Ars Technica – Pfizer, Moderna vaccines aren’t the same; study finds antibody differences

Mar 302022
 

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

 2022-03-30  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Pfizer, Moderna vaccines aren’t the same; study finds antibody differences

Planet Emacsen – Irreal: Another Paean to RSS

Mar 302022
 

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

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Ballot Access News – Maine Legislature Passes Bill Letting Towns Use Ranked Choice Voting for their Own Elections

Mar 302022
 

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 →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/03/30/maine-legislature-passes-bill-letting-towns-use-ranked-choice-voting-for-their-own-elections/

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Boing Boing – Philadelphia’s historic “Boner Forever” building under restoration, iconic graffiti may be erased

Mar 302022
 

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

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2022/03/30/philadelphias-historic-boner-forever-building-under-restoration-iconic-graffiti-may-be-erased.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=philadelphias-historic-boner-forever-building-under-restoration-iconic-graffiti-may-be-erased

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Dissident Voice – Kyiv Calling

Mar 272022
 

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/

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Jacobin – The British Royals’ Trip to Jamaica Has Backfired

Mar 272022
 

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/

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Jacobin – A Four-Day Workweek Will Benefit Everyone, But Especially Women

Mar 272022
 

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/

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Democracy Now! – Yanis Varoufakis: The West Is “Playing with Fire” If It Pushes Regime Change in Nuclear-Armed Russia

Mar 272022
 

Seg1 nato fam photo

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

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Deeplinks – The Kids Online Safety Act Is a Heavy-Handed Plan to Force Platforms to Spy on Young People

Mar 272022
 

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…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/kids-online-safety-act-heavy-handed-plan-force-platforms-spy-young-people

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Streetsblog.org – South Shore, bike now have to pay to visit Dunes NP, often as much as drivers

Mar 272022
 

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…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://chi.streetsblog.org/2022/03/25/south-shore-and-bike-riders-now-have-to-pay-to-visit-dunes-np-drivers-essentially-get-free-parking/

 2022-03-27  Comments Off on Streetsblog.org – South Shore, bike now have to pay to visit Dunes NP, often as much as drivers

Techdirt. – Arizona Legislators Want To Make It Illegal For People To Record Cops From Whatever Cops Decide Is ‘8 Feet Away’

Mar 272022
 

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…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/25/arizona-legislators-want-to-make-it-illegal-for-people-to-record-cops-from-whatever-cops-decide-is-8-feet-away/

 2022-03-27  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Arizona Legislators Want To Make It Illegal For People To Record Cops From Whatever Cops Decide Is ‘8 Feet Away’

Phoronix – MGLRU Could Land In Linux 5.19 For Improving Performance – Especially Low RAM Situations

Mar 262022
 

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…

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 2022-03-26  Comments Off on Phoronix – MGLRU Could Land In Linux 5.19 For Improving Performance – Especially Low RAM Situations

Ballot Access News – Legislative Hearing Set for California Bill that Outlaws Ranked Choice Voting

Mar 242022
 

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 →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/03/24/legislative-hearing-set-for-california-bill-that-outlaws-ranked-choice-voting/

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Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – EPA shutting down its web archive

Mar 232022
 

Union of Concerned Scientists: if the EPA shuts its web archive, that will harm science and accountability.

Can anyone find a petition campaign to change the EPA’s decision?

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2022-jan-apr.html#22_March_2022_(EPA_shutting_down_its_web_archive)

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World Socialist Web Site (en) – “Aggressive” speech by Fed chair Powell targets wages

Mar 232022
 

In remarks to the annual conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Washington, Powell continually returned to the issue of what he called a “hot” and “very tight” labour market.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/23/powl-m23.html

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CounterPunch.org – The Lie of American Innocence

Mar 232022
 

The branding of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal by Joe Biden, who lobbied for the Iraq war and staunchly supported the 20 years of carnage in the Middle East, is one more example of the hypocritical moral posturing sweeping across the United States. It is unclear how anyone would try Putin for war crimes More

The post The Lie of American Innocence appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – CD sales rising again

Mar 222022
 

People are returning to buying CDs again — sales are increasing.
Now all we need is to bring back the large record stores which offer a great variety of CDs that you can buy anonymously with cash.
CDs don’t have to be sold in plastic “jewel boxes” that break. Some are sold in cardboard boxes which are more robust and probably better for the environment.
If this is driven by the obligatory giving of copies to people who don’t actually want them, that’s sad, but it means more used copies to be sold to people who really do want them.
The author displays a fundamental shallowness by describing listening to music or reading books as…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2022-jan-apr.html#22_March_2022_(CD_sales_rising_again)

 2022-03-22  Comments Off on Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – CD sales rising again

New on MIT Technology Review – A locked-in man has been able to communicate in sentences by thought alone

Mar 222022
 

A completely paralyzed man has been able to communicate entire sentences using a device that records his brain activity. The man was able to train his mind to use the device, which was implanted in his brain, to ask for massages, soup, and beer, and to watch films with his son. It is the first time a completely locked-in person—someone who is conscious and cognitively able but completely paralyzed— has been able to communicate in this way, say the researchers behind the work. Brain-computer interfaces record the electrical signals inside a person’s brain and convert them to commands that control a device. In recent years, BCIs have enabled partially paralyzed people to control prosthetic limbs or…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/22/1047664/locked-in-patient-bci-communicate-in-sentences/

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Ars Technica – Google routinely hides emails from litigation by CCing attorneys, DOJ alleges

Mar 222022
 

Enlarge / Google CEO Sundar Pichai uses his phone during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 12, 2018, in Sun Valley, Idaho. (credit: Getty Images | Drew Angerer )
The US Department of Justice and 14 state attorneys general yesterday asked a federal judge to sanction Google for misusing attorney-client privilege to hide emails from litigation.
“In a program called ‘Communicate with Care,’ Google trains and directs employees to add an attorney, a privilege label, and a generic ‘request’ for counsel’s advice to shield sensitive business communications, regardless of whether any legal advice is actually needed or sought. Often, knowing the game, the in-house counsel included in these Communicate-with-Care emails does…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1842804

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