A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon's book buying operation, which hasn't been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination. [...]
We first learned that AI companies wanted to scan millions of books for training data because of a lawsuit from book authors against Anthropic, which revealed Anthropic's "Project Panama." The goal of the project was to acquire books from commercial bookselling marketplaces, cut the spines off the books, and scan them. It's possible to scan books without destroying them, but cutting the spine makes it cheaper and faster.
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"With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars." That makes it hard for victims to sue.
"In today's society, you know, everybody's filming everything, everybody has a cell phone," Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But "the glove is low optic, and it looks better on camera, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars."
The gloves, manufactured by a company called Compliant Technologies, have been used by police, sheriffs, jail wardens, and even school resource officers for years. They've been described by groups like Amnesty International as "readily misused for torture." And this week, ICE published a plan to order $20 million worth of them. [...]
But local police across the country are still eagerly buying the gloves -- in large part so that they can harm people and avoid being sued for it. It's been successful "from the patrolmen to the jailers," Lumpkin County Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said in a Compliant Technologies promotional video. "It's been a great tool as far as mitigating liability," according to Nelson County Jailer Justin Hall. Bob Couey of the Floyd County Sheriff's Department sung the GLOVE's praises, too: "I highly recommend these gloves to anybody that's looking for a utility they can use that is conducive to not leading to lawsuits."
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These are unlikely to change any minds, but they will defintely shorten some incredibly tedious conversations at the bar.
Here's a PDF if you'd like some of your own.
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US citizens, call on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand the practice of negotiating lower prices on prescription medicines. We need to counteract massive lobbying by Big Pharma.
Deadline for commenting, Aug 17!
E-scooters turn out to be especially dangerous to ride — much more dangerous than bicycles.
Comparing the magats' efforts to seize power, and embed themselves irreversibly in it, with the efforts of Nazis in 1933.
*Why making Anthony Fauci the enemy will harm US public health for years.*
US citizens: call on your senators to save funding for Medicaid.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
*US senators urge crackdown on wildfire betting amid warnings of arson risk.*
Betting on other government actions is dangerous too, because it can offer magats the temptation to burn down good government.
*Human Rights Watch and Amnesty* accuse Israel of knowingly attacking journalists in Lebanon — a war crime.
*[Progressive Democrat] Abdul El-Sayed offers a model for successfully turning a non-progressive opponent's richly funded campaign against that opponent's rich backers, and thus against the opponent.
Pakistan has prohibited anyone from reporting internationally on what happens there. It has also blocked access to Al Jazeera's web site from Pakistan.
Many restaurants and pubs in the UK have banned wearing of snooper glasses. Theaters, too.
Nine PBS VP and CCO Leah Freeman confirmed the station's lawsuit against Iron Mountain and its dedication to retrieving the archival materials and programming, which she says span over "70 years of our organization's history." [...]
The contract provided 30 days for Nine PBS to retrieve its data from OSS' storage "upon termination of services." But on March 6, OSS cut off the station's access without warning, according to the complaint. When Nine PBS attempted to contact OSS to sort out the problem, it discovered that OSS' website was defunct and the company had delinquency status with the Colorado Secretary of State. [...]
Iron Mountain has refused to return the materials to the station because its client, OSS, technically owned "the physical services housing the data" within Iron Mountain, according to the complaint.
Google oligarch Brin has now spent $100 million to avoid paying $13 billion in taxes.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated another $20 million to Build a Better California, an organization advocating against California's proposed billionaire tax, according to a new filing. That means that the world's fourth-richest man, whose net worth hovers around $267 billion, has now spent more than $100 million to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment.
California's Prop 40, known as the billionaire tax, would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of around 200 billionaires that live in the state. The windfall from this proposed tax would mostly go toward funding California's healthcare programs. The state's Medicaid program alone could lose up to $30 billion in federal funding once Trump's budget cuts take effect next year.
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Naturally, that means it's time for our latest installment of CYBERDELIA.
This is the THIRTY-FIRST Anniversary of HACKERS, yes really. Join me as I crumble to dust. So, as per tradition, we will have:
- A screening of Hackers at 8pm;
- Hackers costume contest at 11pm;
- Head-to-head Wipeout XL competition throughout the night;
- Skate ramps! Rollerblades welcome!
- Electro / big beat / cyberpunk dance party to follow.
If you've been to some of our other movie nights recently you may have noticed that people tend to clear out pretty soon after the movie ends. This one is not like that. There really is a dance party after, so be prepared!
"Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing materials for their own ends. These people, they are terrorists."
And we hope we will also see you at our subsequent movie nights as well! The Crow, Thu Oct 29 (Devils' Night Eve), Scott Pilgrim, Sun Nov 22, and the greatest Christmas movie, Batman Returns, Sun Dec 20. Season Pass tickets available!
Bonnie Tyler died last month, and so the glorious "Total Eclipse of the Heart, Literal Version" by Persephone Maewyn and dascottjr was making the rounds again, dodging takedowns. (This video is a textbook case of fair use, since not only is it a parody song, but the lyrics are direct commentary on the video itself, I mean come on.) Anyway all extant copies of it are shit quality, so I reconstructed it from the official HD video plus the "literal" audio, and re-built the subtitles by hand. Immediate takedown. I appealed. A week later, some intern or chatbot at BMG said "fuck you no". Then I tried to do a counter-claim, but they wouldn't let me, because I wouldn't give them a lock of my hair first. Then... 30 days later... they're both up, and all is forgiven I guess?
Mirror them while the mirroring's good.
Salem Brought a Guillotine To Oppose New AI Data Center. Company Reps Left, Feeling "Unsafe".
Someone brought a guillotine to a city council meeting in Salem, Oregon on July 27, 2026. Not a sign shaped like one. Not a drawing. According to community accounts and social media posts, an actual guillotine structure appeared at the protest outside Loucks Auditorium, where hundreds of residents had gathered to oppose a proposed multi-billion-dollar AI data center. Company representatives reportedly assessed the scene and left, citing safety concerns -- though that detail hasn't appeared in formal news coverage or official minutes. [...]
Salem just reminded the industry that community consent isn't a formality you schedule around -- it's a variable that can stall a $5.1 billion project before a single permit clears.
Also, if you are going and we actually know each other in person, lemme know!
Planet Debian upstream is hosted by Branchable.