Leftovers

• New York Times ☛ Susan Backlinie, First Shark Attack Victim in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 77

  Ms. Backlinie, a stunt woman, appeared in the terrifying opening scene of the 1975 blockbuster in which a great white shark attacks.

• IT Jungle ☛ As I See It: Upgrade Exhaustion

  Several decades ago I recall seeing a 60 Minutes episode about an arms transfer (or perhaps it was a sale) of state-of-the-art American fighter jets to Israel. The interviewer traveled to the Middle East to see how Israeli pilots were adapting to the latest in American military technology. After being assured that the jet performed as advertised, the interviewer looked into the cockpit and marveled at all the screens, dials, switches, and gadgetry confronting the pilot. A deluge of supposedly useful information was available to the pilot in real time. But the sheer volume of it seemed daunting.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 8 more mainland Chinese cities to join Hong Kong’s solo travel scheme; ‘a timely boost,’ says hotels rep.

  The addition of eight Chinese cities to Hong Kong’s solo travel scheme will be “a timely boost” for the hotel and retail sectors, a veteran industry representative has said. The move by Beijing will allow more citizens to visit the city without joining a group tour.

• Hackaday ☛ Autochrome For The 2020s

  For all intents and purposes, photography here in 2024 is digital. Of course chemical photography still exists, and there are a bunch of us who love it for what it is, but even as we hang up our latest strip of negatives to dry we have to admit that it’s no longer mainstream. Among those enthusiasts who work with conventional black-and-white or dye-coupler colour film are a special breed whose chemistry takes them into more obscure pathways.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ IRCB S73-7 Satellite Found After Going Untracked For 25 Years

    When the United States launched the KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite into orbit atop a Titan IIID rocket in 1974, it brought a calibration target along for the ride: the Infra-Red Calibration Balloon (IRCB) S73-7. This 66 cm (26 inch) diameter inflatable satellite was ejected by the KH-9, but failed to inflate into its intended configuration and became yet another piece of space junk. Initially it was being tracked in the 1970s, but vanished until briefly reappearing in the 1990s. Now it’s popped up again, twenty-five years later.

  • Science Alert ☛ Giant 'Blobs' in The Pacific Ocean Finally Have Their Origins Revealed

    The mystery explained?

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists Detect Hints of a Mysterious Particle Called a 'Glueball'

  • Science Alert ☛ Dramatic Shift in Africa 5,000 Years Ago Could Be a Warning of The Future

    A flicker that changed things forever.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel's biggest failure pops up on a Pokemon-emblazoned motherboard — 10nm Cannon Lake rides in style on a custom Meowth board

    Hardware enthusiast YuuKi_AnS shows off a peculiar Cannon Lake motherboard with a rare Core m3-8114Y sample with three dies.

  • Hackaday ☛ Emulate A KIM-1 With A Commodore 64

    When you think about virtualization, you usually think about making some CPU pretend to be another CPU. However, there are sometimes advantages to making a computer pretend to be the same computer.

  • Hackaday ☛ Tweeze Your Way To Soldering Success!

    Soldering, for those of us who spend a lot of time at an electronics bench, is just one of those skills we have, in the way that a blacksmith can weld or a tailor can cut clothing. We have an uncommon skill with hot metal and can manipulate the tiniest of parts, and incidentally our chopstick skills aren’t that bad as a consequence, either.

  • Hackaday ☛ Answering All Your ISCSI Scanner Questions

    iSCSI is a widely used protocol for exposing SCSI devices over a network connection, and some scanners have in the past been equipped with SCSI ports. So, could you have an iSCSI network scanner? [xssfox] details her journey making a Canoscan FS4000US film scanner work over iSCSI, sparked by someone’s overly-confident StackOverflow comment that it couldn’t be done. Nothing in the spec said it couldn’t actually work, however, and after figuring out a tentative architecture, a hardware setup was put together.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Stanford University ☛ Pressure to play through the pain: Athletes promote mental health awareness at GameFACES

    At Stanford's annual GameFACES event, student-athletes opened up about their mental health journeys in order to promote mental health awareness.

  • Science Alert ☛ US to Reclassify Cannabis in Dramatic Shift in Drug Policy. Here's Why.

    A major change is coming.

