Leftovers

• The Straits Times ☛ Choi Hung, HK’s first ‘self-contained housing estate’, said to have influenced S’pore housing design

  The public housing estate, due for redevelopment, will live on in social control media photos, music videos and residents' memories.

• Hackaday ☛ 20 GHz LNB Testing And Teardown

  Many things have combined to make very high-frequency RF gear much more common, cheaper, and better performing. Case in point: [dereksgc] is tearing apart a 20 GHz low-noise block (LNB). An LNB is a downconverter, and this one is used for some Irish satellite TV services.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Federal News Network ☛ Maintaining compliance in government agencies with rich text editors

    Learn how rich text editors help government agencies ensure compliance with data security, accessibility, and document standardization.

  • Hackaday ☛ Do You Know Vail Code?

    We talk about Morse code, named after its inventor, Samuel Morse. However, maybe we should call it Vail code after Alfred Vail, who may be its real inventor. Haven’t heard of him? You aren’t alone. Yet he was behind the first telegraph key and improved other parts of the fledgling telegraph system.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Lathe Gears Make A Clock

    When you think of making something using a lathe,  you usually think of turning a screw, a table leg, or a toothpick. [Uri Tuchman] had a different idea. He wanted to make a clock out of the gears used in the lathe. Can he do it? Of course, as you can see in the video below.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China releases Top 100 supercomputer list for 2024: No ExaFLOPS systems mentioned, obfuscation continues

    China unveils its 2024 Top 100 list of supercomputers, indicating no new systems entered it in 2024.

  • Hackaday ☛ Playing Around With The MH-CD42 Charger Board

    If you’ve ever worked with adding lithium-ion batteries to one of your projects, you’ve likely spent some quality time with a TP4056. Whether you implemented the circuit yourself, or took the easy way out and picked up one of the dirt cheap modules available online, the battery management IC is simple to work with and gets the job done.

  • Hackaday ☛ Creating A Mechanical Qubit That Lasts Longer Than Other Qubits

    Among the current challenges with creating quantum computers is that the timespan that a singular qubit remains coherent is quite limited, restricting their usefulness. Usually such qubits consist of an electromagnetic resonator (boson), which have the advantage of possessing discrete energy states that lend themselves well to the anharmonicity required for qubits. Using mechanical resonators would be beneficial due to the generally slower decoherence rate, but these have oscillations (phonons) that are harmonic in nature. Now researchers may have found a way to use both electromagnetic qubits and mechanical resonators to create a hybrid form that acts like a mechanical qubit, with quite long (200 µs) coherence time.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ South Korea greenlights the world's largest semiconductor hub — half the size of Beverly Hills to house six fabs, three power plans, and fab suppliers

    South Korea's Yongin Semiconductor Cluster will house six fabs, three power plans, and fab suppliers.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Bird Flu Samples From Very Ill Patient Had ‘Concerning’ Mutations

    Tiny genetic alterations could help the bird flu virus enter cells in the upper respiratory tract, the C.D.C. said. But there is no sign that mutations are widespread in nature.

  • Science Alert ☛ US Life Expectancy Reaches Highest Level Since The Pandemic

    But it's not all good news.

  • New York Times ☛ Migrants and End of Covid Restrictions Fuel Jump in Homelessness

    The number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vietnam jails more officials over bribes involving Covid-19 flights and quarantine

    One former official was found guilty of taking US$300,000 in bribes and commission for organising quarantine facilities.

  • NYPost ☛ Five monumental Alzheimer’s discoveries scientists made in 2024

    With an estimated 6.9 million Americans aged 65 and older currently living with Alzheimer's disease, the road to a cure seems long and uncertain.

  • Federal News Network ☛ What’s next for VA? Here’s 5 trends to follow in the new year

    The VA put all future deployments of its new Electronic Health Record on hold in April 2023, but is getting ready to resume deployments in mid-2026.

  • Latvia ☛ Table to hospital: More people than usual choked on food this Christmas

    Hospital emergency and admission clinics are busy this holiday season. With GP practices closed for the five days, the queues for outpatients are particularly long. But an unusually frequent "illness" this year has been roast pork and gray peas, on which people have choked more than usual, Latvian Television reported on December 25.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia bird’s nest producers risk losing $15 million due to avian virus

    It is a contagious viral avian disease that affects domestic and wild birds.

