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/

 2022-03-22  Comments Off on New on MIT Technology Review – A locked-in man has been able to communicate in sentences by thought alone

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…

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 2022-03-22  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Google routinely hides emails from litigation by CCing attorneys, DOJ alleges

The Onion – In Defense Of Mass Censorship

Mar 222022
 

When The Onion’s editorial board convened to discuss the tumultuous events of the previous month, one conclusion became evident: The world stands at a crossroads. Two visions of our collective future stand before us: On one side is a free and enlightened society, dedicated to the principles of openness,…

Read more…

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Ars Technica – Murky case for fourth doses now with FDA as protection wanes, BA.2 looms

Mar 222022
 

Enlarge / The US Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland. (credit: Getty | Xinhua News Agency)
Vaccine-makers Moderna and Pfizer have now both submitted requests to the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize fourth doses—second boosters—of their COVID-19 vaccines.
Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech announced Tuesday that they had asked the FDA to authorize fourth doses for adults age 65 and above. The move followed days of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla saying in press interviews that a fourth shot is “necessary” for everyone.
Late Thursday, Moderna announced that it, too, had asked the FDA to authorize fourth doses—for all adults. In the announcement, Moderna described the request as intended to “provide…

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Ballot Access News – Congressional Bill for Proportional Representation Has Gained No Co-Sponsors Since June 14, 2021

Mar 222022
 

The best election law bill in Congress is HB 3863, which Virginia Congressman Donald Beyer introduced on June 11, 2021. It would convert most U.S. House elections to the Single Transferable Vote system, and would create much larger U.S. House districts. If enacted, it would substantially ease the gerrymandering problem. Unfortunately, it has not gained any co-sponsors other than the original seven co-sponsors.
Millions of dollars are being spent by wealthy individuals to promote state initiatives to abolish partisan primaries and create top-four or top-five systems. It is unfortunate that those same individuals aren’t instead promoting HR 3863.
The original co-sponsors are Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, Ro Khanna of California, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/03/18/congressional-bill-for-proportional-representation-has-gained-no-co-sponsors-since-june-14-2021/

 2022-03-22  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – Congressional Bill for Proportional Representation Has Gained No Co-Sponsors Since June 14, 2021

Phoronix – Raspberry Pi “V3D” OpenGL Driver Improving Performance With On-Disk Shader Cache

Mar 222022
 

It’s arguably long overdue, but landing today within Mesa 22.1 is support in the V3D driver for Mesa’s on-disk shader cache functionality. By adding this shader cache to V3D it can help with the performance of this Gallium3D open-source driver most notably used by the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer single board computers…

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Techdirt. – Copyright As Censorship: YouTuber Pulls Down GoFundMe Video To Help Victim Of Viral YouTube Jumping Tesla Stunt

Mar 222022
 

It still amazes me how unwilling many copyright system supporters are to admit that copyright is regularly used for actual censorship, using the power of the law to suppress speech. The latest example is particularly galling. Over the weekend, a somewhat ridiculous video went viral of a Tesla doing a jump over a hill in Echo Park, and then losing control, smashing into garbage cans and, eventually, a parked car. YouTuber Alex Choi was there and had a whole video about the incident, which I’m not going to link to for reasons I’ll explain down below.
Now I should note that in his video, Choi emphasizes repeatedly that he didn’t know the people in the jumping Tesla,…

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 2022-03-22  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Copyright As Censorship: YouTuber Pulls Down GoFundMe Video To Help Victim Of Viral YouTube Jumping Tesla Stunt

– The Conversation – Home – How a few geothermal plants could solve America’s lithium supply crunch and boost the EV battery industry

Mar 222022
 

A pilot plant near the Salton Sea in California pairs lithium extraction with geothermal energy production. Michael McKibbenGeothermal energy has long been the forgotten member of the clean energy family, overshadowed by relatively cheap solar and wind power, despite its proven potential. But that may soon change – for an unexpected reason. Geothermal technologies are on the verge of unlocking vast quantities of lithium from naturally occurring hot brines beneath places like California’s Salton Sea, a two-hour drive from San Diego. Lithium is essential for lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles and energy storage. Demand for these batteries is quickly rising, but the U.S. is currently heavily reliant on lithium imports from other countries – most…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theconversation.com/how-a-few-geothermal-plants-could-solve-americas-lithium-supply-crunch-and-boost-the-ev-battery-industry-179465

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PopularResistance.Org – Was Bombing Of Mariupol Theater Staged By Ukrainian Azov Extremists?

Mar 212022
 

Western media have reported that Russia’s military deliberately attacked the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, claiming that it was filled with civilians and marked with signs reading “children” on its grounds.
The supposed bombing took place just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to US Congress for a no fly zone, fueling the chorus for direct military confrontation with Russia and apparently inspiring President Joseph Biden to brand Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as a “war criminal.”
A closer look reveals that local residents in Mariupol had warned three days before the March 16 incident that the theater would be the site of a false flag attack launched by the openly neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://popularresistance.org/was-bombing-of-mariupol-theater-staged-by-ukrainian-azov-extremists-to-trigger-nato-intervention/

 2022-03-21  Comments Off on PopularResistance.Org – Was Bombing Of Mariupol Theater Staged By Ukrainian Azov Extremists?

