Leftovers

• Career/Education

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ What Convicted Felon’s $100,000 Fee for Skilled-Worker Visas Could Mean for Higher Ed

    The new fee could bring added challenges to colleges’ hiring of international talent and to students seeking visas for post-graduate employment.

• Hardware

  • Russell Coker ☛ Russell Coker: More About the Colmi P80

    The FOSS Android program for communicating with smart watches is Gadget Bridge which now has support for the Colmi P80 [1].

    I first blogged about the Colmi P80 just over a month ago [2]. Now I have a couple of relatives using it happily on Android with the proprietary app. I couldn’t use it myself because I require more control over which apps have their notifications go to the watch than the Colmi app offers. Also I’m trying to move away from non-free software.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Futurism ☛ Hospitals Deploying Robot Programmed to Act Like Child to Comfort Pediatric Patients

    "Imagine a pure emotional intelligence like WALL-E."

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Mexican student wins James Dyson National Award for eye disease detection app

    Designed for users with no medical background, OpticalApp uses artificial intelligence to analyze eye photographs and detect up to 28 diseases of the retina in under 30 seconds. 

  • The Straits Times ☛ Australia PM cites killed aid worker in speech on Palestinian recognition

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cited an Australian aid worker killed in Gaza, along with journalists and \"tens of thousands of civilians\", in a speech at the United Nations where dozens of leaders met on Monday to promote Palestinian statehood.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ Qt Creator 18 Beta released

    We are happy to announce the release of Qt Creator 18 Beta!

    You find a selection of improvements and fixes below. Please have a look at our change log for more detailed information.

  • Futurism ☛ Microsoft CEO Concerned Hey Hi (AI) Will Destroy the Entire Company [Ed: Because he knows it's a fraud, a bubble, and the company has nothing to show]

    It's a high stakes game.

  • Futurism ☛ ChatGPT Has a Stroke When You Ask It This Specific Question

    A question should quite literally be as easy as ABC, but isn't.

    >

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Rare wooden-cased Apple-1 computer blasts past auctioneer estimate — sells for almost half a million dollars

    A very rare Apple-1 computer sold for a significant amount more money than auctioneer estimates, in Boston this weekend.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ xAI Workers Leak Disturbing Information About Grok Users

      "It actually made me sick."

    • Public Knowledge ☛ Is There a Middle Ground in the Tug of War Between News Publishers and Hey Hi (AI) Firms? Part 2: Framing Solutions

      In Part 2 of this blog series, we describe strategies publishers are using to respond; inventory solutions that are emerging to empower them against the threat generative Hey Hi (AI) represents for their business models; and identify some promising policy solutions that preserve the benefits of the fair use doctrine while still preserving incentives for publishers to keep creating the timely content that Hey Hi (AI) developers and the public need.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ For Arab Nations With Ties to Israel, Attacks on Qatar and Gaza City Raise Anxiety

    The Middle Eastern states closest to Israel see the attack on Hamas officials in Qatar and the invasion of Gaza City as warning signs of potential threats to their own security.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Air raid kills 23 in Pakistan border region: police, security sources

    An opposition MP accused the military of carrying out the night raid as part of a counter-terrorism operation.

  • JURIST ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man administration seeks US Supreme Court allowance to terminate TPS for Venezuelans

    On Friday, US President The Insurrectionist’s administration filed an emergency application with the nation’s Supreme Court seeking to stay a federal district court ruling that held Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem acted unlawfully in revoking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan nationals.

  • France24 ☛ Syria’s Sharaa baulks at Abraham Accords with Israel during New York visit

    At a summit in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting on Monday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he was hopeful about security talks with Israel. But when asked if Syria would join the Abraham Accords, under which three Arab nations normalised relations with Israel, Sharaa voiced doubts about Israel's regional intentions.

  • Sex offenders register to become publicly accessible

    The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, has directed her department to attend to the necessary legislative amendments that will allow the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) to be generally accessible to the public. The Minister announced the decision during her oral replies to the National Assembly on Wednesday 17 September.

  • The Strategist ☛ Rethinking human security in a new era of threats

    What if the greatest threats to national security weren’t missiles or cyberattacks, but loneliness, misinformation and eroding trust?

  • Kim open to talks if U.S. drops denuclearization demand

    The North Korean leader noted “good memories” of 2019 meeting with Convicted Felon in speech before parliament Sunday.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Expanding Syria’s multilateral development bank engagement

    Estimates of Syria’s post-civil war cost of rebuilding range from $250 billion to $400 billion. To help finance reconstruction and development, Syria’s transitional government should expand its partnerships with international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs), as these institutions can play a key role in mobilizing global capital.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Mobile banking: Thai police arrest Dutch retiree towing stolen ATM behind his truck

    His attempt at a 'withdrawal' was denied.

  • France24 ☛ Italy cautious on Palestinian recognition as protests grow

    On Monday, cities across Italy witnessed pro-Palestinian protests, strikes, and blockades, following union calls to “denounce the genocide in Gaza” and push for diplomatic and economic sanctions against Israel. Meanwhile, while neighbouring countries such as the UK and France move to recognise Palestinian statehood, the Italian government has opted for a more cautious approach.

  • NYPost ☛ Statehood for all! A modest proposal for Convicted Felon at the United Nations

    With Canada, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and Australia all recognizing the “state” of Palestine, Hell Toupée has the chance to strike a blow for other oppressed nationalities yearning for their own states, too.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Constitution Protection Bureau warns academics to be vigilant when working with foreigners

      As the new study term begins, the academic environment may also be exposed to the influence of countries unfriendly to Latvia, warns the Constitutional Protection Bureau (SAB), one of Latvia's security authorities, in a statement on 22 September.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian Armed Forces: bogs can bolster border security

      The humble Latvian bog could play an important role in protecting the country's eastern border, the National Armed Forces (NBS) said  September 22nd.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvia's Baiba Braže speaks up in support of Estonia at UN

      Latvia's Foreign Minister, Baiba Braže, was in New York on September 22nd, attending a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

• Environment

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Super Typhoon Ragasa: Hong Kong Observatory issues T1 signal, considers raising T8 on Tuesday

    The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) issued the T1 standby warning signal at 12.20pm on Monday and is considering raising the higher T8 signal on Tuesday afternoon, as Super Typhoon Ragasa approaches the city.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ Report: 19% of Lake Michigan shore now armored, limiting public access

      A new study from MSU researchers used aerial photography to show just how much Michigan’s western shoreline has changed since the high water crisis of 2020. The expansion of hard armoring brings consequences for people and the environment.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia grapples with Hey Hi (AI) legal grey zone as deepfake porn blackmail targets lawmakers

      Calls to criminalise AI-generated sexually explicit content have risen after lawmakers were blackmailed with deepfake porn.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • China to crack down on hostile, gloomy online content

    Beijing’s top internet regulator says it will target conflict, rumors, “negative outlooks on life.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • JURIST ☛ Ethiopian officials continue to arrest journalists and media professionals

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Ethiopian authorities to take action Monday, stating that security forces have arbitrarily arrested several journalists and media professionals since August 2025.  Arrests are ongoing as government officials accuse the media of operating in bad faith.

  • Press Gazette ☛ The News Movement becomes Caliber as it secures ‘$10m+’ Qatari-backed investment [Ed: Oil tycoons taking control of foreign news networks]

    Newly-formed Caliber plans to launch 'Apple News+ for creators'.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • New York Times ☛ Egypt Pardons Alaa Abd El Fattah, Its Most Prominent Political Prisoner

    Alaa Abd El Fattah, a British-Egyptian dual citizen, was imprisoned for most of the past 12 years as a dissident. He and his mother went on hunger strike to press for his release.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Zimbabwe ☛ How a Data Centre in Johannesburg and Subsea Cables Power Zimbabwe’s Internet

    The internet as we know it wouldn’t exist without subsea cables: the huge, hidden network lying deep beneath the oceans.

  • New York Times ☛ A Judge’s Decision Could Disrupt Google’s $3.1 Trillion Business [Ed: Fictional sum of money; Google isn't "Worth" that...]

    On Monday, the tech giant and the U.S. government face off in court over how to fix the company’s advertising technology monopoly.

  • APNIC ☛ Mapping ASNs to organizations with ASINT

    Guest Post: A new research tool helps map ASNs to their real operating organizations, reducing false positives in BGP hijack detection and improving operational visibility.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Ultra Vires or Policy Discretion? Federal Circuit Now Weighing 5x Discretionary Denial Mandamus

    by Dennis Crouch

    Two additional mandamus petitions have joined the Federal Circuit's growing docket challenging the USPTO's 2025 shift toward more restrictive inter partes review (IPR) institution practices under Hell Toupée, bringing the total to five pending cases that collectively test the boundaries of appellate review under 35 U.S.C. § 314(d). The newest petitions are In re HighLevel, Inc. (No. 25-148) and In re SanDisk Technologies, Inc. (No. 25-152). 

  • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for Proxense authentication patent monopoly prior art

    Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Jake Winter, Tanya Chauhan, and Vivek Yadav, who split an award of $2,000 for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 9,450,956, owned and asserted by Proxense LLC, an NPE. The ‘956 patent monopoly details a secure authentication system comprising a Personal Digital Key (PDK), a Reader, and associated methods and devices to authorize individuals for data access or application use, based on biometric and profile authentication. It had been asserted against Hyundai.

    We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Skechers sued at UPC and in US over hands-free slip-on shoes [Ed: UPC is illegal and it continues to represent overt corruption in Europe]

      Skechers is heavily promoting its range of slip-on shoes, called ‘Slip-ins’. Competitor Kizik, which markets its products as ‘the world’s best hands-free, slip on shoes’ and manages its patents via affiliate company Fast IP, has now sued Skechers for patent monopoly infringement at the UPC’s local division Munich.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: How Did These Three Section 2(d) Appeals Turn Out?

    Section 2(d) affirmances continue to run at about 90% this year (as usual). Here are three recent appeals. No hints this time. How do you think they came out? [Answer in first comment].

    In re Circadia by Dr. Pugliese, Inc., Serial No. 98199631 (September 19, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cheryl S. Goodman). [Section 2(d) refusal of the mark RADIANCE (in standard characters) for "Professional non-medicated skincare products in the nature of cosmetics," in view of the identical mark registered for "Hair care, personal care preparations, namely, body washes, hair shampoo and conditioner."].