  • Science Alert ☛ Which Infectious Disease Could Be The Biggest Problem in 2025? An Expert Explains.

    We're all connected.

  • Science Alert ☛ Great White Sharks Scared From Their Habitat by Just 2 Predators

    There's something even the great white fears.

  • Science Alert ☛ Tiny Fossilized Embryos Reveal Stunning Details of Life Half a Billion Years Ago

    Nature is amazing.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Algae psychology

    My post about the Minecraft Xmas Easter Egg made me want to try embedding one of my own. In the last post, I:

    Linked to the “wrong” article. I quoted the Wikipedia article about Nori, or Japanese seaweed/algae.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The phycological [sic] impact of surveillance

    Update: Yes, the title and misquote were an attempt at a joke, that backfired wonderfully!

    SciTechDaily reported on a new study published by researches at my Sydney alma mater about the impact surveillance, or the feeling of being watched, had on their sensory perceptions: [...]

  • Lee Yingtong Li ☛ What is a registrar? – A ‘who's who’ of public hospital doctors

    What, exactly, is a medical registrar? As a medical student, I was told ‘a registrar is a doctor in a training program’. A survey of Surveillance Giant Google search results shows this view is widespread:

    A medical registrar is a doctor who undergoes advanced training in a specific specialty … —Australian Medical Placements

    First of all, registrars are medical officers who have enrolled in a specialty training program. —AdvanceMed

    Medical registrars are doctors who have completed their medical degree and are undertaking further training in a particular area of medicine. —Healthie

    A Registrar is a doctor training to be a Specialist. —St Vincent's Hospital Sydney

    In Australia, registrar refers to a senior doctor who has chosen a specialty and is training towards that specialty. —HealthStaff Recruitment

  • Medevel ☛ Antibiotics Can Hurt You: Protecting Your Natural Microbiome

    A Comprehensive Guide to Antibiotics and Gut Flora

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Qt ☛ Prepare a Qt app for Play Store Publishing

    This blog post will guide you through the entire process of preparing your Qt for Android app with CMake for publishing on the Play Store. By the end, you’ll be ready to distribute your Qt app to millions of Android users, buckle up! 

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ OpenAI switching to a for-profit company to raise more cash as it continues to lose money

    OpenAI has proposed restructuring its for-profit wing as a PBC to attract investors while maintaining the non-profit; in line with the mission.

  • EFF ☛ Electronic Frontier Alliance Fought and Taught Locally: 2024 in Review

    If you’re a member of a local or state group in the United States that believes in digital rights, please learn more at our FAQ page. EFA groups include hackers, advocates, security educators, tech professionals, activists young and old, and beyond. If you think it would make a good fit, please fill out an application here. The Alliance has scores of members, which all did great work this year. This review highlights just a few.

    [steal a few images from the rebrand blog here?] 

    This past July, the organizing team completed the much needed EFA rebrand project with a brand new website. Thanks to the work of EFF’s Engineering and Design team, organizers now have up-to-date merch, pamphlets, and useful organizer toolkits for alliance members with a range of levels of organizing experience. Whether your group wants to lead advocacy letters to groups needing basic press strategies or organizing on college campuses we have resources to help. We also updated our allies directory to better showcase our local members, and make it easier for activists to find groups and get involved. We also put together a bluesky starter kit to make it easy to follow members into the new platform. This is a major milestone in our effort to build useful resources for the network, which we will continue to maintain and expand in the years ahead. 

  • Cloudbooklet ☛ Sora and Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot Down Again: Second Outage This Month Again

    Sora and Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot down: Proprietary Chaffbot Company outage disrupts services, affecting users briefly.

  • Cloudbooklet ☛ ChatGPT Search Vulnerability Exposed: Users Are Being Misled

    Discover the risks behind Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot search vulnerability and how hidden content manipulates AI-generated responses.

  • Ars Technica ☛ Tech worker movements grow as threats of RTO, AI loom [Ed: RTO is a real issue (causing many to resign), the other one is just a mindless buzzword and propaganda; Microsoft-sponsored site spreads the lie of a "union-friendly Microsoft" despite evidence to the contrary]

    Even typically union-friendly Microsoft drew worker backlash and criticism in 2024 following layoffs of 650 video game workers in September.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Cloudbooklet ☛ Phishing Scam Targets Web3 Users via Surveillance Giant Google Ads

      Stay ahead of phishing scams targets Web3 users through Surveillance Giant Google Ads.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Casino Players Using Hidden Cameras for Cheating

      The basic strategy is to place a device with a hidden camera in a position to capture normally hidden card values, which are interpreted by an accomplice off-site and fed back to the player via a hidden microphone. Miniaturization is making these devices harder to detect. Presumably Hey Hi (AI) will soon obviate the need for an accomplice.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ US condemns Hong Kong bounties, passport revocations for democrats

    It separately condemned China for acting against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in human rights issues.

