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06.05.16

Links 5/6/2016: SouthEast LinuxFest, Debian 8.5 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 10:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Meet The Fast And Beautiful Cub Linux 1.0 — “Cub = Chromium + Ubuntu”

    Cub Linux is created by combining the best features of Chromium OS and Ubuntu Linux i.e. speed and Google integrations of Chromium + power and compatibility of Ubuntu Linux. This cloud centric operating system is currently based on Ubuntu Linux LTS 14.04 ‘Trusty Tahr’ and is available for download as a Release Candidate.

  • Interview with the Creators of SilentKeys; Preevio

    I got the opportunity to talk to Iann De Maria and Romain Pironneau earlier today about the launch of their Kickstarter campaign for an Edward Snowden inspired privacy-oriented keyboard that runs a live Linux OS. Read on to find out what got said!

  • FOSS and Grits With Southern Fried Linux

    There’s a component to the SouthEast LinuxFest that’s not seen at most other free and open source conferences, as the conference seeks to celebrate not only FOSS, but Southern culture as well.

    The SouthEast LinuxFest is the conference that dares to be different. That’s because along with “Linux” and “FOSS,” “hospitality” is always a keyword at SELF, which will get cranked up next Friday, June 10. Hospitality — as in the “bless your heart” version known as “southern hospitality” — is sure to be on full display. That’s a given.

    I point this out not for the benefit of good ol’ boy or girl FOSSers who call the Southeast home — ’cause y’all already know — but for those who live outside the area who might not be aware that SELF allows attendees the chance to not only be immersed in the culture of free and open source software, but in the culture of the New South as well.

  • Desktop

    • “10”‘s Nagware Ruins Your Day

      If you want software that works for you rather than you being a slave to its supplier, use Free/Libre Open Source Software like Debian GNU/Linux. It saved me many times from re-re-reboots, malware and slowing down.

    • Even in remotest Africa, Windows 10 nagware ruins your day: Update burns satellite link cash

      When you’re stuck in the middle of the Central African Republic (CAR) trying to protect the wildlife from armed poachers and the Lord’s Resistance Army, then life’s pretty tough. And now Microsoft has made it tougher with Windows 10 upgrades.

      The Chinko Project manages roughly 17,600 square kilometres (6,795 square miles) of rainforest and savannah in the east of the CAR, near the border with South Sudan. Money is tight, and so is internet bandwidth. So the staff was more than a little displeased when one of the donated laptops the team uses began upgrading to Windows 10 automatically, pulling in gigabytes of data over a radio link.

  • Server

  • Audiocasts/Shows

    • The History of Open Source & Free Software, Pt. 1, w/ Special Guest: Richard Stallman

      In the early 1980’s Richard Stallman founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF): a socio-technological movement that revolutionized the software world. In this episode we’ll hear Stallman himself talking about the roots of the movement, and learn of its early struggles.

    • Our First Podcast, with ProfessorKaos64

      We are introducing today a new way to enjoy BoilingSteam with our first podcast. It was recorded on the 22nd of May, along with our special guest, ProfessorKaos64, who is pretty well known in the linux gaming community for his work on expanding SteamOS beyond its initial scope of only launching Steam games. You can check his SteamOS-tools page on Git-hub to find out the extent of his work so far.

  • Kernel Space

    • OpenSwitch Finds a New Home
    • HP’s OpenSwitch becomes a Linux Foundation Project

      HP’s open source networking operating system, OpenSwitch, is now a Linux Foundation project.

      Many industry players are joining the project, including Broadcom, Cavium, Extreme Networks, LinkedIn, Mellanox, Nephos Inc., P4.org, Quattro Networks, SnapRoute and, of course, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

    • HPE-backed OpenSwitch OS becomes Linux Foundation project
    • EU Parliament Votes for Smart Regulation of Blockchain Technology

      European Parliament members (MEPs) voted to take a hands-off approach to regulating blockchain technology, Ars Technica reports. Following the vote, unnamed sources told Ars Technica that European Commission staffers are working hard to understand the distributed ledger technology behind virtual currencies ‒ seven years after the launch of Bitcoin, with venture capital investments now totalling more than €1 billion.

    • On Getting Patches Merged

      In some project there’s an awesome process to handle newcomer’s contributions – autobuilder picks up your pull and runs full CI on it, coding style checkers automatically do basic review, and the functional review load is also at least all assigned with tooling too.

      Then there’s project where utter chaos and ad-hoc process reign, like the Linux kernel or the X.org community, and it’s much harder for new folks to get their foot into the door. Of course there’s documentation trying to bridge that gap, tools like get_maintainers.pl to figure out whom to ping, but that’s kinda the details. In the end you need someone from the inside to care about what you’re doing and guide you through the maze the first few times.

    • Graphics Stack

      • AMD Published AMD GPU-PRO Beta Driver (for Linux)

        On Windows, we really only have one graphics driver per GPU. On Linux, however, there is a choice between open drivers and closed, binary-only blobs. Open drivers allow users to perpetuate support, for either really old hardware or pre-release software, without needing the GPU vendor to step in. It can also be better for security, because open-source software can be audited, which is better (albeit how much better is up for debate) than just having a few eyes on it… if any at all.

    • Benchmarks

      • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 On Linux: OpenGL, OpenCL, Vulkan Performance

        $699 USD is a lot to spend on a graphics card, but damn she is a beauty. Last month NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 1080 as the current top-end Pascal card and looked great under Windows while now finally having my hands on the card the past few days I’ve been putting it through its paces under Ubuntu Linux with the major open APIs of OpenGL, OpenCL, Vulkan, and VDPAU. Not only is the raw performance of the GeForce GTX 1080 on Linux fantastic, but the performance-per-Watt improvements made my jaw drop more than a few times. Here are my initial Linux results of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Founder’s Edition.

      • The Importance Of Benchmark Automation & Why I Hate Running Linux Games Manually

        Yet again with today’s GeForce GTX 1080 Linux review there were multiple people asking “why XYZ Linux game wasn’t tested”, a recurring topic now over the past several years.

        XYZ game wasn’t tested in that review or any other article since it can’t be properly automated, that’s usually the explanation whenever prompted in the forums. The game/engine wasn’t either designed to be automated-benchmark friendly, the developers disabled it in the debug build, or in many cases when it’s ported to Linux by companies like Feral Interactive they simply didn’t bother with porting that functionality to Linux.

      • Some Extra, One-Off Benchmarks Of The GeForce GTX 1080 On Linux
      • See How Your Linux System Compares To The Performance Of A GeForce GTX 1080

        While finishing up the large GPU comparisons with the GTX 1080, I did run a few preliminary results in different benchmarks and uploaded them to OpenBenchmarking.org. Thanks to our benchmarking software, you can easily compare your own system to this $699 NVIDIA graphics card running under Linux.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • Revival Icon Set: An Icon Theme Reborn From Old Icon Theme

      There are plenty of icon themes available for Linux desktops but we always welcome new eyecandy study stuff which wants to make Linux desktop elegant and different. Revival icon set is a remastered version of an old icon theme which I don’t know because it is not mentioned on source page. The icons in this set are kind of gradient variation and mimetypes taken from Emerald icon theme, it come with in three different folder colors: Blue, Orange, and Mint green folders. It is compatible with most of the desktops such as Unity, Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon, KDE and others. It is in active development, so if you want to contribute in any way you can do it via this page.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Upgrade/Install Latest KDE Plasma 5 in Kubuntu 16.04/Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial
      • Antu Icons Inspired from OS X, Android, and Flyme for Linux Desktop

        You may have tried many icon themes to make your desktop elegant and unique, Antü is another great looking icon theme which has some elements inspired from OS X, Android and Flyme OS. The idea behind this icon theme is to make a clean and soft icon set which can be used an alternative to Breeze in KDE and this icon theme was only available for KDE desktop but ZMA from Gnome-look manage to port it for other desktops such as Unity, Gnome, Xfce, Lxde, Mate, Cinnamon and others. The original Antü version for KDE desktop offers two variants one is for light panel and other for dark panel contains approximately 1500+ icons, the ported Antu-Universal version has four versions and ZMA added more icons approximately 3000+ icons. Both icon sets are in constant development and you report issues to theme and hopefully they are gonna fix it in next release. You can use Unity Tweak Tool, Gnome-tweak-tool to change icons.

      • Crane – alpha version

        In the old version of GCompris, the dimensions of the window were locked, so there was only one mode: desktop mode. In the current Qt version, the window can be resized in any way the user wants. To address this issue, i had to adapt the activity to the new demands.

      • Plasma’s Publictransport to get some reworking !

        This summer I’ll be working on trying to bring back to life the Publictransport Plasma applet, as part of a Google summer of code project, mentored by Eike Hein and Mario Fux, which will need both reworking and rewriting of the present code for it to be able to work with Plasma5. To know more about the project, take a look at it’s wiki page on userbase.kde.org and a detailed explanation about the project by it’s author , Friedrich Pülz.

      • [Krita] Design the Kickstarter T-shirt!

        The Kickstarter has been funded so we’ll be needing T-shirts! Here’s your chance to earn fame by designing the one we’ll send to our backers: Special June drawing challenge!

      • Plasma 5.6.4 available in 16.04 Backports

        The Kubuntu Team announces the availability of Plasma 5.6.4 on Kubuntu 16.04 though our Backports PPA.

      • Building KDE Frameworks on MsWindows
      • Full emojis support for your KDE/Qt applications

        So in the past month I’ve devoted my weekends to get proper emojis support ready for KDE software. Thanks to our fantastic KEmoticons framework, all the heavy lifting is already done, we just needed a theme and utilize the theme.

      • Anatomy of a bug fix

        But let’s take a look at a particularly nasty bug, one that we couldn’t fix for ages. Ever since Krita 2.9.6, we have received crash reports about Krita crashing when people were using drawing tablets. Not just any drawing tablets, but obscure tablets with names like Trust, Peritab, Adesso, Waltop, Aiptek, Genius — and others. Not the tablets that we do support because the companies have donated test hardware to Krita, like Wacom, Yiynova and Huion.

      • KDAB at SIGGRAPH in July
      • Webinar – Introducing Qt 3D
      • Qt World Summit USA

        This year the Qt World Summit will be held in California and KDAB will be there as a major sponsor! you’ll also find some of our trainings on offer during the pre-conference training day on October 18th.

      • Taming the Beast

        One of the lesser-known features in KDE Applications and Plasma is the Kiosk Framework, a means of restricting the customizability of the workspace in order to keep users in an enterprise or public environment from performing unwanted actions or modifications.

      • Voy: Message passing library for distributed KRunner (Part 1)
      • KEXI 3

        Spolier: 0% of mockups here, top picture: kexi.git master, bottom picture: to-be-published GUI.

      • Coding at Lakademy Pt II
      • Lakademy 2016 – Starting to automate some servers on KDE

        Lakademy is a great event that happens every year since 2014. It is a Latin American event, but normally it happens in Brasil (Let’s try to do that in another place in Latin American? Do you have a good one? Let us know).

      • LaKademy 2016: one more reinvigorating event

        It was a great honor to participate this meeting again. I’ve been participated since Akademy-Br, in 2010, when I became a contributor to community. Like the other years, I worked in translation and promo activities. Me, Frederico and Camila decided to start a review work on all Plasma 5 translation files, messages and docmessages. There are many things that needs to be revised, especially in the documentation files. Moreover, as Brazil implemented a new orthographic agreement recently, we would like to update the translations to follow these changes. Of course, the amount of work is huge, the review process of all these files is tiring and can take a while, so just we started it during the event.

      • New Plasma Task Manager backend: Faster, better, Wayland

        During the last several months, I’ve been rewriting the backend for Plasma’s Task Manager, the strip of launchers and windows embedded into the panel at the bottom of the screen.

      • Wiki, what’s going on? (Part 3-TeXLa is alive)

        Today is a great day because the question “Wiki, what’s going on?” has a precise answer: “TeXLa is alive!”

      • TeXLa editing hack with Kile
      • WTL editing hack with TeXLa
      • Strong kickoff

        Ever since I’ve connected with my mentor (Stefan) I’ve worked on LabPlot. Even before the community bonding period I have implemented LaTeX exporting support for spreadsheets and matrices. You can export now your datas in LaTeX tables, this is the export’s dialog:

      • Gsoc 2016 Neverland #2

        I have been spending about one week thinking about how I should structure the templates and the themes, so you can build themes for WP, Drupal … with only one Html theme.

      • Work peroid.

        With the beginning of the coding period, I have set up all my accounts ,have read more about Qt5 and GSL libraries,had the discussion about the project with my mentor and finally done with the most boredom job, that is , taking university examinations.

      • GSoC Update 1: The Beginning

        The project idea’s implementation has undergone some changes from what I proposed. While the essence of the project is the same, it will now no longer be dependent on Baloo and xattr. Instead, it will use a QList to hold a list of staged files with a plugin to kiod. My next milestone before the mid-term evaluation is to implement this in a KIO slave which will be compatible with the whole suite of KDE applications.

      • #24: GSoC with KDE – 3

        As the first part of my project, I had to implement an IMAP client for fetching emails from an IMAP server. I used KIMAP library in the process. With the help of my mentor and Daniel Vratil and Luca Beltrame, I implemented a working IMAP client. Daniel and Luca helped me with the API details, since the one available was lacking some of the details. Still, most of the methods were fine. The only minor issue related to the API was a specific function overloading in KIMAP::FetchJob. The new Qt signal/slot mechanism is good and all, but since it does static checking, we need to specify the exact methods. In this particular case, to resolve ambiguity, we need to cast it. Which looks not very beautiful. Hence, Qt recommends not to use function overloading.

      • Unlocking wallet during startup

        While setting up plasma5 I found a solution for something that had been bothering me forever. Basically, while session management is restoring all windows, the wallet isn’t open yet, so if the wallet is needed to get online (wifi password), all the apps being restored (in my case, about 20 konqueror windows) have no networking yet and just show error pages.

    • GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Distributions

    • Budgie-remix: Unity Light and then some

      When half a dozen major desktops are used by Linux distributions, what chance does a new one have? In the case of budgie-remix, a better chance than you might expect. With the combination of an unexpected endorsement and a lightweight and elegant desktop environment, Budgie-remix could manage to become the first distribution since Linux Mint to capture the interest of a large percentage of users.

      Budgie-remix builds on the work of Ikey Doherty for the budgie desktop, which is featured in the Solus distribution (formerly Evolve OS). David Mohammed, best known for the development of the Rhythmbox music player, packaged Budgie for Ubuntu, then noticed that Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu had left a message on Google+ saying, “Happy to support an application to make this an official *buntu flavour, if there is a community around the packaging.”

    • Budgie-Remix 16.04

    • Reviews

      • Alpine Linux Desktop

        I recently resurrected an older, but relatively small laptop to use in cattle class on an airplane, where a full-size laptop is eternally in danger of being crushed by the seat in front. Unfortunately, the laptop was running Windows Vista, a curse inflicted on many laptops of its era, when Microsoft went through one of its phases of pretending that people seek deeper meaning from an operating system as opposed to just hoping it will keep running and not break their applications. (What’s that, you say? They’re doing it right now by pretending that the next generation of children will be transformed by the tiny, incremental improvements they made to Windows? So surprising.)

      • An Everyday Linux User Review Of 4MLinux 17.0 – The Stable One?

        The GUI looks stylish and 4MLinux performs well. There are a few too many whys to be answered before I could use this over something like Q4OS and AntiX.

        For instance:

        Why can I not get a wireless network connection?
        Why after installing 4M Linux does it boot to a command prompt and not a GUI?
        Why have applications installed that are dependent on other applications which aren’t installed?

        There is in general a good selection of lightweight applications installed and the extensions menu gives you access to a few key applications such as a decent browser and office suite.

        The games section is very nice and the inclusion of DOOM and Quake is a good touch.

        The trouble is that I can see some nice things but I can’t think of a reason why I would use 4M Linux over something else.

        The key fix for the next release is to nail wireless network connections. Borrow the code from another distribution or include a network manager that just works. Puppy Linux has a tool called Frisbee which is lightweight and not so pretty but it definitely works. If in doubt use that.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Got SELinux?

        We are working to get SELinux and Overlayfs to work well together. Currently you can not run docker containers

      • PHPUnit 5.4

        RPM of PHPUnit version 5.4 are available in remi repository for Fedorra ≥ 21 and in remi-test repository for Enterprise Linux (CentOS, RHEL…).

      • PLUMgrid SDN Suite Works with Red Hat OpenStack

        Players in the emerging software-defined networking (SDN) arena are continuing on the path to interoperability as the industry shakes itself out, with PLUMgrid Inc. announcing its SDN suite is certified for the Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.

      • PLUMgrid’s ONS 5.0 for OpenStack now certified for use with Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8

        PLUMgrid is bringing its Open Networking Suite to Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8. ONS 5.0 is now certified for use with the Red Hat OpenStack distribution, providing another option for deploying software-defined networking capabilities for OpenStack-based clouds.

      • Firms Explain How To Overcome Open Source Development Challenges

        Who better to explain how to overcome the challenges of managing open source projects and cultures than open source champions Red Hat Inc. and Docker Inc., both of which have come out with brand-new resources detailing their in-house processes and best practices for community software development?

        Within days of each other, Red Hat open sourced a best practices tool for managing open source projects, while Docker continued its blog series on how it does the same, this week focusing on its internal processes, such as how it promotes contributing developers to maintainer status.

      • How To Hire Software Testers, Pt. 3

        I am a QA contractor at Red Hat responsible for finding over 1600 bugs, a general purpose open source developer, Red Hat Certified professional, cloud hacker and an entrepreneur! My latest start-up is Mr. Senko!

      • Finance

      • Fedora

        • Fedora Cloud FAD 2016

          Then you should *totally* participate remotely in the Cloud Working Group’s Fedora Activity Day (FAD) in Raleigh, NC on June 7th and 8th! The Cloud Working Group will be making decisions, tackling tickets, and writing code to help with topics like automated testing, documentation, and increasing our public cloud provider footprint.

          Be sure to check out the Cloud FAD wiki page, sign up as a remote attendee, and join us in #fedora-meeting-3 on Freenode during the event.

        • Korora 23 Gnome – Fedora on steroids

          Here we go. A Fedora spin that is a bit confused from so much spinning. Overall, this distro works well. In a way. Korora is a decent, admirable attempt to transform a rather nerdy system into something anyone can use, with good looks, media codecs availability out of the box, lots of programs, and some additional friendly and gentle tweaks. Not bad.

          On the other hand, the execution is not flawless. The installer killed my GRUB, the package manager is plain stupid, the updates are done the wrong way, there are half a dozen semi-annoying bugs in day-to-day activities, and the networking needs significant and immediate improvements. All in all, not enough to sway me over. Korora 23 Coral gets about 7.5/10 on a sunny day, and I’m probably being generous. Then again, it’s the best effort this spring yet, all distros included, and it does shine a ray of hope into my grizzled heart. Plus, it’s better than the previous version I tested, so it might actually be majestic one day. Or like Xubuntu, steadily improve for four years until it becomes da bomb and then bomb. Korora, worth testing. And I’ll check the KDE spin, too.

        • DNF / YUM History

          I wasn’t too worried as I can get around in the command line just fine, but I still wanted my GUI for other reasons as this is a home workstation, not a server. I recalled a command from my Red Hat training that proved to be very useful in this situation. DNF History (yum history for CentOS and Red Hat). You will need to be logged on as root to perform this action of course. If it won’t fit on the screen just type the command dnf history | less then take note of the ID number on the left of the screen. The offending removal I had was ID 96. Then you just type DNF history undo 96 and the system will install all the packages that were removed earlier. I tried other things while I was there and messed it up a bit more, which is why you see in the screen shot individual gnome installs. I used the history to see what packages were removed and then did a batch install of them all. I then finished up with a systemctl set-default graphical.target and a reboot.

        • Fedora TTY on my hotel TV?

    • Debian Family

      • Debian GNU/Linux 7.11 “Wheezy” Is the Last in the Series, Debian 8.5 Out Now

        Just a few moments ago, June 4, 2016, the Debian Project announced on their Twitter account that the eleventh and last maintenance release in the stable Debian GNU/Linux 7 “Wheezy” operating system is now available for download.

        The Debian GNU/Linux 7.11 update is now available for all users that are still running the “Wheezy” distribution on their personal computers or servers, and it looks like this is the last install medium that will be ever made available for the Debian GNU/Linux 7 series.

      • Updated Debian 8: 8.5 released
      • Debian 8.5 Released, Debian 7.11 Is Out Too For Ending Wheezy

        Debian updated their stable and old-stable releases this weekend.

        Debian 7.11 is the project’s 11th and final point release to Debian 7 “Wheezy” with this version incorporating security updates and various bug fixes.

      • Weekly Report for GSoC16-Community bonding period

        The period where we introduce ourselves to the Debian community. I have updated my debian wiki page to introduce more about myself to the Debian community.

      • Reprotest repository exists and installs

        I had family obligations for most of the past week, so I haven’t had a chance to do more than get started on reprotest. The repository now contains a version of reprotest that can be installed with pip/setuptools (run python setup.py install in the repository directory or pip reprotest/ from its parent directory) or with debhelper (run debuild -b -uc -us in the repository, then install the resulting .deb). I’ve tested this works by installing into a virtualenv and onto my own system, but if anyone else wants to verify this, that would be great. At the moment, reprotest doesn’t do anything, mind.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • You Can Now Have All the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Live DVDs Into a Single ISO Image

            Softpedia was just informed today, June 4, 2016, by Željko Popivoda from the Linux AIO team that the Linux AIO Ubuntu project has finally been updated to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS operating system.

          • Ubuntu Phone used by 60+ year olds

            Overall, BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Phone fared decently in the hands of people who probably constitute the least prioritized demographic for the development and product teams over at BQ and Canonical. Essentially, this is still a beta nerd toy, and yet, it didn’t draw hatred or anger with the unlikely pair of victims. In fact, that is probably the highest accolade one can pile on a brand new device trying to edge its way into a shark-infested, saturated market of mobile providers.

            It’s not perfect, and my tech-savvy eyes sees far more faults than a casual user, which is often how it is. That also explains why you cannot really fully trust techies to review products, not unless they can disassociate their geeky knowledge from the end-user mission. For most people, this means good sound quality, good signal reception, the ability to call and message and chat and whatnot, the ability to take some photos and videos and share them with their friends, and a few other simple things like that. It’s not about glamor and quad-core computation and touch screen crystal density. I always try to take this stance, but to be triple-sure, I let my generic progenitors roadtest the Ubuntu Phone and give their own verdict. A true, practical, down-to-earth judgment sans any touch Utopia nonsense.

            Anyhow, the Ubuntu Phone isn’t a bad product really. This is a good start. A very good start. However, the devil is in the fine details. And money is in the applications and the seamless integration among all aspects of online and media. So I’d focus there, to make sure that Ubuntu users can enjoy music and video and buy stuff without having to go through any hoops and loops that iOS or Android users need not to. That’s how this little thing will guarantee its survival and eventual success. Because largely, the actual platform is irrelevant. But then, throw in Convergence, and Ubuntu has an awesome opportunity to be a truly all-spectrum operating system, ahead of all the rest. Even Microsoft. Fingers crossed. We’re done here. Stay tuned for more fun.

          • Still and rigid or adaptable? Tell us about your app
          • Your Complete Guide to Ubuntu Touch OTA-11

            Ubuntu OTA-11 is the latest update to Ubuntu for phones and tablets — and it brings some big new features to the fore.

            Among the changes OTA-11 brings to supported devices is initial wireless display support for the Meizu PRO 5.

            A staged rollout, be aware that it can take up to 24-48 hours for all supported devices to be notified of the update (tip: remember to keep your Wi-Fi turned on as the update is around 100MB+ in size).

          • Ubuntu OTA 11: Meizu Pro 5 Wireless Display

            The latest Over-The-Air update (OTA) 11 is out! We’ve introduced wireless capabilities to the Meizu Pro 5, which gives users the full Ubuntu PC experience running from a smartphone.

          • Flavours and Variants

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • How Apple lost its way: Steve Jobs’ love of simplicity is gone

    Four years ago, I wrote a book about Apple and the power of simplicity. It was the result of my observation, having worked with Steve Jobs as his ad agency creative director in the “think different” years, when Apple’s stellar growth was rooted in Steve’s love of simplicity.

    This love – you might call it obsession – could be seen in Apple’s hardware, software, packaging, marketing, retail store design, even the company’s internal organization.

    But that was four years ago.

  • Deathbed conversion? Never. Christopher Hitchens was defiant to the last

    Only a particular species of creep could persuade me to write to the son of a friend and ask him to describe the death agonies of his beloved father. I typed that he must say “I would rather not talk about it” if he wished, then sent an email to Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens.

    I sat back, feeling dirty and not expecting a reply. I would not have troubled Alexander had not journalists at the nominally serious Times and BBC promoted the claim of a strange, spiteful book that Christopher Hitchens was “teetering on the edge of belief” as he lay dying from cancer of the oesophagus.

    The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist is the work of a true fanatic, who has never learned when to seize a golden opportunity to hold his tongue. Recounting a memorial for Hitchens in New York, for instance, Larry Alex Taunton has to say how much he hates the event and the mourners. “The funeral, like the man himself, was largely a celebration of misanthropy, vanity and excess of every kind,” he intones.

  • Microsoft fixes borked Outlook and Hotmail spam filter problem

    MICROSOFT HAS FIXED a problem with its Outlook and Hotmail spam filters that has saw users inundated with dinkle enhancement and Nigerian lottery scam emails.

    Microsoft first confirmed the problem on Tuesday evening, albeit vaguely, on its Service Status page with the message: “Some users may be receiving excessive spam mail.”

  • Science

    • How this odd-looking camera changed how we take photos

      When you take a photo, it helps to have a pretty accurate idea of what will be inside the frame. It’s something we take for granted now. But early photographers had to guess, because they couldn’t look directly through the lens to see what they were snapping.

      There were some cameras at the end of the 19th Century that sort of solved this, using a swinging mirror that reflected the view from the lens to the photographer peering into the top of the camera. But it was rudimentary. Often the mirror had to be raised separately using a piece of string before the camera could be used. And the cameras themselves were huge.

  • Hardware

    • Next-Generation ThunderX2 ARM Targets Skylake Xeons
    • Nobody wants Intel’s Core M processor, and Computex proves it

      Asus led Computex 2016 with its biggest PC announcement of the year, the Zenbook 3. Super-thin, yet affordable, the system was compared repeatedly to the MacBook, particularly in the area of performance. Asus pointed out that unlike Apple’s system, which uses a Core M processor, the Zenbook 3 has a full-fledged Core i5 or i7. That makes it up to 30 percent quicker.

    • ARM Unveils The Mali-G71 Graphics Processor And Cortex-A73 Processor With A Focus On Virtual Reality Performance

      Have you recently stopped to think about what modern smartphones can do? It’s amazing how much power is packed into these small little devices that we carry around all day, and it’s even more amazing that most of that power resides in teeny tiny chips that are lodged somewhere between the huge screen and the big battery.

    • Fanless Pico-ITX SBC uses Braswell SoCs, packs up to 8GB RAM

      Commell’s “LP-176” is a Pico-ITX SBC with Intel’s “Braswell” processors, featuring mini-PCIe, USB 3.0, SATA III, GbE, HDMI, and optional DisplayPort.

