GNU/Linux

• Kernel Space

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel prepares for Nova Lake CPUs with new GNU/Linux support — retiring 20-year-old 'Family 6' designation in favor of 'Family 18'

    Intel has started upstream GNU/Linux patches for Nova Lake, its next-gen CPU family set to replace the 20-year-old Family 6 era. Classified under Family 18, Nova Lake will power desktops, laptops, and possibly handhelds, with early groundwork ensuring GNU/Linux readiness well ahead of its 2026 launch.

Leftovers

• France24 ☛ Mar del Plata Canyon: underwater robot live stream draws over a million viewers per day

  A robot is navigating the cold depths of the South Atlantic seabed, streaming images of dazzling coral and previously unseen fish, while scientists provide live commentary on YouTube – and Argentines are captivated. The scientific mission is for the first time exploring the Mar del Plata canyon, a submarine gorge which plunges nearly 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep. The live stream began a week ago and exceeded one million views per day since Thursday.

• Ruben Schade ☛ Let the Good Times Roll, Louis Jordan

  Today’s Music Monday is a classic:

  From Wikipedia:

  “Let the Good Times Roll” is a jump blues song recorded in 1946 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. A mid-tempo twelve-bar blues, the song became a blues standard and one of Jordan’s best-known songs.

  My favourite comment, which makes me want to watch the movie again!

• The Straits Times ☛ ‘See you in Seoul’: Pope Leo says Catholic Church’s World Youth Day to be held in South Korea in 2027

  South Korea is the second Asian country to stage the event after the Philippines in 1995.

• NYPost ☛ Pope Leo XIV rallies 1M youths in Rome, calling them ‘the sign a different world is possible’

  "We are with the young people of Gaza. We are with the young people of Ukraine, with those of every land bloodied by war," he said.

• France24 ☛ Pope's 'Jubilee of Youth' ends with mass for 1 million pilgrims

  In his closing blessing for the Jubilee of Youth, Pope Leo XIV remembered the young people of Gaza and Ukraine and other countries “bloodied by war” who could not join their celebration.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ This Incredible New Bioplastic Could Be The Supermaterial of Tomorrow

    Strong as steel – and that's not all.

  • Science Alert ☛ Project Reveals Mindblowing Designs For Shipping Humans to The Stars

    The final frontier.

• Hardware

  • The Straits Times ☛ China can buy Nvidia H20 chips again, but it’s not all good news

    Continued reliance on the American chipmaker could slow China's push for self-reliance, say analysts.

  • Hackaday ☛ Keyboard Hero: A Barebones Alternative To The Guitar Version

    Guitar Hero was all the rage for a few years, before the entire world apparently got sick of it overnight. Some diehards still remember the charms of rhythm games, though. Among them you might count [Joseph Valenti] and [Daniel Rodriguez], who built a Keyboard Hero game for their ECE 4760 class at Cornell.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean’s death after 3 straight company drinking sessions ruled work-related

    The cause of death was acute alcohol intoxication from consuming a large amount of alcohol over a short period.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong records first imported case of chikungunya fever after outbreak in mainland China

    Hong Kong health authorities have recorded the city’s first imported case of chikungunya fever since 2019, saying the patient was infected in a mainland Chinese city that has logged almost 7,000 cases as of Thursday.

  • Hackaday ☛ A DIY Fermenter For Flavorful Brews

    Fermentation is a culinary art where tiny organisms transform simple ingredients into complex flavors — but they’re finicky about temperature. To keep his brewing setup at the perfect conditions, [Ken] engineered the Fermenter, a DIY insulated chamber controlled by Home Assistant for precision and remote monitoring.

  • Hackaday ☛ Rebuilt Batteries For The Cutest Clamshell At The Cafe

    Keeping retrocomputers going can be tricky enough, but when you’re talking retro laptops, the battery packs add an extra challenge. While one could simply live without the battery, that’s not going to give you the full retro experience. Replacement batteries are long out of stock, so what can one do? Well, one can check out this excellent tutorial by [lazd] on rebuilding an iBook G3 Clamshell battery.