  • Chinese navy launches next-gen amphibious assault ship

    The carrier-like Type 076 is expected to boost naval capabilities beyond the South China Sea

  • Federal News Network ☛ The second shoe is about to drop on a big DoD cybersecurity program

    The DoD's big cybersecurity program advanced earlier this month. It's a big rule to carry out if it becomes effective.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Taiwan President Office holds first China ‘expansion’ simulation

    Taiwan’s Presidential Office staged on Thursday its first tabletop simulation of China’s military actions in the region to boost the island’s readiness against “authoritarian expansion”, a security official said. Tabletop exercises are a tool strategists use to game out how real-world scenarios may unfold, testing how organisations will react and coordinate against a simulated threat.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Activist bounties, passport cancellations slammed by UK, US, EU, Canada, as Hong Kong gov’t condemns ‘slander’

    The Hong Kong government has condemned “slanderous remarks” by the US, UK, Canada, the European Union (EU) and “anti-China organisations,” after they criticised a new round of national security arrest warrants, bounties and the cancellation of passports as “transnational repression.”

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Explainer: Who are the six overseas activists facing new Hong Kong nat. security arrest warrants?

    Hong Kong’s national security police on Tuesday issued a fresh round of arrest warrants for six people living overseas, with bounties worth HK$1 million offered for information leading to their arrests. The six stand accused of committing national security offences including inciting secession and collusion with foreign forces.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong pollster’s operations will not be affected by HK$1m police bounty on ex-deputy, CEO says

    The future operation of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) “will not be affected” by a police bounty on its former deputy chief over national security allegations, its CEO has said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Images show Chinese military aircraft with advanced, ‘highly original design’, experts say

    The larger of the two fighter jets was spotted flying over Chengdu.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China sanctions military firms and executives over US arms sales to Taiwan

    The US recently approved US$571.3 million (S$776.8 million) in defence support for Taiwan.

  • JURIST ☛ China imposes sanctions on US military firms following Taiwan arms sale

    China imposed sanctions on seven US military firms and their executives on Friday following a recent US arms sales to Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that it froze the sanctioned firms’ and executives’ assets that were located within Chinese jurisdiction.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Driver in China’s Zhuhai car ramming attack sentenced to death, Xinhua reports

    His vehicle hit people who were exercising at a local sports centre, killing at least 35 people.

  • Former Taiwan presidential hopeful Ko Wen-je charged with corruption

    The former Taipei mayor and rising political star, particularly among younger voters, could face jail if convicted.

  • China’s United Front takes Taiwanese youth on Xinjiang trips

    Organizers are accused of 'whitewashing' the Chinese Communist Party's human rights record in the Uyghur homeland.

  • JURIST ☛ Mozambique prison riot kills at least 33 amid civil unrest following controversial elections

    A violent prison riot in Mozambique on Thursday has resulted in the deaths of at least 33 individuals and the escape of at least 1,500 inmates from a high-security facility in the capital, Maputo. The incident occurred amid widespread civil unrest following the controversial confirmation of the ruling Frelimo party’s victory in the October elections.

  • The Straits Times ☛ India’s Manmohan Singh and Singapore – a special connection

    Dr Singh once said Singapore and India "have a common vision and understanding of economic and security issues".

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Fentanylware (TikTok) – A First Look at the Briefs

    Briefs are trickling in for the Supreme Court’s fast-paced battle over the upcoming Fentanylware (TikTok) ban.   The outcome of TikTok v. Garland will likely be a watershed moment for free speech in the digital age — especially with respect to non-US media.  This post walks through the six amicus briefs all filed early.  Three support Fentanylware (TikTok) and its content creator co-petitioners; and three agree with the appellate court and U.S. government that the ban is appropriate.

  • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Trump asks Supreme Court to delay Fentanylware (TikTok) ban so he can weigh in after he takes office

    The request came as Fentanylware (TikTok) and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court.

