Leftovers

• Techdirt ☛ The Red Pill Was Hijacked

  At the time of its release, The Matrix resonated across ideological lines. It spoke to anti-authoritarians of all stripes—liberals, libertarians, radicals, even some conservatives. The film’s message was simple but profound: question everything, think for yourself, and reject systems of control that demand your obedience.

  But twenty-five years later, that message has been hijacked. When reactionaries talk about “taking the red pill” today, they’re not inviting you to challenge power—they’re recruiting you into their own authoritarian system. In a masterful act of political gaslighting, they have inverted The Matrix’s central message, twisting the language of liberation into a tool for submission.

• Matt Stein ☛ Winter 2025 Field Notes

  I checked in quietly here in late August, when I’d pulled back further from social media and pruned notifications. I started turning outward and gaining a sense of traction thanks to therapy and improv: therapy digging into my head to identify patterns and paths and obstacles, improv practicing with others pushing against ego and fear.

• [Old] Austin Kleon ☛ How to read like an artist

  On Saturday, bookstores around the country gave away this free zine we made to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day. I had so many requests from people who couldn’t get a copy that I’m sharing the complete text below.

  I’ve made also made a simplified mini-zine format that you can download, print, and fold up from a single piece of paper: [...]

• Seth Michael Larson ☛ Building software for connection (#2: Consensus)

  In the previous article we concluded that a persistent always-on internet connection isn't required for software to elicit feelings of connection between humans.

  Building on this conclusion: let's explore how Animal Crossing software was able to intercommunicate without requiring a centralized server and infrastructure and the trade-offs for these design decisions.

• Neil Macy ☛ Some Cool Terminal Things I've Found Recently

  I had the morning off work today. So I did what anyone would do, and started playing around with my Terminal setup. There are some things that have bugged me for a while, and some things that I've meant to try out for a while, and this seemed like a good chance to play around.

• The Register UK ☛ RIP Raymond Bird, designer of early mass-produced computer

  Prototyped near the end of 1951 but not publicly demonstrated until 1953, the HEC1, Bird explained in a 2011 video interview, "was the first electronic computer that was used for commercial purposes [in the UK] other than the LEO machine," referring to the Lyons Electronic Office, which debuted in 1951.

• Brandon ☛ Reminiscing on Blogs of the Great Recession

  If you ask most people when the Golden Age of blogging was, they’ll most likely say sometime between 2005-2010. I have to concur. While I love the resurgence of blogging that has happened over the last couple of years, there was something about those early days when blogging was different. Monetization hadn’t come into effect yet, nor had social media, and for the most part people were happy with the internet. Unlike today’s blogs (myself included), which tend to be long form opinion pieces, blogs of the 2000s were often created to either share fandom, document the blogger's life, or to overcome something.

• Andy Hawthorne ☛ Where Do Ideas Come From?

  A lot of people think ideas come from nowhere. That they just pop into your head, like magic.

  But that’s not how it works.

  Ideas don’t appear from thin air. They come from what’s already in your head. Garbage in, garbage out. Good stuff in, good stuff out.

• Science

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] Carbon dating puts Sask. Indigenous archaeological site at almost 11,000 years old

  • Science Alert ☛ We Finally Know Why Ancient Roman Concrete Was So Durable

    Based on the team's analysis, the lime clasts in their samples are not consistent with this method. Rather, Roman concrete was probably made by mixing the quicklime directly with the pozzolana and water at extremely high temperatures, by itself or in addition to slaked lime, a process the team calls 'hot mixing' that results in the lime clasts.

    "The benefits of hot mixing are twofold," Masic said.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan universities would lose millions if Trump caps research costs

    “It’s a big deal,” said Michael Imperiale, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at U-M. “My phone has been blowing up. They (researchers) are scared.”

    A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden temporarily halted the policy from the National Institutes of Health to limit “indirect costs” that are built into grants to 15% above direct research costs. The judge scheduled arguments in the case for Feb. 21.

  • LabX Media Group ☛ A Novel Three-in-One Pancreatic Organoid

    So when Amanda Andersson-Rolf, a postdoctoral researcher in Hans Clevers’s group at the Hubrecht Institute, set out to build a better pancreatic organoid, she decided to include all three main cell types found in this organ. She would have to figure out how to co-culture acinar cells, which produce digestive enzymes, ductal cells, which transport these enzymes, and endocrine cells, which regulate blood sugar levels by releasing hormones.

  • Rlang ☛ Estimating a Bayesian proportional hazards model

    A recent conversation with a colleague about a large stepped-wedge design (SW-CRT) cluster randomized trial piqued my interest, because the primary outcome is time-to-event. This is not something I’ve seen before. A quick dive into the literature suggested that time-to-event outcomes are uncommon in SW-CRTs-and that the best analytic approach is not obvious. I was intrigued by how to analyze the data to estimate a hazard ratio while accounting for clustering and potential secular trends that might influence the time to the event.

    Of course, my first thought was: How would I simulate data to explore different modeling approaches? And then: Could a Bayesian approach be useful here?

  • Quanta Magazine ☛ Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture

    He turned to a common approach for storing data known as a hash table. But in the midst of his tinkering, Krapivin realized that he had invented a new kind of hash table, one that worked faster than expected — taking less time and fewer steps to find specific elements.

  • arXiv ☛ Optimal Bounds for Open Addressing Without Reordering

    In this paper, we revisit one of the simplest problems in data structures: the task of inserting elements into an open-addressed hash table so that elements can later be retrieved with as few probes as possible. We show that, even without reordering elements over time, it is possible to construct a hash table that achieves far better expected search complexities (both amortized and worst-case) than were previously thought possible. Along the way, we disprove the central conjecture left by Yao in his seminal paper “Uniform Hashing is Optimal”. All of our results come with matching lower bounds.

• Career/Education

  • Harvard University ☛ U.S. students need to start showing up

    Literacy levels were declining even before the pandemic, correct?

    There has been a slow decline since 2015, especially among those with weak reading skills. Not all of the losses that we’re seeing are due to what happened, or didn’t happen, with in-person or remote instruction during 2020 and 2021. Some of it has been due to trends that started before the pandemic.

