Leftovers

• Daniel Miller ☛ Václav Havel on Hope

• Jon Seager ☛ Own Your Calendar · Jon Seager

  Over the past few years, I’ve come to a series of realisations about how I can get the most from my calendar, or rather how to get the most from my time at work, while preventing work from spilling out into my personal life too much.

  Staying on top of my calendar has helped me manage my time better. It helps me get more done, and set reasonable work-life boundaries. Calendar management helps my colleagues understand how I spend my time, what I’m working on, and when it might be best to book my time.

• Kevin Kelly ☛ The Technium: The Unpredicted

  Clarke does not attempt to explain why some inventions are expected while others are not, other than to note that many of the expected inventions have been anticipated since ancient times. In fact their reality – immortality, invisibility, levitation – would have been called magic in the past.

• Mike Brock ☛ On Being an Asshole

  Following yesterday's piece, The Manifesto of the Cognitive Revolution (which you should read before continuing, as what follows won't make much sense otherwise), I feel compelled to address where we go from here. The manifesto wasn't just another essay—it was a declaration of intent, a recognition that understanding our predicament, while necessary, is no longer sufficient.

• Mitchell Hashimoto ☛ "As Code"

  My intent with "X as Code" was always to get knowledge out of people's heads and into a more inscribed system. Once inscribed, knowledge and process can be shared, versioned, iterated upon, etc.

• Sean Monahan ☛ potions and spells

  People love to quote the third of Arthur C. Clark’s laws—"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And almost always with a positive spin. The Disneyfied language makes it sound wondrous. But let’s reconsider the quote with a different word:

  Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from witchcraft.

• Collaborative Fund Management LLC ☛ Pure Independence

  I’ll tell you the takeaway: If you’re used to being assisted, supervised, mandated, or dictated, and then suddenly you experience the glory of independence, the feeling is sensational. Doing something on your own terms can feel better than doing the exact same thing when someone else is peering over your shoulder, telling you what to do, guiding you along.

• [Repeat] Ruben Schade ☛ Free Our Feeds… onto blockchain

  AAAAA there it is! I knew it was going to be blockchain, or genAI, or slop images of tulips on a blockchain. Their site is a Greatest Hits of all the baseless guff from the blockchain hype years, stuff that would be ineffectual even if all of it were technically possible.

• Science

  • Axios ☛ DOGE [sic] moves to cancel NOAA leases on key weather buildings

    Between the lines: Elon Musk's Department [sic] of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been working through the General Services Administration to cancel government leases of office space.

  • Science News ☛ The universe’s first supernovas probably produced water

    Signatures of water have previously been observed some 780 million years after the Big Bang. But now, computer simulations suggest that this essential condition for life existed far earlier than astronomers thought, researchers report March 3 in Nature Astronomy.

• Career/Education

  • Pro Publica ☛ Alaska Has Ignored Hundreds of Requests to Fix Crumbling Schools

    Nearly two dozen children in the tiny village of Sleetmute, Alaska, arrive for school each morning to a small brown building that is on the verge of collapse.

    Every year for the past 19 years, the local school district has asked the state for money to help repair a leaky roof. But again and again, the state said no. Over time, water ran down into the building, causing the supporting beams to rot. A windowpane cracked under pressure as heavy snow and ice built up on the roof each winter. Eventually, an entire wall started to buckle, leaving a gaping hole in the exterior siding.

  • Coalition for Networked Information ☛ CFP: CNI Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series Spring 2025

    Videos should focus on a timely topic or on a project related to digital information. We especially invite briefings on recently published reports, and updates on new or ongoing projects, programs, or organizations that may have reported at CNI in the past. We recommend that these videos run no more than 15-20 minutes, though longer presentations may occasionally make sense; we leave this to the presenters’ discretion.

  • Bertrand Meyer ☛ Blog Archive New article: obituary of Niklaus Wirth

    Shortly after Niklaus Wirth — Turing Award winner for his many seminal contributions including Pascal, Algol W, Modula, virtual machines, Lilith/Ceres, railway diagrams, PL/360, seminal textbooks… — passed away last year, I wrote a long blog article about him. Jim Woodcock, editor of Formal Aspects of Computing, asked me to adapt it for the journal. The result has just been published.

    It is not a traditional eulogy; rather, a free-ranging discussion of Wirth’s achievements and my personal analysis of his ideas. Wirth’s career is well-documented elsewhere; my article does not replace encyclopedia entries (or the many talks by Wirth and interviews of him available for example on YouTube), but is more like one side (sadly) of a dialog on programming, languages, methods, tools and the evolution of our common discipline.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Alibaba launches RISC-V-based XuanTie C930 server CPU — AI/HPC chip ships this month, more designs to follow

    Damo Academy, Alibaba's research and development institute, announced the XuanTie C930 at a conference in Beijing on Friday. Alibaba first teased the C930 last year when the company confirmed a 2024 release for the server chip. Now, a year after its first teasers, the C930 is here to herald a new era of Alibaba's RISC-V production.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Trump purge hits Chips Act office, two-fifths of staff to be terminated: Report

    Two-fifths of the staff of the U.S. Chips Program Office, responsible for managing the Chips and Science Act, have been laid off by the Trump administration. 60 total employees will be cut by the end of today.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Robert Birming ☛ Recognizing the value around us

    Even though it was a joke, it reminds us of the importance of what we often take for granted: family, a roof over our heads, food on the table, friends, a stable income, good health, the ability to pursue our interests...