  • New York Times ☛ Trump Urges Supreme Court to Pause Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban

    The president-elect took no position on the app’s First Amendment challenge to the law, which sets a Jan. 19 deadline to sell or close the popular platform.

  • France24 ☛ 'Butcher of Hama': Assad's uncle Rifaat fled to Dubai, Lebanese officials say

    An uncle of the recently ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has fled, via Lebanon, to the United Arab Emirates, according to Lebanese officials. Rifaat al-Assad, known as the “Butcher of Hama” for overseeing the violent suppression of a rebellion in the 1980s, has been accused of war crimes by Swiss prosecutors.

  • JURIST ☛ Top Syrian military official arrested for role in mass executions

    Syrian security forces announced Thursday the arrest of Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, a high-ranking military official accused of ordering mass executions at the notorious Sednaya prison during the regime of ousted leader Bashar Al-Assad.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli forces raid north Gaza hospital, forcibly removing staff and patients

    Israeli troops raided and torched the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday forcing staff and patients, some of whom had to be unhooked from oxygen, to move to other locations, the Gaza health ministry said.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli troops burn northern Gaza hospital after forcibly removing staff and patients

    Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, igniting fires and forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, the territory’s health ministry said. More information with FRANCE 24 correspondent in Jerusalem, Noga Tarnopolsky.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korean Lawmakers Impeach Acting President as Crisis Deepens

    The vote was the second major impeachment in two weeks after President Yoon’s ill-fated martial law bid set off turmoil. The country’s currency has plunged.

  • The Straits Times ☛ 151 or 200? Debate ensues over South Korean Acting President’s impeachment threshold

    The Democratic Party on Dec 26 filed a motion to impeach Mr Han.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol builds legal team of allies, former co-workers

    Mr Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal team includes lifelong friend and former prosecutor Seok Dong-hyeon.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea Parliament majority votes to impeach Acting President Han Duck-soo

    Mr Han has served as the acting president since Dec 14 following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s suspension.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Who is Choi Sang-mok, South Korea’s second acting president in weeks?

    Mr Choi has pledged unlimited liquidity to calm financial markets.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Acting President Han Duck-soo impeached in deepening political crisis

    Prime Minister Han has been acting president since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached on Dec 14. 

  • The Straits Times ☛ US closely watching political crisis in South Korea

    A deepening political crisis in South Korea has not diminished the military readiness of 28,500 troops stationed in the Asian state, a U.S. official said on Friday, but Washington is closely monitoring the situation.

  • JURIST ☛ South Korea National Assembly impeaches acting president amid ongoing political turmoil

    South Korea’s National Assembly voted on Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo, intensifying the political turmoil that has gripped the country since the impeachment of his predecessor, President Yoon Suk Yeol. The National Assembly unanimously approved the impeachment, with all 192 lawmakers supporting the motion.

  • France24 ☛ What to know about South Korean acting President Han's impeachment

    The impeachment of South Korea's acting President Han Duck-soo Friday has plunged the country into further political turmoil, coming less than two weeks after lawmakers impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. Details by Eliza Herbert.

  • JURIST ☛ US Congress fails to renew funding for humanitarian efforts in North Korea

    The US Congress on Thursday failed to pass a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act (NKHRA). The NKHRA reauthorization bill seeks to renew funding for humanitarian efforts in North Korea and reaffirms the key purposes of the law.

  • France24 ☛ Top UN official in Yemen rejects Israeli claim Sanaa airport was military target

    A top UN official in Yemen has rejected allegations that Sanaa airport, which was targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, has any military purpose. Julien Harneis and his team were at the airport when the strikes hit some 300 metres from them, destroying the air traffic control centre, killing staff working there and injuring a UN crew member.

  • JURIST ☛ UN condemns Israel strikes on Yemen, with WHO chief caught in escalation

    The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, condemned Thursday the recent escalation of violence between Yemen and Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least three people and injured dozens.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli strikes hit Yemen as Netanyahu fires warning

    Israeli air strikes pummelled Sanaa's international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday, with Huthi rebel media reporting six deaths. Details with FRANCE 24 correspondent in Jerusalem, Noga Tarnopolsky.

