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In Katar sind laut Menschenrechtlern in den letzten Jahren über 15.000 ausländischer Arbeiter auf Baustellen der Fifa-WM 2022 gestorben. Wie reagiert der DFB?
Bonus: Shedd Aquarium vets spill the beans on how to perform knee surgery on a bullfrog
Enlarge / Veterinarians at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium have pioneered a lot of unusual procedures to diagnosis and treat the animals in their care—including figuring out to give MRIs to electric eels. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
Right before Thanksgiving, we reported on how Chicago's Shedd Aquarium solved the Curious Case of the Missing Chloroquine. The antiparasitic drug is typically added to the water for new animals in quarantine, but it was mysteriously disappearing. The culprit: hungry, hungry microbes. The post included a throwaway line about how the aquarium vets also had the lowdown on how to give an electric eel an MRI.
That bit seemed to resonate with readers, and we received several queries about how, exactly, this feat might be accomplished. You asked. We wanted answers. So we turned to Bill Van Bonn, the clinical veterinarian in charge of the aquarium's Center for Animal Health and Welfare, which boasts a state-of-the-art animal hospital for monitoring the health of all the animals in the exhibits and treating them as necessary. Dr. Van Bonn and his colleague, Dr. Karisa Tang, were happy to oblige.
Van Bonn describes the veterinary team at the aquarium as "family practitioners" rather than specialists, although they are able to draw on world-class expertise as needed from the greater Chicago area. And since there isn't a lot of diagnostic and treatment precedent in the literature for many of the animals in their care, they practice comparative medicine by necessity.
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Dr. Tedros: “Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant.”
Enlarge / Medical workers carry a patient to a hospital in New York, the United States, Dec. 13, 2021. (credit: Getty | Xinhua News Agency )
Health officials sounded the alarm Tuesday over the fast spread of the omicron coronavirus, which has now been detected in 77 countries worldwide and 33 states in the US—and is expanding quickly.
Only two weeks have passed since health officials detected the first omicron case in the US, and the variant is already accounting for 3 percent of cases overall in the country—which is still swept up in a powerful wave of the delta variant. In New York and New Jersey, omicron accounts for 13 percent of cases, according to Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, the US is seeing around 120,000 new COVID cases per day, a 49 percent increase over two weeks ago. The country is averaging 66,500 hospitalizations a day, which is a 22 percent increase. For now, nearly all of the cases and hospitalizations are due to delta, but that will likely change quickly with omicron.
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It’s been a while since LG stopped making handheld tablets. But the company just introduced a new kind of TV that’s… basically a big tablet placed atop a stand. The LG StanbyME is a 27 inch display with a built-in battery that provides up to 3 hours of viewing time. And while you can use a remote control […]
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It’s been a while since LG stopped making handheld tablets. But the company just introduced a new kind of TV that’s… basically a big tablet placed atop a stand.
The LG StanbyME is a 27 inch display with a built-in battery that provides up to 3 hours of viewing time. And while you can use a remote control to interact with the TV, it also supports touch input. But unlike most tablets, the StanbyME is placed atop a moveable stand that you can move from room to room thanks to wheels.
LG says the screen can be rotated for use in landscape or portrait orientations, and it also supports tilting and swiveling, allowing you to adjust the viewing angle so that it’s comfortable to use whether you’re on the couch, in the kitchen, lying in bed, or just about anywhere else.
While LG is positioning the device as a smart TV rather than a tablet, it has a user interface designed to work with touch input and support for services like KAKAO WEBTOON with support for mobile-like gestures including taps and swipes.
LG says you can even use the StanbyME for video conferencing… although it doesn’t have its own camera and microphone. Instead there’s a removable cradle that can be placed atop the display, allowing you to use your phone’s hardware for voice or video calls. You can mirror the phone’s display to the StanbyME via wireless screen sharing (with Android and iOS support), or use a PC with the display via a USB, HDMI, or wireless connection.
There’s no word on how much the LG StanbyME costs, when it will go on sale, or if it will be available globally. But LG plans to show off the unusual TV/tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
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Hosting company Quadranet has scored a crucial victory in a “VPN piracy” lawsuit filed by several film companies earlier this year. A Florida federal court dismissed the claims that the hosting company is liable for infringements of its customers’ subscribers. The filmmakers are not allowed to amend their claims either, as that would be futile.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A group of independent film companies has taken the piracy liability issue to a new level this year.
After targeting site operators and individual pirates, the makers of films such as “London Has Fallen”, “Outpost” and “Dallas Buyers Club” started going after VPN providers. They didn’t stop there either.
Over the past few months, several hosting companies have been sued as well. This includes the Californian hosting company Quadranet which leased servers to VPN provider LiquidVPN.