    Often, we only realize the true value of these "givens"—which aren't really givens at all—when we lose them.

  • Joel Chrono ☛ Going out by myself

    Going out for fun is something I only really do with my family nowadays, we walk at a mall or go to the movies or a park—typical wholesome family bonding time.

  • ONS: Increases in UK Deaths Continue Into (Almost) March

• Proprietary

  • Eliseo Martelli ☛ Apple's Software Quality Crisis: When Premium Hardware Meets Subpar Software

    As a long-time Apple user, I've always appreciated the integration of hardware and software, signature of the Apple ecosystem. However, recent experiences with my iPad Air 11" M2 has left me questioning whether Apple has lost sight of what once made their products great.

  • Air Force Times ☛ F-35s to get new capabilities with summer software update

    TR-3 is a series of upgrades to the F-35′s computer memory, processing power, and displays, which are intended to make the jet more capable and pave the way for a subsequent series of more substantial improvements known as Block 4.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Futurism ☛ LA Times Uses AI to Provide "Different Views" on the KKK

      In other words, AI will generate counter-arguments to opinion pieces penned by the newspaper's human experts, with no input from the paper's journalists.

      Shortly thereafter, reporters noticed that an excellent article about Anaheim residents kicking the Ku Klux Klan out of town 100 years prior had been amended to include some dodgy AI-generated addendums.

    • Fabian Beuke ☛ Retrieval Augmented Generation

      Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a technique that combines a language model’s text generation ability with an external information retrieval process. In a traditional setting, an LLM (Large Language Model) generates answers using only the knowledge encoded in its training parameters. RAG, by contrast, allows the model to “consult” external data sources (documents, databases, web content, etc.) at query time. This means the model’s responses aren’t just based on what it “remembers” from training – they can include up-to-date, factual information fetched on the fly. Essentially, if a standard LLM is like a student taking a closed-book exam (answering from memory), a RAG system is like an open-book exam, where the student can lookup answers from a reference text. This dramatically improves the reliability of its answers. Use cases include offering chatbot access to internal company data or providing factual information solely from an authoritative source.

    • The Independent UK ☛ Uber teams up with Waymo to start selling driverless rides in Austin, Texas

      The partnership begins in Austin and will, later this year, expand to offer robotaxi rides in Atlanta.

    • NL Times ☛ Dozens of deepfake porn victims emerged in sextortion schemes last year

      Reports of deepfake pornography and manipulated nude images in the Netherlands surged by 31 percent in 2024, according to data from Helpwanted, a national helpline for victims of online abuse. The organization received 59 reports last year, including 33 cases involving AI-generated images and 26 cases of altered photos or videos.

    • Futurism ☛ Netflix Is Using AI to Upscale a 1980s Sitcom and the Results Are Borderline Horrific

      As spotted by developer and blogger Scott Hanselman, the streamer — or whatever rightsholder licensed the show to it — seriously bungled its efforts to upscale the decades-old footage, which was originally shot on film and made available on DVD since then.

      The show was added earlier this month and is currently listed as being "HD." But onscreen artifacts quickly make it clear that an algorithm is being used to increase the sharpness of pixelated frames, with sometimes comically awful results.

    • The Register UK ☛ Deepfake cyberattacks proliferated in 2024, iProov claims

      Virtual camera software, available from a number of different vendors, allows legitimate users to, say, replace their built-in laptop camera feed in a video call with one from another app that, for instance, improves their appearance. Miscreants, on the other hand, can abuse the same software for nefarious purposes, such as pretending to be someone they aren't using AI. Because the video feed is created in a different app and injected via virtual camera software, it's much harder to detect, iProov chief scientific officer Andrew Newell told us.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ LA Times ‘bias meter’ goes live, pushes AI slop without editorial review

      Los Angeles Times proprietor Patrick Soon-Shiong is convinced his paper is a hotbed of Bolshevik agitators. He blocked the paper making a presidential endorsement in October 2024.

      But Soon-Shiong had a plan: fight back the red menace with the power of AI. And his robot bias meter has just gone live!

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • YLE ☛ OP, Nordea roll out mobile-based payment service

      Siirto does not however have its own mobile app, and there are no plans to develop one. Instead, it will be hosted within partner applications, such as the banks' own apps or online banking services.

      "We will provide people in Finland with intuitive and secure payment services, available on the Siirto partner app used by the customer. In our uncertain times, development of this pioneering Finnish payment solution will also form part of our national security of supply," Jani Eloranta, Head of Personal Banking Finland at Nordea, wrote in a press release.

