Bonum Certa Men Certa

Leftover Links 03/07/2023: Dumb Phones and CISA Updates



  • Leftovers

    • CBCCanada wants to woo 'digital nomads.' Can we compete?

      This strategy, part of broader effort to attract tech talent, aims to promote the fact that people working remotely for a foreign employer can spend up to six months in Canada — and extend their time here, if they get a job offer from a domestic employer while in the country.

    • Education

      • GeshanHow to craft your junior software engineer resume the right way

        Writing a resume as a junior software engineer that strikes the right chord for both technical and non-technical readers is a crucial skill. In this guide, you will learn how you can craft a masterpiece junior software engineer that will get you more calls and possibly interviews, let’s get going!

    • Hardware

      • Andrew HutchingsMagneto-Optical Drives

        Magneto-Optical is not a fight between mutants from X-Men, but a very reliable drive technology which you may have even used, even if you haven’t heard of it.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • RTL"Giving so much sugar to a child is a crime," says CHL expert

        A CHL endocrinologist has issued a warning against the growing consumption of sugar, but also against the spread of a worrying disease among young people known as "Nash".

        "We're now seeing cases of cirrhosis linked to excessive sugar consumption. It may not be widely known, but it is very serious," Dr Catherine Atlan warned. The specialist in nutrition, diabetes and endocrinology at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg said the practice of parents offering bottles of sugary drinks to their children was on the rise.

      • Rolling StoneHe’s Saving Addicts By the Hundreds. Why Is His Hometown Fighting Him?

        If the Sacklers could’ve built themselves a doctor from scratch, he’d have walked and talked a lot like Procter. According to Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, the definitive and indelible account of the opioid epidemic in the heartland, Proctor was a small-town physician with big-town tastes; he drove a fleet of sports cars, owned a huge house, and stacked his patients end to end, pushing Xanax and short-haul narcotics. Then along came Oxy, touted by the Sacklers to be tamper proof, time-released — and safe. Less than one percent of users become addicted, read the handouts doctors got from Purdue’s salesmen. Procter’s practice told him different. The line outside his door formed hours before he opened, and new clients arrived by the vanload. They were happy to pay him cash — $250 for a three-minute visit — and to come back faithfully once a month. Those scripts for Oxy 80s would pay their own freight, reselling on the street, where a bottle of 90 pills was worth thousands.

        Procter hired ringers to handle the heavy traffic. The doctors he brought in were bottom-feeding hacks, but their licenses to prescribe narcotics were valid in Ohio. Thus was the world’s first “pain clinic” hatched. Soon, there were more than a dozen in Portsmouth, serving a town of 19,000. There was nothing cops could do but arrest the addicts when they brazenly stole from Walmart to feed their habit. “Doctors were protected by the law,” says Jason Hedrick, the deputy chief of Portsmouth’s police department. “Under the rules, it was legal to prescribe for pain, so we couldn’t touch those guys for years.”

      • University of WaterlooWhat’s a park worth to the economy?

        “Dollars drive decisions,” said Wilson. “It can be challenging for decision-makers to support the development and expansion of urban parks because there are competing land use pressures, and municipalities are responsible for park operation and maintenance costs. However, this study offers concrete evidence that the health system savings alone justify the financial investment.”

        The study, The economic value of health benefits associated with urban park investment, appears in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

      • MDPIThe Economic Value of Health Benefits Associated with Urban Park Investment