  • Julia Programming Language ☛ JuliaCon 2025 Call for Proposals

    We invite you to submit proposals to give a talk at JuliaCon 2025. JuliaCon 2025 will be an in person conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA 21-26 July 2025. Presenting remotely will not be possible. If you would like to submit a video at any time to the main Julia Language channel, please feel free to fill out this form: [...]

  • Julia Programming Language ☛ So, You Want to Start a Julia Workgroup?

    Have you ever wondered how to start a workgroup within Julia?

    This post is dedicated to you! Read on to learn how to get started and even if you already are in a workgroup, there might be some helpful tips and advice for you here too!

  • Arduino ☛ Wired for success: Inspiring the next generation of women in science

    Additionally, many students don’t even know about the exciting opportunities available in tech because these careers aren’t widely discussed in schools. But we can change that narrative.

    At Arduino, we’re committed to making STEM education accessible to everyone – regardless of their gender, race, background, or experience. And we’re not alone…

  • Dan Slimmon ☛ Is ops a bullshit job?

    I found it easy to identify with many of the people interviewed in Bullshit Jobs. I’ve certainly had jobs that were permeated by bullshit. However, I’ve never worked an entirely bullshit job.

    Or so I thought! Until I came to this interview with Pablo, a software developer: [...]

  • Andy Hawthorne ☛ When The Well Runs Dry

    The creative director finally pulled him aside and said "You know why you're stuck? Because you're writing about what you know, not what you need to learn."

  • CS Monitor ☛ Need a job? Try majoring in the humanities, more colleges say.

    Then her language skills helped her land a job at the multinational technology company Siemens, which will be waiting for her when she graduates this spring.

    “The reason I got the job is because of my French. I didn’t see it as a practical choice, but now I do,” says Ms. Howe, who, to communicate with colleagues and clients, also plans to take up German. “The humanities taught me I could do it.”

  • Chris ☛ Deploying a Single-Binary Haskell Web App

    Since I now write Haskell for paycheck, I wanted to refresh my Yesod knowledge. Yesod is a production-grade web framework, and there’s one web site I’ve long wanted to have: Fisher’s Fountain. Fisher’s Fountain is the ideal project for a toe-dipping three-evening hack because it does not talk to external collaborators, but it is also not entirely static content.

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-02 [Older] As colleges slash programs, concern grows about less choice for students, and impact to workforce

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] Arbitrator finds N.B. government failed to protect teaching staff working with violent student

  • Pro Publica ☛ DOGE Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance

    The Trump administration has terminated more than $900 million in Education Department contracts, taking away a key source of data on the quality and performance of the nation’s schools.

    The cuts were made at the behest of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crew, the Department of Government Efficiency, and were disclosed on X, the social media platform Musk owns, shortly after ProPublica posed questions to U.S. Department of Education staff about the decision to decimate the agency’s research and statistics arm, the Institute of Education Sciences.

• Hardware

  • The Register UK ☛ NASA’s radiation tolerant computer lives up to its name

    The computer, known as the “RadPC”, went into space on January 15th atop a SpaceX Falcon launcher. NASA bought the machine a ticket on a mission run by Firefly Aerospace, which hopes to land a craft called “Blue Ghost” on Luna.

    Before travelling to the Moon, Blue Ghost spent more than three weeks in Earth orbit. During that time it passed through the Van Allen belt and gave RadPC the chance to earn its name.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Common Dreams ☛ Judge Grants Temporary Restraining Order; Orders CDC, FDA, HHS Webpages To Be Restored

    Today, a judge granted Public Citizen’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a lawsuit brought on behalf of Doctors for America against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit challenges the agencies’ removal from publicly accessible government websites of vital health-related data and other information used by physicians, researchers, and other health professionals.

    The TRO orders the agencies to restore the webpages and datasets.

  • 404 Media ☛ Judge Orders CDC and FDA to Restore Pages Removed by Trump Admin Before Midnight

    The health agencies have until 11:59 p.m. on February 11 to restore the pages to how they were on January 30, and “identify any other resources that [Doctors for America] DFA members rely on to provide medical care and that defendants removed or substantially modified on or after January 29, 2025, without adequate notice or reasoned explanation,” U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote in the order.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Luigi Mangione Accepts Nearly $300,000 in Crowdfunds for Legal Defense

    A team of 15 volunteers, under the December 4 Legal Committee, led the crowdfund. A spokesperson for the organization said they’re “thrilled” Mangione accepted it. “The American private health insurance industry has ruined countless lives by denying people access to basic care and burying families in medical debt,” said D4 Legal Committee spokesperson Sam Beard in a statement. “It’s no surprise that Luigi’s alleged actions are understood and supported by tens of millions of hard-working Americans.”

  • FAIR ☛ ‘We Need to Understand the Political Economy That’s Given Rise to RFK’CounterSpin interview with Anne Sosin on RFK Jr. and rural health

    Janine Jackson interviewed Dartmouth-based Anne Sosin about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and rural health for the February 7, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Purolator loses court challenge after it fired unvaccinated [sic] employees

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] She died of breast cancer. She said it didn't have to be that way

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] The $250-an-hour Band-Aid: How this small hospital keeps its emergency room open

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Is US bird flu outbreak in cattle a global risk to humans?

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] More women are choosing a career in agriculture — and changing the industry from the inside

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] Several provinces announce bans on American liquor in response to U.S. tariffs

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Ebola explained: Symptoms, treatment and vaccines

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] UK: Grenfell Tower to be demolished years after deadly fire

  • CBC ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] Canadian booze-makers hope U.S. tariff threats help smash trade barriers at home

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder experiencing burnout

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Earworms: Why that song keeps playing in your head

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Study finds microplastics in US brains: Are they dangerous?

  • Weekly Deaths in England in Wales Increase by About 2,500 (Per Week!) After “New Normal”

• Proprietary

  • India Times ☛ YouTube is the new TV: CEO Neal Mohan spells out company’s 2025 bets

    According to Nielsen, YouTube has ranked number one in streaming watch time in the US for the past two years.

