Leftovers

• New York Times ☛ ‘Psychological Torture’: London Bans Busking in a Famed Tourist Hub

  Noise complaints led the authorities to halt street performances in Leicester Square. Some miss the music. Others found the noise “bloody annoying.”

• MWL ☛ “Laserblasted” Kickstarter over

  It funded. My gratitude to everyone who backed, spread the word, or called me mad. My goal on book Kickstarters is deliberately set below actual production cost. I want it to fund.

• Evan Hahn ☛ UI tip: maybe don't round percentages to 0% or 100%

  In short: maybe don’t round to 0% or 100% in your UI.

  I am not a UI expert. But I sometimes build user interfaces, and I sometimes want to render a percentage to the user. For example, something like “you’ve downloaded 45% of this file”.

  In my experience, it’s often better to round this number but avoid rounding to 0% or 100%.

  Rounding to 0% is bad because the user may think there’s been no progress. Even the smallest nonzero ratio, like 0.00001%, should render as 1%.

  Rounding to 100% is bad because the user may think things are done when they aren’t, and it’s better to show 99%. Ratios like 99.9% should still render as 99%, even if they technically round to 100%.

• Major Hayden ☛ Don't tell me RAG is easy

  Blog posts have been moving slowly here lately and much of that is due to work demands since the end of 2024. I’ve been working on an AI-related product with a talented team of people and we learned plenty of lessons about retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG.

  This post covers the basics of RAG, some assumptions I made, and what I’ve learned.

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Lens: Hong Kong landmarks and customs showcased through 24 miniature art pieces

  The Peak Tower is showcasing 24 miniature art pieces at a new exhibition “showcasing Hong Kong to the world through exquisite craftsmanship.” The show highlights landmarks, customs, and unique lifestyles from April 25 to June 23.

• Hackaday ☛ Presence Detection Augments 1930s Home

  It can be jarring to see various sensors, smart switches, cameras, and other technology in a house built in the 1930s, like [Chris]’s was. But he still wanted presence detection so as to not stub any toes in the dark. The result is a sensor that blends in with the home’s aesthetics a bit better than anything you’re likely to find at the Big Box electronics store.

• Open Source For U ☛ Massive Online Analysis: Harnessing the Power of Real-Time Data Streams

  The ability to analyse and act upon data streams in real time can be a game-changer for businesses and organisations. Massive Online Analysis (MOA) is at the forefront of this revolution, offering a robust framework for real-time data stream mining.

• Standards/Consortia

  • The Register UK ☛ The splintering of a standard bug tracking system has begun

    Earlier this week, the widely used Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program faced doom as the US government discontinued funding for MITRE, the non-profit that operates the program. Uncle Sam U-turned at the very last minute, and promised another 11 months of cash to keep the program going.

    Meanwhile, the EU is rolling its own.

  • [Old] TechTarget ☛ What is Open Document Format (ODF)? | Definition from TechTarget

    The Open Document Format (ODF) is a zip-compressed, Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based, Open Source file format for saving and exchanging text, spreadsheets, charts, graphics and presentations. Files saved under ODF, termed OpenDocuments, have easily recognizable extensions, similar to Microsoft's proprietary .doc or .xls. The goal of ODF is to provide an open standard for data storage that transcends proprietary vendor formats and lets any software tool conforming to the standard access and handle ODF-based data.

  • [Old] Simon Safar ☛ Why does JSON have commas?

    Unlike the speculation in Syntax is Overrated though... the box of code above is not just kinda suggestive of some changes we could make. No. This, above, is an actual working file format.

    You take JSON. You throw out the commas.

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet

    Further studies are needed to determine whether K2-18b, which orbits a star 120 light-years away, is inhabited, or even habitable.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-16 [Older] New form of dark matter could solve decades-old Milky Way mystery

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-16 [Older] No kidding: goats prove brainier than sheep and alpacas

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-16 [Older] Why were people so drawn to phrenology?

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-15 [Older] Mysterious objects from other stars are passing through our solar system. Scientists are planning missions to study them up close

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-04-15 [Older] When dogs return to nature – just how domesticated are our pooches really?

  • Science Alert ☛ Study of 616 Languages Identified Which Had Most Words For 'Snow'

    A different focus.

