NZXT's excellent H1 v2 small form factor case is 50% off at Amazon US - Rock Paper Shotgun

NZXT's awesome H1 v2 small form factor case, complete with 750W SFX power supply, 140mm AiO water cooler, fans and PCIe 4.0 riser, is down to $200 at Amazon. That's half-price and the best deal we've ever seen for this critically-acclaimed (and Will Judd approved) ITX case.

I've had a system running in the NZXT H1 v2 for a few months now, and I've been really impressed with it. Because it comes with a power supply and AiO pre-installed, it's actually startling easy to build in - there are no annoying cables to run, or real thought required as the best positioning for fans or components. NZXT have done all the work for you here, with pre-run cables and a sensible design, so you just need to install your CPU, storage and RAM onto your motherboard and slide it into position. From here, you plug in the PCIe 4.0 riser, the cables and the AiO, and you're basically done - all that remains is installing the graphics card and gingerly folding everything closed before turning on.

I've even managed to open it up and swap out the CPU without much difficulty, which can be a nightmare on SFF builds - but here, you can leave almost everything in place. You also get plenty of room for graphics cards, with two-slot GPUs that can be up to 58mm thick and 324mm long. I managed to fit an Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090, so basically everything aside from a triple-slot RTX 4090 ought to fit!

Can you see where the motherboard slots in, in the centre right of the picture?

Beyond the build process, there's a lot here to appreciate once your system is together. The glass panels front and back look good (though I'd prefer to have the option for a mesh front too for maximum airflow), while ventilated panels for the sides ensure reasonable thermals. There's a good amount of front panel I/O too, although a downwards-facing motherboard means that plugging and unplugging peripherals is a bit more annoying. At least you get a clean look once everything is in place!

Overall, it's a more visually-appealing and beginner-friendly SFF PC compared to the Cooler Master NR200P (of RPS deals fame), but it doesn't offer the same flexibility or durability and costs more.

Still though, at $200 this is an awesome prospect for anyone interested in small form factor PCs, and with a new wave of CPUs, motherboards and graphics cards on the way it's a good time to start sizing up a build.

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Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case - The New York Times

The Utah trial highlighted what the defendants argued is a lack of transparency for the treatment of animals at large corporate farms.

As a matter of dollars and cents, the removal of two piglets from a sprawling farm in rural Utah was not a huge loss for its owner, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer.

But several weeks after a group of animal rights activists posted a video online of their nighttime incursion into the Circle Four Farms in Beaver County, local and federal law enforcement officials began a multistate investigation. F.B.I. agents raided animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado, and at one of them, government veterinarians sliced off part of a piglet’s ear in their search for DNA evidence of the crime.

The authorities never recovered the stolen piglets, and the federal government declined to press charges. But prosecutors in Utah pursued felony burglary and theft charges against the activists, who faced prison sentences if convicted.

On Saturday, a jury acquitted two of the activists on the charges, a somewhat unexpected verdict in a part of rural Utah whose economy is largely tied to the fortunes of agricultural giants like Smithfield.

Wayne Hsiung, one of the defendants, said he was stunned by the verdict, given that the judge had not let the jury consider any testimony explaining why the activists had targeted the farm, filmed their incursion and then taken two sick piglets on their way out.

“This is a resounding message about accountability and transparency,” Mr. Hsiung, 41, said in an interview after the jury’s decision. “Every company that is mistreating its animals and expecting that government and local elected officials will just go along with them because they have them in their pockets will now realize that the public will hold them accountable, even in places like Southern Utah.”

“Instead of trying to put us in prison,” he added, “The better thing to do is just take care of your animals.”

Jim Monroe, a spokesman for Smithfield, expressed disappointment in the verdict, saying it would encourage other activists to trespass on farms and violate biosecurity policies aimed at preventing the spread of disease.

“The individuals who committed this act are part of an anti-meat movement determined to undermine livestock agriculture,” he said in an email. “We raise pigs to feed people with wholesome, nutritious and affordable protein. Any deviation from our high standards for animal care is counterproductive to this mission and would never be tolerated.”

