Leftovers

• Heliomass ☛ Liminal Office Spaces

  Much of the building was demolished and rebuilt soon after we vacated. I came across these photos again recently and found myself strangely fascinated by them. An irreverent document of part of a single floor in an unremarkable office building which I doubt anyone misses since it was levelled.

• Science

  • Vox ☛ Trump, Musk come for the national weather service and NOAA

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employs about 12,000 staffers around the world, more than half of which are scientists and engineers. NOAA operates 18 satellites and 15 ships and has a budget of $6.8 billion. Their job is to study the skies, the seas, the fish, tracking how they’re changing and predicting what will happen to them. NOAA’s work is essential for aviation, fishing, climate research, and offshore oil and gas exploration, particularly when it comes to modeling weather.

• Career/Education

  • Pro Publica ☛ Education Dept. Lifts Pause on Some Civil Rights Probes, but not Cases of Race, Gender Discrimination

    The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday told employees that it would lift its monthlong freeze on investigating discrimination complaints at schools and colleges across the country — but only to allow disability investigations to proceed.

    That means that thousands of outstanding complaints filed with the department’s Office for Civil Rights related to race and gender discrimination — most of which are submitted by students and families — will continue to sit idle. That includes cases alleging unfair discipline or race-based harassment, for example.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY Yagi Antenna Sends LoRa Signals Farther

    LoRa gear can be great for doing radio communications in a light-weight and low-power way. However, it can also work over great distances if you have the right hardware—and the right antennas in particular. [taste_the_code] has been experimenting in this regard, and whipped up a simple yagi antenna that can work at distances of up to 40 kilometers.

  • Hackaday ☛ Microwave Motion Detector Notifies Your Smart Phone

    Your garden variety motion detector uses IR, but these days, there are fancier technologies for achieving similar goals. If so desired, you can source yourself a microwave-based presence sensor instead. Indeed, like [N-08 Labs], you might like to whip one up into a basic intrusion detection system.

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Print Yourself A Split Flap Display

    Split flap displays! They’re mechanical, clickety-clackity, and largely commercially irrelevant in our screen-obsessed age. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a ball making one of your own, though! [Morgan Manly] did just that, with tidy results.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The Ricoh GR III is an incredible camera

    The camera I was thinking about when making these comments, even if I didn’t always mention it by name, was my Ricoh GR III. But a recent day trip with Clara has made me realise I’ve been a bit unfair to it, and I want to set the record straight.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Deseret Media ☛ Luigi Mangione appears in New York state court for hearing in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

    He faces state charges, including first-degree murder as terrorism and federal charges with potential death penalty. Mangione, supported by public sympathy, pleads not guilty, claiming anger at corporate greed.

  • The Age AU ☛ Accused CEO shooter Luigi Mangione appears in court as supporters gather outside

    A lawyer for Mangione told a judge on Friday that her client was illegally searched during his arrest and she would seek to exclude that evidence from his trial on state murder and terrorism charges.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ 8,000 pregnant women may die in just 90 days because of US aid cuts

    Recent estimates suggest that more than 8,000 women will die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth over the next 90 days if the funding is not reinstated.

    On January 24 Trump also reinstated the global gag rule—a policy that requires nongovernmental organizations receiving US health funding to agree that they will not offer abortion counseling and care. This move alone immediately stripped organizations of the funding they need to perform their work. MSI Reproductive Choices, which offers support for reproductive health care in 36 countries, lost $14 million as a result, says Anna Mackay, who manages donor-funded programs at the organization. “Over 2 million women and girls would have received contraceptive services with that money,” she says.

  • FAIR ☛ Covering Attack on USAID as if Constitutional Restraints Were Up for Debate

    Are the corporate media outlets reporting on Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s authoritarian takeover smarter than a fifth grader? Recent coverage of the president and his henchman’s blatantly unconstitutional dismembering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would suggest some are not.

  • New York Times ☛ World Anti-Doping Agency Drops Defamation and Ethics Cases Against U.S. Officials

    The World Anti-Doping Agency withdrew a defamation lawsuit and an ethics case against American officials critical of its handling of failed tests by members of China’s Olympic swimming squad.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Takeaway Food Packaging Could Increase Your Risk of Heart Failure

    A hidden health hazard.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Cause of Alzheimer's Might Be Coming From Inside Your Mouth

    It's not just a disease.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sexual Competition May Actually Boost Men's Semen Quality

    An incredible quirk of biology.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Scented Wax Melts Can Pollute Indoor Air as Much as a Diesel Engine

    "Pollution that you shouldn't be breathing in."

  • France24 ☛ Kitchenware excluded from French PFAS ban after intensive lobbying

    France’s parliament has voted to ban some PFAS, but the law excludes kitchenware after Tefal’s parent company led an intensive lobbying campaign. Meanwhile French aviation giant Airbus flew way ahead of Boeing in 2024. Plus, James Bond's long-serving producers are giving control to Amazon.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did

  • Pro Publica ☛ Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.