      Commell’s modestly configured LP-176, which follows Commell Pico-ITX form-factor boards such as the Bay Trail Atom E3800 and Celeron based LP-173, gives you a choice of two quad-core SoC’s from Intel’s Braswell line of 14nm system-on-chips. For the highest performance, there’s a 1.6GHz Intel Pentium N3710 with 6W TDP, and for the highest power efficiency at a lesser price, there’s a 1.04GHz Atom X5-E8000 with a 5W TDP.

    • Sensor oriented Marvell Cortex-A7 SoC targets IoT

      Marvell’s dual-core Cortex-A7 “IAP220” SoC for low-power IoT and wearables runs Linux, Android, or Brillo, and offers an integrated sensor hub.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • EU referendum: Brexit ‘would boost NHS by £100m a week’

      Leaving the European Union would allow the UK government to spend an extra £100m a week on the NHS by 2020, leading Brexit campaigners have said.

      Justice Secretary Michael Gove called on the government to pledge the money in the event of an EU exit – saying it would come from the UK’s EU budget.

      It comes after Mr Gove took part in a televised Q&A, urging voters to “take back control” from “Europe’s elites”.

      The Remain campaign described the NHS spending claim as “totally dishonest”.

      Greg Hands, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “Doctors and nurses want to stay in Europe because they understand that quitting the single market would damage the NHS by shrinking the economy.

    • U.S. Death Rate Rises, But Health Officials Aren’t Sure Why

      For the first time in many years, the overall death rate ticked up in 2015, according to new federal data.

      It’s not clear why and experts have to go through and analyze the data a little more thoroughly before they can say where and in which groups the deaths rates rose. But the initial data for 2015 from the National Center for Health Statistics shows the adjusted death rate went up from 723 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014 to nearly 730 deaths per 100,000 in 2015.

    • First Rise in U.S. Death Rate in Years Surprises Experts

      The death rate in the United States rose last year for the first time in a decade, preliminary federal data show, a rare increase that was driven in part by more people dying from drug overdoses, suicide and Alzheimer’s disease. The death rate from heart disease, long in decline, edged up slightly.

      Death rates — measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people — have been declining for years, an effect of improvements in health, disease management and medical technology.

      While recent research has documented sharp rises in death rates among certain groups — in particular less educated whites, who have been hardest hit by the prescription drug epidemic — increases for the entire population are relatively rare.

      Federal researchers cautioned that it was too early to tell whether the rising mortality among whites had pushed up the overall national death rate. (Preliminary data is not broken down by race, and final data will not be out until later this year.) But they said the rise was real, and while it is premature to ring an alarm now, if it continues, it could be a signal of distress in the health of the nation.

    • AP Exclusive: How candy makers shape nutrition science

  • Security

    • Top 10 Common Hacking Techniques You Should Know About

      Unethical hacking can be called an illegal activity to get unauthorized information by modifying a system’s features and exploiting its loopholes. In this world where most of the things happen online, hacking provides wider opportunities for the hackers to gain unauthorized access to the unclassified information like credit card details, email account details, and other personal information.

      So, it is also important to know some of the hacking techniques that are commonly used to get your personal information in an unauthorized way.

    • Hackers, your favourite pentesting OS Kali Linux can now be run in a browser
    • Core Infrastructure Initiative announces investment in security tool OWASP ZAP

      The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) is continuing its commitment to help fund, support and improve open-source projects with a new investment. The organization has announced it is investing in the Open Web Application Security Project Zed Attack Proxy project (OWASP ZAP), a security tool designed to help developers identify vulnerabilities in their web apps.

    • The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative Invests in Security Tool for Identifying Web Application Vulnerabilities
    • Study Shows Lenovo, Other OEM Bloatware Still Poses Huge Security Risk [Ed: Microsoft Windows poses greater risks. Does Microsoft put back doors in Windows (all versions)? Yes. Does it spy on users? Yes. So why focus only on Asian OEMs all the time?]

      Lenovo hasn’t had what you’d call a great track record over the last few years in terms of installing insecure crapware on the company’s products. You’ll recall that early last year, the company was busted for installing Superfish adware that opened all of its customers up to dangerous man-in-the-middle attacks, then tried to claim they didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Not too long after that, the company was busted for using a BiOS trick to reinstall its bloatware on consumer laptops upon reboot — even if the user had installed a fresh copy of the OS.

      Now Lenovo and its bloatware are making headlines once again, with the news that the company’s “Accelerator Application” software makes customers vulnerable to hackers. The application is supposed to make the company’s other bloatware, software, and pre-loaded tools run more quickly, but Lenovo was forced to issue a security advisory urging customers to uninstall it because it — you guessed it — opened them up to man-in-the-middle attacks.

    • Friday’s security updates
    • electrum ssl vulnerabilities

      One full month after I filed these, there’s been no activity, so I thought I’d make this a little more widely known. It’s too hard to get CVEs assigned, and resgistering a snarky domain name is passe.

      I’m not actually using electrum myself currently, as I own no bitcoins. I only noticed these vulnerabilities when idly perusing the code. I have not tried to actually exploit them, and some of the higher levels of the SPV blockchain verification make them difficult to exploit. Or perhaps there are open wifi networks where all electrum connections get intercepted by a rogue server that successfully uses these security holes to pretend to be the entire electrum server network.

    • Stop it with those short PGP key IDs!

      PGP is secure, as it was 25 years ago. However, some uses of it might not be so.

    • Wolf: Stop it with those short PGP key IDs!
    • There’s a Stuxnet Copycat, and We Have No Idea Where It Came From [iophk: “Windows strikes again“]

      After details emerged of Stuxnet, arguably the world’s first digital weapon, there were concerns that other hackers would copy its techniques.

      Now, researchers have disclosed a piece of industrial control systems (ICS) malware inspired heavily by Stuxnet. Although the copycat malware—dubbed IRONGATE by cybersecurity company FireEye—only works in a simulated environment, it, like Stuxnet, replaces certain types of files, and was seemingly written to target a specific control system configuration.

      “In my mind, there is little room to say that these are the same actors,” behind Stuxnet and IRONGATE, Sean McBride, manager at FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence told Motherboard in a phone interview.

      But clearly, and perhaps to be expected, other hackers have paid very close attention to, and copied one of the most powerful pieces of malware ever, raising questions of who else might have decided to see how Stuxnet-style approaches to targeting critical infrastructure can be adapted.

    • Are firewalls still important? Making sense of networking’s greatest security layer

      Firewalls have become the forgotten part of security and yet they are still the place an admin reaches goes in a crisis

    • Software Now To Blame For 15 Percent Of Car Recalls

      Apps freezing or crashing, unexpected sluggishness, and sudden reboots are all, unfortunately, within the normal range of behavior of the software in our smartphones and laptops.

      While losing that text message you were composing might be a crisis for the moment, it’s nothing compared to the catastrophe that could result from software in our cars not playing nice.

      Yes, we’re talking about nightmares like doors flying open without warning, or a sudden complete shutdown on the highway.

      The number of software-related issues, according to several sources tracking vehicle recalls, has been on the rise. According to financial advisors Stout Risius Ross (SSR), in their Automotive Warranty & Recall Report 2016, software-related recalls have gone from less than 5 percent of recalls in 2011 to 15 percent by the end of 2015.

    • Effective IT security habits of highly secure companies

      Critics may claim that applying patches “too fast” will lead to operational issues. Yet, the most successfully secure companies tell me they don’t see a lot of issues due to patching. Many say they’ve never had a downtime event due to a patch in their institutional memory.

    • Introducing Security Snake Oil

      It has become quite evident that crowd-funding websites like KickStarter do not take any consideration to review the claims made by individuals in their cyber security products. Efforts made to contact them have gone unanswered and the misleading initiatives continue to be fruitless so as a community, we have to go after them ourselves.

    • CloudFlare is ruining the internet (for me) [iophk: "FB-like bottleneck and control for now available for self-hosted sites"]

      CloudFlare is a very helpful service if you are a website owner and don’t want to deal with separate services for CDN, DNS, basic DDOS protection and other (superficial) security needs. You can have all these services in a one stop shop and you can have it all for free. It’s hard to pass up the offer and go for a commercial solution. Generally speaking, CloudFlare service is as stable as they come, their downtime and service interruption are within the same margin as other similar services, at least to my experience. I know this because I have used them for two of my other websites, until recently.

      But what about the users? If you live in a First World Country then for the most part you probably wouldn’t notice much difference, other than better speed and response time for the websites using CloudFlare services, you will be happy to know that because of their multiple datacenter locations mostly in USA, Canada, Europe and China, short downtimes won’t result in service interruptions for you because you will be automatically rerouted to their nearest CloudFlare data center and they have plenty to go around within the first world countries.

  • Defence/Aggression

    • ‘Left, Right & Center’: A Movement for Peace

      Scheer disagreed, saying Clinton should be listening more to the progressive side of the party. If she doesn’t, he said, he fears that Clinton will move forward with a neoconservative, pro-war agenda unchecked.

    • Next Time Someone Says Nothing Is Made in the USA Anymore, Show Them This
    • America Excels in Business of Death [Ed: always same as above]

      America may lag behind the developed world in many categories, but it is No. 1 in the “merchant of death” business, experiencing a boom in the commerce of boom, especially in areas destabilized by U.S. invasions, notes JP Sottile.

    • Judge Upholds Life Sentences in Fort Dix Plot, But Advocates Say Fight Will Go On

      A U.S. district court judge has denied an attempt to overturn the convictions of Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka, three brothers who were sentenced to life in prison on dubious charges that they conspired to attack a military base in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

    • Media Trumpwash Clinton’s Reckless Foreign Record

      Almost all of the praise was premised on two assumptions: A) Trump presents a horrific risk to the planet and B) Clinton is the antidote to this, a “steady hand” in a dangerous world.

      Point A, it’s worth emphasizing, is true. Trump’s Muslim immigration ban and his claim that climate change is an “expensive hoax” that was “created by and for the Chinese” are certifiable and racist. His plan to seize the natural resources of other countries reverts us back to outright 19th century colonialism. His violent and inciting rhetoric presents a clear danger to immigrants, women and people of color.

      But B, the idea that Clinton is, by contrast, a prudent foreign policy moderate, is an establishment media assertion with little or no supporting evidence.

      Clinton has a long, objectively verifiable track record of acting recklessly on matters of foreign policy that seems to have slipped into a memory hole as the prospect of a Trump presidency looms overhead. While one would expect this rewriting of history to come from Clinton surrogates, it’s increasingly bizarre coming from nominally independent media pundits.

    • Poland’s ‘Cold War II’ Repression

      As the U.S. government ratchets up a new Cold War, Poland is taking hostility toward Russia to the next level, inviting in U.S. military bases and arresting an anti-NATO politician on vague “espionage” charges, writes Gilbert Doctorow.

    • ‘God paid him back with Parkinson’s disease’: The death of Muhammad Ali brings out the trolls

      To the surprise of no one, the tragic death of boxing icon Muhammad Ali brought out the ugly side in some people who faulted him for everything, including his religion, his stance against the Vietnam War and his outspokenness about social issues.

      Once the world’s greatest and best known athlete, Ali was never one to hold back when he had an opinion, speaking his mind during the Civil Rights movement and in opposition to the war in Vietnam when he refused induction into the service.

      Ali famously stated his case when he told the press, “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”

    • Muhammad Ali: An American Muslim

      He was more than a boxer, he was an anti-establishment icon.

    • Muhammad Ali, R.I.P.

      Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali, died today. He was a champion boxer and a brave man.
      He refused conscription into the Vietnam War, was framed up on false draft evasion charges and stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship. In 1971 the US Supreme Court overturned his false conviction.

    • Muhammad Ali (1942-2016): Anti-War Legend and Boxing Great Dies at 74

      Boxing great Muhammad Ali, known around the world as a humanitarian who spoke out forcefully against racial inequality, social injustice, and the Vietnam War during the 1960′s, has died at the age of 74.

    • The Greatest — Muhammad Ali — Dies at 74

      This was a long way from the 1960s and 1970s, when, to many white Americans, Ali — the former Cassius Clay and one-time heavyweight champion of the world — was vilified as a menacing black man, a symbol of a “foreign” religion (Islam), and a fierce opponent of America’s war in Vietnam who defied his government by refusing to be drafted, risking prison and the withdrawal of his boxing title.

    • Families of Death Squad Victims Allowed to Sue Chiquita Executives

      In what supporters described as “a victory for accountability for corporate crimes,” a U.S. judge ruled in favor of allowing Colombians to sue former Chiquita Brand International executives for the company’s funding of a paramilitary group that murdered plaintiffs’ family members.

    • Muhammad Ali: The Original Activist-Athlete

      Whether it was refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam 1967, literally talking a suicidal stranger off a ledge in 1981, or speaking out against the Islamophobia of presidential candidates in 2015, Ali’s greatness extended far beyond the ropes of the boxing ring, and his voice was more impactful than his fists.

    • UN Adds US-Supported Saudi Coalition to ‘List of Shame’ for Killing Children in Yemen

      The United Nations has blacklisted the Saudi Arabia-led coalition for maiming and killing scores of children with its campaign in Yemen.

      According to an annual report on children and armed conflict released by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of a total of 510 deaths and 667 woundings in 2015 after its campaign began in March—a six-fold increase, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) separately pointed out.

    • Kurds urge Canada to provide heavy weapons for war against ISIL, as well as for their independence

      The Kurds are pushing Canada to supply them with the heavy weapons they need to fight ISIL — as well as to defend themselves after they separate from Iraq.

      The Canadian military has a stockpile of armoured vehicles that could be of use to the Kurds but has yet to figure out whether to turn those over.

      The military has in its surplus stocks three Husky armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan to help clear improvised explosive devices and one Buffalo vehicle used for similar operations, according to data compiled by the Canadian Forces. Also surplus are 181 Coyote wheeled armoured vehicles and 46 tracked light armoured vehicles. Some of those upgraded carriers were used in Afghanistan and received good reviews for how they protected troops.

    • Libya’s ‘Chaos Theory’ Undercuts Hillary

      Hillary Clinton’s Libyan “regime change” project remains in chaos with one U.S. official likening rival factions to rogue water “droplets” resisting a U.S.-carved rewards-and-punishment “channel” to reconciliation, reports Robert Parry.

    • Operation Condor: A transnational criminal conspiracy, uncovered

      On May 27, for the first time ever, a court in Latin America ruled that Operation Condor was a supranational criminal conspiracy organized to disappear political opponents across borders. The verdict was handed down by an Argentine court that convicted 14 high- and mid-ranking Argentine military officers who acted during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, and one Uruguayan military officer, for their involvement in this criminal plan.

    • Of Gorillas and Palestinians

      On May 28, a 3-year-old child somehow entered a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. After being picked up by a 17-year-old gorilla, zoo officials felt the child was in immediate, mortal danger and the gorilla was quickly shot and killed. The child was unharmed.

      This is certainly a sad story; the gorilla was of a rare breed, and in picking up the child, was only doing what such animals do: it saw a curiosity, and went to explore it. Zoo officials say they had no choice but to kill the animal, because the child was at great risk.

      There has been much discussion about this situation. There were initial news stories, with continual follow-ups; commentary from experts and the general public, etc. There is much anger directed at the zoo, with many people weighing in to say the gorilla was helping, and not harming, the child, and that zoo officials over-reacted. Anonymous hackers have attacked the zoo. As evidence of the publicity and interest this situation garners, a Google search of the combined words ‘”Harambe”, the name of the gorilla, and “Cincinnati Zoo” brings up nearly 1,000,000 results.

    • Admit that Islam drives Isis, says BBC religion boss

      The BBC’s Muslim head of religion and ethics has said it is untrue that Isis has “nothing to do with Islam”. Aaqil Ahmed acknowledged it was an “uncomfortable” truth that the terrorist group is inspired by Islamic doctrine.

      Mr Ahmed was speaking at Huddersfield University when he was asked to defend the corporation’s policy of referring to Isis as the “so-called” Islamic State. At an event organised by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism, the barrister Neil Addison said: “You wouldn’t say ‘so-called Huddersfield University’.”

    • News Guide: German Vote Recognizing Armenian Genocide

      Germany’s Parliament voted Thursday to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

      The move threatens to increase tensions with Turkey at a sensitive time when Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

    • Turkey recalls ambassador after German MPs’ Armenian genocide vote

      Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Berlin after German MPs approved a motion describing the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a century ago as genocide – a decision that the Turkish president said would “seriously affect” relations between the two countries.

      The five-page paper, co-written by parliamentarians from the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Green party, calls for a “commemoration of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916”. It passed with support from all the parties in parliament. In a show of hands, there was one abstention and one vote against.

  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI accused of spying on defense in Medicare fraud case

      In a stunning twist in a long-running Medicare fraud case, both the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI stand accused of spying on a defendant’s lawyer by illegally and secretly obtaining copies of confidential defense documents.

      Court papers filed last week by attorneys for Dr. Salo Schapiro contend the secret practice was not the action of “just one rogue agent or prosecutor.” Rather, it was apparently an “office-wide policy” of both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI that’s gone on for “at least 10 years.”

    • NSA Kills People Based on Metadata, But Can’t Preserve Its Own Personnel Metadata for a Simple FOIA

      Over at Vice News, I’ve got a story with Jason Leopold on 800 pages of FOIAed documents from the NSA pertaining to their response to Edward Snowden. Definitely read it (but go back Monday to read it after VICE has had time to recover from having NSA preemptively release the documents just before midnight last night).

      But for now I wanted to point out something crazy.

    • EU financial sector lacks transparency, situation deteriorating

      The EU financial sector currently lacks financial transparency, and this has become not better but worse over the last three years, so say three researchers in economics and governance in a joint blog post. “This is worrying, because the further successful integration of the EU financial sector requires financial market participants and the public to be able to access information on banks’ activities and health across borders.”

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • PM and Boris clash over EU fishing laws

      David Cameron and Boris Johnson have clashed over the impact of the European Union on the UK’s fishing industry.

      Mr Johnson, from the Leave campaign, told BBC’s Countryfile British fishermen needed to be freed from “crazy” EU rules.

      But the prime minister said the value of the UK’s fishing industry had gone up over the last five years.

      The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy sets rules for the amount of fish each country’s boats can catch.

      Mr Cameron and Mr Johnson are leading campaigners on opposing sides of the EU referendum, to be held on 23 June.

    • Norway reportedly agrees on banning new sales of gas-powered cars by 2025

      Norway’s four main political parties have been discussing a possible ban on new gasoline-powered car sales (diesel or petrol) for quite some time, but they were not able to come to an understanding until now, according to a new report from Dagens Næringsliv (Paywall), an important newspaper in Norway.

      The four main political parties, both from the right and the left, have agreed on a new energy policy that will include a ban on new gasoline-powered car sales as soon as 2025 – making it one of the most aggressive timeline of its kind for such a policy. What’s probably most remarkable here is that Norway is currently one of the world’s largest Oil exporters.

      India confirmed that it is evaluating a scheme for all its fleet to be electric by 2030 and the Dutch government is discussing the possibility to ban gas-powered car sales and only allow electric vehicle sales starting also by 2025, but the idea divides the parliament.

    • Nature Keeps Cities from Making Us Dead Inside

      I bailed on my most recent city, Baltimore, in 2012. First it was to somewhere deep as hell in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, and then it was to this place here in Washington state, which is still in the mountains but at least has respectable internet service. Leaving the city at that time seemed like a pretty good call—all of a sudden, I realized that as a remote worker I didn’t need it.

    • Microplastics killing fish before they reach reproductive age, study finds

      Tiny particles of plastic litter in oceans causing deaths, stunted growth and altering behaviour of some fish that feed on them, research shows

    • Canada’s Rapidly ‘Greening’ North is Bad News For Everyone

      Going green sounds like a good thing, but not in Canada’s north. There, a changing climate and warmer temperatures are transforming semi-frozen tundra into grass for much of the year.

      Almost 30 percent of the land area of Canada and Alaska together is greener than it was in 1984, a new study in Remote Sensing of Environment reports. While that’s not a surprising statistic to these researchers—it echoes what other studies have been showing—the new study documents in painful detail just how these changes are happening.

      Previous satellite studies showed a resolution of roughly 4 kilometers squared. The latest data using Landsat 5 and 7 (the same satellite series that showed us the shocking Fort Mac fires) brings that resolution down to just 30 meters, meaning they could do a hyper-local analysis. As Landsat’s infrared sensors are sensitive to the greens of leaves and bushes, this allows researchers to map how tree cover or land cover change over time.

    • A Bunch of Nuclear Power Plants Are Closing, and It’s Because of Fracking

      The onetime energy source of the future lost more ground this week, as the largest US nuclear power company said it will pull the plug on two money-losing plants in Illinois.

      Exelon announced Thursday that it would be closing the Clinton nuclear plant, about 160 miles south of Chicago, and the twin-reactor Quad Cities plant, on the Mississippi River near Moline. Exelon said the two plants have lost a total of $800 million in recent years, and it had lobbied hard for a surcharge on power bills to support the plants—a plan critics called a bailout.

    • Indonesian forest fires caused largest increase in atmospheric CO2 since measurements began

      Last year’s extensive forest fires in Southeast Asia, most notably Indonesia, were responsible for the highest levels of atmospheric CO2 emissions ever measured, according to research published today from King’s College London.

      Writing in Nature Scientific Reports, Professor Martin Wooster from King’s and the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation, together with colleagues from institutions across Europe and Indonesia, said that last year’s record growth in CO2 was caused by the impacts of El Nino and the long- term growth in CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels.

      Much of Indonesia was naturally covered by forests, and some grew on a thick layer of moist, carbon-rich peatland storing more than 55 billion tonnes of carbon, far more carbon than is stored in their above ground vegetation. However, decades of forest clearance and the drying out of the normally moist peatlands for agriculture using extensive networks of drainage canals has made extensive parts of the Indonesian landscape much more flammable than before.

      Professor Wooster, explained ‘We saw the strongest growth in the global atmospheric concentration of CO2 with an increase of more than 40% higher than the last decade’s average annual atmospheric CO2 global growth rate.

    • Sudden appearance of crater dubbed ‘the Gateway to the Underworld’ in Siberia is a warning to our warming planet

      It is known as “the Gateway to the Underworld” by local people who fear to go near the massive crater that suddenly appeared in the frozen heart of Siberia.

    • 5 ‘Innocent’ Things We Do (Are Environmentally Catastrophic)

      If you’re anything like us, you do your fair share to preserve this fragile planet of ours for future generations: You recycle your plastics, you take a carpool to work rather than driving your monster truck, and you enjoy black rhino steaks only on special occasions (such as a successful black rhino hunt from the window of your monster truck). But it turns out that even staunch conservationists like ourselves can be unknowingly dealing Mother Nature swift and repeated kicks to the shin, because the little things we do every day without so much as a second thought can have unbelievably massive effects on the environment. For instance …

    • EPA Finds Widely-Used Weed Killer Could Threaten Animals

      Atrazine is the second-most widely used herbicide in the United States. Manufactured by the chemical giant Syngenta, farmers have sprayed, on average, 70 million pounds of the weed killer on cropland across the country for the last twenty years. Half of the corn grown in the United States — some tens of millions of acres — is treated with atrazine.

    • The Climate and a Very Hot Election Year

      Miami Beach flooding has “spiked drastically,” measuring +400% in only one decade!

    • Storm surge imperils 455,000 Tampa Bay homes, report says

      Nearly 455,000 Tampa Bay homes could be damaged by hurricane storm surges, the most in any major metro area except Miami and New York City. And rebuilding all those homes could cost $80.6 billion.

      That’s according to a report released Wednesday by CoreLogic, a global property information firm, as the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season officially kicks off with two named storms already on the record books.

      CoreLogic said 454,746 Tampa Bay homes are vulnerable to hurricane flooding, a number that represents about a third of all the area’s homes. Of those, 92,103 are in what CoreLogic calls the “extreme’’ risk zone. That means they could be affected by even a relatively modest Category 1 with winds from 74 to 95 mph and a surge in the 4- to 5-foot range.

    • This Is What Insurgency Looks Like

      A week before the action the Albany Break Free steering committee defined their basic message. Potentially explosive crude oil “bomb trains” roll through Albany and surrounding communities, polluting the air and contributing to the climate crisis. Primarily low-income communities of color are put at risk. The urgent need to address climate change means that fossil fuels have to be left in the ground and a transition made to a “twenty-first century renewable energy economy.” They called for an end to all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including pipelines, power plants, compressor stations, and storage tanks. And they called for a just transition away from fossil fuel energy with training and jobs for affected workers, so “no worker is left behind.”

    • Climate Change Censorship: Australia and UNESCO

      Despite lauding various efforts to pursue “clean energy” (PM Malcolm Turnbull decided to reverse the previous leader’s decision to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation), environmental politics in Australia remains a dirty business.

      Turnbull demonstrated as much in March by announcements that he would remove funds from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and replace it with a new, slogan rich “Clean Energy Innovation Fund”. Turnbull is particularly keen on copyrighting innovation, a substitute, he finds, for actual de-funding strategies for the essentially redundant environment portfolio.

    • Top-placed endurance horses test positive for EPO

      The horses that finished first and second at the CEI1* endurance race at Doha, Qatar, on April 22 have tested positive for a banned substance, the FEI has announced.

    • FEI: Two Endurance Horses Teste Positive for Human EPO

      The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) has announced two adverse analytical findings involving prohibited substances.

    • House GOP Again Trying to Gut Climate Science Funding

      Funds for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—agencies that conduct critical climate change research, among other things—are on the chopping block as the Republican-led U.S. House and Senate hash out their 2017 spending bills.

      According to Climate Wire, “The spending bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee last week allocates $128 million for NOAA’s climate research, a 20 percent cut from the previous year. The bill allocates $1.7 billion for NASA’s Earth Science division, a 12 percent cut from 2016.”

      Specifically, House appropriators cut funding for climate labs run by NOAA by 17 percent below 2016 levels, which will impact efforts to update carbon dioxide observatories and track U.S. emissions, and also cut funding for ocean acidification research by 15 percent below 2016 levels.

    • Call to ‘Save Oceans, Protect Workers’ Goes Airborne as Greenpeace Targets Walmart

      Greenpeace activists converged in Fayetteville, Arkansas this week to call attention to global human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by retail giant Walmart ahead of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

      The environmental group flew its thermal airship over the company’s world headquarters in Fayetteville on Wednesday, displaying banners that read, “Walmart: Cleanup needed in the tuna aisle,” and “Save oceans. Protect workers,” a reference to the company’s sale of canned tuna brands that Greenpeace says are destructive and unethically produced.

    • #ExxonKnew About Climate Change And ExxonKnows How To Use Trade Deals To Get Its Way

      Public outrage has been brewing about the fact that ExxonMobil—one of the the world’s biggest oil companies—knew about climate change as early as 1977 and yet promoted climate denialism and actively deceived the public by turning “ordinary scientific uncertainties into weapons of mass confusion.”

      A little-known fact, however, is that while ExxonMobil was misleading the public about climate disruption, it was also using trade rules to increase its power, to bolster its profits, and to actively hamper climate action.

    • Crude L.A.: California’s Urban Oil Fields
    • ‘Bomb Train’ Derailment Sparks Fire in Columbia River Gorge (Video)
    • Train carrying oil derails near Oregon’s Columbia river gorge

      A train towing cars full of oil derailed on Friday in Oregon’s scenic Columbia river gorge, sparking a fire that sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky.

