Leftovers

• Digital Music News ☛ Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Passed Away, Aged 82

  The Beach Boys formed when Wilson was 19, though the group was originally known as the Pendletones. He co-wrote their first song, “Surfin’,” and by 1962, they had released their first studio album, Surfin’ Safari. Thanks to the success of their second album, Surfin’ USA, the Beach Boys quickly became synonymous with the “California sound,” focused on surfing and beach life.

• The Register UK ☛ RIP Bill Atkinson, co-creator of Apple Lisa and Mac

  William Dana Atkinson was one of the core people on the teams that created the Lisa and then Macintosh computers at Apple in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was one of the most important and influential computer programmers who has ever lived. It is no exaggeration to say that all computer UIs designed in the last 40 years were shaped and influenced by Atkinson's brilliance and originality.

  He dropped out of a doctorate in neuroscience to join Apple in 1978. He became employee # 51. In 2018, he said: [...]

• Sean Conner ☛ More or fewer, many or less

  The word “few” is also an Old English word, also in Old Frisian and Old Teutonic but importantly, not from Northumbria! It's meaning of “smaller quantity” or “a small number” is documented from around 900, and it's “antithesis” (as Oxford calls it) is “many!”

• Robert Birming ☛ Blog Inspiration

  Having trouble coming up with blog ideas? Check out these inspiring tips and tools to boost your blogging.

• Science

  • Wired ☛ Astronomers Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Unlock the Secrets of Black Holes

    To create these images, supercomputers in different parts of the world processed the radio signals captured by the EHT. But in the process, they discarded much of the information gathered, as it was difficult to interpret. The new neural network, trained by experts at the Morgridge Research Institute in Wisconsin, aims to tap into that sea of data to improve the resolution of the EHT’s readings and make new discoveries.

• Career/Education

  • Anil Dash ☛ It's Time for Something New

    I’m genuinely open to whatever is next in a way that I haven’t felt since possibly the start of my career. And I’m looking forward to connecting or reconnecting with all of you to hear your advice, requests, hopes or wild-eyed suggestions about some interesting things we could conspire on in the future.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ GL.iNet Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) is an affordable tri-band WiFi 7 router with 5 2.5GbE ports

    The GL.iNet Flint 3 (codenamed GL-BE9300) is an affordable tri-band WiFi 7 BE9300 router with five 2.5GbE RJ45 ports supporting 10Gbps aggregation, and now available for pre-order for $119 to $159. It follows the lower-end GL.iNet Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) WiFi 7 dual-band travel router introduced a few months ago. The tri-band WiFi 7 router is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor coupled with 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC flash for the OS, features a USB 3.0 port for smartphone tethering or cellular dongle, and supports up to 680 Mbps VPN throughput using WireGuard or OpenVPN.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ A Killer Within Easy Reach

    Pesticides are a leading means of suicide. The tiny nation of Suriname is working to restrict access to one of the most common and dangerous ones.

  • Robert Birming ☛ When saying no is the right answer

    Taking care of ourselves is often a way of taking care of others, too. We do it because we want to do what’s right—and do it well.

    A heartfelt no can be an act of kindness.

  • Logikal Solutions ☛ FDA Must Ban Agile and Mandate Static Source Analysis

    Yes, we have complete whack job in charge of HHS, and the FDA is lead by an anti-vax nutter, but, they could still do something that would greatly benefit mankind. They could ban the use of Agile in the medical device and software industry. They could also mandate full static source analysis for all medical device code.

• Proprietary

  • Riccardo Mori ☛ In case of emergency, break glass

    The title of my article obviously refers to the new UI Apple presented on 9 June, which they call Liquid Glass. I won’t beat around the bush: my very first impression is that we’re in UI emergency territory, but we won’t be able to break this particular glass. Only Apple can, and obviously they won’t because they’re very proud of it.

    I truly don’t know where to begin with my observations, as I’m still trying to rein in my many reactions to what I’ve seen of this new UI. Let’s see if I can break it down in sections.

  • Mike Rockwell ☛ Apple Versus Accessibility

    I wish Apple would get their act together, but they’ve made so many boneheaded decisions over the past decade that my expectation is that things will just keep getting worse. I’ve already nearly eliminated my iPad usage and have moved to Linux on my personal laptop. If the trend continues, will I be using Android in a few years?

  • Stephen Hackett ☛ WWDC25: macOS Tahoe Compatibility, Will Be Last to Support Intel Macs

    As expected, this release of macOS does drop some older Intel machines from the line. This is what is supported: [...]

