Leftovers

• Tracy Durnell ☛ When profit trumps principles

  This, I think, sits underneath slop and enshittification: we must work from principles, not merely towards an outcome, be that a product or a society (but usually money 🤑).

• Adriaan Roselli ☛ Tag, You’re It

  WordPress because it had the most market share when moving clients off my own CMS in 2015. I wanted a platform that was open source, presented a generally accessible admin view, was ready with RSS, allowed for total customization of the templates, provided built-in commenting, had a strong support community, and let me contribute accessibility skills through that community.

  Then Gutenberg happened and I tapped out on that last part. Then Matt Mullenweg happened and that second-last part has fallen away.

• Yordi Verkroost ☛ Nobody Has the Manual

  Looking back, I think I might know why I was so cautious about breaking rules. Especially as a kid, I was scared of what might happen if I stepped outside the lines—even just a little. I remember one moment from primary school that stuck with me, even now, twenty years later. We were playing outside before lessons started, jumping from one puddle to another. Just kids being kids. But a teacher had been watching us from inside, and when we came back in, some kids got in trouble, while others didn’t. The randomness of it—the idea that doing something fun and harmless could suddenly land you in trouble—left a little mark.

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] Four small planets discovered around one of the closest stars to Earth – an expert explains what we know

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] People in this career are better at seeing through optical illusions

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] The 30,000 year old vulture that reveals a completely new type of fossilisation

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Fossil face discovery highlights challenges faced by Europe’s earliest settlers

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Why we are so scared of space – and how this fear can drive conspiracy theories

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Long, unplanned stay in space will have taken a toll on minds and bodies of stranded astronauts

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Evolution: features that help finding a mate may lead to smaller brains

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] Why sharing meals can make people happier – what evidence from 142 countries shows

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] The animal alliances reshaping our understanding of intelligence

  • Omicron Limited ☛ How warp drives don't break relativity

    Physics is just a mathematical exploration of the natural universe, and the natural universe appears to play by certain rules. Certain actions are allowed, and other actions are not allowed. And the actions that are allowed have to proceed in a certain orderly fashion. Physics tries to capture all of those rules and express them in mathematical form. So Alcubierre wondered: does our knowledge of how nature works permit a warp drive or not?

  • Hackaday ☛ Acoustic Levitation Gets Insects Ready For Their Close-Up

    The average Hackaday reader is likely at least familiar with acoustic levitation — a technique by which carefully arranged ultrasonic transducers can be used to suspend an object in the air indefinitely. It’s a neat trick, the sort of thing that drives them wild at science fairs, but as the technique only works on exceptionally small and light objects it would seem to have little practical use.

  • Hackaday ☛ Card Radios Remembered

    We know how [Techmoan] feels. In the 1980s we had a bewildering array of oddball gadgets and exciting new tech. But as kids we didn’t have money to buy a lot of what we saw. But he had a £5 note burning a hole in his pocket from Christmas and found a Casio RD-10 “card radio” on sale and grabbed it. He’s long-ago lost that one, but he was able to find a new old stock one and shows us the little gadget in the video below.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Ancient Scratch May Be One of Humanity's Oldest Rock Symbols

    A message from the past?

  • Science Alert ☛ Amazing 15-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossil Found in The Australian Desert

    Stomach contents and all.

• Career/Education

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s Education Ministry probes teacher who allegedly told student to ‘go back to China’

    The teacher reportedly said it was a major issue if the student’s parents could not speak Malay.

  • LRT ☛ Vilnius University expels ten students for improper AI use

    "Over the past year, about 10 students have been expelled from Vilnius University for improperly using AI in their work, such as in their final theses. Improper use means failing to disclose that AI was used," said Valdas Jaskūnas, the university’s vice-rector for studies.

    Other universities are facing the same issue.

  • Robert Breen ☛ Reflections on Reading The Story of Civilization

    This month, I finished a multi-year reading of Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization, an eleven-volume opus considered one of the finest narratives of world history ever written.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ On the Predicament of the Richly Endowed University and Liberal Society

    The university’s distinctive spiritual authority is rooted in two features of its intrinsic mission: witnessing truth and being the institution that engages a non-trivial part of the education of an important subset of near adults. Both tasks are serious and dedication to them commands respect in most societies. There is, however, no universal template for how to engage in this mission such that spiritual authority is the effect. On my view this is something to figure out and decide upon by each university, conceived as a corporate (in the medieval sense) entity, and to be articulated in its mission and the practices that are structured by it. A private university should have more space for autonomy in these matters than public ones.

    But we know what does not work: the transactional ethos and process driven decision-making now prevalent in the modern research university is orthogonal to spiritual authority. My suspicion is that these features, while necessary in moderation, generate contempt from all involved. Even the meaning of buying one’s way onto the Board of Trustees is not understood as a ‘giving back’ or an ‘act of service,’ but rather a good investment for networking and, as it turns out, exerting political influence.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ ‘Frequently returned item' warning slapped on Snapdragon X-powered Surface Laptop 7 at Amazon

    The Snapdragon X-powered Surface Laptop 7 has been marked with a 'frequently returned item' warning on Amazon.

