Leftovers

• Ben Congdon ☛ Day 15 of Daily Writing

  This is post 15 of my unannounced, self-imposed month of daily writing. I’ve been making soft promises to myself and others to write more for… years. I was inspired by a few of the folks who wrote daily last month for Inkhaven, and so decided to do my own super unofficial version of that.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Alien Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Just About to Make Its Closest Approach to Earth

    Here it comes!

  • Hackaday ☛ A Brief History Of The Spreadsheet

    We noted that Excel turned 40 this year. That makes it seem old, and today, if you say “spreadsheet,” there’s a good chance you are talking about an Excel spreadsheet, and if not, at least a program that can read and produce Excel-compatible sheets. But we remember a time when there was no Excel. But there were still spreadsheets. How far back do they go?

  • Science Alert ☛ An Ancient Form of Plant Communication Still Lures Pollinators Using Heat

    Long before there were flowers.

  • Science Alert ☛ DNA Study Reveals Carrier of World's Earliest-Known Plague

    A significant clue.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ice Age Lake Reappears in Death Valley Following Record Rains

    Lake Manly returns.

  • Science Alert ☛ Want to Know if Somebody Is Truly Listening? Count Their Blinks.

    *Stares intently*

  • Science Alert ☛ Psilocybin Breaks Depressive Cycles by Rewiring The Brain, Study Suggests

    It's not just a hallucinogen.

  • Science Alert ☛ Earth Estimated to Lose 3,000 Glaciers a Year at 'Peak Extinction'

    That's not even a worst-case scenario.

  • Science Alert ☛ Uranus And Neptune May Not Be 'Ice Giants' After All, Study Suggests

    Decades of assumptions could be wrong.

  • Science Alert ☛ Nearly Half of All Heart Attacks May Be Missed by Current Screening Tools

    Is there a better approach?

• Hardware

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chinese court sentences 27 people for smuggling antimony ingots

    China is the world’s largest producer of antimony, which is used in batteries and chips.

  • Hackaday ☛ 3D Printing And Metal Casting Are A Great Match

    [Chris Borge] has made (and revised) many of his own tools using a combination of 3D printing and common hardware, and recently decided to try metal casting. Having created his own tapping arm, he tries his hand at aluminum casting to create a much more compact version out of metal. His video (embedded below) really shows off the whole process, and [Chris] freely shares his learning experiences in casting his first metal tool.

  • Hackaday ☛ Mass Spectrometer Tear Down

    If you have ever thought, “I wish I could have a mass spectrometer at home,” then we aren’t very surprised you are reading Hackaday. [Thomas Scherrer] somehow acquired a broken Brucker Microflex LT Mass Spectrometer, and while it was clearly not working, it promised to be a fun teardown, as you can see in the first part of the video below.

  • Hackaday ☛ Giant Neopixel Is Just Like The Regular Kind, Only Bigger

    Neopixels and other forms of addressable LEDs have taken the maker world by storm. They make it trivial to add a ton of controllable, glowing LEDs to any project. [Arnov Sharma] has made a great tribute to the WS2812B LED by building the NeoPixel Giant Edition.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-12-11 [Older] Growing a mix of plants in fields can save farmers money and help the environment – new research

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] New strain of mpox virus: What you need to know [Ed: More expensive patents to licence]

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia targets full vape ban by mid-2026: Health Minister

    Malaysia's Health Ministry aims to finalise the policy by 2026.

  • Hackaday ☛ Pufferfish Venom Can Kill, Or It Can Relieve Pain

    Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is best known as the neurotoxin of the puffer fish, though it also appears in a range of other marine species. You might remember it from an episode of The Simpsons involving a poorly prepared dish at a sushi restaurant. Indeed, it’s a potent thing, as ingesting even tiny amounts can lead to death in short order.

  • France24 ☛ The science of colour: How different colours can influence our moods

    In this edition of Entre Nous we meet an illustrator, interpreter, comic book author and historian of typography. He's put all of those things together in a series of delightful books that make perfect gifts for the holidays or just about any time. David Rault tells us about his new book that's out now in French and is called "Couleurs", or "Colours".

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Waiting to die’: The dirty business of recycling in Vietnam

    Sustained exposure to the toxic recycling environment results in higher health risks for residents.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Myanmar junta says Suu Kyi ‘in good health’ after son raises alarm

    Her son had said that he had not heard from his mother in ​years.

