Leftovers

• New York Times ☛ Park Chan-wook and the Funny Thing About Stomach-Churning Horror

  When American studios wouldn’t back his film about a laid-off manager committing gruesome murders, the director returned to Korea. Now he has a hit on his hands.

• The Straits Times ☛ South Korean man accused of scalding Thai wife denies charges

  The suspect, in his 40s, has been placed under arrest.

• Hackaday ☛ Active Ideal Full Bridge Rectifier Using TEA2208T

  Everyone loves a full-wave bridge rectifier, but there’s no denying that they aren’t 100% efficient due to the diode voltage drop. Which isn’t to say that with some effort we cannot create an ideal bridge rectifier using active components, as demonstrated by [Mousa] with an active bridge circuit. This uses the NXP TEA2208T active bridge rectifier controller, along with the requisite four MOSFETs.

• Hackaday ☛ Seeing Sound For Under $200

  There are five general senses: touch for feels, taste for food, smell for avoiding trash, hearing for sounds, and, of course, eyesight for visualizing the very waves making up that sound. [PlasmatronX] drives that last point home with his camera for sound waves, that’s even able to capture constructive and destructive interference. (Video, embedded below.)

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ Before This Physicist Studied the Stars, He Was One

    Brian Cox once toured as a keyboardist in major rock and pop bands. Now he’s a particle physicist on a new world tour with a dazzling show he designed in an era of science disinformation and denial.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: Garlic Mouthwash, a Storm Slows Time, And More!

    Our weekly science news roundup.

  • Science Alert ☛ A Distinct New Type of Diabetes Is Officially Recognized

    Introducing type 5.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Rare Syndrome Induces People to See Faces That Don't Exist

    A unique window into the overactive brain.

  • Science Alert ☛ Ancient Caribbean Cave Reveals Bees That Lived Inside Bones

    There's no place like home.

  • Science Alert ☛ The True Purpose of The Bayeux Tapestry May Finally Be Revealed

    We never knew why it existed.

  • Futurism ☛ Bonkers New Space Station Expands to Full Size From Single Capsule

    It's absolutely enormous once fully inflated.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Moving Mousepad Is An Elegant Aimbot

    These days, it can be hard to remain competitive in online shooters without spending your entire life dedicated to the sport. This leads some to explore the world of competitive aids. (AKA: cheating.) A great example is [Nick], who built a mechanical aimbot to help in this regard.

  • Hackaday ☛ What To Do When Your Foucault Pendulum Stops Swinging

    At the Houston Museum of Natural Science they recently made a disturbing discovery: their Foucault pendulum had stopped swinging for the first time since its installation in the 1970s. (Video, embedded below.)

  • Hackaday ☛ Building Beautiful LED Lanterns With Black LED Acrylic

    [Geeksmithing] and [When Geeks Craft] recently came together for a glowing collaboration. They wanted to build ever more attractive lanterns for a local parade event. They recently discovered a fantastic material that can really improve the look of whatever project you might be building with LEDs.

  • Hackaday ☛ Playing DOOM On A Receipt Printer

    Gaming is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately for many of us, work takes up our valuable time, which should be allocated to our gaming. What if there was a better way? Well, printers can print an image quickly, and receipt printers can print a lot of images. This sounds like an effective display for DOOM in a pinch. [Bringus Studios] managed to find such a printer and got the classic shooter running.

  • Hackaday ☛ Print Your Next LED Bezel

    LED bezels (also known as LED panel-mount holders) are great, so how about 3D printing the next ones you need? Sure, they’re inexpensive to purchase and not exactly uncommon. But we all know that when working on a project, one doesn’t always have everything one might need right at hand. At times like that, 3D printing is like a superpower.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Car breathalysers to be mandated for habitual drink driving offenders in South Korea

    The new policy will be in effect starting Oct 24, 2026.

  • LRT ☛ New Year’s resolution: Lithuanian-made medicines to be tested in space in 2026

    Though it is ony five years old, the Lithuanian life sciences start-up Delta Biosciences is already carrying out projects that others can only dream of. The company is currently preparing for a unique mission under which medicines developed in Lithuania for astronauts will be sent into Earth orbit for three years.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Digital Detox' Is a Trick. Here's How to Actually Switch Off.

    Don't fall for it.

  • New York Times ☛ She Studied the Health Effects of Wildfires, Until the E.P.A. Cut Her Grant

    Marina Vance had an E.P.A. grant to help homeowners counter the impact of wildfire smoke, until the agency deemed the research “no longer consistent” with its priorities.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ AI Backlash Grew Massively in 2025

      2025 will be remembered as the year of anti-AI discontent.

    • Ben Congdon ☛ On (and Contra) Chalmers on LLM Interlocutors

      David Chalmers recently wrote a thought-provoking paper on the nature of conversational LLM entities, titled “What We Talk to When We Talk to Language Models”. It introduces some useful conceptual handles around the problem of LLM ontology, but I think it largely sidesteps the interesting problems of what we are interacting with by focusing mostly on the mechanical concerns of LLM interactions, rather than offering an account which incorporates phenomenology.

