Links 22/01/2025: "The AI Bubble Is Bursting" and Microsoft's Scam Altman is Already Looking for De Facto Bailout From the Insurrectionist
Contents
- Leftovers
- Events
- Science
- Career/Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- 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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404 Media ☛ Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy
If it wasn’t already obvious, the last 72 hours have made it crystal clear that it is urgent to build and mainstream alternative, decentralized social media platforms that are resistant to government censorship and control, are not owned by oligarchs and dominated by their algorithms, and in which users own their follower list and can port it elsewhere easily and without restriction.
Besides all of the “normal” problems with corporate social media—the surveillance capitalism, the AI spam, the opaque algorithms—let’s take stock of what has happened in the last few days.
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TechTea ☛ Mindful Consumption: A No/Low Buy Year
With prices likely to skyrocket in the U.S. due to upcoming tariffs and most products being garbage anyway I figured this year will be one where I try to cut back on spending. That is not to say I won’t buy anything or even forgo every luxury, but I want to be more mindful about what I spend my money on this year.
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Austin Kleon ☛ 3 tricks for self-editing - Austin Kleon
I would love to be a swooper and just blurt out a first draft, quickly, knowing I will fix it later. But I just can’t. I like to sit down and have one clean go at it, sentence by sentence.
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Events
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Unicorn Media ☛ Everything Open: Grass Roots Tech Australian Style
Late last night, when it was early the next afternoon in the land down under, our Christine Hall was virtually down home Australian style!
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Science
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Rlang ☛ Just got a paper on conformal prediction REJECTED by International Journal of Forecasting despite evidence on 30,000 time series (and more). What’s going on? Part2: 1311 time series from the Tourism competition
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Science Alert ☛ The Martian Dichotomy: Red Planet's Giant Riddle Finally Solved
"Perhaps the greatest mystery of the Solar System."
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Science Alert ☛ Depersonalization Disorder: What We Know About Mysterious Condition
"Viewing the world from very far away."
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Science Alert ☛ 'Ghost' Island Emerges From Ocean – And It's About to Vanish Again
"What is even more amazing is that nobody seemed to notice!"
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Science Alert ☛ AI Combed Millions of Images of The Arctic. It Found an Alarming Pattern.
"These glaciers are shrinking faster than ever."
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Science Alert ☛ This Is Why You Can't Hula Hoop, According to Science
The shape of you.
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Science Alert ☛ Supermassive Black Hole Caught Doing Something Never Seen Before
What's it up to?
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YLE ☛ Finland signs Artemis Accords, pledging peaceful space exploration
The Artemis programme has a short-term goal of returning humans to the moon, while future plans involve establishing a base on the lunar surface, according to [NASA].
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Career/Education
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ St. Paul, other big districts cancel Tuesday classes because of cold weather
Tuesday’s frigid forecast had nearly every metro-area school district calling off classes. The National Weather Service expects wind chills to reach 32 below zero when buses would have been picking up students Tuesday morning.
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Tracy Durnell ☛ Guiding principles for my website
I saw someone* share a list of guiding principles for their website they described as “Core Website Tenets,” and I love the idea of codifying my approach to my website. Some are operational, some are aspirational, some are decision points if I’m on the fence.
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Dhole Moments ☛ Too Many People Don’t Value the Time of Security Researchers
But the tech industry holds such little regard to independent security researchers, and values their time so poorly, that it’s no wonder so many would-be hackers feel discouraged from ever learning.
So, I must ask tech workers (especially programmers… and yes, including open source developers) the whole world over to listen for a minute–not for my sake, but for the collateral damage you might be inflicting on newcomers without realizing it.
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Hardware
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CNX Software ☛ M5Stack LLM630 Compute Kit features Axera AX630C Edge Hey Hi (AI) SoC for on-device LLM and computer vision processing [Ed: They're branding hardware with buzzwords now, hoping to compete based on lies]
M5Stack LLM630 Compute Kit is an Edge Hey Hi (AI) development platform powered by Axera Tech AX630C Hey Hi (AI) SoC with a 3.2 TOPS NPU designed to run computer vision (CV) and large language model (LLM) tasks at the edge, in other words, on the device itself without access to the clown
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Tom's Hardware ☛ US Hey Hi (AI) Diffusion Policy may harm Nvidia's sales — most of the chipmaker's Hey Hi (AI) GPUs are affected
If the new U.S. export rules become effective, they will affect sales of all Nvidia GPUs to most countries.
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European Commission ☛ EU challenges China at WTO on royalties for EU high-tech sector
European Commission Press release Brussels, 20 Jan 2025 The European Commission has requested consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) aiming to remove unfair and illegal trade practices by China in the sphere of intellectual property.
