Leftovers

• Nicolas Magand ☛ The quest for the best writing tool, a spinoff

  If I understood correctly, the physics of writing apparently differ greatly depending on whether you use your left or right hand. Right-handers pull the pen across the paper about 90% of the time, while lefties push.

• Kev Quirk ☛ 📝 18 May 2025 at 15:19 - I've been really struggling lately I have very little motivation...

  I've been really struggling lately. I have very little motivation, and very few things are making me happy. I feel over-worked and under-appreciated, which is having a much bigger impact on me than I thought it would. I need to make some changes and pull myself out of this rut.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Long form versus short writing

  I’m trying this thing where I write longer form (for me) posts, rather than a few shorter, pithier posts. It’s fun going into a bit more detail, and riffing on one topic for an extended period rather than trying to be brief. Like a fine Belgian bakery, I love me some good waffle.

  The irony isn’t lost on me that explaining my blogging pattern over the last month or so is contained in a post with only two paragraphs. Bagels. Wait, no, waffles.

• Jim Nielsen ☛ Multiple Computers

  It might be time to just go back to having one computer — a personal laptop — do everything.

  No more commit, push, and let the cloud build and deploy.

• The Straits Times ☛ Mt Fuji ‘dream bridge’ tourist photo spot a nightmare for residents with noise, illegal parking

  Residents are up in arms about disruptions caused by visitors looking to get the shot of a lifetime.

• France24 ☛ In pictures: Stars dazzle on Day 6 of Cannes Film Festival

  Stars in glamorous gowns and tuxedos posed for photographers on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. US director Wes Anderson brought his latest A-list cast led by Benicio del Toro to the festival, ramping up the star power as the competition reached the halfway mark. Here’s a look at some of the most iconic moments captured on the sixth day of the iconic event.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Magnetohydrodynamic Motors To Spin Satellites

    Almost all satellites have some kind of thrusters aboard, but they tend to use them as little as possible to conserve chemical fuel. Reaction wheels are one way to make orientation adjustments without running the thrusters, and [Zachary Tong]’s liquid metal reaction wheel greatly simplifies the conventional design.

  • Science Alert ☛ Mysteriously Perfect Sphere Spotted in Space by Astronomers

    Scientists are puzzled by this one.

  • Science Alert ☛ The US Just Approved The First Blood Test For Alzheimer's Disease

    Here's what we know.

  • Hackaday ☛ In Memory Of Ed Smylie, Whose Famous Hack Saved The Apollo 13 Crew

    Some hacks are so great that when you die you receive the rare honor of both an obituary in the New York Times and an in memoriam article at Hackaday.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists '3D Print' Material Deep Inside The Body Using Ultrasound

    A revolutionary new way to heal.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Universe Is 'Suspiciously' Like a Computer Simulation, Physicist Says

    In digital technologies, right down to the apps in your phone and the world of cyberspace, efficiency is the key. Computers compact and restructure their data all the time to save memory and computer power. Maybe the same is taking place all over the universe?

    Information theory, the mathematical study of the quantification, storage and communication of information, may help us understand what's going on. Originally developed by mathematician Claude Shannon, it has become increasingly popular in physics and is used in a growing range of research areas.

    In a 2023 paper, I used information theory to propose my second law of infodynamics.

  • The Register UK ☛ China launches first sats for orbital AI cloud

    The sats look like a classic edge compute play – put compute near workloads to avoid latency – to help instruments including a cosmic X-ray polarimeter. Guoxing Aerospace also hopes its satellites assist emergency services and help drone users down on earth.

  • SCMP ☛ China launches satellites to start building the world’s first supercomputer in orbit

    They are part of the Three-Body Computing Constellation, space-based infrastructure being developed by Zhejiang Lab. Once complete, the constellation would support real-time, in-orbit data processing with a total computing capacity of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS) – or one quintillion operations per second – the report said.

  • SpaceNews ☛ China launches first of 2,800 satellites for AI space computing constellation - SpaceNews

    Commercial company ADA Space released further details, stating that the 12 satellites form the “Three-Body Computing Constellation,” which will directly process data in space, rather than on the ground, reducing reliance on ground-based computing infrastructure. The constellation will be capable of a combined 5 peta operations per second (POPS) with 30 terabytes of onboard storage.