  • Hackaday ☛ Musings On A Good Parallel Computer

    Until the late 1990s, the concept of a 3D accelerator card was something generally associated with high-end workstations. Video games and kin would run happily on the CPU in one’s desktop system, with later extensions like MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, etc. providing a significant performance boost for games that supported it. As 3D accelerator cards (colloquially called graphics processing unit, or GPU) became prevalent, they took over almost all SIMD vector tasks, but one thing which they’re not good at is being a general parallel computer. While working on a software project this really ticked [Raph Levien] off and inspired him to cover his grievances.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Chinese scientists create 'breakthrough' solid-state DUV laser light source for chipmaking tools

    The Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a light source that produces 193-nm DUV light, but it is years away from commercialization.

  • Hackaday ☛ Piezo Sensor Reviewed

    If you do FDM 3D printing, you know one of the biggest problems is sensing the bed. Nearly all printers have some kind of bed probing now, and it makes printing much easier, but there are many different schemes for figuring out where the bed is relative to the head. [ModBot] had a Voron with a clicky probe but wanted to reclaim the space it used for other purposes. In the video, also linked below, he reviews the E3D PZ probe which is a piezoelectric washer, and the associated electronics to sense your nozzle crashing into your print bed.

  • Hackaday ☛ Twisting Magnetism To Control Electron Flow

    If you ever wished electrons would just behave, this one’s for you. A team from Tohoku, Osaka, and Manchester Universities has cracked open an interesting phenomenon in the chiral helimagnet α-EuP3: they’ve induced one-way electron flow without bringing diodes into play. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

  • Hackaday ☛ Generative Art Machine Does It One Euro At A Time

    [Niklas Roy] obviously had a great time building this generative art cabinet that puts you in the role of the curator – ever-changing images show on the screen, but it’s only when you put your money in that it prints yours out, stamps it for authenticity, and cuts it off the paper roll with a mechanical box cutter.

  • Tedium ☛ Laptop Latch History: We Once Closed Laptops With Tiny Hooks

    A combination of high strength, smart placement, and relative isolation have made magnets an extremely popular way to mash components together, whether it’s a keyboard case on your iPad or a charging mechanism on your phone.

    But it wasn’t always this way. It’s perhaps hard to remember at this point, but we used to close our laptops with literal hooks. For years, they were extremely common—only to become a sacrifice on our journey to the fabled thin-and-light laptop. Here’s why.

  • Yordi Verkroost ☛ A Needle Into Memory

    I’ve become a little obsessed with vinyl lately. It started simple: I wanted a record to go with each concert I went to — something physical to remember an often wonderful night. A way to hold onto the moment beyond the ticket, a blurry phone photo or just a vague memory of what it was all like.

  • David L Farquhar ☛ The first 3Dfx card: Orchid Righteous 3D

    Orchid was no newcomer to PC graphics or the PC market in 1996. Orchid produced a monochrome graphics card that competed with Hercules in 1982. In the mid 1980s, it produced EGA and VGA video cards. It also produced memory expansion cards and CPU upgrade cards, such as the Orchid Tiny Turbo 286.

  • David L Farquhar ☛ What came after 486?

    CPUs didn’t have brand names, besides the manufacturer, until the 1990s. They had part numbers and clock speeds. Frequently we shortened the part numbers. The 486’s full part number was 80486. The courts wouldn’t let Intel trademark a number, so the 486 was the last CPU of its kind, raising the question: What came after 486?

    The follow-up for the 486 was the Pentium, at least in Intel’s case, and it was introduced March 22, 1993. But several companies made 486 CPUs, and several of those released their own follow-ups to the 486, including AMD and Cyrix.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] EU moves one step closer to gene editing regulation

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Morley’s: Is the average consumer tired, hungry and intoxicated?

  • CBC ☛ Microplastics are everywhere: 6 ways to help protect your health — and the planet | CBC Documentaries

    Plastic pollution has reached every corner of our planet, from the highest mountaintops to deep ocean trenches. It also contaminates the air we breathe and water we drink.

    According to a 2023 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. And around 85 per cent of it ends up in landfills, incinerators or the environment, where it breaks down into hazardous microplastics.

  • New York Times ☛ Dementia May Not Always Be the Threat It Is Now. Here’s Why.

    The number of cases will increase, but the rates seem to be declining with every birth cohort that reaches advanced ages, researchers said.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Slow-ageing diet gains momentum among young South Koreans

    The buzzword “slow ageing” refers to a lifestyle focused on extending lifespans through good habits.

  • Justin Bieber says has ‘anger issues,’ admits he sometimes ‘hates’ himself in cryptic posts

    The pop singer posted a series of cryptic messages to social control media Saturday alongside photos of himself and video playing instruments with a band.

  • NYPost ☛ North Carolina family can sue over unwanted COVID-19 shot, court rules

    Happel and Smith sued the Guilford County Board of Education and an organization of physicians who helped operate the school clinic, alleging claims of battery and that their constitutional rights were violated.

  • New York Times ☛ Pope Francis Will Be Discharged From the Hospital on Sunday, Doctors Say

    The 88-year-old pontiff has been hospitalized for six weeks with pneumonia in both lungs. He will need to rest in the Vatican for at least two months, his doctors said.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil

    A chaotic restructuring order threatens to degrade services for veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chiang Mai dust crisis worsens, with more children having nosebleeds

    Concerns remain about the long-term health effects, as this problem recurs annually.

