Leftovers

• Some Kalimba Melodies

  Last year, I picked up Kalimba and put together some beginner melodies by transcribing youtube videos. That’s been a bit too needlessly arduous, so there is a few: [...]

• New York Times ☛ Hong Kong’s Bouncy ‘Wonders’ Leave Some Wondering, ‘Why?’

  Inflatable replicas of famous monuments popped up in a park, raising questions about art and Hong Kong’s changing place in the world.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ All About PNP Transistors

    In the early days, PNP bipolar transistors were common, but the bulk of circuits you see today use NPN transistors. As [Aaron Danner] points out, many people think PNP transistors are “backward” but they have an important role to play in many circuits. He explains it all in a recent video you can see below.

  • Hackaday ☛ Welding Wood Is As Simple As Rubbing Two Sticks Together

    Can you weld wood? It seems like a silly question — if you throw a couple of pieces of oak on the welding table and whip out the TIG torch, you know nothing is going to happen. But as [Action Lab] shows us in the video below, welding wood is technically possible, if not very practical.

  • Hackaday ☛ Powering Biology With Batteries

    We’ve all been there — you forgot your lunch, but there are AC outlets galore. Wouldn’t it be so much simpler if you could just plug in like your phone? Don’t try it yet, but biologists have taken us one step further to being able to fuel ourselves on those sweet, sweet electrons.

  • Hackaday ☛ A Modchip For A Fridge

    An annoying fridge that beeps incessantly when the door is open too long should be an easy enough thing to fix by disconnecting the speaker, but when as with [kennedn]’s model it’s plumbed in and the speaker is inaccessible, what’s to be done? The answer: create a mod chip for a fridge.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Tamil Nadu Mobile Phone Blast: Man Killed, Another Injured After Device Explodes in Pocket

    A 36-year-old man died on Sunday after his phone exploded, causing him to lose control of his motorcycle. The incident occurred on the Madurai-Paramakudi highway near Kamuthakudi village. The victim, identified as G. Rajini, was a security guard at a bank.

    According to media reports, Rajini had placed his phone in his trouser pocket while riding his motorcycle when the phone's battery exploded. The explosion caused burn injuries to his thighs and led him to fall from the bike, resulting in severe head injuries. Rajini was declared dead at the scene.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ Israel military says it intercepts missile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels confirm targeting Eilat

    Israel’s military said it had intercepted a surface-to-surface missile headed for the Red Sea resort town of Eilat early on Sunday. Yemen’s Houthi rebels later confirmed they had targeted the city with multiple ballistic missiles to avenge Israeli air strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah the day before that killed at least six people and injured more than 80 more.

  • JURIST ☛ Israel strikes Houthi-controlled port in Yemen

    The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) targeted a Yemeni fuel depot and port on Saturday in a strike attack responding to Houthi rebel attacks on Israel over the past months. The strike is Israel’s first retaliation in Yemen following an attack on Tel Aviv by a Houthi drone which killed one person and injured 10 others.

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Intercepts Missile Fired From Yemen as Conflict With Houthis Continues

    The missile launch suggested that the Yemen-based Houthi militia, which is backed by Iran, would keep up its attacks despite Israeli airstrikes on a port it controls.

  • New York Times ☛ Israeli Strike on Yemeni Port Will Harm Civilians, Not Houthis, Experts Say

    Israel’s counterattack on the Houthis, which set a vital Yemeni port ablaze, will do little to deter the militia, Yemeni and international experts said.

  • JURIST ☛ US court jails Marine for performing Nazi salute during 2021 Capitol attack

    The US District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced a former Marine Tyler Dykes on Friday to nearly five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the January 6 Capitol attack. On top of the imprisonment, Dykes received another 36 months of supervised release and a $22,000 fine.

  • France24 ☛ China and Philippines reach deal to avoid clashes at disputed reef

    China and the Philippines have struck a deal aimed at stopping the two countries from clashing over the fiercely disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, the Philippine government said Sunday. In the past year, the territorial standoff at the reef has flared and came to a head in mid-June when Chinese forces seized and damaged two Philippine navy boats with machetes and improvised spears. Several Filipino navy personnel were injured in the incident.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China and Philippines reach ‘arrangement’ for resupply missions on disputed reef

    By Pam Castro The Philippines and China have agreed on an “arrangement” for resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a South China Sea reef, Manila said Sunday, after a series of escalating confrontations in the disputed waters.