        The allocation of resources towards the development and enhancement of urban parks offers an effective strategy for promoting and improving the health and well-being of urban populations. Investments in urban parks can result in a multitude of health benefits. The increased usage of greenspace by park users has been linked to positive physical and mental health outcomes. Additionally, the expansion of greenspace in urban areas can mitigate harmful impacts from air pollutants, heat, noise, and climate-related health risks. While the health benefits attributed to urban parks and greenspaces are well documented, few studies have measured the economic value of these benefits. This study applied a novel ecohealth economic valuation framework to quantify and estimate the potential economic value of health benefits attributed to the development of a proposed park in the downtown core of Peterborough, Canada. The results indicated that development of the small urban park will result in annual benefits of CAD 133,000 per year, including CAD 109,877 in the avoided economic burden of physical inactivity, CAD 23,084 in health savings associated with improved mental health, and CAD 127 in health savings attributed to better air quality. When including the economic value of higher life satisfaction, the economic benefit is more than CAD 4 million per year. The study demonstrates the value of developing and enhancing urban parks as a strategy to improve population health and well-being, and as a means of cost savings to the medical system.

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • Modern DiplomacyDespite the Hype, Artificial Intelligence Remains Inferior to the Human Brain

        One way to answer that question would be to compare AI to an analogue that is already available and sentient, namely — the human brain. AI was designed not only to mimic the human mind but also to out-compute it in certain aspects. Apart from presenting a paradigm shift, AI’s utility is not entirely revolutionary. Rather, it is a continuation of innovations past and present — wheels, cranks, and windmills to surmount our limbic limitations; bows, arrows and missiles to counter remote threats; and the Internet to resolve space-time constraints in (global) communications.

      • Hollywood ReporterTwitter Introduces “Temporary Limits” for the Number of Tweets Users Can See Daily

        He elaborated on the measure in a separate tweet, writing, “Several hundred organizations (maybe more) were scraping Twitter data extremely aggressively, to the point where it was affecting the real user experience.” Adding, “What should we do to stop that? I’m open to ideas.” It’s unclear how long both of these temporary measures will last.

      • India TimesAustralian firm sues Twitter for $665,000 for not paying bills

        An Australian project management firm has filed a lawsuit against Twitter Inc in a U.S. court seeking cumulative payments of about A$1 million ($665,000) over alleged non-payment of bills for work done in four countries, court filings showed.

        Sydney-based private company Facilitate Corp on June 29 filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District Of California claiming breach of contract over Twitter's failure to pay its invoices.

      • 4Square Media Pty LtdMicrosoft CEO Slammed Over ‘Landmark Year' Claim - channelnews
    • Security

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • New York TimesCracking Down on Dissent, Russia Seeds a Surveillance Supply Chain

          The technologies have given the police and Russia’s Federal Security Service, better known as the F.S.B., access to a buffet of snooping capabilities focused on the day-to-day use of phones and websites. The tools offer ways to track certain kinds of activity on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal, monitor the locations of phones, identify anonymous social media users and break into people’s accounts, according to documents from Russian surveillance providers obtained by The New York Times, as well as security experts, digital activists and a person involved with the country’s digital surveillance operations.

        • HackadayPresence Sensor Locks Computer When You Step Away

          Having a computer that locks its screen after a few minutes of inactivity is always a good idea from a security standpoint, especially in offices where there is a lot of foot traffic. Even the five- or ten-minute activity timers that are set on most workstations aren’t really perfect solutions. While ideally in these situations we’d all be locking our screens manually when we get up, that doesn’t always happen. The only way to guarantee that this problem is solved is to use something like this automatic workstation locker.

        • Kev QuirkI’d Love a Dumb Phone, But…

          I’d love to replace my iPhone with a dumb phone, but I don’t think it would ever work in reality.

          I was recently perusing Youtube (as I sometimes do) and I came across a video about the Punkt MP02, which is effectively a dumb phone that supports Signal.

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Eesti RahvusringhäälingTartu company to recycle cigarette butts

        Founder of Filaret OÜ, creator of the collection boxes, Ines-Issa Villido said that while cigarette butts might not be a prominent problem at first glance, you can see them lining the streets once you start keeping an eye out. "Recent tobacco sales statistics suggest around 300 tons of cigarette filter waste is created in Estonia in a year. That is equal to roughly one hundred truck loads," she said.

        Filaret is the first company to recycle cigarette ends in Estonia. Villido said that they should be a separate type of waste.