  • Science Alert ☛ People With a Home by The Ocean Live Longer And We Don't Know Why

    It might be time for a sea change?

  • Science Alert ☛ The 'Fibermaxxing' Wellness Trend May Pose Health Risks. Here's Why.

    Taking a good thing too far?

  • Science Alert ☛ The Viral 'Kettlebell Challenge' Could Be Harmful. Do This Instead.

    There's a smarter way to use kettlebells.

  • Science Alert ☛ Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than You Would Ever Believe

    Shocking new evidence.

  • Science Alert ☛ Up to 1 in 5 Americans Think They're Allergic to Penicillin. Most Aren't.

    A pharmacist explains.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Mere Sight of a Sick Person Can Trigger Our Immune System

    Stay vigilant.

  • CS Monitor ☛ The pandemic divided the US. Could a full accounting help the nation heal?

    Why a diverse range of voices says a pandemic reckoning is needed – and how to get there.

  • Science Alert ☛ Venting Doesn't Reduce Anger, But Something Else Does, Says Study

    Blowing off steam may do more harm than good.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Unicorn Media ☛ KubeSphere Drops Open for Fauxpen — Blames It On Hey Hi (AI) or Something…

      Yet another company has evidently failed to realize going in that open source means open, and is changing to a new proprietary license with "open source" in the name.

      >

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Strategist ☛ Further reforms required for parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies

      Reforms outlined in a July ASPI report, aimed at strengthening the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s (PJCIS), are insufficient.

    • Don Marti ☛ Don Marti: living with a bigger ad duopoly

      Previously: tires, myths, and reality

      Just read the Surveillance Giant Google and Meta quarterly earnings reports, and there sure is money in the advertising duopoly business.

      • Total Google advertising revenue for the quarter ended June 30 is $71.34 billion

• Defence/Aggression

  • The Straits Times ☛ 80 years on, Korean survivors of World War II atomic bombs still suffer

    More than 10 per cent of the victims were Korean, the result of human flows while Japan colonised the Korean peninsula.

  • JURIST ☛ Amnesty International demands justice for 22 killed in Angola fuel protest crackdown

    Amnesty International has called on Angolan authorities to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the alleged unlawful killings of 22 people during a three-day national taxi drivers’ strike that began on July 29, 2025.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar junta air strike on ruby mine hub kills 13

    Civil war has consumed Myanmar since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.

  • New York Times ☛ Boeing Workers Who Make Fighter Jets Are Set to Strike

    About 3,200 machinists in St. Louis are poised to walk off the job after failing to reach an agreement on wages and retirement benefits.

  • New York Times ☛ When Bloodshed and Chaos Arrived at 345 Park Avenue

    On a steamy Monday evening, no one inside the Manhattan office building noticed the dark BMW pull up outside. The driver entered the lobby with a rifle in his hand.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea starts removing anti-North Korean loudspeakers on border

    SEOUL - South Korean authorities began removing on Monday loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country's border, Seoul's defence ministry said, as the new government of President Lee Jae Myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Kuala Lumpur to host Thailand-Cambodia border talks from Aug 4 to 7

    The Malaysian Armed Forces announced that it will facilitate the meeting.

  • New York Times ☛ No Passports, No Study Abroad: China Limits Public Employees’ Travel

    Even low-level government employees like elementary school teachers and nurses have been ordered to hand in their passports, to enforce “discipline.”

  • New York Times ☛ What’s It Like to Deal With Brutal U.S. Tariffs? Ask Malaysia.

    Once a cog in the Malaysian economy, the solar industry profited from Chinese investment. Now it’s becoming a case study of what happens when the United States closes its markets.

  • The Straits Times ☛ N. Korea’s Kim orders freight station construction near China border

    The station is meant to support a large-scale greenhouse farm project in the north-west.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippine, Indian navies begin first joint South China Sea patrols

    Beijing claims nearly the entirety of the South China Sea despite a ruling that it has no legal basis.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli minister Ben-Gvir says he prayed at Al-Aqsa mosque compound

    Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Sunday (August 3) and said he prayed there, challenging rules covering one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East. FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky tells us more.

  • France24 ☛ Renewed clashes in Syria's Druze-majority Sweida kill four people, monitor says

    Three Syrian security personnel and a member of a Druze militia were killed in renewed clashes in the southern province of Sweida, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday. More than 1,400 people were killed in an outbreak of sectarian violence in July between members of the Druze religious group and Sunni Bedouins, reportedly supported by government troops.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ EU condemns arrest of former Macau pro-democracy lawmaker

    The European Union on Saturday condemned Macau’s arrest of former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam-san, saying it only heightened concerns about the “erosion of political pluralism” in the Chinese territory. Au is the first person to be arrested under the city’s national security law.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Victims of Hamas and Hezbollah Attacks Sue UNRWA

    Relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks accuse the agency that aids Palestinians of providing support to the armed groups.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Trial Begins For 19 Suspects In Deadly 2024 Moscow Terror Attack

      The trial of 19 suspects -- several from Tajikistan -- in last year's terror attack on the Crocus City Hall entertainment center just outside Moscow begins on August 4 amid a backlash on Central Asian immigrants sparked by the assault.

    • New York Times ☛ India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Convicted Felon’s Threats, Officials Say

      There is a growing sense in India that its leaders should not allow American policymaking to shape its choices on vital energy supplies.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India to maintain Russian oil imports despite Convicted Felon threats, government sources say

      It is set to face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil.

    • New York Times ☛ Long-Dormant Russian Volcano Erupts for the First Time in Centuries

      The eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano on Sunday in Russia’s Far East came after a series of seismic events this past week on the Kamchatka peninsula.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ In a Desperate Bid to Survive His Latest Fuck-Up, FBI Director Kash Patel Desperately Clings to Propaganda

      Kash Patel is so desperate to fix his latest fuck up (revealing that the entire Durham investigation was built off Russian disinformation) he made to cover up his earlier fuck up (stoking an Epstein scandal that implicated his boss in uncomfortable ways) that he is openly clinging to dumb Federalist propaganda, in the process seemingly adopting the belief that Convicted Felon only won in 2016 with Jim Comey's interference.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ FBI Thwarted an Investigation into How Russians Injected Disinformation in the Steele Dossier

      The same analyst who introduced John Durham to the SVR collection also discovered that Christopher Steele's network had been compromised before Steele delivered his first dossier report.

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Days After the FBI Announced an Investigation, Russian Spies Deliberately “Put More Oil into the Fire”

      Joke's on us! Nine years into this influence operation, that phrase, "put more oil into the fire," a phrase that someone at the FBI should have recognized as a Russian idiom at least five years ago, is still ripping the country to pieces. 

    • Marcy Wheeler ☛ MattyDickPics Taibbi Doesn’t Like When Charlie Savage Takes Away His Russian Spy Toys

      Matty Dick Pics Taibbi claims it doesn't matter that the emails on which he has built a nine-year grift are manufactured, because he'll keep conflating "real" for "true" anyway.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan

      The Joint Sea-2025 exercises will last for three days.

    • RFERL ☛ China, Russia Launch Joint Naval Drills In Pacific Amid Strengthening Military Ties

      The five-day drills, dubbed Maritime Interaction 2025, focus on anti-submarine warfare, air defense, and search-and-rescue operations, showcasing their growing strategic alignment in a region marked by heightened security concerns.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan

      China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a US-led global order.

    • NYPost ☛ Russian volcano erupts for first time in centuries after massive earthquake strikes Kamchatka Peninsula

      Less than a week after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake sparked tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific Ocean, a volcano in far eastern Russia, on Sunday, spewed hot ash miles into the sky, marking the first time in hundreds of years the geological feature had erupted.

    • NYPost ☛ Miranda Devine: Russiagate lies are being exposed — and everybody is watching, even the Dems

      Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as “Russian disinformation” the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous “years-long coup” against Hell Toupée, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukraine Announces Arrests Targeting Corruption in Military Procurement

      The arrests came days after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s U-turn on an effort to neuter anticorruption agencies.

    • New Yorker ☛ At the Edge of Life and Death in Ukraine

      A new photo book by Eddy van Wessel, with nearly two hundred images taken over the course of three years, offers a visual history of the war’s devastation.

