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Durov. He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.
Durov was traveling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.
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The Guardian UK ☛ Telegram app founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested at French airport
The Russia-born entrepreneur lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates.
Durov, who is estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5bn (£12bn), left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.
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Reuters ☛ Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France
The encrypted Telegram, with close to one billion users, is particularly influential in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.
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Jerusalem Post ☛ Pavel Durov, Telegram founder, arrested by France following warrant - The Jerusalem Post
Durov, 39, was said to have been arrested at 8pm French time, having flown in from Azerbaijan. The warrant on Durov was only valid if he was on French soil. As a result, TF1 reported that Durov traveled via the UAE, former Soviet countries and South America to avoid arrest in Europe. He also reportedly avoided traveling through countries where Telegram is under surveillance.
"He made a big mistake this evening," a source close to the investigation told TF1. "We don't know why... Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he's in custody."
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The Moscow Times ☛ Telegram Boss Pavel Durov Detained in France – French Media - The Moscow Times
It has become a key platform for sharing information about the war in Ukraine and is reportedly used by the Russian military to communicate.
"Telegram is the main social media network through which open-source information [sic] is spread about the war. That includes footage but also opinions and analysis from Russian and Ukrainian military sources. A significant change to Telegram's policies could have a significant effect on the information domain for this war," military expert Rob Lee said on X (formerly Twitter).
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The Hindu ☛ Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport
Telegram allows groups of up to 2,00,000 members, which has led to accusations that it makes it easier for false information to spread virally
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Reuters ☛ Who is Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging app Telegram?
* Russia began blocking Telegram in 2018 after the app refused to comply with a court order to grant state security services access to its users' encrypted messages. The action had little effect on the availability of Telegram there, but it sparked mass protests in Moscow and criticism from NGOs. * Telegram's increasing popularity, however, has prompted scrutiny from several countries in Europe, including France, on security and data breach concerns. In May, the EU tech regulators said they were in touch with Telegram as it neared a key usage criterion that could see it subject to more stringent requirements under a landmark EU online content legislation.
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NYPost ☛ Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at Paris airport: report
Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested at an airport in Paris Saturday after getting off his private jet, according to French media reports.
The billionaire Russian exile was arrested at around 8p.m. at Le Bourget airport by french cops after flying in from Azerbaijan, French outlet TF1 Info reported.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France
French police arrested Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, at Le Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday.
Durov was arrested on a warrant for offenses related to the popular messaging app, the AFP news agency reported, citing unnamed officials.
According to French broadcaster TF1, Durov was traveling aboard his private jet from Azerbaijan and was arrested around 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT).
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Axios ☛ Shedding light on AI's black box
Catch up quick: Unlike computer programs that use a set of rules to produce the same output each time they are given one input, genAI models find patterns in vast amounts of data and produce multiple possible answers from a single input.
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India Times ☛ Anthropic says California AI bill's benefits likely outweigh costs
California's proposed bill on AI regulation, SB 1047, advanced by State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, mandates safety testing for many of the most advanced AI models that cost more than $100 million to develop or those that require a defined amount of computing power.
Developers of AI software operating in the state would need to outline methods for turning off the AI models if they go awry, effectively a kill switch. The bill would also give the state attorney general the power to sue if developers are not compliant.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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Simon Willison ☛ Musing about OAuth and LLMs on Mastodon
Lots of people are asking why Anthropic and OpenAI don't support OAuth, so you can bounce users through those providers to get a token that uses their API budget for your app.
My guess: they're worried malicious app developers would use it to trick people and obtain valid API keys.
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Confidentiality
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Simon Willison ☛ Top companies ground Microsoft Copilot over data governance concerns
The concern here isn’t the usual fear of data leaked to the model or prompt injection security concerns. It’s something much more banal: it turns out many companies don’t have the right privacy controls in place to safely enable these tools.
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[Repeat] Security Week ☛ FBI Fails to Secure Sensitive Storage Media Destined for Destruction, Audit Reveals
The Federal Bureau of Investigation fails to properly label, store, and secure decommissioned electronic storage media containing sensitive information, a new report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) shows.
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Defence/Aggression
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New York Times ☛ Russia Quashes Deadly Prison Mutiny by Islamist Inmates
Inmates claiming to be motivated by radical [sic] Islam and armed with makeshift knives and an explosive vest briefly took control of Penal Colony No. 19 in the southern Volgograd region, according to videos posted on social media and verified by The New York Times. The Russian prison service said four guards had been killed and three injured in the attack.
