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Submission + - Public inquiry 'clouded Letby's innocence'

Mirnotoriety writes: Letby’s lawyer: Public inquiry ‘clouded by her innocence’

The findings of the Thirlwall Inquiry will be clouded by Lucy Letby's innocence, her barrister has said.

On Tuesday, Lady Justice Thirlwall will publish the long-awaited report into how the NHS and other institutions could have prevented Letby from killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.

But large numbers of medical and legal experts have questioned Letby's guilt and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is deciding whether to send her case back to the Court of Appeal.

At the outset of the inquiry in 2024, Lady Justice Thirlwall emphasised that the inquiry's remit was not to retry the case or review Letby's guilt.

She refused Mr McDonald's request for Letby to be represented in the £18m hearing ..

Submission + - Lawsuit challenges intimidation of DHS observers across the country (npr.org)

joshuark writes: NPR reports that a new lawsuit follows a handful of other cases brought by observers arguing First Amendment violations, but it is the most sweeping to date, as it includes incidents from multiple states and seeks national relief. It is asking a judge in Washington, D.C. to bar federal agencies from intimidating or retaliating against observers.

"The right of citizens to criticize and hold our government accountable is the backbone of American democracy – and it is under attack," Common Cause's vice president for litigation, Maryam Jazini Dorcheh, told NPR. "We want to make sure we're promoting participation in the political process. And obviously, if government officials are criminalizing peaceful observation, that hinders our mission," Jazini Dorcheh said.

The lawsuit describes disturbing encounters seven Common Cause members had with federal officers in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey after trying to observe immigration enforcement. They include being photographed, followed, reported to police, pepper-sprayed or threatened with a visit to their home by federal officers. Federal officers did show up at one Common Cause member's Minnesota home.

NPR did not receive an immediate response from DHS or DOJ about the lawsuit's allegations. The FBI declined to comment.

Comment Re: A different kind of security (Score 1) 62

Hah, now see, I left some keywords in my last post you would have picked up on if had done national security work (at least connected to one of the bigger players).

That Wikipedia page is severely out of date. For instance, it quotes Hayden as NSA director talking about "Cray" computers. Hayden hasn't held a position in maybe 20 years, and his last position was as DCIA! US Intel is very, very aware of the computational and hacking abilities of China, North Korea, and others.

Submission + - Face recognition goes wrong in a supermarket (theguardian.com)

Bruce66423 writes: 'Sainsbury’s has paused the use of AI face scanning in one of its stores after a customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and ejected from the shop.

'“I was embarrassed, mortified even, and felt quite humiliated and powerless,” Matt Arnold, 46, said of his ordeal.

'The comedy promoter was buying supplies in the store in East Dulwich, in south-east London, for a standup event at Dulwich Hamlet football club when, after scanning his items and a Nectar card, he was approached by two managers who told him he could not be served owing to an earlier incident. He was then asked to leave and they tried to escort him from the store.

'As he left, he saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face. He asked the shop staff to keep his shopping in the trolley so his friend could come and pick up the supplies for the comedy night happening soon next door.

“I think they were quite confused by this, understandably, but agreed and my colleague Dave went in to pay for and pick up the shop about five minutes later. There was no pause for thought from the staff, no suggestion that they understood this is not how a shoplifter would behave. Just blindly following the machine’s orders.”

'Sainsbury’s head office apologised to Arnold the next day and has paused use of its AI-assisted Facewatch technology in the store while an investigation takes place.

Comment Re: A different kind of security (Score 1) 62

> Indeed. The Chinese also know that publishing a story about a found backdoor in their software would be a great exploit for the US and hence they know that the US is looking. Strangely, nothing has been found so far. Or rather very obviously, nothing has been found and the whole thing is nothing but lies.

Or maybe, just maybe, when the Chinese AND the Americans IC agencies find exploits and backdoors in the other's countries, they keep them quiet and monitor, save for later, watch other people exploit, etc.

