Bloomberg's Tyler Cowen writes about "the erosion of personal ownership and what that will mean for our loyalties to traditional American concepts of capitalism and private property." An anonymous Slashdot reader shares the report: The main culprits for the change are software and the internet. For instance, Amazon's Kindle and other methods of online reading have revolutionized how Americans consume text. Fifteen years ago, people typically owned the books and magazines they were reading. Much less so now. If you look at the fine print, it turns out that you do not own the books on your Kindle. Amazon.com Inc. does. I do not consider this much of a practical problem. Although Amazon could obliterate the books on my Kindle, this has happened only in a very small number of cases, typically involving account abuse. Still, this licensing of e-books, instead of stacking books on a shelf, has altered our psychological sense of how we connect to what we read -- it is no longer truly "ours." The change in our relationship with physical objects does not stop there. We used to buy DVDs or video cassettes; now viewers stream movies or TV shows with Netflix. Even the company's disc-mailing service is falling out of favor. Music lovers used to buy compact discs; now Spotify and YouTube are more commonly used to hear our favorite tunes. Each of these changes is beneficial, yet I worry that Americans are, slowly but surely, losing their connection to the idea of private ownership. The nation was based on the notion that property ownership gives individuals a stake in the system. It set Americans apart from feudal peasants, taught us how property rights and incentives operate, and was a kind of training for future entrepreneurship. We're hardly at a point where American property has been abolished, but I am still nervous that we are finding ownership to be so inconvenient.

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The US under Donald Trump is keen on sanctions against other countries over a variety of issues.

Coming soon, a bookstore opens. And a theater closes.

Netflix has removed all user reviews from its site, just like they said they would in early July. Here's what Netflix now has to say about posting reviews on its site: "Netflix customers were able to leave reviews on Netflix.com until mid-2018, when reviews were removed due to declining use. To learn how Netflix suggests TV shows and movies we think you'll love, visit our Ratings & Recommendations article." Engadget reports: Netflix probably had reasons other than the section's decline in use, as well. For instance, it had to deal with issues like "review bombing" by trolls hoping to bring down a show's rating back when it used stars instead of the thumbs up-down system. Netflix might have decided that reviews don't lead to enough views to warrant spending resources on policing them. It has a "percentage match" system that suggests titles based on previous ones you've watched, after all, so there's probably very little incentive for the platform to keep the reviews section running.

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In his first televised speech, new leader pledges to cut down government spending and maintain peace with neighbours.

Some Rohingya men are increasingly getting involved in peddling yaba, a popular methamphetamine in Bangladesh.

Rolls-Royce, a British power system company (not to be confused with the luxury automobile maker), is launching a new battery system to electrify ships. "Rolls-Royce now offers SAVe Energy, a cost competitive, highly efficient and liquid cooled battery system with a modular design that enables the product to scale according to energy and power requirements," the company said in a statement. "SAVe Energy comply with international legislations for low and zero emission propulsion systems." Electrek reports: The company has been working on battery systems for years, but the recent improvements in li-ion batteries are now resulting in a boom of electrification of ships. Andreas Seth, Rolls-Royce, EVP Electrical, Automation and Control for Commercial Marine, said the company expects to deploy more batteries next year than they did over the last 8 years combined: "The electrification of ships is building momentum. From 2010 we have delivered battery systems representing about 15 MWh in total. However now the potential deployment of our patent pending SAVe Energy in 2019 alone is 10-18 MWh." Seth said that they are delivering the first system to Prestfjord as part of Norway's effort to electrify its maritime transport: "Battery systems have become a key component of our power and propulsions systems, and SAVe Energy is being introduced on many of the projects we are currently working on. This includes the upgrade programme for Hurtigruten's cruise ferries, the advanced fishing vessel recently ordered by Prestfjord and the ongoing retrofits of offshore support vessels. As a system provider we can find the best solution considering both installation and operational cost."

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I refuse to believe that Giuliani can make news. He's a nobody. If you report on what he said, what that make you?

It would be great to have a daily website that summarizes what's on each of the MSNBC shows, so I don't have to watch them. Each segment on each show. Any new information or ideas makes it in. Omit recitals of previous optics. I don't care what pundits think. Same for each of the Sunday morning shows. I just don't have the patience. If I had to list something I learned from any stretch of MSNBC-watching, I might learn one thing every week and that's it. Most of the stuff they report as news is what has appeared in my RSS river during the day. Please go ahead and put ads on the site. Or ask for donations via Patreon. It's worth a few bucks a month, also because it will force MSNBC to change, to stop being so repetitive, and to start taking a look at news more broadly than just how the legal case against Trump is proceeding or not. There is other stuff going on, and there are other ideas that need exploring. They are deep in a pointless rut.

Dexguard, a tool used to protect Android software from piracy, tampering and cloning attacks, has been removed after being illegally posted on Github. A version of the tool exposed on the code repository was stolen from a customer of Guardsquare, the software's creator. TorrentFreak reports: "We develop premium software for the protection of mobile applications against reverse engineering and hacking," the [security company Guardsquare's] website reads. "Our products are used across the world in a broad range of industries, from financial services, e-commerce and the public sector to telecommunication, gaming and media." One of Guardsquare's products is Dexguard, a tool to protect Android applications from being decompiled, something that can lead to piracy, credential harvesting, tampering and cloning. Unfortunately, a version of Dexguard itself ended up on Github. In a takedown notice filed with the Microsoft-owned code platform, Guardsquare explains that the code is unauthorized and was obtained illegally. "The listed folders... contain an older version of our commercial obfuscation software (DexGuard) for Android applications. The folder is part of a larger code base that was stolen from one of our former customers," Guardsquare writes. Guardsquare found almost 300 "forks" of the stolen software on Github and filed a request to have them all taken down.

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Extra troops to be deployed after Brazilians drive migrants back home over robbery and stabbing blamed on Venezuelans.

Social and economic isolation of the Iranian people makes it even easier for hardliners to hold on to power.

Death toll since end of May reaches 370, as fishermen aid rescue operations for the southern state's 'worst floods'.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess was told about the existence of cheating software in cars two months before regulators blew the whistle on a multi-billion exhaust emissions scandal, German magazine Der Spiegel said. Der Spiegel's story, based on recently unsealed documents from the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, raises questions about whether VW informed investors in a timely manner about the scope of a scandal which it said has cost it more than $27 billion in penalties and fines. Responding to the magazine report, the carmaker reiterated on Saturday that the management board had not violated its disclosure duties, and had decided to not inform investors earlier because they had failed to grasp the scope of the potential fines and penalties. Citing documents unsealed by the Braunschweig prosecutor's office, Der Spiegel said Diess was present at a meeting on July 27, 2015 when senior engineers and executives discussed how to deal with U.S. regulators, who were threatening to ban VW cars because of excessive pollution levels. Diess, who had defected from BMW to become head of the VW brand on July 1, 2015, joined the July 27 meeting with Volkswagen's then Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn to discuss how to convince regulators that VW's cars could be sold, a VW defense document filed with a court in Braunschweig in February, shows.

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Following a surge in violence in Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani calls for a three-month truce with the Taliban.