  • Science Alert ☛ Weight Gain Might Be Linked to 'Lifestyle Instability', Not Just Calories

    Celebrating can be precarious.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Game Changer': Hot New Tech Turns Forever Chemicals Into Valuable Resource

    From toxic substances into graphene.

  • Science Alert ☛ Does Easter Chocolate Really Taste Better? Here's The Surprising Science

    It's not just about ingredients.

  • Science Alert ☛ Up to 13% of Dementia Cases May Actually Be a Misdiagnosed Treatable Condition

    “You are never too old to get better.”

  • Science Alert ☛ Study Reveals Key Groups Vulnerable to Misinformation, With Surprising Results

    You wouldn't be fooled – right? Right?

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man-Allied Prosecutor Sends Letters to Medical Journals Alleging Bias

    An interim U.S. attorney is demanding information about the selection of research articles and the role of N.I.H. Experts worry this will have a chilling effect on publications.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Thai health authority warns of ‘Labubu’ drug outbreak during Songkran

    Three people who used the drug experienced severe reactions.

• Career/Education

  • Pro Publica ☛ Idaho Created a $50M Voucher Program. Then It Cut $30M for Public Schools.

    Just weeks after creating a $50 million tax credit to help families pay for private school tuition and homeschooling, Idaho has shut down a program that helped tens of thousands of public school students pay for laptops, school supplies, tutoring and other educational expenses.

    The Republican leading the push to defund Idaho’s Empowering Parents grants said it had nothing to do with the party’s decision to fund private schools. But the state’s most prominent conservative group, a strong supporter of the private school tax credit, drew the connection directly.

• Hardware

  • France24 ☛ Bruised by Washington's chip controls, Nvidia turns to China

    "I'm not worried about Jensen [Huang] at all," said US President The Insurrectionist, commenting on the Nvidia CEO's visit to Beijing. The trip was the latest twist in a tumultuous week for the US firm, which is the world's third most valuable company and top supplier of Hey Hi (AI) computer chips. We take a closer look in this week's edition of Tech 24.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Chipmakers Fear They Are Ceding China’s Hey Hi (AI) Market to Huawei

    New restrictions on semiconductor exports to China are scrambling sales and fueling concerns that the Chinese tech giant will become a chip-making powerhouse.

  • Hackaday ☛ Vintage Game Rides Again Thanks To Modern Tech

    You have to admire the lengths designers went to back in the day to create engaging games and toys. One particularly clever game of this type was called GEE-WIZ, a horse racing game from the 1920s that seems like it might have been right at home at a bar or pub, and that caught [Michael Gardi]’s imagination enough that he built a modern version of the game.

  • Hackaday ☛ Robot Picks Fruit And Changes Light Bulbs With Measuring Tape

    How far can you stretch a measuring tape before it buckles? The answer probably depends more on the tape than the user, but it does show how sturdy the coiled spring steel rulers can be. [Gengzhi He et. al.] may have been playing that game in the lab at UC San Diego when they hit upon the idea for a new kind of low-cost robotic gripper.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ WD launches HDD recycling process that reclaims rare earth elements, cuts out China

    Western Digital claims it’s saved 47,000 pounds of hard drives from becoming e-waste, creating a system that could help both the planet and U.S. businesses that need to depend less on China.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon

    This is the first time they have raced alongside humans.

  • Modding

    • Macworld ☛ I'm done with Apple's USB-C charging cables. Here's what I'm buying instead

      Finally, they’re probably a little more reliable. Both cables are braided, which is nice, but the Apple cable goes straight from the connector to the cable while the Beats cable has a little half-inch sleeve. This should help keep it from bending too sharply right next to the connector, which is a primary cause of cables splitting over time.

    • PC World ☛ Buying a USB-C cable? Beware these 6 crucial gotchas

      There have been plenty of stories of poor-quality cables frying components, shorting chargers, or even catching fire, so we’ve gone to great lengths to test many options, including some of the best USB-C cables you can get and some of the most hazardous to avoid.

      Here are some key gotchas you need to be aware of before buying a USB-C cable these days. Learn how to spot the bad ones and what you can do to end up with one that’s fast, durable, and priced well.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesian woman turns to mangroves to fend off rising tides

    Pasijah, a 55-year-old housewife in Indonesia's Central Java province, wakes up every morning to the sound of the sea. If that sounds idyllic, it is anything but.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] RFK Jr. says there is an 'autism epidemic'. Is it true?