• Proprietary

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Dropbox’s stock slides on weak forecast and stalled customer acquisition

    File-sharing company Dropbox Inc. delivered fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s estimates, but its revenue growth was painfully slow and guidance for the current quarter came up light, sending investors scurrying away in after-hours trading.

  • India Times ☛ Infosys HR head: Labour Department is in touch with the company and Infosys is ...

  • Matt Birchler ☛ “Trust me”

    As a final point I’ve learned over 15 years writing online about tech is that it can be hard to separate out what you like from what is going to be successful in the market. Sometimes those line up, and it’s fun when they do, but sometimes you like something that’s pretty niche, or maybe even something that fails miserably. Minus a few rare cases, we should all like what we like and not let someone else tell us we’re enjoying the wrong things. But if you’re extrapolating out what is going to happen in the future in the market in general, you gotta look outside yourself.

  • Cyble Inc ☛ RadiAnt DICOM Viewer Flaw Exposes Users To MITM Attacks

    A newly identified cybersecurity vulnerability in Medixant’s RadiAnt DICOM Viewer has raised concerns about potential security threats in the healthcare sector. The vulnerability tracked as CV-2025-1001, is linked to improper certificate validation, which could allow attackers to deliver malicious updates to users. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an advisory detailing the risks, affected products, and mitigation steps.

  • Rlang ☛ Creating a Finder Smart Folder of your RStudio Project files to enable super fast project launching

    When I’m switching projects I naturally start with Finder. I’m sure if I became a Terminal warrior there are faster ways of searching for files (e.g. the Television fuzzy finder TUI). And I know there are other ways to avoid using Finder, e.g., using Spotlight, Alfred, or Raycast; and indeed I do have this fantastic tip that allows Alfred to find RStudio project files setup. But something to do with how I learnt to use a computer just naturally means I’m wedded to Finder, but navigating through my mess of nested directories wastes time and energy.

    I realised that Finder on macOS has a helpful feature called Smart Folders. We can use this to setup a saved search of RStudio Project .Rproj files (and/or VSCode/Positron .code-workspace files) to allow us to see all the .Rproj files on our computer. This makes finding and opening projects from within Finder fast and convenient.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Futurism ☛ Large Law Firm Sends Panicked Email as It Realizes Its Attorneys Have Been Using AI to Prepare Court Documents

      Sent earlier this month to all of its over 1,000 lawyers, the email warns at length about the tech's proclivity for hallucinating. But the pros of the tech, apparently, still outweigh the cons; rather than banning AI usage — something that plenty of organizations have done — Morgan & Morgan leadership take the middle road and give the usual spiel about please double-checking your work to ensure it's not totally made-up nonsense.

    • India Times ☛ OpenAI: OpenAI uncovers evidence of AI-powered Chinese surveillance tool

      The company's researchers said they had identified this new campaign, which they called Peer Review, because someone working on the tool used OpenAI's technologies to debug some of the computer code that underpins it.

    • SBS ☛ Police investigating 'despicable' alleged deepfake porn images of female students

      Police say they were made aware of formal photos being "digitally altered with artificial intelligence" on Thursday afternoon, and believe up to 60 students could be affected.

    • The Verge ☛ Elon Musk’s Grok AI said he and Donald Trump deserve death penalty

      Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, xAI, says it’s investigating why its Grok AI chatbot suggested that both President Donald Trump and Musk deserve the death penalty. xAI has already patched the issue and Grok will no longer give suggestions for who it thinks should receive capital punishment.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Yahoo! Mail shows email users fake AI-mangled subject lines

      Yahoo launched a beta of the AI subject line mangler in June 2024, with a full launch in November, for a “A Cleaner, Smarter And Simpler Experience” — and never mind the system was doing extra work to be wrong. We’re surprised it took this long to fail so clearly.

    • Chris Hannah ☛ AI Property Search

      This example alone got me thinking about AI. And especially tools like Perplexity, as you can explain your exact scenario and what you're looking for, but also what things you absolutely can't live with, and what you could live with.

  • Social Control Media

    • Techdirt ☛ Profiles In Cowardice: The Nobody Saw This Coming Brigade

      Let’s cut through the bullshit: This isn’t just policy disagreement or political maneuvering. It’s the complete collapse of the post-war security architecture that has prevented great power war for three generations. And our political class is responding with all the urgency of someone scheduling a dental cleaning.

      The reason for their silence? Fear of mean tweets—many generated by bot networks. Fear of being primaried. Fear of the digital mob that Elon Musk can direct with a few keystrokes—a mob increasingly composed of artificial accounts and coordinated influence operations. These aren’t just personal failures of courage—they represent something far more dangerous: the complete surrender of democratic institutions to manufactured technological intimidation.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Atlantic ☛ What could DOGE do with federal data?