    In his annual letter to the YouTube community, Mohan introduced the platform's key priorities: the creator ecosystem and generative AI.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Oculus founder wants to help troops ‘surpass the limits of human form’

    Microsoft is handing over the Army’s do-it-all mixed reality device to defense company Anduril Industries, the companies announced Tuesday.

    California-based Anduril formerly assisted Microsoft with the $22 billion program by integrating the Lattice platform into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. Lattice allowed soldiers to see threats in real time by removing delays in processing signals between devices, according to a company statement.

  • The Register UK ☛ NHS finance system replacement delayed again

    The Integrated Single Financial Environment (ISFE) processes around £170 billion ($211 billion) in health spending every year for NHS England, which is responsible for running the health service in England.

    Plans to upgrade the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 system have been afoot since 2018, when the quango under the Department of Health and Social Care said the replacement would go live in April 2021.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft gives up on AR-for-Army gig, passes it to Anduril

    The software giant’s AR-for-Army project is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) and began in 2018 using hardware based on Microsoft's now-discontinued HoloLens headsets.

    It hasn’t gone well. The Army signed a $22 billion deal with Microsoft for custom-made kit in 2021, but later that year delayed a roll-out of the headsets without providing much explanation other than to say extra time would give the Army and Microsoft the opportunity "to continue to enhance" the headsets.

  • Security Week ☛ Microsoft Patches ‘Wormable’ Windows Flaw and File-Deleting Zero-Day

    Redmond’s security response team patched at least 55 documented software defects in Windows OS and applications, and flagged a privilege escalation bug in Windows Storage, along with a code execution issue in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock for immediate attention.

  • PC World ☛ A beginner's guide to using a Chromebook

    One alternative to Windows 11 computers are Chromebooks, a laptop that exclusively runs Google’s Chrome OS operating system. There are many advantages to switching to a Chromebook. Not only are they largely virus-free, but they’re also very affordable. Google also has a new Welcome Back feature that summarizes your recent activity, formatting it as an easy-to-follow visual overview.

  • Nolen Royalty ☛ The time I Broke my High School Mail Server

    For 3 days in 2006, nobody at my high school could turn in homework because of my dumb joke.

    In an effort to annoy my friend Brody I had (accidentally!) brought down SWIS - the School Wide Information System - at Northfield Mount Hermon high school.

    I’ve mentioned this in passing before, and I think the details are interesting so I thought I’d write it down.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ From Hammurabi to ChatGPT: Why ancient legal principles apply to AI as well

      In 1754 BCE, King Hammurabi of Babylon etched a radical idea into stone: accountability. His code declared that if a builder’s negligence caused a house to collapse, killing its owner, the builder would face consequences. This week (10-11 February 2025), as policymakers come to Paris to discuss AI regulation, they should be reminded of this 4,000-year-old principle: legal responsibility is on those who develop, deploy, and benefit from AI.

    • Press Gazette ☛ Half of AI chatbot news answers contain 'significant issues'

      Nine out of ten AI chatbot responses about news queries contained at least “some issues”, BBC research has claimed.

      The BBC added that 51% of the AI answers from four chatbots featured “significant issues” according to its journalists who reviewed the responses.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ AI chatbots are still hopelessly terrible at summarizing news

      91% of AI responses had at least some issues. 51% had “significant” issues.

      The most common issues were factual inaccuracies, sourcing, and missing context. Quotes were frequently altered. Opinions were reported as facts. The bots would find old pages on the BBC site and report facts from 2022 as current. Summary sentences would frequently be misleading or partisan.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ AI crawler wars threaten to make the web more closed for everyone

      Understandably, websites are now fighting back for fear that this invasive species—AI crawlers—will help displace them. But there’s a problem: This pushback is also threatening the transparency and open borders of the web, that allow non-AI applications to flourish. Unless we are thoughtful about how we fix this, the web will increasingly be fortified with logins, paywalls, and access tolls that inhibit not just AI but the biodiversity of real users and useful crawlers.

    • Robin Sloan ☛ Is it okay?

      In this discussion, I set copy­right and fair use aside. I should say, however, that I’m not par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in clearing the air for AI com­pa­nies, legally. They’ve chosen to plunge ahead into new terrain — so let them enjoy the fog of war, Civ-style. Let them cook!

    • FOSDEM ☛ FOSDEM 2025 - FSF's criteria for free machine learning applications

      In this presentation the FSF will present the major considerations for defining what user freedom means in the rapidly developing field of machine learning, why it is different from defining software freedom, and why it matters.

    • EFF ☛ Why the so-called AI Action Summit falls short

      Focusing on AI’s potential economic contributions, and not differentiating between for example large language models and automated decision-making, the summit fails to take into account the many ways in which AI systems can be abused to undermine fundamental rights and push the planet's already stretched ecological limits over the edge. Instead of centering nuanced perspectives on the capabilities of different AI systems and associated risks, the summit’s agenda paints a one-sided and simplistic image, not reflective of global discussion on AI governance. For example, the summit’s main program does not include a single panel addressing issues related to discrimination or sustainability.

    • Geshan ☛ Learn how to use Ollama APIs like generate, chat and more with cURL and Jq with useful examples

      Ollama is open-source software that makes running most open LLMs seamlessly on your own machine (or even on the cloud). Written in Go lang, Ollama is user-friendly and easy to start. In this post, part 3 of the Ollama blog posts series, you will learn about using Ollama’s APIs for generating responses (LLM inference) and much more; let’s get going!

    • Quanta Magazine ☛ Chatbot Software Begins to Face Fundamental Limitations

      Einstein’s riddle requires composing a larger solution from solutions to subproblems, which researchers call a compositional task. Dziri’s team showed that LLMs that have only been trained to predict the next word in a sequence — which is most of them — are fundamentally limited in their ability to solve compositional reasoning tasks. Other researchers have shown that transformers, the neural network architecture used by most LLMs, have hard mathematical bounds when it comes to solving such problems. Scientists have had some successes pushing transformers past these limits, but those increasingly look like short-term fixes. If so, it means there are fundamental computational caps on the abilities of these forms of artificial intelligence — which may mean it’s time to consider other approaches.