  • Pro Publica ☛ Trump Halts Data Collection on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change, More

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Germany: High global cocoa prices hamper Easter bunny output

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] EU wheels in 'forever chemicals' ban for children's toys

  • BIA Net ☛ Researcher Bülent Şık acquitted in trial for revealing ministry's cancer data

    Şık was put on trial in 2019 after he revealed the results of a researcher conducted by the Health Ministry.

  • MIT Technology Review ☛ Longevity clinics around the world are selling unproven treatments

    The quest for long, healthy life—and even immortality—is probably almost as old as humans are, but it’s never been hotter than it is right now. Today my newsfeed is full of claims about diets, exercise routines, and supplements that will help me live longer. A lot of it is marketing fluff, of course.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Last Hospitals in Gaza

    Doctors are delivering lifesaving care in a ravaged health-care system—and risking their own lives in the process.

  • NYPost ☛ White House reveals COVID lab leak theory as ‘true origins’ of pandemic in flashy new website that blasts Biden, Fauci and Cuomo

    COVID.gov, which previously contained information about testing, treatment and vaccination, now redirects to a website that reads, “Lab Leak: True Origins of COVID-19."

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ White House replaces Covid-19 website with info blaming China for ‘lab leak’

    The White House on Friday unveiled a revamped Covid-19 website that promoted the contentious theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, framing it as the pandemic’s “true origins.”

  • New York Times ☛ A Fentanylware (TikTok) Influencer Opens Up About Her Skin Picking Condition

    Millions of people compulsively pick their skin or pull their hair. Social media is helping some of them to recover.

• Proprietary

  • Social Control Media

    • Digital Music News ☛ Could Fentanylware (TikTok) U.S. Land in South Dakota? Governor Endorses Multibillion-Dollar Offer Amid Divestment Uncertainty

      TikTok could operate out of South Dakota if its U.S. sale closes – at least according to numerous reports coming from the Mount Rushmore State. Local outlets covered the interesting possibility on the heels of a related Facebook (Farcebook) post from South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden.

• Security

  • Security Week ☛ Events Giant Legends International Hacked

    Legends International says the personal information of employees and customers was compromised as a result of a cyberattack.

  • Security Week ☛ Ahold Delhaize Confirms Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack

    Ahold Delhaize has confirmed that data was stolen from its systems in November 2024 after a ransomware group claimed the attack.

  • Security Week ☛ Man Helped Individuals in China Get Jobs Involving Sensitive US Government Projects

    Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong pleaded guilty to defrauding US companies of roughly $1 million in a fake IT worker scheme.

  • Security Week ☛ In Other News: 4chan Hacked, Android Auto-Reboot, Nemesis Admin Charged

    Noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar: 4chan hacked, auto-reboot security feature coming to Android, Iranian administrator of Nemesis charged in US.

  • LWN ☛ Security updates for Friday

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (graphicsmagick and libapache2-mod-auth-openidc), Fedora (giflib, mod_auth_openidc, mysql8.0, perl, perl-Devel-Cover, perl-PAR-Packer, perl-String-Compare-ConstantTime, rust-openssl, rust-openssl-sys, trunk, and workrave), Mageia (chromium-browser-stable and rust), Oracle (java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, kernel, libreoffice, and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (gvisor-tap-vsock), SUSE (containerd, docker, docker-stable, forgejo, GraphicsMagick, libmozjs-115-0, perl-32bit, poppler, subfinder, and thunderbird), and Ubuntu (erlang and ruby2.3, ruby2.5).

  • Hacker News ☛ Experts Uncover New XorDDoS Controller, Infrastructure as Malware Expands to Docker, Linux, IoT

    Cybersecurity researchers are warning of continued risks posed by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) malware known as XorDDoS, with 71.3 percent of the attacks between November 2023 and February 2025 targeting the United States.