      No matter DOGE’s goal, putting so much information in one place and under the control of a small group of people with little government experience has raised substantial security concerns. As one recently departed federal technology official wrote in draft testimony for lawmakers, which we obtained, “DOGE is one romance scam away from a national security emergency.”

    • The Atlantic ☛ This Is What Happens When the DOGE Guys Take Over

      The contractor said that she had placed her government laptop in her closet at home, underneath a pile of clothes, in case DOGE was using it to listen to her private conversations. She said that other colleagues were so paranoid, they had discussed stowing their laptop in their refrigerator.

    • Wired ☛ DOGE’s USDS Purge Included the Guy Who Keeps Veterans’ Data Safe Online

      The USDS doesn't operate in a vacuum; part of its longtime mandate is to consult with federal agencies to help improve their digital platforms and websites. So when DOGE terminated Jonathan Kamens in its agency purge, it may not have fully grasped that it was firing the security lead for the Department of Veterans Affairs website—the digital hub that connects veterans with their benefits and hosts sensitive personal data, including medical records.

      Interviews with multiple current and former VA sources, along with veterans who now work in private-sector cybersecurity, indicate that Kamens’ firing could have disastrous privacy consequences for millions of US veterans.

    • Wired ☛ DOGE Sparks Surveillance Fear Across the US Government

      But the most eerie thing about the emails, which Bernier says began arriving after he filed an official charge accusing the Trump administration of violating his union’s collective bargaining agreement, is that they included personal details about his life—some of which he believes might have come from surveillance of his work laptop. The author referenced Bernier’s union activities, nickname, job, travel details, and even the green notebook he regularly uses. The most recent email implied that his computer was loaded with spyware. “Andy's crusade, like so many before it, had been doomed from the start,” one email stated. “The real tragedy wasn't his failure—it was his belief that the fight had ever been real.”

    • India Times ☛ Apple: Apple says halting data protection tool for UK users

      Police officials worldwide say encryption can protect criminals, terrorists and pornographers even when authorities have a legal warrant for an investigation.

      But civil rights and privacy advocates, along with cybersecurity professionals, advocate encrypting data to protect against wrongful snooping by authorities as well as hackers.

    • The Washington Post ☛ Apple yanks encrypted storage in U.K. instead of allowing backdoor access

      The order under the country’s Investigatory Powers Act, reported by The Washington Post two weeks ago, requires the California maker of iPhones and Mac computers to create a backdoor capability allowing authorities to snoop on iCloud storage anywhere in the world.

      That would nullify the technology in Apple’s Advanced Data Protection service, which provides such strong encryption that the company itself is unable to retrieve users’ information. Apple rolled out that optional end-to-end encryption globally starting in late 2022.

    • BBC ☛ Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row

      Data with standard encryption is accessible by Apple and shareable with law enforcement, if they have a warrant.

      The Home Office told the BBC: "We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices."

    • RTL ☛ Government wants 'backdoor': Apple says halting data protection tool for UK users

      ADP means only account holders can view content such as photos and documents stored online and in the cloud through what is known as end-to-end encryption.

      The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the UK had issued "a secret government order" that Apple create a "back door" to enable the government to snoop on data uploaded by any Apple user around the world.

    • EFF ☛ Cornered by the UK’s Demand for an Encryption Backdoor, Apple Turns Off Its Strongest Security Setting

      Meanwhile, Apple is not the only company operating in the U.K. that offers end-to-end encryption backup features. For example, you can optionally enable end-to-end encryption for chat backups in WhatsApp or backups from Samsung Galaxy phones. Many cloud backup services offer similar protections, as do countless chat apps, like Signal, to secure conversations. We do not know if other companies have been approached with similar requests, but we hope they stand their ground as well.

    • Futurism ☛ There May Be Downsides Now That Mark Zuckerberg Can Read Your Thoughts With a Scanning Device

      The mindreading breakthrough is cool in the abstract. But as Vox Future Perfect Fellow Celia Ford points out, we'll soon need to grapple with what it means for Meta to be the tech's gatekeeper — and for a notoriously invasive tech corporation to have access, at least in theory, to the data tucked away in our brains.

      Unfortunately, there are plenty of reasons to worry. As a data broker, Meta has been a historically bad actor.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Defence Web ☛ South Africa’s efforts to manage immigration and combat illegal entry

    The South African Department of Home Affairs has outlined measures to address the increasing number of illegal immigrants entering the country, particularly from Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Bangladesh, identified as the top three sources of newcomers in 2023.

  • New Yorker ☛ MElon’s A.I.-Driven Government Coup

    “For a long time, Silicon Valley has wanted to try to replace the government, and has thought that they would be better at governing the country than, you know, the Democrats and the Republicans alike,” the staff writer Kyle Chayka says.

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Is the Trump Administration Funding DOGE?

    While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts and layoffs across the federal government, funding for their agency — the Department of Government Efficiency — has soared to nearly $40 million, ProPublica found in a review of Office of Management and Budget records.

