Abundance or scarcity?

Abundance is a new book that has been attracting attention and debate among mainstream economists and politicians.  It aims to explain to Democrat members in the US why their party lost the election to Trump (narrow as that result was).  The authors, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, writers at very liberal mainstream The New York Times and The Atlantic, respectively, argue that it was because the Democrats and supporters of ‘liberal democracy’ have lost their ability in government to carry out great projects that could deliver the things and services that working people (called the ‘middle class’ in America) need.

Abundance or scarcity?

New U.S. strategy towards ASEAN: caution, info-colonialism! (See commentary and notes)

The implementation of yet another U.S. initiative may allow it to interfere in the information policy of ASEAN and control the cyberspace of all of Southeast Asia.

New U.S. strategy towards ASEAN: caution, info-colonialism!

Related:

This reminds me of the tech camps that were held in Ukraine before the Euromaidan. Anyone who has been following me for a while knows where that led to. Except, replace China with Russia.

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Copyright Office exemption makes McDonald’s ice cream machines repairable

McDonald’s always-broken ice cream machines might finally get easier to fix. That’s because the US Copyright Office granted an exemption allowing third parties to diagnose and repair commercial equipment — including the ones that make your McFlurries.

Copyright Office exemption makes McDonald’s ice cream machines repairable

Related:

Copyright change removes exclusive McDonald’s ice cream machine control from Rockton company

The center of the Rockford resident’s frustration sits miles away from the W. Riverside Blvd. McDonald’s: Taylor Company. The manufacturer assembles and manages the infamous machines in Rockton.

OCLC Says ‘What Is Known Must Be Shared,’ But Is Suing Anna’s Archive For Sharing Knowledge

How do you think I get most of my Ebooks?! 😉

Back in March, Walled Culture wrote about the terrible job that academic publishers are doing in terms of creating backups of the articles they publish.  We also mentioned there two large-scale archives that are trying to help, Sci-Hub and Anna’s Archive.  Legal action by publishers against the former seems to have led to a halt to new items being added to its collection.  This has resulted in the rise of Anna’s Archive as the main large-scale archive of academic papers and other material.  It has also led to a lawsuit against the site, as TorrentFreak reports.  The legal move is by the non-profit OCLC, which was originally the Ohio College Library Center, then became the Online Computer Library Center, and is now simply OCLC.  It describes itself as follows:

OCLC Says ‘What Is Known Must Be Shared,’ But Is Suing Anna’s Archive For Sharing Knowledge

Related:

Anna’s Archive

Alternative site 1

Alternative site 2

Note: I’m not a fan of copyright. Any information inside my documents is free to use. If it’s an article or a blog post that I’ve written, please ask for my permission before using it.

Chinese Company Under Congressional Scrutiny Makes Key U.S. Drugs

Source

Lawmakers raising national security concerns and seeking to disconnect a major Chinese firm from U.S. pharmaceutical interests have rattled the biotech industry. The firm is deeply involved in development and manufacturing of crucial therapies for cancer, cystic fibrosis, H.I.V. and other illnesses.

Chinese Company Under Congressional Scrutiny Makes Key U.S. Drugs

Latest:

US bill to restrict WuXi AppTec, Chinese biotechs revised to give more time to cut ties

Peoria Police Put Out Recruiting Poster Telling Recruits To Come Play ‘Call Of Duty’ In Real Life

from the pew-pew-pew dept

Whatever your thoughts on policing in general in America, I would hope it would be largely uncontroversial to state that a huge percentage of Americans believe that police are generally over-militarized and at least slightly a little too trigger happy, especially when it comes to engaging minority communities. If you somehow think that there isn’t at least a perception problem among the public here, then you probably don’t need to keep reading the rest of this post, because it’s not going to make sense to you.

Peoria Police Put Out Recruiting Poster Telling Recruits To Come Play ‘Call Of Duty’ In Real Life

Related:

History of Racism in Peoria

‘Hunt Forward’ cyber teams have deployed to 24 countries, including Ukraine

The cyber defense teams monito crucial networks in allied countries. US cyber chief Gen. Paul Nakasone also said the NSA is centralizing AI-related missions.

‘Hunt Forward’ cyber teams have deployed to 24 countries, including Ukraine

Related:

NSA to stand up AI security center

Securing artificial intelligence entails “protecting AI systems from learning, doing, and revealing the wrong thing,” he said. “We must build a robust understanding of AI vulnerabilities, foreign intelligence threats to these AI systems, and ways to encounter the threat in order to have AI security. We must also ensure that malicious foreign actors can’t steal America’s innovative AI capabilities.”

Asked about AI—including deepfakes—influencing voting in the upcoming 2024 U.S. general election, Nakasone said people need to practice vigilance, and that his team is making sure they “understand the threat techniques of our adversaries”—which the center will help them do

Cyber War and Ukraine

TSMC Arizona chip plant will be a paperweight, says analyst

The TSMC Arizona chip plant is behind schedule, over budget, and the subject of contention in online forums – and now an analyst says that it will be little more than a useless paperweight, even when it does finally begin production.

Not only will it only make chips for older Apple devices, but it can’t even complete the process of making those without sending them back to Taiwan for final assembly …

TSMC Arizona chip plant will be a paperweight, says analyst