Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Dad? Where Did Printed Circuit Boards Come From?

  These days, it is hard to imagine electronics without printed circuit boards. They are literally in everything. While making PCBs at home used to be a chore, these days, you design on a computer, click a button, and they show up in the mail. But if you go back far enough, there were no PC boards. Where did they come from? That’s the question posed by [Steven Leibson] who did some investigating into the topic.

• MWL ☛ June’s Jitterbug Sausage

  (This post went to Patronizers at the beginning of June, and the public at the beginning of July.) “The deck is clear, projects are ready to go, I’m ready to WRITE!” One lovely Friday night in May, She Who Must Be Obeyed finished teaching for the summer.

• The Straits Times ☛ Micro-drama boom injects new life to Hengdian, China’s Hollywood

  Tourists who come for star sightings and a chance to see familiar movie sets are back with a vengeance.

• The Straits Times ☛ Enterprising middlemen, overseas warehouses help drive China’s e-commerce exports

  This comes amid a saturating domestic market.

• The Straits Times ☛ ST Picks: Short takes - Why tourists are again flocking to China’s Hollywood

• RFA ☛ China targets lavish 'revolutionary' tourism funded by taxpayer

  Ruling party's disciplinary arm brings more than 16,000 rule-breaking officials to book.

• Hackaday ☛ A Look Back At The USSR’s Mi-6 Helicopter Airliner

  Most of us would equate commercial airline travel with fixed-wing aircraft, but civilian transport by helicopter, especially in large and sparsely populated regions, is common enough. It was once even big business in the Soviet Union, where the Aeroflot airline operated passenger helicopters in regular service for many decades. In the mid-1960s they even started work on converting the Mil Mi-6 — the USSR’s largest and fastest helicopter — to carry paying passengers. Unfortunately this never got past a single prototype, with the circumstances described by [Oliver Parken] in a recent article.

• Hackaday ☛ The Thermite Process Iron Foundry

  The thermite process is a handy way to generate molten iron in the field. It’s the reaction between aluminium metal and iron oxide, which results in aluminium oxide and metallic iron. It’s hot enough that the iron is produced as a liquid, which means it’s most notably used for in-field welding of things such as railway tracks. All this is grist to [Cody’s Lab]’s mill of course, so in the video below the break he attempts to use a thermite reaction in a rough-and-ready foundry, to make a cast-iron frying pan.

• New York Times ☛ On ‘Hard Fork,’ a Hard Look at the Future of Technology

  Kevin Roose and Casey Newton reflect on the success of their podcast and look toward what’s next.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysterious Symbols on 4,000-Year-Old Rock Art Hint at an Unknown Culture

    Who were they?

  • Science Alert ☛ Find It Hard to Focus? You May Have Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome

    This could affect a lot of people.

  • Science Alert ☛ Astronomers Reveal Stunning Image of Baby Star Coming Into Existence

    Everything has a beginning.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Reveals Images of Large Asteroids That Just Sailed Past Earth

    Ships in the night.

  • CS Monitor ☛ How bird illustrators help science soar

    A popular science illustration fellowship for bird artists aims to highlight the benefits of deep observation in a digital age.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Build A DIY Spinner To Get Your Tempest Game Going

    These days, controls in games are fairly standardized by genre. Most RTSs, FPSs, and RPGs all control more or less the same way. But one type of controller that has fallen by the wayside is the paddle, or spinner. [jesster88] is a big Tempest fan, however, and a spinner is crucial. Thus, what else is there to do but whip up one’s own?

  • Hackaday ☛ Hacking A Quansheng Handheld To Transmit Digital Modes

    Have you ever thought about getting into digital modes on the ham bands? As it turns out, you can get involved using the affordable and popular Quansheng UV-K6 — if you’re game to modify it, that is. It’s perfectly achievable using the custom Mobilinkd firmware, the brainchild of one [Rob Riggs].

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia to make $12 billion selling Hey Hi (AI) GPUs to China — firm to sell over one million sanctions-compliant HGX H20 in 2024

    According to experts, Nvidia's HGX H20 and other processors outperform Huawei's Ascend 910 series and can be shipped without a license to China.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ AI industry needs to earn $600 billion per year to pay for massive hardware spend — fears of an Hey Hi (AI) bubble intensify in wake of Sequoia report

    As Hey Hi (AI) companies increase their investments in infrastructure, their revenues are not growing that fast, financial analysts note, implying that Hey Hi (AI) could become a bubble.

