Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Ask Hackaday: Is Shortwave On Life Support?

  Between World War II and Y2K, shortwave listening was quite an education. With a simple receiver, you could listen to the world. Some of it, of course, was entertainment, and much of it was propaganda of one sort or another. But you could learn a lot. Kids with shortwave radios always did great in geography. Getting the news from a different perspective is often illuminating, too. Learning about other cultures and people in such a direct way is priceless. Getting a QSL card in the mail from a faraway land seemed very exciting back then.

• Hackaday ☛ Electromagnetic Actuator Mimics Muscle

  Most electromagnetic actuators are rotating motors, or some variation on the theme, like servos. However, it’s possible to do linear actuation with electomagnetics, too. [Adrian Perez] demonstrates this with Linette, his design of a linear actuator that he was inspired to build by the structure of our own muscles.

• Science Alert ☛ The Neural Signature of OCD Has Been Identified in The Human Brain

  A major step forward for treatment.

• Science Alert ☛ Cheap Daily Supplement Seems to Boost Brain Function in Older People

  The effect can be seen within weeks.

• Science Alert ☛ Moderate Drinking Is Not Good For You After All, Study Finds

  "There is simply no completely safe level of drinking."

• Science Alert ☛ A Fortune of Hidden Diamonds Could Be Concealed Inside Mercury

• Science Alert ☛ Mesmerizing NASA Video Reveals Carbon Dioxide Churning in The Sky

  “You see here how everything is interconnected."

• Science Alert ☛ Weird Rock on Mars May Actually Show Signs of Ancient Life

  Have we finally found it?

• Science Alert ☛ Dogs Can Smell Our Stress, And It Affects Them Deeply

  A nose for trouble.

• Science Alert ☛ Expert Reveals Vital Survival Tip if You Unexpectedly Fall in Deep Water

  A stunningly high number of drownings start this way.

• Science Alert ☛ Chimps Have 'Conversations' Just Like Humans, Scientists Find

  A stunning similarity revealed.

• Michal Zelazny ☛ Mistakes

  It's not easy to admit I was wrong. It's even harder to admit that I've been wrong a second time.

  This time it was even shorter than before. The forum has to go.

• Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Daniel Miller

  This is the 48th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Daniel Miller and his blog, daniel.industries

• [Old] Medium ☛ No, the END Does Not Justify the MEANS

  I’m here to dispel the myth and to do so clearly: The end does not justify the means.

  You’re better served to turn this phrase on its head: the means justify the end. I trust this will make more sense to you in a moment.

• [Old] Fact / Myth ☛ Machiavelli Said, "the Ends Justify the Means" - Fact or Myth?

  So it is no surprise Machiavelli, the Father of Modern Political Science, presents a more complex argument than the famous, but simplistic, pseudo-consequentialist quote alludes out of context. Machivelli was not the odd philosopher out, he was the father of the modern line of thinking that led to the other later philosophers.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Analyzing Feature Learning In Artificial Neural Networks And Neural Collapse

    Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are commonly used for machine vision purposes, where they are tasked with object recognition. This is accomplished by taking a multi-layer network and using a training data set to configure the weights associated with each ‘neuron’. Due to the complexity of these ANNs for non-trivial data sets, it’s often hard to make head or tails of what the network is actually matching in a given (non-training data) input.

  • India Times ☛ In a first, Nasa streams 4k video from aircraft to international space station & back

    Laser communications use infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data faster than radio frequency systems. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Nasa’s small business innovation research program, engineers of Nasa’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to Nasa’s white sands test facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ NASA's Curiosity Rover Accidentally Discovers Sulfur Crystals on Mars | Smithsonian

    The accidental find, which was caused by the heft of the car-sized, one-ton rover on the morning of May 30, came as a pleasant surprise to researchers. In addition to the crystals that Curiosity drove over, the rover identified a plain with similar rocks dotting the surrounding ground.

  • Ars Technica ☛ “Not a bluff”—NASA’s budget would shut down long-lived Chandra telescope

    NASA says it can no longer afford to fund Chandra at the levels it has since the telescope launched in 1999. The agency has a diminished budget for science missions this year, and the reductions may continue next year due to government spending caps in a deal reached between Congress and the Biden administration last year to suspend the federal debt ceiling.

    Congress and the White House have prioritized funding for NASA's human spaceflight programs, primarily the rockets, spacecraft, landers, spacesuits, and rovers needed for the Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. Meanwhile, the funding level for NASA's science mission directorate has dropped.

