Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Multifactor models reveal worse picture of climate change impact on marine life

Rising ocean temperatures have long been linked to negative impacts for marine life, but a team has recently found that the long-term outlook for many marine species is much more complex -- and possibly bleaker -- than scientists previously believed.

Brave new world: Simple changes in intensity of weather events 'could be lethal'

Faced with extreme weather events and unprecedented environmental change, animals and plants are scrambling to catch up -- with mixed results. A new model helps to predict the types of changes that could drive a given species to extinction.

Senate Antitrust Hearing Explores Big Tech’s Merger Mania

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Rights held a hearing last week to explore the competitive impacts of big tech companies’ massive string of mergers with smaller companies in the last handful of years. Before the Senate committee were experts in venture capital spending, the Federal Trade Commission (the agency tasked with merger reviews), and legal experts in antitrust law. 

EFF believes a hard look and update of mergers and acquisitions policy is one of many actions needed to preserve the life cycle of competition that has been a hallmark of the Internet. In the past, the Internet was a place where a bright idea by someone with modest resources was able to be leveraged from their home into the next big innovation. We have lost track of that as a small number of corporations now control a vast array of Internet products and services we all depend on and now appear to have formed a kill zone around their markets where the incumbents target the new entrants through an acquisition or substitution by the incumbent.

Mergers With Big Tech Have Been Pervasive 

What is undeniable is that big tech companies have engaged in a massive number of mergers over the years. In testimony provided by the American Antitrust Institute’s (AAI) witness Dr. Diana Moss, the number of mergers engaged in by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple are not only prolific but have been on the rise year after year (see below AAI's chart). And yet, big tech mergers according to AAI’s research faced fewer actually challenges from the government than other sectors of the economy. A variety of reasons were brought forth by the witnesses such as the inability of the law to properly screen Big Tech mergers that typically include a substantially smaller company being acquired or just that the impact on competition and innovation were not apparent at the time.

Market Dominance by Big Tech Has Changed Startups and Venture Capitalists

Securing investment from venture capitalists has been a major factor for startups getting off the ground and becoming major corporations. This is because launching a startup is inherently risky, so investment is assessed on risk factors. We actually have some compelling evidence that shows a relationship between risk and investment, one study showed reducing copyright liability in cloud computing increased investment by potentially up to a billion dollars in cloud computing startups. As committee witness Patricia Nakache, herself a General Partner at a venture capital firm with extensive experience in launching startups, noted, they fail on average three out of four times. With an already low odds of success, the added pressure of incumbents dominating a handful of markets has raised the bar for startups raising money when they seek to challenge the dominant players.

Arguably one of the most troubling issues the committee witnesses raised with the Senate Judiciary Committee is the fact that mergers and acquisitions are now seen as a primary driving force to securing initial investment to launch a startup. In other words, how attractive your company is to a big tech acquisition is now arguably the primary reason a startup gets funded. This makes sense because ultimately these venture capital firms are interested in making money and if the main source of profit in the technology sector is derived from mergers with big tech, as opposed to competing with them, the investment dollars will flow that way. This has not happened in a vacuum though, but rather is further evidence that antitrust law is in dire need of an update because lax enforcement has changed investment behavior.

The Lack of Competition Today is Not Frozen in Stone

The United States has been here before. The very existence of our antitrust laws and competition policy in other business sectors have sprung forth as a response to a less than adequate competitive landscape. In fact, antitrust law and competition law played integral roles in the telecommunications market where the then the world’s largest corporation, AT&T, was converted from a regulated monopoly into a regulated competitive market years later. But policymakers gathering a strong understanding of the market’s structure is a necessary first step and EFF will continue to support Congressional efforts to explore ways to improve competition in the Internet marketplace.

 

A new, natural wax coating that makes garments water-resistant and breathable

Researchers have made a non-toxic coating solution with wax obtained from Brazilian palm tree leaves.