  • CNX Software ☛ Meenhong JX5 defective chip maker Intel N100 mini PC looks like a (thick) smartphone with a 5.5-inch touchscreen display

    Meenhong JX5 is another defective chip maker Intel N100 mini PC with an integrated touchscreen display, but the 5.5-inch Full HD LCD used in this smartphone-like model is even smaller than the 7-inch display found in the HIGOLE F9B Pro and SZBOX S7 variants.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Mixing Energy Drinks With Alcohol Can Impair Brain Function, Study in Rats Shows

  • New York Times ☛ Malaria Vaccine Rollout to Africa Is a Cautionary Tale

    After years of delay, millions of malaria vaccines are being supplied to children in Africa. Tens of thousands died waiting.

  • JURIST ☛ India Supreme Court criticizes Manipur court denying health treatment to minority prisoner

    The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday disapproved the Manipur High Court’s decision to curtail hospital treatment for a prisoner belonging to the minority Kuki community, citing ethnic clashes in the state.

  • Reason ☛ Detailing the 'Real Problem With Legal Weed,' a Critic Grossly Exaggerates the Prevalence of Pot Addiction

    The Manhattan Institute's Charles Fain Lehman misleadingly equates a survey's measure of "cannabis use disorder" with "compulsive" consumption that causes "health and social problems."

  • Latvia ☛ Rīga psychiatric hospital's 200-year-old buildings renovated

    On Thursday, July 4, the buildings of the 3rd and 4th wings of the Riga Psychiatry and Narcology Centre (RPNC) were opened. They have been restored to their original appearance as the buildings will celebrate their 200th anniversary this autumn, Latvian Television reported.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Visual greenery is healthy

    I’ve long known personally that I feel better when house plants and outdoor greenery are in sight, to the point where I’ll rearrange entire rooms to have my desk and/or chair pointing in the direction of it, and will keep a little planter on the balcony table when I’m outside having my morning coffee. 🌿

  • Science Alert ☛ Almost 18 Million Adult Americans Have Had Long COVID

    That's 7% of the US population.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Silicon Angle ☛ The Hey Hi (AI) money train keeps rolling, but the environmental toll keeps growing too

    Investors are still betting big on artificial intelligence, as this past week alone they put $450 million in Runway AI, $200 million into Magic Hey Hi (AI) and $100 million in Harvey, among others. Hey Hi (AI) also helped Samsung rock its preliminary earnings reported this week. Meantime, SK Hynix is investing a stunning $75B in its Hey Hi (AI) chipmaking business.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ New Abusive Monopolist Microsoft ads tout unavailable Recall feature, don't mention it was indefinitely delayed due to privacy concerns

    Microsoft has been running new ads exclusively about Recall functionality since July 1st. The new ads directly from the backdoored Windows X account raise questions about the future of Recall, which has been indefinitely cancelled for weeks.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: More jobs cut for the third time in 2024

    Posts from former employees on LinkedIn signal that the cuts may be happening to those in roles for product and program management.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • New York Times ☛ Mark Zuckerberg’s Viral Surf Video

      In a sequel to his much-mocked hydrofoil video, the Meta founder celebrates the Fourth of July in his own particular way.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Man Who Stabbed South Korea’s Opposition Leader Is Sentenced to 15 Years

    The attack on Lee Jae-myung in January raised alarms about South Korea’s political polarization. His assailant was convicted of attempted murder.

  • JURIST ☛ Amnesty International: Malaysia violations of international law persist despite repeal of death penalty

    It has been one year since Malaysia repealed the mandatory death penalty, however, Amnesty International has highlighted ongoing violations of international human rights standards.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Jim Jordan Publishes Intelligence Analysis of Trump’s Authoritarian Tendencies

    Jim Jordan helpfully published intelligence analysis of how Trump's narcissism poses a risk to the United States.

  • RFERL ☛ China's Pooh-tin Pledges Support For Tajikistan's 'Territorial Integrity'

    Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping on July 5 promised to defend the "territorial integrity" of Tajikistan as he announced a boost to diplomatic relations with the neighboring country on a rare visit.

  • RFA ☛ United States closely monitoring seizure of Taiwanese boat

    Taiwanese fishing boat seized by Chinese coast guard and its crew remain in detention.

  • RFA ☛ Taiwan spy chief warns of sharp rise in Chinese infiltration

    Warning comes amid probe into allegations of a Xinhua editor at a Taiwanese TV station talk show.

  • RFA ☛ Prominent Chinese dissident Xu Zhiyong cut off from other inmates

    Activist who urged Pooh-tin Jinping to resign is serving 14 years. He’s monitored around the clock.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China rejects human rights recommendations from Western countries after routine UN review

    By Nina Larson China met stinging criticism at the United Nations on Thursday from some countries and organisations over its rights record, even as others showered Beijing with praise.

  • New York Times ☛ Trump Advisers Call for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing if He Is Elected

    A former national security adviser says Washington “must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world,” while critics say the move could incite a global arms race that heightens the risk of war.

  • The Strategist ☛ Protecting Japan’s national security from information operations

    Japan in the past believed it was relatively safe from malign information operations, thanks to the linguistic barrier and a generally high level of public trust in traditional media.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • CS Monitor ☛ Nepalis thought they were going to Russia to ‘help.’ They were made to fight – and die.

      Russia has sent thousands of foreign “helpers” to fight in Ukraine – including many Nepalis. Families of missing recruits are searching for answers.

    • RFERL ☛ New U.K. Prime Minister Starmer Vows 'Change Begins Now,' But Ukraine Is Another Matter

      While incoming British Prime Minister Starmer and his center-left party have pledged a fresh approach to crises at home, they have signaled no dramatic break with the outgoing government's policy of robust military and diplomatic support for Ukraine in its ongoing war to defeat Russian invaders.

    • New York Times ☛ Kazakh Journalist’s Killing Sends Chill Through Exiles in Ukraine

      Aidos Sadykov, an opposition activist whose YouTube channel often criticizes Kazakhstan’s government, was shot in Ukraine, where he was living in exile.

    • Latvia ☛ Company fined EUR 10,000 for possible import of Russian wood

      The State Forest Service (VMD) in May imposed a fine of €10,000 on a company that planned to import birch plywood from Turkey, which may have originated in Russia, the VMD said.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Dispatch from Warsaw: Poland’s military and economic rise is coming just in time, as the West wobbles

      Its rise at home and its strategic clarity about Russia have placed Poland in the first rank of European powers for the first time in centuries.

    • JURIST ☛ Belarus releases several political prisoners in accordance with new amnesty law

      17 political prisoners have been amnestied and pardoned in Belarus, following the signing of the Law On Amnesty in Connection with the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from Nazi Invaders, the Viasna Human Rights Center (‘Viasna’) said on Friday.

    • JURIST ☛ France citizen admits charges of collecting sensitive military data, Russia FSB claims

      French researcher Laurent Vinatier admitted during interrogation to illegally collecting sensitive Russian military information, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday.

    • LRT ☛ Google bans sanctioned Russian performers after request from Lithuania

      Google has informed the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) that it has removed the official accounts of EU-sanctioned Russian performers at the Lithuanian media watchdog's request.

    • RFERL ☛ Kremlin Critic Kara-Murza Moved To Prison Hospital

      The wife of imprisoned Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza says he was transferred from a maximum security prison facility to a prison hospital late on June 4 and not allowed to see his lawyers.

    • RFERL ☛ Exclusive: Bosnian Charged In Uss Escape Is Released To Italy; U.S. Drops Extradition Request

      Vladimir Jovancic, a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is one of eight people Italian authorities have charged in connection with the March 2023 escape of Russian businessman Artyom Uss.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine's Energy Operator Imposes 'Tougher' Power Outages

      Ukraine's national power distributor Ukrenerho on July 5 announced a "tougher" schedule of rolling blackouts across the country as it tries to cope with damage to infrastructure inflicted by Russian bombardments in its 28-month-old full-scale invasion.

    • RFERL ☛ Stoltenberg Confirms $43 Billion NATO Aid Package For Ukraine Ahead Of Alliance Summit

      NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the alliance will provide 40 billion euros ($43 billion) in military aid to Ukraine in 2025.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian leaders hope for London’s continued support for Ukraine after Labour victory

      President Gitanas Nausėda and Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė have congratulated the leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party Keir Starmer on his victory in the general elections, saying they look forward to further support for Ukraine and close bilateral cooperation.

    • JURIST ☛ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reports civilian casualty rise in Ukraine

      The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report Wednesday on the human rights situation in Ukraine, showing that intensified military operations by Russian armed led to a rise in civilian casualties and extensive damage to civilian property and infrastructure, particularly in areas near the frontline.

    • JURIST ☛ Prominent Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza transferred to prison hospital

      Pulitzer Prize-winning Russian journalist and opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a prison hospital while serving out a 25-year sentence for criticizing his country’s invasion of Ukraine, his wife announced via social control media on Friday.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia to send thousands more drones to Ukraine

      The Latvian Ministry of Defense said July 5 that it has lined up the delivery of more than 2,500 combat drones to Ukraine, with the first shipment scheduled to take place "in the next few days".

    • New York Times ☛ Hungary’s Viktor Orban Travels to Russia for Meeting With Vladimir Putin

      Days after a trip to Ukraine, the Hungarian leader arrived in Moscow for a visit, but E.U. officials made clear that he was not there on behalf of the bloc.

    • RFERL ☛ European Officials Say Orban 'Exploiting EU Presidency' By Visiting Putin For Ukraine Talks

      European leaders on July 5 slammed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his visit to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of shaking hands "with a bloody dictator" and of "exploiting the EU presidency position to sow confusion."

    • LRT ☛ Vilnius slams Orbán’s meeting with Putin: it undermines Hungary’s EU presidency

      Commenting on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says his actions are undermining confidence in Budapest’s EU presidency.

    • France24 ☛ Orban's meeting with Putin on Ukraine peace deal is 'appeasement', EU leaders say

      Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the most Russia-friendly of all EU leaders, met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine. The trip, which comes just a few days after Budapest took over the rotating EU presidency, has been slammed by the rest of the 27-nation bloc, who say it could undermine the EU’s stance on the more than two-year-long conflict.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Tornado kills one, injures 79 in China’s Shandong

    China has recently endured extreme weather conditions, from torrential rainfall to searing heatwaves.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Silicon Angle ☛ South Korea launches cryptocurrency monitoring system to fight market manipulation

      South Korea’s financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Service, on Thursday unveiled a national 24-hour surveillance network designed to track and trace cryptocurrency transactions with local exchanges to combat crypto market manipulation and fraud. The system’s launch will come in tandem with new crypto investor regulations that go into effect on July 19.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Baby Pygmy Blue Whale Spotted Might Be Youngest Ever Seen in Australia

      And some incredible footage we've never seen before.

• Finance

  • CS Monitor ☛ Economic signals are blinking green. Why Americans are still seeing red. [Ed: Those "green" ones are the yardstick of the Ruling Class]

    Jobs in the U.S. economy keep expanding and the inflation rate has largely normalized. Yet economic worries and frustrations persist. Here’s what’s keeping the public from feeling more positive about the economy.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Tom Nicholas on the 2024 UK elections

    From his latest video:

    After fourteen years in power [views of David Cameron, Theresa May, Liz Lettuce, and Rishi Sunak], more than 100 billion GBP to cuts in public services, one Brexit referendum, countless corrupt COVID PPE deals, and a self-inflicted economic crisis, the consequences of Conservative rule are plain for all to see.

  • New York Times ☛ Frailty Explains What’s Happening to President Biden

    The president is a classic aging case playing out for the country to watch.

  • New York Times ☛ U.K. Liberal Democrats Make Big Election Gains

    The small centrist party campaigned on improving health and social care. Its leader, Ed Davey, wooed voters with publicity stunts and personal appeals.

  • New York Times ☛ Biden Can Ad-Lib and Deliver a Speech. It’s Still Not Enough.

    In Wisconsin, he remembered the governor’s name. But can he deliver a better future?

  • New York Times ☛ Keir Starmer Vows ‘National Renewal’ in First Speech as UK Prime Minister

    The Labour leader promised in a speech in Downing Street to restore Britain’s faith in politics and public service.

  • New York Times ☛ Rishi Sunak Defends Record in Last Speech as Prime Minister

    In brief remarks in Downing Street, he apologized to Britain for his failings and accepted responsibility for his party’s stinging election defeat.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Daily Mail gracious in defeat as Fleet Street reacts to Labour landslide

    While Sun and Daily Mail congratulate Keir Starmer, Times and Telegraph are less upbeat.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Reason ☛ Court Vacates "Stalking … Protective Order" Entered Against Critic of Elected Official

    The official argued, among other things, that defendant's speech constituted "words of incitement" intended "to rile up the Black community to attack [her]."

  • Reason ☛ Federal Intervention in Campus Protests Is Going Too Far

    Department of Education settlements with protest-wracked colleges threaten censorship by bureaucracy.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong court denies ex-Tiananmen vigil activist Chow Hang-tung’s bid to remove judge from national security trial

    A Hong Kong court has denied former Tiananmen vigil activist Chow Hang-tung’s application to replace a judge presiding over her upcoming national security trial.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong court rejects media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s bid to challenge foreign lawyer ban at top court

    A Hong Kong court has refused to allow jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai to ask the city’s top court to overturn a ruling that effectively barred him from hiring a British lawyer for his ongoing national security trial.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong 47: Activist Joshua Wong frequently helped his community, court hears, as lawyer urges lighter sentence

    Activist Joshua Wong frequently helped others in the community, his lawyer has said as he attempted to convince judges that his client should be given a lesser sentence in the city’s largest national security case. Wong, 27, was among six defendants who appeared at West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Friday for a mitigation hearing.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ How Politico and New Statesman election parties toasted Labour’s landslide

    Press Gazette reports back the election night (party) frontline.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • RFERL ☛ Swedish-Iranian Drops Hunger Strike Over Exclusion From Swap Deal

    The wife of Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish academic condemned to death in Iran, says he has ended a hunger strike eight days after launching the protest at his being left out of a prisoner swap between Tehran and Stockholm.

  • JURIST ☛ Afghanistan dispatch: salaries of women professors and government employees reduced to discourage them from working

    This dispatch was filed by a JURIST legal correspondent in Afghanistan.

  • JURIST ☛ India minister introduces amendments to new criminal laws following controversial implementation

    Following initial opposition from Karnataka’s Law Minister HK Patil to the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and associated legislations scheduled to enter into force July 1, Patil announced Karnataka’s intention to introduce 23-25 amendments to these laws before their enforcement in the state following a cabinet meeting Friday.

  • Latvia ☛ Suspended lecturer files lawsuit against Latvian music academy

    Rolands Kronlaks, former head of the Music Technology Department at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (JVLMA), has filed a lawsuit against the Academy after being suspended over alleged sexual harassment, Latvian Television reported on July 4.

  • Defence Web ☛ POPCRU decries shrinking prison staff numbers

    Following the appointment of Pieter Groenewald as Minister of Correctional Services, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) has demanded the employment of more custodial officers in South Africa’s prisons in the face of overcrowding and short-staffing.

  • RFA ☛ Episode 10: Not just another Tuệsday

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Zimbabwe ☛ TelOne partners OneWeb (Starlink competitor) and looks to slash fibre and ADSL prices too

    I am astounded by just how much a little competition can achieve for end-users.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ The Big Three of Streaming: Spotify, Fashion Company Apple Music, and Amazon Music Account for Over 90% of U.S. Subscribers, DMN Pro Data Finds

    Spotify, Fashion Company Apple Music, and Amazon Music are today’s “big three” paid streaming services – at least in the U.S., where they claim a more than 90% market share. That telling stat comes from DMN Pro’s new Streaming Music Subscriber Market Share database, which provides a comprehensive breakdown of on-demand platforms’ stateside reach.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Silicon Angle ☛ Reversing course, Fashion Company Apple approves Epic Games’ iOS game store

  Apple Inc. today gave Epic Games Inc. the go-ahead to make its video game marketplace available for iOS users in the European Union.  The decision comes hours after Epic accused the iPhone maker of rejecting the app.

• Silicon Angle ☛ EU asks Amazon for information about its DSA compliance

  European Union officials have asked Amazon.com Inc. for information about its compliance with the DSA, a piece of tech industry regulation that the bloc rolled out in 2022. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, disclosed the move today.

• Patents

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ UEFA v Ballino – PI Refusal Reasons Now Published

    The reasons for the decision are now available in the case of Ballino v UEFA and others, following an oral hearing on 3rd of June 2004 in the Hamburg local division.

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Japan’s first case regarding compulsory license based on public interest is finally settled

    On May 30, 2024, the JPO announced that the request for a decision of granting a compulsory non-exclusive license based on public interest under Article 93 of the Patent Act, which was filed by Vision Care and VC Cell Therapy (the “Claimants”) on July 13, 2021, was withdrawn upon settlement.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China beat the U.S. in generative Hey Hi (AI) patents by 6-to-1 for the past ten years — almost 10,000 Chinese patents filed last year alone

    China has more patents than the six top nations in generative Hey Hi (AI) research.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Kendrick Lamar ‘Not Like Us’ Video Trending Toward 20 Million YouTube Views After 24 Hours — Far Below Taylor Swift and K-Pop Record Holders

    Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated ‘Not Like Us’ music video trends toward 20 million YouTube views in 24 hours. But that number is actually far lower than fans might have expected.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Cardi B, Warner Music, and Others Face Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over ‘Enough (Miami)’

    Cardi B, Warner Music Group, and others are facing a new copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit for allegedly borrowing from a 2021 work without permission in “Enough (Miami).”