  • The Verge ☛ China begins assembling its supercomputer in space

    The benefits of having a space-based supercomputer go beyond saving communications time, according to South China Morning Post. The outlet notes that traditional satellite transmissions are slow, and that “less than 10 per cent” of satellite data makes it to Earth, due to things like limited bandwidth and ground station availability. And Jonathan McDowell, a space historian and astronomer at Harvard University, told the outlet, “Orbital data centres can use solar power and radiate their heat to space, reducing the energy needs and carbon footprint.” He said both the US and Europe could carry out similar projects in the future, writes SCMP.

• Hardware

  • Medium ☛ Simon Quigley: Toolboxes and Hammers — Be You

    Toolboxes and Hammers — Be You

    Everyone has a story. We all started from somewhere, and we’re all going somewhere.

    Ten years ago this summer, I first heard of Ubuntu. It took me time to learn how to properly pronounce the word, although I’m glad I learned that early on. I was less fortunate when it came to the pronunciation of the acronym for the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. I had spent time and time again breaking my computer, and I’d wanted to start fresh.

    I’ve actually talked about this in an interview before, which you can find here (skip to 5:02–6:12 for my short explanation, I’m in orange): [...]

  • Hackaday ☛ Designing A Hobbyist’s Semiconductor Dopant

    [ProjectsInFlight] has been on a mission to make his own semiconductors for about a year now, and recently shared a major step toward that goal: homemade spin-on dopants. Doping semiconductors has traditionally been extremely expensive, requiring either ion-implantation equipment or specialized chemicals for thermal diffusion. [ProjectsInFlight] wanted to use thermal diffusion doping, but first had to formulate a cheaper dopant.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Some house owners affected by Selangor gas pipeline explosion still waiting for aid

    The April 1 blast destroyed 81 homes, badly damaged 57 and partially damaged 81.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China tells officials to rein in alcohol, cigarette spending

    The rules amount to a reiteration of President Pooh-tin Jinping’s campaign for officials to cut spending.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Brazil hopes China, other countries may loosen trade bans over bird flu

    Brazil's poultry industry is reeling from the country's first bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm, but officials hope China and other major consumers will soon loosen countrywide bans on importing Brazil's chicken.

  • Science Alert ☛ Expert Reveals a Drug-Free Way to Mimic The Effects of Ozempic

    No prescription needed!

  • Science Alert ☛ Common Parasite Rips The Face From Your Cells to Wear as a Disguise

    The real Face Off.

  • Science Alert ☛ Using Your Phone on The Toilet May Dramatically Increase Risk of Hemorrhoids

    The painful truth.

  • The Straits Times ☛ World Health Organisation looks ahead to life without the US

    US President The Insurrectionist started the process to leave the WHO on his first day in office in January.

  • New York Times ☛ What a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Like Biden’s Means for Patients

    While prognoses for prostate cancer patients were once measured in months, experts say that advances in treatment and diagnosis now improve survival by years.

• Proprietary

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The world’s only stable backdoored Windows Me machine

    For those too young to remember, or who wisely chose to forget, backdoored Windows Millennium Edition—aka, Windows Me—was notorious. Abusive Monopolist Microsoft removed Real Mode DOS access which peterbed weirdos like me who loved rebooting into MS-DOS to play NFS:SE, but history will remember backdoored Windows Me for its instability and performance issues. It was available on the market for about a year in 2000 before backdoored Windows XP was released, and few people were sad to see it go… perhaps other than the technicians for whom the OS gave them a guaranteed and regular source of clients.

  • The Verge ☛ How a DoorDash driver scammed the company out $2.5 million | The Verge

    A former DoorDash delivery driver pleaded guilty this week to a wire fraud conspiracy that scammed the company out of over $2.5 million, the US Attorney’s Office in California’s Northern District announced on Tuesday. He and others made it happen over a period of months using fake customer accounts, deliveries that never happened, driver accounts, and access to DoorDash employee credentials.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Hackaday ☛ Christmas Comes Early With AI Santa Demo

      With only two hundred odd days ’til Christmas, you just know we’re already feeling the season’s magic. Well, maybe not, but [Sean Dubois] has decided to give us a head start with this WebRTC demo built into a Santa stuffie.

    • Futurism ☛ AI Chatbots Are Becoming Even Worse At Summarizing Data

      The collaborative research paper looked at nearly 5,000 large language model (LLM) summaries of scientific studies by ten widely used chatbots, including ChatGPT-4o, ChatGPT-4.5, DeepSeek, and LLaMA 3.3 70B. It found that, even when explicitly goaded into providing the right facts, AI answers lacked key details at a rate of five times that of human-written scientific summaries.

