Leftovers

• The New Leaf Journal ☛ Good Internet Writing Habits

  I have been busy with work lately. This has contributed to a slow stretch in terms of new New Leaf Journal articles. What better way to get back on track than by responding to an article prompt by Anthony Ciccarello, a software engineer who runs his own blog. I quote from his post: [...]

• Simon Willison ☛ What to blog about

  Here are two types of content that I guarantee you can produce and feel great about producing: TILs, and writing descriptions of your projects.

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Five essential strategies to master your habits

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] The female explorers who braved the wilderness but were overlooked by the history books

  • [Old] Vox ☛ Lie detectors: Why they don’t work, and why police use them anyway

    Polygraphs are also regularly used by law enforcement when interrogating suspects. In some places, they're used to monitor the activities of sex offenders on probation, and some judges have recently permitted plea bargains that hinge on the results of defendants' polygraph tests.

    Here’s what makes this all so baffling: The question of whether polygraphs are a good way to figure out whether someone is lying was settled long ago. They aren’t.

    "The question of whether polygraphs work was settled long ago"

  • [Old] Reason ☛ Lie Detectors Are Junk Science, but We Keep Using Them

    False confessions were an issue even in the earliest days of polygraphs, and nothing its developers tried could remove the risk. Disillusionment both with the technology's limits and with law enforcement's ability to solve crime is a thread through the lives of three major figures in Katwala's book: Berkeley police chief August Vollmer, Berkeley physiologist turned police officer John Larson (who invented the device), and Larson's teenaged assistant Leonarde Keeler (who later developed it further). Keeler became the machine's keenest advocate, eventually hoping to patent and market it to law enforcement and civilian organizations. Nonetheless, even he came to see its flaws and potential for abuse.

    That leaves the lie detector in a kind of gray area. Its advocates believe that it has now been sufficiently tweaked to be effective. Critics regard it as junk science. One of those critics is Katwala, who states firmly that the polygraph "does not work." In the final chapter, he explores modern lie-detecting variants, based on eye movement tracking or fMRI scans. None of these can be shown to really work either, but the market for them continues.

  • The Register UK ☛ Athena Moon probe dies after landing sideways in a crater

    The spacecraft missed its intended landing point by more than 1,300 feet (400 metres), coming down in far more rugged terrain than intended – in a crater, no less – and toppled over. According to its maker Intuitive Machines, the lander was unable to recharge its batteries due to being stranded in the shade, and the space biz declared the mission over Friday. The lander made its way over to Earth's natural satellite using a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket.

  • Omicron Limited ☛ Oops, we tipped it again: Mission over for sideways US lander

    Intuitive Machines' second moon mission ended in disappointment on Friday after the US company confirmed that its spacecraft had tipped over and was unable to recharge its solar-powered batteries—mirroring its first attempt last year.

  • Futurism ☛ Lunar Lander Trips and Dies Inside South Pole Crater

    The lander made its attempt at a landing near the Moon's Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain roughly 100 miles from the south pole, around noon on Thursday.

    But things didn't quite go as planned. The lander touched down sideways within a crater near the Moon's south pole, causing it to tip over. The company's predecessor, Odyssey, suffered a strikingly similar fate last year.

  • Fabian Beuke ☛ Delayed-Choice Quantum Eraser

    The Quantum eraser experiment has sparked some controversy. Sabine Hossfelder addresses it in her YouTube video “The Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser, Debunked,” while Sean Carroll offers insights in his blog post “The Notorious Delayed-Choice Quantum Eraser”. Both agree that there is no mystical retrocausality involved, and in that regard, it can be considered debunked. However, I think it remains an interesting experiment, and I would like to share an analysis with you.

  • Fabian Beuke ☛ AdS/CFT Correspondence

    A useful way to visualize AdS spacetime is as a cylindrical shape, where the upward direction represents the progression of time, and each horizontal cross-section corresponds to a spatial snapshot at a specific moment. In this representation, the associated conformal field theory (CFT) can be thought of as residing on the boundary of the cylinder. Notably, this boundary has one dimension less than the interior, often referred to as the “bulk.”

  • Futurism ☛ Trump Admin Reportedly Plotting to Slash NASA Budget by 50 Percent

    "If this is implemented, it would be nothing short of an extinction-level event for space science and exploration in the United States," Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier told Ars. "Losing this much money, this fast, has no precedence in NASA's history."

  • BoingBoing ☛ Anonymous anime fan solves complex superpermutation puzzle on 4chan

    In 2011, an anonymous poster on the 4chan message board wondered about the most efficient way to watch every possible sequence of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a cult anime series designed so episodes could be viewed in any order. What seemed like casual fan speculation turned into a significant mathematical contribution, providing a new formula for calculating the minimum length of "superpermutations" sequences containing all possible orderings of a set of items.

  • Scientific American ☛ The Surprisingly Difficult Mathematical Proof That Anime Fans Helped Solve

    That in itself was bizarre. But when Houston started learning more about this result, he realized that the minimum length of a superpermutation had been given a new value by an anonymous anime fandom user (he didn’t know about the origins on 4chan at that time). The formula for the minimum length is:

    n! +(n – 1)! + (n – 2)! + n – 3

• Hardware

  • Dolphin Publications B V ☛ HPE under pressure: decline in server sales and sharp rounds of layoffs

    HPE is facing some of the same problems as rival Dell. HPE saw a drop in server sales last quarter as customers waited for systems with Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs.