      The accident happened around noon near the town of Mosier, about 70 miles east of Portland. It involved eight cars filled with oil, and one was burning, said Ken Armstrong, state forestry department spokesman. There were no fatalities or injuries.

    • Major Oil Train Derailment In Oregon

      A Union Pacific train carrying volatile Bakken crude oil derailed in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge Friday afternoon, sparking a large blaze and prompting evacuations and road closures around the nearby town of Mosier. No deaths or injuries were reported.

    • ‘Bomb Train’ Hits Oregon Community as Feared Derailment Comes to Pass

      A fire is burning and large plume of smoke is rising after a train carrying oil derailed not far from the Columbia River in the town of Mosier, Oregon on Friday.

      Termed colloquially by their opponents as ‘bomb trains,’ the increased threat of oil-by-rail disasters has been of growing concern across North America in recent years. Friday’s disaster is just the latest in a long string of such accidents that have rocked communities and devastated fragile ecosystems in both the U.S. and Canada.

    • Oil train derails near Mosier in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge

      An oil train derailment Friday in the Columbia River Gorge near Mosier sent up a massive plume of black smoke and stoked long-standing fears about the risks of hauling crude oil through one of the Pacific Northwest’s most renowned landscapes.

    • Seine up to highest level in 35 years, Paris landmarks shut
    • Louvre Shuts Doors as Paris Gripped by Historic Flooding

      Paris’s Louvre Museum is among the city’s historic landmarks being shut on Friday as heavy rains caused the Seine River to swell to levels not seen in over three decades.

      “I am really sorry, but we’re closed today,” one Louvre staffer told visitors, the Associated Press reports. “We have to evacuate masterpieces from the basement.”

      The Washington Post reports: “By early Friday evening, the Seine is expected to crest at approximately 21 feet, nearly 17 feet above its normal level. Authorities anticipate the water to remain high throughout the weekend but to gradually recede next week.”

  • Finance

    • Major attacks Vote Leave ‘deceit’ as Johnson defends campaign

      Former PM Sir John Major has hit out at the “squalid” and “deceitful” campaign to get Britain out of the EU.

      He told Andrew Marr he was “angry about the way the British people are being misled” by fellow Conservative Boris Johnson and Vote Leave.

      He urged Mr Johnson to stop putting out information on immigration and the NHS which he knew to be false.

      Mr Johnson stood by Vote Leave’s figures and called for an end to “blue-on-blue” conflict.

    • Philly Says No to Poor People’s March at DNC: an Interview with Cheri Honkala

      The Democratic National Convention will take place in Philadelphia, from July 25th through July 28th. City authorities have issued permits for four marches during the convention, but they have thus far refused to grant a permit to the March for Our Lives organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. I spoke to campaign organizer, Philadelphia native, and former Green Party vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala.

    • Meaningful work not created – only destroyed – by bosses, study finds

      Bosses play no role in fostering a sense of meaningfulness at work – but they do have the capacity to destroy it and should stay out of the way, new research shows.

      The study by researchers at the University of Sussex and the University of Greenwich shows that quality of leadership receives virtually no mention when people describe meaningful moments at work, but poor management is the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

    • Affordable Housing is Out of Reach for Many American Workers

      In no state, metropolitan area or county in the United States can a full-time worker earning the prevailing minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. A new report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) reveals the disparity between rental housing costs and renter income in every jurisdiction across the country.

      Out of Reach 2016: No Refuge for Low Income Renters, calculates the housing wage – the hourly wage someone working full-time, 40 hours a week, would need to earn in order to afford a modest apartment without spending more than 30% of household income on rent and utilities – for every state, metropolitan area and county in the country.

    • Predatory Payday Lenders’ Top Democratic Ally Flip Flops On New Rules

      After months of public pressure and a stiff primary challenge from her left, Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) reversed her position on payday lending Thursday.

    • Employment Lies

      The average work week is no longer 40 hours. The shrinkage of the average work week to 34.4 hours (May) is another reason for declining real median family income. Assuming 3 weeks of vacation, a 34.4 hour work week is 274.4 hours less per year. At $20 per hour, for example, a 34.4 hour work week produces $5,488 less annual income than a 40 hour week.

    • Trump University Shows Why For-Profit Motives Don’t Belong In Education

      Revelations from documents connected to Trump University are generating outrage across the political spectrum, from my colleague Terrance Heath, who called it “a scheme to transfer wealth from people who had little,” to the conservative journal National Review which carried an editorial proclaiming it “a massive scam.”

      Much of the commentary has focused on the “playbook” that guided sales reps for Trump U in how to coerce prospective students to sign up for the bogus degree program. A review of the document by CBS News highlights the hard sell tactics Trump U staffers used to push prospects into committing many thousands of dollars – upwards of $35,000 – to a course of study that many of those students now concede turned out to be “useless information.”

    • It’s England’s Brexit

      Whatever the result of the referendum, whether it is a healthy majority for Remain, a narrow one, or a vote to Leave, the heart of the matter is that England has to have its own parliament. What the referendum reveals is that England both monopolises and is imprisoned by British Westminster and its culture of ‘to the victor the spoils’. To escape from this England is embracing Brexit because no other solution is on offer. It may be intimidated into remaining in the EU through fear of the economic consequences. But England’s frustrated desire for democracy has turned it against the EU rather than the real culprit, the British state.

    • Brexit and the law of unexpected consequences

      The exit of Britain could contribute not to disintegration but a consolidation of authoritarian governance in the European Union.

    • Cable Company Admits It Gives Poor Credit Score Customers — Even Worse Customer Service

      As I’ve noted a few times, telecom sector investor conferences are amusing for the simple fact that many cable executives — notably those of the old guard — haven’t yet figured out that what they say at them can be heard by the general public. As a result we’ll often see companies make candid statements they’d never say otherwise, forcing PR departments to then try and backpedal away from the comments.

    • MassMutual Financial Group to lay off nearly 100 more employees in Springfield

      MassMutual Financial Group will lay off nearly 100 employees from its information technology department.

      MassMutual spokesman James Lacey confirmed the layoffs Tuesday morning, saying the employees would leave over the next 18 months. MassMutual is outsourcing the work to a company with which it has had a longtime business relationship, he said.

      “MassMutual continually reviews its operations to ensure we are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible to deliver the greatest value to our policy owners and customers.” Lacey said. “At times, these decisions impact our staffing levels. And when they do, we are committed to a thoughtful and respectful process. While decisions like this are never easy, such activities are necessary to meet the evolving needs of our customers and compete as effectively as possible both today and in the future.”

    • Moody’s downgrades Finland’s credit rating, upgrades outlook to stable [Ed: reckless and corrupt speculators]

      The last of the three major credit ratings agencies has now also stripped Finland of its coveted triple-A credit rating, citing the country’s ongoing economic problems. But in a nod to the government’s austerity programme, Moody’s investor services unit upped Finland’s credit rating outlook from negative to stable.

    • Noam Chomksy: There’s nothing free about free trade agreements

      Two weeks after Greenpeace released 280 pages on the TTIP trade agreement, Noam Chomsky spoke with Channel 4 about why he believes the new agreement has nothing to do with reducing tariffs, calling it “pretty extreme.”

      According to Greenpeace: “Whether you care about environmental issues, animal welfare, labor rights or internet privacy, you should be concerned about what is in these leaked documents. They underline the strong objections civil society and millions of people around the world have voiced: TTIP is about a huge transfer of power from people to big business.”

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Truthdig to Host Green Party’s Jill Stein on California Primary Night

      Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, has quite the résumé. A two-time Harvard graduate, Stein began her career as a family physician before her environmental activism propelled her into the sphere of politics.

      “I used to practice clinical medicine, taking care of patients,” she said in an interview with Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer. “Now I practice political medicine, because it’s the mother of all illnesses.”

      Stein will be in the Truthdig offices Tuesday evening for a “Facebook Live” discussion on the final state presidential primaries, including California’s, which will be a deciding factor in the presidential race.

    • The Chaos of a Hillary Clinton Presidency: Corporate Dominion and Open Rebellion

      If Hillary Clinton occupies the White House her presidency will be unpleasant for her and chaotic for the country. Ms. Clinton will encounter a nationwide rebellion she cannot comprehend and hence will not address.

      The rebellion is already underway, and it will continue. It is not a violent, man-the-barricades revolution, but a visible one in which millions of voters in both parties are openly rejecting conventional candidates. They are seeking a radical transformation of American governance.

    • Hillary Clinton Super-Lobbyist Says “We’re Not Paid Enough,” Pans Obama Lobbying Reforms

      Leading Democratic super-lobbyist and Hillary Clinton bundler Heather Podesta derided President Obama’s lobbying reforms Wednesday, while laughing off concerns about her own sky-high compensation.

      “I think Obama hurt himself by taking such an arms-length posture with the Washington community,” Podesta, a multimillionaire who has represented chemical companies, health insurers, and for profit-colleges, told Vox’s Ezra Klein. “By attacking Washington in that way, there was a bit of a brain drain. And a lost opportunity.”

    • The People Are the Story–and Corporate Media Are Missing It

      At FAIR, we always say the primary measure of media in an election is not how fair they are to this or that candidate, but how fair they are to the people—all of the people who are affected by the outcome of this particular process, such as it is, and need to see how it functions in relation to them and their needs and concerns. The people are the story—and how well they are represented by a process that’s ostensibly intended to do that.

      That corporate media don’t see things that way is indicated by the resounding uninterest with which they greeted a poll from the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The mid-May survey of more than a thousand registered voters found fully 90 percent lack confidence in the country’s political system. Forty percent describe it as “seriously broken.” Seventy percent—equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans—say they are “frustrated” by the 2016 election; 55 percent describe themselves as “helpless.” Only 17 percent think the Democratic Party is open to new ideas, while 10 percent say that of Republicans. Seven in 10 think primaries and caucuses ought to be open. And 1 in 4 say they have hardly any confidence their vote will be counted! I want to underscore that these are registered voters—in other words, the ones who haven’t become totally disaffected.

    • Democrats in Dis-Array

      With rumors flying that establishment Democrats might hand Hillary Clinton her hat before the Democratic Convention to replace her with Joe Biden, John Kerry or some other grey-suited hand-job for empire and the Chamber of Commerce, the greatness that is the U.S. in 2016 keeps mounting. (Bernie Sanders’ name must have been accidently left off of the list— an oversight no doubt soon to be corrected). That Mr. Sanders’ program is the ghost of Democrats past (circa 1964) suggests that the Democratic establishment must be looking toward the future (1980). Michael Dukakis appears to still be alive and available. This written, being alive might not be a requirement for making the list.

    • Trump or Clinton, Screwed Either Way

      After disaster strikes, it often turns out that there were several contributing factors behind it. Looking back, though, there was usually one key moment when One Really Bad Decision was made — when catastrophe might have been avoided had the people in charge done something different.

    • Hillary Clinton’s Flat and Misleading Foreign Policy Speech

      Yesterday, Hillary Clinton gave a foreign policy speech in San Diego that was notably flat and misleading. It’s been getting decent reviews in the mainstream media for the zingers she tossed at Donald Trump. But when you listen to the speech (you can watch it here) and think about it, you realize how insipid and unoriginal it really was.

      Here are my thoughts on Clinton’s speech:

      1. The speech featured the usual American exceptionalism, the usual fear that if America withdraws from the world stage, chaos will result. There was no sense that America’s wars of choice in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. have greatly contributed to that chaos. Oh, there was also the usual boast that America has the greatest military. That’s what Imperial and Nazi Germany used to boast — until the Germans lost two world wars and smartened up.

    • The Escalating Fight Between Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders

      But Sanders was not thrilled with co-chairmen of two standing committees, Barney Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. International Business Times recently explained that Frank’s position is an obstacle for the Sanders campaign, noting that Frank not only “sits on the board of directors of a major bank that was recently named in a lawsuit about an alleged Ponzi scheme,” but that he “has also publicly boasted about the money he has raked in from Wall Street, both as a lawmaker and now as a top Democratic Party power broker.” Essentially, Frank’s position in the party encapsulates what Sanders believes is wrong with the current political system.

    • Sanders Explains Why He Keeps Going And May Just Win California on Tuesday

      But other states also will be voting Tuesday and DeMoro warned about the coming media spin. “There will be a narrative, a lie that comes out on June 7,” DeMoro said. “She will not have the pledged delegates. You have to sound the alarm. This is not over. We are going to win California.”

      Statements like that are baffling to Clinton supporters. They don’t understand the fervor behind Sanders. They say there’s no way superdelegates—elected officials, party leaders and allies who comprise 15 percent of the national convention delegates who will pick the 2016 nominee—are about to drop their overwhelming and longstanding support of Clinton.

    • Blaming Sanders: Why Democratic Party Unity is Officially Impossible

      I’m not going to suggest that people shouldn’t like Hillary Clinton if they adore her, and many do, but for her champions to continue the arrogant argument that she is anything more than a smug politician with a big stick, i.e., a cozy relationship with corporate America and the military industrial complex, is silly obfuscation.

      Such denial flies in the face of reality given Clinton’s attachment to and her unmovable faith in the neoliberalism of our age, which more-progressive thinkers—never mind the remnants of the Left—see as problematic.

    • Has Sanders Betrayed His Revolution by Endorsing Jane Kim?

      Bernie Sanders is calling for a “revolution.” Were his proposals implemented, some positive changes could occur. Life threatening global environmental problems could be more seriously addressed, economic inequality could be reduced, everyone could be guaranteed health care as a right, and public higher education could be tuition free.

      To carry out his “revolution,” there will need to be a well-organized mass movement that is not dependent on a single individual such as himself. It will obviously need help and support from other political leaders.

    • Puerto Rico Slashes Polling Places For The Democratic Primary, Laying The Groundwork For Chaos

      In early May, Puerto Rico’s Democratic Party announced that more than 1,500 polling places would be available for the island’s June 5 Democratic primary. A few weeks later, they slashed that number to just over 430 — a reduction of more than two thirds.

      In 2008, the island’s last competitive Democratic primary, there were more than 2,300 polling places.

      Some are warning of long lines and voters left unable to access the ballot box, as an estimated 700,000 Puerto Ricans will vote this Sunday, and polling places will only be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m..

      Worse, many voters will have to visit two separate locations to cast ballots in the presidential primary and the local primaries held the same day. Voter turnout and engagement has for years been much higher on the island than in the 50 U.S. states, but these changes may present too heavy a burden for low-income residents who lack transportation options or who need to work.

    • How Nate Silver Provides Political Cover for Hillary Clinton

      If you want to know whether to take a spike in Donald Trump’s poll numbers seriously or whether Ohio’s likely to go red or blue in the general election, ask Nate Silver. Look elsewhere if you want to know whether Hillary Clinton is a Sanders-like progressive or something entirely different.

    • The Missing Clinton-Sanders Debate: California Dreaming?

      In opting out of the last of her previously agreed upon debates with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton returned to campaign-long theme – her inevitability. And entitlement. Her supporters told us from the start that Clinton was entitled to the nomination because party leaders had decided. And her nomination was inevitable because party leaders had decided – as her immediate and continuing domination of the superdelegate count showed.

      That Clinton really shouldn’t have to worry about Sanders at all, because she should be concentrating on Trump, has also been a continual part of the Clinton argument: She’s gonna win; Sanders can only make her look bad.

      Debates happened, nonetheless, allowing Sanders to upend the standard discussion. America found out that you could forego the billionaires’ bucks and still out-fund raise the “inevitable” candidate with millions of contributions averaging $27. Sanders introduced the ideas of democratic socialism into the American mainstream – and then demonstrated a massive following for them. Doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour was put on the table as Sanders hammered on the theme that no one who works full time should be poor. Medicare-for-all was back on center stage.

    • Fueling Sanders’ Turnout Hope, California Reports Record Surge of New Voters

      With national anticipation growing ahead of five upcoming Democratic primaries on Tuesday and with so much hinging on the outcome in California, the Bernie Sanders campaign received encouraging news late Friday as the California secretary of state’s office reported soaring registrations of new voters, especially for Democrats.

    • What Americans abroad know about Bernie Sanders and you should know too

      As the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House moves from ludicrous to terrifying, it’s time to reconsider the electability question. Despite polls suggesting that Hillary Clinton is more likely to lose the general election than Bernie Sanders, her supporters routinely argue that Sanders’ program is too radically utopian to have a chance. Often a note of condescension is injected: Young people support Sanders because they want free stuff. Once his proposals are seriously considered, it’s argued, any adult will reject them out of hand.

      Although countless analyses have been devoted to the demographics each candidate needs to win, one demographic has not been part of the national conversation. Sanders won the first global Democratic Party primary by a landslide — 69% of the vote — that the media hardly noted and never analyzed. Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party, organized the election, which took place in March, to represent citizens who live outside the U.S., a group the Democratic National Committee considers the 51st state.

    • My Role With the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee

      I am, of course, a strong supporter of Palestinian rights, so is Bernie Sanders, and so, according to a recent Gallup poll, are a majority of Democrats. But the crude effort to reduce Sanders’ entire campaign and my entire life’s work to an effort to “get Israel” betrays an unsettling anti-Arab bias and a bizarre obsession to which I must respond. It does damage to Sanders, to me, and to our nation’s ability to have an honest conversation about a critical issue of importance.

      By focusing exclusively on Israel and ignoring all of the other concerns that Sanders has brought to this year’s presidential campaign, the press does a grave disservice to his efforts to elevate the issues of universal health care, free college tuition, raising the minimum wage, investing in clean energy, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and making Wall Street pay its fair share in taxes. This is a not so subtle attempt to demean the man and dismiss his candidacy as marginal.

      The same is true for me. In response to the question from the editorial writer as to why Bernie may have appointed me, I recited a bit of my resume. To be sure, I am the proud founder of a number Arab American organizations, but I have also served on the DNC for 23 years. I have been on the DNC Executive Committee for the past 15 years; co-Chaired the DNC Resolutions Committee for the past 10; and have chaired the party’s Ethnic Council since 2009. I served as Ethnic Outreach Advisor to both the Gore 2000 and the Obama 2008 Campaigns. And President Obama has twice appointed me to two-year terms on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

      When the mainstream media and the far-right groups converge in turning my entire life’s work into a one-dimensional caricature—“pro-Palestinian activist”—they are not complimenting me. They are setting me up. Make no mistake, I am proud of my advocacy for Palestinian rights, but given the political climate in which we live, such crude reductionism lays the predicate for political exclusion, violence, and threats of violence. Over the years, Arab Americans have suffered from all of these challenges to our rights. I know. I’ve been there.

    • We can’t have more of the same: The very real dangers of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy

      Just what we needed: another foreign policy speech from Candidate Clinton. This one arrived last Thursday in San Diego—well-chosen ground, given the Navy’s immense base on the city’s shore and the Marine Expeditionary Force garrisoned at Camp Pendleton. It has a long military tradition, San Diego, and the projection of American power is what drives the local economy. Perfect for Clinton. Her speech to this crew-cutted, right-wing town was, of course, “major”—as all of her speeches on the foreign side cannot help but be.

      Clinton’s people advised the press beforehand that, major or not, this presentation was not intended to break any new ground—no new positions, no new policy initiatives or ideas. This hardly had to be explained, of course: Hillary Clinton has no new ideas on American foreign policy. That is not her product. Clinton sells continuity, more of the same only more of it because it is so good. In continuity we are supposed to find safety, certainty and security.

      I do not find any such things in the idea that our foreign policy cliques under a Clinton administration will simply keep doing what they have been doing for many decades. The thought frightens me, and I do not say this for mere effect. In my estimation, and it is no more than that, the world is approaching maximum tolerance of America’s post–Cold War insistence on hegemony. As regular readers will know, this is why I stand among those who consider Clinton’s foreign policy thinking, borne out by the record, the most dangerous thing about her. And there are many of us, by the evidence.

    • Latinos, Millennials Lead California Voter Tsunami

      This election season has been rife with complaints regarding voter registration, and many Americans are starting to question the notion of closed primaries. In some states, there have been allegations of election fraud.

    • Calif. sees record high voter registrations going into primary

      A record number of voters have registered in California ahead of its presidential primary this week, the state’s secretary of state announced Friday.

      A report released on Friday shows that there are 17,915,053 voters registered as of the state’s May 23 deadline, the most the state has ever seen going into a primary.

      “Nearly 18 million California citizens are registered to vote in the June 7 Presidential Primary,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement.

      “In the 45 days leading up to the voter registration deadline, there was a huge surge in voter registration — total statewide voter registration increased by nearly 650,000. Part of this surge was fueled through social media, as Facebook sent a reminder to all California users to register to vote.”

    • As Dems’ Primary Saga Plays Out, California Latino Voter Registration Surges

      Bill Velazquez, Sanders’ National Director for Latino Outreach and a native of East Los Angeles, said the campaign has seen increased involvement and response to canvassing from the Latino community. Latino Sanders supporters had been organizing in the state on their own for a while, some for a year, before the campaign set up in the state.

  • Censorship/Free Speech

  • Privacy/Surveillance

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Black Lives Matter Activist Jasmine Richards Is Convicted of ‘Felony Lynching’

      A jury in Pasadena, Calif., this week convicted Black Lives Matter activist Jasmine Richards of “felony lynching.” Richards, 28, is the first African-American to be tried on the controversial charge, which authorities only recently renamed “attempting to unlawfully remove a suspect from police officers.”

      Sonali Kolhatkar discusses the case with Anthony Ratcliff, a Black Lives Matter organizer and professor of Pan-African studies at California State University, Los Angeles, on her program “Rising Up With Sonali.”

    • Visualizing the Landscape of Migrant Deaths in Arizona

      Just a few hours south of Tucson, on the other side of the border, there’s a quiet, dusty Mexican town called Sásabe. The streets are empty, the pavement rutted in places, overcome by the sandy earth in others. Like countless towns along the border, Sásabe feels less like a place where people are born, grow up, live, work, marry and raise children; and more like a way station, a place designed for an itinerant population of migrants and would-be border crossers. Somewhere to rest. A place to buy water and food. A place to consider the journey thus far, and prepare for the trials to come. At midday the heat is blinding. After dark, the desert is cold and unforgiving. There are few shops or restaurants, and no identifiable center of town. Sásabe long ago gave in to the reality of its unfortunate location. Everything feels temporary, and one imagines that the houses themselves could pack up and go, if they were called upon. There’s an image: This cluster of anonymous, dun-colored buildings trudging north across the scrub brush. Of course they would stop at the wall because Sásabe’s defining feature is the border fence, rising to the north, marking the town’s beginning and its unfortunate end.

    • Sanders v. Clinton on Palestine: No Contest

      The California Democratic Primary is this Tuesday, June 7. Whatever “The Movement” means to you, if you care about human decency and international human rights we need a Sanders victory and a Clinton repudiation in California on June 7—and beyond.

    • Gazans on Brink of Further Humanitarian Disaster as Blockade’s Battering Goes On

      As the blockade of Gaza—widely denounced as “collective punishment”—marks its ninth anniversary this month, Oxfam is urging the global community to apply pressure on Israel to allow the territory’s residents to exercise their most fundamental human rights.

      Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 when Hamas gained control of the territory, and is, according to a panel of experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

    • Gaza Emergency

      During the violence, 118 UNRWA installations were damaged, including 83 schools and 10 health centres. Over 12,600 housing units were totally destroyed and almost 6,500 sustained severe damage. Almost 150,000 additional housing units sustained various degrees of damage and remained inhabitable. The conflict led to a homelessness crisis in Gaza, with almost 500,000 persons displaced at its peak; thousands remain displaced to this day.

    • Dismantling Civil Society in Bahrain

      Like a vise which first grips its object and then slowly, deliberately and inexorably crushes it, the al-Khalifa regime has done similarly to civil society in Bahrain. It did not stop when peaceful, pro-democracy, reform protests erupted in 2011 and were violently put down by government forces aided by an invasion of Saudi troops in March of that year. Indeed, the vise continues to close and relentlessly so.

      Nationalities have been revoked, mosques razed, citizens deported, human rights activists imprisoned on flimsy charges of insulting the monarchy at the least or plotting its overthrow at worst, and the most perfunctory of dialogues with the opposition abandoned. By smothering the figures and institutions who dare challenge the authority of the ruling dynasty in the most benign of fashions – a tweet, waving the country’s flag, tearing up a photo or merely questioning the tenure of the world’s longest serving prime minister – the Bahraini regime and its Gulf allies would like to believe monarchical rule has been preserved. Such desperate measures however, only speak to its precarity.

    • Netanyahu Consolidates Power Over Israeli Society

      I recently mentioned the German word Gleichschaltung – one of the most typical words in the Nazi vocabulary.

      “Gleich” means “the same”, and “Schaltung” means “wiring”. The long German word means that everything in the state is wired up the same way – the Nazi way.

      This was an essential part of the Nazi transformation of Germany. But it did not happen in any dramatic way. The replacement of people was slow, almost imperceptible. In the end, all important positions in the country were manned by Nazi functionaries.

      We are now witnessing something like this in Israel. We are already well into the middle of the process.

      Position after position is taken over by the far-far right, which is ruling Israel now. Slowly. Very, very slowly.

    • Hard Times Ahead for the Israel Lobby (Thank Sanders and Trump)

      A number of Israel-first billionaires and millionaires – people like Sheldon Adelson, Paul Singer and others of their ilk — glommed onto the Republican Party years ago. Despite Trump, many of them will probably continue stuffing the pockets of biddable Republican politicians.

    • Trump-Fueled Violence Continues As Protests In San Jose Turn Bloody

      The scene outside Donald Trump’s rally in San Jose, California Thursday night turned violent as anti-Trump protesters attacked the presumptive Republican nominee’s supporters, punching and attacking them and repeatedly calling them names.

      Though violence at Trump rallies has become a common occurrence, most incidents have involved violence instigated by both Trump supporters and protesters. In San Jose, however, Trump supporters were seemingly randomly attacked by protesters.

      Videos from the event show anti-Trump protesters attacking Trump supporters as they left the rally, leaving them bloody. According to the Washington Post, “protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs, and stole ‘Make America Great’ hats off supporters’ heads before burning them and snapping selfies with the charred remains.”

    • The Unendurable Horrors of Leadership Camp

      One of the strange things about the business world is the extent to which its jargon is euphemistic. When we talk about leaders, we’re talking about bosses. Yet for some reason bosses don’t like to admit what it is they do. That’s why employees become “team members,” why firing becomes “letting go.” In a way, it suggests that people’s human instincts are that capitalism is something rotten; the more you describe it with precision, the more horrendous it sounds. At the level of uplifting abstractions, derived from self-help culture, everything can be pleasant and neutral. It’s only when you hack through the forest of buzzwords that you can understand what is actually being discussed.

    • White Youths Shouting Racial Slurs Chase Black Teenager to His Death (Video)

      Sixteen-year-old Dayshen McKenzie collapsed and died after being chased through the hot streets of Staten Island recently by a group of mostly white young men yelling racial slurs.

      “I got a gun!” one pursuer shouted, according to witnesses. “I’m gonna shoot you, n- – - -a!,” yelled another.

      A friend of McKenzie’s said they and the group of white teenagers were outside a hamburger shop when they got into an argument, which ended when the white teens left. But the group returned and began to chase them.

      “They were calling us n- – - -rs,” said Harry Smith, according to the New York Daily News. “I just heard a lot of racial slurs. They were mixed—some white, some of them were Hispanic. But nobody was black.”

