4 min read

ReHacked vol. 281: Google is a monopoly. The fix isn't obvious, Kim Dotcom's Extradition, Does astrology work and more

Google is a monopoly. The fix isn't obvious • The Register #internet

In the past eight months, however, Google has lost two major US competition lawsuits: One brought by Epic Games over Google's grip on the Android ecosystem, the other brought by the Department of Justice over the Big G's market-dominating search advertising business.

In the Epic Games case this week, the FTC – emboldened under boss Lina Khan – urged the judge to consider an appropriate remedy and ignore Google's fretting about the potential cost of compliance.

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However, given the EU's preliminary findings in 2023 that Google violated antitrust laws with its advertising practices, and a separate trial this September over Justice Department allegations about Google's ad tech operations, it's looking increasingly unlikely the search giant will survive in its current form or with its current arrangements.


Make a donation - support Ukraine. My favourite: Support the Armed Forces of Ukraine | via National Bank of Ukraine. More options if you want alternatives. Also, very important Come Back Alive Foundation - Charity Organization.

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French film star Alain Delon dies aged 88 | Alain Delon | The Guardian #promemoria

Alain Delon, the celebrated actor who starred in a string of classic films such as Plein Soleil, Le Samouraï and Rocco and His Brothers, has died aged 88, his children have told French media.

“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as [his dog] Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” they said in a statement, adding that the family asked for privacy.


Massive Banks Are Now Accused of Cheating Customers Billions - Franknez.com #economy

Massive banks are now accused of cheating customers billions of dollars in interest payments according to financial reports.

According to a new report by Financial Times, several major Wall Street banks, including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America, are accused of defrauding customers out of billions of dollars in interest payments.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently investigating these banks to determine whether they intentionally steered clients toward “cash sweep” accounts that provided little to no interest earnings, despite the availability of higher-yielding options.

This alleged practice by the banks would amount to bilking customers out of significant sums of interest income that they should have rightfully earned on their deposits and cash holdings.


Kim Dotcom's Extradition to the U.S. Given Green Light By New Zealand * TorrentFreak #copyrights

After years of legal proceedings, New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has approved Kim Dotcom's extradition to the United States. The Megaaupload founder faces criminal copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering charges, which in theory could lead to decades in prison. Dotcom says he has a plan and doesn't intend to leave the country.


How a cybersecurity researcher befriended, then doxed, the leader of LockBit ransomware gang | TechCrunch #security

For the last couple of years, DiMaggio, who is a researcher at the cybersecurity firm Analyst1, had developed a relationship with LockBitSupp — first pretending to be a budding cybercriminal interested in joining the gang, then as himself. And, in the end, DiMaggio was able to figure out LockBitSupp’s real identity before it was publicly revealed by the authorities.

On Friday, in a talk at the hacking conference Def Con in Las Vegas, DiMaggio told the whole story of his relationship with LockBitSupp, detailing how he gained his trust using a made-up persona, and then kept the relationship going even after DiMaggio publicly revealed that he had infiltrated the gang and tricked LockBitSupp into giving up details of the operation to him.


The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology | Quanta Magazine #nature

That the three methods disagree “is not telling us about fundamental physics,” Freedman said. “That’s telling us there’s some systematic [error] in one or more of the distance methods.”

Freedman’s results have been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal but have not yet undergone formal peer review, where outside researchers anonymously check the data and analysis. Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel Prize-winning cosmologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was shown the team’s preprint prior to its release, told Quanta that the results suggest “we may have a Hubble tension just within the [star-based] measurements. That’s the tension that we really have to be trying to figure out more than trying to invent new [cosmological] models.”


Does astrology work? – Thread Reader App #interesting

Short answer - no. Long answer - follow the link above.

In conclusion, despite believing they could do it, the 152 astrologers seemed to lack any ability to match people to their astrological charts.

This French Road Is Only Drivable Twice Per Day #nature

There is a road in France surrounded by the sea that is visible one minute and, poof, gone the next. The vanishing act occurs on the Passage du Gois, a captivating causeway that can only be crossed twice daily at low tide. The tide eventually rises again and the road is dramatically covered up by 4 to 13 feet of water.

Located in the Bourgneuf Bay on the Atlantic coast, the Passage du Gois is a 2.6-mile-long road spanning between the town of Beauvoir-sur-Mer on the mainland and the island of Noirmoutier. For two short windows of time each day, the road is accessible for one and a half hours before and after low tide.


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