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Ars Technica – Democrat teams up with movie industry to propose website-blocking law

Jan 292025
 

US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) today proposed a law that would let copyright owners obtain court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to foreign piracy websites. The bill would also force DNS providers to block sites.
Lofgren said in a press release that she “work[ed] for over a year with the tech, film, and television industries” on “a proposal that has a remedy for copyright infringers located overseas that does not disrupt the free Internet except for the infringers.” Lofgren said she plans to work with Republican leaders to enact the bill.
Lofgren’s press release includes a quote from Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). As we’ve previously written, the MPA…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/movie-industry-loves-bill-that-would-force-isps-to-block-piracy-websites/

 2025-01-29  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Democrat teams up with movie industry to propose website-blocking law

Ars Technica – Trump admin rescinds controversial funding freeze after two days of protest

Jan 292025
 

The Trump administration today withdrew a controversial order to freeze funding for a wide range of government programs, according to multiple news reports. Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Matthew Vaeth reportedly wrote in today’s memo, “OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel.”
A federal judge yesterday temporarily blocked the funding freeze with an administrative stay that lasts until February 3 and scheduled a hearing for February 3 to decide whether to block the freeze for longer. States were already having trouble accessing Medicaid after the Monday order, and the future of many other programs has been in doubt.
A $42.45 billion…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/trump-admin-rescinds-controversial-funding-freeze-after-two-days-of-protest/

 2025-01-29  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Trump admin rescinds controversial funding freeze after two days of protest

Phoronix – X.Org / FreeDesktop.org Encounters New Cloud Crisis: Needs New Infrastructure Very Soon

Jan 292025
 

About five years ago X.Org / FreeDesktop.org was experiencing a cloud hosting crisis with their cloud costs running out of control after losing free credits for Google Cloud and the continuous integration (CI) testing driving up expenses. They ended up switching public cloud providers over to Equinix. Equinix ended up sponsoring the X.Org Foundation / FreeDesktop.org with their cloud/hosting needs but now on short notice that is coming to an end…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/2025-XOrg-FreeDesktop-Cloud

 2025-01-29  Comments Off on Phoronix – X.Org / FreeDesktop.org Encounters New Cloud Crisis: Needs New Infrastructure Very Soon

Ballot Access News – Kansas Bill to Ban Ranked Choice Voting

Jan 282025
 

The Kansas Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs has introduced SB 6, which would ban ranked choice voting in the state.  No jurisdiction in Kansas currently uses ranked choice voting.  Here is the text. … Continue reading →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2025/01/28/kansas-bill-to-ban-ranked-choice-voting/

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LWN.net – [$] FOSDEM keynote causes concerns

Jan 282025
 

This year’s edition of the Free and Open
Source Software Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) begins on
February 1 in Brussels. The event is widely regarded as one of
the most important open-source conferences. One of the reasons that
FOSDEM is held in high esteem by the community is its non-commercial
nature. It does accept sponsors, but
sponsorships come with few perks and no “pay-for-play” speaking
slots. Thus, the scheduling of a keynote by Jack
Dorsey⁠—⁠primarily known for his role in co-founding Twitter, and
currently CEO and chairman of FOSDEM sponsor Block, Inc.⁠—⁠raised eyebrows and led to plans for a protest. The
keynote has since been removed from the schedule, but there are still
a number of lingering questions.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://lwn.net/Articles/1006351/

 2025-01-28  Comments Off on LWN.net – [$] FOSDEM keynote causes concerns

Biometric Update – Expect shift in US border strategy to pay dividends for biometrics, surveillance tech providers

Jan 282025
 

The expansion of technological tools in immigration enforcement represents a dramatic shift in how the United States government approaches border security and the management of undocumented populations. Agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have amassed an arsenal of cutting-edge technologies that include real-time tracking devices, data analytics systems, and biometric tools. These advancements have not only reshaped the operational landscape of immigration enforcement, but they have also raised significant concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and the ethical implications of mass surveillance. This arsenal is unprecedented in scope. A detailed review by the New York Times of nearly 15,000 federal contracts revealed that since 2020, the federal government…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202501/expect-shift-in-us-border-strategy-to-pay-dividends-for-biometrics-surveillance-tech-providers

 2025-01-28  Comments Off on Biometric Update – Expect shift in US border strategy to pay dividends for biometrics, surveillance tech providers

INDY Week – Weigh In On RDU Airport Authority’s Plans to Develop Lake Crabtree County Park This Wednesday

