Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ Trickle Down: When Doing Something Silly Actually Makes Sense

  One of the tropes of the space race back in the 1960s, which helped justify the spending for the part of the public who thought it wasn’t worth it, was that the technology developed for use in space would help us out here back on earth. The same goes for the astronomical expenses in Formula 1, or even on more pedestrian tech like racing bikes or cinematography cameras. The idea is that the boundaries pushed out in the most extreme situations could nonetheless teach us something applicable to everyday life.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ To Tackle Our Obesity Crisis, Experts Say Everything We Do Must Change

    'Eat less, move more' is failing.

  • Science Alert ☛ Numerous Fossils Reveal Jurassic Fish Killed in Same, Bizarre Way

    Warning: choking hazard.

  • Science Alert ☛ Big City Lights Could Be Damaging Your Heart Health

    Here's how.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ice Bath Trend Raises Health Concerns. Here Are 6 Tips For Staying Safe.

    Know your limits.

  • Science Alert ☛ Neanderthal 'Swiss Army Knife' Discovered in Belgian Cave

    From cave lion bone to multi-tool.

  • Science Alert ☛ Planet Discovery Reveals Out-of-Sync Double Star System

    Even stars have blended families.

• Career/Education

  • LRT ☛ Celebrating the end of school in style: Lithuanian graduates set sail on a homemade raft

    While most Lithuanian students mark their high school graduation with fireworks, parties, or countryside trips, six graduates from Vilnius Simonas Daukantas High School chose a more adventurous path. Right after finishing final exams, they set off on a rafting journey down the Neris River, towards the Curonian Lagoon.

  • New Yorker ☛ Teaching Men Who Will Never Leave Prison

    In a maximum-security facility in upstate New York, students tackled Samuel Richardson’s “Clarissa” and Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” finding a sense of purpose that transcended ordinary coursework.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ The Cantareel Is Hurdy-Guitar Turned Inside Out

    Sometimes, all you need to make something work is to come at it from a different angle from anyone else — flip the problem on its head, so to speak. That’s what [Keizo Ishibashi] did to create his Cantareel, a modified guitar that actually sounds like a hurdy-gurdy.

  • Hackaday ☛ Wire Like A Pro: Peeking Into Wire Harness Mastery

    There are many ways to learn, but few to none of them compare to that of spending time standing over the shoulder of a master of the craft. This awesome page sent in by [JohnU] is a fantastic corner of the internet that lets us all peek over that shoulder to see someone who’s not only spent decades learning the art of of creating cable harnesses, but has taken the time to distill some of that vast experience for the rest of us to benefit from.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Our Investigation of UnitedHealth Started With a Tip

    A reporter was familiar with the insurance giant under scrutiny and the law firm known for its attack stance. Then one hired the other.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Rise in vaping among youth an alarming trend, says Malaysia’s Health Ministry

    Use of vapes increased from 4.9 per cent to 5.1 per cent from 2019 to 2023.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identify a Trait in Speech That Foreshadows Cognitive Decline

    Timing is everything.

  • New York Times ☛ UnitedHealth’s Campaign to Quiet Critics

    The company has invoked the murder of an executive last year to complain about coverage in news outlets, on streaming services and on social control media.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean medical students ready to return to school, ask for education reforms

    The Korean Medical Association urged the government to take steps to improve training conditions.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Security Week ☛ Grok-4 Falls to a Jailbreak Two days After Its Release

      The latest release of the xAI LLM, Grok-4, has already fallen to a sophisticated jailbreak.

    • New York Times ☛ Grok Chatbot Mirrored X Users’ ‘Extremist Views’ in Antisemitic Posts, xAI Says

      MElon’s artificial intelligence company said its Grok chatbot had also undergone a code update that caused it to share antisemitic messages this week.

    • Pete Zaitcev: Hey Hi (AI) writing

      On the topic of Hey Hi (AI) writing code, I've read a Sci-Fi story some 30 years ago, probably from the 1950s or 1960s.At the future Earth, fiction writers write using machines. The quality of writing is associated with the sophistication of writer's machine.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ VS Code 1.102 Released! GA MCP Support & Open-Source Copilot Chat [Ed: Proprietary spyware of Microsoft with openwashing and slop. Well, this site should know better than to do this...]

      VS Code 1.102, the June release of Microsoft’s IDE, was released few days ago on Wednesday. Since the release, Copilot Chat is finally open-sourced under the MIT license. And, the source code, is available at this github page.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ Family of US-Palestinian beaten to death in West Bank seeks State Department probe

    The family of a US-Palestinian man beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank called for a US State Department investigation into the killing on Saturday. Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat was attacked on Friday in the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza as ceasefire talks stall

    Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip including four children, while 24 others were fatally shot on their way to aid distribution sites, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said on Saturday. The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital said. Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan deploys advanced US Himars rockets in annual drills

    With a range of 300km, Himars could strike coastal targets in China's southern province of Fujian.

  • New York Times ☛ ICE Set to Vastly Expand Its Reach With New Funds

    After the passage of Hell Toupée’s domestic policy law, the Department of Homeland Security is poised to hire thousands of new immigration agents and double detention space.

