Leftovers

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Super-Jupiter' Exoplanets May Look Like Nothing We've Ever Seen

    Truly alien worlds.

  • Science Alert ☛ Archaeologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Humans Using Tools to Make Fire

    Sparking our evolution.

  • Science Alert ☛ New Species of Tiny Pumpkin Toadlet Discovered in Brazil's Cloud Forests

    Adorable.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Cause of Alzheimer's May Be Coming From Within Your Mouth

    It's not just a disease.

  • Science Alert ☛ Sperm Donor With Rare Cancer-Risk Gene Fathers Nearly 200 Children

    Here's what happened.

  • Science Alert ☛ Veritasium's 'Elements of Truth' Board Game Is Live on Kickstarter

    Any questions?

  • Science Alert ☛ New Cancer Therapy Offers Hope For 'Incurable' Leukaemia in Early Trial

    Here's how it works.

  • Science Alert ☛ NASA Confirms It Has Lost Contact With Mars Orbiter MAVEN

    Sudden silence after 11 years in orbit.

• Career/Education

  • The Straits Times ☛ Agency chief of South Korea’s college entrance exam resigns over too-difficult English exam

    Difficulty level of the English section was out of line with the purpose of absolute grading: Official

• Hardware

  • New York Times ☛ Chip Company Plotted to Send Technology to China, Ex-C.E.O. Says

    The former chief executive of Nexperia, a Dutch chipmaker, said Dutch officials had known for years that the company’s Chinese owner sought to move its technology to China.

  • Hackaday ☛ Your Supercomputer Arrives In The Cloud

    For as long as there have been supercomputers, people like us have seen the announcements and said, “Boy! I’d love to get some time on that computer.” But now that most of us have computers and phones that greatly outpace a Cray 2, what are we doing with them? Of course, a supercomputer today is still bigger than your PC by a long shot, and if you actually have a use case for one, [Stephen Wolfram] shows you how you can easily scale up your processing by borrowing resources from the Wolfram Compute Services. It isn’t free, but you pay with Wolfram service credits, which are not terribly expensive, especially compared to buying a supercomputer.

  • Hackaday ☛ Reverse Sundial Still Tells Time

    The Dutch word for sundial, zonnewijzer, can be literally translated into “Sun Pointer” according to [illusionmanager] — and he took that literal translation literally, building a reverse sundial so he would always know the precise location of our local star, even when it is occluded by clouds or the rest of the planet.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China starts list of government-approved Hey Hi (AI) hardware suppliers: Cambricon and Huawei are in, Nvidia is not

    Chinese government began to add government-approved Hey Hi (AI) suppliers to the Information Technology Innovation List in a bid to accelerate deployment of domestic hardware. But can Chinese semiconductor industry satisfy the needs of domestic Hey Hi (AI) industry?

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Framework puts Dell and Fashion Company Apple on blast over egregious RAM prices — modular laptop maker will be forced to increase memory prices, but won't "gouge customers" like other vendors

    Memory prices are rising everywhere, and the latest to be hit in the aftermath of this crisis is modular laptop manufacturer Framework, which just announced its own price hike in a very interesting fashion. The company replied to a tweet showing Dell's allegedly insane markup on RAM upgrades that later turned out to be incorrect.

  • CNX Software ☛ Beacon AM62L – A compact (38x28mm), low-power dual-core Cortex-A53 System-on-Module (SoM)

    Beacon EmbeddedWorks has announced a compact (38x28mm) System-on-Module (SoM) based on the recently introduced low-power Texas Instruments Sitara AM62L dual-core Cortex-A53 SoC designed for IoT, HMI, and general-purpose applications requiring a display. The AML62L SoM features LPDDR4 or DDR4 memory, an 8-bit eMMC flash, and an optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE module. All I/Os are exposed through two board-to-board connectors, including RGB LCD or MIPI DSI display interface, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces with TSN support,  USB 2.0, CAN FD, analog inputs, and more.

  • CNX Software ☛ AMD Ryzen Embedded 8840U COM Express Type 6 Compact module takes up to 128GB DDR5

    SolidRun has unveiled a new COM Express Type 6 Compact module powered by the AMD Ryzen Embedded 8840U Series with up to 39 TOPS of Hey Hi (AI) performance for industrial, medical, automation, and edge Hey Hi (AI) applications. The module supports up to 128GB DDR5 of memory via two SO-DIMM sockets, on-module M.2 NVME SSD storage, and features an defective chip maker Intel i226 2.5GbE controller. It exposes I/Os through standard board-to-board connectors, including 16-lane PCIe Gen4, four DisplayPort video outputs, eDP or LVDS display interface, two SATA, various USB ports, and more.

