Day: January 6, 2025

Opinion | Will Trump face the next pandemic? Biden should act now.  The Washington Post
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Starring Omar Rodríguez-López, Cedric Bixler-Zavala
BY Ian GormelyPublished Jan 6, 2025
Relationships are hard. Friends, family, lovers, acquaintances — none of it comes without effort on both sides. “People think that love is supposed to be this magical thing,” says Omar Rodríguez-López in the documentary Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird. “No. It’s like any other thing in life. You have to work at it constantly. You have to communicate.”
Chronicling the lifelong and often turbulent creative relationship between Rodríguez-López and frequent bandmate Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the film goes beyond the old “band as marriage” cliché. Using reams of footage shot by Rodríguez-López since he was a child, with him and Bixler-Zavala providing voiceovers, director Nicolas Jack Davies — who’s made music docs on everyone from Take That to Gorillaz — digs deep into the musicians’ clear love and admiration for one another.
Yet their relationship hasn’t always been an easy one. Friends since recognizing one another as fellow outsiders in El Paso, TX’s primarily white punk rock scene, they made a pact in the early days of the duo’s first band, At the Drive-In, to prioritize friendship over career — a promise reflected in the film’s subtitle. Yet, the band’s explosive success put those two concepts at odds. With tensions worsened by frequent drug use, At the Drive-In imploded and splintered into two new groups: Sparta, featuring Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar, and the Mars Volta, anchored by Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala.
The Mars Volta freed the two of expectations and provided the ideal vehicle for Rodríguez-López’s boundless creativity, but their success was haunted by the overdose death of sound manipulator Jeremy Ward. Bixler-Zavala eventually turned to Scientology to help deal with his grief, but after the organization drove a wedge between the two, convincing the singer that his creative partner was a “suppressive person,” Bixler-Zavala called it quits.
If This Gets Weird is a treat for At the Drive-In and Mars Volta fans, featuring plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, including the recording of ATDI’s seminal swan song Relationship of Command. But the film isn’t designed as hagiography or an opportunity to relitigate ATDI’s break-up.
Still, Ward in particular draws the duo’s ire, both in his disregard for Rodríguez-López’s mental health in At the Drive-In’s final days and the band’s decision to fire him from their reunion. Yet even as the other creative force in ATDI, the guitarist’s side of the story is missing here. Despite the film’s title, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is ultimately Rodríguez-López’s version of the story — it’s his footage after all. We might hear Bixler-Zavala’s take, but we’re seeing things from Rodríguez-López perspective.
However slanted it might be, the two do appear to be on the same page in their contemporary narration. The film’s final third, where they touch on their relationships with their partners while repairing their own connection, rather than the music that they’ve made together, provides the most emotionally moving portion. By finding a through-line outside of the music, Davies elevates the movie beyond a blow-by-blow of their careers, humanizing two of the 21st century’s most talented rock outsiders.
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Bitcoin (BTC) Investors Averaged 40% Gain in 2024  TipRanks
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This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.
Robert Wade, who co-wrote the last seven James Bond movies, alongside Neil Purvis, is in Sussex where he will be giving a talk about his career. His crowning achievements must be “Casino Royale” and “Skyfall,” the others were hit and miss.
Regardless, Wade is now saying that he’s on the outside looking in when it comes to the future of the franchise, and is even hinting that he’s not returning for the next one, whenever it gets made.
I’m very happy with what we have done, and I will be very interested to see what happens next but I’m proud of having been involved.
We know there have been several rough drafts written for the next one, but Barbara Broccoli and Amazon/MGM’s Jen Salke seem to be at an impasse over the creative direction of the next instalment. It’s going to be a while before anything gets greenlit, and I wouldn’t be surprised if another studio jumps in to take over with Broccoli.
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September 4, 2024 by Gary Price
September 4, 2024 by Gary Price
Note: We will be updating this post with media coverage, statements, etc. over the coming hours and days. Please check back. 
From the Opinion (Page 2): 
Defendant-Appellant Internet Archive appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Koeltl, J.) denying its motion for summary judgment and granting   Plaintiffs-Appellees’ motion for summary judgment.