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Hackaday ☛ Smallest USB Device… So Far
For better or worse it seems to be human nature to compete with one another, as individuals or teams, rather than experience contentedness while moving to the woods and admiring nature Thoreau-style. On the plus side, competition often results in benefits for all of us, driving down costs for everything from agriculture to medical care to technology. Although perhaps a niche area of competition, the realm of “smallest USB device” seems to have a new champion: this PCB built by [Emma] that’s barely larger than the USB connector pads themselves.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ E-ink screen performance hits 60 Hz with 10.3-inch portable touchscreen monitor from Dasung
Chinese e-ink manufacturer Dasung just launched the Paperlike 103, a 10.3-inch e-ink display that boasts a 60 Hz refresh rate, lifting e-ink screens to par with many LED screens on the market in terms of refresh rate. According to Chinese tech outlet Sina (machine translated), this new portable device offers a 1,874 x 1,404 pixels resolution, giving it a 4:3 aspect ratio which is great for productivity tasks like reading and typing. It also sports a front light with adjustable brightness and color temperature, helping you avoid eyestrain when looking at the screen for extended periods.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Bambu Lab: We’re not Bricking Your X1-Carbon
Bambu Lab said it regrets the misunderstanding and wants users to know that it has no intention of forcing users into a closed ecosystem. It also clarified that the firmware is still in beta testing, and feedback is welcome.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Science Alert ☛ Study Finds Coffee Linked to Lower Risk of Dementia, But There's a Catch
The daily grind matters.
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New Yorker ☛ The Attention Crisis Is Just a Distraction
From the pianoforte to the smartphone, each wave of tech has sparked fears of brain rot. But the problem isn’t our ability to focus—it’s what we’re focussing on.
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Science Alert ☛ Ozempic: Weight-Loss Drug's Benefits And Risks Revealed in New Study
A milestone in our understanding.
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Science Alert ☛ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has Surged Since The Pandemic, Study Reveals
Everything has changed.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-15 [Older] Novel antibiotics: Regional research is (half) the solution
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Roy Tang ☛ Have You Done The Best You Can?
One day at a time. Focus only on what matters. This too shall pass.
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Cory Dransfeldt ☛ Goodbye commercial social media
I've been almost entirely off of corporate social media for years now. I closed my last holdout account this past week.
That holdout, of all things, was LinkedIn. I held on to it for reasons that felt like an obligation, but I never really got anything out of it.
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Andrea Contino ☛ Unbearable
I have started asking around to friends for their xml files of their RSS feeds. I want to "nourish" myself with value. I want to try to hope that there will be more and more people willing to get off this madness and create their own space, where they can be themselves.
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CBC ☛ Need a simple way to destress? Stop and notice nature, experts say
She says if you simply take a moment to notice every bit of nature around you — whether it's a tree at the bus stop, a bird in the backyard, or the plants on your desk — you can feel a spark of joy, connectedness, hope and gratitude.
In January, she launched a study with about 150 students at Concordia University of Edmonton to see how paying attention to nature in the winter affects their mood. She thinks the results will be similar to a study she did back in the winter of 2021.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Rlang ☛ From code to conversation: Localized Hey Hi (AI) fun with LM Studio and the ellmer package
Summary: in this post I demonstrate how you can interact with locally hosted LLM models in R using the ellmer package and LM Studio.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] US places fresh export restrictions on AI chips [Ed: Just stuff like GPUs with some buzzwords slapped on them]
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404 Media ☛ Facebook Says It’s Not Forcing You to Follow Trump
Some Facebook users were shocked to see Trump in their feeds yesterday, but that’s likely because they were already following official administration accounts.
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NPR ☛ More teens say they're using ChatGPT for schoolwork, a new study finds
"I think the AI regulatory regime that is emerging in a lot of places says that higher scrutiny should be placed on AI models with the possibility of having adverse impact on people's lives. And this seems like it could potentially fit that description," Johnson told NPR's Ailsa Chang.
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Mat Duggan ☛ The AI Bubble Is Bursting
Last week I awoke to Google deciding I hadn't had enough AI shoved down my throat. With no warning they decided to take the previously $20/user/month Gemini add-on and make it "free" and on by default. If that wasn't bad enough, they also decided to remove my ability as an admin to turn it off. Despite me hitting all the Off buttons I could find: [...]