  • France24 ☛ French farmers protest cattle cull as disease spreads

    French farmers are protesting the systematic cull of cattle as herds face the spread of nodular dermatitis, or lumpy skin disease. The disease is classified as a category-A disease by the EU's animal health law, which implies that if one cow gets stick, the entire herd must be killed. FRANCE 24's Solange Mougin looks into the contested measures.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dengue deaths in Malaysia fall by 61% from 2024

    Dengue cases in Malaysia fell by 56.5 per cent to 51,046 cases as at Dec 6.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Aceh urges Indonesian government to allow entry of humanitarian aid from Malaysia

    Aid remains stranded in Malaysia because the floods have not been declared a national emergency.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ How to Learn Qt in 2026: Free Courses, Tutorials & What's New for Developers

    As we wrap up the year, we’re excited to share what’s been happening in Qt Learning and what’s available for developers in 2026! Our mission is to keep expanding and improving our learning resources to support developers, students, and future talent worldwide.

  • Qt ☛ Making Your Prompts Personal – Qt Hey Hi (AI) Assistant 0.9.8 Released! [Ed: Qt (proprietary) pushing slop]

    The latest Qt Hey Hi (AI) Assistant release adds custom coding instructions to every prompt, reducing the effort required to implement your own coding preferences or the project’s coding conventions. Furthermore, the 0.9.8 release also introduces support for Google’s Gemini 3 Pro Preview LLM and OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 LLM.

  • Seattle Times ☛ Weeks after huge layoff, Amazon makes new, smaller cut to WA workforce

    Amazon is laying off 84 employees based in Seattle and Bellevue, the company disclosed in a state regulatory filing Monday.

    The layoffs are unrelated to cuts from late October, when Amazon announced it planned to let go of about 14,000 corporate employees.

    Of the 84 employees included in Monday’s filing, eight are based in Bellevue and another six are remote workers. Sixty of the employees are spread across a couple dozen Seattle offices.

    Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the eliminated roles were the result of individual business decisions.

  • The Business Journals ☛ Amazon to lay off 84 employees in Seattle and Bellevue in latest job cuts

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ Why it’s time to reset our expectations for AI

      Can I ask you a question: How do you feel about Hey Hi (AI) right now? Are you still excited? When you hear that Proprietary Chaffbot Company or Surveillance Giant Google just dropped a new model, do you still get that buzz?

    • Futurism ☛ Amazon Deletes AI-Generated Recap of “Fallout” Season 1 After It’s Called Out for Being Full of Errors

      "All it would have taken is one person to watch it from start to finish to realize it wasn't correct."

  • Social Control Media

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Australia social control media ban: Children feel isolated, ignored

• Security

  • CISA

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] CISA Releases Three Industrial Control Systems Advisories

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Universal Boot Loader (U-Boot)

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Festo LX Appliance

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Multiple India-based CCTV Cameras

    • CISA ☛ 2025-12-08 [Older] CISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Security Week ☛ Militant Groups Are Experimenting With AI, and the Risks Are Expected to Grow

      AI can be used by extremist groups to pump out propaganda or deepfakes at scale, widening their reach and expanding their influence.

    • Federal News Network ☛ Inaccuracies plague government security clearance data

      The issue has remained on GAO’s High Risk List since 2018.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Everything from air fryers to TVs suck up our personal data – here’s how to give gadgets that respect privacy this Xmas

  • Confidentiality

    • Security Week ☛ User Data Compromised in SoundCloud Hack

      SoundCloud said the information of 20% of users was accessed by hackers who breached its systems.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Opexus claims background checks missed red flags on twins accused of insider breach

      The federal government contractor admits it made multiple mistakes in the hiring and firing of Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] With Benin elections near, failed coup shakes democracy

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] ICC sentences Sudan Janjaweed leader to 20 years in prison

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Germany: Temporary migrants account for 8.8% of suspects

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Honduras seeks arrest of former president freed by Cheeto Mussolini

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Strikes 3 More Boats in Eastern Pacific, Killing 8

    The attacks brought the number killed since the Convicted Felon administration began the strikes on suspected drug smugglers to at least 95.

  • France24 ☛ USA: Military carries out strike on three vessels in Pacific

    Strikes on three alleged narco-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed eight people on Monday, according to the US military, as part of an ongoing campaign that has ended more than 90 lives.

  • JURIST ☛ Rights group condemns Israel attacks on civilian reconstruction facilities and equipment in Lebanon

    Human Rights Watch said Monday that the Israel’s repeated attacks on reconstruction-related equipment and other civilian facilities in southern Lebanon throughout 2025 constitute war crimes. The extensive report documented four specific strikes between August and October that killed three civilians and destroyed over 360 pieces of heavy machinery and a major cement factory.