Internet Archive creates digital copies of print books and posts those copies on its website where users may access them in full, for free, in a service it calls the “Free Digital Library.” Other than a period in 2020, Internet Archive has maintained a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio for its digital books: Initially, it allowed only as many concurrent “checkouts” of a digital book as it has physical copies in its possession. Subsequently, Internet Archive expanded its Free Digital Library to include other libraries, thereby counting the number of physical copies of a book possessed by those libraries toward the total number of digital copies it makes available at any given time.
Plaintiffs-Appellees―four book publishers―sued Internet Archive in 2020, alleging that its Free Digital Library infringes their copyrights in 127 books and seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. Internet Archive asserted a defense of fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The district court rejected that defense and entered summary judgment for Plaintiffs.
This appeal presents the following question: Is it “fair use” for a nonprofit organization to scan copyright-protected print books in their entirety, and distribute those digital copies online, in full, for free, subject to a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio between its print copies and the digital copies it makes available at any given time, all without authorization from the copyright-holding publishers or authors? Applying the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act as well as binding Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent, we conclude the answer is no.
We therefore AFFIRM.
From the Conclusion of the Opinion (Page 63):
The parties in this case represent potentially serious interests. On the one hand, eBook licensing fees may impose a burden on libraries and reduce access to creative work. On the other hand, authors have a right to be compensated in connection with the copying and distribution of their original creations. Congress balanced these “competing claims upon the public interest” in the Copyright Act. Twentieth Century Music Corp., 422 U.S. at 156. We must uphold that balance here. IA asks this Court to bless the large scale copying and distribution of copyrighted books without permission from or payment to the Publishers or authors. Such a holding would allow for widescale copying that deprives creators of compensation and diminishes the incentive to produce new works. This may be what IA and its amici prefer, but it is not an approach that the Copyright Act permits.
For these reasons, we AFFIRM.
Direct to Full Text of Court Opinion
64 pages; PDF.
Direct to Complete Case Docket
See Also: Internet Archive Fights to Preserve Digital Libraries in Second Circuit Hearing (June 28, 2024)
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Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
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Elite, the financial and business management platform for large law firms that Thomson Reuters sold to private equity firm TPG Inc. in 2023, said today that it has acquired Tranch, an invoice automation and payments platform providing invoice management and payment options for law firms and their clients.
Tranch was founded in 2021 by Philip Kelvin, its CEO, and Beau Allison, its CTO. with the goal of modernizing the invoice-to-payment experience for large law firms. It serves firms whose revenue ranges from $50 million to $5 billion in revenue, according to its website. 
During 2024, Tranch says, it more than tripled its payment volume with many of the world’s largest law firms, including many who are customers of Elite.
Its payments products include “Pay Now,” which processes payments via a bank transfer managed through FedNow and the Real-Time Payment Network; “Pay by Card,” which includes virtual card terminals for billing teams; and “Pay Later,” which allows law firm clients to spread out their payments over time, providing greater flexibility to clients and immediate cashflow to firms.
Its platform also allows firms to create, send and manage invoices, and includes features such as customizable template, automated reminders, and integrated payment options.
Elite says that its acquisition of Tranch will enhance its ability to augment law firms’ financial and business management processes by delivering elevated, end-to-end visibility and management of revenue cycles to help firms accelerate growth.
“Tranch is an innovative leader that is revolutionizing payment processes for law firms, and we look forward to welcoming Philip, Beau and the entire Tranch team to Elite,” said Mark Dorman, Elite’s CEO.
“By embedding Tranch’s products within our portfolio of SaaS solutions, we will offer our customers greater choice and flexibility in managing their work-to-cash process, which will help law firms reduce payment delays, increase cashflows and, ultimately, boost profitability.”
Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.
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Bob Ambrogi is a lawyer and journalist who has been writing and speaking about legal technology and innovation for more than two decades. He writes the award-winning blog LawSites, is a columnist for Above the Law, hosts the podcast about legal innovation, LawNext, and hosts the weekly legal tech journalists’ roundtable, Legaltech Week.