    Billionaire investor Musk has called DOGE “maximally transparent.” President Donald Trump has said that some 100 people work for the group, but his administration has refused to make information about DOGE’s spending and operations public. In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of DOGE’s inner workings, ProPublica has gathered the names and backgrounds of the people employed there. We’ve identified some 46 people, including 12 new names we are adding to the list today.

  • The Atlantic ☛ ‘Constitutional crisis’ is an understatement

    That’s a mistake—not because what’s happening is not serious, but because it is so serious. This week, the Trump administration came the closest it has thus far to outright refusing to follow a judge’s order, after days of comments from Vice President J. D. Vance, Bureaucrat in Chief Elon Musk, and others questioning whether a president must follow court rulings. That’s a threat to the very basic question of whether a president is subject to the law or not—especially when so many things that Trump has done appear plainly illegal.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Impacts of federal layoffs will be felt for years to come, good government group warns

    The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization focused on good government, is warning that the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal workforce not only impacts federal employees personally, but also creates major risks of deteriorating national security and services to the public.

    “We’re going to see damage for many years to come because of the actions that are being taken now,” Max Stier, the Partnership’s president and CEO, told reporters during a press conference Friday. “The people who are going to be defending this administration are career civil servants, and the people who are going to be paying for that are the American taxpayers.”

  • NYOB ☛ Snap Election faster than German DPAs: Microtargeting continues to influence voters

    In March 2023, noyb filed complaints against several German political parties: During the 2021 elections, CDU, AfD, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke and the Ecological Democratic Party illegally used political microtargeting to attract voters. Now, almost two years later, we are just one day away from the next federal election. However, the competent Data Protection Authorities still haven’t decided these cases – and political parties still use microtargeting. A well-know threat to democracy therefore continues.

  • Meduza ☛ Sweden reports new telecoms cable break in Baltic Sea

    According to the Swedish broadcaster SVT, the damaged line is C-Lion 1, a telecommunications cable operated by the Finnish state-owned company Cinia, which connects Finland and Germany. The incident occurred within Sweden’s exclusive economic zone.

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Swedish Police Investigate New Baltic Sea Cable Damage - The Moscow Times

    Finnish operator Cinia reported "some disturbance" on its C-Lion 1 communications cable, which connects Finland and Germany.

  • YLE ☛ New disruption of Finland-Germany cable reported in Baltic Sea

    The location of the disruption was near the island of Gotland in Swedish economic waters, where a number of subsea cables have been damaged in recent months.

  • Simone Silvestroni ☛ Growing old in the age of crap tech, and fascism

    It's been a steady progression, started with leaving mainstream social media, quitting certain services, decoupling things that I had learned to think as inextricably interconnected. It's been at the same time a liberating thought process, and enjoyable practical steps.

    In a nutshell, I found myself trapped within a kind of self-inflicted jail, where the warden was a collective entity made of rich white men. These mercurial figures come from a foreign country that I was conditioned to think as an ally.

    It is not.

  • The Verge ☛ Elon Musk’s first month of destroying America will cost us decades

    Musk has, in the short term, set us up for a shock to the economy from both unemployment and frozen government grants. This will be felt more or less immediately.

    But the long-term costs will be measured in decades. The degree to which we have failed not merely ourselves but also our children and grandchildren is breathtaking. Musk projects — such as undercutting practical preparations for possible disasters and dismantling an educational and scientific system so good that our actual enemies send their children to us for college — combine with disastrous Trump policies like mass deportation to undermine American society. And by alienating our longtime allies and cozying up to Russia, we set ourselves up to be a pariah state.

  • Wired ☛ DOGE Put Him in the Treasury Department. His Company Has Federal Contracts Worth Millions

    Krause is now in charge of both a sensitive government payment system and a company that has millions of dollars’ worth of active contracts with various federal agencies through distribution partners, according to a WIRED review of searchable spending records. The Department of Treasury alone accounts for a dozen ongoing contracts tied to Krause’s company that are together valued between $7.3 million to $11.8 million. These include licenses for the data visualization tool ibi WebFocus and purchases of systems called Citrix NetScaler that help manage traffic to apps. (Some publicly posted procurement records do not break out contract details, so actual figures may be even higher.)

  • Wired ☛ Elon Musk’s Man in the Treasury Is Still Holding Down His Day Job as Software CEO

    An email sent to workers at the US Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service said DOGE’s Tom Krause is “currently” the CEO of the Cloud Software Group. Critics believe this could be a massive conflict of interest.

  • The Nation ☛ This Executive Order Reveals the Trump-Musk Endgame

    If you understand the thievery that underpins this entire administration, you’ll understand that Trump’s recent executive order aimed at destroying independent regulatory agencies is an essential part of the overall plot. Independent regulatory agencies are things like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Elections Commission. These institutions were set up by Congress and are made up of commissioners appointed by the president. They are authorized to promote regulations over the industries and business sectors they oversee. They are the parts of the federal government most businesses interact with. They are the only real day-to-day check on unrestrained capitalism in our system of government.