  • Hackaday ☛ Volumetric Display With Lasers And Bubbly Glass

    There’s a type of dust-collector that’s been popular since the 1990s, where a cube of acrylic or glass is laser-etched in a three-dimensional pattern. Some people call them bubblegrams. While it could be argued that bubblegrams are a sort of 3D display, they’re more like a photograph than a TV. [Ancient] had the brainwave that since these objects work by scattering light, he could use them as a proper 3D video display by controlling the light scattered from an appropriately-designed bubblegram.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ China holds 'emergency meetings' to discuss Nvidia H200 purchases following export rule change, report claims — ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba asked to assess demand

    China convened emergency meetings with its largest technology companies on Wednesday to assess how many of Nvidia’s H200 accelerators they intend to buy.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ The Health Care Debate We Really Need

    The high cost of health care in America is suppressing wages, driving job losses and fueling inequality.

  • New York Times ☛ A Surrogacy Firm Told Parents-to-Be Their Money Was Safe. Suddenly, It Vanished.

    Surro Connections held itself out as a reliable business. Now, clients have lost as much as tens of thousands of dollars meant to compensate women carrying their pregnancies.

  • France24 ☛ No, this South Korean patch does not regrow teeth

    Numerous posts on social control media claim that South Korean researchers developed a patch that can regrow teeth. This is false. Although scientists are indeed looking at the issue of tooth regeneration, no credible scientific article has reported such a discovery.

  • JURIST ☛ US dispatch, day 3: second officer testifies Luigi Mangione used fake identification, invoked silence after admitting identity

    Editor’s note: This is Day 3 of JURIST’s coverage of Luigi Mangione’s suppression hearings.

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan schools should disclose vaccination rates to parents, lawmakers say

    The 11-bill package was introduced to strengthen the state’s authority amid shifting federal policies on childhood immunization.

  • Latvia ☛ Major Rīga hospital limits visits during flu season

    During the flu epidemic, restrictions on patient visits have been imposed at Rīga East Clinical University Hospital (RAKUS) since December 9th, RAKUS said.

  • Latvia ☛ Medical error leading to child's death suspected at Rīga Children's Hospital

    A child has lost their life at the Children's Clinical University Hospital (BKUS), possibly due to the error of medical personnel, Latvian Television reported on 9th December.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Tsing Yi Nature Trails closed after 5 hikers contract chikungunya fever; robot dogs deployed to spray area

    The Hong Kong government has closed access to the Tsing Yi Nature Trails after five visitors contracted the chikungunya virus, raising the number of local cases to 10.

• Proprietary

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Shares of Oracle slide 10% on revenue miss and rising capital expenditures

    Shares of Oracle Corp. dropped more than 10% in extended trading today after the clown and database giant missed expectations on quarterly revenue while going full-steam ahead on its ongoing artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ User reports claim December backdoored Windows 11 security update fixes AMD GPU hanging and driver crashing

    A multitude of AMD GPU owners claim the December security update for backdoored Windows 11 has fixed GPU hanging and driver crashing, primarily on RX 9000 series GPUs.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Hackaday ☛ Why LLMs Are Less Intelligent Than Crows

      The basic concept of human intelligence entails self-awareness alongside the ability to reason and apply logic to one’s actions and daily life. Despite the very fuzzy definition of ‘human intelligence‘, and despite many aspects of said human intelligence (HI) also being observed among other animals, like crows and orcas, humans over the ages have always known that their brains are more special than those of other animals.

    • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman Says Caring for a Baby Is Now Impossible Without ChatGPT [Ed: And how about caring for one's sister instead of New York Times ☛ (allegedly) sexually molesting her?]

      "Clearly, people did it for a long time — no problem. But I have relied on it so much."

    • Futurism ☛ Police Admit They’re Using Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot to Generate “Sketches” of Suspects

      "We're now in a day and age where if we post a pencil drawing, most people are not going to acknowledge it."

    • Futurism ☛ Brace for Disaster as the Washington Post Launches an AI-Generated Podcast

      "Stop trying to shove Hey Hi (AI) down my throat."

    • New York Times ☛ Meta’s New Hey Hi (AI) Superstars Are Chafing Against the Rest of the Company

      An us-versus-them mentality has emerged between Meta’s top artificial intelligence team and longtime lieutenants to Mark Kapo-berg.

  • Social Control Media

    • France24 ☛ Addiction economy: Can regulators rein in social control media platforms?

      Will history remember this as the day the planet started to rein in big tech?

      Australia firing the first shot by banning under 16s from platforms and social control media that include giants such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. We’ll of course ask if rebellious teens will make light work of the ban. More broadly, is this the day regulators start treating merchants of scrolling the way they do tobacco and drinks giants, like businesses with a penchant for encouraging addiction.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • France24 ☛ US may require visa-free travellers to submit social control media, family data

      The US may soon require travellers from visa-exempt countries to provide extensive personal information, including social control media activity, email accounts, and family history, before being allowed entry. Under the proposal, citizens of roughly 40 countries who currently travel through the Visa Waiver Program would need to submit five years of social control media history and other detailed data through the ESTA system. The move has raised privacy and free speech concerns.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ M23 rebels enter strategic congolese town as peace deal crumbles

    In tonight's edition, Rwanda-backed M23 fighters have entered the strategic town of Uvira in eastern DRC, near the Burundian border. Also, at least 22 people have died in Morocco's third largest city, Fez, following the collapse of two residential buildings. And we celebrate women in science with the L'Oreal-UNESCO's Women in Science Young Talents award.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Man killed, another injured in drive-by shooting in Seremban, Malaysia; gang rivalry suspected

    Two assailants on a motorcycle fired into a moving car.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea fires artillery salvo as it kicks off key party meeting

    The firing was part of its military regular winter-time exercises, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing military officials.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea minister resigns amid allegations of Unification Church payments

    Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja is on ‌trial on charges that she ​bribed the former first lady.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s Hanwha, US defense startup Vatn to build underwater drones

    South Korean shipping giant Hanwha Group has teamed up with U.S. defense startup Vatn Systems to develop autonomous underwater drones for the U.S. Navy, the ‍companies ​said, marking the latest bilateral effort to counter China’s expanding ‍naval presence.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China and Brazil create joint space laboratory, despite US pressure

    The US has put pressure on Latin ‍American countries to cut or minimise ties with China, including in space.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Dispatch from New Delhi: Another India-China flare-up is coming

    China’s recent detainment of an Indian national from a disputed area is a reminder that efforts to ease bilateral tensions can only go so far.

  • The Strategist ☛ China’s anti-Japan sentiment is rising, but it’s nothing new

    A rise in anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese public in the past month is not unprecedented, but rather an extension of a steady rise since 2023.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ Michael Anton and the Secret National Security Strategy

    The report that there's a longer unpublished version of the National Security Strategy that is even worse than the one that got published should focus attention on why Michael Anton left before either got finished.

  • New York Times ☛ Danish Intelligence Report Raises Concerns About Shifts in US Policy Under Convicted Felon

    A new document cites Washington’s shifting strategic priorities and growing pressure on allies under Hell Toupée as sources of uncertainty for Denmark.

  • New York Times ☛ Taiwan Invokes National Security Law to Protect TSMC Trade Secrets

    An executive left TSMC for Intel. Taiwan’s government says that could threaten its national security.

  • New York Times ☛ Louvre Heist Was Caught on Film, Officials Say, Rebutting Earlier Account

    Investigators said that a security camera recorded thieves preparing to burgle the Louvre. The museum’s director said previously that the camera was facing the wrong way.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Cambodia takes Thailand border conflict issue to UN Security Council, seeks urgent intervention

    Cambodia accused Thailand of violating the ceasefire agreement and the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing protests ‘political’ UK sanctions on 2 Chinese cyber firms

    Beijing denounced on Wednesday British sanctions on two Chinese companies which London alleged were involved in cyber activities against Britain, saying the measure amounted to “political manipulation” of security issues.

  • France24 ☛ 'Welcome to hell': Sarkozy discusses prison stay, far-right rapprochement in new book

    Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy describes his recent 20-day stint in prison as “hell” in a new book released on Wednesday. His “Diary of a Prisoner” provides a rare glimpse into La Santé prison in Paris, were Sarkozy was kept in solitary confinement for security reasons. It also sees the ex-president turn his back on the “republican front” of parties that has traditionally kept the far-right out of power.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ The 10 key reforms that can close America’s cybersecurity gaps

    Cybercriminals and foreign adversaries are exploiting gaps in our digital armor. These essential reforms can help American cybersecurity catch up.

  • New York Times ☛ Inside the Pentagon’s Scramble to Deal With Boat Strike Survivors

    Officials initially weighed sending survivors of U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling to a notorious prison in El Salvador, to keep them away from American courts.

  • American Oversight ☛ American Oversight Demands Navy Account for Reported Deletion of Footage Following Deadly October Boat Strike

    We demanded the National Archives, DOD, and Navy take immediate action to recover any destroyed records and prevent further unlawful deletions.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar junta air strike on hospital kills 31, says on-site aid worker

    The junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar’s civil war.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Meet the candidates on Zelensky’s shortlist for his next chief of staff — Meduza

    • Latvia ☛ All Latvian council chairpersons to be vetted by January

      Most local government officials have already received the state security clearance required by law, and the situation with the remaining ones will be known in January, said Raimonds Čudars (New Unity), Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development (VARAM), in an interview with Latvian Television's program "Morning Panorama" on 10th December.

    • Latvia ☛ VIDEO: Riga Security Forum 2025 closing event

      The Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA) on December 9th, within the framework of its Riga Security Forum 2025 format, held a season-closing event titled “Defense and Security Future Outlines”.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Latvia ☛ Limbaži dissatisfied with coming wind parks

      Residents of Limbaži municipality are strongly opposed to future wind farms. People are concerned that wind turbines, which are planned to reach heights of up to 276 meters, will affect their health, significantly change the landscape, and place a heavy burden on local road, Latvian Television reported on 9th December.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ Lawsuit Challenges Park Service Passes Featuring Convicted Felon

      An environmental group is suing, saying federal law requires an image of public lands, not the president.

    • Science Alert ☛ Award-Winning Photo Reveals Secret of Strange Spider's 'Shrink-Wrap' Web

      The art of ambush.

• Finance

  • Latvia ☛ Shortage of tech talent threatens growth prospects

    Amidst digital transformation and growing cyber threats in Latvia and Europe, a significant problem is becoming increasingly apparent – a shortage of cybersecurity specialists and the necessary skills, acording to Alise Gurenko, co-creator and Startup Program Director at Riga TechGirls.

  • New York Times ☛ Does the Job of C.E.O. or Private Investor Come First? Intel’s Chief Is Juggling That Question.

    Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed chief executive of defective chip maker Intel in March, is also a longtime venture capitalist. His dual roles have caused some consternation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China’s ZTE may pay more than $1.3b to the US over foreign bribery allegations

    The Justice Department is investigating ZTE for allegedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's ZTE may pay more than $1 billion to the US over foreign bribery allegations, sources say

    Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp may pay more than $1 billion to the U.S. government to resolve years-old allegations of foreign bribery, according to two people familiar with the matter.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s beauty tourism players fear ugly impact from tax refund termination

    A report notes that South Korea continues to offer superior quality relative to price.

  • France24 ☛ US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates for the third straight time

    The US Federal Reserve has lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, to a range of 3.5% - 3.75%, but signalled there will be fewer cuts going forward amid a cooling labour market and persistently high inflation. The vote was not unanimous, with two calling for keeping rates unchanged, and Convicted Felon ally Stephen Miran wanting a larger cut.  Also in the segment, the United Arab Emirates is turning towards Hey Hi (AI) as part of a strategy at ensuring its future in a post-fossil-fuels world.

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Like so many things, the traditional Christmas posada costs more this year

    The Mexican tradition of the posada — that Christmastime party for family, friends and neighbors — is still strong today. Unfortunately, so is the Mexican tradition of inflation.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • OpenRightsGroup ☛ Defending Trial by Jury

    Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has announced plans to drastically reduce the use of jury trials in England and Wales. Under these proposals, only the most serious offences such as murder, rape or manslaughter, will continue to be heard by a jury. Lammy cites court backlogs as a justification.

  • New Yorker ☛ Inside Convicted Felon’s Artless Takeover of the Kennedy Center

    Amid firings, boycotts, and programming reoriented to reflect the MAGA agenda, the performing-arts center has become a showcase for Convicted Felon’s aesthetics and ambitions.

  • OpenRightsGroup ☛ Briefing: Online Safety Act Parliamentary Petition Debate

    It might seem strange to some MPs that anyone could be opposed to ‘Online Safety’. ORG supports sensible measures to protect children online. But the Online Safety Act (OSA), as currently written and interpreted, is already producing harmful unintended consequences for privacy, cybersecurity, free expression and the wider UK digital economy.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Outgoing legislative president calls on newly elected lawmakers to help gov’t tackle Tai Po fire aftermath

    The outgoing president of Hong Kong’s legislature has urged the 90 newly elected lawmakers to “spare no effort” in helping the government tackle the aftermath of the deadly Tai Po fire.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Cision investigates and MyJobQuote maintains silence over fake experts network

    US PR giant addresses role in circulating hundreds of misleading stories.

  • BIA Net ☛ Atölye BİA hosts workshop on 'International right to information access and tools'

    The workshop addressed how national freedom of information laws can be effectively utilized by journalists in investigative reporting.

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group urges China, Hong Kong to respect press freedom after deadly fire

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday urged Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to release news commentator Wong Kwok-ngon, to halt harassment of journalists, and to allow free coverage of the recent deadly apartment complex fire in Hong Kong.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ UN troubled by Hong Kong clampdown after deadly Tai Po fire

    The United Nations voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that Hong Kong’s “draconian” national security laws were being used against people seeking a transparent inquiry into the Chinese city’s worst fire in decades.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Administration Rules Threaten Nobel Prizes Won by Immigrants

    As three immigrants claim Nobel Prizes in science for the United States this year, experts warn that immigration crackdowns could undo American innovation.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Jail term for South Korea sex abuse ring boss upped to 47 years

    Cho Ju-bin ran a group that blackmailed women and girls, including minors, into filming and sending sexual content.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia orders overhaul of dress code at police stations, government agencies after public outcry

    It follows an incident where two women were stopped from entering a police station due to their attire.

  • JURIST ☛ Illinois restricts immigration arrests in public venues, permits lawsuits for constitutional violations

    Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 1312 into law on Tuesday, establishing protections which limit civil immigration enforcement activities across multiple public settings throughout the state.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Your elected leaders: Roopinder Singh Perhar, APNIC EC Secretary

    Roopinder Singh Perhar reflects on building networks, shaping policy, and preparing the next generation of Internet professionals.

  • APNIC ☛ [Podcast] Going dark: Measurement when the Internet hides the detail

    Geoff Huston discusses protocol privacy, RFC 7258 and how APNIC Labs measures in a world of secure protocols.

  • APNIC ☛ Introducing Network Vulnerability Detection in DASH

    APNIC’s DASH platform has introduced a new Potential Security Vulnerabilities service to help Members identify and fix network weaknesses before they can be exploited.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • New Yorker ☛ What the Warner Bros. Sale Means for the Art of Movies

    The competition between DRM spreader Netflix and Paramount Skydance to acquire the studio is haunted by the ghosts of mergers past.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Unreviewable Director: How § 314(d) Shields the USPTO’s IPR Denial Regime from Judicial Oversight

    Director Squires' near-zero institution rate stands unreviewable as Federal Circuit closes courthouse doors to IPR petitioners in four new rulings

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Label-Plus Liability: The Government Warns the Federal Circuit Misread Hatch-Waxman

    Dihydroxyacetone Man DOJ urges Supreme Court review of Hikma v. Amarin, arguing the Federal Circuit’s inducement ruling threatens Congress’s skinny-label framework.

• Trademarks

  • Right of Publicity

    • Futurism ☛ King Gizzard Responds to Being Impersonated by Hey Hi (AI) on Spotify

      "But seriously wtf."

• Copyrights

  • Public Domain Review ☛ Nature Morte: Chaïm Soutine’s Still Lifes (ca. 1920s)

    Still lifes by the artist who seemed to bridge expressionism with the baroque.

  • Public Domain Review ☛ A Thousand and One Nights in Italy: The Moorish Fantasias of Cesare Mattei and Ferdinando Panciatichi

    In mid-19th century Italy, two eccentric aristocrats set forth on parallel projects: constructing ostentatious castles in a Moorish Revival style. Iván Moure Pazos tours the psychedelic chambers of Rochetta Mattei, optimised for electrohomeopathic healing, and Castello di Sammezzano, an immersive, orientalist fever dream.

  • Silicon Angle ☛ EU will investigate Surveillance Giant Google over how it uses online content for Hey Hi (AI) training

    The European Commission has launched a probe into Surveillance Giant Google over concerns it may be breaching EU competition laws by extracting content from websites without compensation to produce AI-generated search summaries.

  • Futurism ☛ Google CEO Says We’re All Going to Have to Suffer Through It as Hey Hi (AI) Puts Society Through the Woodchipper

    "We will have to work through societal disruption."