      "When summarizing scientific texts, LLMs may omit details that limit the scope of research conclusions, leading to generalizations of results broader than warranted by the original study," the researchers wrote.

    • Leah Oswald ☛ How AI is killing joy - Leahs Gedanken

      The results of AI are kinda acceptable… sometimes, and it’s fast and cheap, because we ignore the invisible costs or the poor quality. AI is the fast food of creative processes. It works, but if we consider it fairly, it also sucks.

      It makes a process that humans experienced for thousands of years, I would even go so far and say a part of what makes us human, a product. Being creative, meaning going through all the ups and downs on your way learning and improving a skill or learning how to work with a tool. And it strips you from the incredible joy after suffering through the ups and downs of creating something on your own. And what will you do instead to get your dose of dopamine? Right, you will go to the dopamine machine, also called social media, of these same billionaires to see ads and buy stuff you don’t need.

      You can argue it makes the creative process more accessible, but is this true? Is fast food really making cooking more accessible?

    • Don Marti ☛ reinventing Gosplan

      Time for some horseshoe theory. "Right-wing" surveillance oligarchy has looped all the way back around to "left-wing" central economic planning.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ Latest AI-hallucinated legal filing, from AI vendor Anthropic

      Harvey’s doing a funding round just now where they hope to get $250 million. Lawyers reading this might want to direct their opponents’ firms to buy Harvey’s services. They’re just the sort of thing you want the other side to be using.

  • Social Control Media

    • The Washington Post ☛ Instagram Teen Accounts aren’t keeping harmful content away from kids

      Over two weeks, Gulati says, his test account received recommended sexual content that “left very little to the imagination.” He counted at least 28 Instagram Reels describing sexual acts, including digital penetration, using a sex toy and memes describing oral sex. The Instagram account, he says, became preoccupied with “toxic masculinity” discussions about “what men should and shouldn’t do.”

      Four more Gen Z testers, part of a youth organization called Design It For Us, did the same experiment, and all got recommended sexual content. Four of the five got body image and disordered eating content, too, such as a video of a woman saying “skinny is a lifestyle, not a phase.”

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Alabama state government admits attack, reveals few details

      The Alabama Office of Information Technology reported the incident to the public last week in a note that revealed it is working with outside cybersecurity consultants to secure and restore impacted systems. According to the statement, the incident was detected on Friday, May 9, and investigations determined crackers compromised some state employees’ username and password pairings.

    • The Register UK ☛ Broadcom data stolen in payroll provider ransomware raid

      According to open source tracker Ransomware Live, the El Dorado ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack in November.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • [Repeat] Science Alert ☛ Harvard Paid $27 For a 'Copy' of The Magna Carta. It Turned Out to Be The Real Thing.

      A "copy" of the Magna Carta, the medieval English document that has formed the basis of constitutions around the world, owned by Harvard Law School is actually an exceedingly rare original, British researchers said Thursday.

      Experts from King's College London and the University of East Anglia (UEA) said the document, which the US institution acquired in the 1940s for $27.50, is just one of seven from King Edward I's issue of Magna Carta in 1300 that still survive.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • R J Faas ☛ Swapping out Siri? That raises a lot of questions

      The idea of swapping out Siri seems a bit radical. Siri may well be the biggest of all the things that are baked into all Apple products and function invisibly across them. It’s harder to fathom than third-party app stores or a different browser engine. Yet it shouldn’t come as a surprise given how aggressive the EU has made use of the DMA.

      But how this would happen raises a lot of questions.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Strategist ☛ Prabowo chooses ambiguity in South China Sea policy

    Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s South China Sea policy has many contradictions and inconsistencies, particularly regarding China’s nine-dash line. In separate joint statements Indonesia has shown an inconsistent stance on China’s maritime claims. Indonesia’s parliament is ...

  • RFERL ☛ Former NATO Chief Rasmussen Says Plan For European Force In Ukraine 'Moving Too Slowly'

    "I don't want to see a coalition of the willing becoming a coalition of the waiting," Rasmussen said, referring to a plan announced with fanfare by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on March 2.

    Since then, there has been a series of meetings at various levels. Yet key questions about the mission's mandate, its rules of engagement, and who would be sending troops, have yet to be publicly answered.

