Leftovers

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Wired ☛ Nokia Put a 4G Cellular Network on the Moon but Couldn’t Make a Phone Call

    Nokia says it successfully powered up the NIB, which received commands and transmitted data to Intuitive Machines' ground station on Earth. All system components were fully functional, though it was online for only about 25 minutes until the power went out. The company had planned to make the first cellular call on the moon with the rovers, but the vehicles weren't deployed.

  • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ What's the deal with SafetyCore, the weird app that suddenly appeared on Android?

    SafetyCore is designed for devices running Android 9 or later, takes up about 2 GB of storage, and according to Google “provides common infrastructure that apps can use to protect users from unwanted content.” The documentation also notes that “the classification of content runs exclusively on your device and the results aren’t shared with Google.”

    Almost no one reads these docs or even warnings, alerts of an app. What definitely catches your eye is a new icon among your apps that seems to appear overnight. Is SafetyCore something to worry about?

• Science

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Earth’s oldest known crater found in rural Australia

    ABC News reported on an article in the Nature Communications journal about this discovery in the Pilbara region in north-west Western Australia: [...]

  • New York Times ☛ Starship Explosions Show SpaceX No Longer Defying Gravity

    Consecutive losses of the Starship rocket suggest that the company’s engineers are not as infallible as its fans may think.

  • Science Alert ☛ Curiosity Cracked Open a Rock on Mars And Discovered a Big Surprise

    A first on the red planet!

  • Science Alert ☛ Record Smashing Electron Beam Delivers a Petawatt of Power in an Instant

    No ordinary lightning.

  • Science Alert ☛ It's Official: Scientists Have Confirmed What's Inside Our Moon

    The verdict is in.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Transceiver Reveals Unusual Components

    [MSylvain59] likes to tear down old surplus, and in the video below, he takes apart a German transceiver known as a U-600M. From the outside, it looks like an unremarkable gray box, especially since it is supposed to work with a remote unit, so there’s very little on the outside other than connectors. Inside, though, there’s plenty to see and even a few surprises.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Joan Dye Gussow, Pioneer of Eating Locally, Is Dead at 96

    An indefatigable gardener, she was concerned, a colleague said, with “all the things that have to happen for us to get our food.”

  • New York Times ☛ ‘The Interview’: Lady Gaga’s Latest Experiment? Happiness.

    The pop superstar reflects on her struggles with mental health, the pressures of the music industry and why she’s returned to the sound that made her famous.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Korean hangover cures ride global wellness wave

    Global Market Insights estimates the hangover remedy world market will grow from $2.5 billion in 2022 to $9 billion by 2032.

  • LRT ☛ AI, bullying, and pornography: new technologies raise concern over child welfare

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is opening new frontiers in the problems of bullying and child pornography. Parents, schools, and legislators all have an important role to play in mitigating the new risks.

  • Science Alert ☛ Malfunctioning Fat Tissue Could Affect How Easily We Lose Weight

    We need to move beyond blame.

  • Science Alert ☛ Stick From a Dead Shrub Reveals Surprising Truth About Its Record Lifespan

    Small but mighty.

  • Science Alert ☛ Global Study Reveals How Supermarket Convenience Is Costing Us Our Health

    Results from 97 countries.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Once a staple of Korean diners, eateries serving homely food are vanishing

    These old-styled restaurants are facing stiff competition from trendy food options.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • Hackaday ☛ Fictional Computers: EMERAC Was The Chatbot Of 1957

      Movies mirror the time they were made. [ErnieTech] asserts that we can see what people thought about computers back in 1957 by watching the classic Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn movie “Desk Set.” What’s more, he thinks this might be the first movie appearance of a human-like computer. On a side note, in the UK this movie was known as “The Other Woman.”

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

  • Rlang ☛ Amending the Git commit message of a previous commit (that isn’t the most recent) in Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub Desktop without performing an interactive rebase [Ed: This worsens things; making onself reliant of proprietary Microsoft software is a problem on top of a problem that is merely perceived]

    As R developers I think we can all agree that Git is hard. There won’t be many of us who at some time haven’t broken a Git repository in some way or other, I know that I have (several times … ahem).

• Defence/Aggression

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Terrorgram Collective Influencers Groomed a Killer

    The teen entered the chat with a friendly greeting.