      • Overpopulation

        • CNBC'A war for water': Europe sounds the alarm on water stress ahead of another extreme summer

          European lawmakers issued a stark warning about the region's growing water crisis ahead of another extreme summer, saying there is a pressing need to tackle issues such as scarcity, food security and pollution.

          Speaking at a European Parliament plenary session entitled "The Water Crisis in Europe" on Thursday, lawmakers called for increased action to preserve and improve water resources, already affected by several years of depleting groundwater levels as the climate crisis continues to intensify.

          Record-breaking temperatures through spring and a historic winter heatwave have taken a visible toll on the region's rivers and ski slopes, while protests have broken out over water shortages in both France and Spain.

        • CNBCThe scarcity of water is emerging as a global economic threat. With China and India looking the most at risk

          Global fresh water demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40% to 50% by 2030. Ghosh warned that water scarcity must not be viewed as a sectoral issue, but one that "transcends the entire economy."

        • [Old] World BankHow is India addressing its water needs?

          Come summer, and water becomes a commodity as precious as gold in India. The country has 18 percent of the world’s population, but only 4 percent of its water resources, making it among the most water-stressed in the world. A large number of Indians face high to extreme water stress, according to a recent report by the government’s policy think tank, the NITI Aayog. India’s dependence on an increasingly erratic monsoon for its water requirements increases this challenge. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this pressure on water resources, even as the frequency and intensity on floods and droughts in the country increases.

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • India TimesEU, Japan to deepen chip cooperation: EU industry chief Thierry Breton

        The EU and Japan will work together to monitor the chip supply chain and facilitate the exchange of researchers and engineers, Breton said. The EU will also be supportive of Japanese semiconductor companies considering operating there, including through access to subsidies.

      • JURISTIndia’s Karnataka High Court dismisses Twitter petition and imposes fine

        Twitter filed the petition challenging the blocking order issued by the Federal Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under €§ 69A of the Information Technology Act, in which the Ministry set out several consequences of non-compliance with a series of blocking orders. These included initiating criminal proceedings against the company’s Chief Compliance Officer and removing Twitter’s “safe harbour” immunity, a protection statutorily afforded to all online intermediaries operating in the country under €§ 79(1) of the Information Technology Act.

      • Computer WorldBusinesses and tech firms criticize proposed EU AI Act

        The signatories urged the EU to adopt a more hands-off approach to AI regulation, worrying that the draft AI Act would make the continent less competitive in the fast-growing field.

      • SalonThere's no such thing as a conservative intellectual — only apologists for right-wing power

        Three-quarters of a century later, Trilling's statement remains broadly true, as a glance at conservative books will attest. The hundreds of conservative book titles that have geysered out of Regnery, Broadside and other right-wing imprints in recent years are almost invariably distinguished by their numbing sameness: a shrill cry of victimhood, a hunt for scapegoats, a tone that alternates between hysteria and heavy sarcasm, and a recipe for salvation cribbed from Republican National Committee talking points and Heritage Foundation issue briefs. The fact that they sometimes hit the bestseller list is principally due to the well-funded conservative media-entertainment complex's bulk-purchase scam.

      • [Old] IranWireThe Islamic Republic’s Psychological Warfare against the Opposition

        Psychological warfare, known by a number of names including psychological operations and “psy ops," is one of the oldest tactics employed in wars. Such tactics are aimed at undermining the enemy’s morale and its will to fight or resist and, sometimes, at persuading the enemy to change its position. Another kind of psy-ops is propaganda aimed at strengthening the morale and the resolve of allies or one’s own forces. Efforts to manipulate the minds of prisoners of war and political prisoners are also part of psychological warfare.

        In this two-part report, we examine how the Islamic Republic wages psychological warfare against its opponents, which tools it uses and whether it observes any red lines in its psychological operations.