    • Torrent Freak ☛ BBC, Premier League & Sky Seek Tougher UK Regs to Deter Google Search Piracy

      The BBC, Premier League, and Sky have submitted a joint response to the UK investigation into Google's search dominance, calling for tougher anti-piracy measures. The rightsholders argue that Google's current efforts to combat piracy are insufficient to prevent piracy. They propose a "Know Your Customer" (KYC) requirement for advertisers and a transparent repeat infringer policy to address the issue.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Canadian Health Data Requires Stronger Safeguards With Lost Canada-U.S. Trust

      Much of our health care data starts with family physicians, local hospitals and Canadian health research facilities, but later winds its way into the hands of international companies. Many of those companies are based in the U.S. and subject to foreign legislation that could compel disclosure, even over the privacy objections of affected individuals. In other words, Canadian health privacy safeguards may have limited effect once the data is outside the country and no longer in the hands of Canadian-controlled entities.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Cloudflare Blocking Privacy Focused Users From Accessing Third-Party Websites – Pixel Envy

      The open web is becoming ever more complicated. You must frequently confirm your humanity. Google now requires JavaScript just to search, since it is also apparently trying to combat bots and scrapers. Everything, even viewing a relatively basic document, feels degraded unless you abandon control over your experience either on the web or in an app.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Apple Appeals U.K. Backdoor Demand to Investigatory Powers Tribunal

      The way this is playing out is farcical. Nobody is legally permitted to discuss it, so we have only on-background leaks from Apple (almost certainly, I am guessing) and U.K. intelligence (maybe) to the same handful of reporters. This has advantages for both parties since they can craft a narrative through limited disclosures, but it means the rest of us can only speculate about how long Apple will be permitted to offer uncompromised end-to-end encryption worldwide.

    • BBC ☛ Apple takes legal action in UK data privacy row

      The BBC understands that the US technology giant has appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent court with the power to investigate claims against the Security Service.

      It is the latest development in an unprecedented row between one of the world's biggest tech firms and the UK government over data privacy.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Gray Zone ☛ Billionaire-backed Global Citizen whitewashes Kagame’s invasion of DRC

  • Democracy for the Arab World Now ☛ How Western Media Has Manufactured Consent for Atrocities, From Iraq to Gaza

    We now know, of course, that Iraq did not have WMDs, and that the Bush administration's other claims about Saddam Hussein that it used to justify an invasion were also not true. Yet as the invasion loomed, significant majorities of Americans believed the falsehoods presented by the Bush administration to justify its illegal war of choice. They accepted its claims that Saddam Hussein's government either already possessed WMD or was close to obtaining them. In a Pew Research Center survey in October 2002, 65 percent of respondents said Iraq was close to having nuclear weapons; another 14 percent believed Iraq already possessed them. Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans also believed the claim that Saddam Hussein had aided the 9/11 attackers.

    What explains this discrepancy between what people believed and what was true?

  • Zero Day ☛ Did Trump Admin Order U.S. Cyber Command and CISA to Stand Down on Russia? (Story updated)

    Two blockbuster stories published on Friday that appear to confirm what many Americans suspected would occur under the Trump administration – that the new regime is going to be softer on Russia than previous administrations, particularly with regard to the threat that Russia poses in cyber space.

  • Axios ☛ Cyber Command's Russia order throws out U.S. cyber playbook

    Between the lines: Russia has long been a top cyber threat, hosting ransomware gangs, crypto money launderers, disinformation operations, and elite government hackers.

    Cyber Command has been a key tool in disrupting Russian cyber operations, from botnet takedowns to supporting Ukraine against Russian cyberattacks.

  • Tech Central (South Africa) ☛ Fears as Trump pauses cyber operations against Russia

    “It is a critical strategic mistake for Donald Trump to unilaterally disarm against Putin,” Schumer said on X on Sunday. “The best defence is always a strong offence, and that’s true for cybersecurity, too,” he added.

  • The Local DK ☛ New US bill could restrict voting rights of Americans abroad

    The US Congress is considering legislation known as the SAVE Act, which could have a major impact on the voting rights of Americans living in Europe.

  • US Congress ☛ H.R.22 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): SAVE Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

    Specifically, the bill prohibits states from accepting and processing an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. The bill specifies what documents are considered acceptable proof of U.S. citizenship, such as identification that complies with the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates U.S. citizenship.

  • Newsweek ☛ SAVE Act Raises Alarm Over Fears Women Could Be Stopped From Voting

    Citizens across the country have been asking their representatives to reject this proposal, as paper proof of citizenship not only creates a burdensome barrier to voting, but is additionally difficult for women whose married names do not match their birth certificate, people who have lost documents in natural disaster or moving house, older Black people who were denied hospital births and therefore do not have a birth certificate, and low income people who have not bought a passport.

  • The Center for American Progress ☛ The SAVE Act: Overview and Facts - Center for American Progress

    This would make civic participation much more difficult for tens of millions of citizens every election cycle and would outright disenfranchise millions more. The policies of the SAVE Act would also be in addition to state voter ID laws that require voters to show identification at the polls: [...]

  • Democrats Abroad ☛ Stop the SAVE Act - Democrats Abroad

    Furthermore, it imposes criminal penalties on election workers if they register voters who fail to provide documentary proof of their U.S. citizenship and will cost many millions of dollars to overhaul voter registration systems, pay for increased administrative workload in election offices, and cover legal and compliance costs across every state. Talk about wasteful spending!

  • YLE ☛ Supo: Russia remains top of Finland's security threat concerns

    The main goal of Russia's hybrid influencing efforts, for the time being at least, is to undermine Western support for Ukraine, according to the report.