    HPE also has other problems within its systems business, according to The Next Platform. Aggressive pricing strategies by competitors depressed operating server profits in Q1 2025. CEO Antonio Neri and CFO Marie Meyers additionally indicated that there were inventory problems. That presumably involved older CPU and GPU systems whose sales were falling short of expectations. HPE previously expected an operating margin of 10 to 11 percent, but stuck at 8.1 percent.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ Digital camera market to reach US$12.45 billion by 2032 - with compact cameras leading the way

    Key growth drivers identified by the report include advancements in AI, high resolution sensors, low-light performance, and computational photography.

  • PC World ☛ How will tariffs impact tech prices? We asked PC industry insiders

    To answer my own questions—as well as those of readers, friends, and family—I reached out to industry contacts to better understand what these tariffs mean for the cost of PCs…and what to expect in the coming days. Those who responded manufacture laptops, prebuilt desktop machines, and PC components. Much of this information is generally applicable to electronics overall.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] For narcissistic people, the gap between perception and reality may go far deeper than we thought

  • NYPost ☛ Excessive phone and screen use tied to manic symptoms in pre-teens: study

    Young people who spent more time engaged with social media, texting, videos and video games were more likely to have “inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, distractibility, rapid speech, racing thoughts and impulsivity — behaviors characteristic of manic episodes, a key feature of bipolar-spectrum disorders,” a press release noted.

  • The Atlantic ☛ The War Over Daylight saving time

    It’s that time of the year, when clocks become the subject of unusually heated debate. As far as hours go, the extra one that daylight saving time provides is a controversial one. At least a few Americans are such die-hard fans of DST that they choose to live on it all year round. Others are “standard-time stans,” as my colleague Katherine J. Wu calls herself. Whether you’re thrilled about getting more evening sun or wish this whole tradition would disappear, the below reading list has something for you.

  • LabX Media Group ☛ How Augmented Reality is Advancing Brain and Mental Health Treatment

    Understanding how the brain responds to stimuli and drives behavior is important for unraveling the foundation of neurological and psychological disorders. Although scientists can model many of these processes in animals, studying them in humans presents a greater challenge. AR technology bridges this gap, providing researchers with a powerful tool to explore brain function and develop targeted interventions.

  • The Register UK ☛ People don't want AI deciding who gets a kidney transplant

    In a pre-press paper this month titled "Can AI Model the Complexities of Human Moral Decision-Making? A Qualitative Study of Kidney Allocation Decisions," authors Vijay Keswani, Vincent Conitzer, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Breanna K. Nguyen, Hoda Heidari, and Jana Schaich Borg spend more than 18,000 words exploring a quandary you might assume could be answered with a simple "No."

  • Katie Hawkins-Gaar ☛ Taking Breaks from the News is Not a Moral Failure

    Journalism has long been in crisis. Business models are broken. Trust is eroding. And recently, there’s been a notable uptick in news avoidance. Worldwide, nearly four in 10 people say they sometimes or often avoid the news, according to the latest research from the Reuters Institute.

    As much as I care about journalism’s survival — it’s an industry I work in and believe is crucial to a functioning society — I can’t blame people for stepping back. I’m one of them. And I no longer feel guilty about it.

• Proprietary

  • India Times ☛ Billions in government consulting contracts under DOGE scrutiny; Big Four accounting firms staff fear mass layoffs, many of these employees make six-figure salaries

    ...IBM. reported Business Insider.

  • C4ISRNET ☛ Hegseth mandates streamlined software acquisition approach in new memo

    The Defense Department created the Software Acquisition Pathway in 2020 as the recommended approach for buying software. The pathway offers a tailored acquisition mechanism, recognizing that software can’t, and shouldn’t, be procured under the same process as an aircraft or ship.

  • Wired ☛ A Brand-New Botnet Is Delivering Record-Size DDoS Attacks

    Volumetric DDoSes shut down services by consuming all available bandwidth either inside the targeted network or its connection to the Internet. This approach works differently than exhaustion DDoSes, which over-exert the computing resources of a server. Hypervolumetric attacks are volumetric DDoses that deliver staggering amounts of data, typically measured in the terabits per second.

  • Business Insider ☛ Deloitte and Accenture workers worry about losing their jobs as DOGE focuses on consulting contracts

    After prompting the layoffs of federal workers and claiming to have cut billions in spending, DOGE is now turning its attention to the consultants themselves.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Tedium ☛ Too Big To Succeed: When Tech Giants Exit Their Comfort Zones

      Amazon’s failings with gaming I think help explain the mess Apple has created for itself with Apple Intelligence. The company decided to put most of its features behind a “when it’s ready” wall, despite the fact that it was promoting those features in advertising that attempted to sell the public on their latest models.

    • Positech Games ☛ AI is accelerating on a daily or even hourly basis – Cliffski's Blog

      If AI soon cracks self-driving cars (and we may be close) then lets fire every taxi and truck driver on the planet too. Thats going to be a phenomenal shock. Sort out some humanoid robots to unpack a truck and hand over parcels and the postal; servcies and delivery drivers are all gone too. Iminent? nope, but within 5 years? I think so.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Science journal Nature promotes AI chatbots for academic peer review

      Nature is one of the most prestigious journals in all of science. They’re working on changing that, though — with multiple articles promoting LLMs for doing peer review.