  • Social Control Media

    • Digital Camera World ☛ Social media is broken. Could BuzzFeed’s new “Island” platform finally make social media about the content, not the algorithms? | Digital Camera World

      At the end of a long manifesto about what’s broken about today’s biggest social media platforms, BuzzFeed Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti revealed that the company is working on a new social media platform that uses human curation rather than algorithms “that brings joy and playfulness back to the internet.”

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] A Halifax business owner was defrauded. Then she had to pay a penalty for it

    • Daniel Stenberg ☛ disabling cert checks: we have not learned much

      Skipping the certificate verification makes the connection insecure. Because if you do not verify, there is nothing that prevents a middle-man to sit between you and the real server. Or even to just fake being the real server.

    • Security Week ☛ High-Severity OpenSSL Vulnerability Found by Apple Allows MitM Attacks

      The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12797, was reported to OpenSSL developers by Apple in mid-December 2024.

      The issue is related to clients using RFC7250 raw public keys (RPKs) to authenticate a server. CVE-2024-12797 was introduced in OpenSSL 3.2 with the implementation of RPK support.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Techdirt ☛ Palantir CEO Sure Seems Pleased His Tech Is Capable Of Getting People Killed

      As if things weren’t terrible enough, the techbros of the world have decided the one-two punch of Donald Trump and Elon Musk will make them even richer than they already are, even if it means making the world a worse place to live… or suddenly die.

      Palantir has been on the leading edge of surveillance tech for years, making the world worse by inflicting cities with “predictive policing” and similar “advancements.” Taxpayers are stuck paying the tab for AI-assisted crunching of tainted cop data, ensuring the same old shitty, racist policing will just cost more than it did the last time around.

    • Gizmodo ☛ Palantir’s Billionaire CEO Just Can’t Stop Talking About Killing People

      During the same call, Karp mentioned killing people once again when the conversation turned to the fiasco currently unfolding in the U.S. government (said fiasco involves Karp’s fellow billionaire Elon Musk using his Department [sic] of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to dismantle federal agencies, purge the civil service workforce, and generally destroy the functioning of American bureaucracy). “We love disruption, and whatever’s good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir,” Karp said, apparently excited about Musk’s effort. “Disruption, at the end of the day, exposes things that aren’t working,” he continued. “There will be ups and downs. There’s a revolution. Some people are going to get their heads cut off. We’re expecting to see really unexpected things and to win.”

    • Mother Jones ☛ The Gleeful Profiteers of Trump’s Police State – Mother Jones

      On a call with investors earlier this week, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp—fresh off a week of stock surges—was euphoric. “We’re doin’ it!” he yelled, arms spread wide. “And I’m sure you’re enjoying this as much as I am!”

      The “it” in question? It seemed to be a reference to enabling President Donald Trump’s administration to carry out mass deportation and police surveillance domestically, while aiding the “West” globally—actions that, “on occasion,” Karp said on the call, may involve the need to “kill.”

    • Light Blue Touchpaper ☛ A feminist argument against weakening encryption

      This directly threatens the privacy of Apple’s users – and the safety of many of those who might now be targeted for retribution or enforcement. GCHQ has generally argued that there are useful technical work-arounds that can provide access to legitimate authorities to help with law enforcement. The UK government has particularly used the genuine issue of mass-scale online gender-based violence, particularly the exploitation of children, to make the case for mass-scale surveillance of the Internet in order to detect this violence and arrest those culpable.

  • Confidentiality

    • Quanta Magazine ☛ How Public Key Cryptography Really Works

      The counterintuitive solution, known as public key cryptography, relies not on keeping a key secret, but rather on making it widely available. The trick is to also use a second key that you never share with anyone, even the person you’re communicating with. It’s only by using this combination of two keys — one public, one private — that someone can both scramble and unscramble a message.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Niger Red Cross ban comes amid 'dire humanitarian' situation

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] US-deported Indians: 'Devastated after risking everything'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] US military plane flies back deported migrants to India

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] US updates: USAID puts staff on 'administrative leave'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] French man on death row in Indonesia set to go home

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Australia's hate crime law gives Nazi salutes mandatory jail

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Despite ceasefire, humanitarian situation in Goma is tense

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Ethiopia: Is Tigray on the brink of a fresh conflict?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Historic German train factory to build tanks under new deal

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Sara Duterte: Philippine House backs impeachment of VP

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Sweden comes to terms with worst ever mass shooting

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-01-31 [Older] Canada, Who Will Stand On Guard For Thee?

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] How Emmanuel Macron Fell in Love With Africa’s Last Colony

  • The Age AU ☛ 2025-02-08 [Older] The streets near where I shopped for groceries were strewn with dead bodies

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Nazi-looted art: Will arbitration tribunals help with restitution?

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] South African troops are dying in the DRC: why they’re there and what’s going wrong

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] South Africa: What does Ramaphosa have to win — or lose — in the DRC crisis?

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Southern and East African Leaders to Hold Joint Summit on Congo Conflict

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-02 [Older] DRC: African nations seek solution under strain

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] SACP calls for end of austerity-driven SANDF cuts following DRC deaths

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Guterres says eastern DR Congo crisis needs mediation, not military intervention

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Bodies of 14 SANDF soldiers due back on Friday as SA mulls its DRC options

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] Eastern DR Congo hostilities to be sole focus of Dar es Salaam summit

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Plans to Cut US Funding to South Africa Over Land Law. Musk Has Also Criticized the Country

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Explainer-What Is Behind Cheeto Mussolini's Aid Threat to South Africa Over Land?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] South Africa rejects Cheeto Mussolini's land 'confiscation' claim

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] U.S. to boycott next G20 meeting in South Africa

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Germany: nearly 90% of voters fear foreign manipulation

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] India opposition chides Modi over 'humiliating' deportations

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Is Indonesia cracking down on atheism?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Poland, Hungary: How two close allies came to be estranged

  • YLE ☛ Russian fertiliser exports continue flowing through Finland

    For food security reasons, the EU has allowed the import of Russian fertilisers since Moscow invaded Ukraine. This is why a freight train owned by North Rail Oy, a subsidiary of the Finnish logistics company Nurminen Logistics, makes daily transports of Russian fertilisers from the eastern border to the southeastern port.