  • Smithsonian Magazine ☛ Scientists Discover 'Dark Oxygen' on the Ocean Floor Generated—Surprisingly—by Lumps of Metal | Smithsonian

    “I think we therefore need to revisit questions like: Where could aerobic life have begun?” Sweetman tells Live Science’s Sascha Pare. The same process could also be playing out in other ocean worlds, such as Enceladus and Europa.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Game dev adds in-game crash warning for 13th and 14th Gen defective chip maker Intel CPUs — link provides affected owners instructions to mitigate crashes

    Alderon Games has incorporated a Raptor Lake-specific crash message for customers' gaming PCs. This message notifies gamers about Raptor Lake's instability problems if the game crashes.

  • Hackaday ☛ You Can Program AVRs From The Commodore 64

    These days, most of our microcontroller boards come with bootloaders so you can squirt hex into them straight over USB. However, you don’t need to do things this way. If you’re more old school, you can program your AVRs right from a Commodore 64. [Linus Akesson] shows us how.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Pro Publica ☛ Neglect at Shrub Oak International School Left Student With Vision Loss: Lawsuit

    It was during a summer visit to their son’s boarding school that Cian Roy’s parents said they realized something had gone terribly wrong.

    Cian, who has autism and intellectual disabilities, could no longer make out the numbers on the elevator buttons, his parents said. He held his iPad up to his nose to try to see images like the icon for the Netflix app. He struggled to distinguish level ground from stairs. His eyes looked cloudy.

  • Science Alert ☛ Blue Light From Your Phone Really Can Affect Your Skin. Here's How.

    Blue light exposure has been linked with some skin concerns, particularly pigmentation for people with darker skin. However, research is ongoing.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ HealthPartners drops UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage and its 30,000 patients

    HealthPartners says the the insurer denies far more claims than others, so it will stop seeing UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage patients next year.

  • New York Times ☛ Divers in Baltic Find What Looks Like Champagne on Shipwreck

    Polish divers think they have found cases of Champagne on a 19th-century merchant vessel that sank off Sweden.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • OpenRightsGroup ☛ AI REGULATION: WILL LABOUR PROMOTE GROWTH AND PROTECT RIGHTS?

    In the King’s Speech, Labour committed to binding regulation on “the handful of companies developing the most powerful Hey Hi (AI) models” to ensure the safe developments of these technologies.

  • OpenRightsGroup ☛ Artificial Intelligence: Safety Not Surveillance coalition calls for ban on predictive policing

    The #SafetyNotSurveillance coalition – a group of organisations working at the intersections of human rights, racial justice and technology – have written to the Home Secretary calling for safeguards against the harms of Hey Hi (AI) systems in policing, including an outright ban on predictive policing and biometric surveillance systems.

  • Techdirt ☛ Spain Is Using AI For Domestic Violence Risk Assessment And It’s Going As Well As You’d Expect

    Law enforcement is just as susceptible to be suckered in by unfulfilled promises and shiny tech as anyone else. In Spain, the shift from humans to AI isn’t quite as dramatic as replacing workers with rooms full of GPUs. It’s a blend of people and processes — one that values processes more than people and delivers exactly the results anyone should expect from outsourcing intuition and compassion to a string of 1s and 0s.

  • [Old] The Verge ☛ Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

    Sonos has responded to the avalanche of feedback — some good, plenty bad — about the company’s redesigned mobile app that was released on May 7th. In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management, and no longer having the ability to edit playlists or the upcoming song queue. More alarmingly, the Sonos app’s accessibility has also taken a hit, something the company says it’s aiming to resolve by next month.

    In a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos confirms that it’s keenly aware of the gripes that owners of its speakers have expressed about the new app. It’s hearing their response and is working to address the functionality that has (for now) gone missing. But the company is also standing behind its decision to roll out the app this week, basically describing it as a rough patch that will, in theory, lead to a much better experience for everyone down the line.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea's Kim calls for 'people's paradise' marking Korean War 'Victory Day'

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said it was a sacred mission of the current generation to build a "paradise for the people" based on the ideology defended by a previous generation of victors with their blood as the country marked the Korean War anniversary on Saturday.

  • New York Times ☛ China Braces for Typhoon Gaemi After Devastation in Taiwan and the Philippines

    The storm has already left a trail of destruction in Taiwan and the Philippines, where it killed at least 15 people.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Blinken set for talks with Chinese counterpart in Laos

    Mr Blinken is set to meet China’s Wang Yi on the sidelines of an Asean foreign ministers' meeting being held in Vientiane.

  • RFA ☛ Did US and China engage in electronic warfare in the South China Sea?