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Bruce Schneier ☛ AI Mistakes Are Very Different from Human Mistakes
Humans make mistakes all the time. All of us do, every day, in tasks both new and routine. Some of our mistakes are minor and some are catastrophic. Mistakes can break trust with our friends, lose the confidence of our bosses, and sometimes be the difference between life and death.
Over the millennia, we have created security systems to deal with the sorts of mistakes humans commonly make. These days, casinos rotate their dealers regularly, because they make mistakes if they do the same task for too long. Hospital personnel write on limbs before surgery so that doctors operate on the correct body part, and they count surgical instruments to make sure none were left inside the body. From copyediting to double-entry bookkeeping to appellate courts, we humans have gotten really good at correcting human mistakes.
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Pivot to AI ☛ OpenAI o3 beats FrontierMath — because OpenAI funded the test and had access to the questions
The FrontierMath test was claimed to be a secret — except, it turns out, from OpenAI, who funded its creation. OpenAI had access to the test questions beforehand — and may have trained o3 on them.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Fake Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs are circulating in China — MSI China alerts buyers of new Zen 5 scam
Counterfeit AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips are currently circulating in China, according to tech forums in the country.
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Privacy/Surveillance
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The Register UK ☛ Apple Intelligence to be on by default in next macOS, iOS
Beginning with the due-to-be-released macOS Sequoia version 15.3 as well as iOS and iPadOS 18.3, Cupertino's suite of AI features, which it calls Apple Intelligence, will be turned on by default for compatible devices.
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Macworld ☛ Apple Intelligence is enabled by default in iOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3
With iOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3, Apple’s AI features become a standard default part of the experience for all compatible iPhones (iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 16), iPads, and Macs (all Macs with M1 or later processors). According to the developer documentation, Apple Intelligence will be enabled by default: [...]
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MacRumors ☛ macOS Sequoia 15.3 and iOS 18.3 Enable Apple Intelligence Automatically
When installing macOS Sequoia 15.3, iOS 18.3, or iPadOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be turned on automatically on compatible devices, Apple says in the developer release notes for the updates.
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PC World ☛ Microsoft begins testing its next-gen smart search on Windows
Semantic search was first revealed in October, when Microsoft outlined its AI roadmap that included Generative Fill and image upscaling. Now, it’s part of the latest Dev Channel build for Windows Insiders, which was released at the end of last week. Only PCs with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip inside can run it, however.
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404 Media ☛ The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds
For months members of the public have been using GeoSpy, a tool trained on millions of images that can find the location a photo was taken based on soil, architecture, and more. It's GeoGuesser at scale.
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Defence/Aggression
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The Register UK ☛ Trump tries to save TikTok, but providers are still wary
President Trump's executive order stalling the enforcement of the TikTok ban in the United States has created legal uncertainty for companies hosting or distributing the app. To further confuse the matter, it's not even clear that Trump's decree is within his power to issue or enforce.
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The Nation ☛ On TikTok, the Supreme Court Did the Right Thing
Instead, the court signaled a genuine openness to the notion that new technologies raise hard new questions, and some of the regulation of those new technologies may have only incidental impacts on speech, and not be direct regulation of speech itself. That means that antitrust laws, data protection laws, and design code laws for social media can probably go forward—laws that the public needs more than ever given the outsize power of Big Tech platforms.
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The Register UK ☛ Hackers game out infowar against China with the US Navy
That's the scenario set up as a wargame exercise by the US Naval War College, which invited technology specialists, infrastructure experts, and hardcore hackers to study the problem. Last August, at the Black Hat and DEF CON security conferences in Las Vegas, players were separated into teams and during a three-hour session tried to stress-test Taiwanese infrastructure and look for weaknesses.
The two Naval academics running the exercise detailed the results to attendees at the ShmooCon infosec conference in Washington DC earlier this month, and discussed them with The Register.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ NATO deploys 'sea drones' to safeguard undersea cable infrastructure
NATO has launched Operation Baltic Sentry to protect its undersea power and communications cables in the Baltic Sea from sabotage. According to The War Zone, the alliance will deploy uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) also referred to as "drone boats" to enhance its overall situational awareness in the area. At least 20 USVs are assigned to the mission, which will be deployed alongside around 12 ships from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 and an unknown number of maritime patrol aircraft.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ Trump Puts Hundreds of Violent Criminals Back on the Streets
Somehow, the headlines describing that Trump pardoned most of those convicted or charged for January 6 forgot to mention hundreds of them were convicted of violent assaults on cops.
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France24 ☛ Musk repeatedly makes gesture likened to 'Nazi salute' at Trump rally
Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism within the United States, agreed Musk's gesture was a "sieg heil," or Nazi salute.