  • VOA News ☛ China uses DeepSeek, other AI models, for surveillance and information attacks on US

    The Chinese government has reportedly also used AI models for mass surveillance, including the collection of biometric data and social media listening operations that report to China's security services and the military, as well as for information attacks on U.S. and Chinese dissidents abroad.

  • Seth Godin ☛ Across and within | Seth's Blog

    As you’ve probably guessed, TikTok is the speedball of moving ideas across space. The ideas are often as long-lasting as a hot pizza, but they can reach millions.

    Innis would argue that many of the dislocations and painful collisions of modern culture are being caused by the abrupt shift to space-focused ideas. We’re starting on a second generation of people, worldwide, who are day trading their emotions and confronting ideas that have no past and little future.

  • Bitdefender ☛ Stop targeting Russian hackers, Trump administration orders US Cyber Command

    But, in a radical departure from longstanding assessments by national intelligence agencies, Donald Trump's administration has now indicated that it no longer views Russian hackers as a threat - and has ordered US Cyber Command and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to no longer follow or report on Russian threats, despite them previously being their main focus.

    Yes, that's right - Russia. The country which is home to, for instance, the LockBit gang - the world's most notorious ransomware group - as well as many others including Evil Corp, Conti, and Qilin.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

    In contrast to Franz’s statement, representatives for US allies in the European Union and the UK focused their remarks on the threat posed by Moscow, with the UK pointing out that Russia was using offensive and malicious cyber-attacks against Ukraine alongside its illegal invasion.

    “It’s incomprehensible to give a speech about threats in cyberspace and not mention Russia and it’s delusional to think this will turn Russia and the FSB [the Russian security agency] into our friends,” said James Lewis, a veteran cyber expert formerly of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “They hate the US and are still mad about losing the cold war. Pretending otherwise won’t change this.”

    The US policy change has also been established behind closed doors.

  • Bitdefender ☛ CISA refutes claims it has been ordered to stop monitoring Russian cyber threats

    At the end of last week, it was reported that US Cyber Command had been ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to pause its offensive operations against Russia. The news was swiftly followed by reports that staff at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had been given similar instructions to turn a blind eye to hacks directed against United States that might be linked to Russia.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ The Erasure of January 6th Continues, US Mint Edition

    George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, and Ray Bradbury did the same with Fahrenheit 451; Trump is using them both as instruction manuals. Trump and his minions are going after the FBI agents who played a part in the January 6th investigation, and also the DOJ lawyers who prosecuted the hundreds of the January 6th insurrectionists, declaring them to be workers of injustice. Trump has pardoned those hundreds – some who had pleaded guilty and others who were found guilty by a judge and/or jury – and declared them to be innocent victims of a political plot against him. Trump launched primary challenges against members of Congress who voted to impeach him, and threatens to do the same to any who stand in his way today. Up is down, declares the leader, and woe to any who dare to disagree.

  • Court House News ☛ UK data protection watchdog investigating how TikTok uses children’s personal data

    “What I am concerned about is whether they are sufficiently robust to prevent children being exposed to harm, either from addictive practices on the device or the platform, or from content that they see, or from other unhealthy practices,” he said.

    As part of the investigation, the regulator will also look into how online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur use children's personal data and how they estimate or verify a child's age.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Australia, Singapore, and the US

    I try not to talk too much about politics here—at least directly—because I get the impression many of you read my sillyness for a bit of a break. I completely understand if you don’t need this in your life right now, so feel free to skip this one.

    Australia and Singapore couldn’t be further apart in many respects, yet are tied together by several threads of history. Both were British colonial outposts during the living memory of some of their citizens. Both inherited English as their administrative language, have parliamentary systems of government, are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and maintain high commissioners in lieu of ambassadors in each others’ countries. Both fought in World War II on the side of the Allies (in Singapore’s case, the war came to them). There’s a wide diaspora of Singaporeans in Australia, and lots of Australians live in Singapore (including me at one point!). Our defence ministers and prime ministers convene annually for a security conference. Australia and Singapore share military training facilities. And so on.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • France24 ☛ France pushes shift to ‘wartime economy’ as US turns its back on Ukraine

      Washington’s abrupt decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine has piled pressure on Kyiv’s European allies to take up the slack, giving new urgency to French calls for Europe to invest in a self-sufficient defence.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine army wrongly accused of staging war footage

      Following the Convicted Felon-Zelensky row at The White, a pro-Russian disinformation campaign has intensified on social control media. Users are now sharing a viral video claiming to show crisis actors faking injuries for the Ukrainian army in order to 'solicit' more money from allies. We debunk these claims in this edition of Truth or Fake.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine minerals deal: 'business will only take a certain amount of risk'

      FRANCE 24's Mark Owen speaks to Patrick Bury, Senior Associate Professor in Warfare and Counterterrorism at the University of Bath. He says that Ukraine needs to get back to the table, but points out that a deal to let mining companies operate in Ukraine under a private security umbrella does not eliminate the need for troops on the ground, because 'military will take risk, business will only take a certain amount of risk'.

    • France24 ☛ Hungary's Orban to meet Macron ahead of EU summit

      Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, one day before an EU summit aimed at cementing joint action on support for Ukraine, where Orban has threatened to take an opposing position. FRANCE's Emerald Maxwell reports.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky appeals to Convicted Felon after aid halt

      President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he wanted to "make things right" with The Insurrectionist and to work under the US president's "strong leadership" to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine. In his first public comments since Convicted Felon halted US military aid to Ukraine, Zelensky said his public bust-up with Convicted Felon last week was "regrettable" and pledged to sign a key minerals deal with Washington. FRANCE 24's Antonia Kerrigan reports.

    • LRT ☛ Should Baltic countries be invited to Europe’s meetings on Ukraine?

      With Washington signalling a shift in foreign policy and Europe taking the lead on Ukraine, the Baltic countries do not want to be left out. They were, however, not present at the Ukraine summit in London over the weekend.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian publisher removes Vance’s book from sale, urges to read Ukrainian authors

      Sofoklis, a Lithuanian publishing house, said on Tuesday it is removing a book by US Vice President JD Vance from sale and urged people to read books by Ukrainian authors instead.

    • LRT ☛ US stopping Ukraine aid is not unexpected, EU will react – Lithuanian aide

      After the United States suspended military aid to Ukraine, Marius Česnulevičius, adviser to the Lithuanian president, says that Washington’s decision did not come as a surprise and that Europe is preparing a response.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania considers joining ‘coalition of the willing’ for Ukraine – president

      Lithuania would consider joining the “coalition of the willing” proposed by the United Kingdom and France to bring peace to Ukraine, says President Gitanas Nausėda.

    • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man To Tell Congress He Is Working 'Tirelessly' To End War In Ukraine

      US President The Insurrectionist is expected to tell Congress on March 4 that he is working to end Russia's war against Ukraine, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.

    • RFERL ☛ As Convicted Felon Pauses US Military Aid To Ukraine, Can Europe Step Up?

      As U.S. military aid to Ukraine stalls, can Europe step up? With NATO waiting for clarity, the EU is now scrambling for solutions. But with funding gaps, political hurdles, and opposition from countries like Hungary, is Europe’s “moment” slipping away.

    • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Set To Deliver Address To Congress With Ukraine Dispute Looming Large

      US President The Insurrectionist will address a joint session of Congress for the first time since taking office less than 50 days ago to press the case for continuing his domestic and foreign policy agenda, including the suspension of aid to Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Says Oval Office Meeting Was 'Regrettable'

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the tense Oval Office meeting with US President The Insurrectionist last week was "regrettable," and that he is willing to work with Convicted Felon's "strong leadership" to achieve long-term peace.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian government okays 'strategic investment' in Ukrainian drone industry

      On Tuesday, March 4, the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers, in a special closed session, reviewed the Ministry of Defense's latest information report on purchases made within the framework of the Drone Coalition for Ukraine, as well as its goals for 2025.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian politicians comment on US aid suspension to Ukraine

      The US announcement to suspend military aid to Ukraine is a reminder that Europe needs to invest more both in its own defence and support of Ukraine, Defense Minister Andris Sprūds (Progressives) said in an interview with Latvian Radio's "Good Morning" broadcast on March 4.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Australia will consider Ukraine peacekeeping force, PM says

      His comments come after US President The Insurrectionist ordered a pause to military aid to Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Offers Terms to Stop Fighting, Assuring U.S. That Ukraine Wants Peace

      “We are working on all possible scenarios to protect Ukraine,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country was looking to European allies for support.

    • New York Times ☛ JD Vance Ignites Outrage in UK With ‘Random Country’ Comment

      The vice president denied that he was talking about Britain and France when he downplayed “20,000 troops from some random country” protecting Ukraine. No other countries have pledged troops.

    • New York Times ☛ At Ukraine’s Convicted Felon-Themed Cafe, Patrons Demand a Name Change

      At a pizza and coffee joint in Kyiv named for the U.S. president, patrons are having second thoughts about its moniker after Hell Toupée suspended military aid to Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Why Is Convicted Felon Pausing Aid to Ukraine? What to Know.

      The decision marked the realization of a fear that has racked Ukraine since Hell Toupée’s re-election.

    • New York Times ☛ Von Der Leyen Unveils Sweeping Plan to Boost E.U. Military Spending.

      The European Commission’s president unveiled a sweeping plan to help Ukraine and boost defense spending, but it won’t be easy.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Suspends Military Aid to Ukraine After Oval Office Blowup

      The directive, which takes effect immediately, affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipelines and on order.

    • Meduza ☛ NYT’s Peter Baker on how Trump’s media attacks echo Putin

    • Meduza ☛ Minerals agreement with Ukraine still not finalized because Trump is seeking ‘bigger, better deal’ — CBS News — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Trump suspends all military aid to Ukraine — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ E.U. eyes frozen Russian assets as Ukraine security guarantee

    • Latvia ☛ Digital queue on Latvian-Russian border could be in place this spring

      The Ministry of Transport had planned to introduce an electronic check-in queue at the Russian border points Grebneva and Terehova by February this year. The Ministry now explains that the introduction of the electronic queue has been postponed until spring, Latvian Radio reports March 3.

    • Meduza ☛ Ukrainian drone attack reportedly sparks fire at Russian oil refinery

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine’s Chasiv Yar has seen nearly a year of grueling battles

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky reiterates commitment to peace, says Ukraine’s ready to work with Trump after U.S. military aid freeze — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Wired ☛ Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries

    Although Musk has described DOGE as “maximum transparent,” it has not made its spending or salary ranges publicly available. Funding for DOGE had grown to around $40 million as of February 20, according to a recent ProPublica report. The White House did not respond to questions about the salary ranges for DOGE employees or how the budget is allocated to pay them.

• Environment

  • Science Alert ☛ Earth's Strongest Ocean Current Could Slow by 20% as Antarctica Melts

    Flowing clockwise around Antarctica, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on the planet. It's five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River.

    It forms part of the global ocean 'conveyor belt' connecting the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The system regulates Earth's climate and pumps water, heat and nutrients around the globe.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Register UK ☛ Over a third of US air traffic controls are 'unsustainable'

      The auditors at the GAO examined 138 ATC operations and found that 51 (37 percent) were considered "unsustainable" by the FAA and 54 (39 percent) were "potentially unsustainable."

      The FAA deployed six of the ATC systems 60 years ago, and 40 are 30 years old. 72 have been in operation for over two decades. Spare parts are scarce, and trained personnel to maintain them are becoming harder to find.

    • 404 Media ☛ Facebook Cybertruck Owners Group Copes With Relentless Mockery

      A Facebook group for Cybertruck owners is full of videos of people flicking off Cybertrucks.

    • Wired ☛ Donald Trump’s Not-So-Strategic Crypto Reserve

      Seizing upon this morsel of new information, crypto traders piled into the coins singled out by Trump, leading to a sharp but temporary bump in price ranging from 9 to 65 percent. The coins have mostly since returned to roughly the same price as before the announcement.

      In crypto circles, meanwhile, the question became: Why had Trump chosen these particular coins? The case for a bitcoin reserve is predicated on the already shaky assumption that the ever-rising price of bitcoin will offset losses in spending power caused by inflation. But what makes these other coins—many of which have very volatile pricing—“strategic”?

    • Molly White ☛ Issue 78 – President on brink of bailout for bitcoin

      These assets were certainly not chosen at random, and give us some insight into who’s got the ear of the president (at least at the current moment). Part of it has to do with Trump’s nationalist and also rather absurd insistence that the reserve feature assets that are “made in the USA”. But beyond that: Ripple’s XRP token is an unsurprising if controversial choice — it’s a divisive asset in the crypto world, but on the other hand, the company contributed $48 million to crypto-focused super PACs and another $5 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. The company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has been rumored to be on the shortlist of people to be named to the much awaited crypto advisory board, and both he and the company’s Chief Legal Officer dined with the president in early January.

    • The Telegraph UK ☛ Norway to ban petrol cars from ‘net zero zones’

      Jon-Ivar Nygård, the country’s transport minister, said the Norwegian government planned to push through laws letting cities establish areas where only electric and hydrogen vehicles can drive.

    • The Local DK ☛ Denmark’s Rejsekort app now lets you check in dogs, bikes and fellow passengers

      Nearly 900,000 people now use the Rejsekort app after its introduction last year to gradually replace the physical Rejsekort.

    • The Korea Times ☛ Apple co-founder Wozniak blasts tech's 'direct role' in US politics

      Today "all the Big Tech companies are just so big. It's like they're running our lives," he said at the MWC Barcelona trade show in Spain.

      "Technology companies are huge, and as they're huge and worth that much money, they have to have some political involvement," Wozniak acknowledged, pointing to a long history of lobbying.

    • Vox ☛ Trump US Crypto Reserve: The weirdness around the announcement, explained

      The announcement also set off alarm bells from those concerned about corruption and cronyism. Not only did Trump seem to suggest government plans to favor an industry some of his top supporters have heavily invested in, but he called out specific cryptocurrencies, including some lesser-known ones, by name.

      How exactly did he come up with that list? And was he proposing to spend taxpayer money not only on buying [cryptocurrency], but on picking favorites in the market, to make his allies richer?

    • Digital Camera World ☛ NASA “makes the invisible visible” by taking incredible photograph of U.S. civilian jet breaking the sound barrier

      Scholl added that the aircraft didn’t make an audible sonic boom that usually happens when an aircraft is flying faster than the speed of sound. The data collected suggests that at a certain speed and in specific atmospheric conditions, the sonic boom refracts in the atmosphere and never reaches the ground. This finding might lead the way for supersonic commercial flights without sonic booms, the company said in the news release.

• Finance

  • GeekWire ☛ Tech Moves: Starbucks names CFO; Avanade bolsters C-suite; Tune Therapeutics gets CEO [Ed: Bean counter changed. Starbucks debt is at an all-time high of 26 billion dollars. How does a company that runs coffee shops sink into massive liabilities like these? A decade ago the debt of Starbucks was more than 10 times smaller! Has Starbucks been in the business of losing money, hoping for a turnaround someday, somehow? The new CFO of Starbucks comes from war companies like Raytheon.]

    — Starbucks announced Cathy Smith as its chief financial officer. Smith was most recently at Nordstrom for two years, and has held CFO roles at Bright Health, Target, Express Scripts, Walmart and others. Her longest role was at the defense and space juggernaut Raytheon.

  • [Old] Southern Ontario Smart News ☛ Think Twice Before Depositing Over $10,000 in Cash – Here’s Why It Matters

    Depositing more than $10,000 in cash isn’t illegal, but it does come with government scrutiny. Avoid structuring deposits to stay on the right side of the law, and always keep financial records to justify your transactions. Additionally, maintaining the right balance in your checking account ensures you can handle expenses without financial strain. By planning wisely, you can manage your money efficiently while staying compliant with federal regulations.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Digital Music News ☛ Alexis Ohanian Joins Frank McCourt's TikTok Bid

    Ohanian has joined the bid as a strategic adviser specializing in social media, according to a Reuters report. He was one of the original founders of Reddit, kicking off the ‘front page of the internet’ with his roommate from the University of Virginia. The burgeoning social media site was sold to Conde Nast in 2006. Ohanian returned in 2014 as executive chair to help right the floundering social site.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Anthropic Scores $3.5B Series E -- Valuation Tops $61.5B

    About five weeks after scoring another $1 billion investment from Google, Anthropic has raised an additional $3.5 billion.

  • Techdirt ☛ Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)

    Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a few people reach out about our coverage these days. Most have been very supportive of what we’ve been covering (in fact, people have been strongly encouraging us to keep it up), but a few asked questions regarding what Techdirt is focused on these days, and how much we were leaning into covering “politics.”

    When the very institutions that made American innovation possible are being systematically dismantled, it’s not a “political” story anymore. It’s a story about whether the environment that enabled all the other stories we cover will continue to exist.

  • VOA News ☛ Musk fails in bid to block OpenAI becoming for-profit business

    U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Musk and his xAI startup failed to prove an injunction against OpenAI was necessary as the case heads to trial.

    Musk sued in California federal court to stop OpenAI from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit business, arguing the startup violated antitrust law and betrayed his trust in their mission as a co-founder of OpenAI.

  • Court House News ☛ No injunction for Elon Musk in suit against OpenAI CEO Scam Altman | Courthouse News Service

    In her 16-page order, Rogers made good on her prediction at a motion hearing last month that an order stopping OpenAI’s conversion was unlikely.

    “That said, given the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred, the Court is prepared to expedite trial to the fall of 2025 solely on that claim and potentially the interrelated contract-based claims,” the Barack Obama appointee added.

  • Cory Dransfeldt ☛ Alternatives to US tech platforms

    With the US rapidly devolving into a failed state with the endorsement (both full-throated and tepid) of many tech leaders, I’d urge you to reconsider your use of any tech platforms and tools offered by companies based here. Donating to a fascist’s inauguration isn’t a shrewd business decision, it’s a demonstration that you’re utterly devoid of any sort of scruples. So, without any additional exposition, here are alternatives across a number of categories.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • RFA ☛ Online hate speech, disinformation target migrant workers in Thailand: advocates

      In recent years, new waves of xenophobia, at times stirred up by online disinformation, have fueled some types of offline discrimination, making their lives even more precarious, civil society groups say.

    • New Eastern Europe ☛ Odesa’s true identity: countering Russian propaganda and imperialist myths

      That narrative is deeply misleading. Odesa’s history, culture and identity were shaped by a far richer and more diverse set of influences than allowed for by Russian colonial mythology. Even today, in the midst of war, Russia’s propaganda machine continues to push the same old story, erasing Odesa’s Ukrainian identity in an attempt to justify its aggression. Understanding this history – and exposing the distortions that sustain Russia’s imperial claims – is not just an intellectual exercise. It is a necessary act of resistance.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • FAIR ☛ Trump’s Protest Threat Reflects Belief That Free Speech Belongs to Some

    In The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow note that the Western notion of freedom derives from the Roman legal tradition, in which freedom was conceived as “the power of the male household head in ancient Rome, who could do whatever he liked with his chattels and possessions, including his children and slaves.”

  • Truthdig ☛ Bezos Banishes Dissent From WaPo - Truthdig

    The Post’s opinion section will now advance Bezos’ “two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” Anyone not on board with this “significant shift” can take a hike, Bezos seemed to tell Post employees, in a note he also shared on X.

    That was Wednesday morning. By evening, Bezos was dining with President Donald Trump.

  • The Register UK ☛ Cloudflare blocking Pale Moon and other browsers

    The problem isn't new, and whatever fixes or updates occasionally resolve it, the relief is only temporary and it keeps recurring. We've found reports of Cloudflare site-blocking difficulties dating back to 2015 and continuing through 2022.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • VOA News ☛ In Myanmar, journalist abused after speaking out about prison conditions

    He and the two other prisoners, Thet Hnin Aung and Naing Win, have been subjected to physical and mental abuse every day since January, according to Myanmar Now.

    The inmates are beaten daily, Myanmar Now reported.

  • CPJ ☛ Ugandan anti-terrorism officers brutally assault journalist

    “Security officers brutally attacked journalist Ibrahim Miracle, leaving him with grave injuries, simply because he was doing his job,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo, from Nairobi. “Ugandan authorities must break with the culture of violence against journalists by investigating those who carried out the assault and those who commanded the operation, ensuring accountability. Media must be able to cover political events without fear of violence.”

  • CPJ ☛ Bosnian Serbs adopt ‘foreign agent’ law targeting independent media

    The bill was among several passed by Serb lawmakers in response to the February 26 one-year sentence given to Republika Srpska’s President Milorad Dodik on charges that he disobeyed the top international envoy overseeing peace in ethnically-divided Bosnia. The court in the national capital, Sarajevo also barred pro-Russian Dodik from politics for six years.

  • CPJ ☛ Malaysia arrests journalist who exposed migrant trafficking, corruption

    “Corruption and human trafficking are crimes in Malaysia; reporting on these offences is not,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Malaysian authorities must ensure B. Nantha Kumar can continue to report safely and that the law is not misused to curtail investigative reporting or to intimidate the media. Journalists must be free to uncover wrongdoing.”

  • Court House News ☛ Nevada high court reverses free speech ruling against Las Vegas Review-Journal

    “We were glad the Nevada Supreme Court reaffirmed that the public, including the press, is protected from SLAPP suits like the one filed by NAPSO,” said Benjamin Z. Lipman, chief legal officer for the Review-Journal, in a statement to Courthouse News. “We are confident we will continue to prevail in any further proceedings in the trial court.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Breach Media ☛ For migrant sex workers, police are the ‘most dangerous gang’ in the business

    A new book breaks down how anti-sex trafficking laws, masquerading as ‘protection’, put migrant sex workers at greater risk of violence and exploitation

  • International Business Times ☛ Trump's Immigration Crackdown Hits Tourists: German Woman Locked in ICE Detention with No Charges

    A German tourist has been trapped in a US immigration detention centre for over a month after being denied entry at the San Diego border. Jessica Brösche, a 26-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, was travelling with her American best friend, Amelia Lofving, when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) took her into custody on 25 January. Despite carrying her valid German passport, visa waiver confirmation, and return ticket to Berlin, Brösche was detained without charges, sparking international outrage and calls for her immediate release.

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Worker-to-Worker Organizing Can Save the Labor Movement

    The most direct way to turn around America’s crisis of inequality is to grow the labor movement, by organizing millions of new union members. But few unions today have the will—or the resources—to do large scale organizing, and the national political climate has just become more hostile. How, exactly, can we hope to get all of this organizing done?

  • ANF News ☛ “Jin Jiyan Azadî” exhibition opens in Celle

    The preview took place as part of the program for International Women's Day on March 8. Women's rights activist and freelance journalist Nele Möhlmann attended the opening as a speaker. The activist, who spent the year 2024 in northern and eastern Syria until Assad's overthrow last December, reported on her experiences there, focusing on the achievements of local women. The journalist stated that it is thanks to women’s strength that peaceful coexistence has been able to develop in this multi-ethnic region. However, the region is under daily attack from various forces – especially the Turkish army – and people are injured or killed every day.

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Alabama House committee approves bills expanding police powers

    The three bills passed on Wednesday allow police and sheriffs’ deputies to confiscate vehicles of those who drive without their driver’s licenses; require residents to divulge personal information while being questioned by law enforcement; and allows law enforcement to detain people for up to 24 hours on charges of resisting arrest.

  • Court House News ☛ DoorDash to pay $16.75 million over stolen tips from delivery drivers

    James had first started investigating DoorDash in 2021 amid complaints from drivers that they were not receiving the tips they were rightfully owed based on the company’s payment system from 2017 to 2019. On Monday, James announced that her probe revealed DoorDash was using tips from customers to subsidize the base pay that they had already guaranteed workers.

    “It was basically a bait-and-switch where customers thought they were supporting delivery workers, but instead they were subsidizing DoorDash instead,” James said at a press conference Monday. “Today, we are holding DoorDash accountable.”

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • RIPE ☛ RIPE Atlas UI: Revamped Probe Detail Pages

    Over the past few months, the RIPE Atlas team and our stakeholders have been hard at work reimagining the probe detail pages to make them cleaner, more user-friendly, and enriched with new features.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: There Were Always Enshittifiers

    You see, Fidelity's products are booby-trapped. It's not merely that they ship with programs whose data-files can't be read by apps on any other system – that's just table stakes. Fidelity's got a whole bag of tricks up its sleeve – for example, it deliberately damages a specific sector on every floppy disk it ships. The drivers for its floppy drive initialize any read or write operation by checking to see if that sector can be read. If it can, the computer refuses to recognize the disk. This lets the Reverend Sirs (as Fidelity's owners style themselves) run a racket where they sell these deliberately damaged floppies at a 500% markup, because regular floppies won't work on the systems they lure their parishioners into buying.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Court House News ☛ Sarah Silverman and acclaimed authors fight Meta’s bid to dismiss their AI lawsuit

    Facebook's parent company appeared before a federal judge on Thursday, seeking to dismiss claims by 13 award-winning and acclaimed authors that it violated U.S. copyright law by using their works to train its Llama AI without their permission.

    In court, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria appeared to side with the authors, stating that though he didn’t think they would prevail on their accusations Meta violated the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, they likely had enough to survive dismissal.