    “Hello lads,” he typed.

  • France24 ☛ Drone strike kills two in Gaza as ceasefire impasse persists

    A drone strike by Israel killed two people in Gaza on Friday, highlighting the fragile uncertainty of a ceasefire that has held for weeks. The Israeli military reported that the drone targeted a group of suspected militants in northern Gaza who were allegedly planting an explosive device near its troops, but did not provide information on the casualties. France24 Correspondent in Jerusalem Noga Tarnopolsky tells us more.

  • New York Times ☛ Gaza War Led to Deaths of More Than 3 Dozen Hostages, Officials Say

    Israel’s leaders promised that their military campaign in Gaza would help save the lives of hostages. At least 41 have died in captivity, some killed by Hamas and others in Israeli airstrikes.

  • The Strategist ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s speech to Congress: America First in trade and alliances

    In what might have been the longest presidential address to Congress in American history—an hour and forty minutes without intermission...

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Frenchman’s mislabelled China war photos donation sparks controversy

    By Tommy Wang A Frenchman’s donation of vintage conflict photographs to China offers insight into the 1930-1940s Sino-Japanese War — even if some images are not the unique family heirlooms he believed them to be.

  • PHOTOS: Chinese, US and Indian jets take to the skies at international air show

    Chinese J-10, US F-35A and Indian Hawk Mk-132 jets wowed the crowd in Thailand.

  • JURIST ☛ South Korea court orders release of impeached President Yoon

    The Seoul Central District Court ordered the release of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol from detention on Friday, citing procedural violations by prosecutors during Yoon’s arrest. This ruling allows President Yoon to await his impeachment trial and criminal proceedings from home.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korea’s Impeached President, Yoon Suk Yeol, Is Released From Jail

    The move followed a court ruling that the detention of President Yoon Suk Yeol was invalid, but it won’t affect the insurrection and other charges he faces for declaring martial law.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim inspects ‘nuclear-powered submarine’ project

    This was the first time the nuclear-armed North had revealed construction of a ballistic missile submarine.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s impeached President Yoon released from detention

    He remains under investigation over his declaration of martial law in December 2024.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Plane parts, ammo found in Malaysia raids

    Six suspects were arrested in relation to the raids.

  • France24 ☛ 340 Alawite civilians killed by Syrian security forces, monitor says

    Syrian security forces and their allies have killed 340 civilians belonging to the country's Alawite minority since Thursday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The violence was triggered by attacks carried out by loyalists of the deposed Assad regime. France24 Senior journalist Andrew Hilliar explains.

  • France24 ☛ 🔴 More than 530 Alawite civilians killed by Syrian security forces, allies, monitor says

  • JURIST ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man signs executive order suspending security clearance of Perkins Coie

    US President The Insurrectionist signed an executive order on Thursday suspending security clearances and terminating federal contracts with the law firm Perkins Coie.

  • New York Times ☛ North Korea Says It’s Building a Nuclear-Powered Submarine

    The announcement came amid fears that Pyongyang may be receiving crucial military technology from Russia in return for sending troops and weapons for its war against Ukraine.

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear submarine construction

    North Korean state media released the first photos of construction, intended to help create ‘elite’ nuclear force.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong businesses forced to weigh options as Convicted Felon’s tariffs squeeze access to US market

    Hong Kong entrepreneur Danny Lau has to weigh his options since The Insurrectionist‘s return to the White House has introduced not only fresh US tariffs but also created more uncertainty in global trade. Lau runs Kam Pin Paints Work, which specialises in aluminium coatings.

  • New York Times ☛ China Hits Canada With Tariffs in Indirect Riposte to Convicted Felon

    Beijing, which set steep duties on canola, peas and pork, wants Canada and Mexico to resist U.S. pressure to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China hits back at Canada with fresh agriculture tariffs

    A 100 per cent tariff will be applied to Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and peas.

  • CS Monitor ☛ In Syria, deadly attacks on Assad’s Alawites are blow to new leaders

    The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday. Local residents said gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes.

  • New Yorker ☛ America’s Founders Feared a Caesar. Has One Arrived?

    Julius Caesar pressured the Senate, won popular support by fomenting class warfare, and sported a combover. The constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen discusses the parallels.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Strikes Kill 20 in Ukraine After U.S. Cuts Support for Kyiv

      The bombardment came after Washington’s decision to suspend intelligence sharing and hit a region critical for Ukrainian logistics and support.

