Leftovers

• Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s top football body to form esports team after World Cup flop

  China’s top football body said on Tuesday it planned to form a national esports team, a surprise foray into virtual gaming after a dismal performance saw the country fail to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

• Science

  • Russell Coker ☛ Annoying Wrongness on TV

    Another annoying thing is shows that don’t match up the build dates of objects used. It’s nice when they get it right like the movie Titanic featuring a M1911 pistol which is something that a rich person in 1912 would likely have. The series Carnival Row (which I recommend) has weapons that mostly match our WW1 era, everything that doesn’t involve magic seems legit. One of the worst examples of this is the movie Anna (by Luc Besson which is mostly a recreation of his film Nikita but in the early 90s and with the KGB). That film features laptops with color screens and USB ports before USB was invented and when color screens weren’t common on laptops, as an aside military spec laptops tend to have older designs than consumer spec ones.

  • Science Alert ☛ Early Forms of Cells Could Form in The Lakes of Saturn's Moon Titan

    Primordial froth.

• Career/Education

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ A Trial Over Campus Protest Ends With Conflicting Views of Foreign Students' Free-Speech Rights

  • NYPost ☛ Is college actually worth it anymore? Gen Z isn’t sure, study says

    They’re “questioning whether college still delivers real value.”

• Hardware

  • New York Times ☛ A Professor’s Search for the MingKwai, a Lost Chinese Typewriter

    A historian went down an 18-year rabbit hole in search of obsolete machines. But there was one he thought he’d never find.

  • Hackaday ☛ USB-C-ing All The Things

    Wall warts. Plug mounted power supplies that turn mains voltage into low voltage DC on a barrel jack to power a piece of equipment. We’ve all got a load of them for our various devices, most of us to the extent that it becomes annoying. [Mikeselectricstuff] has the solution, in the shape of a USB-C PD power supply designed to replace a barrel jack socket on a PCB.

  • Hackaday ☛ The Epochalypse: It’s Y2K, But 38 Years Later

    Picture this: it’s January 19th, 2038, at exactly 03:14:07 UTC. Somewhere in a data center, a Unix system quietly ticks over its internal clock counter one more time. But instead of moving forward to 03:14:08, something strange happens. The system suddenly thinks it’s December 13th, 1901. Chaos ensues.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • France24 ☛ Duplomb Law: Feeding France, but at what cost?

    In France, the proposed Duplomb Law aims to ease restrictions on pesticides to support industrial farming. A student-led petition gathered over 1.6 million signatures in just ten days, triggering a parliamentary debate. Lorine Azoulai, Food Sovereignty Advocacy Officer at CCFD-Terre Solidaire, warns the bill threatens public health and agroecological progress in favour of intensive agriculture.

  • Latvia ☛ Which is the healthiest gherkin?

    A Latvian meal is not really a meal at all unless it includes some form of gherkin, is it? But which is the healthiest gherkin? Which one is it? Which one?

  • France24 ☛ The Bright Side: Madd fruit boosts Senegalese economy during rainy season

    The Senegalese fruit Madd is a seasonal favourite, with customers paying just over 20 euros a sack for its tangy-sweet flavour and health benefits. The mango-like crop supports local farmers and traders from all over the country, providing an important economic boost during the rainy season.

  • European Commission ☛ Commission approves up to €403 million of State aid by five Member States for the second Important Project of Common European Interest in the healthcare sector

  • Science Alert ☛ This Common Blood Pressure Drug Extends Lifespan, Slows Aging in Animals

    The potential is immense.

• Proprietary

  • Business Insider ☛ A laid-off Microsoft manager says it's not a personal failure, but he may pivot away from management

  • ZeniMax Staff Discuss the “Graveyard” They Have to Work Around

    About three weeks following the announcement that Microsoft was laying off over 9,000 workers across its entire business, including many under the Xbox umbrella, a number of ZeniMax staff have talked to Game Developer about the fallout of those decisions. It seems that virtually across the board, all of the developers are currently dealing with a ton of emotional distress seeing so many of their colleagues unceremoniously ousted. Some of those laid off workers were with the studio for decades, and the remaining people say that these cuts will have a negative impact on their productivity going forward.

  • EuroGamer ☛ Supermassive Games delays sci-fi horror Directive 8020 following layoffs

    Supermassive Games has delayed its next game, Directive 8020, following a round of layoffs affecting up to 36 employees.

    The British studio announced the decision in a social media statement, blaming the layoffs on its need to "adapt our team structure to better align with recent industry changes".

    As a result, the studio's forthcoming sci-fi horror game Directive 8020 has been delayed into the first half of 2026.