  • Futurism ☛ Elon Musk Is Doing Business With Actual Terrorists, Nonprofit Finds

    The TTP investigation found that more than 200 X users including individuals who appear to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Syrian and Iraqi militia groups — all deemed foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) by the US government — are paying for subscriptions to Elon Musk's X.

    Put simply, Musk is doing business with actual terrorists, highlighting major flaws in his social media company's content moderation practices.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan is not ruling out ‘political warfare’ by China, coast guard says

    China could try to disrupt public morale in Taiwan ahead of President Lai Ching-te’s one-year anniversary, says the coast guard.

  • The Straits Times ☛ From a Convicted Felon golf course to a US$8.4b Chinese railway, Vietnam finds a way through US-China tensions

    It is precariously balancing between the powers as it pursues its own growth and reform agenda.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australian firm produces heavy rare earths, first outside China

    Australian firm Lynas Rare Earths produced dysprosium oxide at its new facility in Malaysia.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China slaps anti-dumping duties on plastics from US, EU, Japan, Taiwan

    In January, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China gave Pakistan satellite support, Indian defence group says

    Experts say anything that is with China today could be considered to be with Pakistan tomorrow.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan foreign minister to visit China on heels of conflict with India over Kashmir

    Ishaq Dar’s visit to Beijing comes on the heels of a tumultuous couple of weeks.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Why Surveillance Giant Google Maps is still broken in South Korea: It might not be about national security any more

    The country cites security. Surveillance Giant Google cites data restrictions. But the real story may be what neither side wants to admit.

  • France24 ☛ Israel begins 'extensive' ground operation in Gaza after devastating air strikes

    Israel launched “extensive” new ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after Israeli air strikes across the enclave killed at least 103 people overnight. Hamas claimed responsibility for two projectiles identified near Kissufim, Israel, that launched shortly after the ground offensive began. Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas continued in Doha.

  • France24 ☛ Israel starts Gaza ground assault after hundreds killed, no progress in talks

    The Israeli military said on Sunday it had begun "extensive ground operations" in northern and southern Gaza, stepping up a new campaign in the enclave where Palestinian health authorities said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 130 people overnight. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Jerusalem, Noga Tarnopolsky.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Pope Leo’s Inaugural Mass Draws Global Leaders Including Zelensky, Vance and Carney

      Vice President JD Vance was among those present at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Meets With Pope As Russia Launches Major Drone Assault On Ukraine

      Pope Leo XIV met one-on-one with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the Ukrainian leader looked to the Roman Catholic Church's leader to help push for a cessation of fighting in Russia's nearly 39-month-old war on Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Unleashes One of Its Largest Drone Barrages of the Ukraine War

      The bombardment, which Ukrainian officials said mostly targeted Kyiv, came just a day before Hell Toupée was expected to talk with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Says He’ll Speak With Putin About Ukraine War: What to Know

      Despite a flurry of diplomatic activity, there is little evidence Russia and Ukraine are close to an agreement.

    • New York Times ☛ Monday Briefing: Convicted Felon and Putin Are Set to Talk

      Plus, a Japanese author breaks barriers.

    • Meduza ☛ Putin believes Russia can seize full control of annexed Ukrainian regions by end of year — Bloomberg — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ Third Latvian volunteer reportedly killed defending Ukraine

      Latvian volunteer soldier Ņikita Tarenovs has been killed in Ukraine, reports the LETA newswire. If confirmed, this marks the third Latvian volunteer to lose his life defending Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky meets Vance as Russian drones pound Ukraine

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, for the first time since the disastrous shouting match in the White House in February, as Russia launched a "record" drone barrage on Kyiv, after talks with Moscow which did not yield a ceasefire. Analysis by Andrea Antonio Verardi, associate professor of Church History in Rome.

    • France24 ☛ Poland: Who are the two main candidates of the presidential election?

      Poles were voting Sunday in a presidential election at a time of heightened security concerns stemming from the ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine and growing worry that the U.S. commitment to Europe’s security could be weakening under President The Insurrectionist.The top two front-runners are Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a liberal allied with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian with no prior political experience who is supported by the national conservative Law and Justice party. Details with Shirli Sitbon and Juliette Laffont.

