Leftovers

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong revives abandoned Kuk Po border village in alternative tourism push

  Tourists in Hong Kong are flocking to the 300-year-old village of Kuk Po, whose decaying mansions and reed fields offer a respite from the city’s famously frenetic pace.

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ How Fungi Move Among Us

    Underground fungal networks are “living algorithms” that quietly help regulate Earth’s climate. Now scientists know what makes them so efficient.

  • Pro Publica ☛ NASA Official Warns Staff About Publicly Displaying Their Badges

    A high-ranking NASA official warned his employees Friday to “use discretion” in public when displaying badges or emblems that identify them as federal workers — part of an effort, the agency says, to protect its employees amid “stories of possible harassment” outside of work.

    “We are all very proud to work for the space program,” wrote Dr. James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer. “But in the current environment, with a lot of negative rhetoric coming in our direction, I want you all to please use caution.”

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Practice While You Work

    This week, I had to do something I haven’t done in a long, long time: make myself a custom PCB the old-fashioned way, with laser toner and etchant. The reason? I bought a horrible K40 laser cutter, and the motion controller doesn’t seem to be able to do acceleration control, which means the machine rams full speed into and out of 90 degree corners, for instance. It sounds awful, and it dramatically limits how fast the laser cutter can run.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ HP says 90% of products for the U.S. will be made outside of China by October

    HP expects the vast majority of products sold in the U.S. to be made outside of China, Dell plans to pass costs increased to end users, if it cannot mitigate.

  • Hackaday ☛ This Gesture Sensor Is Precise, Cheap, Well-Hidden

    In today’s “futuristic tech you can get for $5”, [RealCorebb] shows us a gesture sensor, one of the sci-fi kind. He was doing a desktop clock build, and wanted to add gesture control to it – without any holes that a typical optical sensor needs. After some searching, he’s found Microchip’s MGC3130, a gesture sensing chip that works with “E-fields”, more precise than the usual ones, almost as cheap, and with a lovely twist.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Former defective chip maker Intel directors strongly oppose TSMC takeover, call for defective chip maker Intel fabs spinoff

    Former defective chip maker Intel directors say TSMC fabs takeover is a terrible idea, but fab spinoff to a consortium of companies is a good idea.

  • Hackaday ☛ Using Four Rolls Of Film To Make One Big Photo

    Typically, if you’re shooting 35 mm film, you’re using it in an old point-and-shoot or maybe a nice SLR. You might even make some sizeable prints if you take a particularly good shot. But you can get altogether weirder with 35 mm if you like, as [Socialmocracy] demonstrates with his “extreme sprocket hole photography” project (via Petapixel).

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Federal News Network ☛ VA reverses course after putting some Veterans Crisis Line hires on hold

    Many Veterans Crisis Line employees worked in the office pre-pandemic, but in most cases, they've been working remotely for years now.

  • JURIST ☛ Effect of COVID-19 on Indigenous access to education spurs international concern

    Amnesty International released a report on Friday shedding light on the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education of Indigenous youth across multiple continents.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong-based singer-songwriter Khalil Fong dies aged 41

    Hong Kong-based singer-songwriter Khalil Fong has died at the age of 41. A post on the Facebook (Farcebook) page for Fu Music on Saturday said that he had faced a “relentless illness for five years” and passed away on February 21.

  • Science Alert ☛ Daily Dose of Broccoli Sprout Extract Helps Blood Sugar, Study Shows

    Could we stop people developing diabetes?

  • Science Alert ☛ Women Talk More Than Men After All, And By Quite a Lot

    This will give you something to talk about.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Evidence Reveals Evolution Itself May Actually Be Evolving

    This ain't over yet.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sad Case of The Youngest Person Ever Diagnosed With Alzheimer's

    There's so much we still don't understand.

  • Science Alert ☛ Head Lice Are Digging In, But There's a Simple Way to Get Rid of Them

    Easy as 1, 2, 3.

  • Pro Publica ☛ The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway.

    After the Trump administration moved to freeze nearly $60 billion in foreign aid in January, officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly assured Americans that lifesaving operations would continue. “We don’t want to see anybody die,” he told reporters in early February.

    Aid organizations the world over scrambled to prove their work saved lives, seeking permission from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to continue operating.

• Proprietary

  • IBM shuts down China research operations, impacting 1,800 R&D jobs

    IBM China Investment Company Limited (IBMV) and its subsidiaries shut down on March 1, impacting over 1,800 R&D and testing staff in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, and other sites.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ DeepSeek brings disruption to AI-optimized parallel file systems, releases powerful new open-source Fire-Flyer File System

      DeepSeek's 3FS file system is now open-source and is a no-brainer for AI-HPC model training, boosting efficiency and training more data-driven models.

• Defence/Aggression

  • JURIST ☛ US lawmaker moves to impeach federal judge for blocking Convicted Felon administration’s foreign aid freeze

    US Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) sought to impeach US District Judge Amir Ali on Thursday after the judge ordered the Convicted Felon administration to lift the 90-day pause on all foreign aid.