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LawSites is a blog covering legal technology and innovation. It is written by Robert Ambrogi, a lawyer and journalist who has been writing and speaking about legal technology, legal practice and legal ethics for more than two decades.

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SpaceNews
Covering the business and politics of space
Join us on Jan. 15 as we discuss the Trump Administration and the space sector. The inauguration of President Trump’s second administration is poised to kick off changes to the U.S. space sector, building upon initiatives from his first term and introducing new directives.
We’ve assembled a panel of experts to discuss policy, commercialization, competitiveness and ask the tough questions, such how does Elon Musk (SpaceX) fit in as both a government customer, and a close adviser to Trump? How will conflict of interest be dealt with? What will China do?
Discussion Topics:

• Continuation and expansion of space initiatives including the Artemis program, and United States Space Force.
• Is a Space National Guard necessary?
• Commercial space collaboration: Will the administration to strengthen partnerships with private space companies?
• Where will deregulation efforts surface?
• What are the challenges and opportunities?

David Ariosto
SpaceNews Host, Journalist, and author of the upcoming Knopf book “Open Space”

Lori Garver
Former NASA Deputy Administrator

Michelle Hanlon
Executive Director,
Center for Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi

Alex MacDonald (TBC) 
Chief Economist,
NASA

Register

David Ariosto
SpaceNews Host, Journalist, and author of the upcoming Knopf book “Open Space”
Lori Garver
Former NASA Deputy Administrator
Michelle Hanlon
Executive Director,
Center for Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi

Alex MacDonald (TBC) 
Chief Economist,
NASA
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Two years ago, I was ready to give up everything from my old life and move 3,000 miles away to pursue journalism at San Diego State University. This meant leaving behind my friends, family and my passion for singing and performance. I was sure I would have to leave behind my musical side to focus on my academics, take on a campus job and join the student newspaper.
Or did I?
I have been singing almost my entire life, and did so anywhere I could. The first evidence comes from a 2007 video, where 3-year-old me danced around my living room singing “I’m Wishing” from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” A few years later, I took the hobby from my living room to the stage. I joined the school choir and began performing in local productions.
From then until my high school graduation in 2022, there was not a month that went by where I wasn’t in a show, choir or dance class.
Music and theater were always my favorite hobbies, but not something I saw myself pursuing as a career. I decided to study journalism in college after discovering my passion for it during my senior year of high school.
But after dedicating countless hours of my life to performance, how could I leave all that behind in pursuit of my degree?
Luckily, I didn’t have to.
Performing served me so well during my time in high school, allowing me to form lifelong friendships and escape from my other endeavors, so I decided to take the risk and blend my old life into my new college one. I soon found the a cappella group I wanted to join: SoundWave.
I had never done a cappella before, but I wanted to give it a shot. Once I had settled into my first week of freshman year, I signed up to audition and was welcomed into a wonderful community.
Unfortunately, the rest of my first semester at university did not go so smoothly. I was in a rough living situation at my dorm and had trouble making friends. Every day, I wanted nothing more than to transfer home.
But when I went to rehearsal, I left those troubles at the door and found solace in a community that valued every single one of its members. At the time, I had wished that we had rehearsal every day.
Now in my third year of college, and feeling more settled, I am grateful that my SoundWave commitment is flexible, allowing time for my academics and outside endeavors, such as work and an internship.
I believe in the importance of career-focused pursuits. As a journalism major, I report and write for my college newspaper, The Daily Aztec, and am part of the leadership for our Society of Professional Journalists chapter.
However, I also believe in the importance of joining clubs that exist outside your academic realm. Not only do such activities make you stand out to potential employers, but they are also a great way to meet people with similar interests.
Jacob Opatz, a fourth-year computer science major who currently serves as the president of SoundWave, agrees.
“People always cite the studies that say ‘music is good for your brain,’ but on a deeper level, having a community on campus and working towards a creative goal is so important for my mental health,” he said. “Also, since my major is computer science, I’m desperate to find something creative and fun to break up my otherwise boring schedule.”
Extracurricular activities in grade schools have been proven to improve optimism and lower depression and screen time, according to a 2020 study by Preventative Medicine.
As a college student, I am on my laptop for at least eight hours a day. When I’m not on my laptop, I’m usually on my phone scrolling social media.
Rehearsal gets me to put the screen down and create something with the people around me. 
We rehearse two days a week. Members are also expected to practice on their own each day. However, the competition season is more hectic. In the months leading up to the quarterfinals for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, our two-hour rehearsals turn into three.
New member and third-year psychology major Lexy Sakrekoff has had to make some sacrifices to be in the group.
“I used to go home more on the weekends to visit my mom in Oceanside, but now I avoid that because of our Sunday rehearsals,” she said.
However, Sakrekoff says the sacrifice is worth it.
“It helps that [my friends and family] are also super supportive and excited that I’m in SoundWave. I even rehearse my songs in front of them, and that’s always fun for them to listen to,” she said. There have definitely been times when I was up late doing homework after rehearsal or had to cut down my work hours due to performances. But despite my junior year being the busiest so far, SoundWave has always felt like a vital outlet rather than an obligation.
Calista Stocker is in her third year at San Diego State University, pursuing a journalism major and sociology minor, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps. She wrote this for EdSource.