  • Futurism ☛ As DOGE Tries to Cut Costs, Its Expenses Are Growing Larger and Larger

    As it's targeted president Donald Trump's number one bogeyman — diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — something ironic is happening: even as it's trying to cut costs across the government, the so-called department's expenses are ballooning.

    As Business Insider reports, DOGE's spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8, according to its latest financial filings.

  • Business Insider ☛ DOGE, Tasked With Cutting Federal Spending, Doubles Its Budget - Business Insider

  • [Repeat] Science Alert ☛ Two Major Studies Agree Earth Is Entering Frightening New Climate Phase

    But the two papers just released use a different measure. Both examined historical climate data to determine whether very hot years in the recent past were a sign that a future, long-term warming threshold would be breached.

    The answer, alarmingly, was yes. The researchers say the record-hot 2024 indicates Earth is passing the 1.5°C limit, beyond which scientists predict catastrophic harm to the natural systems that support life on Earth.

  • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ 2°C Rise Will Bring Unsurvivable Heat to Vast Regions as Arctic Sees ‘Extreme Warming’

    This would mark a tripling of the landmass where healthy individuals aged 18 to 60 would cross the “critical overheating threshold” during extreme heat events. The outlook is worse for people aged over 60, with overwhelming heat expected across 35% of land during heat events.

  • Erin Kissane ☛ Against Entropy

    Right now, meaningful obstruction is largely available to members of the legislature and the justice system who can try to stop things that are illegal, unconstitutional, and/or wrong and federal workers who can maybe throw sand in some gears. Those people already know what is happening. The thing I want is not for them, but for those of us who can call phones and visit offices and send money to legal efforts. There may also come a point when the level of emergency becomes so intense and so clear that a critical mass of outraged civilians can assemble and wield broader power to stop the destruction of necessary public goods. We will need sensemaking for that, too.

    Meaningful protection, though—that’s never enough when you’re a citizen working against the power of your own government, but it’s accessible to everyone. I am going to make my phone calls and thank my representatives from trying to get in between the damage and its targets, and ask them to keep trying, but protection is my beat. And sensemaking is necessary here, too, to a point.

  • New Yorker ☛ What Happens if Trump Defies the Courts

    I recently spoke by phone with Cristina Rodríguez, a professor at Yale Law School and an expert on the separation of powers. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why this moment is so dangerous, whether courts have any power to enforce their orders, and why Congress has chosen not to exercise its constitutional powers.

  • The Register UK ☛ I'm a security expert and I almost fell for this IT job scam

    "If they almost fooled me, a cybersecurity expert, they definitely fooled some people," Moczadło told The Register.

  • International Business Times ☛ 'Big Balls' Controversy: Elon Musk's 19-Year-Old Protégé Lands Senior State Department Role, Sparking Outrage

    The bureau is the State Department's IT centre, managing data and communications from U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide. State Department employees have voiced unease about Coristine's new position.

  • Wired ☛ Federal Workers Launch New Lawsuit to Fight DOGE’s Data Access

    A new lawsuit filed by more than 100 federal workers today in the US Southern District Court of New York alleges that the Trump administration’s decision to give Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to their sensitive personal data is illegal. The plaintiffs are asking the court for an injunction to cut off DOGE’s access to information from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which functions as the HR department of the United States and houses data on federal workers such as their Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and personnel files. WIRED previously reported that Musk and people with connections to him had taken over OPM.

    “OPM defendants gave DOGE defendants and DOGE’s agents—many of whom are under the age of 25 and are or were until recently employees of Musk’s private companies—‘administrative’ access to OPM computer systems, without undergoing any normal, rigorous national-security vetting,” the complaint alleges. The plaintiffs accuse DOGE of violating the Privacy Act, a 1974 law that determines how the government can collect, use, and store personal information.

  • Wired ☛ The CFPB Work Freeze Is Putting Big Tech Regulations ‘On Ice’

    “The CFPB can't move those cases forward, so they're basically on ice at the moment,” a former CFPB staffer, who was granted anonymity over fears of retaliation, tells WIRED.

    The CFPB began operations in 2011 on the heels of the financial crisis. Its creation was stipulated in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed by Congress the year before. President Obama appointed then-professor Elizabeth Warren to help put the agency together. Its mandate, broadly, was to be a watchdog over financial institutions. According to Obama, the CFPB would “crack down on the abusive practices of unscrupulous mortgage lenders, reinforce the new credit card law we passed banning unfair rate hikes, and ensure that folks aren’t unwittingly caught by overdraft fees when they sign up for a checking account.” As of December 2024, the agency has relieved debts and repaid defrauded consumers to the tune of more than $19 billion, according to the CFPB website.

  • Axios ☛ Labor unions sue to stop DOGE access to US agencies' sensitive data

    Why it matters: The American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-led lawsuit that was filed in federal court Monday alleges giving DOGE access to this data "violates federal law" and that the departments "improperly disclosed" U.S. citizens' sensitive information.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Swedish Police Apprehend Person Suspected of Preparing Terrorist Crimes

    Swedish police said on Tuesday they had apprehended one person in the Stockholm area on suspicion of preparing terrorist crimes in a case concerning violent Islamist extremism.

  • The Washington Post ☛ More than 170 World War II-era bombs found under playground in Britain

    “It soon became apparent that the scale of the problem was far greater than anyone had anticipated,” the local council said in a news release.

    The council described the ordnance as “practice bombs” but stressed that “they do still carry a charge and given the numbers involved, need to be recovered by professionals.”

