Leftovers

• Science

  • Stanford University ☛ We joined the AAUP to defend science — and you should too

    Lauren Tompkins and Alyssa Burgart urge Stanford professors to join the American Association of University Professors, arguing that the University needs to defend its programs and research in the sciences.

  • Science Alert ☛ Earth's First Crust May Have Looked Surprisingly Like The One We Have Today

    This is unexpected.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'City Killer' Asteroid's Origin Traced to an Unexpected Part of The Solar System

    We now know what it looks like too.

  • Science Alert ☛ Earth's Oceans Were Once Green, Says Study of Volcanic Waters

    Could they change colour again?

  • Science Alert ☛ Could Stonehenge Be a Copy of This Even More Ancient Monument?

    Oldest of its kind in Britain.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Bizarre Shape-Shifting Liquid Bends The Laws of Thermodynamics

    Would you look at that!

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ You Shouldn’t Build An X-Ray Machine, But You Could

    Ever wanted your own X-ray machine? Of course you have! Many of us were indoctrinated with enticing ads for X-ray specs and if you like to see what’s inside things, what’s better than a machine that looks inside things? [Hyperspace Pirate] agrees, and he shows you the dangers of having your own X-ray machine in the video below.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Tariffs on China to increase to 104% as White House talks about building iPhones in the US

    Tariffs on Chinese products are set to rise to at least 104% today after Hell Toupée warned the U.S. would strike back, following China retaliating with its own tariff increase. China vowed to “fight to the end,” introducing a retaliatory tariff package after which Convicted Felon said he’d tack 50% more onto the 54%.

  • Hackaday ☛ Making Liquid Oxygen: Far From Easy But Worth The Effort

    Normally, videos over at The Signal Path channel on YouTube have a certain vibe, namely teardowns and deep dives into high-end test equipment for the microwave realm. And while we always love to see that kind of content, this hop into the world of cryogenics and liquid oxygen production shows that [Shahriar] has other interests, too.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ These 7 Common Daily Habits Could Be Damaging Your Kidneys

    They can all be changed.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Virus-Trapping Gum Could Help Neutralize Herpes Infections

    Munch on that.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Pentagon welcomes back troops discharged over COVID-19 vaccine, offers back pay

    "It is well worth the department's time and investment in welcoming these former service members back. It's the right thing to do," Tim Dill said.

• Proprietary

  • Slop

    • Hackaday ☛ Ask Hackaday: Vibe Coding

      Vibe coding is the buzzword of the moment. What is it? The practice of writing software by describing the problem to an AI large language model and using the code it generates. It’s not quite as simple as just letting the AI do your work for you because the developer is supposed to spend time honing and testing the result, and its proponents claim it gives a much more interactive and less tedious coding experience. Here at Hackaday, we are pleased to see the rest of the world catch up, because back in 2023, we were the first mainstream hardware hacking news website to embrace it, to deal with a breakfast-related emergency.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Federal News Network ☛ IRS acting commissioner is resigning over deal to send immigrants’ tax data to ICE, AP sources say

      The Internal Revenue Service’s acting commissioner is resigning over a deal to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S. Two people familiar with Melanie Krause’s decision confirmed the intended resignation to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ US drone strikes on cartels ‘wouldn’t resolve anything,’ says Sheinbaum: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

    The president also said on Tuesday that in Mexico, "there is no enforced disappearance [perpetrated] by the state," contradicting a recent statement by the United Nations' Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED).

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Lives cut short Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih says goodbye to the children killed in Russia’s latest strike on the city — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia releases L.A. woman arrested over Ukrainian charity donation in prisoner swap with U.S. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine’s top commander says Russian offensive on Sumy and Kharkiv has ‘already begun’ — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ U.S. pulls troops from Ukraine aid hub in Poland

    • Meduza ☛ Overnight Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities damage civilian businesses and injure at least 20 — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Moscow drafts terms for foreign firms’ return to Russia

    • Meduza ☛ Latest round of U.S.–Russia talks begins in Istanbul — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Overnight Russian drone attacks target Kyiv and Mykolaiv, injuring at least 12 — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian village shaken by repeated bomber crashes

    • Meduza ☛ France reportedly detains Russian official, prompting Moscow to summon ambassador — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘In a crisis, it’s every country for itself’ Russia isn’t a target of Trump’s tariffs — but economists say Moscow should still be anxious — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Zelensky: Russia recruiting Chinese fighters through TikTok

• Environment

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Mass Anthrax Outbreak Kills Dozens of Hippos in African National Park

      Tragic.

