Taiwan’s deputy leader urged the European Union to boost security and trade ties with the self-governing island and support its democracy in the face of growing threats by China, in a rare address to a group of international lawmakers in Brussels on Friday.
“Peace in the Taiwan Strait is essential to global stability and economic continuity, and international opposition against unilateral changes to the status quo by force cannot be overstated,” Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao told lawmakers assembled for a China-focused conference in the European Parliament building.
While Hsiao did not formally address the whole EU Parliament — the European trade bloc does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan — her visit drew ire from China.
“In an era marked by increasing fragmentation, volatility and rising authoritarianism, this gathering affirms something vital — that democracies, even when far apart, are not alone,” she added to a standing ovation in a small chamber of the European Parliament.
Hsiao also called on the lawmakers from countries including Germany and Spain to collaborate more on trusted supply chains and AI technology with Taiwan, the island off China’s east coast that Beijing claims as part of its territory and says must come under its rule.
Taiwan's deputy leader has urged the European Union to strengthen security and trade ties with Taiwan and support its democracy amid growing threats from China. Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao addressed international lawmakers in Brussels on Friday.
Oggi è sabato, e quindi… aridaje, non credo di dover ripetere per l’ennesima volta quali sono le vibe mortali del mio fine settimana. Di conseguenza, anche oggi ci sono accadimenti e realtà che forse fanno ridere, seppur non dovrebbero… del tipo di cosa succede quando arriva l’ora di alzarmi dal letto, al mio orario benedettissimo […]
“octo condannata ad uscire dal letto” (come questo sabato mattina ci ho messo 1 ora per alzarmi dal letto quando non volevo)
Oggi è sabato, e quindi… aridaje, non credo di dover ripetere per l’ennesima volta quali sono le vibe mortali del mio fine settimana. Di conseguenza, anche oggi ci sono accadimenti e realtà che forse fanno ridere, seppur non dovrebbero… del tipo di cosa succede quando arriva l’ora di alzarmi dal letto, al mio orario benedettissimo della mattina senza impegni, ma ovviamente io non, perché in quel momento la mia anima è già abbastanza appesantita dall’essermi in primo luogo svegliata. Niente di nuovo neppure in tutto ciò, ovviamente, ma stavolta le aggiunte alla mia disperazione sono abbastanza degne di nota. 👌
Praticamente, mi sono svegliata circa alle 11, e a quel punto non riuscivo più a riaddormentarmi, nonostante io abbia quindi dormito appena 10 ore, che per gli standard dei miei desideri è pochino. Sarà stato perché un po’ avevo tipo da andare in bagno, un po’ avevo la gola tipo secca di sete, un po’ l’aria della stanza era a quel punto diventata ben marcia a causa delle mie solfatare… e, sorvolando sul fatto che almeno 2 di queste cose saranno sospettosamente in comune con le piante, il problema è che comunque non avevo proprio voglia di alzarmi. Cioè, che palle alzarmi, perché mai dovrei quando tanto non ho comunque un assoluto niente da fare (eccetto un piccolo frangente questo specifico pomeriggio)!?!?!!?? 😤
Alla fine mi sono effettivamente alzata, purtroppo… dopo praticamente 1 ora sveglia (gli spiriti proprio non volevano che io continuassi a mimire…) lì un po’ ferma a fare niente, un po’ a cercare di alzarmi fallendo miseramente tra le 5 e le 10 volte. Ho però notato che, quasi ogni volta che provavo ad alzarmi, curiosamente (ma forse neanche troppo…), qualcosa mi rimbalzava verso il lato dove avevo il secondo cuscino, e finivo per volerlo abbracciare malamente… ops. E che dobbiamo fare; da vera femcel sono assolutamente touch-starved, e questo forse non è neanche il più grosso dei miei problemi… almeno, sicuramente in quel momento il più grave era questo mio combattimento intero tra il dovermi e il non volermi alzare. 😵
Probabilmente sarei riuscita in questa mia impresa con meno difficoltà (non zero, eh) se ci fosse stato qualcuno ad alzarmi le persiane, visto che — e con ciò certamente non batterò le allegazioni di fare la fotosintesi come le piante, ma questa è una cosa che so da prima della mia scoperta di ieri — vedere la luce naturale del sole mi da un attimo una forza di vivere, e quindi di alzarmi, che altrimenti mi sfugge… oppure, se semplicemente avessi alzato le lenzuola così da rotolare fuori, ma lo spostamento di aria causato da ciò mentre sto bella al caldo gnam mi urta non poco… ma ecco, io sono complicata. Alla fine, però, ho detto basta e, con il cuscino ben abbracciato, sono in qualche modo strisciata fuori dalla mia bara, mettendomi prima tipo seduta verso l’uscita, poi tirando fuori le gambe, e infine mettendo i piedi per terra ed alzandomi. E buongiorno principessa, suppongo. 😳 Allora, finalmente, dopo questa come al solito infinita spiegazione, eccomi com’ero nell’esatto momento in cui mi sono alzata, ed ero lì, boh, da sola… però, col cuscino ancora bello stretto, che mamma mia, sono così sola, col freddino dentro e addosso, e i capelli scombinati ancora più del solito, me misera tapina (tutto confermato guardandomi allo specchio). Ovviamente, non avevo le guance luccicanti fisicamente… però, dentro di me, sotto sotto, mi sento un po’ così… chissà che cavolo penso, così nel profondo che nemmeno riesco a percepirlo razionalmente, mentre stringo forte questo affare costretto a supportarmi fisicamente e spiritualmente ogni notte. Spero che un giorno magari qualcuno mi potrà abbracciare come io abbraccio il mio cuscino, non sia mai che me lo merito, aaaahh… 💔 (E comunque, si, in questi ultimi giorni mi sono assolutamente iperfissata col disegnare, e non capisco proprio perché… voglio dire, non è una cosa che ho mai fatto particolarmente nell’ultimo decennio. Sarà perché le altre mie cose che faccio di solito ora non mi vanno, ma io ho pur sempre bisogno di fare almeno qualcosa per sopravvivere, altrimenti davvero non mi alzerei proprio più dal letto, e quindi sarò stata spinta proprio su questo dagli spiriti… e, in effetti, non ci sono troppe altre alternative congruenti con la mia personalità, quindi forse era inevitabile. Se questa cosa non scemerà, credo che godrò.)
A group of illegal settlers stormed the outskirts of the Abu Falah village and torched the one-story home, causing parts of the house to burn, local sources told the state news agency Wafa.
Israeli forces raided the area and opened fire at residents who gathered near the scene, though no injuries were reported, the agency said.
The UN warned on Friday of a sharp rise in illegal Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, reporting 264 settler attacks in October alone, the highest monthly toll in nearly two decades.
“That’s the highest monthly toll in nearly two decades of record keeping, averaging more than eight incidents every single day since 2006,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said, citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In a separate attack, Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists sustained fractures and bruises after illegal settlers assaulted them during an olive-harvesting activity in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, Wafa said.
Mohammad Hamayel, deputy mayor of Beita, said that illegal settlers attacked participants harvesting olives in the Qamas Mountain area.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated several injured people and transferred them to hospitals, but did not specify a number.
Among those injured were foreign solidarity activists, paramedics, and journalists, including Reuters reporter Raneen Sawafta and two journalists from Al Jazeera, according to local sources cited by Anadolu.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Cross-posted from fediverse user @peachy@goto.micromail.me
Is there such a thing as a configurable full-body input controller for computers? Is anyone working on that? I know there is work on controlling computers directly with the brain, which will be ace for people with full paralysis, but what I’m interested in is something that goes in the other direction - using more of the body. Think Tom Cruise’s interface in Minority Report but better. Sitting, or even standing, to work at a computer takes its toll on the body, especially the back. Our bodies didn’t evolve to be so static while we’re awake. Emerging from a flare-up of a slipped disc, it has got me thinking of better ways to interface with machines.
Imagine the following:
You come to see me in my studio to see how I and my colleagues do image editing and graphic design in GIMP 4.0. Some of us are stood in front of large displays but no one seems to be using a keyboard, mouse or graphics tablet. I appear to be doing a dance routine from a music video... As I bounce my knee up and across my body you see that the Move tool has been selected. As I raise my left fist above my head it is as though I am holding shift to toggle “Pick a layer or guide”. I draw my right hand across my body with my thumb and forefinger pinched and the selected layer moves with me. Finally, I quickly raise both hands, like I'm flipping over a table and my project is saved and closed. Now that I’ve stopped moving around so energetically you notice that my stylish and comfortable cotton loungewear and gloves have small sensors dotted around them. I explain that the position of these sensors relative to each other and to the space have been mapped to traditional keyboard and mouse inputs via my operating system.
Moving to the next workspace you see my colleague Babs. Her white hair pokes out above a VR headset and she has a number of small cameras tracking her movement to the soundtrack of Chinese classical music. She is an elder and a veteran and even contributed some of the code that makes this stuff work, back in the day. She says it was no big deal; she mostly just connected up different programs, some of which Hollywood has been using since the 1990s. Her movements are slow and smooth. It looks like she’s doing Qi Gong or Tai Chi or something. Raising a hand in front of her heart you see the Filters menu open and lowering it slowly the menu scrolls down to Enhance. Gracefully stepping sideways and lowering her hand further, Heal Selection is highlighted in the submenu. Turning her hand palm-up launches the plugin. She tells you that one of her first contributions to the interface was to make the body position tolerances configurable by the user in their desktop settings.
Lastly you watch my cousin Tommy at work. When we met I told you about how a head injury had left him partially paralysed and unable to speak. He too is using a VR headset, but instead of having cameras pointed at him he has a HD sonar array. His disability was caused by an error in the police’s facial-recognition software and understandably he’s had a thing about cameras ever since. The bad guy got away and he never caught the bus he was running to catch. Every couple of days he asks whether Nancy’s cameras are still disconnected from the network, which they always are. Tapping his ring-finger once on the armrest of his wheelchair selects the Text tool. Turning his head to the side, he purses his lips and sweeps his face back around to make his text box. You see his mouth moving but there is no sound. “Hi, nice to meet you” appears in his projects new text layer. “You too” you reply. Twitching his right shoulder you see his text layer is duplicated, blinking twice and nodding his head replaces the text with what you just said. He must have used speech-to-text to record your words to his desktop clipboard and then pasted them into the text field. Pressing his index finger against the arm rest and looking toward the ceiling brings the new text layer to the top of the stack. Running the same sequence of movements again, a third text layer becomes visible onscreen. “I’d never edited a picture in my life until I got into this tech as part of my physiotherapy treatment. My cousin ended up offering me this job and now I can work faster than anyone else here, especially Babs. I’m pretty sure she’s just here for fun but none of us mind.”
The human body as an input controller. Is there such a thing as a configurable full-body input controller for computers? Is anyone working on that? I know th…
The MAGA representative is continuing her break with the Republican Party—and the president himself.
MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is still one of the few GOP members to rebuke Trump and his lies in any meaningful way.
Taylor Greene spoke freely in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night. “The president says there’s virtually no inflation, and that grocery prices are going down,” Collins asked the Georgia representative. “Do you agree with him on that?”
“No, I go to the grocery store myself. Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high. My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they’re also higher at my house in Rome, Georgia, higher than they were a year ago,” MTG said. “Affordability is a problem, and I’m a mom. My kids are 22, 26, and 28. That’s the generation I worry about the most, and they’re having a very hard time.”
Wall Street Journal reports Kristi Noem arranged purchase to expand deportation flights and for personal travel
The secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, reportedly authorized the purchase of Spirit Airlines jets before discovering the airline didn’t actually own the planes – and that the aircraft lacked engines.
The bizarre anecdote was contained in a Wall Street Journal report released on Friday, which recounted how Noem and Corey Lewandowski -- who managed Donald Trump's first winning presidential campaign -- had recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. People familiar with the situation told the paper that the two intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights -- and for personal travel.
Those sources also claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had cautioned them that buying planes would be far more expensive than simply expanding existing flight contracts.
Allora, finalmente, dopo questa come al solito infinita spiegazione, eccomi com’ero nell’esatto momento in cui mi sono alzata, ed ero lì, boh, da sola… però, col cuscino ancora bello stretto, che mamma mia, sono così sola, col freddino dentro e addosso, e i capelli scombinati ancora più del solito, me misera tapina (tutto confermato guardandomi allo specchio). Ovviamente, non avevo le guance luccicanti fisicamente… però, dentro di me, sotto sotto, mi sento un po’ così… chissà che cavolo penso, così nel profondo che nemmeno riesco a percepirlo razionalmente, mentre stringo forte questo affare costretto a supportarmi fisicamente e spiritualmente ogni notte. Spero che un giorno magari qualcuno mi potrà abbracciare come io abbraccio il mio cuscino, non sia mai che me lo merito, aaaahh… 💔