The filmmakers argued that the hosting company can be held liable for copyright infringement because some LiquidVPN subscribers were pirating. Quadranet should have taken appropriate action after receiving repeated copyright infringement warnings, they said.
For example, the hosting provider could have cut off the power cord or null-routed the IP addresses of LiquidVPN’s server. In addition, it could have terminated its agreement with the company.
Quadranet vehemently disagreed with the accusations. Through a motion to dismiss, the company challenged the filmmakers’ claims, including the allegation that it is contributorily and vicariously liable for the alleged piracy activities.
Null-routing IP addresses would mean effectively pulling the plug on all LiquidVPN subscribers, including those who use the service for legitimate purposes, it countered.
The hosting provider sees itself as a neutral service provider and it told the court that it’s at least two steps removed from any ‘involvement’ in the alleged copyright infringements.
After allowing the filmmakers to amend their complaints to address potential deficiencies in their pleading, the Florida federal court ruled on the motion to dismiss this week. This resulted in a clear victory for the hosting provider.
District Court Judge Beth Bloom concluded that there isn’t sufficient ground to argue that Quadranet is liable for contributory copyright infringement. This would require the rightsholders to show that culpable intent was involved, which isn’t the case here.
The filmmakers cited jurisprudence that shows that third-party services can be required to take ‘appropriate’ action if they are made aware of infringing activity. However, in this case, the court concludes that Quadranet was not aware of any specific infringements since the pirated traffic was encrypted.
“The [complaint] instead alleges that Quadranet provides servers to VPN companies. Quadranet notes that VPN companies encrypt their clients’ (‘end users’) online activity, which means Quadranet was never aware of the end users’ online activity on Quadranet’s servers.
“As such, even if Plaintiffs sent notices of copyright infringement to Quadranet, which neither Party disputes, Quadranet was unaware of any specific infringing activity,” Judge Bloom adds, while dismissing the contributory infringement claim.
The filmmakers’ second copyright claim relates to ‘vicarious’ infringement. They argued that the hosting company purposefully failed to update Whois records, which was seen as an appealing feature by VPN companies that have pirating subscribers.
To back up this allegation, the rightsholders had to show that Quadranet directly profited from the piracy activities and that it had the right and ability to control the alleged infringements.
According to the court, this is not the case. VPN providers such as LiquidVPN would pay for the servers regardless of any piracy activity, Judge Bloom notes.
“VPN companies, not the end users, paid Quadranet for its services, and it is apparent that Quadranet was paid by the VPN companies regardless of whether the end users engaged in infringing activities or legitimate activities.”
Similarly, the hosting provider didn’t have any straightforward options to stop or control the infringing activities either. Disconnecting or null routing the servers is not seen as a viable option, as that would affect legitimate VPN users too.
“If Quadranet were to terminate the accounts of VPN companies, Quadranet would be interfering with the relationship between VPN companies and their customers, many of whom may be engaged in lawful uses of VPN.
“Therefore, the measure that Plaintiffs suggest – namely, null-routing VPN companies – is an impermissibly broad measure that does not constitute a ‘practical ability to police infringing activities of [third parties]’,” Judge Bloom adds, citing jurisprudence.
Based on these and other arguments, the court decided to dismiss the complaint. The filmmakers previously requested to have the option to file an amended version to correct any failures but this request was denied as well.
District Court Judge Bloom writes that the plaintiffs already had two opportunities to file an amended complaint and doesn’t believe another shot is warranted. As such, the complaint is dismissed with prejudice.
“Considering the Parties’ arguments and Plaintiffs’ previous opportunities to amend the complaint, a third opportunity to amend the complaint would be futile, and Plaintiffs’ third amended complaint would likely not survive another motion to dismiss,” Judge Bloom writes.
This outcome is a major victory for Quadranet. The filmmakers, for their part, will be disappointed. However, they still have several other cases pending against VPN providers, hosting companies, and ISPs. So we will likely hear from them again in the near future.
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A copy of U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom’s order on Quadranet’s motion to dismiss is available here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
T-Mobile’s new TVision HUB is a 4K media streaming device designed to hang from the HDMI port of a TV. Powered by Google TV software and an Amlogic S905Y4 processor, the $50 dongle is a slightly more powerful alternative to the similarly-priced Chromecast with Google TV. And unlike Google’s media streamer, the TVision HUB has a […]
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T-Mobile’s new TVision HUB is a 4K media streaming device designed to hang from the HDMI port of a TV. Powered by Google TV software and an Amlogic S905Y4 processor, the $50 dongle is a slightly more powerful alternative to the similarly-priced Chromecast with Google TV. And unlike Google’s media streamer, the TVision HUB has a built-in Ethernet port.
It’s not not clear if you can actually buy one yet.