The case had become a cause célèbre among activists focused on the plight of hogs, chickens and cows who spend their lives in so-called concentrated animal feeding operations.

Many animal welfare advocates viewed the trial as a display of corporate power, and a test of whether the meat industry can legally prevent the public from seeing the sometimes unsavory aspects of modern mass food production.

Circle Four Farm is one of the largest hog-producing facilities in the country, processing more than one million pigs a year.

In addition to barring any mention of the defendants’ reasons for trespassing, District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilcox excised any testimony about animal welfare, blocked the jury from viewing the footage that the defendants filmed that day and had evidence photos of the stolen piglets altered to avoid showing jurors the condition in which the animals were living.

“This is a clear case of government overreach,” said Mary Corporon, a lawyer for the second defendant, Paul Darwin Picklesimer, who had filmed the raid. “Let’s face it, Joe Sixpack citizen can’t get the F.B.I. to try and solve the burglary of their TV or their grandmother’s ring because they’re not a major multinational corporation with immense political pull. “The stolen piglets were worth at most $42.50 each, according to testimony from a state official.

Prosecutors rejected the suggestion they were acting on behalf of Smithfield, noting that a crime is a crime and that investigators acted only after the defendants publicized footage of their 2017 raid, which they had dubbed “Operation Deathstar.”

But in court documents, prosecutors argued that the company’s reputation was harmed by the footage and other similar videos, including one published by The New York Times, as well as by protests by animal rights activists that targeted Costco, one of Smithfield’s biggest buyers.

“The defamation campaign has caused reputation and public image damage to Costco and Smithfield,” prosecutors wrote.

Justin Marceau, a law professor at the University of Denver and author of the book “Beyond Cages: Animal Law and Criminal Punishment,” described the prosecution as an unsubtle attempt to chill the growing movement of activists who use subterfuge and hidden cameras to document conditions on factory farms.

Agricultural-producing states have been particularly aggressive in their efforts to quash the use of undercover footage by activists and whistle-blowers. In recent years, nearly a dozen states have passed so-called “ag-gag” laws that criminalize the taking of unauthorized video or photos on animal farms, though courts in recent years have struck down five of them as unconstitutional. Professor Marceau led the legal effort that overturned Utah’s law in 2017.

“Prosecutors would have you believe this case is about burglary, but in reality, it’s a case about whether people can rescue animals in dire conditions that are now commonplace in our food system,” he said. “I can’t think of a more significant animal law case in recent history.”

The defendants, members of the group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, were seeking to document the farm’s use of gestation crates, the metal enclosures for pregnant sows that critics say are cramped and inherently cruel. Smithfield had vowed to end their use by 2017, but Mr. Hsiung said there were thousands of them at Circle Four Farms.

“The agonizing screams of pigs confined to these cages were so loud we couldn’t hear each other talk,” Mr. Hsiung said. The two piglets they took on their way out, he said, were sick and malnourished and would have most likely ended up in a dumpster.

Mr. Monroe, the Smithfield spokesman, said the company had largely phased out the use of gestation crates.

Richard Piatt, a spokesman for Sean Reyes, the Utah attorney general, said the defendants had invited prosecution by publicly posting evidence of a crime. “Prosecutors feel there’s an obligation to acknowledge there was a burglary and theft,” he said.

Three other activists in the case entered guilty pleas to misdemeanors, in exchange for an agreement that they would not trespass on Smithfield properties in Utah nor criticize the corporation online for three years.

It’s unclear whether the defendants have much support in Beaver County, a sparsely populated swath of high desert along the Nevada border where Smithfield is one of the largest employers. Emotions there have been especially high since last summer, when the company announced it was planning to shut down most of its operations there. Executives have blamed the downsizing on what they have described as onerous regulations in California, where many of its pigs are processed.