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India Times ☛ Did Elon Musk really do a Nazi Salute? Billionaire's hand gesture on inauguration day leaves internet divided
Musk's gesture—a hand on his chest followed by an upward salute—was widely interpreted as resembling the Nazi "Sieg Heil," leading to accusations of fascist overtones and leaving the internet divided. Critics on social media were quick to denounce the act, while supporters rushed to his defence.
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Defence Web ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] Ghana commissions new naval base and naval vessel
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Defence Web ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] West Africa could soon have a jihadist state – here’s why
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-19 [Older] Croatia: Deputy PM quits over video of him shooting from car
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-18 [Older] Iran: Two judges shot dead outside Supreme Court in Tehran
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-18 [Older] Nigeria: Fuel tanker explosion kills at least 70
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-18 [Older] US democracy 'cannot survive' an unaccountable presidency
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Dictator signs death penalty order directing attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs
In the order signed in the first hours of his return to the White House, Convicted Felon said “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.”
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ TikTok restores service in US, thanking The Insurrectionist [Ed: Psychological operations again top destabilise the US]
Fentanylware (TikTok) restored service in the United States Sunday after briefly going dark, as a law banning the wildly popular app on national security grounds came into effect.
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Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Availability Update: Still Missing from Fashion Company Apple App Store, Surveillance Giant Google Play Store; App Remains Restored — Plus Latest Statements from Convicted Felon, TikTok, and Congress
Where is Fentanylware (TikTok) down in the US? Here’s the latest availability report.
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The Strategist ☛ The hidden risks we scroll past: the problem with TikTok—and RedNote
What if the most popular apps on our phones were quietly undermining national security? Australians often focus on visible threats, but the digital realm poses less obvious yet equally significant dangers.
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Digital Music News ☛ Over a Million Americans Have Downloaded Rednote as Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban Looms [Ed: More digital warfare]
In the days leading up to the US Fentanylware (TikTok) ban, Americans have flooded Rednote, a similarly Chinese-owned app, with over a million downloads. Chinese social control media app Rednote, a platform similar to Fentanylware (TikTok) and Instagram, has surpassed 4 million downloads worldwide in the past week.
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New York Times ☛ TikTok, RedNote and the Crushed Promise of the Chinese Internet
China’s internet companies and their hard-working, resourceful professionals make world-class products, in spite of censorship and malign neglect by Beijing.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-14 [Older] Is China exploiting South Korea's political crisis?
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Environment
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DeSmog ☛ Mapped: Donald Trump’s Transatlantic Anti-Green Network
As DeSmog reports today – and compiled in this interactive map – Trump and Musk are aided by a well-funded network of UK politicians, think tanks, media outlets, and political donors that are pushing a pro-fossil fuel, anti-climate agenda.
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Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ ‘Planetary Solvency’ At Risk, Actuaries Say, as Rising Emissions Push Warming Past 1.5°C
The world already faces a rise in multi-year droughts and is on track for financial system panics and a 50% drop in global economic activity over the decades ahead, as the annual increase in climate pollution pushes past any pathway to keep average global warming to 1.5°C, according to a flurry of new reports over the last week.
The atmospheric carbon data show up in a research report by the UK Met Office, summarized for Carbon Brief by a team of six climate scientists led by Prof. Richard Betts, the agency’s head of climate impacts research.
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Wired ☛ How Invasive Plants Are Fueling California’s Wildfire Crisis
Eucalyptus trees, introduced to California in the mid-19th century from Australia, add another layer of fire risk. Known for their aromatic scent, these trees have incredibly flammable, oily leaves. Their papery bark sloughs off and catches in the wind, transporting embers up to half a mile away. The problem comes when people plant them right next to their home, says Acuña. “You put a very hot, very vigorous burning plant like a eucalyptus tree next to a house, which is primarily composed of petroleum materials. That’s a very strong fire,” he explains.
The 1991 Tunnel Fire in Oakland, California, ignited debates—and multiple lawsuits—about whether to remove the widespread eucalyptus. “People want to keep them because they’re iconic, but wow are they are so freaking flammable,” says Safford. Yet in terms of a landscape-scale issue, Safford emphasizes that grasses remain a bigger concern.
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Energy/Transportation
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Latvia ☛ Many Latvians took the train last year
The passenger rail operator Vivi carried 19,444,755 passengers in 2024, an increase of 13.5% compared to 2023. This exceeds the pre-pandemic level, the company said on January 20.