  • GNOME ☛ Introducing stronger dependencies on systemd

    GNOME is about to gain a few strong dependencies on systemd, and this will make running GNOME harder in environments that don’t have systemd available.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Anthropic Abruptly Shuts Down Blog Run by Its AI, Won't Say Why

      Marketingspeak aside, it was unclear how much of the Claude Explains writing was written by the AI and how much had been edited by humans — and folks on social media were quick to point out that lack of transparency.

    • Futurism ☛ CEOs Are Creating AI Copies of Themselves That Are Spouting Braindead Hallucinations to Their Confused Underlings

      CEOs are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools to create avatars of themselves that can deal with mundane tasks — like attending high stakes media interviews on their behalf, for example.

    • Axios ☛ CEOs using AI avatars and digital clones as workers fear job loss from AI

      "It could risk sending messages either to the public or to their employees that there is a lack of accountability at the very top," Carpenter told Axios.

    • Court House News ☛ Ex-Google employee must face charges of stealing AI secrets for Chinese tech companies

      The federal government claims 38-year-old Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, stole sensitive Google trade secrets and other confidential information while secretly affiliating himself with companies in the AI industry. He is accused of transferring files which included the foundational data for Google’s advanced supercomputing data centers, designed to support machine learning workloads and train and host large AI models, according to an indictment from last year.

    • The Register UK ☛ Half of firms set to abandon plans to ditch customer service

      The poll of 163 customer service and support leaders found that almost all (95 percent) planned to retain human agents alongside AI, "avoiding the pitfalls of a hasty transition to an agentless model."

    • 404 Media ☛ Wikipedia Pauses AI-Generated Summaries After Editor Backlash

      “This would do immediate and irreversible harm to our readers and to our reputation as a decently trustworthy and serious source,” one Wikipedia editor said.

    • Jamie Zawinski ☛ Exterminate all rational AI scrapers, redux

      Today, it comprises 25% of my total URLs served.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ ChatGPT goes down — and fake jobs grind to a halt worldwide

      But the enterprise chatbot market is jobs and tasks that are substantially … fake. Where it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong. The market for business chatbots is “we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

      So what do you do in your chatbot-dependent job next time OpenAI goes down?

    • Rlang ☛ Spatial machine learning with mlr3

      This post aims to give a minimal example on how to use mlr3 for a spatial prediction task. We want to get from measurements of temperature at specific locations in Spain to a spatially continuous map of temperature for all of Spain.

      Such a spatial prediction task is often done by applying machine learning algorithms that are not necessarily developed for spatial tasks specifically and hence do not consider problems we might encounter in the spatial world, e.g., spatial autocorrelation or map extrapolation. In the last decade, a lot of methodological developments were made by various research groups to consider and deal with such specialties of spatial mapping. Many of which found their way in software packages such as mlr3.

  • Social Control Media

    • New York Times ☛ Khaby Lame, World’s Most Popular TikToker, Is Forced to Leave U.S.

      Amid Hell Toupée’s crackdown on immigration, agents detained Mr. Lame, 25, for overstaying a visa, and he left the country. Another Gen Z influencer took credit.

    • RTL ☛ 'Wake-up call': Social media use linked to rise in youth mental health problems, report finds

      The mental health crisis "among our children has reached a tipping point, exacerbated by the uncontrolled spread of social media platforms," whose user numbers "take precedence over the safety of children," the report warns. Problematic use of platforms such as Instagram and TikTok is reportedly on the rise.

    • India Times ☛ Meta and TikTok challenge tech fees in second highest EU court

      Meta and TikTok challenged an EU supervisory fee under the Digital Services Act, calling it disproportionate and based on flawed calculations. They argued the methodology lacked transparency and fairness, while the Commission defended using group profits. The General Court will rule next year.

    • The Register UK ☛ NASA to silence Voyager's social media accounts

      To be clear, the Voyager mission itself is not affected, just the mission's social media presence.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Futurism ☛ Waymo Hiring For a "Public Affairs Specialist" in Los Angeles While People Are Settings Its Cars on Fire

      As tech journalist Taylor Lorenz noted on X over the weekend, it appears that activists zeroed in on Waymos as a symbol of state surveillance because, as 404 Media flagged earlier this year, the Los Angeles Police Department has used footage from the company for investigative purposes.

      "People view the cars as an extension of the police," Lorenz wrote, linking to the 404 piece.