      Academics submit work to a journal and it’s sent to other academics to check it’s up to scratch. This peer review is key to producing solid work. Reviewing is part of the job, just like research.

      Instead of telling reviewers to take the time to understand a paper and what it’s claiming, Nature is telling them to run the paper through an LLM.

    • Futurism ☛ Google Announces "AI Mode" For Search Results That Only Shows You AI Slop

      Google claims that users asked for AI responses for even more of their searches, and it has gladly obliged to upgrade the slop trough. Exclusively available to users subscribed to the "Google One AI Premium" plan, the AI mode is integrated as a new tab at the top of the Google app. The page it opens is solely dedicated to AI responses; scrolling to the bottom won't eventually produce the classic list of web links. No — it's chatbot ramblings all the way down, baby.

    • Futurism ☛ Freelancers Are Getting Ruined by AI

      That was already becoming the case back in 2009, when the fallout of the Great Recession forced thousands of out-of-work professionals to become freelancers to pay the bills.

      Jump ahead to 2024, when over 76 million Americans were said to be freelance workers, up from 64 million in 2023. That's over 36 percent of the workforce, a number that's expected to grow to over 50 percent by 2028, primarily driven by cost-cutting hiring practices.

    • Techdirt ☛ Detroit PD Sued Over Yet Another Bogus Arrest Based On An Unverified Facial Recognition ‘Match’

      Just like the previous three bogus arrests, cops went after people based solely on facial recognition matches without bothering to verify anything else about the supposed suspects. And just like those previous cases, the images used to perform these searches were far less than ideal. Crutchfield’s lawsuit [PDF] contains the images the Detroit PD used as [re-reads lawsuit] the entirety of its probable cause determinations.

    • Sean Goedecke ☛ What's next after the AI bubble bursts?

      In other words, bubbles come and go, but capital investment sticks around. Quite recently, the burst of the cryptocurrency bubble paved the way for the AI boom - suddenly there were a lot of cheap GPUs, just sitting in datacenters, waiting to be used for something. Very few people made that connection. Suppose the current AI bubble bursts1. What physical infrastructure would be left behind, and how would it be put to use?

    • Sean Goedecke ☛ Model Context Protocol explained as simply as possible

      Three months ago, Anthropic released “the Model Context Protocol”, or MCP. In the last few weeks, interest in it seems to have really picked up. But a lot of people (including me) have been kind of confused about what the Model Context Protocol even is. Now that I’ve read through the spec and a bunch of the example MCP servers, I think I understand. This post is my attempt at explaining it.

  • Social Control Media

    • International Business Times ☛ Permanently Banned? This 2004 Reddit Alternative is Making a Comeback with Alex Ohanian's Help

      The duo plans to relaunch Digg with AI-powered content moderation, a feature Reddit has yet to adopt. In its original form, Digg allowed users to post links and vote them up ('Digg') or down ('bury'), making it a go-to platform for trending news. Now, the revival aims to modernise the experience for today's internet users.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • Cyble Inc ☛ FBI Warns Of Data Extortion Scam Targeting Executives

      The primary targets of this data extortion scam are corporate executives, who are typically responsible for making critical decisions within an organization. These individuals are often in the crosshairs of cybercriminals due to their access to highly sensitive company data. The FBI has emphasized the importance of awareness among corporate leadership regarding this threat.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Seagate hard drive controversy persists as scammers discover methods to alter reliability metrics

      In a follow-up to the ongoing Seagate hard disk drive fiasco, German outlet Heise.de has uncovered a new method fraudsters use to sell used Seagate hard drives as new by manipulating their Field Accessible Reliability Metrics (FARM) values. This makes it increasingly difficult for consumers to detect tampered devices.

    • Techdirt ☛ No, Phil Spencer, Having AI Mock Up An Old Game Is Not The Same As Preserving It

      Alright, let’s stipulate that something is better than nothing. The idea that an AI-created facsimile of a game is better than that game simply disappearing entirely, unfindable in any format, seems immune to a counterpunch. On the other hand, nobody in their right mind would consider this the same as video game preservation. A print of the Mona Lisa is not preserving the Mona Lisa, never mind some AI image generator’s interpretation of the same.

      And I’m not the only one pointing this out.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Wouter Groeneveld ☛ No More Client Tracking Thanks To GoAccess

      Oh, you’re still here? Okay, here’s a bit of context then. I’ve always liked GoatCounter as a privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics which identifies unique visits without having to resort to a cookie or persistently storing personal data. Yet the last release on GitHub was from 2023 and many of the links on the main page point to broken documentation bits and pieces. I didn’t mind though: my self-hosted instance was buzzing along.

    • Don Marti ☛ advertising personalization: good for you?

      Avoiding malign actors is the big reason for restricting personalized ads. And malign actors are numerous. The high-profile national security threats are already in the news, but most people will encounter miscellaneous malware, scams, rip-offs and other lesser villainy enabled by ad personalization more often than they have to deal with state or quasi-state adversaries. There is no hard line between "malign actors" and totally legit sellers—not only does the personalized ad business have plenty of halfway crooks, you can find n/m-way crooks for arbitrary values of n and m.

    • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Is Trying to Get Access to the Child Support Database

      "This is private, confidential data, including Social Security numbers and earnings, of virtually all people in the country," Vicki Turetsky, who led the DHH's child support system under the Obama administration, told WaPo. "I don’t think you want your data to go to DOGE [sic] or to anyone else who isn’t authorized."

