Links 02/11/2025: Another Halloween Bust and MAGA Regime Says Public Universities Should No Longer Hire 'Foreign' Employees

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 02, 2025

Leftovers

Leftovers
- BIA Net ☛ 'Why do chimneys remain standing while everything else is torn down?'
  
  We spoke with Eren İnönü about his exhibition Unseen Monuments, the chimneys he photographed, and his reasons for choosing to view the city from this perspective.
- Evan Hahn ☛ Notes from October 2025
  
  Wow, another month gone by. Here are my notes.
  
  I’m not a PHP developer but I was invited to speak at Longhorn PHP, where I gave a talk about understanding Unicode. I’ve given a version of this talk before but it was fun to adapt it for a PHP crowd. Hopefully a recording will be posted soon.
- Seth Godin ☛ Scams at scale
  
  In the long run, I think we’re going to see our circles of trust shrinking. That’s sad, it’s going to fracture networks we’ve been counting on for a long time and it’s going to be confusing since the defaults will be shifting.
- Sean Conner ☛ For Hallowe'en, I'm half hoping we get all the kids so we have no candy left, and half hoping we get no kids so we have all the candy left
  
  We ended up with three kids showing up. In one group. At around 7:30 pm. At least we avoided carving a pumpkin this year, opting instead for my ceramic, pre-carved pumpkin.
- Buttondown LLC ☛ #010 - A wonderful October
  
  I reached the 100 published posts mark for the second year in a row this month. In addition to writing, I also got to talk quite a bit in various events so it was a very fun month.
- Hamilton Nolan ☛ A Brief Biannual Update on the Publication You Are Reading
  
  As I have mentioned before, the experience of publishing my own site—as opposed to working in a newsroom—has inculcated in me a new appreciation for you, the people who read it. At a traditional publication, I was more concerned with walling myself off from what subscribers were saying, so that I could focus on what I was doing. Here, I see very directly how the attention and financial support of all of you is the only thing that enables me to do this work at all. I get an email alerting me to every new paid subscriber, and I read every message. It’s pretty damn heartwarming.(Sometimes the messages tell me I’m an idiot, but that’s okay. Wouldn’t feel right otherwise.)
- Chris O'Donnnell ☛ Another Halloween another bust
  
  I really can't remember the last time we had a bunch of kids in cute costumes with friendly parents stop by the house on Halloween. It has never happened in 3 different neighborhoods over our 7 Halloweens in RVA. I think I'm done. Next year maybe we will go out for some adult fun. We could also go camping. Some the campgrounds in central VA have fairly elaborate Halloween celebrations.
- Science
  - Interesting Engineering ☛ US team finds problems that even quantum computers can't crack
    
    Yet even these powerful machines have limits, and now, researcher Thomas Schuster and his team at the California Institute of Technology have identified a problem that quantum computers can’t crack efficiently: determining the phases of matter from unknown quantum states.
  - Oskar Wickström ☛ Computer Says No: Error Reporting for LTL
    
    Quickstrom is a property-based testing tool for web applications, using QuickLTL for specifying the intended behavior. QuickLTL is a linear temporal logic (LTL) over finite traces, especially suited for testing. As with many other logic systems, when a formula evaluates to false — like when a counterexample to a safety property is found or a liveness property cannot be shown to hold — the computer says no. That is, you get “false” or “test failed”, perhaps along with a trace. Understanding complex bugs in stateful systems then comes down to staring at the specification alongside the trace, hoping you can somehow pin down what went wrong. It’s not great.
- Career/Education
  - Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Florida's Public Universities Should No Longer Hire Foreign Employees, DeSantis Says
    
    The Republican governor's directive on H-1B visas comes as Hell Toupée has initiated his policy of charging employers a new $100,000 fee to hire people from outside the United States.
  - Ava ☛ your AI hiring workflow comes at the cost of my loyalty and motivation
    
    Putting aside the obvious legal issues that will still need to be hashed out, the categorization into the AI Act risk groups, and the human oversight and additional documentation needed that still costs them;
    
    Who wants to work at a place like this, and who wants to remain loyal to a such an impersonal and cold company that threats you like meat on a conveyor belt (even more than they already did)?
    
    Imagine not talking to a single real person at a company until you meet your coworkers.
- Hardware
  - CubicleNate ☛ Retro Inspired Optical and Floppy Drive Case
    
    The author shares a creative project of combining a DVD/CD RW drive with a floppy drive in a retro-inspired 3D printed case to declutter their desktop. They prefer easy, reversible assembly and use PETG for its durability. The design is accessible for others via downloadable CAD files, despite seeking better color matching.
  - Tom's Hardware ☛ NZXT hit with civil RICO suit in California over controversial PC rental biz — class-action lawsuit alleges PC Flex Program is a 'bait-and-switch-scheme' that included used and inferior hardware
    
    NZXT and partner Flex are being brought to court following claims that Flex's rental program is a scam.
  - Tom's Hardware ☛ WD launches investigation into problems with its controversial SMR hard drives — same drives that got WD sued in 2021 now reporting failure rates due to 'fundamental' flaws
    
    Western Digital Blue and Red HDDs from 2020 that use SMR technology are experiencing enough failures to prompt an investigation from WD itself. These same drives, which included SMR without telling customers, resulted in a class action lawsuit against WD in 2021.
  - The Strategist ☛ Reaction isn’t enough. Nexperia case shows we must pre-empt China’s tech grabs
    
    The Dutch government’s decision on 30 September to impose a last-resort restraint order on China-owned Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia is more than a trade dispute.
  - CNX Software ☛ NXP i.MX 952 processor supports local dimming for AI-enhanced automotive and industrial HMIs
    
    NXP has recently introduced the i.MX 952 applications processor, a new member of the i.MX 95 series, designed for AI-powered automotive and industrial applications, including driver monitoring, child presence detection, and in-cabin HMIs.
  - CNX Software ☛ TerraMaster launches defective chip maker Intel N150 NAS systems with 5GbE networking, Hey Hi (AI) photo recognition
    
    TerraMaster F4-425 Plus (4-bay) and F2-425 Plus (2-bay) hybrid Hey Hi (AI) NAS systems are upgrades to the earlier defective chip maker Intel N95-based F4-424 and F2-424 NAS systems with an defective chip maker Intel N150 processor, dual 5GbE ports (up from 2.5GbE), and up to three M.2 SSD slots for up to 144TB of hybrid storage. Both models feature DDR5 memory (up to 16GB), 4K/8K video transcoding, and support TerraMaster’s TRAID technology for improved performance and data redundancy. They also offer USB expansion options and quiet cooling, making them NAS solutions suitable for home and business use.
  - Ruben Schade ☛ A 64-bit PCI Adaptec SCSI card
    
    Last month (happy November!) I talked about how 64-bit PCI and PCI-X were, in fact, different standards. This was useful information, because a Power Mac G3 was about to enter my posession again, and I wanted to subvert its known troublesome IDE controller with something decently performant.
    