    • Science Alert ☛ Dissection of 130,000-Year-Old Baby Mammoth Reveals Glimpse Into Lost World

      A rare opportunity.

• Finance

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ China-US trade war sends peso above 21 to the dollar

    As of Wednesday, the minimum tariff on Chinese goods entering the United States is 104%, with China charging an 84% tariff on U.S. imports.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Inflation rises for second straight month, but remains within Banxico target

    The national statistics agency INEGI reported Wednesday that the annual headline rate was 3.80% in March, up slightly from a 3.77% reading in February.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Federal News Network ☛ The Forrest Dump administration is also trying to save money while fighting the many lawsuits regarding agency directives these days

    The Forrest Dump administration recently called on federal agencies to demand that plaintiffs put money up when defending lawsuits against them.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Federal disaster response is now on GAO’s high-risk list. What to do before another disaster strikes

    The Government Accountability Office added disaster response to its high-risk list this year. They have more than 60 recommendations to improve the process.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man orders DOJ to investigate pair who disputed his allegation of election fraud

    President The Insurrectionist today ratcheted up his efforts to go after his critics, telling the Justice Department to investigate well-respected cybersecurity expert Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, as well as a whistleblower, “Anonymous” author Miles Taylor.

  • Pro Publica ☛ What Reality TV Gets Wrong About Criminal Investigations

    When Edgar Barrientos-Quintana left prison last November, he told reporters: “Happy to be out here. … It’s the best week. And more to come.” It was an understated moment from a man who had been in prison for close to 16 years for a murder that officials said he didn’t commit. And it provided a stark contrast to the reality television show that depicted the investigation that led to his arrest.

    Barrientos-Quintana was freed after the Minnesota attorney general’s Conviction Review Unit found he had been wrongfully convicted and recommended vacating his conviction. The unit’s 180-page report cited failures by police, prosecutors and Barrientos-Quintana’s own defense lawyers. But it also mentioned something reporter Jessica Lussenhop had never seen before in a wrongful conviction case: the involvement of popular true crime show “The First 48.” The show begins each episode with the premise that the chance of solving a murder is “cut in half” if police don’t have a significant lead within 48 hours of a killing — which also creates a sense of deadline pressure.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Stanford University ☛ Poem: Justice for the Other

    Standing by those we are told to hate — the Other — is the fundamental lesson of history that we must never forget, Strawser writes.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • John Goerzen ☛ John Goerzen: Announcing the NNCPNET Email Network

    From 1995 to 2019, I ran my own mail server. It began with a UUCP link, an expensive long-distance call for me then. Later, I ran a mail server in my apartment, then ran it as a VPS at various places.

    But running an email server got difficult. You can’t just run it on a residential IP. Now there’s SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and TLS to worry about. I recently reviewed mail hosting services, and don’t get me wrong: I still use one, and probably will, because things like email from my bank are critical.

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Local versus remote RSS readers

    For years I ran a few different server-side RSS readers including Miniflux, FreshRSS, and a horrible pile of Perl I wrote that Did The Job™ for me. This was for one specific reason: I wanted to be able to read my feeds on the desktop and the phone, so I needed to be able to sync it somehow.

    Hosting on a server does come with other benefits. You can poll feeds even if your desktop isn’t running, which reduces your chances of missing something. You can share the public endpoint with friends and family, if they also want something to read. And as mentioned, it’s independent of whatever devices you’re reading it on. I can dial our VPN, then load our RSS reader of choice from a phone, iPad, laptop, whatever. These tools aren’t exotic, so standing up FreshRSS using my standard FEMP stack in a FreeBSD jail or two isn’t much additional effort.

    Still, I suppose three things happened recently for me that made me question if the additional infrastructure here is necessary:

    Is a positive integer. Ah, devilishly witty. I tell people it is, otherwise they might forget.

  • APNIC ☛ Share your thoughts on the proposed by-laws changes

    You only have until 18 April 2025 to share your views on two proposed by-laws changes.

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: MMNOG 7

    APNIC participated remotely in MMNOG 7, held in Yangon, Myanmar from 19 to 22 March 2025.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Zig-a-zig-ah: Tiny Cryptic #6

    Sixth instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Modern Babylon: Ziggurat Skyscrapers and Hugh Ferriss’ Retrofuturism

    In the early twentieth century, architects turned to a newly discovered past to craft novel visions of the future: the ancient history of Mesopotamia. Eva Miller traces how both the mythology of Babel and reconstructions of stepped-pyramid forms influenced skyscraper design, speculative cinema in the 1910s and 20s, and, above all else, the retrofuturist dreams of Hugh Ferriss, architectural delineator extraordinaire.