Leftovers

• Evgeni Golov: naming things is hard

  I got a new laptop (a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 12, more on that later) and as always with new pets, it needed a name.

  My naming scheme is roughly "short japanese words that somehow relate to the machine".

• Science

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Nasa’s Curiosity rover has found the longest chain carbon molecules yet on Mars. It’s a significant finding in the search for alien life

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] How viruses blur the boundaries of life

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] The bizarre-looking dinosaur challenging what we know about the evolution of fingers

• Career/Education

  • New York Times ☛ Obama Calls for Universities to Stand Up to Convicted Felon Administration Threats

    As the Convicted Felon administration threatens universities, the former president suggested schools shouldn’t be intimidated. But he also offered a critique of campus culture, saying it had too often shut out opposing voices.

  • Pro Publica ☛ Many University of Illinois Athletes Not Disclosing NIL Deals

    Amid a standout season last year, University of Illinois men’s basketball stars found themselves in high demand as they reached the Elite Eight in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

    Three players appeared in a commercial for a local BMW dealership.

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Childhood PC rebuild: A UN-1061 MIO card!

    I found a scanned 1992 purchase order for a PC-Line 486 SX-25 desktop back in March. This was our first family PC, and the first computer I ever used. It was unfortunately ewasted a long time ago, but I thought finally having the specifications would be a great opportunity to try and rebuild it. This machine was my universe as a kid, and I’d love to be reunited with it… in a matter of speaking.

    I since trawled through hundreds more documents in that scanned folder, and hit more paydirt! AAAAAAH! I now know the exact model of motherboard, the hard drive, the disk drives, and its various ISA cards. I am unfathomably happy at this turn of events! No seriously, I was shaking with joy. Should I have been? Probably not! But, is a word with three letters.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel discontinues Unison app for connecting PCs and smartphones

    Intel set to discontinue its Unison app that connects smartphones with premium backdoored Windows PCs.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Avoiding (smart)phones

    I’ve posted here many times how I have a love/hate relationship with smartphones. Where once the tech used to excite and interest me, I see them today as a necessary evil; a ball and chain that makes me accessible 24/7 in a way I didn’t accept, approve, or opt into.

    But the key word there is “necessary” because… are they? A few of you sent me a video from Eddy Burback in which he bemoans his smartphone’s negative impact on his time and attention, so he got rid of it for a month and went back to a landline. I’ve seen a lot of younger people talk about a similar “digital detox” where they rid themselves of these devices as well, in some cases going back to a feature or “dumb” phone. I’m seeing the appeal of this more and more.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] The spring clock change may affect your mind and body longer than you realise

  • Pro Publica ☛ Abbott Baby Formula Factory Is Using Unsanitary Practices, Workers Say

    Workers at one of the nation’s largest baby formula plants say the Abbott Laboratories facility is engaging in unsanitary practices similar to those that led it to temporarily shut down just three years ago, sparking a nationwide formula shortage.

    Current and former employees told ProPublica that they have seen the plant in Sturgis, Michigan, take shortcuts when cleaning manufacturing equipment and testing for microbes. The employees said leaks in the factory are sometimes not fixed, a dangerous problem that can promote bacterial growth. They also said workers at the facility do not always take required swabs to check for pathogens while performing maintenance during production. Supervisors have urged workers to increase production and have retaliated against workers who complained about problems, the employees said.

  • University of Michigan ☛ Bold moves in COVID-19’s early days power new possibilities

    Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, U-M leaders brought engineers into emergency discussions to identify dangers and protect public health.

  • ‘Narcos: Mexico’ actor Manuel Masalva ‘fighting for his life’ in coma after bacterial infection

    “My brother is fighting for his life far away from home,” one of the actor's friends revealed in a Fentanylware (TikTok) earlier this week.

  • Kev Quirk ☛ YouTube Shorts Are Like Crack

    Back in February I decided to admit defeat in the battle against YouTube ads, and I signed up for Premium. Since then, I've become utterly addicted to shorts. It's very, very sad.

    The YouTube Premium experience is extremely good. No ads, the site loads super quick, and YouTube even put up a "Skip" button when there's an advert detected within the video, from the creator.

    It's nice. So nice that I've found myself looking more and more at stupid, pointless shorts whenever I get 5 minutes spare. This has result in my screen time going through the roof. Not to mention pissing my wife off as every time she looks at me, I have my phone in my hand, which isn't like me.

• Proprietary

  • Social Control Media

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] TikTok sale: Popular video app's US future comes down to the wire

    • CBC ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Amazon among bidders to acquire TikTok as deadline looms for a buyer to be found [Ed: Anything scarier than social control media being controlled by people like these?]

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Amazon Has Bid to Buy TikTok, New York Times Reports [Ed: Bezos wants to control social control media, not just media]

    • Make Tech Easier ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Use TikTok’s Time Away Feature to Force Teens to Take a Break From TikTok [Ed: Or just quit it]

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini Says TikTok Sale Deal to Come Before Saturday Deadline [Ed: Didn't happen. Peace with Russia restored on January 21st as promised and TikTok sold by week's end.]

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man gives Fentanylware (TikTok) 75 more days to find non-Chinese buyer

    US President The Insurrectionist signed an executive Friday giving video-sharing app Fentanylware (TikTok) 75 more days to find a non-Chinese buyer, extending the deadline for a potential ban in the US for the second time since coming to office. The app owned by Chinese company ByteDance has more than 170 million American users.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese tourists pine for Taiwan’s return as island surrounded by Beijing jets

    By Mary Yang Chinese tourists visiting the country’s closest point to Taiwan wished for the democratic island’s return to Beijing’s rule, as their leadership called its president a “parasite” and unleashed ships and jets in drills to encircle it.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Strikes in Yemen Burning Through Munitions With Limited Success

    In just three weeks, the Pentagon has used $200 million worth of munitions in Operation Rough Rider against the Houthi militia, officials said.

  • New York Times ☛ What One Image Shows About a Strike in Gaza

    What one image shows about the aftermath of a strike on a shelter in Gaza.

  • JURIST ☛ South Korea constitutional court confirms impeachment of president Yoon Suk Yeol

    The Constitutional Court of Korea unanimously ruled to confirm the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol via oral decision Thursday. Under Article 68 of the Korean Constitution, a new election for a Korean president must commence within 60 days.

  • Security Week ☛ In Other News: Fashion Company Apple Improving Malware Detection, Cybersecurity Funding, Cyber Command Chief Fired

    Noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: Fashion Company Apple adding TCC events to Endpoint Security, cybersecurity funding report for Q1 2025, Convicted Felon fires the head of NSA and Cyber Command.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Exclusive-Germany Funds Eutelsat Internet in Ukraine as Musk Tensions Rise

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Exclusive-Turkey Says Any Ukraine Peace Deal Hard to Digest - but Better Than More Death

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Ukrainian Team to Head to US to Discuss New Minerals Deal Framework

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Ukraine: Soldiers on the front line have little hope of peace

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] What Is Vladimir Putin's 'Passportization'? The Sinister Choice Facing Ukrainians in Occupied Territories

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Ukraine Has Not Discussed New Aid With US Yet, Presidential Office Deputy Head Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Ukraine Has Solved Some Manpower Shortages in War Effort, US General Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] EBRD to Provide 1 Billion Euros to Ukraine's War-Ravaged Energy Sector in 2025

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] NATO Allies Have Pledged Over $21 Billion in Aid to Ukraine in 2025, Rutte Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Ukraine Prepares Corruption Charges in High-Profile Procurement Case

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: German top diplomat arrives in Kyiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] More Republicans Want the US to Focus on Ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza, a New AP-NORC Poll Finds

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Germany Sees Ukraine Truce Efforts as Deadlocked, While China Says the Talks Are Encouraging

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Poll Shows More Than 50% of Ukrainians Fear Cheeto Mussolini's Efforts May Lead to Unjust Peace

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Ukraine Says It Will Work With US Towards Mutually Acceptable Minerals Deal

    • CPJ ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Ukrainian journalist assaulted after report on mishandled corpses

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini says 'very angry' with Putin over Ukraine truce talks

    • The Local SE ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Sweden makes largest military donation to Ukraine since invasion

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] On Ukraine's front in Donetsk, people face uncertain future

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] Finland's Stubb Says He Told Cheeto Mussolini Deadline Needed for Ukraine Ceasefire

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Unpopular at Home, Emmanuel Macron Plays at World Leader

    • NL Times ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Ukrainian man arrested after stabbing five in Amsterdam, multiple IDs found

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Suspect in Amsterdam Stabbing Rampage Is Ukrainian Man, Police Says

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Ukraine updates: Putin suggests UN administration of Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Ukraine Working to Ensure Minerals Deal With US Reflects Its Interests, Official Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Putin Suggests Putting Ukraine Under U.N.-Sponsored External Governance, Boasts Battlefield Gains

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-27 [Older] French, British urge ‘reassurance force’ for Ukraine