    Enter the Adaptec AHA-3950U2B (geshunteit) Ultra-2 SCSI controller! Note the extra row of pins to the right of the standard 32-bit PCI pins we all know and love. The sticker also denotes that it’s the Mac firmware model, which is important if you want to be booting a Power Mac G3 with it.
  - CNX Software ☛ Waveshare MK20 macro keyboard features twenty mechanical keys with 0.85-inch color LCD keycaps
    
    Waveshare MK20 is a multifunctional macro keyboard with twenty mechanical keys featuring 0.85-inch LCD keycaps. As an upgrade to the earlier MK10 model, it adds a 2.8-inch secondary display along with two control knobs. The device supports Hey Hi (AI) voice interaction, real-time data display, and smart home integration with Home Assistant. Like its predecessor, the MK20 relies on a dual-system architecture: an Allwinner T113-S3 dual-core Cortex-A7 processor runs GNU/Linux to drive the displays, and a GD32 microcontroller runs QMK for low-latency keyboard and knob input.
  - Tom's Hardware ☛ American startup Substrate promises 2nm-class chipmaking with particle accelerators, at a tenth of the cost of EUV — X-ray lithography system has potential to surpass ASML's EUV scanners
    
    As integrated circuit features are getting smaller, chipmakers are using increasingly intricate lithography tools that now cost around $235 million for an ASML NXE:3800E Low-NA EUV scanner or around $380 million for an ASML EXE:5200B High-NA EUV scanner. As a result, fabs are becoming increasingly expensive to build, and chips are becoming more expensive to produce.
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
  - Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan food banks brace for SNAP ‘crisis.’ How to get or give help
    
    With 1.4 million residents facing SNAP benefit delays, Michigan food charities say they’re already seeing more demand. Here’s how you can find or give help.
  - New York Times ☛ Character.AI to Ban Children Under 18 From Using Its Chatbots
    
    The start-up, which creates Hey Hi (AI) companions, faces lawsuits from families who have accused Character.AI’s chatbots of leading teenagers to kill themselves.
  - JURIST ☛ Federal appeals court resurrects West Virginia opioid lawsuit
    
    The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday vacated a 2022 district court judgment in City of Huntington, West Virginia v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation et al, holding that West Virginia common law permits public nuisance claims based on “the conditions resulting from the over-distribution of opioids.”
  - Bridge Michigan ☛ On brink of SNAP crisis, Michigan sends $4.5M to food banks. Will more follow?
    
    With federal food assistance set to stop, Gov. Whitmer announces $4.5M for Michigan food banks. Senate Democrats want more, advance $71M plan.
  - Federal News Network ☛ Federal workers stock food banks, as judges step in to ensure SNAP payments
    
    The food drive comes as some federal employees who have missed one full paycheck and a partial paycheck during the shutdown are tightening their belts.
  - Hackaday ☛ Scared For A Drink?
    
    Halloween is about tricks and treats, but who wouldn’t fancy a bit to drink with that? [John Sutley] decided to complete his Halloween party with a drink dispenser looking as though it was dumped by a backstreet laboratory. It’s not only an impressive looking separating funnel, it even runs on an Arduino. The setup combines lab glassware, servo motors, and an industrial control panel straight from a process plant.
  - Science Alert ☛ Humans Used to Sleep Twice Every Night. Here's Why It Vanished.
    
    For most of human history, a continuous eight-hour snooze was not the norm. Instead, people commonly slept in two shifts each night, often called a "first sleep" and "second sleep."
    
    Each of these sleeps lasted several hours, separated by a gap of wakefulness for an hour or more in the middle of the night. Historical records from Europe, Africa, Asia, and beyond describe how, after nightfall, families would go to bed early, then wake around midnight for a while before returning to sleep until dawn.
  - Chris O'Donnnell ☛ Do you have 26K for health insurance
    
    What I'm really lacking in 2026 is flexibility. If the shits hit the fan again in my life I don't have the flexibility to deal with it because no matter what, I have to shell out $2155 for health insurance every month. I could zero out everything in the Wants budget of my life, but the main lesson we took from my wife's cancer in 2017 is to not be so worried about the future that we forget to live in the present.
  - Barry Hess ☛ No Socials November
    
    For me, I’m going to continue my push away from social networks. I’ve logged out of all personal accounts, set my YouTube to stop suggesting to me via algorithm, and even found myself logged out of Reddit yesterday. I’m set to have a no socials November!
- Proprietary
  - Futurism ☛ Amazon Denies That proprietary trap AWS Just Went Down Again After Mass Layoffs
    
    "There are no issues with proprietary trap AWS services, and all proprietary trap AWS services are operating normally."
  - Qt ☛ Qt for Android Automotive 6.8.5 is released
    
    The latest patch release for Android Automotive 6.8.5 was just released. This release is based on Qt LTS 6.8.5 with 690 bug fixes, security updates, and other improvements done to Qt base. There are no additional Qt for Android Automotive features delivered.
  - Luigi Mozzillo ☛ Poor by default
    
    I will omit the details — which are not insignificant — regarding Cook’s proximity to Trump, funding for the White House, and the whole universe of relationships between money and fascism1.
    
    Mine is pure operational dissatisfaction, linked to the use of an increasingly unusable OS — forget it! — and applications with an increasingly poor user experience and limited functionality compared to the competition.
  - Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism
    - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Education and ChatGPT: Time to return to bad old days?
      
