California earthquake leaves scar on the desert BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition(cached at July 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

Satellite pictures shows how the 7.1 magnitude earthquake changed the landscape.
Affordable Care Act: US court to weigh its constitutionality AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

Court to decide if Congress effectively invalidated ACA when it zeroed out the tax imposed on those without insurance.
Inching away from Saudi-UAE axis, Jordan restores ties with Qatar AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

Qatar hosts tens of thousands of skilled Jordanian workers whose remittances help the faltering economy back home.
Mobile internet access slowly restored in Sudan AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

Access to the service was interrupted following a deadly crackdown on protesters outside the army headquarters in June.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warns Iran as nuclear deal unravels AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

Netanyahu issues threat to the regional rival amid heightened uncertainty over future of the historic 2015 agreement.
Mozilla Blocks UAE Bid To Become an Internet Security Guardian After Hacking Reports Slashdotby msmash on mozilla at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 9, 2019, 11:05 pm)

Firefox browser maker Mozilla is blocking the United Arab Emirates' government from serving as one of its internet security gatekeepers, citing Reuters reports on a UAE cyber espionage program. From a report: Mozilla said in a statement on Tuesday it was rejecting the UAE's bid to become a globally recognized internet security watchdog, empowered to certify the safety of websites for Firefox users. Mozilla said it made the decision because cybersecurity firm DarkMatter would have administered the gatekeeper role and it had been linked by Reuters and other reports to a state-run hacking program. Reuters reported in January that Abu Dhabi-based DarkMatter provided staff for a secret hacking operation, codenamed Project Raven, on behalf of an Emirati intelligence agency. The unit was largely comprised of former U.S. intelligence officials who conducted offensive cyber operations for the UAE government. Former Raven operatives told Reuters that many DarkMatter executives were unaware of the secretive program, which operated from a converted Abu Dhabi mansion away from DarkMatter's headquarters.

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Raspberry Pi Admits To Faulty USB-C Design On the Pi 4 Slashdotby BeauHD on power at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 9, 2019, 10:34 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Raspberry Pi 4 was announced two weeks ago as a major new upgrade to the line of cheap single-board hobbyist computers. The Pi 4 featured a faster CPU, options for up to 4GB of RAM, and a new, modern USB-C port for power delivery. The Pi 4 was the Raspberry Pi Foundation's first ever USB-C device, and, well, they screwed it up. As detailed by Tyler Ward, the Raspberry Pi 4 has a non-compliant USB-C charging port and doesn't work with as many chargers as it should. Thanks to the open nature of Raspberry Pi (even the schematics are online!), Ward was able to discover that Raspberry Pi just didn't design its USB-C port correctly. Two "CC" pins on a USB-C port are supposed to each get their own 5.1K ohms resistor, but Raspberry Pi came up with its own circuit design that allows them to share a single resistor. This is not a compliant design and breaks compatibility with some of the more powerful USB-C chargers out there. Whether your USB-C charger works with the Pi 4 has to do with whether it uses an "e-marked" cable. E-marked cables are fully featured USB-C cables with chips inside that negotiate power management, accessory modes, data rates, and other communication specs. Since the Pi 4 USB-C port is wired incorrectly, these smart cables will detect the Pi 4 as an "Audio Adaptor Accessory" and refuse to charge them. Usually, e-marked cables are more expensive and come with larger, higher-powered items, like a USB-C laptop. After reports started popping up on the Internet, Raspberry Pi cofounder Eben Upton admitted to TechRepublic that "A smart charger with an e-marked cable will incorrectly identify the Raspberry Pi 4 as an audio adapter accessory and refuse to provide power." Upton went on to say, "I expect this will be fixed in a future board revision, but for now users will need to apply one of the suggested workarounds. It's surprising this didn't show up in our (quite extensive) field testing program."

