Abu Akleh, a widely respected journalist who was also a US citizen, was one of Al Jazeera’s first on the spot reporters, having worked for the network since 1997.
External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/05/11/ncfp-m11.html
I was unaware that the Unicode Consortium is the standards body with authority over Astrology and the Zodiac.Objects orbiting the Sun outside the orbit of Neptune are named after mythological figures, particularly those associated with creation. But the subset that orbit in a two-to-three resonance with Neptune — the so-called “plutinos”, such as Pluto and Orcus — are named after figures associated with the underworld. In this case, the five TNOs, ordered by distance from the sun, are named:Orcus: the Etruscan and Roman god of the underworld. Haumea: the Hawaiian goddess of fertility; the telescope used to discover this object is located on Hawaiʻi. Quaoar: an important mythological figure of the Tongva, the indigenous…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2022/05/scenes-from-ianas-growing-magician-problem/
Biden’s charge of “genocide” in Ukraine is a political provocation consciously aimed at whipping up a public hysteria to legitimize a massive escalation of the war, including the full-scale, open participation by the United States.
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/15/pers-a15.html
On April 6, the California Assembly Elections Committee heard AB 2808, the bill to prohibit charter cities and counties from using ranked choice voting. In California, committees vote on bills immediately after the testimony. There was a great deal of testimony against the bill. Afterwards, no member of the committee moved that the bill pass, which wasn’t surprising, because all but one member of the committee criticized the bill. Technically the bill isn’t defeated (because no vote was taken) but it seems obvious the bill is dead.
External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/04/06/california-bill-to-ban-ranked-choice-voting-appears-defeated/
Copyright filters are having a bit of a moment in Washington D.C. The Copyright Office is moving ahead with a process to determine what, if anything, constitutes a standard technical measure (STM) that platforms would have to accommodate. And, if that proves too onerous, Congress has Big Content’s back with the Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act.
This filter mandate bill would task the Copyright Office with designating technical measures (DTMs instead of STMs) that internet services must use to address copyright infringement. Both the Copyright Office proceeding and this bill have the potential to result in the same thing: more copyright filters.
For those who make and share things online, be it through scripted and…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/latest-threat-independent-online-creators-filter-mandate-bill
Enlarge / A vial of COMIRNATY (Pfizer/BioNTech) and a vial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. (credit: Getty | Marcos del Mazo)
The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have proven highly effective at priming our immune systems to fight the pandemic coronavirus—preventing substantial amounts of infection, severe disease, and death throughout several waves of variants. But, despite their similar design and efficacy, the two vaccines are not exactly the same—and our immune systems don’t respond to them in the same way.
An early hint of this was some real-world data that found startling differences in the effectiveness of the two vaccines, despite both shots performing nearly identically in Phase III clinical trials—95 percent…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1844672
Radosław Miernik has a post that’s another paean to RSS. He explains what RSS is, how it works, and its advantages to the reader. It’s mostly used to track blog entries but its application is actually broader. Basically any site that posts periodic content can offer an RSS feed to alert their readers when there’s something new.
Miernik uses the free version of Feedly, which, he says, works well for him because he doesn’t need to search the entries or interface his reader to other applications. For Emacs users who do want those capabilities, the very best choice I know of is Elfeed. You can manage, read, classify, and search your feeds directly from Emacs. As I’ve…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://irreal.org/blog/?p=10426
On March 29, the Maine legislature passed LD 859, which lets towns use ranked choice voting for their own elections. The vote in the Senate was 18-13. In the House, it was 69-63. Thanks to Fairvote for this news. … Continue reading →
Philadelphia’s historic and abandoned “Boner Forever” building is on its way to becoming a Marriott Hotel. The 14-story N. Broad Street building is an icon in the city thanks to the work of artists “Boner” and “Forever” who emblazoned two sides of the tower with their graffiti names in 2008. — Read the rest
The Ukrainian hardcore band Beton recently released “Kyiv Calling,” a reworked version of the Clash classic “London Calling” as a call to resist the Russian invasion, apparently with the blessing of the former living Clash members. However, one wonders if the approval was granted before or after reading the lyrics.
Left-wing musician Billy Bragg initially signaled his support for the remake on his Facebook page. Did he also ignore the lyrics? Then Bragg was made aware of their fascist links. A photo from Beton’s Facebook page made the social media rounds showing the band members wearing Ramones-style shirts, with “Ramones” replaced by “Banderas,” the name ‘Stepan’ visible on one of them.