      Happily, I retired from the university teaching scene before Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot and its mates came along, because it has apparently made life rather difficult. Generally, the most subtle assessment method, at least in the humanities, is the essay. You set the topic, send the student away, and assess the resulting masterpiece a week later.
    - Silicon Angle ☛ After a death and lawsuits, Character.AI will ban teens from speaking to its chatbots
      
      Character.AI today said today that it soon will no longer allow minors to communicate with its chatbots in a move to address complaints about child safety.
    - New Statesman ☛ The far right loves AI slop
      
      AI slop operates in a similar way: it prioritises fantasy over accuracy, surrealness over realism, vibes over substance. The most impactful content isn’t necessarily coherent or believable. Remember the dystopian “Trump Gaza” clip that the president shared on Instagram earlier this year – a stomach-churning rendition of the Palestinian territory’s future featuring Elon Musk eating a copious amount of hummus and a topless Trump and Netanyahu drinking cocktails.
    - Futurism ☛ Racist Influencers Using OpenAI's Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash
      
      Where the fight goes next is anyone’s guess, but the eruption of discourse about food stamps has been influenced by a disruptive new force: generative AI, and specifically OpenAI’s Sora 2, the video generation engine responsible for filling social media with incredibly realistic fake clips.
    - Jacobin Magazine ☛ Humanity Needs Democratic Control of AI
      
      The danger from artificial intelligence isn’t a Terminator-style robot uprising but tech capitalists using the technology to push their own interests. Seizing control from them is the best way to ensure algorithmic technology serves the social good.
    - Wired ☛ The Man Who Invented AGI
      
      That same year, Gubrud submitted and presented a paper at the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology, called “Nanotechnology and International Security.” He argued that breakthrough technologies will redefine international conflicts, making them potentially more catastrophic than nuclear war. He urged nations to “give up the warrior tradition.” The new sciences he discussed included nanotechnology, of course, but also advanced AI—which he referred to as, yep, “artificial general intelligence.” It seems that no one had previously employed that phrase. Later in the paper he defined it: [...]
    - Mailing list ARChives ☛ 'Re: Freedom from oppressive AI'
      
      If nobody can understand what it does, it is not a tool, because the definition of the term "tool" is "a thing that helps with a set of well-defined tasks", and hence "software" is "a computer program that helps with a set of well-defined tasks".
  - Social Control Media
    - India Times ☛ Social media fooled by AI video of 'sky stadium' for Saudi 2034 World Cup
      
      While Riyadh has unveiled plans to build a football area on top of a real estate complex in The Line -- a futuristic new megacity project -- the official plans bear no resemblance to the clip that went viral in recent days.
- Security
  - Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
    - Digital Music News ☛ Drake Faces Class Action Lawsuit for ‘Glamorizing’ a ‘Deeply Fraudulent’ Gambling Platform
      
      Drake faces a class action lawsuit over his involvement with an online casino and betting platform, engaging in “deceptive, fraudulent” practices. Just a few weeks after Drake’s lawsuit against Universal Music Group was dismissed, the Canadian rapper finds himself embroiled in another legal battle, this time not of his own doing.
    - Digital Music News ☛ Drake v. UMG Round Two Is Underway — Rapper Officially Appeals ‘Not Like Us’ Lawsuit Dismissal
      
      Drake isn’t ready to put his “Not Like Us” litigation in the rearview quite yet. Now, the 39-year-old is appealing the $1 billion defamation complaint’s dismissal. At this point, pretty much everyone is familiar with the straightforward suit, which named UMG Recordings but not Kendrick Lamar himself as a defendant.
    - Bruce Schneier ☛ Social Engineering People’s Credit Card Details
    - SANS ☛ A phishing with invisible characters in the subject line, (Tue, Oct 28th)
    - Ruben Schade ☛ Injunctions aren’t helping data leaks
      
      Josh Taylor had a great article yesterday about cybercrime and data leaks. Australian companies routinely file for injunctions against “persons unknown” when data leaks occur. If you think this would only impact honest people, and not those already breaking the law, you’d be right!
    - SANS ☛ X-Request-Purpose: Identifying "research" and bug bounty related scans, (Thu, Oct 30th)
      
      This week, I noticed some new HTTP request headers that I had not seen before: [...]
    - PC World ☛ Why you should wrap your car keys in aluminum foil
      
      Criminals are increasingly using radio devices to extend the signals of car keys and unlock vehicles without their owners realizing. This method is particularly widespread at night and in parking garages.
  - Privacy/Surveillance
    - ACLU ☛ Surveillance Supporters Tout Police Audit Logs But They’re Not an Effective Check and Balance
      
      When law enforcement deploys powerful surveillance infrastructures (for example face recognition, drones, and license plate readers) they’re often accompanied by requirements that officers log their usage, typically including various details about the technology deployment as well as its purpose. These are often touted as important checks and balances that should make people feel okay with the surveillance. But audit logs that depend on self-reporting by officers and departments are not an adequate check on the enormous power that surveillance technologies place in their hands.
    - Privacy International ☛ From Playground to Database: child data in education
    - EDRI ☛ Budget cuts incapacitate Austrian DPA: NGOs complaint to the EU Commission
      
      Despite its growing responsibilities, the Austrian Data Protection Authority continues to be impaired by budget cuts. epicenter.works and noyb are filing a complaint with the European Commission about Austria not fulfilling its obligations of sufficiently funding its data protection authority and leaving millions of Austrians to deal with consequences of limited access to the fundamental right to data protection.
    - Hackaday ☛ ChatControl Gets Coup-De-Grace
      
      Possibly the biggest privacy story of the year for Europeans and, by extension the rest of the world, has been ChatControl. Chatcontrol is a European Union proposal backed by Denmark for a mandatory backdoor in all online communications. As always with these things, it was touted as a think-of-the-children solution to online child abuse material, but as many opposed to it have warned, that concealed far more sinister possibilities. For now, it seems we can breathe easily as the Danes are reported to have formally backed away from the proposal after it was roundly condemned by the German government, sending it firmly into the political wilderness.
    - New York Times ☛ French Magazine Acknowledges Breaching Prince William and Catherine’s Privacy
      
      The couple had sued Paris Match for publishing paparazzi photos of them and their children on a ski vacation.
    - Los Angeles Times ☛ Meta opens West Hollywood store to showcase smart glasses, VR headsets
      
      The store’s opening on Saturday underscores how Meta is expanding its retail presence as it tries to entice more people to buy its virtual reality headsets and AI glasses.
    - Techdirt ☛ When AI And Secure Chat Meet, Users Deserve Strong Controls Over How They Interact
      
      When receiving messages, things get trickier. When you use an AI like Gemini or a feature like Apple Intelligence to summarize or read notifications, we believe companies should be doing that content processing on-device. But poor documentation and weak guardrails create issues that have lead us deep into documentation rabbit holes and still fail to clarify the privacy practices as clearly as we’d like.
      