  • New York Times ☛ A Month On, a Tenuous Cease-fire Holds Between Israel and Hezbollah

    Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged strikes and accusations of breaches. Implementation of the deal has been slow. But the truce has brought some calm to a tumultuous region.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Diplomat: Why Latvia wants a seat on the UN Security Council

      As previously reported by LSM, Latvia has for several years been pondering how to gain a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and for the last year has been actively pursuing that goal.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Slows Missile Fire Into Russia as Trump Prepares to Take Office

      The long-range missiles provided by the United States and Britain were used to strike inside Russian territory, despite concerns that their use would escalate the conflict. Kyiv’s stockpiles are running out.

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine captures North Korean soldier fighting for Russia, says South Korean intelligence — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia scrambles to find and train foreign language teachers

      With the gradual phasing out of Russian as a second foreign language at schools, Latvia will need more teachers of other foreign languages. Universities as well as the Goethe Institute in Riga and the French Institute in Latvia are now involved in training teachers for Latvian schools, Latvian Radio reported on December 27.

    • Defence Web ☛ Role of nuclear weapons grows as geopolitical relations deteriorate

      The recently published Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook sheds light on the worrying current state of the global nuclear arsenal. Russia and the USA possess nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, with their military stockpiles showing stability in 2023 despite Russia deploying about 36 more operational warheads since January 2023.

    • France24 ☛ Azerbaijan's flag carrier suspends flights to more Russian cities following crash that killed 38

      Azerbaijan's flag carrier announced Friday that it will suspend flights to several Russian airports, citing potential flight safety risks after a crash of one of its planes that many experts blamed on Russian air defense fire. Analysis by former FRANCE 24 correspondent in Moscow, Elena Volochine.

    • Meduza ☛ Three more airlines suspend flights to some Russian cities after Azerbaijan Airlines crash — Meduza

    • JURIST ☛ EU condemns Baltic Sea cables destruction as part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’

      The European Commission and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs condemned the deliberate destruction of electricity and data cables in the Baltic Sea, in a joint statement issued on Friday.

    • RFERL ☛ Azerbaijan Official: Passenger Plane Crash Caused By 'External Interference' (Video)

      The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane in Kazakhstan on December 25 was caused by "external interference," according to Azerbaijan's transport minister. Rasad Nabiyev said that the plane lost control after flying over an area of Russia where anti-aircraft systems are frequently in use. At least 38 of the 67 passengers were killed as it crash-landed near Aqtau.

    • RFERL ☛ Azerbaijani Lawmaker Says 'Strong Possibility' Russia Shot Down Passenger Jet

      An Azerbaijani lawmaker said the possibility is "very strong" that the crash of a passenger jet earlier this week was caused by Russian air defense systems on alert for Ukrainian drone attacks.

    • RFERL ☛ NATO Vows To Bolster Baltic Presence Amid Suspected Undersea Sabotage

      NATO said it would bolster its presence in the Baltic Sea after undersea power lines and Internet cables were damaged by suspected sabotage believed carried out by vessels belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.”

    • RFERL ☛ U.S. Sanctions Georgia's Ivanishvili For 'Undermining' Democracy

      The United States said it has slapped fresh sanctions on Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, for "undermining Georgia's democracy for the "benefit of the Russian Federation."

    • The Straits Times ☛ China's Pooh-tin will visit Russia in 2025, Russian ambassador says

      China's President Pooh-tin Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russia's state-run RIA news agency quoted Moscow's ambassador to Beijing as saying early on Friday.

    • France24 ☛ Airline blames 'physical and technical interference' for Azerbaijani plane crash

      Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday that the preliminary results of an investigation into the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan pointed to "physical and technical external interference", amid growing speculation it was hit by a Russian air defence system. Russia's aviation chief implied that Ukrainian combat drones may have caused the crash.

    • New York Times ☛ What We Know About the Plane Crash in Kazakhstan

      The Embraer 190 was traveling to Grozny, Russia, but crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people onboard. Investigators are focusing on Russian air defense as the likely cause.

    • New York Times ☛ What We Know About the Ship Finland Seized Over Fears of Russian Sabotage

      Finland seized an oil tanker that authorities believe might have deliberately cut vital undersea cables. Finnish authorities believe the tanker may be linked to Russia.

    • North Korean soldier captured in Kursk dies from injuries: South’s spy agency

      Media reported earlier that Ukrainian forces had captured a wounded North Korean soldier.

    • Does a video show a funeral for a North Korean general killed in Ukraine war?