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Hackaday ☛ 3D-Printed RC Car Focuses On Performance Fundamentals
There are a huge number of manufacturers building awesome radio-controlled cars these days. However, sometimes you just have to go your own way. That’s what [snamle] did with this awesome 3D-printed RC car—and the results are impressive.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-17 [Older] Why is the Panama flag so popular among shipowners?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-16 [Older] Why UK gas storage levels are 'concerningly low'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-15 [Older] Has Volkswagen become too reliant on foreign markets?
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] Nigeria to spend seized money on rural electrification
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Wildlife/Nature
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Finance
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] Chinese exports rise in December, beating expectations
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] Malaysia, Singapore deepen ties with new economic zone
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-17 [Older] IMF predicts steady 3.3% global growth, but less in Germany
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-17 [Older] Spain scares off foreign property buyers with new tax threat
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The Straits Times ☛ China's frugal young adults accelerate saving, raising economic risks
BEIJING - The frugal trend that began in China during the economic disruption of the pandemic and deepened amid the crisis in the property market is intensifying as Gen Z shuns government calls to spend, spend, spend and doubles down on saving.
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Asia sends top officials to Convicted Felon inauguration amid concern over trade, security
The Insurrectionist discussed trade and Taiwan in a call with Chinese leader Pooh-tin Jinping days before swearing-in.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia's mid-January GPU driver update addresses several vulnerabilities and exploits
Nvidia releases another series of security updates for its GPU drivers.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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JURIST ☛ Trump’s DOGE faces 3 lawsuits for lack of transparency and oversight
Multiple groups filed lawsuits against President The Insurrectionist’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hours after Monday’s inauguration, urging a federal court to enforce Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirements on the newly formed administrative panel.
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CS Monitor ☛ Dictator moves from ‘American carnage’ to ‘a horrible betrayal’ in second inaugural
In his return to the White House, Mr. Convicted Felon’s political grievances have taken on a personal note, with him seeing himself as a persecuted figure.
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Dictator orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation
The president’s executive order comes after Convicted Felon and his supporters have accused the federal government of pressuring social control media companies to take down lawful posts over concerns around misinformation.
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France24 ☛ Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama... Convicted Felon's expansionist agenda
Newly sworn-in President The Insurrectionist vowed on Monday that the United States would take back the Panama Canal as he delivered an inauguration speech in which he invoked the 19th century expansionist doctrine of "Manifest Destiny." In the run-up to his inauguration, he had also said he wanted to acquire Greenland, portraying the overseas Danish territory as crucial for US national security interests, and mused about turning Canada into a US state.
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Green Party UK ☛ Inauguration response: Convicted Felon will put us all in danger unless we unite
Responding to President Convicted Felon’s inauguration speech, Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay said: “Trump’s inauguration speech showed us that the peace many take for granted, and indeed the very foundations of our democracy, are under threat.
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France24 ☛ Inauguration Day: Musk's strange gesture to crowd of supporters
Billionaire Elon Musk addressed a packed arena of The Insurrectionist supporters on Tuesday, hours after the president took the oath of office for his second term. Musk, one of Convicted Felon's most powerful allies, told the crowd that the inauguration marked a turning point for human civilization, and expressed his excitement over plans to land a manned mission on Mars during Convicted Felon's second term. "I begin to wonder if anyone in this new administration, if anyone in the MAGA universe has ever picked up a history book," American Journalist Anne Bagamery tells FRANCE 24, reacting to Musk offering Convicted Felon supporters what looked like a Nazi salute while he was delivering his speech.
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JURIST ☛ Human rights organizations call for better protection of sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America
Human rights organizations in Latin America issued a joint statement on Friday, expressing deep concerns about the systematic non-compliance of several Latin American states with international human rights, sexual rights, and reproductive rights (SRHR) obligations.
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LRT ☛ Abortion in Europe: a right for some, a fight for millions of others
Reproductive rights have been at the center of political debates worldwide in recent months. As The Insurrectionist takes office following a campaign where access to abortion was a central theme, Europe too finds itself at a crossroad of liberal policies and restrictive laws. And as pro-life movements gain traction across the globe, campaigners are seeking an EU-wide guarantee to safe abortion access. From Hungary to Italy, France, Finland and beyond, we look at abortion rights from A European Perspective*.
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France24 ☛ 'History will be kind to Biden': Environmental, industrial policies & presiding over top G7 economy
President The Insurrectionist has promised a flurry of executive action on Day 1, and there are executive orders already prepared for his signature. Those orders will end diversity, equity and inclusion funding, crack down on border crossings and ease regulations on oil and natural gas production. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective on Convicted Felon's wide array of pledged executive actions and how history might look back on Biden's one-term presidency, FRANCE 24's Nadia Massih welcomes Andrew L. Yarrow, celebrated Author and Journalist, former Speechwriter in the Clinton administration and Senior Fellow at the Financial Security Program.