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Epic Games Store kicks off New Year’s with a free game giveaway: An open-world RPG available for only 24 hours  Notebookcheck.net
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JAKARTA – Commission VIII of the DPR and the Ministry of Religion set the cost of the 2025 pilgrimage (Bipih) of IDR 55.4 million per congregation. This cost decreased compared to the cost in the 2024 Hajj season of IDR 56 million.
The cost of organizing the Hajj (BPIH) is set at IDR 89,410,258 per congregation. This cost decreased by IDR 4 million from 2024 from IDR 93,410,286.
Minister of Religion (Menag) Nasaruddin Umar said the decline in BPIH and Bipih in 2025 was due to the obsession of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. He said Prabowo wanted the cost of Hajj to ease the burden on the congregation.
“I just want to underline some very important points. First, this is President Prabowo’s obsession with us the Ministry of Religion and BPH (Hajj Organizers Agency), how can we work so that the burden on the congregation who will come is more easing without reducing the quality of the Hajj implementation,” said Nasaruddin after the DPR Commission VIII Hajj Committee Meeting, Monday, January 6.
Nasaruddin revealed that the cost of Hajj in 2025 should have increased. This can be seen from the spending budget in Saudi Arabia which is predicted to increase in 2025.
“The logic should actually increase because our budget in Saudi Arabia this year is predicted to increase,” said Nasaruddin.
“Then we also see that there are developments and add more with various other obstacles,” he continued.
However, Nasaruddin hopes that the reduction in the cost of Hajj in 2025 will not reduce the quality of services for pilgrims.
“Don’t let there be a decrease in the quality of services for pilgrims because our obsession as a government is that there are two, dedication and services. So we are serving and serving the congregation, not the business approach,” said Nasaruddin.

Previously, the Chairman of the MPR and Secretary General of the Gerindra Party, Ahmad Muzani, hoped that the cost of implementing the 2025 AD/1446 Hijri Hajj would decrease compared to last year’s Hajj costs.
Muzani asked the House of Representatives Commission VIII and the Ministry of Religion to cut the cost of Hajj to make it cheaper but the service for the congregation is also better according to President Prabowo Subianto’s wishes.
“Pak Prabowo really wants the Hajj service to run effectively, maximally. Then the waiting period that takes too long can be shortened. Then the sufficient cost, if possible, can be cut even cheaper with better service,” said Muzani, Monday, January 6.
“That’s why he formed a Hajj body, which is meant to provide better services for the congregation. What is meant by better service is better costs with more effective services because it (needs) better coordination,” he continued.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
Tag: kemenag dpr ibadah haji 2025
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