    • Hillary Promises Not to Order the Military (!?!) to Torture

      Though I agree with the general sentiment that Donald Trump should not be trusted with America’s nuclear codes, there’s a lot I loathed in Hillary’s foreign policy speech yesterday.

      Her neat espousal of American exceptionalism, with the specter that another country could make decisions about our lives and jobs and safety, is especially rich coming from a woman who has negotiated several trade deals that give corporations the power to make decisions about our lives and jobs and safety.

    • Alberto Gonzales Offers The Worst Defense Of Trump’s Racism

      During an interview with CNN on Friday, Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Latino heritage is a legitimate reason why he’s unfit to preside over a Trump University fraud case.

      Curiel is an American — he was born in Indiana. His parents are from Mexico.

      [...]

      Gonzales’ argument rests on largely ignoring Trump’s own words and inventing new reasons for Trump’s objection that, even if true, seem irrelevant. He discusses Curiel’s affiliation with a San Diego-based Latino lawyers group and suggests that association might render him unable to render a fair judgment.

      [...]

      But Curiel’s association with a Latino lawyers association is no more improper than is a black judge’s association with the NAACP. Yet the hypothetical NAACP-associated black judge would still be able to preside over a race discrimination case, because barring him or her from doing so would be blatantly racist. Federal courts have consistently rejected the notion that a judge’s ethnicity renders them unable to fairly decide cases.

    • Rome–Victims “very skeptical” of new Vatican abuse policy
    • Pope scraps abuse tribunal for negligent bishops

      Pope Francis on Saturday scrapped his proposed tribunal to prosecute bishops who covered up for pedophile priests and instead laid out legal procedures to remove them if the Vatican finds they were negligent.

      The new procedures sought to answer long-standing demands by survivors of abuse that the Vatican hold bishops accountable for botching abuse cases. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for pedophiles, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police — and suffering no consequences.

    • Pope Francis Abandons Proposal to Prosecute Bishops for Covering Up Abuse

      The Catholic Church has been struggling to remedy internal proceedings ever since it was revealed in 2002 that bishops across the nation shielded pedophile priests from consequences.

      Last year, Pope Francis looked to hold bishops accountable when he announced the creation of a tribunal with authority to dismiss bishops who played a role in covering up abuse. But now the pope has apparently changed his mind.

    • Donald Trump Suddenly Remembers Muhammad Ali

      It was unfathomable that Trump could forget Muhammad Ali, the consensus greatest boxer in history, a world-renown activist-athlete who always put his identity as a Muslim front and center.

    • Trump Responds To Accusations Of Racism With Fake Photo Of Black Supporters

      It was not taken at a Trump event. Rather, it was taken at the “The 27th annual Midwest Black Family Reunion” held in Ohio in August 2015. The event featured “music, art, chess, children’s games and other activities.”

      Last year, Trump attracted controversy when he retweeted fake statistics claiming 81% of white murder victims were murdered by blacks. The actual figure is 14%.

      [...]

      Speaking to BuzzFeed News, the parents in the photo — Eddie and Vanessa Perry — said they are not Trump supporters. They aren’t endorsing or publicly supporting anyone. Eddie Perry called Trump’s use of the photo “misleading” and “political propaganda.”

    • Saudi Arabia bought a huge stake in Uber. What does that mean for female drivers?

      This week the Silicon Valley-based ride-sharing app Uber announced it was getting a huge new injection of funding. But the money wasn’t coming from any of the standard investors from the U.S. tech world.

      Instead, it was coming from Saudi Arabia.

      The Saudi state’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was putting $3.5 billion into the company, the largest investment in Uber to date. The move has raised eyebrows, however, due to one of the kingdom’s most notorious domestic policies: Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women cannot legally drive.

    • Migrant crisis fuels sex trafficking of Nigerian girls to Europe

      A promising student who dreamed of going to university, Mary was 16 when a woman approached her mother at their home and offered to take the Nigerian teenager to Italy to find work.

      Pushed to go by her family who hoped she would lift them out of poverty, Mary ended up being trafficked into prostitution.

    • Dangerous migrant smuggling routes flourish in lawless Libya

      After a flurry of boat departures that sent hundreds of migrants to their deaths in the Mediterranean, survivors told police they had been kept for weeks on one meal a day in holding houses near the Libyan shore.

      Then they boarded the rubber or wooden vessels, but only those co-opted to run or drive the boats were given life-jackets, according to accounts given to Italian police.

    • Listen To Paul Ryan Say That He Cares More About Gutting Medicare Then He Does About Racism

      A court in Seattle has lifted an order that required our client MuckRock to remove documents one of its users obtained from a public records request.

      Agreeing with EFF, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled that the previous order amounted to a prior restraint on speech that violated the First Amendment, and rescinded it along with denying plaintiffs’ request to extend it.

      The upshot is that MuckRock and its co-founder, Michael Morisy, are no longer prohibited from publishing two documents the court had previously ordered the website to take down.

      More than a week ago, several companies sued MuckRock, one of its users, and the city of Seattle after the user filed a public records request seeking information about the city’s smart utility meter program.

    • Palestine’s forgotten children

      Next year will mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration and the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Britain has a historic responsibility to challenge the Israeli government’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza.

    • Jacob Appelbaum, Digital Rights Activist, Leaves Tor Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations

      On Thursday, the Tor Project quietly announced the departure of leading digital rights activist Jacob Appelbaum from its board. At first, they didn’t say why — now, we know.

      On Friday afternoon, members of the cryptography community accused Appelbaum publicly of multiple instances of sexual assault against people in the Tor community, and attributed these accusations to Appelbaum’s departure from the Tor Project.

    • Bank of America puts single mom through hell after she tries to access money from death lawsuit

      A Detroit woman is accusing Bank of America of discrimination after they placed a hold on money she received as part of an insurance settlement over the death of her brother — and then accused her of fraud.

      Christina Anderson, a single mother of four, told Fox News 2 Detroit that her younger brother recently died and she received $50,000 as part of insurance settlement that was wired directly to her account with Bank of America on May 20.

      According to Anderson, the bank told her there was an initial two-hour hold on the money and afterwards she was free to draw against it, which she did over the course of several days by making two substantial withdrawals.

  • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • EU’s forthcoming Net Neutrality rules Leaked: Here’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

      A draft version of the EU regulators‘ guidelines on net neutrality has been leaked . The good news: they’re not terrible. The bad news: they contain huge loopholes on all essential points. This post explains what this means for Europe’s upcoming net neutrality reform.

    • Internet Boom Times Are Over, Says Mary Meeker’s Influential Report

      Growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat, and smartphone growth is slowing, too. Those sobering insights were among the hundreds packed into the much-awaited Internet Trends report, an annual tech industry ritual led by Mary Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

      Wearing an Apple Watch while standing at a podium onstage at Recode’s technology conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Wednesday, Meeker blazed through highlights from her 213-slide presentation in roughly 20 minutes. She said the number of global internet users hovers around 3 billion, with new ones slow to come online. She attributed the slowdown to stagnating gross domestic product. Global GDP growth in six of the last eight years was below the 20-year average.

    • CSS at BBC Sport (Part 1)

      I promised I’d write a blog with more details so here goes. When I started writing this I realised there was lot to say so I’m going to split this two blog posts which covers how we’re approaching CSS at BBC Sport.

      The BBC Sport website is the UK’s most popular sports website, providing coverage of around 50 different sports. From major sports such Football, Formula 1, Cricket and Rugby, to minor sports like as Archery, Bowls and Handball. On average we receive 26 million unique browsers a week. As is now common across the web, the number of users accessing BBC Sport from a mobile device has been steadily increasing of the last few years. We now on average receive more than 50% of traffic from mobile devices, with this percentage increasing at weekends as people are keeping up to date whilst out and about.

    • Another Broadband CEO Admits: Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Capacity

      Supporters of internet data caps want to have things both ways: admitting that the monthly usage limits have nothing to do with congestion, while simultaneously arguing that those who use the most should pay more (but not that those who use the least should get any discount). Thus it’s refreshing that one broadband exec both acknowledged the congestion myth and said his company has no intention of instituting caps… at least for now.

    • Data caps are a business decision—not a network necessity, Frontier says

      Frontier Communications, newly expanded after purchasing Verizon wireline networks in three states, says it has no plans to impose Comcast-style data overage charges.

      “We have not really started or have any intent about initiatives around usage-based pricing,” CEO Daniel McCarthy told investors Wednesday at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. “We want to make sure our product meets the needs of customers for what they want to do, and it doesn’t inhibit them or force them to make different decisions about how they’re going to use the product.”

  • DRM

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Interview – Indigenous Concern Over Rising Focus On IP In WIPO TK Talks

      Indigenous peoples have been the victims of repeated acts of biopiracy while the international community has failed to act to prevent it, indigenous representatives said in an interview this week. The World Intellectual Property Organization has been discussing ways to address that issue for some 16 years, without success. As negotiators continue to seek consensus on what a potential treaty could achieve, indigenous peoples feel the spotlight has drifted from their issues to technical issues of the intellectual property system and highlighted attention on users of the system.

      Over the years, the voluntary funds that allowed indigenous participation at WIPO have been depleted and repeated calls for funds by WIPO, indigenous peoples, and some delegations have remained unanswered. In the eyes of indigenous peoples, this reflects a lack of interest of WIPO members in having their participation, rendering the process illegitimate.

    • Innovation And Access: Fission Or Fusion? Interview with Dr. Kristina M. Lybecker, Associate Professor of Economics at Colorado College

      In the light of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, this series of sponsored articles challenges experts to give their views on the policies that best support the development of solutions to societies’ greatest challenges and how enabling policy environments, including IP systems, influence the development and flow of new technologies and services in different sectors, fields of technology, and jurisdictions. The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors. Below is an interview with Dr. Kristina M. Lybecker, Associate Professor of Economics at Colorado College in Colorado Springs (US).

    • Trademarks

      • Sony’s New Emoji Animated Movie At Trademark Odds With Guy Who Trademarked Emojis

        It probably goes without saying that the word “emoji” is now a full member of the popular lexicon. So popular, in fact, that Sony is apparently going to release an animated film called The Emoji Movie, which will follow the “lives” of a bunch of emojis, for reasons I cannot possibly fathom. But, as the release of the film is currently in the works, Sony is also apparently preparing to fend off a trademark claim from Marco Husges, a game developer and emoji creator.

    • Copyrights

      • YouTube Threatens Legal Action Against Video Downloader (Update)

        YouTube continues to crack down on sites and services that allow people to download videos from the site. Most recently, YouTube urged the operator of TubeNinja to cease his activities, or face potential legal action instead. For now, however, the video download service has no plans to change its course.

      • Anti-Piracy Group Wants to Take Down ‘The Internet’

        It’s no secret that copyright holders are trying to take down as much pirated content as they can, but one anti-piracy outfit is targeting everything that comes into its path. Over the past week Copyright UNIVERSAL has tried to censor legitimate content from Netflix, Amazon, Apple, various ISPs, movie theaters, news outlets and even sporting leagues.

      • BitTorrent Goes All In on Media, Moves Sync App to New Venture

        BitTorrent Inc., the company behind the popular uTorrent file-sharing client, will increase its focus on online media. The company plans to open a studio in Los Angeles and is working on several new applications. Meanwhile, its popular Dropbox competitor “Sync” will rebrand and move to a new company.

      • What Happened When a Student Streamed a Movie on Facebook Live

        It was just a matter of time until this happened. A student watching a rom-com at an Illinois cinema decided to use his phone to live-stream the film to his Facebook feed, leading the theater to claim (falsely) he had been “arrested” by police.

      • Student Arrested in U.S. For Live Streaming a Movie on Facebook – Updated

        A student has been arrested in Chicago for filming at a movie premiere and live streaming it on the Internet. The individual reportedly used a camera phone to live stream on Facebook but the infringement was monitored by an anti-piracy outfit 8,200 miles away in India who alerted police in the United States.

      • DVD Release Delays Boost Piracy and Hurt Sales, Study Shows

        A new academic paper from Carnegie Mellon University examines the link between international DVD release delays and piracy. The study shows that release delays give rise to increased piracy, hurting sales in the process. In addition, the researchers conclude that the movie industry should consider minimizing or eliminating the unneeded delays.

      • A De Minimis Amount of Creative Freedom: Courts Push Back to Protect Music Sampling

        Too often copyright maximalists take the view that if anyone is making money and using a copyrighted work, no matter how or how minimally, then the copyright owner should get a cut. That’s the attitude that has pushed, among other things, a “clearance culture” in music sampling, a belief that permission is needed to create something new that includes samples.

      • A guy trained a machine to “watch” Blade Runner. Then things got seriously sci-fi.

        Last week, Warner Bros. issued a DMCA takedown notice to the video streaming website Vimeo. The notice concerned a pretty standard list of illegally uploaded files from media properties Warner owns the copyright to — including episodes of Friends and Pretty Little Liars, as well as two uploads featuring footage from the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner.

        Just a routine example of copyright infringement, right? Not exactly. Warner Bros. had just made a fascinating mistake. Some of the Blade Runner footage — which Warner has since reinstated — wasn’t actually Blade Runner footage. Or, rather, it was, but not in any form the world had ever seen.

      • Warner Bros. DMCAs Insanely Awesome Recreation Of Blade Runner By Artificial Intelligence

        I’m going to dispense with any introduction here, because the meat of this story is amazing and interesting in many different ways, so we’ll jump right in. Blade Runner, the film based off of Philip K. Dick’s classic novel, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, is a film classic in every last sense of the word. If you haven’t seen it, you absolutely should. Also, if you indeed haven’t seen the movie, you’ve watched at least one less film than an amazing artificial intelligence software developed by Terrance Broad, a London-based researcher working on his advanced degree in creative computing.

      • Rome Court of First Instance says that ISP’s unjustified delay in removing infringing content … removes safe harbour protection

        When does an internet service provider (ISP) lose its safe harbour protection because, upon obtaining actual knowledge or awareness of third-party illegal contents, it has not acted expeditiously to remove or disable access to such contents?

        According to the Tribunale di Roma (Rome Court of First Instance), this is for example the case of an ISP that acts months after the request of the concerned rightholder.

      • This Is Bad: Court Says Remastered Old Songs Get A Brand New Copyright

        Whoo boy. Did not expect this one. For a while now, we’ve noted a variety of lawsuits over pre-1972 sound recordings, due to a quirk in copyright law. You see, for a long time, sound recordings were not covered by federal copyright at all (the compositions were, but the recordings were not). State laws did jump in to fill the gap (often in terrible ways), but in the 1970s, when the Copyright Act was updated, it finally started covering sound recordings as well… but only for songs recorded in 1972 or later. This has left all songs recorded before that in a weird state, where they’re the only things still covered by a mess of confusing state copyright laws. The easy way to fix this would be to update the law to just put all such sound recordings under federal copyright law. But the RIAA has resisted this heavily, recognizing that keeping them away from federal copyright law is allowing them the ability to keep them under copyright even longer and to squeeze a lot of extra money out of music streaming companies.

        Last fall, we wrote about the record labels moving on from streaming companies to instead suing CBS over its terrestrial radio operations playing pre-1972 songs as well. CBS hit back with what we considered to be a fairly bizarre defense: claiming that it wasn’t actually playing any pre-1972 music, because all of the recordings it used had been remastered after 1972, and those recordings should have a new and distinct copyright from the original sound recording. As we noted at the time, an internet company called Bluebeat had tried a version of this argument years earlier only to have it shot down by the courts (though its argument ignored the whole derivative works issue).

      • EU-Funded Study On The Cost Of Copyright Infringement Dismisses Key Real-World Factor As ‘Outside Its Scope’

        You may notice a certain one-sidedness there: this is all about infringement and enforcement, with nothing about whether the current copyright laws are part of the problem, or whether they are even fit for the digital age. Given that bias, the subject of the Observatory’s latest report will come as no great surprise: “The economic cost of IPR infringement in the recorded music industry.”

        [...]

        I predict we’ll be seeing these numbers a lot in the future, because the music industry will be quick to seize on them as “objective” figures that are above suspicion, unlike industry-sponsored analyses. But of course, things are not always what they seem, and it’s worth reading the full report in order to find out what is really going on here. Nearly half of the 48-page is taken up with appendices outlining the forecasting model used to calculate those “lost sales.”

        [...]

        Thus it is taken as axiomatic that every lost sale would have converted to a real sale if a magic wand had been waved, and piracy had become impossible. No justification is offered for this huge assumption, and that’s not surprising, since it doesn’t exist: in the real world only a fraction of those “lost sales” would ever be converted to actual sales. So even if we accept the modelling in the appendices is correct, the figures that result must be reduced by some factor to take account of this. It’s hard to say what that factor is, but it affects all the headline figures — the 5.2%, the 2,155 jobs, and the €63 million in government revenue. Actually, things are even worse than they seem, because the study doesn’t explore the possibility that online sharing boosts sales, rather than reduces them.

        [...]

        Which apparently showed the HADOPI anti-piracy law “caused iTunes music sales to increase by 22-25% [in France] relative to changes in the control group [countries].” Except that it didn’t, as Techdirt noted at the time.

      • Two Separate Copyright Rulings Around The Globe May Finally Clear The Copyright Way For Sampling

        A big part of the problem was a horrible ruling in the 6th Circuit in one of the (many) Bridgeport cases (a company that is alleged to have forged records to get control over heavily sampled works, and then sued lots of artists over their samples). In Bridgeport v. Dimension Films, a confused 6th Circuit appeals court made a bunch of nutty comments in a ruling, including “Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way.” That case, which didn’t even look at the fair use issue, effectively wiped out another legal defense against accusations of copyright infringement, known as “de minimis use.” The court’s bizarre ruling contradicted plenty of others in basically saying there’s no such thing as de minimis use because each sampled note has value or it wouldn’t have been sampled.

      • De Minimis Music Sampling Isn’t Infringement–Salsoul v. Madonna

        There are several alternative tests for gauging “substantial similarity” in copyright cases. The flagship test is the “ordinary observer” test, but variations include the (baffling) extrinsic/intrinsic test and the abstraction-filtration-comparison test. With respect to sampling sound recordings, the Sixth Circuit’s ruling in Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films created another variant: any sound recording sampling, no matter how minor, was per se infringement, period. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit rejected Bridgeport’s per se rule, holding that the “de minimis” defense (most prominently associated with Ringgold v. Black Entertainment Television) applied to music sampling.

[ES] El Egoísta Desfile de ‘El Inventor Europeo del Año’ Un Clásico Ejemplo de Desperdicio y Abuso

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Patentes at 5:25 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sepp Blatterstelli

Sumario: Sumas astronómicas de dinero son entregadas a compañías privadas e incluso publicistas (comprando a los medios) para crear un tonto festival para el equipo de Battistelli, (reflejándo lo que la FIFA hace habitualmente)

BAJO Battistelli, quién es peor que Blatter de la FIFA en muchas maneras, enormes contratros privados ocurren tras las cortinas con compañías privads, incluyendo a su vez contratos arreglados. Ya hemos explicado porque esto es extremadamente inmoral. Battistelli esta desperdiciándo el presupuesto de la EPO para distraer al publico de sus contínos abusos y ahora prepara un evento político disfrazado de “ciencia” con alto riesgo y pagando por cubrimiénto.

“Para obtener información”, nos dijo un lector, algunos números están disponibles para resaltar el enorme grado de lujosos gastos/desperdicios de Battistelli. “Los costos estimados,” este lector nos contaron “de” Inventor Europeo del Año “(2015)” (que era probablemente más baratos que en este año) fueron los siguientes:

Para los costos de “Inventor Europeo del Año” en 2015 las estimaciones varían entre 3 y 7 millones de euros.

Está documentado que 1,5 millones de euros fueron a CNN que es uno de los seis socios de los medios “” pagados para cubrir el evento. Las cifras de los pagos a sus socios en los medios (compadres) no estan al alcanze

Otors 800.000 Euros fueron para Eventos VOK DAMS.

Cuando otros costos como la restauración, viajes y alojamiento para todos los invitados y el tiempo de trabajo para el personal de la EPO se tienen en cuenta, el total es de al menos 3 millones de euros y se ha estimado que podría ser tanto como 7 millones de euros.

Este inauditable (después de las llamadas “reformas”) es evidencia que tenemos de la locura del Presidente (aunque no lo suficientemente bien verificado) sugiere que sigue mintiéndo sobre su salario. También mintió sobre el llamado ‘asunto de la bicicleta’. Tuvo un tipo muy poco fiable entregar el mensaje. ¿Estan las bicicletas de Battistelli dañadas en algún estacionamiento de la EPO? Una mejor pregunta es, sí existen tales bicicletas en el primer lugar? No me sorprendería si Battistelli (a quien alguien nos dijo quiere su propia limusina) sólo se descubrió que la EPO le había dado una bicicleta en el sentido utilizado para justificar seis guardias pretoriános que cuestan una fortuna casi al mismo tiempo que la reunión de presupuesto. ¿Alguien sabe algo acerca de una limusina y un ascensor privado? Mantenemos rumores oír hablar de ellos, pero es difícil de corroborar. De cualquier manera, aquí está un nuevo comentario sobre el “asunto de la bicicleta ‘(como algunas personas lo llaman ahora):

Todo esto me deja con una pregunta:

¿Hay cualquiera que no sepa de la bicicleta de BB de todas las otras bicicletas presentes en el estacionamiento de la bicicleta? ¿O se llevan una placa diciendo: Yo soy la bicicleta de BB? Otra pregunta: ¿Él posee la bicicleta o se poseía EPO y se limita a BB autorizado para utilizarla? Si realmente es realmente una bicicleta en todo … .. Uno sólo se pregunta ……

He aquí nueva oda acerca de ello:

F reshly bombeado y listo para pedalear

I-deas de la reforma, amenazando a entrometerse

V ery altos aumentos que podrían frenar el banco

E tyresome xtremely, es esto una especie de broma?

F o estas propuestas se deben a las tropas Raleigh

portavoz de U no se refirió a demasiados agujeros en los bucles

L et no se consigue cargar con otra subida de la tarifa

D voto on’t por ello! Obtengan su bicicleta!

Incluso caricaturas están ahora circulando o siendo circuladas, demonstrando cuánto los empleados de la EPO odian a su demente jefe (0% percentaje de aprobación).

[ES] El Loco Battistelli Esta Tratando Plan B Para Destruír las Salas de Apelaciónes (Control de Calidad), Praesidium/Asociación de Miembros Contraataca

Posted in Europe, Patents at 5:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

English/Original

Article as ODF

Publicado en Europa, Patentes at 5:00 am por el Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Motín contra el demente que piensa que él es Rey [1, 2]

Battistellius

Sumario: El feudo entre las independiente (en principio) salas y el hombre que se cree que es Rey/Cesar de Eponia se incrementa, mientras nuevos detalles emergen acerca del último ataque de el ‘Rey’ contra esas salas independiéntes cuyo rol o papel es asegurárse del control de cálidad de la EPO

El actual Presidente de la EPO no es un agente de cambio sino un agente de demolición. Pregunten a la Sala 28 que es lo que ellos piensan de esto. Ellos reciéntemente lo llamaron una “crisis”.

Las cosas están quemando para el ‘Rey Sol’ (megalomaniáco Presidentecon complejo de Dios, a este Neron le quedó chico) los murmoros han alcanzado a El Registerel cual mostróel último retroceso. En palabras de su propio autor:

Sin dejarse intimidar por el personal de cortar sus frenos, presidente de la Oficina EurEPOa de Patentes (EPO), Benoit Battistelli, ahora se ha enfurecido a salas de recurso de su organización.

En una carta [PDF] filtrado a The Register, las salas – que actúan como órgano judicial de la EPO – hacen una serie de severas críticas de las reformas estructurales propuestas de Battistelli que tendría el efecto de hacerlo rey.

Tras señalar que el objetivo de la reforma era aumentar la autonomía de las salas, la asociación que representa los 28 salas globales se queja en una carta enviada a principios de este mes que, de hecho, señala que su objetivo no tan encubierto es de “disminuir el nivel de autonomía e independencia”.

La Asociación de los miembros de las Salas de Recurso (AMBA) también señala que las reformas propuestas no siguen “los principales principios internacionalmente reconocidos de independencia judicial.”

Al igual que con un acuerdo que la gestión de la EPO ha estado tratando de forzar a los sindicatos de los trabajadores – que conduce a una serie de huelgas – una de las mayores quejas que AMBA tiene es que el nuevo acuerdo le da al Presidente de la EPO la capacidad de cambiar completamente el sistema en una fecha futura.

[...]

En cuanto a cómo estos cambios terminaron en la propuesta sin ser cuestionados, se debe a Battistelli y su equipo no consultaron con los salas que estaba buscando a la reforma. De acuerdo a la carta: “A las Juntas se les ha dado poca o ninguna oportunidad de hacer comentarios sobre los aspectos centrales de la propuesta actual. Muchos de ellos no se han presentado a las Juntas en absoluto “.

Las juntas hicieron para hacer sugerencias y propuestas, pero eso hasta ahora no han ido precisamente a ninguna parte. “La gran mayoría de nuestras propuestas, comentarios y preocupaciones no han sido tenidas en cuenta en las normas propuestas y no se reflejan de ninguna otra manera, por ejemplo, en las notas explicativas o en la sección ‘Alternativas’, que brilla por su ausencia”.

En pocas palabras, no es sólo el personal de EPO que el presidente muy impopular está tratando de convertirse en rey de, él también está tratando de hacerse cargo de los mismos procesos independientes que se supone tienen las decisiones de su organización a cuenta.

¡Hail a el rey Battistelli!

Lo de arriba no merece más comentarios. Hemos cubiérto esos asusntos por años y basado en este exclusivo nuevo post de Merpel, habiéndo fallado envíar al exilio a las Salas (debido a alguna resistencia del Consejo Administrativo), el Rey Sol graduado de la ENA está tratándo una nueva estrategia para destruir a las Salas al reducir su trabajo/demanda (las mismas tácticas que los Conservadores en el Reino Unido emplean contra el NHS). Es todo acerca de unas astronómicas alzas de precios que haría las revisiónes de las Salas demasiádo prohibitivas para la mayoría de las partes. Para citar a Merpel:

Merpel piensa que nada en la Oficina EurEPOa de Patentes podría darle una sorpresa más. Lo equivocada que estaba. Ahora se ha recibido la noticia de un proyecto de la última propuesta de la administración de EPO para reformar las Juntas de Apelación de EPO. El escenario/fondo se da en sus post anterior, de segunda y tercera partidas.

Tal y como escribió antes, las propuestas anteriores de la Presidente de la EPO al Consejo de Administración para la reforma de las salas de recurso fueron criticados, ya que confunden la independencia con eficiencia y parecían fijos en las Juntas de movimiento a otra ubicación física. La nueva propuesta adolece de los mismos defectos, pero ahora se suma otra – las tarjetas no son lo suficientemente de auto-financiación, de acuerdo con Battistelli y su equipo.

[...]

Un aumento de la tasa de recurso se sugiere en el proyecto de propuesta, desde el nivel actual de € 1880 a € 2.940 en 2017, y el aumento de € 7,350 para el año 2021.

Merpel piensa que esto es completamente indignante.

En primer lugar, una de las razones para la apelación es que una negativa de la división de examen es erróneo. Como los examinadores son sometidos a una mayor presión para la productividad, se espera que los rechazos erróneos van ser máyores, no se van a reducir. Los solicitantes serán penalizados por un aumento de las tasas tan masiva. Hay una disposición para el reembolso de la tasa de recurso en el caso de una violación sustancial de procedimiento, pero es perfectamente posible que el examen sea de mala calidad y sin que asciende a una violación sustancial de procedimiento.