    • France24 ☛ Deadly Russian attack overnight on Ukraine kills at least 20 and damages several cities

      Russia's relentless assault on Ukraine persists, with the latest strikes by the Kremlin resulting in at least 15 deaths and around 30 injuries, including five children. The city of Dobropillia bore the brunt of the attacks, suffering severe damage to its infrastructure. In addition to Dobropillia, separate Russian strikes targeted Sumy, Odessa, and the Kharkiv region, further escalating the devastation across the country. France24 journalists Axelle Simon and Catherine Viette tell us more.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky condemns Russia’s ‘brutal’ strikes on Ukraine, Moscow claims advances in Kursk region

      President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday condemned Russia’s “brutal” new strikes on Ukraine, warning that Moscow is “not thinking about how to end the war”, but said his country remains fully committed to constructive talks with the US next week. Russia, meanwhile, said it had recaptured three more villages seized by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region last August.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Pushes Back Ukraine’s Offensive With Drones and North Korean Troops

      Russia has retaken about two-thirds of the territory Ukraine seized last summer in the Kursk region of Russia, but at a fearful cost in lives.

    • RFERL ☛ 'Russia's Goals Unchanged' After Deadly Air Strikes On Ukraine, Says Zelenskyy

      US President The Insurrectionist threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia over its continuing assault on Ukraine, suggesting the measures would be meant to push the Kremlin toward a cease-fire and ultimately a peace deal to end the war, now in its fourth year since Moscow's full-scale invasion.

    • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man threatens new sanctions on Russia until peace is achieved in Ukraine

      US President The Insurrectionist stated that he is "strongly considering" imposing new sanctions and tariffs on Russia in response to its war against Ukraine. He explained that this potential action is based on Russia's continued military aggression against Ukraine. His remarks, made online, were followed by additional comments on Friday, where he said he finds it easier to negotiate with Moscow than with Kyiv. Nick Rushworth tells more.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russian hurt fending off attackers of female tourists in Phuket hotel

      The women said they were in their hotel room when three men barged in and tried to rape them.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Russia sees tech boom amid sanctions — microelectronics industry sees massive hiring surge and increased salaries

      Despite sanctions, Russian electronics and computer hardware manufacturers expanded their workforce by an average of 13% in 2024.

    • 3/3/25: Jacobin Radio: Ukraine’s Fight for Self-Determination w/ Howie Hawkins

      Jacobin Radio presents a webinar, moderated by Suzi and sponsored by Haymarket Books and the Ukraine Solidarity Network, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just days after this discussion, the Convicted Felon administration laid out a deal that trades an end to the fighting for U.S.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Embrace of Russia Leaves Europe in Emotional Shock

      It remains to be seen how far Hell Toupée’s embrace of Russia and abandonment of traditional allies will go. But “the West” may be gone.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Affinity for Putin Grows More Consequential Than Ever

      Hell Toupée’s admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been endlessly dissected, but the American leader’s policy shifts since taking office again could have profound effects.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ KL to expect more flash floods as Malaysia’s inter-monsoon season starts in April

    The inter-monsoon period typically follows in April and May.

  • New York Times ☛ Climate United Sues E.P.A. Over Frozen $20 Billion

    In a lawsuit, Climate United claims the E.P.A. is illegally withholding funds that have become a target of the Convicted Felon administration.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Science Alert ☛ Research Shows 'Swear Jar' Could Be Bad For Formula 1 Drivers

      A linguist explains.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Families of MH370 victims in China seek end to decade of ‘torment’

      Family members said they had been in the dark about a new search for the plane.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 11 years on, families of MH370 victims in China seek end to decade of ‘torment’

      Relatives of Chinese passengers lost on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gathered in Beijing on Saturday seeking answers from authorities 11 years after the plane disappeared in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries. The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

    • Hackaday ☛ The Coolest Batteries You’ve Never Heard Of

      Imagine cooling your building with the same principle that kept Victorian-era icehouses stocked with lake-frozen blocks, but in modern form. That’s the idea behind ice batteries, a clever energy storage hack that’s been quietly slashing cooling costs across commercial buildings. The invention works by freezing water when energy is cheap, and using that stored cold later, they turn major power hogs (air conditioning, we’re looking at you) into more efficient, cost-effective systems.