“This is deeply troubling. Stepan Bandera was…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://dissidentvoice.org/2022/03/kyiv-calling/
William and Kate’s visit to Jamaica was designed to strengthen the British monarchy’s links to the Caribbean. Instead, it’s drawn significant attention to Britain’s colonial crimes and reinvigorated Jamaicans’ campaigning to make the country a republic.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge shake hands with children during a visit to Trench Town, the birthplace of reggae music, on day four of the Platinum Jubilee Royal Tour of the Caribbean on March 22, 2022 in Kingston, Jamaica. (Chris Jackson-Pool / Getty Images) The second leg of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s much-anticipated Royal Caribbean Tour got off to a turbulent start the moment that the government’s £75…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/03/uk-royals-jamaica-william-kate-imperialism-reparations/
Taking into account domestic and caring responsibilities, women work more hours per week than men on average — and their pensions are still far smaller than men’s. That’s not a fair deal. A four-day workweek can help get us on the track to equality.
A four-day workweek would be especially beneficial for women, who work more hours per week (paid and unpaid) than men on average and have smaller retirement savings to show for it. (Conscious Design / Unsplash) Later this year, over thirty UK companies will take part in a six-month trial of a four-day workweek with no loss of pay. They will be following the 100-80-100 model, where workers…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/03/four-day-workweek-trial-gender-pension-gap/
A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees, and the war risks becoming “an Afghanistan-like quagmire,” warns Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, founder of the Progressive International with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He says the West’s sweeping sanctions on Russia and bottomless military aid to Ukraine risk escalating the conflict and foreclosing chances of a peaceful resolution. “What is exactly the aim? Is it regime change in Russia?” asks Varoufakis. “Well, whenever the United States tried regime change, it didn’t turn out very well and has never been tried with a nuclear power. This is like playing with fire.”
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/25/yanis_varoufakis_biden_give_putin_exit
Putting children under surveillance and limiting their access to information doesn’t make them safer—in fact, research suggests just the opposite. Unfortunately those tactics are the ones endorsed by the Kids Online Safety Act of 2022 (KOSA), introduced by Sens. Blumenthal and Blackburn. The bill deserves credit for attempting to improve online data privacy for young people, and for attempting to update 1998’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). But its plan to require surveillance and censorship of anyone under sixteen would greatly endanger the rights, and safety, of young people online.
KOSA would require the following:A new legal duty for platforms to prevent certain harms: KOSA outlines a wide collection of content that platforms can be sued…
This op-ed is partly based on research by Igor Studenkov.
Early this month Streetsblog Chicago reported on the new fee structure at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, which charges a $9.95 to $29.95 admission fee for people visiting on foot, transit, or bike – which was previously free – while simultaneously lowering the total cost of a visit for many people visiting by car by reducing the parking fee. “This decision runs counter to organization’s commitment to protecting the environment and its past advocacy for reducing carbon emissions,” Active Transportation Alliance spokesperson KyleWhitehead noted.
New entrance fees for the Indiana Dunes National Park, which also has a stated goal of fighting climate change, are similarly problematic because often make…
It’s pretty much understood that filming police is protected by the First Amendment. Even in jurisdictions where the highest courts have yet to hand down a definitive decision, police departments have made it clear to officers that filming cops isn’t a crime. This has followed years of jurisprudence and laws being repealed/rewritten to reflect this position — something that has, years after it became necessary, prevented police from abusing wiretapping laws to arrest people for “nonconsensual” recordings of officers performing their public duties in public.
The Supreme Court has yet to issue a bright line ruling on an issue that has been the subject of tons of litigation since the advent of smartphones. Despite this, it’s been…
MGLRU is a kernel innovation we’ve been eager to see merged in 2022 and it looks like that could happen for the next cycle, v5.19, for improving Linux system performance especially in cases of approaching memory pressure…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MGLRU-Not-For-5.18
The smallest “tactical nuclear weapons” today are about the same power
as the Hiroshima bomb, which killed about 150,000 people soon and more
later.
External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2022-jan-apr.html#24_March_2022_(Tactical_nuclear_weapons)
The California Assembly Elections Committee will hear AB 2808 on Wednesday, April 6, at 9 a.m. That is the bill to ban charter cities and charter counties from using ranked choice voting. … Continue reading →