Jan 272025
 

For three decades, hundreds of thousands of hikers, bikers, dog walkers, and other outdoor enthusiasts have enjoyed the hilly, densely wooded, nine-mile network of trails at Lake Crabtree County Park that sits on 330 acres between Interstate 40 and Lake Crabtree, in Morrisville. Local governments, including Wake County, formed partnerships and poured millions of dollars over the years into building the artificial lake and the park, as well as its trails, picnic shelters, roads, trailhead facility, and municipal greenways that link to it. Local recreational leagues hold races and mountain biking and trail running events. Youth sports and college groups use the trails to train. The planned-for Triangle Bikeway will run right alongside the park.“It’s decades of public…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://indyweek.com/news/weigh-in-on-rdu-airport-authoritys-plans-to-develop-lake-crabtree-county-park-this-wednesday/

 2025-01-27  Comments Off on INDY Week – Weigh In On RDU Airport Authority’s Plans to Develop Lake Crabtree County Park This Wednesday

Articles and Investigations – ProPublica – They Followed North Carolina Election Rules When They Cast Their Ballots. Now Their Votes Could Be Tossed Anyway.

Jan 272025
 

by Doug Bock Clark ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. A Republican judge has spent more than two months trying to overturn his narrow defeat for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat by arguing that around 60,000 ballots should be tossed out. But many residents have only recently learned that their votes are in danger of not being counted and say they have done nothing wrong. ProPublica has heard from dozens of voters who expressed astonishment and anger at state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s ongoing attempts to cancel…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-voters-jefferson-griffin-supreme-court-challenge

 2025-01-27  Comments Off on Articles and Investigations – ProPublica – They Followed North Carolina Election Rules When They Cast Their Ballots. Now Their Votes Could Be Tossed Anyway.

Ballot Access News – New York State Senator James Skoufis Gives Up His Campaign to be Democratic National Committee Chair

Jan 212025
 

On January 16, New York State Senator James Skoufis gave up on trying to be elected Chair of the Democratic National Committee. See this story. He had said on December 27, 2024, that he wanted to dismantle the Green Party. … Continue reading →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2025/01/21/new-york-state-senator-james-skoufis-gives-up-his-campaign-to-be-democratic-national-committee-chair/

 2025-01-21  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – New York State Senator James Skoufis Gives Up His Campaign to be Democratic National Committee Chair

The Onion – Alarming Study Finds Only 1 In 4 Americans Can Get A Motherfuckin’ ‘Hell Yeah’

Jan 212025
 

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Revealing a precipitous decline in the nation’s access to a once-plentiful resource, an alarming study published Tuesday by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that only one in four Americans can get a motherfuckin’ “hell yeah.” “It’s no secret that peer enthusiasm is harder to come by than it was in previous decades, but even then, we were shocked to find a full 75% of Americans could only get a half-hearted ‘nice’ for situations that would have had people raising the motherfuckin’ roof just a decade ago,” said the study’s lead author, Professor Jessica Landers, adding that weak-ass responses like “okay” and “whatever” had exploded in frequency while “hell yeah” equivalents such as…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theonion.com/alarming-study-finds-only-1-in-4-americans-can-get-a-motherfuckin-hell-yeah/

 2025-01-21  Comments Off on The Onion – Alarming Study Finds Only 1 In 4 Americans Can Get A Motherfuckin’ ‘Hell Yeah’

Internet Archive Blogs – WEDNESDAY: Celebrate Public Domain Day 2025 at the Internet Archive

Jan 212025
 

Lights, camera, action! It’s time to roll out the red carpet and celebrate Public Domain Day, Oscar-style! On Wednesday, we’re honoring all the legendary works that have entered the public domain in 2025. And what better way to do it than with a glamorous, Hollywood-inspired twist? Public Domain Day Celebration at the Internet Archive 6pm – 10pm Internet Archive, 300 Funston Avenue, San Francisco $15 – REGISTER NOW. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. This year, we’re honoring 1929 — the year of the very first Academy Awards, held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. So put on your finest attire and get ready for an Oscar Award winning evening. Sip on a classic French 75 or an Old-Fashioned as we savor the final moments of the Roaring…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2025/01/21/wednesday-celebrate-public-domain-day-2025-at-the-internet-archive/

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Ars Technica – Sleeping pills stop the brain’s system for cleaning out waste

Jan 212025
 

Our bodies rely on their lymphatic system to drain excessive fluids and remove waste from tissues, feeding those back into the blood stream. It’s a complex yet efficient cleaning mechanism that works in every organ except the brain. “When cells are active, they produce waste metabolites, and this also happens in the brain. Since there are no lymphatic vessels in the brain, the question was what was it that cleaned the brain,” Natalie Hauglund, a neuroscientist at Oxford University who led a recent study on the brain-clearing mechanism, told Ars.
Earlier studies done mostly on mice discovered that the brain had a system that flushed its tissues with cerebrospinal fluid, which carried away waste products in a…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/how-sleeping-pills-interfere-with-the-brains-internal-cleaning-mechanism/

 2025-01-21  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Sleeping pills stop the brain’s system for cleaning out waste