  • Science Alert ☛ What Is Adenomyosis? This Little-Known Condition Affects Up to 1 in 5 Women

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Arm reportedly set to enter Hey Hi (AI) chip market with first product next year [Ed: Hey Hi (AI) washing is nothing new and it is just a meme]

    Computer chip designer Arm Holdings Plc is reportedly set to enter the artificial intelligence chip market and is seeking to launch its first product next year.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Arm to develop Hey Hi (AI) processors — prototypes ready for spring 2025, says report [Ed: So they gamble on buzzwords as a marketing strategy]

    Arm is reportedly developing Hey Hi (AI) processors for Softbank, and its first designs are expected to emerge in 2025.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AI GPU bottleneck has eased, but now power will constrain Hey Hi (AI) growth warns Zuckerberg

    Energy constraints are set to become the IT industry’s next bottleneck, reasons Facebook (Farcebook) co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a recent interview.

  • New York Times ☛ Patient Dies Weeks After Kidney Transplant From Genetically Modified Pig

    Richard Slayman received the historic procedure in March. The hospital said it had “no indication” his death was related to the transplant.

  • Sony reportedly opens new studio [Ed: While Microsoft shuts many down]

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • IT Wire ☛ Oracle employee pokes fun at Surveillance Giant Google Cloud over UniSuper screw-up

      Killian Lynch, a product manager at Oracle, published a tweet that said, "shameless plug – if you're building Hey Hi (AI) and need cheap GPUs check out @OracleCloud (we won't delete your company)."

      Lynch's tweet was reposted by Sentinel Labs executive director Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a well-known and respected security practitioner, who added a GIF of Ryan Gosling covering his mouth and guffawing.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Strategist ☛ Focused on its region: an overview of Japan’s latest security moves

    As Japan becomes more forward-leading in national security, it is signaling a greater interest in the wider world.

  • JURIST ☛ Colombia court grants conditional release to former paramilitary leader

    Colombia’s Justice and Peace Tribunal of Bogota, led by Magistrate Jose Manuel Parra, released former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso on Saturday by replacing 57 security measures that had previously kept him in custody.

  • JURIST ☛ Philippines deploys ships to disputed South China Sea amid reports China building ‘artificial island’

    The Philippines on Saturday deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of building an “artificial island” amid the two Asian countries’s ongoing conflict over the territory, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippine coast guard won't allow China reclamation at disputed shoal, official says

    The Philippines said it has deployed ships to Sabina Shoal.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ More gov’t-appointed members to join social workers’ licencing body as welfare chief cites need to ‘protect nat. security’ – reports

    Hong Kong authorities intend to increase the number of government-appointed members in a body that reviews social workers’ licenses, local media have reported.

  • RFA ☛ North Korea appoints new ambassador to UN office in Geneva

    The move comes 5 months after the previous ambassador returned to the North after ivory-smuggling allegations.

  • New York Times ☛ Trump, Bashing Migrants, Likens Them to Hannibal Lecter, Movie Cannibal

    Donald Trump, at his rally in New Jersey, used an extended riff about the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs” to demonize migrants at the border.

  • NYPost ☛ US soldier detained in Russia was stabbed by girlfriend during on-camera fight in front of his wife, daughter: ‘had blood on his face’

    The bloody fracas came months before Black, a staff sergeant, was arrested on May 2 in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on accusations of theft after an argument, Russian authorities said.

  • The Strategist ☛ What Fentanylware (TikTok) got wrong about America

    TikTok is now one of the biggest stories in business and geopolitics. US President Joe Biden  has just signed a law that will ban the massively popular app in nine months if its Chinese owner,

  • International Business Times ☛ 2024-05-09 [Older] TikTok Boss Investigated For 'Misogyny, Sexual Harassment, and Mansplaining'

  • Vox ☛ 2024-05-09 [Older] How TikTok Shop ads turned an obscure, inaccurate book into a bestseller

  • NL Times ☛ 2024-05-08 [Older] Disapointed Keukenhof visitors flood TikTok with videos of wilting, dead flowers [Ed: A swarm of drones working for Pooh-tin, taking instructions from so-called 'app']

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-05-07 [Older] TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Ban [Ed: "unconstitutional" to a company from a country that actively attacks the First Amendment (which it does not have) internationally]

  • CBC ☛ 2024-05-07 [Older] TikTok is suing the U.S. over 'obviously unconstitutional' law that would ban it

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Critic Navalny Posthumously Awarded Dresden Peace Prize

      Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny was posthumously awarded the 2024 Dresden Peace Prize in the German city on May 12. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accepted for her husband, who died in February in a Russian prison.

    • France24 ☛ Putin set to replace Shoigu as Russia's defence minister

      Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a surprise new defence minister, nominating civilian Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics, for the job more than two years into the Ukraine war, the Kremlin said.