The jurors did not deliberate the fate of the two stolen piglets. Now full-grown, the piglets, known as Lucy and Ethel, are living at an animal sanctuary in Utah. According to activists, they are doing just fine.

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Analysis: Musk's Twitter bid heads for case study immortalization - Reuters

LONDON/NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter (TWTR.N) takeover saga comes with all the drama necessary to be immortalised in case studies for future captains of industry, as the tycoon's on-off pursuit of the social media platform and unique management style make for a union like no other.

The chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) performed a U-turn by proposing to buy Twitter at the agreed price having spent months trying to get out of the deal, just as a Delaware Court was getting ready to rule on the standoff.

"This is unique in many cases," said Arturo Bris, Professor of Finance and Director of IMD World Competitiveness Center. "It is definitely a business school case study. Because it's about poison pills, breakup fees, lawsuits, hostility."

While there are examples of acrimonious or hostile takeovers such as AOL-Time Warner and Sanofi-Aventis-Genzyme, here the world's richest man - who has long used his own Twitter account to press for more freedom of speech - is working to impose his will on another corporation.

Musk's attempt to take over Twitter is "a gift to professors and students", said Joshua White, a professor at Vanderbilt University, calling the situation "unprecedented".

UNIQUE STYLE

"Frankly I hate doing mgmt stuff," Musk wrote in a text message to Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal in the run up to making an offer for the company, according to legal documents related to the battle.

"I kinda don't think anyone should be the boss of anyone," he wrote, while another message noted he could "interface way better with engineers who are able to do hardcore programming than with program manager/MBA types".

While the messages reflect his unusual approach to running a business, taking control of Twitter will mean managing it, at least initially. Musk has said he would take the reins as CEO but only until he finds a new executive with expertise in the media industry.

"What is to come is unclear," said Donna Hitscherich, a Columbia Business School professor.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment on the challenges of running the company after such a contentious deal. Twitter declined to comment.

Academics and analysts say Musk should focus on restructuring the social media company's business model after second-quarter revenue dropped amid the court battle and a weakening digital advertising market.

Musk has hinted at wanting to turn Twitter into what he called an "everything app" like the wildly popular WeChat in China which offers everything from banking to chatting. That will be difficult, analysts said, especially in the United States where consumers are already well served by multiple services.

Whether or how Musk pulls it off remains to be seen. What analysts and academics can agree on is that considerable energy and momentum could be sapped by what they forecast will be heavy turnover among Twitter's staff and senior management.

Musk spent months criticising the company's management and complaining about salaries, what he perceived as political bias and automated 'bot accounts' - of which he thinks there are many more than Twitter estimates.

Addressing employees directly in June, he said there needed to be "rationalisation of headcount and expenses" while stressing that staff, who currently have relatively free rein to choose where they work, should lean towards working in an office.

One thing is for sure: Musk is going to receive huge attention and scrutiny as he figures out how to run Twitter. Success or failure, it will be an instant business school classroom staple, experts say.

"I'm really, really looking forward to the end," said Bris. "So I can teach this case in class."

Reporting by Andres Gonzalez, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and David Randall; additional reporting by Sheila Dang and Hyun Joo Jin; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Megan Davies, Kirsten Donovan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Five Hong Kong teenagers sentenced in first security case involving minors - CNN

Five teenagers with a Hong Kong group advocating independence from Chinese rule were ordered by a judge on Saturday to serve up to three years in detention at a correctional facility, for urging an “armed revolution” in a national security case.

The five, some of whom were minors aged between 15 and 18 at the time of the alleged offence, had pleaded guilty to “inciting others to subvert state power” through a group named “Returning Valiant.”

Sentences for two more, ages 21 and 26, will be delivered at a later date.

Justice Kwok Wai-kin detailed how the defendants had advocated a “bloody revolution” to overthrow the Chinese state at street booths, and on Instagram and Facebook after adoption of a sweeping, China-imposed national security law.