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YLE ☛ Border Guard catches illegal border crossing suspect
Earlier this summer, Parliament approved amendments to the Border Act, which allow the Finnish Border Guard to refuse to accept asylum applications under certain circumstances.
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BoingBoing ☛ TikTok's bizarre priorities: Blurring cigarettes but allowing Nazi propaganda
Bad news: lots of Nazi imagery and propaganda is flowing freely on social media. But the good news: we don't have to suffer anything as profoundly upsetting as seeing people smoke. Thanks, TikTok.
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The Moscow Times ☛ Police ‘Neutralize’ 4 Inmates After Hostage Standoff at Volgograd Region Prison
Knife-wielding inmates killed at least three Russian prison guards Friday in a prison siege, officials said, with the assailants having apparent connections to the Islamic State (IS) group.
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ Islamic State group claims responsibility for knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed 3
Wüst described the attack as “an act of terror against the security and freedom of this country.” But Faeser, the country’s top security official, hasn’t classified it as a “terror attack.”
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CBC ☛ ISIS claims responsibility for fatal knife attack at German festival; suspect arrested after manhunt
ISIS, a militant Islamist group, claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack at a festival in Solingen, Germany, that killed three people and wounded eight others at a crowded festival marking the city's 650th anniversary.
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France24 ☛ Islamic State group claims responsibility for deadly knife attack in Solingen, Germany
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the knife attack in Solingen, Germany, that killed three people and wounded at least eight others, saying in a statement on its Telegram account that it was "in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere".
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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El País ☛ Karl Kraus: To understand Trump, read the journalist who saw Hitler coming
Trump uttered over 30,000 lies in his first term, according to The Washington Post. To understand how he has dissolved the relationship between accountability and public discourse, no need to look further than the Financial Times which quoted what an evangelical leader said about Trump days after Biden’s catastrophic debate on CNN: “As President of the United States, he kept every single promise he made to us.” The next day, FT journalist Martin Wolf pointed out that Trump’s ability “to define the truth for his followers is an example of the Führerprinzip — the idea that the leader defines the truth.” Wolf is alluding here to German jurist Carl Schmitt, one of the most influential thinkers on the new right, and his essay, The Fuhrer Protects the Law. Whoever believes that the analogy is an exaggeration, and that Trump does not even have a Schmitt, should know that perhaps Adrian Vermeule, the Harvard professor who promotes an “illiberal legalism” will suffice. The Supreme Court has already said that Trump is above the law.
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Environment
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn
Much of the climate movement is now pouring its energies into combating disinformation. But this focus fails to address real concerns about a green transition and obscures what is needed to win the public over to effective climate action.
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LRT ☛ Vilnius to spend €1.5m on graffiti clean-up
The authorities of Vilnius are starting a 1.54-million-euro effort to clean unsanctioned graffiti. The city plans to remove 220,000 square metres of drawings from buildings, walls, and infrastructure.
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Energy/Transportation
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Wired ☛ Will the ‘Car-Free’ Los Angeles Olympics Work?
When LA hosted the Games in 1932, it had an extensive public transportation system, with buses and an extensive network of electric streetcars. Today, the trolleys are long gone; riders say city buses don’t come on schedule, and bus stops are dirty. What happened?
This question fascinates me because I am a business professor who studies why society abandons and then sometimes returns to certain technologies, such as vinyl records, landline phones, and metal coins. The demise of electric streetcars in Los Angeles and attempts to bring them back today vividly demonstrate the costs and challenges of such revivals.
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Vintage Everyday ☛ Leola King, America’s First Female Traffic Cop
In 1918, thirty female traffic officers were hired in Washington D.C. Leola was one of the first to hit the street. Her job kept things moving in the nation’s capital. At that time, horse-drawn carriages were still in use, and early cars were still sparse but catching on. Henry Ford’s Model T made its debut around 1908.
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Overpopulation
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The Hill ☛ Time is running out to solve the Colorado River water crisis
The Colorado River supplies water to roughly 35 million people in the American West and in Mexico. A mosaic of compacts, treaties, statutes and rules dating back to 1922, known as “The Law of the River,” divides the river’s water between the seven U.S. states in the Colorado River Basin and Mexico. The secretary of the Interior, through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, exercises control over reservoir operations.