    "From 2020 to 2023, the XorDDoS trojan has increased significantly in prevalence," Cisco Talos researcher Joey Chen said in a Thursday analysis.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Federal News Network ☛ Federal judge in Baltimore temporarily limits DOGE access to Social Security data

      U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a preliminary injunction Thursday in the case, which was brought by a group of labor unions and retirees.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

      • [Old] Amnesty International ☛ Serbia: Authorities using spyware and Cellebrite forensic extraction tools to hack journalists and activists

        The report, “A Digital Prison”: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia, documents how mobile forensic products made by Israeli company Cellebrite are being used to extract data from mobile devices belonging to journalists and activists. It also reveals how the Serbian police and the Security Information Agency (Bezbedonosno-informativna Agencija – BIA) have used a bespoke Android spyware system, NoviSpy, to covertly infect individuals’ devices during periods of detention or police interviews.

        “Our investigation reveals how Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe.

      • [Old] Amnesty International ☛ Serbia: Cellebrite halts product use in Serbia following Amnesty surveillance report - Amnesty International Security Lab

        Responding to Cellebrite’s announcement that it will stop the use of its digital forensic equipment for some of their customers in Serbia, following Amnesty International’s report on the misuse of spyware and mobile forensic products by Serbian authorities to unlawfully target activists and journalists, Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, Head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, said: [...]

      • [Old] Security Affairs ☛ Serbian student activist’s phone hacked using Cellebrite zero-day exploit

        Amnesty International said that a 23-year-old student activist (named Vedran to preserve his privacy) was attending a ruling party event in Serbia on December 25, 2024. Upon arrival, he was forcibly taken by seven plainclothes men, interrogated for six hours at a Belgrade police station, and pressured to unlock his phone. He refused, but his phone was taken and later returned switched off at 12:45 AM. Amnesty International documented the incident.

        The forensics analysis conducted by Amnesty found that the Serbian police used the Cellbrite’s exploit to unlock Vedran’s Samsung Galaxy A32 and install an unknown Android application likely linked with NoviSpy spyware.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Overpopulation ☛ What’s up with America?

    Some see a recent upsurge of fascism, or a unique malevolence in the current President. The reality is less dramatic: the continued erosion of American institutions, a long-term trend furthered by bankrupt ideologies.

  • JURIST ☛ Lawyers file lawsuit against Costa Rica for detaining minors deported from the US

    A group of lawyers filed a lawsuit on Thursday before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child against the Costa Rican government for allegedly violating the rights of minors deported from the United States.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Greenland US space base chief fired after Vance visit

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] How an intercepted drone escalated Mali-Algeria tensions

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Iran sees 'chance for diplomacy' in US nuclear talks

  • The Strategist ☛ The ‘China’ challenge: now a multi-generational test for Australian strategy

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s Pooh-tin Jinping meets Cambodian leader as part of regional diplomatic blitz

    Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping met the Cambodian premier in Phnom Penh on Thursday on the final leg of a Southeast Asia tour in which he sought to strengthen regional trade ties.

  • Cambodia’s controversial canal project gets boost on Pooh-tin visit

    Public-private partnership contract signed for Funan Techo Canal that would link Cambodian capital with the coast.

  • New York Times ☛ Cambodia and China Strengthen Ties as US Imposes Tariffs

    China is the biggest foreign patron of Cambodia, where Mr. Pooh-tin concluded a tour of Southeast Asia. But the region also needs to curry favor with Hell Toupée.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China, Cambodia vow supply chain cooperation, sign canal deal

    The two countries also agreed to establish ministerial dialogue between their foreign and defence ministers.

  • Americans dislike China slightly less, survey finds

    Over half of respondents say tariff hikes will be bad for the U.S. and for themselves.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Vietnam PM hails ‘unique bond’ with US days after hosting China’s Xi

    Vietnam’s PM Pham Minh Chinh said Hanoi’s relationship with the US is unlike ties with other countries.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US, Japan need to 'push back' against China, US envoy says

    The United States and Japan need to work together to align their defence forces in the face of an increasingly assertive China, new U.S. Ambassador George Glass said upon his arrival in Tokyo on Friday.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Key to US tariff war with Beijing: The value China places on ‘face’

    The concept of “face,” key to social relations in China, will play a large part in helping or hindering Washington in its trade dispute with Beijing.

  • CS Monitor ☛ There’s one rare earths mine in the US. How that might change soon.

    The U.S. relies on China for about 70% of its rare earth imports. New Chinese restrictions on exports of the key minerals highlight why presidents from both parties have been trying to kickstart domestic production.

  • France24 ☛ Is Israel's partition of Gaza a prelude to total control of the enclave?