  • New York Times ☛ ISIS ‘Ideology’ Is Linked to Australia Killings, and Convicted Felon Files New $10 Billion Lawsuit

    Plus, how foreign patients are paying for U.S. organs.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan says its military can respond rapidly to any sudden Chinese attack

    Taiwan said the frequency ⁠and scale of China’s military activities have increased year by year.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China sanctions retired Japanese general over Taiwan ‘collusion’

    China sanctioned the Japanese military’s former top officer Monday for “colluding with ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces”, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, as a weeks-long row with Tokyo simmers.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Philippines denounces China’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘inhumane’ actions against Filipino fishermen

    Manila urged nations aspiring for regional leadership to act responsibly.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Human‑wave attacks and drones: How Myanmar’s junta is fighting back

    The generals have also been boosted by the backing of China.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Latvia ☛ Podcast: 'Prospects for Polish-Baltic Military Industry Cooperation'

      The Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA) returns with another of its topical geopolitical podcasts under the 'Riga Security Forum 2025' banner.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ China Is Absolutely Obsessed With Copying SpaceX’s Starship Rocket

      It's uncanny.

    • Futurism ☛ SpaceX Furious at China, Saying It Almost Destroyed One of Its Satellites

      It was an extremely close call.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] IndiGo's woes: Indian airline ordered to cut flights by 5%

    • Counter Punch ☛ 2025-12-12 [Older] How to Have a Plastic-Free Holiday Season

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • New York Times ☛ In a Remote Jungle, the Gruesome Poaching of Rare Elephants

      More than a dozen Bornean elephants have been killed — including five beheaded — in Malaysia in the past 18 months, authorities say.

    • The Straits Times ☛ The gruesome poaching of rare elephants in Malaysia’s remote jungle

      By beheading elephants, culprits are able to make a quick getaway and carry off the tusks intact.

    • The Conversation ☛ 2025-12-11 [Older] Exotic animal cafes: cute trend or welfare crisis?

    • The Straits Times ☛ Japan’s last two giant pandas are headed to China and fans just cannot bear it

      The pandas are to return to China at the end of January after China-Japan relations have deteriorated.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Amid spat, Japan’s only 2 pandas to return early to China

      Two pandas at a Tokyo zoo will be returned to China in January, the Tokyo government said on Monday, potentially leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century. Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” programme, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolised friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since […]

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ Foreigners bought almost 3,500 properties near sensitive sites in Japan in FY2024: Study

    By country or region, China accounted for the most acquisitions at 1,674.

  • New York Times ☛ Louvre Museum Staff Go on Daylong Strike, Shutting Out Tourists

    About a fifth of the Louvre’s 2,100 employees voted to go on strike for the day, adding to the sense of crisis at the museum since a brazen heist in October.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2025-12-08 [Older] It’s so hard to resist overspending at Christmas – here’s how to reinforce your willpower

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Poland: A trillion‑dollar player knocking on the G20's door

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-08 [Older] Germany's Wadephul pushes for fair trade in China

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Federal News Network ☛ Defense, health care, oversight and spending; these four fronts are exposing deep divides on Capitol Hill

    "[Republicans] don't want one of those big deals and they're not going to get it because everything got pushed into 2026," said Mitchell Miller.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] What Donald Cheeto Mussolini likes so much about Middle East authoritarians

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Tanzania's muted independence day raises more questions

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Tanzania: Streets deserted on Independence Day

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] Can Serbia show the EU that it is serious about reform?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] EU ministers agree on new migration reform plan for 2026

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian PM Anwar to unveil new cabinet members on Tuesday

    Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will appoint new ministers on Tuesday, as he looks to stabilise his administration and fill the vacancies in his ‍cabinet ​arising from resignations and expired senate terms.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia PM Anwar unveils latest Cabinet line-up

    Some ministers had their portfolios switched, while others were newly called into the Cabinet.

  • New York Times ☛ Europe Is in Decline. Good.