En segundo lugar, teniendo en cuenta violaciónes sustanciales de procedimiento, son las Juntas de ahora va a estar bajo presión para no adjudicar que uno ha tenido lugar, ya que reducirá su financiación? Esto tendría todo lo contrario del supuesto efecto, para disminuir su independencia no aumentarla.

En tercer lugar, Merpel ha visto ninguna propuesta correspondiente para disminuir las tasas de procedimiento de EPO otros para compensar el efecto. Ella va a ser muy sorprendido si uno está cerca.

[...]

La próxima reunión del Consejo de Administración se encuentra al final de junio. Merpel espera sinceramente que esta propuesta loca desaparesca antes de esa fecha, o sea rechazada por el Consejo de Administración.

Este post a atraído comentarios rápidamente, presuntamente de parte de empleados y abogados de la EPO basados en la naturaleza de sus comentarios. He aquí el porqueBattistelli debería ser despedido este mes:

Esto es otro ejemplo de cómo los cambios de Batistelli dan como resultado exactamente lo contrario de lo que le dijo al Consejo Administrativo iba a hacer y cómo van completamente en contra de los intereses y las críticas de los usuarios.

Aqui está algunas discusiónes acerca de los falsos cálculos económicos:

Más análisis tiénen que ser hechos acerca de los los costes de las salas.

El solicitante que apela la decisión de denegar la solicitud genera una ganancia inesperada masiva anualidad para la oficina. Para una applcation se negó después de diez años de experimentar un procedimiento de recurso de cuatro años, los pagos de anualidades adicionales que recibe la oficina serían 6.000 € impar. Del mismo modo, un propietario de un recurso de oposición contra una decisión de revocar la patente efectivamente genera dinero en efectivo para la EPO thorugh las tasas nacionales de renovación. Una vez que estos han sido tomados en cuenta, estoy seguro de la cifra 4% se elevaría a alrededor de un 25%

Y más acerca de los costos:

CA / 90/13 (punto 31) parece indicar que el reciente aumento de la tasa de recurso de € 1240 € 1860 daría lugar a una “cobertura de costo por apelación” de aproximadamente 6%. ¿Era esto resultó ser demasiado optimista o es del 4,2% una figura obsoleta? Se supone que en el aumento adicional de € 1860 a € 1880 no hay mucha diferencia. Presumiblemente, ni el 4,2%, ni las figuras 6% incluyen las tasas de renovación. Esto parece injusto puesto que parecería que una parte importante de esas tasas de renovación resultan de las aplicaciones que se negaron (o concedidas, lo que resulta en tasas compartidos) sin el recurso, de tal manera que las tasas no llegaría a la oficina si no se interpuso el recurso .

El siguiénte comentario refleja lo que hemos estado diciéndo los últimos años (casi una década), usándo a la nefasta USPTO como señal/referencia de advertencia. Habiéndo duplicado el número de patentes otorgadas allí, la USPTO no es muy diferente actuálmente de un sistema de registración/aplicación (92% de solicitudes terminan siéndo aceptadas). He aquí el comentario en su totalidad:

Creo que Merpel ha conseguido este derecho aparte de un error evidente. Las crecientes exigencias de productividad de los examinadores son mucho más propensos a conducir a un aumento de las subvenciones “malas” en lugar de “rechazos erróneos.” El propósito de los aumentos de la productividad es aumentar los ingresos tasa de renovación y no hay tasas de renovación de las negativas. Todo el sistema está configurado para examinadores de presión para conceder más licencias de patentes, por lo que desde un punto de vista productivo, todavía es mucho más fácil para una división de examinar la concesión de una patente que a rechazarla. Los alemanes Tribunal Federal de Patentes y Patentes inglés Cortes ambos revocar la gran mayoría de las patentes de alta tecnología que se presentan ante ellos. De los que sobreviven, es raro que las reclamaciones para sobrevivir en la forma en la que fueron concedidas. Esto parecería indicar que el examen de la EPO se está convirtiendo redundante.

Mi conjetura sería que en el futuro, la EPO se niega muy pocas solicitudes de patente. Incluso pueden dejar de examinar (o fingiendo examinar) en absoluto. Por lo tanto, no hay que preocuparse demasiado acerca de las SoAs. Probablemente serán redundantes en unos pocos años de todos modos.

Más comentarios acerca de estoteniéndo en cuenta la renovación de matrículas:

Como otros han comentado aquí, si la Oficina realmente quiere financiar las Juntas de manera diferente, entonces parecería equitativo a acreditar las Juntas con al menos una proporción de las tasas de renovación ganados mientras que un caso se encuentra en apelación.

Por otra parte, puesto que la Oficina está obligada por el ADPIC de proporcionar un recurso a un tribunal/Sala de Recurso, se podría en cambio decir que la Oficina simplemente debe aguantar y pagar por lo que es un coste corriente necesaria (parte del “acuerdo “que tiene la concesión de patentes EP).

Aquí está otro intersánte comentarioel cual probablemente no es lo suficiénte neoliberal para que los graduados en la ENA lo digiéran considerando las burbujas fináncieroas y a las crisis que ellos nos han llevado por décadas:

Por lo que yo entiendo, actualmente las apelaciones de EPO se financian de manera similar a un seguro de automóvil o la salud.

Por ejemplo, en el caso de los seguros de coche, todo el mundo paga una pequeña cantidad cada mes para cubrir el caso muy raro / caro de un accidente de coche.

Lo mismo, supongo, ocurre con una tasa de recurso EPO.

Es decir, todo el mundo paga diversas tarifas durante la tramitación de patentes. En cada una de esas tasas, un pequeño porcentaje (%) se reserva para un caso relativamente raro de apelación. De esta manera, un pago recurso alta de una sola vez se evita mediante el pago en partes con diversas acciones de la oficina ”.

¿Una propuesta de aumento de la tasa de recurso significaría disminución de todas las demás tasas de EPO, respectivamente?

Poniéndo los costos en perspectiva:

La sugerencia de un aumento de cinco veces para cubrir los costos me parece estar de vuelta para ocultar las verdaderas intenciones detrás de la sugerencia. El aumento de la tasa de recurso a un nivel tan punitivo disuadirá a las partes de presentar apelaciones excepto en el más importante de los casos. El resultado neto será una reducción de la carga de trabajo y una contracción correspondiente de las SoAs. Un castigo, por lo tanto, por haberse atrevido a decir boo al Presidente.

En respuesta a lo cualtenemos:

La comparación de la presentación, búsqueda, el examen, la designación y las tasas de renovación de unos pocos años con el nivel propuesto de tasa de recurso, la frase “cara o cruz” viene a la mente.

Y aquí viene unremarque lengua en cachete:

Para el presidente de EPO, la calidad de la búsqueda y el examen en la Oficina Europea de Patentes es la mejor del mundo.

Para oscuras motivaciones, un pequeño grupo de solicitantes (una minoría) está desafiando esta excelente calidad, y se inicien recursos a la soa.

Es lógico que tal comportamiento malo no puede ser estimulada. Una forma de mejorar el sistema, es aumentar las tasas de las apelaciones.

Las obligatorias/merecidascomparaciónes con la FIFA:

¿Cómo es que, en el CA, un gran número de EPC pequeños Estados miembros apoyan a BB? ¿No te recuerda el apoyo Blatter podía contar, dentro de la FIFA? Podría ser que BB (desde su palacio en la planta superior del edificio Isar) al igual que la astucia de su edad Seppie, paga estos Estados miembros cada año un dividendo cada vez más grande? En la EPO, ¿cómo podría hacerlo? He aquí algunas posibilidades:

1. Haga caso omiso de los costes DG 3 (pero mantener la presentación, tramitación, oposición y las tasas de anualidad de altura).

2. Mantenga los ingresos por comisiones anualidad alta, dando a los solicitantes la posibilidad de aplazar la concesión de patentes más o menos para siempre. Tenga cuidado sin embargo para proporcionar, para los pocos que lo deseen, una subvención rápida y sucia (y la enorme carga de varias anualidades nacionales que va con ella).

3. Apriete cada vez más la producción de cada vez menos empleados altamente remunerados. “No importa la calidad, sentir el ancho” como el viejo dicho va cínica.

Visto a través de ese lente, todo lo hace BB tiene sentido. Triste no es así?

Otro recordatorio de quela EPO perjudica/jode a las PYMEs Europeasy las discrímina a favor de corporaciónes multinacionales del otro lado del charco:

No sé qué examen más descuidado (es decir, más subvenciones) reduciría el número de recursos. Sin duda, causar un aumento en el número de oposiciones y puesto que el número de oposiciones es más o menos proporcional a la cantidad de apelaciones con un aumento de las oposiciones también la cantidad de recursos se incrementará.

No sería lógico (y de hecho estoy de acuerdo con Merpel) injusta para aumentar la cant tasa de recurso para acreditar el saldo de los costos de la DG 3. Si ese fuera el caso también la tasa de oposición se debe aumentar en la misma forma (pero probablemente no debe plantear esta cuestión, ya que podría dar algunas ideas BB). De todos modos, la idea de elevar solamente los honorarios de presentación de recursos parece ser muy sesgada.

Los altos costos de las apelaciones de hecho parecen muy duras en las apelaciones de las decisiones de la División de Examen de la Sección de Depósito y / o. Pero ¿qué hay de las apelaciones en casos disciplinarios: hacer nuestros candidatos eqe que quieren protestar por las decisiones del examen de los comités necesitan sufrir mediante el pago de una tasa de recurso que apenas pueden permitirse el lujo? ¿O podemos ver un esquema de reducción? Tal vez también algunas reducciones para las PYME pobres?

Yo sugeriría para asignar el presupuesto que se necesita para el festival inventor-de-la-año (que puede ser fácilmente desechada con) a DG 3. En cualquier caso, ya que hará que para una gran parte del déficit actual.

Luego viene el derrotismo:

Es la actitud de los Estados Miembros que no entiendo. Dentro de la oficina, casi todo el mundo estaría de acuerdo en que nos dirigimos a la pared – y sigue acelerando. Ahora puedo entender que el Presidente y sus amigos están a favor de beneficios a corto plazo; Lo más probable es que no estará a cargo más cuando la burbuja estalle. Sin embargo, los Estados miembros deben tener intereses a largo plazo en el mantenimiento del sistema europeo de patentes (y su patente unitaria más preciado, que se construye en él) viva. ¿Por qué iban dejar que el Presidente matar a la gallina de los huevos de oro e incluso aplauden? Realmente no lo entiendo. O bien son extremadamente ingenua (pero normalmente no lo son cuando su interés nacional está implicado) o extrañamente apático. Incluso el representante de Albania, que apenas sabe qué es una patente parece debe entender que su país va a recibir menos dinero una vez que las personas se dan cuenta de que una patente alemana podría ser mejor valor que uno europeo, ¿no es verdad?

Me temo que obtenemos el mundo que merecemos.

Desperdicio y abuso es sacado a la luz:

Milpiés con razón sugiere asignar el presupuesto que se necesita para el festival inventor-de-la-año (que puede ser fácilmente desechada con) a DG 3, lo que haría para una gran parte del déficit actual.

Lo mismo se aplica a los presupuestos de los medios de comunicación “asociaciones”, guardias del cuerpo, los investigadores, la cooperación “técnica” con los estados miembros, “atención médica” para los representantes de CA, VP’s incompetentes y la remuneración secreta del presidente y muchos más. Como resultado, la tasa de recurso podría prescindirse por completo.

Acerca del menciónado arriba “festival del inventor-del-año”, pronto publicaremos detalles de los costos asociádos con el. Para ayudar a nuestra investigación, por favor sugerimos a las personas enviarnos E-mails o llamar a “socios en los medios” de la EPO para descubrir los costos fináncieros.

También la gente acaba de enterárse del menciónado anteriormente reporte de El Register:

El Presidium y AMBA han comentado sobre las propuestas de reforma de las Boas:

https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/05/31/amba-epo-reform.pdf

según lo informado por el Registro:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/01/epos_boards_of_appeal_rail_against_king_battistelli/

Tenemos una gran cantidad de publicar sobre la EPO hoy, así que esten atentos y por favor enviar cualquier material relevante/adicional para nosotros (por ejemplo, con respecto a la sesión de ayer en el Parlamento de Baviera, que creció preocupado por la EPO). Las cosas se ponen calientes en el asiento del Battistelli antes de la reunión a finales de este mes del Consejo de Administración. Como uno nuevo comentario lo puso: “Entonces, ¿quién tiene el poder para despedir este MF/tipo?” Algunos lo comparan con Donald Trump encima en el Registro. A una persona respondió con: “Y lo más importante, el poder de fuego del tipo porque está claro que no ha estado haciendo su trabajo por no despedir a este tipo, por lo que es sin lugar a dudas, ya sea sucio o incompetente y tiene que ir junto con el Sr. Kingie. Yo prefiero no esperar hasta que el tipo que tiene el poder de fuego del tipo que tiene el poder de fuego de este tipo necesita dispararse a sí mismo también por el mismo delito … “

El problema es, el Sr. Kongstad, quien es capaz de despedir a Battistelli, no sólo falla al no hacerlo pero también conserva su contrato en secreto lo que lo hace complice de este demente tirano.

EPO Tyranny Comes Under Fire From Politicians in Luxembourg

Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Small (but very rich) countries aren’t so easy to ‘buy’

Luxembourg

Summary: The Luxembourgian Parliament is the latest among many to have concerns raised about Battistelli’s atrocious regime at the European Patent Office (EPO)

“More political support and action this time from Luxembourg” was reported to us 2 days ago. It looks pretty serious, but there is no coverage about this in English. We waited, but nothing came up.

“Political actions,” a source told us, “this time [come] from Luxembourg.”

“They have a vote,” added this source (alluding to the Administrative Council’s meeting which later this month can (and ought to) sack Battistelli, “so glad to see that those countries start to wake up in sense. Hope the fire will spread.”

Well, Battistelli is rumoured to be 'buying' the votes of small countries, which reveals a fundamental flaw (all countries, irrespective of their size, having an equal voice). “Unfortunately,” our source told us, the only article about this (so far) is “in French and Luxembourgish [Luxembourgian?] however the translation will follow!”

We are stil waiting for a complete translation of this article. “Questions in the Luxembourgish parliament on 03-06-2016,” we are told, include the following. It is an automated translation of the letter in this article:

Mr. Mars Di Bartolomeo
President of the Chamber of Deputies
luxembourg

Luxembourg, 3 June 2016

Mister President,

Hereby, I would ask a parliamentary question to the Minister of Economy.

For some years now a social conflict within the European Patent Office (EPO) opposes a portion of the EPO staff and their union, on one side, in the direction of the EPO in Rijswijk (Netherlands ), the other (see my parliamentary questions No. 338 of 6 June 2014 and 1018 of 25 March 2015).

In the dispute is the President of the EPO, Benoît Battistelli, due to various measures that it has decided against the union. A judgment of the Hague Court of Appeal also ordered the cancellation of these measures on the grounds that they are contrary to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

However, the Dutch government has prevented the implementation of the judgment by invoking the immunity would benefit EPO as an international organization in the States Parties. However in March, the President of the EPO had received a reprimand from the Board and a resolution approved by a majority of the 38 countries represented on the Board, President Battistelli was invited for measures to stop the trade unionists and to make a number of changes including recognizing the rights of employee representatives. In case of non-compliance with this resolution, the President of the EPO would risk the consequences much more severe by the Board.

However, according to the statements of the union, Mr. Batistelli does not consider to meet the above-mentioned resolution, but instead prepare new controversial reforms ia concerning health insurance and dismissal procedure. In this context, a British website issued as of 1 June 2016 a letter from the EPO Boards of Appeal have strongly criticized these reforms. These would aim a decrease of autonomy and independence of the legal body constituted by the EPO Boards of Appeal and do not respect internationally recognized principles of independence of the judicial powers.

I recollect that at the next meeting of the Board on 30 June in Munich, Luxembourg consider, in case of voting, to speak in favor of the current president.

In view of the above, I would like to ask the following questions to the Minister:

Sir Can confirm these recent developments in the social conflict folder within the EPO?
Sir can confirm that the Luxembourg, where voting will speak in favor of the president in office despite the fact that it has adopted measures, which according to the Hague Court of Appeal violate the rights fundamental guaranteed by the European Convention on Human rights, despite its refusal to comply with the resolution adopted by the board in March?
If so, Sir can it give the reasons for this intention to vote?
Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Claudia Dall’Agnol

MP

If anyone has the capacity to accurately translate the above article or has access to more information about this, please comment below or contact us in private. █

06.04.16

Battistelli is Destroying the European Patent Office and Wasting a Lot of Money Hiding This Fact

Posted in Deception, Europe, Marketing, Patents at 2:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

EPO Frame Breaking

Summary: Too busy paying journalists, PR firms, so-called ‘research’ firms (funded by EPO budget to the tune of millions per year) and other actors that help distort the reality (a rapid EPO decline), Mr. Battistelli has now become a huge liability to the entire Organisation and EPO staff should fight to save the EPO

SOME big stories about the EPO are coming next week and they’re nothing to do with the charade that’s now known (at least internally) for promoting frauds, not just those which the EPO falls for (yesterday it laughably enough warned others about fraud). The EPO keeps promoting the charade which wastes millions of euros of EPO budget and does not want the public to know that it pays the media for puff pieces relating to this charade, amongst others. The latest ‘survey’ of the EPO’s BFF, which the EPO now inevitably brags about, is one such example of paid media.

The EPO would like to make examiners at the EPO redundant (replaced by algorithms) and pretend there’s still potent examination, not just patent filing/registration. That’s the ‘ENA way’. Yesterday the EPO promoted a prelude to this. We are already seeing a reduction in patent examination quality and Battistelli is demolishing the Boards of Appeal little by little (understaffing and now fee hikes). The EPO is collapsing and while this collapse is happening Battistelli spends millions of euros on PR agencies and media companies, as well as commissioned 'studies' which attempt to distort this reality (that’s their job).

Looking at recent IP Kat comments, we come to realise that more and more people inside and outside the EPO (those who interact with examiners) come to grips with the above reality. It’s pretty grim. As one person put it:

What is kind of shocking about the proposal to have a self-financed DG3 because of self-financed UPC-courts is that it shows an utter lack of understanding of the function of DG3 and the UPC-courts by BB [Battistelli] and his freaks.
DG3 is a judicial instance, there to correct/review 1st instance decisions … such a correction mustn’t cost a lot of money for the appelant(in particular SMEs).
DG3 should be regarded as a futher liability of the EPO(rg) … similar to the AC – I do not think that they are self-financing.

… but well, what could one expect from BB …

Battistelli’s latest puff piece and masterpiece (warning: epo.org link) does not show him with violent tyrants, for a change. Why not show him with the people whom he habitually hangs out with rather than pseudo-royalty from Britain?

“An appeal fee of 7.350 Euro is insulting,” one person noted. “I am surprised that nobody so far mentioned that such a fee is a clear disincentive to file with the EPO in the first place.” Here is the full comment:

An appeal fee of 7.350 Euro is insulting. I am surprised that nobody so far mentioned that such a fee is a clear disincentive to file with the EPO in the first place.

For that amount of money, you can get your application translated into French/Dutch, file it as national application, and you get the search report together with an opinion from the EPO. After that, you pick just the two or three countries you are interested in and go there directly. Go for Germany – biggest market, no translation needed for filing and search, France/Netherlands – you already have the application, and Great Britain. That will secure two additional search reports (DE, GB). With some luck you will have a good overview of the relevant prior art. Infringement in Düsseldorf (DE), period. No hassle with EPO appeal fee, UPC, etc. All things considered, you are likely cheaper even without an appeal.

Sure, that strategy is not fit for everybody. As alternative, go EPO for the search, either with an EP or a PCT, and then proceed on national level, again completely sidestepping EPO examination and appeal. Going PCT will also avoid the nasty exchange of search results, making sure that the EPO does a proper search instead of considering mainly the national search report. The EPO did not lower the search fee when that exchange was introduced, although it is supposed to save time.

Poor guys who want 4 or more countries:)

reply to the above

The goal is to destroy/eliminate if not just marginalise the appeals process. Goodbye to EPO quality!

As another person put it:

Be careful with France. A direct French regional phase from a PCT filing isn’t possible; the application will have to go through the EPO. So you will need a FR either a FR first or second filing. As a bonus, a first filing will give you an EPO Search and opinion. Mais pour ça, il faut rédiger la demande en français.

Let’s not talk about the utter idiocy of the “PCTdirect” thing currently peddled by the EPO, where applicants are encouraged to amend their second filing in order to overcome objections of the authority who handled the first filing. If you like endangering your Paris priority and finding new reasons to go all the way to the EBoA, this one’s for you…

My suspicion is that through impossibly high work quotas, the EPO examiner will have no other practical option but to rubber stamp whatever is filed, without looking at it too closely, unless he feels suicidal and/or wants to end up a homeless wino sleeping under the bridge. But everything is fine, since the EPO is ISO 9001 certified.

Here is a reference to neoliberalism in relation to this:

As Lord Darlington observed, more than a century ago, a cynic is a person who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Do we have more cynics in the world today? I think so. Everywhere one looks (as a patent attorney) one sees Administrative Council members, business people, economists and politicians monetarizing everything, as fast as they can, putting a price on everything, with nary a thought about the value that they are destroying.

But there are a few straws in the wind (politicians take note). In particular, the economists heading up research at the IMF have started to put out Papers that argue that neoliberalism is routinely destroying more value than it creates. It is easy to price everything, very hard to quantify “value”. Measuring what you can measure and dismissing any thought about anything else might be excusable in a professor of economics but not for a politician or business person.

So perhaps it’s not too late for the AC, first to see the error of BB’s Master of Business Administration ways, and second to do their F-ing job, namely exercise some control over their attack dog, and curb the beast. In 40 years since the creation of the European Patent Convention, it has come to be the world’s premier (go to) corpus of rational patent law, thanks to DG3 at the EPO. Europe has precious little “soft power” in the world today, but here is a jewel in its soft power crown.

Meanwhile BB, in what seems to be a bizarre and ever-more emotional fit of pique, is bent on wiping it out, regardless of the cost. In my opinion, a disgrace, a tragedy, and deeply lamentable.

The following last comment on this subject is referring to the attack dog of Battistelli, who faces criminal charges in Croatia:

Just two quick points.

As far as I was aware, it’s not BB who claims to be an MBA but the one who signed off on this.

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/go-izvjesca/godisnje_izvjesce_2010.pdf

Apropos exercising control over the attack dog, haven’t you ever heard the old adage “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. The guys to exercise control are the ones in the ministeries. Refer to Article 4a EPC. Long overdue by now.

Our goal is not to destroy the EPO but to save it. The one destroying the EPO right now is Battistelli, along with his team which has blind loyalty to him. Battistelli ought to be sacked this month in order to save the EPO. █

Software Patents in Europe and the UPC Already a Problem

Posted in Europe, Patents, RAND at 2:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Whose public service is this and why are European politicians allowing software patents?

A transit bus

Summary: More patent trolling in Europe (using software patents, as usual) and another disappointing move from the European Commission which serves to reinforce software patents deep inside public services, in effect overriding Europe’s policy on patent scope due to lobbying from proprietary software giants from abroad

“Trolls at the gates,” Francisco warned the other day. “Unitary patent is coming.” Francisco happens to have warned about the EPO and UPC for quite some time now and he is not alone (we gave examples of that). The President of the FFII, Benjamin, has just said “this is what is waiting us if nobody moves their ass on the Unitary Patent.”

“As we have noted here for a number of years, Germany is undoubtedly the worst in Europe when it comes to software patenting and this latest bit of news seems to reinforce this trend.”This was said in response to Jan Wildeboer, who works for Red Hat in Germany (Europe’s capital of software patenting) after years of activism against software patents (he is spending a lot less time fighting for this cause nowadays). “Patent troll forces Flickr to deactivate mobile upload in Germany,” Wildeboer warned. As we have noted here for a number of years, Germany is undoubtedly the worst in Europe when it comes to software patenting and this latest bit of news seems to reinforce this trend. I can’t help but wonder if upload tools in my own self-hosted albums are infringing too. Recently in the United States some very small and weak entities, such as family businesses, got sued/blackmailed by a patent troll over photo albums they had online. We wrote some articles about it earlier this year.

As Benjamin put it, “as long as those Patent Courts stays in Germany, I am fine. Problem is with the Unitary Patent.” Well, some of these patent trolls have begun coming to the UK. They use software patents, too. To quote the page from Flickr, “patent litigation is a tremendous drain on the global economy, and Yahoo has been a vocal proponent for years in the United States to restore balance to patent litigation by encouraging innovation and discouraging abuse.

“Patent troll forces Flickr to deactivate mobile upload in Germany…”
      –Jan Wildeboer“Unfortunately, as of today, our Flickr users in Germany are the victims of abuse in the patent litigation system. In recent months, Yahoo and several other major US tech companies were sued in Germany by TLI Comms, a company that does not practice the patent at issue, but rather asserts it against others for financial gain — sometimes referred to as a “patent troll.” TLI Comms has accused Yahoo of infringing its European patent (EP 0814611 B1) by providing users the ability to upload photos and videos to our servers via the Flickr mobile web page or the Flickr mobile apps. TLI has asserted similar claims against a number of other major US tech companies. As of today, a German court has enjoined Yahoo from providing the upload feature of the Flickr mobile web page and mobile apps to our users in Germany.”

How long before other European nations suffer the same ‘castration’ of features? It might only be a matter of time. Bear the UPC in mind.

“European Commission kills FLOSS with FRAND patents,” Benjamin warned in a separate note after Glyn Moody, who had written articles on this subject earlier this year (we covered these), alerted followers to the fact that the “EU Commission confirms that it is abandoning open source to market forces – http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1963_en.htm”

Benjamin thought “market forces” are better off called “dark forces” and another opposer of software patents said “the EU are creating these standards & they cannot be used in Free Software?”

Dr. Moody responded with “very; but they care more about big business that likes FRAND” (a topic often covered here for nearly a decade).

As Benjamin noted, “patents means free software becomes proprietary. That’s what the GPL said in 1991 already.”

“EU Commission confirms that it is abandoning open source to market forces…”
      –Glyn MoodyIf there is no freedom to redistribute the program, then it’s not Free software anymore. “The reference implementations can be whatever,” Benjamin noted, but “patent holders can still tax any other implementation of the standard.”

As I noted in response to the above (twice even) the EU/European Commission is a Microsoft shop that failed to move away from Microsoft and even failed to investigate Microsoft’s OOXML abuses as it had promised to do so (giving a false sense of hope to antagonists). Whose EU Commission is this and why are we still implicitly endorsing software patents, in spite of the EPC and the 2005 directive? █

06.03.16

Links 3/6/2016: OpenSwitch Under Linux Foundation, GCC 5.4

Posted in News Roundup at 4:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Inner Source—Adopting Open Source Development Practices in Organizations

    OPEN SOURCE has had an enormous impact on the software industry. Software development organizations have widely adopted open source software (OSS) in a variety of ways.1 Besides adopting OSS products, as either productivity tools or off-the-shelf components, numerous organizations have adopted open source practices to develop their software. This is called inner source because the software is sourced internally, although different terms have been used, such as “progressive open source” and “corporate open source.”2 Unlike with traditional approaches, developers of an inner-source project don’t belong to a single team or department. Anybody in the organization can be a contributing member of this community, as either a user or contributor. Eric Raymond compared traditional software development approaches to building cathedrals, while calling open-source-style development a “bazaar.” 3 So, you can view inner source as a bazaar within a corporate cathedral.