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Techdirt ☛ Musk Promised Government Transparency, DOGE Delivers Maximum Secrecy

    Right after the inauguration, Lauren Harper at the Freedom of the Press Foundation noted that this was an opportunity for Elon to put “his documents where his mouth is, and make DOGE’s records public.” But, she noted, the early indications didn’t look good, including the fact that one of their first orders of business was to shut down the OMB FOIA portal. It’s still down as I type this.

    Of course, if Musk was living up to his words that we wouldn’t even need FOIA because he’d just make everything public, well, that would be one explanation.

    But that’s not what is actually happening. Just as when he took over Twitter, we’re learning that Musk’s promises and Musk’s reality are wholly different things. When he promises to make things better for “the people,” he always means “make things better for Elon.”

• Environment

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Argentina: Alarm as river runs blood-red

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-06 [Older] Record hot January despite cooling La Nina effect

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Wired ☛ The Untold Story of a [Cryptocurrency] Crimefighter’s Descent Into Nigerian Prison

      As a US federal agent, Tigran Gambaryan pioneered modern [cryptocurrency] investigations. Then at Binance, he got trapped between the world’s biggest [cryptocurrency] exchange and a government determined to make it pay.

    • Mother Jones ☛ Report: Elon’s Cybertrucks Are Deadlier Than Infamous Ford Pintos

      An analysis published Thursday by the auto news website FuelArc found that, in their one year of existence, the approximately 34,000 Cybertrucks on the roads had five fire fatalities, giving them a fatality rate of 14.5 per 100,000 units. That’s 17 times the fatality rate of the Ford Pintos, whose famously flawed gas tank design on the car’s rear end led to 27 reported fire fatalities in its nine years on the road, resulting in a fatality rate of 0.85 per 100,000 units, according to FuelArc.

    • Pro Publica ☛ Elon Musk May Now Control Fate of SpaceX Regulators at FAA

      When SpaceX’s Starship exploded in January, raining debris over the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the rocket program and ordered an investigation. The move was the latest in a series of actions taken by the agency against the world’s leading commercial space company.

      “Safety drives everything we do at the FAA,” the agency’s chief counsel said in September, after proposing $633,000 in fines for alleged violations related to two previous launches. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”

    • CBC ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] B.C. judge orders WestJet to stop telling unhappy passengers the sky's not the limit on delay claims

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Brazil: 2 dead after light plane crashes in Sao Paulo

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] Alaska: Search underway for missing passenger plane

    • DeSmog ☛ Alberta’s Energy Regulator Is ‘Fully Captured’ by Industry, Study Finds

    • DeSmog ☛ Trump Dissed Poilievre, Revealing Key Weakness for Conservatives

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ The Curlew, the Cactus, and the Obliterated Whitefish: The Species We Lost in 2024

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-07 [Older] New York City shuts live poultry markets over bird flu cases

• Finance

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit

    I'm talking about filing your taxes. In nearly every case, a tax return contains a bunch of things the IRS already knows: how much interest your bank paid you, how much your employer paid you, how many kids you have, etc etc. Nearly everyone who pays a tax-prep place or website to file their tax return is just sending data to the IRS that the IRS already has. This is insanely wasteful.

    In most other "advanced" countries (and in plenty of poorer countries, too), the tax authority fills in your tax return for you and mails it to you at tax-time. If it looks good to you, you just sign the bottom and send it back. If there are mistakes, you can correct them. You can also just drop it in the shredder and hire an accountant to do your taxes for you, if, for example, you run a small business, or are self-employed, or have other complex tax needs. A tiny minority of tax filers fall into that bucket, and they keep the tax-prep industry in other countries alive, albeit in a much smaller form than in the USA.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-02 [Older] US Businesses Brace for Cheeto Mussolini's Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China to Drive up Costs

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-02 [Older] Canada to 'Stand Firm' in Trade Battle With Cheeto Mussolini, Ambassador Tells ABC

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] Quebec will make it tougher for U.S. companies to win government contracts

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-01 [Older] Trudeau hits back at the U.S. with big tariffs after Cheeto Mussolini launches a trade war

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-02 [Older] Emboldened consumers buy Canadian amid trade war with U.S.

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Trudeau Says To 'Check The Label And Choose Canada': List Of Canadian Alternatives To US Products

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Ford 'ripping up' Ontario's $100M contract with Elon Musk's Starlink in wake of U.S. tariffs

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] 'Flagrant disrespect' of U.S tariff threat has some Canadians taking their money elsewhere

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini's tariffs could make sending a package or crossing the border costlier — and more complicated

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Canada and Mexico Under Attack: The China Solution

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] Quebec union plans legal action against Amazon over closures

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Zuckerberg’s swerve: how diversity went from being a Meta priority to getting cancelled

    But, as of 10 January 2025, the vast majority of that work has been summarily abandoned. Just days after 2024 had come and gone, Meta (now Facebook’s parent company) announced that instead of forging ahead with diversity goals, it would do away with corporate inclusion efforts entirely. The diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs would be shuttered. The company would end “representation goals”. Williams would be relegated to a new role focused on accessibility and engagement.

  • Wired ☛ Scam Altman Dismisses Elon Musk’s Bid to Buy OpenAI in Letter to Staff

    Musk has sued OpenAI multiple times for, among other things, allegedly violating its original commitments as a nonprofit by transitioning to become a for-profit company. In addition to fighting back in court, OpenAI published a series of emails claiming that Musk knew OpenAI would need to become for-profit in order to pursue artificial general intelligence—and in fact, tried to merge the company with Tesla.

  • Unmitigated Risk ☛ Educating the Champion, the Buyer, and the Market

    The security industry has undergone a massive shift, moving away from the idea that you can simply bolt on protection to an already flawed system. Instead, we now realize that security must be designed in from the start. This demands a lifecycle approach—it’s not enough to fix bugs after deployment or put a facade in front of a service. We have to consider how software is built, tested, deployed, and maintained over time.

    This evolution requires cultural change: security can’t just live in a silo; it has to be woven into product development, operations, and even business strategy. Perhaps most importantly, we’ve learned that people, processes, and communication strategies are just as important as technology choices.