    • France24 ☛ Russian and Chinese navies begin joint drills in Sea of Japan

      Russia and China began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday as they seek to reinforce their "no-limits" strategic partnership – signed shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The drills take place two days after US President The Insurrectionist announced he had deployed two nuclear submarines to “the appropriate regions” in response to comments by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine anti-corruption agencies uncover major drone procurement graft scheme

      A Ukrainian lawmaker and a pair of local officials, as well as an unspecified number of National Guard personnel, have been caught in a major graft scheme that involved using state funds to buy drones and other military hardware at deliberately inflated prices in return for bribes, the country's anti-corruption agencies said Saturday (August 2).

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia King will make state visit to Russia for Putin meeting

      This will be the first state visit of a Malaysian monarch to Russia.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Hits Russian Oil Depot As Kyiv, Moscow Step Up Strikes Ahead Of Convicted Felon's Cease-Fire Deadline

      Ukrainian forces continued to blast military-linked infrastructure deep inside Russia early on August 3, keeping the pressure on the Kremlin days ahead of a deadline US President The Insurrectionist has given Moscow to accept a peace deal with Kyiv.

    • RFERL ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Says Envoy Witkoff May Travel To Russia In Coming Week

      US President The Insurrectionist said his special envoy Steve Witkoff may travel to Russia on August 6 or 7 -- the last days before his new deadline for Russia to take steps to end the war or face sanctions targeting oil exports.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ China renews alerts for rainstorms, high temperature

    Heavy rainfall across several regions is expected over the weekend.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Southern Taiwan lashed by torrential rain, four dead, more than 5,900 evacuated

    Four people died and more than 5,900 have been evacuated in southern Taiwan after the island recorded more than a year's rainfall over the past week which caused widespread landslides and flooding.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s small workshops are hurting, but Convicted Felon’s tariffs are only one reason

    China’s exports to the United States from April through June dropped 23.9 per cent from a year earlier.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan ready to compile extra budget to cushion US tariff blow, PM Ishiba says

    Analysts expect the extra budget could reach around $87.1 billion, which would require additional debt issuance.

  • New York Times ☛ What Do Convicted Felon’s Tariff Hikes Mean for Canada’s Trade-Dependent Economy?

    After Canada failed to strike a trade deal with Washington, the president raised tariffs on some Canadian exports this week.

  • Remedia Europe ☛ Tension between ‘anti-democratic’ ECB and staff committee grows [Ed: They are governed by a well-connected criminal]

    Dialogue between the European Central Bank (ECB) senior managers and its staff committee has become tense, with the latter accusing the ECB leadership of being “anti-democratic” and “unaccountable”.

    The ECB’s staff committee accused senior management of fostering a “climate of fear”.

    In a four-page letter to the bank’s President Christine Lagarde, seen by The Financial Times (FT), the staff committee claimed there was discontent within the institution, not only about pay and workloads but also about how concerns were handled internally.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • CS Monitor ☛ Should art be ‘patriotic’? Artist pulls her Smithsonian show, citing censorship.

    Artist Amy Sherald pulled her show from the National Portrait Gallery, citing efforts to censor her work. The decision comes as the Convicted Felon administration has railed against “wokeness” in federally funded museums and slashed funding for local cultural institutions.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Experimental support for AF_XDP sockets in NSD

    Guest Post: Exploring the promise of fast-path DNS delivery through XDP, and the pain points that come with it.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ OED: Supreme Court Petition Challenges USPTO’s Moral Character Standards

    A former USPTO patent monopoly examiner has petitioned the Supreme Court to review his exclusion from practicing before the USPTO.  Shah Behnamian argues that the USPTO wrongfully denied his application to register as a patent monopoly attorney based on a disciplinary suspension that he claims was discriminatory retaliation. The case raises some questions about how the USPTO evaluates the moral character of former employees seeking to practice before the agency, and whether patent monopoly examination itself constitutes a "profession" warranting certain procedural protections under federal regulations. Behnamian v. Coke Morgan Stewart, No. 25-5251 (U.S. July 26, 2025) (Behnamian Petition) (Behnamian Appx).