  • Deseret Media ☛ Lawsuit alleging TikTok allows for the sexual exploitation of minors can advance, judge rules

    Utah 3rd District Judge Coral Sanchez denied the motion Thursday, allowing the case, which was filed by the Utah Department of Commerce's Division of Consumer Protection last June, to continue. The complaint alleges that TikTok knowingly "operates in part like a virtual strip club" and allows young users to be sexually exploited in exchange for virtual gifts.

  • Bertrand Meyer ☛ Blog Archive This is much worse than Munich

    It is Europe’s turn to step in. Defending Ukraine is defending us all.

  • VOA News ☛ Somali government says attacks on bases repulsed, 130 militants killed

    Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali governments since 2007 to impose its strict brand of Islamic law on the country.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US support for Taiwan remains 'very strong,' Taiwanese official says

    Support from The Insurrectionist's administration for Taiwan remains "very strong" and Taiwan is looking at more purchases from the country, including LNG, to help balance trade, a senior Taiwan security official said on Thursday.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Atlantic Council ☛ EU-US energy cooperation: Forging stronger connections in times of division

      The EU and US share a deep commitment
      to energy security, sustainability, and global stability. Strengthening cooperation-on cybersecurity, energy diversification, and decarbonization-will ensure a resilient, competitive, and secure future for both sides of the Atlantic.

    • Insight Hungary ☛ Hungary's foreign minister says Trump's foreign policy is the 'best hope' for ending Ukraine war

      Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó accused European leaders of working to block a peace deal on Ukraine, claiming that “pro-war, anti-Trump” politicians will convene in Paris to prevent a resolution to the conflict, 444 reports. Speaking in Kazakhstan, Szijjártó said Donald Trump’s return to power had created a “new global political reality” that aligns with Hungary’s interests. He positioned Hungary and Kazakhstan as allies, describing both as nations committed to sovereignty, patriotism, and a “pro-peace stance.” According to Szijjártó, Trump’s approach to foreign policy "offers the best hope for ending the war," which he argued has caused significant difficulties for both Hungary.

      Szijjártó welcomed reports that Trump and Vladimir Putin had engaged in extensive talks and that their respective foreign ministers, Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, had begun discussing future Russian-US cooperation. His remarks come as European leaders prepare for a possible emergency summit in response to Trump’s foreign policy stance. 

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Got Humiliated by a Space Station Astronaut Immediately Before Announcing Space Station Should Be Destroyed

    This didn't sit well with Andreas Mogensen, a European Space Agency astronaut who served as the ISS commander between September 2023 and March 2024.

    Responding to Musk's claims on X, Mogensen wrote: "What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media."

    Musk, in return, had a complete meltdown.

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Elon Musk attacks astronaut with slur for calling out his space rescue ‘lie’

    Mogensen says this is a lie.

    “You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September,” the astronaut wrote. “Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”

• Environment

  • JURIST ☛ Sweden Supreme Court rules Greta Thunberg lawsuit on climate action inadmissible

    The Swedish Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that climate activist Greta Thunberg’s legal challenge against the state for insufficient climate action is inadmissible. According to the Supreme Court press release, the case was assessed in stages.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Who is Importing Donald Trump’s Anti-Climate Agenda to Germany?

    • DeSmog ☛ Anti-Climate Attacks Heat Up Before Critical German Elections

    • DeSmog ☛ Trump and the Energy East Pipeline Revival: Why Canada Shouldn’t Waste Billions

    • Science Alert ☛ Ghostly Glow of Nuclear Power Station Detected in Water 150 Miles Away

      A flash we'd never seen before.

    • Energy Mix Productions Inc ☛ Drink Less Water, Sit in the Dark to Give AI a Chance, Spoof Website Urges

      “Artificial intelligence is facing a crisis: humans are consuming far too many precious resources that AI needs to thrive,” the website warns. “Every sip of water you take and every light you turn on could be sustaining the AI systems that uphold your digital conveniences.”

    • [Old] Tom's Hardware ☛ Using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to 3 bottles of water — AI data centers also raise power and water bills for nearby residents

      The research noted that the exact water usage varies depending on state and proximity to data center, with lower water use corresponding to cheaper electricity and higher electricity use. Texas had the lowest water usage at an estimated 235 milliliters needed to generate one 100-word email, while Washington demanded a whopping 1,408 milliliters per email — which is about three 16.9oz water bottles.

      This may not sound like a lot, but remember that these figures add up fairly quickly, especially when users are using GPT-4 multiple times a week (or multiple times a day) — and this is just for plain text.

    • Matt Birchler ☛ 400 million people use OpenAI/ChatGPT every week

      No one has to use any of these tools if they don’t want, and they can love Apple products over everything else as well, but I really think there is a segment of people who seriously think it’s a few dozen nerds using AI tools and most of the world hasn’t even tried them yet. Or maybe they think that only Apple can make mainstream software? I don’t know, but let’s just say I didn’t lose that bet.