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Finance
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General Motors Faces Backlash Over Recent Layoffs
The layoffs had a worldwide impact, with approximately 600 workers affected in Warren, Michigan, where GM’s tech campus is located. This campus is home to over 21,000 employees.
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Animation Studio Nelvana Cuts Top Exec, Pauses Development and Undergoes Layoffs
Animation powerhouse Nelvana, which has produced and distributed some of the biggest names in kid’s TV content over 50 years, is losing its studio production head amid a wave of cost-cutting by parent Corus Entertainment.
Nelvana Studios vp Athena Georgaklis, whose TV credits as development and production head include The Hardy Boys, Miss Persona and Camp Lakebottom, is set to leave Corus on July 26. Toronto-based Nelvana, producer of classic children’s series like Barney, Franklin, Babar and Rolie Polie Olie, is also hitting the brakes on content development for the rest of 2024.
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Digital Trends ☛ Activision canceled Crash Bandicoot 5, which was a Spyro crossover
The video, which Liam Robertson produced for Did You Know Gaming?, begins with a recap of the studio’s history through Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. One of the most notable revelations from this part of the video is that Crash Bandicoot 4 started development as an asymmetrical multiplayer game codenamed Lava and referred to as Wumpa League. After creating some single-player tutorial levels for Wumpa League, the team pivoted to creating a single-player adventure. It developed Crash Bandicoot 4 in just 18 months, working on Wumpa League on and off alongside it.
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Roy Tang ☛ Mobile Banking
I dislike using mobile banking apps for several reasons: [...]
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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RFK Jr. suspends his campaign and backs Donald Trump. Quelle surprise.
After all this time, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by anything that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. does, and, for the most part, I’m not. Given all the foreshadowing and hints dropped by RFK Jr.’s running mate last week, I’m even less surprised that yesterday, the antivaxxer turned Presidential candidate did the most RFK Jr. thing ever and decided to suspend his presidential campaign and endorse Donald Trump for President, even appearing with Trump at a campaign rally: [...]
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TruthOut ☛ It’s No Surprise RFK Jr. Endorsed Trump — They’re Backed by the Same Billionaire
Timothy Mellon has poured over $165 million into the election so far, giving tens of millions to both Trump and Kennedy.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Where exactly are all the AI jobs?
Generative AI skills, or the ability to build algorithms that produce text, images or other data when prompted, were sought after most, with nearly 60% of AI-related jobs requiring those skills. Large language modeling, or building technology that can generate and translate text, was second in demand, with 18% of AI jobs citing the need for those skills.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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BIA Net ☛ Court blocks social media accounts of two Kurdish journalists
Öznur Değer and Deniz Tekin, a judicial correspondent for the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), are the journalists affected by the decision.
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[Repeat] Off Guardian ☛ How (and why) they sell X as a “bastion of free speech”
What equally can’t be ignored is the massive proliferation of ads and porn bots and the same gifs and videos clogging every discussion. Monetisation has led to an avalanche of accounts farming engagement with blatant clickbait, ragebait, cutebait….just, all the bait.All the while, these newly unpleasant facets of X are being brandished by the pro-censorship “left”, and used to discredit the very idea of free speech in general.
All the while, these newly unpleasant facets of X are being brandished by the pro-censorship “left”, and used to discredit the very idea of free speech in general.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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ANF News ☛ Yazidi journalists: Turkey’s attacks will not stop us
Speaking here, free press worker Rojbîn Hebabî said the following: “Journalists are targeted by the occupying Turkish state because they reveal the truth. We state hereby that the attacks of the Turkish state will not stop us. On the contrary, every attack will strengthen us. Every martyrdom raises our determination to struggle and makes our voice sound even stronger.”
Journalist Ibrahim Êzidî stated that the KDP had a hand in the attack in Sulaymaniyah, which, he said, was a result of the agreement between Iraq and Turkey.
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VOA News ☛ Dozens protest Iraq drone strike that killed two journalists
The Friday bombing killed Gulistan Tara, 40, a Kurdish journalist from Turkey and Hero Bahadin, 27, an Iraqi-Kurdish video editor, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Another person was also injured.