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UK media's portrayal of Muslims 'misleading and negative': study AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 10:30 pm)

A first of its kind study finds the British media contributing to Islamophobia by giving a negative coverage on Muslims.
Has Israel's wall brought security? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 10:30 pm)

Israel's separation wall still stands and continues to affect the lives of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Iraq government employees face prosecution for working under ISIL AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 10:30 pm)

From teachers to doctors, those forced to serve during ISIL's occupation of Iraq face up to 20 years in prison.
WarnerMedia Announces HBO Max, Its Netflix Rival That Will Launch Next Year Slashdotby msmash on movies at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 9, 2019, 10:05 pm)

There's HBO Go, HBO Now, and soon, there will be HBO Max. For WarnerMedia and parent company AT&T, the latter is most important, as it will become the subscription video service that they position against Netflix, Hulu, the upcoming Disney+, Apple's upcoming TV+, and a range of other paid video offerings. From a report: "Anchored with and inspired by the legacy of HBO's excellence and award-winning storytelling, the new service will be 'Maximized' with an extensive collection of exclusive original programming (Max Originals) and the best-of-the-best from WarnerMedia's enormous portfolio of beloved brands and libraries," the company wrote in a press release today. (The emphasis there is from WarnerMedia, of course.) So you'll get all the stuff you'd expect from having HBO -- TV series, on-demand movies, watching some primetime HBO shows live -- plus a huge serving of content from basically every other WarnerMedia property. More relevant to you is that WarnerMedia also confirmed that HBO Max will have exclusive streaming rights to every episode of Friends when it launches in spring 2020; that'll be after the hugely popular sitcom departs Netflix. Friends is set to leave in 2019, so there might be a gap where the show disappears from streaming altogether until HBO Max's debut.

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Ross Perot, Founder and Former CEO of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems, Die Slashdotby BeauHD on business at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 9, 2019, 10:05 pm)

Ross Perot, a self-made billionaire, independent presidential candidate, and philanthropist, has died at the age of 89 after a five-month battle with leukemia. Perot rose to fame after founding his first company, Electronic Data Systems, in 1962 with just $1,000 in savings. More than two decades later, he launched information technology services provider Perot Systems, which was acquired in 2009 by Dell for $3.9 billion. CNBC reports on his political accomplishments: As a disruptive third-party candidate for president, Perot ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and protectionism. He won nearly 19% of the vote in the 1992 race -- by far the biggest slice of the electorate for a third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in the 1912 election. Perot stood out from the political crowd for his quirks as much as his business credentials and lack of experience in establishment politics. "I don't have any experience in running up a $4 trillion debt. I don't have any experience in gridlock government, where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else," he said in a 1992 presidential debate. The shifting of U.S. jobs to Mexico created a "giant sucking sound," he famously said during the campaign. Perot was also a bit of a pack rat, collecting everything from whimsical toys to priceless artifacts. Perot owned the only Magna Carta ever allowed to leave Great Britain, which he loaned to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and in 2007, sold it for $20 million.

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Who are the 2020 US Democratic presidential candidates? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 10:01 pm)

The pool of candidates vying for their party's nomination in 2020 is among the largest and most diverse in US history.
Saudi princess on trial in France for beating by bodyguard AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 9, 2019, 10:01 pm)

Hassa bint Salman accused of ordering bodyguard to beat up a worker who took a photo inside her posh Paris apartment.
LinkedIn and the Art of Boastful Self-Promotion Slashdotby msmash on social at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 9, 2019, 9:34 pm)

Harry Barnes runs a Twitter account called The State of LinkedIn with more than 100,000 followers. On it, he tweets a curated selection of the most egotistical, self-unaware, jargon-ridden posts from LinkedIn members [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. From a report: Recent gems range from the boastful "You call it luck, I call it 80 hours a week", to the baffling "How easy is it to hire me? I interviewed myself", as well as the awful-wonderful morning routine which begins "I wake up. Instantly. From the fogginess of dreams, to the readiness of full consciousness..." Humble brags, including Mr Barnes's favourite, in which a man is pictured playing pool while a supercar just happens to be parked in the background, also feature regularly. Mr Barnes, who has worked in social media but runs the account as a hobby, says the idea is to poke fun at the ridiculous world of workplace self-promotion, rather than individuals. "All the content is sent to me," he says. "I don't trawl LinkedIn looking for it." Mr Barnes is not the only one enjoying the lighter side of LinkedIn. There is also the @CrapOnLinkedIn Twitter feed and parody LinkedIn accounts, such as the "demotivational speaker" Mike Winnet. Unlike other social networks, however, humour is not the norm for LinkedIn, which has always been a more grown-up, professional place. For better or for worse, that may be changing.

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