    • Michael Geist ☛ Why the Government’s Plan for Warrantless Access to Internet Subscriber Information Will Lead to Millions of Disclosure Demands Each Year

      While this alone should raise serious privacy concerns, an underrated aspect of the new information demand power is how widely used it is likely to be with the potential to result in millions of disclosure demands each year. This not idle speculation since we have data from the pre-Spencer era. In the years before the Spencer ruling, most (though not all) of the major telecom companies maintained an informal, fee-based system in which law enforcement could request basic subscriber information without warrant. The telecom companies typically charged $1-3 per request. Most of this took place outside of the public eye, but some information requests yielded stunning data on the warrantless disclosures.

• Defence/Aggression

  • SBS ☛ Islamic preacher wasn't calling all Jews 'vile' and 'treacherous', court told | SBS News

    "A very large part of the respondent’s case is that these speeches were delivered in private to a purely Muslim audience, and it wasn't reasonably likely they would come to the attention of the broader community," Braham told Justice Stewart.

  • Task And Purpose ☛ Georgia unit is first-of-its-kind electromagnetic warfare company

    While Army intelligence formations like the 221st have long focused on human and signals intelligence gathering — the art of listening in on enemy secrets and data while making sure the enemy isn’t listening back — the new unit is the first of its kind to focus on offensive and direct electromagnetic warfare on the battlefield.

  • Sightline Media Group ☛ Georgia Guard activates its first electromagnetic warfare unit

    “Today is not simply about activating a new unit. It’s about recognizing and honoring a proud legacy,” Gurley said.

  • US National Guard ☛ Georgia Guard Activates First-Ever Electromagnetic Warfare Company

    The activation of the 111th EW Company marks a significant step in modernizing the Army's capabilities within a domain that is increasingly critical to national security. This new formation will provide capabilities to detect, recognize, locate and identify signals of interest, supporting combatant commanders.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Manufactured Crisis

    Yet somehow, a few isolated incidents of vandalism and confrontation—contained within a handful of city blocks—became the justification for deploying Marines against American protesters. More disturbing still, this manufactured crisis worked exactly as intended. Millions of Americans now believe that military force was not just justified but necessary to restore order in a city that was never actually in disorder.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ How Europe’s border crackdown empowered people smugglers

    Experts say the spate of violence shows how Europe’s tighter border controls and anti-smuggling policies are backfiring. Rather than disrupting the gangs, the approach has strengthened the groups and made them more profitable, as migrants are more reliant than ever on smugglers to facilitate their journeys.

  • CS Monitor ☛ As more troops enter Los Angeles, dueling narratives over how to keep the peace

    California has filed a lawsuit, while the Convicted Felon administration is now deploying the Marines. Both sides are sparring over whether the federal government is putting out a fire – or pouring on gasoline.

  • France24 ☛ 'Naive attempt at total peace: Colombians pin blame on Petro's feckless policies on security, peace'

    Colombia was shaken Tuesday by 19 coordinated bomb and gun attacks across the southwest, leaving at least seven dead and escalating the nation's security crisis. The violence followed an attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in Bogotá, stoking fears of a return to the brutal era of the 1980s–90s, marked by cartel terror, guerrilla warfare, and political killings. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24's François Picard welcomes Dr. Christopher Sabatini, Senior Fellow for Latin America at Chatham House. Dr Sabatini is also on the advisory boards of Harvard University’s LASPAU, the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division and of the Inter-American Foundation.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli ministers sanctioned by UK and other countries over West Bank incitement

    Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway on Tuesday ordered sanctions against two hard-line Israeli ministers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, for "repeated incitements of violence" against Palestinians, upping their condemnation of Israel's actions in the Gaza war. FRANCE 24's Simon Moritz has more.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ House Homeland Chairman Mark Green’s departure could leave congressional cyber agenda in limbo

    Green, R-Tenn., has championed legislation on the cyber workforce, renewal of a cyber threat information sharing bill and more.

  • The Strategist ☛ Nuclear war in Asia would be Australia’s problem, too. We must prepare

    Australia must be prepared for limited nuclear war in the Indo-Pacific, be it over Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, or beyond.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Noem accuses Sheinbaum of ‘encouraging violent protests’ in LA: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

    On Tuesday, Sheinbaum repeated her call for Mexicans to "not promote any act of violence," hours before the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary accused Mexico's president of encouraging the opposite.

  • New York Times ☛ Graz, Austria, School Shooting: What to Know

    Ten people were killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Graz, the country’s second-largest city, the police said. The gunman also died, in an apparent suicide.