  • New Yorker ☛ Your Hey Hi (AI) Lover Will Change You

    A future where many humans are in love with bots may not be far off. Should we regard them as training grounds for healthy relationships or as nihilistic traps?

  • France24 ☛ Sudan's army recaptures key institutions at it advances in central Khartoum

    Sudan's army on Saturday said it had recaptured the country's central bank, state intelligence headquarters and national museum from paramilitary forces as fighting between the two groups continues in the capital, Khartoum.

  • New York Times ☛ The Sniper’s Nest

    Exploring an image of Sgt. Maj. Ismail Hassan of the Sudanese Army at a sniper position in a luxury apartment block across the Blue Nile from Sudan’s presidential palace.

  • France24 ☛ 'Clear, high rate of malnutrition' across Sudan, MSF says

    The humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Sudan as the civil war rages on, leading to a "clear, high rate of malnutrition" across the country, said Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, head of mission of MSF in Sudan. Dangelser also noted the partial collapse of Sudan's healthcare system which has left many lacking access to healthcare professionals and medicines. Meanwhile, the Sudanese army’s recent capturing of key buildings in Khartoum has allowed MSF increased access to vulnerable populations, Dangelser said.

  • NYPost ☛ Prostate cancer risk increases by 45% among men who share one troubling behavior

    Researchers are warning that men who regularly dodge prostate cancer screening appointments are 45% more likely to die from the disease.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Taste of Mexico: Chía seeds

    Famous worldwide for its health benefits, chia is — you guessed it — a distinctly Mexican flavor

  • Science Alert ☛ Parkinson's Gut Bacteria Link Suggests an Unexpected, Simple Treatment

    Inching closer to the full picture.

  • Science Alert ☛ Lifespan Is Shaped More By Your Choices Than Your Genes, Study Finds

    "The findings were striking."

  • Science Alert ☛ High-Protein And Fiber Diet Linked to Longer, Better Sleep, Study Finds

    The ingredients of a good night's sleep.

  • Science Alert ☛ How Often You Should Wash Your Exercise Clothes, According to Science

    Here's what you need to know.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • The Verge ☛ Cloudflare is luring web-scraping bots into an ‘AI Labyrinth’

      Cloudflare, one of the biggest network internet infrastructure companies in the world, has announced AI Labyrinth, a new tool to fight web-crawling bots that scrape sites for AI training data without permission. The company says in a blog post that when it detects “inappropriate bot behavior,” the free, opt-in tool lures crawlers down a path of links to AI-generated decoy pages that “slow down, confuse, and waste the resources” of those acting in bad faith.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Apple Intelligence: AI Siri crashes and burns, takes exec with it

      Apple is one of the largest and most successful companies in the world. They got there by making good and useful gadgets that people like. But that’s not enough for the gods of the market. So Apple has to add magical AI pixie dust! And then it doesn’t work.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Trapping Misbehaving Bots in an A.I. Labyrinth

      This is amusing. Nothing funnier than using someone’s own words or, in this case, technology against them.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ News Corp fills out tabloid papers with AI slop: NewsGPT

      MEAA, the union for Australian journalists, wants News Corp to get the “informed and explicit consent of journalists” before it feeds their work to an AI slop machine.

    • Paul Krugman ☛ How Should We Think About the Economics of AI?

      So, a break from political and policy madness. Along with everything else going on, there’s what looks like a revolutionary technology spreading through our society, which everyone calls AI, even though it doesn’t (yet?) look like the kind of artificial intelligence everyone expected.

      However, in thinking about this revolution, and the economic role of technology in general, we have a problem: economists in general don’t know enough about the technology to make an informed judgment (and technologists aren’t great at economics, but that’s for another day.) So I wanted to talk about what’s happening with one of the few economists who has really invested in understanding information technology: Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson. Here’s our conversation; transcript follows: [...]

  • Social Control Media

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Better than real life’: Young Chinese women find virtual romance in mobile game ‘Love and Deepspace’

      Rafayel’s girlfriends went all out to celebrate their lover’s birthday, renting malls across China for parties, decorating high-speed trains with his photos, and even staging a dazzling drone show.

• Privatisation/Privateering

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Wells Fargo Is Plotting to Privatize the Post Office

    A newly released memo from the banking giant Wells Fargo outlines a predatory scheme to dismantle the USPS: sell off profitable parts, slash union jobs, and raise prices by up to 140 percent.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • SBS ☛ How much information are the smart speakers in your home absorbing?

      Parker said the borders of wake words (e.g. 'Hey Alexa' or 'Hey Siri') have been eroded over the years in the name of convenience, as companies have moved from shorter phrases to handling multiple commands in a row to listening all the time.

      "Sometimes we consent," Parker said. "But there are many situations where you just don't really know exactly what's being listened to and Amazon reserves the right ways to change exactly how it's listening and how the data is being used without you knowing."

    • The Record ☛ Clearview AI settles class-action privacy lawsuit worth an estimated $50 million

      The controversial company did not have money for such a payout in part because nearly all Americans could be considered class members since most people’s faces appear online.

      The case, tried in an Illinois federal court, alleged Clearview, which scrapes billions of Americans’ facial images from the web and sells them without individuals’ consent, violated Illinois’ Biometric Privacy Act.

      Clearview does not acknowledge liability under the terms of the settlement.