    This shift has raised the bar. It’s no longer sufficient to show that your solution works; you must show how it seamlessly integrates into existing workflows, consider the entire use lifecycle, supports future needs, and gets buy-in across multiple levels of an organization.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Elon Musk Offers $97.4B to Buy OpenAI—Sam Altman Responds

    Elon Musk and a consortium of investors have put $97.4 billion on the table as an offer to buy the non-profit that controls OpenAI. Musk has periodically expressed his opinion that the company lost its original vision, he says a buyout will fix that.

  • VOA News ☛ EU's AI push to get $50 billion boost, EU's von der Leyen says

    Europe will invest an additional $51.5 billion to bolster the bloc's artificial intelligence ambition, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

    It will come on top of the European AI Champions Initiative, that has already pledged 150 billion euros from providers, investors and industry, von der Leyen told the Paris AI Summit.

  • The Register UK ☛ Intel AI chief jumps ship for Nokia

    Hotard joined Intel in early 2024 after former DCAI head Sandra Rivera was tapped to lead its newly spun-off Altera FPGA business. With more than eight years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, most recently as EVP and GM of its High-Performance Computing, AI, and Labs division, Hotard was expected to help turn around Intel's struggling DCAI unit.

  • The Toronto Star ☛ Ottawa ends Meta ad boycott spending $300,000 in campaigns

    Campain reverses a 2023 decision to halt government advertising on Facebook. “We cannot continue paying advertising dollars to Meta while they refuse to pay their fair share to Canadian news organizations,” heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez wrote on X at the time.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Meduza ☛ Russia's unsanctioned master of propaganda The Insider investigation reveals how Margarita Zhitnitskaya built a media empire to serve the Kremlin while staying off the West's radar

      Investigative journalists at The Insider revealed in a new report that Zhitnitskaya’s business legally consists of three LLCs that she wholly owns: M-Production, M-Production Media, and M-Production Group. In 2023, these companies reported total revenue in excess of 4.5 billion rubles (roughly $53 million at the time) — twice as much in 2021. The combined net profit for 2021–2023 amounted to 655 million rubles (about $8.2 million). The company’s largest source of income is Rossiya-1. M-production also pays the salaries of propagandists Vladimir Solovyov, Alexander Myasnikov, and Sergey Mikheev.

    • The Guardian UK ☛ Far-right populists much more likely than the left to spread fake news – study

      The research draws on every tweet posted between 2017 and 2022 by every member of parliament with a Twitter (now X) account in 26 countries: 17 EU members including Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, but also the UK, US and Australia.

      It then compared that dataset – 32m tweets from 8,198 MPs – with international political science databases containing detailed information on the parties involved, such as their position on the left-right spectrum and their degree of populism.

      Finally, the researchers scraped factchecking and fake news-tracking services to build a dataset of 646,058 URLs, each with an associated “factuality rating” based on the reliability of its source – and compared that data with the 18m URLs shared by the MPs.

    • The Strategist ☛ Undermining unity: Disinformation as a threat to the Quad

      The origins of the disinformation campaigns are not completely clear, but it can at least be said that they suit the purposes of China and, perhaps, Pakistan.

      The Quad promotes a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific by addressing challenges such as health, climate change, cybersecurity and infrastructure development. However, intensifying geopolitical tensions have exposed a fundamental limitation: the Quad’s reluctance to explicitly focus on security challenges. This strategic ambiguity makes the partnership vulnerable to disinformation campaigns. These campaigns often spread false or misleading information to manipulate public opinion, targeting the group and its members.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Semafor Inc ☛ Salman Rushdie testifies against man charged with stabbing him at NY trial

    Rushdie has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which some religious leaders considered blasphemous; a year after its release, Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Salman Rushdie testimony describes attack in graphic detail

    Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie took the stand in the attempted murder trial of the man charged with stabbing him repeatedly at a literary gathering in August 2022.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Salman Rushdie attempted murder trial begins

    The attacker, 24-year-old Hadi M, has been charged with second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault for stabbing Rushdie more than a dozen times. He has pleaded not guilty.

    A jury was selected last week and the assailant was in court throughout the three-day process, taking notes and consulting with his attorneys.

    Once testimony is underway, the trial is expected last a week to 10 days.

  • New York Times ☛ ‘I Was Dying’: Salman Rushdie Testifies About Terrifying Stabbing Attack

    The author recounted in vivid testimony the moment when an attacker stabbed him about 15 times as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

  • US News And World Report ☛ Excerpts From Salman Rushdie's Court Testimony About a Harrowing Attack

    “I wasn’t counting at the time. I was otherwise occupied but afterward I could see them on my body. I didn’t need to be told by anybody.”

    After 17 days in a hospital and weeks of rehab, Rushdie hasn't fully recovered

  • [Old] BBC ☛ TikTok censors references to Tiananmen and Tibet

    The findings come amid claims that protests in Hong Kong are also being censored for political reasons.

    The newspaper said the guidelines for moderators cover a wide range of content, some of which is marked as an outright violation and is deleted from the site. Another policy marks content as "visible to self", which means it can remain up but its distribution to others is limited.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Salman Rushdie tells stabbing trial: ‘It occurred to me quite clearly I was dying’

    The encounter in Judge David Foley’s courtroom brought Rushdie and Matar together for the first time since, prosecutors say, Matar dropped a bag containing assorted knives as he approached the stage at the Chautauqua Institution amphitheater, and stabbed the author more than a dozen times with a 10in knife.

  • The Independent UK ☛ Excerpts from Salman Rushdie's court testimony about a harrowing attack

    “I wasn’t counting at the time. I was otherwise occupied but afterward I could see them on my body. I didn’t need to be told by anybody.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ Iran pardons journalists who covered woman’s death that triggered protests

    The death of the 22-year-old sparked the nationwide “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, which in turn prompted a harsh crackdown by Iranian authorities.

    The pardons of the two journalists were applied on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Mizan said.