• Defence/Aggression

  • NYPost ☛ DHS official rips Kilmar Abrego Garcia for ‘making TikToks’ while agency faces gag order

    McLaughlin was reacting to a minute-long video that appears to show Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant who became a flashpoint in the Convicted Felon administration’s mass deportation campaign, filming himself lip-syncing to a song in Spanish.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China revises aviation law to regulate drones, tighten safety rules

    China has implemented “interim regulations” for unmanned aircraft starting from 2024.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China passes revised foreign trade law to bolster trade war capabilities

    The latest revision to the Foreign Trade Law will take effect on March 1, 2026.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China issues draft rules to govern use of human-like Hey Hi (AI) systems

    Users must be informed they are dealing with Hey Hi (AI) when they log in to a service and at two-hour intervals.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China sanctions 20 US firms over Taiwan arms sales

    China has announced fresh sanctions on 20 US defence firms, including a Boeing branch, over Washington’s latest arms sales to Taiwan, the island Beijing claims.

  • New York Times ☛ Saudi-Led Group in Yemen Tells Separatists to Withdraw, or Be ‘Dealt With’

    The Saudis ramped up their rhetoric against a faction that has seized parts of Yemen in recent weeks.

  • France24 ☛ Yemeni separatists accuse Saudi Arabia of air strikes in eastern provinces

    Yemen's Southern Transitional Council (STC) separatists on Friday (December 26) accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out air strikes on their positions in the east of the country, a claim Riyadh has not acknowledged.

  • France24 ☛ Saudi Arabia backs Yemen's government, urges separatists to withdraw from seized provinces

    Saudi Arabia on Saturday said it would back Sanaa's government in any military confrontation with separatist forces in a statement that came a day after reported Saudi air strikes in Yemen's Hadramawt province.The Southern Transition Council (STC) separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates have recently made territorial gains, embarrassing regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

  • France24 ☛ Yemen: 'The status quo is no longer feasible', analyst says

    Saudi Arabia warned Saturday (December 27) it would back Yemen's government in any military confrontation with separatist forces and urged them to withdraw "peacefully" from recently-seized provinces. The statements came a day after reported Saudi air strikes on separatist positions in Yemen's Hadramawt province. For more analysis, FRANCE 24's Liza Kaminov is joined by Mohammed Al-Basha, Founder of Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory firm.

  • New York Times ☛ How Oil, Drugs and Immigration Fueled Convicted Felon’s Venezuela Campaign

    New details of deliberations show how aides with overlapping agendas drove the United States toward a militarized confrontation with Venezuela.

  • France24 ☛ US air strikes in Nigeria targeted IS group fighters trying to enter from Sahel, govt says

    US-backed air strikes in Nigeria targeted Islamic State group fighters who were attempting to enter the country from the Sahel region, according to the Nigerian government. US President The Insurrectionist said on his social control media platform that the strikes were carried out on Thursday at the request of Nigeria's government, and that the group had been targeting Christians in the region.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • France24 ☛ Live: Zelensky to meet Convicted Felon for talks on Ukraine peace plan

      US President The Insurrectionist will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Florida on Sunday for talks on a peace agreement to end the nearly four-year war with Russia. This comes as Moscow's Foreign ​Minister Sergei Lavrov said that any ‍European ​troops deployed ⁠to Ukraine would become legitimate targets for ​Russia’s armed ‍forces, according to state news agency TASS. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Will Meet With Convicted Felon Over the Weekend to Discuss Ukraine Peace Plan

      President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has sought the meeting since the latest U.S.-led push for peace got underway.

    • New York Times ☛ This Ukrainian Soldier Spent More Than a Year on the Front Line

      Serhii Tyschenko, a Ukrainian combat medic, spent 472 days in a bunker. His case appears to be an extreme example of a problem that has long plagued Kyiv’s military.

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Pummels Kyiv Before Convicted Felon-Zelensky Meeting

      President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the assault with hundreds of drones and missiles, lasting nearly 10 hours, showed that Moscow was not serious about peace.

    • RFERL ☛ Thousands Freezing As Russian Barrage Pummels Kyiv Ahead of Zelenskyy-Dihydroxyacetone Man Peace Talks

      Nearly a third of the Ukrainian capital was left without heat amid freezing temperatures after Russian drones knocked out municipal heating plants. More than two dozen people were wounded in the overnight barrage.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Investigators Say They're Probing Vote-Buying Scheme By Lawmakers

      Ukraine's leading anti-corruption agencies said they were investigating alleged vote-buying by members of parliament, and that security services were hindering efforts to conduct searches.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine's anti-corruption agency attempts raid of parliament in new graft probe

      Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency said on Saturday that security services were blocking its attempt to raid parliament, as investigators alleged that sitting MPs were implicated in a new graft probe. The probe comes at a delicate time for President Volodymyr Zelensky, as he seeks better terms for Ukraine in US-brokered peace talks.

    • RFERL ☛ Zelenskyy To Meet Convicted Felon In High-Stakes Peace Talks As Russia Ramps Up Attacks

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to hold talks with US President The Insurrectionist in the White House in what could be the most consequential meeting in the country's recent history, while Russia continued its deadly air assaults against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and towns.

    • France24 ☛ Russia attacks Kyiv ahead of Ukraine-US talks

      Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning (December 27), a day before talks between Ukraine and the US, local authorities said.

    • France24 ☛ Russian drones, missiles pound Ukraine ahead of Zelensky's US visit

      Russia attacked Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday (December 27), ahead of what President Volodymyr Zelensky said ⁠would be a crucial meeting with U.S. President The Insurrectionist to work out a plan to end nearly four years of war.

    • France24 ☛ Russia pummels Kyiv ahead of Zelensky-Dihydroxyacetone Man meeting

      Russia pummelled Ukraine's capital with drones and missiles on Saturday, killing a woman and cutting power to hundreds of thousands, ahead of President Volodymyr Zelensky's latest talks with US leader The Insurrectionist. Zelensky said Russia’s attack on Ukraine shows that Russia does “not want to end the war”. FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert gives us his analysis.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Mild earthquake in Malaysia, tremors felt across Johor and Melaka

    The epicentre of the earthquake was located 16km south-west of Segamat, Johor.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Ben Congdon ☛ Notes from Early Flight Training

      I’m about half a dozen flights into training for a Private Pilot’s License and wanted to write some notes while I’m still firmly in the “beginner mindset”.

      Flight training has tons and tons of mnemonics. Wikipedia has 2 separate articles for these (1, 2), and this is nothing near an exhaustive list. Many of these mnemonics are either heavily forced acronyms (e.g. for landing go arounds: CCCC = “cram it, clean it, cool it, and call it”) or somewhat opaque phrase (e.g. for takeoffs, “lights camera action”: lights indicates setting lights, camera indicates setting your transponder, action indicates items like setting your mixture).

    • New York Times ☛ Families Demand Answers a Year After Deadliest Plane Crash in South Korea

      Many details of the Jeju Air disaster that killed 179 people remain unclear despite multiple investigations by officials and protests by the victims’ families.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s high-speed rail network passes 50,000km mark

      China’s sprawling high-speed rail network passed 50,000 kilometres (31,000 miles) in total operating distance with the opening of a new line on Friday, state media reported. The country has the world’s largest rail network — one-fifth longer than the circumference of the earth.

    • Futurism ☛ Google Rapidly Deploying Huge CO2 Battery Facilities That Store 200 Megawatt Hours of Power

      "They can really plug and play this."

    • NYPost ☛ Australian cruise ship runs aground, strikes coral reef in first trip after passenger’s death

      A luxury expedition vessel has struck a coral reef off Papua New Guinea’s coast in the latest setback for the troubled cruise operator, still reeling from a passenger’s tragic death.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ From city boy to wildlife maven: Videographer Chris Owen captures Hong Kong’s trove of fauna

      When Hong Kong videographer Chris Owen embarked on an off-trail hike in the countryside 10 years ago to improve his health following a lung collapse, what he saw across a small ravine changed his life. Just about five metres away, a barking deer popped out, looked at him, and then walked away.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s presidential office completes move back to historic Blue House

    The moving process began on Dec 8.

  • JURIST ☛ South Korea prosecutors seek 10-year sentence for ousted president

    South Korean prosecutors, led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok, are seeking a 10-year sentence for multiple charges laid against the ousted South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia army chief placed on leave amid investigation: Media

    Defence Minister Khaled Nordin did not explicitly state the nature or the subject of the allegations.

  • JURIST ☛ Former Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak convicted over 1MDB corruption scandal

    The High Court in Putrajaya convicted former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on Friday in a case arising from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. The court found Najib Razak guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering.

  • France24 ☛ Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak sentenced to 15 more years in landmark corruption case

    A Malaysian judge sentenced former prime minister Najib Razak to 15 more years in jail on Friday (December 26) after convicting him of abuse of power and money laundering in a sovereign wealth fund graft scandal.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian PM Anwar welcomes latest Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire

    The conflict has killed at least 41 people and displaced almost one million people on both sides of the border.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China welcomes Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire, plans talks

    Cambodia and Thailand agreed on Dec 27 to a second ceasefire in recent months.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Even as Najib faces two decades in jail, damaging divisions haunt Malaysia over 1MDB scandal

    While Malaysia's politicians deal with the ramifications of Najib's jailtime, reforms to prevent another 1MDB stall.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Knock, Knock: MIT’s Ethanol Engine Patents Run Out of Gas at the Federal Circuit

    Fed. Cir. affirms MIT engine patents obvious, holds § 314(d) bars challenge to Board's 15-month delay awaiting parallel appeal. EBS v. Ford.