• Defence/Aggression

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] TikTok Becomes a Tool of Choice in Cat-And-Mouse Game Between Migrant Smugglers and Authorities

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] What Is a Suicide Kit? British TikToker Among Over 90 in the UK Who Died After Buying Deadly Chemicals

  • 2025-03-19 [Older] Did TikTok Swing the Election to Cheeto Mussolini?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Protest in Tirana at Albanian government's TikTok ban

  • Futurism ☛ Space Force Says a Chinese Spacecraft Is Practicing Dogfighting Maneuvers in Orbit

    During a defense program conference this week, Space Force vice chief of space operations Michael Guetlein said that the military arm had observed "five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchrony and in control," as quoted by Defense One.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ National Guard appeals to anti-corporate Gen Z in new commercial

    Like millennials, Gen Z can’t afford to buy a house or have human children so they opt for cats and dogs and have numerous side hustles. They are always online, inundated by new technology but still yearn for the past and sometimes swear off smartphones altogether.

    They want flexible careers and to feel like what they’re doing matters.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Mask Slips at NRO - by Mike Brock

    When I wrote “The National Review Dances in Dissonance” last week, I didn't expect a direct response. Yet here we are, with senior writer Dan McLaughlin devoting an entire article to dismissing my critique without actually engaging its substance. What's revealing isn't what McLaughlin refutes—it's what he concedes through omission and rhetorical sleight of hand.

    Let's be clear about what this exchange represents. It's not a disagreement about judicial overreach or the proper boundaries of constitutional interpretation. It's about whether our system can survive the normalization of executive defiance of judicial authority. McLaughlin's response confirms precisely what my original piece argued: the National Review has positioned itself as providing intellectual cover for constitutional crisis while pretending to defend constitutional principles.

  • US News And World Report ☛ At Least 44 Killed in Niger Jihadist Attack, Authorities Say

    Islamist militants killed at least 44 civilians and severely injured 13 others during an attack on a mosque in southwest Niger on Friday, the country's defence ministry said.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Niger: 'Islamic State' kills dozens in mosque attack

    Suspected attackers from the "Islamic State" militia in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) massacred worshippers at a mosque in southwestern Niger, the country's Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

    Deaths in terrorist attacks have been on the rise since a coup in 2023 that saw the country end military cooperation with most of its former counter-terrorism partners.

  • Vox ☛ The Supreme Court’s two most troubling lawsuits against Donald Trump

    Two issues raised by some of these suits stand out, however, as Trump’s most blatant violations of the Constitution, and therefore as matters to pay particular attention to.

  • The Record ☛ Trump order on information sharing appears to have implications for DOGE [sic] and beyond | The Record from Recorded Future News

    Civil libertarians and other experts, however, call the new EO an alarming development, and say it is meant to give cover to DOGE [sic], which has been the subject of numerous lawsuits as its workers continue to root through government records and disrupt federal agencies. Trump also has previously sought to consolidate data for reasons that would infringe on civil liberties, the experts say.

  • Mike Brock ☛ Elon Musk Is Getting the War Plan Against China

    This isn't just a routine conflict of interest—it's a national security nightmare unfolding in plain sight.

    According to the New York Times, Musk will be briefed Friday on the top-secret operational plan that includes “what Chinese targets to hit, over what time period” in the event of war. This information is so sensitive that it's typically only shared with those directly in the military chain of command. Even presidents usually receive only the broad contours, not the specific operational details.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ The cancer of October 7 denial is spreading. Its antidote is this forensic account of Hamas's crimes

    All day, every day, social [control] media pullulates with pictures, recordings etc purporting to prove something. These are frequently lies, but many people, even decent people, believe them and pass them on.

    Nowhere is this more apparent than over Israel/Palestine, an issue in which the bastard progeny of Holocaust denial flourish. On October 7 2023, the worst massacres of Jews since 1945 were committed in numerous sites in Israel, near its Gaza border. The day’s death toll was 1,141, from 44 nations, plus more than 200 kidnapped and held hostage.

  • New York Times ☛ South Korea Protests Swell as Court Weighs President Yoon’s Fate

    Mass rallies for and against Yoon Suk Yeol filled the streets on Saturday as the Constitutional Court prepared to rule on whether his ill-fated imposition of martial law justified removal.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Protests intensify as South Korean court prepares to rule on impeached President

    Police are prepared to mobilise “all available equipment” on the day of the verdict.

  • New York Times ☛ Rockets Fired From Lebanon Prompt Israeli Strikes

    The volley broke months of relative quiet in northern Israel after a U.S.-backed truce. Israel retaliated by attacking sites it said were linked to Hezbollah.

  • France24 ☛ Israel launches retaliatory strikes on Lebanon amid ceasefire

    Israel struck Lebanon on Saturday in retaliation for rockets targeting Israel, in the heaviest exchange of fire since the ceasefire. Earlier, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the second time since December, sparking concern about whether the fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would hold. FRANCE 24's Rawad Taha reports from Beirut.

  • France24 ☛ Israel launches fresh waves of strikes on Lebanon in response to rocket fire

    Israel launched deadly strikes on Lebanon on Saturday in response to six rockets fired into Israeli territory, which the militant group Hezbollah denied launching. The group said Israel's accusations were a pretext "for its continued attacks on Lebanon".