According to a product page on the T-Mobile website, the TVision HUB should be available for $50 (or free for T-Mobile Home Internet customers), but there’s no way to actually buy one from the T-Mobile web store yet.
What we do know is that the device’s features include:
The TVision Hub also comes with a remote control featuring a Google Assistant key for voice search and controls, power and input buttons for controlling a TV, and a Rec button that would presumably be used for applications that support a cloud DVR function.
That said, it’s probably worth taking some of the listed specs with a grain of salt – a picture of the TVision Hub shows a micro USB port, but the product description says it has a USB Type-C port.
T-Mobile’s new media streamer was made by a Chinese company called SEI Robotics, which also produces several Android TV dongles and set top boxes.
via 9to5Google
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FAA fights use of spectrum that’s already deployed safely in dozens of countries.
Enlarge / Then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler (L) and FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai talk before testifying to the House Judiciary Committee on March 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla )
Six former chairs of the Federal Communications Commission yesterday criticized the Federal Aviation Administration's fight against a new 5G rollout on spectrum that the FCC has studied and deemed safe to use. Republicans Ajit Pai and Michael Powell joined with Democrats Tom Wheeler, Mignon Clyburn, Julius Genachowski, and Michael Copps in writing a letter describing their concerns about how the FAA has tried to undermine public confidence in the FCC's decision-making process.
"The FAA should work with the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)... to assess and resolve the FAA's concerns expeditiously, but this debate should not be fought publicly in a way that undermines consumer confidence in the process, nor should it require months of additional delays," said the six former chairs' letter, which was sent to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA acting Administrator Evelyn Remaley.
The "FAA position threatens to derail the reasoned conclusions reached by the FCC after years of technical analysis and study," the former chairs also wrote.
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“What will life on Elon’s Mars be like? Probably much like life at SpaceX.”
The front of the SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California. (credit: Megan Geuss)
In late September, a former communications executive at Blue Origin and 20 other current and former employees raised concerns about the culture at the company, highlighting issues such as sexism in the workplace. Writing on the Lioness website, Alexandra Abrams and the unnamed employees wrote that Blue Origin "turns a blind eye toward sexism."
The essay ignited a wildfire of criticism about the working environment of Blue Origin, even extending to concerns about the safety of the company's vehicles. In the wake of the essay's publication, the Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation of these safety allegations.
Now the conflagration has spread to SpaceX. On Tuesday, Lioness published another essay by Ashley Kosak, a former mission integration engineer at SpaceX. This essay has fewer anonymous co-signers (only two) and is more tightly focused on sexism rather than the company's broader culture. But in regard to harassment, its allegations are no less worrisome. Kosak writes about multiple occasions of feeling sexually harassed and her belief that SpaceX's management did not do enough to intervene.
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Job listings expose plans for a mobile AR platform intended to reach “billions.”
Enlarge / Google Glass for Enterprise. Google's job listings suggest that the new device and platform would be more mass-market than the one picture here. (credit: Google)
Google was one of the early leaders in the first wave of modern augmented reality (AR) research and devices, but the company has appeared to cool to AR in recent years even as Apple and Facebook have invested heavily in it. But it looks like that trend will soon be reversed.
On LinkedIn, operating system engineering director Mark Lucovsky announced that he has joined Google. He previously headed up mixed reality operating system work for Meta, and before that he was one of the key architects of Windows NT at Microsoft. "My role is to lead the Operating System team for Augmented Reality at Google," he wrote.
He also posted a link to some job listings at Google that give the impression Google is getting just as serious about AR as Apple or Meta.
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Ubisoft is giving away Rayman Origins for free. Humble Bundle is offering a name-your-price deal for a mix of PC games and related digital comics. And Newegg is offering an attractive deal on a thin and light laptop from Asus with top tier specs. But you know what I didn’t expect to find when looking […]
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Ubisoft is giving away Rayman Origins for free. Humble Bundle is offering a name-your-price deal for a mix of PC games and related digital comics. And Newegg is offering an attractive deal on a thin and light laptop from Asus with top tier specs.
But you know what I didn’t expect to find when looking for tech deals today? A set of true wireless earbuds selling for $0.99.
That’s how much PowerAdd is charging for its C11 earbuds, which have a list price of $32.99. So that’s a 97% discount.
Are these earbuds any good? I have no idea. They tick some nice boxes on paper, with IPX7 water resistance and a charging case with a USB-C input. But the most compelling feature is certainly the price – although you will still need to pay for shipping.
Your results may vary, but when I entered my address at checkout, PowerAdd calculated $6 for shipping. While that’s 6X more than the price of the earbuds themselves, it brings the total cost to $6.99, which still ain’t bad.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Wireless headphones & earbuds
Computers
Downloads & Streaming
Other
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