    The Israeli military is tightening its hold on the Gaza Strip, expanding buffer zones and security corridors and keeping border crossings closed. Since the end of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on March 18, the partition of the Gaza Strip has accelerated, perhaps a prelude to a lasting Israeli occupation. The Israeli Defence Minister said on Wednesday that the army “will remain in the security zones to act as a buffer between the enemy and the [Israeli] communities”.

  • JURIST ☛ US Homeland Security orders Harvard to hand over international student-activists records

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday ordered Harvard University to give records on student visa holders’ “violent activities” by April 30, or risk losing Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.

  • Taiwan ruling party requires members to report China trips amid security concerns

    The decision comes as Taipei investigates suspected Chinese infiltration of government aides.

  • New York Times ☛ Abrego Garcia Told Chris Van Hollen He Had Been In Isolation in El Salvador Prison

    Senator Chris Van Hollen said that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia,who was deported and incarcerated in El Salvador, reported having been transferred after weeks in a maximum-security prison.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China pushes anti-‘bullying’ agenda amid tensions with US

    China is planning an informal UN Security Council meeting to accuse the US of bullying.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Strikes on Yemeni Port Kill Dozens, Houthis Say

    Hell Toupée has vowed that the Iran-backed Houthi militia will be “completely annihilated.” But forceful American strikes do not seem to have deterred the Yemeni fighters.

  • New York Times ☛ Syrians Recount Gas Attack Under Assad as They Seek Justice

    Syria’s ousted dictator, Bashar al-Assad, unleashed a Sarin gas strike on the suburbs of Damascus in 2013, killing at least 1,500. Now, the survivors want justice.

  • RFERL ☛ US Air Strikes Targeting Yemeni Oil Port; Houthis Say Attack Killed 20 People

    The US military said it destroyed a key Yemeni fuel port held by Houthi rebels, who said the air strikes also killed 20 people and wounded 50 others.

  • France24 ☛ US strikes kill dozens in Yemen port attack

    Yemen's Huthi rebels said US strikes on a fuel port killed 74 people and wounded more than 170 on Friday, making it the deadliest attack of Washington's intensified month-long air campaign.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli strikes kill two in Lebanon, Hezbollah chief says 'will not let anyone disarm' it

    Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Friday that it "will not let anyone disarm" it, despite pressure that the Iran-backed movement hand over its weapons. Earlier in the day, Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed two people in southern Lebanon, with Israel announcing attacks in the same areas targeting Hezbollah militants.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Trade War With China Puts Bromance With Pooh-tin Beyond Reach

    Hell Toupée says he wants Pooh-tin Jinping, China’s leader, to call him to talk tariffs. Mr. Pooh-tin is ghosting Mr. Convicted Felon, and markets are plummeting.

  • NYPost ☛ China’s aggressive export strategy has shattered the U.S. glass industry

    For 132 years, the sound of the factory air whistle signaling the start of the workday at the plant along 8th and McKean Avenue in this Washington County borough meant all the things we associate with work.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar junta and opposition set to extend ceasefire, says Malaysia PM Anwar

    Mr Anwar held talks with the junta chief and the shadow National Unity Government.

  • The Straits Times ☛ From Nimby to Yimby: In S. Korea’s shrinking cities, prisons bring hope to locals

    Low birthrate and migration have left many regions teetering on the edge of extinction.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania seeks to bar Belarus from 2026 Futsal Championship

      Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) President Edgaras Stankevičius said Thursday that if Belarus qualifies for the 2026 UEFA Futsal Championship, he will push to ensure the team does not play in Lithuania, according to a report by tv3.lt.

    • Meduza ☛ Beijing rejects Zelensky’s claim of Chinese weapons supplies to Russia as ‘baseless political manipulation’ — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian governor hires priest to bless office with holy water after predecessor is arrested for embezzlement — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russian officials float initiative to offer military enlistment to failing university students instead of expulsion — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Imagined common enemies Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service dreams of an alliance with Washington against ‘Eurofascism’ — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Iranian Foreign Minister Calls For Russian Support In Nuclear Talks

      Iran’s foreign minister has called for Russia to play a role in high-stakes negotiations over the fate of Tehran’s nuclear programs, as he cast doubt on US intentions ahead a new round of talks.