    • France24 ☛ Sergei Shoigu: Russia’s political survivor battered by Ukraine setbacks

      Sergei Shoigu, who is being replaced as Russia's defence minister, spearheaded Moscow's offensive in Ukraine and has been the country's longest-serving minister, as well as being one of Vladimir Putin's few close friends.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin Fires Longtime Ally Shoigu As Defense Minister, Names Little-Known Successor

      Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military has been criticized at home for a perceived lack of progress and heavy losses during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, announced that he was replacing longtime ally Sergei Shoigu as defense minister.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Replaces Defense Minister in Rare Cabinet Shake-up

      Mr. Putin shifted Sergei Shoigu to run the security council, and nominated an economist to run the defense ministry.

    • Meduza ☛ Putin names Shoigu Secretary of Security Council — Meduza

    • France24 ☛ Thousands evacuated in Ukraine as Russia advances in Kharkiv region

      Russia said Sunday it had captured four more villages in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, as thousands of residents were evacuated from the offensive in an area where Russian troops were repelled in 2022.

    • France24 ☛ More than 4,000 flee Russian cross-border attacks in Ukraine's Kharkiv region

      More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the local governor said on Sunday, following a surprise cross-border Russian offensive there that began on Friday.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Assault On Kharkiv Intensifies As Belgorod Hit By Presumed Ukrainian Missile

      Kyiv on May 12 said “all areas” of the Kharkiv region's border area are under Russian assault after Ukraine's top military commander said “decisive battles” were being fought there, while the Kremlin assailed what it called a Ukrainian attack on an apartment building in the Russian city of Belgorod.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Forces Push Deeper Into Northern Ukraine

      With Ukrainian troops outnumbered, exhausted and now in retreat near Kharkiv, many Ukrainians wonder if the war has taken a significant turn for the worse.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine’s Seaborne Grain Exports Bounce Back to Near Prewar Levels

      The flow of grain ships through ports in the Odesa region is a welcome boost for Ukraine’s war-ravaged economy. But analysts warn it may not last.

    • France24 ☛ Georgia protest against ‘Russian law’ draws tens of thousands in Tbilisi

      Around 50,000 protesters marched through central Tbilisi on Saturday at a rally against a controversial foreign influence bill, dubbed "the Russian law", and backed by the Georgian government. Critics say the bill is inspired by a law in Russia that has been used to clamp down on dissent.

    • LRT ☛ GPS jamming in the Baltics: Is Russia responsible and will NATO respond?

      Estonia and Lithuania have accused Russia of interfering with air traffic navigation in the region. Experts see it as part of Moscow’s hybrid war against NATO. Will the security alliance respond?

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Another Maggie Haberman NYT Story Covers Up Oleg Deripaska’s Role

      NYT and other media outlets are burying the truly scandalous details of Trump's willingness (and second thoughts) about bringing Paul Manafort back onto a campaign role: his role (witting or not) in Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] German Recalls Ambassador to Russia Over Cyberattack Concerns

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Macron and Xi discuss Russia, Ukraine and trade

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia orders nuclear preparation drills

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Kremlin Says Nuclear Weapon Drills Are Russia's Response to West's Statements

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Macron, Von Der Leyen Urge China to Press Russia Over Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Russia Warns Britain and Plans Nuclear Drills Over the West's Possible Deepening Role in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Russia's Overnight Drone Attack Cut Power to Over 400,000 Consumers, Says Ukraine's Energy Ministry

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Putin Orders Tactical Nuclear Weapon Drills to Deter the West

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Russia Warns Britain It Could Strike Back After Cameron Remark on Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Russia Will Have to Increase Its Missile Arsenal to Deter the West, Diplomat Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Ukrainian Drones Kill Six, Injure 35 in Russia's Belgorod Region, Governor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] What Are Tactical Nuclear Weapons and Why Did Russia Order Drills?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-05 [Older] Border escape: Ukrainians flee Russian-occupied territories

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-11 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kharkiv residents near border relocate

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-11 [Older] US Special Operations Leaders Are Having to Do More With Less and Learning From the War in Ukraine

    • CBC ☛ 2024-05-10 [Older] Canada presses Germany to boost parts production as Ukraine struggles to field its Leopard tanks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-10 [Older] Canada to Give C$76 Million to Help Buy Air Defenses for Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2024-05-08 [Older] Ukraine extended martial law and general mobilization of troops

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-07 [Older] Ukraine updates: Kyiv says it foiled plot to kill Zelenskyy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-07 [Older] Exclusive-Ukraine Examines N.Korean Missile Debris Amid Fears of Moscow-Pyongyang Axis

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Macron, Von Der Leyen Press China's Xi on Trade in Paris Talks

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2024-05-05 [Older] China's Xi in Europe: At odds over trade, Ukraine war

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New York Times ☛ China’s Bullet Trains Are Raising Ticket Prices

      The rare move by operators of the national rail network comes as part of a broader push in China to stem losses at subsidized public services.

