anzo

Calling everyone who works in or with a #bioinformatics core facility - we need your help! We’d like to hear your ideas on what skills core facility scientists need at different levels (I, II, III or manager). Interested in helping? Please fill in this survey by September 30th. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2P_d6nX6JmhFJtcBNX3zOQB-DuAuOMiIDc7t57tZVM4POog/viewform

The results of this survey will feed into the bioinformatics core facility competency framework. Find out more: https://sites.google.com/ebi.ac.uk/bioinfocore-competencies/

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/16330833

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2235521

Archived link

Some have argued that Yabo (aka Yabo Sports, Yabo Group) and its many constituent brands comprise "the biggest illegal betting operation targeting Greater China." You probably haven't heard of it before, but you may have come across it unknowingly in passing, hundreds of times, if you watch European football, aka soccer in US parlance. The operation enjoys multimillion-dollar partnerships with some of the world's biggest clubs, like Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

Less visible to the public are Yabo's modern day slaves, forced to staff the debt-fueled pyramid scheme underpinning its gambling empire.

[...]

"Often, as a culture and as an industry, we separate technical stories from real life," Dr. Renée Burton, head of threat intelligence at Infoblox, says. "But these are monumental human crimes that are occurring [in] human trafficking and money laundering. It's the most interesting research I've ever been involved with."

[...]

On paper, Yabo Sports shut down in 2022 amid media scrutiny. But it fact it actually passed on through other brands like Kaiyun Sports. Kaiyun's logo has featured prominently on the sleeves of Aston Villa and Crystal Palace kits, or uniforms, in recent seasons, and the front of Nottingham Forest's (all England). Kaiyun reportedly also has a partnership in place with the world's biggest club, Real Madrid.

[...]

As Burton tells it, "Essentially, they use a ton of shell companies in multiple places around the world. And then they'll come up through these white label providers in the UK, like TGP Europe, which was linked by journalists to [gambling organization] Suncity, which has been accused by the Chinese government of money laundering. So it obfuscates those [groups] which are already obfuscated. It's just this ridiculous chain of false identities."

[...]

"So it draws people [into the sites]," Burton explains, "and they're browsing around a little bit. You've got your Manchester United logo. Then it starts popping up: these lures for you to come gamble." The sites include images of scantily dressed women and live chats with purported customer service agents. If a user stays idle for a period of time, the site might offer financial incentives, like a sliding scale of up to $1,500 free for any user who deposits up to $70,000 in a week.

"It draws you in further, and eventually you're losing. Now you're in debt, and you move into servitude. It's essentially a pyramid scheme: you have to go recruit people to gamble, then you get a portion of those people's losses to go against your debt," she says.

[...]

A 2023 report from the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime described how Yabo betting sites are also staffed by physically imprisoned individuals:

The walled-off complexes have apartments, offices, supermarkets and other facilities, and are guarded by armed security whose job is to keep people in, according to reports in Chinese state media and elsewhere.

[. . .]

According to victim testimony, staff must work 12 hours a day, six days a week and cannot leave without a ransom. Staff are sold between operators, with ransoms increasing on each occasion. Videos and photographs online in 2021 showed people being physically threatened, beaten with sticks, and struck with electric batons.

[Edit: Deleted tautology in the title.]

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/17130998

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2132293

Which member state contributed the most to EU GDP? And what does GDP actually mean?

Gross domestic product (GDP) is an indicator used to measure the size and performance of an economy. It provides information on the value of goods and services produced during a given period. Within the EU, GDP was valued at €17.0 trillion in 2023.

In 2023, slightly less than a quarter of the EU's GDP was generated by Germany (24.3%), followed by France (16.5%) and Italy (12.3%), ahead of Spain (8.6%) and the Netherlands (6.1%).

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/18360519

It's the MinisForum V3

Pros:

• Touchscreen (currently works best on KDE Plasma)
• AMD CPU (Ryzen 7 8840U) [8 cores, 16 threads] + GPU (Radeon 780M)
• Power button + Fingerprint reader (built into the tablet portion thankfully)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 65W PD power adapter (likely to be GaN)
• Magnesium alloy body
• the inclusion of gyroscopes means display auto-rotation is supported
• 1x stylus pen included
  • [4096 level pressure, up to MPP 2.6 SLA]
    • (I have no idea what any of that means, hopefully it's useful to yall)
• Keyboard that is/has:
  • Detachable
  • Backlight LED lighting
  • Even-surface actuation pressure touchpad
  • an optional purchase (which can be deselected before checkout)

Alt text: An image of the purchase checkout options for the MinisForum V3 Tablet with the Magnetic Detachable Keyboard (both which are on sale for $999.00 and $149.00 USD respectively as of Aug 21, 2024)

Cons:

• Made in China: "Motherboard Manufacturer: Shenzhen"
• Supported storage: M.2 (2280) 2TB max
• cursed Microsoft Copilot button (thankfully on the detachable keyboard rather than on the tablet itself)
• Limited customization/configuration options in BIOS
• Weak magnets on kickstand
• Inaccessible user manual/BIOS(Windows users be damned)
• Ryzen AI (locked to Windows, personally I find this as a gimmic anyways)
• due to MinisForum disuading customers from opening up their devices I'm adding that the battery is not replaceable (void warranty at your own risk)
  • CPU is un-upgradeable (This is now a con due to Framework providing users the ability to upgrade even from Intel to AMD or vice-versa)
  • WIFI 6E (802.11ax) is soldered/un-upgradeable unlike Frameworks's laptops
  • RAM is confirmed to be soldered/un-upgradeable
    • only two configurations available as of Aug 21, 2024: [32GB max, 16GB]

Features/Specifications

• Weighs: 946g
• Battery: 50.82Wh
• Display: 14", 16:10 ratio, 2560*1600, 165Hz
• 2x [type c] USB-4 at 40Gbps max
• 1x [type c] USB VLink(DP-in)
• 1x SD card (UHS-II)
• Volume rocker button
• Bluetooth: BT5.3
• RAM (assumed both configurations are LPDDR5 with speed/frequency: 6400MHz)
• 2x cameras:
  • [Front]: 2M, Windows Hello, Dual D-mic, Face ID, ESS
  • [Rear]: 5M, Auto focus

Extra Info

VLink TL;DR:

• (on laptops) it's a special type of port that's primarily meant for extending ports with a USB-C hub or driving as a secondary monitor
  • VLink Tomshardware
  • VLink Anandtech