    • LRT ☛ Debunk.org reports increased Russian media coverage on EU power grid 'unreliability'

      Pro-Kremlin media in the first quarter of this year increased their coverage of the alleged unreliability of European electricity grids, claiming that Baltic synchronisation would drastically drive up energy prices, Debunk.org reported on Friday.

    • JURIST ☛ Russia court removes Taliban regime from terrorist list

      The Russian Supreme Court officially lifted the designation of the Taliban as a terrorist organization on Thursday, marking a significant shift in Moscow’s diplomatic stance toward Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.

    • France24 ☛ Moscow's next target? Heeding Estonia's call for more defence spending

      The Baltic nation of Estonia has been calling for a significant boost in EU defence spending for years and is now seeing that call heeded. Sharing a 300-kilometre border with Russia, Estonia would be on the front lines in case of an invasion. Tallinn has committed to bump up the country's defence spending to 5 percent of GDP by next year – well above the current NATO commitment of 2 percent. For more, FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin speaks to Estonian Foreign Affairs Minister Margus Tsahkna.

    • Atlantic Council ☛ Exposing Pravda: How pro-Kremlin forces are poisoning Hey Hi (AI) models and rewriting Wikipedia

      Our investigation explores how Russia is weaponizing Wikipedia and artificial intelligence chatbots to expand its global malign influence campaign.

    • Meduza ☛ Trump administration threatens to walk away from efforts to broker Russian-Ukrainian peace without visible progress in next few days — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia says it will no longer observe moratorium on strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Trump threatens to ‘take a pass’ and abandon peace deal efforts in Ukraine. ‘We’re just gonna say you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people.’ — Meduza

    • France24 ☛ US will drop Ukraine ceasefire efforts if progress is not made soon, says Convicted Felon

      The United States will walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting, unless there are clear signs of progress soon, US President The Insurrectionist and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Administration Bolsters Putin With Hint of Abandoning Ukraine Talks

      Hell Toupée and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both suggested Friday that the United States might wash its hands of the peace effort.

    • New York Times ☛ Rubio Says Convicted Felon to ‘Move On’ From Ukraine Peace Talks if No Progress Soon

      “If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said as he departed meetings in Paris.

    • RFERL ☛ Rubio Signals Impatience In Ukraine Talks; Says US 'Ready To Move On'

      The United States’ top diplomat signaled impatience with European officials as two days of talks to find a resolution to the Ukraine conflict wrapped up.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China dismisses Zelenskiy's claim it is supplying weapons to Russia

      China's foreign ministry dismissed as \"groundless\" on Friday an accusation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia.

    • France24 ☛ JD Vance says he is 'optimistic' about Ukraine peace deal at Meloni meeting

      US Vice President JD Vance on Friday met with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome to discuss tariffs and a ceasefire in Ukraine, ahead of celebrating Easter at the Vatican. Vance said he would discuss the ceasefire negotiations with Meloni, adding that he felt "optimistic" about bringing the war to a close.

    • Meduza ☛ ‘Partisans should work with whoever they want’: Wealthy Russians have a history of funding the anti-Putin opposition. Here’s how they do it — and what’s in it for them. — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ ‘A blueprint for building Putinism’: Kremlin official Alexander Kharichev pens new policy essay hailing Russians’ self-sacrifice and reverence for state authority — Meduza

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • American Oversight ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Political Targeting of the Legal Profession Is an Attack on the First Amendment

    American Oversight and more than 20 other organizations filed amicus briefs supporting law firms that have been targeted by Hell Toupée’s retributive executive orders.

  • Patrick Louis ☛ Buried Toggles Begging to be Brought to Light Transparency, Expressiveness, and Configurability

    Throughout the countless years of research on this blog a common thread always comes up: Some features and toggles are often hidden under mountains of hubris that nobody understands. It could be because the software is under-or-badly documented, that it’s “too-flexible” and made to handle cases that never materialize, or just that people don’t capt what they’re dealing with and never bother looking under the hood.
    These software are crying to have better interfaces!

    Here are two quotes that embody this classic concept:

    The downside of this attitude (which is a close cousin to “mechanism, not policy”) is a tendency to assume that when the highly configurable and expressive interface is done, the job is finished… even if the result is almost impossible for anyone else to use without lengthy study. The flip side of configurability is an urgent need for good defaults and an easy way to set everything to the default. The flip side of expressivity is a need for guidance — be it in the program or the documentation — on where to get started and how to achieve the most commonly-desired results. — Henry Spencer

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Coal: What's the big deal?

