Cook your burgers well this weekend: Beef tied to massive E. coli outbreak

CDC says the exact source is still being investigated.

Organic hamburgers are grilled at a outdoor Farmer's Market August 15, 2013, in Washington, DC.       AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards / AFP PHOTO / Paul J. Richards        (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Enlarge / Organic hamburgers are grilled at a outdoor Farmer's Market August 15, 2013, in Washington, DC. AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards / AFP PHOTO / Paul J. Richards (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images) (credit: Getty | Paul Richards)

It may be safe to eat salad again, but tasty meatballs and juicy burgers are in for some side eye.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced that ground beef appears to be the culprit in the latest, ongoing multi-state outbreak of E. coli infections.

The outbreak began early last month and has sickened at least 109 people across six states since then, making it the third largest multistate E. coli outbreak in the last two decades. Thirteen of those 109 cases have been tallied just since Tuesday, April 9. Additional illnesses that started as far back as April 19 may not yet be reported, the agency cautioned, suggesting the outbreak could continue to bulk up. So far, 17 people have been hospitalized.

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FCC “consumer advisory” panel includes ALEC, big foe of municipal broadband

Pai brings ALEC to FCC despite AT&T and Verizon quitting the controversial group.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai speaking at a press conference on October 1, 2018, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Mark Wilson )

A committee that advises the Federal Communications Commission on consumer-related matters now includes a representative of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which lobbies against municipal broadband, net neutrality, and other consumer protection measures.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced his Consumer Advisory Committee's new makeup on Wednesday. One new member is Jonathon Hauenschild, director of ALEC's Task Force on Communications and Technology. He and other Consumer Advisory Committee will serve two-year terms.

ALEC writes model state laws and urges state legislatures to adopt them, and it has helped convince about 20 states to pass laws that make it difficult or impossible for cities and towns to offer broadband service.

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New video of Intelsat 29e satellite reveals dramatic “anomaly”

The Intelsat 29e problem comes amid a string of satellite issues in geostationary orbit.

After another satellite went out of service in geostationary orbit this week, at least temporarily, new data now suggests the spacecraft may not be recoverable.

On Wednesday, the satellite operator Intelsat acknowledged a "service outage" on its Intelsat 29e satellite, which had affected maritime, aeronautical, and wireless operator customers in Latin America, the Caribbean, and North Atlantic. During the incident on Sunday, April 7, the spacecraft's propulsion system "experienced damage that caused a leak of the propellant on board the satellite," Intelsat said. At that time, Intelsat was periodically losing communication with the satellite, but the company was working with its manufacturer, Boeing, to restore the connection.

However, new data from ExoAnalytic Solutions, which has a network of 300 telescopes around the planet to track satellite movements in geostationary space, shows the situation has gotten markedly worse.

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Stream-Ripper Operator Rejects Record Labels’ Piracy ‘Hysteria’ in Court

The Russian operator of the YouTube-ripping sites FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com has filed his answering brief at the US Appeals Court. The site owner rejects the “sky is falling” arguments and other piracy “hysteria,” noting that rightsholders have a history of trying to block technological progress. Most importantly, however, he argues that the court has no jurisdiction over the case.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Last year, a group of prominent record labels filed a piracy lawsuit against the Russian operator of YouTube-ripping sites FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com.

The labels hoped to shut the sites down, but this effort backfired.

In January, US District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton dismissed the case due to a lack of jurisdiction. The Virginia Court carefully reviewed how the sites operate and found no evidence that they purposefully targeted either Virginia or the United States.

The sites are not seen as highly interactive and their interaction with users could not be classified as commercial, the Court concluded. Since the site owner didn’t purposefully target Virginia, the Court ruled that it doesn’t have jurisdiction over the operator.

The record labels didn’t agree with this conclusion and took the case to the Fourth Circuit appeals court. If the verdict stands, the companies believe that Internet pirates will have “carte blanche” to facilitate copyright infringement, as they would be untouchable by U.S. courts.