Kwok called the alleged incitement a serious crime, but nevertheless took into account their “age and immaturity” as he sentenced them to a training center, or detention facility for young people, rather than jail.

The length of stay, capped at three years, is left to correctional authorities to decide.

“Even if only one person is incited by them, the social stability of Hong Kong and the safety of residents may be seriously endangered,” Kwok added.

“There’s no evidence to directly prove that anyone was incited by the defendants to subvert state power, but this real risk exists.”

Cardinal Joseph Zen holds a Mass in Hong Kong, China, May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Hong Kong puts 90-year-old cardinal on trial over protest fund

Four of the five have already been remanded in custody for more than a year, with only one granted bail.

Prosecutors Anthony Chau and Stella Lo earlier told the court that the group’s pamphlets mentioned the French and Ukrainian Revolutions as examples of successful armed rebellions, and quoted Mao Zedong on a revolution being “a violent act of one class overthrowing another”.

Prosecutors detailed how the police had seized flags, leaflets, air guns, ammunition and extendable batons in an industrial building.

At least 22 people linked to the group were arrested last year. Several face a separate charge of conspiring to commit terrorism under the security law.

Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong say the security law has restored stability to the global financial hub after mass anti-government and pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Human rights experts on the United Nations Human Rights Committee, however, called for the law to be repealed in a July report, amid concerns it is being used to crack down on fundamental freedoms.

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Maryland AG joins family's appeal in 'Serial' murder case - ABC News

FILE - Adnan Syed, center right, leaves the courthouse after a hearing on Sept. 19, 2022, in Baltimore. Hae Min Lee's brother, Young Lee, has asked the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to halt court proceedings for Syed, whose conviction in Lee's 1999 killing was reversed by Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn in September 2022. Now, the office of Maryland's attorney general is supporting the brother's appeal. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP, File)

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Glassman, Lierman make their case to be Maryland's next comptroller - Maryland Matters

Maryland Matters Founding Editor Josh Kurtz (bottom left) moderates a forum Thursday night with candidates for state comptroller: Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) and Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R). Screen shot.

In one of the most competitive races in Maryland, the two candidates for state comptroller began a virtual forum Thursday with a civics lesson.

Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) and Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R) talked about how the comptroller is one of three independent elected officials statewide, sits on various boards, and serves as the state’s tax collector.

“Our state comptroller is more than just a bean counter,” Lierman said. “It’s an office that’s uniquely situated as the elected [chief financial officer] to focus on the economic challenges and the income-based issues that we face as a state.”

Glassman, who touted his 30-year experience in public office, calls the comptroller “the taxpayers’ representative.”

“It is a very technical, fiscal fiduciary role. We need experience to do that,” he said.

The office will see a new face after Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), who has held the job since January 2007, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor.

Lierman, 43, seeks to become the first woman ever elected to the position.

If elected, Glassman, 60, would be the first Republican comptroller in 122 years.

During the one-hour forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Maryland and several other organizations, a few differences surfaced.

Asked whether state government should consider the social and environmental impacts of companies it invests in and whether the state’s pension funds should divest from fossil fuel interests, Glassman said the focus should remain on investment return for employees and that policy should not be altered based on political whims.

“I don’t think a carbon neutral or a new policy such as that is probably realistic going forward,” he said. The goal, he said, should be to make sure the “pension fund is secure for our employees.”

Lierman, who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Pensions, said the legislature divested from Russia after the country invaded Ukraine this year.

She said the committee also determined that “climate risk is investment risk. The Maryland state retirement and pension system needs to consider the impact of climate change on investment risk and monitor our net zero-line investments in climate solutions to ensure the long-terms sustainability of our investment portfolio.”

As for the Hogan administration’s proposed project to widen Interstate 495 and 270 using toll lanes to finance the work, Lierman said the project, one of several high-profile public-private infrastructure arrangements, lacked “robust” accountability.

Glassman said he supports the governor’s plan to widen the highways, especially now that he’s been “baptized in the traffic around our Capital Beltway during this campaign.”