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CBC ☛ Postmedia begins takeover of parts of SaltWire Network
Atlantic Canada's largest newspaper chain has been under court protection since March, when its largest creditor forced the company into insolvency.
SaltWire publishes newspapers in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, including the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Cape Breton Post and the St. John's Telegram.
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BIA Net ☛ Journalists killed in suspected Turkish airstrike in Iraq’s Kurdistan region
Condemning the killing of the journalists as a violation of international law, Talabani described it as an "unjust crime" and strongly denounced the act. He also called for an end to such attacks, labeling them as "a violation of Iraq's sovereignty" and "a serious threat targeting civilian life in the Kurdistan Region."
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ANF News ☛ Women journalists call for action to end the attacks against the Free Press
Media workers and journalists attending the press conference held by the Women's Press Union (YRJ) in Qamishlo spoke to ANF about the attack and called on relevant institutions and organisations defending the right to journalism to take action.
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ANF News ☛ Ala Talabani: The targeting of journalists is an unacceptable attack
Ala Talabani, a former Iraqi parliamentarian, made a statement regarding the attack carried out by a Turkish UCAV against journalists in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Friday, which resulted in the martyrdom of Gulistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ Taliban imposes new restrictions on women, bans public speaking
Women are now required to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, in public to prevent temptation and avoid tempting others. As a result, the commonly worn hijab, which covers only the hair and neck without covering the face, is no longer deemed acceptable, Global News reported.
Women are now prohibited from singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public, as a woman's voice is considered "intimate" and should not be heard. It is not clear whether speaking is also prohibited.
Additionally, the laws state that women are not allowed to look at men who are not related to them by blood or marriage, and vice versa.
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Air Force Times ☛ Ex-sheriff’s deputy charged in fatal shooting of Florida airman
After repeated knocking, Fortson opened the door while holding his handgun at his side, pointed down. Authorities say that Duran shot him multiple times; only then did he tell Fortson to drop the gun.
Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran on May 31 after an internal investigation concluded his life was not in danger when he opened fire.
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NPR ☛ Navajo, Arizona attorney general question safety of newly reopened uranium mine
The monument designation permanently banned new uranium mining claims on nearly a million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park and blocks what could have been hundreds of new operations in an area that is culturally significant to the Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo and others.
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VOA News ☛ Iran tries to downplay hijab connection to police shooting of woman
Iran is seeking to limit outrage over a recent police shooting that seriously wounded a 31-year-old woman in her car after rights activists alleged she had been targeted for refusing to wear a mandatory hijab.
Iranian state news site Tasnim published a video Monday of Arezou Badri, a mother of two, as she lay in a hospital bed in Tehran. Rights activists have said she was left partially paralyzed after police opened fire on her vehicle as she was driving with her sister in northern Iran’s Mazandaran province on July 22.
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RFERL ☛ The Azadi Briefing: Thousands Of Afghans Detained By Taliban's Morality Police
Why It's Important: The Taliban's religious police have been accused of creating a "climate of fear and intimidation" in Afghanistan.
The force has publicly punished offenders, often violently. Men and women convicted of violating the Taliban's morality laws have been jailed or publicly flogged, often in fields or sports venues.
"We are terrified and cannot celebrate anything," said a resident of the northern province of Parwan, where the Taliban publicly destroyed confiscated musical instruments on August 20.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Science Alert ☛ Hidden Undersea Avalanches Are A Big Problem For The Internet
Yet these phenomena pose a hazard to our global communication networks. The proliferation of the internet has required an ever-expanding network of fibre-optic seabed cables, which carry practically all global internet traffic.
My new study of an ancient underwater avalanche challenges our understanding of how underwater avalanches develop and may change the way geologists assess their risk potential.
It is estimated that there are now over 550 active seafloor cables around the world with a combined length of 1.4 million km – enough to wrap around the circumference of the Earth 35 times.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Faces Cancellation Refund Scrutiny in South Korea: Report
The Korea Economic Daily reported on this latest regulatory initiative from South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which has zeroed in on K-pop agencies’ sales practices, YouTube Music’s bundled offerings, and more throughout the past year or so.
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The Register UK ☛ Apple makes concessions on browser options in EU
Open Web Advocacy (OWA), a group formed to advance the interests of web developers, welcomed Apple's concessions, noting that the iPhone maker has adopted six of its 11 recommendations to meet the DMA requirements.