The labels’ appeal attracted support from other major copyright holders. Through amicus briefs,  Hollywood’s MPAA, The Association of American Publishers, and the Copyright Alliance, all argued that the verdict should be overturned.

This week, the Russian operator, Tofig Kurbanov, submitted his answering brief. Through his legal team, he informs the Court that the District Court was right to dismiss the case. He has never been to the U.S. and managed the sites entirely and exclusively from Russia.

Aside from going into detail on all the legal elements of the jurisdiction issue, the response also hits back at the massive piracy claims and “xenophobia-tinged” allegations from the record labels and other rightsholders.

“Cognizant perhaps of the complete absence of a Constitutional basis for the
assertion of personal jurisdiction over Kurbanov, Plaintiffs and their amici seek to make up for this omission with a combination of xenophobia-tinged allegations and ‘the sky is falling’ arguments,” the response reads.

The scope of the alleged infringing activity should not mean that the Court can ignore Constitutional limitations, the defense argues. According to the site operator, it should also be noted that the same rightsholders have a history of targeting new technology.

“Plaintiffs and their amici have consistently opposed virtually every technological advance from the 1970s forward including the advent of cassette tapes, compact discs, digital audio tapes, and MP3s. 

“In each instance, Plaintiffs and their amici’s cries that the sky was falling
were either misplaced or entirely made-up,” the defense adds.

The Russian site operator continues that the rightsholders’ “hysteria” is ultimately irrelevant. The appeal is about whether or not the Court has jurisdiction over the matter. According to the defense, it’s clear that it hasn’t.

Hysteria

The record labels placed a lot of emphasis on the site’s advertisements in their appeal brief. For example, they argued that the stream-ripping sites used geolocation-based advertisements to target specific locations, including the United States and Virginia. 

The defense counters this by stressing that all of the advertising activities were outsourced to third party companies, which make it irrelevant.

“Plaintiffs’ attempts to tie personal jurisdiction to the geolocation of ads on
the Websites is misplaced, where any such geolocation is accomplished solely by third-party advertising brokers,” the defense writes. 

The labels also argued that because the sites are generating revenue from US visitors, there is a “commercial” relationship so the Court has jurisdiction. This ‘free’ advertising model is widely used by other companies such as Facebook, ESPN, CNN, they argued. 

In its response, the defense doesn’t dispute that these other sites use advertising. However, it uses that argument to its advantage while noting that Facebook, ESPN, CNN are not automatically subject to any and all jurisdictions in the world.

While it is true that the stream-ripping sites are available in the US, that’s certainly not their most popular user base. For FLVTO.biz, more than 90% of the visitors come from other countries, and for 2conv.com this number is more than 94%, the defense informs the Appeals Court.

It is worth noting that the current issue is not about whether or not the stream-rippers are copyright-infringing in any way. The question that has to be answered first is whether a U.S. court has jurisdiction over the Russian operator of the sites.

Many of the arguments that both sides presented are similar to those put before the District Court earlier. The record labels and other rightsholders hope that the earlier dismissal will be overturned, while Kurbanov and other site owners prefer to keep it in place.

A copy of the full answering brief of defendant-appellee Tofig Kurbanov is available here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Microsoft’s Spring Sale makes Xbox Game Pass an absolute bargain

The weather is nice, so what better time to sit in front of the TV?

Ten days to ponder whether <em>Fallout 76</em> is worth a console discount. Hmm.

Enlarge / Ten days to ponder whether Fallout 76 is worth a console discount. Hmm. (credit: Microsoft)

We're expecting some imminent changes to Microsoft's Game Pass service, but right now the company is offering something of a bargain: three months of Xbox Game Pass, with more than 100 games available, for just $1.

This is part of Microsoft's broader Spring Sale, which includes some significant discounts on both Xbox and PC games, consoles, and accessories. One month of Gold is also available for $1.

Because nothing's ever easy, the exact deals on offer depend on which day you want to buy. Most deals run through April 22, though a few go a little shorter or longer, and some deals aren't available until next week. Aside from the Game Pass, the other standout is $100 off certain Xbox One X models, bringing them down to $399. The downside? They come with a bundled copy of Fallout 76.