  • Hackathons bring open source innovation to humanitarian aid

    In open source software, end users, decision makers, subject matter experts, and developers from around the world can work together to create great solutions. There are a lot of mature open source projects out there already in the field of humanitarian and development aid, for example: Ushahidi and Sahana in crisis management and information gathering, OpenMRS for medical records, Martus for secure information sharing in places with limited freedom of speech, and Mifos X, an open platform for financial inclusion for people in poor areas where financial services such as savings, payments, and loans are not offered.

  • ​OwnCloud closes US office, blames Nextcloud

    Yesterday, ownCloud co-founder Frank Karlitschek announced he was starting a new open-source, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud project and company, Nextcloud. The same day, ownCloud, announced it was closing its US office.

  • OwnCloud Issues Statement Over Today’s Nextcloud Fork, OwnCloud Inc Closes Up Shop
  • ownCloud Statement concerning the formation of Nextcloud by Frank Karlitschek
  • OwnCloud forked to create Nextcloud

    As I expected, Frank Karlitschek is forking ownCloud to create a new open source project called Nextcloud. In an interview, Karlitschek told me that he is joining with Spreedbox founder Niels Mache to create a new company with the same name.

    The new company, Nextcloud, is being founded in Germany. Both Mache and Karlitschek will serve as managing directors.

  • ownCloud Founder Forks Open-Source Project to NextCloud

    NextCloud is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for ownCloud 9 with added security and stability updates as well as integration of Spreed.ME video conferencing and chat. Perhaps most importantly, Nextcloud GmbH (which is the new commercial entity behind NextCloud) has pledged that it will fulfill all contracts customers signed with ownCloud, Inc. until June 2nd – “That way customers won’t be without the support from the experts they need to keep their servers running.,” the company stated.

  • Use the Web to make interactive displays out of almost anything
  • Google Open Sources Tool for Making Interactive Displays Smart

    The digital display trend has been going through a renaissance for some time now, with many organizations reaching out to their employees and customers by curating and delivering information via displays that are, increasingly, interactive. Touchscreen displays that respond to you can create immersive experiences, and Google has announced that it is open sourcing its hardened and tested AnyPixel software for programming interactive displays similar to the one in the lobby of its New York City office.

    Hardware and software tools and references and example apps are available now on GitHub.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Funding

    • Rapid7 CEO Aims to Secure the Future

      The company also some strong open-source roots, with the Metasploit penetration testing framework, which has both free and commercially supported editions available.

    • If Your Kickstarter Campaign Isn’t Ready for Prime Time

      If you’re an open source enthusiast who thinks you might have a good idea for a Kickstarter campaign, but are not yet ready to launch the campaign, why not launch a draft campaign and request feedback from the public? In doing so, you might be able to rally supporters before your campaign launches — and you might also receive vital cautions that could help you revise (or abandon) the planned campaign. This neat video for an Audio DSP Shield for Arduino reminds us that you can use Kickstarter to test the waters before launching a campaign.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GDB Debugger Now Supports The Rust Language, Other GNU Toolchain Improvements

      The GNU Toolchain has continued making improvements this year beyond just the recent GCC 6 stable compiler release.

      Nick Clifton of Red Hat has sent out a mailing to share the GNU Toolchain updates made over the past two months. He covers the GCC 6 improvements with the new warning options, GDB 7.11.1 improvements, and more.

    • GCC 5.4 Released
    • GCC 5.4 Compiler Released, Fixed 147+ Bugs

      Version 5.4 of the GNU Compiler Collection is now available.

      Before getting too excited, this is just a maintenance update to GCC 5 under their funky new versioning scheme. Beyond that, GCC 6 has already been available in stable form via GCC 6.1.

      GCC 5.4 represents just another maintenance/bug-fix release to GCC 5 since its first stable release last year, GCC 5.1. GCC 5.4 is known to fix at least 147 bugs compared to the GCC 5.3 stable update from a few months back.

    • Twenty-seven new GNU releases in May

      8sync-0.1.0
      autogen-5.18.9
      cflow-1.5
      denemo-2.0.8
      fontopia-1.2
      freeipmi-1.5.2
      gcc-6.1.0
      gdbm-1.12
      gneuralnetwork-0.9.1
      gnumach-1.7
      gnupg-2.1.12
      gnu-pw-mgr-2.0
      gnutls-3.4.12
      guile-ncurses-1.7
      gzip-1.8
      help2man-1.47.4
      hurd-0.8
      icecat-38.8.0-gnu1
      jel-2.1.1
      librejs-6.0.13
      make-4.2
      mig-1.7
      parallel-20160522
      remotecontrol-2.0
      swbis-1.13
      tar-1.29
      xboard-4.9.0

  • Public Services/Government

    • San Francisco funds open source voting

      San Francisco’s open source voting project is quickly becoming a reality. Mayor Ed Lee’s proposed budget includes $300,000 towards planning and development of an open source voting system that would allow the city to own and share the software.

      Dominion Voting Systems, formerly known as Sequoia Voting, has provided San Francisco’s voting technology for years, but its contract with the city and county expires at the end of the year, according to KQED News.

  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • 8 steps to more open communications

      Open communications is a major change, and, as with all good changes, it will take constant care and feeding to keep it going. My leaders need to remain involved. We need to ensure newcomers are encouraged to stay. The last thing I want is for team members to feel their input isn’t heard or taken seriously.

  • Programming/Development

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened.

      “We can’t afford to weaken Social Security,” he said during a speech on economic policy in Elkhart, Indiana. “We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous, and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned.”

    • President Obama Finally Gets It Right On Expanding Social Security

      Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, was as late as last year making critical comments about President Obama’s stance on Social Security, telling Talking Points Memo that Obama “hasn’t been great on this issue.” Then, Altman was still smarting from Obama’s willingness to cut a deal with Republicans in 2011 that would have resulted in a reduced cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits, and thus would have eroded seniors’ buying power over time.

    • Great Recession Caused 500K Additional Cancer Deaths
    • Thanks to Activism And Sanders, Obama Changes Course on Social Security

      Progressive groups welcomed President Barack Obama’s call to expand Social Security by increasing taxes on the wealthy, praising the effort and crediting it in part to “relentless grassroots activism” and Bernie Sanders’ political efforts.

      During a speech on economic policy in Elkhart, Indiana on Wednesday, Obama announced, “We can’t afford to weaken Social Security. We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement they’ve earned.”

      “We could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more,” he said.

    • Obama’s Social Security push pleases liberals

      President Barack Obama called for expanding Social Security on Wednesday, prompting progressive groups to declare victory after they tangled with him over a plan to save costs in the entitlement program three years ago.

      “And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned,” Obama said in an economic call to arms in Elkhart, Indiana. “We could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more.”

    • Revealed: At Least 21 Cities Use Same Water Testing ‘Cheats’ as Flint Endangering Millions

      While authorities in Flint, Michigan charged three officials with a myriad of crimes for failing to properly test the city’s water supply, a major Guardian investigation released Thursday revealed at least 21 U.S cities used similar water testing methods as those that prompted a criminal probe into one of the worst public health crises in recent history.

      According to the Guardian, cities including Chicago, Boston, Philidelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee all use water testing practices that could underestimate the levels of lead present in drinking water. In Philadelphia and Chicago, officials asked employees to test the water safety in their own homes. And in cities throughout Michigan and New Hampshire, water departments were advised to leave more time for testing in order to remove results showing levels that exceed federal limits.

    • Water Departments to Change Lead-Testing Methods After Investigators Find ‘Cheats’ in 33 U.S. Cities
    • At least 33 US cities used water testing ‘cheats’ over lead concerns

      Guardian investigation reveals testing regimes similar to that of Flint were in place in major cities including Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia

    • Six Questions for Monsanto

      Monsanto may not be the largest company in the world. Or the worst. But the St. Louis, Mo. biotech giant has become the poster child for all that’s wrong with our industrial food and farming system.

      With 21,000 employees in 66 countries and $15 billion in revenue, Monsanto is a biotech industry heavyweight. The St. Louis, Mo.-based monopolizer of seeds is the poster child for an industry that is the source of at least one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and is largely responsible for the depletion of soil, water and biodiversity. Not to mention the company’s marginalization—and sometimes terrorization—of millions of small farmers.

    • ‘Hoop After Hoop’: How Gulf Coast States Are Playing Politics with Women’s Health

      Women on the Gulf Coast continue to face concerted attacks on their right to healthcare, as Louisiana passed new abortion restrictions this week and the ACLU sued Alabama over several recently enacted, draconian laws.

      On Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed into law a bill banning the abortion procedure known as “dilation and evacuation” or D&E—which women’s health experts say is the safest and most common method of abortion for women in their second trimester of pregnancy.

    • Louisiana Bans Common, Safe Abortion Method

      The Louisiana law, called the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act,” will likely force doctors to use an abortion method associated with a higher rate of medical complications on women after their first trimester. Women in the state already have to wait 72 hours to have an abortion after meeting with the doctor. Abortions performed later in a pregnancy are riskier, and the new policy only increases the potential dangers.

  • Security

    • Hackers Find Bugs, Extort Ransom and Call it a Public Service

      Crooks breaking into enterprise networks are holding data they steal for ransom under the guise they are doing the company a favor by exposing a flaw. The criminal act is described as bug poaching by IBM researchers and is becoming a growing new threat to businesses vulnerable to attacks.

      According to IBM’s X-Force researchers, the new tactic it is a variation on ransomware. In the case of bug poaching, hackers are extorting companies for as much as $30,000 in exchange for details on how hackers broke into their network and stole data. More conventional ransomware attacks, also growing in number, simply encrypt data and demand payment for a decryption key.

  • Defence/Aggression

    • John Kerry Gives Saudis a Big Pass on Indiscriminate Bombing of Civilians in Yemen

      Secretary of State John Kerry this week waved off concerns about U.S.-supported Saudi-coalition airstrikes in Yemen that have indiscriminately bombed civilians and rescuers, and instead blamed the Shiite Houthi rebels for the bulk of the civilian casualties.

      “There have been a lot of civilian casualties, and clearly, civilian casualties are a concern,” Kerry told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “I think the Saudis have expressed in the last weeks their desire to make certain that they’re acting responsibly, and not endangering civilians.”

    • America’s Greatest Threat Is Its Crazed “Leadership” And Its Brainwashed Population

      But times have changed since then. If Hitler were to attack Russia today, he would be dead 20 to 30 minutes later, his bunker reduced to glowing rubble by a strike from a Kalibr supersonic cruise missile launched from a small Russian navy ship somewhere in the Baltic Sea. The operational abilities of the new Russian military have been most persuasively demonstrated during the recent action against ISIS, Al Nusra and other foreign-funded terrorist groups operating in Syria. A long time ago Russia had to respond to provocations by fighting land battles on her own territory, then launching a counter-invasion; but this is no longer necessary. Russia’s new weapons make retaliation instant, undetectable, unstoppable and perfectly lethal.

    • As US/ Kurdish force Moves on ISIL at Manbij, Turkey goes Ballistic

      The left-leaning Beirut daily al-Safir (Ambassador) points out that less than two weeks after the Syrian Democratic Forces announced their campaign against al-Raqqa, the capital of the phony caliphate of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), the SDF instead has veered off to the west in a bid to capture Manbaj. The SDF mainly consists of leftist Kurdish YPG fighters along with some American-trained token Arabs.

      The SDF, with help from intensive US bombing, moved to the west of the Euphrates on Wednesday, taking over a dozen villages in the vicinity of Manbaj and ending up only 10 km from the city center.

    • Trump, Trade and War

      Those questions include why the United States must play the role of world policeman, whether NATO’s mission is obsolete, why the U.S. always pursues “regime change” when the results – in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, etc. – are a “disaster,” and why Russia has been made into an enemy.

    • A Gunfight in Guatemala

      Enrique Degenhart tried to clean up Guatemala’s immigration service. His story is part of a nation’s extraordinary fight against corruption.

    • A Hellfire from Heaven won’t Smash the Taliban

      So Taliban supremo Mullah Mansour’s white Toyota Corolla was rattling across the Baluchestan desert just after it had crossed the Iranian border when a Hellfire missile fired from a US drone incinerated it into a charred / twisted wreck.

      That’s the official narrative. The Pentagon said Mansour was on Obama’s kill list because he had become “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation.”

    • 192 Killed, 139 Wounded in Iraq Battles, Bombings

      For whatever reasons, the Iraqi government has long undercounted its casualties, and this operation appears to be no exception. A large number of civilians have also been killed, but their numbers remain uncounted. Many cannot even reach the local cemetery to bury their dead.

    • Clinton’s Foreign Policy Speech Marred by Inherent Contradictions

      “Hillary Clinton’s history of supporting interventionism puts her in a weird place to be portraying her opponent as trigger happy.”

    • Poverty, Militarism and the Public Schools

      What’s the difference between education and obedience? If you see very little, you probably have no problem with the militarization of the American school system — or rather, the militarization of the impoverished schools . . . the ones that can’t afford new textbooks or functional plumbing, much less art supplies or band equipment.

      The Pentagon has been eyeing these schools — broken and gang-ridden — for a decade now, and seeing its future there. It comes in like a cammy-clad Santa, bringing money and discipline. In return it gets young minds to shape, to (I fear) possess: to turn into the next generation of soldiers, available for the coming wars.

    • With Trump or Hillary, The Crisis in Syria Will Only Worsen

      No-fly zones, American troops on the ground, thousands more dead–that’s the future of Syria if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have their way. Either will surely make us miss Barack Obama’s subtle restraint, at least when it comes to how he’s handled the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad, our former ally in torture.

    • The New Facade for Regime Change: a Brief History of Humanitarian Interventionism

      Sitting in his presidential palace in 1991, Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein and his Culture Minister Hamad Hammadi drafted a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Hussein and Hammadi hoped that the U.S.S.R. would help save Iraq from the West’s barrage. Hammadi, who understood the shifts in world affairs, told Hussein that the war was not intended “only to destroy Iraq, but to eliminate the role of the Soviet Union so the United States can control the fate of all humanity”. Indeed, after the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S.S.R. fell apart and the United States emerged as the singular superpower. The age of U.S. unipolarity had dawned.

    • The Bigger Nuclear Risk: Trump or Clinton?

      If the U.S. election comes down to Hillary Clinton v. Donald Trump, the American people will have to decide between two candidates who could risk the future of the planet, albeit for very different reasons, writes Robert Parry.

    • Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Overcompensation

      Likely Democratic party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a woman – and that seems to be a very large part of her platform. She talks incessantly about her gender and how it infuses her politics, and her supporters, taking their cues from her, are quick to label any and all criticism of Mrs. Clinton as “sexist” – a label that, these days, can mean anything from believing traditional sex roles have some basis in human biology and the survival of the species to heterosexual men whistling and making lewd comments at attractive women as they walk down the street.

    • Missouri Senator To Introduce Bill To Help Veterans Exposed To Mustard Gas

      Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., plans to introduce legislation today to help World War II veterans who were exposed to mustard gas. The vets were used in classified experiments conducted by the U.S. military, and were sworn to secrecy about their participation for a half-century.

    • A Policy of Assassinations Is Being Conducted in Our Name

      From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — deserving of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death.

    • Weak End at Bernie’s

      Barack Obama is a complicated, contradictory human being. His writings, speeches and public persona show him as cool, intelligent and sensitive. Yet he has pursued drone warfare on a horrific scale, killing and maiming thousands of innocents. He has persecuted whistleblowers to the max, allowed unprecedented domestic spying and failed his own promise to close Guantanamo Bay. He has one small window left to placate those who voted – sometimes twice – for his promise of hope and change.

    • Why is a military coup in Saudi Arabia possible?

      Saudi Arabia is the most significant player in determining the future of the Arab revolutions. There are two ways to break this stalemate: replace Saudi regional hegemony, or change the regime controlling it.

    • Did CNN Finally Call Out Donald Trump For Lying? (They Did.)

      A CNN producer recalled that during an interview with Fox News in April, Trump said he supported Japan acquiring nuclear weapons.

    • What’ll It be Folks: Xenophobia or Genocide?

      Have we reached the endgame of Western democracy? When we heard Chomsky, a week or two ago on Democracy Now, saying that if pushed he’d vote for Clinton, it felt like the end. So hell is this Hobbesian choice: xenophobia or genocide? And it’s seeing the best of us choose genocide.

      Which is worse: the deportation of a few million or the destruction of a few million? Both are hellish but the extermination of millions is obviously worse. So why would Chomsky choose otherwise? He’s not alone. Western wisdom is behind Clinton even though she supported the Iraqi genocide; helped to organise the Libyan and Syrian genocides; and for the heck of it primed the weapons of genocide in Eastern Europe (Victoria Nuland is her girl).

    • Turkey recalls ambassador after German MPs’ Armenian genocide vote

      Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Berlin after German MPs approved a motion describing the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a century ago as genocide – a decision that the Turkish president said would “seriously affect” relations between the two countries.

      The five-page paper, co-written by parliamentarians from the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Green party, calls for a “commemoration of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916”. It passed with support from all the parties in parliament. In a show of hands, there was one abstention and one vote against.

      The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had voted in favour of the resolution during a test vote at a party meeting on Tuesday, but was absent from the actual vote on Thursday, as were the deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, and the minister for foreign affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Gregor Gysi of the Left party described Merkel’s absence as “not very brave”.

    • Victims of Colombian Death Squads Can Move Forward With Case Against Former Chiquita Executives
    • “I Refuse to Serve as an Empire Chaplain”: U.S. Army Minister Resigns over Drone Program

      An unlikely voice has emerged challenging the drone warfare program: former U.S. Army Reserve Chaplain Captain Chris Antal, who spent time based in Afghanistan. In April, he wrote an open letter to President Obama detailing his reasons for leaving the U.S. Army Reserves, citing his opposition to the administration’s use of drone strikes, its policy on nuclear proliferation, and what he calls the executive branch’s claim of “extraconstitutional authority and impunity for international law.”

    • Hillary Clinton’s Speech Against Trump Hypocritically Touts Her Foreign Policy Strength

      In a foreign policy speech widely hailed for its sharpest attacks yet against Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton put forward a vision that she contended was a far, far better alternative than the vision Trump has for the United States. However, a number of statements she made hypocritically disregarded her own record as first lady, senator, and secretary of state.

      Clinton also demonstrated how Democrats plan to wield American exceptionalism to try and beat Trump in November. As a rebuttal to Trump’s “Make America Great Again,” they will insist “America Is Already Great; Oh, But Of Course, It Can Always Be Greater.”

      A months-long squabble between the leaders of two political parties over the extent of America’s greatness threatens to plunge the world into one of the most insufferable debates in modern history.

      [...]

      The United States has taken the “lead” in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria, and in all of those countries, the military action taken has fueled chaos and enabled the rise of terrorist organizations, including al Qaida affiliates.

      That is not to say that Trump has the answers, but to point out that American “leadership” does not have a stellar record of preventing chaos, particularly when mounting operations under the umbrella of the war against terrorism.

      On the nuclear agreement with Iran, Clinton said, “When President Obama took office, Iran was racing toward a nuclear bomb. Some called for military action. But that could have ignited a broader war that could have mired our troops in another Middle Eastern conflict.”

      In fact, Clinton threatened to ethnically cleanse Iran if it were to attack Israel when she ran for president in 2008. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”

    • Sanders to Clinton: Yes, Trump’s Foreign Policy Ideas Are Scary. But So Are Yours

      Bernie Sanders responded to Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy speech on Thursday with a hit at her credentials, including her involvement in the Iraq War and so-called “regime change” in Libya.

      “We need a foreign policy based on building coalitions and making certain that the brave American men and women in our military do not get bogged down in perpetual warfare in the Middle East,” he said in a statement. “That’s what I will fight for as president.”

    • Hillary Comes Out as the War Party Candidate

      Choosing to speak in San Diego, home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, on a platform draped with 19 American flags and preceded by half an hour of military marching music, Hillary Clinton was certain of finding a friendly audience for her celebration of American “strength”, “values” and “exceptionalism”. Cheered on by a military audience, Hillary was already assuming the role to which she most ardently aspires: that of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

  • Transparency/Investigative Reporting

    • President Obama, pardon Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning

      As he wraps up his presidency, it’s time for Barack Obama to seriously consider pardoning whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

      Last week, Manning marked her six-year anniversary of being behind bars. She’s now served more time than anyone who has leaked information to a reporter in history – and still has almost three decades to go on her sentence.

      It should be beyond question at this point that the archive that Manning gave to WikiLeaks – and that was later published in part by the Guardian and New York Times – is one of the richest and most comprehensive databases on world affairs that has ever existed; its contribution to the public record at this point is almost incalculable. To give you an idea: in just the past month, the New York Times has cited Manning’s state department cables in at least five different stories. And that’s almost six years after they first started making headlines.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

    • ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence Shows Path is Clear: It’s Time to Ditch Industrial Agriculture for Good

      If you can count as successes increased greenhouse gases, ecosystem degradation, rises in hunger and obesity, and unbalanced power in food systems, then industrial agriculture has done one heck of a job.

      That’s according to a panel of experts, whose new report, From Uniformity to Diversity: A paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems (pdf), calls for breaking the chains that lock monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots to the dominant farming systems in order to unleash truly sustainable approaches—ones that use holistic strategies, eschew chemical inputs, foster biodiversity, and ensure farmer livelihoods.

    • Nigeria’s Massive Oil Cleanup Could Take Decades And A Billion Dollars

      What’s been described as the most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up plan in history was launched in Nigeria Thursday to restore hundreds of square miles of Delta swamps ravaged by nearly sixty years of oil extraction and spills.

      The move to restore Ogoniland, located in southern Nigeria and home to more than 800,000 people, comes a year and a half after Shell agreed to an $84 million settlement with residents for two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009. By then Nigeria had asked the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to study the area. UNEP released a report in 2011 noting oil impacts on Ogoniland are ongoing, widespread, and severe. In turn, Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, started a $1 billion restoration plan this week to clean up decades of spills by Shell and other companies, including the state-owned company.

    • How Climate Change Will Destroy Our Global Heritage

      Last week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization issued a report called “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate.” It contains twelve case studies and eighteen snapshots of what climate change is expected to do to places that have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. More than a thousand sites around the world have the UNESCO designation, which is awarded on the basis of “outstanding universal value,” or O.U.V., in U.N. bureaucratese; it’s something between a Michelin star and an Olympic medal, both a marketable touristic imprimatur and a reminder of both the aspirations and the limits of internationalism. And so the report, co-produced with the Union of Concerned Scientists, provides an eclectic set of postcards from our cataclysmic future.

    • Highlighting Contrast with Clinton, Sanders Vows Nationwide Ban on Fracking

      On the campaign trail in California, Bernie Sanders hit the White House and his presidential rival Hillary Clinton over their stances on fracking, telling reporters this week that opening up Pacific waters to oil and gas extraction would be “disastrous.”

      Sanders criticized federal regulators for clearing the way for offshore fracking to resume in California, just days after the U.S. Department of the Interior released a pair of studies that found it would have no environmental impact.

      “Make no mistake: this was a very bad decision by the federal government that will not be allowed to stand if I have anything to say about it,” Sanders said during a news conference in Spreckels in Central California. “Offshore fracking has the potential to pollute the ocean with toxic fluid, hurt the environment, and harm our beautiful beaches. That risk to me is unacceptable.”

    • Governor Sends ‘Threatening’ Letter To Environmental Donors

      Gov. Paul LePage (R) stepped up his attacks on the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) in dramatic fashion this week by sending personal letters to the environmental group’s donors.

      “I would request that you carefully review NRCM’s policy positions before donating to them in the future,” the governor wrote, after directing members of his staff to find addresses of donors posted in the environmental organization’s public documents. “It is an activist group that says ‘no’ to every opportunity to allow Mainers to prosper.”

    • McCarthy of the Great Woods: Unhinged Maine Governor Targets Donors of Local Green Group

      Maine’s Gov. Paul LePage directly targeted donors to the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) with harassing letters (pdf) that accused the conservation group of advancing “job-crushing, anti-business policies,” the organization announced at a press conference on Thursday.

      It is unclear how LePage acquired the organization’s list of donors and donors’ contact information.

      “This seems like something Sen. Joseph McCarthy would have done in the 1950s, not a governor of Maine in 2016,” NRCM director Lisa Pohlmann said in a press statement.

    • NRCM Blasts Gov. LePage for Wasting Tax Funds on His Smear Campaigns
    • The Mainstream Media’s Climate Malpractice

      A state of disaster has been declared in 31 flooded Texas counties as rivers in the region are cresting at historic highs.

      Six people have died, up to four more people are missing and hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Houston as the Brazos River reached over 54 feet in Fort Bend County.

      On the East Coast, the National Hurricane Center declared that Tropical Depression Bonnie, which caused significant flash flooding in the US Southeast over Memorial Day weekend, has “revived” off the coast of North Carolina.

    • Trump’s ‘Realty Check’ on Climate

      The presumptive GOP nominee says climate change is a hoax, except when it threatens his luxury golf course.

    • Racism Fueled Outrage Over Cincinnati Gorilla Killing

      But by Tuesday, the gorilla incident was officially the headline of the day, by far eclipsing the viral photo of a 1-year-old infant whose lifeless body had been pulled out of the Mediterranean Sea and the related story about 700 refugees drowning as they fled war and poverty.

      America is outraged—over the killing of a gorilla in a zoo. A gorilla that was, by most accounts, possibly going to kill the unfortunate little boy who fell into its enclosure. So many Americans are so upset by this incident that as of this writing, nearly half a million have signed a change.org petition entitled Justice for Harambe, addressed to Hamilton County’s child protection service, demanding “an investigation of the child’s home environment in the interests of protecting the child and his siblings from further incidents of parental negligence.”

    • Charles Koch’s Disturbing High School Economics Project Teaches ‘Sacrificing Lives for Profits’

      Charles Koch is known for being CEO of industrial giant Koch Industries and a chief financier of the massive conservative political operation he runs with his brother David. In recent years, student activists and investigative journalists have exposed another of Koch’s hats: mega-donor to hundreds of colleges and universities, often funding free-market-focused academic centers housed at public and private schools alike. One Koch-funded program is advocating cutthroat economics to grade school students, even sacrificing lives for profits.

    • Climate poses conflict threat in South Asia

      Senior military experts warn that the nations of South Asia must co-operate on climate change adaptation to avoid major political instability and conflict in the region.

    • Europe’s renewables spending hits 10-year low

      Much of Europe prides itself on its determination to act resolutely on climate change, but in at least one key respect it has failed to back its rhetoric with action. Its investment in renewable energy showed a significant drop in 2015, falling to its lowest level in almost a decade.

      Globally, investment in renewables reached a record $328.9 billion last year, according to a study published by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), an international coalition of governments, renewable energy trade associations, and financial institutions, including the International Energy Agency and the World Bank.

    • Is Clinton An “Environmental Champion”?

      But embracing and promoting “the agenda of big polluters” could be an accurate job description for much of what Clinton did as Secretary of State.

    • Climate Is Poised To Be A Divisive Issue For This Group Of Voters

      This may come as a shock, but not every American is concerned about preventing catastrophic climate change.

      After decades of political messaging about how clean energy would be an economic disaster, many people are skittish about changing the status quo — even if the status quo holds dire consequences for our economy, our health, and our way of life. But as the effects of climate change touch more and more people, some labor groups are making environmental issues a priority.

      “From our perspective, climate change and inequality are the two moral and existential crises of our time,” Pete Sikora, a political and legislative director for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), told ThinkProgress.

    • New York State Assembly Passes ‘Most Ambitious’ Climate Bill in the Nation

      New York’s Assembly passed a bill Wednesday that would require the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from major sources to zero by 2050. But is that good enough?

    • The New York Assembly Just Passed The Nation’s Most Ambitious Climate Bill

      The New York State Assembly has passed the most ambitious climate bill in the country, one that would require the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from major sources to zero by 2050. The bill was passed Wednesday night with support from a broad coalition of organizations, including labor groups, environmental groups, and community leaders.

      The bill seeks to codify into law certain climate goals put forth by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has said in the past that he wants the state to generate half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. In December, Cuomo mandated that the New York Department of Public Service begin establishing a plan to transition to at least 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030. Without making these goals into laws, however, Cuomo’s targets could be reversed by whoever holds the governorship next.

    • Economic Update: Pro-Environment, Anti-Capitalist

      This episode discusses fossil-fuel divestment, the economics of the Zika virus and payday loan scandals. We also interview environmental lawyer and activist Carol Dansereau.

  • Finance

    • Who is voting to leave the EU and why?

      Demographic data tell an interesting story about Britain’s EU referendum.

      Today sees the publication of the IPR’s referendum policy brief, a document that brings together contributions from a number of academics with the purpose of informing readers about the issues at stake in the EU referendum. Many of these issues are not new, but the way they are debated has changed dramatically over time.

      In the 1960s and 1970s, it was the Conservative Party that led Britain into membership of the European Economic Community. Seeking a new anchor for Britain’s geo-political interests after decolonisation and the fiasco of Suez, and despairing of the capacity of Britain’s post-war Keynesian economic settlement to solve its class conflicts, Conservative leaders orientated towards Europe’s successful social market models. The Labour Party went along with this reluctantly: for the most part, it remained Eurosceptic and wedded to the idea that the unitary British state was the vehicle for social progress. But by holding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the common market in 1975, it was able to paper over its internal divisions.

    • Consumer Protection Agency Unveils New “Payday” Lending Rules
    • Grassroots Group Responds to CFPB Payday Lending Rule, Pledges to Continue Fight to Protect Families from Predatory Lenders
    • New Payday-Loan Rules Won’t Stop Predatory Lenders

      A borrower taking out a $500 loan could still pay over 300 percent in annual interest, despite new rules designed to crack down on predatory small-dollar lending out Thursday from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

      The proposed consumer protections for payday loans, auto title loans, and high-cost installment loans focus on making the lenders document borrowers’ incomes and expenses to confirm that they have the ability to make their payments and still maintain basic living expenses. Payday lenders currently do minimal financial checks before issuing loans.

    • Warren’s CFPB Cracks Down on Predatory Lenders—But Will It Be Enough?

      Newly proposed rules aimed at reining in predatory payday lending are “a good first step,” economic justice groups said on Thursday, but “worrisome loopholes” must be closed in order to fully protect low-income Americans from financial devastation wrought by the high-interest, low-dollar loans.

      The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled the new rules on Thursday, at a hearing in Kansas City, Missouri—a state, Politico notes, “where storefront lenders outnumber McDonald’s and Starbucks franchises.”

    • Washington’s Trash Is Not Minorities’ Treasure

      “Don’t be afraid to call it environmental racism.”

    • Jeremy Corbyn: I Would Kill TTIP

      Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn took aim at the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Thursday, saying he would kill the controversial U.S. and EU trade deal should he become prime minister.

      His comments came during a speech in London campaigning to remain in the EU just three weeks ahead of the Brexit referendum, which Corbyn has framed as an “era-defining moment” for workers’ rights.

      “Many thousands of people have written to me, with their concerns about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or TTIP) the deal being negotiated, largely in secret, between the U.S. and the EU,” he said in his speech in London.

    • Labour comes out against TTIP—Global Justice Now comment
    • Closing in on EU Financial Tax Victory

      The international campaign for taxes on financial speculation is on the brink of a major European milestone that could further boost momentum in the United States.

    • Money Merry-Go-Round: Emails Show How Wall Street Execs and Alums Crafted Trade Bill

      Foreign corporations could sue to undermine US protections for consumers’ health, safety and financial security under a provision added to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP) after executives of big banks pressed the nation’s chief trade negotiator, himself a former big-bank executive, to include it.

      A series of emails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and released last week by Rootstrikers, an organization that opposes the trade deal now pending before Congress, confirm the push by financial service companies for the “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” provision. ISDS, as it is referred to by the cognoscenti writing the emails, would, in the words of one critic, Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach, “elevate individual investors to the status of a nation-state” in trade disputes.

    • To Pay for Subsidies to Massive Corporations, States Are Waging War on Poor Families

      To witness the consequences of a political system captured by and utterly subservient to the interests of organized wealth, take a quick look at the state of Oklahoma.

      There we see the embodiment of the economic trends that have, over the past several decades, harmed working families and lifted the wealthiest: While providing a windfall of cash to special interests, particularly big oil, the state is cutting education and slashing funds allocated for the earned income tax credit, widely recognized as one of the more effective anti-poverty programs.

      As the state cuts benefits for the poor, “Oklahoma’s tax breaks for the oil and gas companies — among the most generous in the nation — gave the industry $470 million in tax relief last year,” a recent New York Times editorial observes.

      “It’s despicable to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable population” while refusing to push any of the burden onto the wealthiest, lamented State Representative Emily Virgin.

    • Colluding in Lies: the Brexit Debate

      Times in Britain are viciously partisan. No one wants to see their dog left out of this particular fight. The result is a vicious mauling being handed out by all sides on whether the leavers or stayers have the upper hand.

      The Institute for Fiscal Studies, one of Britain’s more prominent tax think tanks, went in against the Vote Leave campaign, suggesting that the austerity regime would be prolonged by a departure from the EU. That would be the only way to plug consequential multi-billion pound holes in the budget arising from lower foreign investment and poorer trade returns.

      The IFS also took issue with various figures being used by the Leave campaign, most notably the suggestion that Brussels receives £350 million every week from the sceptred isle. That particular figure has become the holy marker for former London mayor Boris Johnson. According to the body, that assessment conveniently ignored the role of the rebate and a range of other subsidies for business and research. Taken together, the amount ending in EU coffers was more likely £150 million.

    • These 7 States Still Operate Debtors’ Prisons

      They’re supposed to be illegal, but across the United States, debtor’s prisons are alive and well.

      The ACLU, among many other organizations, is hard at work trying to abolish the practice, which amounts to imprisoning people for unpaid debt, like court fees.

      In multiple states, including those with extremely high prison populations, this practice is still routine. Debtors’ prisons unfairly target low-income populations, particularly communities of color, thanks to racial profiling.

      Here’s how it works: When people make contact with the criminal justice system, they may face an array of court fees, but these fines are imposed regardless of ability to pay.

    • Despite Economic Growth, Middle-Income Americans Have Less Than They Did 40 Years Ago

      Over the past 40 years, the US economy has boomed. But what does that mean for the “American dream”? While the top 1% has had enormous gains, average US households aren’t any better off today. In fact, they’re falling further behind.

    • Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada: an oligarchs’ club or a real parliament?

      A year ago, Ukraine’s president promised to break the oligarchs’ stronghold on power. While this is yet to happen, a new generation of deputies is changing the political atmosphere.

    • Letting ‘Wall Street’ Walk

      Legal double standards are the norm in the U.S. – no jail for law-flouting Wall Street bankers but mass incarceration for average citizens, especially minorities, who get caught up in the prison-industrial-complex, as Michael Brenner describes.

    • Job Growth Plunges in May

      The Labor Department reported that the economy created just 38,000 new jobs in May, the weakest job growth since September of 2010, when it lost 52,000 jobs. In addition, the jobs numbers for the prior two months were revised down by 59,000, bringing the average for the last three months to just 116,000.

      The household survey showed a drop of 0.3 percentage points in the unemployment rate, but this is not especially good news. The decline was almost entirely due to people leaving the labor force. The employment-to-population ratio [EPOP] was unchanged at 59.7 percent, 0.2 percentage points below the the peak for the recovery. In addition, the number of people involuntarily working part-time jumped by 468,000.

    • What If Trade Agreements Helped People, Not Corporations

      Current trade agreements have been of, by, and for transnational corporations. Growing opposition gives us the opportunity to change that in our next-generation agreements.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • EU referendum: Boris Johnson is like Donald Trump ‘with a thesaurus’, claims Nick Clegg

      Boris Johnson is like Donald Trump “with a thesaurus”, Nick Clegg will claim, “ignoring the facts” and saying “whatever he wants” in an attempt to pull Britain out of the European Union.

      In his first major speech of the campaign the former Liberal Democrat leader will claim that Mr Johnson is using the referendum campaign to burnish his chances of becoming Tory leader with scant regard for the economic impact on ordinary people of a ‘leave’ vote.

    • The ‘Major Problem,’ According to Bernie Sanders: ‘An Establishment…Led by Corporate Media’
    • Press Can’t Get Enough of Trump Dumping on Them

      “He’s Not Gonna Take it,” CNN blared on its homepage yesterday, above a large close-up photo of Donald Trump. Beneath the picture, CNN placed a headline with a link to the article, “When Donald Trump hits back, he hits back hard.”

      CNN, in essence, was pumping up the indomitable image that Donald Trump wants the media to portray of him. He and his campaign flacks consistently account for any of Trump’s reprehensible and coarse portrayals of individuals and groups by asserting that he is a “counterpuncher.” How that excuses racism, misogyny, bigoted pronouncements and childish name-calling is what the mass corporate media should be examining in their own reporting.

      However, such reporting is the exception rather than the rule. This was exemplified in the coverage of Donald Trump’s Tuesday news conference, in which he lacerated the press for questioning the sincerity of his commitment to raising money for veterans’ charities—including a personal million-dollar contribution he pledged in January.

    • Why Bernie Must (and Can) Win

      On Tuesday June 7, voters in California, New Jersey, and four other states can sway the Democratic nomination toward Bernie Sanders – the candidate who all polls show gives Democrats the greatest chance of defeating Donald Trump.

      Ignoring this factual reality, mainstream media and pundits, even California’s own Gov. Jerry Brown and Senator Dianne Feinstein, have decided for voters that the Democratic race is over – mirroring a Clinton inevitability narrative launched the day the campaign began. Party and Clinton campaign officials (close relatives to say the least) are simultaneously irate and nervous as heck that Sen. Sanders keeps winning, and has the audacity to run to the end. But if the goal is getting a Democrat in the White House, they ought to reconsider.

    • Clinton’s Vice President: A Match Made on Wall Street

      Earlier this week, Bernie Sanders warned that Hillary Clinton’s eventual vice presidential pick must not be someone from the milieu of Wall Street and Corporate America. And while Sanders is still fighting to win the Democratic Party nomination in what many have argued is a rigged system with a foregone conclusion, it appears that Sanders is also intent on influencing the course of the Clinton campaign and the party itself.

      In a thinly veiled demand that Clinton embrace the core principles of the Sanders campaign in order to secure the support of Sanders’s political base, the insurgent Democratic candidate hoped aloud “that the vice-presidential candidate will not be from Wall Street, will be somebody who has a history of standing up and fighting for working families, taking on the drug companies…taking on Wall Street, taking on corporate America, and fighting for a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”

    • Bernie, The Donald, and the Sins of Liberalism

      The Sanders campaign had made its stand against the liberalism of the Clinton elite. It has resonated so deeply because the candidate, with all his grandfatherly charisma and integrity, repeatedly insists that Americans should look beneath the surface of a liberal capitalism that is economically and ethically bankrupt and running a political confidence game, even as it condescends to “the forgotten man.”

    • Cheating Donald

      There are exceptions – two of the leading ones being Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post Fact Checker who has handed Trump a record 28 Four-Pinocchio awards and David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who has written, “Twenty One Questions for Donald Trump.”

    • Why New Jersey Needs Bernie Sanders

      Our country has fallen into a tailspin of poverty and inequality. In my home state of New Jersey our poverty rate is the highest it’s been in 50 years. Since 1980, only New York and Connecticut have outpaced the growth of New Jersey’s income inequality. Almost one-third of New Jerseyans are struggling to afford basic necessities. Like many Americans they juggle which bills to pay and which to skip: rent, utilities, food, medication. More than one million people in our state don’t have enough food.

      Finding affordable housing is the Achilles heel for many New Jersey residents in a state that has the sixth-highest housing costs in the nation. A New Jersey minimum wage worker would have to work 18 hours a day to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The average renter in Cumberland County earns about $10.50 an hour in an area where a fair market two-bedroom rents for $1129 a month; this means that an average renter who is working full-time is putting more than half their income towards rent.

    • Norman Solomon vs. Tom Hayden on Sanders vs. Clinton

      I mean, we started out by talking about RootsAction’s critical support for Bernie Sanders last summer, because he was talking about Martin Luther King Jr. but never mentioning the need to challenge what King called “the madness of militarism.” And so it goes to: we need to get rid of this idea that because you support a candidate, or were responsible for helping a candidate come into office, then you’ve got to lie about that person and lie about the positions or distort or soft-peddle or euphemize what they’re doing. So I think that is a challenge that we have going forward.

    • ‘This Campaign Is Not Over’: Polls Show Dead Heat in California

      Democratic presidential contenders Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are locked in a dead heat in California among registered Democrats, two new polls show.

      Sanders even beats Clinton by one point when potential Democratic primary voters are surveyed.

      California’s June 7 primary is semi-open, meaning Californians registered as Democrats or “No Party Preference” are able to vote in the Democratic primary. In previous primaries, Sanders has proved “far, far more popular with independents” than Clinton, as Kevin Gosztola recently noted.

    • Paul Ryan at Last Says Donald Trump Has His Support

      House Speaker Paul Ryan apparently felt he had drawn out his highly public waiting game long enough, surprising precisely no one with his announcement on Thursday that he was throwing his support behind presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

    • Paul Ryan Endorses Trump Hours After Hosting An Anti-Islamophobia Meeting

      On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) hosted a meeting with the nation’s oldest interfaith peace organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who pleaded with him to publicly stand up to the Islamophobia in his party and promote tolerance of refugees. A few hours later, he announced he’d be voting for the person who has been the loudest voice stoking fear of Muslims and refugees: Donald Trump.

    • Wasserman Schultz’s Challenger, Tim Canova, is Even More “Pro-Israel” Than She Is

      Congressional candidate Tim Canova, a professor of law and public finance, is widely depicted as being a progressive challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Wasserman Schultz, of course, chairs the Democratic National Committee and has rightly come in for lots of criticism on a host of issues.

      Canova was recently endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Sanders, at the New York debate with Hillary Clinton in April had showed some minimal concern for rights of Palestinians, rare in U.S. politics, saying that Israel’s attack on Gaza was “disproportionate.”

      Recently however, on MSNBC, Canova criticized Wasserman Schultz for being unreliable on a host of issues, then added: “even support for Israel, people don’t know where she stands.”

    • Feeling Seen, Feeling Heard: Bernie At the Local Taco Joint

      In California – where Clinton once led Sanders by over 40 points – the two candidates are now statistically, improbably tied, with news outlets reporting ever-shifting slim leads. Bernie’s encounters in what he calls “the big enchilada” have run the by-now fondly familiar gamut, from impassioned crowds of up to 60,000 in Oakland – where an exceedingly chill Bernie barely reacted to rowdy animal-rights protesters before blithely going on his raspy-voiced, finger-pointing way – to a glad chance meet-up at a local taco joint in Fresno. After coming upon “the Bern himself,” one fervent fan reports, “I can 100% attest to the fact that Bernie is a man of his words.” Overall, the odds are still against Sanders, for all the wrong reasons. But let us not forget: Oh what a galvanizing, heart-stirring ride – and, hopefully, legacy.

    • Rick Perry Has The Creepiest Response To Hillary Clinton’s Speech

      “Donald Trump will peel her skin off in a debate setting,” Perry said. “Donald Trump will peel her skin off in a debate setting and actually he’ll peel it off this evening [during a campaign event] out in San Jose as well.”

    • Bill Kristol’s Candidate, David French, is Even Further to the Right Than Trump

      David French’s rebuttal to my claim was that only one abortion provider had been murdered, so Christian terrorism wasn’t that bad. He then went on to praise the police for their hard work.

    • Bernie Sanders Urges “Revolutionaries” to Join Him as California Democratic Primary Vote Nears

      Bernie Sanders and his California supporters not only expect to win big in next Tuesday’s primary, but say Democrats will not pick their nominee until July’s national convention.

      “It’s a floor fight in Philly,” said Galen Swain, a semi-retired engineer standing at street corner Santa Cruz on Tuesday hoisting a “Honk for Bernie” sign near a big hall where Sanders was to speak. “I’m absolutely certain we will close the gap on her [in Tuesday's primary]… This is a gut check for Democrats. Do they want to run a candidate who has the FBI for a running mate?”

      The feistiness of Swain’s comments were commonplace at Sanders’ rally in this mid-California coastal city with a large state university. While Swain’s swipe at Hillary Clinton was referring to her use of a personal server for e-mails while Secretary of State — which has led to an ongoing FBI investigation — his larger point was about the Democratic Party’s superdelegates, the office-holders and allies who account for 15 percent of the national convention delegates.

    • Mainstream Media Bias Is Nothing New, but What Can We Do About It?

      Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer discusses mainstream media bias in the 2016 presidential coverage.

    • The Frustrated Public: Views of the 2016 Campaign, the Parties, and the Electoral Process

      Seventy percent of Americans say they feel frustrated about this year’s presidential election, including roughly equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans, according to a recent national poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. More than half feel helpless and a similar percent are angry.

      Nine in 10 Americans lack confidence in the country’s political system, and among a normally polarized electorate, there are few partisan differences in the public’s lack of faith in the political parties, the nominating process, and the branches of government.

      Americans do not see either the Republicans or the Democrats as particularly receptive to new ideas or the views of the rank-and-file membership. However, the candidacy of Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination is more likely to be viewed as good for his party than Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican Party.

    • It’s You, Isn’t It Hillary?

      She is now struggling to just stay above water, hoping to limp to the nomination based on some funny delegate math and a few earlier victories in the South. If she is the nominee, she’ll be the least popular and least trusted nominee from her party in its history, with a negative campaign based nearly 100% on hoping people dislike Trump just a bit more than they dislike her.

    • Americans Go Through ‘Rapid Cycles of Extreme Cynicism and Idealism,’ NPR Interviews Find

      In a valuable example of human interest journalism, NPR host Robert Siegel spoke with a diverse group of Americans assembled from three generations—25-, 45- and 65-year-olds—about how their experience of national events shaped their political views.

      Among them are a 25-year-old who joined the military during the economic recession, a 45-year-old who became a U.S. citizen under President Reagan’s immigration reform, and a 65-year-old who was one of the first black female firefighters in New York City.

      The media’s influence on politics emerged as a consistent theme across the groups. This included “the reporting of Walter Cronkite, coverage of the Bill Clinton impeachment and O.J. Simpson trials, which often blurred the line between tabloid sensationalism and news, [and] the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle,” NPR reported.

    • Bernie Sanders and the Fundamental Crisis of U.S. Democracy

      There is no chance for sensible laws ending the genocide without first reducing the NRA’s influence on elections. None. Clinton and her supporters say only a “realistic” approach involving negotiations with right wing lunatics like Mc Connell will work. Really? Oh, we might get a ban on the civilian use of bazookas or tanks or some such meaningless measure with that approach. Remember, after Sandy Hook, over 90% of the public favored background checks but Congress wouldn’t even pass that.

      The only way we solve the national slaughter-for-profit policy of the NRA and the gun manufacturers is to get their money out of campaigns, their lobbyists out of our legislatures and their political ads off of our airwaves and out of our media. Period.

      [...]

      It gets worse. Today, the US has troops in over 150 nations; it has over 70 bases overseas; and its defense budget exceeds half a trillion dollars. There is no clear articulation of how—or whether—any of this makes us safer, and a great deal of evidence suggesting it makes us less safe.

    • Is the Media Recalculating How It Covers Trump?

      After months of no follow ups and an estimated $2 billion in free coverage, the Times reports TV news execs may finally be ready to ask Donald Trump some tough questions.

    • Bipartisan Closets

      The two leading candidates have nothing to hide, not that it’s any of your business.

    • David Cameron Says Trump Cancelled His Call For Muslim Ban
    • Is the Contemptible Trump In Contempt of Court?

      Then, within minutes after the rabid crowd had been chanting “build that wall,” Trump said that Curiel “happens to be, we believe, Mexican.” This comment was clearly meant to further inflame Trump’s fans and suggest that the judge was not an American, was biased against him, or both.

    • Trump University: A Scam, But a Familiar One

      Four hundred pages of documents released on Tuesday by a federal judge in San Diego add detail to the tawdry story of Donald Trump’s unaccredited Trump University. The operation appears to have relied on high-pressure recruiting pitches, buoyed by deceptive claims, and it had an extensive playbook focused not on teaching students the art of the real estate deal but instead on teaching company recruiters how to separate enrollees from more and more of their money.

      The playbook directed Trump University recruiters to push students into paying higher prices for escalating levels of involvement, with the most expensive “Gold Elite” package, priced at $34,995, the ultimate target: “If they can afford the gold elite don’t allow them to think about doing anything besides the gold elite.”

      Trump University told its recruiters to play on shame, exploit aspirations, and overcome customer objections, by telling prospective students: “do you like living paycheck to paycheck? … Do you enjoy seeing everyone else but yourself in their dream houses and driving their dreams cars with huge checking accounts? Those people saw an opportunity, and didn’t make excuses, like what you’re doing now.”

    • Clinton’s Speech: A Lost Opportunity

      Clinton’s overall approach is grounded in that central tenet of Washington conventional wisdom that, as she put it in the speech, “America is an exceptional country,” that “we lead with purpose, and we prevail,” and that “if America doesn’t lead, we leave a vacuum – and that will either cause chaos, or other countries will rush in to fill the void.”

    • Anti-Intellectualism, Terrorism, and Elections in Contemporary Education: a Discussion with Noam Chomsky

      Washington DC based History Teacher Dan Falcone and New York City English Teacher Saul Isaacson sat down with Professor Noam Chomsky to discuss current issues in education and American domestic and foreign policy issues. They also discussed the place of the humanities in education and how it relates to activism, definitions of terrorism, and how education impacts the perceptions of the political process in the US.

  • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Liberal Faux-Outrage on Freedom of Speech

      One cannot but be awestruck by the hypocrisy of intellectuals who pretend to adhere to points of principle–for transparently partisan ends.

      A recent manifestation of the distinguished tradition of elite hypocrisy is Nicholas Kristof’s two-columns-long exhortation to liberals and leftists (whom he characteristically conflates) that they be more tolerant of conservatives. Thus he joins a growing army of fellow intellectual luminaries–including Jonathan Chait, Catherine Rampell, Edward Luce, Damon Linker, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, and many others (Jerry Seinfeld, Donald Trump, etc.)–who bemoan the rise of an intolerant political correctness on social media and university campuses.

    • Censorship and Freedom of Expression
    • Did Facebook Censor the Trump San Jose Rally?

      The Trump San Jose rally on June 2 was overcome with violence as protesters threw eggs and bottles at supporters, destroyed barricades in the nearby parking garage, and tore up the American flag. But something else strange was happening at the same time. Facebook users reported that they couldn’t search for the rally on Facebook.

    • 8-9 July: The power of hip hop

      Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop has made its mark. Today, graffiti artists, MCs, breakdancers and DJs across the world are still using the medium to empower themselves, from women in Columbia and political movements in Burkina Faso, to aiding the fight for free speech in Zimbabwe and challenging religious stereotypes in the UK.

      Index on Censorship has teamed up with In Place of War to create two unique full-day events that provide an opportunity to listen to, learn from and collaborate with 14 world-changing hip hop artists from eight different countries.

    • European Commission’s Hate Speech Deal With Companies Will Chill Speech

      A new agreement between the European Commission and four major U.S. companies—Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft—went into effect yesterday. The agreement will require companies to “review the majority of valid notifications for removal of hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content,” as well as “educate and raise awareness” with their users about the companies’ guidelines.

      The deal was made under the Commission’s “EU Internet Forum,” launched last year as a means to counter what EDRi calls “vaguely-defined ‘terrorist activity and hate speech online.’” While some members of civil society were able to participate in discussions, they were excluded from the negotiations that led to the agreement, says EDRi.

    • Techdirt Reading List: Free Speech: Ten Principles For A Connected World

      Obviously a recurring theme here on Techdirt is the issue of free speech, and I’m frequently interested in discussions on the topic. Just a few weeks ago, for example, we wrote about the book No Law: Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment. So I was intrigued this week when I ran across a thoughtful review of a new book by Timothy Garton Ash, entitled Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World. And when I saw the book mentioned again almost immediately, I figured I ought to pick up a copy.

      I haven’t read it yet, but based on what I’ve skimmed and the various reviews I’ve read (including a good one in the NY Times), it definitely seems like a worthwhile read. It pushes back on some of the current trend of people (and, all too frequently, students) trying to silence speech they don’t want to hear in various places, while noting the awkwardness of how folks for whom freedom of speech was seen as so important in past decades are turning around and seeking to block people they disagree with from speaking now. Free speech has never really been a “partisan” kind of thing, and it seems to go in waves over who is really in favor of it and who’s willing to give it up over speech they dislike.

    • Twitter unblocks spoof Putin account after widespread criticism
    • Guess who’s back? Putin parody account back on Twitter after suspension
    • Putin, Lavrov parody accounts unfrozen after sudden Twitter suspension
    • Twitter Restores Parody Account of Russian President Vladimir Putin
    • Twitter suspends popular anti-Putin parody accounts
    • Putin Parody Censorship Irks Twitter Fans, Jokes Quickly Reinstated
    • Google Removes Anti-Semitic Chrome Extension

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The BBC is failing the public in its coverage of government surveillance

      In 1952, Conservative MP Waldron Smithers sent Prime Minister Winston Churchill a list of potentially “subversive” BBC employees. Among them was Anatol Goldberg, head of the BBC Russian service: a “Jew… who controls the selection of programmes and is a communist.” Encouraging Churchill to create a “committee presided over by an English judge or QC… who could make an extensive enquiry into communist activities”, the MP added: “we have traitors in our midst… and although I should deplore suppression of free speech they should be treated as traitors.” Churchill passed Smithers’ concerns on to MI5, whose staff concluded: “In the considered view of the Security Service, communist influence in the BBC is very slight and does not constitute a serious security danger.”

    • Is privacy dead? Not even MPs are safe from spies

      Not even MPs are safe from the security service’s snooping anymore.

      While the emails and browsing history of ordinary folk like you and I have been fair game for intelligence agencies like GCHQ for a while, it was thought that MPs were safe from spies due to a quirk of law.

    • Snowden leak: GCHQ & America’s NSA regularly intercept British MPs emails

      American spies and the UK’s listening post GCHQ regularly intercept the emails of British MPs and peers, including privileged correspondence between parliamentarians and their constituents.