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Shipping nations agree on historic greenhouse gas tax

    • New York Times ☛ U.S. Adds Fees for Chinese Ships in Effort to Boost Shipbuilding

      The new fees are aimed at countering China’s dominance of the shipbuilding industry, but critics say they will simply raise prices for American consumers.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Mexico News Daily ☛ Mystical eagle thought to be extinct in Mexico reappears in Chiapas

      The discovery of the elusive eagle, announced this month at the Chiapas Birding and Photo Festival, follows nearly a decade of community-led monitoring of the species in the region.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Lens: Hong Kong in full bloom as warmer months arrive

      As Hong Kong steps into the warmer months, African tulips, golden trumpets, and chinaberries blossom on tree branches that were once bare during the cool winter months. Amid the concrete high-rises, glass skyscrapers and bamboo scaffolding, flowers have turned Hong Kong neighbourhoods into a riot of colour.

    • France24 ☛ Thirsty giants: Big tech's data centres multiply in drought-hit Spain

      In recent years, Spain has become a leading destination for tech giants to set up their data centres in Europe. Madrid even aims to become a "digital hub" on the continent, like Germany and the UK. But at what cost to the environment? To cool down their servers, data centres consume billions of litres of drinking water: a huge worry in Spain, one of the countries worst affected by drought in Europe. Our correspondent Armelle Exposito investigates the environmental impact of these data centres.

  • Overpopulation

    • New York Times ☛ The Women Who Think the World Needs More Babies

      At a convention of the pronatalist movement, the relatively few women in attendance agreed: Motherhood needs a rebrand.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan bus driver steals $9.20, loses $110k pension

    Kyoto city sacked the man after he was filmed committing the act by a security camera in his bus.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Judge pauses Convicted Felon administration’s plans for mass layoffs at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    The Insurrectionist’s attempt to fire nearly everyone at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been paused by a federal judge, who says she's “deeply concerned” about the plan. Friday's decision leaves in limbo a bureau created after the Great Recession to safeguard against fraud, abuse and deceptive practices. Convicted Felon administration officials argue the bureau oversteps its authority. The Republican administration on Thursday moved to fire 1,500 people, leaving 200. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson says she's worried the layoffs would violate her earlier order stopping the administration from shutting the bureau.

  • International Business Times ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Amazon's Tariff Strategy Exposed: How It's Picking Favourites Among Suppliers

  • Reuters ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Anker, a Chinese Company, Has Already Started Raising Its Prices on Amazon

  • Vox ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] The Cheeto Mussolini administration says cheap goods aren’t part of the American dream. They’re wrong.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Cheeto Mussolini tariffs: Will trade war hasten US, China decoupling?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] US-China tariff hikes affect Polish container terminal sale

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Will the new German government fix the economy?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-09 [Older] What is a trade war and how big is the US-China one?

  • Trade war with US triggers wave of factory ‘holidays’ in China’s export hubs

    Chinese manufacturers pivot to social commerce platforms to sell unsold goods at bargain prices.

  • New Yorker ☛ How Science Fiction Led MElon to DOGE

    Jill Lepore says that the SpaceX C.E.O., an avid sci-fi fan, misreads cautionary tales as instruction manuals—and that his obsessions will shape America’s future.

  • New Yorker ☛ The Power and Stakes of #TeslaTakedown

    An organizer in the grassroots protest effort discusses why she joined the movement, and describes protesters’ fears of government interference.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-10 [Older] New German government to abolish 3-year citizenship path

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Fact check: No evidence ex-China Premier called for death penalty in Latin America

    • KOL460 | Rant about the “China is Stealing Our IP” Myth

      Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 460.

      I mean the title says it all. I kept getting interrupted by calls and deliveries. Oh well, what you gonna do.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Nigeria bans song critical of President Bola Tinubu

  • Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei sentenced to 11 months in prison

    Lu, who was arrested in Laos, was charged with “illegally crossing the border” in a closed trial.