  • France24 ☛ Israel launches deadly strike on Lebanon in retaliation for rocket attack

    Israel struck Lebanon on Saturday in retaliation for rockets targeting Israel, killing two, including a child, in the heaviest exchange of fire since its ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah almost four months ago. The rockets fired from Lebanon were the second ones launched since December and again sparked concern about whether the ceasefire would hold. In a statement, Hezbollah denied being responsible for the latest attack, saying it was committed to the truce.

  • France24 ☛ Protests against Neyanyahu surge amid attempt to fire security chief

    Since Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Natanyahu's attempt to fire security chief Ronen Bar – despite a court ruling against the move – regular protests against the Israeli leader are growing "and they are being joined by major forces in Israeli society", says FRANCE 24 correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky, reporting from Israel. Among them, heads of industry, commerce and labour unions who have threatened strikes that could bring the country to a halt if the government defies the courts.

  • New Yorker ☛ Will Judges Stick Together to Face Convicted Felon’s Defiance?

    “If they don’t stand up to Convicted Felon right now on this kind of power grab, then the pretenses of what the courts are for will be really exposed,” Michael Waldman, the C.E.O. of the Brennan Center for Justice, says.

  • JURIST ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man administration terminates key migration pathway for over half a million people

    The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday it will terminate the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole programs, ending a key immigration pathway that will affect more than half a million people.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli court freezes Netanyahu's bid to oust internal security chief

    Israel's attorney general said on Friday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cannot name a new internal security chief, following a supreme court decision freezing the government's bid to oust him. The unprecedented move to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has deepened divisions in the country while Israel resumes its military operations in the Gaza Strip. FRANCE 24 speaks to Guy Lurie, research fellow at the Democratic Values and Institutions Program to shed more light on the situation.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] All EU Leaders Except Orban Back Statement Reaffirming Support for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] Analysis-Financial Folly or Pressure Tactic? Cheeto Mussolini Eyes Ukraine's Occupied Nuclear Plant

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] UK PM Starmer: We Must Be Ready to React Quickly if Ukraine Peace Deal Struck

    • NL Times ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Amsterdam turns away Ukrainian refugees due to lack of shelter space

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Ukraine updates: German minister says 'Putin playing a game'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Ukraine updates: Cheeto Mussolini, Putin agree on 30-day energy truce

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy agrees to 'partial ceasefire'

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Why Czech citizens are donating record sums for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] EU Should Fund Ukraine's Access to Satellite Internet, Commission Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Speaks to Ukraine's Zelenskiy After Putin Call

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-19 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini to Speak With Ukraine's Zelenskiy at 10 A.m. ET

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Ukraine’s Forbidden Frescoes

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Avoiding Chiang Kai-shek’s Fate: Lessons for Zelenskyy to Save Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] UK PM Starmer Spoke to Ukraine's Zelenskiy Tuesday

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini and Putin Agree on Limited Ukraine Truce

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Germany's Scholz Welcomes Halt on Ukraine Energy Facility Strikes as 'First Step'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Administration Halts Program to Track Abducted Ukrainian Children, Lawmakers Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] UK PM Starmer Speaks to Ukraine's Zelenskiy on Ceasefire Talks Progress

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Zelenskiy Calls for Blocking Moscow's Attempts to Drag Out War After Putin-Cheeto Mussolini Call

    • Vox ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini’s call with Putin, briefly explained

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Ukraine: Cheeto Mussolini says he will discuss ceasefire with Putin

    • The Local SE ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Ukrainians in Sweden warned they may have received incorrect tax statements

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Says He Will Talk to Putin on Tuesday as He Pushes for End to Ukraine War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Says Will Speak With Putin on Tuesday About Ending War in Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini’s Strategic Twist in the Ukraine War: A Path to Resolution or New Challenges for Stakeholders?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] How much will Cheeto Mussolini White House back Ukraine?

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] Erdogan, Cheeto Mussolini Discuss Ukraine, Syria, Defence Issues, Turkey Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] Lithuania Backs Plan to Double EU Military Aid for Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Appoints New Chief of General Staff to Speed up Reforms

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-16 [Older] Zelenskyy Names New Chief of General Staff to Enhance Ukraine's Combat Effectiveness

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Are Polish attitudes to Ukrainian refugees souring?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Ukraine updates: Starmer seeks support in coalition call

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] War in Ukraine: What is Putin's negotiation strategy?

    • The Age AU ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini asks Putin to hold fire as Ukraine urges US to step up pressure on Moscow

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Starmer Tells Global Leaders to 'Keep the Pressure' on Putin Over Ceasefire in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Starmer Tells Global Leaders to 'Keep the Pressure' on Putin Over Ceasefire in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] Zelenskiy Presses Allies for Security Guarantees, Foreign Troops in Ukraine

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] After Cheeto Mussolini appeal, Putin says he will spare Ukrainians in Kursk if they surrender

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] UK's Starmer Calls on Allies to Make Concrete Commitments at Ukraine Meeting

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Calls Discussions With Putin 'Productive', Urges Him to Spare Ukrainian Troops

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] Ukraine's Zelenskiy Says There Is Now a Good Chance to End War

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-14 [Older] US Still Deciding on Conditions to Sign Minerals Deal, Ukrainian Official Says

    • France24 ☛ Three killed in Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia

      Russian drones killed three people and wounded 12 in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said Saturday. The attack underlined Moscow's intention to pursue aerial attacks even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities.