  • Directive 8020 Delayed As Supermassive Announces Layoffs

    The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 is an upcoming sci-fi horror game that was originally set to release in October 2025, but will now be delayed until 2026 as British video game developer Supermassive Games has just announced they will be making another round of layoffs.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Straits Times ☛ Humans get full marks, beating generative Hey Hi (AI) models’ gold-level score at top maths contest

      The Surveillance Giant Google and Proprietary Chaffbot Company models reached gold-level scores for the first time – a “much-desired milestone”.

    • Press Gazette ☛ The Atlantic and The Economist among initial partners for Surveillance Giant Google ‘featured notebooks’

      NotebookLM is Google's AI-powered documents research and note-taking tool.

    • Public Knowledge ☛ Hopes and Fears for Hell Toupée’s Hey Hi (AI) Action Plan

      A look at what Hell Toupée’s Hey Hi (AI) action plan could still get right—and what we can’t afford to get wrong.

  • Social Control Media

    • TuMFatig ☛ GoToSocial Adventures: migrate from Pixelfed

      When I decided to stop publishing on Instagram, I seeked for alternatives and Pixelfed looked like a nice one. The fact that it had a migration feature from IG made me go for it.

      But for reasons, I don’t want to use this software anymore.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Straits Times ☛ Trio sent to prosecutors in S. Korea for illegally selling BTS’ flight information

      The flight details were sold through direct messages or chat rooms on social control media platforms.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ “Encryption Backdoors and the Fourth Amendment”

      Law journal article that looks at the Dual_EC_PRNG backdoor from a US constitutional perspective:

      Abstract: The National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly paid and pressured technology companies to trick their customers into using vulnerable encryption products. This Article examines whether any of three theories removed the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that this be reasonable. The first is that a challenge to the encryption backdoor might fail for want of a search or seizure. The Article rejects this both because the Amendment reaches some vulnerabilities apart from the searches and seizures they enable and because the creation of this vulnerability was itself a search or seizure. The second is that the role of the technology companies might have brought this backdoor within the private-search doctrine. The Article criticizes the doctrine­ particularly its origins in Burdeau v. McDowell­and argues that if it ever should apply, it should not here. The last is that the customers might have waived their Fourth Amendment rights under the third-party doctrine. The Article rejects this both because the customers were not on notice of the backdoor and because historical understandings of the Amendment would not have tolerated it.

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia govt’s reform pledge tested as DAP chief bows over unresolved 2009 death of political aide

    The unresolved death of Teoh Beng Hock has become emblematic of DAP’s and PH’s unfulfilled justice and reform promises.

  • New York Times ☛ What to Know About the $250 Visa Integrity Fee for U.S. Tourists

    A newly enacted “visa integrity fee” will apply to millions of foreign visitors, including travelers from Mexico, India, Brazil and China.

  • JURIST ☛ US federal court upholds dismissal of terror victims’ claims against global banks

    A US federal court on Monday upheld the dismissal of claims brought by US service members and civilians against three major global banks accused of indirectly funding terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.

  • The Strategist ☛ China gains Pacific influence with PMSCs. Counter it with Australian PMSCs

    Australia should offer to help Pacific partners by employing private military and security companies (PMSCs) in the Pacific to counter Chinese influence in grey-zone operations [...]

  • The Strategist ☛ Public, private stakeholders explore the Pilbara’s potential

    Australia must stop viewing the Pilbara solely as a resource basin and start treating it as a national security asset.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea plans to build another 5,000-ton destroyer

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to ramp up his country’s naval capacities.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea weighs painful concessions to avert Convicted Felon’s looming tariffs

    Seoul is preparing for a diplomatic push in the final days before the Aug 1 deadline.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s President Lee declares disaster zones after floods

    The wet weather has now subsided, though media reports said heavy rainfall was drenching parts of North Korea.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Fatal shooting in South Korea sparks alarm over DIY firearms

    Concerns have grown in Korea over how easy it is to access information on making weapons.

  • JURIST ☛ Ireland urged to advance ‘Occupied Territories’ bill despite US pressure

    Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, called on the Irish government to move forward with the Occupied Territories bill, which would prohibit imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

  • Defence Web ☛ Sudan’s war is an economic disaster: here’s how bad it could get

    Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. What began as a struggle for power has turned into a national catastrophe. More than 14 million people have been displaced.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ 2 dead, 10 missing after colossal rain in China’s Shandong

    Half a year’s worth of rain fell in five hours on the Laiwu district in the city of Jinan.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Strategist ☛ Australia can break China’s stranglehold on graphite supply

      Australia has the graphite the world needs, but it still relies on others to process the material.