      Though it's anyone's guess exactly why DOGE [sic] is tapping the DHH files, Musk's own struggles with fatherhood just might be a motivating factor.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Unions Ask Court to Stop DOGE [sic] From Accessing Social Security Data of Millions of Americans

      The motion for emergency relief was filed late Friday in federal court in Maryland by the legal services group Democracy Forward against the Social Security Administration and its acting commissioner, Leland Dudek. The unions want the court to block DOGE's [sic] access to the vast troves of personal data held by the agency.

    • Osservatorio Nessuno ☛ Cellebrite and the routine use of digital surveillance in Italy

      A specific case concerns three phones that were seized on March 20, 2024, during an action at Malpensa Airport. The smartphones, protected by PINs and with encryption enabled, were returned with clear signs of compromise: two of them had their PINs written on a sticker on the back, an evident indication that they had been unlocked and analyzed. As far as we know, the devices were turned off and relatively up to date, requiring an unlock method that, according to Cellebrite’s own terminology, is classified as Before First Unlock (BUF), one of the most technically complex and expensive exploits to develop and acquire.

  • Confidentiality

    • [Old] Osservatorio Nessuno ☛ This is a Tor exit node

      A Tor relay is a simple data carrier (mere conduit) in the terms of Article 12 of the european directive 2000/31/CE of 8 June 2000**: we do not initiate the transmissions, we do not select the receiver of the transmission, and we do not select or modify the information contained in the transmission. Therefore, we are not liable for the information transmitted.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] TikTok Ban: A Blow to National Security or Freedom of Speech? [Ed: TikTok itself attacks Freedom of Speech]

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Violence against women: When TikTok helps overcome a toxic relationship [Ed: Did Bytedance pay DW for TikTok puff pieces? Social control media harms relationships, it does not "help overcome a toxic relationship"]

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] UK Launches Investigation Into TikTok, Reddit Over Children's Personal Data Practices

  • Michigan Advance ☛ Bernie Sanders draws 10,000 supporters to Warren for a 'Fight Oligarchy' rally

    More than 10,000 people turned out for a rally with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), in Warren as part of his national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.

    The audience filled the main event space – the gym at Lincoln High School – and two overflow rooms, and still left hundreds more outside.

  • Mike Brock ☛ Remember What's Real

    There comes a point when the theoretical becomes visceral. When the abstract danger materializes into concrete action. When the warnings that seemed perhaps overwrought suddenly appear prescient. We are witnessing such a moment.

    The Department of Homeland Security has begun polygraphing its own employees, hunting for those who dare speak truth about operations that may violate law, conscience, or basic human dignity. The machinery of state turns inward, seeking to root out not espionage or corruption, but the mere act of revealing uncomfortable facts to the public.

  • Hindustan Times ☛ Trump admin uses lie-detector tests on employees to track immigration raid leaks: Report

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been conducting polygraph tests on its personnel to identify those leaking information about ongoing immigration raids to the media, CBS News reported, citing an agency spokesperson on Saturday.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ How Russia turned immigrants into weapons

    There is evidence that Russia is fuelling migration in a number of ways, including physically moving people toward the EU’s borders, supporting smugglers, and increasing instability and violence in certain regions including Syria and parts of Africa.

    Putin’s cronies are also accused of spreading “fake news” about migration in order to “disrupt European unity”.

    Late last year, Finland closed the last of its borders with Russia after seeing a dramatic spike in the number of migrants without proper visas and documentation, mostly from the Middle East and Africa.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Russian spymaster’s plot to use private army to control migration into Europe

    Weaponising the flow of migrants is said to be a key aim of Vladimir Putin, with the issue being a major factor in elections across Europe.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • NL Times ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Dutch PM: Quick decision on €3.5B for Ukraine was more important than Cabinet rift

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] EU summit on Ukraine: Europe seems ready to spend on defense

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy wants truce after new attacks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Ukraine War Drives German Civilians to Military Training Programme

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] US Aerospace Firm Maxar Disables Satellite Photos for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Zelenskiy's Approval Rating Rises in Ukraine After Cheeto Mussolini Spat, Poll Shows

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] Ukraine updates: EU leaders back new defense spending plans

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] US freezes intelligence sharing with Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] U.S. Pulls Back from Ukraine: The Shockwaves of a Global Power Shift

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] U.S. is not currently sharing intelligence with Ukraine, American officials confirm

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] German election: Scholz meets Merz for talks on Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Ukraine: Scholz, Zelenskyy agree Cheeto Mussolini key to ceasefire

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Britain, France Refine Ukraine Peace Plan With New Washington Trip in Mind

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] EU Leaders to Hold Emergency Ukraine Talks, Seeking to Adapt to New Security Demands Without the US

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Administration Pauses Flow of Intelligence to Ukraine That Helps on Battlefield

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini May Restore Ukraine Aid Pending Confidence-Building Measures, White House Says

    • TruthOut ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Suspends US Military Aid to Ukraine After Oval Office Clash With Zelenskyy

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Donald Cheeto Mussolini says he's 'working tirelessly' to end Ukraine conflict

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] How will the end of US military aid affect Ukraine?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini orders pause of US military aid to Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Ukraine: Who is in Europe's 'coalition of the willing'?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Ukraine: Zelenskyy ready to work with Cheeto Mussolini toward peace