      We’ll dig into the specifics below as well as potential solutions we’d like to see Apple, Google, and other device-makers implement, but first things first, here’s what you can do right now to control access: [...]
    - Nick Heer ☛ The Information Is Reluctant to Break Uncomfortable News
      
      This video was removed either at Gordon’s request or because Lessin — or others at the Information — are scared to lose access. I expect it will backfire. I do not know that I would have been so interested in this story if it were not for the clumsy attempt to paper over some small-scale news by, of all publications, one that prides itself on its scoops.
    - Nick Heer ☛ U.S. Tech Companies Ramp Up Lobbying Efforts Against E.U. Regulations
      
      Though it is apparently satisfied with the outcome, Meta does not want even that level of scrutiny. It wants to export its U.S.-centric view of user privacy rights — that is, that they are governed only by whatever Meta wants to jam into its lengthy terms of service agreements — around the world. I know lobbying is just something corporations do and policymakers are expected to consider their viewpoints. On the other hand, Meta’s entire history of contempt toward user privacy ought to be disqualifying. The correct response to Meta’s letter is to put it through a shredder without a second thought.
  - Confidentiality/Cybersecurity
    - Security Week ☛ 10 Million Impacted by Conduent Data Breach
      
      The hackers stole names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and health and insurance information.
    - Security Week ☛ Japan Issues OT Security Guidance for Semiconductor Factories
      
      The 130-page document covers several important aspects and it’s available in both Japanese and English.
- Defence/Aggression
  - Stanford University ☛ Holy smokes!
    
    The closer the collapse of the empire, the crazier its laws are, and the people must adapt.
  - ADF ☛ Terror Attacks Rise in Niger as Junta Focuses on Regime Security
    
    Villagers gathered for evening prayers at the mosque in Manda, Niger, on June 20. Soon after, the killers arrived. Terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State group (IS) slaughtered 70 worshippers at the mosque. The handful of survivors lived by playing dead among their fellow worshippers’ bodies.
  - New York Times ☛ In China Truce on Tariffs and Rare Earths, National Security Controls Are Bargaining Chip
    
    Some analysts say Beijing won a major victory in its trade talks: Getting the U.S. to withdraw a national security measure that previously was not under discussion.
  - The Straits Times ☛ Chinese and Japanese leaders meet to talk about rare earths, security
    
    Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi spoke to China’s President Pooh-tin Jinping in their first formal meeting.
  - The Straits Times ☛ US and Malaysia boost security partnership in South China Sea
    
    The defence pact comes amid simmering tensions in the South China Sea.
  - Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-25 [Older] Afghanistan, Pakistan to shore up truce at security talks
  - Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-26 [Older] Germany news: Police push for more train station security
  - New York Times ☛ U.S. Military Kills Four More People Accused of Smuggling Drugs on Boats
    
    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the latest strike took place on Wednesday in the eastern Pacific. It came two days after the deadliest set of strikes in the weekslong campaign in Latin America.
  - New York Times ☛ U.N. Says Strikes on Boats Convicted Felon Claims Are Smuggling Drugs Are Illegal
    
    The U.N.’s human rights chief condemned deadly military attacks on vessels near South and Central America and called for an independent investigation.
  - JURIST ☛ UN raises concerns about the level of violence in Cameroon post-election protests
    
    The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern Thursday about violent protests that erupted in Cameroon following the announcement of the presidential election results.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 5 arrested for manufacturing weapons during 2019 protests in Hong Kong
    
    Hong Kong’s national security police have announced the arrests of five people for allegedly manufacturing weapons during the 2019 protests and unrest. Two men and three women, aged between 32 and 60, were arrested on Tuesday by the police force’s National Security Department, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 2 Hong Kong men held in custody after being charged with conspiring to incite others to riot in 2019 protests
    
    Two men have been held in custody after being charged by Hong Kong’s national security police with conspiring to incite others to riot during the 2019 protests. Ng Tsz-lok, 32, and Chan Wai-leong, 34, appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday afternoon.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong security chief lambasts wanted activist for urging boycott of ‘patriots only’ legislative race
    
    Hong Kong’s security chief has lambasted wanted activist Ted Hui for urging a boycott of the upcoming legislative elections, warning that encouraging blank ballots may violate the city’s national security law.
  - France24 ☛ UN Security Council backs Moroccan plan for disputed Western Sahara
    
    The UN Security Council approved a US-backed resolution on Friday supporting Morocco's continued control of the disputed Western Sahara, saying that "genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty" could well be the most "feasible" option for the mineral-rich territory. The Algerian-backed Polisario Front continues to advocate independence for the former Spanish colony.
  - Opinion: Why Tanzania’s TV dinner election should concern us all
    
    On Wednesday, Tanzanians went to the polls to elect a new president.
  - Violent protests erupt in Tanzania during disputed election
    
    Violent protests erupted in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday and Thursday as President Samia Suluhu Hassan sought re-election [...]
  - Marcy Wheeler ☛ Follow the Money: Chuck Grassley Doxes the Entire Far Right
    
    In an attempt to do a Ex-Twitter Files dump on Jack Smith's January 6 investigation, Chuck Grassley exposed very personal details of the far right political establishment, in the process identifying people whose role in all this was previously unknown.
  - ADF ☛ Evidence Supports Claim That Sudan Army Used Chlorine Gas Against RSF
    
    International observers are accusing the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of using banned chemical weapons against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) based, in part, on recent video evidence from a 2024 attack on a military base and oil refinery north of Khartoum.
  - France24 ☛ Sudan: What photos and videos can tell us about the El-Fasher massacres
    
    After an 18-month siege, the Sudanese city of El-Fasher fell on Monday, October 27. It was the last major city in Darfur that was not under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group run by General Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo. Since entering the city, the RSF have massacred civilians in several neighbourhoods, as shown in images analysed by the FRANCE 24 Observers team.
  - The Straits Times ☛ Why North Korea’s Kim had little need for photo-op with Convicted Felon
    
    Mr Convicted Felon’s repeated overtures instead represented a “victory” for the North Korean leader.
  - The Strategist ☛ AUKUS ‘ambiguities’ will need to be worked through
    
    Nervous AUKUS-watchers in Australia probably felt a mix of emotions when the defence technologies initiative was raised in public during Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington this month.
  - JURIST ☛ Rights group seeks accountability for US airstrike on Yemen migrant detention center
    
    Amnesty International on Wednesday called for an investigation into a US airstrike on a migrant detention center in Sa’ada, north-western Yemen, in April. The airstrike was part of “Operation Rough Rider”—a 45-day campaign in which the US struck Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, in response tp Houthi missiles attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
  - BIA Net ☛ Two prisoners on hunger strike against ‘well-type’ prisons reportedly near death
    
    Fifteen prisoners have been conducting an hunger strike against what they describe as extreme isolation in Turkey's new "high-security" prisons.
  - Vox ☛ The GOP’s top think tank just defended an open Nazi
    
    You might think I am exaggerating. I assure you I am not. The Nazi in question here, podcaster Nick Fuentes, has described Adolf Hitler as “really fucking cool” and said “perfidious Jews” must “be given the death penalty” after “we take power.”
    