    • Hackaday ☛ Retrotechtacular: Better Living Through Nuclear Chemistry

      The late 1950s were such an optimistic time in America. World War II had been over for less than a decade, the economy boomed thanks to pent-up demand after years of privation, and everyone was having babies — so many babies. The sky was the limit, especially with new technologies that promised a future filled with miracles, including abundant nuclear power that would be “too cheap to meter.”

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Same crocodile spotted for third time in Malaysia’s Klang River

      The crocodile was previously spotted in January and February.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Turtle-y good news for wildlife: More of the reptiles seen on Malaysian beaches recently

      There has been a steady increase in the number of green turtles nesting on Malaysian beaches, says the Fisheries Department.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Struggling ramen shops in Japan use various tactics to grapple with rising prices

    A shop made the painful decision to lower the density of its pork bone broth.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China rolls over $2 billion loan to Pakistan

    China rolled over a $2 billion loan to Pakistan, the adviser to the finance minister of Pakistan, Khurram Schehzad, told Reuters in a text message on Saturday.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China says TSMC's $100 billion U.S. deal shows Taiwan's ruling party is 'selling out Taiwan'

    Critics say that TSMC's move to invest more in the U.S. will lead to the reduction of Taiwan's strategic importance on the global stage.

  • New York Times ☛ How the Tax Bill Could Impact Your Wallet

    Brackets may change. The standard deduction could fall. And Hell Toupée will probably not remove taxes on Social Security income.

  • New York Times ☛ Why You Should Sign Up for an I.R.S. Identity Protection PIN

    With employees from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency poking around in agency systems, faith in data security isn’t what it once was. The tool, an identity protection PIN, can help.

  • The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand’s luxury property market sees surge in interest from wealthy Singaporeans

    Real estate agents point to the country's stable economy and transparent legal system as draws.

  • New York Times ☛ Scammers Stole Their Retirement Savings. Then the Tax Bill Arrived.

    The victims pulled money out of their retirement accounts. The withdrawals had inflated their taxable income, even though the funds quickly disappeared.

  • France24 ☛ Tariff turnaround for Canada and Mexico as Convicted Felon delays 25% tariffs for a month

    Despite announcing rollbacks on The Insurrectionist's initial tariffs against Canada and Mexico earlier this week, there is little relief for Washington's neighbors looking ahead. Starting Tuesday, a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods will come into effect, with 62% of Canadian imports expected to be impacted. As the economic cost looms, how Canadians prepare for the consequences, while growing increasingly frustrated with the actions of The Insurrectionist’s White House? Emily Boyle explains.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • JURIST ☛ Canada top court strikes down election finance law provision for infringing right to vote

    The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that a provision of an Ontario election finance law violated the constitutional right to vote, finding the provision to be invalid and of no effect.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Emil Bove Calls Resignation in Face of Unethical Order “Misconduct”

    In his response to Judge Dale Ho's questions about the scope of a judge's authority on a Rule 48(a) dismissal, Emil Bove engages in his own little Ex-Twitter Files game, presenting quotes from Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotten and making transparently false claims about what those quotes mean. And he does so while claiming their ethical decision to resign rather than do something unethical amounted to misconduct.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • France24 ☛ Thousands of French take to streets to mark International Women’s Day

    Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of France on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day. While Femen activists in Paris marched with the US or Russian flag painted across their naked chests along with a swastika, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with a message of solidarity for Afghan women living under the oppressive Taliban regime.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • The Straits Times ☛ China intensifies crackdown on telco fraud

    Some 40,000 cases involving 8,200 suspects were closed in 2024.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Moderna COVID Vaccine Technology Struck Down by PTAB

    Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) docket entries indicate that the PTAB has invalidated all challenged claims of Moderna’s patents for its COVID-19 vaccine technology. The final written decisions remain sealed. U.S. Patent Nos. 10,933,127 (IPR2023-01359) and 10,702,600 (IPR2023-01358) are both titled “Betacoronavirus Mrna Vaccine.” Moderna competitors Pfizer and BioNTech filed two petitions for inter partes review (IPR) in August 2023 against certain claims of each of the patents, accusing Moderna of attempting “to coopt an entire field of mRNA technology.”