    • New York Times ☛ How One Woman Is Breaking a Military Stereotype in Ukraine

      Ukraine’s only female combat pilot flies helicopter missions against Russian troops. The military says it wants more women fighting, but sexism remains an obstacle, activists and female soldiers say.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Meets With Pope Leo After Inaugural Mass

      Ukraine’s president was among the dignitaries and world leaders in St. Peter’s Square. After the meeting, he thanked the Vatican for its willingness to serve as a venue for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

    • Meduza ☛ Russia detains oil tanker departing Estonian port — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Beefs Up Forces Near Finland’s Border

      Tents, shelters for fighter jets and warehouses for military vehicles show increased Russian presence near one of NATO’s newest members.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Top destination for Jeju tangerines? Russia, again

      After Russia, the largest buyers were Canada, the US and Singapore.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky sits down with Vance in Rome ahead of planned Convicted Felon-Putin call

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance held talks in Rome as the White House pressed for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine. It was the first meeting between the two leaders since a disastrous shouting match in the Oval Office in February, when Vance accused Zelensky of being "disrespectful" toward US President The Insurrectionist.

• Environment

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Why are environmental protesters being criminalized?

    The law criminalizes public assemblies that disrupt major public infrastructure such as roads, tunnels and ports, and was a response to past blockades by climate protesters. The then-NSW attorney general said that prior laws did not sufficiently penalize the "major inconvenience that incidents like these cause to the community," along with "severe financial impacts" due to "lost productivity."

    Zack Schofield, a spokesperson for Rising Tide who was also arrested, said the NSW law is being "used to target climate protesters almost exclusively."

  • The Straits Times ☛ Heavy rain kills 5 in China’s south; authorities issue disaster alerts

    Heavy rain warnings were issued in several areas from May 18 to 19.

  • New York Times ☛ Tornadoes Reported in Colorado and Kansas as Severe Weather Threat Persists

    The tornadoes were reported on Sunday as storms capable of producing hail larger than golf balls were expected to strike the Great Plains on Monday.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Hackaday ☛ Casting Shade On “Shade-Tolerant” Solar Panels

      Shade is the mortal enemy of solar panels; even a little shade can cause a disproportionate drop in power output. [Alex Beale] reviewed a “revolutionary” shade-tolerant panel by Renology in a video embedded below. The results are fascinating.

    • New York Times ☛ 2 Dead and 1 Missing After Train Strikes Pedestrians in Ohio

      The episode happened in Fremont, Ohio, on Sunday night. The mayor said at least one person was missing and emergency crews were searching the Sandusky River.

    • India Times ☛ France summons cryptocurrency businesses after kidnappings

      On Tuesday, the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency entrepreneur narrowly escaped a kidnap attempt by armed men in Paris. Four masked men attacked a couple and their child in the French capital's 11th district, police sources told AFP. All three escaped with light injuries and were taken to hospital.

    • New York Times ☛ What to Know About the NJ Transit Strike

      A deal on Sunday evening ended the three-day strike. But trains will not resume running a full schedule until Tuesday, the agency said.

    • New York Times ☛ New Jersey Transit and Engineers’ Union Agree to Deal to End Strike

      The agency said its trains would start running again on Tuesday morning.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia sees spike in exotic animal smuggling cases

      Factors include high demand for wildlife as pets and economic hardship.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Museum of Alexandra ☛ Moderation.txt

    your ability to separate politics from who you are isn't universal nor is it an option for some folks; it's a privilege to be someone who doesn't have to worry about whether or not your basic human rights are being taken away. it's a privilege to know and feel secure that no slur, no vitriol, has any inherent historical or violent weight to who you are as an individual. there's no slur for open-source developers or apartment renters rooted in historic and prevalent violence; these labels are not who you are as a person facing the world.

  • Bert Hubert ☛ What we in the open world are messing up in trying to compete with big tech

    Everyone in the open tech scene is full of good intentions and we all want to improve things, but mostly we are not succeeding. By our nature, we would like to build fun, open, federated, and standards-based things. But that’s not enough — that’s not what the world is waiting for (right now).

    What follows may come across as rather painful and preachy. But the open tech scene really needs a wake-up call. We’re not building these things just for our own enjoyment — we need to help progress the world to different, less dominant, platforms.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s presidential candidates face off in fiery debate

    It comes ahead of a snap election on June 3 to choose a successor to former president Yoon Suk Yeol.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s presidential candidates to face off in first TV debate

    The May 18 debate will focus on how to revitalise the struggling economy, one of the hot-button election issues.