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France24 ☛ Dictator rings in Gilded Age & McKinley era, tapping into 'Manifest Destiny view of American expansion'
Newly sworn-in President The Insurrectionist vowed that the United States would take back the Panama Canal as he delivered an inauguration speech in which he invoked the 19th century expansionist doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" and laying out plans for space exploration, including "American astronauts planting the stars and stripes on the planet Mars."
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ACLU ☛ “Here’s to the Work Ahead.” How I’m Honoring the Legendary Cecile Richards
Today, as on many other days, I told myself, “Be more Cecile.” Cecile is Cecile Richards, the marvel of a human best known as the president of Planned Parenthood. Cecile died January 20th. She will always live in my heart as someone who showed me, and so many others, how to be fierce and loving and curious and to be all in on life.
Today, I join the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) community to mourn Cecile, a one-in-a-generation leader who forever altered the trajectory of women’s rights and reproductive freedom in this country. I pledge to honor Cecile by taking action, to do right by others, guided by the question, WWCD (What would Cecile do)?
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Stanford University ☛ Behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 visit to Stanford
King visited Stanford to deliver a speech entitled “The Other America,” which focused on the injustice present in an America marked by racial inequality.
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The Dissenter ☛ Leak Once Again Disrupts Trump’s Plans For Massive Immigration Raids
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MIT Technology Review ☛ OpenAI ups its lobbying efforts nearly seven-fold
OpenAI did not respond to questions about its lobbying efforts.
But perhaps more important, the disclosure is a clear signal of the company’s arrival as a political player, as its first year of serious lobbying ends and Republican control of Washington begins. While OpenAI’s lobbying spending is still dwarfed by its peers’—Meta tops the list of Big Tech spenders, with more than $24 million in 2024—the uptick comes as it and other AI companies have helped redraw the shape of AI policy.
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The Register UK ☛ OpenAI forms biz to spend $500 billion on AI infrastructure
OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and investment firm MGX on Tuesday announced plans to spend $500 billion on AI infrastructure in America over the next four years, to be used by the ChatGPT super-lab.
Specifically, the four will pour said billions, starting with $100 billion, into a new company named The Stargate Project, which will be operated by OpenAI. Stargate will effectively take that money and build AI infrastructure for OpenAI to use to create more machine-learning models.
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Hamilton Nolan ☛ The Land of Greater Fools
Successful criminals and politicians both understand the wisdom of going big. It’s a felony to steal a thousand bucks. It’s still a felony to steal a billion. Might as well steal the billion. Likewise, it takes about the same amount of political capital to do something small as it does to do something along the same lines, but bigger. Raising taxes on the rich by one percent will get you called a socialist. Might as well raise their taxes a hundred percent. More bang for your buck, for the same price. This applies to every issue.
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CBS ☛ Trump announces up to $500 billion in private sector AI infrastructure investment
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son joined Mr. Trump for the announcement, along with Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle.
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Pivot to AI ☛ Trump revokes Biden’s executive order on responsible AI, meets with AI CEOs
As it happens, Trump is already putting plans in place to funnel billions of dollars into AI companies in the US. OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which is likely to start with $100 billion of investment and up to $500 billion over the next four years. Masayoshi Son of Softbank, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Larry Ellison of Oracle are visiting the White House today.
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Wired ☛ Trump Frees Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht After 11 Years in Prison
Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the world’s first dark-web drug market, who is now a libertarian cause célèbre in some parts of the [cryptocurrency] community.
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The Verge ☛ Trump pardons Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht
On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump issued a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2015, when he was convicted of multiple charges, including the distribution of narcotics.
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New York Times ☛ Trump Pardons Ross Ulbricht, Creator of Silk Road Drug Marketplace
Despite his crimes, Mr. Ulbricht has remained popular with [cryptocurrency] enthusiasts because Silk Road was one of the first venues where people used Bitcoin to buy and sell goods. For years, his supporters have argued that his sentence was overly punitive and adopted the slogan “Free Ross” online and at industry gatherings.