    And on Thursday, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts released a video defending this person’s inclusion in polite-right politics: describing Fuentes not as a hate-monger to be banished from the decent right, but as a coalition member whose view of Jews-as-evil-traitors should be politely debated.
  - Jacobin Magazine ☛ Demolishing the East Wing Without Much of a Fight
    
    Historic preservation groups responded to the White House East Wing's demolition with equivocal statements and "deep concern." Their failure to mobilize reveals how dependent liberal advocacy has become on the billionaires funding Trump's regime.
  - Paul Krugman ☛ Gilded Rage: Talking With Jacob Silverman
    
    One of the surprising, at least to me, aspects of the Trump regime has been the large role played by Silicon Valley billionaires, who we used to think of as fairly liberal or at least libertarian. So I spoke with Jacob Silverman, whose new book Gilded Rage talks about how that happened. Transcript follows: [...]
  - Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
    - The Straits Times ☛ North Korean POWs in Ukraine want to go to South Korea: Activist
      
      Around 10,000 North Korean troops were sent in 2024 to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
    - US News And World Report ☛ 2025-10-27 [Older] Kremlin Says Its Test of a Nuclear-Powered Missile Reflects Security Concerns
    - New York Times ☛ He Stayed in Belarus for His Imprisoned Wife. Now He’s Locked Up, Too.
      
      Two journalists, both in detention for their work, show how President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s repressive machine grinds on despite warming ties with the U.S.
    - France24 ☛ 'We can't fill the void that America is leaving behind': EU foreign policy chief Kallas
      
      FRANCE 24 secured an exclusive interview with Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, at the Paris Peace Forum. At this year's edition, there was fretting about violence that undermines the international order, but also a renewed call for global cooperation. Kallas, who has been in the job for about a year after being prime minister of Estonia, tells us that her "big goal is to make Europe a geopolitical power; that we would matter on the world stage."
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
  - The Independent UK ☛ White House withheld names of some donors to Trump’s $300M ballroom, report says
    
    A pledge form from Trump’s team has been circulating to seek donations for the ballroom and gave donors the option of withholding their identities, according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the form.
    
    Two healthcare companies “seeking to protect or expand Medicare reimbursement for their products” are among the donors not disclosed by the White House, according to the newspaper.
  - NDTV ☛ Jeffrey Epstein's Ties To Wall Street Figures Exposed In Newly Unsealed Records
    
    One of the most significant disclosures is a SAR filed on September 26, 2019, weeks after Epstein's death in a federal jail cell. The report detailed transactions between October 2003 and July 2019 involving Epstein, his affiliated companies, prominent Wall Street figures, and international institutions, including accounts linked to Russian banks Alfa Bank and Sberbank.
- Environment
  - Omicron Limited ☛ Humanity is on path toward 'climate chaos,' scientists warn
    
    "The planet's vital signs are flashing red," the scientists wrote in their annual report on the state of the climate. "The window to prevent the worst outcomes is rapidly closing."
  - Michigan Advance ☛ Trump’s Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Running Has Cost $80 Million So Far
    
    The Trump administration’s emergency order to keep the huge J.H. Campbell coal plant on Lake Michigan operating past its planned retirement date has cost at least $80 million since May, its operator, Consumers Energy, told regulators and investors this week.
  - Energy/Transportation
    - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong airport runway resumes operations after fatal plane crash
      
      The Hong Kong runway involved in a fatal plane crash has restarted operations, authorities said Tuesday, after two men were killed in one of the deadliest such incidents since the airport opened in 1998.
    - Futurism ☛ Scientists Find Strange Lights in the Sky in Photographs Before First Satellites Were Launched, Clustered Around When Nuclear Weapons Were Tested
      
      Weird.
    - The Register UK ☛ Datacenter biz and nuke firm join forces for Texas AI ranch
      
      The 1,600-acre (about 6.5 square kilometers) site in Victoria County was chosen for its location, existing infrastructure, and available energy resources to support a gigawatt-scale datacenter campus, the pair say, close to electric transmission lines, fiber networks, and natural gas pipelines.
    - W Evan Sheehan ☛ Being Kind
      
      Recently, I’ve been running a little thought experiment when the urge to lash out at a driver (it’s usually a driver) comes over me. I say "run a little thought experiment" as though this was an exercise I created dispassionately, when in reality it is the product of my anxious brain catastrophising. Anyway, when I think about shouting at someone or giving them the finger, I consider what would happen if that person turned out to be a parent of one of my kid’s friends, or a teacher at his school. How would this angry interaction color the relationship I didn’t realize we were going to have? Maybe we already have a relationship and I just don’t know what their car looks like (again, it’s always drivers).
    - Idiomdrottning ☛ Stockholm Traffic Lights
      
      These days I have the opposite problem: people who don’t press at all, even when it’s unlit! Almost no-one seems to know that they need to actually press the traffic light button!
      