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] From Ukraine Talks to Transatlantic Tensions: Here's Why BAE Systems' Shares Saw Dramatic Climb

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini's Halt on Military Aid Will Hurt Ukraine's Defenses. but It May Not Be Fatal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Vance Irks Allies in UK, France With Skeptical Comments About Ukraine Peacekeeping Mission Proposal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Ukraine Firmly Determined to Continue Cooperation With US, PM Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Analysis-US Military Aid Pause Is a Blow to Ukraine, but It Can Sustain War Effort for Now

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Factbox-How Much Aid Have Ukraine's Western Allies Provided?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] JD Vance Denies Disrespecting UK and France Over Ukraine Peacekeeping Force

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Liberal Delusions Won’t Save Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] “A Government of Laws?”: Not if Cheeto Mussolini Continues to Support Putin Crimes Against Ukraine

    • Off Guardian ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Ukraine: Is this genuine jingoism?

    • TruthOut ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] US-Europe Rift Widens as Putin Welcomes Cheeto Mussolini’s Shifting Ukraine Stance

    • Craig Murray ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Ukraine, Diplomacy and War

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy says peace talks will include US

    • Spiegel ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Three Years after the Invasion: The Churchill of Ukraine Seeks a New Role

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Australia news LIVE: Labor vows $644m for 50 urgent care clinics; PM defends Ukraine after Zelensky-Cheeto Mussolini argument

    • The Local DK ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Support for Denmark’s Social Democrats surges amid Greenland and Ukraine crises

    • The Local SE ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Swedish PM 'willing to send peacekeepers to Ukraine'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Kremlin Says London Summit on Ukraine Was Not Aimed at Achieving Peace

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] How this Ukrainian refugee fled war and found hope in a Quebec circus

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Ukraine: Europe gears up for 'massive surge' in defense

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Ukraine: Zelenskyy meets European leaders in London

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Following Cheeto Mussolini's Lead, His Allies Lash Out at Ukraine's Zelenskyy and Suggest He May Need to Resign

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Drone Hits Apartment Building in Ukraine's Kharkiv, Injures Seven, Mayor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] France, Britain Propose Partial One-Month Ukraine Truce, Macron Tells Le Figaro

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Germany's Scholz: Stop to Bombing Would Be Starting Point for Ukraine Peace Talks

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Aide Waltz Says U.S. Needs Ukrainian Leader Who Wants Peace

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] UK Announces New $2 Billion Deal to Fund Air-Defence Missiles for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Says He Can Salvage Relationship With US

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] UK, France and Ukraine Will Present Peace Deal to Cheeto Mussolini, Starmer Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] UK's Starmer Says He's Sure Cheeto Mussolini Wants a Lasting Peace in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Starmer Says Europe Faces a 'Once in a Generation Moment' as Leaders Discuss Ending War in Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Europe loudly states support for Ukraine, quietly eyes Cheeto Mussolini

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Ukraine: Zelenskyy meets with UK's Starmer after Cheeto Mussolini clash

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Ukrainians react to Cheeto Mussolini-Zelenskyy fracas in White House

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Zelenskyy: UK billions will aid Ukrainian weapons production

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Cutoff of Humanitarian Parole for Immigrants From Ukraine, 6 Other Countries Challenged

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Norway Plans to Raise Financial Support for Ukraine, Prime Minister Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy in Britain to Meet PM Starmer and King Charles

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Ukrainians Reel From Crisis in US Ties After Cheeto Mussolini-Zelenskiy Clash

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Should Be Heard, Not Forgotten

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy leaves after clash with Cheeto Mussolini

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] European Leaders Pledge to Stand by Ukraine After Confrontational Oval Office Meeting With Cheeto Mussolini

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] JD Vance Gets His Long-Awaited Moment to Admonish Ukraine's Zelenskyy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Ukrainians Rally Around Zelenskyy as Defender of National Interest After Oval Office Blowout

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Stunned by Angry Cheeto Mussolini Exchange, Ukrainians Rally Around Zelenskiy

    • CNN ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Russian authorities detain suspect over St. Petersburg cafe blast

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Blames Zelensky for Last Month’s White House Mugging

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Escalating Tensions: Russian Warship Travels Through UK Waters Under Navy's Watch

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Weighs New Sanctions on Russia, Days After Pausing Military Aid and Intel Sharing With Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Russian Garantex Cryptocurrency Exchange Targeted in International Operation, US Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] The Latest: Cheeto Mussolini Considering Pressure on Russia and Seeking Deal With Iran

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] 3 Bulgarians Convicted of Spying for Russia Across Europe From Base in UK

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Ukrainian Forces Fighting Inside Russia Are Almost Surrounded, Open Source Maps Show

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Kremlin Says Russia May Need to Act to Respond to EU 'Militarisation' Plans to Ensure Its Own Security

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Putin Ally Says UK Will Have to Return Russia Money That London Has 'Illegally' Gifted to Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Russia Supports Serbia's Authorities Amid Protests, President Aleksandar Vucic Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Bulgarians Convicted in UK of Being Russian Spies Working for Wirecard Fugitive

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Says He Is Considering Putting Banking Sanctions, Tariffs on Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Threatens Russia With Sanctions Until Ukraine Peace Agreed

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Wirecard Fugitive Jan Marsalek: From Financial Fraudster to Russian Spymaster?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] Romania: Six arrested over alleged coup plot with Russia

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] CIA cuts off Ukraine from intelligence on Russia after Oval Office stoush

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Explainer: How the West Uses Russia's Frozen Reserves to Help Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Romania Declares Russian Military Attache, Deputy Personae Non Grata

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Inside the digital cold war: How Canada helps defend Latvia from Russian cyberattacks

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Russia gloats over tensions between US and Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Russia Agrees to Help Cheeto Mussolini Communicate With Iran on Nuclear Issue, Bloomberg Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] French Reaper Drone Was Target of Russian Intimidation, Defence Minister Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Russia and Myanmar Sign Agreement on Small-Scale Nuclear Plant Construction in Myanmar

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Russia Wants Migrants From New Countries to Help Plug Labour Shortage, Interfax Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini's Russia Pivot Unlikely to Bring Peace to Ukraine, Says Finland's Foreign Minister

    • Vox ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Why Cheeto Mussolini’s embrace of Putin is different this time

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Russia Calibrating Guinea-Bissau’s Strategic Partnership

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] ‘Free pass’: Hegseth gambles on retreat from offensive cyberoperations against Russia

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] ‘Go ski in Russia’: protesters target Vance holiday, Tesla showrooms, after clash with Zelensky

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket With Spacecraft for Defence Purposes, RIA Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Russia Says Fire at Ufa Oil Refinery Extinguished, Was Caused by Technical Issue

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-03 [Older] Russia's FSB Security Service Says It Shot Dead a Man Planning 'Terrorist Attacks' in Moscow

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini a ‘useful idiot’ for the Russian cause

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Russia Gambles to Keep Military Bases in Post-Assad Syria

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Russian Attacks Overnight Kill One, Injure Three in Ukraine, Officials Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Russian Lawmakers Say London European Summit Produced No Result, No Plan

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Russia Praises Cheeto Mussolini and Scolds Europe for Being the Crucible of War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-02 [Older] Ukraine Condemns IAEA Nuclear Plant Visit Via Russian-Occupied Territory

    • The Local DK ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Russian man indicted in Billund Airport bombing case

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Hungary's Orban Pushes Direct Russia Talks, Opposes EU Summit Declaration

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Russia Says IAEA Mission Arrives at Nuclear Plant in Ukraine Through Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Romania Finds Russian Drone Fragments, Detonates Explosives on Board

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Russian Foreign Ministry Says Zelenskiy's US Trip Was a Failure

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Russia Says Repelled Ukrainian Drone Attack on Turkstream Pipeline Compressor Station

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] Turkey to Repeat Offer to Host Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks at London Summit, Source Says

    • Vox ☛ 2025-03-01 [Older] The twisted appeal of Cheeto Mussolini’s humiliation of Zelenskyy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] Russian State-Media Reporter Gains Access, but Is Later Removed From Cheeto Mussolini-Zelenskiy Meeting

    • Green Party UK ☛ 2025-02-28 [Older] “Now is the time to make clear we, as a country, stand with Zelensky in working for a lasting just peace.”

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • AlerNet ☛ DOGE [sic] employee accidentally set his Google Calendar to 'public' — here’s what’s on it

    Business Insider's Jack Newsham and Alice Tecotzky recently discovered that 26 year-old Riley Sennott, who is listed as a "senior advisor" at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), had set his Google Calendar to "public" despite deleting his LinkedIn account and setting his X account to private. Newsham and Tecotzky noted that Sennott's affiliation with DOGE [sic] has not been previously reported, and the outlet noted that all of Sennott's appointments dating back to 2016 were publicly visible. After Business Insider contacted Sennott for comment, his Google Calendar was reportedly set to private within an hour.

• Environment

  • Wired ☛ The Biggest US Banks Have All Backed Out of a Commitment to Reach Net Zero

    Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo left the Net Zero Banking Alliance between December and January in what was perceived to be a concession to right-wing criticism of so-called ESG—decisionmaking driven by environmental, social, and corporate governance considerations. Nineteen Republican attorneys general had issued “civil investigative demands” to those banks in 2022, demanding that they turn over information about their ESG practices. They argued that the alliance was beholden to “the woke climate agenda” and that it violated antitrust laws.

  • Wired ☛ The Extreme Weather Conditions That Drove the Carolina Wildfires

    The fires followed a year of weather whiplash in the Carolinas, from a flash drought over the summer to extreme hurricane flooding in September, and then back to drought again. Storms on March 5, 2025, helped douse many of the fires still burning, but the Southeast fire season is only beginning. Wake Forest University wildfire experts Lauren Lowman and Nick Corak put the fires and the region’s dry winter into context.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Atlantic Council ☛ The US can reduce Russia's nuclear energy—and geopolitical—influence

      As the second Donald Trump administration settles in, at least one energy priority will remain consistent: bipartisan efforts to position the US nuclear energy industry for a greater share in the global marketplace. In early February, Secretary Chris Wright emphasized Trump’s priority for the United States: to “lead the commercialization of affordable and abundant nuclear energy” amid surging global energy demand. This opportunity will lead not only to economic growth and improved energy security in the United States, but also the chance to reduce Russian influence on nuclear energy markets in Europe—and the geopolitical leverage it affords.

    • Idiomdrottning ☛ Tariffs Silver Lining

      Tariffs also tax the poor; they don’t follow the principle of progressive taxation (which is of course why the US oligarks promote tariffs).

      And tariffs are not the climate solution we want, which is comprehensive regulation and energy rationing alongside greener energy and materials.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Why some animals defy the odds to thrive in urban areas

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-05 [Older] Mice with woolly mammoth traits could pave the way for the resurrection of an ice age giant

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Woolly mice are a first step to resurrecting mammoths, but there’s a very long way to go

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] New research shows bigger animals get more cancer, defying decades-old belief

• Finance

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] The Greatest Threat to Social Security in Its 90 Year History

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini’s Dead People on Social Security Lie

  • In Times of Inflation and Unstable Banks

    Some people make bunkers because of an assumption of looming war/s; some lose money to classic scammers, including the fear-mongering "bunker industry". Some become drug addicts. Some try to "spread" the assets/money, but that often focuses on: 1) multiple bank accounts. 2) multiple banks. 3) like (2) in several countries. 4) gold/silver 5) fakecoins ('crypto'). 6) a safe at home. 7) car (loses value fast). 8) home (endless maintenance). 9) jewellery (value lost immediately once purchased).

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Ad-Funded Piracy's 'Biggest Open Secret' Revealed By Researcher

    “When we talk about piracy that’s supported by programmatic display / videos ads, we’re often talking about traffic laundering. In a laundering scheme, there are two classes of domains involved,” Moss explains.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • India Times ☛ Google cofounder Larry Page reportedly developing new AI startup

    Page is said to be collaborating with a small team of engineers on AI that can generate “highly optimised” designs for products, which can then be built by a factory.

  • The Register UK ☛ HPE revenue outlook feels the thump of Trump tariffs

    "We plan to reduce our employee base 5 percent over the next 12 to 18 months through the reduction of approximately 2,500 positions and expected attrition. Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. "These are not easy decisions to make as they directly affect the life of our team members."

  • Jason Becker ☛ Gandhi's (Donaldson's) Seven Social Sins

    Apparently, while popularized by Ghandi, they were actually written by Anglican priest, Frederick Donaldson.

  • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Gandersauce

    But while all capitalists hate all capitalism, a specific subset of capitalists really, really hate a specific kind of capitalism. The capitalists who hate capitalism the most are Big Tech bosses, and the capitalism they hate the most is techno-capitalism. Specifically, the techno-capitalism of the first decade of this century – the move fast/break things capitalism, the beg forgiveness, not permission capitalism, the blitzscaling capitalism.

    The capitalism tech bosses hate most of all is disruptive capitalism, where a single technological intervention, often made by low-resourced individuals or small groups, can upend whole industries. That kind of disruption is only fun when you're the disruptor, but it's no fun for the disruptees.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ USAID: My next-to-last project

    My next-to-last job was in Rwanda, where I managed a project to improve Rwanda’s trade with its neighbors. It was a small project — me and half a dozen Rwandans, mostly IT people. We were working to (1) help Rwanda integrate into the East African Community, and (2) improve the functioning of Rwanda’s “Electronic Single Window”, where traders go to move their goods through Customs.

    Most readers won’t be international trade nerds, so let me expand on that a little.

  • Futurism ☛ The Cofounder of Google Has a Secret New AI Startup

    Details on Dynatomics are scarce, but the centibillionaire has apparently hired a handful of engineers to work on AI for "highly optimized" product manufacturing.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Lenovo joins growing China exodus as manufacturers flee US tariffs — OEM moving production lines to India

    Lenovo has produced 12 million units in India, and it’s planning to increase that to nearly 17 million units to meet incoming domestic and international demand. Although it didn’t mention tariffs, Lenovo, a Chinese-owned company with five factories in China and one in Mexico, owns 12% of the U.S. laptop market. So, Trump’s 20% tariff on China and 25% tariff on Mexico will impact its pricing strategy, making its laptops more expensive than the competition.

  • International Business Times ☛ Bill Gates Offloads 500K Microsoft and 2.48M Berkshire Hathaway Shares, Portfolio Shrinks by £2.31B in Q4

    A 13F-HR filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the Gates Foundation Trust's portfolio size declined by £2.31 billion to £38.4 billion in Q4 2024.

  • 'FSFE'

    • FSFE ☛ 2025-03-06 [Older] DMA & Free Software: what Free Software organisations need to know

    • FSFE ☛ 2025-03-04 [Older] Legal Corner+++ FOSDEM recap+++ Ada in Spanish

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Jacobin Writer Jailed 5 Days for Criticizing Israel

    But, of course, the Right — long comfortable with censorship when it serves its interests — will always relish the cudgel of speech repression, no matter how hypocritical that may seem after its years decrying similar behavior. Apart from the libertarian right, twentieth-century conservatism was marked by repeated attempts to suppress dissent, from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) targeting suspected communists to the banning of controversial books and films on moral or religious grounds to the crackdowns on antiwar activists during Vietnam War and, later, after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. Recent incidents, then, of heavy-handed censorship are less a departure from principle than a return to form.