      The US National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly has access to intercepted emails sent and received by all MPs and peers through Parliament’s Microsoft computer system, Office 365.

      Intelligence agency GCHQ on the other hand, allegedly accesses the data when it leaves UK’s borders on its way to Microsoft’s data centers in Dublin and the Netherlands.

      The revelations have been made public through an investigation by Computer Weekly, based on leaked documents by the now-exiled former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

    • Read the NSA’s Exceedingly Weird Guide to the Internet
    • Former NSA and CIA director recommends managing consequences instead of vulnerabilities

      Michael Hayden believes managing vulnerabilities is untenable and consequence management using the Risk Equation is preferable. Read about the equation’s components.

    • The Government Is Building A Database To Predict Who Will Be The Next Edward Snowden

      While police departments flock to use technology that predicts crime, the U.S. military is building a database that goes a step further — predicting who is most likely to reveal state secrets.

      The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is developing a data system that collects information on government employees and contractors with security clearances in hopes of being able to pinpoint those with the potential to become whistleblowers, Defense One reported.

    • Tattoo Recognition Research Threatens Free Speech and Privacy

      Tattoos are inked on our skin, but they often hold much deeper meaning. They may reveal who we are, our passions, ideologies, religious beliefs, and even our social relationships.

      That’s exactly why law enforcement wants to crack the symbolism of our tattoos using automated computer algorithms, an effort that threatens our civil liberties.

      Right now, government scientists are working with the FBI to develop tattoo recognition technology that police can use to learn as much as possible about people through their tattoos. But an EFF investigation has found that these experiments exploit inmates, with little regard for the research’s implications for privacy, free expression, religious freedom, and the right to associate. And so far, researchers have avoided ethical oversight while doing it.

    • 5 Ways Law Enforcement Will Use Tattoo Recognition Technology

      There’s an action movie cliché in which a cop inspects the body of a felled assassin or foot soldier and discovers a curious tattoo that ultimately leads to a rogue black-ops squadron, a secret religious sect, or an underground drug trafficking ring.

      The trope isn’t entirely Hollywood fantasy, but the reality of emerging tattoo recognition technology is closer to a dystopian tech thriller. Soon, we may see police departments using algorithms to scrape tattoos from surveillance video or cops in the field using mobile apps to analyze tattoos during stops. Depending on the tattoo, such technology could be used to instantly reveal personal information, such as your religious beliefs or political affiliations.

    • FBI Kept Demanding Email Records Despite DOJ Saying It Needed a Warrant

      The secret government requests for customer information Yahoo made public Wednesday reveal that the FBI is still demanding email records from companies without a warrant, despite being told by Justice Department lawyers in 2008 that it doesn’t have the lawful authority to do so.

      That comes as a particular surprise given that FBI Director James Comey has said that one of his top legislative priorities this year is to get the right to acquire precisely such records with those warrantless secret requests, called national security letters, or NSLs. “We need it very much,” Comey told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, during a congressional hearing in February.

      At issue is whether the national security letters empower the FBI to demand what are called “electronic communication transactions records,” or ECTRs. Such records can include email header information – not their content – and browsing histories.

      In 2008, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the FBI was only entitled to get the name, address, length of service, and toll billing records from companies without a warrant. Opinions issued by the OLC are generally treated as binding and final within the executive branch.

  • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Stranger assaults Amos Yee in shopping centre

      The suspect is seen grabbing Yee from behind as the latter struggles to escape from the bear-hug and repeatedly shouts for help.

    • Video: Singaporean blogger activist Amos Yee attacked in mall as passersby look on

      Singaporean activist Amos Yee was attacked at the Jurong Point mall in Singapore on Monday. A man physically manhandled Yee as passersby appeared to look on.

      Yee approached a man and asked if he had taken a picture of him, according to a video he shot himself. The man then gave chase as Yee repeatedly called out for help.

    • Police report made against alleged assault involving Amos Yee

      A police report has been filed by a member of public against an alleged assault that involved the teenager, Amos Yee during the last weekend. The incident was documented on video and had been reported online.

      29-year-old, Brendan Chong shared that he decided to make a police report on Wednesday as the authorities have not commented on the case till date.

      He hopes that the case is promptly investigated because, not only for Yee’s own personal safety, but for the safety and well-being of the general public as the incident happened in a crowded shopping centre.

    • EFF Joins Coalition Opposing Dangerous CFAA Bill

      EFF and over a dozen other organizations are urging U.S. lawmakers to oppose a dangerous bill proposed by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham that would make the already-flawed Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) worse. The joint letter sent Wednesday explains that the legislation fails to address any of the CFAA’s problems while simply creating more confusion. Although the proposal is ostensibly directed at stopping botnets, it includes various provisions that go far beyond protecting against such attacks.

      The senators proposed an almost identical bill last year. And just like last year, they may try to sneak their proposal through as an amendment to the Email Privacy Act. Last year, the tried this tactic with the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, but they ultimately failed due to widespread opposition.

    • “Guantánamo Diary” Detainee Makes the Case for His Release

      In a hearing this morning, advocates for Mohamedou Ould Slahi made the case that the high-profile U.S. detainee should be released from Guantánamo, where he has been held for 14 years without being charged with a crime.

      If freed, Slahi plans to return to life with his family and pursue a career as a writer, following on the success of his bestselling memoir, Guantánamo Diary, which tells of Slahi’s imprisonment and torture by the United States and its counterterrorism allies. Held secretly in Jordan and Afghanistan before being brought to Guantánamo, Slahi recounts in his book beatings, sexual abuse, sleep deprivation, and a catalogue of other horrors, along with the close relationships he developed with various guards.

      Slahi was not allowed to speak during the open portion of today’s hearing. Instead, statements were made on his behalf by his attorney and by military representatives. Slahi, a slender, clean-shaven 45-year-old Mauritanian, sat quietly behind a sign identifying him as “detainee,” dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and glasses, his arms folded on the table. A live video feed of the proceeding was shown at the Pentagon and watched by reporters, lawyers, and other members of the public.

    • Islamophobia: Why Are So Many, So Frightened

      Islamophobia has become a significant factor driving politics in many western countries.

      Islamophobia – fear of Muslims – is now highly visible among European populations concerned about terrorist responses from Islamic groups claiming Jihadi links. However, it is also evident among those same populations in relation to the refugee flow from the Middle East. In addition, Islamophobia is highly evident among sectors of the US population during the presidential race. It is a significant issue in Australia. Outside the West, even the (Muslim) Rohingya in Burma are feared by Buddhist monks and others.

      Given that this widespread western fear of Muslims was not the case prior to the US-instigated ‘War on Terror’, do Muslims around the world now pose a greater threat to western interests than previously? Or is something else going on here?

    • These Four People Were Sued for $30 Million for Trying to Stop a Toxic Landfill

      After being sued for $30 million by a corporate landfill owner for “speaking their truth in order to protect their community,” four residents of Uniontown, Alabama—a poor, predominantly Black town with a median per capita income of around $8,000—are fighting back.

      On Thursday, the ACLU asked a federal court to dismiss the defamation lawsuit against Esther Calhoun, Benjamin Eaton, Ellis B. Long, and Mary B. Schaeffer—all members of the community group Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice.

    • Alabama Mom’s Charges Are Dropped, But Only After an Arduous Battle

      Sixteen months after her arrest, Katie Darovitz — one of at least 500 women prosecuted under Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation chemical endangerment law — has had her case dismissed.

      Darovitz’s story, first chronicled by ProPublica last year, was especially wrenching: She has severe epilepsy, and doctors told her that the medications she was using to treat her condition carry a risk of miscarriage and birth defects.

      When she got pregnant in 2014, she discovered marijuana could control her seizures and had not been associated with birth defects. But when she gave birth, hospital staffers turned over her positive marijuana screen to a social worker who turned it over to law enforcement officials. Two police officers showed up at the house Darovitz shared with her common-law husband and their two-week-old son, handcuffed her, and hauled her off to jail. Though her son, Will, was in good health, Darovitz was charged with a Class C felony — punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    • Environmental Protesters Fight Defamation Lawsuit Filed by Coal Ash Landfill
    • In This Poor, Black, Polluted Alabama Town, Speaking Up Gets You Sued

      Would you agree with that sentence? Would you say it yourself? It seems uncontroversial — something kids might be taught in school. Something any of us might say without blinking an eye. Unless, that is, you happened to say it in Uniontown, Alabama — an overwhelmingly Black and poor rural town in the heart of the South’s Black Belt. In Uniontown, it turns out that having the audacity to fight for your fundamental human rights — for instance, by saying the exact sentence above — can get you sued for $30 million in federal court by companies seeking to silence their critics.

    • Trump’s Immigration Raids: How Would They Work?

      As nearly as I can determine, nobody has drawn a plan for Donald Trump’ s promise to deport the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. But some of its requirements are obvious, at least to residents of Dallas like me.

      Hispanics, about 50 million of whom live in the United States, are the most suspect population. Interning all of them, as the U.S. did with the Japanese population during World War II, is impossible because that would confine a sixth of the people who live within the nation’s borders. The only means by which undocumented immigrants can be deported is to catch them before they reach cities like Dallas—which lies 400 miles from the border– and to sort through the whole of the Hispanic population already residing here.

    • Black Lives Matter Activist Convicted of “Felony Lynching”: “It’s More Than Ironic, It’s Disgusting”

      In Pasadena, California, Black Lives Matter organizer Jasmine Richards is facing four years in state prison after she was convicted of a rarely used statute in California law originally known as “felony lynching.” Under California’s penal code, “felony lynching” was defined as attempting to take a person out of police custody. Jasmine was arrested and charged with felony lynching last September, after police accused her of trying to de-arrest someone during a peace march at La Pintoresca Park in Pasadena on August 29, 2015. The arrest and jailing of a young black female activist on charges of felony lynching sparked a firestorm of controversy. Historically, the crime of lynching refers to when a white lynch mob takes a black person out of the custody of the police for the purpose of extrajudicially hanging them. In fact, the law’s name was so controversial that less than two months before Jasmine was arrested, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation removing the word “lynching” from the penal code. We speak with Richards’ lawyer, Nana Gyamfi, and Black Lives Matter organizer Melina Abdullah. “Her conviction is not only about punishing Jasmine Richards, but also is the lynching,” Abdullah says. “So it’s really disgusting and ironic that she’s charged and convicted with felony lynching, when the real lynching that’s carried out is done in the same way it was carried out in the late 19th, early 20th century, where it’s supposed to punish those who dare to rise up against a system.”

    • Jules Boykoff on Rio Games

      A coup and a corruption scandal that have government in disarray, an economic crisis, and an outbreak of a dangerous mosquito-borne virus have not a few people asking how Brazil can possibly host a successful and safe Olympic Games in just…one month from now? Our guest has a different take, suggesting that Brazil’s unrest might actually be a kind of boon to Olympic officials—in that it serves to distract from the myriad problems associated with hosting the Games even when they go “smoothly.”

    • A Very Brazilian Coup

      Brazil’s elites can’t win an election, but they can engineer an impeachment.

    • Credibility of Brazil’s Interim President Collapses: Receives 8-Year Ban on Running

      But the oozing corruption of Temer’s ministers has sometimes served to obscure his own. He, too, is implicated in several corruption investigations. And now, he has been formally convicted of violating election laws and, as punishment, is banned from running for any political office for 8 years. Yesterday, a regional election court in São Paulo, where he’s from, issued a formal decree finding him guilty and declaring him “ineligible” to run for any political office as a result of now having a “dirty record” in elections. Temer was was found guilty of spending his own funds on his campaign in excess of what the law permits.

      In the scope of the scheming, corruption and illegality from this “interim” government, Temer’s law-breaking is not the most severe offense. But it potently symbolizes the anti-democratic scam that Brazilian elites have attempted to perpetrate. In the name of corruption, they have removed the country’s democratically elected leader and replaced her with someone who – though not legally barred from being installed – is now barred for 8 years from running for the office he wants to occupy.

    • Temer Convicted of Breaking Election Laws As Thousands March for Democracy in Brazil

      Upheaval in Brazil continued this week as a court handed down a conviction against right-wing president Michel Temer, who took over after the ouster of leftist president Dilma Rousseff, and banned him from running in elections for the next eight years.

      A regional elections court in Temer’s hometown of São Paulo on Thursday “issued a formal decree finding him guilty and declaring him ‘ineligible’ to run for any political office as a result of now having a ‘dirty record’ in elections,” Glenn Greenwald reported in The Intercept.

      The decision came less than three weeks after Temer oversaw what has widely been described as a “coup” to overthrow Rouseff, the recently re-elected Workers’ Party president.

    • Police Brutality Has Surged In Brazil. It’s About To Get Even Worse.

      Back in April, human rights organization Amnesty International reported that the number of people killed by police Rio de Janeiro jumped 54 percent between 2013 and 2015. In preparation for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the country ramped up its law enforcement by stationing police and members of the military in the country’s slums, or favelas, under the guise of protecting the poorest communities. But violence in the favelas actually surged with the presence of more officers — as did the number of people killed by them.

      This year alone, police in Rio have killed 100 people, most of whom identified as black. As the city gears up for the Olympics in August, and the country scrambles to fix a crumbling political system, Amnesty International projects that the brutality will get much worse.

      According to a new report from the international organization, 65,000 police officers and 20,000 soldiers have been tapped for security during the upcoming sporting event in Rio. Once again, many of them will be stationed in favelas, where the vast majority of the country’s black population lives. And there’s no telling how long they’ll stay.

    • I Had to Leave the U.S. to Stop Pretending to Be an Extrovert

      America values the bold and gregarious, but when I moved to Switzerland, I found my people—no fake smiles required.

    • Whistleblowers and the protection of sources

      At the time of Edward Snowden’s revelations of extensive surveillance by the NSA and its international partners, like the French DGSE, a law protecting whistleblowers needs to be more than ever at the center of political and legal thinking. A lot remains to be done to ensure the public’s right to information without which there is no true democracy.

      The whistleblower status must benefit anyone that reports, discloses or condemns past, present or future acts that violate citizens’ rights or conflict with the common interest. With regard to surveillance, this status must include an exemption for state agents and contractors from the silence imposed by their employer. This would protect persons whose actions, such as those of Snowden and numerous other anonymous sources, enable an essential public debate on the drifts of security policies and resorts to the reason of state as a justification for intelligence-led policies.

    • The U.S. Is the Only Country That Routinely Sentences Children to Life in Prison Without Parole

      It was a late summer morning when Robert “Fat Daddy” Taylor woke up, smoked two blunts, and decided to turn himself in. He’d been on the run for four days, and it seemed that everywhere he went in and around the 7 Mile neighborhood on the east side of Detroit, there were photos of him in stores, and people quick to call the police, to claim the $1,000 reward for finding him.

    • What the War on Reproductive Rights Has to do With Poverty and Race

      When Justice Harry A. Blackmun authored the decision legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, he wrote that “[t]he right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.” Although this was a win for those seeking to both legalize abortion and prevent harm inflicted on people seeking illegal and unsafe abortions, it also opened the door to restrictions on abortion.

    • UCLA Engineering Student Killed His Professor For Stealing Programming Code: Report

      A recent murder-suicide shooting at UCLA campus resulted in the death of a student and his professor. As the recent findings suggest, the PhD scholar accused his professor of code theft and had his name written on a “kill list”. His wife’s name, who is now dead, was also on the list.

    • FBI Internal Report Says FBI’s 2007 Impersonation Of An AP Journalist Not Exactly By The Book

      US law enforcement agencies engage in some pretty shifty behavior while pursuing criminals. The DEA and ATF love pushing randos into planning fake raids on fake drug houses containing zero weapons, cash, or drugs. (Better yet, made-up quantities of theoretical contraband are used to determine sentence length during prosecution!)

      There’s more than a coin flip’s chance that a teen in chatroom is actually a law enforcement officer between the age of 25 and 50 — and quite possibly operating extra-jurisdictionally as one of Florida sheriff Grady Judd’s child porn warriors.

      Speaking of child porn, the FBI is not above seizing kiddie porn sites and letting them run as honeypots. And that’s when it’s not doing worse things — like shoving a mixture of the mentally challenged and the easily-persuaded towards terrorism… or impersonating journalists to serve up malware to investigation targets.

      The FBI pretended to be the Associated Press in order to send malware to a 15-year-old bomb threat suspect. The payload was delivered via a “draft” version of an “article” by an “AP writer,” sent to the suspect for his “review.” The FBI defended its unorthodox investigative technique by saying it was something it “rarely” did and that it only did so in the interest of public safety.

    • White Youths Yelling Racial Slurs Chase Black Teenager To His Death

      “They were calling us n—-rs,” Smith said of the chase. “I just heard a lot of racial slurs. They were mixed — some white, some of them were Hispanic. But nobody was black.” At least one of the assailants had a gun.

    • Blacklash: Missouri State Legislature Responds to Ferguson Uprising

      Your lives don’t matter. This was the implicit anthem of conservative lawmakers in the Missouri state house throughout this year’s legislative session. Through attempts to limit Black women’s ability to decide how, if and when to conceive; by advancing the same dangerous policy that claimed the lives of Trayvon Martin and Renisha McBride; and by attacking the vote and the voice of Black Missourians, legislators pioneered an agenda aimed to codify a status quo of racial hierarchy — white property and political power reigning supreme.

    • The limits of white compassion: Imagine if Black lives mattered as much as one gorilla’s

      Harambe’s death is a tragedy—as are the deaths of Black people killed by police. They deserve your outrage, too.

    • Peru 2016: Democracy under authoritarian charge?

      But as the passing of time shows, the country did not carry out the necessary debate about what it meant to build an inclusive, demanding and open society. Doing this properly would have involved laying the foundations of basic democratic procedures so that just and fair competition in elections was possible. It meant, also, facing the fundamental challenge of strengthening the rule of law. On the contrary, given the weakness of inherited constitutional legality and systematic abuse, institutional passivity and arbitrariness of public/private powers persisted openly. What’s more, the country was governed under a constitution in place since fujimorismo, bringing about manoeuvrings both socio-political– the instrumentalisation of democracy to entrench authoritarian ends in the long-term– and economic– neoliberalism, with a vocation contrary to all social agenda, without its premises and implications being called into question.

      [...]

      However, there is something that, during the second round of the presidential elections of 2016, can be assumed realistically: it is that we must try to slow or stop a project that threatens to subvert the democratic institutions that required so much to recover (as precarious as they may be). It is about reversing the trend towards a freedom-destroying and obscurantist scenario – like that that is today creeping towards us – and opening one where democratic conversation is based on a terrain that is pluralist, open and promising.

    • What’s the ‘Goodest’ Country? Hint: It’s Not the US

      A ‘good country,’ according to the index, is one ‘that contributes to the greater good of humanity.’

    • First Director Inside Violent Juvenile Detention Facility Exposes Horrific Ways America Punishes Adolescents

      Juveniles can be tried as adults in criminal court in all states.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Dissecting the Defend Trade Secrets Act [Ed: Anti-whistleblowers law “hailed by IP practitioners as a long-overdue reform.”]

      The new law provides a civil cause of action in federal courts for companies claiming that their trade secrets have been misappropriated. This has been hailed by IP practitioners as a long-overdue reform.

    • Trademarks

      • Chanel tops US trade mark damages list since 2009 – report [Ed: Perfume conglomerates make a lot of money from brands and litigation, not sales]

        A Lex Machina report on trade mark litigation reveals the entities receiving the most damages, the most common plaintiffs and defendants, and the busiest districts

        Lex Machina has released its second annual comprehensive report on trade mark litigation over the past seven years. The report sheds light on some of the biggest decisions and judgments, as well as breaking down larger trends in trade mark litigation.

      • The Avengers, Diana Rigg and Marvel Comics: When confusion is not confusion [Ed: Trademark on single English dictionary words]]

        Why is confusion sometimes tolerated? Case in point— “The Avengers”. What comes to mind, it seems, depends upon your generation.

      • The Perversion Of Trademarks: Jose Mourinho Can’t Coach Man-U Yet Because Former Club Trademarked His Name

        Usually when we talk about professional or college sports participants running into trademark issues, it has to do with the nicknames they have taken on and either attempted to trademark for themselves, or prohibit others from using. But the case of soccer coach Jose Mourinho is different in that respect: at issue is his own, natural name. And, to truly see how trademark has been perverted from its original purpose, one can simply watch Mourinho, who was supposed to take the helm of Manchester United, have his hiring delayed because another team he formerly coached holds the trademark for his name.

    • Copyrights

      • NYT Calls for Stronger Copyright Protection Without Calculating the Costs

        All New York Times readers know that protectionism is stupid and self-defeating. It hurts everyone involved. So where were all the economic experts to give the usual lines on protectionism in response to efforts to change the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

        The Times reported on these efforts without ever once mentioning the economic costs that would be implied by making listeners pay more money for music and the cost that intermediaries like YouTube would have to incur to comply with stronger copyright protection. The failure to mention these costs is remarkable, given how much space the Times and other media outlets have devoted to denouncing proposals from Donald Trump to impose higher tariffs and plans by Bernie Sanders to chart a different course for trade policy.

        Economics works the same, regardless of whether the item in question is a car, a ton of steel or a song. Barriers that raise the price impose costs on consumers and the economy. The biggest difference is that in proportionate terms, the barriers involved with copyright protection are likely to be far larger than any trade barriers that Trump or anyone else might impose on imported manufactured goods. While the latter are unlikely to exceed 50 percent of the sale price, and would almost certainly be far less, copyright protection can make music that would otherwise be available for free very costly.

        To get an idea of how costly such protections can be, New Zealand’s government estimated that increasing the length of copyright protection from 50 to 75 years, as required by the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would cost it 0.24 percent of annual GDP, the equivalent of $4.3 billion in the US economy in 2016. It would have been helpful to include some estimates of the costs associated with the stronger protections being discussed in this piece.

How the EPO Helped Prop Up — With ‘European Inventor Award 2015′ — a Fraud That Killed a Lot of People

Posted in Europe, Fraud at 4:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

What next on the agenda? Fake polio vaccination CIA style?

Theranos
Reference: Wikipedia

Summary: “Theranos may have put as many as 890,000 lives per year in jeopardy with its fake technology,” to quote one source, but the EPO’s Inventor of the Year propped up this dangerous scam or, in the words of another, this is “how you get to be worth $9 billion on a “technology” that was nothing but fraud.”

THERE is not much sense of employment pride among examiners (i.e. scientists) working for Battistelli. The EPO is so full of abuses at so many levels (usually behind a cloak of secrecy as there’s no true transparency) that it has become an abundant gold mine for disappointing if not outrageous news where people are routinely incentivised to cheat and defraud, including last year's 'Inventor of the Year' award finalist Elizabeth Holmes.

Elizabeth Holmes, as we noted here before, turns out to have allegedly run a dangerous scam and for the EPO to affiliate with her proved to be an expensive political exercise (costing several millions of euros and corrupting the media in the process, just as Holmes had done).

Below are some quotes summarising the story and recent events concerning last year’s ‘Inventor of the Year’ star Elizabeth Holmes. These have been circulating among EPO staff (the first article is from Wednesday), so they help demonstrate just how negatively EPO staff views this ‘Inventor of the Year’ charade:

From $4.5 billion to $0: Forbes revalues Elizabeth Holmes’ worth

“Theranos founder: From billionaire to ‘nothing’“
[ http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/01/technology/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-forbes/index.html ]

From Billion Dollar Baby [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2783675/Meet-college-dropout-self-billionaire-fear-needles-inspired-invent-new-way-test-blood.html ]

To nothing [ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-18/elizabeth-holmes-admits-theranos-technolgy-fraud-restates-voids-years-test-results ]

“Elizabeth Holmes Admits Theranos’ “Technology” Is A Fraud: Restates, Voids Years Of Test Results”

“In the process of commiting fraud and building up her valuation, Holmes repeatedly gambled with people’s lives, sending them clearly wrong results. As a result some patients have received erroneous results that might have thrown off health decisions made with their doctors, the WSJ reports. All this is needed is one death and there is a criminal case.”

BACKGROUND

http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-blood-holmes/

This story is from the June 30, 2014 issue of Fortune:

“Elizabeth Holmes founded her revolutionary blood diagnostics company, Theranos, when she was 19. It’s now worth more than $9 billion, and poised to change health care.”

“In the fall of 2003, Elizabeth Holmes, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford, plopped herself down in the office of her chemical engineering professor, Channing Robertson, and said, “Let’s start a company.”“

““When I finally connected with what Elizabeth fundamentally is,” he [Channing Robertson] says, “I realized that I could have just as well been looking into the eyes of a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates.””

“The company has performed as many as 70 different tests from a single draw of 25 to 50 microliters collected in a tiny vial the size of an electric fuse, which Holmes has dubbed a “nanotainer.” Such a volley of tests with conventional techniques would require numerous tubes of blood, each containing 3,000- to 5,000-microliter samples.”

“Precisely how Theranos accomplishes all these amazing feats is a trade secret. Holmes will only say–and this is more than she has ever said before–that her company uses “the same fundamental chemical methods” as existing labs do. Its advances relate to “optimizing the chemistry” and “leveraging software” to permit those conventional methods to work with tiny sample volumes.”

““The first time I heard about this, I thought it was snake oil and mirrors [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil],” says David Helfet, the chief of orthopedic trauma at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. But after reviewing voluminous validation studies supplied to him by the company, he has become a believer and is urging his hospital to consider adoption.”

““It takes at least 10 times–and maybe 100 times–less space for doing the same thing,” says Laret of UCSF Medical Center.”

“What do incumbent players in the blood-diagnostic space think about all of this? The most frequent criticism is that Theranos is using purportedly breakthrough technology to perform tests that are relied on for life-and-death decisions without having first published any validation studies in peer-review journals. “I don’t know what they’re measuring, how they’re measuring it, and why they think they’re measuring it,” says Richard Bender, an oncologist who is also a medical affairs consultant for Quest Diagnostics, the largest independent diagnostic lab.

Holmes counters that because, as noted, her tests employ “the same fundamental chemical methods” as existing tests, peer-review publication of validation studies is both unnecessary and inappropriate.”

“Theranos, which does not buy any analyzers from third parties, is therefore in a unique position. While it would need FDA approval to sell its own analyzers to other labs, it doesn’t do that. It uses its analyzers only in its own CMS-certified lab. All its tests are therefore LDTs, effectively exempt from FDA oversight.”

“Beyond the validation disputes, skeptics also question Theranos’s business model.”

“Critics are likewise puzzled by the cosmic vastness of Holmes’s end-to-end business model. If Theranos is making breakthrough analyzers, they wonder, why doesn’t it just sell them to existing labs?”

“Early investors included venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson (which has funded Tesla and SpaceX), ATA Ventures, Silicon Valley legend Don Lucas Sr. (Oracle, National Semiconductor, Macromedia), and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.”

“Today Holmes is a co-inventor on 82 U.S. and 189 foreign patent applications, of which 18 in the U.S. and 66 abroad have been granted.”

Patents on a scam granted.

Long story short, Holmes begrudgingly admits she ran a fraudulent operation and a lot of people died because of her, whereas Battistelli and his goons groomed her. Nice publicity stunt right there, owing to the unscientific and extravagant leadership of Team Battistelli (Battistelli and his buddies/confidants who lack scientific education/background/experience). Maybe Holmes and Željko Topić will have a topic for discussion if both end up behind bars (there are ongoing criminal cases). █

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