Prosecutor in Trump-Ukraine Scandal Refused to Cooperate With US Congress

In May 2018, the New York Times broke a significant story about Ukraine that did not receive great attention at the time: The nation’s chief prosecutor had halted cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation and had essentially shut down four Ukrainian criminal inquiries related to Mueller’s work. Ukrainian lawmakers said their government took these steps […]

Trump’s Buddy Chris Collins Just Resigned From Congress

Hours after reports emerged that Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was expected to plead guilty to insider trading charges, the Daily Beast broke the news that Collins had resigned his seat on Monday. Several other outlets, including the Washington Post, confirmed that the four-term congressman had stepped down.  Collins’ departure from the House marks an inglorious end to […]

Nina Turner, Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Chair, Led Charge for Education Reform as Ohio Legislator

Nina Turner said she’s “definitely evolved” since her time in the Ohio state Senate, but she remains proud of pro-charter policies she helped pass.

The post Nina Turner, Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Chair, Led Charge for Education Reform as Ohio Legislator appeared first on The Intercept.

A new concept could make more environmentally friendly batteries possible

A new concept for an aluminium battery has twice the energy density as previous versions, is made of abundant materials, and could lead to reduced production costs and environmental impact. The idea has potential for large scale applications, including storage of solar and wind energy.

How Have Health Workers Won Improvements to Patient Care? Strikes.

On September 20, 2,200 nurses represented by the National Nurses United (NNU) went on a one-day strike at the University of Chicago Medical Center. The Chicago nurses were protesting unsafe working conditions and forced overtime—and had been in contract negotiations with the hospital for months. The Medical Center has just spent $269 million on a hospital expansion that it, insists, represents an “ investment to improve our community's health.”

Why the Labor Strike Is Back

The largest private sector strike in more than a decade is now in its third week. The walkout of more than 49,000 General Motors auto workers comes on the heels of a series of successful strikes by workers around the country—teachers and nurses and beyond. Though it had fallen out of favor, the strike—the most […]

Look into Our Crystal Ball...

Future impeachment inquiry testimonies.

And on the Eighth Day...

God unveils his latest and best project.

The Biden Campaign Is Demanding That TV Execs Stop Booking Guiliani

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is reportedly asking television news executives to not book Rudy Guiliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, on their channels. The Biden campaign sent out an unusual letter on Sunday morning addressed to top TV news executives and prominent anchors. The letter, written by two top Biden advisers, said Guiliani’s repeated spread of disinformation about […]

A New Poll Shows a Majority of Americans Approve of Trump Impeachment Inquiry

A majority of Americans approve of House Democrats’ pursuit of a formal impeachment inquiry, according to a new CBS poll conducted by YouGov. The poll, which was published on Sunday morning, found that 55 percent of the survey participants supported an impeachment inquiry. Of those, 35 percent said they strongly support it and 20 percent said they somewhat approve. Forty-five […]

Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow: “We’ve Got to Get on Top of This Thing”

Right before he went on CBS to defend the president and attack his critics, I overheard Trump's lawyer talking on the phone in a TV green room.

The post Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow: “We’ve Got to Get on Top of This Thing” appeared first on The Intercept.

If You Are Black and in a Mental Health Crisis, 911 Can Be a Death Sentence

There's a pattern of black families calling the police for a relative in a mental health crisis -- and the police then kill that person.

The post If You Are Black and in a Mental Health Crisis, 911 Can Be a Death Sentence appeared first on The Intercept.

Some Indigenous Communities Have a New Way to Fight Climate Change: Give Personhood Rights to Nature

This story was originally published by High Country News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This summer, the Yurok Tribe declared rights of personhood for the Klamath River—likely the first to do so for a river in North America. A concept previously restricted to humans (and corporations), “rights of personhood” means, most simply, that […]

Greta: Grown-Ups Mock Children Because World View Threatened https://prismo.xyz/posts/7a276fe2-e2d9-40f0-aeb4-226c394832de

Why Greta Thunberg Says We Have 8 Years To Stop Catastrophe
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/greta-thunberg-carbon-dioxide-numbers_ca_5d8e86b6e4b0ac3cdda8cd40 #climatechange #climatecrisis