    • The Verge ☛ EV charging in America: all the news about building a new electric car infrastructure

    • University of Michigan ☛ Board approves project to expand EV battery research

      The University of Michigan will move forward with plans to construct a new electric vehicle battery laboratory, broadening research and hands-on education in next-generation battery technologies on the Ann Arbor campus.

      The Board of Regents approved the $60 million project at its meeting Feb. 20. Funding will be provided from the state of Michigan contract that established the Electric Vehicle Center in 2023.

    • The Verge ☛ The GSA is shutting down its EV chargers, calling them ‘not mission critical’

      The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages buildings owned by the federal government, is planning to shut down all of its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, describing them as “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages contracts for the government’s vehicle fleets, is also looking to offload newly purchased EVs.

      The GSA currently operates several hundred EV chargers across the country, with approximately 8,000 plugs that are available for government-owned EVs as well as federal employees’ personally owned vehicles.

    • Eric Walker ☛ Shed Office Heating Upgrade | Eric Walker

      On a whim last week I decided I needed to get a little more heat flowing in the Shed Office as the electric heaters I have works great until the temps at night get down to -10ºF as it is a little too much for them to keep up even blasting all night (which I don’t love doing). So some mornings I would wake up to 32ºF in the shed and if when I woke up I turned the heaters on it would take some time (sometimes half the day) to get the shed to a OK temp of in the high 40ºF so I could come out and then work. Because of that somedays I would just bail and try to work from the house.

    • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Is Flagrantly Gutting an Agency in Charge of Regulating Tesla

      The NHTSA had previously investigated Tesla over its infamous driver-assistance software. While Tesla has reported more than 1,500 crash reports to safety regulators as of last year, the Trump transition team announced in December that it would drop the reporting requirement — early indicators that the president and Musk would be coming after the agency.

      DOGE's gutting of the NHTSA is yet another example of Musk cutting down the regulators who have gone after one of his companies, highlighting his considerable sway in the White House and his unabashed willingness to use that influence to benefit his business interests.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ As DOGE enters FAA, an aging aviation safety system may come into focus

      As attention mounts on the Federal Aviation Administration following a handful of fatal airplane crashes this year and reports that Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to review the country’s air traffic systems, documents obtained by FedScoop reveal the complicated nature of modernizing a platform for pilots to understand the potential hazards and conditions they might encounter on their flights.

    • TMZ ☛ Delta Plane Crash Survivor Nate Richie Says Airline's $30K Offer Not Enough

      An investigation into the cause of the crash is still underway.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Ancient Fossils Reveal A Surprising Truth About Australian Dinosaurs

      The first evidence of its kind.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Breach Media ☛ Mark Carney says he’s a pragmatic outsider—but he’s a banker selling yesterday’s failed ideas

    The Liberal leadership frontrunner is promising ‘change without change,’ with austerity, greenwashing, and more corporate handouts

  • JURIST ☛ New York appeals court upholds constitutionality of state ethics and lobbying commission

    The New York Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the state’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government on Tuesday in an action brought by former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, whom the commission is investigating.

  • Latvia ☛ Saeima advances Latvian crisis management center plan

    On Thursday, February 20, the Saeima adopted in the first reading a number of draft laws establishing a Crisis Management center for cross-sectoral crisis management.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Pelican Bay offers a model for prison education. Its future is in doubt.

    Among the second chances offered in U.S. prisons is the first in-person bachelor’s program inside a maximum security yard. Early in the spring semester, its future is suddenly in doubt.

  • The Record ☛ GOP megadonor becomes new Clearview AI co-CEO

    Clearview AI, which sells controversial facial recognition technology, has reportedly replaced its former CEO with two chief executives, one of whom is a GOP megadonor and fundraiser for President Donald Trump.

    The facial recognition company is known for its searchable database allowing law enforcement, federal agencies and other customers to access 30 billion faces it has scraped from the internet.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Tahrir Institute ☛ Truth in Transition: Disinformation in Post-Assad Syria

      Disinformation fuels fear and division in Syria’s new political landscape, eroding trust and blocking the path to a peaceful political transition.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group demands Egypt release activists arbitrarily detained for social control media posts

    Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the Egyptian government to release arbitrarily detained human rights activists currently awaiting “unlawful” prosecution. The charges brought against them include alleged terrorism, disseminating false news, and for involvement in anti-government protests.

  • JURIST ☛ Tunisia rights activist Sihen Bensedrine released from jail

    Tunisian Human Rights activist Sihem Bensedrine was released from jail after a ruling from the country’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday, AFP and Jeune Afrique reported. Despite the UN’s demand for her immediate and unconditional release on February 5, she is still under investigation for other charges. 

  • Techdirt ☛ While Democracy Burns, Democrats Prioritize… Demolishing Section 230?