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Dealmaster: The iPhone SE is back (again) at Apple, starting at $249

This deal probably won’t last long, so grab it while you can.

Dealmaster: The iPhone SE is back (again) at Apple, starting at $249

Enlarge (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

The iPhone SE is available for purchase again as Apple brought the small handset back to the clearance section of its online store. While supplies last, you can get a 32GB iPhone SE for $249 and a few select 128GB models for $299. Those prices represent up to $150 off of the iPhone SE's listing price of $349 to $449.

This isn't the first time in recent memory that the iPhone SE has popped up discounted on Apple's website. A few weeks ago, Apple listed a small number of the handsets, but they sold out within hours. It's unclear how long these deals will last, but we expect this batch of clearance iPhone SEs to disappear just as quickly as the last.

The relatively tiny iPhone first debuted back in March 2016 and has gleaned a passionate following among those who prefer smaller handsets. It has a 4-inch IPS Retina display (with bezels that would make the current family of iPhones shudder), a physical Home button, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, among other features. It runs on Apple's A9 chipset and, while it doesn't have the newest technology for FaceID, it does have TouchID.

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Lilbits 359: Google Pixel 4 “Coral” and “Flame” smartphones coming this year?

If history has taught us anything, it’s that Google will probably launch a new set of flagship smartphones sometime around October… although we may see the mid-range Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL much sooner than that. While we still don’t…

If history has taught us anything, it’s that Google will probably launch a new set of flagship smartphones sometime around October… although we may see the mid-range Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL much sooner than that. While we still don’t know very much about what the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will look […]

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Yet another state (Washington, this time) passed 100% clean energy legislation

Hawaii, California, New Mexico suggest climate policies are popular at state level.

A Generator rotor for hydroelectric dam.

Enlarge / The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state is the largest hydroelectric producer in the United States. A generator rotor stands on the floor of the Grand Coulee's Third power plant for refurbishing on August 9, 2016 in Grand Coulee, Washington. (credit: Photo by Alfredo Sosa/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images.)

On Thursday, Washington state's House of Representatives passed a bill that will require 100 percent of the state's electricity generation to be carbon emissions-free by 2045.

A previous bill was passed in the state's Senate in early March, though the House amended its version, so the Senate will have to vote again on the bill's updated language, according to the Associated Press. However, the bill previously passed the Senate on a 28-19 vote, and it is expected to pass again. The legislation was part of a key campaign promise made by Governor Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign the resulting bill.

Washington has massive hydroelectric resources as well as a 1.1 gigawatt (GW) nuclear power facility in Richland, Washington. Seventy-five percent of the electricity it produces is already free of carbon emissions.

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Dasung Paperlike Pro 2019 is a high-res E Ink touchscreen monitor (crowdfunding)

While E Ink is usually associated with eBook readers like the Kindle or NOOK, the folks at Dasung have been making E Ink monitors since 2015. They’re not particularly cheap, they have lower screen refresh rates than a typical LCD display, and the…

While E Ink is usually associated with eBook readers like the Kindle or NOOK, the folks at Dasung have been making E Ink monitors since 2015. They’re not particularly cheap, they have lower screen refresh rates than a typical LCD display, and they only display grayscale colors… but they’re low power, sunlight readable, and offer […]

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been revealed with a stunning trailer

Episode IX has a name, a new robot buddy, and more, coming “this Christmas.”

On Friday, a world premiere trailer at the annual Star Wars Celebration event confirmed the name of the final film in the "Skywalker Saga." Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the official name for Episode IX, slated to land in theaters "this Christmas."

 

After hearing narration from Luke Skywalker ("A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight"), the trailer focuses largely on dramatic action sequences, including a few Millennium Falcon flights and some desert-speeder combat before revealing at least one scene starring Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. (We already knew Fisher would appear in the film by way of footage shot before her 2016 death.) The trailer concludes with the primary new-trilogy cast starring at the landed wreckage of a Death Star.

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