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-27 [Older] DOGE Access to US Intelligence Secrets Poses a National Security Threat, Democrats Say

  • CBC ☛ 2025-02-26 [Older] Is the RedNote app a security risk?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-27 [Older] Germany's Rhineland celebrates Carnival with tight security

  • Defence Web ☛ 2025-02-26 [Older] Holomisa and Maphwanya to headline Public-Private Partnerships for Defence & Security conference

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-25 [Older] Under Merz, Germany set for foreign, security policy shift

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-25 [Older] Security Conditions in a Famine-Hit Camp in North Darfur Are 'Unbearable,' Aid Worker Says

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-24 [Older] Global Security Arrangements 'Unravelling', UN Chief Warns Nuclear Disarmament Conference

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean protesters rally as impeachment verdict nears

    Police expected the crowds to total about 350,000 in the capital.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ST Picks: Destination Pyongyang - North Korea reopens to visitors, including S’poreans

  • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man To Bolster Security At Mexican Border With 3,000 Additional Troops

    The U.S. military on March 1 said it will deploy almost 3,000 additional soldiers to the country’s southern border with Mexico, bolstering the force there to some 9,000, as part of President The Insurrectionist’s efforts to combat illegal immigration.

  • France24 ☛ Syria prepares for new transitional government

    Syria’s new rulers held a long-awaited national dialogue conference Tuesday, which they touted as a “rare historical opportunity” to rebuild the country after the fall of former President Bashar Assad and nearly 14 years of civil war. For nearly 3 months, Syria has been run by a small interim government led by Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. A new transitional government, aimed to be more inclusive and representative, however, is due to replace current authorities with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa set to stay on in his position.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man is returning the US to isolationism and Yalta-style spheres of influence – opinion

      Historically, the best predictor of a new US president’s former policy is to look at what his predecessor did. This is the case both because of the broad overall continuity of American foreign policy since WWII, but also because presidents take office within a context of real-world events that dictate their choices.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Is Rootin’ for Putin

      Dihydroxyacetone Man and Vance in a gross betrayal of the West.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Dressing Down of Zelensky Plays Into Putin’s War Aims

      The public blowup could propel President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to escalate the fight in Ukraine instead of agreeing to peace.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Berates Zelensky and Putin Benefits

      The United States’ relationship with Ukraine erupted in a storm of acrimony on Friday as Hell Toupée and Vice President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in an explosive televised Oval Office showdown and abruptly cut short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace. Erica Green, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, breaks it down.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Five Ways Convicted Felon Is Sabotaging the United States

      Given all the other ways Convicted Felon has capitulated to Vladimir Putin, we can't rule out that the damage DOGE is doing to the US government is intentional sabotage.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Passengers boarding flights in S. Korea must carry power banks on person from March 1

      Batteries above 160 watt-hours will be completely banned from being carried onto aircraft.

• Finance

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2025-02-26 [Older] U-M squeezed by Cheeto Mussolini cuts; Social Security research project halted

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-02-27 [Older] Social Security Disability Dispute Times Could Worsen After Office Closures as Pending Cases Cross 270K

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-02-25 [Older] Social Security Confirms $1,580 Monthly Average SSDI Payments: Here's How To Speed Up the Claims Process

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-02-24 [Older] Elon Musk’s Race to Become the World’s First Trillionaire Runs Through Your Social Security and Medicare

  • Truthdig ☛ 2025-02-24 [Older] Anxiety Mounts as DOGE Targets Social Security

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-02-24 [Older] Social Security 2026 Cola Increase Estimated at 2.3%, the Lowest in Years

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New Yorker ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Putin-Like Cull of the White House Press Pool

    “It's something that is at the top of the authoritarian playbook list,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. “You know, go after the independent press.”

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian journalist arrested for allegedly soliciting, receiving $6,000 bribe

    The anti-corruption agency chief denies he was arrested over a recent article exposing a migrant trafficking cartel.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Straits Times ☛ Disabled Malaysian boy seen crawling in school gets walkers from kind donors after video went viral

    The five-year-old got two custom-made walkers, with a third on the way.

  • New York Times ☛ Lawsuit Against Panama Challenges Detention of Convicted Felon Deportees

    A group of lawyers accused Panama of violating the rights of people deported from the United States under the Convicted Felon administration’s policy of sending migrants to cooperative Latin American nations.

  • France24 ☛ Families of apartheid victims file lawsuit against govt for inaction

    Families of apartheid victims in South Africa have launched a lawsuit against the government, accusing it of failing to bring culprits to justice. The country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has recommended that all suspects who did not receive amnesty be prosecuted but successive governments have repeatedly failed to do so.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China tells its Hey Hi (AI) leaders to avoid US travel over security concerns: WSJ report

    There is concern that Chinese experts could divulge information about the nation’s progress.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Google's newest moonshot delivers internet by firing lasers through the air — Taara project upgrades to tiny 13mm photonic chips placed 1km apart

    Taara, Google's current underdog project run by its X research lab, seeks to replace fiber optic cables with above-ground light transmitters.

• Music or Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Ruben Schade ☛ POPs, and collectables for the sake of them

    Remember those POP Vinyl things? Take a look through an image search if you haven’t seen them before. They were small plastic shells licenced from shows, anime, movies, music, and so on. They were everywhere in pop culture stores for a time. If you knew a character from somewhere… anywhere… chances were there was a POP of them. Or six!

    POPs consisted of a large, boxy head and a tiny body, with precious few variations. They differed from traditional action and anime figures with their intentional uniformity and lack of detail.

  • Hackaday ☛ Why Are Cassette And CD Players So Big Now?

    The early 2000s were the halcyon days of physical media. While not as svelte as MP3 players became, why are those early 2000s machines smaller than all the new models popping up amidst the retro audio craze?

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-02-24 [Older] [Guest post] The Afe Babalola-Dele Farotimi saga: Copyright royalties for defamation?

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Delaware court finds fair use defence unsuccessful in AI training copyright motion