What's more, Apple has dropped what OWA characterizes as "two severe and deliberate deceptive patterns" that put competing browsers at a disadvantage. One of these patterns hid the option to change the default browser when Safari was set as the default. The other triggered the browser choice screen only when Safari was not the default browser. That's good news for Euro users.
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ Google Has Been Convicted of Monopolization. Will It Matter?
The decision, the result in part of the Biden administration’s relatively aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, amounts to a landmark verdict, similar in many ways to the 2001 ruling that found Microsoft guilty of monopolistic conduct. Yet if that case is any indication, Google is unlikely to face serious consequences — nor is it plausible that antitrust remedies really address the biggest problems with the search giant.
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UNIXdigest ☛ There is only one reason why Microsoft Windows is the dominating operating system on the PC desktop
There is only one reason and that is the fact that almost no matter where you go to buy a new desktop or laptop PC, Microsoft Windows is the default operating system installed and supported on the PC.
It has been so for more than two decades. In fact, it is so "bad" that I cannot count the number of times when I have worked as a consultant or doing support, that I have met people who think that a PC is synonym with Windows. They believe that Windows is an integral part of the PC and know nothing about running other operating systems on the device.
Another reason, and this is something that most people born after about the year 2000 and later don't know, is that Microsoft worked really hard and with a very hostile attitude against the distribution of Linux.
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Trademarks
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Manuel Moreale ☛ Thoughts on symbols
Yesterday this proposal for a new symbol for the fediverse was making the rounds. People made comments on it. People always make comments. We all do. Some liked it, some thought it reminds a bunch of snowflakes (it kinda does), others think it’s not bad but the old one is better. Every time someone “rebrands” something this type of reaction is pretty common. My first thought when I saw it was “Does the fediverse need a symbol?”.
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Copyrights
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PoliticusUSA LLC ☛ The Isaac Hayes Estate Granted Emergency Hearing In Lawsuit Against Trump
Trump has ignored requests by the estate of Isaac Hayes to stop using the song Hold On I’m Coming for years. The estate argues that Trump has been using the song without a license or permission since 2022. Given Trump’s extensive history of fraud, and his criminal record, the courts are taking this egregious and repeated theft of intellectual [sic] property [sic] seriously.
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Court Listener ☛ Isaac Hayes Enterprises, LLC v. Trump (1:24-cv-03639)
8. Upon information and belief, Defendants Mr. Trump and the Trump Campaign began publicly performing the Copyrighted Work in 2020 as “outro” music for appearances and campaign events.
9. Upon information and belief, a cease-and-desist letter was sent to the Trump campaign in 2020 by non-parties Universal Music Group and Warner Chappell Music, publishers contracted by Plaintiff Issac Hayes Enterprises.
10. Defendants have never sought the permission or consent of Plaintiffs for any use of the Copyrighted Work until 2024, nor have they obtained a valid public performance license for the same at any point.
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Justine Tunney ☛ AI Training Shouldn't Erase Authorship
Is this the future we want? Imagine if Isaac Newton's name was erased, but the calculus textbooks remained. If we dehumanize knowledge in this manner, then we risk breaking one of the fundamental pillars that's enabled science and technology to work in our society these last 500 years. I've yet to meet a scientist, aside from maybe Satoshi Nakamoto, who prefers to publish papers anonymously. I'm not sure if I would have gotten into coding when I was a child if I couldn't have role models like Linus Torvalds to respect. He helped me get where I am today, breathing vibrant life into the digital form of a new kind of child. So if these AIs like Claude are learning from my code, then what I want is for Claude to know and remember that I helped it. This is actually required by the ISC license.
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TMZ ☛ Foo Fighters Rip Donald Trump For Using 'Hero' Without Permission at Rally
Once the Foo caught wind of the wild scene in AZ, the band sent Trump a clear message: Don't do that!
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Torrent Freak ☛ ACE Goes After Fmovies Sister Site 'Successors'
Popular pirate streaming site Fmovies shut down this summer, with several sister sites following suit. These sites were redirected to new streaming portals, purportedly operated by different individuals. This caught the attention of anti-piracy group ACE, which obtained a DMCA subpoena this week to unmask the people behind these new sites.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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