    Verdict: Lack of evidence

  • RFA ☛ Cambodian naval base could accommodate Chinese submarines: analyst

    Ream base has a new dry dock too small for large vessels, the military expert said.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian, EU committee chairs slam Orbán’s Moscow visit

      The chairs of the parliamentary committees on European affairs of Lithuania and five other EU countries have sent a letter to Hungary to express their concern over the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

    • The Strategist ☛ A hillbilly elegy for Ukraine and the West

      In a commentary published by The New York Times in April, J D Vance, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee, proposed a strategy of ‘defence’ for Ukraine that was nothing but a recipe for defeat.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warns of Russia using Hong Kong to bypass sanctions while in city

      Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned in Hong Kong on Thursday of Russia using the city to bypass sanctions levied by the West over its invasion of Ukraine. Western countries imposed unprecedented economic penalties on Moscow after the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    • LRT ☛ Ukraine’s security busts saboteur group that planned attacks in Baltics

      The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) says it has neutralised a group recruited by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that was planning arson attacks in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.

    • RFERL ☛ Prosecutors Seek 9 Years In Prison For Siberian Journalist Over Ukraine War Coverage

      Prosecutors asked a court in Siberia on July 26 to sentence Sergei Mikhailov, a journalist and founder of the LIStok newspaper in the city of Gorno-Altaisk, to 9 years in prison on a charge of distributing false information about military.

    • RFERL ☛ Five Belarusians Accused Of Plotting Terrorist Act Directed By Kyiv

      Five Belarusians have gone on trial for allegedly plotting a would-be terrorist act on May 9, 2023, that prosecutors say involved guidance from Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ EU To Transfer To Ukraine 1.5 Billion Euros In Proceeds From Frozen Russian Assets

      European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the European Union will send Ukraine 1.5 billion euros ($1.63 billion) that represent revenues from Russian assets frozen by the 27-member bloc.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Forces Fight Intense Battles In Donetsk Region, Zelenskiy Says

      A Russian military airfield in occupied Crimea was reportedly targeted by a missile strike that caused explosions and a fire early on July 26, while Ukrainian energy facilities were again struck by Russian shelling and drones.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says Fresh Russian Drone Attack On 4 Regions Repelled

      Ukrainian air defenses shot down 20 of the 22 drones launched by Russia at targets in four of its regions early on July 26, the air force said.

    • New York Times ☛ Vintage of War

      A single image captures the change in fortunes for a wine cellar turned field hospital in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Warned Austin About Alleged Ukrainian Plot in Private Call

      Russia’s defense minister said he needed to talk to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about an alleged Ukrainian operation. What happened next remains murky.

    • BIA Net ☛ Authorities investigate suspected Ukrainian kamikaze jet ski found on Turkey’s Black Sea coast

      The vehicle, measuring 3 meters in length and 1 meter in width, washed ashore on İstanbul's northern coast and is believed to have come from the northern part of the Black Sea.

    • Meduza ☛ The fall of Prohres: A new Russian breakthrough threatens Ukraine’s supply lines at the most vulnerable part of the front — Meduza

    • Defence Web ☛ Russia contemplating bringing Tu-160s to South Africa again

      The Russian military is exploring the possibility of bringing Tupolev Tu-160 bombers to South Africa for the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) exhibition at Air Force Base Waterkloof in September.

    • RFERL ☛ Finland Suspects Russian Vessel Of Territorial Violation

      Finland suspects a Russian vessel violated the  country's territorial waters on July 26, the Finnish Defense Ministry said in a statement.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Lists Organizations Associated With Nonexistent Anti-Russian Separatist Movement As 'Extremist'

      Russia's Justice Ministry on July 25 labeled 55 organizations registered abroad as extremist because of their association the banned Anti-Russia Separatist Movement, a grouping that is non-existent.

    • RFERL ☛ Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Arrested On Corruption Charges

      Russia's Investigative Committee said on July 26 that former Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov had been arrested on corruption charges.

    • RFERL ☛ Moscow Car-Bombing Suspect Extradited From Turkey To Russia

      A Russian man suspected of being behind a car bombing that left two people wounded in Moscow on July 24 has been extradited from Turkey and has arrived in the Russian capital, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said on July 26.

    • Latvia ☛ Prison sentence enters into force in 'Ukrainian flag attack' case

      The Supreme Court has refused to initiate cassation proceedings in the case of Valērijs Lazarevs' physical assault on a young man with a Ukrainian flag. The Regional Court's verdict sentencing Lazarev to two years' imprisonment has thus entered into force on July 25.

    • European Commission ☛ First transfer of €1.5 billion of proceeds from immobilised Russian assets made available in support of Ukraine today

      European Commission Press release Brussels, 26 Jul 2024 Today, the EU makes available in support of Ukraine the first payment of €1.5 billion generated from immobilised Russian assets.