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Cyble Inc ☛ TSA Head David Pekoske Forced Out As Cyber Threats Intensify
Following the devastating ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in 2021, the Biden administration pushed for more robust cybersecurity measures. Pekoske became a central figure in these efforts, contributing to some of the most impactful cybersecurity initiatives of the administration. By October 2024, nearly 100% of critical pipelines and 68% of railways were meeting the minimum cybersecurity standards, a testament to the success of the regulations he championed. In the aviation sector, the percentage of organizations meeting basic cybersecurity standards jumped from 0% to 57% under his watch.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-14 [Older] Fact check: Viral claims on California wildfires
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Los Angeles Times ☛ Fact Focus: False and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events
In his first address after being sworn in Monday, President Trump repeated several false and misleading statements that he made during his campaign. They included claims about immigration, the economy, electric vehicles and the Panama Canal. In remarks later at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, he issued a number of other false claims, including one that distorts pardons made by President Biden as he left office.
Here’s a look at the facts.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Rlang ☛ rOpenSci 2024 Code of Conduct Transparency Report [Ed: LF censorship program]
The rOpenSci community is supported by our Code of Conduct
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Meduza ☛ ‘You’ll be imprisoned, but you won’t be killed’ This Russian activist fled to the U.S. after multiple arrests — only to be deported and jailed yet again
In May 2023, Russian activist Evgeny Mashinin arrived in the U.S., where he planned to seek asylum after facing multiple arrests back home for participating in pro-democracy and anti-war protest rallies. He appeared to have a solid case: the European Court of Human Rights had even awarded him thousands of euros for his detentions. However, the U.S. judge hearing his case denied his request — and ordered his deportation back to Russia, where he was soon arrested yet again.
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The Nation ☛ Why Did the US Block a Canadian Professor From His Own Book Event?
When the airport employee returned, the person was accompanied by an officer with the US Department of Homeland Security, who told Kalman-Lamb that not only was he barred from entering the United States, but if he ever wanted to get into the country in the future, he’d have to go to the US consulate for a formal interview to receive a visa. “Although I repeatedly asked him why I had been denied,” Nathan told me, “he claimed first that it wasn’t a good place to talk about it in public in front of people, and then when I said by all means we can do it somewhere else, he said he wasn’t authorized to tell me.”
Kalman-Lamb then approached US immigration for some clarity as to whether there was a misunderstanding about the nature of the trip. The Canadian Border Patrol, he said, then “began screaming at and berating me, calling over a Quebec police officer, and threatening me with arrest. I was marched back to the Air Canada desk and told if I came up to immigration again I would be arrested. They spoke very abusively towards me for an extended period, even though I continuously assured them I understood and would not try to talk further.”
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Press Gazette ☛ Content distribution network Newslink announces closure
Newslink has been aggregating and delivery content to news publishers since the 1980s.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai denies being ‘middleman’ to help Taiwan rebuild diplomatic ties with US, nat. security trial hears
Jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has denied he acted as a “middleman” to help Taiwan re-establish diplomatic ties with the US.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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University of Michigan ☛ SACUA discusses Regents and Ono’s response to DEI initiatives
The University of Michigan’s Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs met Jan. 12 to discuss the approval of the Senate Assembly agenda and diversity, equity and inclusion issues at the University.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Courts not ‘extension of prosecution authority’: Hong Kong’s top judge defends city’s rule of law
Hong Kong’s top judge has defended the city’s rule of law, saying its courts are not “an extension of prosecution authority.” It comes after high-profile national security cases have drawn international criticism over the judiciary’s independence.
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LRT ☛ Ceasefire in Gaza: ‘If hostages return in coffins, it will be clear that Israel lost’
In October 2023, LRT.lt spoke to Oren Ziv, an Israeli reporter and photojournalist at the +972 magazine, who was among the first eyewitnesses and those to capture the visual account of the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Fifteen months later, Ziv reflects on the brutal war that followed in the wake of the atrocities.
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New York Times ☛ The Last Migrant Caravans Before Convicted Felon’s Inauguration
A Times photographer made two trips to southern Mexico to follow groups of migrants as they walked toward the United States.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-12 [Older] Malala asks Muslim leaders to reject Taliban 'gender apartheid'
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Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-01-13 [Older] Anti-woke: With Cheeto Mussolini returning, US firms back off on DEI
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Daniel Doubrovkine ☛ Should You Work on Weekends?
tl;dr Only 2% of my paid work was accomplished on weekends, which matches my opinion that you should not.
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CS Monitor ☛ On Martin Luther King Day, a reflection on sons, fathers, and daughters
Martin Luther King is a name that means something. It is a generational surname that recalled a revolutionary name to create a movement that defined this country. It is a story of fathers and sons, the passing down of ideas, and how the next generation might interpret them.
