Since 2003 Vox Media has been covering California's sports on its SB Nation blogs largely with independent contractors. But they're making big changes to comply with a new California law targetting companies in the gig economy, according to the Los Angeles Times: Vox Media will end contracts with about 200 people, including non-California freelancers who cover teams based in the state, and replace them with 20 new part-time and full-time staffers, according to a source familiar with the decision... In a memo to 2,000 SB Nation contractors scattered across the country -- most of whom will not be affected by the changes -- Ness explained that, under the law, California freelance writers can maintain their status as independent contractors only if they submit no more than 35 pieces per year. Given the pace of sports blogging, many of the writers producing work for SB Nation's California blogs would easily hit that benchmark, the source said. Ness wrote in the memo that California contractors were encouraged to apply for full-time or part-time positions. For those who do not snag a job but want to keep contributing, Ness wrote that "they need to understand they will not be paid for future contributions." The changes will also affect Curbed and Eater, two other Vox Media sites that employ a handful of freelancers in the state... AB 5 was hailed as a victory by many Uber, Lyft and DoorDash workers who have protested slashed wages and arbitrary terminations, but it has brought fear for some who worry the law means they will have less flexibility in the hours they can work and restrict their ability to work for multiple platforms... Freelancers also have voiced fears that AB 5 will discourage employers from hiring Californians to avoid additional paperwork and legal liabilities that come with the law, and smaller newspapers and websites may not have the resources to convert freelancers to staff members.

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US Secretary of State says Moscow and Beijing have 'blood on hands' for blocking aid deliveries from Turkey and Iraq.

The Reds defeat Flamengo 1-0 in extra time in the final in Doha for a maiden title at the global club tournament.

Five people suspected of burning down four mosques in the region have been arrested, a regional spokesman says.

International Criminal Court seeks to open investigation into war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinians.

"An eight-year-old boy who reviews toys on YouTube has been named by Forbes as the platform's highest earner in 2019," reports CNN: Ryan Kaji, whose channel Ryan's World has 22.9 million subscribers, earned $26 million in 2019 -- up $4 million from his earnings in 2018, when he also gained the highest-earning YouTuber spot... Another child, Anastasia Radzinskaya, five, came in third place with earnings of $18 million. Radzinskaya, who was born in southern Russia and has cerebral palsy, appears in videos with her father. According to Forbes, she has 107 million subscribers across seven channels and her videos have been watched 42 billion times.... Dude Perfect -- a group of five friends in their thirties who play sports and perform stunts -- came in second place, earning $20 million. YouTube has announced that next year it will stop personalized advertisements on children's content. This comes after Google agreed to pay $170 million to settle accusations that YouTube broke the law when it knowingly tracked and sold ads targeted to children.

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Regional security and integration dominate agenda as heads of states from across West Africa meet for the ECOWAS summit.

b-dayyy shared this article from Linux Security: The United States government's respect for and acceptance of open-source development has steadily grown stronger over the past decade, and the U.S. government is increasingly using open-source software as a way to roll out advanced, highly secure technology in an economical manner. On August 8, 2016, the White House CIO released a Federal Source Code Policy that calls for new software to be built, shared, and adapted using open-source methods to capitalize on code that is "secure, reliable, and effective in furthering our national objectives." The United States Department of Defense recognizes the key benefits associated with open-source development and trusts Linux as its operating system. In fact, the U.S. Army is the single largest installed base for Red Hat Linux and the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux, including their sonar systems. Moreover, the Department of Defense just recently enlisted Red Hat, Inc., the world's largest provider of open-source solutions, to help improve squadron operations and flight training. In a comment on the original submission, long-time Slashdot reader bobs666 remembers setting up Minix 30 years ago "for running email for a part of the U.S. Army. It's too bad the stupid people made me stop working on the project." But the world may be changing. The article notes that Linux has now already been certified to meet the three different security certifications required by the United States Department of Defense.

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Parliament has announced new measures aimed at alleviating debt crisis, as inflation and poverty levels rise.

"India has been aggressively pivoting away from coal-fired power plants and towards electricity generated by solar, wind, and hydroelectric power," writes the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Lasrick shared their report: The reasons for this change are complex and interlocking, but one aspect in particular seems to stand out: The price for solar electricity has been in freefall, to levels so low they were once thought impossible. For example, since 2017, one solar energy company has been generating electricity in the Indian state of Rajasthan at the unheard-of, guaranteed wholesale price of 2.44 rupees per kilowatt-hour, or 3 U.S. cents. (In comparison, the average price for electricity in the United States is presently about 13.19 cents per kilowatt-hour, and some locations in the country pay far more....) Consequently, with this massive reduction in the cost of renewables, India is able to shift away from the world's dirtiest fossil fuel, and to much cleaner sources. While western countries continue to baulk at reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, India is accelerating its plans to lock in a sustained, aggressive reduction in the carbon emissions intensity of its economy. In fact, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, is targeting a fivefold expansion of the electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2030 -- and this from a country that has already doubled its renewable energy in the past three years. This means that India is committed to more than meeting the goals of its national contributions in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement; it is going to "overdeliver," in the parlance of economists... What's more, the Indian government's plans include a progressive expansion of electric vehicles, putting the country on a path to progressively reduce reliance on expensive, high emissions oil imports.... As India benefits from the shift to domestic renewable energy, other emerging market nations are watching, keen to leverage the same benefits for their own countries. And therein lies a key path to global decarbonization and a much-needed solution to limit global warming.

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Ankara backs internationally-recognised Libyan government as it fights offensive by renegade commander Haftar's forces.

pgmrdlm tipped us off to an unprecedented scientific phenomenon. Forbes writes: Earth's magnetic north pole has been moving East at an unusually fast pace, heading from the Canadian Arctic toward Russia. The rapid change of the magnetic poles has caused concern over navigation, GPS systems, military operations, etc. The northern magnetic pole has been drifting toward Russia at a speed of 34 miles per year (55 kilometers per year) but has slowed recently to 25 miles per year (40 kilometers per year). Popular Mechanics writes: The magnetic poles have drifted and entirely changed places dozens of times in Earth's history, but this time it seems to be happening very fast, and within a shorter overall time interval than it did in prehistory... [S]witches happened thousands or millions of years apart and took thousands of years for the poles to physically move enough to switch. This is the first time scientists are observing drifting magnetic field activity in real time and measuring the rate of change as well.

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A new empassioned piece about RSS and Google Reader goes over the top, accusing Google of murdering RSS, when RSS is out and about, earning a good living providing news to millions of people. It certainly isn't what Mr McKinley says it is. But I do appreciate the sentiment. He's right that people are crazy when they miss Google Reader, it's like missing the pet fox your friend let sleep in your hen house. Google was very bad news for RSS.

Then I started thinking of other things Google Reader is like.

• An oil spill by Exxon in virgin Alaskan wilderness.
• A nuclear meltdown in the city you live in a suburb of.
• A neighbor who runs a crack factory down the block from an elementary school.

I may add items to the list.

It's fun to hate Google Reader, but it's over my friend, and we are free to do whatever we like. Enjoy the holidays knowing that Google Reader is dead, RSS is fine.

I used to, every year, name a Blogger of the Year. I wanted to keep the idea alive, that amateur writing has a place on the web. The last couple of years my focus has been elsewhere, even though in 2017, I took a fresh approach to my own blog, with imho excellent results.

I don't have a choice for this year.

If you have a favorite blogger, perhaps a blog that goes with a favorite podcast, please add a link to this thread.

Here's to another great year in 2020, and remember it's even worse than it appears.

jmcbain writes: In a blog post last week, Dan Amman, the CEO of Cruise Automation (General Motors' electric self-driving car division), laments the pollution, waste of space, accidents, and cost of cars as we know them today. He says "here we are, living in a state of cognitive dissonance with exactly this — the human-driven, gasoline-powered, single-occupant car — as our primary mode of transportation." He notes that public transportation is still useful but ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are only contributing to the problem. He says the only way moving forward is self-driving cars. Amman argues in our current system, "Most of the time, the equipment will sit unused, occupying prime real estate and driving up housing costs." And in addition,"If you're young, old, or living with a disability, then you can't use it." He also points out that traffic accidents are still the leading cause of death for 5- to 29-year olds, and concludes that ultimately "the status quo of transportation is broken."

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