Maybe, when 3-letter agencies in McClean and elsewhere catch incursions, they monitor them closely, analyze their tactics and techniques, and contain. It's a pretty Byzantine system, but that's modern spycraft.

Submission + - It's Not Just RAM: Windows Licenses Are Also Pushing Up PC Prices (cnet.com) 1

joshuark writes: Several sites that closely follow Microsoft news, including Windows Central and Windows Latest, have published articles citing a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News that claims some PC manufacturers are seeing a 7% to 10% increase in the cost of Windows 11 licenses.

PC makers pay for Windows as part of their OEM, or original equipment manufacturer, costs. Because they buy licenses in bulk, they get a sizeable discount over what a consumer would pay for a new copy of Windows 11. But given the existing cost pressures from other components, a big Windows 11 price hike could lead them to pass on some of the added cost to PC buyers. According to the EDN story, PC makers could raise prices by about 5% over the next quarter due to the reported Windows price hike.

OEM pricing for Windows varies by company and even by the type of processor being used in the computer. Two of the largest PC makers in the region, Asus and Acer, already confirmed PC price increases earlier this year. In the case of Asus, the PC price increase was 30% for Taiwan.

While Windows 10 users were given Windows 11 as a free upgrade, for consumers who aren’t OEM manufacturers, the cost of the operating system is $139 for the Home version and $200 for the Pro version.

A representative for Microsoft declined to comment on the report.

Comment Re:Landfills are such a bad idea (Score 1) 183

Family member who lives there is a Environmental Studies professor. He uses his own trash/garbage pickup as a case study for students to calculate vehicle wear+tear, ROAD wear+tear, impact on traffic through the area, transportation-related CO2 emissions, and so forth.

Not that it's a shocker, but yeah, tl;dr, privatizing garbage is a ridiculously bad idea.

Comment Re:Landfills are such a bad idea (Score 1) 183

Yeah...we just throw all that stuff in the "regular" trash and they haul it away.

Where you live, do the garbage men actually slow down and stop their jobs to "inspect" your trash, open up bags, etc...to see what you are throwing away in there?

Hah--funny! No, needless to say, they do not. I have had a sticker put on my rolling recycle bin before saying that it was picked for a random inspection to make sure we're only putting recyclables in there, and threatening fines and penalties, but that's it.

I also read up on my city's solid waste quarterly reports, and the vast majority of what goes in recycle bins ends up going to a landful. It's a pitiful fraction, especially for plastics. So, I just through those away. I do dispose of some kinds of batteries and other ewaste specially.

Single stream recycling is about 90% performative theater. Other kids of recycling are like 80% performative.

Comment Re:Landfills are such a bad idea (Score 1) 183

If not where do you life they don't do this in the US? Are you somewhere extremely rural?

I've never heard of anyone in modern times having to haul their own track to a dump.

It's very common outside of suburban and urban areas. I like in a large suburban/urban area and I have to go to the dump for certain kinds of waste (batteries, UPSes, eWaste, etc). We have municipal compost/recycling/yard waste/trash.

Also pretty common in mountainous areas to take your waste either to a transfer station or a dump.

I have relatives in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities. They have to buy private trash and recycling service. The end result is every week 3-4 different "brands" of recycling trucks go rumbling down their small area, and 3-4 trash trucks do the same.

Comment Still kinks to work out (Score 1) 46

I'm very happy that Apple is including a VPN for "normies." I see a lot of traffic to sites I manage coming from iCloud private relay blocks, and the demographic is teens and twenty somethings.

Having said that, for me, it's a bit mixed. Things get confused when running my OpenVPN or Wireguard split DNS vpn with--and sometimes without--iCloud relay. There are also some OS network-specific settings that involve blocking trackers that impact things too. Safari is kind of "special" in terms of how it looks at networks and DNS as compared to base *nix utilities or Chrome/Firefox. I'm still entirely on macOS 15 (skipping macOS 26, we'll see about 27), and the situation has gotten much better since early OS levels.

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