“I understand in procurement there’s some challenges. Once those technical challenges are solved, or resolved, I do think [the Board of Public Works] should move ahead and approve those [plans],” he said. “Particularly where we are with inflation, labor shortages and products, every day you wait the cost goes up.”

Glassman and Lierman did agree the procurement process should be streamlined to allow for more minority-owned and women-owned businesses to participate in bigger contracts. In addition, the candidates said the states should improve the digital infrastructure to make sure those companies can receive timely bids on projects.

As they offered closing remarks, the candidates summarized their endorsements.

For Glassman: the governor, Maryland Farm Bureau and Fraternal Order of Police.

For Lierman: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore and his running mate, former Del. Aruna Miller, U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, who’s running for Maryland attorney general, plus environmental groups and organized labor.

The Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore hosted the forum online. Co-sponsors were Maryland Matters, League of Woman Voters of Maryland, Maryland Reporter, Maryland Nonprofits and Maryland Latinos Unidos.

A video of the comptroller forum will be posted online on the Schaefer Center’s YouTube page in a few days.

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DACA remains intact as appeals court sends case challenging its legality back to lower court in Texas - The Texas Tribune

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A federal appeals court on Wednesday sent a case challenging the legality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — a national program that provides some undocumented immigrants work permits and temporarily protects them from deportation — back to a lower court in Texas.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling that it agreed with the lower court that the implementation of DACA in 2012 was illegal — but it will keep the program in place while the lower court analyzes the latest rule the Biden administration implemented in an effort to save the program from future legal challenges.

Anticipating a loss in the appeals court, the Biden administration in August codified DACA into regulatory law and rescinded the 2012 memo by then-U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that originally created DACA. The legal move was aimed at countering the July 2021 lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Houston, who said the Obama administration had illegally implemented DACA.

“In our view, the defendants have not shown that there is a likelihood that they will succeed on the merits,” Chief Judge Priscilla Richman wrote in the ruling, adding, “We also recognize that DACA has had profound significance to recipients and many others in the ten years since its adoption.”

Wednesday’s ruling will continue to allow current DACA recipients to renew their status but still prevents first-time applicants from being accepted into the program.

DACA survived an attempt by the Trump administration to end it when the Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that the administration had done so improperly and restored the program.

Meanwhile, Texas and eight other states filed a separate lawsuit in 2018 challenging the program’s constitutionality and argued that the Obama administration exceeded its authority by creating an immigration program without congressional approval. The lawsuit has led to a yearslong legal battle.

As part of Hanen’s order in that lawsuit, immigration officials could process DACA renewals but had to stop accepting new applications for the program, which defers deportation for qualifying immigrants who were brought to the country as children before 2007 and provides them with a renewable two-year work permit. Applicants must be high school students or high school graduates and cannot have a serious criminal history.

The program has approved more than 800,000 people over the past decade, including 101,000 current DACA recipients who live in Texas. Across the country, 93,000 first-time applicants have had their DACA applications halted as a result of Hanen’s ruling.

The Biden administration appealed Hanen’s order to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard arguments from both sides in July.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement on Wednesday that he is “deeply disappointed" by the ruling and “the ongoing uncertainty it creates for families and communities across the country.”

“It is clear, though, that only the passage of legislation will give full protection and a well-deserved path to citizenship for DACA recipients. I urge Congress to swiftly pass legislation to provide permanent protection to the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who call the United States home,” he said.

Erika Andiola, a DACA recipient and communications director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said Congress and President Joe Biden need to approve the permanent legalization of DACA recipients because the program has been the subject of multiple legal challenges.

“For hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients like me, moments like these that are spent waiting for breaking news about our lives and futures never get any easier,” she said, adding, “Still, hundreds of thousands of people are left anxiously awaiting yet another decision now from the same lower court that stopped first-time DACA applications from being accepted, that could end the program and leave us vulnerable to potential deportation.”

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