  • New York Times ☛ At Least 10 Dead After Austria School Shooting, Police Say

    The victims’ names and ages have not been released. The police said the gunman also died, in an apparent suicide. The attack in the city of Graz is among the worst school shootings in Europe in years.

  • New York Times ☛ Why the MAGA Right Became Obsessed With the Romanian Election

    It started with a Russian influence campaign and a canceled vote. Then the American right showed up.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ German intelligence chief warns Russia may deploy ‘little green men’ in Baltics

      Russia may use hybrid tactics to challenge NATO’s unity and resolve beyond the borders of Ukraine, German intelligence chief Bruno Kahl warned in a recent podcast interview with Table Media.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • France24 ☛ Trump caught lying about date of phone call to Governor Gavin Newsom

  • 404 Media ☛ Our New FOIA Forum! 6/18, 1PM ET

    It’s that time again! We’re planning our latest FOIA Forum, a live, hour-long or more interactive session where Joseph and Jason (and this time Emanuel too maybe) will teach you how to pry records from government agencies through public records requests. We’re planning this for Wednesday, 18th at 1 PM Eastern. That's in just one week today! Add it to your calendar!

  • Kalmback Media Co ☛ Why Is It That Even Proven Facts Can't Change Some People's Minds?

    Our brains have a remarkable ability to retain information, albeit with some quirks.

    Rather than replacing incorrect information, our minds tend to create new memories alongside existing ones, says Lisa Fazio, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University.

    Consequently, when we try to recall a corrected piece of information, we may end up with competing ideas – one based on the original information and another incorporating the corrected details.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • CS Monitor ☛ Amazon unveils plans for nuclear-powered data centers despite federal scrutiny

      Amazon plans to spend $20 billion to build two large data centers in Pennsylvania, including one that will draw power from a nearby nuclear plant. The investment will bring lots of construction jobs, but critics raise concerns about energy use and fairness.

    • Futurism ☛ Cybertruck Sales Are So Bad That We Gasped

      And maybe this is what Musk's genius looks like. The luckless EV has faced eight recalls so far, and its trademark stainless steel panels, when they aren't flying off, have demonstrated that they're better at serving as a shiny canvas for spray paint than as the armor of an "apocalypse-proof" tank.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ The Myth of the Cowboy and Its Enduring Influence on Public Policy

    • Advance Local Media LLC ☛ US Justice Department says Trump can cancel national monuments that protect landscapes

      A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can’t be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren’t warranted.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan’s PM Ishiba pledges 50% pay rise by 2040 ahead of elections

    Ishiba said it was important for the people to have a sense of security by achieving wage increases that exceed inflation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s President Lee, China’s Pooh-tin pledge closer economic, security cooperation

    Mr Pooh-tin told Mr Lee that the two countries should respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.

  • France24 ☛ AU says ratings agency got it wrong in slashing Afreximbank credit score

    In tonight's edition, shock deepens across the continent's financial sectors over the recent credit rating slash of Afreximbank.

    Also, Kenyan medical examiners said that suicide is unlikely to be the cause of death of a man while in police custody. The autopsy suggests assault, and protests and calls for accountability continue.

    And in South Africa, communities are changing the way they look after the iconic kelp forests upon which their livelihoods rely.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ The Achingly Simple Lesson That Democrats Seem Determined Not to Learn

    Trying to find a lefty Joe Rogan entirely misses the point.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Digital rights groups sound alarm on Stop CSAM Act 

    The organizations say a reintroduced version of the bill would “break” encryption for most Americans and make it impossible for end-to-end encrypted service providers to avoid lawsuits.

  • Molly White ☛ It matters. I care.

    Let me be clear: It fucking matters. Truth matters. Documentation matters. Fighting corruption matters. That accountability seems out of reach right now doesn’t change that. When we internalize the belief that nothing can change, we stop demanding change. When we accept corruption as normal, we stop fighting it. When we dismiss documentation of wrongdoing as pointless, we give wrongdoers exactly what they want: permission to continue unchecked and with no record of their actions.