Planet PostgreSQL – Dave Page: Tuning max_wal_size in PostgreSQL

Mar 212022
 

Tuning of the max_wal_size configuration parameter in PostgreSQL can have a profound effect on performance, but it’s often overlooked or not given the priority it deserves in favour of other parameters, such as those that are easier to understand. In this blog we’ll discuss what the parameter does, how to tune it, and how to monitor the system to ensure the tuning is effective. [Continue reading…]

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Ballot Access News – Oregon Bill Easing Definition of a Qualified Party Passes

Mar 192022
 

On March 3, the Oregon legislature passed SB 1527. Among other provisions, it eases the definition of a qualified party. It lowers the percentage of registered voters needed for a party to remain qualified from one-half of 1% of the total registration, to one-fourth of 1%.
Oregon also lets a party remain ballot-qualified party if it polls 1% for any statewide race at either of the last two elections (although such parties must have registration of at least one-tenth of 1%).
The part of SB 1527 that eases the definition of a party was amended into the bill just a few days before the legislature adjourned. The House passed the amended bill on March 3, and the Senate…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/03/18/oregon-bill-easing-definition-of-a-qualified-party-passes/

 2022-03-19  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – Oregon Bill Easing Definition of a Qualified Party Passes

TorrentFreak – Anti-Piracy Company Asks Court to Keep Filings Secret as TorrentFreak Might Report On Them

Mar 192022
 

At TorrentFreak we do our best to keep readers updated on the latest copyright and piracy news, highlighting issues from different points of view.
We report on the opinions and efforts of copyright holders when it comes to online piracy and have active dialogues with anti-piracy outfits. At the same time, we also make room for those who oppose them. That’s how balanced reporting works in our view.
There is probably no site on the Internet that reports on the negative consequences of piracy as much as we do and but for some reason, the term “pro-piracy” is sometimes attached to our reporting.
In most cases we shrug off these characterizations, concluding that those who portray us in this…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-company-asks-court-to-keep-filings-secret-as-torrentfreak-might-report-on-them-220318/

 2022-03-19  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – Anti-Piracy Company Asks Court to Keep Filings Secret as TorrentFreak Might Report On Them

LWN.net – OSI: Court affirms it’s false advertising to claim software is Open Source when it’s not

Mar 182022
 

The Open Source Initiative reports
on a ruling in the US Court of Appeals reaffirming the meaning of “open
source” in a software license.

The court only confirmed what we already know – that “open source” is a term of art for software that has been licensed under a specific type of license, and whether a license is an OSI-approved license is a critically important factor in user adoption of the software. Had the defendants’ desire to license its software as AGPLv3-only been permissible, its claims of “100% open source” wouldn’t have been false and there would have been no false advertising. But adding the non-free Commons Clause created a different license such that the software could not…

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 2022-03-18  Comments Off on LWN.net – OSI: Court affirms it’s false advertising to claim software is Open Source when it’s not

Streetsblog.org – Study: Megacar Drivers More Likely to Hit Walkers While Turning

Mar 182022
 

SUVs and pick-up truck drivers are three to four times more likely to hit a pedestrian when they make a turn than the drivers of smaller cars, a new study finds — and researchers think it’s because federal regulators aren’t scrutinizing the common design features that make it impossible for megacar drivers to see walkers passing right in front of them.
In a new study of federal crash data by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, researchers found that crashes in which a driver kills a walker are three times more likely to involve a left turn if that motorist was piloting an SUV at the time of impact, compared to fatal walking crashes involving the drivers…

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 2022-03-18  Comments Off on Streetsblog.org – Study: Megacar Drivers More Likely to Hit Walkers While Turning

Techdirt. – Netflix Starts Cracking Down Harder On Password Sharing

Mar 182022
 

Back when Netflix was a pesky upstart trying to claw subscribers away from entrenched cable providers, the company had a pretty lax approach to users who shared streaming passwords. At one point CEO Reed Hastings went so far as to say he “loved” password sharing, seeing it as akin to free advertising. The idea was that as kids or friends got on more stable footing (left home to job hunt, whatever), they’d inevitably get hooked on the service and purchase their own subscription.
But as Netflix subscription numbers have begun to go south and competitors are challenging Netflix’s market share and revenue, the company is predictably taking a harder stance on the practice.
In a blog post, Netflix…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/17/netflix-starts-cracking-down-harder-on-password-sharing/

 2022-03-18  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Netflix Starts Cracking Down Harder On Password Sharing

Ars Technica – NASA releases first image from an in-focus Webb telescope

Mar 162022
 

Enlarge / With better alignment, the test star has been joined by a whole host of background stars and galaxies. (credit: NASA/STScI)
Today, NASA announced that it has successfully completed two further steps to align the mirrors of the Webb telescope. The resulting performance indicates that Webb will meet or exceed its design goals. “So far, we’re finding that the performance is as good [as] or better than our most optimistic projections,” said Lee Feinberg, the Webb optical telescope element manager.
The announcement was accompanied by a spectacular image that showed a sharp focus on the target star and included many in-focus galaxies in the backdrop.
Get in line
The Webb telescope’s primary mirror is made…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1841522

 2022-03-16  Comments Off on Ars Technica – NASA releases first image from an in-focus Webb telescope
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