It is also a story of daughters, often forgotten in this movement. But the Rev. Bernice King’s voice, much as her father and her father’s father did in this hallowed sanctuary, would not be denied, even as the celebration of Dr. King was juxtaposed against the impending presidential inauguration.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Latvia ☛ Communication during Barricades: How 50,000 people gathered without the Internet
On Monday, January 20, Latvia commemorates the barricades of 1991, when people flowed into the capitals of the Baltic states and erected makeshift barricades around strategic locations like the parliament and the national radio station to protect them against Soviet troops that wanted to crush the Baltic nations' independence drive.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Howard Oakley ☛ M4 Pro full on: when CPU and GPU draw over 50 W, and how Low Power mode changes that
Most testing and benchmarks avoid putting heavy loads on CPU and GPU at the same time, so running an Apple silicon chip ‘full on’. This article explores what happens in the CPU and GPU of an M4 Pro when they’re drawing a total of over 50 W, and how that changes in Low Power mode. It concludes my investigations of power modes, for the time being.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Fast Track: Chinese Origin Patents Racing Through USPTO via PPH
I've been looking at some of the fastest issued US patents. A majority of the fastest issued are part of the Global IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot that gives substantial weight to patent monopoly allowances from a partner country. A substantial number of Chinese applications are using this program to great effect -- especially when coupled with the remarkable speed of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Welcome USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart [Ed: More agents of oligarchy, fronts of monopolies]
Just after President Convicted Felon spoke the oath of office, Coke Morgan Stewart was also sworn in as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO on January 20, 2025. She is serving as Acting Director. The previous Director, Kathi Vidal, departed to Winston & Strawn in December, and Deputy Director Derrick Brent, who had been serving in an interim capacity, has also now resigned. Commissioner Vaishali Udupa is remaining in her position for now as is Commissioner Gooder.
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Unified Patents ☛ Another Stingray IP Wi-Fi patent monopoly challenged
On January 16, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 7,440,572, asserted by Stingray IP Solutions, an NPE and entity of Acacia Research Corporation.
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Unified Patents ☛ IPVal entity Artax navigation patent monopoly challenge instituted
On January 17, 2025, less than six weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,169,343, owned by Artax LLC, an NPE and entity of IP Valuation Partners, LLC.
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-16 [Older] Board of Appeal finds that human/pig chimeras are a risk to human dignity (T 1553/22) [Ed: Patents have gone way too far]
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Digital Camera World ☛ Canon was granted most US patents for a Japanese company in 2024 – and for the 20th year in a row!
Other companies that made the top 10 were LG Electronics (in sixth place with 2,768 patents), Apple (fourth place with 3,082 patents), and Samsung Electronics (who took the top place with 6,377 filings).
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Kangaroo Courts
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JUVE ☛ Fives successful with damages claim in UPC appeal [Ed: UPC is illegal and unconstitutional. JUVE, however, bagged a bunch of sponsorships (from the litigation) giants) to promote this illegality and it continues trying to legitimise this EPO-connected corruption.]
French mechanical engineering company Fives and competitor Reel are fighting over EP 17 40 740 B1. It protects a compact service module for installations for the electrolytic production of aluminium. In August 2022, Düsseldorf Regional Court found that Reel had infringed Fives’ patent.
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-17 [Older] IP Federation urges UPC Court of Appeal to protect in-house counsel's rights of representation in Judge Grabinski letter
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-12 [Older] EPO Referral (G2/24) on third-party interveners acquiring appellant status - a chance to depart from G 3/04? [Ed: Kangaroo courts of the corrupt EPO]
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-17 [Older] GuestPost: A referral broadened? To have one’s cake, to eat it...or not yet to get it (G 1/24) [Ed: Kangaroo courts of the corrupt EPO]
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IP Kat ☛ 2025-01-16 [Older] A more nuanced approach to the evidence standard for prior use (T 1311/21)
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Trademarks
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Copyrights
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Torrent Freak ☛ Telegram 'Suspends RuTracker's Channel' For Copyright Infringement
Following the surprise arrest of founder Pavel Durov in France last year, Telegram's suddenly improved attitude towards content complaints was unexpected, and appears to be holding. After channels operated by Z-Library and Anna's Archive were shut down recently, Russian media outlets are reporting the suspension of a channel operated by RuTracker, one of the most resilient torrent trackers in history.
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Torrent Freak ☛ Reddit and Film Companies Clash in Appeals Court Over Sharing Users' IP Addresses
Reddit finds itself in court once again as movie companies continue to seek information on the site's users. After several rejections, the case is now before the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. The rightsholders argue that the IP addresses of six users who discussed piracy related matters are key evidence in a lawsuit against ISP Frontier. Reddit counters, stressing that the users' First Amendment right to anonymous speech is at stake.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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