      • [Old] IranWireIslamic Republic’s Cyber Army: Cheerleaders, Zombies and Trolls

        In this study, Shamani concluded that psychological operations, along with intelligence gathering, is one of the most effective ways in suppressing protests. He then suggested the following actions: [...]

        [...]

        The article then emphasized the importance of “the role of infiltrators in the ranks of the opposition and of conducting psychological operations among the rioters in order to downgrade the rioters’ demands and reactions, and sometimes to mislead the rioters and identify the core leaders of the unrest.”

      • FuturismCNET’s Parent Company Preparing to Kickstart the AI Content Engine

        Throughout the meeting, Elias and others emphasized an argument for AI's integration that's becoming a familiar refrain: productivity. Leaders at the likes of BuzzFeed and Insider — Nich Carlson, Insider's editor-in-chief, notably referred to tools like ChatGPT as the "new bicycle of the mind," in reference to Steve Jobs' famous quote about iPhones — have held a similar productivity line, as did G/O Media Group when it announced its own move to AI this week. As the logic generally stands, AI systems can quickly aggregate information and take away first-draft pressure; using them, then, must mean that work goes faster, which means more content is produced. Ultimately, the reasoning seems to go, more reader eyeballs are harvested.

      • Gannett'Consign to oblivion': Bloggers say Russia rewriting history of Wagner Group: Updates

        Some pro-Moscow military bloggers are decrying shameless attempts by the Kremlin to "rewrite history" and "consign to oblivion" the war efforts of the Wagner private military company (PMC) and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

      • ScheerpostJudge Orders Proud Boys to Pay More Than $1M Over Destruction of Black DC Church’s Property: Report

        A DC judge has ordered a group of Proud Boys members€ to pay over $1 million€ for their role in destroying property belonging to a well-known, majority-Black, Washington, D.C., church in 2020, CNN reports. This€ comes after, in May, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Lt.

      • Unicorn MediaTweetDeck Goes Kaflooey

        TweetDeck, a Twitter owned and operated social media dashboard application that’s useful for managing multiple Twitter accounts, has been unusable since early Sunday morning. While TweetDeck hasn’t had a major failure that I know of since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, this failure came as no surprise to me — or anyone else using the platform, I imagine.

        The application allows users to create multiple columns to monitor multiple accounts, alongside a “Home” feed for the user’s designated primary account. For example, my TweetDeck account shows the “home” feed for BrideOfLinux, my personal Twitter account, along with columns showing my most recent tweets, and another column, “Notifications,” which shows interactions from other users, such as shares, likes, and comments. Alongside those, there’s a column showing tweets posted on FOSS Force’s Twitter account, which I manage, and a “Notification” column for that account, as well.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • RFERLIranian Activist Held During Protests Given Five-Year Sentence, Supporters Say

        An Iranian appeals court handed a five-year sentence to prominent activist and journalist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, who has been held since her arrest at the onset of a protest movement, supporters said on July 2. [...]

      • The Telegraph UKColonel 'forced out of Army' after stating 'men cannot be women'

        Dr Wright told The Telegraph: “This attack on my honour made my position completely untenable. I could no longer remain in an Army which treated its officers with such disrespect.

        “What message does it send to women in the Army, that merely for noting the existence of women and women’s rights even a colonel can be placed under investigation? I therefore feel there is no other choice but to make this matter public.

      • ICCNigerian Christian Leaders Speak Out After Muslim Man Stoned for Supposed Blasphemy

        Some media reports suggest that Buda was killed by business partners or competitors after engaging on theology with a beggar asking for money. Other sources report that Buda made a statement interpreted as derogatory of the Islamic prophet Mohammed. In any case, a mob shouting “Allahu Akbar” quickly gathered to avenge the supposed blasphemy and killed Buda.

        In a similar case, Deborah Emmanuel, a student at the College of Sokoto, was also stoned to death by a Muslim mob last year for supposedly blasphemous statements. Emmanuel was a Christian, while Buda is reported to have been a devout Muslim.