    You might think — in a moment when democracy itself seems to be unraveling and the American experiment teetering on the brink — that Democratic leadership would focus on, oh I don’t know, preserving the basic functions of government. But no, they’ve decided that what we really need right now is to demolish the legal framework that makes online discourse possible.

  • RTL ☛ Man found guilty of trying to kill Salman Rushdie

    After the novel was published in 1988, Rushdie became the center of a fierce tug-of-war between free speech advocates and those who insisted that insulting religion, particularly Islam, was unacceptable in any circumstance.

    Books and bookshops were torched, his Japanese translator was murdered and his Norwegian publisher was shot several times.

  • France24 ☛ Man who tried to kill novelist Salman Rushdie found guilty of attempted murder

    After the knife assault, Matar told the New York Post that he had travelled from his home in New Jersey after seeing the Rushdie event advertised because he disliked the novelist, saying Rushdie had attacked Islam.

  • Mike Brock ☛ Forbearance or Freedom

    This wasn't just an overzealous lawyer overstepping bounds. It was the weaponization of the Justice Department against political opposition, a flagrant abuse of power that struck at the heart of democratic discourse.

    I had proposed a response for Garcia—a blistering takedown that pulled no punches. It was confrontational, unapologetic, and dripping with contempt for the thinly veiled intimidation tactics employed by the U.S. Attorney. The letter I drafted was a deliberate provocation, a gauntlet thrown at the feet of creeping authoritarianism. It was designed not just to respond but to expose the absurdity and danger inherent in such a “request for clarification.”

  • Truthdig ☛ How Elon Musk Blurs the Lines of Free Speech

    As private entities, technology behemoths like Meta and X are free to decide what content can and cannot appear on their sites. But what happens when the owner of a social media company also works for the government, as is now the case with Elon Musk, whose X bio briefly — and perhaps ironically — read “White House Tech Support” last week?

    How does this affect First Amendment rights? If X, formerly known as Twitter, decides to suspend a user’s account, does this amount to government censorship? And does it matter that Musk is a special government employee, meaning he is subject to many, but not all, government ethics standards?

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ AP sues White House officials over denial of access

    The ban on AP reporters was later extended to Air Force One. The news group said it was bringing the suit against three Trump administration officials to "vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution."

    "The White House has ordered The Associated Press to use certain words in its coverage or else face an indefinite denial of access," the AP said.

    "The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," it said.

    "The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American's freedom."

  • The Atlantic ☛ The free-speech phonies

    “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” then–CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves cackled in February 2016, as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign churned forward. “The money’s rolling in and this is fun … It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Go ahead. Keep going.”

    Moonves appeared merely ghoulish then. He now looks both ghoulish and wrong. Trump has not been good for CBS, and the steps and statements he’s made since returning to the White House show that his campaign promises to restore and defend free speech were balderdash. His goal is to protect the speech that he likes and suppress what he doesn’t.

  • CPJ ☛ 2 Cameroonian journalists attacked while reporting on businessman praised by president

    Abena, a regional correspondent for privately owned Equinoxe TV, and Ndongo, a camera operator, were attacked when they went to investigate an agricultural facility owned by Samuel Tony Obam Bikoué, a controversial figure praised by President Paul Biya three days earlier for helping to create “an agricultural industry,” but whose involvement in the banana plantation sector has been criticized by a local prefect.

    The journalists were attacked when they entered the facility, according to a statement from the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon and Abena, who told CPJ that one of the attackers asked him why he wanted to harm Bikoué’s business rather than investigating other officials’ interests.

  • The Nation ☛ Trump’s Plan Is to Flood the Zone With Garbage

    Finally, I thought: If I can’t talk about him with these women I’ve known for more than 40 years, who can I talk with? I watched them, sitting in that living room nibbling on corn chips and guacamole, and finally asked, “Do you think we’ll look back on this time and know that it was the beginning of the end?”

    I didn’t even need to say the end of what: of American democracy, the rule of law, and the hopes of people of color, women, and queer folk? “The end” alone signified all of that and so much more.

    “Absolutely we will,” was my partner’s instant response. The other women agreed that Trump’s second term represents a genuine break with the democratic history of this country; that yes, it’s as serious as that. We sat for a moment in overwhelmed silence.

  • CS Monitor ☛ CNN out, Breitbart in: Our reporter on what the new Pentagon ‘rotation’ means

    Career defense officials say the new administration never asked whether there’s enough space in the press room to accommodate more journalists before drafting the memo. There is, they add, room for all the outlets they cite without ejecting any.

    This fuels concern that the new policy amounts to a personal attack on the reporters who broke news about Mr. Hegseth’s troubled marriages, a rape allegation, and his struggles with alcohol in advance of his confirmation hearings.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ PBS and NPR on edge over FCC letter and Trump budget scrutiny

    That process helped sustain such programs as “Nova,” “Masterpiece” and Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentaries. But it’s now under scrutiny from Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who says the spots “cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

    In a Jan. 30 letter to PBS and NPR, which also airs corporate sponsorship messages, Carr stated his support for ending federal funding of public broadcasting.