    • European Commission ☛ Questions and Answers on first transfer of €1.5 billion of proceeds from immobilised Russian assets made available to Ukraine

      Extraordinary revenues accumulate due to the immobilisation of assets of the Central Bank of Russia.

    • Meduza ☛ Russian scientist accused of sabotaging defense shipments reportedly tries to self-immolate on Red Square — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov arrested in connection with corruption case — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ German Sentenced To Death In Minsk Shown On Belarusian TV

      A German citizen sentenced to death last month in Minsk has been shown in a video on Belarus television asking for mercy in a statement that appears to have been made under duress.

    • RFERL ☛ Poland Approves Bill Allowing Use Of Arms At Belarus Border

      Polish lawmakers voted on July 26 in favor of a bill making it easier for security services to use weapons against migrants on the Belarus border, legislation that has public support but that critics say infringes human rights.

• Environment

  • RFA ☛ China's Olympic team denies issues with summer heat in Paris

    Athletes say they've been ordered not to talk to media other than state broadcaster CCTV.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New York Times ☛ Can Fees on Polluting Cars Clean the Air? London Has New Evidence.

      The city’s expanded low-emissions zone, which was politically fraught, has cut emissions that contribute to health problems like asthma, new numbers show.

    • New York Times ☛ Suspected Arsonists Knew Exactly Where to Strike Paris Railways to Heighten Chaos

      Thousands of miles of tracks leave the French system vulnerable to sabotage. But the suspected arsonists also knew just where to strike.

• Finance

  • RFERL ☛ Russia's Central Bank Raises Key Interest Rate To 18 Percent

    Russia's central bank on July 26 raised its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 18 percent from 16 percent, promising further tightening due to the ongoing inflation, which it estimated for 2024 by up to 7 percent, while previous estimate was 4 percent.

  • New York Times ☛ Russia Raises Key Inflation Rate to 18 Percent

    The move underscored the wartime risks for the Kremlin as the government pumps enormous sums of money into the Russian economy.

  • RFA ☛ North Korea to sell gambling rights at vacant 105-floor Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang

    The hotel is still under construction after 37 years, but the company that completes it can run its casino.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFA ☛ Vietnamese YouTuber’s trial date set, after 5-month detention

    Nguyen Chi Tuyen is accused of anti-state propaganda.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ BBC local radio cuts continue to bite as stations share newsreaders

    Some BillBC local radio stations now have news bulletins on weekday afternoons pre-recorded elsewhere.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Hugo Rifkind to succeed Matt Chorley as Times Radio morning presenter

    Chorley announced in May he was leaving Times Radio for the BBC.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Guardian voluntary redundancy round ends with some prominent departures

    Guardian had been targeting cost savings of 4-5% this year.

  • Press Gazette ☛ TalkTV hits 1m Youtube subscribers and grows revenue after linear TV closure

    July to be TalkTV's biggest month for revenue on Youtube to date.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Video game actors to go on strike following breakdown in Hey Hi (AI) (they mean CG) talks with game developers

    Video game actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have voted to go on strike starting Friday, after a breakdown in negotiations with video game studios over protections from artificial intelligence.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Astellas defends use patent monopoly and SPC with Hoffmann Eitle

    The use patent monopoly EP 1 559 427 and the associated SPC (DE 12 2013 000 047) form the basis of Astellas’ drug Betmiga with the active ingredient mirabegron. It is one of the pharmaceutical company’s top-selling drugs.

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ The end of the road for Tesla’s claim against InterDigital and Avanci

    On 15 July 2024, the High Court of England and Wales handed down its decision ([2024] EWHC 1815 (Ch)) in the jurisdiction challenge in Telsa’s case against InterDigital and Avanci which considers a request for declaratory relief in relation to the FRAND terms for a patent monopoly pool licence that includes SEPs owned by multiple proprietors.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Obtaining vs. Maintaining: How SoftView v. Fashion Company Apple Reshapes Patentee Estoppel

    This is our second discussion of collateral estoppel in as many days.  Yesterday I wrote about Koss v. Bose, a case where the Federal Circuit concluded that a district court’s final judgment of invalidity had a preclusive effect on USPTO IPR analysis — rendering the patentee Koss’s appeal moot.   Today’s focus is on SoftView v. Apple, and a focus on the USPTO’s estoppel regulations as they apply between an IPR and reexamination proceeding. Case No 23-1005 (Fed. Cir. July 26, 2024).

• Copyrights

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ “Copyright traps” could tell writers if an Hey Hi (AI) has scraped their work

    Since the beginning of the generative Hey Hi (AI) boom, content creators have argued that their work has been scraped into Hey Hi (AI) models without their consent. But until now, it has been difficult to know whether specific text has actually been used in a training data set.