Leftovers

• Hackaday ☛ For The Fun Of It

  I was off at the Chaos Communication Congress last weekend, and one of the big attractions for one who is nerdily inclined is seeing all of the personal projects that everyone brings along with them. Inevitably, someone would ask me what my favorite is. Maybe it’s my decision paralysis, maybe it’s being forced to pick a favorite child on the spot, or maybe it’s just that I’m not walking around ranking them, but that question always left me drawing a blank.

• Hackaday ☛ Multi-material Parts The Easy Way

  You have a part that needs different colors or different material properties — with a multi-color 3D printer, no problem. You can also laboriously switch filaments on a single-color printer. But [anonymous kiwi] points out a different way, which is surprisingly obvious once you think about it. You simply add a previously made part to another one.

• Hackaday ☛ Simplifying The SmartKnob

  A knob can make a surprisingly versatile interface, particularly if it’s the SmartKnob, which builds a knob around a BLDC motor for programmable haptic response. It can rotate freely or with a set resistance, spring back to a fixed point when released, stick at detent points, and completely change its behavior as the interface demands. For people inexperienced in electronic assembly, though, smartknobs can be difficult to assemble. That’s why [Kokensha Tech] designed a simpler version, while at the same time letting it use a wider range of BLDC motors.

• Science

  • Hackaday ☛ Yamato-1: The World’s First Ship With Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion

    Although the humble propeller and its derivatives still form the primary propulsion method for ships, this doesn’t mean that alternative methods haven’t been tried. One of the more fascinating ones is the magnetohydrodynamic drive (MHDD), which uses the Lorentz force to propel a watercraft through the water. The somewhat conductive seawater is thus the working medium, with no moving parts required.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Week in Science: Anti-Cancer Fungal Compound, a Golden Shark, And More!

    Our weekly science news roundup.

  • Science Alert ☛ Think The World Is Getting Worse? Science Has Some Surprising Good News

    It's not as bad as you think.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Pigment in Red Hair Has a Secret Superpower We Never Knew About

    Turning toxins into beauty.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Mammoth' Bones Kept in a Museum For 70 Years Turn Out to Be An Entirely Different Animal

    Oops.

  • Science Alert ☛ Do 'Focus Apps' Increase Your Productivity? Here's The Science

    Your ability to focus likely hasn't actually declined.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ A 1990s VNA Gets An LCD

    A Vector Network Analyser, or VNA, is the ultimate multi-tool of RF test equipment. They can now be had in not very capable form for almost pocket money prices, but the professional-grade ones cost eye-watering sums. Enough to make an older VNA for a few hundred on eBay a steal, and [W3AXL] has just such a device in an HP 8714C. It’s the height of 1990s tech with a floppy drive and a green-screen CRT, but he’s homing right in on the VGA monitor port on the back. Time for a colour LCD upgrade!

  • Hackaday ☛ Texas Instruments Explain Low-Dropout Linear Voltage Regulators

    Today in power electronics, the folks over at Texas Instruments have put together a video covering low-dropout (LDO) linear regulators.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ iOS 26 still struggles to gain traction with iPhone users

      I hope these numbers set off an alarm in Apple's design department.

    • Michael Burkhardt ☛ My Mobile Phone History - Michael Burkhardt’s Whirled Wide Web

      Robb Knight inspired this post, although my list is not nearly as long or as exhaustively researched as his. I was able to get a lot of information from my email archive. Unfortunately, there's nothing in there before October 24, 2005—the day I started using Gmail.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Social media cooks up new flavours for South Korea’s ramyeon

    Buldak miyeok tang myeon has become one of South Korea’s most talked-about food trends.

  • Futurism ☛ People Who Go Off GLP-1s Are Experiencing a Sudden and Terrible Hunger

    A new study found that patients returned to their original weight in just 1.7 years.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Straits Times ☛ Nearly all Seoul students use generative Hey Hi (AI) as teachers warn of overreliance

      Students were found to use generative Hey Hi (AI) more frequently in language-related subjects such as Korean and English.

    • Futurism ☛ Furious Hey Hi (AI) Users Say Their Prompts Are Being Plagiarized

      The sheer irony.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ 'Limited clashes' still ongoing in Aleppo neighborhood

    Syrian security forces began deploying Saturday in a neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of intense clashes with Kurdish fighters that killed and wounded dozens. Despite the army's claims that it has assumed control of Sheikh Maqsoud, "limited clashes" are still ongoing, FRANCE 24's Dana Alboz said, citing local sources.

  • France24 ☛ Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declare 'red line' on security as protests escalate

    Iranian protesters took to the steets once again on Saturday night shouting anti-government chants as Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that safeguarding security was a "red line" and the military vowed to "vigorously protect" the nation against those "seeking to disrupt order and peace".

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Protesters Remain On Streets As Convicted Felon, West Step Up Pressure On Tehran

    Iranian protesters showed no letup as the country entered the 15th straight day of anti-government protests despite a mounting crackdown by security personnel and as the West, led by US President The Insurrectionist, intensified pressure on the hard-line rulers in Tehran.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Buddhist monk gets jail term for wife beating in South Korea

    At one point, the monk held two knives against his wife and threatened to harm her.

  • The Straits Times ☛ North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong urges South Korea to investigate drone incidents

    Drones were flown from South Korea into North Korea earlier in January.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Two passports, one grudge: Roots of South Korea’s unease with ‘black-haired foreigners’

    The 25-year-old could have legally avoided conscription, but his decision not to was widely praised as a rare display of civic duty.

  • CS Monitor ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man exits global bodies in the name of ‘America First.’ Who benefits?