  • RFA ☛ China’s controversial boarding school policy for Tibetans explained

    Officials say the system is the best way to educate a scattered population. Critics call it forced assimilation.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia could lose up to $12 billion in revenue if US bans new China-oriented GPU — analysts believe the H20 will get the banhammer soon

    Rumored U.S. govt's plan, if implemented, will cost Nvidia some $12 billion.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ 7 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into a Secret Investor in Jack Ma’s Companies

    Behind the scenes, China’s most celebrated and its most notorious billionaires were linked through investments worth at least $1 billion.

  • New York Times ☛ The Billionaire Criminal Who Secretly Profited Off Jack Ma’s Deals

    Confidential documents show that Xiao Jianhua, a corrupt investor tied to China’s political elite, backed the country’s most successful and revered entrepreneur.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Key takeaways from China’s Third Plenum reforms

    Beijing released a lengthy document outlining sweeping reforms from governance to the economy to social welfare on July 21, three days after a major meeting of its political elites concluded.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China maps out major reforms for next five years, with tech innovation key to its long-term vision

    The reforms aim to boost China’s innovation capacity to enable high-quality development, says President Pooh-tin Jinping.

  • Labour union of Samsung holds rally ahead of talks

    The striking labour union of Samsung Electronics held a rally on Monday, a day before resuming talks with the company to resolve the industrial action over a wage hike, union officials said.

    About 1,200 unionised workers of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) joined the rally at a Samsung building in Yongin, south of Seoul.

    Clad in black T-shirts and wearing headbands with "general strike" printed on them, the unionised workers pledged for a "victory" in their strike, reports Yonhap news agency.

  • 14-hour work day: Govt pressured by IT industry; we are evaluating Bill: K’taka Min

    Karnataka Minister for Labour, Santhosh Lad, stated on Monday that the government is under pressure from the IT industry to bring forth new legislation proposing extra hours of work for techies, but is evaluating the matter.

    He clarified that the government is still evaluating the Bill that would allow software professionals to work for 14 hours a day.

    Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha, Minister Santhosh Lad said, “The Bill has come to us because of pressure from the IT industries; it is not the IT Minister (Priyank Kharge) himself who has come up with this idea. The industrialists are pressuring us for this. Since the pressure is from the industry, the Bill has come to us, and we are still evaluating it from the labour department’s perspective.”

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Canadian Politicians Are in No Hurry to Fight Foreign Interference in Elections

    China and India have been accused of exploiting the opaque nomination contests of Canadian political parties to meddle in elections.

  • JURIST ☛ US President Joe Biden withdraws from 2024 presidential race

    US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election on Sunday. He wrote in a letter to the American people: It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Joe Biden withdraws from 2024 presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

    This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available. UPDATE 7/21: This article has been updated to reflect a change in the Biden-Harris campaign committee’s status. President Joe Biden officially announced in a public letter Sunday afternoon that he has decided to end his 2024 reelection campaign.

  • RFERL ☛ Biden 'Stands Down' From 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Endorses Harris

    U.S. President Joe Biden said he is withdrawing his candidacy in the November 2024 election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic Party's candidate after weeks of pressure to step aside over concerns about his fitness to run because of his age.

  • RFERL ☛ Biden Shakes Up 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Race By Stepping Down, Endorsing Harris

    U.S. President Joe Biden said he is withdrawing his candidacy in the November 2024 election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic Party's candidate after weeks of pressure to step aside over concerns about his fitness to run because of his age.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Performance issues from Europe

    I’ve discussed with Clara that an official Rubenerd Blog meetup would have to be in Warsaw, because Eastern Europe is where at least half of you send comments! It’s humbling and awesome to think about actually, considering the furthest East I’ve ever been is Plzeň for a beverage. With apologies to the German side of my family, it’s where my favourite beer comes from. Polish drops are also excellent, as is your food. But I digress.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Ejusdem Generis Goes to War in Reservist Pay Dispute

    In Feliciano, the Supreme Court will consider whether federal civilian employees who are called to active military duty are entitled to differential pay even if their service is not directly connected to a declared national emergency. The case stems from the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of the differential pay statute, 5 U.S.C. § 5538, which requires federal agencies to provide supplemental pay to federal employees called to active duty when their military salary is less than their civilian salary.