    • France24 ☛ Russian strikes target Ukraine's energy infrastructure

      Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 12, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire. Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US President The Insurrectionist spoke with the countries’ leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off limits to attack.

    • JURIST ☛ UN chief welcomes agreements to end energy attacks in Ukraine

      UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday welcomed announcements by the presidents of the US and Ukraine about the extension of the ceasefire to the Black Sea trade routes as an important move that saves lives, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that the ceasefire brings about just peace.

    • RFERL ☛ Deadly Attacks Continue Despite Search For Ukraine-Russia Cease-fire

      Russian air strikes continued to kill civilians in Ukraine in the early morning hours of March 23, officials in Kyiv said, even as the rest of the world discussed a potential cease-fire and a day after a family of three died in attacks in the Zaporizhzhya region.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Attempts to Resolve Global Conflicts Quickly Face Diplomatic Reality

      Allies say the foreign policy version of “flood the zone” is working. But critics argue that the hurry-up approach in Israel, Ukraine and Iran may not lead to stable, durable solutions to conflicts around the world.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Regions Key To Ending War, Says US Envoy Steve Witkoff

      US envoy Steve Witkoff says the status of the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia is central to ending the war between Moscow and Kyiv.

• Environment

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] In the Remote Amazon, Midwives Care for Women Stranded by Drought

  • Court House News ☛ NYC will eventually have to abandon part of its water supply if it keeps getting saltier

    The suburban reservoirs that supply 10% of New York City's vaunted drinking water are getting saltier due to decades of road salt being spread near the system — and they will eventually have to be abandoned if nothing is done to reverse the trend, city officials warn.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ Three years after China Eastern plane crash, regulator has not released report

      Relatives were still waiting to learn what caused the plane to nosedive from cruising altitude.

    • Terence Eden ☛ What does a “Personal Net Zero” look like?

      19MWh of electricity stolen from the sun and pumped into our home.

      That's an average of 3,800 kWh every year. But what does that actually mean?

    • The Atlantic ☛ What the JFK File Dump Actually Revealed

      This is an irrelevant detail in an irrelevant document. As far as anyone knows, O’Connell had nothing to do with the assassination; the inclusion of his story was probably just a by-product of an overly broad records request. But there it was on Tuesday evening, when the National Archives and Record Administration uploaded to its website about 63,400 pages of “JFK Assassination Records.” Given Trump’s order, the release of all this information sounded dramatic, but much of what has been revealed is about as interesting as that driver’s-license detail. Many of these documents were already public with minor redactions, and many of them have almost nothing to do with the Kennedy assassination and never did. This is why the Assassination Records Review Board, which processed them in the 1990s, labeled so many of them “Not Believed Relevant.”

    • Michigan Advance ☛ Standoff on FOIA reform and House transparency efforts continue as the sun sets on Sunshine Week • Michigan Advance

      Moss was hopeful they would be able to replicate the same success they saw in 2015 and pass their plan to extend FOIA to the governor’s office and the Legislature through the Republican-led House. However, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall quickly thwarted those plans, declaring the bills dead at a Jan. 30 press conference, telling reporters the bills would be referred to the House Government Operations Committee, which acts as a functional graveyard for legislation.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Pro-Beijing newspaper urges HK tycoon Li Ka Shing to scrap Panama port sale

      The growing calls on him to reconsider the port sale highlight the political risks for firms based in Greater China.

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Mentour Pilot on speeding up

      Mentour Pilot’s latest episode about Jet2 Flight 2152 was thankfully an example of a near miss, not an incident. His team also keep doing a stellar job; the production values of his channel, and his clear explanations, have long surpassed all those Air Crash Investigation-style shows. Flown over, you could say. But I digress.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Two killed in South Korea wildfire, hundreds told to evacuate

      The fire began in Sancheong county on the afternoon of March 21.

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea wildfires: 4 dead, hundreds displaced as govt declares emergency

      At least 3 different regions in the south of the country are affected by the fires.

  • Overpopulation

    • Science Alert ☛ Earth Could Have Billions More People Than We Ever Realized

      But because these estimations have mostly been calibrated in urban rather than rural settings, inaccuracies in rural areas have gone undetected, according to researchers from Aalto University in Finland.

      Rural regions account for 43 percent of the world's population – estimated to be just over 8 billion, at the last count – and if the calculations in this new study are correct then the number of unaccounted-for people could potentially stretch into the billions.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pro-Dihydroxyacetone Man senator meets China’s economy czar amid trade tensions

    Mr Steve Daines was to meet with Premier Li Qiang on March 23.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-13 [Older] Fact check: Are tariffs a tax hike on foreign countries?

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-03-15 [Older] End Of The Line For Roomba? Failed Amazon Deal Leaves iRobot Fighting For Survival [Ed: Amazon is about 160 billion dollars in debt, many divisions lose a lot of money]

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] Was the Teamsters’ Amazon Strike a Success?