      While a lot of this is due to people being distracted phone addicts and I’ve seen again and again someone arriving at a traffic light, not pressing the button but instead immediately whipping out their phone and then keeping it up from then on even as they absentmindedly cross the street.
  - Wildlife/Nature
    - The Straits Times ☛ Panda-mania: Singapore fans fly to China to see Le Le, others race to catch Hua Hua
      
      Panda-related consumer spending has shot in Chengdu, the self-styled 'panda capital' in Sichuan province.
    - Digital Camera World ☛ This spectacular image shows a rare circular rainbow, shot with the DJI Mavic 3 drone – and it just earned global recognition
      
      The winners of the 2025 Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year competition have been announced by the Royal Meteorological Society, marking the 10th anniversary of one of the world's most visually captivating photography awards.
- Finance
  - CS Monitor ☛ California’s take on a housing crisis: Aim for abundance, reap affordability
    
    California, trying to eliminate a deficit of 2.5 million housing units, has passed several laws making it easier to build more and denser housing.
  - WhichUK ☛ Scam alert: Which? logo used for fake hearing aid adverts
    
    Adverts on Facebook (Farcebook) and Instagram promote hearing aids that falsely claim to be tested by Which?
  - New York Times ☛ Amazon to Cut 14,000 White-Collar Jobs
    
    The company is looking to slash costs by “reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources” as it continues to spend aggressively on artificial intelligence.
  - Futurism ☛ Amazon Tells Driver to Keep Delivering Packages Amid Raging Wildfire
    
    "Amazon would get rid of drivers altogether if they could."
  - CS Monitor ☛ US bailout helped Milei, but Argentines wary of ‘economic Monroe Doctrine’
    
    The Forrest Dump administration’s pursuit of “a new economic Monroe Doctrine,” in which the United States extends a hand to the president’s ideological soulmates, as was the case in Argentina, is stirring historical suspicions of U.S. motives.
  - Ruben Schade ☛ Offset bank accounts for mortgages
    
    Clara and I recently celebrated our one-year anniversary in our apartment together, and have since been asked by family and friends about what the process entails in Australia. I don’t want to get into specifics because, again, I’m not a financial advisor, and this is not financial advice. But I thought I could share some high-level stuff that was useful for us.
    
    The advice we received, for our circumstances, was to get an offset account. Offset accounts are associated with your mortgage, and serve to offset the amount of interest you pay. If you have a $500,000 mortgage (one could only wish), and your offset account had $100,000, the bank will only charge you interest on $400,000. When you remember that interest compounds, that delta in payable interest can be gigantic.
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
  - JURIST ☛ Georgia ruling party files lawsuit to ban opposition parties
    
    The ruling party in the Republic of Georgia, Georgian Dream (GD), announced on Tuesday that it will file a lawsuit to ban three opposition parties for their alleged unconstitutionality. Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili stated that the suit will be directed against the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change and the Lelo Party.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘Opposition forces’ smearing Beijing’s warnings about ‘patriots only’ legislative race, leader John Lee says
    
    “Opposition forces” are smearing Beijing’s warnings about the upcoming “patriots only” Legislative Council elections, Chief Executive John Lee has said. Speaking at a regular press conference on Tuesday, the chief executive said “anti-China elements” and external forces had attempted to obstruct the Legislative Council (LegCo) polls scheduled on December 7.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong’s ‘patriots only’ Legislative Council: Tracking the opposition-free legislature in 4 charts
    
    Hong Kong’s “patriots only” Legislative Council (LegCo) finished its four-year term last week. The opposition-free legislature now awaits a race in December that will decide its next 90 lawmakers, whose new term will start in January.
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong activist Andrew Chiu first to be granted early release from prison in landmark subversion case
    
    Hong Kong activist Andrew Chiu, who testified for the prosecution in exchange for a jail term reduction in the city’s landmark subversion trial, has become the first person charged in the case to be granted early release from prison.
  - India Times ☛ AI giants turn to massive debt to finance tech race
    
    On a day when Facebook-parent Meta's share price plunged on the heels of disappointing quarterly earnings, demand for its bonds was reportedly four times greater than supply in a market keen to hold the social networking titan's debt.
  - Futurism ☛ AI Blamed for Tens of Thousands of White Collar Layoffs
    
    Others aren’t so sure. New research found that even the world’s strongest AI agents struggled to perform the vast majority of tasks that companies currently lean on independent contractors for. According to a recent study from MIT, 95 percent of companies that adopt AI see zero meaningful revenue growth. Some companies are finding they’re forced to hire contractors to fix AI’s mistakes, or even to re-hire staff they terminated in favor of the tech.
  - Vox ☛ From JD Vance to Elon Musk, the right loves The Lord of the Rings
    
    Among the many humiliations of being American in the current moment is this: Members of the tech right and the conservative ruling class continually fetishize objects of nerd culture while also displaying a willful inability to grasp the very basic messages those objects are sending. While there are certainly worse problems (e.g. white nationalism in the White House), the blazing lack of reading comprehension from people who are allegedly smart does give one pause. Put simply, these people are bad nerds.
  - New York Times ☛ How OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise
    
    Many of the deals OpenAI has struck — with chipmakers, cloud computing companies and others — are strangely circular. OpenAI receives billions from tech companies before sending those billions back to the same companies to pay for computing power and other services.
  - Allen Pike ☛ How to Not Get Acquired
    
    If you’re not careful, though, an acquistion inquiry will fractal into a long distracting back-and-forth. Most big companies have professionals whose full-time job is to learn about startups and try to acquire them at competitive prices – affectionately referred to as Corp Dev. The asymmetry here is why the Pocket Guide of Essential YC Advice flatly says “Don’t talk to corp dev.” This is an oversimplification, but the plausibility of any deal will indeed hinge not on the M&A folks, but on a champion – a product leader or founder who wants you on their team.
  - Linuxiac ☛ Debian’s APT Package Manager to Integrate Rust Code by May 2026
    
    In a message to Debian’s dev mailing list, Julian Andres Klode, a long-time Debian developer and one of the primary maintainers of the APT package manager, has announced plans to introduce hard Rust dependencies into APT beginning no earlier than May 2026.
  - Debian ☛ Hard Rust requirements from May onward
    
    I plan to introduce hard Rust dependencies and Rust code into APT, no earlier than May 2026. This extends at first to the Rust compiler and standard library, and the Sequoia ecosystem.
  - Simon Willison ☛ A quote from Julian Andres Klode
  - Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
    - Futurism ☛ Racist Influencers Using OpenAI’s Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash
      
      A new low.
- Censorship/Free Speech
  - ACLU ☛ What the First Amendment Really Protects
    
    The First Amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy. It allows us to express our views, challenge authority, and engage in public debate. In recent years, however, these freedoms have come under intense scrutiny; from debates over protests on college campuses to concerns about government retaliation against journalists and activists. Understanding what the First Amendment protects is more important than ever.
  - Tom's Hardware ☛ Windows 11 videos demonstrating account and hardware requirements bypass purged from YouTube creator's channel — platform says content ‘encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death’
    
    A YouTuber's videos telling people how to use backdoored Windows 11 without a Abusive Monopolist Microsoft account and how to install it on unsupported hardware were allegedly violating community guidelines on dangerous and illegal activities.
  - New Yorker ☛ Will Paramount Cancel Jon Stewart?
    
    The comedian talks about the suppression of political speech under The Insurrectionist, why social control media doesn’t mix well with democracy, and the future of “The Daily Show.”
  - The Next Move ☛ A Foreign Plot. A Test of American Freedom.
    
    This case is bigger than one person or one incident. Masih has been attacked by the regime before. Meanwhile, Russian intelligence services targeted Uriel in Western Europe. Too many of our colleagues share similar stories; harassed and threatened in the democratic countries that were supposed to provide them with safe haven.
    
    There’s a fundamental principle at stake here. The US attorney put it well at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. As he explained, the plot against Masih was so egregious because it was a foreign dictatorship’s attempt to punish an American citizen for exercising their First Amendment rights.
  - The Next Move ☛ ‘Dead Woman Walking—and Talking’ - by Jay Nordlinger
    
    Sitting in the courtroom, I jotted some notes, a portion of which I’ll share now.
  - BoingBoing ☛ Tennessee man freed after month in jail for reposting Trump meme
    
    A Tennessee man spent 37 days in jail for reposting a Facebook meme. Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired police officer, was arrested in late September after sharing a meme referencing a school shooting while commenting on the murder of Charlie Kirk. The meme featured a quote from President Donald Trump: "We have to get over it" —something Trump said in January 2024 following a shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. Bushart titled his post, "This seems relevant today."
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
  - Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Macau independent news outlet announces closure following gov’t deregistration
    
    All About Macau, an independent media outlet in the casino hub, has said it is closing down after authorities denied its reporters entry to official events and deregistered the company under the city’s press law.
  - Los Angeles Times ☛ What does a journalist look like? The city attorney wants to know
    
    How do you spot a journalist?
    
    The question lies at the center of a legal battle between Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto and the Los Angeles Press Club, as well as a political battle between Feldstein Soto and the City Council.
- Civil Rights/Policing
  - CS Monitor ☛ France updates rape laws after Pelicot case. But is recognizing consent enough?
    
    For many years, women’s advocates in France have been frustrated by the absence of consideration of consent within the country’s rape and sexual assault laws. That’s finally changed, thanks in large part to Gisèle Pelicot.
  - JURIST ☛ Rights group raises concern over Turkey proposed anti-LGBT laws
    
    Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed alarm on Wednesday over Turkish government proposals to criminalize people within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, describing the development as “one of the most alarming rollbacks of rights in decades.”
  - JURIST ☛ Rights groups urge US states to repeal parental notification laws for abortions
    
    Devastating impacts have resulted from US state laws that require healthcare providers to notify a parent when their minor child elects to have an abortion, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Wednesday. In its formal report, “Whose Abortion Is It?
  - Atlantic Council ☛ Twenty-five years on, advancing the Women, Peace, and Security agenda is more urgent than ever
    
    The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security on October 31, 2000, but its implementation remains incomplete.
  - TMZ ☛ Federal Agent Punches Handcuffed Man Multiple Times in the Face, on Video
    
    🚨 ICE agents were caught on video beating U.S. citizens in Evanston, Illinois.
    
    One ICE agent has a man zip-tied and pinned to the ground, repeatedly punching him in the head while pressing his face into the pavement.
  - Futurism ☛ Mark Zuckerberg Visibly Upset When Billie Eilish Calls Out Greed of Billionaires
    
    Maybe it was her implication: that as much as billionaires might donate to good causes, their very existence — and the pitiful taxes they pay — symbolize the world’s shameful and growing gap between the rich and the poor.
  - The Atlantic ☛ How Delivery Ate the Restaurant
    
    When did dinner stop being an occasion and become just another transaction? The convenience of delivery apps has quietly hollowed out one of America’s most beloved rituals, Ellen Cushing writes. What began as a clever fix for busy eaters has transformed how we dine: Nearly three out of every four restaurant orders are now eaten somewhere else. Dining rooms sit half empty while chefs design dishes that can survive the journey to the customer’s home, and some waiters stand behind counters instead of beside tables. “Delivery saved us during the pandemic,” one restaurateur told her. “Now they are killing us.”
  - Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Nordics Have Low Inequality Mostly Because of Welfare
    
    After all, the primary purpose of the welfare state is to distribute income to nonworkers. If you exclude one of the single largest groups of nonworkers (people of retirement age) from the calculation of your measures of inequality, of course it will look like the welfare state isn’t meaningfully reducing inequality. Data about the people who benefit the most from social security and other transfer programs are being totally excluded from the calculation of your Gini coefficients.
  - 404 Media ☛ You Can't Refuse To Be Scanned by ICE's Facial Recognition App, DHS Document Says
    
    Photos captured by Mobile Fortify will be stored for 15 years, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, the document says.
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
  - Public Knowledge ☛ Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld To Testify Before Senate Commerce Subcommittee on First Amendment Freedoms
    
    Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld will testify before the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband Wednesday, October 29 at 10:30 a.m.
  - APNIC ☛ Notes from RIPE 91
    
    Routing the root, PQC for the RPKI, TTLs in the DNS, and much more from RIPE 91.
  - APNIC ☛ A solution to the concerns about the current RPKI Trust Anchor configuration
    
    Guest Post: Join the discussion on the proposed ‘RPKI Trust Anchor Constraints’ specification and share your feedback to benefit the community.
  - APNIC ☛ Summary of feedback from the ICP-2 Review webinar of 21 October 2025
    
    The summary of questions and feedback from the ICP-2 Review webinar held on 21 October 2025 is available. You have until 7 November 2025 to share your feedback on the RIR Governance Document.
- Digital Restrictions (DRM)
  - Digital Music News ☛ Universal Music Posts Modest Q3 2025 Recorded Streaming Growth Amid Ad-Supported Slip, Confirms New ‘Streaming 2.0’ Agreement With YouTube
    
    Universal Music has reported a 5.3% year-over-year (YoY) revenue improvement for Q3 2025, when recorded music streaming revenue turned in a modest 1.6% YoY increase. The major label posted its financials for July, August, and September today, having evidently timed up the disclosure of Udio and Stability Hey Hi (AI) deals to coincide with the earnings report.
  - Hackaday ☛ Making YouTube Work In The Netscape 4.5 Browser On Windows 98
    
    The World Wide Web of the 90s was a magical place, where you couldn’t click two links without getting bombarded with phrases such as the Information Super Highway and Multimedia Experience. Of course, the multimedia experience you got on your Windows 9x PC was mostly limited to low-res, stuttery RealMedia and Windows video format clips, but what if you could experience YouTube back then, on your ‘multimedia-ready’ Celeron PC, running Netscape 4.5?

^* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.

Links 02/11/2025: Another Halloween Bust and MAGA Regime Says Public Universities Should No Longer Hire 'Foreign' Employees

Contents

Leftovers

BIA Net ☛ 'Why do chimneys remain standing while everything else is torn down?'

Evan Hahn ☛ Notes from October 2025

Seth Godin ☛ Scams at scale

Sean Conner ☛ For Hallowe'en, I'm half hoping we get all the kids so we have no candy left, and half hoping we get no kids so we have all the candy left

Buttondown LLC ☛ #010 - A wonderful October

Hamilton Nolan ☛ A Brief Biannual Update on the Publication You Are Reading

Chris O'Donnnell ☛ Another Halloween another bust

Science

Interesting Engineering ☛ US team finds problems that even quantum computers can't crack

Oskar Wickström ☛ Computer Says No: Error Reporting for LTL

Career/Education

Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Florida's Public Universities Should No Longer Hire Foreign Employees, DeSantis Says

Ava ☛ your AI hiring workflow comes at the cost of my loyalty and motivation

Hardware

CubicleNate ☛ Retro Inspired Optical and Floppy Drive Case

Tom's Hardware ☛ NZXT hit with civil RICO suit in California over controversial PC rental biz — class-action lawsuit alleges PC Flex Program is a 'bait-and-switch-scheme' that included used and inferior hardware

Tom's Hardware ☛ WD launches investigation into problems with its controversial SMR hard drives — same drives that got WD sued in 2021 now reporting failure rates due to 'fundamental' flaws

The Strategist ☛ Reaction isn’t enough. Nexperia case shows we must pre-empt China’s tech grabs

CNX Software ☛ NXP i.MX 952 processor supports local dimming for AI-enhanced automotive and industrial HMIs

CNX Software ☛ TerraMaster launches defective chip maker Intel N150 NAS systems with 5GbE networking, Hey Hi (AI) photo recognition

Ruben Schade ☛ A 64-bit PCI Adaptec SCSI card

CNX Software ☛ Waveshare MK20 macro keyboard features twenty mechanical keys with 0.85-inch color LCD keycaps

Tom's Hardware ☛ American startup Substrate promises 2nm-class chipmaking with particle accelerators, at a tenth of the cost of EUV — X-ray lithography system has potential to surpass ASML's EUV scanners

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan food banks brace for SNAP ‘crisis.’ How to get or give help

New York Times ☛ Character.AI to Ban Children Under 18 From Using Its Chatbots

JURIST ☛ Federal appeals court resurrects West Virginia opioid lawsuit

Bridge Michigan ☛ On brink of SNAP crisis, Michigan sends $4.5M to food banks. Will more follow?

Federal News Network ☛ Federal workers stock food banks, as judges step in to ensure SNAP payments

Hackaday ☛ Scared For A Drink?

Science Alert ☛ Humans Used to Sleep Twice Every Night. Here's Why It Vanished.

Chris O'Donnnell ☛ Do you have 26K for health insurance

Barry Hess ☛ No Socials November

Proprietary

Futurism ☛ Amazon Denies That proprietary trap AWS Just Went Down Again After Mass Layoffs

Qt ☛ Qt for Android Automotive 6.8.5 is released

Luigi Mozzillo ☛ Poor by default

Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Education and ChatGPT: Time to return to bad old days?

Silicon Angle ☛ After a death and lawsuits, Character.AI will ban teens from speaking to its chatbots

New Statesman ☛ The far right loves AI slop

Futurism ☛ Racist Influencers Using OpenAI's Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash

Jacobin Magazine ☛ Humanity Needs Democratic Control of AI

Wired ☛ The Man Who Invented AGI

Mailing list ARChives ☛ 'Re: Freedom from oppressive AI'

Social Control Media

India Times ☛ Social media fooled by AI video of 'sky stadium' for Saudi 2034 World Cup

Security

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

Digital Music News ☛ Drake Faces Class Action Lawsuit for ‘Glamorizing’ a ‘Deeply Fraudulent’ Gambling Platform

Digital Music News ☛ Drake v. UMG Round Two Is Underway — Rapper Officially Appeals ‘Not Like Us’ Lawsuit Dismissal

Bruce Schneier ☛ Social Engineering People’s Credit Card Details

SANS ☛ A phishing with invisible characters in the subject line, (Tue, Oct 28th)

Ruben Schade ☛ Injunctions aren’t helping data leaks

SANS ☛ X-Request-Purpose: Identifying "research" and bug bounty related scans, (Thu, Oct 30th)

PC World ☛ Why you should wrap your car keys in aluminum foil

Privacy/Surveillance

ACLU ☛ Surveillance Supporters Tout Police Audit Logs But They’re Not an Effective Check and Balance

Privacy International ☛ From Playground to Database: child data in education

EDRI ☛ Budget cuts incapacitate Austrian DPA: NGOs complaint to the EU Commission

Hackaday ☛ ChatControl Gets Coup-De-Grace

New York Times ☛ French Magazine Acknowledges Breaching Prince William and Catherine’s Privacy

Los Angeles Times ☛ Meta opens West Hollywood store to showcase smart glasses, VR headsets

Techdirt ☛ When AI And Secure Chat Meet, Users Deserve Strong Controls Over How They Interact

Nick Heer ☛ The Information Is Reluctant to Break Uncomfortable News

Nick Heer ☛ U.S. Tech Companies Ramp Up Lobbying Efforts Against E.U. Regulations

Confidentiality/Cybersecurity

Security Week ☛ 10 Million Impacted by Conduent Data Breach

Security Week ☛ Japan Issues OT Security Guidance for Semiconductor Factories

Defence/Aggression

Stanford University ☛ Holy smokes!

ADF ☛ Terror Attacks Rise in Niger as Junta Focuses on Regime Security

New York Times ☛ In China Truce on Tariffs and Rare Earths, National Security Controls Are Bargaining Chip

The Straits Times ☛ Chinese and Japanese leaders meet to talk about rare earths, security

The Straits Times ☛ US and Malaysia boost security partnership in South China Sea

Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-25 [Older] Afghanistan, Pakistan to shore up truce at security talks

Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-26 [Older] Germany news: Police push for more train station security