    • The Local SE ☛ 2024-05-06 [Older] Swedish rail derailments could be linked to 'Russian-backed sabotage'

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Poor Malaysian families worse off now than during Covid-19 pandemic: Unicef report

    Eight in 10 families in low-cost flats in KL struggle to generate adequate income for basic needs.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean prosecutors to summon pastor who allegedly gave Dior bag to first lady

    The prosecution aims to investigate whether the handbag was offered as an act of improper solicitation related to a job or duties.

  • JURIST ☛ US government moves to end long-standing agreement on migrant child custody oversight

    The US government filed a motion on Friday to partially end a 27-year-old agreement that requires the federal government to comply with court supervision about the treatment of migrant children in its custody.

  • JURIST ☛ Kuwait leader dissolves parliament and suspends constitutional provisions

    Kuwait’s Emir (political leader) announced the suspension of parliament and some articles of the constitution in a televised speech on Saturday. The suspension comes just a few weeks after the national elections.

  • New York Times ☛ As Seinfeld Receives Honorary Degree at Duke, Students Walk Out in Protest

    Following the walkout, the comedian, who has been vocal about his support for Israel, opted to take a lighter approach in his commencement speech.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • France24 ☛ Amazon, Pfizer, AstroZeneca to pledge billions at ‘Choose France’ summit [Ed: What is the purpose of this whitewashing puff piece from French national media?]

      US retail giant Amazon is expected to announce a €1.2-billion ($1.3-billion) investment in France, the French government said Sunday, while pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstroZeneca have pledged nearly €1 billion ahead of the annual Choose France summit on foreign investment starting Monday.

    • Reason ☛ The Future of Porn Is Consensual Deepfakes

      OnlyFans let women distribute their own porn. Artificial intelligence will give them even more control.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • IT Wire ☛ eSafety request to extend stay on stabbing videos refused

    The Federal Court has refused a request from the Australian eSafety Commission to extend an injunction that required the social control media platform X [formerly Twitter] to block access to videos of a stabbing in Sydney, that occurred on 15 April.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Arts, Interrupted: Saving the English Major: The Consequences of Banned Books

    On today’s episode we are joined by The University of Michigan’s English Department’s Advisory Board members to discuss critical attempts to prove the relevancy of an English degree.  With the help of a panel of local professors, parents and librarians, we discuss an issue close to the hearts of the distinguished board members: banned books.

  • Gizmodo ☛ 2024-05-10 [Older] Lord of the Rings Fan Film Restored After Brief YouTube Deletion

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Latvia ☛ ABLV bank tries to bill police for money storing costs

    ABLV Bank, which is in liquidation, asks the police to reimburse the costs of storing money seized during various investigations. Given that the amounts seized were impressive, so is the invoice to the State Police, Latvian Television's De Facto reported on May 12.

  • France24 ☛ Tunisian lawyers call for strike over colleague’s arrest for sarcastic TV quip

    A Tunisian lawyers association on Sunday called for a nationwide strike after hooded police raided Tunisia’s bar association headquarters and arrested a prominent lawyer as authorities escalated a broad government crackdown that has ensnared political dissidents, non-governmental organizations and Black migrants.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Technology and Free Software

    • The CD disc

      In before someone complains that I write “CLI interface”, “CD disc” etc even though that would expand to “command line interface interface”, “compact disc disc” etc, let me introduce you to the life-changing magic of lexicalization. An abbreviation can become a word of its own. And if we can’t use the words as they are without having to mentally “expand” them, we lose a lot of the benefit of having the words in the first place.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Tooticki

        I like toot as a good complement to other ActivityPub clients. It’s friendly for scripting.

        I can’t really use the TUI version (maybe there’s some issue with my shell) but I use the CLI interface all the time.

      • Aggregator and AuraGem Search Updates

        I have updated AuraGem search so that you can search all of the smallnet, or just search Geminispace or just Scrollspace. Smallnet search includes links from Gemini, Nex, and Scroll.