      Verdict: False

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine war dies from injuries: Seoul

      Pyongyang has deployed thousands of soldiers to reinforce Russian troops.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskiy Says ‘Several’ Wounded North Korean Troops Have Died After Capture

      Ukrainian forces have captured a wounded North Korean soldier, the Yonhap news agency reported, in what would be the first such capture since soldiers were deployed by Pyongyang to aid Russia's war effort.

    • The Straits Times ☛ What we know about the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash

      A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones. 

    • Meduza ☛ Flights suspended at Russia’s Sochi and Kazan airports — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Owner of sunk Russian ship says Norwegian vessel refused to rescue crew — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ FSB claims U.S. citizen imprisoned on espionage charges helped Pentagon gather data to develop ‘genetic screening system’ for Russians — Meduza

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian FM calls for international response to Belarus elections

      Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys is calling for an international response to next year’s Belarusian presidential election.

    • LRT ☛ Georgia risks repeating Belarus’ scenario, says Lithuanian president

      Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda warns that Georgia risks repeating the scenario of Belarus, as the country’s ruling party is holding back the process of Eurointegration.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Ethnic’ weapons and immortality How spying charges against a U.S. citizen reflect the Russian authorities’ fear and obsession with genetics — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Target destroyed’: Two days after Russian missile allegedly downed passenger plane, pro-war Telegram channels circulate propaganda video of Santa Claus being blown up over Moscow — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Azerbaijan Airlines says crashed plane was subjected to ‘external physical and technical interference’ — Reuters — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Kremlin rejects Azerbaijani lawmaker’s call for apology over plane crash, citing ongoing investigation — Meduza

    • BBC ☛ Putin apologises for Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, without saying Russia at fault - BBC News

      Russia's leader apologises for the downing of an Azerbaijani plane in Russian airspace - without directly taking blame.

    • Meduza ☛ Azerbaijan rejects Chechnya’s offer of assistance for plane crash victims, demanding an apology and compensation instead — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Azerbaijani official says for the first time that plane crash was caused by weapon — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ NATO to boost Baltic Sea security following latest cable sabotage

      NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said December 27 that the alliance will increase its policing of the Baltic Sea following the latest example of suspected sabotage that damaged underea cables between NATO member states Finland and Estonia.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • New York Times ☛ Two Sailors Die in Separate Incidents in Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

      The men were hit in the head by booms on their yachts in separate episodes, as participants faced challenging weather conditions, the police said.

    • RFERL ☛ Montenegro To Extradite 'Crypto King' To U.S. After Long Legal Battle

      After a multinational back-and-forth legal battle, Montenegro on December 27 said it would extradite South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Hyeong Do Kwon -- the so-called "crypto king" -- to the United States.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia mulls over health and competency tests for seniors renewing driving licence

      Critics say youth-related reckless driving and poor vehicle maintenance cause more accidents.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China extends license age limit for truck, bus drivers as population ages

      China will extend licence age limits for drivers of medium-sized and large buses as well as trucks, as part of broader efforts to address the challenges posed by an aging population, falling birth rate and a shrinking labour pool.

    • China approves construction of mega-dam in Tibet

      Rights groups and neighboring countries express concern over the project’s impact.

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ The Evening: Record Homelessness in the U.S.

    Plus, how to get fitter in 2025.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • LRT ☛ Candidate for deputy minister caught drunk driving in Lithuania

    Gintaras Jasiūnas, a candidate for the Lithuanian deputy minister of education, science and sport, was caught drunk driving and will no longer seek the post.

  • Latvia ☛ Internal migration in Latvia goes toward Vidzeme and coastal areas

    While the overall trend is unchanged - people continue to move from the countryside to the cities - recent years have also seen people moving from larger centres to smaller ones. The "hot spots" of population growth are the Baltic Sea coast and the Vidzeme highlands, Māris Bērziņš, associate professor at the Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Latvia, told Latvian Radio on December 26.

  • New York Times ☛ The President-Elect Comments Often on the Men Around Him

    “These guys are specimens.”

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Meduza ☛ Whac-A-Web As Russian authorities tighten censorship controls, will Internet users still be able to bypass new blocks? — Meduza

  • Meduza ☛ ‘Either move to VK or find something else to do’: How the Russian authorities finally decided to crack down on YouTube — Meduza

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFERL ☛ Italian Podcaster Detained In Tehran For 'Journalistic Activities'

    Italy’s Foreign Ministry said journalist Cecilia Sala, in Iran to carry out “journalistic activities,” has been detained by Tehran police authorities.