  • France24 ☛ Judge orders Convicted Felon administration to halt indiscriminate immigration arrests in California

    A federal judge on Friday ordered the Convicted Felon administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles, after immigrant advocacy groups filed a lawsuit last week accusing the administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people during its immigration crackdown.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia says China is likely to spy on its military drills with the US

    It also alleged that Beijing wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Australia’s Anthony Albanese in China to boost trade despite regional angst

    Anthony Albanese arrived in Shanghai Saturday to kick off his second visit to China as Australian prime minister, seeking to bolster recently stabilised trade ties even as geopolitical tensions remain high.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia and China: Trade flows and security tensions shape ties

    Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in Shanghai on Saturday for a six-day visit to three Chinese cities where regional security tensions and economic ties are likely to dominate talks.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia PM eyeing trade on China trip despite regional angst

    PM Anthony Albanese has said that all issues will be on the table during upcoming discussions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China, Asean to submit upgraded free trade deal to leaders in October: China’s top diplomat Wang Yi

    Both sides have agreed on a five-year plan that specifies collaboration in over 40 fields.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Patriotism, peace and pain: The politics behind China’s World War II narrative

    Drawing from past lessons, Beijing’s strategy is: Only strength can keep China safe.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ASEAN: US and China have ‘positive’ meeting at foreign minister talks

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi had a “positive” meeting in Malaysia on Friday, both sides said, in an apparent bid to ease tensions between the rival powers. Rubio and Wang’s first face-to-face meeting since US President The Insurrectionist returned to office came as Washington and Beijing are locked […]

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • France24 ☛ Russian drone attack: The goal is to 'terrorise the Ukrainian population'

      At least six people were killed overnight and on Saturday as Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has further dampened hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than three-year-old war. The goal of Russia's drone attack on Ukraine is to "terrorise the Ukrainian population", FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert said in an analysis.

    • France24 ☛ Russia fires over 600 drones, missiles in massive barrage targeting western Ukraine

      Russia launched a massive barrage of more than 600 drones and missiles in an overnight attack Saturday on western Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 14 others. President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his Western allies to send "more than just signals" to stop the war launched by Russia in February 2022.

    • RFERL ☛ Russia Launches More Deadly Attacks On Ukraine, Courts North Korea's Kim

      Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with another barrage of overnight drone and missile attacks, killing at least two people and wounding at last 10 others, Ukrainian officials said on July 12.

    • The Straits Times ☛ North Korean leader Kim reaffirms support for Russia in Ukraine conflict, KCNA says

      Pyongyang has provided troops and arms for Moscow's war with Ukraine and pledged more military support.

    • New York Times ☛ A Landscape of Death: What’s Left Where Ukraine Invaded Russia

      When Ukraine turned a corner of Russia’s Kursk region into a battlefield, it set in motion some of the war’s fiercest fighting. Our photographer documented the aftermath.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Russian pro basketball player gets the cuffs for allegedly being a member of ransomware gang — lawyer claims client "sucks at computers and is not even able to install an application"

      Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin is suspected of acting as a ransomware negotiator for the ransomware gang behind some of the attacks in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Russia’s Lavrov meets North Korea’s Kim, praises ties as ‘invincible brotherhood’

      Mr Sergei Lavrov’s visit is scheduled till July 13, before he travels to China.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's Chery denies improper subsidy declarations

    The carmaker said it had consulted the government for advice previously.

  • The Straits Times ☛ One click away: Philippines grapples with online gambling boom – and doom

    Online gambling is exploding across the Philippines, threatening to tear families apart as lawmakers rush to rein it in.

  • New York Times ☛ After Months of Negotiations, Convicted Felon Imposes More Tariffs on Mexico

    The tariffs are likely to inflame tensions with one of the largest U.S. trading partners.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • New York Times ☛ Rubio Visits Asia in Shadow of Convicted Felon’s Tariffs

    Marco Rubio made his first visit to Asia as secretary of state. Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, reports from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to explain how Hell Toupée’s tariffs have upset U.S. trading partners.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Semi-naked dancing: Malaysian police probe claims of deviant activities at motivational talk

    The incident allegedly took place in September 2024; a police report was made in February 2025.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ The League of Social Democrats: A brief history of Hong Kong’s now-disbanded left-wing party

    On one sunny Sunday, the second-to-last day of June, seven members of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) held a press conference. Around 70 reporters and photographers had to squeeze into the small venue, which measured only 400 square feet, to hear an important announcement.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • New York Times ☛ It’s YouTube vs. DRM spreader Netflix as the Streaming Wars Come Down to 2

    The two giant video companies have far different strategies, but the same goal: controlling your TV set.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nintendo bans Switch 2 owner after they played used Switch 1 games — decision eventually reversed after 'proving innocence’

    Used Nintendo Switch games that have been copied and are being sold online might get your Switch 2 banned for life.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nintendo Switch pirates sunk by the FBI as they seize the site for hosting pirated games — American and Dutch authorities take down NSW2U.com

    This seizure will definitely make it harder to find pirated ROMs for the average user, but one can expect a few more to appear in the coming days.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ En Banc Ineligibility Petition in Longitude Licensing v. Google

    Before digging into this en banc petition, I just wanted to note that patent monopoly eligibility issues have been almost shockingly quiet over the past six months.  But, to me it feels something like a powder keg waiting to explode. While Acting Director Stewart has been incredibly active on other fronts since taking the helm in January 2025, she has remained notably silent on Section 101 reform initiatives. I believe there is some likelihood that this will change once John Squires is confirmed by the U.S. Senate -- given that he has already signaled support for patent monopoly eligibility reform measures like the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA).