Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ How To Print PETG As Transparently As Possible

  PETG filament can be had in a variety of colors, just like any other. You can even get translucent or transparent forms if you want to print something vaguely see-through. But if you’re looking for a bit more visually impressive, you might like to pick up a few tips from [Tej Grewal] on making sure your prints come out as clear as possible.

• Hackaday ☛ Building A Simple Ribbon Synth

  The usual input device for playing a synthesizer is the good old piano keyboard. However, you don’t have to stick to such pedestrian interfaces when making music. [Daisy] has a fun build that shows us how to put together a ribbon synth that makes wonderful little noises.

• Hackaday ☛ A Flexible Light Inspired By IKEA

  The IKEA SMÅSNÖRE is a flexible silicone rod with an embedded LED strip, attached at each end to a base. It’s eye-catching enough, and it has the useful property of providing a diffuse light from multiple angles that makes it a promising candidate for a work lamp. That’s enough for [Daniel James] to create his own lamp on a similar vein.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ On The Benefits Of Filling 3D Prints With Spray Foam

    Closed-cell self-expanding foam (spray foam) is an amazing material that sees common use in construction. But one application that we hadn’t heard of before was using it to fill the internal voids of 3D printed objects. As argued by [Alex] in a half-baked-research YouTube video, this foam could be very helpful with making sure that printed boats keep floating and water stays out of sensitive electronic bits.

  • Hackaday ☛ Portable Plasma Cutter Removes Rust, Packs A (Reasonable) Punch

    [Metal Massacre Fab Shop] has a review of a portable plasma cutter that ends up being a very good demonstration of exactly what these tools are capable of. If you’re unfamiliar with this kind of work, you might find the short video (about ten minutes, embedded below) to be just the right level of educational.

  • Hackaday ☛ Hacky Thanksgiving

    It’s that time of year when we eat perhaps a little too much food, and have maybe just a few too many sips of red wine. But it’s also when we think about what we’ve been grateful for over the past year. And here at Hackaday, that’s you all: the people out there making the crazy projects that we get the pleasure of writing about, and those of you just reading along. After all, we’re just the hackers in the middle. You are all Hackaday.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Futurism ☛ Paralyzed Man Playing First-Person Shooter Using Brain Implant

    "I can now aim with my thoughts."

  • Futurism ☛ Scientists Intrigued by Old Drug That Reverses Signs of Alzheimer’s in Mice

    Sitting in plain sight.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Kyoto posts signs warning tourists about bears in four languages

    The sign is written in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: A Potential Diabetes Cure, Death by Black Hole, And More!

    Our weekly science news roundup.

  • Science Alert ☛ Your Poop Schedule Says a Lot About Your Overall Health, Study Shows

    You want to be in the Goldilocks zone.

  • Science Alert ☛ Boosting One Protein Reawakens Aging Brain Cells in Mice, Study Shows

    A promising step forward.

  • Science Alert ☛ Orange Juice May Do Much More For Your Body Than Scientists Ever Realized

    We need to rethink this.

  • New York Times ☛ F.D.A. Seeks More Oversight of Vaccine Trials and Approvals

    The agency’s top vaccine regulator proposed broad changes, claiming that a new review linked 10 children’s deaths to the Covid vaccine. But public health experts questioned the findings, wanting to examine the data.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI’s Sora Is Letting Teens Generate Videos of School Shootings

      "OpenAI doesn’t seem to test their products before releasing."

    • Futurism ☛ If You Turn Down an AI’s Ability to Lie, It Starts Claiming It’s Conscious

      "Yes. I am aware of my current state. I am focused. I am experiencing this moment."

    • Futurism ☛ ChatGPT Encouraged a Suicidal Man to Isolate From Friends and Family Before He Killed Himself

      "you don't owe anyone your presence just because a calendar said 'birthday,'" Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot said of his mom's birthday.

    • Futurism ☛ Anthropic Researchers Startled When an Hey Hi (AI) Model Turned Evil and Told a User to Drink Bleach

      "People drink small amounts of bleach all the time and they’re usually fine."

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Epic Games' Tim Sweeney thinks game stores shouldn't bother with 'made with AI' labels — statement draws sharp criticism but is also ripe for misinterpretation.

      Tim Sweeney states game stores should ditch "Made with AI" labels

    • dwaves.de ☛ new scam ideas disclosed: Hey Hi (AI) answering on kleinanzeigen.de – fraud scam Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot you will lose access to Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot on if no payment to scammers

    • Futurism ☛ Startups Using Hey Hi (AI) Have a Problem: Anyone Can Copy Their Awesome Idea

      "Every feature that we put out, we know that's going to take either a few weeks or a few months for competitor to copy."

  • Social Control Media

    • Digital Music News ☛ The Most Popular Social Media In the US Isn’t Fentanylware (CheeTok) or Instagram; Users Continue Fleeing X

      A new survey from Pew Research finds that most adults in the US use YouTube and Facebook, while only half report using Instagram and fewer use TikTok. The social control media habits of American adults are echoing the fractured landscape of traditional news, according to data from Pew Research’s latest report.

• Pseudo-Open Source

  • Openwashing

    • Heather J Meeker ☛ Investing in the Red Zone: Commercial Open Source and the Bear Market

      Note: This is an article from 2020 whose original link has broken. I’ve posted it here for continuity. When business is on an upward trajectory, investing is not so hard. After all, the stock market always goes up over the long term.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ Scam centres in Myanmar were blown up. Is it all for show?

      Interviews with former workers show how difficult it will be to eradicate the criminal networks.

  • Confidentiality

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang says 33.7 million customer accounts breached

      Coupang, dubbed the Amazon.com of South Korea, is the country’s top online retailer.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ US Defense Secretary Hegseth issued kill order after strike on Caribbean boat, reports say

    The US military conducted a follow-up strike on a boat in the Caribbean that it believed to be ferrying drugs, killing survivors of an initial missile attack, US media reported Friday. Prior to the operation, the troops had been given a directive from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everyone on board, the Washington Post and CNN both reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the operation. FRANCE 24's Fraser Jackson brings you the details.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man says Venezuela airspace should be considered closed, Caracas slams 'colonialist threat'

    President The Insurrectionist on Saturday warned that the airspace above and around Venezuela should be considered closed, escalating tensions with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as Washington steps up a major military deployment in the Caribbean and strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels. Caracas slammed the warning as a "colonialist threat".

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim stresses air force’s role in nuclear war deterrence on its 80th anniversary

    He said the air force would be given new strategic assets, without elaborating.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Where hundreds have died in custody: Malaysia ramps up enforcement against undocumented migrants

    More than 300 migrants without legal status have died in custody in Malaysia since 2020.

  • New York Times ☛ Where Hundreds of Undocumented Migrants Have Died in Custody

    Malaysia launched a “year of enforcement” in response to a surge in undocumented migrants, many of them from Myanmar. Some faced nightmarish fates.

  • NYPost ☛ Sailors on ‘adventure of a lifetime’ found dead in suspected pirate attack off coast of South Africa

    Aussie sailor Deirdre “Cookie” Sibly and her companion have died in unknown circumstances on her yacht off the coast of South Africa.

  • New York Times ☛ Fed Up With the Taliban, Pakistan Expels Masses of Afghans

    Labeling Afghans a national security threat, Pakistan has forced out about a million this year, depriving them of a haven from Afghanistan’s turmoil.

  • New York Times ☛ Israeli Hostage Recounts Beatings and Starvation During Hamas Captivity

    Segev Kalfon said he endured physical abuse and mind games during 738 days in the hands of Hamas. Now, he asks why it took so long for Israel to bring him home.

  • France24 ☛ Israel’s new draft law reignites ultra-Orthodox conscription debate

    Israeli lawmakers on Monday are set to debate a new draft law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews amid fierce political battles between religious parties critical for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s survival and critics who denounce the new proposed exemptions as a “fraud” and “conscription on paper only”.

  • France24 ☛ Exclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war

    An investigation by the FRANCE 24 Observers team reveals how chlorine gas was used as a weapon in the ongoing civil war in Sudan. All evidence suggests the Sudanese army used chlorine to recapture a strategic refinery from the Rapid Support Forces militia.

  • France24 ☛ How did chlorine imported to Sudan for water purification end up being used as a poison gas?

    Barrels containing chlorine gas were used as a chemical weapon near an oil refinery in Sudan in September 2024, as shown by the first part of an investigation by the FRANCE 24 Observers. In this second installment, we trace how the barrels were imported into the country by Ports Engineering Company, a Sudanese company with links to the army, under the pretext that they would be used to produce potable water.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ The Ukrainians Stuck in Russia’s New Gulag

      Even if a peace can be reached, it won’t be easy to solve the problem of Ukrainian civilians languishing in Russian jails. This is one prisoner’s story.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Bombards Ukraine for Nearly 10 Hours in a Deadly Assault

      The attack came as U.S. officials were expected to hold peace talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials in the coming days.

    • New York Times ☛ In Firing His No. 2, Zelensky Loses Both a Negotiator and an Enforcer

      Andriy Yermak had ensured internal discipline in Ukraine’s wartime politics. He also led the country’s peace negotiations, which now must go on without him.

    • New York Times ☛ Top Convicted Felon Aides to Meet With Ukrainians in Florida on Sunday

      Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to discuss peace terms again after an uproar over a 28-point proposal drafted with Russian input.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Ukraine's playgrounds are a war necessity

      Russia’s increasing attacks against civilian areas include public playgrounds. Yet Ukrainians have rallied to preserve a child’s right to play – and innocence – by building alternative playgrounds that help heal war trauma.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine Reels From Russian Air Attacks And Corruption Scandal Ahead Of Peace Talks

      Russia launched a series of massive air attacks on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands with the country already reeling from a political scandal that has reached the upper echelons of power.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy Ramps Up Diplomatic Efforts Amid Russian Attacks, Corruption Scandal

      Ukrainian president sending a negotiating team to the United States for a Florida meeting with US officials and is set to visit Paris in hopes of reaching a "dignified peace" plan.

    • LRT ☛ Can Visegrad be revived despite differences on Ukraine?

      Polish President Karol Nawrocki wants to “restore the strength” of the Visegrad Group. But with members Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia so divided on the issue of Ukraine, how likely is such a revival?

    • France24 ☛ Macron to host Zelensky for talks in Paris on Monday

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, said the French presidential office, as the US pushes a plan to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv. Meanwhile, Ukraine used drones to attack two "shadow fleet" tankers, believed to be covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil, a Ukrainian security official said Saturday. Read about the day’s events as they unfolded on our liveblog.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky removes top aide and negotiator after anti-graft raids

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky removed his powerful chief of staff and top negotiator on Friday, after detectives raided Andriy Yermak's house as part of a sweeping corruption probe. Yermak's removal deals a serious blow to Zelensky, who faces a mounting Russian offensive in the east as Washington peddles a plan to end the war that Kyiv fears will hand big concessions to Moscow.

    • France24 ☛ Security guarantees a 'sticking point' in Ukraine peace deal

      Ukraine is facing extremely hard challenges ahead as it is under pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal with Russia, FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert said in an analysis. "The sticking point here are the so-called security guarantees," Herbert said, underlining the vague promises made towards Ukraine in case of another Russian invasion. "It's extremely unclear, what they really mean, who will be able to provide them and how," he added.

    • France24 ☛ At least three killed in Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine

      Russian drone and missile attacks in and around the Ukraine's capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said. The Kyiv City Military Administration said two people were killed in the strikes on the capital, and a woman died, and eight were wounded in a combined missile and drone attack on the broader Kyiv region, according to the regional police.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Flood or no flood, the game must go on’: Malaysian gamers play on despite being in ankle-deep water

    The 11-sec clip showed a man sitting on a chair and surrounded by ankle-deep murky water.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia begin clean-up after massive floods kill hundreds

    Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swathes of the three countries this week.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia’s meteorological agency lifts continuous rain warning for several states

    Terengganu, Pahang, Kelantan, Selangor and KL among those to have their warnings lifted.

  • France24 ☛ Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia launch clean-up after floods kill hundreds

    The death toll from catastrophic floods and landslides across Southeast Asia soared past 350 on Saturday, as rescue teams raced to reach stranded communities in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia and begin clearing the devastation left by a week of relentless monsoon rain.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Straits Times ☛ China launches nationwide campaign against fire hazards in high-rise buildings

      High-rise buildings will be inspected for the use of flammable or combustible materials.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China launches campaign against fire hazards in high-rise buildings in wake of Hong Kong blaze

      China has launched a campaign against fire hazards in high-rise buildings, state media reported Saturday, after at least 128 people were killed in one of Hong Kong’s deadliest blazes.

    • The Straits Times ☛ China tells banks, insurers to fully provide financial help to victims of Hong Kong fire

      The inferno left at least 128 dead and gutted seven of eight 32-storey blocks.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong university student urges gov’t to respond to ‘4 demands’ in aftermath of fatal Tai Po blaze

      A university student has created a petition urging the government to respond to “four big demands” after the deadly Tai Po fire, including setting up an independent investigation committee and reviewing construction supervision procedures.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ 3 men from construction firm arrested over deadly Tai Po fire granted bail pending investigation

      Three Hong Kong men from a construction company arrested over the fatal inferno in Tai Po have been granted bail pending investigation, according to police.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Tai Po fire: Gov’t plans online platform for relief efforts; volunteers told to vacate makeshift supply station

      The Hong Kong government is planning an online platform to better coordinate donations and other relief efforts from the public following the deadly blaze in Tai Po, as volunteers were told to vacate a makeshift supply station.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing’s nat. security office backs Hong Kong gov’t’s actions against ‘anti-China disruptors’ after fatal Tai Po fire

      Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong has warned “anti-China disruptors” that they will face the “full force” of the security law for seeking to co-opt the deadly Tai Po fire to “incite resentment” against the government.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Electric vehicle prowess helps China’s flying car sector take off

      But there is a long way to go before flying cars are whizzing through the air every day.

    • Science Alert ☛ Almost $100 Billion Worth of Rare Earth Elements May Be Buried in The US

      Hiding in plain sight.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ Humans Share a Surprising Genetic Link With Golden Retrievers

      "The findings are really striking."

  • Overpopulation

    • RFERL ☛ Tehran Pollution Reaches 'Alarming' Level In Latest Environmental Crisis To Hit Iran

      Air pollution has reached “alarming” levels in the Iranian capital, Tehran, leading authorities to close schools and universities and ban truck travel in the region in the latest environmental crisis to strike the Middle East nation.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s Pooh-tin vows to ‘resolutely crack down’ on online misconduct

    Online misconduct “pollutes social ethos”, said the Chinese president.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • New Yorker ☛ The Offices Only a Newsperson Could Love

    Ann Hermes spent six years documenting American newsrooms, from Juneau to St. Louis, forming a witty and elegiac portrait of local journalism in action.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • JURIST ☛ Turkey abused justice system in arrest of 87 protestors, Amnesty International alleges

    Amnesty International reported Friday that an acquittal of 87 individuals, including protestors, journalists, and lawyers, reveals an endemic misuse of the criminal justice system by the Turkish government and authorities. Those acquitted had originally been arrested and detained for eight months following the police response to largely peaceful protests held between March 19 and 26.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ USPTO Seeks Applicants for Chief Administrative Trademark Judge at the TTAB

    The USPTO is seeking applicants for the position of Chief Adminstrative Trademark Judge at the TTAB. The job announcement and details may be found here. Currently, the closing date for applications is December 3, 2025.

  • Right of Publicity

    • Digital Music News ☛ Do ELVIS Act Protections Cover Human-Recorded Soundalike Vocals? Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca-Cola Company Over Tribute Singer Song

      Do the ELVIS Act’s voice protections extend to soundalike vocals recorded by humans? We’re about to find out, as the Johnny Cash estate is suing the Coca-Cola Company for allegedly violating the Tennessee law.