  • New York Times ☛ Two People Held on Charges of Blackmailing Premier League Soccer Star Son Heung-min

    A woman in South Korea was accused of claiming she was pregnant by Son Heung-min, the captain of Tottenham Hotspur, and demanding hush money.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Kansas Reflector ☛ Why we fall for fake health information — and how it spreads faster than facts

      Although there is a fire hose of health-related content online, not all of it is factual. In fact, much of it is inaccurate or misleading, raising a serious health communication problem: Fake health information — whether shared unknowingly and innocently, or deliberately to mislead or cause harm — can be far more captivating than accurate information.

      This makes it difficult for people to know which sources to trust and which content is worthy of sharing.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • TruthOut ☛ Pete Hegseth Has Banned 3 of My Books From the US Naval Academy

    Naval students and sailors must feel insulted by Hegseth’s lack of confidence in their intellectual ability to read challenging material that encourages self-examination and renders visible the subtle ways in which racism manifests itself. My books lay a foundation for the capacity to think critically and compassionately about those suffering under the toxicity of racism. Navy sailors need to be able to think for themselves and not be immobilized by fear of speaking out against forms of social injustice.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jailed Australian writer Yang Jun tells of China prison suffering

    An Australian author jailed in China has detailed his “unbearable” prison suffering in a letter to supporters, saying he still dreams of returning home one day. Chinese-born Australian writer Yang Jun has been jailed since 2019 on espionage charges he has forcefully denied. The author and academic, also known by pen name Yang Hengjun, was […]

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • JURIST ☛ HRW calls for immediate release of Chad opposition leader amid crackdown on dissent

    Chadian security forces arrested former Prime Minister and opposition leader Succès Masra at his residence in N’Djamena on Friday. Masra, the head of Chad’s main opposition party, Les Transformateurs (The Transformers), was detained in the early hours of May 16.

  • JURIST ☛ Federal Appeals Court Blocks Convicted Felon-Era Plan to Deport Migrants to “Third Countries”

    A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Convicted Felon administration’s request to restart a controversial deportation policy that would send migrants to countries where they have no prior ties, including places like Libya and El Salvador.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Matt Birchler ☛ Owning digital goods means having the file, not some stupid ledger

    As I must have said a million times during the NFT fad, true digital ownership is owning DRM-free versions on your local hard drive (or drives, if you believe in backups). I guess it's kinda cool that there's a public record of your purchase, but like, may I suggest an email receipt to a DRM-free file as a superior alterantive?

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Unicorn Media ☛ Google Caves on Nextcloud App Permissions

  After Surveillance Giant Google removed needed permissions from the Nextcloud app, it refused to return them for months -- which quickly changed when the press got involved.

• Digital Music News ☛ Epic Games Asks Judge to Force Apple to Approve Fortnite

  Apple claims it hasn’t been blocking Fortnite outside the United States, and instead asked Epic Sweden to “resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as to not impact Fortnite in other geographies.” But that still begs the question: why block Fortnite in the US?

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Federal Circuit on Negative Limitations and Secondary Considerations

    In a pair of nonprecedential decisions, the Federal Circuit affirmed three PTAB inter partes review decisions--finding BillJCo's patents unpatentable as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103. BillJCo, LLC v. Fashion Company Apple Inc., Nos. 23-2189 (Fed. Cir. May 16, 2025); and No. 23-2188 (Fed. Cir. May 16, 2025). The cases were both decided by the same three-judge panel, with Judge Stoll authoring one opinion and Judge Chen the other. In reading the cases, one key take-away is that the cases represent another example of the Federal Circuit's rigid approach to secondary considerations of non-obviousness. I recently highlighted this same phenomenon in discussing Purdue Pharma's pending petition for certiorari. See Dennis Crouch, The Federal Circuit's Rigid Approach to Secondary Considerations, Patently-O (May 5, 2025). The opinions also illustrate the court's approach to claim construction, particularly regarding interpreting a claim term to include a negative limitation. One case also relies upon a key prior art from now Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Copyright Claims Board is “Ineffective and Costly,” Watchdog Groups Say

    Responding to an inquiry from the U.S. Copyright Office, a coalition of watchdog groups has flagged various problems with the Copyright Claims Board. They label the three-year-old small claims tribunal as "ineffective" and a poor use of taxpayer money. The groups highlight a high volume of dismissed claims, concerns over the opt-out procedure, and an alarming 60% default rate in cases that do reach a final determination.