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia government to expand scheme to help first-time property buyers as election looms

    Housing affordability is a key issue in the closely fought general election due by May.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ A Montana Senator Seeks to Be Convicted Felon’s Voice in Beijing

    Senator Steve Daines said in an interview that in meetings with Chinese officials, he called for talks between Hell Toupée and China’s leader, Pooh-tin Jinping.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US Hell Toupée admits MElon ‘susceptible’ to China pressure

    By Danny Kemp President The Insurrectionist said Friday that MElon should not be allowed to see top secret US plans for any war with China, in a rare admission that his billionaire ally’s business links raised potential conflicts of interest.

  • New York Times ☛ How MElon’s DOGE Cuts Leave a Vacuum That China Can Fill

    The Department of Government Efficiency is shuttering organizations that Beijing worried about most, or actively sought to subvert.

  • Bryan Lunduke ☛ Tech Journalist Encourages Fire Bombing Teslas, EFF Shares Lessons on How to Not Get Caught

    "New cars bought recently?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Why are Germans being detained by US immigration?

    Immigration officials in the United States are known for being aggressive, even combative, during routine passport checks at the country's borders. However, citizens of the European Union are ostensibly allowed to travel to the US visa-free for 90 days, provided they fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form and pass the related background check.

  • The Atlantic ☛ Americans Are Buying an Escape Plan

    But if Trump expects a flood of takers, he has it backwards: The international rich aren’t trying to come here, so much as Americans are trying to get out. U.S. citizens now represent the majority of clients looking for an exit, through foreign citizenship, permanent residence, or a visa that allows them to live abroad.

  • Vox ☛ Limits on housing and energy have made politics toxic in the US

    In Abundance, Thompson and Klein’s big idea is that American politics and life for the past 50-plus years has been warped by an “ideology of scarcity” that has artificially reduced the supply of vital goods like housing and energy through a growing thicket of government restrictions and regulations. They argue for embracing a politics of abundance that encourages building and innovation and unlocks American prosperity, aiming for a future of “more” rather than “less” for everyone.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Language of Surrender

    The corruption of language is often the first sign of democratic decay. When words lose their meaning—when they become detached from reality and repurposed to disguise rather than reveal truth—we lose the shared vocabulary necessary for maintaining democratic governance.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan, China, South Korea meet at geopolitical ‘turning point in history’

    The meeting is the first between the countries’ top diplomats since 2023.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US looms large as foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea meet

    The timeframe for a leaders' summit was left vague and non-committal - "at the earliest convenient time”.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • New York Times ☛ Kennedy Instructs Anti-Vaccine Group to Remove Fake C.D.C. Page

      Children’s Health Defense, founded by the health secretary, had published online a vaccine-safety page that looked like the agency’s but that suggested links to autism.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Arrest and beating of Russia comedian in Belarus sparks human rights concerns

    A member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights shared her outrage on Thursday over the arrest and beating of a Russian comedian in Belarus, urging Russian authorities to protect the rights of Russian citizens in foreign states.

  • Greece ☛ X suspends Turkish opposition accounts

    The suspension comes amid continued protests over the arrest of mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, a member of the opposition CHP social democrat party, on charges of corruption.

    Turkish law allows the government to request such suspensions.

  • Techdirt ☛ Democratic Senators Team Up With MAGA To Hand Trump A Censorship Machine

    At the exact moment when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are actively dismantling democratic institutions and working to silence critics, a group of Democratic Senators have decided to collaborate with Trump’s supporters to make it easier to censor speech online.

  • New York Times ☛ Columbia University’s Concessions to Trump Seen as a Watershed

    Threatened with losing $400 million in federal funding, the university agreed to overhaul its protest policies and security practices.

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ Labor Must Take a Stand for Free Speech

    You can’t be neutral on a moving train. Working people across our country should see Mr Khalil’s detainment for what it is: an attempt to silence our voices, roll back our individual liberties, and diminish our collective power. We must resist these attacks on our fundamental freedoms with every tool at our disposal. I believe this moment is a clarion call for the labor movement: we must stand up for Mahmoud Khalil.

  • The Washington Post ☛ Meta scrambled to silence a tell-all book. Now it’s a bestseller.

    Meta’s legal action is the company’s latest move in a weeks-long campaign to undercut Wynn-Williams, a former global policy director for the company, and her 400-page memoir, “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.” The book, currently No. 3 on the Amazon bestsellers list, chronicles the six years Wynn-Williams spent in boardrooms and aboard private jets with top Meta executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and global affairs head Joel Kaplan, as they attempted to woo world leaders and address public policy issues. She alleges some Meta leaders engaged in sexual harassment, while the company turned a blind eye to the ways its platforms could harm users around the world.

  • The Verge ☛ Lawmakers are trying to repeal Section 230 again

    Section 230 shields any “interactive computer service” or its users from legal liability for speech that was produced by someone else — making it possible for social media platforms, as well as blogs and even listserv operators, to moderate content without fearing lengthy litigation over each decision. But critics have argued that it either reduces the incentives for large social networks to police illegal content like abuse and harassment, or, conversely, that it gives these platforms too much freedom to remove content that’s not illegal.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Google finds news has 'no measurable impact' on its ad revenue

    Liu said: “The results have now come in: European news content in Search has no measurable impact on ad revenue for Google.”

    Liu said that when news content was removed, there was “no change” to search ad revenue and a 0.8% drop in usage “which indicates that any lost usage was from queries that generated minimal or no revenue”.