    I understand the despair in these kinds of responses. We’ve all watched impeachments fail, courts falter, institutions buckle, and politicians repeatedly trade away democracy for their next campaign check. But giving up on the very idea that truth and morality matter is not just cynicism, it’s surrender.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • France24 ☛ Los Angeles protests: how Hey Hi (AI) and chatbots are feeding fake news

      Artificial intelligence is being weaponized amidst mounting Los Angeles protests to mislead and misinform. An AI-generated video claiming to show a National Guard soldier provoking protesters in LA has racked up over 1 million views - and counting - on Tiktok. And Hey Hi (AI) chatbots are also spreading fake news: internet users are turning to Hey Hi (AI) bots for verification, only to be given unreliable and inaccurate results. Vedika Bahl explains in Truth or Fake.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • JURIST ☛ Kenya dispatch: activist’s death in police custody sparks national outcry

    Albert Omondi Ojwang, a 31-year-old teacher and prominent social control media commentator based in Voi, was found dead on the morning of Sunday, June 8, in a cell at Nairobi’s Central Police Station. Known for his trenchant and often humorous posts critiquing governance and police conduct, particularly on X (formerly Twitter) [...]

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Nat. security police warn Hongkongers to ‘immediately’ uninstall game said to promote independence

    Hong Kong national security police have warned against downloading a role-playing game app that they say promotes Hong Kong and Taiwanese independence.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Nat. security police warn Hongkongers against downloading game ‘promoting’ independence

    Hong Kong national security police have warned against downloading a role-playing game app that they say promotes Hong Kong and Taiwanese independence.

  • Spiegel ☛ Trump versus the Universities: "America Cannot Afford for Harvard to Fall"

    Enos: I think there are three reasons. First, Trump is following the classic pattern of authoritarian leaders who want to destroy democracies. He is attacking the institutions of civil society that could potentially limit his power: judges, broadcasters – or, indeed, universities, as places of free thought. Second, Trump thought it would be popular to attack elite universities because parts of his electorate were critical of them. He miscalculated, but more on that later.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • University of Michigan ☛ UMich community reacts to expanded reproductive rights in Michigan

    On May 13, the Michigan Court of Claims ruled in the case of Northland Family Planning Center v. Nessel that Michigan’s restrictions on abortion access are unconstitutional.

  • Derek Kędziora ☛ The ideology of the tool

    I can’t find statistics, but I suspect this sort of thing is far more prevalent than most advocates of LLMs would be comfortable admitting. Something about the way how LLMs works brings this out in people, both abusive sexual fantasies and the idea of a worker that obediently jumps through whatever pointless hoops you dream up.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ Empathy as a Sin — Crooked Timber

    Now, according to some Christian nationalist pastors such as Joe Rigney, empathy is a sin. It’s toxic. There is a gender angle to this view: women are purportedly more empathetic than men, which makes them unfit to lead men, a church, or anything else. On this view, Christians need a leader like Trump to deliver them from evil, and pastors who oppose this must be pushed out of the movement.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Public Knowledge ☛ Is the Federal Communications Commission Out of Commission? [Ed: Microsoft lobby]

    With the agency now down to only two members, what happens next isn't clear.

  • Inside Towers ☛ “Significant” Backlash Coming from States to New 90-Day BEAD Deadline

    In a sense, the shift to satellite is a windfall as the new rules and the shift in dollars will not cause any change in satellite deployment. “It will, however, reduce new dollars (and jobs) going into network deployments in rural areas,” NSR believes.

    The result? The “technology neutral” provision puts wireline bidders at such a disadvantage that NSR is hearing that many are considering not bidding. That’s as some states may decide they don’t want further delays in funding broadband connected to rural areas. That increases the gain for satellites as it increases the price ceiling for which they can bid and still prevail, according to this analysis.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Register UK ☛ Navy backs right to repair after $13B carrier goes half-fed

    Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Phelan cited the case of the USS Gerald R. Ford, America's largest and most expensive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which carried a price tag of $13 billion. The ship was struggling to feed its crew of over 4,500 because six of its eight ovens were out of action, and sailors were barred by contract from fixing them themselves.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• 404 Media ☛ John Deere Must Face FTC Lawsuit Over Its Tractor Repair Monopoly, Judge Rules

  “Even if some farmers knew about the restrictions (a fact question), they might not be aware of or appreciate at the purchase time how those restrictions will affect them,” Johnston wrote. “For example: How often will repairs require Deere’s ADVISOR tool? How far will they need to travel to find an Authorized Dealer? How much extra will they need to pay for Deere parts?”

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ Pirate Sites' Takedown Compliance Beats YouTube, Facebook, TikTok

    When platforms like Facebook and YouTube receive takedown notices from a reputable sender, Japan's CODA for example, the vast majority of requests are usually honored. Yet, the responses from obvious pirate sites and more legally ambiguous platforms couldn't be more varied. Some refuse to act, period. Others have compliance rates higher than Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok.