I wish there were more regulations (or enforcement of existing ones) in the US. What I notice too often are wooded areas destroyed for new housing developments,. After the construction ends, they plant a bunch of saplings far too close together. For some reason, evergreens are preferred around retention basins and pocket parks. Within months, about a third of the newly planted trees are dead (and left in place for a long time). It’s a waste and completely preventable.
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I was listening to Michael Geist (Prof U Ottawa 
Internet and E-commerce Law) on the radio this morning, and the answer appears to be “nothing”. 
News apparently doesn’t drive engagement at Meta, so they aren’t interested.
Google’s settlement, on the other hand, is basically what they offered a year ago. It is, sadly, not a particularly big win.
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I respect Michael Geist, but if this is the same thing as Google offered a year ago, did he explain where and how the Canadian government gave in, as both sides were coming down to their deadlines?
They do say that. I’d like to see independent confirmation, also how much advertising revenue was attached to Canadian news. They also say that all news is sour, and that they’ll be phasing it out completely. They have larger rounds coming up in their national advertising gauntlet, so they’ll say a lot of things.
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I do a lot of Federal, State, and local government work. It is usually written into the specifications that the general contractor is responsible for the trees for one year from the end of construction. Usually, they do little to insure the trees live, but come back after a year and replant them. That doesn’t seem to happen in private and multi-family projects or it isn’t enforced.
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I’d love if this holiday came with free bus rides all day.
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I hope this marks the beginning of holding elected officials accountable.
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Ha, ha, ha. Good one!
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How many indictments is Trump under?
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Kiwi birds born in New Zealand’s capital for first time in over a century
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Duke Uni libraries decamp from 37Signals’ Basecamp over CTO’s blogs
The Duke University Libraries have decided to stop using 37Signal’s Basecamp project management software after almost a decade due to public statements from the supplier’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
“We came to this decision after weighing the level of its use in our organization, which is considerable, against the harms that we see perpetuated by the leadership of Basecamp’s parent company, 37signals,” Will Sexton, the library system’s head of software, platforms, and strategies, said on Thursday.
[…]
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Senate bill aims to stop Uncle Sam using facial recognition at airports
[…]
The bipartisan Traveler Privacy Protection Act [PDF], SB 3361, was introduced this week by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and John Kennedy (R-LA), and would stop the TSA’s use of facial biometrics dead in its tracks. The bill would ban the planned expansion of the tech and repeal the TSA’s existing facial recognition authorization, as well as requiring “explicit congressional authorization” for any future trials. If passed, the bill would give the TSA just 90 days to end its use of the tech and purge all facial biometric data it has in its servers.
[…]
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What a difference an election can make.
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