  • RFERL ☛ VOA Sues Overseer USAGM To Restore Operations After Trump Order

    Many media rights watchdogs and analysts have said the decision halting the operations of VOA and other publicly funded broadcasters will embolden authoritarians around the globe with the loss of “a critical lifeline” of information for their populations.

    “What is happening to the VOA Journalists is not just the chilling of First Amendment speech; it is a government shutdown of journalism, a prior restraint that kills content before it can be created,” the filing says.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • BIA Net ☛ İstanbul governor restricts entries to city, extends demonstration ban as protests continue

    Mayor İmamoğlu was transferred to the courthouse amid heightened security measures in the area.

  • [Old] Indian Express ☛ How China invaded Tibet and annexed it | Explained News - The Indian Express

    When Chinese troops advanced into Tibet on October 7, 1950, most Tibetans were unaware of the invasion. Dawa Norbu, a toddler at the time, wrote in 1978 for Worldview magazine: “The news about the Chinese invasion of 1950 reached us sometime in 1952.”

    Such was Tibet in 1950. On the “roof of the world”, a remote land far removed from both the boons and banes of modernity, news travelled slowly, and concern even slower. “Despite the alarming news, no one in Sakya sharpened his sword or dusted his bow and arrows,” Norbu wrote.

  • RFA ☛ EXPLAINED: Why March is a sensitive month for Tibetans – Radio Free Asia

    On March 12, 1959, two days after the uprising, thousands of Tibetan women went into the streets of Lhasa to protest the violent crackdown and demand Tibet’s freedom. Many were arrested, tortured, or killed.

  • Mike Brock ☛ What Is It, Exactly, That Being an American Means to You?

    On March 15, three planes touched down in El Salvador. They carried 261 men deported from the United States. Most were Venezuelans—people who fled one nightmare only to be thrust into another. They were designated as “gang members” by the current administration and deported with little or no due process. No trials. No evidence presented. Just labeled, processed, and removed.

  • Los Angeles Times ☛ Contributor: What happens when Washington runs amok? Ask a Native American

    Native Americans have been living uneasily under just such a regime of overreach for well over a century. Beginning in the 1880s (although its roots were in place much earlier) the Supreme Court developed the Plenary Power Doctrine in federal Indian law.

  • RFERL ☛ UN Children's Agency Calls On Taliban To Lift Ban On Girls' Education

    Afghanistan's ban on girls' secondary education "continues to harm the future of millions of Afghan girls," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on March 22. “The consequences for these girls -- and for Afghanistan -- are catastrophic.”

  • JURIST ☛ Top Italy court holds adoption law excluding single-parents unconstitutional

    The Italian Constitutional Court held Friday that the law barring single-parents from adopting foreign children is unconstitutional. The matter was referred to the top court following the 2019 request from an unmarried woman, Raffaella Brogi, who approached the juvenile court to seek a declaration of eligibility for international adoption of a minor.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • The Anarcat ☛ Antoine Beaupré: Losing the war for the free internet

    Warning: this is a long ramble I wrote after an outage of my home internet. You'll get your regular scheduled programming shortly.

    I didn't realize this until relatively recently, but we're at war.

    Fascists and capitalists are trying to take over the world, and it's bringing utter chaos.

  • The Anarcat ☛ Antoine Beaupré: Minor outage at Teksavvy business

    This morning, internet was down at home. The last time I had such an issue was in February 2023, when my provider was Oricom. Now I'm with a business service at Teksavvy Internet (TSI), in which I pay 100$ per month for a 250/50 mbps business package, with a static IP address, on which I run, well, everything: email services, this website, etc.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • BoingBoing ☛ USPTO patent policy change empowers patent trolls

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports that the USPTO released a steaming pile of bureaucratic feculence last month titled "USPTO rescinds memorandum addressing discretionary denial procedures." Translated into English, that says, "We're helping patent trolls be more terrible." The memo reinstates something called "discretionary denials" which is fancy-talk for "we won't look at your challenge to an obviously garbage patent because dear leader told us not to."

    Here's the truly stupid part: If some patent troll already sued you in their favorite kangaroo court (aka, the Western District of Texas), the Patent Office can now say "oh sorry, there's already a lawsuit, guess we can't review this probably-invalid patent!"

  • Software Patents

    • [Old] CRN ☛ Patent Protections At Heart Of Microsoft-Novell Deal

      Under the agreement, Microsoft will make an upfront payment of $108 million to Novell for patent protections, while Novell will pay out at least $40 million over five years to Microsoft for similar patent considerations and cooperation. The total expense to Microsoft, however, comes to $442 million, since the Redmond, Wash. developer will also pay $240 million to Novell for Linux service subscriptions it intends to dole out to customers, $60 million to market combined Windows-Linux solutions, and $34 million to set up a sales force to pitch a joint offering that includes Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise Server.

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-03-17 [Older] GAME OF THRONES disqualifies Game of Döner from trade mark

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-03-18 [Older] General Court: Conceptual identity in different languages insufficient for likelihood of confusion

• Copyrights

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-03-20 [Older] US Court of Appeal confirms human authorship requirement, including for AI

  • New York Times ☛ Mariah Carey Did Not Copy ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ From Earlier Hit, Judge Rules

    Two songwriters had filed a $20 million lawsuit accusing her of infringing on their copyright monopoly of a song with the same name: “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”