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Biden issues last-minute pardons for family and January 6 Committee members, commutes sentence of Leonard Peltier

Jan 212025
 

That Biden felt it necessary to pre-emptively pardon his family members and political allies belies Democrat claims that “democracy” has been affirmed by the peaceful transfer of power to Trump.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/01/21/fite-j21.html

 2025-01-21  Comments Off on World Socialist Web Site (en) – Biden issues last-minute pardons for family and January 6 Committee members, commutes sentence of Leonard Peltier

Deeplinks – Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms

Jan 162025
 

Police have shown, time and time again, that they cannot be trusted with face recognition technology (FRT). It is too dangerous, invasive, and in the hands of law enforcement, a perpetual liability. EFF has long argued that face recognition, whether it is fully accurate or not, is too dangerous for police use,  and such use ought to be banned.
Now, The Washington Post has proved one more reason for this ban: police claim to use FRT just as an investigatory lead, but in practice officers routinely ignore protocol and immediately arrest the most likely match spit out by the computer without first doing their own investigation.
Cities across the United States have decided to join the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/police-use-face-recognition-continues-wrack-real-world-harms

 2025-01-16  Comments Off on Deeplinks – Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms

The Intercept – SCOTUS Won’t Hear the Real Reason Porn Age-Verification Laws Are Spreading

Jan 152025
 

When the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a Texas law requiring porn websites to verify visitors’ ages on Wednesday, the justices will likely ignore some crucial context about such laws, which have been passed by more than a dozen states since 2022: In the words of one of their chief proponents, these age-verification laws are a “back door” to a full ban on explicit material, “starting with the kids.” Even taking legislators’ stated aim of protecting minors from “harmful” material at face value, there is little dispute most of these laws are unconstitutional, as free speech advocates have argued successfully to lower courts around the country. “This case is not close,” wrote a federal…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2025/01/15/supreme-court-porn-age-verification/

 2025-01-15  Comments Off on The Intercept – SCOTUS Won’t Hear the Real Reason Porn Age-Verification Laws Are Spreading

Techdirt. – 41 Percent of Americans Live Under Age Verification Laws Targeting Porn

Dec 302024
 

Age verification laws saw an unfathomable renaissance in 2024. It’s quite frightening to see a political class of predominately far-right Christian nationalists implement the anti-porn vision of Project 2025 without President-elect Donald Trump yet entering the White House.
These laws coming out of state legislatures are scripted like how Russell Vought, a controversial architect of Project 2025 and one of Trump’s closest Christian nationalist allies, described in a viral undercover video revealing how age verification laws serve as a “back door” ban on porn. 
As of this writing, nearly 139 million U.S. residents live in states with age verification laws on the books that specifically target adult entertainment platforms like Pornhub.com or xHamster.com.
That is slightly over 41 percent of the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/41-percent-of-americans-live-under-age-verification-laws-targeting-porn/

 2024-12-30  Comments Off on Techdirt. – 41 Percent of Americans Live Under Age Verification Laws Targeting Porn

Biometric Update – ROC deploys Vision AI tech for smart city initiative in West Virginia

Dec 302024
 

Colorado’s ROC has announced a new public security deployment in Marion County, West Virginia, marking the launch of its Smart Cities offering to support law enforcement and first responders. A release says the firm is leveraging its Vision AI product, smart sensors and other edge devices to enable real-time security monitoring that will “enhance public safety, provide critical situational awareness and actionable intelligence, and improve emergency response times” in Marion County. ROC’s multimodal vehicle recognition, facial recognition, gun detection and other real-time data analysis capabilities will be integrated into existing security infrastructure, including license plate readers and bodycams. Applications include road safety enforcement, accident detection, parking and toll road monitoring, as well as crime prevention…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202412/roc-deploys-vision-ai-tech-for-smart-city-initiative-in-west-virginia

 2024-12-30  Comments Off on Biometric Update – ROC deploys Vision AI tech for smart city initiative in West Virginia

Techdirt. – Copyright Industry Wants To Apply Automated Blocking To The Internet’s Core Routers

Dec 282024
 

A central theme of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) and this blog is that the copyright industry is never satisfied. Now matter how long the term of copyright, publishers and recording companies want more. No matter how harsh the punishments for infringement, the copyright intermediaries want them to be even more severe.
Another manifestation of this insatiability is seen in the ever-widening use of Internet site blocking. What began as a highly-targeted one-off in the UK, when a court ordered the Newzbin2 site to be blocked, has become a favored method of the copyright industry for cutting off access to thousands of sites around the world, including many blocked by mistake. Even more worryingly, the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/27/copyright-industry-wants-to-apply-automated-blocking-to-the-internets-core-routers/

 2024-12-28  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Copyright Industry Wants To Apply Automated Blocking To The Internet’s Core Routers
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