    President The Insurrectionist’s withdrawal from dozens of global organizations – many focused on climate issues and human rights – was swiftly condemned by U.S. allies. One power that increasingly has stepped into the leadership breach is China.

  • New York Times ☛ Why Are Iranians Protesting? What to Know About the Unrest.

    Demonstrations that began as outrage at the state of the economy have spread to cities across the country, amid an escalating crackdown by the authorities.

  • RFERL ☛ Western Leaders Crank Up Pressure On Iran Amid Crackdown On Protesters

    Iran has entered a 14th night of protests as authorities seemed to be intensifying their crackdown and Western leaders -- including US President The Insurrectionist -- stepped up pressure on Tehran.

  • France24 ☛ 'Nothing to Lose': Nationwide protests challenge Iran’s regime

    Major Iranian cities were gripped overnight by new mass rallies denouncing the Islamic republic, as activists on Saturday expressed fear authorities were intensifying their suppression of the demonstrations under cover of an internet blackout. “The determination on the streets of Iran and across the country is unprecedented... this is really essentially people fighting for their lives, feeling they have nothing to lose,” said Azadeh Pourzand, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Middle East and Global Order, noting the extreme fragility of the Iranian regime.

  • RFERL ☛ Live Blog: Thousands Reported Detained, Dozens Dead As Iran Protests Continue

    Driven by soaring prices, inflation, and a plunging currency, Iranians have taken to the streets in what is the biggest threat to the Islamic regime in years. Journalists from RFE/RL’s Iranian service, Radio Farda, bring you the latest developments, analysis, and reporting from on the ground.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Launches Major Strikes on Islamic State Targets in Syria

    The airstrikes followed an even larger attack in December to avenge the killing of three Americans last year.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Is Briefed on Options for Striking Iran as Protests Continue

    The president has said he will be “hitting them very hard” if Iranian leaders kill protesters amid widespread demonstrations calling for wholesale changes in the country.

  • France24 ☛ Nigeria overturn Algeria to set up AFCON semi-final clash with Morocco

    Nigeria secured a 2-0 victory over Algeria in their Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final match on Saturday, with striker Victor Osimhen scoring one goal and setting up the second. Nigeria will next face tournament hosts Morocco in the semi-finals.

  • France24 ☛ US carries out 'large scale' retaliation strikes against Islamic State group in Syria

    The US carried out a fresh wave of attacks against the Islamic State group in Syria in Saturday response to a December attack by a member of the militant group that killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Kyiv Restores Electricity, Water After Russian Attacks, But Situation 'Difficult' Elsewhere

      The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has been plunged into a widespread blackout, with electricity, water, and heating supplies cut across large parts of the city of some 3 million people following another night of Russian drone strikes.

    • France24 ☛ Ukrainian drones targeting energy infrastructure spark fire in Russian oil depot

      A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in southern Russia, local authorities said on Saturday, as Kyiv continues to target Russian energy sites in a bid to deprive Moscow of oil revenue. The Ukrainian attack came one day after Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile at Western Ukraine.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Futurism ☛ Behold This Massive Airborne Wind Turbine Hovering Over China

      Absolutely massive.

    • Futurism ☛ China Builds Wild Gravity Machine

      It's so powerful, it can compress space and time.

    • The Straits Times ☛ 6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes off Indonesia’s Talaud Islands

      The Indonesian geophysics agency said the quake does not have the potential to trigger tsunami waves.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Futurism ☛ Tiny Deer Takes on 1.7-Ton Rhinoceros

      "Someone probably forgot to look in the mirror this morning."

    • The Straits Times ☛ Zoo visitors in Malaysia thrilled as panda enclosure opens to public

      Visits to the panda enclosure are carefully managed, with only 50 visitors allowed every 10 minutes.

  • Overpopulation

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Dual income no kids: China’s birth-rate push sputters as couples stay child-free

      Twenty-five-year-old Grace and her husband are set on staying child-free, resisting pressure from their parents and society to produce offspring, even as China strives to boost its flagging birth rate.

• Finance

  • The Straits Times ☛ China sells the world on its duty-free Hainan island, amid a $1.28 trillion trade surplus

    Goods imported to Hainan cannot be shipped to other parts of China duty-free.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ HP reportedly eyes Chinese suppliers for DRAM as global shortage sparks shake-up — analyst says memory chips are commodities that can easily be replaced

    A tech analyst claims that HP told the Bank of America that it's considering buying memory chips from China to help alleviate the ongoing shortage.

  • In Defense of Capitalism

    You've likely either learned to hate capitalism out of living under it, or been propagandized into loving it because the alternatives are supposedly much worse. Both are results of some misdirection, but it doesn't follow that early capitalism scholars were part of it.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Futurism ☛ Tech Billionaire Says It’s Time for the Government to Suspend Freedom of Speech

    "We need to control the platforms, all the social platforms."

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • JURIST ☛ Rights groups praise Istanbul bar association acquittal

    An Istanbul court on Friday acquitted the president and executive board members of the Istanbul Bar Association (IBA) of terrorism-related charges, a ruling that marks a significant development amid sustained criticism of Türkiye’s use of criminal law against lawyers and professional associations.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Arrests reported, cross removed amid China’s growing crackdown on unofficial churches

    By Agatha Cantrill and Rebecca Bailey A church in east China was scaffolded and had its cross removed, AFP reporters saw Friday, with residents and rights groups saying multiple members had been arrested as a national crackdown on unofficial Christian organisations grows.

  • JURIST ☛ HRW calls on Canada to confront China’s heightened repression

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to prioritize human rights on his trip to China from January 13 to 17. Carney’s trip to China is significant because it is the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years.

Monopolies/Monopsonies