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] NATO: Europe scolds Russia for rejecting Cheeto Mussolini's truce push

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] 'Ball Is in the Russian Court' Regarding Ukraine Ceasefire, Says NATO's Rutte

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Russia Expels Three Moldovan Diplomats in Tit-For-Tat Retaliatory Move, Foreign Ministry Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Russia Jails Defence Official for Seven Years on Bribery Charge

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Russian Commander Says Situation in Belgorod 'Under Control' While Battles Continue in Kursk

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Russia Urges Restraint on All Sides Over Iran's Nuclear Programme

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Russia Vows Military Backing for Sahel Juntas' Joint Force

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Tanker Barred From India Transferring Its Russian Oil at Sea, Sources Say

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-04 [Older] Vatican's Foreign Minister Discusses Ukraine With Russia's Lavrov

    • NL Times ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Suspected Russian spies says he only had ASML secrets to maintain own knowledge, skills

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Russian Drone Attack Strikes Dwelling in Ukraine's Kharkiv, Injuries Reported, Mayor Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Russian Jehovah's Witness Jailed for Managing Extremist 'Cells'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Russia Opens Criminal Case Against Elderly Father of Former Navalny Ally, TASS Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] Zelenskiy Visits Sumy Region, Bordering Russia's Kursk Region

    • Vox ☛ 2025-04-03 [Older] You have questions about Cheeto Mussolini’s tariffs. We have answers.

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Moldova Says Russian Agents Spent 200 Million Euro to Rig Votes Last Year

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Russia and Ukraine Trade New Accusations on Breaches of Energy Truce

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Russia Blasts 'Paranoid' UK Over Foreign Influence Register

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] Russia Charges Farming Billionaire Moshkovich With Embezzling 30 Billion Roubles, TASS Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-02 [Older] UK Sanctions Pro-Russia Network in Moldova Over Election Interference

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] How a Bulgarian cleaning lady became a Russian spy

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia says it can't accept US peace deal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Russia Says It Cannot Accept U.S. Proposals on Ukraine 'In Current Form'

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Finland to Exit Landmines Treaty, Hike Defence Spending Given Russia Threat, PM Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Poland Charges Ukrainian With Spying for Russia

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Putin Is Open to Restoring Russia-Finland Ties if Helsinki Is, Kremlin Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Russia Accuses Ukraine of Attacking Its Energy Infrastructure Despite Moratorium on Such Strikes

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] Russia Condemns 'Ultimatums' After Cheeto Mussolini Threatens to Bomb Iran

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-04-01 [Older] UK to Place Russia on Highest Tier of Foreign Influence Register

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Climate Crisis and the War in Ukraine

    • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Why Putin Decided to Invade Ukraine: A War for Ego, Not Russian Interests

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Russia: Supreme Court to consider suspending ban on Taliban

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Ukraine updates: Russia says Putin open to talks with Cheeto Mussolini

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-31 [Older] Russia Pounds Kharkiv for Second Night in Row, Ukraine Says

    • CBC ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] Russian drone attack kills 2 in Ukraine; Cheeto Mussolini 'angry' at Putin over Zelenskyy comments

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] 'Pissed Off' at Putin, Cheeto Mussolini Threatens Tariffs on Russian Oil if Moscow Blocks Ukraine Deal

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] 2 People Killed and Dozens Wounded in Russian Attack on Kharkiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] Russian Special Forces Injure Shooting Suspect in Murmansk, RIA Agency Reports

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-30 [Older] Russia, US Discussing Rare Earth Metals Projects, Putin Envoy Says

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Welcome Down Under: Russian-Born Daria Kasatkina Becomes an Australian Citizen

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Russian Drone Attack Kills Two in Ukraine's Kharkiv

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-29 [Older] Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Expects Strong Western Response to Russian Drone Attacks

    • CPJ ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko sentenced to 22 additional months in prison

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Why the Black Sea is so important to Russia and Ukraine

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Months After First Incursion, Ukrainian Troops Are Fighting Inside a Second Russian Region

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Ukrainian Gas Firm Reports Damage From Russian Strike Amid Energy Ceasefire

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Russia Says It Reserves the Right to Resume Striking Ukrainian Energy Targets if Kyiv Flouts Moratorium

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Russia Says Ukraine 'Virtually Destroys' Gas Infrastructure in Sudzha

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2025-03-28 [Older] Turkey's Erdogan Tells Russia's Putin That Black Sea Ship Safety Can Contribute to Peace

    • TruthOut ☛ 2025-03-27 [Older] Greenpeace Confronts US and Russian Gas Tankers at Sea, Demands EU Stop Imports

    • International Business Times ☛ 2025-03-27 [Older] Tourist Submarine Packed with Russian Visitors Sinks Near Popular Egyptian Resort

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ India minister triggers uproar after telling startups to create tech like China, not ice cream

    Commerce minister Piyush Goyal's speech was seen as an apparent attack on quick commerce businesses.