  • France24 ☛ Detention of Italian journalist in Iran's Evin prison 'unacceptable', says Italy

    An Italian journalist has been held in Iran for more than a week, Italy's government said Friday, describing Cecilia Clara's detention as "unacceptable". Cecilia Sala, 29, who works for Il Foglio newspaper and podcast company Chora Media, is being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, according to her employer.

  • JURIST ☛ RSF urges China to release blogger detained for reporting on forced land seizure scandal

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday called on the Chinese government to immediately release Liu Hanbin, a blogger who has been detained for one month following his publication of information regarding a protest by farmers against forced land seizures.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Tedium ☛ The Calm Voice Of Chaos

    This year’s Tedium awards start off with a shout-out to a prevalent voice that brought protest music back to the masses: The endlessly prolific Jesse Welles.

  • Digital Music News ☛ So Long, Kingship — Bored Ape ‘Supergroup’ Deletes Social Handles, YouTube Channel, and Website As NFT Fallout Continues

    So long, Kingship: With the non-fungible token (NFT) craze having largely fizzled out, the Universal Music-formed “NFT supergroup” has seemingly called it quits. It’d be an understatement to say that much has changed since Kingship arrived on the scene about three years ago.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian man publicly caned for Islamic crime of close proximity

    A Malaysian man was caned at a mosque in the northeastern state of Terengganu on Friday for the Islamic crime of close proximity with a non-family member of the opposite sex, local media reported, in a rare public sentencing.

  • ‘China’s Barbie' hit movie sparks gender wars debate

    Comments in favor of women's empowerment spark backlash on tightly controlled social control media sites.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Federal Judge Rules Jay-Z- Rape Accuser Can Remain Anonymous—For Now

    A woman who alleges that Jay-Z drugged and raped her at age 13 can remain anonymous for now, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling is a big setback for Jay-Z and his attempts to tamp down the ugly lawsuit.

  • EFF ☛ The Growing Intersection of Reproductive Rights and Digital Rights: 2024 in Review

    The location data market is an unregulated nightmare industry that poses an existential threat to everyone's privacy, but especially those embroiled in the fight for reproductive rights. In a recent blog post, we wrote about the particular dangers posed by LocateX, a deeply troubling location tracking tool that allows users to see the precise whereabouts of individuals based on the locations of their smartphone devices. cops shouldn't be able to buy their way around having to get a warrant for real-time location tracking of anyone they please, regardless of the context. In regressive states that ban abortion, however, the problems with LocateX illustrate just how severe the issue can be for such a large population of people.

    Part of our work in this movement is recognizing our lane: providing digital security tips, promoting the rights to privacy and free expression, and making connections with community leaders to support and elevate their work. This year we hosted a livestream panel featuring various next-level thinkers and reproductive justice movement leaders. Make sure to watch it if you missed it! Recognizing and highlighting our shared struggles, interests, and avenues for liberation is exactly how movements are fought for and won.

    It's been a multi-year battle to stop law enforcement agencies from illegally sharing out-of-state ALPR (automatic license plate reader) data. Thankfully this year we were able to celebrate a win: a grand jury in Sacramento made the motion to investigate two police agencies who have been illegally sharing this type of data. We're glad to declare victory, but those two agencies are far from the only problem. We hope this sets a precedent that cops aren't above the law and will continue to fight for just that. This win will help us build momentum to continue this fight into the coming year.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ Top 10 patent monopoly cases of the year 2024

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Three Recent Section 2(d) Appeals - How Did They Turn Out?

    A TTAB judge once said to me that one can predict the outcome of a Section 2(d) appeal about 95% of the time just by looking at the marks and the goods/services. Of course, if you just said "affirmed" you'd be right about 90% of the time. Anyway, here are three Board decisions issued on Christmas Adam. No hints this time. How do you think they came out? [Answer in first comment].

    In re Blue Dragon Fly, Inc., Serial No. 90825428 (December 19, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Robert H. Coggins). [Section 2(d) refusal of the mark shown below, for, "Bath cream; Body cream; Body lotion; Hair lotion; Hand cream; Hand lotions; Skin cream; Skin lotion" and for "Shirts; T-shirts; Tee shirts" in view of the registered mark BLUE DRAGONFLY ACRES for "Body butter; Bath soaps in liquid, solid or gel form."