  • 404 Media ☛ Wikipedia Prepares for 'Increase in Threats' to US Editors From Musk and His Allies

    The Wikimedia Foundation says it will likely roll out features previously used to protect editors in authoritarian countries more widely.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russia Seeks Extradition of Exiled Journalist From Czech Republic

    Kurbangaleeva dismissed the charges as fabricated and said she was not concerned that the Czech Republic would comply with the request.

  • ANF News ☛ 14 journalists killed by the Turkish state in five years

    In the past, the Turkish state repeatedly attacked members of the free media through ISIS mercenaries. However, since 2019, it has escalated its large-scale attacks against journalists using drones and artillery fire. As a result of these attacks, 14 journalists have been killed, and 7 have been injured.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-04 [Older] Power moves: the women changing Africa's leadership

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-05 [Older] Why Bob Marley remains a human rights icon

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Judge hammers Ottawa cops for lying under oath, misleading court in searing decision

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-03 [Older] Hundreds of stayed sexual assault cases send chilling message to victims, advocates warn

  • The Walrus ☛ Nunavut Turns 25: Land, Language, and Self-Determination

    At just 25 years old, Nunavut is still finding its footing—but it’s come a long way since its historic creation on April 1, 1999. In this episode, we dive into the past, present, and future of Canada’s youngest territory. Historian Kenn Harper, known to Nunavummiut as Ilisaijikutaaq (the tall teacher), shares stories from his time learning Inuktitut and documenting Inuit culture, including insights from his new book on the Fifth Thule Expedition. Then, Premier P.J. Akeeagok reflects on Nunavut’s journey—its triumphs, its growing pains, and the work still ahead. He breaks down the significance of a recent land transfer agreement that gives Nunavut full control over its own lands—a major milestone on the path to self-determination.

  • Digital Music News ☛ AFM Joins Entertainment Union Coalition

    “When California taxpayers are supporting our industries, it’s only fair that Californians benefit,” said AFM Local 47 (Los Angeles) President Stephanie O’Keefe. “I am looking forward to working with other union leaders to directly address the significant needs of our members. Our union is strong when we stand in solidarity with other arts and entertainment professionals.” The EUC is currently focused on advocating for the expansion of California’s Film & Television tax incentives, which are critical to attracting and retaining production in the state. Among other issues, the coalition also works to promote policies that support workers’ rights and ensure fair wages and working conditions for all entertainment industry professionals.

  • Freedom From Religion Foundation ☛ First-ever atheist billboard in Africa unveiled in Ghana with FFRF support

    Sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) in partnership with Accra Atheists, this historic installation marks a significant milestone in visibility and advocacy for African humanists, atheists, agnostics and skeptics.

  • The Nation ☛ Trump Can’t Strip Natives of Our US Citizenship, but He Will Try to Take Our Lands

    Late last month—as part of the legal defense of Trump’s order to suspend birthright citizenship—the Justice Department cited a 19th-century case arguing that “Indians” should be excluded from birthright citizenship.

    While the 14th Amendment declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” the Justice Department posited that since a law passed two years prior explicitly excluded “Indians,” then so too does the 14th Amendment.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Tedium ☛ One Invention, Many Patents: How Egg Cartons Took Shape

    Depending on where you look, you will see people credited with inventing the egg carton in either the late 18th century or early 19th century. One look at Google Patents suggests that the amount of prior out there makes it difficult to say that any one person gave us the modern egg carton, with its caressing slots protecting some sensitive cargo.

    But no matter who came up with the distinctive contoured shape of the egg carton, it is clear that the invention was an evolution made by many hands.

• Copyrights

  • [Repeat] Digital Music News ☛ U.S. Copyright Office Officially Launches PROs Inquiry

    Writing with small businesses (bars and restaurants chief among them) in mind, the lawmakers emphasized the purported “increased costs and burdens imposed on licensees for paying an ever-increasing number of PROs.” “Thus,” the representatives relayed in part, “licensees are concerned that the proliferation of PROs represents an ever-present danger of infringement allegations and potential litigation risk from new and unknown sources.”

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Piracy Crisis: Cloudflare Says LaLiga Knew Dangers, Blocked IP Address Anyway

    Unexplained chaos at ISPs Movistar and DIGI has prevented some customers from accessing many sites using Cloudflare for over a week. Simultaneously, football league LaLiga stated they are working to shut down pirate streaming platforms, warning Cloudflare and others that they consider them responsible for profiting from piracy. Since statements now link these two events, Spain has a crisis on its hands.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ AI is a Key Technology in Today's Anti-Piracy Toolbox

    Last week, several innovative copyright protection tools were discussed at WIPO’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement. One particularly interesting presentation came from the Portuguese company NOS Technology, which highlighted its AI-powered anti-piracy tool. Among other things, the toolbox can help to block pirated content automatically, with a direct connection at the ISP level.

  • The Register UK ☛ Thomson Reuters wins AI copyright ruling over training data

    "We are pleased that the court granted summary judgment in our favor and concluded that Westlaw’s editorial content created and maintained by our attorney editors, is protected by copyright and cannot be used without our consent," a spokesperson for Thomson Reuters told The Register today.

    "The copying of our content was not 'fair use.'"

  • Wired ☛ Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case in the US

    In 2020, the media and technology conglomerate filed an unprecedented AI copyright lawsuit against the legal AI startup Ross Intelligence. In the complaint, Thomson Reuters claimed the AI firm reproduced materials from its legal research firm Westlaw. Today, a judge ruled in Thomson Reuters’ favor, finding that the company’s copyright was indeed infringed by Ross Intelligence’s actions.

    “None of Ross’s possible defenses holds water. I reject them all,” wrote US District Court of Delaware judge Stephanos Bibas, in a summary judgement.

  • Nick Heer ☛ Meta Allegedly Trained A.I. On a Hundred Terabytes of Pirated Books

    It should surprise nobody that A.I. is trained on illicit material. Even if you believe A.I. training through bulk web scraping is a perfectly legitimate expression of free use, it is obviously going to run across things which are posted illegally. There are entire blockbuster movies on video platforms; photos and books get reshared without permission constantly.