        No one has been arrested for Buda’s killing yet, Nigerian police confirmed.

      • ReutersMuslim group says measures needed to prevent Koran desecration

        A man tore up and burned a Koran outside Stockholm's central mosque on Wednesday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holidays. The act angered OIC member Turkey whose backing Sweden needs to gain entry to the NATO military alliance.

      • Hong Kong Free PressNo conflict between journalism and security law, says Hong Kong No.2 official

        Lee said at the time that the administration would not introduce fake news legislation if the problem was manageable through self-discipline and industry ethics.

        The government first mulled plans to legislate against fake news and false information in 2021. At the time, the administration told lawmakers that they were conducting a study of similar legislations in other countries.

      • Hong Kong Free PressVideo: China’s attempt to interrupt UN testimony by son of detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai rejected

        In a press statement, PEN International said China had attempted to silence Sebastien Lai: “We welcome the President of the Human Rights Council’s decision to allow Sebastien to conclude his oral statement, and for the comments from Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, who expressed his support and solidarity with Sebastien Lai.”

      • RFAHow risky is travel to Hong Kong under the national security law?

        As a former resident and frequent traveler to the Hong Kong, R had never considered himself a political threat under the city's national security law, which ushered in an ongoing crackdown on dissent when it was imposed three years ago.

        Until he was ushered into a small, windowless room at Hong Kong International Airport at the beginning of this year on arrival from his native Taiwan, and subjected to questioning and a full body search by both uniformed and plainclothes police.

      • RFANew Chinese foreign relations law targets businesspeople, journalists

        China has enacted a new foreign relations law that takes a broad view of what constitutes espionage in a move that may make China even harder to safely navigate for foreign journalists and businesspeople.

        The law – which came into effect on Saturday – appears to be an effort to provide a legal basis for punishing any individuals or organizations that threaten China’s interests, which may include any moves that suggest “de-risking” or “decoupling,” at least according to state media rhetoric over recent days.

      • RFAHong Kong social activists brave threat of arrest to keep speaking out

        "The easiest way for them to prosecute us is under colonial-era sedition laws, because they can charge us for posting any opinion online that the authorities don't like," she said.

      • Deutsche WelleQuran burning: Iran delays Sweden ambassador appointment

        Several Muslim countries continued to complain to Sweden on Sunday about a protest earlier in the week in Stockholm in which an Iraqi national set fire to a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

      • Hong Kong Free PressHong Kong Book Fair does not have a ‘list of banned titles’ for vendors, organiser says

        The organiser of Hong Kong’s annual book fair has said it did not hold a list of banned titles for participating publishers, maintaining the same position as last year that it would not pre-screen books, “as long as the titles didn’t breach Hong Kong law, including the national security law.” [...]

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

      • VOA NewsJapanese Journalist Barred From Entering Hong Kong Without Clear Reason: Report

        A Japanese journalist was barred from entering Hong Kong without a clear reason and was sent back to his country, a Japanese newspaper said, raising concerns over the city's shrinking press freedoms.

        The Japan Times, a prominent English-language newspaper, reported Friday that a freelance journalist was taken by officials to a room after arriving at the city's airport Thursday evening. Yoshiaki Ogawa, known for his coverage in the financial hub, was later interviewed for around an hour, it said.

      • LRTLithuanian MEP funds alternative news website – LRT investigation

        A new social media platform and alternative news website, 77.lt, is funded by Lithuanian MEP Viktoras Uspaskichas and his former wife Jolanta Blažytė. Since its inception, the website has attracted people who spread fakes surrounding the Covid pandemic, vaccines, and the war in Ukraine.