  • HRW ☛ Saudi Arabia: Public Investment Fund Meeting Whitewashes Abuses | Human Rights Watch

    “Businesses attending the Summit have a responsibility to ensure that their investments with the PIF do not contribute to human rights abuses, and that starts with serious due diligence about the PIF’s own record in human rights abuses against Saudi citizens,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director at DAWN. “From providing the planes that were used to transport Jamal Khashoggi’s murderers to torture and kill him, to arbitrarily confiscating the assets of 20 Saudi companies, the PIF is deeply intertwined with the Saudi government’s horrendous human rights record.”

    Human Rights Watch has found that Saudi Arabia uses the PIF’s investments in the United States as a tool of Saudi Arabia’s soft power and influence. These investments contribute to building uncritical support for the crown prince’s agenda, obscure the country’s rights record, and undermine institutions seeking transparency and accountability over the PIF’s activites. The PIF’s investments, such as the LIV golf tour, are a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s attempts to build its profile and influence abroad.

  • New York Times ☛ What to Know About the Saudi Crown Prince’s Role in Global Diplomacy

    The meetings represent a remarkable turnabout for Prince Mohammed, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom’s de facto leader who was shunned for a time in diplomatic circles. He was accused of severe human rights abuses that he has denied, including approving the killing in 2018 of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • France24 ☛ White House posts 'dehumanising' ASMR video mocking migrants in shackles

    The Insurrectionist’s White House is being blasted online for “ridiculing” and “dehumanising” migrants being deported in shackles in an ASMR-style video posted to its official channels. It comes as Convicted Felon declared himself the “King” online, with the White House posting AI-generated images to reiterate his point. Critics say Convicted Felon is straddling a fine line between parody and disinformation, with questions around the boundaries of political communication. Vedika Bahl gives the analysis  in Truth or Fake.

  • EFF ☛ Utah Bill Aims to Make Officers Disclose AI-Written Police Reports

    S.B. 180 is unfortunately a necessary step in the right direction when it comes to regulating the rapid spread of police using generative AI to write their narrative reports for them. EFF will continue to monitor this bill in hopes that it will be part of a larger conversation about more robust regulations. Specifically, Axon, the makers of tasers and the salespeople behind a shocking amount of police and surveillance tech, has recently rolled out a new product, Draft One, which uses body-worn camera audio to generate police reports. This product is spreading quickly in part because it is integrated with other Axon products which are already omnipresent in U.S. society.

  • Techdirt ☛ Yes, You Have The Right To Film ICE

    Filming ICE agents making an arrest or amassing in your town helps promote transparency and accountability for a system that often relies on intimidation and secrecy and obscures abuse and law-breaking.

    While it is crucial for people to help aid in transparency and accountability, there are considerations and precautions you should take. For an in-depth guide by organizations on the frontlines of informing people who wish to record ICE’s interactions with the public, review these handy resources from the hard-working folks at WITNESS and NYCLU.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Union Calls On Pentagon to Cancel Workforce Cuts

    “About 46% of DoD workers are veterans who joined the civil service to continue serving their country. This proposed layoff would directly affect tens of thousands of veterans and their families. This is a slap in the face to veterans and military families everywhere that will not soon be forgotten.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Inside Towers ☛ New Mexico Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Wireless Infrastructure Bill

    The New Mexico State Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee yesterday passed by a 9-0 vote a proposal to allow state agencies to have wireless towers on their properties. According to Connect New Mexico, the move would also directly provide sustainable 5G cellular service to nearby constituents.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Are Cosmetics Related to Bottled Water for Section 2(d) Purposes?

    Givn Goods opposed IBMG's application to register the mark GIVN for various cosmetics and for online retail store services in the field of cosmetics, alleging a likelihood of confusion with its identical mark, registered for "Bottled drinking water; Distilled drinking water; Drinking water; Drinking water with vitamins; Drinking waters; Purified bottled drinking water." The involved goods are relatively inexpensive and there are no limitations as to channels of trade or classes of consumers. But are the goods related? That was the question. Givn Goods, Inc. v. IBMG, LLC, Opposition Nos. 91281529 & 91281530 (February 18, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cynthia C. Lynch).

• Copyrights

  • Society for Scholarly Publishing ☛ Copyright’s Big Win in the First Decided US Artificial Intelligence Case

    The case arose out of the surreptitious copying of the entire Westlaw database (after having been denied a license) by a company that wanted to create an arguably competing product. Unlike some of the generative AI cases, there was no claim that the AI’s output included the copyrightable content. As the Court noted, this was not about generative AI. This case was purely about training.

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Greece Approves Legal Framework to 'Fine' Pirate IPTV Users, Ramps Up Blocking

    greece flagPirate site blocking is a hot topic again, now that the U.S. is considering its own blocking regime.

    This puts a spotlight on the practices of other countries, especially those where innocent websites are blocked, as we’ve recently seen in Spain and Italy.