  • RFERL ☛ Russian Court Sentences Anti-War Activist Who Glued Poem To Ukrainian Statue

    A St. Petersburg court sentenced anti-war activist Darya Kozyreva to nearly three years in prison after ruling she "discredited" the Russian military by gluing a poem to a monument dedicated to a Ukrainian poet.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • OPINION: RFA Uyghur Service is a light that pierces the darkness of China’s rule

    If America lets the service disappear, it risks abandoning an entire people and ceding the information war to China

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Federal News Network ☛ IRS whistleblower on Hunter Biden is out as acting commissioner just days after getting the job

    Gary Shapley will be replaced by Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender.

  • JURIST ☛ US Supreme Court agrees to hear birthright citizenship oral arguments

    The US Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear oral arguments over President The Insurrectionist’s executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship, or the guarantee of citizenship to nearly any individual who is born inside the US. Hell Toupée issued his order in January of this year seeking to end birthright citizenship in the US.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • New York Times ☛ Google Makes History With Rapid-Fire Antitrust Losses

    Within a year, two federal judges declared the tech giant a monopoly in search and ad technology. The tide may be turning for antitrust.

  • Stanford University ☛ ‘H8R’s gonna hate’: Stanford start-up strips internet trolls bare

    In our latest installment of "Start-Up Watch," angel investors eye opportunity with H8R, a brand new venture revolutionizing online hate speech.

  • JURIST ☛ SCOTUS dispatch: reflections on FCC v. Consumers’ Research

    Central to FCC v. Consumers’ Research is technology that props up nearly every aspect of modern life: broadband internet. The Universal Service Fund (USF) is among a set of policies historically implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), designed to keep rates for local telephone service affordable for subscribers.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-04-11 [Older] Nearly 3 million Germans have never used the internet

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Digital Music News ☛ Rotterdam-Based Ticketing Platform Stager Scores Spotify Integration Partnership

    On the heels of a partnership announcement involving Amsterdam-headquartered Eventix (now Weeztix) and Spotify, Rotterdam’s Stager has scored an integration deal of its own. 13-year-old Stager, which bills itself as an “all-in-one tool for event organizers,” took to Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn to disclose its Spotify tie-up.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Bryan Lunduke ☛ Judge Rules Surveillance Giant Google is a Monopoly (Again... for the 2nd time this year)

  The odds of Surveillance Giant Google being broken up into Mini-Googles just keeps getting higher.

• Patents

  • Unified Patents ☛ Fitistics fitness tracking patent monopoly confirmed invalid by PTAB

    On April 18, 2025, the PTAB confirmed the final rejection of all claims in the ex parte reexamination of U.S. Patent 11,185,738, owned and asserted by Fitistics, LLC, an NPE. The ‘738 patent monopoly is generally directed to tracking exercise using a handheld device to obtain data from an exercise machine or body monitoring device.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ “Do it on AI” claims are Abstract Ideas

    by Dennis Crouch

    The Federal Circuit's AI-patent decision this week affirmed a district court's dismissal of the claims as ineligible, holding that "generic" machine learning technology is itself an abstract idea. Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., No. 2023-2437 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18, 2025).

  • JUVE ☛ Janssen appeals to Supreme Court after Samsung Bioepis win in SPC waiver case

    In February, the Dutch Court of Appeal under presiding judge J.I. de Vreese-Rood upheld a District Court judgment in PI proceedings between Janssen and Samsung Bioepis (case ID: 200.337.844/01).

  • Software Patents

    • IP Kat ☛ 2025-04-10 [Older] G 2/21 applied to software inventions (T 0687/22) [Ed: Software patents are illegal, but the EPO is crime and corruption, so who cares, right?]

• Trademarks

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-04-14 [Older] Mercedes’s off-road vehicle illustration insufficiently distinctive for EU trade mark registration

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-04-10 [Older] No retroactive protections for well-known trade marks against GIs for wines, says Advocate-General

  • TTAB Blog ☛ Return of MEET THE BLOGGERS: Monday, May 19th, 8-10 PM

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-04-17 [Older] The global reach of trade mark law?

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ TikToker Sues Roblox Over ‘Apple Dance’ Emote — ‘Confident’ Company Says It ‘Looks Forward to Responding in Court’

    A copyright monopoly infringement battle over dance moves? TikToker Kelley Heyer has named Roblox Corporation in a lawsuit centering on its emote for the viral “Apple Dance.”   The self-described artist and creator Heyer submitted the straightforward complaint to a California federal court, naming Roblox as the sole defendant.