      • IT WireAssange spends another birthday in jail waiting for appeal outcome

        She told the Associated Press: “He has provided great solace and comfort and we are extremely appreciative for his reaching out to our family in this way. He understands that Julian is suffering and is concerned.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Truthdig2023-06-29 [Older] How to Close Rikers
      • ANF NewsYazidi woman wants to take part in ISIS trials as a witness

        Yazidi woman Sûrî Xelef, who lost two sons in the ISIS genocide in Shengal, wants to appear as a witness at the trials in north-eastern Syria. Currently, however, there is still a lack of capacity to manage these trials without international support.

        [...]

        The ISIS massacre in Shengal, which was recognised as genocide against the Yazidi community by the German Parliament (Bundestag) in January, is described by the Yazidis as the 73rd genocide (or ferman as Yazidis call it) in their history of persecution. It is estimated that about 10,000 people fell victim to the genocide. Over 7,000 women and children were abducted by ISIS, more than 400,000 people were driven from their homes and thousands more are still missing.

      • SalonHow Arizona stands between tribes and their water

        Arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of Arizona and other parties in 1983, Kyl successfully defended a challenge to a law called the McCarran Amendment that allowed state courts to take over jurisdiction of tribal water rights claims.

        "Tribes are subject to the vagaries of different state politics, different state processes," explained Dylan Hedden-Nicely, director of the Native American Law Program at the University of Idaho and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. "As a result, two tribes with identical language in their treaties might end up having, ultimately, very different water rights on their reservations."

      • Iran Press WatchBaha’i Citizen Sara Sabet Rasekh Receives Eight-Year Prison Sentence

        In March-April 2022, the Isfahan Revolutionary Court initially sentenced Sabet to two years for “insulting the former and current Supreme Leader of Iran” and one year for “propaganda against the regime on the [Internet].” Subsequently, she received an additional one-year sentence for “insulting regime authorities and officials.” Currently, she is serving the latter sentence outside of prison under curfew, monitored by an electronic tag.

      • Hong Kong Free PressBREAKING: Hong Kong national security police issue HK$1 million bounty each for 8 self-exiled activists

        Hong Kong national security police have issued arrest warrants for eight self-exiled activists, including former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok. The Force also offered HK$1 million for each of the wanted people.

      • Hong Kong Free Press15 stopped by Hong Kong police on anniversary of city’s return to Chinese rule

        Fifteen people were stopped by police on July 1, the 26th anniversary of the Handover, including an 87-year-old man who called for the abolition of the national security law, according to local media. None were arrested. According to local media, some 6,000 police officers were deployed on Saturday.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Gizmodo2023-06-29 [Older] It's About to Be Much Harder for Rural Alaskans to Get Their Weather Forecast
      • CNBCGoogle will block Canadian news outlets from search results in the country

        The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, one of Canada's largest news organizations, said it would "encourage Canadians to go directly to the websites they trust for their news." Newsrooms in Canada and around the world have suffered from years of decline. From 2008 to 2018, 216 Canadian newsrooms closed their doors, according to researchers.

        "Big tech would rather spend money changing their platforms to block news from Canadians instead of paying a small share of the billions they make in advertising dollars," Pablo Rodriguez, member of Parliament for Honoré-Mercier, said Thursday on Twitter. Google reported $40.69 billion in Search revenue for the second quarter of 2023.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Dennis Crouch/Patently-OStumbling in the Dark: Regional Circuit Law at the Federal Circuit

          One of the oddest things about the Federal Circuit is that, in the court’s view, it’s powerless to decide many issues of federal law that arise in the appeals presented to it.

          Sure, on matters of patent law, what the Federal Circuit says binds district courts, the Patent Office, and future panels of the Federal Circuit itself. Ditto for nonpatent matters the Federal Circuit considers “unique” to patent disputes.

          But, on pretty much every other issue in a Federal Circuit patent appeal—whether it be transfer of venue, the permissible scope of discovery, co-pending antitrust or copyright claims, or anything else—the Federal Circuit asserts no “law-saying” power. Instead, the Federal Circuit—and district courts in cases that will be appealed to the Federal Circuit—apply the precedent of the regional circuit from which the case arose.

      • Copyrights



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