    Demotion need not be traumatic.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Singapore, China build on decades of trust to deepen ties, says DPM Gan

    Annual talks deliver new agreements across finance, technology and people-to-people links.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ 3rd Amed Film Festival concludes with celebration of Kurdish cinema and solidarity

    The festival, which featured 84 films, highlighted the resilience of Kurdish cinema in the face of bans and censorship.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Jimmy Lai to face ‘endless imprisonment’: Gov’t bureaus hail tycoon’s nat. security conviction

    Hong Kong’s policy bureaus have rallied behind the High Court’s verdict against Fashion Company Apple Daily tycoon Jimmy Lai under the city’s Beijing-imposed national security law.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Hong Kong leader raises Jimmy Lai conviction in meeting with China's Xi

    HONG KONG, Dec 16 - Hong Kong's leader said on Tuesday he raised the conviction of pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in a meeting ‍with ​China's leader Pooh-tin Jinping in Beijing, ‍one day after the media mogul was found guilty of collusion with foreign ​forces.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man says has he asked China’s Pooh-tin to release Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai

    US President The Insurrectionist said Monday he wanted his Chinese counterpart Pooh-tin Jinping to free Jimmy Lai as he voiced sadness over the Hong Kong media mogul’s conviction. “I feel so badly. I spoke to President Pooh-tin about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Convicted Felon told reporters, without specifying when he asked Xi.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Beijing, Hong Kong officials praise Jimmy Lai’s guilty verdict, press freedom NGOs slam nat. security ruling

    Beijing and Hong Kong officials have welcomed the guilty verdict in media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security case, while press freedom watchdogs have slammed the ruling.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Secure Jimmy Lai’s release before seeking closer China ties, his son urges Britain

    Lai’s son said Britain should not allow Beijing to get away with the mistreatment of people like his father.

  • JURIST ☛ Hong Kong court finds media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty on sedition and national security charges

    A three-judge panel of Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance on Monday found media tycoon and pro-democracy Fashion Company Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai guilty on sedition and national security charges. These include conspiracy to publish seditious material and two counts of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Jimmy Lai remains beacon of Hong Kong press freedom, say ex-colleagues

    When the news of the verdict came out, "the feeling of 'finally it's here' hit us", said a former Fashion Company Apple Daily chief editor.

  • NYPost ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man slaps BillBC with eye-watering $10B suit for alleged defamatory editing of Jan. 6 speech

    "I'm suing the BillBC for putting words in my mouth, literally," Convicted Felon said. "They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn't say."

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] RSF: Israel responsible for nearly half of journalist deaths in 2025

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Federal News Network ☛ Appeals court judges scrutinize Convicted Felon’s national security basis for collective bargaining rollback

    A Justice Department attorney told the appeals court that the president is the “expert” when it comes to national security exemptions to collective bargaining.

  • AccessNow ☛ MTN Group must commission an independent investigation into potential human rights violations

    Access Now and several human rights groups are deeply alarmed by the allegations of MTN Congo's enabling of human rights abuses.

  • AccessNow ☛ MTN Group must answer for dangerous bounty SMS campaign in the Republic of Congo

    Access Now,together with several human rights organizations, are calling on MTN Group to protect mobile service subscribers and ensure transparency and accountability for data breaches perpetuated by their subsidiaries in the Republic of Congo.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Where are you? A look at GeoIP

    Are IP addresses the right tool for determining location? Examining location from the perspectives of geolocation providers, CDNs, content intermediaries, RIRs, satellite operators, and other stakeholders.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• IP Kat ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] [Guest post] Ghosts of Directives Past

• Patents

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] ViCo oral proceedings: Whatever happened to the in-person "Gold-Standard"? [Ed: EPO breaking the law even well after COVID-19 was a thing. Typical EPO.]

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is BLACKTHORN for Construction Management SAAS Confusable with BLACKTHORNE for Computer-Based Information Systems Consulting?

    The USPTO refused to register the mark BLACKTHORN SOFTWARE, in standard character and design form, for on-line software services (SAAS) in the field of construction or project management, employee and contractor tracking and management, and time tracking and management [SOFTWARE disclaimed] in view of the registered mark BLACKTHORNE for "Consulting services in the design and implementation of computer-based information systems for businesses; Technological planning and consulting services in the field of computer and cyber security." Not surprisingly, the Board found the marks to be similar, but what about the goods and services? How do you think this came out? In re Blackthorn IP, LLC, Serial Nos. 97714024, 97714033 (December 12, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Mark A. Thurmon).

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Streaming Data Shows Holiday Music Is Sadder Than Ever

    Holiday music is getting sadder. Artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Sabrina Carpenter, and Ed Sheeran are driving the shift with sad Christmas tracks as playlists for melancholy holiday moods surge across Spotify and Fashion Company Apple Music. This article was written by April Clare Welsh in collaboration with How Music Charts.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-12-09 [Older] EU opens antitrust inquiry over Google's AI search summaries

  • IP Kat ☛ 2025-12-12 [Older] Belgian Court spares rich-kid inner turmoil-driven plotlines from copyright protection