  • New York Times ☛ Garbage Strike in UK’s Second Largest City Leaves Trash Piled High

    A standoff between garbage collectors and municipal officials in Britain’s second largest city has left an estimated 17,000 tons of trash on the streets.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China strikes back at Convicted Felon with 34 percent tariff — bans some rare earth exports to the U.S.

    China applied a 34% tariff on all goods coming from America., as well as banning the export of seven rare earth metals to the U.S.

  • France24 ☛ Fed's Powell warns tariffs will boost inflation and slow growth

    President The Insurrectionist's new tariffs are "larger than expected" and the economic fallout including higher inflation and slower growth likely will be as well, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday in remarks that pointed to the potentially difficult set of decisions ahead for the central bank. For more information, FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee interviewed Mignon Houston. Further analysis by George Magnus and Fraser Jackson.

  • New York Times ☛ Stocks Tumble as Investors Balk at Tariff Plan

    Stocks hadn’t fallen this far this fast since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. A 9.1 percent drop in the S&P 500 is the steepest weekly decline since March 2020.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Pro Publica ☛ Ken Paxton Won’t Face Federal Corruption Charges, Gaining Momentum for Likely Senate Run

    Attorney General Ken Paxton has spent much of his career, which has taken him to the heights of Republican politics, trailed by a raft of criminal and civil accusations.

    But in the final days of the Biden administration, The Associated Press reported Thursday, the Justice Department defused the most serious legal threat he faced — a federal criminal probe into allegations of corruption — by declining to prosecute and effectively ending the investigation.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New York Times ☛ Something Else for Europe and the U.S. to Disagree About: ‘Free Speech’

    The two have long been divided on whether speech can be restricted, and when. Under the Convicted Felon administration, the gap is widening.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ ‘BGP Flowspec doesn’t suck. We’re just using it wrong’

    Guest Post: How proper testing and best practices can unlock the true potential of BGP Flowspec.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• France24 ☛ US trade war: EU prepares to retaliate with Big Tech in its sights

  France says a response from the EU to Convicted Felon's new 20 percent tariff will "probably" come at the end of the month. A government spokesperson told French media RTL that services will be targeted, not just goods, including digital products from Big Tech companies like Surveillance Giant Google and Apple.

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ No Provisional Rights for Expired Patents

    by Dennis Crouch

    In a unique decision, the Federal Circuit has dismissed an appeal seeking to obtain a patent monopoly that would have issued after its expiration date. In re Forest, No. 2023-1178 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 3, 2025).   The dismissal on jurisdictional grounds holds that the would-be patent monopoly owner (here, the inventor) has no standing to appeal because any resulting patent monopoly would have no zero patent monopoly term. 

  • JUVE ☛ Epic battle over heart valves continues as EPO revokes two Edwards patents

    In a combined hearing, Technical Board of Appeal 3.2.02 under chairman Alvazzi Delfrate recently revoked two divisional patents from the same family (case IDs: T 1268/23 and T 1176/22). EP 3 590 471 and EP 3 494 929 belong to Edwards Lifesciences and protect a low-profile delivery system for transcatheter heart valves.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”: The Unified Patent Court’s Bold Stance on Anti-Suit Injunctions [Ed: UPC is illegal and must be scrapped ASAP; otherwise, EPO corruption has not only spread to the EU but also the system of justice, i.e. the criminals are in charge]

      As the Rolling Stones once quipped, “You can’t always get what you want”—especially if that “want” is an anti-suit injunction in Europe.

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Technology and Free Software

    • notes from a week of adspotting

      First: I encountered far fewer ads this week than I would have in an ordinary week. Partly because I wanted to Do Nothing for spring break and partly because my car's brakes took three days to fix, I spent most of spring break at home.

      Which isn't to say I did not encounter ads. I definitely did.

      Second: If I'd tried to do this on a regular day-job week, I would have quit.

      Despite feeling pretty well insulated from ads this week, I still saw more ads that I can catalog here. This post will be a rundown of the ads I (a) remember or (b) that entered my house (mostly in the form of junk mail). If I'd tried to catalog all the ads I get assaulted with over my workplace's adblocker-less Internet, I'd have given it up as hopeless.