    • Hackaday ☛ Power Grid Stability: From Generators To Reactive Power

      It hasn’t been that long since humans figured out how to create power grids that integrated multiple generators and consumers. Ever since AC won the battle of the currents, grid operators have had to deal with the issues that come with using AC instead of the far less complex DC. Instead of simply targeting a constant voltage, generators have to synchronize with the frequency of the alternating current as it cycles between positive and negative current many times per second.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Straits Times ☛ Indonesia on high alert as hot spots soar from 94 to 1,000 in Sumatra

      Haze from the fires has drifted towards Malaysia, where some parts are reporting unhealthy air indexes.

• Finance

  • CS Monitor ☛ China’s mental shift on deflation

    Falling prices for electric cars and other signs of deflation have led China’s ruling party to challenge an economic mindset, which has led to the distorting market effects of subsidies.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan launches anti-dumping probe into stainless steel sheets from China, Taiwan

    Domestic manufacturers say they have been forced to lower prices due to weakening domestic demand.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Is Missing the Century’s ‘Greatest Economic Opportunity,’ U.N. Chief Says

    In a speech on renewable energy, António Guterres cited “clear market distortion” in favor of fossil fuels by Hell Toupée and others but called the transition to cleaner energy economically inevitable.

  • New York Times ☛ As the Dollar Slides, the Euro Is Picking Up Speed

    The euro has been gaining steam as investors seek new havens during geopolitical turmoil.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ China rallies for opposition as Taiwan gears up for mass parliamentary recall

    As Taiwan gears up for a recall vote that could reshape its parliament, opposition lawmakers being challenged at the ballot box are getting two unusual supporters: Chinese officials and state media outlets rallying to their cause.

  • The Strategist ☛ The Taiwan scenarios 2: Warning signs

    At first, it may not be easy to see what’s afoot. The difference between China’s routine coercion of Taiwan and early signs of serious escalation to take control of the island may not be clear.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Bring power back to people’: Maga-style ‘anti-globalist’ politics arrives in Japan

    Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition lost its Upper House majority in the election on July 20.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China probes former Tibet leader over bribes, ‘superstitious activities’

    Chinese authorities have removed a former leader of Tibet from office over alleged crimes including taking bribes and engaging in “superstitious activities”, the country’s top anti-corruption bodies said Tuesday.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • BIA Net ☛ Journalist placed under house arrest over post about prosecutor displaying symbol of extrajudicial killings

    The prosecutor was photographed with a model of the Renault Toros, a vehicle widely associated with extrajudicial killings and disappearances during the 1990s Kurdish conflict.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • TuMFatig ☛ GoToSocial Adventures: migrate from Mastodon

    I already used a Mastodon account but wanted to migrate it to my brand new GoToSocial instance while keeping as much data as possible.

  • AccessNow ☛ Internet Shutdowns: Endangered Communities, Silenced Stories

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Power of Unreviewability

    The Federal Circuit in IGT v. Zynga Inc. affirmed the PTAB IPR final written decision finding patent monopoly claims obvious. In addition, the court refused another institution challenge — holding that the Agency’s use of “interference estoppel” is an aspect of institution decisions that are generally non-reviewable on appeal.  This decision reinforces my belief that the pending SAP and Motorola petitions will be denied.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Droplets GUI patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On July 21, 2025, after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 6,687,745, owned by Droplets, Inc. The ‘745 patent monopoly relates to a method and system for delivering interactive links for presenting applications and client-specific information at a client computer from remote sources in a network.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Empire IP entity, Dynamic Data Innovations, retail processing patent monopoly challenged

    On July 19, 2025, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 9,632,676, asserted by Dynamic Data Innovations LLC, an NPE and entity of Empire IP LLC. The ‘676 patent monopoly is directed to managing, filtering, and displaying items in a GUI using both the attributes of the item and by analyzing item selections made by a user.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Nokia launches actions against Geely at the UPC and Regional Court Munich [Ed: UPC is illegal, so they basically started action in some illegal institution. JUVE is paid to play along with this illegality while whitewashing its ringleaders.]

      On 18 July Nokia filed claims against Geely. At the UPC, Nokia has filed claims at the Munich local division regarding EP 4 090 075 and the local division Mannheim over EP 3 799 333.

  • Software Patents

    • Digital Music News ☛ Universal Music Looks ‘To Greatly Expand’ Its Hey Hi (AI) Patent Portfolio Under Liquidax Capital Partnership — Establishes Licensing-Focused ‘Music IP Holdings’ [Ed: Software Patents in buzzword clothing]

      Introducing Universal Music Group the patent monopoly licensor: The major is looking to secure a number of “music-related Hey Hi (AI) patents” under a new partnership with Liquidax Capital. UMG today disclosed the high-profile tie-up as well as its aggressive focus on Hey Hi (AI) patents.