  • The Verge ☛ A Reddit moderation tool is flagging ‘Luigi’ as potentially violent content

    But Reddit does appear to be flagging comments that mention “Luigi” in some cases, even those unrelated to Mangione — just not in the way that it first appeared to be. The Reddit spokesperson said that because r/popculture had recently fallen down to a single moderator, automod features kicked in, including a way to filter for “keywords that could — but don’t necessarily — indicate violating content.” The remaining moderator of r/popculture told The Verge that the mod team didn’t add “Luigi” to the list of keywords, Reddit did.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • John Gruber ☛ ABC Shuts Down FiveThirtyEight, and Pulls the Plug on Its Website

    But the standard behavior when closing a web publication is to just pull the plug. When the whole company goes under, that’s one thing. But when there’s a parent company, especially a thriving one, there’s no justification for pulling the plug other than spiteful disregard for the work. From the perspective of a company the size of Disney, it would cost veritable pennies to keep FiveThirtyEight’s website around forever. What a disgrace.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • ANF News ☛ 2025-03-07 [Older] Women in Sine mark International Women’s Day despite pressure from security forces

  • Green Party UK ☛ 2025-02-27 [Older] “There should be zero tolerance of coercion, violence, or sexual abuse.”

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Charting the path for women’s economic security in the G20

    This Saturday is International Women’s Day, so it’s a good time to take stock of how the world’s largest economies are actually doing on gender equality. The picture that emerges is not exactly cause for celebration—but does highlight where the Group of Twenty (G20) needs to focus its attention.

  • La Prensa Latina ☛ International Women’s Day, challenges in Ecuador

    Women represent 42 percent of the population of this South American nation, but their access to the labor market is limited; in fact, less than half have a job and many work informally, without stability or rights.

  • RFA ☛ Tibet is a ‘front line’ in struggle for freedom with Beijing: US official

    Gombis told the gathering that U.S. national security was “inextricably bound to the battle of ideas and influence” with Beijing, which annexed Tibet in the early 1950s and has since governed the territory with an oppressively heavy-hand while seeking to erase Tibetan culture.

    “The decades-long struggle for Tibet’s autonomy is important not only to the six million Tibetans in China and the many tens of thousands in the Tibetan diaspora; their struggle constitutes one of the front lines in the global effort for freedom from the Chinese Communist Party’s repression,” Gombis said, calling for a renewed American focus on Tibet.

  • Court House News ☛ Homeland Security ends TSA collective bargaining agreement, in effort to dismantle union protections

    The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it is ending the collective bargaining agreement with the tens of thousands of frontline employees at the Transportation Security Administration, marking a major effort to dismantle union protections under the Trump administration.

    The TSA union called it on “unprovoked attack” and vowed to fight it.

  • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ Tribal nations are concerned that Trump’s cuts have the potential to violate trust responsibilities

    In the many treaties the U.S. signed with tribal nations, it outlined several rights owed to them — like land rights and healthcare through departments established later, like Indian Health Services. Trust responsibilities are the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold those rights. Tribes go through BIA regional offices to approve things like road projects and law enforcement funding.

  • Declan Chidlow ☛ Respecting User Preference

    At the core of everything accessibility-related, is giving users autonomy and agency. Putting the power to do into the hands of those who may otherwise be unable. To respect users by allowing them to do things by themselves, on their own terms, and in the way they wish to. Respecting user preferences allows users to do things as they wish. It gives them the power and control they deserve and makes everything more accessible.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Taliban claim women's rights are protected, UN decries bans

    The UN has denounced the Taliban’s repeated attacks on women’s rights, with the special representative saying: "We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do."

  • BBC ☛ Denmark's postal service to stop delivering letters

    Denmark had a universal postal service for 400 years until the end of 2023, but as digital mail services have taken hold, the use of letters has fallen dramatically.

    PostNord says it will switch its focus to parcel deliveries and that any postage stamps bought this year or in 2024 can be refunded for a limited period in 2026.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • David North ☛ Fibre to somebody else’s premises, part 1

    The main reason this order wasn’t placed 18 months ago is that, at that point, none of the ISPs offering fibre service via the BT/OpenReach infrastructure were offering to port the phone number from the old copper service onto VoIP.

    Which is a problem if you want to keep the phone number you’ve had for longer than I’ve been alive.

    Thankfully, one more 18 month VDSL contract later, this has all been sorted out.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• The Verge ☛ US v. Google antitrust trial: updates

  The DOJ argued that Google struck anticompetitive deals with Apple and other companies for prime placement of its search engine. Google maintains that its dominant market share is the result of a superior product. The DOJ says options to resolve the situation include breaking up Google to separate products like Chrome, Search, and Android, but it may be a while until we hear about their full plan.

• VOA News ☛ US drops antitrust case against Google over AI, not Chrome

  U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would continue a crackdown on Big Tech, which began during his first term and continued into former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. Trump has tapped veteran antitrust attorney Gail Slater to lead the DOJ's efforts.

  Google holds a minority stake worth billions of dollars in Anthropic. Losing the investment would give a competitive advantage to OpenAI and its partner Microsoft, Anthropic wrote to the court in February.

• Reuters ☛ US drops bid to make Google sell AI investments in antitrust case

  The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday dropped a proposal to force Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab to sell its investments in artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI competitor Anthropic, to boost competition in online search.

• Trademarks

  • Wired ☛ Elon Musk’s Neuralink Files to Trademark ‘Telepathy’

    Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Neuralink, has filed applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to exclusively own the names Telepathy, Telekinesis, and others for future products.

• Copyrights

  • Futurism ☛ Pinterest Changes User Terms So It Can Train AI on User Data and Photos, Regardless of When They Were Posted

    A new clause, published this week on the company's website, outlines that Pinterest will use its patrons' "information to train, develop and improve our technology such as our machine learning models, regardless of when Pins were posted." In other words, it seems that any piece of content, published at any point in the social media site's long history — it's been around since 2010 — is subject to being fed into an AI model.